(Photo : China Daily on Reuters ) China Launches Largest Carrier Rocket in Space Bigger Than an Olympic Swimming Pool

On Tuesday, May 5, China reportedly launches its largest carrier rocket that has a size of more than an Olympic swimming pool. The rocket named Long March-5B carries a new-generation spacecraft. Impressively, the rocket completed its launch without a single hitch on the system. What is it for?

China flies the biggest carrier rocket in space-- Is it trying to beat the U.S.?

The Long March 5-B carrier rocket took off at 1800 local time (1000 GMT) at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in the southern island province of Hainan.

This heavy-lift rocket is one of the most prestigious projects of China in accordance with their plan to explore deep space. It has a length of about 53.7 meters and a takeoff mass of about 849 tonnes. This means that the rocket is supposedly bigger than the normal 50 meter-size huge Olympic swimming pool.

According to space, the Tuesday flight still has no crew inside it since its only a test launch. But, since the performance of the Long March 5-B is impressive on its first try, it is expected for China to continue the country's scheduled Mars Mission called Tianwen in the upcoming summer season.

Is China taking over space missions soon?

As also reported via space, aside from the mission of China to travel to space, another purpose of the test launch was to test its other features such as heat shield, parachutes, and its unnamed human capsule.

This capsule is said to carry six to seven astronauts at a time and travel to space to fully complete the mission of the government to create a new space station designed for the country.

Not only that, but the said rocket can also lift almost 25 tons of payload to low Earth orbit, which was one of the requirements to create the said space station.

"Compared to the two-stage half-configuration of Changzheng-5, Changzheng-5 B is a first-order half-configuration. Its future mission is to integrate the three modules of our space station, including the core module, experimental module I, and experimental module II. Sent into orbit to complete the construction of the space station cabin," explains Zhou Jianping, Chief Designer of China's Manned Aerospace Engineering.

This is just the beginning

China seemed too aggressive into getting their rockets to space and said that this will not be the last one that the government will launch a spacecraft to space.

"The next 11 missions are high-density launch missions, filled with a lot of new technologies and new challenges. We are going to launch three different cabins of manned spacecraft, cargo spacecraft, and space station; the rockets that perform the mission include the Long March II," adds Jianping. "The F manned launch vehicle, the Long March 7 launch vehicle, and the Long March 5 B launch vehicle have significantly increased launch frequency and mission complexity."

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K ate Garraway has spoken about how "tough" it was to celebrate her 53rd birthday while her husband Derek Draper remains in hospital with coronavirus.

In a new Instagram post, the Good Morning Britain presenter thanked NHS staff for keeping Derek still with us and battling every day to inch him toward recovery.

Draper, 52, was hospitalised on March 30 and remains critically ill according to an update this week from Garraway's colleague Ben Shephard.

Sharing a photo of Draper in a student newspaper and a birthday cake she received from strangers, she wrote: So yesterday was always going to be a tough one  first birthday in 16 years without Derek  so for the kids and I, his absence was very present.

But we resolved to do what I think we are all having to do at the moment arent we  treasure and be grateful for the love around us  however distanced we are from it.

She thanked family, friends and fans who have sent messages of support.

Ben Shepherd wishes Kate Garraway happy birthday on GMB

Thank you so much for all your messages they mean such a lot, she wrote, singling out the friends @itv who sent chocolate for the kids & uplifting smellies for me, mates who dropped off food, posh teabags & milk & made me smiles at silliness and Dereks friends who sent me messages of fun times they have had with him.

Garraway also revealed that strangers had sent her a birthday cake covered in biscuits via her Im A Celebrity camp mate Roman Kemp.

During Mondays edition of Good Morning Britain, Shephard and co-presenter Susanna Reid wished Garraway a happy birthday and sent lots of love to the star and her family.
If you were to write Dame Jane Goodall, the famed primatologist, and ask how to follow in her footsteps, shed likely give you advice her mother gave her when she was young: If you really want to do this, you're going to have to work really hard. Take advantage of every opportunity, she recalls. If you don't give up, you'll probably find a way.

To say she found a way herself is an understatement: Goodall began her career in 1960 with a fateful trip to study chimpanzees in their natural habitat at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, where she slowly earned the trust of a pack of the primates she studied. As one of the first women to enter the field, she broke boundaries for women scientists and for the study of animals altogether; she was one of the first to realize chimps and other primates exhibit emotions and displays of affection much the same way humans do. It took a lot of work to make her breakthrough discoveries, however  and even more work to get to Africa at all.

CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images

When InStyle caught up with Goodall for our Badass Women series, she was at home in Bournemouth, England  in the house I grew up in, she adds  which is a rarity for her. Since October 86 until the [coronavirus] shutdown, Ive been 300 days a year around the world, she explains. She returns to Bournemouth in between trips, and its there that she keeps the Dr. Doolittle books that she read when she was 8; it was those books and a second-hand copy of Tarzan of the Apes she found at age 10 that sparked her dream to work with animals.

But that dream didnt have a blueprint: At the time, the field was comprised almost exclusively of men, and Goodalls parents couldnt afford to send her to college anyway. (In the early 1950s, fewer than 6% of American women completed at least four years of college, so she definitely wasnt alone.) She took a secretarial course instead, which paid off in a matter of happenstance when the then-23-year-old met archeologist Louis Leakey in Kenya, after joining a friend on a trip to their farm: Amazingly, that boring secretarial course! she said. Two days before I met Louis, he'd lost his secretary. She suddenly quit, and there I was.

Story continues

It was a back door into a dream job, at a time when women were most frequently expected to be stay-at-home mothers. Not one to settle, Goodall used that secretary role as an opportunity to learn as much as she could, and Leakey eventually sent her to study the native chimpanzee population in Tanzania, even though there were virtually no women in the field of primatology. Undaunted, Goodall spent three or four months trying to earn the trust of a group of chimpanzees who kept running away from her. It was really depressing, she says. But when one chimp Goodall had named David Greybeard finally chose to stay when she approached him, she also earned the trust of the rest of the pack.

CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images

That trust allowed her to debunk previously held beliefs about the mammals. Her discoveries, she recalled, opened the door so students today can study animal personalities, emotions, and especially intelligence. She did her part to ensure that young people could learn as much as she did about chimps, as well as advocate for their environment, by founding Roots & Shoots in 1991; the organization, she says, is about young people getting together, discussing problems. It began with 12 high school students in Tanzania and it's now in 65 countries.

The organizations work couldnt have come at a better time, either: Most people had just begun understanding the catastrophic effects of climate change on the environment, and how deforestation and animal testing were impacting the animals Goodall and others cared so much about. I was traveling around the world, talking about how chimpanzees' numbers were decreasing, and the forests were being cut down and they were being used in medical research, treated really cruelly, she says. And I knew I had to try and do something. I didn't make a decision; the decision happened.

RELATED: Panicked About the End of the World? You Might Have "Eco-Anxiety"

But while it was a fight she wouldnt be able to take on alone, she was lucky in that she didnt have to. As I was traveling, I was meeting young people who seemed to have lost hope about the advancing state of the climate crisis, she says. And I thought, yes, we have compromised your future, we've been stealing your future. But it's not too late for you to do something.

Craig Barritt/Getty Images

And young people, some emboldened by Goodall's living legacy, have done more than show up: Activists like Greta Thunberg, Xiye Bastida, and Jamie Margolin, have used the collective power of their organizations to hold lawmakers accountable and advocate for change that benefits everyone. Theyre adapting to social distancing in the era of COVID-19, too, by staging digital strikes and organizing on Zoom and other platforms.

RELATED: Greta's Not the Only One  7 Other Young Climate Activists to Know By Name

While the efforts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus have put a hold on the now-86-year-old Goodalls travel, shes not letting such restrictions slow down her work, either. I'm working from home and doing my best to carry on doing what I do, she says. I do feel I'm on a mission, [and that] I'm in this world with this purpose.
Italy could be set for a second peak of deaths after easing its lockdown measures, researchers tracking the coronavirus outbreak have warned.

According to analysis carried out by Imperial College London, the country could be set for a large increase in deaths within three weeks of partially lifting its social-distancing restrictions.

Currently, Italy has the second highest-death rate in Europe, with 29,315 deaths, behind 29,502 in the UK.

But researchers from Imperial have forecast a second spike will take place if the country returns to just 20% of its pre-lockdown mobility levels  a measure of how much people leave the home.

A man walks his dog at the Piazza di Spagna in Rome. (Getty)

The study warned that several social-distancing measures will need to remain in place if a sudden rise in deaths is to be avoided.

It also recommended the use testing, contact-tracing and self-isolation of people displaying symptoms to stop the virus spreading again.

Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice

Dr Samir Bhatt, from Imperials School of Public Health, praised the Italian authorities for their response to the pandemic, but said the worst could be yet to come.

The impact of COVID-19 on Italy has been tragic but the response taken to limit the impact of the disease has been successful and disease control has been substantively achieved, he said.

A woman wearing protective mask next to a bus stop in Naples. (Getty)

Unfortunately, continued social distancing and other measures are required to prevent this success from being rapidly reversed and our work provides a warning against underestimating the importance of such sacrifice.

And Dr Michaela Vollmer said: Even small changes in mobility will most likely lead to a resurgence of deaths and the occurrence of a second wave which may be even greater than what Italy has already experienced.

Over four million Italians returned to work on Monday after seven weeks of lockdown measures.

Story continues

People in the country are now allowed to visit family members and people with whom they have an "established emotional bond" in the same region.

Parks have also been reopened for people to go running in, and people are allowed to travel large distances to exercise.

Social gatherings are still banned and it is mandatory to wear a mask on public transportation and in closed public spaces.

But the ban on funerals has also been relaxed, with a maximum of 15 mourners allowed to attend.

Coronavirus: what happened today?

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LANSING, MI -- Michiganders are asked to use caution while ordering products online after the Attorney Generals office received a complaint of a phony website selling supplies that never arrived.

Attorney General Dana Nessels office issued a statement Tuesday regarding the website OkHomeOnline which purportedly sells various items in high demand including face masks, alcohol-based cleaning wipes, hand sanitizer and toilet paper. However, after placing an order, a Michigan resident says they never received the products and attempts to reach the company were unsuccessful.

Consumers should always be careful when shopping online, but being cautious is especially important in a time like this when public anxiety is high and scammers are looking to profit off fear, Nessel said in a press release. Researching the product and the seller before you make a purchase is never a bad idea, and it can help shoppers from falling victim to these predatory practices.

After receiving the complaint from the Michigan resident, Nessels office found several complaints have been filed against the company from people all over the U.S. Phone numbers and addresses listed for the website appear to be stolen from other businesses that do not make or sell coronavirus-related products," according to a press release.

Nessels office has focused in on consumer complaints during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last month, an investigation was launched into a West Michigan business accused of making fraudulent sales of N95 masks to customers. The man who ran that business was charged with wire fraud in federal court and is still under investigation by Michigan officials.

If you have a complaint you can file online or by calling the Attorney Generals Consumer Protection tip line at 1-877-765-8388. Hours of operation are between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

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

Complete coverage at mlive.com/coronavirus

Tuesday, May 5: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

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Actor Dulquer Salmaan might have thousands and hundreds of fans swooning over his talent and charm, but the actor is completely whipped for his toddler Maryam Ameerah Salmaan.

The first child of Dulquer and wife architect Amal Sufiya, Maryam was born in 2017 and turned three on Tuesday. Speaking of how fast she was growing up to be a big girl, the actor penned down a poem on his Instagram account.

The poem was clubbed with an adorable picture of Dulquer playing with Maryam as both sport huge smiles on their faces.

The Charlie actor wrote, Happiest birthday darling Marie. Youve got every one of us acting your age while you insist, Im a big girl now! Maybe youre right.

Youre fast growing up, speaking in full sentences now. 3 years old youre a big girl now. Twirling in your princess dresses.

Creating your own games now. Telling us stories, youre big girl now. Walking on your own. Running now. Learning how to jump, youre a big girl now, added Dulquer.

But urging her to slow down, the Bangalore Days star asked her to be a baby still. Looking back at the time when they first saw Maryam, heard her cries and thronged the hallways, Dulquer again asked her to be the baby girl as they had not had enough.

Even when the world says, shes a big girl now. Dont rush, darling Marie, stay our baby girl still, concluded the actor.

The south superstar debuted in Bollywood with Karwaan. He was again seen in the Hindi movie The Zoya Factor.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during the III Hemispheric Anti-Terrorism Ministerial Conference at the Francisco de Paula Santander General Police Cadet School, in Bogota, Colombia, on Jan. 20, 2020. (Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters)

Close to 400 Congress Members Urge Pompeo for Arms Embargo on Iran

An October deadline is fast approaching

A bi-partisan letter has been sent by hundreds of U.S. congress members urging Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to increase diplomatic efforts against Irans terrorist activities and renew a United Nations arms embargo that expires in October.

We write to urge increased diplomatic action by the United States to renew the expiring United Nations arms embargo against Iran and United Nations travel restrictions on those Iranian individuals involved with dangerous proliferation activities, the lawmakers wrote.

America must continue its longstanding, bipartisan leadership in order to limit Irans destabilizing activities throughout the world, they added. We look forward to working with you to reauthorize these expiring U.N. restrictions, which are essential to protecting our national security and the American people.

As of Monday, the letter had close to 400 signatures.

The United States will not allow Iran to purchase conventional arms after the U.N. prohibition expires in October, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a press briefing on April 29.

We will work with the U.N. Security Council to extend that prohibition on those arms sales. And then in the event we cant get anyone else to act, the United States is evaluating every possibility about how we might do that, he said.

The letter to Pompeo was initiated by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and committee ranking member Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas).

The U.N. arms embargo will be the first provision of the Iran nuclear deal to expire. This letter, supported overwhelmingly by both parties in the House, represents an imperative to reauthorize this provisionnot through snapback or going it alone, but through a careful diplomatic campaign, Engel said in a statement.

McCaul said, This isnt a Republican or Democrat issue, or even just an American issue. We need to extend the U.N. arms embargo on Iran for the sake of international peace and security. I am proud the House is speaking with one voice to protect the world against Irans aggressive and destabilizing behavior.

House lawmakers, urged Pompeo to work with allies to renew the arms embargo.

We urge you to work with allies and like-minded partners, including through a new United Nations Security Council resolution, to extend these provisions in order to prevent Iran from buying and selling weapons, while also working to increase accountability for violations of the existing embargo, they wrote. We also urge you to make clear to the international community that U.S. sanctions on Iranian arms transfers remain in place and will be fully enforced.

The congress members also expressed concern about the expiring U.N. travel restrictions on certain Iranian actors: As we work to extend the U.N. travel restrictions, we should also take steps to ensure that they cover all of Irans most dangerous actors and are fully enforced.

Some of Irans most notorious individuals have long violated U.N. proliferation and weapons restrictions, according to the statement. It added that keeping restrictions in place would be a way to ensure national security.

The lawmakers want Pompeo to expand the U.N. travel list to include the new Quds Force leader Esmail Ghanni who replaced Gen. Qassem Soleimani who was killed by a U.S. drone strike earlier this year.

The embargo on conventional arms sale was imposed on Iran by the U.N. Security Council as a part of the Iran nuclear deal signed in 2015 in a separate resolution, and is due to expire on Oct. 23 if no action is taken, Pompeo said. This will allow China, Russia, and other countries to sell conventional weapons to Iran, he added.

Pompeo added that the United States was urging the E3 states of France, Germany, and the UK as signatories of the Iran nuclear deal to take action to prevent the Ayatollah regime from obtaining conventional weapons, which is within their capacity to do, Pompeo said on April 29.

A U.S.-drafted resolution to extend the embargo has been given to the three countries, a U.S. official confirmed. But U.N. diplomats said it has not been shared with the remaining 11 U.N. Security Council members, according to Reuters.

The State Department was not immediately available to respond to The Epoch Times request for comment on the lawmakers letter.

Ella Kietlinska contributed to this report
CAIRO (AP)  An American schoolteacher imprisoned in Egypt for nearly a year without trial has been freed by Egyptian authorities and returned home to the United States, the State Department said Monday.

Reem Desouky, 47, a dual Egyptian-American citizen and single mother from Lancaster, was arrested on arrival at the Cairo Airport with her teenage son in July 2019 and hauled off to Qanatir Prison outside the capital. She faced charges of running a Facebook page critical of the Egyptian government. Security officials had confiscated her phone and interrogated her about her political opinions and social medias posts, according to her lawyers. Human rights groups denounced her detention as arbitrary and politically-motivated.

The Department of State has no higher priority than the safety and welfare of U.S. citizens overseas, said spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus, welcoming the news of Desoukys release.

Although the arrest of online critics in Egypt is hardly an unusual event, the incarceration of U.S. citizens in the country has drawn more intensive scrutiny since the death of detained American Mustafa Kassem this year.

Kassem had spent six years in prison on what he insisted were false charges and died after a long hunger strike in January, sparking sharp condemnation from the Trump administration and even calls to freeze military aid to Egypt. U.S. lawmakers seized on the opportunity to increase pressure on the administration to secure Desoukys release.

There had been high-level engagement on her case for months, but it was all upped after the death of Kassem, said Mohamed Soltan, founder of the Freedom Initiative, which advocated Desoukys case. We think Egypt released her as a way to minimize some of that mounting pressure.

A cellphone video shared by the Freedom Initiative shows Desouky laughing and hugging her friends in the airport parking lot after touching down late Sunday, wearing latex gloves but too overcome with joy to worry about social distancing.

International criticism of Egypts bleak human rights record intensified further over the weekend, when news broke that Shady Habash, a young Egyptian filmmaker imprisoned for directing a satirical music video about President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, had suddenly died. The cause of his death was not immediately clear, but it cast a spotlight on the potentially lethal conditions in Egyptian prisons, where thousands of political prisoners languish without trial.

In a phone call with Egypts foreign minister last month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo raised the issue of U.S. detainees in Egypt and urged that they be kept safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. With crowded prisons a powerful breeding ground for the new coronavirus, rights groups have have stepped up their calls to el-Sissi to release prisoners who are especially vulnerable.

At least five other Americans are held on trumped-up charges in Egyptian prisons, according to the Freedom Initiatives estimate. Separately Desoukys brother, Nour, was arrested when visiting her last summer and remains in jail, Soltan said. Desoukys son, Mustafa, refused to leave his incarcerated mother in Egypt, and missed school to spend the year waiting for her release with his extended family.

Since coming to power in 2013, President el-Sissi has waged a sweeping crackdown on dissent. Rights groups accuse Egyptian prosecutors of detaining people without evidence, denying them access to lawyers and a fair chance to appeal.

Also on Monday, Marwa Arafa, 27, an Egyptian translator and mother of a 21-month-old child, appeared before state prosecutors pending an investigation into charges she belongs to and helps to fund a terrorist group, her lawyer Islam Salama wrote on Facebook. She was not known to be politically active beyond advocacy work for child prisoners several years ago. Plainclothes security officers snatched Arafa from her Cairo apartment two weeks ago, said her husband Tamer Mowafy, and her family hadn't heard from her since.

The Egyptian government has denied allegations of rights violations and justifies arrests of opposition figures on national security grounds.
Apartment complexes in Seoul / Korea Times file



By Lee Kyung-min



Owners of expensive homes worth over 900 million won ($734,000) are unlikely to see their property taxes rise this year as the rival parties remained deadlocked Tuesday over a bill introduced to impose a heavier tax to curb the overheating housing market.



For the government to enforce the strengthened measure proposed last December, the National Assembly must pass it by the end of May as the bill stipulates June 1 as the date the new tax code should be applied.



But the prospect of passage has become dimmer after the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and the main opposition United Future Party (UFP) refused to budge from their respective stances, with the last related parliamentary committee meeting ending with no tangible results, April 29.



The bill will be discarded once the current Assembly session expires. Even if a similarly drafted bill passes in the latter half, imposing a raised tax retroactively is nearly impossible, meaning the tax burden will stay the same as in 2020.



Further kicking the bill down the road are a series of emergency bills involving COVID-19 economic relief packages designed to help small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and key industries by easing lending rules and injecting more liquidity into the market by increasing the amount of bonds issued with government backing.



The Assembly could engage in the property tax feud, but the politically divisive issue will quickly sour public sentiment already swinging wildly amid a tanking economy.



The government and the ruling party have sought to increase the tax rate to up to 4 percent of the officially assessed land price for those with two or more homes and to 3 percent for those who own one home.



Also included was raising the ceiling of the maximum tax from 200 percent of the amount paid in the previous year to 300 percent.



But the main opposition have rejected the measure altogether, arguing that the ceiling of the maximum tax for those who own one home should be lowered to 130 percent of the officially assessed land price from the current 150 percent.



It also maintains that the deductible rate should be raised for home owners aged 60 and older and for those who have owned their homes for a long period, reflective of some criticisms that retired people have limited sources of income and those who have lived where they have for years are far from being part of speculative market forces.



Meanwhile, a possible cause for major concern for owners of homes worth less than 900 million won is how much of a heavier tax the government would impose, with specifics being formulated by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport set to be announced in October.






By Francesca Landini

MILAN (Reuters) - Drinks group Campari warned on Tuesday that it will feel a more severe impact from the coronavirus crisis in coming quarters, after reporting a 5% drop in sales between January and March.

Campari's sales in Italy, its second-biggest market, fell 24% on an organic basis in the first quarter, the company said on Tuesday, and global consumption of its bright orange aperitif Aperol was flat after double-digit growth last year.

"The group expects its performance to be more impacted in the second quarter and the beginning of the third, the peak season for the high margin and on-premise skewed aperitif, business," Campari said in a statement.

In a conference call with analysts, Campari Chief Financial Officer Paolo Marchesini said there would be pressure on margins in the second quarter, but added the group was cutting costs and postponing discretionary spending to mitigate the coronavirus effect.

The maker of red bitter Campari and Aperol said first-quarter sales fell 5.3% on an organic basis as lockdowns imposed to contain the spread of the virus dented demand for its aperitifs, especially in Italy.

Total sales dropped to 360 million euros in the first three months compared with 370 million euros a year earlier. Global sales of Aperol fell 0.2% in the first quarter compared with a 27% increase in the same period of last year.

APERITIFS UNDER LOCKDOWN

In Italy - which accounts for nearly one fifth of Campari's revenue - bars and restaurants have been shut since the beginning of March. They are expected to open again on June 1 and are now only allowed to prepare food and drinks for delivery or take-away services.

The country has a strong tradition of socialising over early evening drinks and some consumption has moved from bars to homes during lockdown as Italians use social media to drink aperitifs in the virtual company of friends.

But this was not enough to support sales, so the company moved to enhance its online presence.

Story continues

"We are accelerating programmes in digital transformation and e-commerce," Chief Executive Bob Kunze-Concewitz said during the conference call, mentioning online tutorials to prepare cocktails and the sale of combos with all the ingredients needed to make a concoction.

Aperol, the key ingredient for the popular Spritz cocktail, is Campari's best-selling product representing roughly one fifth of its annual sales.

With the gradual lifting of the restrictive measures across countries, the company said that the negative impact of the coronavirus was expected to lessen later in the year.

Shares in Campari fell as much as 2.3% after the results but recovered and were up 0.7% by 1405 GMT at 6.90 euros. They have fallen 15.6% since the start of this year.

In the first quarter, adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) fell to 47.9 million euros from 72.4 million euros a year earlier. EBIT margin on sales, which is an indicator for profitability, came in at 13.3% down from 19.6%.

The group also said it had signed the deal for the acquisition of 80% of French Champagne brand Lallier for 21.8 million euros, becoming the first Italian player to enter the Champagne sector.

(Editing by Susan Fenton)
The Mumbai Police on May 4 imposed Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) in the city to ban public gatherings. There has been no official communication clarifying why the prohibitory orders were introduced in the city, but it is believed the mayhem that followed the opening of liquor shops triggered it.

While announcing the extension of the lockdown in several parts of the country till May 17, the Ministry of Home Affairs also introduced several relaxations to allow limited activities, such as opening standalone shops, allowing liquor sales, etc.

For live updates on coronavirus, click here

There had long been demands from several quarters for liquor shops to be reopened. When the Centre finally gave the nod for the same, people thronged shops in large numbers to hoard as much possible. Not only did this amount to unbound chaos, but several reports suggested that social distancing norms were flouted rampantly.

Given the situation in Mumbai, which is the worst affected by coronavirus outbreak in the country and has reported maximum deaths due to COVID-19 also, the Mumbai Police decided to impose Section 144 till May 17.

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

Coronavirus Lockdown 3.0 guidelines | Here's what's prohibited in your area if you are in red, orange or green zone

This means that till the time the third of the nationwide lockdown is in place all public gatherings in the city will be banned. Moreover, the movement of one or more persons would only be allowed for medical reasons or to procure essential supplies. Violating the orders will be a punishable offence.

The other reason behind the imposition of Section 144 could be to prevent mass protests from stranded migrant workers, such as the ones being witnessed frequently in Gujarat  another state where the deadly virus has spread at an alarming rate. A similar incident had taken place in Mumbais Bandra last month too, after the lockdown was extended beyond April 21 to May 3. Such gatherings pose a high risk and are potential COVID-19 hotspots, which can worsen the coronavirus situation in the state further.
The unreceptive attitude towards the governments free mass testing for coronavirus in densely populated high-risk areas of Nairobi and Mombasa counties in recent days is quite disturbing.

From Eastleigh to Kawangware in Nairobi, to Mvita and the Old Town area in Mombasa, the exercise has been characterised by low turnout as residents float all manner of excuses as to why they should not be tested.

READ ALSO: Somalia president Mohamed Farmajo calls Uhuru, expresses regret for downing of plane

Health CS Mutahi Kagwe has appealed to Kenyans to turn out in large numbers to undergo COVID-19 tests. Photo: MOH

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Tuju takes war to Rutos doorstep, dares Tanga Tanga to eject him from office

A particularly worrying scenario has unfolded in Old Town, a Covid-19 hotspot, where dozens of families have fled their homes and sought refuge in nearby sub-counties, a sure way to further spread the virus.

As of Monday, May 4, only 197 people had been tested out of the 28,000 targeted in the state-sponsored exercise.

The areas elders have been spearheading the resistance with the backing of Nyali MP Mohammed Ali in what has degenerated into a war of words with Governor Hassan Joho, who has threatened the residents with forced mass testing.

The spat, and the apparent politicization of the mass testing is, without doubt, watering down the significance of what stands out as the only sure way to beat coronavirus. Kenyans need to take a minute and understand the importance of mass testing.

On March 17, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO), spoke a virtual press conference in which he had a simple message for all countries; test, test, test.

Adhanom emphasized the need to escalate testing, isolation and contact tracing efforts, which he termed the backbone of the response.

The importance of large-scale testing for the virus is all too obvious. It enables health service providers to quickly identify who is infected and ensure they receive the care needed.

The isolation of confirmed cases prevents them from coming into contact with others, slowing the transmission rate and helping avoid a sudden spike in new patients.

This can help ease the pressure on health services, which can easily be overwhelmed by high demand for respirators and other lifesaving equipment.

Even more importantly, effective mass testing programmes make it easy for the government to understand how widespread the disease is, and how it is evolving. This helps authorities make evidence-based decisions to slow the spread of the disease.

It is aggressive mass testing, coupled with social distancing measure, which helped countries like South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore escape the deadly devastation of the COVID-19.

South Korea, for instance, had conducted over 220,000 tests by mid-March, an approach that helped identify more than 8,200 positive cases and slow the transmission.

Unsurprisingly, the Asian country had by then recorded only 75 fatalities, a greatly lower mortality rate compared to other COVID-19 hotspots.

And it is never too late to roll out mass testing as proved in Germany, a country that initially recorded a relatively high number of deaths before implementing aggressive testing among other control measures.

A remarkable number of tests - an average of 400,000 every week - carried out in March helped Germany dodge the deadly coronavirus devastation recorded among her European peers.

This explains why mass testing will equally be the quickest and safest route out of the Covid-19 crisis in Kenya.

Luckily, the state has taken tests to peoples doorsteps at no cost. Kenyans must exploit this opportunity and get tested.

Let them understand that it is for their own good; it is a route we must chart enroute to normalcy.

Touch action must be taken against leaders who are preaching defiance against the exercise to the masses. Citizens heeding the deluding messages as opposed to the Governments directives should not be spared disciplinary measures.

They should be tested at own cost and locked up in quarantine centres.

It should not be lost on us that the reason Old Town, Kawangware and others have turned into hotspots is because many residents disobeyed directives to stay home, stay safe and observe proper hygiene standards.

This time round, they should not dodge the tests. Voluntarily or otherwise, let their status be known.

The writer is Milan Kiplagat, a regular commentator on social, economic and political affairs.

The views expressed here are his and don not in any way represent the position of TUKO.co.ke

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

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Days after a top U.S. general said Russia is testing the American military during the novel coronavirus pandemic, the Navy sent four ships into the Barents Sea for the first time in decades.

Three Navy destroyers and a fast combat support ship, as well as a frigate from Britain's Royal Navy, entered the Barents Sea above the Arctic Circle on Monday "to assert freedom of navigation," according to a service news release. It marked the first time Navy ships have operated there, off Russia's northern coast, since the Cold War.

The vessels involved include the Navy's destroyers Donald Cook, Porter and Roosevelt, along with the fast combat support ship Supply. The Royal Navy's frigate Kent also participated.

The operation was announced weeks after Russian aircraft were spotted flying near Alaska. Another buzzed a Navy reconnaissance plane last month above the Mediterranean Sea.

Vice Adm. Lisa Franchetti, commander of 6th Fleet, said in a statement, "In these challenging times, it is more important than ever that we maintain our steady drumbeat of operations across the European theater.

Related: Russia Is Testing US Military for Weaknesses Amid Pandemic, General Says

"We remain committed to promoting regional security and stability, while building trust and reinforcing a foundation of Arctic readiness," she added.

The Russian Ministry of Defense was notified Friday that the Navy would have ships in the Barents Sea. The notification was made to "avoid misperceptions, reduce risk and prevent inadvertent escalation," according to the Navy.

Days before heading into the Barents Sea, several of the same ships -- along with a Navy submarine and P-8A Poseidon -- were in the Norwegian Sea for an anti-submarine warfare exercise. About 1,200 sailors from the U.S. and Royal Navies participated in that exercise.

Navy leaders in Europe have warned that a surge in Russian submarine activity is posing new challenges for NATO allies. The Russian subs are deploying with more lethal weapons systems and staying out for longer periods, Vice Adm. Andrew "Woody" Lewis, commander of 2nd Fleet, said earlier this year.

The Navy has been sending more vessels above the Arctic Circle in recent years. Franchetti called the environment "unforgiving."

"Our ships must be prepared to operate across all mission sets," she said. "... This is especially critical in the Arctic, where the austere weather environment demands constant vigilance and practice."

The Navy in 2018 sent elements of the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group and Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group above the Arctic Circle during exercise Trident Juncture. Last year, destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser also operated in the region.

-- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins.

Read more: Here's Why the Navy Is Deploying with a Bunch of Louisville Sluggers
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NEW YORK - Pastor Mike Carrion kept getting calls from church members.

"My grandfather is sick."

"My aunt is in the ICU."

"My father just died."

Now Carrion braces at any ringtone. "Please, Lord, not one more person."

Carrion leads the evangelical Promised Land Covenant Church in the south Bronx, the heart of the epicenter where covid-19 is especially ravaging African American and Latino communities.

"I'm on the phone with a mom and she screams. How does she continue to raise her other children with her baby gone?" Carrion said of speaking with a mother of a seventh-grader who died of covid-19. "No seminary class prepares you for this."

Promised Land, in the poorest congressional district in the nation, sees about 250 mostly African American and Latino worshipers on a normal weekend. Public housing units line the streets near the church in the Mott Haven neighborhood, where city officials estimate the poverty rate is about 44%.

The church stopped in-person gatherings the week of March 21, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended no gatherings of more than 10 people. Three days later, Carrion said, church leaders learned someone connected to the church had been diagnosed with the coronavirus.

"Then three more people got it. Then two more people got it. Then after that: death, death, death, death," Carrion said. In one month, 13 parishioners faced the deaths of close family members and a best friend.

Carrion, 49, grew up in east Harlem and is no stranger to preaching to people who are facing tragedy. But before the pandemic that hit especially hard in this corner of New York City, he would receive a phone call to help someone with death maybe every four to six months, he said. Now pastors are getting back-to-back phone calls about urgent needs exacerbated by the coronavirus, from health issues to job losses to people who have lost loved ones or simply need food.

"I've walked into hospitals to give babies last rites. I've walked into places where children have been abused," he said. "It was never as complex as this. The mortgage is still due, ConEdison wants their money, kids are wearing masks."

The church's nine pastors keep each other in the loop through a group text, and they have asked members to help them by calling or texting five other congregants each day so everyone is checking up on someone. With New York's stay-at-home order, the pastors could not gather for a meeting to help their bereaved, or offer a visit, a hug or an in-person funeral. Instead, they cobbled together what they could online, trying to provide not just spiritual resources but psychological coping tools as well.

Some Christians are suspicious of psychotherapy and dismiss it as secular, Carrion said, but he has embraced therapeutic approaches, especially during this time.

"People need more than a poem and three principles. People need to deal with fear," he said. "We need the person of God and we need a God-given therapist to help us navigate our brokenness."

Freddy Baez, a licensed therapist who attends the church, has been leading grief sessions over Zoom. He introduces concepts such as cognitive behavioral therapy and goes over strategies to improve mental health. The pastors offer religious comfort and teachings.

About 80 people joined Baez's Zoom session on a Monday night that covered the theology of grief, loss and recovery. Some joined from their kitchens, others in their bedrooms; one woman listened with ear buds as she shopped for groceries.

"Self talk," Baez told the group, influences how we feel and then moves us to behavior. He pointed to the biblical example of Ruth and how she reframed the loss of her husband and was able to recover and find resilience.

The members who joined the call used Zoom's chat box - including prayer and praise-hand emoji - to re-create the call-and-response interaction typical of their worship services.

"wow amen"

"Gloryyyyy"

"Come on"

Part of ministry, Carrion told everyone on the call, is about leading people from confusion to hope. For Carrion, and other pastors across the country, part of reducing that confusion was simply asking everyone to mute their mics.

Many pastors, Baez said in an interview, are overwhelmed as they try to meet parishioners' needs without being physically present.

"Sometimes it means being on the phone and let somebody rail against God," he said. "Sometimes it's being present that gives someone permission to say what they have to say and not feel like you're God's lawyer. It's saying, 'I'm in this spiritual and psychological space with you.'"

One of the members who joined a Zoom grief session was JayJay Lugo, 30, who scribbled notes as she watched the call from her bedroom. Her stepmom, who helped raise her, died of complications from covid-19 on April 21.

Lugo, a social worker who is taking care of her 18-year-old half sister, is debating whether to go back to work. In the meantime, she receives daily devotionals from one pastor and prays sometimes with another pastor by phone.

"On Friday, it was rough getting out of bed," she said in an interview. "You want to isolate yourself, but you need community."

The pastors give her options: She can watch a video, join a live Zoom class, text with a pastor or call one of them. At Lugo's request, two pastors and a worship leader have recorded themselves for the online funeral on May 6. Ten family members will be physically present, and Lugo expects several Promised Land members to "attend" the Facebook Live broadcast. Some donated money to help with funeral costs.

Most pastors at Promised Land also have full-time jobs outside the church, pastor Diane Carrow said. When she gets home, she hops on a Zoom call almost every night for Bible studies, worship recordings and meetings with other pastors. She also takes calls from church members.

"We are not built for this," she said. "Yes, crisis happens. But having a crisis every single day is just not the norm."

Carrow said the crisis became personal for her when her husband, who is also a pastor, texted the pastoral team that his aunt had died March 31 of covid-19.

Together, the couple stayed focused on ministry work, and he began sending daily devotionals to his worship team.

"We're intentional about staying in touch," she said. "We're intentional about telling people that in isolation, you're not alone. You weren't created to be alone."

Carrion said pastors across New York City are sharing their own pandemic stories with him. Alongside his job as a pastor, he works for an organization called Redeemer City to City, a network led by prominent evangelical pastor Tim Keller that provides resources to churches in urban areas. The network has raised $375,000 to provide $15,000 grants to 25 churches to assist with building costs and technology purchases.

"We're seeing the Southern Baptists, the Presbyterians, the Pentecostals, the Anglicans, the Episcopal churches come together," he said. "In some ways this has equalized us. In others, it's showed how divided we've been for so long."

It has been difficult to re-create the experience of Promised Land's typical two-hour, charismatic services. Worship is truncated to one hour because pastors fear "Zoom fatigue," and Carrion preaches from his bedroom.

During one sermon, he told his congregation he had been facing depression.

"The Psalmist said, 'Weeping may endure for a night, but joy will come in the morning,'" he said. "Joy, I am looking for you."
(Photo : Robert Garvey/Handout via REUTERS ) Scientists stand on a bridge over a collection tank at a wastewater treatment plant an unknown location in Australia, this undated handout picture.

The United Kingdom government is seeking advice from scientists on whether testing the sewage to trace the scale coronavirus outbreak in Britain is possible. Meanwhile, other European countries are already monitoring sewage to control the spread of the coronavirus.

Researches in Switzerland, France, and the Netherlands suggest parts of the virus are shed by infected people in their feces and urine. This could later offer health officials with an early warning system for COVID-19 in the future even before individuals show symptoms.

ALSO READ: COVID-19 UPDATE: 2 Coronavirus Drugs to be Tested In UK and Japan; Could Avigan or Interferon Beta Be the Cure?

ALSO READ: [BREAKING] COVID-19 Cure Almost Here? Pfizer Pushes Potential Cure to Clinical Trials, And Will Create Millions Of Vaccines by 2021

It can take five to 11 days for the characteristic symptoms of fever and a persistent cough to show. On infected people

On Apr. 23, researchers from Newcastle University said they have started collecting information about coronavirus from sewage in England.

While the virus does not spread through wastewater systems, monitoring the virus through sewage is called wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), it provides significant details clues about public health.

"We are actively engaging with the research community and government scientific advisers to investigate whether monitoring wastewater could be used as a way of tracking the prevalence of the virus," said DEFRA in a statement given to MailOnline, although The WHO is clear there is currently no evidence coronavirus has been transmitted via sewerage systems.'

With the current status of the pandemic, people are now interested in how to prevent multiple waves. Primarily, the Government's 'test, track, and trace' strategy will help her isolate anyone infected by the virus to stop the spread.

Sewage epidemiology

Sewage epidemiology has already started worldwide to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is particularly useful as countries emerge from lockdowns despite risks of a resurgence of infections.

Similarly, a spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control in the US told POLITICO last week how the agency explores the potential for wastewater testing.

Researchers in Switzerland had detected low concentrations of coronavirus in wastewater since February when the first cases of infection were recorded in the country.

'We didn't expect that we'd already been able to measure a signal in wastewater from Lugano, with only one, and from Zurich, with only six known cases,' Tamar Kohn from the EPFL research institute, in Lausanne, said in a statement.

'Wastewater doesn't lie, and it reflects what is excreted by the public within a few hours,' team leader Christoph Ort from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology said in a statement.

Researchers from the Netherlands also alerted that sewage could provide an early warning or tracking system of SARS-CoV-2, as remnants of the virus are passed into the system from human waste.

The KWR Water Research Institute team has studied the sewage samples from seven cities seeking for evidence of COVID-19. They found out that even a few people reported coronavirus in the country cases, traces of the virus were still present in the sewers.

'The detection of the virus in sewage is low, which indicates that sewage surveillance could be a sensitive tool to monitor the circulation of the virus in the population.'

Researchers from the Sorbonne University and Eau de Paris also concluded that monitoring of wastewater 'may provide an alternative and possibly early tool to detect pathogens in populations when investigations in humans are difficult for logistic, ethical or economic reasons'.

Should the system work, sewage samples could let public health officials see a resurgence of COVID-19 infections earlier than with diagnostic tests - perhaps by around a week, the Swiss team believes.

Read also: FDA Approves Formlabs' 3D-Printed Ventilator Converter; 150 Printers to be Distributed

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Ajit Mohan, Facebook Indias vice-president and managing director, told HT in an interview that the company is working on a longer shelf life for Instagram live videos after a 60% rise in views during the lockdown. As part of the Facebook-Jio deal, he said, digital tools will be made available to workers of the MSME sector. Edited excerpts:

The Facebook-Jio deal is in the news. What more can Facebook users in India expect out of this deal? How will it help the countrys MSME sector?

Facebook and Jio platforms will work in tandem to further accelerate Indias exciting digital transformation and open up new opportunities for people and businesses around the country. An early focus area for us would be about giving MSMEs access to digital tools that will empower them to grow and expand their businesses while helping them connect with their customers.

The Covid-19 pandemic has come with a deluge of misinformation. Facebook has taken several steps. For instance, it has joined hands with Poynter Institute for Media Studies and International Centre for Journalists to help combat fake news. WhatsApp has tweaked some of its features to contain the spread of swirling rumours, and there are fresh curbs on advertisers as well. Are there any more plans for a change in Facebooks features?

Facebook family of is are playing a critical role in the lives of people around the globe during these challenging times, as users are leveraging our platforms more than ever to connect with their friends and family. As India fights the Covid-19 outbreak, we have stepped up our efforts to respond to the crisis. A big part of our efforts has been to ensure that everyone has access to accurate information and that we do everything we can to reduce misinformation and harmful content. We are grateful for our partnership with the government, local authorities, and health organisations and will continue to evolve our products and services in the fight against the viral outbreak.

Globally, we have directed over two billion people to resources from the WHO (World Health Organisation) and other health authorities through our Coronavirus Information Center and pop-ups on Facebook and Instagram with over 350 million people clicking on them to learn more. In March, we displayed warnings on about 40 million posts related to Covid-19 on Facebook globally, based on around 4,000 articles by our independent fact-checking partners. When people saw those warning labels, 95% of the time they did not go on to view the original content.

In India, we work with eight independent third-party fact-checking partners in 11 vernacular languages and English.

On Facebook and Instagram, we reduce the distribution of content that our partners consider as fake. If users still see these fake content on their news feed, we attach a warning label of the misinformation along with a link to a fact-checked article.

WhatsApp has recently announced limiting highly-forwarded messages to only one chat. Globally, there has been a 70% reduction in the number of highly-forwarded messages sent on WhatsApp after this new restriction came into effect. This change is helping WhatsApps use only for personal and private conversations.

Between the coronavirus WhatsApp helpline and the Facebook messenger chatbot, how many people would you say have been reached out to in India alone? Is there any behavioural insight that has emerged from the number of interactions on these two platforms?

At Facebook, we have taken several measures to ensure everyone has access to accurate information. With specific reference to the Facebook Messenger Chatbot, we launched the MyGov Corona Hub chatbot on Facebook Messenger in partnership with MyGov and MOHFW in April to raise awareness, provide authentic and accurate information and bust fake news about coronavirus. Our partnership has extended to nine state governments today (Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) and the chatbots are now available in Telugu, Kannada , Marathi, Odia, and Punjabi apart from Hindi and English. We have also added capabilities such as state-specific helpline numbers and testing centres, among others.

In addition, MyGov and MOHFW, along with WhatsApp, launched a helpline number to raise awareness and answer questions about the coronavirus. By the end of March, over 2 crore people had messaged the helpline number for information.

We are making product changes in our apps. To tackle misinformation on WhatsApp, the most recent product change was limiting frequently forwarded messages (i.e. messages containing double arrows) to one chat at a time, to control the spread of viral messages. Since putting into place this new limit, globally there has been a 70% reduction in the number of highly forwarded messages sent on WhatsApp. We also provide general education on tips to prevent the spread of rumours and fake news, and worked with partners across civil society and engaged with relevant government authorities and other technology platforms to help address the harmful consequences of misinformation.

Instagram live videos attracted some prominent artists and celebrities to perform live from within the confines of their homes amid the lockdown restrictions. Is there any plan to make Instagram live videos accessible for more than 24 hours? Will there be a paywall for Instagram live videos?

Instagram is the home of creativity and expression and at a time when social distancing is the new normal, we are seeing this in an even more prominent way than ever before. Culture is going virtual and the increase of Instagram live views by 60% in India is an indication of that. We are also seeing an exponential rise in interactivity with the release of new tools and features like co-watching on Instagram, the Stay Home & Ghar Pe Raho stickers, etc.

We know people are using Instagram to stay connected and entertained. Now, users can view live content from Instagram on their desktops as well. We are also testing a way for users to save live videos to IGTV (Instagram TV), so they stick around longer than the 24-hour limit in stories and are also easier to access.

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The suspected murderers of the late Edward Quartey Papafio, 64, Biochemist Consultant at Maame Dede near Adeisu in the Eastern Region on January 16, 2020 have been remanded into Police custody.



The two fetish priests: Christian Gameli Larwae, alias Power and Famous Adorkunu, alias Scorpion, both 37, residents of Maame Dede and from Fekpe in the Volta Region were arrested on April 21 due to Police intelligence.



Commissioner of Police (COP) Mr Isaac Ken Yeboah, who is the Director- General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) told the media that, on January 17, this year, Reverend Mrs Comfort Ruth Quartey Papafio, wife of the deceased reported that her husband left his house at Kasoa on January 15, at about 0300 hours and had still not returned.



He said Police intelligence gathered that the victim was last spotted at Adeisu near Nsawam in the Eastern Region.



COP Yeboah said on April 29, they arrested the suspects to assist the Police in their investigations and both admitted interacting with the deceased who was later shot and killed on January 15, 2020 at their shrine.



He said the suspects then led police to where the deceased was buried in their shrine.



He said a Police search revealed two pump action guns, one single barrel gun, eleven packets of cartridges from Gameli s room.



He said on April 30, a team of Pathologists, personnel of the Crime Scene Management Unit, Forensic Science Laboratory, Drone and CID Operations Unit exhumed the body of Papafio, after an exhumation permit was granted by a Court.



Mr Yeboah said the suspects also led police to another site which had no exit, where the pathologists retrieved a decomposed body from the grave, who has been identified as one Kwasi Zormelo, also from Kasoa.



He said the team retrieved human parts, head attachments, beads, suspected to be that of a woman, skeletons among other items within the same perimeter.



COP Yeboah said a decomposed human flesh wrapped together with bones and buried were also retrieved from another grave including human skull and idols.



He said from December 2019, the two suspects conspired to kill the deceased consultant and lured him to their shrine, took away his GH10,000.00 under the guise of fortifying him spiritually for his company to flourish.



Mr Yeboah said on January 15, they invited him on phone to come for the last purification rite where they shot him dead and then Larwae took his mobile phones being an Itel and Nokia, together with a bunch of keys and kept them with his third wife-Charity Gakudji at Mensah Bar near Oyibi, where he later led the Police to retrieve them.



He said Famous confessed killing the deceased with the Pump Action Gun belonging to Larwae, and that he collected all the moneys on the deceased before killing him.



Mr Yeboah said Police investigations also suggest that Larwae also murdered one Kwesi Zormelo, a Togolese and mason, resident at Kasoa, whom he had hired to construct a hotel for him in February 2020, when the said Zormelo demanded for moneys owed him.



COP Yeboah said the decomposed bodies, among the remains collected, had been deposited at the Police Hospital Mortuary, awaiting post mortem, anthropological and DNA tests.



He said Police on May 3, this year, found a gallon of liquid substance suspected to human blood at Gamelis backyard, which he told police he drained from Papafio and Zormelo.



COP Yeboah called on the media to help eliminate the so-called money doublers by preventing them from carrying on advertisements through their medium.



He asked members of the public to desist from falling prey to these miscreants as they had nothing to offer.

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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During the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare industry is even more of a critical asset than it is normally. With so little known about COVID-19 and the large pool of potential victims (i.e. the entire global population), healthcare facilities are vital to preventing fatalities. Similarly, medical research and development labs are necessary for the efforts to create a vaccine, test it, and mass-produce to vaccinate the general population.

Despite this vital role that the healthcare industry plays at this time, they have been targeted by numerous cyberattacks. These range from Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks to ransomware to attempted data theft. As a result, healthcare organizations, more than ever, must deploy defensive cybersecurity solutions, such as DDoS protection.

Healthcare Targeted During COVID-19 Response Efforts

In the best of times, healthcare organizations have weak cybersecurity. A number of factors contribute to this, including the growing use of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in healthcare and a failure to properly secure repositories of sensitive patient data that are digitized in compliance with HIPAA and HITECH.

This generally weak security makes healthcare a common target of cybercriminals, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, targeting of healthcare with cyberattacks has only increased. INTERPOL has warned member states that they have detected a rise in cyberattacks targeting healthcare providers. Cybercriminals have also targeted organizations like the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with DDoS attacks.

The reason for this spike in healthcare-focused attacks is believed to be the cybercriminals' desire to maximize their profits during the global COVID-19 crisis. During the pandemic, healthcare providers are stretched to the breaking point attempting to provide necessary care, making them easier for cybercriminals to trick, and the number of patient records being processed by these organizations has grown suddenly, making security oversights more common and impactful.

However, direct cyberattacks are not the only source of strain upon these organizations related to COVID-19. During the pandemic, COVID-19 has become a favorite pretext of cybercriminals performing phishing attacks against organizations and individuals. These attacks often imitate the World Health Organization (WHO) or the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and pretend to provide useful advice. As a result, these organizations must take extra steps to warn people about these attacks and deal with the confusion caused by them.

Cybercriminals Say No More

The importance of healthcare organizations in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic has not been overlooked by cybercriminals. In fact, many cybercrime groups publicly declared early in the crisis that they would cease attacks against healthcare providers until the crisis was over.

In some cases, these groups followed through with this promise. For example, one cybercrime group operating ransomware offered free decryption keys for any healthcare organization accidentally affected by their malware. While this does help these organizations recover quickly from the accidental attacks, it does not completely remove any impacts of them as restoring systems can be expensive. Additionally, in many cases, organizations lose data when restoring files encrypted by ransomware due to flaws in the decryption software.

But Many of Them Didn't Mean It

While some cybercrime organizations have made a "good faith" effort to stand by their word to leave healthcare providers alone during COVID-19, many have not. The Maze ransomware group was one of the most visible cybercrime groups to agree not to target healthcare organizations. However, they also rapidly broke that promise with an attack against Hammersmith Medicines Research.

Hammersmith Medicines Research is a UK-based medical testing lab standing by to test a possible COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available (they previously participated in testing of the Ebola vaccine). While they are not involved in the development of the various vaccine candidates, they must be standing by and prepared to begin testing when one is ready in order to minimize the time until a vaccine is available (and the fatalities associated with COVID-19).

Hammersmith Medicines Research was attacked by the Maze ransomware and elected not to pay the ransom. As a result, their systems were offline for a significant period of time, potentially delaying testing of the COVID-19 vaccine.

To make things worse, Maze is one of the ransomware variants that has begun posting or selling stolen data online to incentivize their victims to pay the demanded ransom. They have already published some of their stolen data, demonstrating that they had no intention of abiding by their "hands off" policy toward medical organizations during the COVID-19 crisis.

The medical lab declared that they had no intention of paying the ransom, even if the cybercriminals forced them out of business. This is in-line with acknowledged best practice since paying the Maze group would only enable them to attack additional targets.

Protecting Against Cybercrime In a Time of Crisis

COVID-19 is a global crisis, and many organizations have banded together to ensure that critical services, such as healthcare, remain operating at this time. While ransomware authors, and other cybercriminals, may have made promises not to target healthcare during this crisis, the lure of potential profit is often too strong.

During COVID-19, and any crisis, cybercriminals tend to target critical services, reasoning that desperation will make them more likely to pay up. This makes it even more vital for these organizations to have defenses in place to protect themselves against attack, decreasing the strain on security staff forced to detect and remediate successful attacks. With the COVID-19 pandemic unlikely to stop any time soon, deploying security solutions such as DDoS protection and anti-ransomware solutions is a good strategic investment.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Dilday, a member of a longtime Long Beach family, died unexpectedly of a heart attack in his sleep at his home Jan. 10, according to his wife, Diane.
Rates of cheating have snowballed at the University of NSW, a leaked report reveals, including 139 science students who hired ghost writers from Chinese messaging site WeChat to complete their work.

The 2019 Students Conduct and Complaints report, marked confidential but obtained by The Sydney Morning Herald, noted a 'consistent and continuing upward trend' in student misconduct allegations since 2014.

The University of NSW is grappling with surging levels of student misconduct. Credit:Ryan Stuart

The report - published in March - also noted a doubling of student complaints in 2019.

A string of students using dodgy medical certificates to earn special consideration in assessments saw the category of document falsification was up 67 per cent in 2019 when compared to the year prior, while there was a 19 per cent increase in exam misconduct and 17 per cent hike in low-level plagiarism.
In a symbolic move by the French Senate with a vote of 89 to 81 in favour with 174 abstentions, lawmakers voted not to approve the Prime Minister Edouard Philippe measures to ease the lockdown in France.

The abstentions are due primarily to the Republicans party. The votes against come from the socialist and communist parties.

The lockdown lifting measures bill had been approved by the National Assembly last Tuesday.

"No one can say if you will have enough masks next week to protect all French people" against the coronavirus, said Bruno Retailleau, the leader of the right-wing senators.

In the Senate, 135 LR senators abstained and 7 voted in favor. The leader of the right-wing senators Bruno Retailleau criticized the government for a "double bet":

"No one can say if you will have enough masks next week to protect all French people" against the coronavirus, he warned.

The ruling party On the Move party was unanimous in supporting the prime minister's measure.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with his Portugese counterpart Antonio Costa on Tuesday during which both the leaders offered all possible help to each other in dealing with the coronavirus crisis.

The two leaders agreed to collaborate on research and innovation aimed at fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

The leaders noted that proactive national measures were helpful in containing the spread of the disease, an official statement said.

Modi thanked Costa for extending validity of visas of Indian travellers to Portugal who could not return because of the lockdown.

For latest updates on coronavirus outbreak, click here

Prime Minister Costa expressed his appreciation for the facilitation provided by Indian authorities to Portuguese citizens in India.

In the course of their conversation, Modi commended Costa for his effective handling of the health crisis.

It is widely believed that Portugal performed well in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.

The two leaders agreed to remain in touch and consult each other on the evolving dimensions of the crisis as well as the post COVID-19 situation.

Modi also recalled the state visit of Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to India in February, the statement said.
WASHINGTON  In its second argument conducted by conference call, the Supreme Court considered a knotty First Amendment question: May the government require the foreign affiliates of groups receiving federal money to fight AIDS abroad to adopt policies opposing prostitution?

The question was a variation on one the court had decided in 2013, when it said that imposing the requirement on domestic groups ran afoul of the First Amendments protection of free speech because, as Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority, it required recipients to pledge allegiance to the governments policy of eradicating prostitution.

The new case, United States Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International, No. 19-177, concerned foreign affiliates of domestic groups that share names, brands, logos and missions but are formally separate entities. The justices appeared to find the new question, of whether the anti-prostitution pledge may be imposed on the foreign affiliates, much harder.

It was common ground between the parties that foreign entities themselves lack First Amendment rights. The question was whether their speech could be attributed to their domestic partners.
It might be said that Majorcas association with France was first firmly established the moment that Jaume I of Aragon burst through the gate of Bab al-Kofol (Porta Pintada or Porta de la Conquesta) in Madina Mayurqa in 1229. The conquest of Majorca was led by a king who had been born in Montpellier.

The subsequent settlement in Majorca of peoples from the mainland included Occitans from the historical region of Occitania. Linguistic and cultural links melded with those of the Aragonese and Catalans, an example of which was the mediaeval troubadour who used the Occitan language. So, Majorca and southern France have plenty of history - geography an obvious ingredient as much as culture, language and politics.

The geography was to prove to be highly advantageous to the merchants of Soller. The trade in oranges and lemons as well as almonds, figs and olives was centred on the port of Soller. There was a boom in the late eighteenth century, and the trade was reciprocal; thus Soller embraced French fashion and culture. The early tourism at the start of the twentieth century was to reflect this relationship; the French came to Soller. Between the wars, Puerto Soller became one of Majorcas few destinations for tourists. There were a number of dynamics as to why, one of them having been a Soller openness to what was the new French desire to sunbathe without costumes - naturism.

With the obvious exception of George Sand, the French contribution to growing an awareness of Majorca and of its nascent possibilities for travellers has tended to be overlooked in favour of English writers and the Austrian Archduke Louis Salvador. But when the tourism of the early twentieth century came to be promoted, it was in French as much as it was in English, and this reflected an association that had started with the Romantic era.

Sand was a leading light in French Romanticism, but she was far from having been the only French author to have been influenced by Romanticism and to have written about Majorca. In 1777, there was an encyclopaedic work by one Vaquette d Hermilly. Histoire du royaume de Majorque (History of the Kingdom of Majorca) was a milestone, but it wasnt as important as what was to come at the start of the nineteenth century.

Andre Grasset de Saint-Sauveur was the French Consul in Palma. He compiled Voyage dans les Iles Baleares et Pithiuses, which was replete with illustrations, and there then followed various publications that were more indicative of Romanticism - the naturalist Jacques Cambessedes with Excursions dans les Iles Baleares; Frederic Lacroix and Iles Baleares et Pithyuses; the painter and musician Jean-Joseph Bonaventure Laurens and Souvenirs dun voyage dArt a lIle de Majorque. Laurens arrived in Majorca in the September of 1839, just a few months after Sand and Chopin had left.

In Majorca, the education of the nineteenth-century elite was not considered to be complete without knowledge and study of French culture and language. But this French association and its influence on local society has to be considered in the context of events at the end of the eighteenth century and in the early nineteenth century - the French Revolution, the Coalition Wars and the Peninsular War.

The revolution provoked migration to Majorca. There were two kinds. One owed little or nothing to persecution and ideology; it was simply emigration. The other did, and the clergy were the most obvious ones who fled to Majorca. In 1792, there were great celebrations when Catalina Thomas was beatified by Pope Pius VI. French men of the cloth were numbered among those who were celebrating.

Spains initial involvement in the coalition against the French Revolution had been well received in Majorca, but after Spain was subdued and switched sides in 1796, the Spanish government was left with a decision as to what to do about French refugees - clergy and others. The government ordered them to leave the peninsula, but they were to be authorised to come to Majorca, which basically meant Palma.

The reaction was such that an agreement was reached whereby a certain number of French would be admitted; the rest were to go to the Canaries. The town hall in Palma allowed 2,500 - 1,500 who were skilled in agriculture, 500 artisans and 500 priests. There was to be repression of the French in Majorca when the Peninsular War against Bonaparte broke out, but that influx at the end of the nineteenth century was to nevertheless have an impact not felt since the arrival of the thirteenth century Occitans. It introduced names, such as Canut and Borel, and it was to play an eventual role in the modernisation of industries and of educational standards.
Mokan emphasized easing all quarantine-related curbs is the last, fifth stage of a gradual exit.

Envoy of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, Vasyl Mokan says it will be possible to talk about the end of the coronavirus-related quarantine in the country in summer or early in autumn.

Mokan emphasized the official completion of quarantine-related restrictive measures is the last, fifth stage of a gradual exit.

Read alsoNumber of confirmed coronavirus cases in Ukraine nearing 12,700 on Tuesday morning

"Therefore, it will be possible to talk about the end of the quarantine and a return to the normal functioning of the state at the end of June-July or maybe in August or September  everything will depend on the epidemiological situation and statistics on the coronavirus incidence/mortality rate," he wrote on Facebook on May 4.

Mokan said the complete end of the quarantine means the full resumption of public transport services, the work of shopping malls and mass contacts between people.

"Such things with almost 100% certainty could lead to an epidemic outbreak and the need to introduce strict quarantine measures again," he added.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers on Monday extended the coronavirus-related quarantine in the country until May 22.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have received a range of items to test in microgravity, but the most bizarre may be a package of green slime.

Nickelodeon, a children's television network, launched its iconic green slime to the craft last year and recently shared footage of the crew releasing it inside.

The astronauts played ping pong with the goo, spun it in the air, ejected it from a syringe and even slimed each other.

The experiment, titled 'Non-Newtonian Fluids in Microgravity,' set out to examine the properties of slime in microgravity while promoting science to a younger audience.

The goo was sent in a packaged labeled 'Slime Bag' aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo craft in July 2019.

Scroll down for video

Nickelodeon, a children's television network, launched its iconic green slime to the craft last year and recently shared footage of the crew releasing it inside the craft. The crew played ping pong with the goo, spun it in the air, ejected it from a syringe and even slimed each other

The iconic green slime made a name for itself in the early 1990s on the Nickelodeon show 'You can't do this at home'  but astronauts clearly show you can do it in space.

European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca and Parmitano and NASA's Christina Koch released the slime about the ship to see how the concoction would change in microgravity.

'Today, we're going to be working some really crazy science with slime in space,' said Parmitano during the clip that was shot in 2019.

'We want to see and study how this strange concoction behaves in orbit.'

if they ever need volunteers to bring more slime into space, we're available  #KCA2020 #NationalAstronomyDay pic.twitter.com/SQc4J1M1XF  Nickelodeon (@Nickelodeon) May 3, 2020

European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca Parmitano (left) and NASA's Christina Koch (right) released the slime about the ship to see how the concoction would change in microgravity

The experiment, titled 'Non-Newtonian Fluids in Microgravity,' set out to examine the properties of slime in microgravity while performing fun stunts with the goo

The experiment, titled 'Non-Newtonian Fluids in Microgravity,' set out to examine the properties of slime in microgravity while performing fun stunts.

A non-Newtonian fluid is 'a material in which its viscosity (resistance to flow) changes based on the amount of shear stress applied to itfor example, through squeezing or stirring,' the ISS US National Laboratory explained in a statement.

One of the experiments included the astronauts playing a game of ping pong with the slime, which stuck to the paddles when tossed back and forth.

The team also blew slime bubbles, sprayed slime on each other and shot it from a large syringe.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have received a range of items to test in microgravity, but the most bizarre may be a package of green slime

One of the experiments included the astronauts playing a game of ping pong with the slime, which stuck to the paddles when tossed back and forth

The team also blew slime bubbles, sprayed slime on each other and shot it from a large syringe

'Boom!' Koch proclaimed, as she squeezed the slime out of its bag through a straw to float free. 'Houston, we have a slime blob.' 'Ahh! I'm slimed!' she yelled

'Boom!' Koch proclaimed, as she squeezed the slime out of its bag through a straw to float free. 'Houston, we have a slime blob.'

'Ahh! I'm slimed!' she yelled while laughing, as Parmitano sprayed the gooey green substance on her arm and across her shirt.

Playing with slime in space is way more fun than I thought it would be  and way more unpredictable,' said Koch.

'Just like all of the other science we do, you cannot replicate these experiments on the Earth, you need zero gravity to see some of this behavior.'

The filming was completed in 2019 and both Koch and Parmitano have since returned to Earth.

Both landed on the ground February 5 in Kazakhstan at 4:12 am ET.

Koch came home with a record of completing the first all-female spacewalk, which she performed with her colleague and longtime friend Jessica Meir in January.
ST. JOHNS, N.L.Newfoundland and Labrador legislators approved a number of pandemic-related measures Tuesday, including one to facilitate the removal of non-residents from the province and another to allow authorities to enter premises without a warrant.

In a session that required an exception to a public health order banning gatherings of more than five people, legislators passed a bill giving peace officers the power to transport people who fail to respect health directives to departure points from the province.

The amendment to the Public Health Protection and Promotion Act comes the day after a travel ban came into effect barring anyone but permanent residents and asymptomatic workers in key sectors from entering the province.

Liberal Premier Dwight Ball said the amendment was developed after police raised concerns about their ability to enforce the travel ban. It was missing the level of enforcement that the peace officers thought would be appropriate, Ball said.

He added that returning people to exit points will be a last resort, and the focus at points of entry will be on educating those who are allowed into the province and confirming their plans to isolate for 14 days.

Under the amendment, peace officers would by authorized by the justice minister to enforce orders during a public health emergency. Officers would be able to locate and detain people who are contravening a measure and take them to a point of entry.

It also would allow inspectors investigating compliance with public health regulations to enter any premises without a warrant and to stop vehicles.

Progressive Conservative Leader Ches Crosbie said his party has been fighting for tighter border controls for weeks, saying entry into the province has been leaky as a sieve.

He said the travel ban order did not take into consideration people with valid reasons to enter the province, such as those moving for jobs or retiring to the province. He said his party agreed to support the legislation after being assured that the chief medical officer would expand the categories of people allowed to enter.

Crosbie also questioned the premiers assertion that provincial officers can put people back on planes and ferries that fall under federal jurisdiction.

Im not sure theyve figured out yet what theyre going to do with people who may have arrived here and dont have a right to be here, he said. But theyre the government, and theyre going to have to figure that out.

Another bill was passed allowing restaurants and other licensed businesses to sell alcohol for takeout, curbside pickup and delivery. Brewers, wineries and distilleries are also allowed to deliver to customers homes.

Finance Minister Tom Osborne said the bill is one way the provincial government is looking to help small businesses stay afloat through the new normal phase of living with the pandemic, which has forced restaurants and other establishments to close their doors.

At least its some additional revenue for these businesses that are crying out for help, Osborne said.

Representatives also voted to form a committee that will look at options for virtual sittings of the legislature in the future.

Ball said Monday he anticipates more sessions will occur during the COVID-19 crisis. He said theres no firm date for a provincial budget yet, given the uncertainty in the economy.

At a session in March, legislators voted to raise the provinces borrowing capacity and extend an interim supply bill for three more months to fund government services until September.
Dave Rubin on Confronting Intolerance

The progressive left of today has deviated far from the live-and-let-live ethos of classical liberalism, Dave Rubin, the host of The Rubin Report, says in his new book, Dont Burn This Book: Thinking for Yourself in an Age of Unreason.

Instead of being the champion of free speechI may disagree with what you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say itthe left of today now bans controversial speakers from university campuses and shuts down dissenting speech, Rubin argues.

It has replaced the battle of ideas with a battle of feelings, while trading honesty with outrage, Rubin said.

His book is a call to action for the people across America who bite their tongues and keep their opinions secret every single day because theyre living in fear of the woke machine.

In an interview with The Epoch Times for the American Thought Leaders program, Rubin says calm, rational debate has been replaced by knee-jerk responses and ad hominem attacksin large part because too many of us have acquiesced to it.

From Woke to Awake

Rubin once considered himself a member of the progressive left. But about four or five years ago, he noticed liberals seemed to have lost the open-mindedness that once formed the crux of their political identity.

When he started defending free speech and speaking openly about his own political beliefs, he received a barrage of attacks from not just random Twitter accounts but also people who knew him well, including people whod been invited to his wedding.

One day while he was getting a haircut, his stylist brought a mirror around to show him the back of his head. He was missing huge chunks of hair. He later discovered hed developed an autoimmune disorder called alopecia areata, which caused his white blood cells to attack the cells in his hair follicles.

They dont know why it happens other than stress, Rubin said.

Rubins doctor told him he might even lose his eyebrows and eyelashes. Rubin then decided to try an experimental treatment, which turned out to be even worse than the hair loss. He became hypersensitive to even mildly warm weather and developed sores and rashes all over his body.

Despite all this, he continued filming new episodes of his show, and it was also around this time that he shot his popular Why I Left the Left video for Prager University.

If you fight and you stand up for yourself, you will get to the other side and you will be better, Rubin said. Fortunately, his hair has also grown back along the way.

Dave Rubin in his studio in Los Angeles on April 28, 2020. (The Epoch Times)

Many people consciously or unconsciously self-censor their opinions out of fear that you will be destroyed by the mob, that the Twitter people will come after you, that you could lose your job, that you could lose friendships, that relatives will block you, Rubin said.

A lot of people think, Oh, I can just kind of be quiet for a while, and this thing will magically get better. Society will magically reset. But it wont, he said.

Its like the story of the frog and the slowly boiling pot. He kind of thinks its OK until he croaks.

It wont get better just because you think it will. Youve got to make it better by standing up for what you believe in.

Finding a Mentor

In his book, Rubin offers several recommendations for navigating this age of unreason, and one of them is to find a good mentor.

In 2018, Rubin went on a global tour with the prominent clinical psychologist and author Dr. Jordan Peterson.

Along the way, he saw how Petersons 12 Rules for Life inspired thousands upon thousands of people. They were standing up straight with their shoulders back; they were cleaning their room first instead of trying to change the world; and they were fixing lifelong habits, addictions, and poor choices.

One night, he had dinner with Peterson and a few others at the London apartment of his friend Douglas Murray, a best-selling author and journalist.

Murray happened to have a pet cat.

Im very allergic to cats, so I was avoiding the cat all night, but I kept thinking, If Jordan doesnt pet this cat, then hes breaking one of his own rules, namely to pet a cat when you encounter one on the street.

Im thinking about it all night long, Rubin said, and finally, as they were putting on their coats, Jordan sat down by the cats bed by the front door, and repeatedly petted the cat with long, very comforting strokes.

Rubin tells the story partly as a joke, but partly to underscore how Peterson lived up to the rules he set forth.

It doesnt make him Jesus. It doesnt make him perfect. But we need more people in the world that try to do that, Rubin said.

His message was: Do right by yourself and you could do right by the world. I saw him do that.

Touring with Peterson had an indelible effect on Rubins worldview, as he learned the importance of humility, building his character, and accepting time-tested truths.

I never saw him break one of those 12 rules, Rubin said.

Equal Rights, Not Equal Outcomes

You may be lucky. You may be unlucky. Maybe you come from some money. Maybe you grew up poor, but society cant rejigger all of those things to make us all equal. And actually, it shouldnt do that. Because every time it would lift somebody up, it would have to take somebody down, Rubin said.

If one student is admitted to a university because of the color of their skin, another student will be rejectedalso because of the color of their skin, he said.

Ironically, its the people purporting to be anti-racists, who constantly subject others to a racial lens of looking at the world, Rubin said.

I dont think we can create a perfect system because we are imperfect. So I would rather give everybody equal rights, he said.

In the midst of this pandemic, as people reflect on the things that truly matter to them, Americans should be wary of those who are just obsessed with burning everything down, Rubin said.

As the world recovers from this crisis, lets remember what was good about the old world. And by the old world, I mean the 2019 world, the beginning-of-2020 world. Lets remember what was good about it, but then take some of the new things were thinking about and build a better world for the future, Rubin said.

American Thought Leaders is an Epoch Times show available on Facebook, YouTube, and The Epoch Times website.
(Bloomberg) -- Telefonica SA and John Malones Liberty Global Plc have never been closer to finally creating the U.K.s biggest telecom operator after flirting with various combinations over the years.

Racing for a potential announcement as early as this week, talks hinge in part on striking equal control for the merger of O2 and Virgin Media, while structuring a deal thatll help the Spanish giant pay down its huge debt pile, according to people familiar with the matter, asking not to be identified because the talks are private.

In a statement Monday, Telefonica confirmed that talks are ongoing on a potential integration of their respective telecommunications businesses in the United Kingdom and there is no guarantee that an agreement can be reached.

Liberty Globals New York A-class shares surged 15% on Friday after Bloomberg revealed the talks, the biggest jump since 2009, and were up 6% in premarket trading Monday to $23.62. Telefonica shares rose 4.2% at 2:41 p.m. Madrid time Monday, while rival BT Group Plc rose 1.1%, rebounding from a drop earlier in the day.

Clinching a deal this month amid a collapse in global deal-making would be no small feat. A combination of O2 and Virgin Media could create a business with an estimated enterprise value of about $30 billion, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which could make it the largest deal struck since the coronavirus was declared a global pandemic.

Telefonica may seek a payment from Liberty Global of between 6.2 billion euros ($6.8 billion) and 8.5 billion euros, an amount which may keep its leverage ratio from climbing from pre-deal levels, Deutsche Bank analysts Keval Khiroya and Robert Grindle said in a note to clients. They see 6 billion pounds ($7.5 billion) of synergies, and value O2 at 11 billion pounds and Virgin Media at 16 billion pounds.

Telefonica, currently trading at close to a 25-year-low, is demanding the two companies have equal voting rights in the new venture, one of the people said. Executives and advisers must reconcile that with Telefonicas need to pay down 38 billion euros of debt, which means its unlikely to put cash into the deal, said analysts at New Street Research.

Story continues

Liberty is likely to make a significant cash payment to Telefonica as part of the transaction, two of the people said.

Although the talks are advanced, executives on both sides are being cautious following recent strategic upsets, the people said. Telefonicas plan to sell its U.K. business to CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd. was blocked by regulators in May 2016. It then started working on plans for an initial public offering of O2, but they were shelved by Brexit and the subsequent market turmoil. The company never said officially that it was scrapping the IPO plans.

Liberty Global declined to comment.

New Rivals

Liberty Global Chief Executive Officer Mike Fries said in September that buying a U.K. mobile operator would bring hundreds of millions of dollars in synergies. Extra cash would flow from combining infrastructure and back-office savings, and eliminating the need to pay for access to networks they dont own.

Previous joint ventures have cut costs such as Liberty Globals 2016 deal with Vodafone Group Plc in the Netherlands. As of February that partnership was yielding 85% of a planned 210 million euros in synergies, a year ahead of schedule.

The combined entities would take 34% of Britains telecom service revenues between them, eclipsing the current No. 1 operator BT Group Plc, according to research from Goldman Sachs published Friday. If successful, the new venture would be BTs only rival that owns both fixed-line and mobile services.

BTs leading position in the U.K. communications market would be threatened by a merger of rivals O2 and Virgin Media, we believe. A second, scaled fixed-mobile carrier would pressure BTs consumer-broadband and enterprise-mobile market share, and boost investment in alternative full-fiber infrastructure to rival Openreachs own expansion plans.

-- Matthew Bloxham, BI telecom analyst

Vodafone and Liberty Globals close relationship -- solidified by their Dutch joint venture -- has previously fueled speculation that the two groups could do a U.K. deal. Vodafone recently won BTs contract to wholesale mobile services to Libertys U.K. customers, a deal which would have to be re-examined if Virgin merged with O2.

Vodafone would be the big potential loser from a Virgin-O2 match-up, said New Street analyst James Ratzer in a note Friday, adding they would miss out on the synergies and also lose wholesale payments from Virgin.

Musical Chairs

Matchmaking the U.K.s fixed and mobile operators has been a favorite game of bankers and executives for years as Britain lagged neighbors in a global telecommunication trend of convergence, which has seen companies meld cable and radio networks together. A wave of investors are being drawn to the infrastructure-like returns of fiber optics. Startups are also building U.K. fiber and consolidating.

Executives at the leading U.K. telecom companies have regularly spoken about potential combinations, with advisers pitching Virgin Media as a partner to both Vodafone and Comcast Corp.s Sky unit, in addition to Telefonica, people familiar with the talks said.

Libertys investors have been waiting to learn what the company plans to do with what remains of $11 billion in proceeds from selling its Germany and eastern European operations. In November, Libertys Chief Financial Officer Charlie Bracken said the company is looking at the merits of listing local units to unlock more value, as the companys stock price has wilted.

While Telefonica has never publicly said it wanted to move into the U.K.s fixed market, it has always advocated for consolidation in its markets, and internally the company has been open to considering options for the U.K. O2 was born as a joint venture controlled by BT called Cellnet, before it was bought by Telefonica in 2006 for 18 billion pounds. BT looked at buying O2 in 2014 but opted instead to buy EE, the joint venture built by Deutsche Telekom AG and Orange SA.

For Telefonica, a U.K. merger would advance a sweeping strategy change announced in November. Its focusing on four core markets of Spain, Brazil, the U.K. and Germany and considering all options for the rest of its Latin American units. It also announced the creation of new tech and infrastructure units. Its looking for ways to accelerate growth in those core markets and the latter new divisions through partnerships and deals.

(Updates share prices in fourth paragraph, adds analyst comment in sixth paragraph, detail on O2 history in ninth paragraph.)

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Mandatory pre-flight customer temperature checks, the first in the Americas

More personal space in Economy Class at least until June 30, 2020

Personal care kits containing disinfectant and safety items

Electrostatic cabin spraying to reinforce aircraft grooming protocols

Revised food product minimizing crew and passenger contact

Customer face-coverings and employee Personal Protective Equipment now mandatory

MONTREAL

June 30, 2020

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May 15

Customers travelling on Air Canada flights will be subject to an infra-red temperature check at all airports, the first airline in the Americas to announce such measures system-wide. The non-invasive procedure will complement the existing government-mandated health questionnaire currently completed by all travellers to determine their fitness to fly. Customers who are deemed unfit to travel will be rebooked at no cost but be required to obtain medical clearance prior to travel.

To promote more personal space in Economy Class aboard its aircraft, Air Canada will automatically block the sale of adjacent seats and cap the total number of seats sold for each flight. As a result, no customer in Economy Class will be required to sit immediately adjacent to another, unless they are required to do so to assist another customer with whom they are travelling. This policy will remain in effect until at least June 30, 2020 .

. Air Canada will begin distributing care kits containing hand sanitizers and other health items to all customers.

will begin distributing care kits containing hand sanitizers and other health items to all customers. Air Canada has already been recognized by the 2019 Skytrax World Airline Awards for Best Airline Cabin Cleanliness in North America . With the onset of COVID-19 the airline has strengthened its cabin grooming standards and will begin using state-of-the-art electrostatic sprayers to ensure a deeper clean with hospital grade disinfectant.

Requiring customers to wear face coverings during their travel, including at check-in, during boarding and as directed while onboard its aircraft.

Protocols for the use of Personal Protective Equipment by employees, including face shields and coverings, gloves and gowns by in-flight crew, along with other safety measures to encourage physical distancing, such as a revised boarding procedure and a new onboard service program.

To reduce personal interactions and promote physical distancing, Air Canada has adapted its check-in procedures. This includes making available on its self-serve web and mobile check-in and airport kiosk platforms government entry requirements, the mandatory health questionnaire and other relevant information. Air Canada is also working with airports on additional protective and sanitary measures.

is also working with airports on additional protective and sanitary measures. Temporary adjustments to on-board service such as individual water bottles instead of bar service offerings and the removal of pillows and blankets. Air Canada enRoute and other non-safety literature have been removed from all seatback pockets. Air Canada partnered with a third-party company that monitors infectious diseases all over the world using Artificial Intelligence and other predictive tools and provides the company with information in real-time to ensure it is equipped to make appropriate and timely decisions.

and other non-safety literature have been removed from all seatback pockets. Air Canada partnered with a third-party company that monitors infectious diseases all over the world using Artificial Intelligence and other predictive tools and provides the company with information in real-time to ensure it is equipped to make appropriate and timely decisions. For customers who have already purchased tickets and are looking to change their travel, Air Canada has revised its booking policies so there is no change or cancellation fee for existing or new bookings. Additionally, for customers whose flights have been cancelled due to the impacts of COVID-19, they can retain the unused amount of their ticket for up to 24 months.

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Canada's

Canada's

Canada

Star Alliance

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North America

North America

, May 4, 2020 /CNW/ - Air Canada today announced the launch of Air Canada CleanCare+, a comprehensive program for personal safety and enhanced aircraft grooming to provide customers greater peace of mind during all stages of travel. The new program is designed to reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 through such measures as mandatory pre-flight customer temperature checks in addition to required health questionnaires, seat assignment policies to allow for more personal space in Economy Class on all flights until, and by providing all customers with care kits for hand cleaning and hygiene.To supplement these individual measures, Air Canada CleanCare+ will also strengthen the airlines industry-leading cabin grooming standards with the introduction of electrostatic spraying of cabin interiors. Airwill additionally expand its existing aircraft grooming procedures, which already incorporate the use of hospital grade disinfectant and specialized techniques to maintain cabin cleanliness across its fleet.While we are eager to see the reopening of economies and the restart of commercial aviation, the safety of our customers and employees is Air Canada's core value and we aim to establish the highest standards of hygiene, cleanliness and attention to public health guidelines. We have been a leader in progressively introducing new measures in response to COVID-19, such as introducing Personal Protective Equipment for our employees and being the first North American carrier to require face coverings for customers. We are now the first airline in the Americas to administer pre-flight temperature checks system-wide. With Air Canada CleanCare+, we are introducing a comprehensive new program to give each customer added assurance for their well-being throughout all stages of their journey - and we intend to continue enhancing Air Canada CleanCare+ where we can with best practices from around the world, including increased use of screening tools, such as blood oxygen level testing, as they become available," said Calin Rovinescu, President and Chief Executive Officer of Air Canada.Air Canada CleanCare+ will not only provide protections at the personal level, by better monitoring our customers' fitness to fly and providing for more personal space in Economy Class, but it also sets new standards for cabin cleanliness and ensures our employees have the best tools to maintain it. Coupled with other new safety practices we implemented earlier in response to COVID-19, Air Canada CleanCare+ will provide travellers with the confidence that they can book and fly safely with Air Canada as they consider their travel plans in the current environment."In order to ensure the safety and well-being of all customers, through the Air Canada CleanCare+ program Air Canada will introduce the following measures byFor more information about Air Canada CleanCare+ please see https://www.aircanada.com/cleancareplusPrior to Air Canada CleanCare+, Air Canada had already taken a number of measures in response to COVID-19. These will remain in effect and be included in the Air Canada CleanCare+ Program:For more information on Air Canadas pandemic response including information about its policies and schedule, please see https://www.aircanada.com/covid19updatesAirislargest domestic and international airline.flag carrier is among the 20 largest airlines in the world and in 2019 served over 51 million customers. Airis a founding member of, the world's most comprehensive air transportation network. Airis the only international network carrier into receive a Four-Star ranking according to independent U.K. research firm Skytrax, which also named Air Canada the 2019 Best Airline in. For more information, please visit: aircanada.com/media, follow @AirCanada on Twitter and join Air Canada on Facebook.Photos Videos Articlesaircanada.com/mediaSOURCE Air Canada
Major Anuj Sood, who was killed in an anti-terror operation in Kashmir, was cremated here on Tuesday, his family offering a touching farewell to the officer who they said dreamt to be in the Army while growing up.

His wife Akriti Sood threw her arms around the coffin as it was being put on an Army vehicle bedecked with flowers, for the short journey from the family's Panchkula home to the Mani Majra cremation ground in adjacent Chandigarh.

His sister Harshita, who is also an Army officer, consoled her sister-in-law.

The 30-year-old officer was among the five security personnel killed in a firefight with terrorists in north Kashmir's Handwara on Saturday night.

Slogans like Vande Mataram, Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Major Anuj Amar Rahe, were raised as his body, wrapped in the tricolour, was taken to the cremation ground.

Before the cremation with full military honours, serving and retired Army officers laid wreaths.

As he placed a wreath Anti Terrorist Front of India president Viresh Shandilya raised Pakistan Murdabad and Bharat Mata Ki Jai slogans.

Apart from Army personnel, only the family members were allowed inside the cremation ground to ensure social distancing norms in force because of the coronavirus pandemic.

A guard of honour was given to Major Sood by the Army and soldiers fired three volleys in a gun salute.

Major Sood's father Brigadier Chandrakant Sood (retd) lit the pyre. He had told the media the day before that he was proud of his son's sacrifice.

He was a true son of the nation," he said at his Panchkula home.

Major Anuj Sood was from the Brigade of the Guards regiment, now part of the 21 Rashtriya Rifles.

He joined the National Defence Academy in 2008. He had one dream, which was to join the Army, according to his family.

His family said the officer was scheduled to return home after a gap of six months. Having finished his two-year stint in Jammu and Kashmir, he was to join the 12 Guards unit in Gurdaspur.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
SANTA FE  The state Supreme Court on Monday rejected a petition to release large numbers of inmates from state prisons amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The state Law Offices of the Public Defender, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico and the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association filed a petition last month asking the Supreme Court to order Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams administration to release inmates who meet certain criteria to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the states prisons.

The petition asserted that not releasing more prisoners would be a violation of their constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.

The high court heard arguments Monday and came to a decision after about 40 minutes of deliberation. Chief Justice Judith Nakamura said the Governors Office is not purposely putting inmates safety at risk, which is a requirement to show cruel and unusual punishment.

The respondents are not being deliberately indifferent to the health and safety of the inmates, and for that reason, the court is denying the relief that is sought, Nakamura said.

The ACLU issued a statement expressing disappointment in the ruling.

This is a devastating decision for incarcerated people, their families and our communities at large, said Lalita Moskowitz, an ACLU of New Mexico staff attorney. Through this petition, we sought to prevent the suffering and death that we are already witnessing  and that public health experts warned would happen  at our nations detention facilities across the country.

The petitioners had asked for the release of inmates serving sentences for probation and parole revocation or for nonviolent crimes, as well as inmates who are pregnant, over 60 or at risk of serious illness due to COVID-19. Plaintiffs didnt provide an estimate of how many inmates fit those criteria. They had also asked the state to stop making arrests for technical parole violations. The petition requested that a special master be appointed to oversee the mass release.

Kimberly Chavez Cook, arguing on behalf of the public defenders office Monday, said that since the Corrections Department wasnt implementing mass COVID-19 testing for inmates  only eight have been tested  theres no way of telling who is sick. Even if the prisons tested every inmate, Chavez Cook said, staff members going in and out of the facilities create a risk for them.

The crux of the release request is based on the fact that we dont have those numbers (of infected); we need to make sure the risk is being alleviated, Chavez Cook said.

Olga Serafimova, a lawyer representing the Corrections Department, said during the hearing that four staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 but that no inmates have. She also acknowledged that prisons arent doing widespread testing, but she said the department has taken measures, such as changing dining hall hours, to protect prisoners.

Under an emergency health order, the state has already started releasing inmates who are within 30 days of release as long as they are not serving time for felony drunk driving, domestic abuse or assault on a peace officer and are not sex offenders. Matthew Garcia, chief general counsel to Lujan Grisham, said during Mondays hearing that 33 inmates have been released.

Garcia said the petitioners were asking the court to force the governor to use her discretionary clemency powers to release people from prison just because they dont like the measures the state has taken to protect prisoners.

The petitioners are asking for something pretty remarkable here, Garcia said. Theyre asking this court to command the governor to facilitate and expedite the mass release of inmates, or in the alternative, to command her to a mediation to determine how to best accomplish petitioners objectives.

Alamogordo District Attorney John Sugg also spoke at the hearing on behalf of the New Mexico District Attorneys Association. He said victims and their families arent being considered in the petition.
There is a myth in financial markets that ethical investing comes with a feel-good premium. When you opt to go green, you miss out on some fat dividends and steady returns from tried-and-tested stocks that fall outside the investment philosophy, such as fossil fuel mining and exploration.

However, with the coronavirus pandemic smashing markets and starving global demand for oil, sustainable funds have risen to the top of the pack compared with their more mainstream rivals.

Sustainable fund options are thriving during the pandemic volatility. Credit:Gabriele Charotte

Data prepared for Money by fund researcher Rainmaker show Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) funds have returned on average 1 per cent more than general balanced or growth fund options in the quarter ended March 30.

Over the 12-month period, four of the top-five balanced personal options were ESG funds, as were four of the top-five retirement balanced options.
Representative Image

With countries looking to reduce dependence on China after the coronavirus pandemic, India is looking to seize the chance to lure foreign investors searching for new shores.

India is preparing 461,589 hectares of land across the country, for businesses looking to migrate out of China, sources told Bloomberg. Twice as large as Luxembourg (243,000 hectares), the land pool includes areas in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, it said.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

The central government is working along with the states to smooth the processes and availability of land as the scope now is huge, it noted. Presently, investors have to acquire land on their own, where disputes with small land owners holding on to plots delay projects.

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

Thus, providing accessible land would solve a major hurdle and attract investors who openly expressed their intent to move away from China. Many companies suffered global supply chain disruptions as the concentration of business in China proved to be harmful when regions locked down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Follow our LIVE Updates on the coronavirus pandemic here

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry did not respond to queries, as per the report.

States are also taking up the endeavour independently. Andhra Pradesh has already held talks with South Korean, American (US) and Japanese companies.
Shopping in retail stores with limited numbers of customers, al fresco-only dining at restaurants, and some people returning to their offices for work are a few of the measures Gov. Gina Raimondo hopes to allow starting this weekend, she said at a news conference Monday.

Raimondo said she hopes to lift to the states stay-at-home order Friday and launch a three-phase restart of the economy the next day. Details of the reopening plan are posted on the website reopeningri.com.

I'm focused on getting people back to work," the Democrat said.

Retailers that have been closed during the coronavirus pandemic because they were deemed nonessential will be allowed to have one customer inside for every 300 square feet of floor space, which is the standard currently used in supermarkets.

Restaurants that reopen will have to arrange seating that allows for social distancing, reusable items like menus wont be allowed, and staff will have to wear masks, she said.

People who can work from home should continue to do so, but people who need to go into an office will be asked to maintain social distancing, and common areas such as breakrooms will remain closed, she said.

The bad news is that even with Mothers Day approaching, visitation to nursing homes still wont be allowed, given the vulnerability to the disease of many elderly people, she said.

The state Department of Health on Monday reported 175 new cases of the coronavirus, the lowest daily count since April 6. The state now has more than 9,600 known cases.

The agency also announced 21 more deaths, bringing the state total to 341. Seventeen of those people were in their 80s and 90s, Director Nicole Alexander-Scott said.

Almost 340 people remain hospitalized with the disease, with 84 in intensive care, and 61 on ventilators.

Rhode Island lawmakers face some tough decisions as the state emerges from the coronavirus crisis and tries to plug a budget gap of at least $400 million, but higher taxes appear to be off the table, several legislators told The Providence Journal.

Those most impacted by the pandemic should not bear the costs of rebuilding Rhode Island, so I am vehemently opposed to tolling cars and raising taxes on our working families and small businesses, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Michael McCaffrey said.

Republican Sen. Elaine Morgan said she is opposed to any sales or income tax hikes or toll expansion and against legalizing marijuana, but suggested furloughs or layoffs of nonessential state workers.

Democratic House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello said his team is looking for creative ways to use the $1.7 billion the state has received from Washington for coronavirus-related expenses.
He remembers state troopers pulling into the median to take photos on his phone as his convoy of ambulances crossed into New Jersey. He remembers the cars that would drive alongside the ambulances to honk and wave at the first responders as they entered the city.

I get choked up just thinking about it, he said. People would walk up to the truck and just thank them for coming. To have people come up to you as youre sitting on the corner and just saying thank you, its just so hard to put into words.

During his stay in the city, Roberts' primary job was responding to 911 calls and conducting facility transports for patients needing to be moved from hospital to hospital.

Initially, Roberts was focused on ensuring he was taking the right steps to protect himself from contracting the virus. After the first two or three days of work, those actions became a rhythm.

There were times when you were thinking, I need to make sure I do this right so I dont bring it home, he said. It came down to knowing that you were going to take those precautions and we would heavily decontaminate after every transport. After the first couple of days, it became a rhythm and we stayed vigilant and didnt become complacent.
05.05.2020 LISTEN

The Ranking Member on Parliaments Finance Committee, Cassiel Ato Forson has described as inhumane Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumias comparison of Ghanas power situation to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr. Forson said it is wrong to compare the two incidents especially when one is leading to the loss of lives while the other resulted in the loss of products.

The Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam legislator in a statement to challenge Dr. Bawumias assertion that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government has outperformed the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the management of a crisis situation said Dr. Bawumia is relying on cosmetic macro-economic data to make his point.

Dr. Bawumia at a media engagement on Monday said the government has ensured a resilient and buoyant economy despite the harsh conditions presented by the coronavirus pandemic.

He also said the NDC government during the power crisis could not effectively manage the economy.

Dr. Bawumia also jabbed the NDCs flagbearer, John Mahama over claims that the COVID-19 outbreak had left the economy struggling, indicating that Mr. Mahama was embarrassing himself by not using the right data.

But Cassiel Ato Forson said the true state of the Ghanaian economy as being supervised by the Akufo-Addo government risks-high debt distress.

Comparing a pandemic to an energy crisis that occurred because the NPP Government failed to invest in power generation over an 8 year period only reflects the confusion that has characterized the Vice President's recent pronouncements.

In any case, it is inhumane to compare a pandemic killing human beings to an electricity generation problem that was resolved by the same government. It is time to caution Dr. Bawumia not to be proud of cosmetic macro-economic data that fails to translate into economic well-being, Ato Forson added. Read the full statement below:

Mr. Vice President:

We suffered dumsor in Ghana between 2005 to 2008 when you were a Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana and a member of the Economic management team. Can you remind Ghanaians about any stimulus package you provided to mitigate the plight of Ghanaians?

Comparing a pandemic to an energy crisis that occurred because the NPP Government failed to invest in power generation over an 8 year period only reflects the confusion that has characterized the Vice President's recent pronouncements.

In any case, it is inhumane to compare a pandemic killing human beings to an electricity generation problem that was resolved by the same government.

It is time to caution Dr. Bawumia not to be proud of cosmetic macro-economic data that fails to translate into economic well-being.

Today, Ghana's public debt has increased from GHS 120.3 billion as at 31st December 2016 to GHS 235 Billion as at 31st March 2020.

Your government is struggling to service interest on public debt; as a result lenders have started charging penalties on delayed interest payments.

Sadly, our debt levels are so high that we risk becoming a high debt distress country yet you have failed to show humility and competence in fixing your mess.

Now, on the rant about data, Available data points to your monumental failure to keep your word to the Ghanaian people.

Here are a few reasons why:

1) When is Dr. Bawumia going to make available the $18 billion Chinese loan he promised us?

2) When is he going to draw down on the $2 billion sinohydro loan?

3) What happened to No village in Ghana will have a challenge with toilet and water provision within 2 years of an NPP Government?

4) How about your promise that Every Ghanaian will have a bank account by end of 2018.

5). Cedi arrested and the keys given to the IGP? yet you have failed to check the free fall of the cedi.

6) The promise of providing the necessary incentives for private sector participation in health service delivery remains a mirage. What happened to it?

8) Implementing policies that will reduce the cost of doing business has been a hoax.

9) The pledge to provide a reliable and cost-effective mix of energy supply for businesses has probably been long forgotten.

10) Pursuing aggressive industrialization and value addition to agricultural produce has not seen the light of day.

11) The much-touted allocation of US$1 million annually per constituency has become a bitter fallacy.

12) The promise to develop interconnected roads, railways, ports and harbor (RRHPs) system remains a pipe dream.

13) The Water For All Programme has become another deception.

14) Dr. Bawumia's promise to construct 570 dams in 2017 adds to his tall list of empty rhetoric.

15) Reducing the corporate tax rate from 25% to 20% has still not materialized.

16) The pledge to provide incentives for the hospitality and creative arts industry that will enable them create jobs has been another fiasco.

17) The promise to build hospitals in districts that lack them was totally forgotten until COVID-19 exposed the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration.

The litany of broken promises and outright deception is endless. I can go on and on.

Sir, pay attention to the data contained in the NPP 2016 manifesto and numerous promises you made in the recent past and deliver on them for that is the social contract the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government has with the people.

Cassiel Ato Forson (MP)

Ranking Member

---citinewsroom
The Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR) has urged the public to disregard reports circulating in the media suggesting that it is disbursing some amount of money as relief package to Ghanaians.



The said amount was being reported as a cushioning package in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.



This follows reports on social media and other media outlets entreating the public to log into a website (https://bit.ly/Ghana-funds) to access an amount of one thousand, two hundred Ghana Cedis (GHc1,200.00) as a relief from Government to sustain the Ghanaian public during the COVID-19 crises.



The purported amount was to be disbursed by the Ministry.



However, a statement issued on Monday by the Public Affairs Unit of the Ministry and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said the purported reports were false, and therefore, should be disregarded by the public.



The Ministry wishes to inform the general public that it is not in charge of any such disbursement. It is being perpetrated by fraudsters and should be disregarded.



The statement also urged the public to take note of the only website operated by the Ministry that is: www.melr.gov.gh to avoid falling victim of such reports.

Source: GNA









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Police have arrested an 18-year-old Kitchener man in connection with what they call "unprovoked, violent altercations" that injured three people last week near Wilfrid Laurier University.

The man has been charged with numerous assault and weapons charges, attempted robbery and breach of probation. He is in custody.

Last Thursday morning between midnight and 1 a.m., three males were approached at King Street North and University Avenue in Waterloo, Waterloo Regional Police said. They were stabbed by a man who approached them, and who they didn't know.

Two of the victims received serious injuries and one sustained minor injuries. One of the victims was taken to hospital for treatment and was later released.
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, says all oil workers seeking to come into the state must get the governments permit and present their coronavirus status before they can be allowed entry.

This was contained in a statement issued on Monday by his media aide, Simeon Nwakaudu, which was posted on Facebook.

According to Nwakaudu, the governor alleged that the latest of the coronavirus cases recorded in the state was flown into Port Harcourt by Bristow Helicopters from an offshore oilfield facility in Akwa Ibom State on the 29th of April 2020.

The statement read in part, Given the threat posed to the state by oil and gas company workers, it has reviewed all entry waivers and permits earlier granted to oil and gas companies.



From now on, requests for waivers and entry permits from oil and gas companies will be considered on a case by case basis;

All inward-bound vehicles and flights into Rivers State from oil and gas companies with workers for crew change or other essential operations must first submit details of their manifests to the States Taskforce on COVID-19 for proper vetting of their virus status before they can be allowed to enter the state.

As a government, we cannot abdicate this compelling responsibility and abandon our people to chances in the midst of this much dreaded and ravaging pandemic.

Follow Us on Facebook  @LadunLiadi; Instagram  @LadunLiadi; Twitter  @LadunLiadi; Youtube  @LadunLiadiTV for updates
No fewer than ten medical doctors have tested positive for COVID-19 while treating patients at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, an official has said.

The chairman of the hospitals branch of the Association of Resident Doctors, Abubakar Nagoma, confirmed this to PREMIUM TIMES on Monday in Kano.

He said the doctors got infected while treating patients who came to the hospital with symptoms that later turned to be COVID-19.

Mr Nagoma said the affected health professionals include resident doctors who are undergoing training and consultant doctors.

We have resident and consultant doctors that were tested positive of COVID-19 in Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, he said.

About ten doctors are confirmed positive with COVID-19. Eight of them are already in isolation centre, while the remaining two are in self isolation at their homes because they do not have any symptom. All their close contact have been traced.

There are more test results that are yet to be out for doctors and other health workers of the hospital that were screened last week. The number of those screened are almost hundred. We are expecting the results likely within the week to know the fate of health workers of the hospital, Mr Nagoma said.

He attributed the vulnerability of the doctors to non-use of face masks by patients when coming to hospitals and lack of adequate personal protective equipment for doctors.

He also mentioned the deliberate hoarding of information by some patients.

On our part, we lack protective equipments. And you will see many doctors at accident and emergency unit of the hospital wearing only face masks. This is the only protection we have in addition to hand gloves and hand sanitiser. This is not the standard protection protocol guidelines according to NCDC. If you have any suspected (COVID-19) patient, you suppose to have boots, suit, face mask, goggle, cap and also a face shield. These are what is obtainable in a developed world and this the recommendation of National Centre for Disease Control. To be sincere we dont have them on ground. We dont have complete protective suit.

Another thing, a lot of patients coming from various places within Kano, dont come with a face mask. And some of them will present their background medical condition, and subsequently the symptoms of COVID-19 start manifesting later on. To some extent sometime, patients conceal information until after series of diagnosis, then you find symptoms of COVID-19. You are already exposed by then. It is unfortunate we are working in a very constrained environment.

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Then the patient turn out is too much. There are a lot of patients coming to the hospital. And they dont use any barrier that will serve as protection between you and them.

We have made so many requisition to the hospital to ensure constant provision of all the necessary protective equipments. In fact we even went to the extent of threatening the hospital that we will stop diagnosing patients if this equipment are not available. But you know as healthcare providers we cannot fold our arms watching our patients dying. We are always at forefront of seeing patients whether with or without the supply of what we requested. We are still pushing for this to be available. Even the hospital management are complaining they are yet to be supplied by the federal government. What is obtainable has already been exhausted.

Apart from the doctors, about six members of Kano State task force on COVID-19 are also infected with the virus and are currently at the state isolation centre. Prominent among them are cochairman and the secretary of the committee.

The infected doctors in Kano are among the over 100 health workers across Nigeria who have tested positive for COVID-19.

Kano State has the second highest number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria.

On Monday night, the NCDC announced 23 new cases in Kano, putting the total confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state at 365 including eight deaths.
Virgin Atlantic will axe 3,150 jobs and cease operations at Gatwick Airport as it battles for survival amid the coronavirus crisis.

The airline - owned by Sir Richard Branson - will axe a third of its workforce and will cease operations at Britain's second largest airport, with some of the routes being switched to Heathrow.

The company said uncertainty over when flying will resume as well as 'unprecedented market conditions' as a result of the coronavirus pandemic had 'severely reduced revenues'.

The latest announcement comes amid a dire time for the aviation industry as passenger numbers have plummeted due to travel restrictions put in place to halt the spread of coronavirus, with Ryanair and British Airways always announcing job cuts.

Chief executive Shai Weiss said: 'We have weathered many storms since our first flight 36 years ago, but none has been as devastating as Covid-19 and the associated loss of life and livelihood for so many.

'However, to safeguard our future and emerge a sustainably profitable business, now is the time for further action to reduce our costs, preserve cash and to protect as many jobs as possible.

The airline - owned by Sir Richard Branson - will axe a third of its workforce and will cease operations at Britain's second largest airport

'It is crucial that we return to profitability in 2021. I wish it was not the case, but we will have to reduce the number of people we employ.'

He added: 'After 9/11 and the Global Financial Crisis, we took similar painful measures but fortunately many members of our team were back flying with us within a couple of years.

'Depending on how long the pandemic lasts and the period of time our planes are grounded for, hopefully the same will happen this time.'

The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) said it was a terrible blow for the industry, and urged the government to stop 'prevaricating' and help the aviation sector.

'Government should call a moratorium on job losses in aviation and lead a planned recovery,' BALPA General Secretary Brian Strutton said.

The under-pressure airline also announced it will not return to using its seven Boeing 747-400 aircraft, which have four engines.

Sir Richard Branson has previously warned that Virgin Atlantic will collapse unless it receives Government support

By 2022 it will operate a ``simplified, greener fleet'' of 36 twin-engine aircraft, which are more fuel efficient.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's official spokesman said: "We continue to work closely with the sector and are willing to consider the situation of individual firms once all other Government schemes and commercial options have been explored, including raising capital from existing investors."

It follows a dire week for the aviation industry as passenger numbers have plummeted due to travel restrictions put in place to halt the spread of coronavirus.

British Airways has started consulting on 12,000 redundancies, and Ryanair has said it is cutting up to 3,000 jobs.

Owner Sir Richard Branson previously warned that Virgin Atlantic will collapse unless it receives UK taxpayer support while Virgin Australia is reportedly just hours from going into administration after failing to get a bailout from the Australian government.

The Virgin Group boss said the airline needs taxpayer support in the form of a commercial loan

The Virgin Group boss, who is estimated to be worth more than 3.5 billion, said Virgin Atlantic needs UK taxpayer support in the form of a commercial loan, with reports indicating that the carrier is asking for up to 500 million of public money.

The billionaire businessman offered his own private Caribbean island of Necker, estimated by Forbes to be worth 80m - less than one fifth of the figure being requested - as collateral for any taxpayer cash used to save the struggling airline.

He has previously vowed to plough 215million of his own money into his business empire - which includes an airline, railway franchise and leisure centres - to keep it afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.

HOW DID RICHARD BRANSON MAKE HIS MONEY? Richard Branson is the founder and chairman of Virgin Group, which started with Virgin Records in 1972 and now employs more than 70,000 people across 35 countries. His empire has included airlines, radio stations, nightclubs, a Formula One team and health clubs - and the tycoon is estimated to be worth more than $4 billion. Branson started out at age 16 in the 1960s with the magazine called Student - which sold nearly $8,000 worth of advertising in its first issue - with the ambitious young businessman dropping out of school to focus on the publication. He then started his record business in 1969, moving on to launch Virgin Mail Order Records, using the profits to found the Virgin Records music label in 1972, according to Investopedia. His success was in part due to his willingness to sign artists who were controversial at the time, including the Sex Pistols, with other popular performers including Ozzy Osbourne and The Rolling Stones. In 1979 Branson bought Necker Island for $180,000, and went on to start one of his most iconic companies, Virgin Atlantic, in 1984, with the airline achieving success due to its creative in-flight comforts. After selling Virgin Records for $1 billion to keep Virgin Atlantic going, Branson went on to be knighted in 2000 and has remained one of Britain's most well-known entrepreneurs. Advertisement

Branson today posted a message on Twitter saying Virgin Atlantic employees had 'virtually unanimously' decided to take a wage reduction to save jobs and 'if the UK government does help Virgin Atlantic to survive, it will not be free money but repaid on commercial terms'.

He said that he lives on Necker, the island he bought aged 28, because he 'loves the British Virgin Islands' and his companies 'all pay tax in the countries they operate in'.

The tycoon added that his team would 'raise as much money against the island as possible to save as many jobs as possible'.

Virgin companies employ more than 70,000 people across 35 countries.

In an open letter to Virgin Group employees, Sir Richard, 69, wrote: 'We will do everything we can to keep the airline going - but we will need Government support to achieve that in the face of the severe uncertainty surrounding travel today and not knowing how long the planes will be grounded for.

'This would be in the form of a commercial loan - it wouldn't be free money and the airline would pay it back (as easyJet will do for the 600 million loan the Government recently gave them).

'The reality of this unprecedented crisis is that many airlines around the world need government support and many have already received it.

'Without it there won't be any competition left and hundreds of thousands more jobs will be lost, along with critical connectivity and huge economic value.'

Experts today said it will be 'years, not months' before the airline industry recovers fully from the impact of coronavirus.

Paul Zalkin - a Partner for business advisory specialists, Quantuma LLP told MailOnline: 'Todays announcement from Virgin Atlantic was widely anticipated given limited cash reserves available to weather the coronavirus storm.

'The overhead which an airline carries is huge so drastic costs cutting measures implemented in the last week or so from British Airways, Ryanair and now Virgin Atlantic are a logical reaction to the current crisis.

'The route to recovery for the airline sector will take the industry on a long and difficult journey - years, not months - and before there is talk of a recovery, one has to accept that the sector has further to fall before credible plans can be developed to bring the worlds networks back online.'

He said it will take many years before airlines see a return to pre-lockdown levels of passenger demand, and said the industry needs to 'adapt or die' as they look to survive.

He suggested that air travel will be more expensive, certain aircraft being phased out, and more non-stop flights.

Mr Zalkin added: 'For the next 3 to 5 years we will see fewer carrier, higher ticket prices, wholesale changes to demand, the rapid phasing out of comparatively inefficient aircraft such as Virgins and BAs fleet of Boeing 747s and increased demand for direct non-stop flights on ultra-fuel efficient aircraft which avoid the need to transit through hubs.'
Powering 350,000 homes: At full capacity, the 167 turbines (generating 3.8MW each) of the Prymorsk wind farm will help Ukraine meet national energy targets of 11% sourced as renewable energy. Specialists from Penetron Ukraine provided constant support at the construction site, facilitating the projects progress. The first phase was completed on time  to the delight of the client.

The first phase of the 500-MW onshore wind farm in the Zaporizhey region of Ukraine began operations in May 2020. Penetron crystalline technology was applied to the wind farms turbine foundations and power distribution stations to ensure durable concrete structures.

The wind farm was constructed on the shores of the Sea of Azov (a northern extension of the Black Sea) in Prymorsk in the Zaporizhey oblast in Ukraine. Phase one of the project encompassed installation of the first 27 wind turbines (3.8MW each) supplied by GE. The rotor (130 m diameter) and nacelle of each turbine are based on a tubular steel tower set at varied hub heights and anchored by a massive concrete foundation.

One of the Largest Wind Farms in Europe

Once the full capacity of the Prymorsk wind farm goes online by the end of 2021, there will be 167 wind turbines in operation. This will generate enough electricity to power more than 350,000 homes  and help Ukraine meet national energy targets of 11% renewable energy generation. The generated power will be sold to Energorynok, the Ukrainian state energy enterprise.

Phase one construction of the Prymorsk wind farm included not only 27 turbine towers, but also a 150kV central power distribution station and two 150/35/10kV substations featuring the latest digital substation (DS) technology.

Topical Application Blocks Moisture

EDS-Engineering, the waterproofing contractor for the Prymorsk project, applied PENETRON to the concrete structures of the towers, distribution station and substations.

PENETRON is an integral crystalline waterproofing material that is applied to the positive or negative side of concrete structures. Once its part of the surface, the crystalline technology successfully blocks any moisture penetration to reduce permeability, increase density and promote active self-healing for waterproofing. This protects concrete structures at the wind farm from exposure to the elements and chloride attack from the adjacent Sea of Azov.

Specialists from Penetron Ukraine provided constant support at the construction site, facilitating the projects progress. The first phase was completed on time  to the delight of the client.

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.
A mother and her newborn developed sepsis within hours of giving birth.

Sarah Smith, 29, was delighted when in January 2017 she discovered she was expecting twins with her fiance Richard Townsend, 32.

Their joy was short-lived, however, when the 12-week scan revealed one of the babies had acrania, a rare condition where the skull does not form properly. The prognosis was so grave they made the heartbreaking decision to terminate the pregnancy.

Read more: Group B Strep: What It Is (and How it Can Affect Your Birth Plan)

Four months later, the beautician became pregnant again. Just four hours after baby Joshua was born, however, he was diagnosed with sepsis caused by group B streptococcus (GBS) bacterial meningitis.

The new mother, who was unknowingly colonised with the bacteria and passed it to her son during labour, was also struck down with sepsis.

Pregnant women are not routinely tested for GBS in the UK, however, it can be detected during checks for other infections.

With both mother and baby making a full recovery, Smith has urged pregnant women to carry out an at-home GBS test for as little as 35 ($42.85). It is unclear how accurate or beneficial these tests are.

Sarah Smith is with her fiance Richard Townsend and their now two-year-old son Joshua. (PA)

Are pregnant women tested for GBS in the UK?

GBS is one of many bacteria that people can carry without any side effects.

Around one in five pregnant women in the UK are thought to have GBS in their vagina or digestive tract.

During labour, there is a small risk babies may come into contact with the bacteria and become colonised.

Around one in 1,750 newborns delivered in the UK and Ireland every year develop early-onset GBS infection, which occurs in the first week after birth.

Most pregnant women with GBS have healthy babies.

Read more: Vaccine could prevent 150,000 still births and baby deaths

Some develop life-threatening complications, however, this is not common.

The majority of infected babies who are successfully treated make a full recovery.

In rare cases, GBS can also cause complications in the mother, like sepsis.

Story continues

If GBS is found in a womans vagina, bowel or urine during pregnancy, she should be offered antibiotics during labour to reduce the risk of passing the infection to the baby.

The UK National Screening Committee does not recommend routine GBS screening of all pregnant women.

This is because many carry the bacteria without experiencing any harm to themselves or their baby.

Screening is also not entirely accurate.

Joshua had to be sedated and put on a ventilator after his meningitis and sepsis triggered seizures. (PA)

In the end, we had to go with our gut

Smith wondered whether she would ever have a family naturally after being diagnosed with endometriosis in 2015.

The painful disorder occurs when tissue that normally lines the uterus grows elsewhere in the body.

Like with a period, the tissue thickens and breaks down with each menstrual cycle.

Fertility problems are a recognised side effect.

After undergoing endometriosis treatment, Smith became pregnant, but was forced to go to hospital when she developed mysterious pains in January 2017.

Doctors initially thought I might be in pain because the pregnancy was ectopic, which is where a fertilised egg implants itself out the womb, she said.

They did a scan and it turned out it wasnt ectopic at all, I was having twins.

Looking back, they think the pain may have just been my body getting used to the flood of hormones.

Smith discovered the acrania complication several weeks later.

The twins were identical and sharing a placenta.

Therefore, despite just one baby having severe acrania, doctors reportedly told Smith it was highly likely she would have eventually miscarried or given birth to two stillborns.

Speaking of the termination, she said: It was a horrible situation to be in, to be faced with having to make that decision.

In the end, we had to go with our gut. All of the options were difficult. I was a mess.

Smith had the termination at 13 weeks.

It really looked as if Joshua was going to die

Smith became pregnant again four months later, but struggled to become excited by the news.

I wanted to be pregnant and I wanted a baby, but the ones Id lost, she said.

Her 12-week scan fell on what would have been the twins due date, 29 September 2017.

I was thinking, Is this fate telling me itll go wrong again?, said Smith. I cried before they even got the scanning equipment out.

This time, though, everything was fine. After that, I was less anxious, but still not convinced it would be okay.

Read more: Woman fears for unborn baby after botched tummy tuck left her battling sepsis

Smith had a seemingly healthy pregnancy, with Joshua arriving on 12 April 2018.

As he was delivered, I began feeling very shaky and sweaty, she said.

I was cold, but my temperature was spiking.

I felt so weird I couldnt even hold Joshua. Looking back, we know that was the first symptoms of postpartum sepsis.

Smith and Joshua were taken to a postnatal ward to recover, where the new mother noticed her son was restless and grunting.

At just 18 hours old, the newborn had a seizure while his father  a builder  was bottle feeding him.

It was terrifying, Smith said.

In the hour that followed, he had five more seizures.

It almost looked as if he was choking.

He was going blue around the mouth and medics were rushing round, attaching him to wires and putting a ventilator tube in his mouth.

It was like something you see on Holby City. Its scary enough on TV, but even worse in real life.

She added: It really looked as if Joshua was going to die.

Joshua made a full recovery and is now a healthy toddler. (PA)

I was sweating, shivering and really weak

The newborn was sedated and put on a ventilator.

Once stable, Joshua was transferred to St Peters Hospital in Chertsey, Surrey, but Smith was not well enough to go with him.

I wanted to be with him and when they told me they were transferring him, I took my cannula out and tried to pack my bag, but my mum and midwife said they thought I was too ill to go, she said.

I slept for a couple of hours and they brought Joshua to see me before they transferred him.

At that point I couldnt stand up. I was sweating, shivering and really weak.

Joshua and Smith were swabbed for a suspected GBS infection, with both coming back positive.

A lumbar puncture, where a needle is inserted into the spine to retrieve cerebral fluid, also confirmed Joshua had meningitis.

Smith was given antibiotics to combat her sepsis and joined her son at St Peters Hospital on 13 April.

She was eventually discharged on 17 April, while Joshua was transferred back to Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey, where he was born.

Slowly, he started to respond to antibiotics and finally went home at 15 days old.

We didnt know what to do when we finally got him home, said Smith.

We just put him into a carry cot and stared at him.

Testing pregnant women can save little lives

Smith is campaigning for greater GBS awareness. She has arranged for informative leaflets to be given out at her local hospital during antenatal appointments.

The mother-of-one is also urging pregnant women to consider taking a private or at-home GBS test.

It is just 35 but it could literally save a life, she said.

Jane Plumb MBE, chief executive and founder of Group B Strep Support, added: This case is a terrible insight into how families lives can be almost destroyed by a GBS infection, especially since most GBS infections in newborn babies can be easily prevented.

Testing pregnant women can save little lives and we want to see routine testing of pregnant women for GBS.

Pregnant women can take this simple, safe test between 35 and 37 weeks.

We are calling on the NHS to provide all pregnant women with information on GBS and make testing available to them.
VANCOUVERPeople who have never smoked marijuana could be most at risk of overdosing on cannabis-infused edibles that will soon be on store shelves across the country, warns a public health physician who says first-time users may keep noshing away while expecting a high, only to experience a racing heart, anxiety and panic attacks.

Dr. Lawrence Loh, adjunct professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, said overdose from overconsumption often means a trip to the emergency room for those who are unaware that feeling the mellow effects of pot from edibles can take several hours because of the time needed to digest and absorb food into the small intestine versus quickly inhaling the drug through the lungs.

Seniors are especially at risk because of a slower metabolism, Loh said of non-lethal overdose from edibles, which federal regulations limit to an individual serving size of a 10-milligram dose of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.

However, someone who eats an entire package of cannabis-infused product could be taking in a whopping 100 milligrams of THC and putting themselves at risk, even though regulations require products to be individually wrapped in 10-milligram serving sizes.

"I think the big thing for anyone in the public, especially cannabis-naive individuals or people who have edibles around with children at home, is to first and foremost avoid overdosing," Loh said.

"There's psychotic reactions so people may lose touch with reality, sometimes in the form of hallucinations or delusions and also anxiety or panic attacks along with decreased judgment."

Loh is co-author of a commentary published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on the health risks of cannabis edibles.

Short-term effects of edibles are not the only issue of concern, he said.

"There are still those longer term, chronic risks around edibles, particularly around addiction and also the risk of exacerbation of existing mental-health issues that we might be worried about in the longer run with cannabis edibles as well as any form of cannabis," he said.

Regulations governing edibles, beverages, vapes and topical forms of cannabis came into effect last October, a year after Canada legalized fresh or dried bud, oil, plants and seeds.

Cannabis edibles such as cookies, chocolate and gummies were available for sale starting in December in all provinces except Ontario, Quebec and Alberta, where consumers can access them in mid-January.

In Ontario, for example, edibles will be available as of this week in stores, and then online in mid-January through the provincial distributor as a part of a slow rollout over the next few months.

A University of Colorado School of Medicine study published last March in the Annals of Internal Medicine says an increase in emergency-room visits related to edibles prompted health experts to issue warnings about cardiac and psychiatric issues in the state that began selling recreational marijuana in 2014. Packaging, potency and labelling restrictions on edibles did not come into effect until a year later before being tightened to require labels to prominently display the potency of psychoactive ingredients.

Loh said there's a lack of data on edibles in general but consumers should also beware that illicit, unregulated products still exist and could be problematic because of issues such as mould.

The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction recommended last July that anyone who has never smoked or vaped cannabis should not consume more than 2.5 milligrams of THC in a product and wait to feel the effects before taking more.

Dr. Jeff Finkler, an emergency-room physician at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, said he sees plenty of patients, mostly females in their late teens and early 20s, who come in having panic attacks or anxiety from eating too much of a cannabis-infused food and sometimes mixing it with alcohol or other substances.

"The thing that people forget is that there's a delayed response," he said, adding users often think the recommended dosage couldn't possibly pack a buzz. They are sometimes given a benzodiazepine to counteract the effects of an overdose before being sent home.

"Don't cut off more than the actual dose just because it looks so small. You don't want to eat the whole thing. That little thing's got eight doses or 10 doses," he said of a package.

"It's not like smoking. When you start to feel weird you can stop inhaling. But when you ingest it, man, it's on board."

While 10 milligrams of THC is the recommended dosage, the psychoactive ingredient of marijuana in a food is hard to measure, he said.

"It requires very sophisticated analytical equipment and it's even more complicated when they use chocolate because people think it enhances the viability of the THC but chocolate interferes with the measurement of the actual amount."

"Start low, go slow, and wait. Be patient if you're going to take the edibles."

Read more about:
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 15:38:45|Editor: huaxia

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BISHKEK, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Kyrgyzstan reported 13 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 843.

Deputy Health Minister Nurbolot Usenbaev told a news briefing on Tuesday that one patient died Monday night, taking the total to 11.

One of the newly infected is a medical worker, Usenbaev said.

"In total, 217 cases of coronavirus were registered among medical workers, with 150 recoveries," he added.

Currently, 232 patients are being treated in hospitals and 917 others are under medical observation in Kyrgyzstan.

A total of 600 patients have been discharged from hospitals throughout the country. Enditem
In a first, a sub-inspector of the Noida Police in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday tested positive for the coronavirus COVID-19. He was posted on 'Dial 112' in the Gautam Budh Nagar district. It is being investigated if he was infected in a Ghaziabad hospital or by contact with someone already infected.

The family members, co-workers and other persons have been quarantined. The health department and the police department are constantly monitoring them.
The Foreign Secretary has sparked fury among viewers of Downing Street's daily Covid-19 press conference after branding the global pandemic 'the coronavirus challenge'.

Mr Raab had just confirmed Britain's death toll from the deadly virus had reached 29,427 people on Tuesday and expressed his sympathies to victims' families when he made the comment.

He said: 'Of those who have tested positive, 29,427 have very sadly died and our hearts go out to everyone who has lost a loved one throughout the coronavirus challenge'

Viewers took to Twitter to condemn the senior minister's phrasing, telling him 'It's not a game show.'

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab addressed the nation on Tuesday to answer questions from the media and announce the latest diagnosis and death figures, but his decision to call the pandemic the 'coronavirus challenge' left some viewers seething

Mr Raab, who was acting Prime Minister while Boris Johnson battled Covid-19 from a London hospital in April, was branded a f***numpty by another Twitter user as viewers vented their frustrations.

Users have responded to the comment by quoting Mr Raab next to images from game shows including Gladiators.

Another wrote: 'The coronavirus challenge - strange way of putting it. Hardly on the same level as the ice bucket challenge or the mannequin challenge.'

@Marsi132 wrote: 'Did you notice how he began by calling it a "Coronavirus Challenge"? Like those poor people who have died have flunked out of the first round!'

Another 693 people were today confirmed to have died of COVID-19 in Britain, taking the number of victims to 29,427 and making Britain the worst-hit nation in Europe.

Mr Raab's comment drew comparisons to game shows, including 1990s hit Gladiators, as well as social media trends such as the ice bucket challenge



And separate backdated figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the figure appears to have already been higher than 32,000 by April 24 - 10 days ago.

Today's data confirms that more people have died of the coronavirus in the UK than in Italy, still considered to be the worst-hit country in Europe and had suffered 29,079 fatalities by this morning. Only the US has had more deaths than Britain - almost 70,000 - while there have been 25,600 in Spain and 25,200 in France.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab today also announced 4,406 more cases of the life-threatening virus had been confirmed, taking the official size of the outbreak to 194,990 - but the true size of the UK's crisis is a mystery due to the controversial decision to abandon widespread testing early on.

In Downing Street's press conference, Mr Raab also lashed out at 'predatory' hackers targeting organisations involved in the fight against coronavirus, saying criminals and 'hostile states' were trying to take advantage of the crisis for their own 'malicious ends'.

Discussing the death toll, he added that the scale of the disaster in Britain was a 'massive tragedy' on a scale the country has never seen before. He refused to speculate on international comparisons.

Viewers were vocal in their criticism of Mr Raab's choice of words following the press conference on Tuesday

Criticism of Mr Raab came on the same day fellow cabinet member Matt Hancock was accused of sexism after he told one MP to 'watch her tone'.

Speaking in the Commons, Dr Rosena Allin-Khan said: 'Frontline workers like me have had to watch families break into pieces as we deliver the very worst of news to them, that the ones they love most in this world have died.

'The testing strategy has been non-existent. Community testing was scrapped, mass testing was slow to roll out, and testing figures are now being manipulated.

'Does the Secretary of State commit to a minimum of 100,000 tests each day going forward?

'And does the Secretary of State acknowledge that many frontline workers feel that the Government's lack of testing has cost lives and is responsible for many families being unnecessarily torn apart in grief?'

Mr Hancock replied: 'I welcome the honourable lady to her post as part of the shadow health team.

'I think she might do well to take a leaf out of the shadow secretary of state's book in terms of tone.

'I'm afraid what she said is not true. There's been a rapid acceleration in testing over the last few months, including getting to 100,000 tests a day.'

His comments sparked uproar among MPs, with former acting Labour Party leader Harriet Harman branding it 'creepy'.

She tweeted: 'Something creepy about a man telling a woman to watch her tone! Worse that he recommends she adopts the tone of another man. I suggest @MattHancock changes his.'

Former Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott told Dr Allin-Khan: 'I was watching Health Questions. Absolutely nothing wrong with your tone.

'It reflects and reverberates with the reality of what yourself and other NHS workers are experiencing. Hancock very unwise to be so dismissive.'
By Julia Cheever

Bay City News Service

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and three city attorneys sued Uber and Lyft in San Francisco Superior Court on Tuesday, accusing them of illegally classifying their drivers as independent contractors rather than employees.

The lawsuit alleges the ride-hailing companies are illegally denying drivers basic workplace protections such as paid sick leave, unemployment insurance, minimum wages and overtime pay.

"These companies will take the workers' labor, but they won't accept the worker protections," Becerra said at an online news conference.

"Sometimes it take a pandemic to shake us into what that really means and who suffers the consequences," he said.

Becerra and San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said the alleged misclassification is hurting both the drivers and taxpayers.

The lawsuit alleges the two San Francisco-based companies are violating the state's Unfair Competition Law by disobeying existing state and city labor laws as well as Assembly Bill 5, California's new gig-worker law that went into effect in January.

The lawsuit asks for a court injunction requiring Uber and Lyft companies to provide the protections. It also seeks orders for financial restitution for drivers and civil penalties of $2,500 per legal violation.

In addition to Herrera, the Los Angeles and San Diego city attorneys joined Becerra in filing the lawsuit.

Uber responded in a statement saying, "At a time when California's economy is in crisis with four million people out of work, we need to make it easier, not harder, for people to quickly start earning.

"We will contest this action in court, while at the same time pushing to raise the standard of independent work for drivers in California, including with guaranteed minimum earnings and new benefits," the company said.

Lyft said in a statement, "We are looking forward to working with the attorney general and mayors across the state to bring all the benefits of California's innovation economy to as many workers as possible, especially during this time when the creation of good jobs with access to affordable healthcare and other benefits is more important than ever."

The state's AB5 put into law the standards set by the California Supreme Court in a landmark 2018 decision defining when workers in the current gig economy can be considered contractors rather than employees.

Those standards are that to be contractors, the workers must be free from control by the company, performing work outside the hiring company's usual course of business, and customarily engaged in an independently established trade or business of the same nature as the work performed.

Becerra said there are currently five or six lawsuits filed by Uber and other companies in various courts around the state to challenge AB5. He said he is confident the state will prevail in those cases.

The attorney general said Tuesday's lawsuit against Uber and Lyft is based on previously existing state and local labor laws and the California Supreme Court decision as well as AB5.

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.
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

Sonia Gandhi to hold meet with Cong CMs amid COVID-19 lockdown

India

oi-Briti Roy Barman

New Delhi, May 05: Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi to hold a meeting via video conference with Chief Ministers of the Congress-ruled states on Wednesday to take stock of the situation of the respective states.

The meeting will be held on Wednesday through video conferencing. And the Chief Ministers of Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Puducherry will be attending.

Congress to bear cost of rail travel of every needy migrant worker: Sonia Gandhi

The meeting comes in the wake of the announcement by the Congress to bear the cost of travel of the stranded migrants, and Rahul Gandhi's talk with Noble laureate Abhijeet Banerjee.

NEWS AT 3 PM, MAY 5th, 2020

Sonia Gandhi's announcement on Monday that Congress would pay the train fare for migrants heading home amid the lockdown set up a huge political row.

BJP calling the announcement a baseless move that would mess up the entire system and create chaos.

Earlier, Congress president wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, offering five suggestions to tackle Covid-19 situation.

On Tuesday, in the interaction session with Rahul Gandhi, noted economist Abhijit Banerjee had suggested to pay Rs 10,000 into the bank accounts of the poor. Banerjee said people should get money to spend more and this will lead to the revival of the economy.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Tuesday, May 5, 2020, 15:59 [IST]
Previously redacted sections of a royal commission's findings about Cardinal George Pell's knowledge of historical child sexual abuse complaints will be released within days.

Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter says he has been advised that the two Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse reports can now be published in full.

Cardinal Pell gave evidence to the royal commission via videolink from Rome.

Mr Porter said that would happen within days, although he would not give a specific release date.

"The advice is that it is now OK to publish the unredacted version," he told the ABC on Tuesday.
Indian startups, struggling to raise money because of the coronavirus pandemic, now face uncertainty over fresh investments and top-ups, with new FDI rules requiring the government's approval for investments coming in from China.

The recent tweaks in the foreign direct investment (FDI) have thrown dozens of investments and top-ups from Chinese companies into doubt. For some of the start-ups, a funding round is all that stands between surviving and doom and layoffs and salary cuts, according to investors Moneycontrol spoke to.

Lots of deals are now stuck and may not even happen but it is finally a matter of luck because some startups need the capital far more than others. If these firms cant close a round soon, they will face an existential crisis, said a partner at a venture capital fund, requesting anonymity.

Online education firm Toppr was in talks to raise funds from CDH, a Chinese fund but discussions ended after the FDI rule came in. Similarly, budget hotel firm Treebo was in talks to raise $5-8 million from its existing backers-led by Hong Kong-based hedge funds Ward Ferry and Karst Peak, three sources told Moneycontrol, requesting anonymity

Treebos deal was in the final stages, with documentation ready and only investor signatures pending. But the new FDI rule at the last minute broke down the deal since the lead investors are Chinese. They are relooking what to do now and will have to change the agreements again, said a person involved in discussions, requesting anonymity.

Toppr CEO Zishaan Hayath did not respond to an email seeking comment. Treebos co-founder Siddharth Gupta said, This is incorrect. Cant give you any more details.

CDH did not respond to a mail seeking comment.

Treebo needs the capital badly, given that travel and hospitality sectors have been one of the worst-hit sectors, with lockdown restricting the movement of people. Many hotels and transport companies are bracing for a prolonged period of zero to negligible revenue.

The Bengaluru-based startup fired 120 employees in July 2019 after a funding round from the French hotelier Accor Group fell through.

Toppr, which runs an app providing educational content for students from Class 5 to 12, has seen its numbers spike during the lockdown as students stay at home.

But, the Mumbai-based company, which has been in the market for funds for a few months, faces huge competition. It is up against players like Byjus, one of the countrys largest consumer internet companies last valued at $8 billion.

if a founder was raising pure growth capital-already has two years of money in the bank, and among incoming investors, only one is Chinese, he can afford to see the investor pull out. Although not ideal, at least he still survives, the investor said.

Chinese connection

Chinese investments have played a huge role in the growth of Indian startups. Chinas Alibaba has invested in payments firm Paytm, online grocer BigBasket and ecommerce player Snapdeal, among others.

According to Tracxn, a startup data tracker, the Chinese invested around $2.5 billion in 2019.

Within days of the government calling for greater scrutiny of investments coming from China, which was not named, the Indian Venture Capital Association sought some clarifications. The industry body for private equity and VC funds also asked for minority investments to be kept out, as the changes were aimed at preventing buyouts of Indian firms by the Chinese.

The government has not clarified the meaning of Beneficial Owner. This could mean that if a company has even a single Chinese investor or an investor has a single Chinese backer, irrespective of size, it could come under the scanner.

As reported by Moneycontrol on April 14, American PE fund Alpine Capital is in talks to invest $25 million in regional languages news aggregator Dailyhunt. However, investors told Moneycontrol that they were wondering if the investment would still go through.

Though it is a Cayman Islands-based fund with American investors, its manager is Haifei Zhang, a person of Chinese origin who is also the founding partner, according to regulatory filings with the US Security and Exchange Commission.

The startup industry is hoping for some respite and some clarifications were expected from the government in the next few weeks, people cited above said.

While some funding rounds, such as Treebo, may eventually close, the timing also matters when capital is short, revenue is zero, and the short-term future looks bleak.

Often, everything depends on that one fundraise. It goes awry and panic ensues, an investor said on condition of anonymity.
HRODNA, Belarus -- New books unveiled, exhibits held, and the Belarusian language taught. In normal times those would be some of the activities and events at the community center in Hrodna, Belarus -- a city close to the Polish border and 280 kilometers west of the capital, Minsk.



Today, however, volunteers, mouths and noses covered with masks, sit in a group on folding chairs, putting together plastic face shields.



It's part of a nationwide volunteer effort to help hospitals and doctors who are struggling to cope with the spread of the coronavirus even as the authoritarian president plays it down, critics say.



At the Hrodna community center, besides the shields, volunteers are sewing protective masks and gowns.



As of May 5, Belarus, with a population of some 9.5 million, has registered nearly 17,500 coronavirus cases and 103 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University -- one of the highest per capita infection rates



Opponents say President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, in power since 1994, is in a state of denial: He had declined to institute measures to restrict movement and mass gatherings, as the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Union, and now the United Nations have urged.

On May 9, Belarus is set to hold a military parade to mark 75 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, while Russia and other countries have scrapped or scaled down such plans in order to safeguard against spreading the virus.



During a government meeting on May 3, Lukashenka said he did not want to cancel the parade because people "would say we were scared."



'Every Bit Helps'



Doctors have complained they are not equipped to handle the crisis, but few dare to speak openly.



The head doctor at a hospital in Vitsebsk, an eastern city near the Russian border that has been hit hard by the coronavirus, was fired on April 30 after he complained of the lack of protective gear there, although the Belarusian health minister denied any link.



In Belarus, where little civic activity outside the gaze of the government is permitted, people have joined the volunteer campaign launched under the hashtag #bycovid19. Face shields, protective masks, plastic gowns, hospital-bed dividers, and sanitary mats have all been turned out here by Belarusians who are doing it for free -- though some have lost their jobs and have little or no income.



"We don't pay anyone, but every bit helps. Even 10 minutes [of volunteered time]," said Vadzim Saranchukou, who coordinates the drive in the Hrodna region, which includes a crowdfunding campaign that has collected more the 4,000 rubles ($1,830).

How many in Hrodna have pitched in is unclear. A Telegram forum dedicated to the effort has more than 600 participants. A separate chat site dedicated to rounding up volunteer drivers counts more than 70.



"Who are these volunteers? Normal people. It's awesome," said one of them, who like others requested anonymity when speaking recently to RFE/RL's Belarus Service, for fear of repercussions.



While those taking part prefer to keep it secret, coordinators say all their activities are out in the open with all funding and purchases documented.

Controversial Dismissal



Hospitals may lack protective supplies in Hrodna, but not all are eager to publicly ask for help.



"There are hospitals where they say they have enough [protective equipment]. There are other places where people ask us to deliver something," said Saranchukou, who is also the head of the Hrodna branch of the opposition Belarusian Popular Front party.



On the other side of the country, Syarhey Lazar, head of the Vitsebsk municipal hospital, was dismissed on April 30, three days after an article he wrote was published by Tut.by, Belarus's largest online news outlet. In it, he described work conditions inside the so-called "dirty zone," the overtaxed area of the hospital where critical coronavirus patients are treated.



The Belarusian Health Ministry denied Lazar's dismissal was linked to the article.



Medical personnel in Belarus have paid a high price for combating the coronavirus, with hundreds contracting it. On April 17, Health Minister Uladzimer Karanik cited a figure of 419. According to a count by RFE/RL's Belarus Service, at least 12 medical personnel have died of COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, although the number is feared to be much higher.

In Hrodna, Svyatlana Pinchuk, a fashion designer, is coordinating a volunteer effort to sew protective masks, with women out of work and others with disabilities pitching in.



"If I don't do it, who will? When it's for no pay, there are few who are interested. I'd be ashamed if I was sitting on a couch watching TV at such a time," said Pinchuk.



Yana Litvinchuk is also sewing, but not masks. She has taken foam rubber and stitched scraps together to create floor mats as a makeshift disinfectant device for hospitals.



'If Doctors Die, Who'll Treat Us?'



"Helping is always good. The more, the better. If volunteers can do some of the work: simple stuff like sewing masks or contributing 20 [Belarusian] rubles ($8), why not do it? Doctors should feel that support, that we value their work. If we don't help one another what will become of us?" Litvinchuk said.



That message is echoed by Ezha Hrihencha, who assembles plastic face shields and builds hospital bed dividers.



"And who will do it, if we don't? If doctors die, who is going to treat us? I have a little free time. The more I do, the more it can help. I'm not saying I'm the best."

Volunteers have also created and printed posters with practical information on keeping healthy and avoiding the coronavirus.



Shop owner Syarhey Verameyenka, also a member of the opposition Belarusian Christian Democracy party, said there was no question about whether to take part.



"Why does man exist? Why does he breathe? Why support your homeland, country, and family? Because there's no other way. It's also a question of the independence of our country because there is a real threat for the very existence of Belarusians," Verameyenka said.



A Hrodna-based car-sales website also chipped in, launching a crowdfunding campaign that raised some 5,000 rubles (some $2,000) in two weeks to help paramedics and ambulance units in the Hrodna region.



"We realized that if we have this popular resource, then we have no moral right not to join in fundraising to help doctors. It would almost be a crime not to exploit this opportunity," explained Mikhal Kuntsevich, editor of the Auto Hrodna website.



Whether the efforts are helping curb Belarus's infection rate is hard to determine. The UN Resident Coordinator in Belarus Joanna Kazana-Wisniowiecki on April 28 issued a fresh appeal for the government to institute social-distancing measures, stressing that Belarus's infection rate was now rising "exponentially, and noting that on March 26 the country had just 86 cases.
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The parking lot and rides of Jolly Roger at the Pier remain empty and silent in Ocean City, Md., on April 26, 2020. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Ocean City to Reopen Beach, Boardwalk on Saturday: Maryland Officials

Ocean City, Maryland, will reopen its beach and boardwalk on Saturday, officials announced on Monday.

The beach, which normally welcomes some 8 million visitors a year, will be the first in the Mid-Atlantic region to reopen.

While social distancing measures will remain in place, the beach, all access points, the boardwalk, and parking lots will reopen, Mayor Richard Meehan said in a declaration.

This is a way to give individuals more opportunities to get outside, exercise and enjoy fresh air, while still adhering to physical distancing guidelines and gathering limits, a statement from his office said.

Visitors to the popular beach town wont be required to wear a mask, Meehan said at a press conference on Tuesday, according to CBS.

Right now there are not very many people in Ocean City, and even with this we do not anticipate a lot of people in Ocean City, but there will be some additional visitors, he said.

Were only at the first weekend in May, and typically even in this time of year in our crowds are much smaller than theyre going to be as you get into the end of the month or into June and particularly into July.

People travel down the empty boardwalk in Ocean City, Md., on April 27, 2020. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Restrictions on rentals are still in place, having been extended through May 22.

Meehan said people should still comply with Maryland Gov. Larry Hogans stay-at-home order. A spokesman for Hogan said in a statement issued with an Ocean City spokeswoman late Monday that the order remains in effect.

It said the change was for nearby residents.

Hogans order forbids so-called non-essential travel.

Some beaches in New Jersey are slated to reopen Friday but most beaches in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia are closed or restricted to local residents with no immediate indications of reopening.

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan talks to reporters during a news briefing about the COVID-19 pandemic in Annapolis, Md. on April 17, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said this week some businesses may be able to reopen on May 15. Hogan and Delaware Gov. John Carney havent yet issued a target date for reopening.

Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer, in a letter sent Monday, asked Northam to allow the town to reopen its beaches.

Bethany Beachs Town Council said last month it voted to continue the closure of its beach and boardwalk until June 1. It will reconsider the ban then.

In a joint letter to Carney on May 1, Bethany Beach and six other coastal towns in the state said theyd follow a three-phase plan that wont allow swimming or sunbathing until the third phase, the Salisbury Daily Times reported.

Delaware is not yet in the position to know when the Phase 1 economic recovery will start, the town managers said, meaning they cannot foresee at this time a specific date for reopening our many beaches.
Government of India will be facilitating the return of Indian nationals stranded abroad, especially in the Gulf, on compelling grounds in a phased manner, a Ministry of Home Affairs statement said.

The travel would be arranged by aircraft and naval ships. The Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) has been prepared in this regard, it said.

Indian Embassies and High Commissions are preparing a list of distressed Indian citizens. This facility would be made available on payment-basis. Non-scheduled commercial flights would be arranged for air travel. The travel would begin in a phased manner from May 7, it said.

The description of "compelling reasons" could include those who are no longer gainfully employed, people who arrived in the Gulf on visit visas which have since expired, pregnant women, the elderly and those who are in need of medical treatment in their home states in India.

Medical screening of passengers would be done before taking the flight. Only asymptomatic passengers would be allowed to travel. During the journey, all these passengers would have to follow the protocols, such as the Health Protocols, issued by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

On reaching the destination, everyone would have to register on the Aarogya Setu app. Everyone would be medically screened. After scrutiny, they would be quarantined for 14 days, either in a hospital or in an institutional quarantine on payment-basis, by the concerned state government. Covid test would be done after 14 days and further action would be taken according to health protocols, it said.

The Ministries of External Affairs and Civil Aviation would soon share detailed information about it through their websites, it added.

State Governments are being advised to make arrangements, including for testing, quarantine and onward movement of the returning Indians in their respective states - TradeArabia News Service.
EduBrisk, an educational solutions platform, is helping schools and freelance teachers go live in 24 hours. With this new program 'Classroom to Virtual Classroom within the next 24 hours', EduBrisk has already onboarded 30 schools since the nationwide lockdown and plans to on-board 150 schools within the next two months.

The company claims to have invested in high-quality human resource to start this education program in India. Among 30 schools that went live using the program, prominent names include GD Goenka Public School-Siliguri, QMS Schools-Kolkata, St Peters - Ernakulam, Al Ameen Public School-Kochi, Guardian Public School-Kochi, Shantiniketan Indian School-Qatar, Guardian Public School-Kochi, National Central School Adoor, BPMS, Trivandrum, Paradise Public School and Varkala etc. For the program, they have tied up using multiple third party video-conference tools based on the school's preference.

Saiju Aravind, founder of EduBrisk Knowledge Solutions says, "Very often constraints bring out the best in us. A couple of months ago, we wouldn't have fathomed empowering the three stakeholders in the school ecosystem with the state-of-the-art teaching-learning-testing and analytics-based interventions in just 24 hours. And to our own pleasant surprise, it's happening every day. Virtual classes and regular classes would become seamlessly integrated in the coming period of two months Revolution in Education has begun."

The EduBrisk platform contains the digital version of the entire CBSE/NCERT syllabi, along with additional inputs. EduBrisk's Team of Educators is designed to make teaching easier for both teachers as well as students. Also, the EduBrisk Digital Learning Platform and all workshops conducted by them are fully compliant with Global Regulatory Bodies such as KHDA, ADEC, etc.

For this program, schools will have to provide the download of their data which includes teacher profiles, student profiles and parent profiles. Post the reception of the data, EduBrisk conducts a School Teacher Empowerment Program (STEP) for all teachers designated by the school. This may take around 24 working hours. Post the completion of the program, once the schools prepare and share their scheduled timetables, EduBrisk provides the meeting platform along with the respective content. The link for the virtual classes will then be shared by the class teacher to their students, enabling them to log on using either a laptop, tablet, or mobile phone. For using EduBrisk's virtual program, one would also need a good internet connection and the video conferencing application (provided by EduBrisk).

Once the session is live, just like a regular class, the teacher can mark attendance using virtual classroom feature, in addition to access test report of students class-wise and individually. Students can interact with the teacher using the chat feature that comes as a standard within the security-enabled video conferencing tool being used (Microsoft Teams, Zoom, WebEx, GoToMeeting, etc). At the end of the session, the recorded version of the interaction will be shared by the teacher, which students can access for review and revision.

EduBrisk operates on a per-student monthly subscription model that varies depending on the number of students/subscriptions required, which could vary anywhere between Rs 100 to Rs 300 per student, which translates into Rs 1000-3,600 per student per year.

Also Read: Coronavirus lockdown 3.0: India sees biggest jump with 3,900 new cases, 195 deaths in 24 hours

Also Read: Indian retail sector lost Rs 5.5 lakh crore in 40 days of lockdown: CAIT

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Six-time Oscar nominee Amy Adams was 'so happy to be celebrating' her fifth wedding anniversary with her husband Darren Le Gallo last Saturday.

The Italian-born 45-year-old actress - who boasts 324K Instagram followers - gushed: '@darrenlegallo you are my soft place. Love you. Love our family. #happytobestuckwithyou.'

The German-born 45-year-old artist also shared a never-before-seen b&w shot taken by photographer Yvette Roman in 'tiny, secluded thicket' at a ranch near Santa Barbara.

Six-time Oscar nominee Amy Adams was 'so happy to be celebrating' her fifth wedding anniversary with her husband Darren Le Gallo last Saturday

The Italian-born 45-year-old actress gushed: '@darrenlegallo you are my soft place. Love you. Love our family. #happytobestuckwithyou' (pictured April 12)

'It's been 5yrs today that I've been blessed to be married to my best friend,' Darren gushed to '#mybetterhalf.'

'It's crazy how fast time goes by - almost 18yrs since we started dating. I respect, and adore the incredible human being that you are.'

Adams originally met Le Gallo at a 2001 acting class before they began dating on the set of Warner Loughlin & Diana Valentine's 2016 short film, Pennies, which was shot in 2002.

'I had another boyfriend [in 2001], and Darren was dating some girl. I did scenes with him, and I liked him and thought he was really sweet,' the Enchanted alum told The Times in 2018 of their first encounter.

'I've been blessed to be married to my best friend': The German-born 45-year-old artist also shared a never-before-seen b&w shot taken by photographer Yvette Roman in 'tiny, secluded thicket' at a ranch near Santa Barbara

'Our first week dating': Amy originally met Darren at a 2001 acting class before they began dating on the set of Warner Loughlin & Diana Valentine's 2016 short film, Pennies, which was shot in 2002

January 10 family portrait: Adams and Le Gallo - who were engaged for seven years before their nuptials - will next celebrate the 10th birthday of their daughter Aviana Olea on May 15

'We always had the commitment, but now he's stuck with me and I can really act out. I'm kidding. The truth is, I feel a stronger sense of family, a bigger sense of permanence, which is a nice thing for me.'

The longtime couple - who were engaged for seven years before their nuptials - will next celebrate the 10th birthday of their daughter Aviana Olea on May 15.

Since Amy and her Catch Me If You Can co-star Jennifer Garner co-founded the #SaveWithStories initative on March 13, they've raised over $1.7M and served nearly 90K children across 200 schools.

'And that's from 25K different donors. Most of that is $10 increments, which is something that Amy and I really were aligned on and knew we wanted the [donations] number to be attainable, especially given just the financial climate of the world,' Garner told Deadline on April 2.

Giving back in the age of COVID-19! Since the Enchanted alum and her Catch Me If You Can co-star Jennifer Garner (R) co-founded the #SaveWithStories initative on March 13, they've raised over $1.7M and served nearly 90K children across 200 schools

Charitable: Oscar winner Kate Winslet (L) and six-time Emmy nominee Mindy Kaling (R) were the most recent famous faces reading children's books for confined families in quarantine

'This time has really shown how much food insecurity there is, how reliant people are on schools and what a job they have. So schools are really trying their best to have people in the cafeteria to make the food.

'Save with Stories is giving them money for the bus drivers and money for the gas to get out to deliver to these small communities where people can't come in or in cities making sure that, through No Kid Hungry, the food banks and the community feeding services are stocked with school supplies and books to go home with.'

Oscar winner Kate Winslet and six-time Emmy nominee Mindy Kaling were the most recent famous faces reading children's books for confined families in quarantine.

Adams will next play hot-headed single mother Bev Vance in Ron Howard's drama Hillbilly Elegy, which premieres in November on Netflix.

'Amy just kills it!' Adams will next play hot-headed single mother Bev Vance in Ron Howard's drama Hillbilly Elegy, which premieres in November on Netflix (pictured in 2019)

BTS set snap: The multi-generational adaptation of J.D. Vance's 2016 Appalachian memoir also stars Glenn Close, Haley Bennett, and Freida Pinto (pictured in 2019)

The multi-generational adaptation of J.D. Vance's 2016 Appalachian memoir also stars Glenn Close, Haley Bennett, and Freida Pinto.

It's a mystery whether audiences will ever get to see the two-time Golden Globe winner play a recluse in Joe Wright's film The Woman in the Window, which she wrapped way back in 2018.

20th Century Fox has postponed the release twice reportedly due to 'negative test audience response towards the third act.'

Meanwhile, Darren hasn't had an acting gig since 2015 because he now devotes his time to drawing and painting contemporary art.
Senior Minister of State for Health and Transport Lam Pin Min (left) receives a donation of face masks from China ambassador Hong Xiaoyong. (PHOTO: Ministry of Health)

SINGAPORE  China has donated 500,000 surgical masks and 100,000 KN95 masks to Singapore to assist in efforts to manage the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a media release on Tuesday (5 Mayl), the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that Senior Minister of State for Health and Transport Lam Pin Min received the masks from China ambassador Hong Xiaoyong, and expressed appreciation for the donation.

Singapore and China have been working closely together at all levels to stem the spread of the virus, he said.

We have also been finding ways to sustainably manage the public health risks while gradually restoring normalcy to our exchanges.

Dr Lam said that, as Singapore and China mark the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations this year, such robust collaboration during this difficult time is testament to the strong friendship between the countries.

Our cooperation spans many sectors, including the health, economic, and people-to-people spheres. We have facilitated the repatriation of each others nationals, and provided humanitarian assistance to each other in times of need, with contributions from all walks of life, he said.

Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore

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Police work by its very nature involves slippery slope (the potential for the gradual deterioration of social-moral inhibitions and perceived sense of permissibility for deviant conduct). A theorem in criminology is that it is always fruitful to study when people not only break societal norms but the norms of their own social group too.

Police misconduct is the impropriety of office, not misuse of authority. It is wrongdoing, the appearance of wrongdoing or puzzling behaviour that violates standards usually set down in departmental policies and procedures, for good reasons, that employee may or may not be cognizant of.

Misconduct is bad because it leaves the public free to speculate and draw sweeping generalizations about the profession of policing as a whole.

It is in light of this that I pen my opinion in this document.

When it comes to knowledge, skills, and ability to embody leadership qualities, most law enforcement executives have the tools and resources to lead successfully. It clearly makes more sense to have someone who understands the goals and objectives of the organization to provide guidance and direction than simply have someone without that institutional knowledge attempt the same.

Stogdill(1948) reviewed 124 trait studies conducted from 1904 to 1948 and found that the patterns of result was consistent with the conception of a leader as someone who acquires status by showing the ability to help the group in attaining its goals. Relevant traits included intelligence, alertness to the needs of others, understanding of the task, initiative and persistence in dealing with problems, self confidence, and desire to accept responsibility and occupy a position of dominance and control. The review failed to support the basic premise of the trait approach that a person must possess a particular set of traits to become a successful leader. Thus Stogdill in page 64 concluded that:

A person does not become a leader by virtue of the possession of some combination of traits.. but that the pattern of personal characteristics of the leader must bear some relevant relationship to the characteristics, activities and goals of the followers

True leaders do not seem to clone themselves in their followers, they don try to collect followers and supporters in order to make themselves feel good. Likewise, a leader who is motivated by his purpose, convictions, vision, and passion never uses or abuses other people. Genuine leaders seek to facilitate the personal visions of their colleagues, executive team members, managers, employees, and family members. At the same time, the manner in which they live out their vision and code of ethics is a positive example to those around them.

The question to me is not about what it takes to lead the service, but whether it is important to have the right people in place to lead the service.

If a leader is a people person and remains humble, the leadership role will become exponentially simpler. Quite frankly, putting people first is something that an effective leader cannot overlook. Inspiration is the opposite of intimidation and is absent of manipulation. When leaders fail to inspire others, they often resort to manipulation to force people to participate in their plans and do what they want them to do.

Leaders who exercise positive influence dont try to prove themselves to others. They are more concerned with manifesting themselves, or revealing the purpose they were leading to fulfill. Leaders. An enlightened perspective is a gift that true leaders can give their followers with the following attributes:

Leaders influence the Mind-set of the Followers

Leaders influence the Characteristics and Attitudes of the Followers

Leaders Influence the Morality of the Followers

Leaders Influence the Commitment of the Followers

Leaders Influence the Destiny of the Followers

Of course, no two leaders lead the same way, but if LEADERSHIP attributes are applied in ones management style then the basics are covered.

Our culture teaches us to be impressed by a leaders power, oratorical skills, academic degrees, and/or wealth, thinking that those characteristics add up to great leadership. Yet we must not imagine that our country/organisation will remain strong and established if we vote or appoint someone just because we like the way he speaks or looks, or even if we approve of some of his accomplishments.

Before you follow anyone, you must know what that person truly believes and on what path he is taking you. You might find out too late that you dont want to go where he is going. I encourage you not to place undue confidence on how powerful a leader is or how much knowledge he has or who his mentor was. Continually evaluate what your leaders stand for, as well as policies they promote. Study their lives and convictions. Discover what they really think and value, and how their beliefs affect their policies.

Conviction and character are therefore the distinguishing marks of a true leader. They are what separate those who merely have titles, positions, and talents from those who make a positive difference in their families, communities, and nations  from those who make history, changing the course of human events for the better. Our attitudes and motivations must always correspond to our character.

Because humanity lost Gods true nature, it now has only a distorted image of that nature. The principal traits of fallen human beings are the opposite of genuine character: inconsistency, unpredictability, unfaithfulness, compromise, unjustness, prejudice, untrustworthiness, domination, vindictiveness, unforgiveness, cruelty and so forth. All societies/organizations of the world suffer the symptoms of humanitys loss of character.

Humanitys warped character can cause the conscience of some people to be off balance. They may lack a natural sense of guilt when doing wrong; or, they may have an overactive conscience, in which they continually feel guilty about things for which they are not responsible.

For example, I spoke to a colleague currently with the Drug Law Enforcement Unit who is so desperate for a cross-transfer to MTTD. When I pushed him, he said my father has suffered stroke and I need money to take care of him. This is the same mentality that others have. It is the reason they pay for permit to carry out motor-checks. It is the reason all other patrol teams have turned themselves in to do motor-checks. They tend to target areas beyond their jurisdictions where there is heavy vehicular flow so they can carry-out their corrupt activities.

Nevertheless, human beings are still capable of exercising moral conduct, but it involves making the continual decision to embrace strong convictions and values.

The impact of corruption in the Police Service can be far reaching. When basic functions of law and order are compromised by corrupt practices within the Police Service, the state cannot legitimately prevent and punish violations of the law or the protect human rights (Pyman et al. 2012). Police corruption results in public mistrust, rendering it more difficult for the police to perform what should be their primary task, countering crime (DCAF 2012 ).

There is the urgent need to curb the misuse of police authority for personal gain. Personal gain can mean monetary payment or any other type of benefit. The benefit must be gained illegally and as a result of the officers position or authority. Police corruption hurts both policing and the community. It damages the polices image and undermines a communitys trust of Law enforcement. Crime flourishes in these communities because criminal activity is protected rather than abated.

As Samuel Kimeu, Executive Director at Transparency International Kenya, puts it Corruption remains a key challenge to policing in Africa. We view it largely as a manifestation of the impunity fed largely by lack of decisive action by policing authorities against those who go against the oath of service. If left unchecked, corruption will continue to undermine the ability of the police to discharge their responsibilities effectively by alienating those they are supposed to serve.

Permit me to state two incidents that caught my attention.

For example, in December 2018, an Inspector investigating a case of murder at a particular station, sent the suspect to court and was remanded into prisons custody for two weeks. He instead kept the suspect in police cells and together with a female police officer at the station , wittingly cooking for the suspect . This inspector kept the suspect in police cells for 11 days. He sent him to the prisons in the 12th day, went for him on 13th day with the excuse that the suspect reported sick. The rest remains very stinking story.

Fast forward, on 16/10/19 this same inspector had gone to remove two robbers standing trial at the High Court and on remand in the prisons to a Circuit Court for Narcotic Offences. They were convicted to 10 years I.H.L mid-day. He kept the convicts in police cells with two other Remand Prisoners when in fact they had two service vehicles parked at the station. At about 5.45pm of same day the four had escaped .

It was that same female police officer and one other on duty. What informed this inspector to keep remand prisoners and convicts slapped with 10year jails terms in police custody? There are more to this but who cares.

This same inspector was enjoying rent allowance and occupied police accommodation at the same time. When it came to the attention of the District Commander, he cautioned him to relocate but he refused. The District Commander wrote a report about his conduct. The Divisional Commander gave a copy of the report to the Inspector. What was he seeking to achieve?. I think something is definitely not right.

Strong internal disciplinary processes are essential to keep policing truly discipline and professional. I disagree with the idea of some commanders transferring personnel to remote villages as a tool for punishment. If personnel are found to have misconduct themselves, they should be dealt with but not transferred in the manner that has become the norm.

Besides bribery and extortion, some studies cite a blue wall- the code of silence among police officers that discourages an officer from reporting the misconduct of another officer. Due to the culture of many police departments, some senior officers are often willing to tolerate corrupt behaviours rather than rat on a colleague. They shield these junior officers when in fact they are supposed to be called to order when they go wrong.

The sociopathic police personality, I ask is it a product of the Rotten Apple or The Rotten Barrel Theory? The Rotten Apple Theory suggests that most corruption stems from just a few dishonest or unethical officers. In other words, entire units or police departments might be branded as corrupt due to the actions of just a few. The meaning is that in every workplace, there is a worker whose attitude or personality can infect the rest through their behaviour like COVID-19 if no contact tracing is aggressively carried out. These people do not only cause discomfort and unhappiness in the work environment but are also a great economic burden for the organizations themselves, due to their deviant behaviour. The impact does not only affect their co-workers. The public also end up on the receiving end of their bad practices, incompetence, or toxic personality.

The theories apply to the analysis of police corruption and root causes. It states that corrupt and deviant police officers arise from those individuals predisposed to this type of behaviour that somehow manage to pass psychological screening tests.

However, there is a growing body of literature that suggest that policing is the fertile soil from which police deviant behaviour springs otherwise known as the The Rotten Barrel Theory.

Reports on corruption released by the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index since 1995, continuously rate the police service as one of the top-most corrupt institutions in the country. Various Inspectors  General Of Police have failed in their attempts to clamp down on corruption. The latest attempt was the rejuvenation and rebranding of the Motor Traffic and Transport Department which has yielded little or no results.

Corruption is a criminal conduct that can involve under using ones authority, over using ones authority or profiteering via ones authority. Corruption is bad because it undermines integrity, the state of policing being whole or undivided.

The Administration must show a sustained and deep commitment to acting on police corruption at all levels by promoting reforms that combine punitive measures with structural changes over the short and medium  term.

I will propose the design of a Policing Philosophy Document (PPD) as a priority and an evolving document that should be very radical to the core in tackling the ailment call corruption and Psychological Testing, Job Analysis and Selection Interviews using the Sixteen Personality Factor in the mode of recruitment into the service.

According to the US Department of State in 2017, Georgia was cited as an example of a successful reform to tackling police corruption. According to the US Department of State, low level of corruption is almost completely eradicated in Georgia due to dramatic police and institutional reforms, and overt bribery and extortion have virtually disappeared in Georgia.

Police officers extorted money from drivers daily, passing a portion of their gains to their superiors. Corruption within the police in Georgia was deeply institutionalized to the extent that official positions, transfers and postings had to be purchased, and taking bribes was seen as a necessity to repay this initial investment (Di Puppio 2010).

The reforms targeted the corrupt police service. The reforms saw mass dismissals of police, allowing increased salaries (Di Puppio 2010: DCAF 2010). There was also institutional restructuring and service provisions- eliminating several agencies and shifting mandates. Salary, training and personnel policy for the police were also significantly overhauled and revamped (Light 2014). The reform included education for the police officers to train them to enhance professionalism, awareness and adherence to human rights and the Rule of Law (DCAF 2012). Di Puppio concluded that targeting highly visible areas of corruption can quickly enhance public trust.

Quah 2014 states that in Singapore, police corruption was rampant during the British colonial period. Analyses of police corruption in colonial Singapore indicated that it was as the result of a series of factors including: low salaries, poor working conditions, a high degree of formalism in the police force, poor recruitment and selection procedures, lack of training programmes and ample opportunities for corruption due to inadequate controls (Quah 2001).

Corruption among the police in Singapore is now very low, and Singapore was place 6th in Transparency Internationals Corruption Perception index.

The reason for Singapores success is considered to be fourfold:

i) Political will and the commitment of the government

ii) Salaries and Working Conditions

iii) Recruitment and Selection Procedures

iv) Training and Socialization.

Several factors account for the low level of corruption in Hong Kong.

First is the institutional integrity of the internal and external control mechanisms. The multi-pronged approach toward Police Anti-Corruption in Hong-Kong has created an institutional structure that discourages rent-seeking behaviour by the police.

Second the development of a value based framework within the police service has facilitated the creation of a corruption  free organizational set-up. In particular, emphasis placed on professionalism, integrity and honesty is considered important in establishing a service-oriented police culture (Wong 2012).

Third is the high degree of fairness in police promotions and predictability in determining the pay and benefits of police personnel is considered to be a factor discouraging police corruption (Hope 2015).

Several analysts have warned that there is no single anti-corruption strategy that has been sufficient to fully address police corruption (Newburn 1999). Such a complex problem needs a similarly multi-faceted solution, and second, no absolute solution is likely to be possible, although a huge reduction in the quantity of cases.

The police service with all the right policies, training and effective supervision still needed a disciplinary process that addresses mistakes and misconduct in the most appropriate manner. Rather than try to focus on one or two approaches, it seems more helpful to identify characteristics that contribute to an effective disciplinary process:

Early intervention at the lowest level possible. Recognizing mistakes and misconduct as soon as they occur and taking appropriate corrective action is fundamental to effective discipline. Officers may be aware of misconduct but often fail to accept the responsibility for intervention or to bring it to the attention of a supervisor or that the supervisor deliberately shields the offender. The best intervention, and likely the most effective, comes from peers and first line supervisors. An environment that encourages employees and supervisors to take corrective action on minor mistakes helps create a culture where everyone takes responsibility for their own behaviour and for the behaviour of others who may need guidance from time to time.

Fair and consistence application of discipline. One of the most difficult challenges for discipline in the police service is ensuring both the perception and reality of fairness and consistency. Commanders need to spend time (ideally) in espousing and explaining disciplinary procedures.

Behavioural Focus .The primary focus of discipline should be on changing unacceptable behaviour. It is one thing for officers to make judgmental errors because of not knowing the correct procedure or having the right knowledge. It is quite another for them, to know what to do but intentionally fail to follow police policy and procedures.

Time. One of the most frequent complaints about internal investigations and the disciplinary process is the time it takes to bring these to a conclusion. A substantial part of officers concerns with fairness of discipline has to do with how long it takes to learn the outcome. It is not unusual for cases to take a year or more before discipline has been imposed. Both internal investigation protocol and the disciplinary process must have completion deadlines established. To ensure these deadlines are met, a monitoring component that tracks progress on the case from the initial complaint to its resolution is an important piece of the process.

I will at this point suggest some few solutions.

First, re-tooling of the Police Standard Professional Bureau [PSPB] with well trained investigators and making adjustment to their operational procedures.

Second, Service directives should be monitored for implementation and feedback through establishment of a Compliance Unit and the introduction of monthly or quarterly bulletins or the re-introduction service orders.

Third, the Welfare and the Manpower Planning offices appears to be a duplication and need to be merged with the HR Department and decentralization of the Research and Planning Department at the Regional levels with well qualified and motivated staff.

The Human Resource Unit of the service should be strengthened for effective Human Resource Utilization. HR professionals will add value to the service by understanding the practical and administrative operations of the service. Because that understanding allows them to adapt HR and organizational activities to changing performance trends. Only by knowing the financial, strategic, technical, and organizational capabilities of the service can one play a valuable role in any strategic decision.

The strengthening of the HR Directorate will comprehend both sides of the nexus between HR deliverables and organization/strategic problems. The HR Directorate must be dedicated enough to continually master the underlying theory of HR and agile enough to adapt that theory to their unique situation.

The Directorate should be charged with the Management of Change, Management of Culture, Personal/Employee Credibility, Delivery of Human Resource Practices, Critical Causal Thinking, Understanding Principles of Good Measurement, Estimating Causal Relationships, and Communicating HR Strategic Performance Results

I will also suggest the building of a scorecard that will link the staff to strategy and performance. With any change efforts, we need to conduct periodic check-ups to examine what is and what is not working. Like wise, make a commitment to examine our HR Score-card effort every six or twelve months.

During these assessments, the Score-card team should answer questions such as the following:

What has worked in the HR Scorecard initiative to date?

What hasnt worked? What explains any lack of success? Were data not available, not collected, and not tied to results, not monitored, not part of existing management practices?

What can we do differently, based on our experiences so far with this initiative?

As these questions are addressed on regular basis, the HR Score-card will become increasingly ingrained in the management process. The score-card must apparently address the following;

Learning and Growth

The Scorecard must develop objectives and measures to drive organizational learning and growth for Succession Planning. Emphasis should be placed on the three principal categories for learning and growth:

Employee capabilities

Information systems capabilities

Motivation, empowerment and alignment.

Measuring Employee Satisfaction

Satisfied employees are preconditions for increasing productivity, responsiveness, quality and customer service. Elements in an employee satisfaction survey could include:

Involvement in decisions

Recognition for a good job done

Access to sufficient information to do the job well

Active encouragement to be creative and use initiative

Support level from staff functions

Overall satisfaction with the organization

Employees should be made to score their feelings on a 1 to 3 or a 1 to 5 scale, anchored at the low end with  discontented and at the high end with  Very (or Extremely) Satisfied. An aggregate index of employee satisfaction could then be posted on the Scorecard, with Senior Management having a drill-down capability to determine satisfaction by Region, Division, District, Units , Departments and location.

Measuring Employee Productivity

Employee productivity is an outcome measure of the aggregate impact from enhancing employee skills and morale, innovation, improving internal processes, and satisfying clients.

For example, a personnel serving in one of the remote areas in the Ashanti region, a very difficult and ill-motivated village reserved for personnel who are in one way or the other perceived as having to be punished for one reason or the other. He was himself sent there to be punished because he chose to serve the service at the expense of the whims and caprices of his self-seeking boss. He went and met an ill-motivated workforce some of whom were sent there for demanding their fair share of proceeds from their work done-one of whom was shot in the head on an official duty. This man did not allow the arbitrary transfer to ruin him but worked hard to the admiration of his colleagues, the village folks and the boss who sent him there.

Many question the source of his motivation and level of competence in such a difficult environment. This is very de-motivating, unprofessional and a typical example of Mr. Asante Apeatus accusation of vindictiveness, intimidation, vilification, cronyism and arbitrariness in the service when he appeared before the Justice Emile Short Commission.

The Score-cards are needed to be used in an integrated long-range strategic planning and operational budgeting process in these five areas:

Set stretch targets .Commanders should set targets all employees can accept and buy into- not monetary quotas to patrol teams and self imposed patrols and road checks. The cause-and -effect inter-relationships in the score-card will help to identify the critical drivers that will allow breakthrough performance of important outcome measures, particularly in combating crime.

Identify and rationalize strategic initiatives. The gaps between the ambitious targets set for score-card measures and the current performance on those measures enable commanders to set priorities for deploying personnel on action intended to close in on criminals and their activities.

Identify critical cross-functional initiatives. Commanders indentify the initiatives that will deliver synergies to the strategic objectives of the service.

Commanders link their strategic plan to discretionary expenses and mile -stones at each stage of planning. These mile-stones enable them to track the commands trajectory along its strategic journey.

Continuous Improvement Programs Linked to Rate-of-Change Metrics

Strategic Initiatives Directed to Radical Improvement of Performance Drivers.

My encounter with some detectives in the system fall short of the required cluster of knowledge, skills, and abilities to execute their job satisfactorily. It will also be vital to building the profile of detectives and post/transfer them according to their specialties. Detectives must be made to pursue relevant courses that relates directly to their job. The Detective training school, in my opinion can be upgraded to a full fledge academic institution to run investigative courses where detectives and allied units can be trained.

The reason most people never reach their goal is that they either do not define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable.

In paragraph 4(a)(i) of a communique issued on 27/06/2017 reads  Commanders and their personnel will act as change agents in the transformation process to deliver planned, democratic, protective and peaceful policing services to the public in accordance with the vision of the police service and 4(f)(viii) also read,  the welfare of Police Personnel is paramount This was after the then IGP, Mr. David Asante-Apeatu had organized a Regional Commanders Conference in Kumasi to sensitize them on his transformational agenda.

Sir Robert Peel, generally described as the founder of modern policing developed nine principles which the police institution operates. His noble institution which started in 1829 in the United Kingdom has undergone several stages. The three main models or phases viz: Traditional Policing, Professional Policing and Community Policing, put together constitute what he called Democratic Policing.

Crime in its orientation can emerge from or be the result of a conflict between the norms, values, and goal orientations of a social or cultural group and the legal codes that have been imposed by an alternative group that has the greater power to shape public policy. Yet within this framework, the crime that emerges from group conflict can occur when purposes, interests, and valued goals of groups become competitive with one another in other ways.

A fuller understanding of the relationship between people, strategy and performance may also require some innovative thinking in the analyses of data. Much of the challenge surrounding the introduction of a more strategically focused measurement systems involves the complexity of introducing any new systems. This is particularly true for measurements that let you assess relationships as well as levels. If measurements do not fully capture the underlying organizational processes or outcome that really drives strategy, they will have little or no effect.

The police are the largest and most visible segment of the criminal justice system. They have often been referred to as the Thin blue line between order and anarchy.

It is important to understand the following within the concept of managing in the short-term:

The disconnect and its impact on the organization. The fast forward pace of organizational life is a factor for everyone at every level. But there is too often a gap within organizations in how commanders day-to-day activities are perceived to further the goals of the service. The service moving at a dizzying pace because some commanders are not in tune with services overall needs and goals and can take the service a long way down the wrong path before the disconnect is even noticed, much less corrected.

And yet simply ponderously lumbering toward a long-range vision without demonstratable success along the way can spell the demise of not only the long-term strategy but also corporate vision. Complicating the problem is the fact that some commanders have some what different constituencies.

Corporate Truth vs Street Truth. Some commanders have somewhat narrower focus than does the corporate vision. Though the commanders at the lower level are closer on day-to-day basis to the junior officers, the public and their complaints, needs and expectations- which may not be the same as the demands, needs, and longer-term expectations of the service.

There is inherently potential conflict between the demands of the service and the will of an individual commander and the motivations and drivers of individuals who are charged with actually making things happen within the service. It is the difference between what I call corporate truth and street truth. The corporate truth is what and how the IGP wants the service to be administered to the satisfaction of Ghanaian stakeholders in line with international standards.

The street truth is the reality of the officers down the ladder like the one cited above who hear the message and determines-individually and collectively, consciously and unconsciously- how much of that pronouncement actually will be realized. It is the truth that the service commanders who, upon hearing or reading the organizational pronouncement, has thoughts that range from Thats a brilliant idea; our organization can really do this, to what was the individual thoughts. The street truth is more closely aligned to with the day-to-day realities of the junior command officers and his subordinates.

The question that arises at this point is what factors can cause an employee to perform at a certain level? Why do certain individuals perform better than others? A combination of factors such as (i) Declarative knowledge (ii)Procedural knowledge and c) Motivation.

Declarative knowledge is information about facts and things including information regarding a given tasks requirement, labels, principles, and goals.

Procedural knowledge is a combination of knowing what to do and how to do it and includes cognitive, physical, perceptual knowledge, motor, and interpersonal skills.

Motivation involves three types of choice behaviours;

Choice to expand effort (e.g., I will go to work today)

Choice of level of effort (e.g., I will put in my best effort at work versus I will not try hard).

Choice to persist in the expenditure of that level of effort(e.g., I will give up after a little while  versus  I will persist no matter what)

If any of the determinants has a value of zero, then performance also has a value of zero.

The fact that performance is affected by the combined effect of three different factors, has implications for addressing performance problems. In order to properly addressed performance problems, commanders must find information that will allow them to understand if source of the problem is declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, motivation, or any combination of these three factors.

If personnel lacks motivation but commanders believe the source of the problem is declarative knowledge. Then they would have to recommend that personnel for a sponsored training program so he can acquire the knowledge is presumably lacking. In the case cited above, it will be a complete waste of time and resources to train him because it is lack of motivation, and not lack of declarative knowledge that is causing he recent average or poor performance. This is why performance management systems need not only measure performance but also provide information on the source of any performance deficiencies.

Some authors use prosocial behaviours and organizational citizenship behaviours in referring to contextual performance. Contextual and task performance must be considered separately because they do not necessarily occur in tandem.

Contextual performance is those behaviours that contribute to the services effectiveness by providing a good environment in which task performance can occur.

Performance Appraisal System is a formal, structured system of measuring, evaluating job related behavior and outcomes to discover reasons of performance and how to perform effectively in future so that employee, organization and society all benefits OR a systematic evaluation of an individual with respect to performance on the job and individuals potential for development.

If this is the case, then regulation 39 of the Police Service Regulation, 2012 [C. I. 76] stands to be comprehensively reviewed to reflect monthly or quarterly activity and adopt a modern performance appraisal method than it is now.

Here is a close look at the six most used modern performance methods:

Management by Objective (MBO)

360  Degree Feedback

Assessment Centre Method

Behavioural Anchored Rating Scale (BARS)

Psychological appraisals

Human Resource Cost-Accounting Method

Zero in on goals

Structure the information

Harvard Business School Professor Michael C. Janson began writing about Agency Theory, or the relationship between various people or entities that are attempting to accomplish a given goal. This he calls, the price of the perception gap.

He postulates that because people are, in the end, self-interested, they will have conflicts of interest over at least some issues any time they attempt to engage in cooperative endeavours.

The Agency Theory states that in an agency relationship, there is a contract under which one or more persons, who can be considered the principal, engages another person, who can be considered the agent, to help further the principals goals.

Jenson states: The principal can limit divergences from his interest by establishing appropriate incentives for the agent and by incurring monitoring costs designed to limit the aberrant activities of the agent.

As you go down the chain, knowledge of the organizations objectives go down, and this can create tension, says Laurence Bunin, CEO of Handshake Dynamics, a New-York based Strategic Consulting firm that focuses on gaps between strategy and execution.

He says Organizations are amazed to find out how poorly the organizations vision and objectives are being received by the middle level managers and staff. Sometimes, they refuse to accept the reality of the communications effectiveness, citing the large effort and cost they expended on corporate communication programs and team meetings aimed at communicating the vision. What I have seen in the past about our IGPs is that they are able to set and articulate a clear vision and strategic direction, but they are increasingly frustrated when some commanders and staff are not able to implement the vision effectively. What is missing is the ability to translate the vision into tactics. These IGPs had a strong sense of vision and strategic direction, but they had commanders and staff who did not either have what it takes to execute that tactics or are self-seeking. To be strategically meaningful, the tactics needed to be well orchestrated. This required coordination and planning.

The challenge, in my opinion was finding the time to do the strategic planning necessary to translate a vision into a well orchestrated tactics. This key management skill became a lost art. As a result, decision makers seemingly became frustrated that their vision wasnt becoming a reality, even when they communicated the vision clearly. In introducing innovative measurements of performance drivers to enhance service delivery and image cleansing, it is equally important to demonstrate the strategic importance of HR planning processes and HR development for succession and continuity for human capital.

The question becomes how do you delegate effectively while minimizing the costs associated with that delegation? Narrowing the gap between what the IGP pronounces and what a commander executes requires managing for the short term in three important ways.

The Police Administration must:

Dramatically increase commanders knowledge and understanding of the organizations direction. The short-term decisions that dominate commanders lives must be clearly linked to the overall corporate vision- or at least not work against it. To delegate without increasing the distance between corporate truth and street truth, the Police Administration must enable managers to make decisions that are consistent with the corporate strategy, even without an executive staring over their shoulders. And those commanders must understand how their short-term actions are not merely expedient but actually link them to the corporate vision and further it. The resulting autonomy and opportunity for advancement satisfies the self-interest of the commander.

Expect and deliver measureable results. Those short-term moves linked to strategy must individually and collectively produce clearly demonstrable results that validate the vision and enable the Police Administration to demonstrate that the overall corporate direction is viable. Those results satisfy the self-interest of the IGP.

Flow organizational information back. The corporate strategy must incorporate flexibility and a constant flow of information as a priority so that strategy is constantly in touch with new information and changing trends. This helps keep strategy and short-term actions connected, each with its own role but supporting and reinforcing each other. This is the enabler of the first two directives.

The decision-making process is usually tied with the objectives required. If objectives are short term, (Less and less case), the decision will be mid-term.

To be an effective leader requires aptitude to manage/balance the short, medium and long-term aspects of the organizations goals. One cannot be forsaken for another.

Although decisions are made on a short-term basis, they are still inside the guidelines of a long-term vision/purpose. Technology changes and other events require that you make decisions for the short-term without losing the vision. When managing for the short-term as the IGP, you will function as a broker between the external and internal forces, a facilitator of both expectation and execution. That bridging will need to occur constantly, using the kind of incentives that motivates both staff and commanders to move in the same direction.

The distance between corporate truth and street truth is coupled with the balancing act that senior executives and commanders must perform with the long and short-term. Many want to live in the long-term world but find themselves dealing with the realities of current business. It is clear that many are torn between the strategy of the long-term and the realities of the short-term.

I have noted from the Five Year National Strategic Policing Plan document in 2010 to the Transformational Agenda that a certain amount of attitude adjustment may be needed. Either way, anyone who attempts to change the negative mind-set associated with managing for the short-term may face a certain amount of skepticism. It will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever tried to implement a change that junior command officers and the seniors feel the biggest impediments to change come from inside the service, not outside.

However, getting long-term and short-term in sync by creating a better understanding of how short-term moves can produce long-term success, can improve negative mind-set.

The immediate positive results that managing for the short-term focuses on can help persuade others in the service of its value.

This will help bridge the gap between corporate truth and street truth.

Where there is such a thing as an ethical community, there is such a thing as a community of ethical people. Corporately, the people agree on the values by which they are going to live. That agreement is what creates a culture of morality. And that moral culture becomes the source of ethics for the community. Ethical culture begins with an individuals personal commitment to live according to strong values.

When we return to character, we return to the natural state in which we are meant to function. Whatever form of leadership one exercises, that one person must be urged to make the commitment to help bring back character as the priority among leaders. Otherwise, our organization will continue to spirit apart, morally and ethically.

Course instructors must stop the habit of taking what they term school fees from promotion course participants. In the same vein, commanders must also stop taking money before issuing permits for motor-checks. Like the popular Akan proverb, he who brought sugarcane home brought house flies as well.

I am convinced that one of our greatest weaknesses as leaders today is our philosophical training about who we are as human beings  including inherent purpose as leaders  has been severely deficient. Our environment and other influences have produces defects in our thinking due to some flawed philosophies that have been perpetuated by our culture, which we have accepted. If we want to become leaders of character who make positive difference, we need to take a serious look at what ideas we have received, how those ideas have shaped our philosophy of life, and what beliefs and attitudes we may need to change.

As the Police Service continues to be cloth itself with the character of corruption, it will deteriorate and crumble if they do not make character their first concern.

Authored by:

D/SGT Richmond Yao Willington

[email protected]
Classy's real-time giving hub also allows nonprofits and potential donors to follow the fundraising action throughout the day on May 5, 2020, #GivingTuesdayNow. Visitors to the page can view the total amount raised, active campaigns, donation activity by the hour, total number of donors, and top fundraising categories on the platform. The site will also track real-time donations specific to COVID-19 response, including the total number of active coronavirus-related campaigns on Classy and a total amount raised for the cause.

"During difficult and uncertain times, the services that our country's nonprofits provide are more critical than ever," said Scot Chisholm, CEO and Co-Founder of Classy. "Already, we've seen customers such as the CDC Foundation, World Central Kitchen, First Book, and the San Francisco Ballet respond swiftly to the current climate by quickly creating coronavirus-related response campaigns. We're committed to supporting these organizations and many others by raising awareness for their worthy efforts and providing them with the resources they need to successfully fundraise online, both on #GivingTuesdayNow and every day."

In addition to providing nonprofits and potential donors with resources on #GivingTuesdayNow, Classy is actively involved in the relief efforts. For the first time ever, the company has launched two relief funds, leveraging its team members and partner network to increase charitable giving. The Classy National Relief Fund is an employee-led fundraising initiative that supports a group of select national organizations tackling COVID-19 relief and recovery efforts from different but complementary angles across the United States. This group includes the Gary Sinise Foundation, Team Rubicon, Teach For America, First Book, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, The Trevor Project, Oxfam America, Feeding America, CDC Foundation, and World Central Kitchen. In parallel, Classy employees are trying to raise at least $60,000 for the Classy San Diego Relief Fund , which benefits nonprofits located in the company's hometown of San Diego. The funds raised will be divided equally among six organizations selected through a company-wide vote: Feeding San Diego, Mama's Kitchen, Project Concern International, San Diego LGBT Community Center, Deaf Community Services of San Diego, and the San Diego Foundation.

To track #GivingTuesdayNow fundraising progress in real time or find an organization to support, visit Classy's giving hub at: www.classy.org/givingtuesdaynow/results .

About Classy

Classy is a social enterprise that creates world-class online fundraising software for nonprofits, modernizing the giving experience to accelerate social impact around the world. Based in San Diego, CA, Classy is trusted by organizations of all sizes, from the fastest-growing nonprofits like Team Rubicon and The Trevor Project, to some of the world's largest social organizations, such as The Salvation Army, Robin Hood Foundation, and Shriners Hospitals for Children. Classy also hosts the Collaborative conference, a three-day immersive experience designed exclusively for nonprofit professionals and social impact leaders to learn, share, and get inspired. For more information, visit www.classy.org or follow Classy on Twitter @Classy.

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Hollandaire Extensional Drilling Results

Perth, May 5, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Cyprium Metals Limited ( ASX:CYM ) is pleased to advise of the results of the Reverse Circulation ("RC") drilling that was completed during March 2020 at the Hollandaire (Table 1, Figure 1, Appendix 1) and Eelya South prospects (Table 2, Figure 2, Appendix 2*).HIGHLIGHTSHollandaire Drilling results include:- 1.0m @ 1.08% Cu from 53m in drill hole 20HORC014- 4.0m @ 1.20% Cu from 144m in drill hole 20HORC021- 2.0m @ 1.49% Cu from 153m in drill hole 20HORC022- 2.0m @ 1.78% Cu from 180m in drill hole 20HORC022- 2.0m @ 1.49% Cu from 180m in drill hole 20HORC023Eelya South Drilling results include:- 1.0m @ 1.10% Cu from 35m in drill hole 20ESRC028The RC drilling programme at Hollandaire was conducted around the margins of the existing deposit to test extensions of the mineralisation. The results show continuation of the mineralisation and the intersections are being taken into consideration in the planning for testing of further depth extensions through geophysical and drilling programmes.An RC drilling programme was conducted to the north of the copper rich intersections from drillholes ER19 and 20ESRC014 at the Eelya South prospect which were hosted in a sulphide rich zone (CYM ASX Release 25 March 2020). There was a continuation of the sulphide rich zone in this RC drilling programme however significant copper grades were not intersected. Field work at the Eelya South prospect has resumed following the RC drilling results to evaluate the potential for further copper rich sulphides in the prospect area.Executive Director Barry Cahill commented "The extensions to the mineralised zone at the Hollandaire prospect are very pleasing to see and this is being taken into consideration in the ongoing Scoping Study, which includes a review of the most appropriate cut-off grade for the deposits.Further geological investigation is required at the Eelya South prospect as the sulphide zone is persisting but without the same tenor of copper mineralisation as previously encountered. The Scoping Study work is continuing in conjunction with our external consultants and we look forward to announcing the results in due course."Musgrave/Cyprium Metals Joint VenturePursuant to an agreement between a wholly owned subsidiary of CYM and Musgrave Minerals Limited ( ASX:MGV ), an option has been granted by Musgrave Minerals Limited to earn-in and joint venture for an 80% interest in the non-gold rights over the tenements at the Cue Copper Project (CYM ASX Release 25 March 2019).The earn-in expenditure requirement for an 80% interest in the non-gold rights over the tenements at the Cue Copper Project, WA was met during the March 2020 quarter and the transfer of the interests and formation of the joint venture has been initiated (CYM quarterly activities report released on 17 April 2020).*To view tables and figures, please visit:About Cyprium Metals Ltd

Cyprium Metals Limited (ASX:CYM) is poised to grow to a mid-tier mining business and manage a portfolio of Australian copper projects to deliver vital natural resources, strong shareholder returns and sustainable value for our stakeholders. We pursue this aim, in genuine partnerships with employees, customers, shareholders, local communities and other stakeholders, which is based on integrity, co-operation, transparency and mutual value creation.
T he moment quarantine got decidedly thirstier? About 6.40pm two Mondays ago, when Devil Wears Prada star Stanley Tucci dropped a clip of himself making a Negroni for his wife Felicity Blunt on Instagram.

This is the most erotic thing in the world, viewers salivated on Twitter as a smartly dressed Tucci slammed, sipped and shaked his perfectly named quaran-tucci to a soundtrack of soft jazz. I want Stanley Tucci to manhandle me the way he slams down his cocktail ingredients, wrote another. Whether he intended it or not, the Oscar-nominated actor had just become the most sought-after bartender of global quarantine.

The downside? You have to wait a whole week until the next one. Tucci is thirst-trapping the world by limiting his masterclasses to every Monday, but the good news is hes not the only star moonlighting as a bartender while Hollywood is on pause. From Dwayne The Rock Johnsons mean margaritas to Salma Hayeks spirited super-juices, take a stool at the starriest bar in town.

Ina Garten

The lowdown: During a crisis, cocktail hour is almost any hour, smiles the American cooking host, queen of the its-five-oclock-somewhere philosophy, as she pours herself a head-sized Cosmopolitan in her Hamptons kitchen at 9.30am. How easy is this? she laughs, instructing viewers to shake their concoction for 30 seconds, which shouldnt be a problem as they have lots of time at the moment. Her main advice? You need a big pitcher. You never know whos going to stop by! No wait a minute, nobodys stopping.

Signature tipple: Cosmopolitan

Bartenders tip: Size matters. Garten insists only a giant martini glass will do

Ideal audience: The Carrie Bradshaw wannabes who like a drink before lunch

Stream it now: @inagarten

Salma Hayek

The lowdown: Hayeks home tutorial generously reveals a less glamorous side to celebrity cocktail-making: the Mexican-American actress includes a bloopers section documenting her struggles to put the lid on the blender, wardrobe malfunctions, and naming dilemmas. Is it a cocktail-slash-smoothie or a smoothie-slash-cocktail? Hayek isnt sure, but she is sure its good for you. Its packed with Vitamin C, she tells viewers, overlaying her video with ingredient emojis and tips on the digestive properties of ginger and mint. It not only contains properties to get you happy or relaxed, but also the agave plant, she says of her hero ingredient mezcal, the national spirit of Mexico. It has the same amount of calories as tequila, which is not a lot!

Signature tipple: The vitamin C cocktail

Bartenders tip: Dont forget to add lemon for flavour and vitamins (Hayek admits she missed it from her video)

Ideal audience: The wellness warrior who likes an extra kick

Stream it now: @salmahayek

Dwayne Johnson

The lowdown: The Jumanji star might be busy plugging his new tequila line, Teremana, which launched just before Covid hit, but you can make his signature quarantina cocktail with any tequila from your lockdown larder just in time for tonights Cinco de Mayo celebrations. Follow Johnsons Instagram for recipe tips, mixology masterclasses (and pandemic pep-talks), and his entertaining attempts at tequila-fuelled singing.

Signature tipple: The Peoples Margarita

Bartenders tip: Tastes best with French toast smothered in peanut butter, jelly and maple syrup.

Ideal audience: The gym-bro who thinks cocktails are for girls

Stream it now: @therock

Stanley Tucci

The lowdown: Prize for the sexiest cocktail tutorial of all time of course goes to Tucci, who managed to turn simple Negroni-making into an erotic art form with last months masterclass. How does he make Negroni-making so hot? viewers asked Twitter. The devil lies in the actors attention to detail: the tight polo shirt, the soft background music, the way he mhms and looks conspiratorially into the camera as though youre there on a date with him. Tucci might not be a mixology master (hes since been reprimanded for shaking his Negroni) but his tutorial is proof that credibility is all in the delivery: the way he confidently bangs the cocktail shaker against the counter makes you drink up every word he says. Check out the following weeks martini masterclass featuring Ryan Reynoldss (or is it Goslings?) Aviation Gin.

Signature tipple: Negroni

Bartenders tip: Try your Negroni off the rocks for a change (and by shot he means double shot, naturally)

Ideal audience: Literally anybody: your mum, your grandma, your gay best friend or your husband

Stream it now: @stanleytucci every Monday

William Borrell

The lowdown: His Camden and Kentish Town bars might be (temporarily) closed, but his home bar is open: Ladies and Gentlemen founder (and Johnny Borrells brother) has a daily cocktail series thats all about whats in your kitchen cabinet. DIY daquiris using Ribena; espresso martinis using Tesco vodka and chocolate scraped off his favourite biscuits. Those cinnamon sticks from two Christmases ago? Throw them in. That Keepcup gathering dust on your shelf? Use it as a shaker. A jam jar, a Thermos flask, are other suggestions.

Signature tipple: Espresso martini

Bartenders tip: If you dont have the ingredients at home, you can order Ladies and Gentlemens cocktails on Deliveroo

Ideal audience: The Londoner who misses their neighbourhood speakeasy

Stream it now: @ladiesandgentlemenbar (every day at 4pm)

Paul Feig

The lowdown: Creator of Freaks & Geeks Paul Feig is certainly geeky about his cocktails. Together with his wife Laurie, the Ghostbusters director has committed to streaming a new mixology masterclass every day through lockdown from their home in Burbank, California. Feig famously wears a three-piece suit to walk the dog (fittingly named G-buster) so naturally, he and his wife dress up for the occasion: leather jackets and shades for Seventies Saturday; sheets (over suits) for Ghostbusters night.

Their outfits might be serious but their tutorials, thankfully, are not: Feig describes himself as your favourite drunk uncle trying to be your idiot tour guide through a little bit of downtime and the couple finish each masterclass with a dance around their kitchen. Film-fanatics: tune in for themed episodes and Feigs shout-outs to famous pals.

Signature tipple: The Ghostbusters

Bartenders tip: Theres always room to dance, even in your kitchen

Ideal audience: The dapper lockdown dresser who still wears a suit for Zoom calls

Stream it now: @paulfeig every day at midnight (or at a more sociable time on his feed the next day).
Long term investing is the way to go, but that doesn't mean you should hold every stock forever. It hits us in the gut when we see fellow investors suffer a loss. For example, we sympathize with anyone who was caught holding Richly Field China Development Limited (HKG:313) during the five years that saw its share price drop a whopping 92%. And some of the more recent buyers are probably worried, too, with the stock falling 79% in the last year.

We really hope anyone holding through that price crash has a diversified portfolio. Even when you lose money, you don't have to lose the lesson.

See our latest analysis for Richly Field China Development

Given that Richly Field China Development didn't make a profit in the last twelve months, we'll focus on revenue growth to form a quick view of its business development. Shareholders of unprofitable companies usually expect strong revenue growth. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.

In the last half decade, Richly Field China Development saw its revenue increase by 32% per year. That's well above most other pre-profit companies. So on the face of it we're really surprised to see the share price has averaged a fall of 39% each year, in the same time period. You'd have to assume the market is worried that profits won't come soon enough. We'd recommend carefully checking for indications of future growth - and balance sheet threats - before considering a purchase.

You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

SEHK:313 Income Statement May 5th 2020

We're pleased to report that the CEO is remunerated more modestly than most CEOs at similarly capitalized companies. It's always worth keeping an eye on CEO pay, but a more important question is whether the company will grow earnings throughout the years. Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here..

Story continues

A Different Perspective

While the broader market lost about 14% in the twelve months, Richly Field China Development shareholders did even worse, losing 79%. Having said that, it's inevitable that some stocks will be oversold in a falling market. The key is to keep your eyes on the fundamental developments. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 39% per year over five years. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. 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. To that end, you should learn about the 4 warning signs we've spotted with Richly Field China Development (including 1 which is shouldn't be ignored) .

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.
As Hamilton public health ramps up COVID-19 testing in long-term care homes and puts one back in outbreak status, one medical expert says its too soon to say how and if mass testing will help stop spread.

Still, others have called for widespread testing and say its key to understanding transmission.

On Friday, Heritage Green Nursing Home in Stoney Creek, the site of the citys first outbreak back in March, had the misfortune of finding itself back in outbreak status, four days after their initial outbreak was declared over. The three new cases  all asymptomatic residents  were identified following mass testing at the long-term care home, as per provincial directive to test all long-term care residents and staff.

No one in the home is showing symptoms.

Dr. Dominik Mertz, an associate professor in McMaster Universitys Division of Infectious Diseases, says its not clear yet what value there is in identifying asymptomatic patients in care homes.

The assumption is (that) you do mass testing and pick up cases that wouldnt have captured otherwise, Mertz said. Its possible those three (cases at Heritage Green) would have been a source of a new outbreak  or it may not be the case and then the risk is you put outbreak measures in place for something that wouldnt have happened.

Mertz said a great deal about the virus remains unknown, including how asymptomatic carriers spread the virus. It is known that presymptomatic carriers can spread the virus before showing symptoms, but there are also people who never show symptoms and questions remain about how and if they transmit infection, he said.

In addition, some people have tested positive weeks after contracting the virus, he said.

Therefore, the Heritage Green cases could fall into one of three categories: presymptomatic, asymptomatic or they caught the virus weeks ago but are still testing positive.

Without knowing if and how asymptomatic people can spread the virus, long-term care homes with asymptomatic cases are forced to put the home into a hard lockdown, isolating all residents.

It makes sense to pull the trigger if you think you can prevent harm, Mertz said. But in the current situation, when we dont fully understand asymptomatic spread, it may result in harm to the residents without any benefit.

Still, other health-care experts have long pleaded with the province to test everyone in long-term care settings  a plea that fell on deaf ears until the province acquiesced on April 22.

And epidemiologists say testing is critical to understanding the extent of COVID-19s spread, at least in the community.

Testing is one of the tellers of epidemic response, said Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease expert based out of Toronto General Hospital, and certainly widespread testing is essential in getting a better understanding of how the epidemic is affecting different communities and the province at large.

Mertz says he would have preferred Ontario undertake a formal assessment of the potential value of mass testing before rolling it out provincewide. The undertaking is resource intensive, he added, at a time when resources are limited.

Meanwhile, the full extent of the second outbreak at Heritage Green isnt yet known.

Public health says some residents are still awaiting test results. Staff testing starts Tuesday.
Thiruvananthapuram, May 5 : The Kerala High Court on Tuesday failed to give a stay on the new ordinance of the Kerala government which allows it to deduct six days salary of all state government employees for the next five months to tide over the Covid-19 crisis, as it was cash stressed.

State Finance Minister Thomas Issac welcomed the court's decision and said those who went to the court failed to see the rationale behind our decision and it was meant to create fissures in the society.

Five different state government employees organisations had approached the court seeking a stay on the ordinance.

The court accepted the petitions but refused stay the ordinance and posted the hearing for next month.

The court pointed out that the state government has the right to bring out an ordinance and said that this is only a salary deferment and will be reimbursed.

It was on April 30 that Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan signed the new ordinance, 'Disaster and Public Emergency Special Provisions Act'.

The Pinarayi Vijayan government had last month decided to deduct six days salary of all its employees for the next five months to tide over the financial crisis caused by Covid-19.

But pro-opposition staff unions approached the Kerala High Court, which stayed it and this forced the Vijayan government to bring the new ordinance.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Monday what he called a normalization plan to gradually ease restrictions imposed during the coronavirus pandemic as the death rate falls, but warned of tougher measures to come should the number of infections rebound.

In a televised address following a Cabinet meeting, Erdogan said shopping malls would be allowed to open starting on May 11, as would barber shops, hairdressers and beauty parlours as long as they work on a system of appointment and accept customers at half-capacity.

Erdogan said that the government is also lifting entry and exit restrictions for seven cities where the coronavirus outbreak has been brought under control.

The measure, however, will remain in place for 24 other cities, including Istanbul and Ankara.

He also announced a respite for those chafing in home quarantine. Erdogan said that those over 65 who have been under a curfew for the past six weeks will be allowed to leave homes for four hours on May 10 when the rest of the population will be observing a weekend stay-at-home order.

Children would be allowed to take walks for four hours on May 13 and teenagers on May 15.

We have reached an important cornerstone, Erdogan said, as he announced the gradual lifting of restrictions.

But he also warned: If the rules aren't adhered to and the outbreak spreads again we will be forced to resort to tougher measures.

Meanwhile the health minister announced 64 new deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours slightly up from Sunday's 61 deaths, which was the lowest number of daily fatalities in over a month.

The country's death toll now stands at 3,461.

Fahrettin Koca, the minister, also reported 1,614 more confirmed cases, bringing the total number of infections to 127,659.

Turkey ranks eighth in confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins University.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
: Kerala Chief Minister



Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday urged the Centre to ensure that the NRIs who are returning to the country undergo COVID-19 tests before emplaning for their respective states.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vijayan highlighted thestate's concern on the matter.

Speaking to reporters, the chief minister said it was"dangerous" to bring back the stranded Non-Resident Keralites (NRK)s in various countries to the state without conducting any tests for COVID-19.

The state was informed that the expatriates will not be medically examined before boarding the flight from other countries.

In each flight at least 200 passengers are likely to come and in case there are one or two infected people among them, there are chances of other passengers getting infected, Vijayan said.

There should not be any lapse in following Internationally accepted health protocols lestthere should be setback in the state's efforts to prevent community spread of COVID-19, he said.

India has already sent three naval ships to evacuate its citizens stranded in the Maldives and UAE due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The state has been making systematic preparation for the return of NRKs, Vijayan said in the letter, a copy of which was released to the media here.

Though Kerala wanted the NRKs to return to their home state, there should not be any compromise with regard to observance of the "Internationally accepted health protocols".

"It is quite unfortunate that internationally accepted health protocols are not being followed while arrangements are being made for bringing back our people from countries where the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been severe," Vijayan said.

People travelling by chartered aircraft should be subject to COVID-19 tests before boarding, he said.

"The consequence of not doing so will result in people who are carriers of infection travelling along with others.

This will further lead to spread of the infection as and when these people come to their homes," Chief Minister said in the letter.

At least 4.27 lakh NRKs have registered in the NORKA portal, of which about 1.69 lakh people constitute the most vulnerable sections-- those who have lost their jobs, employment contract has not been renewed;



those released from prisons and awaiting deportation, pregnant women, students who have completed courses and whose visa had expired.

"However, as per the list prepared by the Union government, only 80,000 NRKs are in the priority list for being brought back to the state.

In the first five days, only 2,250 people are supposed to arrive at three airports in Kerala-- Thiruvananthapauram, Kochi and Kozhikode," Vijayan said.

He also wanted passengers to be brought through the Kannur International airport as at least 69,179 people have expressed keen interest in flying there,he said.

Vijayan also said all passengers will have to spend at least seven days in quarantine after which a PCR test would be conducted and those tested negative would be allowed to go for home quarantine.

Antibody tests would also be done, he said, adding that the state has placed orders for two lakh test kits.

Vijayan said that those who are coming from red zones and hotspots in other states must also undergo quarantine in the government facility for a period of seven days.

The centre has proposed to open the skies from May 7 for the expatriates who are stranded in other countries due to the lockdown.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BEIJING, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Monday marks the 101st anniversary of the May Fourth Movement in China. It bears a special meaning this year as the country is fighting the coronavirus as well as the "political virus" disseminated by some Western politicians.

The May Fourth Movement started with mass student protests on May 4, 1919, against the government's response to the Treaty of Versailles that imposed unfair treaties on China and undermined the country's sovereignty after the World War I. It then triggered a national campaign to overthrow the old society and promote new ideas, including science, democracy and Marxism.

The May Fourth spirit refers to patriotism, progress, democracy and science, with patriotism at the core.

It offers the Chinese people, especially the young people who are backbones at the frontline of the battle, with spiritual strength to fight the disease.

Young Chinese have played a pivotal role in the anti-virus battle with their firm convictions and expertise. Their perseverance, resilience and full devotion to the crisis response has won recognition of all walks of life in China, injecting vigor and hope into the country's cause of building a great nation.

The May Fourth spirit also shone through China's resolve at hitting back at the U.S. smear campaign against China. Lies, threats, bully and hegemonism by the United States will only prompt wide indignation among the Chinese people and boost their national pride.

Chinese youths are giving higher scores to their national pride as the country gathered in solidarity amid the fight against the epidemic. The average score of national pride among young Chinese aged 18 to 35 is 9.57 out of 10, up from 9.18 in a similar survey in 2019, according to a recent survey by the China Youth Daily.

The U.S. administration should quit its addiction to scapegoating and stop hurting the feelings of the Chinese people for the sake of its short-sighted and narrow-minded political gains. A great nation can only be built upon genuine strength, not passing the buck.

The year 2020 is a critical year for China to secure a decisive victory in the fight to eradicate absolute poverty and build a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

The coronavirus epidemic has created new challenges, but with the solidarity, devotion and strength shown by China's young people during the epidemic, we have every confidence in achieving the goals, for the first time in the country's history.
The Indian government perceives Pakistans efforts to raise the Kashmir issue at a virtual summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on the Covid-19 pandemic as a propaganda exercise, people familiar with developments said on Tuesday.

Pakistan President Arif Alvi, who represented the country at the NAM Summit via video conference on Monday, used the occasion to criticise India for its handling of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and for the alleged mistreatment of the Muslim minority.

Responding to Alvis speech at the NAM Summit, one of the people cited above said on condition of anonymity: Raising Kashmir at NAM is a well-established Pakistani propaganda exercise. The international community is well aware of it and recognises that this is a propaganda exercise that they go through.

The person added, The international community is also well aware of our position on this issue and I dont think we need to really dignify this with any response.

In his speech, Alvi didnt name India but referred to attempts to discriminate against and demonise Muslims in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. Speaking before Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he also referred to Islamophobia, hate speech, the scapegoating of a community and denial of medical facilities to this community in Pakistans immediate neighbourhood.

Alvi, a close aide of Prime Minister Imran Khan, also highlighted the condition of the Kashmiri people and said their sufferings were compounded by a communications blackout and lack of unfettered access to medical and other essential facilities and high speed internet. He also criticised what he said were efforts to change the demographic profile of the region.

In his speech, Modi, without naming any country, said: Even as the world fights Covid-19, some people are busy spreading other deadly viruses such as terrorism, fake news and doctored videos to divide communities and countries.
These 'manels', or all-male panels and conferences have become so rampant since 2010 that feminist groups all around the world have started calling them out, and many have even boycotted events that do not have women panellists.

On 21 April, the International Paediatric Association organised a webinar on the needs of women and newborn, partnering with the World Health Organisation and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). It's an important issue in these critical times, but something was odd about the poster the organisation shared on their social-media channels  not one of the experts invited to speak on a subject affecting the lives of women and children was a woman.

A 'manel' is a panel of experts or participants at a conference or an event comprising only men. Holly Else in her article titled How to banish manels and manferences from scientific meetings published on Nature.com wrote that "the manference and its sibling  the manel, or male-only panel  have yet to reach the pages of dictionaries but first took off as hashtags on social media in the early 2010s." This pattern of all-male panels/conferences has become so rampant since 2010 that feminist groups all around the world have started calling them out, and many have even boycotted events that do not have women panellists.

Tumblr, in fact, has a blog named Congrats! You Have an All-Male Panel, which calls out events with men-only panels. Ungender, an advisory firm working in the field of diversity and inclusion at workplaces too curates manels in India on its Twitter handle to draw attention to this trend. Other Twitter handles such as @ManelWatchUS (calling out manels in the USA), @ManelWatch (calling out lack of gender diversity on various platforms in Ireland), @EUPanelWatch (calling out manels in the European Union), @ManelWatchAU (calling out all manels and all white panels (wanels) in Australia), and several other groups and individuals have taken up the job of calling out all-male panels to emphasise on the need for gender representation.

Why the outcry?

Historically, cisgender heterosexual men have held the megaphone either in policy-making or in participatory dialogue, despite the stupendous contribution in institutional learning, be it research, media, academia, medicine, politics, or STEM, by individuals belonging to other genders. Lack of gender diversity on a panel belittles the work put in by leaders/experts other than men in their respective fields. It invisibilises them and dismisses their labour. When men hold the mic all the time, we shoot gender equity in the foot. Upper caste and privileged men and women speaking for everyone else, appropriating experiences and voices of those who do not have the stage, is usually disastrous for intersectionality.

Since the lockdown started in India due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reputed law firms, start-ups, merchant chambers, and confederations of industries, who can still manage to conduct business from home or want to showcase industry knowledge, are heavily engaging online, with clients and masses. Webinars are on an unprecedented rise and are being conducted on various issues such as the stock market, hospitality, dispute resolution, labour and employment, mergers and acquisitions, angel investing, mental health and more. Women, somehow, are completely missing from these webinars, or are on the panel as token representation because they work in the firm or company conducting these webinars.

What we found

The Confederation of Indian Industry has conducted approximately 25 webinars (and counting) in April 2020 alone. Out of these 25 webinars thus far, women panelists were included only in six. One specific webinar that caught public attention was on 'HR Resilience Planning and Preparedness in the times of COVID-19: Revival to Survival', which was a panel of six male leaders and not a single woman expert/leader in the field of Human Resources. Still think that the uproar on manels is unfounded?

Token representation: One woman does not make a panel gender-balanced

There is the obvious all-male panel, and then there is the token representation panel, where a sole female expert/leader is asked to be present.

In a recent instance, LetsVenture, a Bengaluru-based company providing a platform for angel investing and startup fundraising, conducted a webinar titled 'Angel Investing Masterclass' and boasted of 10 industry experts on its panel. Out of these 10 panelists, nine male panelists were from the industry and law firms, whereas the sole woman panelist was from the company itself. This is what you call token representation.

In yet another leadership summit on challenges and trends in healthcare named 'Ayusmat 2020' organised by IIM Bengaluru in February 2020, out of 21 experts and leaders in the healthcare sector, there was only one female leader. While this female panellist was from the industry, surely there must be more female experts/leaders who have made their mark in the healthcare sector through innovation, investment and adoption.

Can we stop this?

Actively calling out these manels, most times, urges the organisers to either change the panel constitution, or at least provide their rationale behind not including women. However, calling out a manel once it is formed is not a proper solution. Only a conscious organiser understanding the need for gender representation will address the issue. In these situations, organisers are sent scurrying about finding female experts for the conference/panel discussion and last minute changes, which are logistical nightmares for organisers.

However, more often than not, calling out such manels falls on deaf ears, and any excuse for non-representation of women on the panel is also cooked-up. Professor Imogen Coe in her article titled How we can (finally) put an end to manels called the excuse-making 'conference speaker bingo', that is a card full of excuses for not having more female speakers.

Impact

On 20 February, Ungender called out the Health Tech Summit 2020 organised by ETHealthWorld.com as an all-male panel of eight speakers. On 6 March, a revised advertisement was published in the newspaper with the inclusion of three female panellists and shared on the Instagram handle of Ungender. This demonstrates that organisers are listening and there is hope to see an end to the phenomenon once and for all.

In any case, it is the foremost responsibility of a male panellist to inquire about other panellists. Male and female colleagues are working side by side, so an all-male panel cannot be justified under any circumstances. Male panellists should speak with the organisers and suggest the names of their female colleagues, or any other female leaders or experts in their field, in case an organiser fails to identify the female panellists themselves. Not being a part of a manel is another step that can be taken by the male speakers to ensure that organisers become conscious of the requirement of gender diversity on a panel as practice. A website called the 'Pledge  I will not be part of male-only panels', is calling out male leaders actively, and asking them to deny being part of this pattern.

Here's a positive example of how men can make that change. When we pointed out to Ashish Tulsian, the co-founder of Posist.com, that he should have stepped down from a manel he was invited to, this was his response:

I agree. Guilty of this. 

While women representation is less in the industry overall, but the fact that this doesnt even occur to me is concerning Who should be on panel will remain prerogative of organisers bt I Promise to bring this up n push for it in every next opportunity  Ashish Tulsian (@atulsian) April 18, 2020

Gender diversity and inclusion are needs of the hour, and it is only natural to expect representation from all genders in discussions and conferences of seminal importance in any field.

(How does your organisation fare in the key indices that affect employee wellbeing? If you anonymously want to rate them, you can now. Click here to give your feedback.)

Suruchi Kumar is PoSH Advisor and Legal Services Head at Ungender
- Cristiano Ronaldo, siblings send their mum surprise mother's day present

- The 65-year-old took delivery of an exotic Mercedes Benz tied with a bid red ribbon

- The 35-year-old wished his mum and spouse Georgina a happy mother's day

Juventus superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and his three siblings surprised their mum with a brand new black Mercedes Benz in commemoration of this year's mother's day in Portugal.

The 65-year-old was full of joy while striking a pose for the camera beside her red-ribbon decorated luxury with a bouquet in her arms and an amazing smile on her face.

She could not hide her excitement as she took to social media to shower praises on her children for putting a smile on her face. She also wished every woman a happy mother's day in her message.

It would be recalled that she was not too long ago discharged from the hospital after suffering a stroke in early March.

Dolores Aveiro has since then been recovering while also on lockdown to avoid contracting deadly coronavirus that has been ravaging the world since last December.

While sharing the picture of her brand new machine, she said: "Thank you to my children for the gifts I received today. Happy Mothers Day."

Her proud 35-year-old superstar celebrated his mother and his partner Georgina Rodriguez on his page saying: "Happy Mother's Day to my two special women."

Also, one of her daughters Katia, who lives in Brazil, replied in a clear reference to Dolores recent stroke: You deserve the world mum. We are here to care for you. Have a lovely day my darling mum.

Meanwhile, Ronaldo is expected back in Italy for the remainder of the 2019-20 season has gone on break since March 9 due to COVID-19.

YEN.com.gh earlier reported that Cristiano Ronaldo has been unable to travel to Italy from his base in Madeira as reports claim he got stuck.

The Juventus striker is expected to return to his club after spending several weeks with his family in his hometown.

But according to Portuguese news media outlet TVI, his 30million private jet has been grounded in Madrid.

Ghanaians are not taking the COVID-19 serious because they don't see "dead bodies" on TV | #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
[May 05, 2020] IBD/TIPP Poll Shows Economic Optimism Rising Slightly as States Prepare to Reopen

The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index, a leading national poll on consumer confidence, rose by 4.0% in May after falling 11.3% in April and 9.9% in March. It remains in negative territory for the second consecutive month however, with a reading of 49.7. For the IBD/TIPP indexes, a reading below 50.0 indicates pessimism. The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index has established a strong track record of foreshadowing the confidence indicators issued later each month by the University of Michigan and The Conference Board. IBD/TIPP surveyed 1,225 adults from April 26 - April 29. Due to COVID-19, the poll was conducted online using TechnoMetrica's network of online panels to provide the sample. In addition to the Economic Optimism Index, IBD/TIPP surveyed respondents on key political issues for the separate Presidential Leadership Index and National Outlook Index as well as the Financial Related Stress Index. This month, the Presidential Leadership Index dipped 0.8%, moving from 49.7 in April to 49.3 in May. A month after each of the three components of this index increased by double-digit percentages, President Trump's Favorability rating declined by 2.7% and his Job Approval rating slipped by 0.2%. The Leadership component remained the same. The National Outlook Index reflected a slight increase. Its May reading of 47.8 is up 1.5% from last month's 47.1. Notably, the Morals & Ethics component continued to climb, rising another 5.5% after last month's 30.8% increase. May's Financial Related Stress Index declined 8.3% after last month's significant 36.1% increase. Its current reading of 64.0 remains above 50.0, which equals more financial stress while a reading below 50.0 on this index would indicate consumers feel less stress. "After a very tough April, the rise of several key components on May's indexes reflect that consumers are hanging onto small seeds of hope that the economy might bounce back as states reopen," said Ed Carson, IBD's news editor. "At the same time, there is clearly anxiety and consumers are hurting. Fifty-nine percent of respondents identify as job sensitive, and 50% report having trouble paying at least one of their bills. Concern over the state of retirement accounts is also high at 60%." The flagship IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index has three key components. This month, two of the three increased. The Six-Month Economic Outlook , a measure of how consumers feel about the economy's prospects in the next six months, rose by 11.3% to 42.3 after two consecutive months of double-digt declines. The component fell by 20.5% in April and 16.1% in March.

, a measure of how consumers feel about the economy's prospects in the next six months, rose by 11.3% to 42.3 after two consecutive months of double-digt declines. The component fell by 20.5% in April and 16.1% in March. The Personal Financial Outlook , a measure of how Americans feel about their own finances in the next six months, rose by 5.4% to 52.9 after its 18% drop in April.

, a measure of how Americans feel about their own finances in the next six months, rose by 5.4% to 52.9 after its 18% drop in April. Confidence in Federal Economic Policies, a proprietary IBD/TIPP measure of views on how government economic policies are working, declined by 2.4% to 53.8 in May. This cuts into last month's 4.8% increase -- the lone bright spot on the April Economic Optimism index.



The Breakdown

This month, nine of 21 demographic groups - such as age, income, race and party preference - that IBD/TIPP tracks were at or above 50, in positive territory, on the Economic Optimism Index. That is up from six in April, but down from 15 in March, 19 in February and 20 in January. Seventeen groups rose this month after 17 fell in April and all 21 groups retreated in March. Sixteen rose in February and 11 in January. On the Six-Month Economic Outlook component, just three of 21 groups that IBD/TIPP tracks scored in optimistic territory, versus one in April, seven in March, 14 in February and 12 in January. Optimism over the economy's six-month outlook fell among all three political groups and among both investors and non-investors alike. Optimism among Independents, a key swing vote in upcoming elections, rebounded to 37.4 in May after tumbling to 29.9 in April. That's still down from 42.7 in March and 57.5 in February. On the Personal Financial component, 13 groups IBD/TIPP tracked were in optimistic territory, up from in April but down from all 21 in March, February, January, December, November and October. Fifteen groups improved after all 21 groups fell in April, 17 in March, 12 in February and four in January. On the Federal Policies component, 17 of the 21 demographic groups tracked were above 50, vs. 19 in April when Congress and President Trump agreed on a $2 trillion rescue package and the Federal Reserve embarked on massive monetary stimulus. This month, just 6 groups rose, 17 in April and just one in March. ABOUT THE IBD/TIPP POLL The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index is the earliest take on consumer confidence each month and predicts with good reliability monthly changes in sentiment in well-known polls by The Conference Board and the University of Michigan. The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index is based on a survey of 900-plus adults chosen at random nationwide. The national poll is generally conducted in the first week of the month by live interviewers and both cell phone and landlines. For more information, go to www.tipponline.com. To license the IBD/TIPP Poll, please contact: [email protected]. About IBD Investor's Business Daily (IBD) is a leading financial news and research organization recognized for proprietary stock screens, comparative performance ratings and a record of identifying stock leaders as they emerge. The company takes a data-first approach to investing, educating investors about how to invest successfully using tested methods and sound research. IBD has honed its approach over the last 50 years to help investors make smarter decisions. Its stock lists have outperformed the S&P, and its presidential poll, the most accurate over the past four election cycles, was one of only two national polls to accurately predict the outcome of the 2016 Presidential Election. IBD offers a number of interactive stock research tools and provides information for investors of every level. To learn more about all that IBD has available, please visit www.investors.com.  2020 Investor's Business Daily, Inc. All rights reserved. Investor's Business Daily, IBD, CAN SLIM and their corresponding logos are registered trademarks of Investor's Business Daily, Inc. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005215/en/

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West Texas Intermediate , the U.S. benchmark, jumped 20.45%, or $4.17, to settle at $24.56 per barrel. The contract gained 3.08% on Monday  closing above $20 for the first time since mid-April  and posted its fifth-straight day of gains, which is the longest daily winning streak since July. International benchmark Brent crude settled 13.86% higher at $30.97 per barrel, and also posted its fifth-consecutive positive session.

Oil prices surged on Tuesday as optimism around ongoing production cuts and a recovery in demand with the reopening of economies around the world pushed prices higher.

"One thing is clear, the demand bottom is behind us, and this is manifesting in oil prices which are on the rise," said Per Magnus Nysveen, Rystad Energy's head of analysis. The "key reason behind the price strengthening is regional traffic data, which indicate the demand bottom is behind us," he added.

President Donald Trump weighed in on the jump in prices, writing "Oil prices moving up nicely as demand begins again!" in a tweet on Tuesday morning.

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Oil demand has fallen off a cliff as the coronavirus pandemic spread around the globe, forcing billions of people to remain inside and bringing air travel to a near standstill. By some estimates as much as a third of worldwide demand was erased in April.

But with economies gradually starting to reopen  a number of U.S. states, including Florida, began phase one reopening plans on Monday, while millions of Italians will return to work this week  investors believe there will be an uptick in demand.

"The reopening of economies has injected a degree of cautious optimism back into an oil market that plunged to historic lows only weeks ago," RBC analyst Michael Tran said in a note to clients Tuesday.

"There's reason to believe the worst of the demand destruction is behind us. Commentary from multiple companies pointed to an improvement in US demand at the end of April, particularly for gasoline," added Stacey Morris, director of research at Alerian.

The improving demand outlook comes as producers have scaled back production, which has also supported prices. The historic cut from OPEC and its oil-producing allies, which takes 9.7 million barrels per day offline, went into effect on May 1. Norway and Canada have also curbed production.

In the U.S., data from the Energy Information Administration showed that weekly production averaged 12.1 million bpd for the week ending April 24, roughly 1 million bpd below the all-time high levels from March. Exxon, Chevron and ConocoPhillips are among the companies that have cut production in the face of depressed prices.

Oil's recent strength barely puts a dent in its historic fall, however. Both WTI and Brent are firmly in a bear market, plunging 68% and 62%, respectively, from their 52-week high levels. The decline has also been swift  WTI's 52-week high of $65.65 is from Jan. 8.

And traders caution that the road to recovery for oil prices will be long and uncertain. Even with global producers scaling back operations, global storage is rapidly filling and some believe tank tops could be reached within weeks.

"The path to recovery for oil demand in the US and globally is still up in the air," Morris said.

And Nysveen believes the "market is still vulnerable."

"The existing problems did not magically get resolved, the storage constraint is still there ... We remain very cautious short term, but our view is that we will see a price recovery on the longer term," he added.
Warning: A photo below depicts the deceased individual in a casket. Some readers may find it disturbing.

Dolores Gutierrez DeLeon spent her last days at her daughters home in hospice care, surrounded by loving family and other caregivers.

The matriarch was the mother of five, grandmother to 17, great-grandmother to 31 and great-great grandmother to 11. She died peacefully at home April 23 at age 78.

Her saddened family made the difficult choice of cremation instead of the traditional burial because of COVID-19 restrictions and worked with Castillo-Mission Funeral Home on the arrangements.

While regular visitation wasnt possible because of the restrictions  family alone would easily have filled the chapel  a private rosary was set for last Friday.

On ExpressNews.com: Coronavirus restrictions prompt changes in funeral traditions

But when the first family members arrived for the rosary that day and looked in the casket, which was open for viewing, they were startled to find the person there wasnt their mother.

The family claims the funeral home staff insisted that the woman in the casket was their loved one, but a check for a scar proved it wasnt DeLeon, according to a lawsuit filed in 407th District Court.

Courtesy / DeLeon Family

San Antonio police were called, and the family reported that the body was missing.

The DeLeon Family is horrified and devastated by the unexplained disappearance of their beloved mothers body, Mark Louis Greenwald, an attorney representing the family, said in a statement. Further compounding this tragedy is the appearance of an unknown and unidentified (womans) body in the casket meant for (their) mother at the rosary.

Messages left for Luis A. Castillo at Castillo-Mission Funeral Home werent returned.

The plaintiff in the lawsuit, Irene DeLeon Perez, daughter of the deceased, accuses the funeral home of negligence and of depriving the family of the right to dispose of the remains of the deceased. The lawsuit seeks a trial by jury and monetary damages in excess of $1 million.

According to the lawsuit, the family said funeral home staff insists the body is DeLeons, but an inspection of the body inside the casket showed a prominent scar from DeLeons hip replacement surgery wasnt present.

At that point, the family claims they revoked the cremation order and told the funeral home to keep the rosary body in a safe place so the person could be identified.

A review of online obituaries on the funeral homes website indicates there were services for another woman with a similar name, Dolores A. Gutierrez, who died two days before DeLeon and was buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery on the same day as the rosary was scheduled for DeLeon. It was unclear whether the similar names played any role in what happened to DeLeons remains.

The family hopes that by releasing the photograph of the woman inside DeLeons casket that she can be identified, the lawyer said.

It is hopeful that if someone can identify the mystery body, it will lead to the discovery of the body of Dolores Gutierrez DeLeon, said Greenwald, who urged anyone with information to contact SAPD.

On ExpressNews.com: Parents remember daughter whose body went missing from funeral home

This isnt the first time a body has gone missing from a funeral home in San Antonio.

In August 2015, the body of Julie Mott, 25, was reported missing from Mission Park North Funeral Chapels on Cherry Ridge on the morning she was to be cremated. Her parents, Timothy and Sharlotte Mott, filed a lawsuit in a case that took years to resolve. It was finally settled for an undisclosed amount earlier this year.

Julie Motts body still has not been located.

In February 2015, Jesus Garza sued Memorial Funeral Home, claiming the wrong body was clothed in his wife Beatrice Garzas favorite dress for visitation.

Garzas lawsuit was dismissed in February 2016 after an undisclosed settlement was reached.

Elizabeth Zavala covers county and state courts in San Antonio. To read more from Elizabeth, become a subscriber. ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863
Cameroon Military Denies Civilian Deaths in 'Successful' Raids on Rebels

By Moki Edwin Kindzeka May 04, 2020

Cameroon's military says it killed at least 22 separatist fighters in a week of raids on seven rebel camps in the country's troubled western regions. Villagers, however, say the military killed at least 13 civilians in the raids, which involved hundreds of troops.

The commander in Cameroon's English-speaking Northwest region said more than 300 troops were involved in successful raids this past week on rebel Ambazonian camps.

General Valere Nka spoke via a messaging application Monday from the town of Bafut, where he was praising troops on behalf of Cameroon's President Paul Biya.

"A good number of Ambazonians were neutralized and we have [recovered] 50 guns, pistols, ammunitions, motorcycles and even a Fortuna car, two horses and so on," he said.

Nka said troops on Thursday and Friday killed 15 rebels in Bafut, including an infamous fighter calling himself "General Aladji," who in 2018 kidnapped dozens of schoolchildren.

He said Cameroonian troops killed seven other rebels during raids on camps in several villages and the town of Bamenda with no civilian casualties.

But villagers disputed that claim and said at least 13 civilians were killed in the clashes.

Thirty-two-year-old Oumarou Tanda said seven civilians were found dead after the military left his village of Bangolan.

Speaking through a messaging app from the village, he said three of those killed were fellow Muslims with whom he was praying on Friday when the military opened fire.

"The military men that are Muslims went into the mosque to pray," he said. "The Amba boys break in [attacked the troops]. So instead of the military to shoot the Ambas, they instead turned and be shooting but the civilians. Now in the village we do not know who we are counting on, because we were counting on the military but now the military are shooting but us."

Tanda said his village had welcomed the military in hopes that they would prevent rebel attacks and abductions.

In the northwest town of Tatum, farmer Innocent Ngumulah said crossfire during raids in three neighboring villages killed six people, including teenagers.

He told VOA that villagers had expected the army to protect them from the rebels.

"It is rather unfortunate. They had been hoping that the military will come in and solve their problems so that this killing left and right will come to an end. They regret that they are now like orphans. They are tired. They want peace and that the rule of law should reign," he said.

The separatists on social media blamed Cameroon's military for the civilian casualties, acknowledged their own losses in the raids, and claimed responsibility for an unclear number of military deaths.

Cameroon's military denied suffering any losses and said only a few of its troops were wounded.

Cameroon's anglophone rebels have since 2017 been fighting to carve out an English-speaking state from Cameroon's French-speaking majority.

The rebels and Cameroon's military routinely accuse each other of atrocities against civilians, which rights groups have documented on both sides.

The United Nations says the fighting in the English-speaking regions has cost more than 3,000 lives and displaced more than half a million people.

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Netflix, the most popular movie and TV streaming service, has taken action to prevent account fraud.

In February, Netflix unexpectedly stopped the trial use program in Vietnam. Vietnamese users no longer have one-month free and have to pay the fee when they begin using the service.





This is considered Netflixs response to the proliferation of Netflix account trading. Many Netflix accounts with a free one-month trial have been created and sold at low prices, just VND20,000-50,000 per account.



In Vietnam, Netflix services have monthly subscription fees of between VND180,000 and VND260,000.

The Ultra HD package, the most expensive, is the most commonly registered one, not only because it allows film with 4K resolution (SD and HD resolution are provided to the other two packages), but also because the package allows four users at the same time.

The Ultra HD package, the most expensive, is the most commonly registered one, not only because it allows film with 4K resolution (SD and HD resolution are provided to the other two packages), but also because the package allows four users at the same time.

If someone can find three other individuals who want to share the same account, the fee for each is just VND65,000.



However, some Vietnamese have found a way to use the service for even lower fees: registering Netflix accounts in Turkey.



Turkey has the cheapest Netflix service packages. The Ultra HD package there has a service fee of 41.99 TL, or VND140,000 only. If sharing the same account for four individuals, it would be VND35,000 a month, or half the price in Vietnam.



In recent days, Netflix users in Vietnam who registered Turkey accounts cannot watch films because Netflix took action.



They still can log into their accounts but when they begin watching films, they will see the sentence Khong the su dung tai khoan cua ban tai dia diem nay (Your account cannot be used in this location).



This problem only happens with the Turkey accounts in Vietnam.



Some users said if they use a VPN to convert IP addresses to other countries such as the US, UK and France, the Turkey accounts will run normally. If so, this indicates that Netflix has set limits specifically for the Vietnamese market.



The quick response by Netflix has affected the business of Netflix account buyers and sellers. Long, a Netflix user in Hanoi, complained that he cannot watch films on Netflix. When he contacted the seller, he was told to wait because the seller was seeking solutions.

Trong Dat

Netflix gets 16 million new sign-ups thanks to lockdown The streaming service behind Tiger King added 16 million subscribers in the first months of the year.
California-based software company Salesforce is joining the effort to help businesses reopen safely amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The customer-management company is building a new platform, called Work.com, to help businesses implement measures like social distancing and contact tracing, company officials said.

"When we go back to work in a few weeks, the virus is still going to be there. So we need to be thinking about what kind of things are we going to be doing to keep ourselves from the virus, or what kind of things can we do to take action to keep our workplaces safe," Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told ABC News' Rebecca Jarvis.

The platform will include wellness assessments that will allow employers to track employee health, visual maps of contacts and locations to help determine if anyone has come in contact with a sick employee, and shift management tools that can stagger employee shifts to maintain social distancing.

MORE: Extensive contact tracing, isolation controlled coronavirus spread in Shenzhen, China: Study

"When we reconfigure our workplaces, we're going to look very, very different until we're all vaccinated," Benioff said. "When we go back to the workforce, I don't think we're going to be coming back with as much commercial real estate as when we left. And certainly, when we come back into our office, we're not going to be sitting side-by-side next to each other either. We're going to be using the same social distancing, which means that I'm going to be staying about six feet away from other employees and customers in the workplace."

Breaking employees into teams that work on alternate days can help keep people from spreading the virus to an entire workforce, Benioff said.

PHOTO: Marc Benioff, founder, chairman and co-CEO of Salesforce, speaks at an Economic Club of Washington luncheon in Washington, DC, on October 18, 2019. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

"If all of a sudden if someone on Team 2 calls and says, 'Hey, I've got a positive test for the virus,' well then that whole team, they need to self-quarantine for 14 days until they know that they are not positive with the virus," he said. "But Teams 1 and 3, they can continue to work."

Story continues

The Work.com platform will also include resources from the University of California San Francisco and information from business, health and government leaders on how to adapt to the new normal and how to plan for future growth. The company has also launched the Salesforce Cares program to provide employee and customer support to more than 8,000 companies that have signed up, according to Salesforce officials.

MORE: When each state's stay-at-home order lifts

Salesforce is one of several companies creating tools to help businesses reopen offices during the pandemic. Global real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield has developed return-to-work guidelines based on what the firm learned helping move nearly 1 million workers back into their offices in China.

"There are absolutely going to be protocols and learnings from this pandemic that are not going to go away," Cushman & Wakefield CEO Brett White told ABC News. "Companies today, they have had to realize that things that they thought could never happen, have happened."

What to know about the 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

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.

Tech giant Salesforce joins effort to help businesses reopen safely originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Another person too killed in the combat; local sources say it's a 14-year-old boy

Army personnel leave after an encounter with the militants in the Chanjmullah area of Handwara in Kupwara district of north Kashmir, Sunday, May 3, 2020. An Army Colonel and a Major were among five security personnel killed in the encounter with terrorists. (PTI Photo) (PTI03-05-2020_000190A)

Srinagar: Three jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed and seven others wounded in a ambush by militants in the Qaziabad area of the Handwara belt in Jammu & Kashmirs frontier Kupwara district on Monday evening.

The slain personnel have been identified as constables Santosh Mishra, Chandra Shekhar and Ashwani Kumar Yadav.

In retaliatory fire, one person was killed; the authorities were not sure whether it was a militant or a civilian. Local sources identified him as a 14-year-old boy named Omar alias Hazim Bhat, a resident of Khaipora locality of Qaziabad.

The attack came two days after an Army colonel, a major and two corporals and a sub-inspector of the J&K police were killed in a close-range firefight with militants in a village. Two militants were also slain in that clash on Saturday evening.

In another attack, a jawan of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) was injured in a militant attack in central district of Budgam on Monday. Police said the militants tossed a grenade towards a grid station of the Power Corporation of India at Wagoora in Budgam, resulting in splinter injuries to the CISF guard.

Giving the details of the Handwara ambush, officials of the CRPF and J&K police said militants attacked a party of the CRPFs 92 Battalion (A Coy) at Wangam at around 5.30 pm with automatic weapons. Two CRPF men were killed on the spot and eight others injured. One of the critically injured jawans died on way to hospital, they said.

Reports said the exchange of fire continued for around five minutes.

Later, one more body was found near the site. CRPF spokesman Pankaj Singh said that the identity of the slain person was being ascertained. He said that no weapon was found on the slain person.

However, local police officials confirmed that a local boy was caught in the crossfire and killed on the spot.

CRPF spokesman while confirming the death of three jawans said that reinforcements quickly launched an operation in the area. Police sources said that soon after the incident, Army troops, J&K police and the CRPF together laid siege to a vast area to conduct house-to-house searches.

On Friday evening, Col Asuhtosh Sharma, Major Anuj Sood, Naik Rajesh and Lance Naik Dinesh and J&K police SI Qazi S.A. Pathan were killed in a fierce gunfight with militants in the Chanjimulla area, about 17 km from the place where the CRPF was targeted on Monday.

Two militants were also killed in Saturdays clash. Local sources said there were four to five militants in the group which was engaged by the security forces in the gunfight at Chanjimulla after a brief exchange of rifle fire in the neighborhood in which an Army jawan Shinbe Mangesh sustained an injury in his right leg.

The authorities had suddenly lost radio contact with Colonel Sharmas joint team of the Army and J&K police after it entered a private house where militants were present. Though the reinforcements including the Para Commandos of the highly-trained Special Forces of the Army were rushed to Chanjimullah, they could not move into the highly intricate area due to hostile weather and darkness, officials had said.

At first light on Sunday, the security forces officials learnt about the killing of the five members of the Army.

However, the Army maintains that the colonels team came under heavy gunfire from militants after it successfully evacuated the family taken hostage by militants to safety.

It reiterated that in the ensuing fire fight, two militants were eliminated and the five security personnel led by Colonel Sharma attained martyrdom in the service of the nation.
EAU CLAIRE, Wis.  Free coronavirus testing will be available in the next two weeks at eight sites in northern and western Wisconsin, as the Wisconsin National Guard hosts brief testing blitzes across the state.

People who have COVID-19 symptoms, even mild ones, are encouraged to get tested, local health officials said Monday.

The temporary bump in testing comes as Gov. Tony Evers announced Monday the state will give a free coronavirus test to every resident and worker in all 373 Wisconsin nursing homes, The Associated Press reported.

The Eau Claire free drive-thru testing site will be hosted at the Prevea Health testing site, 617 W. Clairemont Ave., from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 10 and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. May 11. About 200 tests will be available each day, and testing is also open to people without health insurance or an established health provider.

People with symptoms of COVID-19, including mild symptoms, are encouraged to participate, said Lieske Giese, director of the Eau Claire City-County Health Department.

Possible symptoms of the virus are fever (a measured temperature above 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit), cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle aches, headaches, sore throats or a new loss of taste or smell, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Any Wisconsin resident with symptoms of COVID-19 are welcome at any of the testing sites.

Upcoming testing sites are:

May 5: Drive-thru testing for Burnett and Polk counties and St. Croix Tribe at the Burnett County Highway Shop, 8150 Highway 70, Siren, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

May 6: Drive-thru testing for Douglas and Washburn counties at the Solon Springs Community Center, 11523 Business U.S. 53, Solon Springs, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

May 7: Drive-thru testing for the Bad River Tribe and Ashland County at Lake Superior Elementary School, 1101 Binsfield Road, Ashland, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

May 8: Drive-thru testing for Pierce and St. Croix counties at Western WI Health, 1100 Bergslien St., Baldwin, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

May 9: Drive-thru testing for Pierce and St. Croix counties at St. Croix Valley Business Innovation Center, 1091 Sutherland Ave., River Falls, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

May 10-11: Drive-thru testing for Dunn and Eau Claire counties at CVTC/Prevea Health, 617 W. Clairemont Ave., Eau Claire. May 10: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 11: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

May 13: Drive-thru testing for Chippewa, Clark and Taylor counties at Thorp High School, 605 S. Clark St., Thorp, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

May 14: Drive-thru testing for Chippewa and Rusk counties at Rusk County Fairgrounds, Rusk County Fairgrounds Road, Ladysmith, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The drive-thru testing sites are not limited to residents of those counties, Giese said Monday.

The state plans to announce more testing sites soon, according to a news release from Evers office.

The National Guards first testing days in western Wisconsin were in Alma and Turtle Lake.

For people without health insurance, many of the testing sites in Eau Claire are not turning people away, Giese said. She encouraged people to call those testing sites phone screening processes, and if they have difficulty, to call the health departments COVID-19 hotline at 715-831-7425.

Eyeing more testing

The Wisconsin National Guards testing blitz is part of a bigger plan for the state to ramp up testing.

Evers plan to reopen the state includes testing up to 85,000 people per week and seeing a decrease in cases. Giese said Monday the state has 51 labs with the capacity to run 11,347 coronavirus tests per day  but only about 3,000 tests are being run per day.

Were still well below the capacity number, and well below what wed like to be at for the state, she said.

Evers called the states testing capacity of over 11,000 tests per day one of our success stories here in Wisconsin, but noted that even though labs have the capacity, the number of tests being run in Wisconsin per day is much lower.

Evers said state health officials started contacting nursing homes on Monday to coordinate supplies in advance of testing more than 10,000 residents and staff each week, the Associated Press reported.

Statewide, 8,236 people have tested positive for the virus and 340 have died, according to the state Department of Health Services. Those who have been hospitalized with COVID-19 number 1,621.

COVID-19 is the disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. It causes mild symptoms in about 80% of people infected, but severe complications can develop, including pneumonia.
In the mornings, each of us is provided with our daily ration of PPE, including a precious N95 mask. We are given instructions on how to reuse our masks multiple times without infecting ourselves. The PPE is in short supply. Working hours are long. Patients are quite sick and demand a lot of attention. Things can go wrong suddenly, and we have to be ready at all times to intervene. Some of us have fallen victim to the virus in spite of the precautions and use of rationed PPE.
This article is part of Privacy in the Pandemic, a Future Tense series.

In order to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, experts say we need some form of contact tracing: a way of tracking who has the disease, where they went before diagnosis, and with whom they may have come into contact. To that end, a variety of parties, from tech giants like Apple and Google to governments like those of South Korea and Singapore, are developing systems that use Bluetooth and GPS data to monitor the movements of the broader population.

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But as the economy reopens and people return to work, many private employers will need a more intimate, smaller-scale form of location tracking to monitor their employees movements within the office. According to the companies that offer these technologies, dozens of factories and hospitals across the country are already considering using badges and wristbands to track whether staff members are practicing social distancing and even whether theyre washing their hands or not. Such location-tracking systems have existed before in hospitals and health care facilities, but they are now poised to expand to other industries as employers try to reopen their offices and factories without causing a renewed outbreak of the virus. They could even help trace the spread of infectious disease in crowded environments like hospitals and academic conferences.

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The phone-based contact tracing system proposed by Apple and Google raises clear questions about user privacy, but it will also use anonymized data that many apps already collect, analyze, and sell to advertisers. The smaller-scale systems that will soon enter the workplace, on the other hand, will provide many private employers with new kinds of data about how their employees move around and interact with one another.

Many of these systems use radio-frequency identification, or RFID, technology, which is not exactly new. Retail stores and manufacturers have used it since at least the 1980s to track shipments and prevent shoplifting, and you can also find it in gadgets like contactless toll passes and house-arrest ankle monitors. Far more limited than a satellite-based technology like GPS, an RFID network typically consists of individualized tags attached to pieces of merchandise like T-shirts or socks. If a tag passes within a few feet of a receiver located, for instance, at the exit of the store, the system detects the movement of the item and alerts store management, often by setting off an alarm.

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The companies that market this tech to hospitals include CenTrak, SwipeSense, and Proventix. CenTrak alone operates in more than 1,700 locations.* They supply hospitals with one RFID-enabled lanyard for each staff member, and these lanyards then track the employee proximity to readers placed beside door thresholds, soap dispensers, and sinks. The lanyards record when nurses enter and exit patient rooms and whether they washed their hands before and after doing so, as well as whether they used soap and hand sanitizer when they washed their hands (or at least put their lanyards near the sensors). The systems then generate reports on each employees performance for management to review.

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The idea is that workers will be more likely to follow hygiene guidelines if they know their employers are tracking them. A hospital cant exactly pay someone to stand in the bathroom all day watching nurses come in and out, but if workers receive regular feedback about their hand-washing habits, theyll snap into shape rather than risk facing discipline from their supervisors. (Hand hygiene was a critical issue in hospitals even before the coronavirus: According to one estimate, as many as 70 percent of infections contracted in hospitals could be avoided if staff followed basic hygienic protocols.)

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We know the movement of where the staff are, so we can do labor analytics, said Felicia Boyd, a spokesperson for Proventix, which makes a system called nGage. We break it down individually so that managers know which individuals are doing well and which ones have low compliance. Theres no good way to change behaviors if we cant get that individual data and work with managers to identify those who might need some encouragement.

Though hospitals most often use nGage to monitor hand-washing habits, Boyd said the data it collects could also be used to track whether nurses had visited rooms with patients known to have infectious diseases and whether they had washed their hands after doing so. Management could also use the information well beyond the scope of hygiene, thoughfor instance, to determine whether certain nurses or orderlies are spending too much or too little time on patient visits.

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These social distancing monitors are likely to become a minor boom industry of their own.

Boyd said the company is in talks to install nGage at two hospitals once the spread of the virus abates and also said the company is looking at expanding into other facilities including nursing homes and jails. One Barcelona, Spain, hospital is meanwhile testing a system that would require staff to wash their hands before unlocking doors to let them into patient rooms or intensive care units.

Larger RFID companies that provide workplace safety solutions are now retooling their technology to promote social distancing in the wake of the virus. Zebra, the largest RFID and asset-tracking company in the world, said in a phone interview that it was weeks away from releasing a MotionWorks Proximity Solution that would provide employers with in-house contact tracing through a Bluetooth-based phone app or Bluetooth beacons that could attach to workers uniforms. The system would generate up-to-the-minute reports on which employees had come into proximity with one another and for how long, and could even make workers phones vibrate if they got too close.

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Weve had a flurry of activity and incoming inquiries, said Tom Bianculli, the companys chief technology officer. Bianculli said he couldnt share the names of the clients Zebra working with, but the company has developed tracking solutions in the past for Boeing, Jaguar, and the NFL. Another company, RFID Global Solution, said it is working with IBM to develop tracking badges for some factory floors; the badges would alert employees when they got too close to one another or entered a room with too many people in it.

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As more and more workplaces return to work in the next few months, these social distancing monitors are likely to become a minor boom industry of their own: Bloomberg News has reported that Ford planned to enforce social distancing by having its workers wear RFID wristbands, developed by Radiant RFID, that would buzz when a worker got too close to a colleague and would also provide supervisors with alerts about employees who were congregating together in larger groups. Another company, Guard RFID, published a blog post detailing how its technology could be used for infection control in the workplace, including through the use of wearable RFID tags that would alarm when tagged individuals come within close proximity to each other. (Guard RFID and Radiant both declined to comment on their ventures into social distancing solutions.)

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Theres still very little research into the social distancing solutions these companies are marketing, but past studies have suggested that RFID badges can produce short-term improvements in hand hygiene. One study of a hospital in Bangalore found a significant increase in hand sanitizer usage among a cohort outfitted with RFID trackers. Its unclear whether these systems can foster long-term changes in employee behavior, though. More in-depth studies have found that the benefits of this increase disappear after the tracing system has been in place for more than a year. Furthermore, its not clear that RFID can always be relied on for a true picture of employees hygienic habits. One study of Proventixs nGage found that while the lanyards captured about 90 percent of nurses movements and hand-washing actions in a laboratory setting, its accuracy dropped to about 50 percent in a real-life clinical test, meaning it only captured every other instance of a nurse entering a room or washing their hands.

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Nevertheless, these RFID technologies are likely to become more and more common in workplaces of all industries as the pandemic continues, and their presence could lead to unforeseen changes in the relationship between bosses and floor workers. These systems are not as data-rich as the Apple-Google program, which will be able to follow infected individuals as they traverse entire cities, but they could still allow employers to monitor and analyze behaviors that were previously almost impossible to track.

In time, employers could use that data as a pretext to discipline or dismiss employees for other reasons, says Alexandra Mateescu, a researcher at the Data & Society Research Institute. Amazon and Walmart, she noted, have already begun measuring employee temperatures using thermometer guns on their employees, sending home those who had high temperatures even though not everyone who has COVID-19 presents with a fever.

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If employers are tracking employees to make sure theyre social distancing properly, it doesnt really mean much if the environments dont make social distancing actually easy, said Mateescu. Its a question of where this could possibly be punitively shifting responsibility for safety onto workers themselves.

Theres no doubt that hand hygiene and social distancing are essential to slowing the spread of the coronavirus and preventing future outbreaks. But interventions like RFID, introduced to protect worker safety and guard against the virus, will still take place within the context of an imbalanced relationship between employers and their employees. Given the murky science about antibodies and the long timeline for developing and distributing a vaccine, it seems possible that hospitals and factories may need to use social distancing technology for years to come. Until the disease is defeated, Mateescu says, theres no telling what employers may do with the new data they gain under the auspices of worker safety and public health.

A lot of tracking of workers happens under the rubric of worker safety or ensuring that workers are not injuring or hurting themselves, she said. But the boundaries between that and using the data in ways that are punitive or negative are hard to establish.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
Australia and New Zealand are closer to opening their borders to one another after New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern met with Australia's national cabinet to discuss the possibility.

Hesitating to share details while the national cabinet meeting was ongoing, Ms Ardern said the so-called trans-Tasman bubble would be agreed to only if New Zealand was assured no cases would be transmitted from Australia.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Credit:Getty Images

Ms Ardern added that if travel was agreed to, neither country would require quarantine periods for visitors. "People wouldn't travel if they had to stay on either side in quarantine for a two-week period and have to do the same when you return," she said.

Ms Ardern remained tight-lipped in follow up questions from reporters, saying there would be "a lot of work" to be done before the countries could create a trans-Tasman bubble.
Police have recorded a sharp increase in hate crimes against Chinese people during the coronavirus outbreak, figures show.

The number of offences reported in the first three months of 2020 has almost tripled compared to the same period for 2018 and 2019.

Between January and March, when the Covid-19 pandemic was intensifying within the UK, at least 267 reports of hate crime were made across the UK.

From this figure, 63 offences were recorded by the Metropolitan Police, while forces in Cumbria, Devon and Cornwall, Essex, Humberside and Northamptonshire have already received more reports this year than they did throughout the whole of 2019.

In total, 375 hate crimes against Chinese people were recorded last year, up from 360 in 2018.

The new figures were released via freedom of information requests, submitted to the UKs 45 territorial police forces and British Transport Police (BTP) by Sky News.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19 in the UK, multiple incidents of racism against Chinese people have been reported, with victims having been spat at, punched and verbally abused in the street.

Deputy chief constable Mark Hamilton, the national policing lead for hate crime, said that no one is responsible for the outbreak and everyone has a right to be protected from targeted abuse.

We know that some forces have unfortunately had reports about a small number of offenders who have committed hate crimes against those from Chinese and South East Asian communities and linked to the Covid-19 outbreak, he told Sky News.

In March, the owner of a Chinese takeaway owner in Hitchin, Hertfordshire was spat at in the face by a teenage boy who demanded to know if he had coronavirus, in an incident recorded as a racially aggravated common assault.

Sharon So, daughter of the takeaways owner, told The Independent that the offender, part of a group of three, began recording her father on his phone and demanding to know if he was infected with the virus.

He shoved his phone in my dads face and started shouting: Do you have coronavirus? Do you have coronavirus?

My father ignored him at first and went into the kitchen, but the boy was still yelling at the front. So he went back out to tell him to leave, and the boy leaned over the counter, spat in my dads face, and ran off with the others, Ms So said.

In a separate incident in February, Jonathan Mok, a 23-year-old student from Singapore, said he was beaten up on Oxford Street in London in a racist attack.

Mr Mok said a man, who was with three or four other men and one woman, mentioned coronavirus before punching him in the face.

He said another member of the group then said: I dont want your coronavirus in my country, proceeding to then hit him on the nose.

Mr Mok, who has lived in London for two years and is studying at UCL, wrote in a Facebook post: Racism is not stupidity  racism is hate. Racists constantly find excuses to expound their hatred  and in this current backdrop of the coronavirus, theyve found yet another excuse.
Ghostinis with Bloody Murder Sundried Tomato Tapenade

Easy

Preheat the oven to 200C. Trim the hard crusts from both ends of the loaf of bread. Slice the remaining loaf into 1/2- to 3/4-inch slices; you will have between 14 and 16 slices. Using the cookie cutter, cut 1 to 2 ghosts from each slice of brea
The management of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital says the facility is ready to treat more persons infected with COVID-19.



This comes after the nations premier teaching hospital recorded a 100 per cent recovery of patients on admission at the facility due to coronavirus.



The patients, seven in all, were discharged after a series of confirmatory tests returned negative, a statement issued by the Chief Executive Officer of the Hospital, Daniel Asare, on Monday said.



The patients, discharged on Sunday, include a nurse, a doctor, an orderly and a security officer, who were all infected after coming into contact with infected persons.



In an interview with TV3s Abu Issa Monnie on the News 360 Monday, May 4, Dr Harry Akoto, Director of Medical Affairs at Korle Bu said the facility will welcome all patients and treat them accordingly.



Anybody, it can be staff or non-staff, if they come out here with any symptom of COVID-19, we are here trained and ready to treat the person, he said.



Meanwhile, Latest update published by the Ghana Health Service puts the countrys coronavirus pandemic count at 2,719 as of Monday, May 4, 2020.



This means 550 new cases have been confirmed since Saturday.



However, the number of recoveries has improved from 229 per the last update on May 2 to 294. The death toll stood still at 18, the Service reported on its website.



Greater Accra still leads the pack of regions with the most infected cases, recording a total of 2,332, followed by Ghanas populous region, Ashanti, with 124 cases.



Four regions  Savannah, Bono Region, Ahafo Region, and Bono East Region  are yet to record a single case.

Source: 3 news









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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Syracuse, N.Y.  Onondaga County became the first county in New York to reopen auto dealerships this week.

Syracuse-area dealers can start selling cars in person again after nearly two months of online and over-the-phone sales only. The dealers will be allowed to operate by appointment if they stick to a series of safety measures, according to County Executive Ryan McMahon.

The change is one of the biggest steps yet toward reopening the economy in Upstate New York. Auto sales are one of the areas biggest generators of sales tax  a critical piece of local government revenue.

The move to reopen dealerships comes with a series of restrictions to protect public health. Paperwork can be done remotely or in an open space. Employees and customers must wear masks. You can only see a vehicle by appointment. The dealership and vehicles will be regularly sanitized. And there are no test drives allowed with a sales rep.

McMahon sent a letter to the Syracuse Automotive Dealers Association Friday approving their request to start selling cars again by appointment. Until now, dealers were only allowed to take orders over the phone or online, then deliver a vehicle to someones home.

McMahon said he spent the last three weeks having conversations with the governors office about reopening auto dealers. Friday, he got confirmation, twice, that dealers could begin selling again by appointment.

Its a loosened restriction in advance of May 15, McMahon said Tuesday. Its an important step to help get some people back to work and also help folks that want to buy cars ... were certainly going to be regulating this.

Gino Barbuto operates the Chevrolet dealer in East Syracuse and is chairman of the New York State Auto Dealers Association. He said local dealers owe the partial reopening to McMahons efforts.

Chevy sales are down about 40% year over year, Barbuto said. He noted that auto sales are good for the state and the county because of the sales tax they generate.

Automobile purchases and purchases by automobile companies accounted for $1.1 billion in taxable sales in the 2018-19 fiscal year in Onondaga County, according to state tax records. Thats worth about $44.6 million in sales tax revenue for the county.

When the state first closed the economy, dealerships were shuttered entirely. After a week of lobbying, they were allowed to reopen for online and over-the-phone sales.

As dealerships like his reopen, Barbuto said, theyre taking precautions to keep people safe and comfortable. Theyll still make deals online or over the phone if thats what customers want, he said.

But auto showrooms are ideal places for social distancing, he said. Theyre big and tables are far apart, allowing people to keep more distance than they can at somewhere like a grocery store.

When you go to grocery store or Home Depot, theres a lot of activity going on, people in aisles... he said We may have 20 offices and tables. If we cut it down to half, nobody is within 10 feet of one another.

In addition to auto dealerships, hospitals have begun to reopen in Central New York. Most will begin outpatient elective procedures this week.

More pieces of the economy are expected to reopen as early as May 15, when Gov. Andrew Cuomos NY on Pause policies are scheduled to expire. Monday, Cuomo said the economy will reopen in four phases, starting with manufacturing, construction and select retail.

McMahon has said Onondaga County will lead the way on reopening the economy. Hes been developing a plan for a safe reopening along with his counterpart in Utica. Any plan will need the governors approval.

If theres common sense ways to loosen regulations and do it safely, thats what its all about," McMahon said.

Read McMahons letter to the Syracuse Automotive Dealers Association:

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

Coronavirus update: See which of Cuomos reopening requirements Central NY has met

What businesses might reopen this month amid coronavirus in NY? McMahon offers clues about restart

Syracuse family was poised for first graduate, a better neighborhood, a new career. Then coronavirus hit

Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com
An extreme wildlife show host suffered hand seizures, huge swelling and dizziness when he was stung by the world's largest hornet.

Nathaniel 'Coyote' Peterson, 38, writhed across the floor in pain seconds after he allowed the Giant Japanese Hornet's powerful stinger to pierce his right forearm.

The two-inch killer insect, more than three times the size of honeybees, has sparked panic after arriving in the US - with sightings reported on the west coast since November.

Nicknamed the 'murder' hornet, their venom is so strong they kill around 50 people a year in their native East Asia and can finish off a mouse in seconds.

Nathaniel 'Coyote' Peterson, 38, screamed in agony after he was stung 11 minutes into his video, He found the insect while hiking in Japan, its native habitat

The presenter experienced hand seizures, huge swelling and dizziness when he allowed the quarter-inch stinger to pierce his right forearm

The killer insects have sparked fear after sightings were reported on the US west coast

In the horrifying video, filmed for Mr Peterson's YouTube channel 'Brave Wilderness', the presenter holds the two-inch insect with tweezers before letting it sting his arm.

He immediately screams and recoils in agony, desperately clutching his arm.

His hand then clenches shut within 45 seconds as the poison pulses through his veins, before a massive swelling erupts across his forearm 20 minutes later.

'Oh, searing pain! Absolute searing pain!', he chokes while feverishly clutching his arm.

'When the stinger went into my arm, I had like this wave, this wave came over me... The pain was immediate, immediately searing.'

His team found the hornet after trekking through the wilds of Japan, where the species lives. It was trapped inside a glass jar after stinging him.

Mr Peterson, who has also been stung by a Tarantula Hawk, bullet ants and bees, rated the pain as one of the worst he has ever experienced.

His arm was left with huge swelling following the sting, less than 45 minutes after he was pierced. The two central dots indicate where he was stung

He placed the hornet on his arm (pictured) for his YouTube show 'Brave Wilderness'

Speaking to the New York Post, he said the insect is the stuff of 'nightmares'.

'In Japan, they actually call them the great sparrow bee because when they're flying, they look like a bird,' he said, noting their three-inch wingspan.

'It sounds like an apache helicopter - you can definitely hear them before you see them.'

Entomologists have raised the alarm in the US following sightings in Washington, close to the Canadian border, and unconfirmed reports in Cluster, in the same state.

The hornet, which is awakening from hibernation, can sting through most beekeeping suits and could prove fatal to some Americans.

Beekeeper on Vancouver Island, Conrad Berube, has been stung seven times by the hornets.

He told the New York Times it felt like 'having red-hot thumbtacks driven into my flesh', and said the puncture wounds bled.

Japanese giant hornets are more than double the size of honeybees, and have a wingspan measuring more than three inches

Pictured: Two Japanese giant hornets were placed on a notebook to show their huge size

While the hornets can be deadly to humans, entomologists are more concerned that they could kill off bee populations in North America - wiping out the essential pollinators

Giant Japanese Hornet Latin name: Vespa mandarinia japonica Adult length: Four inches Wingspan: Three inches Sting length: Quarter of an inch Description: Yellow face and large black and yellow striped abdomen. Large jaws and a noisy flier. Natural habitat: Woodland in Japan Venom: It administers seven times more venom than a honeybee when it stings. This acts as a neurotoxin and can lead to seizures and cardiac arrests. The sting is described as incredibly painful. Behavior: Insect emerges in April and nests in the ground. It predates on many insects, but particularly targets honeybees. Risks: Has a habit of sacking bee hives, decapitating the workers and stealing the young. The European honeybee has no defense against the invader. Its stings could also prove fatal to Americans. In its native Japan, it kills 50 people a year on average. Advertisement

Phone footage also shows a mouse dying just a minute after it was repeatedly stung by a giant hornet on a US sidewalk. Afterwards, the killer insect simply flew away.

It administers seven times the amount of venom as a honeybee which contains a deadly neurotoxin that can cause cardiac arrest and anaphylactic shock.

It could also decimate the country's honeybee hives, which the species is known to sack to take their young and dead workers as food.

A beekeeper in Washington found one of his colonies dead last November, with 'thousands and thousands' of honeybees lying on the ground with their heads torn off.

Shocking video from hives shows hornets surrounding them and decapitating workers, as desperate bee bodies pile-up on the floor below.

Farmers depend on honeybees to pollinate important crops such as apples, blueberries and cherries but, with the threat from the insects, they may now be reluctant to bring their hives to the area.

In native Asia, honeybees form a ball around hornets in an attempt to cook them to death, but in America the bees have not developed this defense.

Honeybees have a slightly higher temperature tolerance than the hornets, which they use to their advantage where possible.

The terrifying insects nest in holes in the ground, and prefer to live in woodland areas. This can include orchards.

Footage of the incident shows just how powerful the Asian giant hornet's venom is

It is unclear how the insects got to America's shores but a huge effort has been launched to hunt down their hives and remove them before the species establishes itself.

What should I do if I spot a Giant Japanese Hornet? Authorities are advising people not to approach the insects. State officials in Washington are asking members of the public to report sightings to them by emailing PetProgram@agr.wa.gov. Advertisement

They may have arrived in international cargo according to Seth Truscott from Washington State University's College of Agriculture.

'Hornets are most destructive in the late summer and early fall, when they are on the hunt for sources of protein to raise next year's queens,' Truscott said.

'They attack honeybee hives, killing adult bees and devouring bee larvae and pupae which aggressively defend the occupied colonies.

'Their stings are big and powerful with a potent neurotoxin. Multiple stings can kill humans, even if they are not allergic.'

The clip with Mr Peterson was filmed in November 2018.
Bhubaneswar, May 5 : One person was killed and 10 others injured when a bus carrying 40 migrant labourers, collided with a fruit-laden truck on NH-16 near Kuhudi of Khordha district in Odisha early on Tuesday, police said.

The mishap took place when the bus was en-route to Banki from Hyderabad.

Assistant driver K Srikant died and 10 migrant workers received minor injuries in the accident, police added.

The migrant workers belonging to Kendrapara, Puri and Cuttack districts had hired the bus from Hyderabad.

This is the fourth accident involving buses ferrying Odia migrants in last couple of days.

Earlier on May 2, two persons were killed as a bus carrying migrants from Surat met with an accident at Kalinga Ghat on Kandhamal-Ganjam border.

On May 3, at least three persons were injured when the bus carrying migrant workers from Surat met with an accident at Kalinga Ghat.
LONDON: Prime Minister Boris Johnson has offered more insight into his hospitalization for coronavirus, telling a British newspaper that he knew doctors were preparing for the worst.

The 55-year-old Johnson, who spent three nights in intensive care during his week of treatment in a London hospital after falling ill with coronavirus, told The Sun newspaper he was aware that doctors were discussing his fate.

It was a tough old moment, I wont deny it, he said. They had a strategy to deal with a death of Stalin-type scenario.

Johnson couldnt believe how quickly his health had deteriorated and had difficulty understanding why he wasnt getting better. Medical workers gave him liters and liters of oxygen but he said the indicators kept going in the wrong direction.

But the bad moment came when it was 50-50 whether they were going to have to put a tube down my windpipe, he told the newspaper. That was when it got a bit ... they were starting to think about how to handle it presentationally.

The remarks were Johnsons most candid yet on his brush with death, though he acknowledged when he left the hospital that his fight to survive could have gone either way, as he paid tribute to the two nurses who never left his bedside for 48 hours.

Jenny McGee from New Zealand and Luis Pitarma from Portugal, he said, embodied the caring and sacrifice of National Health Service staff on the front lines of the pandemic, which has already killed 28,131 people in Britain.

Johnsons close call is reflected in the name that he and fiancee Carrie Symonds gave to their newborn son. Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson was named after Johnson and Symonds grandfathers and after Dr. Nick Price and Dr. Nick Hart  the two doctors who saved the prime ministers life.

Johnsons actions since leaving the hospital suggest the NHS has a powerful new advocate as it seeks to reverse a decade of austerity that has left Britains doctors and nurses struggling to treat the flood of coronavirus patients with inadequate supplies of protective gear. Dozens of NHS workers have died in the outbreak.

The interview follows an emotional video made by Johnson after being released from the hospital on April 12.

Johnson called the NHS unconquerable and the beating heart of this country after seeing its response to the outbreak first-hand. He also lauded the courage of everyone from doctors to cooks.

The prime minister returned to work on April 27.
05.05.2020 LISTEN

The Deputy CEO of MASLOC and Aspiring Parliamentary Candidate for Yendi, Hajia Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakariah has donated some food items to members of the NPP Communications team and other party youth groups in the Northern Region.

They received maxi bags of sugar and cartons of ideal milk to support them in this holy month of Ramadan.

The items were presented on behalf of Hajia Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakariah by her campaign team.

The NPP Parliamentary Aspirant last week made a donation of over 1000 hampers to both Muslims and Christian communities in the Yendi constituency.

Each of the hampers contained a big bag of tea, two containers of sugar, a tin of milo, 10 tins of Ideal milk, a box of oats and two mini packs of dates. She also donated bags of sugar and cartons of milk to Chiefs, Imams, opinion leaders, women groups and youth groups towards the Ramadan.

Receiving the donations, however, the Northern Regional Communications team and the various youth groups expressed their appreciation to Hajia Abibata for the unexpected gesture. The prayed to Allah to grant her the Yendi parliamentary ticket in the upcoming NPP parliamentary primaries.

They also called on other party gurus and Government appointees to pay attention to the general welfare of members of the communications team in the region to help rekindle their spirit towards election 2020.
Orklas operating profit (EBIT adj.) rose by 12% to NOK 1,143 million in the first quarter of 2020. Operating revenues increased by 13% to NOK 11,507 million.



Branded Consumer Goods including Headquarters improved operating profit by 18%. Reported turnover growth for Branded Consumer Goods was 14.7%, of which 5.4% was organic growth.



Towards the end of this years first quarter, Orkla and the society entered highly unusual times which seem set to continue. The authorities have imposed stringent restrictions in all our markets with a view to curbing the spread of the coronavirus. As a supplier of food, cleaning and hygiene products, Orkla has a responsibility to society for ensuring that our products are available during this period. It is therefore gratifying to see that we have succeeded in maintaining close to normal supply chain operations, while safeguarding the health and safety of our employees as our main priority, says Orkla President and CEO Jaan Ivar Semlitsch.



The coronavirus crisis has consequences for Orklas entire supply chain and all its business areas. In the last three weeks of March, Orkla Foods and Orkla Care saw a substantial increase in demand for food, cleaning and personal care products. Much of the increase is due to consumer stockpiling and changes in consumption patterns. The Orkla Food Ingredients and Orkla Consumer Investments business areas experienced reduced demand.



The turnover of companies that have been negatively impacted by the coronavirus pandemic accounts for around one quarter of Branded Consumer Goods turnover. The coronavirus crisis now unfolding is creating extraordinary uncertainty in extraordinary times, says Jaan Ivar Semlitsch.



Hydro Power had operating profit of NOK 39 million in the first quarter, compared with NOK 73 million year over year. The reduction was due to a substantial power surplus in the Norwegian market and significantly lower power prices.



Profit from associates increased by 29% to NOK 213 million in the first quarter. Jotuns operating profit rose by 36%. There was good growth in sales of Marine Coatings, driven by high activity in the ship maintenance market. Growth in sales of Decorative Paints, Protective Coatings and Powder Coatings was moderate.



The Groups other income and expenses totalled NOK -165 million in the first quarter. The largest items were costs related to the reorganisation of HQ, restructuring costs at Orkla Foods and Orkla Consumer Investments, and the write-down of IT systems.



Orkla carried out a number of acquisitions and disposals in the first quarter. Through its wholly-owned subsidiary Idun Industri AS, Orkla Food Ingredients signed and completed an agreement to purchase 70% of the shares in Win Equipment, a leading supplier of soft serve ice cream machines in the Netherlands. Orkla Foods Norge sold the SaritaS brand to the newly established company Indian Gourmet AS.



In April, Orkla Wound Care signed and completed an agreement to purchase 100% of the shares in Norgesplaster. The company holds good positions in the wound care and first aid equipment markets, and with the acquisition of Norgesplaster, Orkla Wound Care has strengthened its presence in the pharmacy channel and the market for first aid products.



Orklas profit before tax increased by 16% to NOK 1,152 million in the first quarter. Adjusted earnings per share rose by 24%, coming in at NOK 1.05 in the quarter.



Orkla ASA



Oslo, 5 May 2020



Ref.:

Group Director Corporate Communications and Corporate Affairs

Hakon Mageli

Mob.: +47 928 45 828



SVP Investor Relations

Thomas Ljungqvist

Mob.: +47 482 59 618



An Excel spreadsheet with key figures may be found at www.orkla.com .

Story continues

A pre-recorded presentation of the first quarter results is available from the following link : https://events.webcast.no/orkla-asa/presentations/hNtloygYxEKeC8Qd7t2C .

A live Q&A session with President & CEO Jaan Ivar Semlitsch and CFO Harald Ullevoldster will be held today at 8.00 a.m. CET. This session may be viewed in a live webcast at: https://events.webcast.no/orkla-asa/presentations/zgtnwohiNaT9HnQpjPHh ) or followed by telephone. Dial-in details: +44 (0) 20 3003 2666 (password:Orkla Q1). Questions can be asked in writing in the webcast or by phone.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act

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Two years into the pandemic, the story of Danny Burtch is the story of incalculable loss and choices: whether to be vaccinated, whether to leave the isolation of home for fellowship, whether to partake in a game of cards.
Health minister Osagie Ehanire on Tuesday told the House of Representatives that there is no evidence yet that the mysterious deaths in Kano State were caused by COVID-19.

Mr Ehanire said rather, investigation into the deaths is ongoing.

The Northwestern state of Kano in the past weeks experienced a spate of unknown deaths, including of first class traditional rulers, health workers and academics.

Preliminary investigations showed that many of the victims died from malaria and cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM), according to the state government.

However, an address by the coordinator of the presidential task force on COVID-19 in Kano, Sani Gwarzo, on Sunday suggested that COVID-19 was the cause of the deaths.

Let me inform us that most of the deaths recorded of recent and tests carried out showed that Coronavirus was the cause, TheCable newspaper quoted Mr Gwarzo to have said.

So, before the final report which will be ready in the next one week or few days, it is necessary for the people of Kano to wake up from their slumber that this is a serious issue.

But when Mr Ehanire appeared before members of the green chamber during plenary on Tuesday, he brushed aside this claim.

He explained that investigations into the deaths are of three streams and there is no result yet linking them to COVID-19.

That test is still going on, and there are no results, he said.

There was never a case of him (the task force coordinator) saying 80 per cent of people died from that or any other disease at all.

The person did not ever say that the people died from coronavirus.

Mr Ehanire added that 95 per cent of the cases in the state were in about seven municipal councils, making it more necessary to restrict movements.

Kano recorded its first case of COVID-19 on April 11. The states figure of COVID-19 patients has risen in the last fortnight, making it the second state with the highest number of confirmed cases in Nigeria, behind Lagos.

On Monday night, the NCDC announced 23 new cases in Kano, putting the total confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state at 365, including eight deaths.

The state also recorded three recoveries Tuesday, leaving it with 354 active cases.
The times we are currently experiencing have a way of focusing everyone on what truly matters in life and in business, said Andrew Blake, President of Blakes Family of Companies.

Blakes Hard Cider (BHC), one of the fastest-growing cideries in the U.S., and largest in the Midwest, continues to report record sales growth, despite COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders in all of BHCs distribution markets.

BHC finished the first quarter of 2020 up more than 60 percent in sales and up over 62 percent in hard cider shipments. According to IRI data through the end of March, Blakes has the best dollar growth trend for all Top 20 U.S. hard cider companies. IRI data also reveals BHC is up 94 percent with national and regional chains and 59 percent with independent retailers. Despite the COVID-19 crisis closing all retail establishments in Blake's footprint, BHCs market sales growth is up more than 30 percent since shelter-in-place orders were issued in mid-March.

The times we are currently experiencing have a way of focusing everyone on what truly matters in life and in business, said Andrew Blake, President of Blakes Family of Companies which is comprised of BHC and Blakes Orchard & Cider Mill. I am proud of the way the team has adjusted. Thanks to online shipping and our distributor and retail partners our fans are still able to enjoy their favorite ciders. At the orchard, the team has worked tirelessly to support our local community by producing hand sanitizer, providing free meals to school children in need, offering drive-thru pickup and supplying unique offerings like cider mill baked goods and our popular farm share program.

To support the rapid growth, Robert Sharpe has joined the Blake Family of Companies as its chief operating officer and steps into his new role effective immediately. His day-to-day responsibilities will include but not limited to, designing and implementing business operations, establishing policies that promote company culture and vision and overseeing operations of the company and the work of executives.

Sharpe brings extensive consulting and executive leadership experience in the global food and beverage industry. With an expertise in operations, growth strategy and supply chain optimization, Sharpe recently served on the Blakes Board of Directors. He also founded TriPower Capital and SharpeView Ventures, companies in which its principals invested time and capital in companies requiring additional strategic growth or turnaround consulting.

Prior to his most recent work, Sharpe was chief operating officer of Kabbage, Inc., an automated business funding platform. He has also held several c-suite positions within global consumer goods and marketing companies including president, COO, CEO and board member. Sharpe also brings more than 10 years of experience in the corporate finance and commercial banking industry. He has been actively engaged in philanthropic causes throughout his career and currently serves on the board of Isdell Center for Global Leadership.

Together with my brother Pete, we believe that Bobs experience and guidance will be one of the final pieces to help us maximize and support the amazing talent of all of our truly valued employees, said Paul Blake, co-founder of Blakes Family of Companies. From the familys perspective, we know our company has grown to a point that our team needs and deserves the structured leadership and guidance Bob will provide in order to achieve our vision for the Blake Family of Companies. We are truly blessed to have him join us.

I am grateful for the opportunity to join the Blakes team in this leadership role. The company is experiencing dynamic growth in all aspects and I look forward to using my skill set to make an impact on the continued success of the company, said Sharpe. The Blakes team has created a performance culture with tremendous respect for each other. Blakes has a unique authenticity, connection to the community, approach to being good stewards of the land, and I look forward to helping accelerate the momentum they already have going.

At one time in his career, Sharpe notes he spent time as a hog farmer and looks forward to working at the orchard in Armada. He considers himself a food and drink purist and as such, his favorite Blakes Hard Cider is Lite Apple Classic.

A graduate of the University of Michigan with a degree in finance, Sharpe also holds a Masters of Business Administration from George Washington University.

About Blakes Family of Companies

Armada-based Blakes Family of Companies is comprised of Blakes Orchard & Cider Mill, serving generations since 1946 on an 800-acre orchard and Blakes Hard Cider, the largest craft cidery in the Midwest which was established in 2013. For more information, please visit, http://www.blakefarms.com and http://www.blakeshardcider.com.

About Blakes Hard Cider

Established in 2013, Blakes Hard Cider is an independent, family-owned and operated craft cidery and the largest in the Midwest. Grown, brewed and packaged entirely on an 800-acre orchard in Armada, MI, Blakes Hard Cider was founded on the value of its almost 75-year farming history. For more information on Blakes Hard Cider, how to find Blakes Hard Ciders, or to order online visit http://www.blakeshardcider.com.


Last month, the Twitter account of Basmah bint Saud bin Abdulaziz posted a message from the princess claiming she had been 'abducted' and 'thrown into prison'

A jailed Saudi princess who begged King Salman for freedom after she was detained without charge fears catching coronavirus after an outbreak at her jail, it has been claimed.

Princess Basmah bint Saud, a 56-year-old businesswoman and outspoken royal family member, was detained in March last year before she was due to travel to Switzerland for medical treatment, a source close to her family said.

Last month, her Twitter account sprang to life with a letter from the princess claiming she had been 'abducted' and 'thrown into prison' along with her 28-year-old daughter, Suhoud al-Sharif, and imploring King Salman and his powerful son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for help.

Sources now say there has been 'no more contact' and 'no signs of the princess or Suhoud', who are said to be in Riyadh's high-security Al-Ha'ir prison - known for holding terrorism convicts and political prisoners.

Princess Basmah's daughter is said to have told family members in a phone call that prison authorities had warned of coronavirus cases inside the facility.

The letter, a rare public appeal from a member of the secretive royal family, voiced fears that Princess Basmah's 'deteriorating health' could result in her death. Just hours later, the tweets were deleted.

Two sources close to her family told AFP the account had been briefly hacked 'by someone in Saudi Arabia'.

'Since the tweets, there is no more contact; no signs of the princess or Suhoud,' one of the sources said.

The princess begged her uncle King Salman (pictured above) to release her and tweeted that 'My health is deteriorating to an extent that is severe, and that could lead to my death'

Posting in English, Princess Basmah last month said her health is deteriorating and could lead to her death. She did not say what is causing her illness

'No more phone calls, nothing.'

The family's fears have been further amplified by concerns over a possible outbreak of the novel coronavirus inside Al-Ha'ir.

Allowed one weekly telephone call before the tweets, Suhoud told her family that prison authorities had sounded the alarm that coronavirus cases had been detected inside the facility.

A prison employee separately confirmed to the family that there were a handful of COVID-19 cases in Al-Ha'ir, the sources said.

Authorities in Saudi Arabia, which has reported more than 25,000 coronavirus infections so far, did not respond to a request for comment.

The government has said nothing publicly about the princess's detention.

The case, which spotlights what observers call increasing repression under de facto ruler Prince Mohammed, is the latest sign of turmoil within the royal family following the detention in March this year of King Salman's brother and nephew.

The youngest child of late King Saud bin Abdulaziz, Princess Basmah was preparing to travel to Switzerland on a private jet in March 2019 for medical treatment when a group of men claiming to work for the king showed up at her Jeddah penthouse.

Saudi princess Basmah bint Saud mysteriously disappeared from public life in March last year

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has orchestrated a crackdown on critics of the regime with detentions and others mysteriously disappearing

They said they were there to escort the princess for a private meeting with the monarch, according to the sources. Unwilling to let her mother go alone, Suhoud accompanied her.

They were taken straight to Al-Ha'ir.

Security footage of that encounter provided by the sources shows the men - burly and armed with pistols - before they moved to cover the surveillance cameras with pieces of cloth.

In written testimony to the United Nations, seen by AFP, the family said Princess Basmah's detention was likely due to her 'record as an outspoken critic of abuses in our country' as well as her enquiries about a fortune belonging to King Saud that is frozen by the state.

They fear the arbitrary detention without any criminal charges is an attempt to 'get rid of the princess', the document said.

She was also deemed an ally of former crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who was replaced as heir to the throne by Prince Mohammed in 2017, the written testimony added.

Prince Nayef and Prince Ahmed - the king's brother - were detained in a separate royal purge in March.

The government has yet to officially comment on the crackdown, which observers say is an attempt to stamp out dissent and enforce absolute loyalty within royal ranks to Prince Mohammed.

Princess Basmah suffers from numerous health issues including osteoporosis and severe gastrointestinal problems, according to her medical records seen by AFP.

Princess Basmah and Baron Henri Estramant during the Semper Opera Ball in Dresden, Germany in 2017

The sources said she has been denied medical treatment in jail.

Her detention in a notorious prison is unprecedented in Saudi Arabia, where royal family members are typically held under house arrest or detained in luxury villas or hotels.

Her family has issued a new appeal for her release in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began in late April.

But her troubles may have only increased after her Twitter plea - an unusually bold move by someone from the kingdom's sprawling royal family, comprising thousands of members.

Private entreaties - not public petitions - are considered the safest way to navigate the opaque justice system in the absolute monarchy. Saudi authorities are highly sensitive to criticism in public.

But her plea came after private letters making the same appeal to the king and crown prince, seen by AFP, went unanswered over the past year.

'There was no response at all, total silence,' one of the sources said.

In 2013, Princess Basmah bint Saud bin Abdulaziz al Saud, as she is known in full, claimed she was being blackmailed out of 320,000 for criticising the the Saudi regime.

She said a video of her blowing a kiss and smoking with her head uncovered - taboos in the strict Islamic kingdom - would have released by a 'sheikh in his 30s from the UAE' if she did not pay up.
Iran parliament approves currency overhaul bill

Iran Press TV

Monday, 04 May 2020 4:11 PM

The Iranian parliament has approved a bill to allow a major overhaul in the country's currency rial.

Lawmakers in the Majlis on Monday approved articles and subarticles of the Bill to Reform the Country's Monetary and Banking Act, a law which has dominated financial and economic exchanges in Iran since 1972.

The first article of the bill passed on Monday stipulates that Iran's currency would be reversed to toman, a legal tender that was in use nearly 100 years ago in the country, and each toman will be equal to 10,000 rials.

An earlier version of the bill discussed in the committees of Majlis earlier this year had named the small unit for the new Iranian currency as Parseh.

However, the bill approved on Monday said each toman will be equal to 100 qirans, a reference to the currency of Iran between 1825 and 1932.

Article II of the bill on currency overhaul sets up a "Period of Transition" from rial to toman, saying the old and new currencies could simultaneously circulate in Iran for a maximum of two years.

It also said that forex rates under the new currency will depend on the amount of Iran's currency reserves and other factors.

"The exchange rate for toman against foreign currencies .... would be introduced by the Central Bank of Iran in the framework of the dominant foreign currency system and observing the country's forex reserves and if necessary, the country's commitments to the International Monetary Fund," said subartcile 1 of Article I of the bill.

The bill also requires the government to pass and announce laws for implementation of the currency overhaul scheme within the next three months.

Iranian authorities have rejected the notion that currency redenomination could offset the negative impacts of the American sanctions on the economy.

However, experts say the move could prove successful as part of a wider set of measures adopted by the government to improve economic indicators in the country and diversify the economy away from oil revenues.

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The vision processing unit market is expected to grow by USD 892.45 million during 2020-2024. The report also provides the market impact and new opportunities created due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact can be expected to be significant in the first quarter but gradually lessen in subsequent quarters with a limited impact on the full-year economic growth according to the latest market research report by Technavio. Request a free sample report

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Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Vision Processing Unit Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

AI collects, analyzes, and stores large volumes of real-time data. The technology enables computers to perform numerous critical functions that require human intelligence such as learning, reasoning, and problem-solving. Governments and organizations around the world are focusing on the development of AI and are adopting AI for different purposes. Smartphone manufacturers use AI and deep learning to provide advanced features such as real-time DoF, and gesture and facial recognition in their smartphones. For instance, MediaTek launched a new SoC, which is designed for next-generation dual-lens camera smartphones. The SoC has ARM Cortex-A53 processing units and supports dual camera setups and AI enhancements through MediaTek's NeuroPilot. The growing adoption of AI in several sectors will increase the demand for VPUs, which are used for image processing for visual awareness. Hence, the growing adoption of deep learning and AI is expected to drive the growth of the 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=IRTNTR43075

As per Technavio, the rising investments in autonomous vehicles 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.

Vision Processing Unit Market: Rising Investments in Autonomous Vehicles

The rising investment in autonomous vehicles is expected to drive the growth of the vision processing unit market during the forecast period. Several automotive manufacturers are investing in AI technology to develop autonomous vehicles. For instance, in February 2020, Toyota announced an investment of around USD 400 million in Pony.ai, a self-driving start-up based in Silicon Valley, US, and Guangzhou, China, to test self-driving cars on public roads in two Chinese cities, namely, Beijing and Shanghai. Autonomous vehicles are equipped with several electronic systems such as forward collision warning systems, lane departure warning systems, front-view camera systems, smart cameras, and ADAS. VPUs are required for the functioning of such systems. VPUs accelerate the machine vision of autonomous vehicles. Several vendors provide specific VPUs for autonomous vehicles. For instance, GEO Semiconductor incorporated Cadence Tensilica Vision P5 DSP VPU, which was designed by Cadence Design Systems, for ADAS systems.

"Factors such as the increasing application of virtual reality (VR), and the increasing demand for commercial and consumer drones will have a significant impact on the growth of the vision processing unit market value during the forecast period," says a senior analyst at Technavio.

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Vision Processing Unit Market: Segmentation Analysis

This market research report segments the vision processing unit market by end-user (consumer electronics, automotive, industrial, and others) and geography (North America, APAC, Europe, South America, and MEA).

The North American region led the vision processing unit market in 2019, followed by APAC, Europe, South America, and MEA respectively. However, during the forecast period, the APAC region is expected to register the highest incremental growth due to factors such as increasing demand for consumer electronic devices, and the product portfolio expansions in the end-user industry.

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Market Drivers

Market Challenges

Market Trends

Vendor Landscape

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

Competitive scenario

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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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The Islamic State (IS), which has increased its activity during the coronavirus lockdown, launched a series of simultaneous attacks on Iraqi security forces throughout the country that went from early Saturday morning into Sunday. Much of the fighting took place in areas the group once controlled in northern Iraq, but IS also conducted operations closer to the capital, Baghdad, than it has been in recent years.

On Sunday, IS attacked Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) in Dujail, about 44 miles (70 kilometers) from Baghdad. The PMU said tribal forces joined it in defending the town, and tweeted photos of allied fighters in traditional garb. The PMU said it received multiple assaults on its positions outside the city of Samarra on Saturday. Iraqi forces do not always name IS when making reports about attacks, and it is possible some non-IS militants disgruntled with the government and the PMU were behind the attack. Samarra is about 80 miles (125 kilometers) north of Baghdad. The PMU also reported deadly fighting alongside Iraqi security forces Saturday in Yathrib, about 50 miles (85 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

IS has undertaken attacks on Baghdad in the past. In 2017, an IS suicide bomber killed 36 in a Baghdad market. However, security has improved significantly there since then, and the assaults in Dujail and Yathrib are the closest IS fighters have come to Baghdad in several years.

Iraqs Security Media Cell, an official security body that reports on IS attacks, also said that IS attacked a police station in Zaghaniya on Saturday. Zaghaniya is a little north of Baquba, a city 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

The Security Media Cell said that on Sunday, IS attacked the PMU near al-Eith south of Tikrit, which is 96 miles (155 kilometers) north of Baghdad. The PMU reported Ad-Dawr, also south of Tikrit, as one of the areas where it sustained attacks in alongside Iraqi security forces Saturday. The Security Media Cell reported fighting between IS and the PMU on Saturday in Mukeshefah, also south of Tikrit. A photo released by the PMU purportedly shows its missiles hitting an IS pickup truck there during the battle.

Tikrit is a predominantly Sunni Arab city. Former President Saddam Hussein, along with many of his closest advisers, were from there. IS controlled the city from mid-2014 to mid-2015.

Some of the attacks also took place in and near the disputed Iraqi-Kurdish territories in northern Iraq. Iraqi security forces clashed with IS in Jalawla on Sunday night. Jalawla, in eastern Iraq, is a disputed territory between the Kurdish and federal governments. It is only about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the Kurdistan Region border. An IS propaganda channel on the encrypted messaging service Telegram showed a uniform, a rifle, body armor and ammunition the group apparently took from an Iraqi soldier there.

Iraqi security forces also fought terrorists in Dellia Abbas, near Jalawla, on Sunday, according to the Security Media Cell. Tthe PMU said it and Iraqi security forces fought enemy fighters Friday in Tel al-Dhabab between Tikrit and Erbil, the capital of Iraqs Kurdistan Region. The PMU also reported that it fought in Matibija, south of the disputed city of Tuz Khormato, on Friday.

Kurdish forces took control of most of the disputed territories in 2014 following IS sweep through northern Iraq. In 2017, following the Kurdistan independence referendum, federal forces retook these areas. Many of IS attacks since its territorial defeat in 2017 have been in these regions, specifically in rural areas between Iraqi and Kurdish forces positions.

IS also stepped up its attacks in April during the coronavirus lockdown in Iraq, beginning operations against Iraqi security forces checkpoints and positions. IS attacks in recent years had previously been generally limited to small villages.
LOS ANGELES  Last year at this time, Disney was celebrating the record-breaking arrival of Avengers: Endgame in theaters. On Tuesday, with movie theaters closed worldwide, along with theme parks, Disney said that its quarterly profit fell more than 90 percent.

And that was for a period that was only partly affected by the coronavirus.

Our businesses have been hugely impacted, Bob Chapek, Disneys new chief executive, told analysts on a conference call, noting that theme park employees had been furloughed (an analyst-estimated 100,000 of them) and executives have taken steep pay cuts. Were doing everything we can to mitigate the impact of the cash burn.

Disney said its board had voted to forgo payment of its summer dividend, preserving about $1.6 billion in cash.

Mr. Chapek declined to say when Walt Disney World in Florida or Disneyland in California might reopen. (They closed in mid-March.) What about production on large-scale movies? When might shooting resume? No projections, he said.
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

A former Burlingame resident who admitted disposing of the body of a murdered Millbrae man in 2016 has been sentenced in federal court in San Francisco to six months in jail for passport fraud.

Mustapha Traore, who was raised in Ivory Coast, was sentenced Saturday by U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria after he pleaded guilty during the same court session to making a false statement by using the name of a French citizen on a U.S. passport application in 2011.

In a separate state court case, Traore pleaded guilty in San Mateo County Superior Court to being an accessory after the fact to the murder of Keith Green, the father of the two children of wealthy Hillsborough heiress Tiffany Li.

Li and her boyfriend, Kaveh Bayat, were accused of murdering Green, but a San Mateo County Superior Court jury last year acquitted Li and deadlocked on a verdict for Bayat. Prosecutors later dropped the charges against Bayat. Li posted $35 million in bail after being charged.

Green was fatally shot on the night of April 28 to 29, 2016. Traore, a mixed martial arts fighter who worked for Li as a part-time bodyguard and limousine driver, admitted to driving the body in the trunk of his car to Sonoma County and dumping it onto an embankment off U.S. Highway 101 north of Healdsburg.

Traore was scheduled to be the key witness against Li and Bayat in last year's murder trial. But District Attorney's Office prosecutors withdrew him as a witness after he violated the trial judge's orders by contacting a potential defense witness.

Traore was sentenced in San Mateo County Superior Court on Jan. 10 to three years already served, was released that day and then was immediately rearrested by U.S. Diplomatic Security Service agents on the charge of making false statements on his passport application.

The false statements were the use of the name of Olivier Adella, a French citizen living in Martinique, and a statement that Traore was born in France.

Traore, now in his mid-40s, moved from Ivory Coast to France and then used a phony French passport in Adella's name to enter the United States in 2002. He successfully applied for a U.S. passport under the same assumed name after becoming a naturalized citizen in 2011.

Traore has already served almost four months of the federal sentence and could be released in about two months. Chhabria also ordered him to serve six months in home confinement after his release.

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WASHINGTON - Cybersecurity pros are warning people to exercise caution before downloading apps aimed at combating the coronavirus pandemic that might be rushed out without adequate security protections.

The contact tracing apps, which are launching across the globe now, could provide useful information for governments and researchers trying to stop the virus's spread and give people an early warning that they might be infected. But they could also provide a trove of information for hackers if they're breached - which risks exposing the personal details of peoplewho tested positive for the virus and scaring people away from potentially critical tools to flatten the curve.

With U.S. cases surging toward 1.2 million and resulting in more than 68,000 deaths, the pressure is on to follow more than two dozen countries such as Australia and South Korea that have developed smartphone apps for the public to download. While the federal government has been slow to specify how it would use technology in its efforts to alert people whether they may have been in contact with someone who tested positive for the virus, commercial apps are on their way in some states here with a range of security and privacy protections.

Developers could miss basic security measures amid pressure to get the apps released as quickly as possible.

"The speed factor is probably the most concerning right now," David Grout, a top technology executive at the cybersecurity firm FireEye, told me. "That's clearly a challenge because developers need to put solutions in place in the really short term."

Already a coronavirus app launched by one of India's largest telecom companies exposed millions of records about users' symptoms and locations, TechCrunch reported. Security pros fear that similar vulnerabilities could lurk in other apps from state and national governments, health services and private companies, many of which are still in the process of being released.

"We know these apps are going to be buggy when they come out and that's a cause for concern," said Jon Callas, senior technology fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union and a former cybersecurity executive at Apple. "They're being rushed out in months if not weeks. I expect at least one horrible security or privacy thing to happen."

Security pros are especially concerned about apps that store large amounts of coronavirus data in a central location.

Those systems raise risks because they create a single target for hackers who could steal or expose reams of data that could be used to identify infected people.

This could be attractive to hackers working for adversary government, too: They might seek to link it with other stolen data troves to uncover secret health information about government officials or other intelligence targets.

The United Kingdom, for example, started piloting an app on the Isle of Wight Tuesday that collects anonymized data about users' self-reported coronavirus symptoms and the people they've come in contact with via Bluetooth and stores it all in a central computer bank. A similar Australian app also sends data to a central computer system that's accessible by public health officials but only if the user tests positive for coronavirus and consents to the sharing .

They fear governments and companies might collect more information than they need to, keep it longer than necessary or use it for purposes unrelated to the pandemic such as sharing it with law enforcement.

Amnesty International's U.K. Director Kate Allen warned in a statement the United Kingdom's app is "opening the door to pervasive state surveillance and privacy infringement, with potentially discriminatory effects."

Google and Apple, meanwhile, are developing a similar Bluetooth-based system that public health agencies across the globe can use to alert people who might be infected with the virus - but it stores all the data on people's phones rather than sending it to an external server. Apple and Google are developing the underlying software for use on their systems but relying on government health agencies to build the apps, which Washington has not yet decided to do though some states are planning to build apps using the system.

That's likely better for users' security and privacy because there's no central database of information for hackers to target - but it also limits how useful the information is for public health services trying to combat the virus's spread.

The companies also imposed a slew of new limits Monday on how public health agencies could use the apps, including banning them from being linked with GPS location information, which government officials say would help pinpoint outbreaks.

Most of the contact tracing apps released by Western governments are limited to collecting anonymized information about users' infection status and the people they've been in contact with.

But a slew of commercial apps for checking coronavirus symptoms and sharing information about the disease ask for far more information such as users' age, gender and ZIP code, all of which can be used to figure out a person's identity.

"It would be very easy for a sophisticated adversary to identify people," Tony Cole, chief technology officer at the cybersecurity firm Attivo Networks told me.

Experts fear people will be ostracized or publicly shamed if their infection status leaks out.

And there could be a link with cybercrime: Malicious groups looking to steal people's information or con them out of money might offer apps posing as legitimate coronavirus symptom trackers.

One Android app that posed as a tool to track the outbreak was actually full of malicious software that locked up people's phones until they paid a ransom, Business Insider reported.

Fireye released a blog post this morning outlining a series of things people should look for as they mull downloading coronavirus apps including how the data is being stored and secured, whether it's encrypted and if governments or other app developers are laying all that information out in plain language.

"This is not an easy topic for non-technical people. It's not easy to understand or dig into," said Grout, who co-authored the blog post.
Caracas, Venezuela  President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States had nothing to do with an alleged incursion into Venezuela that landed two U.S. citizens behind bars in the crisis-stricken South American nation.

Trump said he had just learned of the detention of the pair, accused by Venezuela of being mercenaries. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said they were part of an operation to kill him that was backed by neighboring Colombia and the United States.

Whatever it is, well let you know, Trump told reporters in Washington before departing from the White House to Arizona. But it has nothing to do with our government.

Authorities in Venezuela identified the two men as Luke Denman and Airan Berry, both former U.S. special forces soldiers associated with the Florida-based private security firm Silvercorp USA. Military records show both decorated soldiers served in Iraq.

A third U.S. ex-Green Beret and Silvercorp founder, Jordan Goudreau, claimed responsibility for leading Operation Gideon, which was launched with an attempted beach landing before dawn on Sunday. Officials said Tuesday that six suspected attackers were killed, giving a revised figure from the eight previously reported.

The State Department reiterated Trump's comments that the U.S. wasn't involved, accusing Maduro of launching a disinformation campaign to distract the world from recent events, citing a prison riot that left more than 40 dead and dozens badly injured.

Nothing should be taken at face value when we see the distorting of facts, a State Department spokesperson said in a statement. What is clear is that the former regime is using the event to justify an increased level of repression.

U.S. officials said they are trying to learn more about the events, including the activities of two U.S. citizens as well as Goudreau. Answers will only come out when Maduro's regime has ended, the statement said.

The two ex-U.S. soldiers were detained Monday dozens of miles (kilometers) from the first attempted beach landing in the fishing village of Chuao. Authorities say they've confiscated equipment.

Goudreau has previously said the operation was designed to capture  but not kill Maduro. He said he carried it out on a shoestring budget after signing an agreement with U.S.-backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who Goudreau accuses of failing to pay him.

Goudreau, 43, did not respond on Tuesday to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

On Tuesday, Guaido again said he had nothing to do with Goudreau, and that he had no relationship with Silvercorp, for obvious and evident reasons, but we have to make that clear.

Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez presented more details of the plot that he said resembled a Hollywood script fueled by the white supremacist ideas of its alleged American organizers.

They thought that because were black, because were Indians, that they were going to easily control us, said Rodriguez, showing images of what he said were boats and training camps inside Colombia from where the insurrection was organized.

He presented video testimony from a Venezuelan military deserter, Capt. Victor Pimenta, one of 13 captured participants.

Pimenta said that a group of nearly 60 combatants left Colombia at sundown on Friday May 1 in two boats aiming to reach La Guaira along the coast near Venezuelas capital of Caracas.

The second vessel carrying the commander of the operation, Capt. Antonio Sequea, and the two Americans experienced motor problems and had to abort the mission, he said.

Initially the stranded group tried to reach the Dutch Caribbean island of Bonaire, Pimenta said, but as the vessel was running out of fuel it dropped off a group of combatants along the Caribbean coastline. Commandos from Venezuelas armed forces caught up with them.

Venezuela is gripped by a deepening social and economic crisis under Maduro's rule that has led nearly 5 million residents to flee crumbling social services, such as unreliable water, electricity and broken hospitals.

The U.S. is among nearly 60 nations that back Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate leader, saying Maduro clings to power despite a sham election in 2018 that banned the most popular opposition candidates from running.

Venezuela and the U.S. broke diplomatic last year, so there is no U.S. Embassy operating in Venezuela's capital of Caracas that can offer the two detained men assistance.

It shocks me how insane they were, said Mike Vigil, the former head of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration. They walked right into a coiled rattlesnake without even having minimally studied the capacity of the Venezuelan armed forces. Theres no way the U.S. government wouldve supported an operation like this.
Sundar Pichai

Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

Zoom was once so popular inside Google that some engineers weighed the idea of an acquisition in 2018, according to a new report from The Information.

At the time, 'several thousand' Google employees were using Zoom instead of Google's own videoconferencing software.

Discussions never got more serious, and instead Google and Zoom have gone on to become rivals. Google recently banned use of the Zoom app on employee computers.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The coronavirus has been a boon to videoconferencing startup Zoom, as people have sought out new ways to connect under stay-at-home orders. It's also lit a fire under Google to improve its own video chat product.

But Zoom was once so popular inside Google that some Google Cloud engineers toyed with the idea of acquiring Zoom in 2018, according to The Information.

The report claims that "several thousand" Google employees were using Zoom instead of Google's own Hangouts Meet product at the time.

Discussions of an acquisition reportedly went as far as evaluating a "reasonable" price and calculating the cost of running Zoom on Google's servers. The discussions don't appear to have gone beyond that. According to the report, Zoom was "one of several" companies that Google's engineers were weighing up at the time.

What's more, a spokesperson for Google Cloud told The Information that the company "has never seriously evaluated acquiring Zoom." A spokesperson did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

The report paints a picture of an alternate timeline where Google would now dominate the videoconferencing space. In reality, Google went on compete with Zoom with its own videoconferencing product. But Google's messaging strategy has proven messy and confusing, with a seemingly-endless string of rebrands.

The company has been rolling out updates to its Zoom rival Google Meet, which until recently was known as "Google Hangouts Meet."

Story continues

The Information also claims that the company has been telling resellers of its service that it is stepping up efforts to compete against Zoom, highlighting Meet's security features as its competitor has faced a flurry of privacy issues.

Business Insider recently reported that Google had banned the Zoom app from employee computers, citing "security vulnerabilities" as the reason, however employees are still allowed to access it via the web browser and use it on their phones.

In the company's Q1 earnings call last week, CEO Sundar Pichai said that Google was adding around 3 million Meet users a day, which is up from the 2 million per day that the company saw in March.

But while Google is still chasing Zoom's lead, Zoom recently walked back its claim of having 300 million active daily users, clarifying that it actually has 300 million daily meeting participants.

Read the original article on Business Insider
ARLINGTON, Va., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Bloomberg Law today announced that it has made available to its subscribers a curated collection of news, analysis, Practical Guidance documents, reference materials, and tools to help in-house counsel and law firms make informed decisions related to business operations. As businesses move from emergency response to short- and long-term planning in the face of ongoing economic uncertainty, the two new In Focus pages guide attorneys through the options businesses need to consider when assessing continued viability.

Created for the unique needs of in-house counsel and their outside counsel advisors, In Focus: Remaining Operational features a wealth of information on matters that a business must consider in order to continue operations, including content related to contracts, corporate governance, transactions, and employment issues. When remaining operational is not an option, In Focus: Business Closure helps attorneys at law firms advise their corporate clients on the most appropriate business closure strategies, including the available options and the ramifications each option has on employees, supply chains, and current litigation.

In a rapidly evolving legal landscape, both new In Focus pages will ease the research burden for practitioners trying to quickly evaluate options. Featuring dozens of new practical guidance documents across numerous topics, including force majeure and bankruptcy, these pages will help attorneys make strategic decisions about companies, and provide them with the legal tools to execute those decisions.

"As the economy continues to stagnate due to the Covid-19 pandemic, legal professionals are being relied upon to provide well-informed counsel regarding the ongoing operations of a range of businesses," said Joe Breda, President, Bloomberg Law. "These new resources will be invaluable in providing our clients the intelligence they need to help businesses evaluate their options."

These enhancements to the Bloomberg Law platform are available to current subscribers at no additional cost. For access to the new In Focus pages, request a demo of Bloomberg Law at http://onb-law.com/ZoiU50zw25a.

About Bloomberg Law

Bloomberg Law helps legal professionals provide world-class counsel with access to actionable legal intelligence in a business context. Bloomberg Law delivers a unique combination of practical guidance, comprehensive primary and secondary source material, trusted content from Bloomberg BNA, news, time-saving practice tools, market data and business intelligence. For more information, visit https://pro.bloomberglaw.com/.

SOURCE Bloomberg Law

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Atiku Nagodi

Nigerian Mobile Police Commander, MOPOL 9 Assistant Commissioner of Police, Atiku Nagodi has died after a long battle with an undisclosed illness.

The Nation reports that MOPOL 9 is domiciled at Hotoro, Nassarawa local government area of Kano state.

Nagodi died on Monday after a protracted illness at his residence in Kano.

Kano Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa, confirmed the incident to The Nation.

He said the late MOPOL Commander served in many Police formations before his deployment as MOPOL 9 Commander.

Kiyawa said the deceased had been buried in his residence on BUK road after funeral prayers were observed.

According to him, Nagodi 54yrs, died after a protracted illness.

Haruna said: He did not die of coronavirus. He died after protracted illness.



l will give you the full details, when l get to the back to the office on Tuesday.

The late MOPOL Commander is survived by a wife and children.
Realme, Xiaomi and other smartphone brands resume operations in areas designated safe from COVID-19. Xiaomi also started selling the Redmi Note 9 Pro on Amazon for customers located in Green and Orange zones only. The phone had its first sale on Tuesday,

Realme is the latest smartphone brand to resume operations after the Indian Government allowed deliveries of non-essential items in Green and Orange zones. In a virtual press briefing with the media, Xiaomi also announced the same. Realme said it has started taking online orders and online sales of smartphones and accessories will resume in areas designated safe from COVID-19.

Realme resumes business in green and orange zones

The company opened up its online store after the MHA order was passed relaxing rules in green and orange districts. Realme will be delivering its products via its online channels that include Realme.com, Flipkart and Amazon. Offline stores in green and orange zones have also resumed operations. Areas that fall under the red zone will not be serviced.

Realme said it has been receiving a massive number of orders online since Saturday midnight. And while smartphone production is yet to resume for Realme, the company believes it has enough inventory to tide over the initial surge in demand.

Realme also said it has approached the State Government (in Realmes case, it should be the UP government since the factories are located in Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh) to get the necessary approvals for reopening limited production lines keeping in mind the safety of employees.

Once the factories receive the approvals to resume services, Realme said the factorys primary task would be to manufacture the new Narzo series along with the Realme 6 series. Having had to postpone multiple times, the company is yet to announce a new launch date for the Narzo series, however.

Realme service centres will also open in Green and Orange Zones gradually with the necessary precautions and approvals and in accordance with guidelines issued by respective State governments. Devices which had their warranties expired during the lockdown, Realme said it will extend them till June 30th.

Xiaomi also resumes services with a new business model

Realmes stiff rival, Xiaomi has resumed operations from May 4th as well. The company started selling the Redmi Note 9 Pro on Amazon for customers located in Green and Orange zones only. The phone had its first sale on Tuesday, May 5. In a press briefing on Monday, Xiaomi also said the Foxconn manufacturing plant in Sri City in Andhra Pradesh has already received approval to resume production and as such, Xiaomi will be able to resume manufacturing as well, although in limited capacities.

Xiaomis upcoming Mi 10 5G also received an official launch date that hopefully should not get postponed this time. The company will be doing a live-streamed launch event on Friday, May 8. All units of the Mi 10 will be imported since assembly lines in India doesnt have the capability to manufacture the flagship in India.

Xiaomi also announced a new Mi Commerce platform which is basically an offline-to-online solution for Xiaomi-exclusive offline retailers. Mi Commerce will work almost like the companys online store, only it will list out the inventory thats presently there with the closest retailer in your location and then arrange for hyperlocal delivery. The company promised working capital loans via Mi Credit to retailers as well.

Xiaomi VP Manu Kumar Jain said in a press briefing that he is optimistic about smartphone brands bouncing back after the lockdown. He believes smartphone is a modern-day essential item and the industry will follow a V-shaped curve where the sales will pick up post-lockdown, as fast as it went down after the lockdown was announced.

Xiaomi also said 15 percent of its offline Mi Stores are already operational, while 60 percent of them fall in green and orange zones and should be up and running soon.

As for servicing, Xiaomi has started an online appointment system to regulate the crowd at service centres. The company said it will be honouring service for users whose warranty expired during the lockdown.
Most transmission of Covid-19 occurs at the very early stage of the disease or before the onset of symptoms, a study based on Taiwan's contact tracing system has found.

The research looked at the outcomes for 2,761 close contacts linked to Taiwan's 100 confirmed cases of the disease caused by a new coronavirus up to March 18.

Only 22 of those contacts were found to have contracted Covid-19, and all of them caught the disease from people who had not yet reached their sixth day of illness or had not even started to show symptoms.

The findings  published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine on Friday  come as countries around the world are looking to find the best ways to stop the disease spreading as they ease social distancing measures and start to reopen their economies.

They provide important information for global Covid-19 control measures, according to JAMA Internal Medicine editor-at-large Robert Steinbrook.

The finding that asymptomatic people and those with minimal or fewer symptoms early in infection are those most likely to transmit Covid-19 strongly argues for maintaining social distancing and having people wear face masks to reduce the potential for transmission, he wrote in an editors note, that also said it highlighted the importance of comprehensive contact tracing and testing.

Testing only those people who are symptomatic will miss many infections and render contact tracing less effective, he said.

Taiwan has been hailed as a model for containment of the respiratory disease that has infected more than 3.4 million people worldwide and caused over 240,000 deaths.

The Taiwan Centres for Disease Control reported 432 total cases as of May 3, out of a population of around 24 million, on an island that has close travel and business ties with mainland China, where the disease was first identified.

Story continues

Contact tracing in Taiwan has involved identifying people who had more than 15 minutes of face-to-face contact with a person confirmed to have Covid-19 without appropriate personal protective equipment and then quarantining and monitoring them at home for 14 days.

The latest study on those cases, conducted in affiliation with the Taiwan Centres for Disease Control, could help health authorities determine how to best direct resources for contact tracing, the authors said.

The take-home message is that the transmission was the most intense immediately before and after the onset of the symptoms, co-author Lin Hsien-Ho, a professor at the Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at National Taiwan University, told JAMA.

The risk of infection decreased substantially after the first week of symptom onset, he said, noting the findings align with virological studies on when the presence of the virus peaks.

Of the 852 people who had close contact with confirmed cases after the sixth day of their illness, none of them contracted the disease.

There were also no confirmed cases linked to asymptomatic patients, the researchers found, but those who were exposed before patients showed symptoms were at risk.

Countries around the world are rushing to build teams of thousands of contract tracers or launch apps with similar capabilities to trace contacts and isolate and test potential cases before they can spread the disease to others.

The World Health Organisation has recommended that people who were in contact with a Covid-19 patient two days before the onset of symptoms should be traced, and this should continue for all contacts in the 14 days after the emergence of symptoms.

The authors of the Taiwan-based study suggest that, based on their data, in situations where the number of index cases and contacts is too large for all contacts to be traced, contact tracing should focus on people who came into contact with a sick person just before or soon after the onset of symptoms.

The study also found people living in the same households or part of the same family as confirmed cases were at greater risk than other groups, including health care workers. Their risk was seven to eight times higher than average, according to Lin.

The researchers noted that they could not completely separate out the effect of this close family and household contact with the early stage transmission of the disease, but found that pattern existed across different types of exposure.

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With less than a week to go before France starts easing lockdown measures, a group of doctors has again urged the government to clear unproven anti-malarial drugs, including the controversial hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), as a Covid-19 treatment to avoid a second wave. Critics are worried it may trigger more deaths.

As France scrambles to prepare to lift its 2-month lockdown from 11 May, a group of doctors has published a new study they say proves the efficacy of the controversial malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, combined with the antibiotic azithromycin, in treating Covid-19.

The trial carried out on nearly 100 infected doctors and their families found that a HCQ and azithromycin combination at the first sign of symptoms, substantially reduced the viral load of Covid-19.

The results smack of deja vu, after another promising study by French virologist Didier Raoult, who drew sharp criticism in March for touting unproven medicines as a potential cure to the worsening coronavirus pandemic.

The new study has renewed hope in nearing an end to the coronavirus crisis  but it has also renewed concerns.

I dont know M. Raoult, hastens to point out the reports lead author and endocrinologist, Dr Violaine Guerin, acknowledging that the controversial researchers work is not irreproachable, but has merit.

Early treatment

Taking hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin on the outset of flu symptoms can prevent Covid-19 from getting worse, she tells RFI. We can treat people now before they end up on a ventilator.

Hydroxychloroquine is typically used to treat lupus, an auto-immune disease, and other chronic ailments such as rheumatoid arthritis and malaria.

Guerin now wants it to be prescribed to health workers infected by the coronavirus outside of its approved uses, on compassionate grounds.

From the very beginning, doctors have been calling for the right to self-prescribe because they are the ones on the frontline of the coronavirus battle, explains Guerin, also a member of a doctors collective called "let us prescribe".

Story continues

Health unions on Monday warned that almost 12,000 health care professionals out of 550,000  roughly a quarter of the countrys health force  were sick with Covid-19.

We cannot waste time when we can treat Covid-19 now, as long as this is done in the early stages of the virus and patients are screened for pre-existing medical conditions, she insists.

Doctors as guinea pigs

Guerin's retrospective study, released last Thursday, was carried out on 3 groups and found that people taking the combined anti-malarial drugs recovered within 9 days instead of 25 for those taking a standard treatment of paracetamol.

Relatively small in design, she admits the trial was limited, but blames a government decree restricting sales of hydroxychloroquine and its related compounds to test trials, hospital care or to people with a valid prescription.

Our general practitioners were stopped from treating themselves because their access was taken away, regrets Guerin, who says infected doctors are willing to act as guinea pigs to prove that HCQ is safe when used correctly.

Not everyone is so sure.

A small study in Brazil using chloroquine  a more toxic version of hydroxychloroquine  was halted in April after patients experienced heart rhythm problems.

Around the same time, reports emerged in New York that a 65-year old woman had died after being prescribed the controversial cocktail of HCQ and azithromycin, renewing warnings about the serious heart risks associated with taking the drugs.

No silver bullet

In the United States, the ongoing uncertainty has begun to erode demand in hospitals and has taken the sheen off Donald Trumps claims the drug was a game changer.

The unprecedented spread and severity of Covid-19, which has killed over a quarter million people globally and more than 25,000 people in France, has left everyone scrambling to find a solution.

Countries like Senegal, India and Italy are putting their hopes in hydroxychloroquine, marketed under the trade name Plaquenil by pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, despite its risks.

This medicine was never fabricated for the treatment of Covid-19, cautions Jean-Baptiste Froville, a Sanofi spokesperson.

When hydroxychloroquine is given to long-time sufferers of rheumatoid disease, it is prescribed at lower doses. When it is used to test for its efficacy against Covid-19, the doses may vary and that is what can cause side effects, he tells RFI.

The pharmaceutical company has pledged to deliver 100 million doses of HCQ to some 50 countries to meet demand, says Froville, all the while warning against an irrational use of the product.

We are providing the drug to hospitals and doctors to enable them to carry out clinical trials to determine whether hydroxychloroquine is effective or not, but not to treat Covid-19, he said.

Dilemma

Dr Didier Raoult and his supporters have accused big pharmaceutical companies like Sanofi of blocking HCQ because it is cheap, being out of patent.

Froville says the group is not opposed to selling hydroxychloroquine but wants to wait for the results of global clinical trials before touting it as a Covid-19 miracle drug.

For Guerin, there is no time to lose: Before France lifts the lockdown, it must incorporate treatment into its exit strategy. Protecting, testing and isolating is not enough. It needs to treat as well.

But doctors who prescribe HCQ to patients in hospitals in the context of the coronavirus pandemic are liable to prosecution if the patient dies.

Guerin says this can be avoided if the drug is taken early, and regrets that current French studies, which discredit hydroxychloroquine, have only been carried out on severe Covid-19 patients.

We must free up the sale of Plaquenil to prevent a second wave of Covid-19 when the lockdown ends, she insists, even as critics warn that prescribing unproven drugs to treat the coronavirus may do more harm than good.

For the government, it will be a question of sifting through the hype and promise of hydroxychloroquine and saving lives. The intractable debate will continue well beyond 11 May.
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Nearly 1,400 part-time city staff and library pages face a temporary layoff during the pandemic freeze on municipal services.

The expected hiring of 400 summer students is also on hold, said city manager Janette Smith on Friday.

The affected city part-timers  a mix of lifeguards, museum and food services staff, camp counsellors and crossing guards  will stop receiving hours and paycheques as of May 4. This will save the city $250,000 a week as it seeks to shave down a $23 million pandemic deficit.

But the majority will go on declared emergency leave rather than receive a layoff notice, said Jay Hunter, president of the citys largest union, CUPE Local 5167. The distinction means workers maintain seniority rights and can return to the same jobs after the pandemic hiatus is over.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger said Friday the unpaid workers can apply for the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit, a weekly federal relief stipend for those forced to stop working due to COVID-19. Its a very difficult decision to make, but the reality is we have nothing for them to do at the moment, he said.

All city recreation programs are suspended as a result of COVID-19 and will not restart before May 25 at the earliest. Crossing guards are also temporarily out of a job, with schools shut by provincial order into May.

Paul Takala, chief librarian at the Hamilton Public Library, said 180 library pages are expected to take unpaid leave. Its a hard time, he said. But we hope to bring everyone back and reopen our libraries as soon as possible.

Smith said the city is still examining what staffing levels will be needed  and what work will be considered safe  for summer horticultural work if pandemic restrictions remain in place beyond May.

Hunter said the announcement was unfortunate, but not unexpected given recent temporary layoffs and unpaid leave announcements in cities like Ottawa (4,000 workers), Kitchener (842 workers) and Mississauga (2,000 workers).

He said the city and union are also searching for ways to redeploy some employees to help out with work linked to the pandemic battle. The city declared a formal state of emergency Friday which makes it easier to redeploy workers.
Donald Trump has claimed he saved 'millions of lives' by choosing to shut down the country rather than going for a 'herd immunity' approach when the coronavirus pandemic first hit US shores.

The US president added that the nation was 'starting to feel good' as stay-at-home measures were gradually starting to ease.

As he sat at his desk in the Oval Office, Washington, with a long list of his administrations accomplishments in front of him he told the New York Post the plummeting US economy was going to U-turn by the end of the year.

'I think theyre starting to feel good now. The countrys opening again. We saved millions of lives, I think,' he added.

Donald Trump said the US was 'starting to feel good' as stay-at-home measures were gradually starting to ease and the economy would be rising again by the end of the year. Pictured, during a Virtual Town Hall inside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on May 3

With 1,152,372 total cases, and 67,456 coronavirus deaths already reported in the country, the US has been at the forefront of the western outbreak.

The president was sure there was 'great optimism' the economy would rise again once businesses were allowed to reopen.

He said: 'We did the right thing and now were bringing the country back. And I think theres a great optimism.'

Elsewhere Trump dismissed the leaked secret FEMA charts that warn the daily virus death toll will hit 3,000 by June as 'false' and 'fake news', even though another key COVID-19 model has nearly doubled its fatality projection to over 134,000.

On Monday two staggering coronavirus projections were released including a private model by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention pulled together in chart form by the Federal Emergency Management Agency that said the daily death toll of COVID-19 will reach 3,000 cases daily on June 1.

According to the leaked FEMA chart, daily US deaths will reach 3,000 cases by June 1. That number is nearly double the current level of 1,750 deaths a day from the disease

That number is nearly double the current level of 1,750 deaths a day from the disease.

When asked about the leaked projection, Trump told the New York Post: 'I think its  I think its false, I think its fake news.'

The White House has said that leaked projection had not been 'presented to the coronavirus task force or gone through interagency vetting.'

Also on Monday The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington (IHME), which is often cited by the White House, released new models that forecast a death toll prediction of 134,475 fatalities by August 4, a major jump from its previous prediction of 72,433 deaths.

The spikes in the two models are linked to relaxed social distancing measures and increased mobility as states start to reopen businesses.

'These projections are considerably higher than previous estimates, representing the combined effects of death model updates and formally incorporating the effect of changes in mobility and social distancing policies into transmission dynamics,' The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington said.

IHME director Dr. Christopher Murray said factors that contribute to the heightened death prediction includes states adding presumptive COVID-19 deaths to their statistics and outbreaks in meatpacking plants across the nation.

Now, he says, the nation needs to worry about how reopening states might compound those numbers even further.

'I think the challenge for us all is to figure out what's the trajectory of relaxing social distancing on a measured pace that will protect us from big increases or even a full-scale resurgence,' he said to CNN.

During an interview on Friday, Biden, who is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, flatly denied former aide Tara Reade's claim stating the alleged assault 'never happened'

While Trump has denied the leak of the FEMA projections, which were obtained by The New York Times, it is sparking concern over how the virus might proliferate if states continue to reopen.

The global response to coronavirus saw countries' governments struggle contain the virus earlier this year as leaders followed differing scientific guidance.

One early option was a herd immunity approach - meaning to allow COVID-19 to spread until the majority of the population became immune in the hope that the virus died out.

But as the number of cases spiraled the US completely shuttered businesses and launched strict shelter-in-place measures to stop the spread of the virus.

Trump has claimed this policy saved at least two million lives.

Trump also laid into former vice president Joe Biden's denial of a 1993 sexual assault allegation by a former Senate staffer.

'I mean, his choice of words weren't very good when he, you know, dismissed the allegation,' Trump said of Biden.

During a televised interview on Friday, Biden, who is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, flatly denied former aide Tara Reade's claim stating the alleged assault 'never happened'.

Tara Reade accused Biden of putting his hand up her skirt in a Congressional hallway in 1993 and penetrated her

It was Biden's first public statement on the issue, coming after pressure from Democrats to address it directly.

The former vice president released a lengthy public statement and spent 20 minutes of a live interview on 'Morning Joe' repeatedly denying Reade's charge that he sexually assaulted her in a Senate hallway in the 1990s.

'They aren't true. This never happened,' Biden said in a statement made shortly before he was scheduled to appear on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe.'

But he faced an intense series of questions from co-host Mika Brzezinski about why Reade shouldn't be believed while other women should be. She also questioned Biden repeatedly about why he won't open up his Senate papers.

Biden faced an intense series of questions from MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski about why Tara Reade shouldn't be believed while other women should be during Friday's broadcast

Brzezinski brought up Biden's support for Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were in high school.

'Why is it real for Dr. Ford but not for Tara Reade?,' she asked.

Biden fumbled a bit as he answered, bringing up his long support for women's rights, the right for women to be heard but arguing 'ultimately the truth matters.'

'They should come forward. They should be heard, and then it should be investigated,' the former vice president said. 'She makes the case or the case is made, then it should be believed, but ultimately the truth matters. The truth matters. It's period.'

'I don't know what else I can say to you,' he added.

After COVID-19 arrived to the US in January, businesses across the country soon shuttered and the economy began to stagger as confirmed cases  and deaths  spiked at unprecedented levels.

Pictured: Servers wearing masks wait on customers on the deck of Dead Dog Saloon in South Carolina as rules for outdoor eating loosened on Monday

By March, the US had the largest number of infections in the world, even eclipsing China, where the virus originated in the city of Wuhan in December last year.

In recent weeks, restless state officials have slowly peeled back restrictions, led by Georgia, in response to a number of stay-at-home protests.

The southeastern state took another step towards a full restart by letting all businesses reopen from Friday. Large crowds of people were seen in Atlanta on Sunday as shelter-in-place orders expired and businesses opened.

In Florida, which has seen 1,300 deaths and 36,000 infections among its 21.5 million residents, retailers and restaurants opened their doors at a 25 percent capacity.

Clearwater police (pictured yesterday) has a large presence patrolling the beach as officers urge people to socially distance

While some beaches across parts of the state were allowed to reopen last month, Clearwater Beach in Tampa officially reopened to the public before sunrise on Monday morning.

Police removed 'closed' signs from barricades at 7am to the cheers of the 50 or so people waiting to step on the freshly groomed sand. Clearwater police have a large presence patrolling the beach and are urging people to socially distance.

Cafes along the beach also reopened with eateries allowed to resume dine-in services as long as they have outdoor seating and can ensure appropriate social distancing.

Medical practices can also resume elective surgeries and procedures as part of the state's phased reopening.

Large crowds of people were seen in Atlanta on Sunday as Georgia Governor Brian Kemp allowed shelter-in-place orders to expire

Movie theaters, bars and fitness clubs will remain closed for now.

Governor Rick DeSantis has left existing restrictions in place across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties - the three most highly populated in the state.

DeSantis had drawn criticism for waiting until April 2 to clamp down on commerce - after most other states had already done so - in part because of Florida's high proportion of elderly residents - more than a fifth are age 65 and over - who are especially vulnerable to the virus.

But Florida, a key swing electoral swing state, appears to have avoided the worst of the health crisis seen in other states such as New York and New Jersey.

The highest daily number of infections occurred on April 17 with just over 1,400 new cases.

New daily infections have been considerably lower since then and only increased above 1,000 on April 23 and May 1. The highest daily deaths occurred on April 28 with 83 deaths and fatalities appear to be on the decline since then.

The state does not appear to have met all the White House's guidelines for reopening, which include 14 days of declining cases and contact tracers to track infections.

Health experts are now concerned that warmer weather could prove to be challenging to manage coronavirus as restaurants, hair salons and other businesses reopen across the country.

In New York City, the warmest weather yet this spring caused picnickers and sunbathers to flock to green spaces in Manhattan, including crowded conditions at the Christopher Street Pier in Greenwich Village.

Last week, California ordered beaches in Orange County to close, after crowds defied public health guidelines to throng the popular shoreline. Police in the county's Huntington Beach said people were complying on Sunday.

Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner, said on Sunday the country was seeing a 'mixed bag' of results from coronavirus mitigation efforts.

Cones are set up to help beachgoers keep a safe distance from one another after Clearwater Beach in Florida after the beach officially reopened on Monday amid the pandemic

Cafes along the beach also reopened with eateries allowed to resume dine-in services if they have outdoor seating and can ensure appropriate social distancing

He said there were about 20 states seeing a rising number of new cases including Illinois, Texas, Maryland, Indiana, Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. Virginia reported a record number of deaths on Sunday.

'We expected that we would start seeing more significant declines in new cases and deaths around the nation at this point. And we're just not seeing that,' he said on CBS' Face the Nation.

'If we don't snuff this out more and you have this slow burn of infection, it can ignite at any time.'

It comes after the US economy recorded its worst first quarter since the 2008 financial crisis this year, according to new data released on Wednesday which paints a clear picture of the economic havoc the coronavirus pandemic has caused.

Cars line up at one of Utah's food banks on April 24. Millions are flocking to the banks across the country because the sudden shut down of businesses has left them unable to feed their families

A report released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis on Wednesday morning reveals GDP fell by 4.8 percent annualized between January and March.

Consumer spending fell by 7.6 percent and business investment shrank by 8.6 percent.

The data is not final and in a footnote the bureau said the true picture is likely far worse. Analysts had predicted that GDP might shrink by as much as 3.5 percent.

They now fear for Q2 numbers which will reflect a longer period of economic shutdown - including the entire month of April and some of May.

The Q1 numbers only reflect the final few weeks of March, when businesses had only just been forced to close.

Data released by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis on Wednesday revealed GDP shrank by 4.8% in the first quarter of 2020

On Monday morning, the White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett warned the second quarter could reflect a 20 to 30 percent decline - something that has not been seen since the 1930s Great Depression.

'You're looking at something like minus 20 percent to minus 30 percent in the second quarter. It's a very grave shock and it's something we need to take seriously,' he told CNBC.

The decline reflected a plunge in economic activity in the last two weeks of March, which saw millions of Americans seeking unemployment benefits.

'The U.S. economy ran into a brick wall in March,' said Ryan Sweet of Moody's Analytics, said.

Most of the key components of US economic output - including consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of economic activity - fell sharply.

Gregory Daco, chief US economist for Oxford Economics, said the Q1 decline is 'only the tip of the iceberg' and predicts that by the end of June the economy will be 12 per cent smaller than it was at the beginning of the year.

Daco said: 'Prior to the coronavirus shock, the economy was doing relatively well.

'The shock that we experienced in the second half of March actually has led to a sudden stop in spending on a lot of services and even spending on some goods.'

Sung Won Sohn, a business economics professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles said: 'The economy is in free fall, we could be approaching something much worse than a deep recession.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington - a key coronavirus model often used by the White House - released new projections Monday

On Monday private projections from the Trump administration revealed that the virus death toll will reach 3,000 cases daily on June 1

The FEMA / CDC charts are based on incomplete data, according to a Johns Hopkins University academic who gave the data to the government 'as an FYI'

'It's premature to talk about a recovery at this moment, we are going to be seeing a lot of bankruptcies for small and medium sized businesses.

'We are in the worst economic event that we have faced as a nation and globally since the Great Depression,' Evan Greenberg, chief executive officer of insurance company Chubb Ltd., said during an earnings call last week.

As states begin to reopen their economies in tentative phases, experts struggled to envision what the new American public life will look like amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Some pointed to an increased reliance on technology, others speculated social distancing would become another daily normalcy.

'Humans are just terrified of other humans right now. They just don't feel confident about each other,' said Daniel Cusick, a New York architect who has worked on public spaces for three decades.

'But people need a structure. They need to be told theres something greater.'

The digital world has kept many institutions going in the United States since mid-March.

It has allowed an approximation of office life to continue. It has, along with a robust supply chain, brought to our doors some of the goods we usually go and get.

But those same functions, paired with unease, could work against the return to public spaces.

'Technology is reshaping what it means to be in a public place,' said John R. Stilgoe, a historian and landscape expert at Harvard who has spent his career exploring and chronicling the landscapes where Americans move around.

'How do you define the "public realm" when an enormous percentage of the American public spends the majority of its day in its pajamas?' Stilgoe says.

Similarly, social distancing and created less crowded facilities could also be an outcome of the pandemic.

Nan Ellin, dean of the college of architecture and planning at the University of Colorado Denver, worked with her students and the city to close some restaurant-heavy blocks to traffic so the street can be used as outdoor cafes and 'the tables can be farther apart from one another.'

'We don't want to lose our public ground. But we want to have a safe public ground,' said Ellin, editor of 'Architecture of Fear' and author of 'Good Urbanism: Six Steps to Creating Prosperous Places.'

She adds: 'We need little hooks to get there so people can start to be with one another again in a way that feels safe.'

Already, there are hints of what institutions and the spaces they occupy could look like.

If even some come to pass, they could alter Americans relationship with the public realm.

Vibrating pagers like those used at chains like Red Lobster. Already some hospitals are handing them out; instead of entering a lobby, wait in the car until you buzz.

People in across Texas flooded local beaches after Gov. Greg Abbott reopened them

Pictured: Rolando Willimann (center) wears a protective face mask as he carries fishing gear to his boat at the Flamingo boat ramp during the new coronavirus pandemic in Florida

Arrows on the ground, and other physical markers to encourage and enforce distance. Imagine sidewalks with scoring every 6 feet so those walking could make sure they're the human equivalent of a few car lengths behind. Or large sculptures deployed to separate people.

New designs for eating places. McDonald's is already prototyping a socially distanced version of its restaurant that could be a template for fast-food spaces around the world.

Checkerboard grids on the grass in parks, with people allowed to occupy one square only if those surrounding it are empty.

Or time-sharing of public places: If you don't show up for your 12:15 p.m. slot at the playground, you're out of luck.

Churches holding services in shifts. Ballparks and movie theaters deliberately keeping seats empty, halving attendance.

Enter the 'institution,' a word that encompasses several parts of public life.

'Institution' means government buildings - post offices and courthouses and DMVs. It means town squares and public parks, churches and nursing homes and college campuses and, of course, hospitals.

It can also mean skyscraper lobbies, shopping malls, hotels, big-box stores and supermarkets - the touch points of a consumer society whose open, public operation means a society is edging toward normal.

Eric Martin, a Bucknell University associate professor of management who studies disaster responses, cited an established place like Katz's, the crowded New York deli made famous in 'When Harry Met Sally.'

Martin: '[Katz Deli] doesn't change quickly. It's been around forever. That's what it means to be an institution. And so we allow these places a legitimacy that we might not with other place

How businesses like that move forward, he says, will speak volumes.

'It doesn't change quickly. It's been around forever. That's what it means to be an institution. And so we allow these places a legitimacy that we might not with other places,' Martin said.

'We think those are legitimate organizations. So if they're doing it, if they're changing, we say, "Oh, this is real",' he added.

Something else unites these places. In each, the woman on the next bench, the man ahead in the checkout line, the family down the pew are suddenly potential vectors - or potential victims - of the outbreak.

That can impede a free society's functions in ways not yet fathomed.

'Democracy depends to a surprising extent on the availability of physical, public space, even in our allegedly digital world,' John R. Parkinson writes in 'Democracy and Public Space: The Physical Sites of Democratic Performance.'

Architecture has always dictated behavior. In China, where controlling people is a government priority, Beijing's avenues are lined with metal fences just high enough to keep people on sidewalks.

The sprawling, segmented layout of Pakistan's capital city was designed in part to discourage mass gatherings.

But those are public spaces responding to visible threats. Retooling spaces to an invisible virus - the crux of what American institutions face today - is different.

Will we wear masks in banks, where a masked man means something different? Will the DMV, the butt of a thousand long-line jokes, suddenly lack lines?

Will we retreat to our cars, bypassing public space entirely in what Cusick calls 'people moving from bubble to bubble, like the Jetsons?'

In 1943, after a German bombing of the British Parliament, Winston Churchill advocated rebuilding the House of Commons chamber exactly as it had been.

He invoked the importance of the physical institution in preserving national ideals.

'We shape our buildings,' he said, 'and afterwards our buildings shape us.'

As isolation ebbs, a similar question confronts Americans repopulating the public places they share. How will these places reshape society - and how will trepidations about a post-isolation world shape them in turn? We can only go so far.

'You cannot hold the air to yourself. The air is shared,' says Marci J. Swede, dean of the school of education and health sciences at North Central College in Illinois.
Washington  The federal government says it plans to tweak its loan program for small businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic, making it easier for the loans to be forgiven and turned into a cash grant.

Small business owners had complained it would be tough to meet the Paycheck Protection Program requirements for loan forgiveness.

Employers must spend at least 75% of a loan on payroll in order for it to be forgiven, a measure aimed at helping businesses maintain or quickly rehire employees at existing salary levels.

But some business owners said they cant meet the 75% requirement because too many laid-off employees turned down offers to be rehired. The reasons behind the rejections include concerns about potential exposure to the virus, and the fact that some employees make more money collecting unemployment.

The CARES Act passed by Congress in March guarantees all laid-off workers an extra $600 per week (through July 31) from the federal government if approved by their states for unemployment insurance. The federal payment is in addition to the amount states provide each week, a maximum of $504 in New York.

The U.S. Small Business Administration offered new guidance this week about forgiving the PPP loans.

The SBA and Treasury Department proposed a rule that would exclude laid-off employees from the loan forgiveness calculation if the business owner offered to rehire workers for the same wages and hours.

The interim final rule will specify that, to qualify for this exception, the borrower must have made a good faith, written offer of rehire, and the employees rejection of that offer must be documented by the borrower, the SBA said in the latest additions to its frequently asked questions (FAQ) section of its website.

Employees and employers should be aware that employees who reject offers of re-employment may forfeit eligibility for continued unemployment compensation, the SBA added.

SBA and Treasury Department officials did not explain how the forfeiting process would work.

Unemployed workers who refuse to return to work, or quit their jobs, dont normally qualify for unemployment benefits. But the bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump in March makes an exception for those who quit their job as a direct result of COVID-19.

RELATED STORY: A problem for NY businesses: Workers wont return when they can get unemployment on steroids

More than 30 million Americans have filed unemployment claims since the middle of March as the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into its steepest drop since the Great Recession.

New York has paid $4.6 billion to 1.6 million unemployed people since non-essential businesses were ordered to shut down in March.

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Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Mark Weiner anytime by: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751
Paris, May 5 : A French government plan to rescue Air France was contingent on the flag carrier scrapping some domestic flights amid the coronavirus pandemic, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire has said.

The government has approved a 7 billion-euro loan to Air France, which has been hit hard by coronavirus curbs, the BBC reported.

On Monday, the European Commission (EU) approved the proposal, saying it met the bloc's rules on state aid.

Speaking to France Inter radio also on Monday, Le Maire said the coronavirus crisis provided an opportunity to "reinvent our model of economic development to ensure it is more respectful of the environment".

He however, said that this meant a number of Air France domestic routes would need to go.

"It is obvious that today a number of domestic routes are no longer justified," the BBC quoted the Minister as saying without elaborating on further details.

"When you can travel by train in less than two and a half hours, there is no justification for taking a plane." Like most airlines, Air France has drastically reduced its activities and was currently operating about 5 per cent of its usual scheduled flights, said the BBC report.

Last month, Air France-KLM secured at least 9 billion eurps in government aid, as the Franco-Dutch airline group struggles to stay afloat because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Earlier this year, Air France-KLM estimated the outbreak would cost the group between 150 million to 200 million euros in between February and April.

The two airlines merged in 2004.
Sasse: Pushing for Disability Protections in Phase Four

"In a shocking number of states, Americans with disabilities can be sent to the back of the line for ventilators. That's abhorrent. Human dignity matters, and disabilities like Down syndrome dont undermine the right to life."



NEWS PROVIDED BY

U.S. Senator for Nebraska Ben Sasse

May 5, 2020



WASHINGTON, May 5, 2020 /Christian Newswire/ -- Today, as the Senate resumes session, U.S. Senator Ben Sasse issued the following statement regarding the need to protect Americans with disabilities from rationing of ventilators.

"In a shocking number of states, Americans with disabilities can be sent to the back of the line for ventilators. That's abhorrent. Human dignity matters, and disabilities like Down syndrome don't undermine the right to life. Congress can't re-write state laws, but we can regulate the Strategic National Stockpile of ventilators. As Congress takes up Phase Four legislation, we have a moral obligation to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities."



Background:



An investigation from The Center for Public Integrity, published on April 8, found that care-rationing policies in many states can prevent individuals with disabilities from accessing ventilators.

On March 28, the Department of Health and Human Services warned states against discrimination. HHS' bulletin was an essential step. More work needs to be done.

Senator Sasse has drafted model legislation designed to ensure that no state shall receive resources from the Strategic National Stockpile during the COVID-19 emergency if their state policies discriminate on the basis of disability with regards to the use or distribution of that resource. Senator Sasse has been in talks with his colleagues and will continue to improve the legislation for inclusion in any Phase Four legislation.



SOURCE U.S. Senator for Nebraska Ben Sasse



CONTACT: James Wegmann, 202-224-4224



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By Express News Service

The Union Government should look at providing cash support to the bottom 60 per cent of India's population, Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee has said.

"I would say the bottom 60% of the population, we give them some money... Well, some of them might not need it. Fine, they'll spend it. If they spend it, it would have a stimulus effect," Banerjee, who shot to international fame with his book Poor Economics that was based on his work on the neglected, said in a video conversation with opposition leader Rahul Gandhi.

"Getting some cash into the hands of the population is the best way to kick start the economy. The USA is very aggressively doing that," he pointed out.

The suggestion comes at a time when policymakers and economists have been debating on how to revive the economy and livelihoods which have been hit by the coronavirus lockdown. While India has come up with the first tranche of Rs 1.7 lakh crore worth of relief measures, more is believed to be in the offing.

The top economist felt India needed to come up with a large stimulus package on the lines offered by the American, French and other European countries to help revive demand in the economy.

"We really haven't decided on a large enough stimulus package. We are still talking about 1 per cent of GDP. United States has gone for 10 per cent of GDP," Banerjee, who is the Ford Foundation professor of economics at MIT said.

ALSO READ | Where is the money? Experts fear it may be a case of too little, too late for Indian economy

While the Niti Aayog and a few chambers are believed to have suggested a package equal to 5 per cent of India's GDP, the Government is believed to be working on a second tranche which could equal another 0.5-1 per cent of GDP on top of the 0.7 per cent already given. However, other economists have argued for a package that could be equal to 8-10 per cent of GDP.

Stressing on a package for the weaker section of society, Banerjee said, "If people were reassured that in two months or whenever the lockdown is lifted, they will have some money in their hands, they will be much less worried about (it), they will be more willing to spend already."

The economist, who was awarded the Nobel last year along with his wife Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer, also advocated canceling debt payment for a quarter for the MSME sector instead of a moratorium.

"We have done one thing that I think is wise, which is to kind of put a moratorium on debt payments... We could do more... say that the debt payments for this quarter will be canceled and will be taken care of by the government."

Financial experts have been warning of a looming bankruptcy crisis in the MSME sector which has been suffering from low demand and high costs for several years and the moratorium along with cheap working loans had been offered as a way out.

Banerjee also suggested that sections of the populace were left out of transfers and food aid because of the lack of ration cards. He suggested that anybody who needed food aid could be given temporary ration cards for 3-6 months so that all people could be covered by food aid.

"Give everyone a ration card, anyone who walks in gives them one. And use that as a basis for making transfers... The Rabi crop has been good this time, so we are going to have tonnes of wheat and rice. So, at least wheat and rice we can keep giving out.
I was afraid if I lost the baby, hed never be able to come home, says Jenny*. Id also have lost my whole income, with no sick pay to help me get by.

Jenny, a foster carer who looks after a six-month-old baby, should really have been admitted to hospital after contracting coronavirus, but was forced to turn paramedics away from her front door because she didnt want to leave him alone.

The 45-year-old told The Independent local authorities asked her to leave her baby at home in the care of her 16-year-old daughter because no respite foster care workers were able to step in over fears of contracting coronavirus. Jenny felt deserting her foster baby would be a major safeguarding issue, so refused to leave the baby alone, despite paramedics telling her the extremity of her breathing problems would have ordinarily required hospitalisation.

The coronavirus crisis has exacerbated the existing national staff shortage in the foster care system, with local authorities failing to introduce adequate contingency plans for foster carers who fall ill with the virus  despite the fact some foster carers have already died from Covid-19.

Jenny, who has been a foster carer for more than a decade, called paramedics to the house after her pain became unmanageable. Union officials told The Independent she was struggling to breathe and suffering from a high level of pain, but received zero treatment from the ambulance workers, who left her at home with the foster baby.

Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Show all 18 1 /18 Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jack Dodsley, 79, with a carer in PPE at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jackie Wilson, a healthcare assistant, wearing PPE before going into rooms Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jack Dodsley, 79, speaks to a carer at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Carers working at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A care worker wearing PPE opens a drink carton Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jack Dodsley, 79, sits with a carer Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jack Dodsley, 79, with a carer in PPE Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A care staff member wearing PPE Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A staff member at Newfield Nursing Home looks after a resident SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A carer wearing PPE uses a speaker Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A carer helps Jack Dodsley, 79, from his chair Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A carer wearing PPE helps Jack Dodsley, 79 Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A staff member at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A carer brings food to a resident at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jack Dodsley, 79, with a carer in PPE Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A staff member puts on PPE at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jackie Wilson, a healthcare assistant, puts on PPE before she enters a room SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A bench at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS

It felt like the local authority didnt believe I was ill, Jenny adds. It was a terrible illness. I wouldnt wish it on anyone. Not being able to get your breath in was so frightening and painful. I tried to play it down and not worry the kids, but it was hell.

Jenny, who noted the paramedics agreed leaving the baby at home would have been a serious safeguarding infringement, said the local authority has ignored her updates on the babys health and her situation throughout the Covid-19 crisis.

I would have run out of nappies if other foster care workers hadnt volunteered to help me out, Jenny adds. The local authority didnt ask if there was anything we needed. If they cant look after us in a pandemic, they never will. It does put me off the whole sector. They dont care about us or the kids. Covid-19 has really exposed how bad it is. How few rights we have. How little respect.

The foster carer, who also works as a cleaner to top up her income, says she has been bullied and threatened with being struck off as punishment for asserting her rights and speaking out for the needs of the children she looks after  with the Foster Care Workers Branch of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) saying the same is true for many of their members.

Jenny was also afraid to part with the baby because there would be no guarantee the child would be returned to her, especially if she had been forced to take a prolonged period of time off work sick, Jane Wright, chair of the IWGB Foster Care Workers Branch, said.

Its a lose-lose situation for foster care workers, because if the child is removed from their care theres no guarantee they will be returned and the carer also loses all their income and the local authority pays no retainer to keep the foster care worker on staff after the pandemic. Her story will be one of many that speaks to the impact of the pandemic on Britains fourth emergency service, who are systematically denied basic employment rights such as a guaranteed minimum wage, sick pay, holiday pay and protections against whistleblowing.

Recommended Racism in the foster care system is depriving kids of support

Ms Wright said the coronavirus emergency has compounded the pre-existing national shortage of foster carers due to both foster carers and non-foster parents falling ill with the virus, and more children subsequently going into care. More children may also be pushed into care as Covid-19 upheaval makes life more difficult for vulnerable families, she said.

Things are rocky, she said. Coronavirus is a hugely stressful national event. Some of the normal support for families with alcohol and drug problems has gone, so parents may get back into alcohol and drugs. The rise in domestic abuse in the wake of the coronavirus crisis is likely to lead to more children going into care and increased financial and emotional strain also leads to more children potentially going into care. For a lot of children who are on the edge of care, school is a stable place. Foster care is under increased pressure. The cracks are beginning to appear. Foster carers are realising how few rights they have. We know already of foster carers who have died.

Ms Wright added: If carers become too ill to continue looking after children, then children need to move to another carer. The original carer will not get any sick pay. Coronavirus can make people significantly ill and it can take a good few months to recover. Forty-two per cent of foster carers are over 55  they are an older workforce, so people are more likely to become more severely ill. There are lots of families out there who dont have extended family who can help out. Grandparents cant help out due to self-isolating.

People are very committed to the children. The vast majority will want them to come back home again, but if they have no sick pay for months when the time comes around for the children to return to them, they might no longer be able to house them if they have had to move to a smaller house due to not being able to keep up with payments. Many face destitution if we develop symptoms and self-isolate. The additional, unnecessary trauma being forced on care-experienced young people and their carers is barbaric and its putting lives at risk.

Recommended Emma Thompson calls on government to protect children short of food

Ms Wright said there are also risks around children who have moved due to their foster carer becoming ill passing coronavirus onto their new foster carer  adding this can lead to the child being relocated more than once.

She said the school and nursery closures are placing foster carers under increasing pressure and noted children in foster care have higher levels of mental health issues and disabilities than the wider population due to having suffered some form of grief in their life. Ms Wright said there is a whole cohort of respite foster carers who look after children with complex needs at the weekend who have lost work and income because of social distancing measures implemented by the government to curb the spread of coronavirus.

The union official, who is a foster carer to a teenage boy, said she formerly had a social worker visit her once a month but the coronavirus crisis means they no longer come at all.

There are roughly 55,000 foster carers in the UK who look after 65,000 children, but they are classified as self-employed and not entitled to any sick pay. Research released by Foster Care Associates last year estimated there is a shortfall of 7,600 foster homes in the UK.

The IWGB union, which has launched a petition to ensure foster carers are paid for sick days if they get ill during the coronavirus emergency, argues the governments denial of such money threatens to push thousands of fostering families into poverty if they become too unwell to carry on caring for their children.

The union says it receives phone calls from foster carers who have become unwell with Covid-19 every day. Foster carers are some of the most poorly paid care workers in the UK and have not been identified as key workers during the coronavirus crisis despite looking after the UKs most vulnerable children.

Martin Barrow, a foster carer who has written extensively about the sector, said foster care has been running on empty for a long time but the stresses and strains are more obvious now.

He added: The population of children in foster care is changing all the time. It is not a fixed population. But coronavirus means it is difficult for children to leave care. There is a log jam. Fewer children are leaving care. Courts arent in system, assessments cant be made.

Lisa Witter, manager of the Manchester-based fostering agency Perpetual Fostering, said they have seen a significant increase in the number of placement requests in recent weeks.

Were now dealing with over 1,000 placement requests, which is much higher than before, she said. There has been a huge increase in the number of children being removed under Powers of Police Protection orders, which are put in place to protect children who are classed as being at risk of significant harm. Over the last month, many children have also come into the care system as a result of domestic violence in their homes.

*Jennys name has been changed to protect her identity
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Ministers were today facing union warnings over walkouts if health and safety demands are not met when lockdown eases - as Keir Starmer jibed that PPE is not a 'luxury item'.

The government is facing a furious backlash at its draft 'road map' for starting to loosen the draconian curbs strangling the economy and plunging the country into debt.

More people are set to be encouraged to edge back to work, with guidelines on how to minimise the risks. Other precautions will need to be in place if the two-metre social distancing rules cannot be maintained, while business will be told to close canteens, stagger shift patterns, spread out offices and stop people sharing equipment.

But unions and Labour are demanding much tougher protections, suggesting that otherwise people could simply refuse to show up for work.

The GMB said the guidance did 'not adequately protect workers - and as a result many may refuse to work to avoid putting themselves and their families at risk'.

Rail unions have been particularly vocal in stating their members must not be put at risk on crowded trains without more guarantees from the government.

In a round of interviews this morning, Sir Keir lined up behind the warnings, saying the government must set a 'national safety standard'.

'This is not just a reassurance exercise for those going back to work, it's essential for the safety of the nation,' he said. 'If you don't have the protective equipment, and that means that people get infected, we're going to be right back where we started.'

He insisted protective equipment for workers is not a 'luxury item' that would be 'nice to have'.

Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon dealt another blow to the UK's united front on coronavirus today, hinting that she will diverge from the Westminster government's policy.

The Scottish First Minister said her 'overarching responsibility' was to represent interests north of the border, saying it was possible the outbreak was 'slightly' stronger there. She also unveiled her own 'exit strategy', days before Mr Johnson is due to, including proposals for people to be able to mix in 'bubbles' outside their own household. However, she insisted there is no prospect of the lockdown being eased this week.

In other developments in the UK's coronavirus crisis:

Another 436 people were today confirmed to have died of COVID-19 in England, Scotland and Wales, taking the number of victims past 29,000 and making Britain the worst-hit nation in Europe;

Ministers could let healthy over-70s be released from lockdown with the rest of the UK amid fears of 'social unrest' if they have to endure longer coronavirus restrictions than the rest of the UK;

Residents of the Isle of Wight have been urged to sign up for a pilot scheme of a virus-tracking app;

Britain's coronavirus crisis may have killed 34 per cent more people than the Government's daily statistics update shows. Office for National Statistics data today reveal 29,710 people in England and Wales had COVID-19 mentioned on their death certificate by April 24;

Scientists were urging Boris Johnson to tell people to stop shaking hands the same day the PM was boasting about shaking hands with 'everybody', newly released documents have revealed;

There are serious concerns that 'immunity certificates' will be socially divisive if an effective test for coronanvirus antibodies is developed. Employers could shun those without immunity, and desperate people could try to get infected deliberately, according to a government paper last month;

Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance has told MPs that surviving coronavirus 'almost certainly' does not provide total immunity;

He also said cast doubt on plans to ease social distancing rules, saying the infection risk was 30-times higher for someone a metre from a carrier instead of two metres.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson (pictured in Whitehalll today) will unveil the 'exit strategy' to the nation on Sunday, although there is only expected to be a marginal loosening of the lockdown

In a round of interviews this morning, Sir Keir Starmer lined up behind the warnings from unions, saying the government must set a 'national safety standard'

Recovering from coronavirus 'almost certainly' WON'T stop people getting it AGAIN, warns top science adviser Coronavirus survivors will 'almost certainly' not obtain 'absolute immunity' from a second illness naturally, the Government's chief scientific adviser warned this morning. Sir Patrick Vallance told MPs that the vast majority of those who manage to beat the disease build up anti-bodies that attack it in the body and will get 'some degree of protection'. But he admitted that work is still ongoing around the world into the level of protection it affords - showing the need for a viable vaccine to be developed. It comes as the Government comes under increasing pressure to ease the social end economic lockdown on Britain. But ministers are keen to avoid a second peak of infections by making sure the 'R' infection rate. stays below 1. Appearing in front of the Health and Social Care Committee this morning he also said scientists have yet to discover whether survivors who get a second dose can pass it on to those around them, even if they do not become ill again themselves. Describing the science on antibody protection as 'promising;' he said: 'Everything suggests you can get neutralising antibodies, those are antibodies which protect against the disease. 'So you would expect some degree of protection from antibodies. We don't know that it provides absolute immunity and it almost certainly doesn't - it will provide some degree of protection. 'The other thing we don;'t know is whether it is still possible to carry the virus even if you have got antibodies. 'So that is more about whether you can still be infectious to someone else rather than whether you are protected against it.' Giving a potential timeframe for immunity based on experience from other coronaviruses, he said: 'It may last for one, two, three years, but not for many, many years.' Advertisement

The government is believed to have warned industry groups that the restrictions could stay in place for six to 12 months - dashing hopes of a swift return to normal life.

Under the plans, shift will be staggered to limit the number of people at work at any one time and reduce rush-hour pressure on public transport. Access to communal facilities like photocopiers will be limited, areas of the floor will be taped off to keep people two metres apart and people could be barred from sitting opposite one another.

Hot desking will be banned and workers will not even be allowed to lend each other a pen for fear of spreading the virus.

As a result of the stringent measures, millions of staff will be told to keep working from home indefinitely 'if at all possible'.

And firms have been told that 'vulnerable' people, including the over-70s, pregnant women and the severely obese, should work from home  even if this means finding them a new role.

In his interviews, Sir Keir said: 'I sense that people are really worried about lifting of lockdown. They're really worried about going back to work. They need a high level of reassurance.'

He said a national consensus would give 'a degree of confidence', adding: 'The point that trade unions have raised is safety at work and there was a consultation document the government put out last weekend which was pretty vague, and it needs strengthening.

'That's why one of the principles I've set out today is a national safety standard.

'I think people will want to know if I'm going back to work, is it a safe environment, what's being done about social distancing, what are the hand-washing facilities, if I need protective equipment am I going to get it?

'It's that degree of reassurance.'

Amid a wave of criticism from unions, TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: 'Throughout this crisis the TUC has sought to engage constructively with ministers. But we cannot support the Government's back-to-work plans as they stand.

'We want new binding rules for employers to publish their risk assessment and action plan. We want clear guidance to set out the minimum standards that employers must meet in order to protect public safety. And we want ministers to outline a new tough approach to enforcement.

'Unless the Government significantly strengthens its plans, safe working will not be guaranteed. The current proposals fail to provide clear direction to those employers who want to act responsibly. And they are an open goal for rogue employers, who will cut corners and put their workers - and the wider community - at risk.

'We urge ministers to work with the TUC and unions to ensure people can make a safe return to work.'

Prospect union general secretary Mike Clancy said: 'If the economy is to recover sustainably and safely then a return to work must be managed properly.

'The question is how the advice from Public Health England is grounded in relevant evidence. The Government must provide absolute clarity on how workplaces can operate safely, and it must set out the evidence for its advice.

'We all want to get back to work, but there is no point in easing the lockdown if the guidelines put people at risk, potentially causing a spike in cases and another full-scale lockdown,' he added.

There was still heavy traffic on the A102 in Greenwich this morning despite the government's lockdown instructions

Commuters on the Tube in London this morning have little chance of obeying the 'social distancing' guidelines to stay two metres apart

Risk of catching coronavirus up to 30 TIMES higher if you are one metre from carrier instead of two metres The risk of catching coronavirus increase by up to 30 times if you go from two to one metres from a sufferer, Sir Patrick Vallance has warned. It comes amid moves to get offices back to work, possible by relaxing the current social distancing rule within workspaces. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace yesterday said that firms would be allowed to break the two-metre rule on social distancing where it was unavoidable. But he suggested that other precautions, such as plastic screens, might have to be installed in workplaces. However, Sir Patrick, the Government's chief scientific adviser, told the Commons Health Committee this morning (above): 'The evidence is, as far as you can get very firm evidence on this, that essentially a minute at two metres ... is about the same risk as six seconds at one metre. 'So that gives you some idea of why the two metres becomes important. 'And the risk at one metre is about 10 to 30 times higher than the risk at two metres. 'So the distancing is an important part of this.' Advertisement

John Phillips, acting general secretary of the GMB Union, said: 'We desperately need to get the economy going and nobody is keener than GMB to get people back to work - but this guidance was thrown together in a hurry and it shows.

'Giving unions and employers just 12 hours to respond is not good enough and means crucial changes will not be made. We cannot endorse crucial guidance if it is incomplete.

'The guidance has to be clear on how safe working practice is to be enforced.

'As it stands, there is nothing on PPE, nothing on enforcement to ensure workplaces are safe and nothing giving workers the assurances they need to get back to their jobs.'

The general secretaries of 10 teaching unions across the UK and Ireland have written to the education ministers in all five jurisdictions urging 'significant caution in any consideration of reopening schools'.

The letter, sent by the British and Irish Group of Teachers' Unions (BIGTU) on behalf of teachers, warns of the 'very real risk of creating a spike in the transmission of the virus by a premature opening of schools'.

It says: 'We are convinced by the experience of other systems that a critical tool in preventing a surge of infection is an established capacity to 'test, trace and isolate' and we would argue that reopening schools before such a regime is in place would be catastrophic to the rate of infection.'

The coalition of union leaders argues that schools can only reopen and operate safely if there are 'significant operational changes' in place to ensure effective social distancing, as well as strong hygiene routines and appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) where required.

'We would urge that the initial focus when schools reopen, in any capacity, should be on the health, wellbeing, and emotional resilience of our students,' it adds.

The letter follows speculation that schools could be asked to reopen their doors to more pupils before the summer holidays.

The businesses were told in the consultation document that there will be a 'gradual winding down' of the restrictions after the winter.

The warnings of a year under restrictions are thought to have been influenced by fears among government medical advisers that the coronavirus is seasonal.

An industry source said: 'If it survives the winter, these measures will have to be in place longer.'

Other measures introduced will include safety guidance for 'in-home workers', including cleaners, cooks and plumbers, as well as people offering services like fitness trainers.

For example, companies should provide the same cleaner to the same house where possible and delivery companies should call residents rather than ringing the doorbell.

The measures will also encourage taxi drivers to use contactless payment where possible.

Meanwhile, retailers have been told to ask customers to 'shop alone' to prevent queues when high street stores finally reopen.

But there is no sign of any return for pubs and restaurants, except those offering takeaway services.

The plans will form a central plank in the Government's proposals for the 'second phase' of the coronavirus crisis, which are set to be unveiled by Boris Johnson at the weekend.

Last night however, ministers were on a collision course with trade unions over the proposals, with leaders warning that staff could be ordered to down tools unless their safety is guaranteed.

Transport unions said that drivers could refuse to resume train and bus services.

One Government source said the opposition of the unions could be a 'major problem' in getting Britain back to work and ending the crippling lockdown that is costing the economy an estimated 2billion a day. However, businesses reserved judgment on the proposals, with bosses saying the plans did not reflect real life and lacked information about the kind of protective equipment staff will need.

Government sources last night indicated that ministers are set to roll over the lockdown for another three weeks when they review it on Thursday. The Prime Minister will then outline a 'comprehensive' plan to get Britain moving again at the weekend.

But the leaked documents on the planned return to work confirm that the 'new normal', as described by ministers, will bear little resemblance to our old life. In a video message yesterday, the PM suggested any lifting of restrictions will be very gradual, saying: 'The worst thing we could do now is ease up too soon and allow a second peak of coronavirus.'

In the Commons, several Tory MPs urged a faster lifting of the lockdown. Sir Charles Walker warned Britain would suffer 'a tidal wave of human misery' if thousands of good firms were allowed to go to the wall.

Tory shop steward Sir Graham Brady urged ministers to act 'with a view to removing restrictions and removing these arbitrary rules and limitations on freedom as quickly as possible'.

But speaking at the daily Downing Street press conference last night, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the first aim was to 'protect the NHS so the NHS is always there to protect you and your family.'

Under the Government's plans, all firms employing more than five people will have to draw up a detailed risk assessment of working conditions.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace yesterday said that firms would be allowed to break the two-metre rule on social distancing where it was unavoidable.

But he suggested that other precautions, such as plastic screens, might have to be installed in workplaces. However, the draft documents give few details to employers or unions, saying only that guidance on PPE 'is to follow'.

The country could also see handwashing kits by doors, one-way systems in offices, train platforms and bus stops, and limits on the number of people in shops - many of which will go cashless.

Public transport stations would have two metre markers to keep social distancing, with one-way systems to prevent unnecessary contact.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said public transport was already at the 'maximum' available capacity, with room for only 15 per cent of normal passenger numbers.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies will today call on ministers to offer subsidies and tax breaks to encourage working from home.

The independent think-tank also warns that peak fares might have to be increased to try to reduce overcrowding in the rush hour.

Business leaders called for clarity on issues such as PPE and whether firms can be held liable even if they fulfil their obligations to protect employees.

Director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce Adam Marshall said bosses 'will want to know that they're not going to be held liable for horrible things that may unfortunately happen if they've done everything in their power to keep their people safe'.

Forgotten victims of the corona pandemic: From a 7-year-old girl battling seizures to father-of-three who needs cancer surgery, the patients in limbo after their NHS treatment was put on potentially tragic hold

They are the forgotten victims of the corona pandemic  patients caught up in a devastating NHS crisis which is costing thousands of lives.

From a seven-year-old girl battling with seizures to a father-of-three who needs cancer surgery, every one of them has had their treatment put on hold while the NHS diverts resources to fight the virus.

And many of them believe it could result in their death.

Last Saturday, the Mail revealed the true scale of this emerging national tragedy.

Two million operations have been cancelled and an estimated 2,700 cancers a week left undiagnosed.

Lyla O'Donovan, 7, has a brain tumour and is 'heartbroken' the surgery she should have had last month is on hold because of the danger of catching Covid-19

In what doctors call the 'collateral damage' of Covid-19, nearly 1,800 extra deaths were recorded by the Office of National Statistics in one week last month, the highest number for nearly 20 years.

The Government wants hospitals to treat people in crucial need of medical help. But, because of the virus, operating theatres have been mothballed and wards closed.

For those who wait, the dreadful truth is that help may come too late.

Lyla O'Donovan, 7

Lyla has a brain tumour and is 'heartbroken' the surgery she should have had last month is on hold because of the danger of catching Covid-19.

The operation is to relieve pressure on her brain and stop her having seizures.

Her father, Paul, 35, a soldier from Co. Durham, says: 'For every seizure she has, we don't know the extent of the brain damage it's doing.'

Reginald Waite, 82

The pensioner from Eaton, Cheshire, was diagnosed with cancer in March after a scan picked up a blockage in his bile duct, but has had a planned operation postponed.

Reginald, a retired electronics engineer, is worried his cancer will spread. 'When are the hospitals going to treat people such as cancer patients and not just concentrate on Covid-19?' he asks.

Reginald Waite, 82, from Eaton, Cheshire, was diagnosed with cancer in March after a scan picked up a blockage in his bile duct, but has had a planned operation postponed

Amelia Jones, 17

Amelia is missing the top of her skull because of emergency surgery after collapsing with a brain haemorrhage on January 3.

The craniotomy procedure was necessary to relieve pressure on her brain, but it has left Amelia with movement and cognitive difficulties.

Her prognosis is poor unless she has a further operation to replace part of her skull, a procedure called cranioplasty, which has been put on hold.

Her father Leighton, who is director of rugby at Marlow Rugby Club, says: 'Amelia has a long way to go, but without this operation she can't start.'

Amelia Jones, 17, is missing the top of her skull because of emergency surgery after collapsing with a brain haemorrhage on January 3

Kieran Crighton, 14

The wheelchair-bound teenager needs two operations  one on his leg to help him walk and another to drain fluid from his brain, but both are on hold.

Kieran, from North Ayrshire, has autism and was diagnosed with five brain tumours two years ago.

His mother, Senga, says: 'I am very anxious for Keiran.'

Kieran Crighton, 14, needs two operations  one on his leg to help him walk and another to drain fluid from his brain, but both are on hold

Ceri Maddock Jones, 39

Mother-of-two Ceri was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer five years ago. Before the virus struck, she'd hoped to go on a med- ical trial.

'The trials are the only option for me. Everything else has been exhausted,' says Ceri, who lives in Ewell, Surrey, with husband Garry and their sons, Austin, six, and Leo, five.

'I don't want to die, for my sons' sake. These trials were my last hope of keeping my family together a bit longer.'

Mother-of-two Ceri Maddock Jones, 39, was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer five years ago

Roland Monger, 39

Roland may have only months to live after his chemotherapy for the skin cancer he has been battling for four years was put on hold.

The university admissions manager from Torpoint, Cornwall, says: 'It is my 40th in July.

I am aiming to make that. Maybe I will see the kids back to school in September.'

Roland Monger, 39, may have only months to live after his chemotherapy for the skin cancer he has been battling for four years was put on hold

Laura Beattie, 31

The fashion business owner, from Manchester needs a lung transplant after cystic fibrosis ravaged her own organs.

Laura has been on the transplant list for two years, but in March she got a letter saying her next test appointment had been 'pushed back' until August 'because of coronavirus'.

Laura Beattie, 31, pictured left with sister Rachel, needs a lung transplant after cystic fibrosis ravaged her own organs

The risk of her getting an infection at the hospital filled with Covid patients is believed to have been the reason.

'I am having monthly appointments over the phone, but the doctors can't measure my lung function properly,' she says.

Which means, crucially, they can't assess whether it is declining because of the disease.

Chris Romney, 64, from Derbyshire, has advanced prostate cancer

Chris Romney, 64

The grandfather from Derbyshire has advanced prostate cancer and has had his surgery at Royal Derby Hospital postponed after facilities were given over to coronavirus patients.

Chris, a retired RAF fighter controller and Nato executive, now fears his life is on the line.

He said: 'Cancer patients have been side-lined. Those like me who need urgent surgery face an increased risk of the cancer spreading, potentially fatally.'

Chris, who lives with his wife, Laura, says the hospital has told him opening up facilities to non-Covid patients will be a 'long, complicated' process.

Rob Martinez, 63

Rob, from Berkshire, suffers from osteoarthritis which is so severe he struggles to climb up and down stairs.

He needs both knee joints replaced, and was forced to take early retirement because of his pain.

Last year, he was given a date for his first knee replacement: April 15, at Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey. Rob was overjoyed.

Rob Martinez, 63, from Berkshire, suffers from osteoarthritis which is so severe he struggles to climb up and down stairs

But then he got a call to say all operations had been cancelled for the next three months  starting from the day of his surgery.

'There's going to be such a backlog after all this I dread to think what's going to happen,' he said. 'There's a worry that something like a knee replacement will be forgotten.'

Andy Gower, 53

The businessman from Milton Keynes has only the slimmest chance of surviving his colon cancer if his operation is delayed.

He was due to have surgery this month, but it was cancelled when his hospital was turned over to Covid-19 patients.

Andy Gower, 53, from Milton Keynes, has only the slimmest chance of surviving his colon cancer if his operation is delayed

Now Andy, a father of three, has been told it may be seven weeks before he can have an operation on his stage-three cancer.

He says: 'If I get the operation soon, I have a 75 per cent survival rate, which is quite good.

'But if it has spread to stage four beforehand, then my chances go down to ten per cent.'
The first thing Daniel Hsu noticed about the room was that there were no sharp edges.

The walls were covered with beige rubber, the table wrapped in soft, grey leather. White blinds covered two barred windows.

Five surveillance cameras recorded his movements, and two guards kept constant, silent watch.

They followed Hsu to the shower and stood beside him at the toilet.

Lights blazed through the night. If he rolled over on his mattress, guards woke him and made him turn his face toward a surveillance camera that recorded him as he slept.

He listened for sounds of other prisoners -- a door slamming, a human voice. But he heard only the occasional roar of a passing train.

First, keep healthy, Hsu told himself. Second, keep strong. He had no idea when or how he would get out.

Hsu is a U.S. citizen. He has not been convicted of any crime in China, yet he was detained there for six months in solitary confinement under conditions that could qualify as torture under international conventions.

Authorities from eastern Anhui province placed exit bans on Hsu and his wife, Jodie Chen, blocking them from returning home to suburban Seattle in August 2017 and effectively orphaning their 16-year-old daughter in America.

Critics say the Chinese Communist Party's expanding use of exit bans to block people including U.S., Australian and Canadian citizens and permanent residents from leaving China reeks of hostage-taking and collective punishment.

They also warn that it lays bare China's will to exert influence, not just over Chinese citizens in China, but also permanent residents and citizens of other countries.

American citizens are too often being detained as de facto hostages in business disputes or to coerce family members to return to Chinathis is shocking and unacceptable behaviour by the Chinese government and a clear violation of international law, said James P McGovern, chair of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

Hsu says Anhui authorities have been effectively holding them hostage in order to convince his father, Xu Weiming, to come back from the US and face charges he embezzled 447,874 yuan (worth USD 63,000 today) over 20 years ago an allegation Xu denies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has added grave new urgency to their desire to leave.

Despite fear of retribution, the family is speaking out for the first time, offering a rare account of life inside China's opaque system of exit bans and secretive detention centers.

Their story is supported by Chinese court documents and correspondence and interviews with US and Chinese government officials.

Some details could not be independently verified but are in line with accounts from other detainees.

Five days before Hsu entered the smooth beige room at a Communist Party-run education center in Hefei, the capital of Anhui province, his stepdaughter, Mandy Luo, boarded a flight from Shanghai to Seattle alone.

She had been on a family visit to China and was supposed to return with her mother to finish high school. But airport security had blocked her mother from boarding.

Mandy vomited for 10 hours on the flight home.

When Luo felt bad, she liked to curl up on her mother's lap. But now it was just her, a barf bag and a snoring man next to her.

Mom, she kept thinking, why are you not here? The answer to that question lies in Chinese laws that give authorities broad discretion to block both Chinese citizens and foreign nationals from leaving the country.

Minor children, a pregnant woman and a pastor all with foreign passports have been exit banned, according to people with direct knowledge of the cases.

The US, Canada and Australia have issued advisories warning their citizens that they can be prevented from leaving China over disputes they may not be directly involved in.

People may not realize they can't leave until they try to depart.

US diplomats frequently raise the issue of exit bans and the need for transparency with the PRC government, a State Department spokesperson said in an email.

The Department has raised Mr. Hsu's case at the highest levels and will continue to do so until he is allowed to return home to the U.S.

The misuse of exit bans is troubling, said a spokesman for Canada's Foreign Minister.

Promoting and protecting human rights is an integral part of Canada's foreign policy.

Australian consular cables obtained by the AP through a freedom of information request show that diplomats have repeatedly flagged concerns to Chinese counterparts about the growing number of exit bans on Australians.

Within China, exit bans have been celebrated as part of a best-practices toolkit for convincing corrupt officials to return to the motherland for prosecution, part of President Xi Jinping's sweeping campaign to purify the ruling Communist Party and shore up its moral authority.

Many corruption suspects fled to the US, Australia and Canada, which do not have extradition treaties with China.

Requests for comment to Anhui Province's Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, Public Security Department and procuratorate, as well as the province's foreign affairs and propaganda offices all went unanswered.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing declined to comment.

Hsu was accused of being a co-conspirator in the corruption case against his father, Xu.

The Hefei Intermediate People's Court found that Xu embezzled money for real estate in the 1990s, while serving as chairman of Shanghai Anhui Yu'an Industrial Corporation, a developer owned by the Anhui Provincial People's Government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5

By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend:

If the situation worsens, the quarantine regime may be tightened in Azerbaijan, Yagut Garayeva, head of the department of the Management Union of Medical Territorial Units in Azerbaijan (TABIB), said.

Garayeva made the remarks in Baku during a briefing held by the Operational Headquarters under the Cabinet of Ministers on May 5, Trend reports.

The head of the department urged people to comply with the requirements of the quarantine regime.

"We again appeal to the population that we want to further mitigate the quarantine regime, rather than to toughen it, Garayeva said. The main thing for us is people's health. The quarantine regime may be cancelled only if the rules are observed."

The new cases of infection are detected both in Baku and in the Azerbaijani districts, head of the department said. If there are more cases of infection in the districts in which the quarantine regime was softened, then the conditions will be tightened.
An aerial view of the Granada Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. (Los Angeles Times)

To the editor: The letters that condemn suburban sprawl are written by elitists who regard the rest of us as being too stupid to choose for ourselves how to live.

Sprawl is a good thing to be encouraged because it provides houses that people can afford to buy. This type of homeownership gives people dignity.

It should be noted that, in plain English, "high density" means "crowded," a word the anti-sprawl elite dares not use, as this would surely be a turnoff.

It is time to build single-family homes  real homes  again, ones that are not jammed up against each other, and the only homes that can be all yours.

Steven Pedersen, Rancho Palos Verdes

..

To the editor: Thanks to UC San Diego professor James Sallis for his well-stated response to the misguided notion that the coronavirus pandemic vindicates the skeptics of urban density.

With the Earth's population expanding rapidly, we must look to more environmentally friendly, pedestrian-friendly, low-cost, high-density housing if we are to survive. To deny this in the face of one virus is absolutely shortsighted.

Marjorie Harbison, San Dimas
If a pandemic isnt scary enough, frighten yourself with 2020s best horror: The Invisible Man, Swallow, The Lodge, Blood Quantum, and more. Photo: Vulture and Courtesy of Studios

Four months into 2020 and we may have only one true horror blockbuster  thanks to a slow winter followed by the onset of a full-blown global pandemic. But behind Invisible Man is an impressive lineup of genre titles just begging for your attention. Before the novel coronavirus threw the world into a panic spiral, the horror genre was enjoying a series of grand returns on a smaller scale: of filmmaker Richard Stanley, of some classic 1980s screen heavies and B-movie legends, of the art-house horror darlings Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala. Given our uncertain times, were not sure if well see another horror blockbuster this year, so in the meantime, well relish the little things we have: a bad vacation with Riley Keough, a deep-sea dive with Kristen Stewart, a blood-soaked gathering at a local VFW chapter. Here is the best horror of 2020 so far.

1 BR

The just moved to town character in a horror movie always has high potential for peril, and 1 BR really drags that to the extreme. But the star of this movie, Sarah (Nicole Brydon Bloom), doesnt make the mistake of going to the wrong party or doing the wrong drugs. She just moves into the wrong building and doesnt realize that neither management nor the other tenants intend on letting her leave. In this pared-down thriller from writer and director David Marmor, a young woman moves to L.A. to get a fresh start and thinks shes lucked into an ideal little apartment community, but wow is she wrong, and the very human, very real-feeling terror of Sarahs experience makes 1 BR a bracing little indie gem.

After Midnight

You wont see the long game of After Midnight coming, and thats what makes it so much fun. Jeremy Gardner wrote, co-directed, and starred in this humble creature feature that is also a pretty inventive breakup movie. When Abby (Brea Grant) walks out on Hank (Gardner) after a decade-long relationship in their small southern hometown, Hank spirals into a depression and maybe starts going a little crazy, staying up late every night to fend off the mysterious monster that keeps banging on his front door. Is Hanks grief pushing him to imagine some outlandish terror, or is there really something coming to his porch every night? And will he and Abby ever reconcile? The answers will surprise you.

Bit

Photo: Vertical Entertainment/Vertical Entertainment

Supergirls Nicole Maines stars in this queer transfeminist vampire dark comedy, and honestly, how often do you get to describe a movie that way? From writer and director Brad Michael Elmore, Bit follows a recent high-school graduate from a small Oregon town who is ready to make a new life in Los Angeles. On her first night out, though, she meets a group of vampires and ends up getting jumped into their brood. Its a great little Fuck the patriarchy! twist on your classic creatures-of-the-night tale, and a good example of how movies can smoothly fold progressive gender politics into a story thats just a damn fun time. Everyone wins!

Blood Quantum

The first zombie movie is widely considered to be White Zombie from 1932, in which the titular characters were Haitian drones working a white owners sugar plantation. Zombie movies have always been a subgenre rich with metaphor, and Canadian writer-director Jeff Barnabys take feels like a great punch up to the form. Centering on the residents of the Migmaq reserve of Red Crow Native Americans, Blood Quantum depicts a zombie-virus outbreak to which indigenous people are immune, leaving them to battle back the amassing hordes of white undead that threaten their land and their lives. Its bloody. Its pissed off. And its well worth unpacking.

Color Out of Space

Photo: Gustavo Figueiredo/RLJE Films

After a decades-long absence from the directors chair (at least in the context of narrative features), Richard Stanley finally returned in the weirdest, wildest way with the H.P. Lovecraft adaptation Color Out of Space, for which he also wrote the screenplay. Nicolas Cage and Joely Richardson star as a married couple living in a beautiful rural home with their three kids. Their pleasant little life is rudely interrupted when a glowing meteorite strikes down in their front lawn. Soon, the surrounding area starts to resemble Area X in Annihilation, and each member of the family starts deteriorating in a uniquely disturbing way. (Plus, Cage goes absolutely nuts in this movie, which is a gorgeous sci-fi nightmare you cant miss.)

Come to Daddy

A great thing about Elijah Woods is that if hes starring in a movie it will almost certainly be strange or terrifying or gory or a combination of all three. In Come to Daddy, Wood plays Norval, a Los Angeles soft boy whose estranged dad has written a letter requesting a reunion at his remote coastal home. Since Norval knows almost nothing about his dad and yearns to connect, he agrees and schleps through the woods into semi-isolation, where he finds a real bastard of a man waiting to greet him. But maybe his dad is just uncomfortable with his feelings when it comes to family? Well, the situation takes a truly bizarre turn for the worse, and things just keep getting crazier and bloodier from there.

Gretel & Hansel

Photo: YouTube

Director Osgood Perkins specializes in slow-moving tone studies that immerse the viewer in haunting environs, and his update of the Hansel & Gretel fairytale pays proper homage to its twisted Brothers Grimm origins. When the two kids are cast out of their home by an unhinged mother, Gretel (Sophia Lillis) knows its up to her to provide for and protect her little brother. One day deep in the woods they find a cottage with a beautiful bounty on the table, and hungry Hansel (Samuel Leakey) cant help breaking in to steal a few bites. That, of course, is when they meet the witch of the house, who takes the siblings in to shelter them and fatten them up. Except this time around, the witch (named Holda, played by Alice Krige) takes a liking to Gretel and enlightens her about the truth of her feminine power and the secrets of the Earth. Sophia Lillis is having a moment, so get onboard.

The Invisible Man

Photo: Courtesy of Universal Pictures

The years first horror blockbuster is a new spin on a classic. Writer and director Leigh Whannell conceived of this take on Universals The Invisible Man by making the title character a domestic abuser and the hero his girlfriend who is trying to escape him at any cost. Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) swore to Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss) that shed never be able to leave him, and if she ever tried he would find her and walk right up to her without her ever even noticing. Well, Adrian makes good on his promise after Cecilia breaks free, but he makes his presence very, very known  but only to her, dragging her back into his cycle of abuse and gaslighting alone. Moss gives a major performance, and Whannell threads the needle of mass-appeal cinema and vital social messaging with deftness, while still making a movie that hits like an 18-wheel truck.

The Lodge

The Lodge is a polarizing experience, and certain shocking narrative choices by co-directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala are just as likely to alienate some audience members as they are to cast an unbreakable spell on others. We sit in the latter camp. Riley Keough stars as Grace, a young woman going on a winter holiday with her fiance and his kids, who are outraged he was able to replace their mother so quickly. To make matters worse, the dad (Richard Armitage) has to stay back in the city for work while the three of them hole up at a snowy cabin where, one morning, everyone wakes to find basically all of the household objects missing. No food. No Christmas stockings. No nothing. And theyre too snowed in to leave or get help. The mystery is, are the children having some insidious fun at Graces expense to punish their future step mom, or is there a supernatural menace manifesting from her mysterious past to terrorize them all? The directors behind Goodnight Mommy will make you question the fundamental innocence of children once again.

The Platform

There have already been a few serendipitous horror releases this year that feature people being trapped and/or tortured in one place. For the best of this group, Vulture selects The Platform, a Spanish movie that takes place in a vertical prison composed of concrete cubes stacked one atop another. The only food available is served on a platform that descends from level one down to the bottom, hundreds of cells below, forcing inmates to eat only what the people above them have been generous enough to leave behind. Its brutal and grotesque, and the central character is a man who refuses to conform to the barbarism of the system  until desperation and hunger push him to the brink. The Platform debuted in the month social-isolation orders brought the country to a halt, and it couldnt be a better feel-bad movie for the moment.

Swallow

Photo: Courtesy of IFC Films

Although the movie Swallow features a main character who develops a compulsion for eating dangerous objects, the real horror of the movie is existential. Haley Bennett plays a beautiful housewife named Hunter who has landed a rich man and lives in a rich home filled with rich things. She is utterly comfortable, and increasingly miserable as the paint-by-numbers life she married into starts crushing her under the weight of family expectations, shame, and imposter syndrome. Hunters desire to swallow what is forbidden sparks the beginning stages of a rebellion against the person shes become. Carlo Mirabella-Davis wrote and directed this movie inspired by the life of his own grandmother, and it will haunt you long after its done.

Underwater

Photo: Twentieth Century Fox

The fact that Underwater was made years ago and rather unceremoniously just dropped into theaters this January with little fanfare is a shame, because it is a fun and relentless thrill ride that stars Kristen Stewart saving lives and fighting sea monsters. When a humongous oil-drilling rig unleashes hordes of extremophiles (and one super-beast that looks uncannily like Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies), the only remaining crew members in the facility must make their way across the ocean floor in hopes of reaching undamaged escape pods, and its just a cascading series of terrors for about 90 minutes. Even T.J. Miller is a good, welcome addition to the cast, and how often are you hearing that in 2020?

VFW

Fire up that time machine, because we are going back to the 1980s. Director Joe Begos follows the excellent achievement that was Bliss with this rip-roaring story of a bunch of hard-ass service veterans caught in the middle of a feud between a sadistic drug dealer and a thief who steals his stash. The story is set in a nearish future in which a new, extremely addictive drug has turned huge swathes of the population into junkies, and when the local supplier loses his product to a young woman seeking revenge on him, he sends an army of tweakers into the bar where she seeks refuge, and where she is being protected by the likes of Stephen Lang, William Sadler, Fred Williamson, Martin Kove, and David Patrick Kelly. Heads will be split open. Limbs will be severed. And the blood will keep on flowing.

We Summon the Darkness

You know what? Lets just fucking party! We Summon the Darkness is a charmingly cheeky 1980s throwback movie that takes the Satanic-panic craze and gives you a hair-metal horror comedy. Alexandra Daddario, Maddie Hasson, and Amy Forsyth star as a trio of rock chicks headed to a concert where they end up snagging three men eager to go home and have an after-party with them. Theres tension in the air, though, since a mysterious group of occultists have been ritualistically murdering people across the country. So really, who can you trust? Johnny Knoxville guests as a televangelist in this fun little rager.




While all businesses in the formal sector can now reopen under strict health conditions as Zimbabwe moves into level 2 lockdown, many were unable to do so yesterday with the rapid testing of staff being the biggest single problem as private suppliers were demanding US$25 a test kit, payable only in foreign currency.





The illegal demand for foreign currency, and high prices of test kits, made it hard for many companies, already hit by cash flow problems after five weeks of lockdown, to restart. Business owners said public sector health institutions were not yet ready to handle queries from employers.





Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Sekai Nzenza yesterday conceded that testing kits were expensive and there was a shortage on the market.





We are encouraging testing at all levels. However, we have also realised that there is a challenge in accessing those test kits. The second challenge is the cost of testing. So this morning, the people from industry, private sector and SMEs got together in a dialogue to say: If we are going to test everybody across the board, how best are we going to do it she said.





A second problem was in police control of traffic. While all police roadblocks were enforcing the new legal requirement for face masks even-handedly, turning away those without, some were also demanding proof that the person being stopped was in fact employed in a permitted business. Employers are ready to give suitable letters to staff, but usually the member of staff has to come to work in the first place to get the letter.





Under the revised lockdown regulations, formal businesses can reopen from 8am to 3pm so long as their staff are tested for Covid-19, wearing of facemasks at work is enforced, social distancing is observed, and all staff and customers are scanned for temperature.





National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said police had noted more people travelling to the city centres. He urged companies to provide letters stating that particular staff members were employed in an exempted concern and warned that those without facemasks would not just be turned away but could be arrested.





The testing condition needs urgent attention.





Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) chief executive officer Mr Takunda Mugaga said suppliers of test kits were seeking to profiteer.





The test kits are very expensive and they are being charged in US dollars. Why are they charging in US dollars only? That is unacceptable and should be addressed otherwise only 25 percent of the workforce will be tested, said Mr Mugaga.





It is illegal in Zimbabwe to insist on foreign currency payments, although during the Covid-19 emergency businesses may accept foreign currency payments, but have to quote in Zimbabwe dollars.





Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president Mr Henry Ruzvidzo said while some businesses did not open after struggling to interpret the lockdown developments, the health sector was also not ready to immediately handle enquiries from industrialists.





The issue of testing has been received with mixed reactions with many not sure on the effectiveness and benefit of the rapid tests from a company perspective. The precondition for the tests is seen as a major challenge for timely resumption of business activities as indications have shown challenges in the readiness of public health institutions to conduct the tests.





Tests at private institutions might have cost challenges as well as the limited number of institutions that have been accredited so far. Business hopes that Government will consider extending the coverage of the $18 billion stimulus fund to include the cost of testing, said Mr Ruzvidzo.





In the Midlands, most companies opened with skeleton staff as they waited to test employees.





Bata Shoe Company managing director, Mr Simon Mutisya, said they had 150 employees so as to maintain social distance.





Thousands of people thronged Gweru city centre. Victoria Falls recorded an increase in human and vehicular traffic in the town centre as some businesses reopened.





Most people moved around streets with face masks, mostly home-made ones.





Hwange District Medical Officer Dr Fungai Musinami-Mvura said: We havent started conducting tests for companies so far because test kits are not yet there. 





Most banks were open to the public while some small shops that had been closed all along, also reopened yesterday.





Workers in some clothing shops said they spent the day at work but with doors closed as they feared to open before being tested.





Earlier, the District Medical Office had circulated messages instructing companies that wished to open, to forward their names and details of employees for testing logistics.





In Mutare, some hair salons, clothing, hardware, electrical and cellphone shops, opened. Shops in the downtown area remained closed. Police continued to mount roadblocks on all major roads leading into the city.





Shop owners who spoke on condition of anonymity said although they had opened their doors, they had skeleton staff as they awaited Government to clarify how the testing of employees should be conducted.




Bloomberg | Getty Images

The past few months have been a difficult time for many business sectors, but a few industries have become decidedly "essential." Shipping and packing companies, for example, have never been so crucial. As more and more people practice social distancing, they've turned to online shopping and remote interactions, and these companies and their employees have played an invaluable role in keeping everyone stocked with much-needed supplies.

Here are five of the top entries from our 2020 ranking of the Franchise 500.
THE Covid-19 crisis has vastly expanded the number of workplaces that are hazardous environments requiring remote advance clearance for returning staff, according to online permits specialist OneLook Systems.

The Co Cork firm is helping Google, Diageo, Kerry Group and scores of its other multinational clients to ensure employees and outside contractors alike can learn and formally accept their employers' Covid-19 safety regimes before they return to their keyboards, counters or factory floors.

Its SafePermit software has been adapted over the past month into a coronavirus-specific health and safety platform called FrontDoor.

It is being used by firms across Europe, the US and Asia to help clients train, test and approve workers who need to enter buildings and sites with specific virus precautions and hygiene controls in place.

OneLook, based in the Fota Business Park in Carrigtwohill, Co Cork, with small branch offices in Seattle and Kuala Lumpur, has doubled its software development staff to 35 over the past two years.

Its subscription revenues are growing annually by 40pc including, suddenly, at smaller Irish firms needing a digital way to train and control admission of workers to their locked-down, restricted or reopening places of employment.

"Our goal always has been to reduce the risks in hazardous environments. Because of Covid-19, large offices are now hazardous environments," said CEO Pat King, who co-founded OneLook alongside co-director and chief operating officer Brendan Griffin in 2008.

"In normal times, contractors doing high-risk work need to have a permit. That's always been our focus," he said.

"Now, in these exceptional times, companies will need to ensure every employee on site - whether they're a welder or an office worker at a desk - has a permit to operate safely amid Covid-19.

"Firms will need some platform that is able not just to get people back to work the first time but to monitor and control the hazards going forward - because work life is never going to be the same, at least not for a very, very long time."

FrontDoor is designed to teach an employer's Covid-19 safety plan to returning employees and contractors.

They typically watch instructional videos, answer questions to demonstrate their learning and sign off to confirm they understand and will follow these health and safety policies.

They then receive a permit to access their workplace in both PDF and smartphone form, specifying where they can work and under what conditions.

Mr King said employees going through the Covid-19 safety permit process "will know that when they go back to work, they don't have to be afraid - or at least reduce the amount of fear they have - because the company can show it has very visible controls, and everybody on site understands what those controls are and has agreed to follow them."

Mr King said FrontDoor is being used differently by clients in different phases of the Covid-19 battle.

Clients in Singapore and other parts of Asia, for instance, have already reopened workplaces and are using the platform "to make sure that controls are even tighter".

Meanwhile, The Food Safety Company, a food safety consultancy, has launched its 'Hygiene Assured' certification designed to validate hygiene standards in hotels, restaurants, cafes and other hospitality businesses.
Hundreds of protesters gathered at the Massachusetts State House in Boston on Monday, May 4, to protest coronavirus lockdown measures and demand the reopening of nonessential businesses.

Protesters held signs that read shutdown the shutdown and everyone is essential. The rally was organized by the same group responsible for the Boston Straight Pride Parade, the Boston Herald reported.

Gov Charlie Baker announced on Friday that face masks were mandatory in Massachusetts when in public.

This is going to be a way of life, Baker said. If everybodys wearing a mask, it will dramatically reduce the opportunity and possibility of spread.

This video, shared by Twitter user @Shanie44, shows the scene on Monday afternoon in Boston.

Rallies around the US have called for state reopenings, among them Illinois, California, and Oregon.

As of May 3, Massachusetts had reported 68,087 cases of the coronavirus and 4,004 deaths. Credit: @Shanie44 via Storyful
King County in Washington State has agreed to a $2.25 million settlement with the family of a teenager who was fatally shot by officers in a sting operation in 2017. The settlement, which was made public on Monday, also includes a promise by the county Sheriffs Office to pursue a new policy that would require deputies to use body and dashboard cameras.

In January 2017, MiChance Dunlap-Gittens, 17, who lived in a suburb of Seattle, was helping a friend, 16, deliver alcohol to a 15-year-old girl in an unmarked van.

The transaction, which was arranged on social media, had been set up as part of an undercover operation that turned fatal, court documents say.

Image MiChance Dunlap-Gittens Credit...

There was no girl. Instead, an officer was sitting in the front of the van. In the back were three officers from the King County Sheriffs Office who were investigating Mr. Dunlap-Gittenss 16-year-old friend as a person of interest in a homicide case. As Mr. Dunlap-Gittens, who was carrying the bottles, and his friend walked to the van, the officers jumped out, the court documents say.
MADURAI: After photographs of 'substandard food' being served to the house surgeons and postgraduate doctors at the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) went viral on social media, the hospital management termed the claims "false". It was on Sunday night that a couple of photographs of what the post claimed to be 'substandard food' served to the house surgeons and postgraduate doctors of Madurai Medical College at their hostels went viral on social media.



However, a medical student, on condition of anonymity, told The New Indian Express that, while there was no problem with the food served to postgraduate doctors, that served to the house surgeons at the CRRI hostel mess located within GRH premises on Sunday was of low quality. This, the student claimed, was because the cooking was taken up by just one cook

This temporary arrangement was made after a majority of the mess workers were quarantined after a house surgeon, who stayed at the hostel and ate the mess food recently, tested positive. Disinfection of the hostel and mess premises was also underway, she added.

"After the matter was taken up with the hospital authorities later on Sunday, we were informed that a new batch of mess workers would join duty starting Monday," she said.



Refuting the allegations on Monday, inmates of Oasis Postgraduate Hostel, through their statement, said that the claims were false and that the food provided to postgraduate doctors were of good quality.

Meanwhile, in its statement, Rajaji Hospital Resident Doctors Association (RHRDA) of GRH, called the viral message a rumour and stated, "The food is being prepared in a hygienic manner and we have been asked to dine at our rooms to avoid common dining and all the mess workers at the CRRI hostel tested negative for COVID-19."


[May 05, 2020] Popular Has Processed $1.2 Billion in SBA Loans

Popular announced today that, as of May 1, it had processed $1.2 billion in loans in the two rounds of the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). These loans benefit 16,397 small and medium-sized businesses that employ more than 235,000 people. Of the total, $1.06 billion were granted through Banco Popular de Puerto Rico and $185 million through Popular Bank, Popular's banking subsidiary in the United States. The institution indicated that, since the start of the second round of the program on April 27, Banco Popular de Puerto Rico had processed 14,082 applications for $660 million in funds, of which $647 million were originated in Puerto Rico and $13 million in the Virgin Islands. "Aware (News - Alert) of the importance of this program for small and medium businesses on the island, we mobilized our human and technological resources to help them obtain the most funds possible. We are extremely pleased to have beenable to process all completed applications that we have received to date. Also, we will continue to receive and process applications as long as the SBA keeps the program open and funds are available," said Ignacio Alvarez, Popular's Chief Executive Officer.



Popular reported that, in Puerto Rico, it has so far processed 15,277 applications for a total of $1.04 billion in funds. These businesses employ more than 227,000 people. Of these, 61% percent have been for less than $25,000 and 31% for amounts between $25,000 and $150,000. "Small and medium-sized businesses are the heart of a community and, at Popular, we support them, particularly at this difficult time. The results demonstrate our commitment and our reach in this segment that is so vital to our economy. We are grateful to our clients and other businesses that submitted applications with us for their trust and to our colleagues who have worked tirelessly to make these results possible," Alvarez concluded.

The program is one of the cornerstones of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), landmark legislation designed to help businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The United States Congress launched the program with an initial allocation of $349 billion, and due to the high demand, the funds were exhausted in 13 days. The program was reactivated on April 27, with an additional allocation of $310 billion. In this second round, through May 1, the SBA had approved $176 billion in loans. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505006050/en/

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Delhi boy questioned following backlash over chat group where students shared photos of girls and talked of gang rape.

Police in India are investigating a teenage boy over an online chat group that made light of gang rape and where members shared images of teenage girls, causing a backlash on social media.

An Instagram chat group called bois locker room was the top trending hashtag on Twitter India on Tuesday, with many tweets using screenshots from the group to highlight derogatory comments made about women and trivialising sexual assault.

Based on the information online and our technical investigation, we identified a boy and apprehended him, Anyesh Roy, deputy commissioner of police in the Delhi Polices cybercrime unit told the Reuters news agency.





We took relevant details from him and he was handed over to his parents, he added. We have seized his mobile phone.

Police have identified 20 other members of the group, all Class XI and XII students enrolled in various New Delhi schools, according to Indias NDTV network.

Roy said investigations into the other people in the group chat were ongoing relating to breaches of various laws, including transmitting obscene material and insulting the modesty of women.

On Monday, the state-run Delhi Commission for Women issued a notice to the police requesting action be taken against the members of the chat group, and sent another notice to Instagram seeking details of the groups members.

A representative for Facebook, which owns Instagram, said it did not allow behaviour that promotes sexual violence or exploits anyone, especially women and young people.

Action is taken against any content that violates the platforms community standards, said the representative.

One rape every 15 minutes

Sexual violence against women has become a major issue in India since the 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman on a bus in New Delhi that prompted tough new laws.

In March this year, the four men convicted in the case were hanged in a prison in the capital.

But experts say poor implementation of the laws has resulted in few signs of let-up in sexual assault cases.

One woman reported a rape every 15 minutes on average in 2018, according to government data, underlining the countrys dismal reputation as one of the worst places in the world to be a female.

A Reuters poll of gender experts in 2018 rated India as the worlds most dangerous country for women.

Twitter backlash on Tuesday said the attitude towards women had to change in the country.

For this locker room story that got out, there must be thousands more around  dangerous masculinity and sexism will still exist, wrote Twitter user @justyashgoyal.

Objectification of women must stop and it can only be done by educating youth, wrote another Twitter user @tripathiharsh02.
Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo at a State Department news conference April 29, 2020. (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press )

The future is particularly murky these days. Its anybodys guess how the pandemic, the presidential election and the economy are going to play out. Just about the only thing thats assured is that U.S. relations with China will never be the same.

Businesses are radically rethinking their supply chains and whether you call the rest of us voters or consumers, attitudes toward China are souring. A recent Harris poll found that two-thirds of Democrats and 9 out of 10 Republicans hold China responsible for the spread of the coronavirus. Already, a slew of lawsuits have been leveled against the Chinese government. The Wests political orientation toward China is shifting too, as countries around the world increasingly point fingers at Beijing.

In short, the issue isnt whether a China-U.S. reckoning is coming, only whether were smart or dumb about it.

Early on, the knee-jerk response from Democrats, the World Health Organization, much of the media and the Chinese government itself, was to claim that any criticism of the Chinese governments actions was bigoted or xenophobic.

On the merits, this is ridiculous. The Chinese government is a cruel and oppressive regime. Its refusal to be transparent and cooperative with the international community has been outrageous, and its not bigoted to say so. But the CCP, the Communist Party of China, is not "the Chinese or even China, and blanket-blaming a whole nation and its people for a pandemic makes no sense. Its as dumb, in other words, as stipulating that any negative word about Beijing is xenophobic.

The current debate over the origins of SARS-CoV-2 is another excellent example of how dumb we can be about criticizing China. The claim that the virus originated in a Chinese lab is not synonymous with the deranged conspiracy theory that the Chinese created the virus and purposefully unleashed it.

There is no evidence that the virus is man-made; scientists would be able to tell with genetic sequencing. Nor is it plausible that Chinas interests would be served by the deliberate release on its own soil. A more credible  but unproven  theory is that the Chinese were studying the virus and it could have been accidentally released. Or it may also have emerged naturally, as the Chinese government contends, from a Wuhan meat market.

Story continues

As the question of where the virus came from has heated up, Republican China hawks, in and out of the administration, rarely volunteer that they dont mean man-made when they say originated. And much of the media coverage similarly ignores or downplays this distinction. Some pro-Trump media personalities seem eager to fuel anti-Chinese sentiments while the anti-Trump crowd seem to prefer to see a more mockable conspiracy theory.

This mutually beneficial ambiguity gets a boost from the Trump administrations vacillation over how much blame it wants to assign to China and how it wants to direct it, all with an eye toward riling up its base and distracting from its early missteps in combating the pandemic.

On the one hand, President Trump values his personal relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping and covets a major trade deal with him. Trump is on the record praising Xis coronavirus leadership and he remains reluctant to criticize Xi directly. On the other hand, the president and many of his advisors and surrogates relish having a new evil empire to galvanize support around.

(The schizophrenic nature of all this is ironically analogous to conservative criticism of the Trump administration. A slew of pro-Trump politicians and media figures are sharply critical of the administrations response to the pandemic while simultaneously refusing to criticize Trump. The result is heated talk of states needing to be liberated from governors following the presidents guidelines and presidential advisors being scapegoated for presidential decisions.)

The ambiguity about China's misdeeds was on display during the Sunday talk shows.

When Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo told ABCs Martha Raddatz that China has a history of infecting the world, Raddatz admirably asked, Do you believe it was man-made or genetically modified? Pompeo replied, Look, the best experts so far seem to think it was man-made. I have no reason to disbelieve that at this point. After Raddatz, again admirably, pointed out that the exact opposite is the case, that experts including the U.S. intelligence community believe it is not man-made, Pompeo said, Thats right, I agree with that. Then he went on to make a defensible case against the Chinese government, never mentioning Xi by name.

Its surely possible he merely misspoke. But his dancing back and forth between dumb and smart was at minimum symbolic of an administration that wants to have it both ways.

Anger at Xis government is warranted, as is a recalibration of our relationship with China in the long aftermath of the pandemic. But treating a nuclear and economic superpower as an existential enemy primarily to satisfy domestic political needs  during an economic and public health crisis  strikes me as the dumbest way to go.

@JonahDispatch




An executive engineer of a power distribution company has been detained along with his technical assistant by a team of the Anti-Corruption Bureau in a graft case, an official said on Tuesday.

Technical Assistant Bunty Saini, posted at the office of the Alwar circle executive engineer, Jaipur Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited, had allegedly taken a bribe of Rs 69,400 from an firm to clear its bills.

According to the alleged deal, Executive Engineer K L Saini's share in the bribe amount was Rs 60,300.

The technical assistant was to receive Rs 9,100.

The bureau team laid a trap to nab them on the complaint of the firm owner.

According to an ACB official, the technical assistant was caught taking bribe at his office.

Both accused have been detained and being interrogated, the ACB official said, adding that action has been taken under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The idea of a brand-new home that no one has ever lived in and that reflects your choices and needs has always sounded pretty appealing, right? But now that were fighting a worldwide pandemic, this option seems to be growing on many a homebuyer.

In the initial four weeks of the national shutdown, sales of newly built homes began falling precipitously, down 85% from normal spring activity by the fourth week, said CNBC. In the past two weeks, however, the numbers have started to climb, according to John Burns Real Estate Consulting, which tracks hundreds of builders nationwide.

Interestingly, that growing demand for new construction is being driven by a wave of rentersleaving their apartments and eyeing new homes, Devyn Bachman, manager of research at JBRC, told them. In her research, Bachman found demand for new construction heavily skewed toward renters, especially young couples with two incomes who feel secure in their employment.

The push for new construction is largely location-motivated; many of these renters who currently live in cramped confines in packed urban areas are, perhaps not surprisingly, seeking more space in the suburbsright in the new construction sweet spot. Theyre also looking homes that are already being built or standing inventory that they can move into quickly.

Mid-Atlantic Builders, a builder in Maryland and Northern Virginia, just sold three spec homes, with plans to build more for buyers who would rather just walk through a new home and buy it, Stephen Paul, the companys executive vice president, told them.

But vacant homes are not just limited to new construction. Many resale buyers are specifically focusing on homes that are not currently occupied.

Vacant homes are still being listed and shown, according to realtor Lyssa Seward, president of the Seward Group at TTR Sothebys International in Washington D.C. and Alexandria, VA. Brittanie DeChino, vice president of the Seward Group, told CITYLAB that, In D.C., the supply of vacant homes for sale could carry the market.

Team Diva Real Estate at Coldwell Banker Bain in Seattle has gone so far as to limit their listings to vacant homes. Were not listing any homes that someone is living in, said Managing broker Kim V. Colaprete. Ive been very hardcore about if you are living in a home its really not safe for you to do that.
The amount of cash withdrawn from ATMs has plunged by nearly a third since the coronavirus outbreak as the crisis changes the way consumers pay.

The switch away from cash is set to accelerate the trend towards alternative payment methods including online purchases, tap cards, smartphones and buy now pay later.

Consumers have been using less cash since the coronavirus outbreak. Credit:Glenn Hunt

A real-time spending tracker developed by analytics firm AlphaBeta, a part of Accenture, and credit bureau illion, shows the withdrawal of cash from ATMs was 32 per cent lower in the week of April 20-26 than a typical week in February, prior to the escalation of the pandemic.

One driver of this change is the way consumers and businesses have switched to payment methods that require no human contact, such as tap and go.
[May 05, 2020] Guardhat Partners with FireHUD to Bring Advanced Exertion Monitoring to the Workforce

DETROIT, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Guardhat, a leader in the smart industrial safety industry, today announced that it has partnered with Atlanta-based startup FireHUD, Inc., a provider of biometric monitoring to prevent overexertion on the worksite. "Guardhat's ultimate goal is to better protect the industrial workforce with advanced safety insight," said Rony RoyChoudhury, Executive Vice President of Growth at Guardhat. "FireHUD hit the ground running, and their technology brings real-time biometric monitoring to our KYRA platform. We want to align our mission and enter the market jointly, greatly expanding the number of ways in which we can monitor and protect individuals working the most demanding careers." The FireHUD BioTrac Platform is a real-time monitoring system that tracks the physiology of individuals through an arm-worn device. The device measures biometrics such as heart rate, core body temperature, exertion, distance traveled and calories burned to provide a personalized profile for predicting exertion levels. By integrating FireHUD monitoring with Guardhat's KYRA platform, users will now have a more holistic view of the worksite, including the ability to receive and send instant alerts in the event of a fall, exposure to toxic gases, lockout zones, proximity to moving equipment, and much more. "We are incredibly excited to work with Guardhat," said Zack Braun, FireHUD's CEO. "Their KYRA platform allows us to easily integrate our real-time physiological monitoring solution into their system in on-premise or cloud scenarios. Ultimately, allowing our complementary solutions to usher in a new era of safety for workers in the most extreme environments." Guardhat's agreement with FieHUD is the latest in a series of partnerships that demonstrate KYRA's ability to integrate with nearly any type wearable technology. It boasts a growing list of global solution providers including DuPont Sustainable Solutions, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM and Qualcomm Technologies.



"During development, we knew that we needed a platform that could easily enhance and integrate with newly developed wearable technology," Rony continued. "To see this come to life with companies like FireHUD has been extremely rewarding. We look forward to continuing the momentum and becoming the industrial and biotech platform of choice for all wearables." Guardhat currently holds eight patents across the areas of Connect Worker, Real Time Location Systems and Wearable Solutions and was named the Frost & Sullivan 2019 North America Company of the Year for its Connected PPE Worker Safety Solutions.

The FireHUD platform has already been implemented in select Air Force bases and First Responder units across the US, allowing personnel to better monitor the real-time health of their team. For more information visit: guardhat.com or firehud.co About Guardhat Detroit-based Guardhat is a leading industrial IoT technology company specialized in developing wearables, infrastructure and software platforms to provide a safer and more productive work environment for frontline industrial workers in heavy manufacturing industries. Founded in October 2014 by industry veterans and former steel & mining CEO Saikat Dey, Guardhat's mission is to modernize safety and enhance last mile connectivity in the industrial workplace. By combining a cutting-edge, wearable technology with advanced proprietary software, Guardhat is able to proactively monitor a user's location, health and work environment. The software platform collects and analyzes on-the-job data which is used to enhance industrial worker safety and productivity programs. Based out of its headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, Guardhat operates globally with offices in Boulder, Colorado; Chicago, Illinois; Bangalore, India; and Paris, France. Guardhat holds 8 patents across areas of Connected Worker, Real Time Location Systems and Wearable Solutions. For more information, visit: www.guardhat.com. About FireHUD FireHUD is a technology company that provides easy-to-use, group physiological monitoring to first responders, the military, and industrial workers. FireHUD aims to make jobs safer with new technology and improved situational awareness. Through the collection of critical biometric markers such as heart rate and core body temperature, FireHUD uses machine learning to create personalized profiles that predict exertion levels for all group members and provides real-time alerts in order to prevent injuries and deaths. FireHUD has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the US Air Force to accelerate development of its IoT platform. For more information, visit: firehud.co View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/guardhat-partners-with-firehud-to-bring-advanced-exertion-monitoring-to-the-workforce-301053367.html SOURCE Guardhat

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A violent encounter between a New York City police officer and a bystander that police said began as an attempt to enforce social distancing rules has prompted concerns about unequal policing.

The city's public advocate, Jumaane Williams, posted pictures on Twitter on Sunday  one of swarms of white people sitting in parks and three images from what appeared to depict encounters between police and people of color.

IMAGE: New York police confrontation (Daquan Owens / via Facebook)

One of the images was a still from a video captured Saturday that has been widely shared online. It shows a plainclothes police officer, who is not wearing a mask, pointing a stun gun at bystanders on Avenue D in the East Village in Manhattan. NBC News has not been able to verify what happened before or after the events shown in the video, which also depicted the officer, who has been identified by The New York Times and other media outlets as Francisco Garcia, punching and slapping a man to the ground.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

The man, Donni Wright, 33, one of three people arrested during the encounter, was charged with assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, menacing and two counts of disorderly conduct.

A police spokeswoman, Sgt. Mary Frances O'Donnell, said in a statement Sunday that Wright "took a fighting stance against the officer" when he was ordered to disperse and that he was arrested and charged. Neither Garcia nor Wright could immediately be reached for comment Monday at numbers listed for them.

Caitlyn Fowles, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, said Monday that the charges have been deferred pending further investigation.

Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said Sunday that Garcia was placed on modified duty while the department's Internal Affairs Bureau investigates the encounter.

Mayor Bill de Blasio wrote Sunday night on Twitter that he was "really disturbed" by the video and that the behavior he saw "is simply not acceptable."

Story continues

The mayor was asked explicitly Sunday about unequal enforcement of social distancing rules but did not comment directly. Last week, de Blasio personally oversaw the dispersal of a crowd of mourners in the Williamsburg neighborhood at the funeral of a Hasidic rabbi, which he and the commissioner said drew thousands of people.

"What we see in some places is a large number of people in a small area, and our job is to make sure they practice social distancing," de Blasio said Sunday. "If not, they're running the risk of a summons."

The viral video prompted questions about whether the department was unevenly enforcing social distancing rules.

Williams said Monday that his office requested data on the demographics of who was being summonsed and arrested two weeks ago because "we had a feeling that there was not equity in enforcement."

"And a few weeks before that, we made it clear to the mayor that reliance and overreliance on police to enforce this was going to be a problem," Williams said at a news conference. "It's just like COVID and corona is magnifying structure inequities in communities. It's not creating new ones. It's magnifying the ones that exist.

"It's also magnifying problems in leadership and problems in other areas, like policing, in the same way," Williams added. He said he suggested several weeks ago that the city have a communal enforcement response whereby police, fire and sanitation departments, among others, would be responsible for reminding people of social distancing rules.

Download the NBC News app for full coverage and alerts about the coronavirus outbreak

Williams said his requests have gone unanswered. Patrick Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, said city police officers need to "get out of the social distancing business altogether."

"The cowards who run this city have given us nothing but vague guidelines and mixed messages, leaving the cops on the street corners to fend for ourselves," Lynch said in a statement Monday.

Shea said Monday on NY1 that police wrote about 70 summonses for violating social distancing rules over the weekend.

Shea said that a stun gun that did not belong to police and a small amount of marijuana were recovered at the scene of the incident Saturday and that the officer involved was stripped of his gun and placed on modified duty that evening. He said there are believed to be multiple videos of the incident.

"We're still in the process of trying to gain all the facts," Shea said. "But certainly [there were] some tactics that I was not happy with."
Reuters

Chipmaker Intel Corp has bought Israeli public transit app maker Moovit for about $900 million to help it develop self-driving "robotaxis" that could take to the streets in early 2022, the company said on Monday.

Moovit will remain independent while its technology and the data it collects from more than 800 million users in 102 countries will be integrated into Intel's Israel-based autonomous car unit Mobileye.

The price paid was nearly twice the $500 million valuation when Moovit last raised money in 2018.

"Moovit is an acquisition that fills some very critical gaps that we have going forward," Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua told Reuters.

The initial goal, he said, was to have a small fleet of driverless taxis in countries like Israel, France and South Korea.

Moovit is popular for helping commuters or tourists find the best way to a destination by showing them bus and train routes, bike paths and car-pooling options.

Once integrated with Mobileye, the app will be a platform to order the robotaxis and the real-time data will ensure the vehicles are deployed in high-demand areas, Shashua said.

Intel forecasts robotaxis will be a $160 billion market by 2030.

The decision to buy now, when much of the world economy is at a standstill due to the coronavirus outbreak, stems from Mobileye's ability to more accurately predict when its technology will be ready, Shashua said. And the target is 2022.

"For a company like Intel, which has a very orderly plan of how the future should unfold, the coronavirus should not be a setback. On the contrary, you should look at the crisis then find opportunities," Shashua said.

Moovit has raised $133 million from investors including Intel, BMW iVentures and Sequoia Capital. In 2018 it raised $50 million in an investment round led by Intel Capital.

Intel has made significant investments already in Israel, including its $15.3 billion acquisition of Mobileye in 2017. In December it bought Israeli artificial intelligence firm Habana Labs for $2 billion.
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MUSKEGON, MI  This week, Takeout Tuesday falls on Cinco de Mayo -- and you know what that means: takeout tacos!

Heading up this weeks list of takeout options in the Muskegon area are two eateries that can help you celebrate May 5 in a Tex Mex sort of way.

Arturos Tacos Fresh Mexican Grill in Grand Haven has been a fan favorite during MLives search for the states best tacos. And Skeetown Tavern in Muskegon is gaining a reputation for Tex Mex, as well as Cajun cuisine and its massive ribeye steaks.

Rounding out this weeks list are The Handsome Hobo, which has your pizza cravings covered, from deep dish to thin crust; Pekadills in Whitehall, with fresh sandwiches and homemade soups that make it a perfect takeout lunch spot; and Getty Street Grill, which will cook up breakfast and other diner favorites.

Mexican style tacos at Arturo's Tacos in Grand Haven.

Arturos Tacos Fresh Mexican Grill

Arturos Tacos Fresh Mexican Grill, 305 N. Beacon Blvd. in Grand Haven, is such a hit with its customers that it was a poll winner during MLives search for the states best tacos. Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Mexican style tacos, nachos, tamales, burritos and more.

The restaurant is running a special on tacos, offering up the American variety for $1.50 each and Mexican tacos for $1.25 apiece.

Call Arturos at 616-844-4100 to place an order for takeout or limited delivery service. Or, order online at www.lakeshoredeliverypartnersllc.com for an expanded delivery area.

Tex Mex chicken, bacon and chedder flautas at Skeetown Tavern, which offers curbside pickup and delivery.MLive.com

Skeetown Tavern

On the outside, it looks like a nondescript watering hole. But dont let its looks deceive you. Skeetown Tavern, 1308 W. Sherman Blvd., has developed a following for its steaks and flavorful dishes that include Cajun and Tex Mex cuisine.

With a wide-ranging menu, Skeetown has something for everyone, from tostadas and quesadillas to burgers and ribeye steaks to shrimp and sausage Etouffee and jambalaya.

Check out its menu on Facebook, and then phone in your order at 231-755-6818. Orders are brought to your car in the parking lot, and delivery is also available.

The Western omelet from the Getty Street Grill, 1572 S. Getty St., which offers breakfast options for curbside pickup.Lisha Arino | MLive

Getty Street Grill

If youve got a hankering for breakfast, then Getty Street Grill, 1572 Getty St., has you covered.

The grill is known for its omelets, stuffed hash browns and biscuits and gravy. But it also offers up classic diner burgers, sandwiches and more.

Check out the menu on its Facebook page. Then call Getty Street Grill, 231-773-6388, and place your order. Let them know you want it delivered to your car in the parking lot, and theyll bring it out to you.

Pekadill's, 503 S. Mears Ave. in Whitehall, offers fresh lunch options for takeout.Lisha Arino | MLive.com

Pekadills

If lunch is what you want, check out the wholesome comfort food on the menu at Pekadills, 503 S. Mears Ave. in Whitehall.

Deli-style, English muffin and croissant sandwiches and wraps run the gamut, including roast beef, chicken salad, French dip, veggie and more. Homemade soups include such favorites as cream of potato, tomato basil and chili. You can also choose a soup and sandwich combo, or a salad.

Call 231-894-9551, or order online, and when its ready your food will be placed on a takeout shelf on the quaint restaurants front porch. Delivery is available too.

Pekadills hours are 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

The Handsome Hobo Pizzeria in North Muskegon offers deep dish and thin crust pizza.

The Handsome Hobo Pizzeria

Dont be fooled by its name. The Handsome Hobo Pizzeria, 1437 Whitehall Road, offers more than just pizza  and its available through contactless delivery and curbside pickup.

The North Muskegon restaurant offers a substantial menu of appetizers, including calamari and bang bang shrimp; such entrees as risotto, pasta, ribs and perch; sandwiches; meal-worthy salads; and of course, pizza  including Chicago deep dish and New York style thin crust.

There also are many gluten-free options.

Order online at www.handsomehobopizzeria.com or call 231-719-0123.

Do you have a favorite local restaurant thats offering take-out options during quarantine? Let us know, at munews@mlive.com.

Follow all of MLives coronavirus coverage here.

Stories that highlight how our communities are Powering Positivity are being done in partnership with The MediLodge Group, which has skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities throughout 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.

Also on MLIve:

Five more Muskegon-area spots for Takeout Tuesday

Takeout Tuesday: 5 Muskegon-area restaurants to visit -- from a distance

Takeout Tuesday: Where to grab a meal in the Muskegon area
LONDON, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SMEs bear the brunt of financial exclusion, but this must change in order to improve the economy as a whole, says financial infrastructure provider, Banking Circle.

Financial exclusion - defined as the lack of access to common financial services - is a widespread problem for SMEs.

Research by Banking Circle reveals that only 20 per cent of SMEs are satisfied with their relationship with their bank. And in the UK, almost 60 per cent of the workforce is employed by SMEs.

"As a society, we are missing out on a big opportunity," Banking Circle CEO Anders la Cour says. "We need to succeed in helping SMEs to grow."

So what are the key ways to increase financial inclusion? Regardless of the size or nature of a company, it must:

Act as a global player - this means having access to accounts and the ability to transact overseas, dealing with multiple different currencies and cross border payments Work with SME specialists- providers who understand the challenges of being an SME will tailor their services to deliver cheaper, quicker and easier methods of increasing the speed of settlement cycles

"The financial services sector can collaborate to deliver solutions which help rather than hinder SME growth," la Cour explains. "Real-time or instant payments are essential to allow SMEs to keep up the pace."

Although many small-to-medium-sized businesses and start-ups find that the financial services do not always benefit them, this can be changed.

By reducing the cost of banking and transfers, improving cash-flow, enabling SMEs to grow and levelling the field to allow fair competition between SMEs and larger players, the wider economy and society as a whole will benefit.

To learn more about how to improve financial inclusion for SMEs and start-ups, read the full article or watch the video here.

About Business Reporter

Business Reporter is distributed with The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and City AM, with each publication reaching an average of 1.5 million people.

Content is also published through the Business Reporter and teiss websites, which include video debates, online articles and digital magazines, delivering news and analysis on the issues affecting businesses to a global audience.

Business Reporter also hosts conferences, breakfast meetings and exclusive summits, events which bring together some of the most influential decision makers and innovators in modern business. These exclusive events for business leaders give Business Reporter direct contact with readers and help to inform the content and direction of its editorial projects.

Business Reporter is committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and was the first UK member of the UN SDG Media Compact. We have launched a website dedicated to showcasing the work of companies towards these goals at 17globalgoals.com.

Business Reporter is committed to providing meaningful analysis to everyone in business. Whether you're running a small business, the head of a local company or an executive in a multinational corporation, there's something for you at Business Reporter.

www.business-reporter.co.uk

About Banking Circle

Banking Circle is a financial infrastructure provider to payments businesses and banks. It delivers banking services quickly, at low cost and in line with high standards of compliance and security.

It is focused on improving financial inclusion through its range of solutions.

Banking Circle has offices in London, Munich, Amsterdam and Copenhagen and is headquartered in Luxembourg.

https://www.bankingcircle.com/
BY: Midwifery Residents, Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives

Category: Features
United Airlines is planning to change the way passengers depart from its planes in the future as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

According to a document reviewed by the Idaho Reporter, customers will be asked to remain seated until their row has been called to exit the aircraft.

Flight attendants will allow approximately five rows at a time to leave the plane and customers will also be advised to maintain a safe distance while leaving the plane.

A spokesperson for United Airlines confirmed to The Independent that new deplaning measures are being put in place to ensure social distancing on their planes.

We have begun a new deplaning procedure to help further ensure social distancing. Additionally, we are now boarding fewer customers at a time in a back to front process, Charles Hobart, a company spokesperson said.

Shares of the company have plummeted over the weekend as billionaire investor Warren Buffett announced that he had sold all his shares in the four largest US airlines.

The billionaire cited that the world has changed because of the coronavirus.

It is a blow to have, essentially, your demand dry up, he said. It is basically that we shut off air travel in this country.

We will not fund a company that... where we think that it is going to chew up money in the future.

The airlines modifications to disembarking procedure come as United Airlines and a number of other major companies announced that passengers would now be required to wear a mask when boarding their flights.

All United Airlines passengers will be required to wear a face-covering or mask while onboard the aircraft.

Maddie King, a spokesperson for United Airlines told the BBC: Face coverings will be mandatory for all passengers, and (we) will provide masks to passengers for free.

Additional reporting by Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Invitae Corporation (NYSE: NVTA), a leading medical genetics company, today announced financial and operating results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020.

"We started the year with a very strong quarter, delivering record growth in volume and first quarter revenues and giving us strong momentum as we began experiencing impacts from the pandemic. As healthcare has shifted, we have been able to quickly leverage our pre-existing strengths, notably our telehealth offerings and our ability to deliver genetic testing remotely," said Sean George, co-founder and chief executive officer of Invitae. "Looking ahead, our investments in diversified products, services, technologies and geographies mean we are well-equipped to drive growth across an increasing number of customer segments as we drive genetics into mainstream medicine."

First Quarter 2020 Financial Results

Accessioned more than 154,000 samples in the first quarter of 2020, representing a nearly 64% increase over the 94,000 samples in the first quarter of 2019 and more accessioned samples in one quarter than in the full year of 2017. Billable volume exceeded 151,000 in the first quarter of 2020

Generated revenue of $64.2 million in the first quarter of 2020, representing a 58% increase over $40.6 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2019

in the first quarter of 2020, representing a 58% increase over in revenue in the first quarter of 2019 Reported average cost per sample of $262 in the first quarter of 2020, representing a 16% increase from a $226 average cost per sample in the first quarter of 2019. Average non-GAAP cost per sample was $245 in the first quarter of 2020

in the first quarter of 2020, representing a 16% increase from a average cost per sample in the first quarter of 2019. Average non-GAAP cost per sample was in the first quarter of 2020 Achieved gross profit of $23.8 million in the first quarter of 2020, representing a more than 23% increase from the $19.3 million of gross profit in the first quarter of 2019. Non-GAAP gross profit was $26.5 million in the first quarter of 2020

Total operating expense, excluding cost of revenue, for the first quarter of 2020 was $121.6 million. Non-GAAP operating expense, which excludes amortization of acquired intangible assets and acquisition-related stock-based compensation, was $101.9 million in the first quarter of 2020. Interest and other expense, net and net loss are preliminary and subject to change as we finalize acquisition-related adjustments. These adjustments will be incorporated in Invitae's Form 10-Q to be filed with the SEC on or before May 11, 2020.

Preliminary net loss for the first quarter of 2020 was $102.2 million, or $1.03 preliminary net loss per share, compared to a net loss of $37.7 million in the first quarter of 2019, or $0.47 net loss per share. Preliminary non-GAAP net loss was $79.8 million in the first quarter of 2020, or $0.80 preliminary non-GAAP net loss per share.

At March 31, 2020 cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and marketable securities totaled $301.0 million. Net decrease in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash for the quarter was $61.0 million. Cash burn, including various acquisition-related expenses, was $98.5 million for the quarter; $66.2 million when excluding $32.3 million cash paid to acquire Diploid.

In April, the company completed a public offering of common stock, resulting in gross proceeds of $184.0 million and $173.0 million in net proceeds after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses.

COVID-19 Impact

Global stay-at-home orders, lockdowns and shutdown of non-emergency healthcare and elective procedures began impacting Invitae during the second half of March. Invitae took a number of steps in response, including:

Ensured operational continuity in all production facilities, monitored and directed by a dedicated response team. Production facilities experienced no disruptions or shortages and remain fully operational

Leveraged pre-existing platforms for Invitae's highly distributed workforce to ensure a quick transition for non-production employees to remote working

Implemented robust support for clinicians transitioning to telehealth (see below)

The impact of the pandemic on testing volume has and is likely to continue to vary based on clinical area, geography and clinician type. In response, the company has taken a number of steps to reduce cash burn.

The company is continuing to closely monitor the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and plans to continue to reduce previously communicated cash burn through the remainder of 2020.

Given the unknown duration and extent of COVID-19's impact on our business, and the healthcare system in general, Invitae has previously withdrawn its 2020 guidance.

Corporate and Scientific Highlights

Introduced expanded services and support for transition to telehealth across customer types

Launched new capabilities for Gia, the advanced clinical chatbot that became part of Invitae through the acquisition and rapid integration of Clear Genetics. New workflows added to Gia support obstetrician/gynecologists, oncologists, genetic counselors and other clinicians who order genetic testing



Increased support for the use of at-home testing using saliva kits, which do not require an in-person clinician visit



Provided professional education and support for clinicians transitioning to telehealth

Acquired Diploid, developer of an artificial-intelligence engine, to enable clinical diagnosis using exome and whole genome sequencing in minutes, enhancing Invitae's capabilities to provide rapid answers to patients while further reducing the cost of genetic testing at scale

Acquired YouScript and Genelex in April 2020 to bring best-in-class pharmacogenetic testing, and robust, integrated clinical decision support to Invitae

to bring best-in-class pharmacogenetic testing, and robust, integrated clinical decision support to Invitae Submitted research abstracts to the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting and the World Congress of Cardiology, which were moved to an online format. Among the data shared:

Among 13 abstracts at ACMG, research from the Invitae Detect Prostate Cancer program that found the frequency of actionable genetic findings was similar across stages of disease severity at approximately 13%. The study found more than half of patients with actionable findings showed no family history of disease and suggests that broadening testing criteria identifies patients with actionable findings with clinical implications, such as qualification for approved therapies or clinical trials.



Research shared via the World Congress of Cardiology included a study showing 96% of individuals with genetically-positive cardiomyopathy would be falsely reassured by a negative result provided by limited genotyping testing strategies available in common direct-to-consumer services. The study also showed that comprehensive genetic testing identifies actionable variants in a substantial portion of cardiology patients which may confer eligibility for gene-specific precision therapies and guide implementation of established management recommendations.

Added 12 new biopharma partnerships, bringing the total number of partnership programs to more than 90

Partnered with the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) to offer the Detect Muscular Dystrophy program in MDA's network of more than 150 care centers in the United States .

.

Added Axovant Gene Therapies as a sponsor of the Invitae Detect Lysosomal Disorders program, which offers no-charge genetic testing to facilitate faster diagnoses of lysosomal storage disorders, including Tay-Sachs/Sandhoff disease.



Added Biogen, Encoded Therapeutics, Neurogene, Praxis Precision Medicines and PTC Therapeutics to its sponsored testing partnership program, Behind the Seizure, to expand access to testing for pediatric epilepsy to children under eight who experience an unprovoked seizure.

Webcast and Conference Call Details

Management will host a conference call and webcast today at 4:30 p.m. Eastern / 1:30 p.m. Pacific to discuss financial results and recent developments. The dial-in numbers for the conference call are (866) 324-3683 for domestic callers and (509) 844-0959 for international callers, and the reservation number for both is 9557177. Please note, after dialing in, you will be prompted to enter the Conference ID and then the pound "#" sign to enter the call. Following prepared remarks, management will respond to questions from investors and analysts, subject to time limitations.

The live webcast of the call and slide deck may be accessed by visiting the investors section of the company's website at ir.invitae.com. A replay of the webcast and conference call will be available shortly after the conclusion of the call and will be archived on the company's website.

About Invitae

Invitae Corporation (NYSE: NVTA) is a leading medical genetics company, whose mission is to bring comprehensive genetic information into mainstream medicine to improve healthcare for billions of people. Invitae's goal is to aggregate the world's genetic tests into a single service with higher quality, faster turnaround time, and lower prices. For more information, visit the company's website at invitae.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements relating to preliminary financial results, including preliminary net loss and net loss per share; the company's belief that it has been able to quickly leverage its telehealth offerings and its ability to deliver genetic testing remotely; he company's belief that it is well-equipped to drive growth across an increasing number of customer segments as it drives genetics into mainstream medicine; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the company's business, and the measures it has taken or may take In the future with respect thereto; the impact of the company's acquisitions, partnerships and product offerings; and the company's beliefs regarding the growth of its business, its position and impact on the genetic testing industry, its success in executing on its mission and achieving its goals, and the benefits of genetic testing. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the company, and the effectiveness of the efforts it has taken or may take in the future in response thereto; the completion of the closing process, including finalization of acquisition-related adjustments and the magnitude thereof; the company's ability to continue to grow its business, including internationally; the company's history of losses; the company's ability to compete; the company's failure to manage growth effectively; the company's need to scale its infrastructure in advance of demand for its tests and to increase demand for its tests; the risk that the company may not obtain or maintain sufficient levels of reimbursement for its tests; the company's failure to successfully integrate or fully realize the anticipated benefits of acquired businesses; the company's ability to use rapidly changing genetic data to interpret test results accurately and consistently; security breaches, loss of data and other disruptions; laws and regulations applicable to the company's business; and the other risks set forth in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof, and Invitae Corporation disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement Invitae's consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (GAAP), the company is providing several non-GAAP measures, including non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP cost of revenue, non-GAAP operating expense, including non-GAAP research and development, non-GAAP selling and marketing and non-GAAP general and administrative, as well as non-GAAP net loss and net loss per share and non-GAAP cash burn. These non-GAAP financial measures are not based on any standardized methodology prescribed by GAAP and are not necessarily comparable to similarly-titled measures presented by other companies. Management believes these non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors in evaluating the company's ongoing operating results and trends.

Management is excluding from some or all of its non-GAAP operating results (1) amortization of acquired intangible assets and (2) acquisition-related stock-based compensation related to inducement grants. These non-GAAP financial measures are limited in value because they exclude certain items that may have a material impact on the reported financial results. Management accounts for this limitation by analyzing results on a GAAP basis as well as a non-GAAP basis and also by providing GAAP measures in the company's public disclosures.

Cash burn excludes (1) changes in marketable securities and (2) cash received from exercises of warrants. Management believes cash burn is a liquidity measure that provides useful information to management and investors about the amount of cash consumed by the operations of the business. A limitation of using this non-GAAP measure is that cash burn does not represent the total change in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash for the period because it excludes cash provided by or used for other operating, investing or financing activities. Management accounts for this limitation by providing information about the company's operating, investing and financing activities in the statements of cash flows in the consolidated financial statements in the company's most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and Annual Report on Form 10-K and by presenting net cash provided by (used in) operating, investing and financing activities as well as the net increase or decrease in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash in its reconciliation of cash burn.

In addition, other companies, including companies in the same industry, may not use the same non-GAAP measures or may calculate these metrics in a different manner than management or may use other financial measures to evaluate their performance, all of which could reduce the usefulness of these non-GAAP measures as comparative measures. Because of these limitations, the company's non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. Investors are encouraged to review the non-GAAP reconciliations provided in the tables below.

INVITAE CORPORATION

Consolidated Balance Sheets (in thousands) (unaudited)



March 31,

2020

December 31,

2019 Assets





Current assets:





Cash and cash equivalents $ 90,220



$ 151,389

Marketable securities 204,388



240,436

Accounts receivable 37,734



32,541

Prepaid expenses and other current assets 25,085



18,032

Total current assets 357,427



442,398

Property and equipment, net 41,085



37,747

Operating lease assets 37,588



36,640

Restricted cash 6,343



6,183

Intangible assets, net 163,378



125,175

Goodwill 177,432



126,777

Other assets 7,635



6,681

Total assets $ 790,888



$ 781,601

Liabilities and stockholders' equity





Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 790,888



$ 781,601





Certain line items have been condensed as we finalize acquisition-related adjustments. These adjustments will be incorporated in Invitae's Form 10-Q to be filed with the SEC on or before May 11, 2020.

INVITAE CORPORATION

Consolidated Statements of Operations (in thousands, except per share data) (unaudited)





Three Months Ended

March 31,



2020

2019 Revenue:







Test revenue

$ 63,078



$ 39,619

Other revenue

1,170



934

Total revenue

64,248



40,553

Cost of revenue

40,422



21,254

Research and development

55,668



17,994

Selling and marketing

42,120



24,193

General and administrative

23,822



13,319

Loss from operations

(97,784)



(36,207)

Interest and other expense, net*

(4,406)



(1,470)

Net loss*

$ (102,190)



$ (37,677)

Net loss per share, basic and diluted*

$ (1.03)



$ (0.47)

Shares used in computing net loss per share, basic and diluted

99,632



79,369





*Interest and other expense, net and net loss are preliminary and subject to change as we finalize acquisition-related adjustments. These adjustments will be incorporated in Invitae's Form 10-Q to be filed with the SEC on or before May 11, 2020.

INVITAE CORPORATION

Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (in thousands) (unaudited)



Three Months Ended March 31,

2020

2019 Net cash used in operating activities (62,361)



(28,366)

Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities 801



(17,545)

Net cash provided by financing activities 551



186,120

Net increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash (61,009)



140,209

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at beginning of period 157,572



118,164

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at end of period $ 96,563



$ 258,373





















Certain line items have been condensed as we finalize acquisition-related adjustments. These adjustments will be incorporated in Invitae's Form 10-Q to be filed with the SEC on or before May 11, 2020.

INVITAE CORPORATION

Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Cost of Revenue (in thousands) (unaudited)





Three Months Ended

March 31,



2020

2019 Cost of revenue

$ 40,422



$ 21,254

Amortization of acquired intangible assets

(2,674)



(296)

Non-GAAP cost of revenue

$ 37,748



$ 20,958



Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Gross Profit (in thousands) (unaudited)





Three Months Ended

March 31,



2020

2019 Revenue

$ 64,248



$ 40,553

Cost of revenue

40,422



21,254

Gross profit

23,826



19,299

Amortization of acquired intangible assets - cost of revenue

2,674



296

Non-GAAP gross profit

$ 26,500



$ 19,595



Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Research and Development Expense (in thousands) (unaudited)





Three Months Ended

March 31,



2020

2019 Research and development

$ 55,668



$ 17,994

Amortization of acquired intangible assets

(117)



(313)

Acquisition-related stock-based compensation

(18,799)





Non-GAAP research and development

$ 36,752



$ 17,681



Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Selling and Marketing Expense (in thousands) (unaudited)





Three Months Ended

March 31,



2020

2019 Selling and marketing

$ 42,120



$ 24,193

Amortization of acquired intangible assets

(786)



(675)

Non-GAAP selling and marketing

$ 41,334



$ 23,518



INVITAE CORPORATION

Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP General and Administrative Expense (in thousands) (unaudited)





Three Months Ended

March 31,



2020

2019 General and administrative

$ 23,822



$ 13,319

Amortization of acquired intangible assets

(10)



(29)

Non-GAAP general and administrative

$ 23,812



$ 13,290



Reconciliation of Operating Expense to Non-GAAP Operating Expense (in thousands, except per share data) (unaudited)





Three Months Ended

March 31,



2020

2019 Research and development

$ 55,668



$ 17,994

Selling and marketing

42,120



24,193

General and administrative

23,822



13,319

Operating expense

121,610



55,506

Amortization of acquired intangible assets

(913)



(1,017)

Acquisition-related stock-based compensation

(18,799)





Non-GAAP operating expense

$ 101,898



$ 54,489



Reconciliation of Net Loss to Non-GAAP Net Loss Per Share (in thousands, except per share data) (unaudited)





Three Months Ended

March 31,



2020

2019 Net loss*

$ (102,190)



$ (37,677)

Amortization of acquired intangible assets

3,587



1,313

Acquisition-related stock-based compensation

18,799





Non-GAAP net loss*

$ (79,804)



$ (36,364)











Non-GAAP net loss per share, basic and diluted*

$ (0.80)



$ (0.46)

Shares used in computing net loss per share, basic and diluted

99,632



79,369





*Interest and other expense, net and net loss are preliminary and subject to change as we finalize acquisition-related adjustments. These adjustments will be incorporated in Invitae's Form 10-Q to be filed with the SEC on or before May 11, 2020.

INVITAE CORPORATION

Reconciliation of Net Decrease in Cash, Cash Equivalents and Restricted Cash to Cash Burn (in thousands) (unaudited)





Three Months Ended

March 31, 2020



Net cash used in operating activities

$ (62,361)

Net cash provided by investing activities

801

Net cash provided by financing activities

551

Net decrease in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash

(61,009)







Adjustments:



Sales of investments

(12,532)

Maturities of investments

(24,965)

Proceeds from exercises of warrants

(27)

Cash burn

$ (98,533)











Cash burn for the three months ended March 31, 2020 includes $32.3 million of cash paid in connection with the acquisition of Diploid. The change in marketable securities for the quarter includes unrealized gains of $1.3 million.

Contact:

Laura D'Angelo

[email protected]

(628) 213-3369

SOURCE Invitae Corporation

Related Links

www.invitae.com


The rainy season appears to have either commenced or on the verge of doing so, and for some residents of Accra, it is time for the perennial nightmare.

For those who do not suffer the inconveniences of having their homes taken over by flood, they would definitely encounter portions of the city's roads taken over by water and garbage from the drains.

The authorities are feverishly preparing for the rains the most important of which preparation is the de-silting of the gutters and drains.

Last Saturday, Works & Housing Minister Samuel Atta-Kyea and other dignitaries went on a de-silting exercise of some gutters and drains in areas prone to flooding, symbolic gestures to flag off the 2020 exercise. It is a practice which has become a feature of the city and suggests that every year gutters must go through this treatment because we shall continue to dump domestic garbage into them.

While some floods can be regarded as force majeure, the ones which visit Accra annually are not, by and large.

During his remarks after signalling the commencement of the exercise, the minister expressed concern about the reckless relationship between some residents and the environment as evidenced by gutters filled with domestic garbage.

We cannot agree more with this remark except to add that such residents are not only reckless but irresponsible. To think that such residents are oblivious to the repercussions of the dumping of refuse into the gutters is untrue. Their action is born out of recklessness and the erroneous belief that the assemblies must take care of the filth they dump into the gutters.

Accra experiences floods because most of the refuse generated from homes end up in these gutters and drains. We are still harbouring the open drain system inherited from the colonial era which makes it easy for households to simply dump these into the gaping gutters.

The minister put it rightly when he said that this negative attitude returns during the raining season to haunt those responsible for the choked gutters in the form of destructive and sometimes killer floods.

Migrating from the open gutter or drain systems to the covered type as it is done in other societies is a wonderful concept which as the minister suggested would save the country the whopping amount of money expended annually to de-silt. The capital outlay is, of course, huge but it makes economic sense under the circumstances. For us, therefore; it is worth an effort.

We were measured in our excitement when the Mayor of Accra Mohammed, Adjei Sowah, said the applicable by-laws would be enforced as a means of stopping the unacceptable attitude towards the environment.

If only the relevant authorities would apply the existing sanctions to defaulters, something positive would be experienced and the state would not have to annually cough out so much to de-silt.
A senior strategist at the world's largest asset manager has signalled a risk-on attitude for markets, encouraging investors to increase exposure to equities and pull back on government bond assets.

Ben Powell, the APAC chief investment strategist at BlackRock's Investment Institute, said the dramatic falls on equities markets in March and April had unintentionally rebalanced portfolio allocations away from equities. He encouraged fund managers to trust the traditional 60/40 split between growth and defensive assets.

Ben Powell, the APAC chief investment strategist at BlackRock's Investment Institute, says it's time to purchase more stocks and less bonds. Credit:AAP

"This has now become more like a 50/50 portfolio split because of the moves we have seen in equities prices," Mr Powell said. "Rebalance towards your previous mandate and trust in that."

"We don't have a belief that we can time the market day-by-day or week-by-week, so, were thinking about having a tactical framework of increasing long-term allocation to equities."
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Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Partly cloudy skies early followed by periods of snow showers late. Low -4F. SSE winds at 5 to 10 mph, increasing to 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early followed by periods of snow showers late. Low -4F. SSE winds at 5 to 10 mph, increasing to 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Higher wind gusts possible.
The Vietnam Fisheries Society (VINAFIS) released a document on May 4 opposing Chinas issuance of regulations banning fishing in the East Sea this year.

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

The document was sent to the Government Office, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Party Central Committees Commission for External Relations.

China announced a fishing moratorium from May 1 to August 16 in the East Sea, including part of the Gulf of Tonkin and Hoang Sa (Paracel) Archipelago under Vietnams sovereignty, according to the VINAFIS.

The regulations violate Vietnams sovereignty over Hoang Sa and waters as well as its legal rights and interests, hamper fishing activities by Vietnamese fishermen, and break international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and other relevant international legal documents, it said.

The society also cited Chinas recent announcement on the establishment of two administrative units under the so-called Sansha city in a scheme to illegally control Vietnams Hoang Sa and Truong Sa (Spratly) Archipelagos.

Therefore, the VINAFIS vehemently protests these extremely unreasonable actions by China, it said, stressing that the regulations have no legal value for waters under Vietnams sovereignty and Vietnamese fishermen have the right to fish in the waters belongling to Vietnam's sovereignty.

It also urged relevant agencies in Vietnam to take strong measures to end Chinas latest actions in the East Sea, and suggested increasing law enforcement at sea to assist and protect Vietnamese fishermen operating in Vietnams waters.

The society will actively instruct local fisheries associations and societies to partner with relevant agencies in communications work to help fishermen understand and observe legal regulations while at sea.

It will also call on fishermen to keep calm, continue fishing, step up production, and resolutely practice their legitimate rights, thus contributing to protecting national sovereignty of sea and islands./.VNA
Credit: Shutterstock

International economic recovery from COVID-19 must be environmentally-consciousfor the sake of the economy, suggests new research published today.

With governments around the world urgently investigating fiscal stimulus measures to get virus-hit countries back on their feet, today's research from some of the world's leading economists shows that climate-friendly policies could deliver a better result both for economies and the environment.

For the UK, in particular, this research helps identify ten fiscal recovery policies which promise to bring both short-term high economic impact and long-term structural change to ensure the UK meets its 2050 climate goals.

Professor Cameron Hepburn, director of the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment, University of Oxford, brought together a team of internationally-recognized experts to carry out the research, including Nobel prize winner, Professor Joseph Stiglitz and well-known climate economist Professor Lord Nicholas Stern.

Their analysis of possible COVID-19 economic recovery packages shows the potential for strong alignment between the economy and the environment. They review evidence suggesting that green projects create more jobs, deliver higher short-term returns per dollar spend and lead to increased long-term cost savings, by comparison with traditional fiscal stimulus.

Most G20 governments have implemented significant short-term rescue measures in the face of the pandemic. But, as yet, none has introduced any significant fiscal recovery measures. The report authors hope that countries will seize this generational opportunity to incorporate climate criteria into national plansfor their economies and the environment.

According to Professor Hepburn, "The COVID-19-initiated emissions reduction could be short-lived. But this report shows we can build back better, keeping many of the recent improvements we've seen in cleaner air, returning nature and reduced greenhouse gas emissions."

Drawing on a global survey of senior central bank and finance ministry officials, as well as learnings from the 2008 financial crisis, the economists cataloged more than 700 stimulus policies into 25 broad groups, and conducted a global survey of 231 experts. On average, respondents saw a 'green route' out of the crisis as also being highly economically effective.

Examples of this include investment in renewable energy production, such as wind or solar. As previous research has shown, in the short term, clean energy infrastructure construction is particularly labor intensive, creating twice as many jobs per dollar as fossil fuel investments.

Other desirable policies include building efficiency retrofit spending, clean R&D spending, natural capital investment for ecosystem resilience and regeneration and investment in education and training to address immediate unemployment from COVID-19 alongside structural employment opportunities from de-carbonization. For developing countries, rural support scheme spending was also highly ranked. Meanwhile, unconditional airline bailouts performed the most poorly in terms of economic impact, speed and climate metrics.

The COP26 Universities' Network has drawn on this research and other analyses to create a briefing for policymakers outlining a path for the UK to net-zero emissions economic recovery from COVID-19. The network, a growing group of more than 30 UK-based universities, was formed to help deliver climate change outcomes at the UN Climate Summit in Glasgow and beyond.

Among the policies emphasized by the group are: renewable energy, reducing industrial emissions, greenhouse gas removal, investment in broadband internet to increase coverage, electric vehicles and nature-based solutions.

"Currently, the UK directs 10.5bn in subsidies to fossil fuels. Reallocating this capital to jobs-rich renewable energy projects would be a win-win for the economy and environment," says Brian O'Callaghan, researcher at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford.

The briefing also calls for the Cabinet Committee on Climate Change, which has met only once in 5 months, to be renamed the Climate Change Emergency Committee to reflect the urgent need for action.

Emily Shuckburgh, director of Cambridge Zero, University of Cambridge says, "Shaping the national and global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic in a way that supports the response to climate change and other environmental threats simply makes sensenot only does analysis suggest that green recovery packages deliver greater economic benefit, but investing appropriately in research, innovation, infrastructure and skills training, and matching that with robust institutional structures, will help create a fairer, more resilient, sustainable world with benefits for all."

Dave Reay, professor and chair in carbon management & education and executive director of Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation, University of Edinburgh says, "COVID-19 is falling like a daily hammer blow on our economy, putting the livelihoods and employment prospects of many millions at risk. By aggressive investment in green skills and the creation of a swathe of green economy employment opportunities the UK can buffer COVID-19's impacts and simultaneously deliver a safer climate future.

Explore further Navigating the clean energy transition during the COVID-19 crisis

More information: Will COVID-19 fiscal recovery packages accelerate or retard progress on climate change? Will COVID-19 fiscal recovery packages accelerate or retard progress on climate change? www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/publi  orkingpaper20-02.pdf
National Commission for Energy and Housing Management considers the option of a temporary ban on construction of new green power plants and several other opportunities

Open source

National Commission for Energy and Housing Management of Ukraine offers to increase the size of tariffs for electric power consumed by households. This is mentioned on the web site of the Commission.

The authority developed two scenarios to solve the issue of intensive development of renewable energy sources. Step 1 foresees that Ukraine oculd increase the low fares for first 100 kW/h of power for the population - from UAH 0.09/kW to UAH 1.68/kW. Thus, the government assumes to get additional UAH 12,000,000,000 (roughly USD 420,000,000) annually.

Over the next two-five years, the Commission offers to increase prices for population-consumed energy according to the industrial development level, at the same time providing assistance to the vulnerable category of consumers. This will let the government collect more than UAH 38 bn (USD 1.3 bn) annually.

The Commission also considers the opportunity of imposing a temporary ban on construction of new green power plants and several other opportunities, including cutting the green tariff for all objects of renewable energy in Ukraine down to 8-9 Euro cents.
TORONTO, May 5, 2020 /CNW/ - Canada Nickel Company Inc. (TSX-V:CNC) ("Canada Nickel" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has closed its previously announced brokered private placement financing for aggregate gross proceeds of $4,449,670 (the "Offering") of (i) 1,642,890 units of the Company (the "Units") at an offer price of $0.35 per Unit, (ii) 4,390,000 common shares of the Company each of which qualifies as a "flow-through share" (the "Flow-Through Shares") as defined in subsection 66(15) of the Income Tax Act (Canada) (the "Tax Act") at an offer price of $0.40 per Flow-Through Share, and (iii) 4,113,900 flow-through units of the Company (the "FT Units") at an offer price of $0.515 per FT Unit.

Mark Selby, Chair & CEO of Canada Nickel commented "With the completion of this financing which was upsized by 80% to $4.4 million despite challenging market conditions, Canada Nickel is well positioned to advance its Crawford Nickel-Cobalt sulphide project. We appreciate the support from our existing investors and welcome a number of new investors to Canada Nickel."

Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company and one-half of one transferable common share purchase warrant of the Company (each whole common share purchase warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one common share of the Company at a price of $0.57 per common share for a period of 30 months following the closing date of the Offering, subject to adjustment and acceleration in certain events.

Each FT Unit consists of one common share of the Company which qualifies as a "flow-through share" as defined in subsection 66(15) of the Tax Act (the "FT Unit Shares") and one-half of one transferable common share purchase warrant of the Company (each whole common share purchase warrant, a "FT Unit Warrant"). Each FT Unit Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one common share of the Company at a price of $0.57 per common share for a period of 30 months following the closing date of the Offering, subject to adjustment and acceleration in certain events.

The Offering was led by PI Financial Corp. on behalf of a syndicate of agents that included Red Cloud Securities Inc. and Haywood Securities Inc. (together, the "Agents"). In consideration for their services, the Company paid the Agents a cash commission equal to 6.0% of the number of Units, FT Units and Flow Though Shares sold under the Offering. In addition, the Company issued to the Agents non-transferable compensation warrants, entitling the Agents to purchase that number of common shares of the Company equal to 6.0% of the number of Units, Flow-Through Shares and FT Units, respectively, issued by the Company under the Offering. The Agents are working with a charitable promoter in respect of the sale of the FT Units.

The net proceeds from the sale of the Units will be used by the Company to fund advancement of the Company's Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Discovery and for general working capital purposes. The gross proceeds from the sale of the FT Shares and FT Units will be used to incur "Canadian exploration expenses" that qualify as "flow-through mining expenditures" (as both terms are defined in the Tax Act) (the "Qualifying Expenditures") related to the Company's projects in Ontario. The Qualifying Expenditures will be renounced to the subscribers with an effective date no later than December 31, 2020, in the aggregate amount of not less than the total amount of the gross proceeds raised from the issue of FT Shares and the portion of the aggregate issue price for the FT Units that is allocable to the FT Unit Shares.

Mark Selby an officer and a director of the Company, and Mike Cox and David Smith, directors of the Company, subscribed for an aggregate of 220,357 Units under the Offering on the same terms as arm's length investors. The participation of Mark Selby, Mike Cox and David Smith in the Offering constitutes a "related party transaction" for the purposes of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company is exempt from the requirements to obtain a formal valuation or minority shareholder approval in connection with the Offering in reliance on sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101, as neither the fair market value of the securities issued to Mr. Selby, Mr. Cox and Mr. Smith nor the fair market value of the consideration for the securities issued to Mr. Selby, Mr. Cox and Mr. Smith exceeds 25% of the Company's market capitalization as calculated in accordance with MI 61-101. The Company did not file a material change report containing all of the disclosure required by MI 61-101 more than 21 days before the expected closing date of the Offering as the aforementioned insider participation had not been confirmed at that time and the Company wished to close the Offering as expeditiously as possible.

All securities issued under the Offering will be subject to a hold period expiring four months and one day which will expire September 6, 2020. The Offering is subject to final acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange. The securities offered have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This press release shall 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 State in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Neither the Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

About Canada Nickel Company

Canada Nickel Company Inc. is advancing the next generation of nickel-cobalt sulphide projects to deliver nickel and cobalt required to feed the high growth electric vehicle and stainless steel markets. Canada Nickel provides investors with leverage to nickel and cobalt with low political risk. Canada Nickel is currently anchored by its 100% owned flagship Crawford Nickel-Cobalt project in the heart of the prolific Timmins-Cochrane mining camp.

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain information that may constitute "forward-looking information" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward looking information includes, but is not limited to, the use of proceeds of the Offering; the timing and ability of the Company, if at all, to obtain final approval of the Offering from the TSX Venture Exchange; the tax treatment of the Flow-Through Shares and FT Unit Shares; the timing of the tax renunciation to the subscribers; and statements regarding exploration results and exploration plans. Forward-looking information is necessarily based upon a number of assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Factors that could affect the outcome include, among others: future prices and the supply of metals, the results of drilling, inability to raise the money necessary to incur the expenditures required to retain and advance the property, environmental liabilities (known and unknown), general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties, results of exploration programs, risks of the mining industry, delays in obtaining governmental approvals, and failure to obtain regulatory or shareholder approvals. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. All forward-looking information contained in this press release is given as of the date hereof and is based upon the opinions and estimates of management and information available to management as at the date hereof. Canada Nickel disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

SOURCE Canada Nickel Company Inc.

For further information: Mark Selby, Chair and CEO, Phone: 647-256-1954, Email: [email protected]
 Flash

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday warned against misinformation in the fight against COVID-19.

"Along with the pandemic, we are seeing a dangerous outbreak of misinformation, from harmful health advice and hate speech to wild conspiracy theories," he told a high-level dialogue on press freedom and tackling disinformation in the COVID-19 context.

Blatant lies spread online at a terrifying rate. A recent analysis found that more than 40 percent of posts about COVID-19 on one major social media platform were posted by bots -- automated programs disguised as people, he said.

The antidote to this pandemic of misinformation is fact-based news and analysis, said Guterres.

"Journalists and media workers of all kinds are crucial to helping us make informed decisions. In a pandemic, those decisions can save lives. Now more than ever, we need the media to document what is happening, to differentiate between fact and fiction, and hold leaders accountable."

The use of social media has risen dramatically since the crisis began, as it provides unparalleled ways for people to connect and to access information. It is gratifying that social media platforms are beginning to take their responsibilities seriously, he said.

"I welcome recent commitments by social platforms to amplify factual content and combat disinformation -- particularly those that are proactively removing harmful material. I urge them to build on these efforts which are helping to prevent the spread of dangerous rumors and fake cures."

International organizations, and indeed governments, have an important role in promoting facts and scientific approaches. But no one can take the place of the media during this pandemic in providing the public with information and analysis, and in countering rumors and distortions, he said.

The high-level dialogue was organized by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to observe World Press Freedom Day, which falls on May 3.
On a typical Wednesday, the FISH Food Pantry in Torrington would be able to pick up about a dozen boxes of frozen meat to provide to families in need in northwest Connecticut, in addition to produce, dairy and other products.

But donations from grocery stores stopped more than a month ago, as demand for food has skyrocketed, forcing the pantry and others around the state to get more clever in finding food for the increasing number of people seeking help, Executive Director Deirdre DiCara said.

While faced with unprecedented need and rising food insecurity, supplies have dwindled and become harder for the states food pantries to access.

Theres been a tremendous outpouring of generosity by the community, she said, but it still comes with limits. Some people have donated gift cards which the pantry can use to purchase more supplies, but at the grocery store, theyre subject to the same limits as other shoppers.

With the kind of volume that were seeing now of need, we need to get large quantities of food, she said. When you go to a grocery store where you might have placed an order for three cartons of soup, youre limited to the number you can purchase for a family and not a food pantry.

Theyre getting supplies from the Connecticut Food Bank, which distributes food through pantries, shelters and other programs in six counties, including New Haven, Fairfield and Litchfield. But it wont be all the things we need, because theyre not getting the stock they need, either, DiCara said.

Donations from retailers and distributors made up about 60 percent of the Food Banks supply before the pandemic, spokesman Paul Shipman said. Now, its always well below what we used to receive and fluctuates weekly, so theyre purchasing more food to fill the gap, but the organization is competing with grocers for the same items, like grains, rice and peanut butter, making it slower and harder to source those supplies.

On a conference call with End Hunger CT! on Monday, Connecticut Commissioner of Agriculture Bryan Hurlburt and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal proposed coordination and oversight efforts that they say could help organizations stock their shelves and keep up with the demand.

Weve got these organizations that are doing tremendous work, their volunteers are stepping up, the local communities are stepping up, people are donating their time, dollars and food for their neighbors in need, Hurlburt said. But just like we saw with the (personal protective equipment), each organization is trying to outbid the other for additional food, and that cant be the solution as this turns into a longer term challenge that we have to respond to.

Local food pantries around the state arent getting everything they need for several reasons, he said in an interview: theres not a ton of food available, demand has spiked tremendously, and grocery stores used to donate a significant amount of of the food that was then donated through the pantries, and that chain has been reduced significantly.

There is simply less food from the consumer side of the system available to donate, Shipman said of the donations.

Thats a challenge across the board for organizations, though smaller pantries like FISHs are hit especially hard because they dont have the same purchasing power and manpower, DiCara said.

Even larger organizations, which have more money and philanthropic dollars to work with, are finding it harder to buy food because of increasing costs. The Connecticut Food Bank was averaging under 20 cents per pound of food purchased before the coronavirus crisis, and is now spending closer to 60 cents per pound, Hurlburt said.

He suggested that one solution may be to purchase food in bulk directly from suppliers, which could be bundled regionally and then distributed through local pantries.

Weve had a number of distributors in Connecticut make themselves available to sell food into the system at cost, he said, and proposed aggregating who needs it and where, and seeing if we can do a bulk purchase ourselves. He said universities and colleges have helped by making refrigeration space available for large quantities of food.

Im not sure how we would manage that, maybe it would have to be through one of the organizations just so were not involved in the state contracting and procurement system, which I think would be quite challenging, he said. That could also help cut down on delivery fees for organizations. This response is going to require all of us to be a little bit more creative, Hurlburt said.

Some dairy farmers are already working to provide food banks with their products, which he and Blumenthal both said could be expanded to benefit both farmers and consumers.

Blumenthal called for strong and effective oversight that could streamline how the food is purchased from farmers and provided to people who need it, and for reorganized farm programs that recognize the need and provide secure and guaranteed markets for crops, he said, comparing it to the Defense Production Act.

The number of people buying from farm stands has been explosive, Hurlburt said, and providing additional mobile readers that allow people to use their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to purchase food there will help make it more accessible. We should be deploying 35-plus mobile EBT (electronic benefit transfer) readers for folks to use at farmers markers and farm stands, he said, which essentially doubles access in the state for SNAP beneficiaries to purchase local goods.

Those could also help a SNAP pilot program set to launch later this month, which will allow people to use their benefits to order groceries online. Thats aimed at helping people who are in quarantine because they are sick or exposed, and people at a higher risk of infection who need to remain at home instead of shopping in stores.

So far, only Walmart, Amazon and ShopRite are participating in that, but Hurlburt said the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Social Services and the Connecticut Food Association are looking at using the mobile EBT readers to expand that to more stores.

We need to get the grocery stores to agree to it, Hurlburt said. With only three retailers on board so far, Im not sure they will reach as many people as were going to have a need to reach.

The need is tremendous, he said. While state agencies and organizations are focused on the immediate response to the crisis now, he said theyre also talking about ways to build up the infrastructure, including food storage and information-sharing, to improve collaboration and response in the future. How do we set this up so we exit COVID in a much stronger position to deal with the next major long term disaster? he said.

Liz.Teitz@hearstmediact.com
India Asks Pakistan to Vacate "Occupied Area of Kashmir", Issues Statement to Diplomat

Sputnik News

11:01 GMT 04.05.2020

New Delhi (Sputnik): The two South Asian foes, India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in full but have controlled it in parts as "Indian-administered Kashmir" and "Pakistan-administered Kashmir" since independence from the British in 1947.

India has issued a notice to a senior Pakistani diplomat and lodged a strong protest with Pakistan against Supreme Court of Pakistan order on the country's de facto Northern Areas, also known as Gilgit-Baltistan.

"The Government of Pakistan or its judiciary has no locus standi on territories illegally and forcibly occupied by it. India completely rejects such actions and continued attempts to bring material changes in Pakistan occupied areas of the Indian territory of Jammu & Kashmir," stated India's Ministry of External Affairs on Monday.

India reiterated that the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh (which together constituted the state of Jammu and Kashmir until August 2019), including the areas of Gilgit and Baltistan are an integral part of India "by virtue of its fully legal and irrevocable accession".

The statement further stated that Pakistan should vacate all the areas of Kashmir under its "illegal occupation".

The reaction from India came following a Pakistan Supreme Court order, issued on Thursday, that allowed its government to hold elections in September this year in Gilit-Baltistan and the setting up of a caretaker government.

Gilgit-Baltistan is the northernmost part of the larger Kashmir region, and has been administered by Pakistan sine 1947. The strategically placed area share borders with India-administered Kashmir, Afghanistan to the north and the Xinjiang region of China to the east and northeast.

Last year, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar had said that New Delhi will have physical jurisdiction over Pakistani's side of Kashmir as it is an integral part onf India.

"Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir is part of India and we expect one day that we will have physical jurisdiction over it," S. Jaishankar had said during a media brief in New Delhi.

Usually-tense India and Pakistan have been at loggerheads over the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir since gaining independence from the UK and have fought three wars over the issue in last seven decades. The fragile relationship between New Delhi and Islamabad deteriorated when India revoked the statehood and special status of Jammu and Kashmir on 5 August and divided the region into two Union Territories under the direct control of the government of India.

 Sputnik

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It is becoming increasingly obvious that the Trump administration has embraced an approach to the pandemic that willand that it knows willresult in the deaths of tens of thousands of people in the coming weeks and months.

On Sunday night, Trump nonchalantly stated that he now expects 100,000 people to die from COVID-19 in the United States, up from his previous estimates of approximately 60,000.

Referring to death numbers like he was negotiating a real estate deal, Trump stated, I used to say 65 thousand, and now Im saying 80 or 90. And it goes up and it goes up rapidly. But its still going to be, no matter how you look at it, at the very lower end of the plane. He added separately, And look, were going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100 thousand people.

That is, an additional 40,000 people, by Trumps own count, will die40,000 people with children, spouses, families and loved ones, who would not have died if appropriate measures were taken to contain the virus.

This is, in fact, a vast underestimate. The presidents remarks were followed Monday by the publication by the New York Times of an internal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) report that projects that there will be 200,000 new cases per day by the end of this month, and by June 1 an expected 3,000 daily deaths.

This would push the death toll into the hundreds of thousands, as the report shows that actual daily deaths have consistently outpaced government projections. At that rate, more than a quarter million people would be dead by the end of the summer, and more than a million within a year.

The CDC figures make clear that the Trump administrations guidelines, released in mid-April, marked the abandonment of any official effort to contain the pandemic. As the World Socialist Web Site warned on April 17, the White House and the ruling class were seeking to normalize death on a massive scale, in which outbreaks of COVID-19 are seen as the cost of doing business.

As the death toll mounts, the Trump administrations internal calculations are being released in dribs and drabs. At the end of March, when the US death toll had just surpassed 4,000, Trump declared that a total of 100,000 deaths would be a good job by his administration. Today, the official death toll has surpassed 70,000 and is still climbing at an average pace of more than 1,750 per day.

However, even this is a significant undercount of deaths that have resulted from COVID-19 infections and the stress that has been put on health systems by the pandemic. Excess deaths, those on top of the average number of weekly deaths, exceed reported deaths by as much as two times in many states. On top of this, Florida and Tennessee, two states that have already moved to reopen, are actively suppressing their official death tolls.

It must be stated again: The White House is deliberately and consciously implementing measures that it knows will lead to tens of thousands additional deaths. There is a sociopathic character to these policies, but they follow a ruthless class logic. The gangster in the White House expresses the demands of the financial oligarchy, which controls the entire political system.

The pandemic gave the ruling elite the pretext to carry out policies that otherwise would have come under extreme scrutiny and been met with popular hostility. Without the crisis caused by COVID-19, it would be difficult to justify a $10 trillion handout to the richunanimously supported by the entire political establishment, Democratic and Republican.

With the bailout secured, it is, as far as the ruling class is concerned, time to get back to the business of extracting surplus value from the working class, regardless of how many will die.

There are only two concerns that the ruling class has in implementing this policy.

First, there is the problem of how to get workers back to work under unsafe conditions. The response here is economic blackmail and impoverishment. Millions of workers who have been thrown out of work overnight will never see an unemployment payment. With many states now lifting all restrictions on business operations, workers will be forced back to work under the threat of being cut off from all aid if they refuse to do so.

Second is the problem of legal responsibility on the part of companies for the death of their workers. Trump set the agenda last month by using the Defense Production Act to order slaughterhouses, a center of the outbreak with thousands of workers already infected and dozens of workers dead, to remain open and to indemnify the corporations from being sued for any worker deaths.

On Monday, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell told Fox News Radio that any future bailout package should indemnify all employers. We have brave health care workers battling the virus, entrepreneurs who will reopen their economy, all of whom deserve, in my view, strong protections from the opportunistic lawsuits arguing that somehow the decision they made with regard to reopening adversely affected the health of someone else.

With companies being freed of any responsibility for the lives of their employees, the strategy of the ruling class now is to withhold as much information as possible about the growing number of infections and deaths, and to give the impression that it is safe to return to work and to normal life, even as the coronavirus rampages through communities across the country.

Workers will and must reject the false choice being put forwarded by the ruling elitestarve or risk death from COVID-19. This choice is premised on the idea that the capitalist system is inviolable and that the interests of the corporate-financial oligarchy will dictate the response to the pandemic.

The development of opposition in the working class requires the formation of independent rank-and-file safety committees in every workplace and factory to ensure safe working conditions and to fight for the closure of all non-essential production. The organization and operation of workplaces cannot be left in the hands of the capitalists, whose only interest is in producing profits!

The effort of the working class to fight for life over profit, for a scientific and rational response to the pandemic that mobilizes all social resources to combat the coronavirus, will bring workers into an ever more direct and open conflict not only with the Trump administration, but with the corporate and financial oligarchy that is dictating policyand the capitalist system upon which its wealth and power rests.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - It was a cry of desperation heard around the world: Please send ventilators. New York City, Italy, China - all were in short supply of that life-saving machine. But as more is known about the coronavirus, doctors are becoming increasingly wary of using the machine - concerned that it's costing more [...]
Arizona News

Washington, DC - Last week, Attorney General Mark Brnovich continued his defense of Arizona's authority to enact laws that prevent multiple voting, protect against voter intimidation, preserve the secrecy of the ballot, and safeguard election integrity. AG Brnovich is asking the Supreme Court of the United States to review the Ninth Circuit's recent en banc decision that inexplicably reversed itself, and struck down Arizona laws restricting ballot harvesting and out-of-precinct voting.

In February of this year, AG Brnovich obtained a stay of the Ninth Circuit's decision, leaving Arizona's laws restricting ballot harvesting and out-of-precinct voting in place for the time being. With similar laws enacted in several other states, the Attorney General's Office argues this case presents an appropriate vehicle to establish a clear rule of law for the country, and the Supreme Court can and should bring clarity to these important matters that are vital to our elections.

Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of American democracy, and I will continue to do everything in my power to protect the integrity of our ballots, said Attorney General Mark Brnovich. Arizonans are best suited to decide which safeguards are needed for our elections, not the Ninth Circuit. This lawsuit has broad implications for the rest of the country, and we are optimistic the Supreme Court will take this case and provide clarity for the rule of law."

Arizona, like other states, has adopted rules over the years to promote the order and integrity of its elections. In 2016, Arizona passed HB 2023, restricting the practice of ballot harvesting in Arizona, unless the person collecting the ballot is a family member, a person living in the same household, or a caregiver. Arizona has required people to vote at their specific precinct since the 1970's. However, several arms of the Democratic Party (DNC) filed suit in 2016 to challenge the out-of-precinct policy and the ballot-collection policy. Arizona has prevailed in its legal defense numerous times, including at a 10-day-trial where the court heard from seven experts and 33 witnesses.

About 20 states have ballot harvesting laws substantially similar to Arizona or impose various regulations on ballot harvesting that could be invalidated as a result of the Ninth Circuit's decision. Additionally, a majority of states require ballots to be cast in the correct precinct. The Attorney General's Office argues that invalidating Arizonas elections policies threatens other similar sensible voter integrity and election laws across the country.

The opposing side will have 30 days to reply to Arizonas petition for review. From there, the Supreme Court will issue a decision whether to accept the case.

Copy of Arizona's Supreme Court Cert Petition.

(Copy of Appendix)

>

BACKGROUND:

In 2016, the DNC challenged Arizonas laws restricting ballot harvesting and out-of-precinct voting. A federal district court judge ruled in Arizona's favor and upheld the laws. The case was then appealed to a 3-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court, and that panel also upheld Arizona's laws. The DNC then appealed the case to a larger group of Ninth Circuit Court judges, who struck down the laws, a mere four days before the 2016 General Election. AG Brnovich immediately appealed to the Supreme Court and the very next day, the High Court overruled the Ninth Circuit, reinstating Arizonas ballot harvesting and out-of-precinct laws, pending a full hearing of the merits in the lower court.

Late in 2018, a federal district court judge once again upheld Arizonas laws after a 10-day trial. DNC attorneys appealed the case to a 3-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit, who again upheld Arizona's laws. DNC then appealed the case to a larger group of Ninth Circuit judges and the court reversed itself in early 2020 and struck down the laws just as ballots for the Democratic Presidential Preference Election were beginning to be mailed out. AG Brnovich immediately filed for a stay of the decision and the Ninth Circuit granted the request, leaving Arizona's restrictions on ballot harvesting and out-of-precinct voting presently intact.

Restricting unlimited third-party ballot harvesting is a commonsense means of protecting the secret ballot and preventing undue influence, voter fraud, ballot tampering, and voter intimidation. The bipartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform chaired by former-President Jimmy Carter and former-Secretary of State James Baker (Carter-Baker Commission) recommended that States prohibit a person from handling absentee ballots other than the voter, an acknowledged family member, the U.S. Postal Service or other legitimate shipper, or election officials. The Carter-Baker Commission found, [a]bsentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.
A Too Hot to Handle virtual reunion special will premiere on Friday, Netflix has announced.

The shows narrator, Desiree Burch, will conduct remote cast interviews.

Netflix released images from the reunion on Twitter featuring stars Francesca Farago and Aussie Harry Jowsey speaking with Burch.

The dating show followed 10 singles from around the world coming together at a tropical paradise, but contestants were not allowed to touch or kiss each other in order to win the $100,000 prize.
With seniors seemingly the most vulnerable age group known to contract the coronavirus, its heartwarming to shout good news that at nearly 99, Joseph Scaramuzzo has beat all odds, is fully recovered  and has won his battle with COVID-19.

Joe and his wife, Marion, were subjects of an Advance feature in February 2018, when the Oakwood duo celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary. It was Valentines Day weekend in Fort McClennan, Alabama where he married his childhood sweetheart.

And at the time, the Scaramuzzos were believed to be Staten Islands longest married couple.

Joe and the late Marion Scaramuzzo. (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel)Staff-Shot

The couple, who remained very much in love all throughout their married life, became the parents of three sons, Joe, Jim and Doug.

Marion passed in August last year. And needless to say Joe misses terribly, the love of his life."

JOES ENCOUNTER WITH CORONAVIRUS

According to Joes son, Doug, on April 14 he noticed his dads breathing was a bit more labored than normal, and seemed unusually tired.

Doug called Dr. Alla Tsimerman of the ArchCare Pace program, a service his mom and dad had taken advantage while attending a day program at Carmel Richmond Health Care & Rehabilitation Center. In fact, it was at the chapel at Carmel Richmond where Marion and Joe renewed their wedding vows to mark their diamond wedding anniversary.

On April 15, Dr. Tsimerman and a nurse came to Joes home to examine the super nonagenarian and test for COVID-19.

The next day when results proved positive, Dr. Tsimerman prescribed hydrochloroquine and put him on the Z-pack (azithromycin). The doctor also recommended that he be placed on oxygen around the clock since his level was on the low side.

After a few days on the medication, Doug noticed a tremendous improvement.

It was a long 14 days but my dad seemed to beat COVID-19 and responded to treatment. On the 16th day Joe was taken off oxygen, inasmuch as his level returned to normal, Doug added.

Joseph and the late Marion Scaramuzzo with their youngest son Doug and his wife Diane just one week before their 75th wedding anniversary. 2018 (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Somma-Hammel)Staff-Shot

MORE ABOUT JOE

One of seven siblings  three boys and three girls  Joe was born to James and Mary Scaramuzzo.

A World War II veteran, he served in the Army, stationed in Burma, where he was responsible for building air fields.

When he returned stateside, he was stationed in Alabama, where he said his I dos.

With a special affection and a keen ear for music, Joe played the trumpet in an Army band and after became a trumpeter for the city Sanitation Department for 18 years.

Joe, who also is known as Scoot, played at places like the Showboat, the Riverboat in the Empire State Building, and at Roseland Ballroom, sometimes with the Bobby Gamboa and Bob Soldiveri orchestras.

Also he played trumpet with Al Lambert and Nino Morreale, who played in The Godfather movie.

More recently, Joe played at Carmel Richmond. Following in his footsteps  all three sons are musically inclined.

And wherever Joe played, Marion danced. Referred to as The Lady in Red, because she adored the power color  with regal red always dotting her wardrobe in a special way.

Joe served in a number of capacities for the city Department of Sanitation, until he took early retirement at just 40 years of age. At nearly 99, hes been retired from the city for 59 years.

He spent 18 of those years playing with the Departments band as a trumpeter. Later, still too young to retire, he became a driver for G & R Van Service in Grant City. I also went into electronics then, he said.

I partnered in the electronics business in Rosebank before taking on a position at Staten Island University Hospital as an X-ray aide and transporter," said Joe.

Seven grandchildren (Denise, Joey, Jim Jr., Allison, Michael, Lisa and Doug Jr.) and nine great-grandchildren (Sandra, Samantha, Justin, Hailey, Joey, Brandon, Alyssa, Brienna and Ellia) complete the Scaramuzzo family circle.

From left Joseph Scaramuzzo, Lisa Ward, Brandon Ward, great-grandson, and the late, Marion Scaramuzzo. (Staten Island Advance/Carol Ann Benanti)Staff-Shot

On June 21, the day Joe turns 99, family members are all hoping to be celebrating the birthday of their family patriarch  but at this time  together.
On the Google Play Store page of Xiaomi's Mi Browser Pro, a (visibly frustrated) user wrote on April 28: "Unable to uninstall this SPYWARE ! Xiaomi thinks they're iOS, WRONG, it's Android and they need to understand most people choose Android for customisations. Issue is not with the SIZE, it's SECURITY ! With all ads/JavaScript/permissions turned off, it automatically resets to enables after reboot. (sic)" The users plight is fairly clear  why should he be forced to keep an app on his phone that he would never use?

In response, Xiaomi's official developer account replied, "Sorry for the inconvenience. Mi Browser is the pre-installed one in Mi Phone, just like the Safari on iPhone. If you think you do not have enough memory, please consider delete some other Apps so as to compensate and organize your space. We hope in this way the problem will be solved : )"

Overlooking the affable smiley for a moment, it is rather embarrassing to see one of the world's largest smartphone makers  number one in India and number four globally  suggest that its users uninstall other apps as a solution. This, though, does not seem to be an isolated act. Last night, on May 3, Xiaomi released an update to their web browsers, which include Mi Browser, Mi Browser Pro and Mint Browser. The blog post for the update read:

Given our goal of providing world class secure services and products to all users, our next Mint Browser and Mi Browser software update will include an option in incognito mode for all users of both browsers to switch on/off the aggregated data collection, in an effort to further strengthen the control we grant users over sharing their own data with Xiaomi. We believe this functionality, in combination with our approach of maintaining aggregated data in non-identifiable form, goes beyond any legal requirements and demonstrates our companys commitment to user privacy.

ALSO READ | Xiaomi Users, Beware: Your Data is Being Read by Chinese Servers

Unfortunately, offering an opt-out switch hardly qualifies as a "company's commitment to user privacy". While we have all submitted to certain degrees of data collection, there still has to be a mandatory fine line that companies must not over-step. Case in point are incognito modes in other, arguably more popular browsers  while most browsers collect some amounts of personal data, the way Xiaomi's browsers are behaving seem disproportionate.

Speaking about the main issue at hand, Andrew Tierney, an independent cyber security researcher who found Xiaomi's data problems, told News18, "I can't see Chrome or Firefox sending the URLs (that) I visit to Google or Mozilla in Incognito mode. There could be all sorts of web analytics, cookies etc tracking you, but no direct sending of URLs." This brings up an issue of consumer trust, and crosses what may be deemed as a fine line  between acceptable data collection and breach of a customer's faith. In fact, even with the new update, the effective, privacy-forward impact appears to be minimal.

Two steps forward, one step back!When the device isn't sending URLs in Incognito mode... it still sends a message saying you are in Incognito mode. pic.twitter.com/I9luEkDbDM Cybergibbons (@cybergibbons) May 4, 2020

"I'm not sure what the line is, but I don't think most people were expecting their browsing history to be sent to Xiaomi, especially when not signed in, or in incognito," added Tierney, and it is this that sums up the real issue at hand. By first collecting open and allegedly identifiable data from incognito browsing modes, subsequently denying such reports, and then going on to confirm the allegations by introducing a mode that should not even have been required in the first place, Xiaomi has essentially deemed itself a brand that can be difficult to trust.

ALSO READ | Xiaomi India Says it is Not Collecting Any More of Your Data Than What You Allowed

Case in point is the fact that Xiaomi's interface refuses to let its users delete any pre-installed app, even against their will. Then, are certain privileges and permissions that some of Xiaomi's fundamental apps ask from users. For instance, the 'Clock' app in MIUI requests internet connectivity "to provide personalised services". With the only required features being alarm, stopwatch and a world clock that can be programmed offline, the question remains: Did Xiaomi even require this permission from a user? What is it even being used for?

In an era where data privacy, localisation and security are heavily discussed aspects, the ideal objective for a company that claims to be user-first is to minimise the amount of data that it collects, not extrapolate it. In such a climate, and with Xiaomi's particularly flimsy pretense of caring for user data, the question remains, should it still be treated as such a trusted company?
Kalpataru Power Transmission rose 1.12% to Rs 221.30 after the company said it has successfully completed sale of its entire 100% stake in Kalpataru Satpura Transco (KSTPL) to CLP India (CLP).

On 3 July 2019, Kalpataru Power entered into binding agreements with CLP India to sell its stake in three power transmission assets namely, Kalpataru Satpura Transco, Alipurduar Transmission and Kohima Mariani Transmission for an estimated enterprise value of Rs 3,275 crore.

The company in a regulatory filing today announced that it has successfully completed sale of its entire 100% stake in Kalpataru Satpura Transco (KSTPL) to CLP India. Consequently, KSTPL has ceased to be a subsidiary of the company with effect from 20 November 2019. The Company has received full consideration towards sale of its stake in KSTPL to CLP in November 2019.

The company said it was to transfer its entire 100% stake in ATL to CLP India, upon achieving commercial operations of both the elements of the transmission line, which was achieved in January 2020. The agreement however was recently terminated on account of non-fulfilment of certain conditions precedent as per the agreed terms. The company assured it is actively pursuing and evaluating opportunities to sell its stake in ATL to suitable investors.

The company also entered into another agreement dated 3 July 2019 to transfer its entire 74% stake in Kohima Mariani Transmission (KMTL) to CLP India upon achieving commercial operations of the transmission line. The construction work relating to the KMTL project is progressing well and commercial operations are likely to be achieved by July/August 2020. Post commercial operations of the KMTL project and satisfaction of conditions precedent including obtaining the requisite regulatory and other approvals, as stipulated under the agreement, the company will transfer its stake in KMTL to CLP.

Commenting on the asset sale, Manish Mohnot, Managing Director & CEO, KPTL said, We continue to make steady progress towards our commitment to sell our power transmission assets and non-core assets. We have successfully transferred the Satpura Transmission Asset to CLP India Private Limited in FY19-20. We are also actively pursuing and evaluating the opportunities to sell our Jhajjar Transmission Asset, while evaluation of new buyers for Alipurduar Transmission Asset has already started. We remain confident to complete the Kohima Transmission Asset as per the given timelines. The sale of assets will generate significant cash for KPTL and we remain confident of achieving our goal to be a debt free company by end of March 2021.

On a consolidated basis, Kalpataru's net profit surged 16.5% to Rs 127 crore on a 15.1% rise in net sales to Rs 3162 crore in Q3 December 2019 as against Q3 December 2018.

KPTL is one of the largest specialized EPC companies in India engaged in power transmission & distribution.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The United States has recorded more than 70,000 deaths, or more than twice Britains toll, but its population is also about five times as large. Other factors, including the average age of a population and whether it is more urban or rural, also might be important.
Hurricane season is only weeks away, and many communities are only now considering how to handle a large-scale disaster on top of the coronavirus pandemic.

Forecasters are warning of a more active than usual Atlantic hurricane season, which starts June 1, with one forecast calling for 16 named tropical storms, eight of them hurricanes, and a high likelihood that at least one major hurricane will strike the U.S.

In New Jersey, where Hurricane Sandy is still fresh in many minds and coronavirus infections are now widespread, social distancing will be important, but its not simple to do during a disaster. Emergency shelters have little room for personal distance, and storm preparations and cleanup often involve close contact with others.

Tom Hester, a spokesman for New Jerseys Department of Human Services, said officials would be working with the Red Cross and other partners to provide sheltering under social distancing guidelines as best as possible. State emergency management officials, who have been busy with the pandemic, said they were holding regular conference calls with county officials about disaster response, though no public updates had yet been issued.

When national Hurricane Preparedness Week started on May 3, New Jersey and other states were still working on updating their online hurricane advice to reflect the pandemic. FEMA updated its advice only at the end of April, adding a few sentences recommending that anyone headed to a storm shelter should wear a cloth face covering, take cleaning items like hand sanitizer and keep six feet away from others.

Hurricanes are only part of the disaster risk facing the U.S. this year. The Southeast has seen deadly tornadoes, and the West expects significant droughts this summer, a recipe for wildfires. Each could leave thousands of people homeless and many in need of rescue and emergency care, and the coronavirus will make them more difficult and dangerous to manage.

Story continues

Dealing with response and recovery from a disaster in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic raises new and unsettling questions. Who is available to respond? What medical assistance can be provided if hospitals are treating COVID-19 patients and there is already a shortage of supplies? Where do we shelter and house evacuees, given the need to keep large numbers of evacuees socially distant from one another? Moreover, the time frame for dealing with this dual challenge may not be measured in days or even weeks, but rather months and possibly years.

As a civil engineer specializing in risk management, I work with governments and businesses to assess enterprise risks, including extreme weather. There are no silver bullets to solving these dilemmas, but there are simple concepts and questions that planners should be addressing right now.

Planning is crucial

With the coronavirus pandemic adding a new layer of challenges and risks, community leaders should be planning in a structured way for how they will deal with worst-case scenarios.

That means asking: What can go wrong? How likely is it? What are the consequences? And what resources do we need to mitigate the risk?

Before this year, few communities seriously considered the need to deal with a pandemic on top of a natural disaster. Their playbooks for responding to a tornado or a hurricane likely didnt include the need to consider social distancing in emergency shelters or how to get help from other states when a widespread health crisis is underway.

Officials should be asking the key questions again, casting the net wide enough to consider any plausible scenario. Importantly, they should be addressing where personnel, equipment, facilities and supplies can be found and how those resources should be allocated.

With the likelihood that resources normally available from federal agencies and mutual aid agreements wont be accessible this year, some local communities have started banding together to fill the void.

In New Orleans, Evacuteer, a nonprofit normally focused on helping residents evacuate during a hurricane, has shifted its operations to stockpiling food and supplies, recognizing that the pandemic response has depleted many of these resources.

The Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, a coalition of mayors and leaders, is procuring personal protective equipment for distribution to wherever severe flooding may occur.

Vacant hotel rooms and college dormitories are becoming important sheltering options. When tornadoes hit the Southeast in April, the Red Cross turned to a revised playbook and responded with social distancing in mind. Instead of opening shelters, where the coronavirus could easily spread, it worked with hotels to put hundreds of storm victims into rooms. Its volunteers, normally on the scene after disasters, jumped into emergency response coordination work from home.

The logistics challenge and federal leadership

Without careful, coordinated planning, desperately needed resources can be sent to the wrong locations, leaving the areas most in need of assistance without lifesaving capabilities.

The shortages of testing, face masks and ventilators in areas hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic show how logistical failures can threaten the quality of health care and the susceptibility of hospital workers to harm.

Ideally, disaster logistics management should be a federal role. The federal government has greater access to supplies and the authority to marshal resources. The most effective approach is centralized control of the supply chain and a unified command structure, much in the way the Defense Logistics Agency supports military operations. It requires total awareness of where to get supplies and where they are needed, and the ability to alter traditional supply chains when necessary.

Many case studies illustrate the success of this approach, and the risks of not using it. During the 2001 terrorist attack on the Pentagon, the Arlington County Fire Department quickly established a unified command with other agencies. The emergency crews on the scene knew who was in charge and could coordinate effectively. Conversely, the disorganized response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 left tens of thousands of people without basic supplies.

Changing how businesses operate

Inventory management is perhaps the most difficult challenge. In our global economy, companies have been overwhelmingly focused on cutting costs to remain competitive.

Businesses respond by keeping inventory as low as possible, relying on the supply chain to make just-in-time deliveries to meet production and service needs. There is little to no adaptive capacity in the system  the excess resources they could draw upon when a disaster strikes.

Creating this adaptive capacity will require a sea change in how businesses operate, with the strategy of cutting costs to the max replaced with a more reasoned approach of being cost-conscious while maintaining a sufficient inventory to meet societal needs.

Now is the time to recognize how to become resilient when confronting multiple disasters simultaneously. There is a famous oil filter commercial in which an auto mechanic, discussing the cost of replacing an oil filter as opposed to the cost of engine repair by deferring that decision, declares: You can pay me now.or you can pay me later. Later is no longer an option.

This is an updated version of an article originally published on April 30, 2020.

[You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help. Read The Conversations newsletter.]

<p>Este articulo se vuelve a publicar de <a href="http://theconversation.com/es?utm_source=Yahoo&utm_medium=related-link&utm_campaign=related-link0&utm_content=article-137858">The Conversation</a>, un medio digital sin fines de lucro dedicado a la diseminacion de la experticia academica.<p> <p><strong>Lee mas:</strong><br><ul><li><a href="http://theconversation.com/hurricane-evacuation-of-nursing-home-residents-still-an-unsolved-challenge-121163?utm_source=Yahoo&utm_medium=related-link&utm_campaign=related-link0&utm_content=article-137858">Hurricane evacuation of nursing home residents still an unsolved challenge</a></li><li><a href="http://theconversation.com/after-harvey-many-texans-will-think-differently-about-hurricane-risks-83262?utm_source=Yahoo&utm_medium=related-link&utm_campaign=related-link1&utm_content=article-137858">After Harvey, many Texans will think differently about hurricane risks</a></li></ul></p>

Mark Abkowitz receives funding from Tennessee Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Local Reopen 2nd Look

Joyful, Cautious Residents Venture Out As Some Metro Kansas City Businesses Reopen Perkins Restaurant & Bakery in Gladstone, Missouri, opened at 6 a.m. Monday morning for the first time in almost two months. The first customer didn't arrive until an hour later. Marylou Lyman, who has worked there for 40 years, said even the regulars have been taking advantage of the robust carry-out business, and may not know they've now reopened for dine-in service.

Metro Summer Swim Debate

Area Parks & Rec departments weigh whether to open public pools This is the day many area public pools would have cleaned and refilled to be ready for the Memorial Day open. With COVID-19, many of those plans have been delayed or canceled for 2020.

Northland Street Terrorizes Motorists Into Safe Driving

She's no dummy: Molly the mannequin slows down drivers in Northland neighborhood KANSAS CITY, Mo. - There's not exactly a new sheriff in town, cracking down on speeding drivers in one Northland neighborhood. But "Molly" the mannequin is making an impact on Amoret Avenue, off of N.W. 56th Street. "Her name is Molly, and I just picked her up at an antique store," said Larry Bye, who [...]

Panty Deal Falls Off

Drawer slams shut on Victoria's Secret acquisition A deal to sell Victoria's Secret has been scrapped after its private equity buyer sued to get out of the deal on a coronavirus-related claim. L Brands - the retail conglomerate owned by billionaire Les Wexner - said Monday it has scrapped its deal to sell a controlling stake in the struggling lingerie chain to Sycamore Partners, a New York-based buyout firm, in a deal that had valued the retailer at $1 billion.

Covid Death Toll Could Double

Experts warn that relaxed restrictions across US will have a dire impact on death toll Public spaces were filled with visitors over the weekend as some states began loosening lockdown measures and experts now warn the premature reopening could drive up the country's coronavirus death toll -- by nearly double, according to one prediction.

Broken China Affair

'This is the start of a new Cold War,' former Trump trade official says of rising US-China tensions Rising tensions between the U.S. and China - made worse by the coronavirus pandemic - is the start of a new Cold War, former top White House trade negotiator Clete Willems said on Tuesday. "The reality is that tensions between the United States and China are rising considerably at the moment," Willems, a former deputy director of the National Economic Council, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia."

Murder Hornet Explained

What is a murder hornet? Dangerous killer asian giant hornets threaten beehives after invading U.S. Asian giant hornets are known to be capable of killing people with some regularity, including up to 50 per year in Japan, but they're more dangerous to honey bee populations, with the capability to kill 40 bees in a minute.

Progressives Hope To Avoid Biden #MeToo Hypocrisy

John Oliver says Tara Reade's claims against Biden should be 'fully investigated' "This Week Tonight" host John Oliver kicked off his show on Sunday night by briefly addressing the growing allegations Tara Reade has made against her former boss Joe Biden. "Now he's denied that claim, but there are clearly big questions still be answered here," Oliver said.

Latinx Party People

Learn why founders say this online festival is "unprecedented" A Kansas City agency is helping organize a virtual music festival on Cinco De Mayo that will provide aid to farmworkers across the United States. An artistic effort to support farmworkers during the COVID-19 pandemic quickly blossomed into a star-studded live stream festival, which airs Tuesday. In three weeks, Altisimo Live!

Selling Season Still Kaput

Home Builders Association of KC delays artisan home tour - Kansas City Business Journal The Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City will postpone its 2020 Artisan Home Tour for two months because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the organization announced Friday. The Artisan Home Tour, during which participants visit custom homes constructed by area builders and priced around $1 million, has been rescheduled for August, with specific dates still to be finalized.

Help Cop Fam After Tragedy

Price Chopper to collect donations for slain Overland Park officer's family Hide Transcript Show Transcript DURING THIS DIFFICULT TIME. DEDICATED FATHER, WONDERFUL HUSBAND. THOSE TWO THINGS COME TO LIGHT WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT THIS OFFICER. REPORTER: UP UNTIL THE VERY LAST MOMENTS OF HIS LIFE OFFICER MIKE MOSHER WAS SERVING HIS COMMUNITY. MIKE WAS A GREAT OFFICER, HE WAS A BRAVE GUY.

Tuesday Warm Up

Warm and windy Tuesday with clouds hanging around Hide Transcript Show Transcript BRING THOSE WOR OF ENCOURAGEMENT. I SEE SOME BLUE SKY WITH CLOUDS BREAKING UP. WE ARE GOING TO HAVE SUNSHINE OVER THE NEXT FEW HOURS. A BRISK WEST TO NORTHWEST BREEZE THAT WILL RAMP UP TODAY. 50 IN LIBERTY, 40'S FROM MARYVILLE OVER TO TRENTON.

We start out withand a peek at pop culture, community news and info from across the nation and around the world.is the song of the day and this is thefor right now . . .
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  Looking to celebrate Cinco de Mayo Tuesday?

While restaurants are closed because of Gov. Gretchen Whitmers stay-home order, many are offering takeout and delivery. Heres a look at five Grand Rapids-area Mexican restaurants that are open on Cinco de Mayo, an annual celebration honoring the Mexican armys victory over France in the May 5, 1862 Battle of Puebla.

Tacos El Cunado at the Downtown Market

Located at the Downtown Market in Grand Rapids, Tacos El Cunado offers tacos, tamales, burritos and more. It offers a taco dinner for a party of four that, for $45, features a choice of two proteins, tortillas, toppings, rice, beans, as well as chips, salsa and guacamole.

Orders can be placed online or by calling (616) 710-8040. Its hours are listed as noon to 6 p.m.

El Arriero Mexican Bar & Grill

El Arriero Mexican Bar & Grill, 2948 28th St. SE, in Kentwood, offers a wide-selection of Mexican food, ranging from nachos and quesadillas to chimichangas, fajitas, chalupas and more. Orders can be made by calling (616) 977-2674. To view the restaurants menu, click here. Its hours are listed as 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

El Agave Mexican Grill and Bar

El Agave Mexican Grill and Bar, 5401 Northland Dr. NE, in Plainfield Township, offers appetizers such as fajita nachos, grilled chorizo with cheese sauce and numerous entrees, ranging from tacos and salads to burritos, enchiladas and quesadillas. Orders can be placed by calling (616) 447-0885. The restaurants menu can be found here. Its hours are 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Luna

Luna, 64 Ionia Ave. SW, in downtown Grand Rapids, offers margarita mix to-go, as well as tacos, salads, quesadillas and tortas, as well as New York strip fajitas and Mexican-style garlic shrimp. Orders can be made on the restaurants website. The restaurants phone number is (616) 288-6340. Its open from noon to 8 p.m.

Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo, 123 Courtland St., in Rockford, offers tamales, chimichangas, flautas, fajitas, quesadillas, burritos and more. The restaurants menu can be viewed here, and orders can be placed by calling (616) 866-3438. The restaurant is open from 3p.m. to 8p.m.

Stories that highlight how our communities are Powering Positivity are being done in partnership with The MediLodge Group, which has skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities throughout Michigan.

Read more:

From closing restaurants to requiring masks, Gov. Whitmer has issued 69 executive orders in 56 days

Michigan districts are meeting students where they are as schools adapt to remote learning

Michigans coronavirus numbers update delayed by software issue
Under the new rules, college students accused of sexual assault and harassment must be given the right to a live hearing and the ability to cross-examine their accusers, much as the proposed rule directed. The rules also define sexual harassment narrowly, limiting it to conduct that is both severe and pervasive, not just one or the other.
Poscos subsidiaries have been encountering financial difficulties, Photo: Le Toan

Posco is planning to pour 21.2 billion ($17.22 million) in Posco SS Vina JSC until 2022, raising its current investment capital in the Vietnamese joint venture to $682.2 million.

With the new investment, Posco will frontload 11.1 billion ($9.1 million) this year, while it is also ramping up its automotive steel plate plant in Indonesia and the Czech Republic with a total of more than 54.4 billion ($44.2 million) for this year.

The move aims to improve the subsidiarys production efficiency and reduce its expenses. South Koreas largest steelmaker is keeping on track, but the task is proving increasingly difficult, at least in the Vietnamese market where Posco SS Vina has failed to turn a profit.

Based in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Posco SS Vina was established in 2010 to produce the worlds highest-quality h-section, sheet pile, and deformed bars by grafting using the steel technology of Posco, with up-to-date melting and rolling facilities.

As of the end of last December, Posco SS Vina JSC (formerly, Posco SS VINA Co., Ltd.) recognised impairment losses amounting to 204.546 billion ($166.1 million) since recoverable amount based on value-in-use is less than its carrying amount, stated Poscos consolidated financial statement for 2019 released late April.

Posco SS Vina has been in a difficult situation due to intensified market competition in Vietnam. Rebar is traditionally a red-ocean market and competition in the h-beam market is also fierce as supplies from Southeast Asia are flowing in. The management is well aware that it is difficult to be sustainable under these conditions and are considering various options to stabilise business, read Poscos report.

The Posco SS Vina mill began operation in 2015 with an output target of about one million tonnes per year, but has never been able to turn a profit. Failing to get profit in its subsidiary, Posco sold 49 per cent in the subsidiary to Japans Yamato Kogyo Group late last year.

Selling the shares at Posco SS Vina is said to be aimed at focusing more on structural steel products. However, the whole steel market has witnessed a heavy slump due to the global health crisis and competition with Chinese steel products.

Even prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, ratings agency Moodys had already cut outlook for the steel industries in the United States (since October 2019), Europe (May 2019), and Asia (August 2019) based on weak fundamentals. Thus, the fate of Posco SS Vina continues to hang in the balance.

Poscos report noted, Auto steel is more affected than other products due to the pandemic and halted automaker operations. Thus, we expect the sales ratio of auto steel to decrease, especially in the second quarter. To better cope with the demand condition, we have to adjust our sales mix flexibly. Weakening export sales will be directed to the domestic market.

Home appliances will see almost no change from the pandemic fallout and Posco is still in talks with shipbuilders. The distribution and pipe-making markets are highly affected by global prices, so Posco will respond to a possible drop of prices with flexibility. The company had to cut its 2020 revenue target to 57.5 trillion ($46.7 billion) from 63.8 trillion ($51.8 billion).

Posco is seeking to improve its presence across Southeast Asia. In Vietnam, Posco has many subsidiaries including Posco E&C Vietnam, Posco International Vietnam Co., Ltd., Posco ICT Vietnam, Posco Vietnam Holdings, and Posco Vietnam Processsing Center Co., Ltd., among others.

Despite the implementation of many large projects in Vietnam, some of the groups subsidiaries have been encountering a series of unexpected crises and many years of consecutive losses.
Iran to 'decisively' counter potential arms embargo extension

Iran Press TV

Monday, 04 May 2020 9:49 AM

Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi says Iran will serve a "decisive response" to a potential extension of an arms embargo against the country that is legally bound to expire under its nuclear agreement with world powers.

"Iran will serve an appropriate and decisive response to such a measure," Mousavi told a press conference in Tehran on Monday, referring to the potential submission of Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council and the likely extension of the embargo.

He, however, hoped for such a prospect not to come about, adding, "We are waiting to see the direction in which the circumstances are going to develop, and will then act based on them and deliver a response."

The United States has expressed its resolve to have the embargo on the sales of conventional weapons to Iran prolonged, although the ban is to expire by October under the 2015 nuclear deal. Washington is legally prohibited from taking such action as it left the deal in May 2018.

Mousavi noted that the US was no longer a party to the agreement that is officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

"The US has a historical record of non-commitment to its international obligations," he said. "[Its actions concerning] the JCPOA manifest one of its unilateral approaches, which showed it is a regime that does not believe in the rule of law and international regulations, and is the biggest violator of those regulations."

'US approach disturbs intl. order'

The US's current attitude "is dangerous and disturbs the international order," the spokesman said.

Washington sought to negate the nuclear accord's achievements, including the expected expiration of the arms embargo, by illegally withdrawing from the deal, he noted.

However, the Islamic Republic neutralized the US's policy of "maximum pressure" through the resistance that was put up by the Iranian nation, the country's policy of "resistive economy," and its cooperation with its traditional partners and neighbors, Mousavi said.

Tehran is "certain" that Washington would fall short of its objective because "the world is far from likely to cave in to the US's bullying," he stated.

US interference with regional security

The Islamic Republic "essentially does not recognize" the US's regional presence, especially its military presence in the Persian Gulf, and "considers it a means of interference with Iran and the region's security and stability," the official said.

He cited various cases of dangerous and provocative maneuvering by American military vessels in the waters that have warranted words of caution by Iranian military forces.

The Islamic Republic is prepared to "deliver necessary warnings in serious cases" to the US through both Iran's mission to the UN and the Swiss Embassy in Tehran that represents Washington's' interests.

Germany's support for 1980s gas attacks

Mousavi separately addressed the issue of Iran's ongoing legal actions against Germany and other countries that assisted the regime of Saddam Hussein with its chemical attacks against Iran during the former Iraqi dictator's 1980-88 war on the Islamic Republic.

"Germany's support for Saddam and its sales of chemical arms to him against Iran are clear and self-evident issues that have been proven too," Mousavi said.

The Germans share a large part of Saddams' atrocities against the Iranian armed forces and people as well as the people of Iraq, especially the Iraqi Kurds, he noted.

"What we expect is for the perpetrators to be tried and for the German government to officially apologize to the Iranian and Iraqi peoples," the official noted.

The US, the UK, Germany, Italy, and Holland were among the countries providing Saddam's Ba'athist Iraq with the equipment and material to build chemical weapons.

Iraq made the most of its acquisitions by launching over 350 large-scale gas attacks along the Iran-Iraq border during the war.

The assaults left Iran with over 107,000 victims, 2,600 of whom died at the time. Over 45,000 others were left in permanent need of relief aid provided by Iran's Veterans and War Victims Foundation.

The spokesman also referred to Germany's recent blacklisting of Hezbollah, describing the move as a token of Berlin's support for the Israeli regime.

By labeling the Lebanese resistance movement in such a way, Germany "is repaying its historic debt to the Zionists," he said, suggesting that Berlin was trying to make up for Hitler's massacre of Jews by currying favor with Tel Aviv.

However, he added, the German government should know that such actions are sure to be followed by the reactions of the world's Muslims as Hezbollah is a "mature, deep-seated, and strong party that is integrated into the [Lebanese] government, parliament, and nation."

Therefore, such actions on the part of Berlin are "strange and unnatural," Mousavi said.

Iran wary of Daesh revival in Iraq

The spokesman, meanwhile, referred to the recent deadly attacks by the remnants of the Takfiri terror group of Daesh in Iraq against the Arab country's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) or Hashd al-Sha'abi anti-terror force.

He then suggested that the terrorist outfit was being given a new lease of life by the US that has been mandated by the Iraqi parliament to leave the country.

"The Americans are under pressure from the Iraqi people [to leave] and are seeking to prevent their exit or delay it through such actions and reinforcing Daesh," Mousavi said.

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Linkedin Cristin Flanagan (Bloomberg) New York, United States  Tue, May 5, 2020 11:52 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd5fff8a 2 Business remdesivir,COVID-19,gilead-sciences Free

Gilead Sciences could make a profit on its new treatment for Covid-19 if it costs around $4,500 per patient, according to analysts at Piper Sandler and SVB Leerink.

Thats the maximum price that the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review recommended for a 10-day treatment of Gileads remdesivir, which received emergency approval from US regulators on Friday. Gilead has so far been quiet on its pricing plans and didnt immediately respond to requests for comment.

A number of Wall Street analysts have been getting more cautious on Gileads ability to make a profit from remdesivir amid the pandemic, spurring several downgrades last week. The Food and Drug Administration clearance followed results from a US-led study suggesting the drug shortened hospital stays, conflicting with results from China that showed remdesivir had no effect on preventing deaths.

At $4,500 per patient, remdesivir would have a gross margin and overall profit contribution that is below the companys other products, but not highly dilutive to the companys future profitability outlook, Leerinks Geoffrey Porges wrote in a note to clients Monday.

ICERs estimate rests on remdesivir showing a mortality benefit. The nonprofit agency said if the company is looking to simply recover the costs of producing it, a 10-day treatment regimen should cost about $10. That figure doesnt include the cost of research and development as remdesivir was previously developed for hepatitis C, ICER said.

Gilead is no stranger to drug-pricing debates after political scrutiny over the price of its HIV medicines. The company has said it may spend $1 billion on remdesivir this year.

Even after a promise to give away the first 1.5 million vials, the drug could generate more than $2 billion in sales by the end of the year with a $4,500 price tag, according to Piper Sandler analyst Tyler Van Buren. And several billion in sales are easily achievable with the number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients remaining high for the foreseeable future.
By Akbar Mammadov

Azerbaijan's position on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh is clear and unchangeable, Azerbaijan's FM Spokeswoman Leyla Abdullayeva said on May 4.

Commenting on the statement voiced by Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan at a meeting of the parliamentary commission regarding a phased solution to the conflict, she noted:

The conflict must be settled in accordance with the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act and the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council. Meanwhile, Armenia must withdraw its armed forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories, and the return of Azerbaijani IDPs to their native lands must be ensured.

There is no need for further comment on this issue, the spokewswoman added.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
A banker who stole $340,000 from church collection plates to spend on lavish overseas holidays and Louis Vuitton shopping sprees has been jailed for five years.

Kerry Ann Keen, 55, stole the cash while working as a money counter for the company SecureCash between July 2010 and May 2014.

The cash logistics company collects, counts and banks money from various churches, including those run by the Adelaide Catholic Church.

Keen was found guilty of theft and aggravated theft last year and sentenced to five years in jail by Judge Stephen McEwen at the Adelaide District Court on Tuesday.

Kerry Ann Keen, 55, stole the cash while working as a money counter for the company SecureCash between July 2010 and May 2014

'You've demonstrated no remorse or contrition, and you continue to deny the theft in the face of what is plainly overwhelming and incontrovertible evidence,' the judge said, according to The Advertiser.

'This was protracted, calculated dishonestly over a prolonged period involving a large sum of money to fund an indulgent lifestyle in breach of the trust afforded to you.'

In her four year on continuous offending, the 55-year-old used the money she stole to fund her lavish lifestyle.

Keen spent more than $400,000 on 17 trips around the world to the UK, the US, New Zealand, Tahiti and Fiji between 2010 and 2014.

During her holidays, Keen would often go shopping and spent $97,000 at retail and department stores.

Of the $97,000, she spent $26,716 on Louis Vuitton handbags, wallets, shoes and a purse that she bought from stores in Las Vegas, London, Venice and Australia.

But her theft did not go unnoticed as Catholic Church finance officers eventually found discrepancies between their pre-counts and Keen's spreadsheets.

Keen frequented the Louis Vuitton store in London (pictured). She spent $97,000 at retail and department stores, including $26,716 on LV products from stores in Las Vegas, London, Venice and Australia during her lavish holidays

Finance officers began to record the serial numbers of some notes while police had installed CCTV cameras in the Secure Cash office where Keen worked.

Keen was caught on video putting cash into her handbag and planned before she was arrested in July 2014.

She was arrested with $3,100 in notes on her, some of which had the same serial numbers recorded by finance officers, proving they were from taken from donations.

The thief planned to go on another holiday but was arrested five days before she could catch her flight.

Keen counted money for the Catholic Church 79 times, during which time the average count was $6716.15.

But after her arrest, the Church got an average of $10,201.30 each week for 23 weeks.

Keen was found guilty of theft and aggravated theft at the Adelaide District Court in December last year.

Judge Stephen McEwen said she was 'systematically, intentionally and dishonestly' understating the total amount of money collected and keeping a portion.

'I find she was doing so dishonestly, without the church's consent and without any right of claim,' the judge said in his reasons.

'In my view, those findings are the only rational conclusion from the entirety of the evidence.'

She returned to court on February 14 for sentencing submissions before being sentenced to five years behind bars on Tuesday.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 22:29:35|Editor: huaxia

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MACAO, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Macao's broad money supply fell by 1.2 percent month-to-month in March 2020 with a stable share of patacas, the special administrative region's monetary watchdog said here on Tuesday.

According to statistics released by the Monetary Authority of Macao, the currency in circulation and demand deposits fell by 2.7 percent and 1.9 percent respectively. M1 thus decreased by 2.1 percent from one month earlier.

Meanwhile, quasi-monetary liabilities dropped by 1.1 percent. The sum of these two items, i.e. broad money supply or M2, fell by 1.2 percent to 679.3 billion patacas (about 85.2 billion U.S. dollars).

On an annual basis, M1 dropped by 2.3 percent whereas M2 grew by 2.6 percent, the monetary watchdog added.

The shares of pataca, Hong Kong dollar, renminbi and U.S. dollar in M2 were 31.8 percent, 46.1 percent, 7.3 percent and 12.8 percent respectively.

Resident deposits went down by 1.2 percent from the preceding month to 661.4 billion patacas (about 83.0 billion dollars) whereas non-resident deposits rose by 1.2 percent to 267.4 billion patacas (about 33.5 billion dollars).

Meanwhile, public sector deposits in the banking sector increased by 0.7 percent to 256.4 billion patacas (about 32.2 billion dollars).

As a result, the total deposits in the banking sector dropped by 0.3 percent from a month earlier to 1,185.2 billion patacas (about 148.7 billion dollars).

Domestic loans to the private sector rose by 1.5 percent from a month ago to 534.0 billion patacas (about 67.0 billion dollars). Meanwhile, external loans grew by 7.3 percent to 607.8 billion patacas (about 76.2 billion dollars).

As a result, the total loans to the private sector went up by 4.5 percent from a month earlier to 1,141.8 billion patacas (about 143.2 billion dollars).

At the end of March, the loan-to-deposit ratio for the resident sector rose from 56.9 percent at the end of February to 58.2 percent. Meanwhile, the ratio for both the resident and non-resident sectors grew from 91.9 percent to 96.3 percent. Enditem
Consolidated steel production stands at 655,000 MT in April

Jindal Steel & Power reported its highest ever exports of steel & related products during April 2020. The company exported 248,000 MT of steel & related products, which is a growth of 109% (m-o-m). Export contributed to 74% of its total sales volume.

JSPL India reported 5% growth (y-o-y) in the production of steel & granulated pig iron to 550,000 MT during April 2020. The Group has recorded 655,000 MT of consolidated steel production in April 2020.

India's largest Blast Furnace at JSPL-Angul has recorded the highest ever production of 298,000 MT of hot metal during April 2020. Blast furnace maintained an average production of ~10,000 MT+ on a working day basis.

JSPL reported standalone sales of 335,000 MT, the balance production is under shipment and stocked at the port waiting for vessels, which will be accounted in the month of May 2020. JSPL recorded consolidated sales of 456,000 MT during April 2020.

JSPL's Oman Steel plant reported 106,000 MT of steel production while steel sales stood at 120,000 MT in April 2020.

JSPL has also developed R 260 Grade of rails for Indian Railways, these rails have carriage capacities of 75 ton per wagon, as compared to 64 ton per wagon for ordinary rails. JSPL has also developed a sour grade application plate and round billets.

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Warning - This article includes distressing images

A farmer has made an urgent appeal to the public after a lamb was shot and killed by a group of men with an air rifle.

One lamb was killed and an ewe seriously injured after 'three or four men' shot the animals with an 'air rifle', it has been reported.

The horrific incident happened at Beoch Farm, Dalmellington in Ayrshire on Sunday 3 May.

Farmer Jock Welsh has now made an emotional appeal on Facebook for more information from the public.

The post has attracted more than 11,000 shares and over 3,000 comments.

"Today we had different problems to what you would normally get at lambing time," he said.

"The red van with 3 or 4 men were out and about with an air rifle and managed to kill the lamb after about 7 or 8 pellets into it.

"The ewe [was] badly injured with again a lot of pellets into it.

"Anyone that has seen this van going about please try and get a registration and get in touch with either me or the police."

He included several distressing photos of the injuries caused by the pellets.

A Police Scotland spokesman confirmed the incident, saying: "Officers in Ayrshire are investigating the shooting of sheep in the Dalmellington area.

"The incident, in which a lamb was shot dead and a ewe sustained serious injuries having been shot, happened around 4.20pm on Sunday, 3 May, at Beoch Farm, Loch Doon, Dalmellington."
Before Jamshed Eric plunges deep below Karachis streets to clean out clogged sewers with his bare hands, he says a little prayer to Jesus to keep him safe.

The work is grueling, and he wears no mask or gloves to protect him from the stinking sludge and toxic plumes of gas that lurk deep underground.

It is a difficult job, Eric said. In the gutter, I am often surrounded by swarms of cockroaches.

After a long day, the stench of his work lingers even at home, a constant reminder of his place in life. When I raise my hand to my mouth to eat, it smells of sewage, he said.

A recent spate of deaths among Christian sewer cleaners in Pakistan underscores how the caste discrimination that once governed the Indian subcontinent's Hindus lingers, no matter the religion.

Like thousands of other lower-caste Hindus, Erics ancestors converted to Christianity centuries ago, hoping to escape a cycle of discrimination that ruled over every aspect of their lives: what wells of water they could drink from, what jobs they could hold. Manual sewer cleaners, known as sweepers, are at the bottom of that hierarchy, the most untouchable of the untouchable Hindu castes.

But when the Indian subcontinent broke up in 1947 and Pakistan was formed as a homeland for the regions Muslims, a new, informal system of discrimination formed. In Pakistan, Muslims sit at the top of the hierarchy. And as one of Pakistans small Christian minority, Eric has now been forced into the same work his Hindu ancestors had tried to avoid through religious conversion.

Although India has outlawed caste-based discrimination with mixed success, in Pakistan it is almost encouraged by the state. In July, the Pakistani military placed newspaper advertisements for sewer sweepers with the caveat that only Christians should apply. After activists protested, the religious requirement was removed.

But municipalities across Pakistan rely on Christian sweepers like Eric. In the sprawling port city of Karachi, sweepers keep the sewer system flowing, using their bare hands to unclog crumbling drainpipes of feces, plastic bags and hazardous hospital refuse, part of the 1,750 million liters of waste the citys 20 million residents produce daily.

On a recent day Eric, 40, had been hired to clean three sewers for $6.

Eric sends his son to school far from the crowded and segregated neighborhood the citys sewer cleaners live in, hoping to free him of the discrimination that forced him into this work. Back home, the neighborhood lacks safe drinking water and schools. Swarms of mosquitoes, piles of garbage and overflowing gutters are the areas only abundance.

While most sweepers like Eric are illiterate, his generation has been more determined to push their children to attend school to break the cycle of discrimination, just as their ancestors tried to do when they converted. But the children still find themselves discriminated against, forced to adopt the profession of their fathers.

Mary James Gill, a former parliamentarian who runs the Sweepers are Superheroes advocacy group, has lobbied for years to pressure the government to formally ban manual sewage cleaning work. But most of the sweepers are illiterate and unorganized, she said, making it easy for authorities to pressure them to accept the jobs as their only means of income.

While Christians make up only 1.6% of Pakistans population of some 200 million, according to a 1998 government census, rights groups believe they fill about 80% of the sweeper jobs. Lower-caste Hindus mostly fill the rest of the slots.

When Karachis municipality tried to recruit Muslims to unclog gutters, they refused to get down into the sewers, instead sweeping the streets. The job was left to Christians like Eric, known derogatorily as choora, or dirty.

They spend hours inside the citys sewers. Almost all of them develop skin and respiratory problems because of constant contact with human waste and toxic fumes. And for some, the job has been lethal.

I have seen death from very near, said Michael Sadiq, legs trembling as he thought about his two-decade career as a sweeper.

Last August, Sadiq and his relatives, Rafiq Murad and Riaz Masih, sweepers for Karachis municipality, were relaxing on their only day off when they were interrupted by a call from their supervisor, ordering them to snap to it.

Murad was the first to step into a gutter 18 feet deep with a rope tied around his waist. As he cleaned the detritus, a flood of putrid black water carrying sand, stones, sludge and a swarm of gases swept him away.

Sadiq scrambled into the sewer to save his cousin but was overwhelmed by the toxic mix and fainted. Masih followed to help his cousins, but the fumes asphyxiated him, his lifeless body swept away without a struggle.

While Sadiq and Murad were saved, Masih was buried so deep, an excavator worked for four hours to extract his dead body from the stinking sludge it was buried under.

This work has become so dangerous that I need to find a way out, Sadiq said. But he, like the rest of the sweepers, is a poor and illiterate Christian, and no other jobs are open to him, he lamented.

Two months after Masih died, two more sewer cleaners died on the job a few miles away. Another sweeper died at the beginning of this month.

Doctors often refuse to treat the sweepers, who are seen as unclean and untouchable.

Officially, Pakistan denies the existence of caste-based practices in the country. But across the country, the discrimination persists.

One form of abuse commonly meted out on Pakistans religious minorities has been to accuse them of blasphemy, a crime that is punishable by death in the country and that at times has been used to settle personal disputes.

In one infamous case in 2010, Asia Bibi, a Christian woman, was sentenced to death, accused of blaspheming Islam. It later emerged that her Muslim colleagues had ordered her to fetch water as they harvested berries on a hot day. When she drank from the communal cup, they accused her of polluting it, and an argument ensued.

The case was eventually thrown out for lack of evidence, after Bibi spent eight years on death row and her family was forced into hiding by the death threats they received.

Pakistan has taken a few steps to protect and empower some minorities, but the efforts have failed to help much. A bill was passed in 2009 to reserve 5% of all government jobs for non-Muslims. But over a decade later, that goal has not been reached, officials say.

Eric feels it is only a matter of time before he dies on the job. But he hopes his son can excel in school and shake off the discrimination that has plagued the family for generations.

After hearing of the deaths in the gutters, I think about what will happen to my family if I die, Eric said. But Jesus Christ will take care of them.

I dont care about my life as long as I can provide my family with a decent living.

Zia ur-Rehman and Maria Abi-Habib@c.2020 The New York Times Company
MULLINS, S.C.  Marion County Coordinating Council Chairman Rev. Marvin Hemingway along with several volunteers provided another drive-thru service produce pick-up to supply others in need, giving-away boxes of food to more than 300 people outside Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Mullins on Tuesday.

The Marion County Creating Healthy Food Environments BUILD Health Program in partnership with Pee Dee Community Action Partnership, MUSC Health Marion Medical Center, South Carolina DHEC, Health Care Partners South Carolina, Clemson Extension and Harvest Hope Food Bank connects families with fresh fruit and vegetables.

This is our fifth food-drive for Marion County, Hemingway said. Were giving out food, water and blessed this time to give enough for 12 meals in one box for families.

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Hemingway and the group have spent the past month practicing social distancing, dressed in mask and gloves, doing their part in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

We have enough for about 375 people today, Hemingway said. Weve had two drives outside at my site, one in Brittons Neck and one for law enforcement and fire departments. Were going to continue to do this until this pandemic is over.
Like most consumer-facing companies, spirits producer Diageo (NYSE:DEO) has struggled with the effects of coronavirus-related shutdowns. It's not that consumers don't want its products. It's that they're having a relatively tough time getting them. Most restaurants remain closed, crimping on-premise sales that account for about half of the liquor's total business. The alcohol industry isn't coming out of the COVID-19 contagion unscathed.

It may be faring far better than many people have presumed, however. While consumers clearly aren't buying their booze from bars and restaurants right now, they're buying a whole lot more alcohol from supermarkets and liquor stores than they normally would. Spirits sales continue to lead that charge, building on a trend that was set in motion before the coronavirus outbreak. That's good news for Diageo.

Booze keeps on chuggin', led by spirits

The Spirits Business, an industry news site, reported recently that through the week ending April 18, off-trade sales (that is, sales made in supermarkets rather than restaurants) were up 15%, according to data from Nielsen. The big increase extends a streak of big year-over-year growth that started to take shape in March, as millions and millions of consumers were increasingly told to stay home to curb the spread of COVID-19.

It wasn't a purely American phenomenon either. Nielsen reportedly found that in March, stores' alcohol sales in the UK grew more than 10% even as retail sales slumped 5%.

There was a noteworthy nuance buried within Nielsen's data, however, that The Spirits Business highlighted. Whereas beer and wine sales were up 12% and 14%, respectively, for the week in question, sales of spirits -- vodka, bourbon, gin, and the like -- grew more than 27%.

Online purchases (where permissible) are driving a lot of that growth. Nielsen further reports that between the beginning of March and the middle of April, e-commerce sales of alcohol were up to the tune of 234%. That report didn't indicate exactly what sort of alcohol was leading or lagging that growth, but previous Nielsen numbers have suggested that spirits are responsible for most of that progress as well.

Consumers want their drinks.

Diageo is the best of the best

It's an undertow that bodes well for the often overlooked and surprisingly resilient spirits segment of the alcohol industry.

An already difficult beer market has been disrupted by the introduction of hard seltzers, which may also be poaching wine drinkers. For the first time in 25 years, wine sales in the U.S. fell in 2019. Largely lost in the discussion is the fact that spirits sales remain relatively unfazed, growing for a 10th straight year in 2019. Within that sliver of the market, Diageo remains an undisputed leader, now for a couple more reasons.

One of them is the fact that Diageo was the winner of nearly 80 awards at this year's San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Awards don't pay bills, and at this particular moment, Diageo would likely rather have liquidity than accolades. It just borrowed $2.5 billion to help navigate the uncertain waters created by the global pandemic.

Still, it's difficult to deny its spirits product lines are some of the best (if not the best) in the world. That counts for something sooner or later.

The other fresh reason? Separately, The Spirits Business reported this week that among the spirits influencers Twitter research outfit GlobalData keeps tabs on, Diageo was their most mentioned brand during the first quarter.

It's another anecdotal piece of information to take with a grain of salt. Just like awards, Twitter mentions don't necessarily produce sales or profits. Influencers are also sometimes paid, and with the World Spirits Competition coming up, it's possible those influencers had good reason to discuss the company.

On the other hand, consumers respond to what they see and hear through social media. If the word Diageo -- or its brands like Ketel One or Pampero -- are making the rounds on the internet, it certainly helps the sales and branding effort.

An ideal mix

Don't misread the message. Diageo is seeing good off-trade growth, but that's not its entire business. The coronavirus is taking its toll, to be sure. As GlobalData analyst Carmen Bryan put it earlier this month: "Supply and manufacturing disruptions will likely continue throughout the year, as Diageo and others in the same boat attempt to get back on their feet. The question now is, what does this mean for 2021 and beyond? What is certain, is that recovery will take time."

It's a headwind that may already be priced into shares of the stock though -- and then some -- and erroneously so.

This company's biggest market is North America, where it drives 35% of its total business. But, of that 35%, only 20% of North America's spirits sales is on-trade revenue. The other 80% is off-trade business, which is the piece of the market that's actually seeing growth in the midst of shutdowns. Diageo's next biggest market is Europe and Turkey (mostly Europe), where its on-trade/off-trade split is roughly 50/50 to make up 23% of its top line. But, even so, Nielsen's data indicates that at least some of the effect of coronavirus shutdowns is being offset by increased off-trade buying.

Investors may simply be overlooking these details. As of Monday's close, the S&P 500 was only down 16% from its February high, while Diageo shares were down almost 20% from their January peak. The exaggerated sell-off in February and March, not followed up by a huge recovery effort, suggests the market believes Diageo is far more vulnerable than it actually may be. That's where the opportunity lies.

To that end, analysts are still modeling growth coming out of 2020 and into 2021.
Nearly 70 per cent of people across Africa have warned accessing food and water would be a problem if they were required to self-isolate for 14 days due to coronavirus, a study has found.

Research by Ipsos, which surveyed about 21,000 people from 28 cities in 20 African countries, found that more than half of respondents would also run out of money if they were forced to stay at home to control the spread of Covid-19.

The findings, which came from the upcoming report Finding the Balance on Africas response to coronavirus, showed how the ability to implement public health measures in the continent without causing significant hardship was limited, according to Dr John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

Although Africa has not seen a rapid increase in cases like in Europe, Asia and the US, experts have warned the effect of Covid-19 on the continent could be devastating.

The UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) warned in April that the pandemic was likely to kill at least 300,000 African people and risked pushing nearly 30 million into extreme poverty.

Speaking at a briefing on the Finding the Balance report, Dr Tom Frieden, president of the Resolve to Save Lives initiative, said Africa had not yet seen explosive growth in cases but officials needed to be vigilant.

It remains critical to prepare for the worst, even as we hope for the best, he said.

Dr Frieden noted that the continent has a number of conditions that make responses to the virus challenging, such as the limited economic safety net in many countries and a scarcity of healthcare workers  which was a problem even before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Although Africa does have fewer elderly people, who tend to be most at-risk from Covid-19, it still has a vulnerable population and a lack of information on who exactly those most at-risk people are, he added.

The report also showed there were issues with public health knowledge in the continent, with 32 per cent of respondents saying they did not have enough information about the coronavirus, such as information on how the virus spreads and what can be done to protect against it.

Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organisations (WHO) regional director for Africa, said it was important for the public health response in the continent to extend beyond major cities and to reach people at community level

This report highlights the large information gaps on Covid-19 which exist in Africa and threaten response efforts, Dr Moeti said.

The findings of this report, along with Covid-19 trend data, will help countries make strategic decisions on relaxing their lockdowns.

What weve learnt from Ebola and other outbreaks is that countries need to decentralise the response to the community level and increase their capacity to identify and diagnose cases.

She added that the economic impact of the pandemic was likely to be substantial, and strict measures were sharpening that impact on vulnerable populations.

The Finding the Balance report was developed by the Partnership for Evidence-Based Response to Covid-19 (PERC), which includes the Africa CDC, WHO, and the World Economic Forum.
A doctor has suggested medics treating the bubonic plague in the 17th century were given more protection than NHS staff tackling coronavirus.

Dr Jon Orrell, a senior partner at Royal Crescent Surgery in Weymouth, Dorset, shared a video of his family members dressed in various styles of PPE.

In the clip, he showcases two variations of NHS PPE, a 'basic' set and an 'enhanced' set, before asking viewers to 'look back over the years' to a third person dressed as a plague doctor.

The early modern example wears a long, full overcoat with a wide-brimmed hat and a pointed mask with glass eye openings and a beak shaped nose.

Dr Jon Orrell (middle), a senior partner at Royal Crescent Surgery in Weymouth, Dorset, shared a video of his family members dressed in various styles of PPE

This protective ensemble, thought to be designed by Charles de Lorme, would have been worn by physicians during the Great Plague of London between 1665 and 1666, which was the last major epidemic of bubonic plague to hit the UK.

The characteristic beak would have been stuffed with sweet smelling herbs which were at the time believed to ward off diseases.

In the footage, Dr Orrell then turns back to the second example, who is wearing the PPE standard recommended by the World Health Organisation, and says: 'We need real PPE, like this one.'

The medic said he decided to make the video as he wanted to highlight the problems NHS staff are facing at work.

In the clip, he showcases two variations of NHS PPE, a 'basic' set (left) and an 'enhanced' set (middle), before asking viewers to 'look back over the years' to a third person dressed as a plague doctor (right)

The medieval example wears a long, full overcoat with a wide-brimmed hat and a pointed mask with glass eye openings and a beak shaped nose

Plague doctors thought beaked masks containing lavender would protect them Plague doctors wore long, ankle-length overcoats and beak-like masks filled with herbs they believed would protect them from airborne diseases. They also wore gloves, boots and a wide-brimmed hats as they treated bubonic plague patients in the 17th century. Historians believe the ensemble was designed in 1619 by Charles de Lorme, who was the personal physician to several members of the French royal family between 1610 and 1650. It is thought he came up with the idea for head-to-toe clothing for doctors caring for plague patients from a soldier's armour. Advertisement

He said: 'I have 30 years experience and and this is like nothing we have seen before. Like everyone else I'm having to change the way I work to stay safe.

'I was slightly joking, saying that they were better protected in medieval times, but that is the basic level of PPE given to GPs and most hospital carers.

'The one in the middle is used in intensive care and around the rest of the world.

'If you look at reports from other countries that's what they are using and that is the WHO standards.

'We need to make sure that the front line is protected and get our PPE up to the level of the WHO recommendations.

'The masks we are given will protect you from coughing but not from sneezing or droplets in the air.'

The video, which has been viewed thousands of times, came after police identified a mystery figure going for walks in Norwich while dressed as a plague doctor.

Pictured: Medieval plague doctor (left) covered in clothing from head to toe, including a mask and a hat. 'Basic NHS PPE' (right) is shown in a gown, mask and gloves but with bare skin clearly visible

'I was slightly joking, saying that they were better protected in medieval times, but that is the basic level of PPE given to GPs and most hospital carers,' Dr Orrell said

The video, which has been viewed thousands of times, came after police identified a mystery figure going for walks in Norwich while dressed as a plague doctor (pictured)

Officers revealed last week they were hunting the sinister figure in a long black coat, hat and a pointed beak mask who had been spotted in Hellesdon.

He has now been identified by officers as a boy in his late teens and has been given a warning about about his behaviour.

Villagers had complained that many people, including local children, had been scared by the regular appearance of the macabre joker since lockdown started.

A Norfolk Police spokeswoman said: 'The individual has been spoken to about the consequences of his actions and the effects they may have on some people in the local community. He was given words of advice as a result.'
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On two occasions in April 2020, the Mexican federal Interior Secretariat issued warnings to news outlets over their coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and threatened to file administrative sanctions against them.

The secretariat issued the first warning on April 15, in a letter calling on the El Diario de Juarez and El Diario de Chihuahua newspapers not to spread false information about the pandemic.

The letter followed an April 14 report, published on the front pages of both newspapers, which belong to the same publishing company, about alleged government misreporting of pandemic deaths, which featured a photo of a room full of body bags.

The Mexican Institute for Social Security, a state body that operates a hospital in Ciudad Juarez cited in the article, denied the allegations the same day in a statement. The institute statement and news reports alleged that the photo included in the article was actually from Ecuador.

The Diario papers published a story later that day acknowledging that the photo was not taken in Mexico, but did not retract the news story.

In its April 15 statement, the Interior Secretariat said it would explore the possibility of applying further measures beyond the letter asking the papers not to spread false information, without specifying what those might be or which laws may be invoked.

One day later, however, the secretariat said in an additional statement that it would not proceed with any sanctions, citing instructions from Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The secretariat issued its second warning on April 18 in a statement addressing the privately owned broadcaster TV Azteca.

The statement alleged that anchor Javier Alatorres criticism that day of Federal Undersecretary for Public Health Hugo Lopez-Gatell, who leads the governments COVID-19 taskforce, violated citizens constitutional right to health by casting doubt on official data.

In his broadcast, Alatorre had asked his audience to no longer listen to [Lopez-Gatell], and alleged that the undersecretary had provided statistics to the public that did not match those given by some local officials, and therefore had become irrelevant.

In its statement, the secretariat said it had ordered TV Azteca to drop this line of criticism against Lopez-Gatell, and said that it would apply an administrative sanction to the broadcaster if it continued, without specifying what that sanction might be or which law would apply.

CPJ called the Interior Secretariat multiple times for comment, but no one answered the phone.
Over 1,000 migrant workers arrived Lucknow on Tuesday morning in a special train from Maharashtra's Akola district where they were stranded due to the coronavirus lockdown.

On Monday, over 3,000 labourers stuck in Maharashtra were brought to Uttar Pradesh in three special trains. On Sunday, over 2,000 workers arrived from Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Uttar Pradesh State Roadways Transport Corporation MD Raj Shekhar said 54 buses were deployed to take 1,195 Akola workers to districts of Jalaun, Kannauj, Allahabad, Farrukhabad, Kanpur, Gorakhpur and Jaunpur on Tuesday.

Earlier briefing reporters here, Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Information) Awanish Awasthi had said so far, nearly 65,000 labourers and students have been brought to the state or sent to other places.

Over 10 trains have brought labourers from other states to UP, he said.

Awasthi said UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has told them that in coming days, Indians stranded abroad are likely to return, for which screening and quarantine facilities should be ensured.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
McDonald's Australia has reduced the price of its iconic McFlurry dessert to just $2.

The dessert was added to the chain's value range last month.

The offer runs from 10.30am until midnight until May 13 across the country, excluding Western Australia.

McDonald's Australia have reduced the price of their iconic McFlurry dessert to just $2

All flavours - including Cadbury Creme Egg and Oreo - are included in the offer.

Mobile delivery and ordering are excluded from the deal.

McFlurrys typically retail for $5.

Social media users were shocked by the offer.

'I went and got four last night without knowing they were $2 each,' one person said.

Another said: 'Yep, my fat a** didn't need this, ordered way too many of these this week.'

The offer is run from 10.30am until midnight until May 13 across the country, excluding Western Australia

A third said: 'I wish I knew three hours ago when I was there.'

Staff said not many have taken advantage of the offer despite it being advertised on television.

'We always talk about how no-one seems to knows that the $2 McFlurry deal exists,' one worker told 7NEWS.com.au.

'Considering that they're normally just under $5, that's a big saving.'
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GARDAI have issued a warning about a so called romance fraud after a large sum of money was withdrawn from a Limerick womans bank account.

The womans, whose aged in her 40s, developed an online relationship with the man last September and they remained in contact until recently.

He claimed to be living in America. They exchanged phone calls and online contact many times in the past seven months and at one stage this lady loaned him a sum of money which she willingly transferred from her bank account to his, said divisional crime prevention officer Sergeant Ber Leetch.

In recent weeks the man told the woman that he wanted to pay her back so she gave him her bank details.

She subsequently received contact from her bank to say that she was overdrawn, that her bank account was empty. The lady hadnt heard from her American friend in a while and now she cannot contact or trace him at all, added Sgt Leetch.

Gardai say its possible that such individuals can have several romances on the go at at one time and they are appealing to anyone who is targeted to report the incident to them.

Gardai are always very grateful to people who report these types of frauds as it gives me the opportunity to caution others. Unfortunately it occurs frequently with both men and women caught out. Again the advice remains the same, do not give your bank details to anybody and be very very suspicious if somebody asks you for them, said Sgt Leetch.
1 A Former Governor Destroyed His Successor Over A Fountain

William Donald Schaefer was the mayor of Baltimore for longer than a lot of Cracked readers have been alive. He moved up to governor and later comptroller of the State of Maryland. He was the kind of politician who would strongarm you one moment, then jump into the seal pool wearing a striped swimsuit and carrying a rubber ducky the next.

He was in the governor's mansion for eight years, which is plenty of time for some redecorating. In charge of all that was Schaefer's longtime companion and official hostess, Hilda Mae Snoops, with whom Schaefer had commissioned a fountain fountain designed and built with private funds for the grounds of the governor's mansion. In a delightfully tacky tribute to his state, it featured orioles, crabs, and probably boxes of Old Bay. Schaefer dedicated the fountain to Snoops after her death in 1999, the same year he moved up to state comptroller. The new governor, Parris Glendening, wasn't a Schaefer fan for various boring political reasons, so he hit him where it hurt: right in the fountain. Under the guise of "saving water" during a drought in Maryland, he shut off the water to Hilda's fountain. He was about to learn that people who live in glass houses shouldn't disrespect memorial water features. We're pretty sure that's the idiom.

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You see, Glendening was in the midst of an adulterous relationship with his Deputy Chief of Staff, Jennifer Crawford. In fact, she was pregnant with his child at the time. Schaefer knew that, so in revenge, he circulated a letter to the press, spilling the deets. He even called Crawford the "big boss" of Glendening's office. The revelation forced a shotgun wedding (and divorce) on the premises of the governor's mansion, presumably in sight of said fountain, which was turned back on when Glendening lost the governorship in 2003. At the turning-back-on ceremony, which was absolutely a thing, Schaefer said he thought only of two things: how much he loved Hilda, and how much he still hated Parris Glendening.

Top image: Unsplash/Jim Reardan
Help India!

By Naazish Hussain, TwoCircles.net

NEW DELHI: The suspension of Twitter accounts of Muslim activists and students by Twitter India has drawn sharp criticism and condemnation from the community.

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Activists and students TwoCiricles.net spoke with raised concern over the matter.

Following the suspension of accounts, a Twitter storm was also initiated to pressurise Twitter India to restore the accounts, which the activists have termed as discriminatory and arbitrary.

The twitter storm going by the hashtag #RestoreMaskoorUsmani, was trending on May 3.

Many activists and students participated in the Twitter storm urging Twitter India to restore the suspended account.

Maskoor Usmani is a former Aligarh Muslim University Student Union (AMUSU) President whose Twitter handle was suspended on May 2 after he had criticized the arrest of Safoora Zargar, a research scholar from Jamia.

They dont arrest pregnant women even in war zones. But Delhi Police has arrested @SafooraZargar, a Jamia student who is pregnant under false charge and a draconian UAPA, Usmani had tweeted.

Calling the suspension an attempt to curb free speech and silence critical voices, Maskoor told TwoCircles.net that the recent developments in India specifically in the socio-political domain are an alarming state of nature.

The catastrophe of hate and hate-mongering against one community has taken to the helm of Indian politics. It is astounding to read the news headlines and the repercussions of taking freedom of speech into the real spirit of constitutionalism. This shall present the distorted images of large-hearted tolerance, secularism and a republic state that is India, he said.

In another instance, Twitter suspended the account of AMU student Mohammed Farrukh Ilyas, a final year graduate student of political science.

Ilyas told TwoCircles.net that it was on May 2 that he found out that his Twitter handle had been suspended.

On May 2 at around 8 p.m. I logged into my Twitter account. When I tried to like a tweet, suddenly pop up notification said that my account has been suspended, Ilyas said.

Ilyas said that he mostly posts his articles and comments on law, justice and the policy of the government on his Twitter handle.

Ilyas started tweeting in 2014.

Appalled by the suspension, Ilyas said that, There are some provisions and you have to give notice to the person if something has gone wrong, adding, but when you directly throttle a voice, it goes against the fundamental right to speech and freedom.

Ilyas called his suspension the arbitrary use of power to curb freedom of speech.

To get his account back, Farrukh appealed to Twitter stating the authenticity of his identity and the history of the nature of his tweets.

Ilyas said that he has not received any response. His twitter handle remains suspended. Where do I go now? I have appealed many times but they have not responded yet, he said.

Ilyas terms the suspension of his account discriminatory and Islamophobic.

They dont want individuals from a particular community speaking about policies, law, justice, and rationalism. They dont want them to speak on nation and development. This platform does not encourage individual from a particular community to come at the front and speak, he says.

For the former president of AMUSU Usmani, this is a new pattern of massacring dissenters and the voices that have questions for the government and its policies.

Commenting on the arbitrary nature of the suspension, Usmani says,

They did not give any prior notice and directly suspended the account. Only after the Twitter storm #RestoreMaskoorUsmani, trended on May 3, Twitter India finally sent a mail to me asking about the details of my identity, which I sent.

My account has not been restored yet, he added.

Usmani received another mail from Twitter with guidelines on how to avoid trolls and abusive comments. Calling it ridiculous, Usmani says, It is not my job to list out abusive people and block them on Twitter. Twitter should make its platform safe. I am not blocking anyone.

A student leader from Jawahar Lal Nehru (JNU) Afreen Fatima views the suspension of Twitter handles of dissidents and Muslim voices with suspicion.

Fatima refers to a report published in Amar Ujala on 3 May 2020.

According to the report, BJP state legislative member Dr Manvendra Pratap Singh and BJP leader Dr Nishit Sharma, who is also a former student of AMU met the senior superintendent of police, Aligarh.

The reports said that Nishit Sharma complained about AMU students and ex-students use of social media to tarnish the image of India and targeting the Hindu employees in Arab countries. He asked the SP to take strict actions against it and to investigate the connections with Pakistans secret agencies and terror organizations. Manvendra had said that many suspicious Twitter handles relating to Pakistani intelligence agency ISI have been suspended by Twitter. The Superintendent of Police had assured that complaint is being investigated.

Any account posting such false claims would be suspended or blocked and strict action would be taken against users, the news report quoted the police as saying.

Fatima says it is very upsetting that we cant even speak out for what we feel bad about.

Speaking against one government is not speaking against India. The government is not India, she says.

Fatima had earlier taken to Twitter to condemn Twitter India for suspension of accounts of Muslim scholars and activists.

Because of the lockdown, people are not able to extend physical solidarities. The only solidarity we are extending right now is through online means like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Through this we are making people aware of what is happening, she said.
Ranveer Singh, Vicky Kaushal, Bhumi Pednekar and Kareena Kapoor Khan were scheduled to spend their summer in Italy in elaborative garments. They were expected to engaging in dialogue-heavy walk-and-talks and sword-fighting during the shoot of their ambitious project Takht.

But then came the coronavirus, and now its been nearly two months since production halted in Bollywood, and Takht's director Karan Johar, like the rest of the Indian film industry, has been waiting out the quiet days of uncertainty.

Will the film crews be back to shooting anytime soon? We spoke to more than half a dozen experts in the business to find out.

"Even if the lockdown restrictions are lifted, there's going to be an issue of social distancing," said director-writer Krishna DK, whose credits include Go Goa Gone, Stree and Family Man.

"There will always be a lot of restrictions that will come into play and making a film requires a lot of people to be on the sets together. One of the possibilities that can happen is how you could have a limited number of crew or you could set regulations in place for the crew."

DK revealed that unofficial talks were being held among industry creatives to "put actors and crews in quarantine for the period of the shoot."

"All these are solutions but nothing's been fixed yet. All these solution also may work for a smaller film or easy-to-produce film, but if it's a large film with a lot of people, action and big sets then it's a problem," he added.

Production may resume for smaller-scale movies that can be made with leaner crews, tightly controlled sets and minimal outdoor shoots, according to DK and director Hansal Mehta.

"In the near future after the lockdown, it looks like the films that can be shot with smaller crews can potentially take off, but any big film with big ambitions will probably have to wait for a few more months," DK noted.

"My kind of films will be easier to make in these times because I'd like to work with limited crews," said Mehta, while interacting with fans on Facebook.

"Shahid was made with a crew of 15 people. CityLights was made with a crew of 30 people. So, I long to return to that kind of filmmaking. I think circumstances dictate that I return to my roots as an independent filmmaker."

Hansal Mehta on the sets of Aligarh.

Mehta is aware that it remains a daydream until a set of preventive guidelines is instituted to make sure that on-set work is safer.

"Sweden and Denmark have recently released guidelines for shooting (as both countries have started seeing the virus recede). There are many standard protocols that have to be followed on a film set there. There are also restrictions on certain kind of scenes that you shoot. For instance, big spectacle scenes that require huge amount of crews are not possible. So, we have to develop those protocols. I don't know when the shooting will start but I hope it begins quickly as it's affecting many livelihoods," Mehta said.

Among other significant ideas being considered include taking crew members temperatures before they enter a film set, said actor Rohit Roy, who finished the shoot of Sanjay Gupta's Mumbai Saga, just days before the nationwide lockdown was announced.

"There is no realistic date as to when the industry will be back because the road forward is absolutely unclear in terms of when the lockdown will eventually get over and what phases it will get over in, especially in Maharashtra.

"Having said that, we all are very eager to get back on the sets but we have to make sure of exactly how and how long to maintain social distancing. Because even if we were to reduce the number of people on a film set by, say 30 per cent, we would still be over 100 people on every shooting floor. So, the internal discussion basically is to make sure that nobody who is remotely either symptomatic or has mild fever will be allowed to come on sets. Everyone will be tested before they are allowed onto a set. There will be infrared in place to make sure that nobody with fever is allowed on sets. These are steps which have been thought of. But I seriously doubt that we will start working before June," he added.

Actor Aparshakti Khurana, whose back-to-back shoots have been hit in unprecedented ways due to the pandemic, is, however, optimistic that larger productions can come back by the end of August.

"When I see ourselves going out and working in full swing is really a tough call to make right now. But at least to start work with a basic strength is maybe in August. I was scheduled to shoot the entire April and May and these were films from big production houses. Although they have already mailed that they are looking to resuming from August 25. And, I think we have a fair amount of time to deal with things by then," Khurana said.

Echoing a similar sentiment, film producer Tanuj Garg said, "Right now the primary agenda is to figure when it will be viable to resume shoots. Looks like August or September but we'll have to wait and watch. Once we know that, then the precautionary measures, so long as they're viable, can be figured."

Whereas, filmmaker Homi Adajania's optimistic projections are for April 2021.

"I cant imagine shooting with the most contagious virus know to us looming around, so I guess shoots will resume once a proven vaccine is implemented. A film shoot is a mix of a large number of people from all areas so how can anyone figure who each person is exposed to and whether the virus is incubating inside anyone. Taking all this into consideration, a very optimist estimate one can arrive at would be April 2021.

"Meanwhile a lot of content is being developed for various OTT as that is and will be consumed more. Also I feel stripping down of teams and doing a lot more work by collaborating through the net, like it already is, will happen," said Adajania, whose Angrezi Medium was re-released digitally due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Other precautions are being considered, such as mandating that all auditions take place online or via self-tape.

"We did depend on a lot of self tapes while casting before the lockdown but I guess it will now be called the new normal," said casting director Nandini Shrikent, who has worked on several critically-acclaimed films like Talaash, Tumhari Sulu, Gully Boy and Thappad.

"We are not calling people for in-person auditions. We are also not going to start walk-in auditions for at least six-seven months until the time things are not absolutely normal. We are only doing online auditions. Self-taping is the only option," noted casting director Mukesh Chhabra, before adding, "What sense I'm getting from people in the industry is that the things are not going to start before September or October."

The sudden onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic is also likely to intrude in cinematic narratives that are going to be depicted in the coming years, Badhaai Ho writer Akshat Ghildial said.

"I think what is going to majorly affect people is the recession that's looming large. That's also going to affect the kind of films that are going to be made. Everything that happens around you pretty much governs the kind of films that are made. I have heard enough stories about how film noir came out of World War II when the American soldiers got back and they realised that this wasn't the country that they left behind.

"Since this has been such a major event in everyone's lives, it sure will have an impact on the kind of stories and narratives that are going to be told. There might also be just a little more emphasis on making more comedies," he said.

Additionally, makeup artistes and hair dressers, who are required to be around actors and touch them, will probably have to work without assistants.

"Shoots in the future will probably have super tight teams, so it will be important to know that the novelty of having a big entourage and assistants wont be a possibility," said celebrity makeup artiste Pompy Hans, who has enlivened the features of A-list Bollywood actresses like Kareena Kapoor Khan and Alia Bhatt.

"It will be important for people to be a master at everything, resourcefulness and efficiency is what you will be evaluated against. From a safety standpoint, it will be important to keep your products and tools sanitised. Future gamechangers in Bollywood or any other industry will be people who are conscientious with their buying decisions as sustainable brands will be key going forward. As a consumer and professional, one will need to ensure that they clean up their mess/workstation, learn to buy what is truly necessary and dont get into peoples faces and boundaries," Pompy concluded.
Security workers in Northern Ireland may be reluctant to download a new contact-tracing app over fears their personal details could be compromised, a former Special Branch officer has warned. (stock photo)

Security workers in Northern Ireland may be reluctant to download a new contact-tracing app over fears their personal details could be compromised, a former Special Branch officer has warned.

On Monday NHS bosses urged the public to use the smartphone app when it is made available UK-wide to help ease lockdown measures and save lives.

Testing on the app started on the Isle of Wight this week as a key part of the government's test, track and trace strategy.

Developed by NHSX, the health service's tech innovation arm, the app will use Bluetooth to anonymously monitor and log when app users come into contact with each other. The government hopes to begin a national rollout following the trial.

Users will input into the app when they have symptoms linked to Covid-19 and, if the virus is suspected, they can then choose to share the proximity logs - the list of occasions the app detected contact with other users during the last 28 days - with the NHS.

However, concerns have been raised about whether former and serving security workers in Northern Ireland would feel uneasy about using the app.

In the past, retired and serving RUC and PSNI officers have had to move house under threat.

Last week the PSNI began an investigation after pensions correspondence to 300 former PSNI officers went missing before later being located.

Dr William Matchett, an ex-Special Branch officer and now an author, said retired officers may be cautious about downloading the app.

"I guess it's a case of how tightly this is controlled," he said.

"I think there are concerns in this, because the government does have your data and they're tying you down to your house, all of your habits. So essentially it's another aspect that can be breached or broken into."

Stressing that he is not familiar with the technology, he added that any system is always "open to being hacked".

"When you have anything online... if it's in the ether so to speak, then it can always be hacked," Dr Matchett explained.

His concerns were underlined by DUP councillor Kyle Black, whose prison officer father David was murdered by dissident republicans on the M1 in 2012.

Mr Black stressed that it is crucial all security protection measures have been taken by the government in producing the app.

"All prison and police officers in Northern Ireland have to take extra precautions about their personal security, and that includes online and through digital communication," he said.

"Whilst data on the app is recorded anonymously, it is important that it has been thoroughly security tested and that all agencies are content.

"It is important that in the best efforts to tackle the Covid-19 outbreak, other dangers are not inadvertently created."

However, former Assistant Chief Constable Alan McQuillan does not believe the app poses "a significant risk" here.

"The degree of technical sophistication that is required is beyond our paramilitaries at the moment," he explained.

"Quite simply, they wouldn't have the ability to do it."

He added that within the wider Northern Ireland population, uptake of the app "may be lower due to our past".

He added: "There are some privacy concerns. A lot of people here just don't trust the government."
Comedian Jim Gaffigan has signed on to play Toronto mayor Rob Ford in a new AMC limited series.

The series will be written and executive produced by Toronto native Jesse McKeown (The Sinner, Letterkenny, 19-2) and executive produced by Ed Helms, according to Variety.

Canadian filmmaker Michael Dowse (Stuber) is set to direct and produce, with Mike Falbo executive producing with Helms under their Pacific Electric Picture Company.

Jim as Rob: Comedian Jim Gaffigan has signed on to play Toronto mayor Rob Ford in a new AMC limited series

Rise and fall: While it isn't clear yet how many episodes the limited series will have, the dark comedy series will focus on the rise and fall of Ford

While it isn't clear yet how many episodes the limited series will have, the dark comedy series will focus on the rise and fall of Ford.

After serving as a Toronto city council member for 10 years, Ford was elected mayor of Toronto in 2010, despite a number of incidents involving drugs, alcohol and even domestic abuse.

He was elected to Toronto Cty Council in 2000, and while there were incidents in the past like a 1999 DUI arrest in Miami, Ford is believed to have spiraled starting in 2006 when his father passed away, when he started smoking crack in addition to his heavy drinking.

Mayor: After serving as a Toronto city council member for 10 years, Ford was elected mayor of Toronto in 2010, despite a number of incidents involving drugs, alcohol and even domestic abuse

He served as Toronto's mayor from 2010 to 2014, but his re-election campaign was essentially destroyed after a video surfaced of him smoking crack cocaine.

He ultimately withdrew from the election after the discovery of a tumor in his abdomen that was confirmed to be cancerous.

While he had a successful surgery to remove his abdomen tumor in 2015, another cancerous tumor was found growing on his bladder.

Video: He served as Toronto's mayor from 2010 to 2014, but his re-election campaign was essentially destroyed after a video surfaced of him smoking crack cocaine.

Ford passed away in March 2016 from Pleomorphic liposarcoma, at the age of 46, survived by his wife Renata Brejniak and their two children.

Ford was previously played by Damian Lewis in the film Run This Town, which debuted at South By Southwest Film Festival in 2019.

There is no indication if the series will be based on any specific source material about Ford's life or not.

Passed away: Ford passed away in March 2016 from Pleomorphic liposarcoma, at the age of 46, survived by his wife Renata Brejniak and their two children

Gaffigan is best known as a stand-up comedian, with a number of hit stand-up specials to his credit like his most recent, Quality Time, which is streaming on Amazon.

While comedy is certainly his strong suit, Gaffigan has been playing more dramatic roles of late, in movies such as Chappaquiddick, American Dreamer and Above the Shadows.

He'll next be seen as George Westinghouse in the biopic Tesla, which is currently slated for release in August, though due to COVID-19, that date may change.

Funnyman: Gaffigan is best known as a stand-up comedian, with a number of hit stand-up specials to his credit like his most recent, Quality Time, which is streaming on Amazon
ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- National PTA announced today that $1.5M in grants will be awarded to PTAs across the country to help meet critical needs of students, families, teachers and schools due to COVID-19. The funding is made possible by PTA Proud National Sponsors TikTok, Google, Bayer Fund, Mathnasium and Life360.

"COVID-19 has presented many challenges for families and schools. Now more than ever, PTAs nationwide are working hard to ensure our students, families and educators are safe, healthy and have what they needfocusing on social and emotional wellbeing, resources for distance teaching and learning, bridging the digital divide and addressing food insecurity," said Leslie Boggs, president of National PTA.

When most U.S. schools closed due to the pandemic, over 70 PTA grant recipients were scheduled to host sponsored family night programs, ranging from science festivals and math nights to Be Internet Awesome events.

"All of our sponsors impacted by this situation agreed to allow the grant money to be repurposed to meet immediate needs created by COVID-19. These companies really stepped up, and with this money, these PTAs will be able to make even more of a difference for their school communities during this time," added Boggs.

Collectively between TikTok, Google, Bayer Fund, Mathnasium and Life360, over $160,000 in sponsored program grants is being redirected immediately to address critical community needs.

Google, a founding sponsor of National PTA's PTA Connected initiative, was the first to agree to this pivot and also had the largest amount of grants pending in the field.

In addition to the grant money, TikTok has named National PTA as a beneficiary of its Community Relief Fund, donating $2M to the association. A significant portion of this funding will be granted in phases to district, council, region and local PTAs, with an application opening June 1.

"We understand the importance of continuing educational success for students who are physically away from the classroom and have been inspired to see students and teachers connecting on TikTok. We are grateful to our educators and the PTA for supporting critical K-12 programs for distance learning as well as addressing food insecurity, and hope our donation towards these needs will provide some relief to the families impacted by the COVID-19 crisis," said Eric Ebenstein, director of public policy at TikTok.

As another part of TikTok's Community Relief Fund effort, May 5which coincides with Teacher Appreciation Week and the global #GivingTuesdayNow campaignTikTok will be celebrating the critical work of educators and PTAs, including hosting livestreams with TikTok creators and encouraging donations by TikTok users to National PTA. The company has pledged to match up to $10M in donations by TikTok users to National PTA and a handful of other chosen beneficiaries through May 27.

National PTA has also kicked off a "family video challenge" on the TikTok app to encourage families to show how they are learning during this time of school closures using the hashtag #AlwaysLearning and apply TikTok's new Donation Sticker to their videos to allow viewers to make donations to the association within the TikTok app.

In addition to providing the funding to PTAs and school communities, National PTA launched a comprehensive webpage at PTA.org/COVID-19 with resources, tools and information to support families and educators amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The association has also focused several episodes of its Notes from the Backpack podcast on topics of concern for families due to COVID-19. Further, National PTA has been advocating for access and support for families and schools for online learning, access to school meals, funding for family engagement, and fiscal and policy relief for state and local education agencies.

"COVID-19 has had a significant impact on families and our nation's education system," said Nathan R. Monell, CAE, National PTA executive director. "National PTA and PTAs across the country remain committed to supporting and advocating for students, families, schools and communities in this time of crisis."

About National PTA

National PTA comprises millions of families, students, teachers, administrators, and business and community leaders devoted to the educational success of children and the promotion of family engagement in schools. PTA is a registered 501(c) (3) nonprofit association that prides itself on being a powerful voice for all children, a relevant resource for families and communities, and a strong advocate for public education. Membership in PTA is open to anyone who wants to be involved and make a difference for the education, health and welfare of children and youth. For more information, visit PTA.org.

SOURCE National PTA

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ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey will start easing coronavirus containment measures as of Monday, President Tayyip Erdogan said, lifting intercity travel restriction in seven provinces and easing a curfew imposed for senior and youth citizens at the weekend after weeks. Turkey has around 130,000 confirmed cases, the highest total outside Western Europe, the United States and Russia

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey will start easing coronavirus containment measures as of Monday, President Tayyip Erdogan said, lifting intercity travel restriction in seven provinces and easing a curfew imposed for senior and youth citizens at the weekend after weeks.

Turkey has around 130,000 confirmed cases, the highest total outside Western Europe, the United States and Russia. Ankara has rolled out measures to contain the outbreak, but Erdogan said on Monday Turkey would start easing them in May, June and July as the spreading pace begun slowing over the past two weeks.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting, Erdogan said senior and youth citizens will be allowed outside for 4 hours for one day a week starting this weekend and that travel restrictions would be lifted for seven cities, excluding Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.

He said shopping malls, barber shops and some stores will be allowed to open on May 11 as long as they abide by normalisation rules, adding that universities would return to their academic calendar as of June 15. But, Erdogan warned that the government would impose much harsher measures if the normalisation plan is not followed.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Jonathan Spicer)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
A huge swathe of coronavirus documents used by the Government to battle to pandemic have yet to be published to avoid 'unnecessary confusion' of the public, the Government claimed today.

Some 16 documents from Special Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) meetings since February were released this morning, taking the total to 28.

But according to a Government-supplied list it leaves more than 90 that remain secret.

They include advise for ministers on stopping flights from certain countries, on when to stop contact tracing, and another on the impact of school closures.

The list also includes unpublished documents on the use of face masks, the risk of pets passing on the virus, and advice on restricting flights from specific countries.

These are all highly contentious issues as the death toll mounts and the Government seeks a way out of the current lockdown.

Additionally, some of the documents released today included heavily redacted pages, including one on how to relax lockdown measures.

But according to a Government-supplied list more than 90 that remain secret after 16 were revealed today

The issue of school closures was raised at the daily coronavirus press conference tonight with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab saying: 'We have asked Sage to look at different options'

Additionally, some of the documents released today included heavily redacted pages, including one on how to relax lockdown measures

Other secret documents of scientific evidence that helped shape the Government's response to the crisis were released today. They revealed:

Ministers were warned lifting the coronavirus lockdown and then reimposing restrictions later would be seen by the public as a 'serious failure of policy';

A traffic light system could be used to explain to the public the new rules when lockdown is eased, according to behavioural experts;

Scientists urged the government to tell people to stop shaking hands the same day Boris Johnson was boasting about shaking hands with 'everybody';

Officials were told employers could shun workers who have not had COVID-19 after lockdown, prompting people to actively try to catch the disease.

The issue of school closures was raised at the daily coronavirus press conference tonight with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab saying reopening all schools at once would lead to a 'very real risk' of the infection rate rising, creating the possibility of a second peak.

'The crucial bit for us is the five tests and the risk of a second spike in relation to any new changes that we would make and that must of course included schools,' he said.

'We have asked Sage to look at different options, I don't think it's binary.

'At least to date the evidence has been that we wouldn't be able to open up all schools without a very real risk that the R rate - the transmission rate - would rise at such a level that we would risk a second spike.

'We have asked Sage for the options on this and we will, as ever, continue to be guided by the scientific advice we get.'

The Prime Minister's official spokesman told reporters today: 'We will publish all of the evidence in the coming weeks and months.

'Some evidence remains under live considerations for policy decisions being made by Government and as such it wouldn't be appropriate to publish at this time.

'Releasing policy still under formulation could cause unnecessary confusion for the public at a time when clear guidance is the top priority

'Other documents that have been considered will be published in organised tranches once they have all the relevant permissions and are OK to be in the public domain.'

The SAGE files: At least 12 different strains of coronavirus were circulating in the UK in March - including one that has only ever been found in Britain, Government-funded study finds At least a dozen different strains of coronavirus were spreading through the UK in March, a Government-funded study has found. Leading genetic scientists analysed the genomes of the killer virus in 260 infected patients from all corners of the UK. They say they have identified 12 unique lines of the virus, one of which has only ever been found in Britain  meaning it mutated on UK soil. But the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK) said the number of strains is very likely substantially higher due to under-sampling in the UK. The scientists say most of the strains were imported from Italy and Spain, the worst-hit countries in the world at the time the research was carried out. There is no suggestion that any of the strains are any more potent or infectious than another, infectious disease experts say. Professor Paul Hunter, at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline it is 'entirely plausible' this could happen to one of the strains if it continues to evolve. The report, made public today, was given to the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) in March to help them map the outbreak's spread. Advertisement

The Sage Files: UK scientists believe that coronavirus cases in China are TEN TIMES higher than claimed - as communist state's ambassador warns Tory MPs their criticism of the Beijing regime could 'poison' relations

China underplayed the scale of the coronavirus outbreak and may have suffered ten times as many cases as it has confirmed, documents released today suggest.

Documents released today from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) show that UK scientists believed that the number of cases was vastly higher than admitted by Beijing.

They do not accuse the authoritarian regime of lying but the revelation in Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) minutes released today will fuel claims that China has questions to answer over its handling of the outbreak.

It also suggests that deaths from the outbreak in China could be many times higher than the 4,300 so far admitted to.

In the US, President Donald Trump is blaming China for covering-up the lethality of coronavirus and colluding with the WHO to let it spread around the world while Beijing saved face.

Trump and his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also say they have seen 'overwhelming' evidence that the virus was accidentally leaked from a lab near Wuhan.

A raft of documents from Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) meetings over the past few months on coronavirus were released today.

Chinese ambassador in the UK Lui Xiaoming warned Tory MPs critical of his regime that ongoing animosity could 'poison' Sino-British relations

It came as the Chinese ambassador in the UK Lui Xiaoming warned Tory MPs critical of his regime that their ongoing animosity could 'poison' Sino-British relations.

Speaking in a China-Britain Business Council webinar today, he said: 'Such talks are a political virus.

'If they go unchecked they'll poison UK-China relations and even international solidarity.'

He insisted that the outbreak in his country was 'under control'.

Afterwards the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'We have continued to work with all of our international partners including China on the global response to this pandemic.

'The First Secretary of State (Dominic Raab) has also talked about the fact that once this response is over there are questions that need to be answered about the origin and the spread of the virus.'

A raft of documents from Sage meetings over the past few months on coronavirus were released today.

They included a statement from a sub-committee on modelling contagious disease outbreaks on February 3.

The Defence Secretary Ben Wallace yesterday reignited the war of words over whether China suppressed information about the virus

It noted: 'The number of confirmed cases of 2019-nCoV in China is estimated to be at least 10 times higher than the number currently confirmed.'

Downing Street has said China has 'questions to answer' over the outbreak and many Try MPs have voiced their own anger.

The Defence Secretary Ben Wallace yesterday reignited the war of words over whether China suppressed information about the virus - whose first cases were reported in Wuhan - which prevented other countries from taking steps to save more lives.

It came as Donald Trump's US administration scaled up its rhetoric over Chinese culpability, with the president accusing the communist state of a cover-up after making a 'horrible mistake'.

The SAGE files: Government science experts warned ministers 'immunity certificates' mean firms could discriminate against those who haven't had coronavirus - and desperate workers could TRY to get infected

Employers could shun workers who have not had coronavirus after lockdown, prompting people to actively try to catch the disease, the government's science experts warned ministers.

Secret documents prepared by the independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) last month outlined the potential drawbacks of introducing widespread antibody testing and so-called 'immunity certificates'.

Such tests would show if someone has had the disease and if they have some degree of immunity with accompanying digital certificates then showing employers the health status of staff.

Antibody tests are viewed as one of the key pieces in the puzzle when it comes to getting the UK back to work.

But SPI-B, a sub-committee of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), said introducing the tests could result in people trying to 'game' the system.

The documents suggest workers who do not have antibodies could be discriminated against, effectively creating two classes of employee, with those who have had the disease prized because of a belief that they will not get ill again.

Those who are antibody negative could then turn to trying to obtain fake test results or even trying to get ill on purpose to boost their chances of returning to work.

Meanwhile, the documents also warned positive tests could result in people wrongly thinking they no longer need to wash their hands, risking an increase in the transmission of the disease.

Those who are antibody negative could also be too afraid to leave home and could refuse to return to work, the group said.

The warnings about antibody testing came as separate documents showed scientists were urging Boris Johnson to tell people to stop shaking hands on the same day that he boasted he was still shaking hands with 'everybody'.

Newly-released records on the advice given to the government as the coronavirus crisis erupted show Mr Johnson seemingly flouted the recommendations from his own experts.

A meeting of the behavioural group that feeds into SAGE on March 3 concluded that 'Government should advise against greetings such as shaking hands and hugging, given existing evidence about the importance of hand hygiene'.

Boris Johnson, pictured in St James' Park this morning, was warned by the government's science experts that antibody testing and 'immunity certificates' could have unintended negative consequences

Mr Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock have relied heavily on advice from Professor Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance during the crisis. The four are pictured in Downing Street on March 12

Scientists advised against shaking hands on same day Boris Johnson said he was still shaking hands with 'everybody' Scientists were urging Boris Johnson to tell people to stop shaking hands the same day the PM was boasting about shaking hands with 'everybody', it was revealed today. Newly-released records on the advice given to the government as the coronavirus crisis erupted show Mr Johnson seemingly flouted the recommendations from his own experts. A meeting of the behavioural group that feeds into SAGE on March 3 concluded that 'Government should advise against greetings such as shaking hands and hugging, given existing evidence about the importance of hand hygiene'. 'A public message against shaking hands has additional value as a signal about the importance of hand hygiene,' the Independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) said. 'Promoting a replacement greeting or encouraging others to politely decline a proffered hand-shake may have benefit.' However, that evening Mr Johnson told a press conference in Downing Street that he 'continued to shake hands' and the important thing was washing them. He said: 'I was at a hospital the other night where I think there were a few coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody, you will be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands. 'People obviously can make up their own minds but I think the scientific evidence is our judgement is that washing your hands is the crucial thing.' Advertisement

A mass-produced antibody test which is accurate enough to be rolled out at a national level is yet to be identified by any country in the world.

But the UK government is hoping for a breakthrough in the near future with the tests viewed as one of the keys to getting Britain back to work.

Ministers are in talks with tech firms about developing an 'immunity certificate' app which would show if someone has been tested and if they have coronavirus antibodies.

The SPI-B committee was tasked with examining the potential negative outcomes of introducing antibody testing.

Documents written on April 13 and finally published today show such a regime could have devastating unintended consequences.

The experts warned that 'some employers may discriminate on the basis of antibody status'.

That could include not allowing people who have tested negative to return to work or only hiring people who are antibody positive.

The group said that could prompt people to try to cheat the system or to try to catch coronavirus.

The experts wrote: 'If a test result is a requirement for a resumption of work, a range of strategies to "game" the system may arise.

'These include people deliberately seeking out infection or attempting to purchase a fake test result, commercial organisations selling unapproved tests, or approved tests becoming available through private organisations at prices that make them unavailable to most.'

Meanwhile, those workers who have not had coronavirus could be too afraid to go outside, reducing their social contact to unhealthy levels, and some could simply refuse to return to work.

The group said: 'It is possible that people told they have not yet had the virus may feel more vulnerable and wish to avoid specific activities at work that pose a risk to their health, or seek to avoid attendance at work entirely.'

The group also expressed major concerns that positive tests could drastically alter people's behaviour.

Those who have tested positive for antibodies may wrongly 'believe they have no chance of becoming infected with COVID-19 in the future'.

That means that if they developed the key symptoms of a cough or fever they may not think they need to self-isolate, increasing the risk of infecting others.

Experts: More than 12 coronavirus strains were spreading across UK in March At least a dozen different strains of coronavirus were spreading through the UK in March, a Government-funded study has found. Leading genetic scientists analysed the genomes of the killer virus in 260 infected patients from all corners of the UK. They say they have identified 12 unique lines of the virus, one of which has only ever been found in Britain  meaning it mutated on UK soil. But the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK) said the number of strains is very likely substantially higher due to under-sampling in the UK. The scientists say most of the strains were imported from Italy and Spain, the worst-hit countries in the world at the time the research was carried out. There is no suggestion that any of the strains are any more potent or infectious than another, infectious disease experts say. Advertisement

People who test positive could also stop washing their hands, the scientists said, which would also boost transmission.

Scientists are yet to determine with 100 per cent certainty whether people who have had coronavirus have a high level of resistance to the disease. They are also trying to establish whether that immunity could wane over time. But total immunity has already been ruled out.

The SPI-B group also raised concerns about the accuracy of the tests and the potential for people to be given a false sense of protection.

For example, if five per cent of tests were actually incorrect then thousands of workers could wrongly believe they are safe from the disease.

This would have particularly bad consequences if people with positive antibody tests decided to volunteer for high coronavirus exposure jobs, the group said.

'Some testing Antibody Positive may actively volunteer to take on activities at work with high exposure to COVID-19,' the experts said.

'This might include customer-facing roles or tasks within health or social care that involve greater contact with COVID-19 patients.

'This would be particularly problematic if the test result was incorrect.'
A masked local resident (2nd L) has her temperature checked as people line up to buy face masks from vending machines at the Xinyi District Health Center in Taipei, Taiwan, on April 14, 2020. (Sam Yeh /AFP via Getty Images)

Taiwan Tells WHO That China Has No Right to Represent It

TAIPEI, TaiwanOnly Taiwans democratically elected government can represent its people on the world stage, not China, its foreign ministry said on May 5, calling on the World Health Organization (WHO) to cast off Chinas control during the CCP virus pandemic.

Taiwans exclusion from WHO, because of objections by the regime in Beijing that considers the island to be one of its provinces, has infuriated Taipei, which says this has created a dangerous gap in the global fight against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as the novel coronavirus.

While Taiwan has been lobbying to attend, as an observer, this months meeting of the WHOs decision-making body, the World Health Assembly (WHA), government and diplomatic sources say China will block the move.

Taiwans Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung gestures during a press conference at the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Taipei, Taiwan, on March 11, 2020. (Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images)

The WHO has recognized the Peoples Republic of China as the one legitimate representative of China, in keeping with U.N. policy since 1971, and that the question of Taiwans attendance was one for the WHOs 194 member states, Steven Solomon, the WHOs principal legal officer, said on May 4.

The 1971 decision, under which Beijing assumed the U.N. China seat from Taipei, only resolved the issue of who represented China, not the issue of Taiwan, and didnt grant China the power to represent Taiwan internationally, Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou said.

Only the democratically elected Taiwanese government can represent Taiwans 23 million people in the international community, she told reporters.

People wait in line at a pharmacy to pick up masks pre-ordered online, in Taipei, Taiwan, on March 18, 2020. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images )

The WHO should cast off the Chinese governments control, and let Taiwan fully participate in fighting the CCP virus, Ou said.

Do not let Chinas improper political interference become an obstacle to impeding the worlds united fight against the virus.

Taiwan attended the World Health Assembly as an observer from 2009-2016 when Taipei-Beijing relations warmed. But China blocked further participation after the election of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who China views as a separatist, a charge she rejects.

Students wearing face masks as a preventive measure to curb the spread of the COVID-19 CCP virus attend a class at Dajia Elementary School in Taipei, Taiwan, on April 29, 2020. (Sam Yeh /AFP via Getty Images)

The United States has strongly supported Taiwans participation at the WHA as an observer, another fault line in Washington-Beijing ties that have been already overshadowed by the Trump administrations criticism of how China and the WHO have handled the COVID-19 outbreak.

China says Taiwan is adequately represented by Beijing and that Taiwan can only take part in the WHO under Beijings one China policy, in which Taiwan would have to accept that it is part of China, something Tsais government wont do.

Taiwan has reported far fewer cases of the new CCP virus than many of its neighbors, because of early and effective detection and prevention work.

By Ben Blanchard. Epoch Times staff contributed to this report.
SECAUCUS, N.J., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE: DGX) today announced that its 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the "Annual Meeting") will now be held solely by remote communication through a live, online audio webcast. This decision was made as a result of the public health threat caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, mandated limits on public gatherings and to protect the health and safety of the company's stockholders and employees.

The Annual Meeting will be held online at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on May 19, 2020. Stockholders will not be able to attend the Annual Meeting in person. Stockholders as of the close of business on March 20, 2020 (the "Record Date") will be able to participate in, vote at and ask questions during the Annual Meeting through the webcast. The items of business are the same as set forth in the meeting notice previously mailed or made available. Set forth below are instructions for stockholders to be admitted to, and participate in, the Annual Meeting.

Stockholders of record may register to attend by visiting www.CESVote.com no later than 24 hours before the Annual Meeting and entering the 11-digit control number included on their Important Notice Regarding the Availability of Proxy Materials found on their proxy card. Follow the directions to register for the Annual Meeting.

Beneficial stockholders may register to attend the Annual Meeting by securing a legal proxy from their bank, broker or other holder of record and emailing it to Corporate Election Services at [email protected] no later than 24 hours before the Annual Meeting, requesting to register to attend the Annual Meeting.

no later than 24 hours before the Annual Meeting, requesting to register to attend the Annual Meeting. Stockholders that register to attend the Annual Meeting will receive an e-mail prior to the meeting with a link and instructions for attending the Annual Meeting.

On May 19, 2020 , the day of the Annual Meeting, stockholders registered to attend the Annual Meeting may log into the Annual Meeting platform at the link included in their registration email beginning at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time to participate. The Annual Meeting is expected to begin promptly at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time .

, the day of the Annual Meeting, stockholders registered to attend the Annual Meeting may log into the Annual Meeting platform at the link included in their registration email beginning at to participate. The Annual Meeting is expected to begin promptly at . To vote or submit a comment or question during the Annual Meeting, follow the instructions available on the Annual Meeting platform.

Stockholders should note that the proxy card and voting instruction form included with previously distributed proxy materials may be used to vote shares in connection with the Annual Meeting (they will not be updated to reflect that the Annual Meeting will be conducted solely by remote communication). Whether or not stockholders plan to join the Annual Meeting, the company urges stockholders to submit their proxies in advance of the Annual Meeting.

The stockholders list as of the Record Date will be available for inspection during normal business hours at the company's headquarters, 500 Plaza Drive, Secaucus, New Jersey 07094 for ten days prior to the Annual Meeting. In addition, stockholders registered to attend the Annual Meeting will be able to inspect that list during the Annual Meeting at the online Annual Meeting platform referred to above.

About Quest Diagnostics

Quest Diagnostics empowers people to take action to improve health outcomes. Derived from the world's largest database of clinical lab results, our diagnostic insights reveal new avenues to identify and treat disease, inspire healthy behaviors and improve health care management. Quest annually serves one in three adult Americans and half the physicians and hospitals in the United States, and our 47,000 employees understand that, in the right hands and with the right context, our diagnostic insights can inspire actions that transform lives. www.QuestDiagnostics.com.

About COVID-19 Testing by Quest Diagnostics

Quest Diagnostics is at the forefront of response to the COVID-19 pandemic, working to broaden access to laboratory insights to help us all lead healthier lives. We provide both molecular diagnostic and antibody serology tests to aiding the diagnosis of COVID-19 and immune response. Our COVID-19 test services are based on tests that have received or are expected to receive FDA emergency use authorization and which also meet our high standards for quality. We provide data on COVID-19 testing to various federal and state public health authorities, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and participate in studies with government and private institutions, aiding COVID-19 public health response and research. Through our team of dedicated phlebotomists, couriers, air fleet team, and laboratory professionals, Quest Diagnostics won't stop until quality testing is broadly available to patients and communities across the United States.

For more information about the latest developments with our COVID-19 testing, visit: newsroom.questdiagnostics.com/COVIDTestingUpdates

SOURCE Quest Diagnostics

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LOS ANGELES, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Acumen Research and Consulting, a global provider of market research studies, in a recently published report titled "Diabetes Devices Market (By Product Types: Monitoring Devices, Treatment Devices; By End User: Diagnostic Centers, Hospitals, Home Care, Ambulatory Surgery Centers; By Distribution Channels: Hospitals Pharmacies, Retail Pharmacies, Diabetes Clinics/Centers, Online Pharmacies, Others)  Global Industry Analysis, Market Size, Opportunities and Forecast, 2020 - 2027".

The devices which help in monitoring and treatment of diabetes patients are termed as diabetes devices. There is variety of devices available in the market for the monitoring and treatment of type-1, type-2, and prediabetes patients. The technological advancement coupled with the ongoing research and development activities across the globe associated with the diabetes devices is supporting the market growth. Apart from these, changing lifestyles and rapidly increasing diabetes patients worldwide is additionally bolstering the market value.

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The global diabetes devices market is segmented on the basis of product type, end-user, and distribution channel. By product types, the market is divided into self-monitoring blood glucose devices (SMBG), and continuous blood glucose monitoring (CGM). In terms of end-user, diabetes devices are segmented into diagnostic centers, hospitals, home care, and ambulatory surgery centers. Furthermore, hospital pharmacies, retail pharmacies, diabetes clinics/centers, online pharmacies, and others are the segments on the basis of distribution channels.

By product types, the treatment device segment accounted for the major share in terms of value in 2019. The treatment devices are sub-segmented into insulin pens, insulin pumps, insulin jet injectors, insulin syringes, and others. The increasing need for faster, safer and effective methods of diabetes treatment is driving the segment growth. The insulin pumps segment is expected to experience the fastest growth owing to the technological advancement and emergence of smart insulin pumps.

On the basis of end-user, the hospital segment is leading the global diabetes devices market. The segment is particularly gaining growth owing to the increasing investment for the infrastructural development of hospitals. The favorable government policies and rising awareness about diabetes devices are driving the market value. Moreover, home care diabetes devices are projected to experience the fastest growth with major CAGR over the forecast timeframe from 2020 to 2027. The portability and easy to use factors associated with the home care devices are supporting the major growth.

Hospital pharmacies accounted for the major share by distribution channels in 2019. The high demand from doctors, surgeons, medical consultants, nurses, hospital buyers, medical payers, and healthcare authorities are driving the market value. The availability of a variety of products in hospital pharmacies is further supporting the market value.

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In 2019, North America held the major share of the global market for diabetes devices. The presence of a huge population with diabetes is primarily driving the market value. The availability of advance and a variety of diabetes care devices in the regional market by major manufacturers is further supporting the market value. Furthermore, Asia Pacific is projected to experience maximum CAGR (%) over the forecast timeframe from 2020 to 2027. The increasing investment in the healthcare sector by major manufacturers, hospital authorities and government, as well as non-governmental bodies, is additionally contributing to the significant growth in the regional market.

Some of the leading competitors are Abbott Laboratories, Arkray, Inc., B Braun Melsungen AG, Bayer AG; Lifescan, Inc., Companion Medical, Dexcom Inc., F.Hoffmann-La RocheLtd., Insulet Corporation, Lifescan, Inc., Medtronic plc, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi, Valeritas Holding Inc., and Ypsomed Holdings. Diabetes devises companies have announced mergers and acquisitions to expand their business in the diabetes devices industry. Major players are also moving into new regions or advanced technologies. For instance, Novo Nordisk collaborated with Medtronic Plc. in 2019 to develop a solution that enables patients and healthcare professionals to view both glucose and insulin data together. Also, Medtronic Plc has collaborated with Eris Lifesciences in 2019 to develop a smart continuous glucose monitoring system.

Some of the key observations regarding diabetes devices industry include:

In 2016, Novo Nordisk launched a diabetes awareness campaign in Nigeria to Promote Early Diagnosis.

to Promote Early Diagnosis. Companion Medical Launched Inpen in 2017, which was the company's first smart insulin pen system in the U.S. market. The pen was FDA approved and can combine with a smart app.

Medtronic and Tidepool have announced the partnership in 2019 to develop an automated insulin pump system.

The Australian government has announced the funding of US$ 100 million in 2018, to subsidize continuous glucose monitoring products through the National Diabetes Services Scheme.

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About Us

Acumen Research and Consulting (ARC) is a global provider of market intelligence and consulting services to information technology, investment, telecommunication, manufacturing, and consumer technology markets. ARC helps investment communities, IT professionals, and business executives to make fact based decisions on technology purchases and develop firm growth strategies to sustain market competition. Among the industries served include aerospace and defense, information and communication technology (ICT), semiconductor and electronics, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, chemicals, advanced materials, banking, finance services and insurance (BFSI), and others.

Our collective industry experience of over 100 years has helped us to offer appropriate market information and our global reach and regional connects ensures appropriate insights into regional markets to guarantee apt delivery of information.

Our regional market intelligence helps our clients to identify potential opportunities and develop growth strategies across regions and countries. Our services are geared towards offering best market research to our clients.

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SOURCE Acumen Research and Consulting
The Brihanmumbai Municipal



Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday released a trade union activist who had been "illegally quarantined" by the civic body and the police authorities earlier this month on the intervention of the Bombay High Court.

The activist, K Narayanan, was released and allowed to go back to his family after the HC held that he could not be kept in quarantine indefinitely if he had tested negative for coronavirus.

Narayanan's counsel advocate Kranti LC said that Justice Revati Mohite-Dere had held that quarantine could not be used as a pretext for keeping one in custody and directed that Narayanan be let out and his belongings be returned.

The court was hearing a habeas corpus plea filed by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), seeking the release of Narayanan, a trade unionist.

As per the plea, Narayanan was picked up by the police on April 21 while he was distributing food and essential supplies to migrant workers in suburban Andheri.

He and his colleagues were carrying some placards and flags as part of CITUs national protest to highlight the plight of migrant workers affected by the COVID 19 lockdown.

Advocate Gayatri Singh, the senior counsel also appearing for Narayanan, said that while two of Narayana's colleagues were allowed to go, Narayanan was taken to a private laboratory in Jogeshwari area and tested for COVID 19.

He was told that as per the procedure, the result of his test would be sent to him on his phone within the next 48 hours, however, instead of being allowed to go home, the police took away his phone and took him to a quarantine facility.

"He was asymptomatic, had no history of primary contact with any affected person and had not stepped into any containment zone," she said.

On the previous hearing on April 30, the police had claimed that it was the BMC which had detained Narayanan, but the civic body denied any knowledge of the incident.

However, on the court's direction, the police had returned his phone and provided Narayanan with fresh clothes.

On Tuesday, the BMC submitted that Narayanan had been interned at the quarantine facility at the police's direction.

However, he had tested negative for coronavirus and that his quarantine period of 14 days had ended on Sunday, the civic body said.

It submitted that Narayanan had been detainedas he had been seen coming out of a red zone area in Juhu and that he was also found to be residing in a coronavirus containment zone.

However, since Narayanan had tested negative for COVID 19, he would be "released in the due course of time", BMC had submitted before the court in an affidavit.

The HC, however observed that there was no law to keep the activist in continued custody if his quarantine period had ended and ordered that he be released immediately.

Justice Mohite-Dere also held that the police had failed to establish any due procedure of law under which Narayanan's phone and other belongings had been confiscated by the police.

She disposed of the plea after the civic body assured the court that Narayanan would be permitted to go home immediately.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sure, it might be warm Wednesday, but what about the rest of the week?
Canadians have been lining up outside liquor stores and stocking up on alcohol to make staying at home during the coronavirus pandemic more palatable, but craft beer insiders say COVID-19 has still cut the froth out of their industry.

A recent online survey from the Canadian Craft Brewers Association found that among the 317 breweries and brew pubs that responded, almost half saw their March revenues drop by more than 50 per cent from the previous year. More than half are expecting the same or worse for April.

"Everyone's just doing what they can to survive," said Rick Dalmazzi, the CCB's executive director.

Submitted by Linda Barr Dalmazzi

Many of the county's 1,100 craft breweries, which employ about 10,000 people, have been left vulnerable by restrictions on businesses put in place to enforce physical distancing and reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus.

According to the Conference Board of Canada, beer remains Canada's most popular alcoholic beverage, accounting for 41.5 per cent of total alcohol sales in the country and contributing $13.6 billion to Canada's gross domestic product in 2016.

Craft beer plays a significant role in those numbers, Dalmazzi says.

"Name another industry over the past 10 years that has put hundreds of new manufacturing facilities in small towns across Canada," he said.

But with restaurants and bars shut down, craft beer sales have plummeted. On-site sales in brewery tap rooms and dining rooms tanked because of mandatory closures. Plus, the growing industry is overflowing with young companies not yet profitable, and owners are struggling with keeping up costly operations.

The CCBA says its survey suggests 65 per cent of brewery employees have been laid off. Fourteen per cent of respondents to its survey didn't know how much longer they could stay open.

Veteran industry observer and beer writer Jordan St. John predicts COVID-19 could break a significant portion of craft brewers.

"I would say that you're probably looking at something like a quarter to a third of the craft brewing industry basically disappearing within the next three months, depending on how long the situation continues," he said.

Story continues

Bars and restaurant customers suddenly didn't need suds

COVID-19 has reduced demand for craft beer. With restaurants and bars closed, some breweries' orders have dried up altogether.

"We lost 100 per cent of our draught accounts in a day. Everybody was forced to close," said Chloe Smith, the owner of Townsite Brewing, in Powell River, B.C.

Submitted by Brandon Frey

Smith's brewery is two ferry rides and five hours north of Vancouver on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast. She fought hard to land accounts in the city and on crowded retailer shelves over the past eight years.

With Restaurants Canada projecting about 30 per cent of bars and restaurants are closing forever, she's already feeling losses.

"We certainly have had some of them say, 'Come pick up your kegs. We're not opening up again,'" she said.

Townsite's staff of 16 has been slashed to six. The taproom is closed. Bottles are being sold locally and online. Smith's not sure when she should start kegging beer again because she can't predict when local bars will reopen.

"It's just a really difficult time for decision-making on all levels," she said.

Looking ahead, Smith feels lucky her landlord is also the brewery's key investor.

On-site sales and events lost

The pandemic has also pummelled brewers by preventing them from selling draught on site.

Both brewpub and taproom business models have become increasingly popular with craft brewers. Selling beer from a keg in your own building offers the best profit margins.

Submitted by Krystal Ireland

But right now, Bearhill Brewing Company, for example, is only recording losses. All four of its brewpubs were forced to close because of the pandemic.

Its Edmonton location will soon open for takeout, but more than 90 per cent of Bearhill's 350 workers have been laid off.

The company, which has been around for 15 years, has a canning operation and sells to liquor stores, but revenue falls far below ongoing bills.

Co-founder and CEO Brett Ireland believes reopening will bring revenues at 75 per cent below normal, and agreements with landlords and other support will be critical.

"We're anticipating at least a two-year timeline to get back to close to where we were going into this," he said.

Jeff Dornan is also feeling the pain.

He's been running All or Nothing Brewhouse with brother Eric for six years.

Their newly renovated taproom in Oshawa, Ont., with capacity for 100 people, is supposed to generate half their sales but sits empty these days. The plan to host birthdays, weddings and other events on the front patio and big back lot has been wiped out.

"That was going to be kind of our saving grace," said Dornan. "We were really excited."

CBC

For two months, the company has been making hand sanitizer at break-even prices, a move that helped it keep six of its 10 workers employed.

Moving back to brewing beer and into online sales, Dornan worries that after the traditional winter slowdown, a summer of social distancing won't bring peak sales.

"We've obviously never lived through a pandemic before. It's hard to say where we'll be in the future," he said.

Young breweries at risk

According to the CCBA, 79 per cent of Canada's craft breweries opened in 2015 or later.

The association also says almost two-thirds of craft breweries have three months or less of cash reserves.

New operations and those that have just made big investments to expand worry St. John the most.

"That could be a death blow to you, depending on your cash flow," he said.

In Wolfville, N.S., the owners of The Church Brewing Company aren't sitting on a pile of money.

Since 2017, brothers Steve and Matt Haysom have nearly spent their life savings from two decades of working in Alberta's oil patch to open a large-capacity microbrewery, restaurant and taproom in a historic stone church.

"We are at risk of losing it," said Steve Haysom. "We don't sleep at night."

Submitted by Eric Dornan

Going into their second summer of business, 200 seats in the brewery are empty, revenue is down 70 per cent, and only 10 of its 85 employees remain on the job. The company is still selling to Nova Scotia liquor stories and doing deliveries.

The brothers remain hopeful they can save the business through cost cutting and customer support.

"I wouldn't say that beer or alcohol is recession proof, but it's probably recession resistant," said Matt Haysom. "So, I think people will find a little bit of beer money."

Calling for help

Facing a summer without festivals, full patios and sports events, Dalmazzi says the craft brewing industry will see COVID-19 casualties.

While online ordering is happening in many provinces, he'd like to see it, and delivery fees, approved across the country.

Photos of beloved brews selling out online don't show the whole picture, he says, and more measures to help craft brewers are needed.

Submitted by Matt Haysom

The CCBA is calling for the eligibility criteria for the Canadian emergency wage subsidy (CEWS) to be expanded to account for new breweries that may not have relevant 2019 sales data for comparison to show a loss and breweries that may have growing sales year-to-year but still not be profitable.

The association would also like the federal government to follow the U.S. example and provide relief on the excise tax brewers pay on their production.

Dalmazii says he's disappointed Ottawa went ahead with an automatic increase of 1.89 per cent on the excise tax last month instead. All levels of government could provide more tax relief, he said.

"I know that governments are not looking to reduce revenues, but anything to help with cash flow," he said. "Every month is important."
Agriculture organizations say the $252 million in federal aid for the sector announced Tuesday is not enough to keep the industry afloat.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the funding Tuesday including $77 million earmarked to keep workers in the food processing industry safe.

We know that farmers still have concerns about what this pandemic means for their industry long-term, Trudeau said.

Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said Tuesdays announcement builds on previous commitments to increase funding for farms, and to support temporary foreign workers and food banks.

The news comes just a day after the Cargill meat processing plant in Alberta reopened after closing on April 20. The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401 was attempting to keep it closed after close to half its workforce contracted COVID-19.

The UFCW could not be reached for comment.

The JBS meat plant in Brooks, Alta., and the Cargill meat plant in High River together account for almost 30 per cent of the provinces COVID-19 cases.

In an email, a Cargill spokesperson said the company is reviewing the announcement, and is grateful for the governments commitment to worker safety.

Chris White, president of the Canadian Meat Council, said the funding is a good first step, but added that his organization will be asking the government for more support. He said Trudeau hinted at the possibility of another phase of funding, for which he is hopeful.

Is it enough? Likely not, said White. But (Trudeau) left the door open.

The package also includes money for beef and pork producers, who are holding animals they cant sell, as well as a credit program for the dairy industry and $50 million to buy surplus perishable food and send it to groups such as food banks.

The organization that represents the Canadian agriculture sector says while the funding is appreciated, its nowhere near enough.

Mary Robinson, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, said the sector is facing $2.6 billion in losses to date, and while they dont expect the federal government to make all of that up, they believe there should be more aid to help the sector recover.

We need to make sure that our domestic food supply is robust, she said, adding that many businesses in the agriculture sector dont qualify for the other COVID-19 aid programs, such as the federal $40,000 business loan.

She acknowledged that Trudeau called the funding an initial investment, but said the sector is well past that.

Were into week eight, she said, pointing out that now is a crucial time for the agriculture sector, and one of heavy investment  and if farmers dont feel good about their prospects, they might put less money into this upcoming year.

Robinson compared the funding to throwing a bucket of water on a burning house.

I think Canadians need to be concerned.

With files from The Canadian Press

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By PTI

BENGALURU: BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje on Tuesday alleged that she received threatening calls from the Middle East and Gulf countries for writing to Union Home Minister Amit Shah about the "ill-treatment" meted out to an Indian in Kuwait for hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In a video message, Karandlaje said she recently came to know that the Indian, a driver from Kerala, was beaten up in that country.

"After I wrote to Amit Shah about it, I received hundreds of threat calls from the Middle East and Gulf countries in a vulgar language," Karandlaje alleged in the message.

In her letter to Shah dated May 3, she said the driver was slapped and forced to apologise for praising Modi.

Karandlaje shared the video of the purported incident on her Twitter handle.

"We must mount pressure on the authorities of Kuwait to extradite him (perpetrator) and be brought to India for trial," Karandlaje stated in her letter and described the incident as "outrageous and unacceptable."
The commencement of new laws offers recognition and protection for some contemporary, more diverse forms of family life, but this is not a panacea for all ills, writes Brian Tobin

This week, Parts 2 and 3 of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 were finally commenced, five years after the legislations enactment.

The COVID-19 crisis has prevented so many of us from being with our families; consequently, the importance we place on family life has garnered renewed significance in our society.

The commencement of this progressive legislation is timely and should be welcomed because it offers recognition and protection for some contemporary, more diverse forms of family life.

The legislation will finally allow both women in a same-sex relationship to be recognised as the legal parents of a child born to them via physician-assisted human reproduction.

Previously, the law only recognised the woman who gave birth to the child as its mother and her same-sex partner had no parental rights, even though donor sperm was used to conceive.

However, now both women in a same-sex relationship will be able to be registered as parents on the donor-conceived childs birth certificate, due to the commencement of Parts 2 and 3, and the commencement of Part 9 of the 2015 Act, which took place in October of last year.

Further, the legislation prospectively offers robust protection for the donor-conceived childs right to knowledge of genetic identity by requiring the fertility clinics to use gametes from identifiable donors and by setting up the National Donor-Conceived Person Register.

The fertility clinics must record the identifying details of the childs donor, such as his name, date and place of birth, nationality and contact details and they must provide the Minister for Health with this information so that it can be recorded on the aforementioned register, although one imagines that the Minister will eventually delegate this function to the Assisted Human Reproduction Regulatory Authority (AHRRA) which is due to be set up in the future.

In any event, the legislation provides that the donors information can be made available to the donor-conceived child upon reaching the age of 18.

This child-centred development is apt, given that both the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights have long-since recognised the importance to a child of accessing information about their genetic identity. Indeed, as far back as 2005, the Report of the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction recommended to the Oireachtas that all donor-conceived children in Ireland should, on maturity, be able to identify the donors involved.

Recent studies on donor-conceived children reveal that an overwhelming number of such individuals want information relating to their donor; there is also growing international evidence that identifying information about ones genetic parentage can indeed be essential to the mental health of donor-conceived persons.

This is why countries like the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, New Zealand and the U.K. prohibit anonymous sperm donation, and it is reassuring that the Oireachtas has brought Irish law in line with international best practice.

Nonetheless, the commencement of Parts 2 and 3 of the 2015 Act is not a panacea for all ills  some families are still very much left behind. Reciprocal IVF is practiced and popular among female same-sex couples because it allows one woman to be the gestational mother and the other woman can be the genetic mother. In essence, one woman carries the embryo to term  the embryo is formed from an egg donated by her same-sex partner, and donor sperm, and implanted by physicians in a fertility clinic.

However, same-sex couples in this situation cannot both be recognised as the childs legal parents because this method of reproduction is not covered under the newly-commenced legislation.

In the Act, a donor and a genetic parent of the child cannot be one and the same person, and because the genetic mother in a reciprocal IVF scenario is in fact also the egg donor, she cannot be recognised as a parent under the Act. Only the gestational mother is recognised as the childs mother and can be registered as such on the birth childs birth certificate under existing law.

In addition, Parts 2 and 3 of the 2015 Act make no provision to improve the legal status of children born through surrogacy arrangements.

Nevertheless, the General Scheme of the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill proposes to regulate surrogacy that takes place in Ireland, but it has been stuck in development hell ever since it was published in October 2017.

Further, this draft law does not propose to regulate international surrogacy arrangements, despite the fact that the vast majority of Irish couples who need to have a child via surrogacy enter into surrogacy arrangements abroad, in places like the U.S., Canada, and the Ukraine. In 2018, a survey carried out by Families through Surrogacy (now Growing Families), an international non-profit organisation that provides support to those going through surrogacy, estimated that up to 68% of all surrogacies for Irish couples have taken place in the Ukraine.

While the commencement this week of Parts 2 and 3 of the Children and Family Relationships Act is very much a step in the right direction as regards protecting a childs right to knowledge of genetic identity and improving the legal status of children conceived through some methods of donor-assisted human reproduction, there is still much work to be done to ensure that surrogate-born children and those children conceived through reciprocal IVF can have both of their parents recognised under Irish law.

- Dr Brian Tobin, Lecturer In Law, NUI Galway.
[May 05, 2020] States and Counties Nationwide Leveraging Rave's Solutions to Better Engage Their Communities, Protect First Responders, Provide Better Emergency Response During Pandemic

Rave Mobile Safety (Rave), the trusted provider of solutions that empower community safety, is working with states, cities and counties nationwide to equip local authorities and first responders with the tools they need to communicate with the public and protect front-line workers as they respond to the coronavirus. Officials in Arkansas, Delaware, Louisiana, New Mexico, Chicago, Seattle, Suffolk County, NY and Kern County, CA (News - Alert), among others, are leveraging Rave for critical public notifications as well as information sharing between authorities and the public as authorities grapple with an increased demand for accurate information and a high 9-1-1 call load due to the coronavirus. During times of crisis and stress, misinformation spreads more quickly than ever-and can have sometimes fatal consequences if people accept it as truth. States, cities, counties and towns need a way to securely, quickly and reliably communicate with the public to not only quell fears but direct their attention to accurate information. Seattle-one of the first cities to see a swell of cases in the United States-used Rave Alert to keep the public informed of facts as they developed and to redirect them to reliable sources of information. Sending out reliable updates is only one facet of what states and communities need to do to effectively connect with and serve their residents. As public safety and health agencies and first responders grapple with the coronavirus outbreak and a surge in 9-1-1 calls, it is critical that they can proactively identify, communicate with and respond to those at greatest risk-as well as give first responders the foresight they need to protect themselves from exposure. That includes collecting and managing critical details about the public, including access and functional needs, quarantine status and high-risk categories such as respiratory conditions, immune deficiencies and more. Through Smart911 in Chicago, Seattle, Suffolk County and Arkansas, quarantined individuals can report preexisting conditionsand whether they are in mandated or self-quarantine and receive check-in messages on their health status. That information is delivered straight to 9-1-1 to help protect residents and first responders. In New Castle County, Del., 9-1-1 centers are using the Rave 911 Suite to initiate two-way video chat, allowing the 9-1-1 center to triage calls/treat minor issues by video for efficiency and to prevent unnecessary risk of exposure for responders.



"Every time our first responders report to a 9-1-1 call, they risk exposing themselves to the virus," said Jeff Miller, Chief of Emergency Communications of New Castle County. "The Rave platform provides us with additional information and tools for our COVID-19 response, including the data that flows into 9-1-1 and the ability to stream video from the field-allowing us to protect first responders and preserve our resources for where they're needed most." Collecting real-time data from the public helps better protect both them and first responders and helps public health officials better understand the trends in their communities. Louisiana is leveraging Rave's COVID response capabilities, which map community COVID data, allow for the identification of high-risk communities and provide the ability to obtain real-time updates from the public regarding their health status. As a part of Rave's capabilities, automated "wellness checks" can be initiated to quickly gather updates in a hotspot community or across an entire state. Residents are encouraged to opt in to the service so that the state understands who is most at risk of becoming ill, and can follow up with anyone who has already been tested to check whether symptoms have changed in order to help public health departments understand changing trends.

"We're facing a massive crisis on the front lines of the pandemic response: first responders and medical personnel expose themselves to risk every time they respond to a call, 9-1-1 call centers are overloaded as call volumes spike, and authorities are trying to get a complete picture of what the crisis looks like in their state," said Todd Piett, CEO, Rave. "Coordination between all of the stakeholders involved-from emergency management and public health officials to 9-1-1 and first responders-has never been more important. We know that real-time collaboration between authorities and the public, as well as among stakeholders, is critical to creating an effective response, and we're proud to help states and communities accomplish just that." To learn more about Rave, please visit www.ravemobilesafety.com. About Rave Mobile Safety Rave Mobile Safety provides innovative emergency and public safety technology to help save lives. The Rave platform integrates data and communication tools to help those in charge of keeping others safe prepare better, respond faster and communicate more effectively in emergency situations. Thousands of agencies and institutions across law enforcement, 9-1-1, state and local emergency management agencies, corporations, healthcare organizations, K-12 districts, colleges and universities depend on Rave's award-winning software solutions. Founded in 2004, Rave is headquartered in Framingham, Mass. and backed by leading growth equity firm TCV, which manages over $15B. For more information, visit https://www.ravemobilesafety.com/ or follow the company on Twitter. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005207/en/

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A year after landing in jail without charge, her mercy plea unanswered by Saudi rulers and in fear of a coronavirus outbreak behind bars, a prominent princess did the unthinkable -- and went public. Princess Basmah bint Saud, a 56-year-old royal family member long seen as a proponent of women's rights and a constitutional monarchy, mysteriously disappeared from public life in March last year. Last month, her Twitter account sprang to life with a letter from the princess claiming she had been "abducted" and "thrown into prison" along with her 28-year-old daughter, Suhoud al-Sharif, and imploring King Salman and his powerful son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for help. The letter, a rare public appeal from a member of the secretive royal family, voiced fears that her "deteriorating health" in Riyadh's high-security Al-Ha'ir prison -- known for holding terrorism convicts and political prisoners -- could result in her death. Just hours later, those tweets were deleted. Two sources close to her family told AFP the account had been briefly hacked "by someone in Saudi Arabia". "Since the tweets, there is no more contact; no signs of the princess or Suhoud," one of the sources said. "No more phone calls, nothing." The family's fears have been further amplified by concerns over a possible outbreak of the novel coronavirus inside Al-Ha'ir. Allowed one weekly telephone call before the tweets, Suhoud told her family that prison authorities had sounded the alarm that coronavirus cases had been detected inside the facility. A prison employee separately confirmed to the family that there were a handful of COVID-19 cases in Al-Ha'ir, the sources said. Authorities in Saudi Arabia, which has reported more than 25,000 coronavirus infections so far, did not respond to a request for comment. The government has said nothing publicly about the princess's detention. - Turmoil in royal family - The case, which spotlights what observers call increasing repression under de facto ruler Prince Mohammed, is the latest sign of turmoil within the royal family following the detention in March this year of King Salman's brother and nephew. The youngest child of late King Saud bin Abdulaziz, Princess Basmah was preparing to travel to Switzerland on a private jet in March 2019 for medical treatment when a group of men claiming to work for the king showed up at her Jeddah penthouse. They said they were there to escort the princess for a private meeting with the monarch, according to the sources. Unwilling to let her mother go alone, Suhoud accompanied her. They were taken straight to Al-Ha'ir. Security footage of that encounter provided by the sources shows the men -- burly and armed with pistols -- before they moved to cover the surveillance cameras with pieces of cloth. In written testimony to the United Nations, seen by AFP, the family said Princess Basmah's detention was likely due to her "record as an outspoken critic of abuses in our country" as well as her enquiries about a fortune belonging to King Saud that is frozen by the state. They fear the arbitrary detention without any criminal charges is an attempt to "get rid of the princess", the document said. She was also deemed an ally of former crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who was replaced as heir to the throne by Prince Mohammed in 2017, the written testimony added. Prince Nayef and Prince Ahmed -- the king's brother -- were detained in a separate royal purge in March. The government has yet to officially comment on the crackdown, which observers say is an attempt to stamp out dissent and enforce absolute loyalty within royal ranks to Prince Mohammed. - 'Total silence' - Princess Basmah suffers from numerous health issues including osteoporosis and severe gastrointestinal problems, according to her medical records seen by AFP. The sources said she has been denied medical treatment in jail. Her detention in a notorious prison is unprecedented in Saudi Arabia, where royal family members are typically held under house arrest or detained in luxury villas or hotels. Her family has issued a new appeal for her release in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began in late April. But her troubles may have only increased after her Twitter plea -- an unusually bold move by someone from the kingdom's sprawling royal family, comprising thousands of members. Private entreaties -- not public petitions -- are considered the safest way to navigate the opaque justice system in the absolute monarchy. Saudi authorities are highly sensitive to criticism in public. But her plea came after private letters making the same appeal to the king and crown prince, seen by AFP, went unanswered over the past year. "There was no response at all, total silence," one of the sources said. Saudi princess Basmah bint Saud mysteriously disappeared from public life in March last year Last month, the Twitter account of Basmah bint Saud bin Abdulaziz posted a message from the princess claiming she had been 'abducted' and 'thrown into prison'
REGINASaskatchewans Opposition on Monday questioned the flow of information from the government about a COVID-19 outbreak at a hospital just as the province was preparing to loosen restrictions intended to limit the spread of the illness.

NDP Leader Ryan Meili said he wants to know when the health minister was told about a cluster of cases at the hospital in the Saskatchewan-Alberta boundary city of Lloydminster.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority has apologized for not informing the public and local officials about the outbreak sooner.

The authority said it informed the Ministry of Health a couple of days before the outbreak was made public on Wednesday. Health Minister Jim Reiter said he was told the night before and talked to Premier Scott Moe the next day.

By that time, 13 staff members and patients had been infected, health officials said.

Meili said the public deserves answers about an apparent breakdown in communication.

I dont see how ... in the midst of a pandemic, which is all hands on deck, in which everyone is watching every single case across the province, how a new outbreak in a health-care facility, at a time when were talking about reopening a lot of businesses and other services, how that could possibly not make its way to the minister, said Meili.

Reiter said things could have been done quicker.

Im just not prepared to throw ministry officials under the bus, he said. Certainly Ill accept some responsibility. Could it have been done more timely? Yeah, it certainly could have.

The province announced 34 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, its largest increase in a single day. Of the new cases, 29 were from in and around La Loche, a northern Dene village experiencing an outbreak.

The provinces chief medical health officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, has said while the number of cases in the far north is concerning, they are mainly isolated to La Loche. The increase in infections was to be expected as door-to-door testing and contact tracing ramped up, he said.

Despite the case count, Saskatchewan pushed ahead Monday with the first stage of its reopening, which included medical offices such as dental clinics, optometrists and physiotherapists.

It honestly feels really nice, said Alison Matsyk, a physiotherapist in Regina and partner at Stapleford Health and Rehab Centre.

You can already tell that theres a sense of relief from people being able to access it again because theres a lot of people out there that have that need.

It brings a little more of that feeling of normal coming back.

Because of the outbreaks, La Loche and Lloydminster werent included in the first phase of the plan.

Moe defended moving ahead with eased restrictions.

We see a number of provinces that are moving quite more rapidly than Saskatchewan in opening a wider suite of businesses and services in their communities, he said.

That is why we left a number of weeks between Phase 1 and Phase 2, and thats why we have not yet set a date for Phase 3, so that we can react to anything.

He also said people could expect to see more cases coming from northern Saskatchewan as testing continues.

Several weeks ago, residents in the region werent practising physical distancing to the same extent they are now, the premier said.

Physical distancing was starting to become commonplace in many places throughout the southern areas of the province. In many cases it had not quite made its way through to the most rural and remote communities in this province.

Chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab added that overcrowding is another factor for transmission.

Units to be used for self-isolation are being sent to La Loche as are more conservation officers to help, Moe said.
A Family Dollar store security guard was fatally shot in Flint, Michigan, on Friday after telling a customer her child had to wear a face mask to enter the store, prosecutors said.

An argument began when the security guard, Calvin Munerlyn, 43, told Sharmel Lashe Teague, 45, that customers needed to wear face masks in the store, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said at a Monday news conference. She yelled at him, spit on him and drove off, Leyton said. About 20 minutes later, her car returned to the store and her husband and son, Larry Edward Teague, 44, and Ramonyea Travon Bishop, 23, stepped out and confronted Munerlyn, according to investigators who spoke to witnesses in the store and reviewed surveillance video. Bishop shot him, Leyton said.

Leyton said Munerlyn was doing his job, protecting others and enforcing a statewide executive order. In Michigan, people are required to wear face coverings in grocery stores, which can refuse service to anyone who isn't wearing a mask.

"We simply can't devolve into an 'us versus them' mentality," he said. "We need to make a commitment as a community to do the things necessary to allow us to stay healthy and turn a page on this crisis together. Not for ourselves but for Calvin Munerlyn, who lost his life needlessly and senselessly."

Michigan State Police arrested Sharmel Teague but are searching for the two men, Special 1st Lt. David Kaiser said.

All three are charged with first-degree premeditated murder and gun counts. Larry Teague is additionally charged with violating the mandate requiring people to wear face coverings inside grocery stores, which is a misdemeanor, Leyton said.

Social media posts by friends and family memorialized Munerlyn, a father of eight children, by his nickname: "Big Duper." A GoFundMe account for the family has raised more than $28,000, exceeding its goal. Latryna Sims Munerlyn, his wife of 10 years, told NBC 25 that he worked at the store for more than a year.

"He would have given you the shirt off his back, the food off his table," Courtney Cabine, a family friend, told the news station. "He was the life of the party."

Nickolas Harrison, who was Munerlyn's friend for 15 years and had worked other security jobs with him, told The Washington Post that Munerlyn was killed trying to protect others.

"My friend Duper was killed for telling a lady she has to put a mask on to come in the store," he said, "which could save her life or the life of others."

Flint District 1 Commissioner Bryant Nolden, who spoke during the Monday news conference, said he often saw Munerlyn training others free of charge at a public gym in Flint. "When I found out what had happened to him, it really broke my heart because I knew what kind of person he was," Nolden said. "We need to stop the senseless violence in the community. This was totally uncalled for, he didn't bother a soul. All he wanted to do was take care of his family and he always had his kids with him."

Family Dollar's website says store employees may wear face coverings, but there's no requirement listed for customers.

Randy Guiler, a company representative, called the shooting "tragic" in a statement given to The Post.

"We will continue to cooperate fully with local authorities on their investigation," Guiler wrote. "As always, we are committed to ensuring a safe environment for our associates and customers. Out of respect for the family's privacy, we are not commenting further at this time."
Three months after they lost their daughter and grandchildren in a horrific murder- suicide that stunned Australia, Hannah Clarke's heartbroken parents say her death was not in vain.

The mother-of-three, 31, was killed along with her three children after her abusive husband, Rowan Charles Baxter, set their car alight on the school run in Brisbane on February 19.

Lloyd and Suzanne Clarke said despite being devastated by the horrific incident, her death had highlighted the severity and prevalence of unreported domestic violence.

'It's good to see goodness come out of such a horrific thing,' Ms Clarke told 7News.

Hannah Clarke (pictured with daughters Aaliyah and Laianah) was killed along with her three children after her abusive husband, Rowan Charles Baxter, set their car alight

Three months since they lost their daughter and grandchildren to a horrific murder suicide that stunned Australia, Hannah Clarke's heartbroken parents say her death was not in vain

She said she was surprised how the community rallied around her family and was 'pleased' the country was outraged over the horrific crime.

'I hope that would make a change for legislation, a change for things. People don't realise, Hannah didn't realise for years it was domestic violence,' she said.

Hannah's parents say they now have a better understanding of family violence and are speaking out to raise awareness for Domestic Violence Prevention Month.

They have also set up a charity called Small Steps 4 Hannah.

'It affects any age, any postcode. It doesn't discriminate at all,' Mr Clarke said.

But the couple admit coronavirus social distancing laws have made getting through their tough time even harder.

Suzanne Clarke (pictured) with grandaughters Aaliyah, 6 and Laianah, 4

They believed their grief would get better as time passed.

'Some days we struggle, some days we're okay. The tears are always just there,' Ms Clarke said.

The social distancing rules have isolated the couple from their family and friends.

'Especially with the isolation, not being able to have people just pop in and say hello,' Mr Clarke said.

Ms Clarke added: 'And get a hug.

'We're huggers. We love hugs. You can't do that.'

Days after their daughter and grandchildren were brutally murdered, the couple appeared on A Current Affair and explained the extent of the family's suffering at the hands of Hannah's husband.

Ms Clarke revealed her daughter had even discussed writing a will, saying: 'She said to me only last week, ''Mum should I do a will''?'

''What happens to my babies if he kills me? Because he'll go to jail for murder, who gets my children?'' She said, ''I want you and dad to have them or Nat. I don't want his family to have them''.

Lloyd Clarke (pictured with his granddaughter) enjoyed a day out at the water park with his grandchildren just days before they were burned alive

Left: Hannah Clarke pictured with her 'main man', son Trey in a beach snap. Right: Mrs Baxter on her wedding with her husband

'I didn't think he'd hurt the kids. She was concerned he would kill her. I believed that could be possible.'

The family said the dedicated mum would do anything for the young kids, and was working to start a new life for them.

Despite suffering burns to 97 per cent of her body during the horrific attack, she remarkably managed to cling on to life long enough to file a police report.

'She did everything for those kids,' her father Lloyd explained.

'To the end she fought to make sure if he survived he got punished doing to her babies. She was so brave.'

In a massacre which rocked Australia, Baxter attacked his family in Camp Hill, after putting his wife through years of emotional, sexual and financial abuse.

Mr and Ms Clarke pictured at the funeral of their daughter Hannah Clarke and her three children

Despite heroic attempts by passersby, their children Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3, all died at the scene in February.

Their mother died later in hospital.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia at the time, the couple said their daughter had finally broken free from the monstorous fitness fanatic.

She had endured years of emotional, financial and sexual abuse from her husband.

But he launched a campaign of stalking and harassment, and was due in court after breaching a domestic violence restraining order.

Ms Clarke and the three children had been living with her parents as she tried to escape her evil husband.

Aaliyah (left), 6, Laianah (right), 4, and Trey (centre), 3, were murdered by their own father

A shrine grows at the scene where Hannah and her three kids were doused in fuel and set alight, while one person leaves a poignant sign about domestic violence

They had even spent a fun day with their grandparents at a water park just days before the tragedy.

The murdered mum told friends she was a 'survivor not a victim' in a gut-wrenching final Instagram post just days before her death.

After finally breaking free from her evil husband, she said would 'never let anyone mistreat her again' and hoped her daughters would 'grow up being strong women'.

Ms Clarke had suffered at the hands of her abusive husband for more than 10 years, before finally leaving him in November.

Writing on social media during the new year period, she said: 'I am a strong woman.

'I am a survivor not a victim. I am in control of my life and there's nothing I can't achieve.

'My girls will grow up being strong women who understand their worth.'
Additional reporting: Paul Hosford

Ireland has tested more than 210,000 people for Covid-19 to date, while the case definition for getting a test appointment is to be expanded once more this week.

Speaking at yesterday evenings briefing of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) in Dublin, Dr Cillian de Gascun, head of the teams expert advisory group and director of the national virus reference laboratory, said that 214,761 tests were conducted as of midnight on Monday.

Over the past week, 61,707 tests were conducted, Dr de Gascun said, with a returned positivity rate of 2,280, or 3.7%.

That represents an almost three-fold increase on the number of tests carried out three weeks ago, when the positivity rate was 21%. And the health authorities are gearing up to increase testing to its highest levels to date.

The positivity rate reducing is a good sign. Combined with the high level of testing we are now undertaking, this gives us confidence that we are on a path towards suppression of the disease," Dr de Gascun said.

He said that Irelands current testing capacity stands at 84,000 per week, two weeks out from the deadline to reach the target of 100,000 every seven days.

That figure has been the basis of much conjecture as the State has repeatedly failed to meet the goals it had set itself, leading to suggestions of a rift between the NPHET and HSE operations due to the former allegedly communicating targets to the public before consulting with those expected to meet them.

The first mention of the key 100,000 figure itself came from the Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan on RTEs Late Late Show on April 18.

Speaking yesterday, Dr de Gascun said that no issues exist at present with the target of 100,000 tests to be carried out weekly in a fortnights time.

No, there are no issues at present. Were increasing testing capacity week on week and weve had a couple more bits of equipment arriving this week and next week to that end, so at the moment everything looks good, he said.

Its a tribute to all those working in HSE procurement. It has taken a huge amount of work to get up to where we are in terms of testing. All things are looking good for us to reach that figure, he said.

While the capability for a high level of testing may exist, it appears that just 75% of that capacity is currently being used with only those in high-risk groups currently eligible to be tested.

A number of the countrys 48 testing centres were closed over the bank holiday weekend with others operating under reduced hours, with Social Democrats leader Roisin Shortall expressing frustration at the situation.

Why are we not using the full testing capacity when the national strategy is based on test and trace? Ms Shortall said yesterday.

Dr de Gascun confirmed that the case definition, most recently expanded to allow eligibility for testing to those in high risk categories but displaying just one symptom of the virus, will be changing once more this week, though no indication was given to what form the new definition will take.

We want to be in a position where our testing capacity doesnt shape our strategy, Dr de Gascun said.

Its probably fair to say it has been in recent weeks. This week were coming to a position where that will no longer be a constraining factor for us. In the community we want to test at a capacity to in essence show whats happening with the virus in the community. Thats a piece of information we dont yet have.
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Phuket exodus numbers hit 50,000 as Governor praises efforts to get Thais home

PHUKET: The number of people who have registered to leave Phuket, mostly for loss of income due to the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, has reached 50,000, the Phuket Governor revealed today.

COVID-19economicstransport

By The Phuket News

Tuesday 5 May 2020, 05:42PM

Governor Phakaphong thanked those who even sent pickups trucks to take people back to their home provinces. Photo: PR Dept

Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana explained that an estimated 50,000 people will be leaving Phuket to return to their home provinces. Photo: PR Dept

Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana explained that an estimated 50,000 people will be leaving Phuket to return to their home provinces. Photo: PR Dept

Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana explained that an estimated 50,000 people will be leaving Phuket to return to their home provinces. Photo: PR Dept

Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana explained at a meeting at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday (May 4) that officials estimate that about 100,000 Thais from other provinces were living and working in Phuket.

However, without work or any other form of income, many of those are choosing to return home.

We estimate that there are about 50,000 people who want to return home [in other provinces] due to being unemployed and without income. Most were hotel employees, or worked in tourism service businesses, Governor Phakaphong said.

Those who are choosing to stay are doing so because they still have work, such as food delivery drivers, he explained

Governor Phakaphong repeated that people may still register to leave Phuket by completing the online form at https://www.phuket.go.th

The Governor thanked the governors of all other provinces who facilitated the process of people returning home, and thanked those who sent vehicles to pick up people to take them home.

Governor Phakaphong gave special thanks to the governor of Nakhon Phanom province and governor of Udon Thani for their efforts, but did not explain exactly what these governors did that was different from elsewhere.

He also thanked private operators for their support, providing five buses to take 105 people home to Bangkok, Ubon Ratchathani, Sisaket and Buriram.

Now they have arrived home, he said.

The overall situation is now complete. There is a well-organised system, Governor Phakaphong concluded.
To date, the city of Bostons small business relief fund has distributed roughly $2 million in grants to 561 small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic, officials announced on Tuesday.

The fund was designed to help small businesses struggling during the closures. Between federal, city and private efforts, a total of $7.5 million has been made available to Bostons business community amid the outbreak, officials said.

More than 75% of the companies receiving funds have fewer than five employees, officials said.

These businesses are the backbone of our economy, and the lifeblood of our communities," Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said. "Im proud we are able to assist them during this time, and am grateful to our partners who have stepped up in a big way to support Bostons neighborhood business community.

Walsh said the city was on track to surpass 10,000 coronavirus cases Monday. The tally of COVID-19 positive residents then stood at 9,929, and 426 people have died.

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Hi, Poonam. Hi. Nice to meet you. My contractions are about 15 minutes apart. And Im about to get pulled into an O.R. at Cornell to have a C-section. Like any minute now, theyre going to come pull me through that door. And Im gloved-up and masked-up. And my husbands all suited-up. Hes literally in a hazmat suit. Doctor: Dad, do you want to grab those shoes and throw them? Theyre pulling me in. I have to go. Thank you. My name is Poonam Sharma Mathis. My husband is Kris Mathis. We have a 4-year-old, Pierce Mathis. I need some Monday motivation, Pierce. My first birth was pretty uneventful. The baby came out, we made eye contact and then I closed my eyes, and I woke up in the recovery room. Everybody was kissing him and hugging him. And I felt like the community and the village that hes so blessed to be a part of was there. I grew up with a lot of extended family and a lot of love. Wed been wanting a girl in this generation so badly. So when we found out we were having a girl, we were just grateful. I was 37 weeks pregnant when they started to issue stay-at-home orders. OK, so I am officially scared. Im having contractions this morning. I am not a hypochondriac. Im not somebody whos really prone to general mass hysteria. But we are  Im breathless. We are dealing with something we dont understand. Kris: Only a couple of days prior to our birth, they had been saying no partners, no spouses. I was probably one of the first spouses that was allowed into the hospital. I was walking, and it was like, do not touch anything. Make sure your mask is on. Put the booties over your shoes. My husband could catch it right now. Right? He could bring it home, and give it to my son whos 4 and a half. And theres a thought about going home with my daughter, and then just immediately quarantining myself and my daughter. Doctor: All right, Mom, are you ready? Do you want to open your eyes for me? No? Her name is Asha: 7 pounds, 11 ounces. They put her skin on my chest. But I had a mask on, so I wasnt breathing on her. Daddy is cuddling with her. Its weird. She opened her eyes right when she was born  really wide. And then I havent seen her eyes since. She didnt like what she saw or something. Our expectations were that I probably wasnt going to be there anyway. So just being there for the delivery and seeing the baby, meeting the baby, it was a really exciting thing for me. You realize you have to do a father-daughter dance, and give her away one day? But then immediately after the birth, I had to say goodbye. Say, good night. Sweet dreams. Its 11:30 at night. Im in my room. I just breastfed. [Asha crying] I wore a mask, and I threw up. The only good news is they let her stay in my room because babies are not being kept in the nursery right now. Theyre being kept with the mom. The next step is that we are waiting for news of my coronavirus status. Based on that result, theyll decide how much interaction Ill be having with her, for her own safety. So now we wait. I just want to kiss her. It was really exciting to find out that we tested negative, because that meant I could kiss her head. But its definitely different delivering and recovering in a hospital during coronavirus, and it hit me yesterday. Yesterday was the worst day of physical pain in my life. I genuinely thought I might die. This is one of the most intense surgeries you can have, is a C-section. But if you have any air bubbles that go into your stomach when they cut you open, which is normal, those air bubbles dont come out right away. Then they float around your body, I guess, and they feel like knives stabbing you from the inside until they come out. And they dont want to come out. It is so traumatic being here without somebody to advocate for you when things go wrong, because theres too much going on. They are overwhelmed. Im pushing the call button to get care, and they dont come right away. And last time I gave birth here, four and a half years ago, they did everything right away because they were able to. I was in so much pain for so long, and waiting for my medication for so long, that I was throwing up. I threw up eight times from pain. It feels like I was in a horror movie where they chopped somebody up, but then the person escapes and is running to safety. And thats a ridiculous thing to say. We have the best health care. Were in the best city. But thats how it feels. I just want to get her home as soon as possible. And hopefully then Im able to walk and stand, and do something to help my husband take care of these kids. Thursday at around 1:30, my husband and son came and picked us up. She was so excited to meet you she didnt know what to do. Asha. I havent left the upstairs from Thursday till now. Its Monday morning. Theres so much family thats just waiting, itching to rush in and be with us. And who knows if that will happen before shes 3 months old. One toe is kind of curving. Yeah. Will she wrap her finger around your finger if you put it in there? Poonam: Shes like a little animal, huh? Youre going to be such a good big brother. Poonam: Mm-hmm. Im just grateful that shes healthy. Im grateful that so far, my husband and myself and my son are healthy. I look at her eyes, and I do believe that the eyes show something even from birth. Whenever she does open her eyes, she just looks and shes just laser-focused. And its not a curious focus. Its like  like she knows she needs to be calm right now or something. I had a great aunt who always said that if she could come back, shed come back as my daughter. So maybe thats her, I hope. If so, nothings going to keep her down.
Boarding school students across Western Australia will return to their home away from home as of Tuesday after the state government reopened a select few public school residential facilities.

Boarding school students across the state can return from Tuesday. Credit:Arsineh Houspian

The students return comes after the national cabinet declared boarding schools and school-based residential colleges could reopen where student and staff numbers can be managed safely and where health requirements can be met.

Schools will open on a facility-by-facility basis, depending on a range of factors including size, capacity, current enrolments and the ability to adhere to hygiene requirements.

However, all WA Year 12 students will be able to return to every public school boarding facility, including residential boarding colleges and the residential boarding available at the colleges of agriculture.
Opponents and proponents of vaping will have a chance to lobby Melbourne City Council before it decides whether to ban e-cigarettes from smoke-free areas.

The public will have about a month to make submissions to the council on a local law to make vaping illegal in the 11 smoke-free zones in the CBD, including at Bourke Street Mall and along the Tan running track.

Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp. Credit:Jason South

The health effects of vaping as well as the public amenity issues caused by vaping smoke will be considered by councillors.

Vaping advocates, including the British Royal College of Physicians, say vaping causes no danger to bystanders and helps smokers quit cigarettes. Other groups, including Quit Victoria, say e-cigarettes produce an aerosol and their second-hand smoke is potentially harmful.
Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen warned Monday morning that major retail stores may be hindering the ability of smaller businesses to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic by not following guidelines to prevent the spread of the virus.

In a series of tweets, the outgoing GOP speaker cited some of our largest home improvement superstores, saying workers are not wearing masks and keeping 6 feet of distance. He put the onus on the stores corporate owners to make sure the guidelines are being followed, suggesting their negligence hurts small businesses that would like to reopen soon.

"These owners are the engine moving the reopening of Texas forward so they can pay their bills and employees, Bonnen wrote. "It is time we start calling out the retail giants for their disgusting disregard for the safety of others and the well-being of their neighboring businesses.
Restaurants, bars and hotels would come next, followed by a fourth, and final, phase that would include attractions like cinemas and theaters, including Broadway, a powerful financial force in New York City.

The governors announcement came after states that have not been hit as hard by the pandemic moved toward restarting their economies in a limited fashion. In one of those states, California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said bookstores, florists, clothing shops and some other businesses could begin meeting customers for curbside pickup as soon as Friday.

But New York, the U.S. epicenter of the outbreak, with nearly 25,000 deaths and more than 300,000 cases, has moved more cautiously.

Charlotte St. Martin, the president of the Broadway League, which represents theater owners and producers, said on Monday that ever since shows went dark in March, there has been an understanding that Broadway houses would be among the last businesses to return.

Its just common sense, Ms. St. Martin said, noting that Broadway theaters tend to be tightly packed, and productions could not afford to put on shows at half capacity. We hate it, but we get it.

Schools, which have already been canceled statewide for the rest of the academic year, would also be covered in the final reopening phase.

The calculations apply to the states 10 regions, which include heavily populated areas like New York City and its suburbs and large rural swaths of upstate like the Southern Tier, which borders Pennsylvania.
- In a WhatsApp conversation screenshot shared by a source close to the Rwandese lady, she claimed she did not know the TV host

- The woman identified as @Mivanoella emerged after news of Raburu's reportedly failed marriage went viral

- She also questioned why people were being mean to her and they had never met her before

- As of May 5, the Citizen TV anchor was yet to address or comment on the break-up rumours

A woman who has been reported to be at the centre of Willi Raburu and Mary Ngami's allegedly failed marriage has denied the allegations.

The young lady's photos went viral after many insinuated she was the one who was warming the news anchor's bed after separating with his wife.

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READ ALSO: Abandoned for being childless: Kenyan woman discloses hubby of 25 years left her for secretary

In a screenshot making rounds on social media, the lady identified as Mivanoella on Instagram denied having met the TV anchor.

The screenshot was shared by a close friend who inquired to know what was going on and the beautiful lass revealed she was heartbroken.

"I am crying right now. Everybody is sending me that. I do not even know the guy," read the screenshot.

READ ALSO: Seremala anayeshutumiwa kwa wizi wa kitoroli azirai kortini kabla ya kesi kutajwa

The beauty went on to question why people were so cruel to someone they had never laid their eyes on.

"Like how can people just bad mouth somebody they have never met," she added.

Mivanoela's photos emerged in Kenya after news of Willis Raburu's separation with his wife went viral.

Raburu and his wife had allegedly broken up over a month ago and were living miles apart from each other.

Word in the street had it that a source close to the two revealed the reason behind the separation could be infidelity.

As of May 5, the TV host was yet to address the rumours going round on social media.

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.

My life is in danger, get me out of Saudi Arabia- Sheila Andalo | Tuko TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Bill Gates has donated $10 million to an Australian trial of a vaccine that researchers hope will prevent severe cases of COVID-19 in at-risk groups such as healthcare workers and the elderly.

The billionaire Microsoft founder's funding, the largest single donation to Australias COVID-19 research effort so far, comes after weeks of discussions between the Melbourne-based lead researcher, Professor Nigel Curtis, and Mr Gates' scientific advisers.

Professor Nigel Curtis is leading the trial of a vaccine to boost the body's immune response to COVID-19. Credit:Jason South

The trial is testing an immune-boosting vaccine typically used against tuberculosis called BCG. It will now expand internationally to the Netherlands and Spain with the aim of testing the vaccines effect on 10,000 healthcare workers worldwide.

Professor Curtis said it is hoped the BCG vaccine could be used as a stop-gap booster against coronavirus until a specific COVID-19 vaccine is developed  estimated to be 12 to 18 months away but with no guarantees.
TDT | Manama

The Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB)  the Kingdoms investment promotion agency  has entered into a proactive initiative with GrowIN Portugal, a platform that helps entrepreneurs incorporate, fund, expand and move their startups to Portugal.

The agreement will serve to promote cooperation between the two organisations, particularly in regards to supporting startups globally during the ongoing pandemic by connecting their two ecosystems.

Both parties have agreed to collaborate on the promotion of key events and opportunities in their respective markets. This, as well as agreeing to promote opportunities for developing the startup markets in their respective countries, support startups by arranging introductory meetings with key ecosystem stakeholders in both countries, and exchange information on the evolution of their respective startup markets.

This timely initiative will provide some much-needed support for not just Bahraini and Portuguese startups, but startups from around the world, said Bahrain EDB Startups head Pakiza Abdulrahman.

The ongoing crisis has hit almost all economic sectors, including the startup industry, and across the globe, were seeing an unprecedented slowdown.

By connecting and thereby bolstering our two ecosystems, Startup Bahrain and GrowIN Portugal are providing a lifeline for innovative startups seeking a supportive environment in which they are able to empower the digital economy in their respective countries.

GrowIN Portugal Chief Executive Officer Anas El Arras commented: Startups need support now more than ever before, so we are delighted to be collaborating with Bahrain EDB to do just that.

Bahrain and Portugal each offer supportive ecosystems complete with funding support, highly skilled labour forces, cutting-edge digital infrastructure and world-class accelerators. Moreover, we each sit on the doorstep of major markets: Europe and MENA, respectively.

By combining forces, combining ecosystems, we can provide a global space to accelerate startups from around the world, and ensure innovation is not hampered by the global crisis.

Today, both countries trade in a number of items with a focus on aluminium, paper and cotton products. As of 2019, the non-oil trade between the two countries accounted for nearly $22million, increasing from $6.7million in 2009.

The signing of the agreement follows on from a Bahrain EDB delegation to Lisbon in October of last year, where it announced a fast-track setup process for startups globally looking to take advantage of the business environment and a well-connected startup community through the Startup Bahrain initiative.

With its flexible regulatory environment, the availability of multiple accelerators, access to funding opportunities, world-class physical and digital infrastructure, and some of the lowest set-up and operating costs in the region, hyper-connected Bahrain is increasingly the destination of choice for companies from all over the world seeking to access the growing $1.5trillion Gulf markets. The Kingdom is keen to attract more Portuguese companies and startups.
Death row inmates at a Livingston-area prison sued the state's prison system after drastic health and safety conditions put them at great risk of contracting the new coronavirus.

The Texas Innocence Network filed a lawsuit on behalf of the 208 death-sentenced prisoners. They claimed the prisoners were refused access to basic necessities-including soap, towels, hand sanitizers, and masks.

Attorneys say the state's criminal justice department violated guaranteed rights against cruel and unusual punishments by denying inmates much-needed hygiene products at the Allan B. Polunsky Unit.

They also claim the department's leaders violated the prisoners' rights to access to legal counsel as well as accommodations for people with disabilities. The rights are under the First, Eighth, and 14th Amendments. It also includes the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Health Threat

David R. Dow, one of the attorneys, said the conditions inside the prison unit poses a grave threat to the health and security of the prisoners. Most of them have pre-existing medical conditions, making them extremely vulnerable to the virus.

COVID-19 spreads through bodily fluids from coughs and sneezes. Without personal cleaning products, prisoners who are infected can easily spread the virus to fellow inmates, staff, and other individuals in the surrounding communities.

Dow suggests immediate action should be taken to improve conditions within the corrections facility and prevent a devastating outbreak.

Access Denied

According to the inmates, the correction officers in the Polunsky Unit do not wear face masks or clean gloves as advised by federal health agencies. Commonly used areas and items such as phone booths, phones, doorknobs, and handcuffs are not regularly sanitized. The prisoners are also denied regular baths.

While there are signages about the virus posted inside the prison, people with vision problems and reading or intellectual disabilities face difficulties. The system has also imposed an "arbitrary limit" over the inmates' mode of communication. The limits make it harder for them to consult with legal counsel.

The lawsuit said refusing to conduct a swift intervention, people inside the prison facility will face an immediate and devastating outbreak of COVID-19. Many high-risk inmates could also suffer from severe and possibly life-threatening health complications brought about by the virus.

Remedies

The inmates laid out several solutions to address their health and safety concerns. They requested fewer restrictions on calls to attorneys, regular cleaning routines in the unit, and improved coronavirus signages. They also asked for access to personal hygiene products and access to regular showers.

The lawsuit closely followed former litigation by older inmates at the Wallace Pack Unit. The prisoners were granted unrestricted access to antibacterial hand soap, hand sanitizers, and bleach-based cleaning supplies, among others. They were also successful in asking for increased social distancing measures inside the state prison located northwest of Houston.

There are no recorded coronavirus cases at the Polunsky unit that involved inmates. However, three employers were reported to be carriers. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice placed the entire unit on a precautionary lockdown to curb the spread of the virus.

Keep yourself updated with the latest news in the Americas:
Despite the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) opening a special liquidity window worth Rs 50,000 crore to mutual funds (MFs) on April 27, industry observers say that the move is not enough. The steps may not quite address the liquidity crisis that fund houses have been facing, apart from being a bit too late. As per a May 5 RBI press release, only Rs 2430 crore of a total of Rs 50,000 crore has been lent to mutual funds. The RBIs special liquidity window allowed banks to either lend to MFs or to buy the securities, such as commercial papers, debentures and certificate of deposits from fund houses.

But industry observers say that this doesnt solve the liquidity problem, especially for fund houses such as Franklin Templeton in whose schemes many small investors and small and medium firms monies are stuck.

The Foundation of Independent Financial advisors (FIFA). The FIFA is one of Indias largest mutual fund distributor associations with around Rs 1.5 trillion worth of assets. It has written to the finance ministry, the capital market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the RBI urging the Central Bank to set up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to buy bonds directly from mutual funds.

Liquidity crunch

The liquidity crisis that debt funds, particularly credit risk schemes, had been facing throughout March 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, peaked on April 23 when Franklin Templeton wound up six of its debt funds. Due to the redemption pressures that Franklin Templeton had been facing, it had already sold its most liquid securities, exhausted its borrowing limits that each MF scheme is entitled to (20 percent of the corpus) and had even approached SEBI to increase the limits. Although SEBI did increase the limit to 40 percent in some of its schemes, Templeton stopped borrowing after a point. This, coupled with the inability to liquidate securities in the portfolio in the current market environment, led us to believe that it is not prudent for the schemes to borrow increasing amounts of money for meeting redemption obligations, said a Franklin Templeton spokesperson over email.

Banks' risk aversion

Although RBI has nudged banks to lend, they have not been lending to non-AAA rated securities. Within the Targeted Long-Term Repo Operations (TLTRO)-2 that the RBI announced on April 17, a sum of Rs 50,000 crore was made available to banks to lend to non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), with at least 50 percent of the total amount earmarked for small and mid-sized NBFCs and micro-finance institutions. But only Rs 12,850 crore was lent by banks. The first TLTRO announced on March 27 had made Rs 1 trillion available to banks, for lending against investment grade corporate securities. All securities with a credit rating of BBB and above are investment grade.

As banks still did not lend to such lower-rated entities, the RBI announced TLTRO-2, which too didnt help much.

Meanwhile, fund houses, saddled with non-AAA-rated investment grade securities, continued to face a liquidity crisis. When Franklin Templeton finally wound up six of its debt funds, RBI announced a special liquidity window. A senior fund official who did not wish to be named said that even if fund houses borrow from banks under the special window, they would still need to repay at a later date. Plus, after paying back the loans, the onus of selling those collaterised securities would still fall on mutual funds. What if liquidity doesnt come back for months, he wonders.

The root cause is risk-aversion. Banks have TLTRO 2, special liquidity window for MFs, but not availing it because of the risk in NBFCs, particularly the lesser ones. There should be help either with the Government guaranteeing a portion of NBFC loans / bonds through a contingency fund or ultimately RBI buying directly. If banks get the confidence, they will not be saddled with bad loans / bonds, with support from RBI / Government or an SPV for guaranteeing these loans / bonds, the wheels would start moving, says Joydeep Sen, founder, wiseinvestor.in.

FIFA has suggested that the RBI set up an SPV that would buy these non-AAA rated investment grade securities, outright, from fund houses. This method, says Dhruv Mehta, chairman of FIFA, will also help Franklin Templeton offload some of its securities faster and pay off its investors ahead of the schedule it has formally laid out. Some of the six Templeton funds could, as per the fund houses conservative estimates, take as long as three to four years to repay the money back to investors. In early April, the US Federal Reserve launched a program called the Main Street Lending program wherein it will give money to small and mid-sized companies by buying their bonds directly. The buyback program is not unheard of. The SPV can buy such bonds from mutual funds and then subsequently liquidate them or hold to maturity with the portfolios currently having double-digit yield to maturities, says Dhruv.
The Anchorage Daily and ProPublica won the Pulitzer Prize in public service on Monday for illuminating public safety gaps in Alaska, revealing that a third of villages had no police protection.

The riveting series spurred legislative changes and an influx of spending, the judges noted in an announcement postponed several weeks because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The New York Times won the investigative reporting prize for an expose of predatory lending in the New York City taxi industry and also took the international reporting award for what the judges called enthralling stories, reported at great risk, about Russian President Vladimir Putin's government.

The Washington Post's work on the environmental effects of extreme temperatures was recognised for explanatory reporting.

The Associated Press won the feature photography prize for images shot during the clampdown on Kashmir after India's Parliament revoked Article 370 that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state into two Union Territories.

Reuters won the breaking photography award for its coverage of protests that shook Hong Kong.

The initial Pulitzer ceremony, which had been scheduled for April 20, was pushed to give Pulitzer Board members who were busy covering the pandemic more time to evaluate the finalists.

The awards luncheon that is traditionally held at Columbia University in May will be postponed, as well. Details of a fall celebration will be announced at a later date, the Pulitzer Board said.

The Pulitzer Prizes in journalism were first awarded in 1917 and are considered the field's most prestigious honour in the US.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Ed McRedmond, John Davenport PhD, and Martin Plachko CIMA Join Firm as Partners & Senior ConsultantsCOLUMBUS, OH / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / Impact Partners Consulting & Distribution LLC, a registered investment advisor (RIA), announced today Ed McRedmond, Dr. John Davenport and Marty Plachko CIMA have joined the firm as Partners expanding its leadership, consulting and distribution team."We are pleased to announce today three key additions to our team of experienced industry veterans, that further expand our consulting and distribution capabilities," said Richard Ranck CIMA, CKA, and founder of Impact Partners. "These additions will advance our mission to empower advisors through best in class services and investment options (public and private) as they seek trusted partnerships that help them grow their business and serve clients with excellence." Ed McRedmond joined the firm as Senior Advisor, Key Accounts. Ed is the Founder of etfEd Advisory and has over twenty years of experience in the ETF industry in a variety of roles including key accounts, institutional sales, relationship management, platform development, research and model portfolio management. Ed has extensive industry contacts globally among professional buyers, centers-of-influence and gatekeepers across the broker-dealer, global bank, ETF strategist and Institutional channels, along with capital markets, index providers and major stock exchanges.Martin Plachko, CIMA joined the firm in March as head of distribution and consulting efforts for the west coast. Martin has more than two decades of investment management experience serving financial advisors, RIAs and family offices. He previously served in business development roles with Invesco, PowerShares and BNY Mellon | Pershing.John Davenport, PhD joined the firm in April as head of distribution and consulting for the east coast. John has more than two decades of portfolio management, and business development experience with roles at Invesco, PowerShares and RYDEX-SGI. He previously was director of research for a large regional RIA in the mid-Atlantic, and served as a portfolio strategist with Wachovia Securities, helping manage the multi-billion-dollar discretionary portfolio models. John is a published author in the areas of investment management and organizational leadership, an adjunct professor, and served in the United States Army.About Impact Partners Consulting & DistributionImpact Partners Consulting & Distribution is a registered investment advisor (RIA) based in Columbus, Ohio. The firm leverages best in class financial resources, in-depth industry experience and the latest technologies to help advisors simplify and streamline all the moving pieces involved in running a successful financial advisory firm. From helping to attract new clients, optimize investment portfolios, and incorporate the latest technology for lowering costs, Impact Partners Consulting & Distribution, LLC was created to be fully aligned with financial advisors and their business. Impact Partners provides a suite of productivity enhancing services and investment tools developed to strengthen the relationship between advisors and their clients, better enabling them to consistently offer innovative, high-touch communication and guidance with ease.Impact Partners website offers advisor resources and an efficient way to connect with our team and strategic partners through links and built in calendars for scheduling meetings for the day/time of your choice. Access our partners and category research, blog content, short videos, webcasts and more. For additional information, please visit impactpartnerscd.com If you are an investment firm or service provider looking for a partner to enhance communication with and serve advisors, we would welcome an opportunity to talk with you. If you are an experienced client facing industry professional, we are looking to add to our team as we serve advisors with our trusted partners.Media ContactBill Conboy303-415-2290bill@ bccapitalpartners.com Strategic PartnersAwaken Generosity & Giving - Uncommon GivingGrow, Attract, Retain & Serve Clients:StoryBrand your Advisory Business with Hughes IntegratedAdvisor ConsultingSMA's and Mutual Funds, Applied Finance, Promethos CapitalDirect Indexing - Veriti ManagementPrivate Investments - T2 Capital Management, Ag Solutions Capital, LLCMergers & Acquisitions - Stillwater CapitalETFs - coming soonSOURCE: Impact Partners Consulting & Distribution
Mumbais civic body revoked on Tuesday permissions for stores selling liquor and non-essential supplies after huge crowds on the citys streets disregarded social distancing norms necessary to curb the spread of Covid-19, becoming the first region in the country to roll back the relaxations allowed in the ongoing national lockdown.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Praveen Pardeshi issued a circular on Tuesday stating that only groceries and medical stores will be allowed to stay open. This came on a day the state crossed the 15,000 mark for Covid-19 cases (15, 525) and registered 984 cases.

There are multiple reports, news in social media and inputs received from the police and the ward officials that due to above relaxation there has been huge crowds gathering near these shops and where it has been impossible to maintain social distancing and there were few instances of law and order situation arising out of such crowds gathering at one place, the circular stated. It has been observed that number of positive cases in the city of Mumbai have been rising and the downward trend to set in an gathering of crowds in large numbers without following social distancing will be detrimental to the control of spread of virus and the advantages of the lockdown will be lost due to gathering of people in large numbers, it further read.

Cities, towns and villages across India saw snaking queues outside liquor stores and other shops on Monday after the government relaxed restrictions and allowed shops selling liquor and non-essential supplies to open after nearly 40 days.

But with Mumbais Covid-19 numbers nudging 10,000  the city registered 9,945 cases with 635 new infections on Tuesday  Pardeshi said the authorities feared that the relaxations were likely to deteriorate the situation.

Traders criticised the move. Viren Shah, president of Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association ( FRTWA), said, Shopkeepers across Mumbai are shocked and confused with the governments change in stand every other day.There was no issue with opening of non- essential product stores in Mumbai. Queues were noticed outside wine shops and not outside other non-essential stores. So why other non-essential shops be asked to shut?

Of the new cases in Maharashtra on Tuesday, 841 were reported in last 24 hours, while the remaining 143 were carried forward from the previous few days in accordance with the central governments directive to bring on par state data with national figures on the website of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the state government stated. The state also registered 34 fatalities on Tuesday, pushing the death toll up to 617.

With numbers rising, a worried state government has instructed district officials to double down on enforcement of restrictions in containment zones and disperse crowds.

A senior government official said chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has directed the district authorities to contain the spread of the virus by the end of May but full containment by then looks difficult. He has set the target and asked the authorities to ensure strictest monitoring under the principle of 3-Ts (tracing, testing and treatment) in containment areas. He has also asked them to focus on shrinking containment zones to neutralize the areas. Though the cases are not expected to come to nil so soon, we expect downward trend to begin by then, the official added.
In todays world of instant communications and instant opinions, almost everything that a government does or does not do attracts a point of view.

Debate is healthy, especially in a democracy, as differing opinions are a useful feedback tool for the government of the day to know whether the steps they have taken have met with applause or opprobrium.

The recent press conference of the Chief of Defence Staff, with the three service chiefs flanking him, the announcements made as well as the follow-up seen on Sunday, May 3, have been the subject of heated television debates, articles in print and discussions on the social media.

Most of the views that were expressed, especially that of a former Navy Chief, are antagonistic to this show of support by the armed forces. There is also an article comparing the CDS to Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw and quoting the late field marshal on the characteristics of a yes man, and how a yes man is detrimental to any organisation.

In all this cacophony, the voice of the common man is being drowned out. However, before I come to that, the issue is not about the CDS being a yes man or not. The point that must be understood is that the armed forces of any nation should be in sync with the government of the day and should reflect its ethos.

The main role of the armed forces is operational. Nothing can change that, nothing will change that, and nothing can impinge upon that. Early on May 3, the Army lost four personnel, including the commanding officer of a Rashtriya Rifles battalion, in close combat with terrorists.

Such operations will continue, and the Army will continue to defend the countrys interests wherever and whenever called upon to do so.

There is also another role for the armed forces that the nation sees on display on Republic Day and other occasions, that may or may not be seen by the civilian population. It is the ceremonial role the armed forces play when the occasion so demands. The press conference by the CDS and the follow-up actions pertain purely to the ceremonial role of the armed forces. Those who were expecting profound operational pronouncements from the CDS were naturally disappointed.

So also those who expected to hear what the armed forces were doing in fighting the epidemic, perhaps not realising that the armed forces act according to the directions of the government of the day and cannot usurp the responsibilities and duties of other wings of the government. The armed forces are only a backup in such situations and are not to be used in the forefront of this war.

What was conveyed by the CDS was that the armed forces would like to express their solidarity with the Covid warriors and how they would go about doing it. A prosaic pronouncement indeed, but one of huge significance, given what the country is going through today.

Thus, what is being seen is the armed forces way of thanking the Covid warriors as the police, medical staff and civil administration are referred to. For over a month now, these people have been in the forefront of this battle against the virus, and yet at the same time ensured no breakdown of law and order as well as made certain the uninterrupted flow of essential goods and services. So, in support of these frontline Covid warriors, the warriors in uniform are expressing their gratitude.

The Army asked its bands to go to the medical colleges and play for the staff there; the Air Force organised flypasts by fixed-wing aircraft and showering of rose petals by helicopters, while the Indian Navy expressed its solidarity by lighting up the ships in harbour. How do these acts impinge upon the operational preparedness of the armed forces?

Financially, too, the flypasts are not wasteful, as some would have us believe. They are just a coordinated effort of routine training of pilots that in any case goes on.

There is also the criticism that these acts are reserved for commemorative occasions only. The question that needs to be asked is if an act like lighting up ships is reserved for commemorative occasions, does it imply that it should not be done on other important occasions?

Today we are facing an unprecedented situation in the country, in fact across the world. If such acts of expressing solidarity with those fighting this battle are not important enough, then what is? These acts have captured the imagination of our country. All we need to do is surf the news channels and hear what those at the forefront of this war are saying, not the so-called experts who indulge in government-bashing every other day. The critics have missed the wood for the trees.

Lt. Gen. Gautam Moorthy (Retd) is a former DG Ordnance Services
Dozens of Rohingya have been stranded at sea for weeks as they desperately tried to reach Malaysia - STR/AFP

At first, Rohingya refugee Mohammed Shobbir Ahmed was relieved when he received a 4am call on Saturday that his teenage daughters had arrived safely back on Bangladeshi shores after spending weeks in peril adrift at sea.

But his anguish returned when he learned their attempted flight from the squalid refugee camp near Coxs Bazar to a better life in Malaysia had resulted in them being banished to Bhasan Char, a remote cyclone-prone silt island in the Bay of Bengal that aid agencies have not yet cleared for habitation.

I received a phone call from an unknown number the day the boat landed in Coxs Bazar. My daughter said that while trying to reach land, they had been arrested and were being sent somewhere, the 48-year-old father told The Telegraph.

She said we are on the boat. We heard that they are sending us to Bhasan Char, he said. He now fears he will never be reunited with his children Imtiaz Begum, 19, and Shawkat Ara Begum, 17.

The Bangladeshi authorities have since confirmed that a group of up to 29 refugees, among them reportedly women and children, have been transferred to the controversial island in the Bay of Bengal.

They are believed to be part of a larger group of up to 350 refugees still stranded at sea after trying to flee desperate conditions in the worlds largest refugee camp, Kutupalong, which houses more than one million Rohingya who fled a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing by the Myanmar army.

The United Nations has warned that those still afloat face another human tragedy of terrible proportions as countries chase them from their coastlines. In April, some 70 people tragically starved to death as they drifted aimlessly across open waters.

Kutupalong in southern Bangladesh is the largest refugee camp in the world - Shafiqur Rahman/AP

But human rights groups fear the Bangladeshi government may use the refugees plight and fears about the spread of Covid-19 to start enacting their long-held ambition to relocate about 100,000 refugees to the muddy silt islet, bypassing aid agencies concerns about living conditions.

Story continues

Dhaka argues that the relocation would take pressure off the overcrowded border camp in Coxs Bazar and has constructed living quarters and a nine-foot high embankment around the island - which only emerged about two decades ago - to keep out tidal surges during cyclones.

Opponents of the move have likened Bhasan Char to a prison with limited health and education facilities. They warn that powerful cyclones in the past half a century have killed hundreds of thousands of people in the Meghna river estuary where the island is located.

Rohingya communities have resisted attempts to force them onto the island and the long-standing request of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) - that comprehensive technical and protection assessments must be carried out before anyone is moved there - so far remains unfulfilled.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said the decision to drop the rescued boatload on Bhasan Char was clearly a shift in Bangladesh policy and accused the authorities of using the excuse that the refugees were new arrivals who came from Myanmar rather than the camp.

While the Bangladesh government maintained the 29 were just being sent there for quarantine, it's looking more like a one-way ticket to this remote, de facto detention island, he said.

The next likely step will then be to pressure the family members of the 29 Rohingya at Bhasan Char to agree to go to the island if they want to reunite with their relatives, he added, predicting that the pattern would be repeated with others rescued from boats until there was a starter community on the island.

More than 1 million ethnic Rohingya have been displaced - STR/AFP

One unnamed Rohingya refugee in Kutupalong told Human Rights Watch that a government official on Bhasan Char told his daughter that your parents will be brought here.

The man said: We did not care how much we had to pay to get our daughters back, but now there is uncertainty about whether they will return from Bhasan Char, or whether we will also be forced to relocate there by Bangladesh authorities.

Amnesty International has joined the calls for humane treatment of Rohingya refugees.

"While the Rohingya need safe disembarkation immediately for a chance to survive, taking them to any remote island away from families, treatment, protection and humanitarian facilities, can amount to more distress," said Saad Hammadi, South Asia Campaigner.

Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi government spokesman, denied that there had been a change in policy and said the authorities were putting the safety of refugees first.

The Covid-19 pandemic has necessitated shifting of some refugees from the camps where they are living without maintaining social distance and that poses risks for the community transmission of the deadly virus, he told The Telegraph.

One can understand how disastrous it would be if the virus spreads in the densely populated [camps] where more than a million refugees are now living. The government is taking this measure only to contain the spread of the virus and save the lives of refugees.

Mr Chowdhury said the move had been done with the knowledge of international agencies working in the camp.

However, UNHCR said that preparations had been made to ensure the safe quarantine of refugees arriving by boat in Coxs Bazar.

A group of some 400 Rohingya refugees who left Bangladesh by boat only to return in distress over a fortnight ago have now returned to their families in Kutupalong after a required 14-day quarantine period. None had shown any symptoms of Covid-19.
A top U.S. health official who said he was ousted over his concerns regarding a drug pushed by the Trump administration for the coronavirus also clashed repeatedly with his superiors over other issues related to the pandemic, according to a complaint the official filed Tuesday.

Rick Bright, who had served as the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority until the end of last month, disagreed with his supervisors at the Department of Health and Human Services over the seriousness of the threat of the novel coronavirus, shortages of protective gear and contracts that went to companies with political connections.

Attorneys for Bright filed the complaint with the Office of Special Counsel. The document says Bright's former boss, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Robert Kadlec, created a culture of cronyism that didn't emphasize scientific data. Bright wants to remain as BARDA director.

A spokesperson for HHS didn't respond to a request for comment.

The 89-page document outlines Bright's concerns over contracts he says HHS officials pushed based on political considerations rather than scientific data. Bright raised red flags regarding hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, two drugs Trump and his administration had touted as Covid-19 treatments despite a lack of clinical evidence.

"Dr. Bright opposed the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as lacking scientific merit," the complaint said, "even though the Administration promoted it as a panacea and demanded that New York and New Jersey be 'flooded' with these drugs, which were imported from factories in Pakistan and India that had not been inspected" by U.S. drug regulators.

Bright was specifically concerned that Bayer's donation of one million chloroquine doses to the strategic national stockpile consisted of drugs made in uninspected overseas factories. He said in the complaint he was told March 23 to "drop everything" and make the donation available to the American public. The Food and Drug Administration has said it tested the pills' quality.

Bright pushed to make the drugs available only in a limited pilot and then worked with the FDA's Janet Woodcock, who leads the agency's drug center, to craft an emergency authorization for the drug that limited it to hospitalized patients. The emergency authorization "would better protect patients by enabling physicians to closely monitor their progress in a hospital setting and treat any side effects of the drug," according to the complaint.

Bright also says he tried to warn HHS Secretary Alex Azar and other officials about the seriousness of the virus and the nation's lack of preparedness on January 23. He was later told that raising his concerns and pushing for federal funds for BARDA created a controversy and offended HHS leadership.
Susan Donofrio

FTI Consulting has added Susan Donofrio, Angelo Thalassinos and Brian Waldman to its strategic communications unit to bolster its expertise in the airline and restructuring categories.

Donofrio, who has more than 20 years of experience in the airline business, joins from Macquarie Holdings, where she was a senior equity research analyst focused on the aerospace, air freight and online travel industry sectors.

Earlier, she was IR chief at Hawaiian Airlines and lead IR consultant at CIT Aerospace.

Thalassinos, a restructuring expert, will work with cross-segment teams to develop and execute multi-stakeholder communications strategies that promote business continuity and maximize value for in- and out-of-court restructuring scenarios.

He was at Reorg Research, Inc., where he led distressed debt and restructuring coverage in the Americas focusing on Chapter 11 bankruptcies and related state and federal litigation.

Waldman was senior VP at Teneo and a member of its strategy & communications unit concentrating on M&As, crisis response and investor engagement.

He joins FTI's special situations and financial communications teams.

The trio takes the managing director title and is based in New York.
The dining room is closed and a for sale sign is mounted on the brick facade but West End culinary cornerstone Casa Grande Pizzeria hasn't turned the ovens off just yet.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 5/5/2020 (623 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The dining room is closed and a for sale sign is mounted on the brick facade but West End culinary cornerstone Casa Grande Pizzeria hasn't turned the ovens off just yet.

Owner Frank Grande said after 44 years of business at the corner of Sargent Avenue and Wall Street the Italian pizzeria and restaurant is for sale.

"Im hoping to find someone who would like to continue it and its a viable business," Grande said. "Its a well-known name and, as long as my health holds up, Im certainly willing to train somebody thats willing to put in the time and the effort to make a go of it."

The 60-year-old restaurateur said hes been entertaining offers from interested parties to take the family business off his hands for the past year and a few people have been by to kick the tires. While retirement was still some years away, recent health concerns have spurred him to find an "exit plan" and post the for sale signs in April.

"Its something that I need to take care of," Grande said. "Thats the reason why Im selling. The business is still good. It has more to do with me getting on in age and with my health."

Despite provincial government orders shuttering dining rooms to stem the spread of COVID-19, the kitchen continues to serve up authentic Italian recipes for takeout and delivery, and loyal clientele continue to support the operation even with the real estate notice out front. With a family history stretching half a century in the neighbourhood, the West End local said support for the business is ingrained in the community.

The family moved to Winnipeg in the mid-1960s and Grande and his brother Tony cut their teeth at restaurants in the West End before deciding to open up their own at 984 Sargent Ave. The pair purchased the two-storey, 2,300-square-foot restaurant in 1976 and retrofitted the former breakfast spot into the traditional Italian eatery that has become a multi-generational destination.

Tony retired about a decade ago, Grande said, and the operation has continued ticking under front-of-house manager Terry McIvor, whose tenure stretches 30 years.

Try our Dish The latest on food and drink in Winnipeg and beyond from arts writers Ben Sigurdson and Eva Wasney. Dish arrives in your inbox every other Friday. See sample. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

"Ive got mixed feelings, to tell you the truth," Grande said of listing Casa Grande. "I like the business and I enjoy the people who come to the restaurant. We know them by name or by face, and they know us, and thats what Im looking at that makes me a little sad, or I will be once it sells."

Frank Zappia, a regular customer at Casa Grande and the real estate agent handling the listing, described the restaurant as a West End institution.

"We order from there all the time," he said. "For me, its the best pizza in the city. Were hoping someone will take over the business, as well, but you never know."

The community has also experienced a period of commercial rejuvenation with new independent businesses opening on Wall Street and finding success. With the commercial landscape changing, reasonable property taxes and young families choosing to move to the West End, Zappia said the corner lot could prove to be lucrative.

"If someone was to go in there and purchase this place, theyve got it all: the history, investment in the building and the property," he said. "Theres so much potential in a neighbourhood thats continuing to improve."

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca
Advertisement

Britain's death toll climbed to the highest in Europe last night in one of the darkest days of the coronavirus pandemic.

Two official measures revealed our figures had surpassed Italy's which had previously been the worst-affected nation on the Continent.

The first was government data showing there had been 29,427 deaths in hospitals, care homes and the community  a rise of 693 in one day.

But a second set of figures from the Office for National Statistics put the death toll at 32,375  once numbers from Scotland and Northern Ireland had been included.

Britain's death toll climbed to the highest in Europe last night in one of the darkest days of the coronavirus pandemic. Pictured: Ministers are facing accusations they failed to act quickly enough in enforcing the lockdown, testing, providing protective equipment for NHS staff and preventing outbreaks in care homes

Two official measures revealed our figures had surpassed Italy's which had previously been the worst-affected nation on the Continent. Pictured: images are still emerging online of Britons being brought home on packed planes such as in the photo above of a Pegasus Airlines from Turkey to Stansted Airport last week

The ONS data is higher as it counts patients suspected of having coronavirus while the Government only records those confirmed as having the disease.

However, the figures only include the tally up to May 2, meaning the true numbers are likely to be higher.

Italy by comparison has recorded 29,315 deaths, Spain has 25,613 and Germany just 6,993.

In fact, the UK's death toll is now second in the world to the USA which has so far reported 71,228, and has a population five times the size.

Ministers are now facing accusations that they failed to act quickly enough in enforcing the lockdown, testing, providing protective equipment for NHS staff and preventing outbreaks in care homes.

The first was government data showing there had been 29,427 deaths in hospitals, care homes and the community  a rise of 693 in one day. Pictured: The four-day Cheltenham Festival was allowed to go ahead between March 10 to March 13, drawing crowds of thousands to the racecourse

But a second set of figures from the Office for National Statistics put the death toll at 32,375  once numbers from Scotland and Northern Ireland had been included. Pictured: Thousands watched Jockey Paul Townend ride to victory on horse Al Boum, despite the threat posed by the virus

Britain was among the European countries which took longest to impose lockdown. Pictured: A policeman argues with beach-goers on Hove beach after ordering them to leave

The four-day Cheltenham Festival was allowed to go ahead between March 10 to March 13, drawing crowds of thousands to the racecourse. And images are still emerging online of Britons being brought home on packed planes.

Last night, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab claimed it was too early to 'speculate' whether the UK's death toll was the highest in Europe.

He told the Downing Street press conference: 'All I would just say is first of all 29,427 lives lost is a massive tragedy.

'I don't think we'll get a real verdict on how well countries have done until the pandemic is over and particularly until we've got comprehensive international data on all cause of mortality.'

Deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries said meanwhile that officials would have to wait 'some time' for 'robust comparisons', adding that even then they would be 'extremely difficult.'

But Ed Davey, acting leader of the Liberal Democrats said: 'With the death toll in the UK now the highest in Europe, the Prime Minister and his government need to be straight with people about why they were so slow to lock down, slow to ramp up testing, and slow to support care homes.

'The figures will leave many understandably worried about some of the measures that have been or will be taken, and the only proper way to reassure them will be to publish in full the evidence ministers use for whatever they propose later this week.'

Labour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: 'The confirmation we have the highest official death rate in Europe is a tragic reminder of the severity of this horrific disease. The public will rightly ask why our death rate is so high.

'We should take all action necessary to suppress the virus, save lives and minimise harm.'

The UK now has more confirmed COVID-19 deaths - according to backdated statistics from the Office for National Statistics, National Records Scotland, and Northern Ireland's NISRA - than any other country in Europe

Earlier, the Government's chief scientific advisor, Sir Patrick Vallance, admitted that the UK would have fared better in the pandemic had testing been expanded much earlier on.

He told MPs on theCommons health and social care select committee: 'In the early phases, if we had managed to ramp testing capacity quicker, it would have been beneficial.'

The UK's obesity rates  which are consistently among the worst in Europe may also contribute to our high death toll.

The number of people dying each week during the UK's coronavirus crisis has been significantly higher - more than double in recent weeks - than the average number of deaths for this time of year

Ministers yesterday announced they had ordered a review into whether someone's weight as well as their ethnicity and gender, increased their risk of dying from the disease.

Latest NHS figures published yesterday showed that 26 per cent of men and 29 per cent of women were clinically obese with a Body Mass Index of 30 or above.

Britain's dense population could be an additional factor as it means social distancing is much harder. Only the Netherlands and Turkey have more people per square mile than the UK in Europe.

Yesterday's ONS figures also showed that although the number of new deaths recorded in the last seven days had fallen compared to the previous week, they were continuing to rise in care homes.

Data published by endCoronavirus.org - a group of 4,000 volunteers, including scientists, analysing numbers from the COVID-19 pandemic - shows how the outbreaks in US, UK and Sweden have yet to drop, unlike other countries that took more rigorous action

There were 2,794 new coronavirus-related deaths in care homes registered up to April 24 in England and Wales, which is an increase of more than a third from the 2,050 for the week before.

The ONS figures show that more than quarter of coronavirus deaths in England and Wales have occurred in care homes, a total of 7,911 out of 29,710 for deaths reported up to the April 24.

Sarah Scobie, deputy director of research at the Nuffield Trust think-tank said: 'The vulnerable social care sector is now becoming the epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic in this country.'

Councillor Ian Hudspeth, chairman of the Local Government Association's community wellbeing board, said: 'This appalling loss of life in our care homes and communities is another stark reminder of just how much more must be done to protect our most elderly and vulnerable.'

Sir Patrick also revealed that travellers returning from Italy and Spain 'seeded' coronavirus outbreaks across the UK in February and March.

Figures show fewer than 300 travellers were quarantined out of the 18million people who arrived in Britain in the three months before the country went into lockdown.

Sir Patrick said he and other scientists had told ministers that closing borders would not work unless they took the 'draconian' choice of halting all foreign travel.

Latest coronavirus video news, views and expert advice at mailplus.co.uk/coronavirus
COLUMBUS, Ohio  Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, long respected in Columbus as a patient and cunning political tactician, has been putting his skills to work in countering Gov. Mike DeWines response to the coronavirus crisis.

Householder last week issued a pointed statement, saying his fellow Republicans in the Ohio House have felt disrespected by DeWine, accusing the governor of disregarding their opinions on how to roll back sweeping business closures.

But it was just the latest in a long string of moves Householder, a conservative Perry County Republican with an independent streak, has made pressuring the governors office to pull back its COVID-19 response. Consider:

- On March 15, after word got out that DeWine was considering closing the states bars and restaurants, Householder urged the governor to limit their maximum occupancy instead. DeWine issued the closure order later that day.

In lieu of closing restaurants/ taverns I encourage the Governor to consider reducing Maximum Occupancy by a certain percentage across the board. This keeps these businesses open, controls the crowd and may even help spread business around in a community.  Speaker Larry Householder (@HouseholderOH) March 15, 2020

- On March 16, when the governors office moved to cancel in-person voting the next day, a lawyer representing a House GOP member showed up in a Franklin County courtroom to challenge the move. After DeWine closed the election through a public-health order, Householder issued a statement blasting the chaos and confusion of the cancellation, and calling the decision illegal.

- On April 6, he formed a House task force assigned to study how to re-open the states economy. The task forces chairman, state Rep. Paul Zeltwanger, provided legal support to a federal lawsuit challenging DeWines public-health closures before advancing a plan that would immediately re-open all state businesses on May 1. During one task force meeting, an invited speaker who previously made national news by announcing plans to flout a state health order by re-opening his business, accused DeWine of being part of a conspiracy to use the coronavirus to defeat President Donald Trumps re-election.

- On April 10, in comments to the Dayton Daily News, Householder accused the Ohio Department of Health of escalating their numbers to justify the policies by choosing to adopt new CDC guidelines to include presumed COVID-19 cases in the states coronavirus numbers.

- In an April 17 radio interview, Householder indicated he would block any tax increases requested by the DeWine administration to balance the state budget. He expressed anger that the governor vetoed House-backed changes to the state Medicaid program. I told them, dont drag your butt back in here a year from now and ask for a tax increase, he said. He also recalled forcing former Gov. Bob Taft to approve temporary budgets during a previous stint as House speaker in the early 2000s. He hated me doing that, Householder said.

Individual members of the other legislative chamber, the state Senate, similarly have criticized DeWine or publicly pressured him to re-open the state more quickly. But Senate President Larry Obhof, a Medina Republican, has avoided joining in.

Other House Republicans say Householders simply being responsive to the concerns of his members, who have agitated for a rapid re-opening of the state economy.

Last weeks quote, when he talked about small business and the legislature being ignored, I think that was a very good remark from the speaker, who is feeling the frustration of the collective group of his members, said state Rep. Jon Cross, a Kenton Republican. I think the lion roared a little bit, and thats healthy because it sends a message to the executive branch that you have to pay attention to us.

Ive been here for 20 years. Theres always a healthy tension and debate between the executive branch and the legislative branch, said state Rep. Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican and member of House leadership. It was true when Bob Taft was governor. It was true when John Kasich was governor. It was true when Ted Strickland was governor. And its true now that Mike DeWine is governor.

But state Sen. Matt Dolan, a Chagrin Falls Republican, said Householders political maneuvering has occurred at the expense of the states response to a crisis.

Dolan, a key Senate Republican on budgetary issues, said that Householder didnt participate in weekend talks over how to balance a projected $2 billion state budget deficit.

Maybe with the benefit of hindsight, looking back on this crisis, we could make changes, Dolan said. But scoring political points during a crisis is disruptive of what were all trying to accomplish, which is trying to keep everyone safe and get everything opened as soon as possible. So throwing marbles on the process actually delays that ultimate goal.

In a statement, Taylor Jach, a Householder spokeswoman, said Householder spoke about the budget Monday morning. She also said House Republicans have convened internal working groups to discuss the budget.

The speaker and his staff are in constant communication with the administration over budget discussions, Jach said.

State Rep. Dave Leland, a Columbus Democrat, said Householders approach is similar to that of Vern Riffe, the long-time Democratic former Ohio House speaker for whom a state office tower is now named.

I think you have natural factions that develop under one-party rule, he said. And I think you also have a dynamic where the speaker wants to remind people that there are separate branches of government.

The House and Senate are resuming this week for the first time since the early days of the crisis. That could bring with it a debate over whether state lawmakers should limit DeWines authority to issue sweeping public-health orders.

Seitz said the topic likely will come up during private House talks this week.

I dont think anything is chiseled in stone yet, he said. I think it would be a mistake to do so without having the benefit of a robust discussion on such a topic.

DeWine was asked last week about Householders disrespected comment. He was characteristically diplomatic.

Ive had a very good relationship with members of the General Assembly  Republicans, Democrats, House members, Senate members, DeWine said. Ive kind of joked, every one of them has my cell phone number, every one of them has my email. I read their emails. I read the texts they send me or the phone calls that I get. So its a very, very open relationship.

But ultimately, he said, I dont expect everyone to agree with every decision that we make. But I have the ultimate responsibility through the health department of issues of health. But we certainly are very open to ideas and suggestions.

Read related coverage from cleveland.com:

Republican state lawmakers sign on to plan calling for immediate and full re-opening of Ohio businesses

Federal judge rules against bridal shops challenge to Ohio health order closing nonessential businesses

Gov. Mike DeWine facing increasing pressure from state lawmakers to roll back coronavirus closures

Long criticized as a bully, Larry Householder impresses in second stint as Ohio speaker. But how much has he really changed?
The EU has flatly contradicted Boris Johnsons claim coronavirus is on a downward slope, warning the UK is one of five European countries where infection numbers have yet to significantly decline.

Last Thursday, Johnson declared during the daily coronavirus press conference in Downing Street that the UK is past the peak and on the downward slope of the pandemic.

Referring to the draconian lockdown imposed on 23 March, he added: Your effort and your sacrifice is working.

However, Andrea Ammon, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), told EU lawmakers on Monday that Britain, Poland, Romania and Sweden had seen "no substantial changes in the last 14 days". It added Bulgaria was still recording an increase in cases.

For all other European countries, she said, there was a drop in cases, adding: "As of Saturday, it appears that the initial wave of transmission (in Europe) has passed its peak.

Britain has not yet reached its coronavirus peak, EU scientists have said. (Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty Images)

Nearly 190,000 coronavirus cases and almost 28,500 deaths have been recorded in Britain. Italy is the only European country to have had more cases.

The ECDC's assessment on Britain is in line with data on the overall increase of deaths from all causes reported by EuroMOMO, an EU-backed monitoring project on mortality.

England has seen the highest rise in deaths over the five-year average among several European nations screened by EuroMOMO.

As of 26 April, England had Europe's highest rise of so-called "excess deaths"  the number above the forecast average  and recorded an increase from the previous week in the general indicator that tracks death in all ages.

Epidemiologists say these statistics help to build a more complete picture of the overall impact of epidemics, given many fatalities go unreported or are misreported when their number surges dramatically in such short periods.

When contacted by Yahoo News UK about the claims, a Downing Street spokesperson reiterated Boris Johnson's statement that the UK is past the peak.

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

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Epidemiologists said these statistics help to build a more complete picture of the overall impact of epidemics, given many fatalities go unreported or are misreported when their number surges dramatically in such short periods.

Boris Johnson is expected to extend Britains lockdown period on Thursday, then set out plans for a gradual easing of restrictions from the end of May in a live address on Sunday night.

On Monday, Johnson released a video message warning that lifting lockdown restrictions too soon would be the worst thing we could do.

In a video message on Twitter, the prime minister said it was important to meet the five tests set by the government before easing the lockdown.

Boris Johnson said on Thursday that Britain had 'passed the peak' of coronavirus cases. (Ian Vogler-WPA Pool/Getty Images)

We will only be able to move on to the second phase of this conflict if our five tests have been met, he said.

The tests are: the NHS must have sufficient critical care capacity; there must be a sustained and consistent fall in daily deaths; the infection rate must be decreasing to manageable levels; there must be enough PPE and testing supply; and any adjustments must not lead to a second peak that could overwhelm the health service.

Elsewhere, a body of experts shadowing the governments Sage scientific advisory board has warned the UK to plan for a coronavirus pandemic lasting years to come on Monday.

Deenan Pillay, professor of virology at University College London, said at the bodys first meeting on Monday: It is the mantra here that we somehow need to survive until a vaccine becomes available.

But of course not only is there uncertainty around that, but even when a vaccine becomes available, that vaccine does not infer 100% protection in everyone that is given it.

He added: We're actually thinking for a long-term pandemic with ups and downs, an endemic infection that will come up and down for maybe years to come.

Coronavirus: what happened today
Coronation Day ceremony kept a simple affair

PHUKET: The official ceremony to honour Coronation Day yesterday (May 4) was kept to a small and modest affair, with only a handful of Phukets leading officials taking part in line with measures to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

cultureCOVID-19

By The Phuket News

Tuesday 5 May 2020, 02:37PM

The Coronation Day ceremony yesterday (May 4) was kept small and simple. Photo: PR Dept

The Coronation Day ceremony yesterday (May 4) was kept small and simple. Photo: PR Dept

The Coronation Day ceremony yesterday (May 4) was kept small and simple. Photo: PR Dept

The Coronation Day ceremony yesterday (May 4) was kept small and simple. Photo: PR Dept

The Coronation Day ceremony yesterday (May 4) was kept small and simple. Photo: PR Dept

The Coronation Day ceremony yesterday (May 4) was kept small and simple. Photo: PR Dept

The Coronation Day ceremony yesterday (May 4) was kept small and simple. Photo: PR Dept

The Coronation Day ceremony yesterday (May 4) was kept small and simple. Photo: PR Dept

The Coronation Day ceremony yesterday (May 4) was kept small and simple. Photo: PR Dept

The Coronation Day ceremony yesterday (May 4) was kept small and simple. Photo: PR Dept

The Coronation Day ceremony yesterday (May 4) was kept small and simple. Photo: PR Dept

The Coronation Day ceremony yesterday (May 4) was kept small and simple. Photo: PR Dept

The Coronation Day ceremony yesterday (May 4) was kept small and simple. Photo: PR Dept

The Coronation Day ceremony yesterday (May 4) was kept small and simple. Photo: PR Dept

The Coronation Day ceremony yesterday (May 4) was kept small and simple. Photo: PR Dept

Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana led the ceremony held at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday, reading the tribute ceremony in honour of His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

The ceremony also honoured King Maha Vajiralongkorns father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, after whom Coronation Day became a public holiday on May 4 following his coronation in 1950.

As is tradition, following the tribute ceremony, guests invited to take part in the ceremony signed books of best wishes for His Majesty The King.

Governor Phakaphong highlighted the Coronation Day ceremony, which is traditionally a much larger celebration throughout the country, was kept to a modest event dues to the COVID-19 situation.

As we still need to monitor and control the situation to prevent the spread of the COVID-19, Phuket Province [the provincial government] required representatives from all government agencies and ministerial offices who attended the event to be screened [for infection], he added.
[May 05, 2020] World's First App That Checks Mental Health Launched on Global App Stores

Better is a powerful mental health app created by leading British consultant psychotherapist John Halker and experienced marketer Peter Grange, Co-Founders of the Channel Island-based Better App Company. They created the award-winning Better Stop Suicide app, which has saved lives, including an Italian woman who is now translating all the company's apps for that market and an 11-year-old boy, who was one of the Better app testers. LONDON, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The world's first app that checks mental health and well-being has been launched by The Better App Company on the Google Play and Apple app stores. Why is the Better app different? It features a unique emotional and wellbeing check that helps users gain a deep understanding of their own real emotional needs, find out where their needs are being met, but importantly how to discover the ways in which they can better their resilience, wellbeing, health and happiness. The Better app offers real tools, enabling the user to design and build a better life. A free version of the Better app includes the unique emotional needs check that gives a trackable wellbeing score, features to encourage talking and exercising, audio to calm the mind through a simple breathing exercise, and offers the ability to connect directly with a therapist. There is a free seven-day trial on the paid plan within the app, which offers additional 'Life made better' audios and 'Better sleep' audios weekly, recorded by leading British mental health experts.



Better App Company will donate 10% of profits from the Better app every month to mental health charities all over the world. Translated versions in Spanish, Italian and Chinese will be launching soon. The health tech company has also launched the world's first white-label mental health app service, powered by the Better app. This enables companies employing 500+ staff to have their own-branded version of the Better app, which they can provide to their staff. The Better App Company is in talks with global brands wanting to provide their own-branded version of the Better app to their customers.

"There are clear and proven benefits for the user - better sleep, better emotional health, better and deeper understanding of the human needs we all have, better physical wellbeing - in brief, how to design and build a better life," said Mr. Halker. "Better is loaded with rich content, supporting the user to find their calm, thinking mind, to settle easily into a relaxed state, to understand healthy and sustainable ways in which their needs can be met, and to sleep brilliantly well, once they know how." Key features of the Better Stop Suicide app are calming audio files, quick access to key phone contacts, gratitude checklist, built-in alarm clock, better sleep audio file, emotional needs 'quick' check, helpful tasks to feel better, and uniquely the app allows people to record a life-saving message to themselves. Since its launch, the Better Stop Suicide app has been used by tens of thousands of people across the world. It won a Platinum Award in the Health and Wellness category at the prestigious global 2019 DotCOMM Awards. Download the Better app on the Google Play and Apple app stores. Search: Better app For more information visit the Better App Company website or to arrange an interview contact John Halker, Co-Founder of the Better App Company, by emailing [email protected] Related Images better-is-a-powerful-mental-health.png

Better is a powerful mental health app

Better, the world's first app that checks mental health and wellbeing, has launched on the Google Play and Apple app stores. Related Links Download Better - Apple App Store Download Better - Google Play Store

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Tata Steel Ltd has withdrawn its membership from the Indian Steel Association (ISA), an apex steel industry body

New Delhi: Tata Steel Ltd has withdrawn its membership from the Indian Steel Association (ISA), an apex steel industry body.

Subsequent to it, the company's CEO and Managing Director (MD) TV Narendran has also stepped down from the Presidentship of the Association, tenure of which was scheduled to end in August.

An ISA President is elected for a period of two years.

Confirming the development, a Tata Steel spokesperson said, "Tata Steel has withdrawn its membership from the Indian Steel Association (ISA) owing to various considerations.

Click here to follow LIVE news and updates on stock markets

"Accordingly, TV Narendran, CEO & MD, Tata Steel, has stepped down from his position as the incumbent President, ISA."

An ISA official also confirmed Narendran's resignation but said the reason for his sudden resignation is not known yet.

Leading steelmakers such as JSW Steel Ltd, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), Jindal Steel And Power Ltd (JSPL) and ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel Ltd are members of the ISA.

Narendran is also a member of the Executive Committee of the global body World Steel Association (worldsteel).
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Shoppers flocked back to an Atlanta mall Monday night, as several shopping centers across Georgia reopened for the first time since Governor Brian Kemp eased lockdown restrictions across the state.

Lenox Mall in Buckhead opened its doors Monday, with staff doling out masks to shoppers, all workers taking temperature checks, and social distancing markers in place to help people get some retail therapy safely.

Some customers wore full face visors in efforts to protect themselves from coronavirus, while others seemed without a care in the world as they shopped for luxury glassware and home goods without a mask in sight.

The mall's operator Simon Property Group - the biggest operator across the whole of the US - has become one of the first to return to business as usual, after it announced last week it would reopen 49 of its locations in 10 states starting from Friday.

And clearly some customers could not wait for some retail therapy, as many lined up outside Lenox Mall ready and waiting for the doors to open at 11am.

Families, couples and friends descended on the mall, taking advantage of the chance to return to some semblance of normal life.

Shoppers flocked back to Lenox Mall, in Atlanta, as several shopping centers across Georgia reopened for the first time

Shoppers were pictured wearing masks inside the Macy's store Monday evening, some leaning over a jewellery counter considering a post-pandemic purchase while a store assistant wearing masks and gloves showed them some options

Some customers seemed without a care in the world as they shopped for luxury glassware and home goods without a mask in sight

Some customers wore full face visors in efforts to protect themselves from coronavirus as they enjoyed some retail therapy

Shoppers were pictured wearing masks inside the mall's Macy's store Monday evening, some leaning over a jewellery counter considering a post-pandemic purchase while a store assistant wearing masks and gloves showed them some options.

Other people were also seen in the background of the department store sitting at the counters chatting.

It's a far cry from scenes over the last couple of months, where malls and shopping streets have been pictured boarded up and deserted, due to state stay-at-home orders.

Shopping was limited to essential purchases only, with grocery stores and pharmacies some of the only retailers allowed to keep their doors open.

The mall has introduced a number of measures to keep shoppers and workers safe as coronavirus cases and deaths continue to rise across Georgia

Governor Brian Kemp eased lockdown restrictions across the state allowing malls to reopen from Friday

A shopper wears a mask and protective gloves. Lenox Mall in Buckhead opened its doors Monday, with staff doling out masks to shoppers, all workers taking temperature checks, and social distancing markers in place to help people get some retail therapy safely

Georgian shoppers took advantage of the chance to snap up their favorite brands and non-essential items once more - a far cry from the last couple of months, where malls and shopping streets have been pictured boarded up and deserted, due to state stay-at-home orders

WHAT IS THE MALL DOING TO KEEP WORKERS AND SHOPPERS SAFE? Employees with a fever or cold and flu-like symptoms are required to stay home Employees must wear masks and have their temperatures checked daily Masks, sanitizing wipes, and temperature testing are also available for shoppers Mall common areas are regularly disinfected, especially restrooms, seating, dining and play areas Sanitizer stations have been set up in the common areas Air quality testing to make sure the quality inside the center is better than outside Social distancing is encouraged through distancing markers and limited seating in the food courts Signs have been set up reminding shoppers and employees of CDC recommendations Retailers are asked to carry out the same measures inside their stores Advertisement

Even online shopping took a hit, with Amazon forced to restrict its warehouse space to essential goods only and customers left waiting weeks for deliveries of items deemed non-essential as non-essential workers were told to stay home and businesses struggled to fulfil orders.

Georgian shoppers took advantage of the chance to snap up their favorite brands once more Monday, as happy customers were seen walking out of the mall Monday laiden down with bags from retailer Guess.

Most shoppers were seen wearing masks but some pictured heading out of the stores had chosen not to - despite free masks being available to all customers.

The mall has introduced a number of measures to keep shoppers and workers safe as coronavirus cases and deaths continue to rise across Georgia.

Signs reminding shoppers to keep a 6-foot distance were displayed inside and outside stores and on the mall floors, and sanitization checkpoints have been set up so customers can access hand sanitizer and wipes.

All staff are required to wear masks and have their temperatures checked when they report for work at the mall.

Customers can also get free temperature checks, masks and sanitizing wipes, the mall operator said.

Certain areas such as play areas and drinking fountains remain closed, while the common areas that have stayed open such as the food court seating and restrooms are being subject to regular cleaning and have been limited so that people can more easily practice social distancing.

Aerial images of the mall Monday night shoe some seats taped up to ensure weary shoppers can keep six-feet apart as they take a pit stop during their sprees.

As well as social distancing signs, posters saying 'Welcome Back. We missed you' were proudly displayed around the mall.

However, not all stores inside the mall have taken up the chance to reopen. Several retailers kept their stores closed, with signs on the doors and windows explaining to customers that they are not ready to get back to business as usual.

The mall has introduced a number of measures to keep shoppers and workers safe as coronavirus cases and deaths continue to rise across Georgia

Signs reminding shoppers to keep a 6-foot distance were displayed inside and outside stores and on the mall floors, and sanitization checkpoints have been set up so customers can access hand sanitizer and wipes

As well as social distancing signs, posters saying 'Welcome Back. We missed you' were proudly displayed around the mall

Customers can also get free temperature checks, masks and sanitizing wipes, the mall operator said

Starbucks kept its doors closed, with a sign telling shoppers 'Our store is temporarily closed'.

While inside Macy's, several of the own-brand concession stands were ghost towns - as they were deserted of any merchandise or workers and were closed off to shoppers.

Luxury pen brand Mont Blanc and sunglasses brand Rayban were just two of the names who decided not to reopen their concessions yet.

Make-up stands were also empty of stock as it is perhaps more difficult to ensure hygiene and safety precautions are maintained with these products.

A Chanel counter had only a few products on display and no testers available to try.

Most shoppers were seen wearing masks but some pictured heading out of the stores had chosen not to - despite free masks being available to all customers

The mall's operator Simon Property Group - the biggest operator across the whole of the US - has become one of the first to return to business as usual, after it announced last week it would reopen 49 of its locations in 10 states starting from Friday

Starbucks kept its doors closed, with a sign telling shoppers 'Our store is temporarily closed'

Inside Macy's, several of the own-brand concession stands were ghost towns - as their stores within the store were deserted of any merchandise or workers and were closed off to shoppers

The reopening of the mall comes as Governor Kemp is continuing along his pathway to reopen the state and get the economy up and running again.

Georgia was one of the first states to ease coronavirus lockdown restrictions, as Kemp allowed gyms, hair salons, tattoo parlors and bowling alleys to reopen from April 24, despite criticism from the CDC, the state's business owners and even President Trump.

Trump claimed he 'wasn't happy with Brian Kemp,' despite the president rallying behind anti-lockdown protesters nationwide who are demanding an end to stay-at-home orders across the US.

Not all stores inside the mall have taken up the chance to reopen as cases and infections continue to rise across Georgia

Several retailers kept their stores closed, with signs on the doors and windows explaining to customers that they are not ready to get back to business as usual

Make-up stands were also empty of stock as it is perhaps more difficult to ensure hygiene and safety precautions are maintained with these products

A Chanel counter had only a few products on display and no testers available to try

A man browses for jewellery in the Macy's store in Lennox Mall in Buckhead, Atlanta, on Monday night

Kemp then reopened restaurants and movie theaters Wednesday.

Bars, nightclubs, amusement parks and public schools remain closed until at least May 13.

Several businesses have turned down the chance to reopen, amid fears that the worst is not yet over for the state.

Fears that the state is reopening too soon have been accelerated by a stark spike in infections in recent weeks.

Chairs are taped up in the mall so that distance can be maintained between shoppers when they rest their legs during shopping

The reopening comes as Governor Kemp continued on his pathway to reopen the state and get the economy up and running again

Georgia was one of the first states to ease coronavirus lockdown restrictions, as Governor Brian Kemp allowed gyms, hair salons, tattoo parlors and bowling alleys to reopen from April 24

Fears that the state is reopening too soon have been accelerated by a stark spike in infections

Within just 24 hours of Wednesday's reopening of restaurants, Georgia reported another 1,000 cases and 40 deaths from coronavirus.

A new report from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, released Monday, has now warned that the pandemic is far from over for Georgian residents.

The shock estimates reveal that the metro Atlanta area and other populous regions of Georgia are among the areas of highest risk nationwide of facing a renewed spike in cases and deaths.

Georgia has 29,452 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 1,246 people have so far been killed by the virus.

Georgia has 29,452 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 1,246 people have so far been killed by the virus

A new report from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, released Monday, warned that the pandemic is far from over for Georgian residents

A shopper enjoys an ice cream cone on his trip to the reopened mall on Monday

CEO of Simon Property Group David Simon - owner of Lennox Mall - sits on President Trump's 'brain trust' committee of the nation's top executives charged with reopening the economy

Simon Property Group announced last week that it would be one of the first to reopen its locations across Georgia and nine other states: Texas, Indiana, Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alaska, and Mississippi.

All of those states have already started procedures to open or will reopen businesses by May 1, most at limited capacity.

CEO David Simon sits on President Trump's 'brain trust' committee of the nation's top executives charged with reopening the economy.

The company released plans for how it will run all its malls in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak in an April 27 memo, including temperatures testing, masks and sanitizing wipe packets.

The malls, which were all shut on March 18, will be open from 11am to 7pm every day except Sunday, when the hours will be 12 to 6pm.

Other Georgian malls from the group that reopened Monday include Mall of Georgia, Phipps Plaza, Sugarloaf Mills, and Town Center at Cobb.

Some other mall operators also took the chance to reopen their doors this week, with Cumberland, Perimeter and North Point malls, all owned by Brookfield Properties, reopening Tuesday.
By Laila Kearney NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil rose on Monday as more countries announced they would begin easing coronavirus lockdowns and crude supply cuts take hold, though a fresh spat between the United States and China over the origin of the virus limited the rise in prices. Worldwide fuel demand fell by an estimated 30% in April largely due to stay-at-home orders, and weak consumption is expected to overhang the crude market for months, even as major world oil-producing nations and companies quickly reduce output.

By Laila Kearney

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil rose on Monday as more countries announced they would begin easing coronavirus lockdowns and crude supply cuts take hold, though a fresh spat between the United States and China over the origin of the virus limited the rise in prices.

Worldwide fuel demand fell by an estimated 30% in April largely due to stay-at-home orders, and weak consumption is expected to overhang the crude market for months, even as major world oil-producing nations and companies quickly reduce output. However, analysts have said that swift action by those parties could help reduce the supply glut more quickly.

Brent crude gained 28 cents, or 1.1%, to $26.72 a barrel by 1:35 p.m. EDT (1735 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained 54 cents, or 2.7%, to $20.32 a barrel.

"The bigger picture, while not great, is looking more constructive as countries around the world are reopening and that's going to increase oil demand at the same time OPEC-plus is cutting production and production is falling elsewhere around the world due to economics," said Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston.

Italy, Finland and some U.S. states were among a number of countries moving to ease lockdown restrictions on Monday to resurrect their economies, but officials cautioned against moving too swiftly as globally, coronavirus cases passed 3.5 million and deaths neared a quarter of a million.

In addition to fresh cuts that began this month by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, oil and gas output from some of the world's top oil companies is set to drop in the second quarter of 2020 to levels not seen in at least 17 years.

Goldman Sachs said it is growing more optimistic about the rise of oil prices next year due to lower crude production and a partial recovery in oil demand.

The Wall Street bank raised its 2021 forecast for global benchmark Brent to $55.63 per barrel from $52.50 earlier. The bank hiked its estimate for WTI to $51.38 a barrel from $48.50 previously.

The re-emergence of trade tensions between the United States and China limited the rise in prices.

"Demand growth in China is good for the energy market right now, it is pretty much the only game in town" said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho. "Even a verbal scrap with President Trump is not good for China demand growth, considering the fragile circumstances the market is currently operating under."

Adding to U.S. President Donald Trump's threat last week to impose tariffs on China, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday there was "a significant amount of evidence" that the new coronavirus emerged from a Chinese laboratory.

Oil prices recovered some of their losses after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he expected China to make good on its trade agreement with the United States. He also said he expected oil markets to rebound, and that the Trump administration was looking for more storage capacity.

(Additional reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin in London, Roslan Khasawneh in Singapore and Sonali Paul in Melbourne; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Kirsten Donovan)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Assad: Syria facing unjust embargo in its fight against pandemic

Iran Press TV

Monday, 04 May 2020 6:19 PM

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says unjust sanctions imposed by Western countries against Damascus constitute a major obstacle on the way of fighting the ongoing deadly pandemic of the new coronavirus, also known as COVID-19.

Assad made the remarks in an official meeting on Monday with Syria's government team tasked with confronting the deadly virus and its repercussions in the Arab country.

In addition to health challenges posed by the coronavirus, there is also "an economic challenge, which we have been facing as a result of over nine years and unjust [Western] sanctions imposed on our people," the Syrian president said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad speaks in a meeting with Syria's state team tasked with confronting the coronavirus in the capital Damascus on May 4, 2020. (Photo by Syria's official news agency SANA)

Assad also stressed that another issue, which has added to his country's woes amid the pandemic, is the state of global economic self-isolation and recession that is affecting many countries across the globe.

Syria has since 1979 been under unilateral and harsh economic sanctions by the United States. Since the spread of the new coronavirus in the Arab country earlier this year, Damascus has also been in great difficulty to obtain necessary medical supplies and equipment from other countries to combat the disease.

Last month, Syria's UN ambassador sent a letter to the world body, reiterating a call by Damascus for the immediate and unconditional lifting of all the US economic sanctions.

During the official meeting on Monday, the Syrian president said the government immediately carried out a calculated series of procedures to protect citizens, including imposing a partial curfew across the country.

Assad hailed the swift response and awareness of Syrian citizens as the main factor in slowing the spread of the coronavirus in the country.

Assad also lashed out at "some greedy individuals" who exploited the pandemic and created a state of monopoly to make ludicrous earning at the expense of citizens by raising prices.

"The government must be more dynamic in dealing with these issues and act in a quick yet calculated manner to bolster the role of the public sector establishments, whether by granting them the necessary authority or changing their bylaws, so that these establishments can be more flexible and capable of positive intervention, which would have quick positive results and impact on citizens as soon as possible," he added.

Official figures by Syria's Health Ministry show that as of Monday, 44 individuals have tested positive for COVID-19 and three others have lost their lives in the war-ravaged country.

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A star-studded team of global lawyers have taken on the case of Azeri-Turkish billionaire Mubariz Mansimov Gurbanoglu, saying they will investigate possible human rights abuses against the shipping magnate who has been held on terrorism charges in an Istanbul prison since March 17.

Alan Dershowitz, a high-profile defender of US President Donald Trump who argued that Trump should not be impeached at his February trial, is among the lawyers working with Gurbanoglu, according to a statement by London law firm Omnia Strategy.

Nick Muzin, a former Qatar lobbyist who previously worked for Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Tim Scott, R-S.C., as well as Cherie Blair, are working with Dershowitz. They will have their work cut out for them.

The 52-year-old Gurbanoglu is accused of links to Fethullah Gulen, the Pennsylvania-based Sunni cleric Turkey holds responsible for the July 2016 attempt to bloodily overthrow Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Thousands of people including journalists, judges and wealthy industrialists have been jailed on flimsily evidenced charges of conspiring with Gulen, part of a broader campaign to pursue and pressure dissidents of all hues.

We are repeatedly seeing the misuse of criminal justice systems to target legitimate business executives who fall out of favor. This is driven by a lack of respect for fundamental rights and enabled by a dangerous weakening of the rule of law. This case raises many troubling questions regarding prosecutorial and judicial independence and arbitrary detention. We will investigate this fully and seek answers, said Blair.

Adam Smith Anthony, a partner at Omnia Strategy, confirmed in a telephone interview with Al-Monitor that Gurbanoglu has not yet been charged. We will be examining all and any human rights violations to do with his detention and ensuring that a fair trial is accorded and due process is observed. He declined to elaborate on the substance of the case.

Gurbanoglu protests his innocence, saying he is the victim of a conspiracy led by Rovnag Abdullayev, the president of Azerbaijans state oil company, SOCAR. In a March 18 statement, SOCAR denied those claims.

Gurbanoglu owns one of the worlds largest tanker fleets and is embroiled in a multi-billion-dollar arbitration dispute with SOCAR. Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev and SOCAR, the largest private investor in Turkey, have close ties to Erdogan. The Turkish leader allegedly used to have close business ties with Gurbanoglu, documented in detail by the investigative journalists collective The Black Sea.

There are several theories as to why Gurbanoglu is being held. One is that its meant to pressure him to drop the case against SOCAR. Another is that hes being shaken down for Turkeys increasingly cash-strapped economy.

By retaining Dershowitz, Gurbanoglu may as a last resort be hoping to leverage his connections to Trump, who ostensibly would intervene with Erdogan on the businessmans behalf. Gurbanoglu attended Trumps inauguration and was the first customer when Trump Towers opened in Istanbul in 2009, snapping up eight apartments, according to The Black Sea.

Asked whether his work would include lobbying, Dershowitz said in a text message, I will of course register if I do anything requiring registration, and At the moment I simply helped recommend the European legal team.

Muzin told Al-Monitor in a text message that he is working for him as a lawyer and is not doing any work in the US. Muzin said he is doing no advocacy work at this time and if that changes, I would register.

Either way, as Trump himself discovered when he was seeking the release of North Carolina pastor Andrew Brunson, also held on dubious Gulen-linked charges, Erdogan is a tough nut. It took a volley of threatening tweets coupled with sanctions for him to crack and free Brunson after nearly two years of detention.

Diplomatic pressure and the European Court of Human Rights, whose rulings are binding for Turkey, have failed to sway Ankara in many high-profile cases, notably those of journalist Ahmet Altan and philanthropist Osman Kavala. The pair have been rotting in prison on a cocktail of improbable terrorism charges with new ones fabricated to keep them there, rights groups say.

It will not have helped that Omnia Strategy cited The Stockholm Center for Freedom as a source for Turkeys bad behavior in its press release. The group is run by exiled journalists who are overtly sympathetic to Gulen.
Sweden likely had coronavirus cases as early as November last year, the country's virus chief has revealed.

State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell claimed individual cases would have been detected among travellers from Wuhan.

He told Sweden's TT news agency: 'There wasn't any spread [of infection] outside Wuhan until we saw it in Europe later.

'But I think that you could find individual cases among Wuhan travellers who were there in November to December last year. That doesn't sound at all strange, but rather very natural.'

His comments come following reports that a hospital in France revealed it had re-tested old flu samples and found a positive test for coronavirus on December 27.

State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell (pictured above) claimed individual cases would have been detected among travellers from Wuhan

Sweden - one of just a handful of countries to resist a lockdown - has no plans to implement large-scale sample testing of patients who received care for respiratory symptoms or flu last year to see if they had coronavirus.

The country's first official coronavirus case was a woman in Jonkoping who tested positive on January 31st after a trip to China. The woman has since recovered from the illness.

'It's not something that's being discussed in a structured way,' said Tegnell.

'At the moment it feels like we don't want to burden the healthcare sector with this type of investigation. They have a lot of other things to do, and this would not lead to any measure.'

Above, people socialise in Stockholm on April 22. The country is one of very few not to have imposed a lockdown

He added: 'Instead, what could be interesting to find out is how the virus spread in China and how it behaved in the early stages of its spread. If it was an individual spread from an animal to a person or if it spread to a group of people over a longer period of time.'

'There aren't many instances where we have been able to track a contagion of a completely new virus from animals to humans. We don't have much knowledge of how this happens in reality,' he explained.

'It would be valuable to see how people could protect themselves against this type of development in the future.'

Around 100 people from the Swedish Armed Forces attended the 2019 Summer Military World Games in Wuhan in late October and stayed in the city for two weeks.

Several competitors fell ill and were screened for the virus, although none were reported to have tested positive.

While Sweden has avoided introducing a lockdown, it has banned visitors from care homes in one of its few restrictive measures.

Swedish prime minister Stefan Lofven has previously said that 'it is not the number of hours of sunshine or temperature that decides whether to listen to the advice of the authorities or not.'

The government advises people to wash their hands and practise social distancing, but most measures are not enforced.

There have so far been close to 23,000 cases of coronavirus in Sweden and nearly 2,800 deaths recorded.

Tegnell's revelations follows new report than a man in France was infected with coronavirus in December.

Amirouche Hammar, 43, revealed himself as France's potential 'patient zero' who was infected with coronavirus last December.

He came forward after a hospital near Paris revealed it had re-tested old flu samples and found a positive test for coronavirus on December 27.

The Algerian-born fish market worker had not travelled to China, and the result suggests the virus was spreading in France well before January 24 when the country confirmed its first case.

Speaking to BFMTV, Hammar said he had suffered 'very serious' chest pains but said doctors had been mystified by his illness before eventually diagnosing a lung infection.

Amirouche Hammar (pictured) has revealed himself as the French patient who had coronavirus as early as December 27

Although experts have urged caution about the findings, the WHO said today it was 'not surprising' that a case had occurred in December and said that more such discoveries were possible.

'It's also possible there are more early cases to be found,' WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told a UN briefing in Geneva.

He encouraged other countries to check records for cases in late 2019, saying this would give the world a 'new and clearer picture' of the outbreak.

It is not clear how Hammar caught the virus, because he has no direct links to China where the outbreak began late last year.

Hammar's wife works at a supermarket near Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris where passengers are known to go shopping after they land.

The doctor who revealed the case said the patient's wife had worked at a fish market with colleagues of Chinese origin.

'We're wondering whether she was asymptomatic,' said Dr Yves Cohen of the Avicenne hospital where Hammar was treated.

Hammar, who lives in Bobigny, said Dr Cohen had contacted him in recent days and informed him he was '100 per cent positive' for the virus.

At the time, he had symptoms including a fever, cough and breathing problems which are now known to be symptoms of Covid-19.

He initially suspected flu, but was puzzled by the symptoms and went to hospital where he was given a breathing mask.

'At 5am I decided to take my car and I went straight to the hospital,' he said.

'I said we must call the doctor right away, something is wrong, I have chest pain,' he said, saying it was affecting his breathing.

Hammar was treated at the Avicenne hospital in the Paris suburbs (pictured) where medics have recently re-tested samples from December and found a coronavirus case

Medics struggled to identify what was wrong with the 43-year-old, but told him it may be a lung infection and warned that his illness was 'very serious'.

After several days in hospital he returned home and eventually recovered, not realising he had been infected with the new virus.

China reported the new virus to the World Health Organisation on December 31, but there were no confirmed cases abroad until January 13 and France did not officially record its first until January 24.

Dr Cohen said scientists at two hospitals had re-tested samples from 24 patients, of which one came back positive.

The results, published in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, showed that Hammar was infected 'one month before the first reported cases in our country'.

The samples had all been collected to detect flu using PCR tests, the same screening process that can also be used to detect the presence of coronavirus.

Each sample was re-tested several times to ensure there were no errors, he added.

Dr Yves Cohen, head of resuscitation at several hospitals in Ile-de-France, Paris, said new patient sample testing has confirmed a patient in France had coronavirus on December 27

Dr Cohen said it was too early to say for sure whether Hammar was France's 'patient zero'.

'He may be the 'patient zero', but perhaps there are others in other regions,' he said.

'All the negative PCRs for pneumonia must be tested again. The virus was probably circulating.'

'He was amazed, he didn't understand how he had been infected. We put the puzzle together and he had not made any trips. The only contact that he had was with his wife,' he said.

Olivier Bouchaud, head of the hospital's infectious diseases department said the virus could have spread 'quietly in the population, without anyone detecting its presence'.

Evidence of earlier infections would confirm what many scientists had already suspected, he said.

Stephen Griffin, an expert at the University of Leeds' Institute of Medical Research, said it was 'a potentially important finding' and added: 'We must be cautious when interpreting these findings.'

Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, said it was 'not impossible that it was an early introduction, but the evidence isn't conclusive by any means'.
Women need an influx of capital now; we need an economic vaccine as much as a medical vaccine. Thelma Ekiyor, Managing Partner, SME.NG.

While at the global level policy debates have traditionally been held in person, SME.NG, the Funding Space, and Baobab Consulting saw the urgency given the global pandemic to hold an online discussion to spark action to support women entrepreneurs.

The convenings keynote address was delivered by the Sixth President of Mauritius H.E. Ameenah Gurib Fakim, who brilliantly highlighted the challenges women entrepreneurs across the continent face compared to their male counterparts, but also cited that technology, artificial intelligence and more social protections at a government level can save women owned businesses. According to Ms Gurib Fakim, A crisis is a terrible thing to waste. Women must innovate, plan and pivot to succeed. 

Following the keynote, an expert panel discussion allowed leaders in government, academia, investments and civil society to build out recommendations for how to support African women entrepreneurs. Panelists included Managing Partner of SME.NG, Ms Thelma Ekiyor, President and CEO of the US African Development Foundation C.D. Glin, Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution Prof. Landry Signe, and the Founder and Executive Director of the African Diaspora Network in Silicon Valley Ms. Almaz Negash, moderated by CEO of Baobab Consulting Liz Grossman Kitoyi.

While the panel recognized that the global health crisis requires businesses to take proper precautions, Ms Ekiyor made the case for immediate action by governments, donors and investors. Women need an influx of capital now; we need an economic vaccine as much as a medical vaccine. Cash transfers must be made immediately to keep women led SMEs afloat, and all the panelists agreed that governments must put women at the forefront of stimulus packages they prepare for small businesses.

One thing that has not changed in the wake of COVID-19 is the business case for investing in women. The speakers all agreed that an emergency fund should be established for women-owned businesses, urging decision makers to seize the opportunity to alleviate poverty and survive this global crisis by including women in investment policies.

The recording of the event and H.E. Gurib Fakim's speech transcript are available online. For media inquiries or interview requests, please contact liz@baobab-consulting.net.

About the organizers:

SME.NG is an impact investment platform that invests in Nigerian SMEs to realize measurable environmental, social and financial returns. The platforms approach to SME financing is through a blended financing model, which will leverage private capital, public sector investments and philanthropic giving.

The Funding Space is an access to finance, impact investing, training and networking platform. The Funding Space convenes to inspire, challenge, support access to funding & financing to enhance the growth of locally grown innovations and enterprises in Nigeria that use market solutions to address social problems.

Baobab Consulting is an Africa-focused social impact firm offering world-class services in strategic communications, strategic counsel and research, and intercultural programming. With a diverse team of experienced consultants based in seven countries across three continents, Baobab Consulting has built a reputation as expert cross-cultural communicators who utilize digital media, training and research to promote equitable international collaboration in business, politics, social advocacy and education.
It was the first case of its kind dealt with remotely due to the Covid-19 crisis.

Any use of strangulation should be a significant aggravating feature when sentencing domestic abusers in Northern Ireland, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

Senior judges likened it to deploying a weapon as they dismissed a Co Antrim man's challenge to his 12-month prison term for assaults on a partner.

Lawyers for Campbell Allen, 22, claimed a probation order should have been imposed instead for a violent outburst said to have left the woman hardly able to breathe.

But dismissing the appeal, Lord Justice Stephens said: "Strangulation is an effective and cruel way of asserting dominance and control over a person through the terrifying experience of being starved of oxygen.

"The intention of the offender may be to create a shared understanding that death, should the offender so choose, is only seconds away."

Allen, from Glenkeen Avenue in Greenisland, was appealing the term handed down at Belfast Crown Court in March for false imprisonment and common assault.

He had grabbed the woman by the throat with both hands, squeezing hard and pushing her back against a wall during a jealousy-fuelled argument at her home on July 11, 2019.

Another row in the early hours of the following morning led to a second violent incident.

Allen refused to let the woman leave the bedroom, punched her in the face and strangled her on the bed with both hands to the point where she was struggling to breathe, the court heard.

Allen was ordered to serve six months in custody and a further six months on licence.

In the first case of its kind dealt with remotely due to the Covid-19 crisis, his legal team contended that the sentence was manifestly excessive.

Barrister Richard McConkey argued that a probation order would have been more in the public interest than a jail term.

He said it would have offered more chance for his client to address anger management issues and rehabilitation by taking part in a 'Respectful Relationships Programme'.

Mr McConkey added that Allen, who expressed shame and regret over the offences, has been assessed as a medium risk of re-offending.

However, despite recognising the defendant's admissions and recognition of his need for change, the court backed the sentencing judge's decision to send him to prison.

Lord Justice Stephens also rejected any characterisation of domestic violence as "family tiffs or lovers' disputes".

In a guideline judgment, he emphasised: "These are serious crimes, physically and mentally damaging wives, husbands, partners and children."

The judge went on to describe the act of strangulation as a symbol of an abuser's power and control over their victim - mostly female.

He noted that legislation introduced in other jurisdictions, including New Zealand and 44 US States, to criminalise it as a stand-alone offence.

""We... consider it to be a substantial aggravating factor," Lord Justice Stephens said.

"We consider that the use of body force to strangle is not less heinous than the use of a weapon."
NAIROBI  Kenya Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe has on Tuesday, May 5, announced that the COVID-19 cases had risen to 535 after 45 cases tested positive in the last 24 hours.

He stated that this was the highest number of cases Kenya has ever recorded in a single day since the first case was announced on March 13, 2020.

Today our cumulative figure of those who have tested positive for the COVID-19 stands at 535 people. This is because out of the 1077 samples tested some 45 people have turned positive. This, of course, is the highest number recorded in 24 hours, said the health Minister was quoted by local media.

Out of the 1,077 samples tested, 45 individuals tested positive, Mutahi stated adding that; Age distribution of the new cases ranges from two years for the youngest and eighty-seven for the oldest.

Mutahi also stated that nine individuals had been discharged bringing the number of those who had recovered to 182.

There is a community spread happening in Nairobi specifically in the estate of Eastleigh. This comes as a result of mass testing in Nairobi in the last 24 hours, he explained.

Kagwe stated that the government was in communication with the respective authorities in those areas so that necessary action could be taken to avoid the spread of the virus.

A day before junior health minister Dr. Mercy Mwangangi announced 25 new cases of the virus which were all from local transmissions.

She said that Nairobi and Mombasa remained the most affected counties, as far as COVID-19 infections are concerned.

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ROME, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The coronavirus pandemic has claimed over 29,000 lives in Italy, bringing the total number of infections, fatalities and recoveries to 211,938 as of Monday, according to the latest data released by the country's Civil Protection Department.

The death toll on Monday was 195, bringing the nationwide fatalities to 29,079 since the pandemic first broke out in the northern Lombardy region. Total active infections stood at 99,980, with a decrease of 199 cases compared to the previous day.

Monday saw 1,221 new coronavirus infections and 1,225 additional recoveries compared to Sunday, bringing the nationwide totals to 211,938 and 82,879, respectively.

Of those infected, 1,479 are in intensive care -- down by 22 compared to Sunday, and 16,823 are hospitalized in normal wards -- down by 419. The remaining 81,678 people, or 81.7 percent of those who tested positive, are in isolation at home.

LOCKDOWN EASED

Italians enjoyed more liberties on Monday, as some restrictions on productive activities and personal movements were relaxed for the first time after almost eight weeks.

Overall, some 4.4 million people went back to work, adding to those employed in essential economic sectors -- such as food industry, supermarkets, and transports -- who never stopped during the lockdown that had entered into force on March 10.

Companies in manufacturing, construction, and wholesale sectors could resume work, provided they ensured strict compliance with workplace safety protocols.

Bars and restaurants were allowed to reopen for takeaway services instead of delivery only as during the lockdown.

And new rules allowed Italians to visit family members (but not friends) living in the same region, to move across their city, and to practice sporting activities outdoor and in public parks, but alone.

Local media paid wide attention to how people approached this so-called "Phase Two" of the emergency, which Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and several other authorities have warned will be ever more sensitive than the first phase of the pandemic.

In Milan, Rome, Naples, Florence and Turin, limited rush hours were reported in the early morning.

People were often seen queueing shortly outside bars to buy takeaway espressos and light lunches, while temperature checks were carried out in train stations on passengers traveling for the first time from region to region out of essential reasons -- such as in the first high-speed train that reached southern Naples from northern Milan on early Monday.

The airports of Ciampino in Rome (the second largest in the capital after Fiumicino) and Peretola in Florence (the second largest in Tuscany after Pisa) also resumed their activity on Monday, as announced by the Transport Ministry last Thursday.

Overall, most of the air traffic in Italy stopped when the lockdown entered into force, with the number of passengers dropping by some 85 percent (almost 12 million people) in March, according to Italy's association of airports operators Assaeroporti.

During this second phase of the emergency, public transports in Rome, Milan, and Naples -- the country's three largest metropolitan areas, respectively -- will especially be in the spotlight.

Wearing face masks has become compulsory for entering buses and metro, and the local transport companies are required to implement the necessary measures to ensure that passengers keep a safe distance between each other.

Yet, for the three major cities at least, doubts remained on whether transport networks have been developed enough to ensure the required safety distance, considering the number of commuters now allowed to moving again.

The task force coordinated by the Civil Protection distributed 26.7 million face masks in the past week, and a total of 165.5 million since the beginning of the emergency, according to Italy's procurement commissioner for the coronavirus emergency Domenico Arcuri.

MORTALITY IMPACTED HARD BY VIRUS

In a separate joint report on Monday, Italy's National Health Institute (ISS) and National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) stated the number of deaths for all causes in the country increased by 49.4 percent in March compared to the same period in the years 2015-2019.

The jump in mortality was largely ascribed to the impact of the coronavirus.

"Taking as a reference the period between the first fatality for COVID-19 (the disease caused by the coronavirus), reported to the Integrated Surveillance System (Feb. 20) and March 31, deaths grew from 65,592 (average in the period 2015-2019) to 90,946 in 2020," the report said.

"There are 25,354 fatalities in excess, of which some 54 percent are made by COVID-19 diagnosed deaths (13,710)," it added.

ISS and ISTAT warned that -- due to the pandemic hitting some areas (in north and center) much more than others (in south) -- "the data reported at national average level flatten the size of the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on total mortality."
South Korean demonstrators hold banners during a rally to mark International Women's Day as part of the country's #MeToo movement - AFP

A South Korean woman who was convicted 56 years ago after she bit off the tip of the tongue of a man who was allegedly attempting to rape her is to apply for a retrial of the case on Wednesday.

The case is widely regarded as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in Koreas male-dominated society, with 74-year-old Choi Mal-ja supported by a womens rights group in the city of Busan.

According to members of the Busan Womens Hot Line, Mrs Choi will plead self-defence when the case is presented to the Busan District Court, Yonhap News reported.

The application states that in May 1964, when Mrs Choi was 18 years old, she was allegedly attacked close to her home by a man who tried to rape her. The man, who has only been identified by his surname, Roh, forced his tongue into Mrs Chois mouth and she resisted by biting off more than half an inch.

During questioning, Mrs Choi said she was only acting in self defence and insisted that she was innocent. Police ignored her claims and charged her with grievous bodily harm.

After six months in prison awaiting trial, the presiding judge asked Mrs Choi whether she had feelings for her assailant and whether she would consider marrying him.

The court eventually found her guilty and - despite Mrs Chois father paying Mr Roh a settlement to obtain a more lenient punishment - sentenced her to six months in prison, suspended for two years.

To add insult to injury, prosecutors refused to charge Mr Roh with assault or attempted rape and only charged him with trespassing and blackmail in connection with the incident. He also received a six-month prison term, suspended for two years.

Mrs Choi contacted the womens support group in late 2018 after the emergence of the #MeToo movement in South Korea. Angered at the way in which women are treated by men, a high-ranking female prosecutor and an aide to a district governor spoke out about the sexual abuse they had endured.

Those cases also triggered public anger about numerous cases in which spycams were used to obtain surreptitious footage of women, with tens of thousands of protesters taking to the streets under banners reading My life is not your porn.
The Government of Ghana has kept its promise of donating Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to support the media as it intensifies the fight against the novel coronavirus in the country. The donation includes 5000 pieces of full set locally manufactured PPEs.



President Nana Akufo-Addo as part of the COVID-19 response programme engaged the leadership of the media comprising of the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), the Private Newspapers Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG), the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and the National Media Commission (NMC). One of the two requests made by the leadership of these media umbrella bodies was a request to support frontline media workers with PPEs.



Subsequently, the government acting through the Ministries of Health and Information has availed PPEs to be distributed to frontline media workers to assist them in their work of news reporting.



Presenting the items, to the leadership of the media on Tuesday 5th May 2020 in Accra, the Deputy Minister for Information, Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei praised the media for its immense contributions especially in the fight against the novel Coronavirus and their constant education on preventive protocols.



You have been a true partner in this campaign and we are grateful and will continue to support you in any way we can, she said.



The Deputy Minister reiterated governments commitment to ensuring the safety and protection of the media even as they step out to update and educate Ghanaians in these crucial times.



The President of the Ghana Journalist Association, Affail Monney, who received the items on behalf of the leadership of the media thanked the President for fulfilling his pledge when the leadership of the media called on him at the Jubilee House last month.



 I believe this will also energize us to go the extra mile and help serve our nation to defeat this pandemic which is imparting devastatingly on all of us, he said.



Also present was Gloria Hiadzi, who is the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association and representatives from the National Media Commission and the GJA.

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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Anne Messenger founded her career management and H.R. consulting business, Messenger Associates, in 1997. She wound it down a couple years ago.

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Suspects in California stopped in the middle of a police chase to drop two cardboard boxes full of cash totalling almost $1 million dollars on the side of a road before they were apprehended by a police officer and their K9 partner named Beny.

The incident took place in the late afternoon of May 1 when a police officer observed three sport utility vehicles that appeared to be traveling together northbound on Interstate 5 in Merced County, California, and saw them commit traffic violations before attempting to stop one of them.

But when the vehicle he attempted to pull over failed to yield and flee the scene, the police began the pursuit.

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PHOTO: A California Highway Patrol officers K9 partner Beny was able to alert the authorities to the odor of narcotics on the recovered currency after a police chase on May 1, 2020 in Merced County, California. (California Highway Patrol - Merced)

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Once the officer began chasing the suspect driving a 2020 Chevrolet Suburban, however, one of the other SUVs, a black Ford Expedition, attempted to block the officers pursuit by straddling the lanes in order to help their accomplice get away.

The officer was able to maneuver around the Ford Expedition, which then turned around and fled the scene in the opposite direction, and begin pursuing the Chevrolet Suburban again only to see something strange as they approached the car.

At one point during the pursuit, the driver of the Chevrolet Suburban stopped on the right shoulder, exited the vehicle and dropped two cardboard boxes off before returning to the vehicle and continuing to flee, said the California Highway Patrol (CHP) of Merced County in a statement on social media. Shortly after dropping the boxes on the shoulder, the driver of the Chevrolet Suburban stopped his vehicle and surrendered.

Good Samaritan shot and killed chasing suspect who held woman at gunpoint

While the officer was arresting the first suspect, however, they ended up noticing that the third vehicle, a 2019 Chevrolet Tahoe, was stopped in traffic just ahead. The officer was able to stop the Chevrolet Tahoe and managed to take both the driver of that vehicle and the driver of the Suburban and the Tahoe into custody.

Story continues

During the incident, Merced Communications Center received several 911 calls regarding the cardboard boxes that were dropped off on the shoulder, said the CHP. Officers retrieved the cardboard boxes and located U.S. currency estimated to be $915,000.

The officers K9 partner Beny was able to alert the authorities to the odor of narcotics on the currency and it was later discovered the suspects were traveling to northern California to purchase marijuana.

MORE: Man lucky to be alive after driving car off 6-story parking garage

PHOTO: A California Highway Patrol officers K9 partner Beny was able to alert the authorities to the odor of narcotics on the recovered currency after a police chase on May 1, 2020 in Merced County, California. (California Highway Patrol - Merced)

MORE: Girl, 6, run over and killed while holding grandmother's hand waiting for school bus

Authorities subsequently discovered walkie talkies in the suspects vehicles and later learned that the three drivers were using them to communicate with each other during the pursuit.

The suspects were arrested, and felony charges are pending.

Said the CHP of Merced County after the incident: K9 Beny usually gets all the glory in these types of incidents but it is his handler that really deserves the credit this time. What an amazing team! Great job!

Police chase leads suspect to drop almost $1 million on highway during pursuit originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia:

Amid declining Q1 M&A volumes in Europe following uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak, UK scores highest number of deals with 610, said a study.

According to GlobalData, the European region witnessed consistent decline in mergers and acquisition (M&A) deal volume during Q1 2020, decreasing from 710 in January, to 699 in February, and to 599 in March 2020.

Deal value also started declining near the end of the quarter, registering growth from US$25.4bn in January to US$49.1bn in February before declining to US$27.5bn in March, said the data and analytics company.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData said: "The decline in M&A volume and value could be attributed to uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak. In volume terms, the top five countries (the UK, Germany, France, Sweden, and Italy) accounted for around 62% of total deal volume, whereas the top five countries (France, the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, and Italy) by value accounted for around 73% of total deal value."

All top five countries by value except the Netherlands showcased decline in deal value in March 2020 compared to February 2020.

Bose added: "Although in terms of value, the Netherlands witnessed growth in March 2020, this was only due to the announcement of one high-value deal, excluding which deal value also declined in this country."

The acquisition announcement of Qiagen by Thermo Fisher Scientific for US$11.5bn in March 2020 raised the ......................

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With the United Nations poised to announce whether the vote on non-permanent Security Council seats will go ahead as scheduled in June, Canada is doubling down on its bid for a seat  and adjusting its pitch to take the COVID-19 crisis into account.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's week-long trip in February to woo African countries for their votes is now a distant memory, as is his cancelled plan to attend the CARICOM summit in Barbados that same month. But the pandemic and the subsequent global economic shutdown have not slowed down Canada's efforts to secure a seat at the UN table.

The bid instead has been redirected toward organizing or chairing virtual global conferences the Trudeau government sees as demonstrating Canada's global leadership in a way that could win more votes.

"The best campaign is when we don't need to campaign, when we just show our leadership, that this is the type of voice that you would want at the Security Council," Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told CBC News.

A close contest

Canada is in a tight fight with Norway and Ireland for the two non-permanent seats out of 10 on the 15-member council that are reserved for Western countries.

Most experts think Norway has a lock on one of those seats, leaving Ireland and Canada to duke it out for the other one (even though Canada entered the race late).

But the Liberal government now sees an opportunity. Champagne said he believes Canada's international standing has grown in 2020, and not only because of its response to the pandemic. The minister also is banking on a boosted profile because of Canada's role in coordinating efforts to investigate the destruction of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, which was shot down over Iran in January, killing all 176 passengers and crew.

Champagne points to the fact Canada is a member of both the G7 and G20, unlike its competitors, and argues that status allows the government to bring other leaders together and "amplify the voice of other nations" that are more vulnerable in the current health crisis.

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And the pandemic itself also could cut the cost of Canada's campaign for a Security Council seat, which already has set the government back $2 million.

"We do a lot of things virtually these days, so it allows us to reach more people without having to go very far," Champagne said.

Critics were questioning the Trudeau government's Security Council campaign even before the global pandemic upended government agendas around the world. Now, the government is saying Canada needs to be at the big table to have a say in how the world recovers from the pandemic  even though the Security Council has been relatively silent on the crisis to date.

It's still a long shot

"It's also in our very selfish national interests that the recovery in other parts of the world is as strong as possible," said Canada's Ambassador to the United Nations Marc-Andre Blanchard, who has been working behind the scenes on the campaign.

"This is a table where the entire world wants to be, because when you're around that table you're more influential and you're more relevant."

Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

Still, the factors that made Canada's bid look like a long shot before the pandemic arrived are still in play: a faltering peacekeeping commitment and relatively low foreign aid commitments.

"Ireland has been peacekeeping since 1958. It's never stopped," said Stephen Lewis, a former Canadian ambassador to the UN who is closely following the race.

"Our failure on that front is our most serious Achilles heel in seeking the seat."

The pandemic has allowed Canada to boost its presence on the international stage. Trudeau participated Monday in an online pledging conference to raise funds for vaccine development, spearheaded by the European Union. While Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg pledged more than $1 billion US for vaccine development and eventual distribution, Trudeau pointed to $850 million Cdn Canada already had committed to accelerated vaccine development.

That $850 million includes $74 million that's part of the $159.5 million foreign aid package Canada's international development minister announced in April. Ottawa says it's only a beginning.

"This takes a global effort," Trudeau said Monday at his daily briefing. "There will be more to come as the world grapples with this pandemic."

Rhetoric vs. reality

Still, Lewis said Canada's international funding commitment maintains the same level of aid Canada has always offered, and the Liberal government needs to work harder to match its "rhetoric with performance," particularly when it comes to the pandemic.

Canada gives about 0.26 per cent of its GDP in foreign aid. Norway, the world's most generous donor, gives 1 per cent of its GDP.

The old way of winning a Security Council seat  having the prime minister or other high-profile ministers show up in foreign capitals to schmooze  is "a bit of a sham," said Lewis. The vote is a secret ballot and the ambassadors who cast the votes don't always follow orders from the top.

Lewis said the popularity of Canada's ambassador could tip the scales, however.

"Marc-Andre Blanchard is the real key to this [campaign]," he said. "He's really first-rate and that does not happen often."

Global Affairs Canada is campaigning as though the vote will go ahead on June 17, but there is pressure from some nations to postpone it until the fall, given the logistics involved in having 193 representatives of member states vote online.
AUSTIN, Texas, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 100 Texas-based companies and brands have united to honor teachers and highlight the critical nature of the teaching profession through the #TeachersCan initiative. The open-source initiative is paying tribute to educators during National Teacher Appreciation Week (May 4-8) with a prize sweepstakes and exclusive content - including discussions, tutorials, and live performances by nationally-recognized authors, performers and musicians.

#TeachersCan supporting organizations include major Texas brands including H-E-B, Whataburger, Kendra Scott, Valero, the San Antonio Spurs, and Dell Technologies, as well as statewide associations, community groups, chambers of commerce, and universities.

"The COVID-19 crisis has further demonstrated just how important teachers are to our students, our communities, and our state," said coalition member and Texas Association of School Administrators Executive Director Kevin Brown. "Despite the widespread affinity for teachers, teacher morale is on the decline; many of our best and brightest are not considering teaching as a profession, and less than a majority of parents would encourage their children to become teachers. Teachers are too important to our future  those trends need to change."

#TeachersCan called Texans to show their appreciation for teachers by nominating a current educator for the prize sweepstakes. The sweepstakes received more than 12,000 nominations in less than two weeks for a variety of prizes including free groceries for a year from H-E-B, free gas for a year from Valero, jewelry from Kendra Scott, a home office set-up, a Peloton deluxe package, a Whataburger "back-to-school" bash, hundreds of gift cards from companies including Southwest Airlines, Bill Miller Bar-B-Q, Luby's/Pappa's Group, Hobby Lobby, Starbucks, and Frost Bank. More than 100 prizes will be distributed during National Teacher Appreciation Week, with winners announced via #TeachersCan social channels (@TxTeachersCan) daily.

The #TeachersCan National Teacher Appreciation Week content schedule is outlined below. Visit TeachersCan.org or @TxTeachersCan on Facebook and Instagram for more information, including event links.

Tuesday, May 5

Toast to Teachers, honoring the 40 Texas Teachers of the Year and 48 H-E-B Excellence in Education Award finalists

"Mind, Body & Soul" snacks from The Union, Fitness & Fun

Backyard concert by Wade Bowen

Wednesday, May 6

Literary conversations with authors Jenna Bush Hager , Stephen Harrigan and Lawrence Wright , hosted by Evan Smith , CEO and co-founder of The Texas Tribune

, and , hosted by , CEO and co-founder of "Mind, Body & Soul" snacks from The Union, Fitness & Fun

Backyard concert by Sunny Sweeney

Thursday, May 7

Home Is Where the Art Is encourages community members to create and display a piece of art with a message of thanks

Exclusive performances by ballerina Lauren Anderson , makeup artist Erica Miles , and musicians Ray Benson and The Mrs. Band

, makeup artist , and musicians and The Mrs. Band "Mind, Body & Soul" snacks from The Union, Fitness & Fun

Backyard concert by Randy Rogers

Friday, May 8

Live performances by Randy Rogers , Wade Bowen , Parker McCollum and Sunny Sweeney from Whitewater Amphitheater in New Braunfels, Texas

, , and from Whitewater Amphitheater in "Mind, Body & Soul" snacks from The Union, Fitness & Fun

CONTACT:

Lindsey Campbell, [email protected]

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When Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on May 1 that schools statewide would remain closed for the rest of the academic year due to the coronavirus pandemic, observers might have experienced deja vu  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had made the same announcement weeks early on April 11 for city schools. At the time, despite the apparent inevitability of the decision, Cuomo shot de Blasio down, saying only the governor could make decisions about whether schools would reopen. (Some legal observers question that assertion, noting that New York City has the authority under current state law to declare emergency closures  snow days, for instance  without state approval, although Cuomo could always take away that power through an executive order.)

But on May 1, Cuomo passively admitted the mayor made the right call in April.

This isnt the first time the governor has undercut the mayor. Previously, even since New Yorks outbreak of COVID-19 began, Cuomo has taken de Blasios idea and made it his own. School closures is just the latest example.

The two have feuded off and on since de Blasio took office in 2014, despite the fact that they are former friends who had worked together in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under then-President Bill Clinton.

Below are some of the notable times that New Yorks governor has co-opted an idea from New Yorks mayor.

Closing schools for the rest of the academic year

When de Blasio announced on April 11 that city schools would not reopen for the remainder of the academic year, Cuomo immediately pushed back on the announcement. He said de Blasio had no authority to make that decision, saying that only he could decide when schools reopen, never truly acknowledging that de Blasio simply wanted to keep them closed longer out of caution. (Scientists from organizations such as UNICEF warn that reopening schools during this academic year could cause an outbreak of COVID-19.) At the time, schools statewide were only set to remain closed only through April 29 by executive order, but the governor resisted the long-term call that seemed inevitable even in mid-April. On April 16, Cuomo extended the closures until May 15. Finally, on May 1, Cuomo came around to what he derided de Blasio for over half a month earlier, when he announced that schools would remain closed for the rest of the academic year. In the end, de Blasio may have jumped the gun in Cuomos eyes, but the governor ultimately accepted the mayors conclusion, albeit weeks later.

Partial subway suspension/closures

De Blasio on April 27 released a plan asking that the Metropolitan Transportation close 10 terminal subway stations between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. to get homeless New Yorkers off the trains and to deep clean those stations. On April 28, the same day that de Blasio first publicly spoke of his newly proposed plan, Cuomo agreed that something had to be done to address an increase in homeless people on the subways. However, he offered no original ideas, nor an opinion on de Blasios proposal at that days press conference. The MTA, which Cuomo controls, didnt commit to de Blasios plan. Days later, on April 30, Cuomo and the MTA announced the authority would go several steps further: All overnight subway service would be suspended between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. in order to disinfect trains and equipment. The announcement did not directly address the issue of homelessness. On April 29, the MTA had issued new guidance meant to decrease the number of transient New Yorkers on trains and in stations, such as banning shopping carts.

Shelter-in-place

This is perhaps the most prominent recent example of Cuomo effectively co-opting an idea that first came from de Blasio. Unlike the decision to keep schools closed, when the governor bristled at a challenge to his authority but did not go so far as to say schools would open sooner, Cuomo actively dismissed the idea of a shelter-in-place order before issuing his own. De Blasio said on March 17 that New Yorkers should expect a shelter-in-place order in the coming days, similar to what the Bay Area in California had just enacted. On the West Coast, nonessential businesses closed and venturing outdoors was limited to exercise or essential shopping. Hours after de Blasio first raised the possibility, Cuomo said the city would not quarantine itself. When de Blasio attempted to differentiate between a quarantine and a shelter-in-place, Cuomo dismissed any difference, saying Theres not going to be any, You must stay in your house, rule. But on March 20, Cuomo declared the state to be on pause through an executive order, banning all nonessential gatherings of any size, closing all nonessential businesses and requiring people in public to remain six feet apart beginning the evening of March 22. He also urged people to remain home as much as possible, with the exception of necessary expeditions such as buying groceries, picking up medicine or engaging in solitary exercise. Despite the semantics that Cuomo harped on, he issued a shelter-in-place order by another name.

Universal, pre-kindergarten

De Blasio campaigned on reducing inequality and his signature proposal in 2013 was to provide full-day, free preschool for all four year-olds, paid for by taxing very high-income earners. The enactment and launch of universal pre-K remains one of his biggest accomplishments as mayor. He launched his Pre-K for All initiative his first year in office in September 2014 after procuring the necessary funding from Albany. Initially, Cuomo included $1.5 billion over five years in his 2014 budget for a statewide universal pre-k program, not mentioning de Blasio by name. The governor resisted de Blasios demand for a new tax on wealthy New Yorkers to pay for the city program. In the end, the city got $300 million in funding without the new tax. Cuomo still presented the money as part of a bigger package of $1.5 billion spread out over five years for a statewide program. The budget was undoubtedly a success for de Blasio, allowing him to implement his signature policy proposal even without a new tax on the rich. However, Cuomo also took credit for passing a progressive agenda item long supported by the Assembly, but one that the governor had never prioritized before de Blasio. A year before, in 2013, Cuomo provided funding to allow some low-income districts to offer full-day pre-k at the recommendation of an education commission he had convened. But the $25 million one-time investment that year was a far cry from the $1.5 billion over five years he would commit in 2014 when the mayor came knocking. Years later, 2018 gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon faulted Cuomo for failing to live up to his 2014 promise, at least partially co-opted from de Blasio, of expanding free, full-day pre-k across the state. She noted that 79% of four-year-olds outside the city still did not have access to it.

$15 minimum wage

Cuomo often takes credit for raising the minimum wage in parts of the state to $15 per hour, but the push arguably started with de Blasio. In 2014, the mayor called on Cuomo for the authority to increase New York Citys minimum wage, only to have the governor shoot down the idea. Cuomo said such matters should be left to the state and that localities should not have different minimum wages. The goal, with Albanys help, was to raise wages in the city to over $15 an hour by 2019. A year earlier in 2013, Cuomo and the state Legislature had struck a deal to increase the statewide minimum wage to $9 an hour, up from the nationwide minimum of $7.25, by the start of 2016. Yet in January of 2015, Cuomo proposed setting a higher minimum wage for New York City, suggesting $11.50 for the city and $10.50 for the rest of the state by 2016. It was the same principle de Blasio had wanted, only that time it came from Cuomo instead. In response, de Blasio advocated for an even higher minimum wage in the city of $13 by 2016 and $15 by 2019, something that had not yet been proposed by the governor. De Blasio finally implemented a pay rate of $15 dollars an hour for city employees in January 2016, several months before the state Legislature passed a law to increase pay statewide. It increased pay to $15 an hour in New York City by the start of 2020, with the same level for Long Island and Westchester by 2022 and $12.50 for the rest of the state by 2021. However, de Blasios action still came after Cuomo directed the state Department of Labor to increase fast food workers wage to $15 an hour in May 2015, phased in over several years, upon the recommendation of a panel. Technically, this marked the first $15 minimum wage action in the state, and Cuomo took credit for leading the charge for that change in New York, counting the increase as his own victory.
WASHINGTON  A bipartisan group of lawmakers, including the chairmen of the tax-writing committees in the House and the Senate, asked the Internal Revenue Service on Monday to allow companies that continue paying the cost of health benefits for furloughed workers to remain eligible for a new tax credit.

At issue is a tax credit for retaining employees, which essentially reimburses companies for as much as half the wages they continue to pay workers who are furloughed amid the coronavirus pandemic. The credit, which is meant to encourage companies to keep paying employees amid virus-induced shutdowns, was included in an economic rescue package that passed Congress with bipartisan support and was signed into law by President Trump in March.

The lawmakers concern stems from guidance that I.R.S. officials issued governing which companies are eligible for the credits benefits, and to what degree. That guidance allows companies to qualify if they reduce employees hours  and thus, their pay  amid the pandemic, but do not lay them off entirely.

But it rules out benefits for companies that stop paying wages to their workers but continue to pay the cost of their health benefits. If a company is not paying wages to its employees for time that the employees are not providing services, the guidance states, it may not treat any portion of the health plan expenses as qualified wages.
New Delhi, May 5 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday took exception to the increasing number of lawyers becoming petitioner-in-person to argue their matter, and filing petitions after reading newspapers and portals.

A bench comprising Justice Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and B.R. Gavai noted that lawyers cannot create work by filing petitions after reading newspapers and portals. "You may have a perspective, but court' cannot be a forum to vent this perspective," said the top court.

The observation came from the top court while hearing a letter petition seeking creation of an emergency fund for advocates in the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic.

The bench dismissed the plea filed and warned the advocate of imposing heavy costs.

The petitioners have moved the top court seeking creation of an emergency fund for young practicing advocates across the country, as in the absence of work due to lockdown; these lawyers are in dire need of financial help.

Justice Kaul queried to the advocate, is he the petitioner in person on the matter. "In the absence of work, lawyers cannot keep filing cases connected to coronavirus. You are not a person on the field," said Justice Kaul.

Justice Bhushan also observed that the court cannot implement orders of the government, and there is a helpline to monitor the situation. "We are not entertaining this," said Justice Bhushan. Justice Kaul added that he is tired of lawyers coming to court and arguing the matter as petitioner-in-person.

The petitioners if the lockdown is further extended, it would directly threaten the life and liberty of advocates, who earn their living through litigation. "It's time that the protector of fundamental and legal rights take care of this responsibility as a one class (Bar and Bench), rather than waiting for state or union relief funds as they have to take care of other professions and citizens at large," contended the petition.

The petitioners submitted that although various bar associations across the country have come up with financial aid schemes for advocates, it is not uniform. During the last hearing on the matter, the top court had observed that it had "no money to give", and that the Bar Council of India (BCI) should examine the issue.
"We pivoted our foundation's focus from STEM education to support the surge in demand for food assistance across the country," said Mike Goss, Toyota USA Foundation president. "As we head into summer, and looking beyond, we also recognized the need to support a variety of e-learning programs with resources to expand access, engage youth and parents, and assist teachers."

PLANO, Texas, May 5, 2020 -- Amid growing demand for emergency relief as a result of COVID-19, the Toyota USA Foundation awarded $2.5 million in grants to a variety of nonprofits across the nation. Funds address crucial needs - particularly food assistance - in urban hot spots and in many communities where Toyota operates, as well as e-learning programs to help keep youth engaged.

To date, including the above grants, Toyota has provided more than $8 million in funding and in-kind donations, including manufacturing and donating over 500,000 protective face shields for healthcare professionals.

"Along with contributing funding, team members are sharing their amazing spirit and expertise to help with relief efforts," said Chris Reynolds, chief administrative officer, Manufacturing and Corporate Resources for Toyota Motor North America. "Scaling up the work of nonprofits across the country and helping bring awareness and credible information to understand the risks and share steps on how to avoid contracting the virus is critical to meeting increased needs throughout the country."

Community service announcements for the African American and Hispanic communities are available by clicking here. To learn more about Toyota's COVID-19 response efforts click here.

Toyota USA Foundation grants include:

National Grants ($1.2 million)

Toyota USA Foundation grants support emergency relief efforts, particularly for multicultural communities in urban hotspots including, but not limited to, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New Orleans and New York City. Grants were awarded to:

The Salvation Army $700,000

United Way $500,000 (This is in addition to the previous $500,000 awarded to United Way in March)

"Toyota's generous donation will provide much-needed relief for those suffering from food insecurity, financial hardship and other effects from the economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic," said Stan Little, Chief Experience Officer for United Way Worldwide.

Grants in Toyota Operating Communities ($800,000)

Toyota USA Foundation grants address hunger in Toyota's operational communities in 12 states. Grants include:

Food Bank of North Alabama , Huntsville, Alabama , $55,000

, , United Food Bank, Mesa, Arizona , $55,000

, Hawkeye Area Community Action Program (HACAP), Hiawatha, Iowa , $55,000

, Tri-State Food Bank Evansville, Indiana , $55,000

, God's Pantry Food Bank, Lexington, Kentucky , $55,000

, Maryland Food Bank, Baltimore, Maryland , $55,000

, Food Gatherers in Ann Arbor, Michigan , $40,000

, Ypsilanti Meals on Wheels, Ypsilanti, Michigan , $25,000

, Bread For Life, Troy, Missouri , $30,000

, Lincoln County Council on Aging, Troy, Missouri $25,000

Grow North Texas in Dallas, Texas $55,000

in North Texas Food Bank, Plano, Texas $65,000

VNA Texas Meals on Wheels, Dallas, Texas $30,000

San Antonio Food Bank, San Antonio, Texas $55,000

Mid-South Food Bank, Memphis, Tennessee , $55,000

, Regional Inter-Faith Association (RIFA), Jackson, Tennessee , $55,000

, Five Loaves Two Fish Food Pantry, Welch, West Virginia , $55,000

"Mid-South Food Bank has seen a 207 percent increase in need throughout our service area," said," Cathy Pope, President & CEO, Mid-South Food Bank. "The clients before COVID-19 still need us, and people who never dreamed they would need the food bank find themselves really struggling to put food on the table. We are working to meet this increased need over the next six to 12 months as families recover."

Along with a mobile food pantry launched by Toyota Mississippi and Mid-South Food Bank, Toyota also worked Dallas Area Rapid Transit, Grow North Texas, University of North Texas at Dallas Mobile Market, Veggie Project, and Lonestar Human Services to distribute produce and hygiene packs to families in need in the DFW region.

E-learning Grants

The Toyota USA Foundation also funded:

Girls Who Code for its new online program  Girls Who Code at Home  and to support video-based activities, $125,000

Code.org to expand K-12 computer science education in the DFW region by training teachers with its all-new virtual learning program that combines asynchronous learning combined with synchronous, facilitator-led virtual sessions, $125,000

Science Buddies to create a free online tool for learners to discover STEM pathways and careers, $200,000

SkillsUSA to expand complementary access to its signature online program -- Career Essentials -- to more than 830 students: $50,000

"Our free hands-on STEM activities, which are shorter and typically use materials easily found around a home, make STEM learning more accessible to a variety of diverse audiences," said Tina Lanese, senior vice president, Science Buddies. "Through this grant we will be able to build on these activities to help learners discover pathways to STEM careers as they engage in activities during this period, into the summer and beyond."

For more information on Toyota's COVID-19 response, please visit: www.toyota.com/toyota-covid-19-response/ (English) www.toyota.com/espanol/toyota-covid-19-response/ (Spanish)

About Toyota

Toyota has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. and North America for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands. During that time, Toyota has created a tremendous value chain as our teams have contributed to world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 40 million cars and trucks in North America, where we have 14 manufacturing plants, 15 including our joint venture in Alabama (10 in the U.S.), and directly employ more than 47,000 people (over 36,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold 2.7 million cars and trucks (2.4 million in the U.S.) in 2019.

The Toyota USA Foundation supports innovative programs and builds partnerships with organizations that are dedicated to improving the teaching and learning of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
A boat with Filipino fishermen sails past the U.S. Coast Guard ship Bertholf during a joint exercise between Philippine and American naval forces near Scarborough shoal in the South China Sea, May 13, 2019.

Fishermens associations in Vietnam and the Philippines on Monday protested Chinas annual summer fishing ban in the South China Sea and called for their national governments to oppose it, amid the threat of strict enforcement by the China Coast Guard.

Vietnamese fishermen have complete rights to fish in waters under their sovereignty, the Vietnam Fisheries Society said in a statement posted on its website, adding that the ban violates international law and their country's sovereignty over the Paracel Islands.

China, which claims virtually all the South China Sea despite competing claims from five other governments, announced Friday its annual moratorium on fishing within waters it claims jurisdiction over. That includes waters down to the 12th parallel of the South China Sea, encompassing the Paracel Islands and Scarborough Shoal.

China usually only enforces the ban on its own fishing vessels, although fishermen from other countries are also meant to comply with it.

This year, however, the China Coast Guard (CCG) and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs have promised a crackdown on illegal activity during the three-and-a-half month ban that runs to Aug. 16.

State-run Xinhua News said that the law-enforcement campaign would safeguard the rights and interests of marine fisheries and protect the marine ecological environment.

That campaign, coupled with the aggressive behavior of Chinas coastguard in recent months, has some fishermen associations in the region clamoring for a response from their respective governments.

The Philippine government should not waste time and wait for Chinese maritime officers to arrest our fishermen, Fernando Hicap, chairman of PAMALAKAYA, the National Federation of Small Fisherfolk Organizations in the Philippines, said in a statement. Chinas bullying should immediately stop, and be protested. We have international and local fisheries laws that can be implemented to combat Chinas aggression.

"They have no right and moral ascendancy to declare a fishing ban in the guise of conserving fish stocks in marine waters that they have no legal claim, and they have massively destroyed through reclamation activities," Hicap said.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) spoke to a Vietnamese fisherman who said he and others would continue to operate near the Paracel Islands, but are concerned about the CCG and maritime militia harassing them. If we are chased by Chinese ships, we would report to the [local Vietnamese maritime police], but normally the [maritime police] do not help at all.

No fishermen have been arrested and brought to the Chinese mainland before, to his knowledge. He claimed there were about 10 fishing boats at the Paracel Islands on Monday, defying the fishing ban.

The Vietnam Fisheries Society said it had sent a document to the Vietnamese government and ruling Communist Party. It urged Vietnamese authorities to take drastic measures to oppose and attempt to halt Chinas actions. The government-backed society called for increased sea patrols to protect local fishermen in Vietnams territorial waters.

Another Vietnamese source within the fishing community at Binh Chau, Quang Ngai province, told RFA that fishermen in the area typically contact the local Maritime Search and Rescue Center when Chinese ships cut their fishing nets or steal their catch. The center then compensates the fishermen for their losses.

Both of the Vietnamese fishing community sources requested anonymity to avoid any repercussions with authorities for speaking to news media.

Chinas summer fishing ban is a recurring point of contention with other South China Sea claimants. When last years ban was announced, Vietnam issued an official protest. But the Philippines, whose President Rodrigo Duterte has sought closer ties with Beijing, did not formally protest.

Hunter Stires, a fellow with the U.S. Naval War Colleges John B. Hattendorf Center for Maritime Historical Research, said the purpose of the fishing ban was to create a closed, unfree, and Sino-centric order in the South China Sea.

To make its draconian vision a reality, China is working to impose its will and its own domestic laws on other countries' fishermen and local Southeast Asian civilian mariners throughout the South China Sea, he said.

The fishing ban covers an area that is flagrantly beyond Chinas lawful jurisdiction and deep within its neighbors exclusive economic zones, Stires added.

China maintains that the summer fishing ban is meant to promote sustainable practices in its territorial waters.

But Stires noted that China is notorious for paving over more than 3,200 acres of coral reefs to create a series of militarized artificial islands in the Spratly Islands. He added that Chinas massive fishing fleet has destroyed swaths of the seafloor in other countries' exclusive economic zones through bottom trawling, and has targeted the endangered giant clam by destroying reefs with boat propellers at Scarborough Shoal  a feature disputed by China, the Philippines and Taiwan.

Jason Gutierrez of BenarNews in Manila and RFAs Vietnamese Service contributed to this report. Radio Free Asia is a news service affiliated with BenarNews.


Industry body FICCI on Tuesday suggested the government to resume operations of downstream industries like real estate and construction of roads and highways to minimise the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the cement sector

Mumbai: Industry body FICCI on Tuesday suggested to the government to resume operations of downstream industries like real estate and construction of roads and highways to minimise the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the cement sector.

According to rating agency ICRA, cement demand is expected to decline by 10-12 percent in the current fiscal year as construction activities across the country have come to a standstill since 25 March due to the ongoing lockdown.

Even as the government has allowed resumption of activities in certain non-hotspot zones, cement demand is not likely to pick up as the real estate sector, which accounts for 60-65 percent of cement demand, is concentrated in major metros which are currently in lockdown.

"As the demand for cement is expected to drop drastically in this fiscal due to the nationwide lockdown, FICCI suggests that government should promote and resume operations of downstream industries like real estate, development of roads, highways, rivers and canals projects, among others," the industry body said in a statement.

FICCI has also recommended fast-tracking investment in the infrastructure sector by front-loading investment in National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) as it would help in rejuvenating the demand for the cement sector.

Last year, the government announced the NIP with a sanctioned amount of Rs 102 lakh crore to undertake social and economic infrastructure projects in India over a period of five years.

Further, to reduce the financial burden on the sector, FICCI has recommended 10 percent enhancement on credit limit and sanction of an additional 25 percent on current working capital limits for cement companies.

In addition to this, the industry body has recommended an additional three-months extension of moratorium granted on payment of interest and repayment of loans.

FICCI also batted for immediate disbursement of central and state subsidies to improve cash flows for companies.

"To further reduce the financial burden on the sector, FICCI has recommended deferment of royalty, DMF (District Mineral Foundation) and NMET (National Mineral Exploration Trust) by six months till the economic situation stabilises," it said.

To protect domestic cement manufacturers from possible dumping of imports post-lockdown, the industry body has suggested that prioritisation should be given to domestic value addition for raw materials like limestone, fly ash used in cement manufacturing as compared to export of these items.

It said domestic coal prices should be made more competitive by lowering notified prices by Coal India subsidiaries as imported coal prices have reduced substantially.

"To save the industry from additional capex expenses amidst the current scenario, FICCI has further asked the government for relaxation in environmental emission norms for cement plants for two years," it added.
I think I was more upset because I knew that I was going to have to isolate for another two weeks and that had been really hard for me because Im quite extroverted," she said. "I have never lived alone before so being alone in a tiny little flat for four weeks was probably what upset me more than knowing that I had COVID-19.

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Her condition deteriorated rapidly that Tuesday, with an average fever of 39.5C starting at 8pm every night over the course of four to five days, with the first 48 hours proving the most difficult.

I suppose because no one really knows that much about the virus, I didnt know how to treat myself; I didnt know if taking Panadol was good for me or if I should just let my fever go, so I think I was just a little more scared because I didnt know how to deal with it," Ms Edmonds said.

So I would take Panadol at night time just to bring my fever down so that I could sleep and I just smashed a lot of vitamins, theyre never going to do your body harm so I just started on really high vitamin Cs and zincs* and stuff like that just because I wasnt eating because I couldnt; so just to have anything in my body. (*A number of medical professionals over the years have urged caution about taking a high number of supplements as they can prove toxic, including zinc. Currently there is no treament for COVID-19, and "the Therapeutic Goods Administration is also not aware of any medicines or supplements available without prescription that will prevent or assist with recovery from a novel coronavirus infection. If you become unwell and suspect you may have symptoms of novel coronavirus, you must seek medical attention." )
Maguindanao (CNN Philippines, May 5)  Government troops guarding quarantine areas clashed with members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in Datu Hoffer Ampatuan town in Maguindanao, leaving two soldiers killed, the military said on Monday.

A member of the 57th Infantry Battalion deployed in Barangay Talibadok was also wounded in the encounter on Sunday night.

The military's Western Mindanao Command said Private First Class Vicente Gata Jr. and Private First Class Jermie Ombiang died during the firefight which lasted for 45 minutes.

Soldiers are pursuing the BIFF members who fled the scene.

"We will make sure that these terrorists, who are obviously desperate to strike back during this time when we are all working to defeat the coronavirus, will pay for their treacherous acts," Western Mindanao Command chief Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana said in a statement.
Government-owned banks non-performing assets (NPA) could go up by 2-4 percent of the credit in the present economic environment and this will result in a recapitalisation requirement of $7-15 billion (Rs 1.14 lakh crore at the upper end), BofA Securities said in a report on Tuesday, adding government can use recapitalisation bonds to fund PSU banks.

We already see 2 percent of GDP of slippage in the consolidated fiscal deficit due to lower tax collections, a shortfall in divestment and fiscal stimulus. Delhi can still recapitalise banks by issuing recapitalisation bonds that do not impact the fisc., said the BfaA report.

Recapitalisation bonds are instruments that will be issued by the government to infuse capital in state-run banks. Banks can subscribe to these bonds against the capital infused in them by the government.

This should help PSU banks heal their broken balance sheets and meet adequate capital requirements. Once growth recovers, the government can gradually convert these recap bonds into normal G-secs and sell them to the market, as happened in the past, BofA said.

Will this foster moral hazard in banks? Not really, as we see NPLs as largely cyclical, BofA analysts 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 COVID-19 lockdown since March 24 has impacted economic activities in India significantly. Most of the industries have come to a halt. On March 27, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a slew of measures to help banks including relaxation on repayment of loans without terming those loans as NPA.

Further, the RBI also announced liquidity infusion totalling Rs 3.74 lakh crore through multiple channels. On 17 April, the central bank announced the continuation of these measures. Besides recapitalisation bonds, the government could also look at using RBIs revaluation reserves to capitalize banks, BofA Securities said.

According to BofA, the RBI's revaluation reserves of Rs 9.6 lakh crore can also be utilised to recapitalise banks in a fiscal deficit-neutral and liquidity-neutral manner. The RBI's revaluation reserves currently provide appreciation cover till Rs 54.20/$. Utilising Rs 1 lakh crore to recap PSU banks will still maintain a cover of Rs 56.40/$, the report said.

This begs the question, does India face the risk of a sovereign outlook downgrade? We think the risk can be materially mitigated if Delhi commits to recapitalising PSU banks to enable them to write off their losses, BofA said.
(Natural News) More than 900 Missourians who alerted authorities to people violating the states stay-at-home order designed to reduce exposures to the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) now say they are in fear for their safety after details about them were leaked online.

The UKs Daily Mail reports that the names and addresses of the snitches were released as part of a media request under the Show Me States Sunshine Law, which permits such information to be released to a public agency, with some exceptions.

Officials in St. Louis County, the so-called epicenter for coronavirus in Missouri, urged people to alert them to anyone not following prescribed social distancing guidelines. Authorities noted in the terms and conditions that information received could be shared publicly.

The Daily Mail noted further:

However some people may not have read the small print submitted tips via an online form and email from the end of March.

Many had asked for their communications to remain private.

Documents that were published online were discovered and then shared on social media platforms. One man, Jared Totsch, spread it further by posting the names and addresses on a Facebook group.

Here ya go. The gallery of snitches, busybodies, and employees who rat out their own neighbors and employers over the Panic-demic, he wrote, the Daily Mail reported.

The wave of complaints to authorities resulted in 29 businesses being cited by police in April. Now, people are concerned theyll be fired as a result of reporting the companies they work for, or that people may retaliate against them.

Im not only worried about COVID, Im worried about someone showing up at my door, showing up at my workplace or me getting fired for doing what is right, one tipster named Patricia told KSDK-TV. When there is something that happens next time, Im not going to feel safe or protected enough to call the local authorities.

If they are worried about retaliation, they should have read the fine print

The TV station reported further that Patricia has Lupus and two other people in her household also have auto-immune diseases, making them more at risk for contracting coronavirus and becoming very ill or even dying.

Were in a society where doing whats right doesnt always get rewarded, she said. We have to be extra careful because we dont have the strength to fight this.

I saw a lot of businesses that were non-essential that were open and had lines outside, parking lots filled as if the order didnt matter to them. And that was kinda frustrating, she continued.

Patricia added that she believes most of her personal information should have been redacted by authorities in order to offer more protection to people willing to step forward and report violations.

As of this writing, Missouri was a middle-of-the-road state in terms of coronavirus cases, with roughly 8,754. The state has seen about 377 deaths. (Related: CDC projecting SURGE in deaths, hospitalizations by early June: 3,000 deaths and 200,000 new infections per day.)

Nearly half of all the states cases and deaths have occurred in St. Louis County, however.

Doug Moore, the St. Louis County executives director of communications, said under law they are not allowed to redact information.

In this particular instance, our county counselors office consulted with the [attorney general]s office on releasing the list of those who had filed complaints against county businesses, Moore said, the Daily Mail reported. We were told all the information was public and we should not redact (except for HIPAA information).

Withholding information goes against what journalists push us to be  as transparent as possible, he continued.

Totsch said the information he shared he discovered in another online group.

If they are worried about retaliation, they should have read the fine print which stated their tips would be open public record subject to a Sunshine request, and should not have submitted tips in that manner to begin with, he wrote. I released the info in an attempt to discourage such behavior in the future.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

NaturalNews.com
Khloe Kardashian mused 'Who runs the world.... GIRLS!!!' as she looked through her photo roll on Tuesday.

The reality star cuddled up to daughter North as they posed with her nieces Penelope Disick and North West in a series of throwback images she shared to Instagram.

Aunt Khloe and her charges smiled together in the sweet shots, which appeared to have been taken in a backyard, pre-coronavirus.

Aunty Klo: Khloe Kardashian shares 'Who runs the world.... GIRLS!!!' throwback with True, North and Penelope on Tuesday

Fancy: The giggling girls all wore their swimwear in the sunny shots, with Kim Kardashian's daughter North in a Burberry swimsuit

Instagram update: Khloe posted the images to Instagram

The giggling girls all wore their swimwear in the sunny shots, with Kim Kardashian's daughter North in a Burberry swimsuit.

Other images shared to Instagram by Khloe on Tuesday included shots of a tousled True enjoying her breakfast, sitting at a table beside the window.

The pajama clad two-year-old ate from china decorated with tigers and other animals as she was caught on camera by her doting mother.

Good morning: Other images shared to Instagram by Khloe on Tuesday included footage of a tousled True enjoying her breakfast, sitting at a table beside the window

While Khloe lives close to her extended family and usually spends most days in their company, the Kardashians have been complying with California governor Gavin Newson's Shelter At Home mandate.

In a recent teaser clip for the upcoming season of Keeping Up with the Kardashians - which is set to air in September - short clips show the famous family social distancing from each other.

Khloe's girl: The pajama clad two-year-old ate from china decorated with tigers and other animals as she was caught on camera by her doting mother

Many of the clips shown in the trailer feature selfie cameras, as the coronavirus pandemic has prevented a camera crew from being able to visit the homes of the family members - including Kourtney, Kim, and Khloe Kardashian, as well as Kendall Jenner and family matriarch Kris Jenner.

The teaser also shows how difficult social distancing has been for the family - who are known for being close - as one clip shows Kris breaking down in tears during an emotional call with Khloe.

She tells her daughter: 'I wish I could hug you.'
The self-quarantine period amid the Covid-19 pandemic has turned out to be a rather beautiful retreat for Tinaa Dattaa. The actor had travelled to Goa much before the lockdown began, to learn yoga from her teacher Brent Goble, and is stuck at the Peace of Blue yogashala ever since. While she did think of taking a flight back to Mumbai just before the lockdown, but somehow, it wasnt a safe option, she says.

While in Goa now, Dattaa, along with Gobles wife, actor Aashka Goradia, is making the most of this time by not only learning new asanas, but also how to bake cakes, make new dishes, and try her hand at photography.

The actor tells us, I wanted to learn yoga for a long time and Im finally pursuing it with my yoga guru, who makes it so much fun and explains the significance of every asana. I do it for about two hours. Its very calming and positive.

While Dattaa keeps posting some beautiful pictures from Goa on her social media accounts, she admits that shes conscious about not overdoing it like many others, who are readily sharing videos of themselves cleaning the house, cooking, washing, and doing other household chores.

Dont we do it everyday? asks the 29-year-old, adding, I do it for sure, but Ill never make a social media post about. I find it extremely wannabe to do such things. People just want to create content on social media in order to be seen.

With the rise in social media engagement amid the forced break, the trolls have also become more active than before. The actor agrees, and says, I land up blocking at least 40-50 accounts almost everyday. They (trolls) would just make stupid or nasty comments on the feed. I think these people are very frustrated and they should get a better hold of their lives, instead of wasting their time and energy like this.

On the work front, Dattaa was supposed to start shooting for a Bengali web series besides some commercials and events in the pipeline, which are all on hold as of now. Im craving to go to the sets and Im missing my home in Mumbai, she says.
Zoom is unarguably popular now, thanks to how personal and professional communications have changed over a past few coronavirus-impacted months. But before Zoom's sudden turn of fate, it was known among big corporates and used for their internal communications. Google was too one of those organisations that would use Zoom despite having a pile of its own communications and video conferencing apps. Inside Google, the Cloud engineers were so impressed by Zoom that they reportedly wanted to acquire the video meeting app late in 2018.

According to a report by The Information, citing a person who worked with Google Cloud earlier, the popularity of Zoom among Google Cloud employees was so intense, it prompted them to mull acquiring the video conferencing app. The level of the proposal reached a point where Google began to consider the "reasonable price" for Zoom. The engineers also began to chalk out how Zoom's service will run on Google servers if the acquisition is successful. Zoom was one of many companies that Google Cloud engineers evaluated to acquire. But the discussions could not go too far, as per the report.

A Google spokesperson has, however, downplayed the acquisition pitch Cloud engineers had ready for Zoom. According to the spokesperson, the acquisition was never "seriously evaluated" by Google Cloud engineers and that the use of Zoom was not agreed to for large-scale among the company employees. There was a recent falling-out between the two companies when one too many privacy and security loopholes in Zoom's platform started to emerge, causing Google to ban its use for employees.

To counter Zoom, Google has made changes to its Hangouts Meets app. It is now called Meets and is available for Gmail users worldwide for video conferencing. Google is said to be adding nearly 3 million users daily on Meets, which is a 30 times increase in usage since January. As of the recent data shared by Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Meets has 100 million participants using the platform on a daily basis. Meets was paid earlier and available for G Suite users only, but Google has made the app free in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Zoom, on the other hand, has multiple subscription plans, including a free one with the least number of features.

Interestingly, Google was not the only bigwig considering to acquire Zoom. A Recode report last year said Microsoft repeatedly tried to acquire Zoom "over the years". But, to Microsoft' dismay, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan rebuffed the offers from Microsoft, saying he was not interested in selling the video conferencing platform to the Satya Nadella-led company. But Microsoft has its own collaboration app called Teams, which saw a monumental surge in adoption during the coronavirus-induced lockdown globally. Microsoft Teams now has 75 million daily active users while over 200 million meeting participants were active on a single day, amounting to a total of 4.1 billion minutes of meetings.

Zoom also outed the numbers of how its service has attracted several users within a short time. It said the platform has over 300 million daily active users globally. But Zoom did not take to backtrack and correct its statistics to say there are 300 million daily meeting participants on the platform. Previously, Zoom had misstated its privacy policy that led to the confusion about end-to-end encryption for video meetings.
IRD Joins Coalition Letter Asking Trump for US Action Against UN Attack on Religious Freedom, Inalienable Rights

NEWS PROVIDED BY

Institute on Religion and Democracy

May 4, 2020

WASHINGTON, May 4, 2020 /Standard Newswire/ -- A coalition of individuals and organizations dedicated to freedom of religion is urging President Trump to take action against United Nations' overreach.

Institute on Religion and Democracy President Mark Tooley joins leaders representing the Heritage Foundation, Concerned Women for America, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, the Family Research Council and others in expressing concern to President Donald Trump about the February 27 report of the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Ahmed Shaheed, to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

The letter explains that the report's "dangerous and ill-founded attack on religious freedom" is part of a "broader, troubling trend of U.N. human rights entities politicizing human rights" but this report is "particularly egregious."

The coalition asks President Trump respond by sending guidance from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor at the State Department to foreign service officers on the correct understanding of religious freedom, women's rights, and erroneous assertions of new rights to abortion or those based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The full statement and signatories can be viewed at: TheIRD.org/international-religious-liberty/

IRD Religious Liberty Program Director Faith J.H. McDonnell, a signatory of the letter, commented:

"Religious freedom is a fundamental and inalienable right, but the United Nations report advances a social narrative that undermines the concept, so we urge President Trump to ensure that our own US Foreign Service officers are clear about what are truly religious freedom issues and women's rights.

"This narrative has long been on the agenda of the U.N.  particularly by countries condemning the concept of the 'universality' of human rights. But it appears to be growing in the U.N. and this social narrative damages the work to defend persecuted Christians and those of other persecuted faiths. We hope that President Trump will inform UN Secretary General Guterres of the U.S. discontent with this report.

"The purpose of Shaheed's report was to address gender-based violence and discrimination in the context of freedom of religion or belief. The report neglects problems faced by women from persecuted, minority religions, including abduction, enslavement, rape, forced conversion, and forced abortion.

"Most of the report heaps condemnation upon the religious beliefs of those who believe in protecting unborn life, marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and even the immutability of biological sex."

SOURCE Institute on Religion and Democracy

CONTACT: Jeff Walton 202-682-4131, jwalton@TheIRD.org

Related Links

TheIRD.org/international-religious-liberty

www.TheIRD.org
If Uddhav continues in this mode as a serious-minded, capable leader with his hands firmly on the steering wheel, and succeeds in enabling Maharashtra weather the current storm, there is every possibility of his emergence as a leader who will be seen as someone who is ready to play a larger role, observes Amulya Ganguli.

IMAGE: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray who has won praise for his calm and efficient handling of the coronavirus crisis in his state.

The coronavirus crisis has separated the men from the boys among the chief ministers.

While Mamata Banerjee has failed the test because of the suspicion of fudging casualty figures in West Bengal and Nitish Kumar is at a loss in the matter of dealing with Bihari migrant labourers, Uddhav Thackeray has met the challenge of high rates of infection and deaths in Maharashtra with a measure of coolness fit for a veteran.

Yet, unlike his Bengali and Bihari counterparts, he is a novice and a first-timer who was sought to be unseated by a scheming governor.

But Uddhav remained unflustered, roping in the prime minister for tackling the governor while he focussed on Maharashtra's immediate problem of the coronavirus menace.

His unruffled demeanour and composed handling of a dangerous situation have even pushed the experienced Sharad Pawar into the background although the latter had played a key role in putting the unlikely coalition of a right-winger (the Shiv Sena), a middle-of-the-roader (the Nationalist Congress Party) and a confused Congress into power.

But, now, the 79-year-old guru can watch his 59-year-old chela run India's foremost industrial state which houses the country's financial capital and is also the home of Bollywood like a pro.

While doing so, Uddhav has overseen the maturing of the Shiv Sena from an outfit of roughnecks into a responsible party.

So far, so good.

If Uddhav continues in this mode as a serious-minded, capable leader with his hands firmly on the steering wheel, and succeeds in enabling Maharashtra weather the current storm, there is every possibility of his emergence as a leader who will be seen as someone who is ready to play a larger role.

Since he has succeeded in running an improbable combine by smoothing the jagged ideological edges of Hindutva and secularism, he patently has the calibre of captaining a bigger ship.

It has to be remembered that Uddhav has held the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi together against the machinations of a powerful and ruthless adversary like the BJP which had tried in vain to oust him by a coup fathered by the governor at the crack of dawn.

Since then, the BJP has been ruefully licking its wounds and resorting to the pettiness of locating the International Financial Services Centre in Gujarat rather than in Maharashtra.

But as Uddhav grows in stature, all that the BJP's nominee for replacing him - Devendra Fadnavis -- and his new-found comrade-in-arms, Raj Thackeray -- can do is to wring their hands in frustration.

However, the million dollar question is whether Uddhav will be a part of an alliance at the national level against the BJP.

With Mamata and Nitish having fallen by the wayside, there is no candidate other than Rahul Gandhi who can breathe life into the non-BJP camp.

Between Uddhav and Rahul, the former (and probably future) Congress president is still a work in progress.

His party is trying yet again to prepare him for a leadership role via a video conference with media personal and an interview with a former Reserve Bank governor.

There will undoubtedly be more of the same.

But the Pappu image still haunts Rahul.

In the meantime, Uddhav should be able to firm up his image as a hands-on administrator and a politician who can reach out to others with different viewpoints.

The mahagathbandhan had stumbled last year because it could not find a leader.

Has it now found one in Uddhav ?

Amulya Ganguli is a writer on current affairs.
Damaging winds and a swell of up to eight metres are set to hit Western Australia's coast as another, more severe storm approaches following Monday's taste of wintry weather.

A sea wall had to be erected at Fremantle's Port Beach last year after erosion put footpaths and car arks at risk of collapse.

The Bureau of Meteorology warns locations including Albany, Bunbury, Busselton, Katanning, Mandurah, Manjimup, Margaret River, Mount Barker, Narrogin, Northam and Perth will likely feel the impact of the system.

The cold front is due to hit late on Tuesday afternoon and will extend into Wednesday, bringing with it squally showers, dangerous winds with gusts of up to 125km/h and even small hail.

BoM spokesman Neil Bennett told Nine News Perth the front was expected to reach the Capes in the late morning, slowly working its way up to the Perth metropolitan area with the leading edge hitting about 7pm.
DPM Kalsakau and Finance Minister Koanapo watching the loading of rice on a lorry after instructing the Province and EOC team to provide rice for the victims of Tanna ash fall.
PSNI officers have been helping local community groups reach out to vulnerable people in Derry during the coronavirus pandemic.

Neighbourhood Police Teams locally have been supporting the work of community hubs in the city by donating food and essential provisions for vulnerable members of the community.

Chief Superintendent Emma Bond said they were glad to help out.

It is important to us that we support our communities in any way we can through the current pandemic so we were pleased to be able to offer support by purchasing supplies and donating them to the local community hubs for distribution in Derry City and Strabane.

Ballyarnett Neighbourhood Police Team collected essential provisions from Eurospar in Culmore, as well as a monetary donation.

"These have been delivered to Ballyarnett Community Support Team who will distribute to the most vulnerable in the local community across Galliagh, Shantallow, Carnhill, Skeoge, Steelstown and Culmore.

Waterside Neighbourhood Police Team were assisted by a local Spar in the Waterside.

"Waterside Neighbourhood Police Team officers made donations and this was added to by Spar, Church Meadow.

"The essential items have been delivered to Irish Street Community Centre, which is being used by Waterside Neighbourhood Partnership to co-ordinate essential care packages across all the communities in Waterside.

Meanwhile, officers from Strabane Rural Neighbourhood Police Team along with Strabane Local Policing Team purchased essential food items from a local shop. This has been delivered to Castlederg Community Hub to assist vulnerable members of the community.

We are thankful to all of our community groups for all the work they are doing to help the most vulnerable in our society, ad are pleased we could offer some support to our communities at this difficult time.
A youth was arrested on Tuesday by a joint team of security forces from Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir. The youth is a hardcore Over Ground Worker (OGW) of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), a terrorist outfit.

An AK-56 along with other ammunition was recovered from him in Tral area of the district.
Authorities sealed a floor of Shastri Bhavan, which houses several important ministries, on Tuesday after a senior official tested positive for the coronavirus, the second incident of a government building being partially cordoned off in Lutyen's Delhi within a week.

The fourth floor 'A' wing from gate 1 to gate 3 has been sealed and is being disinfected, two officials said. Some gates and lifts will also remain closed till Wednesday, the officials said.

They said an official of the Law Ministry, housed on the second floor of Shastri Bhavan, tested positive for the virus, and as per the protocol, the contact tracing has been initiated.

Another senior government functionary said the deputy secretary who tested positive used to take a close relative to a hospital for treatment regularly and "may have got infected there".

"As per the protocol, the ministry has been sealed for sanitisation. The drill that needs to be followed is being carried out. It is mandatory and for everyone's good," the functionary added.

On April 28, the NITI Aayog building in the high-security zone was sealed for 48 hours after a director-level officer tested positive for the virus.

Before that, Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, which houses the Civil Aviation Ministry, was sealed for sanitisation.

In other such incidents, the CRPF headquarters and a portion of the BSF headquarters were also sealed recently. These buildings are in CGO Complex in the national capital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Bosnian company called "Silver Raspberry" wouldn't seem like the obvious choice for the import and distribution of ventilators during the coronavirus pandemic, and yet the fruit-processing firm has been granted millions of tax payers' money to do exactly that.

The little known private ownership, with ties to the political establishment and with no license to import medical equipment, has been tasked with getting 100 ventilators from China in a 5 million euro (5.6million US Dollar) deal which has sparked outrage in Bosnia.

Though Bosnia's prosecutor's office has launched an investigation into the procurement scandal, many fear this case is not the only one in the country, which was ravaged by a civil war in the 1990s.

The allegations of corruption amid the coronavirus pandemic have come as no surprise in Bosnia, which was poorly rated last year by the global graft watchdog Transparency International.

The organization ranked Bosnia 101st out of 180 countries on its annual global corruption perception index.

Experts have warned that the COVID-19 pandemic, which caught officials in many countries unprepared and ill-equipped to face the need for protective gear and ventilators, has created new opportunities for graft as governments rushed to get supplies.

Health systems around the world have been particularly exposed to corruption and if safeguards are not put into place quickly, the scale of abuse could eventually be huge, corruption watchdogs say.

Even such liberal and transparent states as Slovenia, a European Union member, appeared to be vulnerable.

A whistleblower's report alleging irregularities in the procurement of coronavirus protection gear prompted hundreds of people to stage protests on their bicycles against the center-right government of Slovenia's prime minister Janez Jansa.

Amid the public outcry, two suspected deals are being investigated by Slovenia's anti-corruption body.

Officials have admitted things could have been done better but have denied any wrongdoing, citing the need for speed in chaotic circumstances.

In Serbia, opposition parties and anti-corruption groups have repeatedly called for the government to publicise all coronavirus procurement costs, and deals which were made without transparent public bidding.

At the height of the crisis in March, Serbia's populist President Aleksandar Vucic repeatedly boasted of personally arranging the purchase of ventilators, while suggesting possible shady deals to secure equipment amid a global shortage.

At a press conference in March, Vucic said that three million face masks and an unspecified number of respirators were purchased in China, adding that some of acquisitions were made on "the semi-black market."

An emailed request from AP for details on the deliveries has been ignored by Serbian government.
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An extra 700m of new funding has been announced for infrastructure, regeneration and tourism projects as Northern Ireland plots a post Covid-19 economic recovery.

The Executive said it will match fund 562m for city and growth deals and 55m for the Inclusive Future Fund.

It also committed to providing up to an extra 100m for complimentary projects.

Retail NI chief executive Glyn Roberts said the funding is "a significant step towards a post Covid-19 economic recovery plan for our local economy".

He added: "Any recovery plan must be regionally balanced ensuring that investment in infrastructure is a priority alongside the regeneration of Belfast and Derry."

First Minister Arlene Foster said the announcement was "significant and highly positive".

"This will allow a range of proposals to proceed in the north west that have been worked up subject of course to business case approvals".

The match funding for the city and growth deals goes along with UK Government funding announced in May 2019 and brings the total investment to 1.2bn.

DUP MLA Gary Middleton hailed the funding as a huge step forward for the north west.

"This will allow for progress on some of the key projects such as the Maritime Museum at Ebrington, the Walled City Experience and the redevelopment of Queens Quay," he said.

And SDLP leader Colum Eastwood added: "This is good news that must be followed by commitment to fully expand Magee."
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A pro-democracy demonstrator burns a letter next to pictures of missing staff members of a publishing house and a bookstore, including Gui Minhai, a China-born Swedish national who is the owner of Mighty Current, Cheung Jiping, the business manager of the publishing house and Causeway Bay Books shareholder Lee Bo (L-R), during a protest to call for an investigation behind their disappearance, outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, China, on Jan. 3, 2016. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

Hong Kong Bookseller Jailed in China Releases Smuggled-Out Poems

STOCKHOLMA Swedish publisher on May 5 distributed poems written by a Hong Kong bookseller and smuggled out of the Chinese prison where he is serving a 10-year sentence after being convicted of illegally providing intelligence to foreigners.

Chinese-born Swedish citizen Gui Minhai is the highest-profile of five booksellers who disappeared in 2015, all linked to a bookshop in Chinese-ruled Hong Kong known for its gossipy texts on Chinese political leaders.

Such books are banned on the mainland but legal in Hong Kong, a former British colony which returned to China in 1997 with guarantees of freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland.

Protesters hold photos of missing booksellers during a protest outside the Liaison of the Central Peoples Government in Hong Kong, on Jan. 3, 2016. (Vincent Yu/AP Photo)

A Chinese court convicted Gui in February and said he had asked to have his Chinese citizenship reinstated.

Sweden retorted he had not asked to have his Swedish citizenship revoked and reiterated demands that he be allowed consular access, and for his release.

Lam Wing-kee, one of five shareholders and staff at the Causeway Bay Book shop in Hong Kong, waves to the press at his new book shop on the opening day in Taipei, Taiwan, on April 25, 2020. (Chiang Ying-ying/AP Photo)

Publishing house Kaunitz-Olsson said in an email the poems were written by Gui in prison.

The themes of the poems, which are printed in Chinese and Swedish, span from a longing for Swedish forests to his imprisonment, with one stanza reading It would be embarrassing To stop writing poems Because the poetry has been caged.

Hong Kong was rocked by months of pro-democracy street protests last year, with demonstrators furious at perceived meddling by Beijing in the citys promised freedoms.

By Anna Ringstrom and Johan Ahlander
File

Connecticut-based Timex is celebrating everyday heroes during the coronavirus pandemic by giving away more than 1,000 watches to those who embody the companys We Dont Stop mantra.

The watch giveaway is part of a national search for individuals who are tirelessly and selflessly committed to helping others and their communities during the coronavirus crisis, the company said.
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Readers' Letters China did what it could after its initial missteps Canada must hold China accountable, May 2 The opinion presented by David Olive is counter-productive to the effective control of the spread of COVID-19 and efforts toward mending the Sino-Canada relationship based on the following reasons: Despite Chinas missteps in dealing with the novel coronavirus in the early stage of its outbreak, it began to recognize its severity and quickly took drastic measures of locking down the city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the first outbreak, and subsequently the entire Hubei province, affecting the daily life of more than 60 million people. China sought help from the World Health Organization (WHO) to counter the virus and alerted the rest of the world, including Canada, as early as January as to what to expect for their country. Canada had the benefit of advanced warning and could have started all necessary preparations immediately, but instead, wasted several weeks of valuable time to deal with the issue. Dr. Bruce Aylward, a WHO adviser, praised Chinas handling of the Wuhan outbreak in the global media. David Wong, North York, Ont. Read more about: SHARE:









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US President Donald Trump went to the Lincoln Memorial to relaunch his campaign and call for an end to the pandemic lockdown AFP/JIM WATSON

Trump alternated during a two-hour virtual town hall broadcast by FOX News between forecasting a rapid recovery for the US economy and casting blame for the pandemic's spread on China, where the disease is believed to have originated.

The COVID-19 illness, caused by the new coronavirus, has sickened more than 1.1 million in the United States and killed more than 67,000 Americans, shut wide swaths of society, including most schools and many businesses.

"We're going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people. That's a horrible thing," said Trump, who as recently on Friday had said he hoped fewer than 100,000 Americans would die and earlier in the week had talked about 60,000 to 70,000 deaths.

About half the states have now moved toward at least partial lifting of shutdowns as the number of new cases of the COVID-19 illness has begun to drop or level off and as citizens agitate for relief from restrictions that have sent the economy into a tailspin.

"We can't stay closed as a country (or) we're not gonna have a country left," Trump said.

Trump has criticized FOX recently, casting the conservative-leaning network as insufficiently supportive. He faced few tough questions in the event, which gave him a new format to reach the public while he is unable to hold campaign rallies and after he faced widespread criticism for his combative daily briefings.

In an assessment that clashes with those of some public health experts, Trump said he believed that by the end of the year there would be a vaccine against COVID-19.

"I think were going to have a vaccine by the end of the year. The doctors would say, well you shouldn't say that," Trump said. "I'll say what I think ... I think well have a vaccine sooner than later."

Many health experts, including Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, have cautioned that a vaccine is likely a year to 18 months away.

There is an "incredibly small" chance of having a highly effective vaccine or treatment for the coronavirus within the next year, England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said on Apr 22.

Trump also said he wanted students to return to schools and colleges in the autumn, even as he acknowledged the possibility of a resurgence of the disease.

"We'll put out the embers, we'll put out whatever it may be. We may have to put out a fire," he said.

Speaking the day before the Senate returns to Washington, Trump said it was possible that federal coronavirus aid could rise to US$6 trillion from the nearly US$3 trillion Congress has already passed to try to ease the heavy economic toll of the crisis.

"There is more help coming. There has to be," he said.

Democrats have made clear they want to provide a sizable rescue package for state and local governments as part of a broader bill - one that could total over US$2 trillion - while some Republicans criticized the idea as unreasonably expensive.

"We will be doing infrastructure and I told Steve (Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin) just today we are not doing anything unless we get a payroll tax cut," Trump said.

Trump, who has been criticized for not moving faster early in the year to stop the spread of the disease, sought to blunt the criticism by blaming China.

Trump said China had made a "horrible mistake" without saying precisely what this was or providing specific evidence for his assertion.

Earlier in the day, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said there was "a significant amount of evidence" that COVID-19 emerged from a Chinese laboratory, but did not dispute US intelligence agencies' conclusion that it was not man-made.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sunday reported 1,122,486 US cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 29,671 cases from its previous count, and said the number of deaths had risen by 1,452 to 65,735.

The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by the novel coronavirus, as of 4pm EDT on Saturday, compared with its count a day earlier.

The CDC figures do not necessarily reflect cases reported by individual states. The tally reported over the weekend is preliminary and will be updated on Monday.
Germanys central bank, the Bundesbank, must stop buying government bonds under the European Central Banks long-running stimulus scheme within three months unless the ECB can prove the purchases are needed, Germanys top court ruled on Tuesday.

The verdict deals a blow to the 2-trillion-euro ($2.17 trillion) Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) credited with keeping the euro zone economy afloat over the past five years.

With the European Court of Justice  the top court in matters of European Union law  having already cleared that scheme, Tuesdays ruling also raises questions about the future of the EU and the resilience of its institutions.

The Constitutional Court judges in Karlsruhe did however leave open a loophole for continuing the scheme if the ECB can show it is necessary despite its negative effects, such as endangering taxpayer money and making governments increasingly reliant on central bank funding.

They also said their decision did not apply to the ECBs pandemic-fighting programme, a 750 billion euros ($815bn) scheme approved last month to prop up the coronavirus-stricken euro zone economy.

The ECB policymakers are discussing the ruling at a virtual Governing Council meeting on Tuesday, a spokesman for the bank said.

The PSPP currently accounts for less than a quarter of the ECBs monthly bond purchases.

Germanys top court objected to the Bundesbanks participation in it saying  among other side effects  the purchases posed risks for state finances, resulted in the loss of private savings and maintained unviable companies.

The Bundesbank may thus no longer participate in the implementation and execution of the ECB decisions at issue, unless the ECB Governing Council adopts a new decision that demonstrates  the PSPP [transactions] are not disproportionate to the economic and fiscal policy effects, the judges said.

They added the German central bank must also sell the bonds already bought, which were worth 533.9 billion euros ($578.9bn) at the end of April, albeit based on a  possibly long-term  strategy coordinated with the rest of the euro zone.

But they said the scheme did not amount to directly financing the government, which would put it in breach of EU Treaties.

Easy way out or institutional crisis?

Commerzbank economist Joerg Kraemer expected the ECB to easily convince the judges about the necessity of the purchases.

With its armada of specialists, it will be easy for the ECB to carry out such a check, Kraemer said. The ECBs bond purchases will continue. Todays ruling wont change that.

But Luis Garicano, a Spanish liberal member of the European Parliament, said the ruling posed a threat to the future of EU institutions.

Very worried about the future of Europe post (the verdict). Europe cannot work if national Constitutional Courts decide unilaterally  Expect Hungarys and Polands constitutional court to follow this precedent, he said in a Twitter posting.

German bonds and the euro sold off after the ruling, with the benchmark 10-year Bund yield climbing to briefly touch a session high of -0.517 percent.

Amassing nearly 3 trillion euros ($3.25 trillion) of bonds since 2015, the ECB has long relied on asset purchases to support the economy through crises and a threat of deflation.

As the central bank of the euro zones largest economy, the Bundesbank has taken the lions shares of those purchases.

But a group of academics in Germany has long argued that the ECB is overstepping its mandate, and that these buys constitute direct financing of governments.

While the ECB primarily responds to the European Court of Justice, the Bundesbank is subject to German courts.

With much of the euro zone now in lockdown to halt the spread of the coronavirus, the ECB plans to print another 1 trillion euros ($1.08 trillion) to run the pandemic-fighting programme and help keep borrowing costs down for companies and governments.
Reuters has been awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Photography for Hong Kong protests. The protests started in February 2019 after Hong Kongs Security Bureau proposed amendments to extradition laws that would allow extraditions to countries, including mainland China. The residence has taken the form of protests demanding more democratic liberties. Here are the striking images from the protest that won Reuters Pulitzer Award in 2020. (Image: Reuters)

Hundreds of thousands protesters march through the streets of Hong Kong, China, demanding for its leaders to step down and withdraw the proposed extradition bill on June 16, 2019. (Image: Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha)

A man sprays paint over the Regional Emblem of Hong Kong after anti-extradition bill protesters stormed the Legislative Council Complex on the 22nd anniversary of the handover from British to Chinese rule, destroying pictures and daubing walls with graffiti in Hong Kong, China July 1, 2019. (Image: Reuters /Tyrone Siu)

Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at anti-extradition bill protesters during clashes in the Sham Shui Po district of Hong Kong, China, August 14, 2019. (Image: Reuters /Thomas Peter)

Demonstrators protesting the proposed extradition bill aim their flashlights towards riot police as they are chased through the streets of Hong Kong, China, August 25, 2019. (Image: Reuters /Willy Kurniawan)

Anti-extradition bill protesters use slingshots to hurl bricks as they clash with riot police during a demonstration to demand democracy and political reforms, in the market town of Tsuen Wan, located in Hong Kong, China on August 25, 2019. (Image: Reuters ERS/Tyrone Siu)

Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam pauses while holding a news conference in Hong Kong, China, August 27, 2019. On September 4, Lam announced the formal withdrawal of the extradition bill. (Image: Reuters /Kai Pfaffenbach)

Passengers push their luggage past bricks and barriers after anti-government protesters blocked the roads leading to Hong Kong International Airport, in Hong Kong, China, September 1, 2019. (Image: Reuters /Anushree Fadnavis)

An anti-extradition bill protester is detained by riot police during skirmishes between the police and protesters outside Mong Kok police station, in Hong Kong, China, September 2, 2019. (Image: Reuters /Tyrone Siu)

A pro-China demonstrator films herself as an anti-government protester holds up a sign on her phone during skirmishes between the two opposing groups at Yuen Long station in Hong Kong, China, September 12, 2019. The words on the phone read, "Seek an official reassessment of the June 4 crackdown," referring to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. (Image: Reuters /Jorge Silva)

Hundreds of anti-government protesters gather after climbing to the peak of Lion Rock as a lighted sign is held high in the air, in Hong Kong, China, September 13, 2019. (Image: Reuters /Athit Perawongmetha)

Anti-government protesters are detained during skirmishes between the police and protesters in Admiralty district, Hong Kong, China, September 29, 2019. (Image: Reuters /Susana Vera)

A woman looks out from the window of a residence as tens of thousands of demonstrators march through Hong Kong, China on October 20, 2019, demanding autonomy and for its leaders to step down weeks after the formal withdrawal of an extradition bill. (Image: Reuters/Ammar Awad)

A restaurant worker receives help from volunteers as patrons cover their faces after riot police fired tear gas nearby to disperse anti-government protesters taking part in a march billed as a global "emergency call" for autonomy, in Hong Kong, China November 2, 2019. (Image: Reuters /Tyrone Siu)

Customers cautiously exit an eyeglass store past a burning Molotov cocktail as demonstrators clash with riot policemen during a march billed as a global "emergency call" for autonomy, in Hong Kong, China, November 2, 2019. (Image: Reuters /Tyrone Siu)

Mall security personnel urges caution as he tries to extinguish a burning Christmas tree at the Festival Walk mall in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, China November 12, 2019. The property suffered damage after anti-government protesters stormed the shopping centre. (Image: Reuters /Thomas Peter)

An anti-government protester, who later identified himself as a university student, is chased by riot policemen after skirmishes at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, in Hong Kong, China, November 12, 2019. (Image: Reuters /Tyrone Siu)

Anti-government protesters stand in a cloud of tear gas unleashed during a stand-off with riot police at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, in Hong Kong, China, November 12, 2019. (Image: Reuters /Tyrone Siu)

A man clears debris following the clashes between police and anti-government protester after a two week campus siege of the Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, China, November 16, 2019. (Image: Reuters /Adnan Abidi)
3 1 of 3 Stamford Police Department / Contributed Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Stamford Police Department / Contributed Show More Show Less 3 of 3





STAMFORD  City police have made an arrest in the break-in and burglary of a Stamford womans Westover home last December, police said.

Levy Bruggman, 23, of College Point, Queens was charged with third-degree burglary after a search of his home in Ozone Park turned up nine items of property that were identified by the burglary victim as belonging to her, said Sgt. Sean Scanlan, property crimes bureau supervisor.


BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - Germany's top court on Tuesday ruled against the European Central Bank's bond purchases and gave the bank three months to explain how the scheme can be justified.



The German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe said the ECB's EUR 2.1 trillion worth government debt purchases since 2015, were in violation of its mandate and did not take into account the economic and social after-effects.



The court asked ECB to explain why this quantitative easing measure was necessary, and also to check if it was proportional.



The euro area central bank bought these bonds under its Public Sector Purchase Programme, or PSPP, that ran from 2015-2018. The PSPP was restarted in November 2019.



The main issue that the complainants, whom include German economists and law professors, raised was that the ECB was undertaking monetary financing of governments by purchasing public sector debt.



The European Court of Justice had ruled in favor of the ECB in 2018 after the German court requested it to give an opinion on the stimulus measure.



The court pointed out that there was not enough German oversight on the purchases and asked the Bundesbank to withdraw from the PSPP if the ECB fails to provide a satisfactory explanation in three months.



Germany's Bundesbank is the major participant in the ECB scheme.



The PSPP is touted as a successful ECB stimulus measure that helped support the Eurozone economy amid the 2010 crisis.



Meanwhile, the latest German court ruling does not cover the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme, or PEPP, worth EUR 750 billion that the ECB announced in March to support the euro area economy amid the social and economic lockdowns triggered by the coronavirus or Covid-19 outbreak globally.



That said, if the ECB fails to give a satisfactory response in three months that could endanger its existing bond purchase programmes in future and severely limit its ability to use non-conventional policy tools in the face of an economic crisis.



Economists have chosen to wait for the ECB's reaction to the ruling before reaching a conclusion.



'Today's decision could become a real problem for the ECB in the next phase of the crisis when the recovery starts,' ING economist Carsten Brzeski said.



'Then, a reshuffling between PEPP and PSPP could take place to shift from fire extinguishing mode to a growth supportive model. This shift has now been complicated.'



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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A 42-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a pensioner described as 'a nice old guy' was found dead.

Anthony Rooks, 79, was discovered collapsed with a head injury at a property in Dalmeny Road, Holloway, north London at around 7.20pm on Monday.

An ambulance crew was called but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

A 42-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a 79-year-old pensioner was found dead in north London

Anthony Rooks was discovered collapsed outside at a property (pictured) on Dalmeny Road in Holloway, north London at around 7.20pm on Monday night

Mr Rooks' next of kin has been informed and a post-mortem examination will be held on Thursday May 7 at the Whittington Hospital.

Police said the victim and the suspect were known to each other, but that investigators are keeping an open mind as to motive.

The investigation is being led Chief Inspector Neil John, with support from officers from the Specialist Crime Command Force.

Mr Rooks was known by those who live on Dalmeny Road, with some neighbours describing him as a 'nice old guy' and a 'sociable person'.

Police said that the victim and the suspect were known to each other but investigators are keeping an open mind about a motive

A post-mortem will be taking place at Whittington Hospital in London on Thursday May 7

One neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: 'He was a local character. He's been around for ages. We knew him as Tony and he was always out on his bike.'

A separate neighbour told the Islington Tribune: 'When I moved to this place about 10 years ago he was the first person come over and say hi.

'We would always see him around the street riding his bike. He liked to fix up things and he would go to the Saturday market in Holloway Road pick things up.'

Mr Rooks' tragic death is the 13th murder to take place in London since the coronavirus lockdown began.

Anyone with information can call police on 020 8358 0100, or to remain anonymous contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pauses for a minute's silence to honor U.K. key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak inside 10 Downing Street, central London on April 28, 2020. Stefan Rousseau | POOL | AFP via Getty Images

The U.K. has the highest official death toll as a result of the coronavirus in Europe, new figures show, with more than 32,000 fatalities recorded since the start of the outbreak. Data published by the Office for National Statistics on Tuesday revealed that 29,648 people have died due to the coronavirus in England and Wales through to April 24. The addition of deaths in Scotland and Northern Ireland takes the U.K.'s death toll to 32,313, according to Reuters. It means the U.K. has now surpassed Italy as the worst-hit country in Europe and is second only to the U.S. for Covid-19-related deaths worldwide, according to the official statistics for each country.

To date, Italy has recorded 29,079 deaths as a result of the coronavirus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Italy's total does not include suspected cases and the country's statistics agency ISTAT reportedly claimed on Monday that thousands of fatalities in the country have not been officially attributed to Covid-19. Experts have warned against international comparisons, citing differences in demographics and because each country has its own way of measuring the number of deaths. The U.K. only recently started adding deaths in the community, such as nursing homes, to its official statistics; previously, it had included only those who died in hospital.

Exit strategy

The U.K. government has faced intense criticism from opposition parties in recent weeks, with some lawmakers suggesting Prime Minister Boris Johnson was too slow to respond to the pandemic when it first emerged. Johnson was initially reluctant to impose national lockdown measures at a time when hospitals in Italy were already being overrun. Downing Street has also come under fire for failing to provide enough protective equipment to hospitals and being late to roll out mass testing.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / HAWKEYE Gold & Diamond Inc. (the "Company" or "HAWKEYE") (TSXV:HAWK)(Frankfurt:HGT)(ISIN:CA42016R3027)(WKN:A12A61): is pleased to provide an exploration update for its wholly owned McBride property (the "Property"), and to announce the results from its 2019 drill program. The drill program tested what is known as the western anomaly, one of two Induced Polarization (IP) chargeability highs identified on the Property from a ground-based survey performed by Dias Geophysical during August and September, 2019.

HAWKEYE's 56.6 km2 McBride property is situated in the northeast corner of British Columbia's Golden Triangle, approximately 12 kilometres north of the Red Chris Cu-Au mine, and 18 kilometres east-northeast of GT Gold Corp's Saddle North Cu-Au and Saddle South Au-Ag prospects.

McBride Property Update

Between August and October 2019, the Company expanded the Property by acquiring an additional 14.6 km2 of claims that are contiguous with and lie mainly to the northwest of the previously existing McBride claim block. The acquisition extends the strike length of an attractive belt of previously outlined mineralized porphyry and breccia mineral occurrences to over 3 kilometres (fig 1.). The belt encompasses the undrilled northern chargeability anomaly and the acquisition has redirected the focus for future exploration at the McBride Property, with the aim being to systematically explore the belts historical mineral showings and their depth potential. Planned exploration will include detailed mapping, prospecting and soil geochemical sampling, followed by further Induced Polarization surveys. This work should help delineate specific drill targets and possibly the structural controls for a suspected underlying porphyry system.

2019 Diamond Drilling

The 2019 drill program was limited to a single vertical drill hole, MB-19-01, 703.17 metres deep, which targeted the broad IP chargeability high outlined at the western anomaly (fig. 1). The drill hole intersected volcanic rocks of dominantly andesitic composition, which vary from fine grained to porphyritic in texture. The lithologies intersected are interpreted to be flows and fragmental units and high-level intrusions. In thin sections of the interpreted intrusions, abundant very fine-grained groundmass feldspar and less common fine to medium grained feldspar phenocrysts generally display mild alteration to carbonate, epidote-group minerals, or sericite (fine-grained "white mica"). Subordinate finer-grained mafic minerals are typically altered completely to chlorite and epidote, and these alteration minerals are even more abundant in local crackle-breccia zones observed in thin section. The rocks are cut by local calcite veinlets, with rare disseminated pyrite. Magnetic highs from the Company's downhole magnetic susceptibility logs correspond well with predicted depths of the modeled IP chargeability high, and the relative abundance of finely disseminated magnetite observed in thin section likely explains the chargeability anomaly. While no significant sulphide mineralization was intersected, no distinct porphyry-style mineralization was noted, and no noteworthy copper or gold grades were returned from the samples collected, the Company believes exploration potential remains. The alteration mineralogy in the drill hole is consistent with the presence of a weak propylitic assemblage associated with a porphyry system. This alteration, coupled with the presence of probable porphyritic dykes through much of the length of the drill hole, suggests strongly that further systematic exploration around the western target area is warranted.

Mr. Greg Neeld, President & CEO of the Company states, "HAWKEYE remains optimistic after receiving the initial results from drilling at the western anomaly. The presence of alteration consistent with distal parts of a porphyry system is encouraging, as is the presence of porphyry dikes. The Company intends to undertake systematic follow-up work and to use the information gathered to help it vector in on a potential mineralizing center. Last season, the onset of severe winter weather conditions prevented Hawkeye from drilling the promising northern IP chargeability target, and as a consequence, testing this target remains in the Company's plans. With its newly acquired tenures and expanded land position, the Company will continue to focus its exploration efforts on the extensive copper-mineralized trend in that area. I remain very optimistic about the possibilities at McBride, and should the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic be successfully managed, I will be excited to get crews on the ground to explore the expanded trend in a systematic fashion, and to build upon the knowledge and experience gained in 2019."

Qualified Person

Technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Andrew Mitchell, B.Sc., P. Geo., and a qualified person for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101.

About HAWKEYE

HAWKEYE Gold & Diamond Inc. is a junior mineral exploration and development company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Company's precious and base metals properties are located in the prolific Golden Triangle of northwest BC, in the world-class Barkerville gold camp, and on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. HAWKEYE's corporate mandate is to build strong asset growth and shareholder value through the acquisition of low-cost, high-potential opportunities with discovery potential, and to manage its business in an environmentally responsible manner while contributing to the local community and economy.

HAWKEYE GOLD & DIAMOND INC.

Per:

"Greg Neeld"

President & CEO

Vancouver: (778) 379-5393

Email: greg@hawkeyegold.com

Web Site: www.hawkeyegold.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 release.

Cautionary Notes Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This News Release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future events. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. While these forward-looking statements, and any assumptions upon which they are based, are made in good faith and reflect our current judgment regarding the direction of our industry, actual results will almost always vary, sometimes materially, from any estimates, predictions, projections, assumptions or other future performance suggested herein. Except as required by applicable law, the Company does not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements to conform these statements to actual results.

SOURCE: HAWKEYE Gold & Diamond Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/588425/HAWKEYE-Provides-an-Update-on-Future-Exploration-Plans-at-Its-Mcbride-Property-and-Reports-Results-From-2019-Drilling
Count of known COVID-19 cases

Numbers updated at 3 p.m. May 5

Missouri: 358 deaths, 8,754 known cases. Local officials report 3,569 cases in St. Louis County and 1,346 in St. Louis. There were 624 reported cases in St. Charles County.

Illinois: 2,838 deaths, 65,962 confirmed cases. Cases include 579 in St. Clair County, 369 in Madison County and 74 in Monroe County, according to the state health department.

National: At least 1,194,494 people across the country have tested positive for COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University, 70,110 patients with the virus have died.

Worldwide: There have been 3,525,116 cases worldwide, and 243,540 confirmed deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
Former lawmaker representing Kogi West at the National Assembly, Senator Dino Melaye said all those who have held political offices including him have failed Nigerians.

Melaye stated this in a Tweet on Tuesday, May 5, while raising concern about the failure of the government during the lockdown occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic.

He wondered why the country could not afford to feed its citizens for just two weeks of lockdown despite selling crude oil for 64 years.

Everyone who held and is holding any political office in Nigeria whether elective or appointed including me have failed, the former lawmaker lamented. We sold crude oil for 64 years but we couldnt feed our citizens for just 2 weeks of lockdown! Well, the god of the poor will judge us all. Its time to reboot, he wrote.

EVERYONE WHO HELD AND IS HOLDING ANY POLITICAL OFFICE IN NIGERIA WHETHER ELECTIVE OR APPOINTED INCLUDING ME HAVE FAIL.WE SOLD CRUDE OIL FOR 64 YEARS BUT WE COULDNT FEED OUR CITIZENS FOR JUST 2 WEEKS OF LOCKDOWN!! WELL, THE GOD OF THE POOR WILL JUDGE US ALL. ITS TIME TO REBOOT..  Senator Dino Melaye. (SDM) (@dino_melaye) May 5, 2020

KanyiDaily recalls that Dino Melaye had expressed fear of an imminent revolution against rich people in Nigeria, including himself.

The former lawmaker said he was afraid of the revenge of the poor, adding that what happened in Russia, Sudan and France, will soon take place in Nigeria.
By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: He was bracing up to set his foot on Europes highest peak, Mount Elbrus (5,642 m) in Russia but what transpired was a bitter demonstration of the saying, man proposes, God disposes. Thanks to the coronavirus, mountaineer Nilachal Paridas long-cherished mission had to be called off.

And, like every other man busy looking for an alternative, the 24-year-old soon changed his plans to contribute his bit to the country as well as his family during the crisis. He started selling vegetables near Delta Chowk here to raise money for the Covid relief funds of the State and Central governments and also support his family. He claims to have set the target of donating `10,000 to the relief funds by the end of May. So far, he has earned Rs 5,000 for the donation.

Working as a part-time driver for around eight years, Nilachal had saved around Rs 1.8 lakh for his expedition. I had plans to leave for Russia from New Delhi in the first week of April. Prior to the lockdown, I was trying to book tickets for the trip which would have cost me around Rs 52,000. Besides my savings, I had borrowed additional Rs 20,000 from friends and relatives, said Nilachal who had climbed the countrys highest trekking peak Stok Kangri. But the lockdown put all his plans on hold.

Soon after the nationwide lockdown was announced, Nilachal and his brother gathered bamboo, gunny bags, some torn tarpaulin sheets and cloth to erect a shade in front of their house. Since the last week of March, he has been selling vegetables under the shade. On a wall right behind his seat, there is a printed message for the customers reading No mask, no vegetables. Each customer, who queues up in front of his shop, is first made to sanitise his hands using an alcohol-based liquid.

I am also delivering vegetables to people staying within the radius of 10 km. For senior citizens, there is no distance limit, the mountaineer, who starts selling vegetables as early as 6 am till 10 pm, said.

Since 2012, he had been scaling heights. He was trained at Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering and Winter Sports. He had been a part of several camps at Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal and Biju Patnaik Himalayan Expedition. Under the banner of his group, he trains 32 youths at Khandagiri free of cost.
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, TO U.S. NEWS WIRE SERVICES, OR IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AUSTRALIA, THE HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, SOUTH AFRICA OR JAPAN OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE WOULD BE UNLAWFUL. OTHER RESTRICTIONS ARE APPLICABLE. PLEASE SEE THE IMPORTANT NOTICE AT THE END OF THE PRESS RELEASE

BERGEN, Norway, May 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Reference is made to the stock exchange announcement by BerGenBio ASA (OSE: BGBIO) ("BerGenBio" or the "Company") on 4 May 2020 regarding a contemplated private placement of new shares in the Company (the "Private Placement").

The Company is pleased to announce that the Private Placement has been successfully placed, raising gross proceeds of NOK 500 million through the allocation of 13,325,000 shares at a subscription price of NOK 37.50 per share (the "Subscription Price"). The Private Placement, that was oversubscribed, took place through an accelerated book building process after close of market on 4 May 2020. Arctic Securities AS, Carnegie AS and DNB Markets, a part of DNB Bank ASA acted as Joint Bookrunners (together the "Managers") in connection with the Private Placement.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Private Placement to take full advantage of clinical development opportunities stemming from the Company's technology and to progress readiness for early commercialisation possibilities, as well as for general corporate purposes.

In connection with the Private Placement, a group of employees in the Company realized a small portion of their existing shares or shares acquired through exercise of options, in total 302,500 shares in the Company, at the same price as the subscription price in the Private Placement (the "Secondary Sale", and together with the Private Placement the "Transaction"). The following primary insiders either subscribed for shares or sold shares or options in the Transaction:

Meteva AS, represented on the board of directors by Sveinung Hole, was allocated 1,706,667 shares in the Transaction. Following the Transaction, Meteva will own 21,956,142 shares in the Company, equal to 25.32% of the share capital.

Altitude Capital AS, represented on the board of directors by Grunde Eriksen, was allocated 65,000 shares in the Transaction. Following the Transaction, Altitude Capital AS, will own 780,000 shares in the Company, equal to 0.90% of the share capital.

Richard Godfrey (Chief Executive Officer and primary insider) has through Gnist Holding AS sold 200,000 existing shares in the Company as part of the Transaction. Following the Transaction, Richard Godfrey will own 21,005 shares (equal to 0.02% of the share capital) and 1,542,617 options in the Company.

Endre Kjrland (Associate Director of IP and Contracts and primary insider) will as part of the Transaction exercise options and sell 20,000 shares. Following the Transaction, Endre Kjrland will own 3,262 shares (equal to 0.004% of the share capital) and 130,525 options in the Company.

Gro Gausdal (Director of Research & Bergen Site Leader and primary insider) will as part of the Transaction exercise options and sell 15,000 shares. Following the Transaction, Gro Gausdal will own 143,376 options in the Company.

In addition, non-primary insiders among the Company's employees will exercise options and sell 67,500 shares as part of the Transaction. The selling employees will enter into a customary 6 months lock-up undertaking on their remaining holdings with the Joint Bookrunners.

The shares allocated in the Transaction will be settled through a delivery versus payment transaction on a regular T+2 basis by delivery of existing and unencumbered shares in the Company that are already listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange pursuant to a share lending agreement between Arctic Securities (on behalf of the Managers), the Company, the sellers in the Secondary Sale and Meteva AS. The shares delivered to the applicants will thus be tradable from allocation. The Managers will settle the share loan with new shares in the Company to be issued by the board of directors of the Company (the "Board") pursuant to an authorization granted at the Company's annual general meeting held on 16 March 2020. Notification of allocation of shares and payment instructions is expected to be sent to the applicants through a notification from the Managers on 5 May 2020.

Following registration of the new share capital in the Company and issuance of the new shares in the Transaction (including options exercised by employees) with the Norwegian Register of Business Enterprises, which is expected to take place on or about 7 May 2020, the Company will have an issued share capital of NOK 8,672,580.50 divided into 86,725,805 shares, each with a par value of NOK 0.10.

Completion of the Private Placement implies a deviation from the existing shareholders' pre-emptive rights to subscribe for and be allocated new shares. The Board has considered the Private Placement in light of the equal treatment obligations under under the Norwegian Securities Trading Act and Oslo Brs' Circular no. 2/2014, and is of the opinion that the proposed Private Placement is in compliance with these requirements. Following careful considerations, the Board is of the view that it will be in the common interest of the Company and its shareholders to raise equity through a Private Placement setting aside the pre-emptive rights of the existing shareholders to subscribe for shares. By structuring the transaction as a Private Placement, the Company will be in a position to raise capital in an efficient manner, with a lower discount to the current trading price and with significantly lower completion risks compared to a rights issue. In addition, the Private Placement was marketed through a publicly announced bookbuilding process.

Subject to inter alia (i) completion of the Private Placement, (ii) relevant corporate resolutions including approval by the Board and the EGM, (iii) prevailing market price of the Company's shares being noticeably higher than the subscription price, and (iv) approval by the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway of a prospectus (the "Prospectus"), the Company will carry out a subsequent offering (the "Subsequent Offering") of up to 1,500,000 new shares in the Company. A Subsequent Offering will, if made, and on the basis of the Prospectus, be directed towards eligible shareholders in the Company who (i) are shareholders in the Company as of 4 May 2020, as registered as shareholders in the Company's register of shareholders with the Norwegian Central Securities Depositary (Nw. Verdipapirsentralen) (the "VPS") as of 6 May 2020, (ii) are not allocated shares in the Private Placement, (iii) are not resident in a jurisdiction where such offering would be unlawful or, for jurisdictions other than Norway, would require any prospectus, filing, registration or similar action, and (iv) have an existing shareholding below a threshold of 150,000 shares in the Company (the "Eligible Shareholders"). The Eligible Shareholders are expected to be granted non-tradable allocation rights. The subscription period in the Subsequent Offering is expected to commence shortly after publication of the Prospectus, and the subscription price in the Subsequent Offering will be the same as in the Private Placement. When deciding the need for and size of a potential subsequent offering, the Board will factor in the amount of upcoming short-term news flow in connection with the Company's participation in the ACCORD study related to Covid-19 (including the need to avoid that a subsequent offering will provide the Eligible Shareholders with an unreasonable option value). The Board will also consider the trading volume and market price of the shares in the Company in the intermediate period. The Company will issue a separate stock exchange notice with further details on the Subsequent Offering if and when finally resolved.

Advokatfirmaet Thommessen AS acts as legal advisor to the Company in connection with the Private Placement.

About BerGenBio ASA

BerGenBio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing transformative drugs targeting AXL as a potential cornerstone of therapy for aggressive diseases, including immune-evasive, therapy resistant cancers. The company's proprietary lead candidate, bemcentinib, is a potentially first-in-class selective AXL inhibitor in a broad phase II oncology clinical development programme focused on combination and single agent therapy in lung cancer and leukaemia. A first-in-class functional blocking AXL antibody, tilvestamab (BGB149) is undergoing phase I clinical testing. In parallel, BerGenBio is developing a companion diagnostic test to identify those patient populations most likely to benefit from bemcentinib: this is expected to facilitate more efficient registration trials supporting a precision medicine-based commercialisation strategy.

BerGenBio is based in Bergen, Norway with a subsidiary in Oxford, UK. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (ticker: BGBIO). www.bergenbio.com

- IMPORTANT INFORMATION -

This document is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of offers to purchase or subscribe for shares. Copies of this document may not be sent to jurisdictions, or distributed in or sent from jurisdictions, in which this is barred or prohibited by law. The information contained herein shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, in any jurisdiction in which such offer or solicitation would be unlawful prior to registration, exemption from registration or qualification under the securities laws of any jurisdiction.

This communication may not be published, distributed or transmitted in or into the United States, Canada, Australia, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, South Africa or Japan and it does not constitute an offer or invitation to subscribe for or purchase any securities in such countries or in any other jurisdiction. In particular, the document and the information contained herein should not be distributed or otherwise transmitted into the United States of America or to U.S. persons (as defined in the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act")) or to publications with a general circulation in the United States of America. This document is not an offer for sale of securities in the United States. The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act, or the laws of any state, and may not be offered or sold in the United States of America absent registration under or an exemption from registration under Securities Act. BerGenBio does not intend to register any part of the offering in the United States. There will be no public offering of the securities in the United States of America.

The information contained herein does not constitute an offer of securities to the public in the United Kingdom. No prospectus offering securities to the public will be published in the United Kingdom. This document is only being distributed to and is only directed at (i) persons who are outside the United Kingdom or (ii) to investment professionals falling within article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order") or (iii) high net worth entities, and other persons to whom it may lawfully be communicated, falling within article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). The securities are only available to, and any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe, purchase or otherwise acquire such securities will be engaged in only with, relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this document or any of its contents.

Any offer of securities to the public that may be deemed to be made pursuant to this communication in any member state of the European Economic Area (each an "EEA Member State") that has implemented Directive 2003/71/EC (together with the 2010 PD Amending Directive 2010/73/EU, including any applicable implementing measures in any Member State, the "Prospectus Directive") is only addressed to qualified investors in that Member State within the meaning of the Prospectus Directive. This announcement is not a prospectus within the meaning of the Prospectus Directive, as implemented in each member State of the European Economic Area. With respect to the EEA Member States, no action has been undertaken or will be undertaken to make an offer to the public of the securities referred to herein requiring a publication of a prospectus in any Member State. As a result, the securities of the Company may not and will not be offered in any Member State except in accordance with the exemptions set forth in Article 3 of the Prospectus Directive.

Investing in securities involves certain risks.

This publication may contain specific forward-looking statements, e.g. statements including terms like "believe", "assume", "expect", "forecast", "project", "may", "could", "might", "will" or similar expressions. Such forward -looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may result in a substantial divergence between the actual results, financial situation, development or performance of BerGenBio and those explicitly or implicitly presumed in these statements. Against the background of these uncertainties, readers should not rely on forward-looking statements. BerGenBio assumes no responsibility to update forward -looking statements or to adapt them to future events or developments.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5 -12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/bergenbio-asa/r/bergenbio-asa---private-placement-successfully-placed,c3103886

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/15728/3103886/1241699.pdf Release

For further information, please contact:

Richard Godfrey, CEO

richard.godfrey@bergenbio.com

+47 917 86 304

Rune Skeie, CFO

rune.skeie@bergenbio.com

+47 917 86 513
Man, dog pronounced dead after early morning explosion, structure fire near Harbor Springs

A man and a dog have both died as the result of an explosion and structure fire early Tuesday morning in West Traverse Township near Harbor Springs.
Missouri-based televangelist Jim Bakker is asking a judge to dismiss a state lawsuit accusing him of falsely claiming that a health supplement could cure the coronavirus, and the lawyer representing Bakker is former Gov. Jay Nixon.

Republican Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt sued Bakker and Morningside Church Productions Inc. in early March.

Schmitt sought an injunction ordering Bakker to stop selling Silver Solution as a treatment for the coronavirus on his streaming TV program, The Jim Bakker Show. The lawsuit said Bakker and a guest made the cure claim during a program on February 12.

In a court filing on Monday, Nixon - a Democrat who served two terms as governor before leaving office in 2017, and two terms as attorney general before that - called the lawsuit an assault on Bakker's religious freedom.

Scroll down for video

TV pastor Jim Bakker (left) has hired former Missouri Gov Jay Nixon (right), a Democrat, to defend him against a lawsuit filed by the state, accusing him of marketing the Silver Solutions supplement as a cure for coronavirus

'Jim Bakker is being unfairly targeted by those who want to crush his ministry and force his Christian television program off the air,' Nixon said in a statement. 'The video recording of The Jim Bakker Show clearly shows the allegations are false. Bakker did not claim or state that Silver Solution was a cure for COVID-19.'

The suit stated that the defendants 'violated the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act by falsely promising to consumers that Silver Solution can cure, eliminate, kill, or deactivate coronavirus and/or boost elderly consumers' immune system and help keep them healthy when there is, in fact, no vaccine, pill, potion or other product available to treat or cure coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).'

During the February 12 episode of the show with guest 'naturapathic doctor' Sherill Sellman, Bakker posited that the Silver Solution sold on the show's website would be effective against the coronavirus.

Bakker asks Sellman if the solution will work against the virus, to which she responds: 'Let's say it hasn't been tested on this strain of the coronavirus, but it's been rested on other strains of the coronavirus and has been able to eliminate it within 12 hours'.

'Yeah,' Bakker says.

Schmitt wasn't alone pursuing legal action against the TV pastor.

Also in March, US regulators warned Bakker's company and six others to stop selling items using what the government called false claims that they could treat the coronavirus or keep people from catching it.

Letters sent jointly by the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission warned the companies that their products for treating COVID-19 were fraudulent, 'pose significant risks to patient health and violate federal law.'

Nixon said Bakker immediately complied with orders to stop offering Silver Solution on his show and ministry website.

There are no approved treatments for the new virus. Potential treatments and vaccines now in testing won't be ready for many months or even years.

The lawsuit said Bakker and a guest made a claim that Silver Solutions could cure COVID-19 during a program on February 12

Nixon said Schmitt's lawsuit violated Bakker's constitutional right to free speech, as well as the Missouri Constitution and the states Religious Freedom Restoration Act. He said silver products are commonly sold at stores and online.

'Targeting a Christian pastor, who has been using and offering the product for the past 10 years, is not supported by the facts or the law,' Nixon said.

Schmitt's spokesman, Chris Nuelle, declined comment, citing the ongoing litigation, 'except to say we stand by our lawsuit.'

The hour-long Jim Bakker Show is filmed in southwestern Missouri.

Nixon is now a partner in the St. Louis law firm Dowd Bennett, which along with the Kansas City-based firm Spencer Fane is representing Bakker in the case.

Bakker and his first wife, Tammy Faye, used to co-host PTL, which stood for 'Praise the Lord,' but people later came to associate the acronym with 'Pass the Loot' as the two were notorious for a lavish lifestyle that included air conditioners for their dogs.

The show was selling a bundle of Silver Solution products for more than $125. To use, consumers were instructed to 'apply generously to skin as needed to help promote natural healing'

During the height of their popularity in the 70s and 80s, Bakker and Tammy Faye ran Heritage USA, a Christian theme park that spanned 2300 acres in Fort Mill, South Carolina, which is also where they taped their show.

The two divorced in 1992, after it was revealed in 1987 that Bakker paid money to cover up a 15-minute affair with a church secretary by the name of Jessica Hahn.

Bakker later served close to five years in federal prison on a fraud conviction related to PTL.

Now, Bakker and his current wife, Lori, tape The Jim Bakker Show from another Christian compound, deep in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri.
PHOENIX  A group of Phoenix-area media organizations sued the state of Arizona on Tuesday for records detailing coronavirus outbreaks in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

The public records lawsuit filed by attorneys representing the Arizona Republic, ABC15 (KNXV-TV), 12 News (KPNX-TV), CBS 5 (KPHO-TV) and 3 TV (KTVK) seeks the names of nursing homes with outbreaks.

The state and counties have refused to name individual facilities, citing patient privacy interests. The state does list the basic number of long-term care facilities with cases, reporting at least 123 with outbreaks statewide. Nursing homes have been hard hit by the virus, and some facilities have confirmed news reports that they have experienced large outbreaks, including a Chandler assisted facility that said 13 residents have died.

Republican Gov. Doug Ducey has pushed back on requests for more information on nursing homes and on Monday outlined more reporting to families with loved-ones living in the facilities.

The lawsuit comes as the number of virus cases and deaths in the state continues to climb, and as Ducey eases store and restaurant closings. He said Monday that hair salons and barber shops could reopen Friday and restaurants open on Monday, with extra cleaning and social distancing. A stay-home order, however, remains in effect until May 15.

State officials reported 33 additional virus deaths in Arizona, increasing the total to 395 as of Tuesday. The number of reported cases rose by 386 to more than 9,300, according to the Department of Health Services.

The state also has agreed to give $3.6 million in crisis money to the only hospital in Green Valley after the coronavirus pandemic threatened the facilitys future.

This grant does make all the difference.  all of us were worried, Santa Cruz Valley Regional Hospital CEO Kelly Adams told The Arizona Republic. We rose our hand early in the process, and the governors team was able to help us out.

Santa Cruz Valley Regional Hospital has already received a $1.1 million payment under a deal with the state, and has setup another account to receive a second $1 million payment, Adams said. Two more payments of $1.5 million are scheduled to be paid within three weeks, the Arizona Daily Star reported.

The money will most immediately be used to pay staff and suppliers, Adams said, adding that it will come from the state COVID-19 Crisis Contingency and Safety Net Fund, which calls for the independently owned hospital to pay back $100,000 and conduct an independent audit of its finances.

The hospital, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Tucson, has agreed to the contract under multiple conditions including staying open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, no payments to owners or shareholders and a 20% pay cut for executives.

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 vast majority of people recover.
RALEIGH, N.C., May 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The North Carolina Farm Bureau Federation (NCFB) and the NC Chamber are disappointed by the decision of the Department of Environmental Quality and the Attorney General to file suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NWPR).

"The NWPR provides clarity and commonsense oversight to ensure clean water. The NWPR very clearly protects lakes, rivers and streams," said NCFB President Shawn Harding. "The NWPR corrects previous versions of the rule by specifying that most ditches and areas where water just collects after rain are excluded, which is the appropriate level of protection under the Clean Water Act. Farmers all over the state are conserving resources and protecting our water better than ever before by installing conservation practices, buffer strips and using precision technology. During these unprecedented and uncertain times, farmers are facing a fragile future saddled with low commodity, livestock, dairy and poultry prices. They cannot absorb even more uncompensated regulatory burdens."

Gary Salamido, President and CEO of the NC Chamber said, "In these difficult economic times, farmers and business owners need regulatory certainty. The NWPR provides clarity about the level of regulation under the Clean Water Act. Under the NWPR, landowners will not need teams of lawyers to determine whether a regulated waterbody exists on their property. This allows farming and economic development activities to take place in a timely manner, while still protecting water quality."

Clean water is a top priority for farmers and business owners in North Carolina and nationwide. However, previous rules that defined waters under federal jurisdiction far exceeded the authority granted under the Clean Water Act. In fact, the 2015 version of the rule never went into effect in North Carolina due to court decisions ruling that EPA went too far. The NWPR will strike the appropriate balance of protecting the nation's waters and respecting the role that states play in clean water protections.

*DEQ oversees the rules for waste handling, and those rules remain in effect.

SOURCE North Carolina Farm Bureau; NC Chamber of Commerce
PITTSBURGH, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- While motor vehicle rooftop carriers are a convenient and space-saving way to transport anything from luggage to bicycles, the driver has no way of knowing if the cargo breaks free from its restraints until it's too late. Fortunately, thanks to the creative thinking of an inventor from Belmont, Calif., that need no longer be a worry.

He developed a prototype for R T M to provide drivers with a view of the rooftop and the ground directly behind the vehicle. As such, it alerts users to the movement of items being carried on the roof. Thus, it affords lead time to pull off the road and secure the rooftop cargo. This improves safety and peace of mind since it reduces the chances of items falling off the roof and causing accidents. Besides helping to save lives and prevent injuries and property damage, this feature also provides added visibility for backing up.

The inventor's experience on the job inspired the idea. "Working as a driver, I have witnessed many highway accidents, and even been a party to one, caused by items flying off of motor vehicle roofs into other vehicles or onto the road," he said.

The original design was submitted to the San Francisco sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 18-SFO-687, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.

SOURCE InventHelp

Related Links

http://www.inventhelp.com


I wrote here about the Department of Justices involvement in a Greenville, Mississippi case. As I explained, Greenvilles mayor had discriminated against a religious right guaranteed by the First Amendment  the right to hold a church service. This violation resulted in litigation. The DOJ filed a statement of interest on behalf of the church in question. Greenville backed down.

Now, the Justice Department has filed a statement of interest in a similar case from Virginia. Ralph Northam, Virginias governor (old black face himself), issued orders that ban in-person religious services of more than ten people, but permit such gatherings of workers in any non-retail business and an array of retail businesses, including liquor stores, dry cleaners and department stores. Violations of the orders allow for criminal charges and carry penalties of up to a year in a jail and a $2,500 fine.

A church in Chincoteague Island held a sixteen-person worship service in its 225-seat sanctuary. Given the small number of people at the service and the large size of the sanctuary, social distancing was easily maintained.

Nonetheless, the Chincoteague police department issued a criminal citation and summons to the church pastor based on the governors executive orders. The church, which serves, among others, recovering drug addicts and former prostitutes, sued.

A federal district court denied the churchs request for preliminary relief, It said that [a]lthough [professional-services] businesses may not be essential, the exception crafted on their behalf is essential to prevent joblessness.

But, as Eric Dreiband, head of the DOJs civil rights division points out, for many people of faith, exercising religion is essential, especially during a crisis. Dreiband contends that Virginia has offered no good reason for refusing to trust congregants who promise to use care in worship in the same way it trusts accountants, lawyers, and other workers to do the same.

The Justice Departments statement of interest acknowledges that governments may take necessary and temporary measures to meet genuine emergencies, and that states and localities should be afforded substantial deference in their response to emergency situations such as the current pandemic. However, it insists that there is no pandemic exception to the Constitution and its Bill of Rights.

The executive orders prohibit the church from holding a sixteen-person, socially distanced gathering in a 225-seat church but allow similar secular conduct, such as a gathering of sixteen lawyers in a large law firm conference room. Therefore, the Justice Department argues, the governors executive orders may constitute a violation of the churchs constitutional rights to the free exercise of religion.

In a sense, the two policy interests in question here are apples and oranges. Northam wants to prevent joblessness, although this desire hasnt stopped him from creating massive amounts of it.

The Justice Department wants to protect freedom to attend church, especially for the most desperate members of the community.

Both interests are worthy, but only the right to attend church is specifically guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
That means plants are to operate in accordance with guidance put out by the CDC and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which includes installing partitions between workers on production lines and staggering break times to avoid large groups. Plants must provide written documentation of mitigation plans to the USDA, which will work with state and local authorities to resume or ensure continued plant operations, the spokesperson said.
T hree doctors in Russia who raised concerns about the working conditions on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic have fallen out of hospital windows over the last two weeks, it has been reported.

Two of the health workers have died, while one remains in hospital, CNN reports.

Dr Alexander Shulepov, 37, is in a serious condition after falling from the second floor of the Novousmanskaya hospital where he was being treated for Covid-19, according to Russian media.

He was hospitalised on the same day he and his colleague Alexander Kosyakin shared a video online claiming that Mr Shulepov had been forced to continue working after testing positive for coronavirus.

However, the hospital denied the allegation in a statement to CNN, saying the doctor had been taken off shift after sharing the news of his diagnosis.

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

In the video, posted on April 22, Mr Kosyakin said: "Ambulance doctor Alexander Shulepov is next to me, he is just confirmed Covid-19. The chief doctor is forcing us to work, what do we do in this situation?

"We are not leaving the shift. Myself and Alexander have been working together for a month. This is the situation. Everyone says its fake (but) these are real facts for you."

Mr Kosyakin later told CNN: "[Shulepov] is an intensive care unit, as far as I know in a serious condition, last time I spoke to him was on April 30, we checked in with each other.

"He felt fine, he was getting ready to get discharged from the hospital...and all of a sudden this happened, it's not clear why and what for, so many questions that I don't even have the answer to."

The Novousmanskaya hospital said in a statement to CNN that Mr Shulepov had been taken off his shift as soon as he told the hospital about his Covid-19 diagnosis.

A second video was shared three days later in which Mr Shulepov denied his initial emotional claims.

It comes after reports emerged of two other doctors dying after falling from hospital windows.

Russian President Vladimir Putin / Getty Images

On May 1, Elena Nepomnyashchaya died after spending a week in intensive care, the regional department of the Health Ministry said in a statement.

The doctor reportedly fell from a window at a hospital which had been converted to treat Covid-19 patients.

Colleagues said she had complained about an "acute shortage" of PPE for doctors and nurses before her death.

The Health Ministry's regional health department has denied the allegations.

On April 24, Natalya Lebedeva, head of the emergency medical service at Star City, the main training base for Russia's cosmonauts, died in a hospital after reportedly falling from the sixth floor of the hospital.

Coronavirus infecting a cell - In pictures 1 /9 Coronavirus infecting a cell - In pictures Coronavirus infecting a cell EPA An image captured and color-enhanced at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA and made available by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) shows a colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (red) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (yellow) EPA The SARS-COV-2 virus begin the infection process of cytoplasm of the cell, inside which is the nucleus, responsible for storing the genetic material of the cell EPA Tthe SARS-COV-2 virus particles after infection and viral replication inside the cell (white circle in the left corner) EPA A series of dark spots, which are viral particles of the SARS-COV-2 virus, trying to infect the cytoplasm of the cell, inside which is the nucleus, responsible for storing the genetic material of the cell EPA An arrow pointing to a novel coronavirus particle attached to cell membranes, displaying its typical glycoprotein spike 'corona' on the viral surface (issued 02 April 2020), seen in an electron microscope image, the first black and white portrait of the SARS-CoV2 virus, which causes the COVID-19 disease EPA An image captured and color-enhanced at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA and made available by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) shows a colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (purple) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (yellow) EPA

She was reportedly blamed for the spread of coronavirus at her clinic.

The hospital within the Federal Biomedical Agency, which said it treated her for suspected coronavirus, released a statement saying that "a tragic accident" occurred.

The three incidents are reportedly being investigated by Russian law enforcement authorities.

Russia has 155,370 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 1,451 deaths.
: With an enviable track



record of having treated and cured 400 COVID-19 patients and reporting only three fatalities with 34 active cases, Kerala may have done reasonably well, but the southern state is not prepared to lower its guard or bask in the glory of its achievement in the fight against the "invisible enemy".

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has time and again reminded everyone thatKerala cannot afford to be complacent.

"We cannot say we have crossed the danger mark or that the danger of community spread no longer exists. We need to be very careful", Vijayan had told reporters.

The state has been receiving accolades for having seemingly "flattenend the curve" of Covid cases, with international media, including the BBC, Al Jazeera, Washington Post and the prestigious MIT Technology Review showering praise on the "Kerala model" of fighting the pandemic.

Kerala's achievement comes at at a time when neighbouring Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are seeing a surge in positive cases.

While accepting that the recovery rate in the state was faster when compared to other states and Kerala was fighting the pandemic in a much more scientific manner, state Home Secretary Vishwas Mehta felt the threat was far from over.

"The threat is not over. For the simple reason that till we get a vaccine, this will continue all over the world.

The recovery in Kerala is fast.We are hovering down. When compared to other states, the number of positive cases, deaths and those under surveillance are coming down in the state.

No one is tackling the pandemic as scientifically as we are doing," Mehta told PTI.

People need to be more careful and notbe "irresponsible in dealing with the invisible enemy," he said.

"The virus will affect those who are not having immunity or has bad health. People must use masks and maintain social distancing. We need to maintain our vigil and continue our fight against it," Mehta said.

Asked if the state had flattened the curve, the state Nodal officer for infectious disease, including COVID-19, Dr Amar Fettle said it requires data for a longer period.

"But overall, the curve has flattened.However, this is no time for relaxing. This is no time for lowering our guard. As there are that we have 'flattened the curve', people have started coming out in the open without using masks," he said.

Kerala has made wearing masks mandatory and has imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 for repeat offenders.

The lessons learnt during the outbreak of the 2018 Nipah virus, which had claimed 17 lives in Kozhikode and Malappuram, including that of a young nurse Lini Puthussuery, came in handy for the state in getting battle ready to face COVID-19.

Health minister K K Shailaja had said that Kerala began its preparations when broke of the outbreak of COVID-19 at the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, in December lastyear.

The state had many medical students studying in Wuhan and knew that they would be returning.

India's first three cases were from Kerala and by the time they showed some symptoms, they had been already been in isolation in hospitals.

A 20-year-student from Thrissur, who returned from Wuhan, did not have any symptoms when she returned.

But when she developedasore throat and dry cough, she informed the health workers, who used to keep in touch with her on a daily basis and was shifted to a hospital on January 27, three days before her sample tested positive for Covid.

Two others from Wuhan University, hailing from Alapuzha and Kasaragod, also subsequently tested positive for the virus. All three were cured and discharged in February.

The second wave of infections hit Kerala on March 8 when a three-member family from Ranni in Pathanamthittaarrived from Italyand tested positive, along with two of their close relatives.

Subsequently, four more relatives, including Thomas (93) and Mariyamma (88),the parents of Moncy,who had returned along with his wife and son from Italy, also contracted the virus.

All of them were cured and discharged.

The recovery of the elderly couple was a feather in the cap of the state, with experts describing it as the "rarest of rare" case as high mortality rate is generally seen in the older population globally due to the infection.

There was a spike in infections since March 20 when 37 cases were detected, with the graph peaking on April 8 with 259 cases after which therehas been a downward trend of 114 on April 20 and 34 on May 4.

Three fatalities were reported, two of people over 65- years of age and having various other health issues and a four month baby girl.

The state nodal officer, who was a vital part of state machinery in fighting the Nipah virus, said practising social distancing and use of masks is a necessity to fight the pandemic and people must ensure they wear it the moment they step out of their houses, be it inside a cab or at a shop.

Asked about how the state was fighting the virus when compared to other states, Mehta said the "state is 10-15 years ahead of other states".

"We have so many hospitals and doctors in Kerala. We are much much ahead of other states. We have the experience of dealing with the Nipah virus. We have the experience of handling such diseases," Mehta said.

"In the health sector, we are on par with European countries,IMR (Infant Mortality Rate), MMR, death mortality... we are at least 20 years ahead of other states," Mehta said.

What is a cause for concern is that many people who were asymptomatic are among those who tested positive later and the health authorities are clulessfrom where they had contracted the virus.

With Non-Resident Keralites (NRK)s who are expected to arrive in the state from various countries from May 7, the state is waiting with baited breath,hoping positive cases will not see a jump.

So far 4,27 lakh Keralites stranded in various countries, including over 9,000 pregnant women, have registered with the Norka (Non Resident Keralites Affairs) online portal.

Nearly one lakh people from other states have also registered for their return.

Those with expired visiting visas, the aged, pregnant women, children, critically ill patients, students who have completed their courses, and others are among thelarge numbers of people who are waiting to return.

"Around 27,000 institutitions, including hotels, resorts, hostels, schools, lodges stadiums and even auditoriums have been identified where we can accommodate around 10 lakh people. Space has been found. Stadiums and auditoriums will be used as a last resort," Mehta said.

On Monday, for the second consecutive day, no positive cases were reported in the state and the active cases was 34.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A programme in the Utah Navajo Nation hopes to provide sustainable aid to elders as tribes worry virus could spread.

As the Navajo Nation began preparing for the coronavirus pandemic in March, Pete Sands, coordinator of a food delivery programme in the Utah portion of Navajo tribal lands, envisioned the difficulties that were to come.

The majority of the Navajo Nation, an area larger than West Virginia that essentially functions as a reservation, lies in parts of New Mexico and Arizona. A smaller portion of the land is found in Utah and does not receive the same attention as other regions, Sands said.

A lot of the times, the Utah portion of the Navajo Nation kinda has to fend for itself, Sands told Al Jazeera. [T]hats the reason why I started my programme.

Navajo Nation faces unique challenges when it comes to fighting the coronavirus. Extended families often live in the same household; only 13 full-service supermarkets serve about 174,000 residents across 17.5 million acres (7.1 million hectares); and about a third of its residents do not have running water partly due to the United States government not honouring agreements with the tribe.

Sands started working for the Utah Navajo Health System (UNHS), a nonprofit that started in 2000, to offer dental and medical care to rural Navajo communities in the state in February. He started in a public relations role but quickly shifted responsibilities as the crisis grew.

His programme, funded largely by the UNHS but also outside donations, has been at the forefront of the response to the pandemic among Navajo people in Utah.

Sands works with volunteers to make sure staples as food, water, detergent and other needed supplies make it to at-risk people, through a delivery programme aimed at elders on the Utah portion of the Navajo Nation.

We stocked up, we started working heavily with the rest of the Navajo Nation  We share everything we get, he said.

They have made about 1,000 home deliveries since the programme started on February 28.

Navajo pay drastically higher prices for water delivered by trucks [Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP]

Sands explained that because the majority of the Utah portion of the Navajo Nation is rural, with elders and other community members living in hard-to-reach areas, he and others aim to provide enough supplies to residents to last through a self-quarantine, or in the case of elders, to stay home until things are safe again.

A lot of our recipients are elderly, about 80 percent  but theres young families that have no job. Everyone has a situation, so we try to help everybody, he said.

Grim numbers

Navajo Nation had at least 2,530 confirmed coronavirus cases and 73 known deaths as of Tuesday, according to the Navajo Epidemiology Center. The Navajo Nation has the third-highest infection rate per capita of any region of the US.

Volunteers deliver needed supplies with Pete Sands distribution programme [Courtesy: Sahar Khadjenoury/UNHS/Al Jazeera]

Two of those deaths occurred in San Juan County, Utah, where the majority of Utahs Navajo population lives.

Two members of the DeJolie family  Douglas, 58, and his mother Jean, 81  died in hospitals in late March after contracting the virus, according to local media reports.

San Juan County had total 116 cases as of May 4, with at least 43 of those being among the Navajo population.

Sands said the initial days of the pandemic crisis on the Utah section of the Navajo Nation were difficult, especially after testing increased and so did confirmed cases.

But things are improving, according to Sands.

We found that this distribution programme, it goes along with the trends of the virus. When it was at its peak, thats when requests for food was at its peak. Now its levelling out.

Navajo, who call themselves Dine in their language, are adapting, Sands said. I think people have learned to live with the rules, learned how to conserve food.

These rules include extensive lockdowns from the Navajo government that bar movement from 8pm to 5am, the New Mexico government blocking visitors from Gallup, New Mexico, an important city where many Navajo buy supplies but is the hardest hit in the state, among others.

Living like this is new for everybody. Weve had to adjust to it, Sands said.

The consequences of invisibility

While the Navajo Nation is the coronavirus epicentre among Indigenous populations in the US, there are concerns that other tribal nations, which face some of the same systemic issues as the Navajo Nation, could face a similar challenge.

At least 3,600 cases have been confirmed across all tribal nations, according to the Indian Health Service (IHS), the federal programme which administers healthcare for Indigenous people in the US.

Crystal Echo Hawk, founder and CEO of IllumiNative, a Native-led nonprofit that aims to increase the visibility of Native peoples in American society by changing the national narrative, said she fears the number of cases may be higher.

Many Native Americans live in cities, and the IHS and other federal programmes, which have to deal with state and local bureaucracies, do not have adequate infrastructure to count these cases.

For example, there are no comprehensive studies that provide the number of unsheltered Indigenous people across the US, though they account for a disproportionate amount of unsheltered people in so-called border towns, such as Gallup and Flagstaff, Arizona, among others.

Its the consequences of invisibility, Echo Hawk said.

IllumiNative has tried to address the coronavirus pandemic across tribal nations, through its Warrior Up campaign, which encourages people to Stay Away, Together, through a public service announcement featuring prominent Indigenous and non-Indigenous celebrities.

IllumiNative also helped organise a digital town hall to discuss the effects of coronavirus on Native communities last month.

For Echo Hawk, the needs of Native communities exacerbated by the crisis expose underlying systemic issues.

When we look at this, its hundreds of years of systemic racism, chronic underfunding and discrimination at federal and state levels that have really created limited access to healthcare and other basic necessities, she said in a release delivered to Al Jazeera after the event.

Monetary needs

Congress allocated $8bn for tribes under its $2.2 trillion CARES Act passed in March. But many Indigenous groups have been critical of the delay in the disbursement of the funds. The funds were stalled in part due to legal challenges over who was entitled to the aid.

A group of tribes subsequently sued the Treasury Department for not releasing the funds by the end of April as legally mandated by the CARES Act.

In advance of a scheduled visit by US President Donald Trump to Arizona on Tuesday, the US Treasury announced it would begin releasing $4.8bn of the funding to Native American tribal governments. The rest, the Treasury said, would be released at a later date. Litigation over who is entitled to the funds continues, though courts have initially ruled in favour of the tribes.

Trumps visit is set to feature Senator Martha McSally, a Republican up for re-election this year and trailing her Democratic challenger Mark Kelly in some polls.

McSally has made her efforts to address the coronavirus crisis on tribal lands a prominent feature of her re-election campaign.

It's here folks and it's a stunner: Defendant has not yet arrived at a determination as to the amounts to be paid to Tribal governments from the #CoronavirusReliefFund under Title V of the #CARESAct." Read here first https://t.co/yNRvY9lJ7L#Coronavirus #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/48G8U1qISp  indianz.com (@indianz) May 1, 2020

Back on the Navajo Nation in Utah, Sands said the lack of federal funds was noticeable, but the situation there improved last week.

Though his programme is currently financially sound, thanks in part to the UNHS funds and donations that keep piling up, Sands knows the pandemic will continue and money will eventually run out. But he will keep fundraising throughout the region.

I have a plan in place to keep the programme going as long as it can. Eventually, the moneys going to dry out. Food costs a lot. Transport costs a lot. Its not cheap, Sands concluded.
Alexandria, Virginia, a port city on the Potomac River, just below Washington, D.C., is often celebrated for its rich industrial history. As early as the 18th century, its lively waterfront became a bustling hub of tobacco trade, hemp and flour exports, and, as time passed, manufacturing. Often overlookedor, perhaps, just told in a separate chapter of the history bookis the fact that Alexandria was also an epicenter of domestic slave trade, with one of the largest slave markets in the U.S.

So when Brooklyn-based artist and architect Olalekan Jeyifous was tapped by the City of Alexandria to create a public installation in Waterfront Park (1 Prince Street), he decided to confront the issue head-on.

Stories that are uncomfortable are often sidelined, explains Jeyifous, who learned about the citys role in the slave trade while researching Alexandrias industries and meeting with local community groups. I wanted to make something that combined these histories into one narrative.

The resulting installation, titled Wrought, Knit, Labors, Legacies, opened on March 21. At the site, overlooking the Potomac River, four ornate, powder-coated metal profiles with benchlike seating emerge from a colorful ground that resembles the traditional quilts commonly made by African Americans. Icons of Alexandrias industrial history are cut from the profilesrailways, armory, flour, tobaccoand more are incorporated into the floor: fish, bricks and trowels, church windows.

Each figure embodies iconography that pertains to four of the major commercial industrial enterprises that Alexandria is known for, Jeyifous explains.

The figures are strong, noble, and black. Most of the time you see a monument for a historic figure, its for a general that did this or that, Jeyifous says. It lionizes an individualusually male, usually whiteit doesnt acknowledge all individuals.

Story continues

When Wrought, Knit, Labors, Legacies opened to the public at the end of March, the coronavirus pandemic raged, and stay-at-home decrees were already firmly in place. History was writing a different sort of story for a public art installation. Right now, a low fence keeps visitors from getting up close with the installation, but walking in the park and surrounding trails is still permitted.

See the video.

On the day I spoke with Jeyifous, he was sheltering in place back at his home in Brooklyn, while keeping an eye on the project from a 24-hour camera that streams the park. I like to see whos out there, he said. At the moment he could observe three or four people, safely distanced. Im excited to see what resonates with people. At a time when a short walk outside has become a luxury we ration and savor, he certainly has a captive audience.

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
TDT | Manama

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa hailed yesterday the efforts exerted by the police of Bahrain in maintaining national security and stability while protecting civilisational achievements and gains.

HM the King was speaking as he received at Al Safriya Palace Interior Minister General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, in the presence of HM the Kings Personal Representative HH Shaikh Abdulla bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Royal Court Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa.

The Interior Minister was accompanied by Nationality, Passports and Residence Affairs undersecretary Shaikh Rashid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Public Security Chief General Tariq bin Hassan Al Hassan, Information and Electronic Government Authority (iGA) Chief Executive Mohammed Ali Al Qaed, undersecretary Shaikh Nasser bin Abdulrahman Al Khalifa and Customs President Shaikh Ahmed bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

HM the King commended all the ministrys sectors for delivering high-quality services and modern technologies to citizens and residents, as well as for their contributions to combatting the coronavirus (COVID-19).

This is in addition to facilitating e-services, including the BeAware application, which was launched to trace contacts as part of efforts to contain the pandemic.

HM the King hailed the ministrys national role in strengthening patriotic belonging and standing on the front-line, whether by enforcing the law or raising awareness. He said that the Kingdom, with help of Allah the Almighty, will be able to overcome this exceptional phase and contain this global pandemic, stressing citizens and residents awareness and cooperation with competent authorities.

HM the King wished them all success in protecting society and maintaining its safety, praying to Allah the Almighty to lift this global pandemic in Bahrain and the rest of the world, for all humanity to live in well-being, security and peace.

HM the King also received yesterday Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs president Shaikh Abdulrahman bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Khalifa, Sunni Endowments Council chairman Dr Shaikh Rashid bin Mohammed Al Hajeri, and Jafferi Endowments Council chairman Youssef bin Saleh Al Saleh.

They all expressed thanks to HM the King for his royal directives to air the Friday sermon and prayers, in the presence of the Khateeb and a limited number of worshipers.

HM the King hailed the pivotal role played by the Supreme Council in serving Islam and disseminating its teachings, which preach moderation and good ethics beyond any extremism or bigotry.

He commended the Sunni and the Jafferi endowments councils for caring for the worshipping venues and urging people to comply with COVID-19 precautionary measures.

HM the King reiterated Bahrains firm resolve to pursue its humanitarian mission in spreading the precepts of Islam which preach tolerance, amity and peace, and wished them all success in serving their nation and society.

He announced Bahrains support to the Higher Committee of Human Fraternitys call to prayer for humanity on May 14, which, he said, would be a day that unites people of different religions and races to supplicate, fast, do good and pray to Allah the Almighty to lift this pandemic off humanity.

We share His Eminence the Grand Imam of Al Azhar Al Sharif and His Holiness the Pope their prayers and supplication for the sake of humanity, HM the King said.
But, of course, the pandemic has made everything more complicated.

Her deliveries now take longer because of the sanitizing routine she does between each one. Her customers are on edge, and Grant is too. She struggles to keep her daughter focused during virtual classes, and worries that the school shutdown could delay DeOnnas graduation set for next year.

Leaving home to start her DoorDash shift isnt easy for Grant, because shes keenly aware of all the ways she can be exposed to the virus while on the job. She doesnt have the luxury of keeping indoors, like the people for whom she delivers fresh meals. And now she is one of New Yorks frontline workers: more than one million essential workers, or 25 percent of the city work force, who have continued crossing the boroughs, riding the subways, and weaving in and out of restaurants to keep the rest of the population safe and well-fed. Grant gets around by car, an Acura MDX that she bought in 2006, which helps her navigate the city safely though it comes with the costs of gas and upkeep.

Do I ever take a bike? Heck no, she laughed. (But at first I thought you said, Do I ever take a bite! Heck no, girl!)

The nights are long, so Grant finds reasons to crack jokes throughout her delivery shifts. She likes to sing along to Lil Duval: I aint going back and forth with you / Im living my best life! Some of the staff at the Caribbean and soul food restaurants where she does frequent pickups recognize her, and they play the music she likes when she walks through the door.

Long nights are helped along by peoples responses when she delivers their orders  pizza, salad, lo mein. She likes making eye contact with her customers from across a lobby, even when they cant interact. Theyll wave to you like, thank you! and you can tell by the body language that theyre happy to get a hot meal, Grant said.
Archivist Studio, a small clothing brand based in Berlin, Germany has been getting a lot of attention for its designer white shirts, which are made from used linens discarded by luxury hotels.

Ever wonder what happens to those wonderfully soft and expensive cotton linens that luxury hotels are famous for? Well, Dutch designer Eugenie Haitsma has and asked a friend working at a luxury hotel in Londons Mayfair about it. She learned that perfectly good bed sheets and pillow covers routinely get thrown out for the smallest of tears, holes or stains. Were talking amazing quality Egyptian cotton thats really soft and in pristine condition, except for some small defects, so the Berlin based designer started thinking of ways the fabric could be repurposed instead of discarded.

Photo: JayMantri/Pixabay

Haitsma quickly realized that the excellent Egyptian cotton was perfectly suited for shirts, but she didnt act on her idea until last summer, when she and fellow Dutch designer Johannes Offerhaus met in Budapest and struck a conversation on their way to a party. Offerhaus was looking for something purposeful and Eugenie Haitsmas luxury hotel linen idea fit the bill.

The more the two designers explored the idea, the more it made sense. The large surface area of the linens made them easy to work with, they were available in ample supply (the studio has enough fabric to last for the next three years), and the cost was non-existent as the hotels were more than happy to be rid of the linens for free.

Photo: Archivist Studio

The hotel linens are cleaned and then shipped to a family-run factory in Romania where they are turned into luxury white shirts, priced between 140-160 ($150-$172). Not the cheapest garments, thats for sure, but these are designer shirts after all, and Archivist Studio is offering free shipping within the EU.

Archivist Studio currently has a portfolio of four shirts, a mens casual dress shirt and three womens shirts, but they intend to add blouses and shirt dresses to their line in the near future.



We wanted to start with this super basic shirt to make it easy to see that its created from beautiful, simple, upcycled fabric, Johannes Offerhaus told Wallpaper Magazine.




Emirs palace sealed off

Government officials have sealed off the palace of Umar Farouk, emir of Daura in Katsina state after a case of COVID-19 was recorded.

According to Daily Trust, Mustapha Inuwa, secretary to the state government, said the closure was normal routine in places where a positive case has been recorded.

According to him, samples had been taken from the palace which has been placed under lock.

Gambo On his part, Isa, police spokesperson in the state, also said: Daura is under lockdown and so it shall be in every nook and cranny in the town without exception to anybodys house, the police are just ensuring the lockdown order of the state government.

Bello Masari, governor of Katsina, had in April ordered a lockdown in Daura local government area of the state over three fresh cases of COVID-19.

Masaris directive had come after Aliyu Yakubu, a medical doctor based in Katsina state, died from the complications of COVID-19.

The emir had also suspended the wedding of his daughter over the outbreak of the virus.

President Muhammadu Buhari is from Daura.
For China, this isn't just any economic crash. It's one the country's leaders have steeled against for more than a decade.

China's top policymakers have long assessed the geopolitical ramifications of the next big economic crisis - the one that would bring their decades of miraculous growth to a halt.

Official policy papers reflect Beijing's awareness that this event would not only serve as a critical test of the Chinese Communist Party's domestic rule, but could reshuffle the balance of powers among China and Western nations.

"After a big crisis, what is redistributed is not merely wealth within a country, but the relative power of all nations," wrote China's chief economic architect Liu He, who has since risen to vice premier, in a 2013 study of recessions.

China reported a 6.8 percent drop in economic output for the first quarter, its first contraction on record since the death of party founder Mao Zedong in 1976. In recent weeks, President Xi Jinping has launched a New Deal-esque construction campaign, while touting poverty relief and investment in advanced technology to help jump-start coronavirus-hit factories and consumer spending.

Since Xi came to power in 2012, he has fast-tracked political preparations for the end of economic growth. He's flooded the airwaves with wartime-esque propaganda that lauds individual sacrifice for the national interest, while quashing budding pockets of dissent before they could grow.

"Xi Jinping's political control policies all along have been guided by a recognition that someday the economic miracle will begin to sputter," said Richard von Glahn, a China economic historian at UCLA. "The coronavirus has accelerated the timetable."

In 2010, China's top leaders commissioned a team led by Liu to study the Great Depression and 2008 financial crisis. The project included officials from China's central bank and banking regulator, and resulted in hundreds of pages of analysis and policy recommendations published three years later.

This early preparation may give China a head start in its crisis response. As most of the world remains engulfed in day-to-day pandemic relief, China has begun broader strategic pushes, inching outward its sphere of influence in the Pacific and declaring greater control over Hong Kong. Beijing's overseas push has been made easier by the Trump administration's domestic focus, with the United States withdrawing from some of its traditional international roles.

However, Beijing's leaders could face a deeper domestic economic challenge than they initially projected. With the coronavirus outbreak fueling grassroots anti-China sentiment, the Trump administration and other governments are seizing the moment to push for manufacturers to return from China.

Japan announced last month that part of its covid-19 stimulus package will go toward reshoring factories from China, while Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said she and other U.S. lawmakers are pushing for similar incentives for American pharmaceutical companies.

"Supply chains are going to move as quickly as they are incentivized to," she said in an interview.

China's response this year shows it has taken some lessons from the financial crisis. Beijing flooded the country with cash and cheap credit in 2008, which kept its economy growing but resulted in years of teetering local government debts and skyrocketing housing prices, said Li-gang Liu, chief China economist for Citibank, no relation to the vice premier.

This time, China has announced it will see the crisis through with infrastructure construction, a more stable if slower method. Xi recently warned that houses were for living, not for speculation.

China's foreign, finance and defense ministries, the central bank and the country's main economic planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission, did not immediately respond to faxed requests for comment over a public holiday.

As for lessons from the Great Depression, vice premier Liu spent a number of pages of the 2013 report analyzing the long-term political consequences, including the outbreak of World War II. He wrote that governments' responses at the time were overtaken by surging populist sentiment.

"Stay prepared for the worst consequences," he wrote.

Liu, however, advised resisting the temptation of diplomatic overextension and unnecessary military engagements during a crisis. He attributed the global dominance of the United States following World War II to its preceding decades of isolationism.

For all its recent unshakable rule, China's history over the past century has been one of economic crises that brought the country to the political brink. During the Great Depression, an impoverished Japan invaded resource-rich Manchuria, sparking two decades of bloodshed and economic devastation in China.

The Chinese Communist Party faced its most severe political crisis in 1989, when tens of thousands of students and workers flooded Beijing's Tiananmen Square. While largely remembered as a pro-democracy movement, von Glahn, the economic historian, says the demonstrations were more about economic grievances than anything else.

Deng Xiaoping, China's paramount leader at the time, gave the fateful order to stamp out the protests with deadly force, but acceded to public demands for faster economic reforms. This has been the deal that Beijing has offered ever since: economic growth in exchange for political quiescence.

Liu illustrated his 2013 report with a series of charts that showed how the global power structure shifted following economic crises. The first showed the United States dominating the global economy after the Great Depression. The second showed emerging economies gaining pace after the 2008 crash.

The final one, labeled "2020," was blank.

- - -

The Washington Post's Lyric Li and Wang Yuan in Beijing contributed to this report.
To say that I am notoriously skeptical of the #MeToo movement is an understatement.

I have railed against a movement that has always struck me as extreme, partisan and motivated more by vindictiveness than by a search for clarity and justice. From Bill Cosby to former Sen. Al Franken to (most infamously) Brett Kavanaugh, I have publicly questioned the motives of the self-proclaimed victims of harassment.

My position on these issues is not based in politics. I was as angered by Frankens unnecessary resignation as I was by the senatorial witch hunt against now-Justice Kavanaugh. Due process is not tied to voter registration  it is a fundamental value that undergirds our system of law.

I also criticized the women who claimed former Vice President Joe Biden had manhandled them, kissing their necks, smelling their hair and getting too close for comfort. The stories seemed more like astroturfed attempts from the Bernie Bros and other Democratic presidential candidates to weaken Bidens position as a front runner.

Ironic, then, that I now find myself demanding an investigation into accusations that Biden assaulted a former employee, Tara Reade, when he was a senator in 1993. The irony lies not in the fact that I am now embracing the #MeToo movement (Im not and I wont, even at this stage), but in the realization that the basis of the whole movement now seems fraudulent.

The hashtag believe all women arose before Christine Blasey Ford launched her PR campaign, complete with slick D.C. lawyers and a cacophony of media noise, against Kavanaugh, but ended up becoming the slogan of the hearings. We were told to simply suspend skepticism, inquiry and a requirement that guilt  and not innocence  be proven. Those of us who questioned both the veracity and the plausibility of Blasey Fords narrative  one contested by even her closest teenage girlfriend who presumably would have confirmed her tale of assault  were pilloried as sexist abettors of the patriarchy.

Given my past experience, you can forgive me for expecting that the minute Reade alleged that Biden had pushed her against a wall in the hallways of the Senate and forcibly sexually assaulted her, there would have been a call for some sort of investigation similar to what Kavanaugh endured. At the least, youd agree that the front pages of every newspaper would be filled with quotes from prominent womens advocates seeking information and advocacy on behalf of the accuser, for these much more serious allegations than those launched against Kavanaugh. After all, this was a sitting U.S. senator  not a teenage boy  accused of actual physical penetration.

Alas, that didnt happen. The legacy media has been relatively silent, excepting a fairly exhaustive report from the New York Times which, as it happens, went nowhere. Only when an old tape of an episode from the Larry King Show emerged, seemingly including a recording of Reades late mother from 1993, has momentum picked up. In the clip, Reades mother asks what recourse her daughter would have after having been assaulted by a senator, aside from going to the press, something she refused to do.

That is pretty compelling corroborating evidence.

Now the media is paying attention. But why did it take this voice from the dead, this maternal deus ex machina, to trigger a serious response to allegations of assault? Surely accusations against a prospective president are equally weighty as those against one member of nine on the high court. Can the reason be that the leaders of the #MeToo movement are sympathetic to the politics of the presidential candidate, but found the judicial nominees to be anathema?

If that is the case, then the #MeToo movement is about left-wing politics, and not about womens rights.

And yet, this silence of the supposed proponents-of-women is nothing new; the question of whether these groups are really left-wing fronts answers itself, particularly if you look at their silence during the Clinton impeachment.

Perhaps in a different climate, Bidens alleged transgressions would be subjected to a higher scrutiny, although given the Clinton debacle thats not certain. What is certain is that Biden is now viewed as a firewall between the country and a second term of Donald Trump, so it doesnt take a brain surgeon to realize that the #MeToo wagons are being circled.

Christine Flowers is an attorney. She can be reached at cflowers1961@gmail.com.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 21:53:48|Editor: huaxia

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BERLIN, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Revenues of Beiersdorf fell by 3.6 percent year-on-year to 1.91 billion euros (2.08 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter (Q1) 2020, the German consumer goods company announced on Tuesday.

"The global COVID-19 crisis is changing our life and work radically," said Stefan De Loecker, chief executive officer (CEO) of Beiersdorf AG. "As expected, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has affected the company's results for the first quarter."

With a strong balance sheet and high net liquidity of more than 4 billion euros, Beiersdorf was "well equipped to meet the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis," according to the German company.

Organic sales of Beiersdorf's consumer business segment including brands such as NIVEA and EUCERIN fell by 3.3 percent in the first three months of 2020 to 1.58 billion euros.

Sales of the company's important brand NIVEA only fell by 0.6 percent, while the Derma business unit with the brands EUCERIN and AQUAPHOR even achieved strong sales growth of 11.5 percent, according to Beiersdorf.

The selective cosmetics brand LA PRAIRIE was "particularly hit by the drop in international travel" and recorded a 35.8 percent decline in sales, Beiersdorf noted.

The Africa-Asia-Australia region reported that nominal sales fell by 6.4 percent to 494 million euros, partly due to the sale of the Chinese hair care brand SLEK, according to Beiersdorf. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a particular decline in sales performance at premium skincare brand LA PRAIRIE.

In North and Latin America, organic sales still grew 10.6 percent to 337 million euros, according to Beiersdorf. Due to the acquisition of the U.S. sun cream brand Coppertone in 2019, total business grew by a nominal 26.5 percent.

For 2020, Beiersdorf was "unable to currently project the future development or the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis", but noted that the targets set in the company's guidance issued in March were unlikely to be achieved. Enditem
As the global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic exceeds 250,000, two tiny nations stand out with the lowest fatality rates among countries who are experiencing major outbreaks.

In Qatar and Singapore, the death toll is less than 0.1% of reported infections. In Singapore, where total cases have surged to one of the highest in Asia as it grapples with outbreaks in foreign-worker dormitories, a 102-year-old woman recovered from the virus and was discharged from hospital over the weekend.

Patient demographics and the ability of the health-care system to cope are key to keeping the survival rate high in this pandemic, health experts say. While some countries with small outbreaks like Vietnam have not suffered a single death, those dealing with major spread -- defined as more than 10,000 cases -- often start to see their health-care infrastructure come under pressure.

Among economies with major outbreaks, Qatars case fatality ratio is the lowest at 0.07% -- 12 deaths out of more than 16,000 cases. Singapores ratio is 0.093% of more than 19,000 infections. Both countries have also kept mortality from the virus low as a proportion of their populations: less than 0.5 per 100,000 people.

The two nations are also among some of the wealthiest in the world, which means they can better afford the test kits and hospital beds they need. Just behind Qatar and Singapore in survival rates are Belarus, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

These rates are calculated from official numbers self-reported by nations. Belarus has come under criticism for allegedly under-reporting its data.

Low case fatality ratios boil down to three things: testing, age of the population and intensive care unit capacity, said Raina MacIntyre, professor of global biosecurity at the University of New South Wales.

Countries that test more and detect more mild cases will have an apparently lower case fatality rate, she said. Older populations and countries that exceed their intensive care unit and ventilator capacity will also have higher death rates, she said.

While Singapore has an aging population and a higher median age than Qatar, the majority of its infections are among low-wage foreign workers, who are typically young and undergo health checks before they are allowed into the country to work.

Similarly, many of the cases in the Middle East are within the younger, migrant workforce. The majority of the population in U.A.E. and Qatar are younger expatriates, who also go through health checks before entering the country, and are required to leave once their employment is over.
A woman who hails from Kipipiri in Nyandarua county has called upon Kenyans of goodwill to help her 8 kids and grandkids whom she says are staring at starvation.

63-year-old Mary Muthoni, who suffered stroke that rendered her immobile, told Inooro TV on Monday that she boiled water for dinner on Sunday and is unsure of where they will get their next meal.

She said the coronavirus pandemic has made it difficukt for her family members to do menial jobs and are now just at home hoping things get better.

The family has also been unable to get access to face masks to guard against COVID-19, with some of her grandkids wearing masks made from cartons and sacks.

Citizen reported Monday that the woman is yet to get the government allowance set aside for needy and vulnerable Kenyans.
Canada's largest airline on Monday announced a billion-dollar loss and announced mandatory temperature checks for customers amid the coronavirus pandemic.

We're now living through the darkest period ever in the history of commercial aviation, significantly worse than 9/11, SARS and the 2008 financial crisis, CEO Calin Rovinescu said on a conference call with analysts Monday. The US-Canada border remains closed to all nonessential travel.

Since mid-March, the airline has slashed its flight schedule by more than 90 per cent and grounded more than 200 aircraft, cutting service internationally to just five airports. The company burned USD 22 million Canadian (USD16 million) in cash per day in March. Air Canada said it lost USD 1.05 billion Canadian (USUSD 748 million) in its first quarter, compared with a profit of USD 345 million in the same quarter last year as governments imposed travel restrictions around the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The airline said remaining flights will be subject to an infrared temperature check at all airports. It already requires customers to wear face coverings. The airline also said customer in economy class won't be required to sit immediately next to another. Hand sanitizer will also be distributed.

Also read: Coronavirus Lockdown Live Updates: Delhi, Andhra Pradesh hike liquor prices; wine shops open; cases-46,433

Also read: Lockdown 3.0: Delhi airport to resume flights from Terminal 3
[May 04, 2020]

SHAREHOLDER ALERT: CLAIMSFILER REMINDS BBBY, BIDU, IQ INVESTORS of Lead Plaintiff Deadline in Class Action Lawsuits

NEW ORLEANS, May 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ClaimsFiler, a FREE shareholder information service, reminds investors of pending deadlines in the following securities class action lawsuits:

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY)

Class Period: 10/2/2019 - 2/11/2020

Lead Plaintiff Motion Deadline: June 15, 2020

SECURITIES FRAUD

To learn more, visit https://www.claimsfiler.com/cases/view-bed-bath-amp-beyond-inc-securities-litigation

iQIYI, Inc. (IQ)

Class Period: 3/29/2018 - 4/7/2020 or securities issued either in or after the March 2018 Initial Public Offering.

Lead Plaintiff Motion Deadline: June 15, 2020

SECURITIES FRAUD, MISLEADING PROSPECTUS

To learn more, visit https://www.claimsfiler.com/cases/view-iqiyi-inc-american-depositary-shares-securities-litigation







Baidu, Inc. (BIDU)

Class Period: 3/16/2019 - 4/7/2020

Lead Plaintiff Motion Deadline: June 22, 2020

SECURITIES FRAUD

To learn more, visit https://www.claimsfiler.com/cases/view-baidu-inc-securities-litigation

If you purchased shares of the above companies and would like to discuss your legal rights and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact us toll-free (844) 367-9658 or visit the case links above.

If you wish to serve as a Lead Plaintiff in the class action, you must petition the Court on or before the Lead Plaintiff Motion deadline.

About ClaimsFiler

ClaimsFiler has a single mission: to serve as the information source to help retail investors recover their share of billions of dollars from securities class action settlements. At ClaimsFiler.com, investors can: (1) register for free to gain access to information and settlement websites for various securities class action cases so they can timely submit their own claims; (2) upload their portfolio transactional data to be notified about relevant securities cases in which they may have a financial interest; and (3) submit inquiries to the Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC law firm for free case evaluations.

To learn more about ClaimsFiler, visit www.claimsfiler.com
A woman who bit off an alleged rapist's tongue in South Korea is seeking a retrial 56 years after she convicted.

Choi Mal-ja, 74, was sentenced to six months in prison suspended for two years in 1964 for taking off half an inch of her alleged attacker's tongue.

The 18-year-old Choi was incarcerated for six months during her trial for grievous bodily harm against the 21-year-old man identified only as Roh.

She will submit her request for a retrial at Busan District Court on Wednesday, pleading self-defence, rights group Women's Hot Line said in a statement.

Choi Mal-ja, 74, was sentenced to six months in prison suspended for two years in 1964 for taking off half an inch of her alleged attacker's tongue

This was the same line of defence she had pursued as a teenager when she says Roh forced his tongue inside her mouth close to her home late at night in May 1964.

However, the police rejected her story and later the court.

The judge even asked Choi whether she had any affection for the man and suggested she should marry him, Yonhap reported.

The court went on to find her guilty and Choi's father payed compensation to Roh in an effort to secure a more lenient sentence for his daughter.

Furthermore, Roh was not charged with assault or attempted rape, only with him with trespassing and blackmail.

He was also sentenced to six months imprisonment, suspended for two years.

Choi spoke to the Women's Hot Line at the end of 2018 after she was encouraged by the #MeeToo Movement.

'There will be many women who have lived with resentment, like Choi, stemming from the patriarchal social atmosphere of that time,' a Women's Hot Line official told Yonhap.

'She has decided to seek a retrial after 56 years to communicate a message of courage and self-esteem to such women.'
Could we see an Obama back in the White House in 2020?

Former Vice President Joe Biden says it's not likely to happen, but the "Committee to Draft Michelle Obama for VP" is working to build "substantial grassroots support for a potential Michelle Obama candidacy and help garner media attention for a vice-presidential nominee who has the power to beat Donald Trump," according to the group's press release.

"Ms. Obama, the most admired woman in America, will be a vital asset this November, when Vice President Biden will face an uphill battle to combat the lies and deceit emanating from the White House," said the statement released Monday. "Her credibility as a trusted leader and a strong symbol of unity within the Democratic Party would certainly help Democrats defeat Republicans up and down the ballot."

Biden committed to choosing a female running mate back in March, and was asked about the possibility of tapping Obama to join him on the Democratic ticket as his vice presidential search gets underway.

MORE: Joe Biden announces committee to vet potential running mates

While he said he would choose the former first lady "in a heartbeat," the former vice president noted that it was unlikely to happen.

"She's brilliant. She knows the way around. She is a really fine woman. The Obamas are great friends," Biden said in an interview with a CBS Pittsburgh affiliate in late April.

However, said Biden, "I don't think she has any desire to live in the White House again."

The newly formed committee filed as a non-connected PAC on April 26, according to FEC documents, and is not affiliated with Obama or Biden's campaign. The group is backed by Democratic fundraisers including Nadine Hack and Mack Wilbourn, according to Clyde Lederman, a spokesperson for the committee who previously worked for former 2020 presidential candidate Mike Gravel.

PHOTO: This May 11, 2019 file photo shows former first lady Michelle Obama during 'Becoming: An Intimate Conversation with Michelle Obama,' in Atlanta. (Paul R. Giunta/Invision/AP)

Lederman told ABC News that the money the group raises will go toward digital and social media ads, the first of which is expected to be released at the end of this week.

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"It's important for the Obamas to start playing a more active role in Biden's campaign," Lederman said, adding that the initiative is intended to "create buzz" to encourage their participation.

Despite Obama's prominence in the committee's name, the group says it plans to "transfer our resolve to whoever joins the ticket to defeat the most dangerous incumbent in the history of our nation."

Biden marked the official start of his vice presidential search last week when he announced the committee that will vet his potential running mates.

The former vice president says he has a list of more than a dozen names he is considering for his second-in-command. Speculation has largely been molded by Biden's frequent and candid public comments, and he has already been subjected to lobbying from prominent backers of the former vice president.

MORE: 'I would be an excellent running mate': Straightforward approach defines 1st phase of veepstakes

Those mentioned as possible picks range from former top 2020 presidential contenders like Sens. Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren, to high-profile governors leading their states through the ongoing COVID-19 crisis like Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer and New Mexico's Michelle Lujan Grisham, to other prominent African American female leaders like former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, Florida Congresswoman Val Demings and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.

Biden said while he expected the search to begin in earnest in May, the vetting to narrow the field down to the finalists will likely stretch into July.

"My guess is it's going to take until sometime in July to narrow it down, and background checks, just to [determine] who's the one, two, three people that may be in the hunt," Biden told late-night host James Corden in April.

ABC News' Briana Stewart Contributed to this report

New committee seeks to draft Michelle Obama as VP nominee originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
India's Sherpa for G20 andG7 groups Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday said thegovernment is working on an aggressive strategy to attract FDI into India in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic.

Prabhu in a virtual interaction with members of the Indo-Canadian Business Chamber (ICBC) recognized the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes it would bring to global business and trade practices, while outlining eight key areas of enhanced cooperation between India and Canada going forward, according to a statement.

He specifically listed out high-tech, financial services, capital investment, healthcare, manufacturing, environment, logistics and trade promotion as those that would see a major uptick between the two countries, the ICBC said in the statement.

Prabhu also pointed out that the Prime Minister has constituted a task force headed by the finance minister which is looking specifically into this andhe is sure it will be communicated to the right people soon.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
CHICAGO --- Despite the seemingly pervasive opinion that millennial physicians are more prone to burnout and a lack of empathy compared to older generations, a new study by researchers at Northwestern Medicine and Cleveland Clinic found that no such generational gap exists.

According to the study of 588 millennial and Generation X residents and fellows, millennial physicians in training did not show increased vulnerability to burnout or different empathy skills compared to a demographic-matched sample of Generation-X physicians.

It is the first study to evaluate the impact of generation affiliation (millennial vs. Generation X) on physician qualities, specifically empathy and burnout - a state of emotional, physical and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. Both empathy and burnout have been demonstrated to impact the quality of patient care.

The study was published today, May 5, in the journal Academic Psychiatry.

This study's findings cannot be extrapolated beyond the context of physicians in training. However, the statistical approach used in this study, controlling for other factors like level of experience in the field, could be used in studies of other professional fields to provide further clarity on the broader impact of generation affiliation on professional qualities.

"As millennial physicians are increasingly entering the workforce, people seem to be wondering what millennial doctors will be like, and I've heard older physicians opine that physician burnout is a bigger problem now due to generation vulnerability," said lead author Dr. Brandon Hamm, instructor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Hamm conducted the research while he was at Cleveland Clinic.

"Our study provides a little more transparency that it's medical-system exposure - not generational traits - that is more likely to contribute to the burnout seen in today's doctors," Hamm said.

Consistent with other studies, this paper found empathy decreases over the course of physician training, Hamm said. Additionally, Hispanic/Latino physicians in training demonstrated higher empathy scores and lower depersonalization burnout experience than Caucasian physicians in training. Depersonalization includes psychological withdrawal from relationships and the development of a negative, cynical or callous attitude.

What can be done to slow physician burnout?

"The first year of residency can be really rigorous and have a negative psychological impact on physicians in training, which can lead to dysfunctional coping strategies like substance abuse," Hamm said. "We need to be researching interventions that not only slow this empathy decline but bolster physicians' communities so they feel supported and less isolated."

###

This study was internally funded through the Cleveland Clinic Center for Excellence in Healthcare Communication.
Just because a business does not make any money, does not mean that the stock will go down. 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.

So should Ellex Medical Lasers (ASX:ELX) shareholders be worried about its cash burn? For the purposes of this article, cash burn is the annual rate at which an unprofitable company spends cash to fund its growth; its negative free cash flow. The first step is to compare its cash burn with its cash reserves, to give us its 'cash runway'.

Check out our latest analysis for Ellex Medical Lasers

Does Ellex Medical Lasers 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. When Ellex Medical Lasers last reported its balance sheet in December 2019, it had zero debt and cash worth AU$733k. Importantly, its cash burn was AU$3.8m over the trailing twelve months. So it had a cash runway of approximately 2 months from December 2019. To be frank we are alarmed by how short that cash runway is! We should note, however, that if we extrapolate recent trends in its cash burn, then its cash runway would get a lot longer. The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years.

ASX:ELX Historical Debt May 4th 2020

How Well Is Ellex Medical Lasers Growing?

It was fairly positive to see that Ellex Medical Lasers reduced its cash burn by 32% during the last year. Having said that, the revenue growth of 66% was considerably more inspiring. It seems to be growing nicely. Clearly, however, the crucial factor is whether the company will grow its business going forward. So you might want to take a peek at how much the company is expected to grow in the next few years.

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Can Ellex Medical Lasers Raise More Cash Easily?

Given Ellex Medical Lasers's revenue is receding, there's a considerable chance it will eventually need to raise more money to spend on driving growth. Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. Commonly, a business will sell new shares in itself to raise cash to drive growth. By looking at a company's cash burn relative to its market capitalisation, we gain insight on how much shareholders would be diluted if the company needed to raise enough cash to cover another year's cash burn.

Ellex Medical Lasers's cash burn of AU$3.8m is about 5.1% of its AU$75m market capitalisation. That's a low proportion, so we figure the company would be able to raise more cash to fund growth, with a little dilution, or even to simply borrow some money.

Is Ellex Medical Lasers's Cash Burn A Worry?

Even though its cash runway makes us a little nervous, we are compelled to mention that we thought Ellex Medical Lasers's revenue growth was relatively promising. Even though we don't think it has a problem with its cash burn, the analysis we've done in this article does suggest that shareholders should give some careful thought to the potential cost of raising more money in the future. Taking a deeper dive, we've spotted 3 warning signs for Ellex Medical Lasers you should be aware of, and 1 of them is a bit unpleasant.

If you would prefer to check out another company with better fundamentals, then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt or this list of stocks which are all forecast to grow.

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.
There is no doubt that the most hygienic way to pay for something is with a tap of a contactless card.

But if you're spending more than the 45 contactless limit, you either have to use a grubby card machine, or hand over cash.

Yet despite both options posing a similar health risk for those who do not wash their hands regularly, it is only cash that is being demonised as a possible means of catching coronavirus.

Threat: Coronavirus could give banks yet another excuse to shut even more branches and cash machines  which would be devastating for the many who rely on them for everyday banking

As we reveal, this scaremongering is troubling, with more and more shops up and down the country ditching coins and notes altogether.

Britain is nowhere near ready to go cashless. We have been told time and again that if we do not act now to protect cash, we will leave millions of elderly, vulnerable people and rural dwellers behind. And while technology can be brilliant, it is also temperamental.

When the Visa payment system crashed in June 2018, thousands were left stranded at supermarket checkouts unable to use their cards.

That day should have served as a wake-up call for the powers that be over the chaos we'd face if there was a more serious system failure, and we didn't have cash as an alternative payment method.

With bank branches closing at a record pace, many small business owners have already had to ditch cash because it is too costly and time-consuming to travel miles each day to deposit takings.

If more businesses follow suit due to the pandemic, banks will have yet another excuse to shut even more branches and cash machines  which would be devastating for the many who rely on them for everyday banking.

In his March Budget, Chancellor Rishi Sunak pledged to introduce new laws to protect cash, and it is vital he acts on this promise.

If he waits until the coronavirus threat has passed, we could find that cash has already been thrown on the scrapheap  hastened to its demise by pressure from firms who stand to benefit financially if we all switch to cards.

Ministers have said throughout the current crisis that we should be guided by the science.

Well, the experts say that if we all wash our hands regularly, touching cash is no riskier than touching any other hard surface, such as a shopping basket. So let's take heed and refuse to allow corona-phobia to kill off our cash.

Flying the flag

Money Mail has repeatedly highlighted how travel firms are refusing to refund holidaymakers for cancelled trips.

But one airline and package holiday provider is emerging as something of a hero amid the chaos.

One reader, Mike, described Jet2 as 'a beacon of light'. He said that after requesting a refund for a cancelled trip, there was no pressure to take a voucher.

The money was back in his bank account within six days  two weeks before his planned departure date.

Another reader, Nigel, said he received his money back for a cancelled city break within just 48 hours. And Anne, who also received a swift refund for her cancelled flight to Cyprus, said: 'Jet2 has been brilliant and deserves huge recognition for going above and beyond.'

Perhaps other travel firms should take note that all of these readers said the excellent service they had received at such a difficult time meant they would most certainly be using Jet2 for future holidays.

Delivery horror

Over the past few weeks we have exposed how vulnerable families are going weeks without vital supplies, with many forced to stay up into the small hours to get a supermarket delivery slot.

The response to our investigation was one of the biggest we've seen in recent memory, so thank you.

We have now sent a dossier of hundreds of your emails (with personal details removed) to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, to be considered as part of its inquiry into food supply during the pandemic. We will update you as soon as it publishes its findings.

In the meantime, good luck with the vital business of getting some food in your fridge.

v.bischoff@dailymail.co.uk
Dublin, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "COVID-19 Impact on Renewable Energy Market by Technology (Wind and Solar), End-User (Utilities, Captive (Industrial, Commercial and Residential) and Region - Global Forecast to 2021" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.





The Global Renewable Energy Market Size is Projected to Grow from USD 184.3 Billion in 2020 to USD 226.1 Billion by 2021.



The coronavirus pandemic is adding to the uncertainties that the global oil industry face as it contemplates new investments and business strategies. The pressures on companies are increasing, as they need to show that they can deliver not just the energy that economies rely on but also can reduce emissions that the world needs to tackle the climate change challenges.



The solar segment dominated the renewable energy industry during the forecast period



The solar segment, by technology type, is expected to dominate the global renewable energy market during the forecast period. The solar energy producers' product portfolio includes inverters, cells, and modules. Some of the major solar energy producers are Canadian Solar (Canada), Jinko Solar (China), SunPower (US), and Tina Solar (China). These manufacturers are still operating with limited production capacities.



The solar producers are negotiating contractual scheduling with their customers. Canadian Solar, which has its substantial PV manufacturing operations in China, has limited cases where the company has to change the shipping schedules. The company is largely able to deliver its orders on-time. This shows that the manufacturers are trying to deliver on time, which is expected to fuel the overall solar segment in the renewable energy market.



The utilities/power producers segment is projected to be the largest renewable energy market during the forecast period



The utilities/power producers segment, by end-user type, is expected to dominate the global renewable energy market during the forecast period. Strict lockdown regulations are stopping people and goods from a free movement, thereby creating a heavy blow to the demand for transport fuels. This is the right time for the utilities to make the transition to 100% renewable energy.



Utilities/power producers, who had already shifted or are planning to shift to the renewable energy sector will be the gainers during the forecast period. Also, the long-term and reliable government policies and increased energy independence are expected to be the key motives for utilities making the transition to 100% renewables in the future.



Asia Pacific is projected to be the largest and optimistic market during the forecast period



Asia Pacific is the largest renewable energy market, by region, during the forecast period. China and India are two big renewable energy markets in the region, which is the reason for market growth in the region. Several of the top ten solar PV manufacturers (in terms of module shipments) are based in China, including Jinko Solar, JA Solar, Trina Solar, LONGi Solar, Risen Energy, GCL System, and Suntech. These companies are expected to resume their operation by the end of April 2020 because of limited COVID-19 cases in China. This is likely to drive the renewable energy market in the region because North America and Europe are still under strict lockdown regulations.



Story continues

Key Topics Covered:



1 Introduction

1.1 Covid-19

1.2 Confirmed Cases and Deaths By Geography



2 Covid-19 Impact Renewable Energy Ecosystem

2.1 Value Chain of Renewable Industry

2.2 Impact on Value Chain

2.2.1 Raw Materials/Suppliers

2.2.2 Manufacturing

2.2.3 Transport and Logistics

2.2.4 Installation

2.2.4 Grid Connection

2.2.6 Operation and Maintenance

2.3 Macroeconomic Indicators/

2.3.2 Drivers

2.3.2 Challenges



3 Customer Analysis

3.1 Shift in Solar Power Producers

3.1.1 Disruption in the Industry

3.1.2 Key Initiatives to Mitigate/Reduce the Impact and to Resume/Improve Production

3.1.3 Solar Energy Supply Chain

3.1.4 New Market Opportunities/Growth Opportunites

3.2 Shift in Wind Energy Producers

3.2.1 Disruption in the Industry

3.2.2 Key Initiatives to Mitigate/Reduce the Impact and to Resume/Improve Production

3.1.3 Wind Energy Supply Chain

3.2.4 New Market Opportunities/Growth Opportunites



4 Disruptions in Renewable Energy Market

4.1 Biggest Gainers and Losers By Technology

4.1.1 Wind

4.1.2 Solar

4.2 Biggest Gainers and Losers By End Users

4.2.1 Utilities/Power Producers

4.2.2 Captive (Commercial, Industrial, and Residential)



5 Short Term Strategies of Renewable Energy Companies Due to Covid-19 Impact

5.1 Impact on Wind Energy Companies Portfolio

5.1.1 Product/Application

5.1.3 Region

5.2 Impact on Solar Energy Companies Portfolio

5.2.1 Product/Application

5.2.3 Region

5.3 Winning Strategies to Gain Market Share

5.3.1 Short Term Strategies

5.3.3 Long Term Strategies



6 Impact of Covid-19 in Renewable Energy Market

6.1 Renewable Energy By Technology Type

6.1.1 Solar

6.1.2 Wind

6.1.3 Others

6.2 Renewable Energy By End-User

6.2.1 Utilities/Power Producers

6.2.2 Captive

6.2.2.1 Commercial

6.2.2.2 Industrial

6.2.2.2 Residential

6.3 Region

6.3.1 North America

6.3.1.1 US

6.3.1.2 Canada

6.3.1.3 Mexico

6.3.2 Europe

6.3.2.1 Germany

6.3.2.2 UK

6.3.2.3 France

6.3.2.4 Italy

6.3.2.5 Rest of Europe

6.3.3 Asia Pacific

6.3.3.1 China

6.3.3.2 India

6.3.3.3 Japan

6.3.3.4 Australia

6.3.3.5 Rest of Asia Pacific

6.3.4 Middle East & Africa

6.3.4.1 Saudi Arabia

6.3.4.2 Uae

6.3.4.3 South Africa

6.3.4.4 Rest of Middle East & Africa

6.3.5 South America

6.3.5.1 Brazil

6.3.5.2 Argentina

6.3.5.3 Rest of South America



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WASHINGTON - States across the country are moving swiftly to reopen their economies despite failing to achieve benchmarks laid out by the White House for when social distancing restrictions could be eased to ensure the public's safety during the coronavirus pandemic.

These governors' biggest cheerleader is President Donald Trump.

UPDATED NUMBERS: Houston-area cities with the highest number of COVID-19 cases so far

A slew of states - such as Texas, Indiana, Colorado and Florida - have pushed forward with relaxing social distancing guidelines as the number of people testing positive in many states has increased in recent weeks and testing continues to lag. White House recommendations released last month encouraged states to wait to see a decline in cases over a two-week period as well as having robust testing in place for front-line workers before entering "Phase One" of a gradual comeback.

But Trump and some of his aides have backed away from their own guidelines, opting instead to hail the broad economic reopening that health experts say has started too quickly. The dichotomy comes as the White House also tried to distance itself from a draft federal government report predicting an explosion of new coronavirus cases and 3,000 daily deaths by June 1.

It underscores how an eagerness by Trump and several state governors to begin restarting normal activities after a weeks-long economic slowdown has clashed with a stubbornly high national caseload that has defied the president's predictions of a swift and safe reopening. It also marks another round of confusing guidance during the outbreak from Trump who released the guidelines with fanfare during a briefing and now shows no problem with states that ignore them.

"There's not too many states that I know of that are going up. Almost everybody is headed in the right direction," Trump said during a Fox News town hall on Sunday in which he presented a misleading and rosy assessment of the crisis. "We're on the right side of it, but we want to keep it that way, but we also want to get back to work."

About a third of states continue to see their number of new coronavirus cases increasing, compared to a few who have seen a sustained decline. A plurality of states are hovering around the same level, with neither a significant uptick nor decrease in daily cases. That mirrors the national trend, where the rate of new cases has leveled off in recent weeks but not declined.

Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard University Global Health Institute, said most governors who have decided to open up are clearly not following the letter of the White House guidelines.

"The first part of the criteria is sustained decline. And we don't see that," Jha said.

To date, 1.2 million people have been confirmed as infected by the coronavirus and more than 68,000 have died in the United States. Both figures are widely believed to undercount the actual totals.

STRIP STEAKS?: Houston strip club raided after trying to open as a restaurant to skirt state orders

The White House continues to support its guidelines but wants local officials to take the lead in deciding how quickly to ease restrictions, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. While individual states' decisions to move more quickly than recommended under the White House guidelines are regularly discussed during coronavirus task force meetings, those decisions are not seen as defiant toward the Trump administration, the official said.

One reason could be that Trump rarely discusses his own guidelines, instead encouraging states to move quickly to reverse the economic calamity that took hold as governors imposed stay-home orders to slow the spread of the virus. Trump has expressed support for protesters pushing their states to end the orders, and tweeted about a need to "LIBERATE" several states - including places that White House guidelines indicate should remain in a state of lockdown.

Politically, governors have come to learn they are more likely to be criticized by Trump for maintaining stay-home orders that comply with White House guidelines than they are for opening up their economies before meeting the Trump administration's own criteria for doing so.

Trump has singled out Virginia for its reluctance to quickly ease social distancing measures, telling Fox News that it was one of the states that "aren't going fast enough."

Even though Virginia continues to see its number of coronavirus cases rising, Northam announced Monday that he would begin easing the state's restrictions on May 15 - including by allowing some gatherings of more than 10 people if social distancing protocols are met.

"As you can see, our cases continue to rise," he said, before adding that the state's percentage of positive tests - another key measure in the White House guidelines - had begun to decline.

Trump's light criticism of Georgia's decision to begin opening up businesses including barbershops and bowling alleys before meeting White House benchmarks was short-lived.

While the president said on April 23 that he was "not happy" with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for the defying the guidelines, it took him a week to deny his own remarks.

"I didn't say that," Trump said Friday when his quote about Kemp, a Republican, was read back to him. "I said I didn't like the particular place - a spa, a tattoo parlor. No, no, I think it's wonderful."

As Trump leads the nation's push for a quick economic reopening, some administration officials have continued to call on states to follow the White House's detailed guidelines.

Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert, has repeatedly warned governors against moving too quickly to lift restrictions, saying he was concerned that states that flout the White House guidelines could spark a resurgence of the virus.

"The guidelines are very, very explicit, and very clear," he said last week on NBC's "Today" show. "There's a lot of leeway because we give the governors the opportunity to be very flexible, but you have to have the core principles of the guidelines. You can't just leap over things and get into a situation where you're really tempting a rebound."

Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, has also called on states and localities to follow the administration's guidelines, but she has stopped short of contradicting Trump's push for governors to move as quickly as possible to return to normal.

"We made it very clear that the guidelines are based on very strong evidence and data," she said Sunday on Fox News. "We've made it clear what the gating criteria is."

Several governors have ignored the criteria.

In Texas, for instance, new cases dipped in mid-April, but have lately been on the rise, with a spike late last week to more than 1,000 daily that has brought the total to more than 32,000. Nonetheless, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, went ahead with a plan to reopen the state's stores, restaurants, movie theaters and malls, limiting them to less than 25% capacity.

Lauren Ancel Meyers, a University of Texas at Austin biologist who has modeled possible trend lines in the state's capital as social distancing requirements are eased, said much will depend on how vigilant people remain with social distancing.

Models of potential transmission in Austin that she has run range from "hardly any additional hospitalizations" to "a catastrophic second wave."

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, let his stay-home order expire last week and replaced it with a less restrictive set of rules that allow restaurants, shops and fitness centers to open in nearly all parts of the state. Hair and nail salons, which were not part of the original reopening, will be allowed to begin service again this week. That's despite the fact that new cases have jumped in recent days, and now total more than 13,000.

Some public officials have been unnerved at the speed with which the reopening has happened, and the apparent disregard for guidelines set by medical experts.

"The state policymakers believe that the economic climate is more important than those guidelines," said Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke. "I don't see any other explanation."

But as states have defied that criteria to begin restarting business activity - from retail stores in Colorado to restaurants in Florida to elective surgeries in Ohio - they have been cheered on by Trump and his allies.

Vice President Mike Pence has hailed the 41 states that have announced or began plans for reopening.

PET PROTECTION: How to protect your pets from coronavirus at home and at play

But some of those states have pushed ahead with reopening plans that skip ahead of the White House's recommended phased approach. The recommendations call for certain testing and contract tracing capabilities to be in place before states push forward with returning to normalcy.

A lack of planning on those fronts could leave states vulnerable if there is another outbreak, said Jeffrey Shaman, one of the country's leading epidemiologists at Columbia University.

"We don't have the testing. We don't have the contract tracing. We can't detect a rebound," he said. " It's really problematic place to be. This is not where we want to be."

Ali Khan, dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska, said the governors are clearly reacting to "shelter-in-place fatigue" as they skirt the guidelines. But he said that's a risky bet, given the danger that the virus comes roaring back.

There is widespread uncertainty about what will happen as states race to ease their restrictions on residents and businesses.

A draft government report projects that coronavirus cases will surge to about 200,000 per day by June 1, a jump that would be accompanied by more than 3,000 deaths each day.

The document predicts a sharp increase in cases and deaths beginning about May 14, according to a copy shared with The Washington Post. The forecast stops at June 1, but shows both daily cases and deaths on an upward trajectory at that point.

The White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disavowed the report, though the slides carry the CDC's logo. The creator of the model said the numbers are unfinished projections shown to the CDC as a work in progress.

He said 100,000 cases per day by the end of the month is within the realm of possibility, an indication that cases could spiral out of control at the same time that the White House has shifted focus toward reopening the economy. Much depends on political decisions being made today.

"There are reopening scenarios where it could get out of control very quickly," said Justin Lessler, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who created the model.

The Bloomberg school in a statement called the report a "preliminary" analysis that should not be used as a forecast.

The White House downplayed the figures on Monday, saying they had not yet been vetted.

"This data is not reflective of any of the modeling done by the task force, or data that the task force has analyzed," White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.

White House officials have been relying on other models to make decisions on reopening, including one from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and a "cubic model" prepared by Trump adviser and economist Kevin Hassett and the Council of Economic Advisers.

People with knowledge of the "cubic model" say it shows deaths dropping precipitously in May - and plummeting to zero by May 15, where they stay throughout the summer.

Two people with knowledge of the White House task-force discussions said that they had not seen the draft government report, but that they were both fearful cases could rise with many of the states reopening.

The IHME model is now estimating that the United States will see nearly 135,000 deaths by August 1. That number is significantly higher than its estimate on April 17 - 60,308.

IHME's new higher projections "reflect the effect of premature relaxation of restrictions," said its creator, Christopher Murray. "In this era where those mandates being relaxed, people should be aware of the risk of infection is still there."

- - -

William Wan, Laurie McGinley and Josh Dawsey contributed to this report.
Nicolas Cage and Joe Schreibvogel. (AP and Santa Rosa County Jail via AP)

Nicolas Cage is to play Joe Exotic, the flamboyant zoo owner and big cat enthusiast at the centre of Netflix hit Tiger King, in a new drama miniseries.

Variety reports that the show will be made by Dan Lagana, who was behind the Netflix true-crime parody American Vandal.

The drama, made up of eight episodes, will be based on an article for Texas Monthly by Leif Reigstad called Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild, which was published in June 2019.

It centres on the bizarre life of Joe Schreibvogel, the focus of the Netflix docu-series, who kept a wealth of big cats and other animals at his zoo in Oklahoma, and later branded himself Joe Exotic.

Tiger King (Netflix)

Per Variety, the series will live in the lions den with Joe, explore how he became Joe Exotic, and how he lost himself to a character of his own creation.

However, it's not the only drama project to take on the stranger-than-fiction tale.

Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon is also set to star as Carole Baskin, Joe Exotic's nemesis, in a series based on the podcast Joe Exotic: Tiger King, made by US podcast network Wondery.

McKinnon's project was announced in November last year, before the Netflix series was released.

The Netflix series became a lockdown sensation, following its release on 20 March this year.

According to Nielsen, 34.4 million people watched the series in its first 10 days on release, making it one of Netflix biggest hits.
Singapore, May 5 : A Singapore Minister on Tuesday sent a video message to migrant workers, many who are Indian nationals, to assuage the concerns of those living in dormitories, who have been subjected to stringent measures and active testing amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking in Tamil, Minister for Communications and Information S. Iswaran explained the need to test them and their co-workers for COVID-19 and said that the Government has "undertaken numerous efforts to enhance the quality of food and facilities" within their dormitories, reports The Straits Times.

The video, with a second version dubbed in Bengali, was sent via WhatsApp to workers on Tuesday, the first day of the extended 'circuit breaker' or lockdown period slated to end on June 1.

As of Monday, more than 5 per cent, or 16,383, of the 323,000 migrant workers living in dorms have tested positive for the virus, among whom many are Indian nationals.

Many workers remain quarantined in their rooms, while the stay-home notice period for work permit and S Pass holders in the construction sector has been extended by another two weeks to May 18.

The Ministry of Health on Tuesday confirmed 632 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore, taking the total count to 19,410.

Among the new cases were nine Singaporeans and permanent residents, while migrant workers living in dormitories form the bulk of the remaining cases, reports The Straits Times.

The death toll stood at 18.
Elon Musk and Grimes just welcomed their newborn child into the world. The baby, who Grimes and Musk seem to have named X  A-12 Musk, is Grimes first. However, Musk has had several children already  six sons, one of whom passed away as a result of SIDS. All six were children he had with Justine Wilson, his first wife. Wilson, who penned a tell-all for Marie Claire, revealed that the Elon Musk we know is not the person she was married to. The man she describes is controlling and emotionally distant.

Elon Musk and Grimes welcome X  A-12 Musk

Grime and Elon Musk welcomed their first child together on Tuesday, May 5. Grimes chronicled her experiences with pregnancy on her Instagram, where she discussed what its like working while pregnant and the lack of information she felt she had going into the situation.

Grimes wrote on Instagram, Fake or real? Haha. Wow Im starting to feel bad haha how do yall cope with working and having a baby?? Im sorry I havent been promoting my album properly or on social media more. This whole thing has been a bit of an ordeal. Had some complications early on, a decent second trimester but starting to hurt everywhere at 25 wksz [sic].

Grimes went on to add, What were yalls experience w this stuff like? I feel like I was woefully ill prepared cuz I dunno if pregnancy is as visible or discussed as it should be. I just didnt rly understand what I was getting into. Its been good too, but it makes working a lot harder. Good at writing and having lots of wild ideas tho, but anything physical is hard. Im also way more emo and less capable of bravery in the face of haters online and stuff haha. But my albums out in a sec so I prob need to get back on here. Dont mind my emo energy, but curious what other ppls experience was like. I didnt even google it, I was just like sure y not hahaha smh [sic].

To the confusion of netizens and fans around the world, the seem to have settled on X  A-12 Musk for their childs name. It remains unclear what the meaning behind the name might be.

Elon Musk has five other children

Grimes | Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

While X  A-12 Musk is Elon Musk and Grimes first child together, the Tesla founder has had six other children in the past with his first wife, Justine Wilson.

Musk and Wilson currently have five surviving sons together. These are twins Griffin and Xavier, as well as triplets Saxon, Kai, and Damian. The twins were born in 2004, and the triplets in 2006.

Sadly, Musk and Wilsons first son together, Nevada Musk, died as a result of SIDS. Wilson explained to Marie Claire, The same week, Nevada went down for a nap, placed on his back as always, and stopped breathing. He was 10 weeks old, the age when male infants are most susceptible to SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).

Justine Wilson describes her relationship with Musk

Elon Musk | Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Unfortunately, Justine Wilson discovered that she and Elon Musk dont exactly grieve in the same way, among other things about Musk.

On losing Nevada Musk and her grief process, Wilson wrote, Elon made it clear that he did not want to talk about Nevadas death. I didnt understand this, just as he didnt understand why I grieved openly, which he regarded as emotionally manipulative.

Musks first wife suggests that Musk felt the need to always be in charge. Still, there were warning signs. As we danced at our wedding reception, Elon told me, I am the alpha in this relationship. I shrugged it off, just as I would later shrug off signing the postnuptial agreement, but as time went on, I learned that he was serious. He had grown up in the male-dominated culture of South Africa, and the will to compete and dominate that made him so successful in business did not magically shut off when he came home, she wrote.

Wilson also claimed that Musk was a controlling and emotionally distant husband. She said that Musk viewed her as an underperforming employee. This, and the vast economic imbalance between us, meant that in the months following our wedding, a certain dynamic began to take hold. Elons judgment overruled mine, and he was constantly remarking on the ways he found me lacking. I am your wife, I told him repeatedly, not your employee, explained Wilson.

Wilson added, If you were my employee, he said just as often, I would fire you.

As for emotional intimacy, Wilson said, It was a dream lifestyle, privileged and surreal. But the whirlwind of glitter couldnt disguise a growing void at the core. Elon was obsessed with his work: When he was home, his mind was elsewhere. I longed for deep and heartfelt conversations, for intimacy and empathy.
Baku, May 5 : A summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in the format of a contact group was held through videoconference in a bid to boost coordination among member states in fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The summit, themed "United against COVID-19," was initiated by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, the current chairman of the NAM, Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

In his opening speech, President Aliyev gave an insight into what the Azerbaijani government had done to curb the spread of the pandemic.

"We took immediate and necessary preventive action," said the president, adding that the measures included the closure of schools, prohibition of mass gatherings, and the imposition of a nationwide lockdown and social distancing.

The Azerbaijani leader also affirmed Azerbaijan's readiness to share its experience with other Non-Aligned Movement member states.

In this context, Aliyev said Azerbaijan was allocating US $5 million in a donation to the World Health Organization to help the neediest NAM member states from Africa, Asia and Latin America.

President of the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande reiterated the UN's commitment to finding solutions to the coronavirus pandemic.

In a video message, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hailed the role of the Non-Aligned Movement in shaping global solidarity. He also stressed the importance of addressing the socio-economic consequences of COVID-19.

Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus affirmed WHO's support for the Non-Aligned Movement and its member states in their fight against the deadly virus. He noted the significance of uniting against COVID-19, adding that no country, regardless of its size, resources, and financial means, can fight the pandemic alone.

Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat said African countries were ready for cooperation in the fight against the virus. He commended China and Cuba for their role in supporting African countries' response. "I would like to highlight support provided by China and Cuba. They supplied us with medical equipment, which was delivered to African countries." The virtual summit, which featured the NAM heads of state and government, ended with the adoption of a declaration in which the member countries expressed full support to the UN chief's plans and initiatives to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. They also called on the member states of the United Nations to "enhance their cooperation at the national, regional and international levels to confront and combat this scourge." The NAM comprises 120 countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America. The organisation's 18th summit took place in Azerbaijan last October, which saw the country take over the presidency of the movement from Venezuela for a three-year term from 2019 to 2022.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
The official says the process that started on April 1 is difficult to be called a "real reform."

Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov has said the ministry is not going to curtail the second stage of healthcare reform, but will fix mistakes in planning.

"Regarding the development and reform of the healthcare sector. Yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky highlighted this particular sector during his video address. The president instructed the government and the Health Ministry to solve the problems of Ukraine's healthcare reform  this is really a hot topic, and we have a common vision with the president: Ukraine's healthcare needs a real reform, which should work both for healthcare workers and for patients, which will provide Ukrainian doctors with a decent salary, which will provide Ukrainian hospitals with modern equipment, and which will provide patients with decent services," he said during an online briefing on Tuesday, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

The official says the process that started on April 1 is difficult to be called a "real reform."

Read also"Up to 100,000 deaths:" Ukraine's Health Ministry explains quarantine extension

According to the minister, it "doesn't foresee anything good either for doctors or patients. Moreover, no one of those who advocate for these processes is eventually aware of the disastrous consequences that Ukrainians will face. I've got a reason to tell you this, based on the figures and facts we've obtained from the audit of the healthcare sector."

Stepanov said "the healthcare reform in the form we've inherited means the dismissal of about 50,000 healthcare workers, the closure of 332 hospitals  all this is due to lack of funding. If the situation isn't fixed, one or two video messages about the dismissal of doctors and healthcare workers' strikes will turn into mass events on a daily basis. We will not allow this injustice."

According to him, the financing gap is observed in 984 hospitals out of 1,747, which have concluded agreements with the National Health Service of Ukraine.

"That is, more than half of our hospitals will get less funding in 2020 than in 2019. If nothing changes, millions of Ukrainians will be denied access to normal medical care, and diseases such as tuberculosis will begin to spread rapidly," he said.

Stepanov said the Health Ministry's team was working to immediately change the situation to prevent mass lay-offs of doctors and the closure of hospitals.

"This does not mean that we are going to curtail the reform, on the contrary  it must be implemented, but substantially changed, taking into account Ukrainian realities and fixing mistakes made during planning," he added.

As UNIAN reported earlier, speaking in his latest video address to the nation on May 4, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky assessed the progress of healthcare reform. In particular, he urged the health minister, chairman of the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and chief sanitary doctor of Ukraine to urgently put forward proposals to resolve the issues arising from the new funding mechanism as part of the second stage of the healthcare reform.
The Assam government firmed up



plans to start community based surveillance for Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI) and Influenza Like Illness (ILI) across the state in order to contain the possible spread of COVID-19.

To carry forward this programme and monitor it on a daily basis, a State Level Task Force and a State Level Coordination Committee have been set up.

A set of guidelines has been issued through the standard operating procedure for Assam Community Surveillance Plan (ACSP) for COVID-19' on Monday night and the government will start to execute the initiative from Thursday in all districts.

However, the surveillance shall commence from May 6 in Kokrajhar, Kamrup Metropolitan, Jorhat, Sonitpur and Cachar districts, where five Zonal Screening Camps will be set up for people coming from outside the state.

"Assam has been successful in breaking the chain of transmission and containment of COVID-19 epidemic in the state in first phase. In order to strengthen the response mechanism going forward, the surveillance system has to be strengthened further.

"It has been increasingly felt that with the increase in the testing capacity, the surveillance mechanism should be enhanced to cover all SARI and ILI cases so that they are identified from the hospitals and the community respectively and tested," the document said.

The objective of the ACSP has been defined as to identify any COVID-19 transmission, find unreported cases of SARI and ILI from every village, look for any clustering of such cases in a specific area, treat symptomatic minor flu cases at homes and create a database of such persons, including the migrant population.

This exercise will also strengthen the surveillance for other diseases associated with fever like Japanese encephalitis, malaria, dengue, measles and rubella, said the standard operating procedure issued by Health and Family Welfare Principal Secretary Samir K Sinha.

It also said that ACSP will ensure that all SARI and ILI cases are tested for COVID-19, followed by mapping and linking the places and accordingly plan for adequate beds and ICU facilities.

For smooth operations of the ACSP programme, a State Level Task Force is constituted under the chairmanship of the Principal Secretary of the Health and Family Welfare Department.

"The role of the Task Force is to guide and review the programme and issue necessary policy directions from time to time," the document said.

Similarly, a State Level Coordination Committee is formed under the Commissioner and Secretary of the Health and Family Welfare Department to look after the day-to-day affairs of the programme and provide directions to the Deputy Commissioners to make the surveillance a success.

All the DCs will be responsible for the implementation of the ACSP, but it will not be carried out in the containment zones as active surveillance is already in place in these areas.

According to the Health and Family Welfare Department of Assam as on Monday night, the state has tested a total of 12,775 samples for novel coronavirus, of which 42 have been found positive and one has died. Thirty-two have been cured and released from hospitals.

However, as per the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Assam has reported 43 confirmed cases for COVID-19 so far.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases among inmates at the Bexar County Jail continues to rise.

Sheriff Javier Salazar held a news conference Thursday regarding Timothy De La Fuente, a detention deputy who died after contracting the virus.

At the time, officials had announced 98 cases of COVID-19 among inmates. That figure climbed to 237 on Sunday, while cases among deputies rose from 40 to 56. Four of the inmates are hospitalized.

Salazar said during the news conference that a spike in cases was likely, as the San Antonio Fire Department and University Health Systems conducted mass testing within the jail.

"What I can tell you is I'm a big fan of mass testing, even though its going to give us some big numbers," Salazar said. "We are going to get more positives. They are going to skyrocket. It will give us a fill grasp of whats going on inside this jail."

On ExpressNews.com: Bexar County detention deputy dies after testing positive for COVID-19

The sheriff noted testing had identified a number of asymptomatic people. Salazar called for similar mass testing within the rest of society, warning San Antonio the the jail offered a snapshot of what the community at-large would soon see.

"I'd rather know. If there's 20,000 people  knock on wood  in our community that are asymptomatic positives, I'd rather know that and not be lulled into a false sense of security," he said.

Salazar emphasized residents could be standing in a grocery store next to people who display no symptoms, but have the virus. He cautioned Thursday that "we're all taking a huge chance in going out prematurely."

Salazar plans to screen all 3,000 inmates and 900 detention deputies at the downtown lockup. University Health System, which provides medical care at the jail, has the capacity to process about 150 tests a day, officials told the Express News.

Mark Dunphy is a breaking news and general assignment reporter for MySA.com | mark.dunphy@express-news.net | @m_b_dunphy
A statue of General Aung San, Myanmars revered independence hero, stands in Kandar Haywun Park in Loikaw, capital of eastern Myanmar's Kayah state, in an undated photo.

Authorities in eastern Myanmars Kayah state have announced an order demanding criminal charges against anyone who defames government officials, effectively criminalizing criticism in a move that rights advocates say will deal a new blow to freedom of expression in the multiethnic emerging democracy.

The Township Administration Department in the state capital Loikaw issued the order on May 3, advising Kayah state residents to refrain from activities or statements that could defame the ruling government.

Kayah is the only state or regional government to have issued such an order.

The order listed 10 examples of defamatory speech, including speaking ill of the government in wards and villages with or without the use of loudspeakers and using writings, images, posters, vinyl sheets, or symbols that could defame the government.

The announcement said that the order is intended for the benefit of the people and that violators would be prosecuted under existing laws.

Rights activists warned that the order contains vaguely defined terms that will allow the state government to interpret them to suit its own needs and ultimately harm freedom of expression.

Myanmars 2008 constitution, drafted by a military junta that previously ran the country, guarantees freedom of expression, though critics argue that those guarantees do not fully meet international standards.

Aung Myo Min, director of Equality Myanmar, a human rights education group, said that some terms in the order are very broad and subject to biased interpretations.

For example, the order doesnt provide an accurate definition of defamatory speeches against state and government organizations, so its open to the interpretation of the prosecutors, who may bring excessive charges against accused violators, he said.

I am concerned that it will affect the free press and freedom of expression, he added.

In Myanmar, the penalty for criminal defamation is imprisonment for up to two years, a fine, or both.

Myanmar has seen a surge in arrests of peaceful critics of the military and government officials at the national and regional levels under State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, who has lead the country since 2016.

Among those targeted have been satirical performers, political activists, and journalists, reflecting a rapid decline in freedom of expression under the civilian-led National League for Democracy (NLD) government.

A form of persecution

Activist Dee De, a member of the Karenni State Farmers Union and one of the founders of the Union of Karenni State Youth, called the order an unacceptable form of persecution coming at a time when the government should be seeking cooperation with local citizens.

It shows the dishonesty of the ruling government, he told RFA. It is a form of persecution.

We are now in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic which is affecting everyone, he added. They issued this order during a time when they should be working to protect people. This is not suitable.

Dee De supported the NLD during the 2015 general election and took part in Aung San Suu Kyis security detail during her campaign trip to Kayah state, according to a June 2019 commentary he wrote for the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute.

He was arrested in 2017 and spent two months in jail for his involvement in protests against arbitrary killings by the Myanmar military. He was arrested again in June 2019 for campaigning for the removal of a controversial statue of General Aung San  Myanmars revered independence hero and Aung San Suu Kyis father  from a public park in Loikaw.

Ethnic Karennis in the state opposed the monument because Aung San came from the ethnic Bamar (Burman) majority that dominates the country, and because they believed that the current government should focus on achieving equal rights for them.

L Phaung Sho, chief minister of Kayah state, declined to comment on the new order, except to say that it was issued in line with the state governments administrative policy.

Reported by Nay Myo Htun for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Virtual IT for Maryland?

The role of the CIO in pandemic response

Across the country, technology leaders have found that whatever foundation they had previously laid to prepare their organization for telework has paid dividends during the pandemic. Tools like virtual private networks, virtual desktop infrastructure and soft phones via laptops, as well as encryption, multi-factor authentication and other cybersecurity protocols, then, simply had to be scaled up to accommodate an increase in users.Day two of the virtual NASCIO Midyear event featured a discussion among four state chief information officers about their respective transitions to a largely remote workforce. Moderator and Virginia CIO Nelson Moe was joined by Nebraska CIO Ed Toner Maryland CIO Michael Leahy and Missouri CIO Jeff Wann for a morning session entitled Not Business as Usual: Technology and Process Innovations.Now that the initial disruption of stay-at-home orders is behind them, the tech leaders reflected on early challenges in quickly buying laptops and licenses for remote work tools and supplementing support resources to ensure newly home-bound workers could do their jobs.Nebraskas phased transition began with employees in the most vulnerable groups, Toner explained, referencing an aging workforce typical of many state governments. The states continuity of operations (COOP) plan grades the central IT office annually on its preparation for extenuating circumstances, and part of that plan requires testing remote work tools. But many employees in the states first remote work phase hadnt been in the test groups.The fact that we phased this in really helped us, Toner explained, adding that they created additional documentation and videos to help get people set up. Missouris Wann predicts that work-at-home will increase significantly now that it has been tested and proven to prior skeptics.Its going to be a sea change for our state government. There had been sort of an aversion to work-at-home before, not so much in IT but outside of IT, he said. That has radically changed, and so were going to see that going forward."Leahy took it a step further, noting similar up-front challenges but an ultimately successful move toward remote work environments in Maryland, especially for IT staff.I think folks believe Im kidding but Im not. Im giving serious thought to turning my agency practically, except for our NOC [network operations center], SOC [security operations center], things of that sort, into a virtual agency, Leahy said.The move could prove a huge help in addressing pandemic-related budget impacts that governments have started to forecast. Leahy mentioned several leases up for renewal in the coming year. If we can free up space  we can certainly save substantial amounts on the revenue shortfall in terms of the real estate portfolio, he said.Moe asked panelists about whether COVID-19 and its aftermath will impact the trajectory of modernization projects  either in progress or planned. Last year, Nebraska upgraded both its unemployment and DMV systems, both with cloud solutions. And those projects were well-timed, with agency leaders reporting reliable performance in recent weeks in spite of increased demand on digital services.What theyre seeing is they survived this fairly well as far as the capacity, the lack of latency and things of that sort, Toner said. This success, he predicts, will spur more interest in modernizing business processes using technology.What theyre seeing is the technology actually held up, he added. Where they ran into problems and bottlenecks is where they went to those manual processes.Both Wann and Leahy noted as well that the increased technology use during the pandemic has demonstrated its value in helping large government systems and processes run more smoothly, despite many new projects being put on hold due to budget concerns.The new technology that weve implemented in the last two months has raised some eyebrows in a positive way, Wann said. There is a silver lining in this very, very dark cloud.Beyond establishing and maintaining secure operations during the novel coronavirus outbreak, state chief information officers have also contributed to the response itself, though this help has taken on a distinct shape in each state.Wann described an effort in Missouri whereby the state is working with partners including Google to create marketplaces in which various stakeholders can post their needs as well as resources. Describing the states role as a matchmaker of sorts, the next phase will be to match personal protective equipment (PPE) manufacturers and suppliers. Central IT has also been a resource in tracking and analyzing contact tracing and testing activities.In Maryland, the IT group has been an integral part of the states contact tracing effort, and they are working with the health department to build a mobile app. In addition, Leahys staff is assisting in data analytics efforts related to the pandemic.Toners team is also helping to support the cloud-based contact tracing solution that Nebraska is using in partnership with Utah and Iowa. A couple hundred thousand Nebraskans have taken the online survey so far, which is being used to prioritize COVID-19 testing according to need.
NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- BRG Capital Advisors (BRGCA) announced today that Michael Ory has joined the firm as a managing director and will help lead BRGCA's efforts in Healthcare Services. Based in Nashville, he brings over 25 years of investment banking experience.

Throughout his career, Ory has completed deals with over $8 billion in transaction value across sell-side advisory projects, private equity placements, public equity offerings and acquisitions. He has deep experience working with operators across healthcare subsectors including alternate site and outpatient service providers, specialty physician practices, outsourced healthcare services providers, specialty healthcare distributors, hospitals and other provider models. Ory joins from Raymond James & Associates, where he spent nearly 20 years and co-led the healthcare services practice.

"We are investing heavily in our Nashville presence," said Roger Johnson, a BRGCA managing director and cofounder. "Michael brings a wealth of transactions experience that we can leverage across all of BRG's platforms."

"I am excited to join a multidisciplined practice and partner with Lance Bell to continue to build a dynamic Healthcare M&A practice," said Ory.

BRGCA's healthcare team focuses on the following subsectors: healthcare providers and facilities, including physician practices, ambulatory surgery centers, outpatient services providers and post-acute care; behavioral healthcare, including substance use disorder, medication assisted treatment, eating disorders and autism therapy/IDD; and outsourcing, including healthcare consulting and physician, clinical and specialty staffing.

Ory graduated from Vanderbilt University with a BA in economics.

About BRGCA:

BRG Capital Advisors (www.BRGCA.com) is a US-registered broker dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC. Its seasoned investment bankers have worked on a wide variety of transactions for corporate clients and financial institutions. BRGCA is an affiliate of BRG.

About BRG:

Berkeley Research Group, LLC (BRG) is a global consulting firm that helps leading organizations advance in three key areas: disputes and investigations, corporate finance, and strategy and operations. Headquartered in California with offices around the world, we are an integrated group of experts, industry leaders, academics, data scientists, and professionals working beyond borders and disciplines. We harness our collective expertise to deliver the inspired insights and practical strategies our clients need to stay ahead of what's next. Visit thinkbrg.com to learn more.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 01:30:25|Editor: huaxia

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-- China's new large carrier rocket Long March-5B made its maiden flight on Tuesday, sending the trial version of China's new-generation manned spaceship and a cargo return capsule for test into space.

-- Specially developed for China's manned space program, Long March-5B will be mainly used to launch the modules of the space station.

-- China aims to complete the construction of the space station around 2022. A total of 12 missions have been planned. After the maiden flight of the Long March-5B, the core module of the space station, named Tianhe, and two experiment capsules, named Wentian and Mengtian, will be sent into space.

by Xinhua writers Yu Fei, Quan Xiaoshu, Li Guoli

WENCHANG, Hainan, May 6 (Xinhua) -- China's new large carrier rocket Long March-5B made its maiden flight on Tuesday, sending the trial version of China's new-generation manned spaceship and a cargo return capsule for test into space.

The successful flight inaugurated the "third step" of China's manned space program, which is to construct a space station, said the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

The white large rocket blasted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the coast of southern China's island province of Hainan at 6 p.m. (Beijing Time).

China's new large carrier rocket Long March-5B blasts off from Wenchang Space Launch Center in south China's Hainan Province, May 5, 2020. The Long March-5B made its maiden flight on Tuesday, sending the trial version of China's new-generation manned spaceship and a cargo return capsule for test into space. (Xinhua/Pu Xiaoxu)

About 488 seconds later, the experimental manned spacecraft with no crew, together with the test version of the cargo return capsule, separated with the rocket and entered the planned orbit, according to CMSA.

Specially developed for China's manned space program, Long March-5B will be mainly used to launch the modules of the space station.

The Long March-5B carrier rocket will help expand China's aerospace activities, said Wang Xiaojun, head of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).

Modified on the basis of Long March-5, the new large rocket has a total length of about 53.7 meters, which is as tall as an 18-floor building, and has a 5-meter-diameter core stage and four 3.35-meter-diameter boosters, as well as a 20.5-meter-long and 5.2-meter-diameter fairing.

The rocket uses environment-friendly propellants, including liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen and kerosene. It has a takeoff mass of about 849 tonnes and is able to send over 22 tonnes of payloads, equivalent to the weight of more than 10 cars, to low-Earth orbit, which is currently the largest low-Earth orbit carrying capacity among China's rockets.

The successful maiden flight verified the design of the rocket. A series of technological breakthroughs have been achieved such as the separation of the large fairing and the payloads in space and the precise control of the rocket to enter orbit directly with high thrust, laying the foundation for constructing China's space station, CMSA said.

"We are excited to witness the liftoff of the Long March-5B carrier rocket 50 years after the launch of China's first satellite Dongfanghong-1. The success of the mission is another major breakthrough of China's aerospace development," Ji Qiming, an assistant to the CMSA director, said at a press conference Tuesday evening.

A congratulatory message sent by the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the State Council and the Central Military Commission hailed Tuesday's launch as "a good beginning for the country's space station program."

China's new large carrier rocket Long March-5B blasts off from Wenchang Space Launch Center in south China's Hainan Province, May 5, 2020. The Long March-5B made its maiden flight on Tuesday, sending the trial version of China's new-generation manned spaceship and a cargo return capsule for test into space. (Xinhua/Pu Xiaoxu)

The new manned spacecraft is designed to adapt to multiple tasks including low-Earth orbit missions and deep-space explorations. The spacecraft comprises a service capsule and a return capsule.



The mission will test the key technologies of the new spaceship such as the control of its re-entry into the atmosphere, heat shielding and recovery technology, according to the China Academy of Space Technology under CASC.

The new manned spaceship can be used in the operation of China's space station and future manned lunar exploration, Ji said.

Some space science experiments, including space 3D printing, will be conducted on the experimental spacecraft.

The test version of the cargo return capsule, developed by the Second Academy of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, is flexible and inflatable.

The mission will test key technologies of the cargo return capsule, which is expected to become a new kind of space transport vehicle, Ji said.

The two experimental spacecraft are scheduled to return to the Dongfeng landing site in the desert in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Wednesday and Friday respectively, according to Ji.

Before the launch, joint drills of the Long March-5B rocket and the prototype core capsule of the space station had been conducted at the Wenchang Space Launch Center.

All personnel participating in the mission had overcome tremendous difficulties caused by the novel coronavirus epidemic, and the challenges and pressure brought by the recent failures of the Long March-7A and Long March-3B rockets.

In 1992, China started its manned space program with a three-step strategy.

Yang Liwei carried out the first step -- sending an astronaut into space and return safely -- in the Shenzhou-5 mission in 2003.

File photo taken on Oct. 16, 2003 shows astronaut Yang Liwei getting out of the re-entry capsule of China's Shenzhou-5 spacecraft following its successful landing in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. A total of 10 Chinese astronauts have fulfilled their space mission in the past 10 years. (Xinhua/Wang Jianmin)

The second step was developing advanced space flight techniques and technologies including extra-vehicular activity and orbital docking. This phase included the launch of Tiangong-1, a transitional platform to test the docking technology, and the Tiangong-2 space lab.

So far, a total of 16 major missions of China's manned space program have been accomplished, with a success rate of 100 percent.

China has launched 11 manned spacecraft, one cargo spacecraft, Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2, sending 11 astronauts into space, completing the first two steps of the manned space program.

The next step is to assemble and operate a permanent manned space station.

China aims to complete the construction of the space station around 2022. A total of 12 missions have been planned. After the maiden flight of the Long March-5B, the core module of the space station, named Tianhe, and two experiment capsules, named Wentian and Mengtian, will be sent into space.

During the construction of the space station, China plans to launch four Shenzhou manned spaceships and four Tianzhou cargo spacecraft to transport astronauts and supplement materials, Ji said.

Photo taken on Nov. 5, 2018 shows a full-size model of the core module of China's space station Tianhe exhibited at the 12th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition (Airshow China) in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province. (Xinhua/Liang Xu)

The assembly of the station's core module has been completed, and the two experiment capsules and the scientific payloads are under development, according to Ji.



The crewmembers to participate in the construction of the space station have been selected and are trained for the missions. China's third batch of reserve astronauts will be selected around July, Ji said.

Tuesday's launch was the 331st mission of the Long March rocket series.

(Xinhua reporters Li Mi and Zhou Huimin also contributed to the story. Video reporters: Zhou Xuan, Guo Liangchuan, Wang Junfeng, Li Duojiang; Video editor: Jia Xiaotong)
A uniquely resilient organism all but unheard of in the Arabian Sea 20 years ago has been proliferating and spreading at an alarming pace, forming thick, malodorous green swirls and filaments that are visible even from space. This unusual organism is Noctiluca scintillans -- a millimeter-size planktonic organism with an extraordinary capacity to survive, thrive and force out diatoms, the photosynthesizing plankton that have traditionally supported the Arabian Sea food web. Noctiluca is not a preferred food for larger organisms, so these large blooms, recurring annually and lasting for several months, are disrupting the base of the region's marine food chain, threatening fisheries that sustain 150 million people, and possibly exacerbating the rise of criminal piracy in the region.

New research published this week in Nature's Scientific Reports describes how the continued loss of snow over the Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau region is fueling the expansion of this destructive algal bloom. Led by Joaquim I. Goes from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the study uses field data, laboratory experiments, and decades of NASA satellite imagery to link the rise of Noctiluca in the Arabian Sea with melting glaciers and a weakened winter monsoon.

Normally, cold winter monsoon winds blowing from the Himalayas cool the surface of the oceans. These colder waters sink and are replaced with nutrient-rich waters from below. This convective mixing is no different than putting an ice cube into a mug of hot coffee. During this time, phytoplankton, the primary producers of the food chain, thrive in the sunlit, nutrient-rich upper layers, and surrounding countries see a bounty of fish that feed directly or indirectly on the phytoplankton. But with the shrinking of glaciers and snow cover in the Himalayas, the monsoon winds blowing offshore from land are warmer and moister, resulting in diminished convective mixing and decreased fertilization of the upper layers.

In this scenario, phytoplankton such as diatoms are at a disadvantage, but not Noctiluca. Unlike diatoms, Noctiluca (also known as sea sparkle) doesn't rely only on sunlight and nutrients; it can also survive by eating other microorganisms. Noctiluca hosts thousands of photosynthesizing endosymbionts within its bulbous, transparent, greenhouse-like cell. The green endosymbionts provide it with energy from photosynthesis, while its tail-like flagella allows it to grab any microscopic plankton from the surrounding water as an additional source of food.

This dual mode of energy acquisition gives it a tremendous advantage to flourish and disrupt the classic food chain of the Arabian Sea. Noctiluca's second advantage is that its endosymbionts accumulate a lot of ammonia in the cell, making the organism unpalatable to larger grazers. As a third advantage, the accumulated ammonia is also a repository of nitrogenous nutrients for the endosymbionts, making them less vulnerable to diminishing inputs of nutrients from a weakened convective mixing.

Noctiluca blooms first appeared in the late 1990s. The sheer size of their blooms, which occur annually, threaten the Arabian Sea's already vulnerable food chain because its symbionts not only compete with phytoplankton for the annually replenished nutrients, but feed on the phytoplankton themselves. However, only jellyfish and salps seem to find Noctiluca palatable. In Oman, desalination plants, oil refineries and natural gas plants are forced to scale down operations because they are choked by Noctiluca blooms and the jellyfish that swarm to feed on them. The resulting pressure on the marine food supply, and economic security may also have fueled the rise in piracy in countries like Yemen and Somalia.

"This is probably one of the most dramatic changes that we have seen that's related to climate change," said Goes who, along with Lamont researcher Helga do Rosario Gomes, has been studying the rapid rise of this organism for more than 18 years. "We are seeing Noctiluca in Southeast Asia, off the coasts of Thailand and Vietnam, and as far south as the Seychelles, and everywhere it blooms it is becoming a problem. It also harms water quality and causes a lot of fish mortality."

The study provides compelling new evidence of the cascading impacts of global warming on the Indian monsoons, with socio-economic implications for large populations of the Indian sub-continent and the Middle East.

"Most studies related to climate change and ocean biology are focused on the polar and temperate waters, and changes in the tropics are going largely unnoticed," said Goes.

The study highlights how tropical oceans are being disproportionately impacted, losing their biodiversity, and changing faster than conventional model predictions. This may portend dire consequences over the long term for countries in the region already gripped by socioeconomic problems from war, poverty and loss of livelihoods, said Goes.

Lamont-Doherty scientists O. Roger Anderson, Douglas G. Martinson, and high-school students working with the observatory also contributed to the research. Other co-authors include researchers from Oman's Ministry of Fisheries and Agricultural Wealth and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as researchers from Oman's Sultan Qaboos University, and from Tiangong and Xiamen universities in China.

The research was funded by NASA Earth Sciences, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Centre.
Fire-fighters sanitise the premises of SN Hospital where several COVID-19 patients are being treated, in Agra. PTI Photo

Agra: On Feb. 25, a day after Donald Trump and his wife Melania posed for pictures outside the Taj Mahal, Sumit Kapoor returned to his nearby home from a trip to Italy.

Kapoor, a partner in a shoe manufacturing firm, tested positive a week later for the new coronavirus, becoming the first confirmed case in Agra and the origin of Indias first big cluster of the virus.

The city of 1.6 million people moved fast. It set up containment zones, screened hundreds of thousands of residents and conducted widespread contact tracing.

By early April, the city thought it had the virus beat, containing cases to under 50, while new infections exploded in other Indian cities. Prime minister Narendra Modis government lauded the Agra Model as a template for the countrys battle against COVID-19.

Now, however, the city and its hospitals are battling a second wave of infections. Agra is a model of a different kind, illustrating how the coronavirus can roar back even after elaborate containment measures.

As the rest of India prepares to end its lockdown, hoping that the virus has been tamed if not defeated, Agra is a warning bell.

As India grapples with more than 42,000 coronavirus infections, second only to China in Asia, Agras tangle with the virus offers lessons for big cities in India.

How it all began in Agra

It all began with a shoemaker who visited a trade fair in Italy.

After flying home via Austria, Kapoor, 44, who lives about 10 km from the Taj Mahal, first learned he might be infected on March 1, when his brother-in-law who travelled with him came down with a fever and tested positive in New Delhi. A state official called Kapoor the next day and told him to get tested at the Agra District Hospital.

He was positive -- and so were his father, mother, son, wife and brother. All six were moved to a hospital in New Delhi. My brother and I had a sore throat and the other four didnt have any symptoms, Kapoor told Reuters.

Later, Kapoors accountant in Agra and his wife also tested positive for COVID-19, while other unrelated cases started showing up around the city.

CONTAINMENT ZONES & LOUDSPEAKERS

Prabhu N Singh, the district magistrate of Agra, and his team attempted to establish containment zones as the virus spread across the city, but they ran into a problem: how to quickly screen thousands of households.

Dr. Brajendra Singh Chandel, a surveillance medical officer with the World Health Organization in Agra, said he pulled out vaccination microplans that had been developed for polio control by the WHO, using them alongside Google Maps to plot target areas.

The detailed household-level plans, which helped India eradicate polio in 2014, have clearly demarcated starting, middle and end points for surveying an area, Chandel explained, allowing teams to work their way through any neighbourhood efficiently.

Once we zeroed down on the area, we used the polio microplans to execute, he said.

Local authorities identified an epicentre for each cluster of infections and drew 3-km-wide containment zones around them. They surveyed residents in those areas, looking for those who had contact with people who tested positive for the coronavirus or who were showing symptoms. Nearly 3,000 workers screened some 165,000 households, according to a government presentation.

Meanwhile, epidemiologists from the Union governments India Epidemic Intelligence Service arrived in Agra to help with containment, contact tracing and analysing data, said Dr Anshul Pareek, who leads the citys coronavirus rapid response team.

As the number of cases grew, authorities sealed off infection hotspots  typically groups of houses or parts of a street - and cordoned off adjoining neighbourhoods holding as many as 10,000 people. In a control room used to manage traffic, officials monitored camera feeds from across the city to ensure the lockdown was enforced. Thousands of police were deployed to hotspots and checkpoints. Loudspeakers blared messages telling residents to stay indoors.

That differed from other Indian cities, many of which failed to isolate patients or track down their contacts, allowing the infection to spread, according to health authorities. Weak lockdowns allowed potential carriers to slip through containment cordons, they added.

REVIVAL OF CASES

Agra was celebrated for appearing to have contained the virus. On April 11, Lav Agarwal, a senior official in Indias health ministry, held up Agra as an example of how India was working to defeat the pandemic.

But a resurgence was already in the works. In late March, a gathering of the Islamic missionary group Tablighi Jamaat in New Delhi had become a source for hundreds of new infections nationwide. Union government authorities sent officials in Agra a list of attendees to track down, Prabhu Singh said.

Agarwal did not respond to requests for comment by Reuters.

District police chief Babloo Kumar said he used police investigation tactics and cell phone data to identify Tablighi Jamaat members and their contacts. Eventually, 104 people from this group tested positive in Agra.

The effort was helped by the nationwide lockdown on March 25 that stopped all public transport, shut businesses and kept residents at home.

Without a lockdown, we could not have done anything, Singh said.

By early April, a patient linked to the Tablighi group showed up at an Agra hospital and later tested positive for COVID-19, officials said. The disease spread rapidly among patients and staff who went on to infect their families and relatives. New cases also popped up in Agras other healthcare facilities.

Worst hit was Paras Hospital, the source for at least 92 coronavirus cases, Singh said. One staff member infected 14 others in a two-room home, he said. In another case, a patient from the hospital infected 32 others in a nearby town, he added.

The hospital was sealed off on April 6. Late last month, a chart tracking contacts of positive patients linked to the facility still stood next to Singhs desk.

Agra now has around 600 coronavirus cases and 14 deaths, according to local authorities. As of the end of April, there were 39 infection hotspots and tests had been conducted on 6,848 samples, with some people tested multiple times.

Singh says hes confident the city will defeat the virus, thanks in part to its aggressive contact-tracing system.

The good part is that for all the cases, we know the source, he said.

Still, eradicating COVID-19 in Agras crowded neighbourhoods will remain difficult, particularly without testing large groups of people, said Dr. Rajib Dasgupta, an epidemiologist who teaches at New Delhis Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Even within a containment zone, for some conceivable time, its not going to go away very rapidly, said Dasgupta.
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A hospital near Paris says a recently performed test of a patient admitted for pneumonia in December 2019 has come back positive for the coronavirus, indicating that the virus spread farther, faster than previously known. The 43-year-old man, who has since recovered from the illness, resides on the outskirts of Paris and was uncertain how he contracted the virus as he had not visited any of the earliest known sites of the infection in China. The date of the new diagnosis upends the timeline for the viruss spread: It is four days before the World Health Organizations China office was even notified of a spike in unusual cases of pneumonia in the city of Wuhan and pushes the first known case in France up by nearly a month.

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Yves Cohen, the head of emergency medicine at Avicenne and Jean-Verdier hospitals, told the BBC that given the Dec. 27 swab, the man likely contracted the coronavirus sometime before Christmas, between Dec. 14 and Dec. 22, given the length of time it normally takes for symptoms to appear. The man exhibited what are now known to be symptoms of the coronavirus and had originally tested negative for the flu, but his swab was retested along with nearly two dozen others who had exhibited flulike symptoms as researchers look for clues to the pandemics spread.

The mans most recent travel before falling ill was to Algeria months before in August 2019. After going to the hospital, the mans two children also became ill. His wife did not show any symptoms of the virus, though she works in a supermarket near Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, and researchers raised the possibility that she came into contact with travelers from China and potentially was an asymptomatic carrier of the virus.
Arizona News

Phoenix, Arizona - With COVID-19 causing a large number of Arizonans to work from home or attend school online, Attorney General Mark Brnovich advises Arizonans to use safe internet practices. With crooks and scammers busy trying to gain access to people's computers and personal information through weak security measures, AG Brnovich offers the following common sense tips to help you, your business, and your family stay safe online.

Security for Online Meetings and Classrooms

Reports of hijacked or interrupted online meetings and classrooms have increased as more people work or attend class from home due to COVID-19. Some of these incidents have subjected participants to hateful or graphic language and images. Incidents such as these generally can be prevented by following some broad guidelines:

Limit participation in virtual meetings and classrooms by using a password or a system that allows the meeting host to control who can participate.

Keep meeting and classroom passwords and links private. Send log-in information directly to participants and dont share log-in information on social media.

Always use the most up-to-date version of software. Regularly check for software and security updates.

Always use a unique ID and password for each meeting to make it harder for intruders to identify and join meetings.

If you are acting as a meeting host, be familiar with the security features available through the service you are using: Know how to lock all image, screen, and file sharing accesses; Prevent participants from showing and sharing files or images without the hosts permission; and Know how to silence and remove participants from the meeting.



Personal Computer Security While Working or Attending Class Remotely

Exercising good security habits can make a substantial difference in maintaining security and privacy while working or attending class from home:

Use reputable and up-to-date antivirus and anti-malware software on all electronic devices connected to your network.

Beware of the tech support scam. Do not take unsolicited phone calls from support personnel. Do not call phone numbers on pop-up windows claiming IT issues are affecting your device. Know your companys IT support phone number and verify with them that any assistance is coming from a known source. Never give out passwords or private information to an unsolicited caller.

Use unique passwords for any device or website requiring a log-in. Do not use the same log-in and password for all accounts.

Beware of emails, links, and attachments from unknown sources. Always verify the source of an email to make sure that the communication is legitimate. Use extreme caution if the email is unsolicited and do not click on links in unsolicited emails. Dont fall for emails offering easy money or that use threats demanding Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency.



The FTC provides additional learning materials for parents and children about how to stay safe online:

Additionally, the Attorney General's Community Outreach Division recently produced webinars and online presentations for students, parents, and teachers in order to reach communities across the state in their homes during the current health crisis. Outreach currently offers multiple educational programs including Internet Safety for both students and parents. More information on specific programs and details on how to schedule a webinar.

The Attorney Generals Office launched a COVID-19 webpage dedicated to providing consumers with the latest information on COVID-19 scams and frauds.
New Delhi: While the first few days of lockdown 3.0 was dominated by liquor stores, another category of merchandise that made their way to the list of essentials in phase three were books and stationery. Though less of a celebrity than liquor stores, book stores across the capital had been raring to reopen. Monday saw many such small and medium bookstores open in Delhi after nearly two months.

Amid images of customers flouting social distancing norms and thronging liquor stores, images appeared on social media of Delhiites standing peacefully outside bookshops, waiting their turn to make their purchase while maintaining social distancing.

Flooded with Pics of #LiquorShops and Long Queues? Here's a Book Shop in Delhi. A Long Queue with Social Distancing. As people await their Turn to buy a Book to read. This is something, most Media Houses wont show! cc @msisodia pic.twitter.com/jCLHlfAMIu  DaaruBaaz Mehta (@DaaruBaazMehta) May 4, 2020

"We are maintaining all social distancing measures such as working with limited staff, ensuring two meters of distance between staff and customers and not allowing more than two people inside the shop at one time," owner of Midland Books, Mirza Tauseef Baig, told News18.

But with social distancing becoming the new norm, small bookstores in Delhi may be in for a lurch, even if rules were relaxed. Baig said that though the store had its own dedicated customers, sales had been heavily impacted due to the lockdown.

"The bookstore business runs on passion, not profit," Baig, the son of Mirza Yaseen Baig who founded the store in 1978 said. "My father started the shop with just a single stand. Only our passion for books has kept us going," he said.

Today, Midland has four outlets spread across Delhi. But it does not consider itself as part of the new crowd of online stores. "We are not hooked up with e-commerce sites," Baig said, adding that a majority of Midland's customers were regulars who came to the store, not just to buy books but also to chat with the family and discuss recommendations while flipping through the pages of a book they may or may not purchase.

That, however, was before the coronavirus pandemic killed thousands across the world. Now, bookstores like Midland have to find a way to upgrade with times and home delivery now seems to be the only way forward.

Home-delivering books

Books were not considered as part of "essential goods" by the government of India, which imposed a national lockdown on March 24 to contain the spread of COVID-19. While e-commerce websites like Amazon do deliver books, their services were also limited to delivering only essential services.

To fill the gap and bring readers to books without bringing them to bookshops, many bookstore owners, as well as publishers, have been tying up with third-party service providers to home deliver books.

Delhi-based publisher Roli Books recently announced home delivery of books that were ordered from them via their website, WhatsApp or social media portals. Starting Friday, Roli Books has been receiving hundreds of orders from Delhiites for books to be delivered.

For delivery, the publishers have engaged local partners like Dunzo, Swiggy and others who are basically acting as couriers. But Roli Books' initiative was not just meant to provide books to readers amid lockdown but also to small bookstores, many of whom may end up facing closure due to the lockdown.

"Every time someone purchases a book from us for home delivery, we ask them the name of the bookstore that they would normally buy from," Kapil Kapoor of Roli Books told News18. "When they tell us the name, we credit ten percent of the proceeds made from the sale to the bookstore," he added.

Incidentally, one of the customers who phoned in with an order was a Kashmiri based in Delhi. Though he lived here, the customer named a bookshop called "Gulshan Book" in Kashmir. Roli Books arranged to have 10 percent of the sale value credited to them.

Stores running dry

With bookstores running dry, publishers have also been facing a crisis. But Kapoor was optimistic.

"The pandemic will change the way people interact with the market. But that does not mean people will stop reading. Quite the contrary," Kapoor felt. With social distancing forcing people indoors, he said, more people were likely to turn to books for comfort and to pass time, the publisher said, adding that this was the time for optimism and innovation.

Asked what books were ordered the most since the announcement on Friday, Kapoor promptly said, "Cookbooks. I guess lockdown is forcing people to learn how to cook," he chuckled.

Publishers have previously complained about the lack of government investment in the book and publishing industry.

According to the Nielsen India Book Market Report 2015, the size of the Indian book market was the sixth-largest in the world at Rs 261 billion, was expected to the cross Rs 739 billion by 2020. But with the advent of e-books, e-commerce websites and now the pandemic, the sector needs instant reform and government attention for smaller sellers to survive.
Fort Lauderdale, FL, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Veritas Farms, Inc. (VFRM) (Veritas Farms or the Company), a vertically integrated agribusiness focused on the production of full spectrum hemp oil products with naturally occurring cannabinoids, is pleased to announce its hosting The Hemp and Wellness Virtual Summit.



Veritas Farms will host The Hemp and Wellness Virtual Summit , which will take place on Thursday, May 7th at 1pm EDT. The summit will showcase leading doctors, scientists and hemp industry experts as they provide insights and answer questions on topics at the forefront of consumers minds. Questions to be addressed by these experts will include: What is the difference between full spectrum hemp oil and CBD? How does it actually work? How do I know if what Im buying is safe and accurate? How can I use CBD? And much more!

The panel will feature the following experts:

Dr. Fabrizio Mancini is Americas #1 Healthy Living Expert, world-renowned doctor , best-selling author, internationally acclaimed educator, consultant and President Emeritus of Parker University. He has been featured on Dr. Phil, The Doctors, Fox News, CNN, CBS, Univision and others.

Dr. Daniel Connors , vice president of research and development at Veritas Farms, is an analytical chemist and biologist with years of experience in research and development. He has spent time working in clinical laboratories, the oil and gas industry and for the US Food and Drug Administration.

Jeff Greene is the co-founder and director of business development of The Florida Hemp Council . Greene is a registered lobbyist and political and business consultant for the cannabis and alternative fuels industries.

Spencer Fuller, vice president of agriculture at Veritas Farms, directs the cultivation and breeding of hemp. He has worked in the phytopharmaceutical sector of cannabis for over 15 years. As a consultant, Fuller developed many award-winning cultivars for some of Colorados largest cannabis producers.

Story continues

The summit discussion will be moderated by Veritas Farms Vice President of Business Development Derek Thomas.

Derek Thomas is an accomplished hemp industry veteran and TEDx presenter. Thomas, vice president of business development at Veritas Farms, participates in dozens of hemp and consumer package goods industry panels, speeches, corporate presentations and media interviews.

When:

Thursday, May 7 at 1:00 p.m. EDT

Where:

Facebook Live via Veritas Farms Facebook page.

How/Cost

Free and open to the public.

To RSVP, learn more about the event or to submit question to be answered by the expert panel, visit: https://www.theveritasfarms.com/virtualsummit/

About Veritas Farms, Inc.

Veritas Farms, Inc. (VFRM) is a vertically integrated agribusiness focused on producing superior quality, whole plant, full spectrum hemp oils and extracts containing naturally occurring cannabinoids. The Company currently owns and operates a 140-acre farm and production facilities in Pueblo, Colorado, and is registered with the Colorado Department of Agriculture to grow industrial hemp. The Company markets and sells products under its Veritas Farms brand and manufactures private label products for a number of leading distributors and retailers.

Veritas Farms brand full spectrum hemp oil products include vegan capsules, tinctures, formulations for sublingual applications and infused edibles, lotions, salves, and oral syringes in a variety of size formats and flavors. All Veritas Farms brand products are third-party laboratory tested for strength and purity. The Company files periodic reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which can be viewed at www.sec.gov .

Cautionary Language Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, including those with respect to the Company's mission statement and growth strategy, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company's management believes that such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee that such expectations are, or will be, correct. These forward-looking statements involve many risks and uncertainties, which could cause the Company's future results to differ materially from those anticipated. Potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, general economic conditions and conditions affecting the industries in which the Company operates; the uncertainty of regulatory requirements and approvals; and the ability to obtain necessary financing on acceptable terms or at all. Additional information regarding the factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements is available in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company assumes no obligation to update any of the information contained or referenced in this press release.

Veritas Farms, Inc. - Investor Contact

833-691-4367

ir@theveritasfarms.com
Four people, who recently returned from Gujarat and West Bengal, tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Odisha on Tuesday, taking the number of cases in the state to 173, an official said.

The number of active COVID-19 cases now stands at 112. Of the four new cases, two hailed from Balasore, one from Ganjam and the other from Cuttack districts, the official said.

Cuttack last reported a COVID-19 case on April 3, while Ganjam falls in the orange zone. The new cases in the two districts are two persons who recently from Surat in Gujarat.

In Balasore, the two new patients, aged 50 and 26, recently returned from West Bengal. Contact-tracing and follow-up actions are being undertaken in the three districts, the official said.

A total of 3,535 samples were tested for COVID-19 in Odisha on Monday, the highest in a day in the state, the official said. The Health Department has tested 44,663 samples so far.

Jajpur district has reported the maximum number of cases at 52, followed by Khurda, of which Bhubaneswar is a part, at 47, Balasore at 23, Bhadrak at 21 and Sundargarh at 11.

Sixty people have recovered from the disease. The state has reported only one coronavirus death -- a person from Bhubaneswar who died on April 6.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Paul A. Marks, who transformed Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center into one of the worlds leading institutions for research and treatment of cancer, died on April 28 at his home in Manhattan. He was 93.

His son Andrew said the cause was a combination of pulmonary fibrosis and a more recent emergence of lung cancer that was untreatable because of the fibrosis.

Memorial Sloan Kettering today is very different from the institution Dr. Marks joined in 1980 as president and chief executive. It was still reeling from a scientific scandal in the 1970s involving crudely falsified data. It was also behind the times, focused more on surgical interventions than on the developing frontiers of biological science.

Frankly, it was an institution that really needed surgery from top to bottom, and Marks was the right guy, James Rothman, chairman of the Yale School of Medicines department of cell biology, said in a phone interview. Dr. Marks had been recruited from Columbia Universitys College of Physicians and Surgeons by the philanthropist Laurance Rockefeller.
The Wildwoods Boardwalk will reopen Friday for walking, running, biking and more, according to a post on the Facebook page of North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello.

North Wildwood and Wildwood have laid out the following time frames:

The beaches, parks and playgrounds will reopen Friday.

People are permitted in public places under the following conditions:

Walking, running, operating a wheelchair or engaging in outdoor activities with immediate family members, caretakers, household members or romantic partners while following best social distancing practices with other individuals, including staying six feet apart," according to the Facebook post.



Two South Jersey hospitals were not included in a $12 billion round of federal funding meant to bolster facilities that are struggling financially during the pandemic.

Cape Regional Medical Center and Shore Medical Center did not receive any of the funds from the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a news release from Susan Staeger, coordinator of marketing and public relations for the Cape Regional Health System.

Canceling elective surgeries, "This was absolutely the right decision, and while tragically too many lives were lost, many others were saved, and we were able to protect our staff and care for the sick. Hospitals are still abiding by the guidance of the Federal and State governments, and remain completely focused on COVID-19," she said.

But discontinuing these services "is proving to be financially crippling to many hospitals," and many have reduced staff in non-clinical areas and adjusted salaries, she said.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), on May 1, awarded $12 billion to 395 hospitals that provided inpatient care for 100 or more COVID-19 patients through April 10, $2 billion of which will be distributed to these hospitals based on their Medicare and Medicaid disproportionate share and uncompensated care payments, she said. There is also $10 billion awarded to rural hospitals, many of which were operating on thin margins prior to COVID-19 and have also been particularly devastated by this pandemic.

Rural hospitals are struggling to keep their doors open, she said.

The two hospitals have so far "lost millions of dollars," she said.

Shore and Cape Regional have treated symptomatic COVID-19 patients as far back as January, and these patients are not included in the HHSs minimum threshold of 100 patients admitted prior to April 10, she explained.

"If these patients were included, Shore and Cape Regional would receive the funding that they deserve," she said. "Instead, they, their patients, and their staff have been forgotten.

Staeger urged residents to contact Senators Cory Booker and Robert Menendez to "correct this oversight."



The number of positive cases of COVID-19 in New Jersey has increased by 2,494, bringing the total to 130,593, state officials announced Tuesday. There have been 334 additional deaths, bringing the state total to 8,244.

We still have people getting sick, going to the hospital and sadly, over 300 today  were reporting in a minute  have died, Gov. Phil Murphy said during his daily press briefing with other state officials. So with all due respect, this is the fight of our lives.

There are 5,328 people hospitalized across the state, including 1,534 people in intensive care and 1,169 people on ventilators, Murphy said. Between 10 p.m. Sunday and 10 p.m. Monday, 232 residents were discharged from hospitals, while 385 people entered hospitals.

So far, Atlantic County has recorded 1,142 cases, 51 deaths and 198 residents cleared as recovered. Cape May has recorded 371 cases, with 25 deaths and 154 designated as off quarantine. Cumberland County has reported 936 cases and 22 deaths.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

Long-term care facilities continue to be a challenge as state officials work to mitigate the spread of the new coronavirus, Murphy said.

We know the long-term care issue has been among our biggest challenges, if not the biggest, Murphy said. The data spells out why we need to undertake these efforts.

Facilities reporting cases continues to increase, Murphy said, showing a graph that there have been 22,602 cases identified with 4,151 deaths, noting that half of the states total deaths are attributed to long-term care facilities.

State Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said that on April 16, he announced that his office opened an investigation into long-term care facilities.

Our investigation was prompted both by the high number of deaths that we were seeing at these facilities  and by the disturbing reports that we were receiving, Grewal said. Reports of bodies piled up in makeshift morgues, of nurses and staff without adequate PPE and the family members left in the dark, unable to contact their loved ones and in some cases receiving little or no information from the facilities, and in others, inadequate information.

He said that, at this time, they are not alleging misconduct at any facility, but are looking into all of them for illegal activity or misconduct now and before the pandemic.

To report evidence or information anonymously, visit covid19.nj.gov/LTC.

Murphy also announced that the Divison of Community Affairs will begin a program to grant temporary, emergency licenses to recent graduates of nursing, physician assistant, pharmacy and respiratory care therapy programs.

"Recent graduates of nursing, pharmacy, physician assistant and respiratory care therapy programs will be welcome in our hospitals to assist patients and relieve frontline health care workers," said Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli. Its a perfect match.



Atlantic County public health officials on Tuesday reported 42 additional cases of COVID-19 and no additional deaths.

The cases include eight men, ages 45 to 93 and 34 women, ages 17 to 97, according to a news release from county spokeswoman Linda Gilmore. There were also 51 more residents who have been cleared as recovered.

There are nine new positives in Galloway, six each in Absecon and Atlantic City and five in Hammonton, according to the release. Egg Harbor Township had four new cases while Hamilton Township had three. Two more positives were confirmed in both Buena Vista Township and Northfield. Buena Borough, Linwood, Margate, Pleasantville and Somers Point each had one new case.

Atlantic County will continue its drive-thru testing on Thursday behind the Hamilton Mall in Mays Landing, by appointment for symptomatic county residents with a doctors prescription, proof of residency and appointment confirmation.

Appointments are available from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and can be made online at www.aclink.

Those who are unable to keep their appointments are asked to cancel so that others will have an opportunity to be tested.

So far, Atlantic County has recorded 1,184 positives, 51 deaths and 249 recovered. Cape May has recorded 371 cases, with 25 deaths and 154 designated as off quarantine. Cumberland County has reported 936 cases and 22 deaths.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.



During this time when healthcare facilities across the country are in need, Spencer Spirit Holdings became an integral part of AtlantiCare's supply chain efforts, according to news released Tuesday by AtlantiCare.

The retailer quickly pivoted from selling scary masks and t-shirts to helping AtlantiCare secure vital personal protective equipment, also known as PPE, said Jennifer Tornetta, AtlantiCare spokeswoman.

Spencer Spirit Holdings, headquartered in Egg Harbor Township, is parent company to mall retailer Spencers and Spirit Halloween.

The Spencer Spirit team worked around the clock with its vendors to assist AtlantiCare's procurement team in securing face masks, hazmat suits, and isolation gowns, Tornetta said.

The vital PPE they secured is also going to Shore Medical Center, Cape Regional Medical Center, and Bacharach Institute for Rehabilitation, Tornetta said. Along with its supply chain assistance, Spencer Spirit also made a $25,000 donation to the AtlantiCare Foundations COVID-19 Pandemic Response Fund, she said.

The teams began collaborating on March 22 to identify and secure critical items, and in less than two weeks, the first round of PPE started arriving at the hospital, Tornetta said.

Spencer's expertise in sourcing and importing was invaluable to us, said Barbara Young, assistant vice president, supply chain, and procurement services, AtlantiCare, in a statement. "They helped us secure products at reasonable prices and took care of all the logistics for us, including sourcing and ordering PPE products, coordinating shipping, and navigating customs.



Hackensack Meridian Southern Ocean Medical Center celebrated the discharge of the 100th COVID-19 positive patient on Monday.

The hospitals team members gathered in the main lobby to celebrate the milestone with Natalie Alexander from Manahawkin.

As patients are discharged, team members celebrate the courage, strength and hope of our patients by playing Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles, as they return home to their loved ones.



Two Cape May County mayors on Monday announced that beaches will reopen this week.

In a letter to residents, Martin Palughi, the mayor of Avalon, and Stone Harbor Mayor Judith Davies-Dunhour said that beaches will be open Friday morning for walking, running, fishing and surfing, but no stationary activities.

The beaches will be patrolled to make sure that social distancing practices are following and there are no large groups of people gathered, according to the letter. All regular beach regulations continue to apply. We ask that you follow these temporary rules; unfortunately, if they are not followed, we will again close out beaches.

Many other public spaces in the municipalities will continue to be closed, according to the letter, including playgrounds, courts, the Boardwalk, libraries and recreational fields.



Atlantic County continues its drive thru testing on Tuesday at the Hamilton Mall in Mays Landing.

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Testing is by appointment for symptomatic county residents with a doctors prescription, proof of residency and appointment confirmation. Appointments are available from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and can be made online at www.aclink.org.

Those who are unable to keep their appointments are asked to cancel so that others will have an opportunity to be tested.

Testing is also scheduled for Thursday.



Middle Township Police Chief Chief Christopher M. Leusner is scheduled to speak on a panel Monday afternoon about law enforcement's response during the pandemic.

The state Attorney General, along with other panelists, with also honor those who have been lost to the new coronavirus.



The mayor of Vineland on Tuesday canceled the formal gathering set for the National Day of Prayer Thursday at City Hall.

"Instead, Mayor Fanucci encourages all those who wish to participate to observe a moment of silence at Noon on Thursday to mourn those that we have lost to this virus, and to pray for our city, state, and nation as we continue to face this unprecedented challenge together," according to a post on the city's Facebook page.



Ocean Resort Casino has laid off 2,948 employees as Atlantic City casinos are still shuttered amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a WARN notice filed with the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

The notice, named after the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, is required for most employers with 100 or more employees to provide 60 calendar-day advance notification of plant closings and mass layoffs of employees.

"As a result of these unforeseen circumstances, AC Ocean Walk, LLC temporarily suspended business operations March 16, 2020," according to the notice. "This temporary suspension of business operations and the related lack of revenue and work available resulted in the lay-offs and furloughs of team members."

Tropicana Atlantic City laid off 2,704 in April.



Middle Township police released a video of an officer reading a book for children, something they say they'll do each week.



Galloway Township Mayor Jim Gorman will be on a press conference call Tuesday at noon about how the pandemic has affected municipalities.

Senator Bob Menendez is hosting the call with several mayors to discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has strained their local budgets and challenged their ability to maintain essential services like police, fire, sanitation and education, according to a news release.

The mayors will provide their unique insights and perspectives from the frontlines.



Middle Township Police on Tuesday warned of a telephone scam occurring during the pandemic.

Elderly residents are being targeted via a phone scam in which victims receive a phone call advising that a family member are under arrest and need bail money, according to a news release from the department.

"In one case, the criminal actor went to the victim's home to get the money wearing N95 mask and rubber gloves," according to the release. "Please have a talk with elderly neighbors, parents, grandparents and warn them that if they receive such a phone call to hang up, notify you and call your Police Department. Scams like this are occurring throughout the state including our local area."

To report fraud attempts in the township, contact police at 609-465-8700.



Jewish Family Service of Atlantic & Cape May Counties received hundreds of pounds of non-perishable foods and basic essentials from local businesses.

"Their generosity assures the pantry is ready for the increase need in the coming weeks," according to a news release.

Rymax, in partnership with H2Ocean Restaurant & Raw Bar, donated hundreds of pounds of pasta, jelly, snacks, vegetables, beverages, condiments and more, according to the release. Based in Pine Brook, the company has worked with the Atlantic City hospitality/gaming industry for years providing comprehensive loyalty programs and unmatched rewards collections. In addition to purchasing and donating five pallets full of non-perishables, Rymax staff delivered directly to the pantry door and even helped upload.

As a summer resident of Margate, I am honored to support the JFS Food Pantry of Margate and donate to such a great cause that will help support local families in Atlantic and Cape May counties," President Eve Kolakowski said, "Rymax has been a supplier to the gaming community for over two decades. The employees of the gaming industry are one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is our opportunity to pay it forward to our friends in the gaming community and to all the other families that are struggling during this difficult time.

The Water Dog Smoke House, located in Ventnor, has committed to offering up to 300lbs. of non-perishable food to JFS every week, according to the release. In addition to accepting contributions from residents, they are working cohesively with vendors and distributors to purchase products at cost to assure ample donations.

Less than a year ago, Water Dog opened its doors and residents welcomed us into their community," owner Steve Marchel said. "So, when the casinos and other businesses in our area closed, and the number of residents without a job skyrocketed, we understood the need for food would be great and wanted to help.

I have a long-standing professional relationship with JFS and know the commitment they have for helping our community, so working with them on this project was the perfect partnership," he added.

For more information about JFS programs or how you can get involved, contact 609-822-1108 or visit jfsatlantic.org.



The U.S. Postal Service South Jersey District, which includes south and central NJ and all of Delaware, said Monday that residents can continue to hold their mail if they are

temporarily displaced due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The "Hold Mail" service is designed for customers who plan on being away from their home or business for up to 30 days, according to a news release. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Postal Service suspended the 30-day time frame and extended all Hold Mail requests until May 30, 2020.

"Business and residential customers can rest assured knowing their mail and packages will be held safely at their local Post Office until that date," according to the release. "On or before May 30, 2020, customers can either pick up accumulated mail at their Post Office with proper identification or request redelivery."

"In these unprecedented times, the Postal Service understands that some customers may need their mail held beyond May 30, 2020," according to the release. "Therefore, the Postal Service will institute a two-week grace period, beginning June 1, 2020, during which customers can contact their local Post Office to make arrangements to have their mail held longer."

"We also understand that different parts of the country will be reopening at different times based on local conditions," according to the release. "If customers live in one of the areas reopening, we encourage them to contact their local Post Office as a part of their return to business and make arrangements to collect their mail on hold or make arrangements to restart regular delivery of mail including mail still being held."

On June 15, 2020, the Postal Service will revert back to its normal policy that allows for customers to have their mail held for 30 days. Customers with questions regarding Hold Mail requests can contact the Postal Service at 1-800-ASK-USPS (275-8777).

For the latest information on Postal Service service updates, please check about.usps.com/news/service-alerts/.



Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson on Monday called on all county residents to join in paying tribute to our public safety employees during National Correctional Officers and Employees Week, which runs from May 4 to May 10.

Now, perhaps more than ever before, these dedicated individuals deserve our recognition and appreciation as they put themselves at risk by serving on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, Levinson said. Their jobs are extremely challenging under the best circumstances, but this current crisis tests them even more. We are extremely grateful for their dedication to protect and serve.

National Correctional Officers Week was established by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 to dedicate the first full week of May in their honor.

The Atlantic County Justice Facility currently employees more than 200 individuals. It is located in Mays Landing and opened in 1985. It houses male and female inmates who are pretrial, county- sentenced and some who are state-sentenced awaiting transfer or state inmates contracted to the facility.



Faculty from Holy Spirit High School in Absecon will be participating in a virtual race Tuesday to raise scholarship money.

The virtual 5K, sponsored by the Holy Spirit Fathers Club, will go to three $1,000 scholarships.

During the race, the senior class of 2020 will do a drive by parade to support their faculty, celebrate their upcoming graduation and pick up their senior t-shirts.

The faculty will be on campus starting at 10 a.m., while the parades will be every half hour by homeroom beginning at 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.

This was planned before Governor Murphy closed schools for the year but is all the more important now that we know our seniors will not be returning to our building this year, said Father Fr. Joshua Nevitt, the schools Director of Catholic Identity.



State officials scheduled a 1 p.m. briefing Tuesday to update residents on the spread of COVID-19.

Appearing for the briefing will be Governor Phil Murphy, Department of Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli, Department of Health Communicable Disease Service Medical Director Dr. Edward Lifshitz and State Police Superintendent Colonel Patrick Callahan.

Heres where to get tested for COVID-19 in South Jersey

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.
NEW YORK  Fifteen children, many of whom had the coronavirus, have recently been hospitalized in New York City with a mysterious syndrome that doctors do not yet fully understand but that has also been reported in several European countries, health officials announced Monday night.

Many of the children, ages 2 to 15, have shown symptoms associated with toxic shock or Kawasaki disease, a rare illness in children that involves inflammation of the blood vessels, including coronary arteries, the citys health department said.

DATA: Houston-area cities with the most COVID-19 cases

None of the New York City patients with the syndrome have died, according to a bulletin from the health department, which describes the illness as a multisystem inflammatory syndrome potentially associated with COVID-19.

Reached late Monday night, the state health commissioner, Dr. Howard A. Zucker, said state officials were also investigating the unexplained syndrome.

The syndrome has received growing attention in recent weeks as cases began appearing in European countries hit hard by the coronavirus.

There are some recent rare descriptions of children in some European countries that have had this inflammatory syndrome, which is similar to the Kawasaki syndrome, but it seems to be very rare, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, a World Health Organization scientist, said at a news briefing last week.

It was not immediately known whether children in other parts of the United States have come down with this illness. New York City has been the center of the pandemic.

COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, tends to be much more dangerous for older people and those with underlying health conditions. Children are less likely to become seriously ill than adults. But some do. In New York City, six children have died of COVID-19, according to data from the health department.

Reports of children sick with the unexplained syndrome in New York City have been circulating for several days, but Mondays bulletin was the first time the citys health authorities warned doctors to be on the lookout for patients who might have it.

The bulletin said that most of the 15 children had a fever and many had a rash, vomiting or diarrhea. Since being hospitalized, five of them have needed a mechanical ventilator to help them breathe, and most of the 15 required blood pressure support.

The full spectrum of disease is not yet known, the bulletin said. Of the 15 patients, most either tested positive for the coronavirus or were found, through antibody testing, to likely have been previously infected.

The citys health commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, said in a statement: Even though the relationship of this syndrome to COVID-19 is not yet defined, and not all of these cases have tested positive for COVID-19 by either DNA test or serology, the clinical nature of this virus is such that we are asking all providers to contact us immediately if they see patients who meet the criteria weve outlined.

And to parents, she added, if your child has symptoms like fever, rash, abdominal pain or vomiting, call your doctor right away.

Conjunctivitis, or inflammation of the eye, and swollen lymph nodes are also symptoms of Kawasaki disease.

The health department identified the 15 patients by contacting hospital pediatric intensive care units across the city in recent days. Only severe cases may have been recognized at this time, the bulletin said.

The 15 patients were all hospitalized on or after April 17.

WNBC-TV previously reported that Mount Sinai Kravis Childrens Hospital had treated some patients believed to have this syndrome  and that some had developed heart problems and low blood pressure.

Zucker, the state health commissioner, was asked last week about reports of toxic shock in younger patients. He responded that officials were aware that the virus attacks different organs, including the lining of blood vessels, something some doctors believe may be contributing to blood clots in some coronavirus patients.

What we have been seeing is that there are some children who may have an inflammation of those blood vessels, and are developing a toxic-shock-like syndrome, he said, adding that he had spoken to number of hospital directors about a small number of cases.

On Monday night, Zucker reiterated that state health officials were aware of multiple cases of this syndrome in New York City hospitals, and that he had spoken with medical providers statewide about it.

Zucker said the state health department was also looking at possible Kawasaki cases in children and adolescents in Europe, which were the subject of an international webinar last weekend.

So far, from what we understand, this is a rare complication in the pediatric population that they believe is related to COVID-19, Zucker said, adding, We are following it very closely.

Pediatricians in several European countries, including Italy, Britain, France and Spain, have reported dozens of cases of children presenting these kind of symptoms.

No deaths have been recorded, and although many of the children tested positive for the coronavirus, others didnt.

In Italys northern town of Bergamo, a hot spot for the outbreak, one hospital had 20 cases in April alone. In four Parisian hospitals, 20 children were hospitalized with inflammatory heart conditions, and in Britain, over a dozen children with such symptoms have required intensive care.

Spain has recorded a few dozen cases throughout the country, and Switzerland and Belgium have reported a handful.

Pediatricians have urged families whose children have high fever, rashes or stomach pains to call doctors immediately. Some have said they were concerned that parents might not take their children to the hospitals because of the pandemic.

As those countries are weighing how to reopen schools, health experts said the small number of these unusual cases shouldnt prevent authorities from doing so.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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IT major Wipro on Tuesday said it has inked a pact with the Maharashtra government to repurpose one of its campuses in Hinjewadi, Pune, to a 450-bed COVID-19 intermediary care hospital in four weeks.

The facility will be handed over to the state government by May 30, and the hospital will be converted back to an IT facility after a year, according to a statement.

The 450-bed hospital, to be equipped to treat moderate cases, will include 12 beds to stabilise critical patients before shifting them to a tertiary care facility.

Coronavirus India News LIVE

This is an independent, isolated COVID-19 dedicated complex that also includes 24 well-appointed rooms to accommodate doctors and medical staff," the company 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

Maharashtra is among the worst-affected states by the pandemic.

As on Tuesday morning, the highest number of confirmed coronavirus infections was from Maharashtra with 14,541 cases.

Wipro Ltd, Wipro Enterprises Ltd and Azim Premji Foundation have already committed Rs 1,125 crore towards tackling the COVID-19 crisis in the country.

In its statement, Wipro said it will provide the physical infrastructure, medical furniture and equipment besides appointing an administrator and skeletal support staff to help operationalise the hospital quickly with the required medical professionals.

"This humanitarian contribution by Wipro will further strengthen our medical infrastructure and benefit the medical fraternity who are at the forefront of our fight against the pandemic," Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was quoted as saying.

Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji said the company is committed to supporting the country's response to the pandemic and believes that everyone must work together to deal with this crisis and minimise its human impact.

Wipro and Azim Premji Foundation are carrying out COVID-19 related relief work in Maharashtra across Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad-Waluj, Amalner, Ahmednagar, Akola, Beed, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli.

The relief work has so far touched over 34 lakh beneficiaries across India, the company said.

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here
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.




Residents in a leafy Surrey cul-de-sac claim they have been told to keep the noise down during their weekly clap for NHS workers.

Lead by Perry Clark, the locals in Ashford, Surrey, have been singing along to You'll Never Walk Alone and We'll Meet Again, played through a loudspeaker every Thursday evening after clapping for the NHS.

But Heathrow worker Mr Clark claims he has now been asked to pare back the noise following a complaint.

Spelthorne Borough Council said it fully supports 'clap for carers' events and has encouraged people to show their support to key workers.

It said a complaint had been received and related to 'other ongoing noise issues from the property at different times of the day.'

The locals in Ashford, Surrey, have been singing along to You'll Never Walk Alone and We'll Meet Again, played through a loudspeaker every Thursday evening after clapping for the NHS. Pictured, Spelthorne Borough Council offices

Staff from the Royal London Hospital take part in the 'Clap for our Carers' campaign

Mr Clark, 54, told The Sun: 'It's a real slap in the face. I've used my speaker since the start of all this and everyone here loves it. We just want a good time.

'We stand outside and have a singalong as a community for less than half an hour. It means a lot to people during the crisis.'

Gillian West, 77, told The Sun: 'We're not sure who complained but it's a ridiculous thing to do. We're not having parties or anything. We're doing the same as everyone else in the country by showing our support. For the council to say to keep it down is wrong.'

Spelthorne Borough Council said it has a statutory duty to investigate a noise nuisance.

A spokesman said the letter was not related to noise from the 'clap for carers' but was sent as an initial notification that a complaint had been received and related to other ongoing noise issues from that property at different times of the day.

The spokesman added: 'We would like to make it very clear that we would not take any action, including sending standard letters, in relation to complaints relating to the 'clap for carers'.

'The standard letter that was sent to the property concerned was only to advise that a complaint has been received, and to reiterate, this was absolutely not sent in response to a complaint about clap for carers.'

Nursing staff participate in a minutes applause as they look out from a window at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow

This comes after a barman who has been singing to neighbours to lift spirits claims he was told he was 'too noisy' by a local council.

Charlie Reeve has also been performing to raise money for the hospice where his mother Pauline died, but was sent a letter informing him one neighbour had complained.

Mr Reeve, who sings after the Clap of Carers every Thursday night, carried on despite the letter last week.

The 33-year-old performed a string of songs including Stand by Me, by Ben E King, Amy Winehouse hit Valerie and Coldplay's Fix You.

Mr Reeve was praised by his neighbours in the street in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight.

He also raised 290 for Mountbatten Hospice in Newport where his mother died last year aged 63 from ovarian cancer.

Mr Reeve got the letter from the environmental health department for Isle of Wight Council last Monday.

Charlie Reeve has been performing to raise money for the hospice where his mother Pauline died

Mr Reeve, who sings after the Clap of Carers every Thursday night, has also been asked to stop his performances

It read: 'A complaint has been received alleging that loud music is being played which is causing a nuisance to neighbours. If there is any substance to this allegation I should be pleased if you would take all practice steps to ensure noise is kept to a minimum.'

Mr Reeve said: 'I was a bit disheartened by the complaint. I'm just upset that someone couldn't have come to me and said it was too loud or could you cut it short.

'But they decided to waste the council's time as a good few people have enjoyed it. I did it this week and set up a donation page and had a donation bucket for the Mountbatten Hospice.

'It is where my mum passed away. The NHS is important but I wanted to do it for them too.'

An Isle of Wight Council spokesman said: 'The council has not stopped Mr Reeve from playing music on Thursday nights to coincide with Clap for Carers.

'Our letter was letting him know that at least one of his neighbours would prefer that he did not continue the music for the remainder of the evening, and has made a complaint. If a complaint is received, we have a duty to respond to the complaint.

'It is our normal practice to get in touch with the person concerned so they are aware that somebody has made a complaint, and so they can, if they want, contact us and hopefully avoid the need for any further action.

'We will be happy to explain further to Mr Reeve what the situation is, and we hope to help him find a way he can carry on celebrating our carers without upsetting his neighbours.'
A series of cross-border air strikes in Syria killed more than a dozen Iran-backed militiamen, war monitor says.

Israel was accused on Tuesday of launching a series of attacks on Iran-backed militia targets inside Syria as it reportedly intensifies cross-border raids.

The Syrian army said in a statement Israeli aircraft hit military barracks in al-Safirah in the eastern Aleppo countryside. Earlier, state television said a research centre was targetted. The army said it was now assessing the damage caused by the raids.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said air attacks killed 14 Iranian and Iraqi fighters in the desert near the town of Mayadin.

Syrian Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman said it was likely that Israel mounted the operation.

A spokesman for the US-led coalition battling the armed group ISIL (ISIS) said it was not responsible for the air strikes.

Iranian-backed militias and their allies command a significant presence in eastern Syria south of the Euphrates Valley. The region lies close to the Iraqi border.

Israel has launched hundreds of strikes in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011, targeting government troops, allied Iranian forces, and Hezbollah fighters.

It rarely confirms details of its operations in Syria but says Irans presence in support of President Bashar al-Assad is a threat and it will continue its strikes.

An Israeli diplomatic official, who asked that their name be withheld, did not comment on the strikes but said, Iran was only country still shipping missiles and missiles technologies to their proxies in the region amid the global health crisis.

A regional intelligence source said Israel was stepping up raids in Syria at a time when world attention and the region, including Syria, were distracted by the coronavirus pandemic.

An Israeli army spokeswoman declined to comment.

Western intelligence sources say Iranian-backed militias have long been entrenched in Aleppo province where they have bases and a command centre and installed advanced weapons, part of a growing presence across government-controlled Syria.





The Scientific Studies and Research Center is one of several facilities where Western intelligence and opposition sources suspect Syria, with the help of Iranian researchers, works on developing chemical weapons they accuse Syria of having used against civilians in rebel-held areas.

Damascus and its ally Moscow deny they have used chemical weapons that have killed hundreds of civilians in the course of the nine-year conflict and blame armed rebels for such attacks.

Commenting on the apparent intensification of Israeli raids, Yoram Schweitzer of Israels Institute for National Security Studies, told AFP news agency the Jewish state might be reacting to increased hostile action from Iran and Hezbollah.

It is also possible that Israel is trying to apply added pressure as its rivals endure the fallout of the coronavirus crisis, he said.

I dont know which one of the two it is, but might be a combination of the two, Schweitzer said.

Israels anti-Iran policy

Israeli helicopters fired several rockets from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on targets inside southern Syria known to be a base for Lebanons Hezbollah militia, Syria and intelligence sources said.

Large blasts in an ammunition depot near Homs city on the same day were also believed to be from an Israeli raid, a war monitor and intelligence sources said.





Israel has acknowledged in recent years it has conducted many raids inside Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011 where it sees Irans presence as a strategic threat.

Regional intelligence sources say that Israels escalating attacks on Syria are part of a shadow war sanctioned by Washington and part of the anti-Iran policy that has undermined in the last two years Irans extensive military power without triggering a significant escalation.

Defence Minister Naftali Bennett told Israeli media last week that Israel would step up its campaign against Iran in Syria.
Blessed in Battle: a gripping and awe-inspiring account of how God protected an entire platoon from destruction during the Vietnam War. Blessed in Battle is the creation of published author, Dick Lyle, a retired US Army major awarded both the Bronze Star for Valor and the Silver Star.

Lyle writes: God does answer prayers, and this book exemplifies how prayer and belief in God during combat work. He brought about miraculous results for six months that prevented the loss of life and kept severely wounded soldiers alive until they could be evacuated off the bloodstained battlefields. Gods grace and love protected my platoon from those evils of war, with only one soldier under my command killed in action and taken into heavens army.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Dick Lyles new book presents an utterly compelling case for the occurrence of miracles and the power of prayer.

This poignant, faith-affirming book tells the tale of how one platoon, in a war that saw the death of nearly 60,000 Americans, was diverted from harm and shepherded to safety with the help of Gods timely and unmistakable intervention in their time of dire need.

View a synopsis of Blessed in Battle on YouTube.

Consumers can purchase Blessed in Battle at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Blessed in Battle, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Jaipur: Last rites of Colonel Ashutosh Sharma of 21 Rashtriya Rifles who attained martyrdom while fighting terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir's Handwara will be performed here on Tuesday.

His mortal remains were brought to Jaipur on Monday. According to reports, wreath-laying and paying of last respects ceremony for late Col Sharma will be held at 61 Cavalry location, Jaipur Military Station at 9 AM on Tuesday.

According to Col Sombit Ghosh, PRO Defence, Rajasthan, top Army officials and states Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot will pay tribute to Col Sharma.

Col Sharma`s wife Pallavi Sharma, daughter Tamanna, his brother Piyush and mother were present at the airport when his mortal remains were brought to Jaipur. A fleet of around 10 vehicles brought his remains to Army Hospital. State Minister Pratap Khachriyawas was also present at the airport to pay respect to the martyr on behalf of the state government.

The commanding officer of the 21 Rashtriya Rifles unit, who lost his life in operation in Handwara, had been twice awarded gallantry medals for exemplary bravery in counter-terrorist missions. He is also the first Commanding Officer or a Colonel-rank Army person in the last five years to have lost his life in an encounter with terrorists. He was twice awarded the Sena Medal for gallantry including one for his bravery as commanding officer.

On May 1, security forces chased a group of terrorists in Handwara, north Kashmir. They were holed up in a house in the Chanjimulla village. An encounter ensued in which the terrorists used civilians, including women and children, as a human shield. In the gunfight, while two terrorists were eliminated, two Army officers, two soldiers, and one J&K Police Sub-Inspector were also martyred. Col Ashutosh Sharma of 21 Rashtriya Rifles was among the martyrs.

Col Sharma hailed from Bulandshahar in Uttar Pradesh and is survived by wife Pallavi Sharma and 12-year-old daughter Tamanna.

Army Chief General MM Naravane also paid his tribute and led the rank and file in paying tributes to the five brave Army and Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also paid their respect to the brave hearts.
Town of Denmark Community Solar Array We are incredibly excited to announce that our second community solar project in New York State is now operational and producing power for its subscribers, said Mark Richardson, President and CEO of U.S. Light Energy.

U.S. Light Energy, a leading New York solar energy company specializing in the development of solar electric and community solar systems, along with its project partners, today announced the completion of the Denmark Community Solar Project  Lewis County, New Yorks first community solar project.

U.S. Light Energy developed the 7.2 megawatt (MW) ground-mount project and it will be owned and operated by Standard Solar, a leading solar energy company specializing in the development and financing of solar electric systems nationwide.

This project went live on February 27, 2020 and marks U.S. Light Energys second completed community solar project in New York. The first, the 7 MW Sugar Hill Solar Farm, was completed in October 2019 and produces enough energy to power up to 600 homes and businesses. With the completion of the Denmark, NY project, U.S. Light Energy is responsible for developing the two largest DG community solar projects in the state.

We are incredibly excited to announce that our second community solar project in New York State is now operational and producing power for its subscribers, said Mark Richardson, President and CEO of U.S. Light Energy. Providing clean renewable energy to New York state residents, farms and businesses during this time of crisis is more important than ever and we look forward to bringing more projects online in 2020 and into the future.

The array is producing more than 8.9 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of clean energy annually  enough electricity to offset the CO2 emissions from 1,105 homes electricity use for one year and charging 808,017,523 smartphones.

As part of New York States Community Solar Program, the electricity generated by the Denmark Community Solar Project can be supplied to customers anywhere in National Grids existing distribution system. In turn, customers subscribed to the program will benefit from solar energy without the need for their own solar panels. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), about half of the country cant install rooftop solar panels. Community solar offers the individuals and businesses that fall into that category a way to take advantage of the benefits of clean energy.

In a recent Greentech Media article Austin Perea, a senior solar analyst at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables, said, because of its lower commitment and higher flexibility, community solar looks to be more insulated from the impacts of a recession. Its possible the new environment will push more customers to consider community solar over residential installations.

The Town of Denmark is pleased to be partnered with U.S. Light Energy in Lewis Countys first community solar project, said James Der, Supervisor, Town of Denmark. Suppling clean, renewable energy to the residents of the town is a pleasure. Being the front runner, we hope to set an example for future projects not only in our town but the rest of the county and surrounding areas.

As Lewis County continues to be a leader in renewable energy, we are pleased to see the completion of this project that not only provides the benefit of clean energy for our residents and businesses, but also provides economic opportunities for our communities, said Brittany Davis, Executive Director, Lewis County Economic Development/IDA.

Now, more than ever before, its especially important that community solar projects are operating and generating clean energy for the community, said Scott Wiater, President and CEO of Standard Solar. Partnerships are the backbone of success, and were privileged to have financed and now own and operate this landmark project made possible by U.S. Light Energy and the state of New York.

This project received funding from Governor Andrew M. Cuomos NY-Sun initiative, which is administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

About U.S. Light Energy

U.S. Light Energy is a Latham, New York-based distributed generation energy development company specializing in solar and renewable energy solutions, including community solar, for residential communities and commercial customers. Working on behalf of all our partners: landowners, businesses, state and local authorities (AHJs), engineering firms, vendors, contractors, and financiers to create distributed energy projects where everyone can participate in creating a better future for our children and our planet. For more information, visit http://www.USLightEnergy.com.

About Standard Solar

Standard Solar, Inc. is a leading solar energy company specializing in the development and financing of solar electric systems nationwide. Dedicated to making Distributed Generation (DG) solar more accessible to businesses, institutions, governments and utilities, the company is forging the path for clean, renewable energy development through turnkey solutions. With more than 100 megawatts installed, financed and maintained, Standard Solar is one of the most trusted and respected solar companies in the US. Owned by Energir, a leading energy provider with more than $5.8 billion US in assets, Standard Solar operates nationally and is headquartered in Rockville, Md. For more information, please visit http://www.standardsolar.com.
Vodacom has launched its 5G mobile network in three cities  Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Cape Town.

The company said the network supports both mobile and fixed-wireless services, and is currently available on 20 live 5G sites.

18 of these sites are in Gauteng, and two are in Cape Town.

There 20 sites are grouped into the following six clusters:

Midrand cluster

Sandton cluster

Menlyn cluster

Centurion cluster

Waterfall/Sunninghill cluster

Century City cluster

Vodacom customers with 5G-enabled devices, and within a 5G coverage area, are now able to access one of the fastest and most sophisticated network connections in Africa, the company said.

It added that further 5G rollouts are planned to other parts of the country.

Vodacom said that, given enough spectrum, 5G will work at average speeds of between 150Mbps-200Mbps. Peak speeds will reach above 1Gbps.

5G speeds can vary and depend on multiple factors: how far away you are from a mast, which spectrum is being used, and how many people around you are using 5G.

5G coverage

Following the launch of its 5G network, Vodacom updated its online coverage map to include 5G coverage areas.

Johannesburg enjoys coverage in Hyde Park, Sandhurst, Melrose, Illovo, and their surrounding suburbs.

Pretoria and Centurion also enjoy extended coverage  in Hatfield and south of Lynwood, and Midstream Estate, Eco Park, and west of Wierdapark, respectively.

The Midrand/Sunninghill and Cape Town coverage, however, is sparse by comparison.

The images below show where Vodacom currently offers 5G coverage in South Africa.

Users can also enter their physical address on the Vodacom coverage map to see if they are able to sign up for a 5G package.

Johannesburg

Midrand/Sunninghill

Pretoria

Centurion

Cape Town
Its been two years since President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga shook hands in a move meant to reconcile the country after bitterly fought presidential elections.

In August 2017, President Kenyatta was declared the winner with over 8.2 million votes against his main rival Raila, who garnered 6.7 million votes.

However, in a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court ruled 4-2 that the presidential election was marred by irregularities and therefore should be nullified.

READ ALSO: Kikuyu woman compels MP Kimani Ichungwah to follow her on Twitter: "I voted for you thrice"

What followed was high drama that saw a new election date set for October 26, 2017. Curiously, Raila withdrew from the race, a few days to the repeat polls and Uhuru went ahead to win the elections against other also run candidates.

Despite his withdrawal, Raila still came a distant second as his name still appeared on the ballot. Uhuru went ahead to be sworn-in for his second term as president on November 28.

President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM Leader Raila Odinga during the historic handshake Photo:Raila Odinga/Facebook

Source: Facebook

Elsewhere, Raila also swore himself in as The Peoples President under the supervision of Miguna Miguna, his ally-turned-foe-turned-ally-turned foe.

There were heightened protests in what came to be known as resist and Machozi Friday. The country was in a political crisis and the protests were hurting business.

The Kenya Revenue Authority failed to meet its targets by over KSh80 billion in the ensuing period and it was estimated the political crisis cost the country a conservative estimate of KSh600 billion worth of business between August 2017 and March 2018.

READ ALSO: Tuju takes war to Rutos doorstep, dares Tanga Tanga to eject him from office

Parliament, on the other hand, couldnt transact properly since MPs drawn from NASA would only make a technical appearance in the chambers and stage walkouts.

Kenya had a President whose legitimacy had been put into question on one hand, and an opposition leader whose claim to the presidency had no real power to govern, as his NASA allies allegedly negotiated a post-election coalition with Jubilee.

It, therefore, came as a surprise when on March 9, 2018, Uhuru and Raila appeared from Harambee House and shook hands before a bewildered nation.

READ ALSO: Gloves off: Jubilee Party wrangles escalate as Ruto's allies shift focus to Kenyatta family

It is alleged that none of the political handlers of the two gentlemen, including Deputy President William Ruto, was aware of these talks. Even Ruto watched it on TV just like any other Kenyan.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then, including what has now come to be known as the Building Bridges Initiative. Several rallies into the fray, Raila seems to have displaced Ruto from the inner circles of the presidency.

This was epitomised by his recent complaints against his own government concerning the mysterious murder of his Harambee Annex office security guard Kipyegon Kenei allegedly over the KSh39 billion fake arms deal scandal.

What followed were Wednesdays press conferences of 70 pro-handshake legislators calling for Ruto's impeachment. A counter pro-Ruto group of 100 legislators also assembled to defend him, calling for the dissolution of Parliament and for Kenyans to return to the polls to back him.

READ ALSO: Moses Kuria tells Raphael Tuju to prepare for war after disputed Jubilee Party changes

This scenario is indicative of a mid-term crisis that always characterises government in many jurisdictions and it happened again during the Grand Coalition Government.

Political brinkmanship is at its best as the majority of legislators would shudder to countenance an election. What with their pecuniary obligations such as mortgages, car loans etc and the ever high turn-over that would see most of them losing.

What the handshake has taught us in the last two years is that there nothing like a government without political divide within a democratic context. Also, that positional non-constitutional power can be displaced and made irrelevant through quasi-constitutional political arrangements.

That a handshake can build bridges by using the materials from another breaking one and that having numbers in Parliament can be used to scare your competitors.

A handshake can effectively kill a political juggernaut like the Jubilee Party and the opposition can be the real government, while a deputy president can take up the role of official opposition while still in government.

Kenya is indeed a wonderful place to be in the spirit of BBI.

The writer is Honorable Isaac Mwaura, Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance and Budget.

The views expressed in this opinion piece are hers and do not necessarily represent the position of TUKO Media Ltd in any way.

We welcome writers, bloggers, photographers and all sorts of noise makers to become a part of our Blog network. Send your opinion, story or both to news@tuko.co.ke.

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.

Kenyans mixed reactions to' poor' families having more children than they can provide for | Tuko TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
The current dramatic cuts in exploration and production will have a long-lasting impact on the global oil market, with oil prices spiking to above $68 a barrel in 2025, when there could be a supply deficit of 5 million barrels per day, Rystad Energy said this week.

Even though the world is currently facing what is arguably the largest oil glut ever recorded, the tables will turn dramatically in coming years, the energy research firm said.

As all oil companies moved into survival mode after the oil price crash in March, investments in exploration and new production are set to be delayed because companies are looking to preserve cash and avoid cutting dividends--something oil majors Equinor and Shell just did. So, global investments and project sanctioning activity are already drying up this year.

Due to the oil price crash, Rystad Energy expected at the end of March that exploration and production (E&P) companies were likely to reduce project sanctioning by up to $131 billion, or down about 68 percent on the year, compared to $192 billion in projects approved in 2019.

Muted investment levels and new project activity will combine with the rebound in global oil demand once the coronavirus crisis is over to swing the global oil market into a potential oil supply deficit of some 5 million bpd, according to Rystad Energys latest estimates. Oil prices would top $68 a barrel to balance the market, the consultancy said. Related: Goldman Sachs Predicts $51 Oil In 2021

The gap will be likely filled mostly by OPECs biggest producers  Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)  which could contribute a total of between 3 million bpd and 4 million bpd to fill the expected 5-million-bpd gap. The rest will likely come from U.S. shale.

In the U.S. shale patch, the response with investment and curtailments has been immediate with immediate effect on production, but the drastic cut of new wells will leave fewer such wells available for production in the long term, Rystad said.

The current low oil price has tightened the medium-term supply and demand balance considerably, says Rystad Energy Head of Upstream Research Espen Erlingsen.

As demand is expected to recover, the core OPEC counties will need to increase their supply significantly or the market will face even higher prices than our base-case forecast, Erlingsen added.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Mumbai, May 5 : Two women trapped in a fire which broke out in a Mumbai building were safely rescued, fire brigade officials said here on Tuesday.

The incident occurred around 4.30 a.m. on the 6th floor of the 10-storied Atlas Building at Napean Sea Road in south Mumbai.

The frie brigade team rushed to the spot. The blaze was restricted to two bedrooms which were damaged. The two who were trapped on upper floors were rescued without injuries.

The fire was brought under control by noon and cooling operations were underway.
The ambassadors of the European Union countries have approved the proposal of the European Commission to provide Ukraine with macro-financial assistance in the amount of EUR 1.2 billion to overcome the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, the press service of the EU Council reports.

Ukraine is one of ten neighboring countries, to which in total up to EUR 3 billion of assistance will be allocated. "Enlargement and neighbourhood countries are our closest partners. Now more than ever, it is absolutely essential that we stick together and show solidarity in addressing the economic and social impact of this global crisis," Minister of Finance of Croatia, who currently chairs the Council, Zdravko Maric, commented on the decision of the EU ambassadors.

Except for Ukraine, financial assistance will be provided in the form of loans on highly favourable terms and allocated as follows: Albania - EUR 180 million, Bosnia-Herzegovina  EUR 250 million; Georgia  EUR 150 million, Jordan  EUR 200 million, Kosovo  EUR 100 million, Moldova  EUR 100 million, Montenegro  EUR 60 million, North Macedonia  EUR 160 million, Tunisia  EUR 600 million, and Ukraine - EUR 1,200 million.

The funds will be available for twelve months and will be disbursed in two instalments. The loans will have a maximum average maturity of 15 years. The assistance will be subject to a memorandum of understanding (MOU), to be agreed between each partner countries and the Commission.

The text will need to be adopted by the European Parliament and the Council before it can enter into force.
Michigan Congressman Sues Whitmer Over Emergency Orders That Violate Constitutional Rights

A Republican U.S. congressman has sued Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer over her handing of the outbreak of the CCP virus, commonly referred to as the novel coronavirus, saying her emergency actions violate his constitutional rights.

Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-Mich.) filed the lawsuit (pdf) in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan on May 4 against Whitmer and state Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon, who also has issued emergency orders in an effort to stem the outbreak.

The lawsuit argues that Whitmers CCP virus-related emergency orders violate the separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches, and also peoples rights to association, intrastate travel, and commerce.

There is no question that infectious diseases are, unfortunately, a part of everyday life, Mitchell wrote in the lawsuit. Some are more susceptible to certain illnesses than others. But Michiganders can and do take reasonable, private action to protect themselves from infection without the need to shut down civil society.

Given that the projected surge has not occurred, there is no basis, either legally or factually, to continue any further mandatory lockdown orders under criminal penalty, the suit said.

It also labels the statewide restrictions unreasonable for areas of Michigan where there are few cases. The filing describes Whitmers measures as lockdown orders, which Mitchell says shock the conscience and interfere with deeply-rooted liberty and property rights.

I think we need to clarify the extent of what an emergency is and the extent of those powers and re-enforce that people have constitutional rights, Mitchell, a businessman who was first elected to the U.S. House in 2016, told The Detroit News.

Precluding people from traveling across the state to visit their grandchildren for their birthday, really? Mitchell asked. Weve gone over the edge on some of this.

Mitchell said in the lawsuit that the governors order had prevented him from getting medical treatment for a condition he has that results in bone-on-bone contact in his knee.

No Michigander, including Mitchell, should be forced to choose between risking criminal prosecution and economic sanctions under the Lockdown Orders on the one hand or seeking medical treatment on the other, the suit said.

Mitchell told The Detroit News that emergency powers granted to a governor werent meant to allow a single officeholder to manage state affairs for an extended period of time. Whitmers spokeswoman declined to comment to the Detroit News, citing the pending litigation.

That wasnt the intent of the Emergency Powers Act, Mitchell said. And that kind of power is unconstitutional.

The suit challenging Whitmers stay-at-home order comes shortly after she extended her state of emergency, which was initially declared on March 10, without the approval of Michigan legislators.

The state is under a stay-at-home order through May 15. It includes not allowing people to travel to other homes under most conditions and bars the sale of items deemed nonessential at many stores. Residents have also been advised to wear face masks when in enclosed public spaces.

The extension has prompted hundreds of people to protest the order in front of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, claiming that Whitmer is abusing authority by extending restrictions.

However, the governor said she is not going to make decisions about our public health based on political games, and has warned that the state is at risk of a second surge if it reopens the economy too quickly.

Michigan has reported more than 4,000 deaths from COVID-19, the third-highest number in the nation, and about 44,000 total cases, although the growth in cases has slowed.
A hospital in France has found it treated someone with coronavirus around a month before the first cases were officially reported in Europe.

Scientists discovered a man with Covid-19 was cared for at the hospital as early as 27 December after they retested old samples from pneumonia patients.

France became the first European country to announce coronavirus infections within its borders when the government said two people in Paris and one in Bordeaux had tested positive on 24 January.

Dr Yves Cohen, head of resuscitation at the Avicenne and Jean Verdier hospitals in the suburbs of Paris, said scientists had tested samples from 24 patients treated in December and January who tested negative for the flu.

Of the 24, we had one who was positive for Covid-19 on 27 December, he told BFM TV on Sunday.

Dr Cohen told French television on Monday it was too early to know if the patient at the Jean Verdier hospital, whose last foreign trip had been in August 2019 to Algeria, was France's "patient zero".

The man was ill for 15 days and appears to have passed the virus onto his two children but not his wife, according to Dr Cohen, although she may have been asymptomatic.

He was amazed, he did not understand how he had been infected, he said. We put the puzzle together and he had not gone on any trips. The only contact that he had was with his wife.

Dr Cohen said the mans wife worked next to a sushi stand close to colleagues of Chinese origin, although it was not clear whether they had recently travelled to China.

The local health authority should investigate their movements, he said.

The Paris hospital retested samples which had all initially been collected to detect flu using PCR tests, the same genetic screening process that can also be used to detect Covid-19 in patients infected at the time the sample is collected.

Each sample was retested several times to ensure there were no errors, Dr Cohen said.

Professor Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the University at Nottingham, said the man who tested positive for Covid-19 on 27 December would have been part of a transmission chain as he had no recent travel history.

If he was infected then, you would expect a more rapid and earlier spread of virus in France than was seen, he said. It is also possible that the positive result could have been due to contamination of the PCR reaction.

He added: It is not impossible that it was an early introduction, but the evidence is not conclusive by any means.

The World Health Organisation said on Tuesday that it was not surprising that a report of Covid-19 had emerged in December in France.

Its also possible there are more early cases to be found, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said.

He encouraged other countries to check records for cases in late 2019, saying this would give the world a new and clearer picture of the outbreak.

France has been one of the worst-hit countries in the world by the coronavirus pandemic, with more than 169,400 confirmed cases as of Tuesday. The death toll stands at 25,201.

Additional reporting by Reuters
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 05/05/2020



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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.

: Self-Quarantined featured Caesar Mack claiming he finally met Maria off-camera but has since moved on with a new woman, Olga Koshimbetova revealing Steven Frend is a changed man for the better and they're planning a big move, and updates from Darcey Silva as well as Chantel Everett and Pedro Jimeno during Monday night's episode on TLC.As the title suggests, : Self-Quarantined gives viewers a glimpse into the lives of former franchise stars as they quarantine themselves at home amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.More than 40 cast members from the franchise's six-year history reportedly began recording themselves about a month ago as well as their interactions on the computer and video chat.Some couples are living and quarantining together, while others are still trying to make it work via long-distance.The third episode of : Self-Quarantined featured Caesar from : Before the 90 Days; Darcey from two seasons of : Before the 90 Days; Chantel and Pedro from 's fourth season, : Happily Ever After? and The Family Chantel; and Steven and Olga from 's sixth edition.Below is the latest on each former star or couple as shown on : Self-Quarantined.Darcey is a 45-year-old from Middletown, CT, who is quarantining with her two daughters and twin sister Stacey Silva. Darcey had been self-isolating for three weeks by the time this footage filmed, and her heart was healing following her failed relationships with Jesse Meester and Tom Brooks Darcey's daughter Aniko is 15 years old and in tenth grade, and Aspen is 13 and in eighth grade.Darcey and Stacey were trying to feel good and pretty while quarantining themselves, so fans got to observe the twins' morning routine and beauty regiments.Darcey and Stacey were shown straightening their hair, doing their makeup, and butting heads as they often do. In attempt to fix their overgrown fake nails and hair extensions past their prime, Darcey planned a spa day for the women.However, the spa day turned out to be a disaster since neither Darcey or Stacey knew how to work the tools. And when Stacey tried to remove Darcey's hair extensions, she accidentally pulled out some natural hair.Meanwhile, Aniko and Aspen were upset because they felt like they were missing out on so much due to coronavirus restrictions and regulations. The girls were taking classes online, and Aspen was really angry about having to miss out on her eighth grade graduation.Aniko also had to miss out on three proms, and she had already purchased a beautiful silver dress for one of them that she was never going to get to wear.Darcey was trying to think of ways to keep her daughters happy and entertained during this difficult time, but she just felt bad for them and tried to be supportive and as loving as possible.Chantel and Pedro, who are living in Georgia, showed off their tiny apartment they had been quarantined in for about a month. The couple's living room also served as their kitchen, office and Pedro's gaming room.Chantel and Pedro have been spending a lot of quality time together, and Chantel joked Pedro ignored her sometimes when she spoke to him.Chantel said they were on "complete and total lockdown" in which Pedro only left to pick up groceries at the store. Chantel was feeling "claustrophobic" in their apartment, and although she loved her husband, she said she wished she had her own space.Chantel was studying for her nursing degree online, and so she had to do a lot of work in bed while Pedro played video games. Chantel said it was difficult not to learn in a hands-on way from other nurses in a hospital.Chantel then revealed she had lost her sense of smell for several days, which is one of the symptoms of coronavirus. Chantel considered going to the emergency room, but she didn't have any other symptoms -- and she feared getting the virus at the hospital if she didn't have it already.Chantel couldn't even smell candles, but she apparently decided to stay home.Chantel said she missed spending time with her family and lamented about how she didn't have anything to look forward to.After Pedro was shown checking in with his mother Lidia in the Dominican Republic on videochat, Chantel dressed up and modeled for him because Pedro had taken up an interest in photography. However, Chantel admitted Pedro needed a lot of practice, and a lot of his photos were blurry.Chantel then dressed up like a cowgirl and FaceTimed with her mother and sister. The three girls rehearsed a cheerleading routine for fun, but Chantel just called the whole scene "weird," especially since Chantel was wearing his boots.Pedro later worked on "a toilet project" Chantel dubbed "operation bidet," but it was apparently a failure.Despite little annoyances here or there, Chantel called the experience "really humbling" and admitted she was enjoying all the quality time she got to spend with her husband.Caesar, a 47-year-old from Jacksonville, NC, was shown riding his bicycle around the neighborhood. He had been in quarantine for three-and-a-half weeks and couldn't wait for it all to be over with.Given Caesar is a nail technician, he couldn't work and was just waiting the virus out and trying to stay safe. Caesar said there was no way he could make money, but in order to conquer boredom, he gave friends pedicure tips online.Caesar knew women would still get their hair and nails done once coronavirus ends, even though times may change and people may interact with each other differently.Caesar said he and Maria, a beautiful blonde from Ukraine whom people accused of using Caesar for money, "dated" online for five years up until August 2019, but he had been keeping a secret from the producers about what had happened since Maria had failed to meet him in Mexico and then dumped him on : Before the 90 Days' Season 3 reunion show.According to Caesar, he had reached out to Maria via multiple phone calls and text messages in attempt to receive closure, and after she ignored all of his efforts to talk, he hopped on a plane and flew to Ukraine to see Maria face-to-face.Caesar said Maria was upset after he showed up in Ukraine unannounced and uninvited. However, since Caesar had traveled such a long way, Maria allegedly agreed to meet up with him and hash things out. Caesar recalled how they hugged, walked arm-in-arm and Maria was nice to him.Caesar claimed that he and Maria took some pictures together during his trip but she had deleted them without his knowledge. Caesar said he didn't realize the photos were gone until he boarded a plane to return to the United States."It was hard to get over my relationship with Maria, but now, I've met someone new!" Caesar announced. "Moving on was hard but it was the best thing for me."Caesar revealed to his friend Yami via FaceTime that he met a woman from New Orleans, LA, on Facebook. Caesar and the woman had a virtual date planned, saying they had already talked on the phone and FaceTimed."She's a model, she's beautiful. And she has a great personality," Caesar told Yami, adding that he hadn't sent the girl any money yet.Yami congratulated her pal on starting a romance with someone who also lives in the United States.Although Caesar couldn't take the woman on a real date, he improvised with candles, champagne, chocolate, strawberries, and whipped cream. He also dressed in a nice shirt for his virtual date.Viewers were then introduced to Aya, a 21-year-old brunette, who was rocking a red lip and white off-the-shoulder blouse for her virtual date with Caesar. She baked Caesar a cake with a red heart on it in frosting, and Caesar seemed really happy.Steven, a 22-year-old from Frederick, MD, said he and Olga, a 22-year-old from Voronezh, Russia, had been quarantining themselves for two weeks, and Olga was shown smelling his armpit and cracking up.Steven said Olga had been in the United States with him for about eight months and they're enjoying raising their son together as a happily-married couple.Steven said their son, Alex, has more energy than any other child he's ever known and he can't get any alone time with Olga, whom he married on August, 31, 2019.Steven revealed he had taken a temporary job as a delivery driver during the pandemic since he said that's the only job in demand right now. Steven, however, tried not to have any contact with the people receiving his deliveries.Every time Steven came home from work, Olga asked him to strip his clothes and then she'd spray everything with disinfectant.Steven and Olga had plans to move to the West Coast so Olga could be closer to her family, but those plans were put on hold due to coronavirus. The couple needed money to move.Steven was able to spend some quality time with his grandmother, Ruth, who was very worried about contracting the coronavirus. Steven said she's the last bit of family he has left, other than his brothers and sisters.Later on, Steven surprised Olga with a nice dinner he had made for her comprised of salmon and vegetables. Steven was trying to reignite a spark and get some romance going with candles around the table, and Olga seemed more than thrilled and pleased by the gesture."I want to give you a kiss!" Olga gushed. "I love him a lot, and actually, he has changed a lot since I came here."Steven had become a family man who prioritized his wife and son over everything else.Want more spoilers? Click here to visit our Spoilers webpage!
New York Citys health department has warned a multi-system inflammatory syndrome possibly linked to coronavirus has been identified in 15 children in the citys hospitals.

Several of the patients, aged two to 15 years old, tested positive for Covid-19 or had positive antibody tests. They were hospitalised between 17 April to 1 May.

It was noted that the condition was characterised by similar features as those seen in toxic shock syndrome or Kawasaki disease.

NHS England recently released a similar alert after there had been an apparent rise in the number of children of all ages presenting with a multi-system inflammatory state requiring intensive care across London and other regions of the UK.

Kawasaki disease causes swelling of the blood vessels of the heart, a high fever and a rash, and is more likely to affect children under the age of five.

Toxic shock syndrome is a condition that develops when bacteria gets into the body, resulting in symptoms including a high temperatures, flu-like symptoms, diarrhoea and dizziness.

All patients had a fever, and more than half reported rash, abdominal pain, vomiting or diarrhoea. Fewer than half reported respiratory symptoms.

If the above-described inflammatory syndrome is suspected, paediatricians should immediately refer patients to a specialist in paediatric infectious disease, rheumatology, and/or critical care, as indicated, said the NYC Health Department.

Early diagnosis and treatment of patients meeting full or partial criteria for Kawasaki disease is critical to preventing end-organ damage and other long-term complications.

No fatalities have been reported among the child patients in New York City presenting with the symptoms.

A similar case was reported at Stanford Childrens Hospital in a six-month-old girl who was admitted to hospital with Kawasaki disease and was also later diagnosed with coronavirus, reported CNN.

Professor Simon Kenny, the NHSs national clinical director for children and young people, said: Thankfully Kawasaki-like diseases are very rare, as currently are serious complication in children related to Covid-19, but it is important that clinicians are made aware of any potential emerging links os that they are able to give children and young people the right care fast.

The advice to parents remains the same: if you are worried about your child for whatever reason, contact NHS 111 or your family doctor for urgent advice, or 999 in an emergency, and if a professional tells you to go to hospital, please go to hospital.
With restaurants, cafes and pubs all closed, demand for food and drink delivered to our door is booming.

Despite the stock market crash in March, the share price of some home delivery companies has shot up in recent weeks.

Just Eats share price has risen by 16.5 per cent since the start of the year, while Ocados has risen by 31 per cent, according to analysis from The Share Centre.

Booming demand: Despite the stock market crash in March, the share price of some home delivery companies has shot up in recent weeks

The value of shares for food subscription company HelloFresh has risen by 99 per cent, Naked Wines by 50 per cent and Amazon, which has the Amazon Pantry service, by 34 per cent.

Joe Healey, investment research analyst at The Share Centre, says: Consumers have turned to the internet in a bid to keep to the Governments social isolation guidance rules.

He explains that share prices are rising because this increase in demand has improved some firms performance beyond expectations. It is expected that this will continue after lockdown measures are lifted, with the shift towards online deliveries predicted to be a long-term trend in the way we shop.

He adds: The pandemic is creating an environment for change. Consumers and businesses have to adapt to a new way of operating and living, which could serve as a catalyst for new opportunities when the economy recovers.

For investors looking to cash in on this trend, you can buy shares in delivery firms listed on a stock exchange, using a stock broker or online share-dealing service.

Or you can invest indirectly through a fund which holds shares in many different companies. This will offer you some exposure to delivery firms while spreading the risk.

Experts always advise on holding a diverse range of investments that are not heavily exposed to one industry, country or type.

FTSE 100 takeaway firm Just Eat has heavily invested in its marketing, technology and service, which has dented profits, but experts say the tactic should reap future rewards. However, it operates in a fiercely competitive market, up against rivals such as privately owned Deliveroo.

Just Eat's share price has risen by 17 per cent since the start of the year, while Ocado's has risen by 21 per cent

To invest in Just Eat, Mr Healey says ASI UK Responsible Equity is a good fund choice. Just Eat is one of its top ten biggest investments, with shares in the firm making up 3.5 per cent of the funds overall portfolio.

The funds performance has been consistent and strong over the long term, he adds. A 10,000 investment would have returned 11,786 over five years.

Alternatively, Dominos Pizza is the UKs biggest listed player in the fast-food delivery industry. Its share price has risen by 7 per cent since January. The firm says trading has accelerated since the start of the lockdown measures, and growth in its deliveries more than make up for the lack of collection sales.

Jason Hollands, at Tilney Investment Management Services, recommends the Liontrust Special Situations fund for investors interested in Dominos. Liontrust has 2.2 pc of the fund invested in the firm. A 10,000 investment five years ago would now be worth 13,865.

Delivery company Ocado, part owned by Marks & Spencer, is currently the fourth-best performer in the FTSE 100 this year. The firm is also moving away from being wholly reliant on food delivery by licensing its software to other companies around the world.

On the downside, Mr Hollands says Ocado has struggled to cope with demand during the Covid-19 crisis. It also faces competition from other supermarkets, as well as Amazon Pantry, a food delivery service for Prime members.

Mr Hollands says you can invest in Ocado through the Baillie Gifford UK Equity Alpha fund. It is a top ten holding with a 5.4 per cent overall position in the portfolio. A 10,000 investment five years ago would have returned 12,427.

Amazon Pantry fans can invest in the Janus Henderson US Growth fund, says Mr Healey. Amazon is a top ten holding and accounts for 4.48 per cent of the funds portfolio.

Mr Healey says the fund has consistently posted results that sit within the top 25 per cent of its sector. A 10,000 investment would have returned 16,691 in five years.

HelloFresh may have caught the attention of investors after a strong share price performance. The company had almost three million customers by the end of 2019, and has announced plans to increase its workforce by 50 per cent at its Banbury factory to cope with the recent rise in demand.

F or those interested in HelloFresh, mr Hollands recommends Scottish Mortgage, an investment trust that specialises in industries making long-term changes. If you had invested 10,000 in the fund five years ago, it would now be worth 23,547.

Nick Devlin, chief executive of online-only wine seller Naked Wines, says social distancing has sped up the trend of buying wine online, and that the increase in demand would lead to higher income than originally forecast.

Russ Mould, investment director for AJ Bell, says the company has been valued at 225 million and, to live up with its price tag, it will need to grow over the next few years. Investing in Naked Wine has the potential for high rewards but also high risk, he says.

Investors comfortable with the risk can invest in Focus Funds Global Sust Compounders. The fund has a 2.7 per cent stake in Naked Wines as of December 2019. The fund has turned 10,000 into 14,500 over five years.

moneymail@dailymail.co.uk
PELOSI

By Molly Ball

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been right about a lot. She was right in the early 1990s, when, as a fierce critic of Chinas human rights record, she rejected the bipartisan faith that economic liberalization in China would inevitably lead to greater democratization. She was right again in 2003 when, as the leader of the House Democrats, she was one of the few party leaders to oppose the war in Iraq. She was right during the 2008 primary, when she rejected the entreaties of powerful allies of Hillary Clinton  Harvey Weinstein among them  to get behind a plan to use superdelegates to help Clinton take the Democratic nomination from Barack Obama.

Pelosi was right throughout Obamas administration, when she struggled to make the president see that his fetish for bipartisanship was leading him to make pointless concessions to Republicans, who would never negotiate in good faith. In Pelosi, Molly Balls admiring and illuminating new biography of the most powerful woman in American politics, theres a scene where Pelosi expresses her frustration to Obamas chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, over Obamas doomed courtship of Republican support for health care reform. Does the president not understand the way this game works? she asks. He wants to get it done and be beloved, and you cant have both  which does he want?

The House speaker would rather get it done. Theres a pattern in Balls book. Again and again, Pelosi is dismissed, first as a dilettante housewife, then as a far-left San Francisco kook, finally as an establishment dinosaur  and throughout, as a woman. She perseveres, driven by a steely faith in her own abilities. And more often than not, she is vindicated.

[ Read an excerpt from Pelosi. ]

The arc of Balls book is one of triumph. Pelosi was born to a prominent Democratic family in Baltimore, but the San Francisco network of influence that led her to Congress was one she built herself. When she entered the House of Representatives in 1987, women were a rarity in the chamber and completely absent from leadership. Sexual harassment and belittlement were constant. Twenty years later, she became the first-ever female House speaker. And in 2019, after regaining the top spot in the chamber, she came to preside over the most diverse Democratic caucus in history, one she did as much as anyone to elect.
Wadah Abed Rabbo, who edits the loyalist Al-Watan newspaper, has taken to Facebook to deny rumors that he has been arrested by the intelligence forces reports Alsouria Net.

The editor-in-chief of the loyalist newspaper Al-Watan, Wadah Abed Rabbo, denied news of his arrest by Assad regime intelligence forces, as had been reported by newspapers and media sites.

Abed Rabbo wrote in a Facebook post on Monday, It is proven that staying up late does serious damage. On that note, you cant feel anything for them but pity, referring to those who spread the rumors of his arrest.

Media sites and newspapers published news of Abed Rabbos arrest after the newspapers owner, Rami Makhlouf, appeared for a second time implicitly attacking the Assad regime and vowing a ruthless war against it if the latter persisted in encroaching on Makhloufs financial kingdom.

Abed Rabbo wrote on his Facebook page that Makhloufs words in the video clip amounted to Facebook squabbles, claiming that Bashar al-Assad is above that, so it is impossible to interject because he is the one who issues the laws and sees that they are carried out.

He wrote: The president of the republic is the one who issues the laws and sees that they are carried out. He is the one who protects the countrys constitution and presides over its executive authority. It is impossible, at any time, to interject his Excellency into videos of Facebook squabbles. There is no place for that in the state of law and in the institutions that we have long defended, and for which thousands have been martyred, to keep the flag flying high in the face of everything.

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.
Dubais Expo 2020 worlds fair will be postponed to Oct. 1, 2021, over the new coronavirus pandemic, a Paris-based body behind the events said Monday.

The announcement by the Bureau International des Expositions came just hours after police in Kuwait dispersed what they described as a riot by stranded Egyptians unable to return home amid the coronavirus pandemic. The riot was the first reported sign of unrest from the regions vast population of foreign workers who have lost their jobs over the crisis.

Dubai, a sheikhdom in the United Arab Emirates, has bet billions of dollars on Expo 2020 to rejuvenate its troubled economy. Since the pandemic grounded flights by its long-haul carrier Emirates and disrupted its real estate market, Dubai has been seeking to delay the event until next year.

Countries belonging to the bureau had been voting on the requested delay for days, with a final tally expected by the end of May. On Monday, however, the bureau said a required two-thirds of the countries in the organization had voted to approve the delay, meaning it would be granted.

The bureaus executive committee voted unanimously in April to back the proposal, which will see the event run from Oct. 1, 2021, until March 31, 2022.

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

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the chairman and CEO of Emirates who also serves on Dubais Expo committee, welcomed the announcement in a statement.

We are thankful to member states for their continued commitment to contributing to a World Expo in Dubai that will play a pivotal role in shaping our post-pandemic world at a time when it will be most needed, Sheikh Ahmed said.

This skyscraper-studded city won the rights to host the event in 2014. That helped boost Dubais crucial real-estate market and had officials hoping for more tourists in this city-state that is home to the worlds busiest airport for international travel.

Now, the pandemic has jeopardized global tourism and caused further panic in a real-estate market already down by a third since the 2014 announcement.

It remains unclear how the delay will affect its staff, who in theory would need to be paid for at least another year, nor construction. Expo 2020 did not respond to questions from The Associated Press.

However, some countries taking part still are at the preliminary stages of building their pavillions for the expo, giving them much-needed extra time. Among them is the U.S., whose pavillion costing at least $60 million is being built through the generosity of the Emirati government.

Meanwhile, Kuwaits state-run KUNA news agency reported on Monday a confrontation, describing it as a riot carried out by Egyptians corralled at a group shelter.

Security officials intervened and took control, arresting a number of them KUNAs report said.

It did not acknowledge what level of force police used to put down the unrest, nor how many people authorities ultimately arrested after the incident. Kuwaits Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Videos purported to show the Egyptians in a shelter, armed with pieces of furniture at one point of the confrontation. The shelter appeared to be in an industrial setting, surrounded by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.

KUNA earlier quoted Egypts ambassador to the oil-rich, tiny Kuwait as saying that Cairo planned repatriation flights for those stranded later this week. Kuwaiti officials also have said they would suspend fines and jail time for those who had overstayed visas in order to help those wanting to leave return to their home countries.

Kuwait, like many of the oil-rich Gulf Arab states, relies on a vast population of foreign workers for jobs ranging from domestic help, construction work to white-collar work. Long a lifeline for families back home, those migrant workers now find themselves trapped by the coronavirus pandemic, losing jobs, running out of money and desperate to return to their home countries as COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, stalks their labor camps.

Some 35 million laborers work in the six Arab Gulf states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as in Jordan and Lebanon, according to U.N. figures. Foreigners far outnumber locals in the Gulf states, accounting for over 80% of the population in some countries.

In Kuwait in particular, a growing sense of xenophobia has seen authorities push for more deportations of foreigners for everything, including traffic violations.

In all, countries in the Middle East have reported more than 342,000 cases of coronavirus, with at least 11,445 deaths, more than half of them in Iran. Irans health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said Monday that the death toll from COVID-19 rose to 6,277 in Iran, after 74 more people died since the previous day. Iran has reported 98,647 virus cases.

Israel said Monday it was further relaxing health restrictions meant to restart its economy. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that malls, open-air markets and fitness centers would reopen on Thursday, under certain conditions meant to limit crowding. Outlining the countrys exit strategy, Netanyahu said additional restrictions would be relaxed in the coming days and weeks, but could be tightened again should infections creep up.

The virus brought Israels economy to a standstill and sent unemployment skyrocketing. And although the country has seen more than 16,200 cases and 235 deaths, hospitals never experienced a deluge of patients and the country has slowed its infection rate.

In Sudan, the state minister for transportation and infrastructure, Hashim Ibn Auf, tested positive, the highest-ranking official to do so, the government said late Sunday. Sudan has reported 678 cases and 41 deaths from the virus.
The embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro revealed authorities captured two U.S. citizens among a group of 13 'terrorists' on Monday. The mercenaries were reportedly attempting to capture the socialist leader.

During a nationwide broadcast on state television, Maduro held up a pair of blue U.S. passports that he claims he recovered from the American 'mercenaries.' He read off the names, and birth dates of the alleged attacked and showed images of the fishing boats they rode in on. Maduro also presented numerous equipment the perpetrators used-including walkie-talkies and night vision glasses.

The identification cards belong to Airan Berry and Luke Denman. They both work with Jordan Goudreau, the owner of a Florida-based security company called Silvercorp USA. Goudreau is a military veteran.

"They were playing Rambo," Maduro said. "They were playing the hero."

He believes the Trump administration and neighboring Colombia orchestrated the attack. Both countries have denied their involvement in the incident.



The Attack

pic.twitter.com/8JZwjedAfp RT @OrlenysOV : This is the moment when the mercenaries captured in Chuao surrendered, being surrounded by the Civic-Military-Police operation which stopped the terrorist incursion. #4May  Nicolas Maduro (@maduro_en) May 5, 2020



Before dawn on Sunday, Venezuelan officials said the first attack started on a beach near the port city of La Guaira. Authorities arrested two and killed eight others who were attempting to land their speedboats.

Ex-Green Beret Jordan Gordreau claimed full responsibility for the operation, saying they planned to detain Maduro and liberate the Venezuelan people.

Goudreau, Berry, and Denman all served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He revealed they were part of a Venezuelan operation called "Operation Gideon," aiming to capture Maduro. Juan Guaido, the opposition's leader, denied any connection to the mission.

Goudreau was previously reported working with a retired Venezuelan army general that has existing U.S. narcotics charges. He was a member of a makeshift army of 60 that lacked support from the American government.

The state media showed images of men handcuffed and lying in the street. Attorney General Tarek William Saab said they arrested more than 110 people and are hunting for 92 others.

Goudreau said 52 other fighters are currently inside Venezuelan territory and are recruiting members of the security forces to join their cause.

The two U.S. citizens were captured in a second-day roundup of accomplices. They are believed to be held by the Venezuelan military intelligence.

The opposition and American authorities suggest Maduro and his allies fabricated the attack to draw attention away from the country's issues.



Political Rift

Venezuela is currently under a deepening political and economic crisis under Maduro's administration. The people are having difficulties accessing clean running water, electricity, gas, and health care services.

The country's crumbling public services have forced millions of Venezuelans to flee the country in search of better living conditions.

Maduro was recently indicted as a drug trafficker. The U.S. has also imposed a $15 million reward for any information leading to his arrest. Despite the campaign to remove him from the presidency, he still controls all levers of power in the country.

Venezuela and the United States broke diplomatic ties amid tensions the previous year. The Trump administration imposed devastating sanctions on the country. Due to the political rift, there is no U.S. embassy in Caracas.



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Linkedin Stephanie Nebehay and Emma Farge (Reuters) Geneva, Switzerland  Tue, May 5, 2020 10:30 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd5f9e14 2 World WHO,coronavirus,virus,COVID-19,pandemic,China,Origins Free

The World Health Organization said on Monday that comments by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo citing "evidence" that the new coronavirus had emerged from a Chinese laboratory were "speculative", and called for a science-based inquiry.

Pompeo said on Sunday there was "a significant amount of evidence" that the virus emerged from a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan, but did not dispute US intelligence agencies' conclusion that it was not man-made.

Dr Mike Ryan, WHO's top emergencies expert, told an online press conference from Geneva:

"We have not received any data-specific evidence from the US government relating to the purported origin of the virus. So from our perspective, this remains speculative."

As an "evidence-based organization", Ryan said, the WHO was keen to receive any information on the origin of the virus, as this was "exceptionally important" for its future control.

"So if that data and evidence is available, then it will be for the United States government to decide whether and when it can be shared," he said.

Scientists have advised the WHO that genome sequencing shows the virus to be of "natural origin".

Ryan said science, not politics, should be at the heart of exchanges with Chinese scientists on the issue, warning against projecting an "aggressive investigation of wrongdoing".

The virus is believed to have originated in bats and jumped to humans via another species. Dr Maria van Kerkhove, a WHO specialist in viruses that make such jumps, said it was important to determine this intermediate host.

As countries begin easing lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of the virus, many hope to contain new clusters of infection through systematic contact tracing, helped by mobile phone apps and other technology.

But Ryan said these did not make more traditional "boots-on-the-ground" surveillance redundant.

"We are very, very keen to stress that IT tools do not replace the basic public health workforce that is going to be needed to trace, test, isolate and quarantine," he said, praising South Korea and Singapore for their strategy.

Ryan said the WHO welcomed recent clinical trial data for Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral drug remdesivir, saying there were "signals of hope" for a potential use against COVID-19.

"We will be engaging in discussions with Gilead and the US government as to how this drug may be made more widely available as further data emerges on its effectiveness," he said.

Steven Solomon, the WHO's principal legal officer, said two countries had proposed consideration of letting Taiwan attend the WHO's May 18-19 annual health assembly as an observer.

Solomon said the WHO recognized the People's Republic of China as the "one legitimate representative of China", in keeping with UN policy since 1971, and that the question of Taiwan's attendance was one for the WHO's 194 member states.

China, which views the island as a wayward Chinese province and not a country, says it represents Taiwan adequately in the WHO.
Residents of Kalyan Dombivli



Municipal Corporation (KDMC) working in Mumbai will not be allowed to leave or enter Kalyan in Thane district of Maharashtra from May 8 in view of the rising number of COVID- 19 cases, civic chief Vijay Suryavanshi said on Tuesday.

He said a total of 224 people have tested positive for coronavirus so far in the KDMC limits.

"Of them, 73 were found to be working in Mumbai while 28 others were their contacts. They were found to be working in various establishments like BMC, hospitals, police department, banks etc in Mumbai," he said in a recorded message.

Acknowledging importance of the service provided by these people, Suryavanshi also underlined the fear among residents in view of the spurt in the number of COVID-19 cases under the KDMC limit.

"Safety of family members of the people working in Mumbai is also an issue. Hence we have requested their establishments to make arrangements for their stay in places like hotels near their places of work. We have been informed that the BMC is making arrangements for their employees near their place of work," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a bizarre development on Tuesday, school teachers were roped in alongside policemen to regulate the chaotic queues outside the wine shops in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. Reportedly, some people were pushing and shoving one another violating social distancing measures to buy alcohol. The AP government has imposed an overall 75% hike in the prices of liquor to discourage alcohol consumption. Currently, there are 1,717 confirmed novel coronavirus cases in Andhra Pradesh out of which 589 persons have recovered while 36 casualties have been reported.

Speaking to the media, Bhaskar Rao- Assistant Commissioner of the Excise Department stated that 272 out of 311 alcohol shops in Visakhapatnam district are functioning in the state. He defended the deployment of teachers at these shops. According to him, the teachers distribute tokens to the customers who can arrive at the shop when his token number comes.

Read: Jagan Govt In Andhra Pradesh Increases Alcohol Prices By 50% To 'discourage' Consumption

Bhaskar Rao remarked, "Out of a total 311 alcohol shops in the district, 272 shops are functioning in the district. Due to heavy crowd, government teachers were deployed at wine shops to manage the crowd. The teacher distributes tokens to those who line up to buy and consumers can arrive at the shop at the time when his token number comes."

Read: Andhra CM Jagan Dials Gujarat CM Regarding 6000 Stranded Fishermen Amid Lockdown

'All teachers are condemning this'

One of the teachers deployed at a wine shop in Anarkapalli town in the Visakhapatnam district stated that he was asked to ensure that social distancing was maintained among the buyers. At the same time, he observed that the teachers were feeling guilty to do this duty. Condemning this move, he urged the government to not place them at wine shops. At another wine shop in Vishakhapatnam, a group of women held a protest complaining that wine shops were allowed to open for 7 hours while vegetable markets functioned for only 3 hours.

A teacher deployed at a wine shop in Anarkapalli said, "See, teacher profession means service, we are ready to do service anywhere. But we are feeling guilty to do duty at wine shops. All teachers are condemning this. We are ready to do any service that the government needs. But we request not to place us at wine shops."

Read: State Govt to Provide One-time Aid Of Rs 2K To Andhra Fishermen Stranded In Guj: CM Jagan

Read: Coronavirus Live Updates: Evacuation Plan For Indians Declared;3900 Cases In Last 24 Hours

(With ANI inputs)
Photo: Unsplash/Alvin Mahmudov

Casinos make their fortunes off playing the odds. But, what are the odds you will get divorced?

A new, worldwide study by bestcasinosites.net ranks Canada 29th in the prevalence of couples untying the knot.

The study analyzed 87 countries and found one in 309 adults in Canada is divorced  representing 0.324% per cent odds.

Chileans may just be the most loyal  or stubborn  and had the lowest divorce rate of one in 5,714.

Russia, on the other hand, topped the list with one in every 154 adults being divorced.

The 1970s shift to a soul-mate model of marriage, based on fulfilment rather than obligation, propelled divorce rates in the United States and the United Kingdom, the study authors found.

Meanwhile, in Russia, the end of the Soviet Union sparked a rise in divorce as women were finally granted protection after separation. Combined with an ongoing trend in early marriages, this in part explains Russias first-place position in the index.

Catholic countries rank largely at the bottom of the index with low rates of divorce.

Ireland ranks in 81st place with divorce legalized in just 1995 and still contingent on conservative laws, like five years of separation. Divorce was only legalized in Chile in 2004.

The study didn't speculate on whether divorce rates will go up with millions of couples worldwide locked down in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

See the full list here.

Countries with the highest divorce rates

1 Russia 1:154

2 Belarus 1:171

3 United States 1:189

4 Lithuania 1:208

5 Jordan 1:229

Countries with the lowest divorce rates
President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters in the East Room of the White House in Washington on April 30, 2020. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)

Judge Rules Trump Twitter Posts Are Not Declassification Orders in Case Seeking Carter Page FISA Records

A federal judge has sided with the Justice Department (DOJ) in a lawsuit aimed at further declassifying information related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act surveillance of Trump campaign associate Carter Page.

The case stems from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed in 2017 by the James Madison Project and investigative journalist Brad Heath. The lawsuit sought FISA applications to and orders made by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court concerning President Donald Trump, Trump organization, his campaign, and people associated with the president. In 2018, the DOJ released 412 pages of heavily redacted documents related to Page (pdf).

The plaintiffs then requested the court for further disclosures of the redacted documents, asking for 21 pages to be made unredacted and challenging the redactions and withholdings of the remaining pages.

In March, Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled against the plaintiffs saying that a press release by the president and a number of his Twitter posts did not constitute a declassification order in relation to 21 of the pages.

Trump had previously promised to declassify FISA action and in September 2018 he directed several agencies to immediately declassify pages 10-12 and 17-34 of the June 2017 application to the FISA court in the matter of Carter W. Page, and all FBI reports of interviews prepared in connection with all Carter Page FISA applications.

The plaintiffs then contended that the judge did not address their complaints about the remaining 391 pages, and requested the judge to rule on the the appropriateness of the redactions and withholdings in those pages.

The plaintiffs argued that Trumps Twitter posts had called into question the good faith bases of the Governments redactions and/or withholdings and should reject DOJs withholdings from the remaining pages.

The posts in question relate to the presidents comments regarding Pages FISA documents. In the first post, Trump wrote: Congratulations to @JudicialWatch and @TomFitton on being successful in getting the Carter Page FISA documents. As usual they are ridiculously heavily redacted but confirm with little doubt that the Department of Justice and FBI misled the courts. Witch Hunt Rigged, a Scam!

In the second Twitter post, the president wrote: It was classified to cover up misconduct by the FBI and the Justice Department in misleading the Court by using this Dossier in a dishonest way to gain a warrant to target the Trump Team. This is a Clinton Campaign document. It was a fraud and a hoax designed to target Trump.

The DOJ had previously argued in March that those two posts are insufficient to overcome the presumption.

In their motion for summary judgment, Plaintiffs relied on two tweets that they claim reflect the Presidents criticism of the redactions, but these vague and nonspecific tweets, based on no personal knowledge and not commenting on the precise issues presented to the Court, are insufficient to overcome the presumption, the department lawyers wrote.

On Monday, Mehta agreed (pdf) with the DOJ, saying that Trumps posts amount to little more than [a] mere assertion of bad faith [that] is not sufficient to overcome a motion for summary judgment.'

Although Plaintiffs tout that the tweets come from the highest governmental authority  neither tweet reveals any personal knowledge on the part of the President with respect to the actual withholdings and the exemptions invoked, he added.

Mehta added that although the president asserted that the documents are ridiculously heavily redacted, that assertion does not undermine the validity of the DOJs invocation of specific FOIA exemptions.

[H]is insistence that the records were classified to cover up government misconduct is unsupported and, without more, cannot overcome the national security justifications put forward in the detailed affidavits submitted by Defendant, Mehta wrote.

The president appeared to back away from his September 2018 promise to declassify the documents set out in the White House press release, after receiving criticism in response to the announcement.

I met with the DOJ concerning the declassification of various UNREDACTED documents. They agreed to release them but stated that so doing may have a perceived negative impact on the Russia probe. Also, key Allies called to ask not to release, Trump wrote while adding that the DOJ inspector general had been asked to review those documents on an expedited basis.

I believe he will move quickly on this (and hopefully other things which he is looking at). In the end I can always declassify if it proves necessary, he added.

DOJs Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report in December last year on its investigation into alleged FISA abuses in the surveillance of Page. The report found at least 17 significant errors or omissions in the Carter Page FISA applications, and many additional errors in the Woods Procedures.

A follow-up review (pdf), released in a report earlier this year, determined that FBI agents broke the bureaus policy by failing to follow the Woods Procedure, which requires agents to compile supporting documentation for each fact in a FISA application. The Woods Procedures were implemented in 2001 in an effort to minimize factual inaccuracies in FISA applications as well as to ensure that the statements are scrupulously accurate.
Earl Philip Redick, 85, passed away onApril 28, 2020, holding his wifes hand in their Chattanooga, Tennessee home.

Born in Albany, NY, Phil attended the Albany Academy preparatory school on a scholarship as part of the Cadet Battalion before going on to graduate from Cornell University with a degree in animal husbandry and later from Elmira College with a masters degree in education. His cadet experience and desire to see the world lead to a military career, with six years in the U.S. Navy before taking an active duty transfer to the U.S. Army as a Signal Corps officer. After 22 years of service to the nation, Phil retired as a Lieutenant Colonel with two tours in Vietnam and multiple deployments to the Middle East. He earned numerous decorations including the Air Medal, three Meritorious Service Medals, and a Bronze Star.

Phil was a measured man who deliberated pros and cons of big decisions. Still, he knew a good thing when he saw it and could act quickly when his heart moved him. The young Naval Ensign met Gisela on a blind date during a port call in Hamburg, Germany and proposed three days later. Over the next 60 years Phil and Gisela traveled the world collecting memories and teaching their children to cherish family and home. They eventually settled in Upstate New York, moving to Tennessee only two years ago.

In retirement Phil explored many passions. He became an accomplished baker, perfecting breads that replicated the German varieties Gisela missed. His records show he baked more than 2,000 loaves that he shared with family, friends, and neighbors. Phil collected countless recipes and invented many that became family traditions, like the beef jerky he gave his children on birthdays. Although he rarely spoke of his own personal history, he researched his genealogy and was proud to trace his roots to Edward Doty, a passenger on the Mayflower. As a behind-the-scenes problem solver and handyman, he helped bring many of Giselas artistic creations to life. Yet Phil was a craftsman in his own right, creating heirlooms in wood and marquetry. His greatest passion of all, however, was being Boompa to eight grandchildren.

After cancer ambushed Phils body, family arrived from across the country to be with him, though the coronavirus pandemic restricted some from traveling. Always embracing new technology, he connected everyone through the Internet to relive traditions and memories dear to him. Phil loved creating traditions and memories.

Phil is survived by his wife, Gisela Korff Redick; their children, Gregory Redick (Jennifer) of Lanexa, VA, David Redick (Deedee) of Washburn, MO, Susan Gruber (Terry) of Signal Mountain, TN, and Geffrey Redick (Karen) of Greenfield Center, NY; as well as grandchildren, Ben, Katharine, Nathalie, Madelyn, Owen, Sara, Mathew, and Jack.

When full military honors can be rendered, Phil will be buried at the Saratoga National Cemetery in New York near his longtime home and the battlefield where his fourth great grandfather Peter Doty fought during the American Revolution.

Phil loved food and sharing recipes with others. In lieu of flowers, those interested are encouraged to share a favorite recipe with his family. Memorials and recipes may be left at www.companionfunerals.com.
KALAMAZOO, MI  Democracy looks a bit different during the coronavirus pandemic.

On Election Day Tuesday, May 5, Kalamazoo County voters are casting ballots on a handful of local issues.

But the precinct voting locations at local churches, schools and other facilities did not open for this election. And city and township clerks offices  temporarily open to the public to register voters and to distribute and accept absentee ballots  are operating very differently.

At some local government offices Tuesday, face masks were offered to voters at the door. Other changes were seen as well, like workers sanitizing surfaces and taking other precautions meant to stop people from spreading COVID-19.

During the local election, Kalamazoo County voters will consider renewing a 3-mill property tax, proposed by the Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency, that helps fund area schools.

For some county voters, the May ballot also includes bond proposals from Otsego Public Schools and Vicksburg Community Schools, as well as a proposed renewal of a fire protection millage in Ross Township.

Related: See whats on Kalamazoo-area ballots for the May 5 election

Kalamazoo City Clerk Scott Borling said staff members are sanitizing counter space and voting booths between each voter. Voters are encouraged to wear masks and told to keep pens rather than returning them after voting, Borling said. Staff are taking other precautions to help mitigate the spread of the virus, he said.

Voting was pretty slow, Borling said at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. People have been coming in to vote steadily, but they are coming at different times and he said he had not yet seen a line at City Hall.

Thats in stark contrast to the last election in March, a presidential primary election, when a line of voters stretched outside Kalamazoo City Hall.

Borling said the messaging to local voters is a little different this time than during other elections. Election officials want people to vote, but are taking extra precautions to help make it safe.

Markings on the floor encourage spacing between people. Borling said a contingency plan is in place in case the line grows at City Hall, to allow people to be spaces at least six feet apart.

If possible, election officials want people to stay outside.

If voters are only at city hall to return a ballot, they are encouraged to use a drop box located outside City Hall, on St. Johns near Lovell Street. People will be allowed to vote if they are inside City Hall or in line to drop off their ballot at the drop box as of 8 p.m. tonight, Borling said.

A newly installed drop box outside of city hall in Kalamazoo, Michigan on Monday, May 4, 2020. (Joel Bissell | MLive.com)Joel Bissell

As of 2:30 p.m., the Kalamazoo City Clerks office had issued 82 ballots to people and had registered one person to vote, Borling said.

In total for this election, the city clerks office issued 10,744 absentee voter ballots. Of those, 7,383 were returned before 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, he said. Of the total number returned so far, 652 came back on Tuesday, he said.

In Portage, staff are also sanitizing spaces used during the voting process throughout the day, Portage City Clerk Erica Eklov said. The city is offering face masks at the door, sanitizing pens between uses, encouraging anyone waiting to stand several feet apart and taking other precautions.

Clerks in both cities did not report any issues related to people being asked to wear masks and both said it was not required, but encouraged.

You dont want to refuse anyone the right to vote, Eklov said. We ask them (to wear a mask). If they say no thank you, we do not push it. So far, it hasnt been a problem. Its been very calm today.

Portage had issued more than 13,000 absentee voter ballots as of 3 p.m. Tuesday, she said. Eklov said she did not have a tally of how many had been returned as of Tuesday afternoon.

Voters have been coming through the door steadily, she said, and there have been some infrequent lines.

Portage City Hall also has a drop box that voters can use to drop off ballots, she said.

A sign pointing to the absentee ballot drop box outside City Hall in Portage, Michigan on Tuesday, May 5, 2020. Joel Bissell

Read more:

Michigan-made coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer in clinical trials

Michigan AG says Whitmers orders are valid, instructs law officers to continue enforcement

Costco limits meat purchases as grocers contend with shortages
Australians returning to their offices after COVID-19 lockdowns are lifted have been warned to expect a drastically different workplace than the one they were use to before the virus swept the country and brought businesses to a halt.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg today lit the fuse for restrictions to be gradually eased so employees to get back to work sooner to stop $4billion being bled from the economy every week.

But start times will likely be staggered and hot-desking banned with restrictions on the number of staff conferences and lifts and less options to grab lunch with food courts likely a thing of the past.

Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy shed light on what a COVID-19-safe workplace will look like when employees slowly return to the office.

Staggered start times

Prof Murphy said workers making their way into the office or worksite at different times throughout the day would lessen the spread of of coronavirus on peak hour public transport.

'We don't want everybody crowding on public transport at the same time,' he told reporters on Tuesday.

'We don't want everyone crowding in the lifts at the beginning of the day and the end of the day.'

Prof Murphy said workers making their way into the office or worksite at different times throughout the day lessen the spread of of coronavirus on peak hour public transport

Head of Research for Ray White Commerical Vanessa Rader said splitting employees into groups depending on what department they're in and letting workers back in shifts on a timetable would be safe

Hand sanitiser 'everywhere'

Despite workplaces already offering hand sanitiser since the outbreak started, Prof Murphy said the frequency of hand cleaning will ramp up once offices are filled with more workers.

'If you are doing hot desks or sharing common spaces we want frequent cleaning, we want cleaning products everywhere,' he said.

'We want staff to have a responsibility for hygiene. Hand sanitiser everywhere. Everybody sanitising their hands.

Head of Research for Ray White Commerical Vanessa Rader said Australians will see major changes to hygiene practices that will affect everyday life in the office.

Prof Murphy said people need to get used to not crowding into small conference rooms for meetings, with video calls more common

Despite workplaces already offering hand sanitiser since the outbreak started, Prof Murphy said the frequency of hand cleaning will ramp up once offices are filled with more workers

Ms Rader also forecast more of an overall emphasis on workplace cleaning and hygiene.

She said employers would be expected to implement a thorough sterilisation of work surfaces on a regular basis.

The sudden increase in employees working from home amid the pandemic would forever impact the future of the workforce, Ms Rader warned.

More video conferences and no face-to-face meetings

Prof Murphy said people need to get used to not crowding into small conference rooms for meetings.

'Using video meetings where it's possible to do it. Not travelling interstate for a meeting that you can do via video,' he said.

'There is a range of general measures that are all about reducing your close contact with fellow human beings.'

How the office will change after COVID-19 A stricter focus on hygiene and more thorough and frequent cleaning A reduction in hot desking and a limit on shared office equipment Office layouts will change to limit the number of small meeting rooms More employees will work remotely More frequent use of hand sanitiser More video meetings Staggered start times to reduce congestion on public transport Advertisement

Changed office layouts and no more hot desking

Ms Rader said hot desking isn't going to be 'favourable' as it involves the spreading of germs through shared facilities.

She said companies would most likely restrict employee movement and may also have to ensure each staff member has their own keyboard and mouse.

'Anything that involves touching is going to have to go,' Ms Rader said.

Ms Rader predicted offices would change their layouts and focus on reducing the number of small meeting rooms.

'There will be less of those because there's too many touch points and we've seen really clearly that any sort of virus is spread easily through your hands,' Ms Rader said.

'There will definitely be more people working from home than there ever has been before,' she said.

Coming into the office just one or two days per week

Ms Rader believes a staggered approach to letting all employees work from the office would be the safest option.

'I feel pretty confident that it won't be like turning on a tap and everyone suddenly goes back to work,' she said.

She said a viable approach would be splitting employees into groups depending on what department they're in - essentially letting workers back in shifts on a timetable to not have everyone in the same room at the same time.

Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy shed light on what a COVID-19-safe workplace will look like when employees slowly return to the office, with staggered start times, reduced hot-desking, more video calls and hand sanitiser 'everywhere'

'For example you'd put people in a colour group by team and have the green team come into the office on Tuesday, and the orange team on Wednesday and so on,' she said.

'That way everyone gets a chance of being in the office with their team but still exercising social distancing.

But Ms Rader pointed out that workplaces would need to be deeply cleaned between each group's day in the office.

Less options at the food court for lunch

It won't just be the office or worksite that changes in a post-coronavirus Australia.

Going for lunch at a nearby food court could also become a novelty of the past, with less food retailers expected at shopping centres.

Colliers International head of retail Michael Bate predicts cafes and restaurants will be the hardest hit due to the continuous social distancing restrictions.

'Although restrictions are likely to be eased, it is excepted there will still be some restrictions on numbers which will impact trade,' he told the Herald Sun on Monday.

Mr Frydenberg said he supported the National Cabinet's decision to bring forward its decision to relax its coronavirus restrictions by three days to this Friday.

'For every extra week the current restrictions remain in place, Treasury estimates that we will see close to a $4 billion reduction in economic activity from a combination of reduced workforce participation, productivity, and consumption,' he said.

Scott Morrison said reintegrating Australians back into a safe workplace was essential.

'It is not just being able to go back to a workplace that is safe but also about being able to do that confidently,' he told reporters on Tuesday.

'And let's not forget when we ease these restrictions, you will see numbers increase in some areas, you will see outbreaks occur in other places, that is to be expected.

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

'It is important that businesses, employees and employers have the tools to deal with the COVID-19 environment and ensure they are all working together to support a safe workplace.'

Prof Brendan Murphy last month warned Australians will have to practise social distancing permanently.

Prof Murphy said the way people interact will be different until a vaccine is found or coronavirus dies out - which could be several years away.

'Even if we release restrictions in the future, people need to change the way they interact permanently like keeping distance from each other, hand hygiene, and not shaking hands,' he said.

'If we are going to relax these distancing measures, the things we have closed, we have to change how we interact as human beings until we are through with this virus.
Veepstakes developments!

 A Data for Progress poll published by Vox found that Democratic voters, by a 13-point margin, would prefer that Joe Biden choose Elizabeth Warren over other potential vice presidential nominees. Warren was identified as the potential VP candidate whos most ready to be president by an even wider margin of 27 percent.

 A CBS poll also found that Democratic voters, this time by a 17-point margin, would prefer that Biden choose Warren over other potential vice presidential nominees. Warren was the top choice of subgroups consisting of black Democratic voters and self-identified moderate Democratic voters as well, though by much narrower margins.

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 Biden and Warren co-published an op-ed in the McClatchy newspaper chain condemning the Trump administration for steering coronavirus recovery and stimulus funds toward large corporations and wealthy individuals. (The papers McClatchy publishes include high-circulation dailies in the swing states of Florida and North Carolina.)

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For the last year-plus, Biden and Warren have highlighted the contrasts between their political personas. Their op-ed, though, foreshadows how their brands might work together in a general election campaign. As the Vox and CBS polls illustrate, the current crisis has highlighted the importance of having a presidential administration that is competent and detail-oriented; clarity and detail are not Bidens strong suit, but even Democratic voters who did not support Warren in the primary tend to think of her as being qualified and well-informed. A focus on corruption and favoritism plays to her strengths as the scourge of corrupt executives, and Bidens role in the non-corrupt implementation of the 2008 economic stimulus is an important part of his record that she can highlight without sounding like shes compromising her values. The subject of the coronavirus response also connects Warrens longtime goals regarding financial regulations and lobbyingsubjects that can lack a kitchen-table relevance to the everyday concerns of votersto the very tangible problems that normal people are having actually accessing the relief theyre supposed to be getting.

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Theres another pressing news subject that Warren has not addressed, though: former Senate staffer Tara Reades allegation that Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993. A number of female Democratic politicians, including other potential vice presidential nominees and senators whod previously made sexual assault awareness a major part of their personal brands, have made dismissive and/or misleading statements about Reades allegations in order to show support for Biden. If Warren makes such a statement, she forfeits some part of her reputation for integrity; if she doesnt, she is a potential vice presidential nominee who possibly thinks the presidential nominee is lying about whether he sexually assaulted someone, which would be a difficult intraticket dynamic.

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Warren, like essentially everyone else in the Democratic Party who has not completely buried the possibility that Biden is guilty of what hes accused of into their subconscious, is effectively hoping the situation resolves itself, perhaps through the release of a decades-old human resources complaint that might not still exist, and perhaps through an independent investigation, though its not clear who would have the incentive to finance or conduct one.

Or, possibly, Wall Street executives will sabotage her potential nomination behind the scenes, as theyve reportedly been trying to do, and her stance on Reade wont ever be relevant, except insofar as it remains an existential problem for Bidens candidacy and thus for every Democrat and American.

For more on the allegation against Biden, listen to What Next.
Senator Dino Melaye, formerly representing Kogi West senatorial district in the National Assembly, has filed a legal suit against the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, and four others, challenging the constitutionality of the Control of Infectious Diseases Bill 2020.

Senator Melaye in a suit filed on Monday, is requesting the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja to declare that the provisions of sections 5(3), 6, 8, 13(1&2), 15, 16(6), 17(7), 19, 23, 24, 29 (b), 30, 44, 45 and 47 of the bill were draconian, oppressive and authoritarian.

He also sought an order of the court declaring that they were in breach, and or were likely to breach his fundamental rights, as provided for in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).

In a notice of application for an order enforcing his fundamental rights, Senator Melaye prayed for an order of the court declaring the sections as invalid, illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional, null, and void and of no effect whatsoever.

He also requested an order of the court directing the first to fourth respondents to delete the provisions of sections 5(3), 6, 8, 13(1&2), 15, 16(6), 17(7), 19, 23, 24, 29 (b), 30, 44, 45 and 47 of the Control of Infectious Diseases Bill 2020, protesting that they are inconsistent with sections 34,35,37,38,40,41(1) and 44 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).

Senator Meale further sought an order of injunction restraining the respondents, whether, by themselves, their committees, their agents, employees, servants, privies and or howsoever called, from further proceeding with, or continuing with further debates, or the law-making processes with respect to sections 5(3), 6, 8, 13(1&2), 15, 16(6), 17(7), 19, 23, 24, 29 (b), 30, 44, 45 and 47 of the Control of Infectious Diseases Bill 2020.

Listed as the first to fifth respondents are Clerk of the National Assembly, Clerk of the House of Representatives, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Others include the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, as well as the Inspector General of Police.

No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
The federal government has advised medical facilities in the country to stop rejecting patients, especially emergency cases.

Osagie Ehanire, Minister of Health, said this on Monday in Abuja, at the Presidential Taskforce (PTF) briefing on COVID-19 in the country.

Mr Ehanire, however, noted that it is unethical not to attend to persons in distress, adding that any infected health worker puts a strain on the system.

The minister said the ministry was strengthening its support for Kano State Ministry of Health with service delivery and training in consultation with the state governor.

The setbacks reported in routine hospital service delivery in Kano state are being addressed by line experts from the ministry, whether from the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, or the Department of Family Health.

A Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) pathologist is also participating in the investigation of the unexplained deaths in Kano.

The team shall be reinforced according to needs expressed by the state government to strengthen its healthcare structure, he said.

He said the ministry had also mobilised additional 20 Rapid Response Teams (RRT) across Kano state to reach people who need to be tested for the virus.

41 Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) staff and 17 World Health Organisation (WHO) staff are deployed at the moment to support the Kano response.

With support of partners, 2 facilities are funded per Kano LGA; and will be setting up one sample collection centre per LGA, he said.

He advised Nigerians that as they began a new week and the prospects of gradual easing of the lockdown, that the phase came with added responsibility to be extra vigilant and compliant with the accompanying measures and guidelines that were meant to assure that we did not lose the health gains we had made so far, while cautiously opening options for citizens to rebuild their livelihoods.

Since our COVID-19 statistics are of considerable concern, attention has also been drawn to the observation that countries who eased or lifted restrictions, suffered an increase in new cases.

Although our projection already features increasing number of cases, even with the lockdown, I believe that redoubling our efforts to adhere to government directives, can keep figures within control range of the COVID-19, he said.

The minister said that there was now a community transmission mode and the ministrys strategy was to take all persons who tested positive to isolation, even if they had no symptoms, so that they did not risk infecting others, who might be more vulnerable, due to other diseases.

Mr Ehanire noted that Nigerians needed to protect, not only themselves, but each other and their loved ones and make sacrifices today for a better tomorrow.

The minister said that National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) was working with the state primary health/community health workforce to sensitise the population to COVID-19, at the grassroots level and expand on testing capacity.

I again call on all citizens to cooperate with health workers and for those testing positive, to comply with invitations to enter isolation care.

I also call on all health care facilities, not to reject persons seeking medical help, especially in emergencies. It is unethical not to attend to persons in distress.

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I also urge citizens to go to the hospital when not feeling well, and to cooperate by giving accurate information, especially with regard to their travel history, he said.

Meanwhile, he said that Nigeria had indicated interests to WHO, to be part of the global solidarity trial of medicines being tried to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and that efforts were on to also conduct research here in the country.

Other drugs can be added to the trials based on emerging evidence. In all this, we shall ensure the maintenance of ethical standards and safety of our people, he explained.

Mr Ehanire recognised health care workers who were at the frontline for their commitment, reiterating the importance of maintaining high personal safety standards and Infection Prevention and Control protocols at their workplaces.

This will not only protect you but your family. We shall provide more personal protective equipment for you and urge you to ensure its judicious use, he said.

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He, however, thanked Nigerians for their resilience and endurance over the past weeks of lockdown; saying it was sacrifice for the greater good of all.

In his speech, Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director General of NCDC, disclosed that a new testing facility was opened in Kano on Sunday, in collaboration between Dangote Foundation, Weare54gene and NCDC.

Mr Ihekweazu said that the turn-key project, entire conceptualisation and delivery happened in seven days.

The DG said the agency targeted the capacity of 400 tests per day, by next week.

He said that as a result of the poor compliance to the use of face masks and physical distancing directive on Monday, especially in banking houses, the country would record a few more infections.

(NAN)
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday rebuked President Donald Trump's complaint that it's unfair for Republicans to provide "bailouts" to Democrat-led states suffering from the coronavirus pandemic.

Cuomo, a Democrat whose state is the U.S. epicenter for the outbreak, sharply criticized the partisan rhetoric from Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who both say they are opposed to sending federal emergency aid to states.

"It's not red or blue, it's red, white and blue. This coronavirus doesn't pick Democrats or Republicans. It doesn't kill Democrats or Republicans, it kills Americans," Cuomo said at his daily press briefing. "If we don't get the money from Washington, we can't fund schools at the rate we want to fund them. We are in dire financial need."

In an interview with the New York Post published Tuesday morning, Trump echoed McConnell's stance opposing federal aid to so-called blue state governments, saying that Congress is not inclined to do bailouts.

Trump said that doing so would be unfair to Republican-led states because the states that need financial help are "run by Democrats in every case. Florida is doing phenomenal, Texas is doing phenomenal, the Midwest is, you know, fantastic  very little debt." Texas and Florida both have Republican governors.

Cuomo said that he wouldn't call financial assistance from the federal government a bailout, saying it was a "rhetorical, hyperbolic" word.

"There's no bailout. Because of the coronavirus this nation has been impacted, and states have been impacted because the states make up the nation, and we need financial help because of the coronavirus situation," Cuomo said.

Cuomo said New York and other Democratic-led states have paid more in federal taxes than they've received. He said New York pays $29 billion more in taxes to the federal government than it receives every year, and California pays nearly $6 billion more than it gets back. Meanwhile, Republican-led states Kentucky and Florida receive $37 billion more and $30 billion more, respectively, in federal funding than they send to the federal government.
PARIS - With a face mask 100 per cent made in France, President Emmanuel Macron showed the famously fashionable French people Tuesday that civic responsibility and style are not mutually exclusive.

Macron used a visit to a primary school to promote the type of cloth masks that will be de rigueur on public transportation and other locations when France starts emerging from its coronavirus lockdown next week.

The dark blue version Macron wore while visiting the school west of Paris complemented his tie and blue suit, and came embellished on one side with ribbon detail in red, white and blue, the colours of the French flag.

The French presidency said the mask, designed specifically to protect the public from the virus, was produced by knitwear manufacturer Chanteclair and retails for 4.92 euros ($7.50) The French military tested the garments breathability and effectiveness in filtering out small particles, the presidency said.

While some world leaders have been worried about the optics of being seen while masked, Macron previously appeared at public events in surgical masks, both thin ones and heavier-strength models.

At the primary school, a child asked Who is it? when the president entered a classroom. Macron briefly lifted his cloth mask to reveal his face, then pulled the covering back into place.

He later joked about needing to use hand sanitizer because he touched the mask, which he was not supposed to do.

Macrons government has been widely criticized for having an inconsistent policy on the civilian use of face masks during the coronavirus pandemic. When the virus first reached Europe, industrial grade masks were requisitioned by the French state and aimed at health workers only.

The government later pushed for homemade cloth masks to be used as alternatives amid a shortage of commercially-made medical masks.

Paper and cloth masks, including the model Macron and Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer debuted on Tuesday, went on sale at French supermarkets this week in anticipation of widespread use starting May 11.

The presidents accessory, as well as his handling of it, succeeded in attracting attention on social media. A photo taken of the French leader when he had the mask pulled down below his nose prompted one observer to note that despite being rather stylish, the covering made a poor barrier to infection if nostrils were exposed.

Other commentators tweeted that Macron looked like a villain or the Sub-Zero character in the Mortal Kombat video games.

Images of Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova wearing a crushed raspberry pink mask matching her outfit to the new prime ministers swearing-in ceremony in March went viral on Twitter.

In Germany, the governor of Bavaria, Markus Soeder, wore a mask in the blue and white lozenge-print of the state flag to several public appearances.
Columbia-Greene Media has recently teamed up with the US Postal Service to provide same-day delivery of your local newspaper with your mail. Our expanded daily delivery of your local news reaches into the following areas:
At least 99 people, including 76 residents and 23 staff members, have tested positive for coronavirus at Windsor Vallejo Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, a skilled senior care facility in Vallejo.

Jayleen Richards, the Solano County public health administrator who confirmed the number of infections at the facility, as of Monday morning, did not have an update on the conditions of the infected patients.

A representative at the facility on Monday told The Chronicle that all further communications regarding the outbreak would go through the Solano County Public Health Department.

The patients who tested positive were isolated from the other members the facility; while the staff members who are infected were sent home to recover.

We have been working closely with the facility and a plan has been developed, Richards told The Chronicle.

County officials began testing at the 166-bed facility last week after receiving reports of possible infections, recording 18 confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday. That number surged over the weekend.

Solano County has registered 320 COVID-19 cases in total, with 175 of those reported in Vallejo.

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.

Windsor Vallejo Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, which is part of a chain of 35 skilled nursing and assisted living facilities in California, joins a list of nearly 300 similar senior care centers around the state that have been hit by the coronavirus.

The Medicare inspection report from the Department of Health and Human Services gave Windsor Vallejo a much below average health inspection rating on its most recent report, issued on April 12, which included a total of 23 health citations.

Aidin Vaziri is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avaziri@sfchronicle.com
When I was an intern starting out in womens magazines, an editor once quipped, casual as offering an office round of teas, that black, old or ugly faces just dont sell magazines. Nobody around her batted an eyelid.

In the years following the 2008 recession, as print ad revenues nosedived, the battle to be prominent on the newsstand was apparently being used as an excuse for overt racism, sexism and ageism. For various reasons, chiefly the rise of online publishing, but among them undoubtedly an inability to move with the times, many magazines folded in the years that followed.

Diversity in all its forms has become an increasingly essential and consumer-demanded ingredient in the output of the fashion, beauty, film and TV industries, and its long overdue. Recent fashion weeks have seen designers champion a range of ages and ethnicities on catwalks and beauty brands bid adieu to the anti-ageing selling point, ageing being something we all hope to be able to do  today more than ever.

For June, Judi Dench has become the oldest person at 85 to be a British Vogue cover star in the magazines 104-year history. (Before her, Oprah Winfrey was the previous title-holder for oldest solo cover star, appearing on the August 2018 British Vogue cover at 64.) Wearing a blush pink floral Dolce & Gabbana coat whose collar frames her face, the actor appears close up, the lines of her skin and silver hair dominating the cover. Its strikingly beautiful.

Last year, I sighed with disappointment when British Vogue sent out press releases announcing 81-year-old Jane Fonda as a cover star when in fact she was gracing the cover of a LOreal-sponsored supplement that accompanies the magazine. As a LOreal ambassador, this was more a reflection of the good work of the beauty brand, which has long been known for its age-diverse roster of models, from Helen Mirren to Viola Davis, than it was reflective of Vogues increased age diversity on magazine covers.

But the positive response that Vogue received for promoting the Jane Fonda supplement must have been a key driving factor in including Dench this month. The customer is always right after all. According to Conde Nast, the average age of the Vogue print reader is 39, and 44 online.

Perhaps more striking than an 85-year-old appearing on the cover of the fashion bible is that it isnt a special issue patronisingly dedicated to age: Dench just is the cover star. Historically, when choosing to put someone on their cover who is a day over 21 or has some sort of unusual beauty feature like a miniscule mole or a stray eyebrow hair, fashion magazines dedicate their entire issues to a theme, virtually negating the positive message of the cover.

An example of this backfiring was in April 2016 when Glamour in the US featured Amy Schumer on the cover of their chic at any size issue, without thinking to forewarn Schumer about the issues theme. When the issue hit newsstands, the comedian tweeted, Plus size is considered size 16 in America. I go between a size 6 and an 8. @glamourmag put me in their plus size only issue without asking or letting me know and it doesnt feel right to me.

British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful has made it his mission to promote diversity at the magazine since the beginning of his tenure. In 2017, when his predecessor Alexandra Shulman printed a photograph of the team for the magazines centenary issue, the striking lack of diversity on display was not received well. Posting the photograph on her Instagram, Naomi Campbell captioned it: This is the staff photo of British Vogue under the previous editor Alexandra Schulman. Looking forward to an inclusive and diverse staff now that Edward Enninful is the editor.

Representation matters, we know this. Countless studies have shown the positive effects of seeing people who look like you or come from your background being represented in the media. At the age of 31 (to my mind still young... although reader, you may call me deluded) Ive become acutely aware of age for the first time in my life. No longer in the young category, female actors my age are inexplicably playing mothers of teenagers in movies. Meanwhile, women in their twenties are romantically partnered with men twice their age.

Speaking in the accompanying interview in Vogue, Denchs daughter tells the magazine that: This age thing, I think, affects very much how [my mother] feels about herself and this [Vogue cover] have her just that little boost of confidence to make her go, Oh, maybe Im still OK.

If Oscar-winner Judi Dench feels ghastly being old, theres not much hope for the rest of us. Denchs successful 60-year career should be lauded. Bravo Vogue for once again proving why it continues to lead the way.
The shock of the coronavirus pandemic has made planning ahead difficult, particularly when it comes to major decisions like a career move. That doesn't mean you should put your aspirations on hold, however, according to London Business School professor and author of "Act like a leader, think like a leader," Herminia Ibarra. In fact, for those not immediately hit by job insecurity, it could mark the chance for a fresh start. In the Harvard Business Review, Ibarra  who has studied career change for the past two decades, including during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis  outlines five key principles to keep you focused on your career goals, even during hard times.

Develop many selves

The future is uncertain at the best of times, but especially during a pandemic. It makes sense, then, to pursue a range of possible options, rather than sticking to one single vision, notes Ibarra. Some of those ideas may be more realistic than others, but that can open you up to new opportunities and keep you resilient to further change ahead. "Even in happier times, career change is never a perfectly linear process. It's a necessarily messy journey of exploration," she says.

Embrace the 'liminal'

Career change, by its nature, is "liminal"  or existing between a past that is gone and a future that's uncertain. That can be an unsettling state, but it's also an important chance to process emotions and change. "Downtime is crucial not only for replenishing the brain's stores of attention and motivation, but also for sustaining the cognitive processes that allow us to fully develop," says Ibarra. Indeed, neurological studies suggest making time for "inner business" can be more beneficial than completing a list of self-improvement activities.

Get projects going

Developing new skills, knowledge and contacts are common and important routes to career reinvention. Yet, rather than focusing on one specific project, try several to compare the pros and cons of each. They may not all be directly applicable to your desired new career path, but they will help you find where your true strengths lie. "The point is to do new and different work with new and different people, because that process represents an opportunity to learn about yourself, your preferences and dislikes, and the kinds of contexts and people that bring out the best in you," says Ibarra.

Reconnect with contacts

A pandemic which requires social distancing is not a great moment for building your network. But with more people than ever communicating online, it could be a good chance to reconnect with old contacts too. Studies suggest distant connections are often better placed to offer you new perspectives and honest advice than your nearest and dearest. However, they may also be less motivated to help you. Ibarra recommends drawing on "dormant ties"  colleagues you were once close to but haven't been in contact with for three or so years.

Talk it out
UK official virus death toll tops 32,000, becoming second highest in world

All crew who will be travelling will be tested and they will be COVID-19 negative certified

In last 24 hours, 49 deaths and 441 new Covid-19 cases have been reported in Gujarat

MEA to provide database to states and central ministries for employing skilled workers who are returning after losing jobs in Gulf: Sources

Two more zones in Delhi have been de-contained today

Punjab's Excise and Taxation Department proposes home delivery of liquor between 1 pm to 6 pm to avoid rush at vends amid coronavirus outbreak

Indian vaccine companies have come across as innovators in early stage vaccine development research: PMO

Covid Cess will be 5 per quart in case of Country Liquor with effect from tomorrow: Haryana Govt

With 85 percent of the deaths reported from the US and Europe, Covid-19 has claimed the lives of more than 2,50,000 people. US continues to be the worst-affected country with more than 68,000 lives lost. China, where the pandemic had initiated late in December, has reported no deaths from the Covid-19 since the last two days.





Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic





India has seen cases cross the 46,000 mark. Currently, Indias confirmed cases tally has touched 46,711, registering a spike of more than 3,900 cases. Nationwide death toll has reached 1,583. Maharashtra remains the most-affected state with above 15,525 cases and 841 deaths.





Follow major highlights on how Covid-19 is affecting lives in India and across the world:
The coronavirus pandemic has upended all kinds of human behavior, including speech. Conversations are mediated by masks and screens, their sentences strung together with new vocabulary: medical terms, political mandates and slang devised to take the clinical edge off.

This new vernacular has many people playing virologist in the group chat, with talk of contact tracing and antibody tests; planning socially distant activities like Zoom birthday parties and drive-by greetings; and tweeting about life under quar, a pet name for quarantine (the term for an imposed period of isolation after exposure to a contagion that has become a catchall for life at home).

In a recent article for The New Yorker, the writer Karen Russell describes the assimilation of this novel lexicon as a kind of language contagion.

Self-isolation, social distancing, abundance of caution  pairs of words Id never seen together in a sentence back in January have become ubiquitous, she writes. These phrases are moving even faster than the virus, eye to mind, ear to mouth, disseminated by our iPhone screens and televisions.
A separate statement by the cabinet said the government will cover the cost of repatriated citizens staying in quarantine at university hostels

Egypt is operating flights to repatriate nationals stranded in Kuwait starting Tuesday, Egypt's information minister said, a day after Kuwaiti authorities broke up riots by Egyptian workers with invalid residencies seeking to return home.

Priority for Egyptians returning from abroad will be given to humanitarian cases followed by those with expired residences or terminated contracts, then those with a final exit visa and tourists, Information Minister Osama Heikal said on Tuesday.

"We will not leave a single Egyptian seeking to return outside the country's borders," Heikal said during a joint press conference with the foreign and immigration ministers broadcast live on TV.

Repatriated nationals will undergo medical examinations upon arrival at airports and will be placed in a 14-day quarantine at university dorms, the minister said.

A separate statement by the cabinet said the government will cover the cost of those staying at university hostels, and those willing to spend their quarantine period at designated hotels in the Mediterranean city of Marsa Alam will have to pay for their stay.

Egypt is hoping to return all stranded Egyptians before the religious Eid Al-Fitr holiday, which begins around 23 May, Immigration Minister Nabila Makram told the conference.

This comes following instructions by Prime minister Mostafa Madbouly for a special government repatriation committee to accelerate the return of Egyptian nationals in the next two weeks, she said.

Egyptians in Kuwait and other Gulf countries have been pleading to get repatriated during the past few weeks.

On Monday, Kuwaiti authorities broke up riots by a group of Egyptian workers demanding repatriation at shelters designated for those who had violated the Gulf country's residency laws, arresting several people, the Kuwaiti interior ministry said.

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New Delhi: Amid the ongoing corona epidemic in the country, PM Modi attended the Virtual Conference of Non-Aligned Countries (NAM) on Monday. During this, PM Modi targeted Pakistan indirectly. He said that we are struggling with the Corona crisis, in such a situation, some people are engaged in spreading other deadly viruses like terrorism, fake news and tampering videos. PM Modi said that the corona epidemic has made the entire world aware of the limitations of the current international system.

Relaxation due to lockdown led to increase in park and many places

PM Modi said that today a new system of globalization, based on transparency, equality and humanity, is needed. It can help encourage solidarity, as they are the most ethical voice in the world.

Exemption from lockdown in Italy cost dearly to government

He said, "Non-aligned nations have to be inclusive to play this role." Without naming any country, the PM said, "While the world is combating the coronavirus today, some people are engaged in spreading other types of deadly viruses, such as terrorism and fake news".

Coronavirus increased discomfort in China, getting untreated corona infected
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 4, 2020 / Global AgInvesting (GAI), the leading resource for investment conferences, news and insight into the global agricultural sector, is now hosting topical webinars to keep the GAI community engaged and informed in between events, as well as provide a new offering while restrictions are imposed on gatherings due to COVID-19.

Occurring two to four times a month, the complimentary webinar presentations, interviews and panel discussions with experts in the sector are already underway. View more information and register for any of the below at: globalaginvesting.com/webinars/.

Maintaining Asset Returns in a Low Commodity Price Cycle:

A Q&A with David Muth, Ph.D.

Wednesday, May 6 at 2 p.m. Eastern Time (U.S. and Canada)

Muth is managing partner for Alternative Equity Advisors, the capital deployment affiliate for Peoples Company. During this webinar, Muth will provide regional case studies that demonstrate asset management strategies to maintain, or improve, asset returns while the market is facing depressed commodity prices. Case studies will include Midwest, Delta and Pacific Northwest region strategies, and focus on direct operations management models that engage consumer trends in sustainable, organic and regenerative production practices. Register here.

Investing in Water for Returns and Impact:

A Q&A with Euan Friday

Wednesday, May 13 at 5 p.m. Eastern Time (U.S. and Canada)

Friday, who is general manager with Kilter Rural in Australia, has over 20 years' experience in senior financial and commercial roles. This includes 10 years with PricewaterhouseCoopers, and nearly a decade with STA Travel in various roles, including CFO and managing director. He joined Kilter in 2008 in the joint role of CFO/general manager water and is now focused exclusively on the general manager water role. Friday will discuss the opportunities for investing in water with a focus on returns and impact. Register here.

If You Eat, You're in Farming: A Discussion With America's Growers

Wednesday, May 20 at 3 p.m. Eastern Time (U.S. and Canada)

This webinar's host, Tevor Mecham, is vice president of global technology strategy for Valley Irrigation of Nebraska with responsibility for its technology strategy, assuring growers continue to receive innovative solutions and a strong return on investment. Mecham's experience includes positions with Leica Geosystems, a leading aftermarket GPS technology provider, Hortau and John Deere/Gem Equipment. He also has worked for many years on his family's 4,000-acre farm. During this discussion, Mecham will examine how growers are affected by current supply chain challenges and how the industry from the farm gate to the consumer may address obstacles moving forward. Register here.

Ag Supply Chain Disruptions and Opportunities During the Coronavirus Pandemic

May 27, 2020 at 5 p.m. Eastern Time (U.S. and Canada)

In this critical discussion, two of Australia's leading agricultural asset managers - Tim McGavin of Laguna Bay and Kim Morison of Argyle Capital Partners - will consider the effects of the novel coronavirus on production and distribution of myriad crop types, animal proteins and consumer products. McGavin, who is CEO of Laguna Bay, is an experienced originator and investor, specializing in agriculture and renewable energy. McGavin was raised on a sheep and cattle farm, and through an investment with his brother, is co-owner of one of Australia's largest privately-owned vineyards (though they sold the majority of their holdings in 2001).

Morison is managing director for Argyle Capital Partners, based in Los Angeles, California, where he has been directing the development of the company's water and agricultural investment business since 2010. His family farming origins and career in the cotton and sugar industries have steered his approach to water entitlement and farmland investment portfolios. Register here.

Keep abreast of the upcoming monthly webinars at globalaginvesting.com/webinars/. Learn more about Global AgInvesting, a brand of HighQuest Group which annually brings together more than 1,000 international investors, farm and fund managers, and agribusiness executives at events in New York, Tokyo and London, at globalaginvesting.com.

CONTACT:

Michelle Pelletier Marshall

mmarshall@globalaginvesting.com

+1.978.790.0565

SOURCE: HighQuest Group

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/588327/New-Webinar-Series-Highlights-Critical-Opportunities-in-Ag-Investing
The West Bengal Police Tuesday said it has arrested over 40,000 people from different parts of the state for defying lockdown norms since March 25.

"40,723 people have been arrested and 3,614 vehicles seized since March 25 for violation of lockdown," the West Bengal Police tweeted.

The police said it will continue taking strict actions against those who defy the lockdown, but will allow "the opening of standalone shops and movement of small vehicles with 3 persons (which) has been allowed in areas other than containment zones."



"Public transport with less than 50% of capacity will be available within the district in green zones. Please try to work from home.

"Please don't forget to wear mask and to maintain physical distance if you need to go out. WBP will continue to enforce lockdown strictly," the tweet added.

Meanwhile, the Kolkata Police on Tuesday arrested over 800 people for violation of lockdown norms, a senior officer said, adding that nine vehicles were seized during the day.

At least 833 people were arrested for violating "Total Safety Restrictions since Tuesday morning till 8PM, he said.

"We have arrested 652 for violating lockdown norms while 152 for not wearing masks and 29 for spitting in the open. All will be prosecuted as per the relevant sections of the 188 IPC and 54 DM Act," he said.

The Kolkata Police also arrested one person for running a roadside eatery within the "containment zone" in Manicktala area, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
- A spate of robberies have allegedly been carried out by two women dressed as nurses

- The two "nurses" were seen stealing packages off people's doorsteps

- Police called on members of the public to help identify the suspects following arrests

A weird rash of robberies recently took place in Washington State, USA.

Women dressed as nurses, in full scrubs, have been walking through neighbourhoods and stealing people's packages off their doorsteps.

READ ALSO: Couple who postponed wedding due to coronavirus pandemic hold simple but cute ceremony

The fake nurse were caught on camera stealing people's delivery. Photo: UGC

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Nollywood actress says she doesn't mind being 3rd wife to a rich man

The nurses were reportedly fraudsters posing as healthcare workers.

Two women were caught on camera in the act of brazenly stealing people' deliveries in the middle of the day in Kennewick, Washington.

Kennewick Police Department (KPD) released a statement asking for the community to help identify the suspects.

"Officers are currently investigating a case of porch piracy and need your help. Both suspects have been reported as stealing packages delivered to Kennewick residences." the statement read in part.

READ ALSO: Comedian Owago Nyiro disclose he was forced to ditch comedy, hawk fish as COVID-19 bites

Police arrested them and urged members of public to identify them. Photo: UGC

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Polisi wa kafyu auawa na genge la majambazi huku mwenzake akifaulu kuhepa

The KPD did not believe the suspects were genuine nurses saying the nurses they knew would never stoop so low.

"The nurses we are fortunate to know only give their time, lives, and take the vitals of their patients (not their property)."

One of the victims had a surveillance camera recording the theft of her package.

She revealed the "nurses" stole her package, minutes after the FedEx truck had delivered them.

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Next-generation AVR MCU family features core independent peripherals, advanced analog and on-chip communications

CHANDLER, Ariz., May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the Internet of Things (IoT) delivers greater connectivity for industrial and home applications and as connected vehicles enhance cabin and operational features, higher-performance microcontrollers are required for better real-time control as well as to enable enhanced human machine interface applications. Microchip Technology Inc. (MCHP) today announced its next generation AVR DA family of microcontrollers (MCUs)  its first Functional Safety Ready AVR MCU family with Peripheral Touch Controller (PTC).

With this AVR DA family of microcontrollers Microchip builds on our legacy of high performance and high code efficiency devices, now meeting new demand across multiple industries with advanced analog and core independent peripherals, and more capacitive touch channels over existing devices, said Greg Robinson, associate vice president of marketing, 8-bit microcontroller business unit. The technology spans applications from connected home security, building automation and sensor systems to automotive and industrial automation, enabling the designs of more robust, accurate and responsive applications.

Microchips Functional Safety Ready designation is applied to devices that incorporate the latest safety features and are supported by safety manuals, Failure Modes, Effects, and Diagnostic Analysis (FMEDA) reports, and in some cases, diagnostic software  reducing the time and cost of certifying safety end applications. The AVR DA MCU family includes several integrated safety functions to ensure robust operation  features ensuring a sufficient supply voltage such as power-on reset, brown-out detector and voltage-level monitor. The cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scan ensures the application code in the flash memory is valid. By ensuring code integrity, unintended and potentially unsafe behavior of the application can be avoided.

Story continues

Microchips new AVR DA family of MCUs enables CPU speeds of 24 MHz over the full supply voltage range, memory density of up to 128 KB flash, 16 KB SRAM and 512 bytes of EEPROM, 12-bit differential ADC, 10-bit DAC, analog comparators and zero cross detectors. The PTC enables capacitive touch interface designs supporting buttons, sliders, wheels, touchpads, smaller touch screens as well as gesture controls used in a wide range of consumer and industrial products and vehicles. The AVR DA family of MCUs supports up to 46 self-capacitance and 529 mutual capacitive touch channels and features the latest generation PTC with Driven Shield+ and boost mode technologies providing enhanced noise immunity, water tolerance, touch sensitivity and response time.

In addition, the AVR DA family of MCUs brings additional value to embedded real-time control systems. The integrated event system enables inter-peripheral communication without involving the CPU. Events are latency free and never lost, providing enhanced real-time performance and predictability for reliable and safe designs. By reducing the time the CPU needs to be active, the overall power consumption of the application is reduced.

The configurable custom logic peripheral enables the setup of logical functions internally, eliminating the need for external components, reducing board space and bill of material costs. With the new advanced analog features like the 12-bit differential ADC, the AVR DA family of MCUs can measure small amplitude signals in noisy environments, making them well suited for sensor node applications in harsh environments.

The AVR DA family of MCUs high memory density and SRAM-to-flash ratio make it attractive for both wireless and wired connected sensors nodes, as well as other stack-intensive applications.

Development Tools

Microchips AVR DA family of MCUs offers several options for software and hardware support. Software support includes Microchips MPLAB X, MPLAB Xpress and Atmel Studio, code configuration tools including MCC and START, and compilers including GCC, XC8 and the IAR Embedded Workbench. A functional safety certified version of the XC8 compiler is available via Microchips Functional Safety Ready program. Hardware support is included in debuggers/programmers including MPLAB PICkit 4, MPLAB SNAP, Atmel ICE and the AVR128DA48 Curiosity Nano evaluation kit.

Pricing and Availability

The AVR DA family of MCUs is available in volume production in 10,000 quantities starting at $0.87. For additional information, contact a Microchip sales representative, authorized worldwide distributor, or visit Microchips website. To purchase products, visit our purchasing portal or contact a Microchip authorized distributor.

Resources

High-res images available through Flickr or editorial contact (feel free to publish):

About Microchip Technology

Microchip Technology Inc. is a leading provider of smart, connected and secure embedded control solutions. Its easy-to-use development tools and comprehensive product portfolio enable customers to create optimal designs which reduce risk while lowering total system cost and time to market. The companys solutions serve more than 120,000 customers across the industrial, automotive, consumer, aerospace and defense, communications and computing markets. Headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, Microchip offers outstanding technical support along with dependable delivery and quality. For more information, visit the Microchip website at www.microchip.com.

Note: The Microchip name and logo, the Microchip logo, AVR and MPLAB are registered trademarks of Microchip Technology Incorporated in the U.S.A. and other countries. PICkit is a trademark of Microchip Technology Inc. in the U.S.A. and other countries. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective companies.
Ousmane Dione, the World Banks country director for Vietnam

How do you assess the existing macro fundamentals of Vietnams economy, and how important are they to its recovery?

Beyond the health impacts, economists argue that COVID-19 can affect the economy through a degradation of the balance of payments, an increase in the fiscal deficit, and the instability of the financial sector. On these three channels, we believe that Vietnam is in a strong position.

Its balance of payments can count on a robust export base and is weakly dependent on short term capital flows even if some vulnerabilities can be associated with the tourism sector, remittances and foreign direct investment.

On the fiscal front, the government should be able to finance the projected increase in the fiscal deficit by additional borrowing on both the domestic and international markets, including from international financial institutions. Also, the health of the financial sector remains good even if some banks could be exposed to rising delinquent loans and lower profitability if the crisis was to last longer than it is expected today.

Maintaining the stability of the external and fiscal balances as well as of the financial system does not only reduce the costs associated to the current crisis in the short term, but it will also put Vietnam in a good position when it will be necessary to jump start the recovery of the economy by a series of smart and decisive actions at the exit of the crisis.

What can Vietnam learn from the pandemic so as to improve the economys resilience?

There are always many lessons that can be derived from a crisis. The first is that it is good to be ready for the worst, and Vietnam has proved to be a role model in that area. Very early, at the beginning of February, the government took a series of effective measures against the pandemic by closing schools and borders while testing and tracing people at risk of infection.

These measures have been praised by the international community. It has been, however, less reported that the government was also financially ready to cope with such a crisis due to its prudent fiscal management over the past few years.

The reduction of the debt-to-GDP ratio by almost 7 percentage points between 2016 and 2019 had provided the fiscal space that the authorities can now use to finance the measures necessary to support the most affected people and businesses by the crisis. The government was also prudent in its liquidity management by keeping substantial reserves in its coffers.

The second lesson is that there is always an opportunity coming out of a crisis. Indeed, it is now the perfect time for Vietnam to accelerate key reforms that will improve the countrys resilience to future pandemics. The health crisis has magnified the benefits that can be expected from various reforms, which should in turn help break the resistance from vested interests that would prefer the status quo.

For example, despite only one-third of households owning a bank account, Vietnam has been relatively slow in the development of mobile payments compared to many countries in East Asia or even in poor income countries. The pandemic effects have shown that digital payments through mobile phones could be a great tool for transferring money to vulnerable people and businesses as is currently carried out in many other countries.

Unfortunately, Vietnam was not able to rely on such a system as most financial transactions are still processed manually.

How does the World Bank assess the medium-term prospects of the Vietnamese economy?

Assuming that the pandemic will be controlled gradually over the next few months, Vietnam should recover relatively quickly from the current coronavirus crisis thanks to its strong fundamentals.

We also believe that the government has shown its determination to manage the economic costs of the crisis by having taken the necessary medical and preventive measures and implemented the financial measures to help most affected people and businesses cope with the immediate burden.

The recent package of tax and social protection measures appears ambitious, covering about 25 million people and almost-registered businesses, and is also fiscally sound with an estimated cost of about 1 per cent of GDP.
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Bazaar Corporate Radar is your window into the minds of top CEOs, Boardrooms, global economists, fund managers and sector analysts. If it?s making news, you?ll find it on Bazaar Corporate Radar.
The fishing trawler has had eight of its 15-strong crew test positive for Covid-19 after returning from fishing operations off the coast of west Cork. (Photo: Stock image/Google Maps)

A FRANCO-Spanish fishing trawler which landed catch at an Irish port two weeks ago has been quarantined in Spain after a number of crew tested positive for Covid-19.

However, it is believed no member of the 15-strong crew disembarked at a west Cork port during the landing of the catch - and no port officials boarded the vessel.

The incident followed a number of high-profile protests at Irish ports where locals demanded that stringent virus control measures be adhered to over the operations of foreign fishing vessels - particularly those from France and Spain where major outbreaks of the virus have been recorded.

In Dingle, French and Spanish owned vessels were blocked from unloading their catch because of the protests.

Virtually all Irish fishing vessels have been tied up for almost two months because of the pandemic.

Now, it has emerged that a Spanish-owned but French-flagged trawler has had eight of its 15-strong crew test positive for Covid-19 after returning from fishing operations off Ireland.

The large vessel is now quarantined at the Spanish port of Celeiro, located between La Coruna and Gijon in the north of Spain, where the vessel returned for resupply last week.

One crew member had complained of feeling unwell on the journey from Ireland to Spain.

'The Skipper' reported that, on arrival at the Spanish port, the man was tested and found to be positive for Covid-19.

Because of the close quarters in which all 15 crew had been living for several weeks, all were subjected to precautionary tests.

Eight then tested positive for the virus - more than half the crew.

One crew member tested positive for anti-bodies of the coronavirus - indicating he likely had the virus when the vessel left Spain last month but recovered during the voyage.

It is understood that none of the fishermen are seriously ill.

Those who do not require medical attention will be required to isolate for a fortnight.

The trawler captain is adamant that none of the crew got off the fishing vessel when it unloaded catch at Castletownbere in west Cork on April 24.

Locals officials are awaiting a formal report on the matter.
Lawmakers in Washington, after years of inattention, have identified child sexual abuse imagery and exploitation on the internet as an urgent problem. But as new legislation demonstrates, there are differing approaches to fighting a surge of the illegal activity, which tech companies are detecting in record numbers.

A bill expected to be introduced this week in both houses of Congress calls for an unparalleled crackdown on people who create and view the material. It would create nearly 200 positions at some federal law enforcement groups and double the budgets of others  allotting a total of $5 billion over 10 years  and create a Senate-confirmed official in the White House to oversee the spending.

The bills sponsor said it was sparked by a New York Times investigation last fall into the exponential growth of the illicit content. Last year, nearly 70 million images and videos of child sexual abuse, commonly known as child pornography, were reported to the authorities. Two other bills have since been introduced that address shortcomings The Times identified.

The Times found that state and local law enforcement efforts were grossly underfunded, and that the federal government had failed to adequately enforce a 2008 law meant to curb the spread of the material. Many technology companies, moreover, were found to be doing very little to patrol their own platforms.
In January 2017, an Intelligence Community Assessment commissioned by Barack Obama concluded, among other things, that Russia participated in the 2016 presidential election in order to help candidate Donald Trump. No sensible person ever believed this, but a lot of Americans did. Now, the Epoch Times reports that a long-suppressed Inspector Generals report says that then-CIA Director John Brennan overruled intelligence analysts and dictated that implausible conclusion:

A separate, classified report holed up at the office of the CIA Inspector General (IG) sheds damning light on the role then-CIA Director John Brennan played in the preparation of the report, former National Security Council Chief of Staff Fred Fleitz learned from House Intelligence Committee staff.

Unlike most news stories in the New York Times or the Washington Post, this one actually has a named sourceFred Fleitz, former National Security Council Chief of Staff. On the other hand, the story is hearsay. Fleitz got it by talking with House Intelligence Committee staff. Apparently some Republican members of the Intelligence Committee have been on to this story all along.

The report states that Brennan overruled agency analysts who wanted to include strong intelligence in the assessment to show that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted Hillary Clinton to win the election, Fleitz says, citing conversations with House Intelligence Committee staffers. Brennan had also rejected analysts who wanted to strike weak intelligence from the report which suggested that Russia favored Trump, Fleitz said. So Brennan actually slanted this analysis, choosing anti-Trump intelligence and excluding anti-Clinton intelligence, Fleitz told The Epoch Times.

The story is plausible because the Russians undoubtedly favored Hillary Reset Button Clinton over Donald America First Trump. That would have been true even if influential Russians had not greased the Clinton wheels with large contributions to the Clinton Foundation slush fund. It is also plausible because Brennan, who claims to be a former Communist but has never, to my knowledge, explained when or why he abandoned Marxist ideology, has shown himself to be utterly dishonest. Lying under oath to Congress is just one of his many falsehoods.

Maybe someday the whole truth behind the biggest scandal in American history will be told, but I dont expect to live that long.
New Delhi: Ahead of launching its biggest ever evacuation exercise to bring back home thousands of Indians stranded in the Gulf and various other parts of the world, Union Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Tuesday (May 5) held a meeting with all the important foreign missions, according to sources.

The minister held detailed discussions about the countries from where and on what basis stranded Indians should be brought. There are about 1.20 crore Indians around the world and about 9 million in the Gulf countries, where nearly 10,000 Indians have been infected with the coronavirus.

Sources told Zee News that more than three lakh people have already registered from the Gulf countries, but the task is very difficult to bring all of them back. Only genuine people will be helped to come back to India, with some parameters.

All Indian embassies in such countries have started the registration process. All the people who have got them registered will not be brought back, rather they have to meet the parameters set by the embassies.

-The first category will be of those people who are medical emergency will get priority to bring them back to India.

-Others include pregnant women, those with a terminal illness

-Migrant labourers who have lost their job abroad

-Those with short-term visas or whose visas have expired.

-People on a tourist visa, students, Senior Citizens

-People who have lost someone in their family or close relation

-People whom foreign governments want to deport.

Notably, the Indian Navy has already begun its mission titled "Operation Samudra Setu" as a part of the national effort to repatriate Indian citizens from overseas.

Indian Naval Ships Jalashwa and Magar are presently en-route to the port of Male to evacuate Indians from the Maldives.
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.
India will deploy commercial jets, military transport planes and naval warships to bring back hundreds of thousands of citizens stranded across the world, in what's set to be the biggest-ever peacetime repatriation exercise in history.

The first phase of the drive is estimated to help about 1.8 million Indian citizens return home, according to the Indian Navy. That far outnumbers the 170,000 people India airlifted from Kuwait in 1990 -- which inspired a Bollywood blockbuster -- and bigger than the 150,000 the U.K. evacuated last year, following the collapse of tour operator Thomas Cook Group.

The plan to evacuate citizens follows India's move to partially ease movement restrictions in many parts of the world's second-most populous nation after 40 days of strict stay-at-home orders. Millions of Indians were stuck around the world, from the Gulf to Europe and the U.S., after Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed the lockdown on March 25 to check the spread of the virus. The outbreak has already infected more than 46,000 in India, and killed almost 1,600.

At least four Indian Navy Ships, including two large tank landing vessels, sailed on Tuesday, three to the Gulf region and another one to the Maldives, which will bring back stranded Indians. The Indian Air Force has prepared about 30 aircraft, including Boeing's C-17 Globemaster and Lockheed Martin's C-130J Super Hercules, for the mission. Air India, which has a fleet including Boeing 777 and 787 Dreamliner aircraft, will also operate special, non-scheduled commercial flights from London Heathrow starting May 7.

People wanting to come back must pay for their journey, the Indian government said in a statement Monday. All passengers will be screened, only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed on board, and they will be quarantined for 14 days before having to go through a virus test, the government said.

Air India will operate 64 flights in the first week, while it's "entirely possible" that private airlines may also operate some flights in the future, civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri told reporters in an online briefing. Those coming from the U.S. will be charged more than $1,300 each while tickets from London will cost more than 500 pounds, Puri said. People landing in the country will also have to pay for their own quarantine.

In the U.A.E. alone, almost 200,000 Indians have applied to come back, according to a statement tweeted by the Consulate General of India in Dubai.

Priority will be given to pregnant women, the elderly, people with medical emergencies and ones with bereavement or serious illness in their immediate family, apart from stranded tourists, according to a notice posted on the website of the Indian High Commission in London.

The U.S. has repatriated about 78,000 of its citizens as of May 4, while European nations have evacuated more than 65,000.
ABC News(CHICAGO) -- BY: MEREDITH DELISO



An Illinois man who made thousands of crosses commemorating victims of violence in America has passed away.



Greg Zanis, founder of Crosses for Losses, died Monday morning, the organization announced on Facebook.



Zanis, 69, of Aurora, died of cancer, according to Chicago ABC station WLS.



The master carpenter started making the crosses in 1996, the year his father-in-law was killed in his hometown of Aurora, Illinois.



"I had the privilege of having the prayer coalition come over and help me with my grief," Zanis told ABC News in February 2019. "A few months later there was a 6-year-old killed in Aurora ... and his mom asked if I'd make a cross for her son."



Over the years, Zanis made more than 27,000 white crosses and traveled the country paying his respects to victims of gun violence.



One of his first projects was for the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999.



He was in Newtown, Connecticut, following the Sandy Hook shooting; Orlando, in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting; Las Vegas after the massacre at the Route 91 Harvest Festival; Parkland, Florida, after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting; and El Paso, Texas, after a mass shooting Walmart. He built Stars of David to honor the victims gunned down at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.



"I've got nothing with politics, I'm not a church guy [and] I'm not a gun guy," he told ABC News from El Paso in August 2019. "I'm a guy about the heart. Our heart is broken here in America. I want everybody to know I love them."



Last year, tragedy struck close to home when five employees at the Henry Pratt manufacturing plant in Aurora were killed in a mass shooting in February.



"This is the last thing I wanted, for this to happen so close to my house," Zanis told ABC News at the time.



On Friday, three days before Zanis passed away, residents of his hometown formed a mile-plus-long car parade to pay tribute to him. His family invited people to drive by and wave so Zanis could appreciate it, according to WLS.



Linda Regnier was there with the cross Zanis made for her cousin, Luis Martinez, who was killed four years ago.



"We love Greg. He has been a light in the darkest moments for families," Regnier told WLS.



In a Facebook post, Aurora Mayor Richard C. Irvin said Zanis was a "giant among men."



"He was a man of action who simply wanted to honor the lives of others," Irvin said. "His legacy shall forever be remembered in Aurora and around the globe."

Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
EMPOWER SEES SUBSTANTIAL YEAR-OVER-YEAR PATIENT GROWTH WHILE ROLLING OUT ADDITIONAL SERVICES AND CONTINUES TO PURCHASE SUPPLIES AND EQUIPMENT TO SUPPORT EXPANSION OF COVID-19 ANTIBODY TESTING

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / EMPOWER CLINICS INC. (CSE:CBDT)(OTCQB:EPWCF)(Frankfurt:8EC) ("Empower" or the "Company"), a vertically integrated life sciences company, is pleased to announce that patient visits in corporate clinics increased by 871% in April 2020 versus the same period in 2019, with total patient visits of 2,212 in April 2020 compared to 254 in April 2019.

The Company is booking new physician appointments for immune boosting services that are leading to naturopathic product sales and the ordering of specialized tests. In addition, the Company has increased orders of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and equipment such as stainless-steel tables, portable air conditioning units, tents and medical supplies to support staff and patients as part of a medical testing protocol in the United States.

The Company has also been identified by Amazon Business as needing access to critical supplies and as such, the Company has been awarded access to the Amazon COVID-19 SUPPLIES portal, which provides access to essential products for organizations participating in the fight against Coronavirus.

"The performance results from April are truly outstanding and given the operational changes the team have made as a result of Coronavirus, I am immensely proud of their efforts" said Steven McAuley, Chairman & CEO of Empower. "We are starting to see strong diversification in the revenue model for our clinics that will help us grow not only patient count, but revenue per patient, total revenue and perhaps more importantly, create revenue diversity to reduce concentration risk for the business model."

ABOUT EMPOWER

Empower is a vertically integrated health & wellness brand with a network of corporate and franchised health & wellness clinics in the U.S. The Company is building its first hemp-derived CBD extraction facility and produces its proprietary line of cannabidiol (CBD) based products. The Company is a leading multi-state operator of a network of physician-staffed wellness clinics, focused on helping patients improve and protect their health, through innovative physician recommended treatment options. The Company has commenced activity on how to connect its significant data, to the potential of the efficacy of alternative treatment options related to hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) therapies, psilocybin and other psychedelic plant-based treatment options. The Company now offers COVID-19 testing options in the United States and physician-based consultations, to address COVID-19 concerns.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

Steven McAuley

Chief Executive Officer

CONTACTS:

Investors: Steven McAuley

CEO

s.mcauley@empowerclinics.com

604-789-2146

Investors: Dustin Klein

SVP, Business Development

dustin@svmmjcc.com

720-352-1398

For French inquiries: Remy Scalabrini, Maricom Inc., E: rs@maricom.ca, T: (888) 585-MARI

DISCLAIMER FOR FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains certain "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" (collectively "forward looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws.All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Forward-looking statements can frequently be identified by words such as "plans", "continues", "expects", "projects", "intends", "believes", "anticipates", "estimates", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or information that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements regarding: the Company's expected timing of filing of its Annual Filings, the Company's intention to create psilocybin and psychedelics divisions, that market research on advancements in psilocybin and psychedelics in North America and globally will create greater shareholder value, the Company's intention to open a hemp-based CBD extraction facility, the expected benefits to the Company and its shareholders as a result of the proposed acquisitions and partnerships; the effectiveness of the extraction technology; the expected benefits for Empower's patient base and customers; the benefits of CBD based products; the effect of the approval of the Farm Bill; the growth of the Company's patient list and that the Company will be positioned to be a market-leading service provider for complex patient requirements in 2019 and beyond; the ability of the Company to complete or execute phases One, Two, Three or Four as noted above, and Psychedelic substances remain illegal in most countries, so please reference your local laws in relation to medical or recreational use. Such statements are only projections, are based on assumptions known to management at this time, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, including; that the Company may not open a hemp-based CBD extraction facility; that legislative changes may have an adverse effect on the Company's business and product development; that the Company may not be able to obtain adequate financing to pursue its business plan; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; failure to obtain any necessary approvals in connection with the proposed acquisitions and partnerships; and other factors beyond the Company's control. 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. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements in this release, which are qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The Company is under no obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements in this release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable laws.

SOURCE: Empower Clinics Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/588404/Empower-Clinics-Announces-April-2020-Patient-Growth-of-871-and-Orders-Additional-Supplies-for-Covid-19-Testing
New York: The New York Times picked up the most awards as the 2020 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced virtually on Monday owing to the coronavirus outbreak.

Prize board administrator Dana Canedy declared the winners from her living room via a livestream on YouTube rather than at a ceremony at New York's Columbia University.

The Times collected three awards, including for Brian M. Rosenthal's investigative report into New York City's taxi industry that revealed predatory loans that took advantage of vulnerable drivers.

It also won the international reporting prize for a series of stories on Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime. The paper's Nikole Hannah-Jones won best commentary for a personal essay that viewed America's origins through the lens of enslaved Africans.

The Pulitzers are generally regarded as the highest honor that US-based journalists and organizations can receive. Reuters won the breaking news photography award for pictures of the Hong Kong protests.

The Courier-Journal in Lexington, Kentucky won the breaking news reporting prize for its coverage of hundreds of last-minute pardons from Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin.

The explanatory reporting prize was awarded to the staff of The Washington Post for a series that showed the effects of extreme temperatures on the planet.

The Baltimore Sun took home the local reporting accolade for reporting on a financial relationship between the city's mayor and a public hospital system that her office oversaw.

Two organizations won the national reporting award: ProPublica for an investigation into a series of accidents in the US Navy and The Seattle Times for coverage that exposed design flaws in Boeing's 737 Max.

Ben Taub of The New Yorker won the feature writing award for a story on a Guantanamo Bay guard's growing friendship with a captor who was tortured.

The Associated Press was awarded the feature photography prize for images showing life in the contested Kashmir as India revoked its semi-autonomous status.

A special citation was awarded to Ida B. Wells, an early pioneer of investigative journalism and a civil rights icon.
Jon is a preeminent finance lawyer with incredible skill in complex finance transactions, including workouts and distressed assets. His well-honed insights help further round-out an already fantastic real estate team here, said Curtis B. Toll, managing shareholder of the Philadelphia office.

Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP continues the strategic growth of its real estate practice, with the addition of Jon S. Robins as a shareholder. Robins is well-known and respected for his handling of complex finance, equity investments and real estate activities.

Jon is a preeminent finance lawyer with incredible skill in complex finance transactions, including workouts and distressed assets. His well-honed insights help further round-out an already fantastic real estate team here, said Curtis B. Toll, managing shareholder of the Philadelphia office. He brings another dimension of industry experience to the Philadelphia real estate practice, allowing for the office to serve clients locally and nationwide in a holistic manner. We are delighted to welcome him to the firm.

Robins joins Greenberg Traurig following a 16-year tenure at Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg LLP.

Greenberg Traurigs international reputation in the real estate arena along with its history of collaboration across markets in the United States, and its commitment to Philadelphia, drew me to the firm, Robins said. The platform and team here will allow for further expansion of what I can offer my clients. Likewise, I look forward to working closely with the broad base of Greenberg Traurig clients in the increasingly complex commercial real estate environment rendered even more challenging by the novel coronavirus crisis.

Robins joins a 10-member real estate team that accounts for nearly 20 percent of the lawyers in the Philadelphia office  now one of the largest practice groups locally.

We are continuously impressed by the quality of talent and opportunity the Philadelphia market presents and grateful to be able to capitalize on both, noted a joint statement from the co-chairs of the firms award-winning Global Real Estate Practice, Stephen L. Rabinowitz, Corey E. Light, Richard J. Giusto, and Michael J. Baum. The significant growth in Philadelphia further deepens our ability to deliver quality and value for clients across sectors.

Prior to Klehr Harrison, Robins practiced law at Dechert for eight years. A graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Law and Colgate University, he frequently presents on real estate matters, such as decoding complex components of documentation, loans, and negotiating transactions involving foreign borrowers.

About Greenberg Traurig's Real Estate Practice: The Greenberg Traurig Real Estate Practice is a cornerstone of the firm and recognized leader in the industry. The firms real estate attorneys deliver diversified and comprehensive counsel for property acquisition and investment, development, management and leasing, financing, restructuring, and disposition of all asset classes of real estate. The team draws upon the knowledge and experience of more than 400 real estate lawyers from around the world, serving clients from key markets in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. The groups clientele includes a broad range of property developers, lenders, investment managers, private equity funds, REITs, and private owners. The firms real estate team advises clients on a variety of matters across a broad spectrum of commercial, recreational, and residential real estate, including structured equity and debt and the hybrids.

About Greenberg Traurigs Philadelphia Office: Founded in 1997, Greenberg Traurigs Philadelphia office is home to more than 50 attorneys and more than a dozen practices including Real Estate, Litigation, Labor & Employment, Corporate, Environmental, Restructuring & Bankruptcy, White Collar Defense & Special Investigations, Immigration & Compliance, Investment Regulation, Public Finance, Government Law & Policy, Private Wealth Services, and Tax. The Philadelphia office represents clients in the manufacturing, health care, real estate, energy, financial, and insurance industries, state and local governments, professional service, and energy firms, and individuals.

About Greenberg Traurig, LLP: Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) has more than 2,200 attorneys in 41 offices in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. GT has been recognized for its philanthropic giving, diversity, and innovation, and is consistently among the largest firms in the U.S. on the Law360 400 and among the Top 20 on the Am Law Global 100. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com Twitter: @GT_Law.
Some have called it 'Fifty Shades of Sligo'. New York Times TV critic Emily Nussbaum tweeted about watching 'the horny Irish teens'. It's safe to say that Normal People's many, many sex scenes have gotten people hot and bothered. Yet a cohort of people found the adaptation of Sally Rooney's second novel too much for the small screen.

Last week, listeners to RTE Radio 1's Liveline discussed the series, currently showing on RTE One. One listener likened it to "something you see in a porno movie". Another noted, "it's filthy and I won't be watching the rest of it". Even the show's director, Lenny Abrahamson, was moved to tweet a screenshot of host Joe Duffy with his head in his hands.

Several viewers have praised sex scenes in Normal People between Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell (Paul Mescal), noting the authentic feel of the content. Others have hailed the scriptwriters' healthy depiction of consent, although as anyone who read the book knows, things take a much darker turn in future episodes.

"We have to contextualise [the reaction]," observes broadcast historian Finola Doyle O'Neill. "We are in Covid country so people are under siege. A lot more people are watching TV outside of the show's target 15-44 age groups, and this is why it's taking on more reverberation than it might normally. People complaining about it are not the target audience, but are predominantly the highest viewerships in RTE."

Normal People is merely the latest in a long line of 'won't someone think of the children' moments on Irish screens. In fact, some of the most talked-about sex scenes in Irish televisual history barely had sex in them at all.

In 1966, Gay Byrne, who was largely credited with 'bringing sex to Ireland', kicked up a bit of dust in an infamous episode that came to be known as the Bishop and The Nightie. In a Mr & Mrs-style quiz, couples were asked questions about their partners.

Gay picked a married couple from the audience, Richard and Eileen Fox from Terenure in Dublin. One of the questions related to the colour of Eileen's nightie on honeymoon. Richard said it was transparent, while Eileen said she wasn't wearing any. It prompted Thomas Ryan, then Bishop of Clonfert, to condemn the show from his pulpit.

"Gay himself said, Irish people will look at the Sun and see a Page Three girl, but when they see something similar within an Irish context, people have a different reaction," notes Dr Doyle O'Neill.

Two decades later, there were also audible gasps when Gay opened a lone condom from a packet on the show in 1987, noting sarcastically: "That is the dreaded object." One viewer wrote in, enraged: "I have an 18-year-old daughter who I wouldn't want to see those things. If she had been in the sitting room with me last night, I'd have been very embarrassed."

Quite what this viewer would have made of The Spike, a drama set in a secondary school, is anyone's guess. In 1978, a nude model appeared for a live drawing class, but the seemingly innocent context did little to dampen the controversy. Far from letting the scene propel the show to infamy, RTE pulled the show from its schedule after just five episodes.

Soap opera has been the Trojan horse through which most of our sexual content has been explored on screens. Imports like EastEnders, Brookside, Dallas and Dynasty featured plenty of raunch, but weren't exactly holding a mirror up to Irish society.

"RTE have been very tentative about the way they curate sex scenes," observes Dr Doyle O'Neill. In the 1970s, The Riordans broached the subject of sexuality (in one scene between Maggie Riordan and a priest), yet by the 1990s, things had become slightly more outre in pre-watershed territory.

By 1996, Fair City viewers had already seen flings and affairs, yet a same-sex kiss between Liam Casey (Peter Warnock) and Eoghan Healy (Alan Smith), that never actually happened in the end, rocked the nation: "The episode became apocryphal, in that we imagine it actually happened," says Dr Doyle O'Neill. "Given that homosexuality had been decriminalised only three years before, it was brave for RTE but not brave enough."

Viewers of a certain age will certainly recall the 1997 episode of Glenroe in which Miley had a chaste enough roll about in the hay barn with Fidelma, cousin to his wife, Biddy. The scene cut to the credits before the tryst got going. Yet if Glenroe's producers wanted to stir up a bit of sexy controversy, it was very much a case of job done. "People would say to me that their parents were disgusted and wouldn't watch the programme any more because I was a home-wrecker," actress Eunice McMenamin, who played Fidelma, noted after the fact. "But I was very proud of what we did, it pushed a boundary in its own way. It showed that people have sex in the country too."

Says Dr Doyle O'Neill: "Because Miley was the everyman, he was a man we never thought would betray for lust. In a way the whole nation felt betrayed."

People in Drogheda certainly have sex, if RTE's Love Is The Drug was anything to go by. During the boom years, RTE switched some of their energies to creating dramas about angsty twenty-somethings and their sex lives. The Big Bow Wow, Raw and Love Is The Drug featured plenty of youthful sex scenes and nudity, but by then RTE 2 viewers were seemingly too cool and urban as to kick up a stink about it.

And then Tallafornia arrived in 2012, and that was pretty much the end of being cool.

The TV3 fly-on-the-wall reality series had the honour of featuring the first ever actual sex scene on Irish TV. Nikita Murray and Phil Penny decided to make their way to the 'score room', where viewers are treated to much rustling of duvets. After just one episode, the Dublin-based show pulled a bumper 500,000 viewers.

It also caught its fair share of criticism. "This is a new low in broadcasting", one viewer tweeted. "Pure garbage... Ashamed to be from Dublin right now," read another online verdict.

"I knew the show would get a mixed reaction," the show's producer Fintan Maguire was quoted as saying. "But I wasn't expecting people to love or hate it so absolutely."

But why did Tallafornia cop so much heat, when other shows had fallen under the radar? "Tallafornia was trying to be a bit like Jersey Shore, but we don't have the climate nor the moral compass for it. The thing is, people didn't care about Raw at the time because they had lives. The reaction comes when you have a captive audience," asserts Dr Doyle O"Neill.

Love/Hate enjoyed a similarly healthy ratings boon, and the grisly depictions of cat-and-mouse violence were offset by some memorable sex scenes. Darren (Robert Sheehan) and Rosie (Ruth Negga)'s sex appeared earnest, passionate and loving, which is a lot more than could be said for Nidge's trysts with well, anyone.

Nidge's fast and furious sex sessions with Janet (Mary Murray) and Linda (Denise McCormack), whether by accident or design, served as a sort of comic relief alongside a tart cocktail of gangland violence and darkness.

It has recently been announced that Element Pictures, who produced Normal People, have adapted Sally Rooney's debut novel, Conversations with Friends. A tangy love saga with a young glut of characters at its core, it's sure to sizzle on screen much like its forebear. Just don't tell Liveline's listeners.
Management, administrative positions and pilots will be affected as the US airline expects travel demand to stay weak.

United Airlines Holdings Inc plans to cut at least 3,400 management and administrative positions in October as the coronavirus pandemic crushes air travel demand, and has told pilots to brace for changes as well, according to two memos seen by Reuters.

Chicago-based United is among the US airlines that have accepted US government payroll aid that bans job or pay cuts before September 30. However, United and other carriers have warned that demand is unlikely to recover to pre-crisis levels by that date, forcing them to shrink in the fall.

The United memos are the first indication of just how much major airlines might downsize due to the health crisis.

We have to acknowledge that there will be serious consequences to our company if we dont continue to take strong and decisive action, which includes making decisions that none of us ever wanted or expected to make, Kate Gebo, executive vice president of human resources and labour relations, said in the memo to some 11,500 management and administrative employees.

Affected employees will be notified in mid to late July for an October 1 effective date, she said, while encouraging employees to consider a voluntary separation before that date.

In a separate memo seen by Reuters, pilots were told to prepare for a displacement that will affect roughly 30 percent or about 3,675 pilots out of 12,250.

One pilot union official said the group was interpreting the message to mean a 30-percent reduction as soon as October 1.

United sent memos on Monday to a number of work groups about near-term changes and potential long-term implications, spokeswoman Leslie Scott said.

Travel demand is essentially zero for the foreseeable future and, even with federal assistance that covers a portion of our payroll expense through September 30, we anticipate spending billions of dollars more than we take in for the next several months, while continuing to employ 100 percent of our workforce, United spokesman Frank Benenati said in an email. Thats not sustainable for any company.

United and other airlines, which only months ago were mapping out growth plans, have parked jets and drastically cut flight schedules in an effort to reduce costs and shore up cash until demand recovers.

Optimism Down Under

Meanwhile, Australias Qantas Airways Ltd said on Tuesday it had secured enough funding to last it through the end of next year, boosting its shares, as it reviews its fleet with the expectation that most international travel could take years to rebound.

The carrier secured 550 million Australian dollars ($355m) against three of its Boeing Co 787-9 aircraft and said it could raise another 2.7 billion Australian dollars ($1.74bn) from other aircraft assets if needed. It also said it would reduce its cash burn rate to 40 million Australian dollars ($25.84m) a week by the end of June.

This means we are very well placed to ride this out and to take part in the recovery when it arrives, Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce told reporters. Because Australia has flattened the curve there is some hope travel demand will come back faster than expected, he said, referring to a plateau in the COVID-19 infection rate.

Joyce also said the airline saw no need to raise equity.

Qantas shares climbed as much as 5.6 percent during trading after the market update.

Australia has recorded about 6,800 infections and 96 deaths from COVID-19 and has maintained low single-digit daily rises in new cases for weeks, leading to a loosening of social distancing restrictions in some states and hopes for a domestic tourism revival this year.

Qantas has cancelled most domestic flights until the end of June and international flights until the end of July.

A full recovery in international travel, with the possible exception of New Zealand, could take years, Joyce said, sparking a review of the airlines fleet.

He said Qantas has shelved plans to order up to 12 Airbus SE A350 planes capable of non-stop Sydney-London and Sydney-New York flights and could keep some of its 12 A380s grounded, depending on the pace of a recovery.

We have to plan for a range of scenarios, Joyce said.

More than 25,000 of the airlines staff have been stood down until at least the end of June at a time when the carrier is flying 5 percent of its pre-crisis domestic passenger network and 1 percent of its pre-crisis international network.

Joyce said there was the ability to scale up quickly if demand returned and the airline was well-placed to pick up domestic and international market share during a recovery due to its strong financial position.

The companys smaller rival Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd last month entered voluntary administration after being battered by the coronavirus crisis and a high debt load.

Virgins administrators have said more than 20 potential buyers have expressed interest in buying the countrys second-largest airline.
On March 5, Tennessee governor Bill Lee announced the states first confirmed case of Covid-19. Three weeks later on Easter Sunday, tornadoes touched down outside of Chattanooga, killing four people and flattening 2,000 structures.

Since the start of the pandemic, highly-taxed emergency management agencies have scrambled to make plans for handling a major natural disaster in addition to the virus. A confluence of disasters in Tennessee give insight to how agencies can manage responses to both.

Trevor Riggen, senior vice president of Disaster Cycle Services at the Red Cross, explains that the foundation had started training to respond to disasters during the pandemic well before the twisters in Chattanooga. Weve been working since late January to adjust our protocols on the day-to-day events like house fires, he says.

After the tornadoes touched down, the Red Cross had more than 175 people volunteer to help out locally, but 70% were organized to work virtually. Health service workers who help people get new glasses, medicine and mental health services made contact over the phone rather than in person. Additionally, administrative and management tasks that would have taken place at a local headquarters instead utilized video conferencing.

Normally, the Red Cross builds a shelter in a school gym or community center and asks the displaced to share common areas including bathrooms and sleeping areas. This time the Red Cross contracted with local hotels for shelter to get each family their own room. The Red Cross left it to local emergency service personnel like police and firemen as well as social media to tell impacted families how to find shelter.

By reducing the number of points of contact, the Red Cross had enough protective gear for front-line staff that needed to have close interactions. The volunteers who drop off mobile phones in person to people left without electronics or deliver restaurant meals to families in hotels could count on face masks and other protective clothing.

Although this year has been the deadliest tornado season since 2011, Riggen says the fallout has been manageable. As of April 16, the Red Cross had 1,479 clients in 528 hotel rooms across the country, but they could handle up to 8,000 displaced persons.

But Riggen says that he and his colleagues know that if a disaster is big enough  like a multi-state hurricane  local hotels wont be the answer. They will be damaged or they will be occupied by people who can afford to pay, unlike most of the people Red Cross assists.

So as the Gulf of Mexico experiences unusually warm water temperatures this spring  one predictor of the severity of upcoming hurricane season  the Red Cross is drilling its staff on what a virus-safe group shelter might look like. It would, of course, include testing and a CDC travel questionnaire as a prerequisite for entering. Anyone with symptoms would be isolated in a separate ward. Everyone else would stay together, but testing would continue regularly and sleeping cots would be spaced 6 feet apart.

Shelter meals will be served individually instead of cafeteria style and disinfectant cleanings will be frequent. The Red Cross says it has 750 kits for shelters that include goggles, masks, gloves and gowns as well as hand sanitizers, thermometers and supplies for a hand washing station.

This is definitely not business as usual, says Riggen, but we are operating.

About the photo: A man looks over buildings destroyed by storms Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. Tornadoes ripped across Tennessee early Tuesday, shredding buildings and killing multiple people. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
Liaison office of China's central gov't in HKSAR condemns foreign interference in HK affairs

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 10:40, May 04, 2020

HONG KONG, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Sunday expressed strong condemnation of and firm opposition to the blatant interference in Hong Kong affairs and the malicious smear of "one country, two systems" by Western anti-China politicians and organization.

Recently some anti-China politicians in the United States and Britain have made unwarranted remarks about Hong Kong's legislation on Article 23 of the Basic Law, distorted comments on the police law enforcement actions and judicial system in Hong Kong and unreasonable attacks on "one country, two systems" and the Basic Law, a spokesperson of the liaison office noted, adding that these politicians' absurd remarks and arrogant attitudes are shocking.

Safeguarding national security is the constitutional responsibility of the HKSAR and is purely China's internal affairs in which other countries have no right to interfere, the spokesperson stressed.

The erroneous remarks by these politicians, which seriously violate international law and basic norms governing international relations, are another example of external forces' gross interference in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs at large.

The spokesperson also blasted a recent report by U.S. National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) as "full of lies and double standards".

The NDI report distorted the truth of Hong Kong's unrest sparked by the now-withdrawn ordinance amendments concerning fugitive transfers, glorified the series of terrorist violence by extreme radicals as "peaceful protests," and defamed the HKSAR government and the Hong Kong Police Force, which have been safeguarding Hong Kong's stability and the rule of law in accordance with the law, the spokesperson said, expressing firm opposition to the organization's egregious acts of openly endorsing illegal and violent elements and undermining Hong Kong's prosperity and stability.

Since Hong Kong's return to the motherland, the policies of "one country, two systems", "Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong" and a high degree of autonomy have been implemented, and Hong Kong residents' rights and freedoms have been fully guaranteed by law. It is a fact universally recognized and not to be distorted, the spokesperson said.

"We are firm in our resolve to safeguard the national sovereignty, security and development interests, to implement the 'one country, two systems' policy, and to oppose any interference by external forces in Hong Kong affairs," said the spokesperson.

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A Congress worker and an aide of senior leader and former general secretary of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, Daljit Singh Bhola, was allegedly assaulted by a party supporter and his five unidentified accomplices near the office of party MLA Sanjay Talwar, police said on Tuesday.

Complainant Ashwani Sharma, alias Gopi, said he had been receiving threats following a spat with the husband of ward number 9 Congress councillor Gulshan Kaur in a WhatsApp group. On Monday night when he was returning home after meeting Bhola, a party supporter, Sahil, and some of his accomplices intercepted and assaulted him with a sharp-edged weapon and sticks. After he raised the alarm, the accused left the spot. Following this, Gopi called up Bhola who rushed him to Christian Medical College and Hospital where his condition is stable.

BOTH FACTIONS HAD A SPAT EARLIER

Sources said the two factions of the Congress leaders had indifferences over the distribution of ration among the needy. Earlier, members of both the factions had indulged in a spat in public over discrepancies in the distribution of ration.

Tibba police have lodged an FIR against six people, including Sahil. Assistant commissioner of police (East) Davinder Chaudhary said the case was registered under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 325 (grievous hurt), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon) and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the Indian Penal Code following the statement of the victim. He said more names could be added in the FIR and efforts were on to nab the accused.
On May 4, the armed formations of the Russian Federation launched 12 attacks on Ukrainian positions in the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) area in Donbas.

The enemy used 120mm and 82mm mortars, grenade launchers of different systems, heavy machine guns, and small arms to shell Ukrainian positions. Ukrainian defenders gave a decisive response to the shelling and continue to control the enemy on the contact line, observing the ceasefire regime, the press center of the JFO Headquarters reports.

As a result of the enemy attacks, one Ukrainian soldier was wounded.

According to the intelligence data, one invader was destroyed and two others wounded. In addition, Ukrainian soldiers destroyed the enemys war machine.

Today, the Russian-occupation troops have already violated ceasefire by firing 82mm mortars at Ukrainian positions near Nevelske (18km north-west of Donetsk). Ukrainian servicemen effectively used duty fire weapons to stop the enemy shelling. No casualties among Ukrainian troops have been reported.

The situation in the JFO area remains controlled.

ish
Scott Morrison has written to G20 leaders to ramp up his calls for an independent review into the origins of the coronavirus, as the Australian Prime Minister has again rejected suggestions there was compelling evidence the virus started in a Wuhan laboratory.

The direct pitch to the world's most powerful leaders, which includes Chinese president Xi Jinping, follows heightened concern within the Australian government that the United States push to pin the virus on the Wuhan Institute of Virology was derailing efforts to eliminate dangerous wildlife wet markets.

Scott Morrison says there is no evidence to strongly suggest the Wuhan lab theory. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this week claimed there was "enormous evidence" the coronavirus outbreak originated in the Chinese laboratory but did not provide any facts to back up his assertion.

Asked whether he agreed with Mr Pompeo's statement, Mr Morrison on Tuesday said the Australian government cannot rule anything out, but the most likely cause of the outbreak was a Wuhan wildlife wet market.
Netflix aims to double its number of original Italian series by 2022.

Netflix, the American media services provider, has underscored its strong links with Rome by choosing to open a base in the Via Veneto area of the capital.

The Rome launch by the US streaming giant was delayed by the covid-19 pandemic however it now plans to open in the Italian capital in the second half of 2021, according to Variety.

La dolce vita returns to Via Veneto

The new Netflix base will be in the historic Villino Rattazzi on Via Boncompagni, a prestigious street hosting the US embassy to Italy and the American parish church of St Patrick's.

The villa's offices will host the Italian team - numbering around 40 and previously based in Amsterdam - working in the marketing, public relations and new production sectors, according to Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

Netflix Rome base at Villino Rattazzi

The three-storey building, which dates to around 1900, was designed by the architect Giulio Podesti, for the family of the statesman Urbano Rattazzi, one of Italy's founding fathers.

Rome connections

In addition to the existing American connections to Via Boncompagni, the choice of location by Netflix is not casual: the nearby Via Veneto is synonymous with Italy's dolce vita golden era of cinema and Hollywood actors.

Netflix, which sponsored Rome's Spelacchio Christmas trees in 2018 and 2019, also filmed the hit series Suburra and Baby in the Eternal City as well as movies such as The Two Popes.

So what can we expect in the near future? Netflix gave Variety an insight into what is on the horizon.

Zero will mark the first Italian series focused on the life of young black Italians and is in post production; then there is Fidelita from the Missiroli novel; and Luna Park, set during the "Dolce Vita" days of Rome.

Generazione 56K revolves around a group of teens overwhelmed by the arrival of the internet on the threshold of adolescence"; Strappare lungo i bordi di Zerocalcare is a dive into the animated world of the Italian cartoonist Guida astrologica per cuori infranti, based on the writings of Silvia Zucca. revolves around a group of teens overwhelmed by the arrival of the internet on the threshold of adolescence";isa dive into the animated world of the Italian cartoonist Michele Rech ; and filming has begun in Turin for a new Italian Netflix original series titled, based on the writings of Silvia Zucca.

However the biggest investment by Netflix is reserved for an adaptation of Elena Ferrante's hit novel La vita bugiarda degli adulti (The Lying Life of Adults) which is scheduled to hit our television screens in 2022.
Kirtland Air Force Base installation commander Col. David Miller is aware of complaints from retirees about being prevented from shopping at the commissary and base exchange during the COVID-19 pandemic.

And it may be July before those restrictions are lifted, he said.

Im fourth-generation military. Making this kind of decision is difficult, he told the Journal, saying it was like restricting his father and grandfather, who both served in the Air Force.

But as the installation commander, Miller said, he had to protect the missions on the base from the spread of coronavirus.

Were not targeting retirees, he said. Were trying to reduce the footprint of people coming on base.

About 27,000 retirees live in the Albuquerque area, which means the base serves one of the largest groups in the country.

Jason Riley, a 24-year Army veteran, said he was angry about the decision.

It sends a message that retirees arent valued, he said. Theyve got a lot of folks very upset about this.

He cut us out totally, 20-year Air Force veteran Brian Collins said. I dont think its fair at all.

Both Riley and Collins said being able to shop on base helps veterans who are struggling financially.

For a lot of veterans who are not as financially fortunate, this helps them get through the month, Riley said.

For veterans living on a limited budget, its a big savings, Collins added.

Miller said that the savings available on base are actually minimal, and that some items are cheaper off base. Miller hopes the federal stimulus payments from the CARES Act are helping to offset increased costs veterans are experiencing shopping off base.

Riley questioned the reasoning behind the restrictions, because retirees are still allowed to use the pharmacy on base. But Miller said the decision to allow access to the pharmacy was made to reduce the number of people using the medical groups pharmacy off base near the Veterans Affairs hospital.

Miller said the restrictions in place at Kirtland are in line with those at other military bases around the country, including Cannon Air Force Base, near Clovis, and Holloman Air Force Base, near Alamogordo.

Collins and Riley pointed to Nellis Air Force Base, in Nevada, where restrictions blocking retirees from using the commissary were lifted after complaints. Miller said retirees were allowed to use the commissary and exchange at Malmstrom Air Force Base, in Montana, where he served before coming to Kirtland.

When restrictions were first put into place, Miller was concerned Albuquerque would become a hot spot as a hub of activity in New Mexico. Four COVID-19 cases were reported on base in the first few days of the outbreak. Miller said cases on the base have since been minuscule. He said that the Department of Defense no longer allows military installations to divulge their numbers out of fear it could make them vulnerable to a terrorist attack but that they are included in state data.
TSU, Japan -- Eight years after arriving from Brazil, Rennan Yamashita sat in a government office in central Japan, filling out forms for unemployment insurance after losing his job for the ninth or 10th time - he has lost count.

Some weeks earlier, he was laid off from his job at a car parts factory. He only held that job for four months.

If they need you, they hire you; if they dont need you, theyll fire you. Its simple like that, said Yamashita, 31.

The coronavirus pandemic has hit Japans economy hard and many factories, including those of carmakers, are scaling back production.

Foreign workers are particularly vulnerable, with a weaker support network and language barriers that prevent them from seeking government help.

Union groups, labor lawyers and nonprofit organisations say foreign workers such as Yamashita are the first to lose jobs in corona cuts, which they fear may expand to the kind of mass layoffs seen in the 2008 financial crisis.

Last month, the Japan Center for Economic Research estimated that if Japans GDP contracted by 25 percent this year, the unemployment rate would reach 5% and about 2 million people could lose their jobs.

In March and April, a labor organization based in Mie, a manufacturing center about 300km west of Tokyo, received 400 consultations from laborers who were affected by the coronavirus. About 330 were foreign workers.

Foreign workers on short-term contracts are laid off first, because theyre easier to fire, Union Mie organiser Akai Jimbu said.

Kaori Nakao and Akai Jimbu wearing protective masks, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, take part in a protest against Nakao's firing in front of the factory she used to work at in Kiyosu, Aichi Prefecture, Japan April 20, 2020. Photo: Reuters

Last year, 34.5 percent of foreign employees in Mie were temporary workers, compared with the national average of 2.5 percent.

Its almost like theyre hired so that they can be fired when the going gets tough, Jimbu said.

Theyre just a spare bolt in the eyes of the employer.

'First to go'

Japan has become increasingly reliant on foreign labor.

With a third of its population over 65 and a smaller working population, the government has eased some immigration restrictions.

More than 1.6 million foreign workers supported the Japanese economy as of October 2019  a four-fold increase from 2008.

A labor ministry official told Reuters the ministry does not officially track the number of foreign workers laid off because it provides support to all workers regardless of their nationality.

Still, the government recently allocated 370 million yen ($3.46 million) to improve multilingual support for foreigners at unemployment offices and online.

But most foreign workers dont turn to the government for help.

While Union Mie handled hundreds of consultations this year through mid-April, the local labor ministry office saw only seven.

Union organizer Akai Jimbu protests the firing of Japanese-Brazilian Kaori Nakao wearing a protective mask, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in front of the factory she used to work at, while a man tries to stop their protest, in Kiyosu, Aichi Prefecture, Japan April 20, 2020. Photo: Reuters

Kaori Nakao, a Japanese-Brazilian woman, sought help from the union when her employer laid her off from a car component factory at the end of March.

The company told her she was being fired because of coronavirus-related production cuts.

Nakao, 38, was also ordered to leave her company apartment.

Pregnant with her fourth child and with no savings, she asked Union Mie for help.

Last month, union members and Nakao protested outside her employers office and the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Thermal Systems factory where she worked.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Thermal Systems declined to comment because it did not employ Nakao.

I just want to work, Nakao said.

I have zero money and I cant even buy food for my children.

Yamashita, who is still looking for jobs, said he had found an open position at another car parts factory a few weeks ago.

The contract was only for three months  maybe even less.

Still, Yamashita said, it was something. He interviewed for the job, and was looking forward to a respite from searching.

But then he got a call. The position wasnt available anymore.

We are the first to go, he says of foreigners working in Japan.

I already know about that.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban has called on the propagators of a recent "disinformation campaign against Hungary" to apologise to the Hungarian people.

Hungary is the victim of a baseless, unprecedented attack and disinformation campaign, Orban said in a letter addressed to EPP members and leaders.



This campaign, he added, had been waged when lives were on the line due to the novel coronavirus outbreak. The attack on Hungary was not the first, he said in the letter. But it was the most despicable and most cynical, it added.



He said those who had taken part in the campaign had spread falsehoods and lies, such as the claim that parliament had been shut down.



Orban said the reality was that parliaments powers had actually been enhanced, adding that the body had the authority to end the state of emergency declared in March and repeal any of the governments special measures.



Orban lamented that it was not just the conservative groupings formal political opponents but also certain EPP politicians who had engaged in spreading fake news. EPP leader Donald Tusk had even gone as far as to draw a parallel between the measures introduced in Hungary and Nazi legal scholar Carl Schmitt, he added.



MTI Photo: Zsolt Szigetvary
The novel coronavirus has saddled governments with the added responsibility of defending their constituents from virus-related disinformation  proving that, in this day and age, public health crises can quickly become informational crises too.Despite the fact that experts have warned that re-opening the economy could cause a catastrophic COVID-19 "second wave," a series of "Re-open" protests recently erupted in communities across the country. Spurred by the notion that an economic downturn poses a greater threat than the virus itself, the movement is encouraging Americans to demand that state governments ease travel and work restrictions.Recent news investigations have shown tha t much of this movement is being supported less by everyday Americans and more by activists aligned with conservative libertarian organizations and wealthy special interest groups.A new report breaks down how this works  showing that many of the recent protests are part of an "astroturfing" (fake grass-roots) campaign manufactured by a single firearms lobbyist in Iowa. Aaron Dorr, who runs an advocacy consulting business with a focus on gun rights, is responsible for having ginned up many of these, the report, conducted by DNS research company DomainTools, shows "This is actually super common," said Chad Anderson, senior security researcher for DomainTools, referring to astroturfing. "Normally we wouldn't go digging this far [into a campaign] but the fact that it affects public health and [that it] has taken on speed because of Fox News [coverage] ... means it's endangering people. So that's why it seemed important."The group allegedly used One Click Politics  a vendor specializing in lobbying and online campaigns  to launch regional protest sites all over the country. DomainTools analyzed the page content, design and registration of many of these sites, finding traces of Dorr in much of the protest movement.Much of COVID-19 disinformation has been of this stripe: groups seeking to take advantage of people's panic and frustrations. A lot of these campaigns seem to be financially motivated  like when ransomware hackers use fake health websites to lure in unsuspecting Web users. However, other campaigns are less motivated by money than by the opportunity to influence people's political views.Data R&D company Graphika released a report this month showing that a longstanding disinformation vector for the Iranian government had recently launched an anti-U.S., pro-China campaign, spreading conspiracy theories about the origins of the virus.The group, known as IUVM, is considered to be a "persistent actor" in influence operations and has used a "network of deceptive accounts" on websites to spread its anti-U.S. messaging. Large social media companies like Facebook and Twitter have repeatedly had to remove content posted by IUVM for its "pro Iran information operations," the report reads.Astroturf campaigns like this have been spotted in the past by DomainTools researchers as well, Anderson said, referring to "state-sponsored" initiatives conducted by other nations for political reasons.In the current context, disinformation can be incredibly damaging  much more so than in a non-emergency setting, said Wasim Khaled, CEO of social media analysis firm Blackbird.AI, in a recent interview.Khaled's firm recently released a report similar to Graphika's , showing how networks of social media accounts could be used to aid coordinated disinformation campaigns."The disinformation we've seen recently seems like it could be more and more damaging than what we've seen in the past," said Khaled. "It's not just about partisan chatter, or even about election integrity; it's about people potentially dying on a regular basis if they believe the wrong things."Government TechnologyGoverning
With the new Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) taking place, a few businesses have reopened but with strict health monitoring and won't be opened daily. Similarly to Grab Malaysia, foodpanda have also announced new operational hours in line with the government's initiative.

According to foodpanda, they will start their operation from as early as 5AM until 12AM but only in selected locations. Depending on the state's regulations, the operational hours may vary for each location. Despite that, it's nice to know that you will have a lovely midnight snack before going to bed if you ever get hungry.

foodpanda also gave us a time table for each state's operating hours, so you can take a look at it above. Stay home, stay safe, and stay tuned for more trending tech news at TechNave.com.
(Reuters) - The American naval coalition in the Gulf creates insecurity, the Iranian military said in a statement on Monday, according to the official IRNA news agency.

"The false coalition from outside the region led by America disrupts regional order and security rather than help preserve stability and security in the region," the statement said. "The only sure way to establish peace and stability in the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman is the exit of the American military forces and their allies."

Earlier this month, the U.S. military said 11 Iranian Revolutionary Guards naval vessels came close to U.S. Navy and coast guard ships in the Gulf, calling the moves dangerous and provocative.

(Reporting By Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Catherine Evans)
Xiaomi has been granted a design patent for a smartphone with an under-display camera. That patent has been spotted on CNIPA (China Intellectual Property Administration), after which it was published on WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) as well.

This smartphone utilizes the tech that Xiaomi already demoed last year. The front-facing camera is essentially placed under the display, and you cant see it. When in use, that part of the display becomes see-through, so that you can take a picture.

This patent proves Xiaomi is working on a smartphone with under-display camera, but its not the only one

That technology has been demoed by Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo at this point, though the companies said that it wasnt ready back then. The pictured did not meet the quality standards, as they were too dark.

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Well, all three companies had some time to work on their tech, and were expecting to see the very first such smartphone on sale this year. Were not really sure when will that happen, nor who will be the first to launch it, though.

Xiaomi is one of the main contenders, though, and this patent proves it. As you can see in the renders provided below, this device looks like modern smartphones, but without a display hole or notch.

The images that you can see below are based on the patent design sketches. The images have been made into a real-life product by the Concept Creator, on the request of Letsgodigital.

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The phones chin is a little bit thicker than its other bezels, and other bezels are almost non-existent. Think of this device like the OnePlus 7 Pro with a flat display, and no pop-up camera.

So, you wont have to deal with moving parts, nor display obstructions when such a phone becomes official. This patent does not prove that Xiaomi will release a smartphone with an under-display camera in the coming weeks, but it sure proves that the company is working hard on it.

The device is made out of metal and glass

The phone that you can see here is made out of metal and glass. Its power / lock and volume rocker buttons are on the right. A separate physical button is also located on the left.

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The phones display has rounded edges, as does the phone itself. There are several cameras included on the back, and theyre vertically-aligned. The whole camera module is placed in the top-left corner, and it does protrude a bit.

An LED flash sits below the phones cameras, and the back side of the device is curved. The companys branding is also visible on the back of this smartphone.

The phone probably includes an in-display fingerprint scanner as well, and it does not feature a 3.5mm headphone jack. It will be interesting to see who will be the first to market with a smartphone that features an under-display camera.
Israel's Defence Minister Naftali Bennett on Monday said that the country's scientists have made a 'significant breakthrough' in coronavirus treatment by isolating a key antibody at its biological research laboratory. The monoclonal neutralising antibody developed at the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) can neutralise the disease-causing coronavirus inside carriers' bodies, Bennett was widely reported as saying by the Israeli media. The antibody formula is being patented, after which an international manufacturer would be sought to mass-produce it, IIBR Director Shmuel Shapira was also quoted as saying. Another research team MigVax has also said that it is close to completing the first phase of development of a coronavirus vaccine.

Israel has reported 16,246 cases and 235 deaths from coronavirus. It was among the first few countries to close its borders and impose stringent restrictions on movement to hamper the domestic coronavirus outbreak.

Meanwhile, the US is planning to begin treating some of the most seriously ill coronavirus patients with the antiviral medication Remdesivir, the maker of the drug recently said. The medication recently received fast-track approval for use in the US. "We are now firmly focused on getting this medicine to the most urgent patients," Gilead CEO Daniel O'Day told CBS News on Sunday.

In India, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases jumped to 46,711 on Tuesday including 31,967 active cases, 13,160 recoveries, 1 migrated patient and 1,583 deaths, according to latest updates by the Union Health Ministry. India reported 3,875 new COVID-19 cases and 194 deaths in the past 24 hours, the highest ever rise in a single day.

Also read: Coronavirus Lockdown Live Updates: After Delhi, Andhra Pradesh hikes liquor price by 75%; India's cases-46,433

Also read: Coronavirus crisis: Govt should write off loans of small businesses, says Abhijit Banerjee
Juul is laying off a third of its workforce, or about 900 employees, as the vaping company moves its headquarters from San Francisco to Washington.

The job cuts were confirmed in a company memo issued Tuesday and reviewed by The Chronicle.

For us to be successful, its critical that we have a team who continues to be fully committed to our mission, our strategy and our future, CEO K.C. Crosthwaite wrote in the memo.

Bloomberg first reported the cuts. Juul declined to comment.

Juul previously laid off 650 workers last year as it reeled from multiple federal investigations and a local ban in San Francisco. A wave of deaths last year attributed to vaping drew further scrutiny toward Juul, though most were attributed to vaping cannabis, not Juuls nicotine products. Numerous customers and state officials have also sued the company.

Juuls rise met a growing backlash in the Bay Area toward tech and long-running opposition to tobacco use, said David McCuan, a political science professor at Sonoma State University.

Juul is both of those, he said. They come out of the gate with two strikes against them.

San Francisco officials were overtly hostile, seeking unsuccessfully to evict the company from city-owned offices at Pier 70, and later banning the sale of Juuls products.

Whether thats drinking, smoking or gambling, any of those things, you couldnt pick a harsher environment than San Francisco in terms of regulation, McCuan said.

McCuan said that while Juuls problems predate the coronavirus pandemic, the public health crisis has further damaged perception of vaping. Health experts discourage people from vaping because it increases the risk of respiratory illness.

Now, with the focus on respiratory health, thats another strike, he said.

Crosthwaite wrote in Tuesdays memo that the company would keep offices in the Bay Area: I want to be clear: San Francisco and Silicon Valley still remain incredibly important. They capture the technological spirit of our company, and we will preserve and grow that spirit. We will not leave the city.

But moving to the nations capital will give Juul closer proximity to regulators, said McCuan. Tobacco company Altria, which has a 35% ownership stake in Juul, is headquartered in Richmond, Va., two hours south of Washington.

Derek Carr, senior attorney at ChangeLab Solutions, an Oakland nonprofit focused on health equity, said Juuls headquarters move was unsurprising.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

This is the culmination of several years of tension between the city and its public health objections and Juul being there, he said. A lot of their energy is around lobbying on the federal level.

I certainly think its an uphill battle for them to maintain their market share, he added. Its a very damaged brand.

Juul is also ceasing operations in South Korea and plans to exit Austria, Belgium, France, Portugal and Spain.

We will no longer scale for the sake of expansion. Instead, we will invest our resources in existing key markets where we are demonstrating success with a strong product fit and business model, as well as alignment with our key stakeholders, Crosthwaite wrote.

McCuan said that beyond Juuls struggles, San Francisco is at risk of losing more company headquarters, given long-standing problems, including the high cost of living. Charles Schwab and payment platform Stripe are also planning to move their headquarters.

Given the problems of (coronavirus), given the problems of crime, given the challenges of the city writ large ... all of that has pushed S.F. down the list or off the list of desired destinations, he said. I would argue it narrows the types of industries that can thrive.

Roland Li is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rolandlisf


The American space agency NASA is looking to private industry to build lunar landers. When completed, the spacecraft will be the first to take astronauts to the surface of the moon in almost 50 years.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced last week that three businesses will develop, build and fly the lunar landers. The three are SpaceX from California; Blue Origin of Washington State; and Dynetics of Alabama.

Dynetics is part of Leidos, the business formerly known as Science Applications International Corporation.

Altogether, the space agency has agreed to pay the three companies a total of $967 million for the first 10 months of the project.

The goal is to return astronauts to the moon in 2024.

Bridenstine said, This is the last piece that we need in order to get to the moon by 2024. He noted it will be the first lunar lander since NASAs Apollo 17 mission in 1972. That was the last time people walked on the moon.

Over the next 10 months, each company will improve its design for a lunar lander. NASA officials will decide which lander to test first.

Bridenstine said the space agency will go with the company that has the highest chance of success by the year 2024.

NASA will use its own Orion capsules and Space Launch System megarockets to launch astronauts to the moon. The Orion spacecraft and rockets are still under development.

Of the three awarded contracts, Blue Origin will receive more than half the total amount $579 million. SpaceX got $135 million. Dynetics will receive $253 million.

SpaceXs proposed Starship lander is so tall that astronauts will use an elevator to get to and from the surface of the Moon.

Blue Origins version will come with a big ladder, based on artists images of the proposed lander.

The Dynetics lander is so low to the ground that astronauts will need only a few steps to reach the moons surface. NASA gave the design high marks for safety and efficiency.

Just last November, SpaceX and Blue Origin were among the companies that won contracts to transport cargo to the moon.

NASA wants the new Artemis moon-landing program to continue for some time, with several trips expected to different areas on the lunar surface.

While only one company will carry the first woman and next man to the moons surface, all three will participate in the lunar landing program, officials noted.

By learning how to live and work on the moon, NASA will be better able to eventually send astronauts to Mars, Bridenstine said.

In a video call with reporters, Elon Musk of SpaceX noted the potential for an incredibly exciting future in space.

Dynetics vice president of space systems, Kim Doering, said her team is excited not just about 2024 but the long-term lunar economy.

Blue Origins chief Bob Smith was among those pleased with the announcement. Going to the moon is the reason why we got into this business, he said.

Im John Russell.

Marcia Dunn reported on this story for the Associated Press. John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section. 

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

capsule  n. a small container

contract  n. a business agreement

elevator  n. a machine used for carrying people and things to different levels in a building

ladder  n. a structure used for climbing up or down something

efficiency  n. the ability to do something or produce something without wasting materials, time, or energy; the quality of being efficient

cargo  n. something that is carried from one place to another by boat or airplane

participate  v. to be involved with others in doing something; to take part in an activity or event with others

excite  v. to cause strong feelings or interest




WILLIAMSPORT  A federal judge has sanctioned a Florida man accused by Penn State of infringing on its trademark.

U.S. Middle District Judge Jennifer P. Wilson Monday warned Paul L. Parshall of Naples, Fla., that she could enter a default judgment against him if he again fails to adhere to her order and provide discovery materials to the university.

Penn State last July sued Parshall after he applied for trademarks or registrations for Penn State Nittany Brewing Co., Penn State Nittany Beer and Penn State Nittany Lion Cigars in Pennsylvania and Illinois.

He also attempted to do so with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The university has maintained Parshall, who is representing himself, failed to adequately respond to its requests for discovery.

Wilson on March 27 ordered Parshalls to respond fully and completely to Penn States requests within 14 days. On April 10 he filed a mostly illegible two-page handwritten response, the judge said.

Three days later the university asked Wilson to compel discovery and order Parshall pay attorney fees and costs incurred in the dispute.

Parshall on April 20 filed what the judge described as a one-page unreadable handwritten response that contained one-sentence answers to five discovery requests. He did not produce any documents.

The judge found hed failed to comply with federal rules of civil procedure, and said his decision to represent himself doesnt allow him to avoid discovery obligations.

She ordered to him fully comply with Penn States requests by May 18. If he fails to do so, she said shell consider imposing sanctions that could include a default judgment against him.

She granted Penn States motion for Parshall to pay its attorney fees and costs and directed the university to submit an itemized bill by May 18.

Parshall, who in an October court filing said he was nearly 80, had suffered two strokes and does not travel, claims to have offered Penn State $50,000 for the trademarks that are the subject of the court case.

Penn State says it has offered to settle the suit if Parshall agrees to terms that include paying $70,000 to cover its legal costs. He also would have to abandon any trademark applications or registration for Penn State Nittany Brewing Co., Penn State Nittany Beer and Penn State Nittany Lion Cigars and transfer the pennstatenittanybeer.com domain to the university.

Penn State is seeking an injunction to stop the alleged trademark infringement and up to $2 million in damages for each trademark willfully counterfeited and infringed upon.

Parshall has pointed out Penn State sells neither beer nor cigars and a number of businesses use Penn State or Nittany in their names.

He has never been associated with Penn State and has not received authorization to use those names, the university says.
MINSK -- Despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has called on leaders of other countries to attend this weeks military parade in Minsk marking the 75th anniversary of Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II.

The Belarusian capital is preparing for its annual Victory Day parade on May 9, despite the World Health Organizations (WHO) call on the countrys authorities to impose social-distancing measures and avoid large public gatherings to slow the spread of COVID-19.

"I am publicly calling on leaders of other countries, at least countries of the former [Soviet] Union, to gather in Minsk, which is the right thing to do," Lukashenka said on May 5, rejecting Russian media reports criticizing the Belarusian leader over his handling of the coronavirus outbreak as lies.

Belarus currently has more than 18,350 registered coronavirus cases, including 107 deaths, but Lukashenka has publicly dismissed concerns about the dangers of the disease several times.

Victory Day commemorates the Soviet Unions victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 and is the most important national holiday in Belarus and other former Soviet states.

Belarus and Turkmenistan are the only two former Soviet republics that have not canceled their traditional Victory Day parade this year.

Also on May 5, Belarusian lawmakers approved a bill on a mass amnesty marking the 75th anniversary.

Interior Minister Yury Karayeu told parliament that the bill envisioned the early release of 5,372 inmates.

Prison terms of almost 6,500 convicts will be cut by one year, he said.

The May 9 parade in Minsk is expected to include more than 3,000 military personnel and more than 180 pieces of military hardware.

Thousands of citizens are expected to line up to watch the hour-long parade, which is often followed by picnics and other activities at public locations such as parks.

Belarus lost about a quarter of its population during World War II.

With reporting by BelTA
Again: None of this means an assault didnt happen. Reades former neighbor Lynda LaCasse says she recently remembered that Reade told her the story in 1995 or 1996. Other people have told reporters that Reade shared her account with them years ago, but without going on the record by name. (Her brother has said the same thing, but his recounting of the story has changed.)

Still, where things stand now, its hard to compare Blaseys case with Reades. Blasey had four sworn affidavits from people whom shed told that shed been assaulted, as well as therapists notes and the results from a polygraph. She testified, and was cross-examined, under oath. The Democratic plea, at the time, was for a thorough F.B.I. investigation.

Initially, Democrats were credulous when the now-disgraced lawyer Michael Avenatti introduced another accuser, Julie Swetnick, but many eventually realized her story didnt hold up. In the end that allegation probably helped Kavanaugh by discrediting Blaseys case against him. The episode showed that everyone is best served when believe women is taken as a starting point rather than a conclusion.

Now feminists are caught in a trap. They dont want to repeat the errors many of them made when they dismissed Bill Clintons accusers, nor do they want to erode the #MeToo taboo against picking apart the motives and histories of women who recount sexual assault. But just as Reades story cant be wished away because its politically inconvenient, neither can its contradictions.

In The Washington Post, Lyz Lenz writes that Democrats should insist that Biden step aside, arguing that no investigation could be enough to redeem him. Personally, Id sleep better if the party had a different, more vibrant candidate. But overruling voting results is a serious thing. To attempt it on the basis of a case with this many holes would be a slap in the face to the people who actually chose Biden.

On Friday, the website Law & Crime reported that a niece of Christine ODonnell, a former Republican Senate candidate in Delaware, said that Biden commented on her breasts at a 2008 Gridiron Club dinner, when she was 14. Several people said they were told about this at the time, but it emerged that Biden wasnt at the dinner. ODonnell then said it might have happened at the Gridiron dinner in 2007, but Biden wasnt at that one either. It was a demonstration of how easily #MeToo can be misused as a political weapon.

I suspect that whatever happens in this campaign, the credibility of the movement will suffer. The original #MeToo stories were carefully and meticulously documented. Now it threatens to become a way to handicap one political faction in the middle of a partisan free-for-all. In a season full of appalling and sickening losses, this is just the latest one.
A failure to impose New Zealand-style entry restrictions undermining efforts to combat Covid-19 in Ireland.

That's according to Sinn Fein health spokesperson Louise OReilly who has said she is 'baffled' as to why the government have still not initiated stricter entry restrictions to the State, such as those successfully adhered to in New Zealand in their efforts to combat COVID-19.

Speaking today, Teachta OReilly said, for some time now, many members of the general public, media and politicians have been highlighting the need for stricter entry restrictions to curb COVID-19 transmission.

The government has failed to act in this regard. For weeks now, as the vast majority across the State adhere to a strict lockdown, people have still been arriving into the State from abroad. It is baffling that there are still a significant number of travellers arriving at our seaports and airports who are neither residents nor have a valid reason for travelling to Ireland."

She said it was also confusing as to why residents returning home are not being assessed when they arrive as to the risk they pose of carrying COVID-19 and whether they need to be medically quarantined or be provided with a place to isolate for 14 days.

Deputy O'Reilly continued, since March 19, the New Zealand border has been effectively closed to almost all. The ban, which applies to all arrivals by land or sea, with the exception of permanent residents and residents with valid travel conditions returning to New Zealand, has been pivotal to their successful efforts to reduce COVID-19 transmissions. Their regulations also ensure that those arriving home are medically assessed, with high-risk persons medically quarantined, and all other arrivals have been managed in isolation facilities."

She stated that these measures, along with their day-to-day public health response, have clearly been a success as New Zealand has been able to contain the virus to the point that they have had no new cases of COVID-19 for the past two days.

Only yesterday the New Zealand Prime Minister took aim at our governments handling of the crisis and the slow scale at which the lockdown is being eased by comparison to how they have fared," Deputy O'Reilly said, adding, "it is truly baffling that the government havent enacted a travel ban to all entering this State, with the exception of residents.

"But it is not too late to apply one and I would call on the government to ensure that until the May 18th that all travel into the State is restricted and regulated," the Sinn Fein TD concluded.
An acquaintance with a moderate Twitter following has observed in these CCP Virus times, that

On my Twitter feed its the liberals (without a single exception) who are the most absolutist about quarantine behavior.

Golly Gee Willikins, how could that be, considering that our liberal friends are the ones in our society that most fervently profess their faith in liberation from hegemony and oppression?

For instance, in my North Seattle neighborhood you can see lots of #WeBelieve yard-signs that sprouted right after Trumps 2016 victory, you also can see Hate has no Home Here yard signs, you can see Were Glad Youre Our Neighbor signs in four languages, you can see Be the One yard signs. But you will not see a yard sign like the one that I am thinking up. It says: My Social Moralizing Yard Sign.

Yeah. I cant believe he did that. Thats what the nice liberal ladies would say. But when it comes to Keeping Us Safe, the nice liberal ladies are fervent hegemonists.

And they are right there behind our Democratic governor and his credentialed experts demanding that everyone follow the quarantine diktats.

That, I take it, was the point of Jordan B. Peterson writing about lobsters in his bestselling 12 Rules. Keeping your place in the hierarchy is, if not as old as the hills, certainly as old as lobsters, peasant. And liberal ladies are right up there at the top.

My nickel says that none of those credentialed experts has ever dared to think of having a yard-sign like mine that makes fun of the nice liberal-lady yard signs. On the contrary, every expert knows that his reputation as an expert -- not to mention his pension -- depends on following the received opinion from on high.

And it all makes sense. If you are a liberal, you have probably lived your entire life in a structured environment where there is only one answer. Our school system, of course, is always promoting the One Big Idea, whether it is preparing workers for the factory in 1900 or preparing activistes for peaceful protest today. When the educated graduates get into the work force they join rigid one-answer organizations that are designed like armies, with a fixed chain of command. And that applies to tech, full of good little boys and girls that have gotten the credentials needed to work in those behemoths.

Religions, from the Axial Age down to Marxism and its variants, have all believed in the One True Answer.

But our age is different. Start anywhere: the Protestant Reformation, where Commoners told the religious experts that, sorry chum, we are going to read these new printed Bibles for ourselves.

Then we have the Great Enrichment of the last 200 years, Deirdre McCloskey, proprietor, where ordinary Commoners Having a Go increased per capita income by 3,000 percent starting with machine textiles and now with know-nothings wringing oil and gas out of frackable rock. Didnt they know that Malthus had declared we were all going to die?

And its not just business. German generals realized in the 19th century that no battle plan ever survives first contact with the enemy. Then, during World War I they realized that no general can supervise all the details of battle; responsibility has to be delegated down to the lowest possible level.

Why? Because there is no true answer. There is only trial and error.

Its come to the point where even Google Search has not yet banned the heretical notion that if you are not making mistakes you are not doing anything.

So when anyone writes that President Trump has made a lot of mistakes in his Wu Flu response, they are missing the point. Of course, he has made mistakes; he has been making decisions. Ergo, some of them were wrong.

Heres an example of a wrong decision. California Governor Newsom closed the beaches of Orange County based on a 380mm telephoto picture in the Orange County Register. Hey, I know. What would be the appropriate level of government to make such a decision? God? Secretary General of the United Nations? U.S. President? State Governor? County Executive? I wonder.

Hey Gavin! Next time, ask about the focal length of the lens. Live and learn, pal.

All I am trying to say is that the modern revolution in knowledge has demonstrated all over the place that the One True Answer doesnt work in the real world. In the real world everyone is always moving, adapting, and self-correcting.

So if you are an enthusiast for the One True Answer, it just shows that you are hopelessly stuck in the past, and its old superstitions and bigotries.

Go ahead. Shelter in place. So long as you have a government job that keeps the food on the table.

Christopher Chantrill @chrischantrill runs the go-to site on US government finances, usgovernmentspending.com. Also get his American Manifesto and his Road to the Middle Class.
Sarah Hyland is staying cool as the Los Angeles heat rises, while also taking the necessary precautions amid coronavirus.

On Tuesday, the Modern Family star was pictured in Los Angeles showcasing her fit physique in a pair of denim shorts and a crop top, while also wearing a copper-infused TheraMasks face mask and a pair of latex gloves.

The 29-year-old is currently quarantining with her fiance Wells Adams, 35, and appeared to be taking no chances with her protective wear shielded her while stepping out of lockdown.

Taking no chances: On Tuesday, Sarah Hyland was pictured in Los Angeles showcasing her fit physique in a pair of denim shorts and a crop top as well as protective gear

It must be quite the change of place for the jet-setting couple, who got engaged while they vacationed in Fiji last year.

However, The Bachelorette star Wells just opened up to UsWeekly about the personal life, saying that their current lockdown situation has only "reconfirmed" that he made the right decision.

The actor explained how the the coronavirus crisis has been "scary and anxiety-ridden just because you dont know the future" but added that "it's been nice spending a lot of time with her."

Going back to her love nest: The Modern Family star, who is currently on lockdown with her fiance, wore a copper-infused face mask by TheraMasks

Getting on well: Sarah's boyfriend Wells Adams say they are "quarantining really well together"

Sore loser? Wells claims the couple have only had one fight during quarantine, and it was just a silly squabble as Sarah had stolen "the last piece of the puzzle."

"If this had never happened, I would have been working on a different project and then [Bachelor in] Paradise. I would have been gone for basically the entire summer. So, you got to silver-lining this thing or glass half-full. Its been nice to get to spend a bunch of time with my fiancee."

Wells claims the couple have only had one fight during quarantine, and it was just a silly squabble as Sarah had stolen "the last piece of the puzzle."

The reality star previously revealed the pair currently have "no plans" to marry as yet.
Atleast 100 migrant workers



staged a protest at nearby Mukkam on Tuesday demanding that immediate arrangements be made for their return to their native states, police said.

A message posted on social media, which purportedly said that a demonstration would help make their way back home easier, could have prompted the workers to take out a march, they said adding two 'guest workers'have been arrested in this connection.

The protesters also accused the Kodiyathoor panchayat authorities of supplying inferior quality food to them,an allegation denied by the panchayat.

However, the agitators went back to their camps after police officials assured them that arrangements would be made to send them home.

Four trains with the workers, which was scheduled to leave on Monday evening to Bihar, has been cancelled after clearance was not received from the government.

Similar protests by migrant workers have been reported from other parts of Kerala and the country in recent days demanding that authorities take steps to send them to their home states.

Special trains were being operated to differentstates from Kerala since late last week, to ferry stranded migrant workers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Medical workers wearing masks walk past a 'Thank You' sign outside of Mount Sinai Hospital amid the coronavirus pandemic on May 3, 2020 in New York City.

When hospitals across the United States halted elective procedures back in March, they immediately started hemorrhaging revenue.

That's in large part because U.S. health systems make a sizable chunk of their revenues from high-priced, non-emergency procedures. Conservative estimates indicate that U.S. hospitals are losing more than a billion dollars per day by complying with the guidance from policymakers and the leading medical associations to preserve resources for Covid-19 patients.

In the medical profession, elective procedures are surgeries that can be scheduled in advance, including many that are medically necessary. They are the financial foundation for many hospitals. Health systems bring in about $700 more per admission than emergency room admissions and surgical stays account for roughly 48 percent of hospitalization costs, studies have found.

The American Hospital Association is now reporting that hospitals are bleeding more than $50 billion per month. Private equity investor and public policy professor Meghan Fitzgerald, estimates through her own research that it's about $1 to $1.2 billion per day. "Many of these procedures were medically necessary, and -- yes -- profitable, enabling these institutions to serve all patients," she said.

Many hospitals won't publicly disclose their revenues. But the chairman of the Department of Medicine at UC San Francisco, Dr. Bob Wachter told CNBC that his hospitals lost more than $5 million per day in April alone, and that many of the wards are sitting mostly empty.

"It's ironic in a middle of a pandemic that health care spending would be down," said Larry Levitt, the executive vice president for health policy at the nonprofit research group, the Kaiser Family Foundation. "But the losses in March and April have been astounding."

Making matters more challenging, many hospitals say they are currently spending big sums to treat patients and keep their staff safe during the pandemic. There's some reimbursement revenue associated with Covid-19 patients, but it's typically not on par with what they typically make from elective procedures. And some hospitals, particularly those in rural areas, haven't yet had a flood of Covid-19 cases. In addition, many patients are delaying primary care, and emergency rooms are less packed than usual as even patients with life-threatening conditions worry about exposure and avoid coming in.

"The places that will lose the more revenue are the ones that did everything right," said Stephen Klasko, CEO of Jefferson Health, a health system in the Philadelphia region. "They stopped elective surgery earlier in the spring, they paid for the inflated costs of medical supplies for their staff, and rolled out testing as soon as they could," he continued.

Klasko said that medical gowns used to cost 22 cents prior to the pandemic, and are now selling or $11 or $12. "To give you a sense of costs, just our hospitals use up to 15,000 to 20,000 of these gowns alone per day," he said.

That situation is not sustainable for long. Some hospitals are laying off staff, cutting hours for medical providers, and even filing for bankruptcy. The federal government has set aside some assistance, but reports show that it's far from enough and some of the poorest hospitals are getting bypassed altogether.
Many coronavirus test kits that were imported from China by the Hungarian government are of dubious quality.

While the pro-government media called this fake news, a study conducted by the experts of Semmelweis University showed that two tests used by the National Emergency Service are unfit for medical use.



A third type of test kit was found to be so inaccurate that the Chinese authorities revoked its export license a few days after a shipment of the kits arrived to Hungary.



Last weekend, several news stories have been published in the Hungarian media regarding the COVID-19 rapid tests used by the national health services. Index.hu, one of the leading news portals in Hungary, leaked details from a study based on a series of tests conducted by the staff of Semmelweis University. The paper was about testing the quality of two (so far unnamed) coronavirus test kits and concluded that they were practically useless due to their inaccuracy.



According to the study, cross-referencing the tests results with the highly accurate PCR test kits showed that they could only diagnose about a third of infected patients, and also produce a lot of false positive results, about 15 to 27 in 100 healthy test subjects.



The Index article also stated that many quick tests that the government procured from China were imported by CECZ Zrt., a Hungarian trade company with ties to the Hungarian Ministry of Innovation and Technology. However, they claimed that there is no way to tell if the test kits mentioned in the study were imported by this company.



In reaction to the article, Semmelweis University issued a statement, in which they confirmed that the study was real, and also said that the test were not the ones imported by CECZ. Based on this statement, the pro-government media, including the state new channel (which recently started a fake news watch program in relation to the epidemic) claimed Index has published fake news, despite Semmelweis not actually debunking any of the claims in the article.



Later, the full study was uploaded online, containing the names of the two test kits studied by the experts. One of the tests were manufactured by Anhui Deep Blue Medical Technology, the other by Hangzhou Clongene Biotech, two Chinese corporations. These are the same test kits that were issued to Hungarian emergency personnel, according to the website of the national ER service.



These kits have been used to diagnose suspicious cases, despite the study calling their inaccuracy unacceptable and advising against their use in medical practice.



A third type of test imported from China were made by Hybribio Biotech. After several Chinese test kits were found to be extremely inaccurate by Czech and Spanish experts, on April 1, Chinese authorities revoked the license of Hybribio Biotech, preventing them from exporting their test kits  however, by May 4, they were given the license to export them again.



Only a few days before Hybribios export license got revoked by China, the Hungarian Ministry of Innovation and Technology bought 30 000 of their test kits. There is no public information about how much did this shipment cost, or which organizations are currently using them. According to Semmelweis University, these tests, unlike the other kits, are not serological tests but PCR tests.



As of now, four types of COVID-19 rapid tests have been confirmed to be in use by the Hungarian medical services, 3 of them have had issues. The fourth type of rapid test named in the media is the SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay test, developed by the US Abbot Laboratories. This test has been approved by the American FDA and the EU and was praised for its accuracy. Currently in Hungary, these tests are only used in limited numbers by the Szent Imre hospital in Budapest.



This opinion does not necessarily represent the views of XpatLoop.com or the publisher. Your opinions are welcome too - for editorial review before possible publication online.

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Black Panther star Chadwick Bosemans shocking death due to colon cancer has put all of the previous 2020 headlines about the actor into an entirely new perspective. Now that Marvel fans know Boseman was fighting for his life, his charity work with cancer patients and fans concerns over his weight loss have a whole new meaning.

Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman | David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Chadwick Boseman got emotional talking about cancer patients while promoting Black Panther

Boseman once got emotional when he talked about his friendship with two young cancer patients while promoting Black Panther. Fans now know that Boseman was secretly fighting his own cancer battle at the time, giving the moment a whole new meaning.

As CBS News reports, Boseman talked about two young boys named Ian and Taylor who were dying from cancer. He said that the boys were so excited to see Black Panther. They were fighting to live long enough for the movie, the video game, and the toys.

While talking about Ian and Taylor, Boseman struggled to keep his composure. It appears that he was trying to say the boys didnt make it.

When I found out that they, the actor said as his eyes filled with tears before a long pause. So yeah, it means a lot.

Fans first voiced their concerns about Bosemans frail appearance in late 2019

Fans first noticed Bosemans weight loss in November 2019 when he posted a video of himself on Instagram ahead of the American Music Awards.

Bosemans weight loss scandal heated up when the actor posted a video of himself looking super frail in April. The actor shared the clip to promote his new initiative, Operation 42, which donated millions of dollars in PPE to hospitals.

RELATED: Black Panther Chadwick Boseman Originally Auditioned For a Different Role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Fans were used to seeing Boseman as TChalla in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and were understandably shocked by his drastic transformation. The video only showed Bosemans face, but it was clear that the actor had lost weight.

I hope your [sic] okay, your appearance has changed, a fan noted.

Dude, Im all in for this, but please reassure your fan base about your health cause even I am starting to be kinda worried, another follower added.

Chadwick Boseman was helping other cancer patients up until his death

The last time Boseman was spotted was in April outside of his home in Los Angeles. He was alongside his mother, Carolyn. The actor wore a face covering for the outing and looked almost unrecognizable after losing so much weight.

What was even more shocking to fans was the fact that Boseman had a walking stick for the casual outing. Just four months later, Boseman passed away. But, he continued his charity work until the very end.

RELATED: Only Chadwick Boseman Had the Dignity and Grace to Portray King TChalla Recalls Black Panther Casting Director

Boseman wrote texts to his executive producer about his cancer charity work just days before he died. In one text, the actor talked about sending gifts to a sick child.

Theyve been through hell battling disease, Boseman wrote. If we were able to ease their suffering and bring joy for a moment then we made a difference in his life.
China has reportedly harassed, threatened and silenced multiple citizens who vowed to hold the government responsible for its perceived missteps in dealing with the new coronavirus outbreak.

One civil servant is said to have been interrogated and gagged by the police after filing the country's first lawsuit against the provincial government of Hubei for 'causing unprecedented losses' to its people's lives and properties.

Other grieving Wuhan residents were allegedly hassled, intimidated and hushed by authorities after planning to draw up petitions against officials over their response to the health crisis, which has killed more than 250,000 worldwide.

Tan Jun, a Hubei resident, is pictured standing outside a district court in Yichang in this picture circulating online and re-posted by Radio Free Asia. Mr Tan is the first person in China to publicly attempt to sue the government over its alleged cover-up of the coronavirus outbreak

Mr Tan handed in a legal petition against the provincial government of Hubei for 'causing unprecedented losses' to its people's lives and properties. The picture from January 25 shows mask-donning Wuhan residents queuing for medical attention at Wuhan Red Cross Hospital

China is facing mounting criticism from global leaders over its handling of the pandemic, including punishing whistleblowers who tried to warn the public about the new virus.

Multiple activists, journalists and ordinary internet users have reportedly vanished after criticising Beijing's approach to the crisis.

In Wuhan, where the pandemic first emerged in December, seven residents have sought legal help in suing the government, according to the New York Times.

These residents either suffered from COVID-19 or lost their family members to it, a legal rights advocate told the paper.

And it's not just mourning families. The Chinese government has allegedly warned lawyers not to help file suit against it too.

'They are worried that if people defend their rights, the international community will know what the real situation is like in Wuhan and the true experiences of the families there,' Yang Zhanqing, who had been giving these families legal advice, told the New York Times.

New York-based Mr Yang said at least two out of the seven residents had to drop their plans after authorities had harassed and threatened them.

Grieving Wuhan families have sought legal help in suing the government after losing their loved ones to the coronavirus, according to the New York Times. But some had to drop the idea after being harassed and threatened by authorities, a New York-based activist told the paper

The seven families' misfortune came after another citizen of Hubei, named Tan Jun, had reportedly been grilled by police for submitting a legal petition against the Hubei government over the coronavirus outbreak.

Mr Tan, a civil servant, is the first person to make a public attempt to sue authorities over their response to the epidemic in China. He lives in the city of Yichang, which is around 200 miles west of Wuhan.

He handed in a petition against the provincial government of Hubei to the Xiling District Court of Yichang in person on April 13 and mailed another appeal to the Wuhan Intermediate People's Court two days later, according to media reports.

Online pictures of a legal petition believed to be submitted by Mr Tan show that he accused the Hubei government of concealing the virus's human-to-human transmission and hosting a series of political meetings on January 11 and January 12.

The petition also accused officials of organising a vast banquet ahead of the Lunar New Year, knowingly putting more than 40,000 attending families at risks of being infected.

Ma Guoqiang (left), Wuhan's Communist Party chief, and Jiang Chaoliang (right), Hubei province's Communist Party secretary, attend a provincial meeting in Wuhan on February 10. Both senior officials have been dismissed in February at the height of the outbreak

Mr Tan accused the Hubei government of concealing the virus's human-to-human transmission and hosting a series of political meetings on January 11 and January 12

Mr Tan demanded the Hubei government make a public apology on state-run newspaper Hubei Daily over their actions for one day.

Reports suggest that Mr Tan was forced by police to sign a statement, promising not to release related pictures and words on the internet, but officers said his case could 'proceed in line with the law'.

News about Mr Tan's lawsuits has been censored in mainland China. Still, it is reported by Chinese-language websites based outside the mainland, including Hong Kong-based Apple Daily and US-based Radio Free Asia.

It was also reported by China Citizens Movement, whose founder Xu Zhiyong is believed to be held in secret detention after openly calling Chinese President Xi 'not clever enough' and demanding the leader step down over 'the coronavirus catastrophe'.

The attempted lawsuits ramp up the pressure on President Xi to account fully for his country's actions. The Chinese leader is pictured during a visit to the province of Shaanxi on April 20

China's President Xi is facing widespread doubts that his government has covered up the true scale of the outbreak.

The country has so far reported 4,633 deaths, including 3,869 deaths in former epicentre Wuhan, and 82,881 infections nationwide.

In comparison, the United States has reported more than 69,000 deaths and over 1.2 million cases.

Wuhan locals believe the virus has killed as many as 42,000 people in the city alone, more than 10 times the official figure, according to a previous report.

Dr Li Wenliang, 34, died of the coronavirus in February after being punished for sounding the alarm over the outbreak. The police accused Dr Li and other medics of spreading fake news

Chen Mei (left), Cai Wei (right) and Cai's girlfriend surnamed Tang went missing on April 19, according to a source. News of Chen and Cai's apparent disappearance and their pictures (above) were first reported by a Twitter account, known as 'southern_idiot ', on April 25

Besides, experts in Hong Kong suggest that up to 232,000 people  nearly three times the national tally - may have contracted the disease in China during the epidemic.

World leaders, including Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, have hinted their disapproval of Chinese tactics of false information amid the ongoing pandemic.

US President Trump has said that China made a 'horrible mistake' and tried to cover-up the coronavirus outbreak after threatening to impose tariffs on Beijing.

Beijing is known for suppressing independent voices who challenge its one-party ruling.

According to Amnesty International's China researcher Doriane Lau, the government has used various tactics, include online censorship, sending threats and detention, to stifle activists.

'Some people received warning from the police. Some have their social media accounts closed. Some were arrested and held incommunicado,' Ms Lau told MailOnline.

'Some, like independent journalist Chen Qiushi, were "quarantined" in an unknown location for over three months. It's likely that these people will continue to be under heavy surveillance and/or in detention in the coming weeks,' she added.

Ren Zhiqiang, a prominent Communist party member who criticised Xi Jinping's handling of the coronavirus outbreak, is being investigated on suspicion of a 'severe violation of discipline and law'. In this file photo from 2012, the then real estate mogul is seen in his office in Beijing

Xu Zhiyong (pictured in 2009) was detained after publishing a series of blog posts criticising the Communist Party's response to the coronavirus outbreak that has now killed at least 3,893

Li Wenliang, an eye doctor in Wuhan, was given severe oral warnings by his boss and police officers after sending a message onto social media to warn other medics of a 'SARS-like' disease. The 34-year-old later died of COVID-19 after contracting it from a patient.

Three citizen journalists have disappeared after sending independent reports from Wuhan showing crowded hospitals and body bags.

Ren Zhiqiang, an outspoken Chinese Communist Party critic and millionaire property tycoon, was detained after he penned an essay fiercely critical of Xi's response to the outbreak, calling the leader 'a clown'.

Also, three Beijing-based internet activists have disappeared and are likely in detention for saving backup copies of censored coronavirus news stories online, according to a relative.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Grocery chain Kroger Co. said it is making free COVID-19 testing available for its employees, based on their symptoms and medical needs. The company's healthcare division, Kroger Health, will begin offering COVID-19 testing to associates from this month. Workers will be provided self-administered kits or an appointment at the company's public drive-thru testing sites. Kroger also said it has increased its investment in personal protective equipment or PPE and supplied protective masks to all associates. The company has enhanced daily sanitation practices, installed floor decals and plexiglass partitions at check lanes to promote physical distancing, and reduced customer capacity limits. Kroger is also investing in benefits packages, which include healthcare coverage and retirement benefits. The company noted that it's $5 million 'Helping Hands' fund provides financial assistance to its employees facing personal hardship due to COVID-19, including lack of access to childcare. Workers most directly affected by the virus or experiencing related symptoms are provided paid time off. Kroger operates grocery retail stores under several banners, including Ralphs, Dillons, Fred Meyer, Fry's and Harris Teeter. Kroger and other grocery chains have remained opened amid the coronavirus pandemic as they are deemed essential businesses, even as other retailers have closed stores. Grocery workers are in the frontline as they interact with customers, despite the social distancing order and are highly exposed to the respiratory illness. Kroger was among the five U.S. retailers to open drive-thru testing locations across the U.S. The company is providing professional services at the drive-thru locations through its team of nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and technicians. In late April, Kroger announced plans to expand its drive-thru COVID-19 testing model to 50 locations in more than 12 states in order to perform up to 100,000 tests by the end of May. At that time, the company had already performed nearly 8,000 tests in 30 locations in Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. Kroger had also launched a pilot for site-specific testing for company associates in Michigan and Colorado. 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.
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The Indian Consulate in Dubai has said that two special flights will operate on Thursday to bring back Indians stranded in the United Arab Emirates. The flights will operate from Abu Dhabi to Kochi and from Dubai to Kozhikode. The list of passengers will be finalised by the Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi and the Consulate General of India in Dubai.

According to a statement, the list will be drawn from the registrations on the Embassy or Consulate database that was launched a couple of days ago. Workers in distress, elderly, pregnant women and medical emergencies will be prioritised. Only people who have their names on the list will be issued air tickets. There were almost 2,00,000 registrations.

The statement added that the cost of the tickets will be borne by the passengers along with the quarantine and medical check-up costs. "The cost of the tickets and other conditions, for travel including quarantine requirements after reaching India, and health requirements to board the flight will be conveyed in due course and will have to be accepted by each passenger," it said.

Also read: Coronavirus Lockdown Live Updates: 195 deaths, 3,900 cases in 1-day, biggest jump; COVID-19 count-46,433

Meanwhile, the Government of India issued a circular on May 4 informing that it will facilitate the return of Indian nationals who are stranded abroad. The process of getting these stranded Indians back will be done in a phased manner from May 7 in "non-scheduled commercial flights".

Only asymptomatic people will be allowed to undertake the journey after a medical test at airports. The passengers will have to follow health protocols as mentioned by the Health Ministry and will be tested upon reaching India.

"On reaching the destination, everyone would have to register on the Aarogya Setu App. Everyone would be medically screened. After scrutiny, they would be quarantined for 14 days, either in hospital or in an institutional quarantine on payment-basis, the concerned State government. COVID test would be done after 14 days and further action would be taken according to health protocols," says the circular.

According to reports, the process could start after May 15 for the UK. Air India is going to be the airline carrier in all probability.

Also read: Delhi govt imposes 70% 'Special Corona Fee' on alcohol
Syracuse, N.Y.  There has been at least 17 coronavirus deaths at four Onondaga County nursing homes, according to new data released by the state Health Department.

Van Duyn Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing, the countys largest nursing home on Onondaga Hill, has had six confirmed and one presumed coronavirus deaths.

There have been three confirmed and four presumed coronavirus deaths at Central Park Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Syracuse.

Bishop Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Syracuse has had two confirmed deaths.

And there has been one confirmed death at Loretto in Syracuse of a patient transferred from a local hospital to Lorettos coronavirus unit.

The nursing home fatalities is nearly half the 37 coronavirus deaths reported by Onondaga County.

The actual number of nursing home deaths in Onondaga County is probably higher than 17 because the state data does not include nursing home residents who died in hospitals. The 17 deaths are among 4,813 coronavirus fatalities that have occurred at New York nursing homes since March 1, according to the state data.

The new data includes more than 1,700 previously undisclosed deaths at New York nursing homes and adult care facilities.

The release of the revised data marks the first time the state has identified Onondaga County nursing homes with coronavirus deaths. The state previously did not identify nursing homes with fewer than five deaths. State officials have refused to disclose the number of positive coronavirus at New York nursing homes.

The new data also shows there have been a lot more nursing home deaths than the state previously reported. Before the data was revised, the state had been reporting just five nursing home deaths in Onondaga County.

The state revised its data after a New York City nursing home reported last week 98 of its residents had died of coronavirus. The state had been reporting only 13 deaths at that facility.

The state said the revised numbers reflect a comprehensive accounting of current and retrospective data provided by nursing homes from March 1 through Sunday, May 3. The data does not include coronavirus deaths that occurred outside the nursing homes.

Amy Mahoney, the administrator of Van Duyn, said in an email the nursing home has been testing many of its residents for coronavirus under the direction of county and state health department officials. She also said some Van Duyn employees have tested positive for coronavirus, but did not say how many.

The person who died at Loretto was not a resident of its nursing home, said Julie Sheedy, a Loretto official. The patient came from a local hospital and was cared for in Lorettos coronavirus unit, she said. We are grateful we were able to provide our palliative care services during this patients final hours, she said in an email.

The state report also shows there have been 14 coronavirus deaths  seven confirmed and seven presumed  at The Grand nursing home in Rome. It also reported one confirmed death at another Oneida County nursing home, the Presbyterian Home for Central New York.

The state report does not include a death at The Grand nursing home in Chittenango, which was recently reported by Madison County officials.

If one of your loved ones is among the 17 people who died from coronavirus at a Syracuse nursing home and you want to share your story, please contact James T. Mulder at jmulder@syracuse.com or (315) 470-2245.
A recruitment campaign to find 800 workers for the horticulture sector has started.

It's understood the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection has written to suitable candidates on the live register regarding the jobs and is working with Teagasc, the Department of Agriculture and the IFA to match workers with growers.

The move comes after an angry reaction last month when Dublin-based firm Keelings flew in close to 200 Bulgarian fruit pickers.

The Farming Independent had revealed previously that the sector was looking to fly in around 1,500 workers, and Keelings said that attempts to recruit local workers at the time saw the company receive just 27 applications.

Under the scheme, Teagasc has facilitated grower involvement by creating an online hub where businesses can input details of available positions.

This process maps the locations, roles and numbers of workers required.

An employer relation team with DEASP then seeks to attract applicants for the roles and shortlists potential recruits.

However, the horticulture growers will be responsible for interviewing, selecting and appointing suitable candidates for the available positions.

The jobs identified by the employers will also be publicly advertised on JobsIreland.ie so that they are visible to everyone looking for employment.

Dermot Callaghan, head of Teagasc's horticulture development department, said the process of hiring local staff was a positive one but he insisted that experienced workers will still be required in significant numbers to pick fruit and vegetables this year.

Writing in the Farming Independent last week, Mr Callaghan said "blending a productive number of experienced staff with well-selected local workers may well be the optimum solution for the 2020 season".

This view was echoed by IFA horticulture chairman, Paul Brophy, who encouraged growers to engage with the multi-agency recruitment campaign. However, he stressed that growers will still require a significant number of experienced workers from abroad in order for crops to be harvested.

Much of the labour required over the next two months is for picking strawberries and raspberries.

Broccoli and iceberg lettuce growers will also need significant numbers of workers.

Meanwhile, sourcing seasonal labour for the fruit and vegetable sectors is proving a major challenge right across Europe due to Covid-19.

It is estimated that Germany requires over 80,000 workers, Britain needs close to 100,000, France needs 200,000, while the figure for Italy is 370,000.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5

By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend:

The number of people infected with coronavirus has been recently growing in Azerbaijan, Yagut Garayeva, head of the department of the Management Union of Medical Territorial Units in Azerbaijan (TABIB), said.

Garayeva made the remarks in Baku during a briefing held by the Operational Headquarters under Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers on May 5, Trend reports.

However, we have not been surprised, head of the department added. It was known in advance that softening of the quarantine regime contributes to an increase in the number of infected.

"The main method of preventing new infections is to comply with the quarantine rules, head of the department said. Unfortunately, 76 new cases of infection have been revealed today. Meanwhile, 28 people recovered and were discharged from the hospitals. Twenty-six people have died so far, 526 people are undergoing medical treatment. The health condition of 21 of them is severe."




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Workers wear face masks while working on the car assembly line as automobile production resumes at the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg during the coronavirus crisis. (Alexander Koerner/Getty Images)

Car giant Volkswagen (VOW3.DE) is bringing its manufacturing plants back online on Monday, after being shut down since mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In Wolfsburg, the site of VWs biggest factory, some 8,000 workers will return on Monday. VWs board member for production Andreas Tostman told Reuters that production capacity in Wolfsburg will be at around 10-to-15% to begin with and ramp up to 40% of pre-pandemic levels from next week.

The gradual resumption of production is an important sign for the workforce, the trade, the suppliers and the economy as a whole, said VWs passenger car brand COO Ralf Brandstatter.

Workers are returning under strict new hygiene measures that include regular disinfecting of tools and surfaces, taking their own temperatures, and changing into work clothes at home to avoid crowded changing rooms. They will also need to maintain the 1.5-metre social distancing rule that remains in place across Germany.

Germany began to ease its strict coronavirus lockdown last week, with small shops of up to 800 square metres allowed to re-open. Car dealerships are also allowed to reopen. Some school classes will begin as of 4 May, but social distancing measures in public remain in place.

READ MORE: Coronavirus: New car registrations in EU plunge by 55% in March

All of the countrys 16 states have made it mandatory to wear face masks on public transport, and most of them have made mask-wearing compulsory in shops too.

The Volkswagen Group said on 17 April that sales for the first quarter had shrunk by 23% from the same time period last year, to two million vehicles.

The worlds biggest carmaker by sales saw its sales drop by over 37% in the month of March, as demand dried up and plants and dealerships were shuttered as part of coronavirus lockdowns.

VW also plans to restart its plants in Spain, Portugal, Russia, and South Africa this week, and its US plant in Chattanooga from next week, under the same strict hygiene rules.

Story continues

Volkswagen-owned Audi reopened its engine plant in Hungary last week, with reduced shifts, and will also gradually begin car production at the site this week.

READ MORE: Volkswagen posts Q1 sales slump, ditches 2020 forecast

A number of other carmakers are also rebooting production again. Hyundai (HYMTF) has re-opened its Nosovice plant in the Czech Republic, while French carmaker Renault (RNO.PA) has begun production in Portugal again. Volvo (VOLV-B.ST) also reopened its main plant in Torslanda, Sweden last week.
The U.S. Supreme Court is seen in Washington on May 4, 2020. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Smooth Sailing in US Supreme Courts First Teleconference Case; Thomas Joins Fray

WASHINGTONThe first U.S. Supreme Court arguments conducted by teleconferencea break from tradition because of the COVID-19 pandemicplayed out smoothly May 4 in a case involving the hotel reservation website Booking.com, with even the typically silent Justice Clarence Thomas joining the fray.

The pandemic has prompted changes at almost every level of U.S. society, with the nine justices holding arguments in the trademark case not in their courtroom but by participating remotely using a dial-in format to combat the pathogens spread.

The arguments began as usual with the marshal of the courts traditional words, Oyez, Oyez, Oyez, and proceeded with Chief Justice John Roberts playing the role of a traffic cop. Thomas, who usually refrains from asking questions during arguments, posed two rounds of queries.

In another first, the court provided a live audio feed, making these the first arguments that the public could hear live.

The technical hiccups were brief, including moments when Roberts had to prompt liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Department lawyer Erica Ross a second time after short silences, suggesting they hadnt unmuted their phones.

Im sorry, chief, Sotomayor said, before launching into her questions.

Roberts directed which justice was up to ask questions and cut off lawyers when they went on too long, in an effort to keep the arguments close to the scheduled one-hour length. The arguments ran about 15 minutes over the allotted time.

Thomas, a conservative who is the courts longest-serving justice, embraced the new format. Thomas last had asked a question in March 2019, which was three years after his previous one.

But Thomas queried both Ross, who explained why the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office wants to prevent Booking.com from trademarking the sites name, and Lisa Blatt, the lawyer presenting the company, a unit of Norwalk, Connecticut-based Booking Holdings Inc.

For example, Thomas asked whether trademarking a website name would be similar to 1-800 toll-free telephone numbers, some of which have received trademarks.

The justices asked both sides tough questions. A number of themconservatives and liberalsexpressed concern that trademarking the name Booking.com would give the company monopoly power that could hurt business rivals as well as consumers.

The Patent and Trademark Office is appealing a lower court decision that had allowed the trademark because by adding .com to the generic word booking it became eligible for a trademark. The online reservation service filed several trademark applications in 2011 and 2012.

Booking.com, along with the rest of the travel industry, has been slammed by the pandemic, which has caused tourism and business travel to evaporate worldwide.

Several justices asked questions about handing companies an advantage over competitors through trademarks.

You are seeking a degree of monopoly power that nobody could have had prior to the internet age, conservative Justice Samuel Alito said.

A Bridge Too Far

Liberal Justice Elena Kagan, while sounding skeptical toward some of the companys arguments, also wondered whether siding with the government and creating a rule barring protection for all generic website names is a bridge too far.

A Patent and Trademark Office tribunal in 2016 rejected the companys trademark applications, concluding that the name Booking.com referred generically to the common meaning of booking lodging and transportation and couldnt be used exclusively through federal trademark registration.

Under U.S. law, only terms that distinguish a particular product or service from others on the market can be trademarked.

Booking.com appealed, presenting a survey that showed that 74 percent of consumers identified Booking.com as a brand name. The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the company in 2019.

The court has scheduled teleconference arguments in a total of 10 cases spanning this week and next week. The biggest ones are three that focus on the question of whether President Donald Trump can keep his financial records, including tax returns, secret. Those cases will be argued on May 12.

The Supreme Court building has been closed to the public since March 13 due to the pandemic. The justices have met only via teleconference, and have issued rulings only online.

The virus has proven to be particularly dangerous in older adults, especially those with underlying medical issues. Four of the nine justices are age 70 or older: Ruth Bader Ginsburg (87), Stephen Breyer (81), Thomas (71), and Alito (70).

By Lawrence Hurley & Andrew Chung. The Epoch Times contributed to this report.


The Labor Department told workers they will be unable to file new claims for unemployment benefits for three hours on Tuesday night as part of a scheduled website maintenance.

But, the agency said, workers who have already filed can continue to certify their benefits at their scheduled times.

ATTENTION CUSTOMERS: The application for initial claims and online dashboard will be unavailable on Tuesday, May 5th, between 6 and 9pm due to routine maintenance. This will not affect the claim status or benefits certification applications. Thank you for your patience as we work to ensure the continued performance of our online services, the message said.

The notification was welcome news to workers who have criticized the agency for a lack of warnings when there would be problems with the website, though not all of the past outages were intentional or scheduled.

On Sunday, many of the states websites, including the one that handles unemployment, were down from about 11:30 a.m. until about 1 p.m. because the unusually high traffic," the states chief technology officer said.

This traffic resulted in some State services becoming unavailable, he said.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage

That followed an outage on Saturday for the Labor Departments system which stopped workers from certifying their unemployment claims  something that workers need to do each week.

Because of the outages, some workers benefits would be delayed by two days, the Labor Dept. said.

Since then, the agency has shortened certification windows from one hour to 30 minutes to help manage the volume of people trying to use the system at one time.

Local journalism needs your support. Subscribe at nj.com/supporter.

Karin Price Mueller may be reached at bamboozled@njadvancemedia.com.
Help India!

By TCN News

The Alliance for Justice and Accountability (AJA) on Tuesday condemned the Indian Government for slapping criminal charges against Muslim activists, students, and intellectuals during a nationwide lockdown.

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AJA is an umbrella group of South Asian organizations in the United States that has condemned sedition charges against renowned Muslim intellectual and Chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission, Dr Zafarul Islam Khan. An FIR was filed against Dr Khan on April 30 under section 124 A (sedition) and 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth) after police received a complaint by a resident of Vasant Kunj.

AJA stated that Dr Khan has been charged for exercising his right to free speech in a Facebook post, accusing BJP of running a full-fledged campaign to curb dissent. The statement said that anyone who raises a voice against the treatment of Muslims is labelled anti-national.

Modis Government is at the forefront of human rights violations by providing total impunity to their perpetrators, remarks AJA, speaking against the Centres selective prosecution of Muslim activists and victims.

AJA has expressed solidarity with the Safoora Zargar, Gulifsha, Shafi Ur Rehman, Sharjeel Imam, Meeran Hyder and Umar Khalid, recognizing that the Centre is now indulging in vendetta politics to persecute Muslims who have for months braved police brutalities at the street protests demanding the repeal of the CAA.

AJA called out against the massacre of dozens of Muslims in religious violence against Muslims in the Capital, resonating its support for the US Commission Annual Report that placed India among the top violators of religious freedom. It has urged the U.S. Government to accept USCIRF recommendations and work towards unifying the Indian society by countering divisive agenda of the BJP. In its endnote, AJA has demanded immediate release of those arrested for merely exercising their constitutional right to free speech, and for dissenting peacefully against the CAA and against Hindu nationalism.
GENEVA, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- New digital financial services company, Alpian SA ("Alpian"), incubated by the Swiss banking group REYL & Cie Ltd ("REYL"), today announces a successful Series A funding round worth CHF 12.2 million. The funds will enable Alpian to accelerate growth plans and pursue ambitions to receive a full banking license from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), launching as a fully licensed digital affluent bank in 2021.

Alpian aims to create an innovative banking offering, tailored to the mass affluent population (with investible assets between CHF 100k - 1 million) in Switzerland, worth an estimated CHF 660 billion. Independent market research demonstrates how existing retail and private banking providers do not fully address the fundamental needs of this segment. Amongst this demographic, 40% are looking for a new bank and 70% would be open to using a bank with no branches at all.

Alpian's offering will include tailored investment boutique products, digital face-to-face access to experienced financial advisors, and everyday banking services. Through a modernistic digital interface, Alpian will leverage proprietary and disruptive technology to develop scalable, personalised private banking.

Benefiting from REYL's 40+ years of banking and wealth management experience, the company aims to compete on an equal footing with other established banks.

Schuyler Weiss, Alpian CEO, said:

"The genesis of Alpian comes from the clear vision of our experienced and well diversified team. This brings with it an ability to execute our vision, unimpeded, with technology and innovation underpinning everything we do. Securing the Series A funding is a testament to our business and our ability to execute. It is a big step towards reaching full technological and operational readiness over the coming months."

REYL partner, Pasha Bakhtiar said:

"Alpian started as an incubation project at REYL but we soon realised the full potential of this unique, ground-breaking value proposition. The fact that Alpian has secured this impressive Series A round demonstrates the confidence investors also have in the blue ocean space we have identified. My Partners and I are immensely trusting in the quality of the Alpian team and we are excited to accompany them on the next stages of the journey."

About Alpian

www.alpian.com

Based in Carouge, Switzerland, Alpian is a new digital financial services brand, incorporated in October 2019.

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1164041/Alpian_Logo.jpg

Press enquiries: media@alpian.com, +447742954886
TELEMMGLPICT000230682830.jpeg

A Sunderland shopkeeper jailed for encouraging terrorism has won the first stage of a legal battle to overturn new rules barring terror offenders from being released early from prison.

Lawyers for Mohammed Zahir Khan, who tweeted support for Islamic State (ISIL) and called for "death to Shias" say the emergency laws introduced by Justice Secretary Robert Buckland breach his human rights.

It is the first legal appeal against the Government decision to force some 50 convicted terrorists who had been due to be freed automatically halfway through their sentences to serve at least two thirds before a parole board decides if they are safe to release.

Khan was jailed for four-and-a-half years in May 2018 for encouraging terrorism, dissemination of a terror publication and stirring up religious hatred and would have been released in February but for the emergency laws introduced after the London Bridge and Streatham terror attacks.

His lawyers told the the court that the Terrorist Offenders (Restriction of Early Release) Act was directed against people holding "particular Islamic beliefs" and had a "disproportionate impact" on Muslims.

Lawyers for Mr Buckland had disagreed and said Khans challenge should be dismissed but a judge yesterday ruled that Khan had an "arguable case", after overseeing a preliminary, virtual, High Court hearing.

Mr Justice Garnham said detailed arguments, from barristers representing Khan and Mr Buckland, should now be fully analysed at a trial.

He said the case raised a matter of "some considerable" importance and public interest. Hugh Southey QC, who led Khan's legal team, said the legislation amended an early release regime, and extended the "requisite custodial period. He said terrorist prisoners were clearly being treated differently from other prisoners.

He said the new legislative provisions were "unlawfully discriminatory" and breached rights enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights - the right to liberty and the right not to be held guilty of an offence which did not constitute an offence when it was committed.

Story continues

Sir James Eadie QC, who led Mr Buckland's legal team, said the legislation was not discriminatory, and that the new provisions applied equally to all relevant terrorist offenders, regardless of "race, religion or otherwise".

Sir James said Parliament was entitled to conclude that terrorist offenders were "to be distinguished on the basis of immediate and significant risk materialising" and the "difficulties in identifying and managing this risk".

Mr Justice Garnham said Sir James' arguments may succeed in the end. But he said that Khan had a "properly arguable" case which should be analysed in detail.

"It raises a matter of some considerable importance and some considerable public interest," said the judge. "It needs to be dealt with quickly."
Trump repeats demand for elimination of sanctuary cities as precondition for further stimulus efforts by Congress.

The contours of another coronavirus aid package  as well as the partisan squabbling that will precede it  in the United States began to take shape on Tuesday, with Republicans calling for more tax cuts and Democrats demanding help for state and local governments strapped by plunging tax revenues.

President Donald Trump added his own wish-list to the debate, insisting on Twitter that the elimination of sanctuary cities and cuts to both payroll and capital gains taxes must be among the policies considered by Congress as it confronts the deadly pandemic and its economic devastation.

Trump has been battling sanctuary cities throughout his administration, withholding grant money from and filing lawsuits against local governments that refuse to give federal immigration authorities access to jails or otherwise decline to participate in federal efforts to enforce immigration rules.

Trump joined Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in calling for legislation to protect businesses from litigation related to the coronavirus outbreak. Saying that a flood of litigation had already begun in the US, McConnell told reporters that legislators were working on a narrowly crafted liability protection bill that will not protect somebody from gross negligence.

Under strict social distancing guidelines, the Senate reconvened Monday for the first time since March, while the House of Representatives is staying away due to the health risks. The Washington, DC area remains a virus hot spot under stay-home rules.

McConnell insisted on Tuesday that any new aid package must include liability protections for the hospitals, healthcare providers and businesses that are operating and reopening during the pandemic. He also signalled an interest in beefed-up virus testing strategies, a key demand from Democrats in the Senate.

Testing, tracking, treatments, McConnell said from the Senate floor. Our task ahead will be to keep seeking thoughtful solutions.

By reconvening this week, Senate Republicans are trying to set the terms of debate, frustrated that Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was able to fill up earlier aid bills with Democratic priorities. They are reluctant to release federal funds beyond the nearly three trillion dollars Congress already approved in virus relief and hope Trumps push to reopen will reduce the need for more aid.

Well run States should not be bailing out poorly run States, using CoronaVirus as the excuse! The elimination of Sanctuary Cities, Payroll Taxes, and perhaps Capital Gains Taxes, must be put on the table. Also lawsuit indemnification & business deductions for restaurants & ent.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2020

For more than five weeks, the COVID-19 crisis has all but closed Congress, a longer absence than during the 1918 Spanish flu.

On the House side, Pelosi on Tuesday outlined her own plans for a sweeping $800bn package expected to be unveiled soon.

Pelosi outlined requests from state governors for $500bn and $300bn from counties and cities, which she has said could be spread out over the next several years. Local governments have said they need the assistance to keep paying nurses, police, firefighters and other front-line workers.





On a private conference call with House Democrats on Monday, Pelosi also discussed a paycheck guarantee for the newly jobless.

Several House committee chairmen outlined other possible provisions in the upcoming bill, among them additional direct cash payments for families, extending unemployment insurance, help for homeowners and renters struggling to make rent and mortgage payments, and further funding for virus testing and contact tracing.

Pelosi told reporters Tuesday on Capitol Hill the new package will be just very directly related to saving lives, the livelihood and the life of our democracy.
Last month, we announced the opening of nominations for the sixth annual PW Star Watch program, a partnership between Publishers Weekly and Frankfurter Buchmesse. As we look to highlight and celebrate this years group of innovative publishing professionals in the U.S. and Canada, we wanted to look back at some of our past honorees to see where they are now.

Last year, our Superstartop honoreewas Jennifer Baker, then production editor at Teachers College Press as well as creator and host of the podcast Minorities in Publishing, a contributing editor to Electric Literature, and editor of the collection Everyday People: The Color of LifeA Short Story Anthology.

As of the end of last year, Baker has a new job as managing editor at Random House Childrens Books. When looking back at receiving the top honor, Baker noted my position as a production editor rarely gets talked about because we are behind the scenes. To be acknowledged by the industry when you are doing work simply because you believe in it is incredibly heartening.

As top honoree, Baker received a trip to the 2019 Frankfurt Book Fair. [Going to the book fair] was a great learning experience. I was able to see publishing on a worldwide stage, see which publishing houses were exhibiting, what they were doing, and bring that information back to help with my job and my company, said Baker.

The PW Star Watch partnership with Publishers Weekly is part of the larger Frankfurter Buchmesse Young Talent initiative, created to help build a growing international network of young industry to share ideas and innovation around the world, and features a number of events bringing together honorees throughout the week of the book fair.

Unlike other book events [where my role is more focused], attending the book fair was more of a free-for-all, where I was able to explore what matches my interests. It was also about what kind of relationships you can build, Baker said.

Today, as we all continue to work from home, Baker is looking for ways to help continue the conversations and engage with readers wherever they are. Im talking to people about what they are doing to keep people engaged. When you take the physical away, you see what happens.

Baker is looking to provide more content on her podcast, which will celebrate its sixth anniversary in August and which provides transcripts for those who are hearing impaired. Other things on her to-do list are to participate in virtual readings and book clubs and record stories for educators who are looking for additional content for their online classrooms.

To nominate yourself or a colleague, please visit the PW website. Deadline for submissions is May 31.
Canberra Raiders forwards Josh Papalii, Sia Soliola and Joseph Tapine have protested against the NRL's compulsory vaccination policy after refusing to sign an unmodified waiver that would have allowed them to train on Wednesday.

The grand final trio were no-shows at Raiders headquarters on Wednesday morning, and could end up as part of an NRL anti-vaxxer contingent wiped from the competition for the remainder of the season as the code considers applying a blanket ban to all players who haven't received a flu shot.

Josh Papalii and Sia Soliola are two of three Canberra Raiders players who refused to sign the vaccination waiver. Credit:NRL Imagery

The Herald has been told by sources involved in the matter that the three Raiders players modified the waiver by crossing out a line in the document they signed on Tuesday, which resulted in the trio being told by club officials not to turn up for training the next day.

It is believed to be the same sentence Titans forward Bryce Cartwright crossed out when he signed the waiver that allowed him to return to Gold Coast training on Wednesday.

Read more here.
The Supreme Court Tuesday refused to entertain Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra's plea challenging the validity of the MCA circular for excluding relief funds of chief ministers from receiving contribution by companies under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

The top court said the petitioner being a Member of Parliament can debate it in the House whether the state should get the CSR benefit or not, as she has not challenged the law in her plea.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and B R Gavai, hearing the plea through video conferencing, said there was no merit in the petition and was allowed to withdraw the petition.

Moitra had challenged the validity of the circular issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) of April 10, which had said contributions to Chief Minister's Relief Fund and State Relief Fund for Covid-19 cannot be claimed as CSR spending by the corporate.

Senior advocate C A Sundaram, appearing for Moitra, said that contribution given by firms under the Companies Act will be treated as CSR if given to the central government.

He said the provision is not in the Companies Act but has been clarified by the MCA through a circular.

The bench, said that the petitioner has not challenged the law.

Sundaram said that he has no problem with regard to the deposit of the CSR with the central government but why it should not be with the state, as it should be used for the development of the local area.

The bench said that there is no aggrieved company before us and the petitioner is an MP.

Sundaram replied that her state, West Bengal, cannot accept the contribution under the CSR.

The bench said that unless covered under schedule VII of the Companies Act of 2013, the state cannot claim it.

Sundaram said that it is covered under schedule VII as the Covid-19 pandemic has been notified as disaster.

The bench said that it is a legislative scheme and the petitioner has not challenged the Act.

It further said that whether the state should get the benefit out of the CSR or not, the petitioner can debate it in the Parliament.

Sundaram said it is the duty under the Companies Act that the contribution should be for the local area and if you are allowing a company to contribute to the Central fund and not to the state fund for the same very purpose, then it attracts Article 14 of the Constitution.

The bench said that the petitioner has challenged a clarification order, issued under the statute and there is no corporate entity before us.

The issues raised in the petition can be debated in Parliament, the bench said, adding that it does not find any merits in the matter.

It told Sundaram that the court would dismiss the petition or he can withdraw it after which the senior lawyer agreed to withdraw it.

Moitra had claimed in her petition that the MCA circular is not only in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India, but is also ultra vires the provisions of the Companies Act of 2013.

She had contended that schedule VII includes CM Relief Funds as eligible recipient of the CSR but despite the express provisions in law, the MCA circular has said that contribution in state Relief Funds set up to deal with Covid-19 pandemic will not qualify for CSR.

The circular states that only donations made towards the PM CARES Fund will attract CSR. On March 28, the government had announced the setting up of public charitable Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund' (PM CARES Fund) with the "primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like posed by Covid-19 pandemic and provide relief to the affected.

The plea said the unfair treatment of identical contribution to the State Relief funds is against public interest and public policy, in so far as it disincentivises corporate contributions under the law.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
According to intelligence data, one member of Russia-led forces was killed and another two were wounded on May 4.

Russia's hybrid military forces on May 4 mounted 12 attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as wounded in action.

"The Russian Federation's armed formations violated the ceasefire 12 times in the past day," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation Headquarters said on Facebook in an update as of 07:00 Kyiv time on May 5. "As a result, one serviceman of the Joint Forces was wounded in enemy shelling."

Read alsoNew evidence of Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine: invaders launch rocket on civilian neighborhood in Pavlopil (Photo)

Russian-led forces opened fire from proscribed 120mm and 82mm mortars, grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, and rifles.

Under attack were Ukrainian positions near the town of Krasnohorivka and Avdiyivka, and the villages of Verkhniotoretske, Novotroyitske, Starohnativka, Vodiane, Shyrokyne, Krymske, and Orikhove.

Joint Forces returned fire to each enemy attack. According to intelligence data, one member of Russia-led forces was killed and another two were wounded on May 4. In addition, an enemy military truck was destroyed.

"Since Tuesday midnight, Russia-led forces have attacked Ukrainian positions near the village of Nevelske, using 82mm mortars," the update said.

There have been no Ukrainian army casualties since Tuesday midnight.
Pakistan on Monday reported 755 new cases of coronavirus, taking the total confirmed infections to 20,941 with 476 deaths in the country, country's health ministry said. The Ministry of National Health Services said that out of the total patients, Punjab reported 7,646 cases, Sindh 7,882, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 3,288, Balochistan 1,218, Islamabad 464, Gilgit-Baltistan 372 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir reported 71 cases. The health ministry said that 14 more patients died on Monday, taking the total toll to 476.

The new cases came as Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday that the nationwide lockdown will be lifted gradually, asserting that Pakistan cannot afford an indefinite closure.

US demands justice from Pakistan for journalist Daniel Pearl's brutal murder in 2002

District & sessions court's judge tested positive

A district & sessions court's judge from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has tested positive of Coronavirus and has placed himself in self-quarantine. Issuing a statement, Peshawar High Court said that till date no other Judicial Officer or staff of District Judiciary Tank has been found positive for Covid-19.

WATCH: Pakistan FM misbehaves with scribe who questioned him on social distancing

Imran Khan tested negative

On April 22, Imran Khan's Covid test result arrived and he tested negative for the novel coronavirus. This came a day after it emerged that Faisal Edhi with whom Khan had interacted on April 15 had been confirmed as a positive COVID-19 patient. However, on Thursday, Pakistan's National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser tested positive of the novel coronavirus. This brought Khan under Covid scare again as he met Qaiser on April 24. However, Khan's office said that he was wearing protective gears and social distancing was maintained.

Imran Khan's 'Naya Pak' omits Ahmadiyyas from minorities commission, cites 'sensitivity'
Amid coronavirus COVID-19 lockdown, the Centre on Tuesday said that it will operate at least 64 flights between May 7-13 to bring back thousands of Indians stranded in foreign countries, in one of the country`s biggest evacuations during the coronavirus outbreak. 64 flights will be operated from May 7 to May 13 to bring back stranded Indians from abroad, said Union Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

Over 14,000 people will be brought back from countries including the UK, the US, UAE, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Bangladesh. In the first week, Air India will be conducting all the flights, the Aviation Minister said adding that private airlines will be considered going forward.

Puri said that the Indians stranded abroad will be charged for flights bringing them home. The minister said, the rates fixed for the journey from London to Mumbai is Rs 50,000. Similarly for those who are returning from London to Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Delhi will also pay Rs 50,000 for the journey. "For Chicago-Delhi-Hyderabad the rough cost will be about Rs 1 lakh. For Dhaka-Delhi flight, the rough cost will be Rs 12,000," he said.

On May 7, a total of 2,300 passengers will be brought back from ten nations. On May 8, a total of 2,050 passengers will be brought back from nine nations. On May 9, a total of 2,050 passengers will be brought back from nine nations. On May 10, a total of 1,850 passengers will be brought back from eight nations.

Here is the evacuation plan for Indians stranded in 12 countries abroad by 64 flights by @airindiain starting May 7 pic.twitter.com/4FL1xnFGtx  PIB India #StayHome #StaySafe (@PIB_India) May 5, 2020

On May 11, a total of 2,200 passengers will be brought back from nine nations. On May 12, a total of 2,500 passengers will be brought back from eleven nations. On May 13, a total of 1,850 passengers will be brought back from eight nations.

Here are the evacuation plans for Days 5,6 and 7 by @airindiain and #airindia Express pic.twitter.com/67fOypp1h7  PIB India #StayHome #StaySafe (@PIB_India) May 5, 2020

Out of the total 64 flights, 15 flights from seven countries will arrive in Kerala; 11 flights from nine countries would be arriving in Tamil Nadu; seven flights from six countries will come to Maharashtra; 11 flights from nine countries are scheduled to come to the Delhi.

Another seven flights from six countries will reach Telangana; five flights from five countries will reach Gujarat; one flight will reach Punjab; three flights will reach Jammu and Kashmir; three flights from three countries will reach Karnataka and one flight will reach Uttar Pradesh.

On arrival, all the passengers will be screened and will be subjected to a 14 days quarantine period, Puri stated. The Minister added that all prescribed health guidelines will be followed while bringing the passengers home.

"The present exercise is a limited exercise to address the problems of those of our citizens who are in foreign countries and who are distressed and find themselves stranded. Either because their visas have run out or they are being deported, or they went to these countries just before the lockdown for work and need to get back," the minister said.

"So, a comprehensive plan has been drawn up to address the particular issue of those of our citizens who find themselves distressed and have been stranded in foreign countries. Now if you have to bring 64 flights in at a time when we are under lockdown, this necessarily involves working out very detailed arrangements with a number of authorities," he added.

Meanwhile, Puri also stated that normal domestic and international flights will continue to remain suspended till May 17. "I am reiterating that so that there is no conceptual confusion between what we are planning to do now and the resumption of normal civil aviation operations," he said.
An appeal to raise funds for a community of Native Americans "devastated" by coronavirus has seen a surge in support from Irish people.

The Rural Utah Project Education Fund hopes to raise $2m (1.85m) to support Navajo communities struggling to survive amid the Covid-19 pandemic. One-third of the area's residents do not have access to running water and it has high numbers of elderly and immuno-compromised residents. Just under 200,000 people in the area are served by only 16 grocery stores.

A team of volunteers led by enrolled Navajo and Hopi tribal members plans to use the funds to provide essential food items to vulnerable residents as well as PPE and other healthcare items to prevent the spread of Covid-19 among the community.

In recent days, they have seen several donations come through their GoFundMe campaign inspired by the aid the Native American people sent to Ireland during the Great Hunger. The Choctaw Nation provided $170 of relief aid to Ireland in 1847 - the equivalent of 4,600 today - not long after they suffered through the Trail of Tears.

"173 years later to today, the favor is returned through generous donations from the Irish people to the Navajo Nation during our time of crisis," fundraiser Vanessa Tulley.

Some of the messages received from Irish people

"A message from Irish donor, Pat Hayes, sent from Ireland across the ocean: 'From Ireland, 170 years later, the favour is returned! To our Native American brothers and sisters in your moment of hardship'."

Ms Tully said the team is "so grateful" for the support they have received.

"The heartache is real. We have lost so many of our sacred Navajo elders and youth to Covid-19. It is truly devastating. And a dark time in history for our Nation.

"In moments like these, we are so grateful for the love and support we have received from all around the world. Acts of kindness from indigenous ancestors passed being reciprocated nearly 200 years later through blood memory and interconnectedness. Thank you, IRELAND, for showing solidarity and being here for us."

At the time of writing, over $1.7m (1.57m) had been raised to help the Navajo community through the pandemic. Further donations can be made here.

In 2017, the generosity of the Choctaw Nation was marked in Co Cork with the unveiling of a sculpture. The piece, 'Kindred Spirits', by Cork-based sculptor Alex Pentek, is on display in Midleton.

The stainless steel sculpture is made of nine 20ft eagle feathers, arranged in a circle and reaching towards the sky. It is is a metaphorical representation of a bowl filled with food, presented to the hungry.
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Normal People has given BBC Three its best ever week for programme requests after the show more than doubled the previous record held by Killing Eve.

The hotly anticipated adaptation of Sally Rooneys award-winning novel was requested more than 21.8 million times on BBC iPlayer in the week since it first dropped on 26 April.

The opening week record was previously held by the first series of Killing Eve, which received 10.8 million total requests in its first week.

BBC Three controller Fiona Campbell said: Were delighted that Normal People has been such a success and so many people have come to iPlayer to watch it.

Its a modern masterpiece which has helped in catapulting the careers of two brilliant young actors, and were looking forward to bringing more drama to BBC Three in the future.

Normal People follows Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell (Paul Mescal), two Irish teenagers navigating an on-off relationship while struggling with the class and social barriers that keep them apart.

The show debuted to critical acclaim, with The Independent rating the 12-part series five stars, writing; Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal inhabit lovers Marianne and Connell so utterly that it is instantly impossible to imagine them being played by anyone else.
The volunteers were told to save and share a copy of all of their official emails, to comply with the Federal Records Act, according to the volunteer and administration officials. But Libowitz said that by using private email accounts, we have no assurances that their emails are being preserved. . . . This doesnt prove anything nefarious is going on, but if something nefarious was going on, this is how they would do it.
2 1 of 2 HARRY CABLUCK, STF / AP Show More Show Less 2 of 2 Steve Ueckert / Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less



The family of former Houston state representative Al Edwards, who died last Wednesday at 83, has scheduled an online memorial service that will be streamed from the Community of Faith Church Friday morning.

Services are set to begin at 10 a.m. and will be co-led by Bishop James Dixon and Pastor L.L. Atkins of the Progressive New Hope Baptist Church, according to a news release issued by Mayor Sylvester Turners office. Turner served with Edwards in the Texas House for about two decades and said he was like a brother to me.
The seized dogs include two litters of Jack Russell puppies and their mothers

Gardai at Dublin Port have rescued 26 puppies and seven adult dogs following a search of two vehicles.

The animals were found late on Sunday evening by members of the garda Immigration Unit.

Gardai had concerns about the dogs' health and the manner in which they were being transported.

The drivers of the vehicles were unable to produce any proof of ownership, pet passports or vaccination/microchip certificates.

Seized

Following further investigation, all the dogs were seized and are now in the care of the Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA).

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They have been undergoing extensive heath checks and follow-up veterinary treatment.

Included in the seizure are two litters of very young Jack Russell puppies, about two weeks of age, travelling with their mothers.

One of the female dogs is also heavily pregnant.

Some of the dogs are infested with fleas, some are of a poor body weight and one of the puppies had an infected umbilical cord.

There are also concerns that some of the puppies have had their tails docked.

This case is under investigation by gardai and the DSPCA are not in a position to foster or rehome these dogs at this time.

In a statement, the charity said: "The DSPCA would like to thank the gardai at Dublin Port for their diligence.

"We would like to remind the public that we are still working to care for animals in these difficult times."

The society is urgently appealing for the public to donate to help them care for the dogs.
Iranian OPEC Official In Coma After Suffering 'Severe' Brain Hemorrhage

05/05/20

Source: RFE/RL

Iran's OPEC governor, Hossein Kazempur Ardebili, is in a coma after suffering a "severe" brain hemorrhage. In a tweet on May 3, the country's Oil Ministry said Ardebili was hospitalized on May 1. It did not provide further details.



Hossein Kazempur Ardebili is a key figure in Iran's energy industry.

Ardebili is a key figure in Iran's energy industry and served as the deputy foreign minister and deputy oil minister in the 1980s.



He was ambassador to Japan in the early 1990s, while at the same time serving as OPEC governor.



Iran has the world's fourth-biggest oil reserves and second-largest natural-gas reserves.



But its economy has been battered by sanctions imposed by the United States since U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018.



Washington's imposition of a full line of sanctions in November 2018 targeted key Iranian economic spheres -- including the banking and oil sectors -- and denied the government its main source of revenue while making international trade increasingly difficult.



Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP
AASTOCKS  59 

(00106.HK)Landsea Homes of FloridaSAM Building PartnersEdge Creek VenturesHanover Family Builders1.79  (jl/s)~
Mumbai, May 5 : One of the survivor heroes of the Mumbai 26/11 terror attacks - who not only took two bullets but later identified the terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab - was found helpless and lost on a Mumbai pavement, but after the efforts of Good Samaritans and police was reunited with his family, officials said here on Tuesday.

It was last Wednesday that Harishchandra Shrivardhankar, in his late 60s, was noticed lying on a pavement outside a shop in Saat Rasta area of south Mumbai.

Taking pity on him, the shop owner, Dean D'Souza and his friends decided to help him out with the help of the Agripada police Station officials, at the height of the Coronavirus lockdown 2.0 in force then.

From the broken words mumbled by Shrivardhankar, they managed to trace his family in Kalyan, in Thane district and took him to a happy reunion.

It also emerged that the ex-government employee had been injured by two bullets fired by the terrorists who created a 60-hour mayhem from November 26, 2008 in south Mumbai, in which Abu Ismail was shot dead, but Kasab was nabbed alive.

Later, Shrivardhankar deposed before the Special Court which tried Kasab and displayed courage by identifying him as one of the 10 extremists who had gone on a firing spree at that time.

He had been injured in the indiscriminate firing opened by Kasab and Ismail near the Cama & Albless Hospital and had a minor scuffle with the latter (Ismail) by whacking him with his office bag.

D'Souza informed his friend Timothy Gaikwad who runs NGO, IMCARES about Shrivardhankar's plight as he was unable to speak or eat, but mumbled his first name, BMC, brother, Mahalaxmi and other words which helped them to track his family.

The activists also gave him a bath, a shave, some liquid food and slowly he appeared to regain his strength.

"Finally, with help from Gamdevi Police Station's official Mahesh Shinde, we managed to trace Shrivardhankar's brother, sister in Mahalaxmi who put us onto his son Mangesh in Kalyan," Gaikwad told IANS.

The family had lodged a missing complaint as Shrivardhankar's whereabouts were unknown for around two months during the lockdown, police station spokesperson Mahesh Shinde told IANS.

"Despite the challenges during lockdown, Gaikwad coordinated all the efforts to successfully reunite Shrivardhankar with his near and dear ones on May 1, after he was missing for over two months," he said.

Gaikwad said that on learning about his background, the Agripada police went out of their way to give him virtually a royal treatment with a cavalcade of 3-4 vehicles to send him home with dignity and gratitude, accompanied by Mangesh, for whom all arrangements were made to come to Mumbai.

Shrivardhankar was put in quarantine and now the family has requested IMCARES to arrange for medical treatment of some minor health problems he suffered while he went missing, which Gaikwad assured to help out after lockdown.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-04 22:04:27|Editor: huaxia

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People are seen on the Grand Place in Brussels, Belgium, May 4, 2020. Belgium began its first phase of deconfinement on Monday as the Belgian health institute Sciensano confirmed that the spread of the virus in the country is decreasing with a COVID-19 reproduction rate of 0.6 over the past 24 hours. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

BRUSSELS, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Belgium began its first phase of deconfinement on Monday as the Belgian health institute Sciensano confirmed that the spread of the virus in the country is decreasing with a COVID-19 reproduction rate of 0.6 over the past 24 hours.

With the reproduction rate of 0.6, an infected person infects less than one person now, unlike the rate of 2 to 3 at the beginning of the epidemic.

Fifty-nine new hospital admissions have been recorded in the past 24 hours, a decrease of 18 patients compared to May 2, bringing the total hospitalized to 3,044. Intensive care units registered 655 patients, a drop of 20. At the same time, 361 new cases have been confirmed, 28 fewer than the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 50,267.

Belgium saw 80 new deaths in the past 24 hours, raising the total toll to 7,924.

The first phase of deconfinement (phase 1A) begins on Monday. One of the first measures announced by Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes is the compulsory mask wearing on public transport for everyone aged over 12. The government will provide at least one mask free of charge for each citizen.

The main change is in the economic sector, with the authorization to resume all so-called "B2B" activities, namely those between companies. About 150,000 people are expected to return to work across all sectors except for restaurants, shops, events and tourism, according to figures from the Flemish employers' organisation Voka on Sunday.

Teleworking remains the norm. Fabric shops are allowed to open to provide fabric for masks. Gatherings and meetings between friends at home remain prohibited.

During phase 1B which will start on May 11, all shops are allowed to reopen under very strict conditions. The second phase would start on May 18 with the gradual reopening of schools.

The third phase will start on June 8 at the earliest, with the gradual reopening of restaurants.
(Photo : REUTERS/Brian Snyder) Residents wait in line for free groceries distributed by the Salvation Army food pantry, which reports an increase from an average of 60 meals to 500 meals per day given out at the facility, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Lynn, Massachusetts, U.S., May 4, 2020.

With the coronavirus pandemic crashing the global economy, more and more companies are folding up or having mass layoffs. And it seems some job roles are hit harder.

This week alone, four companies were said to have massive cuts of employees, including TripAdvisor, Lyft, Juul, and Uber. Thousands of employees are affected by these occurrences.

However, it appears that layoffs are directly affecting certain jobs, Tech Crunch reported. According to data tracker Layoffs.fyi, certain job roles are more affected than others.

Sales and customer-facing roles, engineering, and operations roles are the most affected by post-coronavirus downsizing.

READ ALSO: ILOVEYOU Virus: 20 Years After the Malware Caused $10B Losses Worldwide

Sales and Marketing

Toast, a restaurant tech startup, laid off half of its workforce earlier this month. About 70% of these employees were in sales or customer success roles. Similarly, Yelp's layoffs earlier this year show that 67% of employees who were dropped have similar job roles as those with Toast's.

A week later, another startup has folded up. Carta, an equity management company, laid off people as well, and about 47% of the cuts were in the sales or customer success roles.

It is easy to grasp why sales and marketing are hard hit. Of course, these functions to serve a healthy market, which is not available at this time.

Due to the shutdown of businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is much harder to make a sale compared to pre-COVID time. This is because people might not be spending much as they normally would have. Also, most of these roles are based in satellite offices, which no longer operate as the staff is scaled down.

However, the layoff does not merely impact sales. In some companies, layoffs are affecting all departments. This is the case for Carta.

"As those departments become smaller, many of the teams that support those departments like recruiting, HR, operations, and parts of R&D, have to downsize with them," Carta CEO Henry Ward wrote in a Medium post.

"Even though the analysis starts with customers, it quickly starts affecting all parts of the organization. This makes sense. We exist only because our customers exist and allow us to serve them. And when our customers suffer, we suffer too," he adds.

Engineers are also unsafe

Despite their prominence, engineers are not invincible during these hard times. Historically, engineers land high, according to the report. This compares competitive salaries versus sales roles, which largely are based on commission. This sometimes means that a company is trying to dial back costs needs to look at the highest-paid roles and slim accordingly.

This is the case for Groupon where the majority of positions that were cut are engineering roles based on the Layoffs.fyi study. Meanwhile, Operations roles were also among the most cut for companies like Ritual and Turo.

Highest unemployment rate

Last week, The Guardian reported that the United Stateshads recorded another 3.8 million people who lost jobs, bringing the total number of unemployed Americans to over 30 million as of Thursday.

The number is still growing as the world continues to struggle against the health crisis, which is affecting the economy and social development as well.

The commerce department announced that for the first quarter, the US economy fell by 4.8%, its steepest drop since the last recession. It also ends the decade of the generally constant growth of the economy.

However, President Donald Trump's senior economic adviser Kevin Hassett has warned that the US unemployment rate could spike to between 16% and 20% by June. So, unless a drastic change is made, it seems the worse is yet to come.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
CHICAGO, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Freeman Beauty, a beauty brand under the Paris Presents, Inc. portfolio, best known for its wide range of facial masks and specialty bath and body products, announces today its donation of 1MM sheet masks to nurses and healthcare workers nationwide in honor of National Nurses Week May 6th-May 12th.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) mandates the use of N95 masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers to protect from exposure to COVID-19. Nurses and doctors from around the world have posted the effects of wearing goggles and masks for extensive periods of time inclusive of redness, creases, and facial bruising. Freeman Beauty hopes the donation will provide some self-care and relief to the effects of extensive hours of care during this global pandemic.

"COVID-19 has impacted the world and divided us into two groups: those on the front lines and those exercising their civic duties by staying home. With the current state of the world, self-care and skincare have become a key pillar of normalcy for both groups. We are proud to donate 1MM face masks to nurses and medical workers who have been vigorously going to battle day in and day out as our way to say thank you with our deepest gratitude," said Bill George, CEO of Paris Presents, Inc.

Freeman Beauty will donate:

Melting Sugar Moisturizing Rose Gummy Bear Face Mask, infused with real sugar and Rose extract with skin-boosters that hydrates and calms for glowing skin for all skin-types

Melting Sugar Oil Absorbing Lemon Meringue Face Mask, infused with real sugar and Lemon extract with skin-boosters that melt on contact to absorb oil for a clear complexion for oily skin

Melting Sugar Pore Clearing Match Ice Cream Face Mask, infused with real sugar and Matcha extract with skin-boosters that melt on contact to clear pores for a fresh complexion for normal/combination skin

Recipients of the Freeman Beauty Face Mask donation span cross-country across hospitals and associations of all sizes and include Mercy Health, Memorial Healthcare System, Houston Methodist Hospital and New York State Nurses Association.

"The thousands of Mercy caregivers who serve on our front lines put our patients first in everything they do," said Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer, CAO, Mercy and Mercy Health Foundation President. "The generous gift of 500,000 facial sheet masks from Paris Presents Incorporated blesses these exceptional nurses and physicians with both practical and personal support. On behalf of Mercy Health Foundation and our entire health care ministry, thank you."

For more information or a complete list of recipients visit: www.freemanbeauty.com and follow the conversation on social media @FreemanBeauty.

About Paris Presents, Incorporated

Paris Presents, Incorporated is an entrepreneurial, privately held / private equity backed company that creates and distributes strong brands of makeup tools and body care accessories in over 60 countries. Our 70+ year old company is a high-growth, beauty business with a focus on exceptional quality products at affordable prices developed through innovation and on-trend design. Paris Presents has a very fast paced culture, with the senior management team coming from major CPG companies and having strong records of growing businesses. The company has been recognized on Inc's Top 5000 fastest growing privately held companies to work for 3 years in a row.

BRANDS

The company's four core brands are EcoTools, Real Techniques, and Freeman Beauty. EcoTools is a leader in eco-conscious beauty products, most notably for incredibly soft cosmetic brushes but also offers a line of hairbrushes and bath accessories. Since its launch in 2011, Real Techniques is the number one makeup brush brand on YouTube, the leading share brand in the UK, and the Miracle Complexion Sponge is the #1 beauty tool in the US. All brands are available from key retailer partners such as Walmart, Target, Ulta and Amazon.com

SOURCE Paris Presents, Inc.

Related Links

www.parispresents.com


Ohio is encouraging companies to report any employees who refuse to return to work after their jobs became available again, after the state lifted some of its coronavirus lockdown measures.

The lockdown is being lifted despite the majority of people in the state saying certain businesses shouldn't reopen yet, according a poll, and despite the fact that the state does not have the coronavirus testing capacity to ensure everyone who needs a test can get one.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has set up a web page for employers to report other workers who have not returned to work so they can be reevaluated for unemployment benefits, and potentially denied them.

Pictured: A woman walks past a Theatre in Ohio as the state implements phase one of re-opening the economy

The ODJFS web page asks employers to enter details about employees who have not returned to work as jobs re-open, which could lead to employees losing unemployment benefits

So called 'nonessential' offices reopened for the first time since lockdown began on Monday, along with construction, manufacturing and distribution operations.

Since Friday, elective medical procedures that did not require a patient to stay overnight have also been allowed, according to cleveland.com.

The department sent an email out to Ohio companies on Friday night reminding them, which was shared on various social media sites.

'As employers begin reopening their doors to a "new normal," in compliance with the Responsible RestartOhio requirements, many employees are expected to return to their previous employment.

'Ohio law prohibits individuals from receiving unemployment benefits if they refuse to accept offers of suitable work, or quit work, without good cause.

'If you have employees who refuse to return to work or quit work, it's important that you let the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) know so we can make accurate eligibility determinations,' the email adds.

Ohio has been one of many states in the U.S. to see protesters demonstrating against stay at home orders that have been put in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus

The director of the ODJFS department, Kimberly Hall, told reporters in the state on Monday that employers need to be transparent, and clearly show steps they are taking to ensure their employees are protected from the coronavirus.

Employers and other workers looking to report workers for not returning to work have been asked to visit a page called 'Report COVID-19 Quits or Work Refusals when Work is Available,' and, as the name suggests, people can report workers who do not return to their jobs.

The page asks for a number of details, including the employee's name and either the last four digits of their social security number or a claimant ID number.

Employers are asked questions such as 'did your employee quit?', 'did your employee refuse to return to work?' and 'was the work the same work as pre-COVID-19?', also asking 'do you maintain the safety standards that are required by the Ohio Governor's Office?'

If an employee has refused to return to work and is reported, an administrative review will take place to determine if they are still eligible for benefits. The review process being used existed before the pandemic.

The department will reportedly use a 'reasonable person's standard', in other words, they determine if a reasonable person would feel safe when returning to work.

According to a poll, the majority of Ohioans are in favor of the state's governor Mike DeWine's coronavirus measures. Here, he is pictured walking into the daily coronavirus news conference

When asked in a poll, while most Ohioans (52 per cent) said they would at least 'somewhat agree' that the state's economy should re-open, but when asked about specific businesses, the majority felt it was too late to reopen.

When asked if restaurants should open as early as last Friday, 55.9 per cent said it was too early, while 56.9 per cent said it was too early to re-open places of worship.

Of those asked, just 35.9 per cent said the government should re-open all retail stores, and only 33.6 per cent said hair and nail salons should open.

An overwhelming majority (around 86 per cent) said that they agreed with Governor Mike DeWine's decision to close the schools through to the end of the school year.

The poll also found that the majority of Ohioans supported the governor's coronavirus measures that have been in-place, while there was a broad disapproval of the protesters demonstrating against the measures.

'Despite protests over Governor DeWine's restrictions, a large majority of Ohioans support his policies and are worried about going back to business as usual too soon,' said Robert Alexander, an Ohio Northern University political science professor speaking to cleveland.com.

'Many are worried that others could spread the virus and not even know it.'

According to the New York Times, Ohio has seen 20,474 cases of the coronavirus, with 1,056 deaths resulting from the disease. Overall, In the U.S. there have been 1,210,742 cases of the coronavirus, with 69,788 deaths.
AMOS-17 satellite, image courtesy Spacecom By utilizing the iDirect Evolution platform and iQ 200, we can now offer a unique low footprint, low power and high capacity return links from any remote location, enabling users to enter new markets and facilitate new applications, said Tsachi Dahan, VP of Vertical Solutions at Spacecom

ST Engineering iDirect, a company of ST Engineering North America, and its long-term partner, Spacecom (Tel Aviv Stock Exchange: SCC), operator of the AMOS satellite fleet, today announced the successful demonstration of VSAT return capabilities on AMOS-17.

The demonstration resulted in an exceptionally wide return link for a small VSAT of 40Mbps using the iDirect iQ 200 modems Adaptive TDMA return over AMOS-17s high power C-band HTS beams. The combination of the 2.4m C-Band terminal and AMOS-17s high-performance beams generated a highly efficient solution. The large return data rate enabled simultaneous transmission of multiple high data streams from South Africa to Europe with a small antenna, resulting in the low-power Communications-on-the-Pause (COTP) solution. This opens up many operational and business opportunities to customers, such as emergency deployments, government applications, coverage of events and backhaul services.

Conducted from the UK-based SMS Teleport, an AMOS-17 European Gateway partner, the modem and antenna were installed in a communications truck located between Johannesburg and Pretoria, South Africa. The truck was provided by Telemedia, a leading provider of broadcast and teleport services across Africa.

The iQ 200 is a DVB-S2/DVB-S2X modem with Adaptive TDMA returns, combining high-performance features with mobility, making it an ideal solution for real-time, cost-effective, small to medium enterprise applications, such as IP trunking for disaster response and emergency services as well as mobility solutions such as maritime.

By utilizing the iDirect Evolution platform and iQ 200, we can now offer a unique low footprint, low power and high capacity return links from any remote location, enabling users to enter new markets and facilitate new applications, said Tsachi Dahan, VP of Vertical Solutions at Spacecom. AMOS-17s C-Band spot beams provide superior throughput and efficiencies over Sub-Saharan Africa with connections to Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia. We look forward to presenting this unique value proposition to our customers brought about by this combination of satellite and ground segment.

"We are excited to be involved in this important demonstration that brings out the greater potential of combining the right ground segment and high throughput satellite capacity, commented Jerome Clapisson, Regional Vice President of Sales, Europe at ST Engineering iDirect. This opens up a whole new array of applications for users that span many different applications and markets, and is synonymous with our goal of expanding market access to our customers by setting an industry benchmark in performance and efficiency.

The solution is available to AMOS Spacecom customers today.

ST Engineering North America is the U.S. headquarters of ST Engineering, a global technology, defense and engineering group specializing in the aerospace, electronics, land systems, and marine sectors. Based in Alexandria, VA, it has major operations across 17 cities in 13 states and employs about 5,000 people providing innovative products and solutions to commercial and government customers across diverse market segments.

ST Engineering iDirect, a subsidiary of ST Engineering North America, is a global leader in satellite communications providing technology and solutions that enable its customers to optimize their networks, differentiate their services and profitably expand their businesses. With the recent acquisition of Newtec, a recognized industry pioneer, the combined business unites over 35 years of innovation focused on solving satellites most critical economic and technology challenges, and expands a shared commitment to shaping the future of how the world connects. The product portfolio, branded under the names iDirect and Newtec, represents the highest standards in performance, efficiency and reliability, making it possible for our customers to deliver the best connectivity experience anywhere in the world. ST Engineering iDirect is the worlds largest TDMA enterprise VSAT manufacturer and is the leader in key industries including broadcast, mobility and military/government. In 2007, iDirect Government was formed to better serve the U.S. government and defense communities.

Spacecom (Space-Communication Ltd.), operator of the AMOS-3 and AMOS-7 satellites co-located at 4W, AMOS-17 at 17E and AMOS-4 at 65E, provides high-quality broadcast and communication services to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia via direct-to-home (DTH) operators, Internet service providers (ISPs), telecom and MNO operators, network integrators and government agencies.

AMOS-17 further expands Spacecoms reach in Africa and Asia, reinforcing its position as a leading multi-regional satellite operator.

Media contacts:

Julie Bettinger

Vice President, Corporate Marketing

ST Engineering iDirect

Phone: (1) 703 648 8155

Email: jbettinger@idirect.net

Guy Shields

Director, Corporate Communications

ST Engineering North America

Phone: (1) 703 739 2610

Email: guy.shields@stengg.us

Irena Sakhno

Manager, MarCom

Spacecom

Phone: +972-5876-34949

Email: Irena.Sakhno@amos-spacecom.com
BRIDGEPORT - Two men have been arrested after a police officer heard numerous gunshots fired in the area of Madison and North avenues around 11:30 p.m. Sunday.

During his canvassing of the area he proceeded to witness a vehicle with its back tail lights off cross in front of his vehicle, said Scott Appleby, director of Emergency Management & Homeland Security/Emergency Communications.

The officer radioed Bridgeport ECC to run the plate of the vehicle that came back as a misuse and conducted a motor-vehicle stop.

While the vehicle was stopped and the officer was waiting for backup to arrive before approaching, the vehicle sped off. A pursuit occurred and the vehicle was observed by officers disobeying stop signs and other traffic signals while attempting to avoid the police.

The vehicle, while attempting to turn into a parking lot crashed onto the sidewalk. The officer blocked the exit of the driver side and proceeded to attempt an arrest, Appleby said in a release.

At this time the officer observed a silver handgun in the passengers possession and a shot was fired through the front windshield.

Police officers we able to apprehend both suspects without incident, who were later identified as Rafeal M. Medina III, the driver, and Shakim Allah Medina, the passenger.

Police found two handguns in the motor vehicle along with shell casings. Shell casings were also found during the police investigation of the area Grand Street and Hurd Avenue where the original shots fired were heard by the patrolling officer.

Rafeal M. Medina III, 27, of Bridgeport, was charged with failure to carry a registration/insurance card, falsifying a market/license registration, reckless driving, improper rear marker lamps, carrying a pistol without a permit and illegal possession of a weapon in a motor vehicle. He was held on $150,000 bond.

Shakim Allah Medina, 27, of Waterbury, was charged with carrying a pistol without a permit, illegal possession of a weapon in a motor vehicle, discharging a firearm on a public highway, stealing a firearm and criminal possession of a firearm, ammunition and a defensive weapon. He was held on $200,000 bond.
As businesses safely reopen or return to pre-pandemic employment levels, we want job seekers to be at the top of their game using the tips and tricks from our hiring experts in the Get Ahead: Ask a Recruiter series. - Express CEO Bill Stoller

With millions of workers sidelined by the COVID-19 pandemic, Express Employment Professionals hiring experts are preparing job seekers to stand out from the competition with the new Get Ahead: Ask a Recruiter live Q&A video series.

The three-part series can be accessed at ExpressPros.com/GetAhead and kicks off on Facebook at 11 a.m. CDT on Thursday, May 7.

Each episode is hosted by Matt Tibbets, Express International Headquarters training director, with the first session all about how to update your resume to highlight quality skills and experience. Guest speaker Mike Krieling, SHRM-SCP and owner of four Express locations in Wisconsin, will reveal what recruiters are looking for when they scan resumes and how to optimize them to make it to the top of their desk.

The Get Ahead: Ask a Recruiter series moves to the Express YouTube channel for the second installment at 11 a.m. CDT on Thursday, May 14. This live session will focus on where to look for job openings and how to network during the job hunt. Utilizing years of experience, Connecticut Express franchise owner Jay Diaz will provide insight on how to navigate through numerous job resources and which ones are the most effective.

Latoya Williams, Corporate Developer  Office Services, will join the audience for the final live Q&A in the series via LinkedIn at 11 a.m. CDT on Thursday, May 21. Williams will walk through job interview best practices, including how to answer the toughest questions and make a positive lasting impression.

Its never a bad idea to update your resume, expand your network and brush up on your interview skills. As businesses safely reopen or return to pre-pandemic employment levels, we want job seekers to be at the top of their game using the tips and tricks from our hiring experts in the Get Ahead: Ask a Recruiter series, Express CEO Bill Stoller said.

***

If you would like to arrange for an interview with Bill Stoller to discuss this topic, please contact Sheena Karami, Director of Corporate Communications and PR, at (405) 717-5966.

About Bill Stoller

William H. "Bill" Stoller is chairman and chief executive officer of Express Employment Professionals. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, the international staffing company has more than 825 franchises in the U.S., Canada and South Africa, and beginning in 2020 will expand to Australia and New Zealand. Since its inception, Express has put more than 8 million people to work worldwide.

About Express Employment Professionals

At Express Employment Professionals, were in the business of people. From job seekers to client companies, Express helps people thrive and businesses grow. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, OK, our international network of franchises offer localized staffing solutions to the communities they serve, employing 552,000 people across North America in 2019. For more information, visit http://www.ExpressPros.com.


[May 05, 2020] Teranet Grows Registry Business Through Foster Moore Acquisition

TORONTO, May 5, 2020 /CNW/ - Teranet Inc., Canada's leader in the delivery of statutory registry services, announced today that an affiliated entity has acquired all of the outstanding shares of Foster Moore International Limited which operates as Foster Moore. With over 20 years of experience, Foster Moore has accumulated unparalleled global experience and expertise in registry design, development and operations. Teranet's affiliated entity acquired 49.1% of Foster Moore in 2014, and with the recent transaction, it becomes Foster Moore's full proprietor. Foster Moore is the world-leading provider of Catalyst, a commercial off-the-shelf registry software, delivering operational cost reductions, enhanced security and process improvements. "We are excited to officially bring together Foster Moore and Teranet. Our combined expertise in statutory and commercial electronic registries will enable us to offer clients a broad range of registry solutions including configurable software, custom solutions, workflow solutions and operations capabilities," said Teranet CEO, Elgin Farewell. "This relationship, built on common values and two strong brands, will enable us, jointly, to significantly extend and leverage synergies to grow our registries business across Canada and internationally." Foster Moore will oin Teranet as part of the Registries line of business. "For Foster Moore clients, this simply means that Foster Moore with Teranet has a strengthened position as "The registry people" globally," said Foster Moore CEO, Joel Foster. "Our clients come first. That won't change. We expect this transition to be largely seamless for our clients."



This transaction closed effective May 1, 2020. With this acquisition, the Teranet group of companies now has over 1300 employees operating in 16 offices across the world supporting clients in 20 countries. About Teranet

Teranet is Canada's leader in the delivery and transformation of statutory registry services with extensive expertise in land and commercial registries. We also market insightful property and data solutions, as well as practice management automation to thousands of customers in the real estate, financial services, government, utilities, and legal markets. Founded in 1991, Teranet operates the Electronic Registration System for the Province of Ontario, Teranet Manitobaservice provider to the Manitoba government, and Collateral Management Solutionsthe market leader in Canadian lien registration and search, asset recovery services, and insolvency management. We are proud to be recognized as one of Greater Toronto's Top 100 Employers for four years in a row (2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020). www.teranet.ca

About Foster Moore

Founded in New Zealand, Foster Moore is now a global company with significant experience in building electronic registry solutions. In 1996, the New Zealand Companies Office became the first companies registry in the world with a public online register and in 1998, was the first to allow companies to be incorporated online. Foster Moore pioneered the technology to achieve both these firsts. Since developing the world's first fully-electronic online register, Foster Moore has designed and built over 30 different types of registers for governments and executive agencies including Motor Vehicle Traders Registries, Business Entities, Secured Transactions and highly complex Radio Spectrum Management Registers. Foster Moore's proprietary Catalyst commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software is designed to streamline even the most complex project. Catalyst delivers operational cost reductions, enhanced security, and process improvements while complying with the intricacies of all local legislation. www.fostermoore.com SOURCE Teranet Inc.

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San Francisco, 5 May 2020: The Report Ice Cream Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product Type (Impulse, Artisanal, Take Home), By Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, MEA) And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2025

The global ice cream market is anticipated to reach USD 78.8 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR 4.1%, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The growing demand for premium products especially in developed regions such as North America and Europe is expected to drive the ice creams sales in these regions. The major growth is expected to come from developing regions such as Asia Pacific, Latin America and MEA. Countries such as India and China have a large consumer base which is expected to drive the sales in terms of both volume and value. However, growing number of health-conscious consumers is expected to limit the market growth over the forecast period.

The demand for lactose free is also expected to contribute to the market growth during the forecast period. The increase in demand for lactose-free ice creams is driven by increase in cases of food intolerances and allergies. Thus, the consumers having lactose intolerance pick lactose-free ice creams. Also, these products are opted by the consumers who are health conscious and prefer healthy foods.

Companies are introducing many new and innovative flavors in the ice cream segment to increase their revenue. For instance, in 2017, Ben & Jerry's introduced three new flavors in summer to increase their sale. The introduction of new flavors and formats is also expected to contribute significantly to the growing sales across the globe.

Access Research Report of Ice Cream Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/ice-cream-market

Further Key Findings From the Study Suggest:

The impulse segment has outgrown the take-home segment in 2016 and is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period. The ice cream is likely to remain an impulse purchase as manufacturers in the developing regions have failed to lure consumers with their bulk products. Manufacturers are expected to extend their impulse product portfolio during the forecast period.

The ice cream market is dominated by various countries which includes China, U.S, Japan, Brazil, Italy and Germany. Asia Pacific held the largest market share in 2016 and is expected to dominate the market over the forecast period. Growth is shifting towards emerging countries such as China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam, and South Africa and developed regions such as North America and Europe are expected to show slow growth during the forecast period.

Some of the key players in ice cream market are Unilever Group, Nestle S.A., General Mills, Inc., Mars, Blue Bell Creameries. There are numerous small and mid-size players which also contribute significantly to the retail sales.

Browse more reports of this category by Grand View Research at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/consumer-f-and-b

Grand View Research has segmented the ice cream market on the basis of product type and region.

Ice Cream Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

Impulse

Artisanal

Take Home

Ice Cream Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

Middle East and Africa (MEA)

Access Press Release of Ice Cream Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-ice-cream-market

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.

For More Information:www.grandviewresearch.com
Israeli airstrikes in eastern Syria killed 14 Iranian and Iraqi fighters and wounded others, some seriously, an opposition war monitoring group said Tuesday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the late Monday strikes in eastern Deir el-Zour province targeted positions of Iranian and Iran-backed fighters. There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Syria's state agency reported late Monday that Israeli strikes targeted military depots in the region of Safira, south of the northern city of Aleppo. It did not mention the strikes on Deir el-Zour province, which borders Iran.

There have recently been several reports of suspected Israeli strikes inside Syria, the most recent one last week, when the Syrian military and state media said Israeli warplanes flying over Lebanon fired missiles toward areas near the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing three civilians.

Israel rarely comments on such reports, although it has acknowledged carrying out airstrikes inside Syria on numerous occasions in the course of Syria's nine-year conflict, saying it was going after Iranian military targets in the country.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in August that Iran has no immunity anywhere and that the Israeli military forces will act and currently are acting against them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5

By Fidan Babayeva - Trend:

Azerbaijans AzMikroInvest non-credit organization (NBCO) issued loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the amount of 1.2 million manat ($0.7 million) in 2019, which exceeds the 2018 data by 100,000 manat ($58,823), a source in the organization told Trend.

At present, Azerbaijans raw materials and labor resources and an improved legislative base, play an irreplaceable role in increasing investment attractiveness. AzMikroInvest is expanding its activities to provide various financial and technical models and is committed to introducing innovations in this area in the near future. We are going to introduce new business models that include both various financial tools and new digital technologies, the source said.

AzMikroInvest switched to the online mode of operation during the coronavirus quarantine regime.

AzMikroInvest NBCO was established in April 2014. Having received a limited banking license from the Central Bank in June 2014, it launched microfinance activity.

Its main goal is to render financial support for the development of micro-business in Azerbaijan, working as a sustainable microfinance organization to improve the social welfare of low-income families.

The financial base was formed through capital investments, cash and interest income of local financial institutions.

AzMikroInvest's future plans include not only expansion of microcredit activity, but also creation of new loan products, as well as microfinancing in support of the development of business of low-income people in densely populated cities and villages.

For this purpose, the organization has worked much to expand the microfinance services and attract additional funds from local and international financial institutions.

----

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Linkedin Dmitry Zaks (Agence France-Presse) Rome, Italy  Tue, May 5, 2020 08:04 624 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd5ef032 2 World Italy,virus-corona,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-death-toll,data Free

Italy recorded almost 50 percent more fatalities in March than usual, according to new official data showing that the real coronavirus death toll could be far higher than the 29,000 reported.

The new data suggest that the death toll from the day the country's first infection was reported on February 20 to March 31 could be nearly double the official figure.

The Italian government has struggled to determine how many people have actually died from an illness that forced the nation of 60 million to shut down over the first half of March.

The data were released on the day Italy eased nine weeks of confinement. Italians were allowed to stroll freely in parks and visit their relatives even while many small stay shut for another two weeks.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte hopes a drop in infections and a gradual return to business can help the economy start recovering from what might be its worst downturn since the 1930s.

But Conte's government still does not know how many people have died of COVID-19 -- a grim reality that makes planning for the months ahead even harder.

Italy's civil protection services had attributed 12,428 fatalities to the virus by the end of March.

But the state statistics agency ISTAT and the ISS public health institute said nearly 11,700 extra deaths needed to be accounted for in that span.

The number was derived by comparing Italy's total number of deaths between February 20 to March 31 to the statistical average for that period in the preceding five years.

"For the month of March, the national average shows an increase in deaths from all causes of 49.4 percent," ISTAT and the ISS said in a joint statement.

The statement referred to the nearly 11,700 unaccounted for fatalities as "excess deaths".

It said deaths among men in their 70s rose by a factor of 2.3 nationally -- and among men in their 80s by 2.2 times -- in that span.

These were "the most significant excess deaths", the two state organizations said.

Three causes

Italy became the global epicenter of the pandemic after its toll from the illness surpassed the official one reported by China on March 19.

The Mediterranean country recorded more than a third of all coronavirus deaths registered across the world that month.

Yet local officials at the center of the outbreak in northern provinces around Milan viewed Italy's official figures with suspicion.

Some were reporting fatality rates in March that exceeded usual figures by a factor of five or six.

Those deaths did not appear to be registering in the official figures being released daily by Italy's civil protection service.

Italy's official death toll rose by 195 on Monday to 29,079 -- second only to the United States.

But the figure is almost entirely comprised of hospital deaths.

Few of the elderly in care homes have been tested and the number of deaths from the virus in the community is unknown.

ISTAT and the ISS said in a joint statement that there were three possible explanations for the 11,700 additional fatalities.

One is that these people were never tested for the virus but actually had it when they died.

There could also be "an indirect effect of the virus" in which COVID-19 exacerbates an existing condition such as kidney or other organ dysfunction.

A third factor is the negative impact "of an excessive stress on the healthcare system, especially in the more affected areas," the statement said.

Italy also reported 15,539 coronavirus deaths in April. ISTAT and the ISS had insufficient data for that month.
Army soldiers walk up the stairs of their military guard post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Sunday, May 3, 2020.

An exchange of gunfire at the border between North and South Korea over the weekend, just after North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un reappeared in public after a three-week absence, appeared to be a deliberate message from the North that the status quo remains unchanged, North Korea watchers told RFA Monday.

Kim, who had not made a public appearance since mid-April, was the subject of rumors and speculation with several media outlets reporting the Supreme Leader was having major health issues following cardiovascular surgery, some even citing sources in the intelligence community.

But he emerged Friday in seemingly good health at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Sunchon phosphate fertilizer factory in South Pyongan province. Sources within North Korea told RFAs Korean Service that the factory is not yet finished, and the ceremony was meant specifically to show those both abroad and at home Kim Jong Un was alive and well.

The Number One Event was held in a hurry just to make Kim Jong Un happy, without completing the factorys testing phase, the source said, using a term that refers to events attended by North Korean leaders.

Lessons from media frenzy

Kims reappearance served as the latest reminder to international media that a feedback loop of misinformation could result in wild speculation that went as far as declaring him dead and identifying his successor, experts said.

The media frenzy during Kims absence showed that some journalists were willing to push stories from sources that clearly did not have access to information or were horribly poor at analysis, Bruce Klingner of the Heritage Foundation told RFA.

Long-time Korea watchers were those counseling the most caution on accepting such reports at face value, he added.

Amid the medias speculation officials in the South Korean government also repeatedly issued statements that it had no information indicating Kim Jong Uns health was in serious decline during the three weeks he went missing from the public eye, including an official saying Monday that he did not even have surgery, as was reported last month.

It also showed that North Korea remains a black hole for information as well as the outsized importance of one mans health has for North Korean succession and regime stability, said Klingner.

While North Korea may have a succession plan behind the scenes, it is unclear to the outside world which worries about a potential succession struggle in a nuclear weapons nation, Klingner said.

Despite the clear or apparent miscues by the media and intelligence communities, the media frenzy did shine a light on the need for a contingency plan in the event of Kim Jong Uns death, according to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies David Maxwell.

This should be a wake-up call for the ROK/US alliance the regional powers and the international community, Maxwell told RFA.

Everyone needs to think through the answer to one simple question: What immediate actions do you take if you learn today that Kim Jong is dead, he said.

Fire exchanged at DMZ

Highlighting the potential for miscalculation, North and South Korean troops exchanged fire on Sunday along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing the peninsula, the first such event since 2018, according to the South Korean armed forces.

According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul, North Korean troops fired several bullets into a South Korean guard post near the border town of Cheorwon, with South Korean troops responding with about 20 warning shots before broadcasting a warning, as is the protocol for such an event. No casualties on either side were reported.

As North Korea shot first, South Koreas military considers the incident a violation of a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement.

I think that the incident at Cheorweon was a violation of the bilateral military agreement that was signed between North Korea and South Korea in 2018, and I think that just goes to show that absent consistent dialogue and confidence building measures between the two Koreas, agreements are just words on a piece of paper, Jessica Lee of the Quincy Institute told RFA.

This is, I think, another reason why having constant channels of communication and more normalized relations is key, certainly in this context and in any context in international relations, she said.

Yonhap news agency reported that the South Korean military later said the gunshots were not deemed intentional.

Klingner and Maxwell, however, described the incident as not accidental, but stopped short of saying it was a clear provocation.

If four rounds struck the South Korean guard post as reported it was not accidental. It was well-aimed fire. It was not an accidental or negligent discharge. Was this ordered by the regime to serve as a provocation? If so it was a very weak one, said Maxwell.

Did a local commander misinterpret his orders and take the wrong action? Possibly and then it could be considered a mistake. I think the ROK soldiers responded correctly and then diffused the situation through broadcasts as is normal procedure, he said.

My real concern with these incidents is if there is a break down in the North Korean military's chains of control. If North Korean soldiers or small units try to escape they are likely to be fired upon by the remaining forces to prevent their escape. That situation can lead to misunderstanding and miscalculation and even escalation, added Maxwell.

Klingner said the incident showed that South Korean President Moon Jae Ins relatively soft policies on North Korea have not affected the situation much.

While it is hard to believe that several shots were accidental, there are more incidents along the DMZ than often reported in the media, he said

However, the incident does show that despite President Moons much vaunted Comprehensive Military Agreement with the North, the situation has not really changed, he added.

Meanwhile South Koreas opposition party urged the government to be firmer in its response to North Korean provocations.

The North Korean militarys firing was a direct violation of the 9.19 inter-Korean military agreement. Therefore, the South Korean government and military should not only protest strongly, but also receive an apology and a promise from North Korea to prevent a recurrence, said Won Yoo Chul, leader of the Future Korea Party, a party aligned with the main opposition United Future Party.

Reported by Hyemin Son, Soyoung Kim, Seung Wook Hong, and Jae Duk Seo for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
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THE BOOK OF V.

By Anna Solomon

Each year at Purim, Jews recount the story of Esther, the Jewish orphan who rose to the throne of Persia and interceded with her husband to save her people from annihilation. In synagogue childrens pageants, Esthers royal marriage is framed as a Cinderella story, but the biblical account is less family-friendly: Esther is chosen to replace the disgraced queen Vashti, who refused a royal command to parade  naked, some scholars argue  before a company of drunken men.

The Book of V., the engrossing, highly readable, darkly sexy third novel by Anna Solomon, interweaves the story of Esther and Vashti with those of two other women: Lily, a 40-something wife and mother in contemporary Brooklyn, and Vee, a young senators wife in Watergate-era Washington.

Vee is a 20th-century Vashti. When, at a boozy house party in Georgetown, her husband asks her to undress in front of a group of Washington power brokers, Vee refuses  and, like Vashti, is banished. Solomon works hard to make this plot turn believable. That she doesnt entirely succeed is almost incidental; readers who know their Bible will see what she is up to, and happily suspend disbelief. Vees second act  she reconnects with an old friend whose own marriage is coming apart  leads eventually to Lily, the emotional center of this transporting novel.

Lily is a frustrated writer, a stay-at-home mom who feels caught between the ideals of her feminist mother, Ruth (I hope it fulfills you, taking care of children all the time, Ruth offers dryly), and the lofty standard of parenting embraced in Park Slope, with its river of other women and strollers and children on Eighth Avenue, headed to this school or that, or home from school, or to laundromats or piano lessons or nit-pickers or playdates.
BERLIN, GERMANY - MAY 05: Shoppers wearing protective face masks wait to enter the KaDeWe department store on the first day KaDeWe fully reopened during the novel coronavirus crisis on May 05, 2020 in Berlin, Germany. Germany is carefully lifting lockdown measures nationwide in an attempt to raise economic activity. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images) - Sean Gallup/Getty Images Europe

There was no sign of a second wave of coronavirus infections in Germany as the first reliable data on the effects of lifting the lockdown emerged on Tuesday.

Two weeks after shops were allowed to reopen, the rate of new infections continues to fall, the government-funded Robert Koch Institute (RKI) announced.

The reproduction number, or R  the number of people each person with the virus infects  is close to its lowest recorded level, at 0.71.

The rate of transmitted infections continues to fall. This is very good news, Prof Lothar Wieler, the head of the RKI said.

The figures are the first to include reliable data on new infections since Germany began to lift its lockdown two weeks ago.

New infections take time to develop and scientists assume a lag of 10-14 days before they are reflected in the figures.

But Prof Wieler cautioned against celebrating too early. We know there will probably be a second wave. The majority of scientists agree on this and many believe there will also be a third wave, he said.

Bavaria's State Premier and leader of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) Markus Soeder attends a Bavarian cabinet meeting in the dome hall of the Bavarian State chancellery on May 5, 2020 in Munich amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. - Germany is accelerating its return to normality from a crippling lockdown, with regional leaders pushing back against Chancellor Angela Merkel's pleas for prudence in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic. On the eve of a key meeting schedulded on May 6, 2020 between Merkel and premiers of Germany's 16 states to debate a new round of easing of stay-at-home measures, the country's biggest state Bavaria pre-empted talks by saying it would reopen its restaurants and hotels this month. (Photo by Sven Hoppe / POOL / AFP) (Photo by SVEN HOPPE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) - SVEN HOPPE/AFP

The latest figures came as Germanys regional governments announced plans to ease restrictions further.

Angela Merkel is to hold talks on the lockdown with regional leaders on Wednesday but her attempts to maintain nationwide regulations appeared to be unravelling as several state governments announced plans to go it alone.

Bavaria, until now the toughest lockdown state in Germany, on Tuesday became the latest to announce plans to reopen restaurants and hotels later this month.

The state will also relax its ban on people leaving their homes and allow visits to nursing and care homes from the weekend.

Lower Saxony is to allow people to travel to second homes or go camping from Wednesday, while Mecklenburg-West Pomerania will be the first state to reopen restaurants this weekend, followed by hotels on May 18.

Mrs Merkel has previously warned the regional governments are rushing to lift the lockdown too soon.

She is reportedly pressing regional leaders to agree an emergency brake rule at Wednesday's talks.

Under the proposal, if the number of infections in a town or district rises above an agreed limit, the area would be placed back under total lockdown.
The reports of horrific Instagram group, bois locker room, has outraged thousands across the country. Social media posts, sharing screenshots of the online group, went viral over the weekend after which the group was exposed on Sunday and deactivated. The chat room of the Instagram group had members talk about gang-raping school girls and circulate objectionable pictures.

The Mumbai Police has taken a definitive on the issue stating that there is no room for disrespecting women.

In a tweet posted on late Monday evening, Mumbai Police stated that Boys will be boys has never been an acceptable excuse and shall never be.

Also read: Facebook responds to Bois Locker Room controversy

Boys will be boys - never an acceptable excuse earlier, will never be one ever after #StopThemYoung pic.twitter.com/sJx7nFOy4P  Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) May 4, 2020

The tweet also carried a hashtag #StopThemYoung.

The Delhi Police has launched an investigation in the matter and a teenage boy has been apprehended and questioned. The police have also found that some of the members of the group are aged above 18 years.

The one who has been nabbed is a 15-year-old student of a prominent school in South Delhi, news agency IANS reported. At least 22 others involved have been identified and shall be investigated.

Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal on Tuesday said those who were part of the Instagram group should not be spared.

Such persons, irrespective of where they are and whether the lockdown is in place or not, should not be spared, the DCW chief said.
Elon Musk has said concern over the coronavirus outbreak is overblown and called for the end of government orders limiting business operations. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

Amid an enormous public health crisis, trust in governments is rising, while trust in businesses and their leaders in particular has fallen sharply, according to a new report by communications firm Edelman.

Although half of respondents typically voice trust in CEOs, that number has now fallen to less than one out of three, 29%.

For the last decade or so, governments around the world have generally failed to pull ahead of businesses in establishing trust in Edelman's annual global survey of trust and credibility in government, business, NGOs and the media. But with nearly three in four respondents supporting restrictions on movement as an appropriate response to the coronavirus pandemic and 61% willing to disclose personal health and location data to aid with containing its spread, support for governments is on an upswing.

Businesses actually havent performed well in the minds of respondents. Theres a feeling they havent gotten the right products and they havent protected their employees  that profits are still being put over people, and more should be done to prepare for the next phase, said Richard Edelman, chief executive of Edelman.

The firm surveyed about 13,200 people across 11 countries, including the United States, between April 15 and April 23.

Low-wage workers performing vital tasks, including employees at grocery stores, warehouses, and meat factories and gig workers delivering food and household items, have protested what they see as a lack of safety protections and pay commensurate with the risk they face.

The survey reflects this unrest, with about half of respondents saying businesses were doing poorly, mediocre or completely failing at implementing safety measures and helping smaller suppliers stay in business by extending them credit or relaxing payment deadlines.

At the same time, the coronavirus crisis has exacerbated existing perceptions that the system is rigged in favor of the wealthy, with 67% of respondents believing those with less money and education were unfairly shouldering risk of illness.

Story continues

It makes sense, experts said, that people are turning toward the government as it takes the reins in a public health crisis. Governors such as Gavin Newsom of California and Andrew Cuomo of New York have increased their visibility, communicating crucial information and statistics about cases and deaths in daily briefings. Searches for reliable information have driven up trust in traditional news sources as well, according to the report.

In the coming weeks and months, as state and local governments develop plans to lift social distancing restrictions, businesses' tone and actions will be key, experts said.

Unilever made a commitment to provide financing for small "vulnerable" vendors and suppliers. This is a good example of an action a company can take toward improving its image, Edelman told The Times.

On the other hand, the optics were not good when the Lakers applied for and received a loan of about $4.6 million under the stimulus package that Congress passed in March, he said. The team said it returned the funds last week.

"People who are well-off should be careful not to ask for government bailouts," for example, private equity firms, he said. "CEOs have been remarkably shy about being in the media, and have been very heads down. They're not really sketching the future."

That has to change, he said, if businesses want their voices heard as the government hashes out the terms of a reopened economy.

Neha Bairoliya, an assistant professor of finance and business economics at USC said these decisions should not rest in the hands of businesses, but instead should be determined by local governments and public health authorities.

Because the current economic downturn was induced by a public health crisis, Bairoliya said she doesn't think businesses will face the same type of criticisms about corporate greed as they did in the aftermath of the 2008 recession. "But it's very important here to strike the right balance between protecting the vulnerable and restoring the economy," she said.

Companies that craft plans for the future and effectively communicate  or even over-communicate  them to employees will have a leg up, said Eric Anicich, a professor studying management and social psychology of employees at USC.

"The big thing with the pandemic is the unpredictability of it," he said. Even if furloughs and cuts are unavoidable, companies can reduce uncertainty and psychological stress by being transparent and working to hear the concerns of their staff.
[May 05, 2020] Nancy Winkelman, Esquire, to Receive the 2020 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Third Circuit

Nancy Winkelman, Esquire, has been selected to receive the prestigious 2020 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Third Circuit. Since 2018, Winkelman has led the law division of the district attorney's office in Philadelphia. Before assuming that role, Winkelman was a partner in the Philadelphia law firm Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP. In her nearly three decades at the firm, Winkelman focused on federal and state appellate litigation as cochair of the firm's litigation services department and its appellate practice group. In addition to appearing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and many other appellate courts, Winelman also presented argument before the Supreme Court of the United States. In 2001, she argued Booth v. Churner, representing the plaintiff pro bono in a prisoner civil rights case that addressed a circuit split on the exhaustion of administrative remedies under the Prison Litigation Reform Act.



"While she was at Schnader, Nancy devoted thousands of hours to so many different pro bono causes, not just prisoners' rights, but immigration and asylum matters, First Amendment issues, and others," says Stephen A. Fogdall, Esquire, of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, who nominated his former partner for the award. In 2016, Winkelman served as president of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, having been selected as a fellow of the academy in 2004. In 2007, she cofounded the Third Circuit Bar Association and served as its first president. Winkelman has also taught appellate practice, including 10 years of teaching appellate advocacy at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. She has also taught appellate advocacy at Temple University Beasley School of Law. She is a former board member of both the Disabilities Law Project and the Disabilities Rights Network of Pennsylvania. She is a Master of the Bench member of the University of Pennsylvania Law School American Inn of Court.

Winkelman earned her undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Wesleyan University, then earned her law degree from Western New England College School of Law in 1987. She clerked for Judge Dolores Sloviter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and later led a fundraising effort to establish a memorial to her "life-long mentor" at the judge's alma mater, Temple University. The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, inspires the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring. The organization's membership includes nearly 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in nearly 370 chapters nationwide. More information is available at home.innsofcourt.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005093/en/

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1. Yes. Too many kids are staying home. They need a virtual learning option to keep up.

2. Yes. Teachers are out sick and subs cant handle the load. Online learning is needed.

3. No. Its too late in the school year to make a wholesale switch in teaching platforms.

4.No. Many parents arent in a position to stay home while their kids learn virtually.

5. Unsure. It may seem like a good idea from a health standpoint, but it has shortcomings.

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U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) confers with an aide during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing, in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, on March 11, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Lawmaker to Introduce Bill to Help US Manufacturers Move Out of China

Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) is set to introduce a bill to help companies move their manufacturing from China to the United States as momentum builds for the country to decouple from the Chinese regime as a result of the pandemic.

Green told The Epoch Times that his forthcoming bill would allow firms to deduct the entire cost of capital spending associated with relocating from Chinaknown as immediate expensingto lure companies to move to the United States. The bill would pay for this with money collected from U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports, he proposed.

The idea of covering 100 percent of moving costs was also recently endorsed by White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, who said it would be a very good thing for American companies.

The move comes as the Trump administration pushes to cut its supply chain dependence on China. The pandemics disruption of global supply chains along with the Chinese regimes mishandling of the outbreak has propelled the United States and other countries to find alternative manufacturing bases.

Any efforts to decouple is  wise for us, both from an economic standpoint and from a national security standpoint, Green said.

He said the bill was slated to be introduced by the end of the week.

Supporting American

Green recently introduced another bill aimed to stop China from acquiring U.S. companies vital to national security, as asset prices fall due to the pandemic.

Right now, they are on a buying spree across the globe for companies with a significant national security implication, he said.

The congressman cited as an example United Airlines recent sale and lease back of 22 planes to Bank of China Aviation, the Hong Kong-listed unit of Chinese state-owned Bank of China.

Now China has 22 large aircrafts that they could take off the market if they wanted to hurt the United States, Green said.

The head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) also warned of such developments.

Some may seek to use the economic downturn as an opening to invest in our critical industries and infrastructure, NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg said on April 15.

Greens SOS ACT (Secure Our Systems Against Chinas Tactics) would incentivize Americans to invest in companies critical to national security by having the Treasury back 50 percent of the investment. In this way, if the investments fail, investors can recover half of their initial costs back, Green said. To pay for this initiative, the bill would set aside $10 billion from the CARES Act, the virus-related relief package.

Making Beijing Pay

The congressman criticized efforts to blame President Donald Trump for his handling of the pandemic when the attention should be focused on the Chinese regimes coverup, which caused the global spread of the disease.

I think this is a strategic effort of the media to frame Trump for something thats not his fault, Green said. China clearly could have stopped this.

He said the regimes failure to disclose what it knew about the virus in the early stages, including its contagiousness and severity, meant that the United States was making decisions based on incomplete information.

Green applauded Trumps decision early on to ban travelers from China, a move that was criticized by Beijing and the World Health Organization at the time.

The Trump administration is reportedly considering a range of measures against the regime for causing the pandemic, including sanctions, trade restrictions, and removing the legal protection of sovereign immunity, which would allow Americans to sue Beijing in U.S. courts.

Green supports canceling U.S. debt obligations to the regime as a way to recoup the costs of the pandemics damage to the United States. Trump recently rejected the idea, calling it a rough game, while suggesting that sanctions could involve tariffs on China instead.

The United States has basically had to crush its economy. Therefore we expect them to cover that loss, Green said.
University of Pittsburgh professor Dr. Bing Liu, 37, was shot multiple times inside his home around noon on May 2, 2020. (University of Pittsburgh)

Researcher Killed in Apparent Murder-Suicide Was Close to Very Significant Findings Regarding COVID-19

A Pittsburgh medical researcher killed in an apparent murder-suicide was close to making very significant findings in the field of COVID-19, his department said.

Dr. Bing Liu, 37, was shot multiple times inside his home around noon on May 2, police said, as cited by Pittsburghs Action News 4. Investigators cited in the report believe that after shooting Liu, the gunman left the residence, walked over to his car, and shot himself.

Police havent disclosed a motive for the apparent murder-suicide.

Liu was a research assistant professor with the department of computational and systems biology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, according to his profile. In it, Liu wrote, As an integral part of my research, I collaborate with a number of biologists and clinicians to study a variety of crucial biological processes related to human immunity and cancer.

He was a very talented individual, extremely intelligent and hardworking, said Ivet Bahar, head of the computational and system biology department in universitys School of Medicine, according to the Post-Gazette.

His department said in a statement that Liu was on the verge of making very significant findings toward understanding the cellular mechanisms that underlie SARS-CoV-2 infection and the cellular basis of the following complications.

We will make an effort to complete what he started in an effort to pay homage to his scientific excellence, it added.

The scientific designation for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus is SARS-CoV-2.

Bahar said Liu had recently engaged his talents in mapping COVID-19 infection processes.

He was just starting to obtain interesting results, she said. He was sharing with us, trying to understand the mechanism of infection, so we will hopefully continue what he was doing.

The department expressed its condolences.

His loss will be felt throughout the entire scientific community. Please keep his family, friends, and colleagues in your thoughts. Thank you, the department said in the statement.

We are all shocked to learn what happened to him. This was very unexpected, Bahar told the Post-Gazette.

Neighbors cited by the publication said Liu and his wife were quiet and mostly kept to themselves.

A formal ruling on the cause of death is pending, but CBS reported that Liu was found with apparent gunshot wounds to his head, neck, and torso.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
The Indian Navy on Tuesday launched Operation 'Samudra Setu' (meaning 'Sea Bridge'), as a part of national effort to repatriate Indian citizens from overseas amid coronavirus COVID-19 lockdown. Indian Naval Ships Jalashwa and Magar are currently en route to the port of Male in the Maldives to commence evacuation operations from May 8 as part of Phase-1.

The Centre has been closely monitoring the situation with respect to the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on Indian citizens abroad. The Indian Navy has been directed to make suitable preparations for their evacuation by sea.

The Indian Mission in the Maldives is preparing a list of Indian nationals to be evacuated by Naval ships and will facilitate their embarkation after the requisite medical screening. A total of 1,000 persons are planned to be evacuated during the first trip, catering for COVID- related social distancing norms vis-a-vis the carrying capacity and medical facilities available onboard.

The ships have been suitably provisioned for the evacuation operation. The evacuated personnel would be provided with the basic amenities and medical facilities during the sea-passage. In view of the unique challenges associated with COVID-19 stringent protocols have also been stipulated.

The evacuated personnel will be disembarked at Kochi, Kerala and entrusted to the care of state authorities. This operation is being progressed in close coordination with Ministries of Defence, External Affairs, Home Affairs, Health and various other agencies of the Centre and state governments.
Col Ashutosh Sharma, who was killed during an anti-terror operation in north Kashmir, was cremated with full military honours in Jaipur on Tuesday morning.

His wife Pallavi Sharma and brother lit the funeral pyre at a cremation ground in the presence of other family members and Army officers.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and South Western Army chief Lt Gen Alok Kler paid tributes to Col Sharma at Jaipur Military Station's 61, Cavalry Ground.

They consoled Col Sharma's family members as Pallavi put up a brave face and greeting them with folded hands.

Soldier Welfare Minister Pratap Singh, MP Rajyavardhan Rathore, Jaipur Collector Jogaram and other senior officials of the Army laid wreaths and paid their tributes.

A unit of the South Western Command gave a guard of honour to Col Sharma and three volley gun shots were fired. Colonel Sharma was among the five security personnel killed in the encounter on Sunday. He is the second Commanding Officer of the 21 Rashtriya Rifles who lost his life in combating terrorism.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Avascular Necrosis Market Insights

Avascular necrosis (AVN) occurs when bone tissue begins to die due to a lack of sufficient supply of blood. The condition is often caused by joint or bone trauma, long-term steroid use or alcohol abuse. Market Research Future has released a report on the global avascular necrosis market which reveals that the global market is expected to grow at a CAGR 6.58% during the forecast period from 2018 to 2024.

The disease has been observed to commonly affect men between the ages of 30 to 50 years and has been particularly high in occurrence in emerging economies. Surgery is an inevitable part of avascular necrosis, and medication is required to treat the condition, thus driving the global Avascular Necrosis Market Forecast. Moreover, this factor is also driving the demand for minimally invasive treatment options. Notably, avascular necrosis or osteonecrosis is a challenging condition to diagnose and can often be overlooked until it has approached a later stage, and no known cure exists. This factor has driven R&D activities on the part of market players with a focus on drug discovery.

Medical implants are restricted by stringent regulations which are aimed at improvement of quality, this has adversely affected the cost of surgery and restrains the global avascular necrosis market. Moreover, there is a shortage of skilled orthopedic surgeons which further challenges the market. However, due to the high demand for non-surgical treatment, drug development activities are expected to reveal opportunities in the coming years.

Avascular Necrosis Market Segmentation

MRFR's detailed report includes segmentation of the global avascular necrosis market on the basis of type, site, diagnosis, treatment, end-user, and region. Types of avascular necrosis recorded in the report include trauma-related avascular necrosis and non-trauma related avascular necrosis. Between these, non-trauma related AVN accounts for a larger share of the market due to increasing cases of alcoholism and illegal steroid use. Avascular necrosis can occur largely in the hip bone, knee, shoulder, and others. Hip bones have been observed to have the largest share of the market.

By diagnosis, the market is divided between imaging and biopsy; the former is a more preferred form of diagnosis as it is minimally invasive, and is vital is early diagnoses of the disease. Treatment of avascular necrosis includes electrical stimulation, medication, gene therapy, and surgery. Surgery accounts for the leading segment as it is the only method of treatment which provides long-term relief. However, gene therapy is an up and coming treatment option which is expected to witness rapid growth. By end-users, the market is segmented into hospitals & clinics, ambulatory surgical centers, and diagnostic centers.

Regional Analysis

The Americas is the leading regional segment for avascular necrosis primarily due to the concentration of market players in the region. The affinity toward adoption of technically advanced medical treatments and practices have propelled the regional market into a leadership position with the U.S and Canada being key country-level markets. The Asia Pacific is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period due to the increasing prevalence of the disease in the emerging economies present in the region. Manufacturing of medical devices is increasingly shifting to countries such as China and India due to cheap labor costs and the low investments necessary toward the set-up of infrastructure.

Access Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/avascular-necrosis-market-6131

Key Players

Market players that have significantly impacted the global avascular necrosis market have been recorded in the report and include Integra LifeSciences Corporation, Bayer AG, Eli Lilly and Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Medtronic Plc, Merck KGaA, Sanofi, Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Pfizer Inc, Boehringer Ingelheim.

Latest Industry News

Regrow Biosciences has developed cell therapy for the treatment of orthopedic conditions including early stage avascular necrosis. Clinical trials are set to begin in the U.S and Europe soon.

Browse other healthcare-related reports

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The COVID-19 Novel Corona Virus Pandemic, which began in the Wuhan Province of China, has been wreaking havoc across the world and the entire economy and day-to-day life have come to a standstill across many countries in the world! India has emerged as a world leader in the fight against the Corona Virus and we now hear that our country is looking to capitalise on the fallout from this Outbreak! Many companies and industries which were located in China are now looking to move their operations out of the country and we hear that India is looking to attract most of them! Earlier, the major obstacle for companies to start their operations in India was the acquisition of land and more importantly the necessary permission from the authorities.

We hear that some officials who would like to remain anonymous have revealed that India is preparing a land pool of nearly 461,589 hectares (which is twice the size of Luxembourg), across states like Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, to attract companies and industries that would like to move out of China. Reports state that the Indian government has picked 10 sectors like IT, pharmaceuticals, electricals, medical equipments, chemicals, textiles, solar equipments, electronics, heavy engineering and food processing, to concentrate on and attract for beginning their operations in India. Apparently, we have already been getting enquiries from USA, Japan and South Korea, in this regard. Let us hope that the foreign direct investments by these companies brings in more industries to India and boosts our economy!
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 12:43:08|Editor: huaxia

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by Xinhua writer Jiang Li

BEIJING, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The notion of "American exceptionalism" argues that the United States has a special role in the world and serves as a role model for others to follow.

That myth has fallen prey to the rampaging coronavirus pandemic, or more specifically, to Washington's disruption to the global fight against the deadly pathogen.

As the world's sole superpower, the United States has an unshirkable responsibility to pioneer or support a global combat against humanity's common enemy, or at least set a fine example to contain the outbreak at home. However, Washington's performance has made it a disruptor-in-chief in this ongoing vital struggle, and let the world down deeply.

Many politicians in Washington love to boast of America's leading role in the world. The country is truly leading today, but in a tragic way no one is willing to see.

Being the world's epicenter in the COVID-19 pandemic, the country now has about one third of the world's caseload and death toll respectively, more than any other places on the surface of the Earth.

Clearly, despite all the warnings flashed by China or the World Health Organization (WHO), or even its own intelligence communities, this U.S. administration has simply dropped the ball because of either self-conceited arrogance or gross negligence, or both.

In a recently published Op-ed, The Associated Press said the United States responded the pandemic with a system with "cascading failures and incompetencies," and grumbled that "a nation with unmatched power, brazen ambition and aspirations through the arc of history to be humanity's 'shining city upon a hill' cannot come up with enough simple cotton swabs."

It seems that some Washington politicians, such as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House trade advisor Peter Navarro, have no interest in reflecting on what is going wrong in their own country. Facing their coronavirus debacle, they are interested in two things: covering it up and blaming others.

When the Pompeos and the Navarros attack China over transparency, they should know that they are the ones who tried to play down the dire threat of the disease despite having been repeatedly warned, refused to disclose how the administration was distributing medical supplies, and blocked Dr. Anthony Fauci, an infectious disease expert and key figure on the White House coronavirus task force, from testifying before Congress.

Trying to sell their theory on the virus's origin, they just couldn't be more desperate to smear China. During this past weekend, Pompeo said that there is "enormous evidence" that coronavirus outbreak originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, but failed to provide any. Pompeo's bluffing can easily remind people of the theatric UN presentation back in 2003 delivered by Colin Powell, then U.S. secretary of state, who made the case for the bloody and destructive Iraqi war with outright lies.

Instead of contributing to the global drive to bear down the pandemic, the incumbent U.S. government has even launched an offensive to disrupt it.

Last month, Washington has decided to halt funding for the WHO while accusing it of "severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus."

That is so irresponsible an decision that could not come at a worse time when the world needs more than ever this global health body to play its backbone role to coordinate an effective global response among governments in the face of the still-raging pandemic.

Following the World War II, the United States joined countries around the world to create the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, all of which are the pillars of the current world order that is underpinned by the spirit of multilateralism. That was a time when the United States had won some respect in the world although Washington and Moscow quickly went head-to-head in the Cold War.

The coronavirus pandemic is "shaking bedrock assumptions" about "American exceptionalism," Katrin Bennhold, The New York Times's Berlin bureau chief, wrote in a recently published opinion piece.

Washington's performance during the ongoing pandemic, along with this administration's ballooning hostility towards free trade, economic globalization and the post-war world order the United States helped shape, has degraded itself to a short-sighted and strong-arm bully who is willing to do anything for short-term self-interests.

The human race today faces a myriad of daunting challenges, like climate change and fatal infectious diseases such as COVID-19. To weather those challenges demands the input from everyone. If those U.S. decision-makers want their country to be exceptional, they need to be responsible and their actions should be inspirational. Otherwise, "American exceptionalism" would only become a laughing stock, for which the international community would feel an intense loathing. Enditem
Kulula operator Comair has announced it will enter business rescue due to the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown.

The announcement comes on the back of a half-year loss of R564 million in its 2020 fiscal year. The listed airline company also oversees British Airways operations in South Africa.

Comair CEO Wrenelle Stander said they face an unprecedented situation.

While we had started making good progress to fix the financial situation six months ago, the crisis has meant we have not been able to implement it as we intended, Stander said.

Comair said it was required to stop flying on 26 March 2020, and has not operated passenger services since this date.

It expects the phased lockdown will mean the grounding of flights will likely to continue until October or November.

These extraordinary circumstances have completely eroded our revenue base while we are still obliged to meet fixed overhead costs. The only responsible decision is to apply for business rescue, Stander stated.

Comair remains solvent

Comair noted that the COVID-19 crisis has had a severe effect on the global airline industry, with a number of carriers restructuring.

Stander emphasised that Comair remains solvent and an important contributor to South Africas economy.

This is a necessary process to ensure a focussed restructuring of the company takes place as quickly as possible so we can take to the skies again as a sustainable business and play our part in the countys airline industry, says Stander.

The company said Shaun Collyer and Richard Ferguson have been appointed as the joint business rescue practitioners, with effect from 5 May 2020.

Comair was also granted approval to suspend the trading of its shares on the JSE with immediate effect. The business rescue practitioners will provide shareholders and all other stakeholders with further updates throughout the process.

The company said the business rescue process will build on the turnaround plan that Comair management was already implementing.

It aims to preserve cash, cuts costs, dispose of non-performing assets, and strengthen the balance sheet. The Section 189A process, which was part of this plan and that began on 23 March, will continue, Comair said.

No charge to change flights

Comair indicated customers with existing bookings will be able to rebook flights within 12 months of their departure date.

No charges will be applicable on changes made before 1 November 2020.

Stander added that Comair will resume its operations according to government directives and will continue to engage with the government to accelerate the opening of the airline industry.

The health and welfare of our customers, crew, and the public is the overriding priority and we will only operate when we are sure we can do so safely.

We are confident that with the work weve already done and the support of our stakeholders we will get through this process and will be a more sustainable business.

Now read: New airline may be created from SAA
Textbook Giants McGraw-Hill, Cengage Cancel Merger Plans

Cengage and McGraw-Hill, the second and third largest college textbook companies in the United States, said they have ended their merger plan that was first announced a year ago.

The proposed merger of the two New York City-based publishing giants would have created the nations second-largest supplier of physical textbooks, course materials, study guides, and subscription services of digital educational contents. The combined entity would have been led by Cengage CEO Michael Hansen.

Although we are disappointed that we were unable to finalize the merger, the opportunity ahead remains significant, said Hansen in a Monday statement.

The decision to terminate all merger efforts was unanimously approved by the board of directors of both companies, according to a press release. Under the terms of the merger agreement, neither Cengage nor McGraw-Hill will have to pay any break fee.

Cengage and McGraw-Hill said their merger would have allowed them to make textbooks and course materials more affordable to students. Together, we will be even better positioned to create new, locally impactful products that use leading educational technology to improve learning experiences and outcomes, read a now-defunct website that has been heavily promoted.

SAT test preparation books sit on a shelf at a Barnes and Noble store in New York City on June 27, 2002. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Despite the companies promises, numerous consumer rights organizations, higher-education groups, and government officials in the English-speaking world have voiced their worries throughout the past year, arguing that the merger would further reduce competition in an already highly concentrated market and ultimately raise textbook prices for students.

In the United States, the Department of Justice (DOJ) reviewed the merger and told Cengage and McGraw-Hill it had serious concerns that combining the two would harm competition. In Britain, an investigation into the deal by the Competition and Markets Authority concluded that it could lead to students paying more for essential textbooks and educational materials. Competition and consumer agencies in Australia and New Zealand also expressed concerns about the merger.

American students were our primary concern when evaluating the possible competitive effects of this deal, Makan Delrahim, the assistant attorney general of the DOJs Antitrust Division, said in a statement. The decision to abandon this merger preserves competition in the market for textbook publishing, an important industry in the education sector. Cengage and McGraw-Hills decision to abandon this merger also preserves innovation, as the two firms compete aggressively in the development of courseware technology.

The failed Cengage and McGraw-Hill merger is a big win for students, faculty, and other community members at Americas colleges and universities, said Kaitlyn Vitez, director of consumer group U.S. PIRG. Were glad to see that the U.S. Department of Justice and regulators in other English-speaking countries raised serious questions about the wisdom of allowing this merger to move forward, and that student advocacy, media pressure, and legal action pushed the publishers to abandon their plan to consolidate the college textbooks market further.
The Trump administration is escalating tensions with allies as it seeks to renew a UN arms embargo on Iran that's set to expire this year, threatening to kill what's left of the nuclear agreement the U.S. quit two years ago if countries don't go along.

Officials including Secretary of State Michael Pompeo are warning that the U.S. could try to force a "snapback" of sanctions against Tehran by all United Nations Security Council members as part of the 2015 Iran nuclear accord if the arms embargo is allowed to expire in October.

"We are operating under the assumption that we will be able to renew the arms embargo," Brian Hook, U.S. Special Representative for Iran, told reporters last week. If council members don't go along, he warned, "we are well within our rights" to snap back all UN sanctions.

That's not an interpretation many countries agree with.

While not wanting to feud publicly with the U.S., European diplomats speaking on condition that they not be identified say the U.S. forfeited any such right when President Donald Trump decided to end "U.S. participation" in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, which he calls the "worst deal ever."

Renewing the arms embargo won't be easy. Russia has repeatedly indicated it will oppose an extension, and China isn't likely to go along with the U.S. proposal either. Both have veto power on the Security Council.

Allies and adversaries see U.S. officials as trying to have it both ways: stay out of the deal they disagree with except when they need some of its provisions to press allies to exit it too. The administration calculates that the deal's collapse would increase pressure for Iran, which has resumed building a stockpile of fissile material, to agree to a more wide-ranging accord that doesn't have "sunsets," or clauses that expire over time.

With Iran already under a raft of U.S. sanctions that limit the ability of other nations to trade with it, the impact of a snapback would be largely symbolic. But the political impact of effectively killing off the 2015 accord would be potent.

A public dispute over the embargo and a proposed snapback would also further highlight the inability of the Security Council, meant to be the UN's most powerful body, to reach agreement on almost any contentious issue. The council has already been hamstrung for weeks trying to pass a resolution about the coronavirus pandemic, as a feud between China and the U.S. over the virus's origins has blocked progress.

Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon said Security Council members should "take the U.S. threat seriously" when it comes to the arms embargo and the snapback proposal.

The U.S. "can't force the vote on the Security Council, and they could face a veto, so what they can do is place a price tag, and that's what they're doing now," Danon said in a phone interview.

Officials in Berlin, Paris and London say they recognize Washington's concerns over the embargo's expiration, but they argue that concern over conventional arms sales shouldn't sabotage efforts to keep the nuclear accord in place.

"Europeans are still in the mood of salvaging the deal," said Naysan Rafati, the International Crisis Group's Iran analyst. "The Europeans actually agree with the Americans on a lot when it comes to Iran, but they diverge on whether to try and keep the JCPOA alive as a basis for discussions."

While European officials have kept quiet publicly, Iran has lashed out at U.S. threats.

"2 yrs ago, @SecPompeo and his boss declared 'CEASING U.S. participation' in JCPOA, dreaming that their 'max pressure' would bring Iran to its knees," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted. "Given that policy's abject failure, he now wants to be JCPOA participant. Stop dreaming: Iranian Nation always decides its destiny."

With the nuclear accord in limbo, Iran has gradually reduced its commitments to the deal, reducing the time it would take for Tehran to build a nuclear bomb to less than a year, according to a senior Western diplomat.

The embargo's end would theoretically allow Iran to move ahead with purchases of conventional weapons from Russia and China. That could let Iran modernize its forces by buying advanced weapons systems that it has mostly been unable to acquire for decades, including advanced fighter aircraft and main battle tanks, the Pentagon warned in November.

Yet even if the embargo were to expire, plenty of obstacles remain for Iran to buy weapons. Secondary U.S. sanctions, for instance, would make any country think twice before selling to Iran. The European Union also has its own arms embargo on Iran.

The issue is a top political priority for Trump, with the October expiration coming just weeks before presidential elections in the United States. Hawkish advisers to the Trump administration think the U.S. shouldn't even waste time with a UN resolution, going straight to the snapback option instead.

"It's useless to waste time trying to extend the arms embargo with a resolution that is likely to fail," said Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which has helped guide the Trump administration's Iran sanctions policies. "Even if you could get Russians to agree, all you've done is gained a very short-term extension of the arms embargo. "
By PTI

SINGAPORE: Singapore on Tuesday reported 632 new COVID-19 cases, mostly foreign workers living in packed dormitories, taking the total number of infections in the country to 19,410.

A total of 605 of the new cases are foreign workers on work permits and residing in dormitories, said the Health Ministry said.

Fifteen patients are work permit holders residing outside dormitories and 12 cases were from the community, comprising eight Singapore citizens or permanent residents (foreigners), and four work pass holders (also foreigners).

The number of Singaporeans or permanent residents has been updated from the Ministry's preliminary figures as one case has been "re-classified" following contact tracing, the ministry said.

"The number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of 17 cases per day in the week before to an average of 10 per day in the past week," said the ministry.

Twenty-four of the 1,560 coronavirus cases hospitalized are critical and in the intensive care unit.

The rest of stable and improving. A total of 16,289 patients are in isolation facilities while 18 have died from the deadly disease.

The Singapore government is ramping up testing capacity with a view to starting nationwide COVID-19 testing, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong told Parliament.

Minister for Communications and Information S Iswaran on Tuesday addressed the concerns of the migrant workers living in dormitories, who have been subject to stringent restrictions and active testing.

Speaking in Tamil for workers from India, Iswaran explained the need to test them and their co-workers.

The Indian-origin Singapore minister said the government has "undertaken numerous efforts to enhance the quality of food and facilities" within the dormitories.

The video was dubbed in Bengali and forwarded to Bangladeshi workers via WhatsApp.

"If tested positive, we will provide (your friends) with the necessary medical care fully paid by the government. We will provide you with the necessary quality medical care as we do for Singaporeans. This is our promise," said Iswaran.
Mauritius recorded no new COVID-19 cases for the past eight days, according to statistics provided by the National Communication Committee on Monday May 4.

Currently there are 3 active cases out of 332 positive cases registered including 10 deaths.

As regards the PCR tests, figures reveal that 18,959 have been carried out. A total of 26,275 front liners have been screened through the Rapid Antigen Tests. Hundred passengers are still under quarantine.

The sanitary curfew put in place on March 20, and which was due to end on May 1, has been extended until June 1, Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth announced.

The population will need a little more patience, to avoid the risk of a second wave of the Covid-19 epidemic, Jugnauth said.

However as from May 15 there will be a gradual resumption of certain activities, which will be added to essential sectors such as banks and supermarkets, which are operating despite the containment.

Even though religious, political and union gatherings will still be banned, bakeries, barbers, butchers and fishmongers will be able to open again on May 15. Markets, bars and shopping centers will remain closed until June 1, while schools will resume on August 1.

Beaches are also prohibited on the Indian Ocean Island, a tourist hot spot, while a maximum of 10 people can attend weddings and funerals.
Gold Price Forecast Overview:

Gold prices have traded sideways through the start of May, maintaining the bullish flag pattern following the April rally into fresh 2020 highs.

Gold prices resiliency in the face of declining gold volatility may once again be a good omen, as it so often has been the case over the past year.

According to the IG Client Sentiment Index , the outlook remains neutral as traders have made few changes to their gold positioning.

Gold Prices Continue their Sideways Grind

Bearish outside engulfing bar. Bullish piercing bar. Doji. The past three days of action in gold prices has led to contradictory signals from Japanese candlesticks  first the sign of a downturn becoming more aggressive, then a reversal candlestick immediately thereafter, and now the formation of todays doji candle, a neutral, undecisive output by the market.

And so it goes for gold prices: the sideways grind that defined the second half of April has continued its slog into May. The evidence thus far remains scant and uncompelling, particularly due to the lack of follow through, for a more aggressive move in the near-term. With risk appetite showing signs of improving, it would seem that there are a few near-term hurdles that gold deal with before taking a swing at fresh yearly highs.

Gold Volatility Pulls Back, Undercuts Gold Price Potential

Gold prices have a relationship with volatility unlike other asset classes, even including precious metals like silver which have economic uses. While other asset classes like bonds and stocks dont like increased volatility  signaling greater uncertainty around cash flows, dividends, coupon payments, etc.  gold tends to benefit during periods of higher volatility. Heightened uncertainty in financial markets due to increasing macroeconomic tensions increases the safe haven appeal of gold.

Read more: How Do Politics and Central Banks Impact FX Markets?

GVZ (Gold Volatility) Technical Analysis: Daily Price Chart (October 2008 to May 2020) (Chart 1)

Gold volatility (as measured by the Cboes gold volatility ETF, GVZ, which tracks the 1-month implied volatility of gold as derived from the GLD option chain) is trading at 23.72, breaking its coronavirus pandemic low set on March 16 at 23.96. Its worth noting that, despite gold volatility breaking its coronavirus pandemic lows, gold prices have not: gold prices were trading at 1696.94 at the time this report was written; on March 16, gold prices traded as low as 1451.43.

As such, the 5-day correlation between GVZ and gold prices is 0.08 while the 20-day correlation is -0.41; one week ago, on April 28, the 5-day correlation was 0.68 and the 20-day correlation was -0.43; and one month ago, on April 7, the 5-day correlation was 0.99 and the 20-day correlation was -0.55.

It remains the case that, as has occurred many times over the past year, when gold volatility falls but gold prices do not follow, leading to a situation of negative correlations in the short-term, it has typically indicated a digestion period for the market prior to further gains. If history is a guide, the recent sideways move in gold prices in context of the decline in gold volatility may be setting up the conditions for a rally after all.

Gold Price Technical Analysis: Daily Chart (May 2019 to May 2020) (Chart 2)

The lack of significant movement over the past few weeks has left much of our near-term gold price forecast intact: Gold prices continue to consolidate below two key Fibonacci levels, having achieved significant upside targets in the context of both recent and longer-term moves. The two Fibonacci levels referenced are (1) the 100% extension taken from the May 2019 low, September 2019 high, and November 2019 low, with a calculated target at 1736.39, and (2) the 76.4% retracement of the 2011 high to 2015 low range at 1714.66. These have proven to be formidable resistance over the past month.

It thus still holds that the short-term sideways range has been carved out between the April 14/2020 high at 1747.72 and the April 21 swing low (which found support at the daily 21-EMA) at 1661.42. To this end, given the gold prices rallied into this consolidation, the market retains an upside bias. If gold prices do break higher from here, the near-term measured move calls for gains towards 1834.02. If gold prices break the April 21 low of 1661.42, the measured target is 1575.42.

It should be noted that momentum has neutralized in recent days, now that gold prices are enmeshed among the daily 5-, 8-, 13-, and 21-EMA envelope, which is in neither bearish nor bullish sequential order. Daily MACD is falling, albeit in bullish territory, while Slow Stochastics are meagerly rising their median line. The coiling continues.

Gold Price Technical Analysis: Weekly Chart  Inverse Head and Shoulders Pattern (May 2011 to May 2020) (Chart 3)

Gold prices have made significant progress within the confines of the multi-year inverse head & shoulders pattern, achieving their highest level since November 2012 earlier this week. It thus still holds that the rally into and through the 76.4% retracement (1714.66) must be viewed in context of the longer-term technical picture: the gold price inverse head and shoulders pattern that was triggered in mid-2019 is still valid and guiding gold price action.

Depending upon the placement of the neckline, the final upside targets in a potential long-term gold price rally, if drawing the neckline breakout against the August 2013 high at 1433.61, calls for a final target at 1820.99. This dovetails neatly with the measured move on the daily timeframe looking for gold prices to rally into 1834.02.

IG Client Sentiment Index: Gold Price Forecast (May 5, 2020) (Chart 4)

Gold: Retail trader data shows 71.85% of traders are net-long with the ratio of traders long to short at 2.55 to 1. The number of traders net-long is 8.82% lower than yesterday and 12.55% higher from last week, while the number of traders net-short is 9.51% higher than yesterday and 7.58% lower from last week.

We typically take a contrarian view to crowd sentiment, and the fact traders are net-long suggests Gold prices may continue to fall.

Positioning is less net-long than yesterday but more net-long from last week. The combination of current sentiment and recent changes gives us a further mixed Gold trading bias.

--- Written by Christopher Vecchio, CFA, Senior Currency Strategist
Palestinian foreign ministry slams Israeli plan to seize land near Ibrahimi Mosque in al-Khalil

Iran Press TV

Monday, 04 May 2020 2:07 PM

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has strongly condemned the Israeli regime's plan to seize Palestinian land in the area of the Ibrahimi Mosque in the southern occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil.

The ministry, in a statement released on Monday, announced that the Israeli regime has exploited preoccupation with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus to advance its expropriation plan.

The statement noted that Palestine will take the recent decision along with other settlement plans to the International Criminal Court, as the move amounts to a criminal act.

On Sunday, Israel's minister for military affairs, Naftali Bennett, gave the final green light to expropriate Palestinian-owned land and property in the old city of al-Khalil, situated 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Jerusalem al-Quds, to construct an elevator and a ramp to facilitate the entry of Jewish settlers to the Ibrahimi Mosque.

According to Israeli media outlets, the so-called Higher Planning Council of the Civil Administration  the Israeli body that handles agricultural and building permits, roads, water and electricity issues in the West Bank  was ordered to complete all relevant procedures immediately and without delay once judicial authorities, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Israel Katz approved the plan.

Back on April 21, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Hanan Ashrawi, slammed the Israeli decision as a "provocative and irresponsible action that will stoke religious sensitivities."

"It is a cynical exploitation of the world's focus on combating the COVID-19 pandemic and a reflection of Israel's willful determination to speedily execute its aggressive plans to the service and benefit of the colonial settlement regime that is devouring Palestine," Ashrawi said in a statement at the time.

The Palestinian land near the Ibrahimi Mosque will be seized from the Palestinian Islamic Waqf, which is a trust in charge of religious endowments.

In 2017, UNESCO recognized the Ibrahimi Mosque as an endangered Palestinian heritage site.

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Activists Decry Bid by Russia, Cuba, Saudi Arabia to Join UN Rights Body

By Lisa Schlein May 04, 2020

A watchdog group is calling on democratic nations to prevent the election of Russia, Cuba and Saudi Arabia to the 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council, saying their abysmal human rights records disqualify them from membership.

The U.N. General Assembly will elect 15 new members to the U.N. Human Rights Council in October. U.N. Watch, an independent group that monitors the United Nations, says it would be a travesty and outrage to permit Russia, Cuba and Saudi Arabia  three repressive, authoritarian regimes  to join this body.

Executive Director of U.N. Watch, Hillel Neuer, says governments that systematically deny basic freedoms to their own people are in no position to judge the human rights records of others.

"No one is saying that every member of the Human Rights Council has to be perfect. Obviously, there are no perfect countries. But to choose some of the worst governments is not a strategy and it is completely contrary to the official criteria declared at the founding of the Human Rights Council and which continues to govern the elections."

The resolution that was adopted when the Council was created in 2006 obliges members to uphold the promotion and protection of human rights. It also warns nations that commit gross human rights could be suspended. It has been applied only once against Libya in 2010 following the violent crackdown on protestors by the late dictator Muammar Gadhafi.

Neuer tells VOA the Council is a political body and for many countries, politics too often trump human rights as their guiding principle. He says more than 50 percent of Council members are not full democracies.

"Because of the membership of those countries, a large part of the work, of the proper work of the Council never gets done. So, for example, countries like China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Turkey have never been condemned for violations of human rights."

U.N. human rights spokesman, Rupert Colville, says running for a seat on the Council is not a cost-free exercise. He tells VOA any member State with a poor human rights record will find itself scrutinized.

"There is a bit of a price to pay actually," he said. "It doesn't mean by getting on the Council you get a free ride. If anything, it is a little bit the other way around because you get more attention put on you Their voting patterns and what they say in debates and so on will be subject to scrutiny and will be subject to criticism, you know, if they are elected as are all States."

Colville says Council members are held up against the high human rights standards set by the General Assembly. He says there are examples in the past of States who have withdrawn their candidacy for a seat on the Council after receiving a barrage of criticism.

He notes the process has a long way to run before the election is held and anything could happen before then.

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A Dublin medical technology firm and researchers at Queens University in Belfast are part of an international group awarded almost 1 million in EU funding to develop a Covid-19 test that will deliver results in less than 60 minutes.

Hibergene Diagnostics Ltd and Queens University are partnering with a medical technology company in China, Medcaptain, and a hospital in Italy, IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, in a new 930,000 research project funded under the European Union Horizon 2020 programme.

The study is trialling the potential use of rapid diagnostic technology that has been developed for other infectious diseases, such as bacterial meningitis, and which can provide real-time results in less than an hour.

The Covid-19 project comes on the back of initial research that developed a prototype test for meningococcal disease, which was carried out by Belfast Health and Social Care Trust in collaboration with researchers at Queens University.

The resulting prototype was licenced exclusively to Hibergene Diagnostics Ltd, which went on to develop and market a rapid meningitis test worldwide that uses a mobile device to enable on-site testing with fast results.

The Dublin-based company is now working with research partners in Queens University Belfast, Italy and China to further develop this Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) technology for use in testing for Covid-19.

One of the key advantages of the LAMP technology is that it can work with crude samples, such as a swab, to deliver fast, highly accurate test results.

It is hoped the research can bring to market a mobile battery-operated device that can be used on site in hospitals and other healthcare settings to deliver results in less than one hour.

Rapid diagnosis and reporting of results is the key to containing the Covid-19 disease and this test can play an important role in its diagnosis and control, Seamus Gorman, CEO of Hibergene, said.

Developing a test that can yield rapid results will also save time and resources, as it will enable clinicians to test for Covid-19 on site and eliminate the need to send test samples to a centralised laboratory for analysis. Another advantage of the technology is that it requires minimal training and equipment.

The research project has been underway for eight weeks but it is not yet clear how long it might take the research group to use the existing technology to develop a rapid Covid-19 test for use around the world.
Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 4:04PM

With standing shelter-in-place (SIP) and lockdown initiatives in place to keep people safe and flatten the curve during this COVID-19 pandemic, many of the major product launches and massive developer events have either been cancelled, postponed, or moved online in some form or another. Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference, which Canadian Reviewer has covered live various times in the past, will be reimagined as an online-only event to faciliate remote meeting protocols and keep developers and Apple employees safe.

Apple today announced it will host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference virtually, beginning June 22, in the Apple Developer app and on the Apple Developer website for free for all developers. This makes WWDC, which previously used a lottery system to limit the number of attendees, a lot more inclusive.

WWDC20 will be our biggest yet, bringing together our global developer community of more than 23 million in an unprecedented way for a week in June to learn about the future of Apple platforms, said Phil Schiller, Apples senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. We cant wait to meet online in June with the global developer community and share with them all of the new tools weve been working on to help them create even more incredible apps and services. We look forward to sharing more details about WWDC20 with everyone as we get closer to this exciting event.

While WWDC is a developer show, there have been product announcements and previews during this event. For journalists attending the keynote, these hands-on sessions afforded a sneak peek at upcoming products and technologies. It will be interesting to see how Apple pivots this public-facing aspect of WWDC.
Accused killer Manuel Fraga-Madan awaits extradition to Southern California from a Miami jail. (Miami-Dade County)

Prosecutors in Los Angeles County charged a Florida man Monday with killing and torturing another man in 1984 at a South L.A. motel room, a brutal slaying that had grown cold in the decades since but was rekindled through a recent match in a national DNA database.

Police arrested the accused killer, Manuel Fraga-Madan, Friday in Hialeah, Fla. He was in custody in a Miami jail awaiting extradition to Southern California, according to inmate records.

Det. Joseph Purcell of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Fraga-Madan, 66, was one of two men who stormed the Vermont Motel on July 12, 1984, during a violent pursuit of drugs and money.

The intended target of the men was Johnny Williams, but when the pair arrived, they found Williams' friend, a 23-year-old woman, and her baby son. Purcell said that while waiting for Williams to return to the motel room, Fraga-Madan and the other man raped the young woman at gunpoint.

When Williams, who was 40, came back to the motel room, the woman hid in the bathroom. Both men demanded money and drugs from Williams, but he said he had neither. Purcell said the men shot Williams once in the leg, then fired again, killing him.

The woman heard the gunshots, and the bathroom door was slightly ajar, the detective said.

"She could see some of the activity, but not all," Purcell said.

The men fled. Authorities interviewed the woman at the time, but she later died of natural causes, Purcell said. Her death was unrelated to the crime, and police have not publicly identified her.

The detective, one of about 10 assigned to the Sheriff's Department's cold case homicide unit, took over the investigation in 2018. In all aging cases, Purcell said, he looks for evidence that was impounded by police because no forensic methods were available at the time to trace a suspect's genetic profile. In the Williams case, he was hoping for a DNA match.

"There was no magic phone call, no letter, no informant saying you need to look at this case," Purcell said. "We were going through our process."

Story continues

The clinching evidence was the motel bedding, which had semen from the sexual assault.

Purcell said Fraga-Madan has a criminal history in California and Florida, mostly on drug-related offenses, which resulted in his DNA being stored in a database.

The DNA match was enough for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office to file a murder charge, alleging that Fraga-Madan killed Williams while torturing him and while carrying out a rape. The statute of limitations on the rape charge has passed.

Prosecutors have not decided whether to seek the death penalty.

The second man who was at the scene has not been identified, Purcell said. Nor have detectives been able to track down the woman's son, perhaps the only person still alive who was in the motel room that day.

"With this case, there are no witnesses," Purcell said. "The science is a witness."
The Real Housewives Of Orange County are getting creative as they restart shooting for their 15th season.

Bravo divas Shannon Beador, Kelly Dodd, Braunwyn Windham-Burke and Emily Simpson appeared to get together for a socially distanced hang out, which they shared on Instagram Monday.

Though production has not started up again, the ladies of Orange County are shooting themselves with their iPhones, according to Page Six.

Homebodies: The cast of The Real Housewives Of Orange County got together for a 'socially-distanced' hangout over the weekend

For the Sunday hang hostess Shannon made sure people gave each other space, using a measuring tape to keep people the recommended six-feet apart.

But they broke distancing for a quick mask selfie, which ironically was captioned: 'Following the rules...'

Later Braunwyn shared a shot of the ladies having fun - but of course from a distance.

'Real Housewives of Quarantine!' she captioned the shot.

The ladies suspended shooting in late March, along with their sister show The Real Housewives Of New Jersey.

Get together: Bravo divas Shannon Beador, Kelly Dodd, Braunwyn Windham-Burke and Emily Simpson pretended to follow the rules, still getting close for a selfie

Quarant-queens: 'Real Housewives of Quarantine!' Braunwyn captioned the shot

It didn't seem like Kelly Dodd was worried about getting sick.

The reality star recently sparked outrage after saying she thinks the the novel coronavirus is 'God's way of thinning out the herd.'

She later issued an apology about the incident, explaining how she misspoke.

'When I wrote that its 'God's way of thinning the herd,' thats not what I meant,' Kelly said on her Instagram Stories April 22.

'What I meant was, "Do these pandemics happen because its Gods way?" Im not God. Im not insensitive,' she said.

Pause: The ladies Of OC suspended shooting in late March, along with their sister show The Real Housewives Of New Jersey

Inoculated by God: It didn't seem like Kelly Dodd was worried about getting sick, after telling people COVID-19 was 'God's way of thinning out the herd'

'God's way': The Bravo star ended up apologizing to critics who questioned why she got a flight from New York to LA during the pandemic

'I feel bad for all the families that have lost loved ones, and I do think we should all stay at home and protect everybody. Thats not what I meant, and I want to apologize to anyone who got offended, OK? Im sorry.'

The reality star had initially been responding to critics who asked why she was flying from New York to LA at such a time after she posted photos from the empty airport and plane.

She told them: 'If it's dangerous why are the airlines still flying? You think I want to fly? I had to get back, how is that elitist?' Kelly snapped back.

In a separate comment the TV star then claimed the people who have fallen victim to COVID-19 'would have died this year they were compromised.'

Viral on Reddit: Kelly had a response for many of her followers who were angered at her comments and actions

Fake news: The TV star then claimed that the people who have fallen victim to COVID-19 'would have died this year' because they were 'compromised,'

'Do you know how many people died from the H1N1, the swine flu or SARS?' she wrote. 'It's 25% get your facts straight you only hearing numbers not the reality! It's God's way of thinning the herd!'

She finished the comment with some 'common sense' ways vulnerable people can protect themselves.

'If you are vulnerable or compromised, stay inside. If you don't protect others by wearing masks and gloves keep your distance and don't go out if you are ill,' she ranted. 'Its common sense!'

While Kelly said she wasn't worried about the disease, she was concerned enough the figure out how to get herself a highly sought after COVID test - even though she never experience.'

'I want to give a public apology. When I wrote this is Gods way of thinning the herd, thats not what I meant,' Kelly said in her apology video later in the day

'What I meant was, do these pandemics happen because it's Gods way? I'm not God, I'm not insensitive. I feel bad for all the families who have lost loved ones.' she tried to explain

On Monday the Bravo star shared a video of her at the doctor's office while getting tested for coronavirus.

Kelly winced as the doctor pushed a swab high up into her nasal cavity.

'Getting my covid test!! That hurt' she captioned the clip as she pulled faces at the camera.

Backtracking: 'I want to apologize to anybody who got offended. Im sorry.'

Painful: On Monday the RHOC was filmed having the coronavirus test done despite having no symptoms

Ouch: Kelly winced as the doctor pushed a swab high up into her nasal cavity

Precaution: Kelly decided to get the test after flying back from New York to her home in Orange County, California

The move angered her Kelly's fans who questioned how she could get tested without exhibiting any symptoms of the disease - and many people who are very sick are still having trouble getting tested.

One Instagram user asked: 'How did you get tested? People who have symptoms can't get a test [crying emoji].'

'You can get tested if you know people!' Kelly responded.
The body representing global airlines came out in favour of passengers wearing masks onboard, as debate intensifies over how to get airlines flying while respecting social-distancing rules following the coronavirus crisis.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) told reporters that wearing masks would help protect passenger health but came out against leaving middle seats empty on aircraft, a measure it had previously said was likely.

Airlines around the world are planning new measures for when they resume services. Credit:Kate Geraghty

European flights have all but come to a standstill during the coronavirus pandemic. While there is no visibility on when travel restrictions will ease, airlines are considering how to safely restart services and give passengers confidence to fly.

Months without revenues is threatening to force some airlines out of business.
The New Look heels the Duchess of Sussex wore on her royal tour of Pakistan in 2019 are now on sale. (Getty Images)

Yahoo Lifestyle is committed to finding you the best products at the best prices. We may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Pricing and availability are subject to change.

The Duchess of Cambridge never fails to impress with her style, whether she is in a glamorous ball gown or more casual ensemble.

Duchess Catherine - who was formerly known as Kate Middleton before marrying husband Prince William - has worn a medley of designer dresses, as well as more affordable high street brands over the years.

During a recent royal engagement, which saw the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge embark on a royal tour in Pakistan in October 2019, she wore a pair of heels from New Look.

The 38-year-old royal wore a long collarless shirt, with white embroidered detail along the hem, complete with matching trousers and pashmina, all made by a local designer Maheen Khan for the royal engagement.

She completed the look with a pair of Pink Suedette Low Heel Court Shoes when she visited a school in central Islamabad.

On a visit to a school in Islamabad during the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's royal tour of Pakistan, the duchess wore a pair of New Look heels. (Getty Images)

Buy it: Wide Fit Pale Pink Suedette Low Heel Court Shoes | 16.79 (Was 23.99) from New Look

The New Look heels sold out swiftly after she wore them, but have since been restocked.

Now, just months later, the royal-approved shoes are on sale.

The footwear item has been slashed in price, as they have been reduced from 23.99 to 16.79.

The heels boast a pointed toe design, a sturdy block heel, as well as ankle strap detail.

This design is available to buy in two colourways, a pale pink, as well as bright red shade.

Plus they are available in a wide fit design to suit those who need a little more room across the insole, joint and instep.

What we love most is the shoes are vegan, and have been given the seal of approval by The Vegan Society.

There are alternative designs to suit other shoppers preferences, including a round toe heel, and platform designs.

This is not the first time the duchess has worn affordable footwear, as she was previously spotted wearing trainers from Superga and New Balance.
When workers start to return to high-rises and office buildings, there is one thing they should plan on: a second wave of the coronavirus.

That is according to technologists and legal experts who say the best way to fortify a workplace is to take measures to guard against the virus, but also plan for what happens when the coronavirus penetrates those defenses.

The best approach for an employer in thinking about this is to prepare for additional waves of the virus spreading, said Michael Warren, head of the labor and employment practice at the law firm McManis Faulkner.

Other than essential measures like reconfiguring office layouts and using personal protective equipment, planning for future spikes in the virus will also require a range of technology to trace and screen employees.

You have to have access control and an ability to quarantine, said Mary OHara, chief human resources officer and senior vice president of internal communications at Blue Shield of California. You have to make sure that people psychologically and actually know ... the workplace is safe.

One Sunnyvale company, NextNav, hopes to use a technology called the Metropolitan Beacon System to pinpoint employees in three dimensions while at work to more exactly determine where an infected worker was in a building and with whom that worker might have been in contact.

NextNav CEO Ganesh Pattabiraman said he hopes his technology can be integrated into contact-tracing apps for smartphones so that businesses wont necessarily have to quarantine entire buildings.

You can be more specific if a person took a certain elevator and entered a certain floor of the building, Pattabiraman said, noting his technology can determine a users location within about 10 feet using sensors deployed throughout a city.

Proxy

Companies also increasingly will have to take the office-as-fortress approach, screening employees as they enter while limiting contact with surfaces that could transmit the coronavirus.

San Franciscos Proxy already makes hardware and software that allow employees to use smartphones to access office areas with minimal contact. The company is looking to expand its contactless offerings in the face of at least a partial return to work during the pandemic, according to CEO Denis Mars.

Mars said the company already has created doors, turnstiles and elevators that obey the wave of a phone instead of the push of a button. He said he also wants to create attachments for iPhones and iPads that allow workers to check and log their temperatures before entering a building.

Another more simple technology, Plexiglas shields between workers, also might become as in demand in office buildings as they are in many still-operating essential businesses.

That is according to Katrien Van der Schueren, owner of Voila, a design studio that typically makes bespoke office furniture but now produces Plexiglas shields for customer service businesses.

Van der Schueren said she believes offices may begin distributing personal barriers employees can carry around and clean in an office or begin hanging sheets of Plexiglas, as if in an art gallery.

Van der Schueren admits that barriers alone will not be sufficient to curb the spread of the virus, however, and said even details like office furniture will have to be reconsidered.

The type of fabric offices choose will become really important, she said. It needs to be able to be easily disinfected.

Before workers even get to the office, another issue is the manner in which employees arrive to work, according to Martha Doty, a labor and employment attorney at the Alston & Bird firm. Many Bay Area employees rely on public transportation to get to work, which represents an infection risk and may cause employees to rethink or think about continuing remote-work possibilities, Doty said.

Six Bay Area counties and the city of Berkeley extended shelter-in-place orders through May, but many businesses are eager to power up again despite the risks as the prolonged measures cause increasing financial strain.

Recent data from a Bay Area Council survey of business leaders found 71% want restrictions lifted in the next month. Of the 178 leaders surveyed, 60% said they had laid off workers or will be forced to do so under shelter-in-place orders.

In a survey of almost 1,000 office managers mostly in the Bay Area, San Francisco office-cleaning-technology company Eden found over 70% of those surveyed are planning to return to physical workplaces in one form or another by July at the latest.

Reopening state and local economies will not be as simple as flipping a switch, however. Gov. Gavin Newsom said last week an initial phase would allow curbside pickup for retail stores and nonessential manufacturing, but even that is weeks away.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Some companies like electric-car manufacturer Tesla have considered opening sooner. Tesla management told some of its employees at its Fremont manufacturing plant to return to work starting April 29, but pulled back before implementing the order.

Legal considerations also potentially hinder a return to physical work as much as technological ones.

Companies would be wise to stagger workers return to the office, but need to careful about discrimination, according to Rebecca Stephens, an attorney with Farella Braun and Martel.

Companies cannot identify older workers and older people with disabilities and say youre not coming back because youre high risk, Stephens said, a particular challenge for employees who may be unable to work from home.

Warren of the McManis Faulkner firm said forcing employees to return can be complicated especially if there has been an infection at a worksite.

An employer cant force you to come into a known hazardous work environment, he said.

Infections at work could also precipitate workers compensation claims, even if a company follows government safety guidance, Stephens said.

All of these stumbling blocks could lead to continued work-from-home arrangements even after the shelter-in-place orders lift according to Randall Micek, regional vice president of Menlo Parks Robert Half staffing company.

Micek said that trend could result in Bay Area companies broadening their search for talent beyond the region as remote work becomes the norm.

Suddenly, their talent pool grows exponentially, Micek said.

Chase DiFeliciantonio is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: chase.difeliciantonio@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to change the way organisations operate, 98 per cent of the Middle East companies are embarking on transformations and the same proportion of executives are planning organisational redesign this year, says a new study by Mercer.

Mercers 2020 Global Talent Trends highlights that while 43 per cent of organisations are redesigning to become more people-centric, many businesses are undermining the importance of the employee experience throughout this transformation. This is despite research that has proven energised employees are more likely to thrive and remain with an employer, less likely to report fear of burn-out and more confident in embracing the reskilling agenda.

Although two in three employees reported being at risk of burnout this year and 77 per cent of employees identified long-term financial planning and flexible savings or investment options as a priority, only 33 per cent of employers provide financial education for workers and 31 per cent offer mental health First Aid training. Furthermore, only 29 per cent of employers offer discounts on external activities and 15 per cent have analytics to identify the underlying causes of pay inequity, the study reveals.

Commenting on the study results, Nuno Gomes, Head of Careers at Mercer MENAT, said: Businesses have a financial responsibility to their stakeholders, but at the same time, they are also responsible for the financial wellbeing and safety of their employees. Furthermore, business performance greatly depends on workforce wellbeing. Decisions that impact employees must therefore always take into consideration both the economic and personal impacts. This is even more crucial now as we face the uncertainty of a global pandemic. To create a sustainable business model, organizations, especially HR leaders, must transform to incorporate a robust financial model that is complemented by an empathetic mindset enabling them to plan for the future.

According to Mercers report, Middle East businesses are rapidly transforming to address future of work trends. The survey results find that 76 per cent of business executives want to focus more on environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals in order to achieve long-term sustainable growth. Regional businesses are also recognizing the need to quickly adapt to new market realities with almost all embarking on business transformations. About 86 per cent of companies say flexible working is a focus for them in 2020 which is in line with employee expectations. However, although reskilling is key to building capability, 39 per cent employers claim they do not have enough time for training and only 39 percent of HR leaders are investing in workforce learning and reskilling as part of their strategy to prepare for the future of work while 32 per cent do not know what skills their workforce has today.

Advances in machine learning also continue to permeate across industries with the use of predictive analytics nearly quadrupling in five years from 10 per cent in 2016 to 39 per cent today globally. In the Middle East, 51 per cent are currently using AI to identify when critical talent is likely to retire, 57 per cent can understand why one team is performing better than another and 49 per cent are using pulse surveys. Employees are also optimistic about the impact of AI with 67 per cent expecting positive changes to their workload.

Furthermore, the research by Mercer also highlights a tightened career pipeline with 85 per cent of experienced workers say they plan to work past retirement age and 55 per cent of Gen Xers say opportunities to advance are limited because of longevity in the workplace.--TradeArabia News service
When 95% of Wisconsin hospitals can treat all patients without crisis care and test all direct-care staff with symptoms for COVID-19, among other criteria, the state will be ready to begin reopening the economy, health officials said Tuesday.

The state Department of Health Services released hospital criteria for moving into the first phase of Gov. Tony Evers Badger Bounce Back plan to lift the states safer at home order, set to expire May 26, and allow more businesses to reopen.

Crisis care is defined as extreme operating conditions, such as inadequate staffing and supplies or using nonpatient areas for patient care. Information on how many hospitals are meeting the criteria wont be available until Friday, officials said.

Along with the hospital criteria, state officials want to see a downward trend in COVID-19 cases among health care workers  which has happened in recent weeks.

Those measures are in addition to goals specified earlier: a decrease in emergency room visits for flu-like illness, which has been seen recently; a decrease in ER visits for suspected COVID-19, which has not been happening; and a downward trajectory in positive COVID-19 tests as a percentage of all tests over 14 days. That indicator has been going up slightly.

The Badger Bounce Back plan is our road map to turning the dial in Wisconsin, Andrea Palm, secretary-designee for DHS, said in a statement. Ensuring we do not overwhelm our hospital capacity is integral to that plan, and having this hospital gating criteria in place makes that a more attainable goal.

The state has also said it wants to do about 85,000 tests a week, or 12,000 a day. Some 51 labs are now able to process 11,300 tests a day, but only about 3,000 tests are being done daily.

More than 400 people have been trained to become contact tracers, reaching people who have been in close contact with those who test positive for COVID-19 and encouraging them to stay away from others. The goal is to hire 1,000 contact tracers to supplement such workers at local health departments.

Wisconsin had its highest numbers of new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in recent days, with a record 460 new cases reported Friday. Health officials attribute the higher numbers to increased testing and outbreaks at workplaces and group facilities, such as food processing plants in Green Bay and elsewhere, and at nursing homes, jails and prisons.

Hospitals have had steady or decreasing COVID-19 activity in recent days, with about 350 or fewer patients with confirmed cases hospitalized statewide, roughly 120 or fewer of them in intensive care; the state has more than 1,400 intensive care beds. Some 315 patients were on ventilators for any reason as of Tuesday; the state has about 1,260 ventilators.
Two floors of the Border Security Force (BSF) headquarters in Delhi were sealed on Monday after a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

In a statement, BSF spokesperson Shubendu Bhardwaj said a head constable was found to have contracted the infection on Sunday. He was working in an office on the second floor of the BSF headquarters and last visited the premises on May 1. The statement said the first and second floors of the building have been closed as a precaution.

All drills for sanitisation are being undertaken, BSF said, adding that contact-tracing was also underway.

BSF added that before the constable tested positive, its headquarters  an eight-storey building in the CGO complex on Lodhi Road in central Delhi  were closed on Friday, and the entire complex was thoroughly sanitised with prescribed solutions of disinfectants.

BSF said on Sunday 42 of its personnel have been infected with Covid-19 so far. Of these, 31 belong to a 98-member unit that was deployed with the Delhi Police at the headquarters of Islmaic sect Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin, which emerged as a major hot spot of the infection about a month ago.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)s 140-odd personnel were found to have contracted the infection till Sunday. On Sunday, the CRPF headquarters were sealed after a head constable attached to a senior officer tested positive.

BSF, with 250,000 personnel, is primarily tasked with guarding the Indian borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh, apart from rendering a variety of duties in the countrys internal security domain.
The approach introduced by Ebonyi state in limiting the spread of COVID 19, where borders are closed with adequate compliance to precautionary measures and economic activities within the state were not allowed to suffer unduly has been described as a model to other states.

The technical team of Nigeria Centre for Diseases Control (NCDC) made this commendation when they paid a courtesy visit to the Commissioner for Information and State Orientation and Ag Commissioner Human Capital Development and Monitoring in his office.

The team which further commended the state government for the comprehensive preventive approach it adopted to contain the spread of Coronavirus pandemic in the state described Governor David Umahi as a proactive leader who is passionate about the safety and security of his people.

It said they were drafted to Ebonyi State on the 28th of April 2020 after Ebonyi State had recorded it's first case and noted that the first to fifth case already recorded in Ebonyi State were all cases of persons who entered from the epicentre states and who were on transit to Ebonyi State when the state task force intercepted them at the borders.

It announced that no case of community transmission has been recorded and even physical contact while in Ebonyi State was very minimal. 'That's the way to go', they maintained

Reacting, Commissioner for Information and state Orientation, Bar. Orji Uchenna Orji thanked the DG of NCDC and the entire COVID-19 Presidential Task Force for their wonderful initiatives that have contained the wild escalation of the virus.

He expressed hope that the approach adopted by the State Government would make a great difference.
Meghan Markle is trying to establish herself again in Los Angeles.

However, while it may be tempting to revive her old blog "The Tig," a royal author believes Meghan just wouldn't do it.

A Whole New Project

Royal expert Myka Meier recently made a statement in the "Royally Obsessed" podcast. Meier claimed that the Duchess of Sussex would most likely relaunch her lifestyle blog "The Tig."

If she does revive that, the royal expert noted that it would be directly competing with the brand the 47-year old Gwyneth Paltrow has created for herself.

"I think Meghan is going to have another Instagram," Meier said

She added that she strongly believes Meghan would be trying to recreate her old blog and come up with something similar to Paltrow's Goop.

"I think she's going to do a Goop, like a new version of The Tig... I really think that's coming. I have a friend with a little bit of insider knowledge, and I think she's already working on something. I think we will be seeing something very interesting and creative with masterminds from all over the world coming together to bring something inspiring soon," Meier furthered.

"The Tig," which Meghan Markle used to keep before she married into the royal family, covered various lifestyle categories. It included fashion, beauty, travel and food.

Her blog was shut down in 2017 when the American actress admitted to dating Prince Harry. Back then, the two were already thinking about getting married. They eventually tied the knot in 2018 in a lavish ceremony in the U.K.

Some royal experts have argued that if Markle decides to relaunch "The Tig," she would be bringing in millions to her brand. This decision would be beneficial to what Meghan and Harry have been planning to pursue when they left the royal family.

Reviving "The Tig" would make Meghan more financially independent now more than ever.

A Different Take

However, Leslie Carroll believes otherwise.

Carroll -- the author who chronicled the couple's royal romance in her book "American Princess: The Love Story of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry" released in 2018 -- told Fox News that Meghan won't be competing with Paltrow's Goop anytime soon.

Carroll's comments came after Meier made a statement that Meghan is likely to be brewing something like her old blog.

"Although she was a lifestyle blogger before she met and married Harry, she has always been about philanthropy, as well as her focus on the empowerment of women and girls," Carroll pointed out.

She added that if the Duchess of Sussex were to launch a new blog, it would not be anything close to what Gwyneth has kept for herself.

"My intuition tells me that if Meghan were to launch a new blog, she will not choose to compete with Gwyneth at all in the Goop marketplace of pricey scented candles and questionable self-care," Carroll added.

She also pointed out that if Meghan wanted a blog like that of Gwyneth's, her actions during this coronavirus pandemic should have been different. But instead, she and husband Prince Harry took on a different path.

"Now that she has stepped back from her royal duties, she and Harry are anonymously handing out food during a pandemic, pitching in alongside other volunteers," she explained.

Carroll continued on to say that Markle is expected to focus more on philanthropic endeavors. After all, starting a lifestyle blog right now would only earn her more criticism from tabloids.

"A restart of The Tig, which was part of her pre-royal marriage image, sadly plays into the hand of Meghan-haters, who consistently wish her nothing but the worst and inevitably impugn the most pecuniary motives to the duchess," said Carroll.
The S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.6 per cent on Tuesday to 5407 points on Tuesday, moving 150 points higher in two days. At the end of the day 158 companies were higher and 36 lower. Volumes were modest at 720 million shares and lower than Monday's session.

Financial and material sector stocks added the most points, both rising more than 2 per cent. Among the big four banks NAB gained 3.2 per cent and Westpac was up 2.7 per cent.

The materials sector benefited from gains in gold miners, a 2.7 per cent rise in BHP, and 4.8 per cent rise in James Hardie after it announced cost cutting, including factory closures and suspending dividends.

Energy out-performed with a gain of 4.2 per cent, it enjoyed strong gains in oil producers but saw declines in coal miners New Hope Coal and Whitehaven.

The market ignored news that nearly one million jobs have disappeared since mid-March, and did not respond to the Reserve Bank board's decision to leave rates at record lows of 0.25 per cent with a cautious outlook.

Karen Jorritsma, head of equities at the RBC Capital Markets institutional trading desk, said market conditions were reminiscent of the early days of the global financial crisis with "a bifurcation" between Main Street and Wall Street.

"The market continues what I think is a relatively conviction-less rally we have been seeing, up +6.3 per cent over the past month, while the data continues to look bearish,'' she said. Unemployment levels are still expected to reach 10 per cent this year, and economic growth for the current period is expected to be well into negative territory.

"Relatively quiet day across the capital raisings today but the offshore markets are onto us. [There was a] Financial Times write up on the weekend noting our markets punching well above our weight as we raised US$9bn in Australia during April compared to the US markets raising US$11bn, a market which is 28 times the size. Nothing wrong with Australia right now."
Health secretary Matt Hancock dismissed privacy concerns about the NHS COVID-19 tracing app on Tuesday (AFP via Getty Images)

Tracking data from the NHS coronavirus tracing app may be kept for research purposes, MPs have been told.

Ministers are urging the public to sign up to the app, which started to be trialled on Tuesday on the Isle of Wight, as a way out of the current COVID-19 lockdown.

On Tuesday, health secretary Matt Hancock dismissed warnings by civil liberties campaigners that the contact tracing app could open the door to widespread "state surveillance", amid concerns it could face a legal challenge.

The NHS COVID-19 contact tracing app being trialled on the Isle of Wight this week (PA)

But in a briefing to MPs on Monday, Matthew Gould, the chief executive of NHSX, the health services digital arm, said data may be kept for research.

The Register reported that he told the Joint Committee on Human Rights: The data can be deleted for as long as it's on your own device.

Once uploaded all the data will be deleted or fully anonymised with the law, so it can be used for research purposes.

He said the NHSX app would auto-delete contact data that isnt uploaded to government servers, but that if it has been shared by choice with the NHS, then it could be retained for research.

Gould insisted data stored on the app would not be shared with tech giants Apple and Google, nor would it be used by police.

He said: "We have said the data will only be used for health, public health and associated research purposes - it won't be used for law enforcement.

"We will have proper procedures in place consistent with law that will make sure that only those who have an appropriate health or public health reason for seeing the data do so, and they do so under very clear conditions and criteria."

Ministers have run into opposition from some Tory MPs and campaign groups concerned about the potential for the state to monitor individuals' movements and contacts through the app.

Hancock insisted it is "completely wrong" to say that the app represents a threat to civil liberties.

Instead, he said it is a "very, very positive step" which will enable people to regain some of the freedoms they had lost as a result of the lockdown.

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The new NHS COVID-19 app is central to the government's "test, track and trace" strategy for controlling the spread of the disease while easing social distancing rules.

A view of the Isle of Wight, Hampshire, where the government is due to start testing its COVID-19 tracing app (PA Images via Getty Images)

Hancock said concerns about the app expressed by groups such as Amnesty International UK - which warned they are "opening the door to pervasive state surveillance" - are misplaced.

He told BBC Breakfast on Tuesday: "The purposes of this are purely and simply to control the spread of the virus, which is really important.

Watch the video below

We've all had to give up significant infringements on our liberty - for instance, with the social distancing measures and the lockdown - and we want to release those, and this approach will help us to release them."

The app uses Bluetooth to track and trace contacts between users - alerting people if someone they interacted with has displayed symptoms or tested positive for the virus.

Officials insist it is designed with privacy and security "front of mind", with the data stored on an individual's phone until the point they contact the NHS to report symptoms and request a test.

However, Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said ministers need to explain why - unlike other European countries - Britain is establishing a central database to store information.

"We remain concerned that the government is using the coronavirus pandemic to normalise technologies that threaten our privacy rights, and which the public would not accept in ordinary circumstances," she said.

More than 175 UK academics working in the fields of cyber security, privacy and law have signed a joint letter, expressing they too fear it could open the door to surveillance once the pandemic is over.

Ministers have said that if the pilot on the Isle of Wight - beginning on Tuesday with NHS and council staff - is successful, the app could be rolled out across the country within weeks.

NHSX has pledged to publish the source code of the app so that it is open to public scrutiny.

Coronavirus: what happened today
Media organisations in Somalia have strongly condemned the murder of a television journalist on Monday evening.



Said Yusuf Ali was stabbed several times outside a shop in the capital, Mogadishu.



The father of two whose wife is expecting their third child had just covered a story on the murder of a schoolteacher.



The killing comes against a backdrop of rising threats by the Somali government, a statement the Federation of Somali Journalists says.



Over the last year four journalists have been killed, close to 50 have been physically tortured or harassed and dozens have been arbitrarily arrested, it says.



On Sunday, which was World Press Freedom day, Somali media bodies sent a protest letter to President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who is also known as "Farmajo", which documented a list of recent violations against journalists.

Source: BBC









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The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2020 will be conducted from 18 July to 23 July, while JEE Advance 2020 will be held in August this year. The NEET exam 2020 will be held on 26 July, announced the Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank during a webinar with students from across India.

The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2020 will be conducted from 18 July to 23 July, while JEE Advance 2020 will be held in August this year. The NEET exam 2020 will be held on 26 July, announced the Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank during a webinar with students from across India.

The JEE (Main) examination will be held on 18, 20, 21, 22, & 23 July. The admit cards will be available soon in the official website nta.ac.in. The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts both JEE and NEET, will release the admit cards.

Joint Entrance Exam-Mains is conducted for admission to engineering colleges in the country. The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) is conducted for medical colleges.

The engineering and medical entrance examinations were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown in the country. According to the National Testing Agency (NTA), over 9 lakh students have registered to appear for JEE Main and over 15.93 lakh have applied for NEET 2020.

Pokhriyal had earlier said that the exams will be held towards the end of May. However, with the extension of the lockdown till 17 May, the examinations were postponed further.

The HRD Minister on Tuesday also revealed that decision will be taken soon on the pending Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 10 and 12 board exams.

A few days back Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia during an interaction with the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry had recommended a 30 per cent reduction in curriculum for the next session. He had also said that "exams like JEE, NEET be conducted on the basis of reduced syllabus."
European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier talks to journalists during a news conference at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Monday, Feb. 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Trade talks between Britain and the European Union will hit a crisis point unless there is progress the coming weeks, Tanaiste Simon Coveney warned on Tuesday.

But he said the EU side would not back down on its insistence that progress is made on fisheries and level-playing-field provisions in parallel to trade talks.

Coveney was speaking after consulting with chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier ahead of EU-British talks next Monday - one of two rounds remaining before the European Union makes an assessment of progress in early July.

The EU's tortuous Brexit talks with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government were renewed in late April, but quickly hit snags, according to diplomats and officials in Brussels.

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"The truth is that progress has not been good," Coveney told RTE radio. "The necessary progress really isn't there."

"Unless there is significant progress in those negotiating rounds then I think we are going to reach yet another crisis point in the Brexit negotiations, which from the Irish point of view is very, very serious," Coveney said.

The end of June also marks the deadline for the two sides to extend negotiations beyond the end of the year, something Britain has ruled out.

A hard Brexit without a new trade deal in place is "a distinct possibility," Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who is in talks with rivals about forming a new government, said last week.

If Britain sticks to its refusal to extend, talks would need to be concluded by early November to allow time for ratification, Coveney said.

When talks resume next week, the EU will continue to insist on progress on its priorities of fisheries and level-playing-field provisions, including in areas such as tax and state aid, in parallel to trade talks, Coveney said.

"The UK seems to want to simply pick the areas where they want to deal early and solely focus on those," he said. "The EU has made it very clear that that is not an approach that they can work with."

Britain, which is pushing for a basic free trade agreement, says the EU is making demands not sought from other trading partners. It says it won't accept measures that would tie it to European standards.

Implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol, which guarantees an open border between British-ruled Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, is "also important to build trust", Coveney said on Twitter.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the importance of nurses and the care they provide has become even more evident. Pablo Vasquez, a registered nurse and nurse manager with Houston Methodist, is just one example of the key role nurses are playing in fighting the coronavirus.

Vasquez has worked in the Houston Methodist hospital system on and off since he graduated in 2002, and started working at The Woodlands campus when it opened. When COVID-19 hit the Houston area, Houston Methodist asked Vasquez to help set up a Highly Infectious Disease Unit in its Katy campus. He immediately jumped at the opportunity.

ON THE FRONT LINES: Vintage photos of Houston nurses show what it means to be a hospital hero

As a nurse, this is a crisis where we are called to serve for our patients, he said. We really dont have an option. Were called to care for patients and thats what we do as nurses. So, when the invitation came to help support opening the unit, it was just a no-brainer.

Opportunities and challenges

In a week the 20-bed unit was opened and not long after received its first COVID-19 patient. All of the staff at the HIDU are volunteers, which provides both opportunities and challenges.

Our team has really demonstrated excellent resilience in being able to be flexible, Vasquez said. That was one of our key things, like, hey if youre joining our team as a volunteer, you have to thrive in this changing environment.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Readjusted model forecasts thousands of additional COVID-19 deaths in Texas

Many of the staff had never worked with each other before but all of them brought different skills and backgrounds. Very quickly, Vasquez said, they began to form diverse teams that helped balance out their different strengths.

Sheilah Chirchir is a nurse who volunteered to work at the HIDU unit when the call went out about seven weeks ago.

The main reason I decided to become a nurse was to help people, so I knew that this was my calling, Chirchir said. When she saw on the news the spread of the virus she knew she would help how she could.

Shes worked with Vasquez occasionally at The Woodlands office and describes him as an open, easily approachable manager. She has seen first-hand the team building between the other staff, especially as members come together who primarily work in different units.

Everybody from each group goes in to help the patient, she said. Working here at this unit, Ive been able to learn a lot.

MORNING REPORT: Get the top stories on HoustonChronicle.com sent directly to your inbox

For several nights after opening the unit Vasquez would stay in Katy overnight, in case the staff needed anything as they got used to a new unit and new team members. But it didnt take long for them to find a rhythm and told him to go home.

Several years back during the spread of Ebola, Houston Methodist prepared this same unit for the possibility of Ebola patients in the area. Now, under a similar purpose, to contain a highly infectious virus, the unit has expanded to 55 beds, 43 of which are being used.

Taking care of patients

Vasquez doesnt see the unit going away anytime soon, since its to the advantage of other hospitals that COVID-19 patients can be isolated at the HIDU. His main concern now, and since the beginning, is taking care of his patients and his staff.

As a nurse, youre always worried about taking care of people and obviously my patients are always at the focus, he said. As someone thats in nursing leadership, youre kind of transitioning your nursing practice to taking care of your staff. So, making sure that our team has had all the appropriate PPE, that they feel 100 percent comfortable even entering the room has been something that has been at the forefront of my practice here with the staff. I do not want anyone to feel that they have less than what they need to feel safe when they go into a room.

Getting the appropriate PPE has been a struggle across the medical industry because of the high demand. As the staff is given PPE made by different brands or constructed using different materials, Vasquezs challenge is making sure everyone is using best practices and feels safe.

Because it is a novel virus, the medical world is still learning about COVID-19 each day, and while the studies coming out about the virus are helpful, Vasquez said that good nursing comes down to the basics. Even for a new and developing virus.

So, just knowing clinically about these patients is whats always a big challenge, and after a couple of weeks we started seeing some patterns and our nursing team felt like these are things we really need to look for, he said, stressing that nurse assessments, especially vitals and respiratory assessments, were key to spotting these patterns. Even though its a new disease we havent had to learn new nursing to help monitor these patients and take care of them. Just making sure that were really doing it well.

While no one, especially those in the medical profession, hope for a medical crisis like a pandemic, events like COVID-19 remind us of the great work that professionals like nurses do each day.

Vasquez knows that people appreciate nurses, but if anything, This crisis has really highlighted the value that nursing brings.

jamie.swinnerton@chron.com
BRIDGEPORT  A federal judge reserved decision Tuesday on whether to release Luke Mega Jones, whose drug gang terrorized the citys West Side in the 1990s.

This man is a monster and he should never get out, Lorraine Scott Tappin sobbed as she begged U.S. District Judge Victor Bolden via a Zoom video conference not to release Jones. Her son, Anthony Scott was killed by the gang.

Jones, like many other inmates around the country, is seeking to be released from prison because of the pandemic. He told the judge he doesnt feel safe in prison from COVID-19.

In 2004, Jones was sentenced by federal Judge Alan Nevas to four life terms in prison plus two 10-year terms after being convicted of racketeering, conspiracy to commit murder and weapons and drug trafficking charges.

Federal prosecutors said Jones ordered the murders of Scott and Lawson Day in 1999 and Monteneal Lawrence in 1998.

Scotts bullet-riddled body was found in the courtyard of the P.T. Barnum housing project.

Anthony was my son. He wasnt a saint but he would never hurt anyone, Tappin cried as her husband held up a photograph of Scott. He (Jones) went around killing people in the street. He doesnt deserve another chance.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Francis opposed any early release for Jones and pointed out that the prison Jones is currently in has had no cases of COVID-19.

There is no reason why the defendant needs to be released. Everyone wants to get out of prison, but COVID-19 should not be a windfall to a defendant not subject to a prison reduction, Francis said.

Following the two-hour hearing, Judge Bolden said he would consider all factors before rendering his decision soon.
A South Dakota pork processing plant took its first steps toward reopening on May 4 after being shuttered for over two weeks because of a coronavirus outbreak that infected more than 800 employees.

As two departments opened at the Sioux Falls plant operated by Smithfield Foods, employees filed through a tent where they were screened for fever and other signs of COVID-19. Some said they felt Smithfield would protect their safety with measures aimed at preventing another virus outbreak, while others said they were not confident that infections could be halted in a crowded plant.

Lydia Toby, who works in the ground seasoned pork department, said she was kind of worried as she entered the plant before 6 a.m. for her first shift in over two weeks. The company met employees in her department on May 1 and explained they had installed dividers on the production line and would require everyone to wear masks.

I think its going to be OK, she said.

In the wake of an executive order from President Donald Trump ordering meat plants to remain open, Arkansas-based Tyson Foods resumed limited production on May 4 at its pork processing plant in Logansport, Indiana, where nearly 900 employees had tested positive. And the JBS pork plant in Worthington, Minnesota  just an hour east of Smithfields South Dakota plant  planned a partial reopening on May 6.

Virginia-based Smithfield is offering COVID-19 testing to all employees and their family members, according to a text message sent to employees and seen by The Associated Press. The message told employees to report to a local high school to be tested. It wasnt clear if testing was required before employees could return, and Smithfield didnt immediately respond to questions.

About 250 employees were told to report to work on May 4, according to the union that represents them. The plant employees about 3,700 workers and produces roughly 5% of the nations pork.

Salaheldin Ahmed, who works in a department that has not yet reopened, said he was called in by plant management to look at the changes that have been made in the plant.

They fixed a lot of things, he said, describing how workers would be spread apart where possible.

According to a recent CDC report, more than 4,900 workers at meat and poultry processing facilities have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, including 20 who died. Some states didnt provide data, so the actual count is believed to be higher. The actual number of COVID-19 infections is also thought to be far higher than the number of confirmed because many people have not been tested and studies suggest people can be infected without feeling sick.

The CDC researchers said plant workers may be at risk for a number of reasons, including difficulties with physical distancing and hygiene and crowded living and transportation conditions. They suggested that disinfection be enhanced and that workers get regular screening for the virus, more space from co-workers and training materials in their native languages.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents roughly 80% of beef and pork workers and 33% of poultry workers nationwide, has called for stricter measures than CDC recommendations, including mandating that workers be spaced six feet apart on production lines. It has appealed to governors for help enforcing worker safety rules. The union also want to get rid of waivers that allow some plants to operate at faster speeds.

As plants warily reopen or others operate at diminished capacity with many workers staying home sick or in fear, its unclear Trumps order will guarantee an unbroken supply of meat in grocery store coolers.

It appeared it will take some time before meatpackers are able to both protect employees and operate at capacity. Toby said that after reporting for her shift, she was told she was not needed and to come back on May 5.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics COVID-19
'We should not forget the core purpose of the lockdown -- to buy time to implement a strategy to tackle the virus, to prepare for the final lifting of the lockdown and to prepare for a 'new tomorrow',' notes Dr Sanjeeth Peter.

IMAGE: A scene from Guwahati during the national lockdown. Photograph: PTI Photo

Just when we were basking in the glory of the success of the 'world's biggest lockdown' and hoping it would be business as usual, we have just been told that 'back to usual' is probably never going to happen.

It is a 'coloured decision', we might lament.

Keeping 130 crore people at home is no small task. So, instead of lamenting, maybe it is time to ask some relevant and pertinent questions.

1. What was the purpose of the lockdown?

2. What is the measure of success of this lockdown?

3. What next, AFTER the lockdown?

Let's begin with the purpose of the lockdown.

It may feel silly to ask this when the third extension of the lockdown has begun.

But, wait! Did you know the purpose of the lockdown was never to eradicate the virus? And if we thought it was, we were genuinely living in a fool's paradise!

The purpose of this lockdown was:

1. To flatten the rising curve of the number of people who were infected, which would keep the mortality in control and postpone this rise by a few days or even months

2. To give us time to ramp up our medical infrastructure so that we can cope with the patients requiring critical care, who we are likely to get when the cases start rising ('exponentially', as experts predict).

3. To give us time to plan life after the lockdown has been lifted.

To plan a feasible, workable, practical and detailed strategy of how to lift the lockdown.

To plan in such a way that the spikes in the curve and the 'area under the curve', after having flattened it, does not exceed our medical preparedness.

4. To plan what the 'new normal' will be after the lockdown has been completely lifted.

IMAGE: A volunteer serves food to the needy in Bikaner. Photograph: PTI Photo

So, if we are to consider these as the measures of success, let us look at it point by point.

A. Undoubtedly, we get full marks for flattening the curve and buying time.

Whatever the critics may say, the government has successfully managed to do so.

It has been accompanied by a lot of pain -- from migrant workers, daily wage workers, businesses, police and health personnel, salaried people and housewives!

But we have beaten the odds and achieved the impossible -- brought the curve to its knees, when it threatened to reach higher and throttle us.

Some districts have even managed to change their colour (from red to orange to green) for the better.

B. If the measure of success can be gauged by the increase in our medical infrastructure, a quick look tells us that, even here, we have been reasonably successful.

The number of beds has gone up and ventilators are being made available.

ICU beds and facilities have increased.

But a machine is only as good as the brain behind it. Have the brains increased?

Do the nurses/doctors in district hospitals which have now newly acquired ventilators know how to operate them?

Newly manufactured ventilators range from outright 'glorified AMBU (artificial manual breathing unit) bags' to 'rusted iron covered with glittering gold', incapable of ventilating a patient with ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) which can happen to a COVID-19 patient.

Besides, world data tells us that nearly 80 per cent of COVID-19 patients who have been put on a ventilator have died.

When the lack of the required skill sets and unsophisticated ventilators come together, it is a lethal combination.

Should we have then not got new ventilators?

Well, we probably should have got a few, only those capable of fine ventilation, and ensured that we had enough professionals with the pre-existing skill set to operate them.

IMAGE: A mock drill conducted by the Indian Medical Association and the Kochi district administration to show how to handle a COVID-19 patient. Photograph: Satheesh AS/ANI Photo

We should have, and we can still, spend a majority of our resources doing several other things:

i. Enhance the skill set of doctors and nurses in peripheral district hospitals with practical, hands on training (in addition to the innumerable online tutorials on various sites), 2/3 days at a time now, before COVID-19 hits rural India!

ii. Enhance the testing capability of peripheral district hospitals -- not just to perform the RT PCR test (whose results might well be as good as tossing a coin, because the sensitivity ranges from 40-70 per cent -- depending on when in the disease cycle it was collected, how and from where it was collected and transported and which testing kit was finally used), but to do other tests which help in diagnosis and management of critically ill COVID-19 patients.

Tests like CBC with absolute lymphocyte count, CRP, D-Dimer, LDH, Blood Gas Analysis, etc, will be useful much after the pandemic has been laid to rest (which might be after a couple of years).

iii. Enhance oxygen delivery in all the hospitals which are expected to cater to more than 30 critically ill COVID-19 patients.

A rough estimate tells us that in order to cater to 30-= to 40 critically ill COVID-19 patients, we will need 100 jumbo (oxygen) cylinders a day (the math can wait  you have to trust me here!).

No peripheral district hospital is capable of this. Liquid oxygen units are the only way out.

How many hospitals have this facility?

Could not time and money be used to build this capacity?

Again, this infrastructure will be useful much after the pandemic becomes a low volume endemic disease!

iv. Enhance infrastructure which would help curtail morbidity and mortality due to non-COVID-19 causes like cancer.

Revamp the referral chain, designate hospitals for basic care like vaccinations, etc, to high end care like malignancy.

v. Enhance infrastructure to facilitate telemedicine and tele-surveillance of the people by installing hardware, software, investing in training, etc.

With this new dimension of thinking, have we truly been successful so far? Maybe not as much as we would like to believe. Fortunately, we have another fortnight.

IMAGE: Commuters request police personnel for permission to cross the Delhi-Gurugram border. The border was sealed by the Haryana government on May 1 due to a surge in COVID-19 cases. It will remain shut till further orders. Photograph: Arun Sharma/PTI Photo

C. Let's now look at whether we have planned how to lift the lockdown. What is our strategy to tackle the virus?

As I explained earlier, the purpose of the lockdown was not to destroy the virus. So how do we plan to tackle the surge of cases we expect, now that we have 'delayed' the case load?

Let's look at the defining of zones into red, orange and green. Can these definitions and colour coding be used to lift lockdown?

Maybe, but that still does not answer whether we will be able to prevent the surge from being so high that we cannot cope with it. There is no strategy for this!

Our strategy for lifting the lockdown within the colour-coded districts should be based on immune status and vulnerability of the population.

Allow those who are least vulnerable to severe forms of the disease (we know through studies that those less than 40 years of age when infected, have an extremely low mortality) to get infected and develop immunity in all zones.

If they need ICU care, their numbers wouldn't be so high, so we would have adequate infrastructure in place to ensure they get the best care.

Open schools and colleges sooner than later.

By allowing activity based on age so that more and more young people get infected and build immunity, the virus would just go into hiding (herd immunity).

We would have thus reduced the overall mortality.

At present, it looks like we have no clue how to lift the lockdown in such a way that we can cope with the flood of cases we expect.

What I am suggesting is that we should plan 'multiple, small, controlled, explosions' rather than allowing the disease to have a single massive explosion.

Has the lockdown been successful so far when this parameter is used? Certainly not!

IMAGE: A visually challenged person in Kolkata receives a relief packet from volunteers during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown. Photograph: Ashok Bhaumik/PTI Photo

D. Six weeks of the lockdown have passed and two more will follow.

Have we used this time to prepare for the 'new normal'?

And, what is the 'new normal'?

Physical distancing (even though some would like it to be called social distancing), hand etiquette, cough and sneeze etiquette, ban on gatherings and crowds, less travelling, more work from home -- all these all been talked about.

Let us look at each to see if we have prepared for this change in the six weeks that we stole from the virus.

If physical distancing has to be maintained in public transport, it would have to be planned and changes need to be made to facilitate this in everyday life.

Has the purchase of buses with single seating, far apart, been initiated?

As for the buses that we already have, have the seats been increased/changed to ensure no standing passengers?

Have the offices, factories and workplaces been asked to plan how to function with half the workforce at a time?

If hand etiquette is expected -- have we fitted all buses, trains and public transport, including auto rickshaws, taxis and radio cabs, with hand sanitisers?

Surely it could have been done in the last 40 days -- even while ensuring physical distancing.

If more work from home is to be actively pursued, have broadband facilities in residential areas been enhanced?

Could we ask laptop/tablet manufacturers to ramp up production (rather than build ventilators, which they have no clue about!) and make them more affordable?

Have we made classrooms virtual?

If we wanted to, we could have done a number of things to prepare for our 'new tomorrow'.

The silver lining is that, if we want, we have this fresh lease of time now.

Or we can just say we had no clue as to what to do with the time we snatched from the virus by enforcing the lockdown!

While we have spent all our energy on implementing a strict lockdown, we run the risk of losing what we have gained if we don't have a plan to effectively control the virus.

Having achieved what we could from a lockdown, we should now think of the best way to lift it in all the zones.

We should not forget the core purpose of the lockdown -- to buy time to implement a strategy to tackle the virus, to prepare for the final lifting of the lockdown and to prepare for a 'new tomorrow'!

Dr Sanjeeth Peter, a cardiac surgeon with 25 years of experience in critical care, is the director and chief cardiac surgeon at the DDMM Heart Institute, Nadiad, Gujarat. He is a volunteer helping care of COVID-19 patients.
china mask man coronavirus

Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

According to The New York Times, seven Wuhan residents who weathered the coronavirus outbreak or whose family members had died from the virus were planning to sue the government in order to get some answers on what missteps may have led to the coronavirus pandemic.

But lawyers have been warned not to file any lawsuits against the government, and grieving families have been interrogated and threatened by police, according to the report.

China is known for censoring criticism of its policies and dissenters have been jailed or disappeared after making complaints.

The international community has been ramping up pressure on China for an independent investigation into the origins of the virus, as well as the country's response to the outbreak early on.

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Coronavirus survivors in China are being silenced for seeking answers on what went wrong  and who is responsible  for the country's initial response to the virus, The New York Times reported.

China is known for censoring criticism of its policies, and dissenters have been jailed or disappeared after making complaints. Chinese government censors are working in overdrive to protect the party narrative its been drilling on the country's response to the novel coronavirus, which originated in the city of Wuhan before spreading worldwide.

According to The Times, seven residents of Wuhan who had weathered the coronavirus outbreak or had family members who died from the virus were planning to sue the government in order to get some answers on what missteps may have led to the coronavirus pandemic. They say they want "fair compensation for their losses and harsher punishment for officials," according to the report.

But instead of getting answers, they are being harassed and threatened, according to The Times, leading many to drop their bids. Lawyers have been warned not to file any lawsuits against the government, and families connecting with others also grieving lost relatives have also been interrogated by police, according to the report.

Story continues

"They are worried that if people defend their rights, the international community will know what the real situation is like in Wuhan and the true experiences of the families there," Yang Zhanqing, a Chinese public health advocate living in New York who was previously detained for his activism, told The Times. He said at least two of seven Wuhan residents who contacted him for help were threatened into dropping their cases.

Official figures suggest that 4,512 people died in Hubei, where Wuhan is the capital, over the last several months due to the virus. But some residents say the death toll may be much higher than what has been reported. More than 68,000 people tested positive for the virus in the province of Hubei, according to official numbers.

"The incinerators have been working round-the-clock," one Wuhan resident told Radio Free Asia in March.

Another Wuhan resident, Zhang Hai, told The Times that he is certain that his father was infected with coronavirus at a local hospital before he died in February. He said had he known about the risks of the virus's transmission, he would not have sent his father to the hospital.

Another man named Tan Jun, a civil servant from Hubei, filed a complaining accusing the provincial government of "concealing and covering up" the reality of the virus spread, causing people to "ignore the virus's danger," according to The Times. He acknowledged that he lodged a complaint with a Wuhan court but declined to be interviewed by the paper on the progress of his filing.

The international community is pressuring China to be more transparent

Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, on November 2, 2018.

Thomas Peter/Getty

China abruptly increased its coronavirus death toll by 50% last month, claiming that earlier deaths were missed because the city's medical facilities were overwhelmed. Chinese officials have maintained that the country's aggressive approach to curbing the virus spread, including implementing strict lockdown protocols, helped keep its number of cases low.

But many, including President Donald Trump, have called questioned China over its response to the virus and the truthfulness of its public statements.

"Do you think you're getting honest numbers from some of these countries?" Trump said at a White House coronavirus task force press briefing last month. "Do you really believe those numbers in this vast country called China?"

The international community has also increased pressure on China for an independent investigation into the origins of the virus, as well as the country's response to the outbreak early on. The European Commission, Sweden, Australia, and others have been calling on China for more transparency in recent weeks.

"It would seem entirely reasonable and sensible that the world would want to have an independent assessment of how this all occurred, so we can learn the lessons and prevent it from happening again," Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on April 23, calling on WHO to push for an investigation.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A 47-year-old Indian classical dancer, who was a prominent face in the UAE's cultural circuit, died here after a cardiac arrest, her family said, amidst the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Deepa Nair, who hailed from Kerala and also worked as a freelance events manager, died on Sunday at her home in Al Nahda, the Khaleej Times reported.

"We feel she could have survived had it not been for these unprecedented coronavirus times," Deepa's husband, Suraj Moosad was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

"She had hysterical abdominal distention and had surgery for that in 2011. She used to complain of stomach cramps and diarrhoea often.

"Early morning on Sunday, when she was feeling really unwell, we took her to a Dubai hospital where they warned us that there were already around 140 COVID-19 patients and as she had a compromised immunity, admitting her to the emergency may not be a good idea," he was quoted as saying.

The family then headed to another hospital where they apparently stated that her admission was not possible as there were no available beds due to a surge in COVID-19 patients, the report said.

Then, she was taken to another clinic in the city where she was finally admitted and administered pain killers. The following day she was discharged in the morning.

"But even after we returned home, she was feeling extremely unwell and her hands and feet were turning cold. But we didn't take her to a hospital now as we knew from our previous day's experience that we would be turned down. So, we called the police and ambulance instead," said Moosad, who has been living in Dubai for the past 19 years.

"On Sunday afternoon, she herself said that she was sinking and even we could see her slipping away. Meanwhile, the ambulance that was on the way to our house, gave us instructions over the phone as to how we could administer her cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

"Soon after, the first ambulance arrived and they tried to revive her. After half an hour, another ambulance followed, which was better equipped to help patients in critical situations. But by then it was too late. She had passed away by 4 pm due to cardiac arrest," the husband said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As the United States battles the deadly pandemic with New York being the worst affected state, the Hudson River Bridge in New York was lit up by more than 1,300 lumieres carefully placed by volunteers to spell out THANK YOU!. The worlds longest elevated pedestrian bridge was lit up to honour those on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The display of light spanned more than 200 feet, transforming this New York landmark in Hudson Valley into an illuminated message of gratitude.

READ | US: Health Workers Defend Lockdown Amid Protests Demanding To Reopen Economies

READ | American Public Space, Rebooted: How Might reopening Go?

The Walkway Over the Hudson has been deemed an essential park to keep open by state Governor Andrew Cuomo and several nonprofit organizations deployed volunteers to work on the inspiring project, placing 1,300 illuminated bags that were marked with Honor. Remember. Celebrate.

In the coming days, prints of this photograph will be presented to places where essential workers are serving in the communitylike emergency rooms, grocery stores, police stations, and fire departments. Elsewhere in New York City, huge messages of gratitude are transforming local hospitals this week to honor frontline workers.

READ | 'We Don't Know How It Will End': Hunger Stalks Amid Coronavirus Crisis In America

READ | Americans With Serious Illnesses Sacrificed To Slow Covid Down; Owe Them Re-opening: Trump

In April as well, cities across the United States illuminated their stadiums and landmarks in blue in support of the health-care workers and first responders as they continue to combat the coronavirus.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 20:52:47|Editor: huaxia

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WINDHOEK, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The Namibia government will fine or imprison those who do not wear a mask in public places following the commencement of the country's stage 2 of the COVID-19 lockdown exit plan on Tuesday.

The government in further updates to lockdown stage 2 requirements and guidelines on Tuesday said during the specified period every person must wear a mask in a public place.

"An authorized officer may instruct a person who is not wearing a mask to wear a mask or to leave the public place," the directive said.

According to the updates, a person who refuses to comply with an instruction commits an offense and on conviction is liable to a fine not exceeding 2000 Namibia dollars (about 111 U.S. dollars) or imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

Meanwhile, the country's lockdown exit plan will be rolled out over four phases to allow the economy to function without compromising health of the public. Enditem
New Delhi, May 5 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to entertain a PIL by former Uttar Pradesh police chief Vikram Singh seeking direction to quash nearly 75,000 FIRs registered for violating orders of lockdown and petty offences during the coronavirus pandemic.

A bench comprising Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and B.R. Gavai questioned Singh's counsel, "You want there should be no FIR and this (Section 188 IPC) should not be invoked...then how can the lockdown be enforced?" The bench wondered why such petitions were coming to the apex court? Singh's PIL sought quashing of nearly 75,000 FIRs registered under Section 188 of the IPC and other provisions for violation of the Covid-19 lockdown.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan said this person has been on the field and also has experience. "The submission is that we cannot have rule of law, which is selective. You cannot have one rule of law for those who have to travel by chartered flights...," said the advocate.

Justice Kaul replied he "can see an agenda". The lawyer contended that if the law didn't permit registration of FIRs then the NDMA law cannot be allowed for registration of FIRs. He told the bench that cases have been registered against migrants and those withdrawing money from ATMs.

Singh filed the PIL in his capacity as the Chairman of a think-tank -- Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change (CASC). He requested the apex court to issue directions, under the Disaster Management Act 2005, to state governments to not file complaints under Section 188 of the IPC or for other petty offences during the lockdown.

"Police action on an individual who is perhaps suffering from distress and lack of information as a result of the circumstances has ramifications which can extend beyond the coronavirus lockdown, and cannot be good for a constitutional democracy. The situation needs to be handled humanely, and it will be best to avoid adding aspects of criminality, wherever possible," Singh's plea stated.
Australia and the rest of the world will be months behind the eight-ball on vital medical research on the other side of the coronavirus pandemic, experts warn.

The pandemic has caused massive disruption to medical research, with many universities halting their research programs.

A worker in full protective gear at QIMR Berghofer's secure facility in Brisbane.

In some cases researchers have been reallocated to help find treatments and vaccines for SARS-CoV-2. Many scientists have had to isolate at home, doing what work they could remotely.

Professor Michael Good from Griffith University's Institute for Glycomics has published an editorial paper with his colleague Professor Stephanie Yanow from the University of Alberta, after both became worried about the sudden shutdown of non-covid scientific work.
WATERLOO  A larger building with additional space to centralize some preschool classrooms will replace Lowell Elementary School.

A $21.94 million contract for the new school with Larson Construction of Independence was approved last week by the Board of Education.

The nearly 90-year-old building at 1628 Washington St., which has been empty since a roof collapse made it unsafe to occupy more than a year ago, has space for 350 students.

The new school, to be built at the same location, will be right-sized to a 450-student capacity for kindergarten through fifth-grade, said Jane Lindaman, superintendent of Waterloo Community Schools.

Theres quite a bit of concentration of families and student enrollments right in that area, she noted, between Lowell, Kittrell, Irving and Kingsley elementary schools. That is really, really heavily populated. So to have that extra space of 450 is really, really helpful.

Officials are also eyeing Lowell as the site of a preschool center that could eventually replace the existing one at the southeast edge of the district in Elk Run Heights. They began looking at the switch because Elk Run Preschool, which has 14 classrooms, is in need of some remodeling.

So with this building, we are proposing 12 pre-K classrooms be built here, said Lindaman, of the new schools plans. One or two would be for Lowell, but they would give us an opportunity to reconfigure where we offer pre-K classes in our district.

Most  but not all  of Waterloo Schools elementaries have one or two pre-K classrooms. As a result, children from across the district attend the Elk Run center. The centralized location of Lowell is expected to be more convenient for preschool parents, most of whom cant access busing services that normally start in kindergarten.

Board member Lyle Schmitt, calling preschool kind of the front door to the whole system, praised the plan to move the center to the new facility. I think thats going to help in recruiting families to the Waterloo school system, he said.

After the roof collapse in February 2019, students were attending school in the former facilities of Central Rivers Area Education Agency outside of the district in Cedar Falls. Lindaman noted that the boards approval of the contract finally sets an end date during the 2021-22 school year for the arrangement.

That is a significant step towards getting our students back home, she said. So Im thrilled and they will be, as well.

Construction on the school could get underway by early summer as workers prepare for demolition of the existing building.

Right now, the asbestos abatement contractor is looking to be done mid-May, said ISG architect Dan Channer, who designed plans for the new building. Its another six to eight weeks to get the building down, so thats either the end of June or middle of July.

Larson was the lowest bidder among five proposals submitted, with a base bid of $21.78 million. The total contract cost includes two alternate bids of $160,000 for a snow melt system and $6,000 for additional utility primary conduit. The snow melt system will be at the main and preschool entries and the bus drop-off.

There is a certain amount of work that Larson can do on the site in the southwest corner, said Channer. They would like to get started there.

Theres a large amount of fill dirt that needs to be brought in, so you will actually see them getting started in the not-too-distant future with some site work. But not so much the building til the end of June.

The difference in base bids between Larson and the highest proposal was $2.48 million. The second-highest bid was $1.12 million more.

To be that close in the bidding, its a pleasant surprise, said board member Shanlee McNally.

Along with accommodating more students and the addition of a preschool wing, the school will have a storm shelter able to hold all building occupants.

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One officer. Two shootings. $6.3 million in settlements paid by Kansas City police In the early hours of Oct. 8, 2016, Kansas City police were alerted to a series of gunshots along the 3700 block of Wabash Avenue. The shots ended nearly a mile south, suggesting a shooter was on the move. When officers arrived near the spot where the last gunshot was detected, they shined a spotlight on a 2005 silver Mercury Sable.

This morning's expose from the newspaper isn't quite advocacy given their sketchy approach to an argument . . . IF we're going to talk about police shootings from a cost-analysis perspective . . . And we shouldn't.Nevertheless, here's a pathway to middle-class middling "journalism" that wins awards whilst losing circulation and subscribers:
Drs. Nabil Fehmi and Maryam Beyramian Raise Awareness of Juvenile Arthritis in Phoenix, AZ Patients seeking pediatric care can be seen by both a medical doctor and a dentist at the same location and frequently within the same day.

Westwind Integrated Health is spreading awareness of juvenile arthritis and how it affects nearly 300,000 children in the United States. Children who suffer from juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) can experience temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain affecting their jaw, along with overall swelling or stiffness of the joints. Westwind Integrated Health specializes in both dental and medical treatment, so children suffering from juvenile arthritis in Phoenix, AZ can receive comprehensive pediatric care from this versatile practice.

Juvenile arthritis is an inflammatory condition or pediatric rheumatic disease that can develop in children under the age of 16, regardless of ethnic background or age. Juvenile arthritis is treatable, and children affected can live normal lives. Common causes and symptoms of juvenile arthritis include:



Genetic predisposition to arthritis

Joint pain, swelling, redness or warmth

Swollen or sore eyes, skin, muscles or gastrointestinal tract

Children with juvenile arthritis are more at risk of inflamed gum tissue and of being diagnosed with gum disease. It has also been found that these children can suffer from pain in the temporomandibular joint or muscle. Those with TMJ disorder may experience stiffness in the jaw, which impedes normal oral function. Additional dental concerns include jaws growing at different speeds or difficulty in brushing and flossing teeth.

Westwind Integrated Health offers full-service medical and dental care at their unique practice. Patients seeking pediatric care can be seen by both a medical doctor and a dentist at the same location and frequently within the same day. This multi-specialty approach allows doctors and patients to look at the whole body, not just one specific area at a time. Since the mouth and body are so interconnected, this integration allows the doctors of Westwind Integrated Health to give patients a comprehensive full-body approach to healthcare.

Unless we have a healthy body, we can never have a healthy mouth. We start with the mouth, then go to the body, then back to the mouth and back to the body in order to make sure everything is healthy at the same level, says Dr. Maryam Beyramian.

With timely and effective TMJ treatment and treatments for overall juvenile arthritis, children can see vast improvements in their day-to-day lives. The doctors at Westwind Integrated Health advise parents to not let their children neglect their oral health and to schedule dental exams every six months.

Those interested in learning more about juvenile arthritis or who would like to receive integrated pediatric care in Phoenix, AZ are encouraged to schedule an appointment at Westwind Integrated Health. Appointments can be made by calling 602-457-8024. More information can also be found online at http://www.westwindintegratedhealth.com.

About the Practice

Westwind Integrated Health offers dental and medical care from nine locations in the Glendale and Phoenix, AZ areas. As the only private practice in Arizona and one of only a few practices in the country to combine dental and medical care, this team is innovating health care by offering truly comprehensive care with a whole-body approach. Comprised of a multi-disciplinary team of medical doctors and dental clinicians, Westwind Integrated Health offers specialized general dentistry, orthodontics, endodontics, periodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery. Plus, under the same roof, patients can receive physicals and wellness exams, vision and hearing screenings, vaccinations, nutritional counseling, and minor injury treatment. The family of practices focuses on building genuine patient relationships, comprehensive and state-of-the-art treatment, and improving the long-term health and wellbeing of their patients. To learn more about the multi-specialty team, visit http://www.westwindintegratedhealth.com or call 602-457-8024 to schedule an integrated health consultation.
By Rania El Gamal

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's crude oil exports in May are expected to drop to about 6 million barrels per day (bpd), the lowest in almost a decade, and domestic refining output is likely to fall as the coronavirus crisis hits demand, industry sources and analysts say.

The world's top oil exporter will cut crude production by 23% to about 8.5 million bpd in May and June, under a supply reduction pact with OPEC+ alliance to shore up prices hammered by demand destruction due to the coronavirus-related lockdowns.

Saudi crude oil exports for May are expected to be about 6 million bpd, industry sources said, with Asia taking about 4 million bpd. Exports to the United States are seen at less than 600,000 bpd, one source said.

Falling oil output means lower production of associated gas, a byproduct when extracting crude. Gas is used as a feedstock in the petrochemical industry and for power generation.

Saudi Arabia has increasingly sought to generate more power from gas to save crude for exports.

But lower global oil demand means more cheap crude available for domestic use, which could mean burning more oil this summer when power demand soars with the use of air-conditioners.

In 2019, when Saudi Arabia was producing about 9.9 million bpd, it burnt 550,000 bpd of crude in the summer, falling from 700,000 bpd in previous years. But industry sources now expect usage to rise slightly above 2019's levels.

Broadly, domestic demand for oil and its products was expected to be weaker.

"Overall demand in the kingdom is going to be very weak ... because of COVID-19 and we are going to see lower industrial demand," said Amrita Sen, co-founder of the Energy Aspects consultancy, adding that low oil prices and budget cuts would drive the Saudi economy into recession.

Saudi refineries, which usually process about 2.4 million bpd of crude, were likely to use less as product demand falls.

Under OPEC+ cuts, Saudi Arabia would likely prioritise output of light oil over heavy oil, said Sadad al-Husseini, an energy consultant and former senior executive at Saudi Aramco.

Story continues

He said this was because light oil fields tended to produce more associated gas and heavy oil was usually more costly to extract as it tended to come from offshore.

"We should see steady Arab Light, Arab Extra Light, and some Arab Medium supplies making up most of (Saudi) production," he said.

This could increase the global glut of lighter oil, which is produced in abundance by U.S. shale firms.

(Reporting by Rania El Gamal; Editing by Edmund Blair)
These are the schools that have canceled classes for Jan. 18

Some school districts across the county are virtual today. Others will make up the snow day.
In general, the EU authority will redirect three billion Euros among ten neighboring countries and the states that enjoy the official prospects of EU membership

The Council of the European Union made the decision to provide Ukraine with 1.2 billion Euros for overcoming economic and social consequences of coronavirus. Yevropeiska Pravda outlet reported that on May 5.

In general, the EU authority will redirect three billion Euros among ten neighboring countries and the states that enjoy the official prospects of EU membership.

The allocated funds are supposed to help in improving the macroeconomic stability and assign resources for citizens' protection. The costs will be available within the period of 12 months, supplied in two loans. The countries will have to repay the loan within the period of maximum 15 years.

The money will go to Ukraine (1.2 billion Euros), Georgia (150 mln), Moldova (100 mln), Bosnia and Hercegovina (250 mln), Albania (180 mln), Northern Macedonia (160 mln), Kosovo (100 mln), Montenegro (60 mln), Jordan (200 mln) and Tunisia (600 mln Euros).
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has had a face-to-face meeting with a top opposition figure whose political party was dissolved after he was charged with treason.

The rare meeting occurred when Kem Sokha, who headed the Cambodia National Rescue Party, paid his respects at Hun Sen's residence for the death of the prime minister's mother-in-law.

Government spokesman Phay Siphan said the two men met Tuesday afternoon but had not talked about political issues or Kem Sokha's ongoing trial.

Fresh News reported the two men talked for 50 minutes.

Kem Sokha's lawyer, Meng Sopheary, confirmed the meeting but declined to say what the men discussed.

Although the meeting was said to be non-political, the coverage by the pro-government Fresh News, which shows both parties in a flattering light, is likely to fuel talk of some kind of reconciliation.

Hun Sen, who has been in power for 35 years, is an adroit political operator who has a history of allowing his once-bitter opponents to operate if they don't pose a serious threat to him.

Kem Sokha was head of the Cambodia National Rescue Party when he was arrested in September 2017 on the basis of an old video showing him at a seminar where he spoke about receiving advice from U.S. pro-democracy groups.

His popular party was duly dissolved by Cambodia's Supreme Court in November 2017. The actions were widely seen as a way to ensure a victory by Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party in the 2018 general election.

Hun Sen's party swept all the seats in the National Assembly in the polls, but drew condemnation from human rights groups and Western nations, which charged that the election was neither free nor fair.

Kem Sokha's trial started in January, but adjourned in mid-March due to the coronavirus outbreak. He could be imprisoned for up to 30 years if found guilty.

The courts late last year allowed Kem Sokha to be freed on bail after a period of tightly restricted house arrest, but he is still banned from political activity.

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Temple University's Fox Chase Cancer Center is pictured in Northeast Philadelphia on Tuesday, Juy 30, 2019. Temple was planning to sell the cancer center to Thomas Jefferson University but both sides backed out on Tuesday. Read more

Temple Universitys sale of the Fox Chase Cancer Center to Thomas Jefferson University has been called off, the two nonprofits said Tuesday.

This transaction is the latest casualty of COVID-19, said Stephen K. Klasko, president of Thomas Jefferson University. Because of the tremendous impact that the virus has had on our operations, Jefferson must focus entirely on providing patient care and safety, student education and safety, and for the well-being of our dedicated employees."

The price had not been disclosed.

Some health systems have said they expect to lose hundreds of millions of dollars because of the coronavirus pandemic. Jefferson has not provided projections, but the losses are expected to be substantial. Temple has said it is losing $40 million a month. The University of Pennsylvania Health System said it expected to lose $450 million through June.

Health system losses are coming from the disappearance of revenue from surgeries and other care that is not urgent, lower payments for the care of COVID-19 patents, and extra costs for equipment and other related expenses.

There is no question that but for the catastrophic economic impact of the virus, both institutions were prepared to move forward to complete this transaction," Temple president Richard M. Englert said. "We fully understand and accept this reality, and we look forward to identifying new ways for our institutions to work together in the future to better serve our community.

Standard & Poors Global Ratings last month cut the credit outlook to negative on Temple University Health System and 38 other U.S. nonprofit health systems because they already face challenging business conditions and have limited financial cushion to absorb a crisis such as the one we are experiencing.

 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.

Ending the purchase of Fox Chase is another pothole in Klaskos acquisition tear through the region. Jefferson, anchored by Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Center City, has expanded from three hospitals in 2015 to 14 now. In February, the Federal Trade Commission sued to block Jeffersons acquisition of Einstein Healthcare Network, alleging that the consolidation would lead to higher prices. That challenge is scheduled for trial in September.

Temple and Jefferson also had a preliminary agreement for Jefferson to buy Temples 50% stake in Health Partners Plans Inc., a nonprofit Medicaid insurer. The former Aria Health System, which Jefferson acquired in 2016, and Einstein are the other owners of Health Partners.

Completing the Einstein deal and acquiring Temples interest in the Health Partners would have given Jefferson complete control of the health insurer. Then it could have competed with Independence Blue Cross, the regions largest insurer.

Neither Temple nor Jefferson would confirm that they had also ended talks on Health Partners. Both parties declined to comment beyond a joint statement.

Its not clear what the end of the deal means for the future of Temples health system. The sale of Fox Chase, which Temple bought for $84 million in 2012 and decided to sell in 2018, was part of a restructuring that was supposed to strengthen the systems finances by reducing debt.

Stuart Fine, a professor in Temple Universitys College of Public Health and the former CEO of a health system in Bucks County, predicted a bumpy ride in health care over the coming year, with further closures and consolidation inevitable.

Jefferson will have to retrench, Fine said in an email. Temple Health and Einstein, respectively, are in the same tenuous condition that theyve been in for a number of years, and can last only so long without major restructurings.
A Family Dollar store security guard who was killed in Flint, Michigan, on Friday was shot after telling a customer her child had to wear a face mask to enter the store, the county prosecutor's office said Monday.

The argument began when the security guard, Calvin Munerlyn, 43, told Sharmel Lashe Teague, 45, that customers needed to wear face masks in the store, Genesee County prosecutor David Leyton said at a news conference Monday. She yelled at him, spit on him and drove off, Leyton said. About 20 minutes later, her car returned to the store, and her husband, Larry Edward Teague, 44, and son Ramonyea Travon Bishop, 23, stepped out and confronted Munerlyn, according to investigators who spoke to witnesses in the store and reviewed surveillance video. Bishop pulled out a gun and shot Munerlyn, Leyton said.

Leyton said Munerlyn was doing his job, protecting others and enforcing a statewide executive order. In Michigan, people are required to wear face coverings in grocery stores. Stores can refuse service to anyone who is not wearing a mask.

"We simply can't devolve into an 'us versus them' mentality," he said. "We need to make a commitment as a community to do the things necessary to allow us to stay healthy and turn a page on this crisis together. Not for ourselves but for Calvin Munerlyn, who lost his life needlessly and senselessly."

The shooting is the latest blow in an ensuing battle between government mandates that encourage or require face masks in public spaces to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus and people who resist the guidelines due to inconvenience or concerns of overreach by officials. The mayor of Stillwater, Oklahoma, and city leaders withdrew a mandate from consideration requiring masks inside reopened stores and restaurants after threats of violence and physical abuse were directed at employees. A day after the Flint shooting, police arrested a man in a city neighboring Flint who allegedly wiped his nose on a Dollar Tree employee's sleeve after she told him he had to wear a mask to shop, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Michigan State Police are searching for the two men who they believe killed Munerlyn. Police arrested Sharmel Teague. The three family members are charged with first-degree premeditated murder and gun counts. Larry Teague is additionally charged with violating the mandate requiring people wear face coverings inside grocery stores, which is a misdemeanor, Leyton said.

More than 150 friends and family members of Munerlyn, known by many as "Big Duper," gathered Sunday at the scene where he was shot, holding candles. At sunset, they released balloons that were blue, black and red - Munerlyn's favorite colors - into the sky to the clamor of car horns. A GoFundMe for the family has raised more than $195,000, far exceeding its goal.

His wife, Latryna Sims Munerlyn, told The Washington Post that he was well known and beloved. "He was so awesome that I'm just honored to have lived my life with him for the past 20 years," Sims Munerlyn said.

His wife said he was selfless for their six children. "He was with my kids, day in and day out," she said. "I never woke up without him, I never went to sleep without him. He was just the best father, the best friend."

County Commissioner Bryant Nolden, who spoke during the Monday news conference, said he often saw Munerlyn training others free of charge at a public gym in Flint. Nolden said he was a mentor to other younger men in the community.

"When I found out what had happened to him, it really broke my heart because I knew what kind of person he was," Nolden said. "We need to stop the senseless violence in the community. This was totally uncalled for - he didn't bother a soul. All he wanted to do was take care of his family, and he always had his kids with him."

When Nickolas Harrison, who looked up to Munerlyn, told his friend of 15 years that he wanted to follow his career path in security, Munerlyn gave him one glove of a set that he often wore on the job, Harrison told The Post.

Harrison still has his black Nike glove, a keepsake of a friend who was protecting others when he died, he said.

"My friend Duper was killed for telling a lady she has to put a mask on to come in the store," he said, "which could save her life or the life of others."

Family Dollar's website says store employees may wear face coverings, but there is no requirement listed for customers.

Randy Guiler, a company spokesperson, called the shooting "tragic" in a statement given to The Post.

"We will continue to cooperate fully with local authorities on their investigation," Guiler wrote. "As always, we are committed to ensuring a safe environment for our associates and customers. Out of respect for the family's privacy, we are not commenting further at this time."
Kenya has urged Somali aviation authorities to carry out a speedy investigation into the fatal crash of a humanitarian aircraft in the Bay region, southern Somalia, amid unconfirmed reports it may have been shot down.

The Kenyan-registered plane belonged to African Express Airways crashed in the town of Bardale on Monday, killing all six crew on board.

It was carrying medical supplies for use in the fight against the coronavirus, according to the Somali transport minister, who did not give a reason for the accident.

The Government of the Republic of Kenya urges the Federal Government of Somalia and International Agencies to thoroughly and swiftly investigate the matter because it impacts humanitarian operations at a time of highest need, Kenyas foreign affairs ministry said in a statement Tuesday.

A second statement said Somalias president Mohamed Abdullahi - also known as Farmajo - had ordered Somalias civil aviation authorities to work jointly with Kenya on their probe.

Plane shot down

Former Somali Defense Minister Abdirashid Abdullahi Mohamed told Reuters newswire that he had spoken to an eyewitness who was at the airfield.

Mohamed said the eyewitness watched the plane attempt to land, but went around again and appeared to be shot on one wing as it was trying to land again.

Mohamed also provided Reuters with a photo of the plane in flames with its tail still intact, along with the passenger list with six names. These could not be immediately verified.

The Kenya papers reported that two of the dead were Kenyan nationals.

The pilot, copilot, flight engineer, trainee pilot and two people working for the Kenya based airline, African Express, were onboard, Somalias Transport Minister Mohamed Salad told Reuters. He said five bodies had been recovered so far.

An African (Express) Airways plane from Mogadishu flew to Baidoa and then continued its flight to Bardale town where it crashed, according to State-run Somalia News Agency on its website.

Bardale, in the southern Bay region, is secure, with Somali and Ethiopian troop reinforcements but the al-Shabaab Islamist insurgent group is active in the area.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) was the first international institution to respond to Egypts efforts to alleviate the economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak.

In an exclusive interview with Ahram Online, held virtually from Jordan, Managing Director of the EBRDs southern and eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region Dr Heike Harmgart revealed that the EBRD approved an initial $850 million in loans to the financial sector in Egypt with a special focus on trade facilities and SMEs.

The interview comes ahead of the of EBRDs growth forecasts for emerging economies that are scheduled to be announced on 13 May.

Harmgart also stressed that Egypt will be witnessing a decline in economic growth but it is unlikely to enter a recession period compared to other countries in the region and across the globe.

Ahram Online: How do you think the COVID-19 outbreak will impact developing and emerging economies like Egypt?

Heike Harmgart: COVID-19 is a global crisis which really shows how we are all connected and no country is immune to its effects. Egypt will be affected as well, despite a number of early measures carried out by the Egyptian government.

The impact on Egypts real economy will be reflected in a decline in tourism levels and revenues, a decline in the Suez Canal revenues due to the decrease in global trade and some disruptions in global imports and exports. Growth will also be affected by the global decline in investment confidence, and a decline in remittances from Egyptians working abroad.

However, our forecast for Egypt shows that the economy is performing relatively well in comparison to many other countries in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Egypt will see slower growth but no recession, partly as a result of reforms that have been adopted over the past few years.

AO: How far can Egypts economic, social, and structural reforms adopted since November 2016 help it cope with the current situation?

HH: Egypts economic and structural reforms have allowed the country to cope with the situation comparatively well. Measures aimed at macroeconomic stabilisation, including reducing the structural imbalances and budget deficits, in addition to the monetary policy reforms and reducing fuel subsidies have made the country more resilient and are paying off in weathering the crisis.

Nevertheless, better targeting through the Takafol and Karama social protection programmes will be critical for Egypt. This will help to identify where social vulnerabilities lay and to mitigate the macroeconomic impact of the crisis on the economy and on affected groups.

AO: What expected role will these reforms play over the long term for Egypts macroeconomic signs?

HH: I think the reforms are important during the crisis in the short term and for Egypts recovery over the long term. The first phase of Egypts macroeconomic reforms is critical to set up Egypts economy also in the medium run.

The Egyptian government is committed to implementing more reforms, in particular to give the private sector more room to breathe. The reforms that have been undertaken since 2016 are essential for Egypts resilience and recovery out of this crisis.

AO: How do you evaluate the preventative and precautionary measures and the procedures that Egypts government has implemented so far to support its economy amid the pandemic?

HH: The measures adopted by the government have been extensive, decisive, and have started quite early which is very important as every day counts in such a crisis, especially the early measures in terms of testing, quarantine, preparing for new hospital cases, and importing masks.

It is important for Egypt to continue with these measures and to continue testing to ensure that the country will be in a position to know exactly where the infections are developing, to trace them and to know how to slowly start opening the economy again after the pandemics peak is over.

However, even when the situation improves, we really need to be patient and monitor how the cases are evolving over two weeks.

I am quite impressed with how swiftly Egypt switched to digitally enhanced modes of delivery. For instance, Egypts Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat has already begun to bring all financial institutions together on zoom calls with hundreds of participants to explain Egypts policies. Coordination has been stepped up in the allocation of funds for hospitals and health providers and organisations are being brought together to coordinate the support that is needed for different areas of the Egyptian economy.

The EBRD is focusing on the private sector and on vital infrastructure, such us electricity, transport and water. The government worked hard to reach out electronically to donors and to the private sector.

We also had a call with Minister Al-Mashat and representatives of the Egyptian private sector on 26 April to discuss how the private sector is suffering, especially the energy companies, manufacturing, and agribusiness sectors. It was very helpful to hear from the private sector that the government is giving them very clear guidance, but they need more funding and this is where EBRD comes in.

We also found that the private sector is preparing very well, not just for the next six months, but also for the next 12 months to weather the crisis and get into resilience territory.

AO: In your perspective, what are the potentials Egypt has that can help its economy recuperate?

HH: Egypt has a lot of potential, especially in the agribusiness and manufacturing sectors, and what is really critical is that Egypt is going the extra mile in renewable energy with projects like Benban, which will be able to produce electricity at lower costs.

Egypt is incredibly well positioned for the bounce back of the tourism sector. The Suez Canal logistics hub will be subdued in the short term during the crisis, but of course the Suez Canal Economic Zone is also a critical engine of growth for Egypt going forward.

The telecom sector is also doing extremely well and the governments construction programmes are also important to maintain the momentum at a time when global investments are falling.

Government investments in infrastructure are really important as far as maintaining growth momentum is concerned.

This was why the EBRD invested in Egypts new urban community bond to help develop new urban infrastructure. It is really important to continue fostering domestic growth during the COVID-19 crisis when global growth is falling.

AO: What kind of procedures does Egypt need to deal with the current crisis and to keep the gains of its economic reform program?

HH: Egypt really needs to look both at the short and the long term. The recovery phase is very important, but it is also equally important to look at the economic opportunities that can be tapped in the medium term.

I think while focusing on the containment of the health crisis, Egypt needs, in parallel, to continue working on reforms to make it easier to do business, especially for small and medium sized enterprises, which need to have enough access to liquidity. Increasing the breathing space for the private sector is also really important for the next phase.

AO: To what extent have these sectors taken a hit because of the COVID-19 outbreak? Is it expected that these impacts will last over the long term?

HH: The private sector is really affected across the globe because of the COVID-19 outbreak, especially the tourism sector, which is one of the most affected sectors worldwide, as well as some global value chains that depend on international logistics.

It is important to support these sectors in the short term to make sure they can retain employment and keep a minimum of operational flexibility to be able to scale up once the crisis starts receding and until these sectors can recover.

Thus, they need breathing space, as I said before, in terms of financing and working capital in particular, and the capacity to retain staff along the whole tourism value chains.

Yet, for Egypts tourism sector, the EBRD remains confident over the medium term and we believe that there are upsides to be witnessed ahead.

In the public sector, I think vital utilities will be affected due to a decline in revenues in services such as water, waste management and electricity. They need short term financial support to get through the crisis to be able to support all these utilities going forward and to recover after the crisis as well.

AO: In light of the latest meeting with Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat, what kind of support will the EBRD provide for Egypt?

HH: The EBRD has approved a solidarity response and recovery package for its countries and is expected to dedicate all of its activities to fighting the economic impact of the crisis in the foreseeable future.

This package, which is expected to amount to some 21 billion through 2021, is aimed at providing short term liquidity and working capital for existing clients. We are also reaching out to new clients, increasing our support for trade finance and helping vital infrastructure providers to survive the initial impact of the crisis and to prepare for the future.

The EBRD has already approved loans of $100 million each for five Egyptian banks, as well as $350 million for trade facilitation. This funding will be channelled via the banks to the real economy and will provide much needed funding to SMEs, large enterprises and trade companies.

In one month, we have approved $850 million for Egypt, and this is not the end of it.

We are continuing to talk to companies, utilities, electricity holding companies and we expect there will be much more to come throughout this year. Egypt was really one of the first and definitely had the largest approvals in the first month, so, we see it as a sign of a good client relationship as they trust us and ask for our support.

Egypt has been for the second year running the biggest country of EBRD operations with over $1 billion investments per year. Our investments in the country since 2012 stand at $6 billion.

This year, Egypt will remain one of the EBRDs biggest recipients of investment and the $850 million is the beginning of our support.

AO: What kind of procedures should Egypts government adopt in the coming phase to make the best use of international assistance provided to the country?

HH: Countries need to make sure they assess their needs carefully and understand which institution is best placed to deliver a certain type of support. I was very impressed by Minister Al-Mashat reaching out to hundreds of stakeholders to share their demands with the government, and to ensure good coordination among different development agencies.

The EBRD is working very closely across different agencies, including the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the African Development Bank and others trying to identify risks and also working on projects together to make sure that every dollar goes as far as it can.

Egypts government can help with coordination, but the development agencies are also making sure they avoid duplication of efforts during the crisis. I have taken part in many Zoom calls with different agencies to make absolutely sure we are all using our resources wisely. The EBRD was the first institution to respond to Egypts request for support.

AO: What about the EBRDs total investments and portfolio in Egypt?

HH: In 2019, we had over 1.2 billion in investments, and since we started operations in 2012 in Egypt, the EBRD has invested over 6 billion across the Egyptian economy. We have a big focus on the private sector which has received 70 percent of our total financing.

In 2019, the EBRD also provided $83 million to the first local currency bond investment in Egypt, which was the new NUCA bond that the Urban Community Authority issued at the time.

We have also provided 4.5 million to micro-finance institutions, as well as financing to a very large private sector investment for the construction of Almaza Mall.

We are really pleased with the diversity, the depth, and the extent of our investments in Egypt and we expect that Egypt will again be a critical partner for us and we hope to support many sectors in the country during the crisis.

AO: EBRD operations are focusing on the private sector and SMEs. What challenges have these sectors faced during the COVID-19 outbreak?

HH: SMEs are the backbone of Egypts economy. The key challenges they are always facing are access to liquidity, access to finance from banks, which is a very critical situation, and they often do not have as much savings to survive crises. Unfortunately, the margins for small businesses are much thinner and they have less additional capital to deploy throughout the crisis.

During this crisis, many SMES globally and in Egypt are struggling more than large companies that have better access to finance and availability of more equity capital.

However, we support SMEs across financing through local banks as part of our emergency support. In addition, we are providing our advice to small businesses digitally through webinars as mobility is constrained and our experts cannot interact in person with these enterprises.

We are currently preparing the small enterprises and businesses online learning platform, through our advisory department, with better digital marketing, accounting, and management instruments that are more flexible in times of crisis such as COVID-19.

Also, the ability of these companies to have digital payment systems is really important to secure the continuity of their turnover and to be more resilient during the COVID-19 crisis.

AO: How do think the collapse of global oil prices will impact emerging markets and developing countries economies?

HH: The decline of oil prices is a double-edged sword. If a country is an oil importer, low prices are very good, so countries want to make sure they increase their storage capacity to make sure they benefit as much as possible from the low prices.

On the other hand, countries that depend on remittances that are transferred from their citizens who are working in the rich oil states will face a decline in those transfers. Egyptians who are working in the Gulf countries are witnessing a reduction in their incomes or are being laid off.

It is always a mixed bag, the government and private sector should benefit from this decrease in oil prices, but the remittances will be affected.

AO: Do you expect the drop in oil prices to last for a long time?

HH: I do not think it will be the new normal. Actually, oil prices are expected to increase again in the second half of 2020, although probably will not reach the pre-COVID-19 levels immediately.

AO: How can integration and cooperation between international institutions help developing and emerging markets deal with the harsh impacts of COVID-19?

HH: Our president is reaching out to other heads of MDBs, IFIs and DFIs to ensure that we use our firepower together. The key matter for emerging markets is to ensure they get support through additional funding for health, social protection, and to prepare investments for the real economy through facilities of the institutions that support the private sector.

Meanwhile, we need to guarantee each others exposure and to work very carefully together to make sure there is an optimal usage of all finances that are provided.

In this regard, Egypt is doing well and has an incredibly fast-track approval for the International Monetary Funds additional funding and is doing an excellent job in trying to reach out the international institutions and organisations to make sure to get both macro and micro support.

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PARAMUS, N.J., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Gayo Azul, the famous Hispanic cheese with a Dutch influence, announces the release of an updated "Blue Rooster" logo and the launch of all-new packaging and website re-design. With intent to grow both its fan base and distribution, Gayo Azul has a new bi-lingual website www.gayoazul.com and an exciting vibrant new look featuring a redesigned Blue Rooster logo.

Gayo Azul Updates The "Blue Rooster" Look and Feel Across Packaging

Gayo Azul brand has a rich heritage and a strong Dutch influence that has been a traditional staple for Caribbean Hispanics for decades. The brand offers a range of traditional Dutch cheeses as well as fresh white cheeses. The Gayo Azul assortment is sure to please any cheese lover with great varieties like Gouda, Queso Blanco, Swiss, and Edam that can be purchased as wedges, chunks, slices, balls, and wheels. Gayo Azul can be found in the South East at BJ's Wholesale, Fresco y Mas, Presidente, Publix, Sedano's, and Winn Dixie Supermarkets as well as Walmart Supercenters.

"The bold new Blue Rooster Logo is sure to make Gayo Azul, stand out on store shelves, "says Debbie Seife, Marketing Director of FrieslandCampina, parent company of Gayo Azul. "Since 1955 Gayo Azul has been a recognized Blue Rooster brand to many consumers and the new refreshed look is sure to excite and attract current and new users. The website is in both English and Spanish which makes it easier for all to navigate," adds Seife.

Some of the varieties include:

Gayo Azul Dutch Gouda  this versatile cheese is excellent on a cheeseboard, in a casserole, as a topping or used in sauces and soups.

Gayo Azul Dutch Edam  this cheese is a bit firmer than Gouda, yet has a rich flavor and smooth creamy texture. Easy to slice for sandwiches, shred in baking dishes, and cube in salads and vegetable dishes.

Gayo Azul Fresh Queso Blanco  a mild and fresh tasting white cheese that holds its shape well, making it ideal for grilling. and is perfect for grilling. It has a crumbly texture and is great for topping salads, soups and tacos.

Gayo Azul Sliced Swiss  a rindless, European swiss with perfect eyes and a sweet nutty taste that works on both cold and grilled sandwiches

Look for this new logo on all Gayo Azul varieties and go to www.gayoazul.com for more information.

Royal FrieslandCampina N.V.

Gayo Azul is a brand of Royal FrieslandCampina daily provides millions of consumers spread all over the world with dairy products containing valuable nutrients from milk. The products of FrieslandCampina find their ways to over a hundred countries. The company has its Central Office in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. The activities of FrieslandCampina have been divided into four global market-oriented business groups, being Consumer Dairy, Specialized Nutrition, Dairy Essentials and Ingredients. The company is fully owned by Zuivelcooperatie FrieslandCampina U.A., which has 12,700 member dairy farmers in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium and is one of the largest dairy cooperatives in the world. For additional information, please visit our website: www.frieslandcampina.com.

Contact:

Hayden Hammerling

9734054600

[email protected]

SOURCE Gayo Azul

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PATNA: Chief minister (CM) Nitish Kumar on Tuesday apprised the legislature party leaders of the Opposition parties, including Congress, RJD, HAM-S and CPI-ML, of the Bihar governments efforts in tackling Covid-19 pandemic, assistance to the poor and the arrangements following the return of thousands of migrants from different states, while seeking their cooperation.

Bihar Legislative Assembly speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhary had convened the meeting of all the Legislature party leaders from wherever they were at the behest of the CM to discuss the situation in the wake of the pandemic.

This was the first opportunity since the premature adjournment of the Bihar Legislative Assembly on March 16 due to pandemic that the leader of the House had interacted with the Opposition leaders. Disaster management principal secretary Pratyaya Amrit and Patna commissioner Sanjay Agarwal also gave presentations on how the government was handling the pandemic, providing assistance to the needy.

Kumar said that the Bihar government had stuck to Centres guidelines and as soon as there was nod for bringing the stranded migrants, arrangements were made. Whoever wants to return to Bihar is welcome. We will make all arrangements. But everyone should remember that Covid-19 requires utmost precaution . Even a country like the USA is struggling, he added.

Kumar also answered Oppositions charges as to why he was not moving around. I am one CM who has been known for being in the midst of people, but this is no time to do that. My movement may lead to crowding and cause problems. This is the time to maintain social distancing. When the situation demands, I will certainly be out to meet people, he added.

Kumar said that Bihar government was treading cautiously as most of the infection in Bihar had come from outside. The cases have crossed 500-mark, but it can spiral fast with slight carelessness. Panchayat representatives have been quite actively involved in creating awareness, he said, directing the officials to tell the DMs to be in touch with the local MLAs and also provide any information the leaders of Opposition wanted.

Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi said that the Opposition should extend cooperation in the disbursal of  12,612-crore assistance from the Centre and state government to the needy through banks and distribution of foodgrains. There will be no poor in the state who wont get a minimum of  3,000 apart from foodgrains, he added.

The meeting, held through video conferencing, was significant, as the Opposition Congress and the RJD had been consistently attacking the government over the manner in which it tackled the issue of stranded migrants and students.

In place of Leader of Opposition Tejaswhi Prasad Yadav, whose relentless tweets despite absence from Patna has generated a lot of heat, senior RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui participated in the meeting and urged the CM to keep an eye on communal virus. I know you are alert about it. But any room for communal virus to spread will be dangerous, he added.

Congresss Sadanand Singh said that officials in the control rooms and administration did not pick up phones to share information. On this, the CM said that he could easily contact him or any of the ministers. Others who attended the meeting included HAM-S president and former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi and CPI-MLs Mehboob Alam

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The position of director of national intelligence, created in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to improve coordination among the nations 17 intelligence agencies, is a politically fraught one in the Trump era. The intelligence workforce and senior leaders have been repeated targets for the president, who has accused them of conspiring to undermine his presidential campaign and has cast doubt on their conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign in part to help Trump get elected.
The State Level Bankers Committee



(SLBC) has decided to raise the MSME disbursement target to Rs 90,000 crore this fiscal, officials said.

In the last fiscal the MSME disbursement target was Rs 74,000 crore.

This was decided at the SLBC meeting on Monday chaired by West Bengal Finance minister Amit Mitra and attended by CEO of Punjab National Bank Mallikarjuna Rao and representatives of state government and other bank officials.

The SLBC also urged the RBI to increase the credit extension limit over the existing line from 10 per cent to 30 per cent.

Regarding agriculture, the SLBC decided to increase the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) coverage to 46 lakh farmers and increase in kharif loan from Rs 4,400 crore to Rs 10,000 crore.

In the last financial year, nearly 5.17 lakh self-help groups (SHGs) were given loans amounting to Rs 8,400 crore.

In the current fiscal, it has been decided to increase the coverage to 10 lakh SHGs and increase the loan amount to Rs 15,000 crore.

It was also decided to disburse all sanctioned loans to SHGs by June 30, 2020.

The SLBC has also recommended that one lakh fisherman will be given KCC and a bank loan of Rs 500 crore this fiscal.

The SLBC meeting also decided to fix credit disbursement target for the food processing industry to tide over the crisis, the official added.

The main thrust of the meeting was to give special attention to those sectors affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
WASHINGTON  The secretary of the Senate has declined Joe Bidens request to release any potential documents pertaining to an allegation of sexual assault against him from a former Senate staffer, citing confidentiality requirements under the law.

Biden made the request Friday after delivering his first public comments responding to the allegation from former staffer Tara Reade that he sexually assaulted her in the basement of a Capitol Hill office building in the spring of 1993. Biden has denied the allegation.

In response, the secretary of the Senate told Bidens legal counsel in an email that after reviewing the Government Employee Rights Act of 1991 and a Senate resolution regarding the release of Senate records, based on the laws strict confidentiality requirements, the Senate legal counsel has advised the Secretary has no discretion to disclose any such information.

The Biden campaign followed up in response to the secretary of the Senate with three additional questions, asking if they could disclose whether the records exist, if there is anyone to whom the records could be lawfully disclosed and if the Senate could release any procedures used by the office that would have overseen a sexual harassment complaint on Capitol Hill in the 1990s.

Reade has said she filed a partial report with a congressional personnel office outlining broad details of her concerns with Biden that she believes could offer proof of some of her allegations. But she said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press that she did not use the words sexual harassment or sexual assault in her complaint, but rather described an incident she said amounted to sexual harassment and the retaliation she faced afterward.
Ridley Scott has recalled the death of actor Oliver Reed during the making of Gladiator, remarking that he dropped down dead on the floor of a pub.

Reed died midway through production on the Russell Crowe epic, which was released 20 years ago, forcing Scott to finish his scenes by recreating him with CGI.

Speaking to Variety for an oral history of the film, Scott said: One Sunday morning, he dropped down dead on the floor of a pub. He probably had a couple of pints and said, I dont feel good, laid on the carpet and died.

Reed, a notorious drinker for much of his life, had made a number of promises to Scott prior to filming, including that he would not drink during production. He worked around his promise, however, by only drinking on weekends. Co-star David Hemmings, a long time friend of Reeds, had also pledged that he would keep him safe and sober on set.

David Hemmings (Cassius) promised to look after him and said to me [upon his death], Im really sorry, old boy, Scott remembered.

Screenwriter David Franzoni added that Reed had encountered a crew of sailors in a pub in Malta in the minutes before his death, and had challenged them to a drinking match.

Hes in this bar in Valletta and this British Destroyer is anchored in the bay and the crew comes in, Franzoni said. He challenges the crew to some sort of drinking debauch. He drinks some, passes out and dies. I still have his bar tab, by the way.

Gladiator, which also starred Joaquin Phoenix and Djimon Hounsou, was a blockbuster success in 2000, with Crowe later winning a Best Actor Oscar for his performance.
Flash from the Past had planned a double bill this week looking at Waterloo and Kitchener vintage movie theatres. However, the program has changed: Waterloo alone is in the limelight. On April 20, Cameron Shelley introduces Guelph's early movie houses. Kitchener's old-time theatres wrap up the series on April 27.

At least four early moving picture venues preceded 1937's Waterloo Theatre.

The Theatorium: On King just south of the Grand Trunk Railway tracks, Joseph Echert managed a cigar store/pool hall with a bowling alley and, in 1907, Waterloo's first moving picture show, the Theatorium.

The Apollo: On July 1, 1910, C. Facius opened the Apollo in a second-floor hall near the northwest corner of King and Erb streets. A sample Apollo program featured two recent 15-minute films: "Motoring: How a Motorist Wins a Wife" and a cross-dressing comedy-western "The Foreman's Bride." For your five-cent admission on that Aug. 16, 1911, you also got vaudeville acts and A.J. Smith on violin.

The Princess: Set back from the southwest corner of King and Erb, the 1870 Snyder-Devitt block underwent $4,500 in renovations in 1913. The 400-seat Princess, Waterloo's first street-level movie house, opened just before Christmas. Berlin artist Reuben Jukes had been hired to decorate the lobby. Jukes was well-known in area movie and vaudeville theatres as both a performer and set designer/scenery painter. In the Princess lobby, he created three oil panels to set an artistic mood for moviegoers: a mountain landscape and copies of "At the Spring" by Gustav Schroedter and William Etty's "Youth on the Prow." The latter two featured classical nudes that knee-jerked three Waterloo clergymen into complaining about obscenity and suggestiveness. Jukes' comeback in the Berlin News Record on Dec. 30, quoted Titus 1:15 which basically says that dirty minds see dirty things.

Over the next seven years, the Princess faced stiff competition from nearby Berlin/Kitchener's numerous movie houses. One Princess manager, Walter Harris, came up with a marketing gimmick that didn't quite work as planned. In January 1918, he rented Waterloo town hall's auditorium; installed projection equipment and seating; hired musicians under famed Toronto conductor Jules Brazil and advertised that admission was 50 cents to one dollar. This, at a time when usual fees were 10, 15 or 25 cents! Why?

Three years earlier, D.W. Griffith's landmark blockbuster, "Birth of a Nation," had swept the film world. Harris felt that Waterloo movie fans deserved a spectacular representation of the historically-flawed and viciously-racist film which, over the next two decades, would become the highest-grossing movie ever made.

Harris lost his shirt  only 200 people attended. The News Record's reporter lamented the poor support given by Waterloo people but was pleased that the small crowd "waxed enthusiastic toward the close and applauded and cheered the successful outcome of the Klu (sic) Klux Clan in their fight for liberty and right." By the end of 1918, the Princess had a new manager and by 1921, the Waterloo Chronicle had moved into what had been the Princess premises. Soon after, the "New Princess" opened at King and College in Kitchener.

The Regent: As the Princess departed, the shadowy Regent appears in Waterloo listings with travelling drama companies as prime attractions. The Regent did not locate in the Devitt block, nor does it appear in any surviving street guides. Wherever it was located, we can reasonably presume movies were also shown there from time to time. By 1925 it had disappeared.

Following a 12-year theatre-less void, months of rumours were confirmed. Theatre Holdings, controlled by Famous Players Corporation and Premier Corporation (owners of Kitchener's palatial Capitol and Lyric theatres respectively), was erecting a modern theatre on the east side of King North near Dupont. Elmira's Howard Schedewitz, the first manager, was most pleased when all 638 seats (made, of course, by Waterloo's Globe Furniture) were filled on opening night, March 12, 1937. The Daily Record called the 120-by-50-foot auditorium "a triumph of modern architectural design and workmanship."

Six decades later it closed. Except for the years 1959-1962 when the burned-out St. John's Lutheran Church congregation rented the building, it had served Waterloo's movie crowd well. After 1997's closure, the once lovely structure had several incarnations but at press time it sits empty and dilapidated, awaiting its fate.

One other not-so-vintage Waterloo theatre location needs attention. In the 1970s, a meeting hall at the rear of the Kent Hotel (now Huether Hotel) was turned into a movie house. Patrons entered from Princess Street, climbed to the second floor and after a couple of twists and turns were in The Picture Show, later known as The Majestic. Offbeat flicks, second-run features, Canadian movies, foreign productions and silent films were shown somewhat randomly with soft porn movies added for spice. Then in September 1985, Waterloo film fans got their best-ever present: John Tutt, a recent graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University, followed his passion and purchased the faltering Majestic, renamed it the Princess (after the street not the original theatre) and began attracting a fervent band of film fanatics. The full Princess story is for another, future time ... just as its predecessors were for another, past time.
Attorneys and judges scrutinized Tuesday the importance of about 700 bears living in the Yellowstone National Park area, when a years-long legal battle over their status reached the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In 2017, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sought to remove the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystems population of grizzly bears from the list of threatened species. A coalition of Indian tribes and environmental groups have spent the last three years litigating to stop them, and judges for the 9th Circuit heard oral arguments from both sides via online videoconference Tuesday.

The Service had initially published a rule removing the bears of the 9,209-square-mile Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem from its list of threatened species, drawing litigation from more than 20 conservation groups, tribal governments and environmentalists.

Federal judge Dana Christensen sided with the conservation groups in September 2018, restoring threatened status and associated protections to the bears. In his ruling, he found in part that the Fish and Wildlife Service had failed to assess how delisting the Yellowstone bears might affect the survival of bears in five other recovery areas around the West. It had been required, he ruled, to conduct a comprehensive review of how the entire species would be affected. Christensen voided the delisting and remanded the matter to the Fish and Wildlife Service for further consideration.

The Fish and Wildlife Service began working on a new delisting rule that accommodated Christensens ruling, a task that remains in progress. But it also appealed to the 9th Circuit, challenging not the remand, but the ruling that it would have to do a comprehensive review of the entire species.

During Tuesdays oral arguments, Earthjustice attorney Tim Preso stressed the importance of assessing how the Yellowstone delisting would affect bears elsewhere.

The Service needs to consider the impact of the Yellowstone delisting on the remnant of the lower 48 original listing, Preso told the three-judge panel. Its carving out Yellowstone without ever addressing the question of whether the remainder can qualify as a distinct population segment with Yellowstone absent.

Shortly after, government attorney Joan Pepin argued that the Fish and Wildlife Service was committed to that goal in the delisting rule its currently preparing. The service is making a commitment to consider the impact on the rest of the listed species on remand, she told the judges. If we thought that just doing what wed already done was sufficient, wed be appealing that issue to you now...Please, were asking you, let the agency do that analysis, dont tie its hands with the interpretations that have been urged by the plaintiffs.

Judges Mary Schroeder, Paul Watford and Andrew Hurwitz spent more than an hour grilling Preso, Pepin and three other attorneys  Matthew Bishop for WildEarth Guardians and pro se attorney Robert Aland challenging the appeal, and State of Wyoming Attorney Jay Jerde supporting it  about the complex legal, administrative and scientific issues raised by delisting. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the State of Montana have filed a brief in support of the appeal.

A timeframe for the Court's ruling was not provided.

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Despite Pauls statement, no one knows whether recovered covid-19 patients are immune to a new infection  or, if they are immune, how complete or long-lasting that immunity might be. Some kind of immunity post-infection is the most plausible scenario, but simply being positive might not be enough; people might need a certain threshold of antibodies to be protected.
Independent.ie reporters keeping you up to date with the latest coronavirus news in Ireland and across the world.





22:55 05/05/2020

'Behind-closed-doors Championship not ideal but better than none at all' - Kerry captain David Clifford

Expand Close Kerry captain David Clifford says a behind-closed-doors Championship this year is better than none at all. Photo: Piaras O Midheach/Sportsfile / Facebook

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Whatsapp Kerry captain David Clifford says a behind-closed-doors Championship this year is better than none at all. Photo: Piaras O Midheach/Sportsfile





A 'behind closed doors' championship would be better than no Championship at all, according to Kerry captain David Clifford.

The Fossa star admitted that while a Championship without supporters wouldnt be "the ideal scenario" he is hopeful that there will be action at some stage this year.

"Of course it would be strange, I suppose its obviously what drives you on and you feed off the crowd, and get a massive lift off the crowd at times," Clifford said.

"But I suppose look, its something where I've been thinking about it and a lot of fellas are of the belief that if you had a choice of playing behind closed doors or not playing at all I think everyone would choose to play behind closed doors.

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22:15 05/05/2020

More than 95pc of Irish people are washing their hands more often

Almost 96pc of people in Ireland are washing their hands more often because of concerns over Covid-19, research has found.

Public health experts say that everyone should be regularly washing their hands with soap and water for a minimum of 20 seconds to help stop the spread of Covid-19.

Research carried out by the Department of Health also found that 90% of people say they will continue to wash their hands frequently after the pandemic ends.

Senior government official Liz Canavan said on Tuesday that social distancing and hygiene measures will be a feature in our lives as the country attempts to reopen over the coming months.









21:45 05/05/2020

Brazils Bolsonaro claim to have tested negative for Covid-19 but denies judges request to see tests

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro said he has twice tested negative for coronavirus, but has refused a judges request to see the actual results.

The surreal standoff is the latest flashpoint in a broader battle between a president who has repeatedly tested the limits of his power and democratic institutions.

Mr Bolsonaro has consistently downplayed the coronavirus pandemic and has fiercely criticised efforts by governors and mayors to impose measures to control the spread of the virus, instead advocating for most people to get back to work.

But the courts have repeatedly curtailed him.

They ruled that governors and mayors have the power to determine shutdown measures, overturned the presidents decree allowing religious gatherings and are trying to force the release of his Covid-19 test results to end speculation he may have lied.





21:25 05/05/2020

Tax breaks for working from home on the cards

Financial supports and tax breaks will be examined to help keep workers at home after lockdown, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe says.

The assistance will be on the table once it becomes clear how many people will continue to work from home beyond the crisis.

In an interview with the Irish Independent, Mr Donohoe also said the national roll-out of broadband needs even greater urgency so people living in rural areas are not at a disadvantage.

The minister said he expects some employers to want less office space as more staff work from home after the crisis.

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20:45 05/05/2020

Handshakes may not return for a long time, infection control nurse warns

It could take a long time before shaking hands becomes common place again, an infection control specialist has said.

The traditional greeting was one of the first aspects of normal life to be discouraged as the coronavirus pandemic took hold earlier this year.

Infection control nurse Colin Clarke also said he anticipates significant changes in life after Covid-19, and potentially new ways of delivering health care, such as virtual clinics.

Mr Clarke, the lead nurse for infection prevention and control for the Southern Health Trust in Northern Ireland, has been nursing for more than 30 years.

I think the greeting aspect in terms of touch and the handshake will take a long time to come back, I anticipate, because people will not have the confidence and there will be probably be a fear factor," he said.





20:25 05/05/2020

'Claiming Covid-19 is God's punishment is blasphemy' - bishop

Expand Close Hopeful: Brendan Leahy said we may be able to learn from the crisis. Picture: Keith Wiseman / Facebook

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A leading bishop has said those who claim God is punishing the world through the Covid-19 virus are guilty of "blasphemy".

Speaking to the Irish Independent, Bishop Brendan Leahy, of Limerick, said this stemmed from people who feel the world is in a bad state "projecting their way of thinking about things onto God".

He also spoke of concern that Mass attendance might drop after the crisis is over as people fall out of routine. But he insisted that the "virtual" experience of worship at home is nowhere near the same as physically attending church.

Visit our Covid-19 vaccine dashboard for updates on the roll out of the vaccination program and the rate of Coronavirus cases Ireland

Dr Leahy also cited Pope Francis's "strong words" on the worldwide pandemic on March 27, when he gave his blessing to an empty St Peter's Square. The pontiff said the coronavirus was not God's judgment on humanity, but a call to people to judge what is most important to them.

"I am saying this is not God punishing us. To say that God is punishing us through the virus is a form of blasphemy."

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20:00 05/05/2020

Belfast airport working around the clock to make it safe for travellers

George Best Belfast City Airport is working around the clock to make it as safe as possible for travellers, its chief executive has said.

Aer Lingus is to carry out a review after pictures emerged of an almost full flight with no apparent evidence of social distancing measures.

The airline said any changes required would be implemented as a matter of urgency.

Pictures were shared from inside the cabin of a Belfast to London Heathrow flight on Monday morning showing row after row filled with passengers.

Airport chief executive Brian Ambrose said Monday saw the first big influx of passengers since the virus outbreak, with 154 on the flight.





19:45 05/05/2020

Man with Covid-19 remanded in custody in Northern Ireland

A young man who contracted Covid-19 in the community has been remanded into custody in Northern Ireland.

Special measures to keep him isolated from the rest of the population in Hydebank Wood Secure College near Belfast are expected to be taken.

Detailed procedures prepared in advance will be carefully followed, the Northern Ireland Prison Service said.

A spokesperson said: Following a court appearance this morning, a young man who has tested positive with Covid-19 in the community has been remanded to Hydebank Wood Secure College.

The Prison Service are fully prepared for this and have in place detailed processes and procedures which will be implemented and carefully followed.

The safety of everyone at Hydebank is paramount, and the young man will be fully supported by prison staff and our healthcare partners while he recovers from the virus.





19:25 05/05/2020

UK Care home deaths increase by more than 2,500 in one week

Care home deaths linked to coronavirus have increased by more than 2,500 in the space of a week, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

There were 5,890 coronavirus-related care home deaths registered up to April 24 in England and Wales, up from just over 3,000 the week before, the Office for National Statistics said.

Of deaths involving coronavirus up to that point, 19,643 (71.8pc) took place in hospitals and 7,713 were elsewhere.

There were 2,794 care home deaths linked to Covid-19 and registered in the week ending April 24, up from 2,050 during the previous seven days.





18:45 05/05/2020

They will not shout about it - but the politicians are quietly taking back control from civil service - Philip Ryan

Reports of our caretaker government's death may be greatly exaggerated, to borrow a phrase from Mark Twain.

Just like Twain read reports of his demise in the US press, the acting Government has faced weeks of suggestions that it has ceded power to the civil service.

In the greatest health crisis to face our country, the civil service got to work on a plan to try and minimise the damage caused by the pandemic.

A lot is being asked of people, but so far chief medical officer Tony Holohan and his National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) have performed well.

Read More





18:25 05/05/2020

UK surpasses Italy with Europe's highest official coronavirus death toll

Britain has overtaken Italy to report the highest official death toll from coronavirus in Europe with more than 32,000 deaths, figures released on Tuesday showed.

The high death toll could increase political pressure on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who waited longer than other European leaders to order a lockdown to curb the spread of the virus in March.

Weekly figures from Britain's national statistics office added more than 7,000 deaths in England and Wales, raising the total for the United Kingdom to 32,313.

The Office of National Statistics said 33,593 more people had died than average up to April 24 in England and Wales, compared to 27,365 cases in which coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificates.

Read More





17:50 05/05/2020

Breakdown of latest figures

Latest data from the HPSC, as of midnight on Sunday (21,659 cases), reveals:

58pc are female and 42pc are male

The median age of confirmed cases is 49 years

2,879 cases (13pc) have been hospitalised

Of those hospitalised, 369 cases have been admitted to ICU

6,293 cases are associated with healthcare workers

Dublin has the highest number of cases at 10,670 (49pc of all cases) followed by Kildare with 1,280 cases (6pc) and then Cork with 1,177 cases (5pc)

Of those for whom transmission status is known: community transmission accounts for 62pc, close contact accounts for 35pc, travel abroad accounts for 3p

As of midnight yesterday, 214,761 tests had been carried out. Over the past week, 61,707 tests were carried out and of these 2,280 were positive, giving a positivity rate of 3.7pc.





17:40 05/05/2020

A further 23 have died from Covid-19 in Ireland as 211 more test positive for the virus

Another 211 people have tested positive for Covid-19 while 23 more people in Ireland have died after being diagnosed with coronavirus.

It brings the total number of people who have died here as a result of the virus to 1,339.

Another 211 cases of coronavirus have also been reported today, bringing the total number of positive tests in Ireland to 21,983.

Dr. Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said: As Ireland works to ease restrictions, it is crucial that we preserve the progress our country has made in recent weeks.

This is a highly infectious disease. It thrives in crowds. It has the potential to rapidly spread to levels that our health service will find difficult to respond to.

While we plan how to safely emerge from recent restrictions, none of us should forget that the virus is still in our community. Those who get infected have the same risk of serious illness as they did at the beginning of this pandemic.









17:23 05/05/2020

UK demand for new cars fell by 97pc in April

The new car market suffered its worst performance in living memory with a 97pc fall in April due to the coronavirus pandemic, the motor industry has said.

Figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that only 4,321 new cars were registered last month, some 156,743 fewer than in April 2019.

The coronavirus lockdown has led to car showrooms being closed and many potential customers being housebound.

SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said: With the UKs showrooms closed for the whole of April, the markets worst performance in living memory is hardly surprising.

4,321 new cars registered in the month as deliveries continue to frontline workers and organisations.



Latest SMMT outlook expects 1.68 million new car registrations this year, the lowest since 1992.https://t.co/mEtbKWwHPo pic.twitter.com/2K6jGSu1MN  SMMT (@SMMT) May 5, 2020





16:45 05/05/2020

Gardai have seen a high level of compliance with coronavirus lockdown laws - Commissioner Drew Harris

Expand Close Gardai monitor compliance with Covid-19 regulations on the southbound carriageway of the N7. Picture: Colin Keegan / Facebook

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Whatsapp Gardai monitor compliance with Covid-19 regulations on the southbound carriageway of the N7. Picture: Colin Keegan





A large number of garda checkpoints have been set up at tourist locations, beauty spots, parks and beaches in recent days.

Gardai said they spoke to thousands of people, with the vast majority adhering to public health guidelines to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) technology was used to calculate the exact number of vehicles passing through the checkpoints.

It reported that 21 of the 13,324 car drivers checked  0.16pc  were asked to turn around for not having a valid reason for travel and all agreed to do so.

A small minority of cases across the country were not willing to take steps to comply with the public health guidelines and regulations.

From April 8 until May 2, gardai have invoked the emergency powers 139 times.





16:05 05/05/2020

Boris Johnson continued to shake hands as scientists called for it to stop

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Boris Johnson continued to shake hands even as some scientists advising the Government on the coronavirus outbreak were calling for the practice to stop, it has emerged.

Papers released by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) show that some scientists were calling for an end to hugging and handshaking in early March.

On March 3, the SPI-B group of behavioural scientists said it would send an important signal about the need for good hand hygiene in stopping the spread of the disease.

However on the same day, Mr Johnson told a Downing Street press conference that he was continuing to shake the hands of people he met.





15:40 05/05/2020

Coronavirus: Inside an ICU in Northern Ireland

Craigavon Area Hospital in County Armagh has not been as busy as they feared during the coronavirus pandemic. As of May 4, the death toll from Covid-19 in Northern Ireland stands at 387.

The true figure is likely to be much higher once deaths in the community are considered.





15:15 05/05/2020

Ryanair flew just 40,000 passengers in April as flights grounded

Low-cost airline Ryanair flew just 40,000 passengers last month as the coronavirus crisis brought air travel to a standstill, and warned that operations will continue to be affected throughout May and June.

The Dublin-based carrier  which last week announced it is axing 3,000 jobs  saw the number of passengers flown collapse 99.6pc from 13.5 million a year ago after flights were grounded to help slow the spread of the pandemic.

The group ran 600 scheduled flights in April  including rescue and medical flights on behalf of various EU governments  compared with the 75,501 it had been expected to operate before the Covid-19 outbreak.

Due to multiple EU government flight bans and restrictions, Ryanair expects to carry minimal traffic during the months of May and June as well, it added.

The group joined rivals in announcing thousands of job losses last week as it faces an unprecedented aviation crisis and warned that flights will remain grounded until at least July.





14:28 05/05/2020

Fears Kerry visitor numbers could fall 80pc on back of coronavirus

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The 'Mecca' of Irish tourism has warned that the Covid-19 pandemic will cut visitor numbers this year by almost 80pc with hotels, pubs and restaurants now entirely reliant on Government action to survive the crisis.

The Kerry Tourism Industry Federation (KTIF) said its members face 11,300 job losses - with some outlets considering remaining closed until 2021 because of the critical loss of foreign visitors.

Some fear that the sector will not return to normal operations and visitor numbers until 2022.

Now, Kerry tourism officials have called for a nationwide catalyst package to encourage domestic holidays once the national travel restrictions have been lifted.

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Ireland's exit from lockdown: A roadmap that may need more detailed signage

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Whatsapp Dr Tony Holohan said a roadmap is on the way.

The national roadmap out of the coronavirus lockdown will need a lot more detailed signposting and guidance if it is to ensure there is no clash with public health rules and that it's workable.

1. What is an unnecessary journey? From May 18, which is phase one of the exit plan, it is envisaged that golf courses, beaches and mountain walks will reopen. However, the advice currently is still to avoid unnecessary journeys and stay within 5km for exercise or shopping. There is no mention of extending this from May 18 so how essential will a game of golf be? And will the course have to be within 5km?

2. From phase three, starting on July 20, team sports such as soccer and GAA will be allowed to return but with limitations placed on spectators. Given these are contact sports where physical distancing would not work, how are they going to ensure they are not a source for spreading the virus on the field? It runs contrary to current advice on keeping two metres apart. Will they be asked to wear masks and will testing be offered?

Read More

WATCH: Hundreds of sheep take over Turkish city during lockdown

Sheep temporarily took over a city in Turkey that was on lockdown.

This surreal scene is from Atakum, on Turkey's northern Black Sea coast.

The city was under a four-day lockdown along with 30 others in the country.

Face masks should be compulsory for commuters as Ireland exits lockdown, transport union says

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FACE masks should be compulsory for public transport passengers as the country emerges from the Covid-19 lockdown, a major union has warned.

The National Bus and Railworkers Union has also called for temperature testing for frontline transport workers when restrictions are lifted after May 18.

It said those with high temperatures should be sent home without losing pay while they wait for test results.

In a letter to the National Transport Authority, the union outlined measures it said were necessary to facilitate the continuation of public transport through the phased easing of the lockdown.





13:43 05/05/2020

WATCH: Robots used in Russia's fight against Covid-19

Robots are being used in the Russian city of Perm to help disinfect streets and locate new potential cases of Covid-19.

Key workers in the city must also now pass a temperature check before being allowed into their offices.





13:21 05/05/2020

Dublin councils create cocooner-only park hours

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Eilish O'Regan

Dublins four local authorities have come together to create a designated time for cocooners who wish to exercise in their local parks.

From tomorrow, Wednesday, May 6, a two-hour period between 1.30 pm and 3.30 pm will be reserved in all parks across Dublin city and county for people who are cocooning.

This includes over-70s and medically vulnerable people.

Other park users are asked to consider using parks at other times so that those cocooning can have as much space and confidence in physical distancing as possible.

Mayor of South Dublin County Council, Councillor Vicki Casserly said: The COVID-19 crisis brings with it many challenges and often we are having to face it by thinking differently.

I fully support this innovative plan to allow the Over-70s and medically vulnerable people much needed dedicated space and time in the outdoors  allowing them to get their long-awaited fresh air and exercise in as safe an environment as possible.

The Chief Executive of South Dublin County Council, Daniel McLoughlin, said: We are asking all other citizens to please take on board the request to leave this two-hour period for those who have been cocooning and to use the park at other times. It is extremely important that they can enjoy our parks and exercise in safety.





12:49 05/05/2020

'Claiming Covid-19 is God's punishment is blasphemy' - bishop

Expand Close A parishioner kisses the hand of Hrizostom, Metropolit of the Christian Orthodox Church in Bosnia, during the Easter Sunday service at Sarajevo's Congregational church. Photo: ELVIS BARUKCIC/AFP via Getty Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp A parishioner kisses the hand of Hrizostom, Metropolit of the Christian Orthodox Church in Bosnia, during the Easter Sunday service at Sarajevo's Congregational church. Photo: ELVIS BARUKCIC/AFP via Getty Images

A leading bishop has said those who claim God is punishing the world through the Covid-19 virus are guilty of "blasphemy".

Speaking to the Irish Independent, Bishop Brendan Leahy, of Limerick, said this stemmed from people who feel the world is in a bad state "projecting their way of thinking about things onto God".

He also spoke of concern that Mass attendance might drop after the crisis is over as people fall out of routine. But he insisted that the "virtual" experience of worship at home is nowhere near the same as physically attending church.

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UK surpasses Italy with Europe's highest official coronavirus death toll

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Britain has overtaken Italy to report the highest official death toll from coronavirus in Europe with more than 32,000 deaths, figures released on Tuesday showed.

The high death toll could increase political pressure on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who waited longer than other European leaders to order a lockdown to curb the spread of the virus in March.

Weekly figures from Britain's national statistics office added more than 7,000 deaths in England and Wales, raising the total for the United Kingdom to 32,313.

The figure is one of several methods for calculating deaths and difficult to compare with other countries, but it offers the clearest sign yet that Britain could emerge as the worst-hit country in Europe, despite being hit later than other countries.

Read More

WATCH: Inside an ICU in Northern Ireland

Craigavon Area Hospital in County Armagh has not been as busy as they feared during the coronavirus pandemic. As of May 4, the death toll from Covid-19 in Northern Ireland stands at 387. The true figure is likely to be much higher once deaths in the community are considered.





11:20 05/05/2020

Daily briefing at government buildings from Department of Taoiseach spokesperson Liz Canavan:

52,100 employers are registered for the Wage Subsidy Scheme.

Tourism, hospitality, food services, construction and retail are the industries the hardest hit by the pandemic

598,000 will receive weekly Pandemic Unemployment Payment today

320,000 people tuned into Ireland Performs, an initiative set up online to support Irish artists

Funerals: those who cannot attend funerals are encouraged to attend digitally if possible. A guide for the bereaved is available on gov.ie

Department of Education is to publish a guideline to schools holding their own Junior Cycle exams

HSE advises that gloves are not used when shopping or when out and about as it is "much better to clean your hands regularly and properly"

09:51 05/05/2020

WATCH: WHO announces a 7.4 billion pledge toward Covid-19 research from world leaders

The World Health Organisation director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has announced a 7.4 billion pledge from world leaders toward Covid-19 research and treatments.

Aldi to reintroduce normal opening hours

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Whatsapp Aldi will reintroduce normal working hours from Thursday May 7 in all of its 142 stores across Ireland

Supermarket giant Aldi will reintroduce normal working hours from Thursday May 7 in all of its 142 stores across the country.

Standard store opening hours of 9am-10pm Monday to Friday and 9am-9pm Saturday and Sunday will return.

Store opening hours had been temporarily shortened to help support staff and keep stores at their best every day during heightened demand.

The retailer also carried out an analysis of its busiest periods, with the busiest periods being recorded at the end of the week, from Thursday to Saturday. Peak footfall was recorded between noon and 6pm.

The retailer recorder quieter periods from 9am to 11pm and after 7pm from Sundays to Wednesdays.

Trawler that landed in Irish port last month is placed in quarantine in Spain after crew members test positive for Covid-19

A FRANCO-Spanish fishing trawler which landed catch at an Irish port two weeks ago has been quarantined in Spain after a number of crew tested positive for Covid-19.

However, it is believed no member of the 15-strong crew disembarked at a west Cork port during the landing of the catch - and no port officials boarded the vessel.

The incident followed a number of high-profile protests at Irish ports where locals demanded that stringent virus control measures be adhered to over the operations of foreign fishing vessels - particularly those from France and Spain where major outbreaks of the virus have been recorded.

In Dingle, French and Spanish owned vessels were blocked from unloading their catch because of the protests.

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08:21 05/05/2020

Half the country's working population receiving emergency social welfare

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Whatsapp 'The framework's stated aim of achieving a living wage over the lifetime of the next Government is warmly welcomed.' (stock image)

More than a million people - almost half the country's pre-crisis working population - are now in receipt of emergency social welfare unemployment supports that will cost the State billions of euro.

Those most likely to have lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 pandemic are young, low-skilled, female, and were previously in part-time employment.

Figures published this morning by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection in conjunction with the Central Bank reveal the stark damage the pandemic has wreaked.

The working paper confirms that tourism, hospitality and food services, retail and construction have been the hardest-hit sectors.

Virus death toll has passed 240,000 mark worldwide

Coronavirus death toll has passed 240,000 worldwide as some countries begin to ease restrictions

More than three million people have been infected across the world by coronavirus, with the death toll passing 246,000.

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Low-cost airline Ryanair ran just 600 scheduled flights last month across Europe

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Low-cost airline Ryanair ran just 600 scheduled flights last month as coronavirus lockdown closed airspace across Europe and warned it will continue to carry "minimal" passengers throughout May and June.

The Dublin-based carrier saw the number of passengers flown plunge 99.6pc to 40,000 in April as flights were grounded to help slow the spread of the pandemic.

Ryanair said it flew 40,000 passengers in April compared to the 13.5 million it carried in the same month in 2019. It said it expected numbers to stay minimal during May and June due to ongoing travel restrictions.

The group said it operated a number of rescue and medical flights on behalf of various EU governments last month.

Read More





07:10 05/05/2020

What changes to restrictions will come into place today?

From today, there are two changes that come into effect. These are:

Those cocooning can now leave the home for exercise provided they do not come into contact with other people.

The exercise limit of 2km is being raised to 5km outside the home

Fears total focus on Covid-19 will mean a surge in deaths from other illnesses

Expand Close Tough choices: Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer for the Department of Health, previously said he was worried people were ignoring signs that they were unwell. There are fears that there could be a surge in acutely ill patients once the current crisis is over. Photo: Steve Humphreys / Facebook

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Whatsapp Tough choices: Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer for the Department of Health, previously said he was worried people were ignoring signs that they were unwell. There are fears that there could be a surge in acutely ill patients once the current crisis is over. Photo: Steve Humphreys

It was something Tony Holohan spotted himself, almost a month ago.

The Chief Medical Officer for the Department of Health had gone to hospital after becoming unwell and during a short stay, he noticed unoccupied beds and empty waiting rooms all around him.

The hospital wasn't as busy as he thought it should be, he later told reporters, and he was worried people were ignoring signs that they were unwell.

His message was clear: "Please do not ignore any symptom outside of Covid-19. The hospitals are there for all ailments, not just Covid-19."

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Paschal Donohoe - 'I'm working from my spare bedroom and my son is now cutting my hair'

Expand Close Being careful: Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has changed his work set-up to adapt to the lockdown. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Being careful: Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has changed his work set-up to adapt to the lockdown.

His teenage son is cutting his hair and he's running the economy from the upstairs spare room in his red-brick terraced house in Phibsborough.

Paschal Donohoe has adjusted to life in lockdown, like every other parent in the country.

The Finance Minister has had changes made to his office in the Department of Finance. The Tricolour and EU flags have been placed behind his desk and a video-conferencing monitor is out front as he participates in EU finance ministers' meetings.

However, he has taken his work home by converting the spare room into an office.

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Cabinet overruled Nphet on advice that over-70s should keep cocooning until August

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Health officials advised that over-70s should keep cocooning in their homes until August but were overruled by the Cabinet.

The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) recommended that cocooning advice for older and vulnerable people should remain in place for the next three months. The advice was included in the original version of the roadmap for reopening the country.

However, after a debate at Cabinet, ministers decided to remove the recommendation from the Government's 'Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business'.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 5) The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation said Tuesday it will leave it up to Congress to decide on a possible review of the increased premium contributions for overseas workers.

Lawmakers and migrant groups have called for a review of the implementing rules and regulations of the Universal Health Care Law, which resulted in the controversial hike in payment contributions.

"That is the prerogative of Congress to do that (review of IRR)," PhilHealth President and CEO Ricardo Morales told CNN Philippines' The Source. "There's still no directive or modification in the law to change it. It is only Congress which can amend the law."

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier ordered the state insurer to suspend the collection of higher contributions, with the COVID-19 crisis still taking a toll on Filipinos both in the country and abroad.

PhilHealth Circular 2020-0014 issued last month requires OFWs to remit 3 percent of their annual salaries  an increase from last years 2.75 percent. By 2021, the contribution will be raised to 3.5 percent and will be raised annually until the share hits 5 percent by 2024.

The memorandum was met with protests and criticisms from migrant groups and netizens alike. OFW organizations have slammed the government's move, pointing out that not many of them are benefiting from the administration's program.

READ: Online plea vs. PhilHealth premium hike for migrant workers gains support from authorities, groups

Senator Risa Hontiveros, in her proposal for a review of the IRR, meanwhile urged both the PhilHealth and the Department of Health to conduct consultations with migrant workers, whom she tagged as "some of the most vulnerable sectors" hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

""Ang dagdag na 3% ay napakalaking pasan, lalo pa at may kinakaharap tayong krisis ngayon. Marami sa ating mga OFWs at kanilang pamilya ay kabilang sa mahihirap at bulnerableng sektor bago pa man ang krisis sa COVID-19," Hontiveros said in a statement.

[Translation: The additional 3 percent will be a huge burden, especially now that we are in a crisis. A lot of our OFWs and their families belong to the poor and vulnerable sectors even before the COVID-19 crisis came about.]

Senator Joel Villanueva, in an earlier interview with CNN Philippines, also said lawmakers will "look into" the memorandum issue.

Morales, for his part, stressed the measure was crafted and approved after two years of "intensive consultations" with concerned parties. He noted the sudden outrage of the public may have also been a product of the coronavirus crisis.

He urged the public and OFWs to look at the policy as an "investment" for future healthcare, adding that the law can further ease the burden of the marginalized sectors of the country.

"Our OFWs, I believe, want to return home to retire here. So, while they are still productive and able to pay, they should start saving for the future... it is an investment for their health care," the PhilHealth chief said.

"In other countries, in most societies, this is the only vehicle for protecting our population, looking after the health of our population. So, universal health care itself is a vehicle for social protection," he added.

The Universal Health Care Act was passed by Congress in December 2018, and was signed into law by the chief executive on February 20, 2019.

Funds enough for COVID-19 response?

PhilHealth, meanwhile, admitted that its contributions has "taken a hit" from the COVID-19 crisis, with monthly collection down to 20 percent of the original value.

Addressing issues on funds, Morales said the agency has set aside 30 billion for the country's COVID-19 response, and is also ready to "double the war chest" through reserves if funds are not enough.

"So far our figures indicate that were still within the ballpark. But it remains to be seen how long and how bad this COVID-19 pandemic is going to be in the Philippines. But we are ready to augment this 30 billion should that be inadequate," Morales said.

However, the PhilHealth chief has also earlier admitted that the agency owes around 7 billion to thousands of hospitals and other health facilities due to unreturned claims.

In an intervew with CNN Philippines on Tuesday, Morales said it is normal for a large corporation to "have accounts payable." He explained that the amount they owe is called a Return to Hospital claim, which is a claim redirected back to the health facility due to deficiency in documents or requirements.

READ: PhilHealth owes 7 billion to some 5,000 hospitals

It's unclear if the budget mentioned for the COVID-19 response includes the 7 billion payable to hospitals.
Laois/Offaly Sinn Fein TD and Spokesperson on Agriculture and Food, Brian Stanley, is calling for swift action to "deal with the Covid outbreak at the Rossderra Meat Plant in Edenderry."

"I raised my concerns about the situation in meat factories with Minister Creed three weeks ago and again last week in the Dail," Deputy Stanley said.

"News of this is very concerning, coming as it is on the back of a major outbreak at the Roscrea plant, which is owned by the same company," he added.

"I have spoken to Edenderry workers over the past few days again and they have outlined to me their concerns about delays in putting basic prevention measures in place in the factory. The first complaint I had from staff was over three weeks ago, approximately the same time the first case of Covid-19 emerged there.

"They have outlined their serious concerns regarding, inadequate social distancing on the factory floor and personal protection equipment (PPEs) only been made available across the workforce last week. Some workers also say they are worried about inadequate washroom facilities.

"With an excess of 10 cases of Covid-19 and a substantial number of workers out sick, it is essential that all workers are tested and adequate PPEs are provided. Also, extensive and strict hygiene measures need to be put in place within the factory and I am urging the Minister to ensure this happens.

"The health of workers and their families is paramount along with protecting jobs and this important food supply chain."

Last week, Deputy Stanley raised the issue of Rosderra's Roscrea factory in the Dail. He claims there are over 120 positive cases in the North Tipperary facility. Dawn Meats in Kilbeggan closed after identifying four cases of the virus but both Rosderra plants remain operational.

The Offaly Express is also aware of a number of staff members at the Edenderry plant who have tested positive for the virus in recent weeks. Rosderra Meats was first contacted by this outlet for a statement on April 20. Rosderra has released a statement to the Offaly Express on Friday, May 1.

In that statement, the company says: "Our sites are fully regulated by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) who, as is normal practice in the sector, have their own representatives on-site at all times.

"From the outset of the Covid-19 crisis, in conjunction with guidelines from the HSE, WHO, DAFM and the Irish Government and in consultation with Union Officials, Rosderra Irish Meats have implemented stringent and detailed control measures and protocols to ensure employee and DAFM Staff safety while continuing as an essential service to provide an adequate supply of high-quality food to our customers and a high level of service to our suppliers.

"A continued flow of open communication with all employees was implemented immediately after the crisis was announced and Rosderra Irish Meats will continue to do so until further advisement from the HSE and the Irish Government.

"All of these steps compliment the very high standards of hygiene and the sanitary environment in place at all our sites. As part of this, we have fully engaged with the HSE and DAFM in a consultation process which has led to the co-ordinated testing of all of our staff at the Roscrea Plant.

"A number of employees had a positive result from that testing and they are self-isolating per HSE protocols. We have reconfigured the process with the remaining staff who have been tested and are clear of Covid-19 and are continuing with a scaled-down process in the short-term until the staff return.

"We expect those staff will be returning over the next number of weeks having adhered to HSE protocols. We will remain vigilant and continue to maintain our robust procedures while Covid-19 remains an issue within Ireland," the company concluded.

Despite being asked for clarity by the Offaly Express, Rosderra has not confirmed the exact number of cases of coronavirus at either plant.
The Kinder Foundation has donated $1 million to the Houston Food Bank to assist the nonprofit with its extensive COVID-19 efforts.

The food bank, which provides meals to food-insecure people in 18 counties in southeast Texas, has ramped up its operations significantly since the beginning of the pandemic. It has seen an increase in demand of 130 to 150%, and in response has doubled its distribution to between 750,000 and 1 million pounds of food per day.

[The Kinder donation] means a great deal to us, said Houston Food Bank president and CEO Brian Greene. Were trying to say yes to every food opportunity we can, given the level of need. Making sure were resourced up to do that is critical.

Running at such high volumes is both difficult and costly. Social distancing measures have increased the need for space in the food banks facilities and limits the number of people working at one time. On the other hand, the number of volunteers coming in decreased when stay-at-home orders went into effect. They picked back up with time, but still falls short of demand.

Labor is turning out to be one of the biggest issues, said Greene. Theres just so much work to do.

The food bank started hiring temporary hospitality workers who had been laid off from their regular jobs, something the Kinders donation will allow them to continue to do. The funds will also be used to cover expenses from distribution trucks, an additional facility the food bank has rented out for its COVID-19 operations, and acquiring fresh produce and dry goods.

The Houston Food Bank team estimates that for every $1 donated, three meals are provided to the community. The Kinder Foundations gift represents 3 million meals.

Being able to feed yourself and your family is fundamental to the quality of your life, said Nancy Kinder, president and CEO of the foundation, in a statement. The Kinder Foundation is deeply proud to support the Houston Food Bank during this turbulent time.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States had nothing to do with an alleged incursion into Venezuela that landed two U.S. citizens behind bars in the crisis-stricken South American nation.

Trump said he had just learned of the detention of the pair, accused by Venezuela of being mercenaries. Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro said they were part of an operation to kill him that was backed by neighboring Colombia and the United States.

Whatever it is, we'll let you know, Trump told reporters in Washington before departing from the White House to Arizona. But it has nothing to do with our government.

Authorities in Venezuela identified the two men as Luke Denman and Airan Berry, both former U.S. special forces soldiers associated with the Florida-based private security firm Silvercorp USA.

A third U.S. ex-Green Beret and Silvercorp founder, Jordan Goudreau, claimed responsibility for leading Operation Gideon, which was launched with an attempted beach landing before dawn on Sunday that left eight suspected attackers dead.

The two ex-U.S. soldiers were detained Monday dozens of miles (kilometers) from the first attempted beach landing in a fishing village. Authorities say they've confiscated equipment and detained dozens of others.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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.
New Delhi: Bhojpuri superstar Dinesh Lal Yadav also known as Nirahua recently shared a PSA for the Aarogya Setu app. The video featured Nirahua in dual roles, first as a bodyguard and the second role shows the actor as himself. The video posted on social media begins on Nirahua, who is all set to go outside his home to help the needy and in the background, someone asks him to stop. The person introduces him as his bodyguard.

"Sir, I am your new bodyguard, Setu." Setu then asks Nirahua to take him along with him as he can guard him against coronavirus. "How?" asks the actor. Setu replies: "I can tell you in advance if any coronavirus positive person is around you."

At the end of the video, Nirahua appeals to people to download the Aarogya Setup app and says "Setu is my bodyguard from coronavirus and yours too."

Watch the video here:

The Aarogya Setu app was launched last month. It alerts people if any person in their vicinity has tested positive for the deadly virus. The government has urged people across the country to download the app.

The coronavirus has brought the entire world to a standstill. In India, as of Tuesday evening, the number of coronavirus cases stands at 46,711 while 1,583 people have died due to the infection. The lockdown has been extended for the third time. The lockdown 3.0 will be in place from May 4 till May 17.
Crazy Horse Memorial announced Tuesday it will reopen on May 18 with restrictions to protect the health of staff and guests.

The Memorial will be open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily from May 18-21. Starting May 22, closing time will be approximately 30 minutes after the Laser Light Show, which begins at dark. Thirty minutes preceding the show, there will be a tribute to Native American military veterans.

According to Jadwiga Ziolkowski, chief executive officer and director of public affairs, the June Volksmarch and June 26 Night Blast are cancelled and the Gift from Mother Earth Art Show is postponed until fall. Cultural programs will continue as scheduled, with social distancing and other safety protocols in place.

All staff who need to manage the safety protocols are receiving appropriate training, Ziolkowski said. Physical distancing, sanitizing all hard surfaces, frequency of cleaning, and practicing good hygiene all will be significant aspects of reopening the memorial to our guests, who we are looking forward to welcoming back.

Crazy Horse Memorial closed its doors on March 25 as the coronavirus became active in South Dakota and began to spread in the region.

We understand the concerns that members of the public have regarding COVID-19 and the risk to public health, and we remain committed to ensuring that each guest has a safe and memorable learning experience while visiting our Memorial and the Black Hills, Ziolkowski said. We will continue to provide updates through our social media channels and website as we move into the summer season.

The Laughing Water Restaurant, Snack Shop, Gift Shop, and Bus to Base services also will be available to guests starting May 18.

Work also continues on Crazy Horses outstretched arm, hand and the horses mane at the memorial.

We are thankful to have the best of many worlds, including modern technology and equipment and old-fashioned hard work, which keeps the carving ever-changing, said Monique Ziolkowski, chief executive officer and director of mountain carving. We are mindful of the respect for the rock itself, and the people who have faith in all the work accomplished at Crazy Horse Memorial.
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Separately, Trump says Dr Fauci will testify before Republican-led Senate, but not Democratic-controlled House.

Top US scientist Dr Anthony Fauci has again dismissed claims that the coronavirus was created in a Chinese laboratory.

If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and whats out there now, [the evidence] is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told National Geographic magazine in an interview published on Monday.

Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species, Fauci said.

US President Donald Trump has claimed he has seen evidence that gives him a high degree of confidence that the virus began in the Chinese state-backed Wuhan Institute of Virology. He has not provided or detailed the evidence, however.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday there was a significant amount of evidence that the virus emerged from a Chinese laboratory. He did not dispute US intelligence agencies conclusion that it was not man-made, however.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology has dismissed the allegation, and other US officials have downplayed the likelihood that it is true.

China has called the claims insane.

Most experts believe the virus originated in a Wuhan market selling wildlife and jumped from animals to people.

Trump, speaking to reporters outside the White House before leaving on a trip to Arizona on Tuesday, said the US would release its report detailing the origins of the novel coronavirus over time, but gave no other details or timeline.

General Mark Milley, the top US general, separately on Tuesday said it was still not known whether the coronavirus emerged from a wet market in China, the institute of virology or some other location.

Fauci allowed to testify before Senate, not House

Also on Tuesday, Trump said Fauci would be allowed to appear next week before a panel in the Republican-controlled US Senate examining the countrys coronavirus response but could not testify to the Democratic-led House of Representatives.

Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, defended his decision to block the nations top infectious disease expert from appearing before the House, saying he was being set up by Democrats who hate him and want to win back the White House in Novembers presidential election.

The House is a setup. The House is a bunch of Trump haters. They put every Trump hater on the committee, Trump told reporters.

Politico reported that the White House had recently issued guidance that no Task Force members, or key depuities of Task Force members, may accept hearing invitations for the rest of the month. Fauci is a member of the taskforce.

Exceptions may be made only with the express approval of White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Politico quoted the memo as saying.

A House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees health programmes had been seeking testimony from Fauci for a May 6 hearing, but the White House last week said his appearance would be counterproductive.

Fauci is scheduled to appear May 12 before the Senate Health, Education, and Labor and Pensions committee along with other top US health officials.

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, and Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Brett Giroir are also scheduled to appear before the Senate hearing next week focused on safely getting back to work and  school, according to the committee.

Fauci has not shied away from contradicting Trump claims if they go against scientific data or evidence.

In an interview with CNN on Monday night, Fauci warned against a rush to reopen state economies, saying it may have dire consequences down the road.

Separately on Monday, Fauci also criticised state governments that were beginning to reopen their economies, despite a push by Trump.

How many deaths and how much suffering are you willing to accept to get back to what you want to be some form of normality sooner rather than later? Fauci asked.
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Linkedin Joseph Ax (Reuters)  Tue, May 5, 2020 08:45 624 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd5f1c35 2 World Reuters,Pulitzer-Prize,photography,newspaper,media-industry,award Free

The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica won the Pulitzer Prize for public service journalism for revealing one-third of Alaska's villages had no police protection, while the photography staff of Reuters won the breaking news photography award for documenting last year's violent protests in Hong Kong.

The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, took home the breaking news honor for its coverage of hundreds of last-minute pardons issued by former Governor Matt Bevin. The prize for investigative reporting went to the New York Times' Brian Rosenthal, who exposed how thousands of New York City's taxi drivers had their lives ruined by predatory lending.

The Pulitzer Prize for Reuters, a unit of Thomson Reuters , was the newsroom's eighth since 2008, and fifth in the last three years.

The Pulitzer Prizes, the most prestigious awards in American journalism, have been handed out since 1917, when newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer established them in his will. Monday's announcement had been postponed for two weeks because some journalists on the Pulitzer board are covering the coronavirus pandemic and needed additional time to evaluate the entries.

In normal years, the prizes are announced before a crowd at Columbia University in New York. On Monday, Dana Canedy, who administers the Pulitzers, delivered the news from her living room, after the 18 board members hashed out the finalists and winners in "virtual and digital debate."

"Ironically, the very first time the Prizes were presented was June 1917  less than a year before the 1918 outbreak of the Spanish Flu pandemic," she said. "During this season of unprecedented uncertainty, one thing we know for sure is that journalism never stops."

The Anchorage Daily News series, which included contributions from the investigative site ProPublica, found rampant sexual abuse in rural villages that are largely populated by indigenous people, where law enforcement was effectively nonexistent.

The public service award is generally seen as the most coveted Pulitzer. The 2020 prize winners were in 15 categories of journalism and seven book, drama and music categories.
tech2 News Staff

After a month-long lockdown, the government has finally allowed the delivery of non-essential items in green and orange zones. Smartphones are included under non-essential items and their sales will now be resumed in the mentioned zones. Today, that is, 5 May, Xiaomi also resumed sales of Redmi Note 9 Pro.

Now, Samsung has announced that the Galaxy S20 series, which includes Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20 Plus (Review), and Galaxy S20 Ultra is now open for pre-orders.

Notably, the prices of all the three smartphones increased up to Rs 5,000 approximately due to the increased GST on smartphones that came into effect starting 1 April.

Galaxy S20 series pricing, availability, pre-order offers

The Galaxy S20 is priced at Rs 70,500, whereas the Galaxy S20 Plus will cost you Rs 77,900. The Galaxy S20 Ultra is priced at Rs 97,900 in India. The smartphones are now available for pre-order on the company's website.

Buyers who pre-order any of these smartphones between 4 May to 20 May are eligible to get an e-voucher that will give Rs 4,000 off on the purchase.

Galaxy S20 comes in Cloud Pink, Cloud Blue and Cosmic Gray colour variants. Galaxy S20 Plus is available in Cloud Blue, Cosmic Black and Cosmic Gray colour options. The top-tier Galaxy S20 Ultra comes in just one colour variants  Cosmic Gray.

Galaxy S20, S20 Plus specifications

Both Galaxy S20 and S20 Plus share a few design details like punch-hole display and a rectangular camera module.

The Galaxy S20 features a 6.2-inch QHD+ Infinity O display that comes with a resolution of 3,200 x 1,444 pixels. The display comes with a 120 Hz refresh rate. Interestingly, the 120 Hz mode only works at 1080p. The 1440p native resolution only supports 60 Hz. As a bonus, touch response speed has been bumped up to a whopping 240 Hz, which means that the phone should feel very responsive.

The Galaxy S20 Plus also has similar capabilities, except its larger, as it comes with a 6.7-inch display. Both the phones come with an in-display fingerprint sensor.

In terms of cameras, Galaxy S20 sports a 10 MP punch-hole selfie camera (same as the S20 Plus) and on the back, you will see a triple rear camera system. This rear camera setup includes a 64 MP 3x telephoto camera, 12 MP wide-angle camera and a 12 MP ultra-wide camera. The S20 Plus gets a quad rear camera setup which includes a ToF camera for depth sensing. Both the smartphones come with enhanced Super Steady mode. Digital zoom via software can push 30x zoom.

The cameras are also capable of recording 8K 24 fps video on the 64 MP telephoto.

Coming to the battery, Galaxy S20 houses a 4,000 mAh battery whereas the S20 Plus is equipped with a 4,500 mAh battery. In the 5G variant, S20 offers 12 GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage whereas in LTE variant it offers 8 GB RAM and 128 G storage which is expandable up to 1 TB via microSD card. A limitation here is that 5G support is restricted to the sub-6 bands, i.e., you'll get 5G speeds that are faster than 4G, but not dramatically so. This shouldn't matter for a while anyway because 5G coverage is rather sparse.

Galaxy S20 Plus 5G comes with 12 GB RAM and up to 512 GB storage, and the LTE variant offers 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage. Both the phones run on Android 10 and are powered by a 64-bit octa-core processor.

Galaxy S20 Ultra specifications

It features a 6.9-inch QHD+ Infinity O display that comes with a resolution of 3,200 x 1,444 pixels. Just like the other two smartphones in the series, this one also comes with a 120 Hz refresh rate at 1080p and 60 Hz at 1440p, along with that 240-Hz touch response. An in-screen fingerprint sensor is also available in this phone.

On the camera front, it houses a quad-camera setup at the back that includes a 108 MP primary camera, 48 MP telephoto camera, 12 MP ultra wide camera and a ToF camera. the smartphone supports 10x hybrid optical zoom and a whopping 100X digital zoom  called Space Zoom. For selfies, you will get a 40 MP punch hole camera on the front.

Galaxy S20 Ultra is equipped with a 5,000 mAh battery. In terms of storage, both 5G and LTE variants will offer 16 GB and 12 GB RAM options and 128 GB and 512 GB storage options. The storage is expandable up to 1 TB via microSD card. The Ultra's implements a proper 5G mode that has full support for mmWave radios that can hit speeds of several Gbps when in the right regions.
Dame Judi Dench has opened up about her role in Cats, likening the cloak she had to wear in the film to 'five foxes f**king on my back' and said she looked like a 'battered, mangy old cat'.

The actress, 85, played Old Deuteronomy in the flick, which was labelled the worst film of 2019 at the Razzies after being panned by critics.

Speaking to British Vogue, Dame Judi recalled: 'The cloak I was made to wear! Like five foxes f**king on my back.'

Honest: Dame Judi Dench, 85, has opened up about her role in Cats, likening the cloak she had to wear in the film to 'five foxes f**king on my back'

The project was shot in green screen and Judi admitted she has yet to watch the film back in full.

However, the Oscar winner was unhappy with how her appearance turned out in the film from the pictures she has seen.

Judi hoped she would look elegant but instead felt she resembled: 'A battered, mangy old cat. A great big orange bruiser. Whats that about?'

Cats is based on the 1981 musical of the same name by Andrew Lloyd Webber and featured a cast including James Corden, Taylor Swift, Idris Elba and Jennifer Hudson.

Role: The actress played Old Deuteronomy in the flick, which was labelled the worst film of 2019 at the Razzies after being panned by critics

The film was derided by critics and went on to gross $76million (61million) on a budget of $100million (80million).

Talking about her ideal role, Judi revealed she wants to play someone 'who everyone thinks is a kindly, saintly, beautified kind of person, and she's actually killing people.'

Judi appears on the June cover of British Vogue and became the oldest woman to grace the front cover in the magazine's 104-year history.

Unimpressed: The Oscar winner was unhappy with how her appearance turned out in the film from the pictures she has seen

The actress looked radiant in the head shot as she posed in a floral high-necked blouse with her silver locks styled into a textured do and a slick of make-up.

Judi, who has had a career spanning almost 60 years, said she still has no plans to retire, joking she doesn't want the word mentioned.

Read the full feature in the June issue of British Vogue available via digital download and on newsstands Thursday 7th May.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Retirement fund body EPFO on Tuesday said it has disbursed a total of Rs 764 crore to 65 lakh pensioners for April under its pension scheme.

All 135 field offices of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) processed pension payment for April 2020 in advance to avoid inconvenience to pensioners on account of nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, according to a labour ministry statement.

EPFO officers and staff battled all odds to send Rs 764 crore to all nodal branches of pension disbursing banks throughout India, it further said.

All Bank branches have been directed to ensure credit of pension in the accounts of pensioners on schedule, the EPFO, which has 65 lakh pensioners under its pension scheme, said.

Timely credit of pension in this hour of need has been accorded top most priority by the EPFO to bring succour to the pensioners during this pandemic crisis, it added.
Mexico's Interior Department issued a stern warning Monday for state governments not to use prison terms to enforce lock-downs to combat the new coronavirus pandemic.

The move came after one state legislature voted through a bill establishing prison terms of four to six years for people who do not respect the period of mandated isolation while suffering a serious transmittable disease.

The department said the law passed in the state of Queretaro was disproportionate, possibly unconstitutional and discriminated against the poor. It sets sentences of three to five years for disobeying the orders of health or civil defense authorities during a health emergency.

The department expressed particular concern about one clause that sets out prison terms of two to five years for people who obstruct public works," saying the measure could be used against legitimate demonstrations.

On a friendlier note, federal officials announced that part of the sprawling former presidential compound in Mexico City will be used to house medical workers fighting the pandemic who either want to avoid long commutes or avoid exposing their families during the pandemic.

President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador has refused to live in the palatial compound on the edge of a public park, and already turned most of it into a public arts center.

At the beginning, 58 doctors and nurses will be housed amid the marble-floored rooms and chandeliers of the compound, known as Los Pinos. Medical personal have been attacked or verbally abused in recent weeks while commuting to their jobs by people apparently afraid that they would spread the virus.

The Mexico City government has already set aside over 2,500 hotel rooms for medical personnel for similar reasons.

Mexico has 24,905 new coronavirus cases and 2,271 deaths.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
#LockdownLessons: Investmint wants to help SMEs connect with investors

#TheLockdownSeries explores the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on businesses, how they prepared for lockdown and its impacts on operations and employees, as well as lessons learned that we can take into the post-Covid-19 era.





Gareth Price and Chris Bruchhausen shares how the coronavirus has had an impact on this unique, user-friendly and convenient tool committed to accelerating the SME economy in South Africa.



How did you prepare for the lockdown?



At Investmint, we are very fortunate in that our business platform is based entirely online, which means that we are able to operate our business from anywhere. We also, fortunately, have a relatively small team which meant that it was easy for us to quickly shift to a remote work environment.

#StartupStory: Investmint connects business owners with investors

A large part of our preparation before the lockdown was actually spent making sure that our clients are getting themselves ready from an operational and financial perspective to ensure that they are in the best possible position to weather the storm.



What's the biggest challenge you are facing during this pandemic?



We operate a platform that is a marketplace that connects investors with SMEs who are looking for funding in the form of short term working capital loans.

Chris Bruchhausen

Given the decline in economic activity, more businesses are looking for funding to cover any shortfalls in cash flow during this period so we have seen a dramatic increase in requests for funding on our platform.



On the other side of our marketplace are the investors who provide capital to these businesses. As was to be expected, there was a decrease in investor activity as people, in general, are wanting to hold onto their cash a bit more to ensure that, like many businesses in South Africa, they too have enough liquidity to ride out this economic storm.



What sort of assistance will you need going forward?



We are in a position where we are confident we will be able to endure this economic downturn and come out thriving at the other end.



At the moment, and at least for the coming months, we do not feel as if we are going to need financial assistance (in the form of loans for example from the recently announced stimulus package). As a business, what we would like to do hopefully in the not too distant future is start raising some equity funding so that we can allocate capital towards various components of our platform and business strategies so that we can reach exponentially more SMEs and help them gain access any funding that they may need. If you are able to operate, what steps are you taking to continue operating?



As we already mentioned, our business is fully digital meaning that we have been able to continue to operate and provide the services our platform offers to our clients. We have had to take a more hands-on approach though with our SME client base in that we have been actively providing advice and helping them in any area of their businesses as is needed in order to ensure that they are best equipped and prepared to deal with this crisis.



What measures have you put in place for your employees?



Thankfully our team is relatively small and everyone is used to working from home (we have a couple of days a week where our team works remotely) so the measures that we put in place were more around ensuring that there are clear communication channels and there are regular check-ins and updates to ensure everyone is on the same page and everyone knows what they need to be working on.

Gareth Price

An example of this would be the daily afternoon check-in where we communicate via a short slack message the most important things that happened throughout the course of the day. We also make regular use of Google Hangouts calls (usually around three times per week) where we can discuss anything that requires a thoughtful and analytic approach.



Are you communicating with your customers? If so, how?



Yes, absolutely! We regularly send out personal emails to the investors of how the SMEs are doing and ensuring that we instil confidence in them that we are working our hardest to ensure that these businesses come out thriving at the end of this. We also send out mailers to the entire investor base every 10 days or so notifying them of any developments that they should be aware of.



In terms of our SME clients, as mentioned above, we have taken a much for hands-on approach with them and that has resulted in us having regular phone calls, if not every day then at least once every couple of days, to ensure that we are doing everything we can to help them.



How are you offering assistance to your customers who rely on your services?



In terms of assistance, we have taken a hands-on approach with our SME client base to help them wherever we can. This can be anything from operational advice, to how best they can manage their cash flow over the coming months. What do you predict the next 6 months will be like?



While we are generally optimistic at Investmint, we are also acutely aware of the economic ramifications of this virus and how exponential economic downswing will have lasting economic effects for many months or even years to come.



We do believe however that for the people who do have some capital for discretionary spending, once the lockdown is lifted (either partially or entirely) and businesses are able to open again, there will be a shift in consciousness in peoples spending habits whereby it is far more likely that people (in South Africa for example) will want to support local businesses and products as opposed to acquiring products and services from large multinational conglomerates. Loyalty to proudly South African brands will inevitably increase. Now is the time to innovate and experiment. What is Investmint doing?



We believe that in order to grow into a successful business you need to be innovating and experimenting constantly, and not just during isolated time periods.



Since our inception (which was around 10 months ago) we have constantly been looking at ways to improve our platform from a technological standpoint as well as ways in which we can better serve our clients with new and/or improved products and services, and we will continue to adopt this approach into perpetuity.



What has been your biggest lesson from all this?



The biggest lesson has been acquiring a deeper understanding of the fragility of our economic systems. As a society, we all need to ensure going forward that we do not adopt a reactive approach to dealing with crises from a business perspective and instead adopt a proactive one whereby we are continuously preparing ourselves (even during good times) for massive downswings in economic activity.



This way the economic ramifications of a crisis are lessened to a certain extent as people are more equipped (operationally and financially) to deal with unfavourable economic conditions. Investmint is an online platform that connects businesses in need of loans with investors looking to invest by means of a loan, in other words, a platform that acts as a marketplace between the borrower and the loaner.Gareth Price and Chris Bruchhausen shares how the coronavirus has had an impact on this unique, user-friendly and convenient tool committed to accelerating the SME economy in South Africa.At Investmint, we are very fortunate in that our business platform is based entirely online, which means that we are able to operate our business from anywhere. We also, fortunately, have a relatively small team which meant that it was easy for us to quickly shift to a remote work environment.A large part of our preparation before the lockdown was actually spent making sure that our clients are getting themselves ready from an operational and financial perspective to ensure that they are in the best possible position to weather the storm.We operate a platform that is a marketplace that connects investors with SMEs who are looking for funding in the form of short term working capital loans.Given the decline in economic activity, more businesses are looking for funding to cover any shortfalls in cash flow during this period so we have seen a dramatic increase in requests for funding on our platform.On the other side of our marketplace are the investors who provide capital to these businesses. As was to be expected, there was a decrease in investor activity as people, in general, are wanting to hold onto their cash a bit more to ensure that, like many businesses in South Africa, they too have enough liquidity to ride out this economic storm.We are in a position where we are confident we will be able to endure this economic downturn and come out thriving at the other end.At the moment, and at least for the coming months, we do not feel as if we are going to need financial assistance (in the form of loans for example from the recently announced stimulus package).As we already mentioned, our business is fully digital meaning that we have been able to continue to operate and provide the services our platform offers to our clients. We have had to take a more hands-on approach though with our SME client base in that we have been actively providing advice and helping them in any area of their businesses as is needed in order to ensure that they are best equipped and prepared to deal with this crisis.Thankfully our team is relatively small and everyone is used to working from home (we have a couple of days a week where our team works remotely) so the measures that we put in place were more around ensuring that there are clear communication channels and there are regular check-ins and updates to ensure everyone is on the same page and everyone knows what they need to be working on.An example of this would be the daily afternoon check-in where we communicate via a short slack message the most important things that happened throughout the course of the day. We also make regular use of Google Hangouts calls (usually around three times per week) where we can discuss anything that requires a thoughtful and analytic approach.Yes, absolutely! We regularly send out personal emails to the investors of how the SMEs are doing and ensuring that we instil confidence in them that we are working our hardest to ensure that these businesses come out thriving at the end of this. We also send out mailers to the entire investor base every 10 days or so notifying them of any developments that they should be aware of.In terms of our SME clients, as mentioned above, we have taken a much for hands-on approach with them and that has resulted in us having regular phone calls, if not every day then at least once every couple of days, to ensure that we are doing everything we can to help them.In terms of assistance, we have taken a hands-on approach with our SME client base to help them wherever we can.While we are generally optimistic at Investmint, we are also acutely aware of the economic ramifications of this virus and how exponential economic downswing will have lasting economic effects for many months or even years to come.We do believe however that for the people who do have some capital for discretionary spending, once the lockdown is lifted (either partially or entirely) and businesses are able to open again, there will be a shift in consciousness in peoples spending habits whereby it is far more likely that people (in South Africa for example) will want to support local businesses and products as opposed to acquiring products and services from large multinational conglomerates.We believe that in order to grow into a successful business you need to be innovating and experimenting constantly, and not just during isolated time periods.Since our inception (which was around 10 months ago) we have constantly been looking at ways to improve our platform from a technological standpoint as well as ways in which we can better serve our clients with new and/or improved products and services, and we will continue to adopt this approach into perpetuity.The biggest lesson has been acquiring a deeper understanding of the fragility of our economic systems. As a society, we all need to ensure going forward that we do not adopt a reactive approach to dealing with crises from a business perspective and instead adopt a proactive one whereby we are continuously preparing ourselves (even during good times) for massive downswings in economic activity.This way the economic ramifications of a crisis are lessened to a certain extent as people are more equipped (operationally and financially) to deal with unfavourable economic conditions.

Evan-Lee Courie's articles About Evan-Lee Courie Editor: Marketing & Media; Head of Content for Entrepreneurship

Editor: Marketing & Media; Head of Content for Entrepreneurship
The number of new reported COVID-19 cases and deaths last week was the largest since the pandemic began, suggesting that infections remain pervasive and much is still unknown about the size and scale of the Texas outbreak.

The state reported more than 7,000 new cases and 221 deaths, an increase of 24 percent and 33 percent over the previous week, respectively, a Hearst Newspapers analysis shows.

At the same time, as testing expands, the percentage of Texans who test positive for the disease has fallen to its lowest levels in over a month  a point that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has turned to recently as a sign of progress.

The data tracks closely with national trends, and has some health experts worried as states including Texas move to reopen their economies.

Were opening against a backdrop of a lot of spread, Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration under President Donald Trump, tweeted Monday. Unless theres a strong seasonal effect and summer slows transmission more than expected, we should expect cases to grow.

ANOTHER SPIKE: Texas nursing homes see massive five-day spike in deaths

Gottlieb called out Texas on Sunday on the CBS program Face the Nation as one of several states where new cases and hospitalizations continue to rise. Abbott lifted a stay-at-home order Friday and began allowing many businesses to reopen at limited capacity.

Monday, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington nearly tripled its death projections for Texas to 3,632, up from 1,288. The institute increased its estimates for several others states as well, citing the decisions to reopen.

More than 900 deaths were reported in Texas as of Monday. Deaths are often reported days or a few weeks after they actual occur.

An imperfect measure

Abbott has remained optimistic, highlighting several measures last week that he said showed the outbreak is shrinking. He has warned that new cases are expected to increase as more testing becomes available.

Its only logical to see there would be an increase and the number of people that test positive, he said in a news briefing last week. So just because there may be an increase in the number of people that test positive, that alone is not a decisive criteria.

The positive test rate has fallen to about 8 percent overall, and to about 6 percent for cases reported in the past two weeks.

BUSINESS RESTRICTIONS TESTED: Strip club wins federal court order to reopen despite governors restrictions

Health experts warn that the rate is an imperfect measure, especially as the state continues to ramp up testing. The outbreak could be growing, for example, but if the rate that testing increases is greater, it would appear that outbreak is getting smaller.

Depending on how your testing strategy is changing  how many people youre testing and who youre testing  you may or may not be able to draw conclusions about the underlying epidemic, said Spencer Fox, a research associate in statistical epidemiology at the University of Texas at Austin.

The state also doesnt publicly track the days the tests were administered, only when it receives the results from public and private labs. Diana Cervantes, director of the epidemiology program at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, said tests administered several days or weeks ago could skew current totals.

Its very common to see these little peaks and valleys in cases, she said, adding that the important trend to watch is whether those peaks and valleys shrink over time.

Abbott responds

In Texas, the number of deaths in 13 counties more than doubled in the past week and another 11 counties saw increases of 50 percent or more over the same time span. Even large counties such as Harris, Tarrant, Dallas, Fort Bend, and Travis saw increases of 33 percent or more in the number of deaths in the last week.

Counties where deaths doubled include Brazoria south of Houston as well as Victoria, Harrison and Panola.

Abbott has acknowledged that as urban hot spots such as Houston and Dallas slow their outbreaks, new pockets are emerging, especially in rural counties where testing has been limited. Those include several counties in the Panhandle, where cases per capita remain high.

Abbott said in a television interview Friday that he had sent special teams including the Texas National Guard to the area to make sure the response in Amarillo and in the surrounding counties is as robust as possible.

State and federal officials have been investigating outbreaks at meatpacking plants in the region, including one in Moore County, which has the highest COVID-19 caseload per capita in the state.

Hospitalizations increased last week, though were still far below the number of available beds.

Testing also increased significantly last week, as the state added 114,539 new tests through Sunday. Last week the state averaged 16,300 tests per day, a sharp increase from previous weeks but still short of Abbotts 30,000-a-day goal.

Some experts have recommended much higher testing levels to get a fuller picture of the outbreak as restrictions are lifted and new infections spread.

Abbott has said increased testing and the ability to track down contacts of those infected will be critical as the state moves toward the next phase of reopenings, slated for May 18.

Until then, the governor seems enthusiastic about what hes seen so far. Over the weekend, he tweeted that the number of estimated COVID-19 recoveries now exceeds the number of active COVID cases for the past 2 days.

Thats exactly what we want to see, he said.

*This story has been updated to include hospitalization trends and information about when deaths are reported.

Matt Dempsey contributed to this report.

jeremy.blackman@chron.com

stephanie.lamm@chron.com

jordan.rubio@chron.com
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The NHS is rolling out its new coronavirus track-and-trace app today for testing across the Isle of Wight.

Health and council workers will be asked to download the software on to smartphones to see if it works - and if phones can accurately trace personal contacts via bluetooth.

But critics have questioned why the Government has chosen to collect the data of millions of people in one central system, rather than spreading the risk using a decentralised model adopted in Germany, backed by tech giants Apple and Google.

This is how the NHS app works - and the key differences between the UK's software and the Google-Apple app.

1. DOWNLOAD THE APP

Britons will be able to download the app for free from the Department of Health website.

It is also available via the Apple and Android app stores or via a link sent by email to NHS and public sector workers.

It is being tested on the Isle of Wight before a potential roll-out across the country, probably one region at a time.

2. PROVIDE A PARTIAL POSTCODE

To register the person will be asked to provide the first half of their postcode, which shows the NHS the town or borough they live in - but not their name or their exact home address.

The user will be asked to allow the app to use the phone's bluetooth to keep track of other phones it comes close to and how long for.

The NHS insists it will not be tracking location data - only phones.

But while the Government has said 'your postcode will not be used to track your location' - it is less clear if they also mean your location will not be tracked at all.

3. KEEP YOUR PHONE ON

The user will be told to keep their phone and Bluetooth switched on at all times and the app will run in the background without them doing anything.

The user will also be asked to allow 'push notifications' - which allows the NHS to send a person messages directly to their phones.

When an individual goes out, the app will keep a log of every time it comes within Bluetooth range of another phone - but that person must also have the app.

All IDs will be anonymous, with each app registered to a code rather than a person or address.

4. REPORT YOUR SYMPTOMS IF YOU BECOME ILL

If someone becomes ill they will be asked to log on to the app and input it. They will be asked if they have the common symptoms of coronavirus such as a high temperature and a continuous cough.

If no, nothing will happen. If yes, they will be told to order a coronavirus test.

5 APP SENDS YOUR DATA TO THE NHS SERVER FOR ANALYSIS BY EXPERTS

If it is a suspected coronavirus case these symptoms and the anonymous IDs of all the phones the user has come into contact with are automatically sent to an NHS server.

The NHS will analyse the data sent by the original sufferer using what it calls a complex algorithm. Although it is believed to be largely based on distance of between one and two metres, and the amount of time, probably around ten to 15 minutes.

6 NHS SENDS A TAILORED ALERT TO CONTACTS

It will then alert app users who have been in significant contact with the original person with symptoms. For those who have been in contact with someone who has self reported symptoms, the app will send a yellow alert.

In early versions of the app, This warns the user that they have been in contact with someone who has reported symptoms.

If the original sufferer tests positive, everyone they have been in contact with will receive a stronger 'red' alert telling them to go into quarantine.

The Department of Health has not revealed exactly what the alerts will say. The Department of Health says: 'The app will advise the public what action to take if a user has been close to someone who has become symptomatic. The advice on what people should do can be adapted as the context and approach evolves.'

The app will calculate how at risk a contact is by measuring their exposure to the person with symptoms. It will measure exposure by time and proximity. The NHS analysts will set the risk parameters that trigger alerts.

7. ORIGINAL SUFFERER CONTACTED BY HUMAN NHS CONTACT TRACERS

The app will issue the original person with symptoms instructions on how to get a test using the software.

One of around 10,000 UK human contact tracers may also get in contact on the phone and ask the app user how many people are in their household, where they have been and who they have been close to, that they know of, to find people who may not have been picked up by the bluetooth.

They will also try to contact these new contacts if required.

8. SUFFERER IS TESTED

Once the Covid-19 test arrives at the person's home they will be expected to swab and then put it back in the post to an NHS testing centre. They may also be eligible for a home test by a health worker or visit one of the country's test centres. The result should be available within 48 hours.

There are then two possible outcomes:

 The person tests negative. In this case, your contacts are told via a message that it was a false notification.

 The person tests positive. In this case, your contacts are issued a red alert and asked to isolate for 14 days, and get them into the clinical testing path.

9. HUMAN CONTACT TRACERS CONTACT AT-RISK CONTACTS OF ORIGINAL SUFFERER AND PLOT HOTSPOTS

The NHS' army of human contact tracers will contact app users who have been in significant contact with the original person with symptoms will be alerted through the app. They will provided with health advice  which may include self isolation  based on the NHS assessment of their level of risk. Not everyone who has been in contact will be alerted based on the NHS algorithm. This advice will be constantly modified by doctors based on the current sutuation.

If a hotspot of new cases emerges, the users will be advised to take more urgent action, such as staying at home or even seeking medical attention. The NHS team of contact tracers will then individually contact everyone who has been in contact with the sufferer, either through the app or by other means.

What are the differences between the NHS' 'centralised' app and the Apple-Google 'decentralised app'?

The app technologies developed by Google/Apple and the NHS are based on the same principle - they keep a log of who someone has come into close contact with.

But the way they store data is the main difference.

Britain has decided to develop an app with a 'centralised' system where smartphone data is sent to them - in Europe countries have gone for a less complex 'decentralised' system where the data is largely kept on their phones

THE NHS APP IS CENTRALISED

It keeps information of users who report symptoms and who they have been in contact with on centralised database on government servers. This lets NHS analysts access the data, analyse trends and contact people who are at risk. The data does not identify users, however privacy experts fear they could be unmasked by hackers.

THE GOOGLE/APPLE APP IS DE-CENTRALISED

It also keeps a log of the users contacts, but this information is always held within the app and is not uploaded to a government server. If a user reports symptoms, they report it to the app database. Other phones search the app database for users who have symptoms and they have been in contact with. The app alerts the government when users report symptoms but not who they have been in contact with. The alerts issued by the app or generic to all users and have no input from health officials.

What are the differences in the way each app handles data?

NHS app: Patient data and 'contacts' are sent to the Government's servers

The NHSX app will create an alert every time two app users come within Bluetooth range of one another and log this in the user's phone.

Each person will essentially build up a list of everyone they have been in 'contact' with. This will be anonymised so the lists will actually just be numbers or codes, not lists of names or addresses.

If someone is diagnosed with the coronavirus or reports that they have symptoms, all the app users they got close to during the time that they were considered infectious - this will vary from person to person - will receive an alert telling them they have been put at risk of COVID-19 - but it won't name the person who was diagnosed.

NHSX insists it will delete people's data when they get rid of the app and that data is deleted every 14 days.

If the NHS collects the data it may be able to use it as part of wider contact tracing efforts as well as being able to detect local outbreaks using location data, also also send out warnings to people in specific areas.

In future, if someone is diagnosed with COVID-19, members of an army of 18,000 'contact tracers' will be tasked with working out who else that patient has come into contact with and put at risk.

It is not clear how much access the human contact tracers will have to data collected through the app.

Apple/Google app: Most patient data is contained on phones

In Apple and Google's de-centralised approach, meanwhile, the server and list element of this process is removed and the entire log is contained in someone's phone.

That app works by exchanging a digital 'token' with every phone someone comes within Bluetooth range of over a fixed period.

If one person develops symptoms of the coronavirus or tests positive, they will be able to enter this information into the app.

The phone will then send out a notification to all the devices they have exchanged tokens with during the infection window, to make people aware they may have been exposed to COVID-19.

The server database will not be necessary because each phone will keep an individual log of the bluetooth profiles someone has come close to. These will then be linked anonymously to people's NHS apps and alerts can be pushed through that even after the person is out of bluetooth range.

It is understood that if someone later deletes the Google/Apple app and closes their account their data would be erased.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each app?

Advantages of the NHS centralised app:

An ill user reports gives all their anonymous contacts to the NHS

The NHS can use risk modelling to decide which contacts are most at risk, and then notify them

The health authority can issue individually tailored health advice to contacts based on the strength of the users contact with someone with symptoms

The NHS has anonymous data to help it understand how coronavirus is spreading

Disadvantages of the NHS centralised app:

Privacy fears of the public will be greater than with decentralised system

Legal hurdles to clear data protection laws

NHS' app will not tie up with other countries' meaning travel for Britons could be hit and people forced to go into quarantine.

Advantages of Apple/Google de-centralised apps:

Fewer privacy fears among the public

No risk of legal challenge using data protection laws

Backing of tech giants makes international compatibility likely

Potentially higher take-up rate and simpler to use;

Disadvantages of Apple/Google decentralised apps:

People who contact a carrier get only a general warning and are not put in touch with NHS

The NHS would have no contact data to help them understand how the virus is spreading

The NHS cannot issue tailored alerts to people who are more or less at risk

The NHS cannot analyse the contact data to identify hotspots and trends

Could the NHS app and its rollout be illegal?

Lawyers have also suggested that the NHS' new app may breach the The Human Rights Act 1998 and the Data Protection Act 2018 - therefore making it unlawful.

Leading barrister Matthew Ryder, a QC at Matrix Chambers in London, has warned it could be illegal and suggested it is 'inevitable' the nationwide rollout of the app could be challenged in the High Court.

Mr Ryder says the app needs a full Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) - a process to help identify and minimise the data protection risks of a project. A DPIA is only required for a project likely to result in a high risk to individuals. These are overseen by Britain's data watchdog - the Information Commissioner's Office.

He told the BBC: 'The government needs to justify why they are going for the system that has a greater interference than the one that should do the job with less interference.

'If Germany, the US and Italy can all do the job that we want to do with a decentralised system that Apple and Google have facilitated, which is the least interference of privacy, we need to understand why the UK thinks it can't do the job and needs a different system.

'What the Information Commissioner said that we agree with is that there needs to be a data impact assessment. So that the information commissioner and everyone else can understand what the data impact assessment is and why the NHS thinks they need these extra interferences with our privacy in order to be able to do the job. This is a really important thing and we need to protect rights'.

He added: 'It's almost inevitable that if the Government doesn't take the approach that the information commissioner and others are suggesting, hopefully they will, then are going to be legal implications including the possibility of a legal challenge. '

Will the app drain my battery?

Developers insist that shouldn't empty a phone's battery - and should only have the same impact as an Apple watch, which should only take a matter of minutes off the average battery life each day.

The app automatically searches for nearby phones that are using the same app by using Bluetooth Low Energy. This will only send information at around 200 kilobits per second.

Whereas normal bluetooth used around three megabits per second, more than ten times as much.

What happens if someone fakes coronavirus as a prank?

The system relies on honesty - but the NHS believes any foul play can be rooted out and set right.

The Government will be using thousands of human tracers who will contact people after they use the app to declare Covid-19 symptoms. If they continue the charade they will be asked to take a test - which will either be ignored or come back negative.

Health workers will have the means to send messages to potential contacts telling them it is a false alarm.

The ploy will, however, waste time and money for the NHS as they try to identify genuine cases.

NHS Covid contact-tracing app could be ILLEGAL and will cause chaos for Brits' foreign travel because it's incompatible with Apple-Google system, warn critics as it goes live on the Isle of Wight

The NHS' coronavirus track-and-trace app considered vital to getting the UK out of coronavirus lockdown could be illegal and may not work abroad, experts warned today.

The software will be tested on the Isle of Wight from this morning onwards - but there are growing concerns about its privacy settings and why the Government shunned a Google-Apple alternative adopted by other countries.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has decided the first public tests on their contact tracing software would begin on the self-contained island of 140,000 people, with NHS and council staff the first to be given access - and has insisted they would enjoy 'high privacy'.

But question marks have been raised after other nations, such as Germany, the Republic of Ireland and Switzerland have chosen to implement a decentralised system - where the data always remains on a person's phone.

Their model, seen as more secure and immune from hacking by some experts due to spreading the collected information, is also backed by tech giants Apple and Google.

The UK has instead developed its own centralised app with data sent to the Government's servers when someone registers coronavirus symptoms, allowing the NHS to send them a test in the post.

Critics have argued that by not using the same app or framework as the Europeans the two systems are not compatible, meaning Brits travelling to those countries could be unnecessarily placed in quarantine for 14 days upon arrival once the lockdown is eased. The US is also expected to plump for the Apple - Google model.

Lawyers have also suggested that it may also breach human rights and data protection laws - and the NHS is now facing questions about the decision to develop an app when other countries are plumping for the more privacy-centric approach.

Matthew Ryder, a QC at Matrix Chambers in London, has warned it could be illegal and suggested it is 'inevitable' the nationwide rollout of the app could be challenged in the High Court.

People will be asked to give the first half of their postcode so the NHS can collect vague, anonymised data - at town or village level - about where outbreaks of the coronavirus are appearing (pictured left). If someone has been close to a person who is later believed to be ill with COVID-19 they will receive an anonymous alert that they are at risk (right)

People eligible for the app will be sent a download link when it is available for them to start using. It will rely on people accurately reporting whether they are ill or not, or have tested positive. Contacts will be advised to self-isolate while someone is tested

Countries who have adopted the Apple-Google Covid-19 tracing app 'not compatible' with the NHS' own software Germany Italy Switzerland Austria Estonia Ireland - The United States of America is expected to use it - but no final decision has been made yet Advertisement

He told the BBC: 'The government needs to justify why they are going for the system that has a greater interference than the one that should do the job with less interference.

'If Germany, the US and Italy can all do the job that we want to do with a decentralised system that Apple and Google have facilitated, which is the least interference of privacy, we need to understand why the UK thinks it can't do the job and needs a different system.

'What the Information Commissioner said that we agree with is that there needs to be a data impact assessment. So that the information commissioner and everyone else can understand what the data impact assessment is and why the NHS thinks they need these extra interferences with our privacy in order to be able to do the job. This is a really important thing and we need to protect rights'.

He added: 'It's almost inevitable that if the Government doesn't take the approach that the information commissioner and others are suggesting, hopefully they will, then are going to be legal implications including the possibility of a legal challenge. '

After today's tests all Isle of Wight residents will be able to download the software on to their smartphones from Thursday.

If the tests are successful it could be rolled out across the country within weeks as ministers seek to shape a strategy to allow some economic activity to resume, with the long-awaited 'roadmap' for easing lockdown being published on Sunday.

Users will input into the app when they have symptoms linked to Covid-19. Developed by NHSX, the health service's tech innovation arm, the software will then use Bluetooth to anonymously monitor and log when app users come into contact with each other.

The software will alert people if they have been in close contact with someone who later fell ill with coronavirus, which has killed 28,734 in the UK so far, so they can self-isolate and be tested if necessary.

Some MPs have raised concerns about privacy and the amount of data it will gather - but the NHS insists it is vital to stop further outbreaks of the virus and to prevent people from spreading the virus without realising they have it, as well as alerting authorities to local clusters of cases.

Google and Apple have managed to develop software which serves the same function but in a way that contains all the necessary data inside someone's phone and doesn't need a server. Other countries including Germany and Switzerland are using this approach.

Because no movement or tracking information is stored on a central server, it would be invisible to Google, Apple and the NHS and there would be nothing to hack.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said a user's phone will store anonymously the information about all the phones it has been within two metres of for more than 15 minutes in the previous few days.

He said one of the aspects being tested in the trial on the Isle of Wight is whether the best thing is for someone who gets a message saying they have been in contact with someone with symptoms should self-isolate 'in case you develop the symptoms'.

He told BBC Breakfast: 'This is one of the reasons that we want to test it to ensure that we get the rules right around what we advise people to do as soon as the contact tracing pings you.'

Mr Hancock said the app would allow the Government to have a picture of where there might be virus hotspots.

He said: 'The more people who have the app the better.'

He said human contact tracing is important alongside technology.

He said: 'Of course we use the technology but we're going to be using people too in this test, track and trace system.'

Mr Hancock said it was being used on the Isle of Wight because the fact that the population is small and cut off from the mainland meant the experiment could be carried out in 'proper scientifically-controlled conditions'.

Pressed on privacy and the use of data, Mr Hancock reiterated that information will be stored on a person's phone until the point they need to get in contact with the NHS to get a test.

He said: 'I think we can give very significant reassurances on the privacy aspect but what I can tell you is that if you download the app then you are doing your duty and you are helping to save lives, and you're helping to control the spread of the virus, and that's true as of this morning on the Isle of Wight amongst NHS staff, but it'll be true increasingly across the country as we roll it out.'

Mr Hancock said the app is 'a very, very positive step in terms of us all being able to get some of our liberty back'.

Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen has said the Government should look at decentralised app models - where contact-tracing data stays on a users device.

The organisations concerns that the Government may be planning to route private data through a central database, opening the door to pervasive state surveillance and privacy infringement, with potentially discriminatory effects was put to the Health Secretary.

Mr Hancock responded: Thats completely wrong.

Asked why, he said: Firstly because the data is stored on your phone until you need to get in contact with the NHS in order to get a test and secondly because the purposes of this are purely and simply to control the spread of the virus, which is really important.

Thirdly because weve all had to give up significant infringements on our liberty, for instance with the social distancing measures and the lockdown, and we want to release those, and this approach will help us to release them ... I can reassure you that its completely untrue.

If the island trial is successful the Government plans to roll out the app to everyone across the UK as a crucial element of its 'test, track and trace' plan for keeping the country out of lockdown in future as it adapts to life with the virus.

Deputy chief medical officer, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, said today: 'It's highly unlikely that the COVID-19 virus is going to go away... therefore, testing and contact tracing is going to have to become part of our daily lives for the future'.

Experts say 60 per cent of the population or more will need to download the app for it to work well. Government figures have not put a target on uptake but will urge everybody who can to download the app when it becomes available, adopting the mantra 'download the app, protect the NHS, save lives'.

The app will rely on people being honest about when they feel ill - data must be put into the app by the user. It is not clear what will constitute close enough contact for someone to be alerted that they are at risk. The World Health Organization's rule is 15 minutes within six-and-a-half feet (2m), but the Department of Health said a 'complex risk algorithm' would dictate who would be warned.

The programme on the Isle of Wight will carry on for around two weeks to check whether the system works and whether people actually download and use it properly. If successful, the app will start to be used on mainland Britain from mid-May, the Department of Health said, while continuing on the Isle of Wight.

But there are concerns that the data the NHS app collects might be vulnerable because officials have elected to store it on a central database on NHS servers.

Some other countries including Switzerland and Germany are using technology which stores all data on someone's own phone and never submits it to authorities.

The CEO of NHSX, the digital arm of the health service, today said he could not confirm exactly who would have access to data collected by the NHS app, saying only that an organisation must have a valid public health reason to access it. He insisted that the app will never upload private, identifying information such as someone's name or address.

The app has also failed the tests it must pass to be officially listed on the NHS app store, including cyber-security measures, according to claims made by an NHS official in the Health Service Journal.

It is reported to be below the normal standards the NHS requires to officially publish an app for mobile users, and has not lived up to expectations set on cyber-security, performance and its 'clinical safety'. Exactly how it failed those measures is unclear.

The Department of Health disputed the reports and called them 'factually untrue', insisting the app is being fast-tracked, has not failed any tests and will go through normal approval channels after it is rolled out on the Isle of Wight.

Downloading and using the app will be voluntary but officials hope huge numbers of people will be persuaded to take part in the hope of lifting movement restrictions.

HOW IS THE NHS TRACING APP DIFFERENT TO ONE MADE BY APPLE AND GOOGLE? The app technologies developed by Google/Apple and the NHS are based on the same principle - they keep a log of who someone has come into close contact with - but the way they store data is the main difference. The NHS's keeps information in a centralised database, while the Google/Apple app is de-centralised. NHS app: Lists on NHS servers The NHSX app will create an alert every time two app users come within Bluetooth range of one another and log this in the user's phone. Each person will essentially build up a list of everyone they have been in 'contact' with. This will be anonymised so the lists will actually just be numbers or codes, not lists of names or addresses. If someone is diagnosed with the coronavirus or reports that they have symptoms, all the app users they got close to during the time that they were considered infectious - this will vary from person to person - will receive an alert telling them they have been put at risk of COVID-19 - but it won't name the person who was diagnosed. NHSX insists it will delete people's data when they get rid of the app. Apple/Google: Contained on phones In Apple and Google's de-centralised approach, meanwhile, the server and list element of this process is removed and the entire log is contained in someone's phone. That app works by exchanging a digital 'token' with every phone someone comes within Bluetooth range of over a fixed period. If one person develops symptoms of the coronavirus or tests positive, they will be able to enter this information into the app. The phone will then send out a notification to all the devices they have exchanged tokens with during the infection window, to make people aware they may have been exposed to COVID-19. The server database will not be necessary because each phone will keep an individual log of the bluetooth profiles someone has come close to. These will then be linked anonymously to people's NHS apps and alerts can be pushed through that even after the person is out of bluetooth range. It is understood that if someone later deletes the Google/Apple app and closes their account their data would be erased. Will NHS benefit from central data? If the NHS collects the data it may be able to use it as part of wider contact tracing efforts as well as being able to detect local outbreaks using location data. In future, if someone is diagnosed with COVID-19, members of an army of 18,000 'contact tracers' will be tasked with working out who else that patient has come into contact with and put at risk. It is not clear how much access the human contact tracers will have to data collected through the app. Advertisement

NHS and council staff on the Isle of Wight will be sent a download link by email today, and residents on the island will receive letters in the post with instructions on how to get the app on Thursday.

It is being trialled on the Isle of Wight because it is a small, self-contained community which is easier to control, Mr Hancock said. Initial testing was carried out on an even smaller self-contained community at RAF Leeming, an air base in North Yorkshire, and it is now being scaled up.

Mr Hancock claimed that on the Isle of Wight it could be tested in 'scientific' conditions because people cannot come and go freely - there is no bridge or tunnel between the Isle and mainland Britain.

It will be easier for officials to get a clear idea of what proportion of the population has downloaded the app, and to get tests for large parts of communities quickly.

But privacy concerns have been raised about the way the app works.

Dr Michael Veale, a lecturer in digital rights at University College London, said on BBC Radio 4 this morning: 'One thing people need to do is have deep trust that this data will not be misused or that the system will not turn slowly into something that starts to identify people more individually.'

The NHSX app focuses on a centralised approach in which any interactions between people are recorded by the phone and then, if someone is flagged as a coronavirus patient, sent back to a server run by the NHS.

NHSX is on an offensive to assuage people's concerns about privacy and insists that no personal information will be collected. People will be identified by codes which are not linked to their name or address.

Instead, the app will keep a log of Bluetooth connections between codes and, when one of the codes is upgraded to signify that the patient attached to it has tested positive or become ill (this will be done by the user via the app), other codes which had been in contact with that one will be alerted anonymously.

All the connections - which will look to the human eye like a series of pairs of numbers, with one number in common - will then be uploaded to a central NHS database and stored.

NHSX chief executive, Matthew Gould, confirmed the app will collect no specific personal data from users such as their name or address.

He said: 'The app is designed so you don't have to give it your personal details to use it  it does ask for the first half of your postcode but only that.

'You can use it without giving any other personal details at all  it doesn't know who you are, it doesn't know who you've been near, it doesn't know where you've been.'

But experts say this level of data collection - tracking the movements of one unchanging number and linking it to others - is fraught with hazards.

It is possible that if the data was hacked, one of the codes - each person's identifying code remains the same over time - could be linked to a person if the hacker could pinpoint the code and person in the same place. This could then be used to track them repeatedly as their Bluetooth checked in at other places.

The NHS is now facing questions as to why it needs to develop the app in this manner when other countries are plumping for the more privacy-centric approach.

Google and Apple have managed to develop software which serves the same function but in a way that contains all the necessary data inside someone's phone and doesn't need a server. Other countries including Germany and Switzerland are using this approach.

Because no movement or tracking information is stored on a central server, it would be invisible to Google, Apple and the NHS and there would be nothing to hack.

That technology works by exchanging a digital 'token' with every phone someone comes within Bluetooth range of over a fixed period.

If one person develops symptoms of the coronavirus or tests positive, they will be able to enter this information into the app.

The phone will then send out a notification to all the devices they have exchanged tokens with during the infection window, to make people aware they may have been exposed to COVID-19.

The process is confined to the individual's handset and the scope of the information sent to the NHS is strictly limited.

Experts fear that the system could be used to label people as infected or at-risk in a way that other people would be able to see, meaning they could face discrimination.

Dr Veale said: 'We've seen in China the traffic light system of red, yellow, green - 'are you suitable to come into this building or come into work' - and a centralised system is really just a few steps away from creating those kind of persistent identifiers that allow you to make that kind of approach.

'Whereas a decentralised system really does proximity tracing and does not do more than that. People can trust that technically.'

With the NHS's approach, people will have to trust the health service and therefore the Government with their personal information.

Human rights group Amnesty International raised alarm about the prospect.

Scientists have said they are worried about 'mission creep' in which people are told the data will be used for one thing but then the people controlling the data decide to use it for something else.

Amnesty International UK director, Kate Allen, said the Government should be looking at decentralised app models where contact-tracing data stays on a user's device.

ISLE OF WIGHT FACTFILE The Isle of Wight is an island off the south coast of England, linked by ferry to Portsmouth and Southampton. The island has a population of around 141,000 people. More than a quarter of all its residents (27.3 per cent) are older than 65, and the proportion is increasing. It is one of the most elderly communities in England & Wales. Its biggest town is Newport and has a population of just 18,700 people. Only three towns on the island have more than 10,000 residents. One in six houses are occupied by someone older than 65 living on their own. The Isle of Wight is off the coast of Portsmouth and Southampton The vast majority of people on the island are white and British - 94.8 per cent, compared to 85.9 per cent in England. Just under two per cent are 'other white', while just over one per cent are Asian. Bob Seely MBE is the MP for the island. He is a member of the Conservative Party and has held office since 2017. The Conservatives also hold a majority on the borough council.

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However, officials says they are maintaining strict privacy rules while also gathering anonymous data about the numbers of coronavirus cases in certain areas, which could help hospitals to plan for outbreaks, for example.

Ms Allen said: 'We're extremely concerned that the Government may be planning to route private data through a central database, opening the door to pervasive state surveillance and privacy infringement, with potentially discriminatory effects.

'Ministers should instead be examining decentralised, privacy-preserving models such as those many European governments are pursuing.

'In these extraordinary times, contact-tracing apps and other technology could potentially be useful tools in responding to COVID-19, but our privacy and rights must not become another casualty of the virus.'

Dr Veale also promoted the benefits of the de-centralised model, adding: 'In the Apple and Google approach... you don't need to trust Apple and Google with your data because it never leaves your device.

'It removes the need to have an identifiable central database of any sort whatsoever. This is being used in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Estonia and also in Ireland.'

The app will form a crucial part of the Government's three-point 'test, track and trace' plan for helping the country to recover from its current crisis.

This will work by officials closely watching where and when new cases and outbreaks of the virus appear and isolating people to stamp them out.

First, anyone who is suspected of having the virus will be tested - there are still currently limits on who can get a test, but these are expected to be lifted by the time the country moves out of lockdown.

If someone tests positive, they will be told to self-isolate as long as they are otherwise healthy and don't need hospital treatment.

Their households will have to isolate with them and then Government 'contact tracers' will work to establish a social network around the patient.

This will involve working out everyone who has come into close enough contact with the patient that they are at risk of having been infected with COVID-19.

All the people in that social network will then also be told to self-isolate until they can be sure they're virus free, or until they are diagnosed with a test. If they test positive, the same contact tracing procedure will begin for them.

The app will be a vital part of this contact tracing effort, because it will be able to alert people who the patient may have put at risk without them knowing - at a shop or doctor's surgery, for example.

Cybersecurity experts and human rights experts are also concerned about 'mission creep' in which the app starts off with one purpose but then officials decide to use its data for something else.

Professor Mark Ryan, a computer security lecturer at the University of Birmingham, said: 'Everyone agrees that proximity tracing is a vital part of combating COVID and ending the lockdown.

'However, we have to be sure that proximity tracing technology does not lead to unfettered surveillance of people's movements and activities.

'To this end, we call upon the government to publish open source code of the apps and server processes that will be used.

'Remember that, unlike the cases of surveillance to combat terrorism or other crime, there is no requirement of secrecy in what strategies and technologies are being used against COVID.'

Information collected by the app will also give the Government insight into where the virus is spreading.

As officials continue to track the virus in future, they will have to try to work out how many people who have had COVID-19 in the past and recovered.

The roll-out of 'immunity passports' is being considered by ministers as part of the government's attempts to get Britain back to work after the coronavirus lockdown is eased.

Ministers are believed to be in talks with tech firms about developing a form of digital identification which would verify who someone is and show whether they have been tested for the disease.

The passports could either be based on antigen testing which shows if someone currently has coronavirus or on antibody testing which shows if someone has had it.

The digital documents would show if someone has tested negative on an antigen test or if they have shown to have some resistance to coronavirus after an antibody test, demonstrating to an employer they are safe to re-enter the workplace.

Such a scheme could be a game-changer for ministers as they try to figure out how to kickstart the UK economy.

But the World Health Organization has warned against these immunity passports because scientists are not sure whether people actually become immune after illness.

In a statement the WHO said: 'There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection.'

Boris Johnson is expected to unveil his lockdown exit strategy in an address to the nation on Sunday, having delayed the announcement from Thursday as frantic work continues in Whitehall.

Today it emerged that reduced hot-desking, the closure of office lifts and canteens, and putting tape on the floor to mark where people should stand are all likely to be proposed by the government under plans to restore office working.
A protester who threw water on two Mountain Valley Pipeline workers ended an appeal of assault convictions Monday, pleading guilty and accepting a suspended jail sentence and an order to stay away from pipeline property  and out of Virginia  for two years.

Evin Tyler Ugur, 23, of Worcester, Massachusetts, faced an assortment of minor charges in Montgomery County courts after joining protests of pipeline construction. Last year, Ugur was convicted in the countys General District Court of two counts of assault after throwing water at two workers during a July encounter at a construction access near Yellow Finch Road.

Ugur was sentenced to 20 days in jail but stayed free while appealing the convictions in Circuit Court.

On Monday in Circuit Court, Ugur pleaded guilty to both counts of assault in an agreement that dropped other charges still pending in General District Court. Ugur was left with a 180-day jail sentence, with the entire term suspended for two years.

During that time, Ugur must stay at least a mile away from any Mountain Valley Pipeline construction site, right-of-way or other property, and cant have any contact with the two workers involved in the July incident.

Additionally, Judge Robert Turk ordered that Ugur stay out of Virginia for two years.

After the hearing, attorney Will Clemons of Christiansburg, who represented Ugur on the General District Court charges, said his client was glad to end the legal proceedings.

I think Evin just wants to get back to Massachusetts, Clemons said.

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Cops in western Texas said they arrested a bar owner and a group of armed men Monday after they violated the state's order.

Ector County Sheriff Mike Griffis said during a news conference Tuesday that his officers were alerted that the owner of Big Daddy Zane's in West Odessa, Texas, opened her bar even though Gov. Greg Abbott's reopening plan explicitly mandated that bars remain closed. When officers arrived, they saw six men in body armor and armed rifles standing outside the establishment, according to Griffis.

PHOTO: Armed protester Wyatt Winn waits for Ector County Sheriff's officers and Texas State Troopers, who were monitoring a protest, shortly before his arrest Monday, May 4, 2020, at Big Daddy Zane's bar near Odessa, Texas. (Eli Hartman/Odessa American via AP)

"This was not a protest of their second amendment rights. It was a show of force to ensure this lady could violate the governors order," Griffis told reporters.

MORE: Colorado man planning armed protest against state's coronavirus restrictions arrested for pipe bombs

The officers arrested the owner and charged her for violating the governor's orders and arrested the armed men for having weapons on a licensed property, Griffis said. The owner will be fined, according to the sheriff.

PHOTO: Deputies of the Ector County Sheriff's Office advance on protesters who gathered outside Big Daddy Zane's bar, May 4, 2020, in Odessa, Texas. (Eli Hartman/Odessa American via AP)

Abbott's reopening plan, which went into effect Friday, allowed for restaurants and stores to reopen but with only a limited number of patrons. Bars were not included in the first phase of the plan.

Attorney information for the owner and the suspects was not immediately available. The bar posted a Facebook event scheduled for May 4 called "Bars and bartenders standing united," which had a photo of armed men in body armor posing in an undisclosed location.

"They will be here to help protect our rights as a small business owner to open and be able to feed our families," according to the post.

PHOTO: Wyatt Winn is led away in handcuffs outside Big Daddy Zane's bar, May 4, 2020, near Odessa, Texas. (Eli Hartman/Odessa American via AP)

Griffis said he didn't have more details about the armed men, but said they were not from the town and they were there to intimidate people. He acknowledged the hardships that people are facing because of the coronavirus restrictions, but said there are more civilized ways to express their frustration with the governor's order.

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"If you dont like this, go ahead and vote for another governor," he said.

MORE: COVID-19 cases on rise in state that starts 1st phase of reopening

Griffis reiterated that the virus is a very serious health risk and people should take the precautions seriously. As of Monday, 84 people in Ector County contracted the virus, and four died from it, according to data from the state and the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Texas has 32,783 confirmed cases and 901 related deaths as of Monday, the Johns Hopkins data showed. On Thursday, the number of positive cases in the state increased by 1,033, the biggest one-day jump in three weeks, according to health officials.

"This is all new to us. Its all new to the officials," Griffis said. "My message here is, 'Lets work together.'"

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 US and Worldwide: Coronavirus map

Cops arrest armed men, Texas bar owner who violated order to close originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Three Target stores across three states will close their doors permanently.

Sales have plummeted at the retailer in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, while Kmart has thrived during the crisis.

In New South Wales, the Campbelltown Target will close on July 4. But shoppers in south-west Sydney will still be able to visit the Macarthur and Narellan stores nearby.

The Meadow Springs store in Mandurah, West Australia, will close on August 1, while Target in Pasadena, South Australia, closes on May 30.

Staff at the impacted stores were made aware of the closures - and job losses - earlier in the year.

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Three target stores will close permanently after poor sales performances - heightened by the coronavirus pandemic

Rob Scott, the chief executive of Wesfarmers, which owns Target, highlighted the Target's 'unsatisfactory' financial performance in a trading briefing to investors last month, and said store closures were 'inevitable'.

Target's sales fell 2.3 per cent after a 0.5 per cent growth a year ago. It recorded a worse-than-expected $67million sales slump.

He suggested it may be due to the fact that competitors, like Bunnings, Officeworks and Kmart have adapted to suit social distancing measures during the lockdown.

Bunnings and Officeworks now offer drive and collect options, while Kmart has invested heavily in its online market.

The sharp sales decline prompted a planned review into Target's operations to be accelerated, which will be completed by June 30.

'These plans include a review of a range of actions to improve shareholder returns and assessment of strategic options for a commercially viable Target,' Mr Scott told investors.

'The strategic review is considering all options for the Target business including an accelerated store closure program, the conversion of some stores to Kmart and other structural options for the Target business,' Mr Scott previously told Daily Mail Australia.

Department stores have been abandoned during the coronavirus pandemic as Australians are urged to stay home unless absolutely necessary. Pictured: Highpoint Shopping Centre on May 4

'The review is an opportunity to review the network, the number and size of stores, to ensure it is fit for purpose.'

In February, Kmart swung to a 5.5 per cent first-half comparable sales growth from a 0.6 per cent decline a year ago, with revenue at the discount department store up $241million or 7.6 per cent to $4.99billion.

The current trend of declining sales is expected to persist while social distancing and isolation measures remain in place.

Target is Australia's largest department store chain with 284 stores across the country.

Established in 1926, the retailer was originally known as Lindsays until 1968, when Myer Emporium bought the chain of 16 stores across Victoria, which were renamed Lindsay's Target.

The retailer was renamed Target Australia in 1973.

While sales have slumped for Target, in-store momentum has moderated in popular discount department store chain Kmart (pictured), despite the coronavirus lockdowns
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There has been a more than 100 per cent increase in break-ins at businesses in Hamilton over the last month, part of a shift in crime trends across the city during the COVID-19 pandemic, police revealed Friday.

The 131 per cent increase in commercial break and enters is one of several types of crime that have jumped, while others, including assaults and some traffic violations, have decreased since a state of emergency was declared in Ontario March 17.

The figures released May 1 are unedited and are not considered official crime statistics, Hamilton police said. But the preliminary numbers offer a glimpse into how physical distancing and emergency laws have changed peoples behaviour in Hamilton.

Its a good temperature check, said deputy chief Frank Bergen.

With many businesses shuttered and people ordered to stay home as much as possible, overall reported crime has decreased about 12.5 per cent in the city.

Bergen also noted that officers have been able to respond to some calls faster and their clearance rate has gone up.

In some cases, it has been easier for police to find suspects because criminals are still the ones out and about, he said.

The ares of crime that have decreased are:

Assaults, down 26 per cent;

Impaired driving, down 22 per cent;

Auto theft, down 19 per cent;

Traffic violations, 14 per cent;

Weapon offences, down 12 per cent;

Fraud, down 3 per cent;

Domestics, down 1 per cent.

The areas of crime that have increased are:

Commercial break and enters, up 131 per cent;

Stunt driving, up 23 cent;

Theft from auto, up 1 per cent.

The increase in commercial break and enters is not unexpected.

Police took a look at crime trends over the last five years and this time of year  as the weather warms up  typically sees a significant increase of more than 100 per cent in commercial break-ins. But that has been exaggerated because of COVID-19.

People seem to be taking advantage of or exploiting shuttered businesses, Bergen said.

Not only are businesses closed, but fewer people are out, which means diminished good people eyes and ears, to call police, he said.

Restaurants, hair salons and retail establishments are the top three being targeted.

In response, police have increased patrols and are working with local BIAs and the Chamber of Commerce. Bergen said police are reminding business owners to be mindful of basic crime prevention through environmental design, such as having good lighting and not displaying valuable goods by the doors.

Another issue with commercial break and enters has been a delay in when they are reported. Whereas before the crime was usually reported in the morning when staff arrived, now it might take a few days, he said.

Police are finding that during break-ins criminals do not feel the same urgency to get out as fast as possible, so in some cases theyre doing more damage.

Its always been true that a suspect or group of suspects committing commercial break-ins is likely to hit more than one business in the same area and that continues to be true during COVID-19, Bergen said.

Last month, the BEAR (break, enter, auto theft and robbery) unit charged a 40-year-old man and 39-year-old woman in connection with a string of nine commercial break-ins that targeted businesses on the Hamilton Mountain.

While traffic volumes are down and some type of traffic offences, such as impaired driving, are down, speeding has increased. This includes the 23 per cent increase in stunt driving, which includes speeding over 50 kilometres an hour above the posted limit.

Bergen called this a small percentage of people taking advantage.

In response, police said tickets are up and starting May 4 police are beginning a road safety campaign aimed at speeders and stunt drivers.

Bergen also cautioned against reading too much into some of the other smaller decreases, such as the one per cent decrease in domestics. The number of calls for family troubles has actually increased and police know a lot of abuse goes unreported.

We cannot rest on our laurels, he said, adding that those numbers are not necessarily a true depiction.

Many groups have warned about risks of increased domestic violence and child abuse as people are increasingly shut at home without the watchful eye of teachers, colleagues and others in the community.

Police also noted that the service has received 1,089 calls related to the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act and issued 34 tickets. Bergen said this shows that officers have been showing a lot of discretion about when to hand out tickets.
Tim MacDonald and his dog, Gunny, walk past a message of hope on the porch of a home on Weber Street in Colorado Springs, Monday, March 30, 2020. The streets were quiet as the State of Colorado is in lockdown against the COVID-19 virus, but messages decorated porches, windows and sidewalks around Colorado Springs. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
FirstService Residential to Manage Surprise Farms II and V in Mesa, Arizona. We felt a great sense of alignment with FirstService Residential and their standards of service, said Shay Schmitt. The value they place on board training and the involvement of their entire leadership team ultimately led us to our decision to partner with them.

FirstService Residential, Arizonas leading HOA management company, has been awarded the management contract of two sub communities within Surprise Farms Master Association  Surprise Farms II and Surprise Farms V.

Located in Surprise, Arizona, Surprise Farms II consists of 1,073 single-family homes and features lush landscaping, green spaces and tot lots. FirstService Residential assumed management on October 1, 2019.

We felt a great sense of alignment with FirstService Residential and their standards of service, said Shay Schmitt. The value they place on board training and the involvement of their entire leadership team ultimately led us to our decision to partner with them.

Surprise Farms V, a neighboring 420-home community, offers the same open spaces and landscaping that is a staple of Surprise Farms. FirstService Residential assumed management on February 1, 2020.

As a board, we felt the need to work with a management company that offers a greater depth of resources and experience, said Jason Holt. We are confident that FirstService Residentials proven track record will help our community evolve and stay relevant within the areas competitive housing market.

We are proud to add both Surprise Farms II and Surprise Farms V to our roster of communities in Surprise, said Jennifer Clifford, vice president of FirstService Residential. These prominent West Valley communities will benefit from our partnership and the numerous advantages an experienced management company like FirstService Residential has to offer.

About FirstService Residential

FirstService Residential is North Americas property management leader, partnering with 8,000 communities across the U.S. and Canada, including low-, mid- and high-rise condominiums and cooperatives; single-family communities; master-planned, lifestyle and active adult communities; and mixed-use and rental properties. HOAs, community associations, condos and strata corporations rely on their extensive experience, resources and local expertise to maximize property values and enhance their residents lifestyles. Dedicated to making a difference, every day, FirstService Residential goes above and beyond to deliver exceptional service. FirstService Residential is a subsidiary of FirstService Corporation (FSV), a North American leader in the property services sector. For more information, visit http://www.fsresidential.com/arizona.
Michael O'Brien-Onyeka says the future is "a big worry for us."

O'Brien-Onyeka leads Conservation International's field division in Kenya, and he's concerned about the effects of COVID-19 on both residents and wildlife.

"You have people who have lost their livelihood and don't know when they will get out of that," he said, "[and] you have in some places massively reduced numbers of [conservation] enforcement because of COVID."

He describes his rangers, who -- despite fears of the virus -- continue to work dressed in masks and gloves to protect Kenya's National Parks.

Even so, O'Brien-Onyeka acknowledges that not everyone has these resources.

MORE: World's 2nd-largest continent Africa sees steep rise in coronavirus cases

"Since COVID-19 restrictions went into effect around the world over the past two months, two disturbing trends have emerged," Conservation International officials said in a recent statement. "First, we have seen alarming increases in bushmeat and ivory poaching in Kenya and Cambodia. Although some of this stems from food needs in rural areas, it appears that the commercial trade of illegal wildlife products has also expanded."

The organization cites daily reports from its field offices around the world that point to a "surge in agricultural expansion and illegal mining" which has "accelerated tropical deforestation in Brazil, Colombia and Cambodia."

PHOTO: A baby 'zonkey', half zebra half donkey, walks behind his mum at Chyulu Hills National Park, Kenya mid-March, 2020. (Sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/via Reuters)

"Evidence suggests that the majority of these activities were enabled by weakened enforcement efforts that people exploited, some driven by desperation, others by profit," officials said.

O'Brien-Onyeka said he sees this desperation himself. Many locals have lost their livelihoods and have started hunting for bushmeat and collecting charcoal for cooking, he said -- even though both are illegal.

"They may not be able to afford gas or other cooking materials," he said, "so nature becomes the place they can source those materials."

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He also said he fears the effects of poachers driven by the promise of big profits, noting that as government funding is being shifted into finding a vaccine or buying ventilators and masks, protective measures for the environment have taken a back seat.

MORE: The Latest: UN's Guterres: Africa could see virus spread

"Poachers are very good at utilizing loopholes," he said. "Add to that the fact that most of the people in outlying communities have lost their livelihood or source of income and would be looking up to anyone with real cash to profit -- so we are seriously concerned and we are not too surprised to see some increase in incidents of poaching."

Unlike National Parks that are protected by government rangers, O'Brien-Onyeka said that "a big percentage of the parks and protected areas in Northern Kenya are in community hands ... and they rely on tourism to generate revenue to hire rangers and pay different kinds of people to keep that ecosystem intact."

One community in Northern Kenya "made close to $300,000 in 2019 but this year they're flagging that they may make zero revenue," O'Brien-Onyeka said. "They have no money, tourism is shot down because of COVID, they can't pay their rangers -- it becomes a free-for-all."

MORE: Virus choking off supply of what Africa needs most: Food

O'Brien-Onyeka emphasizes that he doesn't want to be alarmist. "But it might get really worse," he said -- and now is the time to act. With governments contemplating bailouts and economic relief packages, he urges lawmakers to not "forget these communities that have secured ecosystems and wildlife for decades, for generations."

He says these communities rely on ecotourism to protect their delicate environments, but no one knows when tourists will come back.

"We need to find a way to support these communities so that they keep protecting these critical ecosystems that are very important here," he said.

But he also cautions against a quick fix.

"Places where there has been a ban on logging will say, 'We need more money, so we are going to allow logging for eight months just to make money to recover from this crisis,'" he said. "We suspect that many communities and countries will suspend those cautionary decisions in order to make quick gains."

The problem, he said it that "those quick gains may end up costing us a lot more ... when you mess up with nature, it's not like the banks collapsing; there are no bailouts, there are simply consequences."

"We are suffering the the consequences of messing around with nature, with COVID-19," he said. "We've gone through that with Ebola, and if we're not careful with the solutions we put on the table in order to get out of this crisis, past the pandemic, we might create more future problems for ourselves."

What to know about the 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

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.

Experts in Kenya fear poaching, deforestation are surging during COVID-19 lockdown originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Sunbathers enjoy Sunset Beach in Treasure Island, Florida, on May 2, 2020. Beaches in the city just south of Tampa are to be officially open on May 4, following a shutdown because of the coronavirus pandemic.

DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images

Deanna A. Oleske, the associate medical examiner in St. Johns County, Florida, sent numerous emails to local officials, urging them to close the county's beaches, according to The Washington Post.

"Close the beaches. Please," she wrote to the county administration in one email obtained by the newspaper.

Oleske said the county could only hold just 119 bodies at once and was ill-equipped to handle an outbreak of COVID-19.

Beaches in the county closed for about two weeks but have since re-opened to the public, and they will see almost no restrictions beginning Monday.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A medical examiner in St Johns County, Florida sent multiple emails to county officials, pleading with them to close beaches to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. While local leaders eventually closed beaches in the county, they've since re-opened and will have fewer restrictions on Monday.

According to emails seen by The Washington Post, Deanna A. Oleske, the associate medical examiner in St Johns County asked health officials to "protect the residents" of the county by closing beaches.

Related: How Long Will Social Distancing Last? Its Complicated.

"Close the beaches. Please," she wrote March 23 in an email to Hunter Conrad, the county administrator, according to the report. St. John's County Administration did not immediately return a Business Insider request for comment about Oleske's emails.

Oleske on multiple occasions warned the medical examiner's office was "in a dire situation," adding she lacked staffing, equipment, or even the capacity to accommodate the bodies people who died from COVID-19. She said local funeral homes, hospitals, and her office could contain a maximum of 119 deceased people at once, asking for additional storage space in the case of a local outbreak.

The emails were first obtained by Columbia University's Brown Institute for Media Innovation, according to the report.

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"We are facing NUMEROUS issues that are inhibiting us to appropriately staff this office in an expeditious manner BEFORE facing a pandemic of unknown proportions," Oleske said in another email, according to the Washington Post.

As The Washington Post noted, despite her pleas, St. Johns County kept beaches open through the month of March. It closed them only after a photo captured from above had shown a direct division between the beach in a neighboring county that had already closed beaches and crowded a crowded beach in St. Johns County.

While only four people have died in the county according to The Post report, a shortage of space for corpses has been seen in places in the US that have been hardest hit by the virus.

On April 17, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told local leaders they were allowed to open up beaches so that residents could use them as space for exercise. The county re-opened beaches in a limited capacity with DeSantis' announcement, allowing physical activity before noon, according to News4Jax.

But St. Johns County officials announced April 30 that beginning May 4  Monday  beaches in the state will open without most of the previously imposed restrictions. Driving will be prohibited on the beach and social distancing will be required, according to a press release from the county.

Florida, which has the second-oldest population by percentage in the nation, is currently the process of reopening, even as the state reported 615 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday, the day before re-opening efforts are slated to begin, according to Click Orlando.

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The display seemed to resonate with scores of students, parents and families coming to terms with virtual ceremonies and changes to festivities for college graduates this spring. While many schools have vowed to hold graduations next year, or as soon as health officials allow, the cancellations delivered another blow to students who held out hope they would be able to return before entering the next phase of life.
A surfer evaded arrest as he protested lockdown regulations in the coastal suburb of Muizenberg, Cape Town, on May 5, escaping the clutches of local police using a bicycle.

Footage of the event shows the man in question speaking to journalists and photographers, arguing his case for why surfing should be allowed in the area, despite the current COVID-19 pandemic, when a police officer attempted to arrest him.

The man cycles away from the officer, before exiting the area. The police do, however, confiscate the sign he was using during the protest. The sign read: Surfing is safe exercise! Exercise saves lives! Allow surfing! Police arrests threatens [sic] lives. Stop unnecessary arrests.

There has been a growing sense of dissatisfaction among enthusiastic surfers in South Africa since the announcement of restrictions relating to the ongoing crisis.

According to a Times Live report regarding the May 5 protest in Muizenberg, the previous week had seen a surfer rebellion in nearby Kommetjie [which] ended with several surfers collared by law-enforcement officials waiting on the shore. Credit: Alex via Storyful
Capturing the festive May Day ritual, 19th-century painter Lawrence Alma-Tademas Spring depicts a procession of beautiful girls and women carrying colorful flowers and wearing floral wreaths, descending the stairs of a classical marble structure. The classical-subject painter re-envisioned the Victorian custom of children gathering flowers from the countryside on the morning of May 1 and placed the opulent scene in ancient Rome. In this way, he suggests the festivals great antiquity, through architectural details, dress, sculpture, and even the musical instruments based on Roman originals.

Spring, 1894, by Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Oil on canvas; 70 1/4 inches by 31 5/8 inches. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. (Public Domain)

In the foreground of this large canvas stands a girl in a pale hydrangea-blue dress, playing a flute. On very close examination, we see that the silver flutes mouthpiece is shaped like a tiny creature. Such a tiny detail is almost incomprehensible! How and why does Alma-Tadema put such meticulous effort into this minute detail?

We may find redemptive answers if we apply the precious gift of focused attention on details. These can prove healing, calming, and enlightening. Quieting the outer noise can help us bear witness to and, if we are artists, then record the magnificent phenomenon called life.

Detail of the flutist in Spring, 1894, by Lawrence Alma-Tadema. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. (Public Domain)

Details Make Art Come Alive

When we invest ourselves, especially in masterworks, we get so much in return. The viewer feels cared for, gifted by treasures that slowly reveal themselves to those who pay attention.

Jacqueline Woodson, an award-winning writer, has been quoted as saying: The more specific we are, the more universal something can become. Life is in the details. If you generalize, it doesnt resonate. The specificity of it is what resonates.

The more authentically rendered the seemingly small details are, for example, in the painting Springa little girls foot poised just off the ground or the gestures and gazes of the facesthe truer painting is, and the more we can identify with it and believe it.

Details are especially important when what is depicted is unfamiliar to us, as in the case of creating fantasy or worlds of the past.

Why do we feel that Spring and the ancient May festival is so alive to us? Because Alma-Tadema himself had invested in learning as muchas many detailsabout the ancient Greeks and Romans as possible.

Alma-Tademas appetite and curiosity about the ancient world were insatiable. The knowledge he acquired was incorporated into over 300 paintings of ancient archaeological and architectural designs. His commitment to accurately depicting history offers us incredible information, conveyed, in the case of Spring, through the details of clothing, instruments, and architectural structures. Taken together, these give us a feeling of what it might have been like to be in the ancient world.

As Alma-Tadema said, according to The Dublin University Magazine of 1879: If you want to know what those Greeks and Romans looked like,  come to me. For I can show not only what I think but what I know.

Acknowledging the Creator

In an online video, New Masters Academy instructor Glenn Vilppu says, You dont really see something until you draw it; you think you see something, but youre not really seeing it.

Vilppu is talking about seeing things deeply and how that allows a kind of devotion to the craft and to the subject before one; it enables a commitment to telling the truth about a subject and, in doing so, revealing a deeper truth about ita beauty or an essence.

Similarly, we can train our eyes to notice beauty anywhere and everywhere by lovingly observing natures details. This, in turn, fosters and nurtures a deep appreciation of life and our natural world.

By study, with undivided attention, it is as if our consciousness can be transported into the smallest of spaces. Perhaps it is even a form of prayer, or an act of sanctifying creation and the Creator by offering our devotion.

According to orthodox traditions, the point of the arts is to praise the Creator and creation. To extrapolate on this idea, then, to depict with great attention the smallest of details is a sacred act. Michelangelo said, The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection. Acknowledging and admiring the details of the natural world honors the Creator, and thus the creator in us. In this way, we are reminded of the splendor and wonder that is creation.

Reaching for Eternal Patience

Getting the details right takes time and effort, and that requires great patience. We build our facility for patience, fortitude, resolve, and steadfastness in describing and viewing these seemingly small details.

Taking the time and making the effort to get the correct angles of perspective, the proper proportions of the anatomically accurate bone structure of the hand, to see and duplicate all the varied shades of green and pinks in the bouquet of roses on the table, to understand the slight and drastic shifts of lights and darks of the folds of cloththese are the myriad details that will improve our skills, improve our capacity for patience, develop respect for truthfulness, and cultivate a love of beauty that makes us strive even harder to portray it. And thus, in turn, we will engender these feeling in others.

We can be tempted in our throwaway, immediate-gratification world to feel as though this kind of effort is not worth the trouble. When our efforts put into these details are not acknowledged, is this an efficient use of time?

Yes. In the book At the Ballet: On Stage, Backstage by Sandra Lee, Thomas Hunt, and Tom Hunt, a San Francisco Ballet costume designer is asked, Why do you spend so much time on the tiny details of the costumes if the audience will never see them? And she answered, The dancers will see it and will dance better because of it.

Thus, the time and effort we put into work will, in some way, express itself positively.

Genius is eternal patience, Michelangelo said.

Details Inspire

Alma-Tademas paintings enjoyed popularity when his large, panoramic depictions of Greek and Roman life caught the attention of Hollywood. Certain scenes in Cecil B. DeMilles film Cleopatra (1934) were inspired by the painting Spring.

When we take the time to do things well, whatever task we are charged with, then the attention to preparing a meal, grading tests, caring for people, or creating art will, in turn, inspire others to want to do the sametheir best.

And in paying attention to what might seem like insignificant details, we demonstrate great care for ourselves, each other, and the world.

Masha Savitz is a freelance writer and filmmaker in the Los Angeles area.
Think of locusts as giant, hormonally charged, very hungry grasshoppers. They can move more than 100 miles in a day, depending on the wind.

Governments and U.N. agencies have repeatedly warned that locusts will cause calamitous food shortages if they end up on cropland. "It is a race against time to ensure these new swarms do not breed," said Hamisi Williams, a senior Food and Agriculture Organization official in Kenya. "When this happens, we will be talking about the locusts at plague level."
PLATTSMOUTH  Danielle Jacobson greets everyone she meets with a bright smile that lights up a room.

She will look to generate those same type of electric results for newspaper customers throughout Cass County.

Jacobson is the newest member of The Journal staff. She is the newspapers print and digital marketing account executive and will be working with businesses throughout the area. She said her top goal is to help local companies remain prosperous in all of their commercial activities.

Ive always been a small-town person, Jacobson said. I love the community feel that you get from being in small towns, and I think its really important to support the people and businesses that are here. I want to help them thrive and have strong businesses, because everyone in town benefits when that happens.

Jacobson grew up in the small towns of Holdrege and Savannah, Mo., before her family went to Grand Junction, Colo. She graduated from Central High School in Grand Junction and then moved into the world of advertising and marketing. She worked for the Clay County News in Sutton and the St. Joseph News-Press in Missouri before moving to southeast Nebraska.

Jacobson said she gained a great deal from her stops at both cities. She learned how to produce effective marketing plans for customers on a variety of multimedia platforms. She also had a chance to help a wide array of businesses in sectors ranging from agriculture to aviation.

When I was at St. Joseph I had a territory that went from Savannah, Mo., to Clarinda, Iowa, so there were a lot of opportunities to meet people, Jacobson said. Thats what I love about this profession. Im a people person and love to talk to others, and when I get a chance to talk to someone it helps me understand their needs better. Its fun to figure out how to help them succeed in their business.

Jacobson has also enhanced her education from an academic standpoint. She earned an associates degree from Central Community College in May 2017 and will soon be working on a bachelors degree. She will be taking classes at Bellevue University with the goal of obtaining a diploma in behavioral sciences.

Jacobson has been working on multiple projects at The Journal over the past several weeks. She has started conversations with many Cass County residents about their marketing needs. Area residents can contact her by phone at 402-296-2141 ext. 112 or by e-mail at danielle.jacobson@lee.net.

Jacobson said she has been impressed with the close-knit atmosphere she has encountered in Cass County. She said that would help her reach her goal of generating positive marketing results for local businesses.

I love the history of Plattsmouth and Cass County, Jacobson said. I also love the fact that people care about their communities and are really passionate about them. The first day I was here I talked to a man who wanted to make sure I knew just how much the local businesses meant to the community and how much people cared for each other.

That was eye-opening for me in a really good way. It showed that there are good communities here with good people. Im really excited about that.

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'MFs acted as reckless lenders and not as prudent investors.'

'Clearly, how debt funds are being run is a systemic issue,' warns Debashis Basu.

Franklin Templeton India Mutual Fund suddenly announced it was winding up six debt schemes that held more than Rs 27,000 crore.

These are Low Duration Fund, Dynamic Accrual Fund, Credit Risk Fund, Short Term Income Plan, Ultra Short Bond Fund, and Income Opportunities Fund.

Franklin will neither accept fresh subscriptions, nor allow exit.

It will liquidate the portfolio as and when the debt papers mature, or earlier if it can sell.

Whatever it collects, it will return to investors. How much will that be? No one knows. Investors are trapped.

Those who had put in money in other mutual fund schemes are deeply worried.

What went wrong?

Is there a systemic flaw?

Is there a role for the regulator here?

Can this happen again?

What should you do to avoid such accidents?

What went wrong?

When coronavirus struck, Franklin faced redemptions.

If redemptions match inflows, there is no issue.

Even if they fall short, it is not an issue up to a point -- funds are allowed to temporarily borrow to meet redemptions.

Franklin too has been borrowing, but redemptions were greater.

So, it had to shutter the funds. Why couldn't it sell its investments to raise money? Because its investments were illiquid.

Franklin's fixed-income desk has been trying to take extra risks (structured, complex deals and poor-quality paper) even in schemes that were supposed to be safe (like liquid schemes) to goose up its returns so that it could attract more money to manage.

Is there a systemic flaw?

Yes, if you ask me, and, no, if you ask the mutual fund ecosystem, comprising fund companies, fund managers, distributors, advisors, and the regulator.

The popular narrative of this group -- broadcast by the media -- is that the problem is mainly external (the havoc wrought by COVID-19) and partly internal (extra risk taken by Franklin).

I am sure the fund does not accept the second. These arguments are specious.

I argue that the problem is both with the fund industry and the product categories.

The fixed-income division, not just of Franklin but various mutual funds, has been trying to swing for the fences.

MFs have been involved in all the major scandals over the past 18 months -- Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services, Zee/Essel, Dewan Housing Finance Ltd, and YES Bank.

Some time ago, Franklin wrote off 100 per cent of its investment in a Vodafone paper.

It had the highest exposure to the telco, at Rs 2,074 crore out of a total Rs 4,500 crore, which Vodafone owed the fund industry as a whole.

I had first exposed in Moneylife how Wadhawan Global Capital, the personal holding company of DHFL promoters, raised Rs 2,125 crore through zero-coupon bonds from Aditya Birla MF and Franklin.

Franklin had also lent to Rana Kapoor's holding company YES Capital, which held 3.27 per cent of Kapoor's YES Bank stake, again through zero-coupon bonds.

IDBI Mutual Fund put this highly risky product in its liquid fund, while Franklin India Debt Fund has put 8.27 per cent of its assets in these bonds.

In all these cases, MFs acted as reckless lenders and not as prudent investors.

Clearly, how debt funds are being run is a systemic issue.

Is there a role for the regulator here?

Yes. It can do two things.

One, it needs to fix the accountability of credit-rating companies and fund companies by enforcing clauses that claw back the fees of all cases that blow up.

Funds abdicate their responsibility to raters who have no accountability to them!

This is perverse. Raters must be made accountable for ratings that blow up without warning.

Secondly, if Franklin is asked to put back into the fund the fees it has extracted from these six schemes, it (and all other fund houses) will certainly straighten up and take a close look at the rackets that its debt guys (supposed to be risk-averse people) are up to.

It will regulate itself well. Two, the regulator needs to redo debt fund classification.

While equity has 10 categories, debt has 16.

We don't need so many.

Several, such as credit-risk funds and long-term debt funds, should not be sold to retail investors at all, but only to institutions.

Can this happen again?

Yes, of course, it can, because the regulator has never touched the heart of the problem: The fund industry's income is a percentage of funds it collects.

This incentive makes asset-gathering its main objective, not its fiduciary role as a trustee of other people's money.

If their fees were somehow linked to returns and/or certain outcomes, there would be a change in their behaviour.

But the Securities and Exchange Board of India is not even thinking of this.

What should investors do to avoid such accidents?

Take a look at the funds named in the first para.

I can bet even finance professionals can't tell where such funds invest and their related risks.

Debt investment is the specialised domain of a small group of finance professionals.

Many investors I know don't even understand that debt schemes are mislabelled as fixed-income schemes, which give investors the impression that they are similar to fixed deposits.

In reality, many debt schemes have huge hidden risks.

The principle here is simple: Capital protection is paramount.

Take your chances in equity, never in debt.

So, say no to fixed-maturity plans, credit risk, and dynamic debt.

You need only liquid schemes as a substitute for a savings account to park your money and, maybe short-term schemes.

Of course, there is one more important step.

You need to figure out which liquid and short-term debt scheme is okay.

This is impossible for the average investor.

Option two is to find an advisor you can trust.

As you can see, even my bare-bones solution is not simple.

That's how hard Sebi and the fund ecosystem have made it for you.

Debashis Basu is the editor of www.moneylife.in








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I'm not aware of anyone catching COVID-19 from a $10 bill.







Reportedly, it is the same group of billionaires who funded the genetic engineering of a benign "coronavirus" that has been a part of human evolution into 'COVID-19', who are now pursuing the "Cashless Society" agenda as part of a New World Order (NWO) scheme that would also include the mandatory microchipping of everyone through a vaccination programme.







The World Health Organization's (WHO) support of a Cashless Society is on the apparent behest of Bill Gates who funds the WHO in order to support his agenda





Therefore, any retailer that refuses to accept cash ought to be regarded as tacitly supporting Bill Gates' biometric tattoo based mandatory vaccination programme.





However, if you're okay with being microchipped so that Artificial Intelligence (AI) inclusive of the owners of Google can read your thoughts and control what you do where, when and how then by all means you should continue to support cashless retailers.




Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here.
Renee Amoore, 67, who crashed through racial and gender barriers to become deputy chairperson of the Pennsylvania Republican Party 24 years ago, died Monday evening, May 4. The cause of her death was not announced.

Lawrence Tabas, the partys chair, confirmed Ms. Amoores death Tuesday in a letter to Republican State Committee members.

Southeastern Pennsylvania has lost a great leader and the Republican Party a stalwart supporter, Tabas wrote. I will miss her friendship, guidance, and most of all her upbeat attitude.

Rob Gleason, who served as party chair for a decade, recalled that Ms. Amoore was efficient in calling meetings to order, getting a crowd to settle down to listen to some opening comments sprinkled with humor.

It is unusual for someone to be loved by everyone in a political organization, Gleason said. But she earned it.

Ms. Amoore, an African American woman who operated several health-care and communications companies from King of Prussia, took an evangelical approach to recruiting black voters to the Republican Party.

We are very conservative people, Ms. Amoore told a mostly white crowd of Republicans about black voters in 2009. We believe in everything the Republican Party represents. Let me tell you: Lincoln, we eat that up. We are a good party. We are not racist. Im sick of people saying that.

Ms. Amoore served as a campaign surrogate for several Republican presidential candidates, including George W. Bush and Mitt Romney. She hosted then-candidate Donald Trump at a North Philadelphia meeting of African American business owners in 2016 and pushed back against the invective she faced from protesters outside.

Were going to do the best we can to have a Republican win in Pennsylvania, which hasnt happened in a long time, she said after that meeting.

Trump went on to win the state, the first Republican to do so since 1988. He appointed Ms. Amoore to his presidential transition team for health and human services.

Former Gov. Tom Ridge said he was privileged when Ms. Amoore accepted his appointment to the Governors Advisory Committee on African American Affairs.

Renee was one of those unique personalities who could light up a room and brighten your day, Ridge said. She worked hard to make Pennsylvania and the communities she served a better place.

Speaking at the Republican National Convention in 2008, Ms. Amoore described herself as a nurse, entrepreneur, and small business owner.

If you know, like I do, that small businesses are the greatest source of jobs in the inner cities and are demanding policies that allow small businesses to thrive there, if you want a country where high taxes, excessive regulation, and bureaucratic paperwork never rob small businesses of the ability to create more jobs, then [then-Republican presidential nominee U.S. Sen.] John [McCain] is your man, she said, drawing applause.

Bob Asher, a member of the Republican National Committee who runs a candy manufacturing business in Montgomery County, traveled to several conventions with Ms. Amoore.

She was out in front for the Republican Party, which was not easy for a minority at that time and is not easy now, Asher said. She was a good person, a friend.
In this week's interview Rachel Dean talks to Riverdance lead dancer Amy-Mae Dolan (22) from Aghyaran in Castlederg, Co Tyrone. She lives with her mum Siobhan, dad Francie and siblings Rylee (17), Alex (15) and Scarlett (6).

Q. Tell us about your childhood

A. My mum and dad are both from Aghyaran in Castlederg, Co Tyrone, and that's where I grew up with my sister Rylee (17) and my brother Alex (15). My youngest little sister Scarlett (6) was born when I was 16 - and she loves Irish dancing as well. My parents have a painting business, Dolan Decorating. My mum Siobhan does all the book-keeping and accounting side of it and my dad Francie is on site every day.

We're from the most rural area you could ever find - we really are in the middle of nowhere. But it's beautiful and the people here are so lovely. It's a close-knit community which is really nice to come from.

Growing up, I was always involved in dancing and I actually really loved school as well. I went to Holy Cross College in Strabane and I loved it there. I started Irish dancing when I was about two years old, so it really is all I've ever known. It really has been my whole life.

My mum was an Irish dancer, so that's one of the reasons why I ended up getting into it myself. My cousin danced too and her mum babysat me - I used to watch her dance in class and I wanted to do it as well. Then, I had the videos of Riverdance and Lord of the Dance at home and I just obsessed over those, so I think I would have always fallen into dance somehow.

Scarlett started going to Irish dancing classes when she was four, but before that she just followed me around the house, dancing all the time and watching videos of me dancing. Now because we're in quarantine, she and I dance together for about two hours a day, which is lovely.

Expand Close Amy-Mae after winning the World Irish Dancing championships in the under-13 category / Facebook

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Whatsapp Amy-Mae after winning the World Irish Dancing championships in the under-13 category

Q. What are you most proud of?

A. I'm most proud of joining Riverdance and then becoming the lead dancer of the show. I joined the Riverdance Summer School just after I finished my A-levels in 2016, which is a week-long camp environment. There, you basically learn the choreography of Riverdance from the people who are in the show.

It's like a week-long audition process. Then, in August, the day after I got my A-level results, they phoned my mum and asked would I be interested in joining the show. So, I went on my first tour to China in November of that year.

You're usually in the show for a while before you build yourself up to a lead role, but it just happened that year that a new position came available for new female lead dancers to be trained in.

They asked me then to train in as a lead in April 2017, after my first tour, which was absolutely the biggest moment of my life.

I watched Riverdance my whole life growing up and I used to fast-forward to the female lead parts and watch her over and over again - it was Jean Butler and then it was different dancers. That role was so inspiring to me, so now to get to do it myself is just really fun and I'm so proud.

Whenever I stop to think about the fact that I could be that role model for little girls like me, I just can't believe it, it's crazy.

I was in the BBC documentary True North: Born to Riverdance, which aired on Monday. I remember when things like documentaries and films would come out when I was younger, as an Irish dancer you were so excited for that because there wasn't much Irish dancing stuff on TV or the internet.

So I was just thinking, "They're going to be so excited to watch the documentary" and then I thought, "Oh my God, it's me they're watching". I have to pinch myself a lot - even when people come to see the show and I get messages afterwards saying "I'd love to dance like you when I'm older!" I can't believe it's me sometimes.

It's really inspiring in other ways for me too though, because then I'm pushing myself to be better, to be worthy of that.

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Q. The one regret you wish you could amend?

A. I actually don't think I have any right now. I'm still young, but any mistakes I've made I've learned from them.

Q. What about phobias? Do you have any?

A. I have a phobia of clusters of holes - it's called trypophobia. I could throw-up when someone shows me something like that. I hate it! I remember everyone was sharing this particular image a while back and I was thinking, "I have to stay off Facebook".

Q. The temptation you cannot resist?

A. Either dancing whenever there's music on, or talking about dancing. I have to stop myself. I say to myself: "You've talked too much about dancing today".

Q. Your number one prized possession?

A. That would have to be my little sister Scarlett. I was 16 when she came along and my parents were really busy with things that were going on with their own parents, so I took on a lot of responsibilities with her.

We're just very close and I can't imagine my life without her.

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Q. The book that's most impacted your life?

A. I have two for this. One is Mindset by Carol Dweck and the other is Commit! by Enda McNulty. Whenever I read them, about a year-and-a-half ago, I knew what my goals were for dancing, but I was kind of just doing it.

Then, I read them one after the other and they completely changed how I looked at every single day, by having a schedule, setting smart goals, trying to achieve them and maintaining a positive mindset. I really enjoyed those books, and I've read them both again since.

Q. If you had the power or the authority, what would you do?

A. Right now, I would put more money into our health service. Just with everything that is going on at the moment, I think we should reward the doctors and nurses a lot more.

I would make sure that the NHS had enough money to keep functioning.

Q. What makes your blood boil every time without fail?

A. People using their phone when they're driving. It's so irresponsible - just put your phone down.

Q. Who has most influenced you in life?

A. My mum, for sure. The main thing she instilled in me was that if there was something I wanted to do, I should just work really hard to try and get there. She's always said to me, "There's no such word as can't. You can try anything".

As well as being so motivational that way, she was also my best friend throughout it all. She made sure I was okay and happy with my dancing. I wouldn't have got anywhere in dancing without her - she's probably done more than I have to get me where I am today. She's my biggest cheerleader and we're very much a team through all of it.

Q. Your top three dinner party guests, dead or alive, and why?

A. Carol Dweck, the psychologist and author who wrote Mindset. I would love to know even more about the stuff she talks about in her book.

And Michelle Obama because I find her so interesting.

From anything I've ever watched or read about her, I've noticed that she goes about everything with kindness, consideration and respect.

Then, I thought Gordon Ramsay could do the cooking. People always expect me to say Jean Butler, but I actually already got to have a sit down with her, which was great and so lovely. I have so many other interests outside of dancing that I'd love to explore.

Q. The best piece of advice you've ever received?

A. Definitely my mum's advice to me and my siblings - there's no such word as can't.

Q. The unlikely interest or hobby that you love?

A. I love sightseeing, which I do quite often while on tour with Riverdance. Or even exploring Ireland, getting to experience new places that are on my doorstep.

One of my favourite places I went to with Riverdance was Singapore. It was very clean and the weather was amazing. I would love to go to Bali someday, but I don't think I'll get there with the show. I would love to tour with the show in Australia.

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Q. The poem that touches your heart?

A. A Poem About Alzheimer's (or Do Not Ask Me To Remember). This poem has held a special place in my heart since I was about 17 because of my nanna, Bridget Coyle. It helped me understand what she was going through.

Whenever someone has Alzheimer's, it's really confusing for the whole family involved, and that little poem just explains what's going on in their mind. Sadly, my nanna passed away about four years ago. She was my mum's mum, and I was so close to her. She was so supportive of my dancing.

Q. The happiest moment of your life?

A. Whenever my little sister Scarlett was born that was pure happiness and a relief that she was born safe too because mum was a little bit older.

Then, last year, I danced in Croke Park in front of 80,000 people for the Pope. It was one of those moments that you don't actually believe is happening. It was a dream come true without it ever being something you had ever dreamed of. I couldn't take it in.

Q. And the saddest moment of your life?

A. My two grannies passed away within a couple of months of each other. That was definitely the saddest time in my life.

Q. What event changed your life?

A. Doing the Riverdance Summer School. It really determined the course of my life. I would love to be with Riverdance for as long as I can - everyone's career is a bit different in length, but I want to dance for as long as possible. Then, I have different goals outside of that.

I was meant to study medicine at university and now I'm trying to decide if that's something I want to do.

I love the idea of TV presenting as well, so right now I'm trying to work out what I want to do after Riverdance.

Q. What's the ambition that keeps driving you onwards?

A. To always keep improving, whether it's in dancing or improving myself as a person. I recently created a YouTube channel, which was funny and really scary at the start, but I'm all for doing something every day that keeps me pushing forward.

Q. What's the philosophy you live by?

A. Do something every day that scares you. I try to go by that, and I like trying to put myself out of my comfort zone to see where that could take me.

Q. How do you want to be remembered?

A. As someone who always worked hard, was kind to everyone and was happy.

Watch Amy-Mae in True North: Born To Riverdance, which is available to stream on BBC iPlayer now
A policeman and a suspected cow-smuggler were injured in an encounter in the Baniather area here, police said on Tuesday.

Two persons on a motorcycle were stopped during routine checking. They opened fire and an encounter ensued after police personnel retaliated, they said.

Policeman Mochhendra Kumar and Bilal were injured in the encounter, police said.

Bilal's accomplice managed to escape, they said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Alexa Sequeira finished a long day working in an emergency room as a nurse at Winchester Hospital on Sunday night. While driving home, she spotted first responders attempting revive a man following a crash on Interstate-93 in Boston.

She stopped, helped and the man survived.

According to Massachusetts State Police, troopers responded to a crash in the southbound lane of I-93 Sunday night and found the driver unresponsive. After breaking the window to remove the man, troopers performed CPR and used a defibrillator in attempting to resuscitate the driver.

As the troopers waited for the emergency medical personnel to arrive, Sequeria stopped at the scene to assist, police said.

Their efforts were successful and the man was transported to Boston Medical Center police said.

The Massachusetts State Police posted an extra special thanks to Sequeria for her help on Sunday as well as the work shes doing on the frontlines of the coronavirus, referring to her as the Hero of the Day.

[She is} another in a long line of great nurses who are contributing to public health in so many different ways during this pandemic, the statement said.

Related Content:
Taiwan's intelligence head grilled over Kim Jong-un health remark

ROC Central News Agency

05/04/2020 10:33 PM

Taipei, May 4 (CNA) Taiwan's intelligence chief has defended his widely cited assessment last Thursday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was sick a day before the dictator made an appearance at a May Day celebration.

As rumors were widely circulating that Kim had died or in a vegetative state, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Chiu Kuo-cheng () publicly told legislators on April 30 that "Kim is sick" and noted that his assessment was based on information obtained by the NSB and not his personal opinion.

On Friday, however, North Korean media released unverified images of a smiling Kim making his first public appearance in 20 days as he celebrated the completion of a fertilizer factory near Pyongyang, ending the absence that had triggered rumors of his demise.

At a hearing held by a legislative committee Monday, Chiu was panned by Kuomintang Legislator Chen I-hsin () for making public comments on a foreign head of state.

Chen said NSB officials in the past usually responded to legislators' queries about sensitive issues in private after legislative hearings.

Chiu argued that he did not volunteer the assessment but was answering a legislator's question.

"With legislators continuing to ask, I had to give an answer ... I did nothing wrong. How could I be wrong?"

Asked by Chen about the authenticity of the video and photos showing Kim's appearance, Chiu immediately replied, "(If) you want me to brief you in your office, then I'll report to you in private after this session."

Chiu was also asked whether his intelligence about Kim turned out to be misinformation and whether the NSB had real intelligence related to North Korea, Chiu told legislators that it indeed had a good grasp of the situation in North Korea.

He said intelligence is not about answering a "yes or no" question but for use in making judgments.

Another lawmaker challenged him again on whether the intelligence about Kim he revealed was true, Chiu said he did not want to argue, but insisted that whether Kim's illness was serious or not, he was in fact ill.

Chiu also responded to the way Kim looked on the released video, saying it was "pretty strange."

(By Matt Yu and Evelyn Kao)

Enditem/ls

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WASHINGTON  Just months after emerging as one of President Donald Trumps fiercest defenders against impeachment, U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe said hes eager to speak truth to power, including Trump, and looks forward to frankly, being out of politics.

The Texas Republican  a former federal prosecutor  for the second time in a year is up for a post leading the U.S. intelligence community. He made his case to a Senate panel overseeing his nomination on Tuesday, saying he would serve as an entirely apolitical Director of National Intelligence, despite earning a reputation as one of Trumps biggest boosters in the House.

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Whether you're talking about the president or youre talking about Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell  anyones views on what they want the intelligence to be will never impact the intelligence I deliver. Never, Ratcliffe said. I will deliver the unvarnished truth. It wont be shaded for anyone.

Ratcliffe, elected to Congress in 2015, was on track to be Trumps intelligence chief for all of five days last summer before deciding to stay in his seat in Congress as he faced a difficult confirmation fight and questions over his record and qualifications.

He said his work as a federal prosecutor, where he oversaw anti-terrorism and national security issues, helped prepare him for the job, as does his time on the House Intelligence, Judiciary and Homeland Security committees.

But the Dallas-area Republican faced bipartisan resistance the first time around, with some contending he had a thin resume for the national intelligence job, which has been held in the past by former diplomats, senior intelligence officials and military leaders. And several of the credentials he has touted were exaggerated, according to media reports scrutinizing his career.

On Tuesday, Senate Democrats zeroed in on Ratcliffes closeness to the president and questioned his willingness to do a job that may at times put him at odds with Trump.

I still have some of the same doubts now as I had back in August, said U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the committee.

ABBOTT HEADED TO WASHINGTON: Texas governor set to meet with Trump on Thursday

Among other things, Democrats expressed concern about what they called particularly damaging attacks by Ratcliffe on the whistleblower whose complaint about Trumps phone call with the Ukrainian president led to the impeachment inquiry. Ratcliffe during the impeachment hearings said the whistleblower lied and accused U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democrat who led the inquiry, of coordinating with the whistleblower.

Ratcliffe said Tuesday that under his watch every whistleblower  past, present and future  will enjoy every protection under the law. And he insisted he would have no qualms about delivering the unvarnished truth to Trump, even if doing so should anger the president and put his own job in jeopardy. Ratcliffe argued he could strengthen the relationship between the intelligence community and the president, who has repeatedly attacked it.

Asked if he has ever publicly disagreed with the president, Ratcliffe pointed to his vote in support of a House resolution last year condemning Trumps decision to pull American troops out of Syria, which he said was referred to by some as a rebuke of the president. He also later said he did not agree with Trump that the intelligence community needs to be reined in.

My loyalty is to the Constitution and the rule of law and I have made that very clear to everyone, including the president, he said.

RACE TO REOPEN: Trump cheers on governors as they ignore White House coronovirus guidelines

Ratcliffe said he missed the apolitical job in the U.S. attorneys office, where I represented the United States and neither party, and kept both parties out of everything I did.

Its one of the reasons Im going from a safe district and asking you all to consider me as the nominee, he said.

Ratcliffe appeared to have the support of most Republicans on the committee. U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, the North Carolina Republican who chairs the committee  who last year had cautioned the presidents advisers that he considered Ratcliffe too political for the post  said he plans to schedule a committee vote as soon as next week. If his nomination clears the committee, a vote by the full Senate would follow.

Both Texas senators have voiced support for Ratcliffe. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz called Ratcliffe a friend and said hes looking forward to working with my colleagues to get him confirmed.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn introduced Ratcliffe at the confirmation hearing, reading from a letter of recommendation by former Attorney General John Ashcroft.

John Ratcliffe has the personal integrity and intelligence to be able to understand the difference between being a legislator and being the Director of National Intelligence. These are simply different roles to be played while discharging our government responsibilities, Cornyn said. We need to be able to count on a leader to operate free of personal or political motivation, serving only with the security and safety of the American people in mind, and I believe John Ratcliffe is the person to do that job.

ben.wermund@chron.com
On the left, the oxygen-producing biosphere (photosynthesis/respiration) is fed by nutrient runoff from land. On the right, if you increased water on Earth enough to cover all land, then nutrient runoff is stopped. This significantly reduces how much oxygen the biosphere can produce. Credit: D. Glaser/ASU

Whether there is life elsewhere in the universe is a question people have pondered for millennia; and within the last few decades, great strides have been made in our search for signs of life outside of our solar system.

NASA missions like the space telescope Kepler have helped us document thousands of exoplanetsplanets that orbit around other stars. And current NASA missions like Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) are expected to vastly increase the current number of known exoplanets. It is expected that dozens will be Earth-sized rocky planets orbiting in their stars' habitable zones, at distances where water could exist as a liquid on their surfaces. These are promising places to look for life.

This will be accomplished by missions like the soon-to-be-launched James Webb Space Telescope, which will complement and extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope by observing at infrared wavelengths. It is expected to launch in 2021, and will allow scientists to determine if rocky exoplanets have oxygen in their atmospheres. Oxygen in Earth's atmosphere is due to photosynthesis by microbes and plants. To the extent that exoplanets resemble Earth, oxygen in their atmospheres may also be a sign of life.

Not all exoplanets will be Earth-like, though. Some will be, but others will differ from Earth enough that oxygen doesn't necessarily come from life. So with all of these current and future exoplanets to study, how do scientists narrow down the field to those for which oxygen is most indicative of life?

To answer this question, an interdisciplinary team of researchers, led by Arizona State University (ASU), has provided a framework, called a "detectability index" which may help prioritize exoplanets that require additional study. The details of this index have recently been published in the Astrophysical Journal of the American Astronomical Society.

"The goal of the index is to provide scientists with a tool to select the very best targets for observation and to maximize the chances of detecting life," says lead author Donald Glaser of ASU's School of Molecular Sciences.

The oxygen detectability index for a planet like Earth is high, meaning that oxygen in Earth's atmosphere is definitely due to life and nothing else. Seeing oxygen means life. A surprising finding by the team is that the detectability index plummets for exoplanets not-too-different from Earth.

Although Earth's surface is largely covered in water, Earth's oceans are only a small percentage (0.025%) of Earth's mass. By comparison, moons in the outer solar system are typically close to 50% water ice.

"It's easy to imagine that in another solar system like ours, an Earth-like planet could be just 0.2% water," says co-author Steven Desch of ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration. "And that would be enough to change the detectability index. Oxygen would not be indicative of life on such planets, even if it were observed. That's because an Earth-like planet that was 0.2% waterabout eight times what Earth haswould have no exposed continents or land."

Without land, rain would not weather rock and release important nutrients like phosphorus. Photosynthetic life could not produce oxygen at rates comparable to other non-biological sources.

"The detectability index tells us it's not enough to observe oxygen in an exoplanet's atmosphere. We must also observe oceans and land," says Desch. "That changes how we approach the search for life on exoplanets. It helps us interpret observations we've made of exoplanets. It helps us pick the best target exoplanets to look for life on. And it helps us design the next generation of space telescopes so that we get all the information we need to make a positive identification of life."

Scientists from diverse fields were brought together to create this index. The formation of the team was facilitated by NASA's Nexus for Exoplanetary System Science (NExSS) program, which funds interdisciplinary research to develop strategies for looking for life on exoplanets. Their disciplines include theoretical and observational astrophysics, geophysics, geochemistry, astrobiology, oceanography, and ecology.

"This kind of research needs diverse teams, we can't do it as individual scientists" says co-author Hilairy Hartnett who holds joint appointments at ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration and School of Molecular Sciences.

In addition to lead author Glaser and co-authors Harnett and Desch, the team includes co-authors Cayman Unterborn, Ariel Anbar, Steffen Buessecker, Theresa Fisher, Steven Glaser, Susanne Neuer, Camerian Millsaps, Joseph O'Rourke, Sara Imari Walker, and Mikhail Zolotov who collectively represent ASU's School of Molecular Sciences, School of Earth and Space Exploration, and School of Life Sciences. Additional scientists on the team include researchers from the University of California Riverside, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Porto (Portugal).

It is the hope of this team that this detectability index framework will be employed in the search for life.

"The detection of life on a planet outside our solar system would change our entire understanding of our place in the universe," says Glaser. "NASA is deeply invested in searching for life, and it is our hope that this work will be used to maximize the chance of detecting life when we look for it."

Explore further Scientists develop new method to detect oxygen on exoplanets

More information: Donald M Glaser et al, Detectability of Life Using Oxygen on Pelagic Planets and Water Worlds, The Astrophysical Journal (2020). Journal information: Astrophysical Journal Donald M Glaser et al, Detectability of Life Using Oxygen on Pelagic Planets and Water Worlds,(2020). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab822d
Election Of New Kazakh Parliament Speaker Sparks Talk Of Power Struggle

By RFE/RL May 04, 2020

The former deputy chief of the Kazakh presidential administration, Maulen Ashimbaev, has replaced as parliament speaker Dariga Nazarbaeva, the daughter of former President Nursultan Nazarbaev, in a sign of a possible power struggle at the top of the country's leadership.

Presidential spokesman Berik Uali wrote on Facebook on May 4 that members of parliament's upper chamber, the Senate, had approved President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev's proposal to elect Ashimbaev to the post of the Senate chairman, a position that is next in line to take power in the country if the president resigns or is incapable of performing their duties.

The vote was held just hours after Toqaev appointed Ashimbaev as a Senate member, two days after he unexpectedly dismissed Nazarbaeva from the post of Senate speaker.

The decision to remove the 56-year-old Nazarbaeva from the post and her seat in parliament by Toqaev, her father's handpicked successor, may be an indication of a political upheaval among power brokers in the Central Asian country.

Nazarbaeva had served as Senate chairwoman since March 20, 2019, a day after her father stepped down as president after ruling the former Soviet republic for almost 30 years.

At the time, her appointment raised concerns that her father had picked Toqaev as purely an interim leader and that Nazarbaeva would ascend to power.

Nazarbaev, 79, is widely seen as the country's top decision-maker despite leaving the presidency. He continues to lead the ruling Nur-Otan Party and holds the lifetime post as chairman of the powerful Security Council.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/election-of-new-kazakh -parliamentary-speaker-sparks-talk-of- power-struggle/30591896.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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Servo owners have insisted they are not price-gouging despite making record profits on fuel.

Petrol prices in Australia have slumped since the COVID-19 pandemic began with the average cost of unleaded fuel dropping to 98.2 cents last week.

But retailers have been paying wholesale prices of little more than 80 cents a litre - the lowest in 20 years - and charging motorists an extra 24.6 cents.

Despite record-high profit margins, service station owners say they have been hit hard by lockdown measures rolled out to contain the deadly virus and are struggling to make ends meet.

Stan Karalis is the owner of three service stations in South Australia and said petrol sales plunged by 70 per cent after residents were forced to stay in their homes to help curb the spread of the virus.

Fuel prices in Australia have slumped since the COVID-19 pandemic began with the average cost of unleaded fuel dropping to 98.2 cents last week (stock picture of low petrol prices in Australia)

Mr Karalis told the ABC he has been taking out high-interest bank loans to pay $100,000 per fortnight in wages until the federal government's JobKeeper scheme comes through.

Petrol price around Australia PERTH: 0.86 cents a litre MELBOURNE: 0.89 cents a litre SYDNEY: 0.95 cents a litre BRISBANE: 1.0 cents a litre ADELAIDE: 1.01 cents a litre CANBERRA: 1.01 cents a litre DARWIN: 1.16 cents a litre HOBART: 1.22 cents a litre Source: FuelPrices Australia Advertisement

Chief executive officer of the Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association Mark McKenzie told the publication that thousands of service station owners are in Mr Karalis' position.

'In recent weeks, we've actually seen service stations in areas like regional WA, regional NSW and regional SA that have reported falls of between 75 per cent and 80 per cent of their revenue, most of those are located in tourist areas.'

He explained the financial pressures have made it difficult for retailers to pass the low fuel prices on to dwindling numbers of consumers.

Mr McKenzie also pointed out that many retailers in regional and low fuel consumption areas won't benefit from the reduced prices until the older and more expensive petrol in their tanks is sold.

According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum, fuel costs in Australian cities slumped to an average of 94.9 cents per litre and 105.1 cents in regional areas.

But Geoff Trotter - the owner of petrol-price-monitoring company FuelTrac - told the ABC that prices above 99 cents per litre are unfair on the consumer.

'I consider anything above 99 cents a litre over the top in terms of profit margin and anything below 99 cents would be a fair price for the oil company, for the dealer and certainly for the motorist.'

The Australian market is dominated by 'price cycles' - where the cost of fuel will fall steadily for about two weeks, before a sharp increase.

Mark McKenzie is the Chief executive officer of the Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association

Discounts and surges hit capital cities around the nation at different times, ensuring oil companies achieve higher profit margins consistently throughout the year.

According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, these price changes are not necessarily related to changes in wholesale prices.

This phenomenon doesn't exist anywhere else in the world.

CommSec senior economist Ryan Felsman said fuel costs are still higher in some parts of Australia because price cycles and are still in place in spite of the pandemic.

'Queenslanders that were making the most of an easing in COVID-19 restrictions over the Labour Day long weekend would've noticed that petrol prices in some suburbs and towns hit $1.20 a litre,' Mr Felsman said.

He also said unleaded pump prices have also lifted to around $1.20 a litre in Sydney's inner-west, eastern suburbs and north shore, signifying the end of the area's discount cycle.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday denied any involvement by the US government in what Venezuelan officials have called a failed armed incursion in the South American country that led to the capture of two American "mercenaries."

Trump made the comment to reporters at the White House after socialist Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday said authorities there had detained two US citizens working with a US military veteran who has claimed responsibility for the foiled operation.

"We'll find out. We just heard about it," Trump said when asked about the incident and the Americans' arrests. "But it has nothing to do with our government."

In a state television address, Maduro said authorities arrested 13 "terrorists" on Monday involved in what he described as a plot coordinated with Washington to enter the country via the Caribbean coast and oust him.

Eight people were killed during the incursion attempt on Sunday, Venezuelan authorities said.

Maduro showed what he said were the US passports and other identification cards belonging to Airan Berry and Luke Denman, whom he said were in custody and had been working with Jordan Goudreau, an American military veteran who leads a Florida-based security company called Silvercorp USA.

The two detained Americans, former special operations forces members who had served with Goudreau, were believed to be in the custody of Venezuelan military intelligence, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The State Department did not provide any immediate comment on the arrests. US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, had strongly denied any US government role in the incursions.

Washington has waged a campaign of tough economic sanctions and diplomatic measures against Venezuela in an effort to oust Maduro, accusing him of having rigged elections in 2018.

But while Trump has repeatedly said all options are on the table, his administration has shown no apparent interest in military action as it pursues what it calls a "maximum pressure" strategy against Maduro.

Maduro's government, however, says the United States wants to control the OPEC member nation's massive oil reserves.

GUAIDO: MADURO SEEKS TO DISTRACT

Since early 2019, the United States and dozens of other countries have recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate interim president.

But Maduro remains in power, backed by the military as well as Russia, Cuba and China, which some US officials say privately is a source of frustration for Trump.

Guaido - often derided by Maduro as a US puppet - cast doubt on the government's version of Sunday's events. He insisted that Maduro was seeking to distract from other problems in recent days, including a deadly prison riot and a violent gang battle in Caracas, the capital.

The Venezuelan government, presiding over an economic meltdown, is also struggling to cope with the global spread of the coronavirus.

Monday's arrests come after Maduro's government on Sunday announced it had thwarted a "mercenary incursion."

Goudreau released a video identifying himself as an organizer of the operation, alongside dissident Venezuelan military officer Javier Nieto. He identified one of the fighters as "Commander Sequea," which appeared to be a reference to Antonio Sequea, who was identified by state television as one of the people arrested.

Silvercorp's website describes Goudreau as a "highly decorated Special Forces Iraq and Afghanistan veteran."
A planet with 10 times the mass of Earth located beyond Pluto is the Holy Grail among many astronomers, but new developments suggest the elusive Planet Nine may be nothing more than a mirage.

Researchers propose that the mysterious planet is 'collective gravity', which is a sprawling disk of icy debris that consists of millions of small bodies.

The team theorizes that the disk has a mass several times that of Earth and is capable of shifting as it moves around the sun  adding weight to the fable of the unseen planet.

They also believe the debris was left over from the formation of the solar system and made its way to the edge of space, where it became an orbiting cluster.

Scroll down for a video

A planet with 10 times the mass of Earth located beyond Pluto is the Holy Grail among many astronomers, but new developments suggest the elusive Planet Nine may be nothing more than a mirage

The concept that Planet Nine is a mirage was developed by Ann-Marie Madigan who is an astrophysicist at the University of Colorado Boulder, according to Scientific American.

She and her graduate student Alexander Zderic have worked on developing the theories in two studies.

In one they discuss how collective gravity is able to recreate the same type of titled and clumped orbits that sit between Earth and the sun, which some have suggested is Planet Nine.

The second paper, the team explains how collective gravity deep in space can change as the rotate around the sun  evidence that has been brought forth about the mysterious world.

'What we're doing is taking the gravitational forces between all these small bodies into account,' Madigan told Scientific American.

'Including those gravitational forces turns out to be really important.'

Not only has she and her team brought forth evidence that Planet Nine does not exist, they also paint a different picture of the solar system's beginnings.

When Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus formed, the excess debris that did not make it to planethood made their way to the outer edge of the solar system.

Most, which Madigan calls 'primordial scattered disk,' were forced far beyond Pluto  these she believes may have much more mass than previously thought.

The icy debris were flung into a ring formation, making a system similar to a spinning top.

It eventually became more stable, which is why some may think it is an undiscovered planet.

However, Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin, of the California Institute of Technology, are not onboard with these theories.

The researchers argue that planet Nine's mass must be up to 10 times that of Earth and sits at least 400 times the distance of our planet from the sun.

Batygin said he is interested in Madigan's developments, but is not sold on the idea of what the solar system looks like.

Researchers propose that the mysterious planet is 'collective gravity', which is a sprawling disk of icy debris that consists of millions of small bodies. The team theorizes that the disk has a mass several times that of Earth and is capable of shifting as it moves around the sun

'If there were such a ring parked far away [from our sun], you run into the problem of its stability in the early solar system, since the solar system formed in a cluster of stars,' he said.

'Perturbations from passing stars will mess up this ring. They're going to destroy its coherence and disperse it.'

In her response, Madigan noted that her simulation shows that if the disk formed during the birth of the solar system, it could have lasted for 'eons.'

Madigan and her team's ideas are not popular among the scientific community, but searches for Planet Nine have still come up empty.

'We're in a minority, but we're growing,' she said .

'In the solar system, collective gravity just hasn't really been studied. The field is just starting to take off.'

Planet Nine was first theorized by experts at Caltech in 2016 when they spotted that a group of icy objects on the edges of the solar system have tilted orbits.

They suggested the orbits of these lumps of ice - so-called Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) - were warped by the gravitational pull of a ninth planet in the solar system.

The objects had elliptical orbits that pointed in the same direction and were tilted 30 degrees 'downward' compared to the plane in which planets circle the sun.

While Planet Nine has never been spotted, a number of astronomers - including scientists at NASA- have since released research that supports the theory.
Walmart has returned $12.6 million in federal funding that was sent to the company from a fund intended for healthcare providers responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

The retail giant, which operates urgent care clinics in several of its stores, said it did not request the federal funds, which were sent out automatically to thousands of healthcare providers.

'Walmart did not request support from the Provider Relief Fund to get through this crisis,' a spokesperson told DailyMail.com.

'The Fund is intended to help hospitals and frontline medical providers, so we quickly contacted the Department of Health and Human Services about the disbursement and returned the funds.'

The entrance to Walmart's health center in Dallas, Georgia is seen above. The company received an automatic relief payment from the federal government by has returned it

On April 23, Walmart sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services chief Seema Verma asking to be excluded from future disbursements.

Walmart's receipt of the funds and subsequent decision to return them were first reported by Politico.

The funds were part of a $50 billion relief package for hospitals contained in the CARES Act, $30 billion of which was distributed to some 500,000 organizations across the country last month.

The automatic and unsolicited awards were linked to which groups received Medicare fee-for-service payments in 2019.

Walmart operates urgent care clinics, which provide outpatient services such as lab tests and X-rays, in at least 20 locations in Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas.

The company also provided space in its parking lots for some of the earliest drive-through COVID-19 testing sites.

A drone photograph shows technicians administering tests in a Walmart parking lot to health care workers and first responders who believe they may have come in contact with a carrier of the coronavirus in Northlake, Illinois on 24 March 2020

HHS has begun distributing the remaining $20 billion of the $50 billion general distribution to Medicare providers this month.

The funding is intended support healthcare-related expenses or lost revenue attributable to COVID-19, and to ensure uninsured Americans can get testing and treatment for COVID-19.

Most Walmart stores have remained open during the pandemic to sell food and other essential items, though some have moved to restricted hours, or closed temporarily after staff were infected.

On Tuesday, the company announced an additional round of $10 million in grants to organizations around the world supporting their local communities as they respond to COVID-19.

The new funding brings Walmart's commitment to $35 million in cash and in-kind donations.

In the U.S., those community grants fall into three areas: food access, healthcare and technology.
Accenture (NYSE: ACN) acquired Callisto Integration, an Oakville, Ontario, Canada-based provider of consulting and technology services. The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

The acquisition, which includes Callistos MeasureTek subsidiary, based in Albany, which uses IoT technology to provide precision farming services, such as dynamic field monitoring and irrigation information, expands Accentures capabilities to allow clients in North America to ensure the timely production of orders, increase their yield and enhance the quality of their products.

The 160 employees of Callisto join Accentures Industry X.0 practice. This part unit uses digital technologies  such as the IoT, data analytics and artificial intelligence  to improve how companies design, engineer and manufacture products and services and operate industrial facilities.

Callisto provides digital manufacturing services to large companies in the food and beverage, chemicals, utilities and other industries. Among key services there are the design and implementation of manufacturing execution systems, industrial internet of things (IoT) systems and shop-floor control systems. These systems ensure the materials, workers and equipment for each production order are ready when needed and provide real-time data on the production process. The firm also has two offices in the United States  in Richmond, Virginia and Albany, Oregon  as well as offices in Warwick in the United Kingdom and Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

FinSMEs

05/05/2020
The San Diego County Sheriff's Department received reports of a man allegedly wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood as 'face-covering' in a grocery store last weekend.

According to a media site, the incident occurred at Santee Vons. A spokeswoman from the store revealed their employees asked the shopper he needed to remove the hood or be forced to leave. He eventually took the hood off and paid for his items.

Lieutenant Ricardo Lopez said the sheriff's department is looking into the incident as a possible hate crime.

San Diego resident Tiam Tellez first shared an image of the event on his Facebook account. He called the incident troublesome and disgusting.

The disturbance occurred a day after San Diego County officials required residents to wear face coverings when going out in public in an effort to help curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vons released a statement where they emphasized fostering an environment of courtesy and respect is their top priority. They called the incident "alarming and isolated" and said they were shocked that a customer chose to wear an offensive face covering.

San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacobs condemned the incident, saying there is no place for hate or blatant racism in the county.



Santee Town

Santee, the town where the incident occurred, was previously known as a hotbed of racist activity.

In 1998, five white men paralyzed a 21-year-old African-American Marine in a high-profile, alcohol-fueled hate crime. The perpetrators broke the victim's next during an ambush at a party: the victim, Cpl. Carlos Colbert was paralyzed from the neck down.

Four of the men pleaded guilty to the assault. The fifth man, 20-year-old Jesse Lawson, pleaded guilty to the crime and admitted that race was his motive.

Lawson was sentenced to nine years behind bars. His four other co-conspirators were given one year in jail and five years on probation.

Colbert said he followed a fellow Marine outside to help a woman who was hit by a "skinhead." He was jumped and beaten by then men who shouted racial slurs during the attack.

In 2010, a 15-year-old Peckerwoods gang member attacked a white resident who had two African-American children. The suspect hit the man over the head with his skateboard. The victim sought medical attention and needed 17 stitches. The attacker is reportedly the son of a Peckerwood gang member who was involved in the 1998 hate crime.

In 2014, the town's school district offered to pay a black woman after she complained about racial discrimination at Cajon Park Elementary School. She was told to drive her children to a different school district in exchange for money. The children were reportedly bullied and belittled by a teacher who made fun of them during Black History Month.

The community is in the midst of an effort to rebrand itself after being labeled with unflattering nicknames such as 'Klantee' and 'Santucky.' Officials hired a marketing firm to help improve the image of the 60,000-strong town.



Read the latest news in the Americas here:
Tanaiste Simon Coveney has denied that there is any tension between the government and the National Public Health Emergency Team.

Any suggestion of tension is just not correct he told the Today with Sean ORourke show.

The Minister was responding to recent suggestions that the government had acted against NPHET advice in lifting the restrictions for over-70s.

Mr Coveney dismissed that a difference of opinion existed and said the relationship between the government and NPHET is "a fantastic one" and that there was complete trust between the government and Dr Tony Holohan and his team

That doesnt mean that Ministers dont ask questions, he added.

Mr Coveney said that all decisions made by the government had been based on public health advice and that thousands of lives had been saved by following this advice and expertise and said that reading a story that there was tension had surprised him.

Its just not true, it doesnt mean that we dont debate the issues. NPHET has a job to do and that is to offer the best advice.

"There is now a template", he said, before acknowledging that may need to change.

We will have to measure as we go, we will do so every three weeks and decide whether we need to stick to the plan or amend it or reimpose restrictions if necessary.

We will engage with all sectors. The important thing is that anything that is proposed to the government has to be rigorously assessed by the government and NPHET.

Ultimately this is about saving lives.

The government is insisting on a step by step, cautious approach, he added.

When asked about criticism that the government did not inform the Northern Ireland Assembly about plans to ease restrictions last Friday, Mr Coveney said that Robin Swan and the First Minister and Deputy First Minister had been given a heads up the night before during a video conference call.

What had not been shared was all the details which were not approved by Cabinet until the following day, he said.

'I never pointed the finger at the Green Party'

Meanwhile the Tanaiste defended comments he made last week about climate change and agriculture and the Green Partys demands for forming a government.

In an interview in

Read More:

Irish Examiner

Nothing has been ruled out effectively. But, there are some things you simply cant say yes to without figuring out how its going to be done, he said.

Speaking ion the same interview with Sean ORourke, Mr Coveney said he had been asked would he sign up to an agreement and he said he would not if it decimated rural Ireland.

I never pointed the finger at the Green Party.

The Tanaiste said that the government needed to show people that they can be ambitious about climate change. Eamon Ryan is right that there will have to be radical changes, but we have to bring people with us.

The challenge is to be ambitious, he said, but we know what would happen if we lost the public, he added. We saw what happened with the water charges.

The challenge is to work together, to be ambitious, he said.

We believe that is achievable. Richard Bruton has put a very credible climate change document in place. It will involve changes in approach, but a quick fix is not the answer.

Mr Coveney said the government is already committed to significant reductions.

We need to do that in a way that involves farm families.

However, he warned that there will need to be significant changes to the sector and agriculture will need to be reshaped.

We will have to bring people with us.
Nick Arnerich slept through the first call early Monday. But he picked up the second.

It was his security company, and thered been a break-in at his business: Renata, an acclaimed Italian restaurant in Portlands Central Eastside.

He and his wife, the restaurants co-owner, went over to their business, whose patio door was jimmied open.

Only an iPad had been taken.

But the burglar didnt turn off the tablet. And Arnerich was able to use an app to locate the device only a couple blocks away.

Police went to the area, and Arnerich sent an alert to the iPad, which rang out.

Shayne Edward OrvisMultnomah County Sheriff's Office

Officers found the device on Shayne Edward Orvis, 26, who was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center. Hes accused of burglary, jail records show. Portland police said he had three warrants, as well.

With only essential businesses open during the coronavirus outbreak, Portland police have seen a sharp increase in commercial burglaries of retails shops and others that are closed.

Renatas dining room is currently shuttered because of the coronavirus outbreak. But the restaurant, 626 S.E. Main St., is offering meal kits and pantry provisions for delivery and takeout.

-- Jim Ryan; jryan@oregonian.com; 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 22:26:52|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Kenya is in the final stages of linking Chinese-built Standard Gauge Railway to an older line in the agriculture-rich Central region to ensure commodities are easily transported to the Port of Mombasa for export, senior Kenya Railways Corporation official confirmed on Tuesday.

The plan involves linking the old meter gauge railway line from the Nanyuki town to the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) in the capital Nairobi, about 240 kilometers.

"The rehabilitation of the old railway line is in the final stages. It should be operational by June 2020," said Phillip Mainga, the managing director of the Kenya Railways Corporation.

The Kenya Railways Corporation official told Xinhua that the plan is to upgrade the current railway line from a 50-pound-load type, which is only capable of carrying three light locomotives to 80-pound load so that a single train can carry 1,400 tonnes of goods.

The meter gauge traverses across the Central Kenya region, which is a top producer of coffee, tea, flowers, vegetables, avocado, pineapples and macadamia, some of Kenya's top agriculture exports, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.

Kenya is the world's leading producers of black teas, according to the World Bank and its coffee, grown in the highlands is used to blend other coffees because of its high quality, says International Coffee Organization.

Ndiritu Muriithi, Governor of Laikipia County, where the meter gauge line starts in Nanyuki town, confirmed that train engines and locomotives have arrived in town to make final repairs to the old railway line that has been dormant for more than two decades now.

"Road transport has been the only alternative mode of transport in this region for over two decades now, for bulky agricultural cargo as well as commercial goods such as oil," said Governor Muriithi.

The revival of the old meter gauge railway line, which collapsed in the early 1990s because of the Structural Adjustment Programmes enforced by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, will bring back to life the former "railway towns" in the central region of Kenya which had literally collapsed because of the lack of train services.

The initiative is part of taking advantage of the modern and efficient 485-km Mombasa-Suswa SGR that was built by Chinese companies to improve the overall transport of good and people. Enditem
(Natural News) If you thought the coronavirus death toll in places like Italy, Spain and the U.S. was bad, it could really be a drop in the bucket compared to what might happen when the virus takes hold in Africa.

Although the 54 countries in Africa have reported less than 20,000 confirmed cases so far, the continent is considered to be weeks behind Europe, and the rate of increase seen in Europe looked quite similar to Africas numbers at this stage. The World Health Organization is warning that there could be mass devastation there given how woefully unprepared most countries are for a medical crisis of this magnitude.

In fact, for every million people in Africa, there are just five ICU beds. Hospital beds are also in short supply, with the entire continent having just 1.8 hospital beds for every 1,000 people; in France, there are 5.98 beds per 1,000 people.

Many Africans are unable to take the precautions that are keeping a lot of us in America and Europe safe, like frequent hand washing. More than half the population lives in highly overcrowded slum areas, and conditions like tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and malnutrition are making lots of people there especially vulnerable. With 36 percent of Africans having no access to washing facilities at home, its not surprising that experts are predicting absolute devastation.

Social distancing measures have already been put in place in many African countries, with some issuing curfews and travel guidelines and others enacting full lockdowns. South Africa and Rwanda have declared a lockdown and banned unnecessary movements. Uganda has closed its borders, imposed a curfew and banned public transport, while Kenya has also imposed a curfew and restricted movement among populated areas. Nigeria, meanwhile, has imposed lockdowns in key cities like Lagos.

Without additional intervention, The UN Economic Commission for Africa is warning that more than 1.2 billion Africans could become infected with the disease and 33 million could die before the end of the year; the total population on the continent is 1.3 billion. Their best-case scenario would still see the continent registering 122.8 million infections and 300,000 deaths.

Theyve also estimated that as many as 29 million people could be pushed below what is considered the extreme poverty line on account of the virus.

Although Africa, like other continents, will suffer greatly from this disease, there is one small comfort, and thats the fact that much of its population is young. When you look at the high mortality rate of Italy, its important to take into account the fact that 23 percent of that countrys population is older than 65 and therefore falls into the category of highest risk. In Africa, on the other hand, just 2 percent of the population is older than 65. That may help stem the mortality rate to some extent.

Will the coronavirus measures that work elsewhere be effective in Africa?

Some experts have expressed concern that lockdowns might not work as well in many places in Africa as they do in Europe and America. Many people there live day to day and depend on the cash they earn in the market to buy their food, so even a few days of lockdown could plunge them into starvation. Many people may prefer to take their chances and possibly become infected rather than take on the certainty of starvation. Past lockdowns like those meant to curb Ebola in Liberia in 2014 were a disaster and didnt stop the disease from spreading.

Its a very complicated situation made worse by the fact that much-needed medical supplies are already in short supply around the world. Countries that might normally come to Africas aid during health crises are already struggling with their own problems, and help may be very hard to find.

Sources for this article include:

TheSun.co.uk

BBC.com

NYPost.com
Ukraines Ministry of Health has reported that 2,154 doctors have tested positive for COVID-19, accounting for almost 17.5 percent of the countrys 12,331 confirmed cases. So far, at least 16 medical workers have died from complications caused by the disease.

The high number of infected medical workers is a direct result of the failure of the Ukrainian government to adequately supply and fund its health care workers.

While Ukraine still has fewer COVID-19 cases and deaths compared to other European countries, it is facing the crisis as the government of President Volodmyr Zelensky continues to carry out the right-wing medical reforms of the previous health minister, Ulyana Suprun.

Suprun, a US citizen and American doctor of Ukrainian background, first appeared in Ukraine to take part in the 2014 United States-backed Maidan protests against elected President Viktor Yanukovych. She later served under President Petro Poroshenko, who was installed after the coup. Suprun championed cutting of direct funding to hospitals, the creation of competition among doctors for patients and the closing of hospitals deemed to not have enough patients. Her reforms also entailed banning Russian-made drugs and equipment and the closing of the countrys sanitary-epidemiological service.

During her tenure Ukraine suffered a measles outbreak, unprecedented in modern Europe, and Suprun became one of the Poroshenko regimes most criticized public figures. While Suprun received strong backing from both the United States and Europe for supposedly fighting corruption, a December 2019 poll showed that just 9 percent of Ukrainians considered her reforms successful. Suprun was later dismissed by the incoming Zelensky administration in August of 2019.

Despite the fact that current President Volodomyr Zelensky criticized Suprun for the increasing lack of essential medicine and rising cost of care throughout his election campaign, he has pledged to continue with the second stage of medical reforms on April 1 and recently told Bloomberg that he considered the first round of reforms successful and blamed widespread opposition to the reforms among Ukrainians on a lack of understanding.

As a result of the combined effect of the restoration of capitalism, and the intensification of the assault on the health care system under Poroshenko and continued under Zelensky, the Ukrainian health system now finds itself ill prepared to deal with the pandemic.

The actual number of cases and deaths in the country is likely vastly underreported. In early April, with the virus already widespread in Italy and Spain, and with a large number of Ukrainian migrant workers returning from those countries, Ukraine had tested just 5,779 people, according to deputy health minister Viktor Lyashko. By April 23, the country had increased that number to just 67,520 in a country of approximately 40 million people.

In Ivano-Frankivsk, one of the regions with the highest number of reported infections, doctors reported that tests at the regional level were almost non-existent. Yaroslav Semchyshyn, a doctor at the local level, told Radio Free Europe, As far as I know, there are no tests even at the district level. I dont know about the region, there is very little communication. Semchyshyn also reported that the ministry of health had sent him and his staff of 14 just seven masks a week to use for the entire town hospital.

In addition to lacking basic personal protective equipment (PPE) and test kits, medical workers, already low-paid, are not being paid for the long hours they are putting in, not to mention the increased personal risk.

Recently, Svetlana Fedorova, the chief medical director for infectious diseases in the Nikolaev region, was threatened with prosecution by the government for paying her employees directly for the correct number of overtime hours they had worked. According to local government authorities, her payment to medical workers for overtime hours was a prosecutable misuse of funds.

Fedorova has publicly defended her actions, stating, If, in the opinion of the financial administration of the regional state administration, I violated the law and used the money in such a way that is inappropriate, then we have different goals. My goal is to preserve this institution, in which already a lot is invested. My goal is to preserve the entire team. I am not going to cut us when so very little is left. And this will ensure the epidemiological safety of our region.

The response by the Ukrainian ruling class to the pandemic has resulted in rapidly growing opposition among medical workers.

In Kiev, medical workers dealing with COVID-19 walked off the job in protest in late April after they were denied hazard pay for dealing with approximately 150 COVID patients. According to reports, two of the hospitals medical workers had already been infected along with 42 others potentially exposed to the virus. Despite the increased risk, government authorities denied that COVID-19 was present and refused to appropriately pay workers.

Workers reported that many of their co-workers, including nurses, janitors and other hospital personnel, had simply quit in recent weeks rather than risk their lives in dangerous conditions for low pay.

Medical workers at a Kiev psychiatric hospital also walked out. According to Strana.ua, many medical workers had received paychecks in late April that were just a third of what they had made the month before. The average doctor in Ukraine earns a salary of approximately $250 per month.

Throughout the country, doctors have gone on hunger strikes. Inessa Shevchenko, the head of the rehabilitation clinic in the Dnepropetrovsk region, told the media after having been on hunger strike for nine days: I received 6,000 [$222] and the head nurse of our hospital received 3,700 hryvnia [$137] a month. This is just a third of what we had made before. People are shocked.

A doctor on hunger strike in Dnipropetrovsk

According to Strana.ua, ambulance workers in the Kiev region are also seething with anger and many talk about leaving their jobs.

Rather than ensure its medical workers are properly paid and equipped, current health minister Maksym Stepanov announced Friday that the Zelensky government is now setting the stage for a potential worsening of the pandemic in Ukraine by joining in with the rest of Europes governments to push workers back to work by easing restrictions starting on May 11. At the same time, there is talk about mass layoffs of medical workers at hospitals, many of which are currently only at 25 percent of capacity because of the pandemic.
Megan Fox stepped out without her wedding band on Monday, prompting further concerns over the status of her marriage with Brian Austin Green.

Last month, Green was also spotted without his wedding ring on, amid rumors that the couple are spending quarantine apart.

Looking deep in thought, the actress appeared to have a plastic fork in her mouth as she loaded up her car with groceries for her family.

Fork in the road? Megan Fox appeared without her wedding band on Monday as she fetched groceries, amid rumours that she and husband Brian Austin Green are quarantining apart

Fox was dressed stylishly for her day out running errands, in a pair of tight-fitting MOTHER jeans and black top.

Green and Fox were pictured last month swapping kids and a car seat in a parking lot in Calabasas, where she's living, as he stays in Malibu.

The BH90210 star was previously spotted on some family outings with Fox and the kids, getting groceries and having picnics during quarantine.

Tense times: Green and Fox were pictured last month swapping kids and a car seat in a parking lot in Calabasas, where she's living, as he stays in Malibu.

Big shop: Megan is mother to sons Noah, seven, Bodhi, six, and Journey, three.

He and the Jennifer's Body actress briefly split in 2015, even filing for divorce before getting back together in early 2016.

They tied the knot in Hawaii in 2010, sharing sons Noah, seven, Bodhi, six, and Journey, three.

Green told Us Weekly in February, when he and Fox made a rare red carpet appearance together: 'No, [Im] not [having] more kids. The kids I have right now are fine. Its enough! I have four kids, three young kids.'

Time apart: The outing came amid reports that he and Fox, 33, are spending quarantine in separate homes (pictured in December, 2019)
A London war memorial has been vandalised in what police described as a "senseless" act.

The memorial, in Hayes, north west London, with found with writing daubed on the plinth.

The war memorial, which includes a statue of Jesus on the cross, commemorates local soldiers who died in the First and Second World Wars, according to the Imperial War Museum, which has a record of war memorials in the UK.

The names of nearly 100 people who lost their lives are inscribed underneath the cross and on the sides.

A London war memorial has been defaced / Google Street View

Officers said in a statement: "Saddened to come into work today to a report that the war memorial on Church Road, Hayes has been graffitied.

"Absolutely senseless and utterly disrespectful."

Police added that they making enquiries about the incident and asked the public to contact them if they have any information.

Hillingdon Council said in a tweet that staff would clean the graffiti off the war memorial. The council has been contacted for further comment.

A representative of St Mary the Virgin Anglican church, which is next to the war memorial, declined to comment.

What is the cultural significance of VE Day?

The news comes a few days before the 75th anniversary of VE Day, which celebrates the end of the Second World War in Europe.

Major celebrations were planned, including street parties across the UK, but most have been cancelled due to the coronavirus lockdown.

But Brits are encouraged to celebrate in other ways, including having "home street parties", with bunting that can be downloaded from the BBC's website.
POLICE and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents rescued Monday, May 4, a 41-year-old female suspect and rescued three children who were allegedly forced to perform sexual acts on webcam for paying customers.

The operation conducted in Caloocan City was led by Philippine National Police-Women and Children Protection Center (PNP-WCPC) and the NBI-Anti-Human Trafficking Division (Ahtrad) in partnership with the Philippine Internet Crimes Against Children Center (Picacc).

While securing the area, operatives found evidence on the scene, including a mobile phone, desktop computer, webcam and cash together with remittance receipts.

It is a great honor to serve in a team that carries out its sworn duty to protect the most vulnerable children from online sexual exploitation no matter what challenges current global conditions bring. Let this be a testament that law enforcers will not stop to pursue justice even through this quarantine period, said Police Brigadier General Alessandro Abella, referring to the joint efforts of the team that carried out the arrest under unfavorable conditions.

As a mother, I could not quite comprehend why she (referring to suspect) would do this act to her own children. Despite this, I would like to assure the public that the children rescued will no longer be abused. This just shows that criminally minded individuals will do whatever it takes to exploit minors for profit. But we as law enforcers will also do whatever it takes to apprehend erring individuals, said lawyer Janet Francisco of NBI-Ahtrad.

For me this is an early Mothers Day present that money cannot buy. Despite the belief of some individuals that they can sell their children online for a profit, I still believe that there are other parents that hold true to their morals not to result in this form of criminality, said Police Colonel Sheila Portento of the PNP-WCPC Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division (ATIPD).

The operation started as a referral from the Australian Federal Police (AFP) that was routed through the Picacc.

Story continues

The Picacc, a model for an enhanced global response against online sexual exploitation against children (Osec), is a cooperation among local and international law enforcement, namely, the PNP-WCPC, the NBI-Ahtrad, AFP, and the United Kingdom National Crime Agency (UK NCA), in partnership with non-government organization International Justice Mission (IJM).

AFP Detective Sergeant Graeme Marshall, the AFP liaison officer in Manila, said: "This arrest in the Philippines, resulting from an Australian referral, demonstrates the close working relationships between the Australian Federal Police, Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation, as well as all our international partners who work to ensure the protection of children around the world."

"International partnerships are critical to our combined efforts to protect children no matter where they live. The AFP and its international partners are working tirelessly to target anyone who seeks to exploit children, and we are not distracted by the demands of the Covid pandemic," Marshall added.

David Cater, UK NCA regional manager, said: This operation is another great example of inter-agency law enforcement collaboration in action despite the quarantine measures in place. Today, three more children will no longer be subjected to online abuse having been saved from online sexual exploitation. The National Crime Agency is proud to be supporting all our partners in the Philippines in their efforts to combat child abuse.

The rescued victims, a 13-year-old boy and two girls ages 14 and 5, are now receiving trauma-informed aftercare services. All three minors rescued were the children of the arrested suspect.

It is such a comfort to know that amidst the lockdowns, our law enforcement partners are actively collaborating with each other to achieve the common goal to end Osec. This operation will leave a lasting memory that despite certain conditions and challenges, we will go above and beyond the call of duty to rescue children from this horrific crime, said lawyer Samson Inocencio, national director of IJM.

Osec is a crime that violates the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act or Republic Act (RA) 9208 (as amended by RA 10364), which comes with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of P2 million to P5 million.

Typical Osec offenses also violate RA 10175 (Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012), RA 9775 (Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009) and RA 7610 (Child Abuse Law).

One may report a suspected case of Osec by texting ENDOSEC (space) (incident details) to 7444-64 for Smart network subscribers; or by calling the IACAT 1343 Action line; or directly connecting with WCPC at (032) 410-8483 for Visayas, and 0917-180-6037 or 0928-604-6425 for Mindanao.

Or you may call the NBI trunkline at 02 85238231 or the NBI Anti-Human Trafficking Division  02 85219208 (direct line)- 02 85238231 (local 3497) to report cases of Osec. (PR)
LAS VEGAS - As Nevada prepares to ease COVID-19 restrictions and allow resorts to reopen, the state's most powerful labor union is demanding casinos enforce strict health and sanitation guidelines before workers return to jobs.

At the top of the list? The Culinary Union and its parent organization, UNITE HERE, want every one of the 60,000 workers in Nevada tested for coronavirus before going back to work.

Its life and death; thats the way we see things, said Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer Geoconda Arguello-Kline in a Tuesday morning video media briefing. The workers we represent, they are on the front lines.

Culinary Union Secretary-Vice President Geoconda Arguello Kline pickets with workers outside The Palms in Las Vegas on Feb. 18, 2020.

America's food chain: Essential worker just means youre on the death track

Ask HR: How do I tell my boss I'm afraid to work?

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak last week extended a stay-at-home order for Nevadans through May 15, a directive that remains in effect "until the state meets the necessary criteria set forth last week and consistent with the White House guidelines to demonstrate the state is making sufficient progress to slow the spread of COVID-19."

Here are some of the protocols the Culinary Union is urging officials and properties to mandate and adopt:

Testing of all workers for the COVID-19 virus and antibodies before they can return.

Thermal monitoring of guests and workers at all properties to stem the spread of the contagious illness that's killed 267 people in Nevada as of May 5.

Personal protective equipment made widely available to workers and guests.

More frequent and more intensive cleaning of all surfaces  after workers are trained to follow new cleaning orders.

Strictly enforced social distancing among guests and workers at each properties.

Read the Culinary Union's full list of demands here:

Culinary Union Health Guide... by Reno Gazette Journal on Scribd

We want to go back to work," said D. Taylor, international president of UNITE HERE. "But we want to go back to work in a safe environment where were not viewed as rats in a lab  like some politicians are trying to put us in."

Story continues

Taylor's comment was in reference to Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman's controversial appearance on national television with CNN's Anderson Cooper.

Goodman suggested that Las Vegas become a control group city to test how relaxing restrictions would affect residents.

I offered to be a control group and I was told by our statistician you cant do that because people from all parts of southern Nevada come in to work in the city, Goodman said. We would love to be that placebo side so you have something to measure against.

Public officials should be scrutinized and held accountable if lax health and sanitation guidelines lead to the sickening of guests and workers, Taylor said.

"We can't rely on examples of politicians like this," he said.

Ed Komenda writes about Las Vegas for the Reno Gazette-Journal and the USA Today Network.

This article originally appeared on Reno Gazette Journal: Nevada's Culinary Union on reopening: Workers aren't 'rats in a lab'
A still from video footage recorded by an inmate with a smuggled cellphone at the federal prison in Fort Dix, N.J. , shows prisoners in the yard, where recommended social distancing guidelines don't appear to be followed. The video was posted to Twitter last month. Read more

The video shows only the aftermath of the scene late last month in the federal prison at Fort Dix: A soiled surgical mask and bloodstained paper towels next to a container filled with a mucus-green substance.

A speaker recounts that just moments before, during temperature checks, an inmate had collapsed, vomiting, as his fellow prisoners screamed for help.

Corrections officers rushed to the mans side, says the inmate making the recording. But before rendering aid, they sprayed him with cleaning products, telling his dorm mates they needed to disinfect him first.

That footage  recorded with a smuggled cellphone  was posted on Instagram on April 22, one of a growing number of insider accounts leaked over social media from prisoners in the Burlington County facility.

Together, they depict a corrections environment where conditions deteriorate daily, social distancing is impossible, and inmates and guards feel powerless to protect themselves against the viral disease that has been spreading within the prison walls.

On Monday, the ACLU of New Jersey filed suiton behalf of four medically vulnerable prisoners, saying the U.S. Bureau of Prisons has failed to protect inmates as the number of confirmed cases has spiked from one to more than 40 in three weeks.

Without significant changes, ACLU attorney Tess Borden wrote, Fort Dix is speeding toward catastrophe.

The suit mirrors others the ACLU and other advocates have brought in recent weeks as coronavirus outbreaks have emerged at jails, prisons, and detention centers across the United States. Suits on behalf of inmates at the Philadelphia jails and the federal detention center in Center City are ongoing.

 READ MORE: Phillys Federal Detention Center reports first two coronavirus cases

In each, prison officials have maintained that despite challenges in implementing social distancing and proper hygiene behind bars, they feel confident that those in their facilities are protected.

But Fort Dix stands out because of the video and photo evidence from prisoners who say otherwise. Most of the images appear to have been captured on contraband cellphones and posted anonymously.

Reports from inside Fort Dix paint an alarming picture, Borden said. The warden and the Bureau of Prisons director should be hearing the same reports and know about them firsthand, yet they have taken insufficient action.

One video posted to Twitter on April 5 depicted dozens of inmates milling around the main recreation yard with no heed to social distancing recommendations  well after most of the outside world was under stay-at-home orders.

In another, posted to YouTube weeks later and since taken down, an inmate filmed himself walking past row upon cramped row of bunk beds, no more than three feet apart, in the dormitory style minimum-security satellite camp that houses 230.

They want us to be six feet away from each other. Explain how we going to do that, the poster wrote in the videos description.

The footage that has garnered the most attention is one that surfaced April 22 and said to depict the inmate who collapsed during temperature checks. The Bureau of Prisons disputes the suggestion that a staff member sprayed the stricken inmate with disinfectant.

But one of the plaintiffs of Mondays lawsuit swore in an affidavit that he witnessed the incident.

The senior staff member sprayed the inmates bed and pillow afterward, said Michael Scronic, who is serving an eight-year sentence for securities fraud . Eventually, I yelled, Get him out of here. He needs help now!

The lawsuit describes conditions similar to those depicted in the videos. The facilitys 3,000 inmates mostly live in 12-person rooms in buildings that house up to 300 people. They spend their days crowded into the same TV rooms, phone booths, bathrooms, and mealtime pickup lines. Soap dispensers are routinely empty and inmates have taken to pooling meager supplies of shampoo that theyve bought from the commissary to fill them.

With nowhere else to go, many spend their days under their covers, quite literally hiding from the virus, the suit contends.

 READ MORE: Montgomery Countys jail tested every inmate for COVID-19  and found 30 times more cases than previously known

In a memo to inmates last month, warden David E. Ortiz acknowledged that social distancing is not possible in this environment.

Despite a Bureau of Prisons review program to potentially thin federal prison populations by releasing certain inmates to house arrest, not one person from Fort Dix has been set free, ACLU attorneys said. And of the 62 men who were placed into pre-release quarantine together while the warden reviewed their cases last month, 21 have since tested positive.

Troy Wragg, one plaintiff, who is serving a 22-year sentence for financial crimes, has seen ill inmates over the last month in common areas like the daily food line.

A heart attack survivor who suffers from epilepsy and an autoimmune disorder, Wragg, 38, worries he wont survive, whether he catches the virus or not. The daily stress, he said, has triggered frequent seizures  13 in the last month.

But with the medical staff focused on coronavirus response, hes had to rely on his cellmates for care.

The sound of my bed shaking wakes one of my bunk mates, Wragg said. He jumps down and holds my head to prevent a concussion and monitors me throughout the episode to make sure I dont die.

Lawyers have asked the court to order the release of inmates over 50 and those, like Wragg, with preexisting health conditions that make them more medically vulnerable. They have also pressed U.S. District Judge Renee Bumb to order prison officials to implement more stringent safety precautions for those that remain incarcerated.

Monday evening, the Bureau of Prisons had not responded to the suit.
KALAMAZOO, MI  The city of Kalamazoo will hold a public hearing on a proposed zoning ordinance to regulate marijuana businesses in the city.

The Kalamazoo City Commission accepted the proposed ordinance on first reading during a virtual city commission meeting on Monday, May 4, and set a public hearing on the proposed ordinance for Monday, May 18.

The proposed ordinance would set the zoning rules for eight different types of recreational marijuana business licenses in Kalamazoo. The first five recreational business licenses would be similar to those already permitted in the citys medical marijuana ordinance, and the others are new license types that will be allowed under recreational rules:

Grower

Processor

Safety Compliance

Secure Transport

Retailer

Microbusiness

Excess Grower

Designated Consumption Lounge

A microbusiness establishment would be allowed to grow up to 150 plants, process the plants, and sell the product on site. A consumption lounge would allow the consumption, but not the sale, of adult use marijuana. Excess grower license allows growing of a larger number of plants by using stacked licenses.

The remaining two new adult use licenses available in Michigan are for organizing a marijuana focused event, and a license to hold the event. These are not included in Kalamazoos proposed zoning ordinance. City staff recommends that these two licenses be considered for inclusion later in 2020 or early 2021. Part of the reason for that pause is related to the coronavirus pandemic, City Planner Christina Anderson said.

Commissioners talked about the spacing requirements for the businesses included in the proposal, and asked city staff to bring more information about the expected impacts. Commissioners said they planned to examine the potential impacts of spacing requirements before approving a final version of the ordinance.

Watch a presentation (located in the video at approximately 45:00), and hear comments and discussion from other city officials in the full video of the virtual meeting:

Beyond the zoning ordinance, the city commission also accepted on first reading a proposed ordinance permitting recreational marijuana businesses in the city on Monday.

The citys proposed rules would charge $5,000 for a license that is renewed annually. It would include a social equity policy, designed to help people who have been impacted by marijuana related enforcement in the past to enter the now legal industry.

The social equity policy would give a 25% reduction in city license fee for businesses with 51% or more ownership by one or more people residing in city census tracts 1 (Eastside), 9, 10, (Edison), and 2.02, 3 (Northside); or owned by a city resident with a marijuana conviction that does not involve distribution to a minor. The citys proposed policy would will give a 10% reduction in the license fee for registered primary caregivers, registered for at least two years between 2008 and 2017.

The proposal would designate 25% of fees and tax generated revenue toward programs including:

A business incubator to help people of color prepare for ownership/operations of future marijuana establishments

Community outreach and education on topics such as adult use marijuana, difference between state and federal laws concerning marijuana and adult use in general.

Support Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo priorities (Strong Youth, Strong Families, Good jobs)

Home ownership - Down payment assistance for those negatively impacted by the war on drugs

Blight Elimination

The proposed social equity plan also states, When any person or entity receives more than $10,000 in contract value or benefit from the City, the city will require a good faith effort to hire employees with prior marijuana convictions or that live in Census Tracts 1 (Eastside); 9, 10 (Edison); or 2.02, 3 (Northside).

The proposed zoning rules include spacing requirements for some of the categories of businesses, requiring some of the businesses to be spaced 500 feet from other marijuana businesses.

Related: Cannabis lounges, retail stores allowed in proposed Kalamazoo zoning

The social equity plan would allow more lenient spacing requirements for retailer businesses and mircobusinesses when the majority owner is either a past three-year resident of the specific census tracts in the city, or someone who has been convicted of a marijuana related crime besides distribution to a minor, Christina Anderson said, reducing the spacing requirement between other marijuana businesses from 500 feet down to 250 feet.

The social equity policy was part of the discussion Monday, Christina Anderson said, though it will be presented formally for consideration at the next meeting. A resolution for the social equity policy will be up for approval at the next meeting, and it does not require two readings, Mayor David Anderson said.

City officials discussed the social equity plan during a special meeting on Monday, April 27:

The city of Kalamazoo is taking longer than other neighboring communities to allow recreational marijuana businesses to open.

For example, Bangor, a community between Kalamazoo and South Haven, began allowing recreational marijuana sales in February. KKind, a recreational marijuana retailer in Kalamazoo Township and the first in the Kalamazoo County, opened March 13.

Read more:

$86M anonymous gift meant to generate ongoing funding for Kalamazoo

Kalamazoos proposed recreational marijuana business ordinances up for approval next month

Voters encouraged to drop off ballots at drive-up box near Kalamazoo City Hall
KAMPALA  Private Sector Foundation in partnership with UN Women have on Monday, May 4 hosted the first E-conference on mitigating the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the Ugandan economy.

The two days conference was conducted using the online meeting tool, the Zoom and broadcasted live on NBS TV. The conference was conducted under the theme, Inclusive Economic Stimulus Strategy, Opportunities and Linkages. The conference attracted over 10,000 business owners and senior managers politicians, civil servants, civil society/religious leaders.

The conference came as a response of the outbreak of covid-19 pandemic that has taken a heavy toll on global economies. In less than 6 months, there has been unprecedented contraction in economic activities, global deterioration of financial conditions, suspension of transportation, nose-diving of stocks, crumbling of health systems, loss of jobs especially for young people and women, cancellation/postponement of major events, and so many other far-reaching consequences on humanity and economies.

According to UN Women Country Representative Dr. Maxime Houinato, COVID-19 pandemic has proved to be a serious threat on the socio-economic development of Uganda. The spike in unemployment rate especially for young people and women makes planning for the post COVID-19 era very important.

Dr. Houinato noted that Women are often engaged in low-paying, informal work and businesses and as primary breadwinners for their families, disruptions as a result of the COVID-19 response will compromise their ability to meet their families needs.

The Executive Director Private Sector Foundation of Uganda (PSFU), Gideon Badagawa said the conference discussion focused on import substitution, economic stimulus proposals, opportunities, especially for the young people and women; and linkages to drive Ugandas economic self-sustainability. If we dont move quickly to strengthen systems and resilience of businesses, the development gains of recent years can easily be lost.

He added that, while the pandemics economic effects are far reaching, This crisis provides an opportunity to strengthen industrialization through transition from relying on the extraction and sale of raw materials into building up local industries that utilize local resources and turn them into value-added products for export.

The conference updated the business community on the interventions proposed to Government, examined the extent to which COVID 19 pandemic and its measures have affected various businesses by size, sector and geographical area, as well as solicited sector input on the possible measures and opportunities available to mitigate these challenges in the short, medium and long term. The conference also documented strategies for systematic response and engagement in line with global Women Empowerment Principles (WEP) amongst PSFU members.

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Joe Biden is under escalating pressure from competing branches of his party as he ponders the most consequential decision of his presidential candidacy: a running mate.

Black Democrats have joined in a concerted effort to urge him to pick a black woman as his vice-presidential nominee. Now some liberal groups and activists, who have long had an antagonistic relationship with the presumptive nominee, are pressing Biden to select a liberal woman.

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has been extraordinarily blunt in saying she would accept the job. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., has taken the opposite tack, remaining low-key while others press for her.

Some liberals are backing Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who ranks far above others on the left as a potential running mate. But rancor from the primaries has led to schisms on the left: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the last competitor to cede to Biden and the liberal figure best positioned to push for concessions, has declined to support Warren despite their ideological alliance, according to three people familiar with his conversations with Biden.

The mad scramble comes at a potentially awkward moment. Biden pledged nearly two months ago to pick a woman as his running mate, elevating the demographic that powered the party's gains in the 2018 midterm elections by pushing back against President Donald Trump. Yet now, as Biden comes closer to a decision, he faces accusations that he sexually assaulted a Senate aide who worked for him in the early 1990s.

Biden has denied the charges, but some potential running mates have been repeatedly asked to respond, presenting them with an awkward test of loyalty.

Biden's decision could foretell which direction he believes is most important for the party he now leads and which parts of the party he thinks must be mobilized to win the White House.

Democrats have been split since 2016 over whether energizing black voters orwinning over some white working-class voters in the industrial Midwest represents the best shot for the party in November. Hillary Clinton's defeat four years ago was sufficiently narrow that either option could explain it, giving Democrats little certainty as they try to wrestle the presidency from Trump.

Biden is believed to be considering as many as a dozen candidates, but much of the focus has centered on a handful of his former primary rivals, each of whom would fulfill different aims for the party: Warren, a liberal icon; Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, a Midwestern moderate; and Harris, who would be the first black female nominee.

"He's in a quandary," said Ed Rendell, a former governor of Pennsylvania who is in regular contact with Biden's campaign. "Some days I wake up and I say, 'We've got to win Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan - and Klobuchar is a great candidate."

"Then I think black voters feel strongly that it should be a black woman, so I think Kamala," he added. "Then some days I'm looking at the Internet and Bernie bros are bashing Biden, and I think: 'Oh my god. We better run Elizabeth.' "

Public polling offers little guidance. A new CBS News-YouGov poll found Warren to be the top pick among registered Democrats, at 36 percent to 19 percent for Harris. But asked whether a liberal or a moderate pick would make victory over Trump easier, 31 percent said a liberal running mate would make Biden's election easier; 42 percent felt that way about a moderate nominee.

There also was no solid endorsement of a nonwhite candidate, with 23 percent favoring a nonwhite pick, compared with 74 percent who said race did not matter to them.

Biden has often talked about wanting a running mate who is "simpatico" with him and who could develop the kind of friendship and trust that he had with President Barack Obama. He has also spoken openly about seeing himself as a "bridge" to a new generation of political leaders, and he could use the pick to ease voters' questions about his age. Biden, now 77, would be the oldest president in American history.

Warren, at 70, would not represent a generational choice. But the liberal groups making a push for her argue that she would excite the ascendant left wing of the party that never fully embraced Clinton in 2016.

The board of Our Revolution, a political nonprofit launched by Sanders and top allies from his 2016 campaign, held a virtual meeting Sunday to discuss whether the vice-presidential pick might help unite the party. The group had just completed a survey of its members that they said showed 62 percent favored Warren as Biden's running mate and 22 percent wanted Abrams. Harris, Klobuchar and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, all more moderate, didn't break 10 percent.

"The overwhelming majority of the board is enthusiastic about Warren," said Larry Cohen, who leads Our Revolution. He said the member survey "established that the number one way to inspire our people to defeat Trump [is] to have a vice president who will stand up to corporate America and corporate greed, and stand for Medicare-for-all and massive investment on the environmental crisis."

Biden's campaign has reached out to the Working Families Party, which backed Warren in the primary contest, though the group's leaders haven't yet connected. "We believe the vice president should be someone who can excite young voters and progressives," said Maurice Mitchell, the group's national director. "Polling shows strong support among Democrats and progressives for Elizabeth Warren, which matches enthusiasm we've seen from our members."

But Sanders has not been part of the lobbying effort.

"Senator Sanders and his team are not advising the Biden campaign's vice presidential selection process in any way, shape or form," said Sanders spokesman Mike Casca, who said the senator's priority remains the party platform.

Liberal groups were dismayed that Biden's vice-presidential vetting panel, which he announced last week, included no names close to their movement. Among those serving on it are Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del.; Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti; former senator Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., a longtime Biden friend; and former Biden aide Cynthia Hogan.

"It raises serious questions as to how seriously the Biden campaign is considering progressive candidates," said Neil Sroka, the communications director for Democracy for America, a liberal organization that backed Sanders in the primary.

Black interests, by contrast, have been incorporated into the Biden campaign. Rochester, a link between Biden's campaign and the Congressional Black Caucus, led a recent Biden campaign call with caucus members that included discussion about black women from various parts of the country whom members believed should considered on the ticket, according to one person familiar with the call.

The Rev. Al Sharpton said he urged Biden during a phone conversation last month to pick a black woman as his running mate.

"I told him I would prefer a black woman but that I'm not making an ultimatum," he said. "I trust he'll make the right judgment."

"He said, 'I hear ya, Al.' "

Sharpton said mobilizing black voters should be the central goal of the campaign.

"Hillary Clinton lost Michigan by 12,000 votes. Three churches I know of could have given that in Detroit," Sharpton said. "It could be a margin of victory if he has the right candidate. That doesn't mean any black running mate could energize. He's got to have the right candidate."

Rep. James Clyburn, a Democrat, whose endorsement in South Carolina was one of the most important moments of Biden's campaign, has been outspoken in his views and has pointed to a deep bench of black women who would be qualified.

"I and several others have expressed our feeling that it would be great for him to select a black woman," he said in an interview. "But that is not a must. That is just what I think would be a great thing to do."

"The vice president must be informed by his vetting and polling," he added. "And he must be guided by his head and his heart."

Minyon Moore, a veteran Democratic activist, said black women not only have consistently shown up in high numbers at the polls but also have been the foot soldiers in campaigns to elect white men and women to higher office.

"That's what we do. We've always fought for the collective," she said. "We're fighting to uplift a community of women that are rarely seen."

Moore was among a group of black female organizers who recently released an open letter to Biden, declaring that "black women are the key to Democratic victory in 2020" and urging him to select a black woman as his running mate.

No one has campaigned as aggressively and openly as Abrams, who after her failed race for governor in 2018 has raised her national profile as an advocate for voting rights.

"I would be an excellent running mate," she told Elle magazine.

"As a young black girl growing up in Mississippi, I learned that if I didn't speak up for myself, no one else would," she said recently on NBC's "Meet the Press." "My mission is to say out loud, if I'm asked the question, 'Yes, I would be willing to serve.' "

Abrams' open campaigning has earned some eyerolls, but several around Biden say it has not necessarily damaged her chances. One aide noted, with a hint of admiration, that Abrams managed to work into a recent interview that she was a native of Wisconsin, a crucial battleground state.

"I would hope she thinks she makes a good running mate," said Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., a co-chairman of the Biden campaign. "She's certainly working hard. She ran a great gubernatorial campaign; she's doing a lot in the grass-roots community. Her touting her desire or qualifications makes sense."

He said there were a number of qualified black women - mentioning Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, Harris and Abrams - but said the process would take a range of considerations into account.

"The most important thing is for the VP to have a synergy with the person," he said. "And to our ability to win. At the end of the day for Democrats, they want a ticket that can win. You can't govern if you can't win."

Fudge said Biden's choice "should be a black woman, no question about it."

"We need to say to black women, who have been the most loyal, the most reliable in the party: It is your time."

Asked if she would consider the role, she said: "Certainly I have been a public servant throughout my adult life in a variety of capacities. I'd be honored to serve in that one as well."

- - -

The Washington Post's Sean Sullivan contributed to this report.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ will no longer receive monthly Android security updates. The company has relegated its 2017 Galaxy S flagships to the quarterly schedule. Theyll now receive Android security maintenance releases once every three months.

The Galaxy S8 Active, meanwhile, will continue receiving the monthly security maintenance release, at least for the time being. The rugged Galaxy S8 model had arrived in the market a few months after the vanilla Galaxy S8 and S8+.

Galaxy S8, S8+ will now receive quarterly security updates

Samsung has been impressive with its monthly update releases lately. The South Korean giant often rolls out the updates even before Google details the patch.

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The company has also been doing commendably well in releasing the Android 10 update to its Galaxy smartphones, at least when compared to its Android 9 Pie release last year.

However, as much effort it is putting in this regard, theres no indication that the company will change its update policy any time soon. Samsung usually releases monthly security updates for its flagships for three years and that policy applies to the Galaxy S8 series as well.

Since the Galaxy S8 and S8+ were launched back in March 2017, with sales commencing in April 2017, the two devices have now attained that three-year threshold. They have now been duly shifted to the quarterly schedule.

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Both the devices have been receiving monthly security updates up till now. They last received the April 2020 Android security patch. Going forward, theyll receive security maintenance releases on a quarterly basis.

Samsung will bundle the security patches for three months and release them in a single update once every three months.

The Galaxy S8 Active, on the other hand, arrived in the market only in August 2017. So there are still a few months before it gets relegated to the quarterly schedule.

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No more new features for the Galaxy S8, S8+

Samsungs usual update policy also promises two major Android OS updates for its Galaxy smartphones. The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, launched with Android 7 Nougat, have already received Android 8 Oreo and Android 9 Pie updates. So they have received the two major Android OS updates that they were entitled to.

These devices are obviously not getting Android 10. Going forward, theyll only receive Android security maintenance updates once every three months.

Those updates will not bring any new features to the 2017 Galaxy S flagships. They havent received any new features for quite some time now anyway.
Chief Minister Of Telangana K Chandrashekhar Rao has decided to send the migrant labour of Telangana State to their native states. 40 special trains would be operated per day from today onwards for one-week. K Chandrashekhar Rao has instructed the officials to organise travel of migrant labourers on behalf of the state government. He said special trains would also run from Warangal, Khammam, Damaracharla and other stations in Hyderabad. These trains would run from the state to other states like Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

The review meeting was held by the CM to address the problems being faced by the migrant labour in the state due to lockdown. Medical and Health Minister Sri Etela Rajender, Chief Secretary Sri Somesh Kumar, DGP Sri Mahender Reddy and others attended the meeting. The discussion took place on migrant labour expressing their desire to go back to their native places. In the meeting, the CM took a decision to run special trains for the migrant workers to reach their destination.

K Chandrashekhar Rao spoke to SC Railway General manager Sri Gajanan Mallya and requested him to arrange for 40 special trains from Tuesday. The state government has also appointed senior IAS officer Sri Sandeep Sultania and senior IPS officer Sri Jitendra as Special Officers to oversea the travel of migrant workers to their native States.

Also Read: Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee to Rahul Gandhi on COVID-19 economic solutions: Give temporary ration cards to everyone, Aadhar-based claims for PDS could have saved a lot of misery for the poor

Also Read: Coronavirus update: Total positive cases in India cross 46,000 mark with toll at 1,568, Tamil Nadu becomes second state to record more than 500 cases in a day

Migrant workers have already registered their names with the local police stations to leave for their native places. Those who have registered their names with the police stations would be allowed to travel by the special trains. The details of their travel plans will be given at the police stations. The CM has urged that no migrant labour should feel anxious as the government has made arrangements for their travel to their native destinations. He has also instructed the concerned police officers to inform the migrant workers about the travel details and coordinate with them.

The state cabinet of Telangana is slated to meet today to discuss at length on the report submitted by the medical and health department. There is a possibility that the cabinet would deliberate on whether to continue the lockdown conditions, or give some relaxations and what should be done in the districts where the coronavirus spread is more among other issues and take a decision.

Also Read: West Bengal admits lapses in COVID-19 data reporting, says wont count co-morbidity deaths in coronavirus tally

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Dhaka, May 5 : The Bangladesh government has allowed shopping malls to reopen from May 10 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and also laid down a series of conditions for the businesses to operate ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.

The shops will be allowed to operate from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily while the shoppers and sellers will have to maintain physical distance and follow other hygiene rules, the Cabinet Division said on Monday.

"The shops are allowed to remain open on a limited scale for the ongoing month of Ramadan and the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr," bdnews24 quoted the Cabinet Division as saying.

Bangladesh has already extended the nationwide lockdown to May 16 amid a surge in the confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths.

But it has slightly relaxed the stay-at-home orders for citizens which were previously in effect from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

As of Tuesday, there were 10,143 confirmed coronavirus cases in Bangladesh, with 182 deaths.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
New Delhi, May 5 : Suresh Raina on Tuesday tweeted a video of him working out with the song 'Bella Ciao' playing in the background.

Raina posted boomerangs of him working out with his "little Bella." In one of those, his daughter Gracia can also be seen in the frame. "Another workout session with my little Bella. #Gracia," said Raina.

On Monday, Raina said that it was disturbing to see how there has been an "exponential" rise in the number of child abuse and domestic violence cases during the ongoing coronavirus crisis around the world. Raina has, therefore, urged people to raise their voice and report such cases without any fear.

"Lockdown has taught us various ways to love and bond with our family," Raina said on Twitter.

"Though it's disturbing to read how exponentially the no. of child abuse and domestic violence cases have grown around the world.

"I urge anyone who is facing violence please reach out for help and don't shut yourself," he added.

Earlier, Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan and his wife Ayesha had also put out a video on social media to send an important message regarding domestic violence.

Dhawan urged people to put an end to this social evil by choosing the right partner for themselves.

"While I enjoy my time at home with my loving family, I am truly sad and disheartened and sad to hear about domestic violence still existing in today's time and we need to put an end to it. Choose a kind and loving partnership and say no to violence," read his Twitter post which he published in April.
" " Vespa mandarinia) is the world's largest hornet. Native to parts of Asia and Russia, it was found in the Pacific Northwest in late 2019, although so far it's not known to have become established there. Wikimedia Commons ( CC By-SA 4.0 The Asian giant hornet () is the world's largest hornet. Native to parts of Asia and Russia, it was found in the Pacific Northwest in late 2019, although so far it's not known to have become established there.

Most insects won't hurt you  it's a fact. And yet, it's worthwhile to fear some bugs, especially if they're the size of your entire thumb, have a quarter-inch-long (6-millimeter) stinger and a sting that is commonly said to be like being pierced with a red-hot needle. Also, as a general rule, maintain distance from anything popularly known as the "murder hornet."

The Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) is the biggest hornet in the world, and with its sinister-looking goggle eyes and black and orange tiger stripes, it's pretty easy to identify as one of the bugs to leave alone. Only the queens grow to be truly gigantic  more than 2 inches (50 millimeters) in length, while her workers are a little smaller at around an inch and a half (40 millimeters), but their tendency to gang up on the object of their ire can be deadly, no matter their size. Their venom is extravagantly toxic  in Japan, between 30 and 50 people die each year from receiving multiple stings  and some years, when their populations are particularly high, their numbers can cause full-on public health crises, as they did in the Shaanxi province of China in 2013, when the hornets killed 42 people and injured 1,600 in just a few months.

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Native to the forests of East Asia and Japan, these hornets generally dine on tree sap, honeybee colonies and the honey therein. A normal hornet attack on a honeybee hive can involve up to 50 hornets, but just one Asian giant hornet attacking a honeybee colony can kill up to 40 bees per minute, shearing their heads from their bodies with its mandibles and tossing their thoraxes to the ground, which will later be collected and carried back to the nest to feed the colony.

Not convinced? How scary can a little hornet be? Check out the video below of an Asian giant hornet massacring a mouse. And be forewarned, it isn't for the faint of heart.

With honeybee colonies in the United States facing extreme pressures due to colony collapse disorder (CCD), it would be really bad if the Asian giant hornet were to find its way to the U.S. You see where this is going, of course.

In December 2019, Asian giant hornets were discovered in the U.S. for the first time  in Washington state, possibly having traveled down from Canada, where a hive was found and destroyed in 2019. Experts in the state are frantically searching for hives in order to destroy them. So, if you live in the United States and see an Asian giant hornet, call your local Department of Agriculture.

Now That's Interesting Honeybees that evolved alongside the Asian giant hornet have an ingenuous technique for killing the invaders: They surround the enemy and cook them alive in a 115-degree F (46 degree C) ball of bees!
Amiya Meethal By

Express News Service

KOZHIKODE: We have heard umpteen stories of how common people come forward to extend their hand in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic. But this story from Vanimel, an agrarian area of Kozhikode district, gives one fresh hopes to believe in human kindness. Thirty-eight-year-old dairy farmer Subhash K A sold some 8,000kg of dried cow dung and contributed Rs 10,000 from the money he got to the Chief Ministers Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).

He had taken laborious efforts for a year in drying and preserving it. On Monday, he sold 400 baskets of cow dung (one basket will have approximately 20kg of cow dung) to a local landlord at a rate of Rs 40 per basket. Of the Rs 16,000 he got, he handed over I10,000 at the Valayam police station and the police payed the money to the CMDRF online.

We are amid a pandemic. Help is pouring from all walks of life and I too wanted to do my bit, Subhash told TNIE. All his members  father Kelappan, mother Saumini, wife Divya and children were unanimous in the decision.

Five cows at home The young dairy farmer has five indigenous cows  his sole livelihood. All five are giving milk now. I get 25 litres of milk a day. After reserving some for domestic needs, the rest is sold at the cooperative society at Vilangad, he said.

Subhashs wife Divya said the cow dung is usually sold just before the onset of monsoon. It was a years keep. Drying cow dung is a painstaking exercise as one has to be cautious of surprise rain, said she. Valayam SI Biju RC said he was deeply touched by the gesture of common public coming forward in the hour of crisis.
A pple fans can breathe easy now: the tech giant has revealed its annual WWDC developer conference will go ahead in June, albeit virtually instead of at its Cupertino headquarters.

The conference, which is in its 31st year, is a mainstay for developers who use Apples platforms for their apps and games, with tickets always selling out for the main event weeks in advance.

However, due to the global lockdown measures, Apple will be holding the conference virtually this year, beginning June 22. All developers will be able to access the content free in the Apple Developer app and website.

Speaking about the new virtual conference, Apples senior VP of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller said: WWDC20 will be our biggest yet, bringing together our global developer community of more than 23 million people in an unprecedented way for a week in June to learn about the future of Apple platforms. We cant wait to meet online in June with the global developer community and share with them all of the new tools weve been working oh to help them create even more incredible apps and services.

Around 6,000 people attend WWDC every year but this year's version will take place virtually ( BRITTANY HOSEA-SMALL / Contributor / Getty) / BRITTANY HOSEA-SMALL / Contributor / Getty

WWDC is notable because its the first time Apple unveils its next iOS, iPadOS and MacOS updates which will determine how a developers app works and looks on the iPhone, iPad and Mac. Last year, new additions to iOS 13 included dark mode for the first time and improved security updates such as the log in with Apple feature. At this years WWDC, Apple will be revealing details about iOS 14.

As part of the conference, Apple also invites student developers to apply to attend via its student scholarship programme. Last year, 350 students from 37 different countries won trips to WWDC as part of the programme, and this year is no different. Student developers are invited to apply by creating an interactive scene in a Swift playground that can be experienced within three minutes, using Apples coding language and app.

Craig Federighi, senior VP of software engineering, said: As we look forward to WWDC 2020, although our gathering will be virtual this year, we want to recognise the creative contributions of our young developers from around the world. We cant wait to see this next generation of innovative thinkers turn their ideas into a reality through the Swift Student Challenge.

Students have until 7.59 am on May 18 to submit their interactive scene to Apple. Apple is going to throw in an exclusive WWDC20 jacket and pin set for the winners, as well as events and fun during the week-long event.

For non-developers and student winners, you can tune into the main WWDC conference Monday, June 22, via a live stream on Apples website. Well update this page nearer the time with more information on WWDC 2020 as it comes out.

WWDC 2020 runs from Monday June 22 - to Friday June 26. Catch up on all the headline news at standard.co.uk/WWDC
Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google on Monday said they would ban the use of location tracking in apps that use a new contact tracing system the two are building to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Apple and Google, whose operating systems power 99% of smart phones, said last month they would work together to create a system for notifying people who have been near others who have tested positive for Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The companies plan to allow only public health authorities to use the technology. Both companies said privacy and ...
05.05.2020 LISTEN

The Media Coalition against Open Defecation (M-CODe) has condemned the recent attacks by angry youth on the Queen Mother of Sakumono Village after she resisted open defecation.

On Monday, some irate youth stormed the residence of the Queen Mother with sticks, cudgel, stones, and machetes.

In a statement from M-CODe, they say they condemn in no uncertain terms anybody connected with the attacks on the Queen Mother of Sakumono Village in relation to her efforts at stopping open defecation.

The Media Coalition against Open Defecation is urging the law enforcement agencies to deal with anybody that will be found guilty of being part of the attacks on the Queen Mother.

M-CODe backs the law enforcement agencies to deal with anybody found guilty of this act; for the youth of a community to attack their Queen Mother or anybody who is simply fighting open defecation to protect everybody in the community from preventable illnesses is unthinkable in the 21st century, the M-CODe statement dated May 4, 2020, said.

Meanwhile, as many as 9 people including the assembly member of the area, Richard Sorgbordjor, have been arrested as the Police continue its investigations.

Full statement below:
PARIS, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HSBC (contact: 'synd manager'; telephone: +44 207 992 8066) hereby gives notice, as Stabilisation Coordinator, that the Stabilisation Manager(s) named below may stabilise the offer of the following securities



The securities: Issuer: SUEZ Guarantor (if any): na Aggregate nominal amount: EUR Benchmark Description: Fixed due 14th May 2035 Offer price: TBC Other offer terms: Stabilisation: Stabilising Manager(s): Citi / HSBC / RBC CM / UniCredit Stabilisation period expected to start on: 5th May 2020 Stabilisation period expected to end no later than: 12th June 2020 Existence, maximum size & conditions of use of over-allotment facility [1] : 5% of the aggregate nominal amount Stabilisation Venue(s) Over the counter (OTC)

In connection with the offer of the above securities, the Stabilisation Manager(s) may over-allot the securities or effect transactions with a view to supporting the market price of the securities at a level higher than that which might otherwise prevail. However, there is no assurance that the Stabilisation Manager(s) will take any stabilisation action and any stabilisation action, if begun, may be ended at any time. Any stabilisation action or over-allotment shall be conducted in accordance with all applicable laws and rules.

This announcement is for information purposes only and does not constitute an invitation or offer to underwrite, subscribe for or otherwise acquire or dispose of any securities of the Issuer in any jurisdiction.

In addition, if and to the extent that this announcement is communicated in, or the offer of the securities to which it relates is made in, any EEA Member State that has implemented Directive 2003/71/EC, as amended (together with any applicable implementing measures in any Member State, the "Prospectus Directive") before the publication of a prospectus in relation to the securities which has been approved by the competent authority in that Member State in accordance with the Prospectus Directive (or which has been approved by a competent authority in another Member State and notified to the competent authority in that Member State in accordance with the Prospectus Directive), this announcement and the offer are only addressed to and directed at persons in that Member State who are qualified investors within the meaning of the Prospectus Directive (or who are other persons to whom the offer may lawfully be addressed) and must not be acted on or relied on by other persons in that Member State.

This announcement and the offer of the securities to which it relates are only addressed to and directed at persons outside the United Kingdom and persons in the United Kingdom who have professional experience in matters related to investments or who are high net worth persons within article 12(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 and must not be acted on or relied on by other persons in the United Kingdom.

[1] Please note that the existence and the maximum size of any greenshoe option, the exercise period of the greenshoe option and any conditions for exercise of the greenshoe option must also be disclosed, if such option exists. In addition, the exercise of the greenshoe option must be disclosed to the public promptly, together with all appropriate details, including in particular the date of exercise and the number and nature of securities involved
PLYMOUTH, Mich., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Adient (NYSE: ADNT), a global leader in automotive seating, today announced second quarter 2020 financial results.

Impacted by COVID-19 and one-time, non-cash charges, Q2 GAAP net loss and EPS diluted of $(19)M and $(0.20) respectively; Q2 Adj.-EPS diluted of $0.62

and respectively; Q2 Adj.-EPS diluted of Q2 Adj.-EBITDA of $211M , up $20M y-o-y (includes ~$100M impact from COVID-19); Adj. EBITDA margin of 6.0%, up 150 bps y-o-y despite a 17% decline in revenue (decline primarily attributed to lost production volume associated with the pandemic)

, up y-o-y (includes impact from COVID-19); Adj. EBITDA margin of 6.0%, up 150 bps y-o-y despite a 17% decline in revenue (decline primarily attributed to lost production volume associated with the pandemic) Cash and cash equivalents of $1,640M at March 31, 2020 ; implemented cash conservation actions to reduce monthly cash burn rate (defined as net cash outflow associated with operating the company) from ~$300M to ~$175M

at ; implemented cash conservation actions to reduce monthly cash burn rate (defined as net cash outflow associated with operating the company) from to Subsequent to March 31, 2020 , issued $600M of senior secured notes due 2025

, issued of senior secured notes due 2025 All of Adient's China operations have reopened; the automotive industry in China continues to trend in a positive direction

For complete details and to see reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures, visit the events section of the Adient investor website at www.investors.adient.com/events-and-presentations/events to download the full press release and earnings presentation.

Investor analyst conference call:

Adient's president and chief executive officer, Douglas Del Grosso, and executive vice president and chief financial officer, Jeff Stafeil, will host a conference call today at 8:30 a.m. Eastern to discuss the results. To participate by telephone, please dial 800-779-1454 (U.S.) or 312-470-7220 (international) 15 minutes prior to the start time of the call and ask to be connected to the Adient conference call. The conference passcode is ADIENT.

About Adient:

Adient (NYSE: ADNT) is a global leader in automotive seating. With 81,000 employees in 34 countries, Adient operates 220 manufacturing/assembly plants worldwide. We produce and deliver automotive seating for all major OEMs. From complete seating systems to individual components, our expertise spans every step of the automotive seat-making process. Our integrated, in-house skills allow us to take our products from research and design to engineering and manufacturing  and into more than 23 million vehicles every year. For more information on Adient, please visit www.adient.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

Adient has made statements in this document that are forward-looking and, therefore, are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements in this document other than statements of historical fact are statements that are, or could be, deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In this document, statements regarding Adient's future financial position, sales, costs, earnings, cash flows, other measures of results of operations, capital expenditures or debt levels and plans, objectives, outlook, targets, guidance or goals are forward-looking statements. Words such as "may," "will," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," "should," "forecast," "project" or "plan" or terms of similar meaning are also generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. Adient cautions that these statements are subject to numerous important risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors, some of which are beyond Adient's control, that could cause Adient's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, among others, risks related to: the continued financial and operational impacts of and uncertainties relating to the COVID-19 pandemic on Adient and its customers, suppliers, joint venture partners and other parties, the ability of Adient to close the sale of its fabrics business, including receipt of necessary regulatory approvals, the ability of Adient to close the transactions subject to the Yanfeng agreement, the ability of Adient to effectively launch new business at forecasted and profitable levels, the ability of Adient to execute its turnaround plan, uncertainties in U.S. administrative policy regarding trade agreements, tariffs and other international trade relations, the impact of tax reform legislation through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the ability of Adient to meet debt service requirements, terms of financing, general economic and business conditions, the strength of the U.S. or other economies, automotive vehicle production levels, mix and schedules, energy and commodity prices, the availability of raw materials and component products, currency exchange rates, the cancellation of or changes to commercial arrangements, and the ability of Adient to identify, recruit and retain key leadership. A detailed discussion of risks related to Adient's business is included in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in Adient's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2019 filed with the SEC on November 22, 2019 and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC, as well as within Adient's Current Report on Form 8-K filed on April 20, 2020, available at www.sec.gov. Potential investors and others should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements and should not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements included in this document are made only as of the date of this document, unless otherwise specified, and, except as required by law, Adient assumes no obligation, and disclaims any obligation, to update such statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this document.

In addition, this document includes certain projections provided by Adient with respect to the anticipated future performance of Adient's businesses. Such projections reflect various assumptions of Adient's management concerning the future performance of Adient's businesses, which may or may not prove to be correct. The actual results may vary from the anticipated results and such variations may be material. Adient does not undertake any obligation to update the projections to reflect events or circumstances or changes in expectations after the date of this document or to reflect the occurrence of subsequent events. No representations or warranties are made as to the accuracy or reasonableness of such assumptions or the projections based thereon.

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Taliban Claim Attack on Afghan Army Base

By Ayesha Tanzeem May 04, 2020

Taliban have claimed an attack on an Afghan military and intelligence base in Helmand province Sunday night that killed at least seven and wounded more than a dozen, according to a security source. The attack was confirmed by multiple Afghan officials, including the spokesman for Helmand governor Omar Zawak, albeit with a lower number of casualties. The Afghan ministry of defense said only one person was wounded.

The source who did not wish to be named also said the base in Grishk district was partially damaged in the attack.

District police chief Ismail Khpalwak said a suicide attacker exploded a Mazda mini truck in front of the gate. The base along the Kandahar-Herat highway is approximately 120 km north of the provincial capital Lashkargah which houses forces responsible for keeping the highway secure.

The Taliban statement claiming the attack said it was done in retaliation for repeated violations of the deal made between the United States and Taliban in February in Doha, as well as attacks on civilians living in areas under Taliban control.

While this is the first time in weeks that Taliban have directly claimed an attack, several reports suggest Taliban violence increased in March and April of this year.

A Reuters story claims Taliban mounted 4500 attacks since the signing of the deal on February 29.

"[A]ttacks by the hardline Islamist group [were] up by more than 70 percent between March 1 and April 15 compared with the same period a year ago," Reuters said.

The latest United Nations report on civilian casualties said anti-government forces killed 55 percent of all the civilians who died in the first quarter of 2020 in Afghanistan. The report blamed Taliban for 39 percent of those killings.

The attack in Helmand, though the deadliest, was one of several in various parts of Afghanistan in the last 24 hours.

In Paktika province, a grenade attack on a mosque in Khairkot district along the border with Pakistan left 20 worshippers wounded. Shah Mohammad Aryan, a spokesman for the Paktika police headquarters told VOA that all the wounded have been shifted to a hospital and are out of danger.

In a third attack north of the capital Kabul Monday morning, four employees of the state owned power company were wounded in a bomb explosion on their way back to the capital after repairing a pylon destroyed by gunmen Sunday night.

A statement by the Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS) said two out of the four were in critical condition.

This was the second attack on an electricity pylon north of Kabul in the last two weeks. In the first attack, the pylon destroyed was used for transferring electricity imported from Central Asia. Its destruction caused two days of power outages in Kabul and a few other provinces.

Kabul police have arrested a group of criminals that it says is led by the brother of a Taliban group commander in connection with these attacks on the electricity infrastructure.

In yet another attack in Kandahar city Monday morning, a policewoman was killed.. Jamal Barakzai, a spokesman for Kandahar police, told VOA she was killed in the center of the city. In the past two months, five policewomen have been killed in various attacks in Kandahar. Around 100 policewomen are on duty in Kandahar province.

No group has so far taken responsibility for targeting female police officers. Kandahar is an extremely conservative province and few women are seen on the streets.

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(Photo : NASA ) Artist depiction of Mars Perseverance Rover

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) tested the instruments onboard its new Mars rover on the deserts of Australia to determine if the instruments can detect life.

Named Perseverance, the rover will look for signs of past life on the Red Planet. It will investigate the rocks and soil samples in the Martian crater, Jezero. It's an area that scientists believe to be suitable for microbial life.

A study using the life-detecting instruments of the Mars Perseverance Rover showed promising results. The Mars rover successfully found real fossils and signs of microbes from hundreds of millions of years ago during a trial in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia, said in a report in Futurism.

The Mars Perseverance Rover will survey the Martian surface carrying seven scientific instruments that can determine a wide range of organic molecules in geological samples.

Finding traces of ancient life

Researchers told Futurism that using the data collected by Perseverance, they found signs of ancient life and could make an intelligent guess on the environmental conditions during the time of the microbes.

The results of the study appeared in the latest issue of the journal Astrobiology. The researchers said that this development could help lead us to future astrobiological studies into other planets' ancient history.

Bonnie Teece, an astrobiologist from the University of New South Wales, said that it is interesting to note that the rover found signs of ancient microbial life from the Cambrian period.

Teece added that animals first evolved on earth during that period. "We found biomarkers, we found organic compounds, and we found physical fossils and minerals that are associated with biology on Earth."

A rehearsal

When asked about why the researchers chose the area, Teece explained that the Flinders Range's landscape is comparable to what Perseverance will encounter on Mars. Like Mars, the area is dry, dusty, and wind-swept terrain.

The heat and pressure in the Flinders Range could degrade fossils under such conditions, which are the same conditions on the Martian surface.

"We wanted to use the same techniques that are on the Rover to pinpoint the best areas for looking for life and show that these techniques work together well," Teece said in the report.

NASA built the Mars Perseverance Rover to continue its long-term exploration of Mars. The car-sized six-wheeled rover will drive across the Martian surface to answer the long-time questions about the potential existence of life on the Red Planet.

NASA said that what makes this mission unique is that it will take our Mars exploration to the next level. The new Mars rover can only search for signs of habitable conditions on the planet, but also seek signs of past microbial life itself.

The Mars Perseverance Rover carries a drill that will gather core samples from rocks and soil. Then, it will set those samples aside in a "cache" on the surface of Mars.

The Mars mission is also another opportunity to learn more about Mars and test technologies that can help solve the challenges of future human expeditions on the planet.

These include testing a method for producing oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, identifying other resources, improving landing techniques, and characterizing weather, dust, and other potential environmental conditions that could affect future astronauts living and working on Mars.

Also Read: 'Perseverance' New Official Name of NASA Mars Rover 2020 That'll Join Curiosity; You'll Be Shocked on Who Gave This Name!

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Cubas President Miguel Diaz-Canel on May 4 called the gun assault on its embassy in Washington a 'terrorist attack'. In a virtual summit of the non-aligned movement early on Monday, Miguel said that he has demanded from the United States a swift and thorough investigation into the attack and security measures with guarantees for their diplomatic missions. According to reports, the papers submitted in the US court about the incident said that the attack was carried out by a Cuban emigre who heard voices in his head.

Read: Accused Embassy Gunman Said He Feared Cuban Organized Crime

The attack

The Cuban embassy in Washington was attacked by a gunman on April 30 at around 2:00 am. The gunman reportedly used a semi-automatic assault rifle and fired 32 shots at the front side of the building. As per reports, the gunman was arrested by the DC Metropolitan Police Department who later identified the suspect as 42-year-old Alexander Alazo of Aubrey, Texas. A police report identified the weapon as an AK-47 and said that it was an unregistered firearm with unregistered ammunition. Alexander Alazo has been reportedly charged with assault with an intention to kill.

Read: DC Police: Suspect Arrested For Shooting At Cuban Embassy

According to reports, Alazo told investigators that he intended to kill the ambassador because 'he was the enemy'. He also told investigators that he heard voices in his head who asked him to protect his family from what he claimed an organised Cuban crime group supported by the Cuban government who were following him and his family and wanted to harm them. Alazo also admitted that he had been prescribed antipsychotic medication in March but he did not comply with them.

Read: Cuba Blames Hostile US Rhetoric For Embassy Attack

According to court papers, before attacking the embassy, Alazo first tried to unsuccessfully burn a Cuban flag on which 'Stop Lying to People. Respect. Trump 2020. USA, Land and Family' was written. As per reports, Alazo first emigrated to Mexico in 2003 and then to Texas, the US in 2007. He went to Cuba for a brief period of time in 2014 to preach at a church but had to return after reportedly facing threats from Cuban organised crime groups.

Read: Cuba Embassy In US Damaged In Night Shooting

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez laid the blame for the attack on what he described as "increasingly hostile rhetoric" by the US against the island nation. Rodriguez also called the shooting 'a terrorist attack' during a televised address on Cuban state-run TV, blaming the rising tensions in Washington for the incident. Rodgriguez said that diplomats were inside the building when the attack took place and had summoned the in-charge of the US embassy in Havana over the details of the shooting.

(Image Credit: AP)


Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during the release of the 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report at the State Department in Washington on June 20, 2019. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

Congressional Watchdog Recommends Changes to Atomic Energy Act

Report says Executive Branch should provide regular briefings to Congress about negotiations on Saudi-US nuclear power sharing

A congressional watchdog released a report Monday in which it recommended that the U.S. Departments of State and Energy commit to briefing the relevant Congressional committees on negotiations with Saudi Arabia about nuclear power cooperation.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Congress should consider modifying the 1954 Atomic Energy Act (AEA) to require regular briefings for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations about Trump Administrations talks with Saudi Arabia on nuclear power-sharing.

The AEA of 1954 established the terms and outlined the process for nuclear cooperation between the United States and other countries.

The GOA report stated, It is unclear whether the Departments of State and Energy kept Congress fully and currently informed of nuclear cooperation negotiations with Saudi Arabia, as required by the AEA. These negotiations are stalled over nonproliferation conditions.

GAO also recommended that the Secretary of State in coordination with the Secretary of Energy be required to provide regular, substantive briefings to the relevant Congressional committees.

U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations put out a joint statement about GOAs findings.

We thank the GAO for their efforts in putting together this important product. We requested this study because of concerns regarding how the United States has been engaging the Saudi government on nuclear cooperation, including why the Department of Energy, not the Department of State, took the lead in negotiations with the Saudi government, said the Senators Monday.

A State Department Spokesperson told the Epoch Times that the Department cooperated fully with GAOs investigation.

The GAO requests related to an ongoing international negotiation; thus, our cooperation was consistent with our longstanding policy of protecting confidential and current diplomatic discussions with our international counterparts.

The State Department also told ET that their first priority is to, protect U.S. interests at stake in such an ongoing negotiation, and to achieve the best outcome possible for the United States and the American people, the Department did not reveal details related to the negotiation, though it did make experts available to GAO who were briefed on the role and approach of the Department in such negotiations.

The Senators originally made the request to GAO on March 15, 2019 to conduct the study on behalf of Congress, after reports that some of the Trump Administrations civil nuclear cooperation negotiations with Saudi Arabia were conducted without adequate oversight.

The Statement Department added, Additional requests by the GAO were related to internal deliberations within the Executive Branch, which the Department also does not disclose in order to protect our ability to debate issues and to provide full and frank input and recommendations to our leadership.

Senator Menendez and Rubio said they are troubled at the lack of coordination between the different agencies and at the idea that this could lead to an agreement without proper safeguards to prevent nuclear proliferation. The senators urged the Administration to adhere to the Atomic Energy Act requirements and keep Congress abreast of all developments.

As we explore legislative changes to address these challenges, it is clear Congress must reassert its critical role in reviewing nuclear cooperation agreements to ensure these agreements do not pose an unnecessary risk to the United States, the Senators concluded.

The senators argue that the American public deserves greater transparency about these dealings.
In recognition of the spirit of service that they have demonstrated in their communities, Michael and Clare  along with 100 other top youth volunteers from across the country  were also each given $2,500 to donate toward the local COVID-19 response efforts of a nonprofit organization of their choice. These funds come in addition to the $1,000 scholarship and engraved silver medallion they earned as Arizona's top youth volunteers of 2020.

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program, sponsored by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), named Michael and Clare Arizona's top high school and middle level youth volunteers in February.

"Over the past 25 years, this program has honored students spanning three generations, and the common thread between them has been the determination of young people to respond to the challenges of the moment," said Charles Lowrey, chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial. "Who better than this group of young leaders from all over the country to help identify and direct resources to community needs arising from COVID-19?"

As State Honorees, Michael and Clare also earned an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C. for the program's annual national recognition events; the trip, however, was canceled due to COVID-19 and changed to a three-day online celebration this past weekend. In addition to remarks and congratulations from actress Kristen Bell, honorees had opportunities to connect with each other through online project-sharing sessions, learn about service and advocacy from accomplished past Spirit of Community honorees, hear congratulatory remarks from Lowrey and NASSP Executive Director and CEO JoAnn Bartoletti, and more.

"We admire these young leaders for their ability to assess the needs of the communities they serve and find meaningful ways to address them," said Bartoletti. "At a time when everyone is looking for optimism, these students are a bright light for their peers and the adults in their lives."

About the Honorees

Michael (pictured left), a junior at Phoenix Country Day School, leads an effort that has raised more than $141,000 to find treatments for rare diseases that are often overlooked and underfunded. When he moved to Arizona four years ago, Michael met a boy who had to drag an oxygen tank behind him because of a rare lung disease. Coincidentally, Michael's best friend's brother, Harry, also had a rare lung disease, and Michael himself was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder when he was younger. All of this made Michael acutely aware of the scarcity of treatments available to people with rare diseases. "Considering the fact that 25 million people currently suffer from one of 7,000 documented rare diseases in the United States, I found the lack of treatment available for patients abysmal," he said.

Fortunately, Michael outgrew his condition, and Harry's life was saved thanks to research by the Translational Genomics Research Institute's Center for Rare Childhood Disorders. "But other kids are not as lucky as Harry and me," Michael said. So with the help of three friends, Michael founded "Kidz 4 Causes," a nonprofit that raises funds to help pay for genetic testing at the Center for Rare Childhood Disorders, the first step toward finding effective treatments. In four years, Michael's team has organized four coin drives, four community runs, three restaurant fundraisers and eight school presentations. The money raised by these activities helps pay for genetic testing for kids whose families cannot afford the full cost. So far, Michael has been told that his efforts have helped more than 20 families find treatments for their children.

Clare (pictured right), an eighth-grader at BASIS Scottsdale, volunteers as a foster "mother" for homeless newborn kittens, caring for them for up to two months at a time until they are ready for adoption from the Arizona Humane Society. "My mother has instilled in me the deep impact an animal can have on a human life, and the importance of treating animals properly," said Clare. "Animals enrich the lives of humans." In 2017, she learned that the local animal shelter was at capacity for cats and kittens and could no longer accept any more strays. She also discovered that there aren't enough people in Arizona willing to provide short-term care for homeless animals. She said she was particularly struck by the phrase "Save a Life Today" on the shelter's website.

After persuading her parents with a PowerPoint presentation, Clare completed two classes on the humane society's website to become a certified foster parent. Initially, she thought volunteering would be mostly about "playing with cute, cuddly babies," she said, but quickly found out that there's a lot of work involved. Some kittens need feeding by bottle or syringe every three hours, even in the middle of the night. Some need medication up to five times a day. Clare also has to keep her kittens clean, maintain detailed charts, work on socialization and even help some of them relieve themselves. Once a kitten reaches two pounds, it goes back to the shelter and is put up for adoption. "Giving my kittens back is a sad day," Clare said. "There are tears. But it is a wonderful day when I learn of my kittens' adoptions."

About The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program was created in 1995 to identify and recognize young people for outstanding volunteer service  and, in so doing, inspire others to volunteer, too. In the past 25 years, the program has honored more than 130,000 young volunteers at the local, state and national level.

For more information about The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards and this year's honorees, visit http://spirit.prudential.com. For more information about the National Association of Secondary School Principals, visit www.nassp.org. For more information about Prudential Financial, visit www.news.prudential.com.

Learn more at spirit.prudential.com

SOURCE Prudential Financial, Inc.
New analysis highlights the need for Bureau of Labor Statistic to modify its estimation of the impact of the coronavirus on labor markets

There is no doubt that the COVID-19 crisis is affecting the U.S. economy and labor markets in an unprecedented way. The leisure, hospitality and retail industries have been hit the hardest by shutdown orders nationwide but new research that uses data from Homebase, a time-tracking software, to provide real-time employment estimates shows that the report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, expected later this week, may not capture the full extent of the contraction.

Andre Kurmann, associate professor in the School of Economics of Drexel University's LeBow College of Business, Etienne Lale of the Universite du Quebec a Montreal and Lien Ta, a Drexel doctoral student, analyzed data from Homebase to come up with real-time estimates of the COVID-19 crisis on U.S. employment and hours worked.

They found that employment in leisure, hospitality and retail trade contracted by an estimated 19.8 million - from 32.3 million in mid-February to 12.5 million by the end of April - a staggering 60% decline. Most of this decline occurred in the second half of March as stay-at-home orders came into effect.

The researchers also found that about 6.7 million or one-third of the employment decline is due to businesses shutting down, and that remaining employees in continuing businesses saw a 10% reduction in their weekly hours.

While the contraction in the two sectors is dramatic, there are some first glimmers of a recovery. As of the end of April, about 15% of inactive businesses have returned to activity, and weekly hours worked and employment have started to increase.

The results of the analysis contrast with the latest estimates by the BLS that pertain to mid-March, before most of the effects of the crisis were felt, according to the researchers.

"With the COVID-19 crisis unfolding with tremendous speed and affecting labor markets in such an unprecedented way, it's all the more important to have timely and accurate measures of the actual impact," Kurmann said. "The results imply that the employment losses reported by the BLS in its March report, though large by historical standards, show only the tip of the iceberg and we should expect much worse estimates in the April report due to be released this Friday."

The analysis also highlights the importance of taking into account the negative employment effects of business inactivity. Historically, the BLS estimates from its establishment survey (Current Employment Statistics) adjusted for this so-called net birth/death effect only indirectly based on past data. In the current situation, where many of the businesses have at least temporarily shut down, this adjustment is no longer appropriate, according to the researchers. The BLS recently announced on its website that it will modify its birth/death model with the April report but hasn't provided details on how the methodology will change.

According to Kurmann, it could be a year from now -- after the BLS has processed and analyzed data from the census of all businesses -- until we will know the full extent of the coronavirus outbreak on employment, which is why it's important to have at least estimates of the current situation.

"Our report complements a number of concurrent efforts to measure the real-time impact of the crisis on labor markets," he said. "We provide a direct estimate of establishment inactivity and, going forward, the extent to which the U.S. labor market is starting to recover as restrictions are lifted and the economy opens up again."

At the same time, the researchers caution that the Homebase data does not come without limitations. The majority of workers tracked by Homebase are hourly employees and the company's clientele consists mostly of small businesses, which account for about half of total employment in leisure, hospitality and retail. The Homebase data does not capture the response of larger companies to the crisis, but the report shows that even under conservative assumptions about the employment decline among larger businesses, the estimated employment loss in leisure, hospitality and retail amounts to 16.5 million - still a staggering number.

The researchers plan to continue providing real-time updates to their estimates with the latest data from Homebase. Their future plans include tracking the extent to which inactive organizations return to activity, as well as tracking whether or not furloughed or laid off employees return to their previous positions. Plans also include using real-time data to assess the impact of COVID-19 on other industries, as well as producing estimates for various regions throughout the country.

###

The full report is available at this link.
Extraction (Credit: Netflix)

Hot on the heels of Extraction becoming one of Netflix's most most-watched films ever, Joe Russo is set to pen its sequel.

The Avengers director - who also penned the first movie - is said to be 'optimistic' that Chris Hemsworth will be back as mercenary Tyler Rake and that Sam Hargrave, stunt coordinator on Endgame and Captain America: Civil War, will direct once again.

The deal is closed for me to write Extraction 2, and we are in the formative stages of what the story can be, Russo told Deadline.

Were not committing yet to whether that story goes forward, or backward in time. We left a big loose ending that leaves question marks for the audience.

CHICAGO, IL - AUGUST 13: Co-director Joe Russo during the 'We Love You 3000' Tour at Best Buy in celebration of the Blu-ray release of 'Avengers: Endgame' on August 13, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Barry Brecheisen/Getty Images)

He went on: There was always a simple drive to the story, a balletic execution of action where you take a damaged character who made an egregious mistake in the past and has a shot at redemption which might be fatal.

Read more: Hemsworth shares extreme autograph story

What was key is that we needed a muscular action director like Sam to be the main creative force in the execution of the action.

It emerged over the weekend that the movie has received a staggering amount of views on Netflix.

The streamer says that it's been viewed by 90 million households in its first four weeks on release, meaning it's topped previous title holder Bird Box, the post-apocalyptic Sandra Bullock thriller which scored 80 million views last year.

Extraction follows Hemsworth's former Australian SAS operative turned mercenary, who is tasked with recovering the kidnapped son of a drug lord in Bangladesh.
PORTLAND, Ore., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cambia Health Foundation today announced philanthropic investments of more than $3 million to meet critical and emerging needs fueled by COVID-19. As the pandemic continues, these new investments focus on meeting the urgent needs of underserved communities and front-line providers while strengthening the infrastructure of the entire heath care system for future resilience.

Building on an existing commitment of $300,000 into shared COVID-19 Emergency Relief Funds, the Foundation's recent grants will infuse capital into four community health associations that support the work of Federally Qualified Health Centers across ID, OR, UT and WA. The new funding also supports the development of tools and resources for health care providers on the front-lines of the pandemic.

Federally Qualified Health Centers

Federally Qualified Health Centers are the backbone of the primary care safety net. These community-based nonprofit health centers are driven by trusted providers who deliver whole person care and address health disparities with solutions that eliminate gaps and increase access to quality health care. The Cambia Health Foundation's Community Health Center Crisis Response and Recovery Initiative will provide a total of $1 million to Oregon Primary Care Association, Washington Association for Community Health, Association for Utah Community Health, and Idaho Primary Care Association to support community health centers across their respective states, combat emerging health and safety issues and ultimately play a vital role in their communities' recovery.

Health Care Workforce

Recognizing that the work of health care providers is immensely stressful and rapidly evolving in the face of COVID-19, Cambia Health Foundation is investing in the development of resources to better assist all clinicians on the front-lines of this public health crisis, including professionals serving rural and underserved communities. Grants will be directed to Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC), VitalTalk, City of Hope/End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) , Four Seasons (ECHO Project) and Providence Health Care, and National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO)  organizations that will build tools, information and training for quicker COVID-19 symptom assessment and management, compassionate patient and family communications, and the rapid adoption of telehealth services.

"We are honored to support the heroic efforts of the health care workforce to ensure essential needs of patients and families impacted by this national crisis are met," said Peggy Maguire, president of the Cambia Health Foundation. "Guided by the belief that health disparities are not inevitable, and that all people should be treated with dignity and compassion, our ability to come together during this challenging time provides the opportunity not only to respond to the immediate crisis, but also to sow the seeds for long-term health care system transformation."

We invite you to learn more about the organizations highlighted above. For more specific information about how you can support community health centers in your communities or learn about available palliative care resources visit our website.

About Cambia Health Foundation

Cambia Health Foundation is the corporate foundation of Cambia Health Solutions, a total health solutions company dedicated to making health care more person-focused and economically sustainable. Founded in 2007, the foundation has funded almost $70 million in grants to advance patient- and family-centered care for all. Cambia Health Foundation strategically invests in philanthropy to change the way people experience health care from birth to natural completion of life. Learn more at www.cambiahealthfoundation.org, and follow us on Twitter: @CambiaHealthFdn .

SOURCE Cambia Health Foundation

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WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump this week explained why he believes the District of Columbia will never become the 51st state, despite activists' best efforts: too many Democrats.

Republicans in Congress would have to be "very, very stupid" to allow D.C. statehood because the city's overwhelmingly Democratic population would likely elect two Democratic senators, swelling the party's ranks.

"D.C. will never be a state," Trump told the New York Post this week. "You mean District of Columbia, a state? Why? So we can have two more Democratic - Democrat senators and five more congressmen? No, thank you. That'll never happen."

The slight comes weeks after Congress passed a coronavirus relief bill that treated D.C. like a territory, shortchanging it by about $755 million, to the outrage of Democrats in the region.

Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's nonvoting delegate to Congress, said Trump's opinion on statehood is irrelevant because he may be voted out of office this year, and her party may have a chance to take control of the Senate.

"This is the predicable view not only of this president but of Republicans in the House House and perhaps even the Senate," the Democrat said. "The District should pay no attention to this."

Statehood advocates hope the majority-Democratic House this year will pass Norton's legislation shrinking the nation's capital to a two-square-mile enclave, encompassing the White House, Capitol Hill, the Supreme Court and other federal buildings.

The rest of D.C. would become the state of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, named for the famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who lived in Washington for the last part of his life.

The legislation has more than the minimum 218 co-sponsors needed for passage; no Republicans are on record in support of statehood.

Although she said she has not spoken with Joe Biden lately, Norton said the former vice president would support statehood if a bill landed on his desk as president.

In his interview with the New York Post, Trump framed his objection to statehood in starkly political terms.

"They want to do that so they pick up two automatic Democrat - you know it's a 100 percent Democrat, basically - so why would the Republicans ever do that?" he said. "That'll never happen unless we have some very, very stupid Republicans around that I don't think you do. You understand that, right?"
Two trains with 2,400 migrants of Rajasthan arrived at Jaipur from Maharashtra on Tuesday amid the COVID-19-induced lockdown, officials said.

The migrants, who are from different districts of Rajasthan and were stuck in different areas of Maharashtra due to the lockdown, were sent to their respective districts in buses, Jaipur Collector Jogaram said.

He said social distancing norms were followed in arrangements of receiving and sending the migrants to their areas.

The migrants will have to go under quarantine either at their homes or in government facilities upon their arrival, the officer said.

Respective district collectors were informed about the arrival of the migrants who are from Ajmer, Banswara, Alwar, Barmer, Bhilwara, Bikaner, Chittorgarh, Churu, Dholpur, Dungarpur, Jaisalmer, Jalore, Jhunjhunu, Jodhpur, Kota, Nagaur,Pali, Pratapgarh, Rajsamand, Sikar, Sirohi, Udaipur and Jaipur districts.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The shramik trains can take a few thousand of migrant workers back to their home towns. For the rest, whose numbers will still be considerable, their main problem, as lockdown continues, will be hunger, not the virus, and a further deepening of existing social and income inequalities.

I dont see the pandemic but the hunger and starvation that comes with it as the reason for large scale unrest, says Manaswini Bhalla, an associate professor of Economics at IIM Bangalore.

The context was the sorry plight of migrant and daily wage labourers stuck in the bigger cities due to the coronavirus lockdown.

Now the migrants can go home, says the government

With most migrant workers confined to shelters and dependent on charity for survival, the Union governments belated realisation that they should be allowed to get home is no doubt welcome. But there is much that is inexplicable about the Centres guidelines on how this is to happen.

It is good in principle, but I am not sure enough thought has been given to the modalities of this migration, says Divya Ravindranath, researcher at the Indian Institute of Human Settlements (IIHS).

The timing is the most inexplicable of all. Though lockdown has been extended, industry all over the country is being told to restart. Other measures and lockdown relaxations to slowly restart other segments of the economy are also in the works in all states. After weeks of idleness and no income, the migrant workers, hailing mainly from the eastern states and spread largely across the south and west of the country, could possibly at last see some hope of being able to start earning again, as a restarting economy is going to need this labour in the coming weeks.

Yet, after ignoring their sorry plight for nearly two months, the Centre is now suddenly telling the workers they can go home if they want to, with no guideline on how or from where industry will get the replacement labour they need to restart if migrant labour leaves.

This has led, for instance, to Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa appealing to migrant workers to stay back, but refraining from any mention of how the state will help them with food and/or money in the meantime.

The guidelines are also silent on how labourers stuck in high containment zones like Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Surat and Delhi will be allowed to leave.

In the past week or so, the railways have run a few shramik (labourer) trains from places like Kerala, Telangana, Mumbai and Nashik to destinations in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. But permission to get on those trains are ridden with so many ifs and buts, it would make anyones head spin.

A hazy future

What after these people reach home? That, again, is a question that has not been given any thought at all. My biggest concern is about what happens when they get back, said Divya.

What awaits these workers back home is not a better life and jobs, but being sent to quarantine centres of dubious quality before they can head to their villages.

The city is a place of economic stability, the village is the place for social security, is the reason given by Prof Chinmay Tumble of IIM Ahmedabad and author of India Moving: History of Migration, for the desperation among migrant workers to get back home.

Given that these journeys cost money that many of these workers can ill afford, the unintended effect of this decision to get migrants back home could be a feeling among them of insult being piled on injury. To what extent, and to what effect, the feeling will manifest itself is the question.

How life pans out for them in the next few weeks will provide the answer. And the first flashpoint could well be the kind of welcome workers sent on forced leave get when they return to their old places of work and on whether they get any part of their lost wages.

Every trade and industry association has said that they cannot pay workers the April salaries, or even restart their establishments, without substantial government bailouts. Which means going back to their shanties and temporary shelters and, hopefully, some dry ration packets.

Mitigating hunger

In Bengaluru, provision of cooked food is being stopped from 5 May, but no state authority is talking about how the workers are expected to survive without such help. That, despite all this, there have been only sporadic instances of unrest among migrant workers in Surat, Telangana, Chennai, Pune and Bangalore, but that is no indication that it will not spread or get more intense.

While angry reactions may have surfaced in some places, I would refrain from labelling them in any way, says Divya.

But as Professor Mahalaya Chatterjee, Centre for Urban Economic Studies, Calcutta University, points out, Social violence can arise from poorer sections of non-migrants too.

As lockdown eases, Professor Chatterjees view is that the problem needs to be looked at from three time spans: just after the lockdown is lifted, the next three months and the long run.

The PDS system needs to be strengthened immediately to ensure essential items reach the entire poorer sections with local bodies helping in identifying and reaching the needy, says Professor Chatterjee.

Soon after lockdown is lifted, there could be reverse flow of people in both directions  those stuck in the cities will take the first chance to go back while people who can return, will rush to reclaim their old jobs, he says.

Professor Chatterjees prognosis for the long run is not optimistic.

There are chances that most small traders/manufacturers will be unable to open their business as before. So, loss of livelihood and mass unemployment may result in social unrest, she says.

Noted economist and former Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan too expressed a similar sentiment in his conversation with former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, saying India should use its DBT network to protect livelihoods and keep people from going into the streets protesting.

Outside the ambit of state welfare

While many people Citizen Matters spoke with preferred to wait and watch how the situation develops post 4 May, all pointed to the shortcomings in the present system for providing relief to the poor and the potential fallout from those left out of these relief packages for whatever reason.

The numbers of such workers run into thousands, if not lakhs, in every major city. There is no official system anywhere to count them or record their presence. The Aadhar card has become an enigma as are other identification instruments like ration cards, etc, says Professor Chatterjee.

If food riots happen, it will not be because of scarcity but due to maldistribution and lack of money in the hands of the needy, he warns.

Getting money into the hands of the poor

There is no shortage of suggestions from citizens and business federations on how to put money in the hands of the needy, though. The governments own recent garib kalyan package deposits a paltry amount monthly in Jan Dhan accounts. But the scheme ignores the fact that many migrant and daily wage labourers do not have such accounts which qualify for the transfer.

Rules have been framed to register such workers so as to enable them to access government schemes. But the rules dont work as a rule, as Divya points out: To give one example, every migrant construction worker is required to renew his registration with the construction welfare board annually (which entails a fee plus a daunting process). Why would a migrant worker want to renew that when he gets nothing by registering in the first place?

The biggest issue, in the end, is the trust deficit between the poor and the marginalised and the government, which this pandemic could reinforce in unexpected ways.

Hunger and poverty have been present in India for long without necessarily resulting in violent protests, said Chandan Gowda, faculty member at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru. But the signs of unrest among the millions of migrant workers under lockdown has made visible the massive problems of rural India, which largely induced many to move into cities as migrant workers in the first place.

A more serious crisis in the making?

Those problems are not going to go away any time soon. And little anecdotal evidence of the experience of those who have managed to get back to their villages has as yet filtered back to the cities.

If and how the economy reboots in the cities, and the kind of employment it will generate, is anybodys guess. But what is clear is that the workers left behind in the cities are not looking for charity. Sure, they accept it to survive, but what they really crave is the dignity of earning a living, which the coronavirus has snatched from them without warning.

The best hope for the migrant and daily wage workers to get back their livelihood in some measure remains in the metros, as it has been for many years. The problems that large-scale reverse migration will create in the rural areas is yet to be considered. Conditions everywhere have changed beyond recognition, and competition for jobs and resources will be fierce, in the cities in particular.

There have been instances of returning residents being refused entry into their own villages, with signs saying outsiders are not welcome. This indicates another, as yet unrealised, potentially volatile factor thrown into the mix of search for jobs and livelihoods, especially in urban areas: locals versus outsiders.

When too many people compete for the same limited economic resource, the first instinct is to find a scapegoat for ones problems. The vulnerable migrant worker presents an easy target.

Unfortunately, the cities where they worked and settled have always been indifferent to their wellbeing. They were just cheap labour. Now, if poverty and hunger make them want to go back, the general attitude is that it is their problem. The shramik special trains can take a few thousand of them back. For the rest, whose numbers will still be considerable, their main problem, as lockdown continues, will be hunger, not the virus, and a further deepening of existing social and income inequalities.

This has always been a recipe for unrest. Given the statistics on rising income inequality in the country, social unrest is a real possibility, says Manaswini Bhalla.

One solution Professor Manaswini suggests is creation of a national-level migrant register and record of migrants across the country. Skill mapping of migrant workers is another idea that is floating around, but with no details on the hows, whos and wheres of such an exercise.

While some talk of migrant labour being able to bargain for a better wage for themselves in the face of the predicted labour shortage. If this happens, it could well spark another kind of schism, between those who returned and those who stayed back.

According to Professor Bhalla, the lack of a binding force, a leader or an institution to channel these feelings makes me sceptical of any sort of uprising at this point in time".

Which is not the same as saying that it will not happen as hunger can push anyone into action they would not contemplate otherwise.

In this lockdown that has extended for over eight weeks, the salary a casual labourer has lost is Rs 7,680, says Professor Manaswini.

It is appalling that just Rs 500 a month has been promised to them.

This article was first published in Citizen Matters, a civic media website and is republished here with permission. (c) Oorvani Foundation/Open Media Initiative.
The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu has warned Nigerians of risking another lockdown if the guidelines were not observed and there was a surge in coronavirus cases.

Ihekweazu made this known while speaking at the presidential task force briefing on COVID-19 in Abuja on Monday.

Also Read: Life Wont Return To Normalcy Until 2021: NCDC DG

He stated that new cases of the virus may arise if people continued to flout the health directives in some parts of the country where the lockdown was eased.

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He said that the Federal government might be forced to impose another lockdown if there are more cases of coronavirus.
Fame-chasing reality star Nasser Sultan returned to television on Tuesday night.

Two years after his disastrous pairing with Gabrielle Bartlett on Married At First Sight, he finally found his perfect match with truck driver Taryn Chick, 54, on First Dates.

The pair kissed after a romantic meal together, before agreeing to meet up again.

He's back! Serial reality star Nasser Sultan (pictured) returned to the spotlight on Tuesday when made a surprise appearance on Channel Seven's First Dates

Nasser said before the date: 'My dream woman is somebody that dresses elegantly, but would also roll in the mud and not care about her hair.'

After meeting Taryn, he assured her he was on the show for the right reasons, and not just to extend his 15 minutes of fame.

'I tell you what, I've never had a proper date like this. Since the show [MAFS] it's been very hard, it does get a bit lonely. I'd love to settle down, absolutely,' he said.

'This is not a set-up. This is a real and I came here to actually have a date.'

Could it be love? After meeting truck driver Taryn Chick (right) he assured her he was on the show for the right reasons, and not just to extend his 15 minutes of fame

'They're so sexy': Nasser eventually won her over by sharing a bizarre anecdote about the time he 'caught' eczema from an ex-girlfriend even though eczema isn't contagious

Taryn, who recognised Nasser from Channel Nine's social experiment, was instantly impressed with him.

She praised his 'suave' dress sense, but admitted she had her reservations because he'd been on reality TV before.

Nasser eventually won her over by sharing a bizarre anecdote about the time he 'caught' eczema from an ex-girlfriend even though eczema isn't contagious.

She also giggled as he shared his 'obsession' with toenails, shopping and moisturiser.

'Look at your nails! I'm obsessed with nails and toenails. They're so sexy,' he said.

What a gentleman! Taryn also giggled as Nasser shared his 'obsession' with toenails

'Yes, I'd like another date if... madam agrees': After the date, Nasser said he would love to see Taryn, but appeared to momentarily forget her name

After their date, producers asked the pair if they would like to see each other again.

'Yes, I'd like another date if... madam agrees,' Nasser responded, seemingly forgetting Taryn's name.

Taryn also agreed, saying: 'I think there's more to discuss!'

Will they last? The episode ended with the pair sharing a kiss and leaving the venue together
Joe Biden said Monday that he wears a face mask around Secret Service agents, drawing a distinction between himself and President Donald Trump as the issue of using face coverings in public amid a pandemic increasingly becomes a political flash point.

The comment came as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was addressing a virtual town hall on better protecting meatpacking plant employees and others in essential industries exempt from stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus outbreak.

They deserve the personal protective equipment, including gloves like I have on, a mask that I wear whenever Im around anyone from the Secret Service, Biden said during an event organized by the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Vice President Mike Pence said during a televised town hall Sunday night that he should have worn a mask while visiting the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota last week.

Pence made the trip without wearing one and drew public

Trump has said he

Demonstrators decrying stay-at-home orders, some with guns, have

The presidential campaign, like so much of American life, has ground to a halt during the outbreak. Still, Biden has long said he wears a mask while in public.

Over Easter weekend, online photos showed Biden with a mask around his neck as he and his wife, who wore a scarf that could be used to cover her face, posed for pictures outside. During online events, Biden has repeatedly mentioned that he frequently sees his grandchildren, who live close to his Delaware home, but that he maintains social distancing, staying on the porch while they are in the yard even while serving ice cream.
W ere all in need of a laugh at the moment  which is why its such a relief to see Gogglebox on our screens every Friday.

The cheeky Channel 4 review show invites us to watch clips of whatever television shows that have been on air this week with a series of families who will provide off-the-cuff commentary from the comfort of their own sofas.

However, Gogglebox has raised a few eyebrows with its lockdown setp-up, with sisters Ellie and Izzi Warner sparking 163 complaints to Ofcom after viewers accused them of disobeying social distancing rules.

As the sisters dont live together, Izzi was temporarily replaced by Ellies boyfriend Nat, but as of April 17, the pair have been back on screens and are now sitting two metres apart.

Ellie and Izzi raised eyebrows for not social distancing / Channel 4

Elsewhere, Goggleboxs Lee Riley and Jenny Newby have raised eyebrowns by continuing to film in Jennys caravan.

The uproar from fans resulted in Channel 4 bosses issuing a statement, which said: Most of the families live together but where they dont, they are complying with PHE [Public Health England] social distancing guidelines.

"Gogglebox will only film with families where it's safe to do so. The health and safety of our cast and crew is paramount."

Lee has since moved in with Jenny to keep filming / Channel 4

Lee has since cleared up any confusion, saying he has moved in with Jenny while the lockdown period continues, jokingly adding: Friends with no benefits.

Now, director of programmes at Channel 4 Ian Katz has spoken out about how the team behind the Bafta-winning Gogglebox have kept the show on air, hailing it as one of the channels real miracles.

It quite quickly became a battle to keep key productions up and running, he said at the Edinburgh Television Festival.

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And one of the things I'm so proud of is the way we were able to identify key productions for us and keep them on air. One of the real miracles has been the way Gogglebox has stayed on air.

He then explained how Gogglebox is staying on air with producers having now installed stationary camera rigs in participants homes. The crew then sit in vans located outside the homes to operate the camera.

To limit all unnecessary contact between the stars and the crew, toilet facilities have also had to be installed outside of every contributor's home for the crew.

Gogglebox continues Fridays at 9pm on Channel 4
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has asked the telecom department and state-owned BSNL to put on hold the tender for setting up 4G network, valued at Rs 9,000 crore, after allegations emerged that the tender favoured foreign companies

New Delhi: The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has asked the telecom department and state-owned BSNL to put on hold the tender for setting up 4G network, valued at Rs 9,000 crore, after allegations emerged that the tender favoured foreign companies.

The tender was floated by BSNL in March under the new management for setting up 4G network. This was the first tender issued by the telecom PSU after the government announced Rs 68,751 crore relief package for BSNL and MTNL in October 2019.

TEPC, the government body for promotion of domestic telecom products, equipment and services, has filed a complaint against BSNL with the Department of Telecom (DoT) and DPIIT alleging that the tender violates norms for procurement and favours foreign companies.

"BSNL and MTNL are ignoring Public Procurement (Make in India) Order of the government and tender floated has no provision for compliance of the government order," TEPC alleged.

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The tender floated by BSNL included the requirement of MTNL. "It was decided that MTNL will use the core network of BSNL for 4G services. MTNL had shared requirements of towers etc with BSNL for purchase. The total tender is valued at around Rs 9,000 crore," a BSNL official said on condition of anonymity.

In September 2018, the government came out with rules that had provisions to take action against erring officials found responsible for including restrictive or discriminatory norms against domestic suppliers in bid documents.

The Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order 2017 mandates preference for domestic products in all public-funded projects.

The Telecom Equipment and Services Export Promotion Council (TEPC) alleged that BSNL bypassed discussion with domestic companies and framed tender norms in collaboration with multinational companies to keep Indian companies out of the bid.

"None of the homegrown companies are aware of any consultation by BSNL on technical requirements, without which, the current tender is being construed as having technical specifications prepared in close coordination with MNCs to keep out the Indian companies and to get rid of PMI norms.

Taking note of the TEPC allegations, DPIIT has asked the DoT to examine the complaint and take corrective and disciplinary actions against erring officers for putting restrictive conditions against domestic manufacturers "in malafide fashion".

"It may also be noted that the subject procurement will not be finalised till the aforesaid grievance is disposed of by the competent authority," a DPIIT letter to DoT, BSNL and TEPC said.

DoT on 28 April is learnt to have taken up the matter with BSNL Chairman and Managing Director PK Purwar and asked him to furnish details to the department within 15 days.

Queries sent to BSNL were unanswered.
An exterior view of the Whole Foods store in the Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia. On Monday, Whole Foods notified employees of a second confirmed coronavirus case at the store. Read more

The rumors swirled at the Whole Foods in Fairmount before the store officially told all of its workers the bad news: One of their colleagues had a confirmed case of the coronavirus.

Some had already heard it through the grapevine at the Philadelphia grocery store, where employees sent text messages to each other. One found out from a friend who didnt even work there. Thats because someone else wrote about it on social media Thursday, hours before the store informed its full staff in an automated text message.

And when Whole Foods did alert workers, it was light on details. It didnt identify the sick employee or the department where the employee worked, according to copies of the message obtained by The Inquirer.

Theres no transparency between us and management, so we have no idea whats going on, said an employee, one of five who spoke to The Inquirer on condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation.

Whole Foods notified employees Monday and Tuesday of additional workers who tested positive, bringing the total to three in five days, according to text alerts sent to workers.

 READ MORE: Does my boss have to tell me if a coworker has coronavirus? What to know about your rights.

The Whole Foods case sheds light on how one essential business handled an emerging workplace issue: informing employees of confirmed coronavirus cases. And it highlights a growing concern among workers and consumers, as states consider allowing more businesses to reopen in a bid to stop the economic free-fall caused by the shutdowns. In the absence of enforceable laws regarding such disclosures, its up to individual businesses to decide how much to disclose and when.

A Whole Foods spokesperson said it activates a swift and comprehensive action plan" when it learns of a presumed or positive diagnosis, which includes contact tracing and a formal notification process. The company said it cant identify individual workers diagnosed due to legal reasons, and cant identify anyone placed in quarantine. Stores also dont share why staffers call out for privacy reasons, the spokesperson said.

While we arent able to share details out of respect for the privacy of our team members, we are diligently following all guidance from local health and food-safety authorities, and are supporting the diagnosed team members, who are in quarantine, the spokesperson said in an email.

While Whole Foods faces worker complaints about transparency, other grocery stores such as ShopRite and Fresh Grocer have gone a step further, telling customers about confirmed coronavirus cases at city stores in social media posts. As of Tuesday afternoon, Whole Foods  owned by the online retail giant Amazon  had not mentioned the confirmed cases on its Facebook page or website.

Workers say they believe the store could have said something sooner. Three employees said the store underwent an overnight deep cleaning days before the announcement, a sign that management may have been concerned about the sick worker well before informing staff. Although none of the workers who spoke to The Inquirer knew the sick employees identity, they said one person left work more than a week ago to self-isolate.

The store had a professional deep cleaning before learning of any confirmed diagnosis, the spokesperson said. The most recent deep cleaning was scheduled immediately after learning of the positive diagnosis. However, she did not say when the store learned of the diagnosis, and added that the store has had several professional deep cleanings out of an abundance of caution.

 READ MORE: Are we essential or disposable? Workers say they need to know more about positive cases on the job.

The Fairmount store reviewed security camera footage to see which employees the sick worker had close contact with, five employees said. Then a manager personally told workers who had been in contact to isolate themselves at home.

The use of in-store cameras is one measure utilized for contact tracing, but not the only way Whole Foods identifies staffers who may have had close contact with a worker diagnosed with the coronavirus, the spokesperson said.

Theres no law that specifically requires employers to inform workers about a positive case in the workplace. Guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that employers tell workers if they were possibly exposed to someone who tested positive. But the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is not enforcing the CDC guidelines.

As for consumers, the Whole Foods spokesperson encouraged them to contact customer service if they want to know whether there has been a confirmed case at a specific store.

In the hours before Whole Foods sent the mass text message to staff, misinformation spread online. Two social media posts said there was an outbreak at the Fairmount store, even though there was just one confirmed case at the time. One Twitter post was shared by almost 2,000 people as of Monday evening, while a Facebook post was shared more than 120 times. Screenshots of the social media posts were sent in text messages, too.

Some Whole Foods staff members were informed in person before the mass text alert, and hours before the social media posts, a company spokesperson said.

The way Whole Foods handled the situation is the latest concern for the workers who spoke to The Inquirer. They expressed concerns about touching the same device to clock in, sharing small spaces for lunch breaks, and using the same restrooms, among other issues.

On its website, Whole Foods said it performs daily enhanced cleanings, follows social distancing guidelines, and requires workers to wear face masks while offering gloves and face shields. It has also implemented daily temperature checks for workers.

This includes cleaning of high-touch surfaces multiple times throughout the day, including time clocks and door handles, restrooms and break rooms, the spokesperson said. Our stores are constantly evolving safety measures, and this store, in particular, reorganized a conference room to provide an additional break room space for team members, which allowed team members more room for social distancing in both areas.

 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.

Whole Foods is paying workers an extra $2 an hour and double overtime during the pandemic. They can take unpaid time off without penalty through May 17, the workers said. Those with presumed or diagnosed coronavirus cases get two weeks of paid time off, the company said. Otherwise, staffers must use accrued paid time off.

Im in a situation where my options are either go to work and potentially get sick, or dont go to work and then not make any money to pay my rent and not be able to afford to eat, one employee said.

Whole Foods workers across the country were set to participate in a sick out protest last Friday over how the company has protected frontline workers. Its unclear whether or how many employees called out sick to protest at the Fairmount Whole Foods that day.

The company continued to operate its stores and serve customers without interruption, the spokesperson said.
(Photo : Pixabay) Tumblr decided to delete millions of reblogs that contained hate speech.

Tumblr has recently announced their move to delete millions of reblogs related to Nazis and white supremacist contents as well as posts that promote hate speech.

Tumblrs Move Against Hate Speech

According to Engadget, the company announced that they are in the midst of removing around 4.47 million reblogs of contents from about a thousand of Nazi-related blogs that have been frozen and deleted.

It appears that hate speech is still rampant on the blogging website, usually in the form of reblogs of original posts that have already been deleted.

The company decided to remove these reblogs since they "rarely contained the kind of counter-speech that serves to keep hateful rhetoric in check," meaning they aren't used to educate people on how to counter hate speech.

They have also announced that blogs that are suspended in the future will be evaluated and decide whether the mass deletion of reblogs is the best approach for the platform.

Tumblr said that the move was also a response from their user's feedback after they have called out to the company about how they assess and deal with hate speech on the platform.

They also disclosed that they have a team of dedicated people for Trust & Safety that will evaluate people's reports on any hate speech they see.

Read Also: COVID-19: Anti-Quarantine Groups Found New Home After Being Banned on Facebook

Preemptive Defense

In their post, they announced that they had consulted with third-party experts and groups before they made the decision and defended themselves preemptively from Tumblr users that might see this as a form of censorship.

"We are, and will always remain, steadfast believers in free speech. Tumblr is a place where you can be yourself and express your opinions. Hate speech is not conducive to that. When hate speech goes unchecked, it eventually silences the voices that add kindness and value to our society. That's not the kind of Tumblr any of us want," the company wrote.

In the past, the company's moderation moves didn't sit well with its users after the website banned any and all pornographic and adult-related content when Verizon still owned Tumblr.

Because of the move, the company saw a massive drop in traffic as users stopped using the platform, according to a report by The Verge.

Nevertheless, the ban is still in effect even after Automattic bought the platform last year.

Mental Health Awareness Month on Tumblr

In related news, Tumblr teamed up with the UK non-profit group Ditch for the content initiative on May 1, which is the start of the Mental Health Awareness Month.

According to Adweek, Tumblr's platform for mental and emotional health awareness, Post It Forward, will include resources as well as discussions on four different topics: managing relationships, combating boredom, maintaining and improving mental health, as well as dealing with grief.

In addition, they will also be creating content that tackles the coronavirus crisis we are facing today.

They also have more plans for this month to help any users who are turning to Tumblr to aid with their mental health issues.

This is incredibly important these days due to the coronavirus crisis that is threatening the mental and emotional health of people who are on lockdown.

Read Also: ILOVEYOU Virus: 20 Years After the Malware Caused $10B Losses Worldwide

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Two patients of COVID-19 in the Hohoe Municipal Hospital of the Volta Region have recovered, officials told the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday.



They are a 22-year-old pregnant woman who returned to Hohoe from Ashaiman and was delivered of a baby and a 32-year-old man who returned from Tema to Hohoe, who were both diagnosed and confirmed positive on April 12, 2020.



Dr Pius Mensah, the Medical Superintendent of the Hohoe Municipal Hospital and Acting Municipal Director of Health, said the two were discharged and "are back into their various communities."



He said results of samples taken from the patients on the 14th day from the day of taking the first samples tested negative, necessitating a final test, which was taken after two days and results were also negative.



Dr Mensah said though there was some level of immunity following the infection, scientists were still researching into how long the immunity lasted hence recovered patients were expected to follow all the necessary precautions, adding that; recovered cases can be re-infected.



He said the Hospital recorded three positive cases on May 1, 2020, which were all contacts of the first two cases recorded while 30 additional results of some contacts came out negative although they were yet to receive more results of the contacts.



The first samples of the contacts that came out positive was taken on 13th April meaning 15 days from when the first sample was taken so they were already due for their second sample," he added.



Their second sample was taken and tested. Two out of three came out negative and this means technically that we have only one positive case in the Municipality.



He said a major challenge was how the recovered patients would be accepted and integrated back in the community, adding that recovered meant they were okay and did not present danger to anybody in the community.



Dr Mensah called on the citizenry to accept and show love to recovered patients and not to reject or stigmatise them.

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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Early and strict governmental intervention is a key factor in reducing the spread of COVID-19 cases. That's the conclusion reached by a team of researchers comparing outbreaks of the novel coronavirus between the Chinese province of Hunan and Italy in a new paper published in Frontiers in Medicine.

While Hunan and Italy are similar in population sizeabout 60-70 million people eachthe scope of the epidemic in each location has differed dramatically. At time of publication, Italy has the second-most confirmed deaths after the United States and ranks third in total confirmed infections, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. There are just over 1,000 confirmed cases in Hunan.

The research team, based in China, used data from the John Hopkins database through April 2 to map infection trends in both Hunan and Italy. They modified a standard mathematical model known as a susceptible-infected-removed (SIR) model to account for the effects of different epidemic prevention measures at different periods in time.

"It should be noted that in actual situations, the speed of transmission can be changed through many interventions, such as personal protective measures, community-level isolation and city blockade," said lead author Dr. Wangping Jia with the Chinese PLA General Hospital in Beijing.

The paper's extended SIR (eSIR) model found that under current measures there could be a total of 3,369 (the mean in a possible range of 840-8,013) infected cases in Hunan, with the endpoint of the epidemic having already occurred around March 3. In contrast, total infected cases in Italy are projected to be 182,051 (the mean in a possible range of 116,114-274,378) with an end date around August 6.

The authors speculated that the disparate trends could be due to a couple of reasons. For instance, Italy may not have implemented preventive measures soon enough, as the eSIR model demonstrated that taking action earlier in the case of Hunan drastically reduced infection rates.

The authors noted that "from China's experience, various control measures, including the early detection and isolation of individuals with symptoms, traffic restrictions, medical tracking, and entry or exit screening, can well prevent the further spread of COVID-19."

The paper did not specifically address mortality rates because a number of factors can affect these predictions, according to Jia, such as bed capacity of intensive care units, as well as a patient's age, sex and any underlying health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes.

"Accurate patient-specific data are urgent needs for the prediction of the total deaths," he said.

The Italian government recently announced it would begin to ease lockdown measures beginning May 4three months earlier than the eSIR model advises.

"We think it is too early to ease restrictions starting around May 4," Jia said. "The potential second wave may come if restrictions are eased three months earlier. Italy is not in the end period of the COVID-19 epidemic."

The authors concede that the current study has several limitations. First, due to the limited amount of testing, it's likely the number of infected people in Italy and elsewhere is higher than the official count. The eSIR model does not incorporate the disease's incubation period, which could make it less accurate. And there may be other factors that could throw off the estimate, such as the influence of "super spreaders" of the disease on a population.

Despite these possible shortcomings, Jia said the study makes one point abundantly clear: "We want to emphasize that taking government control earlier can greatly decrease the number of infected cases by comparing the epidemic trend in Hunan and Italy."

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak
While people across the country are continuing to push themselves into the lockdown and fight the pandemic, pet owners are panicking in case of emergencies for their doggos and kitties.

Snigdha Avasarala, who lives in Warangal, is one among those with not too many clinic options to take her pet to in case of an emergency.

With the lockdown, pet clinics close early. Moreover, there is always the risk of being in a gathering when you step out. So also, I wouldnt prefer taking my pet for direct consultations, she laments.

However, acting on cue are veterinarians, who are moving to online platforms to offer telemedicine services.

Telemedicine, a virtual set-up consultation on video calls via dedicated apps such as Lyberty and Practo, has become the need of the hour. Some veterinarians have also been using WhatsApp and Telegram for the purpose.

Dr Kadambari Venkatraman is one such veterinarian who has taken up telemedicine to treat pets and uses WhatsApp and Telegram for the virtual set-up. She also tells us why she believes there is a rise in the number of telemedicine cases.

Video call consultations are safer than a direct consultation with the pet owner and the pet, she asserts. Even payment can be done online now. So also, telemedicine, especially in times of the lockdown feels easier and convenient for both consultants and pet owners.

However, Dr Kadambari adds that though in most cases a video call and interaction with the client suffices while treating the pet, she still prefers direct consultation in some cases.

For emergency cases or in case something is not clear through an onscreen interaction, I refer them for a direct consultation. Even so, thanks to telemedicine setups, consultation has become easier during the lockdown, she says.

More options for pets

Another platform in use among vets now is Google My Business. Dr Karnati Srinivas, Chief Consultant at the Vet and Pet Hospital in Film Nagar, who admits to noticing an increase in teleconsultations, uses the above.

With around five to seven cases on Google My Business and some on WhatsApp, I get around 10 cases per day, he says. And while I use the virtual setup to advise on home remedies and dehydration cases, a few cases such as diarrhoea and vomiting I insist on direct consultations.

Anipanion is yet another telemedicine provider, which connects pet owners and veterinarians via video calls. The app is sold to veterinary practices as a pay-per-month model, which allows practitioners to consult virtually via video calls with pet-owner clients.

Bobby Reddy, the co-founder of Anipanion with its set up in Hyderabad, Canada and the US, tells us that the number of online consultation registrations owing to the current pandemic have indeed soared.

Then talking about the video or web-based consultation through Anipanion, which is available on Android and iOS platforms, Bobby elaborates on how the platform adds value.

The management software has both the client information and the pets medical history, with a backup feature on it. Moreover, we collaborate with some of the leading practice management systems in the industry, such as Cornerstone and Avimark, to make the workflow incredibly seamless for doctors and practise staff members, says Bobby, adding,

Of course, these services do not replace going to a vet, but we make them available so the veterinarian can address and access anything in times like these.

Bobby then shares with us a few additional points for the Indian Hyderabad market. This online platform setup will avoid the usual consultations people prefer on Dr Google, just heading off, as most of us do, to find out on Google what certain symptoms mean, he adds with a chuckle.

The app has certified doctors whose telemedicine consultations will actually help the pet parents. With telemedicine on the block, Snigdha Avasarala is happy with the options she has for her pet, all of which are just a click-away.

The lockdown leaves me with no choice but to avail of telemedicine services, and I realise the online consultations are quite helpful, too. I usually send the pictures of my pet to the doctor or get on an appointment-based a video call to consult with the doctor and follow his/her advice, says Snigdha, as we sign off.
Toronto police are searching for a man believed to have scammed at least 20 prospective renters through a Korean phone app before fleeing Canada.

Last week, 20 separate people reported being defrauded after responding to advertisements on an app called Casmo, police said in a news release Tuesday.

The posts on Casmo advertised a room at 30 Greenfield Ave., a condo building in North York near Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue East, police say.

According to police, some of the victims met with the suspect and were given the opportunity to see the room. Some were told that they could not see the room in advance due to COVID-19.

Police say the man did not have the right to rent the unit.

The victims were asked to send first and last months rent to the suspect through e-transfers, police said.

Sungjin Kim, 37, of Toronto, is wanted for multiple counts of fraud.

Police say Kim has fled the country, though there may be more victims who have been defrauded.
PR-Inside.com: 2020-05-05 07:04:02

Nokia Corporation

Stock Exchange Release

May 5, 2020 at 8:00 (CET +1)

Raghav Sahgal appointed President, Nokia Enterprise and a member of the Nokia Group Leadership Team as Kathrin Buvac prepares to leave Nokia to pursue a new opportunity

Strong succession designed to maintain momentum in fast-growing Enterprise business

Buvac to step down from Nokia Group Leadership Team on May 31, Sahgal to join on June 1

Espoo, Finland  Nokia announced today that Kathrin Buvac, President of Nokia Enterprise, has decided to leave the company at the end of May to take a leadership position at a global technology company. At that time, she will also step down from her position on the companys Group Leadership Team. Buvac will be succeeded by Raghav Sahgal, currently Senior Vice President of Nokia Software with responsibility for global sales and market services. Sahgal will formally assume his new position and join the Group Leadership Team on June 1, 2020.

Nokias commitment to our fast-growing Enterprise business remains strong, and I am pleased that we have an excellent leader in Raghav Sahgal, who is ready to take on the position of President, Nokia Enterprise, said Nokia President and Chief Executive Officer Rajeev Suri. Raghav has a demonstrated record of success in his current role in Nokia Software. I look forward to him joining the Group Leadership Team and building on the strong momentum and fast growth we have in the enterprise segment.

Sahgal joined Nokia in April 2017 from NICE Systems, where he served as President of the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions. Prior to NICE, Raghav held a number of executive and senior leadership positions with Oracle, Comverse, CSG, Kenan and Lucent. Sahgal holds a Bachelor of Science and Engineering degree in Computer Engineering from Tulane University and a Master of Science from the University of Maryland, USA. He also attended the General Management Program at Harvard Business school.

Kathrin has been with Siemens, Nokia Siemens Networks and then Nokia for close to 20 years, and I both understand and support her desire to take on a new challenge, said Suri. Kathrin has held key leadership positions at Nokia, including Chief Strategy Officer, and has been at the heart of many of our transformational changes, including the turnaround of Nokia Siemens Networks and the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent. In her most recent role as President of Nokia Enterprise, she led Nokias entry into a new customer segment focused on enterprise networks and industrial automation, delivering profitable, double-digit growth.

For the full year 2019, the Nokia Enterprise had revenues of 1.4 billion, an increase of 18% in constant currency from 2018. Customers include Societe du Grand Paris, Deutsche Bahn, SBB, Elektro, Florida Power & Light, UPMC, Lufthansa Technik, BMW, some of the world's largest webscale companies, and many others.

Additional background on all current members of the GLT can be found at https://www.nokia.com/en_int/investors/corporate-governance/group-leadership-team.

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.

Media Inquiries

Nokia

Communications

Tel. +358 (0) 10 448 4900

Email: press.services@nokia.com

Katja Antila, Head of Media Relations

RISKS AND FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

It should be noted that Nokia and its businesses are exposed to various risks and uncertainties and certain statements herein that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect Nokia's current expectations and views of future developments and include statements regarding: A) expectations, plans or benefits related to our strategies, growth management and operational key performance indicators; B) expectations, plans or benefits related to future performance of our businesses and any expected future dividends including timing and qualitative and quantitative thresholds associated therewith; C) expectations and targets regarding financial performance, cash generation, results, the timing of receivables, operating expenses, taxes, currency exchange rates, hedging, cost savings, product cost reductions and competitiveness, as well as results of operations including targeted synergies, better commercial management and those results related to market share, prices, net sales, income and margins; D) expectations, plans or benefits related to changes in organizational and operational structure; E) expectations regarding competition within our market, market developments, general economic conditions and structural and legal change globally and in national and regional markets, such as China; F) our ability to integrate acquired businesses into our operations and achieve the targeted business plans and benefits, including targeted benefits, synergies, cost savings and efficiencies; G) expectations, plans or benefits related to any future collaboration or to business collaboration agreements or patent license agreements or arbitration awards, including income to be received under any collaboration or partnership, agreement or award; H) timing of the deliveries of our products and services, including our short term and longer term expectations around the rollout of 5G, investment requirements with such rollout, and our ability to capitalize on such rollout; as well as the overall readiness of the 5G ecosystem; I) expectations and targets regarding collaboration and partnering arrangements, joint ventures or the creation of joint ventures, and the related administrative, legal, regulatory and other conditions, as well as our expected customer reach; J) outcome of pending and threatened litigation, arbitration, disputes, regulatory proceedings or investigations by authorities; K) expectations regarding restructurings, investments, capital structure optimization efforts, uses of proceeds from transactions, acquisitions and divestments and our ability to achieve the financial and operational targets set in connection with any such restructurings, investments, capital structure optimization efforts, divestments and acquisitions, including our current cost savings program; L) expectations, plans or benefits related to future capital expenditures, reduction of support function costs, temporary incremental expenditures or other R&D expenditures to develop or rollout software and other new products, including 5G and increased digitalization; M) expectations regarding our customers' future capital expenditure constraints and our ability to satisfy customer concerns; and N) statements preceded by or including believe, expect, expectations, consistent, deliver, maintain, strengthen, target, estimate, plan, intend, assumption, focus, continue, should", "will or similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, which could cause our actual results to differ materially from such statements. These statements are based on managements best assumptions and beliefs in light of the information currently available to them. These forward-looking statements are only predictions based upon our current expectations and views of future events and developments and are subject to risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future. Factors, including risks and uncertainties that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to: 1) our strategy is subject to various risks and uncertainties and we may be unable to successfully implement our strategic plans, sustain or improve the operational and financial performance of our business groups, correctly identify or successfully pursue business opportunities or otherwise grow our business; 2) general economic and market conditions, general public health conditions (including its impact on our supply chains) and other developments in the economies where we operate, including the timeline for the deployment of 5G and our ability to successfully capitalize on that deployment ; 3) competition and our ability to effectively and profitably invest in existing and new high-quality products, services, upgrades and technologies and bring them to market in a timely manner; 4) our dependence on the development of the industries in which we operate, including the cyclicality and variability of the information technology and telecommunications industries and our own R&D capabilities and investments; 5) our dependence on a limited number of customers and large multi-year agreements, as well as external events impacting our customers including mergers and acquisitions; 6) our ability to maintain our existing sources of intellectual property-related revenue through our intellectual property, including through licensing, establishing new sources of revenue and protecting our intellectual property from infringement; 7) our ability to manage and improve our financial and operating performance, cost savings, competitiveness and synergies generally, expectations and timing around our ability to recognize any net sales and our ability to implement changes to our organizational and operational structure efficiently; 8) our global business and exposure to regulatory, political or other developments in various countries or regions, including emerging markets and the associated risks in relation to tax matters and exchange controls, among others; 9) our ability to achieve the anticipated benefits, synergies, cost savings and efficiencies of acquisitions; 10) exchange rate fluctuations, as well as hedging activities; 11) our ability to successfully realize the expectations, plans or benefits related to any future collaboration or business collaboration agreements and patent license agreements or arbitration awards, including income to be received under any collaboration, partnership, agreement or arbitration award; 12) Nokia Technologies' ability to protect its IPR and to maintain and establish new sources of patent, brand and technology licensing income and IPR-related revenues, particularly in the smartphone market, which may not materialize as planned, 13) our dependence on IPR technologies, including those that we have developed and those that are licensed to us, and the risk of associated IPR-related legal claims, licensing costs and restrictions on use; 14) our exposure to direct and indirect regulation, including economic or trade policies, and the reliability of our governance, internal controls and compliance processes to prevent regulatory penalties in our business or in our joint ventures; 15) our reliance on third-party solutions for data storage and service distribution, which expose us to risks relating to security, regulation and cybersecurity breaches; 16) inefficiencies, breaches, malfunctions or disruptions of information technology systems, or our customers security concerns; 17) our exposure to various legal frameworks regulating corruption, fraud, trade policies, and other risk areas, and the possibility of proceedings or investigations that result in fines, penalties or sanctions; 18) adverse developments with respect to customer financing or extended payment terms we provide to customers; 19) the potential complex tax issues, tax disputes and tax obligations we may face in various jurisdictions, including the risk of obligations to pay additional taxes; 20) our actual or anticipated performance, among other factors, which could reduce our ability to utilize deferred tax assets; 21) our ability to retain, motivate, develop and recruit appropriately skilled employees; 22) disruptions to our manufacturing, service creation, delivery, logistics and supply chain processes, and the risks related to our geographically-concentrated production sites; 23) the impact of litigation, arbitration, agreement-related disputes or product liability allegations associated with our business; 24) our ability to re-establish investment grade rating or maintain our credit ratings; 25) our ability to achieve targeted benefits from, or successfully implement planned transactions, as well as the liabilities related thereto; 26) our involvement in joint ventures and jointly-managed companies; 27) the carrying amount of our goodwill may not be recoverable; 28) uncertainty related to the amount of dividends and equity return we are able to distribute to shareholders for each financial period; 29) pension costs, employee fund-related costs, and healthcare costs; 30) our ability to successfully complete and capitalize on our order backlogs and continue converting our sales pipeline into net sales; 31) risks related to undersea infrastructure; and 32) the impact of the COVID-19 virus on the global economy and financial markets as well as our customers, supply chain, product development, service delivery, other operations and our financial, tax, pension and other assets, as well as the risk factors specified in our 2019 annual report on Form 20-F published on March 5, 2020 under "Operating and financial review and prospects-Risk factors" as supplemented by the form 6-K published on April 30, 2020 under the header Risk Factors and in our other filings or documents furnished with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Other unknown or unpredictable factors or underlying assumptions subsequently proven to be incorrect could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent legally required.
New Delhi, May 5 : In addition to its fatal effects on human lives and livelihoods, the pandemic has instilled fear in people. This will create a grim future for the restaurant industry in a post COVID-19 era.

The emphasis is on maintaining social distancing and hygiene, and restaurants may have to undergo restoration processes to ensure contactless dining to bring back diner confidence as they resume operations.

Dining out and restaurant tech platform, Dineout launched a 'Whitepaper' that lists down restoration guidelines for the industry on staff management, staff health and safety, restaurant space sanitisation, food safety, social distancing, inventory management and measures for takeaway and delivery business models.

It was released by the Additional Director General of the Ministry of Tourism, Rupinder Brar over a digital press conference on Monday.

Ankit Mehrotra, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Dineout said: "As the world negotiates the enduring impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, our interaction with the outside world will reorient in both the short and long term for the sake of personal hygiene and public health. These post-COVID sensibilities are likely to have an enduring impact in how the country's food and beverages industry is expected to operate, and the 'Reinventing The Wheel: Dining Out In A Post-COVID Era' Whitepaper is our way to help Indian restaurateurs comprehend and adapt to this 'new normal' and the rapidly evolving demands of Indian diners. We aspire to empower restaurateurs with our tech innovations to help fight this crisis, and reassure them that the human desire for good food & good time with loved ones will never go out of vogue." Brar said: "In the past, humanity stands witness to the opportunities created out of the challenges people have faced. And this is another one from them, a situation which we are facing all over the world. As rightly said by Dineout, technology can always be used in a big way in such situations. I am glad to see through your initiative that technology can be used to create a safe environment for everyone, and hence re-assuring that basic protocols while dining out are in place." Here is a summary of recommended practices for the restaurant industry:

Staff Management

Be masked at all times, regular temperature monitoring, advisory for staff, advise diners

Staff Health & Safety

Allowing unwell staff to rest, regularly monitoring staff health, training your staff with best practices, keeping safety kit handy for staff, monitor restaurant premises.

Kitchen operations No entry for un-sanitised material and staff, sanitise all surfaces, sanitise all equipment, separate are for used dishes, separate window for delivery and takeaways, social distancing inside the kitchen.

Inventory handling Understand your supply chain, separate sanitisation zone, designate staff member for raw materials.

Dining area and bar Modified seating plan, sanitisers for diners, 'Sanitised for you' labels, fine air quality index, optimum water quality values, maintain proper indoor environmental condition, consider a reservations-only business, limit staff in the area.

Tableware Thorough silverware cleansing, clean hand-towel and table cloth, serving platters must be fumigated, use UV sterilisers, viewable washing areas, eliminate unwanted table dAcor.

Delivery and pick-up orders Sanitised and temperature control delivery, avoid cross - contamination, enable "no touch" deliveries, designate pick-up zones, increase cleaning frequency and disinfect high-touch surfaces, adopt plexiglass for area separation.

Re-building customers' confidence Stay relevant and connected, build trust through transparency, introduce new concepts, let your staff be your ambassador, spread the word.

Contactless dining Booking a table, pre-ordering meals, takeaway, digital ordering, digital payment, contactless check in, contactless feedback.

(Puja Gupta can be contacted at puja.g@ians.in)
[May 04, 2020] Entravision Communications Corporation Schedules First Quarter 2020 Earnings Release And Teleconference

SANTA MONICA, Calif., May 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Entravision Communications Corporation (NYSE: EVC), a diversified global media and advertising technology company serving consumers, announced that it will host a teleconference to discuss its first quarter 2020 financial results on Thursday, May 7, 2020, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. To access the teleconference, please dial 412-317-5440 ten minutes prior to the start time. The teleconference will also be available via live webcast on the investor relations portion of the Company's website located at www.entravision.com. If you cannot listen to the teleconference at its scheduled time, there will be a replay available through May 28, 2020 which can be accessed by dialing (877) 344-7529 (U.S.) or (412) 317-0088 (Int'l), passcode 10143905. The webcast ill also be archived on the Company's website for 30 days.



About Entravision Communications Corporation

Entravision is a diversified global media, advertising technology and data analytics company that reaches and engages consumers in the U.S. and other markets primarily including Mexico, Latin America and Spain. Entravision's portfolio includes digital media properties and advertising technology platforms that deliver performance-based solutions and data insights, along with 55 television stations and 49 radio stations. Entravision's digital and technology businesses include Headway, a leading global provider of mobile, programmatic, data and performance digital marketing solutions. Entravision is the largest affiliate group of both the Univision and UniMas television networks, and its Spanish-language radio stations feature its nationally recognized talent. Entravision shares of Class A Common Stock are traded on The New York Stock Exchange under the symbol: EVC. Learn more at: www.entravision.com. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/entravision-communications-corporation-schedules-first-quarter-2020-earnings-release-and-teleconference-301052355.html

SOURCE Entravision Communications Corporation

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A father and son are appealing for more information after around 120 ewes and lambs were stolen from their farm in North Wales.

Livestock rustlers raided the Gwynedd farm and took 50 Welsh ewes and around 70 lambs, all born in early April.

Meirion Ap Rhodri and his father Rhodri Jones have now turned to the public for more information following the Tuesday 21 April theft.

The family herd 700 Welsh ewes and 150 lambs, along with a pedigree herd of six Highland cattle, at Bryntirion, Llangower, Bala.

The pair said the stolen animals, which had faded 'JJ' markings on their backs, were worth an estimated 7,000.

Speaking to North Wales Live, Meirion said the family farm has been left devastated by the theft.

Yes, its a lot of money, but for me its the loss of bloodlines that hurts most, the 27-year-old told the paper.

Weve spent years breeding the ewes up to our standard and to suit this particular farm."

It comes as figures show that that livestock worth 3 million were stolen from UK farms last year.

Large-scale sheep thefts over the past two years have contributed to a 19.4% rise in value since 2017, according to NFU Mutual.

Police are appealing for information regarding the 21 April theft. Report information on 101 or on the NWP Rural Crime Team Twitter feed, quoting crime ref 245831.
88safe.com scored 40 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team

This CoolSocial report was updated on 19 Dec 2012, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.

The total number of people who shared the 88safe homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. The total number of people who shared the 88safe homepage on Delicious. The total number of people who shared the 88safe homepage on StumbleUpon. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the 88safe homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if 88safe has a Facebook fan page). This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the 88safe homepage on Twitter + the total number of 88safe followers (if 88safe has a Twitter account).

Basic Information

PAGE TITLE Dynamic Domain Name System Almighty DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS



CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The title found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage.

Domain and Server

DOCTYPE XHTML 1.0 Transitional CHARSET AND LANGUAGE UTF-8 DETECTED LANGUAGE SERVER Microsoft-IIS/6.0 (ASP.NET) OPERATIVE SYSTEM Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2003

The language of 88safe.com as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Type of server and offered services. Character set and language of the site. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Operative System running on the server.

Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world.

Referring domains for 88safe.com by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines.

Facebook link

FACEBOOK PAGE LINK NOT FOUND

The type of Facebook page. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. The URL of the found Facebook page.

Twitter account link

TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND
It may be time to say goodbye to the Rev. Thomas Robert Malthus.

Malthus was an 18th century economist and statistician who circulated interesting (and eventually discredited) theories about poverty and population. Boiled down, Malthus thought poor people had too many children (whom they couldnt financially support) and that disease, famine, and viruses were natures (or Gods) way of killing the poor so that food production would again be sufficient to feed the more-deserving citizenry.

If nature/God didnt step in, Malthus thought the best way to alleviate poverty was for people to marry later (thus presumably shortening the fertile years), commit to celibacy. or the government needed to stop giving aid to poor families, starve them out, basically.

Harsh? Yes.

Effective? We will never know, but we are seeing part of his theory in action, as a terrible virus lands hardest on families living in poverty.

Before you think the rest of Malthus theories were resigned to the dustier pages of history, Charles Darwin was a fan, and some of the reverends ideas were encoded into Great Britains reformed poor laws in 1834, that were eventually adapted - with some modifications - into our own policies. There as in the U.S., the poor were divided into two categories - deserving and undeserving. Deserving poor included some widows and children.

Undeserving poor included everyone else, people whose bad judgment - or so the thinking went -- had landed them at the door of their local alms house. Those were the people on whom a deadly virus would be considered both disastrous and justified.

But what if we let this pandemic be our cue to approach family poverty differently?

There were always soup kitchens, and we always thought of that as being for the other, said Michael Williams, state Department of Children and Families deputy commissioner. We had this value system that led us to believe they must have done something to be in the condition they were in. Now weve come to realize, its not a consequence of being bad. Its not that. These things can happen to all of us.

Now we see that an invisible enemy, as Williams said, can destroy livelihoods and lives.

This is probably one of the first tragedies where blaming somebody for it is not going to work, said Williams. You cant blame black folks, immigrants, or poor people. Theres no one to blame for this tragedy.

While families in European countries - think Germany - are weathering the economic impact of the pandemic, so many families in the United States and Connecticut are teetering on the verge of financial ruin. So much of our culture was, as it turns out, built on sand, including our economic, child care, and health care systems.

Weve been here before. Prior to the Depression, the booming economy disguised the real poverty of many families. The Depression brought that poverty into sharp relief. Connecticut is heading into its sixth week of state-sanctioned quarantine. Our culture is like someone who has had too much to drink. All of our inhibitions/support systems are reduced or eliminated. This is precisely who weve been all along.

A large number of families who have not paid attention to some of the social structures and societal infrastructures that were there undergirding us and giving us supports, that just kind of eroded overnight, said Williams. Its caused people to stop and think: What if those dont come back?

Take, for example, SNAP benefits, which are meant to help provide healthy food to struggling families. As Emily Byrne, executive director at Connecticut Voices for Children, says, in this health-oriented crisis, we are rightfully obsessed with cleanliness and disinfectants. Guess what products families cannot use SNAP to buy? Cleaning products. Disinfectants. In addition, the states rent moratorium is a godsend - for April and May. But what about the months beyond?

The Rev. Malthus insisted on laying the fault of poverty at the feet of the most vulnerable. We need, instead, to look at poverty as a symptom of a cultural ill.

Weve had so many warnings and messages for us to change, and if we dont hear this one, God help us with what the next one will be, said Williams. Weve got to be different people in this country. Families have got to be treated differently in this country.

That means talking about infrastructure beyond bridges. That means talking about child care, and early education, and the folly of tying health insurance to employment. That means taking the future of Connecticuts families seriously.

If there was ever a moment to re-imagine the possible, said Bryne, now is the time.
The 89-year-old chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., who has spent years railing against corporate bloat, said on Saturday that the coronavirus pandemic could lead to longer-term shifts in the way people do their jobs. With offices closed and cities sheltering in place, millions of people have spent the past few weeks working remotely.

The supply and demand for office space may change significantly," Mr. Buffett said. A lot of people have learned that they can work at home, or that theres other methods of conducting their business than they might have thought from what they were doing a couple of years ago. When change happens in the world, you adjust to it."

Like many Americans, Mr. Buffett said it had been more than seven weeks since he had put on a tie. Its just a question of which sweatsuit I wear," he joked.

The comments came on Saturday during Berkshires annual meeting in Omaha, Neb., a more than four-hour affair followed by investors world-wide. Typically, thousands of shareholders attend the event in person to hear Mr. Buffett and his longtime business partner, Charlie Munger, muse about the state of the company and the world. This years event was streamed from an empty arena. Mr. Munger wasnt present and Mr. Buffett answered questions submitted by shareholders via email.

Mr. Buffett spent much of his time making a bullish case for the long-term health of the American economy, doing so at times in a format he has long shunned: a slide presentation. He also touched on the future of jobs at his company, his opinion of the Paycheck Protection Program meant to aid small businesses and how the nation should be treating front-line workers.

Berkshire Outlook: Layoffs Possible

Berkshire, a conglomerate that includes the insurance company Geico, railroads, energy companies and brands such as Dairy Queen and Sees Candies, employs about 391,500 people.

Even though Berkshire held about $137.3 billion in cash at the end of the first quarter, Mr. Buffett said it is possible the company may need to lay off some workers in the short term.

At Berkshire, the companys manufacturing businesses could see a steep drop in demand, Mr. Buffett said. In those cases, we would have layoffs at some point," he said. Still, over the long term, he said he expected the company to keep hiring.

Five years from now, I think Berkshire will be employing considerably more people," Mr. Buffett said.

The PPP: hell to Administer

While none of Berkshire Hathaways fully owned subsidiaries has applied for government stimulus or assistance under a loan program for small businesses, Mr. Buffett praised the efforts.

The Paycheck Protection Program, which gives loans to businesses with 500 or fewer employees that can be forgiven if they dont lay off workers, was a very good idea," he said.

The program has drawn intense criticism from small businesses frustrated in their attempts to receive loans, and some public companies that secured the money have returned it after blowback. Mr. Buffett said he credited Congress and other public officials for acting swiftly.

It must be hell to administer," he said. It just isnt that easy to inaugurate incredibly large [programs]. Theres going to be a certain amount of fraud. Everything doesnt go perfectly. But Im 100% for taking care of the people that really get hurt by something that they had nothing to do with."

We Dont Even Know Their Names

Asked how the country could better support health care workers, delivery drivers and food-service employees on the front lines, Mr. Buffett suggested they deserved higher wages and more respect.

Theyre working 24 hours a day, and we dont even know their names," he said. We ought to do things that help those people."

An ideal economy should allow low-wage workers to raise a family on income from a single 40-hour-a-week job, Mr. Buffett said. Many front-line workers must maintain multiple jobs, and employees at meat plants and warehouses have taken to walking out of their companies in recent weeks to protest working conditions.

Theyre contributing a whole lot more than some of the people that came out of the right womb or got lucky and know how to arbitrage bonds or whatever it might be," he said. You would think with our prosperity, we would hold ourselves to even higher standards of taking care of our fellow manparticularly when you see a situation like youve got today."

Though living conditions had improved for those earning the lowest 20% in wages over the past 100 years, its really improved for the top 1%," Mr. Buffett said.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.

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A member of the Intensive Care team treats Covid-19 patients at Craigavon Area Hospital on Co Armagh, Northern Ireland. PA Photo. Picture date: Monday May 4, 2020. Pic Niall Carson/PA Wire

Health Minister Robin Swann during the daily media broadcast in the Long Gallery at Parliament Buildings, Stormont on Tuesday. Credit: Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Health Minister Robin Swann has said that the 'frontline' in the fight against Covid-19 has now moved to care homes in Northern Ireland, as the number of hospital admissions due to the virus falls.

Speaking after 17 further deaths were confirmed in the region, Mr Swann warned more families will be "thrown into mourning in the days and weeks ahead".

He said that while the evidence suggested Northern Ireland was through the worst of the first peak the situation remained "incredibly serious".

The Health Minister said that as hospital admissions fell the "frontline fight" had moved to care homes.

He said that from March 16 there had been 125 acute respiratory outbreaks in care homes reported to the Public Health Agency.

Mr Swann said 72 of these had been linked to a Covid-19 with the rest a more common flu like illness.

Earlier on Tuesday, figures released by the Department of Health confirmed the coronavirus death toll has now reached 404.

Six people died in the last 24 hours, with a further 11 people dying outside this period but only reported on Tuesday.

A further 45 people have tested positive for the virus, bringing the total number of people infected in NI to 3,881.

There are currently 26 people in Northern Ireland with Covid-19 in an intensive care unit bed.

New figures have also suggested the UK coronavirus death toll is now the highest in Europe.

Read More

Here's how Tuesday unfolded:
Toshiba Wins National Procurement Contract

Toshiba America Business Solutions has been awarded the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) ValuePoint (News - Alert) contract #140604 for "Copiers and Managed Print Services." The contract grants Toshiba the opportunity to deliver its comprehensive portfolio of ledger-size (A3) multifunction printers (MFPs), production equipment, single-function printers, wide/large-format equipment, scanners, managed print services and software solutions to state and local governments as well as K-12 schools and higher education institutions.

This marks the third time Toshiba (News - Alert) has won a NASPO ValuePoint contract. Toshiba's industry-recognized e-STUDIO systems couple elite performance with the leading security features that public sector organizations require. Toshiba's print-as-a-service program also helps promote fleet efficiency and productivity while minimizing costs.

NASPO ValuePoint competitively sources contracts delivering premium products and services to state and local governments within the United States. Its Copier  Managed Print Services contract assists government entities in operating more efficiently and economically.







"Toshiba is honored to receive this contract and support schools and governments across the United States to operate more efficiently and affordably," said Toshiba America Business Solutions Chief Operating Officer Larry White. "Toshiba's next-generation products focus on addressing the challenges our clients face such as budget targets, document workflow and security. We look forward to the opportunity to provide meaningful solutions to help schools and governments meet their objectives."

About National Association of State Procurement Officials

The National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO), Inc. was formally established on January 29, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois.

NASPO is a non-profit association dedicated to advancing public procurement through leadership, excellence, and integrity. It is made up of the directors of the central purchasing offices in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the territories of the United States. NASPO is an organization that helps its members achieve success as public procurement leaders through promotion of best practices, education, professional development, research, and innovative procurement strategies.

About Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc.

Toshiba America Business Solutions (TABS) delivers multifunction printers and managed document services for businesses of all sizes across the United States, Mexico, and Central and South America. The company's award-winning e-STUDIO multifunction printers combine quality performance with the security businesses require.

For additional information, please visit business.toshiba.com. Follow TABS on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005135/en/
Congress President Sonia Gandhi will discuss the impact of coronavirus with chief ministers of party-ruled states on Wednesday and assess the steps taken by them to contain the pandemic, sources said.

According to the sources, Gandhi will hold consultations with them through video conferencing on Wednesday morning.

She will also discuss the issue of migrant labourers and workers stranded at various places and steps taken by the states in bringing them back to their home states.

Gandhi had announced on Monday that the state units of Congress party would pay for the train fares of migrant workers as they prepare to go back to their homes in different parts of the country. She also criticised the central government for charging them for their travel by train.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has asked local government officials to allow entry to returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

Makinig kayong local executives -- the national government will insist that you accept the OFWs. Magkakaroon ho tayo ng problema if you resist because then as a worker of the government, it falls upon my shoulders to see to it that everything is done fair, Duterte said in a public address broadcast late Monday night, May 4.

Itong mga Pilipinong babalik, hindi tinatanggap ng mga local governments; now, it will boil down to the power of the President to promulgate rules and regulations to protect public health; because some workers coming from the outside are not welcome, simply they are not being accepted by the local governments so mahirap ito, he said.

There have been reports on stranded OFWs since local governments imposed community quarantine measures to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, which causes the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

Duterte reminded authorities of every Filipinos right to travel, quoting Section 3 of the Bill of Rights under the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

It is your duty to help and protect your constituents , I have no quarrel na you want the contagion stopped right there in your doorstep--but you know, Filipinos, are citizens of this country and whether we like it or not they have this constitutional right to travel and to come home after working there, Duterte said.

Duterte urged LGU officials to accept OFWs who have been declared Covid-free after undergoing the 14-day facility-based quarantine.

I would like to assure -- maghahanap ako ng paraan na tulungan kayo--if they are really cleared by the medical authorities, by the Department of Health (DOH)..then we have to make arrangement that they can go home, Duterte said.

Maghahanap tayo ng paraan ihahatid talaga natin sila doon we have stalemate here what do we do with people waiting tapos okay naman sila; so you have to go into a testing then find out that they are fit to return and that she or he is not a threat to the community, he added.

Story continues

According to National Task Force Covid-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr.,"mega swabbing areas" will be put up to take nasopharyngeal specimens from OFWs for testing using the real-time RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) test.

After they test negative, maybe after three days or four days they can go home already with the certification of the Bureau of Quarantine that they are Covid-free," Galvez said.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola reported that as of May 3, there are over 20,000 overseas workers who are undergoing mandatory quarantine in Manila.

Arriola assured that the repatriation of distressed Filipinos would resume once the suspension of inbound flights is lifted.

"To date, the DFA has facilitated the repatriation of 24,422, of which 16,936 are seafarers and 7,486 are land-based workers," she said. (SunStar Philippines)
Duchess of Cambridge has worn brand on several occasions in the past

Kate congratulated Rebecca Attwood and took an interest in how the birth was

Kate Middleton has shown her support for the British high street during the coronavirus pandemic by donning a blue midi dress from Borden for a virtual visit to a maternity ward.

The Duchess of Cambridge, 38, made the virtual visit to the maternity unit in Kingston last week, with a clip of her video call released on the Kensington Royal Instagram over the weekend.

The mother-of-three, who is currently isolating with her husband Prince William, 37, and their children, George, six, Charlotte, five, and Louis, two, in Anmer Hall in Norfolk, selected a 120 baby blue wrap dress from British brand Boden as she took part in the video call.

It's not the first time that the royal has worn the pretty gown, having previously opted for the stunning dress in snaps shared in the Cambridges 2019 Christmas card.

Kate Middleton, 38, showed her support for the high street by selecting quintessentially British brand Boden for a virtual call with a maternity ward in London

The natural beauty wore her hair in a bouncy half up-do, and kept her make up natural for the occasion.

The royal complemented the bold jumper with a simple set of drop earrings.

Perfect for the spring to summer transition, Kate's wrap midi dress features a daisy and polka dot pattern in a soft baby blue shade.

Online, the dress is described as 'boho luxe' with a 'handy tie-waist' that makes it adjustable to your shape.

The Duchess opted for the pretty floral wrap dress for the virtual visit, which is described online as 'boho luxe' in style

The royal previously wore the trendy wrap dress for the Cambridge's 2019 family Christmas card

While known as a quintessentially British brand, it may also have been chosen by the Duchess for it's credentials in sustainability.

The dress is not the only British label the royal wore during the virtual visit.

The mother-of-three also supported a family friend, Tabitha Webb, by opting for a 70s inspired 275 jumper by the British designer.

The brand describe it as 'the perfect little Spring addition to your wardrobe', advising shoppers 'wear with your favourite denim or a skirt for an evening out'.

It wasn't the only British brand that Kate wore during the call, with the royal opting to support her family friend Tabitha Webb by donning a jumper from the designer's label

The royal has showcased Tabitha's designs on several occasions, most recently wearing a jazzy electric blue 295 blouse while launching her Early Years survey in January.

Meanwhile she also wore her flower print Penelope dress for her visit to the tiny island of Tuvalu on the last day of the nine-day Diamond Jubilee tour of the South Pacific with husband Prince William in 2012.

The designer is a close friend of Kate's sister Pippa, who teamed up with Tabitha to create a two-piece limited edition collection to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation in 2015.

Footage of the call to Kingston Hospital, South-West London, where the Duchess worked last November, has been released to highlight mental health issues that can affect new mothers.

The cosy baby blue 275 knit is described online as 'the perfect little Spring addition to your wardrobe'

Kate gushed her congratulations to Rebecca Attwood and took great interest in how the birth had gone during the morale-boosting 'virtual' return visit to the NHS maternity unit where she previously spent two days on a work placement.

Rebecca, from Raynes Park in South-West London, said: 'Having a surprise conversation with the Duchess of Cambridge after two hours' sleep was particularly surreal.

'The Duchess asked us about having a baby at such an unusual time, and our experience on the maternity ward was that all the midwives made it as normal as possible  apart from the masks!'
In the new PBS documentary series Asian Americans, a clip from the 20th-century TV Western Bonanza becomes the perfect metaphor for the Asian American experience.

Ben Cartwright rides up on his horse, all casual confidence. Hes greeted by the Cartwright familys cook, Hop Sing, whos dressed in traditional Chinese garb, wearing his hair in a queue, and speaking heavily accented English. The subtext is clear: One is an American archetype; the other, not so much.

The clip ends, and actor Randall Park  a familiar face to many 21st-century Americans as the father in the ABC sitcom Fresh Off the Boat  delivers a remark that will resonate instantly with his fellow Asian Americans: You grow up and you think of yourself as a Cartwright. And then you realize everyone around you sees you as a Hop Sing.

Parks comment serves well as a connecting thread for Asian Americans, a five-part series premiering May 11-12 that recasts Asian Americans from sidekicks and stereotypes into their rightful roles as movers, shakers, influencers and leaders in the story of the United States. Theyre both historical figures  established in this country since the mid-19th century  and newly trending  the U.S. Census calls Asian Americans the fastest-growing racial/ethnic group in the United States. Asian Americans number about 20 million, or about 6% of the U.S. population.

The documentary series was created by a team of Asian American filmmakers, including Academy Award-nominated series producer Renee Tajima-Pena, who survey the breadth of the Asian American experience over the past 170 years.

And what a breadth it is. If you attended U.S. public schools, your social studies or American history textbooks might have included a sentence or two about the Chinese laborers who built the western section of the continental railroad. Your teachers might have led a discussion on the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

But unless you went on to take a class in Asian American studies, railroad workers and World War II camps probably represented the sum total of your knowledge of Asian American history. This series, narrated by Daniel Dae Kim and Tamlyn Tomita and featuring Asian American scholars, writers and commentators, bursts that bubble with numerous absorbing personal stories along the themes of arrival, belonging, identity, aspiration, advocacy and equality.

Take Wong Ark Kim. Though a San Francisco native, he was denied re-entry to the United States after a trip to see his parents in China. He took his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor, establishing birthright citizenship in the United States.

Or take Tereza Lee, a Korean American who learned as a child that her family had entered the U.S. illegally. Her dilemma prompted U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Orrin Hatch to introduce the so-called DREAM Act, a federal bill, still in limbo, that would grant temporary, conditional residency to people brought to this country as minors.

Or take the Japanese American soldiers whose World War II infantry regiment remains the most decorated unit in U.S. military history, the Filipino migrant workers who sparked the formation of the United Farm Workers union, and the San Francisco State University students who pushed successfully for the establishment of ethnic studies.

Not all the stories are uplifting. Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, was beaten to death in 1982 by a pair of white Detroit auto workers bitter over competition from Japanese automakers. Korean American store owners fared terribly during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, partly due, one interviewee says, to their own ignorance of American history. In both cases, Asian Americans were galvanized into activism that led to a stronger sense of collective identity and to important alliances.

Some episodes of Asian Americans are stronger than others, and there are occasional stumbles in editing and gaps in context. A discussion of Patsy Mink, the first woman of color elected to Congress, segues awkwardly to martial arts star Bruce Lee and then abruptly returns to Mink. When Tammy Duckworth pays tribute to Mink, the filmmakers seem to assume that everyone recognizes Duckworth as the Illinois senator who is only the second Asian American woman to ever serve in the U.S. Senate. One woman is introduced simply as descendant; her relatives story comes later.

The arrival of Asian Americans was first announced nearly a year ago, in July 2019, but its premiere now, amid an increase in anti-Asian speech and behavior tied to the coronavirus pandemic, seems eerily prescient. It couldnt be more appropriate viewing for these times.

Asian Americans airs at 8 p.m. Monday-Tuesday, May 11-12, on Oregon Public Broadcasting.

If youre interested in learning more about Asian American history, here are a few suggestions:

 The series references Ronald Takakis groundbreaking book Strangers From a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans.

 Among the commentators in the series is journalist Helen Zia, author of Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People.

 Also interviewed is historian Erika Lee, author of The Making of Asian America: A History.

 Portland radio journalist Dmae Roberts won a Peabody Award for her eight-part audio series Crossing East, which focuses on Asian American history, culture and issues.

awang@oregonian.com; Twitter: @ORAmyW
Hillary Clinton has committed to boosting former Vice President Joe Bidens campaign by appearing in a virtual fundraiser with the highest ticket price at $100,000 per head.

The former Democratic Party presidential nominee announced her support for the vice president last month after he became the partys presumptive candidate for the 2020 election.

Now she has agreed to host a virtual Zoom meeting to raise money for the Democratic National Convention (DNC) and Mr Bidens campaign against President Donald Trump.

According to an invitation obtained by Politico, people can purchase tickets for the virtual conversation in prices ranging from $2,800 to $100,000.

The $2,800 ticket price has limited availability, while other tickets to purchase are available at $5,600, $15,600, $41,100, $50,000, and $100,000. The invitation did not detail if the higher ticket prices would entail more during the virtual conversation than others.

The event will take place on 19 May and will be joined with DNC chair Tom Perez.

Adding virtual fundraisers to the Biden campaign has been the latest way the presidential candidate to raise money amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Another virtual fundraiser scheduled for the Biden Victory Fund will take place this week and be headlined by California Governor Gavin Newsom and 2008 Obama campaign manager David Plouffe.

Bidens campaign and the DNC formalised a joint agreement last month that would allow him more sway in the committees joint fundraising activities. From the agreement, individual donors could donate up to $360,600, with $5,600 going directly towards Biden's campaign and the rest going to the DNC.

Ms Clinton endorsed the vice president last month after Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders dropped out.

Recommended Justin Amash could hurt Joe Biden badly in the election

I am thrilled to be part of your campaign - to not only endorse you but to help highlight a lot of the issues that are at stake in this presidential election," she said at the time.

Her endorsement continued with Mrs Clinton attacking her former Republican opponent in the 2016 race.

Just think of what a difference it would make right now if we had a president who not only listened to the science, put facts over fiction, but brought us together, showed the kind of compassion and caring that we need from our president, and which Joe Biden has been exemplifying throughout his entire life, she said.

Think about what a difference it would make if we had a real president, not just one who played one on TV."

Mr Biden has struggled with raising enough funding in recent months to compete against the Trump campaign. His fundraising partnership with the DNC, plus assistance from powerful names like Mrs Clinton, could work to boost the vice president.
In late March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that non-emergency medical providers delay routine or elective visits from patients to preserve protective equipment such as masks and to mitigate the risk of spreading covid-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.

But there's a gap between what's elective and what's not, with fear and misunderstanding filling the void. And there's growing evidence that patients might not be visiting health care facilities when they need to, avoiding doctor's offices and emergency rooms even in the most urgent cases for fear of being infected with covid-19.

Although the novel coronavirus has dominated the news, other health problems have not disappeared. So, when should you see your doctor? And should you do it through an in-person appointment or telemedicine?

The first person to turn to for guidance is your primary care physician or relevant specialist. You can also check online for advice: Many medical organizations, such as the American Academy of Pediatricians and the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology have issued recommendations for practitioners and patients on their websites. And keep in mind that some states have rules about which appointments and procedures can proceed. These rules vary and will continue to do so as some states ease restrictions while others maintain shelter in place rules.

In addition to those resources, here are some general guidelines about how to proceed with your health care during the pandemic.

- When should I go to the ER?

Doctors across the country have noticed that patients with heart attacks, appendicitis, and mild strokes are arriving later than they should to the emergency room. "We don't want people to delay getting emergency care," said Alyson Goodman, a pediatrician, medical epidemiologist and representative from the CDC's At-Risk Task Force in the COVID-19 Emergency Response.

You should go to the ER if you are experiencing symptoms that could be life-threatening or cause harm if they are not addressed immediately. Examples of these symptoms include "chest pain, difficulty breathing, face drooping, arm weakness or speech difficulty, or acute injury or trauma," said Goodman. Similarly, if you are in immense pain, you should not hesitate to call 9-1-1 or go to an ER.

RELATED: Doctors struggle to pay bills, telemedicine isnt helping

- When should I call my doctor?

Perhaps you've noticed abnormal swelling in one of your limbs, pain in your abdomen, a strange lump or sudden weight gain. According to Goodman, ideally you should call your health care provider for urgent symptoms that don't require an ER visit. If you don't have a primary care physician, you might call or seek out a local urgent care clinic.

Jacqueline Fincher, a practicing internist and president of the American College of Physicians, said she often needs to see patients with preexisting conditions who have developed new, worsening symptoms in her office. These would be patients who have medical issues like hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart or kidney disease, along with a change in health status such as swelling in legs, shortness of breath, chest pain or a temperature. "With an acute illness on top of chronic, it's really hard to evaluate in an appropriate manner through telehealth," she said. Fincher said she prefers that such patients call the office instead of emailing or using a patient portal, so she can triage over the phone and, likely, have them come in.

Specialists are also seeing patients for ongoing or urgent issues, so you should not hesitate to call their offices, either. Amie Gupta Sessa, a board-certified dermatologist in Lutherville, Maryland, is still assessing patients in-office. "We call some of our patients 'frequent fliers,' " she said. "They are growing skin cancers every couple months. For those people, we definitely worry that they won't come in, and we'll see them in three months and the growth will be huge. For those cases, I would say, we are available, and we want to take care of you."

- Which in-person appointments should I keep?

Certain health issues will require an in-person visit, said Colin Delaney, a colorectal surgeon and chairman of the Digestive Disease and Surgery Institute at Cleveland Clinic. "Some things just don't work well for telehealth," he said. "Anything needing a physical examination, or a formal assessment before treating, needs to be done in person."

Some allergy patients need to maintain appointments, according to Marc Goldstein, director of the Asthma Center in Philadelphia and chief of Allergy and Immunology at Pennsylvania Hospital. "For in-office therapies, allergy immunotherapy [allergy shots] or biologic treatments for asthma, patients need the regular treatments to maintain the benefit of the therapy," he said. For people with allergies and asthma, allergy shots don't just reduce allergy symptoms; they help control asthma flare-ups that can send a patient to the hospital, Goldstein said.

Immunizations for children up to 24 months are also still recommended as usual, according to Goodman. For newborns with immune systems that are not fully developed, who also need consistent weight checks, it's important to continue pediatrician visits on schedule.

Patients receiving cancer treatment or those who are on dialysis also should go to all regular appointments. Other regular health care visits may require careful discussion with your provider. For example, the American Physical Therapy Association is advising physical therapists to carefully consider whether "the risk of exposure to COVID-19 outweighs the benefits of immediate treatment," adjusting treatment plans or rescheduling appointments accordingly.

While some visits for pregnant patients, like supplement counseling, can be accomplished via telehealth, other prenatal care like ultrasounds and labwork must be completed in-office. Talk to your OB/GYN; some women may be placed on a revised prenatal care schedule with a mix of virtual and in-person appointments to decrease potential covid exposure.

If you are unsure whether your appointment qualifies as essential care in your state, call in advance. For instance, time-sensitive fertility treatments were paused right after the pandemic began, but some New York clinics recently resumed in-person care after Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D, designated fertility treatments as essential medicine in an executive order in April.

RELATED: Cancer patients navigate treatment challenges, loneliness

- Which appointments can be done via telemedicine?

Many doctors are still seeing patients face-to-face, but virtually. According to Patrice Harris, a psychiatrist and president of the American Medical Association, while there is "no one-size-fits-all" appointment style, a patient might expect to video conference with their doctor to discuss any new symptoms, medical history, a medication list and all the standard information they might share during a regular visit. "They just can't do the physical examination," she said. "Ultimately, they should expect the typical shared decision-making process and open conversations regarding medical care" that they would have at a standard checkup.

Telehealth is good for managing chronic conditions, especially because some patients with such conditions are in the high-risk group for covid-19. "People still need to have diabetes and hypertension managed," Harris said. "This is a wonderful opportunity for the use of telehealth to make sure care is not interrupted. We want to make sure they have avenues to get care."

For patients with chronic conditions who will be coming in for visits less frequently, Fincher is encouraging them to order blood pressure cuffs, glucometers and scales if they do not already have this equipment at home.

Delaney said virtual appointments are particularly useful for postoperative patients, or those who have conditions such as Crohn's or colitis who might need simple adjustments to their care. Similarly, patients who regularly see a mental health practitioner can usually convert to telemedicine appointments; many psychiatrists are still seeing patients virtually during the covid pandemic.

If you simply have questions for your doctor, telehealth may also be right for you. Goldstein has patients with respiratory issues who are using telemedicine to ask how they should approach the pandemic. "Telemedicine is more about advice, or where they are with their symptoms and concerns they may have," he said. "For many, it's a great way to ask their questions. A lot of my patients with asthma ask about their risk of getting or developing complications with covid, which I can address over the phone."

For nonemergencies that may require in-person care, you may also start with telehealth. "We are trying to triage everything through telederm," said Sessa, the dermatologist. "Say for a rash, we'll want to know how severe it is, if it's blistering, has it been going on for three years or a week - the acuity of it. Are they having other systemic issues, as well? Are they sick?" This helps her determine if a patient needs an in-person visit.

- Which routine appointments should I reschedule?

If you are generally healthy, have no imminently concerning symptoms and have an upcoming physical with your primary care provider, it's OK to cancel that appointment for a short duration, Fincher said. "We are trying to give patients options with their regular, routine appointments," she said. "Some patients do not want to do telehealth and have said, 'I will come see you and get my labs when I feel comfortable.' " In these cases, Fincher said, you or your doctor should reconnect in one month to see where you're at or if you have new symptoms.

Non-urgent dental visits and cleanings should be postponed, limiting appointments to emergencies only. Routine cancer screenings for cervix, lung, breast or colon cancer can also be postponed - unless you are having symptoms that may raise a red flag, such as a lump in the breast or bloody stool, for instance. In this case, you should talk to your doctor who may order a screening test. If your screening is canceled, make sure to reschedule it as soon as possible when restrictions in your state ease up.

- What precautions should I see at the doctor's office?

If you are going in to see your doctor for a physical visit, Harris said to "definitely call in advance" and ask for guidance. "The doctor's office or hospital can tell you which door to enter, what you should do when you enter, and they can educate you about the check-in process," Harris said. "I recommend everyone wear a face covering. Everyone should continue to wash their hands [frequently]. And always stay six feet apart from the nearest person."

Many doctor's offices are attempting to configure waiting rooms so there's only one person in there at a time, and everyone is at least six feet apart at minimum. "Some doctors' offices are even putting up Xs on their floors as a visual cue to show how far six feet away is," Harris said.

Fincher, the internist, said her office is screening patients. "If they come into the office, they are met at the door by someone who screens them and checks their temperature, and they are asked a handful of covid-related questions they need to respond 'no' to. Then and only then can they come into the office." Whether in the lobby or in a room, patients remain socially distant from others at all time. If anyone is not comfortable coming into the office, patients can also just "drive up in their car and we will come see them in their car if they are more comfortable," Fincher said. She will draw blood for labs and conduct the physical exam there if desired.

For emergency visits, look for guidance upon arrival. "The CDC has some measures in place for patients visiting hospital or ER settings, like visual alerts at entrances with instruction on hygiene, abundant supplies like hand soap, alcohol-based hand sanitizer," Goodman said. Emergency rooms should also be triaging patients with respiratory symptoms separately from those who don't have symptoms.

Wherever you go, health care staff should be monitoring their own potential covid-related symptoms before every shift and wearing appropriate face masks or other relevant personal protective equipment. If you have questions about the measures your doctor or health care provider is taking to protect patients during the pandemic, place a call before you go in.
ABINGDON, Va.  A Bristol, Virginia man who is accused of messaging someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl  but was actually an online covert employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)  was arrested Saturday on a federal criminal complaint and charged with child exploitation and child pornography crimes. U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia Thomas T. Cullen and David W. Archey, special agent in charge of the FBIs Richmond Division, made the announcement Monday.

Jonathan Neal Sexton, 34, of Bristol, Virginia, was arrested at a residence in Bristol on Saturday and charged with sexual exploitation of children and activities relating to the distribution of child pornography.

According to the charging documents, between Feb. 28 and his arrest on Saturday, Sexton used the chat application Kik to correspond with a person he believed to be a 14-year-old girl. The 14-year-old was actually an undercover employee of the FBI Human Trafficking & Child Exploitation Task Force.

During these chats, despite the teen being in the clean area of the Kik app, Sexton engaged the teen in conversations about masturbation, sex toys, sexual intercourse and other topics, according to a release.

He also sent pictures of sex toys and videos of himself masturbating, routinely asked the teen to send him nude pictures and made references to a time when they could see each other and engage in sexual conduct.

On multiple occasions, Sexton sent the teen pictures of prepubescent females nude and engaging with prepubescent males in sexual conduct. The defendant claimed he had engaged in such sexual conduct with the individuals depicted in the pictures in the past.

The investigation of this case is being conducted by the FBI, the Virginia State Police, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bristol Virginia Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Zachary T. Lee and Lena Busscher are prosecuting the case for the United States.
The top trending search terms on Google Nigeria in the last one month were How to make bread?, followed by Who is Abba Kyari?.

Google Nigeria made this known on Monday in Lagos when it presented the results of its top trending search terms in Nigeria since the lockdown was initiated.

They also said the top 20 trending questions on Google Search Nigeria over the last 30 days are dominated by food and current affairs related.

Nigeria, like many other nations, has implemented lockdowns in response to the coronavirus epidemic.

Forced to stay at home, and often unable to perform their usual work, many people across the globe, including Nigerians, have turned to cooking and baking as ways to pass the time  and keep themselves fed in the absence of restaurants and other vendors.

Nigerians are also asking about information related to the lockdown and coronavirus, as well as more general current affairs topics.

Top 10 trending questions over the past 30 days are:

Who is Abba Kyari?

How to prepare hand sanitizer

Where is Buhari?

When is school resuming in Nigeria?

How to draw

Is there movement in Lagos tomorrow?

When is WAEC starting?

When is Ramadan 2020 starting?

Is there a cure for coronavirus?

How to lose weight

Top ten trending food questions over the past 30 days:

How to make bread

How to make pancakes with flour

How to make chinchin

How to make fish roll

How to make egg roll?

How to make pizza

How to prepare vegetable soup

How to make cookies

How to make Akara

How to make Egusi soup

Search trends information is gleaned from data collated by Google based on what Nigerians have been searching for and asking Google.

Google said it processes more than 40,000 search queries every second.

This translates to more than a billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year, worldwide. Live search data is available on the Google Nigeria Trends site.
The external fund manager backed by Berkshire Hathaway's Charlie Munger, Li Lu, makes no bones about it when he says 'The biggest investment risk is not the volatility of prices, but whether you will suffer a permanent loss of capital. So it seems the smart money knows that debt - which is usually involved in bankruptcies - is a very important factor, when you assess how risky a company is. We can see that China Machinery Engineering Corporation (HKG:1829) does use debt in its business. But should shareholders be worried about its use of debt?

What Risk Does Debt Bring?

Debt assists a business until the business has trouble paying it off, either with new capital or with free cash flow. In the worst case scenario, a company can go bankrupt if it cannot pay its creditors. However, a more frequent (but still costly) occurrence is where a company must issue shares at bargain-basement prices, permanently diluting shareholders, just to shore up its balance sheet. By replacing dilution, though, debt can be an extremely good tool for businesses that need capital to invest in growth at high rates of return. When we examine debt levels, we first consider both cash and debt levels, together.

See our latest analysis for China Machinery Engineering

What Is China Machinery Engineering's Debt?

The image below, which you can click on for greater detail, shows that China Machinery Engineering had debt of CN555.3m at the end of December 2019, a reduction from CN984.8m over a year. However, its balance sheet shows it holds CN21.4b in cash, so it actually has CN20.8b net cash.

SEHK:1829 Historical Debt May 4th 2020

How Strong Is China Machinery Engineering's Balance Sheet?

The latest balance sheet data shows that China Machinery Engineering had liabilities of CN34.2b due within a year, and liabilities of CN1.56b falling due after that. On the other hand, it had cash of CN21.4b and CN15.8b worth of receivables due within a year. So it actually has CN1.39b more liquid assets than total liabilities.

Story continues

This surplus suggests that China Machinery Engineering is using debt in a way that is appears to be both safe and conservative. Due to its strong net asset position, it is not likely to face issues with its lenders. Simply put, the fact that China Machinery Engineering has more cash than debt is arguably a good indication that it can manage its debt safely.

Another good sign is that China Machinery Engineering has been able to increase its EBIT by 25% in twelve months, making it easier to pay down debt. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start. But ultimately the future profitability of the business will decide if China Machinery Engineering can strengthen its balance sheet over time. So if you're focused on the future you can check out this free report showing analyst profit forecasts.

Finally, a company can only pay off debt with cold hard cash, not accounting profits. While China Machinery Engineering has net cash on its balance sheet, it's still worth taking a look at its ability to convert earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to free cash flow, to help us understand how quickly it is building (or eroding) that cash balance. Over the last three years, China Machinery Engineering saw substantial negative free cash flow, in total. While that may be a result of expenditure for growth, it does make the debt far more risky.

Summing up

While we empathize with investors who find debt concerning, you should keep in mind that China Machinery Engineering has net cash of CN20.8b, as well as more liquid assets than liabilities. And we liked the look of last year's 25% year-on-year EBIT growth. So we are not troubled with China Machinery Engineering's debt use. The balance sheet is clearly the area to focus on when you are analysing debt. However, not all investment risk resides within the balance sheet - far from it. Take risks, for example - China Machinery Engineering has 2 warning signs we think you should be aware of.

At the end of the day, it's often better to focus on companies that are free from net debt. You can access our special list of such companies (all with a track record of profit growth). It's free.

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.
To mark the anniversary on April 22 nd EarthX and the National Geographic Society hosted a virtual Earth Day celebration with a special address by Tia Nelson, daughter of Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day. Both Trammell S. Crow, Founder of EarthX, and Michael L. Ulica, president and COO of the National Geographic Society took the virtual stage along with some of National Geographic's most renowned Explorers including Enric Sala and Sylvia Earle. The daylong event attracted over 200,000 viewers.

Conferences | The EarthX "Congress of Conferences" featured leading voices exploring the intersection of the environment and policy, cities, energy, technology, and business. Mayor Eric Garcetti, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Julie Packard and Nancy Pfund, Founder of DBL Partners and Trustee of the National Geographic Society, were among this year's speakers.

Jane Fonda joined youth activist Xiye Bastida, Pat Mitchell and other transformative women in the environmental conversation at EarthX's first intergenerational women's summit, Women in the Environment. This year also marked the launch of March for Science Youth Summit, giving a platform for youth leaders from around the world who are champions of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

EarthxLaw, presented on Earth Day, included a briefing by Ken McQueen of the EPA of the progress we've made over the past 50 years and then focused on selected environmental issues of immediate concern  relating to the quality of our drinking water and the challenges of climate change  with a series of conversations that discussed innovative approaches for addressing environmental issues more broadly. EarthxCities explored the role of cities at the forefront of climate resiliency, as urban residents collectively face the brunt of environmental hazards, and discussed solutions for cities to adapt and recover from the strain of such hazards, most notably, the current global pandemic.

EarthxEnergy: Renewables joined leading technology developers and energy policy experts in a series of panels featuring speakers including Sandra Kwak, founder and CEO of 10Power, which invests in renewable energy projects in Haiti, and Chad Frischmann, vice president of the non-profit, Project Drawdown. Global Thermostat announced its partnership with ExxonMobil, a collaboration that co-founders Graciela Chichilnisky and Peter Eisenberger said will help scale their technology for Direct Air Capture to soak up CO2 from the atmosphere and advance their goal of removing a gigaton of CO2 every year.

EarthxE-Capital convened private capital, financiers, 90 innovators and 90 investors, early to late-stage companies, industry thought leaders, key local and national policy-makers, incubators, accelerators and researchers to cultivate partnerships catalyzing investment into environmental solutions. The Climate Tech Prize was rewarded to rePurpose for their innovations in tacking plastic waste, receiving a grant of $10,000. Judges included Kevin Harrington, Harry Hamlin, Ashley Gross and Dawn Lippert.

Film Festival | With over 36 features and short films, the EarthxFilm Festival showcased pioneers in eco-storytelling through virtual screenings and live streamed conversations with filmmakers, youth leaders and environmental activists. Some of the highlight film screenings of the festival included Jane Goodall: The Hope, The Great Green Wall, The Story of Plastic, Mossville: When Great Trees Fall, The Love Bugs, and Public Trust executive produced by Robert Redford. The EarthxFilm and The Planet911 Youth Awards presented grants of $25,000 in two virtual ceremonies. Recipients included Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed's My Octopus Teacher, which took home the EarthxFilm Best Feature Film Jury Prize, and Allison Otto and Maria Clinton's The Love Bugs among others.

The festival also featured cutting edge XR panels and extended reality experiences, taking attendees around the world to intimately connect with the wonders of our planet without leaving their homes. From virtual diving with whale sharks to treks in the rainforest, EarthXR presented immersive journeys, showcases and discussions with Google Earth filmmakers, Youtube XR, Samsung and HTC Vive.

Youth Program | From youth eco-art and film competitions to a virtual hackathon, this year's program was designed to engage students with interactive events that expanded their understanding of the planet and their role in sustaining it. The program featured a series of talks and videos were also presented by young leaders and champions for change including Taegan Yardley, the First Place winner of the 2019 International Young Eco-Hero Award, and Shreya Ramachandran's who started The Grey Water Project as they shared their powerful journeys about inspiring youth-led movements in their communities and around the world.

EarthxHack , the virtual hackathon held over three days, hosted over 1,300 youth participants to use their creativity, technical thinking, and knowledge to solve real issues affecting the world today. Submissions of creative solutions that can be implemented on a global scale are being reviewed over the week following and winners will be announced on a live streamed show on Saturday, May 2nd.

All Earthx2020 events are available for viewing online via EarthX. Moreover, EarthX will be providing an online forum for continuing dialogue on these and other topics and will continue to stream its upcoming events throughout the year including EarthxOcean conference planned for June 9-10th.

ABOUT EarthX

EarthX convenes the world's largest environmental expo, conference and film festival, and is a member of IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature. Founded in 2011 by environmentalist and businessman Trammell S. Crow, the Texas-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization promotes environmental awareness and impact through conscious business, nonpartisan collaboration and community-driven sustainable solutions. In 2019, the event drew over 177,000 attendees, 2,000 environmental leaders, 700 exhibitors, 450 speakers, 63 films and 49 Eco-virtual reality experiences. Earthx2020 will be held virtually on April 22-26, 2020. Visit www.EarthX.org or follow us @earthxorg on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

ABOUT The National Geographic Society

The National Geographic Society is a global nonprofit organization that uses the power of science, exploration, education and storytelling to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world. Since 1888, National Geographic has pushed the boundaries of exploration, investing in bold people and transformative ideas, providing more than 14,000 grants for work across all seven continents, reaching 3 million students each year through education offerings, and engaging audiences around the globe through signature experiences, stories and content. To learn more, visit www.nationalgeographic.org or follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

SOURCE EarthX

Related Links

earthx.org


Interview Building New IDP Camps Requires Security Considerations: Rakhine State Govt

Internally displaced people (IDPs) at a camp in Kyauktaw Township, Rakhine State in April. / Min Aung Khine / The Irrawaddy

The Rakhine State government issued an order last Wednesday telling humanitarian relief groups not to set up camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Rakhine State without its approval. The order addressed to the Sittwe District Management Committee went viral on social media.

The order is signed by Rakhine State Minister for Security and Border Affairs Colonel Min Than on behalf of Rakhine State Chief Minister U Nyi Pu. More than 160,000 people have been displaced in northern Rakhine due to fighting between the Tatmadaw, or Myanmar military, and the Arakan Army (AA).

With little hope of returning to their homes soon, the IDPs will face further challenges with the arrival of rainy season.

The Irrawaddys senior reporter Min Aung Khine recently talked to Rakhine State government spokesman and State Municipal Minister U Win Myint about the states plans to feed and shelter the IDPs.

Why did the government issue the order to not set up IDP camps without its approval?

There was a previous case [the Myanmar military forced Sanyin IDP camp in Myebon Township to close in January]. So we said that if it is necessary to set up an IDP camp, we must be informed about it and its location. It is not good if [humanitarian groups] build the camps as they please without informing us. Thats why we issued the order.

Will the state government give permission if groups seek official approval?

Yes, we will. We will give permission if the location is appropriate. It will mainly depend on the location. The IDP camp should not be built in an extremely sensitive area. If the location is appropriate, you can build the camp in consultation with the security and border affairs minister. We have to take security into consideration.

What are the governments plans to assist the IDPs in coping with the rainy season?

We built shelters last year to prevent difficulties for IDPs in the relevant townships, including Mrauk-U. I heard IDPs have moved into these shelters in Kyauktaw and Ponnagyun. There are also vacant shelters in Buthidaung and Rathedaung. It would be better for them to stay in those shelters. It will be convenient and secure for them in rainy season and the government will meet any other needs they have.

IDPs said that the government shelters were too hot to live in for hot season because their roofs and walls are corrugated metal sheets. They are also far from residential areas. As there is no regular supply of food, they said it is difficult for them to find food.

Previously, we even considered providing cooked meals to the IDPs who come and stay at government shelters. By cooked meals, I mean cooked foods and all cooking utensils would be provided by the Natural Disaster Management Department and supplemented by the state government. We thought about how to make this convenient for them.

But they cant expect that all their requirements will be met. There will be differences between life at the shelters and at their homes. They also might have to struggle to find opportunities for work near them. There will more or less be difficulties when leaving behind your property. But if they come and stay in government shelters, the government is responsible for providing as much convenience as it can.

How many IDPs has the state government recorded in its tallies?

I have yet to ask departments about the figures. Previously, I answered based on daily records of the departments. But now I havent asked departments for a long time because I havent been asked about those figures. Now COVID-19 takes priority and I have only been asked about COVID-19 figures, so I have yet to ask the departments.

Has the government adopted COVID-19 prevention and response plans for the IDP camps?

The government has not taken specific measures for the IDPs regarding COVID-19. But the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement is undertaking education programs and providing other assistance.

My last question is, as clashes are going on in Rakhine and the number of IDPs is increasing. what assistance is the government providing for them?

The Disaster Management Department of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement takes responsibility for providing assistance. It supplies food to places which are short of food. The department also works in collaboration with the township general administration departments.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

You may also like these stories:

Karen Revolutionary Leader and Peacemaker with Myanmar Government Dies

In Myanmars Chin State, Rain and Attack on WFP Convoy Force Aid Deliveries by Boat

What Does COVID-19 Mean for Myanmars Peace Process?
Union agriculture & rural development minister Narendra Singh Tomar spoke to Saubhadra Chatterji and Zia Haq about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the farm sector, labour shortage during the harvest season, benefits given to farmers and farm labourers, and allocations of jobs under the rural employment guarantee scheme. Edited excerpts:

You have held a meeting with state rural and agricultural ministers. What are the main demands of the states?

The Narendra Modi governments priority is to protect farmers, rural India, and poor people from the pandemic. We have discussed issues related to farming operations and harvesting, agriculture market and mandi operations, procurement at MSP (minimum support price), provision of seeds and fertilizers, and logistics and movement of agriculture/horticulture produce. As you know, the Centre has given several exemptions to the rural and agricultural sector from the lockdown -- including all farming operations and mandis. This has definitely helped maintaining continuity in the supply chain especially in view the harvesting and sowing season. We are monitoring the situation closely.

Farmers are still struggling with labour shortage. Moreover, social distancing and lack of transport have affected farm operations and procurement seems to be taking much longer.

There is no denying that this is not a normal situation. But I can guarantee that the Covid pandemic will not be able to damage Indian agriculture. In some states, the stranded farm labourers have been engaged according to our reports and for those who have managed to return, they are working in their home states. I can assure you that farm labourers are getting full wages and are not forced to accept lower wages.

Out of total wheat sown, almost 95% has already been harvested. Punjab has deployed 18,000 combines and Haryana has deployed 5,000 combines for harvesting and threshing. Harvesting of pulses is complete. For sugarcane, out of the total sown (acreage) 54.29 lakh hectares, harvesting has been completed all big states barring Uttar Pradesh, where it will continue till mid May 2020. Oilseed harvest is complete except of groundnut, which has been harvested to the tune of 85-90%. Summer crops have been sown in 57.07 lakh hectares this year against 41.31 lakh hectares last year.

Farmers have dumped milk and horticulture produce because of inadequate price and markets. Are you planning additional compensations for this?

This might have happened in some places due to critical situation occurred in the country in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the government has taken several measures to provide timely benefits to the farmers. The Modi government has already transferred Rs 17,986 crore to farmers since March 24 under the PM-Kisan scheme. Instalment due for the period of April 1 to July 31 has been paid to 81.3 million beneficiaries. Under Kisan Credit Card, Nearly two million applications have been sanctioned since February 20 for a total amount of Rs 18,000 crores.

Despite repeated advisories to states about freeing agriculture and allied activities, there are reports that farmers have been stopped from carrying out farm operations?

Initially, it might have happened in some locations but now all field functionaries have been sensitised about the exemptions including agricultural operations. A positive impact has been observed in harvesting of Rabi (winter) crops, sowing of summer crops and continuity in supply chain and procurement of agricultural commodities.

There is a surge in demand for MGNREGS jobs. How much money is the government ready to spend given its other financial burdens?

This year, we have kept a provision of 2.8 billion persondays of work. We are aware that more people might need MGNREGS backup as millions of migrant labourers have returned home. In case the states anticipate more demand for work, it can be further scaled up.

We have already approved Rs 33,300 crore of fund for the state out of which Rs 20,752 crore has already been released, liquidating all pending liabilities on wages and material. There is no pending bill on account of wages.

On April 14, 1.42 million workers were offered jobs but this increased to 7.79 million (workers) within two weeks. More than 36 million person days of work has already been created under MGNREGS and it will increase further.
Demonstrators hold signs and American flags in Huntington Beach on May 1, 2020, to protest Orange County beach closures. (Los Angeles Times)

To the editor: Photos in the Los Angeles Times show the anti-lockdown protesters in Orange County waving Americans flags. To me, the American flag has always been a symbol of all that is good about us  our altruistic courage, generosity and compassion. The Stars and Stripes represent diversity and togetherness.

But increasingly I see the flag of our country becoming usurped by the right, corrupted into a symbol of anger, greed and mean-spiritedness. They use the Stars and Stripes in protest for the "freedom" to destroy the land, the air and our water.

Now, sometimes the American flag is waved alongside the Confederate flag, a symbol of white supremacy. Does our flag still evoke patriotism, or does it now symbolize selfishness?

Michael Wall, Three Rivers, Calif.

..

To the editor: Don't blame Gov. Gavin Newsom for closing the beaches in Orange County. The fault lies squarely with the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

Had it put together a workable plan like Ventura County did, we could have been able to have access to the beach in an "active" fashion, with no coolers, umbrellas or tents, but walkers, swimmers, surfers and bikers out enjoying the beaches right now.

Sam Roberts, San Juan Capistrano

..

To the editor: This is what I want to tell the protesters.

No one likes the economic shutdown, but I am sorry that whoever raised you made you believe that the world revolves around you, because (spoiler alert) it does not.

Your "right" to go to the movies, the beach or the nail salon takes a backseat to everyone else's right to be protected against a new, highly contagious and deadly virus. No one is trying to take your rights away; rather, state and local officials are just trying to do their best to keep most of us alive.

This is not about you. We must all look outside the narrow prism of our own little lives to see how our individual actions might affect everyone else. Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities is not freedom, it is adolescence.

So please, try to be a grown-up for now. This is not going to last forever.

Penelope Burley, Santa Rosa Valley, Calif.
The West Bengal governor hit out at Mamata government over the Covid-19 crisis.

Kolkata: West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday described chief minister Mamata Banerjee as usurper of power, returning her latest salvo to her.

You have hogged media focus by your assertion... I beseech you to desist from intensifying your efforts to usurp powers. Earlier your refrain was governor is running parallel government. The bitter truth is that people in the state know only too well who in the state is usurper and extra-constitutional fountain of power! Who runs government and syndicates! Who is this ABCD! An open secret! Surely I am not the one, he wrote to the Trinamul Congress supremo.

Dhankhar argued, Your misplaced stand, that as elected chief minister with majority in legislature you are impregnably unaccountable and as governor, I have no role, is lamentable. This smacks of authoritarianism that has no place in democracy where all are accountable. You have only to look to recent history and around, how your peers, with majority, faced flak of law. They were mistaken and so are you. I had indicated to you that none is above law. Law catches with all.

He also observed, The state unfortunately is emerging as a police state with anyone posting on social media, to the distaste of the ruling dispensation, gets a police knock and thereafter!! Expression of political opinions is sought to be controlled by the government. Political victimisation is on incremental trajectory.

On the Covid-19 deaths, the governor alleged, Reports of disposal of Covid-19 dead bodies from several areas with heartless indescribable insensitivity is unconscionably shocking. People are traumatised at this callous stance. Their sentiments are outraged. We would never be able to come out of the sordid saga and shame of Dhapa! It will haunt us for long.

Calling for effective protective gear for the health workers, he noted, There are operational issues of politicised PDS, leading to unrest/violent agitations at several places. State is passing through one of the most horrific times.
HOUSTON, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Vortex Companies announced the opening of two new facility locations to support its growing team of trenchless infrastructure professionals and meet the needs of customers in the southeastern region.

"This expansion was prompted as our team has grown to support increased business in the southeastern region. These strategic locations enable us to provide our employees more room and a healthy work environment, so they in turn can provide the high standard of service and quality products customers have come to expect from Vortex," stated Mike Vellano, CEO of the Vortex Companies.

The new, 14,000-square-foot building in Tampa will support the Florida Vortex Services group. The space will be a major upgrade for the team, featuring training and conference rooms, storage space, large, secured storage yard for vehicles and equipment and a separate maintenance and repair shop. The 8,000-square-foot building in Winder, Georgia will also accommodate a growing team, primarily supporting operations and installation crews. It will also house equipment and other products required for the increase in projects in the Atlanta area. "The new locations have been carefully selected and built out to support our team," added Wes Kingery, EVP of Vortex Services. "Our staff and crew are extremely dedicated, and these facilities are designed to improve their environment and workspace."

Overseeing the day-to-day details and buildout has been Nick Banchetti, COO of the Vortex Companies. "We're taking this time, when our team members are mostly working remotely or on jobsites, to bring both facilities up to the Vortex Companies standard. They will be ready for our employees to start fresh after COVID-19."

The Tampa facility will officially open May 11. While Vortex still has a work from home policy in place, the organization is set to commence a return to work plan for employees who are healthy and showing no signs of COVID-19. The plan will adhere to all Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended practices and is contingent based on location.

Vellano echoed the sentiment, saying, "I'm proud to be announcing this expansion in the southeast, especially at this time. Vortex Companies is growing even while we are all facing adversity. That growth affords us opportunities to hire more talented individuals and expand to provide more communities the products and services that are vital to the completion of infrastructure repair and maintenance projects."

About the Vortex Companies

The Vortex Companies deliver advanced trenchless technologies and turnkey services to cost effectively renew municipal, industrial and commercial infrastructure. The Vortex Services division provides lining and coating solutions, pipe bursting, CCTV and inspection. The Vortex Products division develops and sells manhole and pipe rehabilitation materials, polymeric coatings and resins, sewer robot systems, and high-speed drain cleaning tools.

With strategic acquisitions planned for the second half of 2020, the Vortex Companies remains focused on its vision of providing a broad range of intelligent and economical trenchless infrastructure renewal solutions, supported by highly experienced and trained personnel. For more information, go to: www.vortexcompanies.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Kit Jones

713-269-2333

[email protected]

SOURCE Vortex Companies
MEDINA, Ohio -- The Medina High School administration, led by Principal Jeff Harrison, recently celebrated graduating seniors by delivering yard signs, caps and gowns.

They ordered the signs early on because they wanted a more personal way to recognize all of our students, said Medina City Schools Superintendent Aaron Sable. They then asked staff for volunteers to actually go door to door.

"When we realized that we werent going to be able to have a traditional graduation in May during our normal graduation time, we decided to include delivery of the cap and gown with the delivery of the signs. We felt like that made it even more special, " he said.

Harrison, along with high school staff, began delivering them to seniors last week. They traveled all around the city to present these gifts.

You are and always will be a part of the Medina High School family, in good times and in bad. These signs are a representation of your triumph and a message that we are in this together, Harrison told the seniors in a press release.

Families that reached out to me were extremely positive, said Sable. I think they felt like they were able to get reconnected with the school.

"The Class of 2020 have been facing the pandemic along with the rest of us and have had to miss milestones that others have gotten to experience during their senior year.

I think its been very challenging for this years seniors, so to be able to do something thats above and beyond that no other senior class has had done before was really important and special for the students, said Sable.

The pandemic at hand will not stop the district from providing seniors with other ways to celebrate their graduation.

We are actually doing a blended graduation. And what I mean by that is we are going to have students come into our Performing Arts Center and be able to walk the stage and have their families present them with their diploma, Sable said. We are going to do it over the course of several days so that theyre all spread out (and) were using appropriate social distancing.

Graduation speeches will also be videotaped and made available on YouTube and Armstrongs local access channel at 1 p.m. May 23 at 1 p.m. -- the original time and date planned for graduation.

This is a major life milestone, Sable said. For our seniors to be able to have an experience where theyre celebrated was extremely important to us.

Read more from the Medina Sun.
Vicki McKenna came to the Ministry of Healths offices with a warning.

It was January 20, and McKenna, president of the Ontario Nurses Association, and the organizations CEO were meeting with Health Minister Christine Elliott. The nurses, troubled by the unspooling news of how COVID-19 had besieged the health care system in Wuhan and was now popping up outside of China, told the government that years of understaffing had left Ontarios nursing homes just as vulnerable.

When we started to see what was happening in other jurisdictions, the flags going up, we asked: What are we doing about this? Are you acting on this? McKenna said.

The minister, she recalls, listened to their concerns and said the province was monitoring the situation.

Five days after that meeting, the first case of COVID-19 was identified in Ontario.

Over the next two months, unions for front-line staff, seniors advocates and long-term care experts say they continued to sound the alarm in conversations with both the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Long-Term Care.

They say the long-term care sector was overlooked as strained acute care resources were shored up in response to dire international reports of overwhelmed intensive care units.

Meanwhile, the well-known cracks in Ontarios nursing home system were allowed to become deadly sinkholes, according to experts and front-line staff, as well as allegations made in court.

One hundred days since the provinces first COVID-19 case, the virus has killed 1,300 people  75% of them were nursing home residents.

If not for Ontarios flat-footed response in its nursing homes, some of those deaths may have been averted.

They listened but there was no action, McKenna said. Until there were positive cases starting to percolate in long-term care, thats when the light went on ... and the focus turned to long-term care.

In late March, as deaths inside nursing homes started to surge, Ford and his government vowed again and again to fortify the porous line of defence meant to protect Ontarios most vulnerable from a virus that has them, more than anyone, in its crosshairs.

Provincial and federal officials lamented how the viruss devastation of frail seniors was unprecedented, and the country simply did not have a playbook for handling COVID-19 in nursing homes.

But there were several playbooks  federal and provincial pandemic plans, post-SARS reports and infection prevention and control guidelines  all painstakingly developed in preparation for the inevitable next pandemic.

They predicted that elderly people, due to declining immune systems and multiple health conditions, would be among the hardest hit.

And once inside a home, the virus could spread fast. Higher transmission risk factors listed in the 2011 Canadian Pandemic Influenza Preparedness: Planning Guidance for the Health Sector include shared rooms, shared bathrooms, high nurse-to-patient ratios, lack of space to isolate infected residents, inability to have different staff for infected and uninfected residents, and the inability to keep physical distance of two metres or more between residents.

Many, if not all, of these factors were present at Ontario long-term care homes, especially in older facilities where up to four residents share a room.

Given the risk for rapid spread and the high-risk population, the stated goal of the plan for long-term care was to keep the facility (or major areas of the facility) completely free of influenza.

We knew exactly what was going to happen ... We saw it in Asia. We saw it, particularly in seniors in congregate care settings, in Italy and Spain and then France, said Laura Tamblyn Watts, CEO of CanAge, a national seniors advocacy organization.

Tamblyn Watts said she has been part of a chorus of long-term care experts and front-line health care workers that for weeks had been calling for more aggressive, meaningful government action to help halt the viruss wildfire spread through nursing homes.

We knew what was needed, she continued. The problem was the Ontario government didnt do it.

In an emailed statement, spokespersons for the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Long-Term Care said the focus of the province has been on ensuring that these homes have the resources they need, including filling any urgent gaps.

The provinces increasingly stringent measures are building an iron ring around long-term-care homes so that we can protect our provinces most vulnerable, the statement said.

The COVID-19 virus is especially dangerous in part because of how it can sweep through society via silent spreaders who display no symptoms, rendering normal screening measures focused on temperatures and symptoms far less useful.

While the prevalence of asymptomatic transmission was initially unclear, experts say that once it was suspected, Ontario should have moved beyond symptom screening and close-contact testing to widespread testing in all long-term-care homes even without an outbreak.

With regards to what could have been done ... what were doing now, but doing it a month ago, would have prevented a lot of this, said Dr. David Fisman, an epidemiologist at the University of Torontos Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

Jan. 25: First COVID-19 case in Ontario

In a memo on Jan. 27, Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Williams said the two initial cases, a married couple who had returned from Wuhan, were not unexpected. The risk to Ontarians remained low, but more cases were expected to arise among travellers.

At the start of February, the Ministry of Health issued guidelines to long-term-care homes requesting passive screening of visitors, staff, and volunteers, and active screening of residents.

Signs instructed to self-identify if they had travelled to China or had symptoms like fever or acute respiratory illness. Residents were to be monitored for fevers, coughs or trouble breathing.

It was only after the virus had ripped through some long-term care homes that they were able to move residents into single rooms because COVID-19 had killed the previous occupant, some front-line staff said. Mount Sinai geriatrician Dr. Nathan Stall said the virus is estimated to kill about a third of infected long-term-care home residents.

The nursing home sector was in crisis long before COVID-19, said Pat Armstrong, a sociology professor at York University and lead author of the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives April 2020 report Reimagining Long-term Residential Care in the COVID-19 Crisis.

Long-standing staffing shortages stemmed from low pay and a reluctance to provide full-time hours and benefits. Volunteers and family members have tried to fill the gaps.

Personal support workers, primarily racialized and immigrant women who do the challenging work of bathing, changing and feeding residents, are forced to work at multiple homes to get enough hours.

The sectors increased reliance on part-time workers reduced workers awareness of infection protocols, the 2003 Naylor report on the SARS outbreak found. And the hourly pay and lack of sick leave or benefits meant there was an incentive to work while ill.

Evidence from the battle against COVID-19 overseas emerged early.

By mid-February, Chinas Centre for Disease Control (CDC) released data showing the fatality rate for COVID patients 80 years and older was 14.8 per cent, more than six times larger than the death rate for the population as a whole. By early March, researchers in Italy found that, of 105 deaths, the average age was 81.

Feb. 28: The Life Care Centre outbreak

Then came what former U.S. Centre for Disease Control director Tom Frieden called a sentinel event for North American nursing homes  the outbreak at Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington.

The first positive case was confirmed Feb. 28. Just over a week later, 81 residents were infected and 22 were dead.

On March 8  the same day as the first death in Canada at the Lynn Valley nursing home in Vancouver  Frieden pointed to the Life Care Centre outbreak and called nursing homes ground zero for COVID-19. He called for visits to be restricted and measures, such as paid leave, to ensure sick staff stay home.

It would be five days before Ontarios chief medical officer of health advised nursing homes here to bar all but essential visitors.

With health officials focused on preparing hospitals for an onslaught of COVID patients that could overwhelm intensive care units, the province urged that certain COVID-negative patients be transferred out of hospitals and into long-term care where they would be isolated for two weeks.

Our acute care system was inoculated, as it were, by SARS. And thats been really awesome, said Colin Furness, an infection control epidemiologist at the University of Toronto. But long-term care was not.

It became pretty clear early that we werent ready, said Sharleen Stewart, the president of the Service Employees International Union Healthcare, whose members work in nursing and retirement homes.

In meetings with officials from the ministries of health and long-term care through early March, a lot of us brought up SARS and it kind of just went without response. We were asking the employers and the government particularly at that time, What was the (personal protective equipment) situation? They said we had an adequate supply, which was not what we were hearing on the front lines, she said.

Protective gear was already in short supply at the end of January with some homes reporting they were unable to procure PPE from their usual supplier.

The province was not taking the risk to long-term care homes seriously enough, she said.

The more I watched this and the more I looked back over the weeks and months of how this was handled, I think this government chose who lives and dies. I really do, said Stewart, speaking the day after a memorial for a personal support worker who died from COVID-19.

March 8: First death in a long-term-care home in Canada

The day after the death of a resident at the Lynn Valley care home in North Vancouver, Ontarios Ministry of Long-Term Care sent a memo instructing homes to actively screen all visitors and residents, and advised staff to monitor for symptoms.

In Ontario, the focus remained on travel-related cases, as the chief medical officer of health, Dr. David Williams, assured the virus is not circulating locally.

On March 16, all returning travellers were told to self isolate with the exception of health care and essential workers. Two days later, health workers were included but, Stewart said, some employers were telling staff to get back to work if they werent showing symptoms.

And honestly, thats when my hair caught fire. Its like, Im in the same world that theyre in. And it was already talked about that, that this was spread to asymptomatic people. So once you have the symptoms, its too late, she said.

By then, cases of community spread were beginning to emerge. March 9 is when the first residents at Pinecrest nursing home in Bobcaygeon likely became infected, according to a letter written by a cardiologist in nearby Lindsay. In the ensuing weeks, at least 29 residents of the 65-bed home would die from the outbreak.

Mississauga truck driver Terence Van Dyke was glued to the news, listening intently for anything about the home where just a little over a month earlier he had moved his father  Eatonville Care Centre in Etobicoke.

They werent on the news so I assumed they were doing things right, Van Dyke said.

His father William had been living at a retirement home in Simcoe. Worried that his fathers condition was worsening, and that if he didnt pounce on the available bed his father would lose his spot in Ontarios long queue for long-term care, Van Dyke moved him to Eatonville. As he helped his dad settle into a cramped, shared third-floor room, Van Dykes heart sank.

When I left that day, I cried. I felt like I had taken him from the Hilton and dropped him at a Ramada Inn, he said.

The website for Eatonville, a for-profit home owned by Rykka Care Centres, offers only shared rooms, some with as many as four beds. These ward rooms, common in older homes, are tinderboxes for the transmission of viruses, experts say. There is simply no way to institute appropriate infection control, Tamblyn Watts said.

Inside Eatonville, sick residents were not properly separated from the healthy, while staff were made to wear the same soiled protective gear while caring for all residents, according to allegations filed in court by unions representing front-line health care workers.

A respiratory virus outbreak was declared on units 2, 4 and 5 on March 16, according to submissions by the Ontario Nurses Association.

The symptoms associated with the outbreak were consistent with a diagnosis of COVID-19. Residents on Unit 3 also became symptomatic, but were permitted to move about freely, the ONA alleged.

Staff were given two masks at the start of each shift, told to only put them on if caring for a patient with COVID-19, and told to put the mask in their pocket at other times so that they were not walking the halls looking suspicious,  the nurse union alleges.

At another Rykka-owned nursing home, staff used privacy curtains to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in shared rooms.

The ONA took Rykka to court, where a judge ordered the company to make sure sick and healthy residents were properly segregated and staff did not cross between the groups, and that nurses had access to high-grade N95 face masks if they deem it appropriate. The judgment applies to three Rykka homes, including Eatonville, where COVID outbreaks have claimed the lives of at least 83 residents.

In a separate complaint filed on behalf of two Eatonville employees who caught COVID, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) alleged to the Ontario labour relations board that staff were not being told who was infected.

Staff are being forced to guess who is infected based on who is in isolation and who has a STOP sign on their room doors, the complaint alleges. It seems that Eatonville has been very lax with their preventative measures around COVID-19 and has disregarded many of the prevention protocols that should have been put in place right away when the pandemic started.

Evelyn MacDonald, the executive director of Eatonville, said in a statement that the home is using up-to-date guidelines from Public Health and the Chief Medical Officer of Health on infection control best practices, personal protective equipment standards, and testing guidelines to mitigate COVIDs spread inside the home.

In an affidavit filed in court, MacDonald said nurses had access to surgical masks and other protective equipment since the outbreak began in mid-March, and have kept staff and residents families informed throughout the crisis.

During these challenging times, we continue our efforts to protect our residents and staff by leveraging the best policies and practices available, she told the Star.

March 17: State of emergency

On March 22, five days after Premier Ford declared a state of emergency shuttering schools, libraries and sit-down meals in restaurants, Williamss office issued a directive barring residents from leaving nursing homes to see family or friends, and that visits at the home had to be done with social distancing. The directive also advised: Wherever possible, homes would work with staff to limit the number of facilities they work at to minimize risk of patients to exposure to COVID-19.

This was only a recommendation, and would not become a mandatory policy until a month later.

This was one of the ways that SARS was getting between facilities, said Dr. Samir Sinha, head of geriatrics at Mount Sinai and the University Health Network. So what did the SARS Commission say back in 2004? We have to end that practice. But we never did  because it would mean we had to fund the system better.

Staff members working in multiple facilities contributed to the fatal outbreak at a Washington nursing home, a March 18 report by the U.S. CDC concluded.

On March 27 in British Columbia, where officials believe the virus arrived at the Lynn Valley nursing home through a care worker with multiple employers, the provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, made an order limiting movement of staff at long-term care facilities. The move was estimated to cost $10 million a month.

Ontario did not order a halt to staff movement between homes for another two-and-a-half weeks, and the ban would take another week to come into force.

Henrys actions may have charted a radically different course for B.C.s nursing homes compared to those in Ontario.

They werent doing any better than we were doing in Ontario in terms of their systemic issues, said Dr. Sinha. Ontario didnt act as decisively as B.C.

In an emailed statement, spokespersons for the Ontario ministries of health and long-term care said the two provinces have very different long-term care sectors. On March 25, Ontario provided $243 million in emergency funding to support homes to rapidly hire and retain nurses, personal support workers, and other front-line staff, as well as to create additional emergency capacity to support the isolating and cohorting of residents and staff as needed.

The same day Henry took aggressive action, Sinha sent an email with a dire warning to the office of Ontarios minister of seniors.

I fear that right now we are not getting ahead of this in Ontario the way we need to, reads the email, a copy of which was obtained by the Star.

Sinha warned that the latest evidence showed symptom-based screening might not capture COVID-positive carriers who are asymptomatic or not yet showing symptoms.

MY BOTTOM LINE  With 50% of the residents who tested positive were ASYMPTOMATIC or PRE-SYMPTOMATIC. Once there is a case  everyone in a unit/home should be tested. All staff should be wearing PPE, the letter said.

On March 27 the province continued to reject residence-wide testing, even in homes where there were outbreaks. At a press conference that same day, associate chief medical officer of health, Dr. Barbara Yaffe, said, We dont want to use up the limited lab resources to test everybody when we already know what the cause of the outbreak is.

Health officials changed their tone on April 15. Part of the COVID-19 Action Plan would now include aggressive testing of all residents in homes with outbreaks, with plans to expand testing for long-term care residents and staff.

In the days following health officials dismissal of residence-wide testing on March 27 until their changed approach on April 15, internal government data shows COVID deaths in nursing homes grew from 11 to 257  an average daily jump in deaths of 21 per cent.

Even though Ontario did not have the capacity for widespread testing at first, the strategy should have shifted sooner to test widely in long-term care homes in recognition of evidence of how fast and easily the virus spreads, epidemiologist Furness said.

The virus was still running rampant through Eatonville. Among those soon to be infected: William Vonnell Van Dyke.

His son, Terence, woke up around 9 a.m. on April 11 and saw he had 19 missed calls from a number he did not recognize. It was St. Josephs Hospital, where his father was now on oxygen.

Within three hours, his 85-year-old father was dead.

He said he only found out that his father had tested positive for COVID-19 from the funeral home director. It was days more before he heard from anyone at Eatonville.

Although the home was kind to his father, Van Dyke questions why he was left in the dark and why his father was not tested sooner, especially because he had developed a fever after returning from a hospital, where he had surgery, in mid-March.

As the death count continued to climb at Eatonville and other long-term care homes, Van Dyke said he spiralled further into grief.

I felt guilty because I put him there, Van Dyke said, sobbing. All I could do ... was look at a photo of my father and apologize.

April 15: Fortifying the iron ring

When they look back on this, when the history books are written, we will be judged on how we looked out for each other. But even more importantly we will be judged on who we looked after, said Premier Doug Ford in a sombre, emotional press conference announcing the provinces plan to throw everything weve got at long-term care homes including hospital SWAT teams and more testing.

We will fortify the iron ring of protection around our long-term care residents and those who care for them, Ford said.

Toronto epidemiologist Fisman says the viruss full impact on nursing homes cannot yet be known because there has not been enough testing. There is also limited post-mortem testing, which means the death toll from the virus among seniors is likely undercounted.

Although the widespread devastation inside Ontarios nursing homes has exposed the repercussions of years of neglect and underfunding of long-term care, seniors advocate Tamblyn Watts said she hopes it has also shone a spotlight on what needs to be fixed.

If one good thing comes out of this it will be a rethinking of how we provide seniors care and care for other vulnerable populations, she said.

With files from Moira Welsh

Alyshah Hasham is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and court for the Star. Reach her at ahasham@thestar.ca . Follow her on Twitter: @alysanmati

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Police resorted to lathi-charge at a large group of migrant workers, protesting in West Godavaris Kovvuru on Monday, demanding to be sent to their home states.

Police had tried to persuade them into leaving the spot following which stones were allegedly pelted at the former.

Over 300 migrant labourers held agitation in Kovvuru following which the police tried to convince them that it is not possible to relieve them immediately. Furious labourers allegedly attacked the police with stones and empty bottles.

As the situation turned ugly, police indulged in lathi-charge. The migrant labourers ran away from the place.

However, the police are not fully confirming the clash. When ANI contacted Kovvuru town circle inspector Murty over the phone, he said that the labourers work in sand ramps, now they want to go to their native states. When asked whether stone pelting and lathi charge took place, he said that the migrant labourers tried to pelt stones.
Cancer Research UK's Centre for Drug Development to fund Phase I clinical trial in solid tumours

Crescendo Biologics Ltd (Crescendo), the developer of novel, targeted, T cell enhancing therapeutics, and Cancer Research UK, the world's largest independent funder of cancer research, today announce a Clinical Development Partnership to progress one of Crescendo's novel bispecific Humabody immunotherapies, CB213, into clinical trials targeting cancers of high unmet medical need.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005080/en/

Under the terms of the agreement, Cancer Research UK's Centre for Drug Development will sponsor and fund a future Phase I clinical trial for CB213, in patients with solid tumours. Crescendo retains the right to further develop the CB213 immunotherapy programme, by licensing the results of the trial from Cancer Research UK for an undisclosed amount, success-based milestones and royalty payments.

CB213, a novel bispecific PD-1 x LAG-3 antagonist, is a next-generation checkpoint inhibitor, which has been designed to deliver safer, more effective therapeutic intervention in patients with cancers resistant or refractory to PD-1 blockade alone. In preclinical testing, CB213 has demonstrated potent dual checkpoint blockade and the ability to enhance the activity of dysfunctional patient-derived T cells.

Theodora Harold, CEO of Crescendo Biologics, said:

"We are delighted to be collaborating with the world-renowned institution of Cancer Research UK to advance our CB213 programme. Cancer Research UK's endorsement of our science demonstrates important validation of our Humabody technology and provides an opportunity to accelerate our CB213 programme into the clinic. CB213 is a promising therapeutic candidate for treating patients with solid tumours, where conventional or combination immunotherapies have failed. We look forward to working with the team at Cancer Research UK's Centre for Drug Development."

Dr Nigel Blackburn, Cancer Research UK's Director of Drug Development, said:

"We're proud to be working with Crescendo at the forefront of oncology innovation and cancer drug development. By combining our expertise, we're able to accelerate the development of this promising experimental treatment, bringing it to patients with cancers that are hard to treat."

-Ends-

Notes to Editors

About Crescendo Biologics

Crescendo Biologics is a T cell enhancing company. Crescendo develops potent, truly differentiated Humabody V H therapeutics with a focus on innovative, targeted T cell approaches in oncology.

Leading its proprietary pipeline, Crescendo Biologics has developed CB307, a novel CD137 (4-1BB)

x PSMA bispecific, targeting PSMA-positive tumours for the selective activation of tumour-specific T cells exclusively within the tumour microenvironment. CB307 is designed to achieve a longer lasting anti-cancer effect whilst avoiding systemic toxicity and is on track to enter the clinic in 2020. The company has a broad portfolio of additional Humabody products in preclinical development as well as a strategic partnership with Takeda Pharmaceuticals, where three Humabody products are currently advancing towards the clinic.

The Company's ability to develop multi-functional Humabody V H therapeutics is based on its unique, patent protected, transgenic mouse platform generating 100% human V H domain building blocks (Humabody V H ). These robust molecules can be configured to engage therapeutic targets in such a way that they deliver novel biology and superior bio-distribution. This results in larger therapeutic windows compared to conventional IgG approaches. Humabody-based formats can be applied across a range of indications beyond cancer.

Crescendo Biologics is a private company located in Cambridge, UK, and is backed by blue-chip investors including Sofinnova Partners, Andera Partners, IP Group, Takeda Ventures, Quan Capital and Astellas.

For more information, please visit the website: www.crescendobiologics.com

About Cancer Research UK's Centre for Drug Development

Cancer Research UK has an impressive record of developing novel treatments for cancer. The Cancer Research UK Centre for Drug Development has been pioneering the development of new cancer treatments for 25 years, taking over 140 potential new anti-cancer agents into clinical trials in patients. It currently has a portfolio of 21 new anti-cancer agents in preclinical development, Phase I or early Phase II clinical trials. Six of these new agents have made it to market including temozolomide for brain cancer, abiraterone for prostate cancer and rucaparib for ovarian cancer. Two other drugs are in late development Phase III trials.

About Cancer Research UK's Commercial Partnerships Team

Cancer Research UK is the world's leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research. Cancer Research UK's specialist Commercial Partnerships Team works closely with leading international cancer scientists and their institutes to protect intellectual property arising from their research and to establish links with commercial partners. Cancer Research UK's commercial activity operates through Cancer Research Technology Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cancer Research UK. It is the legal entity which pursues drug discovery research in themed alliance partnerships and delivers varied commercial partnering arrangements.

About Cancer Research UK

Cancer Research UK is the world's leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research.

Cancer Research UK's pioneering work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives.

Cancer Research UK receives no funding from the UK government for its life-saving research. Every step it makes towards beating cancer relies on vital donations from the public.

Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival in the UK double in the last 40 years.

Today, 2 in 4 people survive their cancer for at least 10 years. Cancer Research UK's ambition is to accelerate progress so that by 2034, 3 in 4 people will survive their cancer for at least 10 years.

Cancer Research UK supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses.

Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.

For further information about Cancer Research UK visit www.cancerresearchuk.org.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005080/en/

Contacts:

Crescendo Biologics

Theodora Harold, CEO

Stewart Kay, CBO

Tel: 44 (0)1223 497140

info@crescendobiologics.com

Instinctif Partners for Crescendo

Melanie Toyne-Sewell Dr Christelle Kerouedan Phil Marriage

Tel: 44 (0)20 7457 2020

crescendo@instinctif.com

Cancer Research UK

Angharad Kolator Baldwin

Tel: 44 (0)2034698300

Angharad.KolatorBaldwin@cancer.org.uk
As program director, Eid has led every facet of STV's portion of NYCSCA's $500 million Capital Improvement Program. This program focuses on capacity and capital investment projects throughout all five New York City boroughs, including exterior masonry repair; roof, parapet, and window replacements; heating plant and electrical upgrades; and countless other improvements.

As a result of his success, Eid has recently been tasked with a similar role for the New York City Housing Authority. Other major clients that Eid has supported include New York State Office of General Services, Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, and American Airlines.



"Samir has led STV's relationship with the SCA Capital Improvement Program for more than a decade," said Jon Miller, AIA, LEEDAP, executive vice president in STV's Buildings & Facilities Division. "He has built a dedicated and loyal staff, and we are confident he will continue to provide a similarly high level of service to our clients in his new role as senior vice president."



Eid, who has more than 35 years of experience on both building and infrastructure programs, earned his bachelor's degree in civil engineering and public works/structural engineering from St. Joseph University in Lebanon and his master's degree in civil engineering and construction engineering/construction management from New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is a registered professional engineer in New York.



About STV: Founded more than 100 years ago, STV is a leader in providing engineering, architectural, planning, environmental and construction management services for transportation systems, infrastructure, buildings, energy, and other facilities. The firm is ranked 32nd in Engineering News-Record's Top 500 Design Firms survey and is 8th in its transportation category. For more information, visit the firm's website at www.stvinc.com or follow @STVGroup on Twitter or download the STV Pages app from Apple's App Store or Google Play.

For more information, contact:

Jill Bonamusa, (212) 614-3354

[email protected]

Marissa M. Matteo, (215) 832-3557

[email protected]

SOURCE STV

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Policemen guard as Kashmiri Muslims pray while the head priest displays a relic of Islam's Prophet Muhammad at the Hazratbal shrine, on the occasion of the Prophet's birth anniversary in Srinagar. Thousands of Kashmiri Muslims thronged the Hazratbal shrine, which houses a relic believed to be a hair from the beard of Prophet Muhammad. The image was part of a series of photographs by Associated Press photographers which won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography. (Image: AP)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 23:24:18|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The success of the first flight mission of China's new large carrier rocket Long March-5B marks a good beginning for the country's space station program, said a congratulatory message sent by the central authorities on Tuesday.

The Communist Party of China Central Committee, the State Council and the Central Military Commission extended the congratulations to all personnel participating in the mission after the rocket blasted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center and sent the trial version of China's new-generation manned spaceship and a cargo return capsule for test into space.

The message noted that all participating units and personnel had been working in solidarity and overcome difficulties amid the COVID-19 epidemic to achieve the success, which laid a solid foundation for the "third step" of China's manned space program to construct a space station.

It is the latest accomplishment that all mission teams, under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, obtained in following the path of independent innovation to develop the country's space industry, said the message.

It called for unwavering efforts in pushing forward the work, as the follow-up tasks of the manned space program is arduous, and difficulties and tests are severe and complex.

The central authorities encouraged scientists and engineers in China's space sector to make more contributions to the realization of the two centenary goals and the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation. Enditem
TORONTO, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gran Colombia Gold Corp. (TSX: GCM; OTCQX: TPRFF) announced today that it has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Renergetica Colombia S.A.S. (Renergetica), a subsidiary of Renergetica S.p.A., a developer in the field of renewable energy and of the smart grid worldwide and an independent power producer and asset manager for third party investors. The LOI encompasses Gran Colombias acquisition, through its Segovia Operations, of a solar project with a total installed capacity of 11.2 MW of power called Suarez, located in the Tolima Region, Colombia (the Suarez Project).



Lombardo Paredes, Chief Executive Officer of Gran Colombia, said, As the leading gold and silver producer in Colombia, we focus our ESG programs on health, education, community and the environment in the areas in which we live and operate. We see the opportunity to invest in renewable energy initiatives, such as the Suarez Project, as the next step in doing our part to combat global warming. With the new Suarez plant, approximately 10,300 tons of CO 2 per year will not be released into the environment. We look forward to partnering with Renergetica to make this solar project a reality.

The Suarez Project is the first project of a pipeline under development by Renergetica in Colombia. Expected to have a 30-year life, the Suarez Project will connect to the Colombian National Electric System and will become operational later in 2020. The capital cost of the Suarez Project, expected to total approximately $8 million, may be financed by up to 70% through local banks involved in green financing and will benefit from special tax incentives in Colombia on investments in renewable energy.

First Quarter 2020 Results Webcast

Gran Colombia also announced today that it will release its financial results for the first quarter 2020 after market close on Friday, May 15, 2020 and will host a conference call and webcast, together with Caldas Gold Corp., on Tuesday, May 19, 2020 at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss the results.

Webcast and call-in details are as follows:

Live Event link: https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/oduhd4fp International: 1 (514) 841-2157 North America Toll Free: 1 (866) 215-5508 Colombia Toll Free: 01 800 9 156 924 Conference ID: 49673039

A replay of the webcast will be available at www.grancolombiagold.com from Tuesday, May 19, 2020 until Friday, June 19, 2020.



About Gran Colombia Gold Corp.

Gran Colombia is a Canadian-based mid-tier gold producer with its primary focus in Colombia where it is currently the largest underground gold and silver producer with several mines in operation at its high-grade Segovia Operations. Gran Colombia owns approximately 74% of Caldas Gold Corp., a Canadian mining company currently advancing a prefeasibility study for a major expansion and modernization of its underground mining operations at its Marmato Project in Colombia. Gran Colombias project pipeline includes its Zancudo Project in Colombia together with an approximately 21% equity interest in Gold X Mining Corp. (TSXV: GLDX) (Guyana  Toroparu) and an approximately 20% equity interest in Western Atlas Resources Inc. (Western Atlas) (TSX-V: WA) (Nunavut  Meadowbank).

Additional information on Gran Colombia can be found on its website at www.grancolombiagold.com and by reviewing its profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information:

This news release contains "forward-looking information", which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to anticipated business plans or strategies. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "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 Gran Colombia to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements are described under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form dated as of March 30, 2020 which is available for view on SEDAR at www.sedar.com . Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and Gran Colombia disclaims, other than as required by law, any obligation to update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, results, future events, circumstances, or if management's estimates or opinions should change, or otherwise. 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. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
WASHINGTON  The secretary of the Senate does not have the authority to comply with former Vice President Joe Biden's request to release any record of Tara Reade's alleged harassment complaint from 1993, her office said Monday.

"Based on the laws strict confidentiality requirements... and the Senates own direction that disclosure of Senate Records is not authorized if prohibited by law..., Senate Legal Counsel advises that the Secretary has no discretion to disclose any such information as requested in Vice President Bidens letter of May 1," Secretary Julie Adams' office told Biden, according to a statement to USA TODAY.

Biden had called on the National Archives to look for any complaint by Reade, who now alleges that Biden also sexually assaulted her when she worked for his Senate office in the early '90s. Biden denies the allegation and has said he does not know of any complaint ever filed against him from that time.

"This, never, ever happened," Biden said. "I don't know what is motivating her. ... But it's irrelevant. It never happened. It never happened. Period."

Reade told the Associated Press she filed a report with a Senate personnel office about harassment, not assault, but that she did not receive a copy of it. She also said she brought it up with supervisors in Biden's office at the time, but former employees interviewed by media outlets say they have no recollection of any such conversation.

What we know: Former staffer Tara Reade says Joe Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the 2019 Democratic women's leadership forum, Oct. 17, 2019, in Washington.

"There is only one place a complaint of this kind could be  the National Archives," Biden said in a statement Friday. "The National Archives is where the records are kept at what was then called the Office of Fair Employment Practices. I am requesting that the Secretary of the Senate ask the Archives to identify any record of the complaint she alleges she filed and make available to the press any such document."

Story continues

"If there was ever any such complaint, the record will be there."

A spokesperson for the National Archives told USA TODAY on Friday that any such record would have remained under the control of the Senate. Now, the Senate secretary's office says she has no discretion to comply with Biden's request.

'This never happened': Joe Biden denies sexual assault allegation, calls on National Archives to release records

Under the Government Employee Rights Act of 1991, records related to any alleged violation are held under strict confidentiality requirements. The secretary's office also cited a provision of a Senate resolution against disclosing records when they are not authorized by law.

The Biden campaign, through attorney Bob Bauer, replied to the Senate secretary's office on Monday asking for further clarity on three points: whether the existence of any such records is also confidential; if any such record could be lawfully disclosed to anyone such as Reade herself; and whether the Senate could release procedures, forms or instructions that would have been used in 1993 by the Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices when processing such complaints.

The office responded later Monday that disclosing the existence of any such record would "amount to a prohibited disclosure" and that it was not aware of an exception that would allow the office to share that information with anyone, "even to original participants in a matter."

The secretary's office said it also sent the Biden campaign a copy of the procedure laid out under Senate rules for responding to alleged misconduct at the time, which also was shared with USA TODAY. It includes counseling, mediation, a formal complaint and hearing steps that an employee may have chosen to take. A written formal complaint and hearing could only be conducted after counseling and mediation were completed. An employee could also have informally sought advice about their rights and rules without initiating procedures.

Critics have also called upon Biden to allow access to his archive of Senate papers held at the University of Delaware. The documents will not be made public until two years after Biden retires from public life.

Biden's archives: Joe Biden questioned about University of Delaware archives, where he donated Senate records

The former vice president was pressed on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" last week about why he would not make the same request for his Delaware papers to be searched as he did for the Archives. Reade has said she believes her complaint may be in the university's library.

"My archives do not contain personnel files," Biden said. He expressed concern about files being "taken out of context" during his presidential run and wondered who would be tasked with going through them.

Analysis: Biden's denial was unequivocal. That doesn't mean he's put this issue to rest.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Senate Secretary replies to Biden request to release Tara Reade record
In this May 3, 2019 photo, protesters rally outside the armed forces headquarters to mark World Press Freedom Day, which was declared by the UN General Assembly in Manila, Philippines. The Philippine governments chief lawyer is asking the Supreme Court to shut down the countrys largest TV network by revoking its operating franchises because of alleged constitutional violations, in a move critics call an attempt to muzzle the media. Read more

Sunday was World Press Freedom Day, a date set by the United Nations to celebrate the importance of a free press and its defense from efforts to do it in.

If there was ever a critical time for fact-based journalism, it is now  in the age of the coronavirus. Yet, the pandemic is exacerbating the many crises that threaten such journalism with extinction, not just in autocracies like China and Russia, but here.

Lamestream Media is totally CORRUPT, the Enemy of the People! President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday, repeating a phrase honed by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin to attack ideological enemies marked for elimination. Joe Biden, in comparison, issued a statement praising journalists for upholding free and open democracies, both at home and around the world.

 READ MORE: China uses coronavirus as excuse for crackdown on Hong Kong | Trudy Rubin

For President Trump, World Press Freedom Day meant nothing more than another chance to smear journalists who challenge his lies and deceptions about COVID-19.

For the rest of us, it should serve as a vital reminder that the coming years will be pivotal for the survival of press freedom, under threat from a series of interconnected crises, compounded by the coronavirus. These are succinctly described in a new report by the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

We are entering a decisive decade for journalism, says RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire. The coronavirus pandemic illustrates the negative factors threatening the right to reliable information. In other words, the virus makes already huge threats to a free press that much worse.

COVID-19 offers authoritarian regimes a chance to impose measures on frightened publics that might otherwise cause problems. Hungary, among many examples, recently passed laws making it easier to prosecute journalists. RSF calls this the Geopolitical Crisis.

China (No. 177 of 180 on RSFs World Press Freedom Index) was already promoting its authoritarian model worldwide as an alternative to liberal democracy  including a new world media order in which journalism is tightly controlled.

The pandemic highlights the danger of such a model: China was able to hide the outbreak by suppressing the remaining small space for investigative journalism that it permitted before the crisis. Even still, the free press of Hong Kong and Taiwan were able to report about it. Imagine if those media outlets were crushed in the future under Beijings thumb.

 READ MORE: Propaganda war over coronavirus shows that facts matter I Trudy Rubin

Meantime, the coronavirus era amplifies the Technological Crisis that permits propaganda, rumors, and conspiracy theories to compete unimpeded with fact-based journalism. The pandemic has amplified the spread of rumors and fake news as quickly as the virus itself, the RSF report notes. This includes state troll armies from Russia (No. 149 in the index) and China that spread rumors that the virus was manufactured by the U.S. military.

Of course, in the United States, online conspiracy theories are promoted by tweets from the president and his avid supporters, including Fox News commentators.

Which brings us to the Democratic Crisis, in which leaders of democracies openly foment hatred of journalists. In this category, RSF cites Donald Trump and Brazils Jair Bolsonaro (No. 107), who continue to denigrate the media.

This last category, I believe, is crucial. Americans may be inured to Trumps pile-on against fact-based media, but the coronavirus era lays bare just how dangerous it has become. RSF already ranks the United States No. 45 in press freedom (a ranking I believe is overly harsh, so far). But the presidents vitriol against solid reporting will become increasingly dangerous as public anger mounts over the mishandling of COVID-19.

Indeed, the president is priming his base to blame enemies for his personal failures. We have seen the previews of coming nightmares with his support for armed protesters in the Michigan statehouse, who were protesting guidelines set by his own scientists. This plays into the fourth crisis cited by RSF, a Crisis of Trust toward journalists worldwide.

Throughout the world, primed by social media and partisan politicians, publics have grown increasingly wary of journalists in general. In the United States, according to a Pew Research Center study, Republicans trust only a handful of news outlets, including Fox News and the talk radio programs of hosts Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. That leaves fact-based media wide open to vicious partisan attacks.

In this dangerous climate, COVID-19 has accelerated an Economic Crisis that was already decimating newspapers, as social media replaced print and ad revenue plummeted. The crisis has destroyed advertising and is accelerating the layoffs and ownership concentration that already threatened journalists independence, not just in America, but in Europe and Asia.

It is almost impossible to imagine the media scene one year from now, except to say that the economics will be even more daunting. Yet, if the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that the republic wont survive without a free press capable of challenging politicians lies about a health crisis more dangerous than any in our lifetimes.

The time for figuring out how to save the free press from economic collapse or political assault is now.
Former Air Force base in Gettysburg on market for $4.5 M

A former air force base near Gettysburg is up for sale. The base is listed as having 50 beds and 15 bathrooms on a 42-acre parcel of land.
A masked pedestrian walks by a boarded up Food & Friends with a message that says "Don't Take What You Have For Granted" in Center City Philadelphia on April 29. Coronavirus models try to predict what will happen as nonessential businesses begin to reopen. Read more

Most inhabitants of the United States spent the month of April abiding by economically devastating stay-at-home orders, hoping that would crush the coronavirus epidemic.

It hasnt. Not even close. While the daily toll has leveled off, the numbers remain staggeringly high. On Tuesday, the nation had about 24,000 new cases and 2,140 more deaths, according to the Coronavirus Tracker. And a draft government report forecast a sharp upward trend beginning in eight days.

This defies what little experts thought they knew about the life cycle of COVID-19. It also means the many models that have been developed to inform decisions about reopening are at best educated guesses, and at worst dead wrong.

While models can be important tools, their approaches and assumptions vary widely, and can give widely divergent results, says a Kaiser Family Foundation review.

Science journalist David Wallace-Wells has pointed out the fallacy of models that predict COVID-19 will taper off now that it has stopped its early phase of exponential growth. The White House touted such a simulation, developed at the University of Washington. Another, from Rutgers University, forecast that deaths would end by late June and the cumulative toll would be 63,249  a number the country has already exceeded.

Seeing a flattening in the number of cases or deaths, the models project a decline, even if the flattening is not a function of the disease itself but of the extraordinary social conditions we have imposed on it, Wallace-Wells wrote in New York magazine.

 READ MORE: Medics on the front lines

Fallible as they are, mathematical models serve many purposes. They can estimate characteristics of an infection, such as its incubation period  the time between getting infected and showing symptoms. Models can help predict hospital capacity needs. And they can guide reopening strategies. Pennsylvania, for example, is using Carnegie Mellon Universitys risk-based decision support tool to gradually lift restrictions, starting with the least densely populated counties.

The thing is, the new virus has turned out to be far more infectious and insidious than originally thought. The maximum incubation period was believed to be two weeks, so thats how long people exposed to a confirmed case are told to self-quarantine at home.

Now, however, its clear that transmission can occur before any symptoms appear, that many infected people have no symptoms, and that some people who have recovered can still spread the virus for weeks. This evolving understanding, experts say, helps explain why, despite lockdowns, daily COVID-19 counts have plateaued but not plummeted.

While some models have been overly rosy, a few have been overly bleak. The University of Pennsylvania Health System, for example, projected its three Philadelphia hospitals would have 3,131 to 12,650 patients with COVID-19 at the peak  a terrifying possibility that prompted extraordinary surge preparations. In reality, health system data show, the combined daily COVID census has been below 1,000 in those hospitals and is declining slightly.

Other models show that tweaking a variable can dramatically improve the theoretical outlook.

Consider the model developed by PolicyLab at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. It uses real-time data on population density, shutdown policies, and weather temperatures from 260 counties across the U.S. to predict the impact of reopening in each community.

If Philadelphia reopened a quarter of nonessential businesses on May 15, the model originally predicted a disastrous spike to 2,000 new cases a day in July  three times more than the peak seen in April  followed by an equally dramatic decline to almost no transmission just a few weeks later.

Then the CHOP researchers, led by pediatrician David Rubin, updated the model to strengthen the effect of seasonal temperatures, based on what theyve seen across the country. Most experts say hot weather will not offset our lack of immunity to the coronavirus, but the updated CHOP model differs. It foresees no spike of cases in Philadelphia, and predicts cases will peter out by mid-August  unless the city reopens half of nonessential business instead of 25%.

The original and updated scenarios both share the same message: Opening quickly and without caution is very risky, Rubin said. However, like Southeast Asia, if we stay vigilant and protect each other, there is a new normal where we can get back a lot of functioning to our community by the summer.

Only time will tell. In recent weeks, as Wired magazine reported, South Korea, Singapore, China, and other Asian nations have seen their numbers of new cases creeping upward.

 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.
This situation is especially precarious for low-income Americans, who are more likely to have complex family ties spanning multiple households, said Mark Mather, PRB associate vice president of U.S. Programs.

Celebrating Mothers Day wont be easy for many families this year. Children who dont live with their mothers may not be able to see Mom thanks to coronavirus social distancing. And thats just one example of how the pandemic is amplifying longer-term trends to make American family life more complicated than ever before, according to researchers at Population Reference Bureau (PRB).

Millions of children are at increased risk of falling into poverty due to pandemic-related job losses, while distancing protocols are separating some children from parents living in a different household. Already, more than one in three U.S. children under age 18 (36%) do not live with both biological parents. The economic and social constraints caused by the ongoing pandemic have exacerbated the challenges of these family dynamics as some noncustodial parents find it complicated, risky, or even impossible to spend time with their children.

PRB researchers say poor families will bear the brunt of the health effects and economic hardships created by the ongoing crisis.

This situation is especially precarious for low-income Americans, who are more likely to have complex family ties spanning multiple households, said Mark Mather, PRB associate vice president of U.S. Programs. Not only are they more vulnerable to becoming infected with coronavirus at work or while commuting, they are less likely to have health insurance or an economic cushion to help them when they lose their jobs.

Children are less likely to live with both parents in part because Americans are increasingly having children in cohabiting relationships, which tend to be less stable than marriages, according to research supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Not only are more children being born to unmarried parents, but more parents have children with multiple partners. These family changes lead to complex living arrangements that can make it harder for parents to invest time and money in their children living in another household, increasing the odds of a child falling into poverty.

The findings are part of broader research on the ways family life has become more complex, unstable, and unequal over the past decade from NICHD-funded Population Dynamics Research Centers, including those at the University of Texas at Austin; University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; University of Wisconsin-Madison; Bowling Green State University; Ohio State University; Princeton University; and University of California, Los Angeles. Among the findings:



In 2019, about 4% of children lived in a cohabiting family with both of their biological parents, 9% in a step-parent family (either married or cohabiting), 22% in a single-parent family (mainly headed by their mothers), and 4% in other arrangements, such as with grandparents. About 60% lived with both biological parents in a married family household.

An estimated 14% to 25% of all parents have children with more than one partner.

The share of Americans who are married has fallen to record low levels. In 2019, about 53% of all U.S. adults ages 18 and older were currently married, compared with 70% in 1970.

Living together instead of marrying has become the norm. The share of women ages 25 to 29 who have ever cohabited rose to 73% in 2011-2013 from 49% in 1995.

The share of children born to unmarried parents has doubled since the 1980s, rising from 21% in 1980-1984 to 43% in 2009-2013.

U.S. divorce rates remain among the highest in the world, with rates increasing dramatically among people ages 50 and older, possibly a sign of the instability of second marriages.

The family researchers also noted that these increasingly complex family structures could negatively affect childrens health and well-being, especially in families with fewer economic resources and social support.

About Population Reference Bureau (PRB)

PRB informs people around the world about population, health and the environment, and empowers them to use that information to advance the well-being of current and future generations. Find out more at http://www.prb.org. Follow us on Twitter @PRBdata.
New Delhi, May 5 : On Asthma Day, we look at the holistic way to increase the power of your lungs- Yoga.

There are many lifestyle changes when it comes to women who are suffering from breathing disorders such as asthma. Menstrual cycles every month make women prone to mood swings which may sometimes cause erratic breathing; they may also feel lethargic with their bodies. Besides the normal cycle, lifestyle habits like smoking, frequent alcohol consumption add to the worries.

With a few simple changes, one has the power to improve our own health, and protect ourselves. Yoga can help increase the power of your lungs, allowing you to adapt to this environment as well.

Try these specific poses for conditions of asthma as shown by the yoga guru Grand Master Akhsar.

Ustrasana Kneel on the yoga mat and place your hands on the hips.

Simultaneously, arch your back and slide your palms over your feet till the arms are straight.

Do not strain or flex your neck but keep it in a neutral position.

Stay in this posture for a couple of breaths.

Breathe out and slowly come back to the initial pose. Withdraw your hands and bring them back to your hips as you straighten up.

Half-Fish Pose (Ardha Matsyendrasana) Formation of the posture:

Begin in Dandasana

Fold the left leg and place the left foot on the ground over the right knee

Bend the right leg and fold it so that it is resting on the ground with the right heel near the left pelvis

Bring the right hand over the left leg and grab the big toe of the left foot

As you exhale, twist the trunk of the body as much as possible, turning the neck so the gaze is over the left shoulder and encircle the waist with the left hand with the palm facing outwards. Continue to maintain the asana, breathing normally.

In this position there is a strong twist on the spine and abdomen. The right arm is pressed against the left knee leading to an increased twist on the body. The chest is open and the spine is erect. One side of the abdomen is compressed and the other side is stretched. The right leg and knee remain on the floor. The left knee should be close to the right armpit.

Paschimottanasana - Seated forward bend Formation of the Posture:

Begin with Dandasana

Ensure that your knees are slightly bent while your legs are stretched out forward

Extend your arms upward and keep your spine erect

Exhale and empty your stomach of air

With the exhale, bend forward at the hip and place your upper body on your lower body

Lower your arms and grip your big toes with your fingers

Try to touch your knees with your nose

Hold the posture for 10 seconds

Kapal Bhati

In Sanskrit, 'Kapal' means skull and 'bhati' means 'shining/illuminating'. Therefore, this Kapalbhati Pranayam is also known as Skull Shining Breathing Technique.

Method: Sit in any comfortable pose (such as Sukhasan, Ardhapadmasan or Padmasana)

Straighten your back and close your eyes

Place your palms on your knees facing up (in Prapthi Mudra)

Inhale normally and focus on exhaling with a short, rhythmic and forceful breath

You can use your stomach to forcefully expel all the air from the diaphragm and lungs by compressing it

Inhalation should happen automatically while you decompress your stomach

Sthiti Dhyan

This is a meditation technique to help calm your nerves, raise mindfulness and deflect any negative experiences.

Stand or sit comfortably Be mindful of the surroundings, noises, smells, colours etc.

Slowly turn to the right side to gaze and observe, then turn to the left and repeat Use a journal to make a note of all your observations and the different sensations you felt

This will help increase your observation powers, make you more focussed and alert

Removes distractions

(Aditi Roy can be contacted at aditi.r@ians.in)
Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has highlighted Azerbaijan's contributions to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic both globally and regionally.



Speaking at the press conference, he noted that discussions on the fight against coronavirus were carried out at a recent meeting through videoconference held on the initiative of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, adding he also attended the event.Ghebreyesus stressed the importance of such steps.



The WHO Director-General hailed Azerbaijan`s global contribution to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. He said that Azerbaijan donated $5 million for this global struggle.



Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus commended the Azerbaijani President for his strong efforts in the battle against COVID-19 at the national, regional and global levels, and for uniting and supporting efforts at all three levels.

Ghebreyesus noted that WHO supports the countries of the Non-Aligned Movement in the fight against coronavirus: "In the face of such a global epidemic, people and states must stand in solidarity. After the coronavirus was declared a pandemic in January this year, the virus affected the political, economic, and social spheres of life in all countries and created a panic. It caused serious problems in development. We have a simple mission to protect our planet. Now all interested parties, states, and the private sector should do their best to ensure that no one is left behind. Therefore, strengthening the values of comprehensive international cooperation is very important at this stage."
Three Indian photojournalists based in Jammu & Kashmir won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for their coverage of the region during the clampdown that followed the Union governments decision last August to divest the region of its special status and reorganise it into two Union Territories.

The achievement of Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand of the Associated Press (AP) in winning the most prestigious award in American journalism was acclaimed in J&K. Yasin and Khan are based in the Kashmir valley and Anand in Jammu.

Its not the story of the people I am shooting only, but its my story, Yasin told AP. Its a great honour to be in the list of Pulitzer winners and to share my story with the world. Anand said the award left him speechless. I was shocked and could not believe it, he said.

The Pulitzer Prizes -- established in 1917 through the will of publisher Joseph Pulitzer -- were announced virtually late on Monday due to the coronavirus disease outbreak.

On August 5, Parliament revoked the special status granted to the state of Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution, and passed provisions dividing the state into two Union Territories, J&K and Ladakh. The moves were accompanied by a clampdown in the region by the Union government, a communications blockade of the region, and the protective arrest of several politicians.

The clampdown made it especially hard for journalists and photographers to work and get their reports and pictures through for publication by their organisations.

AP says that the three photojournalists, snaking around roadblocks, sometimes took cover in strangers homes and hid cameras in vegetable bags. They captured images of protests, police and paramilitary action and daily life  and then headed to the airport to persuade travellers to carry the photo files in memory cards and flash drives and get them to the APs office in New Delhi.

It was always cat-and-mouse, Yasin said. It was very hard, Khan told the agency, but we managed to file pictures.

The Pulitzer Prize news led to the trio being swamped by congratulatory messages.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi wrote on Twitter: Congratulations to Indian photojournalists Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand for winning a Pulitzer Prize for their powerful images of life in Jammu & Kashmir. You make us all proud.

However, the award created a controversy with the citation referring to Kashmir, part of Indian Union Territory Jammu & Kashmir, as contested territory. Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson took to Twitter to ask why the journalists accepted the award and whether Gandhi concurred with the citation.

Its been a difficult year for journalists in Kashmir & thats saying something considering the last 30 years havent exactly been easy. Congratulations to @daryasin, @muukhtark_khan & @channiap on this prestigious award. More power to your cameras, former chief minister Omar Abdullah wrote on Twitter.

The Kashmir Press Club said the award of the Pulitzer Prize to the photojournalists marked a reiteration that independent journalism and free press are more important than ever in these times, when journalists have been working in tough conditions.

This Pulitzer to the three photojournalists from J&K is an incredible honour and also a proud and big moment for all the media fraternity in J&K as the journalists in the region have always worked in toughest circumstances, risked their lives and always tried to deliver in a rational and objective manner, it said.

Journalists in the Valley called it a watershed moment.

A Pulitzer, probably for the first time awarded to Kashmiri photojournalists, is a huge honour and a watershed moment in the history of Kashmir. And a global recognition of the stellar work produced by Kashmirs journalists, especially photojournalists, who go out there everyday despite all the risks, working in difficult conditions, documenting the ground realities, writing the first draft of history, said senior journalist Majod Maqbool.
Congressional Republicans who strenuously objected when a Democratic-led US House of Representatives panel subpoenaed President Donald Trump's financial records last year have remained unusually quiet now that the fight has reached the Supreme Court.

Representative Jim Jordan, the House Oversight and Reform Committee's senior Republican, described the move in an April 15, 2019, letter as "an unprecedented abuse of the committee's subpoena authority to target and expose the private financial information of the president of the United States."

But neither Jordan nor other Trump allies in Congress or in state capitals have weighed in on the Republican president's legal effort to block enforcement of the subpoena, which was issued to his long-time accounting firm Mazars LLP.

The case has been consolidated with another one in which Trump is seeking to prevent enforcement of separate subpoenas from the House Intelligence and Financial Services Committees targeting his financial records from Deutsche Bank AG and Capital One Financial Corp.

The justices will hear arguments on May 12 in those cases and a third one seeking similar records. Rulings are expected by the end of June, ahead of the Nov. 3 election in which Trump is seeking a second term.

The third case involves Trump's effort to block a subpoena issued to Mazars as part of the Manhattan district attorney's criminal investigation of the president and his family real estate business.

Unlike in other politically charged cases, his high-profile allies in Congress and in Republican-governed states like Texas have not filed amicus - so-called friend-of-the-court - briefs in support of Trump with the Supreme Court. His only major supporter is his own US Justice Department.

Such briefs are an avenue to express formal legal support and furnish information to influence the court's decision-making.

Jordan did not provide comment for this story. A House Republican aide said congressional Republicans see the dispute as between Democrats and Trump.

"Republicans trust the court to get the balance right between the investigatory prerogatives of Congress and the privileges that the Constitution bestows on the president," the aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Unlike other recent presidents, Trump has refused to make public his tax returns and other financial records. His lawyers have argued that the US Constitution gives a president sweeping protection from scrutiny by Congress, prosecutors and the judiciary.

The rulings by the Supreme Court, whose 5-4 conservative majority includes two Trump-appointed justices, could help set the parameters for presidential authority.

A 'STRIKING' ABSENCE

Michael Stern, who served as a House lawyer when it was under Republican control, said it is "striking that for whatever reason they declined to participate," referring to Republican lawmakers.

Jay Sekulow, one of Trump's personal lawyers, said he was pleased to have the support of Justice Department briefs but declined to comment further on amicus brief strategy in the cases.

In major politically divisive disputes at the court, there are often dozens of briefs filed on each side.

In the consolidated congressional subpoenas cases, just six briefs support Trump, including the Justice Department's. The others are from lesser-known conservative groups and individuals. House Democrats mustered 15 supportive briefs. In the New York case, three briefs back Trump and 10 oppose his stance.

In all three cases, those filing briefs opposing Trump included Republican former lawmakers and senior figures in previous presidential administrations.

Tom Coleman, a Republican former congressman from Missouri who left office in 1993, said in an interview he was concerned about the broad assertions of presidential power by Trump's lawyers.

"To say the president is unaccountable to anyone and can do whatever he wants and is above the law is pretty head-spinning," Coleman said.

The House Oversight Committee said it needed the subpoenaed documents for its investigation into whether Trump inflated or deflated financial statements for potentially improper purposes.

Veterans of similar constitutional showdowns note that the current arguments in support of Trump could backfire when Republicans next control the House and want to investigate a Democratic president. It was unclear whether that factored in Republicans staying on the sidelines.

In past court battles between branches of government, individual lawmakers have weighed in.

In 2008 during Republican President George W. Bush's administration, House Judiciary Committee Republicans filed a brief in federal court opposing efforts by the Democratic-led House to force former White House lawyer Harriet Miers to testify.

Four years later, Democratic House members filed a similar brief backing Democratic President Barack Obama's administration when the Republican-controlled House sought documents involving a botched gun-trafficking investigation known as "Fast and Furious."

Neither of those cases reached the Supreme Court.

State leaders often weigh in on contentious matters. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, often pursued legal challenges to Obama policy moves and has sided with Trump in multiple cases. Paxton has remained on the sidelines of the Trump financial records dispute. A Paxton spokesperson declined to comment.

In the New York case, 15 states led by Virginia filed a brief backing the subpoena. No states backed Trump.

Chicago-Kent College of Law professor Carolyn Shapiro said states are unlikely to argue in favor of limits on state power especially with the New York subpoena seeking documents from a third party, not the president himself.

"I could imagine," Shapiro said, "that the state line-up might be different if it were an investigation into the president's own official conduct."
Graduating seniors across the United States who are missing traditional commencement events because of the coronavirus pandemic have had stars step up to fill the void. Last month, Oprah Winfrey announced that she would address seniors; the very next day, LeBron James said he was organizing a prime-time special for graduates. Now, former President Barack Obama has announced that he too will celebrate graduating seniors in at least three events.

On May 16, Mr. Obama will participate in Show Me Your Walk, HBCU Edition, an event for historically black colleges and universities, he announced on Twitter on Tuesday. Later that evening, he is scheduled to deliver the main address at Graduate Together: High School Class of 2020 Commencement, a virtual event organized by Mr. Jamess foundation.

The former president will give another address in a YouTube event titled Dear Class of 2020, along with Michelle Obama, the K-pop group BTS, Lady Gaga, former Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and others on June 6. Alicia Keys, Chloe x Halle and Kelly Rowland will also make appearances.

Ive always loved joining commencements  the culmination of years of hard work and sacrifice, Mr. Obama said on Twitter. Even if we cant get together in person this year, Michelle and I are excited to celebrate the nationwide Class of 2020 and recognize this milestone with you and your loved ones.
Scientists have discovered a bug which lives inside the guts of mosquitoes and protects them from getting malaria.

Researchers said the microbe, which lives in around 5 per cent of mosquitoes on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya, could also stop the insects from transmitting the disease to humans.

Malaria is spread through the bite of infected mosquitoes, so finding a way of preventing the insects catching the disease could also protect people.

The malaria-blocking bug, Microsporidia MB, was found to be living in the gut and genitals of the mosquitoes which a team from Glasgow University and the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (Icipe) in Kenya studied.

The researchers speculated that the bug may either be priming the mosquito's immune system to fight off the malaria parasite, or it could be having an effect on the insect's metabolism, making it inhospitable for the malaria parasite.

Dr Jeremy Herren, who led the research, told the BBC: 'The data we have so far suggest it is 100% blockage, it's a very severe blockage of malaria.'

Scientists have discovered a bug which lives inside the guts of mosquitoes and protects them from getting malaria

Malaria kills more than 400,000 people each year and most of them are children under five.

Around 250,000 of these deaths occur in Africa. The disease is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium, of which five cause malaria.

When an infected mosquito bites a person, the parasite enters their bloodstream.

Symptoms include a fever, feeling hot and shivery, headaches, vomiting and muscle pain.

However, the latest breakthrough could provide a powerful new weapon in a fight against the disease.

Lab experiments confirmed that the microsporidia microbe gave the Kenyan mosquitos protection against malaria.

Not a single mosquito which was carrying the bug was found to be harbouring the malaria parasite.

Whilst most microsporidias  which are fungi or closely related to them  are parasites, this newly-discovered species may benefit the mosquito

It was found naturally in one in 20 of the insects studied.

Encouragingly, the malaria-blocking effect would also be long-lasting because the Microsporidia MB infections appear to be life-long in the mosquitoes.

However, at least 40 per cent of mosquitoes in any area would need to be infected with the bug to significantly combat malaria.

The researchers, who published their findings in the journal Nature Communications, are now investigating ways to increase the number of mosquitoes infected with Microspordia MB.

The malaria-blocking bug, Microsporidia MB, was found to be living in the gut and genitals of the mosquitoes which a team from Glasgow University and the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (Icipe) in Kenya studied

Because the bug is found in the guts of mosquitoes, it may be possible to introduce it to a wider insect population by growing spores and putting them in sugar which would be eaten by the mosquitoes.

'It's a new discovery. We are very excited by its potential for malaria control. It has enormous potential,' Professor Steven Simkins, from the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, told the BBC.

The concept of using microbes to fight against mosquito-borne diseases is not unprecedented.

A type of bacteria called Wolbachia was found by scientists at the universities of Glasgow and Melbourne to make it harder for mosquitoes to spread dengue fever. .

Scientists injected a strain of Wolbachia into mosquitoes bred in a lab, before releasing them around Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

When the mosquitoes breed, they produce offspring that also carry Wolbachia. Dengue bacteria struggles to compete and survive.

Results of the trial showed the technique helped to slash human cases of the serious infection by 40 per cent over the course of around a year.
The Indian subcontinent is blessed with an abundance of unique flora and fauna. Safari trips to the national parks here are increasing in popularity, not only because of the variety of endangered species they harbour, but also because of the excellent infrastructure in place to view them.

The ten awesome hotspots listed here will make you make you jump to catch the next flight to this wildlife mecca.

KANHA NATIONAL PARK - INDIA

( Open from October 1st to June 30. Wednesday closed)

Established in 1955, the beautiful Kanha National Park was the principal inspiration behind the writing of Rudyard Kipling's unforgettable classic, 'The Jungle Book'. Due to the ample presence of both prey and predator there is always a great influx of tourists who flock to the four different zones for a 4x4 open jeep safari with a knowledgeable naturalist.

This park is situated in Central India and is a pioneer in conservation techniques as reflected in the healthy tiger population found here. Other main animals you can spot are deer, Indian bison, sloth bears and the occasional leopard.

Tip - Sighting Tigers in the dense jungles of India is quite challenging. Be sure to book your tour with wildlife experts like Far and Wild Travel for best chances of sighting this magnificent beast.

BANDHAVGARH NATIONAL PARK - INDIA

(Open from October 1st to June 30. Wednesday only morning safari)

Set amidst the backdrop of the historical Bandhavgarh Fort from where it got its name, this park lies in the state of Madhya Pradesh and is spread over an area of 1536 square kilometres. Rich in biodiversity, Bandhavgarh is home to a large population of royal bengal tigers and hundreds of bird species which have made these Sal forests and sprawling grasslands their hunting ground. Apart from the majestic tiger, there are 36 other animal species, 250 bird species and 80 kinds of butterfly that are guaranteed to offer an exciting wildlife experience.

Tip - You can skip the popular parks if you want to go off the beaten path in India and try one of these less crowded national parks instead.

WILPATTU NATIONAL PARK - SRI LANKA

( Open throughout the year- sunrise to sunset)

Designated a National Park in 1938, the park lies 188 km from Colombo near the historical city of Anuradhapura on the west coast of Sri Lanka. Though the park holds nearly 30 species of mammals, those which garner maximum attention are the elephant, leopard, buffalo and the sloth bear. This park is the largest in the country and you can be the only ones on safari at many a times. Unlike other sanctuaries here, Wilpattu has a large number of scenic lakes which end up as a bonus and also offer an exciting backdrop for your wildlife photos.

MINNERIYA NATIONAL PARK - SRI LANKA

Situated in the north central part of Sri Lanka, Minneriya lies approximately 190 km from Colombo and is spread over a relatively small area of about 90 square kilometres. During the months of May to October, the park is literally flooded with elephants who congregate here for the abundant food and water available during this period. Minneriya's added charm is the sea safari where visitors are treated to sightings of blue whales and sperm whales. Leopard and sloth bear are also good target species to watch out for, during safaris.

GAL OYA NATIONAL PARK - SRI LANKA

(Open throughout the year)

Located in the Uva province 376 km northeast of Colombo, Gal Oya national park spans over an area of roughly 25,000 hectares and is the only park in the country which offers safaris both by boat and jeep.

While the land excursions are good for spotting leopards and elephants, the boat trips from March to July provide an unusual spectacle. Herds of elephants, with their trunks up, are often seen swimming from the many islands found on the reservoir offering perfect photography opportunities.

CHITWAN NATIONAL PARK-NEPAL

( Open throughout the year)

Designated as an UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984, Chitwan is famous the world over for its excellent sightings of the endangered one horned rhino. The park lies about 200 km from Kathmandu and can be accessed both by road (6 hours) as well as air (30 minutes).

The park also holds a good number of Bengal tigers, elephants and sloth bears. Wildlife viewing is best from October to January as the animals tend to gather around waterholes during this period. Visitors should note that though the park is officially open round the year, almost all hotels close down during the inaccessible monsoon months.

BARDIA NATIONAL PARK - NEPAL

(Open throughout the year)

Nepal is known for its untarnished forests which cover almost half the area of the country. The 986 square kilometres Bardia National Park enjoys thick and lush greenery in a region of intense biodiversity due to minimum human interference. Apart from the rich floral wealth, the park has a healthy number of tigers and one horned rhinoceros which can be observed from the comfort of either a jeep safari or on elephant back.

ROYAL MANAS NATIONAL PARK - BHUTAN

( Open all days of the week from 530am to 630pm)

This is the oldest park in Bhutan and a worthy extension of its Indian counterpart in Assam. Home to around 40 tigers, the Royal Manas National Park also holds sufficient numbers of Himalayan black bears, clouded leopards and the rare golden langur. To reach the park one needs to travel 130 km from Paro to Zhemgang, then another 90km to Gomphu and then a hike to the entrance at Panbang.

BUMDELING WILDLIFE SANCTUARY-BHUTAN

( Open 9am to 5pm daily. Weekends closed)

Located in the north west part of Bhutan, this sanctuary is home to about 100 species of mammals and a paradise for butterfly lovers. Ornithologists throng here between the months of November and March to spot the highly endangered black necked cranes which nest here during this period. Bumdeling is also good for snow leopards, tigers and the red panda.

JIGME DORJI NATIONAL PARK-BHUTAN

( Open Monday to Friday-9am to 5pm)

Jigme Dorji spanning across an area of 4349 kms is the largest protected forest tract in Bhutan and also the most biologically rich place in the eastern Himalayas. With altitudes ranging from 1000 to 7000 meters, the plant and animal life is extremely unique and diverse. The park can be reached by a five hour ride from Paro. This alpine region is home to glacial lakes which supply water to many of the country rivers. Some charismatic species found here are the snow leopard, Takin, Black Bear, Blue Sheep and the critically endangered Red Panda. Safaris can be done both by jeep as well as on foot. There are excellent trekking routes inside the park leading to prominent peaks like Jomolhari and Tsherimgang.

The well protected National Parks of India and its neighbours ensure an uninterrupted encounter with wild animals in their natural habitat. The outdoors always serve as a good place to unwind, and with so many marvellous wildlife wonders to explore, the sub-continent is the perfect place to go for an authentic open-air jungle experience.
WATERLOO REGION  Gathering information related to race and socioeconomic status for local COVID-19 patients is being considered by Region of Waterloo Public Health.

We are trying to work as quickly as we can to look at this, acting medical officer of health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang said at Tuesdays regional council meeting.

Chief administrative officer Mike Murray added that theres no resistance to collecting that demographic data locally.

Its largely a timing and resource issue, Murray said.

All the people who tested positive in the region would need to be contacted and interviewed  and as of Monday evening that reached 860 cases. The other possibility is that the province may undertake the work, he said.

Covid-19 in Waterloo Region Snapshot of COVID-19 in Waterloo Region Updated May 5 860 People who tested positive 377 People who recovered 90 People who died 7,515 Total tests administered Source: Region of Waterloo public health

Its possible to do it. Its just going to take some time and effort, Murray said.

Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic said the data is being asked for by local advocacy groups, and beyond. Some public health units, including in Toronto, have already started collecting it.

Its been a broader call across the province, Vrbanovic said.

The African, Caribbean and Black Network of Waterloo Region started circulating a petition last month asking public health units across Canada to collect more data from positive COVID-19 cases, including information on income and occupation, to get a better understanding of racial disparities.

Wang said at the time public health will not collect race-based data until the province issues a directive. The provincial government said earlier it would not collect race-based data.

Vrbanovic wanted to see a staff report to council about what it would take to start collecting the data and the potential benefits for social and health policy development.

Wang said a report would add to the already hefty workload on public health staff during the pandemic. Theyre under very significant pressure from the province to provide a lot of data quickly on top of the information shared every day on the regions website to keep the public informed.

Im not saying this is information thats not important, Wang said. I believe that it needs to be implemented in a thoughtful way.

She said there are best practices about implementing this data collection to avoid negative effects. People could potentially be upset about being asking such personal questions on a health-related questionnaire.

These kinds of questions need to be implemented in a thoughtful way, she said. We are acting on that as quickly as we can.

Epi-curves for Waterloo Region

Public health is fine-tuning the epi-curves on its COVID-19 dashboard to separate cases by those associated with facility outbreaks and cases that are not. Its hoped that new feature will be part of Wednesdays update.

Waterloo Regions epi-curve is actually a tale of two epi-curves, Wang said.

While community spread is slowing, outbreaks in long-term care and retirement homes continue to be a serious issue.

Wang cautioned councillors that testing limitations in Ontario from the start of the pandemic means its not possible to get an accurate picture about the spread of the virus in the region.

The testing is underestimating the number of people who are infected, Wang said.

Testing continues to be prioritized to groups and settings considered more vulnerable, and Wang doesnt think testing will be expanded to the general population any time soon.

There is a good swab supply and testing capacity in Ontario now, but even with focused testing Wang said that may be pushing the limits of that expanded capacity.

Blood tests in the future could show how many people were infected, Wang said. That would be helpful to know the overall picture.

She said theres a perception its not possible to control the disease if everyone isnt tested. But she stressed all the control measures, including physical distancing and self-isolating when showing symptoms, are part of the reason spread is slowing in the community.

The Tuesday morning update by public health included an additional 43 confirmed cases on Mondays 817 to reach 860.

Three more people died to reach a total of 90.

Of the current local cases, 377 are resolved and 38 are hospitalized.

Outbreaks are declared at 15 long-term care and retirement homes across the region.

A total of 7,515 tests have been done in the region.
New Delhi/UNI: The Centre, on Tuesday, told the Supreme Court that the Indians, stranded abroad, will be brought back from May 7 onwards.

A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan was hearing a plea filed by Ganga Giri, a lawyer, seeking a direction to the Centre to bring back Indians stranded in Nepal.

The bench disposed off the petition after Solicitor General, (SG) Tushar Mehta, said there are few Indians stranded in Nepal. 'I got the instructions from MEA that from May 7 onwards all Indians stranded in various countries could be brought back in special chartered flights. These Indians in Nepal would also be brought back.'

"We dispose off the petition," the bench said.

Advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the petitioner, said that around 1000 Nepali workers had to go back to Nepal. Though a large number has been sent back, as many as 214 remain stranded.

The Government must know that in these places workers are still stranded. Government may look into this, he added.

Also, he informed that a total of 1000 Indians are stranded in Nepal in precarious situation.

At this Mehta said, the government has issued a notification yesterday that they will bring back Indians stranded abroad.

After recording the submissions made by the lawyers and the Solicitor General, the bench ordered disposal of the petition.
A total of 23 Shramik Special trains carrying around 28,000 migrant workers had left various stations of Gujarat since 2 May to Tuesday morning, a state government release said

Ahmedabad: Scores of migrant workers, desperate to travel back to their native states amidst the coronavirus-induced lockdown, on Tuesday came out on streets in Ahmedabad and Surat in Gujarat, officials said. While more than 1,000 migrant workers carrying luggage gathered in Nikol area in Ahmedabad following a rumour that buses would be run for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, several others came on streets in Varachha area of Surat city.

In Ahmedabad, it took almost two hours for local police to persuade the migrants to vacate the busy crossroad near Ajit Mill police chowky. "Migrants carrying their luggage started gathering in Nikol area since this morning following rumour that buses would leave for their states from here, which was not true. We convinced them to go home as no bus would leave from here," said Odhav police inspector RG Jadeja.

He said police asked the migrants not to believe in such rumours. "We asked them to approach the Collector's office to get themselves registered for the inter-state travel," he said. In Surat, police helped the migrants fill the mandatory application forms for inter-state travel through trains.

A total of 23 Shramik Special trains carrying around 28,000 migrant workers had left various stations of Gujarat since 2 May to Tuesday morning, a state government release said. Additional Chief Secretary, Labour and Employment department, Vipul Mitra said a dozen more special trains were planned for the day to ferry over 14,000 migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand.

Mitra is Gujarat's nodal officer to facilitate transportation of migrant workers, tourists, pilgrims, students, and others to their native states by trains. He said authorities are mulling to increase the number of the special trains to 20 per day in a couple of days. Each train can ferry 1,200 persons.

On Monday, migrant workers had pelted police with stones in Surat district, leaving nearly a dozen personnel injured. Several labourers had also came out on a road in Rajkot demanding that they be sent back to their hometowns, while some migrant workers got their heads tonsured in an area of Surat after being unable to go back home.
New Delhi/Washington, May 5 : In a major controversy, the Pulitzer Prize board has questioned India's legitimacy over Kashmir, calling the valley a "contested territory" whose "independence" was revoked and "executed through a communications blackout".

This year, the US-based Pulitzer Prize for best feature photography has been awarded to three Associated Press (AP) photographers -- Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin from Kashmir and Channi Anand from Jammu, "for their striking images of life in the contested territory of Kashmir as India revoked its independence, executed through a communications blackout".

Jammu and Kashmir has been constitutionally and legally a part of India since 1947 when its princely ruler Maharaja Hari Singh signed instrument of accession which was later ratified by the popular government of the state.

The Central government last year in August, revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, bringing it at par with other states of India. In view of threats of violence and terrorism sponsored by Pakistan, the government imposed communication restrictions. However, the Indian media was largely allowed to report and record life through the lockdown in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Pulitzer Prize, awarded every year for achievements in journalism, literature and Art in 21 categories, comprises a certificate and a $15,000 cash award.

This year, apart from questioning India's sovereignty over Kashmir, the Pulitzer board also stirred another controversy by giving the best commentary award to Nikole Hannah-Jones of the New York Times "for a sweeping, deeply reported and personal essay for the ground-breaking 1619 Project, which seeks to place the enslavement of Africans at the center of America's story, prompting public conversation about the nation's founding and evolution".

The 1619 Project, initiated by the NYT magazine in 2019 is a series of controversial essays and reports on the history of different aspects of contemporary American life which the authors believe have "roots in slavery and its aftermath." Several US civil war historians like Gordon S. Wood, James M. McPherson and Richard Carwardine have criticized the 1619 Project, for historically, misleading and incorrect claims.
Last month, Relevant Podcast listeners heard a familiar voice in their earbuds: founder Cameron Strang, returning to the shows lineupand to leadership at Relevant Media Groupsix months after stepping away due to public criticism from former employees.

Though Relevant promised to be transparent with its efforts to address Strangs alleged racial insensitivity and difficult leadership style, it did not bring up the process again until the April 10 update announcing his return as CEO.

In the meantime, the bimonthly Christian magazine had not sent out an issue to its 27,000 paid subscribers since Strang left in September, leaving fans to wonder about its future.

Strang told listeners that hes excited to be back for a new era at Relevant as it prepares to revamp and expand its podcast offerings, transition to a yearly print publication, and relaunch its website, all under an advisory board newly enlisted to oversee leadership of the 10-person staff.

Relevants loyal followers, some of whom have been around for its entire 20-year history, are excited to hear Strangs voice again. But as much as they hope to see the kind of progress the company has promised and prayed for, a few have questioned the lack of communication.

When the print issues stopped coming, I was disappointed but figured the company was trying to figure out how to move forward. I suspected they had lost a lot of advertisers & revenue, wrote Erin Bird, an Iowa pastor, in a Twitter thread responding to the April update. Ive patiently walked thru this w/ you, actually prayed for you guys (& those hurt), & was hoping to see a repentance from Cameron that would show the world how to truly apologize.

Bird, who subscribed to Relevant for 17 years, echoed what other fans said: He likes Strang and Relevant, which makes it even more disappointing that their response has fallen short and ultimately led him to stop reading and tuning in.

Hearing an update that shared nothing about seeking relational reconciliation broke my heart, Bird told CT. All I heard was how difficult this season has been to Cameron, but not how grieved he was about the hard season he put others through as their boss.

Strangs sabbatical was prompted by accounts of racial insensitivity and poor leadership that previous editors, including Andre Henry and Rebecca Marie Jo Flores, say they experienced while working with the small staff at Relevants office in Orlando, Florida. Within a week of their criticism making headlines in late September 2019, Strang issued an apology and took a leave of absence to engage a process of healing, growth, and learning.

Strang, whose father Stephen Strang is the publisher and CEO of Charisma magazine, launched Relevant in 2000. He was 24 at the time, setting out to reach Christian 20-somethings and 30-somethings in a departure from cheesy or culture wars content targeted at young adults.

Its magazine, website, and podcastswhich now receive over 690,000 downloads a month, according to the companyoffer a hip but faithful take on the world of pop culture and Christian life, with celebrity-clad cover stories and interviews with figures like Lecrae, Jim Gaffigan, and Lauren Daigle.

Strang declined to be interviewed for this article and instead directed CT to an April 17 podcast episode, in which he discussed his return with outgoing editor and producer Jesse Carey and writer and editor Tyler Huckabee. Carey, who served as publisher during Strangs absence, did not respond to multiple requests sent by CT over the past two months.

I decided to go away to handle this in a private way, Strang said in the 23-minute podcast discussion. I tried to learn from this. Honestly, whether I succeeded or not, I tried to set an example of humility and leadership and teachability.

Strangs reflections echoed points raised in his September apology, where the 44-year-old CEO lamented his own unhealthy and toxic leadership, as well as the recent update posted by Relevant, which cited the pace and workload of running the company as major stressors.

As a small, independent company with big goals in an always-changing media ocean, Cameron often led RELEVANT like a constantly redlining speed boat, going fast and making quick turns with little margin, the companys statement said. This recent season opened our eyes to how that approach led to stress and a lack of health in our organization, and for that both Cameron and the RELEVANT executive team wish to extend a sincere apology.

On the podcast, Strang did not mention former staff members by name but said he was deeply sorry for hurting people that were close to me and asked concerned listeners for the grace to walk this out in the long term.

Right after Strang left last September, Carey assured listeners that they would be transparent about how things are going and who are the leaders that are speaking into Cameron and speaking into Relevant.

That didnt happen over the sabbatical period, and the April updates dont share specifics about how Strang has addressed the concerns raised or whether he has pursued reconciliation.

Henry said on Twitter that Strang has not reached out to make amends with him or, to his knowledge, with the 44 others who signed a statement confirming an abusive work environment at Relevant.

On the podcast, Strang brought up weekly counseling as a primary means for addressing the core issues that led to his unhealthy leadership and referenced taking to Christian leaders during his months away, but did not name any particular leaders, curricula, or programs he learned from.

With Strangs return on April 15, the companys announcement said, he and the team have worked hard to internally address the criticisms in substantive and tangible ways. Relevant Media Group appointed an advisory board to provide accountability and receive human resources complaints, which the company lacked before.

The board includes Carey (who recently left the staff but continues to appear on the podcast); author and activist Christine Caine; pastor Dharius Daniels; nonprofit leader David Docusen; and Bible Media Group president Tessie Guell Devore.

While Strang said on the podcast that he did not follow Relevant articles or podcasts during his sabbatical, he spent the time thinking big picture about his companys future, including the decision to put the print magazine on hiatus because it had become unsustainable financially.

Relevants promotional material claims in a recent survey, our readers say they keep the magazine on their coffee table for over 9 months. Lately, though, subscribers havent had much choice; the most recent issue, featuring Malcolm Gladwell on the cover, came out eight months ago.

Several Relevant subscribers told CT they received no notification of the decision to pause the magazine, despite getting regular emails from the company and even having their subscriptions continue to auto-renew.

The unplanned disruption to the magazine left some advertisers and subscribers unclear what the plan was, and where the magazine was, and we sincerely apologize for our lack of communication while we worked to sort everything out, Relevant said in its April update.

And though Relevant confirmed that its print publication has been halted, users can still buy annual subscriptions online for $14.99. An email confirmation for the subscription reads, Your first issue will arrive in 6-8 weeks!

Relevant joined a slew of magazines, big and small, that have had to reduce their publication frequency or stop putting out print issues altogether due to rising production costs and slumping ad revenue. To maintain agreements with subscribers, these publications typically offer an equivalent perk, such as access to a members only site, said Caysey Welton, content director at Folio, which covers the industry.

Relevant subscribers will be transferred to an upcoming Relevant+ membership for a new site slated to debut this fall and will have the option to request a refund.

Over the past several months, disappointed subscribers have requested refunds or cancellations of their subscriptions over the skipped issues, and they report receiving responses after complaining on Twitter. Depending on how an agreement is worded, there may not be legal liability for failing to deliver issues. (The bigger legal concern in the magazine world these days are fraudulent third-party auto-renew practices, now the subject of a string of lawsuits and crackdowns.)

Besides the financial constraints, the current restructuring allows Relevant to better target the audience theyve been going after all along. What would I do differently if was launching Relevant from scratch? Strang wondered out loud on the podcast. I probably, in 2020, wouldnt be mailing paper to peoples houses if Im trying to reach 25-year-olds.

Welton at Folio agreed that publications skewing toward younger readers cannot rely on print, and Relevant has been moving that direction for years with its expanding lineup of popular podcasts. If youre trying to reach Gen Z to young Gen X, then if youre leading with print, youre probably already doing something wrong, he said.

Particularly in light of the challenges accelerated by the coronavirus crisis, the new model of a single issue a year for a special-interest publication matches where the industry is going. Relevant describes its new annual print edition as Relevant, but coffee table size like Kinfolk.

Thats what the future of print looks like, Welton said. Thats the kind of thing were going to see a lot more of.  Nicer paperstock, thicker book, fewer ads, if any, with just really good, engaging, evergreen content inside.

The new business plan at Relevant, including more changes to address the concerns that emerged last year, will unfold over the next six months. The company said it plans to form additional advisory boards focused on mission and ministry, justice and diversity, and business strategy and culture.

On Easter this year, days before resuming his position as CEO, Strang posted on Instagram for the first time since last October, sharing pictures of his son and the puppy they got at the start of his sabbatical. More than a hundred people commented to say they had missed him and welcomed him back. They said they had been praying for Relevant and were excited to have him return.

Similar replies from subscribers rolled in when the publication shared an update on Twitter.

This is an example of a Christian organization doing it right. He owned his stuff, stepped down, got counsel & accountability, and now huge, lasting changes are in place, one person responded. Super bummed about the print mag, but I understand consequences, & growth takes sacrifice. This is good news.

Others still want more. When Strang left, Huckabee told Relevants audience that We plan on doing everything we can to be an example of how to handle a situation like this. Lord knows weve tried to hold other institutions to the fire when theyve done something wrongboth in what they did and their response to itand now its our turn.

Some expected that would mean more openness about the leadership and cultural change. The @relevant team was not transparent throughout the process as promised. That is a massive problem in terms of trustworthiness, one critic posted. The statement essentially blames Cameronss mistreatment and abuse of his employees on exhaustion.

Another said, there has been nothing about any of this that makes me want to give Cameron a second chance.

Strang said he came back at the prompting of the new board, many of whom hes known through Relevant or other channelsDevore, for example, used to be the executive vice president of his fathers publishing company, Charisma House.

Strang said in addition to rejoining the podcast lineupnow with popular podcaster Jamie Ivey and hip hop artist Derek Minor in the mixhis focus will be new partnerships for Relevant, including expanding devotional content.

All I ask for people who have been concerned or even skeptical hearing my voice is for the grace to walk this out, Strang said. I cant snap my figures and make everything right; this is a long-term process of healing and restoration and reconciliation.
The lay-offs are the latest from an industry caught in turbulent times.

Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin empire, once said that the quickest way to become a millionaire was to start as a billionaire, and then launch an airline.

And now his airline  like many around the globe  is in trouble again.

Some 3,150 workers will lose their jobs if the London-based Virgin Atlantic carries out its plan to slash costs and shift its London Gatwick airport operations to London Heathrow  the worlds second-busiest airport.

Virgin Atlantics decision to reduce its workforce is part of a plan that will see the airline become a significantly smaller version of its pre-COVID-19 self after this pandemic, aviation analyst Alex Macheras told Al Jazeera.

Not only is the airline still waiting for either government or private rescue funding, it needs to preserve cash immediately if its to survive this crisis.





Coronavirus has left many airlines entire fleets grounded, with lockdowns and border closures leading to a total collapse in the air travel market.

Thousands of jobs are being lost across the aviation industry, with British Airways last week announcing 12,000 potential redundancies.

We have weathered many storms since our first flight 36 years ago, but none has been as devastating as COVID-19 and the associated loss of life and livelihood for so many, Shai Weiss, CEO of Virgin Atlantic, said in a statement.

However, to safeguard our future and emerge a sustainably profitable business, now is the time for further action to reduce our costs, preserve cash and to protect as many jobs as possible.

I wish it was not the case, but we will have to reduce the number of people we employ. The commitment of our people throughout this crisis has been nothing but amazing, and the embodiment of true Virgin spirit.

Virgin will also no longer use its fleet of seven four-engined Boeing 747-400s, while its four Airbus A330-200s will be retired in two years, as planned.

In its statement, the company touted the environmental benefits of switching to a 36-strong fleet comprised entirely of twin-engined planes, saying the move would reduce CO2 per revenue tonne-kilometre (RTK) emissions by an estimated 10 percent.





The company plans to keep hold of its slot portfolio at Gatwick, eyeing a possible return if and when customer demand returns, but the move away from the south London airport raises further concerns about its medium-term future.

London Gatwick Airport now faces an added, unprecedented crisis, Macheras told Al Jazeera. [It is] an airport that has spent decades building and expanding its portfolios of airlines and routes in a bid to take on Heathrow.

British Airways has also suspended operations at Gatwick and has told pilots there is no certainty over when those services might return.

Norwegian Air, which flies transatlantic routes from Gatwick, and is the airports third-largest carrier, is preparing to relaunch in a scaled-down version when the coronavirus crisis subsides after reaching a rescue deal with shareholders.

A loss of two of the airports most important airlines would throw Gatwick back decades, and potentially wipe out the prospect of a need for a second runway, said Macheras.

If, however, British Airways is merely floating the idea of leaving Gatwick Airport in order to have the airport meet new demands  of lower operational costs, for example  Virgin Atlantics departure now strengthens BAs negotiating position significantly.





Gatwicks owners said they were confident the industry would recover. We remain very optimistic about the long-term prospects of Gatwick Airport and our resilience as a business, the airport said in a statement.

Diana Holland, assistant general secretary of the Unite trade union, called for government support for the aviation industry.

We have grave concerns about the impact on Gatwick airport and the local economy following this latest blow, she said in a statement.

The UK has world-class airline and aerospace companies  highly developed and world leading  but the sector needs support in the period of recovery from this pandemic, if it is to retain this position.

In the middle of the 2008 global financial crisis, Branson argued against state bail-outs of private companies, saying companies need to stand on their own two feet, and the weak ones need to go to the wall  but Virgin Atlantic continues to explore all available options to obtain additional external funding said the companys statement on Tuesday.

Constructive discussions with several stakeholders, including [the UK] government, are ongoing, while the company continues to benefit from shareholder support.

Unite, the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) and the opposition Labour party all joined calls for government support.

The government is failing workers by not stepping in and protecting these jobs, Labour transport spokesman Jim McMahon said.

The government says it is providing support through tax breaks, furloughing salary schemes and offering loans, and Unite said Virgins consultations on redundancies were premature as the firm was not using the governments job retention programme.

Virgin Atlantic is 51 percent owned by Richard Bransons Virgin group and 49 percent owned by US airline Delta.
Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry has organised 18 digital seminars during March and April, covering various areas of the Chamber's activities, and attracted more than 800 participants from various sectors and companies private sector.

The events are part of Dubai Chambers efforts to support business continuity and ensure that private sector benefits from its various services and initiatives in the UAE, the organisation said in a statement.

During this period, the Chamber also participated in 38 video meetings with business groups and councils, in addition to associations. Discussions were held on how to enhance cooperation and mechanisms to address the current challenges related to the spread of Coronavirus (Covid-19).

Dubai Chambers smart transformation of services played a key role in organising these meetings and workshops with the business community, which were within the Chambers framework of adapting to the global challenges brought about by Covid-19. This also reflected the Chambers preparedness in having the technical infrastructure to communicate and interact with private sector representatives smoothly.

The virtual events, seminars and training workshops aimed at enhancing the awareness of the private sector on various topics and issues related to the business environment, economic sectors and sustainable best practices, and how to face the challenges and consequences of this crisis.

The Dubai Startup Hub organised the largest number of virtual activities, with a total of 10 events. The most notable of that was the The Emirati Development Programme, which witnessed an impressive participation and the selection of 30 participants who will get guidance and mentoring in honing their skills and attend training through the Training & Mentorship Academy, which has been set up in collaboration with Dubai Technology Entrepreneurs Campus (DTEC).

The Centre for Responsible Business also witnessed remarkable activity during this period especially from Dubai Chambers Sustainability network, whose task force organised a number of virtual seminars that focused on various topics of interest to the private sector.

These includes the safety of commercial vehicle drivers, recommendations to enhance the health and safety of employees, and ensure the continuity of the supply and distribution chain and protect workers in light of the challenges due to Covid-19.

Dubai Chamber also organised an online session on "The Legal Impact of Covid-19 on employment in the UAE", with 278 participants from various sectors of the business community. The seminar reviewed the latest developments related to legislation governing the relationship between employers and their workers.

The Chamber provides an integrated system of smart and electronic services that cover all the needs and requirements of the business community, which enables its customers to complete all their transactions remotely, easily and in accordance with the highest international standards.

The smart services provided by the Chamber include certificates of origin, attestations, membership services, studies, research and reports, business and legal services, issuance of ATA Carnet , Dubai Chamber's CSR Label, and Business Groups and Councils groups services in addition to the services available to economic and professional bodies.TradeArabia News Service
American Ballet Theater, whose 80th anniversary season was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, will move its spring gala online with quarantine performances by Tony Bennett, Cynthia Erivo and the companys dancers.

The hourlong event, prerecorded and streaming on Ballet Theaters YouTube page at 7 p.m. Eastern Time on May 12, is meant to benefit the Crisis Relief Fund for the companys artists and production crew.

With the cancellation of the companys season, originally scheduled to open next week, as well as canceled tour stops in the United States and Middle East, Ballet Theater said it was expecting to lose $18 million in revenue. The relief fund was established in March, with a goal of raising $1 million by May 11.

The gala will be something of a highlight reel and showcase of its support network, with tributes from guests including Katie Couric, Jennifer Garner and Liev Schreiber  and from the choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, the companys artist in residence, whose Of Love and Rage was to have its New York premiere this season.
Michael Antonoff is a freelance journalist who covers technology from New York City.

By Michael Antonoff

The last time that planned graduation ceremonies were canceled at colleges across the country was 50 years ago this spring. The cause was not a pandemic but the rage of student protesters who shut down campuses after four of their own were shot and killed at Kent State University.

I was a typical college freshman in 1970 when despite the anti-war politics swirling around us, we pretended to carry on with our studies. But it was while sitting in a lecture hall at Syracuse University on Monday, May 4, that everything changed. Other students rushed in and declared that the campus must be shut down now. What spurred this protest was what had happened 350 miles away in Ohio.

Until then I was neutral in terms of my attitude about the war in Vietnam, which President Richard Nixon had just expanded by dropping bombs in Cambodia. During high school, I believed President Lyndon Johnson when he said the way to end the war was by escalating the war. Also, I had drawn the number 321 in the birthday draft lottery. The high number nearly guaranteed that I wouldnt be drafted. However, a friend down the street drew a 60. His parents hastily had him join the National Guard to avoid being sent to Vietnam.

Students occupy the Syracuse University Administration Building following the Kent State shootings, May 8, 1970. (Carl J. Single | The Post-Standard, courtesy of the Onondaga Historical Association collection)

With lectures stopped, student protesters overran the campus. That night they set fires to building material being used to construct a new geology facility. Rumors ran rampant that gas lines connecting buildings under the Quad would spread the fire so that the entire university would explode in an apocalypse.

My freshman year had started in September on the same Quad with a showing of 2001: A Space Odyssey and ended in May two weeks prematurely. We were all sent home, and I retreated ostrich-like to the basement of my parents suburban home where I made an animated billiard balls movie in front of a Super 8 camera for the next two months.

Massive protests, including marches on Washington, continued once students returned to their campuses in the fall. Most of us didnt march, but after May 4, I admired those who did. Some universities have a habit of radicalizing its student base. They dont call it the liberal arts for nothing. Later, I came to think that what really radicalizes people is taking something as abstract as thousands of people dying in war in a faraway land and bringing such senseless death home to college students just like ourselves.

The state-sanctioned gunfire in Ohio killed four students and wounded nine. Two of the four killed, Allison Krause and Jeffrey Miller, were protest participants. But the other two, Sandra Scheuer and William Knox Schroeder, had simply been walking between classes when they were cut down. The four were murdered by other young people, who instead of going to college or being sent overseas (yet), had joined the Ohio National Guard and told to carry out orders issued by politicians who wanted to look tough on matters of law and order.

My generation  especially those of us half a century ago fortunate enough to be studying Greek literature or the biology of the Great Coral Reef  thought we were secluded from the real world. We werent.

My parents memorialized December 7. Well always have May 4.

ALSO IN OPINION: Editorial cartoons for May 3, 2020: Reopening duel, Biden allegation, Pence trip
The nationwide mass testing campaign launched by Kenyas Health Ministry has so far been a failure, Dr. Rashid Aman, Kenyas chief administrative secretary for health said.

Noting that the free targeted mass testing is to help the country to flatten the infections curve, the CAS called on Kenyans to willingly come forward and be tested for the coronavirus.

On Sunday, the CAS said the Ministry had in the last two days tested 803 against a target of 2000 in Kawangware, and 494 in Eastleigh against a target of 3000.

The two low-income residential areas have been identified as hotspots having reported the highest number of coronavirus cases in Nairobi County.

The outcome of the testing exercise so far has shown a low turnout in some of these areas, I want to remind the Kenyans that there are countries where people beg to be tested, yet their governments are unable to do so, Aman said.

I want to appeal to Kenyans to willingly come forward to be tested, the Ministry of Health is encouraging the Kenyans in the target areas to come and get tested, experience has shown that countries that have managed to flatten their infection curve quickly have heavily relied on targeted testing. The test will be conducted free of charge.

Dr. Aman noted that the Ministry of Health has acquired the testing capacity to undertake targeted testing.
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Linkedin Ardila Syakriah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, May 5, 2020 18:41 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd62ae3c 1 National #COVID19,COVID-19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,vaccines,#vaccines,coronavirus,#coronavirus Free

Indonesia is looking to fast-track the local development of a COVID-19 vaccine, but concerns remain as to whether insufficient funding and facilities, as well as the country's reliance on imported materials, might hinder the initiative.

The government has appointed the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology to spearhead the vaccine development program through a consortium that includes the Health Ministry's Research and Development Agency (Balitbangkes), state-owned pharmaceutical company PT Bio Farma and several universities.

The institute has been given a time frame of just 12 months starting in April, Eijkman director Amin Soebandrio told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Vaccines typically require 10-15 years to develop through several stages, including clinical trials and licensing for national immunization programs, according to the United States' CDC.

Eijkman will send any prototype seed viruses it produces  the "seed stock" needed to manufacture vaccines, also called candidate vaccine virus (CVV)  to Bio Farma, the country's sole vaccine manufacturer, for accelerated clinical trials on human volunteers. According to the plan, Bio Farma aims to mass-produce the vaccine by 2022.

This was much faster than the typical five to 12 years needed for vaccine development, said Bio Farma R&D manager Neni Nurainy.

Challenges ahead

Amin said that the target was not impossible, but that the accelerated process would have its own share of challenges, particularly in terms of facilities and funding.

Eijkman has received Rp 5 billion (US$329,989) for the exploratory stage of vaccine development. The sum is part of Rp 90 billion in total funding that the Research and Technology Ministry has budgeted for the consortium's COVID-19 studies.

"If we count everything, [the fund] might not be enough, but we can make use of existing resources and [testing] kits. We are not starting from zero, Amin said.

Research and Technology Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said that the funding for Eijkman "will be added to as necessary". He was also well aware that Bio Farma would require large funds to manufacture the vaccine to provide coverage for the country's 260 million people.

Another challenge, Amin said, was that Indonesia still needed to import reagents for the COVID-19 tests at a time when the pandemic had disrupted the global supply chain.

Bio Farma's Neni expressed the same concerns. "There must be support from all parties to accelerate [vaccine] development, [including] funding, raw material procurement, regulations and capable researchers," she said.

Exploratory stage

As coronaviruses mutate easily during replication to adapt to its host, the vaccines developed in other countries might not be viable against the strain in Indonesia, Amin explained.

Eijkman's laboratory has been conducting whole genome sequencing to determine the complete RNA sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 strain in Indonesia. This is part of the initial stage of vaccine development.

Scientists will then be able to detect the antigen of the Indonesian strain and identify the strains in other countries that share the closest genetic traits. In other words, the scientists will trace the chain of transmission of the Indonesian strain.

Given Indonesia's vast archipelagic geography, Amin said that the Eijkman lab would need to collect samples from several regions, which would be a challenge in itself. This would ensure, however, that the CVV it prepared would be suitable for mass-producing a vaccine for immunizing people across the country.

"That's why we have to make [the vaccine] specific [to the Indonesian strain]," he stressed. "Although we can identify the parts of the virus that don't [mutate], the antigen that is discovered might not be good enough for developing into a vaccine."

Many institutions around the world have been sharing their genome sequences of local coronavirus strains with global databases such as GISAID and Nextstrain.

Eijkman on Monday submitted its first three complete genome sequences of the Indonesian strain to GISAID. This was the first submission from Indonesia, although the Health Ministry's lab announced that it was also sequencing the virus early in the outbreak.

Aside from developing a vaccine, genome sequencing can also help with contact tracing. Amin said that the lab was still analyzing the possible origin of the virus strain in Indonesia.

Once the antigen is detected, the Eijkman lab will formulate a vaccine prototype for animal testing with other members in the consortium.

Bio Farma's role

Following successful animal testing, the vaccine seed will then be given to Bio Farma for clinical trials. If the vaccine seed passes the clinical trials, the company will start mass-producing the vaccine.

Neni said it was too early to estimate the amount of vaccine the company would be able to produce by then.

While clinical trials generally took years, said Neni, the final two phases of the clinical trial could be run in parallel to cut time during a health emergency.

Once the safety and efficacy of the vaccine had been proven, the vaccine could be approved for mass distribution under supervision of the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM).

Solidary Trial, other options

While there is still a long way to go until a vaccine is available in the country, 22 Indonesian hospitals have joined the World Health Organization (WHO) Solidarity Trial that coordinates clinical trials for potential antiviral treatments.

The program is running comparative trials on four possible treatments: remdesivir, lopinavir and ritonavir, a combined treatment of lopinavir-ritonavir with interferon beta-1a, and chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine.

The WHO and the Health Ministry is providing the untested drug treatments to the enrolled hospitals. The ministry has supplied the treatments to at least eight hospitals by April 23, five of which were ready to recruit volunteers and start randomized clinical trials.

Jakarta's Persahabatan Central General Hospital is among the 22 Solidarity Trial hospitals in Indonesia.

Spokesperson Erlina Burhan said that the hospital had yet to receive the treatments and was still preparing for running the trials. She said that the hospital had been treating COVID-19 patients according to a protocol created by medical organizations.

A copy of the protocol that the Post obtained suggests the use of several drugs for COVID-19 treatment: the antimalarials chloroquine phosphate and hydroxychloroquine, the antiviral oseltamivir (Tamiflu) that has been used to treat bird flu and the experimental antiviral favipiravir (Avigan) that has been used to treat Ebola patients.

Indonesian researchers are also looking at other alternative therapies, including the use of convalescent plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients for treating current patients that have developed a severe form of the disease.
NEW YORK, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Millions of New Yorkers will see a fleet of six WWII airplanes promote safety awareness messages of thanks and hope in the skies above New York City from 11:30  12:30 p.m. EST, Tuesday, May 5. The airplanes will flyover hospitals creating giant messages in the sky that are as tall as the Empire State Building, span 5-10 miles and can be seen in a 15-mile radius. The planes will also type messages over Long Island and Westchester.

The GEICO Skytypers, a fleet of vintage airplanes, will "skytype" messages over hospitals in the five boroughs with positive affirmations and gratitude for first responders, healthcare and grocery/retail workers, and all those affected by COVID-19. The intent is to lift spirits and create awareness in light of the current global pandemic.

The Skytypers fleet will be leaving from Republic Airport on Long Island for the flight above the NY metro area's hospitals starting their first messages at approximately 11:30 a.m. over Manhattan. They will fly past the Statue of Liberty and down the Hudson River and circle over the five boroughs before delivering messages above Long Island. Their route will start over Norwalk, CT following the shoreline thru lower Westchester county circling NYC and the five boroughs then heading out over Long Island.

"We can't think of a better way to thank all New Yorkers for their commitment to health and safety, especially those on the front lines," says Larry Arken, squadron commander and team flight lead of the GEICO Skytypers. "We will deliver messages of hope and gratitude to the city during these unprecedented times."

ABOUT SKYTYPING

The GEICO Skytypers "skytype" by creating giant messages in the sky with five aircraft flying in a tight, line-abreast formation.

The planes skytype by creating dot matrix-style messages with environmentally friendly puffs of white smoke.

A computer located in the lead aircraft sends radio signals to the other planes and their white puffs of smoke create the "skytyped" messages that are as tall as the Empire State Building and seen from a 15-mile radius.

ABOUT THE GEICO SKYTYPERS

The GEICO Skytypers Air Show Team, the leading vintage airshow performance squadron, fly six WWII SNJ aircraft, the North American SNJ built for the Navy, the Air Force's T-6 variant. Both trainer aircraft were used to prepare pilots of "The Greatest Generation" for WWII combat. The team performs a low-level, precision-flying demonstration featuring tactics and maneuvers designed by team members who served in the United States military. In addition to their air show performances, the team "skytype" giant messages in the sky. Five aircraft fly in a line-abreast formation to produce 1,000-foot tall messages that can be seen for 15 miles in any direction. For more information, please visit www.geicoskytypers.com.

ABOUT GEICO

GEICO (Government Employees Insurance Company), the second-largest auto insurer in the U.S., was founded in 1936 and insures more than 28 million vehicles. For more than 80 years, the company has worked to make people's lives better by protecting policyholders against unexpected events. As GEICO has grown, it has delivered money-saving coverage and outstanding customer service to policyholders through its investment in human resources and technology. GEICO is a member of the Berkshire Hathaway family of companies and has a national workforce of more than 40,000 associates.

Homeowners, renters, condo, flood, identity theft and term life coverage are written through non-affiliated insurance companies and are secured through the GEICO Insurance Agency, Inc. Commercial auto and personal umbrella coverages are also available. Visit www.geico.com for a quote or to learn more.

MEDIA NOTE: Interviews are available upon request. The GEICO Skytypers press kit is available here and includes press releases, photos, b-roll, etc.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Paramount Public Relations

Jessica Prah, 312-953-3257, [email protected]

SOURCE GEICO Skytypers

Related Links

http://www.geicoskytypers.com


With so many local businesses shut down due to COVID-19, the worry is how many of them will survive. As we shelter inside watching television, putting together jigsaw puzzles and reading books many of us are getting comfortable with ordering online through Amazon and having what we want arrive at our homes. Though that is a convenience, local bookstore owners and advocates say supporting their businesses through online shopping, curbside pickup and other means will help them bounce back and stay a part of the fabric of their neighborhoods.

Want to learn and share more ways to support local businesses during the pandemic? Join our Facebook group.

This is a time when everyone who loves books and literature needs to come together, said Paul Grondahl, director of the New York State Writers Institute. Independent booksellers who have weathered the invasion of the big chain bookstores and Amazon now have this pandemic as one more challenge. These stores are very resilient with a loyal following of customers who are committed to buying local from real people.

Chris Morrow, owner of Northshire Bookstores in Saratoga Springs and Manchester, Vt., is worried about the future of his stores. In Saratoga we are completely shut down, he said, but thankfully our New York customers have been buying from us online. In Vermont, we are doing a robust curbside pickup business; however, even with all that our sales are way down, and if we are not able to open until fall, we are out of business. Summer is an extremely busy time for both stores.

Grondahl feels that independent bookstores are vital to our communities. These stores bring people together to share their thoughts on what were reading. You can often spend a few minutes with a friend, have a cup of coffee and talk about ideas. We are often divided and pitted against each other so much right now politically as a country, but hopefully a good bookstore can bring us together to discuss a great book of poetry, a beautiful novel, or an important book of historical nonfiction.

The New York State Writers Institute and WAMC Northeast Public Radio recently joined forces to support the Capital Regions indie bookstores to encourage book sales and to increase revenue with a new initiative called #IndieBookstoreBoost.

Were trying to pick up some author events that would have been in their stores, said Grondahl. Well do some virtual interviews with these authors and each interview will have a direct sale link to that particular bookstore.

Melissa Steen, the owner of I Love Books in Delmar, has a hard time trying to imagine what Delmar would be like without her store. This bookstore gives the community its heart. Were a social place. Weve been here for 28 years. Its the place where the town comes to prepare for the birthday party and to buy new baby books. Its a generational family place.

Janet Hutchison has owned The Open Door Bookstore in Schenectady since 1993. The store has been here since 1971, and next year will be our 50th year. Were going to be here whatever it takes.

Hutchison sees her store as a real fixture in downtown Schenectady. Were a community center, very involved in all community activities. We partner with many nonprofits and encourage our customers to purchase books and donate them to the Hamilton Hill Arts Center and the Northeast Parent and Child Center. Our customers respond to that sense of civic activity and many of them tell me how they grew up coming to this store and now theyre bringing their own children and sometimes even grandchildren.

Steen agreed that failing is not an option with her store. Ill make it through. Ill find every way possible. Well keep adapting to whatever the situation is. I Love Books is doing curbside delivery Monday through Saturday between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., and Steen says shes getting email book and puzzle orders 24 hours a day.

All of the booksellers have tried creative ways to keep paying their employees through the federal governments Paycheck Protection Program. But we have no idea when people are really coming back to work. That program covers eight weeks of the employees pay so that can get them through May, but we dont know whats going to happen after that.

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Morrow is grateful for all the support Northshire has gotten, but he said the best thing to do now is buy from the store. We also have gift cards available, and please come back to visit us when we reopen.

Steen said Delmar has shown her store a lot of love through the years, and she appreciates all the support shes receiving now. But I do miss seeing people. Thats a big part of the fun of being a bookseller ... to get the right book to the right person.

Hutchison originally worked as the childrens librarian at the main downtown library in Schenectady. In 1983 I began working at The Open Door, and in 1992 my husband and I bought the store, and we got into this business because we loved books and writers. Weve had so many local writers who have had large book signings here, and we still have national writers that like to come back every year like ("Wicked" author) Gregory Maguire. Still, what I love the most is what I loved when I was a childrens librarian and thats connecting a good book with a reader.

Grondahl believes that books have the capacity to change your opinion and perhaps change your life. All vibrant cities have good bookstores. They are a part of the essential fabric of a community, but we need to remember that bookstores are fragile and this is a time when they need our support.

Jack Rightmyer, an adjunct English professor at Siena College, is a regular contributor to the Times Union.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 23:11:26|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The United States should lift the "unlawful" sanctions against Iran to prove that it is sincere in offering help in the battle against the novel coronavirus, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday.

If the Americans are honest in offering their help to Iran, "the only way for them is to end the illegal sanctions on Iran," Rouhani said in a telephone conversation with the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday.

"Unfortunately, the U.S. illegal sanctions against the Iranian nation have intensified the tough conditions of the fight against the coronavirus and its severe economic consequences," Rouhani was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.

The U.S. cruel sanctions have even obstructed Iran's efforts to obtain medical supplies and foodstuff, he said.

Rouhani and Abe stressed the need for mutual cooperation in the battle against COVID-19 and for sharing the experiences in containing the disease. Enditem
A video has gone viral on the Internet which shows a flock of sheep on the streets of the city of Samsun, northern Turkey. The streets have been empty since people have been staying indoors to break the contact chain and stop the spread of coronavirus.

READ: Lebanon Restaurants Partially Reopen, Face Faltering Economy

Sheep take over the streets

Flock of sheep invading Turkey during the lockdown pic.twitter.com/tZctLu4uHD  The World Of Funny (@TheWorldOfFunny) May 3, 2020

The sheep were being led by a shepherd and many on the internet joked that the flock of sheep had invaded the country. The video garnered over 4 million views and the internet was abuzz with comments on the sheep. The Coronavirus outbreak and subsequent lockdown in various parts has led to numerous such sights, with animals being seen where normally they wouldn't.

READ: EU Hosts Coronavirus Telethon, Raises $8.1 Billion To Finance Vaccine Without US

Turkey has reported more than 1,27,600 cases of coronavirus with 3,461 deaths due to the virus.

About to be record sales of gyros in carry out stands tomorrow  Daniel (@droachnola) May 3, 2020

So the virus was a plan by sheep to allow for a global animal takeover, or do animals already run the globe.  Nick Hussain * (@NickHussainLFC) May 4, 2020

Is there a nearby Trump rally?  Lee A. Richardson (@LARichardson2) May 3, 2020

81 million sheepherders in Turkey and not a single one doing his job.  Herr Soderstrom (@sssgsr) May 4, 2020

Birds in my kitchen, deer at the beach, monkeys on motorbikes stealing Toddlers, now sheep taking over Turkey... Change is coming. https://t.co/dnrDHn3AVG  Sarah (@Sarafino1) May 4, 2020

If we were making futuristic movie, the producers would say: sheep in Turkey? Goats in Wales? Elephants in India? No one will believe that https://t.co/QjRUASqQUG  Daya Mudra (@sfdaya) May 4, 2020

Sheep have returned to the streets of Turkey. Nature is healing, we are the virus. https://t.co/vuQLsmPr8o  Anthony Thomas (@InsaneKaine) May 4, 2020

READ: US Senate Reopens In Capitol Largely Shut By Virus

READ: Cuba Calls Gun Assault On Its Embassy In Washington A 'terrorist Attack', Demands Action
Sopranos star Joseph Gannascoli has raised more than $25,000 to feed key workers and hospital staff.

The actor, 61, who is best known for playing mobster Vito Spatafore on the hit HBO series, launched a GoFundMe page last month, asking for people to donate to help feed frontline workers.

Joseph has a target of $50,000 and with donations flooding in, headed to Cohen Children's Hospital, Nassau University Medical Centre and the Lynbrook Police Department to deliver the hoards of food.

Mr nice guy: Sopranos star Joseph Gannascoli has raised more than $25,000 to feed key workers and hospital staff

The actor's goal is to order food at local restaurants to help small businesses, while giving key workers warm, delicious meals.

According to TMZ, Joseph has ordered food from restaurants all over New York.

It comes as Joseph's 104-year-old auntie Ida Acconciamessa, has recovered from coronavirus after she was diagnosed with it last month.

Kind-hearted: The actor, 61, who is best known for playing mobster Vito Spatafore on the hit HBO series, launched a GoFundMe page last month, asking for people to donate

The actor has been taking to Instagram to share snaps of his meal drop offs.

In his latest selfie from Sunday, Joseph wrote: 'Many thanks from everyone at Mount Sinai South Nassau L&D, NICU & Maternity.'

Joseph is an American actor, most notable for his portrayal of Vito Spatafore on the HBO series The Sopranos. Prior to acting, Gannascoli was a professional chef.

Delicious: The actor has been taking to Instagram to share snaps of his meal drop offs

He learned culinary art and opened a restaurant, Soup As Art Restaurant in Brooklyn.

Gannascoli received his 'big break' in acting from Benicio del Toro, whom he met on the set on Money for Nothing.

After appearing in Ed Wood, Del Toro later cast Gannascoli in his directorial debut, Submission.

He also introduced him to Sheila Jaffe and Georgianne Walken, who did casting work for the HBO TV series The Sopranos.
Chetana Belagere By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: Amid chaos and confusion, an estimated 30,000 people travelled to their home towns on Sunday, in about 951 Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses. The challenge before the state health department now is to ensure that all of them are screened and home quarantined. Those who are symptomatic will be tested further. The state government has appointed nodal officers in all districts to ensure that screening is done as soon as they reach their destinations. It is the responsibility of the deputy commissioners to maintain health records and personal details.

Commissioner, Health and Family Welfare, Pankaj Kumar Pandey told TNIE, We have instructed all DCs to ensure home quarantine for the next 15 days for all asymptomatic people. All those who travelled  migrants, labourers, students, techies have to be screened.

Teams of officers are working to ensure that everyone is screened. A similar process will be followed for inter-state travellers, intra-state travellers and also those coming from abroad. Asymptomatic travellers will be stamped and home quarantined, along with geo-fencing.

For instance, in Hubballi-Dharwad, 624 migrants returned from Bengaluru and other parts of the state till May 4. Their hands were stamped and they were home quarantined. Mobile numbers of all 624 persons has been attached to the geofencing system of Covid-19 control rooms in Hubballi and Dharwad. If these people try to step out of their houses, the staff is alerted, an officer said.

Shivamogga DC K B Sivakumar told TNIE that till Sunday night, 26 buses had ferried a total of 835 migrant workers to the district. However, sources said many managed to enter Bengaluru and other cities using private vehicles and the state government hasnt screened these people, or even have a record on how many have travelled in this manner. (With inputs from Arpitha in Shivamogga and Arunkumar Huralimath in Hubballi-Dharwad)
Electrical switches, mechanical devices that make and break the connection in an electric circuit, are used everywhere. They turn on and off our lights, dishwashers, and dryers. In circuit breakers, they interrupt dangerous levels of current. A different type of switch, in solid state form, is at the core of the digital logic that underlies computer technology. While these devices are in fact transistors that can operate as amplifiers like in a radio, in digital logic they act as switches to hold an "on" or "off" state, also known as "1" or "0."

Digital switch technology has had such a transformational impact on society that its benefits transcend economists' ability to quantify its value. Without transistor technology, we wouldn't have computers, the internet, digital cameras, smart phones, or monitoring devices for vital signs or poisonous gases.

Wall light switches are the same size and have been manufactured in the same way as they were 50 years ago. But, solid state switches have shrunk by a factor of one million over the same time period, allowing billions of them to be used on computer chips.

Although solid state switches are extremely reliable, they can't get much smaller. And, they tend to leak current, even when they are supposed to be "off." Consequently, energy efficiency has decreased as solid state switches have gotten smaller. Because digital logic is so ubiquitous, a huge amount of energy is being wasted.

A possible solution to this problem is to go back to a mechanical switch, in which a gap physically opens so that there is no leakage of current. However, mechanical switches are still about 10,000 times bigger than transistors, even when similar manufacturing processes as those of solid state batteries are used. Also problematic is their tendency to be much less reliable than solid state switches.

Researchers Maarten de Boer and Gianluca Piazza in Carnegie Mellon University's College of Engineering are investigating how to overcome these challenges to develop reliable, nanoscale mechanical switches, also called nanorelays. Their work has been funded by a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation's Leading Engineering for America's Prosperity, Health, and Infrastructure (LEAP-HI) program.

The LEAP-HI program challenges the engineering research community to take a leadership role in addressing demanding, urgent, and consequential challenges for advancing America's prosperity, health, and infrastructure.

Because the problem is so complex, the researchers are breaking down the project into separate components. Piazza, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, is working on developing mechanical switches as small as modern solid state switches.

"Our goal is to build mechanical switches that are the size of a DNA molecule," Piazza said. "To do so, we are using a solid state material that, when heated, undergoes a phase transformation and expands by 10%. That is approximately the same volume change that occurs when water freezes. This transformation results in enormous forces and sufficiently large displacements to bridge nanometer-scale gaps and form good electrical contacts as in wall light switches."

De Boer, a professor of mechanical engineering, will focus on improving the switches' reliability. He is collaborating with the University of Pennsylvania's Robert Carpick who has expertise in examining nanometer-scale point contact behavior and the City University of Hong Kong's David Srolovitz, an expert in materials theory.

"Although simple in concept, the physics in a mechanical switch interface is complex, and interdisciplinary challenges must be addressed," de Boer said. "Due to a small degree of surface roughness, the mechanical stress levels at the contacting surfaces are near the limit of what materials can tolerate."

"Hydrocarbons from the atmosphere can accumulate at the interface and increase electrical resistance," he added. "The surfaces can become sticky and the switch may no longer open. Solid state switches circumvent these problems but now are reaching their own limits, so the mechanical switch is now back in play. We will investigate conducting oxide materials as a way to address the issues."

De Boer and Piazza are optimistic about an important, preliminary result where they demonstrated a scalable device architecture at the microscale. They presented the operation of this Phase Change NEMS Relay. (PCNR) device at the IEEE 65th International Electron Devices Meeting in December, 2019.

The next steps are to extend this architecture to the nanoscale and to increase the cycle counts. If successful, the team expects the results to impact a range of electronic devices used for data storage, computing, and the Internet of Things.

"Our hope is that nanorelays can complement and enhance solid-state switches, which are now manufactured by some of the most advanced techniques known to society," de Boer said. "We look forward to facing the challenges with a great team."

###

The team has also earned funding from Carnegie Mellon's Kavcic-Moura Endowment Fund.
Growing up, the story of the starfish stuck with filmmaker Tyler Gildin.

The parable - a boy saves a starfish stranded on the beach by throwing it back into the water - was told often at his summer camp. Years later, Gildin was astonished when he discovered his grandfather, Herb, recounting the tale at a pivotal moment: Herb's reunion with the Swedish family that took him in as a child to escape the Nazis.

'When I heard that exact same story, it gave me goose bumps,' Gildin told DailyMail.com. 'It seemed kind of surreal  how much overlap there was of those principles.'

Herb, a German Jew, was 10-years-old when he and his older sisters, Cele and Margaret, made a daunting train trip by themselves to go live with strangers in Sweden. After two years with their foster families, the trio made the grueling journey to be reunited with their parents in Brooklyn, and Herb went on to found a successful lighting business with his family.

While he always knew his grandfather had a backstory, Gildin said it wasn't until Cele died in February 2017 and Herb gave her eulogy that he realized he needed to chronicle Herb's history. He said: 'As soon as we left that funeral I felt how I have not captured this before.'

Gildin's documentary film  titled The Starfish  tells the story of his grandfather, Herb, who died after its completion on May 19, 2019 at the age of 90.

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Above, filmmaker Tyler Gildin with his grandfather, Herb, at the family home in Delray Beach, Florida last year. Gildin told DailyMail.com that he always knew his grandfather had a backstory, but it wasn't until Herb gave a eulogy for his older sister, Cele, in February 2017 that he realized he needed to chronicle Herb's history. He said: 'As soon as we left that funeral I felt how I have not captured this before'

Three months later, Gildin was able to devote his time and energy to the project. 'Once my job situation changed that May I immediately began to work on this project,' he recalled. With his cousin Alex and a crew, Gildin interviewed Herb and Gloria and filmed for a full day. He started digging into his grandfather's story. 'There was so many pieces I didn't know  that was when I got excited.' Above, Herb and Gloria Gildin, Tyler and his wife, Zara, and their son Brody

Herb Gildin was the youngest of three, born in Germany in 1929. He grew up in Landsberg with his older sisters Cele and Margaret. His father, Abraham, a shoemaker, was from Russia, and his mother, Fanny, had come from Latvia. Landsberg was a 'small, pretty city,' and until Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938, he had a typical upbringing.

'I think Kristallnacht is when everything kind of changed,' Herb recalls in the documentary.

On the 'Night of Broken Glass,' Nazis rounded up Jews  almost 100 were killed and thousands sent to concentration camps  and destroyed homes, businesses and synagogues. While Adolf Hitler had been chancellor since 1933, that night marked a violent turning point. World War II began when Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939.

Herb remembers being taken to a gymnasium with other Jews that night and while his father was detained at the police station, he was eventually released. When the family arrived home, his father's store window had been broken.

'It was the beginning of a terrible change; it was no longer a normal family,' Herb told DailyMail.com in March last year. 'We were ostracized because of our religion  and it was the beginning of a very difficult time.'

In the documentary, Herb explains that his father thought they would be ok in Germany, but soon the family's passports were labeled 'statslos,' which meant they were stateless. 'There was no place for us to go,' he recalls.

Above, the Gildin family: Fanny, Herb, Cele, Margaret and Abraham. In the documentary, The Starfish, Herb recalls how he had a typical upbringing in Landsberg, Germany until Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938. 'I think Kristallnacht is when everything kind of changed,' Herb recalls in the documentary. On the 'Night of Broken Glass,' Nazis rounded up Jews  almost 100 were killed and thousands sent to concentration camps  and destroyed homes, businesses and synagogues

Herb explains that while his father thought they would be ok in Germany, the family's passports were labeled 'statslos,' which meant they were stateless. 'There was no place for us to go,' he recalls. An organization called HIAS found three families in Falun, Sweden that would take in Herb, 10, Margaret, 12, and Cele, 14, Above, Herb with a bicycle in Sweden

Herb was first placed with an older couple but was unhappy. Eventually he found a home with the Silow family: the father, Alvar, was a curator and librarian, and the mother, Signe, was a well-known artist. The couple had three children, Sven, Mivie and Agneta. 'They were a great great family,' Herb recalls. 'It was an interesting life  went to school on skis. Learned Swedish.' Above, Herb, third from left, with the Silow family at Christmas

Herb, middle, spent two years with his foster Swedish family before he and his sisters made the difficult journey to the United States to be reunited with their parents in Brooklyn. Last year, Herb told DailyMail.com about keeping in touch with them: 'The sad thing is, after a couple of years, I wrote less, spoke less.' But in 2001, 60 years after leaving Sweden, Herb went back to see those who helped him, including Agneta, right, who signed her letters to him as his 'Swedish sister'

Enter HIAS. Founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in 1881 to help Jews escape from the pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe, the nonprofit found Herb, 10, Margaret, 12, and Cele, 14, non-Jewish families to stay with in the town of Falun, Sweden. 'When I think about it, what a terrible decision for parents to have to make to give up your children so that they will survive,' he says in the documentary.

His older sister, Cele, became the caretaker and helped Herb and Margaret while they traveled to Sweden. Herb was first placed with an older couple but was unhappy. Eventually he found a home with the Silow family: the father, Alvar, was a curator and librarian, and the mother, Signe, was a well-known artist. The couple had three children, Sven, Mivie and Agneta.

'They were a great great family,' Herb recalls. 'It was an interesting life  went to school on skis. Learned Swedish.'

Meanwhile, his parents were able to immigrate to the United States and they went to live in Brooklyn, where his mother's brother lived. While Herb wanted to rejoin his parents, nonetheless, he had a happy life in Sweden and had grown close to Agneta.

'When this family took us in, it was a lifetime commitment. You must understand, the probability of my parents ever leaving Germany and us being able to join them again was probably zero,' he told DailyMail.com last year. 'We beat the odds, and ultimately we were able to come to the US  but that didn't happen too often.'

In January 1941, HIAS helped the three Gildin children leave Sweden to go to the United States. But because of the war raging, they traveled a route that took them by train from Finland to Russia, and then by ship from Japan - this was before the Axis power bombed Pearl Harbor - to Seattle. The around six-week voyage was tough, Herbs recalls. 'We made it. Luggage did not.'

But the trek was not over: they still had to make it across the country to get to New York City.

Those first years in Brooklyn were difficult, Herb explains, and he spoke German and Swedish but no English. His father now worked in a shoe factory and his mother started sewing. But he soon learned the language. 'I think I integrated so well into the American way of life.'

Cele got married in 1948, Margaret in 1950, and Herb was drafted due to the Korean War and sent to serve in the Mississippi National Guard in 1951. On a getaway to a lodge, Herb recalls: 'We went there and then I saw at a ping pong table this beautiful blonde.'

'He was good looking and he had a sharp blue suit,' his future wife, Gloria, says in the documentary.

After Herb and his sisters made it to Brooklyn, the first few years in a new country were not easy. He spoke German and Swedish but no English. His father now worked in a shoe factory and his mother started sewing. But he soon learned the language. 'I think I integrated so well into the American way of life.' During the Korean War, Herb was drafted and sent to serve in the Mississippi National Guard in 1951. On a getaway to a lodge, Herb recalls: 'We went there and then I saw at a ping pong table this beautiful blonde.' His future wife, Gloria, says in the documentary: 'He was good looking and he had a sharp blue suit'

Gloria and Herb married in 1955 and had two children, Billy and Mindy. Herb was working with his brother-in-law, Lou, Margaret's husband, at his diary store on Blake Avenue in Brooklyn, and became his partner after borrowing money from the government through an army loan. 'When I first married Gloria, we worked probably 18 hours a day seven days a week,' Herb says. Above, the couple at their home in Delray Beach, Florida last year

The pair married in 1955 and had two children, Billy and Mindy. Herb was working with his brother-in-law, Lou, Margaret's husband, at his diary store on Blake Avenue in Brooklyn, and became his partner after borrowing money from the government through an army loan.

'When I first married Gloria, we worked probably 18 hours a day seven days a week,' Herb says.

In around the mid-1960s, Herb decided to do something other than the grocery business and with his wife, Gloria, sister, Margaret, and her husband, Lou, they started a lighting business, calling it Sattelight Wholesalers, which would eventually become the successful corporation, Satco. 'We persevered and people liked us and year by year, we grew and developed the business,' Herb says.

And while Herb didn't divulge too much about his past to his children, his daughter Mindy started digging. Sixty years after he had left Sweden, Herb went to Falun and reconnected with Agneta, who was like a sister to him.

In July 2001, video shows the families reuniting, and at a celebratory dinner, Herb tells the starfish story. Tyler Gildin, who was 13 at the time and at summer camp, wasn't on that trip to Sweden. 'This would be my way of contributing to that story,' he said. 'I hadn't really seen that footage.'

Gildin knew that he wanted to both start and end the documentary with the parable, which became the film's title as well. His grandfather, who died in May last year, was stern but also very loving and caring, he said.

The moral of the starfish story is that a difference can be made for one person and that can have ripple effects, Gildin said, adding that he may not be here today if not for those who helped his grandfather.
The Hamilton Spectator and Journal of Commerce was first published July 15, 1846. The paper was founded by Robert Smiley and a partner, and was eventually sold in 1877 to William Southam, founder of the Southam newspaper chain. The Spectator was the first newspaper in the group, which grew from a single property to become a significant media voice in Canada for more than 170 years.

In 1998, the Southam newspapers were sold to Conrad Black, and The Spectator was then sold again to Quebecor-owned Sun Media. In 1999, the newspaper was sold for a third time to Torstar Corporation, which also publishes the Toronto Star, the Waterloo Region Record, The St. Catharines Standard, Welland Tribune, Niagara Falls Review, The Peterborough Examiner, Metroland community newspapers and several other media properties.

Torstar was acquired in 2020 by Nordstar Capital, an entity owned by Toronto businessmen Jordan Bitove and Paul Rivett.

The Spectator publishes a print publication six days a week, Monday  Saturday, servicing Hamilton and surrounding communities. It also provides an ePaper, an electronic replica of the printed product. In addition, The Spectator publishes ongoing news and information to a global audience on thespec.com and mobile applications.

The Spectator is involved in numerous Community Partnerships with a variety of organizations. A key charitable priority for the newspaper is The Hamilton Spectator Summer Camp Fund, which has been in existence for over 100 years and is managed by the Hamilton Community Foundation. Thanks to generous donations from individuals and organizations, hundreds of disadvantaged children are able to attend summer camp each year. Last year, 504 camperships were awarded to underprivileged children who attended one of 20 area summer camps.

Back to top The Spectator Masthead

Neil Oliver Executive Vice President & Chief Operations Officer, Torstar Paul Berton Editor-in-Chief Len Offless Regional Director of Advertising Jim McArthur Director, Regional Circulation Operations

Back to top Our Journalistic Standards

The Torstar Journalistic Standards Guide provides a comprehensive code of journalistic principles and conduct to guide Hamilton Spectator journalists in their mission to responsibly engage and connect our readers on all platforms with trusted news, information and content.

Here are the general editorial principles that provide the foundation for this guide:

RESPONSIBILITY

The Spectator has responsibilities to its customers, its clients, its shareholders and its employees. But the operation of a news organization is, above all, a public trust, no less binding because it is not formally conferred. Our overriding responsibility is to the democratic society.

Freedom of expression and of the press must be defended against encroachment from any quarter, public or private. Journalists must ensure that the publics business is conducted in public. They must be vigilant against all who would exploit the press for selfish purposes.

Journalists who abuse the power of their professional roles for selfish motives or unworthy purposes are faithless to that public trust.

ACCESS

The Spectator is a forum for the interchange of information and opinion. It should provide for the expression of disparate and conflicting views. It should give expression to the interests of minorities as well as majorities, of the powerless as well as the powerful.

ACCURACY AND TRUTH

Good faith with the reader is the foundation of ethical and excellent journalism. That good faith rests primarily on the readers confidence that what we print is correct. Every effort must be made to ensure that everything published in the Spectator is accurate, is presented in context, and that all significant sides are presented fairly.

Journalistic integrity demands that significant errors of fact, as well as errors of omission, should be corrected promptly and as prominently and transparently as warranted.

FAIRNESS

The Spectator should respect the rights of people involved in the news, be transparent and stand accountable to the public for the fairness and reliability of everything it publishes. Fair news reports provide relevant context, do not omit relevant facts and aim to be honest with readers about what we know and what we do not know. Our core fairness standard demands that any subject of potentially harmful allegations must be given opportunity to respond.

INDEPENDENCE

Independence from those we cover is a key principle of journalistic integrity. We avoid conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflicts. The Spec believes in paying the costs incurred in gathering and publishing news. In circumstances where that may not be possible, we disclose information that could create the perception of a conflict of interest. Transparency with our readers and openness about the potential for conflicts should guide our considerations about real or perceived conflicts.

IMPARTIALITY

To be impartial does not require a news organization to be unquestioning or to refrain from editorial expression. Sound practice, however, demands a clear distinction for readers between news and opinion. All content that contains explicit opinion or personal interpretation should be clearly identified as opinion or analysis, as appropriate.

PRIVACY

Every person has a right to privacy. There are inevitable conflicts between the right to privacy, the public good and the public's right to be informed about the conduct of public affairs. Each case should be judged in the light of common sense and humanity.

Here are some of the core policies included in our Standards Guide:

Back to top Accuracy and Corrections Policy

There can be no compromise with accuracy. Accuracy is our most basic contract with readers and is the responsibility of everyone in our newsrooms. Accuracy is grounded in verification, the essence of journalism. We must check and double-check all the information we publish, including information from all other publications.

Mistakes will happen. When they do, we correct our errors. Corrections serve the reader and they serve the public record. They are essential to building and maintaining trust with our readers. Anyone who becomes aware of a possible error has responsibility for alerting those responsible for corrections in their newsrooms.

Our corrections are guided by the core principles of accountability and transparency. We are accountable to our readers for the accuracy of the information we publish in stories, headlines, photos, cutlines, social media, graphics, data, videos and any other content on all of our platforms. We correct errors of fact in a clear, transparent manner on the platform(s) in which the error was published, as promptly as possible. We make clear to readers the correct information and the context and magnitude of the mistake.

On all of our platforms, it should be clear to readers how to report a possible error. Readers can do so by emailing corrections@thespec.com or, on thespec.com, readers can report possible errors directly on an article page by selecting the "Report an Error" icon.

Back to top Diversity Policy

Inclusiveness is at the heart of thinking and acting as journalists. Torstar newsrooms aim to reflect the diversity of our communities and respect the human rights and equal dignity of all. We aim for a variety of voices as sources and contributors in our news and opinion.

We seek to foster greater community understanding about ethnicity, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, socio-economic status and physical/mental ability and do not perpetuate hurtful stereotypes.

Generally no reference, direct or indirect, should be made to a persons race, colour or religion unless it is pertinent to the story.

In the case of a missing person or a criminal suspect at large, there may be justification for identifying race or colour as part of a full description that provides as many details as possible. Avoid vague descriptions that serve no purpose. At times, a group may make race a public issue. In such cases, the persons race becomes relevant to the news.

Religion is important to the lives of many of our readers. We should not hold up one religion or set of beliefs as superior to another. Do not single out a religion or religious practice for ridicule or stereotyping or use profanities considered offensive to any religions.

We treat men and women equally and respect diverse gender identities, including people who identify as neither male nor female.

Torstar is committed to this same inclusivness and diversity reflective of our communities in its hiring, promotion, development and retention of its staff.

Back to top Anonymity and Confidential Sources

The public interest is best served when news sources are identified by their full names. Torstar journalists are aggressive in pressing sources to put information on the record and seek independently to corroborate off-the-record information.

We do not provide anonymity to those who attack individuals or organizations or engage in speculation  the unattributed cheap shot. People under attack in our publications have the right to know their accusers.

There are times when reporters need confidential sources to serve readers and democracy. Responsible journalism in the public interest often depends on these confidential sources who give journalists information that powerful people seek to keep secret. There are times also when some sources, such as underage or other vulnerable people, may require anonymity in telling their stories.

Torstar journalists must discuss using confidential sources with their department head, and in some cases the newsrooms most senior editor. They must always reveal the sources identity to editors, and provide a compelling argument for why the source will not be named in news reports. Senior editors have responsibility to work with reporters to assess the credibility of all sources including confidential sources.

Once any promise is made to grant anonymity, we protect our source, only revealing their identity with that persons permission.

Published articles must explain why sources have been granted anonymity and why we consider them authoritative and credible. Confidential sources should have first-hand knowledge of the information and this must be conveyed to the reader. We should publish as much information as possible about the source  including why they sought confidentiality  without revealing identity.

The definitions and ground rules for not naming a source must be discussed with sources. Any further promises made or deals brokered with any source must be discussed in advance with senior editors and are subject to the following:

 Composites, where several sources are compiled into one person, are not used. Pseudonyms are used only rarely, with a senior editors permission, and must be declared as such in stories.

 The source and the journalist must be clear on what has been agreed to and that agreement must be shared with the department manager. Torstar journalists keep their promises.

Back to top Conflict of Interest

Independence from those we cover is a key principle of journalistic integrity. We avoid conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflicts. In circumstances where that may not be possible, we disclose information that could create the perception of a conflict of interest. Transparency with our readers and openness about the potential for conflicts should guide our considerations about real or perceived conflicts.

These policies apply to all outside interests that could cause our audiences to question the fairness and independence of our journalism.

We seek primarily to ensure that our reporters reputations as fair-minded fact-finders are not compromised by public displays of political or partisan views on public issues, nor influenced by personal involvement or personal axe-grinding on issues we cover.

Opinion journalists have greater leeway on these matters, in line with the latitude to express their own views in their work.

All Torstar editorial staff should inform their immediate supervisors of any outside activity that could result in a conflict of interest, or reasonably perceived conflict of interest, that could cause our audiences to question the integrity of our work.

These policies are not intended to restrict the personal lives, interests or expressions of beliefs of Torstar journalists outside their work lives. Rather, as has been established through various arbitration processes across the company, they seek to ensure that any such personal activities and interests do not come into conflict with the public role of our news organizations in any way that could be seen to compromise our editorial independence and integrity.

Back to top News and Opinions

The Spec clearly labels content on all platforms to draw a clear line between news and opinion. This glossary provides definitions for various types of news and opinion we publish.

NEWS

News content is verified information based on the impartial reporting of facts, either observed by the reporter or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. News reports do not include the opinion of the author.

News Terms

Analysis: A critical or contextual examination of an important and topical issue based on factual reporting. It provides an explanation of the impact or meaning of news events and draws on the authority and expertise of the writer. Analysis articles do not contain the authors opinions.

Investigation: In-depth reporting in the public interest that reveals wrongdoing and/or systemic problems, holds those in power accountable and promotes positive change.

OPINION

Opinion articles based are based on personal interpretation and judgment of facts. Opinion journalists have wide latitude to express their own views, subject to standards of taste and laws of libel including views directly contrary to the editorial views of the Spec.

Opinion Terms

Editorial: An article that presents a point of view reflecting the news organization's position on an issue of public interest. Editorials are not meant to be a neutral presentation of the facts. They are written by journalists who are expressing the view of the news organization. As an editorial serves to present the companys voice, there is no individual byline.

Opinion: Articles based on the authors interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. Opinion articles include columns written by staff and commentary from non-staff contributors. Opinion journalists have wide latitude to express their own views including views directly contrary to the news organization's editorial views, as long as they fall within the boundaries of taste and laws of libel. Columnists should not engage in personal axe-grinding or internecine debates with other columnists who write for either their own or other publications.

Advice: An advice article reflects the opinion of the author, who provides guidance or direction on a topic based on their expertise as well as their personal interpretations and judgments of facts.

Blog: An online journal updated regularly by a journalist or editorial department that supplements news coverage. Blogs are usually informal or conversational in style and may reflect a writers opinions, subject to the rights and responsibilities of fair comment.

First person: Narratives exploring an authors insights, observations or thoughts based on that individuals personal experience and opinions.

Readers letters: A selection of letters by readers expressing a point of view, usually concerning a recently published article or current event.

Review: A critical assessment of the merits of a subject, such as art, film, music, television, food or literature. Reviews are based on the writers informed/expert opinion.

Back to top Contact Us

The Hamilton Spectator is located at 211 Pritchard Road, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8J 0G5.

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The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning on May 3 for 12 counties in central Wisconsin as the danger of wildfires remained high.

A red flag warning is issued when the combination of warm weather, low humidity and gusty winds create dangerous wildfire conditions. The warning covered Jackson, La Crosse, Trempealeau, Monroe, Juneau, Adams, Marquette, Waushara, Wood, Portage, Waupaca and Green Lake counties.

The DNR said much of Wisconsin continues to be in very high to extreme fire danger. Counties south of the red flag area have similar conditions, but the agency says vegetation there is greening up.

A chance of rain has been forecast for May 5.

The DNR responded to nearly 50 wildfires in the past week.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire Wisconsin
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Tortilla Chips Market Introduction:

Tortilla is made from freshly ground maize or wheat flour. Global trend of snackification has been one of the prominent factor responsible for the rising demand for snacking food products where, such food products are replaced by traditional meals. Tortilla chips are largely consumed in Mexico and are prepared from corn flour and are gaining immense popularity in the recent past years. Tortilla chips are made from yellow corn, red corn, blue corn and are available in different flavors. The global tortilla chips is expected to witness significant demand from countries such as, U.S., Canada, Brazil, Mexico, certain Asian countries attributable to increasing consumption of organic tortilla chips in the near future.

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Tortilla Chips Market Segmentation:

The global tortilla chips market is segmented on the basis of nature, source, by product type, by sales channel and region. On the basis of nature, the global tortilla chips market is segmented into, organic and conventional. Organic tortilla chips are made from organic ingredients and are available in different varieties. The organic tortilla chips segment is expected to witness considerable growth among consumers due to growing trend of clean label across the globe. Based on source the global tortilla chips market is segmented into, wheat and corn. The corn segment is further sub-segmented into yellow corn, white corn, blue corn and red corn. On the basis of product type the global corn chips market can be segmented into, masa flour based tortilla chips and cooked corn based tortilla chips. Masa flour is a flour which is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution. The segment is expected to deliver significant revenue generation in the global tortilla chips market. On the bases of sales channel the global tortilla chips market is segmented into, store based retailing and non-store retailing. The store based retailing segment is further sub-segmented into, modern grocery retailers and traditional grocery retailers. Modern grocery retailers segment can be sub-segmented into, hypermarkets/supermarkets, convenience stores, discount stores, departmental stores, and specialty stores while the traditional grocery retailers segment is sub-segmented into, food and drinks specialists, independent small grocery retailers.

Tortilla Chips Market Regional Outlook:

On the basis of the region the global tortilla chips market is segmented into, North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan and the Middle East and Africa. U.S., China, Brazil, Mexico are some of the leading producers of corn worldwide which is expected to enhance the market share of tortilla chips across these countries. Latin America is expected to hold a considerable market share in the global tortilla chips market. Tortilla chips are first choice of consumers in mexico and has become one of the staple snack in other countries including U.S. and Canada. As per data reveled by snack food association, the slaes of tortilla chips in the U.S. has witnessed tremendous growth in recent past years mainly due to increasing consumption of tortilla chips among Mexican-American population in the U.S. Changing taste preference and growing demand for healthier snacks is expected to push the revenue generation in the global tortilla chips market. Europe is one of the prominent leader in the global tortilla chips market.

Tortilla Chips Market Drivers and Trends

Snacks are considered to be cheaper and traditional meals among consumers globally which is expected to contribute towards the increasing consumption of tortilla chips. Manufacturers are offering tortilla chips in different flavors and varieties as per consumers need and taste in order to cater maximum revenues globally. Also, growing demand for ready to eat snacks and demand for organic gluten free tortilla chips among consumers across the globe is expected to result in increasing market revenue generation in the global tortilla chips market

For More Details and Order Copy of this Report Visit @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/21874

Tortilla Chips Market Key Players:

Key player operating in the global tortilla chips market includes ARANDAS TORTILLA COMPANY, INC., Super-Mex Foods, Lafortaleza Products, PepsiCo., Grupo Bimbo, Barcel USA, Mission Foods, Gruma Corp, Truco Enterprises and others.




Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Monday his country is taking its cue from South Korea in responding to the coronavirus, especially in carrying out aggressive testing and app-based contact tracing, according to Cheong Wa Dae.







He made the remarks while speaking on the phone with President Moon Jae-in, which marked Moon's 100th round of phone talks with foreign leaders since he took office in May 2017.







Varadkar was quoted as saying that his government has been inspired by South Korea's handling of COVID-19 and taken a similar step that has proven effective, Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kang Min-seok said in a press release.







Especially, he added, the use of test kits imported from South Korea has been of big help, and he expressed interest in purchasing medical equipment including masks.







Moon replied that South Korea would actively consider providing Ireland with masks, citing a constant increase in local production.







Moon also thanked Ireland for having dispatched a battalion of troops to help South Korea fight against North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War and for its steadfast support for Seoul's peace initiative.







The prime minister said his nation remains willing to offer assistance in the process of establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula on the basis of its own peace experience.







Moon launched his phone summit diplomacy with a call with U.S. President Donald Trump shortly after his inauguration. He has since had 99 more rounds of phone talks with his foreign counterparts or leaders of international organizations.







This year alone, Moon talked with 31 leaders or global agency chiefs, including Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), largely on the coronavirus issue. (Yonhap)


JACKSON, Mississippi -- Since COVID-19 forced a temporary recess in the Legislative session, I have been video conferencing with Mississippis K-12 students. In one recent AP government class, a student asked: how many constitutional rights do we have to give up during a pandemic?

Thats a poignant question for any State leader.

In recent weeks, businesses have been shut down, Second Amendment rights limited, and Easter Sunday services halted. These decisions were made as the result of a delicate balance between health and safety, and economic rights and freedoms. Our office doesnt envy decision makers like Governor Reeves who have had to make tough calls. He has done a good job in a year with unprecedented challenges.

But every executive emergency power has its limits, and as we learned in grade school, these boundaries are set in our Constitution.

Recently, the Mississippi Legislature reconvened briefly to begin appropriating federal funds sent to Mississippi for direct and indirect COVID-19 expenses. The Governor was provided almost $35 million in discretionary money. Another $800 million was designated to specific agencies and programs, and those funds are already available for agencies to use. A separate $1.25 billion, the Coronavirus Relief Fund, will be used for other related expenses like COVID-19 testing and equipment for hospitals, expansion of distance learning technology like broadband to help teacher and students, and grants for struggling small businesses. We are working quickly and responsibly to tackle these needs in our State, and we have provided the Governor with $100 million to use for emergencies until we return to session in two weeks.

There are four primary reasons the Legislature began appropriating the $1.25 billion. First, the Constitution specifically assigns appropriation authority to the Legislature. Ceding a power solely delegated to one branch of government to another is not only unlawfulits unconstitutional.

Second, the Legislature is required to act with transparency. Floor debate and committee meetings under the Capitol Dome are subject to the Open Meetings Act. The House and Senate floor proceedings are broadcast online for everyone to see and hear. That means money deposited from the federal government into the State Treasury isnt distributed without the watchful eyes of your elected officeholders.

Third, the Legislature is representative of the people. Our 52 Senators and the 122 Representatives across the hall come from every walk of life and every corner of the State. Together, they make up the will of our citizenry, and their policy decisions are more reflective of the State than the executive or judicial branch. Your local Senator and Representative literally represent you to make sure your voice is heard in this process.

Finally, after this emergency is over, and some kind of normalcy returns, we will all be forced to live with the consequences of the precedents our elected leaders are setting. That means we need to ensure accountability to the public for our actions, and the best way to achieve that is to adhere to the constitutional duties as a legislative branch of government.

So, how many constitutional rights do we have to give up? As Lieutenant Governor, the constitutional right of the Legislature to set policy, in a public setting and according to the will of the people of Mississippi, is one I believe we must keep. During times of crisis, following our Constitution is more important than ever.
Abducted seminarian killed for sharing the Gospel with captors in Nigeria: report

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A member of a Nigerian highway gang that's responsible for murdering a kidnapped Catholic seminarian said they killed the aspiring priest because he wouldn't stop proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ to his captors.

Mustapha Mohammed, who is alleged to be the leader and mastermind behind the abduction of Good Shepherd Seminary student Michael Nnadi in Kaduna state, agreed to be interviewed The Daily Sun.

According to the Nigerian newspaper, Mohammed is a 26-year-old Fulani man who admitted to being part of a 45-man kidnapping gang that has attacked and abducted commuters traveling along the Abuja-Kaduna expressway, the Kaduna-Jos road, and other roadways in the area.

Mustapha, who's now in police custody in Abuja, was quoted as saying that he's responsible for killing the 18-year-old. Nnadis body was discovered on Fab. 1 along with the remains of a local doctor's wife.

Nnadi was kidnapped on Jan. 8 alongside three other seminarians who were not killed. Mustapha said that from the first day they were kidnapped, Nnadi continued preaching about Jesus and would not allow his captors to have peace even though they did not share the same faith.

Mustapha told the newspaper that he didn't appreciate Nnadi's confidence and bravery and decided to send him to an early grave.

He said the deceased kept preaching and told him to his face to change his evil ways or perish from the day he was abducted alongside his colleagues, the report reads.

According to the suspect, his gang targeted the seminary because they thought they could make money by kidnapping people there. He said the gang got information on the seminary from one of its members who resides near Good Shepherd Seminary.

The report states that the gang member conducted five days of surveillance on the seminary before the gang followed through with the kidnapping operation.

Mustapha explained that after kidnapping the seminarian, they used his cell phone to contact the seminary to demand a ransom equivalent of $256,000. He said the ransom was later reduced to the equivalent of about $25,000.

According to the National Catholic Register, the kidnappers were dressed in military camouflage when they broke past a fence surrounding the seminarys living quarters and began to open fire.

The attackers reportedly stole laptops and phones before kidnapping the four seminarians. The other three seminarians who were abducted but later released are Pius Kanwai, Peter Umenukor and Stephen Amos.

About 10 days after the abduction, one of the four seminarians was found wounded on a roadside, the National Catholic Register reported.

On Jan. 31, two more seminarians were released. The next day, Nnadis slain body was discovered.

Nnadis death was first announced by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria.

A member of the seminary staff told Aid to the Church in Need that Nnadi was a young gifted seminarian who was an orphan brought up by his grandmother.

Nnadis death comes attacks carried about terror groups, Fulani radicals and highway bandit gangs have become all too common in Nigeria. The country has been ranked as the 12th-worst country in the world for Christians to live, according to Open Doors USAs 2020 World Watch List.

Available statistics have shown that between 11,500 and 12,000 Christian deaths were recorded in the past 57 months or since June 2015 when the present central government of Nigeria came on board, the Anambra-based nongovernmental organization International Society for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law estimated in a March report. Out of this figure, Jihadist Fulani herdsmen accounted for 7,400 Christian deaths, Boko Haram 4,000 and the Highway Bandits 150-200.

The U.S. State Department listed Nigeria on its special watch list of countries that have engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedom last December.
The Tovmasyan Charity Foundation organized a charity pan-Armenian interactive online concert.

On May 2, an unprecedented concert program has been launched, which was attended by about six dozen Armenian show business stars, whose performances were broadcast live from Yerevan (Dvin Music Hall concert hall) and Los Angeles. The concert was also available via VR technology.

NEWS.am spoke with the head of the foundation, well-known businessman Artak Tovmasyan about the project.

Mr. Tovmasyan, the pan-Armenian online concert took place, how do you assess it, can it be considered successful?

I think people should say about the successful side of the concert and the initiative as a whole. As regards the organizational and general technical aspects, everything was unequivocally successful, taking into account the tight deadlines during which the entire event was organized. We had several goals: to unite all the Armenians, changing the spirit and mood of people these days, and supporting the country. The concert is just the beginning of the initiative. Donations and the auction are still ongoing on the official website tovmasyanfoundation.com.

I want to express special thanks to all those who made donations. This is not my initiative, it is the initiative of all of us. Any, even the smallest luma will play a big role and save someone's life. Everyone today makes investments for himself, for his family, because we must be aware that none of us is safe from infection.

How long did the concert last, did everything go as planned, or did you face some surprises?

The concert lasted 10 hours and ended at dawn. It is now available on our official Youtube channel.

There were no surprises, but donators Marcos and Ruta - who won a number of tango competitions - have tested positive after sending the video.

The money raised during the initiative will be directed to the fight against COVID 19. How much money has been raised so far?

Yes, the proceeds will go to #Covid19 programs in Armenia to support the healthcare system, to purchase the necessary breathing equipment and appropriate medicines. Everyone can follow the entire process at tovmasyanfoundation.com. I would like to note that 10% of the money raised will go to the Armenian Army.

At the moment, the amount raised exceeds AMD 100 million, but the donations are still going on.

How long will the fundraising continue?

The donations and auctions will be summarised on June 1. Tovmasyan Foundation will make an official statement in conjunction with a council created by independent bodies.
Metropolitan Police investigators have arrested 45 suspected online paedophiles and safeguarded nearly 100 children since the coronavirus lockdown began.

Officers from the online child abuse and exploitation unit detained dozens of suspects and safeguarded 92 children in the first four weeks of lockdown.

Law enforcers carried out 68 raids in the month from March 23, and on average launched 10 new live investigations each week.

The number of recorded crimes linked to child abuse has so far remained level with the months prior to lockdown, but the force said it expects numbers to rise in the coming months.

Pictured: An online child abuse and exploitation unit officer searching a suspect's address

It is still receiving an average of 50 reports per week related to images of sexual abuse from the National Crime Agency.

Detective Superintendent Helen Flanagan said: 'The internet can be a great space for young people to connect, socialise and learn - but it is also used by offenders as a place to engage with children and commit serious offences  grooming, abuse, and other serious harm.

'The restrictions have led to a huge growth in internet use, including by children doing school work or occupying themselves while parents and carers are busy - and inevitably there are a greater number of sexual predators online looking to target and groom young people.'

She explained that although figures have not yet increased, the force is anticipating a rise later in the year due to the impact stay-at-home measures have had on internet use.

Officers believe any increase in offending taking place now will not be reflected in official figures for months.

Ms Flanagan added: 'Online offenders can consider themselves less harmful than "real life" abusers as they hide behind a screen, but there is a vulnerable child at the heart of every indecent image or video and by viewing and distributing these, the abuse is repeated over and over again.'

Pictured: Police officers in a patrol car in Greenwich Park, London on May 2 as the UK continues in lockdown to help curb the spread of the coronavirus

Pictured: Police officers on horses speak to Britons in Victoria Park on May 3 amid lockdown

A number of police forces have warned of the potential risks to children who may be using the internet more during the coronavirus lockdown, which was announced by the Government on March 23.

Thames Valley Police said it had seen a 147 per cent rise in the number of reports of online child abuse in March compared with the same period last year.

Ms Flanagan said parents should make sure they use safety features on devices including parental controls, age restrictions and monitoring functions.

She added: 'If your child starts to use the internet in a different way, try to get an understanding of why - are their peers using the same apps, or are they being coerced to talk to strangers in a way they are uncomfortable with?

'A change in behaviour can be an indication that something is wrong.'

Met figures showed that the number of offences linked to accessing child abuse images online rose by 130 per cent between 2016 and 2019.

Figures for the first three months of 2020 have so far remained level with 2019, at around 180 per month, but this is expected to rise.

Donald Findlater, chief executive of child abuse prevention charity the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, said: 'We have seen an increase in the use of pornographic sites because of isolation measures and we know this can be a precursor for some men with addictions to move into illegal child abuse material.

'Parents can help in tackling this and think about what their children are doing when they are being quiet in their rooms, because that lack of supervision can make them more vulnerable online.'




Haiti - News : Zapping...





Curfew violated in Delmas

The curfew from May 4 to 5 has been largely respected, except in Delmas where offending motorists have received warnings.



Message from the Embassy of Haiti in Canada

The Embassy of Haiti in Canada informs the Haitian Community of Ottawa-Gatineau and the general public that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the offices of the Embassy of Haiti, located at 85 Albert Street, suite 1110, will remain closed until further notice. Consular service will be by appointment made by email: consulaire@ambassade-haiti.ca; The management of the grants is also ensured by mail : eveline.previlon@diplomatie.ht; In case of emergency, you can contact: 613-796-4718



New Chef de Cabinet at PNH

On Monday, Inspector General Frantz Sebastien Jean Charles was installed as Chef de Cabinet of Director General ai of the National Police of Haiti (PNH), Rameau Normil. He replaces Inspector General James Boyard.



Community leaders distribute masks

14 neighborhood leaders, mobilized by the Community Dialogue, distributed protective masks last weekend in small local public markets in the metropolitan region of Port-au-Prince. They intend to support the informal sector, with dignity, by making a united and disinterested contribution to these small merchants who operate in precarious spaces. These leaders have already distributed around 8,000 masks to small merchants in the local markets of Canaan, Cite Soleil, Fort National, Haut Bel-Air, Canape-Vert, Kenskoff, Savane Pistache, Fouchard / Douyon, Cite 9, Village de Dieu, Cite Plus, Martissant 2A-2B, Haut Fontamara, Bas Fontamara, Ti Bois, Grand-Ravine and Saure.



Places of worship respectful of sanitary measures

Sunday, Audain Fils Bernadel Minister of the Interior and his team continued their inspection tour, to make sure of the provisions relating to the closure of places of worship to reduce the risks of spread of the new Coronavirus in the country and we visited places of worship in Delmas 30, 32, 31, 17 and 19 and found that these churches respected the sanitary measure and were closed.



Starter kits for economic activities

Despite the vagaries and difficulties of all kinds linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, the girls trained by the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) in cooking and baking were able to recover their economic activity starter kits (gas oven and accessories). They are among the 125 young people in the vocational training program who have managed to obtain their diplomas in the following fields : cooking / pastry making, cosmetology, masonry, electricity-building / installation of street lamps, cell phone repair, motorcycle maintenance and repair, last January after 6 months of training at the Pilot Center and the Phare de Fourgy Community Training Center.



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Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro has been criticised over his handling of the pandemic (Eraldo Peres/AP)

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro said he has twice tested negative for coronavirus, but has refused a judges request to see the actual results.

The surreal standoff is the latest flashpoint in a broader battle between a president who has repeatedly tested the limits of his power and democratic institutions.

Mr Bolsonaro has consistently downplayed the coronavirus pandemic and has fiercely criticised efforts by governors and mayors to impose measures to control the spread of the virus, instead advocating for most people to get back to work.

But the courts have repeatedly curtailed him.

Expand Close Mr Bolsonaros core support is nearly unshakeable (Eraldo Peres/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Mr Bolsonaros core support is nearly unshakeable (Eraldo Peres/AP)

They ruled that governors and mayors have the power to determine shutdown measures, overturned the presidents decree allowing religious gatherings and are trying to force the release of his Covid-19 test results to end speculation he may have lied.

Mr Bolsonaros supporters have denounced the decisions as part of a plot to derail his presidency, and the president himself said he is a victim of meddling by obstructionist judges.

He said: Enough with the interference. Were not going to allow any more interference.

Patience has run out. Were going to take Brazil forward.

Were not going to allow any more interference Jair Bolsonaro

The fight over his coronavirus test results has produced a particularly unusual chapter.

Concerns about Mr Bolsonaros health began in March, when the president returned from the US, and local media reported in the weeks that followed that more than a dozen members of his delegation tested positive for the coronavirus.

Initial unconfirmed reports indicated Mr Bolsonaro had tested positive himself but then he announced on social media that his results had come back negative.

He has refused to produce the actual document, citing medical privacy.

Last week, a federal judge in Sao Paulo ordered Mr Bolsonaro to present the results in response to a request from the O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper.

- Um abraco de esperanca.

- Ciente da MISSAO.

- Deus, Patria, Familia. pic.twitter.com/1AXOGgBFOH  Jair M. Bolsonaro (@jairbolsonaro) May 5, 2020

Mr Bolsonaros attorney-general instead sent a summary of the results, the office said in a statement.

The judge again insisted on the actual results, and a separate judge on Saturday gave Mr Bolsonaros team five days to comply.

Mr Bolsonaro has also further muddied the waters recently. Following the lawsuits, he said last week he had perhaps contracted the virus without knowing it.

However, he has kept appearing in public without a mask, addressing crowds and shaking well-wishers hands  on one occasion, after wiping his nose.

The Bolsonaro government and his most influential advocates are always looking for a common enemy Lucas de Aragao

His support among a core base has long seemed nearly unshakable.

While a positive result might not challenge that, it would likely erode support from moderates  the portion of people who are not die-hard but believe his policies are reasonable, said Lucas de Aragao, partner at the Brasilia-based consultancy Arko Advice.

He said: This is why he is bashing the governors and judiciary.

The Bolsonaro government and his most influential advocates are always looking for a common enemy, because this creates a sense of community among supporters.
We are not kidding. We are not exaggerating. These enchiladas are as good as any you can get at a restaurant.
The trucking company at the centre of a horrific crash on a highway which killed four police officers has been raided by investigators.

Police stormed the offices of Connect Logistics in the Riverstone Business Park in Sydney - one of two warrants executed in the city's north-west on Tuesday.

Truck driver Mohinder Singh allegedly slammed into the back of a highway patrol car in a vehicle which bore the company's livery while driving at 100km/h on Melbourne's Eastern Freeway on April 22.

Police have raided the offices of Connect Logistics - the company involved in a deadly crash on a Melbourne Freeway - in Sydney's Riverstone Business Park (pictured)

Footage showed officers from Victoria's Heavy Vehicle Unit Crime Investigation Unit storm into the company's headquarters - accompanied by NSW Traffic and Highway Patrol Command Crash investigators.

It is believed police seized documents including logbooks in the two raids.

Victoria Police said no arrests were made, but the investigation is ongoing.

It follows police searches being carried out on the same company in Croydon in Melbourne's east and Frankston in the city's south-east on April 27.

Another warrant was executed in the neighbouring suburb of Kenthurst in Sydney's far north-western fringe.

Singh, 47, has been charged with culpable driving causing the deaths of the four officers - who were impounding a Porsche at Kew on the major Melbourne freeway.

Footage showing police cars at the scene of the raid at Connect Logistics' offices. Truck driver Mohinder Singh allegedly slammed into the back of a highway patrol car in a vehicle which bore the company's livery - killing four police officers - on April 22

The officers had pulled over Richard Pusey, who was allegedly speeding down the Eastern Freeway at 149km/h and tested positive for meth and marijuana.

Leading Senior Constable Lynnette Taylor, Senior Constable Kevin King and constables Glen Humphris and Josh Prestney were all killed at the scene.

Pusey, 41, also faces charges over allegations he filmed Sen-Constable Taylor dying before fleeing the scene.

Singh, 47, has been charged with culpable driving causing the deaths of the four officers

Senior Constable Kevin King (pictured, far left), Constable Glen Humphris (second from left), Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor (second from right) and and Constable Josh Prestney (far right) all died in the crash

Pusey was charged with failing to give assistance at the scene of a crash, which carries up to 10 years' jail, along with driving and drug offences.

He is accused of taunting the officers as they lay dying while taking photos and video of the scene, then fleeing until he was arrested the next day.

'There you go. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. All I wanted to do was go home and have my sushi. And now you f**ked my f**king car,' he said in footage he allegedly shot of the mortally wounded cops.

Police pulled over a speeding driver at 4.50pm on April 22, then proceeded to call for backup from highway patrol when they decided to impound the car. By 5.40pm, the refrigeration truck had ploughed into the three cars and four officers, killing them all

The officers had pulled over Richard Pusey (pictured), who was allegedly speeding down the Eastern Freeway at 149km/h and tested positive for meth and marijuana

Earlier this week, Singh said he was 'genuinely sorry and 'saddened' about the police officers' deaths through a statement released by his lawyer Steve Pica on Sunday.

'Mr Singh is genuinely sorry and saddened that four people have lose their lives as a result of the collision,' the short statement from Mr Pica reads.

'He is acutely aware of the impact upon the families, friends and work colleagues of those that lost their lives.'

Singh didn't speak and had kept his head down when he faced the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday.
EU Council greenlights EUR 1.2 bln assistance package to support Ukraine

22:00, 05.05.20 2381

The funds will be available for 12 months and disbursed in two installments.
A forklift worker has died after being trapped under the heavy piece of machinery.

The worker became trapped under the forklift in Chipping Norton, 27km south-west of Sydney, at 1.15pm on Tuesday.

The patient was treated for head and chest injuries - however the worker died while paramedics tried to save their life.

Video footage showed paramedic staff working to care for the patient as they carried them to the ambulance.

The worker became trapped under the forklift on Pat Devlin Close, Chipping Norton, 27km south-west of Sydney, at 1.15pm on Tuesday

Police, who were initially at the scene, appeared to be inspecting the forklift and cordoning off the street.

The forklift appeared to be turned on its side on the edge of the footpath - just inches from a car.

Another forklift, which had not tipped over, was sat beside the fallen machinery.

A NSW Police spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia officers were initially at forklift collapse but had since left.

Inspector Phil Sweet, Duty Operations Manager at NSW Ambulance said: 'When arriving on scene our team provided the best possible treatment to our patient. We treated the patient for head and chest injuries, sadly there was nothing further paramedics could do today.

'We need all work places to make sure they are taking extreme caution when undertaking their daily tasks. Things can change very quickly. We need to continue to look out for each other while on the job.

The patient was treated for head and chest injuries - however the worker died while paramedics tried to save their life (stock)

'Losing a loved one is unimaginable and we are thinking of their family at this time.'

A Safe Work NSW spokesman said: 'This afternoon, SafeWork NSW was notified of an incident involving a forklift at Chipping Norton.

'SafeWork NSW Inspectors are on site and have commenced an investigation.'
Internal report says rising wave of hostility in wake of pandemic could tip relations with US into confrontation.

An internal Chinese report warns that Beijing faces a rising wave of hostility in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that could tip relations with the United States into a confrontation, people familiar with the paper told Reuters news agency.

The report, presented early last month by the Ministry of State Security to top Beijing leaders including President Xi Jinping, concluded that global anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, the sources said.

As a result, Beijing faces a wave of anti-China sentiment led by the US in the aftermath of the pandemic and needs to be prepared in a worst-case scenario for an armed confrontation between the two global powers, according to people familiar with the reports content, who declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter.

The report was drawn up by the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), a think-tank affiliated with the Ministry of State Security, Chinas top intelligence body.

Reuters has not seen the briefing paper, but it was described by people who had direct knowledge of its findings.





I dont have relevant information, the Chinese foreign ministry spokespersons office said in a statement responding to questions from Reuters on the report.

Chinas Ministry of State Security has no public contact details and could not be reached for comment.

CICIR, an influential think-tank that until 1980 was within the Ministry of State Security and advises the Chinese government on foreign and security policy, did not reply to a request for comment.

Threats of a backlash

Reuters could not determine to what extent the stark assessment described in the paper reflects positions held by Chinas state leaders and to what extent, if at all, it would influence policy.

But the presentation of the report shows how seriously Beijing takes the threat of a building backlash that could threaten what China sees as its strategic investments overseas and its view of its security standing.

Relations between China and the US are widely seen to be at their worst point in decades, with deepening mistrust and friction points from US allegations of unfair trade and technology practices to disputes over Hong Kong, Taiwan and contested territories in the South China Sea.

Relations between China and the United States are widely seen to be at their worst point in decades [Tingshu Wang/Reuters]

In recent days, US President Donald Trump, facing a more difficult re-election campaign as the coronavirus has killed tens of thousands of American lives and ravaged the US economy, has been ramping up his criticism of Beijing and threatening new tariffs on China. His administration, meanwhile, is considering retaliatory measures against China over the outbreak, officials said.

It is widely believed in Beijing that the US wants to contain a rising China, which has become more assertive globally as its economy has grown.

The paper concluded that Washington views Chinas rise as an economic and national security threat and a challenge to Western democracies, the people with knowledge of the report said. The report also said the US was aiming to undercut the ruling Communist Party by undermining public confidence.





Chinese officials had a special responsibility to inform their people and the world of the threat posed by the coronavirus since they were the first to learn of it, US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in response to questions from Reuters.

Without directly addressing the assessment made in the Chinese report, Ortagus added: Beijings efforts to silence scientists, journalists and citizens and spread disinformation exacerbated the dangers of this health crisis.

A spokesman for the US National Security Council declined to comment.

Repercussions

The report described to Reuters warned that anti-China sentiment sparked by the coronavirus could fuel resistance to Chinas Belt and Road infrastructure investment projects and that Washington could step up financial and military support for its regional allies, making the security situation in Asia more volatile.

Three decades ago, in the aftermath of Tiananmen, the US and many Western governments imposed sanctions against China, including banning or restricting arms sales and technology transfers.

China is far more powerful today.

Chinese President Xi Jinping seen in April inspecting a primary school in northwestern China [File: Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via AP Photo]

Xi has revamped Chinas military strategy to create a fighting force equipped to win modern wars. He is expanding Chinas air and naval reach in a challenge to more than 70 years of US military dominance in Asia.

In its statement, Chinas foreign ministry called for cooperation, saying: The sound and steady development of China-US relations serve the interests of both countries and the international community.

It added: Any words or actions that engage in political manipulation or stigmatisation under the pretext of the pandemic, including taking the opportunity to sow discord between countries are not conducive to international cooperation against the pandemic.

Echoes of Cold War

One of those with knowledge of the report said it was regarded by some in the Chinese intelligence community as Chinas version of the Novikov Telegram, a 1946 dispatch by the Soviet ambassador to Washington, Nikolai Novikov, that stressed the dangers of US economic and military ambition in the wake of World War II.

Novikovs missive was a response to US diplomat George Kennans Long Telegram from Moscow that said the Soviet Union did not see the possibility for peaceful coexistence with the West and that containment was the best long-term strategy.

The two documents helped set the stage for the strategic thinking that defined both sides of the Cold War.





China has been accused by the US of suppressing early information on the virus, which was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, and downplaying its risks.

Beijing has repeatedly denied that it covered up the extent or severity of the virus outbreak.

China has managed to contain the domestic spread of the virus and has been trying to assert a leading role in the global battle against COVID-19. That has included a propaganda push around its donations and sale of medical supplies to the US and other countries and sharing of expertise.

But China faces a growing backlash from critics who have called to hold Beijing accountable for its role in the pandemic.

Trump has said he will cut off funding for the World Health Organization (WHO), which he called very China-centric, something WHO officials have denied.

Australias government has called for an international investigation into the origins and spread of the virus.

Last month, France summoned Chinas ambassador to protest a publication on the website of Chinas embassy that criticised Western handling of coronavirus.

The virus has so far infected more than three million people globally and caused more than 250,000 deaths worldwide.
Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Tuesday announced that the medical entrance exam National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) will be held on July 26. The NEET will be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), an independent autonomous organisation established by the MHRD.

The national level examination is held for admission to MBBS/BDS courses and other undergraduate medical courses in approved/recognized Medical/Dental & other Colleges/ Institutes in India.

The admission to MBBS course in AIIMS, New Delhi, JIPMER and all AIIMS like institutions will be made through NEET. The eligibility criteria applicable to appear in NEET (UG) shall also be applicable to the candidates desirous to take admission to INIs like AIIMS.

The questions of NEET only come from subjects such as Physics, Chemistry, Zoology, and Botany. There are 180 questions from each subject sections that carry 720 marks. The question paper of NEET are intermediate level based therefore revising 11th and 12th standard Physics, Chemistry, Zoology and Botany books that are following CBSE Syllabus is a must. The NEET Exam also has negative marking.

Preparation tips: The NEET syllabus is vast and so one needs to cut down on the extra information and mainly focus on important topics. The NEET Exam covers the NCERT Syllabus as well. It would be very beneficial if there are common chapters as you will not need to prepare them separately. Selecting the right study material for NEET exam preparation is a little confusing.

One can take the help of teachers, online expert assistance, contact with students who already appeared in the NEET exam. A student should prepare study notes for NEET, solve previous years question papers and take mock tests to improve your speed and accuracy.

Important topics:

* Physics: Optics, Mechanics, Nuclear Physics, Thermodynamics

* Biology: Genetics, Ecology & Environment, Cell Biology, Morphology, Basics of Biotechnology, Reproduction, Physiology of Animals & Plants

* Chemistry: General Organic Chemistry, Mole Concept, Periodic Table, Coordination Chemistry, Chemical Bonding

Books:

* Physics: Problems in General Physics by IE Irodov; The Feynman Lectures on Physics Vol. II & Vol. II; Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday, Resnick & Walker; Concepts of Physics Vol I and II by H.C. Verma; The Feynman Lectures on Physics Vol. I (Mechanics. Radiation and Heat)

* Chemistry: Modern Approach to Chemical Calculations  R. C. Mukherjee; Organic Chemistry  MConcise Inorganic Chemistry  J. D. Leeorrison and Boyd; Organic Chemistry  Peter Sykes; Physical Chemistry for Medical Entrance by OP Tandon; Organic Chemistry  M. S. Chauhan

* Biology: Objective NCERT at Your Fingertips for NEET; Truemans Elementary Biology Volume  I and Volume  II; AC Dutta for Botany; Books by T.L Rayar; 11th and 12th NCERT textbooks
Ziath Ltd is a global leader in manufacturing instruments for tracking large numbers of scientific sample tubes.

Ziath build team members

Based near Granta Park Research Campus, just outside Cambridge UK, this small business is now gearing up to produce its tube readers faster than ever before. Thats because Ziath tube scanners are a critical part of the procedure for testing Covid-19 samples in the laboratory. With so many samples arriving at the UK Governments new testing laboratories in Milton Keynes, Alderley Park and Glasgow, together with University labs switching to Covid-19 testing, keeping track of all these samples is a major headache for scientists. using tubes for these tests which have a small 2D barcode, like a QR code, on the base, scientists can keep track of each patients individual swab and their test results. The Ziath instruments can read these 2D codes from the bottom of the tubes, which are held in racks of 100 or 180 tubes, decode them and send the data to the laboratory central computer in just 2 seconds. With the UK government alone reaching for 100,000 tests per day, delivering the ability to track these samples is clearly crucial to the success of the Covid-19 screening campaign.

However, Ziath would not be able to achieve the fast turn around and scale up in their business to meet this challenge without the unwavering support of their key suppliers  many of whom are also small businesses who are experts in their field. Photofab Ltd, headquartered in St. Neots, Cambridgeshire, is one such key supplier. Established in 1971,

Photofab is a world leader in chemically etched metal components, having designed & produced more than 70,000 different parts since it started. In their words, If you can draw it, we can make it, as long as its in thin sheet metal. That, naturally, includes intricately cut and etched metal shields for the Ziath scanners that prevent the on-board computer from interfering with other sensitive instruments in the laboratory.
Opinion Article

5 May 2020

The coronavirus health crisis, tracked statistically in real time by Johns Hopkins University, is hitting the global economy hard and the tourism industry most of all. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) is expecting a drop in tourism revenue of 300 to 500 billion dollars in 2020, up to one-third of the 1,500 billion generated in 2019. France could lose out on up to 40 billion euros per quarter. Millions of jobs in the sector are under threat worldwide. Anne Gombault and her co-authors Claire Grellier Fouillet and Jeremy Lemarie analyse the drastic consequences of the crisis for global tourism, the strategic issues that it emphasises and the opportunity for transformation and learning that it offers.

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Structural factors amplifying the crisis

First factor: At the start of the crisis, the most affected tourists were the Chinese, the biggest spenders far ahead of the Americans.

Second factor: the crisis then hit the top global destination - Europe. In 2018 the continent welcomed 672 million tourists, half of the world's international arrivals. One third of these tourists travel in Italy, France and Spain, all of which are among the 6 countries most affected by coronavirus, with popular destinations such as Venice,Florence, Paris and Milan.

The third factor is slower to arrive but will probably be harder hitting, the process of deciding whether to book holidays. This is a risky decision due to the nature of the tourism service: trying before buying is not possible and it is a significant investment that requires searching for information and comparison of prices and destinations. The entire sector has entered a negative growth phase with between 3% and 12% fewer tourists depending on the areas according to the World Tourism Organization.

Crisis a marker of general strategic issues for tourism

Although the coronavirus crisis has short-term destructive effects on the tourism industry, this pandemic episode may also be seen as the consequence of a vulnerable condition rather than the start of a period of instability.

Research is underway into challenging the practices of the tourism industry and is drawing attention to a succession of issues related to population movements as part of leisure activities.

The first issue is the surprisingly poor risk management in an industry which should be highly reliable.

A second related issue is that of viral globalisation. Just like tourists, diseases cross borders, travel thousands of kilometres and put the most vulnerable populations in danger.

The research presents the third issue, overtourism, as one of the biggest problems of mass tourism. This involves too high volumes of holidaymakers which damages ecosystems, sites, living conditions for residents and the experience for visitors.

Finally, another problem concerns pollution caused by activity. This includes single use of consumer goods by passengers in transit and road transport, but it is carbon emissions from civil aviation that comes in for the heaviest criticism.

An opportunity for tourism innovation

The Covid-19 crisis raises the question of the direction of globalised tourism and is an opportunity to rethink the tourism industry from a critical perspective. There are several areas for potential transformation.

The general idea would be to move towards responsible, sustainable and socially innovative tourism, structured around the (non-transferable) identity of the areas and giving them a boost while respecting the quality of life of residents and the memorable experience of the trip.

In order to avoid overtourism, tourist hotspots should take measures to regulate flows as is already done in places like Barcelona, Cinque Terre, Venice, Dubrovnik, Iceland, etc.

Creative and more inclusive tourism should be developed to avoid a concentration of activity on the hotspots and to involve residents in the activity. Visitors can participate in cultural and creative experiences that reflect the identity of the area and create something jointly between residents and tourists.

The trend for staycations and slow tourism should be encouraged. Travellers see local tourism as a good way to maximise holiday time by reducing travel time which also benefits the environment and saves money.

E-tourism, which has been developing since the 2000s, has boomed since the start of the crisis in China with acceleration of digital heritage, online broadcasting of shows and events streamed live over the internet. Operators are developing quality digital content to avoid crowds of travellers.

The coronavirus crisis could revolutionise practices and help to accelerate the transformation of an industry which is still very conservative.

Click here to read more from Anne Gombault and Claire Grellier Fouille.
By Kate Abnett (Reuters) - European Union lawmakers said on Monday the coronavirus pandemic should not soften the bloc's long-term climate goals, although some called for a 'beefed up' fund to help coal-dependent regions move towards a greener economy. Europe is facing a recession and governments are pumping out cash to keep economies afloat

By Kate Abnett

(Reuters) - European Union lawmakers said on Monday the coronavirus pandemic should not soften the bloc's long-term climate goals, although some called for a "beefed up" fund to help coal-dependent regions move towards a greener economy.

Europe is facing a recession and governments are pumping out cash to keep economies afloat. Still, the EU's executive Commission has pledged not to roll back its climate ambitions.

The EU will use its "Green Deal"  a policy package centred around a target to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050  to drive the bloc's economic recovery from the pandemic, Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has said.

EU lawmakers doubled down on the 2050 target on Monday, in a debate over the bloc's planned 7.5 billion euro ($8.2 billion)Just Transition Fund to help high-carbon regions shift away from fossil fuels.

Alexandr Vondra, the Czech lawmaker guiding parliament's talks on the fund, had suggested the pandemic could require the 2050 climate goal to be delayed.

The virus has had a "profound impact" on Europe's economy, Vondra - who represents a country not enthusiastic about the climate targets and asking for more financial support for the transition - said in a draft proposal for parliament's position on the fund.

"It may therefore be necessary to revise or postpone the date of achievement of the climate neutrality objective," the proposal said.

However, the push for a delay found no supporters when parliament's environment committee discussed it on Monday.

Lawmakers from the three biggest political groups in parliament - which make up 432 of the total 705 EU lawmakers - spoke out in favour of keeping the 2050 goal.

"I understand that some would like to delay this goal due to the economic challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. But, in my view, the pandemic provides a unique opportunity to transform and rebuild our economies based on the European Green Deal," Hungarian lawmaker Sandor Ronai said.

Some supported Vondra's call for the fund to be significantly larger, given EU climate targets will cost coal-reliant countries such as Poland hundreds of billions of euros.

The Commission hopes its Just Transition Fund can win support for EU climate goals from Poland, which is expected to suffer the biggest coal sector job losses of any EU country.

Poland is the only EU country that refused to commit to the 2050 climate goal, and its government has said the pandemic will make climate targets harder to achieve.

The Commission had proposed putting aside 7.5 billion euros for the fund from the next EU budget, for 2021-27. Of this, 2 billion euros were earmarked for Poland.

This figure is not set in stone. The Commission plans to produce a new EU budget proposal this month, amended in light of the pandemic - after which, EU leaders will begin wrangling over a compromise on the final amount.

($1 = 0.9176 euros)

(Reporting by Kate Abnett; Editing by Mark Potter)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

Azerbaijans Sumgayit city is increasing its share in the countrys export of non-oil products, Emin Hajiyev, Azerbaijani MP from the 43rd Sumgayit third constituency, said in an interview with Trend.

Azerbaijan has been integrated into the global economy, and the consequences of ongoing processes in the world affect it, the MP said. The pandemic created additional difficulties for all countries, the think tanks and health centers of the world. The oil exporting countries faced new challenges as a result of the instability in the oil market.

"A sharp decline in oil prices was also observed several years ago, Hajiyev added. Having made a strategic decision, Azerbaijan began to diversify the economy and great success was achieved in this sphere.

The share of the non-oil sector in GDP has been steadily growing over the past few years and its real growth in this segment amounted to 3.5 percent in 2019, the MP said. An increase of 23 percent was achieved over three months of this year. It is important that 71 percent of tax revenues accounted for the non-oil sector in 2019. Increasing the share of the non-oil sector in the country's export is one of the priorities in the state policy.

Hajiyev stressed that the state is implementing numerous projects to promote Azerbaijani products in the world markets.

"In particular, the steps have been taken in the marketing to promote the Made in Azerbaijan brand, the MP said. The entrepreneurs are encouraged. The Azerbaijani trading houses are being created in foreign countries.

As a result of such measures, growth is also observed in the non-oil sector, Hajiyev said. The export volume amounted to $296 million in the non-oil sector from January through February 2020, which is five percent more than in the same period of 2019.

Touching on the opening of the gas pipeline with the participation of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Sumgayit city, the MP stressed that today Azerbaijan not only is the political and economic leader of the region which has hydrocarbon reserves, but has also turned into the center of the chemical industry.

Sumgayits role must be specially stressed here, the MP said. Today it is the second biggest industrial city in the South Caucasus. As a result of the attention and care of President Aliyev, it has become one of the most dynamically developing cities in the region in many spheres.

During his participation in the opening of the gas pipeline in Sumgayit, the president touched upon the details of strategic importance in connection with the development of the city. The president stressed that the supply of the city through one line could cause the problems. The commissioned second gas pipeline will fully meet the growing demand for fuel by serving as a guarantee for the first gas pipeline, the MP said. This line is also designed for the enterprises that will be created in the city.

In his speech, the president outlined the plans for Sumgayits future development, Hajiyev said.

The president reviewed the conducted work and said that we must transform Sumgayit into a more modern city and, I am sure, we will achieve that," he added.

The state concept on Sumgayits development covers three spheres: firstly, to increase the industrial potential of the city, that is, to create new enterprises, thereby continuing to diversify the economy; secondly, to solve the problems of employment of the city residents by creating new jobs; and finally, to modernize the citys infrastructure, the MP said.

Along with meeting local needs, the polymer and carbamide plants built in Sumgayit recently also play an important role in export, Hajiyev said. The Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park, Sumgayit Technological Park and other complexes are also aimd to solve the employment problem.

The president said that "we have a comprehensive approach to the development of the city. Growth of the citys industrial potential will be maintained in the future, too. Therefore, the commissioning of the second gas line meets today's needs and also takes into account the potential of the enterprises that will be built here in the future," Hajiyev added.

This means that Sumgayit, as an industrial city, will strengthen its leading position in the region, and thereby will make an indispensable contribution to Azerbaijans export of non-oil products."

There were no problems in Sumgayits gas supply and the city was fully provided with gas, Hajiyev said. However, sometimes the pressure was low in some places and this issue was raised by voters during the meetings.

Putting the gas pipeline into operation will certainly solve this problem, the MP said. In general, the primary infrastructure issues are solved in Sumgayit city. Sumgayit is a beautiful city thanks to the reconstructed Sumgayit boulevard, new administrative buildings, parks, alleys. The roofs of 1,100 buildings were renovated in the city. After the renovation of the roofs of 190 buildings this year, the process will be successfully completed.

Elevators, roads, asphalt surface have been renovated, Hajiyev said. The transport infrastructure of the city has been completely upgraded. New buses are used. Currently, it is expected to begin to implement a cashless payment system in public transport. This will increase transparency, as well as discipline in the use of transport.

Touching upon the issues related to the infrastructure innovations, the MP stressed that due to the population growth, the opening of new enterprises and jobs makes it necessary to bring Sumgayit's infrastructure in line with this growing demands.

There are two issues that the residents of Sumgayit are looking forward to solving, the MP said. The first issue is connected with the Aji Dere channel, which starts from Jeyranbatan water storage basin and passes through Sumgayit. The channel is open in a certain area and sewage continues to be drained into it in some places. It is true that a part of this channel was included in the pipeline, but the process was not completed. I hope that in the future investment programs will cover this project as well and the problem will be solved.

The second issue is related to the household waste processing plant, Hajiyev said. In particular, the plant must meet the requirements of the most modern technologies and generate thermal power and electric power. For example, in Sweden, waste processing enterprises ensure about 16 percent of the country's needs for thermal power and about two percent for electric power. This practice is used in most developed countries. It would be great if such a plant is constructed in Sumgayit."
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Now, Constitutional and legal experts and even serving officials in states say this is treading dangerous ground and harming the concept of cooperative federalism as states are being compelled to gradually cede power to the centre, even on matters which are strictly State Subjects, like healthcare and law and order. This ranges from the centre alone deciding which zones will be classified as Red, Orange or ...

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Russia's Northern Fleet Tracks NATO Warships Crossing Into Barents Sea - Defence Ministry

Sputnik News

08:46 GMT 04.05.2020(updated 09:13 GMT 04.05.2020)

According to the National Defence Operations Centre, the NATO battle group sailed into the Barents Sea on Monday, 7 a.m. Moscow time.

The Russian Navy's Northern Fleet is tracking the activities of a NATO battle group that crossed into the Barents Sea on Monday morning, the National Defence Operations Centre said in a statement.

The statement says that the group includes three US Naval destroyers, the Porter, the Donald Cook and the Franklin Roosevelt, as well as the Kent, a British frigate.

The USS Porter and Donald Cook destroyers are equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles and Aegis missile defence system. The ships are usually permanently deployed in Europe at the Spanish military base in Rota.

Together with the Aegis missile defence ground bases in Poland and Romania, these destroyers are components of the "Phased, Adaptive Approach for Missile Defence in Europe", tasked with protecting the continent from ballistic missile threats.

A Sputnik

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FLINT, Mich.  A woman, her adult son and husband have been charged in the fatal shooting of a security guard who refused to let her daughter enter a Family Dollar in Michigan because she wasnt wearing a face mask to protect against transmission of the coronavirus.

Calvin Munerlyn was shot Friday at the store just north of downtown Flint a short time after telling Sharmel Teagues daughter she had to leave because she lacked a mask, according to Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton.

Teague, 45, argued with Munerlyn, 43, before leaving. Two men later came to the store.

Teague; her husband, Larry Teague, 44; and Ramonyea Bishop, 23; are charged with first-degree premeditated murder and gun charges.

Larry Teague also is charged with violating Gov. Gretchen Whitmers executive order mandating that all customers and employees must wear face coverings inside grocery stores, Leyton said.

Witnesses identified Bishop as the man who shot Munerlyn in the back of the head, Leyton said.

Sharmel Teague has been arrested. Police were looking for her husband and son.

No information has been released about the daughter, who has not been charged in the shooting.

It is important that the governors order be respected and adhered to, and for someone to lose their life over it is beyond comprehension, Leyton said earlier Monday in a statement.

On Thursday, gun-carrying protesters and other demonstrators rallied inside the state Capitol, calling for coronavirus-related restrictions to be lifted. Some protesters with guns  which are allowed in the statehouse  went to the Senate gallery. Some senators wore bulletproof vests.

As of Monday, Michigan has reported 43,754 confirmed COVID-19 virus cases and 4,049 deaths due to complications from the disease.

The hostile tone that we have seen in recent days on television and in social media can permeate our society in ways we sometimes dont fully realize or anticipate, Leyton told reporters Monday. Decisions like staying home when we can, wearing a mask when going to the store and staying a safe distance from those around us  these should not be political arguments. They dont necessitate acts of defiance, and we simply cannot devolve into an us versus them mentality.

About 150 people attended a candlelight vigil Sunday night. On Monday, a makeshift memorial was started outside the Family Dollar.

Munerlyns mother, Bernadett, said she wants justice for her son.

They didnt have to take my baby and it wasnt that serious, she said. All you people just have to do is listen to the law, listen to the governor. Just stay home. If you dont have to come out, then you wouldnt need a mask unless youre out getting groceries or necessities. All my baby was doing was his job working and doing his job.

Whitmer offered her condolences.

It is incredibly sad that in this crisis that this life was lost, Whitmer told reporters Monday. We are mindful of how important it is that people keep a level head, that we do the right things protecting ourselves and protecting others.

___

Williams reported from Detroit. AP reporter David Eggert in Lansing contributed to this story.
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Carolyn Greene, right, spent more than nine years on the Mount Greylock Regional School Committee in her first stint.

Greene Unanimously Appointed to Fill Vacant Mount Greylock School Committee Seat

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  With a resounding 14-0 vote and words of appreciation from officials in both member towns, the Mount Greylock Regional School District on Monday appointed Carolyn Greene to fill a vacant seat on the School Committee.

Greene, a longtime member and former chair of the committee, was approved in a joint meeting of the select boards from Lanesborough and Williamstown and the six current members of the School Committee.

She characterized her first stint on the panel as an "intense" nine years that saw the district go from having two superintendents of three independent school districts, to having one superintendent under a shared services agreement to ultimately forming a single region  all while also moving forward with a building project to replace an aging and inefficient middle-high school.

"I'm hoping the committee and the region is at a place now where we can really move forward with having accomplished the building project and accomplished regionalization and really focus on education and the success of our students PreK through 12," Greene said.

"Every School Committee member wishes they could spend more time talking about education. Because we talk a lot about finances and contracts and various other things  that never really seem to have to do with education. But it all does. It's all critically important to how we deliver education. So to be able to focus on the work of the School Committee without these other really big projects to accomplish is something that I really look forward to. And I think I'm in a better place to do that than if I had just stayed on through.

"I'm really, really glad I had that break."

Monday's virtual meeting of the three elected bodies, moderated by Williamstown Town Moderator Adam Filson, was the second such meeting to make an interim appointment to the School Committee in the span of less than a year.

Greene will fill the seat vacated by then-Chairman Dan Caplinger in February. Monday's appointment is good until November, when Greene would have to stand for election as an incumbent to serve the remaining two years in the four-year seat Caplinger won in November 2018.

During the half-hour meeting held on the Zoom video conferencing platform, Greene was asked how likely it was that she would run to continue in the seat.

"I would be interested to see who else is thinking of running in November," Greene said. "If we have several strong candidates  for all of those seats and people want to run for those seats, I certainly don't feel the need to compete for them. But I'm also happy to continue serving."

Lanesborough Select Board member Gordon Hubbard asked Greene what she saw as the biggest concerns for the School Committee moving forward.

She said the first thing on everyone's list at the moment seems to be the transition to remote learning and how best to serve the district's students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I think there also are some concerns about district leadership that I've heard," Greene said. "A lot of people have approached me and talked to me about that. That's something that I'm hoping the School Committee will be addressing in the coming months."

She also mentioned the importance of closing out the Mount Greylock building project, a topic that was raised by Williamstown Select Board Chairman Jeffrey Thomas.

"There were some problems with the project, as I'm sure you were aware," Thomas said. "We weren't able to open the school on time. It took quite a while for the auditorium to be able to use. There have been some electrical issues, some ventilation issues, sewer issues. And I want to ask how you feel about that. Do you feel we were well served by the construction team and the project manager there."

Greene said she has been out of the loop on the building project since leaving the School Committee at the end of her term in 2018. And she noted that the School Committee and School Building Committee knew delays were a possibility given the aggressive timetable set for the addition/renovation project.

"I'm not going to be able to address how well we were served by each of the various players," Greene said.

"If there are electrical issues, my hope would be we address those like any other issues in any building project. I don't know why those happened or who was responsible.  My assumption is those who are in the loop are holding people accountable who need to be held accountable and making the necessary repairs."

Williamstown Select Board member Hugh Daley, who serves on the School Building Committee, followed up on that comment.

"The ultimate thing to remember with the building project is we either want to get the value that we paid for from the consultants we hired or get the money back," Daley said. "As long as you're committed to  and I believe you are  holding to account those responsible for  issues with the project, I wholeheartedly support your appointment."

In general, support and gratitude were the theme of the night as Greene was welcomed back to serve the district.

"I think Carrie is one of the most thoughtful, intelligent and experienced people in this field," Williamstown Select Board member Andrew Hogeland said, forgoing his opportunity to ask a question of the candidate. "So I'm ready to vote as soon as you are."
New Delhi, May 5 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to entertain Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra's plea challenging the validity of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs' circular, which excluded Chief Minister relief funds from receiving contributions under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to deal with the outbreak of coronavirus.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and B.R. Gavai, hearing the plea through video conferencing, noted that the petition is devoid of any merit and allowed Moitra's counsel to withdraw the petition. The court observed Moitra, who is a Member of Parliament, can debate on the issue, whether the state should get CSR benefit or not, in the House, as she has not challenged the law in her plea.

Moitra's counsel, senior advocate C.A. Sundaram insisted that his client has no problem with respect to deposits, but why are state governments kept out of it.

Justice Kaul said there is no aggrieved entity before the court. "The petitioner before the court is an MP," said the bench.

To this, Sundaram said that Moitra was an MP from West Bengal "but the state government cannot accept this fund". Justice Bhushan replied it is a legislative scheme and the petitioner has not challenged the act.

The bench observed unless covered under schedule VII of the Companies Act of 2013, the state government cannot claim such funds. Moitra's counsel insisted that it is covered under schedule VII as the coronavirus outbreak has been notified as a disaster.

Justice Kaul said: "Whether state should get the benefit out of it or not the petitioner can debate it in the parliament." Moitra challenged the validity of the circular issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) on April 10, under which contributions to Chief Minister's Relief Fund and State Relief Fund for COVID-19 cannot be claimed as CSR spending.

Justice Kaul reiterated that there is no corporate entity before the court and these issues can be raised before the parliament. Moitra claimed the MCA circular is not only in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution, but is also ultra vires the provisions of the Companies Act of 2013.

The bench noted that it did not see any merit in the petition and asked the counsel to withdraw it or the court would have to dismiss it. The plea was then withdrawn.
The Chhattisgarh government has



launched a web portal for home delivery of liquor in green zones of the state to avoid crowding at wine shops during the coronavirus-enforced lockdown, an official said on Tuesday.

The portal has been named after the state-run CSMCL (Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited), which controls the sale of liquor in the state, a public relations department official here said.

The liquor shops, which were closed since March 23, opened from Monday across the state, except in the COVID-19 containment zones and shopping malls, following the Centres decision to ease some curbs during the lockdown.

But, a large number of people queued up outside liquor outlets in the state capital Raipur and other districts, defying the physical distancing norms.

"The state government has given permission for online sale of liquor so that crowding at wine shops can be discouraged," the official said.

People can book orders directly through the CSMCL website or its mobile app available on the Play Store.

However, the home delivery facility will not be available in Raipur and Korba districts which are not classified as green zones, the official said.

The Centre has classified districts as red, orange and green zones based on the COVID-19 risk profiling.

People will have to register their mobile number, Aadhaar number and address for placing the order online which will be confirmed through an OTP (one time password).

A customer can order up to 5,000 ml of liquor at a time for home delivery, the official said, adding that the delivery charge is Rs 120.

The main opposition BJP termed the state governments decision of home delivery of liquor as "shameful" and demanded that it be withdrawn.

The Congress, which came to power, after promising to ban liquor is now delivering liquor at home. It is a very shameful decision, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Dharamlal Kaushik said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
CINCINNATI, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Formica Corporation is expanding its legacy of innovative and durable surfacing with a smart line of Italian-designed surfaces. The company just announced it will market, manufacture and sell Arpa Industriale's FENIX innovative materials for interior design to customers and designers in North America. The award-winning FENIX feature elegant colors and high-tech design, and the integration with Formica Corporation brings a new array of options for durable, sustainable commercial and residential interiors to the North American design market.

Formica Corporation is expanding its legacy of innovative and durable surfacing with a smart line of Italian-designed surfaces. The company just announced it will market, manufacture and sell FENIX innovative materials for interior design to customers and designers in North America.

"Since its launch, FENIX materials are recognized for adding value to the interior design world. The partnership with Formica Corporation will allow our successful FENIX brand to further reach architects and designers in North America through their well-established distribution network," said Stefano Mion, CEO of Arpa Industriale.

FENIX are the innovative materials created for interior design by Arpa Industriale in 2013. They arise from the Italian design tradition, reflected in the project stylistic choices: from the color selection to the overall aesthetic result of the interior applications.

FENIX will be available to purchase in a variety of timeless colors of the FENIX NTM collection through Formica Corporation starting this month. From Verde Commodoro to Bianco Alaska, the gorgeous, high-performance range brings technical and aesthetically pleasing design options to a range of interior spaces.

Timeless, smart, durable

With low light reflectivity, FENIX surfaces are extremely opaque, soft touch and anti-fingerprint. Thermal healing of superficial micro-scratches is also possible.

FENIX features are the result of a series of processes, including a multilayer coating and the use of next-generation acrylic resins that are hardened and fixed through an Electronic Beam Curing process.

The FENIX NTM color palette is inspired by nature and it interprets and anticipates trends and tastes in interior design to offer architects and designers a wider range of opportunities for expression.

FENIX can be used for vertical or horizontal applications. It is ideal for retail, health care, hospitality, office and transportation applications, as well as industrial, kitchen and bath, or furniture designs.

In June 2019, Formica Corporation was acquired by Broadview Holding B.V., a Netherlands-based holding company with a leading position in the global market of surface materials, joining Arpa Industriale as a sister company.

For more information on FENIX Innovative Materials, please visit www.fenixforinteriors-na.com.

About Formica Corporation

Founded in 1913, Formica Corporation, part of the Formica Group of companies, is a leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of innovative surfacing products for commercial and residential applications. For more information about Formica Corporation, its products, special programs and promotions, visit www.formica.com or call 1-800-FORMICA.

About Formica Group

Formica Group is a global group of companies consisting of Formica Canada Inc., Formica Corporation, Formica de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Formica IKI Oy, Formica Skandinavien AB, Formica Limited, Formica S.A., Formica S.A.S., Formica Taiwan Corporation, Formica (Thailand) Co., Ltd., Formica (Asia) Ltd., Formica Decorative Materials (China) Co., Ltd. and Homapal GmbH, among others.

About FENIX

FENIX are the innovative materials created for interior design by Arpa Industriale. Launched in 2013 with FENIX NTM, they are suitable for both vertical and horizontal applications (kitchens, bathrooms, design furniture, retail, offices, and contract). Applying proprietary technologies, FENIX materials were developed by an international multidisciplinary team of 15 researchers. FENIX has obtained numerous awards and recognitions, including: MaterialPREIS 2014, "Best Design Material" Dwell On Design 2014, ADI Design Index 2014, "Best of the Best" Interzum Award 2015, "New Product Award" Archidex 2015, 2016 ADI Compasso d'Oro Award Honourable Mention, "Best of Best" Iconic Awards 2016, Red Dot Product Design 2019, and "High Product Quality" Interzum Award 2019.

Please Note: Formica and the Formica Anvil Logo are registered trademarks of The Diller Corporation. 1-800-FORMICA are trademarks of The Diller Corporation. All rights reserved. 2020 The Diller Corporation.

Contact:

Owen Serey

(513) 786-3121

[email protected]

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A gun dealer appeared in court today after being charged with shooting his solicitor wife dead at their 17th-century country home.

Peter Hartshorne-Jones, 51, was arrested after he allegedly called police to report that he had shot his wife, 41-year-old Silke, in the early hours of Sunday.

Police found the corporate lawyer in a critical condition at the couple's Grade II-listed farmhouse in Barham, Suffolk, at about 4.45am.

Mrs Hartshorne-Jones was taken by ambulance to Ipswich Hospital, but was declared dead around two hours later at about 6.45am.

The couple had lived at the house with their two dogs since 2015.

Silke Hartshorne-Jones, 41, was allegedly murdered at her home in Suffolk on Sunday

Police outside the Grade II-listed 17th century farmhouse in Barham, Suffolk, yesterday

Today, Mr Hartshorne-Jones appeared via videolink at Ipswich Crown Court charged with murder, just hours after he appeared at the town's magistrates' court.

He was not required to enter a plea and was remanded in custody until a plea hearing at the same court on July 29.

No application was made for bail. The judge pencilled in October 26 as a potential trial date.

Prosecutor Peter Gair told the court that Mrs Hartshorne-Jones and her husband had separate bedrooms and that she was shot twice.

The court heard that Hartshorne-Jones was a registered gun dealer.

Earlier, at the magistrates' court, he spoke to confirm his name, age, address and to state his nationality as British when he appeared via videolink from Bury St Edmunds' police investigation centre.

Forensic experts go into the farmhouse in Barham, Suffolk, to investigate yesterday

The court heard that police were called to the scene at 4.45am on Sunday and that Mrs Hartshorne-Jones was found inside the home with two gunshot wounds.

She died at 6.42am, the court heard. The defendant, who has short, dark hair, wore a blue jumper and remained seated during the hearing, was not asked to make a plea.

The clerk told him: 'You are appearing via live link at Ipswich magistrates court. Please take the room you are in as an extension of the court room.

'The same rules apply to you as if you were appearing in court in person. You are charged with the murder on May 3, 2020, in Ipswich of Silke Hartshorne-Jones.'

Police investigate at the scene yesterday following the death of Mrs Hartshorne-Jones

Lesla Small, prosecuting, who was also appearing via videolink, told the court that Hartshorne-Jones had been charged with the 'indictable offence' of murder.

She said police had received a telephone call at 4.45am on Sunday from Hartshorne-Jones.

Ms Small added: 'The police attended the property in Barham and indeed they did find Mr Hartshorne-Jones's wife upstairs in a bedroom where she had received two shots and unfortunately she was pronounced dead later.'

Ms Small said that magistrates were unable to deal with any application for bail and asked for the case to be sent to the crown court.

A police officer lifts a cordon allowing another vehicle to enter the property in Barham today

Hartshorne-Jones's solicitor Malcolm Plummer made no comment during the five-minute hearing.

Presiding magistrate Peter Forster told Hartshorne-Jones: 'You have heard what has been said. This matter is beyond our jurisdiction so it is being sent to Ipswich Crown Court.

'You will appear before Judge Levett for a further court hearing. At that time your bail will be discussed and looked at. We have no jurisdiction for bail in this court.'

Hartshorne-Jones was asked if he understood and he replied: 'Yes'.

The house was cordoned off as police forensic officers in protective suits combed it yesterday

A police car at the crime scene yesterday as the investigation continues into what happened

The house was cordoned off as police forensic officers in protective suits combed the property.

Mrs Hartshorne-Jones worked as a lawyer for technology company K2 Partnering Solutions.

Her LinkedIn profile described her job as being in charge of the company's 'legal and compliance function' across Europe.

Neighbours said that she used to commute to work, leaving the 600,000 home at 5.30am every weekday and not returning until the evening.

She had been staying at home since lockdown started, although it is not known if she was still working or had been furloughed from her job.

Mr Hartshorne-Jones, a former governor at nearby Otley Primary School who was on his second marriage, always worked from home, according to neighbours.

He has his own recruitment agency providing staff for the catering industry and a business called Hartshorne Fine English Shotguns.

This firm sold what his website describes as 'the finest sporting English and Scottish shotguns.'
Chandigarh: Major Anuj Sood, who was martyred in an anti-terror operation in north Kashmir, was cremated with full military honours here on Tuesday (May 5, 2020).

He was among the five security forces personnel who sacrificed their lives for the country on Saturday night while fighting militants in an encounter in Handwara area of frontier district Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir, an operation in which the Army also lost a colonel.

Touching scenes were witnessed moments before his last rites when the body was taken from his Panchkula residence to the cremation ground in Mani Majra here.

His wife Akriti threw her arms around the coffin to bid adieu just before the body was put on a bedecked army vehicle.

Major Sood's sister Harshita, who is also an Army officer, was seen consoling her sister-in-law at the Panchkula residence and later at the cremation ground.

The Army officer's mortal remains had arrived here from Srinagar on Monday afternoon.

Slogans like "Vande Mataram", "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" and "Major Anuj Amar Rahe" were raised as Major Sood's body, wrapped in tricolor, was taken to the cremation ground.

Before the cremation, floral wreaths were laid by many serving and retired Army officers among others.

Anti-Terrorist Front of India President, Viresh Shandilya, while laying floral wreaths raised "Pakistan Murdabad" and "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" slogans.

Later, when the cremation took place, only the family members were allowed inside the cremation ground to ensure social distancing norms were followed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Besides Army officer's family members including his wife, his father, and sister, senior Army officers were also present during the cremation.

A guard of honour was given to Major Sood by the Army and three-volley gunshots were fired.

The Army officer's funeral pyre was lit by his father.

Major Sood's father, Brigadier Chandrakant Sood (retd), had earlier told the media that the news of the death left him shocked, but at the same time he was proud of the supreme sacrifice the officer had made for his motherland.

"He was a true son of the nation," he had said at his Panchkula home.

The 30-year-old Army officer who was from the Brigade of the Guards regiment, part of the 21 Rashtriya Rifles and an alumnus of Punjab Public School, Nabha, had joined the National Defence Academy in 2008. He had one dream, which was to join the Army, according to his family.

His family said he was scheduled to return home after a gap of six months and having finished his two-year stint in Jammu and Kashmir, he was to join the 12 Guards unit in Gurdaspur.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has lauded New Zealanders for their commitment to lockdown after a second-straight day without a new case of COVID-19.

The number of 'confirmed and probable' infections remained at 1,487 after one suspected case 'already known to us' tested positive on Monday, the health ministry said.

The death toll was also unchanged at 20, while only four people are currently in hospital, none of them in intensive care.

On Tuesday, Ms Ardern spent time speaking with Australian leaders at the national cabinet, sharing information from their experiences fighting the spread of the virus.

She also discussed the resumption of regular trans-Tasman travel.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (pictured) has lauded New Zealanders for their commitment to lockdown after a second-straight day without a new case of COVID-19

The number of 'confirmed and probable' infections remained at 1,487 after one suspected case 'already known to us' tested positive on Monday and the death toll was also unchanged at 20 (pictured: Shoppers in Auckland after lockdown restrictions were lifted)

While that prospect has many in both countries dreaming of a life beyond COVID-19 restrictions, Ms Ardern's primary message to New Zealanders is one aimed at fighting complacency.

'Achieving zero cases two days in a row is the result of New Zealanders demonstrating commitment and discipline to our goal,' she said.

'We know the virus can have a long tail and other cases can pop up ... so don't do anything that snatches our potential victory at this point.'

New Zealand's director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield said the figures were a 'cause for celebration' and 'symbolic of the effort that everybody has put in' but warned that Kiwis would need to keep up 'continuing vigilance'.

Prime minister Jacinda Ardern said Kiwis' efforts had 'put us at the front of the pack' but warned them 'not get ahead of ourselves', telling them to 'stick to our bubble and finish the job we started'.

On Tuesday, Ms Ardern spent time speaking with Australian leaders at the national cabinet, sharing information from their experiences fighting the spread of the virus

This graph shows how New Zealand has brought the epidemic under control, with new daily cases (in yellow) falling to zero and the daily percentage increase (in red) also very low

New Zealand only confirmed its first case on February 26, but had shut its borders by March 19 and started imposing a full-scale lockdown on March 26.

The lockdown was eased last week, allowing takeaways to resume from restaurants and hundreds of thousands of people to return to work.

Gatherings of up to 10 people are now allowed for events such as weddings or funerals under the so-called Level 3 restrictions, down from the highest Level 4.

Prime minister Jacinda Ardern is due to decide in the next week whether the country can move down to Level 2, in which gatherings of 500 could be allowed.

Public venues and 'most businesses' would be allowed to re-open under Level 2, subject to health restrictions.

Speaking Monday, health director Bloomfield said the 'real test' would come later this week when any new cases caused by the move to Level 3 start to become visible.

'Clearly, these are encouraging figures today. But it is just one moment in time,' he told a press conference.

'The real test is later this week when we factor in the incubation period for the virus and the time it takes for people to display symptoms, which is generally five to six days after exposure.

'So that is when we will have an indication if there are any new cases coming through that might be emerging in the community as a result of our shift from level four to level three.

'We cannot afford to squander all the hard work and effort of the past weeks.'

New Zealand's prime minister Jacinda Ardern (pictured last week) will decide in the next week whether the country's lockdown can be eased further

People at Muriwai Beach near Auckland last week in the wake of New Zealand easing strict regulations implemented to curb the spread of the coronavirus

New Zealand is also considering a travel 'bubble' with Australia that would allow people to travel between the two countries.

Australia has also enjoyed success in bringing the crisis under control after similarly imposing early travel bans.

Parts of Australia also began relaxing lockdown rules over the weekend, with some regions allowing more outdoor activities and small gatherings. The country has seen 6,801 cases and 95 deaths.

Ardern will join her counterpart Scott Morrison and Australian state leaders in a virtual meeting tomorrow to discuss the 'trans-Tasman bubble' proposal.

'Both our countries' strong record on fighting the virus has placed us in the enviable position of being able to plan the next stage in our economic rebuild,' Ardern said.

Morrison had said last week that the 'only exception' to the travel ban was 'potentially with New Zealand, and we have had some good discussions about that'.

Ardern said the two-week quarantine periods which both countries currently impose on international arrivals would be mutually waived under the proposal.

She was reluctant to speculate on when it could take effect but warned: 'Don't expect this to happen in a couple of weeks time.'

'We need to ensure that we're locking in the gains that all New Zealanders have helped us achieve and make sure we have health precautions in place to make sure we do this safely,' she said.

Ardern was cautious about the prospect of allowing Pacific island nations which are free of Covid-19 into the bubble due to the inability of their health systems to deal with even a minor outbreak of the virus.

'That's a conversation we'd need to have directly with them,' she said. 'There's a huge risk if COVID finds its way into Pacific island nations that are currently untouched.'

A customer collects takeaway food from an outlet in Auckland last week after restrictions were eased following a five-week lockdown

People queue outside a takeaway store last week in Auckland when restrictions were lifted after New Zealand brought the epidemic under control

New Zealand has carried out nearly 153,000 tests for a population of five million and has another 59,000 testing kits in stock.

So far, there have been 1,137 confirmed cases and another 350 'probable' cases, some of which are likely to be added to the 'confirmed' column.

Only 191 cases are considered 'active', with just four people currently in hospital - down from eight yesterday.

New Zealand says that 38 per cent of its cases are imported and another 32 per cent are linked to imported cases, leaving only a minority of cases transmitted locally.

Ardern has previously hailed New Zealanders for 'breaking the chain of transmission' during the successful five-week lockdown.

Twenty people have died in New Zealand, all of them aged over 60 and all but two of them aged over 70.

New Zealand has also provided exhaustive detail about the epidemic on a government website, including details of every case.

Bloomfield said that New Zealand has '16 significant clusters' although three are 'considered closed' after 28 days without a new case.

'We are still wanting to be sure that there is no undetected community transmission in our communities,' Bloomfield said.

'So reflecting on the incubation period of this virus, and it is really later this week that we will be confident if we are or are not seeing new cases popping up in the community, so that is why it is very important we maintain the current posture.'
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Jaguar Land Rover, the luxury carmaker and a subsidiary of Tata Motors, reported a 60.1 percent decline in sales in the United States in April, hit by the coronavirus outbreak that hit businesses and restricted peoples movement.

JLR sold 3,722 units in April 2020 against 9,321 vehicles sold in the same month previous year, CNBC-TV18 reported.

In the United Kingdom, where the company is based, the numbers were even more disappointing.

In the UK, JLR sold just 475 vehicles, a 94.3 percent decline compared to 8,295 units sold in April 2019.

These numbers will be better than those from India, where Tata Motors may report zero sales because of the nationwide lockdown. The company has not sent any release about April sales to the exchanges yet.
New CEO, President Take Helm at Crawford & Co.

Crawford & Company has appointed Rohit Verma as chief executive officer to replace Harsha V. Agadi, who stepped down as CEO and president , but will return to the companys board of directors.

Crawford also appointed Joseph Blanco, previously general counsel, as president. Both appointments will take effect May 15 at the end of the companys scheduled annual shareholders meeting.

Agadi had served as president and CEO of the Atlanta-based claims administration provider since 2015 and has been a board member since 2010. He said in a press release that he is pleased with the orderly transition and humbled that he was asked to remain on as a board member.

Verma has been Crawfords chief operating officer for the past three years. He joined the company from Zurich Insurance.

Blanco has been with Crawford for the past four years. Before that, he was managing partner for the international law firm Dentons.

Verma holds an undergraduate degree in computer engineering from University of Delhi, India, and a masters degree from Northwestern University in Chicago. He has also attended leadership programs at Harvard, Cambridge and London Business School.

Blanco holds a Juris Doctor degree from Emory University, where he held the position of editor-in-chief of the Emory Law Journal, and a bachelor of arts in economics and government from the University of Notre Dame, where he served as student body president. He is a member of the State Bar of Georgia.

Preferred Medical Hires Chief Clinical Officer

Preferred Medical, a pharmacy benefit manager and ancillary service partner in workers compensation, announced that Jim Andrews has joined the company as chief clinical officer.

Andrews will provide clinical strategy and program recommendations to drive value-based care to Preferred Medicals customers.

Prior to joining Preferred Medical, Andrews held the positions of executive vice president of pharmacy services at Optum and general manager of clinical products and services at Healthcare Solutions, Inc. He is also a licensed pharmacist in Georgia and Florida and affiliated with many professional associations within the industry.

Preferred Medical, based in Louisville, Ky., was founded in 1997.

Beazley Appoints Head of Cyber and Executive Risk

Specialist insurer Beazley has appointed Bethany Greenwood as global head of cyber and executive risk (CyEx), starting in July 2020. She will join Beazleys executive committee at the same time.

Greenwood joined Beazley last September to lead the London market and US-based executive risk team, focusing on a wide range of products including US directors & officers (D&O) and employment practices liability.

In a career spanning more than 20 years, Greenwood has worked extensively across management liability lines, including D&O, errors & omissions and cyber programs.

She will succeed Mike Donovan, who has decided to retire from Beazley after 15 years with the company. However, Donovan will remain with Beazley for longer to ensure a smooth handover with Bethany and the team, the company said.

Also within CyEx, Paul Bantick, who currently leads the London market & international cyber and tech team, will take on global responsibility for cyber and tech in July

Parts Trader Names Chief Innovation Officer

Parts Trader has appointed insurance industry veteran Greg Horn as its chief innovation officer.

Horn previously held-executive-level positions with several insurance companies, most recently as the assistant vice president of auto and property claims strategy at The Hartford, the Chicago-based auto parts supplier said in a press release.

Horn also served as vice president of industry relations and data analytics for Mitchell International. His background includes leadership positions at GMAC Insurance, National Grange Mutual and Leader/Transport Insurance Companies.

Over the course of his career, Horn has served on the I-CAR Education Foundation, the General Motors Safety Council and GM Fixed Operations Advisory Committee. Most recently, he has contributed two years as trustee for the Collision Industry Foundation.
The traffic flowing on the West Loop is getting thicker. Across the state, employees are returning to work as state lawmakers gradually re-open Texas businesses, eager to get the economy running again.

Workers might not feel the same way. They may be able to make income again, but theyve voiced concerns about occupational hazards from seeing people who could have the virus, and whether social distancing and disinfecting measures in the office are enough.

Jill Chapman, a senior performance consultant for Houston-based Insperity, said its vital for employees and employers to be nimble and patient in adapting to changing workplace safety guidelines.

Chapman, who helps human resources teams recruit and manage employees, sat down with Houston How To and discussed the things employers and employees should keep in mind when returning to the workplace. Edited excerpts follow.

Q: So in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott has allowed some non-essential businesses to re-open. Workers in some industries can now go back into the office, but not all feel comfortable doing so. What does the employer need to understand about that?

More Information What is this? I'm Gwendolyn Wu, and I'm writing "Houston How To," a series on how to navigate the city and its complexities. Humans have an innate drive to improve themselves, and we're always striving to live better, smarter and more efficiently by throwing countless dollars and hours at our problems. The Houston Chronicle wants to simplify that for you. As a reporter, I usually ask the questions, but I can't be the only one wondering how something works. What are things you need to know how to do, Houston? You can find me on Twitter at @gwendolynawu or by email at gwendolyn.wu@chron.com. See More Collapse

A: Some people think were being excessive and theyre not as concerned as others. On the other end of the spectrum, theyre almost immobilized because of their fears of the virus. An employer needs to be able to demonstrate a passion for employees and theres never been such a necessity for that as there is right now.

Its not just fears of the virus. Weve got people asked to come back to work who have nothing to do with their children. Theres a multitude of reasons why someone may not quite be ready to return even though Gov. Abbott has lifted some restrictions. Youve got people who just cant because theyre hamstrung by other parts of their lives that might keep them out of the office.

THE FUTURE, REOPENED: Those defying Gov. Abbotts emergency order draw citations, warnings - and a few cheers

Q: What are some problems people may run into in the workplace?

A: In the early stages, theres probably going to be a lot of grace and forgiveness. But there will be a lot of places where there are intersections of laws, policies and procedures we didnt have to think about before.

One great example: How do we handle asking people if theyre part of the health-compromised community? It needs to be more diligent than those perceived to be healthy. Are we stepping into HIPAA?

A lot of policies like paid time off will change after the fact because of how we had to respond to (COVID-19) and how well move forward in the new world.

Q: What should employees do about workplace safety violations?

A: There should be a company policy in the handbook for how to address any violations. Generally, you would take the complaint to the employer for them to remedy first. Give them the option to fix it, in the event that its an oversight or unintended consequence of a different decision.

If the employee is not satisfied, they could take the complaint to the Occupational Safety Health Organization (OSHA) for investigation. That said, an important caveat here is grace as were all dealing with new territory. Employees should have understanding that this is an evolving issue, and give their employer the chance to make things right. Employers and their staff are in this together.

Q: On the other hand, what are adjustments people will make as they return to work?

A: There are three pillars, great communication, structure  efficiency will suffer if the structure isnt in place  and compassion.

Employees need to make sure to ask is this what you expected? Is there more? You might need a stand-up meeting for 15 minutes every morning to set expectations for the day. With what were doing, things are changing day to day.

Maybe employers are more concerned about the organization than the health part, yet they have terrified employees. To really understand where they are is going to take a lot of emotional intelligence. Were dealing with things weve never had to deal with before. Weve never been so hyperaware of things.

Q: What are some realizations about workplace culture as we transition away from work-from-home?

A: Its about generational diversity. We talk about baby boomers, and how theyre all about face time and how hard work is working long hours. Its amazing to me how every generation has bought into the idea: do you notice Im working? Im feeling that stress of being able to prove that Im busy.

To translate that result-only workforce to one where we cant see you working is hard. Does it really matter if youre working at 2 a.m. or 2 p.m., or where youre sitting, as long as those you make those deliverables?

Managers should also look at workloads. Did they do a good job of spreading the wealth, if you will? Some employees are covered up in work and others dont have as much on their plates. Is there a rebalance or redistribution?

REMOTE WORK 101: Telecommuting 101: Working from home for newbies

Q: Will there be an adjustment period coming back?

A: I believe so. Just like the adjustment period when we were all thrown into this work-from-home mode, we had to move very quickly, yet pieces and parts were lagging behind.

Work from home has been around since the internet began, but not with everyone underfoot. Were not going to flip the switch and make everything normal again.

gwendolyn.wu@chron.com

twitter.com/gwendolynawu
When Martina McBride appeared on Mondays Songland (a.k.a. Shark Tank for Songwriters), she was hoping to find her next big hit. However, she probably wasnt expecting to end up in tears. But thats exactly what happened when the country superstar heard even the rough preliminary version of Girls Like Me by the aspiring songwriter known as H A L I E.

Theres something about this melody that evokes an almost physical reaction, said McBride. You know how a great melody can make you cry or whatever? I feel that this is that kind of melody.

H A L I E was practically in tears herself, from the moment she entered the audition room and started fangirling over McBride and the shows judges, hitmakers Ester Dean, Shane McAnally, and Ryan Tedder. Having moved from small-town Missouri to the highly competitive music hub of Nashville two weeks after her high school graduation to pursue her songwriting dream, the 19-year-old told McBride and the panel: You guys have no idea how special this [opportunity] is. It makes me want to cry, because I want it so bad. I dont have a plan B.

Thats the magic quote, right there, noted Tedder. This is such a crazy career path that if you have a plan B, your plan A will not work  because the second it gets too hard, you will run for that plan B.

McBride confessed that she felt a connection to H A L I Es song from the very beginning, and it seemed pretty obvious that none of the nights three other song submissions stood much of a chance. (Side note: It was quite odd that McBride and the judges thought the words to also-ran contestant Jeffrey Jamess We Could Be Heroes were empty and trite, but none of them pointed out that tunes lyrical resemblance to a certain classic ballad. Guess theyre not big David Bowie fans, then?)

As for the lyrics to Girls Like Me, McBride, who is the same age as H A L I Es mom, felt the song needed to be tailored more to her 53-year-old viewpoint. H A L I Es song had the kind of melody that could break your heart, if its paired with the right words, she said. I would love to sing that from the perspective of someone who has been through it.  I am a mother of three daughters, and I do feel like sometimes my audience sees me as a friend, as a mother, as a sister, as somebody that they can look to for advice.

Story continues

So for that reason, McBride specifically requested that H A L I E work with Dean, the shows only female judge, in the workshop round. Dean, happy to be a member of this girls club, seemed to grasp the relatable, believable, mature and empathetic vibe that McBride wanted  an its going to be OK message. The narrative we are going to go with is Martina talking to daughters of the world, Dean explained. Especially when you have daughters, theyre like, Mom, you dont get it! It brings unity between women.

Martina McBride cries on 'Songland.' (Photo: NBC)

Once H A L I E returned to the judges room, her reworked Girls Like Me sounded like the logical, older-and-wiser sequel to McBrides 2003 empowerment anthem, This One for the Girls. McBride mouthed, Wow and instantly teared up when she heard H A L I E sing again  a sure sign that this was a potential hit. You know how I said if this song had the right lyrics, it would make you cry? So, thats what happened, laughed Martina, as she pointed to her misty eyes.

Martina getting choked up  God, thats what you want, Dean said proudly.

When Martina eventually picked H A L I Es song as the one she wanted to record, H A L I Es reaction was even more emotional. She shrieked like shes just won the lottery, practically collapsed to her knees, and buried her face in her hands. I literally lie in bed at night dreaming of getting a song pitched to an artist  and my dream came true! H A L I E gushed. For Martina to hear it, it just changes everything.

H A L I E reacts to winning on 'Songland.' (Photo: NBC)

McBride, who praised H A L I Es spunk and determination to succeed in this business, seemed equally delighted. I just love the song. I think its really special, she declared. Giving the opportunity to a young, up-and-coming songwriter is everything.

Now it looks like H A L I E wont have to run to her plan B anytime soon. And McBride might continue to make this weeks other rising songwriters dreams come true, as she did tell Jeffrey James and Ckay that shed love to pitch them other songs... which elicited this very screenshot-able reaction:

Jeffrey James, H A L I E, and Ckay on 'Songland.' (Photo: NBC)

Check out Martina McBrides moving version of H A L I Es and Deans Girls Like Me below. Next week, guest Julia Michaels appear to help other aspiring songwriters realize their own dreams.

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[May 05, 2020] ZOOM+Care Now Offering Virtual Health Visits with Specialists

PORTLAND, Ore., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- With people across the Pacific Northwest under stay-at-home orders, many are refraining from scheduling non-urgent appointments with healthcare specialists. To give patients in Oregon and Washington better access to specialty care during COVID-19, ZOOM+Care, the leading provider of on-demand healthcare in the Pacific Northwest, is offering virtual health visits with specialists. Patients can now use the company's telehealth service, VideoCare, for dermatology, gynecology, orthopedic, podiatry, internal medicine, and mental health concerns. "Our patients shouldn't have to put their health on hold for COVID-19," says Torben Nielsen, CEO of ZOOM+Care. "With VideoCare, they can visit with a ZOOM+Care specialist face to face, virtually, to get the care they need." A VideoCare visit is a real-time, remote appointment between a patient and a ZOOM+Cae provider. Through a video visit, patients can receive diagnosis, treatment, and prescription medication for a wide range of primary, urgent, and now specialty health concerns. All patients need to access VideoCare smartphone, tablet, or computer.



Earlier this month, ZOOM+Care released VideoCare far ahead of schedule. The company opted to move up its launch date in response to the coronavirus pandemic. "Many people's health has suffered due to the current pandemic, especially their mental health," says Dr. Erik Vanderlip, a Board Certified Psychiatrist and ZOOM+Care's Chief Medical Officer. "Our mission is to meet our patients where they areand right now, they're at home. With many struggling to get the support they need, we wanted to do everything we could to increase access to our speciality and mental health services."

To help protect both their patients and providers, ZOOM+Care is encouraging everyone to take advantage of their virtual healthcare options whenever possible. The company has updated its policies and extended its telehealth hours to make these services as accessible as possible. VideoCare  is available seven days a week, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, and 9 a.m to 6 p.m. on weekends. About the company: ZOOM+Care is the leading provider of on-demand retail and digital healthcare. They care for over 200,000 people per year at over 45 clinics across Portland and Seattle, providing urgent care, primary care, specialty care, mental health, telemedicine, and more. For more updates, follow the company on LinkedIn and Twitter at @zoomcare. You can learn more about ZOOM+Care or schedule a visit at zoomcare.com. For follow-ups, contact [email protected] . View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/zoomcare-now-offering-virtual-health-visits-with-specialists-301051358.html SOURCE ZOOM+Care

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A 26-year-old man was charged with murder Monday in connection to a shootout that left one man dead on the Southeast Side last month, according to an arrest affidavit.

Trey Larenz Duncan is accused of shooting and killing 40-year-old Reginald Adams on April 21 at an apartment complex in the 4800 block of Pecan Grove. When police arrived at the scene just before 10 p.m., they found both men suffering from multiple gunshot wounds at opposite ends of the complex's parking lot, the affidavit said.

Adams died at the scene while Duncan was rushed into surgery at a local hospital.

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At the scene, police found multiple shell casings from an assault rifle in the area where Duncan was found and seven shell casings from a 9mm handgun near where Adams was found, the affidavit said.

When police were finally able to question Duncan the next day, they said he kept changing his story, according to the affidavit.

Several days later, police questioned a female acquaintance of Duncan who was at the apartment complex during the time of the shooting. She said she was with Duncan and another man visiting Duncan's family at the complex and went inside an apartment after a large crowd gathered around Duncan and the man they were with, the affidavit said.

Police said she returned outside only after hearing gunshots and found Duncan injured.

Because no one in the crowd was injured, police determined that Adams and Duncan were focused on each other, the affidavit said. Investigators said the amount of shell casings from the rifle versus the handgun show that Duncan was the aggressor, the affidavit continued.

Duncan told police he shot Adams in self defense but never gave police a reason for the shooting, the affidavit said.

Duncan's bail was set at $150,000.
Start out by talking about something the other person likes, or maybe doesnt like, and finding out why that is. It could be music, art, books, films, food, favorite childhood toys or even other people. The point is to explore one anothers affinities, attitudes, beliefs and opinions  but never argue about them. As the Polish-born social psychologist Robert Zajonc wrote, We are never wrong about what we like or dislike.

Likes and dislikes develop through experiences, and those back stories are willingly told if you ask questions and listen carefully to the answers. These dont necessarily have to be long, drawn-out conversations. Indeed, Ms. Anderson said she and her dad didnt spend the entire five-hour drive from Youngstown to D.C. talking  just sporadic, meaningful exchanges here and there. Careful listening requires focus and effort. You can only keep at it for only so long. So its important to be alert to the other persons, and your own, willingness to continue. If youre unsure, just ask: Had enough? or Shall we pick this up later?

Perhaps as illuminating as the use of third things is listening to how people respond to expansive hypotheticals such as If you could time travel, where would you go? or If you could live to be 100 and you could retain either the brain or body of a 25-year-old, which would you chose? Such imaginative flights can be a welcome escape when feeling stifled and hemmed in at home. Peoples answers and their reasoning may surprise you, even when they are people you think you know well.

For anyone to want to tell you anything, you have to not only extend the invitation, but also respond in a thoughtful, feeling way. Regrettably, most people arent very good at this. Graham Bodie, a professor of integrated marketing and communication at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, has studied listening for almost 20 years, and his data suggests listeners responses are emotionally attuned to what speakers say less than 5 percent of the time. Anyone who has shared something personal and received a thoughtless or uncomprehending response knows how it makes your soul want to crawl back in its hiding place.

Thats not to say your responses have to be in-depth emotional analyses. David Wynn, a retired telecommunications manager in Anaheim, Calif., said one of the best listeners he has ever known was a co-worker and dear friend who died in 2017. While his friends responses were not necessarily profound, they were nevertheless spot on, even if it was to just exhale heavily and utter a profanity in sympathy with what Mr. Wynn was going through. That was all I needed, said Mr. Wynn. He always got what I was saying.

More often, though, people respond by shifting the conversation to themselves (You think thats bad? When I ) or by telling the other person what they should do (If I were you). And sometimes people change the subject entirely because they are uncomfortable with the other persons emotions.

I think most people dont want to listen because they feel like once they hear something, theyre accountable for it, said Pamela Soileau, a hospice nurse and chaplain in Houston. Thats especially true now, she said, when the problem were facing is as yet unsolvable.
The Ludhiana unit of the Democratic Teachers Front (DTF) Punjab have condemned the district education officers (DEOs) alleged change in their statements regarding door-to-door school enrolment drive during the Covid-19 lockdown.

On Tuesday, a media report stated that four government schools were found open on Monday for carrying out the admission process. Front secretary Daljit Singh Samrala said when the media demanded accountability from the DEOs in this regard, they concealed the fact that the instructions were issued by them to the teachers, head teachers and cluster head teachers on the Zoom app.

The front members said, The DEOs simply answered that no such admission orders have been issued to the teachers.

District DTF president Hardev Singh Mullanpur said the DEO (elementary education) Rajinder Kaur and deputy DEO (elementary education) Kuldeep Singh had held regular meetings over Zoom app with teachers, head teachers and cluster head teachers (CHTs) of various blocks. During the meetings, verbal orders were issued to the teachers, head teachers and cluster head teachers for admission in schools and written orders were issued by the block primary education officers (BPEOs), Mullanpur said.

This is a violation of the guidelines issued by the government. Despite the written orders issued to the teachers by the BPEOs under the pressure of the DEOs, the alleged retraction of their own statements to save their own skin indicates the insensitive approach of the DEOs towards the health and education of students, he said.

The front members said they had earlier sent a memorandum to the chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh to intervene in the matter but in vain. The verbal and written orders for the enrolment of students in schools during the lockdown should be immediately revoked. Action should be taken against the department officers, the front members demanded in a written statement.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's biography reached number one on Amazon's Top 10 New York bestseller in 24 hours list on the day of its release for pre-order.

Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Royal Family is set to be released worldwide online on August 11, with the hard copy on sale from August 20.

A description of the biography on Amazon promises to offer an 'honest, up-close, and disarming portrait' of the 'confident, influential, forward' Prince Harry, 35, and Meghan Markle, 38.

And last night the book's British co-author Omid Scobie took to Twitter to share his surprise at the much-anticipated book hitting the top spot on the first day of its pre-order release.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's biography Finding Freedom has reached number one on the Top 10 Books New York bestseller in 24 hours list. They are seen in March in London

Retweeting the Top 10 Books post from May 3, which read 'Best sellers in the last 24H!! #1: Finding Freedom: Harry, Meghan, and the Making of a Modern Royal Family Omid Scobie, Carolyn Durand publisher Dey Street Books', Omid added: 'Well this is a nice surprise!'.

Other books on the top 10 list of the same day include Walt Disney's The Ugly Duckling (Disney Classic) at number two, and Martha Stewart's Cookie Perfection at number five.

While it has now dropped off the 24-hour bestseller list, it has already climbed to number two on Amazon's 'Biographies of Royalty' bestsellers list - just behind current number one 'Kensington Palace: An Intimate Memoir from Queen Mary to Meghan Markle', by Tom Quinn.

Last month, the Mail on Sunday reported that the Duke and Duchess had co-operated with Omid Scobie and Catherine Durand on a new book about their lives.

Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Royal Family is set to be released worldwide online on August 11, with the hard copy on sale from August 20

Retweeting the Top 10 Books post from May 3, which read 'Best sellers in the last 24H!! #1: Finding Freedom: Harry, Meghan, and the Making of a Modern Royal Family Omid Scobie, Carolyn Durand publisher Dey Street Books', Omid added: 'Well this is a nice surprise!'

Amazon's 'Biographies of Royalty' bestsellers list Kensington Palace: An Intimate Memoir from Queen Mary to Meghan Markle, by Tom Quinn Finding Freedom: Harry, Meghan, and the Making of a Modern Royal Family , by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown, by Anne Glenconner Her Majesty: Queen Elizabeth II and Her Court, by Robert Hardman The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England, by Dan Jones Advertisement

Publishing house Harper Collins, which owns Dey Street Books, the publisher of the biography released a brief description of Meghan and Prince Harry's collaboration with the two journalists.

The book's description says that 'few know the true story of Harry and Meghan'.

It promises to go 'beyond the headlines to reveal unknown details of Harry and Meghan's life together, dispelling the many rumours and misconceptions that plague the couple on both sides of the pond'.

It continues: 'With unique access and written with the participation of those closest to the couple, Finding Freedom is an honest, up-close, and disarming portrait of a confident, influential, and forward-thinking couple who are unafraid to break with tradition, determined to create a new path away from the spotlight, and dedicated to building a humanitarian legacy that will make a profound difference in the world.'

A description of the biography on Amazon promises to offer an 'honest, up-close, and disarming portrait' of the 'confident, influential, forward' Prince Harry , 35, and Meghan Markle, 38 (seen on their wedding day in May 2018)

The cover features a beaming Prince Harry and Meghan as they visited their namesake county in October 2018 for the first time.

The Mail on Sunday were told that before moving to North America, the Sussexes gave an interview to the book's authors, both journalists.

One of them, Omid Scobie, is thought to be close to Meghan and was one of the favoured journalists given details of the couple's video call to the Queen last week in which they wished her a happy 94th birthday.

Echoing Princess Diana's secret involvement in the blockbuster biography, Diana: Her True Story, when she encouraged her friends to speak to author Andrew Morton, questions are being asked whether members of Meghan's inner circle were being urged to help Scobie and his American co-author, Carolyn Durand.

The 320-page biography, due to be released in August, is expected to be a global bestseller.
New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Tuesday (May 5, 2020) identified 10 members involved in the controversial Instagram group "Bois Locker Room".

An FIR under relevant sections of IT Act and IPC was registered on May 4, 2020, at PS Special Cell and investigation has been taken up by CyPAD Unit

Delhi Police said, "During social media monitoring, it was noticed that one Instagram group by the name "Bois Locker Room" was being used by the participants to share obscene messages and morphed pictures."

They added, "The concerned Platform, ie, Instagram has been asked to provide the details of the alleged accounts involved in the group. The details are awaited."

According to Delhi Police, as of now, about 10 members of the group have been identified. The identified members who are major, are being examined. The minor members of the group are being dealt with as per the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act.

The devices used to engage in the offensive, vulgar communication have been seized from the identified group members.

Further action will be taken on the basis of material evidence that is gathered in the course of the investigation.

Earlier on Tuesday, Swati Maliwal, Chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women, tweeted, "Police has registered an FIR in the #BoysLockerRoom matter and a 15-year-old was held last evening. Hope all culprits are arrested soon. However young they may be, they must understand that its NOT OK to harass girls! The message should be delivered clearly once and for all!"



Police has registered an FIR in the #BoysLockerRoom matter and a 15 year old was held last evening. Hope all culprits are arrested soon. However young they may be, they must understand that its NOT OK to harass girls! The message should be delivered clearly once and for all! https://t.co/aGzqp95dhy  Swati Maliwal (@SwatiJaiHind) May 5, 2020

The incident came in the limelight when a girl shared screenshots of the group on social media platforms to highlight the matter.

The Instagram group along with a few of the user ids were deactivated as soon as the incident went viral on social media.
Friday marked May Day, also known as International Workers Day.

Chair of Derry Trades Union Council Niall McCarroll has taken the opportunity to express his views on the coronavirus pandemic, current political system, the legacy of deprivation in Derry and to launch a workers charter.

If the last few weeks have shown anything, it is that workers need unions.

The low pay and bad conditions of many who are now praised as heroes cannot be tolerated any longer. We will have to be organised to push forward for real change.

On May Day - International Workers Day - we raised the Red Flag of workers unity and socialism and launched our Workers Charter. We take this initiative in solidarity with the ordinary people of Ireland in a quest for a world where every child has a decent chance and workers are equal citizens, not powerless to shape their own destinies.

The charter calls for the Living Wage for all and a shift in the balance of wealth and power away from corporations and the rich and towards the rest of us.

The Covid-19 crisis is a threat to humanity. It has also laid bare the huge inequalities which have been covered up by a political system which gives an illusion of fair play and equal rights but deprives huge numbers of working people of rights and basic needs.

Now, faced with the possibility of their whole system grinding to a halt, the establishment has found vast sums of money for emergency funding and relief schemes. The money was there all along - even when they were crying poverty and saying they couldnt afford a boost to benefits or tiny wage rises.

Nurses, health service and frontline workers are going beyond all reasonable expectation to keep our families safe and the number of deaths down. Yet these are people who have been undervalued for decades by consecutive governments and employers.

Our health service, our care homes, our domiciliary care workers have been treated as it they were expendable, when they are actually crucial. The most precious of our public services have been vandalised by cuts while our unions, the only practical means of defending ourselves and fighting back, have been systematically weakened and marginalised.

The community response to the crisis has been brilliant. Care, solidarity and cooperation have been the hallmarks of public response. This contrasts with the actions of governments and corporations which have put protecting the economy and profits ahead of protecting people and public health.

We want all workers to receive a tax-free payment of 1,500, plus four additional bank holidays per year. That would be an acknowledgement of all that workers have been put through. Fine words from Government are no longer enough.

Globally, one percent of the population holds almost half the worlds wealth. We need a new system. But this will only come about through working class people across national boundaries beginning to shout out as one.

The COVID-19 pandemic has begun an awakening. People are analysing and questioning the lives they live and the world they live in.

Traders, hedge fund and private equity managers carry on regardless, hiding behind their buddies in government while being portrayed in much of the media as the only people who can pull us through the present predicament, get the economy moving again and so forth. If they are not on board, we are told, no recovery will be possible.

Our political system has done nothing to challenge this devious assumption. There are few political parties which genuinely represent the interests of working-class people.

Politics has taken power away from the people moved towards the major corporations. This is a reality all over the world, our world.

This takeover of control by a ruling class comes with a decline in real wages and a raft of laws to hamstring union organisation. We need a determined fight back.

Under the old way of doing things, PPE was not seen as really important. But the same establishment had no problem when it came to stockpiling private wealth or extracting profit from wealth created by the labour of working people.

The NHS, social housing, education, mental health services, community-based social care have been deprived of funds and support while obscene amounts of money are spent on missiles, bombs, drones and all the high-tech machinery of war, which benefits no one apart from arms manufacturers and war-mongers.

The UK has the sixth biggest defence budget in the world. It is set to reach 55 billion this year. A fraction of this, 18.3 billion, could more than cover the cost of a years furloughing of workers.

The total spend on UK military bases is 141 million a year - enough to double the supply of medical ventilator machines.

Military budgets and the arms trade are causing untold misery. A government of the people would invest this money in areas such as green energy, creating jobs which would encourage global solidarity and protection of the planet.

In Derry and the North West, the crisis has unified people - but has also put a spotlight on the local legacy of deprivation, poverty wages and a run-down of public services. We also have the unreasonable situation of two diverging public health responses to Covid-19 on a small island, increasing the threat to lives.

Our lives cross the border every day. But we have diverging health services, diverging employment laws and diverging welfare systems.

We cannot allow working people and communities to bear the burden of Covid-19 on top of a public health and economic crisis.

We need a new direction for society, towards equality and justice.

WORKERS CHARTER

THE RIGHT TO ORGANISE AND JOIN A TRADE UNION

INVESTMENT IN WORKERS TERMS AND CONDITIONS

A REAL LIVING WAGE

A UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME

FREE CHILDCARE

AN END TO AUSTERITY

RENT CONTROLS

END THE CONCENTRATION OF GLOBAL PRIVATE WEALTH

THE EXPANSION OF PUBLIC SERVICES

INVESTMENT IN GREEN INDUSTRY

AN END TO THE ARMS TRADE
The Vietnamese manufacturing sector saw an intensification of the downturn last month with Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) decreasing to 32.7 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19).

Record falls were seen in output, new orders, employment and purchasing of the manufacturing sector.  Photo tapchitaichinh.vn

A survey of Nikkei and IHS Markit released on Monday showed the index was well down on the reading of 41.9 seen in March, which itself had signalled a record monthly deterioration in the health of the sector. Business conditions have now worsened in each of the past three months.

The extent of the decline was unprecedented in more than nine years of data collection.

According to the survey, record falls were seen in output, new orders, employment and purchasing amid company shutdowns and the cancellation of orders. Meanwhile, business sentiment turned negative for the first time since the survey began.

The impact of COVID-19 was most keenly felt with respect to manufacturing production and new orders. Both fell severely during April amid order cancellations and company closures. The decline in overall new business was outpaced by that seen for new export orders, reflecting the effects of the virus in markets all around the world, the survey stated.

Approximately two-thirds of respondents signalled that output decreased during the month. As such, declines were registered across each of the three broad sectors covered by the survey, led by intermediate goods firms.

A lack of new orders fed through to a steep reduction in backlogs of work. Lower workloads led manufacturers to reduce staffing levels, while there were also some reports of employees having resigned. The resulting decrease in employment was the sharpest on record, the second month running in which a new low has been registered.

Purchasing activity also decreased at a substantial pace, linked to lower new orders, a reduction in production requirements and company closures. As a result, stocks of purchases declined sharply. Stocks of finished goods also fell, albeit to a lesser extent than in March.

Meanwhile, difficulties obtaining imported goods, material shortages and issues travelling meant that suppliers' delivery times lengthened to the greatest extent since the survey began in March 2011.

Input prices decreased for the first time in 16 months during April, and at a marked pace that was the fastest since September 2015. Panellists linked the fall in input costs to a lack of demand for inputs and lower oil prices.

With input costs falling, manufacturers continued to lower their output prices, extending the current sequence of decline to three months. The latest reduction was sharp and the joint- fastest in the survey's history, equal with that seen in June 2012.

For the first time in the series so far, firms were pessimistic regarding the outlook for production over the coming year. Sentiment dropped amid fears that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic could last for a prolonged period. Around 40 per cent of respondents signalled a negative outlook in April.

The latest Vietnam manufacturing PMI report highlights the devastating impact that the COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to restrict its spread have had on the Vietnamese manufacturing sector. April saw an unprecedented decline in the sector, led by severe contractions in output and new orders. Whether April proves to be the nadir of the downturn will depend on how firms and their customers respond to an easing of the lockdown and reopening of businesses that have been closed temporarily," Andrew Harker, Economics Director at IHS Markit, said.  VNS

The health of VN manufacturing sector worsens amid Covid-19 crisis The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) in Vietnam fell from 49 points in February to 41.9 points in March.
WASHINGTON - Senate officials said Monday that they cannot legally release any potential records related to a complaint purportedly filed by a former aide to Joe Biden who has since accused him of sexual misconduct, rebuffing a request by the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Tara Reade has accused Biden, who was then a senator from Delaware, of sexually assaulting her in 1993, although she has said a formal complaint she filed that year describes only harassment, not assault. Biden, who denies all the allegations, has responded in part by calling on the Senate to release all the documentation pertaining to the complaint that Reade says she filed.

Responding to a letter Biden sent Friday, the secretary of the Senate's office, on the advice of legal counsel, concluded that the "Secretary has no discretion to disclose any such information as requested." The office, which did not confirm or deny the complaint's existence, based its decision in part on a review of confidentiality requirements.

The letter from Biden was related to Reade's allegation that Biden reached up her skirt and penetrated her with his fingers in 1993. Biden unequivocally denied the allegations on Friday, speaking directly about them for the first time. He also said he did not recall any complaint being filed.

Reade has told The Washington Post that her complaint dealt with harassment in the office, not assault. She has said that she cannot recall the office to which she filed her complaint and that she does not have a copy.

Reade was employed in Biden's Senate office for nine months, ending in 1993. She said she filed a complaint that year with a congressional human resources or personnel office. The Senate Office of Fair Employment Practices fielded complaints starting in 1992.

On Friday, Biden said relevant documents would not be found in his Senate papers, which are closed to the public, but would rather be housed at the National Archives.

A spokesperson for the Archives said that it has no control over the release of such records and that any documents "would have remained under the control of the Senate." A Senate resolution requires that such personnel records remain out of public view for 50 years.

On Friday afternoon, Biden's campaign released a copy of a letter the candidate had sent to the secretary of the Senate.

"The Archives now states that the records would have remained under the control of the Senate. Accordingly, I request that you take or direct whatever steps are necessary to establish the location of the records of this Office, and once they have been located, to direct a search for the alleged complaint and to make public the results of this search," Biden wrote.

He added, "I would ask that the public release include not only a complaint if one exists, but any and all other documents in the records that relate to the allegation."

The latest development adds to the fog surrounding the Reade allegations and illustrates the difficulty of looking into a 27-year-old alleged incident.

After the secretary of the Senate's statement, Biden campaign attorney Bob Bauer responded with follow-up questions about the possibility for a more limited release.

"Is just the existence of any such records subject to the same prohibition on disclosure?" Bauer asked, according to a statement from the campaign.

Without naming Reade, he asked if the accuser might be able to obtain the records: "Is there anyone, such as a complainant, to whom such records, if they exist, could be lawfully disclosed?" Finally, Bauer asked whether the Senate could release "the procedures and related materials" in 1993 for processing a complaint such as the one Reade has described.

The secretary of the Senate's office responded late Monday to say it was advised by legal counsel that even disclosing the existence of such records "would amount to a prohibited disclosure under the Government Employee Rights Act of 1991." The office said it was not aware of any exceptions in the law allowing it to disclose any records, "even to original participants in a matter."

In response to the campaign's third question, the office attached a public document from the time of the alleged complaint titled "Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices" - the entity that Bauer referred to in his question and that the secretary of the Senate's office referenced in its initial response to Biden.

The document outlines the procedure for bringing concerns to the attention of that office. It states that an employee would first submit a request for counseling to the director of the Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices, in person, by phone or in writing. Unless the employee and the director agreed in writing to contact the employee's office, the information relating to the counseling would not be disclosed to anyone outside the Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices, the document states. If the matter were not resolved, the employee could request mediation, at which point the employee's office would be contacted and involved, the document says. If the matter still remained unresolved after mediation, an employee could file a "formal complaint," according to the document.

Reade did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Over 35 months, which covered Reade's employment period, 479 people sought assistance from the Senate fair employment office, according to congressional testimony in 1995.

Of those, 325 sought informal advice, while 102 went into a five-step process that included counseling and mediation. Only 38 people ended up filing a formal complaint.

If Reade was among those who filed a formal complaint, her record would not normally be available until 2043, based on a Senate resolution passed in 1980 mandating that such information remain private for 50 years.

- - -

The Washington Post's Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.
As global death toll from the coronavirus reaches 250,000, we put names and faces to the people the world has lost.

A Chinese piano teacher who imparted his passion for music to his son, an Indonesian tax consultant who sewed her daughters wedding dress, a chef who fiercely defended workers rights in Italy  these are just some of the people the world has lost to the coronavirus pandemic.

The outbreak is inflicting a heavy toll, with more than a quarter of a million people dead.

Victims of the contagious disease are often dying in isolation, without their families and friends by their side. And across the world, many of the bereaved are being robbed of the comfort and closure of funeral rites.

The people we have profiled here are from all walks of life, representing just a few of the faces and names behind the staggering death toll.

We would like to add more names to the list. If you know of anyone whose story you think we should tell, please get in touch with Zaheena Rasheed, rasheedz@aljazeera.net, or contact us through the feedback section of this story.

Du Shengchang, 67, China

Piano teacher Du Shengchang died on February 15 from complications related to COVID-19. He was 67.

A Wuhan local, Du taught the piano his entire life. Among his students was his son, Du Qin.

Qin remembers his father as a strict man, who would pin him down by the piano every day after school. Du would then sit next to his son to make sure he hit every key correctly.

I owe him a lifetime of gratitude for introducing me to music, and he is forever my first and my last piano teacher, said Qin.

Du was also a loving father, Qin said, sending him home-made food during his time away at college in Shanghai. The well-sealed packages would often come with a note reminding Qin to stay healthy and keep practising the piano.

Du met his wife at the age of 19, while at college.

According to the love story they told me, Id call myself lucky if I could encounter half of the romance they did, said Qin.

Then last year, Du sold the piano that he had been using to teach piano and got a new Steinway & Sons, specifically for his son. Du wanted him to go back home and play a mini-concert for him. But the coronavirus meant Qin never got the chance.

Ali Behzad, 66, Iran

Ali Behzad, a prominent Iranian journalist, died of COVID-19 after fighting the illness for 45 days. He was 66 years old.

Uncle Moustache, as he was called by some close friends, was known for easy smile, his kindness and willingness to help others.

The veteran journalist began his career at the Kayhan newspaper in 1977. Considered the most conservative Iranian daily, Kayhan has been headed by a representative of Irans Supreme Leader since the countrys 1979 revolution. Behzad worked at the papers culture desk for 17 years, rejecting several offers to head its current affairs section.

After leaving Kayhan, Behzad worked as the public relations manager of Behrouz, a large food industry company for 20 years. He wrote several books including the popular Pioneers of Food Industries.

Ismy Latifah, 68, Indonesia

Ismy Latifah, 68, died from COVID-19 in Indonesias capital, Jakarta, on March 19.

Latifah is believed to have contracted the virus from her son, after he came into contact with Indonesias first confirmed local case at a dance in southern Jakarta.

A tax consultant, Latifah continued to advise her clients even after she retired, according to her daughter Eva Rahmi Salama. She also sewed her daughters wedding dress and was a good cook, said Salama, adding that she would miss her mothers traditional dishes of soto ayam (a herbal chicken soup) and nasi goreng (fried rice).

Latifahs parting words to her daughter were to look after the youngest of her two brothers, who is 25 years of age. She then kissed Salamas hand and wished her success.

Taten Syamsir, 70, Indonesia

Salama also lost her father, 70-year-old Taten Syamsir to COVID-19. He died in Jakarta on March 21, only a few hours after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Salama said Syamsir, who had been separated from Latifah for about 20 years, apologised for leaving us all at that time and gripped her hand tightly during their last moments together.

She cried and said she already forgave him.

Giovanna Sigali, 71, Italy

Giovanna Sigali, known as Gianna, died from COVID-19 on March 27.

The 71-year-old died at a nursing home in the northern town of Chiari, half an hour away from Brescia and Bergamo, among two Italian towns most hard hit in the coronavirus outbreak.

The nursing home had closed doors to visitors in February to reduce the risk of infections, but the coronavirus found its own way to get through taking away her life and the one of many others, said her niece, Elisa Arcari.

Be it your birthday, name-day, or some sort of anniversary I knew she would be the very first one to call, said Arcari, her voice imbued with tenderness.

Sigali, born with cognitive disabilities, lived most of her life in Milan.

She moved back to Chiari in 2017, but continued to miss the big city. She was a great fan of AC Milan and had a special place for the teams red and black scarf in her bedroom, among the many photos and teacups she kept there.

Always wearing a hat and a myriad of colourful bracelets, Sigali rigorously followed her daily routine, including breakfast at 9am, an unmissable date with the TV at 2pm to watch Il Segreto, her favourite Spanish soap opera, and endless card games of Gin Rummy.

What I will miss the most? Her smile. I cant remember her without a smile, Arcari said.

Muhammad Ali, 64, Pakistan

Muhammad Ali was a trader, travelling from Pakistan to Iran every few weeks to procure household goods that he would then sell in his home city of Quetta. He contracted the coronavirus following a trip to Iran and died of COVID-19 on March 22. He was 64.

He is survived by seven children. His wife died from a heart attack just a few days after his death, according to Alis 20-year-old son Ali Asghar.

He was a straightforward person. He would go to work and come home. When he was in the hospital, he had no idea what coronavirus was. He just wanted to go home, said Asghar.

He was a softhearted man. When he would go to Iran, hed be there for 15 days or so and then in Pakistan hed spend most of his time at home.

Traditionally, Muslim funeral prayers are offered in conjunction with one of the five daily prayers. For coronavirus patients in Pakistan, however, this is not the case. So Asghar said he drove his fathers body to a graveyard in the dead of night and buried him within hours.

Zhang Lifa, 67, China

Zhang Lifa was born in the final days of World War II, just five years before the Chinese Civil War ended in the eastern province of Shandong.

The young Zhang grew up to become a soldier in the Peoples Liberation Army where he worked in nuclear weapons development. He left the army in 1968 as the Cultural Revolution raged across China, but his service left him deaf in one ear and in poor health due to exposure to radiation.

After leaving the military, Zhang moved to Wuhan where he worked as a clerk at a local college and retired in 2000. The army veteran died on February 1 at the age of 76.

His son, Zhang Hai, thinks his father contracted the coronavirus while he was in hospital for surgery on a broken leg after having a fall in January.

Asked about his favourite memory of his father, Zhang Hai said it was a fairly recent one.

On October 1 last year when China was celebrating its 70th anniversary, Zhang Lifa got to his feet to salute the flag during the playing of the countrys national anthem.

The most important thing I learned from him is that he taught me to maintain my moral integrity, to always show love to others and to treasure life, Zhang Hai said.

Claudio Musa, 79, Italy

An unstoppable worker, devoted to his family and a real socialist  this is how Claudio Musas niece remembers her uncle, who died of COVID-19 at a retirement home in Italys Cremona on March 17. He was 79 years old.

Musa had been a chef at Cremonas hospital for his entire career. If needed, he would always go the extra mile by taking part-time jobs to be sure nothing was missing at home for his wife Rina and three children, Tiziana, Roberto and Nadia, the latter who died from cancer in 1999.

He was firmly convinced that working was peoples expression of dignity, said Bartoletti. And while he was mild mannered, he was a fierce proponent of workers rights which he defended as a leading representative of the hospitals union.

After his wifes death in 2007, Musa dedicated his time to helping his son, Roberto, with his duties as a priest in San Daniele Pos diocese, including cooking almost every summer for the children of the parish.

His career in kitchens and restaurants made him a great organiser, a skill he would use to turn his own family celebrations into festive events, said Bartoletti.

In his last years, Musa, who suffered from diabetes, moved into a nursing home. He was active and social at the Cremona home, quickly establishing a new entourage of friends, especially of women whose company he greatly enjoyed, his niece said.

Reporting by Shawn Yuan and Michael Standaert in China, Randy Mulyanto in Indonesia, Asad Hashim in Pakistan, Maysam Bizaer in Turkey and Virginia Pietromarchi in Qatar.
Back in 2018, This is Money received an e-mail from a reader which started: 'You need to have a section dedicated to crypto technology and currencies.

'This is now a market exploding with ICOs, new currencies daily, technological advancements and a market worth over $550billion.

'The technology is the biggest technological leap since the founding of the internet.'

Bitcoin bullet: Many may have been tempted into buying and selling cryptocurrencies - but may not know how to do it

It highlighted how quickly the cryptocurrency phenomenon exploded in that time and how much some investors believed in the technology.

But, stories of coins going missing, murky practices and price swings have shown just how volatile the world of bitcoin, ethereum, ripple and co are.

Some coins have historically seen falls by 25 per cent in one day  a huge whack for any investor, experienced or otherwise, while many coins were at peak prices at 2018, and haven't recovered as of May 2020, the date we've updated this guide.

Nevertheless, many readers are asking how they can get their hands on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies safely and securely in 2020, and importantly, how they can sell if they want to take profits.

However, it is the Wild West out there. So let's start with the warnings. As mentioned above, digital currencies are volatile and not for the faint-hearted. You should read our bitcoin box below.

Yes, there are plenty of stories about how people have become rich investing in bitcoin at the start and some self-titled experts are saying this is the best new financial investment you can make.

But there have also been plenty of grumbles about it, including from stalwart US investor Warren Buffett - while the Financial Conduct Authority has also warned bout the dangers of investing in bitcoin.

If you do buy into bitcoin Find out how bitcoin and the blockchain works, so that you have some understanding of the system, the ledger, the major players and the public and private key elements. Remember bitcoin yields nothing and its main source of value is scarcity. Most bitcoin activity is trading not investing. Research coin wallets, the digital vaults where cryptocurrency is held, and consider security carefully. Bitcoins have been stolen before, understand how this happened. Be prepared for extreme volatility. The price can move by 20 per cent in one day and you could easily lose half of your cash in a far quicker time that investing in the stock market. Consider how you would cash in any gains. There are reports that this has proved hard for some people. A time of market stress could lead to people being locked in and unable to trade. Read our guide to How to be a successful investor, which looks at the far less high octane world of long-term investing and how to make it a success. What is bitcoin? The digital currency that most will be familiar with is free from government interference and can be shared instantly online. It doesn't rely on trusting one central monetary authority. The underlying technology is blockchain, a financial ledger maintained by a network of computers that can track the movement of any asset without the need for a central regulator.

WILD WEST WARNING

According to analysis by digital threat firm RiskIQ two years ago, the world's top app stores were hosting more than 600 blacklisted bitcoin apps which leave users open to hackers.

It looked at 18,408 apps across 20 app stores, including Apple and Google Play. It found a staggering 661 to be blacklisted by official cyber security vendors - but still available for download by users.

Hackers behind the malicious apps, which have been blacklisted by one or more cyber security vendors, can trick users into handing over large sums of money or personal details for financial gain.

The rise in unofficial and potentially malicious apps across multiple app stores will alarm potential investors looking to buy into bitcoin  and highlights that you need to be on your guard.

Fabian Libeau, vice president of RiskIQ, says: 'We are seeing threat actors around the world exploiting what is already a hostile currency in a lawless digital world.

'Before handing over any cash or personal data investors should carry out thorough research into the exchange and wallet apps they intend to use.'

If you plan to buy cryptocurrency, you must arm yourself with as much knowledge as possible to avoid the conmen.

Wild West: Buying and selling digital currencies can be a minefield of cowboys and chancers

SET UP A WALLET

Search engine data shows that queries for 'buy bitcoin' outstripped 'buy gold' in the latter part of 2017.

This is Money data showed just how many people have been searching some of the most popular digital currencies.

The price of bitcoin surged from around $1,000 at the start of 2017 to near the $20,000 mark in December 2017, bringing it to the attention of the British public.

To get a cryptocurrency, you need a wallet - this is where the digital currency lives.

HAVE YOU BOUGHT INTO THE CRAZE? Have you invested in cryptocurrencies in recent months? Let us know in the comments section below how you did it and how easy or difficult you found the process.

Because it is a relatively new financial craze, it is hard to say which firms offering wallets are reputable while a number have disappeared or lost customers cash, including Mt.Gox in 2014.

Meanwhile, in 2016, a hack saw the Bitfinex exchange platform lose 120,000 bitcoin.

One of the biggest websites to deal in bitcoin is Coinbase  an online exchange, which also has a wallet option. It has a user friendly app and two-factor authentication.

Another is Blockchain.info which is similar to Coinbase. They are both backed with millions in venture capital funding. Visit coinbase.com/signup and blockchain.info to find out more.

However, it only deals with the most familiar digital currencies - if you want to invest in an obscure one, it is much harder (as we explain below).

Another popular wallet is Electrum, which is a wallet for desktop computer use.

BUY AT AN EXCHANGE

AN UPDATE This guide was written in January 2018, and although most of it still holds up, it has needed a little bit of tweaking. Since then, the bitcoin price collapsed from $12,000 to a low of around $3,000 in December 2018. It has recovered somewhat, and even topped $11,000 last July, but has never got close to the stratospheric heights it enjoyed in December 2017. Bitcoin halves on 11 May 2020, which has seen interest in the cryptocurrency soar. You can read more about that here.

Once you have set up your wallet, you add cryptocurrency to it. You find an exchange and send them cash, either by bank transfer or credit/debit card to obtain digital currency. Bank transfer tends to be the cheaper method.

For example, Coinbase charges 3.99 per cent on debit and credit transactions, or 1.49 per cent for a standard buy/sell.

Many have strict requirements for ID purposes. A handy website is Bittybot, which lets you compare brokers and fees, alongside user ratings.

Two of the most popular brokers are Coinify and Coinbase, mentioned above.

If you buy bitcoin, for example, you will need to hand over your unique key. This is an identifier that represents your account and is different from your wallet log-in. It should be easy to find within the details of your account.

Brokers will ask for this address to make a transaction. When it comes to selling, there should be no issue selling a mainstream coin such as bitcoin.

You can use the same broker you bought it from and it will involve them giving you an other key to send your bitcoin too from your wallet. Once the transaction is confirmed, you should receive your cash.

Remember, some of these exchanges can crash unexpectedly. For instance, Kraken, the fifth largest cryptocurrency exchange, was out of service for two days earlier in the month after scheduled maintenance that was supposed to take two hours.

It left many nervy investors wondering if they'd be able to cash out, if they so wished.

It is also possible to buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies through some existing trading platforms, where you actually own the coins themselves.

One popular website which advertises heavily is eToro. We've seen adverts on the London Underground and even on easyJet flight boarding passes. Its system works similar to a DIY investing platform's nominee account system, eToro holds the cryptocurrencies and you have a claim on those that you have bought.

Previously the platform used contracts for difference for crypto, but it no longer does.

I BOUGHT 4K OF RIPPLE ON BITSTAMP One This is Money reader, Alex  who only wants his first name mentioned  invested 1,600 in ripple in June 2017, a further 1,600 at the start of December 2017 and a further 1,000 over that Christmas period. He chose ripple after a friend-of-a-friend recommendation from an IT consultant with a keen interest in cryptocurrencies. He says that they had used an exchange called Gatehub. However, Alex says when he went to invest, the website was sticky and slow. After some research and a raft of good reviews, he plumped for Bitstamp. At the time of his investment, ripple was not really heard of, with only bitcoin and ethereum really in the mainstream domain, making it harder to get hold of. However, it took some hoops to get involved. It took a week to get verified, which involved him sending a copy of passport to the Bitstamp HQ in Slovenia, along with a bank transfer, which meant having his Iban and Swift Code to hand. He says that recently, a friend of his has also tried to sign up with Bitstamp, but the company is quoting five weeks to verify, thanks to a surge of interest. He says his June investment saw ripple at $0.22 a coin, but this fell to $0.10 not long afterwards, testing his nerve at the very beginning. Eventually it rose and he was confident to make another investment, in December, when the coin went to $0.38 a coin. By mid-January, it raced to a record high near $4 a coin  and Alex said his account had grown to 34,000 (it's measured in euros as it is Slovenian based) from roughly 4,000 invested. He said on one train journey home, his account had collapsed from 34,000 to 25,000, as investors began to panic. He believes the price went up after rumours that ripple was heading to Coinbase, one of the main crypto players, meaning more people could invest, thus driving up the price. However, the firm issued a statement saying this wasn't the case - and it lead to a bloodbath. So, was it easy to cash out? Alex says it was. He sold 8,000XRP making a tidy profit and taking away his exposure. This was sold within seconds on the site to eager investors. It has left him with 12,000XRP that he plans to keep hold of. Currently, it has 'stabilised' to around $1.15 a coin. He says Bitstamp charge 0.24 per cent for buying and selling. The cost, he says, of selling, was 9 in fees. It was also warned that it would take up to three working days to arrive in his account. It took two. We asked whether his bank had been in touch regarding any suspicious activity, giving the amounts of money being transferred and having been received overseas. He says he hasn't. A raft of case studies recently in the Financial Times revealed problems cashing out their profits, with some banks suspicious of where customers had received huge sums. Transferring cash and passport details to Slovenia for an investment punt is extreme - but Alex says the risk has paid dividends.

CFDS

Some websites offer investors the chance to take a punt on cryptocurrencies, but not actually own any of their own.

Here, you buy 'Contract For Difference' agreements. This is where an investor and a broker agree to pay each other the difference between the price of an asset at the moment the contract is made and its later price when you decide to close it.

The Financial Conduct Authority warned against betting on the currency using CFDs in November.

They are complex financial instruments which allow novice investors to guess whether the price will go up or down.

Punters could lose up to 50 times their deposit if they get it wrong, meaning they could rapidly rack up huge debts.

The FCA said CFD traders are 'at risk of suffering significant losses and potentially losing more than you have invested'.

OBSCURE COINS HARDER TO BUY

At the time of writing in January 2018, many believed bitcoin had peaked  or reached a point in which they cannot make some of the astronomical gains made by early investors, which has, as of May 2020, held true.

As such, many wanted to take a 'punt' on a lesser known coin - and this still may be the point. There is plenty of them.

This is Money signed up to New Zealand based website Cryptopia in 2018 to see a list of what is available. It was huge.

Two that were being tipped to grow in 2018 from a low level by a panel of four fintech leaders for price comparison website Finder in a cryptocurrency predictions survey were cardano (ADA) and stellar lumens (XLM).

They claimed that cardano  a third generation digital currency - will rise by more than 8,000 per cent from $0.78 a coin to $68.

(Update: This did not happen. As of 4 May 2020, cardano sits at a price of $0.05, having hit an all-time high of $1.33 just before this article was originally published)

However, getting your mitts on the coin as a speculative punt is not as easy as it seems.

Hardly any of the aforementioned brokers or wallets cater for the smaller currencies, only the main players such as bitcoin.

You then find yourself on niche websites  or in our case, Cryptopia.

But to buy any currency on many of these types of website requires you to already own bitcoin or another major cryptocurrency.

Or in Alex's case above, sending bank and passport details to Slovenia, which is a hurdle many - understandably - would not be comfortable with.

When we searched 'how to buy cardano UK' a step-by-step guide said we needed to download software for the wallet and own ethereum to get the coin.

We're not sure how many people would be comfortable downloading software onto their computers or phones from sources they do not know. It is open to all sorts of fraudulent activity.

DO YOU DECLARE PROFITS TO THE TAXMAN?

Those who have made profits from buying and selling digital currencies may be left a little confused about whether or not they need to pay tax.

With the deadline for tax returns fast approaching, many may not know whether or not to declare it - and the HMRC guidelines are a little fuzzy.

In December 2019 the taxman issued a policy paper which said it did not class profits as gambling, which means they would be tax-free.

Instead, 'in the vast majority of cases', it said, 'individuals hold cryptoassets as a personal investment, usually for capital appreciation in its value or to make particular purchases.

'They will be liable to pay Capital Gains Tax when they dispose of their cryptoassets.'

Capital Gains Tax is payable on gains above 12,300. This is 18 per cent for basic-rate income tax payers and 28 per cent for higher-rate taxpayers. If you make less than 12,300 or less on selling all your assets in one year, including other investments or property not just bitcoin, you do not pay CGT.
BAY CITY, MI  Another Tuesday, another set of local restaurants to try some takeout. Enjoy these local favorites while youre sheltering in place.

A view of The Taste of Bay City located at 61309 South Farragut Street in Bay County on Thursday, April 30, 2020.Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com

The Taste of Bay City

Tex Mex fans can still order from this Bay City favorite, located at 1309 S. Farragut St. Order online or call 989-391-4650 for free delivery or curbside pickup. Theyre open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

A view of PJ's Pizzeria located at 510 West 5th Street in Pinconning, Bay County on Thursday, April 30, 2020.Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com

PJs Pizzeria

Pinconnings PJs Pizza is still serving up pizzas and their famous Stromboli at 510 W. Fifth St. Call 989-879-5433 to order pickup or delivery from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

A view of Sporty's Wing Shack and Smokehouse located at 4502 North Huron Road in Pinconning, Bay County on Thursday, April 30, 2020.Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com

Sportys Wing Shack & Smokehouse

In the mood for wings? Sportys in Pinconning is here to serve you. Located at 4502 N. Huron Road, call (989) 879-6050 to order out Thursday through Sunday from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The That Guy's BBQ team poses at their space at the City Market in Bay City on Friday, Oct. 18, 2019.Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com

That Guys BBQ & Grill & That Guys Meats

Order from That Guys BBQ to satisfy your craving for meat. Located at 401 Center Ave. Suite 100, call 989-482-1946 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

A view of Rathskeller Food and Spirits located at 600 East Midland Street in Bay County on Thursday, April 30, 2020.Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com

Rathskeller Food & Spirits

Whether you want a Reuben, burger or breaded fried pickles, Rathskeller has you covered. Located at 600 E. Midland St., theyre open Monday through Wednesday from noon to 7 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday noon to 8 p.m. Check their website for their new, limited menu options. You can order curbside or in-person pickup by calling either 989-892-0621 or 989-493-3342.

Try some of the restaurants weve previously featured.

45 Restaurants with takeout available during coronavirus outbreak in Saginaw and Bay County

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Takeout Tuesday has sandwiches, pizza and more to offer in Bay County

Try one of these 5 Bay County restaurants for Takeout Tuesday

5 more Takeout Tuesday restaurants to try in Bay County

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Takeout Tuesday in Saginaw County: 5 restaurants to order from tonight

For Takeout Tuesday, try one of these 5 Saginaw County restaurants
An 82-year-old great-grandmother is aiming to walk 5k a day for three weeks to raise money for Cancer Focus Northern Ireland.

Moyra Fullerton, who lives in Keady but is isolating with her daughter Bernie McKevitt and family in Glenavy due to the coronavirus, is hoping to raise 1,000 for the charity.

Cancer Focus NI has had to suspend many of its support services for cancer patients and their families, and has furloughed most staff due to the pandemic. It has also had to postpone fundraising events.

Bernie said: "Mammy lost daddy, Joe, over four years ago to lung cancer. My sister Moyra (Barnes) was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at the end of October and recently had her last session of chemo and is thankfully now on her way to recovery.

"Mammy wanted to raise some funds to help others going through cancer and to help them beat it."

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Moyra, who has 10 children, 28 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, is also aiming to improve her own fitness.

Cancer Focus NI's Rosie Forsythe said: "We rely hugely on the public to provide over 90% of our income. Regrettably, we have also had to cancel or postpone our fundraising events and our income has dramatically reduced, so we are truly grateful to Moyra for taking up this amazing challenge.

"We are very impressed by her efforts and we think she's just wonderful."

If you would like to make a donation to Moyra's walk, go to Bernadette McKevitt's JustGiving page.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, May 5, 2020 10:31 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd5facf2 1 Entertainment comedy-series,Baim-Wong,Lock-In,COVID-19,#COVID19,coronavirus,#coronavirus,Malaysia Free

Indonesian actor Baim Wong is among the stars featured in Lock-In, a Malaysian drama-comedy series that revolves around the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hopefully, the series will entertain everyone in Malaysia and Indonesia, read a post on Baim's Instagram account on Sunday that also shared the first episode of the series.

The pilot episode of Lock-In begins with the Malaysian government announcing it will enforce a lockdown. All the actors and actresses, who are portrayed as living in the same place even though each was actually filmed separately, are then seen expressing their opinions about it.

In the series, Baim shares his anxiety about being unable to see his wife and son due to the lockdown.

Read also: Baim Wong: His new character

The second episode of Lock-In is available to watch on the Instagram account of Malaysian actress Nora Danish, who is also in the series.

Lock-In features several other Malaysian artists, namely Erma Fatima, Datin Seri Umie Aida, Neelofa, Janna Nick, Sherry Al Hadad and Remy Ishak.

Born in Jakarta, Muhammad Ibrahim "Baim" Wong gained popularity starring in local soap operas and films. In 2019, he acted in Bebas (Free), a film directed by Riri Riza that is based on South Korean film Sunny.

Together with his wife Paula Verhoeven, Baim posts videos on his YouTube channels Baim Paula (BAPAU) and Bapau Family that follow the couple's daily life. (wir/kes)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 15:51:47|Editor: huaxia

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China has donated medical equipment and accessories to a newly-built laboratory of Myanmar's military hospital. The donation, including medical equipment, reagents and consumables, enables the lab to test COVID-19 virus samples faster and more efficiently.
PR-Inside.com: 2020-05-05 09:12:02

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gold Lion Resources Inc. (Gold Lion or the Company) (CSE: GL) (OTC: GLIOF) (FWB: 2BC) is pleased to announce that it has submitted drill permit applications for its South Orogrande and Erikson Ridge gold projects located near Elk City, Idaho, to the local United States National Forest Service division. The proposed permit applications would allow Gold Lion to establish up to 50 drill sites at South Orogrande, and up to 62 drill sites at Erikson Ridge. Both permit applications fall under the categorical exclusion provision available with the United States National Forest Service. The categorical exclusion provision is the most expedited permitting process available and the Company anticipates receiving full permits by fall 2020.



South Orogrande Drill Plan

The South Orogrande Property is centered around the Monday and X-Zones, two undrilled 1.5 x 3 km and 5 x 1.5 km gold-in-soil anomalies with coincident aeromagnetic, induced polarization, and DIGHEM geophysical anomalies in areas of minimal outcrop and widespread placer gold occurrences. Drill holes included in the permit application are located mostly along existing roads and focus on the highest tenor gold-in-soil anomalies within the X-Zone. Additionally, two holes located at the northeast extent of the Monday Zone were included in the application that target the north-south oriented Monday Fault Zone which straddles the property boundary with Endomines Friday Mine, where a historic drill hole intercepted 20.1m of 2.1g/t Au (incl. 6.4m of 5.5g/t Au)1.

Erikson Ridge Drill Plan

The target at Erikson Ridge is shear-hosted (mesothermal) gold mineralization located within the productive Orogrande Shear Zone which cuts northeast-southwest through the center of the Property for a combined length of over 6 km. The Property is centered on a 1980s era near surface oxide-gold resource which was discovered due to a small erosional window through thin post-mineral cover where mineralization is exposed at surface. Drill holes included in the permit application are focused on confirmation and expansion drilling within the historic resource, as well as targeting extensions along strike within the Orogrande Shear Zone where no modern systematic exploration has been completed. An IP survey will be completed over several kilometers of strike length along the Orogrande Shear Zone which will firm up drill targets prior to the Companys inaugural drill program on the Property.

Drill permit maps for the Projects can be found on the Companys website at the following URL:

https://goldlionresources.com/projects/2020-drill-permitting/

Qualified Person

Agnes Koffyberg, P.Geo., is the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 who has reviewed and approved the technical data in this news release.

About Gold Lion Resources Inc.

Gold Lion Resources Inc. is a mineral exploration company actively involved in the exploration of its precious metal focused portfolio including the South Orogrande, Erikson Ridge, Robber Gulch, Cuteye and the Fairview Properties located in Idaho and British Columbia. For more information please visit: https://goldlionresources.com/ .

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Oliver Friesen

CEO

T: +1 (778) 772-1751

The CSE and Information Service Provider have not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this release.

Forward-looking Information Cautionary Statement

Except for statements of historic fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "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 and estimates at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements including, but not limited to delays or uncertainties with regulatory approvals, including that of the CSE. There are uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information, including factors beyond the Companys control. There are no assurances that the business plans for Gold Lion Resources described in this news release will come into effect on the terms or time frame described herein. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties that could affect financial results is contained in the Companys filings with Canadian securities regulators, which are available at www.sedar.com .

1 Premium Exploration Press Release, 9/10/2012.
A New York woman allegedly stabbed her roommate after she criticized her for her drinking while they were staying in their Upper East Side apartment under the city's coronavirus lockdown orders.

The victim, Tatiana Nazarinova, 31, was left stabbed in the arm, shoulder, hands and face after the alleged assault which took place April 19.

Her roommate, Daria Alyabyeva, 27, who was alleged to have left her roommate to die, was charged with attempted murder and assault by the NYPD when officers found the woman.

Daria Alyabyeva, 27, is accused of allegdly stabbing her roommate after she was confronted about her drinking on April 19. She was charged with attempted murder and assault by cops

Tatiana Nazarinova, 31, was left stabbed in the arm, shoulder, hands and face after she was allegedly attacked by Alyabyeva in their Upper East Side apartment in New York while they were observing coronavirus lockdown orders

Pictured is the Upper East Side apartment (center) where the alleged stabbing took place

Nazarinova recalled during a bedside interview with the Daily News while hospitalized at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center that Alyabyeva had left her to die, showing no remorse.

'I said 'Dasha I'm gonna die, call the police!'' the victim told the News. 'And she said 'No, die b----.''

Nazarinova was able to call for help on her cell phone.

Alyabyeva was charged on Tuesday after cops caught up with her nine days after the alleged attack. She is currently being held at Riker's Island on a $750,000 bond.

Nazarinova said she and Alyabyeva were first roommates in California years ago, but had a falling out over her drinking.

'I promised myself and my parents and my friends that I'm not gonna deal with this person ever again,' Nazarinova said. 'She was acting really really crazy and wild.'

Nazarinova said she and Alyabyeva were first roommates in California years ago, but had a falling out over her drinking. 'I promised myself and my parents and my friends that I'm not gonna deal with this person ever again,' Nazarinova said. She is pictured in a Facebook post

Nazarinova moved to New York about six years ago to start an Airbnb out of her Upper East Side apartment and said that she heard from Alyabyeva again last year.

She had come to Nazarinova asking for help getting established in the city, the victim recalls.

'I thought, if not me, then who?' said Nazarinova. 'We're Russians and we should take care of each other. And honestly, it was a mistake.'

But Alyabyeva's drinking persisted and she would knock back a few during job interviews for waitress and hostess positions, Nazarinova told the News.

She said she then put her foot down about her roommate's drinking once the city's coronavirus lockdown began. 'I told her, 'You can't drink in the house, you can't go to the liquor store. It's a rule,'' Nazarinova said.

Nazarinova (pictured in an image posted on social media) moved to New York about six years ago to start an Airbnb out of her Upper East Side apartment and said that she heard from Alyabyeva again last year

She claims, however, that Alyabyeva ignored her mandate by concealing her drinking.

'She would start drinking in the morning,' Nazarinova said. 'She would go to the kitchen and grab a coffee cup and pretend she was drinking coffee or tea.'

At one point in March, Alyabyeva allegedly got drunk and threatened to stab her, claims Nazarinova, who responded by hiding all the knives in their kitchen. She said she told cops, who instructed her to tell the roommate to go 'walk around the block and sober up.'

Anxieties were running high by April 19.

'I was getting mad,' Nazarinova said. 'Emotionally and physically I can't stand this.'

Alyabyeva rejected her offers of support.

'She was like 'No, f--- it. I just want some whiskey,'' Nazarinova says.

Alyabyeva was willing to compromise and drink only in her room. But upon returning from going outside for a food order, Nazarinova said she found a glass of whiskey in the living room.

Nazarinova (pictured) says she put her foot down about her roommate's drinking once the city's coronavirus lockdown began. 'I told her, 'You can't drink in the house, you can't go to the liquor store. It's a rule.'' But she claims Alyabyeva ignored the mandate

When she put her the booze in the sink, Alyabyeva responded with fury.

'She had super crazy eyes, I can't even explain it,' Nazarinova said. 'I was like, 'What's your problem?'

Then the alleged stabbing came.

'I didn't realize she had a huge meat knife,' Nazarinova said. 'I tried to push her away. It was so fast, and dark in the hallway.'

Discovering she was wounded, Nazarinova said her hip was 'fountaining blood.'

'I was like 'Please stop, please stop,' she added. 'I literally realized I'm probably gonna die because I was losing so much blood. I saw something coming out of my abdomen, I guess it was my intestine.'

When the roommate left the apartment and cops and paramedics arrived, Nazarinova said she felt like she wasn't going to make it. She was encouraged to fight for her life and was rushed to the hospital, where she was treated and is now recovering.

The alleged stabbing has soured the relationship with Alyabyeva, Nazarinova says.

'She was calling me her best friend, like her almost-family,' Nazarinova said of her roommate. 'And this is what she did to me.'
CHICAGO, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC) announced today that its Board of Directors has named current president, Maurice Smith, as chief executive officer and president, effective June 1, 2020. At that time, David Lesar, will step down as the company's interim CEO; he will remain a member of the Board of Directors.

"On behalf of the entire Board of Directors, I am pleased that Maurice will lead HCSC at this critical time for the company and our country as we continue to work through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic," said David Lesar. "Maurice has deep industry experience and a proven track record of strong leadership, and he recognizes the challenges we must confront, and the opportunities we have now to advance our purpose. The Board and I look forward to working with him and the rest of the HCSC team to ensure a continued success in simplifying the health care experience and helping people achieve their health care goals."

"I am honored to lead HCSC, a company that for more than 90 years has focused on innovation, execution  and through the dedication of our nearly 24,000 employees  helped expand access to quality, cost-effective health care to all Americans," said Maurice Smith. "We will continue to take action to focus and execute on a strategy that will propel this exciting and innovative company into the next phase of its evolution, while providing long-term value to customers, medical and other health care providers, employees and other partners in the dynamic health care industry."

Maurice joined HCSC nearly 27 years ago as an intern. Since that time, he worked in many functions at HCSC assuming increased responsibility, excelling in each position and demonstrating solid strategic leadership. Prior to being named president of HCSC, Maurice was president of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois where he was responsible for the overall strategic direction for Illinois health plan including the organization's long-term growth strategy, planning and performance.

Maurice brings a broad perspective and deep understanding of the industry having held many senior financial management roles, including head of corporate transactions and investment strategies. He also oversaw HCSC's subsidiaries and served as the Chairman of Dearborn National Life Insurance Company.

About Health Care Service Corporation

Health Care Service Corporation is the country's largest customer-owned health insurer and fifth largest health insurer overall, with nearly 16 million members in its health plans in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. A Mutual Legal Reserve Company, HCSC is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. For more information, please visit HCSC.com, visit our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter.

SOURCE Health Care Service Corporation

Related Links

www.hcsc.com


It is said that necessity is the mother of all invention, and today, no statement holds more truth than this. The national lockdown has affected us all, and weve had to make various adjustments to our day to day lives to ensure that we stay safe, but keep moving forward. In times like these, the one thing (amongst others) that keeps us going is our dreams, and there are no restrictions there.

To keep our financial dreams alive, we need to focus on staying invested. This discipline can help each of us move past this difficult phase of our lives. And through our latest campaign, thats exactly what we want every Indian to do. Stay home, stay safe and be focused on your dreams, by making smart decisions and invest systematically towards achieving those financial goals.

As a part of our investor education initiative, this campaign helps spread the message that you can invest digitally too! Weve adapted the digital way of life for our day-to-day activities, and we shouldnt forget to extend this to investing for our future as well, by investing into mutual funds through digital modes of investment.

As an extension of our Kuch Smart Kar, SIP start Kar campaign that we launched in 2019 with the SIP HOP Song Chal kuch smart kar, SIP start kar, we tried to highlight the true spirit of the Indian people, their strength and resilience to adapt to any situation. While the situation across the globe is unprecedented, life continues to find a way to move forward. And we salute that spirit of each and every individual who continues to move forward, no matter what.

Our film showcases the new normal, be it team meetings via video call, health and fitness lessons online, placing orders for vegetables and groceries through digital platforms and more. All the work on this film has been done indoors and digitally during the lockdown, in accordance with the safety rules prescribed by the Government of India.

Abhijit Shah, Head- Marketing, Digital & Customer Experience, ICICI Prudential AMC says, There is a large shift in how we are managing our lives without stepping out in current times, by embracing smarter ways of doing things. Digital has emerged as the new normal and an efficient way forward for most of our activities including managing personal finance. With the help of various tools available through mobile applications and websites, one can easily learn, understand and assess the benefits of a systematic investment plan to fulfill various financial goals.

Through this communication, our endeavour is to highlight the benefits of digital investing and SIP as the preferred investment route in volatile market conditions. Hence we believe it is important to start and continue a smart habit like SIP, especially when it can be done conveniently through digital solutions.

As the digital revolution continues, investing digitally is also quite easy and convenient through various platforms.

A SIP or Systematic Investment Plan is an easy, convenient and disciplined way of investing in mutual funds. Volatile times provide an investor with the opportunity to buy/accumulate more units (in case of mutual fund) at lower price, helping us to lower cost of acquisition And thats why were asking investors to start now, if they have not already, to achieve their goals and dreams in life. It is important for each of us to use this time, to plan, assess and work towards financial fitness in order to achieve our goals.
Amanda Bynes is not pregnant or residing in sober living, according to her lawyer.

Attorney David Esquibias on Monday told US Weekly that 33-year-old actress is 'sheltering at a safe environment' amid the ongoing lockdown in her native Southern California in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Bynes captioned a March 17 Instagram selfie of herself and fiance Paul Michael with the message 'baby on board,' spurring speculation the former child star was expecting.

The latest: Amanda Bynes, 34, is not pregnant or residing in sober living, according to her lawyer, David Esquibias

Michael took to the social media site with a parallel post including an image of an ultrasound.

The What I Like About You star's announcement came about a month after he popped the question to her on Valentine's Day; and less than two weeks after the couple had a parting March 8 amid a complicated situation in her conservatorship situation.

A judge ordered Bynes to enter a mental health facility, which she agreed to but later decided against doing; her lawyer said that she's under care for 'ongoing mental health issues.'

The All That actress spoke with Paper in 2018 about the rough times she suffered in 2014, out of which she emerged under the conservatorship.

Staying put: The actress is 'sheltering at a safe environment' amid the ongoing lockdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic

Visit from the stork? Both Bynes and Michael captioned selfie with the message 'baby on board,' spurring speculation the former child star was expecting

Michael took to the social media site with a parallel post including an image of an ultrasound

'I just had no purpose in life,' the Thousand Oaks, California native told the publication. 'I'd been working my whole life and [now] I was doing nothing. I had a lot of time on my hands and I would "wake and bake" and literally be stoned all day long.'

Bynes said that amid the rough patch she hung out 'with a seedier crowd,' 'isolated a lot' and 'got really into' doing drugs.

'It became a really dark, sad world for me,' Bynes said, adding that 'the mixture of marijuana and whatever other drugs and sometimes drinking' she was doing everyday 'made [her] a completely different person.'
Indian-American NASA astronaut Sunita Williams has advised Indian students stranded in the US due to the coronavirus-linked global travel restrictions to use the occasion to think how they could be a productive and positive addition to the society.

During a virtual interaction, she compared the Indian students' experience to her being in space in a spacecraft where you don't get to go, see your family and friends and give them a real hug.

Organised by the Embassy of India Student Hub on Friday, the interaction was watched by 84,000 people on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in the first 24 hours.

Williams drew on her 322 days of orbiting in space to encourage a move from I to We, saying Isolation also provides a time to reflect and think about how you can be a productive, active, positive addition to the society.

She joined the live session virtually from her kitchen in Houston, where she is undergoing training for another human spaceflight in 2021.

During the interaction, Williams stated how everyone could achieve something significant right now.

Even just staying home and being responsible and not infecting others or getting infected gives you the opportunity to be a part of something much bigger than yourself, she said.

She said that the COVID-19 crisis was making them stronger as it was teaching them to push through and finish what is important.

The Indian students praised Williams for sharing her thoughts.

Suni (Williams) has been my inspiration since I was in school. She gave me the impetus to follow my fascination with aircraft and spacecraft and take up Aerospace Engineering in undergrad. I was really glad to have a dialogue with a global icon!" said 2020 graduate and India Student Hub volunteer Cherie Singh.

It was brilliant to get the perspective of an astronaut who experienced social isolation from the whole mankind! I also realised that she is a regular person like all of us - that we don't have to become a superhuman' in one day to be a part of one of mankind's greatest achievements, said Arshiah Yusuf Mirza.

Williams first travelled to the International Space Station in 2006. She took a box of samosas, the Bhagavad Gita and an idol of Lord Ganesha to keep her grounded and help her feel closer to home.

A view from the stars! Thank you Sunita Williams @Astro_Suni for sharing your experiences from Space and inspiring our students. Excellent initiative by India Student Hub @IndianEmbassyUS, Indian Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu said in a tweet.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
For most of the world, the Met gala is known for its red carpet. Fashions most influential designers and models pair up with actors, musicians, authors, and artists, turning the Metropolitan Museum of Arts staircase into a tableau vivant of haute fashion and creativity. But for all its glitz, this annual red carpet is underscored by something crucial to the fabric of fashion history: The Costume Institutes spring exhibition, curated by Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu curator in charge of the Costume Institure. The show acts as a mirror to our culture, connecting fashion to politics, religion, society, and fine art. This years exhibit, About Time: Fashion and Duration, was set to mark 150 years in the museums life, showcasing its expansive acquisitions with the goal of highlighting fashions relationship to both time and timelessness. Its somewhat ironic, of course, that an exhibit about time would be postponed.

Online, though, the show will go on. A group of 11 young women are planning to mark the exhibitions would-be opening with a virtual gala. Called the HF Twitter Met Gala, the digital event will celebrate the exhibition on Monday, May 4even if the show itself has been rescheduled to October.

The name of the project comes from HF Twitter, a community of fashion obsessives that use the social media platform as a forum for discourse on fashion, design, and industry ethics. Unlike Instagram, where images are everything and influencers and celebrities thrive, Twitters HF community is made up ofto borrow parlance from the platformreal heads only. Using mostly text (though mood boards and threads of runway-show images do play a crucial role in communication), members of the HF community can tell you the exact season of an Alexander McQueen shoe, the model who wore it, and the meaning of the collection, to boot. The stars of this world are not Insta-girls, its clout is not tied to buzzy sneaker collabs or logo hoodies; instead, threads discuss and debate the messages of Martin Margielas 90s work and celebrate the fantastical storytelling of the couturier Guo Pei.

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Photographed by Corey Tenold

Aria Olson is a 19-year-old HF Twitter member with the handle @pughatory and about 6,800 followers. She recently graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelors degree in aerospace engineering and will be beginning a masters program in the fall, but before that, she has a lot of planning to do. From her home in Kansas City, Missouri, Olson is masterminding the HF Twitter Met Gala. I discovered fashion during what is to date one of the darkest periods of my life, she writes in her official bio on the HF Met Gala site. The beauty, joy, and pure creativity expressed through the art of fashion came as a much needed breath of fresh air. In November of 2019, she floated the idea of an HF Twitter Met Gala online. Since then it has become one of the worlds most buzzed-about digital events, covered in the New York Times and in many international editions of Vogue. Oscar de la Renta has been announced as a partner, and over 800 people have officially signed up to take partthough the total number could reach into the thousands.

This is just a snapshot of all the amazing people on Twitter, she says over a Zoom call. This [gala] was inspired by and for the community. I think that High Fashion Twitter doesnt tend to get enough hypepeople dont really hear about it because its a completely different base than Instagram, which is really visual and fashion is a very visual field. Twitter is really overlooked. But were just a snapshot of the amazing people that are on there.

Ignored no more, this subset of fashion obsessives has caught the attention of the industry. I initially heard about this from Andrew [Bolton], and I thought it was important for people to recognize the day, says Thom Browne, who is outfitting one of the organizers for the HFTMG. It is a very important day for the inauguration of Andrews show, which represents a long years worth of amazing scholarship in the world of fashionhis shows have truly elevated fashion to the level of art.

Photo: GoRunway.com

Olson isnt doing it alone. After soliciting help on Twitter, she chose 10 other women to make up the HFTMGs core team. They range in age from 15 to 22 and live in seven different countries: Alejandra Beltran, 21, is from Bogota, Colombia; Chloe Kennedy, 19, is from Houston, Texas; Jana Dragicevic, 15, hails from Belgrade, Serbia; Margaux Merz, 19, is from Ann Arbor, Michigan; Perla Montan, 19, is from Massachusetts and currently studying in Paris; Raebele, 18, is from the Philippines; Rebeca Spitz, 20, is from Washington, D.C.; Samantha Haran, 21, is from Queensland, Australia; Senam Attipoe, 20, is from Elkridge, Maryland; and Sofia Abadi, 21, is from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Their interests are as diverse as they areHaran is a law student, Dragicevic is a high school gymnast, others are studying fashion journalism, industrial engineering, graphic design, and printmaking. They have never met IRL.

Instead, they convene on Zoom or in WhatsApp chatsthey have five going strongat all hours of the day and night to plan their event. The organizers have divided participation into four categories. The Wardrobe Challenge asks participants to go into their closets and style their own About Timeinspired look. Illustration Expression brings creativity to two dimensions with original artworks of new or extant garments. The Photoset Creation challenge asks for mood boards that relate to the theme, while Open Creativity allows participants to express themselves however they choose. One thats gotten a lot of attention is the Brand Challenge, where the organizers randomly assign a brand to participants, who must create a thematic mood board using only that labels works.

If you go on Twitter, many people are making threads about information theyve found about the brand weve assigned them, Beltran says. Its expanding their knowledge, and thats the main goal. The group goes on to explain that they hope to use the Brand Challenge to highlight designers who dont get a lot of cred on HF Twitter, as well as to spotlight designers of color. HF Twitter mainstays, like Alexander McQueen, are not included. Instead, you might be assigned LaQuan Smith or Noir Kei Ninomiya.

In addition to the challenges, the HFTMG team has used their account as a platform to discuss fashion history and advocate for environmental and sustainable change in the industry. Long threads discuss the history of the gala and the academic inspirations behind this years show, encouraging followers to engage with the lesser-celebrated aspects of one of fashions flashiest events. Think of it as Fashion History 101.

Since their gala has been gaining media attention, the women have noticed an uptick in HF Twitter accounts. Its overwhelming but its so exciting. I dont think we thought this would happen to our communityno one knows about us! Abadi, a graphic designer who produced all the branding for the project, says.

The fact that people are at home, with little else to plan for or look forward to, has only amplified the importance and excitement around the HF Twitter Met Gala. I think this serves as a great form of escapism during all of this, Kennedy says. People are able to focus on something thats not the pandemic, which I think is very important for mental health and a general sense of joy.

Having something else that people can look forward to, this other thing thats on our timeline, I think is a really great distraction, Attipoe adds. But were not ignoring the pandemic. Were aware of its effects and thats why were planning a fundraiser. Anyone who donates $5 to the International Medical Corps and sends a screenshot to the HFTMG organizers will receive an e-book of highlights from the event.

Starting at midnight on Monday, May 4, the team will be RTing and responding to their thousands of participants. Were 24/7 working on this, Abadi says. I just cant believe that Im in a group of 15- to 22-years-olds from every point on the planet and were doing all this. Its amazing. Im honestly so proud.

Fashion obsessives the world over will agree that the groundswell of support and emotion around the Twitter-specific event is exactly the mood-lifter this momentand this industryneeds right now. I think it just goes to show how many people are really, truly interested in fashion and want to get into the fashion industry, which is kind of the whole reason I signed up for the event, Spitz says. Im so excited to see everyones creativity that we havent had a chance to see yet.

Originally Appeared on Vogue
NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE A t the start of the 19th century, America was a rural society that depended on boats and horses for its transportation needs. A century later, it was the greatest industrial power in the world. In the interim, the railroad had carried the industrial revolution across America, building the nation as we know it today.

Many nowadays forget this history, and the crucial role American workers, families, and communities played over generations in building our railroads and expanding them. And in the case of Palestine, in east Texas, that historical amnesia could have serious real-world consequences, as the Union Pacific Railroad now seeks to abandon its long-standing contractual obligations to the town.

In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, Texas was still a vast and inaccessible frontier with only a few miles of railroads in the very eastern part of the state. Then Texans started building railroads, first expanding them to cover the rest of east Texas and then, eventually, across the entire state. With millions of acres in land grants from the state, and bonds raised for them by local communities like Palestine, the railroads took off, connecting local communities across the state and connecting the state to the nation.

At the heart of Texass growing railroads was Palestine, where local leaders negotiated with two early Texas railroads to create a rail juncture. As an incentive, the families of Palestine and Anderson County raised a bond of $150,000  an enormous sum in those days  and the two railroads agreed to keep their general offices and other facilities in Palestine indefinitely. That agreement was signed in 1872, and within a year the railroads met at Palestine.

In the following decades, the railroads that serviced Palestine went through many reorganizations and changes in ownership. By the early 1950s, they had been acquired by the Missouri-Pacific railroad company. MoPac, as it was informally known, reached a deal with Palestine in 1954 to modify the original 1872 shop agreement. Palestine agreed to release the railroad from the 1872 agreement if the railroad would agree to keep 4.5 percent of its employees in Palestine across several specific job categories. If MoPac breached the contract, then the original shop agreement would go back into effect.

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When Union Pacific railroad acquired MoPac in 1982, company executives were well-aware of the 1954 agreement and openly affirmed its validity. With Union Pacifics much larger workforce, the percentage of its employees that had to be maintained in Palestine was much smaller, but otherwise the deal remained the same. In the decades that followed, Union Pacific repeatedly reaffirmed its commitment to the 1954 agreement, and the people of Palestine continued to rely on it in setting their city-planning and economic-development policies.

But then, last November, on the day before Thanksgiving, Union Pacific filed suit in federal court to have the 1954 agreement invalidated. It hopes, essentially, to take the money and run  to close up shop in Palestine, increasing its own profits by laying off scores of workers and leaving the community devastated.

This is no story of a railroad that has fallen on hard times. Union Pacific is one of the most profitable railroads in the world. At most, walking out on its obligations to Palestine will save it less money than some of its executives make in annual bonuses. But it does fit a larger pattern: Underneath the medias radar, the company has been leaving one town after another reeling from sudden terminations and layoffs in the interest of its own bottom line. From St. Louis and Kansas City in Missouri to Omaha and North Platte in Nebraska to the town of Hermiston in Oregon, Union Pacific has been terminating lifelong employees and union members for years.

Still, the case of Palestine is in one way even worse: Closing up shop in Palestine would violate the terms of the agreement that allowed the railroads and the town to develop and grow alongside each other for generations.

Through most of their expansion, railroads in this country were publicprivate partnerships, like those that allowed for the development of our countrys highways and public schools. The states gave huge land-grants to the railroads. Local families donated land and rights-of-way, and built houses for railroad workers. Palestine and Anderson County helped finance their railroads the same way many communities finance construction of their public-school buildings. In exchange, the railroads agreed to maintain certain operations in the town. Such shop agreements were the base that allowed railroads to spread across the nation, protected by law through bankruptcies and reorganizations.

This is not the first time that the railroads have tried to walk away from their obligations to Palestine. The last time was in the 1970s, when MoPac proposed to merge two of its subsidiaries. At the time, such a merger required authorization from the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). Because it considered the 1954 agreement an added complication to the merger, MoPac asked the ICC to rule that the 1954 agreement was a burden on interstate commerce and terminate the agreement under its preemption authority.

The ICC decided in MoPacs favor, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed that decision in the famous case of Palestine v. United States (1977), ruling that MoPac had gotten enormous value from Palestine and couldnt simply walk away from the contract. Then, in 1995, Congress passed the ICC Termination Act, replacing the ICC with the Surface Transportation Board (STB). The Act provided the STB with exclusive authority to regulate railroad practices, routes, services and facilities. The Act also established that the STBs remedies with respect to the regulation of rail transportation would be exclusive and preempt other legal claims such as those for breach of contract.

Union Pacific was aware of the Fifth Circuits ruling and of MoPacs obligations under the 1954 Agreement when it acquired MoPac in 1982. It repeatedly reaffirmed its commitment to the contract, which it knew Palestine was relying on to craft city-planning and economic-development policies. Yet the companys lawyers now argue, in effect, that because the ICC Termination Acts remedies are exclusive, no contract that would otherwise be enforceable under state law is enforceable against it. Thats a clever argument, but it doesnt withstand scrutiny: If it were made precedent, Union Pacific could sign an ordinary contract for delivery of any goods or services and then refuse to pay up because the contract was unenforceable.

Union Pacific must know that its legal reasoning is shaky, but it doesnt care. It thinks that because it has infinite resources, while Palestine is just a small town that can barely afford to pay a handful of public officials, it can take advantage of us and walk away with the benefits of a contractual arrangement that has been repeatedly affirmed by the parties and upheld by the courts over almost 150 years.

Generations of families  including our families  have worked to make Americas railroad a national success. We did so because we trusted that the railroads would keep their side of the bargain. Now Union Pacific wants to break that trust, and our town is fighting back. Its a fight all American families have a stake in.

Steve Presley is the mayor of Palestine, Texas. Robert D. Johnston is the county judge for Anderson County, Texas.

More from National Review
A total of 453 persons who have tested positive for Coronavirus (Covid-19) but are asymptomatic are in isolation centers across the country.

The Director General of the Ghana Health Service, (GHS) Dr. Patrick Kuma Aboagye, disclosed this at a press briefing in Accra May 5.

He said of the number in isolation, 339 are in Accra with 85 in the Eastern Region.

He further noted that nine more are in isolation in the Ashanti Region.

Dr. Aboagye said isolation was a critical step in stopping the viral infection and therefore urged community leaders to encourage those who have tested positive but are not showing any symptoms to adhere to the isolation protocol because they can transmit the virus.

---Daily Guide
The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic was linked to the rise of the Nazi party, a federal paper has revealed - sparking fresh fears of American division over the nation's response to COVID-19.

The Nazi party's ascension to power was in part triggered by the fallout from the pandemic, which killed more than 50 million people and infected one-third of the global population, according to a research paper written by bank economist Kristian Blickle and published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The shocking connection raises concerns over life post-coronavirus pandemic, with tensions visibly mounting between the far-right and the liberals and deep divides already emerging across the US.

In Congress, the Trump administration has been at loggerheads with Democrat senators and state governors about the most effective response to the pandemic.

While at a grassroots level, gun-touting conservative protesters have been marching on capitol buildings at anti-lockdown rallies clashing with police and counter-protesters.

The Nazi party's ascension to power was in part triggered by the fallout from the Spanish flu pandemic, according to a research paper by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York

The stark research paper released Monday found extremist parties - notably the Nazi party - gained a spike in voters following the 1918 pandemic.



After the 1918 pandemic, 'influenza deaths themselves had a strong effect on the share of votes won by extremists, specifically the extremist national socialist party' in Germany's 1932 and 1933 elections, the paper read.

The spike in votes for the Nazi party led to Adolf Hitler becoming chancellor of Germany in 1933 and going on to murder around six million Jews in the Holocaust.

Blickle said the findings are likely the result of 'changes in societal preferences' and that, unlike the coronavirus pandemic which hits older people more than the young, the Spanish flu targeted the young.

This could have 'spurred resentment of foreigners among the survivors (as has happened in past pandemics), driving voters towards parties whose platform matched such sentiments,' the paper reads.

Adolf Hitler in 1931/1932. Extremist parties - notably Nazis - had a spike in voters after the pandemic, the report found

The post-pandemic rise in Nazi party voters also emerged stronger in areas where anti-Jewish and anti-minority sentiment already had deep roots, the paper adds.

'The correlation between influenza mortality and the vote share won by right-wing extremists is stronger in regions that had historically blamed minorities, particularly Jews, for medieval plagues,' the paper noted.

The paper found the trend was not as evident for other extremist groups such as communists.

While the report does acknowledge there were many other factors leading to the rise of Nazi Germany, it states the research did control for 'the influences of local unemployment, city spending, population changes brought about by the war, and local demographics or when we instrument for influenza mortality.'

It is not possible to predict how the coronavirus pandemic will influence voter sentiments today, but there are worrying parallels between then and now.

Protesters rally outside the Massachusetts State House in Boston on May 4. The US has become increasingly divided over the appropriate response to the pandemic

Thousands of right-wing anti-lockdown protesters have taken to the streets and marched on capitol buildings demanding an end to stay-at-home orders

Deep chasms are emerging between communities in the US, far-right wing extremists are rising up taking their firearms to the streets to protest against stay-at-home orders, and civil unrest has become a growing fear as the economy has been pummeled and millions of Americans have lost their jobs.

As the pandemic continues to spread across the US and some states start to ease lockdown restrictions, the nation has become increasingly divided over the appropriate response to the pandemic.

Thousands of right-wing anti-lockdown protesters - many of them sporting Republican and Donald Trump merchandise - have taken to the streets and marched on capitol buildings demanding an end to stay-at-home orders claiming they have lost their liberty and that businesses, jobs and the economy have been irreparably damaged.

President Trump has fueled their actions, tweeting his support of the protests - where people are seen ignoring social distancing and not wearing masks - and publicly attacking Democrat representatives and governors throughout the pandemic.

In recent weeks, he has heaped praise on states with Republican governors for easing lockdowns and singled out states with Democrat governors that have maintained stay-at-home orders.

Counter-protesters are also taking to the streets calling for social distancing and stay-at-home orders to continue so that more lives can be saved, as the American public becomes increasingly divided.

More than 71,000 Americans have been killed by coronavirus and more than 1.2 million have been infected in the little time it is known to have been on US soil.

Worldwide more than 250,000 have so far died.
The result for Karnataka pre-university course (PUC) first year or class 11 level of exam will be declared at 10:00 A.M on Tuesday (May 5). Keeping in mind the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, the state government has decided not to host result at respective colleges.

The results of the first year Pre-University Examinations will be announced on May 5. The results will be sent directly to students. Hence, colleges will not be displaying the results, S Suresh Kumar, Primary and Secondary Education Minister, was quoted as saying by media.

The results will also be sent via emails or SMSes to the registered mobile numbers of students and will also be available at online portal karresults and SuVidya. Around 6.53 lakh candidates have appeared for the exams of which over 2 lakh are from arts, 2.48 lakh from commerce, and 2.04 lakh from science.

The Pre-University Examination (1st Year) for academic session 2019-20 was conducted by Department of Pre University Education, Karnataka from February 10-25, 2020 at various exam centers.

How to check the Karnataka 1st Year PUC Results 2020 on karresults, kseeb SuVidya websites:

Step 1: Visit www.karresults.nic.in, www.pue.kar.nic.in, dkpucpa.com,

Step 2: Check the Result portal on the home page.

Step 3: Open the Result portal in the new page.

Step 4: Check the PUC 1st Year result link and open it.

Step 5: Enter the Registration Number.

Step 6: Click on the submit button.

Step 7: Check the result and download scorecard.

Step 8: Take a printout of Score Card for future use
[May 05, 2020] Virtana Names Carahsoft Federal Distributor for Entire Product Portfolio

SAN JOSE, Ca. and RESTON, Va., May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Carahsoft Technology Corp. , The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider, today announced that Virtana , the leader in hybrid infrastructure management for mission-critical workloads, has named Carahsoft its Federal distributor for its entire portfolio. Under the agreement, Carahsoft will market, sell and distribute Virtanas monitoring and analytics platform to the public sector and the companys reseller partners through Carahsofts GSA Schedule, NASA Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V and Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) contracts.

Todays Federal IT environments are more complex than ever before, said John Gentry, Chief Technology Officer, Virtana. Mission-critical enterprise applications require real-time responsiveness, visibility and AI-guided discovery to deliver the insights needed to optimize performance and capacity on distributed, highly virtualized and hyperconverged infrastructures. Were excited to partner with Carahsoft to bring our differentiated, end-to-end platform solutions to our Federal customers and reseller partners. Virtanas monitoring and analytics platform helps government agencies better manage and optimize their hybrid infrastructure by deploying the following: VirtualWisdom   an AIOps-powered enterprise monitoring platform for infrastructure applications that identifies misconfigurations, prescribes solutions and rebalances workloads for existing infrastructure.

 an AIOps-powered enterprise monitoring platform for infrastructure applications that identifies misconfigurations, prescribes solutions and rebalances workloads for existing infrastructure. WorkloadWisdom   a testing and deployment platform that records current workflows and builds a model of the flow that is scalable, allowing for performance assessment and infrastructure predictions.

 a testing and deployment platform that records current workflows and builds a model of the flow that is scalable, allowing for performance assessment and infrastructure predictions. CloudWisdom   a cloud-management platform that helps users access, analyze and maintain their cloud environments.

 a cloud-management platform that helps users access, analyze and maintain their cloud environments. Cloud Migration Readiness (CMR) Service  a service that streamlines cloud migration and gives users full visibility into the migration process. Were excited to be named Virtanas Federal distributor and to mke their platform available to agencies through our reseller partners, said Maryam Emdadi Smith, Vice President at Carahsoft. Virtanas products and services provide crucial insight into hybrid cloud infrastructures and help our government end-users transform and automate processes, enabling them to focus on higher order projects and mission goals.



Virtanas products are available through Carahsofts GSA Schedule 70 GS-35F-0119Y, SEWP V contracts NNG15SC03B and NNG15SC27B, and Texas DIR contracts DIR-TSO-4288 and DIR-TSO-4356. For more information, contact the Virtana team at Carahsoft at (703) 889-9860 or [email protected] ; or visit the Virtana microsite at www.carahsoft.com/virtana . About Virtana

Virtana is the leading AIOps platform for enterprise transformation of hybrid cloud infrastructures. Our technology and services give innovative organizations the clarity they need to take control of their infrastructure, transform their cloud operations, and deliver a superior brand performance. Virtanas software modernizes IT, supporting its agility while guaranteeing performance, minimizing risk, and reducing cost. We guide users through a journey to SEE their infrastructure from a single pane of glass, ACT on issues that arise, and TRANSFORM processes to automate for the future. Follow us for industry insight on Twitter | LinkedIn . Virtana: Take control - www.virtana.com

About Carahsoft

Carahsoft Technology Corp. is The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider. As a top-performing GSA Schedule and SEWP contract holder, Carahsoft serves as the Master Government Aggregator for many of its best-of-breed technology vendors, supporting an extensive ecosystem of manufacturers, value-added resellers, system integrators and consulting partners committed to helping government agencies select and implement the best solution at the best possible value. The company's dedicated Solutions Divisions proactively market, sell and deliver Virtana, VMware, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Palo Alto Networks, Symantec, Veritas, McAfee, Dell, Adobe, F5 Networks, Google Cloud, ServiceNow, Open Source, Micro Focus Government Solutions, SAP, Salesforce, and Innovative and Intelligence products and services, among others. Carahsoft is consistently recognized by its partners as a top revenue producer and is listed annually among the industry's fastest growing and largest firms by CRN, Inc., Forbes, Washington Technology, The Washington Post, Washington Business Journal, and Bloomberg Government. Visit us at www.carahsoft.com or follow us on Twitter and Facebook . Contacts Virtana:

Tawanda Carlton

Media Frenzy Global

910 358-7224

[email protected] Carahsoft:

Mary Lange

703-431-8485

[email protected]

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Trump, who has consistently refused to wear a mask while interacting with others despite federal guidance urging all Americans to do so , earlier Tuesday had said that he would put on a mask if it was required at the Honeywell facility.

At one point during his tour, the Guns N' Roses cover of the James Bond movie song "Live and Let Die" was being blasted from the factory's PA system, as workers performed their tasks.

But Honeywell employees working on the production line were wearing masks. And a sign in the factory said that everyone there is required to wear a mask.

Other official visitors with Trump, who did put on safety glasses for his tour, also were not wearing masks.

President Donald Trump did not wear a mask as a coronavirus precaution during a visit Tuesday to a Honeywell factory in Phoenix that is producing millions of N95 masks for the federal government.

President Donald Trump tours a Honeywell International Inc. factory producing N95 masks during his first trip since widespread COVID-19 related lockdowns went into effect May 5, 2020, in Phoenix, Arizona.

A White House official said that Honeywell had told the White House that Trump and other visitors did not need to wear masks.

Tweet

"If it's a mask environment, I would certainly do that," Trump had said Tuesday before boarding Air Force One to fly to Arizona.

"I would wear it. If it's a mask environment, I would have no problem."

Trump was not wearing a mask when he walked off Air Force One after it landed in Arizona.

Tweet

And the president did not wear a mask at a roundtable discussion about Covid-19 assistance to Native Americans, which took place before he toured the Honeywell plant, which is producing masks under a $27.4 million Defense Department contract.

Trump was presented with one of those masks, mounted on a plaque, during his visit.

After his tour, Trump addressed workers, and lauded what he called the "incredible patriotic and hardworking men and women of Honeywell."

"Moments ago we saw the brand-new production lines where you're making high quality n95 respirators, they are made to perfection," Trump said. "There's no bad masks, like various countries have been sending. Bad masks from other places. Nothing like that at Honeywell."

"Respirators are there to protect our heroic doctors and nurses as they fight the unseen enemy. More than 150 Honeywell employees are working around the clock, three shifts a day six days a week. "

Trump's visit to Arizona was one of the few times in the past six weeks that he has left the White House. The president spent last weekend at Camp David.

Tweet

Trump on March 28 had visited Norfolk, Virginia, to see off the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort, which sailed to New York City to alleviate strain on hospitals dealing with Covid-19 patients.

Vice President Mike Pence was criticized last week for not wearing a mask while touring the Mayo Clinic, despite that renowned health-care facility mandating masks for all visitors, patients and staff to prevent coronavirus infections there.
Though the federal government has cleared the antiviral drug remdesivir to treat some COVID-19 patients, dont expect it to be put into routine use anytime soon. The emergency use authorization granted Friday by the Food and Drug Administration allows the drug to be given to patients with COVID-19 only if they are severely ill  with blood oxygen levels at 94% or lower, or otherwise requiring supplemental oxygen.
New Jersey restaurants are suffering staggering losses due to the coronavirus. Untold numbers may end up shutting down for good in the coming months. But thousands of eateries around the state remain open for pickup and delivery, among them classic eateries serving some of N.J.'s most iconic dishes.

Here are 21 of those eateries; they range from hotdog joints, pizzerias, delis and doughnut shops to Italian, Middle Eastern, Puerto Rican and Vietnamese restaurants. Yes, theres a Taylor ham/pork roll sandwich on the list. Oh, and the Ripper lives. If you have to ask what a Ripper is, youre probably not from New Jersey.

Roast beef and mozzarella sandwich, Fiores Deli, Hoboken

If I had to take one sandwich to my desert island, or the pearly gates, it might well be the roast beef and homemade mozzarella sandwich, available Thursdays and Saturdays only at Fiores. It looks like some old-school deli movie set  brick storefront, tin ceiling; fluorescent lighting; a display case filled with olives, roasted red peppers, mushrooms, and other specialties. The shelves are packed with pastas, sauce, tomatoes, cookies and more. A photo of Mother Teresa is wedged between sardine tins. Theres no web site or official Facebook page  no surprise there. The shop opened more than 100 years ago as a "milk and cheese store.'' It seems destined to last another 100 years.

Grilled cheese, Nip n Tuck, Long Branch (Peter Genovese I NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Grilled cheese sandwich, Nip N Tuck Bar/Grill, Long Branch

There may be no more perfect comfort food than a grilled cheese sandwich, and one of the states best is served at one of its dive-iest bars. Good luck finding any reference to grilled cheese on Nip N Tucks Facebook page, but the regulars know. The last time I was there, I tried the Bleu Jack, with blue cheese, tomato and bacon on rye  cooked on a skillet atop the grill. Watch for daily specials; the Badass offers 12 wings and two beers for $15. You can also get beer to go from such NJ craft breweries as Carton and Bradley Brew Project.

Soft-serve, Kohrs or Kohr Bros.

Nothing says Jersey Shore summer like soft-serve from Kohrs or Kohr Bros., both descendants of the five Kohr brothers who opened an ice cream stand on the Coney Island boardwalk in 1919. Ive had soft serve at both Kohrs and Kohr Bros., and honestly cant tell the difference. The Seaside Heights and Point Pleasant Beach boardwalks remain closed, so youll have to head down to Wildwood, where the boardwalk re-opened last Friday to allow restaurants to offer takeout and delivery. The classic at Kohrs or Kohr Bros. is the creamsicle (orange and vanilla swirl), but Ill take a plain old chocolate soft-serve any day. Heres my list of N.J.'s best soft-serve ice cream stands/stores.

Cheesesteaks on grill, Donkey's Place, Camden

Cheesesteak, Donkeys Place, Camden

If theres one thing South Jersey has a clear edge over North or Central Jersey, its cheesesteaks. The majority of places on my most recent N.J.'s best cheesesteaks list are well south of Trenton; North Jersey has some work to do. Donkeys Place is more bar than restaurant; order at the register or sit down and smell the steaks sizzling and popping on the grill. Leon Lucas bought the business in 1947; fans likened his punch to a mules or donkeys, thus the name. Donkeys is one place that bends the cheesesteak "rules.'' The meat is not chopped but served in big hunky slabs. And the bread? Not your usual sub roll but a poppy seed roll. Top it with a thick pile of onions, and you have a cheesesteak bully, one that dares you to call it out.

"Hey guys we know all the days are starting to mesh together but it is still FIRST SATURDAY!'' read a recent post on Donkeys Facebook page. "Open 7a-6pm today. Serving up steaks to-go and curbside. See you guys soon!''

Grill, White Manna in Hackensack (Tim Farrell I The Star-Ledger)SL

Double cheeseburger with onions, White Manna, Hackensack

Mana or Manna? New Jersey burger aficionados know the difference between the White Mana in Jersey City and the White Manna in Hackensack. The former is a 40s retro wonder with its sweeping oval counter, the latter a glass-block jewel right across the street from a McDonalds. Theyre both recommended and both open, but nothing gets my burger juices going than a double cheeseburger with onions at the White Manna.

Cream doughnut, McMillan's Bakery, Westmont (Peter Genovese I NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Cream doughnut, McMillans Bakery, Westmont

"We just wanted to let you all know that as of today, we will be going back to our normal business hours,'' McMillans happily posted on its Facebook page April 16. With some qualifiers  only four people allowed in the bakery at one time, and everyone must wear a mask. The cream doughnut is the signature item at McMillans, which opened in 1939. I once asked the owner how much cream is in each cream doughnut. "As much as it takes,'' she replied.

Pernil, El Lechon de Negron

Pernil, El Lechon de Negron, Union

UPDATE SOLD OUT, AT 5:20pm. One customer took the last 7 orders. # Thats the most recent post on El Lechon de Negrons Facebook page. Hey, when youre that good, it happens. They started as a food truck and are on my best N.J. food truck list. Theres also a storefront in Union, still open for takeout. Theyve also been busy feeding staffers at Overlook Medical Center in Summit. El Lechon de Negron specializes in authentic Puerto Rican pig roast and cuisine. The pernil (slow-roasted pork shoulder marinated in homemade mojo sauce) and chimichurri chicken are musts.

Pork roll egg and cheese, Johnny's Pork Roll, Red Bank (Peter Genovese I NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Pork roll, egg and cheese, Johnnys Pork Roll, Red Bank

A Taylor ham/pork roll sandwich had to be somewhere on this list, and Johnnys Pork Roll serves up one of the states best, the meat, cheese, egg and roll in perfect harmony. And before you attack me for calling it pork roll, thats what owner Johnny Yarusi calls it, even if he does use Taylor ham. There are several kinds of pork roll sandwiches at Johnnys Pork Roll  the Western, with provolone and sauteed peppers and onions; the Pulled Pork Roll, with sweet BBQ and Asian lime slaw; and the PBLT, with bacon, lettuce and tomato. Go with The Sandwich  a classic pork roll, egg and cheese. "Be safe out there pork roll people!'' proclaims the web site.

Chicken savoy, Belmont Tavern, Belleville

Stretchs Chicken Savoy! Shrimp Beeps! If youve never heard of these dishes, you clearly have not visited the Belmont Tavern. Wood paneling, American-flag-decorated bar, fluorescent lighting, cash-only  it was high on my list of the states greatest old-school restaurants. The garlic-and-vinegar heavy Chicken Savoy and sauce-studded Shrimp Beeps are must-orders. "We are doing our best to have orders ready for scheduled times,'' reads a message on the restaurants Facebook page. "If you have to wait, we apologize. Just know we are doing our best, and we thank everyone for supporting the Belmont during these crazy times.''

Sloppy Joe, Town Hall Deli, South Orange

Delis from here to Havana claim to have invented the Sloppy Joe, but Town Hall Deli says they were absolutely the first to introduce it in this country; it appeared on the menu in the 1930s. Its not the beef-filled Sloppy Joe familiar to the rest of the nation, but the Jersey version, usually with turkey, roast beef, Swiss and Russian dressing. There are 11 variations at Town Hall Deli, including the Smokin Joe, with egg salad, cream cheese, nova and Swiss. A whole Joe will easily feed two to three people.

Rose's Special, Carmen's Deli, Bellmawr (Peter Genovese I NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Roses Special, Carmens Deli, Bellmawr

Carmens Deli is the kind of place where specials are written on construction paper, and the smudged/tattered sandwich menu, taped to a wall, looks like it went through the sub wars. A sign says "Take a number for hoagie,'' a sure sign youre in South Jersey. Carmen Bartolone opened the store in 1966, selling it to his sister-in-law, Rose, seven months later. The Roses Special sub, with capicola, prosciutto, regular and sharp provolone, sopresata and roasted red peppers, is named after her. Its one of my ten favorite Jersey sandwiches.

Chili dog, Hiram's Roadstand, Fort Lee

Chili dog, Hirams Roadstand, Fort Lee

American flags fluttering out front, well-worn signage, beer on tap, vest-pocket picnic area, and maybe the states smallest mens room: Thats Hirams, which opened in 1932. There apparently never was a owner named Hiram, according to current co-owner Pete Demiris. The chili dog is one of the states five best.

Greek salad, Greek on Main, Metuchen

Greek salad, Greek on Main, Metuchen

(We) want you to dive into the blue waters of Mediterranean flavor and wake up your senses to indulge on our sun-bathed creations. Forget the happy hyperbole; the Greek on Main offers quality Greek food served in cozy, casual surroundings. The head chef is Theodore Kappas, a former diner sous chef. I can never get enough Greek salads (tomatoes! kalamatas! cucumbers! feta!) and the Greek on Mains is one of my favorites. Pair it with the lamb burger, and wake up those senses.

Maple Shade Custard Stand, Maple Shade

Soft-serve, Maple Shade Custard Stand, Maple Shade

YES WERE OPEN reads the message in big block letters on the Facebook page of Maple Shade Custard Stand. The red-and-white-trimmed ice cream stand, which dates to the 50s, is a scoop of vanishing Americana, with its walk-up counter and DRIVE IN sign atop the roof. Custard or soft-serve is more a South Jersey than North Jersey thing, and this stand is one of the absolute best in the state.

Pork chops, Augustino's Bar + Kitchen, Hoboken (Peter Genovese I NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Pork chops, Augustinos Bar + Kitchen, Hoboken

In some ways, eating at Augustinos is easier now than ever before. The small and popular Hoboken restaurant was always a tough table to get; with takeout and pickup only, you dont have to wait weeks or even months to nab a reservation. Its cash only. Portions are big, but the menu is not  a half dozen pasta dishes, eight chicken dishes, five seafood, but there are specials. The gigantic and enormously tasty pork chops would cause even a caveman to go weak in the knees.

Sticky buns, Aversa's Bakery, Brigantine (Peter Genovese I NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Sticky buns, Aversas Bakery, Brigantine

Sticky buns are often called cinnamon buns or cinnamon rolls, but theyre not. Gooey gobs of sweet sticky caramel, raisins or pecans, and soft chewy cake make up the classic sticky bun, and my favorite ones in Jersey are the sticky buns at Aversas Bakery in Brigantine. Ive lost count of the number of times over the years that breakfast has consisted of a half dozen with raisins and a cup of coffee from Wawa, just down the road.

Al Raouche, Paterson (Peter Genovese I NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Shish kabob, Al Raouche, Paterson

Al Raouche closed on April 7, re-opening on April 18, which was great news for lovers of first-rate Middle Eastern food in no-frills surroundings. Sandwiches here are inexpensive and indescribably good: $4 for falafel, $5 for chicken kabob, and $6 for a shish kabob (lamb) sandwich that might have been the best sandwich I ate on my epic cheap eats mission two years ago. Al Raouche is within walking distance of the Corrados complex of stores in Clifton.

Barbecue chicken, ice and beans, 28 BBQ, Bound Brook (Peter Genovese I NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Barbecue chicken, 28 BBQ, Bound Brook

"Oh my goodness'' were the first words in my 2007 Eat with Pete review of 28 BBQ; a copy still hangs on the wall of this small Portuguese churrasqueira. Spits of chicken and ribs slowly turn over fire; try not to faint from the intoxicating aroma. A whole chicken (photo) with rice and your choice of fries, beans or salad costs $17; a half order ($10) is more than enough for one person. A half order of ribs is $11.50. 28 BBQ is the equal of any Portuguese BBQ joint in Newarks Ironbound, with one big difference: Parking is much easier.

Chicken stir fry, Bo Ne, Woodbury

Chicken stir-fry, Bo Ne, Woodbury

Vietnamese food is one of the states most under-publicized cuisines, and Bo Ne is one of its best examples, a small, colorful, cash-only restaurant. Pho (soup) and banh mi, the traditional Vietnamese sandwiches in baguettes, are the dishes most identified with Vietnamese food, and the banh mi here are terrifically tasty, and a steal for $6.49. But the biggest surprise is the stir-fry chicken ($12.49), with supremely tender meat and crisp, fresh veggies.

Clam pie, De Lorenzo's Tomato Pies, Robbinsville

Clam pizza, De Lorenzos Tomato Pies, Robbinsville

De Lorenzos Tomato Pies was a iconic landmark in Trentons Chambersburg section, a wooden-boothed, no credit-card, no-bathroom joint that seemed more like someones home than restaurant. De Lorenzos moved out of Trenton and is now in showier, roomier digs in nearby Robbinsville, but the same great pizza remains. One of my judges in our N.J.'s best pizzeria showdown in 2017 called the half white/half red clam pie a "tidal wave of flavors,'' with a "great balance of tomato, cheese, garlic, basil and clams.'' Couldnt have said it better.

Rippers with relish and mustard at Rutt's Hut, Clifton

Ripper, Rutts Hut, Clifton

One of the states  no, nations  legendary hot dog stands. An essential Jersey food experience. And home of the Ripper, that deep fried dog so named because the dog rips open during its hot oil bath. Thats Rutts Hut. Abe Rutt opened the brick-walled roadhouse in 1928; bacon and eggs back then cost 80 cents. The current owners bought the business in 1975. Get one dog with the distinctive relish, another with mustard; youll be in hot dog heaven.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.

Peter Genovese may be reached at email@njadvancemedia.com.
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A three-month extension of emergency measures is approved against the backdrop of the ongoing war against terrorism, and the unfolding of the coronavirus pandemic, Gamal Essam El-Din reports

On Monday, parliament approved President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisis Decree 168/2020 extending the state of emergency for another three months.

The extension came after three days of clashes between security forces and terrorist groups in North Sinai, in an area where Islamic State affiliate Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis has been operating.

A report prepared by parliaments Defence and National Security Committee said the killing of 10 military personnel in a terrorist attack in North Sinais Bir Al-Abd town on 30 April had underlined the need to extend the state of emergency.

The report praised retaliatory attacks by the army which resulted in the killing of 126 takfiris in northern and central Sinai on 1 and 2 May.

Operation Sinai 2018 has been effective in destroying the infrastructure of terrorist groups in North Sinai, said the report.

Supported by the emergency law, army and police forces were able to defeat terrorist elements and return life back to normal in most of north Sinai.

No country can completely eliminate terrorism though the state of emergency is an effective tool and preventive measure protecting Egypt from terrorist threats.

MPs urged the state to step up development efforts in Sinai. The government should offer greater incentives to investors to set up projects in North Sinai towns, particularly Bir Al-Abd, so terrorist groups find it harder to recruit and spread their ideology, said MP Mohamed Zeineddin.

The approval of the extension of the state of emergency came after Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli addressed parliament on Sunday.

Madbouli said MPs were aware of the threats faced by the Arab world.

We are not afraid of these threats that target our homeland. They will never shake our belief that we live on a land preserved by God and that its soldiers are some of the best in the world, said Madbouli.

We have full confidence in our military and police who for years have shouldered the burden of defending our homeland against rogue elements, supported by malicious forces, which target Egypt.

These forces will be vanquished and Egypt will continue to live in peace and security.

Madbouli began his statement by referring to the heinous terrorist attack which hit Bir Al-Abd town in North Sinai on 30 April, perpetrated by a wicked group which kills even during the holy month of Ramadan.

We are confident that the people of Egypt support its leadership and army which have never been intimidated by these terrorist acts, said Madbouli. Regardless of any threats, the wheels of life will go on turning in Egypt, and the implementation of economic development plans, programmes to raise living standards and extend social protection, will continue.

On the spread of Covid-19 Madbouli said: Egypt took early preventative and precautionary measures, and as a result God has spared us the astronomical numbers of infections and deaths many countries are now seeing.

God also helped us support citizens suffering from the repercussions of the pandemic and to support factories where production has stopped or fallen as a result of the crisis.

Madbouli said the government had drawn up several scenarios to exit the crisis.

These scenarios follow World Health Organisations (WHO) medical and protective advice. It is important citizens continue to abide by the measures taken by the Ministry of Health to preserve lives and maintain the safety of our country as a whole.

In light of the above, Madbouli said the cabinet had decided to approve Presidential Decree 168/2020 extending the state of emergency for three months, beginning at 1am, 28 April, 2020.

The government renews its pledge that it will use the exceptional powers granted by this decree in a way that balances public freedoms and national security, said Madbouli before he asked MPs to approve the new extension in line with Article 154 of the 2014 constitution.

The current state of emergency was declared in May 2017 following two terrorist attacks targeting churches in Tanta and Alexandria.

On Sunday, MPs also approved amendments to four articles of the Police Authority Law 109/1971. A report by the Defence and National Security Committee said the changes would improve the performance of police officers and ensure that senior ranks were appointed from among the brightest and best police officers. The law created a new system for the promotion of officers, said the report.

Saad Al-Gammal, head of the Arab Affairs Committee and a former police officer, said the amendments provided the Higher Police Council with the flexibility necessary to fight new types of crime.

Abdel-Fattah Serag, assistant to the Interior Minister, explained that the amendments impose a new quorum of half, rather than the full membership, of the board of the Higher Police Council when it convened to discuss security policies.

It is difficult, for practical reasons, for all board members to meet. We want the law to be amended so that half of the board can meet. This will allow greater flexibility in the face of urgent challenges, said Serag.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 7 May, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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michael barbaro

From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

[music]

Today: Despite reservations from its own doctor, the Senate reconvened on Monday. Nick Fandos on why one chamber of Congress is so determined to return to Washington. Its Wednesday, May 6. Nick, give us the scene inside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday morning.

nick fandos

So its a totally surreal setup, particularly for those of us that are used to watching Congress. In a wood-paneled hearing room across the street from the Capitol, which would usually be full of people getting ready to watch senators question a witness. Instead, you had a totally empty room. Eerily quiet. Just a few senators gathered at one side wearing masks. Theyve got pumps of hand sanitizer at the ready. Totally at the other side of the room, maybe 20 or 30 feet away, is a witness whos ready to give them testimony.

archived recording 1 How are you, sir? archived recording 2 Living the dream, you?

nick fandos

They wave across the room.

archived recording Welcome to our socially-distanced 

nick fandos

Richard Burr, the chairman, and Mark Warner, the top Democrat, throw out their elbows for a little bit of an elbow bump. But theres none of the usual energy that wed see on a typical weekday morning in the Capitol.

michael barbaro

And what exactly is happening in this very weird-sounding scene?

nick fandos

What was playing out was a confirmation hearing, in this case, of John Ratcliffe, whos a Republican congressman and a loyal supporter of President Trump, whos now his nominee to be the director of national intelligence to oversee the countrys 17 intelligence agencies.

archived recording (richard burr) Skip, you ready?

nick fandos

Right at 9:30, Richard Burr, whos the chairman of the committee, pulled down his mask and revealed a scraggly, uncharacteristic beard that evidently hed been growing over the last month.

michael barbaro

I mean, who hasnt?

nick fandos

Exactly. And  [GAVEL SMACK]

archived recording (richard burr) I call this hearing to order.

nick fandos

Called the hearing into session.

archived recording (richard burr) This hearing will be a little bit different. It is perhaps the first congressional hearing held during the extenuating circumstances of the pandemic. We have a sparse crowd and an expanded dais reflective of the committees adherence to the guidelines put forth by the Rules Committee and the attending physician.

nick fandos

You know, senators had certain social distancing requirements. They were spaced out around the room, and only allowed to come in to ask their questions in small waves, but without any of the kind of normal energy, or tension, or cross talk that we might be used to in a high-profile congressional hearing like this.

michael barbaro

This is basically like a socially distant version of the United States Senate at work?

nick fandos

Yes.

archived recording (richard burr) I wish I could also welcome your wife Michelle and your daughters Riley and Darby. But given our attempts to minimize the number of people in the hearing room, I send them my appreciation via C-SPAN.

nick fandos

And it was not very compelling TV. [LAUGHTER]

michael barbaro

Nick, everything about this hearing that youre describing sounds labored and surreal and risky. Right? I mean, its a confirmation hearing. Its not a pandemic relief bill. Its not a hospital funding bill. So why is this even happening in this way in-person?

nick fandos

You know, a lot of senators were asking themselves that question in the last few days as they prepared to come back to Washington as well. And the answer really goes back more than a month when, at the end of March, senators found themselves staring down this increasingly dire situation.

archived recording 1 Wall Street is about to close any minute now, the Dow collapsing, its worst single-day loss ever. archived recording 2 Ohio and Illinois shutting down restaurants and bars today. archived recording 3 The problem is job losses are adding up, and it is across the country, and it is in all sectors. Out front now, Jim Bianco 

nick fandos

And so the House and Senate Republicans and Democrats did what they rarely do.

archived recording (mitch mcconnell) The Senate has reached a bipartisan agreement on a historic relief package.

nick fandos

They set aside their own kind of partisan interests and issues, and very quickly put together this massive, $2 trillion health and economic relief bill that they passed almost unanimously in the House and unanimously in the Senate.

michael barbaro

Right.

archived recording (chuck schumer) To all Americans, I say, help is on the way  big help and quick help.

nick fandos

And then basically out of concern for their own health and safety, they left town, and they didnt know when they were going to come back. They didnt know if itd be a couple of weeks or a month. And almost as soon as they did, lawmakers in both chambers start to debate when and how do we get back to Washington and get back to doing this thing.

[music]

Theres kind of a few rounds of debate, but it really comes to a head basically last week at the very end of April, when both the leaders of the House and Senate come out and say 

archived recording Congress will be back in session next month May 4. Thats according to a tweet from House majority leader Steny Hoyers press office. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell made a similar announcement regarding his 

nick fandos

Were going to come back on Monday, May 4, and were going to try getting back to normal as best we can. But 

archived recording Some House Democrats say that they are worried about the spread of Covid-19 at the Capitol. And some say 

nick fandos

For the House, as soon as they announced that decision, they immediately started getting pushback from some of their members who were saying its not safe for us to come back. Were not ready.

archived recording (nancy pelosi) Any decision that we have about when we come back rests with the staff sergeant of arms and the Capitol physician.

nick fandos

Democratic leaders in the House consulted Congresss top doctor, who told them it really wouldnt be wise at this point to bring Congress back into session. And so not 24 hours after they announced that they would be coming back 

archived recording The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday changed course on its decision.

nick fandos

The House reversed itself and said, no, were going to stay out of session indefinitely until conditions have improved and we feel that we need to take action on some meaningful legislation.

michael barbaro

Hmm.

nick fandos

But the Senate comes to a very different decision.

archived recording Meanwhile, Senate leadership maintains the upper chamber will be back to work as usual on May 4.

nick fandos

They have much the same medical advice. They work on the other half of the Capitol building from the House. And Mitch McConnell, who is the top Republican and basically sets the schedule in the Senate, he calls the shots, says that were going to come back into session.

michael barbaro

And what are the implications of that decision by McConnell, practically speaking, to reconvene the Senate?

nick fandos

So on the one hand, the Senate is a pretty small body. Its 100 senators. Two-thirds of them are over the age of 60. So they are at an elevated risk. But the real impact when you start to think about it is theres this huge network of support staff basically behind each senator, and the institution as a whole. Theres cooks that run dining service. Theres people that keep the Capitol clean. Theres Capitol police stationed everywhere to keep everyone safe. There are all kinds of jobs that you just wouldnt think about. And so the decision to bring an institution like the Senate back into session ripples outward and could impact hundreds, if not 1,000 or more people.

michael barbaro

And what exactly is McConnells stated rationale for doing this? I mean, given that the House has said its too great a risk, right? What is his argument for why 100 senators from 50 different states have to get on planes and return to Washington?

nick fandos

Well, McConnell essentially says, after more than a month away, there is a lot of work piling up for the Senate that it would normally be doing. And McConnell essentially puts senators in league with frontline workers.

archived recording (mitch mcconnell) If its essential that brave health care workers, grocery store workers, truck drivers, and many other Americans continue to carefully show up for work, then its essential that their U.S. senators carefully show up ourselves and support them.

nick fandos

You know if were asking doctors and health professionals and grocery store workers and other government employees to go out and put themselves at risk every day to show up for work, we ought to be doing that too. The Senate is integral to responding to this crisis. And if we take the right precautions, they can do it safely enough to justify being there.

michael barbaro

So basically his case is, were all in this together?

nick fandos

Thats right, but I think the reality underpinning that is a little bit more complicated.

[music]

And it has to do both with politics and with the aspirations of a lot of Republicans and government leaders.

michael barbaro

Well be right back. So Nick, what are these more complicated and unspoken reasons why Mitch McConnell would want to bring the Senate back into session?

nick fandos

Many senators in his Republican caucus come from states like Georgia and Texas and Florida, that are run by Republicans and are kind of at the forefront of starting to reopen, where governors and state leaders are trying to convince their citizens to get back to normal, that things can reopen, the economy can restart. And senators want to be a part of that too. These Republicans feel like maybe we can model getting back to work. We can show people that, if we take the right precautions, if we wear masks and socially distance, we can continue or get back to doing this work, and we dont have to be cowed by fear. We can start to reinvigorate parts of society. And if government can do that, business could do that too. Thats not to say other parts of the country shouldnt move more slowly.

michael barbaro

Right.

nick fandos

But we can lead by example.

michael barbaro

Right. And theres a certain logic to that, as well as, I guess, credibility. If the senators are doing this and taking the risk and showing people its possible, then its not just them saying its good enough for you. Theyre saying its actually good enough for me.

nick fandos

Yeah. They have a certain amount of skin in the game, albeit better-protected skin than a lot of frontline workers probably do. But it seems to me, basically, a kind of optimistic view that this can be done. We dont have to stay inside forever. Now, something else has been kind of going on here in the last month that is layered on top of this, and that is the kind of political impact of the pandemic.

archived recording The New York Times reporting that Republican governors are growing more concerned about President Trumps handling of the coronavirus outbreak and how it could shape the results of the November election.

nick fandos

President Trump has seen internally, and public polls have shown, that his standing against Joe Biden nationally and in key swing states has grown shakier over the last several weeks.

archived recording  of a 17-state survey commissioned by the Republican National Committee, which found that Trump is struggling in the electoral college battleground and is likely to lose without signs of an economic rebound this fall.

nick fandos

Theres been polls coming out of key battleground Senate races across the country that may decide the Senate majority that show Democrats knocking on the door of the Republicans or, in some cases, opening up significant leads. There were fundraising reports that showed Democrats outraising Republican incumbents. For three years, President Trump and Republicans in the House and Senate have pinned a lot of their political hopes on the economy and the kind of upward march of the stock markets and of wages. And the coronavirus has wiped that out. And so there is, and has been, over the last several weeks, I think, a real uneasiness settling in among Republicans. And nobody has a better finger on the political pulse, particularly of Senate races, than Mitch McConnell.

michael barbaro

And how does the Senate returning to Washington begin to change any of that dire data from Republicans that you just ticked through?

nick fandos

One of the best things that Republicans running for re-election who are in office right now can do to make a positive impression on their constituents is look like theyre at work. Help put in place programs and policies and solutions that help the country through this. Going back to work in Washington, being seen as doing their job as, kind of, leaders for the country, could prove very helpful politically.

michael barbaro

Right. So the thinking is that the worst possible situation for a Republican senator in a state where polling shows the president down and perhaps a competitive race coming up in the fall  the worst thing would be getting stuck at home unable to look like a lawmaker at this moment.

nick fandos

Yeah. There are certain things that these senators have been able to do from home, connecting by phone, or Zoom with constituents. But its lower profile, and certainly they would not want to be accused of sitting on the sidelines while thousands of Americans are dying a day, when millions of Americans are losing their jobs.

michael barbaro

So from everything youre saying, theres not really, in the minds of the Republican leadership, all that much downside to bringing senators back, other than perhaps exposure to the virus?

nick fandos

Sure. And there is some risk of that, bringing senators back into the Capitol and their staff mingling. Lawmakers have contracted the virus before. But they have basically judged that that risk is low enough, that its worthwhile, that theres too many other reasons, varied as they may be, to be in session not to.

michael barbaro

Right. So that explains why all these senators are going in and out of that room in these kind of weird waves with masks on and all that Purell for this confirmation hearing. And Im curious, did it end up playing out as Republicans had hoped?

archived recording (richard burr) Senator Harris. archived recording (kamala harris) Thank you, Mr. Chairman 

nick fandos

It looked really bizarre, but at the end of the day, this hearing basically worked out well for Republicans.

michael barbaro

Hm. Why?

archived recording (kamala harris) Do you believe that President Trump has accurately conveyed the severity of the threat of Covid-19 to the American people?

nick fandos

Congressional hearings like this are often adversarial.

archived recording (john ratcliffe) I guess Im misunderstanding. Im sorry. Has he accurately reflected the status of the pandemic? archived recording (kamala harris) Conveyed the severity of the pandemic, yes.

nick fandos

And its about trying to pin a nominee into an unflattering statement, or expose something about their background.

archived recording (kamala harris) Has he accurately conveyed the severity of Covid-19 to the American people? archived recording (john ratcliffe) I believe so. archived recording (kamala harris) You do.

nick fandos

And in this case, Democrats really struggled, because they were cycling in and out of the room, because Ratcliffe was so physically far away from them, to really kind of build any momentum or any tough critical picture of him. It was just a kind of diffused, stretched out atmosphere, and Republicans lined up in support, and they have the majority. So at the end of the day, theyre probably going to be able to get their guy through.

michael barbaro

So it went quite well for Republicans?

nick fandos

It did.

archived recording (richard burr) I want to thank you, John, for your time this morning. I want to thank the members for working under this temporary construct.

nick fandos

At the end of the hearing, the chairman, Richard Burr, pulled down his mask again and essentially announced that he would support the nominee.

archived recording (richard burr) I look forward to advancing your nomination rapidly and to voting in favor of your confirmation in the full Senate.

nick fandos

He felt confident enough that hell hold a vote in his committee next week, and the full Senate could be voting within a couple of weeks to install this kind of loyal defender of President Trump as the head of the nations intelligence apparatus.

michael barbaro

So as well as that went, Im curious what happens if over time, as the pandemic persists, if the polling for Republicans ends up staying pretty bad and they have ultimately come to Washington for nothing, or, in an even worse scenario, they come to Washington, and members get sick, and maybe staff gets sick, and it really looks bad for the party, and all of this ends up kind of backfiring. Will it have seemed at all worth it?

nick fandos

There is a lot of different directions that things could go in, but there is one benefit that basically gets locked in as long as they are in session and holding votes, and its one that McConnell has always been attuned to and sees as the kind of first obligation of the Senate. And that is confirming nominees for the executive branch, and in particular, lifetime appointments to the federal courts. And so the way to think about this perhaps is that if Republicans political prospects are looking unfavorable at the moment, if they dont recover, then these may be the final months of a Republican majority in the Senate. This may be the final opportunity to continue the kind of record streak of putting judges on the bench that will shape the law and policy in this country for a generation to come, to move those things through. And thats not an opportunity that Republicans want to pass up on either. Case in point, one of the first actions that the Senate is going to be taking when its back is setting up a bunch of additional district court judges all over the country. And Democrats can complain about it and gripe about it, and they have. Theyve argued that senators shouldnt be taking the risk of being back here unless all of their actions are laser focused on the coronavirus, and the response, and overseeing the Trump administrations implementation of their relief programs, et cetera. But ultimately, the majority wins on this stuff, and I think that McConnell feels time is of the essence.

michael barbaro

So theres a version of this where things do keep going south for Republicans, and their response is to just keep crashing these confirmations through and, in the process, cement their legacy in this last set of months that they may have the majority?

nick fandos

If they can show in these next couple weeks that theres a way to safely function by putting in place different precautions, then yeah. Even in the very worst-case scenario for Republicans  where they dont do any additional coronavirus legislating, where their political prospects continue to dwindle and theyre going to lose the majority  theres only upshot in staying in town and filling up every last court seat in every corner of the Trump administration that might still be able to eke out some Republican conservative policy wins before November. Because if they dont, if they leave town, none of those things are possible, and they essentially cede back the power of their majority, in what may be the last weeks and months that they can really exercise it.

[music]

michael barbaro

Thank you, Nick.

nick fandos

Thank you so much for having me.

michael barbaro

Well be right back. Heres what else you need to know today.

archived recording (donald trump) But Im thrilled to be here in the fantastic state of Arizona, I love Arizona, with the incredible crew. I had some good moments here, especially on election day.

michael barbaro

On Tuesday, during an event at a plant in Arizona, President Trump said that the White House task force on the coronavirus would be shut down and replaced with something else, which he said he was not yet ready to describe.

archived recording Dont you need to continue to meet with the task force to get this scientific expertise? archived recording (donald trump) Well, yeah. We will have certain people  as an example, we have hospitals that we built, we have medical centers that weve built, we have people on the task force that focus on that.

michael barbaro

Asked why he was winding down the task force now, in the middle of the pandemic, the president offered no clear explanation, but said that the key doctors on it, like Dr. Deborah Birx, would still be involved in the response.

archived recording Are you saying mission accomplished? archived recording (donald trump) No, no, not at all. The mission accomplished is when its over.

michael barbaro
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Italy will be hit by a more deadly second coronavirus wave as it eases lockdown, according to a sobering report from Imperial College London.

Researchers modelled how the virus would spread in three scenarios  if the nation stayed in quarantine or if Italians increased their movements by 20 per cent and 40 per cent.

Even if Italians went back to just 20 per cent of their normal routine, it would spark a surge in deaths bigger than the first wave, which has so far killed 30,000 people.

If mobility returned to pre-lockdown levels by 40 per cent, there could be an additional 23,000 deaths, the report found.

The researchers admit their bleak predictions are pessimistic as they do not factor in preventative measures.

But they say their findings highlight the need for contact tracing apps, social distancing and mandatory mask-wearing when the country lifts its restrictions.

It comes during the week that Italy enters 'phase two' of its lockdown after almost two months.

Millions of Italians have been allowed to return to work at factories and contraction sites, public parks have opened up for exercise and families have been reunited.

If 40 per cent of the population in Lombardy, the worst-hit region in Italy, were allowed to return to normal, deaths (in red) would initially continue to drop before rising sharply within eight weeks

Liguria, in northwest Italy, has managed to get through the current crisis without reporting more than 100 deaths a day. But it would be bombarded with fatalities if its population increased their movements by 40 per cent

Piedmont, located next to Milan, and the central region of Tuscany would also face steep increases in COVID-19 deaths if their people went back to just 40 per cent of their normal routine

Marche's outbreak in the even of a 40 per cent increase in mobility (shown left) would not be as steep because lots of people have built up antibodies from the first wave. But in Veneto, where not many people have built up immunity, there could be thousands of cases within two months

It comes millions of Italians return to work at factories and construction sites, and public parks open up after almost two months for people to exercise. Pictured: People gather in front of St Mark's Basilica in the centre of Venice on Monday

Venice's St Mark's Square was full of people again, including a rally staged by local traders, weeks after empty Venice became one of the early symbols of the coronavirus crisis in Europe

Italy surpassed China to become the epicentre of the pandemic in early March after an explosion of cases in its northern Lombardy region.

But the country managed to slow the spread after imposing one of the strictest draconian lockdowns seen on the continent on March 9.

The Government shut parks and only allowed people to venture within a few hundred metres of their door for essential exercise or food shopping.

Italians faced questioning, fines and even prison sentences if they were found outdoors without valid reason.

The country has suffered just under 30,000 deaths and is now reporting less than 100 fatalities a day as the outbreak fizzles out.

Britain, where restrictions have been more lenient, is now bound to overtake Italy as the worst-hit country in Europe as it is still reporting hundreds more deaths every day and its total is nearly 29,000.

The Imperial researchers used mathematical modelling to simulate COVID-19's spread eight weeks into the future in all regions of Italy.

They found that if the country stayed in lockdown there would be a continued reduction in deaths.

How outbreaks would look if Italians increased movements by 20 per cent in the seven worst-hit regions in Italy. Deaths are shown in red, for 20 per cent mobility, and blue, if the current lockdown stayed in place

Family reunion: Melia Famoso (right) and her husband Giovanni (left) hug their grandchildren for the first time in two months in San Donato Milanese near Milan today, with Italians allowed to visit their relatives again

People wearing masks sit on an underground train in Milan, with a 3ft safety distance marked out on the carriage floor

Italy's new rules for 'phase two' of the lockdown Italy has now started to lift its near-two-month lockdown. Previously, Italians were only allowed to venture within a few hundred metres of their door for essential exercise or food shopping. People faced questioning, fines and even prison sentences if they were found outdoors without valid reason. Restrictions are now starting to be eased and Italians are allowed to leave for: WORK: Manufacturing and construction resumed on May 4, allowing an estimated 4.4million people to return to work, but many businesses are still closed. SHOPS: Most non-essential shops are still shut. However, a small selection including bookstores and children's clothes stores opened on a trial basis during the lockdown, and bicycle dealers are expected to be added to that list 'very soon'. BARS AND RESTAURANTS: Can now open for takeaway services only. MEETING FAMILY MEMBERS: People are now allowed to leave their homes to 'visit relatives and other loved ones', but not friends. They will have to wear masks and 'big family gatherings' are not permitted. TRAVEL: People are still banned from travelling outside the region where they live. There is an exception for students and workers who were marooned in a different region when the lockdown began, if they now want to return home. Regional authorities are responsible for ensuring social distancing on public transport. PARKS AND EXERCISE: Parks have re-opened for jogging and exercise, although children's playgrounds are still closed. People are allowed to drive somewhere to take exercise there. UNIVERSITIES: Can hold exams and degree ceremonies if social distancing is respected. Laboratories can also re-open. FUNERALS: Up to 15 mourners are now allowed to gather for a funeral, but must wear masks. Advertisement

But if Italians were to resume their normal pre-lockdown routines by 20 per cent, then a second outbreak would kill an extra 3,700 and 5,000 people, the report found.

If mobility went up by 40 per cent, the total number of excess deaths would be between 10,000 and 23,000.

It is not clear in the report how the second wave would eclipse the current death toll of 30,000.

MailOnline has approached the researchers for clarity.

The scientists say the reason deaths would rebound to such a large extent is driven by a large number of ongoing infections in the worst-hit parts of the country.

If more time is spent under current lockdown before easing restrictions, then infections will continue to fall and deaths 'is likely to be considerably lower in both scenarios'.

Writing in the paper, which has not yet been published or scrutinised by other scientists, the researchers said: 'When simulating future scenarios we have not accounted for the impact of social distancing measures in public transport and public space, alongside the mandatory use of personal protective equipment (PPE).

'The cost benefit trade off between the implementation of new interventions and the relaxation of current NPIs [restrictions] is unknown, and will depend on the effectiveness of this new set of interventions, behaviour, adherence to the recommendations and the correct use of the personal protective equipment.

'Given that interventions, such as extensive testing, contact tracing and social distancing are going to be implemented, our estimates can be viewed as being pessimistic.

'On the other hand, simulating 20 per cent and 40 per cent increase in mobility over the next eight weeks is likely a conservative scenario. Our model uses the official deaths counts to estimate changes in transmission intensity.

'As more information on new interventions are introduced we will include them in our modelling framework. '

Commenting on the findings, Dr Thomas House, a reader in mathematical statistics at the University of Manchester, said: 'Italy is the European country that experienced the earliest surge in COVID-19 cases and as such it is important to follow the situation there closely.

'This paper quantifies the extent to which non-pharmaceutical interventions have worked, and reflecting the uncertainty in what will happen considers multiple scenarios that might hold as they are relaxed.

'This study is applicable to the UK, since the authors correctly recommend that the situation is closely monitored as aspects of lockdown are relaxed, and do not try to predict the future exactly but rather present scenarios that may plausibly be realised depending on how this process actually develops.'

It comes as Italians were back on the streets this week as the country lifted the longest lockdown in Europe and entered 'phase two' of the coronavirus crisis.

In Venice, where the empty streets and alleyways were an early symbol of the crisis in Europe, St Mark's Square was full of people again today as local traders gathered in the piazza.

Trains and platforms were busy again in Milan with more than four million people expected to return to work at factories and construction sites, while others can exercise in parks and visit relatives for the first time in weeks.

Italy's Government says the regions are responsible for ensuring social distancing on public transport, but some pictures suggested it was not being strictly enforced.

Italy's move into 'phase two' today follows only 174 deaths on Sunday, the lowest figure since the lockdown went into effect on March 10, although that came after a spike of 474 deaths on Saturday.

The number of cases was 1,389, also the lowest since March 10, taking the total from 209,328 to 210,717.

Italy's R rate - the number of people that each person infects - has fallen below 1, a threshold which is widely seen as crucial to bringing the epidemic under control.

Health officials say the figure was as high as 3 at the height of the crisis in Lombardy, which became one of the early virus hotspots in February and March.

Prime minister Giuseppe Conte has announced a staggered re-opening from today, although some regions are moving at different speeds.

The nationwide rules for 'phase two' say that bars and restaurants can resume takeaway services while building sites and factories are allowed to resume production from today.

People are allowed to visit their relatives, although not their friends, and only within the region where they live.

Masks are compulsory on public transport, with regional governments put in charge of ensuring social distancing - and some of them are requiring gloves.

Parks have re-opened for jogging and exercise, although not playgrounds, and people are required to observe the 3ft 'spacing' guidelines. Meanwhile, gatherings of 15 people are now permitted for funerals.
Mukhtar Khan, Dar Yasin and Channi Anand cited for excellence in news photography under trying circumstances

Six-year-old Muneefa Nazir, a Kashmiri girl whose right eye was hit by a marble ball shot allegedly by Indian paramilitary soldiers on August 12, 2019. This image was part of a series of photographs by Associated Press photographers which won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography. (AP/Mukhtar Khan)

Srinagar: Three photojournalists from Jammu & Kashmir have been awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for their striking images of life in the valley. Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin of the Associated Press won the coveted prize in the feature photography category.

The announcement of the award gave cause for elation in the media fraternity in Jammu & Kashmir about two weeks after the polices seemingly gratuitous actions against three of its members.

Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand have been honoured for work reflecting life in Jammu and Kashmir during the crackdown and communication blackout that followed the central government contentious move of stripping the state of its special constitutional status and splitting it up into two union territories in August last year.

Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand.

This recognition for our colleagues has come at a time when Kashmiri journalists are facing intimidation by the state. Also, there are road blocks in the day-to-day functioning of journalists. This award is that rare good news that provides Kashmiri journalists an opportunity to celebrate their own existence. It is sort of a reassurance that good work is eventually noticed, said senior journalist Muzamil Jaleel.

While the curfew restrictions and other official curbs pushed almost the entire population of the erstwhile state indoors, media persons were caught in a more complex situation. With all means of communication closed and curbs clamped on their own movement, journalists were handicapped in reaching out to their readers, listeners or viewers.

However, Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand found ways to let outsiders see what was happening in the territory. As has been reported by their employer Associated Press (AP), an American news agency headquartered in New York City, the trio after snaking around roadblocks, sometimes taking cover in strangers homes and hiding cameras in vegetable bags captured images of protests, police and paramilitary action and daily life  and then headed to the airport to persuade travellers to carry the photo files out with them and get them to the APs office in New Delhi.

The news agency said they have been awarded for their extraordinary photojournalism of the crisis and military lockdown in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

The highly acclaimed Pulitzer Prize was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer. It is administered by Columbia University. This is the first time that anyone in Jammu and Kashmir has bagged it.

The three photojournalists were barred from speaking to the outside media by AP. However, as quoted by the news agency, Yasin said about the work he did post-August: It was always cat-and-mouse. These things made us more determined than ever to never be silenced.

He later tweeted, Thank you, colleagues, friends, brothers. I would just like to say thank you for standing by us always. Its an honour and a privilege beyond any we could have ever imagined. Its overwhelming to receive this honour.

Mukthar Khan said he never imagined he would get a Pulitzer in his lifetime. It is a great honour, unimaginable though. I could never have imagined getting it in my lifetime. Since it has come, I must say it couldnt have been possible without the support I received all through my career from my family -- both at home and AP.

Channi Anand was quoted by the news agency as saying, I was shocked and could not believe it. AP president and CEO Gary Pruitt said, This honour continues APs great tradition of award-winning photography."

Congratulatory messages poured in for the three photojournalists with many people taking to social media platforms to express their warm pleasure over their winning this years Pulitzer.

Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi tweeted, Congratulations to Indian photojournalists Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand for winning a Pulitzer Prize for their powerful images of life in Jammu & Kashmir. You make us all proud.

Former J&K chief minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah wrote on the microblogging site It's been a difficult year for journalists in Kashmir & that's saying something considering the last 30 years haven't exactly been easy. Congratulations to @daryasin, @muukhtark_khan & @channiap on this prestigious award. More power to your cameras."

Iltija Mufti tweeted from her mother Mehbooba Muftis Twitter account Congratulations @daryasin @muukhtark_khan for your exemplary photography capturing the humanitarian crisis in Kashmir post illegal abrogation of Article 370. Bizarre that our journalists win accolades abroad but are punished under draconian laws on home turf.

Among those who rejoiced in the award were members of the media fraternity based in the twin capitals of J&K. Kashmiris are rejoicing today. A very good news coming after a very long time. Many congratulations, Mukhtar Khan, Dar Yasin and Channi Anand. Kashmir is proud of you, tweeted Vijdan Mohammad Kawoosa, a data Journalist at a national newspaper.

Indian Express deputy editor Muzamil Jaleel said, This is one of the biggest awards conferred on journalists in recognition of their exemplary professional work. Our entire Kashmiri journalist fraternity is delighted that our colleagues have received such an honour.

Speaking to this newspaper, he said, It is a rare feat that was achieved despite extremely difficult circumstances to function as a journalist. This international award to our colleagues is in a way a testament to the professional capability and commitment towards the highest standards of journalism of Kashmiri journalists.

However, the award also drew criticism from some sections. The Twitter handle @HinduAmericans, reacting to the Pulitzer Prize announcement, said, I respect the Pulitzer Prize Committee and AP, but you messed up on this one. These photos seem to promote violence, lies, and terrorism against civilians. These photographers may be not ethical and may be paid agents. Have you investigated their work and who helps them?

Aarti Tickoo Singh, a Kashmiri Pandit who serves as foreign and strategic sffairs editor at India Abroad News (IANS) tweeted, implying that commensurate media attention and plaudits were not given to the plight of victims of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in Kashmir.
The cities and counties of Wisconsin are learning from their experience in April. State officials can advise them on preparing for the pandemic, but its the local clerks and commissioners who have to make the logistics work. In Milwaukee, the City Council responded to the chaos and disenfranchisement by passing a resolution asking Albrecht, the election director, to send Milwaukees 300,000 registered voters an application for a mail-in ballot for November. Albrecht told me he would spend the summer overhauling operations. Im talking about all of it, he said. He has submitted a request to the Postal Service for an investigation. Many Milwaukee voters who applied for absentee ballots on two particular dates, March 22 and 23, did not receive them. Our forensic review shows we responded and sent them out, Albrecht said. Did the post office mess up? We dont know. Albrecht is also making sure he has the supplies of paper for added ballots and envelopes that he needs. Finally, Albrecht said, he is concentrating on voter education. People who were accustomed to going to the polls made mistakes, like dropping ballots through the book-drop slot at the library without the certified envelope, which disqualified their votes.

In Pennsylvania, the presidential primary scheduled for June 2 will be the first test of whether large numbers of people can successfully vote by mail. The Legislature last year passed a law that provides for absentee ballots for anyone who requests it without requiring an excuse. Weve had 160,000 applications for mail-in ballots for the primary in the last week, Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar said when I spoke to her in mid-April. For comparison, in 2016, we got 19,000 in the same period. She stressed that federal funding would be crucial for preparing for November. In the long run, voting by mail can be less expensive. Counties that adopted it in Colorado, one of five states that sends ballots by mail to every registered voter, spent less than $10 per voter in 2014 compared with about $16 per voter six years earlier. But in the present, states need help to make the switch.

Three elected city commissioners are responsible for directing the logistics in Philadelphia. To be honest, everything we were planning to do for November is on hold as we navigate through the virus, Lisa Deeley, one of the three commissioners and the commissions chairwoman, said when I called her in April. All our focus right now is on the primary.

A few days later, the National Association of Presort Mailers held a teleconference for vendors across the country that are in the niche business of printing and packaging bulk mail, including mail-in ballots. They specialize in details like ensuring that the paper for the ballots and envelopes is certified so the ink printed on it will scan correctly.

On the call, according to the news site Talking Points Memo, companies warned that they were already at capacity for November, filling orders from longtime vote-by-mail states like California and Colorado. They could expand, but they would need to buy costly equipment that takes several months to obtain, a step they would only take with orders from states and counties in hand. For example, the machine that folds and inserts the ballot into the envelope can cost up to $1 million, Richard Gebbie, chief executive of Midwest Presort Mailing Services and president of the national association, told me. It normally takes 90 days to order one piece of gear. Then you have to get it installed and check everything, because the security and quality control has to be very, very high. Gebbies company has been contacting county boards of election in the region, including in Pennsylvania, but he says so far it has received a cool response. I think with the Covid, theyre not sure what they can do. We have one county in Pennsylvania, Mercer, that said, Lets get a quote. The others said, Call us back in a month. The Catch-22 is: That could be too late.

Deeley called me back later in April to assure me that Philadelphia would be ready for the fall election but gave few specifics. Her heart is in the right place, but this is just a huge challenge, says David Thornburgh, the president and C.E.O. of the Committee of Seventy, a good-government group in Philadelphia founded in 1904. We are at the house-is-burning level of alarm in some cities, says another voting rights advocate, who didnt want to be identified criticizing local election officials. As of the end of April, Philadelphia had a backlog of almost 9,000 absentee applications waiting to be processed for the June primary. Voting rights advocates have filed a lawsuit asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to require the state to let all absentee ballots sent or postmarked by Election Day in June and November to be counted if they are received within seven days of each election.

In Michigan, where voters passed a 2018 referendum that allows voting by mail without an excuse, a big increase is also expected. We are planning for 70 to 90 percent voting by mail in Detroit, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who lives in the city, told me. That means allocating resources, ordering supplies, developing educational materials.
The World Health Organization (WHO), on Monday, cautioned against the use of medicinal plants such as Artemisia annua, which have been touted as possible treatments for COVID-19.

The international health agency, in a statement, said while it supports scientifically proven traditional medicine, there is still a need to test for the efficacy and side effects of the newly touted drug.

The new herbal drug received global attention after Madagascars president, Andry Rajoelina, announced that his country had gotten a cure for COVID -19.

The herbal mix has not been scientifically tested yet, but many African countries have announced placing orders for it.

Mr Rajoelina, at the official launch of the herbal mix, Baptised Covid-Organics, said the tonic is derived from artemisia  a plant with proven efficacy in treating malaria  as well as other indigenous herbs.

It was developed by the Madagascar Institute of Applied Research (IMRA) but has not been tested internationally.

This herbal tea gives results in seven days, he said.

Race for a cure

While the race to find a potential cure for the virus has been intensified globally, WHO African region said there is still a need to establish the efficacy of herbal drugs through clinical trials.

The organisation said it welcomes innovations around the world, including repurposing drugs, traditional medicines and developing new therapies in the search for potential treatments for COVID-19.

WHO recognizes that traditional, complementary and alternative medicine has many benefits and Africa has a long history of traditional medicine and practitioners that play an important role in providing care to populations, it said.

Medicinal plants, such as Artemisia annua, are being considered as possible treatments for COVID-19 and should be tested for efficacy and adverse side effects, it added.

According to the statement, even though therapies are derived from traditional practice, it is critical to establish the efficacy and safety.

Support for countries

The international health agency, in the statement, said it will continue to support countries as they explore the role of traditional health practitioners, especially in prevention, control, and early detection of the virus, as well as case referral to health facilities.

Over the past two decades, WHO has been working with countries to ensure safe and effective traditional medicine development in Africa by providing financial resources and technical support.

It said WHO has supported clinical trials, leading 14 countries to issue marketing authorisation for 89 traditional medicine products which have met international and national requirements for registration.

Of these, 43 have been included in national essential medicines lists. These products are now part of the arsenal to treat patients with a wide range of diseases including malaria, opportunistic infections related to HIV, diabetes, sickle cell disease and hypertension.

Almost all countries in the WHO African region have national traditional medicine policies, following support from WHO.

WHO warns that as efforts are under way to find a treatment for COVID-19, caution must be taken against misinformation, especially on social media, about the effectiveness of certain remedies.

It said many plants and substances are being proposed without the minimum requirements and evidence of quality, safety and efficacy.

The organisation said it welcomes every opportunity to collaborate with countries and researchers to develop new therapies and encourages collaboration for the development of effective and safe therapies for Africa and the world.

Earlier approval of traditional medicine

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The statement said in 2000, at the Fiftieth Session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa, African governments, through their Ministers of Health, adopted a resolution urging Member States to produce evidence on the safety, efficacy and quality of traditional medicine.

At that meeting, Countries had agreed to undertake relevant research and require national medicines regulatory agencies to approve medicines.

The approved medicines will be in line with international standards, which include the product following a strict research protocol and undergoing tests and clinical trials.

These studies normally involve hundreds of people under the monitoring of the national regulatory authorities and may take quite a few months in an expedited process, the statement said.

The organisation, thereafter, said it is working with research institutions to select traditional medicine products which can be investigated for clinical efficacy and safety for COVID-19 treatment.
According to HRW, the militiamen used the area for years as a "landfill" for the bodies of people killed. The gorge, 50 meters deep and once a site of "great beauty", has become "a place of horror". At least 20 mass graves were found between Syria and Iraq. Victims include activists, humanitarian workers, journalists.

Damascus (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Islamic State (SI, ex Isis), which in the period of maximum expansion in 2015 occupied half of the territories of Syria and Iraq, "for years" used a gorge in the north-east of Syria as a "landfill" for the bodies of people they kidnapped or killed, reports Human Rights Watch (HRW). The gruesome findings are contained in a report based on a series of surveys with the use of drones inside the hole over 50 meters deep.

The jihadists of the self-styled "caliphate" used the area about 85 km north of Raqqa to eliminate the corpses during the period when the area was under their control, and at a later stage. Victims include activists, humanitarian workers, journalists and residents who did not want to submit to the dictates of the militiamen. "Al-Hota gorge, once a beautiful natural site, has become a place of horror and reckoning," said Sara Kayyali, Syria researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Exposing what happened there, and at the other mass graves in Syria, is crucial to determining what happened to the thousands of people ISIS executed and holding their killers to account," she said.

Today the territory is under the control of Syrian rebels, supported by Turkey, while the city of Raqqa (once a jihadist stronghold) is garrisoned by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

Over 20 mass graves have been found between Syria and Iraq used by ISIS to eliminate evidence of their massacres. To date, the number of bodies thrown into the al-Hota gorge is unknown; the survey on the area was carried out with interviews with the locals, videos shot by ISIS and analysis of satellite images.

The existence of the pit emerged when a "caliphate" fighter brought his computer to a shop in the town of Tal Abyad to repair. One of the technicians copied the contents of the laptop and made it public. Inside there was also a video showing the militiamen as they threw corpses into the pit.

In a note, HRW specifies that "considering the state of decomposition, the bodies were discharged long after ISIS left the area. The identities of those victims and their causes of death remain unknown. " A similar ravine in northern Iraq, known as al-Khafsa, is believed to contain dozens of bodies of victims of the Islamic state.
Premier Doug Ford is blaming a sudden and steep drop in processing of COVID-19 tests on lax local health units, but one of his own top advisers cites supply shortages and a flawed weekend lab courier system.

A day after boasting Ontario was leading the country in testing, Ford expressed frustration again Tuesday as the province fell back to using just over half its daily lab capacity of 19,525 samples Monday.

The shortfall is at issue because critics  and Ford himself  have repeatedly raised concerns Ontario hasnt done enough testing to get a better snapshot of the highly contagious virus, and wastes valuable testing capacity as the province prepares to ease restrictions on the economy.

Im disappointed on the chief medical officers in certain regions. Im not going to name them. They know who they are, Ford said after Ministry of Health figures showed just 10,654 samples were processed Monday at a network of public, hospital and commercial labs.

That was down from 14,555 tests on Sunday and well below the high of about 17,000 reached May 1, which Ford highlighted at a Monday news conference.

Start picking up your socks and start doing testing. I dont know what the big problem is, the premier added Tuesday, saying half the 34 regional medical officers across the province were at fault.

Two hours later, Ontarios chief medical officer said test processing fell last Monday as well but numbers increased in subsequent days once lab tests got into the hands of courier services for shipment to labs.

There is no system for  moving those around on the weekend, Dr. David Williams told reporters. These type of system issues need to be addressed.

Williams said there were other problems faced by his local counterparts in certain areas as the push continued to test every resident and worker in nursing homes.

A number of them have said, We were ready to go on the weekend and we didnt get either the adequate supply or the correct swabs out to our area and we werent sure how this was going to be undertaken, he said.

Williams pledged to help local health units do whatever they need to do.

The premier also mused about moving to an Alberta-style system, where public health functions are centralized within the provincial government.

After this is over, we need to review it and start looking at the Alberta model. Its a lot easier to have one person in control than 34 people in control, he said.

As the Star reported Saturday, the provinces troubles with testing have led to targets being changed or not met. On March 30, for example, a target of 19,000 was set for mid-April and later adjusted downward to 14,000 daily and then raised to 16,000 by Wednesday May 6. Officials have not predicted when the full capacity of 19,525 can be reached.

New cases of COVID-19 continue to develop daily as officials keep a close eye on the numbers.

A Star compilation of data from health units across the province as of 5 p.m. Tuesday show 362 more Ontarians became infected with the new coronavirus in the previous 24 hours. The province has now had 19,603 cases since the outbreak began in late January. Deaths were up by 58 to a total of 1,485.

Ministry of Health figures showed the number of people in hospital for COVID-19 took another increase, rising by 59 to 1,043 after a drop the day before.

Williams has cautioned this number can be volatile and that officials pay closer attention to the number in intensive care  which fell by two to 223  and to the number on ventilators in intensive-care units, which was down nine to 166.

Across Canada, federal public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said Tuesday there have been 61,159 cases and 3,915 deaths.

In Ontario, 12,779 people who came down with COVID-19 have recovered, the Ministry of Health said.

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As the protestors in the United States are out on streets to force the governments across the country to open the economy, a new video has surfaced where the medical professionals and health care workers are defending the government's move of economic shut down in the wake of health emergency due to COVID-19.

Health workers face down anti-lockdown protesters

The medical professionals from the state of North Carolina were seen facing down the protestors who wanted to reopen the economy.

In the video, a protestor slammed the frontline warriors stating that he earlier used to respect the first responders but not anymore.

"I used to teach my kids to respect the police, to respect you guys (medical professionals), to respect first responders, not anymore, because the only response you have is to your pay-checks," said the protestor to the medical professionals who came out on streets to defend the move of lockdown.

The protestors shouted the slogans 'let us work' in protest against the lockdown. While the frontline warriors were seen holding placards like 'stay home for me'.

A health care worker said, "It's too dangerous for the health care workers, its dangerous for the immunocompromised and its dangerous for the North Carolinians."

Coming out in support of the lockdown, another medical professional said, "I came here to send a clear message to the legislators that we do not need to reopen NC (North Carolina), we need to keep it closed and we need to continue to flatten the curve."

While another medical professional said, "We aren't through it yet. If we were to reopen now, we would see a resurgence. It would overwhelm the health care systems and it would put the vulnerable in our community at risk."

WATCH: Frontline health care workers in North Carolina stand-down protesters.



This is AMAZING. BRAVE. And SAD that as hard as they have worked to SAVE lives, they have to CONVINCE people to stay home to protect these protesters from spreading #COVID__19 pic.twitter.com/RuzaOpRF9L  Peter Morley (@morethanmySLE) May 3, 2020

Days ago, protestors from Michigan armed with assault rifles barged into Michigans State House demanding freedom from lockdown as the state governor Gretchen Whitmer was to announce the lockdown extension in view of the COVID-19 health crisis. In order to protect the governor, the state police then blocked the armed men from moving further into the building.
The co-ruling Christian Democrats have submitted a policy statement to parliament rejecting the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, arguing that certain aspects of the convention go against the governments migration policy.

KDNP group spokesman Lorinc Nacsa (pictured on top) said the ideology of the convention was contrary to Hungarys legal order and his partys beliefs.



The document tries to prescribe a social construction of gender and pressurising countries to consider the aspect of gender identities when offering refugee status, he said.



KDNP is against supporting a convention that would speed up or simplify immigration to Europe, he said.



MTI Photo: Szilard Koszticsak
" " Keystone View Company/Wikimedia Commons French Premier Georges Clemenceau (left), American President Woodrow Wilson (center) and British Prime Minister David Lloyd George (right, in top hat) attend the signing of the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I.

World War I wrought unprecedented levels of death and destruction, claiming upward of 30 million military casualties and millions of civilian lives and livelihoods. The four-year slaughter finally came to an end on Nov. 11, 1918, but the final terms of Germany's capitulation weren't hammered out until the Paris Peace Conference of 1919.

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson chose to attend the peace negotiations in person, becoming the first American president to travel abroad on official business. Wilson arrived with an idealistic vision of a rebuilt Europe safeguarded by a new League of Nations, as outlined in his famous "14 Points" speech. The French and British, however, who had lost millions of soldiers during years of brutal trench warfare, came demanding justice and revenge.

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After months of contentious negotiations, to which Germany and the other defeated Central Powers weren't even invited, Wilson and his allied counterparts emerged with the Treaty of Versailles (so-called because it was signed at the Palace of Versailles in France). The sprawling document redrew Europe's borders, carving new countries out of the former Austro-Hungarian empire (including Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Poland) in a nod to Wilson's policy of "self-determination." But the harshest terms of the treaty were reserved for Germany.

The German military was effectively disarmed and reduced to a defensive skeleton force. Germany lost 10 percent of its territory, including the long-contested Alsace-Lorraine region and all of its overseas colonies. Allied forces would occupy German territory west of the Rhine for 15 years.

And then there was the matter of reparations. In order to demand that Germany pay back Allied countries for the damage it inflicted to life and property, the Treaty of Versailles needed to officially assign blame. That explains the inclusion of "Article 231," also known as the "War Guilt Clause":

"The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies."

Germany was eventually billed for $32 billion (over $500 billion in today's dollars) in damages, an astronomical sum for a nation gutted by war and still without a functioning government. Defeat and debt were bad enough, but the shame and guilt imposed by the Treaty of Versailles were seen by many Germans as intolerable.

"From a political standpoint, [the War Guilt Clause] does more harm than good," says Michael Neiberg, chair of war studies at the U.S. Army War College and author of "The Treaty of Versailles: A Concise History." "It stirs up everybody inside Germany. It gives them something to unify against at a time when Germany is badly divided on what should replace the Kaiser's regime. Now you've given them a single thing to rally around."

Setting the Stage for World War II?

The question that historians have been asking ever since is whether the harsh, even offensive terms of the Treaty of Versailles, sowed the seeds of discontent that would carry Adolf Hitler to power in 1933. In other words, did the Treaty of Versailles, a pact intended to ensure peace in Europe, in fact lay the groundwork for World War II?

Neiberg says no. While he agrees that the Treaty of Versailles was a thorn in Germany's side and a powerful symbol to the German people of the ruthless injustice of the Allies, it wasn't enough to fully explain the rise of the Nazis. The Treaty of Versailles alone did not make WWII "inevitable."

For Neiberg, the more critical factors that set the stage for WWII were the global financial meltdown of the Great Depression and the failure of the United States to back one of Wilson's highest priorities in the Treaty of Versailles, the creation of the League of Nations.

The League of Nations was the 14th point of Wilson's "14 Points" doctrine:

"A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike."

The drafters of the Treaty of Versailles knew that the redrawn map of Europe was going to result in terrific political instability. The empires that had ruled Europe for centuries  Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman and Russian  were all gone, replaced by smaller and weaker states, or reshaped by revolution like the Bolsheviks in Russia.

Wilson hoped that peace could be maintained by girding each of the newly created states with an American-style constitution safeguarding the rights of ethnic minorities. But if problems arose  and they definitely would  a strong and unified League of Nations would be able to step in and solve them.

The problem was that when Wilson came home and presented the Treaty of Versailles to Congress, American legislators refused to ratify it. A contingent of Republican senators known as the "Irreconcilables" rejected the very notion of a League of Nations, fearing that U.S. membership would force America into European conflicts.

Wilson campaigned hard for ratification of the treaty and membership in the League of Nations, but he suffered a debilitating stroke while on a nationwide tour and was replaced in 1921 by the staunch isolationist Warren Harding. American absence from the League of Nations undermined its credibility.

" " This 1921 American political cartoon is critical of the heavy reparations Germany had to pay thanks to the Treaty of Versailles. New York World/Wikimedia Commons

"Once Wilson is off the stage and the United States has rejected the League of Nations, then there's really no reason for the successor states of the Austro-Hungarian empire to believe in the constitutional system that Wilson insisted upon," says Neiberg.

As for the rise of Hitler and his racist ideologies, Neiberg believes that they found fertile ground in the economic wasteland of Depression-era Germany. Before the 1929 stock market crash, U.S. banks were loaning Germany money to pay its reparations and fund its post-war rebuilding efforts. When those loans were called in after the crash, German industry lost its financing, which led to crippling unemployment.

The German people, jobless and desperate, lost faith in democracy and found refuge in fascist creeds that blamed Jewish conspirators for Germany's problems and promised a return to greatness under a "purified," Aryan state.

"I can envision a European world in which the stock market here in the U.S. doesn't crash, the Great Depression doesn't happen, and Europeans find ways well short of fascism and bolshevism to work out the rest of the 20th century," says Neiberg. "It's the Great Depression that unhinges all of this."

Now That's Interesting Since the U.S. never signed the Treaty of Versailles, hostilities weren't officially ended between America, Germany and the other Central Powers until the passage of the Knox-Porter Resolution in 1921. Germany didn't finish paying off the $32 billion reparations until 2010.
By PTI

CHENNAI: Pubilc sector Indian Bank on Tuesday donated Rs 1crore to the Government of Tamil Nadu in its fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

The managing director and CEO, Padmaja Chunduru of the city-headquartered bank's handed over the cheque to Chief Secretary K Shanmugam today.

Besides the contribution of employees of Tamil Nadu Grama Bank amounting to Rs 25.38 lakh was also presented by her, a press release said.

On the banking initiatives taken by the lender, Indian Bank said its ATMs were consistently serving customers while digital channels were also functioning 'optimally' to ensure the flow of transactions.

The bank had earlier launched COVID emergency loans for micro, small and medium enterprises, corporates, pensioners and salaried employees, poultry, and agri-industry to support their businesses.
Joanne Songy, wife of Rutland police officer John Songy, posted a plea on Facebook Sunday, May 3 seeking a blood donation for her husband that could help save his life as he fights to recover from COVID-19 at Worcesters St. Vincent Hospital.

John Songy, a 48-year-old detective with the Rutland Police Department, is still at St. Vincent Hospital hooked up to high-flow oxygen, battling shortness of breath, and hoping for an experimental plasma infusion, Joanne said in an interview Tuesday morning.

John and his wife Joanne, a nurse, both tested positive for the coronavirus on April 23. Joanne was able to overcome the virus quarantining at home, she said. John did not recover as quickly and was admitted to St. Vincent Hospital around 1 a.m. Saturday May 2 for shortness of breath, a major symptom of COVID-19.

After her husbands admittance to the hospital, a doctor there informed her about the possibility of John receiving a plasma infusion as a form of COVID-19 treatment. Part of a Mayo Clinic trial, the treatment is known as convalescent plasma therapy, and is an infusion of antibody-rich plasma from people that have recovered from COVID-19, according to the Mayo Clinic.

The treatment is based on the function of antibodies, proteins created by the immune system that combat invaders to the body in a variety of ways, writes Dana Sparks in a Mayo Clinic blog post. Some are capable of neutralizing a virus, while others work by mobilizing a range of other immune cells that fight off disease. Its not yet known by which mechanism COVID-19 antibodies might work, but the thinking is that an infusion of convalescent plasma may boost a generalized response, known as passive immunity, until a patient develops a strong, targeted ability to fight the virus.

After speaking with the doctor about the prospects of John receiving a plasma infusion, Songy turned to the public with a post on Facebook looking for a blood donation from a person with an O negative blood type, to match her husbands. The donor, she noted, would need to have recovered from the coronavirus within the last four to six weeks.

To all my family and friends. My husband John is in desperate need of an O- negative blood donation. As you know he was... Posted by Joanne Songy on Sunday, May 3, 2020

Shed donate to her husband if she could, she says, but she still has to wait four to six weeks. As of Tuesday, shes been symptom-free for three days, she said.

Joanne said hundreds of phone calls and messages have poured in since her Facebook post published, with an enormous number of potential eligible donors, with at least the correct blood type.

The hangup, however, is none are able to make a direct donation to her husband John.

Joanne believed her plea on social media looking to identify a donor for her husband would help speed the process and allow her husband to potentially receive a plasma infusion sooner than expected. Later, after receiving contact from all of the eligible donors, she called the hospital looking for information on where to send them. Speaking with a resident doctor, she was told St. Vincent Hospital was unable to receive the donations directly, and they would need to go to the American Red Cross.

Songy says she called the St. Vincent Hospital blood bank to confirm all donors are directed to the American Red Cross, and they confirmed the process.

All donations to American Red Cross are put into a pool system that then distributes the blood and plasma, said Joanne Songy.

The American Red Cross is saying that they cant guarantee that the donors Im sending, that their blood, is going to get to John because theyre not doing any direct donor," said Joanne Songy.

She remains frustrated by the process and concerned for her husbands well-being.

In an interview with CBS Boston, Kelly Isenor, spokesperson for the American Red Cross, said, At this time, the Red Cross is not asking families, or doctors, or hospitals to proactively identify donors because it can create more delays in the system.

Im not blaming anybody, really, said Joanne Songy. But, my thought is, I know this is a virus that is new to all of us. There are so many unknowns to it and theyre all still learning and trying to figure out what is the best thing to do. Whats going to help these patients. But when youre the wife sitting at home after your husbands been taken from you and you dont know if youre going to see him again, its very difficult.

Joanne Songy says shes reached out to the American Red Cross and is awaiting a reply.

And while convalescent plasma therapy has not been approved as an official treatment for COVID-19 yet, the benefits outweigh the risks, she believes.

Intermountain Medical Center, a Utah hospital, announced a successful plasma transfusion on May 1, as one example of a success story. The 24-year-old patient, Cynthia Lemus, was discharged 13 days after her infusion and is now home with her family, the hospital announced on Facebook.

There have been successes with this," said Joanne Songy. We have nothing to lose.

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Haiti - Canada : Message from PM Trudeau to health professionals of Haitian origin





Message of appreciation and deep gratitude from Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau to Haitian healthcare workers, doctors, nurses and frontline nurses who are at great risk in the fight against Covid-19 in Canada.



Message from Justin Trudeau :



"Hello everyone, 'sak pase !'



Right now everywhere in Quebec, health workers of Haitian origin are working day and night to fight against this Covid-19 pandemic.



These workers are doctors, nurses, attendants and more, so I would like to take a moment to say thank you on behalf of all the Canadians who are so grateful.



Every day they expose themselves to risks to ensure our health and safety. They truly represent the best in the country.



Now allow me to speak directly to these workers, I know you have a very long day at work, but know that we are there for you, have hard work to protect you, as you do for us.



Thanks again for all you do, 'avek nou map mache kenbe pa lage'."



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Some of those upcoming events are meant to be surprises, while others are being communicated to families. Holland said she also has been in contact with groups of seniors to brainstorm other ways to celebrate the end of the school year.
AUSTIN, Texas, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On Sunday, May 10, for the first time ever, Circuit of the Americas (COTA) will open the track to support those in need on behalf of Central Texas Food Bank. COTA will collect donations and allow guests a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take a drive on the world-famous 3.4-mile track. This will be a parade of unity, hope and fun for the Central Texas community. The event will be from noon to 5 p.m. CT and is open to the public.

"We're grateful to our community for the many years of support and know that when this crisis ends, we'll again unite in times of celebration, friendship and fun," commented COTA Founder and Chairman, Bobby Epstein. "Thanks to the health care workers, community leaders, volunteers and everyone who makes an effort to help a neighbor, friend or stranger. Special appreciation goes out to our employees at COTA who are working to make this event possible. We're all in this race together."

Central Texans are encouraged to show their support by donating money online or by donating cash or dropping off non-perishable items on-site via "touchless" locations in the COTA garages. $1.00 can produce up to four meals for Central Texans. COTA partner Germania Insurance will join the fight against hunger and match up to $10,000 of donations. COTA and Austin Bold FC will also match Germania's donation to $10,000. Donations are recommended, but not required to participate in the on-track parade.

For more information on Circuit of The Americas and the COTA Food Drive initiative, please visit www.thecircuit.com .

ABOUT CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS:

Experience the unfiltered thrill of being alive at Circuit of The Americas, in Austin, TX. Feel the rush of the world's greatest drivers competing in motorsport's biggest events. Get lost in the music of the hottest musical acts as they perform live at Austin's largest outdoor music venue. Take charge of your own 602 horsepower race car as part of our exciting driving experiences. Experience the thrill of racing others at the COTA Karting track. Inspire your most valuable stakeholders in our expansive meeting and hospitality spaces designed for large groups and private or corporate events. At Circuit of The Americas there is fun at every turn.

For more information and to download videos and photos, visit www.thecircuit.com. For an experience as unique as Austin and a rush you'll never forget, visit Circuit of The Americas, where exhilaration happens!

ABOUT GERMANIA INSURANCE:

Founded in 1896, Germania Insurance provides auto, property, and life insurance for thousands of Texans. It is the largest farm mutual insurance company in Texas and one of the top companies for independent agents. Germania is a proud Texas company, exclusively providing protection and insurance services for Texans for over 120 years.

ABOUT CENTRAL TEXAS FOOD BANK:

The mission of Central Texas Food Bank is to nourish hungry people and lead the community in the fight against hunger. Founded in 1981, the Food Bank provides food and grocery products through a network of about 300 Partner Agencies and nutrition programs, serving nearly 50,000 people every week. Headquartered in Austin, the Food Bank serves 21 counties in Central Texas, an area about twice the size of Massachusetts. For more information on the Food Bank and its programs, visit centraltexasfoodbank.org.

SOURCE Circuit of The Americas

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http://circuitoftheamericas.com


05.05.2020 LISTEN

Intelligence has just reported to me that I was correct, and that they did NOT bring up the CoronaVirus subject matter until late into January, just prior to my banning China from the U.S. Also, they only spoke of the Virus in a very non-threatening, or matter of fact, manner... (@real DonaldTrump-a tweet)

China has really fooled the world into believing that the Coronavirus isnt a lab mistake and that its infection began only in January. For this alone, China must be charged for deceit and condoning with them to finish the world. According to CNN and Aljazeera, the outbreak of the virus began in January as they had it reported by their journalists in Wuhan. This news turn out to be incorrect since there are evidence beyond doubt that the outbreak of the virus began in December and might even have began earlier than that.

Mr Trump has been tagged as making noise about this whole thing of the virus starting in December. Many countries might have not agreed with him and in fact WHO wouldnt agree until this evidence began to surface. French doctors say they found a Covid-19 patient from December-CNN) - There's new evidence that the coronavirus may have been in France weeks earlier than was previously thought.

From the news as at today, there no doubt the virus was circulating around the world even in December. But China has rejected this truth and has alienated itself from the disease. In my opinion I think China must have the answer to the problem they have brought.

Why wouldnt China want to accept that they created it or are the originators of the virus? It is because they like a child- confused and can say yes and at the same time say no.

May be they had it as their aim to reduce the population of the world and ultimately through the economies of certain target countries into recess. In fact they have been successful if these were their motives. But I call on them to fix the mess they have created.

WHO should be pressuring them to make available the vaccines to the world.

This is what WHO should be doing.

China will hide all these truths from you because it wants to be on top of every country.

The virus never started in January but December, May be later than that.

From the pen of Emmanuel Graham Nyameke.
Former Fortescue chief executive Nev Power was back in the news on Tuesday, making an appearance in Canberra with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Attorney-General Christian Porter as they outlined the plans for a post-coronavirus economic recovery.

Power has been chairing Morrisons National COVID-19 Coordination Commission since late March, providing advice on how to stem the economic and social issues created by the pandemic with fellow commissioners, including ex-Telstra boss David Thodey, IFM Investors chairman Greg Combet, EnergyAustralia chief Catherine Tanna and businessman Paul Little.

There's no word yet on how much the government will fork out for the decidedly heavyweight crew, but its good to see that as far as Power is concerned, the arrangement is already delivering perks to the Canberra crowd.

In the driver's seat: avid aviator Nev Power flies Mathias Cormann, Christian Porter and Ben Morton back to Perth. Credit:Shakespeare

Power, who also chairs Perth Airport, is a pilot and a plane owner. Hes also a generous guy, with parliamentary disclosures revealing hes been ferrying some of Morrison's West Australian-based team to and from Perth.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (R) speaks at a press conference alongside Australian Attorney-General Christian Porter (L) and Head of the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission Nev Power (C) at Parliament House on May 5, 2020 in Canberra, Australia. (Rohan Thomson/Getty Images)

Reopening Australian Workplaces is Top Priority Says Treasurer

Millions of Australians who have been working from home or were stood down temporarily may return to their workplaces soon as the federal government prioritises reviving the economy.

The federal government is expected to announce a time frame for easing lockdown restrictions as early as May 8, as a result of a sustained flattening of the COVID-19 curve. However proper measures need to be in place to ensure workplaces are safe.

Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra on May 5, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg signaled that restrictions would soon be relaxed as he outlined a path to recovery and post-pandemic reform.

Cafes and restaurants will be among the first businesses to reopen.

Opening our cafes and restaurants will mean that farmers will have a home for their produce, he said.

We need to find a home for that produce and getting those cafes and restaurants and other activities open as quickly as possible will be a way of getting more people back to work and reducing that unemployment, he said.

Frydenberg also identified childcare, education, and logistics as industries crucial to economic recovery as they are not only significant contributors to employment and output in their own right but are also important enablers for the broader economy.

The treasurer emphasised the governments commitment to leading the nation out of the economic downturn, revealing that lockdown is costing the economy $4 billion a week from a combination of reduced workforce participation, productivity, and consumption.

We must get people back into jobs and back into work, he said. History shows the longer people are unemployed, the harder it is to get a job.

The time frame of lifting national baseline restrictions will be discussed at the next National Cabinet meeting on May 8.

The treasurer urged more Australians to download the COVIDSafe app as it is one of the key data metrics in deciding how soon the restrictions will be relaxed, and thus businesses will get back to normal.

As of May 5, nearly 5 million Australians have downloaded COVIDSafe, a tool in the governments strategy to contain the spread of the CCP virus.

It is about having confidence that as we are able to get more economic activities to take place, we can effectively manage any health risks that arise, he said.

It is also why every Australian that wants to get back to work and every business owner that wants to open their doors again should download the COVIDSafe app, said Frydenberg.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison reiterated the governments goal to get people back to work as early as possible, highlighting the need for workplaces to become COVID safe.

We now need to get 1 million Australians back to work, he told reporters on May 5. To get Australians back to work, what is essential is they could go back into a COVID-19 safe workplace.

Safe Workplaces

The federal government has been working across a range of sectors to prepare plans for a safe return to work.

On April 24, Morrison released the national workplace principles developed jointly by the COVID-19 Commission, Attorney-General Christian Porter, and union representatives.

Morrison said the ten principles are designed to prepare workplaces to resume normal operations.

This is all about getting Australians back to work and ensuring that when they go back to work, that they and their families can feel safe in going back to work, and to ensure that there are important principles in place, he said at the press conference.

Head of the COVID-19 commission Nev Power also spoke at the National Press Club and laid out key issues for ensuring businesses are safe to reopen.

They included reconfiguring and restructuring worksites for safety purposes; implementing procedures to respond in case of an incident in the workplace; ways of communication at the workplace; and how to trace cases of COVID-19.
Jacqueline Sturgess was found dead in a pool of her own blood at a home north of Brisbane last week.

Police have accused her estranged husband of beating the mother-of-two to death with a sledgehammer after she returned to the home they once shared, to pick up some belongings. Shaun Robert Sturgess, 50, will appear in Caboolture Magistrates Court on June 25 charged with murder.

The scene in Narangba where a woman's body was found at a home on Tuesday. Credit:Nine News Queensland

Queensland Domestic Violence Prevention Minister Di Farmer said the alleged murder of Ms Sturgess was "a reminder of how crucially important it is to support women who have made the brave decision to leave".

Domestic violence shot to the top of the state's agenda in February, following the murder of Hannah Clarke and her three children at Camp Hill.
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Israel will keep up its operations in Syria until its arch enemy Iran leaves, Defence Minister Naftali Bennett said Tuesday after strikes on Iranian-backed militias and their allies killed 14 fighters.

Israel has launched hundreds of attacks in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011, targeting government troops, allied Iranian forces and fighters from Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The Jewish state rarely confirms details of its operations in Syria but says Iran's presence in support of President Bashar al-Assad is a threat and that it will continue its attacks.

Bennett, speaking to the state-owned Kan 11 television channel, did not claim Israeli responsibility for the latest overnight strikes on Syria.

But he said: "Iran has nothing to do in Syria... (and) we won't stop before they leave Syria."



The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the strikes came minutes after Syrian air defences intercepted Israeli air raids over the north of the country.

A spokesman for the US-led coalition battling the Islamic State (IS) group said it was not responsible for the raids in the desert near the eastern Syrian town of Mayadin.

Bennett said Iran was "trying to establish itself on the border with Israel to threaten Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa".

His allegation is not new and has often been made by Israeli officials.

"They have to leave Syria," Bennett said.

"This is our life we are talking about, the life of our children, and if we allowed them to settle in Syria... in a year we will wake up with 10,000 missiles, 20,000 missiles, that would put us in danger.

"For them it's an adventure, they are 1,000 kilometres away... it's their Vietnam in a way," Bennett said.

The Israeli defence minister said Iran should be more concerned with its own citizens and mounting domestic problems.

"They have enough problems at home with the coronavirus (and) the collapsing economy," he said.

Iran on Tuesday announced that confirmed coronavirus infections had reached almost 100,000 in the Islamic republic while the overall death toll from COVID-19 topped 6,000.

Iran is facing economic hardship that worsened after US President Donald Trump withdrew from a landmark nuclear clear and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran in 2018, targeting key oil and banking sectors.

Bennett said Iran had become a "burden" for the Assad regime.

"It used to be an asset for the Syrians, it helped Assad deal with Daesh, but now it's a burden," he said, referring to IS.

The overnight attacks in Syria were the latest in a spate of strikes on Israel's neighbour.

On Friday, the Observatory said Israeli raids hit a missile depot in eastern Syria that belonged to Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese movement that fought a war with Israel in 2006.

That strike came a day after Germany designated Hezbollah a "Shiite terrorist organisation", winning applause from the Israeli government.

Israel and the United States have long designated Hezbollah as a terrorist group.

And last week, Israel was accused of hitting pro-regime positions in Syria at least three times.

Commenting on the apparent intensification of Israeli raids, Yoram Schweitzer of Israel's Institute for National Security Studies told AFP the Jewish state might be reacting to increased hostile action from Iran and Hezbollah.

It is also possible that Israel is trying to apply added pressure as its rivals endure the fallout of the coronavirus crisis, he said.

"I don't know which one of the two it is, but it might be a combination of the two," Schweitzer said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Police cited a 23-year-old man with violating Ohios stay-at-home order after they twice found a large party at the mans home.

Police reported finding about 35 people inside the home on April 25. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on March 22 banned gatherings of 10 or more people to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.

The charge is a second-degree misdemeanor. A court date has not yet been set.

Police initially went to the home on West 145th Street, south of Coe Avenue, in the citys Bellaire-Puritas neighborhood after someone reported the large party, according to a police report released on Monday.

Officers warned to the 23-year-old man and left. The party continued and officers returned to the home about 2:30 a.m., according to police.

The home owner told police he had only two tenants and they were supposed to move out soon. He asked the police to break up the party.

The 23-year-old man told the officers his guests refused to leave. He asked the officers to help him clear out the home, police reports say. The officers did so without incident, police reports say.

Cleveland police have filed several charges for large parties during the stay-at-home order, including for a 33-person party Tower City apartment in downtown Cleveland. A 37-year-old woman was cited in that case.

Read more from cleveland.com:

Cleveland bar found open with about 15 customers despite Ohios stay-at-home order, police say

Police find AK-47, other guns, while shuttering party at Cleveland Airbnb that violated Ohios stay-at-home order

Man cited with violating Ohios stay-at-home order after throwing party at Airbnb in Ohio City that drew 100 people

Cleveland Heights man cited twice in three days for violating Ohio Gov. Mike DeWines stay-at home-order after two large house parties

Cleveland police issue first citation for violation of Ohios stay-at-home order to beauty supply store

Cleveland secondhand store owner defies Ohios stay-at-home order, despite criminal charge: I have no choice but to stay open
Over 11,000 babies have been born in Ireland's hospitals since the arrival of COVID-19 in late February, new analysis from the Irish Nurses and Midwives' shows.

The figures mark International Day of the Midwife on May 5, which celebrates and recognises the role of midwives in delivering expert care and supporting women and babies.

2020 is also the WHO's Year of the Nurse and Midwife.

The INMO's estimated projection is based on an analysis of the past ten years of birth statistics between February 27 and May 5.

There are 1,479 staff midwives working in the public health service. This is below the scientifically recommended ratio of 1 midwife to every 29.5 births.

The INMO is calling on all parties to not only recognise the work done by midwives, but to ensure that staffing levels are set scientifically.

INMO General Secretary, Phil Ni Sheaghdha, said: "As COVID-19 puts pressure our health service, midwives are there for mothers and babies, providing care, comfort, advocacy and advice.

"While much has been put on hold during the pandemic, childbirth has continued as normal. Today alone, midwives in Ireland will welcome over 150 new people to the world.

"The skill and dedication of midwives not only deserves recognition, but support. Consistent understaffing has put midwifery under pressure, leaving overworked staff to pick up the slack.

"The next government must ensure that the promise of safe staffing in the National Maternity Strategy is upheld, and staffing numbers set by scientific safe levels."
Lucknow, May 5 : The Yogi Adityanath government has launched a public hearing portal -- jansunwai.up.nic.in. -- where people form Uttar Pradesh who are stranded in other states can register themselves if they wish to return.

The government will then prepare a plan for their return.

Those stuck outside UP or in the state can register on this link Tuesday afternoon onwards.

However, registration on the website should not be considered as permission to travel, said an official spokesman.

The applicants will have to agree to be quarantined on their return.

The government spokesperson said that the applicant will have to provide an undertaking because if the information is found to be incorrect, action can be taken against the applicant under the Epidemics Act and Disaster Management Act. This also applies to those travelling out of UP.

Applicants will have to provide information like their name, age, mobile number, email, identification card details, who they will be travelling with, date of travel, medical details of family members and those they will be travelling with, whether they were quarantined for 14 days before date of travel, current address, address in UP, among other details.

Applicants will also have to declare whether they have stayed in any containment zone in the past two months.

"Not all migrant workers from other states may be in quarantine shelters or living with relatives or in factories. If they would like to return home, we are giving them this facility," the official said.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
FILE PHOTO: Enbridge Inc.'s crude oil storage tanks are seen during a tour of their tank farm in Cushing

By Jeff Lewis

TORONTO (Reuters) - Enbridge Inc <ENB.TO> said on Monday the Canadian pipeline operator has reached a deal with shippers to temporarily store crude oil in North America's largest oil pipeline network from June 1 and is working with governments to provide additional capacity.

Oil companies have been slashing costs and cutting production due to a crash in crude prices and slumping fuel demand due to global restrictions to fight the novel coronavirus pandemic. This has stoked fears that global storage levels are fast approaching capacity.

"Given the impacts of the pandemic and the collapse in crude oil prices, demand for incremental crude petroleum storage throughout North America and even more urgently in Western Canada is high," the company said in a May 1 filing with the Canadian Energy Regulator.

The Mainline, Canadas longest oil pipeline system, has capacity for nearly 3 million barrels per day, moving western Canadian oil to U.S. refiners.

Enbridge last month said it would not ration capacity for May on the network, a sharp reversal from restrictions that have dogged Canadian producers for years.

The company is offering about 900,000 barrels of storage, equivalent to about four standard-sized tanks, for an eight-month term, a spokeswoman said. It would use an older portion of its Line 3 pipeline in Canada before the line is decommissioned next year.

Enbridge is also working with provincial and the Canadian federal governments "to support producers goal of more storage," spokeswoman Tracie Kenyon said in an email, without providing details.

"This temporary storage, along with the further maintenance optimizations to our storage tank program will create more than two million barrels of additional storage capacity for 2020," she said.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has repeatedly warned that storage levels are in danger of reaching capacity.

Cuts to Alberta's oil production have been large enough to avoid filling storage completely but levels could still spike to tank-top capacity of 43 million barrels, Canadian producer Cenovus Energy Inc <CVE.TO> said last week.

(Reporting by Jeff Lewis; Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Gregorio)
Bhubaneswar, May 5 : Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday directed that the Odia migrants willing to return from Surat in Gujarat will be granted permission to return by train only.

Buses carrying returnees from Surat will not be allowed inside the state.

The decision was taken by the Chief Minister keeping in mind the number of accidents by buses carrying the returnees and various inconveniences faced by children and women passengers due to the long-distance journey.

Three accidents took place with buses carrying stranded Odias from Surat in Gujarat in the last couple of days.

Patnaik took a review meeting on Tuesday to assess the current situation of COVID-19 in the state.

The Chief Minister also directed to increase the number of COVID-19 tests in the state by five times to 15,000 per day from the current 3,500 tests.

While the government has conducted test of about 46,000 samples so far, 173 persons tested positive for coronavirus.

The government has decided to develop testing facility in Baripada, Balasore, Koraput and Balangir districts in the coming days.

During the review meeting, the Chief Minister also discussed the arrangements made for migrants, maintenance of law and order and issues related to the functioning of industries.

The Chief Minister directed that special focus should be given to districts such as Ganjam, Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Bolangir, and Balasore, where a large number of people are migrating to other states in search of work.

It was also decided that loan assistance for farmers and Self Help Groups (SHG) will be increased.
This Sunday (10 May), Anglicans around the world will be praying for the Anglican Church of Kenya. In this brief post, ACNS introduces the province.

The 39 dioceses in the Anglican church of Kenya trace their history back to 1844 when CMS missionary Dr Johann Ludwing Krapf arrived in Mombasa. He was joined two years later by Johann Rebman. They set about learning African languages before beginning to translate passages of the Bible to Kiswahili, Nyika and Kamba.

The Diocese of Eastern Equatorial Africa was formed in 1884, encompassing Uganda, Kenya and Tanganyika James Hannington was the first Bishop  he was martyred on a journey to Uganda.

Growth, development and reorganisation took place over the decades, until 1927, when a single diocese of Mombasa served the entire nation of Kenya. The first African Bishops of the now independent Anglican Church in Kenya, Festo Olang and Obadiah Kariuki were consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury in Uganda in 1955.

Bishop Olang would go on to become the first African Archbishop of the province, in 1970.

Today, the Church has around five million members across Kenya.

It seeks to be a growing and caring Anglican Church boldly proclaiming Christ and to to equip Gods people to reach out and transform society with the gospel of Christ.

The Primate of the Anglican Church of Kenya, Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit, was installed on 3 July 2016. He has a vision to build the church and ensure holistic growth. Soon after his installation, he launched a ten-year strategic plan, which runs from 2018 to 2027, which will drive the Churchs agenda for social transformation in the country.
An apex body of the Indian alcoholic beverage industry on Tuesday demanded that the Delhi government allow home delivery of alcohol in the national capital in wake of tipplers breaking social-distancing norm in several areas.

The Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC) said that the government can also give permission for token system through which liquor can be sold and it will also be better crowd management.

Undeterred by the threat of coronavirus infection or the ''special corona fee'' of 70 per cent levied on sale of alcohol, hundreds of tipplers queued up outside liquor vends in Delhi for the second consecutive day on Tuesday.

CIABC Director General Vinod Giri said that booking of liquor through online mode can be an effective measure to reduce crowd outside liquor vends.

"We will approach the Delhi government and request it to consider home delivery option of liquor. Delivery of liquor is also safest way and it doesn't pose any threat," Giri said.

Giri also suggested that the government can also start token system under which a person can book liquor online and generate token number.

Later, he can go to the store at the given time and get liquor.

On the government''s decision to impose 70 per cent ''special corona fee'' on sale of liquor, he said, "Prices of liquor cannot be seen in isolation and they have to be seen in context of the neighbouring cities."



Sources in the government said that it will be a major challenge to stop smuggling of liquor of neighbouring states in the national capital.

"We will have to keep a tight vigil on illicit liquor as it affects the government''s revenue," they said.

On Tuesday, about 190 government-run liquor shops opened as per the latest lockdown relaxations allowed by the Ministry of Home Affairs. On Tuesday, around 150 such outlets opened.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said all relaxations in areas where people violate social distancing and other norms will be withdrawn.

The chief minister's stern stance comes amid reports of people flouting social distancing norms at liquor shops in many areas in the city as authorities allowed all activities permitted by the central government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Egypt is attempting to fill gaps in its health sector as the number of infections from the pandemic continues to rise daily, risking its hospitals capacities and capabilities

Egypt's Doctors Syndicate has strongly rejected a suggestion by a military academy chief to allow pharmacists to shift their profession to become physicians after obtaining the necessary equivalency studies amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The syndicate "totally rejected this suggestion as it harms Egyptian citizens health and Egypt's medical reputation globally," it said in a statement on Tuesday.

Each group in the medical staff has a very important role conducted under professional and scientific principles depending on the type of theoretical and practical studies received over long years, the statement said, adding that no group in the profession can replace another.

The syndicate was addressing a suggestion by Military Medical Academy chief Ahmed El-Tawdi, who had earlier sent an invitation to the head of the Doctors Syndicate to attend a meeting this week to discuss the matter.

The syndicate said the issue would affect Egypts medical reputation abroad, as there is no precedent for such a move in the modern history of the profession.

Those seeking to join the medical profession and be responsible for Egyptians lives should join medicine faculties, with a license of practice given only upon their training and graduation, it said.

Egypt is attempting to fill gaps in its health sector as the number of infections from the pandemic continues to rise daily, risking its hospitals capacities.

Several healthcare facilities in Egypt have detected cases among their doctors and nurses in the past weeks, triggering fears that the outbreak would hit the countrys overwhelmed healthcare sector.

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Councils in Northern Ireland have been issued with new guidance to help their workers report modern slavery.

From refuse workers spotting suspicious activity on the street to registrars being alert to forced marriages, it is hoped the advice will allow councils to help police and other agencies.

The work was commissioned by the local government body NILGA and the Northern Ireland Strategic Migration Partnership (NISMP).

It states that an average of 52 victims of modern slavery and human trafficking are recovered each year, equivalent to one a week.

Referrals for potential victims have ranged from 31 in 2017, to 91 in 2019 but it is believed the true picture is far higher.

The majority of referrals have related to adults facing labour and sexual exploitation.

The advice recommends modern slavery awareness training for all council staff working with the public, highlighting several areas.

This includes inspection of houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) where victims could be living in substandard conditions.

Food hygiene and premises inspection for businesses like nail salons and hand car washes - both viewed as a high risk sector for labour exploitation - may also be an opportunity to spot victims or perpetrators.

Council workers undertaking waste collection may also notice suspicious activity in communities where modern slavery could be taking place.

Justice Minister Naomi Long said the guidance would give council workers the confidence to report suspicious activity.

"It is utterly intolerable that slavery, in any form, is happening in Northern Ireland," she said.

"Traffickers prey on the most vulnerable people in society. They exploit their victims to coerce and trap them against their will into prostitution, forced labour and criminality.

"Modern slavery is often referred to as the crime which is hidden in plain sight.

"Council workers can play a vital role, through their daily work, to detect indicators of slavery and human trafficking and, through greater awareness, feel more confident to report the signs.

NILGA president and DUP councillor Frances Burton said: "Modern slavery and human trafficking are happening daily in Northern Ireland.

"We must act now to report and stop these crimes at every opportunity," she said.
The new online system launched on Tuesday for industries to obtain automatic approval for the resumption of work during the lockdown remained slow and erratic in the city. The new system is part of the Saral Haryana portal, which has given a tough time to city-based industrialists for the last two weeks, who have found it to be slow and non-responsive. The automatic permission to industry and business were to be granted from Monday but the state industries department launched the new online system for automatic approval on Tuesday.

Businesses in the city have been asking the state government to expedite the process of granting permission to industry to start operations, after relaxations were announced by ministry of home affairs on April 20.

Industrialists based in Manesar said that they had been facing a lot of problems in uploading documents and information on the Saral portal for the past several days. The new module must expedite permissions but for the past several days, the industry is facing problems due to lack of permissions and movement passes, said Manmohan Gaind, vice-president, Manesar Industries Welfare Association, adding that he was very hopeful that the new system, which had become functional in the afternoon would improve things.

Confusion also prevailed among industry owners on whether units with less than 10 workers need to apply for permission or not as per guidelines issued on April 30.

Manoj Jain, Manesar based industry owner, said, We applied for the resumption of operations with 10 workers but the system rejected my application. I spoke to an official and he told me I did not need any approval. However, the department of industries and commerce (DIC), Gurugram has made it mandatory for every industry to apply for approval.

A major difficulty faced by the industry owners was that they were not being able to upload documents on the portal and that the system was too slow. Deepak Maini, president of industrial development association, Sector 37, said, Our members told us that a few applications were accepted but system did not generate approval at all. There were 10,000 applications pending for approval but there has been revision of the guidelines several times that has led to confusion,

In Udyog Vihar, the industry owners said that they wanted the government to do away with permissions for smaller units, which have up to 10 workers. We are ready to submit the documents manually and also file the affidavit. But, there is an urgent need to accelerate this process.

The industrialists are also worried that so much delay, they will be left with no manpower, as many migrant workers have started returning home. There could be a massive shortage of labour if the permissions are delayed further. A lot of workers have returned and many are ready to go back to their states. If the situation is not checked, we could face shortage of labour, warned Manmohan Gaind.

The authorities, however, said that they have streamlined the system and upgraded the portal, which will facilitate the permissions with ease.

Digvijay Singh, joint director, DIC Gurugram, said, One can apply online with the correct documents and f acts and can get approval automatically. We do not need to approve applications anymore. Now and as per new and latest guidelines, every industry has to apply. This system has been introduced on Tuesday. The system may be slow because of the rush of applications. But the technical team is looking into the matter.

The industries and commerce department Haryana on May 3 issued the latest guidelines that superseded all the previous guidelines.These guidelines shall supersede and replace all the previous guidelines issued by the department so far, stated the order by principal secretary, Haryana government.

According to this guidelines, in a city like Gurugram which is in the orange zone, industries can be opened under automatic approval system with 75% workforce for the first week and 100% workforce on the second week(May 11-18).In Gurugram, there are 10,000 industries employing over 11 lakh workers.
As operator of Dubai International (DXB) and Dubai World Central (DWC), Dubai Airports has one of the largest Airport Fire Service in the world. Consisting of more than 420 highly trained personnel, the AFS delivers a 24/7 emergency response capability across DXB, DWC and the Emirates Flight Training Academy at DWC.

The eight operational teams are aided with the latest in firefighting technology including a fleet of 19 Major Foam Vehicles, two incident command vehicles, six specialist vehicles, five structural firefighting vehicles and 12 support vehicles. The AFS recently added six Rosenbauer vehicles that possess the latest aircraft firefighting technology, advanced driver operations and safety controls, with the ability to deal with all types of incidents.
The Prime Minister recalled the State Visit of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, President of Portugal to India in February.

The two leaders discussed the state of COVID-19 pandemic and the steps being taken by both countries to control its health and economic impact. The Prime Minister commended PM Costa for his effective handling of the crisis.

The leaders noted that proactive national measures were helpful in containing the spread of the virus. They offered all possible help to each other in dealing with the situation, and agreed to collaborate on research and innovation aimed at fighting COVID-19.

The Prime Minister thanked PM Costa for extending validity of visas of Indian travellers to Portugal who could not return because of the lockdown. Prime Minister Costa expressed his appreciation for the facilitaiton provided by Indian authorities to Portuguese citizens in India.

The leaders agreed to remain in touch and consult each other on the evolving dimensions of the crisis as well as the post-Covid context.




Call it higher education if you must.

But since cannabis was legalized in Canada last year, courses dedicated to the plant have taken root on college and university campuses across the country.

According to the Cannabis Council of Canada, at least 12 post-secondary schools have joined the budding educational boom, having launched programs  or announced plans to do so  covering everything from production research and training to marijuana law and business.

In this sector it was going from amateur production to professional production  and that takes expertise, says Rene Van Acker, dean of the University of Guelphs Ontario Agricultural College.

Its like the difference between growing some tomatoes in your backyard and being a tomato supplier for Loblaws, says Van Acker, whose school is in the process of opening the countrys largest cannabis program.

Another of the early entrants into the new cannabis league was Loyalist College, which sits on the western edge of Belleville off the Bay of Quinte.

Theres an incredible gap in the sector as it relates to knowledge in terms of the science of cannabis, and applying that knowledge to product development, says Kari Kramp, head of Loyalists Cannabis Applied Science Program.

We were able to fill that gap, says Kramp, whose post-graduate course began last October. Its an innovative, dynamic hands-on program.

The program  which grows and uses live marijuana plants  will prepare students to enter the industry with skills in areas such as the development of new pot products and quality and safety assurance, she says.

Students will also study the intricate regulatory frameworks that govern cannabis production and sales at the federal and provincial levels.

Its of paramount importance to educate people who are going to be working in this industry on whats happening, what has changed and how we work within those (legal) parameters, Kramp say.

As well, there are hands-on courses in cannabis biology and chemistry, and in the science and technology of extracting desired cannabinoid components like THC and CBD from the plant, she says.

You need to know whats in your product and to ensure that its consistent, Kramp says. The different cannabinoids will have different effects on the products that are being developed and consumed. And so its important to know that, (and) how you measure that and how those levels of actives are determined.

Read more:

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As in many of the cannabis programs being developed across the country, Loyalist students must also participate in placements  in this case unpaid  with licensed producers and other companies within the industry to complete their course.

The schools 20 initial cannabis students toiled for four 35-hour weeks for pot companies in April and May, in what are known as work-integrated learning stints,

And wow, the response from the employers was fantastic, says Kramp, whose course lasts eight months. Sixteen of the students went through and did the work-integrated learning (and) 11 of them have been hired in the industry, she says, adding the school will accept 24 students to the course in the fall.

One of the students who completed the course was Amanda Felske, who just accepted a position as senior chemist at a start-up cannabis beverage company in Belleville known as Truss.

The course was 100 per cent worth it, says Felske, 35, whose new employer is jointly owned by beer giant Molson Coors Brewing Co. and the Quebec cannabis producer Hexo Corp.

It touched on so many points of the real job knowledge that you need to succeed in this industry.

Felske, who saw a ground-floor entrance into the a newly legal market as an exciting challenge, represents a symbiosis between academia and the cannabis industry that will prove critical, especially in the early years, Van Acker says.

And as cannabis production and product development emerge from their black market shadows  where homespun techniques ruled  the knowledge and skills developed in post-secondary labs and classrooms will be critical to a healthy and growing industry, says Jordan Sinclair, vice-president of communication with the licensed producer Canopy Growth Corp.

In a lot of industries there is that ecosystem between government and industry and academia, and its required to thrive, Sinclair says.

But this is such a new industry that were required to build capacity in a lot of ways, and they (academic research and training) are both capacity-building, they both allow the industry to evolve and to mature, he says.

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The link with academia, however, has the ancillary benefit of helping to normalize an industry still stigmatized by its criminal past, Sinclair says

Weve gone through a number of years where we partnered with organizations because we understand their reputation was going to allow us to become more normal in mainstream society, he says. And its hard to think of stakeholder groups that have much higher public perceptions than universities, post-secondary education and the academy.

Among the partnerships Canopy has forged is one with the University of British Columbia and the BC Centre on Substance Use, which will received $2.5 million from the company to create a professorship and study the potential for cannabis to help alleviate the opioid epidemic.

The company will also take student interns from Niagara Colleges groundbreaking cannabis program as part of their regular curriculum training.

For Niagara its almost like a farm team, Sinclair says. We can establish co-op students and get a sense who the cream of the crop is and offer them full-time employment.

Loyalist has also received a $1.75-million grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada this spring, to help open a new lab that will assist in developing new industry advances.

The grant was coupled with a $1-million grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to help furnish the lab.

The lab, called the Technology Access Centre, will be the first in Canada with the capacity to work with cannabis and will help small and medium-sized businesses improve and innovate their technologies and products.

Other schools offering cannabis-related programs and courses include Durham College in Ontario; Kwantlen Polytechnic University and the College of the Rockies in British Columbia; and Montreals McGill University, which, like Guelph, is developing a major research and production program.

As well, the Community College of New Brunswick and St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia and Albertas Olds College agricultural school are in the marijuana mix, as is the University of Ottawa, which is offering a course in cannabis law that has been developed in co-operation with Canopy.

In Toronto, Ryerson University is presenting an introductory course on the business of cannabis that will include instruction in opportunity recognition, cannabis legislation and other key elements of starting up a pot enterprise.

The connection between the cannabis industry and academia does open the potential for conflicts, Kramp admits.

But she says any attempt to circumvent proper science for short-term business gains would be rebuffed by the open and transparent links the school would forge with any moneyed partner.

Our focus (is) science and increasing the body of knowledge for the sector to support the industry, she says. Were very clear about that.

Van Acker adds that it is common for specialized schools and courses to work with the industries with which they are associated.

Cannabis is not unlike any other sector, he says. We work with all kinds of agricultural companies, we work with all kinds of food companies.

And its the same thing, they want to make use of the expertise we have  they value the training, the highly qualified people we produce and the research and development partnerships we can have with them.

The growing number of academic forays into the cannabis field, however, have been largely impromptu undertakings, with little government co-ordination of the spread, says Rod Elliot, an industry expert with the Toronto consulting firm Global Public Affairs.

Elliot says there is a baked-in conflict on the part of the federal government between its desire to free up marijuana usage and the reluctance to promote it.

The government policy has been to legalize but not to promote and normalize  a kind of Jekyll-and-Hyde approach, Elliot says.

Sinclair of Canopy Growth says this conflicted introduction could waste Canadas opportunity to lead the world in the production and understanding of cannabis as more countries look to legalize.

There needs to be a strong academic, institutional contribution for there to be a real centre of expertise (that would allow) Canada to have an actual lead, he says.

You can see pockets of it emerging across the country. But this is a fleeting opportunity, one that other countries would be very, very happy to take from us if were not going to capitalize.
Youre probably used to news outlets on YouTube asking you to subscribe to their channels. Before long, though, they might hawk their own offerings. Digiday sources say YouTube is creating a tool that would let publishers sell subscriptions to their in-house digital services through their YouTube channels. Talks have yet to hash out details like the revenue split, but it would only give you perks from that publisher, not the YouTube platform.

The outlets expect that YouTube would share user information like names and email addresses with publishers, much like it already does through Subscribe With Google. News companies could then create a direct relationship with you much like they would if youd subscribed through their websites.

YouTube declined to comment to Digiday.

News providers are in a difficult position on the video service. While they can make money from ads, marketers are unsurprisingly wary of having their promos run alongside sensitive topics. Subscriptions to their own services could offset some of that skittishness from advertisers, even if only a fraction of viewers ever sign up. That, in turn, could help YouTube attract more news publications, or encourage those already present to post more videos.
Police on Tuesday arrested one person for posting sensitive and objectionable comments on facebook in Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur district on Tuesday, officials said.

On the basis of a complaint, an FIR has been lodged against Rattan Singh of Ramban for a sensitive and objectionable post on the social media platform, they said.

SSP Ramban Haseebur Rehman said the FIR has been registered at Dharamkund police station in Ramban district against the accused who has been arrested in Udhampur.

He said there was tension in some areas of Sumber over the objectionable post by the accused on FB which was shared wildly on whatsapp groups.

He said IGP Jammu monitored the situation a until the case was registered and the accused arrested from Udhampur.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The number of people in Bay Area hospitals with confirmed cases of COVID-19 has declined steadily for nearly a month, a trend public health experts said reflects the regions efforts to combat spread of the coronavirus.

State data reviewed by The Chronicle show there were 332 confirmed COVID-19 patients in hospitals in the nine Bay Area counties on Sunday, the areas lowest one-day total in more than a month since the state began reporting that data April 1.

The number of hospitalized coronavirus patients in the Bay Area reached its peak on April 7, with 471 confirmed cases. Sundays figure  the most recent data available  reflected a 29.5% drop from that day and a decrease of 11.2% over one week.

I find it very encouraging, said Dr. John Swartzberg, an infectious disease expert at UC Berkeley. Its clearly a trend in the right direction.  I guess I would say that Im just hopeful that this trend is going to continue.

More specifically, I think this reflects all of the efforts weve been doing in shelter in place and the early aggressive interventions that the Bay Area undertook compared to frankly other parts of the state and other parts of the country.

Six Bay Area counties and the city of Berkeley ordered residents to shelter in place beginning on March 17, with Gov. Gavin Newsom announcing a statewide order two days later. The Bay Area counties last week extended shelter-in-place orders through the end of May with some modifications. Newsom said on Monday that some nonessential businesses in California may soon be able to open for pickup orders under new guidelines expected to be released later this week.

One of the governors criteria was to have adequate bed capacity in case everything went wrong, Dr. George Rutherford, head of infectious diseases and epidemiology at UCSF, said over the weekend. So, I think the fact that were seeing declining bed days is important. Im not sure quite how far he wants to go to check that box off, but I think were getting there.

Hospital counts are viewed as a more reliable reflection of the virus trajectory than case counts as they are not dependent on availability of testing. The decline in hospitalizations suggests Bay Area counties have slowed the spread of the virus, though experts cautioned that can still change.

I think you have to view it as a job well done by the people of San Francisco and the Bay Area, Rutherford said. Now, understand you cant have it like Orange County, where everyone goes out and stands on the beach an inch apart, or else well have everything blow back up again.

Exact trends vary by county. Santa Clara County reported its peak in confirmed hospital cases with 187 on April 7, with that total gradually declining to 93 reported Sunday.

Hospital cases in San Francisco peaked at 92 on April 12 and are at 83 as of Sunday.

In Alameda and Contra Costa counties, hospitalizations peaked in the second week of April and have since mostly declined with occasional spikes. Alameda County reported 73 hospital cases Sunday, down 21.5% from its April 10 high. Contra Costa hospitalizations have fallen by more than 50% to 20 on Sunday from 46 on April 12.

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 number of local COVID-19 patients in intensive care has followed a similar trajectory, down 35.8% on Sunday from a one-day peak of 212 on April 7 - though the total ticked upward to 136 on Sunday from a low of 132 reported Friday. Both hospitalization and ICU peak totals were relatively low for a nine-county area with a population of about 7.7 million.

Los Angeles County, by comparison, with a population of 10 million, reached April peaks of 1,962 hospitalizations and 625 ICU cases, according to the CDPH. As of Sunday, Los Angeles County accounted for more than half of Californias totals in both categories.

Statewide, hospital and ICU counts rose for much of April but have taken an encouraging recent turn. California hospital cases have declined for four consecutive days; they peaked at 3,497 on April 29. And confirmed ICU cases were down 5% from a peak of 1,241 on April 20.

As some areas of the state have pushed to loosen stay-at-home orders, others have expressed wariness about that leading to a resurgence of the virus. Rutherford said the virus has a short incubation period, so we should see a rebound in cases pretty quickly if were going to see a rebound  which we all profoundly hope we dont.

Matt Kawahara is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mkawahara@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @matthewkawahara
As negotiations over the next coronavirus relief package heat up, a key point of contention  perhaps the key point  is whether Congress will provide meaningful aid to struggling state and local governments.

Boiling down the politics: Democratic lawmakers favor the move. Many Republicans, including the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, do not. Some in the Trump administration have suggested that withholding aid is a great way to pressure states to reopen sooner rather than later. This is both cynical and destructive. Denying states a financial lifeline, even as Washington is showering trillions of dollars on the private sector, will only exacerbate the economic devastation that Congress is trying to mitigate.

The situation is dire. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that states could suffer a collective shortfall of $500 billion through the 2022 fiscal year. Tapping rainy-day funds and using the targeted federal aid already appropriated would still leave a $360 billion gap, the center warns, not including the substantial new costs they face to combat the COVID-19 virus. Local, state and territorial governments face their own funding crunches. As tax revenues plunge, costs are expected to skyrocket as layoffs and pay cuts drive more people to apply for food stamps, Medicaid and other public assistance.

The nations governors have petitioned Congress for $500 billion in direct funding to help address lost revenue. Without this aid, the states  which, unlike the federal government, cannot run budget deficits  will have to start slashing costs. Read: services. Read also: jobs. Lots of public-sector jobs.

With overall unemployment anticipated to crack 16% this month, it is in the interest of all Americans for Congress to stabilize these pillars of the economy.

Despite this, some Republicans are presenting the issue as a partisan clash, even a question of morality. Chief among them is McConnell. Theres not going to be any desire on the Republican side to bail out state pensions by borrowing money from future generations, McConnell said, suggesting that the problem stemmed from fiscal mismanagement on the part of Democratic-led states such as New York, California and Illinois.

McConnell suggested that, rather than receiving additional aid, states should be allowed to declare bankruptcy. His office later issued a news release touting McConnells opposition to Blue State Bailouts.

Trump parroted McConnells argument in a tweet, dialing up the partisan rhetoric, as is his way: Why should the people and taxpayers of America be bailing out poorly run states (like Illinois, as example) and cities, in all cases Democrat run and managed, when most of the other states are not looking for bailout help? I am open to discussing anything, but just asking?

The idea of thrifty, self-sufficient red states propping up blue states has long been a Republican canard. In 2017, Paul Ryan, who was the House speaker, trotted out this line while pushing to repeal the exemption for state and local taxes as part of the tax package. (Ultimately, the deduction was merely capped.) States that got their act together are paying for states that didnt, he claimed, and promised that his desired repeal would put an end to the rest of the country propping up profligate, big-government states.

This claim was wrong then, and it is wrong now. To the contrary, a 2017 Associated Press analysis noted that High-tax, traditionally Democratic states (blue), subsidize low-tax, traditionally Republican states (red)  in a big way.

Of the 20 states with the most favorable balance of payments, a handful, at most, are blue.

In other words, McConnells state is effectively subsidized by blue states. Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York reminded McConnell of this during his news briefing. Sen. McConnell, whos getting bailed out here? the governor demanded. Its your state that is living on the money that we generate.

The Treasury Department has issued rules requiring states to use funding from the previous relief package to cover only necessary expenditures due to the public health emergency and not to offset declining revenues. This is a step in exactly the wrong direction.

Allowing state budgets to collapse is shortsighted and counterproductive. Democratic lawmakers need to hold the line in this round of relief negotiations.

 New York Times
Aer Lingus is to conduct a review after pictures emerged of an almost full flight with no apparent evidence of social distancing measures.

The airline said any process changes required would be implemented as a matter of urgency.

The move came as pictures were shared from inside the cabin of a Belfast to London Heathrow flight on Monday morning, showing row after row filled with passengers.

Passenger Sean Mallon told BBC Radio Ulster there was no social distancing whatsoever.

I would say there was about 95% of the seats taken on the flight, he said.

In a statement, Aer Lingus said: In light of the unexpectedly high loads on the BelfastLondon Heathrow service this morning and the level of demand for the route, Aer Lingus is reviewing its processes and procedures applicable to the operation of this service.

The safety and security of Aer Linguss customers and crew is our top priority and any process changes that are identified as being required will be implemented as a matter of urgency.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 09:54:08|Editor: huaxia

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UNITED NATIONS, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Monday expressed concerns over recent incidents on the Israel-Lebanon border, which is being monitored by the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

In "press elements" released after closed consultations, the members of the council expressed their deep concern following the recent incidents, which occurred across the Blue Line and in UNIFIL's area of operations, as well as all the violations of Security Council Resolution 1701, including by land and air.

The Blue Line is a border demarcation between Lebanon and Israel published by the United Nations in 2000. Resolution 1701, adopted in August 2006, is about the cessation of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel.

The members of the Security Council recalled that all parties should make every effort to ensure that the cessation of hostilities is sustained, exercise maximum calm and restraint, and refrain from any action or rhetoric that could jeopardize the cessation of hostilities or destabilize the region.

They welcomed the will of the concerned parties to make the best use of the tripartite mechanism that involves UNIFIL and the armed forces of Lebanon and Isreal. They also condemned any attacks against UNIFIL peacekeepers.

In closed consultations on Monday, the Security Council was briefed by UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis and UN Undersecretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix. Enditem
Each year the Board of New Zealand King Salmon Investments Ltd (NZX and ASX:NZK), provides an update on fish performance post the key summer period. This years update also provides commentary on the significant disruption being caused to our business by the Covid-19 virus.

With water temperatures lower than the last two years, the 2020 summer season saw an improvement in overall fish performance, resulting in better survival and thus lower mortality cost than either of the last two years. In addition to the benefits of a cooler summer, we have seen gains from our new aquaculture model.

Directors affirm previous guidance that expected FY20 Pro-Forma Operating EBITDA will be between

$25.0 million and $28.5 million. Due to the restricted sales in the Covid-19 affected Q4, the FY20 forecast sales volume is now expected to be 6,300-6,400 tonnes.

The company has adapted to the Covid-19 challenges in the following ways:

 As an essential food production business, NZ King Salmon (NZKS) continued to operate throughout Level 4, and now during Level 3, with increased protective measures in place to keep team members safe.

 The wage subsidy for our team has allowed us to protect jobs during this difficult period.

 Sales are beginning to recover, albeit off a reduced base, as we reorientate NZKS more towards retail, and as foodservice recovers. During this transition period there will inevitably be some sales at lower margins, for example, caused by the increased cost of delivering to market via airfreight charters.

 With foodservice channels in various states of recovery around the world, a 6-18 month period of lower foodservice sales is anticipated, with positive new revenue streams secured or under development in retail, food delivery and e-commerce channels.

 To help manage variable demand, NZKS has some flexibility to either leave fish longer in sea water, or store them as frozen inventory. The company has funding lines in place to manage the resulting temporary increase in working capital.

 Although slightly delayed, a freshwater hatchery improvement and seawater barge upgrade have resumed at Level 3, with FY20 capex now likely to be restrained to around $18m.

Grant Rosewarne, Managing Director and CEO, says There are many positive measures we are putting in place, despite the challenges we face during the Covid-19 crisis. Im extremely proud of our team for the work they have done as an essential business throughout the Level 4 lockdown. Our flexibility, and global reach and recognition has provided a positive response to the global market challenges.

In line with the Governments Aquaculture Strategy, we believe there are huge opportunities for our industry to create sustainable growth and employment. We are hopeful that our Blue Endeavour open ocean application will be facilitated as part of the Governments search for shovel ready projects to reboot the economy. It would bring a much-needed lift to the Top of the South region and provide hundreds of green jobs.

While the directors cannot currently provide guidance for FY21 due to the significant disruption in the foodservice industry globally, they are confident that the medium to long term picture remains positive for aquaculture and NZKS, with strong demand anticipated for safe, sustainable and healthy protein from New Zealand. FY20 sales and harvest volumes have been reduced from original expectations, which will result in more fish available to us in FY21, albeit anticipating some margin reduction as a result of the Covid-19 situation.

John Ryder, Chairman of New Zealand King Salmon, says The Board wants to acknowledge the commitment of all NZKS team members during this time. There are undoubtedly challenges but also opportunities for our company and the industry. We are also pleased that fish performance has improved significantly from last summer.

Source: New Zealand King Salmon Investments Ltd

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The National Media Commission (NMC) says it has no power to ban money doublers, whose activities have been on ascendancy recently on television stations in the country.



The NMC says it can neither sanction TV stations that also show pornographic materials because the law does not mandate the Commission to do so.



The Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, petitioned two state institutions  Bank of Ghana (BoG) and National Media Commission (NMC)  about the activities of money doublers on television and urged them to take appropriate action.



The Minister in a tweet stated: I have written to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and National Media Commission (NMC) to take note of the activities of money doublers on TV and act appropriately to tackle it.



There were reports that the government intends to ban all broadcasts and advertisements of fetish priests and Mallams.



But reacting to the issue on Onua TVs 'Maakye' on Tuesday, the Chairman of the NMC, Yaw Boadu Ayeboafo, explained in Twi that we cant do anything to that person or that media house.



What the NMC can do is to advise a media person or a media house to retract and apologize to anyone or institution they have offended and we cant surcharge you, he said.



After our investigations, we can also hand you over to your employers to sanction the person. We can also recommend to the employers that the persons conduct is unacceptable to the profession but we cannot surcharge you.



Pornography on TV stations



Commenting further on showing of pornography on TV stations, Mr. Ayeboafo noted that if someone shows a naked woman on TV for the purpose of medical education to the general public, that is not an offence.



But it becomes wrong, he says, when a TV station shows such pornographic materials and even then, the NMC can only advice that station to halt it.

Source: 3 news









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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Macquarie Group chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake says Australia's economy is well positioned to get through the coronavirus crisis in the longer-term, citing government support, links to Asia, and a recent flurry of capital raisings by big business.

Her comments came as former Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens said on Tuesday the country was nearing the point where it needed to reopen the economy to pay back a mountain of public and private debt, presenting policymakers with a tricky balancing act.

Macquarie chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake: "Australia is well placed to weather this challenging environment in the long-term." Credit:Ryan Stuart

Speaking to investors via a webcast on Tuesday morning, Ms Wikramanayake said the world economy faced a recession, but fundamental forces such as technological change and urbanisation would re-emerge as longer-term drivers of growth after the crisis passed.

Ms Wikramanayake cited a number of reasons as to why the investment banking giant believes Australia's economy should weather the crisis over the long term. These included the Reserve Bank's extensive stimulus; fiscal support for businesses and households; a relatively strong public balance sheet; linkages to Asia; and a pipeline of infrastructure investment.
The extension of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Muftis custody on Tuesday evoked a sharp response from her political rival Omar Abdullah of teh national Conference who said it was an unbelievably cruel and retrograde decision.

Unbelievably cruel & retrograde decision to extend @MehboobaMuftis detention. Nothing she has done or said in any way justifies the way the Indian state has treated her & the others detained, he tweeted.

Unbelievably cruel & retrograde decision to extend @MehboobaMuftis detention. Nothing she has done or said in any way justifies the way the Indian state has treated her & the others detained. https://t.co/tyxXC9NFuL  Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) May 5, 2020

For a government that is making tall claims about normality in J&K the last few days coupled with the extension of Ms Muftis detention is proof enough that Modi ji has single handedly pushed J&K back decades, he said in another tweet.

The government late Tuesday evening extended Muftis detention by three months under the Public Safety Act hours before her confinement was to end, officials said.

Srinagars district magistrate handed over the order for her extended custody at her residence.

Mufti who heads the Peoples Democratic Party was initially detained along with a host of other leaders including two former CMS  Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah on August 5 last year when the Centre abrogated special status of the erstwhile state.

She has already spent eight months in detention. Farooq and Omar Abdullah were released in March.

Sources said the government also extended the detention of National Conference general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar and PDP Leader Sartaaj Madni by three months under PSA. They have also bene under detention since August 5 2019.
Singapore's Parliament House. (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore)

SINGAPORE  Parliament has passed a bill to amend the Singapore Constitution and allow it to meet across two or more places appointed by the President, and in contemporaneous communication with each other, should the COVID-19 outbreak worsen.

In a move that saw unanimous bipartisan support on Tuesday (5 May), a new Article 64A, which creates a mechanism for Parliament to meet under continuity arrangements, will be inserted into the Constitution.

The mechanism will be active for six months after the Bill comes into force. In the future, it can be activated by Parliament for six months at a time if Members consider that it is impossible, unsafe or inexpedient for Parliament to meet in one place. The House will only require a simply majority to do so.

This physical separation will enhance the survivability of Parliament as an institution. In the context of the COVID-19 situation, separating Members into cohorts, and limiting the physical contact between these cohorts, allows us to cut down the chance of infection spreading to all the MPs, said Leader of the House Grace Fu, who called Parliament an essential service.

In other words, the whole of the political leadership of the nation, government as well as opposition. If one cohort is infected, other cohorts can still carry on.

The details of these continuity arrangements will be decided by the House or Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-jin. This could include allocating Members between the appointed places and the mode of communication between those places.

For now, Members will continue meeting in Parliament House with safe-distancing arrangements. Members are spread out within the chamber, with some seated at the public galleries.

Fu noted that the Constitutional provisions governing Parliament are currently premised on a physical meeting at one place that is appointed by the President. In principle, we should make every effort to sit in this chamber.

She added, We hope there will be no need to activate these continuity arrangements. But we cannot be certain how events will unfold. Out of an abundance of caution, we should put the constitutional mechanism in place, if the need arises.

Story continues

Circuit breaker measures working

The Bill was passed on the same day that the Ministry of Health (MOH) reported a preliminary 632 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of Tuesday noon, bringing the total to 19,410  the highest in Southeast Asia.

Fu, who is also Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, noted that the option of remote participation, which is being tried out by the House of Commons in the United Kingdom, was also considered but ultimately rejected.

Singapore is a small country, and Members should be able to travel to alternative sites for Parliament. We also wanted Members to be physically and fully present to apply our minds together to the important business of the Parliament, even if we co-locate between several places.

She added that there is no immediate need for continuity arrangements, given that the average number of new cases in the community and unlinked cases have decreased, compared against the week before the country went into a partial lockdown.

Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore

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Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 05.05.2020:

 A horrific incident took place on Tuesday morning as the man threw his kids and self from the ninth floor of his apartment in Yerevan.

Police and rescuers who arrived at the scene found the dead bodies of Karen M., 40, his 8-year old boy, and a 5-year-old girl.

According to shamshyan.com, the man had called his ex-wife a day ago, saying that he missed his children, asked her to come to his house with the kids. And when it had gotten late, he told her ex-wife that they could not go out at this late time, they should stay there, and go in the morningand this tragedy happened in the morning.

One of his neighbors noted that the man was an officer of the border troops in Russia.

A criminal case has been launched into the incident.

 An Artsakh serviceman has died in Karabakh. Taron Poghosyan was fatally wounded Monday as a result of a landmine explosion while carrying out engineering work at the combat position of a military unit.

Major Poghosyan was married and had three little children.

A criminal case has been filed over the death of the serviceman. The investigation is in progress.

 The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has reached 2,619 in Armenia.

According to the latest data, 1,071 COVID-19 patients have recovered thus far, whereas 40 others have died in Armenia, as the death toll has risen by one in the past day. The latest patient who died of COVID-19 was 64 years old woman and had concomitant chronic illnesses, the ministry noted.

In turn, health minister Arsen Torosyan talked about the scenario of the spread of COVID-19. The total number of cases: 524,032, of which 26,202 are serious. The number of beds required during the peak: 12,445, he added.

 Mayor of Artsakh's Martuni Hayk Sargsyan has resigned.

According to him, he is resigning after an incident when he tried to prevent the potential clash between members of the party and young people of Martuni during the pre-election period, not allowing them to enter Martuni.

 By the decision of Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan, Argishti Kyaramyan has been dismissed after being appointed vice-chairman of the Investigative Committee yesterday.

By the decree signed by President Armen Sarkissian today, Kyaramyan has been appointed deputy director of the National Security Service.

By the way, Kyaramyan was appointed vice-chairman of the Investigative Committee yesterday after being dismissed from the position of deputy head of the State Supervision Service.

What makes the story more interesting is the fact that Kyaramyan was the IC fifth vice-chairman, and the position was added upon the decision that the government approved on April 30.
Country's largest commodities exchange MCX, which reported a 60 per cent decline in daily turnover after curtailment of trading hours, saw the turnover more than double to nearly Rs 20,000 crore following restoration of normal trading hours last week.

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Sebi had cut short trading hours to 10 am to 5 pm as against 9.00 am-11.30 pm schedule earlier. As a result, the daily turnover sharply dropped to Rs 10,000 crore from around Rs 48,000 crore earlier.

"Our turnover more than doubled to over Rs 20,000 crore on April 30 when full trading hours were restored. When trading hours were cut short, it was under Rs 10,000 crore. On the second day of full trading hours on May 4, the turnover touched Rs 19,049 crore at close.

"We hope to claw back to the high turnover as the market barrels back to normalcy," MCX Managing Director and Chief Executive P S Reddy told PTI.

Generally, turnover more than doubles after 5 pm when international markets open. For instance, on May 4, the turnover was only Rs 8,683 crore at 5 pm but the same jumped to Rs 19,049 crore at close at 11.30 pm.

Market was closed on May 1, 2 and 3.

Without offering a timeline to achieve past high turnover levels, Reddy said for trade to normalise, physical markets have to normalise first. For the markets to normalise coronavirus-induced disruptions have to come to end, he added.

Only when physical markets open fully, trading can pick up. Currently, the exchange's volume is down more than 50 per cent for both crude and bullion, which constitute 40 per cent each of the total business turnover, he said.

On the steep hike in risk margins last week, Reddy said it had no impact on volume as brokers were already charging higher margins from their clients.

Last week, MCX, which controls over 94 per cent of the commodities trading volume and turnover, announced it would charge up to 125 per cent or Rs 1,95,000 per lot if price falls up to 90 per cent.

Last month, the bourse came under legal scrutiny after it allowed crude futures to be settled in negative prices on April 21. In what could be called historic, May contracts for crude futures plummeted 305 per cent on the New York Mercantile Exchange on on April 20 and finally settled at -USD 37.69 a barrel as traders did not have storage facility to take delivery.

Accordingly, MCX -- which links its prices to Nymex rates -- settled the trade at -Rs 2,884 a barrel. This forced a number of its brokers to drag the exchange and its clearing corporation to four high courts -- Bombay, Delhi, Hyderabad and Gujarat.

So far, none of the courts have stayed the price settlement decision or gave any interim relief to brokers.

Meanwhile, MCX came out with an exit option for traders as it is yet to change its software to allow negative prices if the prices again come in the negative. The exchange has also clarified that the option would be prospective and would not affect settlement of past contracts.

The exit option would be offered to traders if the Nymex contract hits negative territory again, MCX said over the weekend.

When asked about the software change, which BSE has already done within days of the April 21 row, Reddy refused to offer a timeline but asserted that "the work is very much on".

"I cannot offer a timeline as to when the technical work of changing our software to allow negative pricing will be completed. All I can say is that it is very much on and will be done at the earliest," he said.

The bourse is consulting with its software vendor 63 Moons -- formerly Financial Technologies and the original promoters of MCX -- to enable negative price punching option.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Trello, the office app, has stopped working amid technical problems.

The app is widely used as a way of keeping track of projects, allowing people within a company to see where any given task is.

As with other online tools, it has become especially useful as users are stuck at home in lockdowns, and attempting to co-ordinate their work without being in their office.

Users found that the app was either slow to load or would not load at all.

Instead, they were shown error messages that indicated that there was something wrong with their connection.

"Trello is currently slow or unavailable," an update on Trello's status page read.

"Our engineering team is actively investigating this incident and working to bring Trello back up as quickly as possible.

"Users affected by this incident may notice that Trello is slow or completely unavailable in both the web and mobile apps."

Issues began at around 3.15pm UK time, according to the same page.

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

Tracking website Down Detector saw a huge surge in issues reported at the same time.

Problems were reported across the world, according to the site. They were particularly concentrated in the US and UK, though that might simply be a consequence of timezones and where the app's users are based.

Trello, which is owned by business software company Atlassian, said late last year that it has more than 50 million users.
The 'army' of tracers needed to reopen New York does not yet exist, with interviews for the thousands of people required to build it only just getting underway.

Cuomo announced the initiative last week in collaboration with former mayor Mike Bloomberg. The pair touted it as the key to reopening and said their goal is to create a system that is so effective they will share it with other governments around the world.

On Monday, Cuomo announced that having enough tracers - 30 for every 100,000 people - was one of the requirements he will insist on before allowing different regions across New York to reopen.

In New York City, that means 2,520 are needed before businesses can get back to work.

The state website to apply for the positions opened on Friday and since then, 6,000 people have applied but it is unclear how many of them have been hired.

The Mayor's Office said it was 'on track' to meet the goal of 2,250 by May 15 but would not provide details on how many people had been given jobs let alone whether any had completed the training required once they are brought on.

Before they can start interviewing people, the tracers must complete an online curriculum developed by Bloomberg Philanthropies in coordination with the Department of Health, then they must pass an exam.

A doctor wearing a face mask outside Gotham Health in East New York, Brooklyn, on Tuesday. The state wants to hire some 17,000 tracers but so far it's unclear if any have been brought on

NYC hopes to hire 1,000 people and bulk out the remainder of the workforce with existing Department of Health staff.

THE STEPS TO JOINING 'ARMY' OF TRACERS 1) Get hired There are between 6,000 and 17,000 tracers needed and they are being invited to apply for the jobs - which are paid - online. To qualify, candidates must have some medical or healthcare experience and must be able to work from home. The job in New York City pays between $57,000 and $65,000 depending on level of seniority. There are three tiers; supervising contact tracers and two types of contact tracers They must be able to work from home, have experience in healthcare and have at least a four-year high school diploma 2) Complete the online curriculum and exam put together by Bloomberg Philanthropies It is unclear if it has been completed yet Advertisement

It is also unclear if any of the people currently testing positive for COVID-19 are being interviewed by the tracers.

Among the job requirements is to have a four-year high school diploma and experience in healthcare.

Candidates are also asked to show 'a demonstrated commitment to supporting communities who have experienced systemic oppression and bias (e.g. people of color, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, justice involved persons, etc.)'

While they will start by working from home, the jobs may eventually be moved to a call center, the application reads.

When they announced the program last week at the governor's daily briefing, Bloomberg said: 'One of the most important steps to take to re-open the economy as safely as possible is to create a system of contact tracing.

'When social distancing is relaxed, contact tracing is our best hope for isolating the virus when it appears - and keeping it isolated.'

Cuomo admitted that it would be 'monumental' to try to track every person who had come into contact with a known case, but that they would 'do their best'.

On Monday, there were 2,239 new cases reported across the state of New York.

Other states have opened without having such a contact tracing program in place.

The job requirements for contact tracing roles in New York City as advertised

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the effort with former Mayor Mike Bloomberg last week

In Texas and Georgia, two of the first to allow people back to work, jobs for contact tracers are being advertised and they say they will meet the CDC's guidelines eventually, but are not resting their reopening plan on it.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has set out plans for a tracing program but it's unclear if he will insist on implementing it before he allows people to go back to work.

North Dakota is leading the country with the proportion of contact tracers it has.

The state already has the recommended 30 per 100,000 residents and says it plans to have more than double that number by the time hiring is complete.

Former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb told NPR that while the concept of a national tracing army of some 180,000 - which is what is needed under the CDC guidelines - it is doable.

'We already see the states making efforts to bring on thousands of new public health workers to do contact tracing.

'We're going to need this number of people if we want to enter into the fall with the kinds of resources we need to try to trace infection to prevent large outbreaks.'
In context: Boeing's stealth UAV program, called the Airpower Teaming System, was revealed in Australia last year. Also known as the Loyal Wingman project, the program saw a $40 million investment from the Australian government, which placed three drone orders for the Royal Australian Air Force. Designed, engineered, and manufactured locally, the first of the three prototypes was recently rolled out in what is being hailed a historic moment for Australia after it built its first military aircraft in over 50 years.

Boeing's Australian arm recently presented the first 'Loyal Wingman' combat drone to the RAAF, an advanced jet-powered stealth UAV with a range of over 3,700 km. In its official statement, Boeing terms the event as a historic milestone for the company, marking its largest investment in unmanned aircraft technology outside of the US.

The drone will serve as a foundation for Boeing's Airpower Teaming System, aimed at strengthening its presence in the global defense industry and providing militaries with an affordable combat asset that uses autonomous technology and AI to enhance aerial capabilities.

The 38ft long Loyal Wingman is a sizable drone that has only four moving surfaces and a removable 8.5ft long nose that can be packed with different sensors and payloads according to mission requirements.

Boeing created a "digital twin" of the drone to simulate its operation throughout the design process and to cover its production and maintainability aspects. The aircraft also uses Boeing's largest-ever resin-infused single composite piece in the structure to help with reducing the cost and manpower needed for the fabrication process.

Another highlight of the drone is the AI and semi-autonomous capability that will allow it to expertly maneuver itself, requiring little to no input from fighter pilots. "When you are teaming, say with a Super Hornet, they dont have the luxury during combat maneuvers or operations to be remotely piloting another aircraft while doing their own," said Shane Arnott, Boeing's ATS program director.

The first prototype, which took shape earlier this year, was powered on for the first time in April and will now undergo ground testing, followed by taxi and a debut flight later this year.
(Natural News) The city of Stillwater in Oklahoma rolled back emergency rules requiring customers to wear face masks inside businesses after threats of violence were hurled at store employees. City officials announced the change Friday, less than 24 hours after the rules originally went into effect.

In the short time beginning on May 1, 2020, that face coverings have been required for entry into stores/restaurants, store employees have been threatened with physical violence and showered with verbal abuse, stated City Manager Norman McNickle. In addition, there has been one threat of violence using a firearm.

Face mask rules amended

The face mask rules were implemented by the city in light of Oklahomas gradual reopening strategy. Under this plan, personal care businesses such as hair salons had been allowed to reopen across the state starting on April 14. Meanwhile, restaurant dining rooms were allowed to open on May 1, provided that they adhered to strict social distancing and sanitation protocols.

The rules regarding the requiring of face masks for Stillwater businesses were part of an emergency proclamation released by Mayor Will Joyce on April 30. Less than a day after it came out, however, business owners started reporting that their employees were being threatened because of the face mask requirement. This resulted in the mayor releasing an amended version of the emergency proclamation, one that made it up to the businesses to decide whether or not to require masks. (Related: Face masks are effective at STOPPING the spread of the coronavirus through speaking, NIH study finds.)

In a series of tweets, Stillwater Mayor Will Joyce said that he expected some kind of pushback to the rules. However, he did not think that there would be physical confrontations with store employees and threatening phone calls to city hall.

I knew there would be some objections, but I did not expect physical confrontations with employees and threatening phone calls to city hall. I hate that our businesses and their employees had to deal with abuse today, and I apologize for putting them in that position.  Mayor Will Joyce #StayHomeStillwater (@stillwaterwill) May 1, 2020

Joyce continued stating that face masks would still be required for store employees but are now just strongly recommended for customers.

To the people who resort to threats and intimidation when asked to take a simple step to protect your community: shame on you. Our freedom as Americans comes with responsibilities, too, the mayor added. We must find common ground and work together to deal with the circumstances our society is facing. Whether or not we agree on the details, we have to find ways to cooperate in the task before us.

Threats came because people thought that requiring facemasks was unconstitutional

In an official statement, McNickle pointed out that some of those who threatened violence were under the mistaken assumption that the rules violated the constitution.

Many of those with objections cite the mistaken belief the requirement is unconstitutional, and under their theory, one cannot be forced to wear a mask, wrote the City Manager. No law or court supports this view. In fact, a recent Federal lawsuit against Guthries face covering order was fully dismissed by the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.

He also stated his disappointment that some people, while exercising their believed rights, would put other people at risk.

As mentioned, there is clear medical evidence the face coverings prevent COVID-19 spread; they are recommended by both the CDC and the Oklahoma State Department of Health, McNickle added. The wearing of face coverings is little inconvenience to protect both the wearer and anyone with whom they have contact. And, an unprotected person who contracts the virus can infect their own loved ones and others.

He then reaffirmed that businesses are private property under the law, where people do not have unfettered right of entry. As such, business owners still have the right to require their customers to wear face masks and other coverings before entering their premises.

We cannot, in clear conscience, put our local business community in harms way, nor can the police be everywhere, McNickle stated. Accordingly, we will now be asking our local stores and business to encourage, but not require, patrons to cover their faces. Of course, each business can choose to adopt a more stringent approach, and we ask everyone to respect and abide by such decisions.

Wearing a face covering is an easy way to support the health of your community and speed our recovery from this pandemic. Please do so.

Sources include:

NYPost.com

OKCommerce.gov

NBCNews.com

Twitter.com

Stillwater.org
GERMANTOWN, Wis., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Discount Ramps, a local online retailer, announces their support for Meals on Wheels America. A national 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, Meals on Wheels America supports more than 5,000 community-based programs that focus on the well-being of seniors, including the delivery of nutritious meals and safety checks. A new integrated website feature on DiscountRamps.com encourages customers to support and donate to Meals on Wheels America, and Discount Ramps has committed to matching each charitable donation.

"Our team is committed to making a positive impact and we are inspired by the Meals on Wheels America purpose and mission," said CEO Rich Spratt. "Honoring seniors with support and care is a value and priority that our organizations share, and we're proud to offer our support during this pandemic and beyond."

"Contributing to Meals on Wheels America at the national level benefits not only our local Greater Milwaukee community, but all communities across the U.S.," said Eric Grunewald, Vice President and CMO. "We want to encourage others to donate to this very important organization and also motivate their generosity with our own donation match."

Discount Ramps' recent community outreach during the COVID-19 pandemic included the donation of over 2,000 masks to healthcare facilities and first responders in Washington County and the Greater Milwaukee Area. Supporting Meals on Wheels is a continuation of the company's commitment to expand upon their community outreach. "It was important for our team to align with a first-class national organization," concluded Spratt. "We want to invest our time and resources in ways that directly benefit our community. Meals on Wheels is the ideal fit."

About Discount Ramps

Discount Ramps, a MOTIS Brands company, is a leading online retailer of loading, hauling and storage products for commercial, industrial and residential applications. With almost 20 years in business, Discount Ramps is a consistent industry leader in pairing innovative product design with affordability. Their offering includes a wide selection of loading ramps, carriers, hauling racks and accessories, as well as custom ramp solutions. For more information, visit www.DiscountRamps.com.

Media Contact:

Christina Kwan, MOTIS BRANDS

[email protected]

(262) 353-7937

SOURCE Discount Ramps

Related Links

https://www.discountramps.com/


Side hustling is on the charge during lockdown. (Getty)

Coronavirus lockdown has led to a surge in people developing their side hustle, as workers fear for the security of their day jobs.

According to a survey conducted by GoDaddy, one in five workers stuck at home are using the time to set up a new business.

The proportion of these is even greater among those who have been furloughed or fear for the future of their jobs, with the number jumping to a third.

The top reason for wanting to become an entrepreneur among those surveyed was the thought of being their own boss.

Andy Walker, who founded local bakery delivery service Gingerbread Bakery during the coronavirus outbreak, said: Ive been thinking of setting up my own bakery for a long time. Its always been a passion of mine, so after 25 years as a software developer, I decided 2020 was going to be the year I took on a new challenge.

Read more: Two-thirds of UK freelance professionals face income squeeze

I started setting out plans in February but then COVID-19 started to take hold and I thought it wouldnt happen. My online store is working brilliantly, and one day I would love to complement my website with a bakery in town.

Irana Wasti, GoDaddy regional president for Europe, added: We have always known the UK is full of budding entrepreneurs and it is this grit and determination that will be essential for our economic recovery. In fact, it is actually in times of economic hardship where a spirit of entrepreneurism can take hold, paving the way for new, resilient businesses.

Having a side hustle has long been a part of UK working life. The number of individuals who run their own businesses on top of their day job has risen by 32% in the last decade, contributing billions to the UK economy and creating thousands of jobs.

Nevertheless experts have warned that being an entrepreneur is not for the faint-hearted, adding that many small business owners have been hardest by coronavirus.

A recent study by the University of Edinburgh found that 68% of entrepreneurs have cashflow concerns, up from 25% before the COVID-19 crisis.

Watch the latest videos from Yahoo Finance UK
Donald Trump's campaign is changing its message to refocus voters' attention on what it predicts will be a rosy post-coronavirus world.

The president's re-election effort is gripped by polls showing Americans broadly souring on Trump and his performance managing the virus outbreak and the economic fallout. To combat that, the Trump campaign is reupping the winning slogan of 2016, "Make America Great Again."

The new campaign message is that he can rebuild the economy better than presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who the Trump camp argues co-piloted a sluggish rebound from the 2008 financial crisis, according to two officials familiar with the strategy. They asked not to be identified discussing internal strategy.

A new ad released Sunday stitches together images of health-care workers cheering, Trump talking at the State of the Union about "safeguarding our citizens," and Democratic governors Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gavin Newsom of California praising steps he took to help states get some equipment to fight the coronavirus.

"We built the greatest economy the world has ever seen and we're going to do it again," Trump says in the ad, which he ends with his signature slogan, a phrase temporarily replaced by "Keep America Great" before the virus struck.

Voters were generally put off by the president's behavior at daily press briefings billed as updates to the response of the coronavirus. The lengthy news conferences devolved into quarrels with reporters, partisan grievances and conflicting messaging and information on the virus, exemplified in Trump's April 24 musing about using light and disinfectant to treat covid-19 patients.

The pandemic, in which nearly 1.2 million Americans have been infected and more than 67,000 killed, has - even without his briefing performances - obliterated Trump's primary case for re-election: the strength of the U.S. economy.

Voters should know that "there's one person best qualified to juice an economy that was built by Donald Trump and it's Donald Trump. He is dead-set determined to rebuild an economy befitting of this wonderful nation," White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told reporters April 30.

The Trump campaign plans to deliver that message most strongly to older voters, a demographic he carried by 52% in 2016, according to an official who asked not to be identified discussing information that isn't public. They are most vulnerable to the coronavirus and dying in the largest numbers, particularly those in nursing homes where the virus has spread rapidly.

"The senior citizen community right now, of course, should be rightfully concerned and scared in general, because they are taking a hit on the covid very hard. I think there's just some level of just general concern," said Pennsylvania Republican Party chairman Lawrence Tabas.

A Quinnipiac University poll of voters in Trump's adopted home state of Florida, released April 22, showed that Biden leads Trump among voters 65 years old or more, 52% to 42%.

"If I'm 65, now I'm scared of coronavirus and I have no money in my 401k. That may be another reason why they may have higher anxiety," said Samara Klar, a professor in the University of Arizona's school of government and public policy.

Tabas said the party is seeking to ease their concerns by describing government benefits expanded as a result of the pandemic like Medicare's telemedicine options.

Last week Trump hosted a White House event called "Protecting America's Seniors" where he highlighted those efforts and announced a commission for safety and quality at nursing homes.

"President Trump and his administration remain focused on protecting our most vulnerable citizens, including our nation's senior citizens," campaign spokesman Ken Farnaso said.

Besides frightened senior citizens, Trump must secure the trust of the 30 million who have lost their jobs since March. The campaign is billing Trump as a builder who erected a strong economy with nearly full employment and is best suited to reconstruct it.

"Who do you want in charge of the economy?" Florida Republican Party chairman Joe Gruters said. "He became president because of his policies, his pro-business, his pro-American worker policies."

But the data is dubious on that point, showing only modest economic improvements from the Obama administration, when Biden was vice president.

The U.S. economy expanded at a 2.3% rate in 2019, never achieving Trump's goal of 3% annual growth. The economy was braked by uncertainty over international trade and slowing global growth, with businesses cutting investments amid worries about a continuing tariffs dispute with China.

During the Trump administration, the U.S. has averaged 2% growth through the first quarter of 2020, before the pandemic lockdowns went into effect. Growth in the Obama administration averaged 1.9% - and that included the first two quarters of 2009, during a recession that began at the end of Republican George W. Bush's administration.

The unemployment rate rose initially in the Obama administration's first term, topping out at 10% in late 2009, before steadily declining to 4.7% in January 2017. It declined further to 3.5% during the Trump administration, a 50-year low, before its recent spike to 4.4% as of last week. It is expected to rise.

Trump now trails Biden by 5.3 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics average of polls.

Trump's campaign argues that polling, while relevant, isn't the sole barometer for the president's re-election prospects, particularly given that late polling in 2016 showed him losing to Hillary Clinton.

"What we continue to see in our swing states, what we continue to see is unprecedented support for the president," Trump's campaign manager Brad Parscale said in an April 25 digital event.

"Does it go up and down over times? Yes, that's what happens," he said. "When you're president, you're under a lot of scrutiny to do things, but I think overall they see he's protecting American citizens, he's going to bring back the economy and he'll do the things that make the country great again."
The Taraba state government has rejected 100 almajiri children repatriated from Nasarawa state over flouting of the procedure agreed...





The Taraba state government has rejected 100 almajiri children repatriated from Nasarawa state over flouting of the procedure agreed by the Northern Governors Forum (NGF).





Innocent Vakai, chairman of the Taraba COVID-19 technical committee, made the disclosure on Monday in Jalingo, the state capital.





On Saturday, the Nasarawa state government announced the return of 788 almajiri children to their home states.





However, in a statement on Monday, Taraba government said the NGF had resolved that repatriated almajiris must undergo tests to determine their COVID-19 status.

Also, the repatriated almajiris must be accompanied by officials from their state of repatriation and the results of their tests presented to their states of origin.





Vakai, who is also the commissioner for health in the state, added that proper documentation must be made for the almajiris to be accepted in Taraba.





He said the state had not started the repatriation of almajiris to their states of origin, adding that the government was in collaboration with the NGF to procure mobile testing kits in order to enhance testing capacity in the state.





Vakai also announced that Talatu Idris, the female COVID-19 patient said to have escaped from the state isolation centre, had been found.





The commissioner, who did not disclose how the woman was found, said no one was under quarantine at the moment.





He explained that the 122 quarantined in the state had been discharged after the 14-day incubation period, and that the lockdown in the state is still place.





The commissioner called on the public to be vigilant and report any suspicious case of COVID-19 to the committee.




The following appeared in the Hamilton Spectator's 170th anniversary special edition. See more from the project.

* * *

Billionaire business wizard Michael DeGroote, founder of the Laidlaw transportation empire, gave McMaster University $105 million to finish upgrading its medical school, which was renamed the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine in his honour. The centre opened in 2004 and included classrooms, research laboratories, offices and the new pediatric intensive care unit. The money was split, with $64 million going to an endowment fund for health care, medical research and education, and the remaining $41 million going to constructing laboratories and expanding McMaster University Medical Centre (MUMC). Over the years, DeGroote contributed millions to Mac, including start-up funding for the Michael G. DeGroote School of Business and money for the student centre.

Significance The donation was unprecedented. It was the largest cash gift in Canadian history at the time and turned McMaster's medical school into one of the wealthiest in North America. It was also the first time in Canada that a medical school was named after its benefactor.

Canada's biggest donations at the time

With his $105 million donation to McMaster, Michael G. DeGroote nosed out two other nine-figure philanthropists on the list of Canada's biggest individual financial donations at the time.

Randy Moffat, former president of Moffat Communications Ltd., and his family made a $100-million donation to the Winnipeg Foundation to help underprivileged children and families in 2001.

Research In Motion founder Mike Lazaridis donated $100 million in company shares to set up the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Waterloo in 2000.

Ken Thomson gave the Art Gallery of Ontario $70 million cash (plus art estimated to be worth $300 million) in 2002.

Hamilton chemistry professor Richard Tomlinson, a founder of Gennum Corp., gave $60 million to McGill University in 2000.

Barry Sherman, Apotex Inc. CEO, gave $50 million to United Jewish Appeal Federation of Greater Toronto in 2002.

Diamond prospector Stewart Blusson gave $50 million to the University of British Columbia in 1998.

Joyce Young of Ancaster gave $40 million in shares to the Hamilton Community Foundation in 2000. She became a multi-millionaire by investing in Red Hat Inc., a software-development company founded by her nephew, Bob Young, who is the owner of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Collegedale has experienced one disaster on top of another, said City Manager Ted Rogers at the commission meeting Monday night. The city suffered significant damage from the tornadoes that went through the area on Easter night while the city was largely closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Many city-owned properties were affected that Mr. Rogers anticipates will be covered by insurance. But he expects that it may be cheaper for the city to assume the clean-up costs as opposed to getting help from FEMA which could take years to be reimbursed.

The roof on Collegedales library needs to be replaced with the lowest bid being $107,120. Replacing the insulation under the roof will cost $4,500 and the city is waiting to receive bids for other interior work in the building such as ceiling tiles, cleaning the carpet, replacing books and computers. The roof on the bathroom building at Imagination Station playground was also damaged beyond repair and will need to be replaced. The low bid for this was $11,879. The roof at the city hall building, the clock tower in front of the library and damage at The Commons all will require repairs.

Trees were blown over along the citys greenway, which is currently closed, as are all of the citys parks and playgrounds due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The downed trees and damaged equipment will contribute to keeping the parks closed. The public works department will remove the damaged trees and at the same time has four crews working, with some overtime, to remove debris from various neighborhoods around town. Last Saturday, outside contractors picked up and removed about 100 trailer loads in 13 hours, said the city manager. After it is removed, more appears, he said, and it is expected to take another three or four weeks until it is all cleaned up.

Weve had a lot of positive comments about how the citys handled it, said Mayor Katie Lamb.

The staff has done an incredible job, said Mr. Rogers. It will take some time to get back to normal dealing with the coronavirus, the tornado damage and trying to complete routine projects that have been in the works, he said.

If an emergency is declared and emergency spending greater than $10,000 is needed before waiting for a meeting to get approval from the commissioners, the procedure is for the city manager to consult with the mayor. The expenses will be brought to the next commission meeting to be approved. After the tornado, Mr. Rogers said at no time did he have to consult with Mayor Lamb for spending over $10,000, but at the meeting Andrew Morkert, director of building, codes and safety, detailed a list of expenses needed because of tornado damage, each less than $600, which were given approval.

Because of the extensive damage in Collegedale, the commissioners adopted an emergency fee waiver for repairs and construction. This waiver will be in effect from April 13, the day after the tornadoes, until Dec. 31, 2020, and can be extended by the commissioners if needed.

Regarding the virus pandemic, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee made an emergency order that defined regulations municipalities have to follow. Those orders preempted any directives from the city that differed from the states orders, taking it out of the citys hands. In the future, however, if something affects only the city, City Attorney Sam Elliott suggested adopting an ordinance that would give Collegedale a way to enforce its policies regarding that emergency. During discussion, the majority of the board felt this ordinance had the ability to be heavy handed, or to restrict individual freedoms. Due to the lack of a motion, the ordinance failed.

During the pandemic, Collegedale has kept all employees working. Some employees had role changes, however. The parks and recreation department was shut down because the shelter-in-place order eliminated recreational programming. To protect the workforce, parks and recreation employees were put in charge of a new, temporary child-care program that not only maintained their jobs but also gave other staff the ability to keep working, said the city manager. This program is scheduled to continue until May 29, when it is hoped summer programming for parks and recreation can resume.

In regular, on-going business, a public hearing and final vote for a zoning ordinance amendment took place with no one present to speak for or against. The minimum lot size was reduced for property that uses a septic system. This sets the floor at 25,000 square feet versus one acre if the lot size is acceptable to the Hamilton County Ground Water Protection. The one acre minimum was not an efficient use of land if a smaller lot will perk, said Planning and Economic Development Director Kelly Martin. Approval was also given for the lowest bid of $497,387 to construct a culvert on Prospect Church Road.

Looking forward, The Commons is scheduled to open on May 10, which will be allowed since it is considered an outdoor food market and not a park. And, the Fourth of July celebration is still being planned, said the city manager.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to media during a press conference in Wellington, New Zealand. Hagen Hopkins | Getty Images

Government-imposed lockdowns have become a contentious topic in some countries, as the human toll of the coronavirus is weighed against potential economic havoc. More than 3.5 million cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed around the world to date, according to Johns Hopkins University, over 1 million of which have been in the United States. But in New Zealand, where the population of 4.8 million is slowly emerging from life under lockdown, the government claims the virus has stopped spreading  seemingly showcasing the success of its "go hard, go early" lockdown strategy. On Monday, New Zealand recorded zero new cases of the coronavirus  its first day without any new infections since the country went into lockdown in March. "We can take heart in recording no new cases today," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at a press briefing. However, she cautioned that the end of community transmission of Covid-19 should not encourage Kiwis to stop adhering to lockdown rules. "Stay the course," Ardern urged the public. "We cannot afford to squander the good work to date when our end goal is so close and within reach." New Zealand entered a level 3 lockdown on March 23, meaning non-essential businesses were closed, discretionary domestic air travel was banned, and all events and gatherings had to be cancelled. It then progressed into a level 4 lockdown  a stricter approach dubbed the "eliminate" policy  48 hours later. Under this policy, people were urged to only maintain contact with those they lived with. Even earlier, on March 19, New Zealand closed its borders, banning all inbound travel to the country with the exception of returning New Zealanders and some essential health workers.

New Zealand lifted some of its lockdown measures at 11.59 p.m. local time on April 27, moving back into the level 3 stage and allowing people to expand their social "bubbles" to reconnect with close family outside of their households. Residents are now allowed to travel around the country if necessary, but can "only move once, and in one direction." Some education and business has been allowed to resume. The country will remain under "Alert Level 3" as a further review is conducted, with an alert level decision due on May 11. New Zealanders are yet to be informed what a level 2 lockdown would look like. To date, New Zealand has had 1,487 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and just 20 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. At a press conference on April 27, as the country prepared to return to level 3 lockdown, Ardern said models projected New Zealand could have had more than 1,000 cases a day if shutdown measures had been delayed. "We will never know what would have actually happened without our level 4 restrictions, but we can look overseas and see that this devastating scenario has played out in many other countries," she said. "Through our cumulative actions we have avoided the worst." However, at fewer than 5 million, New Zealand's population is much smaller than some of the worst-hit nations. The U.S., which has had more than 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases, has a population of around 330 million. Meanwhile, Italy, Spain and the U.K.  the countries with the next-highest numbers of cases  all have populations more than ten times bigger than New Zealand's.

A nurse based in the New Zealand city of Hamilton, who did not want to be named, told CNBC she believed governments' decisions had determined how badly countries were impacted by the pandemic. "Seeing what's going on overseas is terrifying to me as a health professional," she said. "Having the number of deaths that the U.K., U.S. and Italy are having would be absolutely debilitating to New Zealand, and it is the direct result of government inaction. I think it was always likely that some people would pass away from Covid-19, but the thousands and thousands of deaths in some countries can be linked to poor government decisions." She praised New Zealand's government for acting quickly and decisively as the coronavirus spread across borders. "It's really important that we acted the way we did to avoid a massive outbreak," she said. "I appreciate that my government has taken it seriously, even if it does mean a more restricted way of living. It's taken a lot of planning to get things ready for all the 'just-in-case' situations, but the hospitals don't appear to have been overwhelmed by patients." "I do believe that if we didn't have a lockdown, we would have had a massive amount of hospital admissions," she added.

Testing capacity

As well as being quick to enact lockdown measures, New Zealand has worked hard to ramp up testing. The country now has the capacity to process up to 8,000 tests per day, Ardern said last week, meaning New Zealand had one of highest testing rates per capita in the world. Without any mitigation measures, Covid-19's R0 rating would be around 2.5, according to Ardern. Under lockdown, the R0 of the virus had dropped to 0.4  meaning each infected person would only transmit the virus to less than half a person. An R naught, or R0, rating of 1 means the average person infected with the virus will spread it to one other person. If a disease is given an R0 above 1, it means an outbreak is expected to continue.

Clear communication

Prior to the lockdown being implemented, emergency text messages were sent to residents with a clear explanation of what the level 4 lockdown would entail. "This message is for all of New Zealand. We are depending on you," the message read. "Where you stay tonight is where you must stay from now on  it is likely level 4 measures will stay in place for a number of weeks." Christine Nam, a 31-year-old from capital city Wellington, told CNBC all communication from the government had been clear, concise, and based on scientific fact. "I always understood the importance of complying," she said. "The government was really good at managing people's expectations  we were told it would take at least two weeks for signs that the lockdown was having an impact on the numbers. This made the purpose of the lockdown easy to understand and accept." In some countries, such as the U.K., governments have come under fire for not being clear on exactly what is and is not allowed under lockdown. "The New Zealand government was really transparent about what each lockdown level meant, and it wasn't afraid to redefine or clarify in more detail as the situation evolved," Nam added. "Most New Zealanders can verbalize the government's response to Covid-19, while the same can't be said for other countries because the response has been muddled and indecisive."

Economic impact
ALBANY  New York's upstate county leaders are raising questions about Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's reopening plan, including whether certain requirements  such as hiring 30 contact tracers per 100,000 residents  can be met.

Some county leaders are also proposing a regional approach that is different from Cuomo's plan, which calls for phased openings in the state's 10 economic development regions.

The state Association of Counties was organizing a teleconference for county executives on Tuesday evening that will not include downstate county leaders from Long Island or Westchester and Rockland counties, where COVID-19 infections have ravaged communities, according to sources briefed on the matter.

Cuomo on Monday had listed the criteria that the 10 regions of New York will need to meet in order to reopen. None of regions currently meets the standards, which include declining COVID-19 infection rates and the testing of at least 3 percent of the population on a monthly basis.

County leaders said they are learning this week that the governor's plan to enlist an "army of tracers" may come without any financial support, leaving financially stressed counties with the task of finding money to pay people to do that work. The tracers will be tasked with detecting those who may have had contact with an infected person. Some counties are already using government workers to do that job.

Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin on Tuesday noted that as counties increase testing, it will likely reveal an expected rise in confirmed cases that will make it difficult for some counties or regions to meet the governor's criteria for declining infection rates.

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"If we've got to test 30 per 1,000 residents, thats 4,800 Rensselaer County residents every single month," McLaughlin said. "Quite honestly, I dont think the demand is there. I mean, am I supposed to test the same people over and over again?"

McLaughlin said that in comparison with other years, the average monthly death rate has remained stable in his county.

The county executive also questioned Cuomo's requirement that hospitals have no more than 70 percent of their beds occupied in case there is a sudden resurgence of COVID-19 after any reopening begins.

"If he requires hospitals to stay 30 percent empty, there's not a hospital that I know of that will not go bankrupt this year," McLaughlin said. "At our peak in Rensselaer County there were 20 people hospitalized. I currently have six, one in the ICU, and our economy is at a complete standstill."

With elective procedures cancelled and procedures such as colonoscopies and skin-cancer screenings on hold, McLaughlin said, medical experts have told him to expect a spike in deaths in the months ahead from people who missed or postponed appointments that may have detected health problems such as cancer or heart disease.

"The deaths from the non-COVID (diseases), down the line, are going to dwarf the COVID (deaths) in this area," McLaughlin said.

The brewing dissent also has led many county leaders to question Cuomo's regional reopening strategy. Some leaders are saying privately that grouping them into the economic development regions is not the right geographic strategy.

Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, for example, whose county is part of an economic region that includes Westchester and Rockland counties, on Tuesday afternoon unveiled a customized reopening plan that excludes those two counties but adds Greene and Columbia counties, which are part of the Capital Region's economic development region. The alternate reopening plan was jointly announced with Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro and Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus. The proposal also includes Sullivan and Putnam counties.

Molinaro said Orange, Ulster and Dutchess county leaders have been coordinating their coronavirus response efforts since the first case was discovered in that region.

"Were not suggesting that were at odds (with the governor)," Molinaro said. "Weve just suggested that the counties we have identified are more like each other economically, demographically, environmentally and we want to communicate and coordinate together."

Molinaro said during discussions with the governor's task force, those officials have conceded that a reopening plan in that region that does not include Rockland and Westchester counties may make sense.

"The governor says things that I take as broad framework that will be revised as we move forward," Molinaro said. "Hes sort of identified both the broad measurements and the broad framework  the framework being his established economic development regions that may or may not necessarily be actual regions, but thats the world he functions in."

Severing from the region that includes Rockland and Westchester counties may have a downside, as well, Molinaro said, noting that their COVID-19 infection and hospitalization rates may begin declining more rapidly than other counties where the virus gained a foothold weeks later.

Like McLaughin, Molinaro said that the level of testing being sought by Cuomo for regions to reopen in phases may also be unrealistic.

"The data points are good but some will never be achieved," Molinaro said. "Are we at a point now where we're going to be able to conduct that many tests going forward among people, residents, who are not likely to want to get a test if they are not showing symptoms and maybe ultimately just exhausted by this and may decide not to be tested?"

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Ryan has raised questions about whether counties have the resources or funding to be able to hire 30 contact tracers for every 100,000 residents. Ryan said they are being told the state may cut up to 50 percent of their local aid.

"I think thats where there needs to be some consideration given to looking at a more flexible approach to this  which I think theyre open to," Ryan said of the administration.

Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said Tuesday he believes Albany County is getting closer to meeting the state's threshold to begin reopening  except for the contact tracing requirement.

"The last one, no one can meet," McCoy said, adding that he had written a letter to Cuomo laying out where the county stood. "I'm so confident in working with the other counties ... that we can open up in a timely manner after May 15."

The county still has to meet several other requirements in order to move forward with the first phase of reopening. McCoy said he believes it will soon meet the monthly testing requirement.

But the county is also concerned with how Albany Medical Center Hospital, which is a regional hospital, will factor into the medical requirements in Cuomo's plan, such as having a bed vacancy rate of at least 30 percent and a 14-day decline in virus-related hospital deaths.

"How many people are coming from outside the region that are coming to Albany Med? That's going to affect our numbers," McCoy said. "It's not going to work if those numbers are counted against us."

On Tuesday, in response to a question about whether regions could meet the reopening criteria, Cuomo said his task force "didn't create any metrics. Those are all the best practices" as recommended by the federal Centers for Disease Control.

There are, he added, costs and risks associated with both reopening too quickly or remaining closed too long. "How many more deaths are you willing to sustain to reopen quickly  100 more deaths, 500 more deaths?" he said. "Its a trade-off, and say to the American people and say to the state of New York, 'We can reopen tomorrow if you want to reopen  this is how many people will die.'"

McLaughlin said that in upstate counties where the rate of infection has not been as severe as in downstate, it doesn't make sense that large numbers of people can shop at certain stores, including grocery stores, while other businesses that could also deploy social-distancing measures remain shuttered.

"Im not saying you throw it open and go full-bore, giant happy hour at Dinosaur (Bar-B-Que)," he said. "Im just saying lets get moving again a little bit. Upstate can be a big player in getting the economic engine started and getting some tax revenues, because I cant pay the bills.  How the hell am I supposed to do all my social services if I dont have any revenue?"

Over the past two months, Cuomo, a Democrat, has sparred with President Donald Trump and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, both Republicans, 0ver the level of federal support for New York. But the governor has also said repeatedly that politics should be set aside and not have any role in the response to the pandemic.

But McLaughlin, a Republican and frequent critic of the governor, said Cuomo has not responded to his letters, including one seeking a COVID-19 testing site in Rensselaer County. In another letter, he pleaded with Cuomo's health commissioner, Howard Zucker, to stop transferring COVID-19-positive residents back into a nursing home that has had 13 fatalities. He wanted those residents to be treated at Samaritan Hospital in Troy, which has a high number of available beds.

McLaughlin said many county officials, who are on the front lines of overseeing local responses to the pandemic, should not be taking orders from the state's Regional Economic Development Council, which he said "has gotten zero guidance from the governor."

"I'm not listening to an REDC," he said. "I got elected; I run the county. ... We'll certainly take suggestions, but I'm not taking orders from folks who don't have to go to the ballot box."

Steve Hughes contributed to this report.
Multiple sclerosis sufferer Mary Wilson fears the coronavirus pandemic could have robbed her of her dream to play badminton at the Paralympics. Wilson, who hoped to qualify for Tokyo 2020, says if she does make it to Japan next year it will "be the biggest thing ever" but she recognises time may not be on her side. The 56-year-old Scot has faced -- and overcome -- some astonishing challenges since being diagnosed with MS, a chronic neurological condition, in 2004. She survived an attack during a military tour of duty in Afghanistan, an ugly incident involving a Ugandan policeman, and has climbed every one of the Munros, the 282 mountains in Scotland over 3,000 feet (914 metres) high. But Wilson's Paralympic hopes are on hold after Olympics and Paralympics organisers bowed to the inevitable at the end of March, delaying both events until next year and meaning badminton could not make its Paralympic debut in 2020. Wilson agreed with the decision but admits it is a huge blow for her personally as she has secondary progressive MS. "It is definitely going to affect my chances with an extra year," Wilson told AFP by phone from the Edinburgh home she shares with partner Judi and their German Shepherd dog Max. "A year is a long time trying to train hard. I feel my body is going backwards. It (the MS) is affecting it." "To tell you the truth I think it should have been called off sooner," she said. "It dragged on a bit (the official announcement was made on March 24). People in other countries were dying." Wilson was in Spain for a competition when that country went into lockdown due to COVID-19. "I went out walking and a police car went past and stopped," she said. "The policeman threatened to handcuff me and take me to the station as I shouldn't have been out walking although I was unaware that was the case. "They followed me back to the hotel to make sure I was going there." Wilson managed to find a seat on a flight back to Scotland and is now following a radically adapted training regime at home. "I set up a programme each day, strength and conditioning from press-ups to sit-ups, lunges, calf raises," said the athlete, who has to take extra care during the coronavirus lockdown due to her condition. "The kitchen is my gym. I do press-ups off the kitchen surface but I wear kitchen gloves as the surfaces are really sharp." Wilson said para-badminton was an expensive sport -- competitors need adapted equipment and transport -- and many of her rivals struggle to fund themselves. She estimates she has spent 50,000 ($62,000) since she began competing internationally in 2017. Aside from some funding from the charity Path To Success, she has had to dip into her Army pension and a legacy left to her by her late father. - Battle-scarred - She is fortunate to be even contemplating appearing at Tokyo after an Afghan truck driver tried to run her over at Camp Bastion, the former British Army airbase in Helmand Province, in 2008. The psychiatric nurse, who served with Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps, had to leave her tent one evening. "There were no lights in case we got mortared," she said. "I heard this vehicle behind me. He had a dimmed light on and he was driving faster and faster and tried to run me over. I managed to dive off the road." Wilson woke up after an operation to find a neighbouring bed was occupied by a wounded Taliban fighter. "We stared at each other both in shock," she said. "I said to myself 'I must not show my emotions'." The former staff sergeant said her army training served her well when in 2018, on her way to Kampala airport after a tournament, she was forced off the hotel bus at gunpoint by a Ugandan policeman. He had a taxi driver take them to a secluded spot and demanded $1,000 or else a trip to a police station. "My army training kicked in there," she said. "I was very calm, I did not scream or shout. "I came to an agreement with him, gave him some money and managed, unbeknownst to him, to take a photo of him. "When I returned home I notified the authorities and he was arrested and jailed. At least he got his comeuppance."
Now that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are living a thousand miles away from the British monarchy, there is still no escaping the drama and controversy inside the palace.

In a new book written by British journalist Tom Quinn titled "Kensington Palace: An Intimate Memoir from Queen Mary to Meghan Markle" which will be released later this month, it reveals the turmoil and intrigues inside the historic royal abode -- from Princess Diana and Prince Charles' marriage down to the Fab Four rift.

What makes this more controversial is that it comes from the point-of-view of Kensington Palace's employees.

"You couldn't hide anything from anyone," one palace aide told the author.

Meghan Markle's Jealousy Of Kate Middleton

The British journalist spoke to royal staffers who have spent years working for the royal family.

One source spilled the tea about how Duchess Meghan "struggled with jealousy" with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who are directly in line to inherit the throne.

"I think she has found that difficult to deal with. And although Harry loved their cottage on the grounds, Meghan was conscious that it was tiny in comparison to the vast apartment complex where Kate and William live," the source said.

The Sussexes used to live in Kensington Palace along with Kate and Prince William, who reportedly spent more than $6.5 million renovating their Apartment 1A.

When the former "Suits" star moved to London, she joined Prince Harry in his Nottingham Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace. Shortly after, the couple moved to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor for "various reasons."

The Battle Between The Two Duchess

Moreover, multiple reports claimed that royal staffers called the 38-year-old Meghan with unflattering nicknames such as "Me-Gain," "Di Lite," "Di 2," "Duchess Difficult," and "Di Lite" while Duchess Kate was described as one of the "nicest royals."

"Kate is actually one of the nicest royals, and she hasn't let life in her extremely grand apartment at Kensington go to her head - or at least not too much," another source said.

The mother-of-three was also known for having a good relationship with her staff and was "very warm towards Meghan" when she became a member of the royal family.

Did Meghan Markle "Shout" At Kate's Staff?

Interestingly, the book also pointed out how the royal feud started between Prince Harry, Meghan, Kate and Prince William.

Another source -- described as a former palace servant -- shared that the rift began when Meghan "shouted" at her sister-in-law's staff which prompted them to leave Kensington Palace.

"Kate was horrified when Meghan shouted at a member of Kate's staff," the source revealed. "Like many people not used to dealing with servants, Meghan overdoes the imperiousness; so, on the one hand, she wants to be like Diana, a people's princess, and on the other she wants people to stand to attention when she clicks her fingers."

However, another source explained that the behavior of Meghan was a result of the royal family's treatment towards her given that she's a divorcee and bi-racial.

READ MORE: Royal Fear: The REAL Reason Why Prince William Waited 10 Years Before Marrying Kate Middleton
Confirmed coronavirus cases topped 9,300 on Tuesday, according to new state figures.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases across Arizona is 9,305, the Arizona Department of Health Services said Tuesday morning in its daily tally. The total number includes people who have recovered.

The state said 395 people in Arizona have died from COVID-19, up from 362 reported Sunday. There were 33 new deaths reported today.

Across Pima County, 1,379 cases of coronavirus have now been confirmed, up 33 cases from the day before.

Among the 1,379 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pima County:

 415 people ages 65 and older;

 194 people between 55 and 64 years old;

 256 people between 45 and 54 years old;

 481 people between 20 and 44 years old;

 32 people 19 years old and younger.

No age was available for one coronavirus patient in the county.

There have been 105 known COVID-19 deaths in the Tucson-metro area, according to the state health department.

There have been 88,260 coronavirus tests given across Arizona, with about 8% of them showing positive for COVID-19, the state says.

The 395 confirmed COVID-19 deaths in Arizona include:

 308 people 65 years old and older;

 53 people between 55 and 64 years old;
The Ector County Health Department website listed six new positive cases Monday, bringing the total 84. There are three probable cases at this time. ECHD reported that 59 people have recovered. There have been 1,305 tests taken, with 1,145 negative results and 76 pending results. ECHD has contacted 1,054 people during contact tracing.

The drive-thru testing site at the Ector County Coliseum had its first positive case. Of the 28 tests done, 27 are negative and none are pending. 144 people have called the triage center for testing.
CHICAGO, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report "Ballistic Protection Market by Material (Metals & Alloys, Ceramics, Composites, Bulletproof Glass, Fabric), Product, Technology, Threat Level (Level II & IIA, Level III & IIIA, Level IV & Above), Platform, Application, and Region - Global Forecast to 2025", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global Ballistic Protection Market size is projected to grow from USD 12.6 billion in 2020 to USD 17.2 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 6.4%. Factors such as increasing geopolitical tensions in emerging economies, changing battlefield scenarios, the need for lightweight, comfortable, and high-strength materials, rising demand for personal protection are anticipated to drive the growth of the ballistic protection industry.

Request for PDF Brochure:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=30112278

By platform, the airborne segment is projected to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period.

The airborne segment of the ballistic protection market includes fixed-wing aircraft & helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). There is an increasing demand for aircraft across various aviation platforms for military purposes. This demand is also attributed to the rising military expenditure of various countries, such as China, Japan, South Korea, and the US.

The UAV segment is expected to witness the highest CAGR for the forecast period, 2020-2025. The growth of the airborne segment is attributed mainly because of the introduction of UAVs in battlefields due to changes in the dynamics of war.

By application, homeland security segment is expected to grow at highest CAGR during the forecast period

The homeland security segment is projected to grow at a higher CAGR as compared to the military segment during the forecast period Ballistic-resistant body armor is worn by homeland security officers while in the field to protect against specific ballistic threats. Homeland security officers use personal protective equipment, including body vests, ballistic helmets, and gloves, to ensure safety during any mission. Ballistic helmets protect the wearer against small arms fire and fragmentation threats. The combat systems used by homeland security officers are ballistic resistant as ceramics and thermoplastics reinforce them.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Ballistic Protection Market"

178 - Tables

43 - Figures

218 - Pages

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https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_BuyingNew.asp?id=30112278

Asia Pacific is projected to lead the ballistic protection market during the forecast period

The ballistic protection industry in Asia Pacific is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR from 2020 to 2025. Asia Pacific is an emerging market for ballistic protection systems, owing to the economic growth of countries in this region and increased defense spending in countries such as India, China, Japan, South Korea, and Australia. The governments of these countries and local industries are also signing up with the contractors and supporting them through the procurement process by providing necessary financial and infrastructure aids. The increase in the number of insurgent groups entering territories and using deadly explosives such as IEDs and bombs has further raised the need for ballistic protection systems.

Japan is the major contributor to the growth of the Asia Pacific ballistic protection market. The country aims at developing high-end indigenous military technologies to keep the armed forces upgraded and to be on par with other countries. The significant capability of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) is now likely to join other major military powers in various international operations.

A few of the major players in the ballistic protection market include BAE Systems (UK), 3M (US), Rheinmetall AG (Germany), Koninklijke Ten Cate bv (Netherlands), Point Blank Enterprises, Inc (US), Craig International Ballistics Pty Ltd (Australia) and MKU Limited (India).

Related Reports:

Armored Vehicles Market by Platform (Combat Vehicles, Combat Support Vehicles, Unmanned Armored Ground Vehicles), Mobility (Wheeled, Tracked), System (Engine, Drive Systems, Ballistic Armor, Turret Drive, C2 Systems), Region - Global Forecast to 2023

Battlefield Management Systems Market by Platform (Headquarter, Vehicle, Soldier), System (Computing, Navigation & Imaging, Communication & Networking), Component (Hardware, Software, and Display Devices), and Region - Global Forecast to 2021

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A Winnipeg Police Service officer is facing multiple criminal charges after allegedly causing a motor vehicle collision last year that landed six people in the hospital.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 4/5/2020 (624 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg Police Service officer is facing multiple criminal charges after allegedly causing a motor vehicle collision last year that landed six people in the hospital.

The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, the province's police watchdog, announced Monday it had charged WPS Const. John Misiewicz-Buzahora with three counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Zane Tessler, civilian director of the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba.

The investigation was first announced by the IIU on July 15, 2019, shortly after it was launched.

A police cruiser struck a van at the intersection of Aberdeen Avenue and Salter Street at 7:20 p.m. on July 14, sending six people to the hospital, a WPS spokesman said at the time.

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Surveillance footage posted online by the CBC showed the vehicle, which did not appear to have its emergency lights active, driving through a stop sign without slowing down and striking the passenger side of a black minivan. The van tipped on its side and slid across the street.

Six people were taken to hospital, including two police officers inside the WPS cruiser car and the four occupants of the minivan. All were subsequently released.

"The IIU has conducted a thorough and independent investigation into the circumstances of this incident. IIU civilian director Zane Tessler is satisfied there are reasonable grounds to believe a criminal offence occurred, and accordingly has authorized three charges of drive dangerous cause bodily harm," the IIU said in a news release Monday.

Misiewicz-Buzahora met with an IIU investigator on April 28, and was issued a summons to appear in provincial court in Winnipeg on July 6.

The IIU said it will make no further comment on the case while the matter is before the courts.

A request for comment was sent to the WPS on Monday, but was not responded to prior to deadline. It remains unclear if Misiewicz-Buzahora remains on active duty with the city police.
MADISON  The state Supreme Courts conservative justices, during arguments Tuesday that were at times testy and complicated by video technology, expressed deep skepticism about the authority of a cabinet secretary to extend Gov. Tony Evers safer at home strategy for controlling the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

The 90-minute arguments, heard remotely by video conference, came after Evers and leaders from both parties in the Legislature met for the first time to discuss a bipartisan response to the pandemic, which through Tuesday afternoon had killed 353 Wisconsin residents and sickened 8,566.

Chief Justice Patience Roggensack thanked participants and noted theres an awful lot of emotion tied to the case because we are in the middle of a pandemic that all sides agree on. She gave no indication when the court would rule but said it was meeting in closed session Tuesday afternoon.

At one point, justices shouted over one another about who had the floor to ask the next question, and liberal Justice Rebecca Dallet complained that conservative Justice Daniel Kelly was not giving state Assistant Attorney General Colin Roth the chance to answer questions.

I would ask that he be able to answer the question because Justice Kelly keeps cutting him off, Dallet said before Roggensack restored order.

GOP legislators filed the lawsuit on April 21, seeking to suspend an extension until May 26 of Evers order, issued days earlier. Among other actions, the original order, issued March 24, closed businesses designated as nonessential to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Opponents of the measure say it has wrecked the states economy. Unemployment claims have soared as many businesses, those open and closed, have laid off or furloughed workers. But proponents of the order counter that Wisconsins coronavirus infection rate would be much higher if nothing had been done.

Roth, arguing for Evers side, was interrupted almost immediately by Justice Rebecca Bradley as he began his remarks.

My question for you is, where in the constitution did the people of Wisconsin confer authority on a single, unelected cabinet secretary to compel almost 6 million people to stay at home and close their businesses and face imprisonment if they dont comply, with no input from the Legislature, without the consent of the people? Bradley asked.

Definition of tyranny

Isnt it the very definition of tyranny for one person to order people to be imprisoned for going to work, among other ordinarily lawful activities?

Roth responded that the state constitution allows the Legislature to enact statutes to protect the public health, and that is exactly what the legislature has done. State law created by the Legislature, he said, gives the state Department of Health Services the authority to do whatever is necessary to combat a novel, deadly, communicable disease like the one were facing today.

Bradley is also part of the courts conservative 5-2 majority, which agreed Friday to hear the case directly, rather than require the Legislature to proceed through the lower courts. Dallet dissented in that ruling.

Bradley, along with Kelly, who was defeated in last months election, continued to hammer at Roth about the authority for creating the order, where the limits of authority exist for the DHS and its secretary-designee, Andrea Palm, and how the agency derives the power to punish those who violate the order. Roth appeared flustered at moments but said the power is in statutes created by the Legislature, which the Legislature could amend if it felt the need to do so.

If you look at the statute, its in there, Roth told Bradley.

The court will decide two issues: Whether Palm violated state law governing the issuance of emergency rules by ordering the extension of safer at home and whether the order exceeded the authority DHS has under state law by closing nonessential businesses, ordering state residents to stay at home and forbidding nonessential travel.

Six-day extension

The Legislature is asking the court to suspend enforcement of the order past its original April 24 expiration, but suggesting that the court stay the enforcement of the suspension for six days to allow DHS enough time to create a new emergency rule with the participation of the Legislature.

But justices wondered why the court should suspend its ruling instead of simply invalidating the order, if it is an improperly created rule.

Ryan Walsh, arguing for the Legislature, said the thought behind the six-day wait was to give DHS an opportunity to create a rule following the procedure the Legislature believes would be proper, but said DHS has squandered the time it has had to begin the process.

Unfortunately, DHS has done nothing, he said. It hasnt issued a scope statement, despite our asking them to do so.

The court, in its order Friday, declined to take up a third issue sought by the Legislature: Whether DHS acted arbitrarily and capriciously in issuing the April 16 extension. The Legislature had asserted that DHS was arbitrary and capricious in its freewheeling categorization of businesses as either essential or nonessential.

The court allowed arguments only by Roth and Walsh. A number of other groups filed friend-of-the-court briefs favoring or opposing a ruling stopping enforcement of safer at home. The Legislatures position is supported by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the Wisconsin Dairy Alliance, hunting and fishing groups, and the Wisconsin Tavern League, among others.

Opposing the Legislatures request are the Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments and Boards; the Wisconsin Public Health Association; the Wisconsin Nurses Association; a coalition of state community, advocacy, labor and membership organizations; Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice; and several other groups.

New lawsuit

On Monday, a new lawsuit was filed with the state Supreme Court by Waukesha County resident Jere Fabick, GOP contributor and board member of the conservative Heartland Institute, and Larry Chapman, a resident of Walworth County and member of Pewaukees Lakewood Baptist Church. The lawsuit seeks to block items in the order pertaining to constitutional rights to freedom of speech and religious activities.

On Tuesday, the court gave Palm and others until May 8 to respond to the petition and gave Fabick and Chapman until May 11 to reply.
by Vladimir Rozanskij

Russia ranks seventh in the virus statistics, outperforming China, Iran and Turkey. On May 3, the former metropolitan of Astrakhan, Iona (Karpukhin) Fr. Dmitrij Vetoshkin (from Kuban, south of the country), fell ill with coronavirus by distributing communion to the infected. Many priests are in financial straits, struggling to support their families. Criticisms of Patriarch Kirill.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - Over 10,500 cases of Covid-19 have occurred in the last 24 hours; in all since the beginning of the pandemic there have been almost 150 thousand cases, with an epicenter in particular in Moscow, where over 6 thousand people have fallen ill in just one day, out of a total of almost 75 thousand: more than half of the entire nation. After all, Russia has always been a very centralized country. Globally, Russia is currently in seventh place in the virus statistics, also surpassing China, Iran and Turkey.

The Russian Orthodox Church continues its ordeal; on the night of May 3, the ex-metropolitan of Astrakhan Iona (Karpukhin) died in hospital in Moscow, at the age of 78 (photo 1). From 1991 to 2013 he had been parish priest of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross, in the popular Muscovite district of Altufevo, where he had returned in recent years, after retiring from the metropolis. In the female monastery of the Protection of the Mother of God in Kotkovo, a Moscow community directly dependent on the patriarch, another priest died. After the spiritual director Vladimir Veriga, who passed away on April 24, the 66 year-old priest Evgenij Korchukov also passed away, serving at the monastery for over 20 years (photo 2). Sculptor and artist, Father Yevgeny was a devoted family man with five children and nine grandchildren.

A priest from the Kuban region in southern Russia, Father Dmitrij Vetoshkin, fell on coronavirus by distributing communion to the sick. All the priests in the area have been subjected to isolation. The patriarch of Moscow Kirill (Gundjaev) spread a broad message to the faithful on the third Sunday of Easter, dedicated to the Women who brought the ointments to Christs burial: their humble devotion to the body of the Savior, according to the patriarch "is particularly inspiring to us; they didn't want to prove anything to anyone, they just wanted to have the honor of standing at the side of the Lord in his Kingdom." Kirill confesses all his anguish in the face of this "evil opponent", and also invites, in the sadness of the loss of so many loved ones, to remain faithful like them, such as Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus next to the Mother of God.

In this difficult period, many priests also find themselves in financial straits. Parish priests must also support a family, which is often quite large, and petitions have been sent from some dioceses to the patriarch for help. The most heated is the letter from the priests of the Samara region on the Volga, which accuses the indifference of the leaders of the hierarchy: Allow us, simple country priests, to ask a question: since when has hypocrisy ceased to be a sin? ... For many years we have satisfied you and we have also served you in your whims, now is the time for you to support us a little too". Patriarch Kirill proposed "wealthier parishioners" to materially support the priests in difficulty, and welcomed the Moscow government's request not to charge priests for municipal services.

Meanwhile, the patriarch has begun to issue sentences against priests who disobeyed the provisions regarding the closure of the churches for quarantine: the superior of the churches of the Muscovite patriarchal monastic complex of St. Nicholas in Perervinsk, the protoierej Vladimir Chuvikin was suspended. He is also rector of the theological seminary housed in the monastic complex, where the celebrations of Holy Week took place without any limitation, causing numerous cases of infection.

The patriarch also suspended the protodeacon Andrej Kuraev (photo 3), one of the best-known commentators on Orthodox current affairs in Russia, for expressing himself offensively against his father Aleksandr Agejkin, the parish priest of the patriarchal cathedral who died of coronavirus. Kuraev had used very critical terms towards the deceased on his hugely popular blog, on the day of his funeral, and severely criticized the reticence of Kirill himself, whose centralist leadership he termed a form of "Russian papism".
Kareena Kapoor Khan was snapped visiting her aunt Neetu Kapoor and cousins Ranbir Kapoor and Riddhima Kapoor Sahni at their Mumbai residence, after Rishi Kapoor's prayer meet. While many fans understood the actress' need to stay close to the family during such tough times, others questioned the social distancing norms for celebrities amid the Coronavirus lockdown in the country.

As soon as the news of actor Rishi Kapoor's passing away on the morning of April 30 came out, Kareena Kapoor Khan along with her husband Saif Ali Khan were spotted outside the HN Reliance Hospital in Mumbai where Rishi Kapoor breathed his last.

Kareena Kapoor is the daughter of Rishi Kapoor's elder brother Randhir Kapoor. She was also seen attending her uncle's last rites at the crematorium. On Monday evening, Kareena was snapped by the paparazzi visiting the Kapoor family's Mumbai residence to be with Neetu, Ranbir and Riddhima. She had reportedly come to visit Riddhima, who reached home a day after Rishi Kapoor's last rites from Delhi, with special permission to travel in the lockdwon.

But a clip of Kareena's recent visit to be with her family has irked many netizens, and the comments section was not kind to the actress. A few users called out Kareena for not following the lockdown rules. One said, "She is celebrity that's why she has permission...But it creates difference among aam aadmi and celebrity."

"Going for last rites is ok ..that's everyone can understand , why she going now in this lock down..who is permitting her," wrote another.

Another user questioned, "Why did Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan make a video about social distancing ? And today they've gone to see people ? When ordinary folk die their families don't have a choice to congregate so why is it diff here?"

Rishi Kapoor passed away after battling leukemia for two years, at the age of 67.

Neetu Kapoor Thanks Medical Staff For Taking Care Of Rishi Kapoor

Rishi Kapoor's Leaked Video From ICU Enrages Bollywood Stars Arjun Kapoor, Mini Mathur And Others
In the days following the birth of her daughter, River, on April 10, Stevie Browne says she struggled physically and mentally.

Discharged from hospital the day after the birth, the first-time mother from Mudgee was having difficulty breastfeeding her baby and needed help. However, social distancing measures introduced to stall the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic meant midwives and community health nurses were not making the home visits that new mothers usually receive after birth.

New mothers are missing out on vital connection as a result of social distancing. Credit:iStock

In desperation, an exhausted Browne returned to the maternity ward to ask for advice. There, the midwife explained that she was experiencing engorgement, a common issue during the early days of breastfeeding. The next day, five days postpartum, a community health nurse contacted Browne for the first time to organise a visit that afternoon. It was an opportunity for Browne to ask some of the many questions she had about her new baby. She wanted to know if it was normal for a baby to be up all night crying, even after a nappy change and a feed.

I dont know whether shes in pain, I dont know anything  Im not familiar with the cues, Browne says. And I dont know anyone else who has a newborn to compare.
If we presume that Joe Biden's pace of mental decline does not reverse direction, the Democrats will be stuck with an embarrassment leading them into disaster in November. Unless there is vote fraud on a massive scale, Americans will not hand the fate of the Republic to Grandpa Simpson, also known as "Plugs" Biden after undergoing expensive hair transplant surgery in 2008 to avoid going bald.

There are contributing factors, his flacking for China as his son reaped ten-figure backing from the communists and his sexual harassment issues most prominently (for now). But the wiser and wilier among the DNC's power elite know they will not be able to hide Biden's mental infirmity all the way to November third. So they are considering how and when best to be rid of Joe. The emergence of Tara Reade's charge of sexual assault against Biden from behind the media embargo of coverage demonstrates that doubts about Biden cannot be simply be ignored. Reade maybe the proximate cause of controversy for now, but the underlying issue is vegetative tendencies of Biden's brain becoming increasingly obvious, even with him confined in his basement.

As with the Soviet-era Kremlinologists who sussed out the realities of the power struggle among a secretive power elite, we must observe small signs of the deadly earnest combat underway in the Democrat party over how to be rid of this loser. The best signs are found on the pages of their two principal media house organs, the New York Times and the Washington Post, whose editorial decisions act as pilot fish for the rest of the mainstream media, steering them in the direction that the party elites want.

The New York Times went first, on Saturday, with an op-ed by Elizabeth Buenig titled "Democrats, It's Time to Consider a Plan B." That was followed on Sunday by the WaPo granting op-ed space to Lyz Lenz, a columnist from the Cedar Rapids Gazette, who bashed Justice Kavanaugh and revealed her own status as sexual assault victim while writing:

Democrats should still insist that Biden step aside. Democrats must apply the standards we elaborated during the Kavanaugh case to our own side. In his defense, Biden's campaign is emphasizing his support of women's rights. But as Jessica Valenti argues in GEN, "Feminists must not fall into the trap of ignoring individual women's stories in exchange for broader political power. It not only runs counter to our most fundamental values around trusting women, but it's also a strategy that has never  and will never  result in the progress we're actually after."

As a partisan Trump-supporter, I hope the Democrats will hold fast in nominating Biden. But as a pragmatist and student of the ways of the power-obsessed, I don't think they will. So the question becomes when and how to pull the plug. As Stephen Green points out.

After New York canceled its primary vote last week, we learned that while it would be both risky and difficult, it is still possible for Democrats to nominate someone other than Biden: As of April 27, the former vice president has 1,305 of the 1,991 delegates needed to clinch a first-round coronation at the party's convention. New York offered 320 delegates up for grabs, 274 pledged to the primary winner; a prize that would have brought Biden closer to the nomination. If New York's decision triggers other states to cancel their own primaries, it is entirely possible that Biden could arrive at the Democratic convention without a guarantee of the nomination. Larger states with upcoming primary votes include Georgia, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, plus a few medium-size states like Maryland, Indiana, Kentucky, and Louisiana. Pennsylvania and Indiana have already delayed their votes, but if they and a few others like them decide instead to cancel as New York did, then that would be a clear indication that the DNC has decided to shove Biden out onto an ice floe for an ignominious retirement from presidential politics.

Bonnie Kristian of The Week points out that even those delegates supposedly won by Biden are not obligated by law to cast their first ballot votes in his favor:

So far, Biden has 1,406 of 1,991 delegates needed to win that initial vote, and those are delegates pledged (by strong custom, though not law) to Biden by primary and caucus results.

My guess is that DNC heavies are lobbying the remaining primary states to name their delegates by other means, probably a decision of the state-level parties. All they have to do is prevent Biden winning on the first ballot, perhaps via a slew of favorite sons and daughters (Stacey Abrams in Georgia, for instance), and then freeing the delegates in Milwaukee on the second and subsequent ballots.

Should this path be followed, Sanders-supporters are on the record that they will burn down Milwaukee if the Bolshevik is not fairly treated. But the entire reason Biden garnered the support he did was that he was supposedly "safe" compared to an open socialist. They fear a Sanders-led ticket would bring total disaster.

Avoiding a debacle in Milwaukee is one reason why Biden might be allowed on the ticket, only to be discarded closer to the election. Another is that a post-convention substitution of, say Andrew Cuomo or Michelle Obama, short circuits the time available for opposition research and negative campaigning against the Democrat nominee. Kristian notes:

...if they wanted to replace Biden (whether with Cuomo, the veep nominee, or some arrangement of both) Democratic leadership could wait until after the nomination to do so. Then, as they did with Democratic vice presidential nominee Thomas Eagleton in 1972, they could ask Biden to step aside, citing his health. (snip) With Biden out, the Democratic National Committee, a group of around 350 which is "composed of the chairs and vice-chairs of each state Democratic Party Committee and over 200 members elected by Democrats in all 57 states and the territories," would vote to select a new nominee. Such a switch could be made any time between the convention nomination and Election Day. Because we technically vote for Electoral College members rather than presidential candidates, it may be, as Vox proposes, that Electors could simply transfer their vote from the old Democratic nominee to the new one regardless of what was printed on the ballot. But the legal situation is uncertain and varies from state to state. "For instance," notes FiveThirtyEight, "Michigan's law requires an Elector to vote for the ticket named on the ballot whereas Florida's rules say that an Elector is to 'vote for the candidates of the party that he or she was nominated to represent.'" That means a sooner swap, allowing more states to print the new name on the ballot, would be better. Yet court battles would be inevitable with the ever-litigious Trump involved.

At this point, outsiders have no way of knowing the real extent of Biden's infirmity, nor do we know the true views of the party insiders and their funders about his prospects for avoiding embarrassment and defeat. But if I were a betting man, I'd wager that someone else will be on top of the ticket November third.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore.
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Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday got in a conversation with Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee on the impact of COVID-19 on Indian economy, its revival post lockdown and how we can help elevate the problem for the disadvantaged section of the society. In a video released by the Congress leader on his YouTube channel, Dr Abhijit Banerjee advocated for a stimulus package for india. He said we have not dedicated our resources on a large enough financial package. It is important to revive the demand and nothing bad will happen if we provide 60% of the bottom population with more money.

Dr Abhijit Banerjee suggested that to elevate hunger and poverty, the government can give temporary ration cards to people, who can use them for procuring wheat and rice for local ration shops. He said that Aadhar-based claims for PDS could have said a lot of misery to poor but sadly they are not in the system.

Speaking about the lockdown and its economic impact on the people and businesses, Dr Abhijit said we can take cue from US and other countries to come up with a stimulus package and put money in the hands of people. Spending is the best way to revive the economy. It is about reviving demand and assuring people that they will have more money.

Also Read: Coronavirus update: Total positive cases in India cross 46,000 mark with toll at 1,568, Tamil Nadu becomes second state to record more than 500 cases in a day

Also Read: West Bengal admits lapses in COVID-19 data reporting, says wont count co-morbidity deaths in coronavirus tally

India needs a stimulus package; we have not dedicated on large enough financial package yet: Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee to Rahul Gandhi  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 5, 2020

Give temporary ration cards to everybody; use those for transferring money, wheat and rice to them: Banerjee to Rahul  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 5, 2020

When asked by Rahul Gandhi that whether he believes the sooner the lockdown is lifted, the better, Dr Abhijit Banerjee said that it is true but one also needs to be aware of the diseases path before deciding to lift up the lockdown. He added that we should be optimistic about the overall economic revival in India post lockdown.

Also Read: African swine fever kills 2,800 pigs in Assam, CM Sarbananda Sonowal asks officials to rescue livestock

For all the latest National News, download NewsX App




THE Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association (Zinatha) has sensationally claimed that it has herbs that can treat coronavirus (Covid-19) , calling on the government to include its members in rapid response teams.





This comes amid reports that a concoction known as Covid Organics (CVO), a form of herbal tea, is curing Covid-19 patients in Madagascar.





Zinatha secretary for education Prince Sibanda told the Daily News that Madagascars herbal tea is evidence that there is need to develop indigenous knowledge of medicine rather than rely on Western ideas all the time.





In Zimbabwe we do have herbs such as Murumanyama or Muremberembe (Shona) and isihaqa (Ndebele) that can be effective in treating coronavirus.





We are rich with over 5 000 herbs in Zimbabwe. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has proved that 80 percent of Africa relies on herbal medicine. Why not promote the 80 percent rather than wait for the West to have a say? Sibanda asked.





He said traditional medicine needs support to develop as it is being sidelined in the country.





Lets integrate the two systems of health delivery so that we are safe rather than concentrate on one side. Zinatha should be incorporated into rapid response and research teams to have an impact in containing this coronavirus pandemic.





We have to work together in a strong, effective, united and coordinated response. To this end, our efforts to accelerate the response to the Covid-19 pandemic and prevent its re-emergence needs the use of indigenous medicines that have been in existence for a long time, he added.





Meanwhile, WHO has dismissed Madagascar president Andry Rajoelinas claims that the herbal tea produced in his country can cure patients of Covid-19.





In a recent statement, the international health body warned against any self-medication and said it has not yet recommended any medicine as a cure for Covid-19.




CHICAGO, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today organizations around the world are coming together for #GivingTuesdayNow, a new global day that celebrates generosity and unity in response to COVID-19. As a Pledge 1% member, ActiveCampaign has committed to leveraging our assets to support customers, employees and communities in these challenging times. Now--more than ever--our 1% matters, and we are excited to announce that we are joining 10,000+ Pledge 1% members around the world in rallying our teams and partners to give back.

ActiveCampaign has taken a number of steps to support our customers, communities and each other during this time. Inspired by the Giving Tuesday Now movement and the generosity demonstrated by employees, ActiveCampaign is matching employee donations during the month of May. To further support employees, we've implemented new wellness programs, offered reimbursement for work from home equipment and created resource groups for employees, managers and parents to come together.

ActiveCampaign serves over 95,000 customers, including many small and medium-sized businesses, and we recognize the challenges they are facing through this period. Every ActiveCampaign employee is committed to helping customers navigate this unpredictable time, and we recently launched Digital Study Halls so customers can continue to learn from our Education team and each other. We will continue to offer the industry's only Customer Success Commitment, which ensures the best value, success and security for our customers.

"At ActiveCampaign, one of our core values is to 'grow with gratitude' and we feel fortunate enough to be in a position where we're able to give back," said Jason Vandeboom, CEO and Founder of ActiveCampaign. "In these uncertain times, a business's response will have a long-lasting impact on the employees and communities they serve."

"We are constantly inspired by the creativity and generosity of our members," says Pledge 1% Chief Executive Amy Lesnick. "As a global community, our member companies are coming together to share ideas, tackle common challenges, amplify each other's efforts, and to encourage their teams and partner ecosystems to do whatever they can to help in this immense time of need. This level of collaboration has the potential to drive significant social impact, unlocking millions in funding, product donations, and talent to support frontline workers and to address increasingly critical issues around food insecurity, mental health, small business viability, and education."

This pandemic is affecting every person on Earth. Only together, will we heal and recover. We're driven by the countless ways in which we're seeing people come together to support one another . We encourage you to join us and other members of the business community in giving whatever you can to help. Together, we are a force for good.

To learn more about Pledge 1% or to access their tools and resources for companies to navigate this pandemic visit www.pledge1percent.org/covid19.

About ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign's category-defining Customer Experience Automation Platform helps over 95,000 businesses in 168 countries meaningfully engage with their customers. The platform gives businesses of all sizes access to hundreds of pre-built automations that combine email marketing, marketing automation, CRM, and machine learning for powerful segmentation and personalization across social, email, messaging, chat, and text. Over 70% of ActiveCampaign's customers use its 300+ integrations including Shopify, Square, Facebook, Eventbrite, Wordpress and Salesforce. ActiveCampaign scores higher in customer satisfaction than any other solution in Marketing Automation on G2.com and is the 2020 Top Rated Email Marketing Software on TrustRadius. Pricing starts at just $9/month. Start a free trial at ActiveCampaign.com .

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Pledge 1% is a global movement that inspires, educates, and empowers every entrepreneur, company, and employee to be a force for good. Over 10,000 members in 100 countries have used Pledge 1%'s flexible framework to ignite half a billion dollars in new philanthropy. To learn more about Pledge 1% and to take the pledge visit www.pledge1percent.org .

Media Contact:

Amy Dardinger

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Laredo health officials are hoping to soon treat COVID-19 patients with an emergency-approved antiviral drug called remdesivir. They requested 25 vials of the drug through the state Tuesday morning, Health Director Dr. Hector Gonzalez told local media, and Laredo Medical Center reached out to the manufacturer last week.

Remdesivir was originally tested to treat Ebola during the outbreak in West Africa several years ago, but was found to be less effective than other treatments.
One person died and 10 others were injured when a bus carrying around 40 migrant workers collided with a fruit-laden truck in Odishas Khurda district on Tuesday morning, police said.

Police officials said the bus carrying the migrants working in hotels in Hyderabad was on its way to Banki area of Khurda district when the bus driver lost control over the vehicle and rammed into the truck at Kuhudi on National Highway-16.

AP Swain, Khurdas superintendent of police, said assistant driver K Srikant died and 10 migrant workers received minor injuries in the accident.

Police have recovered the body of the assistant driver and sent it for a post-mortem examination. The injured migrants will soon be sent to their destination in another bus after being treated at a local hospital.

The migrant workers from Kendrapara, Puri and Cuttack districts had hired the bus and had left Hyderabad late on May 3.

It is the fourth such road accident in as many days involving Odia migrant workers, who are eager to return home with no work in their hands following the national lockdown from March 25.

A bus carrying migrants from Gujarats Surat had hit a roadside concrete wall on May 2 on a hilly road at Kalinga Ghat on Kandhamal-Ganjam border that left two dead and several others injured.

After that, Odisha transport minister Padmanabha Behera had stopped plying of the migrant buses on the hilly route citing lack of drivers experience.

On May 3, at least three migrant workers were injured when the bus ferrying them from Surat met with an accident on the same hilly road of Kalinga Ghat.

The same day, three migrant workers and two bus staff were injured when a bus carrying 50 people from Surat to Odisha swerved off the Nagpur-Amaravati National Highway at Karanja and landed in a roadside ditch.

So far, more than 6,500 migrant workers have come back to Odisha in over 700 buses in about a week.

Once they reach the state, all the migrant workers have to stay in quarantine centres for 14 days. After the completion of their quarantine, they will be paid Rs 2,000 each.
PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Each year, Nurses Week is celebrated in the United States from May 6th to May 12th. Though always a reason to pause and thank the men and women who dedicate their lives to nursing, this year takes on a special significance as the country, and the world, continues to work its way through the COVID-19 pandemic.

John Quirk, CEO, GHR Healthcare GHR "Our Heroes Wear Masks" program to raise funds for Direct Relief

"I, and all of us at GHR, are humbled by the selflessness and commitment of nurses during this crisis," said Laura Magner, President of General Healthcare Resources. "We turn to nurses in times of need and count on them for their experience, knowledge and compassion. Imagine going through something like COVID-19 without this incredible group of people there to help. By any definition, these people are truly American Heroes."

With the celebration of Nurses Week, GHR is also introducing their "Our Heroes Wear Masks" program, a year-long philanthropic effort to raise funds for Direct Relief, a non-profit organization focusing on securing and distributing masks, gloves and other PPE to healthcare facilities and clinicians in need across the globe. To kick-start the program, GHR is making their first donation to the organization on May 12th, in celebration of Florence Nightingale's birthday.

"We put thousands of nurses and other healthcare professionals to work in hospitals and health systems every day," said Cheryl Wilhelm, President of GHR Travel Nursing. "Nurses Week is the perfect time for us to kick-off the "Our Heroes Wear Masks" program. We hope that as we continue to raise funds for Direct Relief and their PPE distribution, that we also raise awareness of how critical our clinical workforce is to making the world a healthier place."

The program will be supported across the entire family of GHR staffing brands. According to John Quirk, CEO of GHR, "All of our seven operating brands are involved in putting qualified candidates to work in healthcare and community-service based organizations. They are all heroes. This program is an opportunity to honor those we put to work, while doing our part to make a difference."

About GHR Healthcare

GHR Healthcare is the parent company to a family of operating brands focused on healthcare and community-based staffing: General Healthcare Resources, GHR Travel Nursing, GHR Education, GHR Human Services, GHR Technology, GHR RevCycle Workforce and GHR Search. Through these brands they provide a variety of workforce strategies and staffing solutions, including contingent, per diem, long-term contract, travel, remote, MSP, RPO and direct hire services to clients nationwide.

For more information, visit www.GHRHealthcare.com.

Mike Dunagan, Chief Marketing Officer

404-834-8180

[email protected]

SOURCE GHR Healthcare

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Montana Free Press

Bonnie Martinell, a farmer near Bridger, knows how valuable water is. She uses water from a ditch on her 350 fruit and nut trees, and she knows a warming climate could help dry it up. Already, some of her neighbors wells are running dry. Towns to the south, where aquifers have been contaminated by oil rigs, have to drill down thousands of feet to find clean water.

Thats why Martinell, along with Montana farmer David Katz, WildEarth Guardians and the Montana Environmental Information Center, filed a lawsuit alleging the Bureau of Land Management failed to properly consider the groundwater impacts and climate change consequences of oil and gas lease sales across Montana, including some as close as a mile from Martinells rural Carbon County farm.

We dont live without water, she said. None of us do.

On Friday, a federal judge vacated 287 oil and gas leases in Montana, ruling that the Bureau of Land Managements 2017 and 2018 sales did not properly assess the leases threat to groundwater and impacts on climate change. The leases, on public land totaling 150,000 acres, were statewide, from the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument area to the Beartooth Mountains to eastern Montana.

Well, it does help me breathe a lot, Martinell said of the decision. Im not going to have to wonder when they will decide to decimate this area.

The BLM said it disagrees with the decision.

With all due respect, we disagree with the Courts conclusion, and the B.L.M. stands by its analysis in following the letter of the law to issue oil and gas leases in Montana, BLM spokesman Derrick Henry wrote in an email to the New York Times . Regardless of the ultimate outcome of this dispute and despite the attempts of radical, special interest groups, the Department and the B.L.M. will continue to work toward ensuring Americas energy independence while preserving a healthy environment.

U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris, of Great Falls, found the BLM leases violated the National Environmental Policy Act. Under NEPA, federal agencies must evaluate the environmental consequences of their proposed actions.

The problems with BLMs [environmental assessments] largely relate to the absence of analysis rather than to a flawed analysis, Morris wrote. In other words, the Court does not fault BLM for providing a faulty analysis of cumulative impacts or impacts to groundwater, it largely faults BLM for failing to provide any analysis.

Energy development on public lands. Photo: Bureau of Land Management Wyoming

The legal nonprofit Earthjustice argued on behalf of the plaintiffs that BLM failed to comprehensively consider the groundwater quality impacts of the leases. Morris agreed, saying the agency analyzed quantity, but not quality.

A weatherman proves unhelpful if he says its going to be windy tomorrow when asked if it will rain. BLM proves just as unresponsive here, Morris wrote.

Earthjustice also argued that BLM should have looked at how the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the oil and gas obtained via the leases would impact climate change globally. Morris agreed.

Thus, if BLM ever hopes to determine the true impact of its projects on climate change, it can do so only by looking at projects in combination with each other, not simply in the context of state and nation-wide emissions, Morris wrote.

The Trump administration has proposed a new interpretation of NEPA that would free federal agencies from the directive to consider the cumulative impacts of their decisions, such as climate change. This is at least the third BLM lease sale under the Trump administration that a federal judge has determined failed to consider effects on global climate change.

Its heartening to see that, once again, the courts have struck down the Trump Administrations shortsighted rush to frack our public lands to fuel the climate crisis, said Rebecca Fischer, climate and energy program attorney with WildEarth Guardians, in a statement.

About 25% of U.S. emissions result from drilling on federal lands, according to a recent analysis by the U.S. Department of the Interior

Martinell knows what its like to live near oil and gas development. In 2011, an ExxonMobil pipeline burst and spilled oil into the Yellowstone River. Tanker trucks drove past her farm, kicking up dust on her chemical-free orchard, which she said led to the orchard going unpollinated by bees. She also worries about drilling bringing up salt water in the case of a flash flood.

Its been chemical-free for 20-plus years, she said of her farm, which supplies fruit, vegetables and nuts to wholesalers across Wyoming, Montana and Idaho and provides fresh produce to schools in Red Lodge, Belfry and Cody. Its pretty decimating to have [oil development] come to what youve worked so hard to keep clean.

Climate change, too, is going to alter Martinells farm. The Montana Climate Assessment has found that agriculture across the state will be significantly impacted by changing temperatures. Meanwhile, trade policies and commodity prices are in flux. Questions abound about the future of pollinators and pests. The water may not flow. To Martinell, it doesnt make sense to add oil development to the list of uncertainties.

Theres not a lot of oil around here. Theyre going down not to get a huge amount, and contaminating everything along the way, she said. Its not a rational thing.

Johnathan Hettinger is a journalist based in Livingston. Originally from Central Illinois and a graduate of the University of Illinois, he has worked at the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, the Livingston Enterprise and the (Champaign-Urbana) News-Gazette. Contact Johnathan at jhett93@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @jhett93

Note: This story originally appeared on Montana Free Press . It is published under a Creative Commons license

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The deficit of the national budget in January-April 2020 was UAH 23.5 billion, including the deficit of the general fund being UAH 33 billion, the Finance Ministry has reported, referring to preliminary data.

The ministry said on its website on Tuesday that actual borrowing to the general fund of the national budget over the period came to UAH 108 billion or 84.1% of the plan.

"The national budget raised UAH 73.8 billion from the placement of government domestic loan bonds (97% of the target), including UAH 41.3 billion from the placement of foreign currency-pegged bonds ($1.2 billion and EUR 0.3 billion). Some UAH 34.2 billion was raised from external sources (66% of the target), in particular, UAH 33.9 via the placement of 10-year EUR 1.25 billion eurobonds at 4.375% per annum," the ministry said.

Payments to settle the state debt over the period amounted to some UAH 71.3 billion (81.8% of the target) and payments to service the debt reached UAH 41.1 billion (94.2% of the plan), the ministry said.

"According to the results of January-April 2020, social expenditures, defense spending, debt servicing and subsidies to local budgets were fully financed in accordance with the list of appropriations. Thus, according to the State Treasury Service, the outlays of the general fund of the national budget in the first four months of 2020 amounted to UAH 308.9 billion, or 87.5% of the target for the reporting period," the Finance Ministry said in the statement.

As the Finance Ministry recalled, in April 2020, receipts of the general fund of the national budget ere UAH 90.9 billion, of which almost UAH 43 billion came from the National Bank.

National budget receipts were determined in 2020 in the amount of UAH 975.833 billion (including UAH 855.4 billion for the general fund), outlays at UAH 1.266 trillion (UAH 1.135 trillion for the general fund).
Covalent offers a broad range of metrology and characterization services, both from its Silicon Valley laboratory and a proprietary network of partner labs. Covalent recently acquired a fully equipped RC2 spectroscopic ellipsometer designed and manufactured by J.A. Woollam. The system has been engineered to have the versatility required for many diverse applications. It features:

a wide spectral range from 193 nm to 1690 nm, with over 1,000 individual wavelengths

a fully automated 300 mm mapping sample stage for uniformity studies,

a variable angle transmission stage,

beam focusing down to 300 m, and

full Mueller matrix measurement capability for maximum sensitivity to challenging anisotropic samples.

J.A. Woollam has been the leading manufacturer of spectroscopic ellipsometers for more than 30 years. The company is based in Lincoln, NE, and will be using Covalent's Silicon Valley facility for training and demonstrations on the West Coast. The two parties will leverage their respective strengths collaboratively to provide convenient access to world-class instrumentation and expert optical modeling in the heart of a leading US technological hub.

James Hilfiker, Director at J.A. Woollam says, "The field of spectroscopic ellipsometry has continued to grow for decades and we are extremely excited to partner with Covalent Metrology to offer service measurements on some of the best equipment in the world by some of the top researchers in their area. Covalent has demonstrated their expertise lies beyond simply providing data to customers, as their team of in-house experts help users understand what each type of measurement can truly provide for their applications."

Craig Hunter, CEO of Covalent stated, "The Woollam brand and technology are essentially synonymous with spectroscopic ellipsometry. The company has been at the forefront of this field for decades. We are extremely excited to partner with J.A. Woollam and honored that they view the collaboration with Covalent as a strategic move for them to expand their footprint."

About J.A. Woollam

Founded by Professor John A. Woollam based on spin-off from the University of Nebraska, the company has rapidly grown to become a worldwide leader in spectroscopic ellipsometry. We have been perfecting our technology for over 30 years and have secured over 200 patents, all pertaining to spectroscopic ellipsometry. More information on the J.A. Woollam Company products can be found at jawoollam.com .

About Covalent Metrology Services, Inc.

Covalent Metrology is a disruptive analytical services lab and platform based in Sunnyvale, California. Its mission is to help companies who use advanced materials to get better data and insight about key research, development, and production programs faster, more easily, and less expensively. Covalent is dramatically changing the characterization and imaging landscape by combining innovative pricing, data platforms, and top-notch customer service with world-class scientists, state-of-art tools, and strategic partnerships. Covalent has nearly 300 customers in 20+ industries.

For further information, contact:

Doris Chun

Covalent Metrology

Tel: 408.498.4611

[email protected]

https://www.covalentmetrology.com

SOURCE Covalent Metrology Services, Inc.

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Late on Monday, actor Kareena Kapoor Khan visited her cousin Ranbir Kapoor and aunt, Neetu Kapoor at their residence in Mumbai. Pictures of her arriving at their home are on the internet now.

Wearing a mask over her face and simply dressed in a white and black stripped shirt, Kareena looked sombre. Actor Rishi Kapoor died on April 30, after a two-year fight against Leukaemia. Kareena was one of the few relatives who could attend his funeral amid the restrictions due to coronvirus lockdown. On Sunday, Rishi Kapoors ashes were immersed in Mumbais Banganga tank. Earlier in the day, a prayer meet was held at the Kapoors residence.

A lot of pictures and videos have been doing the rounds on the internet in which Ranbir, his mother Neetu and Rishis daughter Riddhima Kapoor Sahni were seen performing the final rites at Banganga tank. Actor Alia Bhatt and filmmaker Ayan Mukerji were also present with the Kapoor family.

Also Watch l Ranbir, Neetu immerse Rishi Kapoors ashes in Banganga, Alia Bhatt in attendance

Rishi had returned to India last September after undergoing treatment in the United States for almost a year. He was hospitalized twice in February.

Also read: Shahid Kapoors stepfather and Ishaan Khatters father Rajesh Khattar introduces baby son. See pics

In his long career, he had received the National Film Award for his debut role as a child artist in his fathers 1970 film Mera Naam Joker. He acted in more than 90 films. Neetu Kapoor (Singh then) and he co-starred in several of his films.

Many celebrities and politicians had mourned his death including PM Narendra Modi. Multifaceted, endearing and lively...this was Rishi Kapoor Ji. He was a powerhouse of talent. I will always recall our interactions, even on social media. He was passionate about films and Indias progress. Anguished by his demise. Condolences to his family and fans. Om Shanti, he had tweeted.

(With agencies inputs)

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The Princeton University Department of Chemistry publishes research this week proving that an applied magnetic field will interact with the electronic structure of weakly-magnetic, or diamagnetic, molecules to induce a magnetic-field effect that, to their knowledge, has never before been documented.

With the experimental application of magnetic fields up to 25 Tesla, molecules with little intrinsic magnetism exhibit magneto-sensitive optical and photophysical properties, according to the paper, "Ring currents modulate optoelectronic properties of aromatic chromophores at 25 Tesla," published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Gregory Scholes, the William S. Todd Professor of Chemistry, and Bryan Kudisch, a fifth-year graduate student and the paper's lead author, said the discovery could allow scientists to fundamentally change the electronic and photophysical properties of some classes of molecules by using the magnetic field as a "handle."

Experimenting with a magnetic field almost 1M times stronger than that of the Earth, researchers in the Scholes Group were able to modify the optoelectronic properties of model nonmagnetic organic chromophores. The modifications, according to the paper, arise from the induction of ring currents in the aromatic molecules.

"No one would expect an organic molecule with no metal and no intrinsic magnetism to have such an obvious magnetic field effect," said Kudisch. "We're using some of the biggest magnetic fields generated on earth, that's fair. But at the same time, we're seeing something that's never been seen before. And then to come up with a suitable explanation invoking a magnetic field effect commonly seen in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), namely aromatic ring currents, is very fulfilling."

Aromatic ring currents can be understood as the proposal that electrons delocalized by aromaticity will move circularly when a magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the aromatic plane, typically nudging chemical shifts of nearby atoms in NMR spectroscopy.

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"This research shows that this is a phenomenon with very real chemical implications," Kudisch added. "Here, we've taken something that is commonplace in one type of spectroscopy and have shown how it morphs in a completely unexpected way while using our spectroscopic methods."

For the experiment, researchers chose a model aromatic chromophore called a phthalocyanine, which has a molecular structure similar to chlorophyll -- nature's light absorber -- but with stronger absorption of visible light and higher stability. The calculations on this model phthalocyanine compound and its aggregates showed clear, magnetic field-dependent changes to phthalocyanine's ability to absorb light. These results mark the first to demonstrate magnetic field dependent changes to the absorption spectrum of diamagnetic molecules. But it wasn't until researchers applied the classical analogue of the solenoid that the experiment sharpened into clarity.

A solenoid is an electromagnetic device that effectively converts electrical and magnetic energy using conductive loops of wire arranged like a spring. With their thinking grounded in the behavior of solenoids, Kudisch said, they were able to rationalize that the increased magnetic field sensitivity they were observing in the phthalocyanine aggregates could depend on the relative arrangement of the phthalocyanine rings in the aggregate.

"Not only did this add extra validation to our computational support, but it also lent credence to this idea of coupled aromatic ring currents -- the ring currents of neighboring phthalocyanine chromophores in the aggregate have a geometry dependent on amplification of magnetic field sensitivity," said Kudisch. "Just like the solenoid."

Initiated three years ago, the research project combined experiments using a high magnetic field and ultrafast spectroscopy capabilities. Part of it was performed with the Split-Florida Helix Magnet at the National High Magnetic Field Facility in Tallahassee, Florida, which boasts the world's strongest magnet for NMR spectroscopy. This one-of-a-kind magnet can reach and sustain magnetic field strengths of up to 25 T in a completely resistive fashion -- in and of itself likely the most powerful solenoid on the planet. When operational, the magnet uses 2% of the power in the city.

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Scholes noted that the PNAS paper marks his group's second publication from work using the Florida split-helix magnet, a collaboration that started over eight years ago when the magnet was being designed. His group's role was to propose and design the ultrafast laser system that connects to the magnet.

"It's relatively easy to get such high magnetic fields on an NMR magnet, but our experiments require you to get light and shine it onto the sample and then to get that light out somehow. And for that, we needed the lab in Tallahassee. It's a bunch of near-impossibilities coming together," said Kudisch.

Kudisch said that obtaining phthalocyanine aggregates in the form of organic nanoparticles for their experiments was "the simplest part," owing to previous collaborations with Princeton's Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. Other collaborators on the paper include Milan Polytechnic, and the National University of Cordoba.

Overall, he said, the "eclectic" atmosphere of the investigations in the Scholes Lab contributed to the success of the project.

"The context is, this lab is thinking about some of the most pressing problems in physical chemistry that no one's thought about and figuring out if the ideas we come up with are testable," said Kudisch. "When you really dive down into it, what we're interested in is how deep into the rabbit hole of ultrafast spectroscopy we can go, and what it can allow us to learn in a variety of different fields."
After a devastating start to the Democratic primary, Joe Biden's campaign was revived when black voters in South Carolina and throughout the South overwhelmingly sided with him.

Now that he's the presumptive Democratic nominee, black voters and leaders are pressing for him to pick a black woman as his running mate.

Biden launched a committee last week to begin vetting possible candidates for the vice presidency, a process he has said will likely last through July. He has already committed to picking a woman.

But black voters and leaders say he needs to go further and pick a black woman.

They argue that Biden's success and that of the Democratic Party as a whole depends on black people turning out to vote in November. They want a tangible return for their loyalty, not just a thank you for showing up on Election Day.

Black people want an acknowledgement of the many years of support they have given the Democratic Party, said Niambi Carter, a Howard University political science professor.

House Minority Whip Jim Clyburn, whose endorsement in South Carolina was widely credited with helping widen Biden's winning margin and start his avalanche of March primary victories, said clearly he would prefer a black woman. But he insisted he's not pushing Biden in that direction.

I'm the father of three grown African American women. So naturally I prefer an African American woman, but it doesn't have to be, Clyburn said. I've made that very clear.

Biden has been unusually vocal about the people he would consider as running mates. He's referenced two black women, Sen. Kamala Harris of California and Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic nominee for governor in Georgia. Other black women, including Rep. Val Demings of Florida and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, have also been mentioned.

But Biden is also thought to be considering several white women, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

President Donald Trump said his November opponent owes the spot to Warren, theorizing that Sen. Bernie Sanders would have won every single state on Super Tuesday if Warren had dropped out of the primary race earlier.

In an interview Monday with the New York Post, Trump dismissed Abrams while claiming responsibility for her defeat in the 2018 Georgia governor's race.

Zerlina Maxwell, a political analyst and former director of progressive media for Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, said this is an opportunity for Biden to recognize the political force of black women.

The Democratic nominee needs to make it completely clear that they understand the moment and that they understand that black women are the foundation of a successful Democratic Party at every level, Maxwell said.

Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of Black PAC, said black voters are looking for authenticity. When folks have talked to us about what they want in a candidate, it is someone who can relate to them," Shropshire said, noting the coronavirus's disparate impact on black Americans.

But she said that doesn't mean that a vice presidential nominee has to be a black woman.

Having a black running mate checks that box for a lot of people, but I would also say in the same way that black voters weren't simply during the primary contest saying, 'Who's the black candidate?' I don't think black voters are doing that for the vice presidential choice either, she said, later adding the bottom line: Ultimately, people want to win.

Tharon Johnson, a prominent black strategist who worked for Barack Obama's two presidential campaigns, said Biden's focus should be on energy, not necessarily on race.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
WASHINGTON  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pressed ahead Tuesday with the next coronavirus aid, a sweeping package that is expected to be unveiled soon even as the House stays closed while the Senate reopens in the pandemic.

Key to any plan to reopen the economy, Democrats say, is robust testing. They are also expected to propose another round of direct cash aid for anxious Americans, funds for states to prevent layoffs and more money to shore up businesses in the stay-home economy.

We still don't have a national testing strategy that is adequate," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday. He called it embarrassing. "It's life and death."

The contours of the next package are taking shape despite Republican resistance to more outlays and a deepening debate over how best to confront the deadly pandemic and its economic devastation.

President Donald Trump is encouraging states to reopen and Republicans hope the gradual comeback will kick-start the economy, reducing the pressure for more pricey aid.

"Now its time to go back to work, Trump said Tuesday at the White House.

Under strict social distancing guidelines, the Senate reconvened Monday for the first time since March, while the House is staying away due to the health risks as the conflicted Congress reflects an uneasy nation. The Washington area remains a virus hot spot under stay-home rules.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opened the chamber defending his decision to focus the agenda on confirming Trump's nominees rather than the virus outbreak.

Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter

On Tuesday, McConnell insisted that any new aid package must include liability protections for the hospitals, health care providers and businesses that are operating and reopening in the pandemic.

But the Republican leader also signaled an interest in beefed up virus testing strategies as central to the nation's ability to take steps back toward normalcy.

Testing, tracking, treatments, McConnell said from the Senate floor. Our task ahead will be to keep seeking thoughtful solutions.

By reconvening this week, Senate Republicans are trying to set the terms of debate, frustrated that Pelosi was able to fill up earlier aid bills with Democratic priorities. Theyre reluctant to unleash federal funds beyond the nearly $3 trillion Congress already approved in virus relief and hope Trump's push to re-open will reduce the need for more aid.

For more than five weeks, the COVID-19 crisis has all but closed Congress, a longer absence than during the 1918 Spanish flu.

Senators returned to a changed place with new guidelines, including the recommendation that senators wear masks  blue face coverings were available for free, and being worn by staff. They were also told to keep their distance and leave most staff at home. Public access is limited, including at public hearings. The Capitol itself remains closed to visitors and tours.

Its not just lawmakers at risk. Reopening part of Capitol Hill poses health risks for the cooks, cleaners, police officers and other workers who keep the Capitol complex functioning.

Democrats are eyeing the new aid package as states and cities seek as much as $1 trillion to prevent local layoffs and keep paying nurses, police, firefighters and other front-line workers as local revenues tank during the stay-home shutdown.

Pelosi outlined the governors' requests for $500 billion, with the counties and cities seeking as much as $300 billion, which she has said could be spread out over the next several years. On a private conference call with House Democrats on Monday, she also discussed a paycheck guarantee" for the newly jobless.

Pelosi told reporters Tuesday on Capitol Hill the new package will be just very directly related to saving lives, the livelihood and the life of our democracy.

Several House committee chairmen outlined the provisions expected in the upcoming bill, according to a statement from the Democratic caucus after the private call.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal discussed another round of additional direct cash payments for families and extending unemployment insurance. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Ca., chair of the Financial Services Committee, focused on helping homeowners, renters and small landlords make rent and mortgage payments, the statement said. Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone spoke about investing in virus testing and contact tracing.

Trump said any new package must have a payroll-tax holiday.

In the Senate, McConnell has loaded up the schedule with consideration of Trumps nominees, including a hearing underway Tuesday on John Ratcliffe, the Texas Republican congressman who is Trumps choice to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

--The Associated Press

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National Storage has joined the capital-raising conga line to shore up its balance sheet and, once completed, will add to the more than $2 billion in cash that has been injected into the listed trusts in the past fortnight.

Lendlease, Charter Hall's retail and social infrastructure trusts, Centuria Industrial REIT and convenience mall landlord SCA Property Group are among the Australian real estate investment trusts (A-REITs) that have all tapped investors in equity raisings.

National Storage Australia managing director Andrew Catsoulis. Credit:Michelle Smith

Under the latest deal, self storage landlord National Storage (NSR) will raise $330 million in equity through an institutional placement and share purchase plan at $1.57, being a 7 per cent discount to its last trading price.

National Storage is the largest self-storage provider in Australia and New Zealand, with 183 centres providing tailored storage solutions to over 70,000 residential and commercial customers.
A total of 15,000 burial records have been digitised and put online for the first time, which will prove a huge boost to people looking to trace ancestors buried in West Cork.

The work, which has been going on since last winter, was undertaken by staff at Skibbereen Heritage Centre, and it contains burial records in cemeteries stretching from Ardfield near Clonakilty to Allihies on the Beara Peninsula in the west.

Terri Kearney, manager of the heritage centre, said they obtained the burial records, which go from the late 19th century up to 10 years ago, from the county council.

We took photographs of them and then transcribed them onto a database. This is the first time this has ever been done and weve had a huge response because these were not in the public domain before, Ms Kearney said.

The database, which is free of charge to access, will prove invaluable not just to people living in Ireland but to those of Irish heritage who are living abroad and want to trace their ancestry.

The database now holds transcriptions from registers for the following burial grounds: Abbeymahon, Abbeystrowry, Allihies, Ardagh, Ballymoney, Ballynacalla, Bawnaknockane, Brade, Cahermore (Allihies), Castlehaven Old, Castlehaven New Cemetery, Castletown Kinneigh, Coronea (St Patricks Skibbereen), Drimoleague, Dunbeacon, Dunmanway, Durrus, Fanlobbus, Kilheangul (near Schull), Kilbarry, Kilcaskan, Kilcoe, Kilmacabea, Kilmichael, Kilmoe, Lisavaird, Lisheen, Rathbarry, Ross Abbey, Schull, Sherkin Island, Stouke, Tullagh and Whiddy Island.

The Cape Clear funeral register has also been transcribed, as have more than 2,000 records from the Skibbereen Funeral Register.

The heritage centre's staff are currently working on completing another 5,000 records for loading online.

All the records can be accessed via www.skibbereenheritage.ie and Ms Kearney has done an introductory video to accompany them explaining the best way people can search for their ancestors.

In addition, the heritage centre staff have also embarked on creating a virtual tour of graveyards in the region.

People are really interested in the history of graveyards. So we are embarking on creating virtual tours of them where we look at notable people buried in them and interesting headstones, Ms Kearney said.

The first of these virtual tours to Caheragh old graveyard just north of Skibbereen has just gone online.

We will extend these virtual tours to as many medieval graveyards as we can into the future. Theres a lot of very rich and interesting history in these sites, Ms Kearney said.

The video of Caheragh old graveyards history can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB8nNdjiT68
Students who received the payment in error have been advised to return the money (stock photo)

Former J1 students who may have mistakenly received an emergency US Covid-19 payment of more than $1,000 have been warned that accepting the money may impact future travel to America.

Irish tax experts say thousands of J1 students who travelled to the US in 2018/2019 may have received this payment in error and are advising them to contact the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to rectify this.

US president Donald Trump introduced a support payment of $1,200 to help workers in the US earning less than $75,000 each year.

However, this payment is only supposed to apply to people resident in the US.

Sometimes Irish J1 visa students who spent a summer in America mistakenly file their end of year return as a resident instead of a non-resident.

Laura McHugh of Taxback.com said accepting the money could impact future US visa applications.

"In the last week people are finding funds in their US bank accounts and are questioning why they are there," she said.

"While this has come to the attention of some former students and J1-ers, we are advising the thousands of others that could be affected to check their US bank account, which may now be dormant, to see if they have received this payment.

"Anyone who finds themselves in this situation should act to rectify it in two ways  firstly, by sending an email to the IRS to flag receipt of the payment and by refunding the money to the IRS. Secondly, these people should also amend their previous tax return to a 'non-resident' return in order to avoid any future repercussions."

Ms McHugh advised students not to panic as it is straightforward to amend.

"If you have received the funds in error, and/or if this brings to light that you submitted an incorrect resident tax return, dont panic but do set the record straight.

"Return the payment and make an amended tax return. The IRS receives thousands of amended returns each year and the process of filing and amended return is relatively straightforward."

President Trump introduced the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) payment to assist US citizens, permanent residents and residents for tax puprposes.

It applies to people who have filed their 2018 tax return in 2019 and their 2019 return in 2020.

Non-resident people are not eligible to receive the package.
Residents of the predominantly Shiite Sadr City area of Baghdad received food handouts on Tuesday to help them get through the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

The donations were made by affluent Iraqis trying to help vulnerable families during the fasting month.

Many residents of the impoverished Sadr City are either unemployed or depend on a daily income.

This year, Ramadan comes as the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic which has affected the livelihoods of many around the world.

Iraqi authorities scaled back the 24-hour curfew imposed to contain the new coronavirus in a move to balance the restrictions for the month of Ramadan.

Iraq has reported at least 2,346 confirmed virus cases, including 98 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
Doctors say they are being overwhelmed by calls from people whose only sign of the novel coronavirus is bruising and lesions on the feet.

The mysterious symptom is called 'COVID toes' and they've primarily been spotted in children and teenagers.

Even more surprising, it's been in the absence of other traditional symptoms such as fever, coughing and shortness of breath.

Despite the rising number of cases across the US and the world, rashes are not included on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's official list of symptoms.

A new symptom of the coronavirus - bruising, rashes and lesions on the feet - has been dubbed 'COVID toes' (pictured)

COVID toes (left and right) generally appear in children and teenagers who don't have any other symptoms such as fever or coughing. Doctors say they're being inundated with calls about toe rashes, but don't know what causes the symptom

Dr Lindy Fox, a dermatologist with the University of California San Francisco, told Fox 5 NY that she's seen 'many, many people' with COVID toes.

'Almost too many to count,' she told the local news station.

'Dermatologists are being inundated with calls from people saying: "What are these purple changes on my toes and fingers?"'

Pink and purple toes were first spotted among infected people in Europe, primarily Spain, Italy and France.

Some health experts say it may be a sign of how widespread and fast-spreading the disease is.

'It's becoming a sign that COVID-19 may be more prevalent in our society than we actually realized,' Dr Fox, a member of the COVID-19 task force for the American Academy of Dermatology, told Fox 5 NY.

So why are people developing rash and discoloration on their feet?

Doctors say that it's actually common for people to develop rashes when theyre battling infections, especially viral respiratory infections like COVID-19.

It's unclear what causes the skin reaction but it could be several reasons including tiny clots in the toes' blood vessels or a response to antibiotics.

'It's not uncommon for someone to have a viral infection and have a rash or blotchy areas on their body,' pulmonologist Dr Humberto Choi, of the Cleveland Clinic, said in a blog post.

Because there are so many different types of rashes patients can get, there is no pattern that has been linked to COVID-19.

Doctors say that COVID toes generally clear up on their own in about a week with no long-term damage to the skin.

However, if you experience a foot rash spontaneously with no other symptoms, immediately contact your primary care physician.

In the US, there are more than 1.2 million confirmed cases of the virus and more than 69,000 deaths.
Credit: Northwestern University

The more we learn about the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the more unknowns seem to arise. These ever-emerging mysteries highlight the desperate need for more data to help researchers and physicians better understandand treatthe extremely contagious and deadly disease.

Researchers at Northwestern University and Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago have developed a novel wearable device and are creating a set of data algorithms specifically tailored to catch early signs and symptoms associated with COVID-19 and to monitor patients as the illness progresses.

Capable of being worn 24/7, the device produces continuous streams of data and uses artificial intelligence to uncover subtle, but potentially life-saving, insights. Filling a vital data gap, it continuously measures and interprets coughing and respiratory activity in ways that are impossible with traditional monitoring systems.

Developed in an engineering laboratory at Northwestern and using custom algorithms being created by Shirley Ryan AbilityLab scientists, the devices are currently being used at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab by COVID-19 patients and the healthcare workers who treat them. About 25 affected individuals began using the devices two weeks ago. They are being monitored both in the clinic and at home, totaling more than 1,500 cumulative hours and generating more than one terabyte of data.

About the size of a postage stamp, the soft, flexible, wireless, thin device sits just below the suprasternal notchthe visible dip at the base of the throat. From this location, the device monitors coughing intensity and patterns, chest wall movements (which indicate labored or irregular breathing), respiratory sounds, heart rate and body temperature, including fever. From there, it wirelessly transmits data to a HIPAA-protected cloud, where automated algorithms produce graphical summaries tailored to facilitate rapid, remote monitoring.

"The most recent studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggest that the earliest signs of a COVID-19 infection are fever, coughing and difficulty in breathing. Our device sits at the perfect location on the bodythe suprasternal notchto measure respiratory rate, sounds and activity because that's where airflow occurs near the surface of the skin," said Northwestern's John A. Rogers, who led the technology development. "We developed customized devices, data algorithms, user interfaces and cloud-based data systems in direct response to specific needs brought to us by frontline healthcare workers. We're fully engaged in contributing our expertise in bioelectronic engineering to help address the pandemic, using technologies that we are able to deploy now, for immediate use on actual patients and other affected individuals. The measurement capabilities are unique to this device platformthey cannot be accomplished using traditional watch or ring-style wearables that mount on the wrist or the finger."

"We anticipate that the advanced algorithms we are developing will extract COVID-like signs and symptoms from the raw data insights and symptoms even before individuals may perceive them," said Arun Jayaraman, a research scientist at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, who is leading the algorithm development. "These sensors have the potential to unlock information that will protect frontline medical workers and patients alikeinforming interventions in a timely manner to reduce the risk of transmission and increase the likelihood of better outcomes."

Continuous monitoring from hospital to home

The mysterious ways that COVID-19 affects the body seem to get stranger and stranger. Many patients' symptoms fully disappear before they suddenly and unexpectedly begin deterioratingsometimes within a matter of hours. Other patients have recovered and tested "negative" but later test "positive" again.

The unknowns underscore the need for continuous patient monitoring to ensure that physicians can intervene at the slightest sign of trouble. The Northwestern and Shirley Ryan AbilityLab teams' device provides around-the-clock monitoring for COVID-19 patients and those exposed to them.

"Having the ability to monitor ourselves and our patientsand being alerted to changing conditions in real timewill give clinicians a new and important tool in the fight against COVID-19," said Dr. Mark Huang, a physician at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, who has worn the sensor. "The sensor also will offer clinicians and patients peace of mind as it monitors COVID-like symptoms, potentially prompting earlier intervention and treatment."

The device can monitor hospitalized patients and then be taken home to continue 24/7 supervision. The real-time data streaming from patients gives insights into their health and outcomes that is currently not being captured or analyzed by traditional monitoring systems.

"Nobody has ever collected this type of data before," Rogers said. "Earlier detection is always better and our devices provide important and unique capabilities in that context. For patients who have contracted the disease, the value is even more clear, as the data represent quantitative information on respiratory behavior, as a mechanism to track the progression and/or the effects of treatments."

"This opens up new telemedicine strategies as we won't have to bring in patients for monitoring," Jayaraman said. "Physicians can potentially review the patients' data for hours, days or weeks, immediately through a customized graphical user interface to a cloud data management system that is being set up for this purpose, to see an overall image of how the patient is doing."

Although the wearable device is currently unable to measure blood oxygenation levels, which is an important component of lung health, the team plans to incorporate this capability in its next round of devices. The Rogers lab has already successfully incorporated this capability in its previous work to produce clinical grade-monitoring devices for intensive care units. Rogers believes they can easily apply that research to the COVID-tailored devices.

Warning system for the most at-risk

Not only can the device monitor the progress of COVID-19 patients, it could also provide early warning signals to the frontline workers who are most at risk for catching this remarkably infectious disease. The device offers the potential to identify symptoms and to pick up trends before the workers notice them, thereby providing an opportunity to engage in appropriate precautionary measures and to seek further testing as quickly as possible.

"People with obvious, severe symptoms are going to the hospital, being tested or being told to self-isolate," Jayaraman said. "For those who have symptoms they perceive as mild or seasonal allergies, there is no warning system. They could be in contact with others and unknowingly spread infection."

Assessing efficacy of new therapeutics

As researchers rush for a COVID-19 cure, physicians have been trying exploratory, sometimes unproven, treatments to help their patients. This is another area where Rogers' and Jayaraman's device can play a role.

"Early reports of certain proposed treatments suggest that they can eliminate coughing symptoms more quickly than a placebo," Rogers said. "Nobody, however, is quantifying certain key symptoms, such as coughingduration, frequency, amplitude, sounds, etc. Our device allows for precision measurement of this essential, yet currently unquantified, aspect of the disease."

In the future, this sensor package could help researchers and physicians quantify which therapeutics are working best.

"At the simplest level, our systems allow assessments based on data, in a quantitative way, without relying on human judgment of whether a patient is coughing more or less," Rogers said.

Device initially conceived for stroke patients

The new device builds on recent research from a collaboration between Rogers' and Jayaraman's labs, first published on the cover of the February 2020 issue of Nature Biomedical Engineering, with a focus on monitoring swallowing and speech disorders in patients recovering from stroke. These sensors work by precisely measuring vibratory signatures from the throat and chest. By measuring vibrations rather than acoustics, the team avoids noise from background sounds and it bypasses privacy issues.

In response to requests and inquiries from the medical community, Rogers and Jayaraman realized they could use this technology to measure the vibratory signatures of COVID-like symptoms, including chest wall movements and cough.

Jayaraman's team is developing custom signal processing and machine-learning algorithms to train the device how to recognize coughs in the data.

"As the algorithm becomes smarter, our hope is that it will begin to discriminate among which coughs are COVID-like and which are from something more benign," Jayaraman said. "The most basic approach, already deployed on COVID-19 patients and health care workers, simply counts coughs and their intensity."

More advanced analytics packages will be available within the next few weeks.

Bypassing already-stressed supply chains

Thanks to a generous gift from Northwestern University trustees Kimberly K. Querrey and Louis A. Simpson, Rogers and his team are able to respond quickly to requests for devices. Leveraging a set of manufacturing tools available in the

new Simpson Querrey Biomedical Research Building in Chicago, the team is already producing dozens of devices per week. Rogers estimates that his team could produce up to hundreds of devices per weekall in house, largely bypassing the need for external vendors and complex supply chains.

"Quickly developing new technologies internally has never been more crucial," Querrey said. "This work proves the power of STEM and why it's so critical to the University and beyond to have world-class researchers like John. I am so proud of John and his team, while working remotely, for thinking outside the box and using their collaborations to help protect our healthcare workers. We are excited to be able to develop these devices within the University and get them in the hands of those needing them most. The ability to measure vibratory signatures could really help with early detection of COVID-19."

"This crucial philanthropic support has allowed us to develop and deploy the devices and an associated software infrastructure almost immediately, within days, after we started receiving requests from the medical communitywithout waiting for external vendors, most of which are mostly shut down with the stay-at-home orders," Rogers said. "In this way, we avoid already-stressed supply chains. We just do it ourselves."

Comfortable and easy to use

In mid-March, Kelly McKenzie felt foggy and developed a low-grade headache. Having recently returned from a work-related trip overseas, she assumed it was jetlag. But as her symptoms progressed to include cough and congestion, she started to worry. Although her symptoms were not severe enough to seek COVID-19 testing, she knew she should self-isolate.

"Between my international travel and the symptoms, my director and I decided it was best for me to stay home from work, so I wasn't bringing anything contagious into the hospital," said McKenzie, who is a research physical therapist at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab.

McKenzie joined the pilot study to test the device and train the algorithm with her symptoms. After wearing the sensor around the clock for a week, she was amazed by the comfort of the soft silicone material and ease of use. Wearers simply charge the device, put it on and it immediately begins to workstreaming real-time data to a smartphone or tablet.

"When you first put it on, you can feel it just because it's new and different," McKenzie said. "But after you have worn it for a while, you don't even notice it."

Because it is fully encased without wires, electrodes, charge ports or removable batteries, the device can be worn while exercising or in the shower. It turns out this also is important for sterilization and reuse.

"This is absolutely critical for use in the context of this extremely contagious disease," Rogers said. "Because it is fully sealed in a soft biocompatible silicone material, it can be completely immersed in alcohol, and then exposed to a gas-based system for rigorous sterilization. If there were exposed regions, or plugs or ports or other physical interfaces, the device would not be relevant for this application."

What's next?

In the coming weeks, the Northwestern and Shirley Ryan AbilityLab teams will continue collecting patient data to strengthen their algorithmsthrough deployments both in the clinic and at home. They also are responding to other requests for access to the technology, across the medical complex in Chicago. Additional deployments are starting now.

Rogers and Jayaraman also are examining data from patients recovering from COVID-19, attempting to determine when they are no longer contagious. Some of the patients wearing the device have been dismissed from the acute-care hospital and are rehabilitating at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. In the future, this device could help determine whether post-COVID patients still have minor, perhaps imperceptible symptoms.

Rogers hopes the device will not just tell physicians how to best treat COVID-19 but also inform researchers about the nature of the virus itself.

"The growing amount of information and understanding around COVID-19 as a disease will be critically important to containing and treating the current outbreak as well as those that might occur in the future," he said. "We hope, and we believe, that these devices may help in these efforts by identifying and quantifying characteristics and essential features of cough and respiratory activity associated with this disease."

To accelerate the deployment of this device, the team recently launched a lean engineering-centric company, Sonica Health, based on intellectual property jointly developed by Northwestern and the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and licensed through Northwestern's Innovation and New Ventures Office. Exploring use of the device for the COVID-19 response is supported by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

BARDA invests in the innovation, advanced research and development, acquisition and manufacturing of medical countermeasuresvaccines, drugs, therapeutics, diagnostic tools and non-pharmaceutical products needed to combat health security threats. To date, 54 BARDA-supported products have achieved regulatory approval, licensure or clearance. DRIVe (Division of Research, Innovation and Ventures) within BARDA, catalyzes the development of innovative products and approaches, like the Sonica Health technology, with the aim of solving major health security challenges.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has asked the Ministry of Transport to increase domestic flights and remove social distancing on aircraft.

At the Noi Bai International Airport

The agency said keeping a distance of at least one metre among passengers during completion of aviation procedures, security screening, and lining up to board the plane should remain unchanged.

It also proposed the ministry to adjust the time to apply regulations on frequency allocation on domestic routes.

Under the proposal, from May 5, the Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh City route can operate 52 round trips per day, while the Hanoi - Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City - Da Nang routes can operate 20 daily round trips each.

The CCAV suggested the ministry allow airlines to sell tickets for domestic flights for carrying passengers and cargo, and international cargo flights from June 1.

According to data from the CCAV, airlines operating flights to domestic airports carried over 150,000 passengers during the four-day holiday on the occasion of the National Reunification Day and May Day holidays (April 30  May 3).

Dinh Viet Thang, Director of the CCAV, said the aviation sector is maintaining COVID-19 prevention measures at a level higher than required by the ministries of Health and Transport such as declaring health status, disinfecting aircraft, arranging seat spacing, checking passengers body temperatures, and refusing to transport passengers with symptoms of cough, fever or shortness of breath./.VNA
The Korean Air X Hyundai Card private label credit cards / Courtesy of Hyundai Card



By Park Jae-hyuk



Hyundai Card has defended its design of the recently launched Korean Air-branded private label credit card (PLCC) against the financial authorities' advice to change the design, according to the card firm, Monday.



The Hyundai Motor Group's credit card issuing unit released the so-called Korean Air X Hyundai Card PLCC, April 27, to offer bonus airline miles and related benefits to its users.



Three of the four credit cards are decorated with three-digit numbers taken after flight codes  030, 070 and 150  and the fourth type which reads "the first" caters only to Sky Pass Morning Calm members.



The card, which is the first of its kind in Korea, is one of the projects that Hyundai Card Vice Chairman Chung Tae-young has considered important.



For three straight days before its launch, he promoted the new credit card on Facebook with some teaser ads.



The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), however, recommended Hyundai Card to change the PLCC's design, saying it might violate the Specialized Credit Finance Act.



According to the financial watchdog, the card's design may break the law, because the front of the card is only decorated with the logo of Korean Air which does not have a license to issue credit cards.



Hyundai Card's logo is only on the back of the card.



The FSS cited the Financial Services Commission's (FSC) previous authoritative interpretation.



When Hana Card asked the FSC whether it could put the Toss logo only on the front of the credit card it would roll out jointly with Viva Republica, the operator of the Toss fintech platform, the financial regulator answered that Hana Card's logo should also be on the front of the card.



In accordance with the guideline, Hana Card released the card with both the Toss and its logos on the front.



Hyundai Card said its Korean Air X Hyundai Card PLCC differs from the collaboration between Hana Card and Viva Republica.



"Unlike Viva Republica, Korean Air is not a financial services company, so the card's design will not confuse its users," a Hyundai Card spokesman said. "We are still in talks with the financial authorities over the card's design."


Montana State University Wonderlust will host a free public online lecture about the Beartooth Highway from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 14.

Beartooth Highway: History, Biology and Geology of Americas Most Scenic Highway will be presented by Sharon Eversman, a retired MSU professor of biology.

Eversman will provide an overview of the highway, which is designated as a National Scenic Byway All-American Road, and argue that the highway traverses one of the best examples of alpine environment in the country.

The 68-mile byway winds through southwest Montana and northwest Wyoming and leads to Yellowstone National Park's Northeast Entrance. The highway features numerous switchbacks and rises in elevation from 5,600 feet in Red Lodge to over 10,000 feet at the top of Beartooth Pass.

During the last Ice Age, glaciers sculpted features, including U-shaped valleys, cirques and glacial lakes. The wind and flat topography on the plateau have resulted in trees and plants that exhibit unique timberline features and beautiful alpine meadows.

Eversman earned advanced degrees in biology and plant ecology and taught biology and botany at MSU for 40 years, including a summer field course on the Beartooth Plateau. She has lived in Bozeman for more than 50 years and spends time studying and collecting plants and lichens in national parks, state parks, national forests and in eastern Montana.

To register for the presentation, visit www.montana.edu/wonderlust/. Participants will receive an email on May 13 with the Webex link and instructions to join the course. For more information contact Bobbi Geise at 406-994-6550 or bobbi.geise@montana.edu.

Wonderlust is a program of Academic Technology and Outreach at MSU. ATO works across the university to support and advance its land-grant mission through unique and innovative opportunities for outreach and engagement.

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Dire projections

As President Trump presses for states to reopen their economies, his administration is privately projecting a steady rise in the number of coronavirus cases and deaths over the next several weeks. The daily death toll will reach about 3,000 on June 1, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times, a 70 percent increase from the current number of about 1,750.

The projections, based on government modeling pulled together by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, forecast about 200,000 new cases each day by the end of the month, up from about 25,000 cases a day currently.

The numbers underscore a sobering reality: The United States has been hunkered down for the past seven weeks to try slowing the spread of the virus, but reopening the economy will make matters worse. (New York Times)

Featured stories

The coronavirus pandemic is pushing America into a mental health crisis (Washington Post)

Coronavirus virtual vaccine summit sees leaders pledge billions, but U.S. skips it (CBS News)

15 children hospitalized in NYC with mysterious syndrome possibly linked to COVID-19 (ABC News)

Fever, fatigue, fear: For some recovering COVID-19 patients, weeks of illness, uncertainty (NBC News)

3 hospital workers gave out masks. Weeks later, they all were dead (New York Times)

National news

Flint Family Dollar security guard killed after turning away customer without mask (Detroit Free Press)

Trump heads to Arizona for most extensive trip since start of coronavirus pandemic (USA Today)

New York looks toward restarting; New Jersey will keep schools closed (New York Times)

Gov. Gavin Newsom says reopening California will begin this week amid coronavirus crisis (Los Angeles Times)

Colorado man planning armed protest against states coronavirus restrictions arrested for pipe bombs (ABC News)

A man wore a KKK hood at a grocery store after San Diego County required face masks (Washington Post)

Poll: Two-thirds support vote-by-mail as alternative to in-person voting during pandemic (The Hill)

Auditor: Favre received welfare money for no-show speeches (Associated Press)

A 5-year-old boy was pulled over in Utah on his way to California to try to buy a Lamborghini (CNN)

World news

Intel shared among U.S. allies indicates virus outbreak more likely came from market, not a Chinese lab (CNN)

Trump national security official says U.S. not considering punitive measures against China (Politico)

Italy loosens Europes longest coronavirus lockdown (Washington Post)

Three Russian doctors fall from hospital windows, raising questions amid coronavirus pandemic (CNN)

Japan extends state of emergency amid fears over second wave (The Guardian)

New Zealand PM: No open borders for a long time (BBC)

North Korean defectors say sorry after false Kim Jong-un speculation (The Guardian)

Irans currency is set to get a new name  and lose four zeros (CBS News)
Lakshadweep Islands: Unveils worlds first sea cucumber conservation reserve

by K.A. Shaji

May 05,2020 | Source: Mongabay

Hardly three months have gone by since a special protection force assigned by the administration of Union Territory of Lakshadweep seized 1716 sea cucumbers from an uninhabited island named Suhali. Weighing 882 kg and priced at Rs. 4.26 crore in the international market, the shipment was kept ready for smuggling to Sri Lanka. According to marine biologists, the seizure was the largest ever of its kind in the entire world.



It was a tip-off from the local fish workers that helped the task force to reach Suhali in time on February 12, to seize the shipment hidden in an unseen corner of the coral reefs. The solitary island is located about 60 km away in the sea from Kavaratti, the capital of the cluster of islands. Though no one has been arrested so far, the New Delhi headquarters of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken over the investigation since the third week of March, keeping in view the gravity of the issue and based on recommendations of Wildlife Crime Control Bureau of India (WCCB).



According to Jafer Hisham, marine researcher and a member of the Lakshadweep Biodiversity Council, sea cucumbers are named so because of their resemblance to the vegetable. Generally found on the seafloor, they possess leathery skin and an elongated body containing a single-branched gonad. An endangered species often vulnerable to poaching, sea cucumbers have been the target of seafood mafia operating in the Indian Ocean region. The illegal transnational trade has been occurring in the Lakshadweep region, despite the WCCB launching enhanced special vigil involving the coastguard, police, forest officials and fish workers in all the islands, especially in those which remain uninhabited like Suhali.



Smuggling of a protected species



On January 15, the special protection force involving police and forest officials of the island administration had seized 172 sea cucumbers weighing 234 kg and worth ?11.7 million from an unnamed island located about 80 nautical miles off Kavaratti. Four persons forming part of an international marine animal trafficking syndicate were arrested. On January 23, the same force had arrested an international wildlife trade kingpin and seized a consignment of 52 dead sea cucumbers weighing 10 kg and worth ?500,000 from him. Speaking to Mongabay over the phone, Lakshadweeps Chief Wildlife Warden Damodhar A.T., who is also the secretary for environment and forests, said the highly sensitive coral reefs of the island cluster are under constant threat due to this continuing illegal trade.



Sea cucumbers are invertebrates that can grow to up to six feet in length. They are in high demand in China and some parts of South East Asia for food and traditional medicine. However, India is treating it as a species listed under schedule I of Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. A total ban on their harvesting and transportation in any form has existed in India since 2001, pointed out Damodhar. As per Schedule I of Wildlife Protection Act (WPA), sea cucumbers of marine environments enjoy the same status as tigers and lions. The WPA passed in 1972 by the Indian Parliament aims at the protection of plants and animal species. The WPA has six schedules of protected plant and animal species. The schedules give varying degrees of protection. Schedule 1 stands for absolute protection and offences under it will invite the highest penalties.



As per the information we gathered, Sri Lanka is the hub of the illegal trade of these animals to Southeast Asian countries and China. Most people may not like their taste but the Chinese often mix it with other seafood, meat and spices. In certain parts of Southeast Asia, communities eat them raw, fried or pickled and also along with Chinese cabbage, winter melon and shiitake mushrooms. Here in Lakshadweep, our forefathers used to eat them in dried form. They had also used sea cucumbers as ingredients of soups, stews and stir-fries, explained Hisham.



Going by traditional Chinese medicine, consumption of sea cucumbers can heal a number of ailments, including frequent urination, impotence, arthritis and cancer. Sea cucumber extracts have also been used widely in China for making creams, tinctures, oils and cosmetics. After catching sea cucumbers from the sea around Lakshadweep, smugglers ship them to Sri Lanka as a frozen item. The huge demand and higher price sea cucumbers fetch in the international market is the main reason prompting the smuggling. Other than the sea around Lakshadweep islands, the Gulf of Mannar at the confluence of the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal in Tamil Nadu is also home to sea cucumbers. As a result, many fishers from southern Tamil Nadu are also reaching Lakshadweep to hunt the species with the assistance of the local fish workers. These Tamil Nadu fishermen have direct access to people operating the illegal trade in Sri Lanka.



On February 12, the protection force personnel had received information from fishers that the sea cucumbers were ready for export at the uninhabited island. Before the team reached the spot by the sea, smugglers managed to escape. It was during the subsequent raids carried out at the island, that the shipment was found. Along with the catch, the team had recovered anglers, nets, knives, preservation chemicals, kerosene, GPS systems and materials for packing from the island. According to Damodar, now there is an alarming depletion in the population of sea cucumbers due to multiple reasons, including sea pollution, illegal fishing and over-exploitation. Damages suffered by the marine ecosystems of the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean over the years have also contributed to the decline, he said.



Sea cucumber diversity



As per the Bombay Natural History Society, which campaigns for conservation of the species, there are around 1,450 species of sea cucumbers found in the marine system worldwide. Among them, 173 are found in the Indian seas. Out of them, 16 species have been identified as economically very important. Sea cucumbers belong to the taxonomic class Holothuroidea and are placed under the Echinodermata phylum, which also includes many other well-known marine invertebrates, such as sea stars, sea urchins and sand dollars. According to Jafer, sea cucumbers are crucial to the marine ecosystem, performing similar functions to earthworms in the land ecosystem. Their extinction will have a devastating impact on the marine ecosystem, he said.



Till 2001, there were no legal hurdles in catching sea cucumbers. The blanket ban came into effect after the implementation of the Wildlife Protection Act of 2001. In the past, sea cucumbers were directly caught and shipped overseas. Now the hunters clean and freeze and add preservatives before shipping to the market hubs. The sea cucumber is an integral part of the coral ecosystem in the sea surrounding Lakshadweep. Calcium carbonate is one of the by-products of sea cucumbers digestion of sand and it remains the key component of coral reefs. Coral reefs must have to accumulate calcium carbonate for survival and so the sea cucumbers play a vital role in preserving the coral reefs. This endangered species is also maintaining the transparency of seawater by eating sewage, said Damodar.



A sea cucumber conservation area



It was in this context, Lakshadweep administration has announced the creation of the worlds first conservation area for endangered sea cucumbers in an area spread in 239 sq km. Two more protected areas have been announced in the extension of this area and in total, 685 sq km of Lakshadweep islands have turned as marine protected zones. The visionary leadership and passion of Mr. Damodhar, along with the support of islanders, deserve credit for the creation of the sea cucumber conservation area. It was in 2003, BNHS mooted the concept of marine conservation reserves in India. Our team has played a crucial role since then in its creation. A number of islanders became part of the BNHS Marine Team since 2003 and they have contributed immensely for the realisation of it. Women facilitators played a most crucial role in the entire journey, said Deepak Apte, director of BNHS, in response to the decision to set up the conservation zone.



The first proposal moved was for Agatti Conservation Reserve in 2008, with the endorsement of Agatti Panchayat after three years of solid community consultations. Our marine team members Hasina and Tajunnisa received Sanctuary-RBS Award for this work. Subsequently, proposals for Beliapani, Veliapani and Suheli were worked upon. The very same model paved the way for this remarkable development, he added. Only very few species of sea cucumber contain bioactive substances with pharmacological potential. There is no strong evidence supporting the purported benefits of sea cucumbers in general, said Apte. As per information available with Kochi-based Central Marine Fisheries Institute, sea cucumbers in the deeper sea areas are now targeted by the mafias, because the species found in the shallow coastal waters have already been harvested. Sea cucumber fishery in Sri Lanka will collapse soon because the harvesting pressure there is so enormous.



According to Damodar, the now-declared marine protected area is spread over 685 sq km of Lakshadweep Islands, which includes the Lakshadweep Sea. There would be three locations. The first area is spread over 239 sq. km at Cheriyapani and it would be called Dr. KK Mohammed Koya Sea Cucumber Conservation Reserve. The second will be the largest global marine conservation reserve located between Amini and Pitti archipelago, with an area of 344 sq. Km. It will be known as Attakoya Thangal Marine Conservation Reserve. The third is the first protected area for marine birds in India across 62 sq. km and it is named PM Sayeed Marine Birds Conservation Reserve. The bird reserve is home to four species of pelagic seabirds  the greater crested tern, lesser crested tern, sooty tern, and the brown noddy.



Now, the islands have four protected areas along with Pitti Bird Sanctuary declared in January 2019. On February 27 this year, the sanctuary was renamed as Dr Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary as a tribute to the world-famous ornithologist. Apart from pelagic birds, the sanctuary area is home to different species, including lesser sand plover, ruddy turnstone, whimbrel, and the Asian palm swift. The protected area status will help the island administration to strictly enforce restrictions on entry and a ban on collection or trade of corals, sea cucumbers or any other Schedule I (under Wildlife Protection Act (WPA), 1972) marine organisms. The final notifications for all three protected areas have been issued in consultation with local communities as per the provisions of Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act, 2002, said Manohar. By doing so, the administration has fulfilled long pending dreams of many a marine scientist, he said.



The recent large scale seizure of sea cucumbers from international smugglers has contributed to the instant declaration of these reserves. Before making the declarations, we have convinced the local community about the importance of protection of marine biodiversity, said Damodhar. The Lakshadweep administration also has plans for coordinated efforts with Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park to end poaching of marine species like sea cucumber and seahorse in the whole Indian Ocean stretch. Harvesting of sea cucumbers is not banned in many of the neighbouring countries. That is a challenge for us. The smugglers transport processed ones either by sea or road to far eastern countries where there is a greater demand, said Jafer.



- In the face of recurring large scale smuggling attempts targeting endangered sea cucumbers, the Lakshadweep administration has created the worlds first conservation area for sea cucumbers.

- Extending over a 239 square km radius of Cheriyapani reef, an uninhabited, independent and solitary atoll, it will be known as Dr. KK Mohammed Koya Sea Cucumber Conservation Reserve.

- Since January this year, the islands witnessed three major seizures of smuggled sea cucumbers, one of which was the largest seizure in the world.

- Sea cucumbers are in high demand in China and some parts of South East Asia for food and traditional medicine. However, the species is protected in India.
Nearly five months into a pandemic, the number of people in the U.S. who currently have or have had the coronavirus remains unknown.

Even so, President Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner told "Fox & Friends" last week that the federal government had risen to the challenge. In a time of widespread testing shortages and alarmingly false negative results, Kushner called the government's response to the virus a "great success story" and seemed optimistic that the U.S. would be "really rocking again" by July.

That really infuriated late night television host John Oliver, who returned from a brief hiatus on Sunday night to deliver a succinct breakdown of the two major types of tests and why the difference between them is so crucial.

Theres nothing more important than widespread, effective testing," said Oliver. "It is your only chance of tracking and containing the spread from the start. Unfortunately, tests have been alarmingly scarce in this country, despite the fact that the president has repeatedly claimed that this is not the case.

President Trump said in March that everyone who wanted a test could get one, a false statement that had to be corrected by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar the next day. Instead, as Oliver points out, a lack of testing continues to persist and the virus has killed more U.S. citizens than the Vietnam war.

"So, we thought tonight might be a good time to ask: what the f happened? And to do that, were going to be looking at two major types of tests: diagnostic tests, which will tell you if you have the virus right now, and antibody tests, which tell you if youve previously had it.

Watch the video below:

Adding his signature touch of sardonic humor, Oliver recounts the frustration faced by medical experts as their diagnostic testing efforts were postponed early on. At one point, the segment cuts to a Frontline interview with Dr. Alex Greninger from the University of Washingtons School of Medicine. Dr. Greninger explained that back in February, an important document he needed to send to the Food and Drug Administration was delayed because they told him it had to be mailed as a physical copy in addition to a CD or thumb drive with an electronic copy of the submission.

"Where would you even find a blank CD? At a Walgreens twenty years ago?" joked Oliver.

Though that requirement was eventually lifted, Oliver said it was "just one of many logistical and bureaucratic challenges that slowed things down at the worst possible time." This is in addition to a chemical contamination during manufacturing that prevented the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's testing kits from working properly. Private sector labs like Greninger's offered to develop their own tests, but again faced pushback.

By this point, people were already  unknowingly  spreading the virus as they went about their everyday lives.

That's where antibody tests come in, said Oliver. They determine whether a person's body is producing the antibodies that fight the virus, which helps public health officials figure out where the virus has traveled and how many people have recovered.

This is why testing is more important now than ever, he argued.

"We need to scale up tests massively and right away because if we want to return to the world that were used to: one with sports, restaurants, hugs and turning down party invitations because its raining and not because you might die, testing is how we get there," said Oliver.

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Amanda Bartlett is an SFGATE associate digital reporter. Email: amanda.bartlett@sfgate.com | Twitter: @byabartlett
The government on Tuesday said it has so far purchased around 2.61 lakh tonnes of pulses and 3.17 lakh tonnes of oilseeds from farmers worth Rs 2,682 crore during the ongoing marketing season of rabi (winter) crops under the Price Support Scheme (PSS).

The PSS is operationalised on state governments' request when prices fall below the minimum support price (MSP).

The procurement is undertaken by nodal agencies like Nafed at minimum support price (MSP). Only fair average quality commodity is purchased



However, in view of COVID-19 pandemic, the daily procurement limit has been increased from 25 quintals to 40 quintals per day under PSS for rabi crops.

In a statement, the Union Agriculture Ministry said oilseeds and pulses have been purchased at MSP value of Rs 2,682 crores, benefitting 3,25,565 farmers.

Of the total procurement so far, about 14,859 tonnes of pulses and 6,706 tonnes of oilseeds were purchased on May 1-2 in six states namely Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, it said.

As per the second estimate of the ministry, pulses and oilseeds output during the 2019 rabi season have been pegged at 15.11 million tonnes and 10.75 million tonnes, respectively.

According to the ministry, the state-run agencies have procured 181.36 lakh tonnes of wheat, the main rabi crop, so far.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, farmers are undertaking sowing of kharif (summer) crops where rabi crops have been harvested.

Paddy, the main kharif crop, has been sown in 34.80 lakh hectares so far, higher than 25.26 lakh hectares in the year-ago period, it said.

For pulses also, area sown has increased to 8.77 lakh hectares from 5.44 lakh hectares, while that for coarse cereals rose to 9.12 lakh hectares from 5.49 lakh hectares in the said period.

Area under oilseeds has increased to 8.87 lakh hectares so far in the ongoing kharif season from 7 lakh hectares a year ago.

Sowing of kharif crops normally picks up with the onset of southwest monsoon from June.

The India Meteorological Department has forecast a normal monsoon this year, which will help 52 per cent of the rainfed area in the country.

The Ministry also said that the government is taking several measures to facilitate farmers and farming activities at field level during the lockdown period in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme, the government has disbursed Rs 18,134 crore during the lockdown period, benefitting 9.06 crore farmers, it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Twenty-seven migrant workers have escaped from a temporary shelter home in west Delhi's Tilak Nagar, police said on Tuesday.

On Monday, 56 migrant workers were shifted from a government school in Punjabi Bagh to the newly created shelter home at Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya where one migrant was already staying, they said.

One of them, Kallu, misguided others and the migrants started creating a nuisance in the premises. Later, 57 people broke out of the home. Thirty of them were nabbed by police and sent back to the shelter home, they said, adding that police officials were looking out for the remaining 27.

A police case has been registered on the complaint of the shelter home in-charge Mustaq Ali.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Spitting saliva, gutka or tobacco in public places across Noida and Greater Noida has been prohibited and violation of this ban can attract a penalty of Rs 500 for first-time offenders and Rs 1,000 for repeat offenders, according to orders issued to contain the spread of coronavirus.

The orders were issued by the Noida Authority and Greater Noida Authority, a day after the Uttar Pradesh government passed a similar order to prohibit spitting in public places amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

"With an objective to contain the spread of COVID-19, it is directed that spitting, or spitting gutka or tobacco in public places is prohibited. Any violation of the order will attract a penalty of Rs 500 for first-time offenders and Rs 1,000 for repeat offenders," Noida Authority Chief Executive Officer Ritu Maheshwari stated in the order.

The officer noted that some germs found in spit can survive up to 24 hours and the saliva of any ill person can therefore infect others with COVID-19. Besides the virus, such germs can also cause infections like influenza, tuberculosis, hepatitis, pneumonia, Maheshwari said.

Around three dozen officials of the Noida Authority, including those from the Health Department, have been authorised to issue challans to the offenders, the order said.

"The directive would continue to be in force until there are clear instructions for its withdrawal," the officer said.

A similar order was issued by the Greater Noida Authority.

"Spitting (saliva), or spitting gutka and tobacco in public places is prohibited. Offenders will have to pay a fine of Rs 500 for the first time, while repeat offenders will have to pay a fine of Rs 1,000, it said in a statement.

Meanwhile, three offenders were penalised by Health Department officials on Tuesday, a Noida Authority official said. A penalty of Rs 500 each was issue to the offenders who were found spitting in public places near the Noida stadium in Sector 21A, Kakrala and Nangla villages, the official said.

Earlier on May 3, the district police also announced that spitting in public places will attract a fine and punishment, while noting that not wearing a mask outdoors will be considered a punishable offence.

Adjoining Delhi, Noida is part of Gautam Buddh Nagar district in western Uttar Pradesh, which has recorded 192 COVID-19 positive cases so far and falls in the red zone vis a vis the COVID-19 outbreak, according to official figures till Tuesday evening.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In what is being seen as an astute political move by Congress, offering to pay fare of the migrants travelling across the country back to their native states, part of the credit should go to its Karnataka unit which made this initial offer to the state government locally on Saturday. And subsequently to DK Shivkumar, the partys state chief.

Ever since Shivakumar, the partys key trouble-shooter took over as the President of the Karnataka unit in March this year, Congress has been on an overdrive to put the BJP-led state government on the mat.

In an exclusive chat with Hindustan Times, Shivakumar has strongly criticised the handling of the situation India is faced with due to the pandemic. The senior Congress leader has also accused the state government of lacking compassion when dealing with the poor. Edited excerpts :

Q: Karnataka unit of Congress was the first to make an offer to pay the government on behalf of the migrants so that they could travel back to their states. Now, this has been echoed by partys national leadership, spotlighting the BJP-led government. Where did this idea originate?

DKS: Yes, it was the Congress in Karnataka which came forward to help the poor. Already, these poor migrants who had come here in search of livelihoods, are without any salary for more than a month. Only a heartless government will insist that they pay for their journey back home when they are struggling to feed themselves and their families.

When we saw the situation on ground and conveyed it to our leadership, both Sonia ji and Rahul ji fully backed and blessed this idea. It has their full backing. We collected funds from party workers, legislators and from basically anyone who was willing to contribute to help these poor migrants. To help these migrants, we issued a cheque of Rupees one crore to the MD of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation.

Q : Karnataka revenue minister R Ashoka has dubbed the cheque as fake, as it is signed by former KPCC President Dinesh Gundu Rao and not by you. Additionally, deputy CM Lakshman Savadi has claimed this entire move is just a drama.

DKS: It is politically immature of Ashoka to call the cheque fake. The cheque has been issued on behalf of KPCC and signed by my predecessor as I havent had the time to take on that responsibility as banks have been shut due to the current crisis.

As far as Savadis statement, they can call it anything. Those who are suffering know the truth. As a responsible Opposition, we are trying to do everything possible to help the poor and needy. We are highlighting issues which needs to be brought to the attention of people.

Q: Even BJP national secretary B L Santhosh has tweeted that Let alone charging, railways dont have ticket counters...Trains are run on state requests. After the request Kerala, Rajasthan, Maharastra make #migrantlabourers pay & INCIndia chief issues statement and usual suspects pump it up. Your comments on this?

DKS: I have huge respect for Santhosh ji who is a national leader from my state. However, he doesnt seem to have full facts. Let him please go and check whether money was collected from migrants who were ferried by more than 100 buses of KSRTC. If money was not collected, why did KSRTC deposit it with the government saying passenger fare from more than 3500 people. One should comment only after knowing full facts. I even met the MD of KSRTC and gave him the Congress party cheque. Now he says, please donate it to the CM fund.

Q: Karnataka government has been claiming that compared to most large states it has done well with minimum number of deaths and positive cases as well as on relief and rehabilitation measures?

DKS: Please go and tell that to the farmers who are destroying crops because they have no buyers and the government is doing nothing to help them. Because of the fight between Sriramulu (health and family welfare minister) and Sudhakar (medical education minister), Suresh Kumar (primary and secondary education minister) is addressing daily briefings on the coronavirus pandemic. This is the level of co-ordination they have in the face of a crisis.

One deputy CM announces IT-BT will work with 50 per cent workforce and then the CM contradicts him, saying it will work with only 33 per cent work force. There is absolutely no co-ordination within the government. There performance on all fronts have been poor. This government does not seem to be able to see the poor and deprived and it does not hear their cries. This government doesnt have eyes, ears and above all no heart.
U.S., U.K. Ships Operate in the Barents Sea

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS200504-01

Release Date: 5/4/2020 11:20:00 AM

From U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet Public Affairs

BARENTS SEA (NNS) -- Four U.S. Navy ships and a Royal Navy ship entered the Barents Sea, working together to conduct maritime security operations in the challenging environmental conditions above the Arctic Circle, May 4, 2020.

Three Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyers USS Donald Cook (DDG 75), USS Porter (DDG 78), USS Roosevelt (DDG 80) are supported by fast combat support ship USNS Supply (T-AOE 6), and joined by the Royal Navy's HMS Kent (F 78) to assert freedom of navigation and demonstrate seamless integration among allies.

"In these challenging times, it is more important than ever that we maintain our steady drumbeat of operations across the European theater, while taking prudent measures to protect the health of our force," said Vice Adm. Lisa Franchetti, commander, U.S. 6th Fleet. "We remain committed to promoting regional security and stability, while building trust and reinforcing a foundation of Arctic readiness."

U.S. Navy surface ships have not operated in the Barents since the mid-1980's. Allied and partner navies must remain proficient in all operating environments to ensure the continued security and access to the seas. This is especially critical in the Arctic, where the austere weather environment demands constant vigilance and practice.

The Russian Ministry of Defense was notified of the visit to the Barents Sea, May 1. The notification was made in an effort to avoid misperceptions, reduce risk, and prevent inadvertent escalation.

Porter, Donald Cook, and Kent recently completed a bilateral naval anti-submarine warfare (ASW) exercise in the Norwegian Sea. This exercise reinforced the combined training that the nations received last month while participating in the U.K's Submarine Command Course (SMCC).

Bilateral engagements strengthen international security and promote freedom across critical sea lanes. U.S. Forward Deployed Naval Forces  Europe ships have been operating with partner nations throughout European seas over the last month. Porter conducted a PASSEX with Romania in the Black Sea, April 13. Following her departure from the Black Sea, Porter met with Supply and Roosevelt to work with the Italian Navy in the Mediterranean and with the French Navy in the Atlantic, April 27. Prior to joining the SAG, Donald Cook operated in the Baltic Sea, sailing separately with the Lithuanian Navy and the German Navy.

U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied and interagency partners, in order to advance U.S. national interests and security and stability in Europe and Africa.

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Strategic Objectives has been named public relations agency of record for Kia Canada Inc. The agency will provide strategy expertise while partnering with Kias public relations team on media relations, influencer partnerships, special events, auto shows and corporate social responsibility initiatives. In 2019 Kia Canada celebrated 20 years of business in Canada and sold its one-millionth vehicle in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Kia Canada national public relations manager Susan Bernardo said that the Toronto-based agency has the deep automotive experience, combined with the out-of-the-box creativity, needed to help build the Kia brand in Canada.

North 6th Agency has been selected as public relations agency of record for Breather, a flexible, private workspace provider with a global network of private office and meeting spaces. N6A will support Breather on a variety of corporate communications and external media initiatives, including competitive awareness and revenue outcomes. The agencys efforts will combine earned media, amplification and KPI alignment. Breather gives businesses access to fully furnished workspaces on flexible terms by the hour, day, month, or year, with locations in such cities as New York, San Francisco, Toronto and London. N6A will donate 10 percent of the proceeds from the Breather engagement to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund, which provides financial support to meet fast-emerging needs identified by the CDC to respond to the public health threat posed by COVID-19.

Diffusion is now agency of record for Verb Energy, which makes what the company says is the fastest-growing caffeinated energy bar on the market. The agency is responsible for all corporate and consumer media relations as it works with the brand to raise awareness of Verbs text-to-order DTC model and to support an initiative that will supply over half a million of the brands energy bars to healthcare workers involved in the fight against COVID-19. Diffusion will also help Verb drive awareness around new flavors, products and partnerships, seeding bars to reporters, influencers and reviewers to try the bars for themselves. Customers can order Verb bars with a text message, and receive a package or a flexible monthly subscription delivered to their door.

iMARS Communications has signed on to provide communication support and promotion for NovaVind JSC, a subsidiary of Rosatom, a Russian state corporation headquartered in Moscow that specializes in nuclear energy. iMARS will organize special communication events for NovaVind JSC and hold press events. The goal of NovaVind JSC is to consolidate all of Rosatoms wind energy assets, a task which will require the formation in Russia of new competencies for the creation and management of wind power plants, the organization of serial production of wind turbines, the organization of after-sales services, marketing competencies, and the development and sales of new products.
(Newser)  A tiny public school in Montana will be among the first in the US to resume classroom teaching this week after being closed for nearly two months because of the coronavirus pandemic, per the AP. In opening its doors to most of its 56 students and 18 staff members on Thursday, Willow Creek School is going against the advice of some education officials and against the grain of the vast majority of US schools that plan to remain closed the rest of the semester. District Superintendent Bonnie Lower says she knows the school is taking a risk in reopening for 2 1/2 weeks to end the semester for the students from prekindergarten to high school. But three-quarters of the parents surveyed in this farm and ranching community with a population of 250 want their kids to catch up on their studies and experience a little normalcy before the summer break, she said.

story continues below

"We ride that seesaw everydayis it a good idea?" Lower said. "We're not taking this lightly. We don't want people to think we're being irresponsible by making this choice. We're trying to do what we feel is in the best interest of the students." Lower said the main advantages Willow Creek School has is its small student size and its relatively large two-story schoolhouse. If all 56 students had planned to come back, the school might not have reopened. But an estimated one-quarter of students plan to continue their studies from home, she said. Gov. Steve Bullock gave schools the option of reopening on Thursday, after previously reopening churches, restaurants, and retailers. Reopening schools prematurely risks another surge of infections and "runs the risk of undoing the work of the last two months," according to the American Federation of Teachers.

(Read more Montana stories.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 01:55:51|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, May 5 (Xinhua) -- In the clashes erupted in Divandarreh region in Iran's Kurdistan province on Tuesday, a number of Iran's Islamic revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) forces and some members of an unidentified armed group were killed, Tasnim news agency reported.

Following the clashes with an "anti-revolutionary terrorist" group on Tuesday in Divandarreh region, three of the IRGC forces were killed, an IRGC statement carried by Tasnim read.

In the clashes, a number of the "anti-revolutionary terrorists" were also killed by the IRGC forces, according to the statement.

Iran's Kurdish-populated region in the west of the country, bordering Iraq, has been the scene of deadly clashes between the Iranian security forces and the Kurdish rebels over the past decades. Enditem
Get ready to shell out more money for liquor and fuel in the union territory of Chandigarh.

The UT administration is actively considering levying additional cess on liquor, petrol and diesel for revenue generation. A decision in this regard was taken during the daily review meeting held under Punjab governor and UT administrator VP Singh Badnore on Tuesday.

A senior UT officer said, Revenue generation has been hit hard amid the epidemic. We are mulling over imposing additional cess on liquor, diesel and petrol to generate revenue. The finance department has been asked to work out details for imposing this additional cess.

Notably, petrol in Chandigarh costs 65.82 per litre while diesel costs 59.30 per litre.

Confirming the decision, Ajoy Kumar Sinha, UTs finance secretary, said that keeping in view the reduced sources of revenue, some additional cess could be considered. The decision on the rate of cess is also under consideration.

To generate revenue, the Delhi government has imposed a 70 percent special corona fee on sale of liquor besides raising the value added tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel. Haryana, too, has hiked VAT on fuel.

Meanwhile, there was marked fall in people queuing up outside liquor vends on Tuesday from Monday night itself. Long winding queues could be seen outside liquor shops on Monday, which opened after 41 days when the administration eased Covid-19 restrictions from Monday.

The serpentine queues at most vends, at some places more than a 100 people at a time on Monday, trickled down to smaller queues with a handful of people on Tuesday.

On Sunday, the Chandigarh administration had allowed shops selling non-essential items, including liquor, to open. The vends are to open according to the odd-even formula, with odd numbered stores to open on odd dates, and even numbered stores on even days. Liquor vends on roads dividing sectors, as well as those in the six containment zones, are to remain closed.

Of the 75 licensed vends, 30 were open on Tuesday. Shopkeepers had to ensure that not more than five persons be present at a time in the shop, with timings fixed from 10 am to 6 pm.

The liquor shops had closed after curfew was imposed in the city on March 24 to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the city.

Keeping in view the heavy rush of customers at book shops, the UT administration decided to exempt them from the odd-even stipulation and allow them to open on all days. This will help reduce congestion at the stores.

The UT administrator has also directed that discount and concession available to consumers for timely payment of property tax, water bills etc. should not be denied and last date of payment be extended accordingly.

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Israel is about to get into a new diplomatic clash with Europe. On 1 May, ambassadors of a number of European states to Israel slammed Tel Avivs plans to annex the whole of the West Bank, as recently revealed by the new Netanyahu-Gantz coalition government.

These countries include Britain, Germany, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark and Finland. Even the European Union (EU) itself was part of the formal objection. We are very concerned about the clause in the coalition agreement that paves the way for annexing parts of the West Bank. The annexation of any part of the West Bank constitutes a clear violation of international law, the ambassadors stated.

Such unilateral steps will harm efforts to renew the peace process and will have grave consequences for regional stability and for Israels standing in the international arena.

They also called on Israel to freeze its construction plans in the Givat Hamatos neighbourhood in East Jerusalem.

This is the second European statement in less than 10 days that challenges Israeli state policies against the Palestinians. The EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell straightforwardly said 23 April that the regional organisations position on the status of the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 remains unchanged. In line with international law and relevant UN Security Council resolutions, including resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), the European Union does not recognise Israeli sovereignty over the Occupied West Bank, he said.

Borrell pointed out that the EU reiterates that any annexation constitutes a serious violation of international law. The European Union will continue to closely monitor the situation and its broader implications, and will act accordingly.

In response, Israels Foreign Minister Israel Katz, said: Its unfortunate that Josep Borrell, who pretends to be responsible for the foreign relations of the European Union, chooses in this manner to welcome a new government and a central partner to the EU and prefers to see relations between Israel and the EU through the prism of the [Covid-19] pandemic and the status of the territories.

As soon as Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his political rival Benny Gantz declared their coalition deal, both stressed that Israel will claim sovereignty over the whole of the West Bank on 1 July and move forward with US President Donald Trumps controversial Deal of the Century peace plan.

This escalatory tone was followed by acts of condemnation by Palestinian leaders, the Arab League and even the Arab Joint List, a political alliance of Arab political parties that have seats in the Israeli Knesset.

Last week, the Council of Arab Ambassadors to the United Nations slammed Israels illegal policies and annexation agenda for Palestinian land and pointed out that virtually all Security Council members and the larger membership of the UN have condemned these policies. Arab League chief Ahmed Abul-Gheit, one week earlier, told UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres that such plans will ignite tensions in the region and accused Israel of exploiting the worlds preoccupation with the novel coronavirus to impose a new reality on the ground.

Abdel-Mahdi Metawei, a Palestinian political analyst who is close to the Palestinian Authority, told Al-Ahram Weekly last week that Israel will not succeed because of strong Arab and European opposition to the Trump deal. Netanyahu, he added, is concerned about a potential failure by Trump to get re-elected as president despite the formers interest in writing his name in Israels history as the prime minister who launched a full-scale annexation plan and earned US approval for it.

However, Daniel Serwer, a scholar at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, said he doubts that European-Arab pressures would stop such a plan. He believes that vocal condemnations are the farthest they can go in their clash with Israel. What can they do except denounce the annexation and refuse to recognise it? This will become one more source of friction in the trans-Atlantic relationship, Serwer argued.

Trumps Deal of the Century plan recognises Jerusalem as Israels undivided capital, giving a capital for a potential Palestinian state in northern and eastern neighbourhoods of the city, outside the Israeli security barrier. A small number of Palestinians will be given the right to return to their nation, while Israel will enjoy security control from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 7 May, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska - A U.S. Army soldier who was based at Fort Wainwright in Alaska has died in Iraq, the Department of Defence announced Tuesday.

Sgt. Christopher Wesley Curry, 23, of Terre Haute, Indiana, died from a non-combat-related incident Monday in Iraq, the department said in a news release. The release said the matter is under investigation.

Curry was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, according to the release.
'Plant-Based' Is All the Rage.

But It Isn't Exactly Health Food
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India's largest public sector bank State Bank of India (SBI), has cautioned its customers about fake income tax refund messages.



Received any message from the Income Tax Department, requesting you to put in a formal request for your refund? These messages are from fraudsters at play! Ensure you ignore and report the messages immediately. For more security tips, visit: https://t.co/ieol0YpxZepic.twitter.com/lsTB6toOwT

 State Bank of India (@TheOfficialSBI) May 4, 2020

SBI said, "Received any message from the Income Tax Department, requesting you to put in a formal request for your refund? These messages are from fraudsters at play! Ensure you ignore and report the messages immediately."

Customers should not share any details with anyone or click on any doubtful links which can put SBI customers in trouble. Customers should report to the bank about any fake messages they receive, SBI said.

On May 3, the income tax department requested taxpayers to be cautious and not believe in any messages that talk about income tax refund by clicking on any fake links. Incidence of phishing messages that could seriously compromise taxpayers information is doing the rounds, The tax department said.



Taxpayers Beware!

Please do not click on any fake link which promises to give refund. These are phishing messages and are not sent by the Income Tax Department. Please read the details carefully here https://t.co/90VSq32w0K#StaySafe#IndiaFightsCorona#StayAtHome#BeAwarepic.twitter.com/gfF2RZDTpu May 3, 2020

The income tax department said, "Taxpayers Beware! Please do not click on any fake link which promises to give refund. These are phishing messages and are not sent by the Income Tax Department.

https://incometaxindia.gov.in/Pages/report-phishing.aspx  #StaySafe #IndiaFightsCorona #StayAtHome#BeAware".

SBI earlier sent a mail on six important tips to follow while banking online. SBI said, "The key to safe banking is vigilance. SBI has laid out six important protocols that our customers must follow in order to safeguard their personal information from fraudsters. Be Safe. Bank Safe."

Also read: SBI online banking: Check out these 6 tips from India's largest bank
MBABANE  Shocking statistics have been released by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security relating to the number of unpaid layoffs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.



The total number of people who will not be getting paid in two months is a staggering 8 429. The figures were revealed by the Minister, Makhosi Vilakati, during a press conference held at the Cabinet Offices yesterday afternoon.



The hardest hit industry, according to Vilakati was the textile and apparel sector, where six companies applied for layoffs which were approved.



As a result, 8 121 people were laid off.

The second hardest industry was the hotel and catering sector where a total 221 people were laid off.

The minister revealed that a total of 43 applications for layoffs were received as they invoked Section 5 (a) of the guidelines by filing applications for temporary layoffs of their employees.



He said this occurred during the period from April 9, 2020 to date.

He said from these 17 were from the Hhohho Region, 22 from the Manzini Region, one from the Lubombo Region and three from the Shiselweni Region.



Of the 43 companies, the minister said 13 had since had their applications approved after due processes resulting in a total of 8 429 employees being affected by the unpaid lay-offs.



On a similar note, the minister revealed that 16 companies had so far invoked Section 4 (b) of the guidelines on applying for the release of the bond or security on payment of wages.



He said these applications were from April 15, 2020 to date and stated that it was worth noting that these were promptly processed by the ministry without any pre-requisites.



Companies



He said of these 12 companies were from the Hhohho Region and only four from the Manzini Region.

Vilakati further submitted that on the suspension of Eswatini National Provident Fund (ENPF) contributions for April and May 2020, 36 companies had so far invoked Section 4 (d) of the guidelines on giving notice to divert the April and May, 2020 ENPF contributions towards cushioning the salaries of employees.

He said this occurred during the period from April 16, 2020 to date.

Of these, 19 are from the Hhohho Region; 16 are from the Manzini Region; with only one from the Shiselweni Region, he said. Vilakati said the declaration of a national emergency as a result of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus culminated into a need to issue

The guidelines on Employment Contingency Measures in Response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic, General Notice No. 22 of 2020, which guidelines were issued in terms of Section 32(10) of The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Regulations, Legal Notice No. 72 of 2020. He said these guidelines were issued in order to assist employers and employees address any uncertainties in respect of payment of salaries, employment status of workers, workplace governance and other pertinent issues which were considered necessary to regulate during this period. He said among other objectives, the guidelines promoted workplace related social dialogue (consultations) between employers and workers in respect of all employment contingency measures that are deemed appropriate during the period of partial lockdown or national emergency.



Salaries



We sympathise with social partners since we fully understand how challenging it is for them to manage industrial relations issues these days, more especially in relation to the payment of salaries and wages, he said.



He said notwithstanding, they implored all employers to ensure full compliance with the Guidelines on Employment Contingency Measures when implementing their interim employment measures as might be deemed appropriate for their businesses during this difficult period.



He said the guidelines had been drafted in such a way that they were equally sensitive to the economic challenges which businesses out there were faced with during this time, in as much as they encourage the continued payment of salaries for workers.

To this extent, provision has been made in the guidelines that where it becomes economically impossible to continue paying salaries for employees, certain measures should be taken by employers in an effort to mitigate against the effects of loss of earnings, he said.



Vilakati said the continued payment of salaries was not based upon the principle of no work no pay, but it was conditional upon financial considerations of the business.

The no work no pay principle only applies during strike actions, now the employees are not on strike but certain businesses are closed in compliance with the partial lockdown, he said.



He reiterated that any contingency measure that was considered possible depending on the financial circumstances of a business, including the one on pay cuts or reduction of payment of salaries, should be taken in full consultation with the employees and the office of the Commissioner of Labour, and should not be imposed upon the employees.



If all the options that are meant to mitigate against the effects of loss of earnings as listed in Section 4 of the guidelines have been exhausted, employers are allowed to then apply for unpaid layoffs of their employees in terms of Section 5(a) of the guidelines, said Vilakati.



He said such layoff applications were directed to the office of the Commissioner of Labour and should be submitted through email provided hereunder not physical visits to the ministry.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Wyoming rose by eight on Tuesday.

Four of the new cases are from Laramie County, three come from Fremont County, and one comes from Lincoln County.

No new probable cases were also reported.

Two new confirmed coronavirus recoveries were also announced, alongside two probable recoveries.

Probable cases are defined by officials as close contacts of lab-confirmed cases with symptoms consistent with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

A patient is considered fully recovered "when there is resolution of fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and there is improvement in respiratory symptoms (e.g. cough, shortness of breath) for 72 hours AND at least 7 days have passed since symptoms first appeared," according to the Wyoming Department of Health.

There are now 604 cases  452 confirmed and 152 probable  and 409 recoveries  291 confirmed and 118 probable  recorded in the state, as well as seven deaths.
 Flash

Wearing masks, keeping distance, working and schooling on staggered times, Europeans are restarting their "normal" life -- but in an unfamiliar way after a nearly two-month lockdown to fight the coronavirus.

Mixed feeling about easing

Italy, one of the hardest-hit European countries, finally saw the easing of the eight-week national lockdown after the coronavirus infected over 211,000 people and claimed some 29,000 lives across the country.

However, the first day of easing met with a mix of nervousness and optimism among Italians.

"I feel unsafe on the streets even though there's no reason to," Kate Nichols, a British author and homeschool teacher who has lived in Rome for nearly four years, said in an interview. "Everyone has been sensible, but I still felt vulnerable."

Rita Rivelli, the technical director of a restoration studio in Rome, held a complex feeling towards the easing. "I'm very happy to see my co-workers after two months," Rivelli told Xinhua. "But I'm a little scared as well."

Restrictions can be removed overnight, but businesses need time to win back customers.

Massimiliano Fabrizio, co-owner of Rome's Bar dei Cerchi, noted a big difference between the government's reopening and economy reopening.

"We opened today for takeaway coffee and food, but only a few people have come by," Fabrizio said in an interview. "It's good to be open and to see some of our regular customers. But there aren't many people in the streets and the offices nearby that we depend on are closed. We'll continue and hope for the best, but things won't really be open until everything is open."

The mixed feeling is tangible across Europe, including the Mediterranean island country Cyprus, which announced zero local coronavirus infections on Monday for the first time since the first case was confirmed on March 9.

Cyprus kick-started its economy on Monday by allowing 25,000 retail shops and the construction sector to resume operation after a six-week coronavirus lockdown.

While some electric and home appliances shops successfully lured long queues of customers with tempting discounts, most of the shops and restaurants catering to tourists remain closed despite the easing.

"Our customers are tourists, from England, Italy, France, Greece and Russia. It will be a long time before we see any of them," a woman said while rearranging shelves of her souvenir shop, which opened just because she preferred to be at work rather than staying at home.

Unfamiliar "normal" life

After closing for seven weeks due to the COVID-19, Austrian schools reopened to graduating classes on Monday, with teachers and students trying to adapt to the new routine of wearing masks, washing hands frequently and keeping social distance.

In many schools, to guarantee social distancing, lessons were not held in regular classrooms but in gymnasiums.

Among other things, handrails on the stairs were glued with barrier tape, and strips for distance control were found on the floor. The hygiene rules and instructions for correct movement in the school building were clearly visible at the entrance.

Greeks have also started a gradual return to normalcy on Monday, with mask-wearing required in public transport, taxis, elevators, or entering hospitals, pharmacies, and other enclosed spaces.

Portugal, where easing of nearly 50-day lockdown also started on Monday, the government even sent security forces to public transport stations to monitor the mask-wearing of passengers.

One of the first measures announced by Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes after the country began its first phase of deconfinement on Monday is the compulsory mask-wearing on public transport for everyone aged over 12. The government will provide at least one mask free of charge for each citizen.

In a shift that many Europeans would have never imagined, face mask-wearing is now a phenomenon in the streets of major European cities.

In East Asian countries like China, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam, wearing masks in public has been widely accepted to help limit the spread of the coronavirus.

But in much of Europe, people wearing face masks were often met with strange looks in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

The tide is shifting. As European countries are easing the current stay-at-home order, face masks are set to play an even bigger part in the post-lockdown period.
As the United Kingdom plans to ease coronavirus lockdown restrictions, a draft government plan reportedly revealed rules that may be imposed in the country. While Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that he would outline the roadmap out of lockdown, a draft which was released outlined the measures that workplaces may have to follow to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

According to an international media report, the draft proposes reduced hot-desking, staggered shift times and maximised home-working. To contain the spread of COVID-19, the UK government is taking every step possible. According to the draft, the government also proposed additional hygiene procedures, physical screens, the use of protective equipment and six feet distance between workers.

READ: Motormouth UK TV Host Piers Morgan Tests Negative For Coronavirus After Showing Symptoms

In the coming days, the UK PM is also expected to announce that children aged 10-11 will be allowed back to primary school from June 1, followed by other primary school classes. As per reports, the school for classes 10 and 12 in secondary is also expected to open. Furthermore, the government is also focusing on class 6 students as they will be transiting to secondary school in September.

While the government might ease the lockdown restrictions, Johnsons roadmap still doesnt represent things returning to business as usual. While speaking to an international media outlet, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that he doesnt think that the citizens should expect the government to go from the current situation of social distancing to where the UK was back in February. He added that the country definitely will not be going to business as usual and undo the brilliant work that it has done in containing the virus.

READ: UK To Pilot Coronavirus Contact Tracing Smartphone App

Test, track and trace

Meanwhile, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock, while addressing the daily briefing announced the next part of the plan- The test, track and trace. The programme, which will begin on the Isle of Wight, involves contact tracing and tracking via the smartphone app. The application will help people, who have developed COVID-19 symptoms, to register. According to Hancock, the new system will allow the authorities to take a more targeted approach to fight the deadly virus.

Currently, the UK has more than 190,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and the deadly virus has claimed nearly 28,734 lives in the country. On April 30, Johnson even said that the country is past the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. At his first press conference since being hospitalised with the virus, Johnson stated that the UK is past the peak and is also on the downward slope.

READ: Scientists Fault UKs Pandemic Strategy As Deaths Rise

READ: Netizens Have A Field Day As UK Armed Police Find Out The Truth About A Tiger On The Prowl
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 01:18:26|Editor: huaxia

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RAMALLAH, May 5 (Xinhua) -- A senior Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official condemned on Tuesday Israel's detention of Palestinian officials in East Jerusalem.

Hanan Ashrawi, member of the PLO Executive Committee, accused Israel of escalating its violations against the Palestinian citizens and officials in Jerusalem and its suburbs, including the storming of homes and searching into its contents.

The PLO Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs has earlier said in an emailed press statement that the Israeli authorities arrested earlier in the day 13 Palestinians in East Jerusalem, most of them are leaders and officials.

It said that among those who were detained by the Israeli authorities is Bilal al-Natsheh, secretary-general of the Popular Conference in Jerusalem, who was moved to an Israeli hospital right after he was arrested.

"He and the other detainees were interrogated at an Israeli detention center in occupied East Jerusalem."

Ashrawi warned that "the Israeli practices in Jerusalem are a real danger that threatens the life of the Palestinians in East Jerusalem and its suburbs."

She called on the international community "to intervene and stop these practices." Enditem
Students will have the power to bankrupt universities that do not meet their expectations in a post-COVID-19 world, a US educator has warned at the launch of a major new research report into the future of higher education, commissioned by the Qatar Foundation (QF).

'New schools of thought: Innovative models for delivering higher education', produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), has outlined how higher education institutions must adapt to survive as they face dwindling public funding, questions over their value, and the challenges that technology and automation pose.

As the report was launched, a EIU panel discussion sponsored by QF saw education experts from three continents explore its findings and share their views on the future of higher education, with Ben Nelson, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute, saying: "Students have an extraordinary responsibility this year because, for the first time in living memory, they have the ability to bring institutions down to bankruptcy.

"They can vote with their feet in a way they have never been able to do before  opting to slip out of college for a year can literally shut down an institution. For the first time, the student's role is that of the determinant partner  determining what universities should be doing and which ones should have the right to serve them going forward.

"When societies and students are interfacing with institutions and not getting what they are paying for, there is going to be a reckoning."

Dr Mary Schmidt Campbell, President of Spelman College, told the discussion: Academic partnerships are extremely important in days like this. Institutions have to stop being so precious and siloed and sequestered."

"Everyone benefits from collaboration, but it takes a very different mindset to what we have now. If we fall back into marketing and competition mode, we are not going to get anywhere."

And Francisco Marmolejo, QF's Education Advisor, said higher education institutions must "challenge their assumptions", saying: "Unless we do that, disrupt, and are willing to take risks, as soon as conditions return to some sort of normal, we may try to become the same as we were before. This crisis is telling us we no longer have the luxury of assuming things will be as they used to be." -- Tradearabia News Service
Government is in discussion with airlines to start scheduled commercial flight services post lockdown on May 17, top government sources have confirmed CNN-News18. The flight services will resume in phased manner with domestic airlines operating in the initial phase, followed by international flights.

Government is also discussing social distancing norms in the flight. Airlines have suggested that vacating one seat to maintain social distance inside the flight will increase the price burden on passengers.

Airlines and Ministry are working out to operate without compromising on health and security and ministry has asked airlines to work out other measures so that passengers will not be paying this additional burden.

#BREAKING  Govt move towards restarting air services post May 17.In the initial phase, domestic airlines will restart. Discussion is going on about social distancing norms: source.Original Input: @manojkumargupta | Details by @Zebaism.#IndiaFightsCOVID19 #StayHome pic.twitter.com/I5tdZTrdj7 CNNNews18 (@CNNnews18) May 5, 2020

No final decision has been reached so far and the consent of PM Modi will be taken once final plan is ready.

Delhi airport, earlier said that it will initially operate commercial passenger flights from Terminal 3 after the lockdown ends, adding that entry gates, self check-in machines and check-in bays will be allocated to airlines to avoid overcrowding by air travellers.

The airport will keep all food, beverage and retail shops open to avoid overcrowding at one place and use "ultraviolet disinfection tunnels" for all incoming baggage, according to a plan prepared by the GMR group-led Delhi International Airport Ltd.

The plan said the passengers of Vistara and IndiGo would enter the airport through gates 1 and 2 only. These two airlines will have check-in rows A, B and C among them, it said.

AirAsia India and Air India passengers will use entry gates 3 and 4. These passengers will then go to rows D, E and F where the staff of these two airlines would assist them check-in, according to the plan.

SpiceJet and GoAir passengers would enter through gate 5 towards the staff of these two airlines at rows G and H for check-in.

Passengers of all other domestic airlines will enter through gate 5 and will head to row H, the plan said.

All international airlines' passengers would be entering the airport using gates 6, 7 and 8. The staff of these airlines would be sitting at rows J, K, L and M for check-in at Terminal 3.

With Inputs from PTI
The year 2020 has been as hard-hit by coronavirus as 1918 was by the Spanish flu despite the great strides in science made over the last century.

Fears are mounting that history is already repeating itself, as the parallels between the two lethal pandemics continue to emerge.

Once again, a lack of a vaccine, treatment or cure has left medics resorting to centuries-old advice to stay at home, while quackery has resurfaced via President Trump's claims that people can inject disinfectant into their veins.

Poorer communities are hardest-hit and leadership has been called into question.

With a staggering 675,000 Americans being wiped out by the Spanish flu and one-third of the global population infected, the consequences of following along the same path as in 1918 could be devastating.

1918: Volunteer nurses from the American Red Cross tend to influenza patients in the Oakland Municipal Auditorium in 1918. 2020 has been as hard-hit by coronavirus as 1918 was by the Spanish flu despite the great strides in science made over the last century

2020: The Samaritan's Purse Emergency Field Hospital in Central Park set up to help New York tackle the coronavirus pandemic. Fears are mounting that history is already repeating itself, as the parallels between the two lethal pandemics continue to emerge

In the century between the Spanish flu and COVID-19, science has come along leaps and bounds.

The world learned about viruses, cured various diseases, made effective vaccines, developed instant communications and created elaborate public-health networks.

But, for all the progress, the US and wider world has been hit by another pandemic and is still struggling to bring the insidious yet avoidable infectious disease under control before hundreds of thousands die from it.

As in 1918, people are again hearing hollow assurances at odds with the reality of hospitals and morgues filling up and bank accounts draining.

The advice and stay-at-home orders rolled out to slow the spread of coronavirus mirror the advice back then, with the ancient common sense of quarantining being back.

'If you get it, stay at home, rest in bed, keep warm, drink hot drinks and stay quiet until the symptoms are past,' said Dr. John Dill Robertson, Chicago health commissioner in 1918.

'Then continue to be careful, for the greatest danger is from pneumonia or some kindred disease after the influenza is gone.'

But so too is quackery. In 1918, theories included to rub raw onions on your chest.

In 2020, President Trump made the baffling suggestion that people inject disinfectant into their veins.

In this November 1918 photo made available by the Library of Congress, a nurse takes the pulse of a patient in the influenza ward of the Walter Reed hospital in Washington

The Red Cross Emergency Ambulance Station in Washington, DC, during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. With a staggering 675,000 Americans being wiped out by the Spanish flu and one-third of the global population infected, the consequences of following along the same path as in 1918 could be devastating

In 1918, no one had a vaccine, treatment or cure for the great flu pandemic as it ravaged the world and killed more than 50 million people.

No one has any of that for the coronavirus, either, with scientists frantically trying to develop vaccines and serious sufferers becoming guinea pigs to experimental drugs.

Modern science quickly identified today's new coronavirus, mapped its genetic code and developed a diagnostic test, tapping knowledge no one had in 1918.

That has given people more of a fighting chance to stay out of harm's way, at least in countries that deployed tests quickly, which the US didn't.

Parallels have also been drawn between the failure of US presidents to take the threat seriously from the start.

Trump all but declared victory before infection took root in his country and he's delivered a stream of misinformation ever since.

President Woodrow Wilson's principal failure was his silence.

Not once, historians say, did Wilson publicly speak about a disease that was killing Americans grotesquely and in huge numbers, even though he contracted it himself and was never the same after.

Wilson fixated on America's parallel fight in World War I like 'a dog with a bone,' says John M. Barry, author of 'The Great Influenza.'

The infections themselves have also got vast similarities.

Like COVID-19, the 1918 pandemic came from a respiratory virus that jumped from animals to people, was transmitted the same way, and had similar pathology, Barry said by email.

Social distancing, hand-washing and masks were leading control measures then and now.

But there were also marked differences between the viruses of 1918 and 2020.

The Spanish flu was particularly dangerous to healthy people aged 20 to 40 - the prime generation of military service - paradoxically because of their vibrant immune systems.

Medics move a coronavirus patient from an ambulance towards the Elmhurst Hospital Center in New York City

In Connecticut a man is in ICU due to COVID-19 complications. Just like the Spanish flu, there is no known vaccine, treatment or cure fro COVID-19

When such people got infected, their antibodies went after the virus like soldiers spilling from the trenches of Europe's killing fields.

'The immune system was throwing every weapon it had at the virus,' Barry said.

'The battlefield was the lung. The lung was being destroyed in that battle.'

Young soldiers and sailors massed at military camps in the U., sailed for Europe on ships stuffed to the gunwales with humanity, fought side by side in the trenches and came home in victory to adoring crowds.

The toll was enormous, on them and the people they infected.

Among those who died in the pandemic was Friedrich Trump, Donald Trump's paternal grandfather.

Among those who contracted it and recovered were the wartime leaders of Britain and Germany as well as of the United States, British and Spanish kings and the future US president, Franklin Roosevelt, when he was assistant Navy secretary.

But, the toll was heavier on average people and the poor, crowded in tenements, street cars and sweaty factories.

They could not all live by the words of the 1918 US surgeon general, Rupert Blue: 'Keep out of crowds and stuffy places as much as possible. ... The value of fresh air through open windows cannot be overemphasized. ... Make every possible effort to breath as much pure air as possible.'

The same worrying trend has emerged across the US where wealthier communities have recorded fewer fatalities whereas low-income residents have been especially ravaged by the virus.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington - a key coronavirus model often used by the White House - released new projections Monday that forecasts there will be 134,475 COVID-19 fatalities by August 4, nearly double its previous prediction of 72,433 deaths

According to the leaked FEMA chart, daily US deaths will reach 3,000 cases by June 1. That number is nearly double the current level of 1,750 deaths a day from the disease

And just as the US has took aim at China over the coronavirus pandemic, with President Trump repeatedly insisting on calling it the 'Chinese virus', the Spanish flu was blamed on Spain.

The suspected ground zero of the 1918 flu ranges from Kansas to China. But it was clear to US officials even in 1918 that it didn't start in Spain.

The pandemic took on Spain's name only because its free press ambitiously reported the devastation in the disease's early 1918 wave while government officials and a complicit press in countries at war - the US among them - played it down in a time of jingoism, censorship and denial.

It could just as easily have been called the US Army flu, US Navy flu, the German flu or British flu instead.

The Red Cross Emergency Ambulance Station move Spanish flu victims in 1918

A sign is posted at the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia that indicates the Spanish Influenza was then extremely active in 1918

With more than 675,000 Americans killed in the Spanish flu pandemic, fears are mounting that the US could be on course for a similarly devastating death toll.

This week, two staggering coronavirus projections were released including a private model by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and pulled together in chart form by the Federal Emergency Management Agency that said the daily death toll of COVID-19 will reach 3,000 cases daily on June 1.

That number is nearly double the current level of 1,750 deaths a day from the disease.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington (IHME), which is often cited by the White House, released an equally concerning forecast Monday, predicting the US death toll will reach 134,475 by August 4.

This marks a major jump from its previous prediction of 72,433 deaths.

Growing fears that the US has underestimated the fatality of the virus comes as several states have been easing lockdowns and started reopening for business.

More than 71,000 Americans have been killed by coronavirus and more than 1.2 million have been infected in the little time it is known to have been on US soil.

Worldwide more than 250,000 have so far died.
High school will start first, then all the others. Contagion cases continue to decline. 99% of the country's schools have completed preparations for the reopening. 14 million masks for students. The success of the South Korean model.

Seoul (AsiaNews / Agencies) - South Korean schools will reopen gradually next week. High school students who need to prepare for the exams will begin on May 13th. Then it will be the others' turn, with the elementary school children entering on May 27th.

Over the past two weeks, which coincided with three major national holidays, the government has gradually eased social confinement and economic blockade measures, achieving encouraging results. The country has gone from a peak of 909 infected on 9 February, to the few cases of these days. Overall there are 10800 infected; 252 deaths.

99% of the country's schools have completed preparations for the reopening. Classrooms will have to be sanitized regularly and students will have to wear protective masks - the government has made 14 million available.

To respect the social distancing, the lessons are also organized in order to avoid crowding in the classes. The infected will be able to attend lessons via the web from home.

South Korea is among the most virtuous nations in the fight against Covid-19. Seoul has adopted a more "democratic" form of intervention than Beijing's draconian one. Their speed of action is the key to their success, strengthened by the excellence of the national health system. The government immediately closed the borders with China, introducing strict quarantine measures for those entering the country. Health authorities then launched mass diagnostic tests to identify possible infected, and map all their contacts with other people.
MBABANE - Infighting among politicians will delay the pending food distribution in some constituencies amid the coronavirus outbreak.



The fighting politicians include Members of Parliament (MPs), constituency headman and bucopho.

Information gathered was that there had been squabbles among some politicians on who should be the rightful person to identify and register beneficiaries of the food relief programme by government. The confusion has also been observed by the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), which is the custodian of the registration and ultimate distribution of the food relief. The registration is aimed at identifying people who have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.



Situation



In response to the prevailing situation, the NDMA suggested that politicians should not be directly involved in the registration of people who have been hit hard by the pandemic.



However, this did not go down well with some politicians who wanted to know why they were being sidelined yet they knew the people on the ground who were hungry.



NDMA Chief Executive Officer Russell Dlamini said politicians and local authorities were only expected to assist the task team in identifying the most vulnerable people during the trying times. Dlamini said the NDMA had trained officers from different non-governmental organisations to work with the politicians and the local authorities during the course of the assessment. Local authorities refer to inner councils which work closely with bucopho and caregivers.



This, he said, was aimed at promoting fairness and transparency during the exercise. He stated that it had come to their attention that some individuals in other areas were politicising the registration of the beneficiaries for future election.



As a result, he said there was confusion on who should conduct the assessment between the MPs, headmen, bucopho and caregivers. Dlamini stated that for areas where there was such confusion over the registration, the exercise would start afresh, which will result in the distribution of the food parcels being delayed.
A group of prominent scientistsincluding epidemiologists, virologists and public health expertshave challenged the Johnson governments misuse of scientific evidence, including that used to justify ending lockdown restrictions and ordering a return to work.

The group was established by Professor David King, former chief scientific advisor to the UK government, and Professor Anthony Costello, professor of Global Health at University College London and former director of maternal, child and adolescent health at the World Health Organisation (WHO). The scientists have convened an alternative scientific advisory panel to rival the governments official Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (SAGE).

Professor Anthony Costello

The SAGE committee has come under intense public criticism due to the influence wielded by political figures, including Prime Minister Boris Johnsons chief advisor, Dominic Cummings, a vocal advocate of the herd immunity policy adopted by the government.

Other SAGE committee participants are Ben Warner, a Downing Street data scientist and political ally of Cummings on the Brexit Vote Leave campaign. Warner previously held a leading position in Faculty, an artificial intelligence company run by his brother Marc Warner, which has a government contract for data-mining related to the coronavirus outbreak.

Demis Hassabis, co-founder of DeepMind, Googles artificial intelligence division is a key industry figure working with SAGE. Hassabis was invited to attend SAGE by the governments chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallancemeaning that Google could have access to its discussions and findings when the public does not.

In addition, 16 of the 23 SAGE members publicly identified were known to be employed by the government.

Speaking yesterday morning on BBC radios Today programme, King, who served as chief scientific advisor to the Blair and Brown Labour governments from October 2000 to December 2007, was asked to justify his call for an independent advisory group aimed at delivering robust, unbiased advice.

We dont know what advice is coming from the scientists on SAGE into the government, he told the BBCs presenter. [T]here is no transparency in the process. When ministers say they are simply following scientific advice, we, the public, dont have any check on that.

Emeritus Professor David King

King pointed to daily media briefings with scientists standing alongside government ministers, [T]hat is very different from being free to say what your advice is. In other words, theres a complete unity between what the scientists are saying and what the politicians are saying. In my view, the scientists put advice into the government and the government makes strategic and policy decisions based on other factors as well as the science advice.

Asked whether scientific advisers were deferring to ministers, King replied, I believe thats the case, yes. I think theres a very big difference between the situation today and the situation as it was in 2010-11. That is quite simply the permission to speak in the public domain has been changed.

Earlier, King had cited government claims to be following the science advice all the way over its policy on face masks. The government does not recommend their use except by medical and care workers, with King replying, Theres plenty of evidence to indicate that the wearing of face masks is a major help in reducing person-to-person vital transfer. King commented, I wonder whether that decision, apparently by Sagewas driven by the necessity of not requiring it because we dont have the face masks available in this country. Thats a political issue. My advice would always be that face masks are required and that if we dont have them, you need to see we acquire them for the people at large.

At 12 p.m., the scientists launched Independent SAGE with a meeting livestreamed on YouTube. Chaired by King, the meeting was attended by 12 scientists including King; Costello; Martin McKee, professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; and Gabriel Scally, president of the Epidemiology and Public Health section of the Royal Society of Medicine.

The launch was reported by some media outlets early Monday morning, but the content of the subsequent livestream discussion was barely referred to throughout the day. Sky News broadcast the livestream shortly after 12 p.m., but abruptly cut the feed after around 11 minutes.

Independent SAGE meeting participants

The livestreamed meeting ran for two hours and 40 minutes, with differing views among scientists on a range of topics. The Johnson government was challenged, however, on several key points with major implications for public health:

Scientists challenged the accuracy of government data on COVID-19 infection and mortality rates, describing the quality of information as unacceptable. They defended the publics right to accurate information, with Professor Karl Friston FRS suggesting that key statistics be included in nightly TV news bulletins in the same way as weather forecasts are included, to inform the public and guide effective social-distancing policies.





Scientists agreed they are unable to draw accurate conclusions about the percentage of the population who may have acquired immunity to COVID-19 and how many people are susceptible to infection. Professor McKee said, I dont think we have any idea how many people have been infected, concluding that were still flying very much in the dark.





The number of new cases of infection is still extremely high, running at approximately 5,000 per day, explained Professor Costello, stating, The question is, if were going to lift the lockdown, at what level of cases would it be safe, in addition to the R zero number, that we could lift the lockdown safely?





There is no proper quarantining policy in place, with Professor Deenan Pillay, an eminent virologist, saying, absolutely nothing has come out with regard to how to nuance that information [the guidance on household quarantining] for people in different circumstances and living situations.

The most important discussion during the conference call focused on the criteria being used by the Johnson government to end the lockdown. Professor Costello showed a graph demonstrating how the UK governments criteria for organising a return to work conflict with World Health Organisation guidance:

Graph demonstrating how the UK governments criteria for organising a return to work conflicts with World Health Organisation guidance

Speaking of the UK governments criteria (displayed in the right-hand column, above), Professor Costello noted, This still feels to me like a managed spread option [i.e., they are saying] this is a pandemic, we cant stop it, its spreading through the population but in a managed way.

Professor Costello explained that WHOs guidance was focused instead on prevention: WHOs advicedaily for the last two monthsis that youve got to go after each and every case, and for that you need testing capacity and also availability so that communities can get access to a test, rather than having to drive for two hours to some airport.

Professor Costello, an outspoken critic of the governments herd immunity policy, posed the pointed question: Are we re-focusing the whole of government on suppression, or are we managing the spread?

While the Johnson government claimed to have ditched its herd immunity policy, Professor Costello commented, It seems like [Health Secretary] Matt Hancock, [former Health Secretary] Jeremy Hunt and others are really pushing that [suppression rather than prevention] and Im just not quite clear where the UK government sits between these two, so I think thats something for discussion.

Yesterdays public challenge by scientists speaks to the depth of concern in the scientific community over the governments response to COVID-19. The distortion and suppression of scientific truth by capitalist governments worldwide presents enormous dangers to public health and is generating growing opposition worldwide among scientists, doctors and throughout the working class.

Last night, the government was forced to release a list of more than 50 names of SAGE members. Two members declined to be named. Cummings was not listed as a member.
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Hanoi: In Vietnam, schools closed for three months to prevent the spread of Covid-19 reopened on Monday. "I'm excited to go back to school," said Chu Quang Anh, a 6th grade student at a secondary school in the capital, Hanoi. After three months I will be able to meet my teachers and classmates.

Coronavirus

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Due to the danger of corona, it has been made mandatory to wear a mask in school. Teacher Dinh Bich Hien said it was important to exercise caution at this time. We have a sanitizer here.

The temperature of the students is being checked at the main entrance of the school. There are 271 cases of Covid-19 in Vietnam. No new cases of corona have been reported in the last three weeks.

File photoAll educational institutions were closed at the beginning of February when the first infection of the corona virus was reported in the country. All teaching activities were done online.

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Last month, the country imposed travel restrictions and closed businesses for three weeks to contain the spread of the virus.
Its clear that the coronavirus pandemic will forever change the world we know  in the ways we live, work and communicate. And that means technology and software will have to change as well.

How? If we look at one dominant software product, Windows, we can already get some ideas. Although its still too early to know precisely what Microsoft will do differently with the operating system, theres plenty of evidence suggesting what it might look like. Heres what to expect from Windows in the age of pandemics.

The first piece of evidence comes from the upcoming Windows 10 May 2020 Update; Microsoft has changed how it will handle all Windows updates for as long as the pandemic lasts.

The Windows 10 May 2020 Update offers no major new features, has no significant changes, and looks and works pretty much the same as the previous version of Windows. Thats particularly striking, because its been a year since the last major Windows 10 update, and you would expect that Microsoft would come up with some notable improvements in that time.

In addition, Microsoft announced that, effective May 1, it will pause the release of non-security Windows updates and only issue security patches. Thats due to the pandemic  IT staffs, which are struggling to keep systems running while working from home, will have to deal with far fewer updates this way.

What do these two facts mean for the future of Windows? Expect very few new features for a while  and expect for a while to mean something longer than the duration of the pandemic. The Windows you see today will very likely be the Windows you see tomorrow. Expect fewer patches, and dont look for much in Microsofts updates. Its likely that what the company refers to as feature updates, which used to be released twice a year, will only be released once a year, and even then will be minor.

There is good reason to believe that the end of the pandemic will not be the end of these changes. Microsoft has been traveling down this path for a long time, with fewer and fewer new features added to Windows. The pandemic has only accelerated that trend. Microsoft developers have been working at home for quite some time, and will continue to do so for a while yet. During that time, Microsoft will have to make hard decisions about which products need updating the most and which can be left fallow.

And its clear that Windows needs fewer updates in the short term, because its no longer the companys cash cow and doesnt have fast growth ahead of it no matter how many bells and whistles are added.

And that gets us to what new things will be put into Windows. The best evidence comes from the most recent Microsoft earnings report. The report showed that use of Teams, Microsofts collaboration chat and meetings app, has skyrocketed due to the coronavirus and the subsequent mass exodus from offices. As of late April, Teams had 75 million daily active users, the company said, up from 20 million users in January.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella explained the spike this way: Weve seen two years worth of digital transformation in two months. From remote teamwork and learning, to sales and customer service, to critical cloud infrastructure and security  we are working alongside customers every day to help them adapt and stay open for business in a world of remote everything.

The company believes the pandemic is a wake-up call that we need to change the nature of work. Disruption will likely become the new normal, with other pandemics and larger and more dangerous storms fed by global warming ahead of us.

In that kind of world, remote collaboration will become king. Jared Spataro, head of Microsoft 365, says, Its clear to me there will be a new normal. If you look at whats happening in China and whats happening in Singapore, you essentially are in a time machine. We dont see people going back to work and having it be all the same. There are different restrictions to society, there are new patterns in the way people work. There are societies that are thinking of A days and B days of who gets to go into the office and who works remote.  The new normal is not going to be like what I thought two weeks ago: that all is clear, go back everybody. There will be a new normal that will require us to continue to use these new tools for a long time.

What does that mean for Windows? Expect some form of Teams and possibly other collaboration tools to be built directly into Windows, rather than tacked on afterwards when you decide to download and install the software. Thats what Microsoft did with OneDrive cloud storage. OneDrive began life as a standalone storage service, and eventually migrated directly into Windows. Everyone gets a basic amount of OneDrive storage; those who want more can pay more for it.

The same things will likely happen with Teams and other collaboration tools. Everyone will get a free copy in Windows with a license for a small number of people, or perhaps with an incomplete set of features. Various for-pay tiers will be able to be bought at differing fees for companies of all sizes.

At first, Teams will be tacked onto Windows. But over time, as remote collaboration becomes an important part of everyones working life, it will become more intimately integrated into it, directly into the file system, for example, built into video and audio tools, enabled by voice. Eventually, expect that Windows will no longer be designed for one-person use, but for multi-person use. Its hard to know right now exactly what that means. But expect collaboration to be baked directly into every aspect of the operating system in one form or another.

Full integration will be years away. But its coming our way. Remote collaboration is the future of Windows in the same way that it will become the future of work.
As educators and leaders juggle remote learning schedules, food distribution, and how to get kindergartners to sit still on Zoom meetings, theres one particularly vulnerable group of students in danger of falling off the education radar: students in the juventile justice system.

Coronavirus is spreading rapidly in pre- and post-trial correctional facilities across the United States, and the challenges of social distancing for students in regular districtsuneven educational resources and learning loss, anxiety and trauma, isolation from friends and familyare all massively compounded for students behind bars.

Its not a new normal, its a new abnormal, said Christine Jones, the superintendent of the Wyoming Girls School, the states juvenile justice facility for girls. Both our kids and staff are experiencing real fear fatigue.

Health Problems Spreading

Josh Rovner of the nonprofit Sentencing Project, who has been tracking the spread of the pandemic in juvenile facilities , found that infections began not long after regular districts began shutting down and are now in more than half of states.

While those under 20 are generally in the lowest risk group for COVID-19, the deadly respiratory illness associated with the novel coronavirus, young people in the criminal justice system have been found to be statistically more likely than peers outside of prison to have problems like asthma, high blood pressure, and general poor health that can lower their resistance to the disease.

In the context of the pandemic, adolescents who are currently in the juvenile justice system are particularly vulnerable to the direct health impacts of COVID-19, said Nancy Hill, a developmental psychologist at Harvard University, in a National Academies online symposium Friday.

Moreover, the setup of most juvenile facilities makes it difficult to follow health guidelines.

A legal injunction filed in Pennsylvania and echoed in others filed in California and Maryland noted that students do not have access to sinks or soap to regularly wash their hands, or access to disinfectants to clean their spaces.

This lack of access to proper sanitation, combined with shared bathrooms and sinks, and regular close contact with other youth and staff creates an intolerably high risk of infectious spread, wrote the counsel for C.Z., A.O., and Z.S.-W., all residents in a Pennsylvania justice facility, in that case.

Sarah Hinger, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Unions juvenile justice project, said juvenile justice facilities, like nursing homes, have had difficulties getting masks and other protective gear for staff and students working in close proximity.

In New Orleans, for example, the Center for Educational Excellence in Alternative Settings operates both the Travis Hill School for pre-adjudicated students and an education program for juveniles within the adult jail. At Travis Hill, about a third of its teachers still instruct students in person on core content areas for three to four hours a day, with both teachers and students wearing donated masks and getting temperature checks three times a day, according to David Domenici, the director of CEEAS. At the school within the adult jail, however, masks are considered a security risk and students do not wear them.

Isolating those suspected of having the disease causes even more problems. For example, Hinger noted, students may have to go without regular showers or exercise because staff who would normally handle students are absent, and efforts to contain the spread in settings like that resemble in many ways solitary confinement, and we know about the negative effect of that on anyone but particularly developmentally on young people.

Nearly 1 of every 6 COVID-19 infections in Louisiana so far are in juvenile justice systems, and some centers in the state have experienced jail breaks and riots in Monroe and Bridge City of students reportedly panicking over outbreaks and quarantine measures.

District Planning Needed

Just as school and district leaders are planning for remote learning during the closures and health safety measures when schools reopen, Dominici argued that education leaders should be reaching out to justice facilities who have students in their districts to ensure continuity of their education and health, too.

Im aware of many school districts who have simply nobody going into these facilities at any level, Dominici said.

School district leadership I think should be doing two things at once, said Domenici, whose center works with a network of juvenile justice schools, facilities, and districts around the country. One, if the secure care agency [the district works with] has a blanket policy that says education personnel are not permitted because they are not essential, I believe the first thing that the school district leadership or principal should do is confront that and say, no, thats not correct. Our kids are entitled to an education and teachers are essential.

Second, school districts and school principals need to hold themselves accountable, Domenici said. They need to start asking themselves tough questions about how to provide access to course materials in secure ways. There are youth facilities around the country where technology is enabling those kids to learn more or less as effectively as other high school kids remotely, safely, but they have a lot of security on their WiFi. ... If someone says we cant do this safely, we know its not true ... and nows the time to confront things like that.

Models for Support

The Wyoming Girls School, one of the first juvenile justice facilities in the country to follow a trauma-informed care model , knew its students would be particularly vulnerable as communities went into lockdown. Most of its residents have a history of trauma; many have mental health or special education needs in addition to traditional instructional needs.

In the past seven weeks, the school has quarantined dorms of students together, but continued in-person classes within living quarters. Teachers hold both live classes in their own subject and coordinate with the teachers in other dorms to hold virtual classes in other subjects. Therapy and special education meetings are held via video chats, in some cases, several times a day, according to Principal Dixie Cooper.

The school has had the benefit of space and luck. There have been only 579 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and seven deaths at all in the state as of the start of May, and Jones said that while there were scares in which staff have been sent home for quarantines, no one has gotten sick so far. Teachers and students have their temperatures taken several times a day.

While many facilities have taken to limiting outdoor activities to prevent students from congregating, Cooper said the school is arranging frequent outdoor activities that naturally require distance, such as softball, to give students exercise without exposure.

Teachers have also tried to acknowledge the crisis for both staff and students, such as creating time capsules about the pandemic. Just being in lockdown or on quarantine is traumatic. So were having, in addition to providing services, to recognize these are kids that are in an unprecedented time, Jones said. I mean, I think well all look back at COVID-19 and remember where we were and some of the things that happened.

But most of all, Jones and Cooper said they have reached out to students parents, teachers, probation officers, and others via more frequent phone calls and video conferencing.

Across the board, the kids and the case managers have said the fact that they can see eye to eye, even though its not in person, the fact that they can look at their parents on a regular basis, multiple times a week, has really been beneficial and we will continue that process, Jones said. They have daily contact with their parents or their families or guardians or whoever. ... Weve even had kids be excited because they got to see that the parents had a puppy or they get to have a visual contact with siblings or grandparents or whomever else.

Building Connections

The additional outreach has been so helpful in reducing students anxiety and behavior issues, Cooper said, that the school plans to continue to use additional video conferencing for visits for families and friends in areas of the rural state too far away from the school for regular in-person visits.

Both the Wyoming educators and Dominici said students need support from their schools, to help keep them connected both academically and emotionally to their peers outside of prison. In New Orleans, students in the adult jail have Chromebooks preloaded with the same remote learning resources being used by other students in the district. But advocates argue many students who are released during this time period could end up completely disengaged from school.

Im acutely aware there are a lot of facilities where every week there are teachers from the district going in ... and I know some places where theres virtually nothing happening, Dominici said. Sometimes I think whats happening is once theres an outbreak, all your attention is on [the district] and these just sort of slide. ... And thats criminal.
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump has accused China of a coronavirus cover-up, suggested the government may have allowed the disease to spread, and threatened to extract a substantial price from Beijing for the pandemic.

Chinese officials have charged the Trump administration with willful ignorance, dangerous mismanagement and even attempted blackmail.

The near-daily bomb-throwing between Washington and Beijing has alarmed national security experts who fear a new Cold War is brewing between the two superpowers at a moment of global crisis.

"This is such a dangerous dynamic for the world," said Rachel Esplin Odell, a China expert with the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, which advocates restraint in U.S. military policy.

Both governments are trying to profit domestically off the other's failures," she said, fighting fire with fire as the world burns.

The fallout could be far-reaching  prolonging the pandemic, deepening the global economic crisis, jeopardizing delicate trade talks and opening new geopolitical rifts, Odell and others said.

"This is kind of the archetypal issue on which you would hope to have cooperation among the whole world  but especially among leading powers  because the downside is so high when you dont have it," said Jacob Stokes, a senior China policy analyst with the U.S. Institute of Peace, a nonpartisan institute.

Worst in 'nearly 50 years'

So far, there is no indication the heightened tensions will lead to a military confrontation, although the U.S. Navy conducted a "freedom of navigation operation" recently in the South China Sea, in an area Beijing claims as its territory.

But U.S.-China relations are "the worst theyve been in nearly 50 years," said Stokes, a former national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.

One of the first casualties could be the much-touted trade deal Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He signed at the White House in January  a "phase one" agreement that White House officials said would be followed by a broader pact dealing with more contentious issues.

Story continues

More: What the fight between Biden and Trump over China means for the 2020 election

It's unclear if China will be willing or able to follow through on its commitments in phase one, which included a promise to buy an extra $200 billion in American goods and services over the next two years  from agricultural products to cars to medical instruments.

Stokes said that pledge was going to be hard to fulfill in normal economic times. With China's economy now shrinking because of the pandemic, President Xi Jinping's government may seek to renegotiate or renege on the deal.

"And can you have phase two if phase one didnt work?" Stokes said. "Thats a big challenge."

On Monday, Trump's treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, said he expected Xi to follow through on the January agreement despite the increased tensions and the economic crunch.

Police officers wearing face masks to protect against the spread of new coronavirus stand guard at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province, April 8, 2020.

"If they don't, there would be very significant consequences in the relationship and in the global economy as to how people would do business with them," Mnuchin said in an interview with Fox Business Network.

But even as Mnuchin hopes to preserve the trade deal, Trump has floated the idea of imposing new tariffs on China and trying to extract reparations for the economic and human toll of the pandemic.

"They made a horrible mistake and they didn't want to admit it," the president said Sunday during a Fox News virtual town hall. "They tried to cover it. They tried to put it out, just like a fire," but they failed, he said.

The president said he's looking at ways to make China pay, but he did not offer specifics.

"We haven't determined the final amount yet," Trump said last week when asked about possible reparations. "Its very substantial."

If Trump follows through on threats of new tariffs or other economic retaliation, it could dramatically worsen the economic crisis, Odell.

"It would have a chilling effect on the global economy and markets," she said.

A senior Chinese official, Executive Le Yucheng, dismissed Trump's remarks as a "farce" and likened the idea of reparations to "blackmail." In an interview April 29 with NBC News, Le accused the Trump administration of doing nothing for 50 days after China locked down the coronavirus' epicenter and warned of its deadly spread.

Yong Wang, who directs the American studies center at Peking University in Beijing, said relentless rhetoric from the Trump administration blaming China for the coronavirus outbreak risks a new "Cold War." It could also undermine the view of America among the Chinese public, he said.

"It used to be taken for granted in China that the U.S. political system was reasonably trustworthy. That has started to change," he said.

Like many Chinese political experts and government officials, Wang believes Trumps accusations against China are part of a ploy to deflect domestic criticism of his own handling of the pandemic. Trump has seen his poll numbers slip in recent weeks, with Biden holding a slim lead in several battleground states.

China has also come under fire for its lack of transparency over the outbreak, particularly in the initial stage, when it censored information about the virus and silenced doctors who tried to raise alarms. That sparked an intense backlash inside China  which Xi quickly moved to stifle  as well as abroad.

Even now, U.S. officials and health experts have questioned whether China's infection rates and death toll can be trusted. Raising further concerns, Beijing has restricted access to its research on the virus, according to a CNN report.

The U.S. is not the only country angry over China's handling of the virus, and other world leaders have already seen the potential fallout from picking a fight with Beijing. In Australia, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus. China's response was swift and included threats of an economic boycott of Australian products and accusations that Morrison was engaging in "despicable opportunism."

Does Trump need to tread carefully?

The desire to make China pay is understandable, said Dan Blumenthal, director of Asian studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank. But Blumenthal, a former Pentagon official in the George W. Bush administration, said Trump has to tread carefully because of America's reliance on China for medical supplies.

"He doesnt want to get into a war of words with Xi for reasons of Chinese medical equipment exports and other critical things we need," he said. In the long term, American politicians and the public will "want to be far less dependent" on China and will support efforts to separate the two economies. But such an effort could take years, and it will come at a price, he said.

"U.S. leaders are going to have to be very upfront with the public that for a time these products will be costlier," Blumenthal said.

Wang, the Peking University expert, said that if the U.S. pushes ahead with threats to seek coronavirus-related damages against China or to "decouple" the two economies, it probably would backfire. China is already starting to show signs that it will be the first economy to recover from the crisis, putting Beijing in a stronger position to retaliate if relations deteriorate further.

Wang also said that if the U.S. tries to alienate China diplomatically, then Beijing will move to form deeper alliances in Europe, Asia and around the world.

"Lets be clear: China doesnt want any of this to happen. It wants to cooperate," he said. "But it will be prepared to mount economic counterattacks if China hawks in the Trump administration continue on this dangerous path."

Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump in Beijing, on May 9, 2019.

Asad Majeed Khan, Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., said his country has not felt pressure to choose between two important allies so far. But the heated rhetoric is concerning, he said.

"Obviously when you have tensions escalate between two of the largest economies in the world and the most powerful countries ... at a time when the world needs to come together," it can undermine the global capacity to deal with this extraordinary challenge, Khan said.

China video mocks Trump response

Odell said that whether the Trump and Xi like it or not, the U.S. and China must work together now on everything from the development of a vaccine to the global supply of medical supplies.

The world needs U.S.-China economic integration and political collaboration "to get through the current crisis," she said.

For now, there are few signs that will happen any time soon.

In a startling propaganda video, China's government has openly mocked Trump's attempts to down play the virus. The animated video, posted on April 30 by China's state-run Xinhua news agency, uses Lego-like figures to promote a narrative that China handled the outbreak responsibly while the U.S. dithered.

"We discovered a new virus," says a warrior figure intended to represent China.

"So what?" chirps a Statue of Liberty, a Trump stand-in. "It's only a flu" and "It will magically go away in April."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus pandemic threatens new 'Cold War' between U.S. and China
Chief Biney, the Deputy National Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), is suggesting to the government in power that the special prosecutors office which is led by an anti-corruption campaigner, Martin Amidu should be converted into an isolation centre for COVID-19 positive patients.



According to Chief Biney, the SPs office has failed to live up to expectation alleging that under Martin Amidus watch there is corruption going on in his office and the country as a whole.



Speaking on Happy FMs 'Epa Hoa Daben' show with Kwame Afrifa-Mensah, Chief Biney said, I heard someone suggesting that the Government of the day should convert the special prosecutors office to an isolation centre for COVID-19 patients and I think i agree with whoever said that. Right under his watch there is corruption going on there and he cant curb it.



He added that When the Special Prosecutor was appointed, we all believed in him, we thought he is the saviour for Ghanas corruption. We saw the king of jubilation from the NPP members, they were hailing Amidu [Citizen Vigilante]."



Under his watch, there have been at least 200 cases of premix fuel diversions in the country since the NPP Government assumed office from January to October 2017, costing the country about 7 million cedis.



Cash for seat saga nothing has happened. A questionable procurement at the National Youth Authority (NYA) has not been investigated.



The President allowing himself to be misled by the former Energy Minister to the approval of a new deal for the 510 million dollars Ameri thermal plant has not come to a logical conclusion. So all these happening at a time we think we have a Citizen vigilante as SP.



His comments come on the back of recent happenings of corruption cases in the country which no one has been prosecuted.

Source: happyghana.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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Anyone thinking that Constellation Brands (NYSE:STZ) was starting to regret its multibillion-dollar investment in Canopy Growth (NASDAQ:CGC) just found out how far off base they were. Constellation announced on May 1 that it had exercised nearly 18.9 million warrants to buy another 5.1% of Canopy Growth's outstanding shares for $245 million Canadian, which translates to close to US$174 million.

Canopy Growth has been a major drag on Constellation's financial performance every quarter since the big adult beverage company invested $4 billion in the Canadian cannabis producer in 2018. The cannabis industry continues to face significant challenges, and Canopy is still losing a lot of money. So why did Constellation up its stake in Canopy Growth? Here are the top three reasons.

1. Cannabis' long-term opportunity

Constellation Brands CEO Bill Newlands stated in the press release announcing his company's exercise of Canopy Growth warrants, "While global legalization of cannabis is still in its infancy, we continue to believe the long-term opportunity in this evolving market is substantial." This reiterated Constellation's view when it first invested in Canopy.

The adult beverage giant has maintained for quite a while that the global cannabis market could top $250 billion within the next 15 years or so. To put this number in perspective, it's more than twice the size of the total U.S. beer market today, the market where Constellation makes most of its money currently.

Constellation's latest investment shows that the company still believes in the potential of the cannabis industry. And Newlands was correct that the global legalization of cannabis is still only in its infancy. Canada legalized adult-use recreational marijuana less than three years ago, becoming the first major economic power to establish a recreational pot market that was legal at the national level.

2. Canopy Growth poised to be the biggest cannabis winner

Believing in the future of the global cannabis market is one thing; continuing to pour a lot of money into Canopy Growth is another. But Constellation is convinced that Canopy Growth is poised to be the dominant player in the cannabis industry over the long run.

Newlands said unabashedly that "Canopy is best positioned to win in the emerging cannabis space." He said basically the same thing in his comments in Constellation Brands' Q4 conference call last month. What's behind this belief that Canopy Growth will be the industry's biggest winner?

Canopy continues to command the highest market share in Canada. Thanks to Constellation's investments, it also is in a stronger financial position than its peers. Newlands thinks that Canopy's new cannabis-infused beverages are "game-changers" for the industry. Canopy is in the best position to quickly enter the U.S. market if federal marijuana laws change.

3. Confidence in David Klein

Perhaps the most important reason why Constellation is betting even bigger on Canopy Growth, though, is the high level of confidence in new Canopy Growth CEO David Klein. Newlands made clear just how much Constellation supports Klein, stating, "we are confident in the strategic direction of the company under David Klein and his team."

That's not surprising in the least. Klein formerly served as CFO of Constellation Brands. He and Newlands worked together for years. As Canopy's largest shareholder with several seats on the company's board of directors, Constellation hand-picked Klein to lead the cannabis producer.

Klein has already taken aggressive steps to put Canopy Growth on a path to profitability. In mid-April, Canopy announced a restructuring of its global operations to cut costs and conserve cash.

Smart investment?

Constellation Brands has its reasons to up its stake in Canopy Growth, but is it a smart investment? Only time will tell. But with Constellation's confidence in the long-term future of the global cannabis industry and David Klein's leadership of the company, now was a great time to pull the trigger in exercising some of its warrants. The marijuana stock has lost two-thirds of its value over the last 12 months and is the cheapest it's been since late 2017.

It's possible that Constellation could buy even more of Canopy Growth in the future. The company still holds nearly 140 million warrants to purchase additional Canopy shares.

However, it's also possible that Constellation could still sell some of its Canopy Growth stock. Constellation stated that "depending on market conditions, general economic and industry conditions, Canopy Growth's business and financial condition and/or relevant factors, Constellation Brands may develop other plans or intentions in the future."
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The new schedule for the exam would be announced later and candidates will be informed at least 15 days in advance.

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has deferred the term-end exams scheduled for June in view of the coronavirus lockdown. The new schedule for the exam would be announced later and candidates will be informed at least 15 days in advance.

The term examinations were slated to begin from 1 June.

The last date for submission of assignments, exam forms and re-admission has been extended till 31 May. Project submission process has also been made online for which guidelines will be issued separately.

Students are advised to keep visiting the official website of IGNOU www.ignou.ac.in at regular intervals for updates.

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The university last month extended the deadline for submission of the online examination form without late fee for the June exam from 30 April to 15 May.

In April, Human Resource Development Minister (HRD) Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had asked National Testing Agency (NTA) to postpone the last date of acceptance of application forms for various entrance exams, including IGNOU PhD and management exams, by a month due to the coronavirus lockdown.

The deadline for online registration for PhD and MBA entrance exam has been pushed to 15 May.

According to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, COVID-19 has infected over 46,000 people across the country and has claimed more than 1,500 lives.
Syracuse, N.Y.  Thousands of Central New Yorkers have been tested recently for coronavirus antibodies as local doctors begin rolling out the new tests.

At least one large family practice, a Fayetteville dermatologist and Upstate Medical University have started conducting the tests over the past 10 days.

Weve seen a huge demand for these tests, said Dr. Mitchell Brodey, president of Family Care Medical Group, which has more than 80 doctors and its own laboratory.

Brodey said more than 1,700 patients have been tested since the practice began offering the same-day blood tests April 24. The rate of positives was 1.7%, he said. Thats a statistical tie with the state Health Departments antibody testing survey, which found that 1.9% percent of Central New Yorkers tested positive.

The antibody tests are available only through doctors; you cant just walk into a hospital or clinic and get one. Theyre different from the nasal swab testing that has been done for months at places like the Syracuse Community Health Center.

The nasal swab tests tell you if youre infected with the virus now. The antibody blood tests reveal whether you were infected in the past with the virus, known as SARS-CoV-2. It takes two weeks or longer after recovering from COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, for the bodys immune system to create enough antibodies to be detected.

Brodey, who is also division chief of infectious disease at Upstate Medical University, said he wanted to help science in two ways: test the tests themselves for accuracy, and get a better handle on the how widespread the disease is in Central New York.

There are a number of questions that need to be answered, and we feel were in a good position to answer them, he said.

Brodey said the tests, made by Abbott Laboratories, are highly accurate. Theyre the same tests being used at Upstate and by the University of Washington, where the U.S. coronavirus outbreak began. While no novel coronavirus tests have gone through the full federal approval process. Abbotts is one of the few that have received an emergency use authorization from the FDA. The company says it plans to produce and ship 4 million tests this month and 20 million a month by June in the U.S.

To help insure the Abbott tests were valid, Brodey said family care doctors called patients who had earlier tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. The first 50 known COVID-19 patients tested positive for the antibodies, he said, assuring doctors the tests were reliable.

Tests results are being sent to the state health department, Brodey said. Those results will help the state decide which regions can begin the first small steps toward restarting the local economy.

If people are going to reopen, this is the data that is necessary, he said. The data give public officials a baseline of the infection rate

A few people who had tested positive for the virus did not test positive for the antibodies, however.

The problem is some people dont make antibodies, he said.

The jury is also out on whether having had the virus, known as SARS-CoV-2, will make you immune from it later. Studies show that people who had this viruss close relative, the original SARS virus, were immune for up to four years. We dont know if thats the case with this virus.

If you had an illness more than two weeks ago, that test can reliably tell you if youve been exposed to and infected with SARS-CoV-2, said Dr. Steven Thomas, chief of the Infectious Disease Unit at Upstate Medical University. Is it going to tell if youre immune? No. We cant tell you that based on that test result. If people are interested in understanding whether theyre protected or not, I would recommend they dont be tested.

People who develop antibodies, however, can donate plasma that is injected into COVID-19 patients. Last month, Upstate began infusing patients as part of a national emergency treatment program approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Doctors who use Upstates laboratory for testing are now offering the tests, Thomas said. Since the tests were introduced last Wednesday, Thomas said, about 26 people have received them.

Thomas said the antibody testing also helps researchers and government officials determine if social distancing and other measures have controlled the virus.

The antibody tests will have value in understanding a little bit better how prevalent the infection was in our community, Thomas said. Thats important because it can help understand the dynamics of how this is transmitted, who is at risk of being infected and how well our public health interventions worked.

Thomas said he expects the tests will soon be offered more widely.

My assumption is that most practices and the labs they use will have access to this test in the near future, he said.

There are plenty of antibody tests online, but Onondaga County Health Commissioner Dr. Indu Gupta last month warned people to avoid them and get a test from their doctor instead.

Dont just go because someone is advertising one, Gupta said last week.

The FDA on Monday moved to crack down on manufacturers of potentially fraudulent tests that are flooding the market.

Brodey said doctors in the family care group have been offering patients the choice of having the tests, with a special emphasis on people who are working with the public, such as police, firefighters and teachers. The state has set up testing centers in grocery stores, including Price Chopper and Wegmans. Cuomo said the health department has conducted 15,000 antibody tests statewide, but the state has not broken that down by region.

Brodey said the results of the family medical group testing corroborates state data that suggest a low rate of infection in Central New York. The state defines that as Onondaga, Oswego, Cayuga, Cortland and Madison counties.

Its here, but not a lot of people have it, he said. Where its going to be in a month or two, we dont know.

MORE ON THE CORONAVIRUS

A coronavirus antibody test wont get you back to work. You might not even be immune, officials warn

CNYs restart after coronavirus hinges on a number you never heard of and cant count

Onondaga County has lowest reported rate of coronavirus deaths in NY

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources
Beancounters must get better at flagging poor quality audits to avoid misleading shareholders and members of the public, the accounting regulator has warned.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has found most accounting firms are failing to assess whether their audits of major companies are any good until after they have already published them.

Over the last few months alone, the FRC has launched probes into EY's audit of scandal-hit hospital group NMC Health, after the company discovered a mountain of undisclosed debt, and PwC and EY's audits of Thomas Cook, after the travel firm collapsed last year.

The Financial Reporting Council has found most accounting firms are failing to assess whether their audits of major companies are any good until after they have already published them

The watchdog has called for better use of so-called 'audit quality indicators' (AQIs), such as how much time is spent reviewing the judgements in the audit, how much of the work is done by senior staff, and how heavy each partner's workload is.

It has called on firms to broaden the range of AQIs they evaluate, and report on them monthly.

The FRC's executive director of supervision, David Rule, said: 'Audit firms need a relentless focus on improving audit quality.

'Public reporting of a consistent set of audit quality indicators is required to provide companies and investors another window on audit quality.

'It is clear that improvements are needed in this area and the FRC will be consulting on proposals in due course.'
CAIRO - The head of Libyas internationally recognized government Tuesday called for a renewal of U.N.-brokered talks to end divisions in the oil-rich country, amid escalating military clashes and increasing tensions between the main players in the capital Tripoli.

Libya has been in turmoil since 2011, when a civil war toppled long-time dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed. The country has since split between rival administrations in the east and the west, each backed by armed groups.

Last year, eastern-based forces under military commander Khalifa Hifter launched an offensive trying to take Tripoli, clashing with an array of militias loosely allied with the U.N.-supported but weak government in the capital.

Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj on Tuesday urged political forces to quickly resume U.N.-brokered talks to reach a comprehensive road map toward elections.

He said the road map could include amending a landmark U.N.-brokered agreement to unite the country in 2015 and appoint a new government or agree on a plan for elections in the short term.

This call comes as state institutions are increasingly divided, and some officials in these institutions have individually made decisions that exceeded their role and their authority, Sarraj said.

Sarraj was apparently referring to increasing tensions between his government and the Tripoli-based Central Bank of Libya and with an anti-graft body. The bank has resisted attempts by Sarrajs government to use the countrys foreign reserves to stave off financial catastrophe. The central bank holds the countrys oil revenues and billions of dollars in foreign reserves.

Tensions rose to the surface Monday when the audit bureau in Tripoli announced that its administrative director was abducted by a militia tied to the Interior Ministry. The audit bureau is an independent body appointed by the Libyan parliament in Tripoli and is a rare check on the misappropriation of funds.

The audit bureau accused the Interior Ministry of forcibly disappearing Reda Gergab to prevent him from uncovering financial irregularities and blocking the ministrys large and suspicious transactions.

Although the Tripoli-based government was set up by the U.N. and recognized by Western countries, many of its institutions, including the Interior Ministry, are in reality staffed and controlled by unruly militias.

Justifying Gergabs detention, the Interior Ministry argued that the public health crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic required the disbursal of urgent funds to rescue the Libyan people and that the government is merely carrying out responsibilities undermined by the anti-corruption agency.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Sarrajs message was the same message the U.N. has been pushing.

In a return to the U.N.-supported political discussions its important that all the parties involved, whether Libyan or those who have influence over those parties, move in the same direction and that is towards political talks, he said.

The U.N.-backed prime minister has become more isolated, both internationally and domestically, said Jalel Harchaoui, a Libya expert at The Netherlands Institute of International Relations.

Serraj has been under many contradictory sources of pressure, and his position has become less tenable. His call for a return to the U.N. process fits within that context of great frailty, he said.

Sarrajs move came two weeks after Hifter declared the U.N.-brokered deal that created the Tripoli-based government a thing of the past, and pledged his authorities would move toward creating a new government.

The declaration has threatened to deepen the chasm between east and west Libya and further complicate U.N. efforts to broker a political settlement to the civil war.

Fighting escalated Tuesday as Tripoli-allied militias attempted to take a military base held by Hifter forces in Tripoli. Hifters self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces said they repelled the attack.

___

Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
Layoffs. Furloughs. Shutdowns. Business closings. Investment losses. Millions of families are feeling the trickle-down economic pain of the coronavirus pandemic, and divorced families are dealing with their own challenges.

What happens when you lose your job or your hours are cut and you have monthly child support and alimony payments to make?

With a staggering 30 million Americans filing for unemployment by the end of April, family law attorneys are hearing from clients seeking to modify those child and spousal support payments. After all, these payments are calculated on income histories that didnt take into account this kind of unprecedented event. We saw this in the 2008 recession, too, but the current crisis is the likes of which our country hasnt seen since the 1930s.

Whether you are on the paying or receiving end of child or spousal support, here are four tips for navigating this challenging time or any crisis that affects your household income and your ability to pay or receive child support or alimony.

1. Communicate early and often.

As soon as an event  a layoff, a furlough, a pay cut, loss of a big client  occurs that lowers your income and could affect your ability to make your current monthly payment, talk to your ex. You might be able to live off savings for a while, but you want to give a heads up that your situation has changed. Even if your income hasnt yet been impacted, talk with your ex as soon as you have the feeling it will be. If youre tightening your belt, your ex might appreciate knowing they should do the same  just in case payments are reduced in the future.

2. Dont wait to request a modification via court.

Generally speaking, you want to ask for modification to your payments in your state court as soon as possible. Again, you might be able to manage your cashflow for a bit or think you will land a new job or more work soon. But you also might not, and your request will take time to go through court, especially as many courts have been shut down or are operating on modified schedules or will be reopening with significant backlogs. In 2008, it took about a year from the time that clients had a drop in income until they were able to modify their payments in line with their new financial situation. And back then courts, of course, remained open throughout the downturn.
'Recently we held a video conference with a host (about 100) of US companies that want to move their base from China to Uttar Pradesh.'

As migrant labour from across the country head to their homes in various states, Uttar Pradesh is staring at lakhs of them coming back.

The state government has set up an experts panel to coordinate with other governments the task of bring back the locals.

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's government believes the coronavirus pandemic is not just a crisis; it is also looking at opportunities from it.

As the supply chain from China gets disrupted, UP has made early moves to attract multinationals who may look to shift their operations elsewhere.

"Our endeavour is to bring back the economy of the state on track and at the same time ensure that the infection is in check," Adityanath tells Arun Lakshman.

Lakhs of migrant workers from UP are in other states/cities who are desperate to return home. Maharashtra has said the home states must bear the expenses of migrant labour's transfer and housing, etc. Is your government prepared to do that?

Taking a humanitarian view of the longing of the migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh stranded in other states to return to their homes, we have decided to bring them back.

On the third day of lockdown-1, we had brought back about four lakh workers from Delhi and its adjoining states.

After the implementation of lockdown-2, we have been bringing back the labourers in a phased manner from other states.

So far, 13,000 labourers from Haryana and 4000 from Madhya Pradesh have reached their homes safely.

Similarly, we are bringing back our workers and labourers from other states including Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.

We have appointed 32 nodal officers (16 IAS and 16 IPS officers) to help the migrant workers living in other states of the country. These officers have contacted more than seven lakh migrant workers so far and have managed to solve their problems.

Our government has told all the other states of the country that they should take care of our workers, and we will not let their workers and labourers face any kind of problem here. For this, we have appointed a nodal officer in all the 75 districts of the state, who are contacting citizens of other states living in Uttar Pradesh and resolving their problems.

As far as the expenses are concerned, we have asked the governments of other states to provide the necessary goods and facilities to the people of our state, and we are ready to pay for them.

How many migrant workers are you prepared to take back? In many villages, there is fear among locals that the returning workers may bring the virus from the cities. How do you plan to handle this fear?

Our government is bringing back more than 15 lakh migrant workers and labourers from other states of the country.

All those who are being brought are being screened properly.

Once they are here, instead of being sent home directly they are being kept in the quarantine centres for a few days where they are being provided food through the community kitchens.

Random and pool testing of such workers are also being done.

It is only after we are completely sure that they are not infected that we are sending them home after giving them food grains and Rs 1,000.

In order to prevent home quarantined people from coming out, monitoring committees have been set up in rural and urban areas to ensure that these people follow social distancing and remain in their homes. Local people need not fear about this at all.

Two of your MLAs have been in the news for their controversial statements during the coronavirus pandemic. Suresh Tiwari asked people to not buy vegetables from Muslims; and Shyam Prakash levelled corruption charges against Hardoi health authorities. How do you plan to deal with them?

My government does not support any such statement. Whoever has given such a statement is wrong. The party is looking into the matter, and whatever decision is appropriate, will be taken.

Regarding allegations of corruption on health officials, we will take suitable action by conducting an inquiry into the matter.

How do you propose to end the lockdown in UP? What will be allowed to reopen, and what won't be?

Our government will follow whatever instructions will be received from Prime Minister Narendra (Damodardas) Modi in this regard.

The central government guidelines have come and based on these we have come up with our own guidelines so that the gains made during lockdown 1 and 2 are not lost.

We have started all the industrial activities which have been allowed to be resumed by the Centre, following social distancing.

Work on big projects like Purvanchal Expressway, Bundelkhand Expressway and Gorakhpur Expressway has started again.

Our endeavour is to bring back the economy of the state on track and at the same time ensure that the infection is in check.

What has your government done differently in combating COVID-19 as compared to other states?

Our government took many steps which are completely different from other states.

Uttar Pradesh is the first state in the country to do pool testing. By marking hotspots in districts, we started the process of making the three-kilometre area as a containment zone and five-kilometre area as a buffer zone.

To give a boost to the economy of the state, we formed a committee under the chairmanship of 11 ministers.

To effectively curb coronavirus, our government formed Team 11, under which it made 11 committees headed by 11 senior officials.

We deployed 32 nodal officers to ensure that the workers of Uttar Pradesh living in other states do not have to face any problem. Other states have also followed this arrangement.

Apart from this, we also moved fast to bring back our migrant workers.

We have also brought back 11,500 students from Kota.

In Prayagraj, 10,000 children preparing for competitive examinations have reached their homes safely.

Uttar Pradesh also has the distinction of distributing most amount of foodgrain as compared to other states of the country.

Under the first phase, foodgrain were distributed to 14 crore people through 3,23,87,640 ration cards.

In the second phase, under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, rice was distributed on 1,78,00,000 ration cards.

An amount of Rs 280 crore was distributed as maintenance allowance to 27,87,000 workers of the state.

Payments of wages amounting to Rs 524.51 crore were made in 35968 industrial units, and 6603 closed units were restarted.

We also ramped up COVID-19 testing facilities in a very short span of time. About a month ago we started with one lab which tested about 50 samples, today we have 17 labs which are testing more than 5,000 samples.

You did not attend your father's funeral. Any regrets over it?

I am a monk. For me, power is not a means to personal comfort, but to service of the masses.

The 23 crore people of the state are my family, and my only purpose in life is to serve them.

Coronavirus is a contagious disease and Uttar Pradesh has also been affected by this infection. During the time of such a pandemic, I cannot leave this family of 23 crore people.

Nothing is above the interest of the people of Uttar Pradesh.

All my family members know me well, and fully endorse my decision.

You have also seen the advantages from the coronavirus pandemic, as you have been wooing companies from seeking to shift from China.

We welcome those companies wholeheartedly that want to shut down their business in China. We are also making changes in our industrial and regional policy regarding this.

We will also provide special packages to those companies who will invest here.

Recently we held a video conference with a host (about 100) of US companies that want to move their base from China to Uttar Pradesh. These are big companies associated with logistics, scientific instrumentation, electronics, and automobile industries.

These companies had already invested in China and now they have expressed their desire to invest in Uttar Pradesh.
By Trend

Military units of the armed forces of Armenia violated ceasefire 24 times throughout the day in various direction of the front, using large-caliber machine guns and sniper rifles, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.

Armenian armed forces, located in Aygedzor village of Berd region and on nameless hills in Krasnoselsk region subjected to fire the positions of the Azerbaijan Army located in Munjuglu village of Tovuz region, in Zamanly village and on nameless hills in Gadabay region.

The positions of Azerbaijan Army were also fired from the positions of Armenian military units located near the occupied Garakhanbayli, Horadiz villages of Fuzuli region, as well as from the positions located on nameless hills in Goranboy and Terter regions.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
EU and UK Alert to Key Technologies Unfairly Acquired by the CCP

As the CCP virus ravages Europe, Chinese competitors are taking the opportunity to acquire and control important high-tech companies in Europe and obtain key technologies. The European Union and the United Kingdom are on alert.

The Chinese state-backed owners of Imagination Technologies have committed to keeping the company headquartered in the UK, amidst a row over the companys efforts to take control of Imaginations board of directors.

Imagination Technologies Group is a global semiconductor and software design company, owned by Chinas Canyon Bridge Capital Partners.

Many European companies face a sharp economic downturn and declining stock levels amid the crisis caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, a novel coronavirus from China. There are concerns that Chinese rival companies will take the opportunity to bid for these key enterprises.

John Lee, a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute said, On restricting Chinese access to know-how and innovation, it clearly needed to be in better coordination with Europe because Europe is the primary source of technological know-how leakage to China in the world.

MI6, the foreign intelligence service, and MI5, its domestic counterpart, have raised concerns about Beijings response to the virus and the UKs relationship with China. They are calling for tighter controls over high-tech and other strategic industries to protect UKs intelligence and industry.

European countries should buy stakes in companies to stave off the threat of Chinese takeovers, EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said. There is a real risk that businesses that are vulnerable can be the object of a takeover.

Lee added, COVID-19 has significantly changed, or is changing European views on China, now more appetite in Europe to consider harder industrial policies against China, and more cooperation on the mistreated entity list between the United States and Europe.
New Delhi: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Tuesday (May 5) decided to extend COVID-19 lockdown in the state till 29 May, after witnessing a spurt in coronavirus cases.

Telangana government also decided to re-open all liquor shops except those in containment zones with 16 per cent hike in liquor prices from Wednesday. The decision was taken by the state cabinet at its meeting chaired by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao.

The Chief Minister reportedly said that his government would not tolerate the chaotic situation witnessed in Delhi, Bengaluru and other cities. The shops can remain open from 10 am to 6 pm and sell liquor only to those wearing masks.

KCR said the government had to take a decision to re-open liquor shops as all four states which share borders with Telangana have re-opened them. "If we don`t open shops here, it will lead to smuggling from neighbouring states," he said.

Meanwhile, the state government today released Rs 12 lakh for the testing and the treatment of journalists, who have tested positive for the coronavirus in Delhi.

Three journalists from Telangana based in New Delhi have tested positive for Covid-19. The Telangana government on Tuesday said it had released Rs 12 lakh for testing and treatment of the three, working for a Telugu television channel.

"The Government of Telangana has taken all steps for the containment of the spread of the coronavirus. The government has released Rs 12 lakh to take care of testing and treatment of journalists," said an official statement.

Initially, the state government had remitted Rs 75,000 in cash for primary contact testing and had assured of assistance for the treatment of positive cases among Telugu media personnel. Further, the state government has released a budget to the Resident Commissioner, Telangana Bhavan, for the treatment of three positive cases, who are under treatment and the testing of their contacts.



(With Agency Inputs)
An inquiry launched to probe the "serious" case of 137 COVID-19 infections, and a death, in a single CRPF battalion will be completed soon, officials said on Tuesday, even as the force is undertaking new measures to combat the outbreak.

They said the probe is being monitored by CRPF chief A P Maheshwari and it will be taken to its "logical end at the earliest."



"The coronavirus outbreak in the 31st battalion of the force has been viewed seriously. The Director General (DG) has directed to gear up the force to face the challenge of the pandemic during 'hotspot policing' duties and while rendering other security related tasks," a senior officer said.

There are 137 positive cases in this unit till now and six more results are awaited, he said.

Overall, the force has 146 confirmed cases, with two recoveries.

The officer said all the formation commanders have been asked to ensure that required logistics, anti-COVID-19 procedures and immunity boosting measures are in place in all the units.

The jawans who have contracted the infection and are under quarantine and are being counselled, they said.

The official said the force commanders have been asked to be "undettered" on the operational front as well for community service initiatives related to COVID-19 relief work.

All senior officials are working through a secure online system as the headquarters of the force has been sealed following two staffers working there being detected positive, they said.

The case in the 31st battalion is linked to "dichotomous orders" issued for quarantine of asymptomatic personnel who join the unit back from leave or have an exposure to an infected person.

While the general order in the force was a mandatory quarantine of 14 days for such personnel, it later came to light that the medical wing of the paramilitary issued a separate order in April, stating that doctors and paramedics can be taken off the quarantine if they do not show any symptom after five days.

Officials have indicated that the primary source of the COVID-19 infection in this unit could be a constable (nursing assistant) who joined the battalion after leave period at his home in the NCR.

He is stated to have undergone a quarantine of only five days and he tested positive for coronavirus a few days later. However, the source of infection to this jawan is yet unclear.

It is also being probed if any personnel of the 31st battalion, based in Mayur Vihar, Delhi, could have been infected during a law and order duty along with Delhi Police but remained asymptomatic.

CRPF DG Maheshwari has also asked the Additional DG (Medical) of the Home Ministry to take appropriate action on the separate guidelines issued by the medical directorate for five days' quarantine instead of the standard health ministry guidelines for a mandatory 14-day period.

In Central Armed Police Forces, the ADG medical that functions under the MHA (ministry of home affairs) looks after the affairs of such medical wings and they operate as an autonomous setup in the force.

Meanwhile, an association of retired paramilitary officials on Monday demanded action into the "lapses" in this case.

"This is totally against the orders of the Ministry of Family and Health Welfare in which 14 days' quarantine period has been made mandatory," the general secretary of the Confederation of Ex-Paramilitary Forces Welfare Association, Ranbir Singh, said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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A Frontier Airlines Airbus A320 aircraft.

Luke.Travel/shutterstock

Frontier Airlines is offering a new seat type for passengers looking to social distance in the skies.

The "More Room" seat offers a blocked middle so passengers aren't sitting directly next to each other.

Frontier is offering the product starting at $39 on flights from May until August while also requiring passengers to wear face coverings.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Ultralow-cost carrier Frontier Airlines is adding a product to its extensive menu of for-purchase extras: peace of mind.

The Denver-based carrier is known for its cheap flights and ancillary-revenue-based business model that includes charging for extras ranging from carry-on bags and seat assignments to soft drinks and snacks. Now it's offering passengers a new type of seat for passengers looking to fly and social distance.

The "More Room" seat, which can be had for as little as $39 depending on the flight, comes with a blocked middle seat to ensure distancing in the row, according to the airline's announcement on Monday.

At least five additional rows of the new seats are being added to each aircraft for a total of 18 seats in addition to existing "Stretch" seats in the front of the aircraft that will also feature the blocked middle.

A Stretch seat on Frontier Airlines.

Thomas Pallini/Business Insider

Frontier's move to offer the seat for purchase from May until August, at the earliest, follows United Airlines' announcement to block all middle seats on its mainline aircraft to fight social distancing, effectively reducing capacity by a third on most of its aircraft. When asked by CNBC why the airline didn't opt to block all middle rows, Frontier CEO Barry Biffle explained that the practice would result in rising airfare.

As a low-cost airline, Frontier's aircraft feature a high-density configuration where seats are closer to each other by a few inches to fit as many passengers as possible. A Frontier Airlines Airbus A321 narrow-body aircraft, for example, has only four fewer seats than an American Airlines Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner wide-body jet, according to SeatGuru.

Story continues

Standard seats on Frontier Airlines.

Thomas Pallini/Business Insider

Frontier has taken measures to ensure safety. The airline expanded its April 13 face-covering requirement for crew to all passengers beginning May 8 and requires passengers to complete a form acknowledging that they don't have COVID-19 symptoms, will check temperatures, and will maintain hand-washing hygiene before a flight.

Frontier was also one of the first in the low-cost realm to introduce a fogging technique implemented by the big three major carriers where electrically charged disinfectant is applied to aircraft surfaces before a flight.

The practice complements existing cleaning procedures that include physical wipe-downs.

A Frontier Airlines Airbus A320 aircraft.

Thomas Pallini/Business Insider

"We bottomed out a few weeks ago," Biffle told CNBC. "To put things in perspective, prior to this, we carried around 80,000 passengers a day and we got down to about 3,000 passengers per day just a few weeks ago. But, I'm really pleased, yesterday and now again today, we're going to carry over 10,000 passengers."

The CEO pushed back on claims that the airline is "putting a price on safety" by saying that its cleaning practices and facial covering policies are sufficient and the seat is just an extra for its most worried passengers.

"We don't believe this is what you need to be safe but it's one more thing that we can do to put people's minds at ease," Biffle said.

Biffle recommended passengers use the overhead air vents to keep filtered air flowing.

Read the original article on Business Insider
New York, NY, May 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (via Blockchain Wire) BlockchainArmy Founder President Erol User point out that Coronavirus pandemic which has taken the whole world by surprise. The pandemic has bought the whole world at a stand still, As of 1st May 2020, the no of people affected are 3 214 256 world wide and total death 86,748 according to worldometer. The pandemic has crashed economies and broken health-care systems, filled hospitals and emptied public spaces. It has separated people from their workplaces and their friends. It has disrupted modern society on a scale that most living people have never witnessed.

As per initial estimations the number of cases must have been quite high, Due to strict measures taken by certain government world wide the number has decreased. Wherever we have seen the government entities not taking the right measures and ignoring the spread the growth has been extreme an example being USA, leading in no of cases today, though they were affected at last.

The effective measures taken have been in two dimensions, Isolating patients and people who might have come in contact with patients, and might be spreading the virus. The second measure is in direction of educating the community about the spread of the virus, taking precautionary measures building digital platforms

Many new initiatives are being taken by governments around the world, some of these initiatives, are identifying the first patient, isolating them and also finding out where these patients have travelled across and might have spread the virus to other and asking people o self-quarantines, many governments have launched application focused on information sharing. Avoiding the spread of fake information. Some government have done an excellent job in controlling the spread, but the efforts being made are focusing on immediate need, these initiative are not focused on long term plan, there is lack of platform, lack of medical supplies and the ever increasing demand of cases filling hospitals.

Story continues

Lot of experts dealing in contagious virus have studied, that early spread and detection of virus greatly reduces the spread as per doctors who first identified Ebola and stopped it spread across the globe. Lot of studies have suggested that, only when a specific virus spreads quickly and including how and when transmission can occur, In the absence of any treatment or vaccine our main hope of controlling the epidemic is the rapid identification of cases and the immediate prevention of onward transmission through patient isolation and infection control. The efficacy of those interventions would be compromised if significant levels of transmission occurred before symptoms appeared and the patient reported to a health care facility

There are various challenges and how the panademic could have been better managed and the spread could have been avoided. But this is not the time to point fingers, but the question being what is that can be done.

On the Global Health Security Index, a report card that grades every country on its pandemic preparedness, the United States has a score of 83.5the worlds highest. Rich, strong, developed, America is supposed to be the readiest of nations. That illusion has been shattered. Despite months of advance warning as the virus spread in other countries, when America was finally tested by COVID-19, it failed. No matter what, a virus [like SARS-CoV-2] was going to test the resilience of even the most well-equipped health systems, says Nahid Bhadelia, an infectious-diseases physician at the Boston University School of Medicine. More transmissible and fatal than seasonal influenza, the new coronavirus is also stealthier, spreading from one host to another for several days before triggering obvious symptoms. To contain such a pathogen, nations must develop a test and use it to identify infected people, isolate them, and trace those theyve had contact with. That is what South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong did to tremendous effect. It is what the United States did not.

If the country could have accurately tracked the spread of the virus, hospitals could have executed their pandemic plans, girding themselves by allocating treatment rooms, ordering extra supplies, tagging in personnel, or assigning specific facilities to deal with COVID-19 cases. None of that happened. Instead, a health-care system that already runs close to full capacity, and that was already challenged by a severe flu season, was suddenly faced with a virus that had been left to spread, untracked, through communities around the country. Overstretched hospitals became overwhelmed. Basic protective equipment, such as masks, gowns, and gloves, began to run out. Beds will soon follow, as will the ventilators that provide oxygen to patients whose lungs are besieged by the virus.A recent analysis from the University of Pennsylvania estimated that even if social-distancing measures can reduce infection rates by 95 percent.

Using technology in face of pandemic

Blockchainarmy a Blockchain consulting company is working with government entitles by launching BCA ID, A blockchain based digital id which helps you track spread of coronavirus and offers information required, by user, in order to mitigate spread and provide information to user in real time. The Mobile application has been designed by keeping in mind all the challenges faced today in management of pandemic situation.

BCA ID is a unique initiative a single platform to store user information. User download the mobile application, Once downloaded they have to signup with their national id and verify their details. The user is guided to a step by step journey.

A list of questionnaires are presented to check if user might have come across any coronavirus affected patients. User are also asked to fill details regarding their health condition, upload health records and emergency contact information. The application also provide multiple service such as provide details regarding the prevention guidelines as per WHO, emergency service contact and also schedule test in test center.

The user can see the location of the COVID 19 test center

Information about the virus and precautionary measure are updated as new information is available. The patients can book an appointment to test for corona virus. COVID 19 test: Locate test center and also raise schedule tests. All government updates and notification can be viewed by user and stay away from fake information. Test reports and previous test results will be stored in the mobile application. They can see the virus spread information and real time updates on the app. The application will make use of GPS to track the user movements and if they come in contact with someone who is diagnosed, with coronavirus.

The Blockchainarmy team is also making use of Artificial intelligence and using prediction models in order to identify patient and predict the forecast of the growth of patient, this information also helps government agencies to be prepared for the challenges,. The platfrom can also be integrated with telematics, hospital EMR system, test centers and government agencies. Also creating a priority list of patients based on criticality and health condition of patient.

Data privacy and connecting multiple agencies through a secured platform is most critical part of the solution.

Making use of Blockchain for user privacy and to store the data allows multiple entities to collaborate over period of time as more and more hospitals and government joins the network. They can seamlessly work together. The objective is to be a single platfrom across EU, a single digital id which will not only help In dealing the current pandemic, but also full fill need of future challenges.

Privacy by design, All the user data is encrypted and stored over a blockchain network, providing greater privacy and security for user data. Also the information stored cannot be manipulated, hence it is single source of truth. User health records are also stored on the mobile app to instantly access them in time of need, User can contact emergency service with a click during an emergency.

The application will help government to prevent the spread of coronavirus and take precautionary measures and constantly update the user about the current situation. It will also allow them to avoid spread of fake news.

Blockchainarmy is committed to its efforts to help the government use technology to mitigate the risk during pandemic.

Even a perfect response wont end the pandemic. As long as the virus persists somewhere, theres a chance that one infected traveler will reignite fresh sparks in countries that have already extinguished their fires. This is already happening in China, Singapore, and other Asian countries that briefly seemed to have the virus under control. Under these conditions, there are three possible endgames: one thats very unlikely, one thats very dangerous, and one thats very long.

The first is that every nation manages to simultaneously bring the virus to heel, as with the original SARS in 2003. Given how widespread the coronavirus pandemic is, and how badly many countries are faring, the odds of worldwide synchronous control seem vanishingly small.

Contact:

Erol User

erol@blockchainarmy.com

https://blockchainarmy.com/
Fifty-seven years after black parents first sued to desegregate the Dougherty County district in southwest Georgia, a judge has ruled that the 14,000-student district has reached unitary status and no longer needs to be monitored by the courts to eliminate racial discrimination.

Dougherty County made the request for unitary status, saying that court supervision has kept the school district from operating efficiently. For example, the court has needed to approve any changes to school boundaries.

The school district, which serves Albany, Ga., and surrounding communities, has been at the heart of one of the largest coronavirus outbreaks in the country. As of May 4, more than 120 Dougherty residents have died, a number on par with Atlanta and Fulton County, which has more than 10 times the population. The confirmed case rate, about 1,746 per 100,000 people, is among the highest in the state.

Closed since March 13, the district has been working to support its students , nearly two-thirds of whom are economically disadvantaged.

The April 29 ruling doesnt mean the districts population is a demographic match with the surrounding community. Dougherty County is about 71 percent black and 26 percent white; the school district, in contrast, is 89 percent back and 5 percent white. But the school district is no longer engaging in segregation under power of law, said U.S. District Judge W. Louis Sands Sr.

"[I]t is clear that current racial imbalances in DCSS are not due to any de jure violations but are the result of demographic shifts outside of the school boards control, Sands wrote.

Dougherty County is a part of the Black Belt, of the South, a multistate grouping of counties with a largely black popluation. Back in 1980, the date of the most recent desegregation order, the school districts population was 55 percent white and 45 percent black.

But since then, white residents have left the public schools for private schools in the county or left the county entirely; the neighboring 6,200-student Lee County district to the north, for example, is 67 percent white and 23 percent black; 29 percent of its students are economically disadvantaged. But a U.S. Supreme Court decision, Milliken v Bradley , prevents disegregation efforts that cross district boundaries. The organization EdBuild has said that such school district boundaries, particularly in the Rust Belt and the Deep South, serve to wall off wealthy areas from poorer neighborhoods .

Its difficult to say how many school districts remain under court supervision for desegregation because of sketchy record-keeping , Education Week has reported. For the 2011-12 school year, more than 1,200 districts reported to the U.S. Department of Education that they were subject to a desegregation plan. For the 2013-14 school year, that number plunged to 17, and for the 2015-16 school year, 334 districts reported they were under desegregation orders.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Dougherty County Superintendent Kenneth Dyer gives a press briefing on the districts plans to provide instruction while schools are locked down.

Related stories:

District Hard-Hit By COVID-19 Begins Tough Work of Getting On

The Splintering of Wealthy Areas From School Districts is Speeding Up

There Are Wild Swings in School Desegregation Data. The Feds Cant Explain Why
Agartala/Guwahati, May 5 : A total of 13 more Border Security Force (BSF) troopers on Tuesday tested positive for Covid-19 in Tripura, taking the active cases among the paramilitary personnel and their family members in the state to 40, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said on Tuesday night.

In Guwahati, Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, in a tweet, said that two persons from Goalpara and Kokrajhar districts in western Assam tested positive for on Tuesday. Currently, Assam has 11 active cases while 32 were discharged after their recovery while one person died last month in southern Assam.

Tripura Chief Minister Deb, who also holds the health and home portfolios, said in a late night tweet: "More 13 BSF personnel of 138th Battalion BSF at Ambassa (in northern Tripura's Dhalai District) found COVID-19 positive. Total COVID-19 positive cases in Tripura (so far) stands at 42 (two already discharged, so active cases: 40). Don't panic, follow the Govt guidelines and stay at home." According to Tripura's health officials, 40 people - personnel of the 138 Battalion, as well as the wife of a trooper, their two children and a mess worker, had tested corona positive since Saturday.

Education and Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath said: "As many as 331 people, comprising 90 doctors and health workers and 241 BSF jawans, were identified for directly or indirectly coming in contact with infected BSF troopers. Of the 331 identified people, swab samples of 179 people are being tested." Despite the BSF battalion headquarters situated in a locality on a vital National Highway, the disease is yet to spread in the community, the Minister said.

Nath said that the Health Ministry on Monday had declared Tripura's Dhalai district headquarters Ambassa as "Red Zone" after many BSF troopers tested positive.

He said that almost all the infected persons are now undergoing treatment at the Govind Ballabh Pant Medical College and Hospital in Agartala, a dedicated Covid-19 hospital.

.Dhalai District Magistrate Brahmneet Kaur has declared three containment zones -- the BSF battalion headquarters, their administrative base camp at Gandachara and Karina Border Outpost (BoP).

A week after a woman and a Tripura State Rifles (TSR) jawan were cured and discharged from hospitals and the state was declared coronavirus free on April 25, two BSF jawans -- including a head constable -- tested positive on Saturday at the 138 Battalion.

According to BSF officials, the head constable belonged to Assam and beenhad suffering from some ailments after he returned to Tripura from his hometown in Sivasagar district on March 11.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
A U.S. senator has introduced legislation aimed at bringing an end to ventilator triage protocols that advocates worry could be used to discriminate against coronavirus patients on the basis of disability.

Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, announced on Tuesday that he had introduced the bill, saying in a statement that he drafted it in response to abhorrent policies in more than 20 states, including Alabama, that could allow people with disabilities to be sent to the back of the line for ventilators.

Sasse said he hopes the bill will be adopted as part of the next phase of the federal government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The legislation would make it so states with discriminatory protocols in place would be ineligible to receive ventilators or "any resource" from the federal government's Strategic National Stockpile of medical equipment and supplies.

"Congress cant re-write state laws, but we can regulate the Strategic National Stockpile of ventilators," Sasse's statement said. "As Congress takes up Phase Four legislation, we have a moral obligation to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities.

Alabama advocates quickly heralded the new legislation, calling it a necessary step to further address policies in the state and beyond that have the potential to drive illegal unconstitutional in medical settings.

"People with disabilities are one of the most at-risk groups in this pandemic, in part because of the shortages of ventilators and PPE nationally," Rhonda Brownstein, legal director of the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program, said Tuesday.

"Congress must do whatever is necessary to address this dire need."

Sasse said in a May 11 email to AL.com that he was working to secure Senate and House co-sponsors for the bill. He added that he intends for the protections to remain in place after the pandemic ends.

Human dignity matters, whether we are in a pandemic or not," he said in the email. "Folks with disabilities ought to receive the same level of care given to anyone else, not shoved to the back of the line.

The new legislation was introduced nearly six weeks after AL.com first reported on a little-known 2010 Alabama Department of Public Health protocol that the department has since disavowed and removed from its website.

The document advised that during a potential worst-case pandemic, Alabama hospitals should not offer mechanical ventilator support for patients  with severe functional impairment produced by static or progressive neurological disorders." It went on to state that "persons with severe mental retardation, advanced dementia or severe traumatic brain injury may be poor candidates for ventilator support.

The document, titled Criteria for Mechanical Ventilator Triage Following Proclamation of Mass-Casualty Respiratory Emergency," also said that people suffering from dementia, metastatic cancer, end-stage organ failure, severe trauma or cardiac arrest could be denied access to ventilators during a severe pandemic.

Advocates immediately came out against the protocol, saying it discriminated against Alabamians with disabilities and could lead to adverse health outcomes..

Within days, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights (OCR) launched a review of Alabama's protocol, which it closed on April 8 after the ADPH swiftly rescinded the document and disavowed its potentially discriminatory language.

Persons with disabilities have equal worth and dignity and should not be deprioritized for health care based on a supposedly lower quality of life compared to persons without disabilities," Roger Severino, OCR's director, said in a statement announcing the conclusion of the office's review.

"Older Americans in Alabama can take solace knowing that their state will not impose blunt age cutoffs for ventilator allocation if, God forbid, there is a shortage.

Also on April 8, the Center for Public Integrity published an investigation that revealed that 25 states, including Alabama, had potentially discriminatory ventilator policies on their books.

Sasse's office cited the Center for Public Integrity's report in its statement announcing the new legislation on Tuesday.

"An investigation from The Center for Public Integrity, published on April 8, found that care-rationing policies in many states can prevent individuals with disabilities from accessing ventilators," the statement said.
A father needed part of his ear removed and was left with a huge 20cm scar that shocked his children after a tiny spot turned out to be a deadly skin cancer.

Rob Lindsay, 51, from Brisbane, Queensland, noticed a small pink patch on the top of his right ear in September 2019, but claims his GP told him it was 'nothing serious'.

When the dad-of-two was referred to a dermatologist, a biopsy confirmed the freckle-like mark was a potentially-fatal melanoma lodged deep inside his skin  before doctors discovered more melanoma deposits in his neck six months later.

After undergoing an initial two-hour operation to remove the cancer and reconstruct his ear, a second five-hour open neck surgery just three weeks ago left him with more than 80 stitches, a permanent 20cm scar down his neck and bruised nerves.

Rob Lindsay, 51, with his wife Louise, eldest son Aiden (left) and youngest son Bryn (right)

Mr Lindsay was initially told that the small pink patch on the top of his right ear was 'nothing serious' (pictured before his first surgery)

The IT consultant, who rarely wore sunscreen as a child in the 70s and 80s, admitted sons Aiden, 10, and Bryn, seven, were initially concerned by the physical reminders of the surgery.

Mr Lindsay is now urging people to be more aware of the dangers of the sun and how fast skin cancer can spread.

'When I noticed the pinkish spot on the top of my right ear, it was slightly raised and my wife Louise and I both agreed it was strange-looking and something to be cautious about,' he said.

'It was a little bit weird and I hadn't noticed anything there prior, so I went to the doctor straight away. When I showed the GP the spot he said it was probably nothing, but gave me a referral anyway.

'Five days after I saw the dermatologist, it came back positive for melanoma. Once it was confirmed as a deep melanoma, it became serious. It was shocking and pretty scary.'

Rob Lindsay, 51, with his eldest son Aiden and youngest son Bryn

'Once it was confirmed as a deep melanoma, it became serious. It was shocking and pretty scary,' Mr Lindsay said

The freckle like spot on Mr Lindsay's right ear turned out to be cancerous (pictured: after first surgery)

Mr Lindsay said he has been on the receiving end of strange looks from the public since his second bout of surgery on his neck, which required 90 stitches.

'I think my kids were quite shocked at the scar because kids that age don't really see that sort of wound with all the blood and the stitches and swelling,' he said.

'They haven't got their heads around it yet - the shocking thing for them is the visual wound. I went through the KFC drive through the other day and people didn't look me in the eye.

'I think that's getting better and better though, because the wound isn't so dramatic anymore.'

Mr Lindsay wasn't sun smart in the 70s and 80s but after having a small basal cell carcinoma removed from his back in 2018 he knew he had to get his ear checked

Doctors removed the small spot, removing a 2cm semicircle from his ear and reconstructing it by joining the flesh left on the top of his ear together

When Mr Lindsay spotted the mark on his ear, he knew it was important to get it checked quickly as he had a small basal cell carcinoma removed from his back in 2018.

After his diagnosis the biopsy of his lymph node showed a 2mm deposit of melanoma inside, doctors sped up the two-hour surgery to remove the small spot, removing a 2cm semicircle from his ear and reconstructing it by joining the flesh left on the top of his ear together.

They also removed a lymph node in front of his ear to check whether the cancer had spread to his lymphatic system  confirming it had spread five days later.

Mr Lindsay was put on a treatment plan to monitor it, with ultrasounds on his face and neck every three months, and PET scans on his whole body every six months.

An ultrasound and full body scan in December 2019 showed he was all clear, but a week before another ultrasound in March 2020, he felt an 10mm lump in his neck just below his jawline.

Just three weeks ago, Mr Lindsay had a five-hour-long neck dissection surgery, where doctors made a large incision spanning from the top of his ear to the side of his neck to take out 19 lymph nodes.

Two of the lymph nodes tested positive for melanoma  the lump had a 6mm deposit within the lymph node and another had a 2mm deposit, which, if ignored, could have been deadly.

'I was a bit tentative coming up to the six month scan but when I felt the lump it felt like no other lump because it was in a different place to where it would be if it was a sore throat where your glands swell,' he said.

'I decided long before the ultrasound it was going to be bad news and that's what it ended up being.

'Now I'm three weeks post-surgery  I have a bit of a lisp because several of the nerves in my face and neck got bruised, and the right side of my face is also numb which means the right side of my eye and right side of my mouth don't work properly.'

Mr Lindsay is now three weeks post surgery and has a bit of a lisp because several of the nerves in my face and neck got bruised, and the right side of my face is also numb

Mr Lindsay is now waiting to see an oncologist who will determine his next path of treatment but does not believe he will need further radiotherapy and said wife is helping the family put on a brave face

Mr Lindsay is now waiting to see an oncologist who will determine his next path of treatment but does not believe he will need further radiotherapy and said wife Louise is helping the family put on a brave face.

He posted a message of awareness on Facebook sharing his journey and the importance of sun safety, which unexpectedly received more than 8,000 shares to date.

'I have been a diligent sunscreen user for the majority of my life,' he wrote.

'It was probably only after the first few times I got burnt as a young kid in the 70s and 80s that sun cream started to come on the radar for me.

'I think my damage was done quite early in life and I'm paying for it now.

'I'm glad I caught it early  I was quite amazed at how quickly, from noticing the spot to having it removed, it had already spread - that flabbergasted me.

'I thought I was fairly sun aware and skin cancer aware but I had no idea it could move as fast as this has.

'I wanted to send a message to parents, their kids and young adults who think they're bulletproof.

'It won't happen to them now, it'll happen to them when they're in their 50s and worrying about their own kids.'
A study of female astronauts has assessed the risk of blood clots associated with spaceflight.

The study, published in Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance, in collaboration with King's College London, the Centre for Space Medicine Baylor College of Medicine, NASA Johnson Space Centre and the International Space University, examines the potential risk factors for developing a blood clot (venous thromboembolism) in space.

The findings, which looked at 38 female astronaut flights between 2000 and 2014, found spaceflight and combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP) use does not appear to increase the risk of venous thromboemoblism (VTE).

Dr Varsha Jain, lead author of the study from King's College London and a Wellbeing of Women Clinical Research Fellow at the Medical Research Council Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh, said: "The first episode of an astronaut developing a blood clot in space was reported earlier this year. It is unknown how spaceflight impacts the risk of an astronaut developing a blood clot. This study aimed to look specifically at the potential blood clot developing risks for female astronauts during spaceflight. We wanted to understand if their use of the hormonal contraceptive pill for menstrual cycle control, increased that risk."

Developing a VTE in space is life threatening and potentially a mission critical risk. The risk may have been further increased by COCP use, however as female astronauts are more fit and healthy than general population, their risk remains low.

The study, which is the first of its kind, proposes more blood tests be carried out during astronaut selection and during medical reviews. There are points during pre-mission training and during spaceflight, such as particular training activities, which may briefly increase the risk of developing a blood clot, and the authors recommend a review of these.

Finally, the study advises a more holistic approach to be taken for contraceptive agent prescribing as women from all professions, including astronauts, may wish to control their menstrual cycles and occupation related risks should be considered during a risk review.

Dr Jain said: "There may be possible time points in an astronaut's pre-mission training or during the space mission itself where blood clot risk may potentially be transiently increased. Due to the potentially life-threatening nature of blood clots, we would advise further targeted research in this area to further understand how an astronaut's risk of developing a blood clot is altered by spaceflight."

Dr Virginia Wotring, associate Professor at the International Space University and senior author of the study, said: "We see a need for continuing studies with female astronauts. Much of the previous biomedical research in space was conducted on mostly male astronauts, because most of the astronauts were male. That has changed, and now we need to understand how the spaceflight environment impacts female physiology."

###
A notorious Punjab gangster tested positive for coronavirus in Gurdaspur's Batala, where he was brought on a production warrant in a murder case from a Patiala jail.

Gurdaspur Civil Surgeon Krishan Chand said gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria's test report came on Tuesday afternoon, confirmed him to be a coronavirus case.

Over 30 policemen who questioned him in the murder case of Akali leader Dalbir Singh will be quarantined, said Batala SP (Headquarters) Jasbir Singh Rai.

Rai said their blood samples are being taken by a team of doctors.

Bhagwanpuria, whose real name is Jagdeep Singh, was brought to Batala from the Patiala jail on April 30.

He has several criminal cases, including murder and robbery, registered against him.

He will be admitted to a hospital for treatment, the SP added.

Meanwhile, Bhagwanpuria's mother Harjit Kaur, who is a sarpanch of Bhagwanpur village in Batala, held a protest outside the Civil Lines police station, demanding that her son be given better treatment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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(Photo : How Companies Can Assess Security Risks amid Remote Working Rush through Cymulate) (Photo : How Companies Can Assess Security Risks amid Remote Working Rush through Cymulate) (Photo : The Platform) (Photo : companies) (Photo : Cymulate)

The coronavirus pandemic has brought many aspects of daily life to a grinding halt: transportation, consumer goods and services, work. Governments across the globe have declared lockdowns and community-wide quarantines in order to slow down the spread of the virus. Businesses in industries that can function through remote work are now forced to institute work-from-home policies for their workers.

Not all companies have such capabilities in place prior to the outbreak. As such, there has been a mad rush to institute such mechanisms. Companies are adopting cloud computing tools wholesale in hopes of effectively transitioning their business processes to digital environments that can be accessed by their remote workers. Fortunately, there's an abundance of cloud-based business solutions that they can tap to quickly build their capabilities.

However, a key concern that organizations should not overlook in the process is cybersecurity. Creating an infrastructure composed of various cloud-based tools essentially expands a company's potential attack surface. It is critical for any company to assess the security risks that come with their new reality especially since hackers are also trying to exploit the phenomenon for their gain. There has been a sharp increase in coronavirus-related phishing attacks targeting remote workers.

This is where solutions like breach and attack simulation (BAS) platform Cymulate can help companies with their shift. Cymulate's automated tests on multiple vectors can help companies easily identify potential vulnerabilities in their infrastructure. These weak points can then be easily addressed and a safe remote working environment during this crisis can be maintained.

Remote working risks

Establishing a robust remote working program typically requires organizations to adopt a variety of solutions, critical among which are communication and collaboration tools. Setting up these services and integrating them to the existing infrastructure present their own set of challenges.

Adding any component to an IT infrastructure, be it a cloud instance, a web application, or an additional workstation, can potentially introduce vulnerabilities. Poorly performed integration can also create gaps in the security perimeter. To prevent these, IT teams must be careful with integration or use additional security tools such as firewalls and endpoint protection to safeguard these components.

Companies should also be wary of social engineering attacks. Communication will primarily be done through email or messaging unlike in the physical workplace where face-to-face communication is the norm. This makes it possible for hackers using phishing attacks to exploit employees. Attackers can use crafty phishing messages to fool workers into giving them access to company resources.

Workers will also be accessing these solutions through their devices at home which may not be properly configured or secured.

Multivector Risk Assessment

Companies should therefore evaluate their security risks as they bring their updated infrastructure online. Previously, performing comprehensive assessment through penetration tests requires time, resources, and high levels of technical skill to perform. Today, BAS platforms are now available to help IT teams, even those without advanced cybersecurity skills, to generate the risk assessment reports for their respective infrastructure.

For example, Cymulate can perform simulated attacks on a variety of potential attack vectors in an organization's infrastructure.

It can test web gateways for inbound and outbound exposure to malicious traffic or if firewalls and their existing rule sets are capable of blocking automated attacks. Email gateway attack simulations can also evaluate email security, checking if protection tools are able to screen for malicious links and malware that malicious emails typically contain.

The platform can also test endpoint security if the antivirus and antimalware installed on workstations are capable of detecting and removing malware. It can even test the crucial human element through simulated phishing tests. The platform can send dummy phishing emails to employees to identify who among them would fall for such attacks. Cymulate can generate detailed reports identifying which vectors are most vulnerable.

Through a timely and comprehensive assessment, IT teams can immediately perform the necessary remediation to lower security risks. They can improve their security measures and rule sets or change out ineffective security solutions entirely. Cymulate is also software as a service (SaaS)-based, allowing organizations to run tests and generate reports remotely. The platform also provides security notifications on the latest emerging threats so that IT teams can readily test the exposed vector and perform the necessary actions to keep their companies secure.

Acting with Urgency

The coronavirus outbreak will surely test the resilience of any organization, both offline and online. Those that must shift their businesses to digital should do so quickly in order to minimize downtime and interruptions by achieving an acceptable level of productivity despite relying on remote work.

While this is crucial, organizations should also ensure that they keep their infrastructure secure. Falling victim to a single cyberattack can potentially have as much catastrophic impact on any business as prolonged downtime.

Considering the urgency of resolving all of these issues, companies should be able to perform their security assessment quickly and accurately. BAS platforms like Cymulate can definitely help in this aspect by providing the necessary insights on how companies can secure their new infrastructure that enables work-from-home arrangements, which may very well be the norm for the coming months.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Dr Anthony Fauci says there is 'no evidence' that coronavirus escaped from a Chinese lab - contradicting repeated claims by the Trump administration.

Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert and a leading member of the White House coronavirus task force, panned the conspiracy theory that China's outbreak began at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in an interview with National Geographic published Monday.

'If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what's out there now, [the scientific evidence] is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated,' Fauci said.

'Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species.'

He also shut down an alternate theory that someone found the virus in the wild and brought it to a lab before it accidentally leaked.

Dr Anthony Fauci says there is 'no evidence' that coronavirus escaped from a Chinese lab - contradicting repeated claims by President Donald Trump and his administration

Fauci's comments came as Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have continued to suggest there is evidence supporting the lab leak theory.

During a town hall meeting on Sunday night, Trump described the pandemic as a 'horrible mistake' by China as he accused President Xi Jinping's of intentionally misleading the global community.

Hours earlier, Pompeo told ABC News: 'I can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan.'

China has fiercely condemned the suggestions while charging that the Trump administration is rushing to shift blame amid criticism over how it handled the US outbreak, which has sickened more than 1.2million Americans and killed at least 69,788 to date.

The Trump administration has been fueling conspiracy theories that China's COVID-19 outbreak began at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (pictured)

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told ABC News on Sunday: 'I can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan'

Fauci deviated from his boss at another point in the National Geographic interview when he rejected Trump's hope that the virus would 'miraculously' go away.

'I don't think there's a chance that this virus is just going to disappear. It's going to be around, and if given the opportunity, it will resurge,' Fauci said.

He went on to warn that there would be a second wave of infections later this year.

'We're going to be put to the test as we move toward the fall and winter of this year,' he said.

'If we do it correctly, then we could be able to blunt and diminish the daily rate of infections in this country as we get into the summer. I can't guarantee it, but if we do things right, that likely will happen.'

In a warning to public officials, he added: 'Shame on us if we don't have enough tests by the time this so-called return might occur in the fall and winter.'

But Fauci did express optimism about current US efforts to combat future outbreaks, saying that he believes a vaccine could be available as early as January thanks to 'impressive' results from an ongoing trial by Moderna Therapeutics in Massachusetts.

'We have a better chance of quickly getting, relatively speaking, a vaccine for the novel coronavirus than we did for HIV, because for some reason that's still unknown the body does not make an adequate immune response to HIV,' he said.

Fauci's interview was published hours after a leaked White House report revealed that the number of daily COVID-19 deaths is expected to double in the next month.

Two staggering coronavirus projections were released on Monday - including a private model by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention that said the daily death toll will reach 3,000 cases daily on June 1.

Trump dismissed the leaked projection during an interview in the Oval Office, saying: 'I know nothing about it. I don't know anything about it. Nobody told me that.'

'I think it's  I think it's false, I think it's fake news.'

The White House has said that leaked projection had not been 'presented to the coronavirus task force or gone through interagency vetting.'
Baldwinsville, N.Y.  Some restaurants are closed. Many others have been reduced to takeout only.

Almost all are worried about the future.

Into this scenario comes Brick-n-Barrel, billing itself as a village gastropub in downtown Baldwinsville. Its actually opening for business this week.

Of course that means business without dining room service or drinks at the bar, and with a limited menu.

Brick-n-Barrel is taking the spot once occupied by The Chef & The Cook at 7 Syracuse St. in Baldwinsville. The Chef & The Cook closed last month, becoming perhaps the first local restaurant to announce a permanent closing during the coronavirus pandemic.

Brick-n-Barrel is opening with curbside pickup-only service beginning on Thursday, May 7.

Were going to start slowly, with a skeleton crew, said Amy Colclough, who owns the restaurant with her husband, Bill. Their son, Devin Colclough, who worked at The Chef & The Cook for the past year, is the executive chef.

But weve thought this out, and how we can maximize the curbside pick-up and make it efficient," Amy Colclough said. Were getting our feet wet with the pick-up.

From there, the Colcloughs hope to expand to fit the vision they have for the place once the pandemic is in the past.

Eventually, Colclough said, they plan to offer a menu based largely on locally sourced ingredients, but with varied cuisine, borrowed from American and international influences.

The takeout menu offers a hint at whats to come: One of the items is Bulgogi Ribeye Philly Cheesesteak, which fuses tastes from Korea and Philadelphia. Youll also find dishes like Shrimp-n-Grits and Roasted Pork Belly Tacos, along with a burger, chicken sandwich and mac-and-cheese.

Fusion is one way to think of what Devin has in mind, Amy Colclough said.

Devin Colclough is just 27 but already has a varied cooking resume. He graduated from the culinary school at Paul Smiths College in the Adirondacks and worked as a chef in Saranac Lake and Lake Placid before returning to his home in Central New York. He worked at Kasai Ramen in Armory Square before joining The Chef & The Cook.

One of his favorite activities has always been shopping at the CNY Regional Market, his mother said. Thats where he learned to appreciate local produce and other local foods, she said.

The Colcloughs were able to move quickly with their concept after DeAnna and Mark Germano decided to close The Chef & The Cook.

So now well follow our plan and do the curbside pickup for now, Amy Colclough said. Then, maybe this summer, we can open fully and really let Devin show what he can do.

To order takeout from Brick-n-Barrel, call or text 315-720-3859 between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Orders can be picked at at the curb from 4 to 8 p.m. There is no delivery and no need to enter the restaurant.

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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.
The Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality has recorded its first two cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak in the country.

The two cases are part of the 21 recorded in the Western Region, and the over 2,000 cases recorded nationwide so far.

This was announced by the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of the area, Gilbert Kennedy Asmah in a press release on Tuesday, May 5, 2020.

According to the release, the patients are a 56-year-old man and his wife, both of whom have no travel history.

A 56-year-old man who is a resident in the Municipality and has no travel history outside Ghana was reported to the Hospital on Friday, 1 May 2020, and complained of symptoms that were in sync with COVID-19. After detecting the symptoms such as cough, fever, and other related complications, the Rapid Response Team immediately isolated and took his sample together with his wife who has also shown similar symptoms for examination and analysis at the Noguchi Memorial Research Institute, Accra. The test result showed both were positive of COVID-19, the release read.

The current case count in the country stands at 2,719, with 294 recoveries and 18 deaths, as of May 5, 2020.

---citinewsroom
One of Britain's largest home care suppliers Mears Group says it is expecting to make only moderate losses from the coronavirus lockdown despite operating an 'emergency-only' service for housing maintenance work.

The Gloucester-based firm stated that it has taken advantage of the public furlough scheme, and agreed on temporary arrangements with most of their maintenance clients to help minimise financial damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

It also welcomed the VAT payment holiday, which was announced by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak just over six weeks ago and gives businesses until the end of March next year to pay any VAT owed.

CEO David Miles: 'Whilst it is not possible to predict the future with certainty, I am confident as to the financial stability and the long-term wellbeing of the Group'

Group chief executive David Miles said the firm 'has made excellent progress in taking the necessary steps to address these current challenges.

'Whilst it is not possible to predict the future with certainty, I am confident as to the financial stability and the long-term wellbeing of the Group.'

The business has nonetheless agreed to extend its existing lending facilities by around 22.6million to increase its financial headroom.

It said it believes its existing lending facilities, worth around 170million, will provide sufficient liquidity but thought it would be 'prudent' to agree to the expansion.

Mears said its average net debt during the final quarter of 2019 was 126.1million and said it believes this has been at a similar level for the first four months of 2020.

It added that cash flow was positive in April, 'reflecting our clients' commitment to pay efficiently during this period'.

Mears has a strong relationship with the Ministry of Defence, which awarded them a five-year 300million contract in 2016 to deliver housing to Armed Forces members

The company relies on housing maintenance tasks for around two-thirds of its revenues, with another 25 per cent coming from housing management functions, and group development activities constituting a small five per cent.

Throughout the lockdown period, Mears has not experienced a fall in demand from its housing management division, which comprises about one-quarter of its total revenues, thanks in part to a major government contract over accommodation for asylum seekers.

It even says that the number of people it is helping through that contract is rising and that in spite of the short-term challenges this is causing, the financial risk is low.

Mears won three ten-year contracts from the government in 2019 to supply housing and assistance to asylum seekers.

It covered the countries of Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as the North East, and the Yorkshire and the Humber regions in England.

It also has a strong relationship with the Ministry of Defence, which awarded them a five-year 300million contract in 2016 to deliver housing to Armed Forces members.

Shares in Mears Group were up 4.6 per cent to 171p after the trading update was released.
Over 300 kg of poppy was seized from a Punjab-bound truck in Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur district and its was driver arrested on Tuesday, police said.

The truck was intercepted by a police team on a highway in the Jakhani area, Senior Superintendent of Police Rajiv Pandey said.

He said the team seized 302 kg of poppy from the vehicle.

Jaswant Singh of Patiala in Punjab was arrested on the spot, Pandey said



A case has been registered at the Udhampur police station.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In recent days, a handful of sheriffs have spoken of their unwillingness to enforce Alabamas safer at home health order, an order that prevents dining in restaurants, keeps barbershops and beauty shops closed, and blocks churches from holding large services.

The list includes Republican sheriffs, such as Hal Allred in Lamar County and Mark Moon in Blount County. Also on Monday, Marshall County Sheriff Phil Sims said he has no intentions of actively patrolling churches, even though Marshall has seen a recent jump in cases and now has more infections and more deaths than up the road in the much larger Madison County.

Near Mississippi in Franklin County, Sheriff Shannon Oliver said his deputies are not going out and searching for someone violating the order. Franklin has also seen cases jump in the last week, but has not seen a single death linked to the pandemic.

But in rural Chambers County at the Alabama-Georgia state line, where the pandemic has done some of its worst damage in this state, Sheriff Sid Lockhart is making sure his deputies are armed with the state health order and are enforcing it.

This is nothing to play with, said Lockhart, whose county has seen a state-leading rate of infections at 90 per 10,000 residents. Chambers County has just 34,000 residents and already 21 deaths from coronavirus. We have to work together and get through this.

Lockhart, a seven-term Democrat, said Monday was unaware that some of his fellow sheriffs were floating the idea of not enforcing the safer at home health order announced by Gov. Kay Ivey last week.

Sheriff Moon in Blount County, who did not return phone calls from AL.com, told the local media that he instructed his deputies not to go into businesses and churches to enforce the governors order. Sheriff Allred in Lamar County, on his personal Facebook page, said he doesnt believe the gradual reopening strategy from state health officials makes any sense, citing a completely packed Walmart and full beaches in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. He also said hes instructed deputies not to enforce the guidelines that have been handed down.

I had to go into Walmart today to buy a gift. It was completely packed. I see where beaches are full at Gulf Shores and... Posted by Hal Allred on Sunday, May 3, 2020

Both of those counties have seen relatively little impact from the virus so far. Blount County north of Birmingham has seen only 40 confirmed cases and no deaths. Lamar has reported only 11 cases so far.

We are smart enough to use precautions, Allred wrote of the residents of Lamar County. I refuse to tell yall how to worship or make a living. This is my decision and mine alone.

The police department in Oneonta, the Blount County seat, posted on Facebook that it views the health order as lawful and that it intends to enforce it.

Church services

Almost all of the sheriffs reached Monday said they have either had few violations, or none at all. None appeared to be actively enforcing the order, opting instead to a reactive approach of responding to complaints.

Sims, in Marshall County, said he doesnt anticipate any problems with violations to the governors order, but hes also telling his deputies not to go into a church house and cite people for having church service.

The state health order prohibits most gatherings of more than 10, which includes churches.

Enforcing church closures is a problem for elected sheriffs where the weekly church services are a part of the social fabric. In 2016, a Pew Research poll listed Alabama as No 1 among states in the number of residents viewing themselves as highly religious.

Ive spoken to several pastors who have called me about church service, and what they wanted to do and what they can or cant do, said Sims, whose county is now reporting 344 cases, up by 33 percent over the last ten days. But were not going to drive by and check the churches. Were not doing any of that.

If someone went into a church and saw they were having a service and were social distancing, I am not going to bust one of them up on a Sunday morning. Ill trust the people of Marshall County to protect themselves.

In Chambers County, a service in early March at Mount Hermon Missionary Baptist Church is believed to have led to a tragic coronavirus outbreak that infected more than 10 congregants and killed at least three people.

Lockhart said his department recently learned of another church scheduling a service this past weekend. He drove to the church himself and taped a copy of the governors order to the front door. The church, Lockhart said, opted not to move ahead with the service.

The churches have had services, but they stay in their cars and the preachers are outside with sound systems, said Lockhart. I think, in general, (the order) is working well.

Complying to warnings

In Lowndes County  a Black Belt county that has been hit hard by coronavirus cases with 76 cases per 10,000 residents  sheriff deputies are issuing citations to those who do not obey the state order.

Were trying to enforce this as best as we can, said Sheriff Christopher West. The tiny department in a county with fewer than 12,000 residents, has seven deputies. He said that citations have been issued to people who have hosted large yard parties and social gatherings. There have been no arrests made.

Everyone realizes (there is an order in effect), but no one gives a damn, said West. Were posting information in reference to COVID-19 on our Facebook page and have been trying to disseminate information. Of course, people watch the news. They see the governor on TV, and the public health director. But people are tired of sitting at home. They are out of work and cannot go to church.

West said that his department is in total support of the state health order, saying that Lowndes County is predominately African American and that coronavirus has affected African Americans in disproportionate numbers. According to state figures, about 47% of those who died of coronavirus have been black, while just 27% of Alabamas population is black.

I will be glad once its over, he said.

In Mobile County, which has the states highest number of coronavirus cases (1,216) and deaths (65), Sheriff Sam Cochran said that violations to the state health order tend to resolve itself once authorities speak to a business owner or church pastor. Jefferson County sheriffs deputies have also not had to write tickets, opting instead to seek voluntary compliance.

So far, its been working.

We have not had any person or group fail to disburse when asked to do so, said Chief Deputy David Agee.

Cities are also tackling violations on an individual basis as restaurants, barbershops and more are itching to reopen after Alabama allowed small retail shops to reopen to limited capacity.

But few, if any, citations have been issued under the state health order. Police in Birmingham, Mobile, Montgomery and Huntsville have not issued citations.

The overwhelming majority of our businesses want to do the right thing, said Kelly Schrimsher, spokeswoman with the city of Huntsville, who said the citys police are focused on education when it comes to the governors order.

Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, who has advocated for a reopening of restaurants and other businesses that remain closed under Iveys order, said following the order is about upholding the oath of office a public official takes after being elected to office.

I believe that what the governor has done is legal and we intend to uphold those laws, said Stimpson. Weve had a soft approach toward those who choose to reopen. After a conversation, in every situation, those business owners have agreed to stand down. I think part of the reason is they know that every day, we are trying to use our influence to make sure (the business) can get open as quickly as possible.
[May 05, 2020] Omni Design Appoints Satris Group as Sales Representative in Israel

Omni Design Technologies, a leading provider of high-performance, low-power mixed-signal Intellectual Property (IP) solutions, today announced it has appointed Satris Group as its sales representative in Israel. As the demand for Omni Design's IP portfolio grows in Israel, Satris will address the needs of our customers in Israel, strengthen Omni Design's local presence and expand its regional activities. Omni Design offers innovative high performance, ultra-low power Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC (News - Alert)), Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) and Analog Front End (AFE) IP as well as compact and low power temperature and voltage monitors (TVM) on advanced process nodes. "Customers in Israel are focused on developing some of the most innovative products for 5G, automotive, AI, and IoT markets," said Dr. Kush Gulati, president and CEO of Omni Design Technologies. "There has been increasing demand for our mixed-signal products in Israel and we were looking for an experienced partner to represent us there. Satris has extensive experience in selling leading edge IP products and we look forward to them strengthening our local presence and providing seamless support to customers in Israel." "Omni Design is developing key mixed-signal IP and we are seeing increasing traction of their products," said Oved Saraf, vice president of sales a Satris Group. "We are excited to be their representative and bring their portfolio of advanced mixed-signal IP solutions to customers in Israel. We believe Omni Design's products will enable these companies in Israel to increase product differentiation in their end markets."



For more information about Omni Design's IP portfolio please visit www.omnidesigntech.com. About Omni Design Technologies

Omni Design Technologies is a leading provider of high-performance, ultra-low power IP cores in advanced process technologies that enable highly differentiated systems-on-chip (SoCs) in applications ranging from wired and wireless communications, automotive, imaging, sensors, and the internet-of-things (IoT). Omni Design, founded in 2015 by semiconductor industry veterans, has an excellent track record of innovation and collaborating with customers to enable their success. The company is headquartered in Milpitas, CA (News - Alert) with additional design centers in Boston, Massachusetts and Bangalore, India. About Satris Group Satris Group is a leading distributor of IP and EDA products in Israel, providing advanced technologies to Israeli semiconductor and electronics companies from vendors around the world. The Satris team consists of veterans in the semiconductor space with a deep understanding of customer needs and a strong commitment to their success. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005274/en/

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They tied the knot back in 2018.

But Robin Wright and husband Clement Giraudet looked to still be very much in the honeymoon phase of their relationship on Tuesday, when the couple packed on the PDA in the Californian neighborhood of Pacific Palisades.

The 35-year-old businessman at one point grabbed the backside of his 54-year-old wife while they visited a local dog park.

In love: Robin Wright and husband Clement Giraudet looked to still be very much in the honeymoon phase of their relationship on Tuesday, when the couple packed on the PDA

Husband and wife both wore white T-shirts for the outing.

House of Cards star Wright paired her top with light blue jeans and blue canvas sneakers.

Her French-born man meanwhile wore a pair of shorts with gold sneakers, and shielded his eyes with a pair of wraparound shades.

PDA: The 35-year-old businessman at one point grabbed the backside of his 54-year-old wife while they visited a local dog park

Courtship: Robin and Clement were first linked in the fall of 2017, and they were engaged engaged later that winter, before marrying in August 2018

Robin and Clement were first linked in the fall of 2017, and they were engaged engaged later that winter, before marrying in August 2018 at the French commune La Roche-sur-le-Buis, according to People.

A source told the outlet at the time: 'It was very intimate and low-key. Robin wanted it to be about them, not a big production.

The House Of Cards actress was previously married to actor and director Sean Penn, 59, from 1996 until their divorce was finalized in July 2010.

The former couple  who are parents to adult children Dylan, 29, and Hopper, 26, had past shared the screen in films including 1990's State of Grace, and the 1997 films Loved and She's So Lovely.

Prior to that, she was married to the late soap opera star Dane Witherspoon between 1986 and 1988.
(Alliance News) - Power Metal Resources PLC said Tuesday it has completed a follow-up pitting and mapping exploration programme across a 6.8 kilometre copper anomaly in its 70% owned Kisinka copper-cobalt project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The programme saw the completion of 21 pits totalling 174.5 metres on nine cross sections of the copper anomaly target area. 204 channel samples were collected, with three grab samples from the bottom contacts of selected pits.

Looking ahead, preliminary mapping of lithological units have been carried out and sample preparation is underway at the University of Lubumbashi.

There, X-ray fluorescence testing of samples will be undertaken, and - should lockdown restrictions ease enough to allow the transport of samples and availability of laboratories - assay testing will take place in South Africa.

"I am pleased to report the safe completion of the pitting programme and the collection of a large number of samples for testing. With sample preparation underway in Lubumbashi, we look forward to receipt of the XRF testing results, and thereafter assay results, focused on copper-cobalt mineralisation," said Chief Executive Officer Paul Johnson.

"The team in the field reported encouraging findings from the lithological review and visual examination of extracted samples and we look forward to the receipt of sample XRF and assay test results in due course," Johnson added.

Shares in Power Metal closed 17% higher at 0.35 pence on Tuesday in London.

By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Financial arrangements are currently being discussed for the construction of four new interchanges in Kumasi following the completion of feasibility studies.



The interchanges will be at Oforikrom intersection, Suame, Santasi and the Airport roundabouts.



The Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr Kwesi Amoako-Atta, said financial arrangements for the projects were currently being discussed.



He was speaking to the media in Kumasi during an inspection tour of ongoing road projects in the Ashanti Region.



Mr Amoako-Atta said the interchanges were part of the governments plan to expand the road network across the country.



He said the new projects were intended to improve access to other parts of the country and make road travel in the region easier.



Outer ring road



The minister said the government was also considering the construction of the Kumasi Outer Ring Road to link up with the northern part of the country.



He said the link would connect Ejisu to Offinso, thereby diverting all the traffic from the Accra-Kumasi highway.



He said there were also plans to construct by-passes and inner ring roads within the Kumasi metropolis.



Ashanti Region



Mr Amoako-Atta said the Ashanti Region had about 10,000 kilometres of road network, out of which 3,000 kilometres was paved.



Currently, he said, the region was benefiting from a total of 460 kilometres of asphalt overlay.



Out of that, he said, 120km had been completed, while the remaining was at various stages of completion.



He said by the close of the third quarter of the year, all the ongoing road projects in the region should be completed.



Road projects



The minister assured the people of the region that the government would ensure that all the ongoing road projects were completed to bring relief to them and commuters.



He said many projects were currently underway in the region, with various sources of funding.



Under the Cocoa Roads Project, he said, the Ashanti Region was benefiting from 33 projects, while another 74 projects were being financed under the Government of Ghana funding.



He said another 42 roads in the region were also being rehabilitated under the Ghana Road Fund, which he said generated about GH1.6 million annually.



Those aside, he said, other projects were being considered under the Sinohydro deal.



In all, there are 156 projects being managed under different portfolios and which are at various stages of completion, he said.



Tour



As part of the tour, Mr Amoako-Atta visited the Court Complex where work was ongoing on the facelift project of the Judiciary.



The project consists of asphalting the inner roads of the court premises.



A similar exercise is being extended to health facilities in the region.



The Chief Justice, Mr Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah, expressed gratitude to the government for the assistance to upgrade roads leading to and at court premises in the Ashanti Region.

Source: Daily Graphic









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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KITCHENER  More than 20 years ago, doctors were stumped to explain a bizarre neurological disorder that aggressively attacked Allan MacLean and stole his life away.

So they gave it their best guess  deciding the rubber worker had an extremely rare condition known as Moyamoya Disease, a disorder never before seen in Canada and normally only afflicting children.

Because of that best-guess diagnosis, a compensation claim by MacLean's widow was denied by Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) this week.

"They told me they're turning the claim down because they can't find anything on the disease," said Jill James. "They said the only way you could prove anything was if you exhume the body."

MacLean, who died in 1999 at the age of 54, spent the last eight years of his life in nearly vegetative state. Doctors told his family his condition was incurable, caused by a disorder that reduces blood flow to the brain and leads to strokes.

"That diagnosis never made sense to me. I think it was mislabelled," said James, who submitted a WSIB claim for occupational disease on MacLean's behalf in January.

The WSIB, meanwhile, says a medical diagnosis is one of the biggest factors in board decisions on claims. It says the board relies "on the best science and medical information available, in addition to other relevant factors."

"We have to rely on the medical information that we have," explained Christine Arnott, spokesperson for the WSIB.

"For a work-related illness claim to be allowed, there must be conclusive scientific evidence linking a person's disease or diagnosis to workplace exposures."

James has the right to appeal, it added.

MacLean worked at BF Goodrich and Epton Industries for almost 30 years, starting at age 17. James believes he paid for that job with his life.

When he died, doctors didn't make any link to his work, and no testing for occupational exposure was performed.

James says he was exposed to chemicals that made him sick  focusing her concern on benzene, a colourless chemical used to make rubber, plastic, dyes, detergents, drugs and pesticides.

Benzene, a known carcinogen used at the Kitchener plant, evaporates quickly in the air and is commonly absorbed into the body through inhalation. It's linked to leukemia, blood disorders and immune system problems.

Some medical studies have also found links between chronic benzene poisoning and neurological abnormalities  which is why it's caught James' attention.

"They used to put their hands right in that stuff. They never showered it off," she said. "If there weren't all these people dropping dead and full of cancer, I would have dropped it. That's why I find it hard to believe he's the only one in Canada with this disease."

James said she'll ask the coroner for an autopsy if that could prove workplace exposure played a role in MacLean's death. There is some precedence for such an examination in suspected occupational disease cases in Ontario.

Janice Martell, a workers' advocate who has spent years gathering evidence on McIntyre Powder poisoning among northern Ontario miners, used a provision of the Coroner's Act to get an autopsy performed on her father without cost.

She thinks other families should also be allowed to request autopsies when they believe someone's death is a result of workplace exposure.

"They should be doing it, in my mind, for all of them," Martell said. "If it's costing the province of Ontario a bunch of money because the WSIB keeps rejecting all these claims, then they may begin to think about the larger cost to the system."

James says she'll do whatever it takes to get an answer. The official explanations for her late husband's disorder and death have never made sense to her.

"I've gone this far, I'm not going to quit now," she said. "Something needs to be done to prove that these chemicals are doing things to people."

gmercer@therecord.com

Twitter: @MercerRecord
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As a reporter for The New York Post (where he won a Polk Award in 1958 and shared another one in 1959 for exposing the citys neglect of slums) and later The Herald Tribune (which was owned by his father-in-law, John Hay Whitney), Mr. Haddad uncovered a worldwide cartel that inflated the price of the antibiotic tetracycline. As a legislative watchdog in Albany, he revealed that major banks had sold off their holdings of municipal securities before their refusal to lend New York more money drove the city to the brink of bankruptcy in the mid-1970s.

His two marriages, to Kate Roosevelt  a granddaughter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the adopted daughter of Mr. Whitney  and to Noreen Walsh, ended in divorce.

In addition to Lulie Haddad, he is survived by two other daughters from his first marriage, Laura Whitney-Thomas and Andrea Haddad; two children from his second marriage, Amanda Reina and Robert Haddad; a stepson, Steve Walsh; 13 grandchildren; and two great-grandsons.

Mr. Haddads fans and foes characterized him as indefatigable, ambitious and stubbornly bare-faced, and said that in his earnestness he sometimes bit off more than he could chew.

His inability to say no, Nora Ephron wrote in New York Magazine in 1968, meant that at one point he had to find a ghostwriter to ghostwrite a book which hed promised to ghostwrite himself. (Among the books he wrote himself was Hard Driving: My Years With John Delorean in 1985).

When he ran for Congress in 1964, he once recalled, I ran with an Arab name in a Jewish district. My opponents had a picture of me superimposed on a camel, and I didnt handle it well. I said if I had to be Jewish to win, it wasnt worth winning. He lost.

As a newly minted member of the citys Board of Education in 1968, Mr. Haddad, in a candid comment on the quality of the school system, declared in a television interview: I wouldnt put my kids in the public school system. Id hock my suit, my car and my shoes to get them into a decent school. (In reality he would not have had to hock anything; he understated his finances running a company that monitored poverty programs.)
Filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker recalled the days when he was a part of the shoot of Shyam Benegals Bharat Ek Khoj (Discovery of India), based on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehrus book. He spoke evocatively of watching an unknown actor, who was later identified as Irrfan Khan.

He wrote on Twitter: As an actor, I was a part of #DISCOVERYOFINDIA in 1988 by #ShyamBenegal babu! (man bowing deeply emoji) . One day, I witnessed a scene between #Akbar & his historian BADAYUNI, played brilliantly, by an unknown actor. On asking the asst., I was told  his name is #IrrfanKhan ! Been his #FAN ever since!

As an actor, I was a part of #DISCOVERYOFINDIA in 1988 by #ShyamBenegal babu!  One day, I witnessed a scene between #Akbar & his historian BADAYUNI, played brilliantly, by an unknown actor.



On asking the asst., I was told  his name is #IrrfanKhan !



Been his #FAN ever since! pic.twitter.com/GXwpcGKQTw  Ashutosh Gowariker (@AshGowariker) May 4, 2020

Irrfan played historian Badayuni in one episode, and played a young but intellectually erudite and conscientious man in another.

Found this amazing gem played by Irrfan Khan in the Discovery of India, Bharat Ek Khoj, tele series. What an effortless actor with such incredible command over delivery of ideas and history! pic.twitter.com/zn7xyzaR0K  Aarti Tikoo Singh (@AartiTikoo) April 29, 2020

Bharat Ek Khoj aired on Doordarshan and starred many prominent actors. On April 29 after Irrfans death, Ashutosh had tweeted: Too saddened to hear about the passing away of one of the most charismatic actors- #IrrfanKhan! Your acting style was characteristically your own. And hence, immensely admirable and inspiring! I will surely miss your brilliance!! Prayers and Condolences to the family.

Anurag Basu, who directed him in Life in a Metro, had told PTI, I was hoping he would pull it off. I was hopeful because I had pulled through it. He was responding well to the treatment so we thought... This is very unfortunate. I couldnt meet him. I am feeling very very bad for it as I will never get to see him. But I did meet Sutapa (Irrfans wife) while the treatment was going on. It was a long, long fight. He fought this battle alone away from everyone.

Also read: Shahid Kapoors stepfather and Ishaan Khatters father Rajesh Khattar introduces baby son. See pics

Lyricist Prasoon Joshi had told IANS, I was in constant touch with Irrfan. I talked to him a lot during this crisis of what he was going through. It was remarkable to see (him fight the illness). His treatment was really painful. He had a rare kind of disease. Despite the painful treatment, he was trying to keep up with his commitments and he fought till the last breath. It is very inspiring.

(With PTI and IANS inputs)

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Founder of Aisling Capital, Mr. Purcell was honored in the Biotech Hall of Fame and cited as one of the top 100 contributors to the biotechnology sector

Westport, CT, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BioSig Technologies, Inc. (BSGM) (BioSig or the Company) today appointed Mr. Dennis Purcell to the Board of Directors of its majority-owned subsidiary ViralClear Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Mr. Purcell brings to ViralClear a wealth of life science and investment experience. Mr. Purcell is the Founder of Aisling Capital LLC and previously served as Senior Managing Partner. Prior to Aisling Capital, Mr. Purcell served as Managing Director of the Life Sciences Investment Banking Group at Chase H&Q (formerly Hambrecht & Quist, H&Q). Aisling Capital (formerly Perseus-Soros Bio-pharmaceutical Fund), formed in 2001, is a leading venture capital fund that has invested over $2 billion in emerging biopharmaceutical companies globally which has helped the industry to mature and become the main source of new innovative drugs and devices being used to treat diseases today. While at H&Q, Mr. Purcell was directly involved with over two hundred completed transactions and supervised over $10 billion of financing and advisory assignments in the Life Sciences industry. Prior to joining H&Q, Mr. Purcell was a Managing Director in the Healthcare Group at PaineWebber, Inc.

Mr. Purcell is a frequent commentator on the industry and has been honored in the Biotech Hall of Fame by Genetic Engineering News, named to the Biotechnology All-Stars list by Forbes ASAP, honored as one of the top 50 Irish-American businessmen and cited as one of the top 100 contributors to the biotechnology industry.

Mr. Purcell serves on numerous healthcare company boards. He currently sits on the Boards of Real Endpoints, Summus Global, Inc., BioScience Managers Pty Ltd., and Ichnos Sciences. He also serves as a member of the Board of: the Editorial Advisory Board at Life Science Leader Magazine; the Executive Committee at NYBIO Association; the University of Delaware Investment Visiting Committee as well as the Biopharmaceutical Innovation Board at the University of Delaware; the Foundation of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine; and the Healthcare sector of the New York City Investment Fund. He is also an Executive in Residence at Columbia University.

Story continues

Mr. Purcell received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and his B.S. in Accounting from the University of Delaware.

Mr. Purcell is the latest high-profile addition to the Companys Board and will serve alongside former Chief Medical Officer of Celgene Jerome Zeldis, M.D., Ph.D , Nick Spring, CEO of ViralClear and a former senior executive at Merck & Co. and Anthony Zook , former senior executive at Astra Zeneca, Plc.

ViralClear assembled a team with a highly impressive collective skillset to address a very pressing public health issue. I look forward to joining the management and my fellow Board members as the Company seeks to translate the strong in vitro findings into clinically meaningful results, commented Mr. Purcell.

We are thrilled to welcome Dennis at this important time in our Companys development, and look forward to his contributions, added Jerome Zeldis, M.D., Ph.D, Executive Chair of ViralClear Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

The Company recently announced that Mayo Clinic is set to become a study site for a planned Merimepodib Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of COVID-19, once permitted by the FDA. The study will be a randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Data from the Phase II trial is expected within three months from its commencement.



Dennis is a fantastic addition to ViralClear Board. His extensive knowledge of the biotech industry and his directorship expertise will be highly valuable to the Company as it reaches inflection points in its development, stated Kenneth L. Londoner, Chairman and CEO of BioSig Technologies, Inc. and Director of ViralClear Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

About merimepodib

Anti-viral candidate merimepodib (MMPD) targets RNA-dependant polymerases. The molecule has shown activity against a broad spectrum of RNA viruses and has demonstrated satisfactory safety data from over 300 patients treated for hepatitis C. Recently, the Company published first pre-clinical data generated under contract with Galveston National Laboratory at The University of Texas Medical Branch. The Company recently submitted two manuscripts titledThe IMPDH inhibitor merimepodib provided in combination with the adenosine analogue remdesivir reduces SARS-CoV-2 replication to undetectable levels in vitro and The IMPDH inhibitor merimepodib suppresses SARS-COV-2 replications. The manuscripts were authored by Natalya Bukreyeva, Emily K. Mantlo, Rachel A. Sattler, Cheng Huang, John T. Manning, Slobodan Paessler, DVM, Ph.D of the UTMB Galveston National Laboratory and Jerome Zeldis, M.D., Ph.D of ViralClear. In-vitro studies referenced in the manuscript demonstrated that merimepodib decreased viral production by over 98%.





About BioSig Technologies

BioSig Technologies is a medical technology company commercializing a proprietary biomedical signal processing platform designed to improve signal fidelity and uncover the full range of ECG and intra-cardiac signals (www.biosig.com).

The Companys first product, PURE EP(tm) System is a computerized system intended for acquiring, digitizing, amplifying, filtering, measuring and calculating, displaying, recording and storing of electrocardiographic and intracardiac signals for patients undergoing electrophysiology (EP) procedures in an EP laboratory.

About ViralClear

BioSigs subsidiary ViralClear Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is seeking to develop a novel pharmaceutical to treat COVID-19. Merimepodib is intended to be an orally administered, broad-spectrum anti-viral agent that has demonstrated strong activity against COVID-19 in cell cultures in laboratory testing. The product candidate has completed Phase I and three Phase II trials in other indications.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Such statements may be preceded by the words intends, may, will, plans, expects, anticipates, projects, predicts, estimates, aims, believes, hopes, potential or similar words. Forward- looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, are based on certain assumptions and are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Companys control, and cannot be predicted or quantified and consequently, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, risks and uncertainties associated with (i) the geographic, social and economic impact of COVID-19 on our ability to conduct our business and raise capital in the future when needed, (ii) our inability to manufacture our products and product candidates on a commercial scale on our own, or in collaboration with third parties; (iii) difficulties in obtaining financing on commercially reasonable terms; (iv) changes in the size and nature of our competition; (v) loss of one or more key executives or scientists; and (vi) difficulties in securing regulatory approval to market our products and product candidates. More detailed information about the Company and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements is set forth in the Companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the Companys Annual Report on Form 10-K and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Investors and security holders are urged to read these documents free of charge on the SECs website at http://www.sec.gov. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Andrew Ballou

BioSig Technologies, Inc.

Vice President, Investor Relations

54 Wilton Road, 2nd floor

Westport, CT 06880

aballou@biosigtech.com

203-409-5444, x133




Thiruvananthapuram, May 5 : Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue and manner of handling of return of diaspora from various countries.

"In the first five days, 2,280 passengers will arrive at Kochi, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram airports. While the Centre has listed only 80,000 people, 4.42 lakh people have registered with our system. Of this, 1,69,136 are in the category who have to return immediately," said Vijayan after the daily Covid-19 review meeting, here on Tuesday.

The first four flights will land on Thursday.

The Chief Minister claimed to have brought to attention of the Prime Minister exclusion of the Kannur airport for evacuation. "As per our registry, 69,170 people want to fly to Kannur airport," he said.

He said people seeking to reach India from abroad were not being asked to undergo a coronavirus test. "It's serious. In a flight of 200, if one or two carried the virus, so many others will get infected. I have urged him to see that all were tested before boarding the aircraft," Vijayan said.

If that didn't happen, all arriving persons would have to be quarantined at facilities set up by the state government.

"After a week, a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test will be conducted. Those testing negative be allowed to go home and the rest will have to stay in quarantine for another week. Those testing positive will be sent to hospital. We have placed a fresh order for 200,000 antibody testing kits," said Vijayan.

He said two ships would soon bring back people from the Maldives and another ship from the UAE to Kochi. All of them would be quarantined, he added.

On air fares, Vijayan said it won't be exorbitant. "We have raised the issue with the Centre and we expect some relaxation, especially for those who have no jobs," said Vijayan.

He said 2.50 lakh beds had been identified and 1.63 lakh beds readied in the state.

"Apart from this, 1,80,540 Keralites are waiting in other states to return. Around 25,410 passes have been issued and 3,363 people have returned. Also, all those coming from red zone districts will be quarantined," Vijayan said.
Spains Constitutional Court, the countrys highest court, outlawed May Day protests, arguing that public health must prevail over the right to protest. This adds insult to injury, as the Socialist Party (PSOE)-Podemos government is prematurely ordering millions of workers back to work amid a continuing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Court was responding to the small Central Union of Workers (Central Unitaria de Trabajadores  CUT) union in Galicia. The CUT had appealed a ruling of Galicias regional Court of Justice denying its request to hold a protest in Vigo. The protest was planned in the city on the occasion of May Day, in the form of a caravan of motor vehicles with a single occupant, thus respecting social distancing.

The CUT considered the regional courts prohibition or limitation of a trade union mobilization a mockery of fundamental rights. Such protests cannot be banned under the current State of Alarm imposed by parliament, as the same government allows the movement in private vehicles to workplaces.

Nonetheless, the Constitutional Court agreed with the regional court, stating: The relationship between the right to life and that of assembly requires a balance, so that in the absence of safety guarantees in a situation of maximum contagion, it is necessary to prioritize the right to life. The Court agreed with the ban, stating that if the planned demonstrations logically will entail a massive use of public transport by citizens before or after boarding the vehicles. The fact that the trips along the planned route were held by car does not imply a guarantee that the danger [of contagion] disappears.

The Court indicated that given the pronounced uncertainty regarding the virus, measures of social distancing, confinement and extreme limitation of contacts and group activities, are the only ones that have been found effective to protect citizens life and health.

What a political fraud. While this argument does not justify trampling the constitutional rights of workers in Vigo, it does show that the PSOE-Podemos governments back to work policy is politically criminal, placing the health and lives of millions of workers and of their families in danger.

Since April 13, after a two-week total confinement of all but essential workers, the government sent millions of workers back to work. Around 4 million workers in construction and industry, including auto, were forced to go back in crowded public transport and without proper protection gear. Spain became one of Europes first countries to force workers back on the job amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last week, the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced his Transition Plan to a New Normal for a gradual end to COVID-19 confinement measures in Spain, even as new infections mount. Sanchez outlined his governments plan to lift lock-down measures in four stages, including hotels, bars and restaurants and other retails shops, thereby forcing millions more workers back to work.

This is being implemented without any clear guidelines, even though the pandemic is not under control. More than a month and a half since the government implemented a State of Alarm, Spain is still badly hit by Covid-19. Spain is, despite its small size, the country with the most confirmed cases after the United States, with 242,988 confirmed infections. In deaths, Spain is in fourth place, with over 25,000 deaths.

The fact that the virus is not under control was even recognised by the Spanish government itself, days after announcing de-confinement. Last Saturday, Sanchez admitted: I think it is very important to be aware that there will be outbreaks [of the virus]. What we all need is that the outbreaks are as few as possible so as not to put our national health system, our health professionals, in jeopardy.

The following day, the director of the Center for the Coordination of Health Emergencies, Fernando Simon, indicated that the probability of new outbreaks is high but hoped the second wave will be somewhat more controlled.

In other words, the misnamed progressive government knows its policy will lead to new infections and deaths. This exposes all the false claims of the government and media that the Covid-19 epidemic is waning and that workers can now work, shop and dine out without undue risk.

This same policy is being implemented in America, where US president Donald Trump and the media claim the pandemic is under control while press inquiries have found the federal government expects an enormous spike in the death toll and has ordered 100,000 new body bags for victims of COVID-19.

The reactionary implications of the Courts ruling are clear. While workers are forced to go to work amid a pandemic to continue extracting profits, those same workers are banned from protesting and possibly striking against lack of protection gear, wage cuts and mass redundancies as a result of the economic crisis.

According to the latest information, Spains economy shrunk by its biggest amount on record, 5.2 percent in the first three months of 2020, due to the crippling impact of the pandemic. It has lost a record number of jobs, 900,000. The central bank predicts the economy could shrink as much as 12.4 percent this year.

In this context, there are no political mechanisms within the political system through which any of the grievances of the vast majority of the population can find expression. What has passed as progressive or left politics since the last economic crisis, the pseudo-left Podemos, is now integrated in the PSOE government. The trade unions like CCOO and UGT have been the chief enforcers of the back to work policy in the workplaces.

A social eruption of the working class against the entire political establishment, including its social-democratic and pseudo-left factions, is being prepared in Spain and across Europe.

This terrifies the ruling class, and underlies its attack on basic democratic rights like the ruling against workers in Vigo.

On the other side, the working class, facing the criminal indifference to the right to life of workers, is itself moving into action. After mass wildcat strikes erupted across Italy, workers in several factories in Spain also struck to demand to be allowed to shelter at home. The PSOE and Podemos responded by unleashing regional riot police to violently assault striking steelworkers. A few weeks ago, police dispersed a demonstration of Glovo riders in Madrid against their precarious work.

Today, an indefinite strike has been called by the Nissan factory in Barcelona against a possible plant closure. The unions have made sure the strike is isolated only in the Barcelona plant, leaving the other two Nissan factories in Spain, in Corrales de Buelna (Cantabria) and Avila, to continue production.

At the same time, more than 16,000 people have joined a national rent strike called last month by Spanish tenant unions. The goal is to suspend rent collection for the duration of the pandemic, given that thousands of families are without work and income. It goes against the PSOE-Podemos governments reactionary relief policy, which consists of providing micro-credits for tenants to pay the rent, thus forcing hundreds of thousands of people into debt.

The growing social opposition requires workers, youth and unemployed to form action committees to coordinate their struggles independently of the trade unions, organize opposition to the inevitable repression by governments across Europe, and struggle to transfer state power to the working class.
Delivery accounted for about a quarter of South Bethlehems El Jefes Taqueria sales before the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, it makes up 75% of the Mexican eaterys sales.

And thats meant that owner John Schall is giving up a growing portion of his sales to third-party delivery apps like Grubhub, Uber Eats and DoorDash.

We barely broke even in April, Schall, who paid about $25,000 to get the restaurants food on customer doorsteps last month, said Monday.

More and more customers are turning to third-party delivery apps to help support local businesses at a time when delivery and takeout are lifelines for restaurants forced to stop dine-in eating under Gov. Tom Wolfs stay-at-home order.

The coronavirus shutdown comes at a real cost to the nations restaurants, which need delivery to survive in this new era, but are having a hard time justifying sending an increasing percentage of their potential profits to delivery companies.

It shouldnt be something that makes it so restaurants arent viable and thats what it is now, Schall said. The size of the fee makes it not viable for restaurants.

This dichotomys led San Francisco Mayor London Breed to cap at 15% the fees delivery apps charge the citys restaurants for the duration of the pandemic. New York City is weighing a package of bills limiting apps from charging restaurants no more than a 10% commission permanently.

And now Bethlehem City Councilman J. William Reynolds wants the city to explore creating a licensing process and perhaps capping fees. Council is set to consider a measure drafted by Reynolds to get the administration to study the issue Tuesday evening.

Some delivery services like DoorDash and Caviar are trying to help the industry during the COVID-19 crisis by cutting their commissions by 50%, said Stephanie Otterson, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association. But some have aggressive fees and commissions that are detrimental to the industry, she said.

Restaurants have been forced into a situation not of their doing and these companies should not benefit on the backs of those businesses that are struggling to survive, Otterson said.

Grubhub and DoorDash did not respond to requests for comment.

It is costly and complicated for small restaurants to offer their own delivery. Yet, more and more customers want the convenience.

When restaurants use delivery companies, they agree to give up a set percentage -- sometimes as high as 30% -- of every delivery order, a tension thats plagued restaurants since the apps inceptions. Add in competing fees and the fact that some companies offer better service than others, and restaurateurs say they face an array of unattractive choices.

The COVID-19 health crisis is elevating this tension as an industry that already operated on razor-thin profit margins struggles to stay afloat.

As delivery accounts for more and more of sales, that cost grows, too. About 6.25% of El Jefes monthly total revenue pre-COVID-19 went to delivery costs, now it is 18.5%, Schall, who also owns two Massachusetts locations, said.

I am going to fight this. Im not going to close up. This is a battle I am going to take on, Schall, who recently wrote an op-ed in The Boston Globe calling for public regulation of the delivery apps, said. It is not just El Jefes. It is all the restaurants in Bethlehem.

Roasted, the East Fourth Street breakfast and lunch favorite, paid just Grubhub $1,800 in April. Thats money owner Derek Wallen says he could have used to pay one or two more employees. At the same time, relying on three delivery services gives Roasted enough order volume to justify bringing on more staff.

Many who use delivery apps dont know restaurants are forced to eat the costs of the convenience, so Reynolds hopes just discussing it could immediately help local restaurants.

Bethlehems Director of Community and Economic Development Alicia Miller Karner said the city is already investigating the apps.

We are already working with the businesses to understand the impact of third-party delivery services on their bottom line, Karner said.

SouthSide Arts District Manager Missy Hartney said shes thrilled the city is giving it attention because it could really help.

We are all working so hard to keep these businesses alive for when the fog clears, she said. We want these businesses to still be there.

Some businesses are exploring delivery and curbside for the first time, while others are opting to stay closed, Hartney said.

Red Stag Pub crunched the numbers before the virus hit and it wasnt worth it to offer delivery for its normal menu through Grubhub. The bustling pub just off the citys Main Street did a very small takeout business pre-pandemic.

Today, the eatery is opting to offer family-style meals and baked goods for delivery, a structure that make the high fees more palatable, owner Neville Gardner said.

Forced to rely upon someone else to deliver his carefully-crafted food, Gardner wanted to ensure what arrives is up to Red Stag standards. He pivoted to items like bangers and mash, cottage pie and wings, which can be reheated. Hes increased the price of items so they dont lose money, but he would welcome lower fees.

Our main concern wasnt the price, but the quality of the product when it got delivered, Gardner said. If it took 45 minutes to deliver fish and chips, it wouldnt be getting there the way we wanted it to taste.

As America slowly returns to a new version of life with social distancing, restaurants will have to learn to operate with fewer tables and more takeout and delivery.

Thats why Schall says it is critical to now address delivery companies, which he believes are operating as oligopolies with a vise grip on pricing. He likens it to the need to regulate public utilities.

The COVID-19 pandemic and crisis for restaurants that resulted from it has provided us an opportunity to address this issue, Schall said. Its not like this issue wasnt affecting restaurants adversely long before this crisis took and it will continue to after its over.

The states restaurant association supports legislation that requires transparency for delivery app fees and costs, as well as short-term fixes that reduce the fees charged during the crisis, Otterson said.

The group points out that many of the delivery apps offer deals to the customer -- like $10 off of a $50 order -- but then passes that cost on to the restaurant while pocketing more money on the sale.

Before the pandemic, the association was working with Philadelphia City Council to prevent apps from the unauthorized listing of restaurants on their apps. Now, they are looking at long-term rules to ensure restaurants can negotiate better pricing.

While Schall says hes found it impossible to negotiate with the apps, Wallens had mixed results.

Before the pandemic, Roasted relied on all three delivery services over different periods. Uber Eats offered the best delivery, but the highest fees, Wallen said.

When I said I want to negotiate my rates because it was too high, he recalled, They said, Ok, and canceled my service and asked us to return the tablet they provided.

He turned to DoorDash and was able to negotiate a much better rate of about 20%, but hes had many delivery issues. So, he explored Grubhub in October, which offered a 25% fee thats split between marketing  think those discount offers  and delivery. He declined until COVID-19 struck.

Roasted is now using all three delivery apps.

It has increased sales, Wallen said. Having the three systems we have a lot more marketing. We have a lot more viewers, so we can get a lot more orders.

Now I am busy enough to get another staff member back for the weekend. Ill get 15 to 18 tickets at the same time but with all of these fees I am basically paying his wage and revolving my cash. Im not really making a profit, but I am getting another employee employed again. Thats just how I look at it.

Over the weekend, Wallen posted on Roasteds Instagram page encouraging customers to order takeout or use a restaurants own delivery service to help them keep more money. He saw a corresponding uptick in takeout orders, which left him hopeful educating customers might help.

El Jefes Schall doesnt want customers to feel guilty when they order in.

People are going to do delivery. I dont want them not to do delivery, Schall said. I just dont want the delivery companies to provide absolutely outrageous prices.

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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Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com.
With each day that passes, with each new grim death toll, we learn a little bit more about the nature of this ghastly virus.

This week in particular, statistics have come to light showing that obesity is emerging as one of the biggest risk factors for Covid-19.

According to data released by the NHS, being overweight raises the chances of dying in hospital from the illness by 40 per cent.

Having a body mass index of between 30 and 34 makes a person almost twice as likely to be admitted to ICU as someone with a BMI under 30. For those with a BMI of 35 or more, the likelihood is nearly four times higher.

Obesity is emerging as one of the biggest risk factors for the coronavirus pandemic

Data shows have a 40 per cent more chance of dying in hospital from coronavirus if you are overweight, according to NHS data

This is a very tricky piece of information for the Government to handle. Obesity is a highly politicised issue: fat-shaming is one of the more heinous crimes against political correctness.

The notion that the medical establishment is acutely aware of the newly discovered risks of obesity, yet fearful of talking about it, was reinforced by a conversation I had last week with a friend who is a leading bariatric surgeon.

Its a very difficult subject to broach, he told me, and no one quite wants to say it, but theres no question in the mind of any of my colleagues: patient size is a major factor in this disease.

As the UK has the highest proportion of seriously overweight people in Europe, this is of grave concern. Yesterday, an NHS report said 67 per cent of men and 60 per cent of women here are overweight or obese.

It means that as a population in general, we are inherently more at risk of dying from coronavirus.

Yet persuading people to accept that their weight can be a major health issue is very hard indeed.

That is because size is deeply bound up in psychological issues and self-esteem. Fat people, as I know from a lifetimes struggle with the scales myself, can be very defensive about their condition. We interpret any concern about our weight as negative criticism, an attack on our identities.

Big people  and in particular bigger women  have become so sacred that none but the most bigoted would dare criticise.

I know how joyless life can be when you feel  as so many do  that your only friend is the tub of ice cream in the freezer. That is why Ive always felt that obesity was in effect an eating disorder that needs to be managed as much in the mind as in the body.

For any politician  especially a lean male such as Health Secretary Matt Hancock  to have to step into this minefield is tough. Its hard enough having to ask the over-70s to shield themselves; can you imagine the hysteria if he asked the obese to do the same? Or suggested that people should isolate according to their weight, rather than their age?

Can you imagine if Matt Hancock asked people struggling with obesity to shield themselves and social distance from the virus like he has done with the over-70s?

But if the science is correct, maybe that should be the strategy.

Because there is one fundamental difference between the obese and the over-70s. Age is not a choice. Size, ultimately, is.

For the past six weeks, the nation has talked of nothing else but saving our NHS. Yet for a decade we have been bringing the NHS to its knees by refusing to take personal responsibility for obesity.

It puts us at increased risk of developing cancers, high blood pressure and type-2 diabetes  conditions that cost the health service billions of pounds a year.

So if we really want to protect the NHS, those of us who are overweight or obese can start by taking a deep breath, stepping on those scales and beginning the long, hard journey back to health.

The virus may be tailing off now but a second wave is expected in the winter. There are a good few months between now and then.

If you can be inspired to lose weight, you might not only help to save the NHS. You might just be saving yourself.

Don't judge a book by its cover, me included

On Sunday I made the mistake of tweeting a couple of book-shelfies. I didnt really give it much thought  but unfortunately others did. There followed a bizarre 24 hours of various people arguing  it even merited a slot on Mondays Newsnight  about the contents of those shelves.

In among books by authors including Tony Blair, David Blunkett, P.G. Wodehouse, Raymond Chandler, Tennyson and Ruth Rendell were biographies of, shock horror, Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. But worse than this perceived crime against progressive thinking, and the title people latched on to the most  thanks to the concerted efforts of online Corbynistas  was a book from 1978 by infamous Holocaust denier David Irving.

Where that tome came from I cannot recall; I suspect it dates back to the time my husband was a journalist at The Times. Back then you couldnt cut and paste information from the internet, so you had to refer to source material  and given that he was vocal in his denunciation of Irving, he would have had to be familiar with his work.

Either way, I (and he by association) were immediately attacked in the usual Twitter-mob way as Nazis, which, given my husbands unstinting support for the nation of Israel, came as something of a surprise.

So what have I learned from my monstering? Well, first, dont share pictures of bookshelves, no matter how bored you are in lockdown. Second, that the Left does not believe in the notion that a person can read a book and also disagree  in this case passionately  with the theories it advances. Of course, this idea that certain books must be banned is not uncommon among supporters of oppressive ideologies. Only a few years ago, Islamic State fighters torched the library in Mosul. The Nazis themselves famously burned books. I doubt whether those baying for my blood would see themselves as part of that same mindset  but of course they are.

Like the students at Oxford University who this week put forward an Academic Hate Speech motion in an attempt to ban certain books from the curriculum, their goal is to edit learning according to an increasingly narrow set of self-determined criteria.

Thankfully, the university rejected that motion. But if those students views arent bigotry, I dont know what is.

Let's sing Sophie's praises

Sophie Ellis-Bextor has been getting through lockdown the only way she knows how - sequins and song - and she should be praised



The nation has arguably had its fill of celebrities warbling about solidarity from their mansions. One exception is Sophie Ellis-Bextor, whose kitchen discos on Instagram are a joyous jumble of babies, glitterball chaos and scatter-cushions.

Nothing staged about it, just one mum trying to get through lockdown the only way she knows how: sequins and song. Last Friday she treated us to a truly beautiful rendition of Julie Andrews My Favourite Things. Now she is definitely one of mine.

Many of you have written begging me never again to mention the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as youre tired of their attention-seeking. But indulge me just once. Finding Freedom? Is that really the title of the forthcoming biography on which they are said to have co-operated?

Sorry, freedom from what, exactly? An oppressive regime of unimaginable riches, hot and cold running staff, high status and lifetime job security? Maybe it should just be called Shameless.

One more daily risk

I am not a virus denier, like those who protested outside New Scotland Yard on Saturday, calling for an end to lockdown. Ive seen the suffering this pandemic is causing to friends and family, and know the risks. But the truth is we ride bikes, drive cars, cross busy roads, sunbathe, drink alcohol  all behaviours that carry danger. Yet we still do them because they are part of what makes life worth living, aka fun.

They are calculated risks, and that is the shift we must now make in relation to Covid-19: recognise it as a threat, do all we can to avoid it and protect the most vulnerable, but refuse to let it paralyse us, our economy or our simple need to feel alive.

Ive grown so used to seeing adorable Joe Wicks in Lycra, it came as quite a shock when he popped up in a suit as his wife stood in for him following his wrist injury. Bless him, he looks like a geography supply teacher. Hard to believe that beneath the specs and man-bun lurks the nations favourite Adonis.

Joe Wicks (right) has been wearing a suit in his exercise videos due to a wrist injury - he looks like a geography teacher

I did think of calling our son Wilfred, after Wilfred Owen, whose poems make me weep. But my husband wasnt sure, so we went for William Frederick. Still, maybe the PMs baby will inspire a new generation of little Wilfreds. Symbols of hirsute hope in a Covid ravaged world.

Is it any wonder women find lockdown more anxiety-inducing than men? On our nightly chats, all my female friends agree: its like being trapped in some 1950s nightmare, a daily round of cooking, washing, cleaning, home-schooling and general dogsbodying. Only instead of being at work, their various nibses are at home using up the broadband on VIZ (Very Important Zoom) calls. Im beginning to understand why our grandmothers started on the Martinis before lunch.
A GTA cemetery chain with a half-billion dollars in assets is not a charitable trust and, despite its public roots, need not open its controlling board to outsiders, an appeal court ruled Tuesday.

A three-judge panel of the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned a lower-court decision that said the board of Mount Pleasant Cemeteries Group must open itself to scrutiny after improperly ditching oversight provisions.

The new ruling is a loss for Moore Park residents who have long fought for MPCG public accountability and financial transparency including executives pay.

A humble non-denominational graveyard bought in 1826 with $300 in donations from Town of York residents has grown to 10 cemeteries over 1,222 acres plus multiple funeral homes and crematoria.

In a December 2018 ruling, Justice Sean Dunphy found that by 1989 cemetery trustees had started calling themselves directors and acting like a rapidly growing corporation when in fact MPCG remained a charitable trust.

They improperly ignored a requirement, dating from the early 1800s, to publicly advertise notice of board elections, Dunphy ruled. He also found they werent empowered to expand into visitation centres and funeral homes including The Simple Alternative chain.

MPCG appealed and the higher court agreed an 1871 law established a corporation and removed the need for public notices that could trigger a meeting where local residents  not just trustees  could vote on new cemetery board members.

It is fair to say that the historical Acts in issue in this appeal are not models of legislative clarity; rather, they are products of their times, times devoid of computers, photocopiers, and ubiquity of publication, that are challenging to interpret, Justice Sarah Pepall wrote on behalf of the appeal panel.

Still, she called the consequences of Dunphys ruling on board elections impractical and absurd. Only Torontonians, for example, would be eligible to vote even though MPCG now has cemeteries in Durham, Halton and Peel.

While the right to open funeral homes or visitation centres was not conferred upon MPCG that power is included within the ambit of cemeteries or places for the burial of the dead, Pepall wrote.

The panel noted MPCG has not been accused of financial wrongdoing and found the financially self-sufficient, provincially regulated statutory trust doesnt fit charitable trust criteria that could expose its inner workings to extra scrutiny.

MPCG welcomed the ruling in a statement, saying it is recognized as a model of cemetery management around the world, and our properties have been woven into the fabric of their communities for nearly 200 years.

The courts decision means we can continue to focus on what weve always done best  ensuring that the communities we serve have meaningful, relevant choices when it comes to honouring their loved ones lives.

Margot Boyd, part of the group that took MPCG to court, said her faith in the lower-court conclusion  that a cemetery started with public donations still belongs to Torontonians  is unshaken.

The new ruling leaves questions hanging, she said, including who owns the statutory trust, whether the public is entirely shut out of it, and whether it can sell off assets that grew out of public donations.

Boyd noted the appeal court agreed the trust could be altered by the Ontario government and its high time for the Premier to act on the citizens behalf.

Regarding the seeking of an appeal of this ruling, we are consulting with our lawyers about next steps, Boyd wrote.

David Rider is the Stars City Hall bureau chief and a reporter covering city hall and municipal politics. Follow him on Twitter: @dmrider
ABC News(WILMINGTON, Delaware) -- BY: MOLLY NAGLE and JOHN VERHOVEK



Former Vice President Joe Bidens campaign released Monday afternoon a broad policy proposal aimed at rooting out systemic racism from our laws, our policies, our institutions, and our hearts, and helping African Americans in the U.S.-- plans released amid the coronavirus pandemic and its disparate impact on minorities.



The "Lift Every Voice proposal focuses on addressing racial disparities that exist within education, health care, the economy, environmental justice, criminal justice and voting rights.



The truth is, African Americans can never have a fair shot at the American Dream so long as entrenched disparities are still allowed to chip away at opportunity. You dont have an equal chance when your schools are substandard, when your home is undervalued, when your car insurance costs more for no good reason, or when the poverty rate for African Americans is more than twice what it is for whites, Biden wrote in a statement announcing his plan.



The plan comprises a number of different previously announced policy initiatives focused on the African American community, but also focuses on the new light that the COVID-19 pandemic has shown on the public health and economic disparities black America is facing today, according to the campaign.



Biden and his campaign are also reiterating their call for more data to be released by the Centers for Disease Control could further illuminate and inform policy making decisions that could alleviate the pain the African American and other minority communities are enduring as a result of the crisis.



The data weve seen so far suggests that African Americans are dying from COVID-19 at a higher rate than whites. Long-standing systemic inequalities are contributing to this disparityincluding the fact that African Americans are more likely to be uninsured and to live in communities where they are exposed to high levels of air pollution, the plan says, citing data from the Kaiser Family Foundation and a recent study from Harvard University.



On the economic front, the plan also calls for more funding for the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and a renewed focus on ensuring that funding is received by African-American-owned businesses hard hit by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.



According to the plan, as president, Biden would also push for various criminal justice reforms, including calling on the Justice Department to prioritize the prosecution of hate crimes.



Bidens plan also highlights Bidens previously announced support of more progressive policy proposals on student debt and loans, reiterating the former vice presidents plan to forgive student loan debt for families making less than $125,000 for all public universities, and private historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions.



The former vice president relied heavily on the support of the African American community throughout the Democratic primary, pulling away from the crowded field in part due to sweeping victories across a series of southern states on Super Tuesday and other by winning other states with significant black populations.



Senior aides to Biden told reporters Monday that the candidate will continue to push his message through virtual campaigning while the COVID-19 crisis has paused in-person events, but added that the campaign is planning upcoming virtual days in different places across the country, but did not offer more specifics on their upcoming schedule.



[Vice President Biden] will be taking this message, particularly as it relates to combating what's happening with the coronavirus, the lack of leadership in the White House currently, and the lack of governance from the White House currently and juxtaposing that with what he would do as President, a senior campaign official said.



Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LPL Financial LLC , a leading retail investment advisory firm, RIA custodian and independent broker-dealer, today announced that approximately 100 financial professionals affiliated with JFC Financial Services, including its founder Jack Connealy, have joined LPLs broker-dealer, corporate registered investment advisor (RIA) and custodian platforms. They reported having served approximately $3 billion in brokerage, advisory and retirement plan assets*. They joined from Securities America, part of the Advisor Group network of broker-dealers.



Connealy launched his independent practice in 1992, gradually building the JFC business by developing a network of financial institutions throughout Nebraska. Over the years, the firm morphed into a large enterprise that includes independent financial professionals as well as financial institutions.

Headquartered in Lincoln, Neb., the firm is comprised of 17 employees and an in-house team of financial professionals, along with the 100 affiliated financial advisors who joined LPL in waves beginning in mid-January. We have a wonderful culture, having created a really tight-knit, almost family-like network of financial professionals, Connealy said. The advisors share a mission to partner with clients to help them establish and pursue their financial goals through objective financial planning, investment management and risk management strategies.

Seeking to expand the business footprint on a national scale, Connealy and team turned to LPL Financial to leverage the firms robust recruiting capabilities. We knew LPL was a growth partner that could help us achieve our goals quickly. Weve already seen significant recruiting success in the last three months thanks to the support from LPL, Connealy said, noting that JFC has recently recruited 12 additional advisors to the firm, including six from Advisor Group.

LPLs innovative technology was also a factor behind the move. We love that the ClientWorks Connected capabilities are integrated and we can access everything easily without having to toggle from one window to another. The little things add up, like one click versus four clicks, and weve already seen a significant time savings, Connealy said. He said that many programs within the digital ecosystem have make it easier to serve clients remotely, such as Account View, which allows clients to visually track their portfolio, and DocuSign, which allows for a clients e-signature, eliminating the need to fax or mail documents. When efficiencies of technology are leveraged at an enterprise level, it helps advisors focus on their primary purpose, which is supporting their clients.

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Rich Steinmeier, LPL Financial managing director and divisional president, Business Development, said, We extend a warm welcome to Jack and the entire JFC Financial Services family. We are experiencing a flight to quality in the independent space, and we are pleased to be their firms choice for enhanced service and support to be able to grow and deliver value to their clients. We stand firm in our commitment to advisors and to investing in the technology, business solutions, platforms and resources that can help the firm and each individual advisor and institution in their network be successful. We look forward to supporting the entire JFC Financial team for years to come.

Read about other firms that recently joined LPL in the LPL Financial News and Media section of LPL.com.

Advisors, find an LPL business development representative near you.

About LPL Financial

LPL Financial ( https://www.lpl.com ) is a leader in the retail financial advice market and the nations largest independent broker-dealer**. We serve independent financial advisors, professionals, and financial institutions, providing them with the technology, research, clearing and compliance services, and practice management programs they need to create and grow thriving practices. LPL enables them to provide objective guidance to millions of American families seeking wealth management, retirement planning, financial planning and asset management solutions.

Securities and Advisory services offered through LPL Financial LLC, a registered investment advisor. Member FINRA / SIPC.

JFC Financial Services and LPL Financial are separate entities.

*Based on prior business and represents assets that would have been custodied at LPL Financial, rather than third-party custodians. Reported assets and client numbers have not been independently and fully verified by LPL Financial.

**Based on total revenues, Financial Planning magazine June 1996-2019

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In the wake of Covid-19, will the movie business ultimately look like a dystopian disaster downer, or an uplifting tale of survival?

One things for certain right now  its playing like a mystery.

With at least two of the major chains saying they could reopen by mid-summer, and some smaller theaters already opening in some states, we asked film folks in Connecticut to take a look into their crystal balls. They predicted everything from little change, to continued expansion of digital options, to even a revival of drive-in movies over the next several years.

Regardless, they all believe nothing can replace gathering in a theater to watch a film on the big screen. Their comments have been condensed for clarity.

Adam Birnbaum, film programming director for the Avon Theatre, a Stamford nonprofit showing documentaries, independent and foreign-language films. During the pandemic, the venue has pivoted to rental screenings via its website.

Theres a space in which (onsite and streaming) can coexist. ... But I would also say theres been a streaming presence for over a decade now. Perhaps with some more marginal fare, we might see them go straight to (video on demand), or straight to streaming or barely get a theatrical release with streaming. But I also believe theres always going to be a place for films to be seen in theaters. ...

Quite frankly, most of the content thats on Netflix or other streaming services really is not in any way compatible with what our general customer base is looking for. So Im really not all that concerned about it in the long run being something that dramatically alters things for us once were talking about a post-pandemic universe. ...

When its all said and done we as human beings are social creatures and have tendencies that lend themselves to wanting to interact with others. Im constantly reminded of that on a daily basis when Im in conversations with people who are telling me just how much they miss the Avon, and want to get back to going to the movies. So even if that doesnt happen immediately, I do have a very strong degree of confidence that normalcy will return.

Ginger Stickel, executive director of the Greenwich Film Festival, which for the first time in its six-year history launched the May 1-3 event virtually instead of physically.

There are benefits that come out of this. First of all, typically when you attend our festival, a movie is played at a specific date and time, and the way the virtual festival is set up people can enjoy our films any time they want around their schedules (during the run). We did incorporate some connectivity, because about two-thirds of our films are offering Q&As (with directors, actors) that are at specific times through a platform like Zoom. And so the ability to connect over film virtually, I think that trend will grow. 

Most of our audience comes from Connecticut and some from New York and in the past month weve seen people buying passes from Indiana, from Denmark, from other parts of the world and the country that we wouldnt typically be able to attract to our festival. So I think theres some element around streaming films or offering virtual events that will stay even when its safe to have physical events. 

Tom Carruthers, director of Connecticut Film Festival, New Haven Film Festival and FilmFest52.

For some time Ive wanted to launch a system where we actually show films in a venue like a movie house or at a college and also show the same film virtually to people on the mailing list who cant make it to the experience in the theater. 

You can monetize these virtual screenings with direct donations and you can also have sponsored screenings, and at the same time still give people some sort of experience. This gets you through to the period where hopefully well all get together in theaters again. But this virtual experience will still happen afterwards.

JC Barone, professor in Department in Communication & Media Arts at West Connecticut State University.

Going to the movies is more than just watching something. I hope that appreciation for the social aspect and the thrill of seeing and hearing something on the big screen in a communal manner will survive. I think it will, but the number of venues may change. That will depend on how financially feasible and profitable it is. 

Even with people sitting six or more feet from each other, youre still sitting in an enclosed space for two hours. But the 305 existing drive-ins in the U.S. may offer some relief and an answer. Maybe even more drive-ins? I miss them. We could still go to the movies  enjoy blockbusters or great indie flicks on the big screen, social distancing, a communal experience, even take the dog!

pquinn@ctpost.com
Attorney Norm Pattis will no longer represent controversial radio show host Alex Jones in a pair of multimillion-dollar lawsuits tied to the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

On Monday, Pattis filed a motion to withdraw representation of Jones, who is being sued for defamation by relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting.

Pattis declined to comment on his withdrawal.

The motion to withdraw from the case comes three days after Jones made headlines for describing, in a recent video, how he would eat his neighbors if he had to in order to survive because of the coronavirus panic.

The cases  Lafferty v. Jones and Sherlach v. Jones  are scheduled to begin jury selection in November at Waterbury Superior Court.

Erica Lafferty is the daughter of Sandy Hook Elementary School principal Dawn Hochsprung, who was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting. William Sherlach was married to the schools psychologist, Mary Sherlach, who was also killed.

Both are suing Jones for his claims that the shooting, which killed 20 students and six educators, was a hoax and that the victims were crisis actors working at the direction of the government  statements he has since retracted.

Pattis represented Jones before the Connecticut Supreme Court in late September and tried to get the lawsuit dismissed.

It is unclear who will now represent Jones.

Pattis has had other high-profile, controversial clients in the past.

The outspoken attorney represented Fotis Dulos in the high-profile homicide case revolving around the disappearance of his estranged wife Jennifer Dulos last May. The case garnered national attention until Dulos killed himself in late January.

Chris La Tronica, who also worked with Pattis in the Fotis Dulos case, also filed a motion to withdraw from the Jones case.
The mere mention of "Cinco de Mayo," one of Mexico's most symbolic battles, "the Battle of Puebla," comes to mind. Meanwhile, identified with the battle, is General Ignacio Zaragoza, who, with a small army, took on the influential forces of France, specifically that of Napoleon III, "during the Second French Intervention."

It was in March 24, 1829, when Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin was born in Goliad, formerly the city of Presidio de la Bahia Espiritu Santo, located in southern Texas, USA. He was Miguel Zaragoza and Maria de Jesus Valdez Martinez Seguin's second son.

When General Zaragoza was five years old, after Texas's independence, his family moved to the Tamaulipas state, particularly in Matamoros, where he started his studies. A decade later, he moved to Nuevo Leon, specifically in Monterrey.

For a couple of years, the general was considering entering the priesthood. However, he eventually left to pursue the example of her father, who was said to be an infantryman back then.

During the intervention of the U.S. in Mexico from 1846 to 1848, then young Zaragoza attempted to register as a cadet. Unfortunately, he was rejected.



Seeing Mexico Lose from a Distance

Despite the rejection, Zaragoza saw even from a distance, "how Mexico lost over 50 percent of its territory in a war which was considered unequal. More so, it was not until the year 1853 when he was able to join the Nuevo Leo army.

Initially, he joined the said army as a sergeant. Later on, he became his regiment's captain. Then, in 1854, Zaragoza decided to enter the Plan de Ayuta, a movement attempting to overthrow Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, a dictator at that time.

Together with 100 other supporters, he took up arms to protect the liberal cause, a cause he committed not to abandon until he died. Six years from an entry in Plan de Ayuta, Zaragoza fought favoring the Constitution of 1857.

The same year, he took part in the "battle of Calpulalpan," encountering the so-called conservative forces. Relatively, in this combat, his troop won easily, giving credit to an act of brave revenge; the liberals concluded the "War of Reform." They presented the grounds "of a new republican system.

During Benito Juarez's term, Zaragoza was acknowledged for his patriotism and high sense of loyalty. Therefore, he served the nation as the "Minister of the Army and Navy," the position he held until 1861.

The most remarkable passage, though, in this military man's life, was when the then-fledgling Republic of Mexico, economically drowning because of all its war expenditures and debts, decided through Juarez, to order a moratorium for the suspension of payments of all foreign debts.



Dissatisfied Nations

Considering the scenario, Britain, France, and Spain, the nations to whom most of Mexico's debt was owed, turned dissatisfied. Relatively they formed an alliance "whose armed forces approached the Veracruz port.

Following further negotiations, England and Spain decided to depart, but France, in a candid longing to develop a "new imperial administration and extend its US colonies," had decided to push through with its incursion into the territory of Mexico.



Cinco de Mayo's Hero: General Ignacio Zaragoza

President Juarez swiftly organized a military unit and placed General Ignacio Zaragoza in command. The army, composed of nearly 10,000 men, was named the Eastern Army, whose mission was to oppose the "French contingent of 6,000 soldiers," which insolent General Charles Ferdinand Latrille commanded.

As ordered, this Cinco de Mayo hero led east and decided to combat the invaders initially having 4,000 troops for contingent in the area called "the Summit of Acultzingo."

Moreover, under Juarez's orders to stop the French at Puebla, Zaragoza prepared a swift plan for the defense of the plaza. The battle started on May 5, when the domineering army arrived at the Puebla City.

Climbing to the Cerro de Guadalupe's top area, the leader decided to build two barracks in the strongholds of Guadalupe and Loreto forts with some 1,200 members to take on the French army, with 3,500 other men.



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Six persons, including a CRPF personnel and a policeman, were injured in a grenade attack by militants in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district on Tuesday, police said.

Militants hurled a grenade at a security forces' party near a bus stand at Pakherpora in Charare-Sharief area of the central Kashmir district, a police official said.

He said a CRPF personnel, a policeman and four civilians were injured in the explosion.

The injured have been rushed to a hospital, the official said, adding further details are awaited.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has urged its personnel not to compromise their professionalism and aim at always delivering on a world class firefighting rescue for the nation.



The service said it is important for personnel to remain united as one unit prepared to fight for each other, discharge their duties in a resolute and purposeful manner deserving of a professional fire fighter in line with the motto: Service with Compassion.



This was contained in a statement issued in Accra by Mr Edwin Ekow Blankson, the Chief Fire Officer, and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in commemoration with the International Fire Fighters Day.



International Fire Fighters Day is celebrated on May 4 every year to celebrate the dedication, gallantry, loyalty, dexterity and sacrifices of fire fighters and rescuers.



We share this day with millions of fire fighters across the globe who are also committed to the same objective of saving lives and property, the statement said.



It said fire personnel over the years have done their best and prevented or extinguished numerous fires, and many lives and properties have been preserved and saved giving meaning to their mandate even in life threatening situations.



Over the past 12 months we have as a service performed credibly in our quest to ensure a fire free society for all.



Some of these major occurrences which we have been able to overcome include; the Makola Shopping Mall basement fire, Michel Camp explosions and the recent Kumasi market fires.



On all these occasions, when we were called upon we demonstrated our commitment and bravado, we rose up to all the occasions and showed that we are up to the task and ready to offer world class services.



It is a thing of pride to know that many are alive today, many have roof over their heads and many can still earn a living as well as contribute meaningfully to our economy because of our sacrifices and dedication, it said.



The statement said over the 12 month period many fire fighters in the discharge of their duties have sustained various degree of injuries and about 61 of the comrades have also lost their lives.



Some of these deaths it said could be linked directly to the effects of firefighting saying we call them heroes because they have put their lives on the line for fellow citizens and our dear country and their memories will forever live on.



The statement said in spite of the impressive performance during the past months, it had been without challenges.



It said management was fully aware of all the challenges confronting the service and appreciated how firemen have remained calm, steadfast and committed in the face of all the challenges.



It assured personnel of the relentless commitment and that of government to ensure their needs as firefighters were met to enable them discharge their duties as expected.



The statement called on the public to support their efforts at reducing fire occurrence by adhering to the fire safety messages and also desist from engaging their hot lines with prank calls.



It acknowledged the media for their enormous support to the GNFS and assured that they would always collaborate with them.

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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The world is facing an unprecedented challenge, forcing country leaders as well as each and every person around the world to change their habits, to act collectively and with social responsibility and to think out of the box. After hitting the Chinese province of Wuhan at the end of 2019, the virus has spread from there to almost every country in the world, sparing no continent. It has by now reached the scale of an unparalleled global pandemic.

This global pandemic severely impacts our economies leading to massive job destructions and exerts an extreme pressure on our health and social protection systems.

Being located at the heart of Europe, France and Germany are hit hard by COVID-19. Naturally, the first response for both countries has consisted in national measures to reduce the number of infections and to mitigate the social and economic consequences of the pandemic. Together with our European partners and the European Union we have also put in place a concrete solidarity on the different levels of this crisis from the very beginning. Germany, for instance, did not hesitate to bring intensive care patients from France, Italy and the Netherlands to German hospitals for medical treatment. France, although witnessing an acceleration of the epidemic on its soil, sent millions of protective equipment to other European countries. We also organised joint European repatriation flights to ensure that stranded European citizens all around the world could go back home. Besides, we are pooling our European research capacities to produce a vaccine which could immune citizens against the virus.

These examples show that the spirit of solidarity, which is a core principle of the European Union, grows even stronger when sailing stormy waters and that we can find European answers to the urgent questions coming up with such a crisis, reaching from coordinating medical supplies to joint vaccine research and economic strategies and support. Thinking of the post-corona time, our aim as Europeans is to emerge from this stress-test stronger and even more committed to tackle future challenges together.

But just as the virus does not stop at borders, European solidarity also goes far beyond Europe. Because no nation alone can overcome this challenge, it is absolutely crucial for Germany and France, as well as for the EU, to join forces with neighbouring regions and partner countries around the world, particularly in Africa. To this end, the EU has dedicated a package of measures called Team Europe which aims to support the efforts made by partner countries to face the COVID-19 pandemic by reallocating more than 20 billion euros, combined between resources from the EU institutions and its member States. France and Germany have also taken the lead in demanding G7 and G20 partners for a debt relief for African countries because Africa cant be struggling to repay its debt and, at the same time, fight the COVID-19 pandemic and curb its economic and social impact.

Egypt is facing the challenge of tackling coronavirus, too. The Egyptian authorities have taken decisive measures to curb the spread of the virus and protect lives while addressing the issue of economic stability. The sense of responsibility demonstrated by the Egyptian people in following the new social rules to protect themselves and others, which is so important, has been remarkable and deserves our respect. Many countries in the region are now looking at the Egyptian model of fighting the pandemic as an inspiration for their own actions and strategies and expectations are high.

To overcome this hardship and defeat the virus, France and Germany are standing today, more than ever, side by side with Egypt. Through our traditional bilateral cooperation, we are supporting the sustainable and economic growth of Egypt and its population through activities in job-related private sector development, water, energy, education, urban development and digitisation. Moreover, we are working, together with the European Union, on immediate support actions, especially in the health sector to provide to Egypt all the necessary assistance it has required from its friends. We are fully committed, also as founding and active members of the International Monetary Fund, to support the Egyptian governments determination to consolidate the benefits of the economic reforms it has implemented during the last four years.

We are also preparing a mid-term action plan, mobilising resources from our French and German cooperation agencies to help Egypt to reboost its economy once the crisis is behind us.

We know that we will have to live with this virus for months, maybe even years to come, but together and united we will eventually defeat it. At times like these, when we are forced to socially keep our distance, countries and peoples all over the world must get even closer in the common fight of the pandemic and its long-term impact. Only through unity, solidarity and cooperation, with great commitment and flexibility, will we overcome the current and future challenges. This may, at times, also require choosing new creative ways offside the well-known paths. Both, Germany and France, are ready to tackle this challenge together with our partners in Egypt.

Stephane Romatet, French ambassador to Egypt

Dr Cyrill Jean Nunn, German ambassador to Egypt

*A version of this article appears in print in the 7 May, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Los Angeles, CA, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Draganfly Inc. (CSE:DFLY) (DFLYF) (3U8.F) (Draganfly or the Company), an award-winning, industry-leading manufacturer within the commercial Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), and unmanned vehicle sector, announced today that Cameron Chell, Draganfly CEO will be featured on Newsmax.com on May 5th with Shaun Kreisman and Emma Rechenberg at 11AM EST.



The segment on Newsmax will focus Draganflys position as a North American based drone systems developer and recent announcement it has been selected as the exclusive global systems integrator for a project with Vital Intelligence Inc., a healthcare data services and deep learning company in conjunction with the University of South Australia, using technology developed with help from the Australian Department of Defence Science and Technology Group.

I am super excited to share our story with Newsmax, said Cameron Chell, CEO Draganfly. With the new North American security concerns around foreign manufacturing in this sector, our advanced capabilities and the post COVID-19 reality, new frontiers have opened up for Draganfly. We are a secure North American Drone solution and in conjunction with our partners, we are the first to be commercially implementing multiple new state-of-the-art technologies with the ability to provide real data that aids in the reopening of the economy and protecting human lives.

To watch the live stream of the interview on Newsmax click here.

About Draganfly

Draganfly Inc. (CSE: DFLY; OTCQB: DFLYF; FSE: 3U8) is the creator of quality, cutting-edge, UVS and software that revolutionizes the way people do business. Recognized as being at the forefront of technology for over 22 years, Draganfly is an award-winning, industry-leading manufacturer within the commercial UAV and UVS space, serving the public safety, agriculture, industrial inspections and mapping and surveying markets. Draganfly is a company driven by passion, ingenuity and the need to provide efficient solutions and first-class services to its customers around the world with the goal of saving time, money and lives.

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For more information on Draganfly, please visit us at draganfly.com .

For additional investor information, visit https://www.thecse.com/en/listings/technology/draganfly-inc , https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/DFLYF/overview or https://www.boerse-frankfurt.de/aktie/draganfly-inc .

Media Contact

Arian Hopkins

email: media@draganfly.com

Company Contact

Phone: 1-800-979-9794

Email: info@draganfly.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains certain forward looking statements and certain forward-looking information as defined under applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements and information can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as may, will, expect, intend, estimate, anticipate, believe, continue, plans or similar terminology. Forward-looking statements and information are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions that, while believed by management to be reasonable, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Forward-looking statements and information are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the ability of the Company to control or predict, that may cause the Companys actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied thereby, and are developed based on assumptions about such risks, uncertainties and other factors set out here in, including but not limited to: the potential impact of epidemics, pandemics or other public health crises, including the current outbreak of the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 on the Companys business, operations and financial condition, the successful integration of technology, the inherent risks involved in the general securities markets; uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future; the inherent uncertainty of cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses, currency fluctuations; regulatory restrictions, liability, competition, loss of key employees and other related risks and uncertainties. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information except as required by applicable law. Such forward-looking information represents managements best judgment based on information currently available. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual future results may vary materially. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information.

The CSE has not in any way passed upon the merits of the listing of the common shares of Draganfly and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Listing of the common shares of Draganfly is subject to satisfaction of the listing requirements of the CSE, including customary deliverables in satisfaction of the conditional approval.
Company issues joint statement with Walla Walla County Department of Community Health

SPRINGDALE, Ark., May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc., the beef and pork subsidiary of Tyson Foods, Inc. (TSN), will resume limited production today at its Pasco, Washington, beef facility. The facility temporarily idled operations on April 23 to test its team members for COVID-19.



Team members were asked to self-isolate until their results returned. The company worked with local health officials to verify test results, which were communicated to team members. Team members who tested positive will only return to work once they have met the criteria outlined by the CDC for safely returning employees back to work. Team members who have not been tested will be unable to return to work, and all new hires will be tested prior to starting work.

The health and safety of our team members is our top priority, said Shane Miller, senior vice president and general manger beef enterprise. While the plant was idle, we performed a deep clean and sanitization of the facility and took proactive steps to complement our existing prevention efforts. Information is the best tool to fight COVID-19 and were focused on further educating our team members about CDC guidance to prevent spreading the virus. We have a diverse workforce and will provide this education in all languages spoken among our team members.

Team members returning to work today will begin their shift with a facility tour to see the changes made to promote social distancing and additional protective measures that follow CDC and OSHAs guidance for Meat and Poultry Processing Workers and Employers. These include:

The use of infrared thermometers to check the temperature of team members before they enter company facilities.

Supplying of protective facial coverings to every team member and requiring they are utilized.

Required use of face shields for team members where workstation barriers cant physically be implemented.

Wellness checks to screen for symptoms, such as coughing and shortness of breath.

Additional dedicated social distance monitors stationed throughout the facility during all shifts to ensure team members are adhering to safety protocols and social distancing requirements.

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Tyson has also partnered with Matrix Medical Network , a leading medical clinical services company, to provide a mobile health clinic at the Pasco facility. The mobile clinic will provide community-based health services, including diagnostic (PCR) testing for COVID-19, daily on-site clinical screenings, access to nurse practitioners, and employee education and support for personal health goals or concerns. Matrix Medical is also assisting with the environmental design of the facility to mitigate the risk of community spread.

The company doubled the amount of its thank you bonus for its frontline workers, and team members who cannot come to work because of illness or childcare issues related to COVID-19 will continue to qualify. Tyson Foods also increased short-term disability coverage to 90% of normal pay until June 30 to encourage team members to stay home when they are sick.

We would like to thank Tyson for continuing to take these measures seriously and putting the safety and welfare of their employees first, said Meghan DeBolt, director of Walla Walla County Department of Community Health. We would also like to thank our Department of Community Health team and Providence St. Mary Medical Center for helping test such a large number of Tyson employees quickly and efficiently. This was a huge team effort by everyone and a testament to the readiness of Walla Walla County to respond to a COVID-19 outbreak.

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 TYSONFOODS.COM .

Media Contacts:

HLI YANG, 479-290-2122, Hli.Yang@tyson.com
The novel coronavirus pandemic can be the moment the world pushes back against fear and isolationism, and turns instead towards hope, solidarity and a shared sense of global community.

These are fearful times, to be sure. Some 3.55 million people have been infected by COVID-19 and nearly a quarter of a million have perished. Billions of people are on lockdown or in self isolation.

Yet this pandemic and the fear, dread, and anxiety that it has induced has not occurred in isolation. For years, we have existed under the constant and pervasive feeling that things are getting worse, that we are failing each other and that we are failing our planet. This isnt helped by a daily news cycle that reads like an ever-escalating drumbeat of anxiety. Climate change, war and conflict, isolationism and trade wars; our world, at times, feels dark and lonely, and this despite the many, many positive news stories that exist but that rarely get attention.

Global togetherness

No one doubts that COVID-19 is one of the most dire threats the world has ever faced. And yet, amidst the confusion and anxiety, there are ever stronger signs of hope and solidarity, a sense of, and desire for, togetherness.

It is this spirit of global togetherness that gives us hope. In this time of crisis, we are all neighbours in the world, and success will only be achieved when all people, in all countries, are protected.

Thankfully, this shared sense of responsibility has seen a world come together in ways that we have not seen for some time, and the examples are everywhere.

In the U.K., an army of volunteers has come forth to support their neighbors. As stated in the New York Times, 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 Somalia, where health infrastructure and traditional media have suffered under decades of strife, local storytellers are being equipped with the skills and tools to reach remote communities and educate them on best practices against COVID-19. The initiative is a collaboration between UNDP Somalias Accelerator Lab and experts from Australias Queensland University and Digital Storytellers.

And, as pointed out by Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN Youth Envoy, young people from Syria to Peru to South Sudan are helping to tackle misinformation, raise community awareness and support the elderly.

Such examples are spreading like wildfire as people seek out a light at the end of the tunnel and work to show, to each other, that we all stand together. We see this in the towns and cities around the globe where citizens are painting hearts on windows, where crowds cheer for healthcare workers, and where everyday people perform songs on social media to help lift spirits.

Leaning into hope

Without ignoring the realities we face, it is clear that the world is reaching for a positive message. These words were echoed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to world leaders, as he emphasized the need for solidarity and global cooperation.

His call has resonated. Long sought-after partnerships with private sector companies are suddenly coming to fruition as everyone steps up to pitch in. UNDP has recently partnered with Variety on a global ad campaign. And UNDPs new partnership with Heart17, a global initiative using creativity and innovation to accelerate the SDGs and light a spark of hope among the young generation, has brought together major players within fashion and popular culture, such as H&M Group and Spotify, to share their media space for messages around health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Certainly there will be many lessons learned once COVID-19 has passed, and UNDPs Accelerator Labs has assessed some of the post-COVID-19 trends they see emerging. A key takeaway is this: COVID-19 has been a sort of reset across societies, across sectors. From telecommuting for work or school, to supply chain management, to support for health systems, and small and medium enterprises, to mental health support across borders or simply across the street, COVID-19 has forced us to look at how we work as a species on this planet.

Amidst the pain that we continue to endure, we should find comfort in the stories of hope and solidarity, and continue to see the value in the positive, encouraging lessons that are emerging for our post-COVID world.
TANZANIA, Tanzania - The International Criminal Courts prosecutor said Tuesday her office is working on new arrest warrants in Libya, pointing to the high number of civilian casualties from airstrikes and artillery fire while stressing that military commanders may be held responsible for crimes committed by their forces.

Fatou Bensouda told the U.N. Security Council that Libya remains a priority for her office. She noted the offensive launched over a year ago by eastern-based forces under military commander Khalifa Hifter trying to take the capital, Tripoli, has not abated.

She said her office is monitoring events, particularly civilian casualties from airstrikes and shelling and incidents that may constitute crimes under the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court.

Bensouda did not identify any individuals as possibly facing arrest warrants. But she said intentionally targeting the civilian population is a war crime under the Rome Statute, which also prohibits the targeting of hospitals and other health, education and religious buildings.

Libya has been in turmoil since 2011, when a civil war toppled long-time dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed. The country has since split between rival administrations in the east and the west, each backed by armed groups.

Hifters offensive is also backed by France, Russia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and other key Arab countries, the U.N.-supported government in Tripoli is backed by Turkey, Italy and Qatar.

Libyas U.N. Ambassador Taher El-Sonni accused Hifter of committing the war crimes that Bensouda cited and told the council the governments military prosecutor has issued arrest warrants for Hifter and other leaders under his command.

What is the ICC waiting for to hold accountable all those responsible for these violations that was indicated today that have been committed by the so-called National Army led by Hifter? he asked.

He also said there must also be accountability for countries and officials outside Libya who support and finance the violations and mercenaries from several nations who carry them out.

Speaking via a video connection, Bensouda said her office also is pursuing investigations involving the grave and persistent problem of arbitrary detentions as well as serious mistreatment of migrants and refugees attempting to transit through Libya.

She said information indicates that people detained without proper protection have been tortured and murdered and that men, women and children have been subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence.

Former detainees report brutal methods of torture, she said. Detainees have died from injuries sustained through torture, and from the failure to provide proper and timely medical care.

Bensouda said reports received by her office also indicate increasing numbers of cases of enforced disappearance, committed with close to total impunity, which can be a crime against humanity.

She cited the case of Siham Sergewa, a member of the Libyan House of Representatives, as emblematic of this disturbing trend. Sergewa has been missing since July 17, when armed men reportedly kidnapped her from her home in the eastern city of Benghazi, the prosecutor said.

Last November, Bensouda said her office had reliable information on the locations of three people subject to arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court.

She said then that Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, the late dictators son, was believed to be in the Libyan town of Zintan; Mahmoud al-Werfalli, a commander in Hifters forces, was in the Benghazi area; and Al-Tuhamy Mohamed Khaled, former head of the Libyan Internal Security Agency, was in Cairo. She said Tuesday that all three remain fugitives.

Bensouda told the council Tuesday that Gadhafi is a wilful fugitive, actively evading justice both in Libya and before the International Criminal Court, and that al-Werfalli and Khaled have not been arrested.
ALBANY  The state Department of Health began an investigation last month of the Teresian House nursing home in Albany, where more than 100 cases of COVID-19 among residents and staff have been detected and at least 14 infected residents have died.

In response to questions posed to the agency last week, a Department of Health spokesman on Tuesday confirmed the agency conducted a special focused investigation" of the elder care facility that examined infection control policies and whether it had been adhering to guidance issued by the state and supported by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A person who was briefed on the matter told the Times Union last week that health department investigators had found residents of the nursing home allegedly congregating, which would have violated state and federal health guidance.

Teresian House CEO Jim Cameron said Tuesday that the facility at 200 Washington Ave Ext has been following all state and federally-issued guidance as it has been rolled out. He said the state sent a team to visit the home Monday to see for itself. Cameron described the health officials as leaving satisfied with what they found, with only a few very minor recommendations.

I dont even remember what they were they were so minor, he said. When they left they said we dont have any violations. They said, Its a tough time, youre doing very well, and that was kind of it.

Findings from the investigation have not been released as it remained open as of Tuesday, a spokesman for the state Department of Health confirmed.

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The department has begun investigating and visiting nursing homes around the state as fatalities tied to coronavirus outbreaks have soared. Depending on the day, residents of long-term care facilities comprise anywhere from one-fifth to one-quarter of all coronavirus deaths in the state - and thats not counting residents who became infected in homes but ultimately died in the hospital.

The department is prioritizing these investigations based on complaints its received. As of Tuesday, it had opened 2,731 complaint investigations at nursing homes around the state and investigated infection control practices at more than 60 separate facilities.

Cameron confirmed Tuesday that Teresian House has seen 14 residents die from the coronavirus while in its care. He said some residents have been transferred to the hospital after becoming infected, but said he wasnt sure if any of them had died.

He said the home has been working for weeks to obtain more test kits. It received roughly 500 on Thursday and tested all remaining residents who had yet to be tested, as well as testing some staff. Results have since come in and as of Tuesday, 52 residents and 53 staff have tested positive so far, including "many" who are showing no symptoms at all, he said.

"Quite frankly, we have a lot of cases and you know why? Because were the first (nursing) facility to test everybody," he said.

Infected staff were sent home to quarantine for 14 days, he said, and some have already returned or are about to.

Unlike other facilities, Teresian House has not cohorted all of its infected residents by wing. Cameron said this is because unlike other facilities that have some residents share a room, Teresian House has 300 private rooms where it can isolate residents.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

We are doing some cohorting where it makes sense, but basically we have the ability to isolate 300 people, he said.

The state attempted to limit spread within nursing homes in March by imposing a ban on all visitors, and required all communal and group activities to be suspended. But its also been criticized as potentially fueling deaths with a March 25 directive that told nursing homes no resident shall be denied readmission or admissionsolely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19.

Homes were also prohibited from requiring hospitalized residents who had been deemed medically stable to be tested for the virus prior to their admission or readmission.

Some in the long-term care industry spoke out against the directive, arguing that requiring a facility to take in a COVID-positive patient would spur a wave of new infections in exactly the vulnerable population the state said it was trying to protect.

As deaths climbed, the state clarified that any nursing home that is unable to care for a COVID-19 patient must have the patient transferred  either on its own or by calling the state Department of Health, which can arrange a transfer.

Cameron said Teresian House was never asked to take in COVID-19 patients from hospitals. He said staff have adequate personal protective equipment to care for residents, as well.

As for how the virus entered the facility, he said "there's no way to know."

"The way this virus works, it's insidious," he said. "That virus probably got in the building a month before anybody got sick. It could have come in by the mailman, the ambulance drivers, a vendor. It could have been anyone."
Countries that banned international travellers from entering amid the coronavirus pandemic have fared better in controlling their outbreaks, data suggests.

Britain's death toll (29,427) today surpassed Italy's (29,315), making the UK the worst-hit nation in Europe. Only the US has recorded more COVID-19 fatalities.

But, even now, Britain's borders remain open and health bosses still aren't routinely testing or quarantining travellers from overseas. Meanwhile, dozens of countries which clamped down on international travel months ago appear to have averted major coronavirus crises.

In Europe, Norway and Denmark closed their borders to all non-citizens by March 13, within two weeks of recording their first cases of the virus. Both countries have recorded just 40 and 87 deaths per million people, respectively, compared to the UK's 438 per million.

It comes after damning figures yesterday revealed the UK quarantined just 273 out of 18.1million people who arrived in the UK in the three months before the lockdown.

UK's security minister James Brokenshire today defended Number 10's decision not to close the borders in a bid to stop the virus spreading, saying the scientific advice was 'very clear' and that banning travellers would 'not have had any significant impact'.

The Government's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, yesterday told MPs that SAGE had advised ministers that they would have to be 'extremely draconian' in blocking travel from whole countries otherwise 'it really was not worth trying to do it'.

He admitted that most of the cases in Britain were imported from Europe through 'the high level of travel into the UK'. Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said the scale of Britain's crisis was down to the Government failing to act on flights.

Countries that banned international travellers from entering amid the coronavirus pandemic have fared better in controlling their death rates. Australia, Austria, Denmark, New Zealand and Norway imposed bans in mid-March

Cases followed a similar trajectory. Countries that imposed bans early fended off major crises

DEATHS IN THE UK COMPARED TO COUNTRIES WHICH IMPOSED TRAVEL BANS UK Population - 66million Deaths - 29,427 Deaths per million - 438 Australia Population - 25million Deaths - 96 Deaths per million - four New Zealand Population - 4.8million Deaths - 20 Deaths per million - four Austria Population - 8.8million Deaths - 606 Deaths per million -68 Denmark Population - 5.8million Deaths - 503 Deaths per million - 87 Norway Population - 5.4million Deaths - 215 Deaths per million -40 Advertisement

Mr Brokenshire said the decision to shut borders will be kept 'under review'.

He was questioned on the decision after chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance yesterday told MPs most of the coronavirus strains being spread across the UK in March came from people returning from Spain and Italy.

Mr Brokenshire told the BBC: 'I think it is important to note that the scientific advice was very clear that, up to this point in time, placing restrictions at the border would not have had any significant impact on epidemic progression in the UK.

'Sage looked at this on March 23 - the numbers coming from other countries were estimated to be insignificant compared with domestic cases, comprising around 0.5 per cent of total cases at the time.

'Since then, obviously, you'll be more than aware, with all of the issues in the aviation sector, how we've seen a reduction in air passengers by around 99 per cent since the start of the outbreak.

'It is something we will continue to keep under review as we look to the next phase but, at that time, the advice was clear that placing restrictions would not have had any significant impact.'

Data shows countries that introduced travel bans, such as Austria, have fared better.

On March 15, Austria started refusing entry to anyone without a medical certificate confirming they had tested negative for the virus within the last four days.

Travellers who could not provide proof were placed in mandatory quarantine for 14 days. Austria has suffered just 68 deaths per million of its population.

In the southern hemisphere, both Australia and New Zealand have recorded just four deaths per million people.

On March 19, New Zealand shut its borders to all non-citizens or permanent residents - except for spouses or children under 24. The next day, Australia followed suit.

SECURITY MINISTER DEFENDS DECISION TO NOT SHUT BORDERS Number 10's security minister today defended the decision not to close the borders in a bid to stop the deadly coronavirus spreading. James Brokenshire said the scientific advice was 'very clear' and that banning travellers would 'not have had any significant impact'. In an interview with the BBC this morning, Mr Brokenshire said the decision to shut borders will be kept 'under review'. He was questioned on the decision after chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance yesterday told MPs most of the coronavirus strains being spread across the UK in March came from people returning from Spain and Italy. Mr Brokenshire told the BBC: 'I think it is important to note that the scientific advice was very clear that, up to this point in time, placing restrictions at the border would not have had any significant impact on epidemic progression in the UK. 'Sage looked at this on March 23 - the numbers coming from other countries were estimated to be insignificant compared with domestic cases, comprising around 0.5 per cent of total cases at the time. 'Since then, obviously, you'll be more than aware, with all of the issues in the aviation sector, how we've seen a reduction in air passengers by around 99 per cent since the start of the outbreak. 'It is something we will continue to keep under review as we look to the next phase but, at that time, the advice was clear that placing restrictions would not have had any significant impact.' Advertisement

While the figures appear to paint a clear picture that travel bans work, British experts have told MailOnline there are likely to be multiple contributing factors.

One explanation for the lower death rates in Australia and New Zealand may be the warmer climate - as the virus is known to vulnerable to higher temperatures.

Others may have to do with the differences in responses of each nation's Governments.

Dr Joshua Moon, a research fellow in science policy at the University of Sussex, told MailOnline: 'If you look at NZ, the level of communication and trust as well as the rapid testing, tracing, and isolating completely squashed the outbreak before it got out of control. The same can be said of Denmark.

'Outright banning travel and trade is generally not a good idea in an epidemic because it also blocks healthcare workers from returning and PPE/testing kits from getting into the country.

'On top of that, if you scan for the infected, you're only gaining a snapshot into peoples' health when you test at a border.

'Those two minutes you spend getting temperatures and histories are not going to tell you much about whether a person has the disease or not.

'Basically travel and trade often does more harm than good and the key difference between us and other island nations is the actual government response.

Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases professor at the University of East Anglia, said that banning travel would've made no difference because Britain probably imported most of its cases when Britons returned from ski holidays in Italy.

He said: 'It's difficult to compare countries based on travel restrictions alone because of all sorts of other stuff going on, such as banning mass gatherings, closing schools and stay home policies.

'Also different age groups, ethnic mix and poverty influence the size of epidemics.

Even when the deaths are broken down per capita, the UK still suffered much more deaths per million people

All of the countries which imposed bans in March managed to bring their infection rates down in the weeks that followed

Just 273 out of 18 MILLION arrivals to the UK before coronavirus lockdown were quarantined Britain quarantined just 273 out of 18.1million people who arrived in the UK in the three months before the coronavirus lockdown, damning new figures reveal today. The occupants of three flights from the outbreak ground zero in the Chinese city of Wuhan and another bringing home passengers from a cruise ship of Japan were the only ones taken to secure facilities in the UK. But millions more entering the UK between the start of 2020 and March 22 were able to enter freely and only advised to self-isolate, according to figures obtained by the Guardian. It came as it also emerged the UK suffered a 'big influx' of coronavirus from arrivals from Italy and Spain who were not quarantined. Mapping of the Covid-19 genome shows that UK cases come from all over the world, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance told MPs. But a large number of cases in early March were from Europe and 'seeded right the way across the country' because Brits arriving back in the UK were allowed to return home. Giving evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee this morning, Sir Patrick said that experts on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) had advised ministers they would have to be 'extremely draconian' in blocking travel from whole countries otherwise 'it really was not worth trying to do it.' 'Whether that was people returning from half-term, whether it is business travellers or not, we dont know,' he told MPs. 'But a lot of the cases in the UK didnt come from China and didn't come from the places you might have expected. 'They actually came from European imports and the high level of travel into the UK around that time.' Advertisement

'I think the consensus amongst public health people is that travel bans make politicians look as through they are doing something but do little to stop the spread of an epidemic, at best delaying the epidemic for a while.

'The damage was probably already done for the UK with people returning from winter vacations to Italy.'

Figures show that Italy had recorded just 800 infections by the end of the Easter holidays.

This number would have raised eyebrows at the time but was not high enough to justify a travel ban in the UK.

There were calls for screening at British airports at the time, but experts say this would have been unlikely to substantially reduce cases and deaths in the UK because most sufferers are infectious for days without any symptoms.

Data suggests every carrier passed the virus onto three people before lockdown. It would mean that for every 100 infected travellers who entered the country, they would have passed it on to 300 people, and so on.

Analysis of the figures show New Zealand and Australia have the lowest death rate out of the six countries, with just four deaths per million people.

New Zealand was very quick to close its borders to all non-citizens and temporary visa holders, such as students.

The ban was in place from March 19  just two weeks after officials recorded the first case of the coronavirus, scientifically called SARS-CoV-2.

Weeks before then, on February 3, foreign travellers from China were denied entry as the Asian nation suffered its outbreak.

Now, New Zealand - home to 4.8million people - has boasted no new infections for two days in a row, with a total of 1,487 cases and 20 deaths.

Australia has also escaped lightly, recording 96 deaths and 6,849 cases in total out of its 25million population.

On February 1, Australia banned the entry of foreign nationals from mainland China, and any citizens returning from China had to self-quarantine for 14 days.

Subsequently a ban on travellers from Iran, South Korea, and Italy was implemented as all three countries began seeing a surge in infections.

Australia closed its borders on March 20 for all non-residents, when it had recorded less than 1,000 cases. Since April 20, it has reported less than 30 new cases per day.

Norway introduced a nationwide travel ban on travellers entering the country on March 16, when cases reached the 400 mark.

Sir patrick Vallance told MPs: 'But a lot of the cases in the UK didnt come from China and didn't come from the places you might have expected'

People returning from other hotspots such as China and a cruise ship off Japan, were put into camps for 14 days at the end of February, including one at Arrowe Park in Wirral (pictured on February 22)

On 6 April, the Norwegian Health Minister announced that the outbreak was 'under control'.

Official figures show the country, which has a population of 5.3million people, has now recorded 214 deaths and 7,904 cases.

Denmark closed its borders to all non-citizens 14 March, apart from travellers with 'credible purpose' such as non-citizen Danish residents.

The Scandinavian nation has seen a total of 503 deaths, while Austria has had 606 overall.

On March 17, Austria began turning away anyone from Italy, China's Hubei Province, Iran, and South Korea, unless they had a medical certificate confirming negative test for SARS-CoV-2 in the last four days.

It comes after damning figures yesterday revealed the UK quarantined just 273 out of 18.1million people who arrived in the UK in the three months before the lockdown.

The occupants of three flights from the outbreak ground zero in the Chinese city of Wuhan and another bringing home passengers from a cruise ship of Japan were the only ones taken to secure facilities in the UK.

But millions more entering the UK between the start of 2020 and March 22 were able to enter freely and only advised to self-isolate, according to figures obtained by the Guardian.

It came as it also emerged the UK suffered a 'big influx' of coronavirus from arrivals from Italy and Spain who were not quarantined.

Mapping of the Covid-19 genome shows that UK cases come from all over the world, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance told MPs.

But a large number of cases in early March were from Europe and 'seeded right the way across the country' because Brits arriving back in the UK were allowed to return home.

Giving evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee this morning, Sir Patrick said that experts on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) had advised ministers they would have to be 'extremely draconian' in blocking travel from whole countries otherwise 'it really was not worth trying to do it.'

'Whether that was people returning from half-term, whether it is business travellers or not, we don't know,' he told MPs.

'But a lot of the cases in the UK didn't come from China and didn't come from the places you might have expected.

'They actually came from European imports and the high level of travel into the UK around that time.'

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said: 'The scale of our outbreak is down to the government not acting on flights. Thank you to Patrick Vallance for his honesty.'

At the weekend a senior minister finally confirmed visitors to the UK could face time in quarantine as the Government 'actively' considers stronger anti-coronavirus measures at the borders.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that new arrivals could also be forced to download a new contract app onto their smartphone as a condition of entry.

New restrictions would make the UK one of the last countries to introduce them, with the country very much an outlier in recent weeks by not halting inbound flights or insisting arrivals are checked.

People arriving are currently advised to self-isolate but there is no enforced testing.

Home Secretary Priti Patel is believed to be among those who have demanded tougher rules for foreign visitors and the remaining Brits still abroad who make it home.

But Sir Patrick suggested stopping travel was of limited use unless action was taken against a wide-range of countries.

'What was very clear, and I think you can see this now in retrospect, is that the idea that you can control this by stopping travel from one place doesn't work unless it is of course the only source of import,' he said this morning.

'We have now in the UK sequenced 13,6000 viral genomes, we got imports from all over the place.

'So quite early on the advice Sage gave was ''if you are going to do something on travel you either need to be extremely draconian - stop all travel from all sorts of countries - or it is really not worth trying to do it, trying to stop from one place because you won't make it happen''.

So I think the answer is not, unless the country chose to do that, stopping travel anywhere and to  make sure that as people come back you have appropriate systems to isolate and make sure they are following the same rules as the rest of the country.'

Deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries, who was also giving evidence, added: 'There are pros and cons which are not necessarily always obvious I think, between managing influx and outflux of passengers but also goods.

'If you shut travel routes in, you are also shutting routes for various products which may be essential, not just for our population but all around the world.

'At the moment most people who are coming back are coming back into the UK back home and they will immediately fall under social distancing regulations anyway.'
LANSING, MI -- A new office is being tasked with overseeing Michigan spending on coronavirus outbreak response.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday, May 4 created the COVID-19 Office of Accountability, which she said is charged with ensuring coronavirus funds from federal, state and philanthropic sources are spent wisely, in compliance with the law and in a transparent and accountable manner."

Efforts to protect Michigan have required enormous sums of money, according to the directive, and Michiganders have the right to expectno less so in a time of crisisthat state government will be responsible stewards of their resources."

The new office must review an make recommendations for changes to the purchasing process used by state agencies, and also monitor spending transparency.

The Department of Technology, Management and Budget will designate a supervisor for the new office.

There was a time in March when we didnt have enough (personal protection equipment) to know that we could go into a weekend with confidence that we would have everything we needed, just for our hospital workers alone, Whitmer said Monday. And now, because of the hard work that our procurement office has done, private donations, businesses, workers ... and donations from the federal government, as well, means we have enough (personal protection equipment) for our hospitals to last several weeks.

" ... Securing (personal protection equipment) has been a herculean effort but Michiganders have proven once again that we will go to great lengths to take care of one another."

Whitmer in late March signed to two supplemental budget bills to secure $150 million in new coronavirus funding. The state is also responsible for disseminating large amounts of coronavirus spending coming from federal and charitable sources. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Monday announced grants totaling nearly $1.3 billion for Michigan hospitals that have treated coronavirus patients.

As of Sunday, Michigan had reported 43,754 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 4,049 deaths.

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Read more Michigan coronavirus coverage here

COVID-19 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 Michigan coronavirus coverage here

Monday, May 4: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

Gretchen Whitmer is a national figure now. What you need to know about The woman in Michigan'

From closing restaurants to requiring masks, Gov. Whitmer has issued 69 executive orders in 56 days

Michigan districts are meeting students where they are as schools adapt to remote learning

Gov. Whitmer says protest 'depicted some of the worst racism and doesnt represent Michigan
V irgin Atlantic has announced plans to cut 3,150 jobs at the airline amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the British airline also said it would keep its operation at Gatwick airport closed in response to the disruption unleashed by the crisis.

Virgin Atlantic has been headquartered at Gatwick for the past 35 years.

It pinned the moves on uncertainty over when flying will resume as well as unprecedented market conditions as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak which had severely reduced revenues.

Chief executive Shai Weiss said: We have weathered many storms since our first flight 36 years ago, but none has been as devastating as Covid-19 and the associated loss of life and livelihood for so many.

However, to safeguard our future and emerge a sustainably profitable business, now is the time for further action to reduce our costs, preserve cash and to protect as many jobs as possible.

It is crucial that we return to profitability in 2021."

The airline, which currently employs about 10,000 people, is engaged in the process of applying for emergency loans from the Government.

Richard Branson warns of Virgin Atlantic collapse if government don't intervene

Commenting on the developments, the British Airline Pilots' Association (BALPA) pointed to the "dire situation facing UK aviation".

"Without immediate action by the Government we will see the once world leading industry decimated and that will have an effect throughout the UK economy and to all the other industries that rely on aviation," the union said in a statement.

"Virgin for example applied for Government support weeks ago and Treasury is still prevaricating."

BALPA General Secretary Brian Strutton added: "Why is the Government sitting on its hands while aviation plunges further towards a death spiral?

"Government should call a moratorium on job losses in aviation and lead a planned recovery.
President Donald Trump drew a line in the sand with Andrew Cuomo and Nancy Pelosi when he called financial bailouts for states 'unfair' because they would go to ones that were mismanaged by Democratic governors.

Trump made clear his opposition to the $500 billion in federal funds a bipartisan group of governors requested to make up for state budget shortfalls caused by fallout from the coronavirus. Pelosi has vowed to push for such aid in the fifth economic relief package currently being negotiated and Cuomo has heavily lobbied for the money.

'I think Congress is inclined to do a lot of things but I don't think they're inclined to do bailouts. A bailout is different than, you know, reimbursing for the plague,' the president told the New York Post.

'It's not fair to the Republicans because all the states that need help  they're run by Democrats in every case. Florida is doing phenomenal, Texas is doing phenomenal, the Midwest is, you know, fantastic  very little debt.'

President Donald Trump made clear he opposes the $500 billion a bipartisan group of governors requested to make up for state budget shortfalls caused by coronavirus

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has led states in lobbying for federal financial relief to help state budget shortfalls and Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pushing for such funds to be included in the next legislative package

Trump also said: 'You look at Illinois, you look at New York, look at California, you know, those three, there's tremendous debt there, and many others.

'I don't think the Republicans want to be in a position where they bail out states that are, that have been mismanaged over a long period of time,' he said.

Several states are facing financial difficulties from both combating the coronavirus and the drop in revenue caused by closed businesses, layoffs, and a decline in tourism. That includes states with Democratic and Republican governors.

Some states were in tough financial condition before the virus struck but others are seeing their surpluses and rainy day funds disappear as they struggle to keep afloat.

Democrats are pushing for state and local bailout funds to be included in the next round of coronavirus relief legislation after it was rejected from the fourth round.

Pelosi argued the states need the money.

'The governors tell me two things that they are united on in terms of Democrats and Republicans,' she told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Monday night. She said one item was protecting healthcare workers and the other was money to make up budget deficits.

'The money would be used for two things,' Pelosi said. 'One is to offset the money that is already spent to address the coronavirus outlays of money and the other for revenue loss related to the coronavirus. So, when the Republicans say, 'Oh, we don't want this and that and their budget,' it has nothing to do with anything other than the coronavirus. So, I think we have a strong case, and I think they will come around to that.'

A fifth bailout is being negotiated but talks are growing complicated. President Trump has said he wants a payroll tax cut included and Democrats said that is a non-starter. Republican lawmakers are also pushing for legal liability protections for businesses. Democrats have dismissed that too.

Cuomo has helped lead the push for federal funding for the states along with Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, who is the chairman of the National Governors Association.

The association warned lawmakers last month that critical state services could be cut without an infusion of federal cash. Many states have balanced budget amendments and, unlike the federal government, states cannot borrow money to make ends meet.

'In the absence of unrestricted fiscal support of at least $500 billion from the Federal government, states will have to confront the prospect of significant reductions to critically important services all across this country,' the governors said in a statement in early April. 'Hampering public health, the economic recovery, and  in turn  our collective effort to get people back to work.'

New York has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus and is estimating $10-$15 billion in lost state revenue.

Trump has spoken of a warm relationship with Cuomo and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, also a Democrat, but both governors are likely to take issue with the president's opposition to a state bailout.

California had a $17 billion surplus before the coronavirus struck and the state is now looking at a budget deficit of up to $35 billion.

Speaker Pelosi argued Democratic and Republican governors agree on the need for federal bailout funds

Trump also singled out Michigan and Illinois, two states whose Democratic governors he has warred with.

Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois faces a $7 billion state budget shortfall. Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan could be $3 billion short. Whitmer has started furloughing state employees to try and offset the expected deficit.

States with Republican governors are struggling too.

Maryland may see a $2.8 billion shortfall, causing Hogan to institute a hiring freeze and tell state agencies to prepare for budget cuts.

In Ohio, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine faces a $2.4 billion shortfall and the state has a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. DeWine has instituted a hiring freeze and ordered cuts of up to 20 per cent to state agencies but may have to cut funds to education.

The Republican-led states Trump mentioned - Texas and Florida - both have large rainy day funds to help see them through the crisis: $8.5 billion for Texas and $1.9 billion for Florida.

But, should a second wave of the virus hit, those states could also feel the financial pressure.

Cuomo, at the end of April, slammed Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott for dismissing a bailout for states.

At his daily press conference in Albany, Cuomo included a slide show with information on how much New York sends to the federal government every year.

'New York state bails them out every year. You're not bailing us out. We bail them out every year,' he said.

Cuomo pointed out that Florida receives $30 billion more than it gives to the federal government on annual basis, while Kentucky nets $37 billion more.

New York puts in $29 billion more than it gets back, he noted.

'Senator Mitch McConnell, you are bailing out New York? When every year you take out more from the kitty, the federal pot, $37 billion more than you put in? Who is bailing out whom? Senator Scott, you're going to bail us out? You take out $30 billion more every year than you pay in. How dare they! How dare they when those are the facts! How long are you going to play the American people and assume they're stupid?,' Cuomo said.

The majority of states see most of their revenue come from sales and income tax - both of which have dropped in the wake of the coronavirus as businesses close and workers are laid off.

The situation is reaching critical levels as most state fiscal years end on June 30th and many states have balanced budget requirements, leaving governors scrambling at how they will make up estimated shortfalls.

And it's not just blue states that will need federal help.

Purple states - ones that Trump will need in November to win re-election - are also facing tough times.

Colorado is looking at a $3 billion budget shortfall, Wisconsin works on a two-year budget cycle but is preparing to see its $800 million surplus disappear and debt to rack up, and Pennsylvania could see a $4 billion deficit.

Demonstrators gather in Chicago to protest restrictions instituted by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker in an attempt to curtail the spread of the coronavirus

Medical professionals wave outside St. John Hospital & Medical Center in Detroit, Monday as law enforcement agencies in a vehicle procession drove by the hospital to salute the frontline personnel

Hogan, the chair of the NGA, and Cuomo, the vice chair of the group, wrote to Congress leadership two weeks ago to plead for funding and ask for a retroactive change that would allow past federal funds to be used for budget deficits. Any federal funds currently allocated to the states through relief measures can only be used directly to fight the coronavirus.

'Many states are already reporting precipitous declines in revenues that fund state services in health care, education, public safety, transportation, and other vital programs. States and local governments need robust support from the federal government as we navigate the response to this pandemic and to help foster the economic recovery that is ahead,' read the bipartisan letter.

'Unlike the federal government, states cannot borrow to fund continuing operations,' Hogan and Cuomo noted.

'In response to the crisis and to ensure the safety of our citizens, we closed non-essential businesses, limited large gatherings, and implemented stay-at-home orders. We did not make these decisions lightly. As a result, our national and local economies are in dire straits and have resulted in the most dramatic contraction of the U.S. economy since World War II,' they said.
AUSTIN, Texas, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Pushnami, the leading subscriber engagement and monetization platform for marketers, has been named to Inc. Magazine's annual list of the Best Workplaces for 2020. The list is the result of a wide-ranging and comprehensive measurement of private American companies that have created exceptional workplaces through vibrant cultures, deep employee engagement, and stellar benefits.

Collecting data from more than 3,000 submissions, Inc. chose 395 finalists for this year's list. Each nominated company took part in an employee survey, conducted by Quantum Workplace, on topics including trust, management effectiveness, perks and confidence in the future. Inc. gathered, analyzed and audited the data and ranked all the employers using a composite score of survey results.

Inc. reported that the strongest engagement scores came from companies that prioritize the most human elements of work. These companies are leading the way in employee recognition, performance management, and diversity. It is a different playbook from a decade ago when too many firms used the same template: free food, open work environments, and artifacts of "fun."

Pushnami's CEO, Emerson Smith, credits the company's high ranking to a focus on acceptance, positivity, and placing people first over profit. This creates an environment of exceptional employee pride and accomplishments based on efforts of 'we' rather than 'I.' He stated, "There is no doubt that our team is at the core of Pushnami's success. It's wonderful to be recognized by Inc. for our commitment to our culture. This is particularly meaningful as this acknowledgment comes from feedback by our own employees  who are the heart and soul of what makes Pushnami unique."

"Building a great corporate culture comes only from strong leadership," says Inc. Magazine editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. "The companies on Inc.'s Best Workplaces list are setting an example that the whole country can learn from, especially now, when company culture is more important to the workforce than ever."

About Pushnami

Founded in 2017, Pushnami is the omni-channel subscriber engagement and messaging platform used by 20,000 global sites. Delivering more than 10 billion messages per month across browser-based web push notifications, mobile app push notifications and email, Pushnami enables brands to easily capture more subscribers, intelligently market to them, and grow their revenue. For more information, visit pushnami.com.

About Inc. Media

The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

For more information:

Emily Jansen

Director of Marketing, Pushnami

[email protected]

(512) 333-2519

SOURCE Pushnami

Related Links

https://pushnami.com


Jammu and Kashmir police chief Dilbag Singh continued his campaign to reach out to police personnel and review arrangements to spread of Covid-19, telling police personnel in central Kashmirs Budgam district that security forces would intensify operations across Kashmir.

Singh also participated in a wreath-laying ceremony of three CRPF jawans killed in a terrorist attack in north Kashmirs Handwara. The three jawans were deployed at a check post in Handwaras Wangam area when they were attacked. The terrorists had taken advantage of civilian movement in the adjoining orchard. There was a civilian movement and when they were asked to stop, the terrorists who were hiding behind the civilians opened fire, the J&K director general of police later told reporters.

Singh said there would be occasions when security personnel lose their lives in operations and underlined that operations against terrorists would be intensified across Kashmir. He also spoke about fresh infiltrations reported in Baramulla and declared that the police had a list of terrorists active in Sopore. They are on our radar, he said.

Singh, accompanied by IG Kashmir Vijay Kumar, had earlier travelled to the Bugam police lines where he formally inaugurated new facilities built for the jawans and officers. He also launched a newly set up CCTV Surveillance centre to keep a watch on sensitive areas of the city. A Covid wellness centre and a quarantine centre managed by a police woman doctor and the staff for in-house quarantine and care for the policemen deployed on various sensitive duties was also visited by Singh.

Singh lauded the officers and jawans for working day and night, not just to fight terror but also to save people from the coronavirus disease. The police chief asked personnel to use the protective and preventive gears made available for them, particularly when deployed to areas where they need to take extra care.

The DGP also paid rich tributes to Sub Inspector Sageer Ahmad Pathan alias Qazi and other security personnel who lost their lives this week. It is painful to lose the brave personnel but we all are proud of these brave hearts, the DGP said.

Pakistan, he added, had over the years continuously attempted to foment trouble in J&K by pushing terrorists, repeatedly committing ceasefire violations and instigating and promoting violence by various means. Security forces haven have to continue coordinated efforts to ensure peace in the valley.
Three Indian soldiers were killed in clashes with militants in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, officials said, a day after a gunbattle in which five were killed.

The flare-up comes amid a major offensive by India that has killed 22 militants in the past month.

New Delhi said 20 Indian soldiers have been killed during the same period, the biggest death toll since a militant suicide attack killed 40 paramilitary police in February 2019.

On May 3, five Indian soldiers, including a high-ranking army officer, were killed in India-administered Kashmir.

Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-led India have fought two wars over control of Kashmir, which is claimed in full by both nuclear-armed countries.

India accuses Pakistan of funding militant groups fighting Indian troops, a claim Islamabad denies.

Tensions in Indian-controlled Kashmir have been running particularly high since August 2019, when India stripped the region of limited autonomy and implemented a months-long crackdown on militants and supporters of independence or unification with Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP
Joe Biden

Regarding Biden has to speak, (A14, May 1): I find it interesting that your editorial states, Women must be heard. This also being Joe Bidens comment, I imagine this will be the new talking points for the mainstream media.

This, of course, is a bit different from the Women must be believed motto from the #MeToo movement and prominent Democratic women during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings and before.

We may have to wait until a Republican is accused of sexual misconduct for the statement to be reversed.

Juan Campo, Houston

Houston renters

Regarding Texas must do more to protect tenants, (A15, May 1): In New York City, one-third of renters could not pay their April rent. And now it is May. Many Houston renters cannot pay their May rent either.

Houston will not be a livable city with one third of its renters out on the sidewalk. Even if they are not evicted, how will renters pay three to four months rent all at once? Houston and Harris County need to set aside a $100 million dollars from CARES Act funds to pay rent for the COVID-impoverished population for three months. Lets not add to our homeless crisis.

Nancy Edwards, Houston

Number of cases

Regarding Texas sees spike in deaths, cases in a day, (A1, May 1): Gov. Greg Abbotts decision to disregard the advice of health experts means that people who depend on mass transportation, who earn minimum wage, who live in underserved neighborhoods, who have health problems as a result of living near oil and chemical refineries, who do not have health insurance, are expected to risk their lives so that people who have private transportation, who have jobs in which they can work from home and receive tax breaks on a regular basis, who live in neighborhoods far from the most polluted parts of Houston, who do have health insurance, can go out to dinner. People are expected to risk their lives so that Abbotts base is not inconvenienced.

Mickey Meyers, Houston

Congrats, Chron

Regarding Chronicle honored as Newsroom of the Year, (A3, May 2): Congratulations to the Houston Chronicle. I appreciate having a paper with professional journalists nowadays. I read where the Cleveland Plain Dealer now has a grand total of four full-time journalists. The founders enshrined the paradoxical free press term and we have argued over what that means ever since. Here is hoping we argue about it for as long as we have breath.

John McManus, Houston
An Irish Government minister has said it was important to inform "the Irish people" of their lockdown plans instead of the Northern Ireland Executive.

The Irish Government set out a five-stage recovery blueprint with linked timelines and provisional dates on Friday on how it could emerge from the pandemic crisis.

At Monday's Covid 19 briefing, Northern Ireland's First Minister Arlene Foster said the power-sharing Executive did not receive advance sight of the Irish Republic's plan before it was published on Friday evening.

That came despite a memorandum of understanding in place between both jurisdiction's health officials.

Last month, Irish officials also said they would discuss any tightening of travel restrictions with their counterparts in Stormont.

The most important thing we needed to do was to tell the people we serve, the Irish people. Regina Doherty

Speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland, Regina Doherty Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection said "honestly, I don't know why" Northern Ireland ministers were not briefed on Friday's plan on reopening the country.

"But I think what our most important task to do after we had our cabinet meeting on Friday was to tell Irish people. And that is what the Taoiseach did at the first opportunity after that cabinet meeting was over," she said.

She said the recommendations were put to all ministers in the cabinet for the first time on Friday afternoon, such was the scale of the plan.

She said "in hindsight" maybe the first and deputy first ministers should have been told of the detail.

"The most important thing we needed to do was to tell the people we serve, the Irish people and that is what we did on Friday evening.

"The roadmap is only a phased programme entirely dependent on the trajectory and response of the crisis to the actions we are taking in then next two weeks and the following three weeks.

"So what I would love to see is more opportunity for us to cooperate with north and south because the success of how we deal with this for the people that live on the island .. it would be much better if we had cooperation."

Later the Irish Foreign Affairs Minister and Tanaiste Simon Coveney told RTE's Sean O'Rouke programme a "head up" was given on the Thursday night to the health minister and first ministers but precise details were not shared.

The Republic's health minister Simon Harris has said it made scientific sense for the two recovery plans either side of the border to be as closely aligned as possible.

Starting on May 18, the Republic will move from one phase to another every three weeks, as long as health experts deem it safe to do so.

First Minister Arlene Foster said ministers from both jurisdictions met last week to discuss issues but confirmed the Stormont Executive was not given advance sight of the Irish strategy.

"The (north/south) memorandum of understanding which is in place is in relation to sharing information in terms of the health piece," she said.

"Of course it's always for a government to put in place their own staging posts, way forward and that's exactly what happened.

"We didn't have a comprehensive view as to what was coming in relation to that plan on Friday evening."
Actor Hrithik Roshans mother Pinkie took to Instagram late on Monday to express her state of mind - shes worried and wants Koi Mil Gayas alien named Jadu back in our lives. She posted pictures from the film too.

She wrote: #Dear Jadu,we all miss you, we need you... please come back. Reacting to it, Hrithik simply wrote hahahahaha. A number of fans of the film wrote back; one said Awww... yes definitely! I think, Jadu is back on earth. Hrithik must be hiding him somewhere while another said #needofthehour #jaadu. Yet another said how we need Krrish the most now. A fourth person said, We need Jaadu Ka Jaadu with The Great Scientist Rohit Mehra...

Koi Mil Gaya, starring Hrithik Roshan, Preity Zinta and Rekha in prominent roles, was a story of a mentally challenged young man who befriends an alien and together they solve problems. The film has parallels with Hollywood hit ET the Extra-Terrestrial, as well as Satyajit Rays The Alien, loosely based on a short story written by Ray called Bankubabur Bandhu (Banku Babus Friend or Mr. Bankus Friend).

Hrithik, like many from his fraternity, is staying home with his family including his sons - Hrehaan and Hridhaan - and ex-wife Sussanne Khan due to the lockdown put in place for the coronavirus pandemic. The actor has been sharing pictures from their time at home.

Pinkie Roshans post on which Hrithik reacted.

Hrithik had mourned the death of veteran actor Rishi Kapoor and close family friend. He had written: Even your love had so much energy that I had to stand at attention every time you called. I dont think I have ever in my life been able to continue sitting down when you spoke to me . Every time dad called and said chintu uncle just saw your movie and he is calling you , I used to get up, heart palpitating and start walking around in the room , preparing myself for the deluge of love and reprimand mixed so genuinely together in your own inimitable way that it was difficult for an observer to distinguish which was which.

You gave me strength at my weakest moments. It felt so god damn amazing to think that Rishi Kapoor liked my work. That It made me believe in myself. Thank you for every time you picked up the phone and took the effort , thank you for repeatedly pointing out my mistakes , thank you for that consistent support and encouragement Chintu uncle, there will never be any actor or human like you.

Also read: Shahid Kapoors stepfather and Ishaan Khatters father Rajesh Khattar introduces baby son. See pics

Thank you for being my childhood , for literally shouting out loud into my ear drums about the importance of hard work. And for being so blatantly and ridiculously honest that it made me believe every single word you ever said . I and the world and everyone you touched and inspired is going to miss you. So so much.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Among the small businesses across the country that have had to get creative in order to stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic is a family-owned tea company in Florida.

In Orlando, where the company, Infusion Tea, is based, more than 1,000 homes have been "tea-p'd" over the past month.

The "tea-p'ing" is the brainchild of Christina and Brad Cowherd, who founded Infusion Tea, a vegetarian restaurant and tea business, in 2004.

PHOTO: Infusion Tea owners Brad and Christin Cowherd from Florida created 'tea-p'ing' to keep their small business afloat during COVID-19. (Infusion Tea)

"Christina really wanted to start a little thing here in our neighborhood where we were spreading joy to people," Brad Cowherd told "Good Morning America." We thought how can we brighten peoples days? Everybody needed toilet paper and we have so much in the restaurant, we thought lets go give it out."

MORE: Dressed in cap-and-gown, a teacher delivers signs to high school seniors' yards

Cowherd and his wife, the parents of seven children, started out by having a few dozen yard signs made that said "You've been tea-p'd" and included a space to write in the giver's name before the words "loves you." They attached two rolls of toilet paper and a bag of loose-leaf tea to the sign and placed them in front yards of some of their long-time customers.

"It says on the sign that you can pass it on and has our website," said Cowherd. "The day after we did our first load, something like 65 people ordered signs. It was crazy."

Nearly one month later, Infusion Tea has delivered around 1,500 signs in the Orlando area, according to Cowherd.

The effort proved so popular that the business began offering packages featuring a sign, two rolls of toilet paper and tea that can be shipped anywhere in the U.S. They have now sold more than 1,200 of those packages, including sending one to every state, according to Cowherd.

Story continues

PHOTO: Infusion Tea owners Brad and Christin Cowherd from Florida created 'tea-p'ing' to keep their small business afloat during COVID-19. (Infusion Tea)

The yard signs retail for $25 and the care packages retail for $35.

"Its been our COVID miracle," he said. "This really didnt start as an idea to save our business. We thought we would do 30 or 50 signs in the neighborhood as a nice gesture and they took off."

Cowherd said the company's gross sales fell from around $3,500 a day to just $500 a day when restaurants were ordered closed in Florida in March. The success of the "tea-p'd" initiative has allowed Cowherd and his wife to rehire their employees and give them close to the same number of hours per week they were working pre-coronavirus.

MORE: These small business owners are getting creative to survive in the COVID-19 economy

The initiative is also helping local vendors, like the Orlando sign maker the Cowherds hired to make their yard signs.

"We keep reordering and hes like, I dont know what youre doing with these but this is insane. Thank you for keeping me in business,'" said Cowherd. "So it trickles down."

The Cowherds have also made the effort a family affair, bringing their school-age kids in to help with packing and preparing the signs while they are doing virtual learning due to schools being closed.

PHOTO: Infusion Tea owners Brad and Christin Cowherd from Florida created 'tea-p'ing' to keep their small business afloat during COVID-19. (Infusion Tea)

"School has been impossible with seven kids in the house," said Cowherds, whose children range in age from 10 months old to 14 years old. "We feel like the lessons theyre learning in attitude and being in the business and helping are important so were relying a little bit on real-life skills right now."

Cowherd, whose business also received a PPP loan from the federal government, said he gets at least one call per day from a recipient of a tea-p'd sign who is in tears expressing their appreciation for the gesture.

"It sounds silly to think that some toilet paper and a bag of tea could do that but I really think its the message of someone loves you," said Cowherd. "In this time, to get something that says so-and-so loves you, people are really into it."

"We went through 2007 and 2008 [the financial crisis] and that taught me not to be fearful, just to go into it eyes wide open and your business will tell you what it is that it needs, and in this case, our business told us that everyone needed toilet paper and a way to feel joy in this," he added.

Homes getting 'tea-p'd' helps save small business during coronavirus pandemic originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com
A resident presents flowers to martyrs who died in the fight against the CCP virus outbreak and compatriots who died of the disease in Wuhan, China on April 4,2020. (Getty Images)

Man Raises Money to Remember Virus Victims in China, Is Threatened by Police

I felt like sending my father to go back to Wuhan was like sending him to die, Zhang cried. If someone had told me the outbreak [was severe], I wouldnt have sent him back.

Since the CCP virus broke out in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the death toll remains a mystery, as authorities have concealed true data from the public.

But in January, Mr. Zhang, who grew up in Wuhan and now lives in the southern metropolis of Shenzhen, was unaware of the virus ability to spread, as Wuhan authorities initially downplayed the severity of the outbreak.

Unaware of the risks, Zhang brought his father to a Wuhan hospital to treat his injuries after a bad fall.

His father contracted the CCP virus and died shortly after.

Hoping to offer solace to others like him whose loved ones have died of the virus, Zhang recently made plans to raise money for a monument for those who passed.

Zhang said Shenzhen authorities began monitoring him. They didnt solve my issues, but monitored and blocked my phone callsOthers cant see my posts on social media, Zhang said in an interview.

Returning to Wuhan

Zhang works in Shenzhen. In early 2019, Zhang brought his 76-year-old retired father from Wuhan to Shenzhen so they could live together.

On Jan. 15, Zhangs father fell down and broke his bones. When Zhang inquired about treatment options for his father, he was told by officials in Wuhan that his father could receive free hospital treatment in Wuhan, whereas he would have to pay for treatment in Shenzhen.

From early to mid January, Wuhan officials told the public that the outbreak was preventable and controllable and that the risk of human-to-human transmission was low.

Not knowing that the virus outbreak in Wuhan was severe, Zhang and his father traveled back to their hometown on Jan. 16. The next day, his father received treatment for his broken bones at the General Hospital of PLA Central Theater Command, a military operated hospital in Wuhan.

Wuhan was like normal at the time. Medical staff didnt wear protective suits and people didnt wear masks, Zhang said.

Several days later, Zhangs father developed a fever. His condition deteriorated day by day. On Jan. 30, his father was formally diagnosed with the virus. That day, medical staff at the hospital suddenly wore protective suits and other gear, Zhang recalled.

Residents burn paper offerings during the annual Tomb-Sweeping festival, also known as Qingming festival, in Wuhan, China on April 4, 2020. (NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images)

On Feb. 1, his father was moved to an isolated area in the hospital, where many COVID-19 patients were being treated.

I didnt know there was a designated area for COVID-19. I didnt know when it was set up. But one thing is clear: the hospital did treat COVID-19 patients [in January,] and my father was infected at the hospital, Zhang said.

After being treated in the isolated area for several hours, his father passed away. The body was picked up by the Wuchang Funeral Home. Zhang was not allowed to see his father off before the body was cremated at the funeral home.

Ash Urns

In late March, the Wuhan government allowed citizens to pick up their loved ones cremation urns from funeral homes. Previously, the city lockdown prohibited people from visiting funeral homes.

Zhang said authorities required that all relatives visiting funeral homes had to be accompanied by a government staff.

In Chinese culture, picking up and burying the urn are very private things Nobody wants a stranger to participate, Zhang said.

Locals wait in line to pick up the ashes of their family members who died from the CCP virus at Hankou Funeral Home in Wuhan, China, on March 25, 2020. (Mao Daqing/Weibo)

Zhang believes that authorities were trying to prevent relatives of the deceased from talking with each other and spreading information about the outbreak.

The government forced us to pick up and bury the urns A lot of us boycotted this forced rule and didnt pick up the urns, Zhang said, including himself.

One day in late March, Zhang said he received a phone call from an official at the Wuhan branch of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission, a security agency. The caller mistakenly thought Zhang was another official, and began talking about how to monitor and control Zhang.

The caller mentioned private messages Zhang sent to his relatives and friends, and how authorities censored Zhangs messages. On Zhangs phone, the app would show that his messages were sent out. But the recipient would not get Zhangs messages.

Zhang returned to Shenzhen for work on April 8.

Monument

Zhang recently decided to raise money for a monument dedicated to virus victims to be built in Wuhan.

The monument is for mourning our relatives, as well as warning people to remember this history, Zhang said. It should warn the government to announce outbreak information in a timely mannerIf nothing changes, the same disaster will happen again.

After Zhang began organizing, he was summoned twice by Shenzhen police. The first time was on April 29, in which police forced him to stop posting on social media.

The second time was on May 4, when Zhang set up a chat group on WeChat, a popular messaging platform, for relatives of those who died from the virus. This time, police showed Zhang his posts on social media and forced him to delete the chat group.

Im not afraid  [The regime] killed my loved one. How can I keep silent? How can I not speak up and hold the responsible people accountable? Zhang said.

Zhang said some members of his chat group were in Wuhan, and were suppressed by Wuhan police: They were told [by police] that they would not be monitored if they could shut up for one month.

Zhang said he would not give up on his plans. If he couldnt raise enough money to build a monument, he would spend the funds on other means to help relatives of the deceased.
Last month tied 2016 for the hottest April on record worldwide, with particularly high temperatures over western Europe and north-central Asia, the European Union's climate monitoring network said on Tuesday.

Temperatures were also well above average over parts of Greenland and Antarctica, accelerating the disintegration of kilometres-thick ice sheets that have become the main drivers of sea level rise, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) reported.

April 2020 was a statistically insignificant 0.01 degrees Celsius cooler than the same month in 2016, the warmest April registered since the late 19th century, when reliable records began.

"The average temperature for the 12 months to April 2020 is close to 1.3C above the pre-industrial level," the benchmark by which global warming is often measured, Copernicus said.

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, nearly 200 countries have pledged to cap the rise in Earth average surface temperature to "well below" 2C, and to 1.5C if possible.

The country that probably saw the warmest April compared to the past was Switzerland, where the thermometer last month rose a blistering 5C above the 1871-1900 average.

Siberia, central and northwest Africa, western Australia and Mexico all saw a warmer-than-usual April, as did the Arctic Ocean and the coast of Alaska.

By contrast, southern and southeast Asia were cooler than usual, while temperatures were especially chilly in central Canada.

The five last years have been the hottest on record, as was the decade from 2010-2019.

2019 -- the second warmest year ever -- was only 0.04C below 2016, when temperatures were boosted by a powerful El Nino, a periodic natural weather phenomenon over the Pacific Ocean.

Overall, global temperatures have risen more than one degree Celsius since mid-19th century levels, driven mostly by the burning fossil fuels. They have increased by about 0.2C per decade since the 1970s.

Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 -- which causes global warming -- are now at their highest level in at least 800,000 years.

The United Nations said last year that manmade greenhouse gas emissions needed to tumble 7.6 percent annually over the next decade to cap global warming at 1.5C.

Current pledges to cut emissions put Earth on a path of several degrees warming by the end of the century.
BOSTON - The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has agreed to create a $500,000 fund devoted to promoting diversity, the Massachusetts Attorney Generals office announced Tuesday.

The action comes after the world-class museum was accused of racism last year after black middle school students said they were harangued and mistreated on a class trip by other museum patrons and a staff member who allegedly told the children: No food, no drink and no watermelon.

The museums director Matthew Teitelbaum has already publicly apologized, banned two visitors and launched an internal investigation. The museum also created a new position, senior director of inclusion, in an effort to become a more deliberately diverse organization.

On Tuesday, as part of the agreement with the state, the museum also agreed to create the new fund and take other steps, including providing unconscious bias training for all employees, according to Democratic Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey.

Healey said the agreement also includes what she called a reconciliation process between the museum and the class trip participants from the Helen Y. Davis Leadership Academy in Boston.

Teitelbaum said in a press release that the agreement gives the museum an opportunity to create a new model of inclusion and diversity to serve Boston.
Test Nebraska got underway Monday in Omaha at CHI Health Center arena and in Grand Island at the State Fairgrounds with 251 coronavirus tests, Gov. Pete Ricketts said Tuesday.

That testing will be ramped up in the state in the weeks to come, with 123,508 people signed up so far to be tested.

All the tests will be sent to CHI Health St. Elizabeth in Lincoln for results, with the lab set up in a matter of days, and equipment paid for with Test Nebraska state funds. Those taking the tests will be informed of results by email, Gov. Pete Ricketts said at his daily coronavirus briefing.

"This is going to allow us to greatly expand our capacity up to that 3,000 tests a day," Ricketts said. "They just did heroic work to be able to get this lab set up in record time to be able to start processing the test results from the swabs that we started taking yesterday."

People can sign up for the testing at TestNebraska.com/en, for English speakers or TestNebraska.com/es for Spanish-speaking residents.

As the state gets more experience in the testing program, there will be more mobile testing teams set up across the state, Ricketts said. The goal is to have six teams each doing about 500 tests a day.
Care homes in the UK are still struggling to get enough PPE despite the deaths of nearly 6,000 residents from coronavirus - as workers say the lack of protection is causing 'really high' levels of stress.

Bosses say the requirement to wear PPE at all times while working in care homes, coupled with increased costs, mean that supplies often run out extremely quickly.

A shortage of PPE has been a consistent issue from staff in care homes since the pandemic began, with Unison yesterday revealing it has received almost 3,600 reports about access to PPE from workers through its PPE alert web form.

The government has been lambasted in recent weeks for its attempts to deliver the protective equipment to frontline staff and also for the lack of routine testing available in care homes.

It comes as the the ONS bulletin today showed that one in five of all people who have died so far in the crisis have been care home residents. Some 5,890 people in homes succumbed to the disease by April 24.

Colin Angel, policy director for the UK Homecare Association (UKHCA), said sourcing equipment for workers is a main concern for care providers.

A worker at Newfield Nursing Home in Sheffield tenderly holding hands with an elderly resident Jack Dodsley

HIDDEN EPIDEMIC OF CORONAVIRUS IN CARE HOMES MAY HAVE KILLED THOUSANDS ALREADY, EXPERTS WARN A 'hidden epidemic' of coronavirus in care homes may have already cost more than 4,000 lives, experts warned earlier this month. They believe deaths are being hugely under-reported because of a lack of testing. GPs may also have been reluctant to write COVID-19 on death certificates in the outbreak's early stages and figures from care homes are not included in the official daily toll. By the time official sources had confirmed 217 care homes deaths, up to April 3, industry figures were saying the true count was much higher  potentially 4,000 between that date and the start of the outbreak. Campaigners and MPs warned of an 'unfolding horror' that could end up with tens of thousands of forgotten victims. Ministers faced urgent calls to get a grip and get virus tests for all staff and residents with symptoms, more protection gear and a Cabinet minister to deal with the crisis. Care home operators complained they were being overlooked, left desperate by shortages of testing and staff safety equipment, which made it difficult to stop the disease. Advertisement

He told BBC Breakfast: 'I think every homecare provider in the country is really struggling to get a sure supply of PPE, and having enough to be confident that they can continue providing care services across, sometimes even days, if not just a few weeks.

'And it's a real stress. I have a provider who was telling me he was spending 90% of his time trying to phone round and get PPE delivered.

'That means he's looking for PPE rather than being able to run the rest of his service.

'That's a huge problem, and the levels of stress it's creating both for providers delivering care and their frontline care workers is really high.'

By April 24, a total of 5,890 people had died in care homes with confirmed or suspected COVID-19, out of a total of 27,356 people (21.5 per cent). The 27,356 is lower than the 29,710 total for that date because of a recording cut-off.

The scale of care home deaths is expected to continue rising as the National Records of Scotland last week revealed that 39 per cent of victims there have been in nursing homes.

Elderly people and those with long-term health issues are known to be the most at risk of the virus and close proximity living makes outbreaks difficult to stop.

Deaths in care homes also appeared to keep accelerating after the virus deaths peaked in England's hospitals, ONS data shows.

Mr Angel said the response from Government has been slow, and that more support is needed as additional cost pressures mount.

When the number of COVID-19 patients dying was at its highest in hospitals, around April 8, it was still relatively low in care homes, which then surged in the days and weeks following

'We're seeing homecare providers having to use personal protective equipment that they've never needed before, and face masks and visors aren't usually necessary in home care,' he said.

FOUR OF 10 DEADLIEST WEEKS IN ENGLAND AND WALES WERE IN APRIL, DATA SHOWS Four of the 10 deadliest weeks ever recorded in England and Wales occurred in April, MailOnline can reveal. ONS figures show 22,351 deaths were registered during the week that ended April 17 - the worst seven-day spell since records began. It was followed by the week that finished April 24, which saw 21,997 deaths recorded across England and Wales. In comparison, the average number of fatalities registered each week across the two countries is around the 10,500 mark. More than 18,500 deaths were recorded in the week that ended April 10, while 16,387 fatalities were registered in the previous seven-day period. COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate of 8,237 victims (37.4 per cent) in Week 17 (ending April 24). Not all of the deaths will be directly from COVID-19. For example, scores of victims who tested positive will have died from other causes. As well as people dying as a result of catching the virus and falling ill with it, people are also believed to be becoming indirect COVID-19 victims. A&E attendances for all conditions, and notably heart attacks, have plummeted since the outbreak started because people are afraid of catching the virus in hospital. Only one other week in modern times has seen more than 20,000 deaths in England and Wales - January 1-7 2000 (20,566). The huge spike came during the worst flu outbreak to hit Britain in decades, which saw hospitals use lorries as make-shift morgues. THE 10 DEADLIEST EVER WEEKS IN ENGLAND AND WALES, SINCE ONS RECORDS BEGAN 17/04/2020 24/04/2020 07/01/2000 08/01/1999 10/01/1997 10/04/2020 14/01/2000 03/01/1997 17/01/1997 03/04/2020 22,351 21,997 20,566 20,116 18,541 18,516 17,776 17,646 16,652 16,387 Advertisement

'And now we're using them for virtually every contact that we have with somebody.

'The prices are increasing, the amount of PPE needed to deliver care services safely has shot up in a month or so.

'So, all of these additional cost pressures need to be funded, and that's either funded by the local authorities in the NHS who are buying care, or potentially by private individuals who are buying their own care.

'We don't think that's a cost which should be borne by private individuals.

'We think we need some real support from Government which has been very slow in appearing.'

It comes as more than 130 frontline NHS and care workers have died during the coronavirus pandemic.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock acknowledged that there would be further competition for PPE from businesses seeking to reopen as the lockdown eases, but said that the NHS and care homes must remain a priority.

'The first call on PPE must go to the NHS and social care and those other essential services who need it to keep the people delivering those services safe,' he said on Monday.

Care home resident Pat, who appeared on the BBC with Mr Angel and her carer, Emily, said she is worried about the safety of her carers, without whom she would be 'totally lost', and echoed calls for more PPE.

'It's very important because I had a stroke so I can do very little for myself - so I totally depend on them ... I would be totally lost, I don't know what I would do without them,' she said.

'It can be very depressing sitting here on your own all the time and I look forward to them coming in for the company as well.'

Mr Angel continued: 'We need to get money coming to the frontline care providers, we need to recognise the huge increase in costs, and sort out the supply of PPE so that Pat and Emily can carry on working together and receiving support.'

It comes as growing numbers of families are seeking legal advice to remove their relatives from care homes, it has been revealed today.

Legal firms have reporter a spike in the number of people looking to overturn safeguards which prevent them removing elderly residents from care facilities.

The law firm Leigh Day told The Guardian it is receiving, 'at least 10 calls a week from families attempting to persuade local authority social workers to let them remove residents from care homes.'

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) are strict processes which apply to people in care homes and hospitals, stopping them from leaving the facility without permission from a social worker.

A graphic that shows the different levels of PPE protection required by medical professionals and care workers

Helen Wildbore, the director of the Relatives and Residents' Association, also told The Guardian its helpline had seen an increase in calls about the issue.

More than 5,000 care home residents have died from COVID-19. Official data shows care home deaths account for more than a third of all fatalities.

By April 24, a total of 5,890 people had died in care homes with confirmed or suspected COVID-19, out of a total of 27,356 people (21.5 per cent).

The 27,356 is lower than the 29,710 total for that date because of a recording cut-off.

Office for National Statistics data today revealed that 29,710 people in England and Wales had COVID-19 mentioned on their death certificate by April 24.

The Department of Health had, by that time, counted only 22,173 fatalities linked to the virus.

More than 4,000 care home residents in England and Wales have died during the pandemic up until April 17, official data shows, 19 per cent of the total on that date. This compares to Germany's 2,401. A third of its total deaths have been in care homes, but that includes prisons and other community settings

Delays in death reports, uncounted victims who died at home or in care homes, and a refusal to count anyone who hasn't been tested mean the daily death counts are not the most accurate measure of how many people are being killed by the illness.

HOW HAVE DIFFERENT COUNTRIES CONTROLLED COVID-19 IN CARE HOMES? UK Admission to care homes, including from hospital, are as normal. But residents are tested prior to admission.

If patients show suspected COVID-19 symptoms, they should be isolated in their room. If there are two or more suspected cases, public health officials should be notified.

It has come to light that testing was initially done on the first five symptomatic residents. This has been accelerated to include all symptomatic residents.

Residents and staff isolation guidance continues to be based on symptoms, not on potential contact with people with COVID-19.

Care home should implement daily monitoring for COVID19 symptoms among residents.

Care home staff who come into contact with a COVID-19 resident while not wearing PPE can remain at work, but individual risk assessments should be conducted. Germany If there is a confirmed COVID-19 case, all residents and staff must be tested, sometimes repeatedly such as in Hamburg.

Strict self-isolation rules for staff who have had face-to-face contact with confirmed cases.

When a patient is discharged from hospital after having two negative COVID-19 tests, they must isolate for two weeks, have no symptoms for at least 48 hours.

In Lower Saxony, patients discharged must go to rehabilitation hospitals to receive short-term care.

Some states have frozen new admissions to care homes entirely.

Some states ban visitors while others still allow adults who are close relatives.

All staff who have direct contact with vulnerable people must cover their noses and mouths to protect patients, even if the person does not have symptoms.

The Robert Koch Institute, the public health institute in Germany (RKI), recommends daily documentation of health of residents and staff.

The Government raised care workers' wages on April 23. Hong Kong All residents must stay in their room whether or not there is an outbreak. They must wear a surgical face mask if they have to leave, it was reported on March 27.

Families have only been allowed to visit on compassionate grounds since March 27.

Staff who have been overseas are subject to compulsory quarantine for 14 days. South Korea Started restricting visitors on March 7.

Regular temperature checks.

Anyone who needs to isolate must go to quarantine facilities such as the Human Resources Development Institute.

Exclusion of workers who had recently been to China or other risky countries.

All staff were provided with PPE on March 27. Italy Many Regions banned new admissions to nursing homes. When this was not the case, nursing homes managers themselves opted for the freezing of new admission if isolation was not possible.

Suspended visits on March 9 until May 4. Three weeks at the start of the outbreak had no restrictions.

Shortage of PPE supplies in care homes. Workers have not been sufficiently protected and nursing home providers are buying their own PPE.

Nursing homes are following their own initiatives of checking residents' symptoms regularly because formal guidelines have been implemented.

Testing needs to be allowed by Local Health Authorities in a case by case basis. Some Nursing Homes are starting buying testing services on their own. Spain 'Mass purchasing' of PPE to try and protect workers.

Use of adapted hotels and other facilities as quarantine and rehabilitation facilities following hospital discharge.

New guidance issued on 24th March extends isolation measures for residents and staff who are asymptomatic but may have been in contact with positive cases. But many care homes report that if they adhered to this they would need to send all staff home.

Recruitment of staff by relaxing accreditation requirements US Guidance for testing long term residents was issued on April 27 by the CDC.

Restricted visitors from March 13.

Isolation of residents varies by state. Some states, including Connecticut, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Indiana are also creating new COVID-only skilled nursing facilities in underused homes. But the proposal to move residents testing positive to new locations has largely been abandoned because of an outcry from the public.

Rapid response teams ready to reach out and assess nursing homes as the fight outbreaks  but this is reportedly an ad-hoc basis.

Nursing homes are eligible to receive accelerated Medicare Payments. Some private firms are giving bonuses.

On the April 30, the federal government announced it will begin sending a seven-day supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) to over 15,400 nursing homes. Until this point it has been priority access Source: LTCcovid Advertisement

Yesterday the Health Secretary announced that a total of 28,734 people had died after testing positive for the disease. This suggests the true total - if 34 per cent higher - could be 38,506.

The ONS bulletin today showed that one in five of all people who have died so far in the crisis have been care home residents. Some 5,890 people in homes succumbed to the disease by April 24.

And fatalities in care homes appear to have peaked on April 17, when 415 people died - this was nine days after the daily peak in NHS hospitals, on April 8, with 867 deaths.

ONS data is the most accurate picture of how many people have died with COVID-19, but the statistics are backdated so only relate to a period two weeks earlier.

It comes after a report from the LSE that said deaths in care homes are not inevitable.

Researchers at the London School of Economics have highlighted exactly where the UK has fallen short of protecting some 400,000 care home residents and staff.

More than 5,000 care home residents have died from COVID-19. Official data shows care home deaths account for more than a third of all fatalities.

The LSE report highlights how the UK Government's response has been different to other countries, taking a reactive approach rather than precautionary measures to prevent an outbreak.

In contrast, Hong Kong - which took action to prevent a crisis early on - has recorded no official deaths in care homes.

In some cases, swab tests have been limited to six residents with symptoms per care home, forcing staff to make assumptions on who may have the killer infection.

Carers are allowed to continue working even if they have had contact with a positive case, while in Germany a 14-day self isolation period is compulsory.

In South Korea, where total and care home deaths have been relatively low, regular temperature checks are taken of residents. A fever is one of the tell-tale symptoms.

Similarly in Hong Kong, residents are self-isolating even if there is no outbreak and must wear a face mask if they leave their room.

Adelina Comas-Herrera, an author of the report, said she expects the UK number of deaths of care home residents to amount to half of all deaths, as is happening in France, Belgium and Canada.

The pattern has been reported in Spain and Italy - where governments were slow to act and were underprepared for the pandemic with low levels of PPE - but the data is not as reliable.

Ms Comas-Herrera, an assistant professorial research fellow in the Department of Health Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, has been gathering resources worldwide to create LTCcovid.

LTCcovid (Long-Term Care responses to COVID-19) will document the impact of COVID-19 in care settings over the course of the pandemic.

Its most recent report said: 'While it is early to come to firm conclusions and there are many difficulties with data, these differences suggest that having large numbers of deaths as result of COVID-19 is not inevitable and that appropriate measures to prevent and control infections in care homes can save lives.'

LTCcovid collection of information finds that countries that appear to have had relative success in preventing COVID-19 entering care homes have very strict processes to isolate and test all care home residents and staff.

They don't just focus on those who have symptoms, but anyone who may have had contact with people who have tested positive for COVID-19.

At least in the UK, timely and systematic testing of care home residents and staff has been lacking.

It has come to light that testing was initially done on the first five symptomatic residents, meaning potentially several more would have gone untested.

Testing capacity has been and is still very limited since the start, so priorities lie with people in hospitals and NHS workers.

Care homes have to decide who to isolate based on assumptions of who has the illness, leaving others to mingle with each other while following social distancing rules.

But 'there is also growing evidence of asymptomatic transmission in care homes, which highlights the importance of regular testing in care homes instead of relying on symptoms to identify people with potential COVID-19 infections', Ms Comas-Herreras writes.

'Geriatricians are also raising concerns that, among care home residents, the symptoms of COVID-19 may not be the typical cough and fever that is covered in the guidance documents for care homes in many countries, but that a range of other symptoms (such as delirium, diarrhoea, lethargy, falls and reduced appetite) are more frequent among care home residents with COVID-19.'

Current guidelines in the UK only require the isolation of residents and staff who are symptomatic. Similar guidelines were in place in Spain until the 24th of March.

But the World Health Organization's guidelines insist on isolation of residents and staff who are suspected to have COVID-19.

The Government has been slated for its lack of support to nursing homes, with no routine testing available, no up-to-date records of the number of people infected or dead, and 'paltry' attempts to deliver adequate protective clothing for staff.

The South Korean approach has been robust, albeit potentially distressing for care home residents.
Daniel Boima was saving up to attend college and become an underwater welder before he was shot and killed outside a Scarborough home on Saturday.

Boima, 23, is being remembered as a man who had a full life ahead of him and whose dreams were cut short that night, a GoFundMe campaign set up to help his family with funeral costs reads.

On May 2, 2020, Daniel had lost his life senselessly to violence, the campaign description reads.

His dreams were cut short that night and his father is left with the memory of his beloved son.

That night, Toronto police were called to a shooting in front of a house near Tower Drive and Brian Avenue, in the Warden and Lawrence avenues area, after 10:40 p.m.

Boima was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead, becoming the citys 25th homicide victim of the year.

Initial reports by police indicated they were looking for two suspects. One fled in a white car while another, a man who wore baggy jeans and a hoodie, fled on foot.

Police are asking people with information, including anyone with dash cam or security video, to contact the homicide squad at 416-808-7400 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-8477 or online at 222tips.com.
Georgia Burr, of Squirrel Hill, stands in her car as she and other protesters block a lane of the Greenfield Bridge in Pittsburgh during during a "Can't Pay May! Car Protest/Rally" on May 1. The protesters called for Pennsylvania and national leaders to enact rent and mortgage freezes. Read more

As the coronavirus pandemic continues and Philadelphia courts stay closed through at least the end of May, legal evictions of renters in the city are on hold. That includes 1,700 evictions that had been scheduled and thousands more that landlords are waiting to file.

Once courts reopen, housing advocates predict an avalanche of evictions if city officials dont act.

Typically, about 1,500 evictions are scheduled each month in Philadelphia, where almost half of residents are renters. Many more tenants are now in danger of losing their homes as the pandemic costs them their jobs.

If we let this unfold without putting in place any protections ... were setting ourselves up for mass evictions, for mass reinfection, and a second wave of this virus, and the need to shut down our economy again here in Philadelphia, said Rachel Garland, managing attorney of the housing unit at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia.

Housing advocates and city officials are considering how best to help tenants while the city faces its own income losses.

Policy recommendations include tenant access to legal resources and financial counseling, an eviction diversion program modeled off the citys successful foreclosure prevention program, and stipulations that, if the city provides rental assistance, evictions be resolved in a way that protects tenants ability to find new housing. Those ideas come from the Reinvestment Fund, a Philadelphia-based redevelopment nonprofit, that released a report last week based on conversations with tenants, landlords, and their attorneys, and the review of more than 2,000 agreements between landlords and tenants.

 READ MORE: In one chaotic courtroom, free counselors and attorneys have saved 11,000 Philly homes from foreclosure

Landlords typically seek to evict more than 20,000 Philadelphia households each year.

We know once court reopens, theres going to be an unprecedented number of [eviction] filings, said Emily Dowdall, policy director at the Reinvestment Fund. We see many of our recommendations as upfront investments that will save the city money down the road.

The recommendations, the reports authors said, are intended to help manage the increased caseload following the COVID-19 court closure, ensure that the process is fair, and promote stable tenancy that is beneficial to both landlords and tenants.

An eviction diversion program, which would bring together landlords and tenants for mediation before formal evictions, is one proposal in a package of housing protection bills City Councilmembers introduced Friday. Other ideas include extending the eviction moratorium, waiving late fees for rent, extending repayment plans, and limiting rent increases.

 READ MORE: Some tenants are calling for a Philly-wide rent strike on May 1. Landlords are holding their breath.

At a news conference last week, Councilmember Kendra Brooks called the proposals humane protections to keep people in their homes during this unprecedented public health crisis.

Garland noted that these are measures that frankly most good landlords are doing. But others, she said, are illegally locking out tenants, charging exorbitant late fees, and threatening to call U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Reinvestment Fund report also highlights the importance of legal representation for both tenants and landlords and finds better outcomes for both parties when all know their rights and responsibilities. In line with most legal proceedings, tenants who bring lawyers to eviction negotiations tend to get better deals, including being allowed to leave a unit without owing more money or entering an installment plan instead of owing a lump sum.

But nearly two in three tenants do not have an attorney when entering into agreements with landlords without a judges participation.

The report reaffirmed what attorneys at Community Legal Services see in courtrooms every day, Garland said.

Many, many tenants are approaching the eviction process with very little information about how it works and how to advocate for themselves, Garland said.

The city is working to implement its plan to provide free legal representation to low-income tenants, following a bill City Council passed in the fall.

 READ MORE: Philly Council passes Right to Counsel, giving free legal representation to tenants who are evicted

The Philadelphia Eviction Prevention Project, created in 2017, provides tenants with information and legal help. But like many other city programs, its funding is in jeopardy as officials figure out how to close a budget hole of roughly $649 million due to financial losses caused by the pandemic.

The Philadelphia Inquirer is one of more than 20 news organizations producing Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project on solutions to poverty and the citys push toward economic justice. See all of our reporting at brokeinphilly.org.
Equatorial Guinea is the first country to receive herbal concoction, touted as cure for coronavirus patients.

Madagascar has donated the herbal potion that it claims cures coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic patients to Central African country of Equatorial Guinea, local media reported on Thursday.

A consignment of 11,5000 packets weighing 1.5 tons of Covid Organics (CVO)  a form of herbal tea was shipped to Equatorial Guinea. Out of this, 1,500 packets are for curative treatment and 10,000 for preventive healing.

Equatorial Guinea wanted to be the first country to recognize and use this remedy discovered by Malagasy researchers. And we hope that health cooperation between the two countries will be further strengthened,  said La Verite, a newspaper quoting Mitoha Ondoo Ayekaba Equatorial Guineas deputy minister of health.

Equatorial Guinea, with a population of 1.3 million has 315 confirmed COVID-19 cases so far, with one death, and nine recoveries, according to figures compiled by the US-based Johns Hopkins University.

Last week, Malagasy President Andry Rajoelina officially launched the CVO, a herbal concoction claiming that it can prevent and cure patients suffering from coronavirus. The drug has been developed by the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research.

Rajoelina has directed to distribute the drink free of charge to the most vulnerable and sell it at very low prices to others.

According to information from the Presidency of the Republic of Madagascar, three African countries Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Guinea Bissau have shown interest in the CVO.
business BIG STORY | India restarts factories but faces acute shortage of workers In this edition of Big Story, Moneycontrol's Sakshi Batra tells us about the acute labour force shortages faced by industries as they resume operations under lockdown 3.0
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 14:50:33|Editor: huaxia

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FAIZABAD, Afghanistan, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Seven militants have been confirmed dead and five others wounded as the security forces ambushed a group of Taliban fighters in Koran Wa Munjan district of the northern Badakhshan province on Tuesday, a local police commander, Abdul Razeq said.

A group of Taliban insurgents were going to target security checkpoints in Sarjangle area of the restive district early Tuesday morning, but policemen ambushed them, killing seven on the spot and wounding five others, the official said.

Provincial police spokesman Sanahullah Rohani has also confirmed the incident, saying the Taliban fighters fled the area after suffering casualties.

Taliban militants lost Koran Wa Munjan district several months ago and have been attempting to regain the area. Enditem
Roeland Nusse, PhD, professor of developmental biology, is the recipient of Canadas Gairdner International Award for his work on understanding the role of the Wnt signaling pathway in normal development and in cancer.

The Wnt pathway is made up of proteins, including one called Wnt, that transmit signals from outside the cell to the inside to trigger biological functions including gene expression and cell division.

The award recognizes excellence in fundamental research that affects human health.

Recipients receive 100,000 Canadian dollars (about $72,000) to use as they wish; Nusse plans to donate his award to UNICEF to help provide protective equipment for health care workers caring for children amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. Nusse is the Reed-Hodgson Professor of Human Biology and the Virginia and Daniel K. Ludwig Professor in Cancer Research.

What were going through now is in many ways shocking, Nusse said of the pandemic. The fundamental problem facing humans now is biomedical in nature. When one receives an award for biomedical research, it makes you think, Can I now make an impact that goes beyond my own work to meet an urgent global need? I would find it difficult to accept the prize money in the context of current events.

In 1982, Nusse collaborated with Harold Varmus, MD, then a professor in microbiology and immunology at the University of California-San Francisco, to identify Wnt as a critical cancer-associated gene in a mouse model of breast cancer. Nusse went on to show that the analogous gene in fruit flies, Wingless, plays an important role in regulating normal development. The finding highlighted the connections between normal development and cancer. More recently, Nusse has focused his research on understanding how Wnt signaling regulates the activity of tissue-specific adult stem cells in response to injury or disease. In 2016, Nusse was awarded a $3 million Breakthrough Prize for his work on Wnt signaling.

Its very exciting to be recognized for a body of work, particularly by the Gairdner Foundation, which has such an impressive list of previous recipients, Nusse said.
STAMFORD  In response to a projected $65 million budget shortfall, the Stamford schools superintendent and her cabinet announced they would not accept pay increases for the next two fiscal years.

The decision comes a few day after city officials, including Mayor David Martin, announced they would roll back salaries to the level set on July of 2018.

My team and I recognize that our school community has been gravely impacted by the coronavirus epidemic, and we all must share in reducing the final impact it has on the Stamford community long term, said Superintendent Tamu Lucero. If we all are willing to assume a portion of the burden, we may be able to retain some programs and services in our schools and in our city.

Luceros base salary is $344,000. Cabinet position salaries are based on one-year term sheets issued annually. Luceros cabinet inclues senior members of human resources, finance and public affairs, as well as the associate superintendents, according to a press release from the schools.

Last week, Martin announced that all salaried elected officials, cabinet members, special assistants, police, fire and 911 command staff, and other non-union members of the citys Pay Plan would voluntarily take an immediate reduction in salary, and would forgo their planned salary increase this coming fiscal year.

The employees come from a variety of departments, including office of policy and management, legal affairs, economic development, human resources, traffic, public health, parks and recreation and the mayors office.

The economic impact of this virus on our community means every resident in Stamford has been forced to make difficult decisions in this new reality  including myself and my staff, said Martin.

In total, the salary reductions on the city side would result in about $200,000 in savings for next years budget. A total savings from the education employees concession was not available Monday.

ignacio.laguarda@stamfordadvocate.com
After being arrested and read his rights, Henderson told investigators that he met the man alleged to be Scott on the way to the bail hearing who said he needed to get out of jail and promised him $1,000 if he did him a favor, Murphy said. The parolee would be released on Hendersons I-bond, but be paid the money at a later meeting.
It took almost a century until the spectral lines, first discovered by William H. Wollaston and Joseph von Fraunhofer at the onset of the 19th century, were explained by Niels Bohr with his famous atomic model. Quantum mechanics then provided the tools to calculate the atomic spectral lines of the various elements exquisite accuracy. As of today, more than 250,000 of them have been experimentally verified and are listed in the comprehensive online catalogue maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Playfully browsing this extensive database, a German team of scientists from the University of Rostock was quite astonished to discover an entirely unexpected regularity: Plotting the number of known lines over the wavelength, the distribution bears a striking resemblance to the familiar Planckian distribution of thermal radiation emitted by an incandescent light source. With most of the lines occurring at 320 nm, just beyond what would be perceived as blue by the human eye, the temperature of this hypothetical light bulb would have to be 9,000 K (8727 C / 15740 F).

This seemingly random value may suggest an unexpected connection to cosmology: Shortly after the big bang, the early universe was dominated by pure energy. As it subsequently expanded and cooled down, the elementary particles began to condense and form the matter that makes up the known universe today. This fateful transition took place at 9,000 K. Pure coincidence? Perhaps. Nevertheless, the researchers nevertheless felt this discovery to be curious enough to turn to the broader scientific community to search for a more satisfying explanation. After all, as was so aptly stated by the late great Isaac Asimov, the most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not `Eureka!' (I found it!) but That's funny .
Employees of two departments at the Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, S.D. report to work on Monday, May 4, 2020, as the plant moved to reopen after a coronavirus outbreak infected workers. (AP Photo/Stephen Groves) Read more

We made it into May! Welcome back, and if someone forwarded you this email or you somehow stumbled aboard without signing up to get The Will Bunch Newsletter delivered weekly to your inbox, then todays a great day to do that. Its easy, at inquirer.com/bunch. And to mark #GivingTuesdayNow, the Lenfest Institute is matching, dollar for dollar, your donation to support the Inquirers public journalisma great cause. Learn more and give here.

Coronavirus shows how America unlearned the moral of Sinclairs The Jungle

I read something that seemed particularly apt, given the ongoing global pandemic and the horrific impact its been having on Americas meatpacking industry, where thousands  many of them immigrants  have fallen ill to COVID-19 and at least 20 have died:.

Here was a population, low-class and mostly foreign, hanging always on the verge of starvation, and dependent for its opportunities of life upon the whim of men every bit as brutal and unscrupulous as the old-time slave drivers.

To be clear, I read that sometime in the mid-1970s, when I was a high school student. And the classic work of literature it comes from  Upton Sinclairs The Jungle  was published way back in 1906, a bygone era of runaway capitalism creating vast contrasts of wealth and poverty, where a poor, largely immigrant labor force desperate to feed its families was often exploited. (Sounds familiar.)

When we read The Jungle in high school 45 years ago, its backstory reeked of triumph  that great literature can also change the world. Just months after Sinclairs tome was published, progressive-minded Theodore Roosevelt pushed through the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. But as this excellent analysis points out, Roosevelts reforms were aimed at making meat safer to eat for consumers but didnt protect the workers whose plight was chronicled in The Jungle; that only came decades later, thanks to the labor activism of unions.

Over the last 50 years or so, while kids like me were taught to slap America on the back for our progress, everything changed. Unions declined. Rules once enacted in the spirit of Sinclair and TR disappeared. A new wave of immigrants  not from Eastern Europe as in 1906 but black and brown people from Mexico or Central America or Africa  now arrived willing to take these jobs on the bottom rung.

Most people werent looking, though, at Americas meat plants until the last few weeks, as when the spread of the coronavirus through these large facilities where employees typically work in close quarters  and which remained open to keep supplying food to Americans on lockdown even hit states like South Dakota with few other cases.

We should have been paying attention. In 2005, the non-profit Human Rights Watch issued a highly damning report on workers rights and conditions in the nations meat processing facilities, including shockingly high rates of injuries  from an array of moving objects, sharp cutting tools and the strain of repetitive motion  and even death.

In September 2019  that would be six months before the first coronavirus death in the United States  HRW revisited the issue and found that the lives of many workers in Americas meatpacking plants are still consumed with managing injuries, illness and chronic pain. Weve already gone from the line of exhaustion to the line of pain. When were dead and buried, our bones will keep hurting, Ignacio Davalos, a worker at a Smithfield-owned hog plant in Crete, Neb., told the human-rights organization.

If youve been paying attention these last three-plus years, it wont shock you to learn that the response from President Trump and his administration to the plight of these workers has been to significantly weaken the rules on their brutal and unscrupulous owners. Under Trump, the main agency that regulates worker safety  the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA  has conducted fewer inspections than any time in its history. Since the coronavirus arrived, even industry officials have complained about the lack of guidance from OSHA or any other federal agencies about how to keep workers safe.

The current situation is a mess. Despite the large-scale coronavirus outbreaks, Trump  a Meat Lovers President if there ever was one  has ordered the plants to stay open to salvage Americas food chain. The workers dont want to die from COVID-19 yet desperately need their paycheck, and many get overtime or even incentive pay for NOT calling in sick. That keeps food on their table but sets the stage for more disease.

It never should have come to this. A government for the people could have  should have  made these plants safer when the economy was good. Upton Sinclair warned us to clear out The Jungle 114 years ago. Shame on all of us for letting it grow back.









Feedback Loop

I was blown away by the response to last weeks call for a mandatory national service. About 30 or more (OK, I lost count) emailed me back with your own ideas, with most (but not all) pretty supportive. Im printing a few quotes from your emails here:

I joined the US Army upon graduating from Bartram (in 1965) and experienced the blending of young men from all over. The transition for some was not easy whether it was racial, cultural or economic. In the Army, one learns quickly about discipline and teamwork. You learn, not only to depend on each other, but also to extend help to those that have trouble keeping up.  Lou DiScioli

Many of your points on a MNS are worthy. But, even cumulatively, they are superseded by the simple fact that such a policy would amount to involuntary servitude, a clear violation of the 13th Amendment.  Daniel Fleisher

I have often lamented how EVERYTHING is so fragmented now, we dont have anything in common with each other, not like years ago, not even little popular culture things.  Kristina Hartley

Perhaps the entitled attitude a lot of kids have today would be wiped clean when they see how others live each day in a pure survival mode  Louis Skatz

Additionally, as you point out, it could bring together kids who would otherwise never meet, never travel, never get outside their narrow cocoons.  Flora Wolf

My time on active duty in the Army was something that I cherish. Not because I liked being in the military. I feel that it served as an eye opener about other peoples culture throughout the US and it was a deeply enriching experience. It really does give one the understanding that "were all in this together.  Barry Grossman
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- District Attorney Michael E. McMahon, in collaboration with guest speakers from the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce, Staten Island Economic Development Corporation and the New York City Police Department, will host a webinar for small business owners with concerns amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

The webinar will take place on Wednesday at 10 a.m. as an extension of the Staten Island Business Spotlight Initiative launched by McMahon and the aforementioned agencies to support local business owners and their employees.

The online discussion will explore ways business owners can protect their establishments from physical and financial threats, along with providing information and help with accessing resources available to them.

Our small businesses are going through a rough time right now and the last thing they need is to be the victim of crime. Join us and @NYPDstatenIslnd @SIEDC @sichamber on Wednesday at 10 AM for a "Protect Your Business" Webinar. Link to register: https://t.co/Y5aZ8zDkVE pic.twitter.com/7d6HikbtG0  Michael E. McMahon (@StatenIslandDA) May 4, 2020

Our small businesses are going through a rough time right now and the last thing they need is to be the victim of crime, McMahon wrote on Twitter Monday.

In light of an uptick in commercial burglaries on Staten Island, the webinar will discuss how to protect against burglary and vandalism, and will also help business owners avoid falling victim to scams.

To register for the webinar, click this link.
NORWALK  The Board of Estimate and Taxation has passed a tentative $385 million operating budget for the city in fiscal year 2020-21 with $208 million going to the Board of Education.

The Board of Education received $208.4 million, which is a $9.9 million increase from this fiscal year, but $8 million less than its original request. This means the district will need to find savings in hopes it can be rolled over into next year or face cuts.

Superintendent Steven Adamowski said last month the district would not cut more than $6.1 million from his original $216 million budget without seriously impacting students, including English Language Learners and related services.

Mayor Harry Rilling said he supported giving more than a $9.9 million increase to the schools even if it comes in the form of a special appropriation later on. For now, he said hed like to see if the district will find savings with schools being closed for the rest of the academic year.

We know that the budget Dr. Adamowski is requesting extra money beginning on July 1, Rilling said. We are going to be working closely with (Norwalk Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Tom Hamilton) and Dr. Adamowski to see what savings are available. We hope theyll put forth some savings theyll see from not having schools open and well see where we are at that point. We can always do a special appropriation where need be but to do it now, when we dont know what situation well be in ... we want to get more details and information.

Board of Education Finance Committee member Barbara Meyer-Mitchell said in addition to looking for savings, schools will need to consider where theyre making cuts. Adamowski previously said cutting middle school guidance counselors, elementary school vice principals, department heads, paraprofessionals and central office staff were all a possibility. Meyer-Mitchell said a $1.5 million appropriation would allow the district to provide more ELL services without making uncomfortable cuts.

I think we take the (advance), we say thank you and make it work, Meyer-Mitchell said. But I think we need to continue to have a conversation around enrollment increase and the policies of the city that affect enrollment. Were bound by law to provide education of any child we get. There has to be some responsibility on other side of the situation to either limit enrollment increases by limiting construction and development or funding to meet increased enrollment. It has to be one or the other.

In addition, savings will be difficult to find even with school buildings closed, as Gov. Ned Lamont ordered school staff must be paid even if theyre unable to work during the pandemic, Meyer-Mitchell said. Salaries and benefits comprise the bulk of the districts budget.

The unanimous budget approval came with little fanfare after a heated budget season where there were concerns about not granting the Board of Education its full request.

The overall budget represents a $18 million or 4.9 percent increase over the operating budget for the last fiscal year. The average mill rate is now 23.875, up .690 from from the previous fiscal year. The average home owner will see a $271 tax increase with Rowayton factored in. Increases by district are as follows: $162 in the First Taxing District, $152 in the Second Taxing District, $195 in the Third Taxing District, $208 in the Fourth Taxing District, $307 in the Fifth Taxing District and $602 in the Sixth Taxing District.

Chief Financial Officer Henry Dachowitz said at the BET meeting that theres also $5 million set aside for fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Weve tried to fund all the departments to the adequate level, Dachowitz said. At the same time, we had an objective of protecting next years budget.

At the end of April, the BET approved a $153.8 million capital budget, which included $50 million set aside for a potential new Norwalk High School.

erin.kayata@hearstmediact.com

This story has been updated to reflect adjusted tax increases.
N ormal People has driven BBC Three to receive its best week for programme requests on the iPlayer  doubling a record set by the first series of Killing Eve.

After the adaptation of Sally Rooneys novel became available on iPlayer, BBC Three received more than 21.8 million play requests for the programme in just seven days. Killing Eve received 10.8 million.

Normal People follows teenagers Marianne and Connell, as they start a secret relationship away from the knowledge of their peers. It follows their journey as they grow older, falling in and out of love.

The 12-part BBC series stars Cold Feet actress Daisy Edgar-Jones as Marianne, and Paul Mescal in his first television role as Connell.

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The show is seemingly loved by young people; out of the 16.2 million requests in its first week, 5 million were from 16-34 year olds.

Fiona Campbell, controller of BBC Three, said: Were delighted that Normal People has been such a success and so many people have come to iPlayer to watch it.

From the initial read-through, the phenomenal thought and preparation the directors put into everything from the aesthetics, locations through to the costumes, we felt this piece would always be incredibly unique and its clear the audience thinks so too.

Connell (Paul Mescal) and Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) in Normal People / BBC

Its a modern masterpiece which has helped in catapulting the careers of two brilliant young actors and were looking forward to bringing more drama to BBC Three in the future.

The binge-worthy show has been praised for highlighting the importance of speaking about men's mental health, as Connell deals with a deep depression while at college.

Sarah Greene, the actress who plays Connell's mother, Lorraine, has also praised the show for starting conversations about consent.

BBC Three Release Normal People Exclusive Clip

The channel also said of all the requests for BBC Three programmes on iPlayer, Normal People currently makes up a staggering 70% of the total.

Piers Wenger, controller of BBC drama, and Rose Garnett, director of BBC films, said: BBC audiences have been bewitched by the story of Connell and Marianne, just as we were after reading the transcript of Sallys extraordinary novel.

Taking Normal People from script to screen has been an incredible experience and were overwhelmed by the response.

Lead writers Sally and Alice, directors Lenny and Hettie, all the team at Element Pictures and of course Daisy and Paul should all be so proud of what has been achieved.

Additional reporting by PA
The Centre Tuesday told the Supreme Court that Indian citizens, who are stranded in foreign countries in the wake of lockdown and travel restrictions due to COVID-19 pandemic, would be brought back from May 7 onwards.

The government informed about the measures taken to address the issues of stranded Indian citizens to a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan which



was hearing through video-conferencing a plea seeking direction to the Centre to ensure safe passage to migrant workers, who are hailing from Nepal and are stranded in Uttarakhand.

The apex court was also urged to give direction to the government to bring back Indian citizens who are stuck in Nepal.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench, also comprising Justices S K Kaul and B R Gavai, that he has got instructions in the matter that all Indian citizens stranded abroad in various countries, including Nepal, would be brought back from May 7 onwards.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for petitioner Ganga Giri Goswami, told the bench that many of the migrant workers stranded at India-Nepal border in Uttarakhand have been allowed to go back to Nepal but over 200 of them, who are presently in places like Champawat, have not been sent back yet.

He said that around 1,000 Indian citizens are also stranded in Nepal and they are in a precarious situation there.

Mehta told the bench that food, medicines and other necessary materials have been made available to the Indians stranded in Nepal and the government is in touch with the consulate there.

The bench disposed of the petition in view of the statements made by both the parties.

On April 30, the top court was told by the petitioner that around 1,700 migrant workers hailing from Nepal were stranded at India-Nepal border in Uttarakhand amid the nationwide lockdown and the Centre should allow them to return to their country.

The apex court was hearing an appeal challenging the April 20 order of the Uttarakhand High Court which had observed that "no direction can be issued to the central government to expedite repatriation of the Nepali citizens through diplomatic channels, as issuance of such a direction would amount to encroachment in the field reserved for the Union Government".

"Even otherwise also, petitioner himself admits that, in view of the pandemic caused by COVID-19 virus, Nepal Government has also declared a nationwide lockdown and no-one is permitted to cross Nepal border," the high court had noted in its order.

In the appeal filed in the top court through advocate Satya Mitra, Goswami had alleged that high court has wrongfully refused to grant relief to around 1,700 migrant workers, who are stranded at India-Nepal border in Pithoragarh and Champawat districts in Uttarakhand and wish to return to their country.

During the arguments in the top court on April 30, Gonsalves had said that Supreme Court of Nepal had on April 7 directed the Government of Nepal to allow its citizens stranded on Indian side of the border to cross the border and enter the country.

During the arguments before the high court, the state's counsel had said that Uttarakhand government has established makeshift shelter homes for housing them in Pithoragarh and Champawat districts and they are being given proper food, water and other daily need items among others.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Electric bike rental companies are struggling to keep up with demand as Sydneysiders turn to food delivery as a form of employment amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bolt Bikes has reported an increase of 60 per cent in Sydney e-bike rentals from March to April as customers decide to rent rather than purchase an e-bike. Chief executive Mina Nada said the company had provided extra support to new customers as a result, including training and a noticeboard system to connect riders with local businesses.

Bolt Bikes chief executive Mina Nada said the company has provided extra support to new clients as a result of the uptick in demand. Credit:Bolt Bikes

Ridwan Anan, 23, is studying IT, working at Coles, and has rented an e-bike from Bolt Bikes, which operates across Sydney and Melbourne, for $69 a week to make deliveries for Uber Eats. He said many international students who recently lost their jobs had been hiring the bikes.

"An e-bike can cost you around $1500 to $2000. Spending that much money at this time and being an international student, it's a gamble," he said. "I'm not sure whether I'm gonna do Uber Eats after six months or after two months or for the next week, so renting out was actually the best option."
Eamon Ryan says Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have done "a lot of work" in order to commit to the 7% reduction emissions target.

The two larger parties sent commitments to The Green Party over the weekend that they would agree to Eamon Ryan's party's red line on the emissions target in order to enter formal government formation talks.

It is understood Mr Ryan had to go back to Micheal Martin and Leo Varadkar on Friday to have the commitment cemented in order to get his party over the line on entering talks, as the group was split on the issue.

Mr Ryan, Mr Varadkar and Mr Martin are to meet this morning in Agriculture House on Kildare Street for the first time to map out how the talks will be structured.

Mr Ryan, who campaigned on getting "Fine Gael out" during February's election, says now the Covid-19 crisis has sparked a change in Irish politics and the opportunity for more environmentalism in policy.

"I think that what's important is what has changed in the last few months," he said.

"We've seen those parties committing now to be ambitious and commit to measures that would bring a 7% cut in emissions each year and also recognising that this has to be good, and part of recovery that we make.

We have a straight answer now and they've done a lot of work on this and said; 'Yes, we are committed to that sort of ambition'.

"This will only work if it works for every part of the country, energising our local communities and businesses and society, that map for recovery is where we need to go.

"I believe both parties recognise that now and it's our job to make sure we get the map right."

Mr Ryan says "there has to be" a government before mid-June, and says talks will go on for a short number of weeks.

"That has to be discussed with other parties today, but it will not take a matter of days to do, it will take a short number of weeks," Mr Ryan said on Morning Ireland.

"We need to get it right, all parties have to agree and we need to get the economic part right.

"It's essential that we get people back to work, we need to get small businesses back into business and set a path that sees the economy recover, even as we manage this health crisis into the next year, and to get that right twill take an amount of time."

Mr Ryan's party has been dogged by reports for weeks about tension within the group, with deputy leader Catherine Martin confirming over the weekend that she voted against going into formal talks with Fine Gael and Fianna Fail.

"That's perfectly normal and appropriate politics," Mr Ryan said.

"That's a healthy thing in any political system, I see that as a strength, that you can have different opinions but agree, what we do agree on, is how we map that recovery that we get out of the immediate crisis but also prepare ourselves for the crisis coming of climate change.

I hope we can use the same solidarity and learn from Covid-19 crisis within our party and other parties and as a people to map our way out of this.

'I never pointed the finger at the Green Party'

Meanwhile, Tanaiste Simon Coveney has defended comments he made last week about climate change and agriculture and the Green Partys demands for forming a government.

In an interview in

Read More:

Irish Examiner

Nothing has been ruled out effectively. But, there are some things you simply cant say yes to without figuring out how its going to be done, he said.

Speaking on RTE Today with Sean ORourke, Mr Coveney said he had been asked would he sign up to an agreement and he said he would not if it decimated rural Ireland.

I never pointed the finger at the Green Party.

The Tanaiste said that the government needed to show people that they can be ambitious about climate change. Eamon Ryan is right that there will have to be radical changes, but we have to bring people with us.

The challenge is to be ambitious, he said, but we know what would happen if we lost the public, he added. We saw what happened with the water charges.

The challenge is to work together, to be ambitious, he said.

We believe that is achievable. Richard Bruton has put a very credible climate change document in place. It will involve changes in approach, but a quick fix is not the answer.

Mr Coveney said the government is already committed to significant reductions.

We need to do that in a way that involves farm families.

However, he warned that there will need to be significant changes to the sector and agriculture will need to be reshaped.

We will have to bring people with us.

Thats what the next few weeks will be about.

- Additional reporting Vivienne Clarke

Updated at 11.40
ATLANTA, GA / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / Findit, Inc., a Nevada Corporation (OTC PINK:FDIT), owner of Findit.com, a full service social networking management platform which provides online marketing services, is featuring Findit Member Millenia Medical Staffing, which is a travel nursing staffing agency located in Mount Pleasant that places travel nurses with hospitals and clinics across the nation.

Millenia Medical Staffing offers 13-week travel assignments in hospitals and health facilities all across the US. Their travel assignments include short and long term contracts for RN's, LPN's, Certified Surgical Technicians (CST's), and many other providers. Millenia's client facilities range from large teaching facilities in major cities, to small community hospitals in rural settings, to correctional facilities and government clinics.

Millenia Medical is also an approved Federal Supply Vendor which allows their travel nurses to take assignments in Veteran Administration Hospitals, Military Facilities, Indian Health Service Clinics and Correctional Institutions throughout the United States.

Findit assists Millenia Medical with social media marketing through a variety of services. Previously, Findit SEOed their website and created state pages for travel nurses looking to apply for travel nursing contracts across the US as well as an image gallery highlighting various activities to do in each state where contracts are offered. This information is beneficial to travel nurses researching states and contracts that they might be interested in by providing them with information about activities to do in states where they may have not previously visited or lived in. Now, Findit maintains Millenia Medical's Facebook page, including posting their 'Hot Job of the Day' to attract new travel nurses through social media.

Clark St. Amant of Findit stated, "We wanted to feature Millenia Medical during this time because many nurses may be looking to relocate to help out as a result of COVID-19. In other situations, some nurses may find that their hours have been cut or that they have been laid off as a result of lost business and may be looking to relocate or take on a short-term, temporary contract with a travel nursing staffing agency.

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Want to become a featured member on Findit? Sign up for an online marketing campaign with us by calling 404-443-3224. Online marketing campaigns through Findit are not industry specific - any brand, business, individual or company looking to improve their online presence and increase the number of search results in search engines can work with us to accomplish those goals.

About Findit, Inc.

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Diyar Al Muharraq, one of the largest real estate development companies in Bahrain, said work was in full swing on its affordable housing project, Jeewan, being developed as part of the Deerat Al Oyoun affordable housing project.

Jeewan offers three types of villas, the Modern Tropical, French Chateau, and the Classical Art Deco villas, all of which combine traditional and modern architectural designs, and are aimed to suit a variety of different tastes. The main contractor for the project is Ahmed Omar Trading & Contracting.

Announcing the construction updates, Diyar Al Muharraq said the work on Phase One and Two are currently ahead of schedule and is set to be completed by Q4, while Phase Three will be ready in Q2 next year.

Development of the 173 villas in Phase One began on November 1, 2018 and with the construction work moving at a steady pace it has reached a completion rate of 75%, while the development of the further 119 villas in Phase Two which commenced on April 15 last year has reached a completion rate of 66%.

On the steady progress, CEO Engineer Ahmed Alammadi said: "We are pleased to announce this significant project update. We, at Diyar Al Muharraq, are keen on completing all our projects in a timely manner, with the best possible quality of work."

"With the help of Ahmed Omar Trading & Contracting, we were able to achieve our objectives and stay ahead of schedule, in line with our mission to professionally accomplish all projects both efficiently and effectively," he stated.

"In parallel with phases 1 and 2, the completion of phase 3 includes the completion of utilities and services, in addition to 160 villas that will be ready for handover," remarked Alammadi.

The construction rate of phase 3 is currently ahead of schedule, reaching a completion rate of 21% and is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2021, he added.

Diyar Al Muharraq is one of the largest integrated cities in Bahrain, offering a variety of housing solutions in a luxurious modern lifestyle.

The city maintains a uniquely balanced blend of residential, commercial, recreational, and healthcare facilities, creating a fully integrated and futuristic model city.-TradeArabia News Service
TWIN FALLS  A massive downtown apartment complex and charter school project is generating heaps of opposition from neighborhood residents while others say the proposal would be an economic boon.

The Galena Fund, a Boise-based investment group that builds housing in economically depressed areas, has proposed two multi-family housing structures and a school on property near City Park. The Masqueray Lofts project would be between Shoshone Street and Hansen Street, and Sixth Avenue and Eighth Avenue. The Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing on Masqueray Lofts at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Masqueray Lofts would include two, non-adjacent, 56-unit, five-story apartment complexes along Seventh and Eighth avenues. The buildings would be virtually identical, but one would be low-income housing. Those apartment buildings would go atop what are currently parking lots. The old Twin Falls Clinic building, after being gutted and renovated, would become a charter school.

Fran Florence, who has worked in Twin Falls real estate for decades, spoke on behalf of the Galena Fund at a Planning and Zoning preliminary hearing April 14. He said the project will greatly benefit downtown Twin Falls.

As a community, we have evolved to a point where this project reflects a collective desire to reinstate our downtown core as a viable and energetic part of our city, Florence said.

City leaders and planners have long stressed the need for new housing downtown. They have also advocated for building higher, raising the skyline in order to slow urban sprawl and preserve farmland that continues to be converted to commercial and residential use on Twin Falls outskirts. This project would fulfill both of those goals.

From an economic development perspective, the project checks a lot of boxes  some of the eight letters written in support of the project come from business owners, who could see a financial boost if downtown Twin Falls suddenly gains hundreds of new residents. Some business owners have said at past city government meetings that while downtown is on the mend, theres a lot of work to be done in order to ensure long-term economic viability. This project would help ensure economic sustainability, some support letters said.

Despite the economic positives, opposition to the proposal is strong. Much of that opposition has focused on parking, with neighborhood residents saying theyre worried theyd have to battle for street spaces. Planning and Zoning received 68 opposition letters, and nearly all of those mentioned parking concerns.

Most, but not all, Twin Falls Planning and Zoning commissioners said at the preliminary hearing in mid-April that theyre worried the project will cause parking problems.

I think this could be a parking nightmare, Planning and Zoning Commissioner Curtis Hansen said. Weve got to either scale back the number of units or find a way to get some more parking, I think.

Planning and Zoning commissioners also pushed back against some of the parking needs estimates presented by the architect for the project. Bob Smith of Hutchison Smith Architects initially estimated that for each of the apartments studio and single-bedroom apartments  thats 84 units total  an average of half a parking space would be required. Thats because residents in low-income housing often rely more on public transportation, bikes and carpooling, Smith said.

Hutchison Smith Architects originally estimated a need for 101 spaces for the 112 units  in addition to the 84 studios and one-bedrooms the two apartment buildings include a total of 18 two-bedrooms and 10 three-bedrooms. Some of those parking spaces would be street-side (about a third) while the rest would be on-site.

Some commissioners said that those estimates of parking needs were wrong. Just about everyone in Twin Falls has a car, they said, and even some low-income residents have two.

There really isnt a viable public transit model in Twin Falls yet, and Im not sure if carpooling is part of our culture, Commissioner Carolyn Bolton said.

In new estimates, Hutchison Smith Architects projected parking needs at 131 spaces (plus an additional 32 for the charter school, but the school will be put before the Planning and Zoning Commission at a future date and is not currently being presented).

Additionally, Hutchison Smith Architects has proposed multiple ideas for addressing parking problems, including converting part of Seventh Avenue to 90-degree parking  that conversion would be done at the cost of the developer. Another idea would be to demolish part of the old clinic building to create more spaces. The clinic building is too large for a school on its own anyway, according to the owner.

With the exception of potential parking issues, Planning and Zoning commissioners voiced their approval of the project.

The 68 opposition letters werent exclusively dedicated to parking. A few residents said they dont want the two five-story buildings to ruin their views. Some homeowners said their property values will decline and low-income residents will bring drugs and crime to the neighborhood. There were some letters that expressed concern the project would be bad for the Sage Womens Center.

Others simply said that while they understand the necessity of economic growth, and they like the idea of the project, they dont want it near their home.

Paul Smith said the project is a bad fit for the Twin Falls Original Townsite Residential Historic District, which has been on the National Register of Historic Places for nearly 20 years. Smith is a former chairman of the Twin Falls Historic Preservation Commission and winner of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution Historic Preservation Medal.

The placement of two five-story buildings in an original historic district dedicated to housing is absurd, Smith wrote in his letter. High-rise buildings are not appropriate next to single-level residential historical homes.

He also shared the same concerns many residents expressed  life is going to be crowded with all the new residents and a new school.

When the clinic was there, all of the parking was needed to handle just the clinic and there was a constant demand to tear down additional homes for more parking, Smith said. This will happen again.

Florence  who grew up on Ninth Avenue  said repeatedly at the mid-April preliminary hearing that this is the type of development downtown Twin Falls needs. But he also said he knows many people arent going to be happy with the idea.

I know that change is often met with apprehension and even protest, he said. Its a natural part of the process.

Editor's note: The original version of this story misspelled Planning and Zoning Commissioner Carolyn Bolton's name. The Times-News regrets the error.

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Carnival Cruise Line (NYSE:CCL) has become the first of the three major cruise lines to offer concrete plans as to when it will begin sailing from North American ports again. Those plans are, of course, still subject to the Centers for Disease Control allowing the cruise line to follow through, but Carnival has what seem to be realistic expectations.

This may provide a glimmer of hope for investors. It may also open the door for Royal Caribbean (NYSE:RCL) and Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE:NCLH) to plan their own gradual returns. This is not a comprehensive reopening for Carnival. Instead, it's a small-scale plan involving eight ships operating out of three ports.

What is Carnival doing?

The company has officially canceled all cruises through the end of July. It plans to offer cruises on eight ships leaving from Miami, Port Canaveral, and Galveston beginning Aug. 1. It plans to reopen some other ports (and perhaps increase the ships sailing from the three mentioned above) as of Aug. 31, according to a press release.

On Aug. 1, Carnival plans to stage the following ships in each port:

Galveston: Carnival Dream, Carnival Freedom, and Carnival Vista

Miami: Carnival Horizon, Carnival Magic, and Carnival Sensation

Port Canaveral: Carnival Breeze and Carnival Elation

Carnival also has a number of extended cancellations:

All Carnival Spirit Alaskan cruises from Seattle will be canceled, as well as the Carnival Spirit Vancouver-Honolulu cruise on Sept. 25 and the Honolulu-Brisbane transpacific cruise on Oct. 6.

All Carnival Splendor cruises in Australia from June 19 to Aug. 31 will be canceled.

"We are committed to supporting all public health efforts to manage the COVID-19 situation. We are taking a measured approach, focusing our return to service on a select number of homeports where we have more significant operations that are easily accessible by car for the majority of our guests," the cruise line said in a press release.

Carnival also made it clear that it plans to coordinate its efforts with the U.S. government. That has to happen as it needs CDC approval before it can actually sail.

What does this mean for investors?

This is a tiny ray of light for Carnival investors. It likely also will lead to Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line making similar plans.

Opening a small fraction of its cruise ships for business is a start. Carnival has 28 ships under its self-named brand. It also owns all or part of 100 ships in total across a variety of other cruise lines, including Cunard, Princess, and Holland America.

Opening, however, even in a small way, is an important part of the company's recovery. People going on cruises and not getting sick will convince other people to book cruises (even if they are well into the future).

All three cruise lines need to move with caution. A ship that gets infected would be a disastrous setback. Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian all need to satisfy the CDC. That likely means temperature checks, medical evaluations, and containment procedures if someone gets sick on board.

These are baby steps on a long journey. These stocks remain very risky and a setback could mean one, two, or all three companies end up in a strategic Chapter 11 bankruptcy. If you invest, be prepared for that risk and be ready for a long voyage back to normal operations.
Gautam Adani; $25.2 billion

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Adani Green Energy Ltd plans to spend Rs 8,000 crore and Rs 10,000 crore to build between 1,100 MW and 1,500 MW respectively of wind and solar power plants in financial year 2020-21.

As per a report by The Hindu Business Line, citing companys CEO, Jayant Parimal, nearly Rs 7,000 crore of the amount will be financed by debt raised from domestic lenders. Later, through a green bond issue, the debt could possibly be refinanced, hinted Parimal.

Adani Green is building 1,280 MW of wind, 475 MW of solar and 1,690 MW of hybrid plants, which will add to its existing portfolio of 2,545 MW  including the 2,148 MW under the JV with TOTAL, the report said.

Asked if the COVID-19 crisis had disrupted the supply of solar modules, as Adani Green buys these modules from China, Parimal said the company had faced only a limited impact because it did not have too many projects under construction at that time.

In a statement issued on May 4, the company's chairman Gautam Adani said that green and renewable energy-motivated investments will continue in this fiscal year.

The company on May 4 posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 55.64 crore for the March 2020 quarter, helped by lower expenses.

The clean energy firm had logged a consolidated net loss of Rs 94.08 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago, a company statement said.

Its total income stood at Rs 718.66 crore for the quarter under review as against Rs 718.73 crore a year earlier.

On a full-year basis, the company reported narrowing of consolidated net loss at Rs 67.96 crore in 2019-20. In 2018-19 fiscal, its net loss was Rs 475.05 crore.

Total income for 2019-20 stood at Rs 2,629.07 crore, as compared to Rs 2,130.99 crore in 2018-19.

(With inputs from PTI)
Liquor shops and vends opened across the country on Monday after the government decided to allow the sale of alcohol. Lakhs of people lined up outside liquor vends, flouting social distancing norms and creating a riot-like situation even as the rest of the country was under the coronavirus COVID-19 lockdown. Similar scenes were witnessed on Tuesday as impatient crowds were seen outside liquor shops across the country, pushing and jostling to buy a bottle of their favourite drink.

Even as Delhi government on late Monday night announced a 70 per cent 'special corona fee' on alcohol, people were not discouraged as they continue to stand in many kilometres long queues. In the sweltering heat of May, people were seen standing in a queue to buy liquor of their choice across the country.

India is a country where alcohol drinking claims 2,60,000 lives every year, 29 people die every hour due to alcohol drinking while 712 people die every day.

According to government data, around 16 crore people in India drink alcohol regularly. In India, no person under the age of 21 is allowed to drink alcohol, but 75 per cent of the youth learn to drink before they turn 21, said a survey conducted in different cities of India.

On average, 594 million litres of liquor are sold in India every year, but by 2022, the consumption of alcohol is expected to increase to 1680 million litres. Between 2010 and 2017, the per capita alcohol consumption in India increased by about 38 per cent. Till 2010, a person in India used to drink an average of 4.25 litres of alcohol and it has now increased to about 6 litres.

With almost 16 crore people drinking in India, if the price of a bottle of alcohol is Rs 500 on an average, then all these people drink liquor worth Rs 8,000 crore. Notably, an average plate of food costs Rs 30. If these 16 crore people spare the amount they spent on alcohol to feed the poor, about 4.5 crore Indians can be provided with food for a month.

In 2018, the government earned around Rs 3.10 lakh crore from the sale of liquor in India. The 29 states and two Union Territories earn an average of Rs 15,000 crore from the sale of liquor every month. Uttar Pradesh earned more than Rs 31,000 crore from the sale of liquor in the year 2019-20, followed by Karnataka where Rs 20,950 crore came through the sale of liquor in the same period.

On the first day of the concession in Uttar Pradesh, liquor worth Rs 100 crore was sold in merely 9 hours. Surprisingly, liquor worth Rs 70 to 80 crore is sold every day in the state on normal days. On Monday, liquor worth Rs 45 crore were sold in Karnataka, where the sale chart today reached Rs 197 crore.

Earlier, people belonging to Tablighi Jamaat and even singer Kanika Kapoor have been blamed for spreading coronavirus across the country. However, with lakhs of people flouted rules of social distancing for the sake of alcohol, coronavirus could spread at an even faster rate

Notably, similar scenes played out in towns and rural centres in states such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Delhi, where the fear of COVID-19 eclipsed the eagerness to access alcohol after more than 40 dry days.
New Delhi :

In first visit by an Indian leader since the Pathankot terror attack, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will travel to Pakistan for SAARC Interior and Home Ministers conference on August 3.

During the visit, apart from attending the SAARC conference, Singh is likely to have bilateral meetings with his counterparts from other SAARC member-countries, including Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

Home Minister will be accompanied by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and several other senior officers of his Ministry.

Key issues like fight against terrorism, illegal trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and small arms and how to make coordinated and concerted efforts to combat such menace will figure in the forthcoming meeting.

Singhs visit to Pakistan also assumes significance in the backdrop of violence and tension in Kashmir after Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wanis death. India has blamed Pakistan for trying to create unrest in the Valley.

The three-tier meeting will begin at the joint secretary-level and then move on to Secretary and Home Minister-level meetings.

The meeting will also focus on strengthening networking among police authorities of SAARC member-countries and also enhance information-sharing among law enforcement agencies.

The last meeting of SAARC Interior/Home Ministers' conference was held in Kathmandu in 2014 when the Home Minister had said that member-nations of the group were facing common challenges and they should cooperate with each other to address them.

Singh had said that India was committed to reviving the grouping as a major forum to promote active regional collaboration.

The Home Minister had also voiced concern over the new threats of terrorism and violence to South Asia especially and asked SAARC countries to chalk out strategies to check radical groups and extremist ideologies.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
"This prestigious award confirms our ambition to play a strategic role in the shift towards a low-carbon economy and to drive the energy transition forwards with smarter, more reliable and more sustainable solutions. It gives us great satisfaction to be involved in the development of this vital infrastructure project and to set this milestone in the upgrading of the EU power transmission grid," stated Valerio Battista, Prysmian Group CEO.

With SuedOstLink, Prysmian extends its involvement in strategic underground interconnection projects, alongside the Piedmont-Savoy connection between Italy and France, the INELFE link between Spain and France, the ElecLink project running through the Eurotunnel between France and the UK, and the ALEGrO connection between Belgium and Germany.

Prysmian will deliver a 525 kV HVDC underground cable system, the first HVDC link to use extruded cables at this highest voltage level, combined with large copper conductor cables and Prysmian own developed innovative P-Laser insulation technology, with higher operating temperature, to enable a transmittable power of more than 2GW on a single system for the first time. The route, with a length of over 250 km, starts at the Southern Germany connection point at Isar, close to Landshut in Bavaria. Prysmian will provide all related accessories, as well as an integrated PRY-CAM monitoring system. A high-quality and efficient installation shall be assured with optimised long length solutions, extending beyond 2 km, overseen by a strong and dedicated local project engineering and management team. Project completion is planned in early 2026.

"Our innovative and eco-friendly solutions are supporting Germany's energy transition in a sustainable way, with the development of more capable underground cables able to cover longer distances with an increasing level of power transmission, to carry more energy from the North of the country, where renewable energy is being generated, to more southerly regions, where it is required," added Hakan Ozmen, EVP Projects BU, Prysmian Group.

In selecting P-Laser insulation technology, TenneT recognises the benefits of this innovative Prysmian product based on HPTE (High Performance Thermoplastic Elastomer). With a solid history in MV application, this is a fully qualified high-performance insulation system that has evolved over the years in a comprehensive HVDC development program of rigorous testing and extensive trials. P-Laser is suited for the highest voltage levels delivering enhanced thermal performance and high intrinsic reliability that enable more flexible and sustainable solutions, such as optimised construction with reduced trench widths. It is fully recyclable, and with increased productivity and 30%* lower CO 2 emissions in production, has much higher environmental credentials compared to more conventional technologies.

*calculated with a simplified LCA methodology.

Prysmian Group

Prysmian Group is world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry. With almost 140 years of experience, sales exceeding 11 billion, about 29,000 employees in over 50 countries and 106 plants, the Group is strongly positioned in high-tech markets and offers the widest possible range of products, services, technologies and know-how. It operates in the businesses of underground and submarine cables and systems for power transmission and distribution, of special cables for applications in many different industries and of medium and low voltage cables for the construction and infrastructure sectors. For the telecommunications industry, the Group manufactures cables and accessories for voice, video and data transmission, offering a comprehensive range of optical fibres, optical and copper cables and connectivity systems. Prysmian is a public company, listed on the Italian Stock Exchange in the FTSE MIB index.

Media Relations

Lorenzo Caruso

Corporate and Business Communications Director

[email protected]

+39 02-6449-1

Investor Relations

Cristina Bifulco

Investor Relations Director

[email protected]

+39 02-6449-1

SOURCE Prysmain S.p.A

Related Links

https://www.prysmiangroup.com/


DENVER, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vista Gold Corp. (NYSE American and TSX: VGZ) (Vista or the Company) today announced receipt of $2.4 million from PT Masmindo Dwi Area (PT Masmindo) to exercise its option to cancel 50% of the Awak Mas net smelter return (NSR) royalty. Management has also scheduled a conference call on May 8, 2020 at 10:00 am MT to discuss first quarter 2020 financial results and provide a general corporate update.

Vista holds an NSR royalty on the Awak Mas project in Indonesia. During 2019, Vista and PT Masmindo amended the original royalty agreement to grant PT Masmindo the right to cancel the NSR royalty held by Vista (see news releases November 4, 2019 and April 30, 2020). Receipt of this payment cancels 50% of the NSR royalty, and PT Masmindo retains the right to cancel the remaining 1.0% NSR royalty on the first 1,250,000 ounces of gold produced and 1.25% NSR royalty on the next 1,250,000 ounces of gold produced for an additional payment of $2.5 million by April 30, 2021. If PT Masmindo does not make the $2.5 million payment by April 30, 2021, Vista will retain the remaining royalty interest and can pursue alternative monetization strategies.

Frederick H. Earnest, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, We are pleased to have received the first of two option payments from PT Masmindo related to the cancelation of Vistas Awak Mas NSR royalty. The $2.4 million strengthens our balance sheet as we advance our activities to seek a strategic partner for the construction and development of our Mt Todd Gold Project. Our efforts to monetize other non-core assets are ongoing.

Management Conference Call

A conference call with management to review our financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020 and to discuss corporate and project activities is scheduled for May 8, 2020 at 10:00 am MDT.

Participant Toll Free: 888-378-4413

Participant International: 647-792-1280

Conference ID: 7842578

Story continues

This call will be archived and available at www.vistagold.com after May 8, 2020. Audio replay will be available for 21 days by calling toll-free in North America: 888-203-1112.

If you are unable to access the audio or phone-in on the day of the conference call, please email your questions to ir@vistagold.com.

All dollar amounts in this press release are in U.S. dollars.

About Vista Gold Corp.

The Company is a gold project developer. The Companys principal asset is its flagship Mt Todd gold project in Northern Territory, Australia. Mt Todd is the largest undeveloped gold project in Australia and as presently designed, is expected to be Australias 5th largest gold producer on an annual basis.

For further information, please contact Pamela Solly, Vice President of Investor Relations, at (720) 981-1185.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this press release that address activities, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will or may occur in the future, including the receipt of other future option payments for the Awak Mas project and our ongoing efforts to monetize non-core assets are forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. The material factors and assumptions used to develop the forward-looking statements and forward-looking information contained in this press release include the following: there are no changes to laws or regulations impacting mine development or mining activities, our assumptions with respect to the current economic conditions, the price of gold and current market conditions. When used in this press release, the words expect, intend, believe, may, will, if, anticipate, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which 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 such statements. Such factors include, among others, risks relating to political and economic instability; changes to laws or regulations impacting mine development or mining activities, uncertainty regarding current economic conditions, the price of gold and current market conditions; as well as those factors discussed under the headings Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors in the Companys latest Annual Report on Form 10-K as filed on February 26, 2020 and other documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian securities regulatory authorities. Although we have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements and forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information; whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 15:33:21|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia's National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) on Tuesday reported one newly confirmed COVID-19 case, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 41.

"A total of 307 tests for COVID-19 were conducted at five laboratories across Mongolia yesterday and one of them tested positive," Dulmaa Nyamkhuu, head of the NCCD, said at a daily press conference.

The latest case is one of more than 260 Mongolian nationals who returned to their homeland on a chartered flight from COVID-19-hit European countries on Sunday morning, according to the official.

In addition, one more patient has recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of recoveries to 13, he said.

All confirmed cases, including four foreign nationals, are imported, said the NCCD. No local transmissions and deaths have been reported inside Mongolia so far. Enditem
The 2019/20 sugar beet campaign came to a close in mid-April, when British Sugar closed its gates for beet intake after 208 days  the longest known uninterrupted European campaign.

A total of 7.77m adjusted tonnes were processed by British Sugars four factories, which between them received 290,000 deliveries of beet over the campaign.

The average final yield totalled 78 tonnes per hectare - above the five-year average of 75 tonnes per hectare.

After a very dry start, the campaign was affected by heavy rainfall which caused difficulties lifting the crop for many growers.

In response to concerns about not being able to deliver their beet in time, British Sugar slowed its slicing rate at its Wissington and Newark factories to accommodate later deliveries.

The firm also allowed growers to deliver beet to factories other than their contracted site, if it could not be delivered before that site closed.

Peter Watson, agriculture director at British Sugar, said the resilience of the crop and the wider industry helped achieve higher than average yields this year.

We know that this has been a difficult campaign for our 3,000 growers across the East and East Midlands, with poor weather conditions impacting upon lifting," he said.

"We share our sincere thanks with all our growers, contractors, hauliers and industry partners for their hard work and determination throughout the campaign, and their support in helping us to keep our factories running.

As we look to prepare for the next campaign, we will continue to ensure that our homegrown sugar industry is among the most efficient in the world.
Before reopening Hemline, her womens clothing boutique, on Friday, Shannon Martin had her space professionally cleaned and disinfected. She placed disposable masks, hand sanitizer and gloves at the door for customers. And she waited.

By Saturday, business was surprisingly good.

Across town in River Oaks District, the general manager of Moreau Paris, a luxury leather brand selling French handmade goods, made similar preparations. By Monday afternoon, only two customers had visited the store.

The results of Gov. Greg Abbotts partial reopening of the states economy by allowing retailers and restaurants to reopen on Friday were mixed. Many shops never even opened.

A survey of about 900 businesses conducted by the Greater Houston Partnership found 19 percent of retail and restaurant respondents said they were fully open on Friday; 37 percent said they were partially open; and 44 percent reported being closed.

Some may never return.

For those retailers struggling prior to COVID-19 this may be the final straw, said Patrick Jankowski, the organizations senior vice president of research.

SHOPPING FOR A HOUSE DURING A PANDEMIC: Houston Realtor hosts open house: It was nuts

Texas stay-at-home order expired Friday and nonessential retailers were allowed to reopen using social distancing protocols and at 25 percent capacity, which, generally, was not a problem.

The number of shoppers that visited Tootsies, a designer clothing store at the corner of Westheimer and Kirby Drive, was about 20 percent of what it was last year over the same weekend.

Owner Norman Lewis said those who came in were a mix of shoppers there to pick up specific items and those wanting to get out of the house to see something new. Time will tell on when and how shopping recovers, Lewis said.

The three days weve been open doesnt tell us a lot, he said. I think where well be back to the new normal that everybody talks about is probably Labor Day, in that September range.

Dr. Thy Nguyen, owner of Focus Optical, reopened her eye clinic in The Woodlands on Friday after closing on March 18. Her industry is considered essential, but she also has a retail element to her business through sales of glasses, sunglasses and contacts.

You can feel that people are ready to get out and they need to take care of what they need to take care of, she said. There was definitely demand and a high amount of calls from people wanting and needing to come in.

Shes implemented a new sanitizing protocol and is only allowing five people in the store at once. Doctors are only seeing one patient an hour.

On Monday, Nguyen opened her second location. Its in a new building just south of The Woodlands in Springwoods Village. Her clients appreciated the newness.

A lot of the patients that came in today said Im glad everythings clean, she said.

HOUSTON RESTAURANT MAGNATE AMID COVID-19: Tilman Fertitta rides out the pandemic

Many of the retailers that reopened last week had adapted their businesses to accommodate customers while their stores were closed.

Hemline, a national franchise, rolled out a program where its customers could fill out an online survey and be mailed a box of clothes and accessories that matched their preferences.

Martin, owner of the CityCentre store and one in the Heights, said the program will continue.

People are more cautious, she said. Itll take some time for people to feel 100 percent comfortable coming out.

nancy.sarnoff@chron.com

twitter.com/nsarnoff
is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at

, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He is the chief editor of

and the director of

. He has written more than twenty books, including

and

. His latest book is

, with an introduction by Evo Morales Ayma.

Washington Bullets
T he number of people who have died across the UK after testing positive for coronavirus has increased by 693 to nearly 30,000.

Dominic Raab announced at the Downing Street press conference that the death toll now stood at 29,427.

This includes people who have died at hospitals, care homes and across the wider community.

Earlier on Tuesday, the ONS released data which suggested the death toll could be higher than 32,000.

NHS bodies also announced that the death toll among hospital patients had risen by 433.

They include 366 people in England, 44 in Scotland, 26 in Wales, and 17 in Northern Ireland.

Of the 21,750 confirmed reported deaths so far in hospitals in England of people who tested positive for Covid-19, 11,412 (52%) have been people aged 80 and over while 8,442 (39%) were 60-79.

A further 1,732 (8%) were aged 40-59, with 153 (1%) aged 20-39 and 11 (0.05%) aged 0-19, according to NHS England.

One minute silence to NHS heroes who lost lives to the Coronavirus 1 /25 One minute silence to NHS heroes who lost lives to the Coronavirus London Ambulance Staff observe the minute silence today at their HQ in Waterloo Road Jeremy Selwyn Staff stand outside Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester during a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Shoppers queue in the rain outside Costco in Thurrock during a minutes silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA A minute silence in honour of key workers who have lost their lives due to COVID-19 Sky News London Ambulance Staff observe the minute silence today at their HQ in Waterloo Road Jeremy Selwyn Staff react outside Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester during a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA A staff member reacts outside Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester during a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Members of the public, NHS staff, and Police offices, some wearing PPE (personal protective equipment) of a face mask as a precautionary measure against COVID-19, pause for a minute's silence to honour UK key workers AFP via Getty Images A police officer observes a minute silence in honour of key workers who have lost their lives due to COVID-19 outside 10 Downing Street, Reuters London Ambulance Staff observe the minute silence today at their HQ in Waterloo Road Jeremy Selwyn Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill, Prime minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak stand inside 10 Downing Street, London, to observe a minutes silence in tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA A minute silence in honour of key workers who have lost their lives due to COVID-19 Sky News London Ambulance Staff observe the minute silence today at their HQ in Waterloo Road Jeremy Selwyn Staff stand outside the Royal Derby Hospital, during a minutes silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Staff stand outside the Royal Derby Hospital, during a minutes silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Staff stand inside Camberwell bus depot in London, during a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA National Shop Stewards Network protesters outside St Thomas' Hospital in London, during a minute's silence which was to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak. PA Staff members applaud outside the Royal Derby Hospital, following a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak. PA First Minister Nicola Sturgeon stands outside St Andrew's House in Edinburgh to observe a minute's silence in tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA

The number of deaths announced so far by University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust has reached 786.

This is the highest number for any trust in England.

London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust has announced 530 deaths.

Four trusts have announced between 400 and 500 deaths: the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust (446), Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (444), Barts Health NHS Trust (416) and the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust (401).

Coronavirus: Inside an ICU in Northern Ireland

Asked about the latest statistics on the UKs death toll, the Prime Ministers official spokesman said that "every death is a tragedy"

Every death from coronavirus is a tragedy" he said.

"We are working night and day to give all of those affected the best possible support.

In terms of the general trend that the death statistics set out, I would point you to the PMs words last week where he said we are past the peak of this disease and on the downward slope but we remain in a dangerous phase and must recognise the risk of a second peak.

We must continue to do all that we can to suppress the virus and keep the reproduction rate down.

Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily

The spokesman pointed to Englands chief medical officer Professor Chris Whittys comments last week about the problems with comparing death rates with other countries at this stage.
Nigerian movie star, Mercy Johnson and her husband, Prince Okojie have finally welcomed their fourth child, a baby girl in the US.

Prince Okojie broke the exciting news via Instagram on Monday as he shared a couple of photos of his wife and new born daughter at the hospital.

He captioned the photos;

Every Good and Perfect gift is from God. The wait is finally Over, Please share in Our Joy as we announce the arrival of Our Daughter.

Divine-Mercy Ehinomen Okojie.

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Read Also: BBNaijas Nina Ivy Shows Off Her Bare Baby Bump; Sets Reveal Gender (Video)

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / Doubleview Capital Corp. ("Doubleview") (TSXV:DBV)(OTC:DBLVF) is pleased to announces that TSX Venture Exchanges has approved the company's name change to "Doubleview Gold Corp." and effective market opening on May 7, 2020 it will trade under the new symbol " TSX.V: DBG". There will be no changes to the capital structure of the company as a result of the change. In accordance with the Company's Articles, the name change does not require approval of the shareholders. The name change is subject to acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange.The change of name better reflects the nature of the Company's portfolio of properties that comprises various commodities, and primarily focused on Gold. Since 2011, Doubleview has aggressively explored by drilling and technical surveys its "Hat" gold-copper porphyry property, located in northern British Columbia, Canada. The Hat property includes several highly prospective exploration targets, of which the Lisle deposit has been developed by more than thirty drill holes. Strong gold-copper mineralization is present over hundreds of metres and the deposit is open to extension in all directions.Property photographs and details of drill holes and analyses are presented in the Doubleview website at www.doubleview.ca Several areas close to the Lisle deposit that have geological, geochemical and geophysical characteristics closely similar to those of the Lisle are scheduled for drill testing when work resumes. Doubleview also is reviewing several property submissions, including gold and copper deposits that may be followed up further when conditions permit.About Doubleview Capital Corp.Doubleview Capital Corp., a mineral resource exploration and development company, is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and is publicly traded on the TSX-Venture Exchange [TSX-V: DBG], [OTCBB: DBLVF], [GER: A1W038], [Frankfurt: 1D4]. Doubleview identifies, acquires and finances precious and base metal exploration projects in North America, particularly in British Columbia. Doubleview increases shareholder value through acquisition and exploration of quality gold, copper and silver properties and the application of advanced state-of-the-art exploration methods. The Company's portfolio of strategic properties provides diversification and mitigates investment risk.On behalf of the Board of Directors,Farshad Shirvani, President & Chief Executive OfficerFor further information please contact:Doubleview Capital Corp.470 Granville St., Suite #822Vancouver, BC V6C 1V5Farshad Shirvani, President & CEOT: (604) 678-9587E: corporate@ doubleview.ca 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.SOURCE: Doubleview Capital Corp.
New Delhi: Almost 200,000 Indians have registered with the countrys missions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for repatriation flights that will begin operating from May 7, with officials saying priority would be given to workers who have lost jobs and people with medical emergencies.

The Indian government had on Monday announced it would begin repatriating Indians stranded around the world because of the Covid-19 crisis from May 7 and authorities said naval ships and chartered flights would bring back hundreds of thousands of people in phases.

Given that the Embassy/Consulate have received almost 200,000 registrations for travelling back, it will take time for all people to be accommodated on these flights, said a statement issued by the Indian consulate in Dubai late on Monday.

Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic

The first two special flights from the UAE to India will operate from Abu Dhabi to Kochi and from Dubai to Kozhikode on Thursday, the statement said. The passenger lists for both these flights will be finalised by the Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi, and the Consulate General of India, Dubai, on the basis of registrations in thedatabase for this purpose launched a few days back, it added.

The statement said priority would be given to workers in distress, elderly people, urgent medical cases, pregnant women as well as to other people who are stranded in difficult situations.

The cost of tickets and other facilities, such as quarantine after reaching India, would be conveyed in due course and will have to be accepted by each passenger, the statement said.

However, experts from the UAEs aviation and travel industries indicated to Gulf News that the cost of a ticket on the special flights would be almost double the price of a normal ticket for this time of the year.

Click here for the latest updates from the coronavirus outbreak

A one-way repatriation ticket to Delhi will cost approximately Dh 1,400-Dh 1,650  this would earlier have cost between Dh 600-Dh 700 [during these months], said Jamal Abdulnazar, CEO of Cozmo Travel.

A one-way repatriation flight ticket to Kerala would cost approximately Dh 1,900-Dh 2,300, he said.

Gulf News reported that price could be a burden for a majority of people taking these flights because they had either lost their jobs or are sending back their families because of uncertainty on the work front. The aviation and travel industry experts said the higher rates couldnt be avoided because social distancing norms would limit the number of passengers on each flight.

Indian ambassador Pavan Kapoor told the daily that the missions in the UAE had prioritised the list of passengers and given it to Air India. He added, We would call and email each passenger to contact Air India to get their tickets issued. The first two flights on Thursday would be to Kerala, considering the high number of applicants from the state.

One of the three Indian Navy ships that set off on Monday night to evacuate stranded Indians  INS Shardul  will go to Dubai to bring back expatriates, the defence ministry said. The other two warships  INS Jalashwa and INS Magar  were sent to the Maldives. All three warships will return to Kochi.

Kapoor also said there would be flights almost on a daily basis to various destinations in India. Other officials said Indians stranded in the UAE with visit and tourist visas and those with cancelled visas would also be given preference for returning home.

The Indian missions in the UAE will convey details of further flights to different destinations in India in the coming days. We seek patience and cooperation from everyone as the Government of India undertakes this massive task of repatriation of Indian nationals, the statement said.

The UAE is home to more than two million Indian expatriates. Their welfare figured in a telephone conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Abu Dhabis Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed on March 26.

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Bihar has received most workers through Shramik Specials, WB the least: Data

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, May 05: Bihar has received the maximum number of migrant labourers through special trains so far and West Bengal the least, data accessed by the PTI shows, with officials indicating that the latter was "stalling" the movement of its workers stranded in other states.

TMC MP and leader of the party in Rajya Sabha, Derek O'Brien, however, said the West Bengal government was doing "all it takes" to fight the coronavirus pandemic, and accused the Centre of playing politics.

The data shows that most migrant labourers have moved from Gujarat to their home states in about 35 Shramik Special trains so far, followed by Kerala from where 13 such trains have left.

Among the receiving states, Bihar has accepted 13 trains, with 11 more currently on the journey and six in the pipeline, the data shows. Neighbouring Uttar Pradesh has received 10 such trains and five more are on their way, with 12 in the pipeline, the data shows.

The West Bengal government has, however, given clearance to only two trains -- one each from Rajasthan and Kerala -- and they are on their journeys to the state, the data shows.

A senior official said, "While other states which have their migrant workers in other parts of the country are accepting their labourers, West Bengal is stalling (the process).

Two trains -- from Thane to Shalimar and another from Bangalore to Howrah -- which were supposed to run today, did not get clearance from the West Bengal despite both the originating state governments pushing for it."

"Rajasthan has also been slow in accepting migrants with just three trains ferrying its workers back to the state, which are currently on their way," the official said. Derek O'Brien accused the Centre of playing politics over the issue.

"States, including Bengal, are going all out -- fighting corona. Unfortunately, the Central government is going all out -- fighting and badmouthing non-BJP states using its different ministries.

"States are the implementing authorities. We are all doing all it takes. This is not the time for politics. Or we too can ask: why was a 21-day lockdown announced with four hours notice?" he said.

According to figures from 2011 census, West Bengal ranks fourth among the states from where people migrate for work and employment. Between 2001 and 2011, nearly 5.8 lakh people migrated from the state for work, which is fewer only than Uttar Pradesh (37.3 lakh), Bihar (22.6 lakh) and Rajasthan (6.6 lakh).

The railway data shows that Jharkhand accepted four trains, while five trains are on their way to the state. Two more Shramik Special trains are in the pipeline. Odisha received seven trains and five are on their way to the state with one more in the pipeline, the data shows.

The Railways on Tuesday said that since May 1, when Shramik Special trains started operations, it has run 76 of them, carrying more than 70,000 stranded migrant labourers.

Till May 4, the Railways had run 55 trains. On May 5, it ran 12 trains in the morning and nine in the evening, taking the tally to 76. It said that zonal railways were planning to run 12 more by the end of the day.
Congress can pass legislation and give you $1,200, but Congress can't give you a pork chop. Congress does not have any special ability to make it possible for you to turn money it gives you into a pork chop. Producing a pork chop at a minimum requires a farmer and employees to raise a pig, a truck-driver to transport the pig to a processing plant, owners and workers at a processing plant, then another truck-driver to transport the processed pig to a grocery store and then finally a grocer and employees to sell the resulting pork chop to you. This does not even consider any workers involved in producing any machine, such as a truck, used in the pork chop supply chain. So, again, Congress can give you money, but if the supply chain breaks down at any point, legislators cannot make it so you can turn that money into a pork chop.

The central bank, the Fed for the U.S., can print and put more money into circulation, but the Fed can't give you a smartphone. The FED does not have a magic production wand so that there is a smartphone to turn that money into. Producing a smartphone requires someone or a team to design the smartphone, an owner and employees at a factory to assemble the smartphone, a person or people to transport it to a retail store, and an owner and employees to sell the smartphone to you. Again, this does not consider anyone involved in producing any machine used in the factory producing the smartphone or any vehicle used in transporting the smartphone or any machine used in the store selling you the smartphone. So if the supply chain breaks down at any point, the Fed cannot make it so you can turn the increased money supply into a smart phone.

That the Fed can't produce a smartphone is why, when in reaction to the Wuhan coronavirus, the Fed tried to support the U.S. stock markets, the markets yawned or, worse yet, took the Fed's dramatic moves as signs that things were much worse than the market participants already thought. People in the stock market know that Congress or the Fed can give you money but can't produce a pork chop or a smartphone. This is the reason, despite anything the Fed did, why Apple faced a shortage of replacement iPhones in early March due to the disruption of its supply chain in China.

Similarly, after the Berlin Wall fell, a famous eastern bloc explanation of workers' former life in eastern bloc countries was "they pretended to pay us and we pretended to work." The "they," the government in eastern bloc countries, who owned all the means of production like any government, was able to give workers pay  that is, money. The "we," the workers who were being given money, only pretended to work because neither they nor anyone else in their economy was producing enough of what people wanted to buy. So once again, government can give you money  $1,200, $12,000, $120,000, $1.2 million  but the government cannot make you toilet paper.

The author is a professor of economics in the Department of Economics, Finance and Real Estate at the Mitchell College of Business of the University of South Alabama.
Covid-19 has been hard on many authors, with promotional events cancelled and publication dates delayed. On the bright side: a number of fine books are still coming out in May.

I am an Island (Doubleday) is an inspirational tale about leaving London to live on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides. Tamsin Calidas discovers how to recalibrate and find her compass in a place of beauty and desolation. Although the immediacy of the coronavirus crisis may have postponed worries about global warming, there is melancholy food for thought in Alastair Bonnetts The Age of Islands (Atlantic Books), including his analysis of why the gorgeous Isles of Scilly are in peril from rising sea levels.

Among the novels taking a reader further afield is Paul MM Coopers beguiling All Our Broken Idols (Bloomsbury), which is set in ancient Assyria and modern Iraq. Fran is the protagonist of Helen Fitzgeralds compelling Ash Mountain (Orenda Books), which is about a single mother who returns to her Australian hometown to care for her dying father just as a terrible bush fire erupts. The cover image, taken by Rob Dixon in 2019, is an apocalyptic image of a little girl standing in a doorway gazing at a firestorm. Returning to a childhood home is also at the centre of Lesley Thomsons creepy thriller Death of a Mermaid (Head of Zeus).
By Trend





The videoconferencing of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is an indicator of the authority of Azerbaijan on the international arena, Speaker of Azerbaijans Parliament Sahiba Gafarova said at a meeting of the parliament held on May 5, Trend reports.

The Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement on the We are together against COVID-19 theme was held via videoconference on May 4.

The support of the initiative of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev by the heads of state and government of more than 40 member states, as well as the leaders of affluent international organizations, and their participation in the summit, once again show the high authority of Azerbaijan and its leader in the international arena, said the speaker.
Chennais Koyambedu market for vegetables, fruits and flowers, one of the largest in the country that used to teem with thousands of people every day, has emerged as the latest hotspot for COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu.

IMAGE: The Koyambedu market in Chennai. Photograph: R Senthil Kumar / PTI Photo.

The development has prompted authorities to shift the market -- spread over 295 acres with over 3,000 outlets of which only about 200 of them are presently functional -- to suburban Tirumazhisai from Thursday.

Of the 527 positive cases on Monday, a "large number are linked to the Koyambedu market," a bulletin said while rough estimates provided by officials in the city and in districts pegged at least 450 cases to have a link to the market place.

In Chennai alone, at least 215 of the 266 new cases were linked to the Koyambedu market.

Districts, including Cuddalore, which witnessed the return of workers to their native villages from the market place, have seen a similar surge.

Cuddalore reported as many as 122 new cases on Monday from a cumulative figure of just 39 (till May 3 from March 8 when Tamil Nadu reported its first coronavirus case) and at least 124 of them are related to Koyambedu, officials said.

Previously, returnees from a religious congregation in Delhi had led to a spurt in coronavirus cases in the state.

On why the market has become a hotspot, a public health expert told PTI that the spread happened among traders and it was not strange as they were in direct contact with a host of others like vendors and truck drivers with a history of continuous travel to several regions with high COVID-19 cases like Maharashtra.

Closing down the market or scaling down operations at the initial stage of lockdown as in the case of other segments was not possible as vegetable was a food staple and such a measure may have scared people, he said.

Hence, the available option of imposing regulations, stipulating social distancing, personal hygiene and protection measures like wearing masks were relentlessly enforced by the authorities, he pointed out.

Ever since a vegetable vendor tested positive from the market last week, Greater Chennai Corporation authorities stepped up surveillance and deployed a team of health personnel and a mobile van for testing purposes.

Besides the vendor, another flower dealer and a hairdresser in the market's vicinity had tested positive for the coronavirus during the same period and following such cases, a new high in the number of infections among those linked to the market is now being witnessed.

Also, effective last Thursday, retail trade was disallowed and flower and fruit vendors too scaled down their operations.

Following the restrictions, there has been a drastic drop in footfalls in the market.

Officials said that approximately 4,900 people from the marketplace, including owners of outlets and workers, have so far been tested and complete results were yet to be out.

Considering the trend of a big chunk of them testing positive, there was a chance that several others might also turn positive, they indicated.

Since the market has become a concern for authorities, State Disaster Response Force and Armed Reserve personnel were deployed as part of efforts to regulate movement of traders and help prevent the further spread of the contagion.

After inspecting the market, Commissioner of Revenue Administration and special nodal officer for COVID-19 initiatives, J Radhakrishnan told reporters that focused testing was on at the marketplace under which all the employees were being tested.

In view of targeted testing, the number of positive cases was likely to go up, he said, adding that however the rise in numbers was not a cause for concern as all anti-COVID-19 efforts were being taken by the government.

Pointing out that several people who tested positive were asymptomatic, he said arrangements were on to house such patients in facilities like colleges and the Trade Centre at Nandambakkam, which are designated as Covid care centres, rather than in hospitals.
"It's good to be back at work," said Rayhaan Coovadia as he busied himself around a car tyre fitting service in South Africa's financial capital Johannesburg.

The garage reopened on Saturday after a five-week shutdown meant to halt the spread of coronavirus in Africa's most industrialised economy.

Around 1.5 million South Africans returned to work from May 1 as stay-at-home measures were eased and some businesses allowed to partially resume their operations under "strict health conditions".

In a face mask and overalls, manager Coovadia made sure clients were sprayed with hand sanitiser on arrival and kept a safe distance from staff.

Only half of eight employees were called back last week and the garage has only opened for emergency services.

"It's better now that I'm waking up and doing something," said technician Milton Nkosi, as he checked the alignment of a new set of tyres.

"I'm used to working," he added. "It's the first time in my life to stay home so many days."

South Africa was already in recession before the lockdown. By Luca Sola (AFP)

South Africa was already in recession before the lockdown, and doubts remain as to whether the economy will recover from the pandemic.

"It is picking up but I'm not sure how long it will last," said Nkosi, 40, who is the only breadwinner for a family of five.

"At the moment people are desperate for tyres because we have been closed," he worried. "But in the middle of the month it might start dropping."

Months of uncertainty

Winter clothing, textile and hardware manufacturing were among the industries permitted to reopen factories and shops under the next confinement phase.

Restaurants also opened for takeaway deliveries.

But the new measures have offered only slight relief to businesses trying to recover from five weeks without income.

Unemployment is projected to rise and with it, poverty. By PIETER BAUERMEISTER (AFP)

Paint store owner Carl Brukner admitted he only expected to make between 15 and 20 percent of usual sales revenues this month.

"The problem is that the biggest portion of our market are contractors (who) are currently not operational," Brukner told AFP.

"A lot of people have a long list of to-dos at home but we're still not sure it will take off," he added.

Brukner feared he would not be able to continue paying his 13 employees a full salary. Only four were back in the shop on Monday.

"People have been working with you for 15, 20, 25 years and you have to tell them: listen, we don't know what's going to happen next month," he said.

Treasury director Dondo Mogajane has warned that South Africa's unemployment could rise to 40 percent due to coronavirus, which has infected more than 6,700 and killed at least 131 so far.

"We are still absolutely dead in the water," said tour operator Jean-Paul Gardelli, whose business was brought to a standstill when South Africa banned international travel.

"We are all starting to look for different types of work," he shrugged. "Who knows when it will all come back."

'Every little bit helps'

President Cyril Ramaphosa recently announced an unprecedented 500 billion rand ($26.7 billion) economic stimulus and social relief package to cushion the impact of coronavirus, including 100 billion rand ($5.3 billion) for job protection.

But resources are limited.

"It's quite clear the government can't look after everybody," said Gardelli, who did not qualify for financial support. "Our country was in a tight spot already prior to the lockdown."

Many wonder if it's worth the effort. By Phill Magakoe (AFP)

Meanwhile, only a handful of restaurants took on the opportunity to offer takeaway meals.

Popular South African chain Nando's said the option was too limited to justify a reopening for the time being.

"Delivery only will lose Nando's and our franchise partners more money than being closed," Mike Cathie, CEO of Nando's South Africa, said in a statement last week.

At the usually buzzing Xai-Xai Lounge in northern Johannesburg, a pizza chef sprinkled toppings over two circles of dough as a delivery man waited outside.

Manager Anel Coetzee said it had been the first order in almost two hours, and did not expect many more.

"I just think that people don't have money," she told AFP, adding that the restaurant had sold less than a dozen pizzas in the past two days.

Coetzee explained Xai-Xai would not make enough money to justify opening for "big deliveries".

She said it was mainly an opportunity to pay employees some extra income, with two different chefs rotating every fortnight.

"We only do it for the staff," Coetzee said, as she watched the delivery vehicle drive past other shuttered bars and pubs.

"Not to pay rent or anything... but because these people here have children, some are single mothers, so every little bit helps."
Last spring, before Joe Biden was officially even running for president, Lucy Flores accused him of making her feel uncomfortable in a peculiar way. In 2014, she ran for lieutenant governor of Nevada, and Biden had agreed to stump with her. Flores says they were getting ready to step out onstage together, and then Biden leaned in to sniff her head and plant a slow kiss. As Lucy told this story publicly, over and over again, hate mail started pouring in. And Biden said he didnt believe hed ever acted inappropriately. But after Flores spoke out, more women came forward with their own accusations against Biden. One of them is Tara Reade, who says he assaulted her when she worked in his Senate office back in the 1990s. Flores told me that after she went public with her allegation, Reade reached out to her. They didnt talk further at the time, but they got back in touch when the new allegations emerged.

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On Tuesdays episode of What Next, I spoke with Flores about her own experience and whether she believes Reade. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Mary Harris: Im wondering what your conversations with Reade have been like.

Lucy Flores: Ive only spoken to her once since she came out with her full story, and the entire conversation was about moral support and giving her whatever feedback I could in terms of the ways people were going to come for her, and the various things she needed to do to protect herself. I think it was practical advice and letting her know that I was thinking about her and obviously empathize with everything shes going through.

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Whats your No. 1 piece of practical advice?

Reade hasnt changed the fundamental substance of any of the things she said she experienced.  Lucy Flores

My No. 1 piece of advice was that she really needed to take it day by day and focus on herself and her truth and her why.

Her why?

Yes. Like, why did you decide to speak out?

Tell me more about that.

Thats what kept me grounded. When I was experiencing so much harassment after I spoke about my interactions, I had to always focus on Why did I decide to do this? And Reade and I talked about those reasons.

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Im curious: Why did you decide to tell your story? What was your decision process?

The primary reason was Id begun to see photos emerging of him interacting in similar ways with other women. There were written stories and a vignette that was done by Jon Stewart making fun of creepy Uncle Joe.

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I had to constantly be reminded that he was acting this way, that he was making women feel uncomfortable. And everyone was laughing about it. It was not being treated seriously. I knew from personal experience what that felt like. And its wrong.

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Telling your own story was a way of shifting the way others saw what happened to you: not as an incident that was laughably awkward, but one where you were actually harmed. That gives you empathy for Tara Reade, who seems to be seeing what happened in her own life through new eyes.

Her allegations of what happened in Bidens office have become more extreme over time. At first, Reade told reporters Biden made her uncomfortable. She said he ran a finger up her neck during a meeting and asked her to serve cocktails because she had nice legs. But that story evolved into a full-on assault charge.

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I dont consider the evolving stories Reade has told as changing the story.

Why not?

Because all she did was leave out details. She hasnt changed the fundamental substance of any of the things she said she experienced. It has all been parts she omitted. This is what I think: You gain the confidence or the courage to tell a little bit more. And she did try to tell a little bit more shortly thereafter. But media was notand the AP said thisable at the time to corroborate those parts of the stories. And yet, after Katie Halpers podcast, all of these additional journalists have found corroboration. So you have to question some outlets: How much effort did you really put into corroborating these stories if they were so easily corroborated now?

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Joe Biden denies that anything happened between himself and Reade. It sounds like you believe all of her allegations, including the most recent ones.

I do believe Reade. And ultimately, in all of these situations, everyone will have to come to their own conclusions. But there is rarely smoking gun evidence, and I just hope that when folks are assessing this, theyre doing so with an informed viewpoint and not because they have immediately made this knee-jerk reaction because this person doesnt fit the profile of a perfect victim.

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Can we talk a bit about how the media has responded to Reades allegations? I know you were concerned that Reade wouldnt be interviewed by as many outlets as Biden was, that her voice wouldnt be heard on the same footing as his. Do you still have that concern?

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I do have that concern. I know she declined interviews. I can certainly see why she would do that. Shes talked about receiving death threats. Thats a scary place to be in. But at the same time, we end up having a lot of these conversations without her opinion, without her voice, without her ability to react to some of the conclusions people are coming to. Its certainly one thing to have opinions about this. Its another thing to make determinations about her motive or her character or whatever else people try to come up with in order to discredit her. I know that from experience, because thats what happened to me. But again, Im in a very different situation. I come from the political world. I had interacted with media many, many times before. I kind of knew what I needed to do in order to get my voice out there and not allow the narrative to be stolen from me. But at the end of the day I was not successful at that.

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Why do you say that?

Because I think that, even up until now, people still characterize Bidens inappropriate behavior as him just being a hugger or extra-affectionate.

In a video response to the allegations last spring, Biden leaned into this reasoning and said hes just a touchy-feely guy. He promised to be more mindful and respectful of peoples personal space. But on the campaign trail, hes sounded like hes anything but remorseful.

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Hes made jokes about it throughout the entire campaign, laughing and giggling that he had asked for consent to shake someones hand or give them a consensual hug. No one ever said there was anything wrong with that. That is actually appropriate. Thats what people should do. But to joke about it was such a slap in the face. And you dont get the opportunity to continue to talk about it. I think that is what happens to so many women who speak out: They do it at the beginning, they get some media coverage, and then the perpetrator continues to have that microphone, so you just fade.

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Its the person with more power, right? They end up with the final word. I look back at someone like Anita Hill, and in that situation, it almost seems like that dynamic has flipped. Now we hear from her about this issue far more than you hear from Clarence Thomas. It did make me think about who has the power, and how the dynamic can shift over time.

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That is the one thing that gives me some hope: that we women can go on into the future and become leaders and advocates and powerful voices in our fight for equality. But at the same time, you see how much sacrifice needed to be made by those women. You see how long it took. You see everything that they had to go through, that they were subjected to careerwise and in their personal life.

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One of the things that I remind people of is that the responsibility ultimately is on these men and not on us. If Joe Biden loses in November, its nobodys fault but his own.

Are you worried people are going to blame the women who came forward if he loses?

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Absolutely. Were always blamed.

Have you already gotten those emails?

I get them all the time. If Trump wins, its my fault. If Trump wins, its Reades fault. If Trump wins, its the fault of the female journalists who covered the story. Its going to be our fault.

Its not our fault for demanding more for ourselves. That is our right. That is what we should be doing. It is Joe Bidens fault for not addressing this and for not leading when what he is running for is the top leadership position of this country.

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Can we talk about what it would look like for Biden to do the right thing here? Hes never spoken to you since you made your allegation, right?

No, he has not. But I also tell people that that shouldnt surprise anyone. It took him about 30 years to call Anita Hill, and that was only because he was forced to when he was about to announce his campaign. And even then he didnt apologize, according to Anita Hill. So, I dont expect anything from Joe Biden. He has a problem with acknowledging his mistakes. That is the No. 1 thing he needs to do in order to move forward. If he wants to convince more people to vote for him than for Trump, he is going to have to take leadership not only on this subject, but on all kinds of different subjects. But the first step in that is acknowledging that he has done harm.

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Were you disappointed when Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and others came out in support of Joe Biden?

I think everyone is in such a very tough position. It feels like an impossible choice. Biden is the presumed nominee. I dont know what process we can do in order for him to not be the nominee aside from him stepping down, which I dont believe hes ever going to do. The Democratic National Committee has already responded to the New York Times editorial board asking for an actual independent investigationthe committee called that idea absurd. And the chairman, Tom Perez, is on national outlets already defending Biden. I think people could have waited in order to find out more information and be more nuanced about their stances because we are in such a terrible predicament. In many ways, yes, I was disappointed, but at the same time, what do we do?

Who do you plan to vote for in November?

I am very, very begrudgingly voting for Biden. That question was posed to me when I first talked about my interactions with him, and to me, its about harm reduction for women in this country. Its very clear that Donald Trump, when youre comparing the two, is significantly more harmful to women. I do feel compelled to vote against him. But its very clearly not a vote for Biden. I think its a painful situation to be in, and its going to be painful for many survivorswhich, by the way, I dont call myself a survivor. But there are sexual assault survivors who are going through a lot right now because of this. What a terrible, terrible place to be in, to have to vote for a possible assaulter and a probable assaulter.

Listen to the full episode using the player below, or subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.
New Delhi, May 5 : Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in his series of interaction with economic leaders have now spoken to Nobel laureate Abhijeet Banerjee who has suggested that people should be given money directly if the government wish to revive the economy fast. There should be Aadhaar-based PDS or a temporary ration card so that those who are stuck anywhere could get ration for their needs.

Speaking about the migrants in particular, Banerjee said: "One of the ideas that was mooted in the last years of the UPA but also embraced by the current government was the idea that the Aadhaar would be made national and therefore would be used for Public Distribution System and other things. Aadhaar-based claims on PDS would make one eligible wherever they are. That would have been wonderful to have right now." He even said that temporary ration cards should be given to everybody for the next six months that would kind of save a lot of misery. Because then a lot of people would be able to go to the local ration shop, the Nobel laureate said.

Banerjee pointed out what has made things to collapse. "It is the idea that anybody who is really not where they are supposed to be is actually working. And therefore is earning an income. And you don't have to worry about them. And that's what has collapsed." "Real concerns are -- will the economy revive, and in particular, how does one think through the possible time paths of this disease through that process," he said, suggesting targeting the MSME sector would be the right channel.

"It is more about reviving demand. Giving money in the hands of everybody, so that they can buy from stores or they buy consumer goods. So MSME produces a bunch of stuff that people will want. They've not been buying it. If they had money or even if you promise them money, it doesn't have to be that the money is there right now," said Banerjee.

Citing an example, he said that if any body is in the red zone and is assured that whenever lockdown is lifted will have money in their account, say Rs 10,000 in the account and they can spend it. "I think spending is the easiest way to revive the economy. Because then the MSME people get money, they spend it and then it has the usual Keynesian chain reaction." Conversation with Banerjee is the second in the series after Gandhi spoke to former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
CALGARY - Analysts say an Enbridge Inc. plan to use an idled leg of its Mainline pipeline system to store surplus Western Canadian oil will help offset lower volumes on the system as U.S. refineries buy less oil to match lower demand.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 5/5/2020 (623 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Analysts say an Enbridge Inc. plan to use an idled leg of its Mainline pipeline system to store surplus western Canadian oil will help offset volume reductions as refineries take less oil to match lower demand. The Enbridge logo is shown at the company's annual meeting in Calgary, Alta., Wednesday, May 9, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

CALGARY - Analysts say an Enbridge Inc. plan to use an idled leg of its Mainline pipeline system to store surplus Western Canadian oil will help offset lower volumes on the system as U.S. refineries buy less oil to match lower demand.

Enbridge has applied to the Canada Energy Regulator for permission to use a portion of its Line 3 pipeline in Saskatchewan and Manitoba to store about 900,000 barrels of oil starting June 1.

The pipeline is scheduled to be decommissioned next year after it was replaced by a new segment that came into service late last year.

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Enbridge says it could increase its storage capacity to about two million barrels this year on the Mainline system with further optimizations in its storage tank program.

In a report, Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. analysts say the storage tariff Enbridge negotiated equates to about $1.20 per barrel per month, potentially delivering about $17 million to Enbridge over an eight-month period.

Calgary-based Enbridge, which held its annual general meeting by webcast on Tuesday, says testing has been completed to ensure that the section of pipe meets safety protocols to be used as storage.

"Given the impacts of the pandemic and the collapse in crude oil prices, demand for incremental crude petroleum storage throughout North America and even more urgently in Western Canada is high," says Enbridge in a filing to the regulator.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:ENB)
LE MARS, Iowa, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As the weather heats up, Halo Top invites fans of its light ice cream to cool down with new, bigger Halo Top Pops, a convenient and creamy line of frozen treats, now in grocery freezer aisles nationwide. Halo Top Pops are available in three flavors, including Mint Chip and Sea Salt Caramel, and a new flavor exclusive to the Pops lineup: Brownie Batter.

Halo Tops new Pops, now available nationwide in the grocery freezer aisle. Pictured: Sea Salt Caramel, Brownie Batter and Mint Chip

Whether you're on the move or in the comfort of home, Halo Top Pops (SRP: $5.99 / five 3.5 fl. oz. pops per box) provide a protein-packed ice cream treat made with creamy, ultra-filtered skim milk in an easy-to-enjoy form  no spoon necessary! With only 100 to 110 calories per pop, Halo Top Pops have fewer calories than regular ice cream without skimping on flavor.

"We believe you shouldn't have to choose between pursuing wellness and enjoying a full, balanced life," said Meg Graeff, senior brand manager, Halo Top. "Halo Top Pops allow for flexibility and a moment of sweet satisfaction in our fans' demanding lives."

Each Pops flavor has six grams of protein for a snack you can feel good about eating, anytime, anywhere. The new Halo Top Pops lineup includes:

Brownie Batter: All of the rich, chocolaty flavor of a classic baked good in frozen pop form, with chocolate light ice cream and swirls of real brownie batter. Calories/pop: 110, Protein/pop: 6g

All of the rich, chocolaty flavor of a classic baked good in frozen pop form, with chocolate light ice cream and swirls of real brownie batter. Calories/pop: 110, Protein/pop: 6g Mint Chip: A Halo Top flavor favorite is now available in pop form with smooth and refreshing mint light ice cream and an added crunch from dark chocolate chips. Calories/pop: 110, Protein/pop: 6g

A Halo Top flavor favorite is now available in pop form with smooth and refreshing mint light ice cream and an added crunch from dark chocolate chips. Calories/pop: 110, Protein/pop: 6g Sea Salt Caramel: Get your sweet and savory fix in one dessert! The classic combination of sea salt and caramel can now be enjoyed on the go with a mix of velvety brown butter light ice cream and swirls of caramel that pack a salty punch in pop form. Calories/pop: 100, Protein/pop: 6g

Halo Top's wide-ranging collection of 40 flavors and counting, including dairy, dairy-free and keto flavors in pints and pops, has something for everyone to enjoy. To taste the entire Pops series, head over to the freezer section of grocery retailers nationwide or visit the "Buy Now" tab on www.halotop.com to locate a product near you. To learn more about Halo Top, visit www.halotop.com or Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

About Halo Top

Halo Top was founded in 2011 on delivering premium desserts people can feel good about eating. Named in Nielsen's 2018 Top 25 Breakthrough Innovation Awards for the U.S. market, Halo Top has disrupted the frozen category and influenced the growth of the industry, leading to an acquisition by Wells Enterprises in September 2019. Halo Top is available nationwide in the freezer aisle. For more information, please visit www.halotop.com or follow Halo Top on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

About Wells Enterprises

Wells Enterprises, Inc. is the largest privately held, family-owned ice cream manufacturer in the United States. Founded in 1913 by Fred H. Wells, the company is still proudly owned by the Wells family today.

Wells produces more than 200 million gallons of ice cream per year and distributes products in all 50 states. Wells manufactures its signature brand Blue Bunny, lower-calorie Halo Top, the iconic Bomb Pop, and Blue Ribbon Classics.

Wells employs more than 4,000 ice cream aficionados across the country. The company is headquartered in Iowa and operates two manufacturing plants in Le Mars, Iowa, a manufacturing plant in Dunkirk, New York, a manufacturing plant in Lakewood, New Jersey and a manufacturing facility in Henderson, Nevada. As the world's largest manufacturer of ice cream in one location, Wells has made Le Mars the "Ice Cream Capital of the World."

SOURCE Halo Top

Related Links

http://www.halotop.com


The leader of a drug gang who organised the unloading of 300 kilograms of ice worth up to $75 million that had been smuggled from China hidden in metal gates has been jailed for more than 23 years.

"I'm not a bad guy," Hoang Ngoc Tran told police when they arrested him and two others at a house in Sunshine in March 2017.

The ice was hidden inside metal gates shipped from China.

"God, oh well, that's life."

Over the preceding fortnight, Tran had paid $10,340 to have two shipping containers that arrived from China transported to a Derrimut factory, hired a forklift and arranged for his two flatmates to unload the containers.
Impact of the Covid-19 Outbreak:

All Measures Taken to Protect Employees, Customers and Operations, as Well as to Preserve Enhance Liquidity

Regulatory News:

Europcar Mobility Group (Paris:EUCAR):

DRASTIC COST ACTION PLAN TO MITIGATE THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK PREPARING THE COMPANY TO RESTART THE BUSINESS

Travel Leisure industry massively hit by an unprecedented health crisis

Priority on safety of Group's employees customers

Swift and vigorous cost reduction plan to face the exceptional situation: 850m planned by year-end

Preserve cash and secure liquidity: Planned reduction in capex, non-recurring charges suspension of the dividend in respect of 2019 321m new financing facilities 1 of which 301m guaranteed by the French and Spanish States



The Group has the financial capacity to face the current situation while allowing to progressively resume its activities post COVID-19 crisis.

2020 outlook: cautious view for the rest of the year with a full impact of the crisis in Q2 and Q3 revenue likely to be limited to domestic demand. The 2020 guidance was withdrawn in March. No new guidance issued given limited visibility

Preparing the future to restart the business and leverage its flexible asset-back model

FIRST QUARTER 2020: KEY FINANCIALS2

Revenue: -10.1% on a proforma basis 3 to 557m (+0.7% growth on a reported basis), with 2 distinct periods: A solid start over the first 2 months: +3.6% on a proforma basis A -34.6% drop in March on a proforma basis

to 557m (+0.7% growth on a reported basis), with 2 distinct periods: Corporate EBITDA (IFRS 16) impacted by the severe and sudden health crisis: -64m vs -14m in Q1 2019

Group Net Income of -105m (versus -67m in Q1 2019)

Corporate Operating Cash Flow at -136m

Corporate Net Debt at 1,068m at 31 March 2020

Caroline Parot, CEO of Europcar Mobility Group, declared:

"After a solid start of the year 2020, Europcar Mobility Group was hit by the COVID-19 crisis. Early March, the drop in the number of bookings accelerated rapidly, first in Italy, and then in all our key geographies.

To adapt to this extraordinary situation and mitigate revenue loss, Europcar Mobility Group engaged unprecedented cost reduction measures (850m by year-end), as well as cash preservation and liquidity securing measures, to navigate through the next months of crisis and be in position to progressively resume operations, thanks to our flexible operating model, when local economies start to recover.

As we are preparing for this restart, we consider that the situation remains highly uncertain and that it is premature to share any 2020 earnings outlook. During Q2 and H2, it is likely that we will focus on the domestic customers segment, building on a shift from international to "local" travel, while pushing agility further in terms of cost base."

Europcar Mobility Group invites you to its Q1 2020 Results Conference Call on: Tuesday, May 5th, at 6:00pm CET

Dial-in Access telephone numbers:

France: +33 (0)1 76 77 22 57

Germany: +49 (0)89 2030 35526

UK: +44 (0)330 336 9411

USA: +1 646-828-8143

Confirmation Code: 2683571

Webcast: https://globalmeet.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1296308&tp_key=559bf30aa0

Q1 2020 financial results

Change in perimeter: acquisitions of Fox Rent A Car consolidated in November 2019 and franchisees in Norway and Finland in July 1st, 2019 are included in Q1 2019 for the calculation of the "% change at constant perimeter and currency".

Application of IFRS 16 as from January 1, 2019:

Europcar Mobility Group is using the simplified retrospective method for 2018 financial accounts, according to which there is no restatement of comparative periods

All fleet lease contracts are accounted for in the balance sheet with a "right to use the asset" and a corresponding debt for the lease payment obligation

The impact of IFRS 16 are detailed in Appendix

Management Account presentation:

Q1 2019 and Q1 2020 figures include Urban Mobility Corporate EBITDA performance

Q1 2019 and Q1 2020 accounts are presented under IFRS 16, unless explicitly mentioned

Q1 2020 reported performance

All data in m, except if mentioned Q1 2020 Q1 2019 % Change % Change at constant

perimeter and currency Number of rental days (million) 17.4 17.5 -0.6% -8.6% Average Fleet (thousand) 287.2 264.0 8.8% 0.1% Financial Utilization rate 66.4% 73.5% -7.1pt -7.0pt Total revenues 557 553 0.7% -10.1% Adjusted Corporate EBITDA (IFRS 16) (64) (14) Adjusted Corporate EBITDA Margin -11.5% -2.5% Operating Income (89) (46) Net profit/loss (105) (67) Corporate Free Cash Flow (136) (80) Corporate Net Debt at end of the period 1 068 935

DRASTIC COST REDUCTION PLAN TO MITIGATE THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK PREPARING THE FUTURE TO RESTART THE BUSINESS

Travel Leisure industry massively hit by the unprecedented health crisis

The scale of disruption on the Travel Leisure industry caused by Covid-19 is unprecedented for the sector as almost all global destinations have imposed restrictions on travel, then complete bans to contain the pandemic with lockdowns in most countries.

This led to a fast decline in airline traffic, impacting Leisure business in all perimeters. Corporate activity recorded the same trend with numerous shows that were cancelled since the beginning of March.

After a solid performance over the first 2 months of the year (+3.6% in revenue on a proforma basis), Europcar Mobility Group has been impacted as of late February, in particular its Leisure business that is directly exposed to International tourism, which recorded booking cancellations. In many countries, customers in Leisure stopped travelling before lockdowns were imposed. Corporate business was also impacted but to a lower extent.

CSR

Europcar Mobility Group has been highly engaged for years in promoting social responsibility across the company. In this context of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, the Management Board has implemented a set of measures:

Safety First

In this unprecedented health crisis, the Group has renewed its engagement towards all employees in all countries.

To ensure continuity of the business wherever possible, the Group is operating with all the necessary social distancing and sanitary measures in place. For customers, it includes stringent cleaning of vehicles between each rental with systematic use of disinfection agents while setting up a "zero contact" process between customers and employees.

"Together" program

In response to the covid-19 crisis, the Group has launched in March a program called "Together", to provide mobility support for frontline workers and key goods such as food or medicine, in 21 European countries.

Societal engagement during the crisis

The Management Board has pledged to reduce their base compensation by 25% from April 1 to December 31, 2020 and the Group's top managers (135 people) to reduce their base compensation by 10% to 25% for a minimum of three months. The Supervisory Board has followed unanimously this initiative with a reduction of 25% of their annual remuneration.

In parallel, the Group has raised a Solidarity Fund with local initiatives to support Group's employee facing personal difficulties and is participating to the fundraising initiative launched by the Group's Women Network (WoMob).

Swift and vigorous cost reduction plan to face the exceptional situation

Europcar Mobility Group has launched as early as March a vigorous cost reduction plan to mitigate the impact of the crisis with the objective to reduce both variable and fixed costs for ~850m by year-end. The Group is removing costs on all fronts by cutting drastically operational and HQ expenses as well as the fleet.

Alignment of variable flex cost base:

Fleet: massive cost base adaptation to cope with a lowered demand thanks to Groups' flex buy-back model: The Group has already reduced substantially its average fleet (excluding Fox), a -5% decline in March YoY and c.-20% in April YoY, and plans to reduce it further by over one-third in June compared to the same period of last year. These measures are accompanied with discussions with OEMs to further flex and optimize Group's fleet planning and payment terms

Operating variable costs reduced to current activity: Fixed fees and minimum fees commitment renegotiated with airports and railways Temporary workers and subcontracted activity suspended Commissions paid to brokers, travel agencies renegotiated Minimum e-Commerce on-line related spending



Agile reduction of fixed semi-fixed cost base:

Network overhead and personnel: Implementation of partial unemployment for 80% of the workforce in all countries, in compliance with schemes deployed by local governments. 88% Stations closed or with limited working hours to date Negotiations with station landlords on rents reduction postponement

HQ: down in Q1 2020, further savings planned in Q2 2020 Early benefits of HQ2020 program launched in 2019 Removal of external support, consultancy 75% of partial unemployment in all countries to date Negotiations with headquarters landlords Massive cut on IT projects Drastic reduction of all non-essential expenses and deferral of expenses Real-estate rationalization



Preserve cash and secure liquidity

Preserve cash

Europcar Mobility Group historically holds a low cash position in the first quarter as the first three months of the year correspond to the low season for business. In the current exceptional crisis context, the Group has implemented a large cost reduction plan in order to preserve cash and secure liquidity.

Alongside the 850m cost measures reduction planned by year end, the Group has planned to reduce further its expenses:

Capital expenditure will be reduced up to -60% in 2020 compared to 76m in 2019 depending on the circumstances. Capex will be limited to essential IT projects designed to the Commercial website infrastructure and some specific Group's projects;

Non-recurring items will be reduced by 60-70% for 2020 versus 56m in 2019 to reflect the severity of the crisis and restructuring plans announced at the beginning of the year are put on hold. Adaptation of these measures will be reviewed in due course;

Strict management of non-fleet working capital with a strong focus on collection and implementation of all measures posted by the States to postpone or spread tax or social charges payments;

Cancellation of the dividend initially proposed (13m), as communicated on March 23rd

Secure liquidity

As part of the continuation of its cost-saving and cash preservation plan published on March 23rd, the Group has completed a financing scheme, aiming at securing its liquidity to face the COVID-19 crisis and meeting anticipated fleet and corporate financing needs to swiftly restart operations.

A 220m term loan, signed with the Group's main French and international banks, benefiting from a 90% guarantee from the French State via Bpifrance ("Pret Garanti par l'Etat

This facility will have an initial maturity of 1 year, with an up to 5-year extension option decided by the company (up to May 2026), subject to customary mandatory repayment provisions. Differed amortization for 1 year with a contemplated progressive amortization thereafter. Condition: no dividend payments in 2020 and 2021 and subject to a x3 net corporate leverage thereafter.

New financing facilities for the Group's Spanish subsidiaries (Europcar Spain and Goldcar Spain), totalling 81m 4 , signed over the last 2 weeks with Bankia, BBVA and Bankinter benefiting from a 70% guarantee from the Spanish State. These new facilities will have a 3-year maturity and proceeds are expected to fund both fleet corporate needs.

, signed over the last 2 weeks with Bankia, BBVA and Bankinter benefiting from a 70% guarantee from the Spanish State. These new facilities will have a 3-year maturity and proceeds are expected to fund both fleet corporate needs. A 20m Incremental RCF tranche (to increase the facility from 650m to 670m) provided by French banks which have obtained a guarantee from Eurazeo through a sub-risk participation.

All these new financing facilities, together with its existing financing framework, have been structured with regard to the current pandemic situation to allow the Group to face the severe business impacts resulting from lockdowns and travel restrictions everywhere it operates, while allowing to progressively resume its activities post COVID-19 crisis.

The Group remains in negotiation in other corporate countries on potential State Guarantee loans to reinforce its liquidity.

The Group has the financial capacity to face the current situation while allowing to progressively resume its activities post COVID-19 crisis.

Outlook: cautious view for 2020

As of 6 April, according to the World Tourism Organization (WTO), 96% of all worldwide destinations have introduced travel restrictions and a ban of movement has been imposed to more than half the world population. Against this backdrop, the Group is taking a cautious view based on a full impact of the lock down in April and a very slow heterogeneous re-opening from May 2020. Ongoing travel restrictions will likely impact Leisure Summer business.

Considering the high level of uncertainties, in particular governmental schemes of lockdown exits, timing for borders re-opening, air traffic recovery as well as people movements still constrained and timing for a recovery in the international tourism, the Group has withdrawn its 2020 guidance, as stated in its press release on March, 23rd. No new guidance issued given limited visibility.

Preparing for the restart of the activity

Europcar Mobility Group is preparing to resume operations, with a twofold perspective:

Short-term restart progressively as lockdowns and travel bans are lifted, with a particular focus on domestic business; and acceleration of costs based reduction

Mid-term rethink its priorities, so as to adapt to a "new normal", given the reinforced digital habits, new safety standards and new travel patterns, and relying on its purpose ("Offer attractive

alternative mobility solutions to vehicle ownership, in a responsible and sustainable way"), building on its strengths assets, and focusing on a shortlist of strategic initiatives.

PROFIT LOSS IN THE FIRST QUARTER 2020

First quarter is traditionally the low season for business while fixed costs are liner throughout the year. The decline in earnings in Q1 2020 reflects the sudden and severe revenue drop that occurred in March which fully impacts margin after variable costs.

The following analysis of the Profit Loss is at constant perimeter and exchange rates, with Fox consolidated in the Low Cost BU and franchisees in Finland and Norway in the Cars BU and Vans&Trucks.

1. From revenue to Margin after variable costs in the first quarter 2020

Revenue:

On a reported basis, total revenue were up +0.7% to 557m in the first quarter 2020 and down -10% at constant perimeter and exchange rates (i.e. proforma basis) with rental days down -8.6%. In all, the Group registered a better resilience in domestic markets and Vans Trucks.

All data in m Q1 2020 Q1 2019 % Change % Change at constant

perimeter and currency BU Cars 365.8 409.9 (10.8)% (12.8)% BU Vans Trucks 80.6 78.5 2.6% 0.9% BU Low Cost 87.5 45.2 93.8% (13.2)% BU Urban Mobility 13.1 9.8 33.0% 32.2% BU International Coverage 9.9 9.6 2.5% 2.5% TOTAL REVENUE 556.9 553.1 0.7% (10.1)%

The Group recorded an extremely solid performance over the first two months of the year with a +3.6% revenue growth, reflecting a good momentum on Group's strategic pillars. March was then heavily impacted by travel restrictions and lockdowns imposed in almost all countries as a response to the Coronavirus pandemic: Group's total revenue decline by -34.6% in March.

In March: the BUs (Business Units) Cars and Low Cost were particularly impacted upfront due to their exposure to Leisure and Southern Europe (BU Low Cost exclusively operating through airports), first region to be locked down and the most exposed to the international tourism. Fox recorded a solid start over the first 2 months of 2020 with a +17% increase in revenue that was offset by March and the impact of the COVID, leading to a -41% revenue decrease.

Vans Trucks performed much better as the BU addresses domestic and Corporate businesses, with the latter driven by mid-term contracts for SMEs and demand for home delivery essential services. Urban Mobility, a complement solution to public transportation and micro mobility, was impacted on cities' restrictions. By BUs, rental revenue in March was down -36.5% for Cars, -50% for the Low Cost, -14% for Vans Trucks and -3.9% for Urban Mobility.

Margin after variable costs:

Margin after variable costs amounted to 161m, down -28% in the first quarter 2020, reflecting the direct consequence of the Covid-19 containment measures in March, that led to lower volume demand and utilization rate. While the fleet was correctly sized to address the level of demand Europcar Mobility Group recorded at the beginning of the year, the flexible model of the Group to adjust the fleet inevitably takes few weeks. Defleet was also constrained by logistics as lockdowns prevent from returning physically vehicles to car manufacturers. Hence, fleet holding costs increased by 4.2%. Conversely, fleet operating, rental and revenue related costs variable costs decreased by 3.9% as they are more dependent on revenue and fleet that is actually used.

All data in m Q1 2020 Q1 2019 % Change % Change at constant

perimeter and currency Total revenue 556.9 553.1 0.7% (10.1%) Average fleet size ('000) 287.2 264.0 8.8% 0.1% Rental days volume (in Million) 17.4 17.5 (0.6%) (8.6%) Utilization rate 66.4% 73.5% (7.1)pt (7.0)pt Fleet holding costs, excluding estimated interest included in operating leases (184.6) (159.3) (15.9%) (4.2%) Fleet operating, rental and revenue related costs variables costs (211.6) (197.0) (7.4%) 3.9% Total fleet costs variable costs (396.2) (356.4) (11.2%) 0.3% of w/h airport railway stations lease charge (within IFRS 16 scope) (6.6) (8.6) of w/h reversal airport railway stations lease charge 6.6 8.6 Margin after Variable costs 160.7 196.7 (18.3%) (27.7%) Margin 28.9% 35.6% (6.7)pt (7.0)pt

From Margin after variable costs to Group net income in the first quarter 2020:

All data in m Q1 2020 Q1 2019 % Change % Change at constant

perimeter and currency Margin after variable costs 160.7 196.7 -18.3% -27.7% In of revenue 28.9% 35.6% Network (101.6) (88.7) -14.5% 0.6% HQ Costs (93.2) (93.8) 0.7% 8.3% Fleet financing costs (29.9) (27.9) -7.3% 8.5% Adjusted Corporate EBITDA (IFRS 16) (64.0) (13.7) In of revenue -11.5% -2.5% IFRS 16 impact on premises and parking (20.3) (19.2) IFRS 16 impact on the fleet cost variable costs (6.6) (5.6) Adjusted Corporate EBITDA excl. IFRS-16 (90.9) (38.6) Margin -16.3% -7.0% Depreciation excluding vehicle fleet: (37.1) (36.6) (1.4%) 0.5% of w/h depreciation of airport railway stations (within IFRS 16 scope) (6.3) (7.8) of w/h depreciation of premises and parking (within IFRS 16 scope) (18.4) (18.1) Non-recurring income and expense (7.0) (12.1) 42.0% 42.1% Other financing income and expense not related to the fleet (26.8) (28.8) 6.9% 10.8% of which IFRS 16 linked financial costs (4.1) (4.1) Profit/loss before tax (134.9) (91.2) 47.9% 43.8% Income tax 30.1 24.0 25.3% 26.2% Share of profit/(loss) of associates (0.1) Net profit/(loss) incl. IFRS 16 (104.8) (67.3) (55.8%) 49.7%

The Group reacted swiftly to the crisis by reducing operational costs in all countries, in particular HQ costs. Head office costs declined substantially by -8.3% thanks to the action plan initiated as early as March to adapt the cost structure as well as the first benefits from the HQ 2020 program. Network costs were in line with the planned revenue. The Group started to adapt the Network in every country during March, both on employees and fixed costs while putting on hold initial turnaround plans due to the outbreak. Adjusted Corporate EBITDA came at -64m in Q1 2020 compared to a loss of -14m in Q1 2019.

Non-recurring expenses: the -7m charge in Q1 2020, relates to the optimization plan launched as part of the HQ2020. Given the current context, the Group has put on hold its programs.

Financial results: net financing costs not related to the fleet decreased to -26.8m in Q1 2020 from -28.8m in Q1 2019, thanks to the improvement in the financing costs due to the 2019 Corporate bond refinancing and Fox fleet financing.

Net income: the Group posted a net profit of -105m in Q1 2020 compared to -67m in the same period last year.

CORPORATE FREE CASH FLOW CORPORATE NET DEBT IN THE FIRST QUARTER 2020

1. Corporate Operating Cash Flow before IFRS 16 in the first quarter 2020

Corporate Operating Cash Flow in Q1 2020 came in at -136m versus last year compared with -79m in Q1 2019. This reflects Adjusted Corporate EBITDA of -64m, non-fleet capex for 14m (18m in Q1 2019), a negative 21m coming from 18m higher release of provisions and a well-controlled Working Capital and -26m lease liability cash out under IFRS 16 application on Network, Airport and HQ lease contracts.

2. Corporate Net debt before IFRS 16 at March 31, 2020

Corporate net debt reached 1,068m as at March 31st, 2020 versus 880m at December 31st, 2019. It includes 13m cash interest on corporate HY net debt, 33m of fleet financing timing impact and 10m of transaction costs, non fleet financing and forex costs.

According to IFRS 16, non fleet liabilities related to leases amounted 339m as at March 31st, 2020.

Investor Calendar

AGM 12 June 2020

About Europcar Mobility Group

Europcar Mobility Group is a major player in mobility markets and listed on Euronext Paris.

The mission of Europcar Mobility Group is to be the preferred "Mobility Service Company" by offering alternative attractive solutions to vehicle ownership, with a wide range of mobility-related services: vehicle-rental, chauffeur services, car-sharing, scooter-sharing

Customers' satisfaction is at the heart of the Group's mission and all of its employees and this commitment fuels the continuous development of new services.

Europcar Mobility Group operates through multi brands meeting every customer specific needs; its 4 major brands being: Europcar the European leader in vehicle rental services, Goldcar the most important low-cost car-rental company in Europe, InterRent 'mid-tier' brand focused on leisure and Ubeeqo one of the European leaders in car-sharing (BtoB, BtoC).

Europcar Mobility Group delivers its mobility solutions worldwide through an extensive network in more than 140 countries (including 20 wholly owned subsidiaries in Europe, 2 in Australia and New Zealand, franchises and partners).

Forward-looking statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements based on current beliefs and expectations about future events. Such forward-looking statements may include projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives, intentions and/or expectations with respect to future financial results, events, operations and services and product development, as well as statements, regarding performance or events. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "plans", "projects", "may", "would", "should" or the negative of these terms and similar expressions. Forward looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to inherent risks, uncertainties and assumptions about Europcar Mobility Group and its subsidiaries and investments, trends in their business, future capital expenditures and acquisitions, developments in respect of contingent liabilities, changes in economic conditions globally or in Europcar Mobility Group's principal markets, competitive conditions in the market and regulatory factors. Those events are uncertain; their outcome may differ from current expectations which may in turn materially affect expected results. Actual results may differ materially from those projected or implied in these forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement contained in this press release is made as of the date of this press release. Other than as required by applicable law, Europcar Mobility Group does not undertake to revise or update any forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. The results and the Group's performance may also be affected by various risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, risks identified in the "Risk factors" of the Annual Registration Document registered by the Autorite des marches financiers on March 27, 2019 under the number R. 18-020 and also available on the Group's website: www.europcar-group.com. This press release does not contain or constitute an offer or invitation to purchase any securities in France, the United States or any other jurisdiction.

Further details on our website:

https://investors.europcar-group.com/results-center

www.europcar-mobility-group.com

1 Of which 307m announced on May 3 and an additional 14m new financing facility guaranteed by the Spanish State signed on May 4th 2 After IFRS 16 application, excluding non fleet liabilities related to leases

3 Proforma basis i.e. including acquisitions of Fox consolidated in November 2019 and franchisees in Finland and Norway in July 1, 2019

4 Of w/h 67.25m announced 2 weeks ago an additional 14m new financing facility guaranteed by the Spanish State signed on May 4

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005768/en/

Contacts:

Investor Relations

Caroline Cohen caroline.cohen@europcar.com

Press Relations

Valerie Sauteret valerie.sauteret@europcar.com

Vincent Vevaud vincent.vevaud@europcar.com

Publicis Consultants

Camille Madec camille.madec@publicisconsultants.com
France's early Covid-19 case may hold clues to pandemic's start

(Reuters) A study by French scientists which suggests a man was infected with Covid-19 as early as Dec. 27, nearly a month before France confirmed its first cases, could be important in assessing when and where the new coronavirus emerged, experts said on Tuesday.

French researchers led by Yves Cohen, head of resuscitation at the Avicenne and Jean Verdier hospitals, retested samples from 24 patients treated in December and January who had tested negative for flu before Covid-19 developed into a pandemic.

The results, published in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, showed that one patient - a 42-year-old man born in Algeria, who had lived in France for many years and worked as a fishmonger - was infected with Covid-19 "one month before the first reported cases in our country", they said.

The World Health Organization said the results were "not surprising".

"It's also possible there are more early cases to be found," WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told a U.N. briefing in Geneva. He encouraged other countries to check records for cases in late 2019, saying this would give the world a "new and clearer picture" of the outbreak.

Independent experts said the findings needed more investigation.

"It's not impossible that it was an early introduction, but the evidence isn't conclusive by any means," said Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at Britain's University of Nottingham.

Stephen Griffin, an expert at the University of Leeds' Institute of Medical Research, said it was "a potentially important finding" and added: "We must be cautious when interpreting these findings."

Cohen told French television on Monday it was too early to know if the patient, whose last trip to Algeria had been in August 2019, was France's "patient zero".

But "identifying the first infected patient is of great epidemiological interest as it changes dramatically our knowledge regarding SARS-COV-2 (the new coronavirus) and its spreading in the country," he and his co-researchers wrote in the paper detailing their findings.

They said the absence of a link with China and the lack of recent travel "suggest that the disease was already spreading among the French population at the end of December 2019".
Impatient with stay-at-home order, commissioners again seek local flexibility

Henderson County commissioners on Monday called on Gov. Roy Cooper to give them the authority to implement their own economic reopening plan so that county residents may "pursue life, liberty and the fruits of their labor."

Increasingly impatient with the statewide stay-at-home order that has crippled the local economy, Henderson County commissioners bolstered an appeal they made to Cooper three weeks ago with a freshly drafted resolution declaring that North Carolina's "vast diversity" makes it unlikely that "one approach will be universally effective in meeting the needs of all of our citizens."

The commissioners' action came at the tail end of their regular meeting in which they looked at the trends in the number of covid-19 cases, the prevelance of cases in the community outside congregant care facilities and the mortality rate. The statistics here, commissioners said, satisfy guidelines Cooper has spelled out for reopening. Although Henderson County has a high number of cases and deaths for its size, around 80 percent of the cases  and all the deaths  are associated with long-term care facilities, public health officials say. The county has avoided a huge surge in cases that public health officials and hospital administrators feared would overwhelm patient halls and ICUs and it has flattened the curve of community spread to a manageable number.

"I feel like our community is in better shape than the number (Gov. Cooper) wants us to use to make a decision," Commissioner Bill Lapsley said.

"The problem is anytime we make a move the governor moves the goal," Chairman Grady Hawkins said. "It's hard to win that game if you keep chasing a goal that moves away. The challege we end up with is how to figure out how to work with governor to get our people back to work here in Henderson County."

"We've got seven benchmarks we need to make to move foward," he said. "We've met those requirements, we've looked at trajectories." The county looked at deaths, testing, contact tracing and PPE. "By any measure of evaluation this county's ready to be in phase 2 tomorrow."

But it's unlikely to get the flexibility Hawkins requested in a letter to Cooper.

"The letter I received today indicated that the virus doesn't know any boundaries, which I interpreted we need to have entire state meet these trajectories before the governor lifts the stay-at-home order," he said. "We're continuing to try to work with the governor as far as meeting his criteria, his benchmarks."

In a letter dated May 2, Cooper said the state's response to the pandemic is a three-front battle designed to stop the spread of the disease and save lives, work with hospitals and health care providers to prepare for a surge in cases and repair the economy through unemployment checks and additional federal aid for small businesses.

"The virus does not recognize county or city borders, and we must be as coordinated as possible in our efforts to fight the virus and restart our economy," Cooper said.

In its resolution, the Board of Commissioners said the statewide stay-home order fails to "achieve the balance between protecting public health and preserving the local economy." Given the state's make of 100 counties ranging from "small rural to large urban ... the logical approach is to allow for locally elected, and accountable, decision makers to design and implement plans unique to their communities and evolving situations."

Introduced and read by Commissioner Rebecca McCall, the resolution followed an update McCall and Lapsley gave on a special Post-Covid committee made up of business owners. The committee met three times over the past two weeks and developed guidelines for reopening shops, restaurants and manufacturing plants.

"All that work has been done but it's all on hold, so to speak, pending a decision from the governor" on whether the stay-at-home order is lifted or ease, Lapsley said.

Hawkins said he would add a cover letter telling Cooper "one program doesn't really fit all the counties" and that "our county is ready to move out of the stay-at-home executive order." Hawkins also recommended that commissioners lift the emergency orders it had made since the coronavirus threat began but decided to delay action until Cooper announces the next steps this week.

McCall pointed out that support for reopening soon is not universal.

"We have received a lot of emails from people who have asked that we not open back up" because they're concerned about the spread of the virus, she said. "I would like to remind them that even if we do open the businesses you don't have to go. If you don't feel safe you can still remain in your own house. Just because a business is open doesn't mean you have to go to it."

Chart shows that the county's two hospitals have had few covid-19 hospitalizations.A slide presentation provided information on the coronavirus and whether the county is meeting trajectories Cooper has said are needed before the stay-at-home order can be lifted. The slides showed that:

Emergency room visits have fallen in Henderson County at both Pardee and AdventHealth. Visits hovered around 1,000 a week and have dropped to 400-600 a week.

New cases are flattening in recent weeks, particularly outside longterm assisted living facilities.

The two hospitals admitted eight people with covid-19 since April 18. "What I think this chart really shows is that we're nowhere near overmatching our hospital's capability," Hawkins said.

The county has four contact tracers and plans to go up to eight, with a surge number of up to 35 tracers. Under goals Cooper has spelled out, the county would test 80 people per day.

EMS, Pardee and Advent all have a 30-day supply of personal protective equipment. Has any EMS employee tested positive for covid? "To my knowledge we don't have anybody out," Wyatt said. "We would know that I think."

Covid 19 live update

County administrators, public health and emergency management officials also answered questions the public submitted during a livestream covid response update. Here are questions and answers:

How many people have recovered from covid-19?

Public Health Director Steve Smith said the 33 people in the general population have been diagnosed with the virus and 18 have recovered.

Why is there such a lack of testing available?

The number is getting larger as the county acquires more tests. So far the county has tested 1,780 people.

How long do results take?

The county is now using 25 providers and more than 12 labs, with a turnaround of 1-2 days.

What about antibody testing?

"Again the portal will be your health care provider" if you want that test, Smith said. Broad availability of antibody testing will likely follow diagnostic testing.

Has the county tested all patients, residents and staff in assisted living centers?

"We started asking for more tests and casting a larger net and we have found a significant portion of asymptomatic people that have tested positive," Smith said. He didn't say that all had been tested.

Of the cases associated with long-term care facilities, what percentage are staff?

"We have that by facility. We would just have to run that and get that for you and that's something we can do," County Manager Steve Wyatt said.

Are short-term rentals allowed through VRBO?

Yes, except no hotel, Airbnb or vacation rental by owner can rent to people from virus "hot spots" commissioners identified in an emergency order.
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Citigroup on Tuesday lowered its forecast for iron ore prices which it expects to hit $70 in May due to softening steel demand that will weigh on prices, it said in a research report.

Citi said it sees a surplus of more than 80 million tonnes of iron ore in the second half following a 17 million tonne deficit in the first half, "suggesting ample downside to the current $80/t spot price."

With the iron ore market shifting into surplus, Citi said that it expects its 0-3 month $70/t spot price target to be reached "in weeks".

The forecast sell-off has been slower than expected owing to stronger-than-expected Chinese construction activity and lower-than-expected Brazilian supply so far this year, analysts wrote.

Citi added that disruptions including from Brazil's Vale due to last year's tailings dam disaster "remain too low to match demand shocks from blast furnace closures around the world, especially during 2H20."

Citi's research has assumed that Vale produces 315 million tonnes of iron ore this year and sees 20 million tonnes of other disruptions for 2020.

China's steel demand is expected to contract by 1.5% in 2020, implying flat steel demand for the rest of the year, after apparent demand fell 7% in the first quarter on the year.

In China, weakness in manufacturing-related steel demand, particularly for exports, is expected to be offset by growth in the construction and machinery sectors for the rest of the year.

Citi said it has also found 106 million tonnes of annual blast furnace capacity closures outside of China in the past two months, with the risk of more to come.

That includes 65 million tonnes of capacity from Europe and Japan, which Citi said it expects to crimp demand for seaborne iron ore in the second and third quarters.

"We now expect ex-Asia steel demand to fall 30% y/y in 2Q20 and 25% y/y in 3Q20 before rising 4% y/y in 4Q20, as the weakness in end-use demand, particularly demand for the automobile sector, is expected to persist into 3Q20 despite the planned restart of factories over the coming weeks," the note said.

(Reporting by Melanie Burton, editing by Louise Heavens)
In March, the Nebraska Legislature passed emergency funding for the coronavirus outbreak in the amount of $83.6 million, and so far has spent less than a third of it: $24.7 million.

The money was to go to the Department of Health and Human Services and the University of Nebraska Medical Center for such things as medical and laboratory equipment, personal protective equipment, UV light boxes, staffing and testing.

The plan is to replace that money taken from the state's rainy day fund with the federal coronavirus relief bill, a $2.2 trillion package, divvied up among states, to help businesses, workers and a health care system staggered by the pandemic. That will be done to the extent that the federal bill allows, Gov. Pete Ricketts said Tuesday.

The state has spent about $25 million on personal protective equipment since the start of the outbreak, Ricketts said. And it has spent $58,685 on ventilators. The state has rented some ventilators, but has had no problem with having enough, he said.

"We've had plenty of capacity, just about every place you go," Ricketts said. "We really haven't had that big of a demand for ventilators, so we haven't spent that much on ventilators."
Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan, which is currently being re-run on Star Plus, is keeping the viewers hooked to the television screens. Although the trio of Ramayan - Ram, Sita, and Laxman, played by Arun Govil, Dipika Chikhalia and Sunil Lahri, have remained popular all along, their fan-following has only multiplied with the younger generations catching up on the show amid the COVID-19 lockdown.

Arun Govil, who recently joined Twitter and is quite active on it, has been sharing some really interesting pictures with his followers for a while now. However, whats really caught the attention of fans is a younger, unrecognizable version of the actor from his Bollywood days. For the unversed, Arun has acted in quite a few movies including the 1983 film Himmatwala starring Jeetendra and Sridevi.

Arun Govil, who has been immortalised in the eyes of the viewers as Lord Ram from Ramayan, shared a rare snap of his with Sridevi from the film in which he played a supporting part. He re-tweeted the picture shared by a fan and wrote, "Himmatwala, i played a deaf and dumb guy. Check out the post below:

"Himmatwala", i played a deaf and dumb guy. https://t.co/w5J49TpiO2  Arun Govil (@arungovil12) May 2, 2020

Earlier, on the micro-blogging site, the veteran actor had expressed his sorrow for not being recognized for his contribution and work as an actor in Ramayan. Post his tweet, fans started trending #AwardForRamayan. Not just for Arun, but fans asked the government to honour all the actors and even the show.

All in all, Doordarshan's decision to re-run Ramayan proved successful as the show broke records to become the most-viewed show in the world with 77 million/7.7 crore views on April 16, 2020. The revered mega-series is now being re-run by Star Plus from May 4, every day at 7.30 pm IST.

ALSO READ: Ramayan Fans Get Emotional after Channel Airs Last Episode; Amul Celebrates Show's Successful Re-Run

ALSO READ: Ramayan's Raavan Aka Arvind Trivedi Becomes Victim Of Death Hoax!
To make affordable ventilators for Covid-19 treatment, Bharat Dynamics Ltd. (BDL), a defence public sector undertaking, has come forward for large scale manufacturing of the ventilators developed by Nocca Robotics, an incubated start-up of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-K) Kanpur.

An MoU to this effect was signed recently between BDL, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kanpurs incubator Foundation for Innovation and Research in Science and Technology (FIRST) and Nocca Robotics Private Limited (NRPL).

Our project for developing an affordable ventilator has been strengthened with Bharat Dynamics Ltd supporting us. Now, we will be able to scale up the production and make this critical device widely available as a Make in India product, said director, IIT Kanpur, Prof Abhay Karandikar.

He said, I am very grateful to Commodore Siddharth Mishra, CMD, BDL for taking this initiative and I would like to invite more such enterprises to join hands with us in our aim to encourage indigenous design and development.

We are truly impressed by what the young engineers from IIT Kanpur have been able to achieve in such a short time and I hope that more such innovative solutions will come from Indian technopreneurs. I am happy that BDL has partnered with IIT Kanpur in manufacturing of these ventilators on a large scale. Together, we will give our best to serve the nation at this critical hour, said Commodore Siddharth Mishra (retd), chairman and managing director of BDL.

In response to the call of the Prime Minister of India, Nocca Robotics designed and developed a high-end yet affordable, indigenous ventilator necessary for providing life support to critically ill COVID-19 patients under the overall supervision of IIT Kanpur team led by Prof Amitabha Bandyopadhyay.

Apart from providing support to the critical patient, the ventilators design also has unique features to safeguard the frontline healthcare workers from exposure to the virus. At the helm of this innovation are three young graduates of IIT Kanpur  Nikhil Kurele, Harshit Rathore and Tushar Agarwal.

The outcome of this synergy is that, within five weeks, NRPL has moved from inception to production of the fully functional prototype that is in conformity of the technical features and specifications released by the ministry of health and family welfare.

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The CARES Act Cares about Robots

As teachers and students are forced to convert their coursework to online platforms during the COVID-19 lockdown, the CARES Act is creating deregulatory loopholes to expand the federal funding of adaptive-learning courseware delivered by online education corporations such as K12 Inc. (which was bankrolled by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos) and Connections Academy (which is owned by the globalist Pearson Education PLC: the worlds largest education company).

According to a press release from the US Department of Education, [t]he new flexibilities, authorized under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, allow schools to repurpose existing K-12 education funds for technology infrastructure and teacher training on distance learning. In particular, [t]he CARES Act  now allows states and school districts to devote more of their federal resources to technology infrastructure to support distance learning for students and for professional development for teachers who are teaching remotely. In brief, the emergency CARES Act authorizes schools to restructure their budgets by diverting funding for brick-and-mortar infrastructure and then reallocating those funds into new technology infrastructure expenses that pay for distance learning software delivered by online edu-companies.

At the same time, schools can procure more federal stimulus money by applying for CARES Act grants that fall under the provisions for financing technology infrastructure geared toward distance learning. Hence, the CARES Act incentivizes schools to increase their eligibility for more federal relief money by applying for grants that pay schools to upgrade their virtual campuses with commercial adaptive learning software, such as Smart Sparrow and Knewton, which have both been financed by the Pearson Corporation. To be sure, these ed-tech provisions in the CARES Act are written to favor online edu-corporations like the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), which deploys adaptive-learning software, such as Dreambox and Clever, the latter of which has been bankrolled by Bilderberger Peter Thiel: Trumps shadow president who has also invested in Knewton.

AI Adaptive Learning Is a Post-Humanism: From Social Distancing to Distance Learning

While these CARES Act incentives funnel money into online ed-tech corporations, the new Proposed Rules for federal Distance Learning and Innovation (85 FR 18638) have been drafted to streamline federal funding for competency-based adaptive learning through subscription-based artificial intelligence that carries out direct instruction without input from a human teacher. In brief, this litany of jargon is a recipe for economically checkmating locked-down schools into competing for federal CARES Act funds to pay for online edu-corporations that substitute human teachers with adaptive-learning courseware modules which automate direct instruction through AI on a monthly subscription basis that can be rolled over indefinitely until the student completes all the course modules necessary to earn competency certificates at his or her own pace.

Competency-Based Education: CBE refers to self-paced curriculums in which the student can learn faster or slower depending on his or her competence. 85 FR 18638 states, CBE programs . . . measure student progress based on their demonstration of specific competencies rather than sitting in a seat or at a computer for a prescribed period of time. Many CBE programs are designed to permit students to learn at their own pace. Self-paced CBE enrollment is being promoted so that students who are struggling to adjust to online learning during COVID lockdown will be able to spend more time completing their classwork without penalty of flunking if they miss coursework due dates.

CBE refers to self-paced curriculums in which the student can learn faster or slower depending on his or her competence. 85 FR 18638 states, CBE programs . . . measure student progress based on their demonstration of specific competencies rather than sitting in a seat or at a computer for a prescribed period of time. Many CBE programs are designed to permit students to learn at their own pace. Self-paced CBE enrollment is being promoted so that students who are struggling to adjust to online learning during COVID lockdown will be able to spend more time completing their classwork without penalty of flunking if they miss coursework due dates. Subscription-Based Learning: To facilitate self-paced CBE, the new federal Distance Learning rules provide legal flexibility to extend course deadlines by converting credit hours on a semester enrollment basis to competency certificates on a monthly subscription basis. 85 FR 18638 proposes more efficient channels for federal financing of students enrolled in competency-based programs on a subscription basis in order to fuel the [e]xpansion of subscription-based programs [which] provides students with the scheduling flexibility they may need, especially while they struggle to reschedule life under virtual house arrest. CBE subscription fees can be paid for as many months as the student needs to complete all the online course modules required to earn his or her competency certificate.

To facilitate self-paced CBE, the new federal Distance Learning rules provide legal flexibility to extend course deadlines by converting credit hours on a semester enrollment basis to competency certificates on a monthly subscription basis. 85 FR 18638 proposes more efficient channels for federal financing of students enrolled in competency-based programs on a subscription basis in order to fuel the [e]xpansion of subscription-based programs [which] provides students with the scheduling flexibility they may need, especially while they struggle to reschedule life under virtual house arrest. CBE subscription fees can be paid for as many months as the student needs to complete all the online course modules required to earn his or her competency certificate. Adaptive-Learning Courseware: The self-pacing of online CBE subscriptions is further personalized by servicing students with 24-hour access to instant automated feedback from adaptive learning software, which is defined by 85 FR 18638 as artificial intelligence that teaches students with feedback from technology-mediated instruction. Adaptive-learning software, such as Desire2Learns Brightspace LeaP, is a digital version of B.F. Skinners teaching machine, which automates operant-conditioning methods of stimulus-response animal training. With 24/7 access to Skinner box methods of programmed instruction through AI automation, students can personalize the self-pacing of their own course progress as they can upload the adaptive-learning software anytime, anyplace, without having to wait for a human instructor to be available. 85 FR 18638 states, [w]ith the introduction of adaptive learning , a student enrolled in distance education is likely to be learning at his or her own pace as ed-tech is increasingly using analytics to identify struggling or accelerated learners in order to refer them to  additional adaptive learning experiences to support their learning needs.

The self-pacing of online CBE subscriptions is further personalized by servicing students with 24-hour access to instant automated feedback from adaptive learning software, which is defined by 85 FR 18638 as artificial intelligence that teaches students with feedback from technology-mediated instruction. Adaptive-learning software, such as Desire2Learns Brightspace LeaP, is a digital version of B.F. Skinners teaching machine, which automates operant-conditioning methods of stimulus-response animal training. With 24/7 access to Skinner box methods of programmed instruction through AI automation, students can personalize the self-pacing of their own course progress as they can upload the adaptive-learning software anytime, anyplace, without having to wait for a human instructor to be available. 85 FR 18638 states, [w]ith the introduction of adaptive learning , a student enrolled in distance education is likely to be learning at his or her own pace as ed-tech is increasingly using analytics to identify struggling or accelerated learners in order to refer them to  additional adaptive learning experiences to support their learning needs. AI Deregulation: If adaptive-learning software is more convenient and efficient than a human teacher, why not outsource the entire profession of human teaching to a digital faculty of artificially intelligent bots? The new Proposed Rules redefine the legal terms and conditions for academic engagement so that it need not be exclusively with a human instructor. The new rules on Innovation also remove barriers to AI ed-tech progress by allowing educational institutions the flexibility to effectively write blank checks for new AI courseware programs without prior regulatory approval from the Department of Ed. As AI teacher-bots, such as IBMs Watson, are programmed to get progressively smarter as they evolve over time through machine learning, 85 FR 18638 greenlights future innovations for Watson and other AI bots to move forward with the development of humanoid artificial general intelligence (AGI) that can completely replace human teachers without undue risk of a negative program finding or other sanction. It should be noted that a Government Relations representative of the IBM Corporation, Edgar McCulloch, sat on the Accreditation and Innovation negotiating committee which helped draft these proposed rules. It should also be noted that IBMs Watson partners with the globalist Pearson Education.

In sum, these emergency COVID deregulations are being touted to purportedly accommodate students during this virtual-online overhaul of the locked-down school system by expanding CBE curriculums so that course deadlines can be rolled over by converting credit enrollment into competency subscriptions. Due to physical classroom capacity and human staffing limitations, brick-and-mortar classes cannot indefinitely roll over student registration on a monthly subscription basis, which means brick-and-mortar schools are being cornered into permanently converting to virtual-online campuses in order to become eligible for more CARES Act money that subsidizes subscription CBE curriculums. At the same time, human instructors who teach online classes cannot provide 24/7 instruction to fully personalize the self-pacing of every students CBE curriculum, which means online schools will be encouraged to hire adaptive-learning AI instead of human beings. In the final equation, online schools will have an unfair advantage to rake in federal CARES Act funds for replacing human teachers with artificial intelligence while brick-and-mortar schools and human instructors are rendered obsolete as they are held hostage by the economic lockdown without the ability to fairly compete for stimulus money from the CARES Act.

The Techno-Fascist History of Project BEST: The Department of Ed in Bed with Ed-Tech Corporations

To set up the institutionalization of Skinnerian adaptive-learning computers, the Association for Educational Computing and Technology (AECT) was awarded an $855,282 federal grant in 1981 to implement Project BEST (Better Education Skills through Technology), which laid out the blueprint for the public-private techno-fascist schooling system that is currently being rammed through by the CARES Act and 85 FR 1863 under the duress of COVID-19 lockdown.

Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt blew the whistle on this corporate-technocratic education initiative in 1982 when she was the Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement for the US Department of Education under the Ronald Reagan Administration. Iserbyt leaked several internal documents from the Department of Ed pertaining to Project BEST, such as an informational brochure that states, Project BEST is a cooperative effort involving both the federal, state, and local government and the private sector in the planning and use of modern information technologies to improve the effectiveness of basic skills, teaching and learning. This document reveals that Project BEST, which was buoyed by President Reagans Task Force on Private Sector Initiatives, spent almost one million dollars of federal tax revenues on public-private political-economic plans to plug students into Skinnerian IT computers that psycho-behaviorally condition learning outcomes to fulfill job quotas for corporate-technocratic workforce planning.

Project BEST was pushed by President Reagans Secretary of Education, Terrel Howard Bell, who was formerly the US Commissioner of Education, which headed up the Office of Education of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) before the Office of Education was assigned its own separate Department under President Jimmy Carter in 1979. At the end of Reagans first term as President, Secretary T. H. Bell passed the technocratic teaching torch to his successor, Education Secretary William Bennet, who later went on to co-found the K12 Inc. Corporation until he had to resign from the online schooling company after public backlash from racist eugenics comments he made on his conservative talk radio show, Bill Bennets Morning in America.

It should be noted that Secretary Bennets speech writer was Peter Thiel, who would become a key financer of adaptive-learning courseware such as Clever and Knewton. According to a Freedom of Information Act report, on July 19, 2017, Thiel met privately at his Residence with the current Secretary of Ed, Betsy DeVos, who was also a key investor in Bennets K12 Inc., although she divested her shares in the online edu-company before taking her cabinet seat under President Trump. It should also be noted that DeVos has spent millions of dollars bankrolling virtual charter schools with the help of her cronies at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), who created the Virtual Public Schools Act: a template bill which lawmakers use to draft boilerplate legislation establishing virtual schools that deliver instruction via the Internet in a virtual or remote setting.

In sum, Billionaire Betsy DeVos and her Bilderberg crony, Peter Thiel, are carrying the torch for former Secretaries Bell and Bennet as DeVos capitalizes on the COVID-19 lockdown to ram through the next phase of Project BEST.
Pictures on social media showing passengers crammed on board an Aer Lingus flight from Belfast City airport to London Heathrow have raised concerns about social distancing on planes during the coronavirus pandemic.

The incident highlights the problem with re-starting aviation, known as Project Lift-off.

These are the key issues.

Why are flights still running at all?

Just as the trains, trams, buses and the Tube in London are kept running for key workers and essential journeys, maintaining a skeleton air service from the UK to continental Europe, the island of Ireland and the rest of the world is seen as vital by airlines, businesses, far-flung families and governments.

There are still many thousands of people on their way back from overseas, and travelling from Britain to their homes. In addition medical, governmental and other key personnel need to be able to move around, and family emergencies sadly mean there is a small but constant demand for air services.

The World Health Organisation says that flight bans do more harm than good, and that they are ineffective in stopping the spread of a virus once local transmission has begun.

What went wrong with the Aer Lingus flight?

Brian Ambrose, the chief executive of George Best Belfast City airport, told Stephen Nolan on BBC Radio Ulster: For the month of April the average load was 20 per cent, growing to 30 per cent.

At such levels there are relatively few problems at either the airport or on board the plane. But the construction industry in London has increased activity sharply since the start of May, and the load on the flight  154 passengers on a 174-seat aircraft, or 89 per cent  was sharply increased, to the surprise of Aer Lingus and the airport.

An airline spokesperson said: Aer Lingus is reviewing its processes and procedures applicable to the operation of this service.

The safety and security of Aer Lingus customers and crew is our top priority and any process changes that are identified as being required will be implemented as a matter of urgency.

What can airports and airlines do to minimise the risk of transmission of coronavirus?

Not much. Passenger aviation and social distancing are fundamentally incompatible.

Airports are constructed to process large numbers of passengers in a relatively small space, with a number of pinch points built in: at check-in, going through the security search area, at the departure gate and boarding the aircraft.

Airlines deliver reasonable fares by cramming in as many people as safely possible into a confined space and leaving them there for at least an hour.

The reality is that, as Project Lift-off gets under way, many people will see photographs and decide, I simply dont want anything to do with flying right now, thank you. At a time when the public is being told not to visit friends and family, and restaurants are closed, they find it incomprehensible that people are mingling with strangers in extremely close proximity.

Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Show all 11 1 /11 Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Ben Gurion International airport, Israel Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Daxing International Airport, Beijing AFP via Getty Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan EPA Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Noi Bai International Airport, Vietnam AFP via Getty Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Haneda Airport, Tokyo Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Changsha Huanghua International Airport, China Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Shanghai Pudong Airport in Shanghai, China EPA Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Daxing International Airport, Beijing AFP via Getty Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Haneda Airport, Tokyo Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Shanghai Pudong Airport in Shanghai, China EPA Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Noi Bai International Airport, Vietnam AFP via Getty

Others will judge that, while flying can never be entirely safe, they are prepared to accept a small amount of risk in return for the benefits provided by air travel: enabling urgent family visits, making essential work trips possible, or, in time, to go on holiday.

More widely, millions of jobs rely on aviation  either directly or through the tourism that flying creates and the business generates.

This debate is at the heart of the blunt reality that re-starting the economy is at odds with limiting the spread of Covid-19.

A balance must be struck on the human cost  between the short-term harm that will inevitably come from greater interaction, and the longer-term damage caused by economic decline.

For people who must travel, what precautions are in place?

Airlines and airports are extremely keen to reassure passengers that flying is low risk. In the absence of a common international standard, different parts of the aviation industry are responding with their own strategies.

Air Canada has just announced the most comprehensive range of measures of any airline. Passengers are not allowed to travel without submitting to a temperature check. They must also wear face coverings while passing through the airport and on board. And no one in economy class will be seated immediately adjacent to another traveller, at least until 30 June.

Do these measures work?

The new programme is designed to reduce the risk of exposure to Covid-19, Air Canada said in a statement. But that is not necessarily supported by international medical expertise. Starting with checks for high temperatures at airports, either on departure or arrival: Temperature screening alone, at exit or entry, is not an effective way to stop international spread.

That is the view of the World Health Organisation (WHO), which explains: Infected individuals may be in incubation period, may not express apparent symptoms early on in the course of the disease, or may dissimulate fever through the use of antipyretics.

Such measures require substantial investments for what may bear little benefits.

Instead, says WHO, collect health declarations at arrival, with travellers contact details, so medical officials can perform contact tracing of incoming travellers.

What about face masks?

Public Health England says: Theres very little evidence of widespread benefit from their use outside of clinical settings.

World Health Organisation warns they can create a false sense of security, leading to potentially less adherence to other preventive measures such as physical distancing and hand hygiene.

And on BBC Breakfast on 5 May, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, said: The evidence around the use of face coverings in amongst the general population is weak.

We constantly keep that under review and if there are changes that we need to make to the guidance then we will make those changes. But for now there is no change to the guidance.

What about keeping the middle seat empty?

Statistically, shrinking the number of passengers on an Airbus A320 from 174 to 116 cuts the risk, simply because it reduces the possible carriers of Covid-19. But in terms of social distancing, it has little effect; typically it will increase the space between passengers from 50cm to 1 metre. One airline chief executive says the way that air circulates on an aircraft means extra space is unlikely to make much difference  and that the high-efficiency filters deployed on planes eliminate the risk from most pathogens.

So why are these measures coming in?

To try to boost confidence. Airlines and airports recognise that there is enormous concern about flying in the time of coronavirus. They believe these steps will reassure anxious passengers, and are pressing for global agreement  in much the same way that internationally agreed standards are applied to aviation security.

What more can be done?

Many practical steps are happening in the background. Deeper cleaning at airports and on planes can certainly reduce risks. Procedures at the security checkpoint  in normal times, the occasion when normal people come into closest contact with complete strangers  are being smartened.

But the biggest steps that travellers, and aviation staff, can take are simple: keep washing their hands assiduously, and if they are feeling remotely symptomatic, dont show up.
One of Victoria's most senior health advisers has deleted the Twitter app from her phone after her tweet comparing Captain Cook's voyage to Australia with the deadly coronavirus pandemic stirred controversy last week.

But an internal review has found Deputy Chief Health Officer Annaliese van Diemen did not undermine public confidence, when, in a post to her personal Twitter account, she wrote: "Sudden arrival of an invader from another land, decimating populations, creating terror. Forces the population to make enormous sacrifices & completely change how they live in order to survive. COVID19 or Cook 1770?"

Deputy Chief Health Officer Annaliese van Diemen. Credit:Justin McManus

Dr van Diemen was on a day off when the tweet was published last Wednesday. The post sparked calls for her resignation from the state opposition.

Liberal MP James Newbury referred the tweet to the public service watchdog, the Victorian Public Service Commission, which responded on Monday.
The Indian rupee surged 10 paise to close at 75.63 (provisional) against the US dollar on Tuesday, amid higher domestic equity markets and gains in some Asian currencies

Mumbai: The Indian rupee surged 10 paise to close at 75.63 (provisional) against the US dollar on Tuesday, amid higher domestic equity markets and gains in some Asian currencies.

Forex traders said the rupee is trading in a narrow range as positive domestic equities supported the local unit, while sustained foreign fund outflows and concerns over coronavirus outbreak weighed on the local unit.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 75.62, and finally settled at 75.63, registering a rise of 10 paise over its previous close.

During the day the domestic unit saw an intra-day high of 75.50 and a low of 75.72 against the US dollar.

On Monday, the rupee had settled at 75.73 against the US dollar.

Domestic bourses were trading on a positive note with the benchmark Sensex trading 85.45 points higher at 31,800.80 and broader Nifty 15.30 points at 9,308.80.

"Other Asian currencies have also started with gains against the US Dollar this Tuesday morning amid risk appetite returned to the market as many countries planned to ease the restrictions on the lockdown enforced due to the COVID-19 pandemic," Reliance securities said in a research note.
When armed gunmen storm the Michigan state legislature, you know many things are very wrong in the US politically, and above all ideologically. With respect to the world at large, it is a sign of a state of confusion of a magnitude unseen in any contemporary crisis before the COVID-19 pandemic. An unprecedented degree of alarm and uncertainty over the future runs through all views on the post-coronavirus world, regardless of how these views may vary over what the world will look like once the dust settles and after the living bury the dead. The Foreign Affairs periodical solicited the views of 12 leading analysts and intellectuals to identify the contours of the world to come. The result reflected not just sharp disagreement between them, which is natural, but also the methodological and analytical difficulties they faced in contending with this problem. This applies as much to those who approach it from a birds eye view over the large global jungle as it does to those who look at it from the perspective of this or that tree behind which people or their societies are cowering.

Some foreign affairs and international relations experts spoke of the end of higher strategies. The US has to think small, they argued. Others countered that the US should do the opposite. So, when one writer held that the US should divvy up spheres of influence with its global rivals, especially Russia and China, another challenged this. The US should not shrink from the international role it was meant to play. The US refused to allow the British Empire to survive after World War II, it fought Soviet domination over Eastern Europe and it did all it could to remain at the helm of the world order because this has been its historical destiny since the Monroe Doctrine that kept other world powers out of the Americas from which hemisphere the US positioned itself to assume the mantle of world leader in the framework of globalisation.

There are countless other examples of intellectual confusion not just over the nature of the post-corona world, but its arrival date. There is considerable uncertainty over when this crisis will pass. Even if we presume the discovery of the antidote that will herald its end, this does not preclude a renewed assault or obviate the fact that there is much scientists still do not know about this novel virus.

Of course, we can grant that the world was already in a mess before COVID-19 reared its head. Angry tides of opinion had already turned against globalisation and the workings of identity politics had long since pushed peoples inward into the confines of national, ethnic and other such affiliations due to the workings of identity politics. This contraction in horizons comes at a time when the fourth technological revolution and its applications are still progressing, which must cause considerable confusion and anxiety, especially given how world government, international organisations and multiparty regional organisations have weakened and lost their stature and, also, how various multiparty and international treaties are being eyed askance and have begun to unravel.

But what does all this mean for us in the Arab world? How are we to handle all the confusion and disruption that are the chief properties of the world today and will remain so in the post-coronavirus world?

On 27 April in The Washington Post, King Abdullah II Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan urged, its time to return to globalisation. But this time lets do it right. By right he means rebuilding a globalisation that strengthens and builds capacities within our countries and ushers in true cooperation rather than competition and that recognises that a single country, acting alone, cannot succeed We need to reconfigure international institutions and build new ones where needed. We need to create and sustain new organisations that draw on the skills and resources of different sectors, across national boundaries.

The new globalisation that the Jordanian monarch advocates should be founded on a true cooperation that was lacking in the old version because in that version cooperation was tainted by factors related to international power balances and disparities between the haves and have-nots of the main military, economic, technological and soft sources of power. Historically, there have been three responses to this imbalance: to strive to complete or nearly complete self-sufficiency, to side with a superpower or superpower alliance, or to build a regional consortium that strengthens the power and negotiating position of its members.

I have often spoken here about the new pan-Arabism that brings together geographically close and ideologically compatible Arab countries that share, among other things, a desire to retain their independence vis-a-vis the great powers, a determination to pursue sweeping economic and social reforms, and the pursuit of moderation and just peace in their regional relations. These countries are Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Arab Gulf countries and Jordan. They have just endured a successful trial against the coronavirus pandemic in which their health, scientific and governmental sectors have demonstrated undeniable valour despite strenuous international circumstances and harsh economic pressures aggravated by plummeting oil prices. These countries have understood that there is no alternative but to reform, diversify sources of wealth and consolidate the foundations of the state in the face of certain transnational ideologies, such as that of the Muslim Brotherhood and its terrorist offshoots, as well as in the face of a mode of globalisation that is controlled by parties that do not play by the rules of fairness. They also know that they cannot deal with the post-corona world on their own, whether that world will bring a better mode of international cooperation, a better equilibrium between China and the US or, as one writer put it, a world that looks at neither Washington or Beijing but rather at Berlin, which managed to cement Europe back together through this crisis, almost making it seem as though Germany had not been defeated in World War II.

Naturally, there remain questions the Arabs need to ask themselves at this juncture. To answer them, the Arabs may have to re-examine previous experiments that did not turn out so well. Perhaps at times there will not be enough time for questions, let alone answers, because we are too preoccupied with dealing with the problems of the present and the current obstacles to development, which make it pointless to speculate about other matters. The strategic and economic dangers we face are many. Some are manageable and part of managing them will require a nearly 200 million strong market, a large and robust middle class, an academic and research and development base, significant influxes of tourism and a burgeoning natural gas and oil sector to help fuel things once things settle down again. Although, if things do not settle down, then the Arab consortium centred on the Red Sea and the Gulf has enough to draw on, at least for the coming phase.

The writer is chairman of the board, CEO and director of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 7 May, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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By PTI

MUMBAI: Actor Anshuman Jha believes he took the right decision to cancel the UK shoot of his film "Lord Curzon Ki Haveli Anshuman Jha" as he had a hunch that the situation may get worse due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Anshuman, best known for featuring in Dibakar Banerjee's "Love Sex Aur Dhoka", will be making his directorial debut with the black comedy-thriller, starring Arjun Mathur, Tannishtha Chatterjee and Rasika Dugal.

The 34-year-old actor said he was through with a technical recce in February and the team was scheduled to fly out to London for shoot on March 16.

"But on the March 7, I realised this is going to become something and pulled the plug on the shoot.

At that time everyone was a little upset and thought I was overreacting but I'm glad I took the decision.

"It got really bad in the UK and we would have got stuck. Everything happens for a reason so I am not worried - the film will happen when it is meant to," Anshuman told PTI.

The UK is one of the worst-hit countries in the world by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The novel virus, which originated in China in December, has claimed over 28,000 lives in the country.

The lockdown in India has put all of his work on hold, the actor added.

"I wrapped the dubbing of my show 'Mastram' from home, they had put a mini set-up mid March, so that kept me occupied. Everything else, new and old, is on hold and rightly so.

"We need to be home and follow the orders of the government and I think it will remain like this for a while," he said.

Anshuman currently stars in MX Player series "Mastram", where he essays the role of Rajaram who took the pen name 'Mastram' to write erotic novels in the 1980s.

The actor said he realised the popularity of the character while preparing for the role.

"I had never read 'Mastram' nor had I seen the film so the research phase allowed me to understand the simple, innocent person and why his literature is such an underbelly cult in India," he said.

"I understand it being hushed in the '80s and '90s but why stay hushed in this millennium when it is all about openness and communication with everything being a click away?" he asked.

For the 10-episode series, the makers got intimacy director Amanda Cutting on board to shoot intimate scenes with sensitivity and Anshuman said the process made the actors feel secure.

"My apprehensions were only with how the intimacy bits will be shot because in India we don't really have specialists doing intimacy.

The producers addressed that by getting the very best intimacy directors from Canada and Los Angeles.

"So I was at peace about the process," he said.
From laptops to apparels, people logged on to e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Paytm Mall and Snapdeal on Monday to place orders for non-essential items

New Delhi: From laptops to apparels, people logged on to e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Paytm Mall and Snapdeal on Monday to place orders for non-essential items but lack of adequate manpower amid the lockdown could delay deliveries, according to industry executives.

E-commerce companies have been permitted to sell all items in orange and green zones starting from Monday, the first day of the third phase of the nationwide lockdown that began on 25 March.

Depending on the number of cases of coronavirus infections, areas have been divided into red, orange and green zones. In the red zones, which include Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad, the companies can ship only essential items like grocery, medicines and healthcare products.

However, shortage of staff at warehouses and for logistics could result in delays in deliveries of items, as per the executives.

An Amazon India spokesperson said the company saw demand for various kinds of smart devices, products related to electrical appliances, clothes and work from home enablers, among others.

"Our consumers in orange/ green zones are buying other priority products that they needed the most. Thousands of sellers have received orders for the first time since the lockdown began in March and we are hopeful that this will help jump start the livelihood of many small sellers and their workforce," the spokesperson said.

The company reiterated its demand that the list of priority products be expanded for customers in the Red Zone as well in order to revive economic activity while serving urgent needs and ensuring citizen safety in a high-risk area.

Under the first and second phase of the nationwide lockdown between 25 March and 3 May, the government only allowed delivery of essential goods, including grocery, pharmaceuticals and healthcare products, through e-commerce platforms.

A Snapdeal spokesperson said the company expects 80-90 percent of its sellers in the orange and green zones to become active over the course of this week. On an average, deliveries are being promised within 6-10 days and actual deliveries are likely to be completed in lesser number of days, the spokesperson added.

"Thousands of our sellers received orders for non-essential products on Day 1... we have started picking up orders from sellers in Salem, Amritsar, Gurugram and Guwahati, amongst many other locations.

"Some of the products supplied by our sellers today include steel utensils, apparel, footwear, notebooks and pens, and electronics like power banks, phone and laptop chargers," the spokesperson said.

Paytm Mall Vice President Srinivas Mothey said consumer electronics, laptops, mobile phones, home, and fashion products are among the few categories that are doing extremely well on its platform.

"... we believe this trend would continue for the next couple of days. As we have noticed earlier people are ordering the most for work and study from home essentials. Depending on the type of product we are offering delivery timelines between two to five days," he added.

However, e-commerce companies are also facing challenges on a few fronts.

An industry executive, who did not wish to be named, said lesser manpower at warehouses and those available as delivery staff could result in delivery timelines getting delayed.

E-commerce companies could look at sharing delivery resources from other digital business like online food delivery to shorten delays, the executive noted.

A senior industry executive said that apart from the guidelines issued by the Centre, there are rules specified by states and even districts.

Given that the classification of red, orange and green zones is in a dynamic state, it could make operations difficult for online commerce platforms, the executive said.

The classification of zone changes depending on the number of coronavirus cases in a particular area.

Also, standalone retail shops -- irrespective of whether they sell essential or non-essential items -- have been allowed to operate in red zones while e-commerce platforms are not allowed to ship non-essential items to such areas. There is no level-playing field between the two modes, the executive quoted above said.

Another challenge for e-commerce companies that follow the marketplace model like Amazon India, Flipkart and Snapdeal is that many of their sellers are either located or have their warehouses in red zones.

The home ministry guidelines, issued a few days ago, remain unclear on operations of these marketplace sellers of non-essential products, who are in red zones. So, they are dependent on how local authorities issue their guidelines, the executive said.
: Pubilc sector Indian Bank on



Tuesday donated Rs one crore to the Government of Tamil Nadu in its fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

The managing director and CEO, Padmaja Chunduru of the city-headquartered bank's handed over the cheque to Chief Secretary K Shanmugam today.

Besides the contribution of employees of Tamil Nadu Grama Bank amounting to Rs 25.38 lakh was also presented by her, a press release said.

On the banking initiatives taken by the lender, Indian Bank said its ATMs were consistently serving customers while digital channels were also functioning 'optimally' to ensure flow of transactions.

The bank had earlier launched COVID emergency loans for micro, small and medium enterprises, corporates, pensioners and salaried employees, poultry and agri-industry to support their businesses.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The first Shramik Express train carrying 1,200 stranded migrant workers left for Daltonganj in Jharkhand from the Jalandhar railway station in Punjab on Tuesday, officials said.

All the passengers, who were stranded in Jalandhar due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown, were screened by the health teams before being allowed to board the train, they said.

The state government will bear the rail travel cost of Rs 7.12 lakh, the officials said.

"The Punjab government led by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today facilitated the free home-going of 1,200 migrants stranded in the city, as first 'Shramik Express' train chugged off to Daltonganj, Jharkhand at a cost of Rs 7. 12 lakh, which was being borne by the state government," said an official release of the Jalandhar district administration.

The railways is running Shramik Special trains to move migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and other persons stranded in various parts of the country since March 25.

On Monday, the Punjab chief minister had said his government would pay the train fare of the migrant labourers.

These migrants, who had enrolled themselves on the portal of the state government, were informed through SMSes and phone calls about the schedule of the train, said the release.

They were brought in batches in special buses to the railway station. Right from medical screening to boarding the train, elaborate arrangements were put in place for maintaining social distancing among the migrants, it said.

The entire station area was sanitised, said a release issued by the Ferozepur division of the railways.

The train left at 1:20 pm and will reach Jharkhand at 9:30 am on Wednesday, the release said.

The railways hopes to run many more such special trains from Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Bathinda as per the request of the Punjab government with the consent of the destination state government, it said.

The Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner said more such trains will be running for Lucknow, Varanasi, Ayodhya, Gorakhpur, Prayagraj (Allahabad), Sultanpur, Katni (Madhya Pradesh), Jharkhand and others.

He said the administration has already made elaborate arrangements to facilitate the movement of migrants from Jalandhar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Ministry of Health of Armenia reports that dual infection cases of the coronavirus have been recorded in the world, as well as in Armenia.

Currently, international scholars are discussing whether the patient has been infected again, or whether there has been deactivation and later activation of the virus.

Today, there is still no final and unequivocal answer to this question since the virus hasnt been detected as deactivated. However, the scientific community believes there might be inactive particles of the virus in tissues, that is, the virus doesnt multiply, but there is RNT in cells, and this is detected after testing.

Nevertheless, there are only three such cases in Armenia for the time being. The patients have neither complaints or symptoms. The virus was detected two weeks after they were discharged from the hospital. They have been isolated so that the potential virus doesnt spread.

Scholars in South Korea had come to the conclusion that such cases are not dual infection cases, but maintenance of particles of the virus in the oral cavity and throat tissues which are detected through a PCR test.

There is still no final and precise answer. So, it is necessary to continue to follow safety rules, the ministrys press release reads.
The Ministry of Transport has turned down a proposal from the Aviation Authority to remove the distancing rule on flights.

The Ministry of Transport has turned down a proposal from the Aviation Authority to remove the distancing rule on flights.







Proposal to lift distancing rule on plane rejected



The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) sent an official document to propose to the Ministry of Transport on May 4 to completely lift the distancing rule during flights so that planes can carry passengers with full capacity from May 5. However, the ministry said that the one metre-distancing rule is important during the check-in procedures, queuing or sitting on planes. Other preventative measures must also be kept.



The CAAV also proposed to the ministry to adjust the implementation time of flight frequencies on domestic routes. According to the proposal, from May 5, there should have been 52 return flights on Hanoi-HCM City route, 20 flights on Hanoi-Danang and 20 flights on HCM City-Danang. Other routes should have the number of flights based on demand.



From June 1, the flight schedules for 2019/2020 winter would allow airlines to operate passenger and cargo flights on domestic routes and cargo flights for international routes.



Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance is gathering opinions for a draft circular about charges and fees in the aviation sector as the ministry is planning on lowering a number of fees including the evaluation fees for certificates, licenses and certificates in civil aviation activities.



The fees for evaluation and granting certificates for designing, manufacturing, maintaining and testing aircraft establishments for the first time will be lowered from VND20m (USD850) to VND16m. The fees for re-issue due to content changing will be lowered from VND15m to VND12m.



The fees for evaluation and granting certificates to establish facilities providing flight operations assurance services will be lowered from VND5-30m (USD212-1,300) to VND4-24m. Fees for establishing services at airports will be lowered by VND10m to VND40m.



The lower fees will be applied until the end of 2020. Dtinews

Passenger numbers must not exceed 80% of aircraft capacity The number of passengers on board each aircraft must not exceed 80% of its capacity to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, according to a notice the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has sent to airlines and airports nationwide.
And thats why a new initiative has been created to harness these insights to design the ultimate Kiwi home.

The House NZ Built, created by Stonewood Homes, aims to tap into the collective genius of communities across the country to create a home fitting of the future the COVID-19 crisis has forced on the world.

"COVID lockdown has provided a unique opportunity for people to assess the space around them and what it means to be secure and connected," says executive director of Stonewood Homes Steven Zhu.

"We are all looking at life differently now. Knowing something like a virus can have such a profound impact on our lives and basically bring it to a halt certainly changes what we need in a home to be comfortable and function not only as a family, but to manage work, life and our health needs."

Steven says the company is inviting families from across both islands to share what they love and hate about their home, what they would change, and ultimately what they need in a home.

"We believe we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to draw on extraordinary consumer insights to design a home that answers the overall needs of Kiwis and what they want in this new reality. We are calling on all New Zealanders to have their say and be involved in this special project."

New Zealanders can take part in The House NZ Built by completing the survey at www.thehousenzbuilt.co.nz.

Following the research, award winning designer Peter Mannion from Synergy Designs will collate the findings to create the home plan.

"This is such a unique project and when I heard about it, I was excited to be involved and help bring the House NZ Built to life," says Peter.

"People have never spent so much time assessing their homes, and I cant wait to see what New Zealanders want."

Deborah Still from Deborah Still Interior Design says the House NZ Built was a wonderful opportunity for people to get creative and rethink how space can be utilised.

"I think this time has helped people realise they need to be more creative and think laterally about space," she says.

"Its about considering out-of-the-box ideas and how rooms can be utilised for multiple purposes, not just doing the same old thing.

"Everybody has basic needs to be fulfilled by their home, so the influence on design really rests with lifestyle. This element will impact what they want and believe their home should be."

Steven says people who contribute to the research will gain exclusive access to the design, no obligation required.

"We want to reward people who share their thoughts with us and what better way than to give them access to the House NZ Built plan. After all, they will have helped design it."

Research will be open from May 4 until May 22, 2020 with the home reveal and 3D virtual render launched before the end of June.

For more information, visit www.thehousenzbuilt.co.nz


Israel threatens to shut down new evangelical GOD TV channel if it proselytizes

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A new evangelical Christian television channel in Israel has been threatened with being shut down if it engages in any type of missionary activity, according to Israeli media reports.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports that the international television network GOD TVs new Hebrew-language channel Shelanu began airing last week on Israels HOT cable network after receiving a seven-year license from the Israeli Communications Ministry.



GOD TV CEO Ward Simpson announced the launch and declared that the network has been given government permission to broadcast the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Israel, something he said has never been done before.

Proselytizing to people younger than 18 without their parents' consent is against the law in Israel, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. And under the terms of the Shelanu license, the network is forbidden from engaging in missionary activities.

The Chairman of the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council, Asher Biton, told the newspaper that he was unaware when the license was granted to Shelanu that the new channel planned to engage in activities that are prohibited under the terms of the license.

Biton told the newspaper that he has ordered an investigation into the channel. Biton was quoted as saying that if it's determined that the license terms have been violated or there is any intention to violate them, Shelanu would be shut down.

According to our regulations, it is fine to broadcast religious programming, Biton was quoted as saying. [B]ut it is forbidden to broadcast content that has the potential to influence viewers in an undue fashion, and most certainly young and impressionable viewers.

Biton said he doesn't want to rush to judgment because shutting down television networks isn't something the council does often.

A HOT spokesperson told the newspaper that Shelanu is one of a number of religious channels that are broadcast in the country.

It received a permit from the council and is broadcasting according to law, the spokesperson declared, adding that full information was provided to the council and the channel is operating in accordance with the permit it received.

According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Communications Minister David Amsalem said he will not allow any missionary channel to operate in Israel, at no time and under no circumstances.

Amsalem also demanded that if an investigation finds the channel to be engaging in missionary activities that it be removed immediately.

The Christian Post reached out to GOD TV for comment on the reports. A response is pending.

According to a statement from GOD TV, Shelanu translates to the word ours in Hebrew. The channel aims to present new and original programming from local congregations on the ground in Israel.

Additionally, international Messianic voices will share powerful real-life testimonies of Israelis who have come to know Yeshua as Messiah, the statement reads. The channel, which wont carry fundraising, is being financed by Christians across the globe who want to empower Messianic congregations.

The GOD TV statement also states that Shelanu wants every person in Israel to know, not a foreign Messiah, but a Jewish one!

His name is Yeshua and He has not forgotten His people, the statement adds.



Shelanu is operated in partnership with Tikkun International, an Israel-based network of Christian ministries.

We want Jewish viewers to grasp the fact that Jesus is theirs, a statement from Tikkun International on the new channel reads. He is not a foreigner, intruder or imposter. He is their Jewish Messiah, born in Israel, raised as a Jew.

According to the news outlets, other Christian channels such as Daystar and Middle East Television also broadcast in Israel but do not flaunt their missionary activities.
Emirates SkyCargo, the freight division of Emirates, continues to play a vital role in facilitating the flow of goods into Bahrain, replenishing supplies and maintaining vital trade links during this critical time.

Starting from the month of May, Emirates SkyCargo has ramped up its operations to offer 10 weekly cargo flights on its Boeing 777-300ER passenger aircraft to Bahrain, providing around 40 tonnes of lower deck cargo capacity per flight.

During the month of April, Emirates SkyCargo increased its flight frequency from three times weekly, to a daily service - operating more than 40 dedicated cargo flights on passenger freighters to the country. The carrier also transported more than 1,300 tonnes of cargo, including essential supplies and electronic equipment.

Emirates SkyCargo has reinvented and adapted its operations and network to make sure it continues to transport vital commodities, support local economies and help businesses in Bahrain by keeping global supply chains up and running.

Since 2019, Emirates SkyCargo has carried 20,600 tonnes of cargo into Bahrain, including perishables such as meat, seafood, fruits, and vegetables, as well as other items including flowers, plants, tobacco, vehicles, construction equipment and electronic products. Items being shipped by the air cargo carrier into Bahrain come from India, UAE, Australia, Hong Kong, USA, Japan, and other markets.

Simultaneously, Emirates SkyCargo exported 2,600 tonnes from Bahrain to several markets including India, UAE, France, Singapore, US, Saudi Arabia (KSA), China, and Australia  carrying vehicles, spare parts, personal belongings, jewellery, and fashion apparel.

Emirates SkyCargo is currently operating scheduled flights on its Boeing 777-F and Boeing 777-300ER aircraft to 67 destinations, across six continents worldwide. The carrier continues to uplift essential supplies on a daily basis across its network, connecting people to the cargo that they need the most. - TradeArabia News Service
WASHINGTON - States across the country are moving swiftly to reopen their economies despite failing to achieve benchmarks laid out by the White House for when social distancing restrictions could be eased to ensure the public's safety during the coronavirus pandemic.

These governors' biggest cheerleader is President Donald Trump.

A slew of states - such as Texas, Indiana, Colorado and Florida - have pushed forward with relaxing social distancing guidelines as the number of people testing positive in many states has increased in recent weeks and testing continues to lag. White House recommendations released last month encouraged states to wait to see a decline in cases over a two-week period as well as having robust testing in place for front-line workers before entering "Phase One" of a gradual comeback.

But Trump and some of his aides have backed away from their own guidelines, opting instead to hail the broad economic reopening that health experts say has started too quickly. The dichotomy comes as the White House also tried to distance itself from a draft federal government report predicting an explosion of new coronavirus cases and 3,000 daily deaths by June 1.

It underscores how an eagerness by Trump and several state governors to begin restarting normal activities after a weeks-long economic slowdown has clashed with a stubbornly high national caseload that has defied the president's predictions of a swift and safe reopening. It also marks another round of confusing guidance during the outbreak from Trump who released the guidelines with fanfare during a briefing and now shows no problem with states that ignore them.

"There's not too many states that I know of that are going up. Almost everybody is headed in the right direction," Trump said during a Fox News town hall on Sunday in which he presented a misleading and rosy assessment of the crisis. "We're on the right side of it, but we want to keep it that way, but we also want to get back to work."

About a third of states continue to see their number of new coronavirus cases increasing, compared to a few who have seen a sustained decline. A plurality of states are hovering around the same level, with neither a significant uptick nor decrease in daily cases. That mirrors the national trend, where the rate of new cases has leveled off in recent weeks but not declined.

Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard University Global Health Institute, said most governors who have decided to open up are clearly not following the letter of the White House guidelines.

"The first part of the criteria is sustained decline. And we don't see that," Jha said.

To date, 1.2 million people have been confirmed as infected by the coronavirus and more than 68,000 have died in the United States. Both figures are widely believed to undercount the actual totals.

The White House continues to support its guidelines but wants local officials to take the lead in deciding how quickly to ease restrictions, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. While individual states' decisions to move more quickly than recommended under the White House guidelines are regularly discussed during coronavirus task force meetings, those decisions are not seen as defiant toward the Trump administration, the official said.

One reason could be that Trump rarely discusses his own guidelines, instead encouraging states to move quickly to reverse the economic calamity that took hold as governors imposed stay-home orders to slow the spread of the virus. Trump has expressed support for protesters pushing their states to end the orders, and tweeted about a need to "LIBERATE" several states - including places that White House guidelines indicate should remain in a state of lockdown.

Politically, governors have come to learn they are more likely to be criticized by Trump for maintaining stay-home orders that comply with White House guidelines than they are for opening up their economies before meeting the Trump administration's own criteria for doing so.

Trump has singled out Virginia for its reluctance to quickly ease social distancing measures, telling Fox News that it was one of the states that "aren't going fast enough."

Even though Virginia continues to see its number of coronavirus cases rising, Northam announced Monday that he would begin easing the state's restrictions on May 15 - including by allowing some gatherings of more than 10 people if social distancing protocols are met.

"As you can see, our cases continue to rise," he said, before adding that the state's percentage of positive tests - another key measure in the White House guidelines - had begun to decline.

Trump's light criticism of Georgia's decision to begin opening up businesses including barbershops and bowling alleys before meeting White House benchmarks was short-lived.

While the president said on April 23 that he was "not happy" with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for the defying the guidelines, it took him a week to deny his own remarks.

"I didn't say that," Trump said Friday when his quote about Kemp, a Republican, was read back to him. "I said I didn't like the particular place - a spa, a tattoo parlor. No, no, I think it's wonderful."

As Trump leads the nation's push for a quick economic reopening, some administration officials have continued to call on states to follow the White House's detailed guidelines.

Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert, has repeatedly warned governors against moving too quickly to lift restrictions, saying he was concerned that states that flout the White House guidelines could spark a resurgence of the virus.

"The guidelines are very, very explicit, and very clear," he said last week on NBC's "Today" show. "There's a lot of leeway because we give the governors the opportunity to be very flexible, but you have to have the core principles of the guidelines. You can't just leap over things and get into a situation where you're really tempting a rebound."

Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, has also called on states and localities to follow the administration's guidelines, but she has stopped short of contradicting Trump's push for governors to move as quickly as possible to return to normal.

"We made it very clear that the guidelines are based on very strong evidence and data," she said Sunday on Fox News. "We've made it clear what the gating criteria is."

Several governors have ignored the criteria.

In Texas, for instance, new cases dipped in mid-April, but have lately been on the rise, with a spike late last week to more than 1,000 daily that has brought the total to more than 32,000. Nonetheless, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, went ahead with a plan to reopen the state's stores, restaurants, movie theaters and malls, limiting them to less than 25% capacity.

Lauren Ancel Meyers, a University of Texas at Austin biologist who has modeled possible trend lines in the state's capital as social distancing requirements are eased, said much will depend on how vigilant people remain with social distancing.

Models of potential transmission in Austin that she has run range from "hardly any additional hospitalizations" to "a catastrophic second wave."

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, let his stay-home order expire last week and replaced it with a less restrictive set of rules that allow restaurants, shops and fitness centers to open in nearly all parts of the state. Hair and nail salons, which were not part of the original reopening, will be allowed to begin service again this week. That's despite the fact that new cases have jumped in recent days, and now total more than 13,000.

Some public officials have been unnerved at the speed with which the reopening has happened, and the apparent disregard for guidelines set by medical experts.

"The state policymakers believe that the economic climate is more important than those guidelines," said Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke. "I don't see any other explanation."

But as states have defied that criteria to begin restarting business activity - from retail stores in Colorado to restaurants in Florida to elective surgeries in Ohio - they have been cheered on by Trump and his allies.

Vice President Mike Pence has hailed the 41 states that have announced or began plans for reopening.

But some of those states have pushed ahead with reopening plans that skip ahead of the White House's recommended phased approach. The recommendations call for certain testing and contract tracing capabilities to be in place before states push forward with returning to normalcy.

A lack of planning on those fronts could leave states vulnerable if there is another outbreak, said Jeffrey Shaman, one of the country's leading epidemiologists at Columbia University.

"We don't have the testing. We don't have the contract tracing. We can't detect a rebound," he said. " It's really problematic place to be. This is not where we want to be."

Ali Khan, dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska, said the governors are clearly reacting to "shelter-in-place fatigue" as they skirt the guidelines. But he said that's a risky bet, given the danger that the virus comes roaring back.

There is widespread uncertainty about what will happen as states race to ease their restrictions on residents and businesses.

A draft government report projects that coronavirus cases will surge to about 200,000 per day by June 1, a jump that would be accompanied by more than 3,000 deaths each day.

The document predicts a sharp increase in cases and deaths beginning about May 14, according to a copy shared with The Washington Post. The forecast stops at June 1, but shows both daily cases and deaths on an upward trajectory at that point.

The White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disavowed the report, though the slides carry the CDC's logo. The creator of the model said the numbers are unfinished projections shown to the CDC as a work in progress.

He said 100,000 cases per day by the end of the month is within the realm of possibility, an indication that cases could spiral out of control at the same time that the White House has shifted focus toward reopening the economy. Much depends on political decisions being made today.

"There are reopening scenarios where it could get out of control very quickly," said Justin Lessler, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who created the model.

The Bloomberg school in a statement called the report a "preliminary" analysis that should not be used as a forecast.

The White House downplayed the figures on Monday, saying they had not yet been vetted.

"This data is not reflective of any of the modeling done by the task force, or data that the task force has analyzed," White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.

White House officials have been relying on other models to make decisions on reopening, including one from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and a "cubic model" prepared by Trump adviser and economist Kevin Hassett and the Council of Economic Advisers.

People with knowledge of the "cubic model" say it shows deaths dropping precipitously in May - and plummeting to zero by May 15, where they stay throughout the summer.

Two people with knowledge of the White House task-force discussions said that they had not seen the draft government report, but that they were both fearful cases could rise with many of the states reopening.

The IHME model is now estimating that the United States will see nearly 135,000 deaths by August 1. That number is significantly higher than its estimate on April 17 - 60,308.

IHME's new higher projections "reflect the effect of premature relaxation of restrictions," said its creator, Christopher Murray. "In this era where those mandates being relaxed, people should be aware of the risk of infection is still there."

- - -

William Wan, Laurie McGinley and Josh Dawsey contributed to this report.
U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley answers reporters' questions during a news conference at the Pentagon the day after it was announced that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a U.S. raid in Syria October 28, 2019 in Arlington, Virginia.

WASHINGTON  The nation's top military officer said Tuesday that Iran's recent military satellite launch, the first for the rogue regime, is a concerning feat.

"Different missiles can do different things, one can carry a satellite and one can carry some sort of device that can explode. So, the bottom line is yes, it is a security concern anytime Iran is testing any type of long-range missile," explained Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Mark Milley.

"They launched a satellite vehicle and I think we publicly stated that it was tumbling, so the satellite itself, not overly concerned about it, but the missile technology, the second and third-order missile technology and the lessons learned from that is a concern," he added.

Iran said last month that it successfully launched the nation's first military satellite, another move in the heightened tit-for-tat fight between Washington and Tehran over the regime's missile programs.

The satellite, dubbed Noor, was sent into orbit using a long-range rocket, according to an April 22 statement by Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

U.S. officials have long feared that Iran's pursuit of developing satellite technology is a cover for ballistic missile activity. Tehran, meanwhile, has denied those assertions and has said that Iran is not working toward a nuclear weapons program.
Egypt's prosecutor-general said on Tuesday that young Egyptian filmmaker Shady Habash died in prison due to alcohol poisoning after he drank a sanitising solution he thought was water.

Habash, 24, died on Friday in Cairos Tora prison complex, after over two years in pre-trial detention over charges including spreading false news and joining a banned organisation. He was arrested in March 2018 after directing a music video satirical of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

Habash informed the prison physician he accidentally drank alcohol in the afternoon on the day before his death, claiming he thought it was water as he complained of stomach cramps, the persecutor-generals office said in a statement.

The physician gave him antiseptic and antispasmodic drugs and sent him back to his cell because his condition was stable, the statement added.

Prison doctors examined Habash several times throughout the day and gave him the necessary drugs. When his health deteriorated at night, a physician decided to transfer him to a hospital outside the prison, the statement said.

As an ambulance was being prepared, Habash did not respond to the doctors attempts to revive him and died before he was sent to hospital.

The prosecutors questioned three inmates. One of them said the deceased told him he had drunk by mistake alcohol used by a detainee as a protective measure against the coronavirus, and that his cell mates then found two 100-millilitre bottles of hand sanitiser of the same type used by the deceased in a trash bin.

Two other cell-mates were questioned, with one giving a similar account and the other claiming Habash told him he mixed liquid sanitiser with a soft drink to get the same effect of hard drinks.

The prosecutors statement said there were no apparent injuries to the body of the deceased.

The prosecutor-general ordered an autopsy to identify the direct cause of death and whether there were any injuries, drugs or alcoholic substances in his body, and to determine if medical procedures taken with him in detention were correct.

Habashs family released a statement on social media on Tuesday rejecting any political use of the young mans death and demanding an explanation for his death.



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Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 21:09:25|Editor: huaxia

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Two women maintain social distance while a runner passes by in Barcelona, Spain, May 2, 2020. (Photo by Joan Gosa/Xinhua)

Europeans are adapting to "new normal" as countries across the continent are gradually easing their lockdown measures.

Restrictions can be removed overnight, but businesses need time to win back customers.







BRUSSELS, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Wearing masks, keeping distance, working and schooling on staggered times, Europeans are restarting their "normal" life -- but in an unfamiliar way after a nearly two-month lockdown to fight the coronavirus.



MIXED FEELING ABOUT EASING



Italy, one of the hardest-hit European countries, finally saw the easing of the eight-week national lockdown after the coronavirus infected over 211,000 people and claimed some 29,000 lives across the country.

However, the first day of easing met with a mix of nervousness and optimism among Italians.

"I feel unsafe on the streets even though there's no reason to," Kate Nichols, a British author and homeschool teacher who has lived in Rome for nearly four years, said in an interview. "Everyone has been sensible, but I still felt vulnerable."

Rita Rivelli, the technical director of a restoration studio in Rome, held a complex feeling towards the easing. "I'm very happy to see my co-workers after two months," Rivelli told Xinhua. "But I'm a little scared as well."

People queue with social distance outside a post office in Brussels, Belgium, May 4, 2020. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

Restrictions can be removed overnight, but businesses need time to win back customers.

Massimiliano Fabrizio, co-owner of Rome's Bar dei Cerchi, noted a big difference between the government's reopening and economy reopening.

"We opened today for takeaway coffee and food, but only a few people have come by," Fabrizio said in an interview. "It's good to be open and to see some of our regular customers. But there aren't many people in the streets and the offices nearby that we depend on are closed. We'll continue and hope for the best, but things won't really be open until everything is open."

A hairdresser wearing a face mask cuts the hair of a client at a hairdressing salon in Lisbon, Portugal, May 4, 2020. (Photo by Pedro Fiuza/Xinhua)

The mixed feeling is tangible across Europe, including the Mediterranean island country Cyprus, which announced zero local coronavirus infections on Monday for the first time since the first case was confirmed on March 9.

Cyprus kick-started its economy on Monday by allowing 25,000 retail shops and the construction sector to resume operation after a six-week coronavirus lockdown.

While some electric and home appliances shops successfully lured long queues of customers with tempting discounts, most of the shops and restaurants catering to tourists remain closed despite the easing.

"Our customers are tourists, from England, Italy, France, Greece and Russia. It will be a long time before we see any of them," a woman said while rearranging shelves of her souvenir shop, which opened just because she preferred to be at work rather than staying at home.

A man wearing a face mask looks at his cellphone at a subway station in Munich, Germany, April 27, 2020. (Photo by Kevin Voigt/Xinhua)

UNFAMILIAR "NORMAL" LIFE

After closing for seven weeks due to the COVID-19, Austrian schools reopened to graduating classes on Monday, with teachers and students trying to adapt to the new routine of wearing masks, washing hands frequently and keeping social distance.

In many schools, to guarantee social distancing, lessons were not held in regular classrooms but in gymnasiums.

Among other things, handrails on the stairs were glued with barrier tape, and strips for distance control were found on the floor. The hygiene rules and instructions for correct movement in the school building were clearly visible at the entrance.

Passengers take the metro in Brussels, Belgium, May 4, 2020. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

Greeks have also started a gradual return to normalcy on Monday, with mask-wearing required in public transport, taxis, elevators, or entering hospitals, pharmacies, and other enclosed spaces.



Portugal, where easing of nearly 50-day lockdown also started on Monday, the government even sent security forces to public transport stations to monitor the mask-wearing of passengers.

One of the first measures announced by Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes after the country began its first phase of deconfinement on Monday is the compulsory mask-wearing on public transport for everyone aged over 12. The government will provide at least one mask free of charge for each citizen.

A surfer walks on Carcavelos Beach near Lisbon, Portugal, May 4, 2020. (Photo by Pedro Fiuza/Xinhua)

In a shift that many Europeans would have never imagined, face mask-wearing is now a phenomenon in the streets of major European cities.

In East Asian countries like China, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam, wearing masks in public has been widely accepted to help limit the spread of the coronavirus.

But in much of Europe, people wearing face masks were often met with strange looks in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

The tide is shifting. As European countries are easing the current stay-at-home order, face masks are set to play an even bigger part in the post-lockdown period. 
Simple life style relaxation with Asian working business woman healthy lifestyle take it easy resting in comfort hotel or home living room having free time with peace of mind and self health balance

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has extended the tax filing deadline for individuals to June 1, 2020. The tax payment date has also been extended to September 1, 2020. There are several deductions or tax breaks that individuals can use to lower their income tax. We take a look at three such tax breaks that can help lower your taxes.

Basic personal amount and age amount

In late 2019, the Government of Canada tabled a motion to propose an amendment to the Income Tax Act. The CRA aims to increase the basic personal amount (BPA) to $15,000 by 2023. The BPA is a non-refundable tax credit that can be claimed by all residents.

According to the CRA, the BPA will provide a full reduction from federal income tax to individuals with taxable income below the BPA. It also provides tax breaks to individuals with taxable income above the BPA.

The CRA increased the maximum BPA to $13,229 from $12,298 for individuals with a net income of $150,473 or less. The BPA enhancement is gradually reduced for people with a net income between $150,473 and $214,368. In case an individual has a net income of over $214,368, the BPA stands at $12,298.

The age amount is a tax break for Canadians over the age of 65. If youre above the age of 65 and your net income is below $37,790, the total claim is $7,494. If the net income is between $37,790 and $87,750, this amount will vary. For Canadians earning more than $87,750, there is no tax break.

CRA deducts RRSP contributions

The Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) is a retirement plan that is tax-deductible. The RRSP contribution limit for 2019 was $26,500; this figure stands at $27,230 for 2020.

Comparatively, the deduction limit for 2019 is the lesser of 18% of an individuals pre-tax income or the contribution limit. For example, the RRSP deduction limit for an individual earning $75,000 is $13,500. Alternatively, for someone with a pre-tax income of $200,000 the deduction limit will be capped at $26,500 even though 18% of net income is $36,000.

Story continues

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Royal Bank of Canada : 7.39%

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Canadian National Railway: 4.98%

In terms of industry exposure, financials account for 32.4% of XIU, followed by Energy, Materials, and Industrials at 15%, 13%, and 10.9%, respectively.

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The XIU is currently trading 17.4% below record highs and is a good bet for investors to create considerable wealth over time.

The post Want to Pay Less Taxes? Listen to 3 CRA Tax Breaks in 2020 appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

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The Motley Fools purpose is to help the world invest, better. Click here now for your free subscription to Take Stock, The Motley Fool Canadas free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Motley Fool Canada 2020
An unmasked protester who was photographed screaming in the face of two police officers at the Michigan Capitol last week has come forward with his side of the story behind the image that's become a symbol of the wild demonstrations.

Brian Cash, 52, was one of the hundreds of protesters - some carrying rifles and many not wearing masks - who descended on the capitol building in Lansing last Thursday to condemn Gov Gretchen Whitmer's coronavirus shutdown orders.

Stunning photos of the chaotic scene made headlines nationwide - including of Cash mid-scream just inches away from state troopers blocking the crowds as they tried to rush the House chamber.

'Yes, that's me,' Cash told the Detroit Free Press when asked to confirm whether he is the man in the photo captured by AFP photographer Jeff Kowalsky.

The 52-year-old flooring installer from New Hudson said he's participated in four protests in Lansing in the weeks since Whitmer issued a strict stay-at-home order he described as 'just ridiculous'.

Asked about what was happening in the famous photo, he insisted: 'I didn't scream in anybody's face.'

Brian Cash, 52, is seen shouting in front of two police officers at the Michigan Capitol during a protest against the state's stay-at-home order on April 30

Cash explained that he wasn't yelling at the visible officers but at another one behind them, who he said he had witnessed assault a woman the day before.

He was referencing an incident on April 29 in which three women were forcibly removed from the House chamber's public gallery.

A video of an officer removing one of the women went viral - prompting Michigan State Police to announce that they were investigating the encounter.

Cash said the photo showed the moment after he spotted the man who he thought was the same officer.

'I was there chanting: 'Let us in,' and I saw that guy and I just, I just kind of lost it a little bit,' Cash recalled.

He said that he was asking the officer 'if he wanted to try to throw me around like he did that girl yesterday'.

Thursday's protest, dubbed the 'American Patriot Rally', drew widespread criticism and allegations of racism as some of the demonstrators were seen carrying Confederate flags and swastikas, along with assault weapons

Thursday's protest, dubbed the 'American Patriot Rally', drew widespread criticism and allegations of racism as some of the demonstrators were seen carrying Confederate flags and swastikas, along with assault weapons.

One of the leading critics was Whitmer, who called the scenes 'disturbing'.

'Some of the outrageousness of what happened at our capitol depicted some of the worst racism and awful parts of our history in this country,' the governor said on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday.

Gov Gretchen Whitmer called Thursday's protest 'disturbing' during a CNN interview on Sunday

'The Confederate Flags, and nooses, the swastikas, the behavior that you have seen in all of the clips is not representative of who we are in Michigan.'

Cash, who said he was not armed at the protest, rejected the racism allegations and blamed the media, which he said 'twists everything'.

He described the protest as 'awesome' and said 'anybody of any color should have the right to do what I did'.

He also said he's happy with the national attention that protest and others in Michigan have garnered.

'I love it,' he said. 'We got the ball rolling.'

With regard to the picture, Cash said he's received hundreds of Facebook messages about it - some of them supportive and others critical.

'I love it. It's great,' he said, adding that people have 'their right to disagree and call me names'.

A protester holds a sign with Whitmer depicted as Adolph Hitler at the American Patriot Rally

Protesters holding assault weapons stand outside the Capitol building during the rally

The Free Press noted that Cash admitted to being high during their interview.

'If I'm awake, I'm high,' the self-proclaimed marijuana activist said. 'But I'm not really high; I'm normal.'

Explaining why he's so firmly against Whitmer's stay-at-home order, Cash said he is 'not at all' concerned about coronavirus - noting that he believes it was intentionally leaked by the Chinese government.

He said he doesn't see 'the point of staying home' because people are still going to places like grocery stores and pharmacies - and that he won't wear a mask 'ever' because he doesn't believe they protect people.

Cash expressed dislike for both Democrats and Republicans, the Free Press reported, and said he had never voted before the 2016 'because f*** the government, you know?'

He voted for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primary and then Donald Trump in the general.
Well at least all the moaning expats will lap this up. Bonus being, we wont be able to hear them. He...(Read More)
Stockholm-based Sinch AB, a global leader in cloud communications for mobile customer engagement, has signed an agreement to acquire SAP Digital Interconnect (SDI), a unit within SAP SE, for a EUR225 million ($246 million) on a cash and debt-free basis.



SDI offers cloud-based communications products and serves more than 1,500 enterprise customers throughout the world. Its customer base includes many of the worlds most valued brands, including top technology companies, banks, payment gateways, retail brands, and mobile operators.



"Sinch and SAP both recognize the power of cloud technology to drive business transformation and deliver a superior customer experience. With SDI now becoming a part of Sinch, we build on our scale, focus and capabilities to truly redefine how businesses engage with their customers, throughout the world, said Oscar Werner, Sinch CEO.



Sinch has forged a strategy to grow the company through both organic and inorganic means. A long-term focus on profitability and cash flow makes Sinch well placed to continue and execute this strategy also in times when overall macroeconomic conditions are unfavourable.



SAP Digital Interconnect is a leader in its area showing profitable growth and reaching 99 percent of the worlds mobile subscribers. Looking at Sinchs innovation and investment strategy in the area of cloud communication platforms, we welcome them as the new owner of SDI. Sinch is perfectly positioned to unleash further growth potential we see in SDI, said Thomas Saueressig, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, responsible for SAP Product Engineering.



SDI consists of three segments. Programmable Communications includes SDIs enterprise-targeted API-based offering for omnichannel customer engagement through SMS, push, email, WhatsApp, WeChat and Viber.



In 2019, SDI processed over 18 billion enterprise messages, an increase of more than 17 percent over 2018. Carrier Messaging includes a range of business-critical services to mobile operators, including products for person-to-person messaging, reporting and analytics. In 2019, SDI processed more than 292 billion carrier messages. Enterprise Solutions spans products for contact centre, including public cloud solutions, and critical event management.  TradeArabia News Service
A view of Nasdaq in Times Square hours ahead of the implementation of 'New York State on PAUSE' executive order as the coronavirus continues to spread across the United States on March 22, 2020 in New York City.

Kingsoft Cloud said it would issue 25,000,000 American depositary shares (ADS) and up to 3,750,000 more if the so-called over-allotment option is exercised. This option gives the underwriting banks the ability to sell more shares than the original amount set.

Chinese internet and software company, Kingsoft , is spinning off its cloud division and listing it in the U.S. despite the uncertainty in the markets. It comes in the face of a global coronavirus pandemic that has sent stocks tumbling, and the recent fraud scandal with China's Luckin Coffee .

Each ADS is expected to be priced between $16 and $18. Kingsoft Cloud said this would raise between $3.4 billion and $3.8 billion, assuming the over-allotment option is not exercised. The company expects to price the initial public offering (IPO) on Thursday with trading to start on Friday on the Nasdaq.

Kingsoft Cloud offers products from storage to computing and networking. Its revenue rose 78.4% year-on-year to reach 3.9 billion yuan ($568.3 million) in 2019 but its net loss increased from 1 billion yuan in 2018 to 1.1 billion yuan in 2019.

The company's IPO comes amid a tough stock market environment due to the coronavirus epidemic which has created uncertainty about the global economy in the future. It will test the appetite of investors for new listings.

It also comes as scrutiny on Chinese listings in the U.S. is on the rise following revelations of fraud at Chinese coffee chain Luckin Coffee, the self-proclaimed rival of Starbucks in China.

On April 2, Luckin Coffee announced an internal investigation found that its chief operating officer fabricated sales by about 2.2 billion yuan ($314 million) in 2019. Shares have tanked over 80% since then and have been halted from trade.

And last month, Chinese video streaming site iQiyi was accused of fraud and inflating its financial numbers by research firm Wolfpack Research.
Illinois Tool Works (ITW) came out with quarterly earnings of $1.77 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.71 per share. This compares to earnings of $1.81 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items.

This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of 3.51%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this equipment manufacturer for the transportation, power, food and construction industries would post earnings of $1.85 per share when it actually produced earnings of $1.88, delivering a surprise of 1.62%.

Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates four times.

Illinois Tool Works, which belongs to the Zacks Manufacturing - General Industrial industry, posted revenues of $3.23 billion for the quarter ended March 2020, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 3.19%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $3.55 billion. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates just once over the last four quarters.

The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call.

Illinois Tool Works shares have lost about 11.9% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's decline of -12%.

What's Next for Illinois Tool Works?

While Illinois Tool Works has outperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock?

There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately.

Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions.

Story continues

Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Illinois Tool Works was mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $1.18 on $2.65 billion in revenues for the coming quarter and $6.06 on $11.95 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year.

Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Manufacturing - General Industrial is currently in the bottom 14% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.



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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Germany Will Contribute 525 Mln for Coronavirus Response - Merkel

Sputnik News

13:26 GMT 04.05.2020(updated 13:52 GMT 04.05.2020)

Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that vaccines against the coronavirus disease that the European Union is planning to develop will be globally available.

Angela Merkel said that Germany will contribute 525 Mln towards a coronavirus response.

"We will contribute 525 million directly to this pledging conference and we will also continue our obligations for global health overall with around 1.3 billion," said Merkel.

Germany has confirmed 679 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, which is the lowest number since 12 March, taking the total to 163,175, according to the Robert Koch Institute's data.

About 132,700 COVID-19 patients have recovered in Germany since the beginning of the outbreak.

The most coronavirus cases have been recorded in Bavaria (42,997), North Rhine-Westphalia (33,560) and Baden-Wurttemberg (32,411). Berlin has 6,010 cases.

The disease, which first broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, has since spread rapidly across the world. According to the latest data published by the World Health Organization, more than 3.3 million people have contracted the disease. The current global death toll is estimated to have exceeded 238,000.

 Sputnik

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London: Vijay Mallya on Monday filed an application seeking leave to appeal in the UK Supreme Court, exactly two weeks after the embattled liquor baron lost his London High Court appeal against an extradition order to India on charges of fraud and money laundering related to unrecovered loans to his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

The 64-year-old businessman had 14 days to file this application to seek permission to move the higher court on the High Court judgment from 20 April, which dismissed his appeal against a Westminster Magistrates' Court extradition order certified by the UK Home Secretary.

"The leave to appeal has been filed. We have until 14 May to respond, said a spokesperson for the UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which represents the Indian authorities in the legal process of the extradition.

The leave to appeal to the Supreme Court is on a point of law of general public importance, which according to experts is a very high threshold that is not often met.

"The High Court effectively ruled that even if the approach of the Chief Magistrate was wrong, her decision was not wrong. It is therefore clear that Mallya now faces a significant hurdle in getting it to the Supreme Court, notes Toby Cadman, co-founder of Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers and an extradition specialist.

As a further step, in principle, Mallya can also apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to prevent his extradition on the basis that he will not receive a fair trial and that he will be detained in conditions that breach Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which the UK is a signatory.

The threshold for an ECHR appeal is also extremely high, with very limited chance of success in Mallya's case because he would also have to demonstrate that his arguments on those grounds before the UK courts have been previously rejected.

Therefore, the dismissal of the High Court appeal last month marked a major turning point for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) case against the businessman, who has been on bail in the UK since his arrest on an extradition warrant in April 2017.

Mallya had expressed his disappointment at the ruling and indicated plans for further legal remedies and also challenged the alleged Rs 9,000 crore figure of the unpaid loans to India's state-owned banks led by State Bank of India (CBI).

I am disappointed with the media narrative which states that I must face trial in India for a fraud of Rs 9,000 crores. Please note that the allegations against me and others are specifically and only related to three tranches of borrowing from IDBI Bank for a total of Rs 900 crores in 2009, he said.
In a veiled but pointed attack on Pakistan, PM Narendra Modi on Monday said at the virtual Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit that while the world is fighting the novel Coronavirus, some people are busy spreading other deadly viruses such as terrorism and fake news.

'Such as terrorism. Such as fake news...'

"Even as the world fights COVID-19, some people are busy spreading some other deadly viruses such as terrorism, fake news, and doctored videos to divide communities and countries," the Prime Minister said, taking a swipe at the neighbouring country without naming it.

Spoke at the NAM Summit, held via video conferencing. https://t.co/yRaIbCtpkq  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 4, 2020

Pakistan has been continuing its attempts at cross-border infiltration of terrorists even as the world is battling the challenge thrown by COVID-19. Its leaders have peddled fake videos in order to create divisions. Security agencies have traced thousands of social media handles based in Pakistan spreading fake news.The Prime Minister's warning also came after 8 Indian security personnel were martyred in an encounter with terrorists in Handwara.

Prime Minister Modi said humanity is facing its most serious crisis in many decades and that NAM can help promote global solidarity as it has often been the world's moral voice. "To retain this role, NAM must remain inclusive," he said.

PM Modi said India has supplied medicines to around 120 countries, including 59 members of NAM, in the wake of COVID-19 despite domestic requirements. He also said that the world will need a new template of globalisation post the COVID-19 phase.

'India has long championed such initiatives'

"COVID-19 has shown us the limitations of the existing international system. In the post-COVID world, we need a new template of globalization, based on fairness, equality, and humanity," he said. "We need international institutions that are more representative of today's world. We need to promote human welfare, and not focus on economic growth alone. India has long championed such initiatives," he remarked.

READ | Rahul Gandhi to discuss economy, Covid with Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee; 'trailer' out

READ | CPI demands ban of liquor sales amid lockdown, calls govt's decision 'anti-public'

The theme of the summit is `We stand together against COVID-19'. Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev is the current chair of the movement. It is the first time PM Modi attended the NAM summit. He did not attend the previous summits since becoming Prime Minister in 2014.

READ | Army Chief warns Pak after Handwara encounter, says 'India will respond appropriately'

READ | Liquor in Delhi to cost 70% more from Tuesday as AAP govt imposes 'Special Corona Fee'

(With agency inputs)
Adel Abdul Mahdis Iraqi caretaker government in Baghdad April 16 has ordered its Finance Ministry in an official document to cut federal budget contributions to the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil, pushing the KRG toward bankruptcy and cutting off the payment of salaries to its civil servants.

Abdul Mahdis government said the step was taken due to the international oil decline that has hit Iraq hard as well as Erbils failure to submit 250,000 barrels of oil per day to Iraqs State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) in return for public funding under Iraqs 2019 budget law. Iraq continuously sent federal budget appropriations to Erbil throughout 2019, although the KRG has not delivered a single barrel of oil to SOMO. The document also calls for there to be a settlement on long-standing financial issues between Baghdad and Erbil that date to 2004. Erbil says Baghdads decision is illegal and a political measure against Kurds.

More than 90% of Iraq's budget depends on oil revenues; these monies are used to pay millions of public sector employees. But the country is facing unprecedented financial, political, and social crises due to the dramatic decline of Brent crude oil to around $27 a barrel, growing coronavirus mortalities, political conflicts on forming a new government, a resurgent Islamic State insurgency and rampant administrative corruption.

KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, in a statement following his meeting with UN special representative to Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said cutting the KRGs share from the Iraqi budget was political pressure against the people of the Kurdistan Region. The president of the Kurdistan region, Nechirvan Barzani, described Baghdad's decision as unconstitutional and unlawful, saying the KRG budget and salaries must not be politicized.

The KRG and the Iraqi federal government reached an agreement in December on the regions oil sales in which the region agreed to provide 250,000 barrels of oil daily to SOMO, with the federal government allocating $900 million to pay KRG employees' salaries.

Baghdad has sent salaries of January, February, and March to Erbil to be distributed among the KRG employees, Ahmed Haji Rashid, an Iraqi lawmaker from the Kurdistan Islamic Group and reporter of the parliamentary finance and economy committee, told Al-Monitor. This is more than 1.3 trillion Iraqi dinars, or more than $1.1 billion.

However, the KRG has yet to pay January salaries to its employees. Some Kurdish lawmakers previously accused the KRG of using the money Baghdad sent for public salaries to instead pay off money the KRG owes to international oil companies working in the region. The financial crises, coupled with a monthlong lockdown due to the coronavirus, have caused unemployment to skyrocket; KRG health personnel also went on strike, even though new COVID-19 cases are being recorded, because they had not been paid.

Baghdads decision is unconstitutional and illegal. The factor behind Abdul Mahdis decision is political and economic; Abdul Mahdi wants to remain in his post, Haji Rashid added.

Iraqi President Barham Salih on April 9 named Mustafa al-Kadhimi as Iraqs prime minister-designate soon after Kurdish officials announced their support for Kadhimi. Kadhimi sent a seven-point government program to the Iraqi parliament April 29 in which he pledged to draft a new budget law for 2020 and help all the Iraqi citizens, including those in the Kurdistan region.

We are ready not only to hand over 250,000 barrels of oil per day to Baghdad, but also to hand over the entire KRG oil product. But in return, Baghdad must commit to sending all the financial shares of the region and the entitlements of the oil companies operating in regions oilfields, Dara Rashid, the KRG planning minister, told a press conference in Erbil on April 26 following KRG officials' return from the first round of negotiations with Baghdad.

Ahmed Haji Rashid said, Iraqs economic conditions are very bad; the country can only pay its civil servants when it sells oil at $31  that is, for the price of Brent oil to rise to $38.

Kurdistan began exporting crude oil independently to world markets through Turkey starting in 2013, bypassing Baghdads consent. Hence, control of oil revenues has become a thorny issue between Erbil and Baghdad, and the KRG has not been getting the full 12.67% of the federal budget it is entitled to on the books.

KRG spokesperson Jotyar Adil told Al-Monitor, No solution outside the constitution would be fair or end the disputes. Were against politicizing peoples livelihoods and they should not be put into any political calculation.

Adil said the drop in oil prices and the coronavirus crisis have caused the KRGs income to decrease by 75% if not more.

He also said the KRG has pushed a conclusive reform plan along with multiple efforts, including negotiations with Baghdad to reach an agreement so that the KRG might provide salaries and other services to its citizens.

A second delegation headed by KRG Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani that sought to resolve the long-standing issues also visited Baghdad.

Our delegation met with the Iraqi governments delegation April 30, in which several suggestions have been discussed on the issues of oil and budget, Talabani spokesperson Samir Hawrami told Al-Monitor via WhatsApp messaging from Baghdad. It has been decided that the meetings will continue; in the near future another meeting will take place in order to reach a joint and comprehensive agreement.

The KRG Cabinet met May 2 and Talabani briefed the council on the outcomes of their discussions with Baghdad.

The KRG is committed to continuing dialogue with Baghdad to defend the Kurdistan Regions constitutional rights. The delegation will return to Baghdad this week for follow-up, read a statement published on the KRG official website. The KRG also decided to use local revenues to pay salaries and through recovering money it is owed by local companies.

The delegation has arrived in Baghdad on May. 5, and started the negotiation straight ahead. The outcome of the negotiation yet to be revealed.

A close source from the KRG negotiations in Baghdad, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Al-Monitor that the meetings ended without any agreement.

Iraqi officials have told Kurdish officials that the KRG should submit all revenues  including the regions international airports as well as border gates  to Baghdad, and then receive a share of the federal budget, the source said. Even if the Iraqi parliament were to approve Kadhimis Cabinet by next week [and officially make him prime minister], the KRG still should submit its entire income to Baghdad if it wants to survive.
They want to seek interviews and documents specific to the dismissal of Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin

Two Republican senators sent a request Thursday to the State Department asking to meet with key State Department employees for an investigation into Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian energy firm that once employed Hunter Biden on its board.

The letter from Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, and Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Finance Committee, shows they want to seek interviews and documents specific to the dismissal of Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.

Shokin, who was dismissed in March 2016 after about a year in office by then-President Petro Poroshenko, claims he was ousted because he wanted to investigate the lucrative role Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, had on Burisma's board from 2014 to 2019.

Johnson and Grassley, who sent their letter after the elder Biden became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, requested interviews with U.S. Ambassador to Slovakia Bridgett Brink and U.S. Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt, who used to be the ambassador to Ukraine. The senators also want to talk to Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent and State Department official Elizabeth Zentos.

Zentos was detailed to the National Security Council and, in January 2016, participated in a meeting with Ukrainian and U.S. officials. In November 2019, Johnson and Grassley sent a letter to the National Archives requesting documents from that meeting.

Kent testified before the House Impeachment Committee in November during the Ukraine-related impeachment investigation against President Trump, saying he clashed with a State Department attorney over how to comply with a congressional subpoenas.

Former Vice President Biden previously expressed that he wanted Prosecutor General Viktor Shakin fired. When did the United States government determine that Shokin should be removed? Johnson and Grassley wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Please explain the justification for that decision and how and when that determination was communicated to the Ukrainian government.

The senators also asked for records, including call transcripts and summaries, related to then-Vice President Biden's phone calls with Poroshenko from March 2015 through April 2016. They asked for all the materials and the interviews no later than May 14.

In February, Ukraine investigators opened an investigation into the elder Biden over claims he urged officials into firing Shokin in 2016.

Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees if Ukraine did not fire its top prosecutor, who was criticized by the West for not doing enough to crack down on corruption. The European Union, the International Monetary Fund, and other allies had the same objective, and Biden was repeating U.S. policy that had been set out by Washingtons ambassador to Kyiv in the preceding months and was briefed by White House staff just ahead of the trip.

Trump, his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and other allies also claim Biden improperly used his position as vice president to pressure Ukraine to fire Shokin to protect his son from an investigation into Burisma. Joe Biden has said there is no "credibility" to the claims of corruption.

Read the full article here.
Demonstrators near the presidential palace in Manila hold up pictures of victims as they mark the 10th anniversary of the massacre of 58 people, including 32 journalists in Maguindanao, southern Philippines, in what has been called the worlds deadliest single attack against media workers, Nov. 23, 2019.

Men on a motorcycle gunned down a radio broadcaster in the Central Philippines on Tuesday night, according to police and press monitors, in the latest killing of a journalist in the country known for being among the worlds most dangerous places for reporters.

Cornelio Pepino, 48, who worked for community radio station dyMD Energy 93.7 FM and was more popularly known as Rex Cornelio, was attacked as he and his wife rode home on a motorbike in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental province.

Pepino was rushed to the Silliman University Medical Center, but proclaimed dead on arrival. Police did not release details about his wifes condition.

Police investigating the incident would not immediately rule out the attack as work related, said Lt. Allen June Germondo, officer in charge of the investigation.

If Cornelios killing is proven to be connected to his profession, he would be the 16th journalist killed since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016 and the 188th since 1986, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said.

The Philippines reputation as being among the most deadly countries for journalists is due in part to a November 2009 incident when 32 journalists and media workers were among 58 people killed, when a political clan massacred members of a rival family contesting the governorship of a southern province. The Ampatuan Massacre as it came to be known is considered the largest, single-day killing of media workers anywhere in the world, according to press and rights groups.

Last October, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists ranked the Philippines fifth on its Global Impunity Index, which gauges the record of countries in prosecuting murderers of journalists.

At least two other journalists in the countrys central region have been slain in recent years.

Edmund Sestoso, the former chairman of the NUJP chapter in Dumaguete City and anchor of the program Tug-anan on dyGB Power 91 was shot on April 30, 2018, and died the next day.



On Nov. 7, 2019, Dindo Generoso of dyEM Bai Radio was shot dead while he was on his way to work. Three suspects, two of them police, have been arrested and charged with murder.

The College Editors Guild of the Philippines, the countrys oldest organization of student publications in the country, noted that Pepinos death came on the same day that the government shut down the countrys leading television and radio network, ABS-CBN Corp., after its license expired and congress did not act for more than three years on an application to renew the networks permit.

While the two incidents were not related, the guild said members should spur the fight for genuine press freedom in the Philippines.

Even under the ongoing crisis of COVID-19 and implementation of the enhanced community quarantine, countless human rights violations and press freedom attacks persist with the culture of impunity running deep in the veins of officials and officers turning blind eyes, guild president Daryl Angelo Baybado said in a news release.
Lawmakers crafted the Paycheck Protection Program to help small businesses weather the stay-at-home orders that forced them to close and destroyed consumer demand, but officials struggled to define what types of businesses were small enough to be eligible. Some large companies took the loans and some small businesses were unable or hesitant to secure them.

Even as Congress was hashing out the details of the economic rescue package, Justice Department officials anticipated that the program would also be a magnet for fraudsters. They had seen criminals prey on rescue aid distributed after the 2008 financial collapse.

Before the ink was even dry and the votes were cast, we were thinking about what kinds of fraud we were likely to see in conjunction with the P.P.P., the economic stabilization fund and, to a lesser degree, the loans to air carriers and national security businesses, Mr. Benczkowski said.

We focused immediately on the P.P.P. because it involved individuals and small businesses, and it seemed obvious to us that we would see people file for businesses that didnt exist, inflate the value of their payrolls or even steal the identities of legitimate businesses in an attempt to get their loans, he said.

The charges revealed Tuesday had all of those elements. They were the result of a tip given to the local police, who shared it with the F.B.I. and the U.S. attorneys office in Rhode Island. But most cases will probably be harder to find.

The department is working with banks, the Small Business Administration, the Treasury Department and others to gather and analyze data from the loan applications for red flags.

Were bringing the same approach to bear that we bring in the health care fraud context and opioid-related prosecutions, Mr. Benczkowski said. You can never prosecute cases based solely on data, but the data can tell you where to look more quickly than if you had to wait for a witness.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5

By Eldar Janashvili - Trend:

The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) held a foreign exchange auction with the participation of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ), during which Azerbaijani banks acquired $62.9 million, Trend reports citing the CBA.

According to CBA, demand from the banks at the auction decreased by 9.1 percent or by $6.3 million compared to the previous auction, amounting to $62.9 million.

Considering the number of days remaining before the next scheduled auction, as well as with the aim of ensuring uninterrupted currency trading by the banks on weekends, the demand of banks at the auction will be fully provided.

The first foreign exchange auction in a long time was held with the participation of SOFAZ on March 10, 2020, during which Azerbaijani banks acquired 323.2 million manat ($190.1 million).

The CBA began to hold foreign exchange auctions through unilateral sale of foreign currency in competitive conditions since mid-January 2017. In March 2020, it was decided to hold extraordinary foreign exchange auctions in connection with the increased demand of the population for foreign currency amid the failed deal OPEC+, which entailed a sharp decline in oil prices.

(1 USD = 1.7 AZN on May 5)

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @eldarjanashvili
New Delhi, May 5 (UNI) The Group of Ministers (GoM) was apprised on Tuesday that the death rate in the country stood at around 3.2 per cent while the recovery rate was more than 25 per cent, a positive effect of the nationwide lockdown in the country along with cluster management and containment strategy.

At the 14th meeting of the GoM held here under the chairmanship of Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, various aspects related to Coronavirus pandemic were discussed. The GoM was told that genome sequencing of strains of the novel Coronavirus isolated from patients in different parts of the country has been initiated.

During the in depth deliberation on containment strategy and management aspects of COVID-19, as well as the measures being taken by the Centre and various states, the GoM was informed that states have been asked to follow and further strengthen their contingency plans to combat COVID-19 on the basis of classification of the districts into red, orange and green districts.

Strengthening capacity of states including devoting adequate resources for creating dedicated COVID-19 hospitals, equipping the medical institutions with adequate number of PPEs, ventilators and other essential equipment were also discussed in detail.

Various recommendations of the Union Government for the containment zone management pertaining to indicators, root causes and action required were already shared with the states/UTs for better and effective management of COVID-19 by the Health and Family Welfare ministry.

The Empowered Group-3 looking after ensuring essential medical equipment such as PPEs, masks, ventilators etc., apprised the GoM regarding the adequacy and availability of PPEs, masks, ventilators, drugs and other essential equipment against the requirement.

GoM was informed that domestic manufacturers have reached the production capacity of nearly 2.5 lakh PPEs per day and about 2 lakhs N95 masks per day which is sufficient to meet the requirement of the country in near future.

In addition, manufacturing of ventilatorsby domestic manufacturers has also been started and orders have been placed. Steps have been taken to maintain the quality norms for PPEs, masks and ventilators. Adequate quantity of oxygen cylinders is also being procured.

GoM highlighted the need for ensuring that stringent measures of quality control were ensured for PPEs, mask, ventilators etc. Random batch sampling for ensuring compliance and adherence to the quality standards laid down were also stressed upon by the GoM.

Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Chairman of Empowered Group-11 informed the GoM that they were monitoring and supervising the strategic issues arriving out of the measures taken so far in containing the pandemic.

He also apprised the GoMthat at different stages during lockdown, decisions on graded liberalisation were taken after consultations with stakeholders, cutting across various ministries and other Empowered Groups.

A presentation was made by Ajay Sawhney, Secretary (MeITY) and Chairman of Empowered Group-9, dealing with technology solutions and data management for combatting COVID-19. Various aspects pertaining to the performance, impact and benefits of Arogya-Setu application which has been downloaded by close to nine crore users as on May 4 were discussed during the meeting.

People have informed about their health status on the application which has helped in tracing those suffering with any symptoms for COVID-19 containment. GoM was also informed that mechanism has also been devised to reach out to the people who have landline or featured phones through Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) in local languages for better results. GoM expressed satisfaction over the work done by the Ministries and the Empowered Groups.

Dr Harsh Vardhan stated that the use of technology was integral for the containment strategy and was helping the states to manage the COVID-19 in a more effective manner.

GoM was also informed that under Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) as on May 4, 29.38 lakh MT has been distributed to 58.77 crore beneficiaries by 36 states/UTs as first month (April) entitlement and 5.82 lakh MT has been distributed to 11.63 crore beneficiaries by 20 states/UTs as second month (May) entitlement so far. In total, 66.08 lakh MT food grain has been lifted by 36 states/UTs from Food Corporation of India so far.

An amount of Rs 6,868.74 crore has been transferred to Ujjawala (PMUY) beneficiaries, 4.98 crore PMUY cylinders have been booked and Rs 4.72 crore has been delivered during April-May,2020.

Under the scheme, financial sanction for 8.18 crore beneficiaries' (Farmers) for Rs 2,000 each, has been generated during 20-21 and Rs 16,364 crore has been released under DBT Cash Transfers to farmers during 20-21.

As support for senior citizens, widows and Divyang, first instalment of funds of Rs 500 per beneficiary has been released for all 2.812 crore accounts of eligible beneficiaries, amounting to Rs 1,405 crore. The next instalment of Rs 500 will go in the second fortnight.

So far, 20.05 crore women Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana accounts are being credited Rs 500 per account as cash transfers under PMGKP. Altogeher 9.27 lakh members of EPFO had availed the facility of online withdrawal amounting to Rs 2,895 crore.

UNI SD PS 2029
Cambodian woman Son Se Kheng talks to police in Thanh Hoa Province where she wandered lost to in February after she had been sold to China and escaped. Photo by VnExpress/Lam Son.

A Cambodian woman wandering lost in Vietnam after escaping traffickers clutches in China has been helped to return home.

Authorities in the northern province of Thanh Hoa said they handed over Son Se Kheng, 25, to the Cambodian embassy in Vietnam as per citizen protection regulations on Mond.

A border guard patrol in Thanh Hoas Muong Lat District, which shares a boundary with Laos, found Kheng wandering in the area on February 29. She had no identification on her and could speak no Vietnamese. Finally, they found a local person who could speak Khmer and figured out that she was Cambodian.

Kheng said she was tricked and sold to China but escaped. Then she got lost and had been wandering on her own until she was found by the authorities.

Given the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, local authorities sent her to a centralized quarantine facility.

Ho Van Trong, director of the districts health care center, said Son was completely free of the Covid-19 virus.

"During the first days, she was quite confused but then she became more mentally stable," he said.

Thanh Hoas Foreign Affairs Department sent a document to the Bureau of Consular Affairs under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the Cambodian embassy, outlining Khengs predicament.

On March 24, Cambodian authorities responded, confirming Son So Kheng as an Cambodian citizen who resides in Chloung District, Kratie Province.

Stories of women and girls from Southeast Asian countries tricked and sold to China are common.

Some 40 million men in China need to look abroad for a wife, as of this year, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a think tank. This situation is the legacy of Beijing's one-child policy, which has seen families abort female fetuses for decades.

Hundreds of thousands of women from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar have gone to China to wed local men, activists say. Some end up happily married, others suffer violence and forced labor.

With few employment avenues for young women and ballooning debt levels, rural Cambodian families make soft targets for brokers who ensnare the relatives of potential brides in their schemes, blurring the lines between victims and accomplices.

The matchmakers are nearly impossible to track down, police say, hiding behind nicknames and throwaway "burner" phones while employing a network of local elders to coax young women out of the village by offering huge sums of cash to their families.
(Photo : Pixabay)

With everything happening, don't forget to view this month's Supermoon--it's the last one for the year. May's so-called "Flower Moon" will peak on early Thursday morning, May 7, but will appear complete for the remainder of the week.

This month's Full Moon is traditionally referred to as the "Flower Moon," "Corn Planting Moon," or the "Milking Moon." But the Moon will also be "super" this week, which means astronomers expect it to be bigger and brighter than average. Although the term Supermoon is not scientific, the event is famous and always draws in crowds of stargazers.

Also Read: The Night Sky This May: Here are the Top Astronomy Events You Can See This Month

What is a supermoon?

Supermoons are loosely described as Full Moons inside 90% of the lunar perigee--that is the Moon's lowest orbit of Earth. Because the Moon follows an elliptic course around the planet, every night, it's miles nearer or further from Earth.

According to NASA, the term Supermoon was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979. During a Supermoon, the lunar orb may look up to 30% brighter and 14% larger than usual. NASA's Gordon Johnston said, "For 2020, the four full Moons from February through May meet this 90% threshold."

The "Flower Moon" is the remaining in a chain of 4 supermoons in short succession this year. The others occurred in February, March, and April.

A supermoon takes place while a moon is both complete and closest to Earth in its elliptical orbit at the equal time, consistent with NASA. This phenomenon makes the total Moon seem "slightly" brighter and significant than usual.

Also Read: How The Full Moon Affects Your Child's Activity Levels

When is the next Supermoon?

The next time the Supermoon passes near to Earth while in its full phase is on April 27, 2021. It will create a "Super Pink Moon."

The final Supermoon of 2020 will attain its height at 6:45 am ET on Thursday, May 7, giving early risers the best view, according to NASA. The Moon will appear full from Tuesday night until Friday morning, so there can be lots of opportunities to get a glimpse.

"The Moon appears full to the eye for two to three nights," astronomer Deborah Byrd of EarthSky.org said. "However, astronomers regard the moon as full at a precisely defined instant, when the Moon is exactly 180-degrees opposite the sun in ecliptic longitude."

How to watch the Supermoon?

The Moon will function relatively low on the horizon, heading in a west-southwest direction. Eagle-eyed astronomers will note a brilliant megastar up and to the left of the Moon--that would be the gas giant Jupiter.

You will also have a hazard to observe the Supermoon online and from the comfort of your home. Courtesy of the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy, the spectacle will be broadcast online, free of charge.

The YouTube streaming will start at (6:30 p.m. UTC) on May 7. "The Supermoon is back for the fourth and last time this year, to celebrate the Flower Full Moon," Astrophysicist Gianluca Masi said.

The Virtual Telescope Project, according to Masi, will bring Supermoon closer to stargazers while it rises and shines above the legendary skyline of Rome. The Supermoon will also be streaming the event online by the robotic telescope service Slooh on May 7 (11 p.m. UTC on May 6).

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
TORONTO, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A recently completed regional exploration program at Amarillo Gold Corporations (Amarillo or the Company) (TSXV: AGC, OTCQB: AGCBF) Mara Rosa Property shows potential to find near-surface gold deposits along its Posse North Gold Trend in Goias State, Brazil.



Discovering mineralization up to four kilometres northeast of the Posse Gold Deposit is very encouraging, said Mike Mutchler, Amarillos Chief Executive Officer. Posse remains open at depth to the southwest, and these mineralized targets to the northeast give us additional opportunities to expand the resources at Mara Rosa.

Sixteen holes totalling 3,021 metres were drilled between November 2019 and February 2020, testing three priority targets along a 4.5-kilometre portion of the Posse North Trend: Araras, Speti 24, and Pastinho. Here are the key findings.

All three exploration targets intersected elevated gold values in multiple intervals, implying that the gold system that hosts the Posse Gold Deposit is regional in scope. Highlights include: Araras  near-surface mineralization over widths like 7 metres grading 1.22 g/t gold in hole 19P097 Speti 24  encouraging intercepts like 2.5 metres grading 1.20 g/t gold in hole 20P103 and 7.5 metres grading 0.77 g/t gold in hole 20P101 Pastinho  1 metre grading 10 g/t in hole 20P108 and 8.0 metres grading 0.83 g/t gold (including 4.0 metres grading 1.15 g/t gold) in hole 90P109.





Drilling at the Pastinho target has potentially extended the strike extent of the known gold mineralization six-fold , even as the target remains open along strike and ripe for future exploration . Pastinho is located on 6,000 hectares of new exploration tenements that Amarillo gained access to in December 2019. A previous operator defined a near-surface zone of gold mineralization of approximately 150 metres, while the results of the recent drilling are interpreted to have possibly increased the strike extent to 900 metres. Previous drill results included intercepts of 9.0 metres grading 0.79 g/t gold in hole LMR006A and 18.7 metres grading 0.87 g/t gold in hole LMR007A.



Exploration potential on the Posse North Trend is prospective. The style and nature of its gold mineralization is extensive and similar in style to the gold mineralization found at the Posse Gold Deposit. The gold deposits at Araras, Speti 24, and Pastinho are structurally controlled and typically associated with biotite, sericite, carbonate, and quartz flooding usually with 1-2% disseminated pyrite, further suggesting a similar style and origin of mineralization to the Posse Gold Deposit.

Story continues

The exploration program in detail

Purpose of program

The purpose of the program was to demonstrate that substantial exploration potential exists for finding near-surface gold deposits along the main Posse North Gold Trend and to drill-test three priority exploration targets.

Background and previous work

A previous radiometric survey has defined a strong regional-scale 10-kilometre long potassium anomaly that overlies the main northeast trending Posse structural corridor (see Figure 1). The potassium anomaly suggests underlying host rocks are hydrothermally altered, which is consistent with observations found at the Posse Gold Deposit. Posse has 1.1 million ounces of proven and probable gold reserves (see About Amarillo section on page 13 for details) and occurs in the southwest portion of the anomaly.

To view Figure 1: Location of Araras, Speti 24, and Pastinho drill targets relative to the Posse Gold Mining Project and to potassium radiometric and surface soil anomalies, please visit the following link:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1320c571-8d95-4b60-b438-2d5959d8208e

Gold mineralization at Posse is typically associated with potassium-bearing alteration minerals including biotite and sericite combined with carbonate and quartz/silica flooding and 1-2% disseminated pyrite.

The regional exploration potential of the Posse North Gold Trend is demonstrated by drill holes completed by a previous operator at the Pastinho target that defined a near-surface zone of gold mineralization over a strike length of approximately 150 metres.

Historical drilling included:

Hole LMR006A intersected 9.0 metres grading 0.79 g/t gold (including 5.0 metres grading 1.06 g/t gold). It was oriented with an azimuth of 106.9 degrees and dip of -50 degrees.

Hole LMR007 intersected 18.7 metres grading 0.87 g/t gold (including 4.9 metres grading 2.05 g/t gold). It was oriented with an azimuth of 109.1 degrees and a dip of -50 degrees.

Note: historical results have not been independently verified by Amarillo, though the drill core has been inspected visually, and the previous operators drill logs have been reviewed. True widths are interpreted to be the same as mineralized intersections as the holes were drilled perpendicular to the dip of rock units.

How the targets were identified

The priority exploration targets were Araras, Speti 24, and Pastinho. They were identified by integrating surface geological mapping with the results from:

historical exploration drilling

soil geochemical anomalies greater than 100 ppb gold

surface channel and rock sampling with grades higher than 0.5 ppm gold

results from an aerial-drone magnetic survey that defined favourable structural settings.

Coincident soil geochemistry and geophysical anomalies guided the selection of favourable exploration targets for drilling.



Araras

The Araras target is defined by a 500-metre-long northeast trending soil anomaly located slightly east of the main Posse Gold Deposit within the footwall amphibolite rocks.

The most recent program consisted of five diamond drill holes totalling 760.11 metres testing the zone throughout its strike length. The program was designed to follow up from encouraging drilling results generated in a 2012 program.

To view Figure 2: Plan view of Araras drill holes and gold intercepts, please visit the following link:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ea4a727c-1564-4c16-8636-3016cb47a6c8

Figure 3 shows that the host rocks dip approximately 55 to 60 degrees northwest. Drill holes were collared in the hanging wall of the gold zone and drilled from northwest to southeast.

To view Figure 3: Northeast-facing cross-section of Araras, please visit the following link:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cebd7e93-5505-4db2-910f-945f6b70ef8a

Table 1 summarizes drill results from the 2019-2020 exploration program with composite intervals above 0.2 g/t gold. Highlights include:

hole 19P097 generated 7 metres grading 1.22 g/t gold from 81.0 to 88.0 metres

hole 19P100 returned 2.5 metres grading 2.00 g/t gold from 100.0 to 102.5 metres.

For comparative purposes, Table 2 shows drilling results from the 2012 drilling program. Highlights include:

hole 12P038 returned 5 metres over 3.02 g/t gold

multiple gold intercepts in drill hole 12P045 including 2 metres grading 1.77 g/t gold and 4 metres grading 3.92 g/t gold.

Several holes intersected multiple sub-economic but anomalous gold tenors ranging from 1 metre grading 0.2 g/t gold to 4.1 metres grading 0.23 g/t gold. Zones of elevated gold mineralization are typically associated with areas of intense shearing and silica flooding with 1-2% disseminated pyrite. Typical alteration minerals include carbonate, biotite, and sericite.

The results suggest follow-up work is warranted to determine whether a higher-grade zone of mineralization can be located within this gold system/target.

Table 1: Summary of composite intervals grading more than 0.2 g/t gold cut-off in Araras drill target (2019-2020)

Hole Azimuth Dip From

(metres) To

(metres) Gold intervals

in metres (m) Estimated true

width (metres) 19P096 140 -58 52.00 56.00 4 m at 0.22 g/t 4.00 60.00 61.00 1 m at 0.75 g/t 1.00 63.00 64.00 1 m at 0.26 g/t 1.00 84.00 85.00 1 m at 0.31 g/t 1.00 19P097 140 -60 53.00 54.00 1 m at 0.42 g/t 1.00 74.00 75.00 1 m at 0.69 g/t 1.00 81.00 88.00 7 m at 1.22 g/t 7.00 95.00 97.00 2 m at 0.20 g/t 2.00 102.50 107.50 5 m at 0.41 g/t 5.00 19P098 140 -60 30.00 31.00 1 m at 0.20 g/t 1.00 64.00 73.00 9 m at 0.25 g/t 9.00 88.00 89.00 1 m at 0.24 g/t 1.00 19P099 140 -60 8.00 9.00 1 m at 0.48 g/t 1.00 100.00 102.00 2 m at 0.26 g/t 2.00 142.50 147.50 5 m at 0.47 g/t 5.00 162.50 165.00 2.5 m at 0.42 g/t 2.50 170.00 174.14 4.14 m at 0.23 g/t 4.14 19P100 140 -60 43.00 45.00 2 m at 0.27 g/t 2.00 75.00 76.00 1 m at 0.20 g/t 1.00 87.50 92.50 5 m at 0.47 g/t 5.00 100.00 102.50 2.5 m at 2.00 g/t 2.50 112.50 115.00 2.5 m at 0.43 g/t 2.50

Table 2: Summary of composite intervals grading more than 0.2 g/t gold cut-off in Araras drill target (2012)

Hole Azimuth Dip From

(metres) To

(metres) Gold intervals

in metres (m) Estimated true

width (metres) 12P037 142 -60 26.00 27.00 1 m at 0.71 g/t 1.00 73.00 74.00 1 m at 0.43 g/t 1.00 107.00 108.00 1 m at 0.33 g/t 1.00 141.00 142.00 1 m at 0.42 g/t 1.00 12P038 143 -57 81.00 86.00 5 m at 3.02 g/t 5.00 12P044 143 -59 26.00 27.00 1 m at 0.22 g/t 1.00 38.00 40.00 2 m at 0.47 g/t 2.00 47.00 49.00 2 m at 0.32 g/t 2.00 51.00 55.00 4 m at 0.22 g/t 4.00 12P045 142 -60 9.00 10.00 1 m at 2.35 g/t 1.00 63.00 64.00 1 m at 0.28 g/t 1.00 73.00 75.00 2 m at 1.77 g/t 2.00 93.00 97.00 4 m at 3.92 g/t 4.00 112.50 117.50 5 m at 0.35 g/t 5.00 12P046 90 -49 66.00 69.00 3 m at 0.34 g/t 3.00 71.00 73.00 2 m at 1.28 g/t 2.00 95.00 98.00 3 m at 0.68 g/t 3.00

Speti 24

The Speti 24 target is located 2.2 kilometres northeast of the Posse Gold Deposit and interpreted to be hosted in the same northeast trending gold-bearing structure.

A surface soil gold anomaly has been defined over 400 metres of strike length along trend at Speti 24.

The diamond drill program totalled 1,256 metres and consisted of six drill holes.

To view Figure 4: Plan view of Speti 24 drill holes and gold intercepts, please visit the following link:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e76cad04-3aa7-430e-afa4-4d4482c38dca

Figure 5 is a northeast facing cross section and shows the host rocks dip approximately 55 to 60 degrees to the northwest. Drill holes were collared in the hanging wall of the gold target and drilled from northwest to southeast.

Historical drill-testing of the target included drill hole Speti 24 that intersected 15 metres grading 0.62 g/t gold from 31.10 metres to 46.0 metres. This drill hole was oriented with an azimuth of 140 degrees and inclined at -70 degrees. The intersection width is estimated to be close to true width.

To view Figure 5: Northeast facing cross-section of Speti 24 target, please visit the following link:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/00526dda-c4bb-4190-8ccb-caa24a27924b

Table 3 summarizes assay results that returned composite intervals grading more than a 0.2 g/t gold cut-off grade from the most recent drilling program.

Highlights of the drilling program include:

hole 20P101 intersected 7.5 metres grading 0.77 g/t gold from 175.0 metres to 182.50 metres

hole 20P103 returned 2.5 metres grading 1.20 g/t gold from 37.5 metres to 40.0 metres

hole 20P111 generated 2 metres grading 1.14 g/t gold from 7.0 metres to 9.0 metres and 9 metres grading 0.47 g/t gold from 70 to 79 metres.

Multiple intervals of anomalous gold values were intersected within various drill holes over a strike-length of approximately 400 metres. The gold mineralization is characterized by strongly deformed and altered quartz-sericite schists hosting up to 1-2% disseminated pyrite.

Importantly, anomalous gold values bottomed in several holes and require follow-up work to better understand the nature and extent of this mineralization.

Table 3: Summary of Composite Intervals Grading More than 0.2 g/t gold cut-off in Speti 24 drill target (2019-20)

Holes Azimuth Dip From

(metres) To

(metres) Gold intervals

in metres (m) Estimated true

width (metres) 20P101 125 -50 16.00 17.00 1 m at 0.20 g/t 1.00 96.00 97.00 1 m at 0.29 g/t 1.00 175.00 182.50 7.5 m at 0.77 g/t 7.50 187.50 192.50 5 m at 0.42 g/t 5.00 20P102 125 -50 167.00 177.33 10.33 m at 0.27 g/t 10.33 20P103 125 -59 37.50 40.00 2.5 m at 1.20 g/t 2.50 20P104 125 -59 242.00 243.00 1 m at 0.26 g/t 1.00 262.00 263.00 1 m at 0.28 g/t 1.00 285.00 287.50 2.5 m at 0.23 g/t 2.50 20P105 125 -61 42.50 45.00 2.5 m at 0.30 g/t 2.50 162.50 165.00 2.5 m at 0.38 g/t 2.50 20P111 125 -60 2.00 3.00 1 m at 0.24 g/t 1.00 7.00 9.00 2 m at 1.14 g/t 2.00 61.00 62.00 1 m at 0.22 g/t 1.00 66.00 67.00 1 m at 0.41 g/t 1.00 70.00 79.00 9 m at 0.47 g/t 9.00

Pastinho

The Pastinho target is located about 3.5 kilometres northeast of the Posse Gold Project. The gold anomaly at Pastinho has a surface expression of about 1 kilometre.

Diamond drilling by a previous operator defined a near-surface gold zone over a strike length of 150 metres in two diamond drill holes:

LMR006A returned an intercept of 9.0 metres grading 0.79 g/t gold, including 5.0 metres grading 1.06 g/t gold. It was oriented with an azimuth of 106.9 degrees and dip of -50 degrees.

LMR007 intersected 18.7 metres grading 0.87 g/t gold, including 4.9 metres grading 2.05 g/t gold. It was oriented with an azimuth of 109.1 degrees and a dip of -50 degrees.

The purpose of Amarillos drilling program was to test and extend the strike length of this gold deposit.

To view Figure 6: Plan view of Pastinho drill holes and gold intercepts, please visit the following link:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d771f62b-741d-4506-becc-5e98aeafe0fd

Figure 7 is a northeast facing cross-section and shows the rock units dip northwest approximately 55 to 60 degrees northwest. The drill holes were collared in the hanging wall to the gold zone and drilled from the northwest to the southeast.

To view Figure 7: Northeast facing cross-section of Pastinho, please visit the following link:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c8b85cc9-0bd2-43fd-9a16-67d592619800

The recent drilling program completed by Amarillo Gold consisted of five diamond drill holes totalling 941.89 metres. Highlights of results from the drilling program are shown in Table 4 and include:

hole 20P107 returned 9 metres grading 0.31 g/t gold

hole 20P108 returned 1 metre grading 10 g/t gold and 2 metres grading 3.60 g/t gold

hole 20P109 returned 8.0 metres grading 0.83 g/t gold, including 4 metres grading 1.15 g/t gold

hole 20P110 returned 7.0 metres grading 0.64 g/t gold, including 5 metres grading 0.77 g/t gold.

Key conclusions from this drilling program include:

The strike extent of the Pastinho gold zone is interpreted to have increased six-fold from 150 metres to 900 metres of strike length from drill hole 20P106 to 20P110

Multiple narrow intercepts were generated in the southwestern portion of the Pastinho gold zone. The zone appears to thicken towards the northeast

The gold zone remains open along strike and down-dip

Follow-up exploration on this gold target is warranted.

Table 4: Summary of composite intervals grading more than 0.2 g/t gold cut-off at Pastinho drill target (2019-2020)

Holes Azimuth Dip From

(metres) To

(metres) Gold intervals

in metres (m) Estimated true

width (metres) 20P106 125 -60 154.00 155.00 1 m at 0.22 g/t 1.00 165.00 166.00 1 m at 0.62 g/t 1.00 20P107 125 -60 100.00 101.00 1 m at 0.22 g/t 1.00 103.00 104.00 1 m at 0.24 g/t 1.00 119.00 128.00 9 m at 0.31 g/t 9.00 131.00 132.00 1 m at 0.62 g/t 1.00 146.00 148.00 2 m at 0.26 g/t 2.00 162.50 165.00 2.5 m at 0.35 g/t 2.50 226.00 227.00 1 m at 0.57 g/t 1.00 20P108 125 -60 94.00 95.00 1 m at 1.26 g/t 1.00 133.00 134.00 1 m at 10.00 g/t 1.00 142.00 143.00 1 m at 0.38 g/t 1.00 153.00 155.00 2 m at 3.60 g/t 2.00 20P109 125 -59 97.00 105.00 8 m at 0.83 g/t 8.00 140.00 147.50 7.5 m at 0.49 g/t 7.50 157.50 160.00 2.5 m at 0.21 g/t 2.50 20P110 125 -59 66.00 73.00 7 m at 0.64 g/t 7.00 76.00 78.00 2 m at 0.90 g/t 2.00 82.00 86.00 4 m at 0.25 g/t 4.00

Summary and next steps



The Posse North Trend exploration program had two goals:

1  determine whether the gold system that hosts the Posse Gold Deposit continues to the northeast along the Posse North structural trend

2  drill-test three priority gold exploration targets with the goal of potentially defining a near-surface satellite economic gold deposit and therefore add to the mine life of the existing Posse Gold Project.

The Posse Gold Deposit is interpreted to be a Neoproterozoic structurally-controlled mesothermal gold system. The gold deposits found along the main Posse structure occur within a regionally extensive northeast trending fault structure that dips northwest. Regional northeast-trending faults formed during a period of northwest-southeast structural convergence. Hydrothermal alteration along the Posse Trend is extensive.

Results from drilling support that the gold system(s) along the Posse North Gold trend are similar in style and nature as the main Posse Gold Deposit. Therefore, the exploration potential along the gold trend remains promising.

Multiple intervals of elevated gold values were returned from all three targets tested  Araras, Speti 24 and Pastinho. Drilling results from the Pastinho deposit are noteworthy as the strike extent of the gold system has potentially been extended six-fold to about 900 metres. The deposit remains open along strike and down-dip and warrants follow-up work.

Future follow-up exploration work is planned along the Posse Trend. It may include on-going geological mapping and sampling, targeted gold soil surveys, airborne magnetic surveys, ground IP surveys, and the selection of priority gold targets for future drilling. A program of follow-up drilling is planned for the Speti 24 and Pastinho targets to better define the nature and extent of gold mineralization.

About Amarillo

Amarillo Gold Corporation (www.amarillogold.com) is developing an open pit gold resource at its Mara Rosa Property in the mining-friendly jurisdiction of Goias State in Brazil. Mara Rosa includes the Posse Gold Deposit and Project, which has received the main permit giving it the social and environmental permission to mine and is working toward obtaining an installation permit.

An NI 43-101 Pre-Feasibility Study filed on SEDAR on September 13, 2018, estimates that Mara Rosas Posse Gold Deposit has total estimated reserves of 1,087,000 ounces of gold from 23.8 Mt at 1.42 g/t gold with:

513,000 ounces of gold in the Proven category from 9.6 Mt at 1.65 g/t gold

574,000 ounces of gold in the Probable category from 14.2 Mt at 1.26 g/t gold.

In addition to the Mara Rosa Property, Amarillo also has the Lavras do Sul Project, an advanced exploration stage property in Brazil with more than 22 prospects centered on historic gold workings. An NI 43-101 technical report filed on SEDAR on October 4, 2010, estimates an initial resource estimate at the Butia prospect of:

215,000 ounces of gold in the Indicated category from 6.4 Mt at 1.05 g/t gold

308,000 ounces of gold in the Inferred category from 12.9 Mt at 0.74 g/t gold.

Both the Mara Rosa and Lavras do Sul properties are in mining friendly states and have excellent nearby infrastructure.

Amarillo Gold Corporation trades on the TSXV under the symbol AGC, and on the OTCQB under the symbol AGCBF.

For further information, please contact

Mike Mutchler

President & CEO

416-294-0736

mike.mutchler@amarillogold.com Annemarie Brissenden

Investor Relations

416-844-6284

annemarie.brissenden@amarillogold.com

Qualified Person



Michael Durose, P.Geo., Consulting Geologist for Amarillo Gold Corp. and a qualified person ("QP") as defined by Canadian National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information contained in this release.

Quality assurance and quality control

Sample handling, preparation and analysis are monitored through the implementation of formal chain-of-custody procedures and quality assurance/quality control programs designed to follow industry best practices.

All drillhole samples in this drilling program consist of split NQ diamond drill core.

Drillcore is logged and sampled in a secure facility located in Mara Rosa, Goias State, Brazil. Drillcore samples for gold assay are cut in half using a diamond saw and submitted to ALS Laboratories Inc. in Goiania, Goias State, Brazil for preparation by crushing to 70% passing 2.0 mm, riffle splitting to obtain 500 g aliquots, and pulverizing to 85% passing 75 microns.

Pulps are shipped to ALS Laboratories in Lima, Peru and analyzed by a 30 g fire assay and AAS finish. For assays above 10 ppm Au, a cut of the original pulp was re-assayed with a gravimetric finish.

Certified standards, non-certified blanks and field duplicates are inserted into the sample stream at regular intervals, so that QA/QC accounted for about 10% of the total samples. Results are routinely evaluated for accuracy, precision and contamination.





Forward-looking statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding the Companys current expectations regarding future events, including its business, operations and condition, and managements objectives, strategies, beliefs and intentions.

Various factors may prevent or delay our plans, including but not limited to, the trading price of the common shares of the Company, capital market conditions, impacts from the coronavirus or other epidemics, counterparty risk, TSXV approval(s), contractor availability and performance, weather, access, mineral and gold prices, and success and failure of the exploration and development carried out at various stages of the program.

Permission from the government and community is also required to proceed with future mining production. Readers should review the Companys ongoing quarterly and annual filings, as well as any other additional documentation comprising the Companys public disclosure record, for additional information on risks and uncertainties relating to these forward-looking statements.

Readers should also review the risk factors applicable to junior mining exploration companies generally to better understand the variety of risks that can affect the Company. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any Forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information or future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law.

Disclaimer

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release.

PDF available: http://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/aa33b9b5-d816-408e-904b-5e9838535c83




Former "Today" co-host Matt Lauer, who left NBC News in November 2017 (Richard Drew / Associated Press)

Former employees at NBC News have been questioned by the New York attorney general's office about how the company handled sexual harassment allegations in the division.

Linda Vester, a former NBC News anchor, said Tuesday she met with staff from the office in January as part of a preliminary inquiry, which would precede an actual investigation. She said other former employees have been called in as well as part of an inquiry that began in mid-November.

An NBCUniversal representative said the company has not been contacted by the attorney general's office regarding the matter. The company said it would be notified if a formal investigation moved forward. As a policy, the attorney general's office does not comment on its investigations.

Vester told The Times that, based on the questioning, the inquiry focused on allegations of sexual harassment, retaliation and gender discrimination that would be violations of state and possibly federal civil rights law.

The former anchor said she was aware that a number of former employees were contacted by investigators, but would not reveal any names. She did say that "Matt Lauer was front and center" in the discussions and that an employee who worked for recently ousted MSNBC host Christ Matthews was also contacted.

Matthews left abruptly in March after a female guest on his program wrote how he made sexually inappropriate remarks while she prepared to appear on his show. NBC News also previously settled with a former female employee who filed a complaint against Matthews more than a decade ago.

Rich McHugh, the former NBC News producer who worked alongside Ronan Farrow as he reported on the sexual assault allegations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, was among those called in for questioning. McHugh revealed the inquiry Monday night during an appearance on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

The revelation came on the same day NBCUniversal announced that NBC News Chairman Andy Lack is leaving the company at the end of the month. Under a reorganization plan announced Monday, Telemundo Chairman Cesar Conde was named the head of a newly formed NBCUniversal News Group, which will include NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC.

Story continues

Lack was set to step down at the end of the year. But the date was moved up by NBCUniversal Chief Executive Jeff Shell in an effort to move past the scandals that have dogged the news division in recent years since Lauer, the former Today co-host, was fired over inappropriate behavior in the workplace in November 2017. It was later revealed that an employee who filed a complaint against Lauer alleged that he had raped her, an allegation he has denied.

The news division also suffered an embarrassing blow as it passed on Farrows reporting on the sexual assault allegations against disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Network executives said Farrow was unable to meet NBC News standards for getting the story on the air and allowed him to take his work to the New Yorker. He shared in a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting.

The news divisions handling of sexual harassment issues and the Weinstein story led to protests from womens organizations, which called for an outside investigation of the companys workplace practices.

Vester previously alleged that veteran NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw forcefully tried to kiss her in 1994 when she was staying at the Essex House Hotel in New York, where he showed up uninvited. A similar incident occurred in May 1995, she alleged, when Brokaw appeared unannounced at her flat in London when she was assigned to the networks bureau there. She alleged that in both instances, Brokaw pressured her to have a sexual relationship with him. She said she feared that reporting the incidents would hurt her career. Brokaw denied any inappropriate behavior.

Vester told the Washington Post she decided to come forward with the allegations out of her belief that NBC News has failed to effectively investigate harassment issues at the company after Lauers firing.

Vester said she was asked by the attorney general's office about NBC News' efforts to defend Brokaw after her allegations were published. A letter was circulated and signed by some of the most prominent female journalists at the network, including Andrea Mitchell and Rachel Maddow, that praised Brokaw and his reputation among women in the company.
Pakistan has expressed concern that its citizens returning from the United Arab Emirates are bringing the coronavirus to the South Asian country, according to Reuters.

The UAE is home to more than 1 million Pakistanis, many of whom work as laborers. The UAE asked Pakistan to take them home amid the coronavirus pandemic and accompanying shutdowns in the country and 60,000 Pakistanis applied to leave amid a flight ban aimed at stopping the coronavirus spread. Many have since left on repatriation flights.

Moeed Yusuf, an assistant to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, said a few flights carrying Pakistanis home from the UAE had infection rates of 40% to 50%. The average rate of infection among these passengers is 12%, Yusuf told Reuters.

Yusuf said the rates are due to the conditions the workers endure in the wealthy Gulf state. The hypothesis is that a lot of the laborers live in crowded dormitories and in those, essentially, its easier to infect each other, he said.

The UAE said it is taking proper health precautions when repatriating the Pakistanis. A consular official from the countrys Foreign Ministry told Reuters that Emirati authorities test everyone leaving the country and do not allow people to leave if they test positive.

Everyone on UAE repatriation flights has been tested before departure, and those found to be infected were not allowed to travel, said Khalid al-Mazrouei.

People working in manual labor in the UAE and the Gulf, including Pakistanis, often work in poor conditions and suffer mistreatment. They are also a crucial part of the Gulf economy due to the cheap labor they provide.

The coronavirus crisis made their already difficult situations more so. Many lost their jobs due to the lockdowns and economic downturn that have accompanied the spread of the virus. In March, the UAE allowed employers to force workers into taking paid or unpaid leave. The loss of work and repatriations have hurt their families, who rely on the remittances the workers would send home every month.
Dino Melaye has condemned the inability of the government to cater for Nigerians during the lockdown period stating that all past and present political office holders in Nigeria, including himself.

Dino added that the God of the poor will judge them all for how theyve handled Nigerias resources.

He said this in reaction to the level of hunger Nigerians have been exposed to while on lockdown, with little to no palliative to tide the masses over as the country tries to curb the spread of Coronavirus.

Melaye, who is the senator representing kogi-West senatorial district, tweeted:

EVERYONE WHO HELD AND IS HOLDING ANY POLITICAL OFFICE IN NIGERIA WHETHER ELECTIVE OR APPOINTED INCLUDING ME HAVE FAIL.WE SOLD CRUDE OIL FOR 64 YEARS BUT WE COULDNT FEED OUR CITIZENS FOR JUST 2 WEEKS OF LOCKDOWN!! WELL, THE GOD OF THE POOR WILL JUDGE US ALL. ITS TIME TO REBOOT..

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There was internal resistance to speedy passage of the controversial infectious disease control bill by some members of the House of representatives when the bill was presented last week. The sponsors of the bill had plotted early passage of the bill without elaborate deliberations and debates by the lawmakers. It was also revealed that even at the time the bill was rolled past the first and second reading, and was being pushed for third reading passage, most lawmakers had not got copies of the bill. Apparently, the bill would have been passed in the dark. The move was resisted within the House before the public outcry that dented the contents.

Nkem Abonta was identified to be vocal in opposing the speedy early passage of the controversial bill. The lawmaker had at the last week plenary on Tuesday, admonished members of the House to be cautious and have restraint in the speedy passage of the bill, particularly, when the bill was not yet circulated to all members.

Abonta aligned with the populist fear that the bill will give too much powers to the Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC); citing the compulsory vaccination of Nigerians [as excessive power].

Abonta had contended that the compulsory vaccination will be tantamount to infringement on the human rights of citizens. He advocated for the suspension of the till members study and understand the full content of the controversial bill.

According to him, the bill is a long-term measure against diseases in the country and not for the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic.

However, Gbajabiamila, the lead sponsor of the bill, ensured the bill passed through the first and second readings by fiat in defiance to majority dissenting voices in the House during voice vote.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, suggesting a pattern of misconduct and politicization at the highest levels of the Obama-Biden-era FBI, is accusing Federal Bureau of Investigation officials of trying to entrap former National Security Adviser Michael T. Flynn in a lie so he could be prosecuted or fired.

In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday, Jordan, of Champaign County, accused the FBI of facilitating an incorrect public impression that President Donald Trumps 2016 campaign had colluded with Russia, and said newly unsealed documents in Flynns case show the agency tried to set a perjury trap to force Flynns from office even though it knew he wasnt a Russian agent.

Documents released in the case on April 29 included a handwritten note, supposedly written by an FBI assistant director, that stated the FBIs objective in the case was to get him [Flynn] to lie, so we can prosecute or get him [Flynn] fired, Jordans letter said.

The FBIs mission is to do justice dispassionately, said the letter Jordan wrote with Mike Johnson of Louisiana, the top Republican on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. But these documents suggest that the FBI ignored protocol to confront LTG Flynn about a potential violation of an obscure and rarely- charged offense, with the real goal of forcing LTG Flynns resignation or prosecution.

What happened to General Michael Flynn, a war hero, should never be allowed to happen to a citizen of the United States again!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 30, 2020

Flynn resigned as Trumps national security adviser in February 2017, after admitting he gave Vice President Mike Pence an incomplete account of his communications with the Russias ambassador before Trump took office. Flynn later pleaded guilty to a felony count of lying to the FBI about his conversations with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, but asked to withdraw the guilty plea this year after getting new lawyers and arguing he was entrapped.

Jordans letter asked Wray to immediately review the FBIs actions in targeting Flynn, and to send Jordan all documents related to the Flynn investigation, to explain when Wray personally first learned of the FBIs misconduct, and to explain why the Committee and the American public are learning of the FBIs misconduct with respect to LTG Flynn from court filings rather than from you. The letter also asked Wray to make several agents and former agents available to testify about their conduct in Flynns case, and to deliver all information by May 10.

It is well past time that you show the leadership necessary to bring the FBI past the abuses of the Obama-Biden era, it said.

In the past several days Trump has repeatedly commented on the case on Twitter, saying What happened to General Michael Flynn, a war hero, should never be allowed to happen to a citizen of the United States again!

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Australia's biggest solar farm is nearly shovel ready, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is set to declare.

Ms Palaszczuk will make the announcement at the Smart Energy Council summit on Wednesday, where the focus will be on using renewable energy projects to revitalise the economy after coronavirus.

Ms Palaszczuk says work will begin on the Darling Downs solar farm in July, which will create 400 jobs and 400MW of renewable energy.

Australia's biggest solar farm is nearly shovel ready, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is set to declare

'The best thing we can do to support Queensland jobs is to support investment in our state,' she will say.

'Today we're announcing support through CleanCo to unlock hundreds of jobs on the Darling Downs.'

Publicly-owned generator CleanCo will buy 320MW of the output from farm owner Neoen.

The project will power about 235,000 Queensland homes.

Energy ministers from the ACT, Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria will also take part in the online event.

Victoria's Energy Minister Lily D'Ambrosio will use her speech to say renewable energy projects will play a vital role helping coronavirus recovery efforts.

Annastacia Palaszczuk says work will begin on the Darling Downs solar farm in July, which will create 400 jobs and 400MW of renewable energy.

'We strongly believe that the transition to clean energy offers enormous opportunities to create jobs and drive economic growth, and we are taking action to identify and exploit those opportunities,' she will say.

The summit will feature Australian Industry Group chief Innes Willox, who will renew calls for a bipartisan energy policy and a reset in how the nation deals with climate change to reach net zero emissions.

Smart Energy Council chief John Grimes says the coronavirus economic crisis and climate change must be dealt with at the same time.

'This is Australia's moment to modernise and grow the economy, create hundreds of thousands of new, future-proof jobs and position Australia as a global renewable energy superpower,' he said.

The federal government is finalising its technology roadmap, which outlines economic goals for various energy sources to help the nation reach net zero emissions.

The government's main focus has been on hydrogen, which Energy Minister Angus Taylor wants to cost less than $2 per kilogram.

Mr Taylor on Wednesday relaunched the Energy Made Easy price comparison website.

Consumers will be able to search for plans using their energy meter data or by uploading a bill.

'If you haven't reviewed your energy plan recently, chances are you're paying too much,' Mr Taylor said.

Estimated plan costs can now include retailer solar feed-in credits while the website has also been translated into 33 languages.
- 550 more cases of the coronavirus have been recorded

- The total number of confirmed cases in the country has shot up to 2,719

- The total recoveries also now stand at 294

Our manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in

Information reaching YEN.com.gh indicates that 550 more cases of the coronavirus have been recorded making the total number of confirmed cases in the country 2,719.

Also, 65 more persons have recovered from the novel coronavirus infection in Ghana.

The total recoveries now stand at 294.

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) disclosed this in its regular update on Monday, May 4, 2020.

READ ALSO: No Mask, No entry: Police prevent mask-less people from entering Makola

The Greater Accra Region is still leading the chart with 2,332 cases, followed by the Ashanti and Eastern Regions with 124 and 94 cases respectively.

So far, out of the 16 regions in the country, 12 have recorded cases.

Fortunately, the Savannah, Bono, Ahafo, and Bono East regions have recorded zero cases as far as the COVID-19 is concerned.

READ ALSO: Meet the young man whose team assisted KNUST to develop COVID-19 test kits

In other news, 19 Burkinabes have been intercepted after attempting to enter the country through unapproved routes.

Those who were arrested for trying to enter Ghana illegally have been repatriated.

A statement issued by the Ghana Immigration Service indicated that the Burkinabes were aboard an OA transport vehicle with registration number GT 8242-19 en route to Accra.

READ ALSO: 11 things you must do if you come in contact with a coronavirus patient

President Akufo-Addo has extended the ban on social gatherings by two more weeks. | #Yencomgh

Do you have a story to share or you have information for us? Get featured on YEN.com.gh.

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Source: YEN.com.gh
Iran and Turkey began talks on the opening of trade and business borders amid the outbreak of the coronavirus COVID-19, Mehr reported.

For this purpose, Head of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPOI) Hamid Zadboum conferred with Turkeys Deputy Minister of Customs and Trade Riza Tuna Turagay on Monday in a conversation via videoconference.

The parties discussed the trade development, lifting restrictions on the transit of trade goods between the two countries, as well as the opening of the trade borders during the pandemic.

Zadboum pointed to the measures taken by Iran during the spread of coronavirus to ensure the health and safety of commercial cargo, the creation of disinfectants, and full compliance with safety rules when exporting goods to neighboring Turkey. He urged the Turkish side to reopen its borders in compliance with sanitary and hygienic protocols.

In turn, Riza Tuna Turagay highlighted the importance of trade with Iran and added that officials at Turkish Ministry of Trade are trying to reopen the trade borders between Iran and Turkey as soon as possible and this important issue will happen in very near future.
No red lines must be crossed, minister stresses.

Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba has commented on the idea of creating the so-called "advisory council" under the political subgroup of Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas settlement, where "representatives" of the occupied areas of Donbas are expected to be included.

In an interview with Radio NV, he noted that the initiative had been conceived before he was appointed foreign minister, at the same time noting that he was not opposed to searching for new negotiation formats if they did not mean crossing certain "red lines" in relation to Donbas.

"I'm always up for looking for ways out of the deadlocks where negotiations are heading in various situations. We should always look for new formats and initiatives, at the same time without crossing the 'red lines' regarding Ukraine's positions," Kuleba said.

At the same time, the minister said that during a meeting of Normandy Four foreign ministers via video link, this initiative was not discussed in detail. Only the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, dwelled on the issue, according to Kuleba.

"There are formats that make it through; but there are those that don't. There are formats that initially aren't making it, but they do later on, and vice versa. That is, these are normal work processes. I take this as a routine. For me, the main thing is to make sure that Ukraine's position is strong and that we don't step beyond the 'red lines' of our state," the diplomat explained.

Separately, Kuleba emphasized that during yesterday's conversation with his German counterpart Heiko Maas, the issue of the "advisory council" had not been discussed.

As UNIAN reported earlier, on March 11, Minsk hosted the regular meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group for Donbas settlement with the participation of the head of Ukrainian President's Office Andriy Yermak and Deputy Head of Russian President's Administration Dmitry Kozak. The two agreed to sign the TCG decision on the establishment of an "advisory council" as part of the political subgroup following consultations with representatives of the OSCE, France, and Germany regarding the implementation of the agreements reached during the Normandy summit. The signing was scheduled to take place at the next meeting in Minsk on March 25.

Read alsoPutin has "no other choice but to withdraw from eastern Ukraine and Crimea"  Ukraine's foreign minister

Later, the Dzerkalo Tyzhnia outlet published a copy of the minutes of meeting signed in Minsk on March 11. According to the document, the criteria and the procedure for appointing council members shall be independently determined by Ukraine, certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, the Russian Federation, Germany, France, and the OSCE. At the same time, 10 representatives from Ukraine and the certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions will each have the right to cast votes, and one representative each from Russia, Germany, France, and the OSCE  the right to cast consultative votes.

A few days later, about 60 MPs with the Servant of the People party called on President Zelensky to halt the process of creation of the advisory council, which many said would legitimize Russian occupation authorities in Donbas, putting them on equal footing with the Ukrainian negotiators, while portraying Russia as a pure mediator in the conflict rather than a direct party to it.

On March 25, the TCG did not discuss the advisory council during a video link meeting.

On March 31, Yermak said the idea to set up such council would be considered following consultation with partners from France, Germany, and the OSCE.

Read alsoAdvisory Council with Donbas militants could only be created if Germany, France approve idea  Vice PM

On April 6, President Zelensky assured the public that the agreement on founding an Advisory Council under the auspices of the TCG would not legitimize Russian-controlled militants.
(Photo : REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare) A crowd gathers before SpaceX's Elon Musk gives an update on the company's Mars rocket Starship in Boca Chica, Texas U.S. September 28, 2019.

SpaceX's lunar lander received the weakest adjectival rating of the three companies selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to build the lunar lander as the agency prepares to return to the Moon.

In a report in SpaceNews.com, NASA described SpaceX lunar lander as a "high-risk, high-reward option" but worried that the lander might not be ready for the 2024 moon landing.

According to the report, SpaceX received the weakest adjectival rating of the three companies selected, with technical and managerial ratings of "Acceptable." Meanwhile, Blue Origin got a professional grade of Acceptable and a managerial rating of "Very Good," and Dynetics obtained technical and managerial ratings of Very Good.

NASA told SpaceNews that SpaceX got several strengths based on the proposed capabilities of its Starship vehicle. The agency noted that the spacecraft is much larger than the other winning proposals. NASA also remarked that SpaceX "meets or exceeds all of NASA's threshold values" for functional and performance requirements.

According to the space agency, SpaceX's design supports NASA's long-term lunar exploration plans. NASA added that SpaceX's proposal gives substantial mission design flexibility and considerably lessen the time and cost associated with transitioning into sustainable phase mission operations.

Delays and Weaknesses

However, NASA raised concern on the capability of SpaceX to deliver on time. The agency noted that SpaceX had encountered lengthy delays in its other programs. For example, the commercial crew and development of the Falcon Heavy rocket were years behind its original schedules. "These delays decreased the [Source Evaluation Panel's] confidence in SpaceX's ability to execute on its proposed HLS development schedule successfully," NASA said in the report.

Aside from the delays, NASA also saw some weakness in SpaceX. One of the failings stated in the evaluation is SpaceX's concept of operations. Under the idea, other Starship vehicles will be used as tankers, while a propellant depot to fuel the space vehicle will serve as the lander. NASA said that approach "requires numerous, highly complex launch, rendezvous, and fueling operations which all must succeed in quick succession to execute on its approach successfully." The agency saw that this complexity could be a risk for a 2024 landing.

Likewise, the NASA evaluators saw weakness in the SpaceX's propulsion system. NASA noted that it is "notably complex and comprised of likewise complex individual subsystems that have yet to be developed, tested, and certified with minimal schedule margin to accommodate delays." The agency continued that SpaceX "does not adequately address the risk of a potential delay in development, as well as concomitant delay to SpaceX's demonstration mission."

On the other hand, NASA associate administrator Steve Jurczyk played down the SpaceX's weaknesses Jurczyk found that SpaceX's extensive relevant experience, together with the lessons learned from previous efforts, somewhat mitigate the risk associated with the potential for schedule delays.

Evaluation on Other Awardees

It seems that the weakness in the propulsion system is not unique to SpaceX. According to the evaluation of NASA, Blue Origin's power and propulsion system are relatively complex and immature, posing development risks. The agency added that the design appears to be sound, but the design will materialize only after a very significant amount of development work.

Same with Blue Origin, Dynetics lander faced criticism for its propulsion system. The system is complex and depends on technologies that are not yet matured or not yet developed. NASA noted for Dynetics to meet the deadline, it must develop the system at an unprecedented pace.

Jurczyk agreed that Dynetics' power and propulsion system overall present substantial technical and schedule risk. He stressed that it is the kind of innovative solution that NASA is looking for in the Human Landing Services program.

Also Read: SpaceX Gives The World A Glimpse Of The Falcon Heavy Rocket In This New Photo

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A person picking up cabbage while wearing protective gloves at a supermarket (file photo).

Kathrin Ziegler/Getty Images

A white, middle-aged man was seen wearing a Klu Klux Klan hood at a Vons supermarket in Santee, California, over the weekend after the county issued a mandate requiring residents to wear protective face coverings to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

A Vons spokesperson told NBC San Diego that employees repeatedly asked the man to take off the hood, but he only took it off when he reached the grocery store's check-out line.

Images of the man prompted outrage from Santee's mayor, San Diego County's supervisor, and the local Anti-Defamation League.

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A man was seen wearing a Klu Klux Klan hood at a grocery store in California during a county-wide mask mandate issued to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Photos posted on Facebook showed the man wearing a KKK mask while pushing his cart through the produce area of a Vons supermarket in Santee, California. At least one photo showed the man without the hood, in which he appeared white and middle-aged.

A Vons spokesperson told NBC San Diego that the man refused multiple requests to take off the hood from store employees, and only removed it once he was in line to check out.

"Unfortunately, an alarming and isolated incident occurred at our Vons store in Santee, where a customer chose an inflammatory method of wearing a face covering," said Melissa Hill, spokesperson for Vons, Albertsons, and Pavilions in Southern California told NBC San Diego. "This was a disturbing incident for our associates and customers, and we are reviewing with our team how to best handle such inappropriate situations in the future."

The incident happened after San Diego County issued a mandate that requires all residents to wear protective face coverings in public to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacobs and Santee Mayor John Minto criticized the man's decision to wear the hood as his protective face covering.

Story continues

"Many thanks to all who stepped forward to curtail this sad reminder of intolerance," the mayor said in a statement. "Santee, its leaders, and I will not tolerate such behavior. Santee and its citizens are great, and this particular individual's actions are not representative of us as a people and a wonderful city."

Jacobs, who represents Santee and other cities on San Diego County's east side, called the photos "abhorrent" in a statement to the San Diego Tribune.

"This blatant racism has no place in Santee or any part of San Diego County. It is not who we are. It is not what we stand for and can't be tolerated," she said.

Anti-Defamation League San Diego Regional Director Tammy Gillies told NBC News that it was "shocking yet not surprising" to see people "embolden to express hate."

"History teaches us that during times of crisis people are looking for a scapegoat," she said. "During these times of COVID-19 we have seen the AAP I community be targeted, as well as other minority communities, including an uptick in anti-Semitism. We are here for the community 24/7 and hope the San Diego community will come together and reaffirm that San Diego is no place for hate."

Read the original article on Insider
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo addressed what he called a hard truth Tuesday: that states taking aggressive approaches to ending coronavirus-related restrictions could end up losing lives as a consequence.

Cuomo said New Yorks regional approach to reopening, on the other hand, will aim to minimize death by taking a data-centric approach, analyzing parameters like infection and hospitalization rates.

The governor first outlined the plan Monday.

A human life is priceless, period. Our reopening plan doesnt have a tradeoff. Our reopening plan says you monitor the data, he said. If it goes up, you have a quote-unquote circuit breaker, you stop, you close the valve.

As states across the country reopen, some estimates for the American death toll have more than doubled. The New York Times reported an internal document circulating President Donald Trumps administration showed the daily death toll could increase 70% by June 1.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, which the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation started, released projections on Monday of nearly 134,475 deaths by early August. On April 17, it had projected 60,308 deaths.

In each state, the evolution of the epidemic depends on the balance between relaxed social distancing, increasing temperature, and rising rates of testing and contact tracing, IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray said. We expect that the epidemic in many states will now extend through the summer.

45 Photos of the pandemic in NYC: Our lives changed forever

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

Cuomo reiterated his concern that New York is in need of financial aid from the federal government as it continues to plan its own reopening strategies. The governors New York on PAUSE mandates are in place until May 15.

Previous aid bills related to the coronavirus have not addressed the need for state funds that go to government employees like cops and firefighters, Cuomo said. He also pushed back against growing characterizations of the virus as a political issue.

This is counterproductive and it will lead to defeat for all of us," Cuomo said. "You go down this path of partisanship and politics -- you will never pass a bill, and if you never pass legislation youll never get this economy back on its feet.

In a Monday interview with the New York Post, President Trump characterized aid to states with Democratic governors as unfair to Republicans.

You look at Illinois, you look at New York, look at California, you know, those three, theres tremendous debt there, and many others, Trump said. I dont think the Republicans want to be in a position where they bail out states that are, that have been mismanaged over a long period of time."

Like he has with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), who has raised similar concerns to the president, Cuomo pointed out that New York has long seen a deficit in return from the federal government compared to its contributions in federal income tax.

Rep. Max Rose (D-Staten Island/South Brooklyn) voiced his support for the governors push to get states the needed federal aid, and to put politics aside during the pandemic.

When I put on a uniform, we didnt fight for blue or red stateswe defended the United States. Governors from both parties are asking to be reimbursed for fighting the pandemic, he said. Thats not a bailoutthats what the federal government is there for.

A total of $150 billion in coronavirus aid has been secured for states, but an AP analysis found that states not hit as hard by the coronavirus are getting an outsized portion of that aid. The office of Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer identified $15 billion that has or will soon go to New York and state-sponsored agencies.

In a letter to federal officials, the National Governors Association has requested an additional $500 billion for states and territories.

Schumers office said he is working with Cuomo and other governors to secure more funding, and that he is opposed to states declaring bankruptcy as suggested by McConnell.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrands office did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication, but she has previously supported more state funding.
New arrivals set to undergo four COVID-19 tests

Upon entering the country fresh arrivals will immediately be put into isolation where they will have samples taken four times, once upon their arrival, followed by on the fifth, tenth and final days of their compulsory 14-day quarantine period.

This newly-issued regulation regarding testing new arrivals four times comes after Ho Chi Minh City assessed that there is currently a greater threat of new entries carrying the virus than previously thought.

Dr. Nguyen Tri Dung, director of the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control (CDC), outlined on May 4 that the southern city had previously taken samples from those in quarantine only on their first and last day of isolation, in line with national regulations.

The latest case, patient 271, was confirmed to have tested positive for the COVID-19 in Ho Chi Minh City on May 3. The individual is a British oil and gas expert who entered the country with a group of other professionals on a private flight and was immediately isolated upon arrival.

Most notably, the patients first test result was negative when placed into quarantine on April 28, with subsequent samples taken five days later coming back positive for the virus.

The health sector will continue to monitor and take samples of patients who have been discharged from hospital for a further 30 days after their release in order to prevent the spread of infections caused by a relapse of cases. Indeed, as many as 280 people on international flights to the southern city have had their samples taken for COVID-19 testing.

At present, the city has so far recorded 55 cases of COVID-19 infection, including six relapses, therefore taking the total number of cases currently receiving treatment to eight. In addition, 398 suspected cases have so far tested negative.

In light of the threat posed by the COVID-19, the health sector recommends people do not go to work, or school, and contact medical staff for advice if they start to show signs of a fever, a cough, or a sore throat.

Elderly people and individuals who suffer from chronic diseases should only leave their home for very limited purposes and be vigilant to maintain a safe distance when in contact with others.

HCM City ups COVID-19 tests on returnees

COVID-19 tests are taken on all passengers upon arriving at Tan Son Nhat Airport from overseas.

People entering Viet Nam at HCM Citys Tan Son Nhat Airport will have COVID-19 tests four times during their 14-day quarantine instead of twice like before.

People returning from overseas have their tests taken two times on the first and last days of quarantine, according to regulations applied nationwide.

Starting from Monday, HCM City will conduct the tests on quarantined people who return from overseas on the first, fifth, tenth and last days of the quarantine.

The move aimed to better control the pandemic as the city is prone to higher risk of infection from people returning from overseas, according to the citys disease management centre on Monday.

A British oil and gas expert who arrived at Tan Son Nhat Airport on April 28 was confirmed on Sunday to be the latest COVID-19 patient in Viet Nam.

He was in a group of 13 experts who landed in HCM City from the UK on a private airplane to implement economic projects.

They have been quarantined after immigration.

Twelve other people in the group tested negative twice.

The British expert was reported to have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on April 7 in the UK and was self quarantined.

He tested negative on April 21 and received a certificate before flying to Viet Nam on April 28.

51 medical centres can conduct COVID-19 tests

As many as 51 medical offices have been allowed to conduct tests confirming COVID-19 results, according to a decision from the Ministry of Health.

A total of 24 are in the north of the country, four in the central region, one in the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) and 22 others in the south.

Currently, countries around the world are using two methods for SARS-CoV-2 tests, including the RT-PCR method, and antibody test, which is often used for quick tests.

A report from the Ha Noi Department of Health showed that by Monday, more than 81,200 samples were tested, of which more than 19,200 were quick tests and more than 62,000 were RT-PCR tests.

Fifty-two out of more than 19,200 quick tests were positive, however, RT-PCR tests then showed they were negative. Thus quick tests showed rapid results, after 20 minutes, but accuracy reached only about 60-70 per cent.

The RT-PCR method is often used to confirm results of quick tests.

Experts believe that in controlling the pandemic, the combination of the two methods is better and helps ease the burden for the health sector to focus on treatment of COVID-19 patients.

No new community COVID-19 cases reported in Vietnam for 19 straight days

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Vietnam recorded no new COVID-19 infections in the community on May 5, making it 19 days in a row since April 16 without new cases, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

Among the total 271 cases, 131 were imported and quarantined right after their arrival in the country.

To date, 221 patients have been given the all-clear. The remainders are being treated at medical facilities nationwide. Most of them are in stable condition. Ten tested negative for the SARS-CoV-2 once and 11 negative twice or more.

Some 25,625 people having close contact with the patients or entering from pandemic-hit countries are under quarantine at hospitals, concentrated quarantine areas, or at home.

The Company for Vaccine and Biological Production No.1 (Vabiotech) of the Ministry of Health has gained initial success in studying a potential coronavirus vaccine.

Right after the first COVID-19 case was reported in Vietnam in January, the company partnered with the UKs Bristol University to conduct research on the vaccine.

Blood test samples on mice will be sent to the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology for evaluation./.

Vietnamese community in Switzerland support fight against coronavirus



Nguyen Le Hoa (second left) with her friends at her restaurant in Switzerland.

Many Vietnamese people abroad have collaborated with local authorities and residents to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

General Director of Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) in Switzerland, Bertrand Levrat, recently sent a letter to thank Vietnamese woman, Nguyen Le Hoa, for her efforts in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Geneva.

Hoa is the director of a Vietnamese restaurant named Saveurs du Vietnam in Geneva.

Hoa and one of her foreign friends helped the hospital buy 12,000 face masks for HUG's health workers when they faced difficulties in ordering masks from abroad.

The Swiss government has called on people not to use masks wastefully and the masks for healthcare workers must continue to be a priority.

She herself donated 5,000 masks to the hospital and hundreds of Vietnamese meals to COVID-19 patients or people in need.

Along with charitable activities such as donating masks, free food and water, Vietnamese people and locals across the country came out onto balconies and windows at 9pm daily, clapping and expressing their thanks and solidarity with the countrys health workers, said Luu Vinh Toan, Hoa's friend in Zurich.

The Vietnamese community living in Switzerland is estimated to be over 8,000.

Their donations reflected the tradition of solidarity and mutual support of the Vietnamese people. Despite difficulties in their host countries, overseas Vietnamese had launched fundraising campaigns and worked with local authorities to combat the disease, said Nguyen Kim Cong, a member of Hoa's charity group.

Three relapse COVID-19 cases reported in HCM City

Three COVID-19 patients in Ho Chi Minh City who previously were given the all-clear have tested positive again for SARS-CoV-2 that causes the acute respiratory disease, raising the total relapse cases in the locality to nine.

Workers at Pasteur Institute in HCM City are conducting SARS-CoV-2 testing.

The three are Patients No. 65, 157 and 206 who were deemed to have recovered on April 1, 10 and 23, respectively, Director of the municipal Department of Health Nguyen Tan Binh said on May 4.

Twenty cases in the city have tested negative for the virus 15 days after being discharged from hospitals, he added.

As of May 4, the southern metropolis had reported 55 COVID-19 cases, of whom 11, including the nine relapse cases, are being treated at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases and the Cu Chi hospital.

Given the rise in relapse cases, Vice Chairman of the municipal Peoples Committee Le Thanh Liem urged the local health sector to continue medical monitoring for patients who have been discharged through daily testing within 30 days.

By May 4 afternoon, Vietnam had recorded no new COVID-19 infections within the community for 18 straight days, with the national count now standing at 271.

Two COVID-19 patients at medical facilities in the northern province of Ninh Binh were given the all-clear on May 4, bringing the number of such cases to 221 or 81 percent, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

Some 27,410 people are now under health monitoring or quarantine, of whom 238 are in concentrated quarantine facilities in hospitals, 5,871 at other concentrated facilities, and 21,300 at home or in accommodation.

Man who recovered from COVID-19 dies of liver cirrhosis

Testing samples for COVID-19

A man who previously was given the all-clear of COVID-19 died on May 1 due to liver cirrhosis, not COVID-19, the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control confirmed on May 4.

The 64-year-old man, known as patient No.251, had perished in the northern province of Ha Nam.

He first tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on April 7 and was treated at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi until April 17 when he was discharged.

He tested negative four times before being transferred to Ha Nam General Hospital for continued treatment of his underlying conditions.

The patient was first admitted to his local hospital for treatment for liver cirrhosis, exhaustion and severe gout on March 20.

After the patient died, Ha Nam General Hospital conducted a SARS-CoV-2 test that returned negative. The man also did not have any symptoms of lung damage caused by COVID-19.

The steering committee met earlier on May 4 and determined the man had not died due to contracted the coronavirus.

To date, Vietnam has reported 271 infections and no deaths./.

Over 153 billion VND mobilised in HCM City to support COVID-19 fight

To Thi Bich Chau (second, right), Chairwoman of Vietnam Fatherland Front chapter in HCM City, receives donation from a business.

As many as 6,756 collectives and individuals had donated more than 153 billion VND (6.5 million USD) to Ho Chi Minh Citys COVID-19 prevention and control fund as of May 4 afternoon, according to the Vietnam Fatherland Front chapter in the city.

Over 22.6 billion VND has also been mobilised in support of residents affected by drought and saltwater intrusion since the campaign was launched on March 20.

The donations, including medical equipment, essential goods, beverages and fruit worth more than 22 billion VND, have been allocated to medical facilities, COVID-19 quarantine centres, soldiers and volunteers in the combat against the pandemic.

Besides, some 14 billion VND has been used to assist 18,707 lottery ticket sellers who are affected by the pandemic.

HCM City has sent 7 billion VND to Soc Trang, Ca Mau, Kien Giang, Tra Vinh, Bac Lieu, Ben Tre and Hau Giang provinces to assist local residents hit by drought and saltwater intrusion./.

Malaysia requests compulsory coronavirus test for foreign workers

Malaysias authorities have urged all foreign workers in the country to undergo mandatory screening for the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), as COVID-19 cases have risen for two consecutive days at a construction site in Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur.

Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said this will be done as a precautionary measure to curb the spread of COVID-19.

He said that the requirement applies to foreign workers in all sectors, including the food and beverage industry.

"As a precautionary measure, we agreed that foreign workers in all sectors, be it construction, factories or restaurants, undergo a mandatory swab test," he said during a daily press conference.

He said the cost of the screening will be covered by the employers.

The Malaysian Health Ministry has suggested screening start in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.

To curb the spread of the deadly disease, Ismail Sabri said the Works Ministry has sealed the site at Jalan Ampang, and any other construction site with coronavirus-positive cases will be closed immediately.

According to the Health Ministry, on May 4, Malaysia recorded 55 new cases of COVID-19, of which seven were from foreign countries, the rest were infections in the community, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases in the country to 6,353, including 105 deaths.

Also on the day, 71 patients recovered and were discharged from hospital, bringing the total number of recoveries to 4,484, accounting for 70.6 percent./.

Two more COVID-19 patients recover

Patient No. 170 was the only COVID-19 patient at the Kim Son District General Hospital in Ninh Binh.

Two COVID-19 patients at medical facilities in the northern province of Ninh Binh were deemed to have recovered on May 4, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

One is Patient No. 166, who was admitted to the hospital on March 26. The 25-year-old tested negative for SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, on April 21, 23, and 25, and May 2. She is the last of the 10 patients at the Ninh Binh General Hospital.

The other, Patient No. 170, was hospitalised on March 28. The man, 27, had tested negative for the virus many times, with the latest being on April 25 and 27 and May 2.

He is now in a stable condition, with no fever, cough, or breathing difficulties. He was the only COVID-19 patient at the Kim Son District General Hospital in Ninh Binh.

The two will continue to undergo quarantine and health monitoring for 14 days.

Vietnam has recorded no new COVID-19 infections within the community for 18 straight days, with the national count now standing at 271. A new patient arrived from the UK at HCM Citys Tan Son Nhat International Airport recently and was quarantined upon arrival.

Among the active cases, 12 tested negative for the novel coronavirus once and nine twice or more.

Some 27,410 people are now under health monitoring or quarantine, of whom 238 are in concentrated quarantine facilities in hospitals, 5,871 at other concentrated facilities, and 21,300 at home or in accommodation./.

Southeast Asian countries report more COVID-19 infection cases

Secretary of the Indonesian Health Ministry's disease control and prevention directorate general Achmad Yurianto reported that his country confirmed 395 new cases of COVID-19 and 19 deaths on May 4, raising its total infections and fatalities to 11,587 and 864 respectively.

Malaysia announced 55 more people who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19, bringing the total of confirmed cases to 6,353, including 105 deaths.

Meanwhile, the Singaporean Health Ministry said the number of COVID-19 cases in the country totaled 18,778, with 573 new patients have been confirmed.

On the same day, health authorities of the Philippines reported 262 more patients of the pandemic, bringing the total to 9,485. The disease killed 623 people in the country.

In Thailand, the total of infections was 2,987, including 54 deaths. As many as 2,470 patients of the disease have been successfully treated in the country, while 193 others were still being treated at medical facilities.

For its part, the Lao Ministry of Health said on May 4 that the country has not recorded any new case during the last 22 days.

As of May 3, 19 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Laos, of which 10 have been recovered from the disease./.

Thua Thien-Hue provides medical equipment to Laos Savannakhet province

At the hand-over ceremony

The central province of Thua Thien-Hue donated medical supplies on May 4 to the Lao border province of Savannakhet to cope with the COVID-19 outbreak.

Vice Secretary of the Thua Thien-Hue Provincial Party Committee Bui Thanh Ha presented the supplies to the Vice Governor of Savannakhet Phoxay Sayasone.

Worth nearly 300 million VND (12,870 USD), the relief package contains 50,000 medical face masks, 800 sets of protective gear, and 250 litres of antiseptic solution.

Authorities from both sides took the occasion to exchange information about the situation in their respective localities and their experience in fighting COVID-19.

They agreed to step up cooperation to prevent the spread of the virus in their shared border area./.

Concerns raised as Malaysia partially loosens movement restrictions

Taking samples for COVID-19 tests in Damansara, Malaysia

Worries has increased over Malaysias new daily COVID-19 infections at the three digits for the second straight day on May 3, just one day before the country partially loosens the Movement Control Order (MCO).

On the day, the country reported 122 new cases, the highest number since April 16, bringing the total to 6,298 with 105 fatalities.

On May 1, Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced that the nation will allow a majority of enterprises to resume operations from May 4 and partially ease restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

However, religious activities, large gatherings and businesses that involve close contacts such as cinemas and night clubs will not be allowed to reopen. Schools and universities will also remain closed.

The PM informed that the Government had lost 63 billion ringgit (14.6 billion USD) from the movement and travel restrictions imposed over six weeks. It will lose another 35 billion ringgit if the restrictions have been extended by a month.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) said that Malaysia could saw an all-time high unemployment figure, higher than both the 1998 Asian financial crisis and the 2009 global financial crisis combined.

It estimated that unemployment could reach up to two million this year, or a staggering unemployment rate of 13 percent./.
Lucknow, May 5 : After the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party on Tuesday jumped into the controversy over fares charged from stranded migrant workers wishing to return to their native states amid the lockdown.

Dubbing it "very unfortunate" that the central and state governments were charging money to ferry migrants by trains and buses etc, BSP chief Mayawati tweeted to say that if these governments were reluctant to foot the bill, the BSP will arrange for help through its cadres and supporters.

"All the governments should make it clear whether they are capable to pay the fares for the labourers or not. This is a demand of the BSP." Earlier, Congress state President Ajay Kumar Lallu wrote a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to seek details of migrant labourers returning home from other states.

He said that the Pradesh Congress Committee will bear the travel expenses of these labourers, following directions for the same from Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Lallu urged the labourers to return home without any break in journey.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said in a statement that thousands of people from the state are stranded outside.

He claimed that the exact number of workers left stranded in other states was also not correct.

"Now complaints are being received about the neglect of Uttar Pradesh natives by governments of other states. Even in Uttar Pradesh, the administration has become indifferent," the former Chief Minister claimed.

He said that the Railways had donated money earned from passengers to the Prime Minister's Fund and then leving a surcharge of Rs 50 each on hungry and thirsty poor labourers returning home to collect more money.

"The exploitation of the poor is a BJP model even in times of disaster. The self-esteem of the country has been shaken by the mistreatment of workers by the central government," the SP leader remarked.
The hashtag believe all women arose before Christine Blasey Ford launched her PR campaign, complete with slick D.C. lawyers and a cacophony of media noise, against Kavanaugh, but ended up becoming the slogan of the hearings. We were told to simply suspend skepticism, inquiry and a requirement that guiltand not innocencebe proven. Those of us who questioned both the veracity and the plausibility of Blasey Fords narrativeone contested by even her closest teenage girlfriend who presumably would have confirmed her tale of assaultwere pilloried as sexist abettors of the patriarchy.

Given my past experience, you can forgive me for expecting that the minute Reade alleged that Biden had pushed her against a wall in the hallways of the Senate and forcibly penetrated her, there would have been a call for some sort of investigation similar to what Kavanaugh endured. At the very least, youd agree that the front pages of every newspaper would be filled with quotes from prominent womens advocates seeking information and advocacy on behalf of the accuser, for these much more serious allegations than those launched against Kavanaugh. After all, this was a sitting U.S. senatornot a teenage boyaccused of actual physical penetration.
As the number of COVID-19



cases crossed 300 in Maharashtra's Aurangabad city, senior administrators took to the streets to urge people to follow the lockdown norms strictly.

The count of coronavirus cases reached 321 in the city, after 24 persons tested positive for the virus on Tuesday.

Armed with portable loudspeakers, divisional commissioner Sunil Kendrekar and municipal commissioner Astik Kumar Pandey went around the city on Monday, urging people to remain indoors, as the lockdown entered its third phase.

A video of the two administrators went viral on social media on Tuesday.

"Youngsters carry the COVID-19 infection into their homes. Even if they recover, they may end up losing their loved ones because of negligence. Despite our attempts, deaths due to coronavirus were reported in Aurangabad," Kendrekar said in the video, asking people to stay indoors.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By PTI

MUMBAI: Budget carrier GoAir is seeking financial support from the government amid the coronavirus pandemic and has paid salaries to some of its employees on a deferred basis, according to a communication.

In the communication to the company's employees on Sunday, Wadia Group Chairman Nusli Wadia and GoAir Managing Director Jeh Wadia also said the carrier remains focussed to restart operations and resume flights as soon as the lockdown is lifted with a full recovery of its network anticipated within a few months.

"The world over, airlines are getting substantial financial support from governments to tide over this unprecedented crisis (coronavirus pandemic), primarily to enable them to meet employee requirements, and also to sustain and restart operations and maintain the viability and structure of their balance sheets," GoAir said in the communication.

These airlines have also been given substantial support from banking systems with the help provided by federal banks, it added.

"We continue to vigorously pursue similar options with our government so that we can, most importantly, improve the position of our employees and also the sustainability of our airline," it said.

GoAir said the airline has been requesting the Indian banking system for financial support but they have not yet reached a conclusion on how they should financially support the airlines despite various advisories from the RBI, it said.

The airline had very little revenue in the first 17 to 24 days of March and zero revenue thereafter, GoAir said adding that it also has to meet all its expenses and liabilities toward its stakeholders such as lessors, suppliers of fuel and engineering, airports and other major expenses.

The nationwide lockdown to curb the COVID-19 pandemic was imposed with effect from March 25 and commercial flight operations have remained suspended since then.

"Despite the lack of government support, GoAir released full salaries to about 2,500 less fortunate employees, equivalent to 40 per cent our workforce, with the remaining employees getting paid on a graded and deferred basis," the company said.

With no inflow of cash, which the company anticipates will continue through the end of May, and with no support forthcoming from either the government or the banking system, "we were left with no alternative but to make the unfortunate and sad decision to pay the March earned salaries over March and April," the airline added.

GoAir said it has closed the sale of all tickets on flights operating through May 31 upon instructions from the government, adding," we do not expect to resume commercial flying prior to June 1, but we are in continuous touch with the Civil Aviation Ministry and are monitoring the situation closely."

The airline also said it has been in continuous touch over the past several weeks with the aviation ministry and the government for financial assistance and structural changes, both fiscal and non-fiscal, but so far no concrete measures have been forthcoming.

"However, our discussion with lessors, partners and suppliers is progressing with most industry-related players being understanding and willing to work with us to try to find suitable solutions," it added.

"With the exception of 2,500 employees, who are the least fortunate amongst us in the GoAir family, we were also forced to place a substantial portion of our employees on temporary leave without pay. The limitations on our resources are not of our own making and the sacrifices we are imposing on you are sadly beyond our control," the airline said.

GoAir CEO has taken a 50 per cent pay cut and voluntarily deferred most of his balance compensation, and the senior management too have taken substantial pay cuts and have also deferred a portion of their compensation.

It also said in preparation to resume operations the airline has reviewed and is executing all the requirements related to health and safety in the context of the pandemic.
(Bloomberg) -- Indonesian consumer goods mall GudangAda secured $25.4 million in a funding round led by Sequoia India and Alpha JWC Ventures, marking the latest investment in Southeast Asian e-commerce as the pandemic pushes business online.

The Series A financing was concluded just three months after the Jakarta-based startup raised $10.5 million in a seed funding round co-led by Alpha JWC Ventures and Wavemaker Partners, with participation from Temasek Holdings Ptes Pavilion Capital.

The new capital brings the startups total funds raised to $36 million in just 15 months since inception, and will help it meet heightened demand for daily essentials during large-scale social restrictions. GudangAda -- loosely translated as we have everything in our warehouse -- helps mom and pop stores buy goods such as cooking ingredients, instant noodles and beverages from wholesalers through its mobile app and website. The platform also lets wholesalers transact among themselves.

Covid-19 is chilling deal activity worldwide but investors continue to single out startups in areas that benefit from a surge in online activity, such as e-commerce and logistics. On Tuesday, Singapores Ninja Van said it raised $279 million from investors including Frances GeoPost SA and ride-hailing giant Grab Holdings Inc.

GudangAda will recruit more than 100 employees this year, adding to a workforce of about 350, according to founder and Chief Executive Officer Stevensang, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. We do have plans to strengthen our mid-senior team throughout the rest of this year, especially in areas of technology and product management, he said in an interview. We are open to all levels of professional talents in Indonesias startup ecosystem.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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A man has been jailed after he viciously bit down on an officers finger in a "sustained attack" to avoid being arrested.

PC James Robinson was left with puncture wounds and permanent scarring after Liam Byron, 23, attacked him on a train in southeast London earlier this year.

PC Robinson said he had "never been victim to such a serious assault" in six and a half years as a police officer.

Byron, of no fixed address, was sentenced to two years and 28 days in prison at Woolwich Crown Court on Thursday.

He pleaded guilty at the same court at an earlier hearing to escape from lawful custody and causing grievous bodily harm with the intent to resist arrest.

On February 2, PC Robinson was on a routine patrol alongside a special constable when they noticed Byron drop a bag and get onto a waiting train at Bexleyheath Station.

The officers searched the bag and inside they found several handbags which they suspected to be stolen from a store in Bexleyheath. Enquiries with the store confirmed they had been stolen earlier that day.

The officers continued their investigation to find Byron and, while on a train, PC Robinson spotted Byron boarding a train from Welling Station with another man.

PC Robinson circulated the information to Metropolitan Police and British Transport Police officers using his radio.

When the train pulled into Eltham Station, PC Robinson believed that Byron had left the train and jumped a fence. He entered the carriage where Byron had been to see if anything had been left behind.

PC Robinson returned to work the very next day after the attack / Met Police

As PC Robinson entered the carriage, he found Byron sat with the other man.

PC Robinson spoke with Byron and arrested him on suspicion of theft.

But as PC Robinson tried to arrest Byron on suspicion of theft, Byron attempted to resist arrest, saying "not today mate".

He managed to free one hand and waved the handcuffs around as a weapon, hitting PC Robinson in the head.

A struggle then ensued between PC Robinson and Byron and during PC Robinsons efforts to restrain Byron, he bit down on the officers finger in a sustained attack.

In a statement read to the court, PC Robinson said: I felt Byron increasing the pressure on my finger with his teeth, and I believe that he was fully intending to sever it.

PC Robinson suffered from several puncture wounds to his finger, which has caused permanent scarring and temporary nerve damage.

However, despite the serious injuries to his finger, PC Robinson continued to restrain Byron who was still biting down on his finger.

When the train stopped at Kidbrooke Station, Byron released PC Robinsons finger and he and the other man fled the train.

PC Robinson chased after them but they managed to escape.

Two days later, on February 4, officers from Emergency Response Team D at Bexleyheath found Byron sleeping rough in Welling Town Centre. Upon his arrest, he was smirking and giggling.

When he was booked into custody at a south London police station, he turned to the arresting officer and said: You know I can kick off if I want to, you ask James Robinson about it.

Detectives from the South East Basic Command Units CID led the investigation and they tried to interview Byron several times, but he refused to be interviewed by officers.

He was subsequently charged with theft, escaping from lawful custody and grievous bodily harm (wounding with intent to resist arrest).

Despite the injuries he suffered, PC Robinson was back at work in a restricted capacity the very next day and has since made a full recovery.

PC Robinson, who is attached to Welling Safer Neighbourhoods Team, said: Id like to thank the detectives from SE CID for building a strong case against Byron which left him with no choice but to plead guilty and resulted in him getting a custodial sentence.

I appreciate that as a police officer I sometimes have to put myself in harms way, however I did not go to work that day expecting someone to try and bite my finger off in such a vicious attack.

In the six and a half years I have been a police officer, I have never been victim to such a serious assault. The physical scars and nerve damage are one thing, but what is even worse is the uncertainty of whether I have contracted anything from the bite.

"Fortunately I dont think I have, but Ill not know for sure until August when my tests have concluded.

I am happy with the sentence Byron has been given, and I feel this sends a clear message that violence against police officers will not be tolerated.
The U.S. Government has extended humanitarian assistance to Ukraine to tackle the coronavirus COVID-19 spread, according to the Embassy of Ukraine in the United States.

The U.S. Government will allocate USD 12.1 million in medical and humanitarian aid through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the International Disaster Assistance program, the embassy wrote on Monday evening.

In particular, these funds will be used to improve capacities of local healthcare institutions in providing care to patients and counteracting the coronavirus spread.

The embassy added that USD 2.4 million of humanitarian aid would be allocated through the U.S. Department of State under the Migration and Refugee Assistance program to support the most vulnerable populations during the pandemic.

As reported, the U.S. government extended humanitarian assistance to Ukraine from $1.2 million announced earlier to $9.1 million to tackle the coronavirus spread.
New York Attorney General Letitia James office is reportedly investigating allegations of sexual misconduct at NBC News.

Former NBC News anchor Linda Vester told The Daily Mail that shes one of more than a dozen women who have been interviewed by the AGs office about claims of historical sexual assault and discrimination. Vester, a network war correspondent and anchor for NBC News at Sunrise in the late 90s, accused Tom Brokaw in 2018 of groping her and physically trying to force her to kiss him.

Vester said Monday that investigators asked her in January about former NBC News chief Andy Lacks possible involvement in orchestrating a public response against me and a defense or cover-up. He was one of many.

Lack was ousted Monday in a corporate restructuring at NBC Universal that placed Telemundo executive Cesar Conde in charge of NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC. Lack, 72, was head of NBC News from 1993 to 2001 and then rejoined the company as news chairman in 2015.

Lack was in charge when longtime Today show host Matt Lauer was fired in 2017 amid allegations of sexual misconduct, and NBC News was later criticized for suppressing Ronan Farrows investigative reporting on disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein. Farrow took his story to the New Yorker and won a Pulitzer Prize; Weinstein is now serving a 23-year sentence in an Upstate New York prison for rape and sexual assault.

Former NBC producer Rich McHugh confirmed the NY Attorney Generals investigation during an appearance on Fox News Monday.

It was the New York Attorney Generals office civil division, so were not sure if it could lead into anything criminal, but I do know that theyve been looking into this and interviewing employees over a number of months," McHugh told Tucker Carlson.

Syracuse native and Syracuse University alumna Megyn Kelly, who was hired by Lack from Fox News in 2017, has also been questioned in the investigation, according to the Daily Mail. Representatives for Kelly, who was fired from NBCs Today show in October 2018, have not confirmed her involvement.

According to the New York Post, the AGs office has refused to comment.

A spokesperson for NBC Universal told the newspaper Tuesday that it was not aware of the investigation.
The restrictions Canada has placed on obtaining, keeping, and using firearms failed entirely in the recent mass murder case in Nova Scotia. I refrain from using the murderer's name.

Canadian restrictions on gun ownership failed. The murderer had plead guilty to an assault charge in 2002. He paid a $50 fine, and served probation for nine months. He then had a lifetime ban on owning firearms. From nypost.com:

Authorities said Wortman did not have a police record, but information later emerged of at least one run-in with the law. Nova Scotia court records confirm he was ordered to receive counseling for anger management after pleading guilty to assaulting a man in the Halifax area on Oct. 29, 2001. The guilty plea came on Oct. 7, 2002, as his trial was about to begin. He was placed on probation for nine months, fined $50 and told to stay away from the man, and also prohibited from owning or possessing a weapon, ammunition or explosive substances. Mass shootings are relatively rare in Canada. The country overhauled its gun control laws after Marc Lepine shot 14 women and himself to death at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique college in 1989. Before the weekend rampage, that had been Canada's worst mass shooting.

Authorities have not released much information about what firearms the murderer used in his killings. We know he took one handgun and magazines from the RCMP officer he killed. .....
Jacinda Ardern has shut down New Zealand television presenter Duncan Garner after he questioned her cautious approach to lifting coronavirus restrictions in a heated interview on air.

The prime minister, 39, appeared on the AM Show on Monday where she was asked whether she would consider moving to a level 2 lockdown after the country celebrated its first day without new COVID-19 cases.

New Zealand downgraded to a level 3 last week, effectively reopening the economy and sending 400,000 Kiwis back to work.

The Cabinet will assess whether it is ready to lessen restrictions once more at a meeting next week.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, 39, appeared on the AM Show on Monday where she was asked whether she would consider moving to a level 2 lockdown

AM Show host Duncan Garner criticised Ms Ardern's lockdown approach questioning her decision not to move to level 2 sooner

But Ms Ardern told Mr Garner the government would not consider moving to level 2 earlier then scheduled because she wants to be confident that they are in the 'best possible position' to do so.

Mr Garner responded by challenging the PM's approach, citing expert advice and low figures on coronavirus cases.

'What is it that you're looking for to move us to level 2?' he asked.

'Because I reckon this week looks like last week, and next week could look like this week, and all the international experts say this is going to be the new normal for months and months and months. What are we waiting for? '

An exasperated Ms Ardern replied: 'I didn't realise you were an epidemiologist, congratulations on your new qualifications.'

Garner, seemingly unimpressed with the tongue-in-cheek response, fired back: 'If you wanna get personal then that's fine, but I'm just asking a question.'

The fiery exchange has since gone viral, with many social media users praising the PM for her response.

'Why is it always the white middle aged man that is always the loudest?' one person tweeted.

'I could watch this over and over again,' another said in response.

The heated moment was also turned into a meme with footage of the interview being combined with a clip of hecklers cheering on Ms Ardern.

Hundreds of Kiwis lined up to get their first McDonald's fix in weeks, after level four coronavirus restrictions were eased in New Zealand. Pictured: Dozens of cars wait in line in Christchurch

Ms Ardern (pictured with Scott Morrison in February) joined Australia's coronavirus cabinet meeting on Tuesday for the neighbouring countries to discuss reopening their borders to trans-Tasman travel

New Zealand on Monday cautiously celebrated a day without new COVID-19 cases for the first time since the peak of the pandemic.

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield announced the promising result, the first day without fresh cases since March 16.

The country's COVID-19 death toll stands at 20, with 1137 confirmed nationwide cases.

Just four Kiwis currently require hospital treatment for the virus, with none in intensive care.

Ms Ardern joined Australia's coronavirus cabinet meeting on Tuesday for the neighbouring countries to discuss reopening their borders to trans-Tasman travel following their successes in containing the disease.

Following the meeting Ms Ardern said the logistics of how the 'travel bubble' would work were still being discussed.

She said the 'trans-Tasman bubble' would likely not include a quarantine period.

'People wouldn't travel if they had to stay on either side in quarantine for a two-week period and have to do the same when you return. But there is still a lot of work to be done before we can progress an idea like that,' she said.

Both countries have a COVID-19 mortality rate of just 1 per cent and have boosted their medical equipment reserves as they plan to slowly reopen their economies, including restarting travel across the Tasman sea.
Over the years, countless studies have detailed the plight of many San Antonians. San Antonio received the dubious distinction of being the nations most economically segregated city. The United Ways ALICE Report found that more than half of San Antonio households struggled to make ends meet. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the brutal reality behind these studies.

The numbers are even worse now. Prior to COVID-19, Bexar Countys unemployment rate was 3.1 percent. Since the week of March 7, 86,653 Bexar County residents filed for unemployment. On April 24, the Congressional Budget Office forecast that the U.S. unemployment rate will be 14 percent through the third quarter of the year and 9.5 percent at the end of 2021. Potentially, 100,000 of our neighbors will be out of work for an unknown length of time.

Unemployment insurance benefits last 26 weeks. The benefits of those who applied during the week of March 7 will expire beginning Sept. 6. They will be looking for jobs in a market with too many applicants for too few jobs. Many will lack the skills to compete in a post-COVID-19 economy.

In this crisis, we must ask, what type of community do we want to become? Will it be the old San Antonio built on low-wage, low-skill jobs? Or will it be a new and more resilient San Antonio built on a skilled workforce? Passivity will lead to the former. COPS/Metro calls for bold action for a stronger San Antonio.

The city of San Antonio and Bexar County have the resources to act boldly. The CARES Act sent the city $270 million and the county $79 million. The federal Treasury gives the city and county wide discretion on how to use these funds.

The investment of these funds is one of the biggest decisions our community will ever make. We cannot allow the funds to be frittered away, diluting their impact by spreading the money over too many small pockets. These funds should be invested in three categories.

First, the county and city should use these funds to keep our community safe. For example, they should invest in COVID-19 testing and contact tracing.

Second, $41 million should be allocated for the emergency housing assistance programs the city and county recently created. Combined with the $29 million already allocated, this would create a $70 million fund to prevent widespread homelessness. As of Wednesday, the citys program had more than 4,000 applications, totaling $7 million in aid.

Third, the lions share should be used as a down payment on a five-year investment plan to train and retrain our workforce for a post-COVID-19 economy. This is the key to rebuilding San Antonio and a real recovery that will not leave out San Antonians.

Funds should be used to create San Antonios version of the GI Bill. Unemployed workers would attend an Alamo Community College full time. They would receive a stipend so they can focus on school and not worry about paying bills. The program would also include wraparound support services to help them stay on track.

The city and county could also create a public works program to address unmet needs in the communities. Participants would receive a living wage with training to prepare them for future jobs. They would work on projects with significant public benefits, such as rehabbing dilapidated homes or reducing our citys and countys digital divide.

This is the time for bold action. The alternative is a community where the fault lines that existed before the pandemic will be even more sharply defined, even more divisive.

Steve Mendoza is a COPS/Metro leader from Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Helotes. Sonia Rodriguez is a COPS/Metro leader from St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church.
Liz Truss, the International Trade Secretary - PETER NICHOLLS/REUTERS

Britain and the United States are to begin negotiations on an "ambitious" post-Brexit free trade agreement on Tuesday.

Liz Truss, the International Trade Secretary, and Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative, will open the talks with a video conference call.

The first round of negotiations will then continue for around two weeks, with around 100 negotiators on each side taking part.

Further rounds will take place approximately every six weeks with talks being conducted remotely until it is safe to travel again.

At official level, the talks will be led by Oliver Griffiths at the Department for International Trade for the UK and Daniel Mullaney, the assistant US trade representative for Europe and the Middle East.

A chicken farm in Fairmont, North Carolina. The Government has denied that a trade deal will force Britain to accept looser food standards - RANDALL HILL/REUTERS

Boris Johnson has long argued that a free trade deal with the US is one of the great prizes to be gained from leaving the EU, providing a major boost to the economy. However, critics have warned that striking a deal will require Britain to accept looser US food and environmental standards as well as opening up the NHS to American firms - something the Government denies.

Ahead of the first session, Ms Truss said a deal would help both countries' economies to "bounce back" after the coronavirus crisis.

"We want to strike an ambitious deal that opens up new opportunities for our businesses, brings in more investment and creates better jobs for people across the whole of the country," she said.

"The Prime Minister has been clear that we champion free trade and this deal will make it even easier to do business with our friends across the pond."

"As we sit down at the negotiating table today be assured that we will drive a hard bargain to secure a deal that benefits individuals and businesses in every region and nation of the UK."
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 5/5/2020 (623 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  Manitoba MP Jim Carr began stem-cell treatment Tuesday as he battles a blood cancer.

He is undergoing an autologous transplant, which involved taking his own stem cells in February, and then undergoing intensive chemotherapy before having those stem cells reintroduced through the veins.

That procedure is much less risky than using a donors stem cells to treat multiple myeloma, according to the Canadian Cancer Society.

Carr, 68, wrote Tuesday that he expects to be recovering at the Health Sciences Centre "for a few weeks." Tuesdays treatment had been rescheduled twice as the COVID-19 pandemic postponed elective surgeries.

Stem-cell transplants generally improve blood cancers, by having the body produce more healthy blood. However, it does increase the risk of infection in the immediate aftermath.

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Carrs son Ben wrote on Facebook that he went to visit his father Tuesday morning from the front porch. "He was energetic and ready to fight," Ben wrote.

The MP for Winnipeg South Centre announced his diagnosis last October, which came with the discovery of kidney failure.

"The past few months have been a challenging and unprecedented time for everyone but I know that we will get through this and emerge stronger than ever," Carr wrote in his statement.

He was made aware of the treatment before the Canadian Judicial Council announced Monday that it had found Carrs wife, Justice Colleen Suche, erred in advising Carr about judicial appointments.

Carr served as energy and trade minister for the Liberals four-year majority mandate. After last Octobers election and diagnosis, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made Carr his special advisor for the Prairies, which is not a cabinet post.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
Employers could shun workers who have not had coronavirus after lockdown, prompting people to actively try to catch the disease or obtain fake test results on the blackmarket, the government's science experts warned ministers.

Secret documents prepared by the independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) last month outlined the potential drawbacks of introducing widespread antibody testing and so-called 'immunity certificates'.

Such tests would show if someone has had the disease and if they have some degree of immunity with accompanying digital certificates then showing employers the health status of staff.

Antibody tests are viewed as one of the key pieces in the puzzle when it comes to getting the UK back to work.

But SPI-B, a sub-committee of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), said introducing the tests could result in people trying to 'game' the system.

The documents suggest workers who do not have antibodies could be discriminated against, effectively creating two classes of employee, with those who have had the disease prized because of a belief that they will not get ill again.

Those who are antibody negative could then turn to trying to obtain fake test results or even trying to get ill on purpose to boost their chances of returning to work.

Meanwhile, the documents also warned positive tests could result in people wrongly thinking they no longer need to wash their hands, risking an increase in the transmission of the disease.

Those who are antibody negative could also be too afraid to leave home and could refuse to return to work, the group said.

The warnings about antibody testing came as separate documents showed scientists were urging Boris Johnson to tell people to stop shaking hands on the same day that he boasted he was still shaking hands with 'everybody'.

Newly-released records on the advice given to the government as the coronavirus crisis erupted show Mr Johnson seemingly flouted the recommendations from his own experts.

A meeting of the behavioural group that feeds into SAGE on March 3 concluded that 'Government should advise against greetings such as shaking hands and hugging, given existing evidence about the importance of hand hygiene'.

Boris Johnson, pictured in St James' Park this morning, was warned by the government's science experts that antibody testing and 'immunity certificates' could have unintended negative consequences

Mr Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock have relied heavily on advice from Professor Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance during the crisis. The four are pictured in Downing Street on March 12

Scientists advised against shaking hands on same day Boris Johnson said he was still shaking hands with 'everybody' Scientists were urging Boris Johnson to tell people to stop shaking hands the same day the PM was boasting about shaking hands with 'everybody', it was revealed today. Newly-released records on the advice given to the government as the coronavirus crisis erupted show Mr Johnson seemingly flouted the recommendations from his own experts. A meeting of the behavioural group that feeds into SAGE on March 3 concluded that 'Government should advise against greetings such as shaking hands and hugging, given existing evidence about the importance of hand hygiene'. 'A public message against shaking hands has additional value as a signal about the importance of hand hygiene,' the Independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) said. 'Promoting a replacement greeting or encouraging others to politely decline a proffered hand-shake may have benefit.' However, that evening Mr Johnson told a press conference in Downing Street that he 'continued to shake hands' and the important thing was washing them. He said: 'I was at a hospital the other night where I think there were a few coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody, you will be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands. 'People obviously can make up their own minds but I think the scientific evidence is our judgement is that washing your hands is the crucial thing.' Advertisement

The antibody test warnings and advice on shaking hands were just two of today's SAGE revelations as some of the panel's documents were finally published. Others included:

A government-funded study found at least a dozen different strains of coronavirus were spreading through the UK in March.

Ministers were warned by their expert scientific advisers that lifting the coronavirus lockdown and then reimposing restrictions later would be seen by the public as a 'serious failure of policy'.

A mass-produced antibody test which is accurate enough to be rolled out at a national level is yet to be identified by any country in the world.

But the UK government is hoping for a breakthrough in the near future with the tests viewed as one of the keys to getting Britain back to work.

Ministers are in talks with tech firms about developing an 'immunity certificate' app which would show if someone has been tested and if they have coronavirus antibodies.

The SPI-B committee was tasked with examining the potential negative outcomes of introducing antibody testing.

Documents written on April 13 and finally published today show such a regime could have devastating unintended consequences.

The experts warned that 'some employers may discriminate on the basis of antibody status'.

That could include not allowing people who have tested negative to return to work or only hiring people who are antibody positive.

The group said that could prompt people to try to cheat the system or to try to catch coronavirus.

The experts wrote: 'If a test result is a requirement for a resumption of work, a range of strategies to "game" the system may arise.

'These include people deliberately seeking out infection or attempting to purchase a fake test result, commercial organisations selling unapproved tests, or approved tests becoming available through private organisations at prices that make them unavailable to most.'

Meanwhile, those workers who have not had coronavirus could be too afraid to go outside, reducing their social contact to unhealthy levels, and some could simply refuse to return to work.

The group said: 'It is possible that people told they have not yet had the virus may feel more vulnerable and wish to avoid specific activities at work that pose a risk to their health, or seek to avoid attendance at work entirely.'

The group also expressed major concerns that positive tests could drastically alter people's behaviour.

Those who have tested positive for antibodies may wrongly 'believe they have no chance of becoming infected with COVID-19 in the future'.

That means that if they developed the key symptoms of a cough or fever they may not think they need to self-isolate, increasing the risk of infecting others.

Experts: More than 12 coronavirus strains were spreading across UK in March At least a dozen different strains of coronavirus were spreading through the UK in March, a Government-funded study has found. Leading genetic scientists analysed the genomes of the killer virus in 260 infected patients from all corners of the UK. They say they have identified 12 unique lines of the virus, one of which has only ever been found in Britain  meaning it mutated on UK soil. But the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK) said the number of strains is very likely substantially higher due to under-sampling in the UK. The scientists say most of the strains were imported from Italy and Spain, the worst-hit countries in the world at the time the research was carried out. There is no suggestion that any of the strains are any more potent or infectious than another, infectious disease experts say. Advertisement

People who test positive could also stop washing their hands, the scientists said, which would also boost transmission.

Scientists are yet to determine with 100 per cent certainty whether people who have had coronavirus have a high level of resistance to the disease. They are also trying to establish whether that immunity could wane over time. But total immunity has already been ruled out.

The SPI-B group also raised concerns about the accuracy of the tests and the potential for people to be given a false sense of protection.

For example, if five per cent of tests were actually incorrect then thousands of workers could wrongly believe they are safe from the disease.

This would have particularly bad consequences if people with positive antibody tests decided to volunteer for high coronavirus exposure jobs, the group said.

'Some testing Antibody Positive may actively volunteer to take on activities at work with high exposure to COVID-19,' the experts said.

'This might include customer-facing roles or tasks within health or social care that involve greater contact with COVID-19 patients.

'This would be particularly problematic if the test result was incorrect.'
NEW YORK, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hunt Companies Finance Trust, Inc. (NYSE: HCFT) ("HCFT" or the "Company") announced today that it expects to file its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 11, 2020, after the market closes, and it invites investors and other interested parties to listen to its live conference call via telephone or webcast on Tuesday, May 12, 2020, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

The conference call may be accessed by dialing 1-877-870-4263 (US) or 1-412-317-0790 (International). Note: there is no passcode; please ask the operator to be joined into the Hunt Companies Finance Trust call. A live webcast, on a listen-only basis, is also available and can be accessed through the URL:

https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/2022/34717

For those unable to listen to the live broadcast, a recorded replay will be available for on-demand viewing approximately one hour after the end of the event through the Company's website https://huntcompaniesfinancetrust.com/ and by telephone dial-in. The replay call-in number is 1-877-344-7529 (US) or 1-412-317-0088 (International) with passcode 10143885.

About Hunt Companies Finance Trust, Inc.

Hunt Companies Finance Trust, Inc. is a Maryland corporation focused on investing in, financing and managing a portfolio of commercial real estate debt investments. The Company primarily invests in transitional floating rate commercial mortgage loans with an emphasis on middle-market multi-family assets. Investors, security holders and other interested persons may find additional information regarding the Company at the SEC's Internet site at http://www.sec.gov/ or the Company website https://huntcompaniesfinancetrust.com/ or by directing requests to: Hunt Companies Finance Trust, Inc., 230 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, NY 10169, Attention: Investor Relations.

Hunt Companies Finance Trust, Inc. is externally managed and advised by OREC Investment Management, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company. For additional information regarding OREC Investment Management, LLC, please see its form ADV and brochure (Part 2A of Form ADV) available at www.adviserinfo.sec.gov

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements included in this press release, any related webcast / conference call, and other oral statements made by our representatives from time to time may constitute forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the safe harbor contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act, as amended. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements include information about possible or assumed future results of our business, financial condition, liquidity, results of operations, plans and objectives. You can identify forward-looking statements by use of words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "project," "estimate," "plan," "continue," "intend," "should," "may," "will," "seek," "would," "could," or similar expressions or other comparable terms, or by discussions of strategy, plans or intentions. Statements regarding the following subjects, among others, may be forward-looking: the return on equity; the yield on investments; the ability to borrow to finance assets; and risks associated with investing in real estate assets, including changes in business conditions and the general economy. Forward-looking statements are based on our beliefs, assumptions and expectations of our future performance, taking into account all information currently available to us on the date of this press release or the date on which such statements are first made. Actual results may differ from expectations, estimates and projections. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements in this press release and/or any related webcast / conference call and should consider carefully the factors described in Part I, Item IA "Risk Factors" in our annual reports on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other current or periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), when evaluating these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and are generally beyond our control. Additionally, many of these risks and uncertainties are currently amplified by and will continue to be amplified by, or in the future may be amplified by, the COVID-19 outbreak. It is not possible to predict or identify all such risks. Additional information concerning these and other risk factors are contained in our 2019 10-K which is available on the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at www.sec.gov. Except as required by applicable law, we disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Hunt Companies Finance Trust, Inc.
A raft of artifacts seized by authorities and thought to be from the ancient Middle East have been identified as fake.

A pair of trunks filled with individually wrapped clay tablets, figures and pots were seized by Border Force, at Heathrow airport, in July, 2019.

The cargo was sent from Bahrain and bound for a UK address.

Inside, a collection of clay tablets, figurines, cylinder seals and animal-shaped pots were uncovered. As many as 190 tablets were also packaged inside.

Pictured: a raft of eerie-looking animal figurines which were discovered to have been fired in a modern kiln

The British Museum team said the collection (some pictured) appeared 'to represent an almost complete range of basic items known from ancient Mesopotamia'

However, experts in the Department of the Middle East at the British Museum have since classified the entire 'trove' as forgeries.

The collection of fakes will now be used by the museum for training purposes, though some will go on display for a brief time when the British Museum reopens.

'These seizures confirm an emerging trend: capitalising on interest in the purchase of antiquities, unscrupulous traders are faking Middle Eastern objects for sale,' said John Simpson, curator at the British Museum.

Suspicions were first raised about the collection seized by Border Force by the Department of the Middle East.

The team said the collection appeared 'to represent an almost complete range of basic items known from ancient Mesopotamia,' according to a Press Association report.

Pictured: a selection of the cuneiform tablets out of their wrappings, with fake inscriptions

Specifically, the collection included cushion-shaped school texts to be held in one hand and written on one side.

It also contained prisms and cylinders for burial as building inscriptions and administrative texts, votive mace-heads and inscribed dedicatory wall cones.

There was also a royal inscription that mentioned the late Assyrian king Adadnirari.

They also found a mathematical tablet, and an inscribed amulet resembling a unique example dug up at the Assyrian capital of Nimrud.

However, the cuneiform inscriptions were found to be a jumble of signs which made no sense.

Museum experts also discovered the clay used in most items was of a similar type, impossible in genuine articles - and they had all been fired in a modern kiln, rather than authentically sun-dried.

The tablet dimensions also did not match the originals, a common forgery error when working from photographs.

'These consignments confirm the importance of vigilance on the part of our law enforcement agencies and the role that museums need to play in the identification of these objects,' said Simpson.
The Bombay High Court has refused to extend the benefit of soft loan scheme floated by the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution to private sugar factories in Maharashtra.

The division bench of justices SV Gangapurwala and Shrikant Kulkarni dismissed a petition filed by seven private sugar factories from Marathwada region in this regard on Thursday. The petitioners had challenged the validity of March 22, 2018 notification issued by Maharashtra co-operatives department, which is implementing the scheme in the state, keeping the private sugar factories out of the purview of the scheme.

The petitioners said that by issuing the notification, the state co-operatives department has restricted benefit of the soft loan scheme only to 29 co-operative sugar factories. For 2014-15 season, when the scheme was floated to ensure payment of fair and remunerative price of sugar cane to farmers, the benefit was extended to a mix of 175 private and co-operative sugar factories in Maharashtra.

It was argued on behalf of the petitioner factories that the scheme framed by the central government and implemented by the state government cannot in any way discriminate between co-operative and private sugar factories. The scheme was made applicable uniformly taking into consideration the interest of the agriculturists, but the state government has deprived private sugar factories like the petitioners from getting benefit of the scheme.

The high court, however, refused to accept their argument that the state notification was arbitrary and caused injustice to the petitioners factories, which are facing financial crisis because of their exclusion from the scheme.

The bench said the state government had initially extended benefit of the scheme to all sugar factories, but it was later restricted to 29 co-operative sugar factories.

If the private sugar factories are left out or excluded from getting benefit of soft loan scheme, it cannot be said to be an arbitrary decision, said the bench.

The government has a right to take policy decision, particularly wherein financial implications are involved, the bench said further.

Policy matters are within the domain and competence of the state government and where any policy involves financial and economic ramifications, the court certainly would not transgress upon the policy making power of the state, it added.
Seven people have been detained in Azerbaijan amid the social protests.

According to Turan referring to the ministry of internal affairs and the prosecutor generals office, several participants of the 'unauthorized meeting' committed violations of public order and did not comply with the lawful requirements of the police.

Several hundred people protested Monday in Azerbaijan to express dissatisfaction with the distribution of financial aid to victims of the pandemic. Clashes have occurred as the police tried to disperse them.
I have an embarrassing fondness for romance novels, so I know the genres. For decades, one popular genre has had FBI agents as lead characters, whether male or female. In a romance novel, being an FBI agent is shorthand for being intelligent, courageous, and upright.

With the latest revelations about the FBI's war against Donald Trump, it's unlikely that any conservative will ever again want to read a romance novel with an FBI hero or heroine. And while CIA agents and DOJ lawyers were never that popular as romantic leads, any romance showcasing them will probably head for the circular file, too.

Writing at the Federalist, Margot Cleveland summarizes how recently released documents show that the FBI and DOJ, both during and after Obama's presidency, went after Michael Flynn, who had honorably served his country for 33 years. The documents expose the machinations behind forcing Flynn to plead guilty to a crime he didn't commit.

The FBI's and DOJ's conduct included, but isn't limited to, plotting how to catch Flynn in a lie, blindsiding him at the White House, hiding from him the transcript of his call with the Russian ambassador, trying to sneak into the conversation notice to Flynn that lying to the FBI is a felony, illegally changing the interview notes, threatening Flynn's son to get him to plead guilty and then hiding that fact from the court, and withholding exculpatory documents.

Kurt Schlichter highlights that this reprehensible behavior continued with Robert Mueller and his posse:

And let's not forget the crimes of the Mueller gang, that team of consummate pros that we were dutifully informed by the rump-bussing media was made up of the bestest and the brightest of American law enforcement. It was not bad enough that they threatened to prosecute of LTG Flynn's son on false charges to coerce a guilty plea and cooperation again Trump, et. al. No, they then hid the fact that they made this promise to LTG Flynn by not putting it in the plea agreement as mandated by law. That way, as honest ex-prosecutor Andrew McCarthy figured out, they ensured that when they put LTG Flynn up to testify against a someone from Trumpworld, maybe even the president himself, the jury would never know the real reason LTG Flynn pleaded guilty  that he was forced to protect his family from false charges. They did this intending to lie to future juries.

The CIA was dirty, too. While Obama was still president, John Brennan shut down an Intelligence Community report concluding (based on evidence obvious to a child) that Hillary Clinton was Putin's preferred candidate:

The report states that Brennan overruled agency analysts who wanted to include strong intelligence in the assessment to show that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted Hillary Clinton to win the election, Fleitz says, citing conversations with House Intelligence Committee staffers. Brennan had also rejected analysts who wanted to strike weak intelligence from the report which suggested that Russia favored Trump, Fleitz said. "So Brennan actually slanted this analysis, choosing anti-Trump intelligence and excluding anti-Clinton intelligence," Fleitz told The Epoch Times.

But wait! There's more! Just a few days ago, James Baker, the FBI's former general counsel, admitted that the FBI didn't indict Hillary Clinton for her serious national security violations only because the Fibbies thought (hoped?) she'd win:

Twice failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was not indicted when she mishandled classified information because the FBI believe she was going to win the 2016 presidential election. That's a bombshell admission from former FBI General Counsel James Baker, who revealed that the FBI had enough evidence to charge and convict Clinton but decided not to charge her.

We know that in these agencies  the FBI, the DOJ, and the CIA  there are honorable men and women who take seriously their obligation to serve America. What's becoming clear is that these good people are working for irremediably corrupt organizations that consider themselves a permanent shadow government. As such, they are unconstrained by the Constitution, laws, regulations, and ordinary morality.

Trump needs to clean out these Augean stables, and he needs to do it fast. Thankfully, with the accelerating pace of John Durham's investigation, there's hope that the coming summer will finally see at least a little justice done.
Amanda Holden narrowly avoided a wardrobe mishap as she was pictured leaving the Heart FM radio studios on Tuesday after another successful shift.

The 49-year-old looked incredible wearing a peach, mint green and white wrap dress from Forever Unique and flashed some serious leg as a gust of wind blew it open.

She lengthened her legs with a pair of strappy nude court shoes as she managed to maintain her modesty.

Giggling: Amanda Holden narrowly avoided a wardrobe mishap on Tuesday when a gust of wind blew her wrap dress open outside the Heart Radio studios

Laughing: She saw the funny side as she quickly grabbed her dress and held it in place

Paying close attention to detail, Amanda carried a green croc Aspinal handbag in her hand and wore a pair of oversized sunglasses.

Her outing comes after the music video to her chart-topping charity single, Over The Rainbow was released.

The song, released to make money for NHS Charities together has already reached Number One on itunes and Number Four in the Official Charts.

Paying close attention to detail: Amanda carried a green croc Aspinal handbag in her hand and wore a pair of oversized sunglasses

All proceeds to charity: The song, released to make money for NHS Charities together has already reached Number One on itunes and Number Four in the Official Charts

Legs eleven: She was strutting her stuff in elegant style

The video features cameo appearances from Colonel Tom Moore, who raised more than 32million for the NHS, along with Amanda's daughters Alexa, 14, and Hollie, eight, and Alesha Dixon's little girl Azura, six.

The video opens with a delighted Amanda walking into the recording studio before a montage of people applauding for the NHS and key workers.

The star's daughters make an appearance alongside her husband Chris Hughes as they applaud on their doorstep while Amanda's BGT co-judge Alesha's eldest daughter Azura is also seen in a candid snap with a rainbow light across her face.

Hold on tight! She was making sure her dress stayed in place despite the elements

Fundraiser: Amanda has released the glittering official music video for her chart-topping charity hit Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Icon: Showing the video comes from the heart, Colonel Tom Moore, who raised more than 32million for the NHS makes a cameo

A clip then plays of Amanda singing Happy Birthday to Colonel Tom on his 100th birthday last week.

The Britain's Got Talent judge told MailOnline on Monday how thrilled she is with the success of her song, but that she can't rest on her laurels with four days to go until the weekly chart update - urging fans to keep downloading to help her pay 'a lifetime of debt' to the NHS.

She also revealed that there are plans for her to perform on Britain's Got Talent's live shows going forward, as agreed with show boss and co-judge Simon Cowell.

Yay: Amanda's daughters Alexa, 14, and Hollie, eight (centre) also make a cameo
(Bloomberg) -- The prospect of Britains biggest telecommunications deal in five years is threatening Vodafone Group Plc in its backyard, prompting speculation it could counterattack.

A tie-up between Virgin Media and O2, the U.K. broadband and mobile units of Liberty Global Plc and Telefonica SA, could be announced as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the matter. That leaves Vodafone -- viewed previously as a strong alternative partner for Virgin Media -- looking isolated.

Virgin Media is the only serious challenger to former monopoly BT Group Plc in fixed-line infrastructure. So a Virgin deal would be Vodafones sole opportunity to seize a place in the landline market and offer customers more lucrative bundles of mobile, broadband and TV at a national scale. Vodafone has already extolled the benefits of being a converged fixed-and-wireless operator in its other markets such as Germany.

The Vodafone management team will have some difficult decisions to make in short order, said HSBC analysts led by Adam Fox-Rumley in a note.

Vodafone and Liberty also have a history of close deal-making. The U.K.-based global wireless operator bought Libertys German and eastern European operations for 18.4 billion euros ($19.9 billion) last year. The two have a Dutch joint venture, VodafoneZiggo, that looks almost like a template for the emerging terms of Libertys U.K. deal.

Liberty also jumped to Vodafones wireless network from BTs to resell its own-brand U.K. mobile services in November.

The risk to Vodafone from a Virgin-O2 deal looks so great that some observers are speculating the Liberty-O2 talks are a tactic by Libertys deal-savvy Chief Executive Officer Mike Fries to sweeten the terms of the Vodafone deal he may really want.

This story that Virgin Media is in discussions with O2 UK could still just be a ploy to try to flush out a deal with Vodafone and to set up a Dutch auction, said New Street Research analyst James Ratzer. In any deal with O2 UK, Vodafone would be the big potential loser here.

Story continues

Vodafone declined to comment.

Regulator Risk

Virgins cable and fiber connections reach about half of Britains homes, making it by far the biggest fixed-connection rival to BT, some way ahead of a flurry of fiber businesses such as CityFibre Ltd. that are vying to become a serious third-placed contender.

All the more reason for Telefonica Chairman Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete to make sure a Liberty deal doesnt slip through his fingers. British and European regulators united to block his last attempt to sell O2 to CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd.s unit Three in 2016, weeks before the U.K. voted to leave the EU.

This had a chilling effect on telecom industry consolidation across Europe as regulators took a dim view of linking up networks at the risk of increasing prices.

A deal allowing Virgin Media and O2 to leapfrog BT to become the biggest U.K. telecom operator stands a better chance of being approved by regulators, if past interventions are anything to go by.

A potential Virgin-O2 tie-up wouldnt reduce the number of competitors in the U.K. mobile market from four to three. Neither did BTs 12.5 billion-pound acquisition of wireless unit EE, which was waved through by antitrust officials.

Whats more, the coronavirus pandemic is forcing millions of people to rely more on telecommunications, strengthening the argument for allowing suppliers to merge so they can invest more in networks.

U.K. or EU?

While company revenues would usually require a deal review by the European Unions merger watchdog, even during the Brexit transition period, the U.K.s Competition and Markets Authority could ask to take over a probe. Germany has repeatedly failed to win back telecom reviews but Britains imminent departure from the bloc may make it hard for the EU to refuse.

That would also set up a test for Melanie Dawes, the new chief executive officer of British communications watchdog Ofcom, who started in the role in March and is yet to have such a big deal pass her desk.

Legal issues could still complicate a deal as Telefonica has set up a challenge to the U.K.s pending 5G spectrum auction. That could create uncertainty about O2s value as its unclear how much money Telefonica will have to pay for 5G airwaves and what it would own. Telefonica had previously planned an initial public offering for O2, which it said couldnt happen until after Britains previous spectrum auction.

Another potential point of conflict is Virgin Medias agreement to shift its virtual mobile service to Vodafones network next year.

New Street analyst Ratzer said theres probably a break fee for Virgin to exit the deal with Vodafone, but it shouldnt prove a stumbling block.

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Ride-share companies trying to improve safety for their drivers during the coronavirus pandemic by giving them protective equipment may breach workplace laws that allow them to employ workers as independent contractors.

Gig-economy businesses such as Uber and Deliveroo rely on independent contractors, who do not get sick leave or unfair dismissal protections, to give them a cheaper, flexible workforce.

The ride-sharing service Ola has offered drivers protective equipment if they spend 50 hours a week on the platform. Credit:Ryan Stuart

But employment law experts warn that giving those workers more equipment means courts are more likely to see them as employees, who are entitled to superannuation and leave.

Ola, an Uber competitor, last week announced a pilot program called Ola Pro that offers drivers personal protective equipment and a screen to separate themselves from passengers if they work at least 50 hours a week and accept 75 per cent of rides. The company's head of international, Simon Smith, said while demand had dropped because of COVID-19, the pro service was helping people take "critical" journeys.
One over ground worker (OGW) of Hizbul Mujahideen was arrested in Jammu and Kashmir's Doda district and one pistol recovered from him on Tuesday, officials said.

Acting on an information about one suspected militant in Tanta village, police, along with the army, launched a joint operation in the area on Tuesday, they said.

During the operation, one person tried to escape from cordon and was apprehended after a long chase, the officials said.

On his questioning, he was identified as Tanveer Malik, an OGW of Hizbul Mujahideen, they said.

One Chinese pistol and 10 rounds of ammunition was recovered from him, the officials said.

He was reportedly missing from home since February 9 this year and his missing report was lodged at the Doda police station, they added.

A case has been registered under section 7/25 Arms Act and further investigation is underway.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
MOSCOW, May 5 (Reuters) - Russian investment group A-Property has hired energy services company TechnipFMC to design a $10 billion liquefied natural gas operation in the north of the country that it hopes to complete by 2025 and sell LNG to Asia.

A-Property spokeswoman Anastasia Kharitonova told Reuters that the plant and surrounding infrastructure in the remote northern republic of Yakutia would require a $10 billion investment.

The LNG plant will aim to produce 13 million tonnes of LNG per year at maximum capacity and will be located relatively close to the Chinese border. A-Property plans to seek permission from the Russian government to export LNG, Kharitonova said.

Russia has prioritised the development of LNG for export and the project may help the country reach its goal of producing 120 to 130 million tonnes of LNG a year in the next decade and raise its share in the global LNG market to up to 20% from around 6% in 2018, based on government data.

TechnipFMC will work on the design phase of the project which should be complete by the end of 2020.

A-Property is owned by Russian energy tycoon Albert Avdolyan, partner of Russian state technology corporation Rostec.

Last year, Avdolyan's firm acquired the largest gas producer in Yakutia after buying out its debt and plans to use it as the resource base for the announced LNG project. (Reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova and Vladimir Soldatkin Writing by Andrey Kuzmin. Editing by Jane Merriman)
An Uttar Pradesh court on Tuesday granted bail to Independent MLA Aman Mani Tripathi and seven of his associates who were arrested for allegedly violating lockdown guidelines.

The MLA from Nautanwa in Maharajganj district and 12 of his associates were arrested in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, on Sunday night and subsequently let off on bail, officials had said.

Tripathi was returning from Uttarakhand with seven of his associates when he was arrested in Najibabad area of Bijnor on Monday night, Additional Superintendent of Police Laxmi Niwas Mishra told PTI.

"On Tuesday, a local court granted them bail. But, since Bijnor falls in the red zone, the MLA and his associates have been sent to a quarantine centre for 14 days," the officer said.

On Sunday, a convoy of three cars carrying Tripathi and his associates was first intercepted by the police in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district on way to Badrinath, but the MLA produced a letter of permission purportedly issued by authorities in Dehradun and moved on.

They were stopped again at a barrier in Karnaprayag by the police and administrative officials, who told them that the portals of Badrinath were scheduled to open on May 15 and there was no point in letting them go now, an official had said.

The MLA got angry and argued with officials, but they did not relent and forced the convoy to return, the officials said.

They were intercepted again at the Vyasi police outpost in Rishikesh as there were more than three persons in each car and all without masks in violation of lockdown curbs, an officer had said.

A case was registered against them under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, Epidemic Diseases Act, and the Disaster Management Act, and they were arrested. However, they were let off subsequently on personal bail bonds and allowed to leave for Uttar Pradesh.

The Uttar Pradesh government had on Monday sought to distance itself from the incident, saying the Independent MLA was not authorised to visit Uttarakhand during the lockdown.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
File image: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal

The Delhi government on May 4 ordered the sealing of two branches of a private school in the national capital over violation of fee norms during the COVID-19 lockdown and lodging of an FIR against the management or operating heads of the schools. Following the directive, two branches of Apeejay School -- in Sheikh Sarai's Panchsheel Park and Saket -- were sealed on May 4.

The school principals, however, denied the charge saying they were on the right side of the law.

According to officials of the Directorate of Education (DoE), the schools were issued show-cause notice after it came to light that they have increased the fee illegally without taking cognisance of the prevailing situation in view of the announcement of lockdown by the central government.

"The Delhi government has permitted to lodge an FIR and seal school buildings for such inhuman act being committed by school managements in prevailing situation of such social emergency," a DoE official said.

"Flouting the instructions, the schools have hiked the fees despite the enforcement of Disaster Management Act, 2005, and Delhi Epidemic Diseases, COVID-19 regulations, 2020, under the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897, for prevention and containment of COVID-19 and also without compliance of the mandatory provisions of Delhi Education Act, 1973," he added.

Responding to the allegations, the Apeejay school management said, "We are on the right side of the law and interests of our students are paramount".

Principal of Apeejay School, Panchsheel Park, said, "Regarding fee, all actions of our school are in conformity with communications received from the Directorate of Education. We have all requisite approvals from DOE to charge AY 2019-20 fee. We have certainly not forced or harassed our parents to pay the fee. In fact, we held out a helping hand to those in need, with scholarships. Almost 100 pc parents of Apeejay School, Panchsheel Park have paid the AY 2019-20 fee, voluntarily and a majority have also paid the present monthly tuition fee".

According to the Principal of the Saket branch, "Almost all parents are with us and understand the situation. Only a handful of parents have been complaining, motivated by vested interests. Unfortunately, the current Force Majeure situation has again promoted them to agitate on the fee issue".
Longtime Alabama newspaper publisher H Brandt Ayers, who made The Anniston Star a voice for progressive politics during the civil rights era, has died.

The Star reported that the executive known by the nickname Brandy died Sunday at the age of 85, according to his family. No cause of death was given.

Ayers assumed control of the family-owned paper in east Alabama in the mid-1960s and made it a progressive voice for racial integration in the South. He also served as a commentator on National Public Radio and was known for helping start the careers of writers including Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg.

For all of my life, he was at the head of a good small newspaper, a good community newspaper and just a good newspaper of any size, Bragg, a former Star reporter, told the paper.

And he put out a progressive newspaper at a time when it would have been easier to pander. Ayers resigned as chairman of the paper's parent company, Consolidated Publishing, in 2018 after admitting he had spanked a female reporter in the 1970s. Another former reporter made similar allegations against him.

Ayers is survived by his wife Josephine Ayers, who remains chair and publisher of the Star, and a daughter. The family's statement said a memorial service would be announced later.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A political row has broken out in India after the government asked millions of migrant workers, stranded under the Covid-19 lockdown with no means of income, to pay their own train fares home.

More than a month after India imposed its nationwide lockdown to stem the spread of coronavirus, migrant labourers across the country are beginning to board special trains to return to their homes.

But the rub is that the low-wage earners  who, under the Covid-19 lockdown, were effectively made jobless overnight  have been asked by the government to pay for their own journeys.

'Inhuman'

Some of these train tickets can cost around 800 Indian rupees (10 euros) and a daily-wage earner typically makes between 200 and 600 rupees a day  and even that is absent now in this lockdown, Pradip Guha, a civil rights activist tells RFI.

The move has enraged millions. Opposition party politicians and civil society members decried it as "inhuman". The main opposition Congress party has offered to pay the fares, with party president Sonia Gandhi hitting out at the government, saying migrant workers were the "backbone of our economy" and "the ambassadors of our nation's growth".

The Indian National Congress has taken a decision that every state Congress unit shall bear the cost for the rail travel of every needy worker and migrant labourer, Gandhi said in a letter.

This will be the Indian National Congress party's' humble contribution in service of our compatriots and to stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with them, she added.

'Moronic' government

When the coronavirus pandemic broke out, the government ensured safe return of people stuck abroad in China, Italy, Iran and other parts of the world, arranging free flights on Air India for more than 1,000 people.

But the announcement that the poorest Indians would have to pay for their own return also sparked criticism from within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

"Indians stranded abroad were brought back free by Air India, said Subramanian Swamy, an MP from the BJP. "How moronic of the government of India to charge steep rail fares from the half-starved migrant labourers?"

The government defended the move, saying it was necessary to ensure that only those who were "really stranded" would use the train services.

A recent report prepared by the NGO, Stranded Workers Action Network, shows many day workers have been driven close to starvation.

Owing to the lack of cash and food availability, many had been eating frugally and some had even been on the brink of starvation, the report said.

It also highlights physical and psychological trauma among many interviewed, and desperation to return home.

The government on Saturday began running special trains for stranded migrants to travel to their home states. So far, 13 trains have ferried migrants from cities such as Bangalore, Surat, Sabarmati and Kota.

Two special trains carrying more than 2,000 migrant workers, who stranded in the western state of Maharashtra, arrived in Uttar Pradesh on Monday.
Some nurses of the Federal Medical Centre in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Monday, wore polythene bags to prevent Coronavirus infection.

This was after two suspected cases of the infection was recorded in the hospital earlier on Monday.

According to reports, the nurses resorted to using the waste bags after they were denied Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) by the hospital management.

Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has urged Nigerians to ensure personal safety.

It claimed that President Muhammadu Buhari has ran out of ideas regarding COVID-19.

PDP said as the lockdown is relaxed, Nigerians should protect themselves because Buhari and his government have no plans to rescue them from the jaws of COVID-19.
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday



quashed and set aside a sessions court order granting temporary bail amid the COVID-19 pandemic to Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) former vice chairman Hari Sankaran, who was arrested in a fraud case.

Justice C V Bhadang was hearing an application filed by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), challenging a sessions court's order of April 28 granting Sankaran temporary bail for 75 days.

Sankaran was arrested in April last year by SFIO under the Companies Act for allegedly committing fraud.

According to SFIO, Sankaran and other senior executives of IL&FS had formed a coterie which allegedly committed fraud that resulted in wrongful loss to the company.

In his plea before the sessions court, Sankaran had sought bail on the ground that he was a senior citizen and hence, more at risk of contracting COVID-19.

He also said in his plea that the high court last month quashed the criminal proceedings initiated against him and other auditors of IL&FS.

SFIO advocate Hiten Venegavkar argued that the high court last month quashed the criminal proceedings, but stayed its order for a period of eight weeks, and the SFIO was going to appeal against the order in the Supreme Court.

Justice Bhadang then quashed the sessions court's order granting temporary bail to Sankaran.

The judge directed the lower court to hear and pass its final order on Sankarans bail plea within a period of six weeks.

Besides, another bench of the high court on Tuesday rejected the bail plea of IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd's former managing director Ramchand Karunakaran, who was arrested in June 2019 by the Enforcement Directorate on charges of money laundering.

He had sought bail on medical grounds, saying he was at the risk of getting infected by coronavirus in jail.

Justice Bharati Dangre on Tuesday perused the medical report submitted by authorities of the Taloja jail in neighbouring Navi Mumbai, where Karunakaran is lodged.

Noting that the accused does not suffer from any medical ailments and there are no coronavirus positive cases in the jail at present, the judge rejected his bail plea.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)




Local authorities have indicated that they are running out of water treatment chemicals, with suppliers unable to deliver because of the lockdown meant to curb the spread of coronavirus.





President Emmerson Mnangagwa put the country under lockdown on March 30 and it is scheduled to continue until mid-month, although he relaxed the regulations to allow businesses to resume operations last Friday.





Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe (Ucaz) president and Gweru mayor Josiah Makombe confirmed yesterday that most urban councils had run out of water chemicals.





He stressed that the situation was so dire such that local authorities like Gweru City Council, which he heads, had been left with water treatment chemicals to cover the next four days, but did not have money to purchase new supplies.





I dont have the comprehensive report yet, but most local authorities are running out of water treatment chemicals and their revenue streams were affected by the lockdown. Government has not availed any support, he said.





In Gweru, we are left with only four days of water chemicals for the city. We did not collect much revenue for March and April. The company that supplies us needs cash upfront. We also owe them money for supply for last month. We need about $2 million to get supplies for this month, yet we collected about $800 000 so far.





Officials from Harare, Bulawayo and Mutare municipalities yesterday told NewsDay that they were also facing similar problems. Bulawayo town clerk Christopher Dube appealed for government support.





The situation might vary from one local authority to another, but revenue collection is a nightmare for all local authorities, making service delivery almost impossible. We need government intervention in the form of budget support, he said.





Harare City Council spokesperson Michael Chideme revealed that the local authority was owed over a billion dollars by residents and companies, a situation which he said had worsened current efforts to cater for service delivery needs like buying water treatment chemicals.





We are no different from other councils. We are doing hand to mouth. We are owed over a billion (dollars). The lockdown has crippled our capacity to collect revenue to fund service delivery, he said.

By January this year, Harare was already struggling and it owed its water treatment chemicals supplier, Chemplex Corporation, US$78 million.





The council was then jolted by Local Government minister July Moyo to settle for a payment plan after the firm officially complained to government.





Mutare City Council spokesperson Spren Mutiwi said revenue collection was now down to 10%.





Since the national lockdown, our revenue collection has declined significantly. We are now collecting 10% of our capacity and we cannot commit beyond our capacity, mindful of the fact that the current collections cannot even cover costs, Mutiwi said.





Since the national lockdown, revenue collection took a sharp nosedive from a projected $1,3 million per day to $180 000 per day. With the new budget figures, our targeted collection of $25 million per month could not be met and we have, this month, collected above $4 million.




New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio opened his press briefing on Tuesday by lambasting President Donald Trump, comparing him to former President Herbert Hoover and saying that Trump seems to enjoy stabbing his hometown in the back.

De Blasio was referencing an interview Trump did with the New York Post, in which the president expressed his distaste for using federal funds to bail out states governed by Democrats, including New York.

The President of the United States  a former New Yorker who seems to enjoy stabbing his hometown in the back  talking about no bailout for New York, de Blasio said, while brandishing a copy of the Post with the interview on the cover. What kind of human being sees the suffering here and decides that people in New York City dont deserve help?

What kind of person does that? he went on. Ill tell you something, every day, President Trump resembles more and more Herbert Hoover  the president who ignored the Great Depression. Who didnt care to put America back on its feet. Who has been now remembered in history as someone who failed at the most basic responsibility, which is to protect the people he serves.

Im at City Hall with the latest on COVID-19. https://t.co/I28GVuDdaP  Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) May 5, 2020

In the Post interview, Trump said he thinks Congress is inclined to do a lot of things but I dont think theyre inclined to do bailouts.

He added, Its not fair to the Republicans because all the states that need help  theyre run by Democrats in every case. Florida is doing phenomenal, Texas is doing phenomenal, the Midwest is, you know, fantastic  very little debt.

Trump did not appear to mention Maryland, where Republican Gov. Larry Hogan has also been asking Congress to send financial aid to states. As per NBC News, Maryland is facing a nearly $3 billion budget shortfall this year.

Trump also said he doesnt think...

Continue reading on HuffPost
Prince William and Kate Middleton were college sweethearts, but the Duchess of Cambridge did not wear her first tiara and walk down the aisle at Westminster Abbey until she was 29.

Once the couple finally declared their royal engagement in November 2010, Prince Charles quipped, "They have been practicing long enough."

Royal author Katie Nicholl of "The Making of a Royal Romance" divulged that the Duke of Cambridge did not want to settle down at a young age. When questioned about tying the knot in 2005, the prince said, he was only 22 at the time, which was too young to marry for his age. He did not want to get married until he was at least 28 or perhaps 30.

Prince William's family appeared convinced that Middleton was The One and were assured she would make a pleasant addition to the British royal family.

With a different approach from his parents and brother, the duke bided his time until the pair had known each other for 10 years before exchanging vows at Westminster Abbey.

Prince William and Middleton were good friends at university and lived together before their romance bloomed, so several people anticipated he would pop the question and there was apparently much pressure on him to do so.

The prince also believed that his brother Prince Harry would get hitched before him.

Nicholl commented, "If it hurt Kate when William hinted that his younger brother Harry was more likely to tie the knot before they would, she didn't show it."

Prince William refused the nudging of people and his reasoning was reportedly down to his parents.

Also Read: Kate Middleton Has Reportedly Changed After Meghan Left

The royal expert asserted that Prince William pledged he would not be pressured into marriage before he was ready.

She also affirmed that Middleton insisted she did not urgently need to get married to him.

The book claimed that the future King was also dubious to make the duchess his wife because he knew from experience that his father, Prince Charles, had been forced into marrying his mother, Princess Diana.

Prince William learned from the ill-fated relationship of his parents and was resolute he would not go down the same path.

Nicholl wrote in the book, "He was reluctant to bow to similar pressure and vowed not to be hurried at the altar. He made his feelings clear, telling a journalist in an off-guard moment that he had no plans of getting married any time soon."

When he decided the timing was right, the duke then proposed to the duchess on a holiday in Kenya in 2010, with Middleton calling him a "true romantic." This was a month prior to the official announcement when Prince William whisked Middleton off to Kenya and traveled around the country before departing to Lake Rutundu.

Nicholl wrote that he booked a log cabin for the couple's stay and they spent the day unsuccessfully fishing for rainbow trout.

They were finally married at Westminster Abbey in London in 2011 after 8 years of being in a relationship.

Related Article: Prince William, Kate Middleton Secretly Preparing to Take Over Monarchy

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Renowned Ghana- British Born Event Host and Influencer, Jeffrey Boateng, known also as Harm Kay, says he cannot be stopped by COVID -19 to represent his roots.

According to the international media entrepreneur, though the whole world is going through a painful phase dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no excuse to aspire to higher heights with anything you are doing even under locked down.

In a phone interview with Harm Kay, he said Lets not allow COVID-19 to stop us from keeping our spirits lifted up to spread the culture while we are keeping safe under quarantine

The celebrated UK based event host on Saturday, May 2, 2020, hosted his first Highlife Party on Instagram Live Not holding back he went all-in with aesthetics including Lighting, Kente Decorations, synchronized dancers, technician, with his aunt on the dance floor, more guests and he also encouraged viewers to dress in traditional attire.

At his party on Instagram Live, he took viewers on a musical journey of Highlife music covering music from the Ashanti region, central/western region, and Ga music. The best part was the comments during the whole experience, which kept viewers guessing what will happen next.

Harm Kay also invited Ghanaian Highlife legend, Kwabena Kwabena to join him on Insta Live who gave an acoustic version of his hit songs from Aso to the current song Voice Note. The concept which was stemmed from a typical Ghanaian UK Hall party got him a lot of positive Feedback/Comments from across the World from the older and younger generation shown the uplift of spirits.

In relation to the Insta Party, Harm Kay says, During this period it is important we keep our spirits high and appreciate every moment

He had comments from viewers like: I just want to say, your 'Insta live' last night!!!! Hmm was the best Live EVER better than ANY therapy that I have facilitated for depression and anxiety. I am still at this time (2:36 pm) smiling, dancing, and singing at my house. My husband is even telling me to calm down. Your energy, your style, and let's not forget your back up team was absolutely fabulous! Thank you!

Please keep it up. Due to the stigma and lack of culturally sensitive and appropriate support out there, our people (Ghanaians and black African general) don't really reach out for Mental Health support. And I know from people reaching out to me and professionals in my network, a lot of our people are suffering in silence. So although last night is not a substitute it will go a long way to lift people's spirits up

Harm Kay promises to come back with another captivating experience via Instagram @Harm_Kay and find out when the next Highlife Party is and also HARM KAY Live in Jamaica Hosting Jamaica Escapes May 2020 visit: www.JamaicaEscapes.co.uk ' 

About Harm Kay

UK host and radio presenter Harm Kay is known for his energetic and cheeky characteristics when on stage. His crowd engagement gives him the ability to not only entertain an audience but to keep them guessing at all times what he'll do next.

Born in the UK, but raised in a Ghanaian home, Kay holds his heritage close to his heart and continues to promote and emphasize the Ghanaian values and culture through his works.

Kay does many private gigs, including weddings and club appearances. An area Kay takes a personal interest in is giving talks/seminars to university students. His seminar Life after University has become one of the most popular seminars out of the national curriculum.

Very well known in the Ghanaian community, Kay has hosted some major events, including Ghana Escapes (Accra); Ghana Party in the Park (Trent Park-UK); Shatta Wale Concert (Indigo O2-UK); Bisa Kdei (Camden Centre-UK); Wahala Comedy Show (Indigo O2-UK); Ghana Independence (The O2-UK); Africa Live (Catford Broadway Theatre UK); Afrobeat Weekender (Skegness UK); Afrobeat Sunday (Coronet-UK); Sarkodie (Catford Broadway Theatre-UK), Fuse ODGs Kente Party and a host of other events.
Smith Collection / Gado via Getty Images

A virtual town hall on sexual violence in Contra Costa County was infiltrated last week by a hacker who displayed graphic child pornography, officials said Monday.

The town hall, scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday on Zoom, was advertised as having panelists who represented different agencies from all over the county to discuss policies and procedures protecting Sexual Violence survivors, according to an event listing by the Family Justice Center, one of the participating organizations.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Amerigo Resources Ltd. (TSX: ARG, "Amerigo" or the "Company") announces the results of voting at its 2020 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (the AGM) held on May 4, 2020 in Vancouver, British Columbia.



A total of 43,302,885 common shares were voted at the AGM, representing 23.95% of the votes attached to all outstanding common shares of the Company. Shareholders voted in favour of all items of business before the AGM, including the election of all director nominees as follows:

Name Votes by

Proxy For Votes by

Proxy

Withheld Percentage

of Votes by

Proxy For Percentage of Votes by

Proxy Withheld Klaus Zeitler 43,120,767 99,961 99.77 0.23 Robert Gayton 43,126,967 93,761 99.78 0.22 Sidney Robinson 43,120,217 100,511 99.77 0.23 Alberto Salas 43,127,227 93,501 99.78 0.22 George Ireland 43,106,767 113,961 99.74 0.26 Aurora Davidson 43,098,927 121,801 99.72 0.28

Aurora Davidson, President, CEO and CFO of the Company, has joined the Companys Board of Directors after having been elected as a director at the AGM.

Detailed voting results for the 2020 Annual General Meeting are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com

About the Company:

Amerigo Resources Ltd. is an innovative copper producer with a long-term relationship with Corporacion Nacional del Cobre de Chile (Codelco), the worlds largest copper producer. Amerigo produces copper concentrate at the MVC operation in Chile by processing fresh and historic tailings from Codelcos El Teniente mine, the world's largest underground copper mine. Tel: (604) 681-2802; Fax: (604) 682-2802; Web: www.amerigoresources.com ; Listing: ARG:TSX.

For further information, please contact:
As if God himself  or a casting director  has been waiting to make my innermost pop culture needs come true, today it was announced exclusively by Variety that action film star and meme alumnus Nicolas Cage would be gracing our television screens in a new scripted series as the one and only gay tiger wrangler, Joe Exotic.

Film and television deals based on the life of Joe Schreibvogel, AKA Joe Exotic, have been happening left and right since the massive success of Netflix's Tiger King limited docuseries, which centered around the eccentric Oklahoma zookeeper's demise. Despite the rather grim subject matter of the show  from hired hitmen and mysterious deaths to drug abuse and illegal exotic animal trading  the series' lead characters have developed somewhat of a cult following since its release. With song parodies, podcast appearances and newfound social media followings in tow for the cast, spinoffs were bound to happen. Now, everyone's favorite Declaration of Independence hunter is joining in the fanfare.

Cage is joining the cast of an eight-episode scripted series based on a Texas Monthly article about Joe Exotic's life titled "Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild," by Leif Reigstad, and is set to play the lead character. Not only is this Cage's first-ever television role, which is hard to believe considering his lengthy career, but he'll also be executive producing the series via Saturn Films.
BOGOTA, Colombia, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ecopetrol S.A. (BVC: ECOPETROL;NYSE: EC) ("Ecopetrol" or the "Company) announces that on May 11, 2020 after market close, it will release its financial and operating results for the first quarter of 2020. On Tuesday, May 12, Ecopetrol's senior management will host two conference calls to review the results. Please find below the timing, dial-in and links to access the conferences:

Spanish Conference Call English Conference Call 08:00 a.m. Col Time 09:30 a.m. Col Time 09:00 a.m. NY Time 10:30 a.m. NY Time US Dial-in #: 1 (847) 585-4405 US Dial-in #: 1 (847) 585-4405 US Dial-in # (Toll Free): 1 (888) 771-4371 US Dial-in # (Toll Free): 1 (888) 771-4371 Local Colombia Dial-in #: 57 1 380 8041 Local Colombia Dial-in #: : 57 1 380 8041 Local Colombia Dial-in # (Free Toll): 01 800 9 156 924 Local Colombia Dial-in # (Free Toll): 01 800 9 156 924 Passcode: 49610935 Passcode: 49610942

Participants from different countries may look for different international numbers to the ones mentioned above by consulting the following link:

https://www.conferenceplus.com/AlternateNumbers/alternatenumbers.aspx?100875&t=P&o=UBjCWZyRqpQRbj

Questions for the Q&A session should be submitted through the webcast chat:

https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/2263597/FEB6CAD7518043B61275C152A41DCDA7

(Spanish)

https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/2291417/A3A007F529285119354B08F27E383687

(English)

The earnings release, slide presentation, live webcast and the replay of the conference calls will be available on Ecopetrol's website: www.ecopetrol.com.co

Please verify in advance proper operation of the webcast in your browser. We recommend the usage of the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Google Chrome y Mozilla Firefox.

The replay of the calls will be available on Ecopetrol's website (www.ecopetrol.com.co).

This release contains statements that may be considered forward looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All forward-looking statements, whether made in this release or in future filings or press releases or orally, address matters that involve risks and uncertainties, including in respect of the Company's prospects for growth and its ongoing access to capital to fund the Company's business plan, among others. Consequently, changes in the following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those included in the forward-looking statements: market prices of oil & gas, our exploration and production activities, market conditions, applicable regulations, the exchange rate, the Company's competitiveness and the performance of Colombia's economy and industry, to mention a few. We do not intend, and do not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

For further information, please contact:

Juan Pablo Crane de Narvaez

Head of Capital Markets

Phone: (+571) 234 5190

E-mail: [email protected]

Jorge Mauricio Tellez

Media Relations (Colombia)

Phone: (+ 571) 234 4329

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A new survey of app-based ride-hailing and food and grocery-delivery workers in San Francisco underscores the financial vulnerability of workers in the gig economy--and the coronavirus has made their plight much worse, according to findings released today (Tuesday, May 5) by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The unique, in-person survey reached 643 workers with Uber, Lyft, Doordash, GrubHub, Instacart, and Shipt early this year. When the shelter-in-place order took effect, researchers developed an additional two-week, online survey to capture the effects of the pandemic on app-based workers--a growing population that enjoys little job security and few employment rights.

The baseline survey reveals a workforce that is 56% immigrant, mostly male, and that struggles to make ends meet, with many relying on public assistance despite working an average of 40 hours per week. Since the pandemic, the online survey revealed, more than half have lost 75-100% of their income. The findings were published in a report titled, "On-demand and on-the-edge: Ride-hailing and Delivery Workers in San Francisco."

"This is an incredibly vulnerable workforce, and many were just on the edge before the coronavirus crisis," said lead researcher Chris Benner, a professor of environmental studies and sociology and the director of the Institute for Social Transformation at UCSC. "The crisis has put them over the edge. Because of their employment status, they fall through a lot of cracks in the relief packages that have been approved by the state and federal governments."

The initial survey was conducted over six weeks from February 1 through mid-March. Survey takers recruited participants through the apps themselves by hiring workers and asking if they'd like to participate. The 20-minute survey was administered in person, and those who participated received a $20 gift card. The response rate was 70% among ride-hailing workers and 15% among food-delivery workers.

The outbreak of the coronavirus crisis prompted the research team to pivot to an online survey, which was conducted the second and third weeks of April. Participants were recruited through organized networks, including closed Facebook groups, and a total of 219 app-based workers responded.

"We surveyed the same workforce at two different points in time," said Benner. "The first gives us a picture of these workers under normal work circumstances, and the second is a snapshot of the impacts of COVID on this workforce."

Full-time work but not enough to get by

The baseline survey, which reached 407 ride-hailing workers and 236 food-delivery workers, revealed a workforce on the margins:

21% of participants have no health insurance, and another 30% depend on public insurance sources, such as Covered California or Medi-Cal

15% receive some form of public assistance, including 13% of food-delivery workers who depend on food stamps

45% report they could not handle a $400 emergency expense without borrowing money

Half the participants report working 40 or more hours per week in app-based work, and nearly 40% have worked more than two years for their "survey app"--they app they were working on when recruited for the survey.

"This is not a 'gig.' This is full-time work for the majority of these workers," said Benner. "More than one-third are supporting children and nearly half are supporting other adults."

Respondents reported median weekly earnings of $900 for ride-hailing workers and $500 for food-delivery workers, but those earnings drop considerably when adjusted for expenses such as gas, vehicle service, and cleaning. And the gap between workers' own estimates of expenses, compared to per-mile expenses allowed by the IRS, is considerable: When using the IRS estimates, fully 21% of workers net zero for their labor, said Benner.

"We estimate that twenty percent of ride-hailing workers are actually losing money to drive, when you account for all of their expenses," said Benner.

Impacts of the coronavirus pandemic

Preliminary findings of the online survey, including the drop in income, were shared with the San Francisco Local Agency Formation Commission (SF LAFCo), which commissioned the baseline survey, on April 21.

"With the shelter-in-place order in effect, ride-hailing workers were earning a fraction of what they'd made in February, but these workers were living on the edge financially already, so anything they can bring in is necessary," said Benner.

The coronavirus crisis prompted 18% of surveyed ride-hailing workers to shift to food delivery, but the biggest impact was on those who were not working at all: 24% had stopped working by mid-April, for fear of contracting the virus or other reasons.

Because app-based companies continue to classify their workers as independent contractors, despite the passage in 2019 of California Assembly Bill 5 designed to make them employees, workers are not typically able to access unemployment benefits. Although the federal CARES Act expanded eligibility to some independent contractors, app-based workers have trouble providing the required documentation of their previous earnings, said Benner.

Policy implications

The two-pronged survey results shed light on the needs of app-based workers, particularly in a city like San Francisco, which has some of the most progressive fair-labor standards in the country, said Benner. "These workers need and deserve greater economic security," he said.

Policymakers must ensure that city and state employment laws are enforced, including minimum wage laws, and that ride-hailing and delivery workers have access to health insurance and unemployment benefits, said Benner. He added that the pandemic has exposed a need for improved safety and health protection of workers and paid sick leave, as well as stronger public health protections.

Meanwhile, owners of app-based companies are backing a ballot initiative that would exempt them from employer regulations. "At a time when these companies should be providing sanitizer, gloves, masks, and information about how to prevent the spread of the virus, they haven't been, because that would undermine their claim that these workers aren't their employees," said Benner. "Food and grocery delivery has been deemed essential work, and these workers are putting themselves at risk, but they are not getting adequate support or protection."

Assessing workers in the gig economy

The surge of app-based workers has raised questions about their well-being, their relationship to the companies they work for, and the future of the labor force. The baseline survey is among the most robust efforts to assess the circumstances of ride-hailing and grocery and meal-delivery workers.

"A survey like this is extremely rare, because it's expensive and labor-intensive," said Benner. "We paid the surveyors and the cost of the ride and meal, regardless of whether the worker was willing to participate in the survey." Benner acknowledged support from the San Francisco Foundation, ReWork the Bay, the Ford Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Chavez Family Foundation, and SF LAFCo.

The survey was administered by UC Santa Cruz in partnership with San Francisco Jobs With Justice, Jobs With Justice Education Fund, and the Driver's Seat Cooperative. SF LAFCo commissioned the research. "This is a true example of community-engaged scholarship," said Benner.

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 5)  Some lawmakers are questioning the National Telecommunications Commissions cease and desist order against media giant ABS-CBN, after its franchise expired on May 4.

Senate Majority Floor Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said a provisional authority to operate should have been given to the broadcast network while Congress deliberates to renew its franchise.

What I find highly irregular is that I know for a fact that there are many broadcasting corporations that are operating on provisional authority, meaning, wala pong franchise (there is no franchise). Ina-aplayan pa lang ng franchise sa Kongreso (They are still applying for a franchise in Congress), he said.

Last March, the NTC agreed to issue a provisional authority to ABS-CBN following the advice of the Department of Justice to let the network operate based on equity. But the interim permit was never issued.

Maybe the ABS-CBN, the company, would seek redress to the Supreme Court because they can cite many instances where the NTC has given provisional authority, or those who are still applying, and yet they are operating on, Zubiri added.

The senator also said the network could also apply for a temporary restraining order, citing the NTCs previous issuance of provisional authority to other networks.

Senate Minority Floor Leader Franklin Drilon blasted the NTCs order as a grave abuse of discretion and that the network should seek redress from the Supreme Court.

I would join the opinion of the Majority Leader that indeed, the remedy is only in the Supreme Court and there is no harm in allowing ABS-CBN to continue broadcasting and it would even be to the benefit of the public, he said.

Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda said the move against ABS-CBN preempted the duty of Congress to decide on the fate of the franchise.

My appeal to the regulatory agencies is not to preempt Congress from performing its mandate. Our timelines for tackling ABS-CBNs franchise changed because the countrys priorities changed, but it does not mean we are abandoning the discussion, said Salceda.

He added: The NTC should not have abandoned its prior commitment to Congress to allow ABS-CBN, in the interim, to operate, in deference to the supreme authority of Congress to decide the question of ABS-CBNs continued operation.

Twelve bills had been filed in the House of Representatives and three in the Senate proposing to grant ABS-CBN another 25 years to operate. Despite inquiries by both chambers early this year, none of the bills were passed as Congress went on recess last March.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III, on the other hand, said the chamber is ready to renew the networks franchise.

ABS [CBN] [f]ranchise, bring it to the Senate, we will approve it!, said Sotto in a social media post.

READ: TIMELINE: ABS-CBN franchise

Some solons underscored the timing of the NTCs order, just when access to information and job security are critical due to the COVID-19 crisis.

In the time of the virus, people need to be informed. This is the time we need reliable information and we decide to shut down one of the sources, said Senator Sonny Angara.

Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman also shared the sentiment.

The cessation of ABS-CBNs operations sounds the death knell of the freedom of the press, even as thousands of its employees and indirect workers and enterprises dependent on the broadcasting network are doomed to lose their livelihoods, said Lagman.

For his part, Senator Francis Pangilinan found it unfair to let Philippine offshore gaming operators, which serve the Chinese gambling industry, resume their businesses amid the crisis while a local network ceased to operate.

Its extremely disappointing and condemnable that in a middle of a pandemic, while millions of our kababayans are jobless and lost their jobs, while millions are going hungry, this is what the government is focusing on. Apart from that, is agreeing to reopen POGO operations for Chinese gambling, he told CNN Philippines The Final Word.

These two policy direction initiatives give us a sense that this government does not take this COVID fight seriously, added Pangilinan.

Laguna 3rd District Rep. Sol Aragones, a former ABS-CBN reporter, said the displacement of network employees will be another burden given the current situation in the country.

Masyado nang magulo. Masyado nang mahirap. Ang kailangan natin ngayon ay pagkakaunawaan at pagkakaisa, hindi ang dagdag na namang libu-libong kapwa Pilipino na masasadlak sa paghahagilap ng SAP (Special Amelioration Program), dahil biglang nawalan ng trabaho at kabuhayan, she said.

[Translation: Its already very chaotic. Its already very difficult. What we need now is understanding and unity, not adding thousands more fellow Filipinos who will be needing SAP funds because they have lost their jobs and livelihoods.]

At 7:52 p.m. on Tuesday, ABS-CBN went off the air. Its online news websites, video streaming services, and social media platforms are unaffected by the order and will continue to operate.
A young offender who was jailed on his 18th birthday for a group attack on a young girl has claimed he self-harms in prison to 'show remorse' for his crime in a shocking new BBC Three documentary.

Boys Banged Up is filmed at Hydebank Wood in Northern Ireland, which houses around 100 young offenders and suspects including those on remand. Most of the convicted inmates are aged between 18 to 21 and have committed offences ranging from theft to murder.

In the programme, radio and television presenter Stephen Nolan visits the prison to speak to inmates, find out how they got there and challenge them about their choices.

In the first episode of the four-part series, prisoners explain the process of entering prison and the psychological impact it has on them. Stephen speaks to William*, who was convicted for a group attack on a young girl in a seaside town when he was 17.

William, who was jailed on his 18th birthday for a group attack on a young girl, claimed he self-harms in prison to 'show remorse' for his crime in a shocking new BBC Three documentary

Boys Banged Up is filmed at Hydebank Wood in Northern Ireland, which houses around 100 young offenders and suspects including those on remand

A video of the incident went viral - and William claimed it 'ruined his life' and drove him to begin self-harming.

He insisted he didn't hit the young girl during the attack, but did pour alcohol on her face. William said his involvement in the assault has provoked beatings in prison.

'It hasn't been easy in here for me, believe me, because of what I was in for,' he told Stephen.

'I would never raise my hand to a girl, ever in my life, I wouldn't do it, I wasn't raised like that to hit wee girls, I wouldn't do it.

A video of the group attack on a young girl that William was involved in went viral - and he claimed it 'ruined his life' and drove him to begin self-harming

'My mum was getting mails from people in Australia, Wales, saying your son's this, your son's that. I didn't touch the girl once.

'Fair enough, I poured alcohol in her face, but I did not once hit that wee girl in that video, and people are telling me I did. That video has ruined my life.'

He explained how, since he arrived at the prison on his 18th birthday, guards warned him that he was 'under threat' from other inmates.

William said he was attacked for the first time five months after he arrived, and it's happened several times.

Stephen pointed to William's scars, which he explained were a result of self-harming out of 'remorse' for his crime

'I opened the door, went up to get a mop bucket, came back down and got hammered,' he recalled.

'I've had a few jumpings in here. That's where other people beat the f*** out of you. That's happened to me over that video... It's been bad. It's been really bad.

'I was a kid when that happened, it was a mistake. People make mistakes. It's just s*** that it went all over social media, and everybody knew about it. I was in the paper, and I started cutting myself as soon as I saw that paper.

'It doesn't help doing that though. I do it to show remorse for what happened.'

He added: 'I hated what I'd done, I regret what I've done, and if I could go back I would have changed it, and she wouldn't have got touched.

Stephen told how he'd noticed several other prisoners had self-harming scars, and spoke to 19-year-old Ben, pictured, who was imprisoned for criminal damage

'I never meant for any of this to happen, and I am sorry for what I've done. But I'm being punished... I have grown up and I'm not that silly wee kid no more. I've got my priorities straight since I've been in here.'

Stephen told how he'd noticed several other prisoners had self-harming scars, and spoke to 19-year-old Ben*, who was imprisoned for criminal damage.

Asked about the cuts on his arms, Ben pointed to his stomach and said: 'I tried to slice myself open. Didn't really work out the best.'

He said it was 'hard to explain' why he felt compelled to harm himself, adding: 'It feels like you're cutting the stress out, if you know what I mean.

Asked about the cuts on his arms, Ben pointed to his stomach and said: 'I tried to slice myself open. Didn't really work out the best'

'You're opening the skin for the stress to get out of your body. It's stupid, I wouldn't do it now, I regret doing it because if ever I get a girlfriend, which I will do at some stage, just not at the minute, they'll be like, "What the f***'s all that there for?"

'That was the only thing that I knew of then, and there's different things that I know of now.'

Ben - who said he too has been in a couple of fights while in prison - added: 'You can't put someone behind bars and expect them not to go mad after a bit.'

Boys Banged Up is available to watch now on the BBC iPlayer.

*Some names have been changed for legal reasons.
Apple has announced the date for its Worldwide Developers Conference, where it will announce new updates for the iPhone, Mac and more.

The conference will begin on 22 June, Apple said. That will also be the date of its main keynote, where it shows off new software updates and products.

The company will host the event virtually for the first ever time, with developers invited to watch from home. Usually, its WWDC event sees developers come to California from across the country, but that has been cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Apple did not give precise details of what those online events would look like, and promised more updates in June.

But it did make clear that it will hold its regular keynotes, during which Apple reveals operating system updates for all of its products, as well as occasionally revealing new hardware.

Recommended New Macbook Pro unveiled by Apple

Apple usually livestreams though keynotes, though in previous years they have happened in front of an audience.

WWDC20 will be our biggest yet, bringing together our global developer community of more than 23 million in an unprecedented way for a week in June to learn about the future of Apple platforms, said Apple marketing head Phil Schiller in a statement.

We cant wait to meet online in June with the global developer community and share with them all of the new tools weve been working on to help them create even more incredible apps and services. We look forward to sharing more details about WWDC20 with everyone as we get closer to this exciting event.

Further information will be made available through the Apple Developer app, the company said, and that will be a hub for details including the timings for keynotes and the developer sessions. Information will also be sent out by email, Apple said.

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

Apple also announced that it would hold a competition on Swift Playgrounds, its iPad app for teaching children to code. Children will be encouraged to enter by creating and submitting an interactive scene, and the winners will get the jacket and pin set that would have been given to attendees if the event was happening.

The event is happening a little later in the month than usual. Apple tends to hold the event in the first week of June.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerras office is gearing up to enforce the states landmark internet privacy law, despite pleas from business groups that say they arent ready because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The California Consumer Privacy Act gives people the power to tell companies not to sell their personal data and to demand they delete the information altogether. The law took effect Jan. 1, but enforcement was delayed until July 1 to give businesses time to prepare for a mountain of data requests from their customers.

Business groups across the state have asked Becerra to hold off. They warn many companies wont be in compliance by July because of staggering losses and layoffs brought on by the pandemic and state-ordered shutdowns of public life.

Privacy advocates counter that the need to protect data is more crucial than ever, because so many people are now isolated at home and dependent on the internet to work, socialize, shop and learn.

If Becerra sticks to the laws timetable, companies will face potential fines of up to $7,500 per violation in two months. That prospect has created anxiety for small brick-and-mortar shops already struggling to keep workers on the payroll, said Rachel Michelin, president of the California Retailers Association.

She said that anxiety is growing because Becerras office has yet to issue its final regulatory rules, detailed guidelines that tell businesses how to comply with the law. Michelin said that, at this point, businesses will have no more than a few weeks to master the regulations.

We dont know exactly yet what were complying to, she said. We need them to be able to bring their employees back. The goal should be to reignite the California economy.

In March, 65 trade organizations, including tech representatives TechNet and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, wrote a letter to Becerra urging him to delay enforcement until January 2021. They warned that businesses will not have the operational capacity or time to bring their systems into compliance.

Becerra has rejected those complaints, though he hasnt given a detailed response to industry concerns.

Were committed to enforcing the law starting July 1, Becerras office said in a statement. We encourage businesses to be particularly mindful of data security in this time of emergency.

Privacy advocates say businesses have had plenty of time to get ready for enforcement since the state passed its law in June 2018. They note that tech lobbyists repeatedly tried to delay its implementation before the coronavirus made its way to the U.S.

More Information Broad new rights under California law California has the most sweeping internet privacy law in the nation, the California Consumer Privacy Act. The law, which the state can enforce starting July 1, gives consumers broad new rights to control how their personal information is used and sold. New rights: Californians can tell businesses to stop selling personal information to third parties. They can also tell a company to give them access to their information or delete it. More disclosure: Businesses are required to tell their customers what kinds of information they gather about them and how they use or sell it. Companies affected: The law applies to any company that meets any one of three thresholds annually: It has at least $25 million in revenue, makes at least half its money by selling data or gathers information on at least 50,000 consumers. Fines: Companies that don't fix violations within 30 days of being notified can be fined up to $7,500 for each intentional violation. The law also allows consumers to sue companies if their personal information is breached. See More Collapse

First of all, they knew this was coming, said Maureen Mahoney, an analyst with Consumer Reports, the business watchdog group. These are things that companies should be doing anyway.

Under Californias law, the first major statewide internet privacy act in the country, businesses that handle significant amounts of data must tell people what information they intend to collect about them before they do it.

Businesses must comply if customers ask them not to sell their data or to delete it entirely. Customers can also request a copy of their data or an explanation about how the company uses or sells it.

Tracy Rosenberg, co-coordinator of the group Oakland Privacy, said behavior changes brought on by Californias stay-at-home order make people more vulnerable to having their data used without their knowledge or permission. For example, she said, more people are banking online and having conversations over video sites like Zoom.

All of these things are creating a much larger data footprint for all of us, Rosenberg said. The more we are running our lives through computer screens, the more critical (the state law) becomes.

Zoom came under fire last month after media reports revealed it sent app user data to Facebook. Zoom says it has since changed its practices.

The pandemic has also brought new privacy debates to the forefront. Gov. Gavin Newsom has discussed partnering with Google and Apple to use anonymous smartphone data to bolster contact tracing efforts to track who might have come close to people infected with the coronavirus.

Some retailers, including Amazon and Walmart, are using thermometers to check the temperatures of employees when they come to work. Newsom has said temperature checks could also be used to fight the virus and help restaurants and other businesses reopen to in-person customers.

Michelin of the California Retailers Association said many businesses will probably have to figure out how to handle health data about their employees and customers without clear guidance from the state.

Were in a whole different ballgame, she said. Nobody really knows what the right answers are. What can we do and not do?

Meanwhile, supporters of a proposed ballot initiative to expand the law are pushing ahead despite hurdles gathering signatures during the pandemic.

On Monday, they submitted petitions with what they said were more than enough signatures to qualify the measure for the November ballot. However, its unclear whether counties will have enough time to validate the signatures before the June 25 deadline.

The measure would enshrine the data privacy act in state law, so legislators cannot weaken it, and create an agency to enforce privacy protections. Its bankrolled by Alastair Mactaggart, a wealthy San Francisco developer who was also a prime force in pushing the privacy act through the Legislature.

Even as weve worked to strengthen privacy laws here in California, weve realized that our laws need to keep pace with the ever-changing landscape of constant corporate surveillance, information gathering and distribution, Mactaggart said in a statement.

Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner
They're set to return to screens on Friday despite the coronavirus lockdown.

And The Last Leg host Alex Brooker has revealed he's found a unusual way to survive the nationwide pub closures, by creating his own in his office.

The presenter, 35, revealed on Tuesday's The One Show he's installed disco balls and drink dispensers to turn the space into his own version of the Queen Vic, named after the legendary Craig David.

Funny: The Last Leg host Alex Brooker has revealed he's turned his office into a pub named after Craig David

Speaking from his home in Huddersfield, Alex told hosts Alex and Gethin Jones he wanted to turn the space into somewhere he could enjoy during his Friday nights at home.

He said: 'The way I looked at it is I'm gonna be spending my Friday nights in here and I wanted to be comfortable, so I've turned my office into a pub.

'It's Huddersfield's hottest night spot, it's the Craig David I called it. A lot of our pubs are named after Great Britons, and I think Craig David is one of our greatest Britons.

'The way I describe this is, is like if you're ever been to a Yates', I marked this as a low-rent Yates, I've got drink, there's two disco balls it's got everything I'm gonna need on Friday night I'm gonna have a great time!'

Hilarious: The presenter revealed on Tuesday's The One Show he's installed disco balls and drink dispensers in the room as he prepares to film The Last Leg from home during lockdown

Pour us a pint! Alex said: 'It's Huddersfield's hottest night spot... The way I describe this is, is like if you're ever been to a Yates', I marked this as a low-rent Yates'

Alex joined his The Last Leg co-host Josh Widdecombe to chat about the show's return, which will be hosted from their respective homes during the lockdown.

This will be no mean feat for the Channel 4 show, as fellow presenter Adam Hills will be hosting the show from his home in Australia.

Josh admitted they thought they'd be back in the studio as normal by the time they returned to screens, having filmed their last episode six weeks earlier without a studio audience.

Sad: Elsewhere, The One Show host Alex was moved to tears by the show's end, after The A Word star Christopher Ecclestone read a poem written in honour of NHS workers

Moving: The touching piece titled Our Heroes was monologued directly to the camera by Christopher, and left Alex in an extremely emotional state by its end

Heart-wrenching: She said: 'Thank you so much, Chris. That was pretty touching indeed,' while her co-host Gethin agreed: 'That was pretty special'

Elsewhere, The One Show host Alex was moved to tears by the show's end, after The A Word star Christopher Ecclestone read a poem written in honour of NHS workers.

The touching piece titled Our Heroes was monologued directly to the camera by Christopher, and left Alex in an extremely emotional state by its end.

She said: 'Thank you so much, Chris. That was pretty touching indeed,' while her co-host Gethin agreed: 'That was pretty special.'

Wiping away her tears Alex added: 'I bet I'm not the only one [crying].'

The One Show airs weekdays at 7pm on BBC One.
The Twilight Awards will broadcast live on Instagram for three nights in a row, beginning Wednesday. Chance will surprise four Chicago Public Schools teachers on the first night  and three to four teachers on each of the following nights  with supplies and donations and a total of $300,000 in cash donations to teachers and school on behalf of his partner, Box Tops for Education, a General Mills initiative that raises money for schools.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 12:21:10|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, May 4 (Xinhua) -- General Electric (GE) said on Monday that it was planning to cut the global workforce of its aviation unit this year by as much as 25 percent, or around 13,000 jobs, citing "deep contraction" of commercial aviation industry amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"To protect our business, we have responded with difficult cost-cutting actions over the last two months. Unfortunately, more is required as we scale the business to the realities of our commercial market," GE Aviation CEO David Joyce said in a message to employees.

Joyce noted that global traffic is expected to be down about 80 percent in the second quarter compared with early February and aircraft manufacturers have cut production extending into 2021 and beyond.

"We are developing our plan for permanent reductions to our global employee base that we anticipate will bring our total reductions this year to as much as 25 percent," he said, noting it is part of a plan to reduce 1 billion U.S. dollars in costs from the business.

"While extremely difficult, I am confident this is the required response to the continued contraction of the industry, and its protracted recovery," he said.

The move came after GE announced in March that its aviation unit was planning to reduce approximately 10 percent of its total U.S. workforce.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who serves as Berkshire Hathaway chairman, said Saturday that his conglomerate has sold all its airline stocks, sending an alarming signal to U.S. airline industry devastated by the COVID-19 outbreak.

"The world has changed for the airlines," said Buffett in Omaha, Nebraska, at Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting over the weekend, which was held virtually this year.

"And I don't know how it's changed and I hope it corrects itself in a reasonably prompt way," he said. Enditem
The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged people not to put their faith in local untested remedies for coronavirus.



The advice comes at a time when at least three African heads of state have said they are importing large quantities of a herbal tonic which the president of Madagascar claims can cure the virus.



But its efficacy has not been proven by scientific peer reviews, and even Madagascar's own national medical academy has cast doubt on it.



In a statement, the WHO says it welcomes the use of traditional medicines in the search for potential treatments but it warns that they must first be robustly tested.



Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina launched a product based on the artemisia plant last month when it had been tested on fewer than 20 people.



He says clinical trials will start next week.

Source: BBC









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Two grizzly bears were euthanized last week after the bears became food conditioned from accessing bird feeders, unsecured chicken feed, and other sources near homes north of Columbia Falls.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks bear specialists captured an adult female grizzly bear and its three yearlings on private property off Witty Lane. Local residents had reported the bears were getting into bird feeders on porches, eating unsecured chicken feed and killing chickens, and had pushed open a barn door to access pig feed. After talking with the local resident, FWP staff learned the group of bears had previously gotten into bird feeders and pig feed last fall, but the incidents were not reported to FWP.

In accordance with Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee guidelines and in consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the adult female was euthanized due to food conditioning, which occurs when wildlife lose natural foraging habits.

Prior to capture, one of the yearlings appeared to be limping, and after further review at a local veterinarian clinic it was determined that the bear had a broken bone in its foot. After consultation with the USFWS, the female yearling was euthanized due to its injury.

FWP consulted with the USFWS and National Park Service and moved the other female yearlings to the Logging Creek area in Glacier National Park.

It is important for homeowners to keep food attractants secured. Attractants include garbage, pet and livestock food, bird feeders, and fruit trees, but also include livestock, gardens, and outdoor food cookers.

The best way to secure an attractant is to make it inaccessible to the animal by containing it within a secure hard-sided building (a structure with four-sided walls, roof and door). IGBC certified bear-resistant containers are useful in preventing the bear from learning that an attractant could be a food source.

If containment inside a secure structure is not practical, properly installed and maintained electric fencing is a very effective tool. Loud noise, such as banging pots and pans, using an air horn or your car alarm, or shouting, is also a simple yet effective short-term way to deter a bear. Other temporary and short-term deterrents include high decibel motion-activated alarms, sprinkler systems, motion lights and radios turned on at night.

Feeding wildlife, such as bears and deer, is illegal.

Residents should report bear activity as soon as possible. To report grizzly bear activity in the greater Flathead Valley, call FWP bear management specialists at 406-250-1265. To report black bear and mountain lion activity in the greater Flathead Valley, call 406-250-0062. To report bear activity in the Cabinet-Yaak area, call 406-291-1320.

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TORONTO  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced an immediate ban Friday on the sale and use of assault-style weapons in Canada, two weeks after a gunman killed 22 people in Nova Scotia.

"Canadians need more than thoughts and prayers," he said, rejecting the reaction of many politicians after mass shootings.

Trudeau cited numerous mass shootings in the country, including the rampage that killed 22 in Nova Scotia April 18 and 19. He announced the ban of over 1,500 models and variants of assault-style firearms, including two guns used by the gunman as well as the AR-15 and other weapons that have been used in a number of mass shootings in the United States

"You do not need an AR-15 to take down a deer," Trudeau said. "So, effective immediately, it is no longer permitted to buy, sell, transport, import or use military-grade, assault weapons in this country."

There is a two-year amnesty period while the government creates a program that will allow current owners to receive compensation for turning in the designated firearms or keep them through a grandfathering process yet to be worked out.

Under the amnesty, the newly prohibited firearms can only be transferred or transported within Canada for specific purposes. Owners must keep the guns securely stored until there is more information on the buyback program.

Mary-Liz Power, a spokeswoman for Canada's public safety minister, said details of how the buyback program will work will be determined by the government and the other parties in Parliament.

"We can't prejudge what the result of the parliamentary process will be. That is when details about grandfathering would be determined," Power said.

Trudeau said the weapons were designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time.

"Today we are closing the market for military-grade assault weapons in Canada," he said.

Mass shootings are relatively rare in Canada, but Trudeau said they are happening more often. Trudeau noted he was nearby when in Montreal when gunman Marc Lepine killed 14 women and himself at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique college in 1989. The Ruger Mini-14 Lepine used is among weapons included in the ban.

Trudeau has said his government would introduce further gun control legislation prohibiting military-style assault weapons, a measure that had already been planned before the coronavirus pandemic interrupted the current parliamentary session.

"Enough is enough," Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said. "Banning assault-style firearms will save Canadian lives. These guns have no legitimate civilian purpose."

The gunman in Nova Scotia, 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, shot 13 people to death and set fires that killed nine others in one of the worst mass shootings in the country's history. Police have said he used a handgun that was obtained in Canada and long guns that he obtained in the U.S., but they have not specifically said what guns he used. The rampage started with an assault on his girlfriend and it ended with 22 people dead in communities across central and northern Nova Scotia. A number of people had disputes with the gunman.

Blair said two of the illegal long guns that Wortman used are now on the list of weapons banned. He declined to identify them.

Opposition Conservative leader Andrew Scheer accused Trudeau of using the "immediate emotion of the horrific attack in Nova Scotia to push the Liberals' ideological agenda and make major firearms policy changes."

Scheer said the Nova Scotia shooter did not have a firearms licence, so all of his guns were illegal.

"Taking firearms away from law-abiding citizens does nothing to stop dangerous criminals who obtain their guns illegally," Scheer said in a statement.

But Blair said making such guns illegal in Canada will make it harder for criminals to obtain them.

Every firearm begins legally and then moves into an illegal market, Blair said.

Rob Gillies of The Associated Press wrote this story.
Nicola Sturgeon has said the Scottish government is considering how to ease lockdown measures, exploring options such as bubble arrangements where people can meet with others outside their own households in small groups.

Unveiling a document on relaxing restrictions, the Scottish first minister said she was looking at loosening the rules on the public leaving their homes, including allowing exercise to happen more than once a day.

Ms Sturgeon suggested there could be an change in the rules to allow meeting up with a small defined group of other people  outdoors at first  in a sort of bubble arrangement.

Her remarks come as Boris Johnson prepares to set out a roadmap for easing UK-wide restrictions in an address to the public on Sunday evening.

The 27-page guide to how the easing of Scotlands lockdown could occur stresses that no specific changes have been decided on and the government cannot put dates on any of the changes for the time being.

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Speaking at the Scottish governments daily briefing in Edinburgh, Ms Sturgeon also reiterated it is highly unlikely any significant alterations to the coronavirus restrictions will made on Thursday  the deadline to decide whether to extend the lockdown.

But the potential initial changes detailed in the paper make clear the Scottish government is exploring how to make changes to people leaving their home more often and/or for longer, but still remaining in the local area.

On changes to advice on visiting other households, it adds: We are considering if and how we could make changes to allow people to meet with a small number of others (that number is under consideration) outside their own household in a group or bubble that acts as a single, self-contained unit, without connections to other households or bubbles.

It is possible that this option would be introduced first for outdoor meetings, ahead of any change to permit indoor meetings of the bubble.

The changes, however, would not apply to people currently considered to be in the shielded group, who remain at the highest risk from Covid-19.

We recognise that this will become increasingly challenging as advice changes for other people, it adds. We are committed to an honest conversation with our citizens who are shielding and with their families about the support they need.

On businesses, the document says the governments initial focus will likely be on the safe resumption of construction, manufacturing and retail, where work cannot be done remotely.

It adds: To be clear, restrictions are likely to remain in place for some business activity for some time to come, especially where safe working is harder to achieve. Changes already adopted in many sectors, for example working from home and the use of digital technology, are likely to persist as part of the new normal.

Asked whether the UK government is planning a similar document to Ms Sturgeons on the relaxation of lockdown, the prime ministers official spokesman said: I havent seen what Nicola Sturgeon has said, but we are looking at a range of possible easements to social distancing measures.

We are also looking at if in some areas they need to be toughened, they added. Once we have the scientific evidence and have completed the review process we will be able to set out what those are.

During the press conference on Tuesday, Ms Sturgeon also warned that the NHS could be overwhelmed if schools are reopened this month, claiming that in the worst-case scenario, more than 30,000 people would require hospital treatment.

She added that lifting the lockdown will not be like flipping a switch but instead be a gradual process.

Ms Sturgeon added: The hard fact is we must see further restrictions in new cases, hospital and ICU admissions and deaths to be sure the overall level of infection and the R number [the reproductive value of the virus] are lower than they are now. That means for the moment we do need to stick with the current lockdown restrictions.
China insists it has been fully transparent and hidden nothing on the killer coronavirus disease (Covid-19), whose international spread from Wuhan has turned into the greatest disaster of our time. So, why is Beijing opposing an independent international inquiry into the origins and spread of the virus?

The lethal virus emanated from China, leading to a paralysing pandemic whose costs are immeasurable. Is it unreasonable for the world to want to know how and why it happened?

Investigating the genesis of the pandemic is critical for another reason  this is not the first deadly disease to spread globally from China. A Chinese cover-up of the 2002-2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) outbreak triggered the worlds first 21st-century pandemic. Getting to the bottom of how the latest pathogen flared up and spread is essential for designing rapid-response efforts to prevent a future outbreak from spiralling into yet another pandemic.

Even the World Health Organization (WHO) agrees. This is the organisation whose repeated deference to Beijing since December helped China to cover its tracks. Several countries now want an inquiry to focus on the roles of both China and WHO. The WHO representative in China has said the origins of the virus are very important to prevent reoccurrence. Yet Beijing has shut out even WHO from its national Covid-19 investigations.

United States (US) President Donald Trump has offered China an incentive for cooperation by contrasting a mistake with wilful action: If it was a mistake, a mistake is a mistake. But if they were knowingly responsible, yeah, I mean, then sure there should be consequences. Beijing, however, has shied away from answering even basic questions.

For example, why did China stop flights from Wuhan to the rest of the country after the Covid-19 outbreak, yet allowed international flights to operate from Wuhan, thus facilitating the global spread of the virus? Why did it clamp down recently on further research by Chinese scientists into the origins of the virus? It instituted a new policy mandating prior vetting after several Chinese research papers highlighted dangerous work on bat coronaviruses, with one study concluding that the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan.

Authorities shut a Shanghai laboratory a day after its publication of the coronavirus genome opened the global path to diagnostic tests. China refused to share any live virus sample with the world, making it impossible to track the diseases evolution, to quote US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The dangerous lab research in Wuhan may explain why China, instead of sharing any coronavirus sample, destroyed its lab samples.

Just think  if China was not guilty of any cover-up, wouldnt it be welcoming the growing international calls for an independent inquiry and offering to assist in such a probe? This would give China a chance to clear the air with the rest of the world. Instead, Beijing seems to be showcasing its guilt by belligerently rejecting the pleas for such an inquiry and threatening economic reprisals.

Australia is Exhibit A. The country is more economically tied with China than with its security patron, the US. Yet Australia has come under a blistering attack from China for proposing that WHO member-nations support an independent inquiry into the origins and spread of the coronavirus. Australia said it will push for such an investigation at the WHO assembly when it convenes for its annual meeting on May 17. In response, the Chinese ambassador to Australia threatened punishment through Chinese boycotts of Australian wine, beef and tourism and education sectors.

Meanwhile, as the Group of Seven (G7) countries, India and others seek a review and reform of WHO, Chinas decision to give an additional $30 million to the agency appears aimed at frustrating such calls. International rules require countries to notify WHO of a public health emergency of international concern within 24 hours of assessment. Chinas failure to do so has led to calls for introducing WHO inspectors with the power to enter a country to probe a disease outbreak in the manner of weapons inspectors.

Make no mistake: Money alone can neither aid Chinas strategy to deflect blame for the current crisis nor help defuse the increasing global backlash against it. Calls are growing louder across the world to hold China publicly accountable for the pandemics mounting human and economic toll. The only way China can silence such calls and begin to repair the serious damage to its image is through an independent international inquiry.

If it blocks such a probe, China will pay enormous costs  not as reparations but by compelling other major economies to restructure their relationships with it, a process that could ultimately end its status as the global hub of vital supply chains. Chinas mercantilist expansionism has already led to new regulations in the European Union, Australia, Germany, Spain and Italy. But Indias recent new rule mandating prior scrutiny of Chinese investment in any form is the first of its kind. Another major recent move is by Japan, which has earmarked $2.2 billion to help Japanese firms shift manufacturing out of China.

If China refuses to come clean, important countries are likely to start economically distancing themselves from it, through new tariffs, non-tariff barriers, relocation of manufacturing and other policy moves. Eventually, this could undermine the communist partys monopoly on power in China.

Brahma Chellaney is a geostrategist

The views expressed are personal
Providing end of life care is never an easy job, but for one Marie Curie nurse it hurts all the more as the cancer patients in her care cannot even see her smile.

Figures have shown that 40% of Covid-19 deaths in Northern Ireland have occurred in care homes.

It has been reported by the Department of Health that 70 care homes have been affected across Northern Ireland, leading to calls for the health system to support care homes as staffing levels dwindle.

Kasia Patynowska is a Marie Curie Nurse working as part of the Rapid Response Service.

She said that since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, there have been increased calls from care homes in Northern Ireland to assist and provide expert palliative care to patients both with and without coronavirus.

"We're all facing really challenging times and care homes need a lot of support," she said.

"They are experiencing an increased number of patients requiring palliative care at a time when their workforce is depleted. Some of our nurses have been required to shield and self-isolate in accordance with government guidelines."

Working in partnership with local GP out of hours, District Nursing Teams and the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, Marie Curie nurses remain able to provide a timely response for all calls for care and assistance, whether this is in someone's home, or care homes across Northern Ireland. "The number of calls we get nightly on the Rapid Response Service varies, but we are noticing an increased demand for the service following the coronavirus outbreak," said Kasia.

"Depending on the needs of the patients, I stay as long as I need to.

"Last week, I was in a care home in Belfast caring for patients with coronavirus, sadly at the final stages of their lives. One night I was there for six hours. I was with two patients as they died. Others were deteriorating rapidly.

"It's challenging as we're working under unusual and difficult circumstances.

"We're wearing masks, gloves, an apron and, when required, goggles and a face shield. It's taken away the usual interaction that you'd have with patients as they can't see you smile."

Kasia said the fact that families cannot be there with loved ones in the final hours is also hard to bear. "Another difficulty is the fact that families can't be with their loved ones - I really sympathise with that," she added.

"You're caring for people, but then you are also trying to keep families up to date on their loved one's condition.

"There was one patient at the nursing home last week that I was caring for and his daughter was very upset. I held the phone for her whilst she had a video call with her father telling him how much she loved him - it was really sad.

"Whilst the family are so sad that they can't be there, I think they find some comfort in that their loved one isn't alone and I can at least reassure them that I am doing everything I can to make sure they are as comfortable as possible."

Kasia has a family of her own and said she worries about the risk of infection to both herself and her household but continues to put patient care first.

"When I'm there with the patients, I'm not thinking about it, but then you come home and you do worry what you may be bringing into the house," she said.

"As I'm on the frontline, I know I'm higher risk and I'm so careful not to be in contact with others where possible.

"I'm afraid for my family, but I know I'm helping others at a really difficult time.

"At Marie Curie, we're experts in end of life care, so the service that we can provide is invaluable.

"It's what we do day in, day out, so we have an excellent understanding of what patients and families need at end of life.

"It's about being there when people need it most and providing really good quality care."
Officials of the Western Regional branch of the Ghana Immigration Service together with the Police and the Bureau of National Investigations have intercepted 18 illegal migrants in the Aowin Municipality of the Western North Region.



This brings the number of interceptions and repatriation of illegal migrants by the Ghana Immigration Service in the Western Region to a total of 190, since the closure of the country's borders.



The latest operation, led by the Aowin Municipal Commander of the Ghana Immigration Service, Deputy Superintendent of Immigration (DSI) Francis Kofi Apaw, arrested two Nissan Caravan mini busses with registration numbers GX 2137-17 and AS 1899-17, which were en-route to Kumasi.



Assistant Inspector Moses Akakpo, the Western Regional Public Relations Officer of the Immigration Services in a press release, said the intelligence led joint operation, which took place on Friday May 1, 2020, at about 0920 HRS, resulted in the arrest of 17 Burkinabes and an Ivorian, bringing the total to eighteen 18.



He said the suspects, all males, were aged between Seventeen 17 and Fifty-Five 55 years according to the information retrieved on their ID cards.



Assistant Insp. Akakpo said investigations conducted after their arrest, proved that all the suspects had entered the country through an unidentified illegal route at Sewum in the Aowin Municipality of the Western North Region.



According to him, the illegal migrants have since been repatriated after an emergency meeting with security heads of the Municipality.



He said, "At the said meeting, a unanimous decision to see to the immediate repatriation of these illegal ECOWAS migrants through the Sewum Border Post was arrived at".



He added that the Western Regional Command of the Ghana Immigration Service was committed to ensuring the continuous maintenance of optimum security within the various entry points in the Region.



He appealed to all well-meaning people of the Western Region, especially the leadership of the communities doted across the Border lines, as well as transport operators to assist by volunteering useful information in that regard.



The country's borders have been closed since the first two cases of the COVID-19 pandemic were recorded in early March this year.





Source: GNA









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In 2006, I was leading ministry at a local university for a church. For years, my ministry drew students off campus in large groups to hang out with their mostly Christian friends, and we hoped they would bring non-believers to church gatherings. They rarely did. Over time, our team became convinced we needed to flip the whole ministry on its head.

For the next two years, we pushed students to stay on campus. We equipped them to disciple one another and to minister to the nonbelievers in their dorm rooms and apartments who would never come to a traditional church gathering. Often this discipleship occurred when roommates reached out to their neighbors, or in the context of informal, one-on-one friendship.

God used this shift and these smaller groups of people who were present and intentional with neighbors and friends to make and mature disciples. After a few years of prayerful experimentation with this ministry model, we started a new church with a philosophy that was essentially the same. For the past 10 years, our discipleship priority at the City Church in Fort Worth, Texas, has been building smaller groups of individuals, couples, and families who have committed to discipleship and mission together. Ours is not the only church that has been working in this philosophy. A movement of missional communities stretches back for years across the globe.

The coronavirus pandemic has flipped many normal ministry paradigms on their heads. As different parts of the world start navigating various ways to come out of quarantine, we'll experience more changes. But large gatherings will largely remain off-limits, at least for the foreseeable future. Thankfully, Jesus promised that where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them (Matt. 18:20). Is healthy discipleship possible when that becomes the upper limit of regular physical gatherings? Yes! Over nearly 15 years of leading small, embedded communities as the primary discipleship venue for our church, Ive picked up on a few principles that may be helpful in the ever-changing COVID scene, even when only two or three can gather.

1. Groups of Two or Three Help Each Person Become Deeply Known

Small groups may seem like a ubiquitous part of ministry in 2020. But despite annual campaigns and regular pushes for people to get connected, join a group, or go deeper, many churches have individuals who have not taken that step. In a season where people are barred from their offices, deprived of social obligations, and stuck at home, they have an increased felt need for others.

When our church plant grew to about 80 people, we had to make a vital decision: Was it more important that I (the only staff pastor) know everyone on a surface level or that some leader know everyone at a deeper level, even if it wasnt me? Our decision to prioritize the latter initially pressed against my pastoral identity: I needed to be needed! But after making this change in direction, I couldnt deny how much better our new approach was. Our elders, who oversaw 10-30 people each, carried out the actual shepherding of the flock (1 Pet. 5:2) Leaders pursued members, learning and tending to small needs that had been expressed, rather than letting them get buried by people wondering if they should bother a busy leader (me). Pastors and leaders addressed divisions and problems long before they became emergency counseling issues. In short, while I had to remind myself I wasnt the chief shepherd of my church, God's people were better shepherded by equipped leaders, each caring for fewer people.

Everyone wants to be heard, listened to, valued, and cared for. Yet in any church of over 10 or so people, its impossible for a pastor to know everyone at that level. In many churches, its hard for every person to even have that kind of relationship with a church staff member or elder. But if we equip and deploy leaders well, small groups are one of the best ways to meet this need.

2. Two- or Three-Person Discipleship Can Continue When Other Programs Freeze

Over the past month, Ive been on multiple calls with church leaders whose staffs are wondering how to manage their workdays: If bands arent rehearsing, teachers arent leading classes, and other church programs are on hold for the coming weeks (or months), how will thousands of vocational church leaders spend 40-plus hours each week? On one hand, many could likely use a season of rest, personal soul care, and dwelling with God. But thats a topic for a different article.

On the other hand, there is no better way for ministry staffs to use this time than to be redeployed into discipleship. Per the first point, what better use of our freed-up time than having our leaders know, pursue, love, care for, and shepherd individual members of Gods flock? For example, I know some churches whose staffs are dividing up membership lists and regularly checking in with each person. The coronavirus is hitting at a time of prolific technology. Why cant staff spend their weekdays reaching out one on one to church members through group texting apps, email, or video calls? One pastor recently told me, The old-school pastoral house visit has never been as vital as it is nowbut we must find a way to do it in a season when people wont even open their doors!

In our own church, some of our staff members have started new digital groups to bring two to five church attenders into discipleship relationships. After communicating a few set meeting times during the week and posting an accessible (but secure) link to video calls, these leaders are proactively pursuing these areas of discipleship, through check-ins, prayer, and sermon discussion, at a time when their normal jobs and church programs are on hold.

3. Groups of Two or Three Can Provide Connection for the Isolated

Long before social distancing and shelter in place became part of our vernacular, people have longed for the kind of connection that increases as group sizes shrink. Whether its attending counseling sessions or asking a neighbor for help, we often feel much safer opening up to fewer people. For some, even thinking about sharing an opinion in a group larger five triggers anxiety. Applying this general principle in our current challenging season drives leaders to create human connection for those who need it most: shut-in neighbors, people dealing with shame and guilt, people new to town, and more. Even as were forced to isolate, we see increased longing for human connection.

One local church leader named Bobby shared with me the story of a reclusive neighbor, whom well call John. Age made it difficult for John to get out of his house, but John hadnt responded to offers of help or prayer or even many simple greetings for the first year Bobby lived next door to him. But when an unexpected family death rocked John, Bobby learned that his attempts to show his neighbor love and care had paid off. John reached out, and after months of walking through grief and building a relationship, he joined a small group and later became a believer.

An occasional check-in from a safe distance can ease initial interactions with others in isolation. Maybe it looks like asking, How are you doing today? or Im doing a Target pickup; do you need anything? With neighbors, it could be prayer time (from our respective sidewalks) or an invitation to a game night or happy hour (online) with folks from down the street or across the nation. Consider a phone call to an old acquaintance, or a phone number dropped in the mailbox of a vulnerable party who wont even come to the window, just in case you need to talk. Any of this can mean the world to people.

4. Many Members Can Be Equipped to Digitally Disciple Two or Three People

In own my ministry experience, Ive found that many people think they need to be expert theologians and experienced leaders (and thus feel unqualified) to lead home groups of 10 or church classes of 50. But if asked to meet regularly with one or two sisters or brothers in Christ, the Oh, I can do that responses skyrocket. If that's true in normal life, its even truer in seasons that feel more urgent.

In many churches, leaders are seeing congregations adopt a wartime mentality. Folks are eager to understand how they can jump in and do their part. They will also need equipping from church leaders to know how and where they can best serve and lead in their own contexts.

Right now, we are creating step-by-step PDFs for small groups and families with guided questions, a few pages of commentary on a given biblical text, and a list of best practices for video calls. Anyone stepping forward to lead needs personal touch points with pastors, staff, or other leaders, so they can have a weekly Zoom call with group leaders before they lead their online discussions to answer questions, pray, and encourage. And since new leaders will need some development, our church is moving all of our material for starting new groups into an online format, where pastors and staff can walk interested parties through it digitally. As people increasingly want to play their unique part in the body of Christ (Rom. 12; 1 Cor. 12), it is Gods mandate to church leaders to equip them for the work of ministry (Eph. 4:1113).

5. Groups of Two or Three Allow People to Breathe

Part of discipleship involves helping people breatheeven laugh and find joyin hard moments. Whether in person or online, smaller, less formal meetings can create space for this in ways large formal gatherings cannot. In my neighborhood last week, six dads gathered in the street; one taped two yardsticks together to create a social distancing stick, which gave the others a good laugh. Chris, another local pastor, helped his neighborhood host a food truck, in part to support one neighbors suddenly decreased business. They provided an online sign-up for time slots so people didnt all show up at once.

When I was on sabbatical a few years ago, I read a piece of advice from Jack Miller to a younger pastor: Being a Christian is fun. Millers words helped me, but if fun is too flippant a word for you right now, maybe we can at least agree that Christians can find joy in all circumstances; that Gods promises that are true in easier times are just as true in harder times; and that we can find peace, hope, and even rest in uncertainty. Smaller groups give space to remind our churches of these biblical truths and to put them into immediate practice.

Church leaders, church members, and the unchurched all need meaningful connections, reminders of Gods promises, and a chance to breathe and laughin this season as much as ever. But we also must remember the deep hope we have that surpasses any season and any ministry philosophy: The Christian faith and Gods church has often thrived in times of crisis. They have done so in part because every Christian is filled with the Spirit of God, and God has given each of us his written Word. God has always worked through everyday people. And in this season when only a few people can gather in person, I wholeheartedly expect to see people who might never find their way behind a pulpit step up as faithful leaders to disciple and care for others. Whatever a pastors role is during this pandemic, it includes equipping and unleashing the priesthood of all believers to do amazing works of ministry.

Ben Connelly is director of training for Saturate. After 19 years serving in local churches together, Ben and his wife, Jess, now get to serve disciple makers and planter couples across the world, as well as churches and organizations with a desire for sending.
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nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

After posting a 7 percent gain in just four sessions last week, market erased most of the gains on Monday, Sundar Sanmukhani, Head of Fundamental research desk, Choice Broking, said in an interview with Moneycontrols Kshitij Anand.

edited excerpts:

A) On the back of weak global cues, the index gave a gap-down opening and continued its downside movement until the last meeting of the trading session.

The Index settled at 9,293 levels with the loss of 566 points along with its large constituents which were badly hit as well during the trading sessions.

In terms of sectors, private banks, financial services, and metals were the top losers.

At the present level, the Nifty50 index has strong resistance at 9,450 while on the downside, good support is seen at 9,170-9,000 level.

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

After posting a 7 percent gain in just four sessions last week, market erased most of the gains on Monday.

Brutal selling witnessed across the counters amidst subdued global cues as the tension rising between the US and China over coronavirus, weak earning from companies like Reliance, HUL, and Tech Mahindra and implementation of economic lockdown 3.0 also weighed on sentiments.

Selling got accelerated after Indias manufacturing PMI for the month of April reduced to a record low of 27.4.

Events that can impact the market for this week are services PMI data, government measures to combat the impact of lockdown extension, and the US-China relationship.

Q) How is May likely to pan out for investors. There is a very popular Wall Street adage Sell in May and Go Away? Do you think we could hold onto gains if not why?

A) Since this doesnt seem to be a fundamentally driven rally (14 percent rally in April), we are not confident of market sustaining at higher levels. The market is almost 30 percent higher than the recent low. So, we are advising investors to partially book gains from the market.

Q) What is your call on Banking and auto stocks which have run up quite sharply in the week gone by?

A) We have a cautious to negative view of both sectors in the near-to-mid-term.

Q) What are the important factors which investors could track in the coming week and in the month of May?

A) As the initial lockdown started from the last 10 days of March 2020, we are not anticipating much negativity in the earning results of the companies. Nevertheless, the market needs to closely watch the earning results and the commentary of the companies.

Investors are expecting another stimulus package from the government and if the package is sufficient than the market could sustain the rally.

Q) What is your view on Tech Mahindra and HUL which came out with results on Thursday? What should investors do  buy, sell or hold?

A) Tech Mahindra Q4 result was below market expectations, which was mainly due to the disruption caused by COVID-19 related lockdown.

The company has not reported any significant deal cancellation but is operating at below capacity as clients struggled with the lockdown. In the near term, our view on Tech Mahindra is negative, but positive in the mid-to-long term.

For the whole sector, we are cautiously optimistic, but at the individual company level, it depends on sales-mix across various verticals.

HULs earning results too were below market expectations. The company reported a 7 percent fall in sales volume as against the consensus expectations of -4 to 4 percent.

EBITDA margin declined to 22.9 percent vs. expectations of 25.5 percent. The company indicated that it is currently operating at 70% utilization as compared to almost zero percent for the seven days after 25th Mar. 2020 (1st phase of lockdown).

We feel that despite reporting below-consensus results, it will remain in investors radar, because of its defensive nature in this uncertain environment.

Q) What are your view on RIL results and Rights issue and what should investors do?

A) RIL result was also below the market expectations. The company reported a consolidated PAT of Rs 6,348 crore. It has taken an inventory loss of Rs 4,267 crore, mainly due to the volatility in international crude prices. Net sales too were below the expectations and stood. GRM stood at USD 8.9 per barrel vs. expectations of USD 7.2.

Driving ahead of its plan to become a net-zero debt company by March 2021, the company has planned to raise massive equity of Rs.53,100 crore (i.e. around USD 7bn) via the right issue plan.

This is the first time the company is tapping the equity market in nearly three decades and this is the largest equity offering in Indian corporate history. The right issue will be a ratio of 1:15 with a price of Rs 1,257 per share

The issue will be structured as partly paid shares and payment of residual subscription amount over a period of time.

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.

Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd)
Two New England businessmen were the first in the nation to be arrested for trying to swindle coronavirus relief loans from the federal COVID-19 stimulus package, federal authorities said Tuesday.

David A. Staveley, from Andover, Massachusetts, and David Butziger, a Warwick, Rhode Island resident, were accused of falsely applying for more than $500,000 in forgivable loans from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, according to a statement from Aaron L. Weisman, U.S. Attorney for the District of Rhode Island.

The two businessmen claimed to have dozens of employees earning wages at four different businesses, though they had no employees working for them, the statement said.

Both men were charged in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island with conspiracy to make false statements to influence the U.S. Small Business Administration and conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Staveley was also charged with aggravated identity theft, and Butziger was charged with bank fraud, according to Weisman.

Tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs and have had their lives thrown into chaos because of the coronavirus pandemic, Weisman said in a statement. It is unconscionable that anyone would attempt to steal from a program intended to help hard working Americans continue to be paid so they can feed their families and pay some of their bills.

The CARES Act, signed into law in late March, aimed to provide emergency financial aid to millions of U.S. citizens suffering financially due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill authorized hundreds of billions of dollars in forgivable loans to small businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program.

Through fraudulent loan requests, Staveley and Butziger are suspected of trying to pay employees at businesses that were not operating before the start of the public health crisis, the U.S. attorney said. The two men are accused of discussing over email the idea of creating false documentations to get loans from the CARES Act.

Neither individual had any salaried employees, though, and in one instance, Weisman said, Staveley tried to pay employees at a business he did not own.

Staveley is accused of seeking more than $438,500 in loans, claiming he had dozens of employees at three restaurants he owned, two in Warwick, and one in Berlin, Massachusetts, according to Weisman.

One of the Warwick restaurants, the former Remington House, and the Berlin restaurant, On The Trax, were not open before the pandemic started, though, the U.S. attorney said, and the 52-year-old Andover man did not own or have any role in the second Rhode Island restaurant, Top of the Bay.

Prosecutors claimed Staveleys restaurant in Berlin was closed by March 10 after the town revoked the businesss liquor license for numerous reasons, including that he falsely claimed his brother owned the restaurant.

Staveley is also accused of using his brothers personal information in other real estate transactions, prosecutors said.

Butziger is suspected of seeking $105,381 in PPP loans from the federal government, falsely claiming he was the owner of an unincorporated entity called Dock Wireless, according to Weisman.

The 51-year-old Warwick man allegedly claimed in a telephone call with an undercover FBI agent, who was posing as a bank officer, that he had seven full-time employees on Dock Wirelesss payroll, including himself, authorities said.

He is accused of lying to the agent, claiming he brought on the employees full-time on Jan. 1 and laid them off at the end of March, according to law enforcement.

Butziger claimed the employees continued to work without being paid through April 2020, and that he would use SBA PPP funds to pay them, Weisman said.

The Rhode Island State Department of Revenue provided the federal government records showing no employees were paid by Butziger or Dock Wireless this year. The FBI also interviewed several of the Warwick mans alleged employees, who reported they never worked for Butziger or Dock Wireless, according to Weisman.

David Staveley and David Butziger tried to capitalize on the coronavirus crisis by conspiring to fraudulently obtain more than half a million dollars in forgivable loans that were intended to help small businesses teetering on the edge of financial ruin, Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the FBIs Boston Field Office, said in a statement. Thankfully we were able to stop them before taxpayers were defrauded.

Weisman added that U.S. Attorney General Barr has directed all U.S. attorneys to prioritize prosecuting crimes related to the coronavirus pandemic.

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COVID-19 and its associated shutdowns have not stopped Auburn Universitys LAUNCH competition from going forward. This years annual pitch competition will be held virtually through Zoom, the online meeting platform.

On May 13, some of Auburn Universitys top entrepreneurial faculty will put forward ideas for research projects with potential to impact the economy of the state and region. Auburns Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development will select winning faculty recipients to receive support from its LAUNCH Fund for Research and Innovation.

Established in 2015 by the Auburn University Research and Economic Development Advisory Board, LAUNCH is a fund and an associated competition designed to bridge the gap between innovative research and the marketplace. The fund was created with the support of the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development.

Five finalists will make presentations and must demonstrate their projects merit in the quest for up to $100,000 in funding, which can be awarded in varying amounts.

The LAUNCH program is a great way for some of the most promising innovations of Auburn faculty to be brought to the marketplace for the benefit of the people of Alabama, the state and the region, said James Weyhenmeyer, Auburns vice president for research and economic development.

Those selected will receive a cash award and the opportunity to meet with experts in entrepreneurship from Auburns Harbert College of Business and the universitys Office of Innovation Advancement and Commercialization.

The finalists and their proposals are:

Matt Hilliard, Peter He and Jin Wang, Department of Chemical Engineering: Novel Circulating Coculture Biofilm Photobioreactor for Valorization of Anaerobic Digestion Waste for a complimentary technology to improve anaerobic digestion, a process by which municipal waste streams are converted into value-added products, such as biofuel or animal feedstock.

Stewart Schneller, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry: Characterization of Antiviral Lead Compounds. Modifications to known antiviral compounds have produced new compounds with reduced toxicity and effectiveness against several pathologically important viruses, including measles, Ebola, dengue and norovirus.

Ben Choe, Department of Mechanical Engineering: Design of Prototypes of Lithium Ion Battery Packs for Demonstration of Fast and Safe Charging Method for methods and software to shorten charging times for and to extend the lifetimes of lithium ion batteries used in phones, other portable devices and electric vehicles.

Zhihua Jiang, Department of Chemical Engineering: Novel and Sustainable Feed Binder from Soy Hulls for converting soybean hulls, a current agricultural waste stream, into a binder for aquaculture feed. Feed binders are widely used to hold or bind different components together for increasing the water stability and durability of aquaculture feed.

Majid Beidaghi, Department of Materials Engineering: Development of Inks and Printing Technology for 3D Printing of Batteries for the development and formulation of inks for the fabrication of batteries, including lithium ion batteries, through a simple extrusion-based 3D printing process.

These are examples of Auburns world-renowned faculty delivering solutions to pressing regional, national and global needs. More information about how Auburn supports experts through LAUNCH is available on the LAUNCH website.
Coronavirus-driven delays in the national census may be threatening Californias redistricting timeline, but the effort to pick the commission members who will draw this decades boundaries for political districts is moving ahead on schedule.

After collecting more than 20,000 initial applications for a seat on the 14-member California Citizens Redistricting Commission, a team from the state auditors office reviewed nearly 2,200 more detailed supplemental applications and interviewed 120 people: 40 Republicans, 40 Democrats and 40 voters who are either no party preference or members of a minor party.

The three-member panel will meet this week to review those final applications and trim that list to 60.

From our end, which is forming the commission, we havent had any problems. Were on track, said Margarita Fernandez, a spokeswoman for state auditor Elaine Howle, who by law is responsible for recruiting and selecting members of the commission.

Thats about the only part of Californias redistricting effort thats going as planned. With the coronavirus forcing the U.S. Census Bureau to shut down almost all its outside operations until next month, officials have asked Congress for a four-month delay in their deadlines. That means the population and demographic numbers the commission needs to draw the 2022 maps for Assembly, state Senate and congressional districts might not be available until July 31, 2021.

Since the state Constitution requires that the new redistricting maps to be completed by Aug. 15 of next year, California officials are looking at ways to change that deadline, either by legal action or with an initiative on the November ballot.

California isnt the only state facing those redistricting problems. A study released Monday by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University found that 19 other states will probably have to change their redistricting deadlines in response to the Census Bureau delays. Two states that have legislative primary elections scheduled for June 2021, New Jersey and Virginia, will probably have to delay the elections or use their existing district lines for another two years.

But thats no concern for the California auditors office, where the only job is to choose the commissioners and provide some initial background support.

After the cut to 60 candidates, the list of potential commissioners goes to the Legislature, where the top two Democrats and Republicans in the Assembly and the state Senate can each veto as many as two candidates from each of the subpools: Democrats, Republicans and others.

The state auditor then randomly draws the names of the first eight commissioners: three Democrats, three Republicans and two others. Those commissioners then select the remaining six members from the final applicant list by Aug. 15, when they can begin work.

Even without the census numbers, the commission will have plenty to do, Fernandez said.

They have to identify what needs to be done and can even begin to hold hearings around the state, she said.

The purpose of those hearings is to determine what the various communities and interest groups want to see in the new political districts.

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth
This area holds the sad status of an epicentre of Covid-19 outbreak in Ukraine

Open source

Chernivtsi regional clinical hospital has been fighting the spread of Covid-19 for two months in a row. Currently, it hosts the largest number of patients plugged to the lung ventilators, which is four people. Last month, thanks to charity initiatives, a modern lung ventilator reached the hospital; soon after that, three more arrived, NewsOne TV channel reported.

"Currently, our hospital hosts 160 patients with either suspected or confirmed coronavirus infection. 14 of those are in the infection unit, and four patients are plugged to AVL devices", said Serhiy Tsyntar, the Chief Medical Officer of the hospital. According to him, under these circumstances, doctors constantly need extra equipment and protection.

On April 10, the hospital received a modern lung ventilator, 10,000 masks, and 19,000 gloves purchased at the financial support of a famous Ukrainian oligarch. Later, sponsors brought another three AVLs.

Medics claim there are no equals to these devices in the Chernivtsi region. The device already appeared to be effective and easy to handle.

"It's got standard modes that are necessary to treat the patients with pneumonia. It is easy to handle and simple to use. This is crucial for our staff", said Kostyantyn Dronik, the acting chairman of the hospital's department.

Four devices equal to four intubations of gravely sick people. That's at least four saved lives", said Oleg Chorny, the Chief of Department of Healthcare of Chernivtsi regional state administration.
OTTAWAAs provinces start to tiptoe toward normalcy by gently lifting restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19, a new poll suggests Canadians are largely happy with the pace.

People in most provinces taking steps to reopen were between 60 and 70 per cent supportive of those moves, while 16 to 30 per cent would like to see their government slow down a little.

Some provinces have already begun loosening physical distancing measures put in place as the growth in the number of COVID-19 cases started picking up steam in March.

In Quebec, which has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Canada, the province is allowing some retail stores to reopen outside of Montreal with an eye to reopen the manufacturing and construction sectors next week. On Monday it pushed back the reopening of non-essential stores in the Montreal area at least another week.

Ontario, with the second-highest number of confirmed cases in the country, is allowing the partial reopening of some seasonal businesses. Manitoba has gone even further, allowing slightly restricted access to libraries, museums and restaurant patios.

But in Alberta, which plans to allow certain retail stores, restaurants and daycare centres to reopen as early as May 14, people seem less comfortable with how quickly things are moving.

There, 50 per cent of respondents would like the province to slow down.

The poll, conducted by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies between May 1 and 3, surveyed 1,526 adult Canadians and 1,002 adult Americans randomly recruited from its online panel. The internet-based survey cannot be assigned a margin of error because online polls are not considered random samples.

Alberta is a bit different, said Christian Bourque, vice-president of Leger.

Everywhere else people seem to be in tune with what their governments have announced.

Bourque was surprised by the latest results, considering similar polls in the last weeks indicated Canadians wanted to see major milestones hit before physical distancing measures were lifted, such as the development of a vaccine or a two-week period without new cases.

I expected people to be even more cautious than they are, he said.

In the latest poll, 28 per cent said they would be comfortable lifting restrictions if there are only sporadic cases and no pressure on the health-care system.

One reason for the acceptance of provincial plans to gradually reopen may be the steady support and trust respondents have expressed in their governments, which have remained high throughout the Canadian epidemic, Bourque said.

Thats in stark contrast to the United States, where 43 per cent of respondents expressed satisfaction with measures put in place by President Donald Trump to fight COVID-19. In Canada, 77 per cent of respondents said they were satisfied with what Ottawa is doing.

The other reason may be that people are starting to slip when it comes to following the rules.

In general, the poll suggests Canadians fear of themselves or a loved one contracting the virus is lower than it was at the end of March. And while 27 per cent of Canadians said they did not comply with at least one of the public health measures two weeks ago, that number grew to 35 per cent in the latest poll.

Thats mainly because people are a little more likely to visit friends and family now, Bourque said. Last week only 16 per cent reported doing that and this week it was 18 per cent.

More people now find it harder to do everything governments are asking them to do, he said.
Lantmannen Unibake has taken its Americana foodservice brand into the retail market for the first time.

With retail bread supply under pressure, and the foodservice market under almost total lockdown, the business has launched a selection of frozen Americana products into Tesco.

The retailer will be listing the packs of eight five-inch soft Americana Floured Baps and six Deli Rolls online and in stores across the country.

Made by Lantmannen Unibake at its bakeries in Milton Keynes, they are produced using an American sponge and dough method, designed to give a distinctive flavour and texture. All Americana foodservice products are supplied frozen and pre-sliced.

Its great to see the Americana brand make the transition from foodservice to frozen food retail in response to the Covid-19 lockdown, said Lantmannen Unibake marketing and innovation director Peter Drew.

He added that businesses needed to work together at this time, and that it was testament to the teams at Lantmannen Unibake and Tesco that they had turned the launch around so quickly.

The current climate means we are having to adapt quickly to changes and we are committed to supporting our customers however we can. This includes making rapid adjustments to our product to ensure it is available where and when it is needed most.

Britains largest bakers have fought to keep supermarket shelves stocked since March, with some removing niche SKUs from ranges to maximise capacity for core lines.
Rampant regions during lockdown 112 Agency

Check out some funny (and not so much) news from Ukrainian regions on quarantine that occurred over the past week due to coronavirus.

***

In Izmail city, a woman did manicure and haircut in a hairdressing salon, after which she informed police that the salon violates the quarantine regime.

manicure Open source

Izmail City District Court of the Odesa region fined a hairdresser for 630 dollars.

A report on violation of quarantine came from a grateful client who had received a full range of services there before.

The woman reported this because she asked to cut her hair ends by 3 centimeters, and not by 7.

***

In Boyarka town, a woman with a child on her shoulders collapsed from a 3-meter fountain.

Spoiler: The fountain collapsed too.

The risky mother climbed the first tier of the fountain, then on the second, where she took a photo. During the descent, the construction of the fountain collapsed along with mother and the child. The record shows how the child runs away in hysterics after the fall.

***

In Odesa, a drunk man with a gun and knife tried to get on a sunken DELFI tanker.

At first the rescuers stopped the violator, who was trying to get into the tanker, but he behaved weirdly and threatened them.

sunken tanker Open source

Police seized a traumatic weapon and knife from a detainee.

***

A resident of Vinnytsia region found an old Rus spear of the X-XII century and stuck pigs with it.

spear of the X-XII century vlasno.info

Vinnytsia Local History Museum keeps a spearhead of the X-XII century, which until recently served as a tool for killing pigs.

***

Biology teacher in Kharkiv region teaches biology to children, reading rap.

And how do you like it, the New Ukrainian School?

***

Funeral of the tourist season was held in Ternopil.

The opening of the tourist season was celebrated in Ternopil every year on the first Saturday of May, but this year the celebration was canceled due to the coronavirus epidemic.

Funeral of tourist season in Ternopil 24tv.ua

In previous years, the city recorded an increase in tourists by 20% annually. This year the situation is different. According to Ternopil residents, the tourism in the region is dead. This can lead to an increase in unemployment and a decrease in budget revenues.

***

Pink flamingos came to Mykolaiv region for the first time.
With the travel industry reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, Airbnb will lay off a quarter of its workforce, almost 1,900 people, CEO Brian Chesky told employees of the San Francisco vacation-rental company on Tuesday.

We are collectively living through the most harrowing crisis of our lifetime, and as it began to unfold, global travel came to a standstill, Chesky wrote in an email to workers. Airbnbs business has been hit hard, with revenue this year forecasted to be less than half of what we earned in 2019.

While the company has responded by raising $2 billion in capital and cutting costs, without knowing when travel will return and what it will look like, Airbnb needs to become a more focused business, he wrote.

That means reducing less-essential aspects, such as its Luxe division that handles rentals of expensive, high-end homes, many of which came through Airbnbs 2017 acquisition of Luxury Retreats for around $200 million. Airbnb will also put less emphasis on boutique hotels and no longer produce promotional videos.

The news is not a surprise, said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at Atmospheric Research.

When your business has evaporated and the outlook is uncertain, you simple cant afford to keep everybody on board, he said.

Airbnb ranks among the worlds most valuable startups, with a private market valuation of $35 billion before the pandemic crisis hit. Chesky declared in September that Airbnb would head to Wall Street this year to become a public company.

The company declined to comment on its plan to go public and on whether its feeling pressure because some employee equity is set to expire later this year, making the shares worthless if the company is still private.

Airbnbs hosts, some 7 million people worldwide who rent out houses and rooms to travelers via its website, are not employees. They have already seen their rental incomes plunge as travel stopped.

Some were irate at Airbnb, which refunded guests money for cancellations no matter what kind of refund policies hosts had in place. The company responded by allocating $250 million to pay a quarter of whatever hosts would have received under their existing cancellation policies.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Airbnb will face more challenges when travel starts to return, Harteveldt said. He said he thinks hotels may have an initial advantage over home rentals for virus-wary guests.

Hotels have professional housekeepers who will use commercial-grade cleaning products, and will be trained in the new standards, he said.

On the other hand, some guests may prefer a private home where theyre not sharing a lobby and elevator with others, as well as the ability to cook in a kitchen rather than visiting restaurants, he said.

Airbnb is providing generous severance pay. Laid-off U.S. workers will get 14 weeks of pay plus one week for every year of tenure, plus health care coverage for one year. In the 24 other countries where Airbnb has staff, workers will get at least 14 weeks of pay and health care coverage through December.

Departing employees with less than a year at the company will still get equity. All those leaving will be eligible for a May 25 vesting date.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @CSaid
Bret: I hope youre right. Complaints of the sort Reade is making should never be ignored, as they were in the past. But they shouldnt be unquestioningly accepted, either. Fairness needs to be the rule, as opposed to denial or credulity.

I guess a lot will still depend on what we learn from and about Reade, assuming she eventually sits for a public interview. Even so, its an inauspicious start of sorts for Bidens presidential campaign. Do you think there might be a temptation among Democrats to deny him the nomination and give it to, say, Andrew Cuomo?

Gail: Seems like almost everybody wants Andrew Cuomo to be president except Andrew Cuomo. Although I do suspect if he was offered the job on a silver platter, hed feel constrained to accept.

Bret: Never quite understood the charms of Albany. Go on .

Gail: Barring some new whopper of a revelation, the Democrats arent going to toss Biden off the ballot because of an accusation about an alleged event in 1993 that he denies. So far, there doesnt seem to be evidence like a filed complaint. But just shrugging it off is utterly wrong. The Democratic National Committee should do a thorough investigation. The fact that party officials dont want to is no argument whatsoever against the wisdom of this approach. Although maybe an argument for a better D.N.C.

Bret: Sunshine is the best disinfectant, as someone other than Trump once said. And Biden didnt help himself in his interview with Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC, when he refused to authorize a search of his papers at the University of Delaware for any information there might be about Reade. I accept the likelihood that there might be nothing there at all, but it was politically tone deaf not to authorize the search and suggested he might be wary of something else in his long Senate career coming to light.

Other than a smart veep pick, what do you think Biden should be doing to help his campaign, down there in Basement HQ?

Gail: First priority is keeping the guy in good health through the election. No crowds, no handshakes. Really, if they had to put him in a safe deposit box thatd be fine.
Meth rehab can take as long as 90 days, three times longer than the average 12&12 patient stays at the facility, Day said.

It takes a while for the brain to reset and heal, he said.

Methamphetamine has traditionally been associated with homemade doses, but much of it now comes from overseas in a much stronger form, Day said.

Its extremely addictive, he said, and extremely dangerous.

To pay for the new services, 12&12 will use money from a larger funding package from the state Mental Health Department, officials said. Technically, that money will run out June 30, when the facility will need to secure a longer-term source of funding, officials said.

The Mental Health Department, however, wants not only to keep the 12&12 program open but to launch similar efforts at other facilities, provided, of course, that 12&12s program proves to be successful, said the departments interim commissioner, Carrie Slatton-Hodges.
A firefighter with Anne Arundel County Fire Department takes the blood pressure of a suspected COVID-19 patient as he is transported to the hospital, in Glen Burnie, Md., on May 3, 2020. (Alex Edelman/AFP via Getty Images)

Even After Respiratory Symptoms Fade, COVID-19 Patients Face Another Danger

Doctors treating CCP virus patients are starting to notice blood clotting after respiratory symptoms and other signs of the illness fade away.

Theres something about this virus thats exaggerated that to the nth degree, said Mitchell Levy, chief of pulmonary critical care at the Warren Albert School of Medicine, according to Bloomberg. Were seeing clotting in a way in this illness that we have not seen in the past.

He noted that blood clotting is probably the most important thing thats emerged over the last perhaps month or two.

When clots form, they can pose a serious health risk and cause damage to organs including the liver, heart, and kidneys. But blood clotting in the lungs has occurred in the lungs of CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus patients, which can impact their breathing.

Margaret Pisani, an associate professor of medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine, told the news outlet that there have been cases where virus patients appear to be fine but suddenly fall off the edge and develop more severe respiratory symptoms. Clots in the lungs might be the culprit, she said.

Dr. Hooman Poor, a lung specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, told Reuters that he observed blood clotting in 14 patients who were on ventilators.

I feel like all these patients have blood clots in their lungs, Poor said in April.

Last week, the New England Journal of Medicine found that five people between the ages of 33 and 49 had strokes, which can be caused by blood clots. Those patients were treated for blockages of blood vessels.
HONG KONGHong Kongs leader said the city will soon relax social distancing measures, as it continues to ease restrictions after largely containing the spread of COVID-19.

The time for some relaxation, some lifting of the restrictions that we put on this social context has come, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Tuesday at a regular briefing ahead of a meeting of her advisory Executive Council. I would just appeal to you to be a little more patient. We will make the decision and announce as soon as possible.

The statement, which did not specify a time frame for loosening the rules, comes after reports that Hong Kong could relax a ban on gatherings of more than four people and may soon open gyms and movie theatres. It also follows the decision to have government employees resume working from their offices, which went into effect Monday.

The city is also preparing to reopen public facilities, such as museums and libraries, that have been closed during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Asian financial hub, which just suffered its worst economic quarter on record, has mostly contained COVID-19 through a mix of early social distancing measures starting in late January, travel restrictions, contact tracing and mandatory quarantines.

Hong Kong has reported zero new daily cases for nine of the last 15 days and hasnt seen a virus-related death since mid-March. Nearly all of the newer infections were found in people with a recent travel history.

As other major cities continue with lockdowns, life in Hong Kong has continued on largely as normal: Restaurants are open, despite some social distancing restrictions, and residents in surgical masks are flocking to beaches and hiking trails as the weather gets warmer.

But relaxing social distancing measures also poses a dilemma for Lam, as it could help facilitate the return of pro-democracy protests that rocked Hong Kong last year. Already over the last couple of weeks, activists have held several demonstrations inside malls, chanting slogans and holding up banners protesting Beijings growing influence in the city.

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Bengaluru, May 5 : A 62-year-old woman from Vijayapura succumbed to coronavirus infection on Tuesday, taking the COVID-19 death toll in Karnataka to 28, a health official said.

The state has registered eight more COVID-19 cases in the past 19 hours, increasing the count of such cases to 659, the official added.

"Positive case 640, 62-year-old female resident of Vijayapura died on Tuesday due to cardiac arrest," the health official said.

Admitted to a designated hospital's ICU on Sunday, the woman was also suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Bronchial Asthma (BA) and complained of breathlessness.

Among the eight fresh cases that emerged in the state, four were contacts of earlier cases, two with Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and one with travel history to Uttarakhand.

The health department is also tracing the contact history of a 30-year-old woman from Bengaluru Urban.

Incidentally, no new cases emerged from Davangere as 22 cases rocked the district on Monday.

Among the new cases, Bengaluru Urban contributed 3, followed by Bagalkote, 2, Ballari, Dakshina Kannada and Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada, 1 each.

Of the new cases, six are men and two women.
Refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Cameroon are suing Germany for invasion of privacy after Germany demanded their access to their cellphones to prove their identities.

The refugees are Syrian Mohammad A, 29, who was granted refugee status in Hanover, an Afghan woman, 37, who was lodged in Berlin and a woman from Cameroon, 25 in Stuttgart.

It has been legal for Germany to examine asylum seekers' mobile phones who do not have valid identity documents such as passports since 2017.

Pictured: a sign of protest saying 'take refugees close camps' in front of Brandenburg Gate in Berlin during a protest to release refugees from camps during the coronavirus crisis on April 5

But Berlin's Society of Civil Rights (GFF) is arguing that this method was used too quickly and is a violation of the refugees' human rights.

'I didn't know what exactly was happening, nobody had explained anything. But I was afraid to be deported, so I gave the mobile. It was as if I was handing over my whole life,' he said in a statement released by the GFF,' said one the claimants Mohammad A.

Mohammad's asylum application was approved in 2015 but he still had to hand over his phone when his status was reassessed last year.

A GFF lawyer Lea Beckmann said: 'The BAMF (Germany's ministry for migration and refugees) is disregarding the strict constitutional rules by which the state must abide when accessing personal data.'

The Society of Civil Rights (GFF) (logo pictured right) is filing the lawsuit on behalf of the three refugees with lawyer Lea Beckmann (pictured left)

The BAMF said it was aware that checking mobile data was an intrusion and every case was determined by strict rules.

A spokesman said: 'A mobile phone is often the only, or a very important, source to establish the identity and nationality of people entering Germany without a passport or identification documents.'

The World Refugee Council and other refugee rights groups have also spoken out against non-consensual data collection and phones being used for unethical surveillance.
Tuesday, May 5th, 2020 (2:42 pm) - Score 2,102

The Colchester Borough Council (CBC) in Essex and its commercial arm, Colchester Amphora Trading, has  after 2 years of planning and negotiations  been awarded 3.3m from the UK Governments Local Full Fibre Network (LFFN) fund in order to start building a new Dark Fibre network. But local homes are also set to benefit.

At present businesses in the town centre can already access a Dark Fibre network (Colchester Ultra-Fast Broadband), which follows a 2016 agreement with UK ISP County Broadband. But the local authority intends to expand this across the rest of central Colchester and then out toward the more northern reaches (up to around Severalls).

All profits from the project will return to CBC for reinvestment into good-quality public services for the residents and businesses of Colchester. On top of that readers may recall that the Swedish operator, VXFIBER, also plans to make use of the network as a basis for their wider 10m investment, which aims to put a gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network within reach of local homes (here).

VXs business case is based on securing a 40% share of the available market within 5 years, which equates to some 25,000 properties connected to their gigabit network. All of this is similar to the FTTP network that theyre currently building across Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire UK, which is due to complete by spring 2021 (here).

Councillor Theresa Higgins, CBC Portfolio Holder for Commercial Services, said: Securing 3.3 million from DCMS is fantastic news and will ensure that Colchester becomes one of the best-provisioned towns in the country, helping to assist the economic recovery that will be so vital over coming years. Weve seen how the coronavirus crisis has underlined the importance for many of being able to work from home with reliable connectivity, and Colchester will receive a world-class infrastructure as a result of this project.

The council will also utilise its existing property assets, including sheltered housing sites, to help support the roll-out and cover the more deprived communities. Meanwhile the core Dark Fibre network will connect the UKs main internet exchange in London with data distribution facilities in the town centre and at the Northern Gateway.

The new Colchester Fibre site gives a rough indication of the operators roll-out plan for this skeleton core network. VXFIBRE will then build their own open-access network, based upon that core.

Richard Watts, UK Sales and Marketing Director for VX Fiber, said: We are delighted that Colchester has received this award from DCMS as this shows yet another prime example of how local authorities can play a vital role in the delivery of digital transformation across their communities. We are pleased to be working in collaboration with CBC and looking forward to inviting Service Providers to the Open Access Network.

The full network build is expected to take up to 5 years to complete. The first phase of installation work, to be managed by Amphora, will begin in the town centre, Greenstead and north Colchester this month. Deployment to other parts of urban Colchester will start later in 2020, with the skeleton network completed by May 2021. New customers will be able to sign-up for services from September 2020.

Meanwhile we should remind readers that VX will not be selling directly to end users. Instead they function as a wholesale operator and, if their work is anything like Stoke, then VXs subsidiary, LilaConnect will market, sell, install and maintain FTTP connections from their infrastructure to homes and businesses. LilaConnect does not itself offer any services  just the connections to the network  and they have a number of ISPs on their platform (e.g. Air Broadband, Bridge Fibre, Pure Broadband and Vonage).

The more rural parts of the borough will of course continue to be tackled via the wider state aid supported Superfast Essex (SFE) project, which has on-going contracts with Openreach (BT), Gigaclear and County Broadband. Meanwhile VXFIBRE will not have Colchester all to itself because Virgin Medias soon-to-be 1Gbps capable network is already present across most of the town. Openreach and OFLN also have a few small FTTP deployments.
Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Carl Michael inspects the impact of technology on Belt and Road Initiative in his fifth blog post for our Emerging Fellows program. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the APF or its other members.

The term technology covers the development and utilization of technical capabilities in relation to people and the environment. Technologies are material and non-material or digital inventions that have enabled human beings to survive, thrive and advance. They ought not to be considered in isolation from the era or the societies in which they exist. For instance, some experts consider that were it not for the development of the chariot, China itself as a unified entity would not exist. Such is the impact of technology on society. Continuing on this note, if one considers the very concept of the state as a technology in its own right, one can define a state as the sum of human endeavour in the production of economic, military, social or artistic outcomes. Extending this train of thought, one can consider the state or the BRI to be a network, and one which acts within a global network.

The evolution of the BRI must be considered in the context of political technologies such as states and intra-state activities. It should be acknowledged how these technologies interact with other cutting-edge technologies and the resulting evolution of governance. In this macro-context, national or civilizational interactions are part of a complex technological network. When insights from complexity theory and network theory are incorporated into ones perspective, the evolution of the BRI and its vision can be viewed in a new light. This provides a viewpoint which could be useful when considering how technology impacts the intentions driving an initiative such as the BRI. The economic future of China is technology dependent and effective utilization and transfer of technology will be at the heart of the BRI. Further to this, as BRI members develop, there will be greater demand for advanced technologies, wherever they come from.

For China, technology and success are almost synonymous and the Made in China 2025 strategic plan is the blueprint for Chinas intent for seizing leadership in advanced technology. It is a world leader in digital payment systems and the intent is to surge forward in ICT, artificial intelligence, robotics, high-speed railways, biotech and medical technology, pharmaceuticals, space technology, renewables, energy efficiency, electric vehicles, nuclear energy and military technology. To fuel this surge China needs access, one way or another, to commodities from developing countries or cutting-edge technology from developed countries. The BRI presents China with opportunities to use its accumulated capital to increase its ability to control and optimise global value chains on favourable terms for developing and exporting its technology.

The danger from the current global crisis has showcased Chinas strategic biotech capabilities. Chinese leadership in other key technology sectors can be noted from its young, large and ambitious technology workforce, its recent accounting for a third of a space-launches, its pushing ahead with ambitious plans for cleaner and safer next-generation nuclear power, and its acknowledged strength in 5G telecom networks and digital platforms. With this in mind, we can see that Chinas Technological Tianxia will be one of fast, technologically driven economic and social change with a centrally managed approach, including the use of technology for military and power-projection. The speed of this change is considerable. China took just over a decade for over a billion people to double industrial output per person. In comparison, the UK took well over a century and the US took about half a century. The technology driven vision of the future will be a distinctive factor for an imagined community such as the BRI and this vision will be driven by Chinese technology prophets, entrepreneurs, influencers and venture capitalists.

 Carl Michael 2020
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Linkedin Shaun Tandon (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States  Tue, May 5, 2020 09:02 624 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd5f3adf 2 World US-China,Mike-Pompeo,secretary-of-state,coronavirus,virus-corona,COVID-19,COVID-19-death-toll,pandemic Free

Branded "insane" by Chinese state media but hailed by US conservatives, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is taking the lead in pressing a hard line against Beijing over the coronavirus pandemic.

Pompeo has been at the forefront of bringing into the mainstream a theory that the illness that has killed nearly 250,000 worldwide slipped out of a virology laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus first emerged last year.

The hawkish role is familiar for Pompeo, who has also advocated sweeping pressure on Iran including a January drone strike that killed one of its top generals.

The former Army infantryman has for months been describing China as a major adversary on everything from technology to defense -- a contrast with President Donald Trump, who has abruptly swung from assailing to praising Beijing.

Yet Pompeo has also managed a rare feat in Trump's Washington -- staying in the good graces of the mercurial president, who is not known to have uttered a critical word against his top aide.

Washington watchers see loyalty to Trump as the ultimate principle of Pompeo, whose own political future is tied to sticking by Trump and helping him win re-election in November.

A former congressman, Pompeo has been unabashedly partisan as compared with past US top diplomats, recently criticizing Trump's presumptive Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden by name at a State Department news conference.

Douglas Paal, a senior Asia adviser under previous Republican presidents, said that Pompeo's focus on China's role in the pandemic was in line with Trump's re-election strategy.

"The economy has cratered, the stock market has cratered, so what else do you run on in the election? Well, run against China," said Paal, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

He said that Pompeo, who has only made two brief visits to Beijing since taking office two years ago, takes a more ideological approach to China than previous secretaries of state.

"Every time, it's never the 'Chinese government.' It's always the 'Chinese Communist Party.' That terminology seems to explain to them everything about what China is doing," he said.

'Spewing poison'

Pompeo, in an interview Sunday on ABC, said there was "enormous evidence" that the new coronavirus came out of a Wuhan lab -- not a wet market, as most scientists suggest.

"Remember, China has a history of infecting the world and they have a history of running substandard laboratories," he said.

Pressed in the interview, Pompeo, formerly the CIA chief, walked back his statement that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was "man-made," an idea explicitly rejected by US intelligence.

Chinese state media on Monday responded with harsh commentary reminiscent of North Korea's colorful harangues, denouncing his remarks as "insane" and entitling a commentary, "Evil Pompeo is wantonly spewing poison and spreading lies."

Pompeo has also joined Trump in attacking the World Health Organization, which said Monday it had no evidence that the virus came out of a laboratory.

Rallying conservatives

Even while making enemies in Beijing, Pompeo has found friends in one welcome area for him -- Trump's conservative base.

He steadfastly defended Trump during his impeachment, even after the president lampooned US diplomats who were alarmed over his strong-arming of Ukraine.

More recently, Pompeo has feuded on Twitter with Senator Elizabeth Warren, a leading liberal Democrat, after she doubted his Iran strategy.

Pompeo surprised many political watchers earlier this year by declining to run for Senate in his strongly Republican home state of Kansas, a seat that would have given him a perch in Washington even if Trump loses.

But the 56-year-old is widely seen as entertaining presidential ambitions of his own in 2024 and, even while leading US foreign policy in a crisis, he has waded into domestic social issues.

He recently won praise from Christian conservatives for a Twitter attack on "radical leftist scholars" who spoke of risks to homeschooling children.

An evangelical Christian who often speaks of his faith, Pompeo has also taken to tweeting verses from the Bible.

On Sunday, just as he was renewing his charges about the Wuhan laboratory, he quoted from the Book of Proverbs: "Be sure of this: the wicked will not go unpunished, but the descendants of the righteous will go free."
ARLINGTON, Va., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In honor of May as Mental Health Awareness Month, two leading mental health organizations are working together to help Northern Virginians cope with Covid-19.

The AAKOMA Project, an innovative mental health nonprofit, and the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation, an advocate for mental health care in the African-American community, are joining forces to help Northern Virginia's underserved communities during the pandemic.

Supported by funding from the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia, the two organizations will provide virtual mental health treatment focused on youth and young adults in Northern Virginia, particularly among communities where access to mental health care is limited.

"There's no better time to promote mental health care than during this pandemic," said Dr. Alfiee M. Breland-Noble ("Dr. Alfiee"), the founder of the AAKOMA Project. "Together with the Henson Foundation, we can empower young people to care for themselves and others."

The AAKOMA Project and the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation will incorporate culturally-relevant programming into a series of virtual therapy sessions, connecting young people of color with resources that speak directly to their reality and needs. All sessions will be free and registration will be available through both organizations.

About the AAKOMA Project: The AAKOMA Project is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to help diverse teenagers and their families achieve optimal mental health through dialogue, learning, and the understanding that everyone deserves care and support. Find out more at https://AAKOMAproject.org/ .

About the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation: Founded by actor Taraji P. Henson in honor of her father, the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation is committed to eradicating the stigma around mental health issues in the African-American community. Find out more at https://borislhensonfoundation.org/ .

About the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia: The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia grows philanthropy to respond to critical need, seed innovation and lead and convene the community. Comprised of donor advised funds, permanent funds, giving circles, and other charitable endowments, the Community Foundation connects donors to community and promotes a more equitable and inclusive prosperity that marries our economic strength with the full breadth of our diverse community. Find out more at http://www.cfnova.org/ .

Media Contact: Alfiee Breland-Noble, 571-486-3382

SOURCE The AAKOMA Project, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.aakomaproject.org


National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said the decision to extend the detention of PDP president Mehbooba Mufti was "unbelievably cruel" and "retrograde".

"Unbelievably cruel & retrograde decision to extend @MehboobaMufti's detention. Nothing she has done or said in any way justifies the way the Indian state has treated her & the others detained," Omar tweeted.

He was reacting to theJammu and Kashmir authorities' decision to extend the detention of the former chief minister by another three months.

"For a government that is making tall claims about normality in J&K the last few days coupled with the extension of Ms Mufti's detention is proof enough that Modi ji has single handedly pushed J&K back decades," Omar added.

Most of the top mainstream leaders, including Mehbooba, Omar and sittingLok Sabha member from Srinagar Farooq Abdullah, and separatist leaders were detained a day ahead of the Centre's announcement of abrogation of article 370 of the Constitution thereby repealing the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in August last year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
DeSantis, days after he took office, fired Israel in January 2019 because of the sheriffs offices mishandling of the Feb. 14, 2018, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre that left 17 dead and replaced him with the little-known Tony. The former Coral Springs sergeant had quit that department in 2016 to operate a consulting firm that specialized in active shooter training. The two former Republicans are the leading candidates in the primary that will likely decide the race in the heavily Democratic county.
Commercial Banking Company (CBC Bank) headquartered in Georgia, with branches in Valdosta, Moultrie, Baytree, Hahira and Tifton, has selected Infinex Financial Group (Infinex) as its new broker/dealer. CBC Bank, with 3 advisors, is converting their program to Infinex from Cetera.

When asked about the decision to move to Infinex, G. Daryn Russell, CEO of CBC Bank, said, As we looked for a new broker/dealer, we wanted to partner with a firm that we could truly trust and that would be the right fit for our customers. Infinex met these requirements, but we also really appreciated their unique ownership structure, their dedication to the financial institution channel, and their commitment to serving community banks.

Russell added, By leveraging Infinexs experience and by collaborating with their in-field support team, we believe we will be able to significantly grow our program and offer the finest wealth management solutions available in the communities we serve.

We looked at just about all the firms in the industry, shared Steven Boatner, Vice President, CBC Bank and Investment Executive. We chose Infinex because they seemed like the best cultural fit for our bank and our customers. They clearly understand the unique challenges that banks face and can present solid solutions to help our Investment Centre grow and thrive.

Stephen P. Amarante, Infinexs President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, We are excited to welcome CBC to Infinex. As they look forward to growing their program, we are confident that Infinexs technology, Premier Service Experience and in-field support team will deliver the broker/dealer experience needed to succeed in todays challenging environment. We are honored that CBC Bank has selected Infinex, and we anticipate a long, productive partnership.

About Infinex Financial Group

In 2018, Infinex celebrated its 25th anniversary as an independent broker/dealer focused on serving the investment, insurance and wealth management needs of financial institutions. Currently, Infinex supports over 220 community-based programs and more than 650 advisors. The firm, headquartered in Meriden, Conn., with offices in Napa, Calif., and Midlothian, Va., has a unique history of being formed by financial institutions and owned by financial institutions. To learn more about Infinex Financial Group, visit http://www.infinexgroup.com.

About Commercial Bank Company (CBC) Bank

Commercial Banking Company was charted in 1929 as a state bank in Hahira, Ga. The Bank now has locations in Valdosta, Tifton, and Moultrie and serves ALL members of their market, beyond just commercial customers. The Investment Centre was started in 2010 at Commercial Banking Company to satisfy a need for professional process driven financial planning for clients. Services include equities, mutual funds, annuities, life and disability insurance. To learn more about Commercial Bank Company (CBC) Bank, visit http://www.cbcbank.com.

Investment and insurance products and services are offered through INFINEX INVESTMENTS, INC. Member FINRA/SIPC. Products and services made available through Infinex are not insured by the FDIC or any other agency of the United States and are not deposits or obligations of nor guaranteed by any bank or bank affiliate. These products are subject to investment risk, including the possible loss of principal.
ULTRAPAR PARTICIPACOES S.A.

Publicly-Traded Company

CNPJ nr 33.256.439/0001- 39

NIRE 35.300.109.724

SAO PAULO, May 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ultrapar Participacoes S.A. (B3: UGPA3 /NYSE: UGP, "Company") informs that it filed today its 2019 Form 20-F annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This annual report is available for download at the Company's website  ri.ultra.com.br, and a hard copy of the complete audited financial statements can be obtained, free of charge, upon request by e-mail ([email protected]) to the Investor Relations Department.

Andre Pires de Oliveira Dias

Chief Financial and Investor Relations Officer

Ultrapar Participacoes S.A.

Contact: 11 3177-7014, [email protected]

SOURCE Ultrapar Participacoes S.A.

Related Links

http://www.ultra.com.br


Chennai: After facing criticism from the opposition, the Tamil Nadu government has decided not to open up the state-run TASMAC (Tamil Nadu State Marketing corporation) liquor outlets falling under Chennai-city Police limits from May 7.

On Monday, when the state witnessed its highest-ever surge in coronavirus cases, the Government announced its decision to open state-run liquor outlets (does not include bars) across the state starting May 7. The Tamil Nadu government's decision to open liquor shops came at the time when the state was seeing a nearly three-fold rise in daily Covid-19 cases which drew a lot of flak. Leaders from across the spectrum lashed out at the government.

The State government had mentioned that the decision to open liquor stores was taken after noting that people living in the border areas were traveling in large numbers to neighboring states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, where liquor stores have already opened.

The announcement to open liquor stores also came with guidelines of maintaining 6-feet distance between customers, a limit on 5 customers at a time, and that shops can deploy more workforce to avoid crowding.

''Doesnt the government realize that its every mistake is taking away lives. After failing to protect the Koyambedu market the government wants to open liquor shops'', actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan tweeted.

On the decision of not opening shops coming under Chennai Police, Political analyst and senior journalist Dr. Sumanth C Raman told WION, it makes no sense, as people can always go to the nearby districts and buy liquor. This would mean that people travel longer distances and that crowding would be much more in stores that are open. People would also buy in bulk from elsewhere and start selling it in black in Chennai.

However, Dr. Raman also added that, Liquor brings in about 90 crores per day in Tamil Nadu and its been totally shut during the lockdown. The state government has no money, and are left with no option. They havent received the GST dues from the Central Government, so can the state do away with welfare schemes or hike prices of milk and bus fares and electricity rates ? The opposition will lash out at the ruling party for opening liquor shops, but they dont offer solutions either. Can opposition parties close down the breweries owned by their leaders ?

While Tamil Nadu has deferred the opening of liquor shops within the Chennai City Police limits, the state-run TASMAC outlets will remain open in other parts of the state.

Not the decision of Tamil Nadu government on liquor price is still awaited. So far, Delhi has announced a 70% increase in prices of liquor, due to a new Corona tax.

Meanwhile, the number of cases in Tamil Nadu stood at 3550 out of which 2107 are active cases. 1438 of the active cases are in the state's capital city Chennai, which has a high population density.
Contributed photo

TORRINGTON - The American Red Cross is helping one family after a fire that happened Sunday morning on Migeon Avenue.

The Red Cross provided assistance to meet the familys immediate needs. Responders included John Lennon, Dan Bielefield and Bert Goff.
As many as 104 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad district and two persons have died so far, an official said on Tuesday.

There are 50 active cases and 52 people have been discharged from hospitals after recovery, Chief Medical Officer N K Gupta told PTI.

A government officer posted in Modinagar, his son and daughter have tested positive on Monday, Gupta said, adding that the whole family of the officer had been quarantined at a hospital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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The children were overcome by chlorine gas from a filtration plant at the Beaver Swim Pool in Bulleen Road.

The front page of The Age, published May 7, 1970. Credit:The Age Archives

A nun saved 37 school children from being gassed by chlorine at a Bulleen swimming pool yesterday morning.

First published in The Age on May 7, 1970

Sister Bernardine, a fifth-grade teacher, ran back into a chlorine-filled dressing room to make sure all her children were safe.

Last night, Sister Bernardine and the 37 children from St Johns School, Heidelberg, were in hospital in a satisfactory condition.

The drama started as children were dressing to leave the enclosed pool. Several children started to cry and feel sick.

Sister Bernardine saw swimming instructor, Mr. George Aghan, being sick.

The whole group could smell the chlorine.
New Delhi, May 5 : Asthma is a condition in which there is a narrowing of airways due to swelling of mucosa and also there is increase production of mucus in the airways.

On Asthma Day, Dr Vikas Maurya, Director & Head of Dept. of Pulmonology & Sleep Disorders, Fortis Hospital, Shalimar Bagh talks about night time coughing and if it's related to asthma.

Asthma causes symptoms such as wheezing (whistling sound from chest), shortness of breath, chest tightness and cough that vary over time in occurrence, frequency and intensity and may be more severe at night.

Night time (nocturnal) cough is seen commonly in asthma but is not limited to asthma only. It can be seen in many other illnesses.

These are: Acid reflux, also known as heartburn. It happens when some of the acidic stomach contents go back up into the esophagus and causes cough when it irritates the wind pipe. Common in asthma.

Post viral (URI) cough, usually seen after common cold or URI, causes severe cough with nighttime symptoms and is due to hypersensitivity of the airways Post nasal drip, commonly seen with cold. Mucus secretions from nose drips down behind the nose into throat and irritates the wind pipe and causes cough which is more in lying down position ie sleep Smoking, can also cause irritable dry cough along with breathing issues which can be sometime very irritating in the night

The cause of nighttime cough in asthma can be due to following reasons :

Patient not taking regular medications or it may occur during exacerbations. So it may be a sign of noncompliance with medications or impending asthma attacks.

Asthma per se can be worse during sleep though exact reasons not known but there are explanations that include increased exposure to allergens, cooling of the airways, being in a reclining position, and hormone secretions that follow a circadian pattern. Sleep itself may even cause changes in bronchial function.

Cough variant asthma - a type of asthma characterized only by dry cough. Cough can occur both in day and night, but may be severe during night time.

Acid reflux - also common in asthmatics.

Allergens in room or on beddings, triggers cough by irritating hypersensitive airway.

Other problems with Nighttime cough: Not only results in disturbed sleep but also the following day get disturbed as well.

Person can't do the work properly, can't concentrate and feels irritated throughout the day and the whole quality of life is disturbed.

Important ways to relief from this nocturnal cough are : Proper treatment of asthma or cough variant asthma

Sleeping in an propped up position. Post nasal drips and mucus backs up in the throat during the day and irritates windpipe during night and causes cough. Sleeping in this position prevents this to some extent.

Treating acid reflux. By avoiding food that causes increase acidity, eating few hours before sleep and taking medications if required Drinking tea with honey. This soothes the throat, relieves of some congestion on the throat and loosens the mucus and gives symptomatic relief from cough Humidification of room - 50% humidity with the help of humidifier can result in control of irritable cough by soothing the airways.

Decrease allergens - by cleaning and getting rid of the dust from the bedroom decreases nighttime cough Cough suppressants and expectorants can also help in symptomatic relief of cough.

Use a saline nasal spray - clears nasal passages of the allergens and irritants and of the mucus. This may also decrease post nasal drip. All this helps in decreasing cough.

Dr. Maurya emphasises it is important not to ignore nigh time cough. It is necessary to get it properly diagnosed and treated as asthma is one such disease in which night time symptoms are common. It can be a symptom of worsening of asthma or cough variant asthma or many other illnesses as told earlier. Adequate treatment not only relieves of the condition but also improve the quality of life.
In this April 9 file photo, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) walks to the Senate chamber on Capitol Hill. Read more

WASHINGTON  Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.) drove down I-95 instead of taking Amtrak. Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) planned to attend a hearing using web conferencing. Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) wore a stars-and-stripes mask while traveling the halls, like many of his colleagues. And Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.) came to work with no staff, instead of the more than 30 aides normally in his cramped office on Capitol Hill.

The Senate returned in full to Washington on Monday for the first time in more than five weeks, as lawmakers, aides, and Capitol personnel went back to work in a city that still faces a rising tide of coronavirus cases, and where nonessential workers remain under orders to stay home.

On the floor of the tradition-bound Senate, parliamentary staffers and clerks wore light blue face masks along with their suits and dresses. So did most (but not all) of the senators who came to vote, speak, or sit in the Senate presidents chair, presiding over the mostly empty chamber.

The Senate chaplain, Barry C. Black, gripped his opening prayer in black gloves. Senators were expected to wipe down their microphones and desks after delivering speeches. The Senates attending physician recommends masks, but they arent isnt required.

New rules called for limiting the Senates busy elevators to two people at a time  and only one if the rider was not wearing a mask. Some reporters still worked with press credentials that showed a March 31 expiration date, a small reminder of how much froze in place weeks ago as the country faced the monumental new challenge of slowing the virus.

If it is essential that brave health-care workers, grocery store workers, truck drivers, and many other Americans continue to carefully show up for work, then it is essential that their U.S. senators carefully show up ourselves and support them, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) as he reopened the chamber, his hair a little longer and wavier than usual.

McConnell called the Senate back to work Monday for the first formal votes since March 25. Lawmakers voted early Monday evening to confirm President Donald Trumps nomination of Robert J. Feitel to be inspector general of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Votes on additional Trump nominees are expected later in the week.

Across the street, the Supreme Court remained closed and justices heard arguments by telephone, a strange break for the normally technology-averse body. The House, controlled by Democrats, delayed its return to Washington amid concerns over health and safety. (Only the Senate votes on presidential nominees.)

Senate aides have spent recent days trying out virtual hearings on WebEX, a videoconferencing service. (There are security concerns about Zoom.) Casey expected to participate in a health committee hearing using the platform later this week, and Toomey announced he would use it to chair a Senate round table Wednesday on restarting the economy.

Other hearings that require in-person attendance have left aides scrambling to book rooms large enough to accommodate social distancing, Senate aides said.

Voting, normally a time when all 100 senators gather, exchanging laughs and hugs and handshakes, had already changed when lawmakers passed the coronavirus rescue package in their last major in-person action. They were told not to congregate.

As the vote unfolded Monday, lawmakers trickled in wearing a colorful array of masks or face coverings. Some wore gloves. Most signaled their votes from a distance, flashing a thumb up or down and quickly leaving.

Thats a uniquely challenging thing for the Senate, said one Senate aide who wasnt authorized to discuss the changes. Senators dont see each other very much, so that time on the floor is a good time to approach a colleague or pitch a bill, or talk about some dispute that theyre having.

Along with senators and aides came nonpartisan parliamentary staff, cafeteria workers at the few open Senate dining options, janitors, and many others who make the Capitol work every day. It meant far more encounters for Capitol police who screen visitors.

Democrats argued that if all those people were going to be required to report to work, it should be for legislation that would address the coronavirus and its devastating economic effects, not Trump nominees.

If the Senate is going to put congressional staff and support workers at heightened risk ... we must ensure that we use this time wisely, Booker said in a statement.

Democrats had canceled their weekly policy lunches. Republicans planned to go ahead with theirs but in a larger room.

There can be no doubt that this will be one of the strangest sessions of the United States Senate in modern history, said Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.).

Each senator applied his or her own staff guidelines.

Booker closed his two New Jersey offices and didnt expect to have any staff with him in Washington.

Toomey had aides working in his Pennsylvania offices and expected to have around 10 reporting to work in Washington over the course of the week, partly to help him as he sits on a committee overseeing the coronavirus rescue legislation.
Wendy Xu

The Chronicles Soleil Ho has been nominated for a James Beard Foundation award for her restaurant criticism.

On Monday, the James Beard Foundation announced that Ho was among the finalists for its Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award, along with Ryan Sutton of Eater.com and Pete Wells of the New York Times. The winner will be announced May 27.
Republican Representative John Ratcliffe, pictured here testifying the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been confirmed as the new directo of national intelligence (AFP Photo/POOL)

Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump's pick to lead the US intelligence community said Tuesday that he would focus on China as the country's greatest threat, saying Beijing was determined to supplant the United States' superpower position.

But John Ratcliffe, an outspoken Trump defender nominated to become director of national intelligence, came under pressure in a Senate confirmation hearing over whether he would politicize the intelligence process to keep the president happy.

It's the second time Ratcliffe has sought the crucial position -- which has lacked a permanent office holder for nearly nine months -- after he withdrew from consideration in August following questions over his experience and credentials.

"I view China as the greatest threat actor right now," Ratcliffe, a Republican congressman from Texas, told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"Look with respect to COVID-19 and the role China plays; the race to 5G; cybersecurity issues: all roads lead to China," he told the panel.

He cited China's geopolitical thrust through its "Belt and Road" global infrastructure initiative, its programs to acquire strategic technologies quickly, and its "military-civil fusion initiative" that keeps the private sector beholden to government priorities.

"These are all spokes of the same initiative and that's for China to supplant us as the world's superpower."

Ratcliffe added: "We very clearly don't want an authoritarian regime like the Chinese Communist Party setting standards in the world marketplace."

- Other officials forced out -

Ratcliffe appeared before the first committee hearing held in Congress after a weeks-long hiatus forced by coronavirus, with masks required for those not speaking and hand sanitizer accompanying bottles of water for those addressing the chamber.

The director of national intelligence job has been vacant since Dan Coats, who was regularly at odds with the president, left in August. Trump then forced out other top intelligence officials who were, like Coats, seen as not politically loyal to the White House.

Story continues

Trump has repeatedly accused the US intelligence community of plotting against him as a "deep state," fuelling increasing resentment among the US spy community.

In July Trump first nominated Ratcliffe as DNI but he quickly withdrew in the face of strong resistance in Congress, even from among some senior Republicans. Lawmakers faulted him for an extremely thin resume on national security matters -- just one year serving on the House Intelligence Committee.

The DNI job requires overseeing and coordinating 16 other intelligence bodies, including the CIA, the National Security Agency, and the FBI's counterintelligence division.

Trump then named counterterrorism official Joseph Maguire as acting DNI, only to remove him in February after a Maguire aide told Congress that Russia was meddling in the 2020 election and had developed a preference for Trump.

Trump then named his ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, another strong political defender, as acting DNI, and renominated Ratcliffe as permanent DNI.

That has left the Democrats and Republicans who opposed Ratcliffe last year -- including, it is believed, Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr -- caught between approving him as permanent DNI or accepting Grenell in the job for another half year.

Ratcliffe stressed in the hearing that he would "speak truth to power" and not shape intelligence reports to the president's preferences.

But Democrats expressed doubts, noting his rejection of the intelligence community's conclusion that Russia tried to help Trump in the 2016 election.

"Never has anyone more unqualified been formally nominated by a president to lead the US intelligence community," former CIA chief of staff Larry Pfeiffer wrote of Ratcliffe Tuesday.

However, he said on Twitter the committee should confirm him in the job, "because there's never been anyone less qualified to sit in the DNI's chair that the current acting DNI Ric Grenell."
Sweden (hey, wasnt it just yesterday we were being lectured to admire and emulate its health-care system?) has been criticized for a high per capita coronavirus death rate after declining to shut down its entire society. But what if after a year or two Swedens rate is far below ours, due to the herd immunity we are postponing? What if people as thoughtful as New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman have been right about protecting the most vulnerable without ruining the futures of millions?
John F. Kennedy famously said Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan. In your article about Gov. Kate Brown (Coronavirus tested Gov. Kate Browns leadership. So far, Oregonians approve, April 25), she is quoted as saying I took very aggressive actions very early on in the timeline of this COVID-19 crisis, and the proof is in the pudding.

Her individually taking credit for what has been Oregon's success fighting the spread of the COVID-19 is misplaced, as the decision was undoubtedly the product of many varied inputs from the national and state body politic. If not, she should be willing to individually take the blame for the rolling disaster that has become Oregon politics during her tenure, a complete inability to lessen chronic homelessness and its impact on livability, the massive growth and accelerating insolvency of the underfunded PERS system, and the rapid decline in educational achievement of our schoolchildren relative to other states.

The current occupant of the White House has mastered the art of claiming credit for wins while blaming others for losses. Gov. Brown would be wise to attribute her success to those around her while taking ownership of the state's challenges.

Mitch Almy, Vancouver
Algerian health authorities on Monday reported 172 new COVID-19 infections and two more death cases, while President Abdelmadjid Tebboune urged for ensuring access to future vaccine to all countries, Trend reports citing Xinhua.

Djamel Fourar, head of the COVID-19 Detection and Follow-up Commission, told reporters that the total infected cases in Algeria jumped to 4,648 and the death toll increased to 464.

Fourar further added that 62 patients have recovered in the past 24 hours, bringing the total recoveries to 1,998.

In his remarks to the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on Monday, President Tebboune stressed the importance of "fair and effective" access to any future vaccines to combat the pandemic, especially for developing countries.
Head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak has said he still hopes that the local elections in Ukraine, including temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, will take place in October 2020.

When being asked during an online discussion "Pandemic, Reform, War and Peace as Seen by the Ukrainian White House" organized by Atlantic Council on Monday if it possible to postpone the date of the local elections in Ukraine he said that this issue has not been discussed in the walls of the President's Office and the date of local elections remains unchanged.

"And I really believe that we will be able to hold the local elections, including in uncontrolled territories today. In general, throughout our country. And these elections, according to Ukrainian law, based on all the principles of the Copenhagen Convention, will be a very powerful way for stopping the war in the Donbas," said the head of the President's Office.

Yermak pointed out that compliance with the principles of the Copenhagen Convention makes it possible to fulfill all of Ukraine's security conditions for such elections.

"This also concerns the withdrawal of foreign forces, and returning of control to Ukraine and everything else," he said.
The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) on Tuesday ordered the closure of all non-essential shops in the city, including liquor stores, after there were violations in social distancing norms.

The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) on Tuesday ordered the closure of all non-essential shops in the city, including liquor stores, after there were violations in social distancing norms.

This comes days after the Centre issued revised guidelines on lockdown restrictions and granted permission for liquor stores to open across the country. The lockdown, as a measure to curb the spread of coronavirus, was also extended till 17 May by the Centre.

Coronavirus cases in Maharashtra crossed 15,000 on Tuesday, and Mumbai is one of the worst-hit cities in the country.

BMC commisioner Praveen Pardeshi issued the order, saying that the COVID-19 situation in Mumbai may deteriorate due to the relaxation measures, and therefore, authorities were withdrawing the relaxations in the city.

"Due to above relaxations, there were huge crowds gathering near these shops and it has been impossible to maintain social distancing," Pardeshi said in the order. "There were a few instances of law and order situations arising out of such crowds gathering in one place."

"The downward trend is yet to set in.

"And gathering of crowds in large numbers without following social distancing will be detrimental to the control of coronavirus and the advantage of the lockdown will be lost. I am convinced that the relaxation will deteriorate conditions in Mumbai and will have to be withdrawn," he added.

Only the groceries and the medical store/chemist shops will be allowed to open, the statement concluded.

On 3 May, the Maharashtra government had allowed standalone shops like liquor shops to open from Tuesday.

With inputs from agencies
MBABANE  Manzini has recorded four new cases of COVID-19. This is according to the Ministry of Health in a statement issued by Minister Lizzie Nkosi, who said from a total of 61 results received yesterday, 57 tested negative.

To date, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases is 116. All the four new cases are from Manzini and are asymptomatic.

Asymptomatic means a person who is a carrier of a virus but shows no symptoms of it. The minister said case number 113 was a 30-year-old female from the Manzini Region, who was a contact with a confirmed case. Nkosi also mentioned that case number 114 was a 27-year-old male from the Manzini Region who was a contact of a confirmed case.



Confirmed



She added that the 115th case was a 35-year-old female who was a contact of a confirmed case. The minister revealed that case 116 was a 20-year- old female, who was also a contact of a confirmed case. Further, the ministry emphasised that the definition of a suspect case had since changed due to the fact that Eswatini had an established local transmission.



This means all flu-like illnesses must be considered suspect cases of coronavirus infection hence the public is encouraged to seek health care as soon as they can, Nkosi said.



She also stated the importance of the public cooperating with health advice such as washing hands with soap and running water, or using a hand sanitiser and to observe social distancing always. Nkosi alluded to the covering of the mouth when coughing or sneezing and preferably using a face mask. She said all suspected and confirmed cases of COVID-19 should wear a mask as advised by health practitioners.



Nkosi commended all frontline workers, including healthcare workers and security forces among others, in the COVID-19 fight. She expressed that their dedication and selfless commitment was highly appreciated and noticed by emaSwati.



Covid-19 is an infection with evolving events which means the approach will continuously be marked by changes. We would like to assure the nation that the Ministry of Health is committed to bring about all necessary changes in the intervention, thus reshaping the countrys response to the pandemic, the minister said.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the ongoing oil demand destruction, COVID-19 lockdowns and financial crisis are going to significantly impact Saudi Arabia. In a dramatic appearance, Saudi Minister of Finance, Mohammed Al Jadaan, stated that the Kingdom is going to take any measures necessary to counter the effects of the ongoing crisis. The Saudi government is going to take fiscal consolidation measures, remove subsidies and increase taxes and government fees. All of these measures are going to hit government spending and the countrys projected budget deficit.

More conservative spending patterns are an absolute must if Saudi Arabia is going to cover its growing fiscal deficit. But that is easier said than done as Saudi Arabia is facing several financial issues on that front. Firstly, its oil revenues have crashed. Secondly, its subsidies are still high. Thirdly, unemployment is set to increase as domestic spending falls. And finally, it is currently trying to diversify its economy away from oil, which is a very capital-intensive process. The most severe of these challenges is the oil revenue crash, which is projected to cut 50 percent of expected revenues in 2020. Riyadh is facing some very difficult choices and will struggle to avoid a real financial crisis or emptying its foreign reserves. A new and sustainable fiscal and spending policy will be needed if Saudi Arabia is to maintain both its financial capabilities and its economic diversification process.

The economic diversification is needed not only to wean the country of its oil addiction but also to ensure domestic support for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whos future is partly linked to the success of Vision 2030. By delaying Vision 2030 mega projects or canceling strategic investments in SMEs, education, and leisure, MBS is risking losing the support of younger Saudis.

At present, financial analysts are worried that the Kingdom is either heading towards a financial meltdown or that it will blow the entirety of its reserves as it attempts to counter the oil price collapse and COVID-19 impact. It needs to be understood, however, that Saudi Arabia is an entirely different entity to what it was in 2014 when it faced a crisis and blew around 30 percent of its $735 billion reserves. At present, even though the Kingdom is using its foreign reserves at a very fast rate, its holding reserves have barely been touched. Riyadh is using its access to financial markets to cover most of its budget deficit in the first quarter. Even Goldman Sachs has stated that the Saudi central bank's reserves, down more than 100 billion riyals ($27 billion) in March alone, will stabilize soon. Goldmans claim is supported by the statement of Mohammed Al-Jadaan that the kingdom will only draw down reserves by up to 120 billion riyals over the whole year. Last month's drop of over 5 percent in the central bank's net foreign assets brought the Saudi stockpile to just $464 billion, the lowest since 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Related: Shale's Decline Will Make Way For The Next Big Thing in Oil

The most attractive option for cutting government spending in Saudi Arabia is cutting public sector salaries, as they make up around 55 percent of government spending. Cutting these salaries, however, would be a major decision for the government as it would threaten the nations social contract and threaten the power of King Salman and MBS. Another option would be to cut stimulus packages for businesses and low-income societal groups.

Saudi government spending needs to rationed, especially due to the oil revenues slump. Austerity is going to be needed but is going to threaten the very fabric of Saudi society. Much of the domestic support for the government of Saudi Arabia is based on revenue distribution to regional powerhouses, tribal structures and government salaries. A more strict fiscal strategy will have to include the removal of revenue disbursements to society, such as additional salary payments, high subsidy levels of energy, food and even less defense spending. All these measures will cause hardship that could threaten part of the Saudi royal power base. At the same time, lower government spending will also tighten consumer spending and threaten price levels in equity and real estate. Financial hardship can already be seen in several main economic sectors, while the Saudi stock exchange Tadawul is also showing the effects. At the moment, the Tadawul is outperforming most other regional exchanges, but this is directly linked to the overwhelming impact of the Aramco listing, which is dwarfing all other Tadawul listings.

The fact that Saudi Basic Industries, the Saudi petrochemical giant, has reported that it is suspending new capital expenditure due to COVID-19 measures worldwide, is a warning some should be listening to. The oil-price slump and COVID-19-related lockdowns hammered demand for chemicals and pushed the company into a 950 million riyals loss ($253 million) in the first quarter. SABIC has also indicated that it expects the negative situation to continue through Q2 2020, with a potential prolonging to the end of 2020. Riyadh will be hit hard by that if true, as SABIC is the 2nd largest Saudi entity. The Riyadh-based company reported a profit of 3.41 billion riyals in the same quarter of 2019.

While Saudi Arabia is not yet facing a financial bankruptcy or meltdown, there is a real possibility that it will face a crisis in 2020. The need to cut spending, hold on to foreign reserves, while not being forced to sell assets, may force Riyadh to consider cutting the Aramco dividend. Related: Oil Opens Lower As U.S.-China Spat Escalates

In March 2020 Saudi Aramco reiterated that it still intends to give at least $75 billion to shareholders this year. That statement was made before the COVID-19 global crisis hit. Having already announced capital expenditure cuts to bring it down to $25 billion and $30 billion in 2020, in comparison to $32.8 billion in 2019, Aramco is already losing some of its attraction. There are some indicators that Aramco will still need around $100 billion to meet its dividend and capex commitments alone. As the main source of Saudi Arabias income revenue, Aramco is pivotal to its future. With that in mind, a dividend cut is certainly not out of the question. In the light of Shells historical dividend cut decision and others, the worlds largest oil company could well follow suit. No Arab investor, especially not the main Saudi shareholders, will sell Aramco shares due to a missed dividend payout. Political considerations may well prevail over short-term financial gains in this case.

Whatever Aramco does in relation to its dividend will directly impact MBSs future. A short-term gain could be on the mind of the young Saudi leader. But looking at MBSs future and the financial needs of Saudi Arabias young population, his main backbone of power, it seems more sensible that investors take the brunt of the current crisis. Shares are risk-based financial products, cutting the dividend is just another risk. Without a stable financial situation in Saudi Arabia, MBS will be looking at a possible crisis that he may not be able to survive. It would arguably be more prudent for MBS to shock the world rather than his own population. Recent weeks have shown that power comes from within, not from Washington, Moscow, or Beijing. A historic dividend cut may well project power within Saudi Arabia rather than weakness.

By Cyril Widdershoven for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Stock Market Hit Resistance and Fell, Transportation Sector Forms Topping Pattern

Recently, the Transportation Index and the S&P SPDR ETF setup topping patterns near the end of April 2020. In terms of technical triggers, these patterns need to see additional downside price confirmation before we can confirm the true potential for these setups. If they do confirm, we could be starting a new downside price trend fairly soon.

The recent market upside price move is dramatically different on the TRAN chart vs. the SPY chart. Even though the SPY price advance has mirrored the move in the ES and NQ, the TRAN upside price move has been more muted. This is because global economic activity has continued to stall and is not translating into active shipping and trucking activity. Remember, the Transportation Index helps us to understand the core levels of economic activity as parcels and products move around the globe.

Initially, the downside price break that occurred on Friday, May 1, 2020, which acts as a potential new downside price trend, yet we would want to see the recent lows from 8 days ago breached before we could consider this a truly confirmed trend. Technical traders may choose how and when to enter new trades/trends  yet we like to teach our followers to wait for true confirmation. I posted a short video about how I analyze the index for new trades here.

Transportation Index (TRAN) Daily Chart

On the TRAN chart, the recent lows near 7,762 would qualify as a breakdown price move. Thus, if the TRAN sells off below that level, then we would have a confirmed downside price trend expecting 6,500 to be reached again.

SPY Daily Chart

On this SPY chart, a similar type of Three River Evening pattern setup a nearly perfect top over the past four days. A confirmation appears to be valid on Friday, May 1, 2020. Yet, we would need to wait to see if the low price level near 272 is breached before we could confirm a true breakdown in this upward price trend.

Skilled traders should pay very close attention to what happens over the next five or more trading days as any new breakdown in price could be very volatile and aggressive. Our researchers believe the 251.50 level on the SPY would be the next downside target (see the YELLOW ARROW on this chart).

The heavy GREEN Arcing line near the recent peak is our proprietary Fibonacci Price Amplitude Arc representing a very key resistance level (1.618x). Notice how this level played a very key role in providing initial support in early March and is now acting as a major top/resistance area.

We could be in for a very big ride if a new breakdown begins soon.

SPY Weekly Chart  Reversal Candle

This 35% bounce in the SP500 I called many weeks showing how this very similar setup unfolded during the 2000 market top.

2000 STOCK MARKET TOP & BEAR MARKET THAT FOLLOWED

The chart may look a little overwhelming, but look at each part and compare it to the market psychology chart above. What happened in 2000 is what I feel is happening this year with the stock market sell-off.

In 2000, all market participants learned of at the same time was that there were no earnings coming from their darling .com stocks. Knowing they were not going to make money for a long time, everyone started selling these terrible stocks, and the market collapsed 40% very quickly.

What is similar between 2000 and 2020? Simple really. COVID-19 virus has halted a huge portion of business activity, travel, purchases, sporting events, etc. Everyone knows earnings are going to be poor, and many companies are going to go bankrupt. It is blatantly clear to everyone this is bad and will be for at least 6-12 months in corporate earnings; therefore, everyone is in a rush to sell their stock shares and are in a panic to unload them before everyone does.

Before you continue, be sure to opt-in to our free market trend signals before closing this page, so you dont miss our next special report!

2020 STOCK MARKET TOP IS UNFOLDING

As you can see, this chart below of this years market crash is VERY similar to that of 2000 thus far, its based on a similar mindset.

I posted this chart originally mid-March, expecting a 30+% rally from these lows before the market starts to fall and continue the new bear market, which I believe we are entering. Only the price will confirm the direction and major trend to follow, and since we follow price action and do not pick tops or bottoms, all we have to do is watch, learn, and trade when price favors new low-risk, high reward trade setups.

It does not matter which way the market crashes from here, we will either profit from the next leg down, or will miss/avoid it depending on if we get a tradable setup. Either cause is a win, just one makes money, while the worst-case scenario just preserves capital in a cash position, you cant complain either way if you ask me.

I have issued an Important Trade and Investment Alert here because a new bear market is potentially just around the corner.

Concluding Thoughts:

As a technical analyst and trader since 1997, I have been through a few bull/bear market cycles in stocks and commodities. I believe I have a good pulse on the market and timing key turning points for investing and short-term swing traders. 2020 is an incredible year for traders and investors. Dont miss all the incredible trends and trade setups.

Subscribers of my Active ETF Swing Trading Newsletter had our trading accounts close at a new high watermark. We not only exited the equities market as it started to roll over in February, but we profited from the sell-off in a very controlled way with TLT bonds for a 20% gain. This week we closed out SPY ETF trade taking advantage of this bounce and entered a new trade with our account is at another all-time high value.

Ride my coattails as I navigate these financial markets and build wealth while others watch most of their retirement funds drop 35-65% during the next financial crisis.

Just think of this for a minute. While most of us have active trading accounts, what is even more important are our long-term investment and retirement accounts. Why? Because they are, in most cases, our largest store of wealth other than our homes, and if they are not protected during the next bear market, you could lose 25-50% or more of your net worth. The good news is we can preserve and even grow our long term capital when things get ugly like they are now and ill show you how and one of the best trades is one your financial advisor will never let you do because they do not make money from the trade/position.

If you have any type of retirement account and are looking for signals when to own equities, bonds, or cash, be sure to become a member of my Passive Long-Term ETF Investing Signals which we issued a new signal for subscribers.

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.




Bernard Sabella sees no discrimination in this emergency. People are respecting social distancing and separation; masks and gloves have become ordinary things. The Church and Christians are playing a role in easing the confrontation and promoting dialogue. An Israeli laboratory has taken the first step towards monoclonal antibodies in the fight against coronavirus.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews)  Like in other countries, from Egypt to Iraq where Christians and Muslims work together, even in one of the most disputed and controversial areas of the world, efforts are underway to join forces against the common enemy: COVID-19.

Bernard Sabella, a Fatah representative for Jerusalem and executive secretary of the Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees of the Middle East Council of Churches, can bear witness to the climate of solidarity that has emerged in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

"I have a nephew who works as an oncologist in the largest hospital in Jerusalem, said Sabella speaking to AsiaNews. He tells me about Israeli and Palestinian doctors working side by side during this emergency without discrimination. There is a shared commitment of all parties involved, Jews and Arabs, even those who come from the West Bank".

During the lockdown and quarantine ordered by Israeli and Palestinian authorities, people have generally "followed instructions to the letter and stayed home. Occasionally, you see someone in the supermarkets of Arab Jerusalem without a mask, not behaving correctly, but in general, people at risk follow the rules, especially those over 65 who stay away from their kin and acquaintances; distancing and separation are followed.

Ministerial authorities on both sides are working together, he explained. Doctors are committed to saving lives. This is a sign of hope, hope that politicians can learn from doctors.

With respect to the coronavirus "we are all in the same boat, even though seas are different according where we are in the world. COVID-19 teaches us that, despite differences, we can solve problems in a reasonable way without confrontation, divisions, or war.

For Prof Sabella the pandemic is an opportunity to rethink our way of life, how to go to church, mosque or synagogue. Illness has a lot to teach us and future generations. It underlined the role of the Internet, its importance in keeping ties alive. Everyone must have seen the images of Holy Week, an empty St Peters Square. We all identified with Pope Francis standing alone. Now the question is how can we think about the future.

I have always been afraid that Israel and Palestine might be struck by a devastating earthquake. Now, the novel coronavirus has been a devastating earthquake for life, society, the economy and faith everywhere in the world. But now we can hope to begin with more sharing, starting right with the earths resources, instead of turning inward in a narrow and narrow space.

The Church, with its charisma and leadership, here at the local level as well, can play a role in the post-pandemic period. As Christians our task and responsibility are to go knocking on all doors, to seek exchange and dialogue with everyone.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 research in Israel is showing promising signs. Although there is a long way to go before a drug and a vaccine can be truly effective against the virus, the Israeli Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) appears to have isolated a key coronavirus antibody. After the development phase, scientists say that the production of this antibody on a global scale is "possible".

For Sabella, On a personal level, the emergency did not turn my life upside down because most of my work is spent in front of a computer. However, now I always go out wearing gloves and mask, especially when I go shopping or to the pharmacy.

What is certain is that, this time, time has been valuable for reflection, understanding that too often we have taken for granted the beautiful things we have; like the opportunity to see grandkids and give them a hug, like yesterday. Nothing should be taken for granted; this is a good thing to keep in mind. "
A security guard from a Family Dollar store was fatally shot in Michigan on May 1. Witnesses say that the security guard was killed during a dispute with a customer who refused to wear a protective mask in the store. The state of Michigan has released a guideline that requires everyone to wear a face mask in public.

WEYI reported that Calvin Munerlyn was shot in the head while working at the Flint dollar store, at around 2:15 p.m. The 43-year-old victim died later from his injuries at a hospital.

Face mask brawl

According to The Detroit News, David Kaiser, the Michigan State Police First Lieutenant said that they are investigating claims that Munerlyn was killed after telling a customer that they are required to wear a mask in the store amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued an order on April 24 that requires people to wear a protective mask while inside any public enclosed building. Courtney Cabine, a family friend of the victim, remembered Munerlyn as the "life of the party and an amazing, outgoing person."

Munerlyn was reportedly shot near the entrance of the Family Dollar. According to MLive, police said that the suspects fled in the direction of some high-rise apartments that are located behind the store. There is still no arrest announced by the police. David Leyton, the Genesee County Prosecutor, is scheduled to hold a press conference regarding the fatal shooting that happened on May 1.

Also Read: Can You Get COVID-19 from Food? Experts Weigh In

Violence amid the pandemic

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer had issued a stay-at-home order until May 15 to help slow down the spread of the coronavirus in the state. However, the strict orders did not sit well for some locals as anti-lockdown protesters flooded the streets and barricaded the Michigan State Capitol.

Hundreds of men with rifles slung around their chests led the protest after Governor Whitmer announced that she is thinking of extending the lockdown. The protest is the largest in the state since April 15, when allies and supporters of President Donald Trump organized thousands of people for "Operation Gridlock", causing traffic in the streets of Lansing with their cars to call out what they said was the overreach of Governor Whitmer's strict stay-at-home order.

The slow reopening of state economies around America has taken on political overtones, as Republicans affiliated with Trump's re-election promoted protests in states such as Michigan.

In Chicago, gun violence still persists amid the pandemic. Shootings and murders are still high, as more are recorded in April than in March. During the first weekend of April, two people were killed and 18 were wounded on the city's predominantly black and brown South and West Sides.

Chicago also endured its most violent day of 2020 on April 7 with at least 21 shot, including a five-year-old girl and six people were killed.

The United States is on the top of the list of the countries with most coronavirus cases, surpassing Italy and Spain quickly. The U.S has recorded 1,212,900 coronavirus cases since the pandemic started, with 69,921 deaths and 188,068 recovered cases.

Related Article: Pres. Donald Trump is Confident Vaccine Will be Developed by End of the Year

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Credit: Rob Harris/FFI

The restrictions imposed on a large chunk of humanity as a result of the coronavirus pandemic have necessitated new ways of working and led to thousands of community-based mutual aid groups emerging around the world. And when the coronavirus pandemic struck, Fauna & Flora International (FFI) staff and partners from Asia to Africa also shifted gears.

FFI projects are often in isolated parts of the world, working alongside communities that are extremely vulnerable to the emergence of a new infectious disease. Thankfully, the community-based conservation approaches employed by FFI and its partners provided a ready-made foundation for delivering pandemic-related support over the last few weeks.

Active in Africa

In Cape Verde, FFI's local partner Fundacao Maio Biodiversidade (FMB) travels the island once a week to visit each community, check in on their health and needs and, based on these visits, draws up a list of necessary items for distribution. FMB then communicates this information to the municipality and the Red Cross to help them coordinate the delivery, alongside the local police and fishing association, of food baskets and sanitary items. FMB also has two phone numbers for communities to call if they see any emergency wildlife situations such as turtles trapped in fishing nets, illegal fishing, or stranded dolphins. While always available, these lines of communication have become even more valuable during the pandemic. In mid-April the team snapped into action when a villager called one of these numbers to report the stranding of two whales.

Making masks in Chuilexi Conservancy. Credit: Wim Ebersohn

In South Sudan, FFI staff have been traveling into communities to relay information about the pandemic and provide critical safety information. They have also helped deliver "tippy-taps," rudimentary hand-washing stations that ensure communities are able to practice basic hygiene that can minimize the risk of community transmission. Rangers in South Sudan continue to go on patrol, but given the uncertain nature of regional and global food supply chains, rations have been stockpiled for six to eight weeks to ensure rangers can continue to work as normal if there are any disruptions to the supply chain.

A similar effort has begun in the Chuilexi Conservancy in Mozambique; here, communities live in isolation with no mobile phone networks or social media so ensuring reliable and up-to-date information reaches them is critical. In Chuilexi, FFI staff and partners have printed and laminated posters providing information about the virus and affixed them to all work stations, outposts, entry gates to the conservancy and across all the communities. As in South Sudan, FFI and partners have delivered hand-washing stations and also established an initiative to mass-produce face masks for communities.

Initiatives in Asia-Pacific

In Cambodia, outreach work with communities has been adapted, with "focal points" (women leaders within communities), staying in touch with FFI staff, including daily calls between the field staff and the marine team. FFI-trained community wardens are using GPS and other tracking technology to remotely patrol in the terrestrial and marine project areas.

Distributing 200 bottles of honey to paramedics in the Raden Mattaher Hospital, Jambi City. Credit: FFI

The response has been equally impressive in Jambi province in Indonesia. In early April, FFI staff donated food packages to families affected by the economic fallout of the pandemic, and in collaboration with FFI's main partner in Sarolangun district, FMU of Sarolangun, 5,000 liters of disinfectant were delivered to disinfect public facilities. Later in the month the team, again working with FMU, bought 300 bottles of honey from local honey farmers, who had witnessed a collapse in demand because of the crisis, and donated it to paramedics at two local hospitals treating COVID-19 patients. Finally the team delivered PPE including gloves, masks and apron sets to the Governor of Jambi to be distributed to paramedics in Jambi Province, a joint effort between FFI and Kerinci Seblat National Park Office, Natural Resources Conservation Agency of Jambi, Forestry Office of Jambi Province.

Community-based conservationbuilding relationships and trust to protect wildlife and benefit communitiesis at the heart of FFI's approach. This has enabled our staff to adapt quickly and aid people with their immediate needs in this time of crisis. Yet despite the hard work of FFI (focused here on Africa and Asia-Pacific, with similar work taking place across the Americas & Caribbean and Eurasia programs) and its partners, communities are facing real challenges. Many are reliant on tourism and are experiencing a sudden loss of tourism income, which is having a serious impact on livelihoods. The UN has also warned of severe food shortages as a result of the crisis, and this could become especially dangerous for parts of the world dealing with overlapping crises, such as East Africa, which is currently battling a catastrophic locust invasion as well as heavy flooding. And then there is the direct health impact of the virus on countries. "The under-resourced and unprepared national health systems of many African countries will have difficulty detecting its presence and are not equipped to respond," says Wim Ebersohn at Chuilexi Conservancy.

As countries grapple with the best way to ease the measures necessary to suppress the rate of infection, communities will need ongoing support to ensure their needs are met. FFI will continue to bring its expertise to bear to assist communities in every way possibleand will be there to help them rebuild on the other side of this crisis.

Explore further Leaving no one behind during the coronavirus pandemic
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 20:33:47|Editor: huaxia

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PHNOM PENH, May 5 (Xinhua) -- At least 180 garment, footwear and travel goods factories in Cambodia have suspended their operations, affecting over 150,000 workers due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, local media reported on Tuesday.

"About 180 factories have suspended their operations, with 60 more in the pipeline, which is wreaking havoc on the more than 150,000 workers temporarily suspended from work without clear indication of work resumption as of now and close to 200,000 soon," the Khmer Times reported, quoting an open letter from the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) on Monday.

"This will impact not only the workers but also the 2 million Cambodian family members who depend on them," the letter said.

It called on buyers to honor their payments for goods already received or are in transit to them.

"Cambodian manufacturers are already suffering from many cancellations and no new orders and cannot withstand any payment default," the letter said. "Payment terms can be discussed but no payment is not acceptable and we therefore appeal to your sense of decency to make good on your debt."

European Union and the United States are major market destinations for the kingdom's garment, footwear, and travel goods exports, and both have been severely affected by the global pandemic as their markets continue to close and residents are no longer spending money.

Cambodia's Labor Ministry Spokesman Heng Sour said last week that for the second quarter of this year, garment, footwear, and travel goods exports will expect to see a 50 to 60 percent decline from last year.

"Cambodia has yet to receive any orders from buyers for both May and June, as well as for the foreseeable future. We can conclude that exports of garments and footwear will be hit hard in the second quarter this year," he said.

The garment, footwear and travel goods industry is Cambodia's biggest export sector, employing about 750,000 people in approximately 1,100 factories and branches, according the Labor Ministry.

The sector earned gross revenue of 9.32 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 11 percent compared to the year before. Enditem
By PTI

JERUSALEM: Israeli Defence Minister Naftali Bennett has said that scientists at the country's main biological research institute have made a "significant breakthrough" in developing an antibody to the novel coronavirus, as the researchers wrapped up the development phase and moved to patent and mass produce the potential treatment.

Bennett visited the labs of the Israel's Institute for Biological Research (IIBR), supervised by the Prime Minister's Office and mandated to develop a vaccine for coronavirus, in Ness Ziona on Monday and was shown the "antibody that attacks the virus in a monoclonal way and can neutralize it within the bodies of those ill", a statement from his office said.

The statement said that the antibody's development had been completed and that the institute was in the process of patenting the find "and in the next stage, researchers will approach international companies to produce the antibody on a commercial scale".

ALSO READ | Israel begins gradual reopening of schools amid opposition even COVID-19 cases cross 16,000

"I am proud of the institute staff for this terrific breakthrough," Bennett said, adding that "their creativity and the Jewish mind brought about this amazing achievement".

In March, Israeli daily Ha'aretz, quoting medical sources, had reported that scientists at the institute had made a significant breakthrough in understanding the biological mechanism and qualities of the virus, including better diagnostic capability, production of antibodies for those who already have the virus and development of a vaccine.

It was not immediately clear if the breakthrough presented to Bennett was in addition to progress that was reported in late March, and no further details were provided.

The statement also did not specify whether human trials were conducted.

The IIBR was established in 1952 as part of the Israel Defence Forces' Science Corps, and later became a civilian organization.

ALSO READ | Israel's high court to hear petitions against PM Benjamin Netanyahu's rule

It is technically under the supervision of the Prime Minister's Office, but is in close communication with the Defence Ministry.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to have ordered the institute to devote resources to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 on February 1.

The Defence Ministry in March had denied any breakthrough simply stating that "if and when there will be something to report, it will be done in an orderly fashion", the Defence Ministry told Ha'aretz at the time.

"The biological institute is a world-renowned research and development agency, which relies on experienced researchers and scientists with great knowledge and quality infrastructures. There are now more than 50 experienced scientists working at the institute on researching and developing a medical remedy for the virus", it had said.

The normal process of development of such a vaccine requires a long process of pre-clinical trials on animals, followed by clinical trials.

This period allows for a full characterization of side effects and a better understanding of how different populations are affected.

Five shipments of virus samples arrived in Israel from Japan, Italy and other countries, news portal Ynet reported in February.

They were brought by a specially secured Defence Ministry courier to IIBR and had been frozen at -80 degrees Celsius.

There has been intensive work, including by leading experts, to develop the vaccine since then.

Experts believe that the length of time needed to develop a vaccine runs from a few months to a year and a half.

Numerous research teams all over the world are participating in the race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.

Many of them at this point are focusing on the way the virus presents itself in animals, with the biggest hurdle being the way it morphs when it moves from animals to human beings.

China released the genetic sequence of the virus on open scientific databases shortly after its outbreak in January so that research institutes and commercial companies could try to develop treatments and vaccines without requiring to obtain samples.

Many private companies have also made claims of having successfully developed treatment against COVID-19, but there isn't a proven track record on display yet.

The novel coronavirus, which first emerged in China in late December, has so far killed over 2.5 lakh people and infected more than 3.6 million globally.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday lauded the three photojournalists from Jammu and Kashmir who won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for their "striking images of life" in the valley.

"Congratulations to Indian photojournalists Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand for winning a Pulitzer Prize for their powerful images of life in Jammu & Kashmir. You make us all proud," he tweeted.

The BJP went on to attack the Congress after Rahul Gandhi's congratulatory tweet and asked if the opposition party considers the Valley as an integral part of India or not.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra attacked the Congress over its leader's congratulatory tweet to the photojournalists, alleging that Gandhi had wished those who considered Kashmir a "contested territory".

"Will Sonia Gandhi answer? Whether she and the Congress party concur with Rahul Gandhi on the issue of Kashmir not being an integral part of India! Rahul today congratulated those who got an award for considering Kashmir as a 'Contested Territory'!" Patra said, posting the message with the hashtag "anti-national Rahul Gandhi".

The BJP leader also posted some photographs, which he said were taken by one of the winning photographers, to ask Gandhi if agreed with their content.

Three photojournalists from Jammu and Kashmir have been awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for their "striking images of life" in the Valley. Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin of the Associated Press won in the feature photography category.

The Pulitzer Prize is considered the most prestigious award in journalism.


Mr Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, the Minister of Health, on Tuesday urged Ghanaians to collaborate with the Contact Tracing Team as they take samples for COVID-19 testing.



Contact Tracing is the process of identification of persons who may have come into contact with a COVID-19 infected person and subsequent collection of further information about these contacts.



He said the team was working in the interest of Ghanaians and not allowing them to carry out their duty would be disadvantageous to the fight against the disease.



The Health Minister made the call at a COVID-19 press briefing in Accra following reports that some of the contact tracing team were sacked at Jamestown when they went there to follow up on an identified person.



"Allow the team access to you, if they invite you on telephone please pay hid. Treat them nicely when they come to your houses to take your sample to protect us all from the disease, he said.



"By adhering to these protocols you are helping us all so it is not your choice but our choice, so help us to live together and survive the coronavirus battle," he said.



Ghana, as at May 05, 2020, has confirmed a total of 2,719 cases of COVID-19 with 294 recoveries and death toll of 18.

Source: GNA









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With an aim to keep its workforce engaged and motivated during the current global pandemic, Big FM, one of Indias largest radio networks, had launched the "Onward and Upward - The Big FM Morning Show - Lockdown series" for its employees. Featuring eminent speakers from within the organization and different industries, the show recently featured actor par excellence Vidya Balan as a guest speaker. The acclaimed actor opened up about her life amidst lockdown in a candid conversation led by Big RJ Vrajesh Hirjee.

In the session which was held via video hangout Vidya shared, During this trying times, I have realized that I can be self-reliant. Though we depend on a lot of things generally, I have understood that theres nothing I cant live without. While I know this is an extremely challenging phase, I feel blessed and grateful for everything I have. This is the time to count our blessings.

Talking about how she is contributing in these times in her own way, she revealed, Each one of us can do our bit for society to help overcome the pandemic. I have contributed to CINTA who are raising funds for out of work actors and other technicians. I am also associated with the non-profit organization Roti Bank who are providing food to homeless, migrant and daily wage workers. We are also raising funds to provide PPEs for medical staff and have raised 5500 kits in just two days. Currently these are the causes I am most passionate about.

Adding further on how she is keeping herself busy, the actor said, I look forward to doing something new every day. I watch a lot of news to keep myself aware and informed. In these testing times, there is a lot of positive news as well that gives us all a ray of hope. I am exploring my love for cooking and doing other household chores, it keeps me occupied and I am far away from boredom.

Hearing Vidyas perspective on the current crisis and learning about her own downtime, surely was motivating for all the employees in these testing times. It further proves we are in this together and we all will emerge out of this stronger. Through Onward & Upward, Big FM conducts a one hour session every morning that features leaders and influencers from both within the organization and various industry who encourage and motivate the employees by sharing their insight and perspective to prepare them for what lies ahead. Providing a platform that allows immense knowledge sharing, the session is attended by more than 200 BIG FM employees on hangout where they discuss the various aspects of how to propel their business to greater heights.
When Katharina Powers heard shelter-in-place restrictions would be loosened in order to allow certain Bay Area businesses to re-open under social distancing guidelines, she thought that relief was coming.

Instead, the owner of Art Ventures Gallery in Menlo Park was left wondering why businesses like hers had been dismissed from the discussion entirely. Defying city and county orders, she opened her gallery for limited hours on Saturday and plans to do so again on Wednesday.

Why can real estate galleries open but not art galleries? I dont think the governor is explicitly saying art galleries can open because we dont fit into any category of retail, Powers told SFGATE over the phone Tuesday afternoon. Dont forget about us, art is so important. Were more important than other businesses. I want to be taken seriously.

That day, she sent an email to customers inviting them to come by if they felt inclined to do so. A sign was placed at the front of the gallery asking guests to wear masks and stay six feet apart. Wearing a silk scarf over her own face, Powers said she ensured they would be entering and exiting the gallery at separate points. When she witnessed one individual peering into the gallery through the back door, she invited them to come inside and take a look. They did.

Everybody who walked in was not concerned, said Powers. They were relieved that they could actually talk to someone real. I dont understand where the harm was.

She estimated about nine people showed up between the gallerys hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. During that time, guests were able to stand twelve feet apart, and Powers said she used a guestbook for contact tracing purposes.

If someone claims they got infected, I know who was there, she explained.

Understandably, not everyone was enthusiastic about her decision. Powers said she received a number of emails from residents telling her to comply with the shelter-in-place order in addition to warnings from the chief of police and the mayors office. She said she reached out to San Mateo County Health to ask what protocols she needed to follow in order to re-open but did not hear back. The county has reported 1,315 confirmed coronavirus cases and 56 deaths. (SFGATE reached out to San Mateo County Health and did not hear back by time of publication.)

Powers said she's been asked to consider a virtual gallery. The Oakland Museum of California's collection of art is currently on view online, and the de Young Museum is inviting Bay Area residents to submit their own works of art for an exhibition that will be displayed once the shelter-in-place order has been lifted.

But she thinks it's just not the same.

"Its fine art," she said. "You have to be in front of it, you have to have a conversation about it. You have to see it in person to fall in love with it and buy it."

In Napa, the proprietors of Quent Cordair Fine Art gallery also announced plans to re-open on Monday morning. A small number of residents rallied in support of the decision as they urged other Napa businesses to do the same.

Public officials: know that were prepared to risk fines, arrest, or jail, owners Quent and Linda Cordair wrote in an open letter to the public. Were pursuing resources for any necessary legal challenge, up to the Supreme Court if necessary.

The gallery owners said they are observing appropriate social distancing and that they had notified city, state and county officials of their plans. Masks are required, a limited number of guests will be allowed into the gallery at a time and there is a strict "no touching" policy. Regarding concerns related to the spread of the virus, the Cordairs argued the county had been averaging fewer than two new cases reported daily and said their reopening was a result of the gallerys dire economic circumstances.

We have employees to employ. We have bills to pay, the letter continued. Weve risked everything; weve worked too hard and fought too long to bring our business to life, to keep it alive, and to grow it over the past 24 years to sit passively and watch it die.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Napa County has reported 75 confirmed coronavirus cases and two deaths.

Linda Cordair declined a request for an interview, but said, We are very happy to be open and we have been very happy to receive the amount of support weve received from the community when asked for additional comment.

Powers doesn't expect many people to return to her gallery in the coming weeks. She won't hold any openings or events that encourage large crowds. She said she hopes the people who do come are relieved of the stress and anxiety they're experiencing in their everyday lives as they struggle to adapt to a new normal.

"Art is the highest form of hope, and it's essential. I know not everyone agrees," she said. "It's powerful in the messages it can convey. Its about endurance, resilience. Throughout history, art has always survived."

Amanda Bartlett is an SFGATE associate digital reporter. Email: amanda.bartlett@sfgate.com | Twitter: @byabartlett
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5

Trend:

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has spread information regarding an Azerbaijani citizen killed on the border with Kazakhstan, Trend reports on May 5 referring to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

Gahraman Ibrahimov was killed on April 30, 2020 as a result of the use of weapons during the detention of Azerbaijani citizens by the coast guards of the border service of the Kazakh National Security Committee, the message said.

The warship of the border service on the Mangistau region of the Kazakh National Security Committee with the body of Gahraman Ibrahimov and the representatives of the Azerbaijani diplomatic mission onboard set off on May 5 to transfer the body to the Azerbaijani side, the message said.

The body will be transferred to the warship of the Azerbaijani State Border Service in the international waters of the Caspian Sea, the message said. After the body is returned to Azerbaijan, it will be transferred to the man's family.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry received a diplomatic note from the Kazakh Foreign Ministry, the message said. In this note, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry expressed condolences to the family of Gahraman Ibrahimov, who was killed during the incident. The Kazakh side also said that it will thoroughly and objectively investigate the mentioned incident and will inform Azerbaijan about its results.
C hina's ambassador to the UK has criticised MPs for "attacking" China over the coronavirus outbreak.

Speaking during a China-Britain Business Council webinar on Tuesday, Liu Xiaoming warned that "unchecked" comments will "poison UK-China relations".

"Such talks are a political virus," he said. "If they go unchecked they'll poison UK-China relations and even international solidarity."

He said anti-China comments by some MPs will "threaten to undermine mutual trust and cooperation" between Beijing and London.

Wuhan lifts Coronavirus lockdown - In pictures 1 /20 Wuhan lifts Coronavirus lockdown - In pictures A medical worker from China's Jilin Province, in red, embraces a colleague from Wuhan as she prepares to return home at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport AP A pilot leans out of the cockpit window to wave goodbye before the China Eastern airlines flight, the first domestic flight from Wuhan that resumed service after travel restrictions to leave the capital of Hubei province and China's epicentre of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak were lifted, takes off from Wuhan Tianhe International Airport to Sanya Reuters A medical staff member from Jilin Province tears up during a ceremony before leaving as Tianhe Airport is reopened in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images Passengers wearing face masks and suits to protect against the spread of new coronavirus walk past a display screen at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport i AP A passenger wearing a face mask is seen in the counter at the Tianhe Airport after it was reopened today AFP via Getty Images People wearing protective clothing and masks arrive at Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images Travellers wearing protective gear ride an escalator at Wuchang Railway Station before travel restrictions to leave Wuhan Reuters Medical staff from Jilin Province (in red) hug nurses from Wuhan after working together during the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak during a ceremony before leaving as Tianhe Airport is reopened in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images Medical workers from China's Jilin Province react as they prepare to return home at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport AP A man wearing protective gear gets through security check at Wuchang Railway Station before travel restrictions to leave Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province and China's epicentre of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak are lifted Reuters A woman wearing a face mask to protect against the spread of coronavirus puts a poncho on a child at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan AP Bullet trains at a station in preparation for resuming operations after authorities lifted a more than two-month ban on outbound travel, in Wuhan AFP via Getty Images People wait for the train at the Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan as travel restrictions for leaving the city, the epicentre of a global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, are lifted and people will be allowed to leave the city via road, rail and air Reuters A train staff member stands on a high-speed train at Wuhan's Hankou Railway Station Reuters People wait for the train at the Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan as travel restrictions for leaving the city, the epicentre of a global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, are lifted and people will be allowed to leave the city via road, rail and air Reuters

"We must stay on high alert and say no to these remarks," he said.

He said he believes Downing Street "is still committed to a stronger relationship with China", adding that this has been reaffirmed in phone calls and letters between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and President Xi Jinping.

Mr Xiaoming said China has the Covid-19 outbreak "under control" and said the economy is showing a "steady momentum of recovery".

"China will continue to be the factory and the market of the world," he said. "China will remain an important powerhouse for world economic growth."

The ambassador described Covid-19 as a "major test which will bring major changes".

Referring to comments made by President Donald Trump about the origins of the virus, Mr Xiaoming said the US has been spreading "rumours and slanders" and "politicising the public health issue".

Visitors wearing face masks to protect against coronavirus walk through the Forbidden City in Beijing / AP

He described calls for an inquiry into the origins of the virus, mainly coming from the United States, as "politically motivated".

"They want to pass the buck over their lack of response, lack of work and efforts to contain the virus, to China," he said.

"There's a game of blaming, scapegoating. It is not helpful for the international response."

It comes as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo alleges his country has "evidence" that the new coronavirus emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, although scientists have advised the World Health Organisation (WHO) that it is of animal origin.

The Forbidden City in Beijing reopened last week / AP

The disease was first reported by Chinese authorities to the WHO on December 31 and was not previously believed to have spread to Europe until January.

But it emerged on Tuesday that a French hospital which has retested old samples from pneumonia patients discovered that it treated a man who had Covid-19 as early as December 27, nearly a month before the French government confirmed its first cases.

The WHO said that the report was "not surprising", and urged countries to investigate any other early suspicious cases.
Barricades have been installed in a popular park to ensure social distancing after thousands packed the scenic spot to celebrate the easing of lockdown restrictions.

Hordes of Queenslanders flocked to Burleigh Hill on the Gold Coast on Sunday night to enjoy the sunset for the first time in weeks, forcing police to step in and move the massive crowd along.

With Monday being a public holiday, a heavy police presence continued to patrol the park as council workers erected mesh fencing barricades to stop people congregating closely together.

Warning signs were also installed urging the public to stay at home during the ongoing national pandemic.

Barricades were erected at Burleigh Hill on Monday after thousands of Queenslanders flouted social distancing rules when they packed the popular park on Sunday night

'Please follow the federal government guidelines and stay at home,' the signs state.

'The City's primary concern is maintaining the health and wellbeing of our community and staff.'

The increased security measures sparked a mixed response from locals.

'People will still do what they want to do,' one man told Seven News.

One woman added: 'I think they can't help themselves to get out and enjoy what usually do.'

Police warned fines will be issued if similar scenes occur again at the park.

'That group of people was far too large for the area they were in' Gold Coast chief superintendent Mark Wheeler said.

People flocked to Burleigh Hill on Sunday night, two days after the state relaxed restrictions

The shocking scenes also disappointed Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate.

'We won't get the green light to reopen businesses unless the federal and state governments are confident we will all do the right thing,' he told the Gold Coast Bulletin.

'Let's show them we can do this so the Gold Coast can get back to business as soon as possible.'

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Nick Coatsworth described the incident as a small blip.

'I'm not disappointed at all with those scenes, they're completely understandable,' Dr Coatsworth told Nine.

'They're single screen shots from one beach in Australia and they probably don't reflect what's going on across every single jurisdiction and I think, by and large, Australians have shown us, by flattening the curve, that we do, as a nation, understand the importance of the what the health advice has been.'

Queensland Police handed out 146 fines across the weekend for 'reckless and terrible behaviour', Commissioner Carroll said. She said most people were doing the right thing. Daily Mail does not suggest the people in this photo were fined

The social distancing breaches occurred two days after Queensland relaxed lockdown restrictions due to its recent low rate of new cases.

Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll warned further restrictions could be put in place again if residents in the Sunshine State continue to flout the rules.

'We are asking people to stay apart,' she said.

'If an area is very busy, please stay away from there so we can maintain that social distancing.'

Commissioner Carroll said despite 'tremendous efforts' being taken by most across the weekend, the photos taken on the hill could derail the progress.

Sasha Mielczarek from the Bachelorette (standing on the right) was spoken to by police for breaking social distancing rules at Burleigh Hill on Sunday night

Exercise has been considered an 'essential' reason to leave the house throughout the lockdown. Pictured: People walking along Miami foreshore on the Gold Coast on May 2 to exercise

Queenslanders were permitted to travel within 50km of their homes from Friday onwards following the government's eased restrictions.

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

They were also able to participate in activities that had been forbidden for weeks, like picnics, shopping and visiting the beach.

But they were also warned that social distancing measures were still in place.

The national cabinet will meet this Friday to discuss relaxing nationwide baseline restrictions as numbers of active cases plummet.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has previously said he would delay easing restrictions if Australians weren't following the rules, and urged more people to download the COVID-19 contact tracing app.

Nearly 4.5million people have downloaded the app but Mr Morrison previously said 40 per cent of the population need to be using it to effectively trace cases of the virus.

Queensland Police handed out 146 fines across the weekend for 'reckless and terrible behaviour.

Some of those fines included seven people at an Airbnb, and 10 people at a house party in Brisbane.
DR Congo on Monday reiterated its accusation that Rwandan rebels in the east of the country killed 12 rangers and five others at the world-famous Virunga national park. Fighters from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) were behind the April 24 attack, said Major General Maurice Aguru Mamba, citing a preliminary investigation. He told a news conference those who attacked the UNESCO World Heritage site, known for its mountain gorillas, were from a "specialised unit" of the FDLR. "Our sources are credible," said Aguru Mamba, who commands CORPPN, a corps assigned to the protection of national parks and natural reserves. The 17 people were killed in an ambush near the headquarters of the park in North Kivu province bordering Rwanda and Uganda. Virunga park management said it had "precise indications" that the FDLR was responsible but three days later the FDLR denied the claims and blamed Rwandan government troops. Rwandan President Paul Kagame last Monday denied persistent rumours that Rwandan soldiers had infiltrated eastern DRC to fight the FDLR, whose leaders were involved in Rwanda's 1994 genocide that killed about 800,000 people -- mainly Tutsis. The DRC army has been fighting an array of armed groups in the east of the vast central African country for nearly three decades. Visits to Virunga have been suspended since March 19 in DR Congo's bid to halt the new coronavirus pandemic. The park previously banned visitors between May 2018 and the start of last year after two British tourists were kidnapped. They were later released unharmed. A total of 176 of Virunga's rangers have been killed in the last 20 years. Visits to Virunga have been suspended since March 19 in DR Congo's bid to halt the new coronavirus pandemic
(Natural News) COVID-19 continues to spread across the globe, and scientists have yet to develop a cure. One of the best ways to protect yourself against it and many other diseases is to maintain a healthy immune system.

Now experts are looking into cannabidiol (CBD) as a potential remedy that can promote immunity.

Immune boosters against coronavirus

Scientists are actively working on anti-viral treatment options to address or cure the symptoms of COVID-19.

People alike are stocking up on over-the-counter (OTC) medicines and vitamins that support the bodys immune system. This includes vitamin C and zinc supplements, immune-boosting herbs and full-spectrum CBD oil.

These natural medicines have become more popular as the public is now more concerned with their health and immunity, especially since a strong immune system is one the best defenses against the infection.

Several studies suggest that these natural cures are effective at promoting immunity.

What is CBD?

CBD is one of more than 100 chemical compounds called cannabinoids in marijuana (Cannabis sativa).

Research has found that CBD is an effective immune-boosting therapeutic agent due to its anti-inflammatory and immuno-modulating properties.

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive cannabinoid found in cannabis, can make you feel high. THC is often associated with marijuana, but unlike the former, CBD is not psychoactive, which makes it a popular choice for patients who want to naturally relieve pain and other symptoms of certain conditions without the mind-altering effects of marijuana or other pharmaceutical drugs.

Experts posit that CBDs effects are due to how the compound acts directly on receptors and neurotransmitters in the central nervous system, most of which control bodily processes such as stress and pain management, and gastrointestinal processes.

CBD is extracted from hemp, together with several other cannabinoids like cannabigerol (CBG), cannabinol (CBN) and naturally occurring plant terpenes. These compounds work together to provide the entourage effect, which is said to be responsible for many of the health benefits of CBD oil. (Related: 6 Natural ways to strengthen the immune system amid the coronavirus outbreak.)

CBD for the immune system

The body has several internal systems with specific functions, and ingesting or inhaling CBD in vaporized form acts directly on the endocannabinoid system or ECS.

Within the ECS, your body produces endocannabinoids, which signal compounds that travel across chemical synapses to modulate cell activity. ECS is said to function as a homeostatic regulator that helps your body maintain biological balance.

This implies that introducing naturally occurring plant-based cannabinoids like CBD into your body could directly affect the ECS.

The ECS regulates physiological processes such as inflammation and immune function, which are closely related. The mechanism of action identified with CBD suggests that it acts directly on a key CB2 receptor within the ECS, which may explain why scientists believe this phytochemical has anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting benefits.

According to a clinical study conducted by researchers from the University of Quebecs Heart and Lung Institute, the endocannabinoid system has an immunomodulatory role and that the ECS CB2 receptor helps modulate immune cell functions.

The scientists noted that activation of this CB2 receptor decreases inflammatory cell activation and that therapeutic strategies aiming at modulating CB2 signaling could be promising for the treatment of various inflammatory conditions.

The symptoms of several conditions such as pneumonia and HIV are partly due to inflammation. While directly targeting the CB2 receptors in the body wont permanently treat these health problems, it can offer patients some much-needed relief from these debilitating symptoms.

Researchers are still looking into the mechanism of action for the relief that comes from activating CB2 receptors, but studies have made some relevant discoveries in the last couple of years.

To illustrate, a study conducted by scientists from the University of Michigan established some of the immuno-modulating effects of CBD. Results showed that its effects on the CB2 receptor offer several immune-boosting properties in test subjects, such as CBD having immunosuppressive action.

According to a follow-up study, introducing CBD into the body can influence cytokine production and inhibit T-cell function.

Dr. Wai Liu, a London-based researcher discussed some of the immune-boosting benefits of CBD. Liu noted that cannabinoids have a double-punch effect of direct killing and enhancing immunity by suppressing the immune cells that hold back the immune-based killing cells.

Should you take CBD?

There are different types of CBD oils available and several methods for introducing CBD into the body.

CBD oil is common and is ingestible, with a high bioavailability that makes it easy to measure daily dosage levels.

Full-spectrum CBD oil

Full-spectrum CBD oil is extracted via a certain method to maintain a complete cannabinoid profile.

This means that if you take a full-spectrum blend, you reap the benefits of all the additional cannabinoids and plant terpenes from the hemp plant. You receive an enhanced entourage effect because of the synergistic action of these compounds on various receptors and neurotransmitters in your ECS.

It is worth noting that full-spectrum CBD oil contains traces of the cannabinoid THC. In America, recent changes to CBD laws make it legal for CBD to be shipped and possessed in all 50 states if it complies with federal regulations that require THC levels to be below 0.3 percent THC.

Pure CBD isolate (No THC)

Unlike full-spectrum CBD oil, a pure CBD isolate blend of CBD oil only contains pure CBD.

Since there are no additional cannabinoids or terpenes in blends made from a pure CBD isolate, this type of CBD only has 99 percent pure CBD. A pure CBD isolate blend is THC-free.

Many studies have looked into the potential uses of CBD as a natural cure for various conditions and the symptoms of health problems like chronic pain and HIV.

While these studies often touch on the immune-boosting properties of CBD, the compound shouldnt be used as a cure-all for diseases like coronavirus that target your immune system.

But like with natural supplementation, CBD does possess beneficial immune-boosting properties that you can take advantage of during the cold and flu season. You can also use CBD to address the symptoms caused by immune system-related sickness.

Sources include:

SHTFPlan.com

Healthline.com
Anthony Frank, center, and his wife, Melia Campbell, of Plumas Lake, enjoy their first night out in weeks at Silver Dollar Saloon in Marysville. Silver Dollar Saloon, in Yuba County. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday criticized two rural Northern California counties that are allowing businesses and restaurants to reopen, saying their decision to defy his statewide stay-at-home order has put their communities at increased risk for a new coronavirus outbreak.

Sutter and Yuba counties, both north of Sacramento, allowed businesses to reopen on Monday after a similar decision was made in Modoc County in Californias northeastern corner. Officials in the three counties argued that they were less affected by the COVID-19 pandemic than hot spots such as Los Angeles and the Bay Area and said the shutdown was hurting their local economies.

"They're making a big mistake. They're putting their public at risk. They're putting our progress at risk," Newsom said during a COVID-19 briefing in Sacramento on Tuesday. "These are real exceptions. The overwhelming majority of Californians are playing by the rules doing the right thing."

But Newsom did not say if the state would take any action to enforce the stay-at-home order and other statewide restrictions in those counties.

Instead, the Democratic governor encouraged officials there to abide by his more measured plan for reopening, which was announced Monday and will allow some retail stores across the state to reopen as early as Friday if certain safeguards are put in place.

From left, Jeremiah Pino, Lydia Perez, sit with server Aimee Roux, right, as they enjoy their first night out in weeks at Silver Dollar Saloon in Marysville. "This is nice, enjoying the evening out with friends," said Perez. (Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)

Under the new statewide COVID-19 guidelines, the governor said bookstores, music stores, toy stores, florists, sporting goods retailers and others can reopen for pickup, and manufacturing and logistics can resume in the retail supply chain. Newsom said more detailed guidelines on the businesses that can resume limited operations would be released later this week.

Shopping malls, gyms, bars, barbershops, salons and similar establishments must remain closed under Newsom's order, and in-restaurant dining remains prohibited.

Newsom said some of the restrictions would be eased if county health officials, in concurrence with their county board of supervisors, can verify that they have adequate healthcare facilities and personal protective equipment to care for COVID-19 patients, and the capability to test, isolate and track those who have the virus. Newsom said that if a county has a low number of COVID-19 cases, that will be considered when the state issues variances.

Story continues

In spite of those requirements, however, Dr. Ngoc-Phuong Luu, health officer for Yuba and Sutter counties, issued new orders on Friday that allow restaurants, retailers, shopping malls, gyms, fitness studios, salons, spas and tattoo parlors to operate.

"They put those businesses at risk, not only the health of their communities at risk. I would encourage them just to do the right thing and know that we are committed to working with them as we have been," Newsom said. "We have a process and protocol to do that. And so we believe in ready-aim-fire  not, ready-fire-aim"

The governor's comments came during a visit Tuesday to Display California, a small business in Sacramento, to highlight his plan to ease restrictions.

Newsom also faced defiance in Southern California after he ordered the closure of all Orange County beaches last week. The governor took that action after thousands of beachgoers flocked to the the coast during the recent heatwave, ignoring Newsom's pleas to stay at home and maintain a safe distance from others.

On Tuesday, the state announced that three Orange County beach cities  Huntington Beach, Seal Beach and Dana Point  will be permitted to reopen their stretches of coastline this week with certain limitations, including taking steps to avoid overcrowding and allow safe physical distancing.

The move came a day after similar plans for Laguna Beach and San Clemente were approved by the state, and several days after the Huntington Beach City Council voted to take legal action to block Newsom's beach closure.
More behind the cut38 states are in some phase of reopening. Chris Christie says Americans have made sacrifices before, compares it to WWII. There will be deaths no matter what. People comparing this to nation-defense are stupid and should be /redacted/. But since its mostly GOP who are Give Me Liberty And Give Me Death, then shrugs let them. The rest of us are staying in. Its not even the equivalent in executive decisions. A Potus declares -war- with approval from Congress, whereas Donald Dum Dum "takes no responsibility at all", and left it to the Governors to sort out. People and states pay taxes into federal stockpile, and also at the state level, so where is all the money - use it now. Protesters are angry at the wrong topic. Protesters should be mad that they paid into unemployment insurance was mishandled by the (mostly GOP) Governors so now their state is broke.Armed protesters waving but also defiling the flag and not wearing masks and spitting on officers, gross. What happened to Blue Lives Matters from these neck beard yahoos? They were carrying nooses, confederate flags and Nzi flags. All these crazy people have been weaponized by the same party that put them in that position. Even Hannity called out the armed militia protesters at Michigan State Capital. Plays clip. People who protested the Vietnam war had flowers, not guns. T45 is instigating it, and (most) of the GOP is silent. How many unarmed black men who are maimed and killed. Yet these white racists arent handled the same way.Plays clip. Denies claim, said it was false, and called on Senate Archives to release any related personnel files. Panel discusses their opinion and wonders why Biden is addressing it and being accountable, but no investigation or reporting of T45 accusers. Joy says hes done all he can do. He said he didnt do it, and called on Senate to provide documents if they exist. What about VP vetting from 2008, anything from his time in Senate wouldve come out then. Doesnt think he should step aside. The GOP doesnt care about T45 so why the double standard [media, pundits]. Whoopi doesnt think its surprising that her claims are being questioned, alludes to opportunities where she could have spoken sooner but didnt. Sunny talks about the official complaint. Reade doesnt have her own copy. Senate would be the only one who has official personnel files. The only files at Univ. of Delaware are personal files and notes, not employee related files.Sunny reads Biden official statement.Celebrating the work and effort of teachers this week. Joy used to be a teacher. Suggests students be kept back a year, graduate a year later, whats the rush. Referring more to the young ones, not the ones graduating this year. Sidebar to Mnuchin saying travel the US. With what, 2 weeks of food in your car? [I think the intent is to emphasize domestic travel, but no, not until all states reopened and everything ok].Talks about what hes doing during lockdown. Exercise group with his friend-bros. Went vegan 3 months ago. Lost 17 lbs. Tells story about being with his family, and his early college days. Laughs about how babbies are made story. Talks about knowing Michael Jordan and their competitive games. Promotesseason finale tonight, and hostingon 21 May.Source links are below each video or section
The honor for the photographers is the APs 54th Pulitzer Prize. The news cooperative last won a Pulitzer last year for stories, photos and video on the conflict in Yemen and the ensuing humanitarian crisis.

By Jennifer Peltz

New York: The story of Indias crackdown on Kashmir last August was difficult to show to the world. The unprecedented lockdown included a sweeping curfew and shutdowns of phone and internet service.

But Associated Press photographers Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand found ways to let outsiders see what was happening. Now, their work has been honoured with the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in feature photography.

Snaking around roadblocks, sometimes taking cover in strangers homes and hiding cameras in vegetable bags, the three photographers captured images of protests, police and paramilitary action and daily life  and then headed to an airport to persuade travellers to carry the photo files out with them and get them to the APs office in New Delhi.

It was always cat-and-mouse, Yasin recalled Monday. These things made us more determined than ever to never be silenced.

Yasin and Khan are based in Srinagar, Kashmirs largest city, while Anand is based in the neighbouring Jammu district.

Anand said the award left him speechless.

I was shocked and could not believe it, he said, calling the prize-winning photos a continuation of the work hes been doing for 20 years with the AP.

This honour continues APs great tradition of award-winning photography, said AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt. Thanks to the team inside Kashmir, the world was able to witness a dramatic escalation of the long struggle over the regions independence. Their work was important and superb.

In a year when protests arose across the globe, AP photographers Dieu Nalio Chery and Rebecca Blackwell were Pulitzer finalists for the breaking news photography award for their coverage of violent clashes between police and anti-government demonstrators in Haiti.

Bullet fragments hit Chery in the jaw while he documented the unrest. He kept taking pictures, including images of the fragments that hit him.

All five of these photographers made remarkable, stunning images despite dangerous and challenging conditions, sometimes at great personal risk, said AP Director of Photography David Ake. Their dedication to getting up every morning and going out to tell the story is a testament to their tenacity. The result of their work is compelling photojournalism that grabbed the worlds attention.

AP Executive Editor Sally Buzbee called the Kashmir prize a testament to the skill, bravery, ingenuity and teamwork of Dar, Mukhtar, Channi and their colleagues and lauded Cherys and Blackwells brave and arresting work in Haiti while many journalism outlets were focused elsewhere.

At a time when APs journalism is of more value than ever to the world, these journalists courage and compelling storytelling show the absolute best of what we do, Buzbee said.

The honor for the photographers is the APs 54th Pulitzer Prize. The news cooperative last won a Pulitzer last year for stories, photos and video on the conflict in Yemen and the ensuing humanitarian crisis.

Conflict has flared for decades in Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan area that is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both.

The tension hit a new turning point in August, when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis Hindu nationalist-led government stripped Indian-controlled portions of Kashmir of their semi-autonomy.

India poured more troops into the already heavily militarised area, imposed a curfew and harsh curbs on civil rights, laced the area with razor-wire roadblocks, and cut off internet, cellphone, landline and cable TV service in the region.

India said the moves were needed to forestall protests and attacks by rebels seeking independence or Pakistani control for the region. Thousands of people were arrested.

With communications shut down, AP journalists had to find out about protests and other news by finding them in person. Khan and Yasin took turns roving the streets in and around the regional capital of Srinagar, Yasin said, facing mistrust from both protesters and troops. The journalists were unable for days to go home or even let their families know they were OK.

It was very hard, Khan said, but we managed to file pictures.

After spotting luggage-toting people walking toward the airport, he said, the photographers decided to ask travellers to serve as couriers. Yasin also recalled how a relative of his, who was also a photojournalist, had told him about delivering film to New Delhi in person as the conflict in Kashmir raged in the 1990s.

So the AP photographers went to the Srinagar airport and sought out strangers willing to carry memory cards and flash drives to New Delhi and call AP after landing in the Indian capital.

Some flyers declined, fearing trouble with the authorities, Yasin said. But others said yes and followed through. Most of the memory cards and drives arrived.

Yasin says their prize-winning work has both professional and personal meaning to him.

Its not the story of the people I am shooting, only, but its my story, he said. Its a great honor to be in the list of Pulitzer winners and to share my story with the world.
Representative image

The death toll due to the novel coronavirus rose to 1,583 with 194 fatalities reported in the last 24 hours, while the number of cases saw a big jump of 3,875 to go up to 46,711 cases on May 5, according to the Union health ministry.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 31,967 while 13,160 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, according to the ministry's updated data.

"Thus, around 28.17 per cent patients have recovered so far," joint secretary at the health ministry Lav Agarwal said during a press briefing on the COVID-19 situation in the country.

Follow our LIVE Updates here.

Here are all the latest 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

>> India has planned to bring back 15,000 Indians stranded in more than 10 countries, over seven days in 64 flights. The evacuation will begin on May 7. On an average, about 2,000 Indians will be flown back each of the days.

>> 24 people in the Indian Army's RR hospital in Delhi tested positive for coronavirus.

>> Britain overtook Italy to report the highest official death toll from the coronavirus in Europe with more than 32,000 deaths.

>> Part of Shastri Bhavan in Delhi was sealed after a law ministry official tested positive for COVID-19.

>> Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said that there is no community transmission of COVID-19 in India and that behavioural changes may be the new 'healthy' normal.

>> China reported 16 new coronavirus cases, taking the total tally to 82,881.
The Project control room pre-COVID

While some shows are continuing on a weekly or even daily basis, how does social distancing impact on TV control rooms?

Most have pulled back on the number of staff in close proximity and instigated strict new measures designed to keep everybody safe.

Jon Olb, director of The Weekly and Mad as Hell says while one ABC Melbourne control room is larger than most it still requires precautions.

The first thing that we do when we arrive is sterilise our respective areas. We keep our distance wherever possible, he tells TV Tonight.

Non-essential operators are moved to less populated areas of the control room, but all the self-monitoring must follow. Even bathroom breaks are twice as long to accommodate the necessary hygiene procedures.

To be honest, the production itself is far more complex.

Further steps are also necessary with crews.

To be honest, the production itself is far more complex. For instance you can only have a maximum of 2 people in an elevator, so make-up and costume changes are far more time consuming, he continues.

Most talent will now apply microphones themselves, and if not the operators wear gloves and masks. Makeup and wardrobe staff, such as Mad as Hell, must wear PPE for both their safety and those that they work with.

A traditional 2-shot doesnt exist in a lot of cases where a distance of 1.5m must be maintained. Floor crews must keep a safe distance at all times, and there is a great level of trust involved with all members of cast and crew.

Intimate and fight scenes cannot happen. Location shooting for the most part is cancelled, and anything that does occur is difficult as everyone is on tenterhooks.

If one member of the team is ill, it is most likely that the entire production will shut down. There are staff who are off ill, staff worried about their symptoms staying home, staff returning from overseas in quarantine, and many concerned about the health of their families opting to stay away.

Of course this is all totally understandable, and we are mosr fortunate to maintain essential services at this time. The entire Arts community is suffering enormously, as live venues, hospitality and sport, and indeed anything with groups of people also not occurring.

The Sunrise team is working with a smaller control room at their Martin Place studio but Executive Producer Michael Pell explains they too have adjusted numbers.

Our control room is generally a tight squeeze, so weve removed two people from the front row and put them in other rooms, so they can still do their jobs, but with appropriate social distancing.

A middle row of producers now has two, not three, with one upstairs or at home. Its the same with our back row which is Lighting, Camera Control Unit and Technical Director. Theyve also been separated and appropriate measures put in place.

Hygiene is the priority

The room itself is cleaned and disinfected several times a day. Hygiene is the priority.

Elsewhere, we have remote crews and reporters filing from the field without coming in. And almost all day producers and support staff are working from home. Its a huge logistical challenge for an operation of our size, but in a Covid world, you have no choice but to adapt.

Its amazing what can be achieved with technology now days

The Project, team at 10s Como headquarters has also adjusted.

We have a lot of our team, other than Operational, working from home. Its amazing what can be achieved with technology now days, says Executive Producer, Craig Campbell.

Less people together is the basic principle. We have split a lot of the roles out and are working on talkback panels in other parts of the building. Edit suites are now set up across three different floors.

A Nine spokesperson added, Weve implemented strict social distancing measures across all our productions, including the way our on-air talent work. But weve still been able to do this in such a way that it would be indiscernible, in most instances, to viewers. Plus, our control room is pretty large and never has more than three people in it.
Skirting the limits of Gov. Greg Abbotts executive order, Laredo City Council on Monday voted to continue to issue citations to people who are not covering their nose and mouth in public, without compelling them to show up to court or pay a fine.

Yeah, its symbolic. But the mask itself is highly symbolic, Councilman George Altgelt said. What its symbolic of is that you care. What the citation is symbolic of is, Hey, you dont care. And weve taken notice that you dont care.

Laredo was the first U.S. city to mandate people wear masks in public or else face a fine, which council members and public health officials believe helped to curb the local spread of infection. On Monday many of these officials expressed that they do not want to peel back these regulations too quickly for fear of disaster later on.

The governors order, however, explicitly does not allow local governments to issue a fine or penalty to someone who chooses not to wear a mask.

Councils idea is that by allowing police to issue penalty-free citations, the city can continue to push the tenets of its previous emergency order while complying with the governors. This was approved by a split council.

Laredos city attorney and police chief both seemed wary of this decision. Police Chief Claudio Trevino said the language of this order needs to specifically state that law enforcement can stop and detain to cite a person for not wearing a mask. Otherwise officers could be accused of harassment, he said.

Chief Trevino also worried that these unenforceable citations only create an opportunity for unnecessary contact between police and the public.

Meanwhile City Attorney Kristina Hale worried that this does not abide by the spirit of what the governor ordered. Abbott has said it is now up to individuals to decide for themselves if they will wear a mask or not.

Councilman Roberto Balli argued that a ticket in itself is not a criminal or civil penalty.

He made the case that this ordinance to continue issuing citations would particularly help the essential workers whose employers may not otherwise enforce that staff and customers wear masks.

If the managers arent enforcing it, then the employees and none of the customers are going to be doing it. By removing that (part of the order), were not backing up our workers. Were not protecting our citizens, Balli said.

Council also approved a resolution allowing private businesses to refuse entry to anyone who is not wearing a mask. City buildings are currently closed to the public, but anyone who enters must cover their nose and mouth too, council decided.

And although they discussed limiting the citys curfew to begin at midnight rather than 10 p.m., this motion did not pass. Health Authority Victor Trevino recommended it remain from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Julia Wallace may be reached at 956-728-2543 or jwallace@lmtonline.com
Kim Brent / The Enterprise

San Diego utility company Sempra Energy is delaying a final investment decision on its proposed Port Arthur LNG export terminal as liquefied natural gas prices are trading at record lows.

Although more than half of the proposed facility's production has been sold and a general contractor had already been chosen, Sempra said Monday that market conditions are prompting the company to push back a final investment decision to some point in 2021.
Ireland wants to repay a debt which dates back to the 19th century famine. The country has set up funds for native American tribes who helped them out during the Great Famine in Ireland in 1847 when the Choctaw Tribe sent every cent they had to help the people of the country.

As the novel pandemic coronavirus attacks the Navajo Nation, families set up a GoFundMe campaign to help raise money to pay for bottled water. More than $1.3m has been raised with most donations flooding in from Ireland.

Native American Netroots

The Navajo Nation has reportedly witnessed at least 41 people falling prey to Covid-19. The rise in cases is partly attributed to a water crisis.

Due to a drought in the south-west and lack of running water at home for the Navajo families, they are struggling to have basic resources for which the campaign was set up.

Public Radio International

The Choctaw Tribe came to Ireland's help during the Great Famine when they were trying to re-establish themselves in Oklahoma after being kicked out from their ancestral lands. They helped out people they had never met. Now, 173 years later, they are being repaid for their kindness and generosity.

Michael Corkery, who donated $200 to the campaign said, "The Choctaw and Navajo people helped the Irish during the Great Famine, despite their own suffering. When I learned about it, I never forgot it. It's history now, but we are still grateful. Thank you!"

Go Fund Me

A kind deed never goes unnoticed.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 01:05:17|Editor: huaxia

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LONDON, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Britain has overtaken Italy as the worst-hit country in Europe by the novel coronavirus, according to the latest official figures released on Tuesday.

Chairing Tuesday's Downing Street press briefing, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said another 693 COVID-19 patients have died, bringing the total coronavirus-related death toll in Britain to 29,427.

The figures include deaths in all settings, including hospitals, care homes and the wider community.

Earlier in the day, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published its latest coronavirus-registered death figures, showing the total death toll has passed 32,000, making Britain the worst-hit country in Europe followed by Italy.

The coronavirus-related death toll in Italy currently stands at 29,315. Enditem
[May 05, 2020] Valneva to Partner with Instituto Butantan on Single-Shot Chikungunya Vaccine for Low- and Middle- Income Countries

Saint-Herblain (France), Sao Paulo, (Brazil), May 5, 2020  Valneva SE (Valneva or the Company), a specialty vaccine company, and Instituto Butantan, producer of immunobiologic products, today announced the signing of a binding term sheet for the development, manufacturing and marketing of Valnevas single-shot chikungunya vaccine, VLA1553, in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). The collaboration falls within the framework of the $23.4 million in funding Valneva received from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) in July 20191. The definitive agreements are expected to be finalized in the next six months. After the signing of the definitive agreements, Valneva will transfer its chikungunya vaccine technology to Instituto Butantan, who will develop, manufacture and commercialize the vaccine in LMICs. In addition, Instituto Butantan will provide certain clinical and Phase 4 observational studies that Valneva will use to meet regulatory requirements. The agreement will include small upfront and technology transfer milestones. Valneva held its End of Phase 2 meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in February 2020 and is now preparing to initiate Phase 3 clinical studies in the U.S. later this year. Thomas Lingelbach, Chief Executive Officer of Valneva, commented, Although millions of people have been affected by chikungunya, there is currently no vaccine and no effective treatment available against this debilitating disease. We look forward to working with Instituto Butantan to help address this current public health crisis and speed up the development of a chikungunya vaccine in LMICs, which are high outbreak areas." Dr. Dimas Covas, Director of Instituto Butantan added, The burden of chikungunya virus disease resides not only in the two million deaths worldwide since 2005, but also in the chronification of its symptoms, which constitutes a long term public health problem. By tackling the challenge of developing, manufacturing and marketing Valneva's chikungunya vaccine, Instituto Butantan will further strengthen its commitment to improving public health in low and middle income countries. About Chikungunya

Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne viral disease caused by the chikungunya virus (CHIKV), a Togaviridae virus, transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. Clinical symptoms include acute onset of fever, debilitating joint and muscle pain, headache, nausea and rash, potentially developing into long-term, serious health impairments. Chikungunya virus causes clinical illness in 72-92% of infected humans around 4 to 7 days after an infected mosquito bite. Complications resulting from the disease include visual, neurological, heart and gastrointestinal manifestations; fatalities have been reported (case fatality rates of 0.1% to 4.9% from epidemics)2 in elderly patients at higher risk. Chikungunya outbreaks have been reported in Asia, Africa, the Americas and recently (2017) in Europe. As of 2017, there have been more than one million reported cases in the Americas3 and the economic impact is considered to be significant (e.g., 2014 Colombia outbreak: $73.6 million4). The medical and economic burden is expected to grow as the CHIKV primary mosquito vectors continue to further spread geographically. There are no preventive vaccines or effective treatments available and, as such, chikungunya is considered to be a major public health threat. About Valnevas vaccine candidate VLA1553

VLA1553 is a monovalent, single dose, live-attenuated vaccine candidate for protection against chikungunya. It was granted Fast Track designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 20185.

The vaccine candidate is designed for prophylactic, active, single-dose immunization against chikungunya in humans over one year old. The vaccine targets long-lasting protection and an anticipated safety profile similar to licensed vaccines for active immunization in adults and children. The target population segments are travelers, military personnel and individuals at risk living in endemic regions. The global market for vaccines against chikungunya is estimated to exceed $500 million annually6, including a traveler vaccine market potential of ~$250 million. VLA1553 is based on an infectious clone (CHIKV LR2006-OPY1) attenuated by deleting a major part of the gene encoding the non-structural replicase complex protein nsP3, aiming for protection against various chikungunya virus outbreak phylogroups and strains7. About Valneva SE

Valneva is a specialty vaccine company focused on prevention against diseases with major unmet needs. Valnevas portfolio includes two commercial vaccines for travelers: IXIARO/JESPECT indicated for the prevention of Japanese encephalitis and DUKORAL indicated for the prevention of cholera and, in some countries, prevention of diarrhea caused by ETEC. The Company has various vaccines in development including unique vaccines against Lyme disease and chikungunya. Valneva has operations in Austria, Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, Canada and the U.S. with over 500 employees. For more information, visit www.valneva.com and follow the company on LinkedIn .



About Instituto Butantan

Instituto Butantan is the main producer of immunobiological products and vaccines in Brazil. Instituto Butantan carries out scientific missions domestically and abroad through the Pan American Health Organization, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the United Nations. The Institute collaborates with other agencies of the Sao Paulo State Secretariat of Health and the Brazilian Ministry of Health for the improvement of overall health in Brazil. It acts in partnership with various universities and entities such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the achievement of its institutional objectives. For more information please visit the Institute website at www.butantan.gov.br or contact the press office at (+55 11) 2627-9606 / 9428 or email to [email protected] About CEPI

CEPI is an innovative partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil organisations, launched at the World Economic Forum at Davos in 2017, to develop vaccines to stop future epidemics. CEPIs priority diseases include Ebola virus, Lassa virus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, Nipah virus, Rift Valley Fever and Chikungunya virus. CEPI also invests in platform technologies that can be used for rapid vaccine and immunoprophylactic development against unknown pathogens (i.e., Disease X).

CEPI has moved with great urgency and in coordination with WHO in response to the emergence of COVID-19. CEPI has initiated 9 partnerships to develop vaccines against the novel coronavirus. The programmes leverage rapid response platforms already supported by CEPI as well as new partnerships. The aim is to advance COVID-19 vaccine candidates into clinical testing as quickly as possible. CEPIs commitment to access

As COVID-19 demonstrates, infectious diseases utterly ignore political borders. We cannot prevent or stop a global infectious disease threat without equitable access to globally fair allocation of vaccines. CEPI is wholly committed to equitable access. This commitment drives every aspect of our work. CEPIs support for equitable access is key to our success as a global health organisation. Equitable access to epidemic vaccinesin the context of an outbreakmeans that appropriate vaccines are first available to populations when and where they are needed to end an outbreak or curtail an epidemic, regardless of ability to pay. Learn more at http://www.cepi.net . Follow us at @CEPIvaccines . Valneva Investor and Media Contacts

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[email protected] Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to the business of Valneva, including with respect to the progress, timing and completion of research, development and clinical trials for product candidates, the ability to manufacture, market, commercialize and achieve market acceptance for product candidates, the ability to protect intellectual property and operate the business without infringing on the intellectual property rights of others, estimates for future performance and estimates regarding anticipated operating losses, future revenues, capital requirements and needs for additional financing. In addition, even if the actual results or development of Valneva are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, those results or developments of Valneva may not be indicative of their in the future. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by words such as "could," "should," "may," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "aims," "targets," or similar words. These forward-looking statements are based largely on the current expectations of Valneva as of the date of this press release and are subject to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievement expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. In particular, the expectations of Valneva could be affected by, among other things, uncertainties involved in the development and manufacture of vaccines, unexpected clinical trial results, unexpected regulatory actions or delays, competition in general, currency fluctuations, the impact of the global and European credit crisis, and the ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection. In light of these risks and uncertainties, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements made during this presentation will in fact be realized. Valneva is providing the information in these materials as of this press release, and disclaim any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. 1 CEPI awards up to US$23.4 million to Valneva for late-stage development of a single-dose chikungunya vaccine

2 WHO, PAHO



3 PAHO/WHO data: Number of reported cases of Chikungunya Fever in the Americas  EW 51 (December 22, 2017)



4 Cardona-Ospina et al. 2015, Trans R Soc Trip Med Hyg 109:793-802.



5 Valneva Awarded FDA Fast Track Designation for Chikungunya vaccine candidate



6 Company estimate supported by an independent market study



7 Hallengard et al. 2013, J. Virology 88:2858-2866.



Attachment 2020_05_05_Valneva_Butantan_Chikungunya_PR_EN_Final

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New Delhi, May 5 : A day after the Delhi government slapped a 70 per cent cess on liquor sales, the faction-ridden Delhi unit of the BJP seems at war with itself. While one Delhi BJP spokesperson supported the move, the other wrote to Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal criticising it.

Delhi BJP Spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor wrote to Baijal requesting the Excise Department to "review the decision to impose 70 per cent additional cess on liquor as this has caused abnormal difference in alcohol prices in Delhi and neighboring UP and Haryana".

He called it a "rigidity" of the Arvind Kejriwal government and alleged that there is a possibility that less popular alcohol brands are being sold as part of a connivance", which he claims can indicate a "scam". He also claimed that widens the possibility of liquor smuggling from across the border.

"I therefore request you to please ask Excise Department to ensure that Delhi does not see liquor smuggling due to abnormal difference in prices across the borders and Vigilance Department be asked to keep a tab on liquor brands being sold so as to avoid corrupt connivance," Kapoor wrote to the LG.

However, his colleague and another Delhi BJP spokesperson Tajinder Bagga seem to have an exactly opposite view on the 70% hike that Kejriwal government is calling "Corona Cess". Bagga not only threw his weight behind the move of the Aam Adam Party Delhi government but also added that all other states should follow it. He in fact went on to propose that food delivery apps like Zomato and Swiggy can be roped in for home delivery of liquor, which he added is his personal opinion.

Bagga, almost a day later went on to reiterate his support for the steep hike on alcohol tax while he objected the fuel price hike in the state. He tweeted: "I supported Arvind Kejriwal for increasing 70% price on alcohol but increasing Rs 7 on Diesel and Rs 1.67 on Petrol is foolish decision." The Delhi unit of the BJP has often been known for its factions and divided allegiances. Ahead of this year's Assembly election, the BJP did not portray anyone as the Chief Ministerial face fearing vehement opposition from other contenders for the top post. In 2008, 2013 and 2015, the BJP had projected Vijay Kumar Malhotra, Harsh Vardhan and Kiran Bedi as its CM face, respectively, but with no success.

The party that is dominating at the Centre has been out of power for more than two decades now in the national capital and its intra-unit factions are held responsible for that. But even during a non-election season, the Delhi BJP seems to have stressed what has been known for years, its left hand doesn't know its right is doing.

(Anindya Banerjee can be contacted at anindya.b@ians.in)
Mondelez Canada has shut down its Hamilton candy factory after four workers tested positive for COVID-19.

Julie Edwards, senior director of supply chain, confirmed the cases at the Ewen Road facility in a statement to The Hamilton Spectator.

They are now self-isolating, receiving medical treatment and we are supporting them through this difficult time, stated Edwards.

According to Edwards, Mondelez Canada recently became aware of the cases but did not give any specifics as to when the positive test results came back.

Once the cases were confirmed, the company took swift action by launching an urgent investigation focused on the health and safety of our colleagues, including contact tracing, and pausing the lines to carry out additional, focused deep cleaning and sanitation, stated Edwards.

The factory, which spans 225,000 square feet, has now been temporarily shut down, putting approximately 350 staff members off the job. Staff affected by the closure will continue to be paid, she added.

Here's how Hamilton's COVID-19 cases break down The first case was announced March 11. 451 Total confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases 129 Linked to community spread 21 COVID-19 deaths 287 Resolved cases 58 Hospitalizations Source: Source: Hamilton Public Health. Numbers as of May 1.

The company did not specify how many employees are self-isolating due to close contact, how many will be tested or which part of the factory the four infected employees worked in.

In the two months prior to the outbreak, Edwards said the company has invested heavily in enhanced health and safety measures to protect staff from catching COVID-19.

As of Monday, the respiratory virus had infected at least 451 people and killed 21 in the city.

Edwards said the company had set up the four-level factory so employees can easily practice physical distancing at two metres apart or provided fixed, physical barriers to separate colleagues.

They have also increased the cleaning of high-contact points and have provided mandatory masks to staff and visitors to the factory.

Those entering the facility  which makes Maynards and Sour Patch Kids  must also pass health and temperature screening by a health-care professional in order to enter, said Edwards.

The company did not respond to questions on when the factory would reopen, but pointed to the federal health agency on the question of any product being destroyed due to the outbreak.

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, there is currently no evidence to suggest that food is a likely source or route of transmission of the virus and there are currently no reported cases of COVID-19 transmission through food.
President Armengol told parliament on Tuesday that the Balearic government is working "bilaterally" with the German authorities on recovering flights "as soon as possible".

Stressing that there must be the maximum health guarantees, Armengol said that "we have to be able to restore activity before anyone else, as we depend on tourism more than any other region". The president urged the Spanish government and the EU to coordinate health control measures and plans "to boost airline and shipping company activities".

Armengol explained that contact with German authorities will be taking account of developments in health security and the control of the pandemic over the coming weeks. "With European mobility restricted as a result of the harsh impact that the pandemic is still having on our foreign markets, our tourism will suffer a devastating blow. The duration of the crisis will depend, above all, on when borders reopen. For the majority of European states we don't yet have dates for this."

The most effective mechanisms for resuming tourism activity, she observed, were to ensure that the Balearics have contained the virus, are in a position to prevent infection, and carry out all necessary tests to detect any positive cases.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 20:27:01|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Belleville Mayor Michael Melham has tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies and believes he contracted the virus in November, over one month before China first reported its initial cases, according to U.S. media.

Melham said he was sick in late November after he attended the New Jersey League of Municipalities Conference in Atlantic City, suffering from symptoms such as chills, hallucinations and a "skyrocketing temperature," NorthJersey.com reported on April 30.

"It felt as if I was an addict going through withdrawal," said Melham in a news release, according to the website. "I didn't know what was happening to me. I never felt that I could be so sick."

In a text message to the U.S. news outlet, the mayor said it was "the sickest" he had been in his adult life.

The doctor assumed that Melham had the flu, saying he would recover after rest and fluids, according to the release.

Some health experts think that COVID-19 "may have been quietly circulating" in January and February in the United States, with no one previously putting the timeline back to November.

The mayor said he later suspected that he had contracted the virus but ignored it as "the earliest cases in the United States weren't reported until January."

The United States, now the global epicenter of the pandemic, reported its first case on Jan. 21. Melham said his illness in November prompted him to ask his doctor for a blood test, and he got the result on Wednesday, according to the release.

Melham insisted that it was "highly, highly unlikely" that he was exposed to the coronavirus later.

"The antibody in my blood is older as opposed to the more recent one showing you just finished fighting it off," he told NorthJersey.com. Enditem
The fifth of May has been a Mexican holiday since 1862, and has gradually become a bigger one in America. Like many American holidays, it is now encrusted with humbug and commercialism. As with St. Patricks Day, many Americans see it solely as an excuse to drink, eat some ethnic food, and maybe wear some ridiculous plastic hats. You may know some of the common myth-busting tropes: It isnt Mexican independence day, its arguably a bigger holiday here today than it is back home in Mexico, and it only celebrates beating the French for control of a town the French won back a year later anyway.

Heres the thing, though: The Mexican victory at the Battle of the Puebla on May 5, 1862, really was a big deal that deserves to be remembered. Its one of a handful of days that decided the fate of the North American continent. Yet, it is also a tragic story, as are so many episodes in the modern histories of Mexico and France.

Our Southern Neighbor

Mexico, like most of the nations south of the United States, was a child of the Napoleonic Wars. The greatest victim of those wars was Spain, a traditional Catholic monarchy ruling over an agrarian economy that depended heavily on cotton exports and the mineral wealth of its vast colonial empire, second in size only to the British empire in 1792. Before independence, Mexico produced 80 percent of the worlds silver and gold; the disruption of the supply of Mexican silver would badly destabilize the silver-based economy of China in the 1820s and 1830s. The British blockades of the Napoleonic era wrecked Spains cotton exports, which were supplanted by the American South and its cotton gin after 1793. The Spanish navy was destroyed at Trafalgar, the country laid waste by guerilla war from 1808 to 1813. Protracted economic separation from the mother country drove the colonies to rebel against Spain and enter the trading orbit of Britain.

Mexicos national governments were unstable from the outset of independence in 1821. The country was strained by the two great dividing lines of the mid 19th century: federalists against nationalists, and liberals against conservatives. The federalstate power struggle was, if anything, more acute in Mexico than in the United States, except that Mexican nationalists rarely faced united regional blocs of states after the fashion of the American South. When Texas rebelled, it did so at the same time as multiple other Mexican states, some as far south as the Yucatan, but their coordination was limited, and only the Texans won their fight for independence.

Story continues

Mexican classical liberals (whose ideology would today be considered conservative) opposed throne-and-altar conservatism with demands for written constitutions, democratic and republican government, equality before the law, religious, civil, and economic liberty, and an end to established churches. The two sides ideas did not exist in isolation but mirrored the liberalconservative divides in Spain and France as well as the liberalizing influence of America. The liberals also sought to improve the legal status of Indians (Mexicans of Native American descent), who made up around 80 percent of the country and were, in some places, held in a state of peonage (debt-enforced forced labor) only a step above slavery. Peonage was one of the underlying factors in the Caste War, which erupted among the Mayans in the Yucatan in 1847, creating a separate enclave by the early 1850s that would not be restored to Mexican sovereignty until 1901.

Benito Juarez and the Liberal Dream

Mexican vulnerability naturally attracted opportunistic foreign governments, but geography gave the United States the edge, reflected in the 184647 Mexican War, which stripped away a third of Mexicos territory. The Monroe Doctrine, which at the time was enforced as much by the British Royal Navy as by the U.S., kept the European continental powers away as well.

Mexican national pride balked at any hint of further losses of territory or sovereignty. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who embodied the shifting sands of Mexican politics for two decades and frequently switched sides among the various factions, fell from power for good in 1855 after a backlash against the Gadsden Purchase, his sale of Mexican border land to the United States  the last time, as it turned out, that the continental borders of either nation would change. With Santa Anna deposed, a liberal constitution was established by the victors in 1857, with Ignacio Comonfort as president and Benito Juarez as chief justice. The constitution made the chief justice next in line to serve as president.

Juarez, a slight, dark man easily recognized in Mexico as an Indian, was a devoted classical liberal cut from much the same cloth as Abraham Lincoln. Like Lincoln, he was an unassuming man proud of his humble origins, a frock-coated lawyer who never aspired to be a general or an aristocrat. Before the 1855 revolution, he had been in exile in New Orleans, then a hotbed of expatriates out of favor in their homelands. Cholera almost killed Juarez in New Orleans, but he was made of stern stuff, and nothing short of the grave deterred him.

The liberal constitution was overthrown by a conservative militaryclerical coup almost as soon as it went in effect. Comonfort collaborated with the coup but was overthrown himself within weeks. His last act in office, once he saw the writing on the wall, was to let Juarez out of jail. Juarez declared himself the constitutional president upon Comonforts departure and spent the next three years locked in the Reform War against the conservatives, led ultimately by Miguel Miramon.

Rescued from a siege in the coastal city of Veracruz in 1859 by yellow fever among Miramons men, Juarez turned in desperation to a deal with the Americans, the McLaneOcampo Treaty, which promised U.S. military and financial assistance in exchange for the sale of the Baja California peninsula to the U.S. and a railway concession in southern Mexico. The treaty eventually died in the U.S. Senate amidst the sectional fractures of 1860, but Mexican conservatives did not forgive it, and ultimately kidnapped and murdered Melchor Ocampo, Juarezs foreign minister, in 1861. Meanwhile, Juarez turned to General Jesus Gonzalez Ortega and his second-in-command, Porfirio Diaz, who turned the tables and crushed Miramon, taking Mexico City on Christmas Day, 1860. At long last, Juarez  now elected president in his own right  could bring constitutional government to Mexico.

Unpaid Bills and a Distracted North

The U.S. Senate may have let Juarez off the hook for the commitments he made during the Reform War, but European creditors would not so easily relinquish debts that Miramon had rung up fighting him, which they insisted were enforceable against his enemies. The British were willing to cut a deal, but the Spanish and French were not. Spain had only been stopped by the U.S. Navy from intervening on the side of Miramons siege of Veracruz, and French investors were tied closely to the half-brother of Napoleon III. The Mexican congress scuttled Juarezs effort at a negotiated solution by passing a ban in July 1861 on repayment of Miramons debts. Juarez, unwilling to expose himself to the fate of Ocampo and Santa Anna, reluctantly signed the bill.

The timing was fateful: News of the debt repudiation reached Europe at the same time as news of the First Battle of Bull Run, which had ended in an inconclusive Confederate victory that promised a longer American Civil War. Napoleon III, an inveterate schemer who was simultaneously engaged in a joint FrancoSpanish war in Vietnam and a peacekeeping mission in Syria, approached Spanish general Juan Prim about a joint expedition to Mexico. Two years earlier, Napoleon had told Mexican conservatives that he dared not involve himself in Mexico for fear of a war with the United States. Only the promise that America would be too engaged in its own war to stop him made the invasion of Mexico possible.

Napoleons plan now added a twist: He would try to cement ties with Franz Joseph of Austria, whom he had defeated in a war in Italy two years earlier, by making Franz Josephs brother Maximilian the emperor of Mexico. Franz Joseph, who never trusted Napoleon, thought this was a terrible idea, but he needed to appease France and would not stand in his brothers way. Lord Palmerston, the British prime minister, also hated the idea, but was wedded to the principle of gunboat enforcement of British rights. William Seward, Lincolns secretary of state, tried to forestall an invasion by promising that the U.S. would repay the Europeans and take a mortgage on Mexican mineral rights, but Palmerston (who despised Seward because they were too much alike) hated that plan even more, as it would strengthen the American hold on northern Mexico.

The European landing at Veracruz in December 1861 would fairly swiftly become a solely French venture, as its goal became imposing a conservative European emperor. Prim, who had family connections in Mexico, saw at once that this would be an unpopular and protracted campaign, and fell back to Havana  a wise move that would aid Prims ascent to lead Spain later in the decade. The British refused to let their 700 Royal Marines venture far from their ships for fear of yellow fever. Both abandoned Mexico in the spring of 1862.

The British presence, however, had unforeseen consequences. When the U.S. and Britain nearly came to war in November and December of 1861, the British had to rush troops across the Atlantic to defend Canada. Unfortunately, the Admiralty found that it had sent all its available troop ships to Veracruz, and it had to rent mail steamers. Because the St. Lawrence River was frozen, the advance party of British officers was packed onto a mail ship in civilian clothing with unmarked baggage and sent to Boston, where they traveled by American trains to Canada to prepare to fight a war against America.

The Stand at Puebla

Mexican geography offers few choices for the invader by sea: armies must land in low-lying Veracruz, as Winfield Scott did in 1847, and move due west up a series of plateaus to reach the elevated center of the country and Mexico City. Staying put in Veracruz in the mid-1800s meant exposure to yellow fever, which would typically kill 20 percent of any European expedition in a single season. The French, with some 7,300 men under General Charles de Lorencez, struck an agreement with Juarez: France would recognize the Juarez government and negotiate the debt in exchange for letting the French army encamp at Orizaba, at the entry to the first plateau above the yellow-fever zone. If negotiations broke down, Lorencez was on his honor to withdraw from the plateau.

Meanwhile, disaster struck Juarezs army. In February 1862, women cooking for their husbands in the camps accidentally set off sparks that detonated a barn full of gunpowder. The resulting explosion killed 1,500 people, destroying in one stroke 10 percent of the army. The French sent doctors to help treat the wounded. When further negotiations broke down and hostilities were imminent, Ignacio Zaragoza, the Mexican general, reciprocated the favor by allowing Lorencez to leave sick soldiers in Orizaba. But miscommunications over Zaragozas gesture led Lorencez to fear that his wounded men would be massacred, and he abrogated the agreement and held his upland position, compelling Zaragoza to withdraw at an unexpected disadvantage.

The city of Puebla, with 80,000 inhabitants, was then the second largest city in Mexico. Mexican conservatives told Lorencez that his army would be greeted with flowers and welcomed as liberators. Puebla stood at a river crossing on the line of march from Orizaba to Mexico City, the first major crossroads after ascending to the central plateau. The French forced the passes up to the plateau, overpowering Zaragozas 4,000 defenders. Lorencez arrived north of the city on May 4, 1862, three days after the 15th anniversary of Pueblas surrender to Winfield Scott.

Puebla was surrounded by a chain of five forts, two of them (Forts Loreto and Guadalupe) on the north side. Lorencezs local allies warned him that the city had never been taken from the north, but they offered conflicting views of whether he should attack from the east or west instead. On the morning of May 5, Lorencez ignored their advice and moved into the teeth of the northern forts. Even with losses from disease and the initial skirmishes, he had a numerical advantage of approximately 6,500 men against Zaragozas 4,500 defenders.

French soldiers, in 1862, were still widely regarded as the best in the world. They had led the vanguard of successful frontal assaults on fortified positions from Sevastopol in 1855 to Saigon in 1861. Alone or with allies, they had blasted through the walls of Rome in 1849, whipped the Austrian army in Italy in 1859, and forced their way upriver to Beijing in 1860. On this day, the daring French advance guard even reached the top of the walls and hoisted the imperial eagle of the French flag. But the forts were too strong. French barrages could not put out their guns, and French soldiers lay heaped in front of Fort Guadalupe. Porfirio Diaz led a cavalry charge to dislodge the attackers. France sustained 462 casualties, to only 83 Mexicans.

Come nightfall, the Mexican defenders sang the Marseillaise, the revolutionary anthem that Napoleon III had banned in France. Juarez had commissioned a Mexican national anthem, but it was new and nobody knew it, so they reached for the song of anti-royalists everywhere. Juarez, recognizing the propaganda value of a victory over the French, immediately proclaimed Cinco de Mayo a national holiday, and for good measure, renamed Puebla for Zaragoza (the change didnt stick, and Zaragoza died of typhus four months after the battle).

Lorencez braced for a counterattack, but Zaragoza knew his men could not stand with the French in the open field. In fact, a small French detachment routed a much larger Mexican force two weeks later, during the French withdrawal.

Aftermath

Puebla was not a big battle for its time. The Battle of Shiloh, fought a month earlier, featured ten times as many soldiers and 50 times as many casualties. But it changed the entire tempo of the war. Had the Mexican army been driven out, Lorencez would have established a permanent foothold on the central plateau and would likely have marched swiftly on Mexico City. Instead, recognizing that he could not remain encamped around Puebla, Lorencez retreated downhill to Orizaba. Napoleon, regretting what now looked like a premature effort to force the issue, would not authorize a renewed offensive until reinforcements had been dispatched to Veracruz, and Lorencez replaced. By the time Puebla (now defended by Comonfort) was retaken on May 17, 1863, and Mexico City captured less than a month later, a crucial year had elapsed.

It was a year Napoleon could not afford. The Confederacy reached its high tide in mid 1862, but by the time Puebla was recaptured, Stonewall Jackson was dead and Vicksburg was surrounded. Europe teetered on war over Poland for much of 1863. By the time Maximilian was finally installed in May 1864, Napoleons ability to sustain an open-ended troop commitment was already wearing thin, his army overextended. Prussia and Austria went to war against Denmark in early 1864, and the hour of the long-awaited reckoning on the Rhine was in view. Napoleon notified Maximilian of his intention to withdraw in January 1866, a decision that grew more urgent when Prussia turned and crushed Austria that May. The last French soldiers left Mexico in February 1867. A little over three years later, Napoleons unprepared and undermanned army would be routed by Prussia, toppling him from power. Had Napoleon devoted fewer resources to Mexico and more to upgrading his army in Europe, the whole history of France and Germany might have been different.

Juarez, once besieged on the Gulf coast, was driven into the far northwest of Mexico. In extremis, even his constitutional principles were bent by his efforts to remain in power and preserve what little remained of the Mexican republic. But he never gave up, and the tide turned in his favor. American pressure was a major part of that: As the Civil War wound down, Seward played on Napoleons fear of a clash with the battle-hardened U.S. Army. Even Confederate leaders tried to talk Lincoln, in February 1865, into suspending hostilities for a joint march against Mexico. Grant sent 50,000 men to the Mexican border as soon as the war ended, hastening Napoleons decision to evacuate.

Maximilian went to a firing squad in June 1867. No European monarch was ever again a serious threat to reign in the Western Hemisphere. Together with the end of American threats to Canada after its 1867 unification, the 1867 purchase of Alaska, and the 1871 settlement of Civil Warera claims between the U.S. and Britain, the borders of North America were finalized as they are today.

Mexico survived the French occupation as an independent nation, thanks in good part to the defenders at Puebla and the doggedness of Benito Juarez. But Juarezs dream of a liberal, constitutional Mexican republic did not. The war with the French did more damage to Mexicos institutions and its economy than had even the loss of its sparsely settled and barely governed northern provinces in 1847. By the time Juarez died in 1872, a decade of industrial progress had been missed. Porfirio Diaz, who after Zaragozas death would be the main surviving hero of Puebla, would serve as Mexicos president for most of the years from 1876 to 1911. Diaz brought belated economic development, but at the cost of a conservative strongman style of government far removed from Juarez.

So raise a toast to Cinco de Mayo, a day that changed the course of history, and to the Mexico that might have been, and maybe someday will be.

More from National Review
Traders' body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Tuesday said that the retail sector lost nearly Rs 5.5 lakh crore in the coronavirus lockdown from March 25 to April 30. Nearly 20 per cent of the Indian retailers are expected to close their businesses in the next few months due to the lockdown, CAIT added. The traders' body has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to announce a fiscal package for the traders to ensure their survival. CAIT is the umbrella association for nearly 40,000 trade bodies across India representing 7 crore traders.

Coronavirus has caused a huge irreversible dent in Indian retail trade which is expected to have devastating effect on the whole country, CAIT said.

"Of 7 crore traders, in all likelihood around 1.5 crore traders will have to permanently down the shutters in a few months and a further 75 lakh traders who are dependent on these 1.5 crore traders will fold up in the medium term", CAIT noted.

"It is quite appalling that the Governments, both Centre and State, have not handheld the non corporate sector which contributes more than 40% to India's GDP and accounts for almost one-third of the total workforce of the nation. Instead the Government has given diktats that all businesses will have to pay their salaries, the banks will continue to charge interest and the landlords will continue to ask for rentals", CAIT added.

Meanwhile, CAIT on Monday opposed opening of liquor shops across various states amid lockdown. The move by states could destroy the advantages accrued from the 40-day lockdown and increase coronavirus cases, CAIT said. "It will also be a gross injustice to the traders of the country including Delhi, who have been asked to shut down their business establishments which have been followed by the traders across the Country in its true letter and spirit", the traders' body also said.

Also read: Coronavirus Lockdown Live Updates: After Delhi, Andhra Pradesh hikes liquor price by 75%; India's cases-46,433

Also read: Coronavirus crisis: Govt should write off loans of small businesses, says Abhijit Banerjee
President Donald Trump said Tuesday he 'might' wear a mask during his visit to an Arizona factory that expanded to make N95 masks in response to the coronavirus epidemic.

'I think it's a mask facility, right?,' he said to reporters outside the White House as he left for the trip. He said he'd wear a mask if it was a 'mask facility.'

'If it's a mask facility I will, yeah. I don't know if it's a mask facility,' he added.

President Donald Trump said he 'might' wear a mask during his visit to an Arizona factory that expanded to make N95 masks in response to the coronavirus epidemic

A group of Arizona lawmakers traveling with Trump - Senator Martha McSally and Reps. Debbie Lesko and Paul Gosar - took a selfie before boarding Air Force One and did not social distance in photo

Honeywell started making masks at the end of April due to concerns about a shortage of facial coverings. The company said it can make 10 million of the masks per month.

Arizona remains under a modified stay-at-home order until May 15. Republican Gov. Doug Ducey allowed some stores to reopen Monday voluntarily as part of the administration's push to get the country reopen. The state has seen almost 9,000 infections and more than 350 deaths.

Trump's trip will have additional security concerns - how to stop anyone from getting infected from the coronavirus when the group travels together in the tight quarters of Air Force One and the cars in the presidential motorcade.

Three Arizona Republican lawmakers are traveling to the state with Trump. Senator Martha McSally tweeted a photo of them in front of Air Force One preparing to board and ignoring social distancing guidelines.

'Headed to Arizona on Air Force One soon,' she wrote, adding a selfie that showed Rep. Paul Gosar and Rep. Debbie Lesko in tight approximation with her.

President Trump said everyone traveling with him on the plane was tested for the coronavirus. The White House has ordered anyone meeting with the president to undergo a coronavirus test first.

'Everybody traveling has been tested,' Trump said at the White House before he departed. 'Literally they have been tested over the last hour and the test results come back in 5 minutes. We have great testing or they wouldn't be allowed to travel with me. It's not my choice, it's a very strong group of people that want to make sure that they are tested, including Secret Service. They're all tested - everyone traveling on the plane.'

Gosar spent two weeks in March in self-quarantine out of concerns he came in contact with someone who tested positive for the virus while attending CPAC.

The dentist-turned-congressman closed his offices and wrote he'd rather die 'gloriously in battle' than from the coronavirus.

'Been thinking about life and mortality today,' Gosar tweeted at the time. 'I'd rather die gloriously in battle than from a virus. In a way it doesn't matter. But it kinda does.'

Trump has been noncommittal about mask wearing after Vice President Mike Pence was criticized for not wearing one during a visit to the Mayo Clinic last week, flouting hospital policy to wear a face covering. Pence later said he should have worn one.

'I will know when I get there. If it's a masked environment I would have no problem,' the president told reporters on Air Force One as they prepared to go to Arizona.

So far, Trump has never donned face protection in public.

The president's last trip to Arizona was on February 19, when he held a campaign rally in Phoenix. The state is crucial to his re-election.

A poll out last month showed Democratic presumptive nominee Joe Biden up nine points in Arizona, which tends to trend red. The poll was a troubling sign for Trump as Arizona hasn't gone for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1996.

The president has shown his restlessness.

'I've been at the White House now for many months, and I'd like to get out,' Trump said last week.

As the coronavirus crisis was becoming more serious at the beginning of March, the president spent the weekend away at his Mar-a-Lago resort and then stopped in Orlando to host fundraisers before returning to the White House on March 9.

President Trump has never been pictured in public wearing a face mask

Vice President Mike Pence was criticized for not wearing a face mask during his trip to the Mayo Clinic last week; he later said he should have worn a mask

He's essentially been there since.

The president took a day trip to Norfolk, Virginia on March 28 to see the USNS Comfort depart for New York City.

This past weekend, Trump flew off the Camp David before returning Sunday.

He then participated in a Fox News Channel town hall at the nearby Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Paul Stephen / Staff

Some national interest shifted to Texas last week after Gov. Greg Abbott announced last week that restaurants could reopen for dine-in, but many San Antonio businesses elected not to and one owner went on CNN to explain his decision.

Mike Nguyen, owner of Noodle Tree, a ramen spot near the University of Texas at San Antonio, spoke with CNN anchor Erin Burnett on "Outfront" on May 1, the day restaurants had the green light to reopen for dine-in. He told Burnett his grandmother died of COVID-19 and he has decided to pause his own chemotherapy treatment for lymphoma due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Weather Alert

...Bitterly cold temperatures expected starting Wednesday Afternoon... ...Slick Roads possible late Wednesday Afternoon and Night... An Arctic blast of cold air will move into the Quad State region Wednesday afternoon, pushing the entire region below the freezing mark by 7 pm Wednesday. Once the cold air moves in, temperatures are not expected to rise above freezing until early Saturday afternoon. Gusty north winds will produce very low wind chills Thursday into Friday morning. Wind chills below zero will be likely over southern Illinois and southeast Missouri, with barely above zero wind chills over west Kentucky and southwest Indiana. Wind Chills will remain in the single digits for parts of the area all day on Thursday and into early Friday morning. Anyone traveling or working outdoors should bundle up in layers to protect yourself from developing hypothermia and frostbite. Consideration should also be given to protect pets and livestock left outdoors. For those with water systems vulnerable to an extended period of sub-freezing temperatures, be sure to keep a trickle of water running through those systems. A Winter Weather Advisory is currently posted for part of southwest Indiana and the Pennyrile region of west Kentucky late Wednesday afternoon and night, where the best accumulation of wintry precipitation is expected. However, with temperatures expected to plummet and remain below freezing, any wintry precipitation still left on roadways and sidewalks across the Quad State late Wednesday afternoon and night will freeze. Travelers should use caution while traveling and be watchful for any slick spots on roadways, especially elevated bridges and overpasses. Please stay tuned to the National Weather Service in Paducah for the latest forecasts and statements associated with this winter event.
Isabel Cordero, center, and her relatives grieve outside the General Hospital in Ecatepec, Mexico City, after learning that her husband, Jose Luis Rojas, died of respiratory distress on May 2, 2020. (Marco Ugarte / Associated Press)

They waited for hours outside Las Americas hospital for word about their loved ones.

Then the small group ran out of patience and stormed inside. Upon discovering bodies on gurneys packed into the pathology ward, they accused the staff of murder.

I unzipped the bag of my son to confirm that it was him, Maria Dolores Castillo later told a television interviewer, describing how she touched his head. My son was still warm!

The coronavirus pandemic has battered sophisticated healthcare systems in Europe and the United States. Mexico is in another category.

Members of the Mexican security forces, wearing face shields, stand guard as family members wait for news about their relatives near the General Hospital in Ecatepec, on the outskirts of Mexico City, on May 2, 2020. (Marco Ugarte / Associated Press)

The country's fragile medical infrastructure appears to be in danger as hospitals become overloaded. The unrest at the hospital Friday in Ecatepec, a gritty suburb of Mexico City, attracted widespread attention and became a potent symbol of how the public is losing patience.

After authorities dispatched dozens of national guard troops and state police officers in riot gear to quell the disturbance, hospital officials vowed to improve communication with families.

The capital and adjoining areas in the state of Mexico  a metropolitan area that is home to more than 22 million people  account for 44% of the countrys confirmed 24,905 coronavirus cases and almost a third of the 2,271 deaths.

Because relatively little testing has been done, officials acknowledge that the real numbers are probably much higher. Using estimates based on modeling, Mexican health authorities said they expected cases to peak this week.

Medical professionals, who complained publicly for weeks about shortages of masks and other necessities, have expressed growing alarm.

The situation in the hospitals in Mexico City is critical  basically I can tell you that we are at war, Dr. Magdalena Madero, chief of kidney care at the National Institute of Cardiology, told Mexico's W Radio last week.

Struggling with a lack of ventilators, overwhelmed physicians face drastic decisions about whom to save, she said.

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A paramedic in a protective suit comforts a colleague, also in a protective suit, at the Hospital de las Americas in Ecatepec, Mexico City, on May 2, 2020. (Cristopher Rogel Blanquet / Getty Images)

For those patients who have little possibility of moving forward, we can offer them palliative treatments, basically compassionate sedation, Madero said. There is a brutal frustration among our health personnel.

Such dire warnings contrast sharply with official reassurances, notably from President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Look, we dont have problems with hospital beds, the president told reporters last week. Fortunately, until now we have the capacity to attend to the sick.

He blamed conservative opponents for disseminating false news accounts of people denied care.

In the Mexico City area, however, at least 22 hospitals designated as coronavirus treatment sites  40% of the total  had run out of beds by Monday, according to an official city website.

Outside the November 20 National Medical Center in the Valle Sur neighborhood, a banner declared: For the moment we have exceeded our capacity to attend to patients with Coronavirus COVID-19, and we have no more beds available. We appreciate your understanding.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said last week that 68% of Mexico City hospital beds for coronavirus cases were occupied. On Monday, she added that 60% of 1,700 beds in the metro area equipped with ventilators were in use.

Authorities have been scrambling to transform other facilities  including a bank building, a car racetrack and military hospitals  into treatment hubs.

On Monday, the government said that the former presidential compound of Los Pinos would be converted into a hostel for besieged medical workers.

People with symptoms can call 911 or text a hotline. Those judged to require hospitalization are referred to facilities that still have beds available. Ambulances are dispatched in emergency cases.

For care, most Mexicans rely on the countrys long-neglected public hospitals, especially the vast network run by the Social Security Institute, a lumbering bureaucracy that boasts of being the largest public health service in Latin America.

A joke here is that the institutes Spanish acronym  IMSS  stands for an expletive-laced declaration that roughly translates as: Your Health Is Worth Nothing.

For a long time, Mexico has ranked near the bottom in terms of development of the health sector, Dr. Hugo Lopez-Gatell, the undersecretary of health who heads the countrys response to coronavirus, recently told reporters.

Moreover, the Mexican population exhibits elevated rates of diabetes, hypertension and obesity, factors that can heighten vulnerability to COVID-19.

As available hospital beds have dwindled, some people have been forced to travel a long way to find care.

We heard they werent accepting any more patients in the hospital near where we live, so we decided to bring our brother here, said Blanca Diaz, 30.

She and her two sisters were among clutches of relatives of patients awaiting updates on a recent morning outside the 1,200-bed General Hospital Dr. Eduardo Liceaga in central Mexico City.

Family visits to coronavirus patients are banned because of fear of infection. With beleaguered doctors and nurses often too busy to deliver updates to families, the job often falls to guards.

The Diaz sisters had brought their brother  Julio Cesar Diaz, a 43-year-old diabetic who was having trouble breathing  from Iztapalapa, a teeming borough on the citys east side that has become a coronavirus hot spot.

Residents there live in close quarters, and many have had no choice but to continue working despite shut-down orders.

Careful! You are entering a zone of high contagion, read yellow banners that officials have raised in Iztapalapa and other high-risk precincts.

Julio Diaz died the day after he was hospitalized. Doctors told the family that he had succumbed to complications from coronavirus.

Before passing, he had managed to send a video message to his wife: "I love you, gordita," using a common term of endearment.

Despite objections from hospital staff, the family demanded that a relative view the body. Rumors of hospitals mixing up or misidentifying bodies have circulated on social media.

We wanted to be sure it was my brother, said Blanca Diaz.

Sisters, from left, Maria, Blanca and Sarai Diaz await news of their brother Julio outside the General Hospital Dr. Eduardo Liceaga in central Mexico City on April 29, 2020. He died the day after he was admitted for COVID-19 symptoms. (Cecilia Sanchez / For The Times)

A brother-in-law was allowed to enter the hospital to see the remains, and relatives and friends chipped in to pay the more than $1,000 funeral home fee, inflated because of special sanitation procedures. Open-viewing wakes are banned.

My brother went into the hospital, and suddenly he was gone and we couldnt even see him, embrace him, say farewell, his sister said. There is now a very profound sadness.

Sanchez is a special correspondent.
Aarogya Setu, which runs on its own Application Program Interface or API, is not bound by international privacy protection norms

People wear face masks as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus as they use a phone app to scan a code required to prove their health and travel status before being allowed to enter a shopping mall in Beijing. The debate on privacy protection while using such apps is especially urgent in Europe, where academics and civil liberties activists are pushing for solutions that protect personal data. Eastern nations are less likely to adhere to privacy protection norms followed in the West. (Photo | AFP)

New Delhi: Apple and Google will not allow location tracking in apps that use the API (needed to make apps) being jointly built by the two tech giants to help health agencies reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

However, the development is unlikely to have an impact on apps like Aarogya Setu.

Last month, Apple and Google had said they will launch a comprehensive solution that includes application programming interfaces (APIs) and operating system-level technology to assist in enabling contact tracing.

Application program interface or API is a set of functions and procedures used for building software and apps.

According to sources, the location history restriction would apply only for apps that want to use this specific Google-Apple APIs, and will not impact any existing apps that have their own APIs for contact tracing.

This means the development is unlikely to have an impact on Aarogya Setu, given that it uses its own APIs. Indian government's mobile app Aarogya Setu, developed for tracking coronavirus patients, has recorded about nine crore downloads. The app alerts people if any person in their vicinity has tested positive for COVID-19.

Apple and Google, on Monday, published the COVID-19 Exposure Notification Terms of Service and policies to ensure transparency about how the API will work, and to help developers understand the criteria to use the API.

To put it simply, they have spelt out the terms and conditions for developers for using the API.

According to the policies, apps made using the said API must be created by or for a government public health authority, and can only be used for efforts on COVID-19 response. Also, the apps can collect limited necessary data and can only use that information for COVID-19 response efforts.

All other uses of data, including targeting advertising, is not permitted. Also, the apps are not allowed to seek permission to access location services.
Three people have been charged with the fatal shooting of a security guard at a Family Dollar after the guard refused to let one of their family members enter the store without wearing a face mask.

According to an Associated Press report, Sharmel Teague, 45, Larry Teague, 44, and Ramonyea Bishop, 23, were charged with first-degree premeditated murder and gun charges following the shooting death of Calvin Munnerlyn, 43, a store in Flint, Michigan.

Munnerlyn reportedly refused to let Teagues daughter enter the store without a face mask to protect against coronavirus.

According to the report, Sharmel Teague argued with Munnerlyn before leaving. A short time later, the report said, two men returned and Munnerlyn was fatally shot. It said witnesses identified Bishop as the man who shot Munnerlyn in the back of the head.

Both of the Teagues and Bishop have been charged with first-degree premeditated murder and gun charges. According to the report, Sharmel Teague was arrested and police are looking for Larry Teague and Bishop.

The daughter has not been charged.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, welcoming the hospital ship USNS Mercy into the Port of Los Angeles in March. The governor has refused to reveal the details of a contract for almost $1 billion in protective masks being provided by a Chinese company. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Attorneys for Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration refused Monday to reveal the contents of a $990-million contract for purchasing protective masks from a Chinese electric car manufacturer, even though millions of the masks have already arrived in California to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a letter responding to a public records request from the Los Angeles Times, the Governor's Office of Emergency Services insisted the contract with BYD does not have to be made public, despite similar requests made by members of the Legislature since Newsom announced the deal last month.

"Cal OES determined all responsive records are exempt from disclosure, including exemptions for records reflecting attorney work product, attorney-client privileged information, or other information exempt from disclosure under federal or state law," Ryan Gronsky, an attorney with the Governor's Office of Emergency Services, wrote in a letter to The Times.

Newsom first touted the deal for the company to sell the state a combination of N95 protective masks and more traditional surgical masks during an April 7 appearance on MSNBC.

"We decided enough's enough," the governor said to host Rachel Maddow of the state's need to ensure protective masks could be acquired for emergency responders. "Let's use the power, the purchasing power of the state of California, as a nation-state."

A Cal OES spokesman said the agreement calls for the purchase of 200 million masks a month  including 150 million of the N95 variety  and would be in effect for at least two months. But all other details, including the price paid per mask, have been kept confidential.

The Times asked for all documents related to the BYD contract the day after Newsom's TV appearance. Lawmakers have also requested additional details. Under provisions of emergency legislation ratified in March before the Legislature suspended operations due to the public health crisis, advisors to Newsom were required to give 72 hours notice before authorizing spending on coronavirus-related items. But for the contract with BYD to obtain masks, the administration said action had to be taken even faster.

Story continues

"Under normal circumstances, the Legislature would have had more time to deliberate an expenditure of this magnitude and would have been allowed to thoroughly vet the details of the contract before proceeding," state Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) wrote in an April 9 letter to Newsom's budget director.

In the weeks since, legislators have frequently asked why they've been denied access to the contract. Administration officials have insisted disclosure could jeopardize the delivery of the masks, a concern repeated in Monday's letter to The Times.

"Publishing the agreement now  before performance under the contract is complete  would introduce substantial and unnecessary risk to the States ability to secure necessary supplies," Gronsky wrote.

The first installment of masks arrived last weekend in Los Angeles. A spokesman for Cal OES said Monday that more than 10 million surgical masks have now been delivered. The N95 masks, he said, still are awaiting safety approval by federal officials.

BYD announced in March that it was retooling its Shenzhen vehicle facility to produce masks and hand sanitizer. The company has a U.S. subsidiary headquartered in Los Angeles County, whose executives were touted by state officials as integral to the deal. To date, the state has paid a BYD-affiliated company almost $600 million.

Asked on April 18 about his administration's refusal to disclose the document, Newsom said he looked forward to "all those details becoming public very, very shortly." Repeating a promise that the BYD deal could also produce enough protective masks for other states, the governor dismissed concerns about the lack of transparency.

"Some are consumed by process, personality, intrigue, who's up, who's down?" Newsom said. "We are for actually solving a major, major problem. Not only for the state, but potentially a template for the country."
The special crimes investigation directorate of South Kalimantan police arrested Diananta Putra Sumedi, former chief editor of local online media, banjarhits.id, despite the Indonesian Press Council resolving the dispute in January, 2020. The International Federation of Journalist (IFJ) has backed its affiliate the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Indonesia to call on the police to release Diananta and drop the case immediately.

Diananta was arrested on Monday, May 4 after a 4-hour interrogation. The police rejected an appeal filed by Dianantas lawyer to suspend the detention, arguing Diananta is unlikely to cooperate and may eliminate evidence. He was charged under the Electronic Information and Transactions Law after banjarhits.id, a partner of national news media Kumparan, published an article on a land conflict entitled Johnlin seizes land, Dayak complains to the South Kalimantan Police on November 9, 2019. If found guilty, Diananta faces up to 6 years in prison.

Following the publishing of his article, Diananta was reported by Sukirman from a Dayak community council, the Kahiringan Adherents Assembly, because the article might cause hatred towards certain ethnic groups. Sukirman filed his report to South Kalimantan police and to the Indonesian Press Council. On January 9, the Press Council decided that the article breached article 8 of the code of journalism ethics. On February 5 the Press Council recommended that kumparan.com, the media responsible for the article, publish a right of reply, delete the article and explain to the readers why the newsroom deleted the article from the website. Kumparan and banjarhits.id complied with all the recommendations from the Press Council.

Since beginning of March, banjarhits.id is no longer a partner of Kumparan, having closed its operations.

AJI said: According to the memorandum of understanding signed by Press Council and the Chief of National Police, it is clear that every dispute related with journalism should be settled in the Press Council. AJI condemns the arrest which shows the fact that police neglected the MoU and do not respect the press freedom.

IFJ said: IFJ has seen continued efforts to criminalise journalists in Indonesia. The Press Council has a clear complaints mechanism for solving disputes, and this has been ignored. IFJ urges the police to release Diananta immediately, respect decisions made by the Press Council and ensure the safety of journalists in the country.
Modified exercise Spring Storm kicks off in Estonia

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

25 Apr. 2020 - 08 May. 2020

Last updated: 04 May. 2020

Allied forces have kicked off live-fire training in Estonia, as part of the annual exercise Spring Storm. Led by Estonia, Spring Storm tests the integration between NATO troops and the Estonian Defence Forces (EDF), strengthening their ability in times of crisis. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year's exercise is scaled down, with around 3,200 troops participating, compared to 9,000 last year.

"Despite the difficult situation, the training goals practiced during the year must be achieved, but at the same time the exposure to civil society must be reduced," said Major General Martin Herem, Commander of the EDF. To avoid contact with the civilian population, training is being held exclusively on the grounds of the EDF Central Training Area, and reserve troops will not take part. The exercise involves active EDF personnel, conscripts undergoing training and around 1,000 troops assigned to the NATO multinational battlegroup in Tapa, Estonia. The battlegroup is led by the United Kingdom and includes forces from Denmark.

Spring Storm aims to test the readiness of NATO forces in responding to a fictional crisis. This year, it offers the opportunity to demonstrate the Alliance's capabilities under the difficult conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. "Spring Storm shows how NATO forces can continue to test their readiness, while taking necessary measures protect their health and those of others. Our forces remain ready, vigilant and prepared to respond to any threat," said NATO Spokesperson Oana Lungescu.

The exercise itself is divided into two main stages. On 25-30 April, a field exercise took place in which units of the EDF and the NATO battlegroup enhanced their readiness. From 1-8 May, a live-fire exercise is taking place at a firing range, where the cooperation of infantry and battle support units will be trained.

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When former fashion stylist turned international aid worker Alethea Gold delivers donated personal protective equipment to front-line workers at Sydney hospitals, it comes with something extra. Chicken or vegetable soup for the soul.

As goodwill ambassador for the disaster relief group SmartAID, Ms Gold and its Israeli founder Shachar Zahavi have sourced more than 2 million masks and personal protective equipment for hospitals and doctors as the pandemic has spread from Wuhan to Tel Aviv, New York and Sydney.

Alethea Gold and Jordan Abram delivering soup and personal protection equipment to frontline workers at St Vincent's Hospital. Credit:Nadine Saacks

Getting 700 serves of soup delivered to Sydney's front-line nurses and doctors was relatively straightforward, though, compared with the process of sourcing legitimate personal protection equipment.

"There are as many fakes as there are fake handbags. They come with equally good fake credentials. You have to be very, very careful," Ms Gold, who lives in Rose Bay, said.
Updated at 6 p.m.: Owner of two Peregrine Senior Living facilities changes his mind and will allow the county to test residents.

Syracuse, N.Y.  Three assisted living centers have blocked Onondaga County from sending in nurses to test residents for COVID-19, a disease that preys heavily on the elderly.

Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said the testing initiative is saving lives by identifying infected people  including many who have no symptoms. They can be isolated to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading among vulnerable residents.

But three facilities have declined the free testing, which is voluntary, county officials said.

McMahon said Monday he will try to persuade the owners to reconsider. He also said he is looking into whether the county has legal authority to order those facilities to allow testing.

Why wouldnt you want us to proactively test your residents to make sure that, for the safety of your employees and of your clients, that theyre not sitting there asymptomatic but infected, he said. Im a little baffled by it.

One facility owner said she rejected the tests out of fear the traveling nurses who take the swab samples could bring coronavirus into her facility.

Three sites have declined access: Peregrine Senior Living at Onondaga Hill; Peregrine Senior Living at the Athenaeum of Skaneateles; and the Manlius Home for Adults. The facilities can house at least 100 residents combined.

Sue McSweeney, owner of the Manlius Home for Adults, said her facility has been tightly locked down since March and there have been no signs of COVID-19 among the 30 residents. Staff members check their temperatures before entering and wear masks and gloves.

McSweeney said testing itself would create the risk of bringing the virus in from other facilities.

Nobodys been in here for weeks, except staff, McSweeney said. Why would I want somebody to come in here whos been testing at other facilities where there might be COVID, and then come in my place where I dont have COVID?

Representatives from the Peregrine Senior Living facilities did not immediately respond to requests for comment. (Update: Following publication of this story, the owner changed his mind and agreed to allow the county to test residents.)

In a message posted April 6 on their website, operators of the Peregrine sites said they are taking steps to protect residents by restricting access to the facilities and monitoring patients and staff for any signs of illness. To date, and to the best of our knowledge, we have been blessed that none of our residents have been infected with the virus, the April 6 message said.

Most deaths from COVID-19 occur in elderly patients, especially those who have other serious medical conditions.

Just today, New York state reported that 17 deaths in Onondaga County  nearly half the total  occurred in nursing homes. Most of the people who died at hospitals also have been frail and elderly, county officials report.

The state health department controls nursing homes and any testing in them.

McMahon launched a testing effort in other types of senior living centers because they also house vulnerable residents in close proximity to each other, he said. The main payoff is finding residents or staff who are infected yet dont feel sick, he said. They can be quarantined to prevent spreading the virus to others.

What would have happened if we werent doing this (testing)? McMahon asked. Our cases would look lower. But two months, three months from now, there would be deaths that we would be tracking back to COVID-19.

Nurses have tested more than 1,200 residents and employees at 14 facilities since the initiative began April 19.

Most positive cases thus far have been found in people who did not display signs of being sick, said Andrea Lazarek-LaQuay, chief clinical officer at Nascentia Health, a nonprofit organization that provides the nurses for testing.

The person you have to worry about is the person who doesnt have symptoms, she said.

A team of nurses from Nascentia Health has tested residents and workers at 13 assisted living facilities. They also targeted one independent living center  Towne Center Retirement Community  where there was a coronavirus outbreak.

At most of the facilities, there have been confirmed cases of COVID-19, she said. A small number of sites had none. At one facility, which Lazarek-LaQuay declined to identify, nearly 20% of those tested were infected with the virus.

As the county prepares to allow increased business activity later this month, it will have to ramp up its testing for COVID-19 to meet Gov. Andrew Cuomos conditions for ending the lockdown.

McMahon said the countys focus will be to expand testing at senior living centers, where people who are most at risk from the disease live together. Now that most of the assisted living facilities have been done, the testing will move to retirement communities or similar complexes, he said.

Meanwhile, county officials will review whether McMahons declaration of a county emergency due to coronavirus allows him to require assisted living facilities to permit testing, he said.

We believe they fall under the county health departments jurisdiction, and if they do well probably have a conversation with them about mandating that they have to get testing, McMahon said.

Active COVID-19 cases in the county soared since the nurses started checking senior living centers, from 267 on April 19 to 432 on Monday. The biggest part of that increase comes from pro-active testing in the senior living facilities, McMahon said Sunday.

Testing helps facilities to know which people should be isolated and cared for by staff wearing personal protective equipment.

Those individuals who identify as positive, they go on isolation, (and) staff who go in there have PPE, she said.

Lazarek-LaQuay said many facility operators were hesitant initially about allowing the testing. As more centers were tested, however, most of the operators complied.

McSweeney said the residents at her facility were not interested in getting tested. Individuals have the right to decline a test, even if the center allows it. A few residents have declined tests, Lazarek-LaQuay said.

But Lazarek-LaQuay said she is getting calls from residents and their families asking for tests at centers that have not yet been tested.

Were getting calls from people saying, Can you come do this for us?  she said.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

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Jerusalem: Israeli Defense Minister Nafatali Benet claimed on Monday that the country's Defense Biological Institute has prepared the coronavirus vaccine. He said that the institute has registered a great success in preparing antibodies to coronavirus. Defense Minister Bennett further stated that the phase of development of the coronavirus vaccine is now complete and researchers are engaged in its patents and mass production.

Bennett's statement comes after a visit to the highly secretive Israeli Institute for Biological Research under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office. According to the Defense Minister, this antibody attacks the coronavirus in a monoclonal manner and kills the coronavirus inside the body of infected people.

Bennett has stated that the phase of development of the corona virus vaccine is now complete. The Defense Institute is now in the process of patenting this vaccine. In the next phase, researchers will contact international companies for commercial production. Bennett said, 'I am proud of the staff of the Institute for this great success.' However, the Defense Minister in his statement did not say whether this drug has been tried on humans or not.

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WeWork cofounder and former CEO Adam Neumann, who once called his relationship with SoftBank's Masa Son "beautiful", is now suing the Japanese conglomerate -- and his language has changed dramatically.

In the lawsuit, Neumann accuses SoftBank of backing out of a key provision of its nearly $10 billion bailout of the coworking company, which SoftBank agreed to in October. The deal gave SoftBank control of the company and included a $3 billion tender offer to WeWork's early shareholders, but SoftBank withdrew the tender offer last month. Neumann would have been the biggest beneficiary of the tender offer, cashing out $970 million worth of his stake. Other early investors and employees would have also sold shares in the offer.

In his complaint, Neumann alleges that SoftBank "doubled down on their abuse of power" and argues that its "deteriorating" financial position influenced its decision to renege on its obligations. It calls out Masa Son, accusing him and others at SoftBank of using influence to pressure investors to prevent the roll-up.

The suit also accuses SoftBank of "secretly taking actions" to undermine the agreement.

In response to the lawsuit, SoftBank Group's Chief Legal Officer Rob Townsend said the company will "vigorously defend itself against these meritless claims" and that it "had no obligation to complete the tender offer."

Neumann's relationship with SoftBank began to sour toward the end of 2018, before it spilled out into the public. SoftBank was set to invest $20 billion in WeWork for a majority stake. A source familiar with the deal tells CNBC that it took nine months to hammer out, only for Softbank to walk away on the night of signing: December 24, 2018. The capital that Softbank did invest, $3 billion, gave WeWork a $47 billion private valuation before its botched IPO last year.

A spokesperson for Softbank declined to comment on the details of the 2018 financing.

The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, says that WeWork had already begun to spend the capital to reach ambitious 2019 revenue goals, which were part of the deal.

WeWork's business model requires signing long-term leases for commercial office space and extensive renovations before getting shorter term tenants into the space, a process that can take up to a year.

The person said that when SoftBank backed out, WeWork was forced to finance the deal without Masa Son's full financial backing. The pressure for more capital led WeWork to seek an IPO earlier than intended, in September of 2019, which exposed corporate governance issues and massive losses. Shortly after that, WeWork withdrew the IPO and Neumann departed as CEO.




LANSDALE  Food pantries have seen a steep rise in families who are in desperate need of food due to the COVID-19 crisis  and on Monday, May 4, the Phillies and their partners (along with the Phillie Phanatic) teamed up to assist in distributing thousands of cases of food so pantries can continue to help those in need. Among the Phillies partners taking part in these hunger relief efforts were Coca-Cola, GIANT Food Stores, Hatfield, Herrs, J&J Snack Foods and Tri-State Toyota Dealers.

Representatives from 14 local food pantries, including Manna on Main Street from Lansdale, lined up their vehicles in Lot P at Citizens Bank Park, where they were greeted by the Phillie Phanatic and Phillies partners who loaded up food into pantry vehicles via contact-less distribution.

Among the food that was distributed to the 14 pantries from throughout the region was 200+ cases of ham product from Hatfield, 1,500 pre-stuffed bags from GIANT Food Stores that include oatmeal, whole grain pasta, peanut butter, jelly, canned tuna, juice boxes and popcorn, approximately 100 cases of Dasani water, sparkling water, and energy drinks from Coca-Cola, and more. In addition, Tri-State Toyota Dealers provided assistance with food transport to food pantries.
The Kwara State government has announced that medical doctors and other categories of health workers at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19 in the state will be paid N25,000 daily.

Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq approved the new daily allowance amidst clamour for an improved welfare condition of the health workers.

There have been some protests staged against the poor welfare condition of health workers in Nigeria in the last two months.

While some have kicked against the non-provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), others have asked for an increase in hazard allowance and insurance programmes.

In a statement on Tuesday, the governor announced the recent development. According to him, the approval is to show appreciation to the health workers.

We have approved N25,000 as daily allowance for medical doctors and varying daily allowance for other categories of health workers involved in our fight against COVID-19. This is to show appreciation to health workers as its impossible to pay them for their priceless sacrifices, he wrote on Twitter.

Apart from Kwara State, some other states have also taken steps to encourage their health workers with incentives.

The Lagos State government increased the monthly hazard allowance of health workers from N5,000 to N25,000.

Also, the Kaduna State Government has concluded plans to offer a daily allowance to health workers in the frontline of containing the novel Coronavirus in the state.

The State Commissioner of Health, Amina Mohammed-Baloni, said in a statement issued Saturday in Kaduna, that Occupational Safety Incentive had been approved for health workers by the state government. The health workers will get between N5,000 and N15,000 daily depending on their degree of exposure.

Although, the federal government has promised that the caregivers will get 50 per cent of their basic salaries as hazard allowance, it is yet to be implemented.

According to the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, the delay in implementation is owing to the paperwork yet to be completed at the Ministry of Finance.

Mr Ehanire, who made this known last week during the daily national briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, however promised that a day will soon be fixed to begin payment of the allowance.
India in touch with Pak over implementation of ICJ verdict on Jadhav case: Report

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, May 05: India is in touch with Pakistan in ensuring implementation of the verdict by the International Court of Justice in the case relating to Indian death-row convict Kulbhushan Jadhav, official sources said on Tuesday.

Jadhav, a retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism in April 2017. Weeks later, India approached the ICJ against Pakistan for denial of consular access to Jadhav and challenging the death sentence.

In its verdict in the case on July 17 last year, the ICJ ordered Pakistan to undertake an "effective" review of the conviction and sentence of Jadhav and asked it to grant consular access to him without further delay. We are in touch with Pakistan through diplomatic channels on implementation of the ICJ decision, the sources said.

Post ICJ, India tried to persuade Pak through back channel to release Kulbhushan: Harish Salve

On Pakistan raising the Kashmir issue at an online summit of the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) on Monday, sources said Pakistan has been carrying out a propaganda against India on the issue and the international community is aware of it. "It was part of a well-thought-out propaganda and we do not want to dignify it by commenting on it," said a source.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in the online summit of NAM, a grouping of 120 developing countries. It was attended over 30 other Heads of States and governments and other leaders, including from member states in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe.
The news that Chinese human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang has been reunited with his family in Beijing is welcome. The Chinese Communist Party unjustly detained Mr. Wang for five years before releasing him on April 5, under international pressure. But for weeks he was barred from traveling to Beijing and seeing his wife and child.

The United States, the European Union and international human rights monitors called on China earlier in April to allow Mr. Wangs freedom of movement after his release and expressed concern over reports that he had been mistreated in prison.

Mr. Wang was arrested in the sweeping round-up of more than 300 human rights lawyers and legal associates that began July 9, 2015, as Chinese President Xi Jinping clamped down on Chinas peaceful civil society.

As a human rights lawyer, Mr. Wang for years defended poor villagers in land rights cases, as well as members of Falun Gong, a peaceful group that the Chinese Communist Party has persecuted for decades. After trial delays and continued refusal by Mr. Wang to confess to any crime, he was sentenced in January 2019 on specious charges of subverting state power.

In the written statement in which the United States urged China to allow Mr. Wangs freedom of movement, U.S. State Department Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus also said that the United States continues to call for the release of all of those unjustly detained, such as [human rights attorneys] Li Yuhan and Yu Wensheng, as well as other Chinese citizens who are in detention simply for exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms in pursuit of a more equitable and just society, governed by the rule of law.

We remain concerned by the PRCs [Peoples Republic of Chinas] weak rule of law, arbitrary detentions, torture in custody, and continued violations and abuses of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of individuals inside its borders, said Spokesperson Ortagus. We urge the PRC to uphold its international human rights commitments and promises made in its own constitution.
The Economic Advisor to Vice President, Dr Gideon Boako has hit back at former President John Dramani Mahama for intentionally spewing lies to score political points in the midst of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.



According to him, the Akufo-Addo government will not sit aloof and watch the Presidential candidate for the largest opposition National Democratic Congress take undue advantage of governments dedication to resolving the spread of the new coronavirus for cheap political gain.



Speaking on Okay FMs 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Dr. Gideon Boako insisted that former President Mahama could have contributed his quota to support the government in the fight against the virus devoid of politics.



"If it is not politics that Mahama is doing and he genuinely wants to help the government fight the COVID-19, the government has set up COVID-19 Trust Fund and other institutions to help in the fight against the virus, the former President could have contributed their quota to support the government in that cause.



The NDC did not contribute as other institutions and individuals did because they have the intention of politicizing the COVID-19, so Mahama could have the opportunity to announce what he is also doing while condemning government . . . that is the reason why the NDC did not contribute to the trust fund . . . ," he said.



The former President last week claimed the economy under the leadership of Nana Akufo-Addo is in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and has been exposed in just one month by the Coronavirus pandemic, which has affected several countries around the world.



But the Economic Advisor to the Vice President Bawumia maintained that former President Mahama is throwing dust into the eyes of Ghanaians while the focus of the government and well meaning Ghanaians is on the fight against the deadly virus.



Mahama's economy couldn't mitigate An 'Internally-Generated Dumsor'



Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has reminded former President John Mahama that the economy he superintended between 2012 and 2016 was so fragile that he couldnt even mitigate and cushion people from an internally created problem like dumsor.



Speaking to journalists at the Jubilee House on the sideline of a Covid-19 meeting on Monday, Vice President Bawumia wondered how a former President whose administration and economy could not handle dumsor for four years would be making comparisons with a global pandemic like the Coronavirus.



If you want to test the robustness of an economy, you test it in a time of crises. Thankfully, we have had two crises. Under the NDC, it was an internally-generated crisis, which was dumsor. Under the Presidency of Nana Akufo-Addo, there has been an externally generated crisis, which has been the global Coronavirus pandemic.



I just want you to ask yourself, how have these two crises been managed? The dumsor crisis which crippled this economy for four years. What were the mitigating measures offered to businesses and individuals during the dumsor, an internally generated crisis? the Vice President asked.



We saw that even during dumsor, electricity prices were being increased, fuel prices were being increased, teacher trainee allowances were being cancelled, nursing trainee training allowances were being cancelled. All of that was happening during that particular crisis.



You look at the Coronavirus crisis and you look at the difference in terms of what has happened. The President has reduced electricity prices and has made it free for lifeline consumers. He has given free water to all Ghanaians for three months, has made sure that there is a stimulus package of 600 million Ghana Cedis for businesses and we have seen domestic production of PPEs (personal protective equipment) for our health workers locally.

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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EU member states discuss the opening of the external borders of the community, EU senior representative told reporters.

According to him, this issue is discussed almost every week, TASS reported.

As the representative noted, the border issue is becoming more relevant in connection with the upcoming summer vacation season.

On March 17, the EU approved the closure of the external borders of the community by 30 days to combat the spread of the new coronavirus. Later, a month later, the European Commission recommended the EU member states to extend this measure until May 15.
Business Alireza Kohany leading and one of the prominent digital marketing experts and a successful entrepreneur and influencer

Alireza Kohany

05.05.2020 08:10:40 - Unlike most parts of the world economy, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has actually resulted in increased growth in the e-commerce retail market.



(live-PR.com) - Fueled by peoples inability to shopping and their increased free time, online shopping has seen a mini boom. Young entrepreneurs are defying the downturn to build companies with big potential going into the future. This is challenging the traditional retailers, whose businesses have been massively affected by the measures taken to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

Unlike most parts of - Fueled by peoples inability to shopping and their increased free time, online shopping has seen a mini boom. Young entrepreneurs are defying the downturn to build companies with big potential going into the future. This is challenging the traditional retailers, whose businesses have been massively affected by the measures taken to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.Unlike most parts of the world economy, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has actually resulted in increased growth in the e-commerce retail market.

One such young ans successful entrepreneur is Alireza Kohany and his success is far more interesting and uncommon. Alireza turned some idea for entrepreneurship and business. Alireza Kohany was born in Tehran, Iran on the 18th of June 1993. He Lived in Iran Until 2015 And He Immigrated to Turkey After He Finished His Education in Iran. He has Managed to Attract Many Fans in Social Media.

It should also be said in the new world Digital marketing is a significant trending nook that amasses a ton of opportunities and is the preference of many who want to strive for a vision in this. Among few digital geeks, Alireza Kohany is a pro digital marketer with a blooming voyage. These days, the trend of digital marketing is at its peak as it plays a significant role in upgrading ones chore. So, the necessity for digital marketers is also improving day by day who can procure adequate quality aid.

Alireza Kohany leading and one of the prominent digital marketing experts and entrepreneurs. When he was child he commenced his digital journey.

The ability to start a business has never been easier; thanks to innovations in technology, everything you need to succeed is at your fingertips. Millennials growing up with this as the norm are well placed to take advantage. With nothing to lose, they can invest time into their own projects, whether its building up a social media presence or starting a brand. The online economy has become a viable rut for willing young entrepreneurs to become wealthy.

As we wake up to daily developments, a continued lockdown, and economic uncertainty amid the coronavirus pandemic, many young entrepreneurs and business leaders are feeling a sense of unease, and a loss of direction.

These unprecedented times are creating trials for many, but however testing they may seem, with those challenges, come opportunities. As an entrepreneur myself, Ive experienced many situations like these, and Ive always found myself having to dig deep and push through.

WORK HARD, AND PLAN TO REBOUND Regardless of what your current days under COVID-19 look like, you need to keep driving forward with your entrepreneurial spirit. Even though you may have experienced a temporary reduction in business, you need to continue to work hard, and think smart. We dont know when we will go back to normal, or even what the new normal will look like, but what we do know is that this will pass- so, are you prepared? Analyze each scenario now, and plan your rebound strategy to ensure youre ready to go.

ENSURE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION WITH STAKEHOLDERS Make sure that you are keeping your staff, clients, and other key stakeholders updated with the developments of your business. Its important to be transparent as the situation progresses and changes. A positive, resilient voice needs to be heard to inspire confidence, so make sure that comes from you through all channels, whether that be a phone call, e-mail, or social media. People need to be comforted by others, so lead from the front, and show strength.

the world economy, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has actually resulted in increased growth in the e-commerce retail market.One such young ans successful entrepreneur is Alireza Kohany and his success is far more interesting and uncommon. Alireza turned some idea for entrepreneurship and business. Alireza Kohany was born in Tehran, Iran on the 18th of June 1993. He Lived in Iran Until 2015 And He Immigrated to Turkey After He Finished His Education in Iran. He has Managed to Attract Many Fans in Social Media.It should also be said in the new world Digital marketing is a significant trending nook that amasses a ton of opportunities and is the preference of many who want to strive for a vision in this. Among few digital geeks, Alireza Kohany is a pro digital marketer with a blooming voyage. These days, the trend of digital marketing is at its peak as it plays a significant role in upgrading ones chore. So, the necessity for digital marketers is also improving day by day who can procure adequate quality aid.Alireza Kohany leading and one of the prominent digital marketing experts and entrepreneurs. When he was child he commenced his digital journey.The ability to start a business has never been easier; thanks to innovations in technology, everything you need to succeed is at your fingertips. Millennials growing up with this as the norm are well placed to take advantage. With nothing to lose, they can invest time into their own projects, whether its building up a social media presence or starting a brand. The online economy has become a viable rut for willing young entrepreneurs to become wealthy.As we wake up to daily developments, a continued lockdown, and economic uncertainty amid the coronavirus pandemic, many young entrepreneurs and business leaders are feeling a sense of unease, and a loss of direction.These unprecedented times are creating trials for many, but however testing they may seem, with those challenges, come opportunities. As an entrepreneur myself, Ive experienced many situations like these, and Ive always found myself having to dig deep and push through.WORK HARD, AND PLAN TO REBOUND Regardless of what your current days under COVID-19 look like, you need to keep driving forward with your entrepreneurial spirit. Even though you may have experienced a temporary reduction in business, you need to continue to work hard, and think smart. We dont know when we will go back to normal, or even what the new normal will look like, but what we do know is that this will pass- so, are you prepared? Analyze each scenario now, and plan your rebound strategy to ensure youre ready to go.ENSURE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION WITH STAKEHOLDERS Make sure that you are keeping your staff, clients, and other key stakeholders updated with the developments of your business. Its important to be transparent as the situation progresses and changes. A positive, resilient voice needs to be heard to inspire confidence, so make sure that comes from you through all channels, whether that be a phone call, e-mail, or social media. People need to be comforted by others, so lead from the front, and show strength. Press Information:

Alireza Kohany



Maslak

Sisli



Contact Person:

Alireza Kohany



eMail: eMail



Web: http://alirezakohany.com





05.05.2020 08:10:40 -

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The Madhya Pradesh High Court on



Tuesday issued a notice to the state government on a petition filed by liquor contractors seeking a directive that their contracts be either reviewed or recalled in view of the "unstable" market condition caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A division bench of Chief Justice AK Mittal and Justice VK Shukla posted the next hearing to May 19, after issuing the notice which is returnable in two weeks.

The petition was filed on a day the state government allowed reopening of shops in Madhya Pradesh, barring Bhopal, Ujjain and Indore under red zone.

"The petition filed by 30 liquor contractors from various parts of the state sought either revision of the terms and conditions of their contract or recalling of the entire bidding process of liquor sale for the current fiscal in view of the market situation (economic slowdown) arising out of the COVID pandemic," said the petitioners' counsel Rahul Diwakar.

The terms and conditions of the license were based on normal market conditions but the situation has changed drastically now, he said.

"As per the clause 36 of the Excise Policy, the liquor licensees are allowed to operate their shops between 9.30 am and 11.30 pm daily," stated the petition.

However, due to curtailment of timings since May 5, it has become difficult for them to earn expected amount of revenue quoted in their bids, the counsel said.

The excise policy permits liquor contractors to run and operate retail shops, bars and 'ahatas' (low budget drinking vends usually attached to liquor shops), Diwakar said.

"However, in view of COVID-19 pandemic, bars and 'ahatas' have been directed to remain shut which makes the licensees to pay the fees every fortnight," he said.

Meanwhile, a liquor contractor told PTI that they bag the annual contracts to sell liquor through a biddings process.

"We have to pay an annual licence fee which is in crores. We make part payment of the fee every fortnight," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Matt Hancock is facing an angry backlash after he told a Labour minister and frontline A&E doctor to watch her tone after she criticised his record during the coronavirus crisis.

The health secretary was condemned by angry Labour MPs following his remark towards Dr Rosena Allin-Khan in the Commons on Tuesday.

Dr Allin-Khan, the shadow mental health minister who during the epidemic has been working at St Georges Hospital in Tooting, south London, had said: Frontline workers like me have had to watch families break into pieces as we deliver the very worst of news to them: that the ones they love most in this world have died.

The testing strategy has been non-existent. Community testing was scrapped, mass testing was slow to roll out and testing figures are now being manipulated.

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

Dr Allin-Khan asked him to commit to a minimum 100,000 tests a day  after the figures fell below this target in recent days  and suggested the governments initial lack of testing at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak has cost lives.

Hancock rejected this and said: I welcome [Dr Allin-Khan] to her post as part of the shadow health team. I think she might do well to take a leaf out of [shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworths] book in terms of tone.

Matt Hancock and Rosena Allin-Khan clashed in the Commons on Tuesday. (Parliamentlive.tv)

Responding to the exchange, Dr Allin-Khan wrote on Twitter: I will respectfully challenge the government  I want our country to succeed.

However, I will not 'watch my tone' when dozens of NHS and care staff are dying unnecessarily.

Here is how Labour MPs responded to the exchange

Her tone was fine, respectful, and might I dare say her view is more knowledgeable about the front line than the Health Secretary. Can't imagine why he doesn't like her "tone". (obviously I can well imagine) https://t.co/8mcmIUswSX  Jess Phillips MP (@jessphillips) May 5, 2020

I was watching Health Questions. Absolutely nothing wrong with your tone. It reflects and reverberates with the reality of what yourself and other NHS workers are experiencing. Hancock very unwise to be so dismissive #coronavirus  Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) May 5, 2020

I think the words he was looking for are, 'Thank you for your service'



This looks to me like #downgirl behaviour@kate_manne https://t.co/kRXnbVpROv  Alison McGovern (@Alison_McGovern) May 5, 2020

A number of celebrities also criticised Hancock...

Story continues

Its the Health Secretary who needs to watch his tone, especially when an A&E doctor MP asks perfectly legitimate questions on the day Britain moved to 2nd worst reported #coronavirus death toll in the world.  https://t.co/HVxc7Qb5if  Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) May 5, 2020

There was absolutely nothing wrong with your tone  Nigella Lawson (@Nigella_Lawson) May 5, 2020

There is no "tone." @DrRosena asks a completely straightforward question in a completely straightforward manner and @MattHancock's tells her off, as if she's been rude or shrill or perhaps even just a woman asking a difficult question. https://t.co/HTkuVwe2Cr  David Baddiel (@Baddiel) May 5, 2020

Dr Allin-Khan, who has been MP for Tooting since 2016, finished second in Labours deputy leadership election earlier this year.

In an interview with Yahoo News UK during the campaign, she had pledged to continue her A&E work even if she became deputy leader. She was ultimately beaten by Angela Rayner.

Coronavirus: what happened today

Coronavirus: Is working from home affecting our mental health?
Issuing stern warning to Pakistan after the Handwara encounter in which India's 5 security personnel were martyred, Army Chief General MM Naravane said that Pakistan is following its myopic and limited agenda of pushing terrorists into Jammu and Kashmir, and India will respond appropriately.

In an exclusive interview to news agency PTI, the army chief on Monday evening said that India will give a proportionate response to all acts of infringement of ceasefire and support to terrorism by Pakistan. "India will respond appropriately with precision unless the neighbouring country gives up its policy of state-sponsored terrorism,"

On Handwara incident

Saluting the Bravehearts who were martyred, including Army Colonel and Major, he said that India is proud of the five security personnel who laid down their lives saving civilians from terrorists. Lashing out at the Imran Khan-led country for its attempt of infiltration along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, General Naravane said that Pakistan has shown that it is not interested in battling the coronavirus pandemic and is still following its own myopic and limited agenda of pushing terrorists inside India.

"I would like to emphasise that the Indian Army will give a proportionate response to all acts of infringement of ceasefire and its (Pakistan's) support to terrorism. The onus remains with Pakistan to bring peace in the region. Unless Pakistan gives up its policy of state-sponsored terrorism, we will continue to respond appropriately and with precision," he added.

READ | CDS Gen. Rawat says 'Pakistan frustrated with peace in J&K', lauds Handwara martyrs

Army chief on Pak trying to raise Kashmir

Since India abrogated Article 370 last year in August, thereby uniting the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir like never before, Pakistan has time and again attempted to raise the issue on international platforms, only to face a backlash. The army chief commented on Pak's recent attempt at SAARC video conference initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi: "Pakistan's narrow-mindedness was exposed when it used the platform to complain about non-existent violations of human rights in Kashmir instead of finding ways to keep its citizens safe from the pandemic." He also said that Pakistan has sought to blindside the international community by making superficial changes and amendments to its non-existent checks on terror financing and money laundering.

READ | Pakistan raises Kashmir at SAARC COVID-19 meet, demands lifting of 'lockdown in J&K'

'Pak exporting terrorism'

Earlier on April 17, Army Chief warned Pakistan for resorting to a ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LOC) in Jammu and Kashmir and for infiltration attempts. Speaking to ANI from Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara, Army chief said that while the world is trying to find ways to tackle the deadly pandemic, Pakistan is busy exporting terrorism, which shows it is their state policy.

READ | Army chief Naravane warns Pakistan for exporting terror amid COVID-19 pandemic

5 security personnel martyred in Handwara encounter

On Sunday, 5 security personnel including an Army Colonel and Major were martyred in an encounter with terrorists at a village in Handwara, Jammu and Kashmir. As per the Indian Army statement, a joint operation was launched by the Army and Police based on the intelligence input that terrorists had taken civilians as hostages in a house in Changimul, Handwara. The security personnel managed to safely rescue the citizens and eliminated two terrorists. Subsequently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi. President Ram Nath Kovind, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and several other top officials paid tribute to the martyred personnel.

READ | Terrorists attack CRPF party posted in Qaziabad area of Handwara; 3 personnel martyred
So (laughs) were doing this scene and saying things like, What was it like? and Dont tell me you didnt kiss him? and my dad is sitting with his legs crossed, leaning in and putting on this very effeminate voice. And I just could not. I could not. And I said to him, I dont know how many years of therapy Im going to go through to remove this traumatic experience. Im very aware that youre trying to be helpful but this is a side of you I dont want to see. So please do me a favor and do not read it like that.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Strongly condemning DMK president MK Stalin for alleging irregularities in the contract system in Thanjavur district, Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar on Monday stated that since e-tender process was being followed, there would be no chance for irregularities.

No procedure has been violated while inviting bids for Thanjavur district. A writ petition is pending before the HC. However, Stalin has made a statement that the HC has pointed out an irregularity in the tender process, he added.

The petition is in its initial stage. But the opposition leader has predicted that the government may misuse the official machinery to drag the case. He made this charge only with a view to spoil the name of the government, Minister Jayakumar pointed out.
ROAD TOWN, British Virgin Islands, May 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aura Minerals Inc. (ORA.TO) (Aura or the Company) today provided an update on the current status of operations at its properties in light of, as well as initiatives it is undertaking in response to, the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic (the Pandemic).



Aura remains committed through the Pandemic to uphold its most important values, which, under the 360 Mining concept, include its commitment to act responsibly, to continue to build respectful and sustainable relationships with the communities around which it operates and to meet the highest safety standards for its employees. Through the Pandemic to date, Aura has undertaken a wide range of measures not only to help curtail the spread of COVID-19, but also to actively contribute to improving conditions for the surrounding communities where it operates.

San Andres Mine in Honduras

As previously announced, mining operations at San Andres were interrupted pursuant to orders of the Honduran government in response to the Pandemic and Aura has reduced its workforce to the minimum in order to maintain tailings and continue to satisfy environmental requirements in connection with operations and other critical activities at the mine. On May 3, 2020, the Honduran government issued a new order in which it extended its previously-issued decree until May 17, 2020.

At this time, the Company expects that the interruption at San Andres will have a material impact on the Companys financial performance during the first half of 2020, and will keep the market informed on a timely basis.

Notwithstanding its operational challenges, Aura has continued to give back to the local community, having donated food to more than 1,000 families, medicine and medical supplies to 6 local health centers, biosafety equipment to 8 health control checkpoints and other donations of personal protective equipment to the national police force, local reporters and nursing homes, among others. Meanwhile, together with local community leadership, authorities, our employees and other local businesses, Aura has been working on a detailed plan for the gradual and safe restart of operational activities when permitted. Aura has also implemented a series of measures to ensure safe conditions for our workers and restricted high-risk individuals from entering the site, including the provision of health questionnaires, temperature scanning, mandatory quarantine for high-risk individuals and the development of a software tracking system that will provide reliable information on interactions among employees at the site called Aura Tracker.

Story continues

Aranzazu Mine in Mexico

On March 31, 2020, the Mexican government issued a decree requiring the suspension of all non-essential activities in the private and public sectors until April 30, 2020, which has since been extended until May 30, 2020, but which could be anticipated to May 18, 2020 to municipalities with low or no cases, what is, to date, the case of the municipality where our operation is located. The decree allows businesses to maintain critical activities which, if interrupted, could result in potentially irreversible damage that prevents their further continuation. Accordingly, the Company suspended all non-essential operations at Aranzazu while maintaining only critical activities which are required to prevent safety and/or environmental risks from materializing and potentially irreversible damage occurring that could prevent our operations from continuing.

Despite these operational restrictions, there has not been a material impact on the mines operational or financial performance to date due to accumulated inventory at the site. Aura continues to monitor the situation closely and will keep the market informed on a timely basis.

In addition to implementing all measures required by the governmental decree, the Company has also helped implement measures together with municipal authorities for Concepcion del Oro such as a screening checkpoint for all those entering the city and contracting the local workforce to produce additional face masks for ongoing essential activities. In addition, Aura is assisting with other initiatives designed to support the community in this difficult time, including by providing canteens, transportation vehicles and health questionnaires, facilitating temperature scanning and the use of screening checkpoints, hiring additional medical personnel and supplying COVID-19 test kits.

Ernesto/Pau-a -Pique Mine in Brazil

Our Ernesto/Pau-a-Pique mine has been allowed to continue operations as governmental authorities have deemed mining as an essential industry. Despite this, the broader Pandemic impact has led to certain shipping delays and the need to establish new export routes for product coming out of the mine, which has been resolved to date. Aura continues to monitor the situation closely and does not anticipate there will be a material impact on the mines expected operational or financial performance as the second quarter of 2020 progresses.

In addition, Aura has implemented a series of initiatives to reduce risks among its employees at the mine, which includes the implementation of Aura Tracker; reducing its workforce on site by 20% and allowing such personnel to work from home, increasing the number of buses transporting employees to allow for a 50% reduction in seats, acquiring 2,000 COVID-19 test kits and mandating the use of masks on site at the mine. In addition, Aura extended its work with local communities and has donated masks and gloves to the state police force and personnel at the local detention center, in addition to purchasing 6,000 masks from local projects which were also donated and distributed to families in need, among other initiatives.

Auras Other Projects and Personnel

At this time, our exploration activities for the Almas, Matupa and Gold Road projects have not been materially disrupted as a result of the Pandemic, and Aura continues, at a reduced workforce, to conduct exploration work at these properties while complying with all applicable regulations and undertaking measures necessary to ensure a safe work environment for employees and contractors.

With respect to the Gold Road mine in the United States, Aura has promoted social distancing and implemented a work from home policy for those able to perform their jobs outside the mine site. In addition, Aura has implemented extensive cleaning services, banned in-person meetings with large groups and implemented measures to restrict high-risk individuals from entering the site. Once in production, Aura will implement additional measures consistent with those already implemented at our producing properties if still required in response to the Pandemic.

Liquidity

Although the operational challenges arising from the Pandemic have negatively impacted cash flows, Auras solid capital structure and strong working relationships with financial institutions in the jurisdictions in which it operates has allowed the Company to maintain strong liquidity through the Pandemic.

Rodrigo Barbosa, the Companys President and CEO, said: Aura Minerals, and our families, are aware of the impact that COVID-19 is having on our communities, our stakeholders and the world as a whole. Moreover, the mining sector, in most cases, involves working in remote areas among communities with poor access to basic infrastructure, education and health resources, and such access has been further constrained by the COVID-19 situation. Our priority today lies with keeping our people safe, with the communities in which we work, and in doing our part to help them. That being said and although we have been impacted by this pandemic, we find ourselves to be fortunate enough to have the team and the financial resources that we do such that our cash position remains strong. Aura has been, and will continue, supporting these stakeholders to the best of our abilities. We remain active in our communities and are reaching out in each one, doing what we can to provide support and assistance. We will work together as one, seeking to apply best practices and procedures and find the best solutions to challenges that arise through this difficult experience and, together, we will all get through this.

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements, as defined in applicable securities laws (collectively, forward-looking statements) which include, but are not limited to, the duration or extent of the restrictions and suspensions imposed by governmental authorities as a result of the Pandemic, and the effect that any such restrictions or suspensions may have on our operations and our financial and operational results; the ability of the Company to successfully maintain operations at its producing assets, or to restart these operations efficiently or economically, or at all; the impact of the Pandemic on our workforce, suppliers and other essential resources and what effect those impacts, if they occur, would have on our business; and the ability of the Company to continue as a going concern.

Known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond the Companys ability to predict or control, including any changes to the conditions and limitations imposed by governmental authorities in response to the Pandemic and the duration of such conditions or limitations, could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Specific reference is made to the most recent Annual Information Form on file with certain Canadian provincial securities regulatory authorities for a discussion of some of the factors underlying forward-looking statements.

All forward-looking statements herein are qualified by this cautionary statement. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information or future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. If the Company does update one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that it will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements.

About Aura 360 Mining

Aura is focused on mining in complete terms  thinking holistically about how its business impacts and benefits every one of our stakeholders: our company, our shareholders, our employees, and the countries and communities we serve. We call this 360 Mining.

Aura is a mid-tier gold and copper production company focused on the development and operation of gold and base metal projects in the Americas. The Companys producing assets include the San Andres gold mine in Honduras, the Ernesto/Pau-a -Pique gold mine in Brazil, the Aranzazu copper-gold-silver mine in Mexico and one pre-operational gold mine in the United States, Gold Road. In addition, the Company has two additional gold projects in Brazil, Almas and Matupa, and one gold project in Colombia, Tolda Fria.

For further information, please visit Auras website at www.auraminerals.com or contact:

Rodrigo Barbosa

President & CEO

305-239-9332
With website, UC San Diego School of Medicine scientists will monitor health and well-being during and after pandemic

Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have launched a new mobile platform to address another serious complication of the novel coronavirus pandemic: stress and anxiety. Called "MyWellnessCheck," the platform will seek to understand how the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is affecting mental health on a global scale and identify how certain attitudes and behaviors may help increase positive well-being during a crisis.

"When facing something as new as this pandemic with so many unknowns, threats to a person's overall mental health and wellness are undeniable," said Raeanne Moore, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine. "It's important that we provide tools that check in on people and identify when support is needed."

The survey is anonymous and available worldwide in English, Dutch, Spanish and Mandarin. It was initiated by a multidisciplinary team of researchers using the UC San Diego's collaborative science platform Earth2.0. The project is led by psychiatry researchers at UC San Diego Health and designers at Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.

The effort begins with an anonymous survey focused on asking basic questions about health, such as sleep, exercise, optimism for the future and quality of personal relationships. In order to be involved in the study, respondents will need to provide contact information including an email and phone number, but any personal identifiers are kept separate from the data so researchers will not be able to associate any person with certain responses.

Using the answers, researchers will develop better measures of a person's well-being and expand upon mental health interventions for the future. Answering the questions serves as a positive mental activity for the respondents as well.

"This is a unique global situation that challenges us to think about our fundamental goals in society," said Derek Lomas, PhD, assistant professor of human-centered design at Delft. "If we are able to understand how this crisis is affecting our well-being over time, we will be better positioned, as a society, to respond to our collective needs."

Researchers will also analyze a person's living situation, population density of their city, demographics and geographical information to address how the context of a person's environment may be affecting their overall well-being.

"By gathering this data on a global scale, we'll create 'heat maps' and look at how people in the United States and throughout the world are dealing with stress and anxiety associated with the COVID-19 crisis," said Moore.

These data are intended to not only help from a psychological perspective, but a biological one. Research shows loneliness, stress and anxiety are significant health risk factors, particularly among older persons.

"We're hoping that the survey will increase personal awareness so that people can better identify when they may be at risk for poor outcomes and know when they need to reach out for help," said Lomas. "In terms of intervention, we hope in the future to be able to provide support both immediately and over time."

MyWellnessCheck is also available for organizations, such as companies or schools that wish to anonymously check-in with their staff or students.

"This can allow organizations to explore different avenues of support for their team, resulting in a measurable impact and better services for those in need," said Moore.

The survey has thus far garnered more than 500 participants, with a global goal of 10,000 respondents. More information on the survey can be found at http://www.mywellnesscheck.org/.

###
Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan today continued discussions on the policy on neutralizing the consequences of the coronavirus in the country.

The Prime Minister and other government officials summed up the results of implementation of the anti-crisis measures approved by the government and the current indicators. Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan reported on the volumes of social and economic assistance that has been provided and stated that a total of AMD 62,000,000 has been provided as assistance. Nearly 24,000 businesses and 360,000 natural persons have also received assistance, and over 1,000,000 beneficiaries have received support to pay their utility bills.

The government officials considered new ideas to mitigate the consequences of the coronavirus that concern the expansion of the scope of beneficiaries of targeted social support, the application of tools for providing economic assistance and the promotion of rural economies.

Summing up, the Prime Minister stated that the anti-crisis policy must be aimed at encouraging work and underlined the importance of addressability of the support measures once again. Nikol Pashinyan also assigned to continue discussions with this logic and present proposals.
ODESSA -- Some businesses in Odessa not included in Phase 1 of Gov. Greg Abbotts plan to restart the economy have chosen to reopen anyway. They say the decision isnt a government protest  rather, they just cant afford to stay closed.

Clint Gillispie, owner of the Anytime Fitness on Eighth Street, opted to reopen the gym on Friday and allow patrons to use the facility. Several people could be seen entering and leaving the building on Monday and working out inside.

It wasnt just about losing a couple paychecks, we were in risk of losing everything, he said. We had really no choice and we dont feel like we need to ask permission from the government to operate to survive.

His fiance and co-owner of the Anytime Fitness location, Celeste Solis, said they applied for funding through the federal Paycheck Protection Program and received only enough to cover their managers salary.

When asked if the gym could have waited two weeks to open, after Phase 2 of Abbotts plan -- which includes gyms -- is expected to be implemented, Gillispie said he didnt believe gyms would be given the go-ahead to reopen at that time.

Gillispie and Solis held a small rally outside the fitness center on Monday. They decorated the entrance with red, white and blue balloons and signs that read all business is essential and constitution trumps all. Patrons and community members gathered in the storefront, some wearing tactical gear and openly carrying rifles.

Jenny Cudd, owner of Beckys Flowers and a former mayoral candidate in Midland, helped organize the rally and promoted it on social media. She said she believes Abbotts order violates discrimination laws by only allowing some businesses to reopen.

The thing with freedom is, somebody has always fought for our rights, and maybe this is the time that we get to do that, Cudd said. Because once your freedoms start getting taken away, you dont ever get them back.

Big Daddy Zanes, a bar in West Odessa, reopened Monday against Abbotts executive orders, according to owner Gabrielle Ellison. She said they will not be adhering to the 25 percent capacity restriction set by Abbott for restaurants and stores allowed to reopen, and instead will be allowing patrons to enter up to 100 percent capacity.

Ellison said shes aware what shes risking by opening, including possibly losing her business license, but said shell be forced to close for good if she doesnt open immediately. She said she believes the coronavirus is dangerous, but not enough to justify the toll its taking on local businesses.

The economy is going to kill more people than this virus could ever think of, she said.

Odessa Mayor David Turner during a press briefing on Monday addressed Anytime Fitness and other businesses choosing to reopen in violation of Abbotts order.

I respect their right to picket. I respect their right to go on Facebook or whatever they want, but the governor has given us an order and if I dont enforce it, I can be sued, he said.

Devin Sanchez, a spokeswoman for the city of Odessa, said the fire marshals office cited Anytime Fitness over the weekend after they were warned and chose to stay open. She said the owners as well as patrons who choose to use the facility risk being fined up to $1,000. Two patrons were given a warning on Saturday, she said.

While we are empathetic to these businesses that cant open  deliberately disobeying the governors orders is not the way to go about this, Sanchez said.

Big Daddy Zanes is outside city limits, and Ector County would be responsible for citing that business, according to Sanchez. She said the county has already issued several citations.

The public information officer for the Ector County Sheriffs Office did not respond to a request for information about which businesses had been cited.

Ellison said that if she is cited, she will accept that consequence, but stay open.

Its going to be pretty bad when they hit us when were already down, she said.

She faced more than a citation later Monday night.

Ellison was arrested for reopening against Abbotts orders, and patrons who were carrying weapons also were arrested, according to a report on KOSA-TVs website.

Gillispie also said citations would not stop them from opening their doors. He said he expects a legal challenge to Abbotts order eventually will make it to the Texas Supreme Court, but if not, he will hire a lawyer and fight any citations he incurs.

Were not going to take it or accept it, he said.

The fire marshals office will continue monitoring Anytime Fitness and other businesses that violate state orders, according to Sanchez. She said these businesses could be fined for each day they stay open, meaning theyre risking citations up to $1,000 a day.

While their argument is theyre losing money, they could have to pay in fines more than theyre losing, she said. At some point they have to ask themselves, Is what youre standing for worth it?
A primary school teacher from Co Antrim has been left astounded after a book he wrote for his class to help deal with the lockdown reached a worldwide audience.

Mike Forde (28), from Larne, teaches at Ingleton Primary School in Lancaster and took inspiration from his class to write his first-ever children's book.

The book is called 'How to NOT go to school' and follows the adventures of a home schooled girl called Parsley Mimblewood.

After uploading it for free online, the book has been downloaded over 50,000 times and shared by thousands on Facebook. All Mike asks for in return is a small donation to the NHS as healthcare staff fight Covid-19.

How to NOT go to school has since been translated by teachers in Italy, France, Germany and Holland, while another version has also been translated by British Sign Language.

Teachers from as far as Mexico and New Zealand also got in touch with Mike, who said he never expected the response to be as great.

"It's just incredible to see this little book go so far," said Mike, who left Northern Ireland to study at St Andrew's University in Scotland in 2010.

"It's really nice because my class can see their class mascot - PomPom the ninja - become famous which is wonderful.

"We're raising a bit of money for the NHS as well which is a good outcome. It's just brilliant.

"An Italian school teacher wanted to give it to their kids so she's translated it.

"Lots of people seem to want to contribute and help which is amazing.

"I sent it to my old French teaching assistant, who now teaches as an English teacher in France, and she was saying that it has gotten really big there. There's lots of English teachers in France sharing it with their pupils to help learn English which is really fun."

Each chapter explores a different issue children may be experiencing during lockdown, interwoven with Parsley's adventures with her brother Po, their nanny goats and an eclectic group of imaginary friends.

After Mike first wrote the story he contacted artist Sarah Beswick and professional illustrator Rebecca Sampson, who created the drawings for the book.

Reflecting on his first thoughts for the story, Mike, who is married to Rebekah, explained that he wanted to help the parents of his pupils use it as a tool to discuss mental health and wellbeing.

"I knew the lockdown was going to be an enormous upheaval and I wanted to give them a way where they could openly talk about mental health and deal with those issues," he stated.

"The style is a bit like all of the books that we have been reading in class, such as the Philip Reeve and David Walliams books.

"I enjoy writing. I do it for fun and sometimes I share it with the children in class, but I have never had anything published or anything like that so it's incredible.

"It was just shared online and Facebook has done the rest."

Fans have already asked for a sequel, perhaps looking at how children can go back to school once the lockdown is over, but Mike hopes he can get How to NOT go to school published first.

When asked if writing children's books is something he could see himself doing full-time, Mike added: "I love teaching and I want to keep teaching, but it would be amazing to write as well and be published.

"The ideal would be able to do both of them but we'll see if that's possible."

To download How to NOT go to school, visit parsleymimblewood.wordpress.com




Dino Melaye

Senator Dino Melaye, has attacked every political office holder in Nigeria for failing the Nigerian people.

He also called on the God of the poor to judge them all for how theyve handled the countrys resources including past, present and himself.

Dino Melaye made this known on social media, in his reaction to the level of hunger Nigerians have been exposed to while on lockdown, with little to no palliative to tide the masses over as the country tries to curb the spread of Coronavirus.

He wrote: EVERYONE WHO HELD AND IS HOLDING ANY POLITICAL OFFICE IN NIGERIA WHETHER ELECTIVE OR APPOINTED INCLUDING ME HAVE FAIL.WE SOLD CRUDE OIL FOR 64 YEARS BUT WE COULDNT FEED OUR CITIZENS FOR JUST 2 WEEKS OF LOCKDOWN!! WELL, THE GOD OF THE POOR WILL JUDGE US ALL. ITS TIME TO REBOOT..
"The United States government is fully and completely involved in this defeated raid," Mr Maduro said - Anadolu

Nicolas Maduro, Venezuelas president, said he has detained two American mercenaries allegedly involved in a murky operation intended to infiltrate Venezuela and overthrow him.

Mr Maduro appeared on state television on Monday night to show off the seized passports of Luke Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, accusing them of being US security forces.

"The United States government is fully and completely involved in this defeated raid," he said.

The pair, both former Green Berets, were arrested while eight Venezuelan army defectors with them were killed after the government foiled an "invasion" from the sea.

President Donald Trump was forced to deny any involvement in the failed plot.

ID cards of people linked to an operation denounced by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro are displayed during a meeting with members of the Armed Forces in Caracas, - Anadolu

"It has nothing to do with our government," Mr Trump told reporters at the White House.

His denial came after a former US special forces soldier Jordan Goudreau confirmed he had been behind the operation.

Mr Goudreau, 43, who served as a combat medic in Iraq and Afghanistan, confirmed that Mr Denman and Mr Berry had been arrested, but said 52 others had managed to infiltrate Venezuela and were in the process of convincing members of the security forces to participate in an attack on Mr Maduro.

On Sunday, a group was travelling on speedboats from Colombia, heading towards the northern coastal state of La Guaira when they were intercepted by the Venezuelan military.

They were playing Rambo. They were playing hero, Mr Maduro told reporters, saying he had dispatched 25,000 reservists to the coasts to fend off any further attack.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro confirmed the detention of two US "mercenaries" among 13 attackers involved in Sunday's two failed maritime raids - Getty

Venezuela is in a political power struggle in which two men, Mr Maduro and Juan Guaido, president of the opposition National Assembly, claim the presidency.

Mr Guaido declared himself acting head of state in January 2019 with most western nations considering Mr Maduro's 2018 re-election to have been fraudulent.

In late March, the US offered a reward for $15 million for information leading to Mr Maduros capture, accusing him of leading a drug cartel.

Story continues

Tarek William Saab, Venezuelas Attorney General, told reporters on Tuesday that "hired mercenaries" had signed a $212 million dollar contract with Mr Guaido using funds "stolen" from state oil company PDVSA.

The US has imposed sanctions on PDVSA and allowed Mr Guaido to use funds from frozen accounts. Mr Saab said Mr Guaido had signed a contract with Canadian-born Mr Goudreau, who leads a Florida-based private security firm called Silvercorp USA.

Of the arrested men, Mr Goudreau told Reuters: "They're working with me. Those are my guys.

He revealed that the mission, codename Operation Gideon, was to capture Mr Maduro.

Venezuelan soldiers in balaclavas move a suspect from a helicopter after what Venezuelan authorities described was a "mercenary incursion" - Reuters TV

His whereabouts are unknown but he had previously trained the men in Colombia. Mr Goudreau reportedly turned his focus to Venezuela in February of last year, after he worked on security at a benefit concert on the Colombian-Venezuelan border arranged by billionaire Richard Branson and supported by Mr Guaido.

He told the Washington Post that the two detained Americans, along with six former Venezuela military men, spent Sunday night at sea.

They were running out of petrol, and Mr Goudreau was trying to secure a vessel out of the island of Aruba to extract them, he said.

The US government should engage and try to get these guys back, said Mr Goudreau, who has boasted of high-level contacts in the Trump administration. He said: They are Americans. They are ex-Green Berets. I've tried to engage everyone I know at every level, but nobody's returning my calls. It's a nightmare."

Mr Goudreau is a former associate of Keith Schiller, President Trump's bodyguard, who says he cut contact with him last year. The Associated Press said it had found no evidence of US support for his actions.

Mr Guaido has denied claims it had hired Mr Goudreaus company, and demanded Mr Maduro respect the human rights of those arrested.
The central team deployed by the Union Health Ministry to assist the Health Department in containing the COVID-19 pandemic chalked out plans here on Tuesday for its next course of action, a source said.

There was no meeting between members of the central team with any of the West Bengal government representatives, according to the source.

The team members on Tuesday chalked out their plans and will hold a video conference with senior officials of the Union Health Ministry on Wednesday for advise on their next steps, the source said.

"Tomorrow, they are likely to meet representatives from the state government. As of now, there is nothing scheduled," the source said.

Twenty central public health teams have been deployed to as many districts with high incidence of COVID-19 to identify the loopholes and help the state governments in implementing them.

The teams have been constituted with experts from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the AIIMS, the JIPMER, the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health and others.

The team is scheduled to submit their observations along with recommendations either to additional chief secretary or the Health Department principal secretary of the respective states.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Trump Aide, Speaking in Chinese, Chides Beijing For Stifling China's Democratic Hopes

2020-05-04 -- U.S. President Donald Trump's top Asia adviser deployed fluent Chinese Monday in a speech chastising China's rulers for thwarting their people's century-long quest for democracy--likening censored coronavirus doctors and Hong Kong protesters to key figures in "a long-running struggle for the soul of modern China."

Deputy National Security Adviser Matt Pottinger used the anniversary of the May 4, 1919 protests--which were sparked by popular anger at the concession of a huge tract of Chinese territory to Japan after World War Two--to raise concerns about Chinese repression and nationalism and to laud persecuted foes of Beijing.

"The movement ignited by those students exactly 101 years ago was about much more than nationalist outrage at 'unequal treaties,'" said Pottinger.

"The movement galvanized a long-running struggle for the soul of modern China," he said, as he gave a brief summary of what he called "heroes" in the modernization of China after the last dynasty fell in 1911.

Without touching on the specifics of thorny U.S.-China disputes over issues such as the origin and handling of the coronavirus pandemic, trade or geopolitics, Pottinger highlighted similarities between the Communist Party and authorities 100 years earlier in their response to democratic demands and reformist citizens.

"Such elitist chauvinism wasand some would argue still remainsa headwind impeding the democratic ideals espoused by the May Fourth Movement," said the former foreign correspondent in Beijing and U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Still, May Fourth leaders were constantly sapped of energy by accusations, sometimes leveled by government officials or their proxies among the literati, that the movement was slavishly pro-Western, insufficiently Chinese, or even unpatriotic," said Pottinger.

Democratic Taiwan refutes 'threadbare mistruth'

He noted that a Chinese diplomat named P.C. Chang (Peng Chun Chang) served on the original UN Commission on Human Rights and played an important role in its drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, a year before the Republic of China that Chang represented was overthrown by Mao Zedong's communists.

Pottinger noted that Chang drew on Chinese traditions in his contributions to the main U.N. human rights instrument and said his example, as well as that of Taiwan's thriving democracy, undermine China's assertion that democracy is not suitable for the Chinese people.

"The cliche that Chinese people can't be trusted with democracy was  the most unpatriotic idea of all. Taiwan today is a living repudiation of that threadbare mistruth," he said.

Pottinger, who spoke from the White House to an online symposium on U.S.-China relations organized by the University of Virginia, praised present-day figures who have faced Communist Party repression.

"The heirs of May Fourth are civic-minded citizens who commit small acts of bravery. And sometimes big acts of bravery," he said.

Wuhan whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang, who was silenced after posting early warnings about the coronavirus and later died of COVID-19, "was such a person," he said.

"He was an ophthalmologist and a young father who committed a small act of bravery and then a big act of bravery," said Pottinger.

'Moral and physical courage'

Li, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, had shared information from a patient's medical records in a WeChat group on Dec. 30, showing signs of infection with a SARS-like coronavirus.

Detained and reprimanded by police on Jan. 3 for spreading rumors, Li was among eight people to be detained and questioned in Wuhan over "rumor-mongering" around the new disease. He died in early February and was exonerated in late March.

"Dr. Li's comment to a reporter from his deathbed still rings in our ears: 'I think there should be more than one voice in a healthy society, and I don't approve of using public power for excessive interference,'" said Pottinger.

Pottinger, who reported from Beijing for Reuters news agency and The Wall Street Journal, lamented tightening media and free speech restrictions under the tenure of Chinese Communist Party head Xi Jinping.

"Citizen journalists who tried to shed light on the outbreak in Wuhan went missing, including Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li Zehua," he said, referring to Wuhan residents who challenged censorship to publish real-time news.

"More foreign reporters were expelled in recent months than the Soviet Union expelled over decades," he added in reference to 13 U.S. journalists Beijing kicked out of the country in March.

Pottinger also hailed "big acts of moral and physical courage" by a list of jailed activists, intellectuals and critics of Xi including Xu Zhangrun, Ren Zhiqiang, Xu Zhiyong, and Ilham Tohti.

Those figures, underground Catholic priests, and "millions of Hong Kong citizens who peacefully demonstrated for the rule of law last year," are the successors of the May Fourth Movement heroes, Pottinger told the video conference.

"Will the movement's democratic aspirations remain unfulfilled for another century? Will its core ideas be deleted or distorted through official censorship and disinformation? Will its champions be slandered as 'unpatriotic,' 'pro-American, 'subversive'?" he asked.

"We know the Communist Party will do its best to make it so."

Chinese writer Murong Xuecun, a prominent critic of censorship in his country, told RFA's Mandarin Service that after the May Fourth Movement, China was still on the difficult path of pursuing democracy and science "and we have not made much progress."

"In recent years, China's position in the world economic and trade system has become more and more important, but at home, the heirs to the May 4th spirit who are determined to pursue democracy face increasing difficulty, and Western countries seem to have lost their enthusiasm for the democratic cause for China."

"By clearly showing that he cares about China's democratic cause, I believe Pottinger will certainly inspire many people," said Murong Xuecun.

Reported by Jane Tang for RFA's Mandarin Service. Written by Paul Eckert.

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The Ministry of Industry and Trade wants private investments allowed in power transmission, now a state monopoly, as demand surges in a booming economy.

It has proposed that the new Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Bill should have provisions allowing private companies to invest in transmission lines and substations connecting power plants with the national grid.

The National Power Transmission Corp has supported the proposal, but wants a clear distinction between transmission to and from the national grid.

Onward transmission from the grid and distribution to consumers must remain a state monopoly to ensure energy security, it said.

The PPP draft law is set to come up at the National Assembly for discussion in May 20-June.

In March authorities of the central province of Ninh Thuan gave approval to the private investor of a solar farm to build a substation and install transmission lines to connect the 450MW plant with the grid.

The company, Trungnam Group, plans to spend near VND14 trillion ($596 million) to build the plant, a 500kV substation, and install the 500kV and 220kV transmission lines, with construction to start this quarter and finish at the end of the year.

It is the first time a private company has received a license for this, a task traditionally done by state-owned Vietnam Electricity (EVN). For other companies to invest in this area, new regulations are needed in the PPP law.

Vietnam, one of the fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia, has been seeking to increase its power generation capacity to meet rising demand, with priority on renewable energy.

Ninety one solar farms with a total capacity of 4,550 MW began operating last year, overloading the national grid and underlining the need to upgrade the transmission infrastructure.

Solar power output in the first quarter of 2020 surged 28 times year-on-year to 2.3 billion kWh, and along with wind power accounted for 4.8 percent of total generation of 57.3 billion kWh.

Coal-fired plants accounted for 59.2 percent followed by gas plants, hydropower and renewables.
A body recovered from the Des Moines River over the weekend has been identified as an 18-year-old boy who had been missing for more than three months.

Abdullah 'Abdi' Sharif, of Des Moines, Iowa, was last seen leaving his job at a Target on January 17.

His disappearance garnered wide media attention in Des Moines and prompted several searches involving hundreds of volunteers since January.

Scroll down for video

More than three months after Abdullah 'Abdi' Sharif, 18, went missing in Des Moines, Iowa, his body was recovered from the Des Moines River

A kayaker contacted police on Saturday, saying that a body was found submerged on the north bank in Prospect Park

First responders (pictured) retrieved the body, which on Monday was positively identified as that of Abdi Sharif

On Saturday afternoon, police got a call from a kayaker reporting the sighting of a body submerged near the north bank of the Des Moines River near Prospect Park.

The body was recovered from the river and taken to the Polk County Medical Examiners Office, which on Monday positively identified it as belonging to Sharif.

Sharif was last seen standing outside the Target store at the Merie Hay Mall where he worked on the evening of January 17

'There was no traumatic injury observed during autopsy,' the Des Moines Police Department said in a statement. 'Cause of death will be determined following complete examination of autopsy findings.'

Sharif attended Roosevelt High School and worked at the Target store located at the Merie Hay Mall in Des Moines.

According to his sister, Ifrah, Sharif did not go to school on January 17 because of bad weather and told his family he was called in for a shift at work. His mother, Fadumo, drove him to the mall around noon.

The family later found out that Sharif was not scheduled to work at Target that day.

A surveillance camera caught a somber-looking Sharif standing outside listening to his headphones the Target store at 5.30pm on the day of his disappearance.

He was also seen in a Snapchat image from that afternoon that was accompanied by a distressing caption that read: 'I got bad news...bad bad news,' suggesting that he was possibly upset the day he went missing, reported KCCI.

Sharif's family and volunteers organized several searches trying to locate the missing teen

The 18-year-old high school student sent a text message to his mother at 9.30pm asking her to come pick him up from the mall, but when she arrived, he was gone, and calls to his phone went straight to voicemail.

Sharif was reported missing by his family the next day.

Sharif's cellphone pinged near the Des Moines River on the day of his disappearance, but previous searches of that area failed to turn up any clues.

His family hired a private investigator to look for the missing teen and harnessed the power of social media by creating a Facebook group dedicated to the search efforts.

There was no traumatic injury observed on Sharif's body during autopsy. Before his disappearance, he sent out a Snapchat message, saying he had receives some 'bad bad news'

Des Moines Police Sgt. Paul Parizek said in a video posted on the department's Facebook page on Monday that three months into the investigation, the case is still riddled with unanswered questions.

'Was this accidental? Was it intentional?' and, 'How did he end up in the river?' Parizek said, listing some of the lingering questions surrounding Sharif's death.

'He added: 'this is a case that our investigators took home with them, and it kept them up at night trying to figure out why arent these pieces coming together because they should be, and it was very exhausting for a lot of folks, and there was no relief at the end of this.

'You could see it on the investigators faces Saturday that this was not the ending that we wanted.'
Natasha Gregson Wagner as a child with her mother, Natalie Wood, in Hawaii, 1978. Gregson Wagner has a memoir of her life with and without her mother (who died in 1981) and an HBO documentary about Wood's life and career, both arriving Tuesday. (HBO)

Natalie Wood is a cinematic icon who had received three Oscar nominations by age 25 and whose films included "Splendor in the Grass," "Rebel Without a Cause" and "West Side Story." Since her drowning in 1981, however, her legacy has been colored by speculation and lurid tell-alls, fueled at least in part by the reopening of the police investigation into her death decades later.

None of those accounts, though, had the intimate knowledge of the actress' home life afforded in both a new HBO documentary and a memoir from Wood's daughter, actress Natasha Gregson Wagner. "Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind" and "More Than Love" is each a vivid portrait of Natalie Wood, the person.

"It's been an organic process of my personal growth," Gregson Wagner says of why she was finally willing to share her mother's story as she knew it. The 49-year-old says she and her family had always been advised not to sustain supposition about her mother's death by responding to it, even when it included accusations that Robert Wagner, Wood's husband and Gregson Wagner's beloved stepfather, was involved.

"Years of therapy, being in a happy marriage and becoming a mother" prepared her to "talk about this publicly without feeling defensive," she says. "Im stronger now."

Also, she admits, "Emotionally staying young or childlike, I felt was a way I could stay connected to my mom." Gregson Wagner was 11 when her mother died.

Gregson Wagner took the title for her book, "More Than Love," from a phrase her parents would exchange with each other: "I love you more than love." The words appear on Wood's tombstone. It's a deeply intimate chronicle of life with her famous mother and how Wood's death devastated the family.

She also produced and conducted interviews in "Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind," directed by Laurent Bouzereau ("Five Came Back"). The documentary benefits from the participation of some of those closest to Wood, including Wagner. The film is more about the legendary actress and her career than the mother-daughter relationship in the book, but it too focuses on the person, not her death.



"I didnt want to do an investigative, reportage kind of film; this is the story of a family," says Bouzereau. "This was a story of love. I never felt the pressure of having to be a reporter or a detective. That wasnt the point of the film at all."

Story continues

There is likely no single definitive chronicle of any complex life, and many valid points of view can seem to conflict. These friendly portraits omit certain infamous stories associated with Wood's legend  true or false, such tales arent addressed  and the two works come down firmly on the side that her death was an accident.

Actress Natasha Gregson Wagner today. (Brigitte Jouxtel / HBO)

More than anything, they paint a private portrait of the public figure. Gregson Wagner's book overflows with remembrances of Wood's love and her own extreme attachment to her famous mother. When the author reviewed a treasure trove of Wood's personal writings, she was stuck by the twentysomething Wood's drive to "educate herself, wanting to be deeper than just a movie star ... growing and probing and looking within."

Despite other depictions of Wood, here she is a strong personality: the boss, the engine of her family and captain of her career. She would arrange everyone's daily schedules and social calendars. She was one of the first actresses in the studio system to successfully demand some control over film selection, equal pay with male costars and eventually, profit participation.

Bouzereau, who has been making documentaries about cinema for 25 years, says: "In a sense, you look at her choices of her films and they become autobiographical. When you look at her trajectory as an actress, you see the evolution of cinema. She was making movies with filmmakers like Paul Mazursky and Sydney Pollack, who were just beginning their careers, making movies out on the streets  for someone who had grown up on sound stages, that must have been shocking and yet she wasnt afraid of any of that. When she passed away, she was going to direct; she was going to be in a play.

"I found her extremely modern and relevant. Today, shed be working with Tarantino and Spielberg and directing."

Bouzereau says the Wood film that best reflects that journey is "Splendor in the Grass," the drama she made with Elia Kazan and Warren Beatty: "That movie shows a journey of empowerment, which I think she went through herself."

"Splendor" takes its title from William Wordsworths poem Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood." The filmmakers chose the title of "What Remains Behind" from the same stanza: Though nothing can bring back the hour / Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower; / We will grieve not, rather find / Strength in what remains behind.

Natalie Wood, husband Robert Wagner and daughters Natasha Gregson Wagner, left, and Courtney Wagner in Hawaii, 1978. (HBO)

Though the film and book are devoted to the person, they couldn't ignore the circumstances of Wood's death. That meant getting Wagner to revisit that night on camera.

"Natasha and I knew that would be the make-it or break-it aspect of the film. If it didnt have the impact we thought it should have, we wouldnt make the documentary," said Bouzereau. "It was an amazing revelation, how open he could be on the matter."

Gregson Wagner says, "We wanted it to feel like an intimate conversation my stepfather and I would have had without the cameras ... about a night that changed our lives forever.

"This film feels like weve released this burden from our family like a balloon at the beach or a kite  it goes up into the sky and its gone. Were all lighter because of it now.

"I also own the fact that well never know for sure what happened to my mom, because she was alone the night she died ... But she wants us to carry on. We are what remains behind."
In life, as in battle, things don't always go as planned. But it's not the end of the world. No one is able to plan for every possible bump in the road.

But what we are all able, in the words of Theodore Roosevelt, to do what we can with what we have where we are.

We are not the first generation to live through a significant hardship, one that had world-changing consequences. We aren't even the first generation to suffer a global pandemic and a devastating economic recession or to fight conflicts on many worldwide fronts.

What we have going in our favor is unique, however. We have access to education, skills, markets and capital that were unheard of at any other time in history.

If the "failures" of the great people who came before us can teach us anything, it's that discovering our shortcomings could help us find our true calling in life.

1. Humphrey Bogart Was a Terrible Student

Bogart came from an affluent New York City family. His mother was an illustrator who later became art director of an influential New York fashion magazine while his father was a renowned cardiopulmonary surgeon. As a young man, he attended the best private schools in New York and seemed set to follow in his father's medical footsteps.

(Warner Bros.)

But Bogart wasn't a great student. He dropped out of the prestigious Phillips Academy in Massachusetts and joined the Navy to fight in World War I. He never quite made it to the fighting, however. After the Navy, he joined the Coast Guard Reserve, as well as doing other jobs and eventually started taking acting lessons. Those lessons turned into roles on Broadway and, of course, becoming the Hollywood legend we know today.

2. Abraham Lincoln Was Not a Soldier

Lincoln's military service is unique in that he served as both an officer and an enlisted person -- but he was a captain before becoming a private. During the Black Hawk War, the future president was elected to be the captain of the Illinois militia's 31st Regiment. His unit did not get to the Battle of Stillman's Run in time to fight, instead arriving to find the dead, scalped bodies of their comrades. Instead of fighting, they helped bury the dead.

(National Archives and Records Administration)

Shortly after, the unit was disbanded and Lincoln re-enlisted as a private in the militia. After the Civil War, veterans who served with him would say Lincoln, though popular, had a hard time remembering the commands to give his men, among other shortcomings. Lincoln himself would later joke that his moments of bloodshed came mostly in battle with mosquitoes.

3. Jonas Salk Would Have Been a Bad Lawyer

... Or so his mother thought. In the mid-1950s, polio was ravaging the people of the United States, especially its children. No one knew just how to prevent it, and once infected, there is no real treatment. Salk, the man who created the first effective vaccine, almost became a lawyer some 20 years before.

(National Institutes of Health)

Instead, his mother, a Russian immigrant with little education, convinced him he wouldn't be much good at lawyering. The young Salk switched from pre-law to pre-med and helped eliminate the polio virus from the United States (and most of the rest of the world).

4. Walter Reed Went from Doctor to Army Doctor

Although he didn't really switch careers, Walter Reed definitely took a different path. He earned two medical degrees during his civilian practice, earning his second at New York City's Bellevue Hospital in 1870. He found urban life boring and joined the U.S. Army Medical Corps. When an Army patient refused to allow his foot to be amputated after a fall in Nebraska, Reed was forced to save the appendage through other means. The seeds of medical investigation were planted in the young doctor.

(U.S. Army)

After deploying to Cuba during the Spanish-American War, Reed would discover the vectors that spread typhoid fever among U.S. troops and laid the groundwork for discovering that mosquitoes were the vector for spreading yellow fever.

5. Ray Kroc Couldn't Sell Appliances

Ray Kroc had a number of careers as a young man, including World War I ambulance driver, real estate agent and salesman for a paper cup company. It was while working as a salesman that Kroc found his calling in life, and it had nothing to do with the milkshake machines he was peddling.

The Prince Castle milkshake mixer was losing market share to its rival Hamilton-Beach when Kroc walked into the McDonald Brothers' San Bernardino, California, burger joint. The Prince-Castle machine was perfect for the McDonald's burger stand, but the layout and workflow of the burger stand was perfect for Kroc, who had seen plenty of kitchens in his time. Using his knowledge and experience in restaurants and real estate, Kroc built a franchising empire using the McDonald's name.

6. Walt Disney

While the Walt Disney Company may have built the land of imagination at its Epcot Center theme park, Disney himself was accused of lacking imagination as a young, struggling cartoonist. The young Disney started a number of businesses that ended in failure. He stopped working in commercial art and focused solely on cartooning, specifically in cel animation.

Disney stuck to his craft, even after losing the intellectual property rights to one of his first successful cartoons, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. He soon produced the first synchronized sound cartoon featuring the debut of Mickey Mouse, and the rest is history.

7. Harry Truman's Whole Life Was About Overcoming Failures

Perhaps one of the most enduring political images from the 20th century is one of President Truman holding up a newspaper in the wake of his Election Day victory over New York Gov. Thomas Dewey. Truman was widely expected to lose the election of 1948, the first since he took over the White House after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The election saw Truman beat Dewey by more than 100 electoral votes.

That was the story of Truman's entire life. The future president tried to earn an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point but was turned down due to bad eyesight. Instead, he enlisted and passed the vision test by memorizing the eye chart. He would later be promoted to captain of his artillery company and serve with distinction in World War I.

After the war, Truman tried a number of different careers, from farming to mining to land speculation. They weren't all spectacular failures, but they were failures. He was the last president not to have earned a college degree. He took law classes but dropped out. Instead of becoming a lawyer, he ran for election as a presiding judge in his native Missouri. From there, he would be elected a U.S. senator, then named FDR's vice president in 1945.

When Roosevelt died in April 1945, Truman took the office. He oversaw the end of World War II, the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift and the beginnings of the Cold War before all the experts predicted his political demise in the election of 1948.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook.

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Many states have policies that attempt to help formerly incarcerated people find work by limiting an employer's ability to access or use criminal records as part of the hiring process.

But there is little evidence that these restrictions are helping non-resident fathers provide financial support to their children, according to Allison Dwyer Emory, a University at Buffalo sociologist and co-author of a new study by an interdisciplinary team of researchers from UB, Rutgers University, Cornell University and Boston University.

"We find fathers with a history of incarceration provide less support to their children and accrue greater arrears," says Dwyer Emory. "Further, in states with more limited access to records, fathers who have never been incarcerated provide less formal support and accrue more arrears, though they seem to compensate with more informal support, possibly due to racial discrimination against black men in the hiring process."

The findings were published in The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, which provides open access to the study.

States that limit access to online criminal record databases may reduce the costs of incarceration for fathers, but at the same time, they may be creating opportunities for a different kind of discrimination if employers, in the absence of information, default to racial stereotypes.

"It's difficult to separate discrimination on the basis of a criminal record from discrimination on the basis of race, and policies that address one without the other may not be able to fully achieve their ends," says Dwyer Emory, an expert on family demography, criminology and social policy.

"Fathers work hard to provide for their kids. When discriminatory labor markets make it difficult for them to pay formal child support, they provide informal cash support to their kids insteadeven as they get in debt for unpaid formal support.

"We have to be careful to ensure that policies support fathers' ability to be there for their kids.

Policy context is critical, according to Dwyer Emory.

"We want to know if these policies are helping fathers to be better parents or making it harder for them to be better parents," she says. "These policies don't seem to be associated with fathers who have a history of incarceration paying more support, but they do seem to be associated with fathers, particularly African American fathers, who have never been incarcerated, providing less formal child support."

The researchers used data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study, a sample of predominantly unmarried parents who had a child in a large U.S. city in the 1990s followed over time.

The innovative research also includes state information from every year of the dataset, including which policies were in place for specific states at specific times, while also breaking out both formal and informal support that fathers provide for their child.

Formal child support is a court order that specifies an amount owed each month to a custodial parent. But some couples have informal arrangements, made outside of the courts, where fathers contribute when they have the money either instead of or in addition to formal support.

The researchers also included arrears in their study, which is the debt fathers build up when they don't pay formal child support in full.

"Arrears are particularly important when thinking about fathers with a history of incarceration, because in some states arrears can continue to accrue while a father is incarcerated," says Dwyer Emory. "These fathers start out behind in their payments immediately upon release, which can cause a cycle where high enough arrears puts fathers at greater risk of being incarcerated in the future."

The results, says Dwyer Emory, suggest a cautionary approach.

"These policies are ideally designed to help fathers provide for themselves and their families, but we have to ask and study if they might actually be getting in the way, especially for those likely to encounter discrimination in the labor market. We may instead have to consider different policy approaches that address racial discrimination in hiring directly, removing barriers faced by fathers with criminal records like licensing restrictions, or change the incentives employers have to hire or avoid people with records," she says. "We worry that this could contribute intergenerational cycles of disadvantage and discrimination."

Incarceration and its consequences after prison affect millions of families in the United States, according to Dwyer Emory, who worked with Lenna Nepomnyaschy, an associate professor, and Alexandra Haralampoudis, a Ph.D. candidate, at the Rutgers School of Social Work; Maureen R. Waller, an associate professor at Cornell University; and Daniel P. Miller, an associate professor at the Boston University School of Social Work.

The authors stress the need for additional research if we're to better understand the mechanisms through which these associations operate to determine how policies could better support fathers' ability to provide for their children.

More information: Allison Dwyer Emory et al, Providing After Prison: Nonresident Fathers' Formal and Informal Contributions to Children, RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences (2020). Allison Dwyer Emory et al, Providing After Prison: Nonresident Fathers' Formal and Informal Contributions to Children,(2020). DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2020.6.1.04
Following the Barcelona example, public space became a defining part of the global city and urban crowds filling public spaces began to seem like both an economic and a moral good. The Great Inversion, the journalist Alan Ehrenhalt called it in 2013, a process whose architectural emblems were the spaces wherever a crowd might gather: the street corner, the public square, the park. What Mr. Ehrenhalt and others described was partly demographic, partly symbolic: People really were coming back to live in cities, but they also wanted to see and be seen in them.

But however much that process looks like common sense now, it was itself a reaction to the midcentury urban decline in the West. That process wasnt all to do with Detroit-style industrial decay; it had just as much to do with a planned dispersal that was ultimately about the fear of urban disease in the 19th-century city. To understand that fear, theres no better source than Friedrich Engelss The Condition of the Working Class in England, published in German in 1845 and of extraordinary and durable influence worldwide. Its account of industrial Manchester was also an account of its sickness and, by proxy, its density. The citys lightless, airless streets teeming with the poor became a figure of long-lasting architectural horror; so much of modernist planning was a reaction to places like it.

If density was disease for modernists, it followed that their cities were about keeping people apart. Look back at the utopian schemes for cities of the first half of the 20th century, and the same hygienic preoccupations come up again and again: There must be light and space and fresh air. The Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier wrote about these things in his book Vers Une Architecture (translated as Towards a New Architecture). Parts of the book read like comedy now  the authors attempt to turn his own obsession with hygiene into an avant-garde manifesto. But it was serious when it was published in 1923, the Spanish flu pandemic having just run its course.

In his first venture into town planning, Le Corbusier designed the imaginary Ville Contemporaine, a city of vast empty spaces. My copy of his book The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning, published in 1929, has a perspective drawing of the Ville Contemporaine on the cover, showing in the foreground a sunlit cafe terrace looking out toward vast cruciform towers in parkland; it is all light and space and greenery, and apart from some tiny specks in the far background, entirely free of human beings. Its emptiness has been the source of endless critique; it has been cited as evidence of modernisms moral bankruptcy in general, and Le Corbusiers inhumanity in particular. But place it in its post-pandemic context, and it begins to look different.
Problems create opportunities, lets seize it: Dr. Ashwathnarayan on Karnatakas COVID-19 battle

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Bengaluru, May 04: COVID-19 has been one of the biggest challenges for the government and the people of the country. As India entered into the third phase of the lockdown, with many more relaxations, two key issues would continue to remain the focus-save lives, revive the economy.

The Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka, Dr. C N Ashwathnarayan says that the immediate goal would be to contain the virus. In this interview with OneIndia, the Deputy CM says that the extension of the lockdown was needed and if the entire system is opened up immediately then the entire purpose would be defeated.

He says that Karnataka is also ready with its plan on reviving the economy. All sectors need attention as each goes hand in hand. He says that consumption has to increase and hence it is important for us to promote manufacturing also in a big way. It is an opportunity for us and we need to seize it. The dependency on the Chinese will be down by 50 per cent and we need to seize this opportunity, Dr. Ashwathnarayan also says.

You can watch Dr. Ashwathnarayan's full interview here:

On the education sector, the Deputy CM says that on the digital front, Karnataka is very strong. This has been our strength and it has now come to use. Probably a small percentage is affected, but we will cope with that. We encourage self learning and how I see it is that academics will be on track in another two months.

On the IT sector, he says that they are being encouraged to work from home. It is the start ups that need attention and Karnataka will provide all the support this sector needs.

This is a situation that is beyond our imagination. But the way in which it has and is being handled is remarkable. It is the leadership that has made all the difference and when there is trust in the leader, we are able to fight it better. We are able to fight this because we have good leaders both in the Centre as well as the state, he says.

Watch the interview in Kannada here:

On the issue of job losses in the IT sector, Dr. Ashwathnarayan says that he does not expect that to happen. It is an ever growing industry. If one gate closes another will open. Today's society is very dependant on technology and hence the IT sector will not suffer.

Bengaluru has been reliable partner of the world where IT sector is concerned: Ashwathnarayan

He further says that any problem must be fought and treated as an opportunity. Business models are built on that and this is an opportunity that we must seize and do good things.

The Deputy CM says that we can build on a good healthcare system. However, health in isolation cannot be dealt with. Drinking water, sports, nutrition and sanitisation are all important and if these are provided then even the coronavirus cannot do anything.

On the Congress offering to pay the fares of migrants, he said that they could have impressed the government on it. What they did today is a political stunt. It is not only the government that is fighting the problem, but the people too are doing it. It is a time to remain united and avoid political stunts, as this is not in good taste. They are only creating confusion and instigating, which is not good.
Ryan Sitton, the Texas Railroad Commissioner who first floated the idea of state-mandated oil production cuts, has thrown in the towel after failing to convince his two co-commissioners of the need for mandatory cuts.

Sitton first suggested that Texas could join OPEC and other producers in curbing oil production purposefully in March. However, the industry had a mixed reaction to the proposal. While some backed it, such as Parsley Energy and Pioneer Natural Resources, others were firmly against it, notably the supermajors Exxon and Chevron, which have more abundant cash resources to hold out during the oil price crisis.

Yet it seems the industry is already cutting production at fast enough rates that would negate the need for a mandatory output curb.

This is dead, Sitton told Reuters about his production cut plan. What we should have done six weeks ago now would no longer have the right impact. We lack the leadership between the three commissioners to get that done.

In April, as the Commission was discussing the cuts, Oilprice.coms Tom Kool noted that all three Texas Railroad Commissioners lacked any experience with mandatory cuts, and there were too many questions to answer before making a decision.

Many shale companies, meanwhile, are already cutting production. In North Dakota, production has fallen by as much as 400,000 bpd since the start of March, Reuters reported this week, which is almost a third of the states total. More well shut-ins are expected as oil prices remain lower than breakeven levels.

Production cuts are underway in the Permian, too. Bloomberg reported this week that companies were preparing to reduce their output there by between 10 and 40 percent and suspend all drilling operations. Some of these companies were among the staunchest opponents of a mandatory production cut, Bloombergs Rachel Adams-Heard and David Wethe noted.

Even Exxon, Conoco, and Chevron are cutting: the three supermajors plan to reduce their combined production by 660,000 bpd by the end of June.

The total production cut across the U.S. was 1 million bpd in late April.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Read From Oilprice.com:
Norwegian Cruise Line warned on Tuesday that it may have to seek bankruptcy protection, saying there's "substantial doubt" about its ability to continue as a "going concern" as the coronavirus pandemic wreaks havoc on the industry.

Shares of the company fell more than 19% in early trading on the news.

In a securities filing, Norwegian said it was in compliance with all of its debt agreements as of March 31, but it couldn't guarantee that it may need to seek waivers from its lenders. If it cannot amend its credit agreements, the company said it is at risk of default, which would trigger immediate repayment of most of its debt and derivatives contracts. That puts it at risk of bankruptcy.

The company also announced that L Catterton, a private equity fund, invested $400 million in NCL Corp., a subsidiary of Norwegian. Under the agreement, L Catterton will be entitled to nominate one member to the board.

"We are pleased to execute this agreement with L Catterton, the largest and most global consumer-focused private equity firm in the world," CEO of Norwegian Frank Del Rio said in a statement.

The company hopes to raise another $1.6 billion from issuing a mix of stock and bonds. The L Catterton investment is contingent on the company raising at least $1 billion from other investors.

The coronavirus outbreak, "including its effect on the ability or desire of people to travel (including on cruises), is expected to continue to impact our results, operations, outlook, plans, goals, growth, reputation, cash flows, liquidity, demand for voyages and share price," the filing said. "These factors have raised substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern."

It said if it's not able to maintain enough liquidity, "our business and financial condition could be adversely affected and it may be necessary for us to reorganize our company in its entirety, including through bankruptcy proceedings, and our shareholders may lose their investment in our ordinary shares."

The company also announced it expects to report a loss for the quarter ended March 31 and on the year.

The coronavirus pandemic has brought the global travel industry, and the cruise industry in particular, to a standstill across the world. Norwegian, the smallest of the three major publicly traded cruise companies, said it had roughly $6 billion in long-term debt obligations as of Dec. 31.
[May 05, 2020] How to Successfully Navigate through the Transition to Smart Manufacturing | Infiniti's Latest Article Explains

A well-known market intelligence company, Infiniti Research, has announced the completion of its latest article - how to successfully navigate through the transition to smart manufacturing. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005902/en/ This blog provides insights into: Smart manufacturing

How companies in the manufacturing sector can go about smartly implementing smart manufacturing in their organizations The global push for smart manufacturing is underway, creating a pool of growth opportunities for manufacturers. Smart manufacturing techniques offer several opportunities for companies in the manufacturing industry to improve their operations by providing greater connectivity across the manufacturing facility and the ability to act on production intelligence. However, while some agile manufacturers have embraced smart manufacturing fully and are reaping the benefits already, most still have much work ahead of them. According to experts at Infiniti, less than 15% of manufacturing companies around the globe have successfully implemented a strategy to apply Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to their production processes. During the COVID-19 crisis, it is critical for companies in the manufacturing market to take calculative and well-executed measures to ensure business continuity in the long run. Request a free proposal to know how industry experts at Infiniti Research can help you plan and create comprehensive action plans to navigate the crisis.



Experts at Infiniti explain how companies in the manufacturing sector can go about smartly implementing smart manufacturing in their organizations: Improve quality and productivity: Quality management and kaizen techniques can only provide limited outcomes when the information relied on are limited and not available in real-time. Manufacturers are leveraging embedded equipment intelligence to monitor most product specifications in real-time, either from a customer or regulatory perspective. Apart from this, they're using this intelligence to address product defects and variations, verify whether quality goals are met, and improve customer satisfaction. Embedded intelligence, when used to improve control and transparency of manufacturing processes creates new opportunities to improve productivity. For instance, operators on the plant floor are analyzing real-time production data to uncover hidden inefficiencies and ensure faster implementation of changes. Managers and logistics professionals are leveraging smart manufacturing technologies to deliver critical data including forecasts and schedules to suppliers, while also monitoring delivery performances at the supply chain level.

Enhancing decision-making process: Manufacturers must consider upgrading their existing technologies in order to attain next-gen productivity. This involves reconciling dissimilar data sources with the current IT systems, extracting the data from smart manufacturing technologies, and then converting that data into actionable insights. Manufacturers that have adhered to these steps and armed themselves with better information are using it to optimize their assets, improve their responsiveness to changing customer demands, refine workflows, and reduce inventory holding. Ensuring business continuity a challenge due to COVID-19? Request more info to learn how Infiniti is helping companies around the globe assess the business impact of the coronavirus outbreak and plan for business revival post-COVID-19. About Infiniti Research Established in 2003, Infiniti Research is a leading market intelligence company providing smart solutions to address your business challenges. Infiniti Research studies markets in more than 100 countries to help analyze competitive activity, see beyond market disruptions, and develop intelligent business strategies. To know more, visit:https://www.infinitiresearch.com/about-us View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005902/en/

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New study out of China compares how early preventive measures in Hunan province limited the spread of the novel coronavirus compared to the epidemic in Italy

Early and strict governmental intervention is a key factor in reducing the spread of COVID-19 cases. That's the conclusion reached by a team of researchers comparing outbreaks of the novel coronavirus between the Chinese province of Hunan and Italy in a new paper published in Frontiers in Medicine.

While Hunan and Italy are similar in population size - about 60-70 million people each - the scope of the epidemic in each location has differed dramatically. At time of publication, Italy has the second-most confirmed deaths after the United States and ranks third in total confirmed infections, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. There are just over 1,000 confirmed cases in Hunan.

The research team, based in China, used data from the John Hopkins database through April 2 to map infection trends in both Hunan and Italy. They modified a standard mathematical model known as a susceptible-infected-removed (SIR) model to account for the effects of different epidemic prevention measures at different periods in time.

"It should be noted that in actual situations, the speed of transmission can be changed through many interventions, such as personal protective measures, community-level isolation and city blockade," said lead author Dr. Wangping Jia with the Chinese PLA General Hospital in Beijing.

The paper's extended SIR (eSIR) model found that under current measures there could be a total of 3,369 (the mean in a possible range of 840-8,013) infected cases in Hunan, with the endpoint of the epidemic having already occurred around March 3. In contrast, total infected cases in Italy are projected to be 182,051 (the mean in a possible range of 116,114-274,378) with an end date around August 6.

The authors speculated that the disparate trends could be due to a couple of reasons. For instance, Italy may not have implemented preventive measures soon enough, as the eSIR model demonstrated that taking action earlier in the case of Hunan drastically reduced infection rates.

The authors noted that "from China's experience, various control measures, including the early detection and isolation of individuals with symptoms, traffic restrictions, medical tracking, and entry or exit screening, can well prevent the further spread of COVID-19."

The paper did not specifically address mortality rates because a number of factors can affect these predictions, according to Jia, such as bed capacity of intensive care units, as well as a patient's age, sex and any underlying health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes.

"Accurate patient-specific data are urgent needs for the prediction of the total deaths," he said.

The Italian government recently announced it would begin to ease lockdown measures beginning May 4 - three months earlier than the eSIR model advises.

"We think it is too early to ease restrictions starting around May 4," Jia said. "The potential second wave may come if restrictions are eased three months earlier. Italy is not in the end period of the COVID-19 epidemic."

The authors concede that the current study has several limitations. First, due to the limited amount of testing, it's likely the number of infected people in Italy and elsewhere is higher than the official count. The eSIR model does not incorporate the disease's incubation period, which could make it less accurate. And there may be other factors that could throw off the estimate, such as the influence of "super spreaders" of the disease on a population.

Despite these possible shortcomings, Jia said the study makes one point abundantly clear: "We want to emphasize that taking government control earlier can greatly decrease the number of infected cases by comparing the epidemic trend in Hunan and Italy."

###

Notes to Editors

Please link to the original research article in your reporting: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2020.00169/full

Corresponding author: Dr. Wangping Jia

Email: 18519196066@163.com

Corresponding Author's Institution: Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China

Frontiers is an award-winning Open Science platform and leading Open Access scholarly publisher. Our mission is to make research results openly available to the world, thereby accelerating scientific and technological innovation, societal progress and economic growth. We empower scientists with innovative Open Science solutions that radically improve how science is published, evaluated and disseminated to researchers, innovators and the public. Access to research results and data is open, free and customized through Internet Technology, thereby enabling rapid solutions to the critical challenges we face as humanity. For more information, visit http://www.frontiersin.org and follow @Frontiersin on Twitter.
Global anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

An internal Chinese report warns that Beijing faces a rising wave of hostility in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that could tip relations with the United States into confrontation, people familiar with the paper told Reuters.

The report, presented early last month by the Ministry of State Security to top Beijing leaders including President Xi Jinping, concluded that global anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, the sources said, as reported by Reuters.

Read alsoNumber of COVID-19 cases confirmed worldwide nearing 3.6 mln

As a result, Beijing faces a wave of anti-China sentiment led by the United States in the aftermath of the pandemic and needs to be prepared in a worst-case scenario for armed confrontation between the two global powers, according to people familiar with the report's content, who declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter.

Relations between China and the United States are widely seen to be at their worst point in decades, with deepening mistrust and friction points from U.S. allegations of unfair trade and technology practices to disputes over Hong Kong, Taiwan and contested territories in the South China Sea.

The report described to Reuters warned that anti-China sentiment sparked by the coronavirus could fuel resistance to China's Belt and Road infrastructure investment projects, and that Washington could step up financial and military support for regional allies, making the security situation in Asia more volatile.


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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Thomas Lombardo, a Korean War Veteran, spent time in fox holes and put himself directly in harms way in Korea as a member of the 7th Calvary in the United States Army.

The 90-year-old Great Kills resident modestly says he doesnt deserve the National Defense medal he received decades ago -- but that the healthcare workers who are putting themselves in the trenches for the COVID-19 pandemic do.

Lombardo took his medal, wrote up a dedication and created a plaque, which he presented to Staten Island University Hospital staff in Ocean Breeze.

I made up my mind that I had to do something to bring [the workers] to light, Lombardo said. The thank you signs and the clapping and honking will be over. This plaque will last forever.

The letter said: "It takes a very extraordinary breed of people who can be so selfless. To run and face this pandemic head on rather than retreating. To give yourselves, offering comfort, love, and care to those in need.

You doctors, nurses, and staff are the true heroes in this battle and deserve this medal from the Korean War for duty beyond the call of duty. This medal symbolizes those who served during a declared national emergency and that is exactly what you were asked to do, it went on to say.

Korean War veteran and Great Kills resident Thomas Lombardo, 90, presented Staten Island University Hospital with his National Defense Medal. (Photo courtesy of Staten Island University Hospital)

The medal he chose is appropriate, Lombardo said, because the healthcare workers are our defense.

They deserve that medal  not me, he told the Advance/SILive.com. They deserve statues and monuments the same way veterans do. They are fighting for us and putting everybody who comes into the hospital before them and before their families.

SIUHs Executive Director Dr. Brahim Ardolic said the hospital was left speechless by Lombardos recognition.

Were still at a loss of words over Mr. Lombardos gift, and his service to our country. To be recognized by someone who was literally on the frontlines in the Korean War, which was long referred to as The Forgotten War, is an honor to all healthcare workers in the fight against this invisible enemy, Ardolic said.

Our countrys healthcare providers dedication to protect our nation, like the veterans of that war, should never be forgotten and always celebrated. To be recognized by veterans and our servicemen and women is truly humbling, and we thank them for the sacrifices they make every day, he said.

The most frustrating thing, the war veteran said, is he feels people arent taking the COVID-19 pandemic seriously. He said hes disgusted with the people who think the virus is a joke.

In Korea, people would get killed and it would be over. The virus just snowballs and feeds itself and it will never end if people dont listen, said Lombardo.

FOLLOW KRISTIN F. DALTON ON TWITTER.
Washington, D.C., May 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia (Commission) issued its annual Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS) Report to the D.C. Council. The RPS Report highlights an increase in the number of solar energy generator applications. The increase of applications reflects the Districts aggressive Climate Change and Energy Action Plans as well as solar programs and resources available to District residents and businesses. The RPS Report also notes that there are 8,830 solar energy systems able to meet the Districts RPS solar requirement, with a capacity of about 117.6 megawatts (MW). The current solar capacity, about 91.7 MW certified for the RPS program, in the District is now more than three times the amount of out-of-state solar capacity. In addition, the solar capacity of systems certified in the District increased approximately 45 percent from 63.9 MW in April 2019 to 91.7 MW in April 2020, reflecting the enormous success of this program during the past year in helping to bringing solar energy to every ward in the city.

The increase in renewables directly reflects the Commissions efforts to promote the use of solar energy and to streamline the application process in the District of Columbia, stated Willie L. Phillips, Chairman of the Public Service Commission. Our mission is fully aligned with achieving the Districts public climate commitments, including 100% renewable energy in 2032.

Every year, the Commission is required to provide an update on the status of RPS implementation. The report includes data on the number of renewable generators approved by the Commission and the availability of renewable resources in the District. The report also includes the number of renewable energy credits retired by the electricity suppliers to meet the RPS requirements. This RPS report fulfills the reporting requirements outlined in the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard Act and amended by the CleanEnergy DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2018.

For the full RPS Report, please visit the Commission at www.dcpsc.org.

The Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia is an independent agency established by Congress in 1913 to regulate electric, natural gas, and telecommunications companies in the District of Columbia.

Attachment
Wizz Air has announced the launch of six new routes serving Luton Airport from next month.

These include flights to Faro in Portugal from June 16 and four Greek islands from early July.

It will also fly to Morocco from late October.

Owain Jones, managing director of the Hungarian airlines UK subsidiary, said: Although travel is currently restricted by government regulations, we are planning for the easing of restrictions as the situation improves and our customers are able to start travelling again.

The Wizz team is excited that our network from London Luton will continue to grow to include many new summer and winter sun destinations, and our new sanitising protocols will give our customers the confidence that they can safely rely on Wizz Airs ultra-low-cost fares to visit these new and exciting destinations on board Europes greenest fleet.

As always, our primary concern is the health, safety and well-being of our passengers and crew, and our enhanced protective measures will ensure the most sanitary conditions possible.

The Greek islands Wizz Air will begin serving from Luton are Zakynthos from July 1, Crete from July 2, Corfu from July 3 and Rhodes from July 4.

The airline resumed some flights from Luton on May 1, serving Budapest, Hungary; Lisbon, Portugal; and Sofia, Bulgaria from the Bedfordshire airport.

Other routes, such as Tenerife, Spain and Tel Aviv, Israel will restart in the coming weeks, pending travel restrictions.

UK coronavirus lockdown restrictions prevent Britons from being allowed to travel to Luton airport for a holiday.

But people are able to fly for other reasons, such as to return home after being stranded overseas or if they are travelling for work.

New hygiene measures introduced by Wizz Air include requiring passengers and crew to wear face masks, keeping a distance between passengers during boarding and an enhanced cleaning regime.

Customers are being urged to use online services for checking in and making purchases such as additional bags to reduce non-essential interaction at the airport.
Hyderabad, May 5 : Three journalists from Telangana based in New Delhi have tested positive for Covid-19. The Telangana government on Tuesday said it had released Rs 12 lakh for testing and treatment of the three, working for a Telugu television channel.

Initially, the government remitted Rs 75,000 in cash for primary contact testing and assured treatment to the media personnel. It later released more funds to Dr Gaurav Uppal, Resident Commissioner of the Telangana Bhavan, for the treatment of the three mediapersons.

Industry Minister K.T. Rama Rao enquired about the positive cases among the Delhi Telugu media and instructed officials to provide them necessary support on behalf of the state government.

Meanwhile, Telangana Media Academy chairman Allam Narayana said it was extending all possible assistance to the journalists, infected while covering the pandemic. Three journalists in Delhi and one in Gadwal district tested coronavirus positive and the academy gave Rs 20,000 each to them.

Narayana said the academy would also give Rs 10,000 each to nine journalists -- five in Mahabubnagar district and four in Gadwal -- under home quarantine.

He advised journalists to take precautions while discharging their duties. He urged them to maintain social distancing, wash hands frequently, wear masks and use sanitisers.

Several journalists in various parts of the country have tested Covid-19 positive in the past 2-3 weeks. In Mumbai alone, over 50 journalists tested positive last month.

Two journalists in Tamil Nadu were also found infected. A reporter and a sub-editor working for a Tamil news channel tested positive for coronavirus.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
If all the coronavirus stars align, the class of 2020 could get its best graduation present: a live commencement ceremony. Its what graduating seniors and parents want, and it could be possible for Pikes Peak region school districts that obtain approval for non-traditional approaches, said Dr. Leon Kelly, deputy medical director with El Paso County Public Health.
By Laman Ismayilova

Famous for their unique style, Azerbaijani carpets possess cultural and historical value. They are displayed at many prestigious museums around the world, including Metropolitan Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, the Hermitage and so on.

In 2010, Azerbaijani carpet weaving art was included into UNESCO`s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Azerbaijan`s carpet weavers celebrate their professional holiday on May 5. In 2016, President Ilham Aliyev signed an order on the establishment of the Carpet Weavers Day to honor the work of carpet makers.

There are seven carpet producing regions including Baku, Shirvan, Guba, Tabriz, Karabakh, Ganja and Gazakh. Each of them is distinquished by its own technology, patterns and colors.

As for their technical aspects, Azerbaijani carpets can be classified into two categories: flat-woven (pileless) and knotted (pile). There are several kinds of pileless carpets such as Shadda, Verni, Jejim, Zilli, Sumakh, Kilim and Palas.

Shadda is a flat weave carpet, made primarily in Nakhchivan, Agdam, Gubadly, Agjabedi. The artistic composition of shadda made by complicated whipping, as well as its constituents have a complex form.

Verni is considered one of the most widely spread type of the flat-weave carpet. The major verni production centers are Agjabedi, Barda, Aghdam, Nakhchivan are the centers of this type of pileless carpets.

The main feature of verni carpet is the S-element. Its shape varies, it may resemble both figure 5 and letter S. This element means "dragon" among the nomads and "water". It is believed that a dragon featuring carpet would protect the family from foul weather.

Jejims are woven on simple horizontal looms by narrow stripes 3035 cm wide and 1510 cm long. The resulting product is a cloth to be used as a wall carpet, a bedding coverlet, or curtains. Barda, Nakhchivan, Zangilan, Shusha and Shamakha are among Jejim production centers.

Zilli carpet is well-known for stylized animal and vegetal elements, which are very diverse. They feature the images of large elements in the shape of big lozenges, paired horns, various stylized elements.

The Sumakh carpets have become widely spread and recognized over the last few centuries. Since the 18th century, they have been made in the country's Guba and Gusar regions.

The Sumakh carpets feature the diverse stylized vegetal motifs, various geometrical elements such as large hexahedral, square, rhomboid medallions.

Kilim is the most widespread type of flat-woven rugs, made by passing the weft through the warp using the technique of compound interweaving. Kilim is characterized by a slot-like gap (opening) around the geometrical patterns.

The technique of kilim weaving predetermines the pattern shapes in the form of a lozenge, triangle, and trapezium. Images of animals, birds and humans are geometrized in kilims. Kilims are distinguished by their composition, pattern, and colors. In terms of their technical peculiarities kilims can be classified into five major groups based on the area of production: Gazakh, Karabakh, Absheron, Shirvan and Tabriz kilims.

Palas is often decorated with traditional patterns in the form of horizontal stripes commonly used throughout Azerbaijan. As a rule, the palas is not framed by a border.

Unique examples of Azerbaijan`s carpet weaving art are treasured at National Carpet Museum.

Initiated by an outstanding scientist and carpet weaver Latif Karimov, the museum displays some of the best examples of the carpet weaving art.

The new building of the Carpet Museum, designed in the form of a rolled carpet, opened its doors at Baku Seaside Park in 2014.

Today the museum hosts many events, such as exhibitions, international symposiums, and conferences.

Last year, the museum received the national status for its significant contribution in popularization and promotion of the Azerbaijani Carpet Weaving Art.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
With the increasing threat of the People Liberation's Army to Asian countries, the US Navy has a new Stealth Destroyer to the US Fleet which increases its combat levels significantly.

This is just timely in an era when combat effectiveness is crucial, and adoption of stealth abilities for ships will increase a first hit chance on opponents of the US Navy in the high seas.

The warship comes at a time when the PLA is bolstering its fleets to match the US Navy fleet, one big difference it offers is technology to overcome any adversary.

For the US Navy to counter such threats like the advancing PLA, it has started on modernization program of the Navy that includes new weapons and countermeasures to blunt the newest anti-ship weapons of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

In a one-two punch, the US Navy did not just only receive the very first stealth destroyer, but a Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class destroyer which is more capable than other warships in the US Navy's inventory.

This modernization will keep the quality over quantity as the basis of reliable fighting ships, built to take it to toe to toe with whatever the PLA can throw.

Also read: US Navy Destroyer Challenges China by Sailing Through Waters Near Paracel Islands

Most modern destroyer in the US arsenal

According to the navy, the DDG-1000 Zumwalt is one of 'a three-ship class of stealth destroyers delivered to the Navy nearly four years when the building started. It was delivered in two parts, the hull (mechanical and electrical systems in 2016) and combat systems on April 24, 2020.

With Congress in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act indicating it will not be included in the battle force until completion the combat systems were fully done. November 2016, BAE Systems was awarded a $192 million contract to develop the combat system for the Zumwalt and the sister ship, the Michael Monsoor.

Developing the stealth ship was not easy with rising costs and change while in construction. Being built as a platform for the Advanced Gun System, to surface strike vessel.

Purchase of Zumwalt-class destroyers was reduced from 28 to 7 ships, then only 3 ships, because the ammunition is very costly, each Long-Range Land Attack Projectile is expensive to shoot. A new kind of cheaper ammo is needed.

From advance gun platform to a ship killer, that integrates the Maritime Strike Tomahawk and SM-6 missiles integrated into the next-gen combat system.

Sources say that the Michael Monsoor will have its combat systems online by 2nd quarter 2020, confirmed by the Naval Sea Systems Command program brief from January. One of the last sister ships is the Lyndon B. Johnson located at the Bath Iron Works in Maine, with expected delivery by December 2020.

When completed the ship will head to San Diego, California, to have the combat systems fitted and installed the same as the two Zumwalt-destroyers.

The lost advantage is the delivery of the Areligh Burke-class destroyer Delbert Black, DDG-119, constructed in Huntington Ingalls Industries' shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

One accident that struck the Delbert Black when a Norway-barge hit it, caused a delay with $31 million damages.

Overall the US Navy has four destroyers at Huntington Ingalls, under construction, with the Flight IIA destroyers Frank E. Petersen Jr. (DDG-121) and the Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG-123), and Flight III destroyers Jack H. Lucas (DDG-125) and Ted Stevens (DDG-128). These ships are to join the fleet and be the blunting edge.

Related article: US Warships Challenge People's Liberation Army in South China Sea as Tensions Escalate

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The parents of murdered US journalist Daniel Pearl filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of Pakistan on May 2, a day before the World Press Freedom day, in an effort to reverse the Sindh High Courts ruling that overturned the convictions of four men in murder of their son. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) express its solidarity with the Pearls family to seek justice.

Pearl's father, Judea Pearl, confirmed the appeal to the higher court seeking a reversal to the April 2 ruling. The Sindh High Court has misapplied the burden and the standard of proof erroneously to the facts of this case, their appeal reads.

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on April 2 overturned the death sentence order of Hyderabad Anti-terrorism Court to Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh who was found guilty of abducting and killing Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl in 2002. In response to the appeal filed by those convicted 18 years ago, a two-judge bench sentenced Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh to seven years imprisonment citing Sheikh was guilty only of Pearls abduction. Also, the SHC ordered the release of Fahad Naseem, Sheikh Adil, and Salman Saqib who were also accused in the case. They were originally sentenced to life in prison.

With the filing of the petition by Pearls parents, there are now two petitions seeking a reversal of the SHC decision. Earlier, on April 22, the Sindh government filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the SHC decision.

The SHCs April 2 ruling was widely criticised by journalists groups and human rights organizations, leading to their re- arrest on April 3.

Pearl was kidnapped and beheaded in 2002 while investigating Islamist militants in Karachi, Pakistan.

PFUJ said: We still believe that justice must be granted in the case of the murdered journalist Daniel Pearl and culprits must be punished.

IFJ said: IFJ and its affiliates around the globe join together with the family of the Daniel Pearl in the pursuit of justice. While we also appreciate the Sindh governments appeal challenging the SHC decision, we know more must be done to fight impunity and violence against journalists in Pakistan."
The Loyal Wingman, the first Australian-made military aircraft in 50 years. (Supplied by Boeing)

Australia Designs and Builds Military Aircraft for First Time in 50 Years

Boeing has unveiled the first military aircraft to be designed and built in Australia in more than 50 yearsa historic milestone for Australia and the company.

The Australian government invested up to $40 million (US$26 million) into the Loyal Wingman, an unmanned aircraft, in its commitment to growing and developing its local defence capacity.

It is Boeings largest investment in an unmanned aircraft program outside of the United States. The Loyal Wingman uses artificial intelligence to extend the capabilities of manned and unmanned platforms.

The partnership between the Royal Australian Air Force and Boeing Australia is responsible for developing and testing this aircraft.

Introduced in February 2019, the Loyal Wingman is about the length of a telegraph pole at 11.7 meters (38 feet) long. It will have a range of more than 3,700 kilometers and project power forward while keeping manned capabilities out of harms way.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that the program will boost Australia in three areasAustralias defence industry, global export potential, and job creation.

The Loyal Wingman program has helped support around 100 high tech jobs in Australia. Such projects will be critical to bolster growth and support jobs as the economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, Morrison said on May 5.

Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price said that this is a significant milestone for our country, especially for local industries. Writing on Twitter on May 4, she said, Its the first time [Australias] industry are locally designing, developing and manufacturing an aircraft of this type.

One for the aircraft fanatics! Check this out  The first @BoeingAustralia Loyal Wingman aircraft has been unveiled. Its the first time  industry are locally designing, developing and manufacturing an aircraft of this type https://t.co/oL9hYu9xhl pic.twitter.com/jD7XQsqBPC  Melissa Price MP (@Melissa4Durack) May 4, 2020

Earlier in February, the Boeing Australia team of local businessesBAE Systems Australia, RUAG Australia, Ferra Engineering, and AME Systemsfinished building the main body of the aircraft, including hardware kits, precision machine components, and wiring to support the aircraft.

The team presented the Loyal Wingman prototype on May 5 and have scheduled to start ground trials later this year.
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Linkedin Inforial (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta, Indonesia  Tue, May 5, 2020 19:22 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd62c72f 4 Inforial Free

Foreign nationals who cannot return to their home countries due to the coronavirus pandemic do not need to apply for an extension of their stay permit with the immigration office.

The Directorate General of Immigration has extended automatic stay permits for foreigners arriving in Indonesia after Feb. 5, 2020.

. (./.)

Foreigners do not need to come to the immigration office if their permits expire.

During the time of COVID-19 emergency measures, foreigners whose stay permits have just expired will automatically be granted an emergency stay permit.

No overstay fees will be imposed. The automatic emergency stay permit extension policy for foreigners is in line with the policy to ban foreigners from entering Indonesia as the government steps up efforts to curb coronavirus transmission.

. (./.)

The next step taken by the government was imposing a suspension of visa exemption, visa on arrival and diplomatic / service visa.

The policy is also based on a circular on restrictions to immigration services to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and information from the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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Emergency stay permits are valid until the COVID-19 outbreak is declared over by the authorities.

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Foreigners staying in Indonesia are required to comply with Indonesian regulations regarding the outbreak.

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Elder law attorney Anthony J. Enea, member at Enea, Scanlan & Sirignano, LLP Obtaining legal services while at home is possible thanks to an executive order by Governor Cuomo that temporarily allows remote witnessing and notarizing in New York State. All estate planning documents can now be executed remotely via audio-video conferencing platforms.

On Friday, May 22 at 11:00am, Westchester County elder law attorney Anthony J. Enea, member at Enea, Scanlan & Sirignano, LLP in White Plains and Somers, N.Y., will host a free webinar on Pandemics and Planning: Steps You Can Take Right Now to Protect Your Estate. The educational webinar, presented as part of Schneps Medias Straight Talk series, will cover important estate planning essentials during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pandemics and Planning attendees will learn what can be done from home to protect their assets and ensure their health care wishes are followed  including which estate planning documents are most critical.

Obtaining legal services while at home is possible thanks to an executive order by Governor Cuomo that temporarily allows remote witnessing and notarizing in New York State, explained Anthony Enea, who has spent 35 years protecting the rights of seniors, the disabled and their families. All estate planning documents can now be executed remotely via audio-video conferencing platforms.

Registration for the webinar is free, but space is limited. Those interested in attending Pandemics and Planning can reserve a spot at http://www.bxtimes.com/estate.

We can't know what the future holds, but we can plan for it, said Enea. With many recent changes in the law concerning Medicaid as well as the realities of the pandemic, now is an ideal time to get your legal matters organized so that you and your loved ones are protected. Our attorneys are working to ensure it remains a smooth, seamless process.

A strong leader in Westchesters legal community, Anthony J. Enea is chair of the New York State Bar Associations Senior Lawyers Section and president of the Westchester County Bar Foundation. He was named Westchester Countys Leading Elder Care Attorney at the Above the Bar Awards and Best Lawyers 2019 Trusts & Estates Lawyer of the Year in White Plains. A past chair of the New York State Bar Associations Elder Law Section, Eneas practice areas include elder law; Medicaid asset protection trusts; Medicaid applications (home care and nursing home); special needs planning; guardianships (Article 81 and 17-A); and wills, trusts and estates.

Enea, Scanlan & Sirignano, LLP is located at 245 Main Street in White Plains, N.Y. with additional offices in Somers, N.Y. Elder law attorney Anthony J. Enea can be reached at 914-948-1500 or a.enea@esslawfirm.com. For the latest news, visit Enea, Scanlan & Sirignano online at http://www.esslawfirm.com.

About Enea, Scanlan & Sirignano, LLP

Enea, Scanlan & Sirignano, LLP is an AV preeminent rated elder law firm with offices in White Plains and Somers, N.Y. The practice concentrates on Elder Law; Medicaid Planning; Nursing Home and Home Care Applications; Wills, Trusts and Estates; Guardianships; Estate Litigation; Supplemental Needs Trusts; and Special Needs Planning. Enea, Scanlan & Sirignano, LLP serves Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, the Bronx, Manhattan, Long Island and Queens and is committed to providing the highest quality legal services to seniors, the disabled and their families. Visit the firm online at http://www.esslawfirm.com.
Authorities in Ohio have told companies in the state that workers who do not show up once their job becomes available again should be reported.

Some non-essential businesses began to reopen on Monday, including building companies, as part of a staggered reopening plan outlined by governor Mike DeWine last week.

That came three days after elective procedures were permitted in Ohio hospitals for the first time in weeks.

Businesses, meanwhile, were told on Friday that employees who refused to return to work will not be eligible for unemployment benefits.

Ohios Department of Job and Family Services said in an email that employees should be reported if absent from work, so that the state could reevaluate their position.

Ohio law prohibits individuals from receiving unemployment benefits if they refuse to accept offers of suitable work, or quit work, without good cause, read the email, obtained by Cleveland.com.

If you have employees who refuse to return to work or quit work, its important that you let the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) know so we can make accurate eligibility determinations, the email continued.

Employers were also encouraged to visit a website portal where reports of absent workers could be submitted.

Ohio Department of Job and Family Services director Kimberly Hall said on Monday that companies need to be transparent and communicate the steps they are taking to protect workers, reported Cleveland.com.

Employees who do not return to work when it becomes available again will face an administrative review process to determine their eligibility for benefits, added Ms Kimberly.

Texas governor Gregg Abbott announced similar measures last week as his state also began a phased reopening on Monday.

According to state authorities, the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) will start assessing whether or not unemployment claimants have chosen not to return to work.

Workers in Texas will have to prove that they meet certain criteria, which include being at high risk from coronavirus exposure.

On Monday, 2.1 million Texas had filed for unemployment since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, whilst claimants in Ohio have passed one million.

Retail and customer service shops in Ohio are set to reopen when more restrictions are lifted on May 12, potentially leaving workers deciding between returning to work or losing state assistance.

Some polls in the state have shown that there is little enthusiasm for an immediate reopening of restaurants, retail and other non-essential businesses.
[May 04, 2020] Forest Interactive Shifts Focus to Scalable Mobile Platforms Due to COVID-19 Market Demand

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- With the Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia, Forest Interactive is leveraging on one of its flagship products to help mobile operators maximise subscriber base engagement and content management through these unprecedented times. The move allows the company to channel its talents and resources to the additional features of the DSDP (Digital Service Delivery Platform) and DVP (Digital Voucher Platform) to other partner mobile operators in their regional offices, of which some are already a working partner for the company's different portfolio of HTML Games. The DSDP platform has been deployed to some of the mobile operators in Malaysia which include TuneTalk, XOX, U Mobile and TM, and the company is currently looking to expand to other mobile operators in the region - especially to the countries with its presence. "Many businesses have navigated the short-term impacts of slowing economic growth due to the sudden halt to operations. Discretionary spend controls and permanent or temporary reductions in workforce, among many others, are often the immediate and urgent considerations," says Forest Interactive CEO Johary Mustapha. "However, we noticed that mobile operators have an even greater need for transformation during these difficult times, and with that in mind, our Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) should be able to complement them even further." Forest Interactive's DSDP is a mobile value-added service (MVAS) automation platform equipped with a number of practical and convenient functionalities. It also provides Platform as a Service (PaaS) for mobile operators to manag their content providers with a single administrative platform, simplified service integration, and efficient on-boarding process.



"DSDP provides a full package of infrastructure and hardware, backed by a single integrated platform - a solution that will help mobile operators to speed up their return of investment by automating complex, time-consuming tasks and processes," shares Forest Interactive Vice President Sharon Maurenn who has been working with mobile operators in Southeast Asia for 10 years now. One of the benefits using DSDP is that the platform offers customizable features with fast upgrade capability to suit the mobile operators' business requirements and there is no initial setup fee or hidden cost. It is a profitable solution to the mobile operators as the commercial model is pure on revenue share basis as compared to the traditional modes of high CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) with many eventual hidden costs.

Additionally, the company has also launched DVP considering the rising popularity in mobile and video gaming during the worldwide lockdown period. The comprehensive, one-stop portal for digital voucher products on digital goods will help mobile operators increase their average revenue per user (ARPU) and customer loyalty through a white-label solution for gamification features. "The option to white-label our Digital Voucher Platform provides mobile operators their exclusive branding as customer trust level is significantly higher compared to third party brands," clarifies Sharon. "It is a cost and time-effective solution. By using a fully-functional platform which has seen many successes from mobile operators in Asia, others can save their costs from investing in the new, untested platforms." The underlying digital platform technology of DSDP and DVP is backed with 14 years of in-depth experience in providing scalable mobile platforms to over 50 mobile operators and 150 content providers worldwide, connected to more than 1 billion subscribers. Over 450 servers on the cloud across multiple continents are also constantly monitored to ensure uninterrupted services with the growing transactions. For more products and services by Forest Interactive, visit https://forest-interactive.com/. About Forest Interactive (as of April 2020) Forest Interactive is an award-winning telecommunications platform provider with a global presence across 14 regional offices in 33 countries. Since its founding in 2006, Forest Interactive has been providing innovative and revenue-generating solutions for 50 mobile operators and is connected to more than 1 billion subscribers worldwide. The company enables enriched mobile experiences through highly-customizable platforms such as Digital Service Delivery Platform (DSDP), Mobile Games Publishing, and eVouchers. Forest Interactive is also the organizer for numerous Mobile Esports events in partnership with Moonton and Tencent. Stay updated with Forest Interactive on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200504/2793403-1 SOURCE Forest Interactive

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Robert K Smith TCSO Booking Photo View Photo

Sonora, CA  A 28-year-old state prison inmate from the Mother Lode has been implicated in a homicide of another inmate.

Officials at the High Desert State Prison (HDSP) in Susanville are investigating the death last Friday morning of a convicted murderer who was serving a life sentence without parole in connection with a case dating back to the 1980s before receiving an additional six-year sentence last October for an in-prison assault with a deadly weapon charge.

According to the prison investigation teams release, 65-year-old Michael M. Ramadanovic died of his wounds at the prisons medical facility shortly after the 10:45 a.m. attack by two 28-year-old inmates, Rodney Rice of Riverside County and Robert Smith of Tuolumne County.

Officials report that the pair attacked Ramadanovic with inmate-manufactured weapons on the Facility C yard, generating multiple puncture wounds to his chest, back, head and neck. Officers immediately responded, using chemical agents and issuing a warning shot from the Mini-14 rifle to quell the assault. No staff members were injured and officers recovered two metal inmate-manufactured weapons at the crime scene.

Rice and Smith were placed in segregated housing pending an investigation and inmate movement on Facility C was limited to facilitate investigators looking into what happened.

Smith, who is from the Jamestown and Sonora areas, was admitted to the facility from Tuolumne County in August 2018, to serve two years and eight months for evading or attempting to evade a peace officer while driving recklessly, his second strike.

Aka Kirby Inmate Smith Subject Of 2017 BOL

The previous August, as reported here, local sheriffs officials posted a be-on-the-lookout (BOL) alert for him after he fled a Soulsbyville residence tossing a backpack allegedly containing over 20 grams of heroin. Sheriffs officials reported that it happened during a high-risk probation raid there in search of a subject being monitored but who had let the battery on his ankle monitoring device die in violation of program rules. They also posted that Smith went by the name Kirby.

Smith was also sentenced in San Joaquin County in May 2019 to serve two years after being convicted of an in-prison assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury. This past March, he was sentenced in Tuolumne County for an assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury.

Rice arrived at the prison from Riverside County in December 2016 to serve a three-year sentence for evading or attempting to evade a peace officer while driving recklessly and was serving a 2019 sentence from Riverside County for corporal injury on a victim within seven years of a previous specific conviction, his second strike.

Since 2014, Rice has served time for prior convictions from Riverside County for vehicle theft with prior vehicle-theft related convictions, possession of a controlled substance for sale, possession of ammunition by a prohibited person, battery, and assault with a deadly weapon.

Prison officials state that the Lassen County District Attorneys Office is assisting HDSPs Investigative Services Unit in the case and the Office of the Inspector General has been notified. A Deadly Force Investigations Team (DFIT) at California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation headquarters is also investigating this incident. DFIT is a team of trained CDCR investigators that conducts criminal and administrative investigations into every use of deadly force. A deadly force review board will additionally conduct a full and complete review of the incident.

HDSP, located in Lassen County, opened in 1995 and houses 3,283 minimum-, medium-, and maximum-custody inmates. It provides academic classes, vocational instruction, work assignments and rehabilitation programs and has a staff-size of over 1,200.
The federal government says it is considering adjusting further, the benchmark crude oil price in the 2020 budget down to $20 per barrel.

In the initially approved appropriation assented into law by President Muhammadu Buhari last December, crude oil benchmark price was put at $57 per barrel.

Following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, which impacted the international crude oil market, resulting in the drastic slide in oil prices below $30 per barrel, the government cut the budget estimates by 30 per cent and reviewed the budget fundamentals.

Apart from reducing the crude oil benchmark price to $30 per barrel, the government also lowered the daily oil production capacity from 2.2 million barrels to 1.7 million barrels.

Coronavirus bites harder

However, with the impact of the coronavirus biting harder, coupled with the fact that the recent intervention by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies appears to have failed to stabilise the oil market and strengthen crude oil price, the government says it is considering another price adjustment.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed the plan on Tuesday in her contribution during the Citizens Dialogue Session on Governments Fiscal Policy Decisions in Response to the Fall in Oil Prices and the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The online session was organised by the Federal Ministry of Finance and National Planning in collaboration with the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL).

We are in the process of another adjustment that will see us bringing down the revenue indicator (crude oil benchmark) to $20 per barrel, Mrs Ahmed said at the conference in reference to the steps the government is taking against the impact of declining oil prices on the country.

The minister said ongoing projects in the countrys oil and gas industry may also suffer some delays as the government anticipates that its joint venture partners in those projects would hope to deliver on them much later than originally planned due to upstream budget cuts.

Economy to contract by 3.4%

Also, with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund anticipating a recession in the global economy this year in the aftermath of the impact of coronavirus pandemic, Mrs Ahmed said the Nigerian government expects the countrys economy to contract by about 3.4 per cent.

Indications are that whatever gains may have been recorded in an effort to ensure the economy recovered from the impact of the 2016 recession has been wiped out by the crisis, pushing the economy deeper into the negative zone than previously.

With global crude oil prices dropping further despite the commencement of the OPEC output cut deal on May 1 in an attempt to salvage the market, Mrs Ahmed said Nigeria realised far lower revenue than normal in March.

Debt obligations

On the countrys growing debt profile, Mrs Ahmed said the government was currently discussing with some multilateral lending organisations on the need to defer Nigerias debt service obligations to 2021 and beyond.

We are not asking for debt forgiveness, but just rescheduling of our obligations, the minister clarified, although she did not give further details.

She said at the moment, about 58 to 60 per cent of the countrys earnings go into servicing debts, a development that compelled the recent decision by the government to cancel its plan to borrow N850 billion externally and refocus it to domestic sources.

Rather, the government said it was refocusing its attention to tapping domestic sources for loans to fund the 2020 budget, an arrangement financial analysts say may cause the problem of crowding out local businesses from local lending space.

Meanwhile, in his contribution, the Director General, Budget Office, Ben Akabueze, said earnings from crude oil were expected to drop significantly by more than 80 per cent with the crisis.

Mr Akabueze said the governments decision to drastically revise its projections in the 2020 estimates was in line with the expectation that the economy would contract by a minimum 3.4 per cent this year, compared with its previous growth projection by 2.9 per cent .

Consequently, he said the government is considering expediting the process to organise the oil bid licensing round for the countrys marginal oil fields as well as the process to renew the expired oil mining licences this year to explore fresh revenue earning options.

Mr Akabueze said the cost of servicing the debts by the Nigerian government is expected to spike by about N200 billion during the year.
he Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica won the Pulitzer Prize in public service Monday for illuminating the sparse policing of remote Alaska villages, as a delayed awards ceremony recognized writing, photos and  for the first time  audio reporting

New York: The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica won the Pulitzer Prize in public service Monday for illuminating the sparse policing of remote Alaska villages, as a delayed awards ceremony recognized writing, photos and  for the first time  audio reporting on topics ranging from climate change to the legacy of slavery.

The public service winners contacted 600 village, tribal and other local governments and traveled by plane, sled and snowmobile to reveal that a third of rural Alaska communities had no local police protection, among other findings.

The riveting series spurred legislative changes and an influx of spending, the judges noted in an announcement postponed several weeks and held online because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Anchorage Daily News Editor David Hulen said the series called attention to some really serious problems in Alaska that have needed attention for a long time". Theres more to be done, and the paper will keep pursuing the issue, he said in a phone interview.

The New York Times won the investigative reporting prize for an expose of predatory lending in the New York City taxi industry and also took the international reporting award for what the judges called enthralling stories, reported at great risk, about Russian President Vladimir Putins government.

The Times also was awarded the commentary prize for an essay that Nikole Hannah-Jones wrote as part of the papers ambitious 1619 Project, which followed the throughlines of slavery in American life to this day.

Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet told the staff  in a virtual meeting  that this year's prizes were "particularly meaningful because they come as we are managing our lives under great difficulty even as we produce great journalism.

The Washington Posts work on global warming was recognized for explanatory reporting. The newspaper tracked nearly 170 years of temperature records to show that 10 percent of the planet's surface has already exceeded a rise of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times, the threshold world leaders have agreed they'd try not to exceed.

While the country is now focused on the coronavirus, another worldwide public-health crisis is upon us as the world warms, Executive Editor Martin Baron said.

Monday's awards recognized reporting last year, before the virus sparked a pandemic.

In a development that recognized how podcasting has brought new attention to reporting aimed at listeners rather than readers or viewers, a first-ever award for audio reporting went to This American Life, the Los Angeles Times and Vice News for The Out Crowd, an examination of the Trump administrations remain in Mexico immigration policy.

In another prize for the Los Angeles Times, Christopher Knight won the criticism award for what the judges called extraordinary community service by a critic in examining a proposal to overhaul of the L.A. County Museum of Art.

The staff of The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky, took the breaking news reporting award for unpacking racial disparities and other issues in a spate of governors pardons.

Two different projects won the national reporting award: ProPublicas look at deadly accidents in the US Navy and The Seattle Times examination of design flaws in the troubled Boeing 737 MAX jet. ProPublica Managing Editor Robin Fields said its reporting laid bare the avoidance of responsibility by the militarys most senior leaders."

The local reporting award went to The Baltimore Sun for shedding light on a previously undisclosed financial relationship between the mayor and the public hospital system, which she helped oversee.

The New Yorker took the feature reporting prize for Ben Taubs piece on a detainee at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. New Yorker contributor Barry Blitt got the editorial cartooning award for work that skewers the personalities and policies emanating from the Trump White House, as the judges saw it.

The Associated Press won the feature photography prize for images made during Indias clampdown on Kashmir, where a sweeping curfew and shutdowns of phone and internet service added to the challenges of showing the world what was happening in the region.

AP photographers Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand snaked around roadblocks, sometimes took cover in strangers homes and hid cameras in vegetable bags to capture images of protests, police and paramilitary action and daily life. Then they headed to an airport to persuade travelers to carry the photo files out with them and get them to the APs office in New Delhi.

"These journalists courage and compelling storytelling show the absolute best of what we do, AP Executive Editor Sally Buzbee said.

Reuters won the breaking news photography award for its coverage of protests that shook Hong Kong. Editor-in-Chief Stephen Adler said the photos brilliantly captured the magnitude of the protests.

While big outlets and collaborations got plenty of recognition, the small Palestine Herald-Press, in East Texas, got a Pulitzer for Jeffery Gerritt's editorials on the deaths of jail inmates awaiting trial.

In the arts categories, Michael R Jacksons musical A Strange Loop won the drama prize. And Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys" won the fiction prize; he also won in 2017 for The Underground Railroad".

The Pulitzer board also issued a special citation Monday to the trailblazing African American journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells, noting her outstanding and courageous reporting on lynchings. Wells was a journalist and publisher in the late 1800s and later helped found civil rights and womens suffrage groups; she died in 1931. The board said the citation comes with a bequest of at least $50,000 in support of Wells mission, with recipients to be announced.

The initial Pulitzer ceremony, which had been scheduled for 20 April, was pushed to give Pulitzer Board members who were busy covering the pandemic more time to evaluate the finalists. The Pulitzer Prizes in journalism were first awarded in 1917 and are considered the fields most prestigious honor in the US.
(CNN)  US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German biotechnology company BioNTech have begun testing an experimental coronavirus vaccine on humans in the United States, according to an announcement from the companies on Tuesday.

The companies coronavirus vaccine program is called BNT162. Study participants in the program in Germany were given doses of the vaccine last week and now the US trial  at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York and the University of Maryland School of Medicine  is underway, the companies have revealed.

The program's Phase 1/2 study is designed to test the safety, effectiveness and best dose level of four mRNA vaccine candidates and is to be evaluated in a single, continuous study, the companies said.

The first participants in the first stage of the study will be healthy adults ages 18 to 55, according to the announcement.

Worldwide race to develop a vaccine: Pfizer isn't the only company with a potential Covid-19 vaccine program this far along.

In April, scientists at Oxford University's Jenner Institute in the United Kingdom began testing its vaccine on humans and, depending on the trial results, says the vaccine could be ready as early as September.

In the US, the National Institutes of Health also started testing in humans, becoming the first to do so in March.

The World Health Organization says that eight vaccine programs are in the clinical trial phase and more than 100 others are in preliminary phases.
Tisheia Frazier, 40, has worked as a nursing assistant for eight years in a Philadelphia nursing home that has felt like an intensive care unit in recent weeks. Read more

The work of a nursing assistant in a nursing home  backbreaking, intimate, and relentless at all hours of the day and night  has never been easy.

But now, with the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping through nursing homes, the challenges and scariness of the job are on a new scale, just as they are for other health-care workers whove gotten much more time in the limelight than nursing assistants such as Tisheia Frazier.

You are in physical contact with the residents; theyre coughing and theyre sneezing. A lot of them are in pain because theyre so weak, they havent been eating. They havent been drinking, said Frazier, who works on an Alzheimers and dementia floor where all of the remaining residents have COVID-19.

Until recently, before her Philadelphia-area employer was able to obtain adequate protective gear for staff, all Frazier, 40, had to protect herself and her patients was what she described as a little flimsy mask that she was supposed to keep for five days, preserving it in a brown paper bag.

Now, Frazier, who spoke candidly about her experiences on condition of not identifying the facility where she works, has reusable gowns and face shields that are kept in little dressers outside the rooms. She also goes through an exhausting process of changing all her protective equipment before going into each room.

Nursing assistants provide most of the direct care in a nursing home, bathing residents, feeding them if necessary, and taking their temperatures, and other vital signs. Registered nurses are typically in supervisory positions.

Its extremely hot. Just imagine having a gown over top of your clothes and then a mask and a face shield, or sometimes you might have goggles and sometimes your goggles fog up, because its so hot, said Frazier, who has worked for 13 years off and on in the industry.

 FAQ: Your coronavirus questions, answered.

After eight years with her current employer, she earns $15.35 an hour, including the $1 an hour she gets for working from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. Thats about average for the 39,970 nursing assistants in the Philadelphia region, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. About half of them likely work in nursing homes or other facilities for the elderly, if national averages hold.

Frazier said she never knows what to expect when she reports on a shift.

Is it the night shell have to do her best to take care of a floor of patients by herself because others called out sick? Will more of the patients she has taken care of for years have died since her last shift? Are more infected?

Is this the day shell become infected?

Her floor used to have 45 residents, but thats now down to 25 because so many have died or had to go to the hospital. When the floor was full, standard staffing called for three nursing assistants, so each was responsible for 15 residents. Because all of the remaining residents on the floor are COVID-positive, they still try to keep three nursing assistants per shift, Frazier said. Its like an ICU.

The days are very uncertain. You know when you walk through the doors that you are putting yourself at risk, said Frazier, who lives in the Overbrook section of Philadelphia and has two teenagers and a 7-month-old baby whom she fears infecting.

Frazier said shes seen so many residents on her unit die, five on one day recently, that we almost dont have a unit anymore. She worries that nursing homes such as hers might not survive the pandemic.

The personal side of the work is devastating, Frazier said.

I cry. The residents we have on the floor, Ive had them for years. We know the families and everything. They are our families. We spend a lot of time around them.

Its brutal to see them wither away the way they have, to see them lose the weight, crying out for help, asking God to take them home.
SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 5 May 2020 - Goodwill reveals a new online will writing app for modern, millennial families in Singapore to organise their assets in 15 minutes, and get on with life.

Homegrown financial planning startup Goodwill has launched an online will app that everyone, especially young parents, smart singles, and savvy seniors can use to create a legally valid will from the ease and safety of home.

Over 21,000 people pass away each year in Singapore, many of them leaving disorganized finances and assets that lead to conflicted families, expensive court costs, and unclaimed assets. Those unclaimed funds now amount to more than S$210 million with the Public Trustee's office and other government ministries.





In these uncertain times, estate planning has moved from the perpetual to-do list to a top priority for most people. First of its kind in Singapore, Goodwill provides a unique option for those who need to organise their assets and make guardianship arrangements that they can update easily on their own in the years to come. The app can be used for a transparent flat fee for a comprehensive will, plus unlimited lifetime updates.





As parents retire and demand for estate planning increases among millennials reaching new parenthood, creating a will online is quickly becoming a more practical and reliable estate planning option. Goodwill is completely changing the way this generation manages their financial planning, from a static process that requires multiple intermediaries, to something everyone can access and customise for their own circumstances.





Rather than using obscure legalese, Goodwill follows an intuitive, dynamic user flow to generate easy to understand and legally enforceable documents. After providing a few details, users just add their assets, and assign shares to loved ones. They can then preview and print a customised last will and testament, and sign along with two witnesses to make their will legally valid.

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"I was six months pregnant when I started Goodwill. When you're bringing a new person into the world, the responsibility of making sure they're going to be ok with or without you is a precious burden," said Goodwill CEO Priya Surya. "At the same time, I was seeing my own parents who are savvy with WhatsApp and Facebook struggle with organising their assets. Seeking out a lawyer to make a one-time arrangement felt both very serious and final. We know that it's not how life works. As humans, we need both peace of mind, as well as the ability to change our plans just as easily."







Goodwill is about sharing good fortune with loved ones, as well as creating a legacy of generosity. The product has integrated more than 3,000 nonprofits registered on Singapore's charity portal into Goodwill. Individuals can now leave a gift, or even a percentage of your estate to a charity or university as part of their will.





Goodwill (formerly Plover) is funded by angel investors and by Entrepreneur First, a talent investor based at 32 Carpenter Street in Singapore, backed by Reid Hoffman and Greylock Ventures. Goodwill is a collaboration between some of the brightest minds in finance, law, and technology who are set on making financial planning and preparation seamless, easy and accessible for everyone.





For more information on estate planning or to create a will, visit Goodwill.

Website: https://makegoodwill.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/makegoodwill/

To learn more about writing a will, visit the help guide

For logo, photos, shots of the app: Goodwill Media Kit




A woman wearing a mask walks by the Last Bookstore in downtown Los Angeles. Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced select retail businesses will be allowed to reopen starting May 8 in California. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Gov. Gavin Newsom's latest plans for easing stay-at-home restrictions will potentially allow some parts of California to reopen at a faster rate than others if they can show the coronavirus has eased as a public health threat.

Newsom announced Monday that some retail stores across the state can reopen with modifications as early as Friday amid growing pressure to ease the stay-at-home order that has cratered the California economy.

But the virus is a bigger problem in some parts of California than others. L.A. County continues to be a hotbed of the crisis, with more than 1,250 deaths linked to COVID-19. The county accounts for nearly half of all hospitalizations in the state.

Conversely, the number of infections in some rural and suburban counties is dramatically lower, four counties have seen no cases at all, and more than a dozen counties have reported no deaths from the illness.

At least three counties  Modoc, near the Oregon border, and Yuba and Sutter, north of Sacramento  have reopened with restrictions in defiance of Newsom's order, and more than a dozen other communities have requested the power to follow suit.

Politically, there have also been divides. Officials in Los Angeles and the Bay Area have been more cautious, saying they fear reopening too early could cause further outbreaks and hurt the economy in the long run.

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti said Monday that different cities would need to take different steps to emerge from the pandemic-induced shutdown and that city and county officials were still trying to determine the safest course.

Our timing on opening may vary from other parts of the state, he said. I will reopen our city with careful consideration, guided by public health professionals.

Garcetti said he did not expect city businesses to be able to offer curbside delivery on Friday in step with Newsoms outline. L.A.'s Safer at Home order is in effect until May 15, and Garcetti said that he hoped steps restricting commerce could begin to be rolled back by then.

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Los Angeles County Public Health director Barbara Ferrer said Monday that officials would be publicly sharing recovery plans this week, noting that wherever its possible to safely reopen, well be doing so as quickly as possible.

On Monday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said she could not say when city businesses covered by Newsom's order would reopen, saying safety is the top priority.

"I think it's important that we provide some guidance. To be clear, the whole point of the health directive has everything to do with limiting our ability to be in contact with people so we can avoid not only transmitting the virus or contracting the virus," Breed told reporters. "The ability to do that is critical, but we also realize there are a number of people out there who are struggling financially, and if there is a way to accomplish the public health goals of keeping people safe with also allowing businesses to operate, but operate differently with certain guidelines."

The governors plan also expands decision-making at the local level, allowing some communities to move further ahead into the second phase of the reopening process at their own pace and open more businesses  such as restaurant dining rooms  beyond those outlined in the statewide policy.

But if communities want to take that next step, counties must first submit containment plans that meet certain requirements for hospital beds, testing kits, and the ability to track infected people and trace their contacts, Newsom said. Other local orders that are more restrictive than statewide reopening plans would supersede any changes the governor makes.

The Democratic governors move to give more discretion to counties follows large protests against Newsoms restrictions at the state Capitol and in Orange County, and as a handful of small rural counties moved to open their communities in defiance of his authority.

On Monday, Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey and 2nd District Supervisor Karen Spiegel argued that the county's orders had made it possible to contain the spread of the virus and prevent a hospital surge that was expected in mid-April. But now, they want to focus on the countys economic future.

The metrics in Riverside County have improved, Spiegel said at a news conference. That was due to the extra measures that the county put in place early on. We were one of the first that stepped up and said were going to fight this battle. The positive results would not have been possible if the community didnt do their part and step up.

Bailey said he thought the county was ready for the second stage of Newsoms four-stage plan , which includes the opening of low-risk workplaces such as retail and manufacturing. He said the Inland Empire was also ready to open recreation facilities and religious institutions.

Our region desires to be on our toes, not on our heels, at the front of the pack when the governor gives us the green light, Bailey said. We are eagerly awaiting for the go-ahead to restart Riversides regional economy.

At least three Northern California counties have defied Newsoms orders, allowing businesses to reopen beyond the statewide order. Newsom declined to say Monday whether there would be consequences for those counties and said the overwhelming majority of the state's 58 counties were doing the right thing.

The revised Yuba-Sutter counties order allows restaurants, retailers, shopping malls, gyms, salons, spas and tattoo parlors to operate once more as long as appropriate business modifications are made to adhere to social distancing and other tenets of combating COVID-19, according to a statement .

Those measures include regularly washing hands, staying home when sick and wearing a facial covering when social distancing isnt possible, according to public heath officer Phuong Luu.

Many businesses remain closed, even under the counties' revised order, including bars and nightclubs that dont serve food, museums, movie theaters, bowling alleys, arcades, live performance venues, places of worship and other mass gathering spaces, schools, community centers, beaches and piers, and summer camps and residence halls.

Marni Sanders, chief executive of the Yuba-Sutter Chamber of Commerce, says the local business community is thrilled that we are open.

I can tell you driving around there are lots of businesses open that werent open yesterday, so its a really good sign, she said Monday.

Over the past few weeks, Sanders said, there was a lot of frustration and anxiety, but the community is very optimistic and has remained hopeful throughout this whole pandemic situation.

We want to encourage people to shop and to dine and to get out there into our businesses and get money pumping into our economy, but we also are reminding people to be safe, she said. And our businesses are being safe as well during this phased reopening.

Among the establishments that took advantage of the revised health order was Lumberjacks Restaurant in Yuba City, which announced it would welcome diners back with restrictions, including constant sanitation, significantly reduced capacity, limited contact with customers, and more, according to a Facebook post.

We understand some of you do not feel comfortable returning to dining rooms just yet, the post continued, which is why we will be continuing our takeout and delivery options the same as we have been for the last few weeks.
Today we'll take a closer look at Everbright Grand China Assets Limited (HKG:3699) from a dividend investor's perspective. Owning a strong business and reinvesting the dividends is widely seen as an attractive way of growing your wealth. If you are hoping to live on the income from dividends, it's important to be a lot more stringent with your investments than the average punter.

Before you buy any stock for its dividend however, you should always remember Warren Buffett's two rules: 1) Don't lose money, and 2) Remember rule #1. We'll run through some checks below to help with this.

Click the interactive chart for our full dividend analysis

SEHK:3699 Historical Dividend Yield May 5th 2020

Payout ratios

Dividends are usually paid out of company earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. 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. Looking at the data, we can see that 24% of Everbright Grand China Assets's profits were paid out as dividends in the last 12 months. With a low payout ratio, it looks like the dividend is comprehensively covered by earnings.

With a strong net cash balance, Everbright Grand China Assets investors may not have much to worry about in the near term from a dividend perspective.

Remember, you can always get a snapshot of Everbright Grand China Assets's latest financial position, by checking our visualisation of its financial health.

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. With a payment history of less than 2 years, we think it's a bit too soon to think about living on the income from its dividend. Its most recent annual dividend was CN0.02 per share.

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It's good to see at least some dividend growth. Yet with a relatively short dividend paying history, we wouldn't want to depend on this dividend too heavily.

Dividend Growth Potential

Examining whether the dividend is affordable and stable is important. However, it's also important to assess if earnings per share (EPS) are growing. Growing EPS can help maintain or increase the purchasing power of the dividend over the long run. In the last five years, Everbright Grand China Assets's earnings per share have shrunk at approximately 2.3% per annum. Declining earnings per share over a number of years is not a great sign for the dividend investor. Without some improvement, this does not bode well for the long term value of a company's dividend.

Conclusion

When we look at a dividend stock, we need to form a judgement on whether the dividend will grow, if the company is able to maintain it in a wide range of economic circumstances, and if the dividend payout is sustainable. Firstly, we like that Everbright Grand China Assets has a low and conservative payout ratio. Earnings per share are down, and to our mind Everbright Grand China Assets has not been paying a dividend long enough to demonstrate its resilience across economic cycles. Everbright Grand China Assets might not be a bad business, but it doesn't show all of the characteristics we look for in a dividend stock.

Companies possessing a stable dividend policy will likely enjoy greater investor interest than those suffering from a more inconsistent approach. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. Taking the debate a bit further, we've identified 3 warning signs for Everbright Grand China Assets that investors need to be conscious of moving forward.

Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our curated list of dividend stocks with a yield above 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.
Conservation efforts for the African forest elephant have been hindered by how little is known the large animal, according to researchers.

A newly published study by a 10-member international research team, including University of Oregon biological anthropologist Nelson Ting, offers new information that could help to understand and protect the elephants amid increasing threats to their existence.

The team's study, published in PLOS ONE, suggests that the forest elephant population size is smaller than believed, leaving the species in an even graver position than previously acknowledged. This is based on one of the largest known populations, the researchers concluded, being 40 to 80 percent smaller than previously suggested.

The new findings provide insights into a revised population count and social behavior of the forest elephants, Loxodonta cyclotis. Both factors have been understudied, even as the elephant's population has dramatically declined over recent decades from human-related activities like habitat loss and poaching.

"Forest elephants are among the most threatened animals, but their biology and behavior remain poorly understood," said Ting, who is also a member of the UO's Institute of Ecology and Evolution. "More information is key to figuring out the best ways to protect them and prevent extinction."

Ting had a senior role in the study, which was led by UO graduate student Colin Brand and Gabonese scientist Mireille Johnson. It also featured several collaborators from the Smithsonian Institution.

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Ting was drawn to studying the elephants' elusive nature in the same Central African jungles where he was studying primates, leading to a partnership with Johnson, who specializes in forest elephants.

African elephants often are grouped with the better-known savanna elephants, also known as bush elephants, Loxodonta africana, resulting in less scrutiny. The two tusked animals, however, are actually quite different, Ting said.

Reproductive lives, habitat preference, and physical characteristics such as body size, ear shape, and tusk shape and color are among the differences.

Savanna elephants roam open landscapes. Forest elephants stay in more densely wooded areas, where they are harder to study and count.

The research was done in the southern Industrial Corridor of the Gamba Complex of Protected Areas in southwestern Gabon, a global stronghold for forest elephants.

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To assess population size, the researchers counted elephants using a method known as genetic capture-recapture -- which involves systematically collecting dung piles and analyzing their genetic composition to match the DNA of each deposit to its owner. The approach is like collecting genetic fingerprints for the elephants, Ting said.

In previous methodology, Ting said, researchers also counted dung piles but could not differentiate those deposited by one individual from another. That method can lead to over-counting since the same elephant could be responsible for multiple mounds.

Previous methodology had assessed the elephant population size in the Gamba Complex Industrial Corridor to be approximately 10,000 individuals, which would be a substantial proportion of the global forest elephant population, the researchers noted.

Ting and team estimated that their sampled region is actually home to 754 to 1,502 elephants or .47 to .80 elephants per square kilometer. That data suggests the population in the corridor is between 3,033 to 6,043 elephants, based on abundance, or 1,684 to 2,832, based on their density -- the two different metrics they used to model the population size.

"Gabon is thought to be a population stronghold of African forest elephants," Ting said. "But even our most optimistic results suggest a smaller population size than expected. Our research shows how endangered they really are if a region like this one is so overestimated."

It is hoped, Ting said, that his team's new findings can help inform government officials and conservation groups as they plan future conservation strategies.

"Our study emphasizes the threatened status of forest elephants and demonstrates the need for more research," Ting said. "It is imperative that known populations are monitored to provide accurate data on the status of these populations and the global forest elephant population as a whole."
President Donald Trump departs on travel to the Camp David presidential retreat from the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, on May 1, 2020. (Carlos Barria via Reuters)

Trump Says Bailouts for Democratic-Run States Are Unfair to Republicans

President Donald Trump said on May 4 that states shouldnt expect federal bailouts amid the CCP virus pandemic.

I think Congress is inclined to do a lot of things, but I dont think theyre inclined to do bailouts. A bailout is different than, you know, reimbursing for the plague, Trump told the New York Post, adding that there would likely be a strong economic rebound after the worst of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic subsides.

Its not fair to the Republicans because all the states that need helptheyre run by Democrats in every case, the president said. Florida is doing phenomenal, Texas is doing phenomenal, the Midwest is, you know, fantasticvery little debt.

He noted that Illinois, New York, and Californiawhich are run by Democratic governors and have Democratic majorities in state legislatureshave tremendous debt.

I dont think the Republicans want to be in a position where they bail out states that are, that have been mismanaged over a long period of time, Trump said.

Democrats have said that approving funding for municipalities and states is a priority for the fourth piece of stimulus legislation.

Marylands Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who serves as the chairman of the National Governors Association, said Congress should approve funding to states.

To stabilize state budgets and to make sure states have the resources to battle the virus and provide the services the American people rely on, Congress must provide immediate fiscal assistance directly to all states, Hogan said in a statement in April, adding that states must be allowed to use any state stabilization funds for replacement of lost revenue.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan talks to reporters during a news briefing about the COVID-19 pandemic in Annapolis, Md., on April 17, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Hogan stressed that if Congress doesnt appropriate around $500 billion for states to meet budget problems, then states will have to make major reductions to critically important services around the United States.

Trumps comments contrast with those of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who in April criticized Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells (R-Ky.) statement that states should declare bankruptcy.

McConnells remark, according to Cuomo, was the most un-American, most uncharitable, ugly statement of all time and said New York contributes more taxes and revenue than it gets back.

But Trump told the Post the state has hostile senators, Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who come in and want things.

Its not like a working environment that you want to be involved with. I never even had a phone call from Schumer or Kirsten, he said.
For wineries, breweries, and distilleries, tastings are an incredibly important way to generate sales and build loyalty with buyers. With most of the tasting rooms around the country closed because of the COVID-19 crisis, producers are turning to virtual tastings to replicate the experience of the physical tasting room. These typically come in the form of a recorded or live online guided tour of one or more products.

Recently, the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC), in its Third Notice of Regulatory Relief, added a new section to provide guidance on how to conduct virtual wine tastings. Wine Institute has listed requirements provided by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) on a tasting samples resource page. The Wine Institute page also tracks the list of states that have approved the practice of shipping samples for virtual tastings. We compiled a summary of best practices for complying with the guidance from TTB, California ABC, and state regulatory agencies.

Charge the customer. According to the California ABC, tasting samples can be included free of charge, "provided they are part of a sale of wine or other products." Tasting samples, therefore, should either come with a price if shipped without other products or come bundled (included) with other products sold.

Only use manufacturer-sealed containers. This is challenging for many producers currently because they don't have access yet to a bottling process for tiny bottles. However, tasting samples can technically be of any size that falls under TTB's definition of "standards of fill."

Use a valid COLA. Any samples shipped must fall under a valid Certificate of Label Approval (COLA). If a new bottle size is used for the tasting samples such as a 50mL or 100mL standard of fill, producers can either file for a new COLA or change the net contents on an existing COLA and use an allowable revision. Note: A challenge for 50mL and 100mL bottles is TTB's minimum font size of 1mm. Check TTB's wine labeling guidance page for more information.

Pay all taxes. Sending tasting samples under direct shipping licenses will mean that TTB federal excise tax (FET) is due, as well as any taxes required by the destination state, including sales and use, excise, and markup taxes.

Follow direct shipping rules. Any tasting samples sent via direct shipment are subject to the laws of the destination state, including license requirements, volume limits, product registration, and age verification. Wineries can consult the Wine Compliance Rules portal by Wine Institute and Avalara for requirements.

Make sure the state has authorized tasting samples. Check with Wine Institute's resource page to see which states have authorized the direct shipment of tasting samples. As of May 4, the vast majority of states that allow direct shipping have approved tasting samples, with only Arkansas (onsite only law), Kentucky (will allow once new law takes effect), Louisiana (minimum container size restriction), Maine (minimum container size), and Rhode Island (onsite only) explicitly prohibiting the practice.

If you need help getting licensed, obtaining COLAs, registering products, filing returns, or with any other compliance function, Avalara for Beverage Alcohol can help, talk to someone now.
Oil prices rallied for a fourth day on Monday as traders looked ahead to the impact of output cuts from the worlds largest producers and the reopening of parts of the U.S. economy.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil gained 3.08 percent to $20.39 per barrel. The U.S. benchmark has gained 65 percent over its four-day winning streak. Brent crude, the international benchmark, added 2.87 percent to $27.20 per barrel.

Crude oil prices continue to see support from a lot faster than expected production declines in Canada and the U.S., the start of the OPEC+ production cutbacks and the fact that we're not going to have a repeat of May when the June futures contract expires, Andrew Lipow, president of the Houston-based consulting firm Lipow Associates, told FOX Business.

CORONAVIRUS REOPENING PLAN DEALS LAS VEGAS CASINOS A LOSING HAND

The worlds largest producers began enacting production cuts on May 1 that would reduce the glut of oil that has flooded the market amid the demand destruction caused by stay-at-home orders aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19. Global demand has fallen by 30 million barrels per day as countries around the world have told people to eliminate nonessential travel.

The production cuts and the reopening of the economy have injected a little bullish rhetoric into the fray, said Stephen Schork, editor of the daily oil newsletter The Schork Report. At least 15 states on Monday eased some stay-at-home orders including Florida, which will allow indoor retail establishments to open at 25 percent capacity, except in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

He added its highly unlikely futures prices for June will go negative like they did in May as small retail investors who didnt understand how the futures market works were behind the move.

You don't have any of that dumb money in the market anymore, he said.

Lipow agreed that negative futures prices were unlikely to reappear, and reiterated his earlier stance that prices wouldnt fall below $10 again.

Story continues

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However, he warned that at $10 a barrel in the futures markets, prices at the wellhead in places like New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas are in the low single digits and that is not sustainable for producers."

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A group of Democratic Senators on Monday said there has been a surge in hate crime against Asian-Americans amid coronavirus pandemic and urged the Trump Administration to take concrete steps to arrest the spike.

In a letter to Assistant Attorney General Eric S Dreiband, the 16 Senators, including Kamala Harris, requested the Trump Administration to address this discrimination like it had been done in the past.

The Senators said hate crimes against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) during the pandemic and the inadequate federal response to address these racist and xenophobic attacks is a sharp break from the efforts of past administrations, Republican and Democratic alike.

There are more than 20 million Americans of Asian descent and two million AAPI individuals are working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, as health care workers, law enforcement agents, first responders, and other essential service providers, they said.

"It is critical that the Civil Rights Division ensure that the civil and constitutional rights of all Americans are protected during this pandemic," the Senators said.

In the last month alone, Asian American organizations received nearly 1,500 incidents of anti-Asian harassment and discrimination against AAPI individuals across the country, they said.

This comes after the FBI assessed in March that hate crime incidents against Asian Americans were likely to surge across the country, endangering AAPI communities, the Democratic Senators said.

They said on March 14 this year, a man stabbed two Asian American children -- aged 2 and 6 -- and their father at a Sam's Club in Texas because "he thought the family was Chinese, and infecting people with the coronavirus."

Despite warnings that using offensive and stigmatizing language to refer to COVID-19 could stoke anti-Asian bias, President Trump and his administration's officials have referred to the coronavirus as the "Chinese Virus," "Wuhan Virus," and at least one White House official even called it the "Kung Flu," the lawmakers rued.

"Such harmful rhetoric contradicts guidance by public health experts," they said.

The World Health Organization's guidance in naming infectious diseases warns against using names that stigmatize certain communities, the Senators said.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention also recognizes the "stigma and discrimination that can occur when people associate a disease, such as COVID-19, with a population or nationality," they said.
The first Monday of May marks one of the biggest red carpet events of the year, and certainly, the most fashionable, thanks to the annual Met Gala.

The invitation-only event, which serves as a fundraising benefit for the Metropolitan Museum of Arts Costume Institute in New York City, brings together the worlds most glamorous celebrities, socialites and fashion designers.

But when it was first established in 1948, the Met Gala was far from the fashionable event it has become (in fact, it wasnt even held in May until 2005). Former Vogue editor-in-chief, Diana Vreeland, took on consultant duties in 1972, creating some of the Mets most elaborate themes and attracting an A-list guest list that included names like Bianca Jagger, Cher and Andy Warhol.

It was thanks to Vreeland that the Met Gala began counting royalty (both celeb and real-life royalty) among its guest list, too, with Princess Lee Radziwell and her sister, former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis attending in the 70s.

With Vogues current editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, at the helm (shes been organizing the event since 1995), that tradition continues - with more royals, too.

While this years Met Gala has been postponed, ahead, you can relive all of the best royal moments over the years.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Ron Galella Collection via Getty

While she doesnt have an official royal title, the former First Lady is certainly considered to be American royalty. In 1979, Jackie made her unforgettable Met Gala debut for the Costume Exhibit entitled, Fashions of the Habsburg Era: Austria-Hungary, dressed in a black, strapless Valentino gown with a matching ruffled wrap.

Though this was the first time Jackie attended the Met Gala (which was organized by her friend and former Vogue editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland), she had previously been involved as co-chair of the 1976 and 1977 exhibitions.

In 1976, while working at the publishing company, Viking Press, Jackie even edited In The Russian Style, which was published in conjunction with that years costume exhibit, The Glory of Russian Costume.

Princess Diana

Patrick McMullan via Getty Image

When Princess Diana attended the 1996 Met Gala, she wore the ultimate 90s look - with a couture twist, obviously. For the Christian Dior theme, Diana donned a navy blue slip dress with black lace trim, created by Diors then-designer John Galliano. Diana accessorized with jewelry from her own collection, most notably choosing to wear her pearl and sapphire choker necklace.

The dress was reportedly part of Gallianos first couture collection for the fashion house, but Diana almost didnt wear it. According to Royal biographer, Katie Nicholl, Diana worried that her then 14-year-old son William would be embarrassed by how revealing it was.

Lee Radziwill

Getty Images

The younger sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Lee became known as Princess Lee Radziwill following her 1959 marriage to Polands Prince Stanislaw Albrecht Radziwill.

Lee attended the Met Gala several times over the years, including in 1978 and 2010, but it was her 2001 appearance that was particularly noteworthy. Wearing a beaded white gown, Lee celebrated the Costume Institutes exhibit dedicated to her late sister, Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years.

Marie-Chantal of Greece

Getty Images

Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece has attended the Met Gala several times over the years. In 2001, she arrived on the arm of Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani, who recently recalled that years theme, Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years, on his Instagram.

The Princess wore, in homage, the draped mint-green Valentino gown that Jackie herself had worn on her visit to Cambodia in 1967, Valentino captioned the photo of himself and Princess Marie-Chantal alongside an image of Jackie in the original design.

Queen Rania of Jordan

Getty Images

Proving to be a favorite designer among royalty, Valentino created Queen Rania of Jordans gown for the 2016 Met Gala. Though the theme was Manus X Machina: Fashion in the Age of Technology, Queen Rania took a more classic approach with her feather embellished dress from Valentinos Fall 2016 collection.

Princess Beatrice

Getty Images

The last royal Met Gala appearance came courtesy of Princess Beatrice in 2018. For the slightly controversial Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination theme, Beatrice played it safe with a billowy violet gown by Alberta Ferretti.

The embellishment along the sheer sleeves and neckline of the gown, plus her bejeweled rope hair accessories meant that Beatrice didnt even have to wear jewelry.
He finds himself in a Motel 6 at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has sped the decline of the local news industry. The number of newsroom jobs in the U.S. has fallen by roughly half since 2008, the Pew Research Center said last month. Readers have increasingly been getting their news on screens, rather than from newsprint, and the revenue generated by online ads has fallen far short of the money once supplied by print advertising. Large companies, many of them controlled by Wall Street companies, have scooped up papers across the country and cut their staffs in an effort to wring profits from an ailing business.
AMSTERDAM, May 5 (Reuters) - The Dutch celebrated the 75th anniversary of their liberation from Nazi occupation on Tuesday after King Willem-Alexander paid tribute to war victims and acknowledged that some had "felt abandoned" by his great-grandmother during World War II.

Liberation Day celebrations have been cancelled or moved online to comply with a ban on public gatherings during the coronavirus outbreak. A virtual concert featuring favourite national musicians was due to broadcast on Tuesday evening.

People flew the Dutch tricolour flag from their balconies and gardens.

Speaking to an almost empty square in central Amsterdam late on Monday, the king drew parallels between the sacrifices the Dutch people made during the war and the lockdown imposed now to halt the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

"In these exceptional months we have all had to give up some of our freedom. Our country hasn't known anything like this since the war," he said in a televised speech after the nation had observed two minutes silence in honour of the war dead.

Only Queen Maxima, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and a couple of other officials were present at the wreath-laying ceremony on Dam Square that would usually draw thousands of people.

While praising the Dutch soldiers, resistance heroes and civilians who opposed the Nazi occupiers, Willem-Alexander said on Monday country should recognise its failures too.

"(Some people at that time) felt abandoned, insufficiently heard, insufficiently supported, even if it were only in words. Including from London, including from my great-grandmother, as steadfast and fierce in her resistance as she was," he said, striking an unusually candid and personal note.

Queen Wilhelmina, who was strongly opposed to the Nazis and spent the war in exile in Britain, rarely mentioned the plight of the Jews in her radio addresses to the Dutch people.

In the early hours of Tuesday, dignitaries lit a torch outside the building in the eastern city of Wageningen where the German surrender was negotiated.

Around 250,000 Dutch people died in World War II, including around 100,000 Jews, according to figures from the country's Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide studies.

As of Tuesday, the Netherlands had reported 5,168 deaths from COVID-19. (Reporting by Toby Sterling Editing by Gareth Jones)
WATERTOWN, Conn., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Siemon, a leading global network infrastructure specialist, today announced that it has expanded its mobile-friendly website with a new global eCatalog that provides live access to updated product information through an advanced consumer-style interface with feature selection filters, document downloads, and easy project bill of material (BOM) generation and sharing.

From the new best-in-class eCatalog, customers can drill down into Siemon's main product categories, including copper and fiber cable and connectivity, work area solutions, racks and cable management, MapIT automated infrastructure management (AIM), ruggedized connectivity, high-speed cable assemblies, tools and testers, and connecting blocks. Within each product family, users can choose from a variety of attributes to further narrow down their product selection through a hierarchical user-friendly graphical interface.

Within each product window, users can access product images and related documentation like detailed spec sheets and installation instructions, as well as links to additional product information and marketing resources. Detailed attributes specific to each product can be selected to further filter results and view and select from available part numbers. Because the new eCatalog is linked with Siemon's internal databases, filtered results are updated with the very latest product information. Selected part numbers and quantities can be added to a cart to create a specific project BOM that may be emailed or exported into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheetwithout the need to create an account or login.

"To remain competitive in today's marketplace, our customers need to easily obtain specific product information and quickly generate bills of material for distributor pricing and project bids," says Tony Veatch, Director of Product Management for Siemon. "With tens of thousands of available product numbers in our arsenal based on specific attributes like performance, construction, color, size, length and a variety of other features, linking the new Siemon eCatalog to our existing internal system ensures real-time product information for our customersas new products are launched and added to our system, they will be immediately accessible to our customers through the eCatalog."

To further ease the ability to locate specific Siemon product information, the search function on the www.siemon.com website has also been expanded to search the new eCatalog by keyword and specific part number.

To access the new Siemon eCatalog, visit: ecatalog.siemon.com from any device.

About Siemon

Established in 1903, Siemon is an industry leader specializing in the design and manufacture of high quality, high performance IT infrastructure solutions and services for Data Centers, LANs and Intelligent Buildings. Headquartered in Connecticut, USA, with global sales, technical and logistics expertise spanning 100 countries, Siemon offers the most comprehensive suites of copper and optical fiber cabling systems, cabinets, racks, cable management, data center power and cooling systems and Intelligent Infrastructure Management solutions. With more than 400 patents specific to structured cabling, Siemon Labs invests heavily in R&D and the development of Industry Standards, underlining the company's long-standing commitment to its customers and the industry. Through an ongoing commitment to waste and energy reduction, Siemon's environmental sustainability benchmarks are unparalleled in the industry, including 179% global carbon negativity and zero-landfill status.

Siemon Interconnect Solutions (SIS) is a Siemon business unit comprised of a team of dedicated technical sales professionals supported by Siemon Labs, mechanical, electrical and signal integrity engineers committed to solving industry and customer driven interconnect challenges. We provide custom network infrastructure solutions to: OEM's, Leading Manufacturers, Value-Added Resellers and System Integrators.

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A mural has been hung on the boarded up front of The Palace Bar in Dublin

The pub experience will be "dramatically" different post-crisis, according to representatives of bars as they published a new set of social distancing guidelines that may allow pubs to reopen sooner.

Pub representatives will urge Government officials to allow bars to reopen at the same time as restaurants and cafes, with a series of strict social distancing guidelines in place.

According to the Government's road map to reopening the country, pubs are to reopen in phase five on August 10.

However, cafes and restaurants will reopen under phase three, commencing June 29.

The Licensed Vintners' Association (LVA) and the Vintners' Federation of Ireland (VFI) have now joined forces to urge the Government to put forward pub reopening dates if publicans follow strict measures.

The measures are: dispense-only bars, with no sitting, standing, ordering, payment or drinking at the bar itself; customers seated at tables at all times, with table service provided.

Also no more than four people per every 10 sqm; a maximum of six people allowed at one table; customers using hand sanitiser before entry; staff to be trained to maintain a safe distance from customers when taking orders and washing hands every half-hour; outdoor spaces must "enhance" social distancing; no live music or DJs; safe use of toilets, which may include limits on the number of customers using toilets at any one time.

Gardai or the HSE will have the power to close any business flouting the health guidelines.

The LVA and the VFI believe that under these strict guidelines, pubs should be allowed to reopen on June 29 instead of August 10.

"We don't believe it is in any way appropriate that the Government should apply one rule for some hospitality businesses and another rule for others," said LVA chief executive Donall O'Keeffe.

He said that trading will be "extremely difficult" under these new guidelines and that the pub "experience" will drastically change.

"We are making a series of radical proposals to how bars should operate for the reopening scenario," Mr O'Keeffe said.

"Trading will be extremely difficult under these circumstances. There is no doubt that the pub experience as we know it will have to change dramatically.

"However, for those who want to trade, these measures will have the essential impact of protecting the health and well-being of staff and customers alike."

VFI chief executive Padraig Cribben said that the roadmap as it stands is not "tenable".

Challenge

"Pubs across Ireland are up to that challenge and will do what is required for maintaining a safe and healthy place of business," he added.

Meanwhile, construction trade union Unite said that companies cannot be left to regulate themselves and called for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for all workers.

"A number of steps need to be taken to ensure that construction workers feel confident returning to work," said Unite regional officer Tom Fitzgerald.

"These include enforced social distancing, all necessary PPE available on an ongoing basis and sanitary facilities."
Over hundred people are said to have died within the last ten days in Hadejia Local Government Area of Jigawa state.

The Special Assistant to the Local Council Chairman on Media, Sani Kakabori who spoke to Channels Television says an average of ten people mostly above the ages of fifty dies everyday for the last ten days, in the local government.

However, the state Government has established a five man committee to investigate the issue and recommend appropriate actions.



The State Chairman COVID 19 Task force who is also the Commissioner of health, Dr Abba Zakari disclosed this in a statement.

According to him, the Committee is chaired by Dr Mahmud Abdulwahab with Shehu Mohammad, Yusuf Hakimi, Shehu Sule, and representative of World Health Organization (WHO) as members.

Abba Zakari pointed out that the committee are expected to submit their reports within three days.

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In this seemingly unending era of lockdown and staying at home, many questions come to mind. Some of them are pertinent and deserve pursuing, while others can easily be discharged.

Having followed closely the historic cooperation between Egypt and the European Union as our prime economic and trading partner at different stages of my career as a diplomat, a professor and lastly as an adviser to the minister of trade and industry, I am now wondering whether the time has come to renew our vows.

It has been more than 15 years since Egypt and the EU negotiated their Association Agreement (AA), which after the massive evolutions of free-trade agreements (FTAs) now appears to be a shallow one focusing only on trade in goods and tariff reductions. If Egypt decides to renew the framework of its cooperation with the EU today, it will have to venture into a deeper and more comprehensive free-trade agreement (DCFTA) known as a new generation FTA.

The AA, also referred to as the Partnership Agreement with the EU that has been in force since 2004, binds Egypt to certain obligations and establishes a free-trade area over a 12-year transitional period. But this is confined to trade in goods, whereas negotiating a new generation FTA with the EU would encompass trade in services as well, including telecommunications, e-commerce and digitisation, investment and competition policies, sustainable development and intellectual property rights.

This article will look into whether such a new and broader agreement would be worth pursuing and whether Egypt is ready for it. This will help to provide recommendations on policy implications, highlighting the potential value-added preferences of a new generation FTA as well as revealing its possible downsides.

Attempting to negotiate a DCFTA is the natural course of action to take by two partners whose history of trade agreements and cooperation dates back to the early 1970s. The EU has granted preferential access to Egypt since 1973 under the so-called Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), which provides tariff reductions across the board. Yet, even so Egypt has lagged behind other developing countries such as India, Malaysia and Singapore, as well as Morocco and Tunisia, in making the best use of the GSP system.

In the aftermath of the 1973 War between Egypt, Syria and Israel, Egypt signed an upgraded Cooperation Agreement with the EU in 1977 when the EU did not withhold aid to Egypt at that time. EU assistance to Egypt accounted for the lions share of more than 30 per cent of the total aid to the Mediterranean countries, amounting to hundreds of millions in the then European currencies.

In the late 1990s, as a replacement for the Cooperation Agreement Egypt and the EU moved to the Association Agreement based on exchanging preferences. Once again, the EU did not fail to provide grants and soft loans to Egypt to upgrade its exports with a view to readying them for international competition. But the agreement has come well short of expectations, as Egypts economy has undergone only limited diversification and there has been insufficient growth in its exports to the EU. This is what makes many in Egypt doubtful about negotiating a new agreement with the EU with additional obligations at a time when they feel Egypt is not yet ready for it.

The Association Agreement has come under heavy scrutiny and criticism as Egypt has continuously suffered a chronic deficit in its trade balance with the EU, reaching five billion euros in 2019. However, this deficit should come as no surprise as our exports to the EU consist of mainly agricultural exports alongside oil and gas, while we import industrial inputs, machinery, medical materials, cars, auto parts and so on from the EU.

Without going into an in-depth discussion of advantages and disadvantages, we must acknowledge that in the absence of the agreement our agricultural exports would have hardly been able to penetrate European markets. Financial and technical assistance were generally disbursed to Egypt after signing the agreement to help the country to upgrade its industrial sector and promote its exports.

Despite the criticisms the AA has elicited, a new generation of trade agreements that are deeper and more comprehensive than the current ones are becoming more compelling than ever for the two partners. Cognisant of Egypts strength and its strategic position, the EU is convinced of the stabilising role played by Egypt in the region and its effective role in combating illegal immigration. The EU also recognises Egypts influence in Africa and its war against terrorism nationally and regionally, and it is keen to nurture strong and steady relations with Egypt that are essential to the Mediterranean Basin as a whole.

A DCFTA is also certainly worth the costs for Egypt to help to elevate its economy to the next level. A new generation FTA would not deal with tariffs as they have already reached their lowest point, but it would address issues of trade in services, the digital economy, and the promotion and facilitation of investment, which are of interest to Egypt.

Upgrading the services sector is key for the Egyptian economy. Services are the speedy highways of trade. From telephones and faxes to telecommunications and the Internet, no economy can prosper without an efcient services infrastructure, high-quality broadband connectivity, and an efficient and competitive financial system. Though Egypt is better off than some others in this domain, it still has a long way to go to reach a more comfortable level of digitising its economy.

It is important after the coronavirus pandemic has abated, ending the current lockdowns, to contemplate how best to embark on giant steps to reach full digitisation. Tighter cooperation with the EU to enable Egypt to advance in this respect represents a potential trajectory. Any costs Egypt will have to bear will look trivial when compared to the benefits it will reap in availing itself of the opportunity to bridge the digital divide. Negotiating a DCFTA with the EU is no longer a luxury but a necessity.

Although there are no upfront guarantees that European investment will be forthcoming in the wake of a DCFTA, the ensuing conducive and predictable environment, as well as a more transparent regulatory framework, will certainly help Egypt better integrate into the European supply and value chains and thus incentivise its private sector. This is yet another enticement for Egypt not to shy away from negotiating a new generation FTA with the EU.

There are certainly also other incentives and motivations, which due to a lack of space are omitted here. However, let me venture into answering the equally important second question of readiness. Yes, Egypt is ready to negotiate a more complex follow-up agreement with the EU, as it has matured thanks to its stringent and recent economic adjustment programme that has attracted much praise by donors and multilateral financial institutions alike. Though the coronavirus pandemic has led to setbacks for the economy, the readiness of Egypt to undergo more reforms remains intact. It is also ready to deal with behind the border impediments to trade and upend its weaknesses to derive all the benefits it can from a DCFTA.

Based on past practice, Egypt should not fail to get aid for trade to prepare itself for some long and tedious negotiations. By modernising its services sector and establishing its competitive edge, an agreement with the EU would also raise Egypts profile in its dealings with the African continent within the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.

We should not shy away from such negotiations, as the Egyptian negotiator with all his accumulated and extensive experience over the years can easily excel and achieve the maximum interests of Egypt and its people. Concluding a DCFTA with the EU will signal confidence in Egypt in its dealings with its partners and give it additional credibility at the international level and with EU member states.

*The writer is former assistant foreign minister for international economic affairs.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 7 May, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Rajesh Kumar Thakur By

Express News Service

PATNA: Over 1200 students returning by a special train from Kota in Rajasthan received a unique welcome at Bihars Darbhanga junction on Tuesday as district officials gifted them home-made masks imprinted with Madhubani paintings and a bunch of roses.

The entry and exit points of Darbhanga station were festooned with colourful balloons and welcome posters. On getting off the train, the students were greeted with clapping and a cry of welcome to your home state.

Overwhelmed by the gesture, one of the students, Sonu Kumar, said they had never imagined such morale-boosting treatment, adding that he would use the mask with the Madhubani paintings as it exhibited the cultural identity of the state.

The move was the brainchild of Darbhanga district magistrate Dr Tyagarajan SM. It was aimed at creating confidence and making them feel welcome and bonded with the culture of the state, he said.

Similarly, in Munger district, DM Rajesh Meena also welcomed the students and others with roses and wished them a safe and healthy life ahead.

Meanwhile, the Muzaffarpur district administration has introduced yoga at some model quarantine centres in Bihar for the migrants.

Besides all this, the state disaster management department is also giving free utensils, clothes and other items to the migrants and others placed under quarantine and allowing them to take these home after being discharged.

On Monday, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar also announced an additional Rs 500 to each of the migrants who are discharged after 21 days of quarantine.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's dialogue with Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee on dealing with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis will be aired on Tuesday as part of his series of deliberations with experts on economy and health. The Congress party has tweeted a 1.44-minute clip from the conversation which will be aired in full at 9 am Tuesday.

The first such dialogue was held last week when Gandhi discussed the coronavirus pandemic and its economic implications with former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan. During that dialogue, Rajan had said India should be "cleverer" in lifting the lockdown and should open up its economy in a "measured way" soon to save jobs.

He had also said that Rs 65,000 crore should be spent to support the poor hit hard by the crisis.

Also read: Coronavirus Lockdown X: Why it can't be business as usual for India

Also read: Indian economy can rebound fast if govt spends more to create demand, says Abhijit Banerjee
Valmet to supply automation to AustroCels new bioethanol plant in Hallein, Austria

AustroCels bioethanol plant currently under construction in Hallein, Austria, will run with Valmets automation to produce biofuel to replace fossil fuel.

AustroCels bioethanol plant currently under construction in Hallein, Austria, will run with Valmets automation to produce biofuel to replace fossil fuel.

Valmet Oyjs trade press release on May 5, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. EET



Valmet will supply automation to AustroCels bioethanol plant currently under construction in Hallein, Austria. The advanced automation technology will provide the plant with high operational flexibility, reliability and availability in producing biofuel to replace fossil fuel.

The order was included in Valmets orders received of the first quarter 2020. The value of the order is not disclosed. The delivery will take place in June 2020, and the plant will start its operation at the end of 2020.

The bioethanol from the plant is produced from waste materials from the adjacent viscose pulp mill through a process of fermenting and distilling wood sugar. This biofuel will be added to petrol, replacing about one percent of the annual petrol consumption in Austria and saving around 50,000 tons of CO 2 per year.

We selected Valmets automation technology for our new bioethanol plant based on our positive experience with the Valmet DNA automation system in our pulp mill and the good service support we have received from the company over the years, says Josef Kendlbacher, Project Manager, AustroCel Hallein GmbH.

We have established a trustworthy relationship with AustroCel Hallein by working closely together and offering relevant life-cycle services to the mill, says Mustafa Began, Service Area Manager, Automation, Valmet.

The Hallein plant has been using Valmets automation systems for decades. The first system, Damatic Classic, was delivered to the site in 1987 and upgraded to Damatic XD in 1989. The system has been continuously renewed during the past 30 years as part of the Valmet DNA Software Life Cycle Agreement between the companies.

Story continues

AustroCels bioethanol plant currently under construction in Hallein, Austria, will run with Valmets automation to produce biofuel to replace fossil fuel.

Information about Valmets delivery

Valmets delivery scope includes an upgrade of the existing system and the extension of the Valmet DNA automation and information management system, along with application engineering, project implementation and installation. The system includes intrinsically safe ATEX process interfaces and a redundant Profinet solution that interfaces with smart motor controllers.

Process performance is supported by Valmet Control Performance services, which are part of the Valmet Industrial Internet offering.

Information about the customer AustroCel Hallein GmbH

With a turnover of EUR 146 million, AustroCel Hallein GmbH employs more than 250 people and is the market leader in China for textile cellulose made from spruce. In 2018, the company sold more than 157,000 tons of viscose pulp and produced 105 GWh of district heat and 95 GWh of green electricity.

VALMET

Corporate Communications

For further information, please contact:

Mustafa Began, Service Area Manager, Automation, Valmet, Tel. +43 664 1844698

Valmet is the leading global developer and supplier of process technologies, automation and services for the pulp, paper and energy industries. We aim to become the global champion in serving our customers.

Valmet's strong technology offering includes pulp mills, tissue, board and paper production lines, as well as power plants for bioenergy production. Our advanced services and automation solutions improve the reliability and performance of our customers' processes and enhance the effective utilization of raw materials and energy.

Valmet's net sales in 2019 were approximately EUR 3.5 billion. Our more than 13,000 professionals around the world work close to our customers and are committed to moving our customers' performance forward  every day. Valmet's head office is in Espoo, Finland and its shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki.

Read more www.valmet.com , www.twitter.com/valmetglobal

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Somali Media fraternity vehemently condemns in the strongest terms possible the assault and the injury on female journalist Safiya Aden Osman, a reporter for Shabelle TV and her cameraman, Abdulkadir Gaal by Waberi District police and District Officials in Mogadishu on Monday 04 May, the latest in the string of violence against media professionals in Somalia.

A group of police and district officials assaulted and injured Safiya and beat her cameraman Abdulkadir while covering a protest by a group of internally displaced (IDP) women who complained against mismanagement of food distribution cards in Waberi District. According to Safiya, the officers hit her with metal object resulting head injury. She was admitted at the hospital while bleeding and was later discharged.

The officers also confiscated the journalists equipment. We condemn this latest attack on the two journalists that follows a day after the Somali media advocates: FESOJ, SJS, SOMA and SIMHA submitted an official protest letter that documented key violations against press freedom to the Offices of Somali President, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (Farmaajo), Prime Minister, Hassan Ali Khaire and Minister of Information, Mohamed Abdi Hayir (Maareeye).

We are extremely worried by the increasing intolerance of the Somali authorities and the use of violence by its security forces against journalists reporting from certain public interest news incidents.

We call for the Somali Government to urgently investigate the officers responsible for the Mondays physical attack on Shabelle TV journalists and bring them to book. We also remind authorities that no official is above the law and therefore perpetrators of this attack should not go with impunity.

Meanwhile, we are dismayed by the new threats by the Somali Prime Ministers Communication Office against our media organizations and journalists following our joint call to end violence against media professionals on the World Press Freedom Day on Sunday.

We call for Somali Prime Minister to urgently take appropriate and relevant actions to ensure the safety of our staff and journalists amid the very highly dangerous level of threats coming from his Office.
BOISE  A month ago, two of Idahos health districts faced so many new coronavirus cases that they had to temporarily stop tracing all contacts of infected people.

As the state reopens, the health districts expect cases to increase again  but they say theyre prepared for the workload.

Boise-based Central District Health, which has handled the most cases in the state, plans to hire up to 17 temporary employees for contact-tracing roles. The state began its four-stage reopening process Friday.

As positive case counts stand today, we are able to meet the needs for contact tracing, Christine Myron, the public information officer for CDH, wrote in an email to the Idaho Statesman. However, with the reopening of our state, we anticipate that we will see another wave of cases, and we need to be ready to respond to what might come.

Contact tracing is considered one of the pillars of any plan to reopen the economy and return life to something closer to normal while we wait for a vaccine and treatments. Other key ingredients include ample testing and health care capacity.

For each positive case, Idahos seven health districts make contact with the patient to explain the responsibility to self-isolate and to gather information, including any recent close contacts. Close contacts are defined as anyone who was within 6 feet of a patient for at least 10 consecutive minutes, Idahos health districts say. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends tracing any contacts who were within 6 feet for 15 minutes starting 48 hours before illness onset.

The health districts then contact each of those people and, ideally, check in with them daily for about two weeks to monitor for symptoms.

The process allows the districts to determine how the COVID-19 disease is spreading. It also could prevent further spread, because contacts are encouraged to stay home and maintain social distance from others (at least 6 feet) until 14 days after their last exposure, in case they also become ill, according to the CDC.

Campfire or forest fire?

A group of former federal health leaders have called for $12 billion in federal funding to expand contact tracing nationwide, National Public Radio reported last week. The group, which includes members who have advised Republican and Democrat administrations, also asked for money to help people self-isolate when theyve been exposed.

Testing, complemented with a full contact-tracing strategy, will allow states to prevent small campfires from becoming big forest fires, Andy Slavitt, former director of Medicare and Medicaid under President Obama, told NPR.

Central District Health, which includes Ada County, and South Central Public Health District, which includes Blaine County, told the Idaho Statesman in early April that they were no longer able to trace all contacts in those two counties as case counts expanded quickly. Idahos new coronavirus cases peaked with 205 on April 2  the middle of a six-day span during which the state reported more than 90 cases each day.

Ada County reported 63 cases on April 2 and April 4 but hasnt reported 20 in a day since April 9.

CDH is performing contact tracing for all positive cases in our four-county jurisdiction, Myron wrote. There was a short span where we saw a sudden increase of cases, which forced us to prioritize contact tracing and reserve in-depth contact tracing for higher-risk cases. Fortunately, it was only a short time frame  about one week  that we had to move to a prioritized approach, and we were able to quickly shift back to thorough contact tracing for all positive cases.

South Central got hit hard about the same time. Blaine County reported 64 cases on April 1, 95 on April 2 and 54 on April 3.

It, too, has returned to full contract tracing. And, like CDH, South Central is preparing for a potential uptick in cases.

We are able to keep up with the workload with our current staff, wrote Brianna Bodily, the public information officer for South Central, in an email to the Statesman.  However, we are looking into possible options to quickly expand our workload capabilities just in case we get another surge in confirmed cases.

More government funding could be on the way

The states other five health districts also say they are able to manage the current contact-tracing workload.

Southwest District Health, which includes Canyon County, has the states third-highest caseload. It has managed in part by separating contacts into a group that is symptomatic or high risk and another group that is asymptomatic and low risk. The first group gets contacted daily; the second group gets contacted weekly, said Ellie Morgan, a Southwest District epidemiologist.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little said Thursday during a press conference that the state is putting more resources into the health districts. The districts are only partially funded by the state; they also receive funding from the federal government, contract services and the counties they serve.

Dave Jeppesen, the director of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, said Thursday that some federal relief money will be targeted toward contact tracing.

We will be moving across the state to increase our capacity, both with people and with technology, he said at the press conference.

But only CDH told the Idaho Statesman that it needed, or was getting, additional resources at this point. The Southwest, South Central, North Central and Panhandle health districts have reassigned existing staff members to handle the coronavirus workload. Eastern Idaho Public Health and Southeastern Idaho Public Health say they can do the same if needed.

Thus far, we have been able to utilize our existing (epidemiologists) and train internal staff to meet the demand, Katherine Hoyer, the public information officer for the Panhandle Health District, wrote in an email to the Statesman. If we need to expand further in the future, we have the capacity to do so.

The challenges ahead

CDH is getting $360,000 from a Public Health Preparedness subgrant through the federal government to help fund its COVID-19 response, Myron said. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare has told CDH to expect another federal grant through the CDC, she said.

CDH also has asked the state for additional funding.

We recently submitted our COVID-response cost estimate to the governors office in anticipation of additional funding through the state, Myron wrote. No projections on amounts yet, and unsure of the specific state source.

Two of the challenges the districts will face as the state reopens, she said, is an increase in contacts per patient and an increase in some of the regular work the districts do that was limited during the stay-home order.

The more mobile the population becomes, the more people the positive cases likely will encounter.

We recognize that some people are going to be more on the move than they have been the past month during the order, which means theyll potentially be interacting with more people, in more places, Myron wrote. The number of places an individual goes within the community and the number of people they interact with directly impacts the complexity and time it takes to do proper contact tracing.

Additionally, as CDH begins resuming more of its standard programs and services in the weeks and months to come, some of our team members who have been utilized in our COVID response may need to return to their regular positions. Having temporary employees that are exclusively allocated to this response will ensure we are able to continue with thorough investigations.
Karnataka 1st PUC Result 2020: Karnataka State Board first year PUC result is expected to be declared today on its official website. According to media reports, the board had earlier notified that the 1st PUC or class 11th result will be declared on May 5. Candidates will be able to check their results online at karresults.nic. in or pue.kar.nic.in.

The Karnataka 1st PUC results can also be checked on Suvidya portal at www. results.bspucpa.com. In the year 2019, the result was also published on Suvidya portal.

The Karnataka Board 1st PUC exam also called as pre university exam was conducted in the month of February. The result is expected to be declared shortly.

According to media reports, students will also receive their 1st PUC result 2020 on their registered mobile numbers. The results will not be published on the notice board this year in order to maintain social distancing during the Coronavirus crisis.

Karnataka PUC Result: How To Check Results online

Step 1 : Visit the official websites for Karnataka Board Results at karresults.nic.in or pue.kar.nic.in.

Step 2 :On the homepage, click on the result tab

Step 3 : Under the 1st PUC result section, enter the required login credentials like registration number/ roll number and date of birth as given in the admit card.

Step 4 : Click on submit button

Your Karnataka 1st PUC Result will be displayed on the screen

Download and take its print out.

Direct link to check Karnataka 1st PUC Result 2020 on karresults.nic.in
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Oil prices climbed for a fifth day running on Tuesday as some European and Asian countries along with several U.S. states began to ease coronavirus lockdown measures, raising hopes for a partial recovery in fuel demand. Benchmark Brent crude jumped 7.5 percent to $29.25 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up more than 10 percent at $22.50 per barrel. The U.S. benchmark has closed higher for the last four sessions. Italy finally eased lockdown restrictions with strict guidelines after two months. The country has allowed 4.5 million people to return to work but not without masks and gloves. Restaurants, parks and public transports have been re-opened too. Spain continues to be in a state of lockdown, but easing of restrictions have been announced across the country. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said some businesses will reopen as early as Friday, with conditions. Andrew Cuomo of New York has outlined a phased reopening in the U.S. state hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. India started reopening its factories after spending more than a month in strict lockdown. Hong Kong may soon reopen cinemas and gyms. As lockdowns ease, there are expectations for a recovery in vehicle traffic and fuel demand. Swiss bank UBS said the easing of restrictions would help lead to a balance in supply and demand for the oil market in the third quarter. 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.
English French

MONTREAL and NEW YORK, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) Research Center today announced that, through its association with NYU Langone, its clinical study on COVID-19 has received funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), one of the world's foremost medical research centers. ColCorona is one of the few contact-free current studies of treatment of COVID-19 infection in which non-hospitalized individuals can participate from their homes.



ColCorona was initiated at MHI by Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif, director of the MHI Research Center and professor of medicine at the University of Montreal. It aims to determine whether colchicine has a preventive effect on the phenomenon of major inflammatory storm of the lungs, observed in adults suffering from serious complications linked to COVID-19. Researchers hypothesize that this drug used to treat gout may reduce the severe inflammatory complications associated with COVID-19, slow the progression of the disease, and save lives. Several sites in Canada, the United-States and Spain are participating in the clinical study.

"The support of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute comes at a critical time", said Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif. "Time is of the essence to find an effective treatment for COVID-19 and the support from the NIH will allow us to accelerate our research efforts to confirm the potential of colchicine."

"I would like to thank the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for its contribution to our study", said Dr. Binita Shah, Associate Director of Research, NYU Langone Cardiac Cath Lab at NYU Langone. "This support will allow us to deploy the necessary resources to make this potential treatment accessible to the greatest number of patients with COVID-19 in the New York City, and tri-state region, which is strongly affected by the pandemic."

The participant eligibility criteria for the study is as follows:

 Test positive for COVID-19 (or clinically diagnosed for Quebec and New York City tri-state regions)

 Be 40 years and over and have at least one high-risk criteria

 Not hospitalized

 Be willing to take the drug or placebo daily for 30 days

 Be willing to participate in two follow-up calls by phone or videoconference.

Women who do not take contraceptives, those who are pregnant or those who are breastfeeding are not eligible for the clinical study. Physicians with patients, or people with a positive COVID-19 diagnosis who are interested in participating in the clinical study can call the hotline at any time at 1-877-536-6837.

About Colchicine

Colchicine is a generic, orally administered anti-inflammatory medication that is currently indicated for the management of pericarditis, gout, and familial Mediterranean fever. It is not a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicine. Colchicine was recently studied in the COLCOT study (published in the New England Journal of Medicine), which compared colchicine 0.5mg daily to placebo on top of standard of care in preventing ischemic cardiovascular events in patients with a recent myocardial infarction (MI). The results showed that colchicine 0.5mg daily significantly reduces the risk of first ischemic cardiovascular events by 23% and total (first and recurrent) ischemic cardiovascular events by 34%.

About ColCorona

COLCORONA is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. which aims to determine if colchicine may prevent the phenomenon of major inflammatory storm observed in adults suffering from serious complications linked to COVID-19. The clinical trial requires the recruitment of 6,000 patients who meet all the inclusion criteria and none of the exclusion criteria. They will be randomly assigned and given either colchicine or a placebo for 30 days. Evaluations by phone or videoconference will then take place 15 and 30 days after the randomization. The study will be monitored by a data monitoring committee (DMC) that includes experienced clinical researchers from the Montreal Health Innovations Coordinating Center (MHICC). The study is funded by the Government of Quebec and supported by Pharmascience and CGI. www.colcorona.net

About the Montreal Heart Institute

Founded in 1954, the Montreal Heart Institute constantly aims for the highest standards of excellence in the cardiovascular field through its leadership in clinical and basic research, ultra-specialized care, professional training, and prevention. It houses the largest research center in Canada, the largest cardiovascular prevention center in the country, and a cardiovascular genetics center. The Institute is affiliated with the University of Montreal and has more than 2,000 employees, including 245 doctors and more than 85 researchers. www.icm-mhi.org

About the Montreal Health Innovations Coordinating Center (MHICC):

The Montreal Health Innovations Coordinating Center (MHICC) is a leading academic clinical research organization and an integral part of the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI). The MHICC possesses an established network of collaborators in over 4,500 clinical sites in more than 30 countries. It has specific expertise in precision medicine, low-cost high-quality clinical trials, and drug repurposing. www.mhicc.org

About NYU Langone Health

NYU Langone Health is a world-class, patient-centered, integrated academic medical center, known for its excellence in clinical care, research, and education. Included in the 200+ locations throughout the New York area are six inpatient locations: Tisch Hospital, its flagship acute-care facility; Kimmel Pavilion, its state-of-the-art healthcare facility, opened in 2018; Rusk Rehabilitation, ranked as one of the top 10 rehabilitation programs in the country; NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital, a dedicated inpatient orthopedic hospital with all musculoskeletal specialties ranked top 10 in the country; Hassenfeld Children's Hospital at NYU Langone, a comprehensive pediatric hospital supporting a full array of children's health services; and NYU Langone HospitalBrooklyn, a full-service teaching hospital and level 1 trauma center located in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Also part of NYU Langone Health is the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institutedesignated cancer center, and NYU Grossman School of Medicine, which since 1841 has trained thousands of physicians and scientists who have helped to shape the course of medical history.

About Pharmascience

Founded in 1983, Pharmascience Inc. is the largest pharmaceutical employer in Quebec. With its head office located in Montreal and its 1,500 employees, Pharmascience Inc. is a private, full-service pharmaceutical company with deep roots in Canada, and whose global reach is growing, in part thanks to the distribution of its products in more than 60 countries. Ranked 56th among the top 100 Canadian investors in research and development (R&D) thanks to $ 43 million investment in 2018, Pharmascience Inc. is the 4th largest manufacturer of over-the-counter generic drugs in the country. www.pharmascience.com

About CGI

Founded in 1976, CGI is one of the world's largest information technology (IT) and management consulting firms. From hundreds of locations around the world, CGI offers a complete portfolio of services and solutions: strategic IT and management consulting services, systems integration services, intellectual property solutions as well as IT and business process management services in delegated mode. www.cgi.com/canada

Source: Montreal Heart Institute

Media inquiries:

For NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Robert Magyar

Robert.magyar@nyulangone.org

646-734-9653
A propaganda poster on preventing the spread of Covid-19 is seen on a wall as a man smokes a cigarette along a street in Hanoi on April 29, 2020. Manan Vatsyayana | AFP | Getty Images

Vietnam may be able to avert a recession this year as the country gets back to work and school after early coronavirus containment measures, an economist said on Monday. "They are not going to be immune to the slowdown of external global demand ... But we don't expect them to fall into a recession or contraction," said Sian Fenner, lead Asia economist at Oxford Economics. That is as Vietnam's early border restrictions and social distancing measures have helped the country avoid a large wave of infections. The country also benefited from supply chain diversions due to the U.S.-China trade war and Fenner said those will continue to support the Vietnam's economy. Fenner's comments to CNBC came after Hanoi started allowing businesses to resume operations from late April. On Monday, millions of students went back to school after three months at home, making Vietnam one of the first in Southeast Asia to ease movement restrictions. The country closed schools in early February when the first local cases were detected. Despite sharing a land border with China where the coronavirus first emerged, Communist Vietnam has reported just 271 cases and no deaths in a population under 100 million. It has not reported any new local cases in nearly three weeks.

CNBC

Vietnam's success in containing the virus is attributed to decisive measures the country made early in the outbreak, building off its experience with SARS in 2003. Back then, it was the first country to be removed from a list of countries with local transmissions, according to the World Health Organization. This time, Vietnam implemented tough controls on travel and people who were potentially infected very early in the outbreak, "as other Southeast Asian states dithered," wrote Huong Le Thu, senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a think tank. The government was quick to lock down the country. It quarantined anyone entering Vietnam and stopped Chinese tour groups as well as direct business to and from China, Le Thu wrote in a post on the Council on Foreign Relations website. Vietnam suspended all international flights on March 20 following a new wave of infections from European arrivals. Hanoi also mobilized intensive contract tracing methods, Le Thu added. "The fact that Vietnam has a pervasive security state, and can enlist the armed forces (as well as large numbers of civilians) makes it easier for Hanoi to do this kind of public health surveillance," Le Thu wrote. While there may be questions about the reliability of Vietnam's figures, Capital Economics said in a recent note that it is unlikely Hanoi would end the shutdown if it wasn't confident that the outbreak was under control. "This is clearly good news for the economy," wrote Gareth Leather, senior Asia economist at Capital Economics.
The Bio-Safety Level 3 Laboratory at the Western Region Veterinary Services Department is scheduled to commence testing of COVID-19 samples from Monday, May 4.



The laboratory will start with the testing of 300 samples a day before they ramp up to over 500.



 . . this testing facility has biosafety level 3 and biosafety level 2 labs which are required by WHO for testing. As we speak, we are ready to start testing today [May 4, 2020]. The staff have been trained already. All the logistics have been provided by Noguchi. Currently, we are going to start testing 300 samples a day. And as time goes on, we will increase the number, the Head of Laboratory Western Region Veterinary Services Department, Dr. Theophilus Odoom, said.



According to him, a total of 11 people are ready to commence testing and will run a shift system to enable them work efficiently.



All the samples will come from the Public Health Lab in the region. We have 11 people ready for the work. We will try and run shift. We have a team for sorting, for pooling, for running and also for management of data which is also important.



He added: The nation and the regional health directorate are working assiduously to ensure there is always the necessary PPEs for our work. For example, the regional director said they will use their medical store to support us. So, we are confident we will not break when we start work. The regional coordinating council led by the regional minister has also been very instrumental in getting this place resourced.



New cases



Western Region Minister Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah disclosed that the Region has recorded four new cases from four different districts, bringing the case count to 13.



We have a case at Agona Nkwanta [in Ahanta West Municipal Assembly], one in Effia Kwesimentstim Municipal, one in Mpohor District and one at Ellembelle District. And like I keep saying, the virus is with us, so we must find innovative ways to manage it. One of the luckiest things Ive realized is that most of our cases are imported, and so it is our responsibility to make sure it does not spread into the communities.



He encouraged residents to make their personal safety their topmost priority in this challenging times so that you do put yourself and loved ones at risk.



For us, we are trying our best to be ahead of the virus meaning that we have to test more so that we can quickly isolate any case and treat. The medical team are ready to help us in that direction. What is left now is for all of us to be careful about what we do. So, we will continue to stress that we all adhere strictly to the safety protocols.



Donation



In a response to calls from the Western Region Veterinary Services Department for support to resource the two testing laboratories, the Western Regional House of Chiefs together with its Western North counterpart has presented a cheque for GH40,000 to the regional agriculture services.



Vice President of the Western Region House of Chiefs and Paramount Chief of Eastern Nzema Awulae Amihere Kpanynili III entreated persons who still doubt the existence of the virus to watch what is happening around the world and rethink.



"We dont have a way to stop the virus at the moment but we can all help people who are working on finding ways to stop the virus to work without any hindrance. It is true some people are still in self-denial but if you listen to and watch what is going on around the world then you will realize this virus is not a joke. So, all the measures brought forth by the President and the medical team should be followed. I dont think any Nana or Chief is comfortable wearing a mask but it has become necessary. So, we must all do what is required of us to help prevent the spread of the virus.



Western Region Director of the Ghana Health Service Dr. Jacob Mahama applauded the two regional houses of chiefs for the financial support, stressing it will help put the laboratory in a good stead for its intended work.



This help has come at an opportune time when we are about to start testing here. There are a lot of things that national cannot actually provide us. And so, the support from the House of Chiefs will go a long way to make the work easy for us. This is because, we have a big backlog and will take all these and make sure everything is done.



The Laboratory is expecting another consignment, for the testing, from the Global Affairs, Canada which has been very instrumental in resourcing it

Source: 3 news









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NEW YORK, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Rubber Process Oil Market is expected to grow from USD 1,423.13 Million in 2018 to USD 1,956.13 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 4.64%.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05871431/?utm_source=PRN



The positioning of the Global Rubber Process Oil 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 Rubber Process Oil Market including are Chevron Corporation, Nynas AB, Petronas Lubricants Belgium, Repsol S.A., Royal Dutch Shell, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, and ORGKHIM Biochemical Holding.



On the basis of Type, the Global Rubber Process Oil Market is studied across DAE, MES, Naphthenic, Paraffinic, RAE & TRAE, and TDAE.



On the basis of Application, the Global Rubber Process Oil Market is studied across Adhesives & Sealants, Consumer Products, Paints & Coatings, Pharmaceuticals, Polymer, and Rubber Processing.



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 Rubber Process Oil Market

2. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and new product developments in the Global Rubber Process Oil Market

3. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyzes the markets for the Global Rubber Process Oil Market

4. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new products launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments in the Global Rubber Process Oil Market

5. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players in the Global Rubber Process Oil Market



The report answers questions such as:

1. What is the market size of Rubber Process Oil market in the Global?

2. What are the factors that affect the growth in the Global Rubber Process Oil Market over the forecast period?

3. What is the competitive position in the Global Rubber Process Oil Market?

4. Which are the best product areas to be invested in over the forecast period in the Global Rubber Process Oil Market?

5. What are the opportunities in the Global Rubber Process Oil Market?

6. What are the modes of entering the Global Rubber Process Oil Market?



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05871431/?utm_source=PRN



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A popular pastor, Chris Oyakhilome, has berated Nigerian pastors that complied with the governments ban on large gatherings because of coronavirus.

Mr Oyakhilome, who is the general overseer of Believers Love World, popularly known as Christ Embassy, said such leaders were not true Christians as they did not ask the government for time to pray and consult with their congregation.

Ironically, the cleric also complied with the governments directive. He made the latest remarks in a telecast to his members.

He also said the government would soon begin to classify churches based on their compliance with directives on the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to him, their swift compliance with the directive is the reason Nigeria is yet to see the hand of God.

He also queried the motive for any planned vaccination against the pandemic.

What they are using to test, do you know what it is? Do you know why it can show positive and negative? Do you know? A virus they told us they are still studying, why dont they study it first? They are still studying it and they already have a vaccine that could be ready in July for a virus they are still studying, the pastor said.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 in Nigeria, bans have been placed on all social and religious gatherings in the country to curb the spread of the virus.

Mr Oyakhilome also said that the men of God that were invited by the government to discuss the closure of churches were not truly for Christ.

He said pastors should have asked for time to invite other pastors for prayer against the pandemic before consenting to closures of churches but prayer never came to their minds because they were not truly prayerful.

As ministers of God, you are called for such a meeting and you couldnt say give us a few days, then you call all the ministers and say this is what we just heard from a government representative, we need to pray.

Then you would have seen the hand of God. But you were not thinking about the Fathers house. Do you know what it means to shut down the congregation of the lord? Do you know what it means? It never meant anything to you, he said.

He added that pastors that have been sending warnings to their members to stay out of the church are not truly of Christ, reminding them that no amount of compensation they receive from the government can replace the praise and worship of God.

Pastors and ministers have been sending strong warnings to others not to venture into the church because of the virus. Thats because Christ has never truly been your Lord, youve been the master of your life all these years. Youve never truly known him.

The controversial cleric also predicted that the government will soon create churches tagged COVID-19 compliant for people that have never been infected with the virus, saying those churches will never be the churches of Jesus Christ.

Mr Oyakhilome, who told his congregation he had a lot to tell them, said churches would soon be asked to set up testing centres because people would not be going for testing.

READ ALSO:

Mr Oyakhilome made news headlines three weeks ago when he claimed the 5G network and not coronavirus was what was killing people.

In the video, Mr Oyakhilome also stated that the lockdown was to enable the federal government to install 5G in Abuja and Lagos.

He told his members in a sermon that 5G was part of the new world order where some figures of authority in the world were trying to build a religion, economy, and government for the entire universe.

But the three clerics, Poju Oyemade, Sam Adeyemi, and Matthew Ashimolowo, debunked Mr Oyakhilomes claims at separate fora.

Mr Oyakhilome would later backtrack on his claim that the introduction of 5G network was responsible for the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Oyakhilome, in a video shared on social media, stated that he was only opposed to 5G because of its perceived health risks and the seeming silence of authorised regulators to address its advantages and disadvantages.
A day after a BSF driver, who



escorted the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT), tested positive for COVID-19, the BSF South Bengal Frontier on Tuesday said the other drivers who were engaged with the central team were found to be negative.

According to senior officials of BSF South Bengal Frontier, the troops have been on high alert and efforts are on to ensure that the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and other guidelines are strictly followed by the troopers of the border guarding force.

"After the driver of one of the escort cars was found positive. We have sent him at an isolation facility and more than 51 personnel with whom he came in contact have been sent on quarantine. We have also tested more than 25 people so far, including other drivers and personnel of the escort team. None of them found to be positive. But still, all of them have been kept on quarantine as a precautionary measure," a senior BSF officer said.

The senior officer said although BSF was on high alert since the beginning of the pandemic and after the first case in the South Bengal frontier was reported on Monday night, senior officers have been asked to ensure that the troops follow the SOP and other precautionary measures.

The officer said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has been informed about the BSF constables infection.

A Central team to look into the COVID situation in Kolkata and adjoining areas was staying at the BSF guest house in South Kolkata and all its logistics such as vehicles, escort personnel, security personnel were provided by the paramilitary force.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With coronavirus-based restrictions beginning to loosen in the state, Gov. Pete Ricketts looked ahead Monday to the possibility of further relaxation of standards in the near future.

But the governor cautioned that some social distancing guidelines are likely to remain in effect until scientists are able to develop and adequately test a successful vaccine.

Ricketts acknowledged during his daily coronavirus news briefing that he is being urged to relax more of the restrictions in place in Nebraska and he fielded advice from citizens on both sides of that question during his monthly statewide call-in radio show an hour later.

"A lot of communities feel it's time to loosen up the rules," the governor said at his news briefing. "That's the feedback I get."

Early in his call-in radio program broadcast on KFOR, Jill from Ainsworth delivered that message in strong terms.

"You've got to throw the doors wide-open," she told Ricketts. "Enough's enough."

She said restrictions are hurting businesses, farmers, ranchers and government workers while the virus is resulting in "a low death rate."

"We do have to build up some herd immunity," she said, referring to the widespread immunity that occurs when a large proportion of the population either gets exposed and infected or is protected by an effective vaccine.

There is no vaccine for the coronavirus now and most estimates suggest that it could be a year or more away, although there has been recent speculation that a vaccine might be rushed through testing and could be ready by the end of the year.

Ricketts told Jill that he has been "loosening up restrictions," but he is determined to be prudent and not give the virus an opportunity to spread.

"I appreciate people are tired of it," the governor said. "I feel the same way. I'm tired of it, too."

A few minutes later, Peggy from Ansley called in to urge Ricketts not to ease up too soon.

"I respectfully disagree" with pressure to remove restrictions, she said.

"I think it's way too soon," Peggy said, even though "I know it's hard on the economy" to continue restrictions that impact commerce.

"I think we're just at the beginning of this, not at the end," she said.

"We're trying to take a cautious approach," Ricketts told her.

"We'll take it a step at a time," he said.

Ricketts told another caller, Stephanie from Scottsbluff, that he can imagine "loosening more restrictions as we move into June and July."

On Monday, the first wave of reduced restrictions took effect, allowing restaurants in Omaha and 59 counties to re-open for indoor dining, with a requirement that seating be limited to one-half of capacity.

No more than six people could eat together and tables need to be spaced at least 6 feet from one another.

Barbershops and beauty salons were also allowed to resume business, with a restriction that everyone wear a face mask.

Church services were cleared to resume Monday with social distancing requirements attached.

The number of children allowed in a room at child care centers was also increased from 10 to 15.

A similar set of earlier restrictions still in effect in Lincoln are to be eased in the same manner effective May 11.

Asked if he will feel comfortable eating out at this time, the governor said he probably will go to a restaurant this week.

At his news briefing, Ricketts announced that 137,000 Nebraskans have signed up at TestNebraska.com for screening for the virus; testing began at sites in Omaha and Grand Island on Monday.

Answering questions, the governor said none of the data collected online will be accessible to law enforcement or available for sale.

"It will only be used by the state to respond to the coronavirus," he said.

The state hopes to be able to conduct 2,500 to 3,000 tests a day once the new program is fully operational.

Photos: Lincoln during the pandemic

Reach the writer at 402-473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSdon
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 02:20:38|Editor: huaxia

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OTTAWA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday announced 252 million Canadian dollars (179 million U.S. dollars) to the agri-food sector to help protect farmers and food processors against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The money can be used to buy personal protective equipment for workers, adapt to health protocols and support other social distancing measures, Trudeau said at his press conference in Ottawa.

Trudeau's announcement came as Canadian farmers begin the spring planting season, warning that producers could start culling their animals to cope with reduced capacity at some of the country's largest meat processing plants, which have been especially hard hit by the pandemic.

Of the 252 million Canadian dollars, 77 million is earmarked to help food processors buy protective equipment for workers and expand domestic processing capacity of food; 125 million is meant to help cattle and hog producers because of their costs increase, and 50 million will go for a food surplus purchasing program to compensate food producers.

Among the challenges for those working to feed Canadians are changing demands due to the closure of many restaurants, having the staff to work the current planting season, and the closure of some processing plants.

"We know that farmers still have concerns about what this pandemic means for their industry long-term. I can assure you that we are working with farmers, stakeholders, and provinces and territories to find lasting solutions," Trudeau said. "This is an initial investment and if we need to add more, we will."

Last week, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture appealed to the Trudeau government to provide the agri-food sector an emergency fund of 2.6 billion Canadian dollars (about 1.9 billion U.S. dollars) to maintain food security in the country.

That amount was based on original estimates of the immediate impacts of the pandemic across Canada, such as the shutdown of much of the food service sector and supply chain disruptions.

As of 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, there were 61,961 cases of COVID-19 in Canada and 4,037 deaths. Enditem
The mother of a 6-year-old girl abducted out of west Alabama Saturday has been formally charged, as well as three other women who helped in the kidnapping, authorities said.

Jasmine Denise Crutchfield, 22, is the mother of MiyAngel Crutchfield. She, Deanna Gentry, 21, Sierra Hill, 33 and India Washington, 24, are all charged with kidnapping, said Bibb County District Attorney Michael Jackson.

All four of the suspects live in Ohio. They were arrested in Kentucky Saturday, just hours after MiyAngel was taken from Centreville. Authorities said they were headed to Cincinnati.

MiyAngel was taken about 9 a.m. Saturday. Her mother does not have custody of her and, by court order, is to have no contact with the girl, Jackson said. Details of the abduction have not yet been released.

The Amber Alert in MiyAngels disappearance was issued Saturday afternoon. About 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Centreville police received a call that the girl had been found safe just outside of Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

All four of the suspects were booked into the Hardin County Detention Center in Kentucky where they remain held without bond. On Monday, Jackson said, they waived extradition and now will be returned to Alabama.

A Bibb County judge on Monday set a court date in Alabama for June 5. MiyAngel is back with her family.
Photo: Contributed Asian giant hornet on left common wasp on right

As if we don't have enough to worry about this spring with COVID-19, flooding and wildfires, now we can add 'murder hornets' to the list.

Asian giant hornets  also known as 'murder hornets' are now being spotted in Washington State as well as BC, CTV News reports.

Washington agriculture authorities are asking residents to be on the lookout for the invasive giant wasps who are armed with an "excruciating" sting and are known for ripping the heads off honeybees, hence the name 'murder hornets'.

Asian giant hornets originated in South Korea and were first reported last fall near Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Now, residents in Blaine, Wash., near the Canadian border, have spotted the invasive species.

An infestation of the new giant wasps could be devastating for beekeepers who need the bees to pollinate crops like cherries, blueberries and apples.

The invasive yellow-legged Asian hornets, have already caused millions of dollars of damage in Europe particularly in France after they gained a foothold.

The Asian giant hornets measure about two-inches long and have an orange-yellow face with large black eyes.

A Canadian entomologist says Asian giant hornets may spread to other provinces if successful colonies are established here in B.C.

"If [the hornets] survive well in British Columbia, I think the climatic zones that they can survive in would go up into pretty much all of Canada," University of Manitoba entomologist Robert Currie said in a telephone interview with CTV News on Monday.

"The hope is that they will be able to eradicate them, but they haven't had a lot of success doing that in other countries. In Canada, if there are only one or two colonies that have been introduced and they haven't been firmly established, then they have caught this soon enough and eradication is definitely a possibility," Currie said.

The Asian giant hornet's sting is described as excruciating, and they can sting repeatedly. Their quarter-inch stinger can penetrate beekeeping protective clothing. Their venom, seven-times stronger than that of honeybees, can cause anaphylactic shock, but also can be lethal to people who are not allergic if victims are stung repeatedly.

Scientists will be hunting for queens this spring in hopes of catching the 'murder hornets,' before they establish colonies in B.C.

with files from CTV News Vancouver
Large flocks of migratory birds visiting wetlands in and around Mumbai during the Covid-19 lockdown have drawn the forest departments attention and led to enhance protection for these ecologically sensitive zones.

Alongside wetlands at Navi Mumbai (NRI Complex and TS Chanakya), the Maharashtra forest department intends on declaring three of the most threatened wetland areas in Uran  Panje, Bhendhkal, and Belpada  as conservation reserves as well. These wetlands have been marked for the Navi Mumbai Special Economic Zone (NMSEZ)  an integrated industrial township.

Conservation reserves are demarcated as protected areas in buffer zones of bird migration corridors, national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, or reserved and protected forests.

The mangrove cell shared a letter with HT issued to the Raigad collector and City Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (Cidco) last week, seeking comments on why the Uran wetlands should get protected status. For the first time, the department denoted each site as a wetland in the letter, irrespective of their official status.

The mangrove cell intends to propose protection and conservation measures for the said wetlands under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 (for declaration of conservation reserves) to the Maharashtra government, the letter undersigned by Virendra Tiwari, additional principal chief conservator of forest (Mangrove Cell) said, asking for comments from district and planning authorities.

The Navi Mumbai region has some important wetland habitats for a number of migratory and resident bird species but also play an important ecological role since they protect surrounding areas from flooding, the letter stated.

The letter was based on recommendations by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) in their 2019 report on the status of coastal wetlands and water birds of Navi Mumbai.

The high numbers of flamingos congregating at TSC [TS Chanakya] and NRI Complex wetlands during the ongoing coronavirus-enforced lockdown is further evidence of the importance of these sites for threatened migratory birds, the letter added.

Unlike the two wetlands in Navi Mumbai, the Uran wetlands  spread across over 500-hectare core area for migratory bird roosting  have not had any migratory birds visiting them at all this year, especially Panje, which dried up completely due to high tide blockages during the lockdown.

The Raigad district administration said it was yet to see the contents of the letter. Cidco said it did not have jurisdiction over the three wetland sites. Large patches of land from Panje and Bhendkhal were sold by Cidco to a private company for the NMSEZ project across 1,250 hectares. Belpada falls in the jurisdiction of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust. It is these bodies the forest department needs to approach for a no-objection certificate, and not Cidco, said Pramod Patil, nodal officer (environment), Cidco.

Certain sections of the Uran wetlands have been witnessing aggressive debris and mud dumping, blocking of high tidewater, and construction activities before and during the lockdown period. Last week, more security cabins were set up at Panje, restricting entry and exit for outsiders. These wetlands were a destination of 1.5 lakh birds, especially flamingos, until last year but they have turned into dry patches. Not a single flamingo is spotted now as they are being forced to smaller areas such as Talawe due to overall loss of habitat along the eastern seafront, said environmentalist BN Kumar.

Indiscriminate burial of these wetlands will lead to flooding as it had across 20 villages last monsoon. On the contrary, restoration will help local fishing communities, said Nandkumar Pawar, another environmentalist. They are the perfect alternative habitats for a quarter of a million migratory birds that have been displaced due to the construction of the Navi Mumbai International Airport site.

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The PC peripherals market is expected to grow by USD 43.42 billion during 2020-2024. The report also provides the market impact and new opportunities created due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact can be expected to be significant in the first quarter but gradually lessen in subsequent quarters with a limited impact on the full-year economic growth, according to the latest market research report by Technavio.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200504005492/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global PC Peripherals Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

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The growing focus on simplifying the teaching and learning process and achieving educational excellence has led many educational institutional institutions to adopt digitization. Some educational institutions are adopting bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy, virtual education model, and providing online courses to offer convenience to students. The rising digitization has created a strong demand for PCs, laptops, and notebooks among educational institutions. These factors are driving the growth of the global PC peripherals 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=IRTNTR43036

As per Technavio, the growing preference for client SSDs 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.

PC Peripherals Market: Growing Preference for Client SSDs

The growing consumer demand for thinner, lighter, and more sophisticated laptops with advanced functionalities have compelled PC manufacturers to focus on developing laptops embedded with SSDs. PC manufacturers are now introducing new SSDs, which is ideal for business PCs, laptops, desktop PCs, notebooks, and high-performance PCs. For instance, in February 2019, Micron Technology, Inc. added a new cost-efficient SSD called Micron 1300 to its client computing product portfolio, which is ideal for personal computing devices. The use of such SSDs improves the overall performance of laptops, which is crucial in driving sales. With the new product launches, the demand for PC peripherals will increase during the forecast period.

"Rising strategic partnerships as well as acquisitions, and the increasing popularity of smart speakers will further boost market growth during the forecast period", says a senior analyst at Technavio.

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PC Peripherals Market: Segmentation Analysis

This market research report segments the PC peripherals market by geography (North America, APAC, Europe, South America, and MEA) and end-user (Business and Consumers).

The North American region led the PC peripherals market in 2019, followed by APAC, Europe, South America, and MEA respectively. During the forecast period, North America is expected to register the highest incremental growth due to the increase in the adoption of music libraries 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

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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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"Dane set the standard for giving at Dutch Bros and inspired so many people- continuing our commitment to ending ALS is the perfect way to honor him."

In support of social distancing and general wellness in the communities it serves, Dutch Bros Coffee is adding an online effort to support its largest fundraising event of the year, Drink One for Dane. For the first time in the companys history, Dutch Bros will offer an exclusive mug and sticker combo online. $10 from every mug and sticker sold will support the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) and its efforts to provide research and clinical care for the ALS community and to find a cure for the disease.

The mug and sticker will go on sale Friday, May 8 on http://www.dutchbros.com/endals, with proceeds benefitting MDA. That same day, a portion of proceeds from sales at Dutch Bros shops will also go to the organization.

"During this unprecedented time, raising a toast to my brother, the wiseman, is one way to share hope," Travis Boersma said, Dutch Bros co-founder and CEO. "Dane set the standard for giving at Dutch Bros and inspired so many people- continuing our commitment to ending ALS is the perfect way to honor him. Lets make it a great day and drink one for Dane."

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal disease that affects the parts of the nervous system that are responsible for muscle movement. As it progresses, patients slowly lose their ability to control these movements, including speaking, breathing and moving while having full cognitive ability. There is currently no cure for the disease.

The MDA is a world leader in ALS research, treatments and care. The organization provides and distributes resources and provides support for patients and their families through a nationwide network of 150 MDA Care Centers. The MDA has partnered with Dutch Bros since the very first Drink One for Dane fundraiser in 2007.

MDAs partnership with Dutch Bros -- honoring the life and legacy of Dane Boersma-- raises funds for the frontline researchers and clinicians who are working tirelessly to keep the ALS community safe and properly cared for during COVID-19 and beyond, said MDA President and CEO Lynn O'Connor Vos. "In these times, ensuring people with ALS have access to high quality care and telemedicine is more important than ever before.

About Dutch Bros

Dutch Bros Coffee is the countrys largest privately held drive-thru coffee company, with more than 380 locations and 12,000 employees in seven states. The company is headquartered in Grants Pass, Oregon, where it was founded in 1992 by Dane and Travis Boersma. Dutch Bros serves specialty coffee, smoothies, freezes, teas, a private-label Dutch Bros Blue Rebel energy drink and nitrogen-infused cold brew coffee. Its rich, proprietary coffee blend is handcrafted from start to finish.

In addition to its mission of speed, quality and service, Dutch Bros is committed to giving back to the communities it serves. Through its Dutch Bros Foundation and local franchisees, Dutch Bros donates millions of dollars each year to causes across the country.

To learn more about Dutch Bros, visit http://www.dutchbros.com, like Dutch Bros Coffee on Facebook or follow @DutchBros on Twitter.

About MDA

For 70 years, the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) has been committed to transforming the lives of people living with muscular dystrophy, ALS, and related neuromuscular diseases. We do this through innovations in science and innovations in care. As the largest source of funding for neuromuscular disease research outside of the federal government, MDA has committed more than $1 billion since our inception to accelerate the discovery of therapies and cures. Research we have supported is directly linked to life-changing therapies across multiple neuromuscular diseases. MDA's MOVR is the first and only data hub that aggregates clinical, genetic, and patient-reported data for multiple neuromuscular diseases to improve health outcomes and accelerate drug development. MDA supports the largest network of multidisciplinary clinics providing best in class care at more than 150 of the nation's top medical institutions. Our Resource Center serves the community with one-on-one specialized support, and we offer educational conferences, events, and materials for families and healthcare providers. Each year thousands of children and young adults learn vital life skills and gain independence at summer camp and through recreational programs, at no cost to families. During the COVID-19 pandemic, MDA continues to produce virtual events and programming to support our community when in-person events and activities are not possible. MDAs COVID-19 guidelines and virtual events are posted at mda.org/COVID19. For more information, visit mda.org.
Masks.

Theyre the unexpected new accessory for spring.

Hotly debated long before Canada was forced into a mid-March lockdown, masks have been among the COVID-19 topics that have left people puzzled.

Questions continue as Ontario prepares to reopen. In some cases, masks have become mandatory: Customers shopping at Longos grocery stores, for example, were required to cover their faces as of May 4. In others, they remain highly advised.

So whats the best mask? And whats the best way to use it?

An ideal mask ticks a lot of boxes, said Narveen Jandu, a cellular microbiologist and assistant professor at the University of Waterloos School of Public Health and Health Systems.

It should be low cost; washable and reusable; easy to put on and take off; and secure and durable.

It should maintain its shape and integrity during cleaning; be comfortable; provide a good fit around the nose and mouth; and be breathable.

There are a lot of masks on the market these days. Jandu helped us break down some pros and cons of several popular options.

So youve chosen the mask thats right for you. Now, how do you make the most of it?

Wearing a mask has some added benefits in certain situations, but it does not make you invincible to COVID-19, Jandu said, echoing recommendations from Health Canada, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.

Viruses are so, so small that face masks will never be 100 per cent effective in blocking them. People need to continue prioritizing physical distancing  staying six feet, or two metres, apart  and handwashing, while avoiding touching their eyes, nose and mouth.

Face masks could lead to an overly false sense of security or invisibility resulting in a more casual approach or disregard of other more strongly recommended health and hygiene practices, said Jandu.

Here are some answers to common questions about masks.

Where and when should I wear a mask?

A mask can help in situations where physical distancing cant be practised, like if you are caring for someone else or where physical distancing may be more difficult, like in the grocery store, said Jandu.

You do not, for example, need to wear a mask when driving alone in a car or when you are outside for a walk, where you can practise physical distancing.

How should I wear a mask?

Masks should cover from the bridge of the nose to the chin and be as secure as possible, using elastic bands or ties  but not tape, staples or safety pins  to avoid shifting, said Jandu. They should be easy to take on and off, breathable, comfortable and maintain their shape.

For homemade masks, adding a coffee filter in between layers of fabric can provide some added protection.

When wearing any mask, take note of which side is which. Identify an inside, which should always touch the nose and mouth area, and an outside, which can be exposed to the elements.

Who does a mask protect?

Masks help prevent respiratory droplets from expelling outwards, Jandu said. This may be particularly important as we begin to better understand the potential impact of silent spreaders: people infected by the virus who are asymptomatic or presymptomatic.

People with coronavirus symptoms should not be outside, mask or not.

How do I clean my mask?

One criteria to consider if purchasing or making a mask is whether its machine washable, said Jandu. Cotton or fabric masks are particularly easy to launder.

Ideally theyre washed at the end of the day after daily use, but that can be challenging, she said.

Jandu suggests making or purchasing multiple masks for different days of the week, if youre able.

How much do masks cost?

Scarves, of course, may already be in your closet. The same can be said for supplies for homemade masks  like old T-shirts, bandanas, and hair ties or elastics. Homemade masks can also be purchased online, generally retailing from $20 to $30.

Neoprene fabric is typically sold for about $30 per yard, while the cost of pre-made masks ranges from about $15 to $30.

Face shields prices generally range from $20 to $50, though they can be worn with another piece of personal protective equipment, like a homemade mask, for an added layer.

Disposable basic surgical masks are sold in packs, with boxes of 50 ranging from about $20 to $50, but really should be left for health-care professionals.
Japanese PM Shinzo Abe has deplored the intensification of US sanctions on Iran amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

His remarks came during the phone talks with the Iranian president.

"Abe expressed concern about the continuation of tensions in the Middle East, hailed Iran as a major and influential country in establishing regional peace and calm, and said, Tokyo will keep efforts and cooperation with Tehran in this regard.

The Japanese leader also deplored an intensification of the US sanctions on Iran amid the coronavirus outbreak, stressing that humanitarian measures should be on the agenda of all countries in the current situation," Tasnim reported.

Unfortunately, the US illegal sanctions against the Iranian nation have intensified in the tough conditions of the fight against the coronavirus and its severe economic consequences," the Iranian leader said noting that the US sanctions have even obstructed Irans efforts to obtain medical supplies and foodstuff.

According to official statistics, the number of infected people per day in Iran reached a peak (3,186 cases) on March 30, after which it began to decrease and stabilized in recent weeks.

To date, 98.5 thousand COVID-19 cases have been identified in the country and at least 6 277 people have died. Since the beginning of the pandemic, over 3.5 million people have been infected with COVID-19 in the world, more than 245 thousand have died.
A more recent publication of this set of statistics is available. Latest publication: Foreign Shipping Traffic 2021, November

Published: 5 May 2020

Number of passengers in foreign shipping traffic fell to under one half in March

A total of 491,230 persons were transported in passenger traffic in March 2020. The number of passengers decreased by 59 per cent from last year's March. The goods volume of foreign sea transport was in total 8.5 million tonnes in March 2020. Sea transport decreased by 0.1 million tonnes from last year's March. Export volume fell by 3 per cent and amounted to 4.6 million tonnes. Imports remained unchanged and were 3.9 million tonnes.

Foreign sea Transport by month (tonnes) in 2018 to 2020

General cargo was transported most, in total 1.5 million tonnes, which is 18 per cent of all transport. The second most transported was oil products, 1.2 million tonnes, and crude oil, 0.96 million tonnes.

Container transport

A total of 0.9 million tonnes of containers were transported through Finnish ports in March 2020, which is 0.2 million tonnes less than in March 2019. The number of containers transported was 67,861 (119,685 TEU containers) 1) . Exports of containers went down by 26.1 per cent measured in tonnes and imports increased by 1.5 per cent measured in tonnes compared to March 2019.

Vehicle transport

A total of 178,933 transport equipment were transported in foreign sea traffic in March 2020. Most transports of transport equipment were passenger cars belonging to passengers. In March, 74,633 passenger cars were transported. The second most transported were trucks, 60,627 and truck trailers, 39,051.

Passenger traffic

A total of 491,230 persons were transported in passenger traffic in March 2020. In all, 267,678 persons travelled between Finland and Estonia and 215,872 persons between Finland and Sweden. Altogether, 7,680 passengers were transported between Finland and Germany. The number of passengers decreased by 59 per cent from March 2019. The number of passengers between Finland and Estonia decreased by 326,139 and between Finland and Sweden by 387,438 from one year ago. In March 2020, no passengers of foreign cruise ships arrived in Finland.

Vessel traffic and goods volume in the Saimaa Canal

The Saimaa Canal was opened on 30 March and 4,160 tons of transport were 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

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 21:02:27|Editor: huaxia

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KIEV, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for modifications to the country's medical reform to prevent the closure of more than 300 hospitals across the country, national media reported Tuesday.

Zelensky published a video address on his official website on Monday, noting that the medical reform, launched two years ago, has caused an ambiguous reaction among Ukrainian society.

Zelensky pointed out that the new funding mechanism could lead to the dismissal of about 50,000 doctors and the closure of 332 hospitals across Ukraine. Almost 1,000 hospitals are set to receive less funding than last year.

Zelensky called on the health ministry and parliament to swiftly find solutions to these issues.

A total of 12,697 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 316 deaths and 1,875 recoveries, have been reported in Ukraine as of Tuesday, according to the country's health ministry. Enditem
Omar Abdullah slammed the Centre on Tuesday after the Jammu and Kashmir administration extended the detention of former chief minister and PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti by another three months

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah slammed the Central government on Tuesday after the Jammu and Kashmir administration extended the detention of former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti by another three months under the stringent Public Safety Act.

Mufti's detention was set to expire today.

In a series of tweets, Abdullah termed the decision "cruel and retrograde", saying, "Nothing she has done or said in any way justifies the way the Indian state has treated her and the others detained".

Unbelievably cruel & retrograde decision to extend @MehboobaMuftis detention. Nothing she has done or said in any way justifies the way the Indian state has treated her & the others detained. https://t.co/tyxXC9NFuL  Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) May 5, 2020

He also said that despite the government's claims of normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir, "the last few days coupled with the extension of Muftis detention is proof enough that (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi ji has single handedly pushed Jammu and Kashmir back decades".

For a government that is making tall claims about normality in J&K the last few days coupled with the extension of Ms Muftis detention is proof enough that Modi ji has single handedly pushed J&K back decades.  Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) May 5, 2020

In a similar move, the detention of former minister and senior National Conference leader Ali Mohammed Sagar, and senior PDP leader and uncle of Mufti, Sartaj Madani, was also extended by another three months, officials said.

In a brief order by the Home Department of the Jammu and Kashmir administration, the extension of PSA was made under the public order provisions of the act.

While Mufti is at present lodged at her official residence 'Fair View', which has been converted into a subsidiary jail, Sagar and Madani are in a government accommodation at Gupkar Road.

Mufti was initially detained on 5 August last year when the Centre abrogated the special status of the erstwhile state and bifurcated it into two union territories  Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir.

Later, her six-month preventive custody was extended by invoking PSA on 5 February this year along with Omar. However, Omar was released in March.

Having spent over eight months in detention at two government facilities that were designated as sub-jails, Mufti was shifted to her home on 7 April, a move seen as a partial relief to her.

Earlier, Mufti was lodged a government guesthouse in Chashma Shahi and a bunglow on Maulana Azad Road near Lal Chowk. Mufti heads the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which was in power in Jammu and Kashmir in alliance with the BJP till June 2018.

Several political leaders inlcuding Omar, Mufti and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah were detained by the authorities on 5 August. The PSA of senior Abdullah and his son was revoked earlier in March this year.

Mufti's daughter, Iltija, has 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 18 March. However, the petition was not taken up for hearing due to coronavirus outbreak.

Habeas corpus is a writ seeking production of a person supposed to be in illegal detention before a court.

With inputs from PTI
A Calgary man was arrested on Tuesday after RCMP allegedly found 350 cases of illegal tobacco in his vehicle.

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This article was published 5/5/2020 (623 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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A Calgary man was arrested on Tuesday after RCMP allegedly found 350 cases of illegal tobacco in his vehicle.

Officers conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle travelling westbound on Highway 1, approximately two kilometres east of Brandon.

Following a discussion with the driver, officers inspected the vehicles load and uncovered 350 cases of illegal tobacco, containing 3,500,000 cigarettes.

The driver, a 36-year-old man from Calgary, was arrested and handed multiple charges including trafficking contraband tobacco. He was later released to appear in court in Winnipeg in July.

If convicted, the driver could face a mandatory triple tax penalty of over $3,000,000 under the Tax Administration and Miscellaneous Taxes Act.

"We believe that this is one of the largest seizures of illegal tobacco from a traffic stop in Canada," said Staff Sergeant Kyle McFadyen of the Manitoba RCMPs Traffic Services. "It really speaks to the importance of the Manitoba RCMPs Roving Traffic Unit. This unit is comprised of officers with specialized training who work to identify potential criminals travelling on our roadways."

The investigation is ongoing.

 The Brandon Sun
As the global village seems entangled in the magical maze of an enemy we cannot see, yet it's icy hand could be felt everywhere, let us how we give credits to those whom credits is deserved. This are countries doing the best they can for their people in this trying times no matter how small, or how huge their population is, there is always a touch of humanity in their acts, from Europe to Asia down here in Africa.

Previously, I had concluded an article with the new challenge that may arise post COVID-19, should it end anytime soon, especially in third world countries, where there are excess of multinationals, and even importantly, a group of people with leaders such short of ideas, and rather plentiful in greed and carelessness. I already assumed the shift in supply curve, once there's post COVID, that assumption is certain but the era isn't ending anytime soon.

The level of development of a country shouldn't just be decided by the it's immediate environs, but also the ideas and it's intellects at home and in diaspora. In the Africa case, this intellects were usually transported in the canoes of slavery many years ago, but today, they have decided to put on the chains of immigration, to develope places that had feasted on their lands for so many years, because the supposed home is not safe to them, this is even against the story of this colonial history of underdevelopment. The Nigeria state is one of this State that was formerly colonised but it's people still prefered pretty good neo-colonialism.

For every six black people across the world one is a Nigerian, for every ten intellects across the world, one is a Nigerian, either by roots or by naturalization. But back home, it's nothing to write about, for example, in Los Angeles today, there are more Nigerian doctors, than we have in the whole of Nigeria, qualified and controlling sophisticated ideas in Changing the narratives of the human life, there should be no wonder why the superpowers understand the importance of Nigerians, irrespective of how some elites have decided to tarnish her image.

The Corona virus has made six out of every ten Nigerians to stay at home, due to the various social distancing rules and a way to continuously curb this menace, but I must be frank in shedding out my sincere opinion, that till current day, I still doubt the originality of the figures televised to us on a daily basis, about the incessant increase in the pandemic, and while some countries have reached their peak of this pandemic, like the USA, Germany, Italy, and even the English, countries of the subsaharan, are however seemingly climbing the ladder on a geometrical progression, simply because they lack the basic preparedness and neccesary equipment to battle such pandemic.

In Nigeria, the numbers continuously go up, yet the people said to be infected remain invisible because we haven't seen them, apart from the late Chief of staff, that reports said he was killed by the virus, not to the satisdact of the people of Nigerians because from time on ages it's leaders are known for their terrible lies, which is why at a point on a radio station, someone had ask in agony, "Are we sure this people ruling us are truly human beings"? Because no normal human would have the means to takecare of his people but allow greed to cloud his/her judgement how much more someone elected to govern the affairs of a group of people diversified as Nigerians.

When Donald Trump said, "Nigerians would do anything for ventilators" the question running through my mind was, what has the Nigerian government discuss with Trump for him to make such statement, hate Trump for who he is, but you can't take away the fact that he is a blunt and straight to the point man, he wouldn't hide or pretend to say what he doesn't meant, but in this case, scrutinizing his words, and judging by the situation at hands, he wasn't being sarcastic, that is why he has promised that America would help Nigeria with a massive 200 ventilators, and for our leaders it's a very big boost and a shout of joy to them, because they had lack the sense to think straight. Note however, it's a joy and not a shame to receive help from America, as a matter of fact during pandemics like this, countries depends on countries, even America at this period has one-time been assisted by China and even Russia, so in our case there's no shame, but for the people we have, it is a ridiculous situation.

The trouble as of late lies in the national assembly of a group of vision less people, the other day, it was highly reported that the current speaker of the house, Femi Gbajabiamila has proposed a bill to the house given more powers to the NCDC, when matter such as this such arise in the future, for cases when pandemics come global and unnoticed, the problem wasn't the bill all through, but for the fact that it was reportedly copied from a Singaporean bill of as early as the 1980s' except for some minute changes like names and the rest, it was an embarrassing situation. Does that mean we can't even boast of anything new from those who decides the future of the country, yet they rake in millions of naira monthly for doing nothing. They proposed bills that benefit not the average Nigerian, so I ask, wouldn't it rather be better if a bill that stamp giving out palliatives to the vulnerable Nigerians irrespective of regions should event like this ever occur be passed?, At such the people can stay at home, but no, their knowledge understands that not.

When they say invest in education, the truth is, this today's Nigerian politicians won't invest rightfully in education, because investing in education evoking the what Sam Adeyemi, (God bless his soul) would term the Spirit of Alutarism, whereby there would be no tribalism, people would understand much more than been slaves to politicians and their hunger games. But much more, people would be able to ask the right questions.

The fatalities of having Vision-less Leaders therefore is what we are enjoying in Nigeria today, lack of futuristic planing, lack of the basic amenities of life, however small they are, education which is the life of every state, it all seems as though we are doom to collapse oneday, and this shall continue for the time being, until perhaps that revolution is revisited in young minds who are really desperate for a difference, a people bonded by truth and neutrality of Creed or religion.

It is unfortunate to be a Nigeria at this time, especially with this current group of leaders, who lack sight but blinded by greed.

2023 is near the horizon, Nigerians have the opportunity to chose a leader as usual, this pandemic has exposed us to even more dangers of having vision less leaders like ours currently, the power lies in us once more, wether to take those miserable bags of rice, and t-shirts advertising greedy and careless politicians or rather vouch for the idealistic ones, who really are determine to do something for the poverty stricken structure we have currently, in us lies the mantra.
A Border Force officer at Heathrow Airport discovered the hundreds of clay figurines, pots, and tablets covered in cuneiform script in a pair of metal trunks last July. Intercepted en route from Bahrain to a private address in the UK, the objects were sent to the British Museum for inspection. There, they were discovered to be fakes. The striking thing about the discovery, says St John Simpson, a curator at the British Museum, is not the number of counterfeit relics. Its the type.  Artnet
The Economic Advisor and Spokesperson for the Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Dr Gideon Boako has stated that government is ever ready to match former President boot-for-boot.

He said government will respond and correct any "distorted" information that may be churned out to the public by former President John Dramani Mahama and his opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

According to him, negative news and propaganda had the potency to derail any economy, hence government would not allow the opposition to use negative news and propaganda to destroy the country's economy.

Dr Boako who was speaking on Accra-based Citi FM Tuesday, May 5, 2020 on why Vice President on Monday, May 4, took a swipe at the former President Mahama for saying that his government would have handled the coronavirus pandemic better than the current administration.

He explained that although President Akufo-Addo had given a clear directive to his appointees and by extension all Ghanaians not politicise with the coronavirus, if the opposition party led by its flag bearer, Mr Mahama would take advantage of the situation engage in politics by distorting facts, government would not sit aloof.

According to him, Vice President Bawumia compared the management of the current coronavirus crisis to that of the power outages (dumsor) under Mahama because of what Mr Mahama had been saying in recent times.

He was of the view that Mr Mahama could not have managed the coronavirus pandemic better than the Akufo-Addo-led government because he was not even able to manage the dumsor crisis.

He said government was resolved in building a resilient economy and that it would not allow any person to use negative news and propaganda to destroy the gains of the country.

---graphic.com.gh
Ocado is facing a shareholder revolt today over 'excessive' pay as its chairman is questioned over his independence.

The online grocer awarded a 58million pay packet to chief executive Tim Steiner last year, and will give him a bonus of up to 100million over five years if its share price continues to rise.

Now three City advisory firms  Pirc, Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS)  have urged the shareholders to vote against the pay policy at today's annual general meeting, calling the bonuses 'excessive' and saying that Steiner's 12 per cent salary increase is 'unacceptable'.

Ocado awarded a 58m pay packet to chief executive Tim Steiner (pictured) last year, and will give him a bonus of up to 100m over five years if its share price continues to rise

ISS has also said Stuart Rose, formerly the boss of Marks & Spencer, is not an independent chairman due to his large shareholding, and investors should therefore oppose his reappointment.

Royal London Asset Management (RLAM), which holds a 0.3 per cent stake in Ocado worth around 34million, said it would vote against the bonus structure calling it 'poorly designed' and 'excessive'.

The enormous pay packets awarded last year were primarily due to a five-year bonus scheme, implemented in 2014 paying out 87.5million as a result of exceptional share price growth.

Steiner received 58.7million in total, while the company has handed 15.8million each to fellow executives Duncan Tatton-Brown and Mark Richardson.

Ocado has become a stock market darling after expanding its robotic warehouse technology to more than a dozen countries, including Japan, the home of robots.

But critics of its pay policies say that there is too much focus on the share price, which is subject to market forces, rather than the underlying performance of the business.

Ocado said it was 'satisfied that pay schemes past and present, all of which have already been approved by shareholders, deliver above-market payouts only for outstanding results'.
A group of Democratic Senators on Monday said there has been a surge in hate crime against Asian-Americans amid coronavirus pandemic and urged the Trump Administration to take concrete steps to arrest the spike.

In a letter to Assistant Attorney General Eric S Dreiband, the 16 Senators, including Kamala Harris, requested the Trump Administration to address this discrimination like it had been done in the past.

The Senators said hate crimes against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) during the pandemic and the inadequate federal response to address these racist and xenophobic attacks is a sharp break from the efforts of past administrations, Republican and Democratic alike.

There are more than 20 million Americans of Asian descent and two million AAPI individuals are working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, as health care workers, law enforcement agents, first responders, and other essential service providers, they said.

It is critical that the Civil Rights Division ensure that the civil and constitutional rights of all Americans are protected during this pandemic, the Senators said.

In the last month alone, Asian American organizations received nearly 1,500 incidents of anti-Asian harassment and discrimination against AAPI individuals across the country, they said.

This comes after the FBI assessed in March that hate crime incidents against Asian Americans were likely to surge across the country, endangering AAPI communities, the Democratic Senators said.

They said on March 14 this year, a man stabbed two Asian American children -- aged 2 and 6 -- and their father at a Sam's Club in Texas because he thought the family was Chinese, and infecting people with the coronavirus.

Despite warnings that using offensive and stigmatizing language to refer to COVID-19 could stoke anti-Asian bias, President Trump and his administration's officials have referred to the coronavirus as the Chinese Virus, Wuhan Virus, and at least one White House official even called it the Kung Flu, the lawmakers rued.

Such harmful rhetoric contradicts guidance by public health experts, they said.

The World Health Organization's guidance in naming infectious diseases warns against using names that stigmatize certain communities, the Senators said.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention also recognizes the stigma and discrimination that can occur when people associate a disease, such as COVID-19, with a population or nationality, they said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty, as Andrea Widburg notes here, got a Pulitzer prize for lying about the massive crimes of communism in what was then the Ukraine. It's supposedly an embarrassment.

But not if you check out who got a Pulitzer this time: Greg Grandin, Hugo Chavez's biggest apologist  a guy who defends Hugo Chavez and all his crimes to his last breath. I'm not talking about a guy like Bernie Sanders, who says "yes socialism in Venezuela is great but there are problems." Grandin is a real dyed-in-the-wool useful stooge who can't stop praising the brutal communist dictator. T here never were a lot of those around, but the shills who were there were loud. Given the embarrassment of socialism now, there are even fewer. But Grandin is one of them.

Here's Al Jazeera's report on Grandin, who tells us with a straight face what a great guy this thug of Caracas was:

As historian Greg Grandin noted in his Chavez obituary for The Nation last March: "Over the last 14 years, Chavez has submitted himself and his agenda to 14 national votes, winning 13 of them by large margins, in polling deemed by Jimmy Carter to be 'best in the world' out of the 92 elections that he has monitored." Beyond relentless elections, Grandin cites "[t]he participatory democracy that took place in barrios, in workplaces and in the countryside" during the Chavez era and credits grassroots organisations and social movements for their "heroic work in democratising society, in giving citizens venues to survive the extremes of neoliberalism and to fight against further depredations". It is this landscape that prompts Grandin's contention: "Venezuela might be the most democratic country in the Western Hemisphere." Indeed, what drove the Venezuelan elite particularly mad about Chavez was the opening up of political space to the previously marginalised masses  overturning as it did the exclusivist system.

Had enough?

I've read Grandin's garbage to understand how bad he was for years. Here's what New York Times columnist Bret Stephens culled from Grandin's obituary of the Venezuelan dictator he just couldn't quit:

In a lengthy obituary in The Nation, New York University professor Greg Grandin opined, "the biggest problem Venezuela faced during his rule was not that Chavez was authoritarian but that he wasn't authoritarian enough."

In other words, as another famous Chavez apologist put it: "I don't regret setting bombs,'' Bill Ayers said. ''I feel we didn't do enough.''

There are pages and pages of Grandin's apologetics for the dictator of Caracas, even as the latter shot people in the streets and destroyed Venezuela's democracy in the name of the anti-democratic Cuban model. Like Duranty, Grandin covered it in sugar and sold it to leftists worldwide. Now he has his Pulitzer prize for "general non-fiction," for some book he wrote to glorify his new topic now that Chavez is an embarrassment  illegal aliens.

Grandin's new Pulitzer confers big respectability on him around the establishment for making such repugnant, mendacious claims. Hugo Chavez was a socialist nightmare and a complete disaster for Venezuela, a place where people eat zoo animals, live in the dark, get shot in the streets, and flee on foot to neighboring Colombia. It's a living hellhole, except for its useful stooges to lie to us about how great it is and now collect their rewards from the establishment.

Black is white. Sheet is Shinola. Whitey did it. Hugo cared about the poor. Socialism uber alles. And far from being a historian, Greg Grandin is nothing but a propagandist for the indefensible.

If this doesn't discredit the Pulitzer committee, what will? An old-school Timesman, Tom Kuntz, recently wrote a RealClearInvestigation piece worrying that stuff like this would happen, warning that the Times had lost its integrity and it's likely he didn't want to see the Pulitzer committee go downhill with the paper. Well, it did.

When I was a student at Columbia journalism school, I had the glorious experience of writing my master's project for the administer of the Pulitzer prizes in the 1990s, one of the great old-school Timesmen, Seymour Topping, and back then, integrity mattered. It's also noteworthy that there were no awards of any gamy quality given on his watch. I even got to meet wonderful conservatives who worked on the awards during that year, such as Claire Sterling and Philip Tierney. Now it's all gone downhill.

Giving Grandin anything is a blot on journalism entirely. Grandin has effusively praised Chavista state propaganda outlets and acted as a propagandist for the odious regime. That he should now get a Pulitzer prize signals how far downhill the awards have come. I am disgusted.

Image credit: Walter Vargas / TKTru via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Post-tax profits at Shannon Group, which operates Shannon Airport rose by 43pc to 21.6m last year, despite the first reduction in passenger numbers at the airport in six years.

The latest annual report shows turnover rose by 1.7pc to 79.1m at the group which is an umbrella organisation for separate companies including Shannon Airport Authority, Shannon Heritage, Shannon Commercial Properties and the International Aviation Services Centre.

The large increase in profit last year was largely due to the impact of an exceptional charge of 5.8m in relation to a group-wide voluntary severance scheme on the group's accounts in 2018.

Shannon Group chairperson Rose Hynes said the figures represented "a positive result in what was a challenging year for aviation and tourism in the regions".

However, she noted an 8pc decline in passenger numbers to 1.71 million in 2019 was "disappointing". That was the first annual fall-off in numbers at Shannon since 2013 with 150,000 fewer travellers than in 2018.

Ms Hynes attributed the decrease largely to the global grounding of the Boeing 737 Max jet on safety grounds.

She said Shannon Group had redoubled its efforts to secure additional services and had announced three new routes to Paris Charles de Gaulle, Vienna and Barcelona at the end of the year, although their launch had been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

"However, we are determined to reconnect our airport and the west of Ireland to global destinations as soon as possible," she said.

Shannon Group chief executive, Mary Considine welcomed the decision of Aer Lingus to base two of their new A321LR aircraft at Shannon and said investment in the group's property portfolio had reaped dividends with occupancy rates now at 98pc in the Shannon Free Zone.
HOUSTON, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE: WES) ("WES" or the "Partnership") announced first-quarter 2020 financial and operating results. Net income (loss) available to limited partners for the first quarter of 2020 totaled $(251.4) million, or a loss of $0.57 per common unit (diluted), with first-quarter 2020 Adjusted EBITDA(1) totaling $513.6 million, first-quarter Cash flows from operating activities totaling $393.3 million, and first-quarter 2020 Free cash flow(1) totaling $214.6 million. The net loss includes $596.8 million of non-cash impairments of goodwill and long-lived assets primarily resulting from lower sustained commodity prices and forecasted in-basin producer activity reductions following the worldwide outbreak of the coronavirus ("COVID-19"). In total, non-cash impairments reduced first-quarter 2020 net income by $1.34 per common unit (diluted).

RECENT HIGHLIGHTS

Gathered record Delaware Basin produced-water throughput of 717 MBbls/d for the first quarter, representing an 18-percent sequential-quarter increase

Basin produced-water throughput of 717 MBbls/d for the first quarter, representing an 18-percent sequential-quarter increase Achieved record Delaware oil throughput of 192 MBbls/d for the first quarter, representing a 14-percent sequential-quarter increase

oil throughput of 192 MBbls/d for the first quarter, representing a 14-percent sequential-quarter increase Processed record Delaware and DJ Basin gas throughput of 2.8 Bcf/d for the first quarter, representing a 9-percent sequential-quarter increase

and DJ Basin gas throughput of 2.8 Bcf/d for the first quarter, representing a 9-percent sequential-quarter increase Commenced operations of Latham Train II at the DJ Basin complex and Loving ROTF Train III at the DBM oil system

at the DJ Basin complex and Loving ROTF Train III at the DBM oil system Repurchased $100 million of Senior Notes due 2021 and 2022 for an aggregate price of $90.1 million via open-market repurchases









(1) Please see the definitions of the Partnership's non-GAAP measures at the end of this release and reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures.

"WES's first-quarter results attest to the high-quality of our asset portfolio," said Chief Executive Officer, Michael Ure. "COVID-19 and the resulting precipitous decline in commodity prices have created significant near-to-medium-term uncertainty, but we remain steadfast in our belief that our high-quality assets and the contracts underpinning the financial stability of our portfolio position WES to manage through this unprecedented cycle. Our first-quarter results demonstrate the strength of our assets in a normalized environment, and our employees' ability to operate efficiently as a dedicated midstream workforce capable of producing improved results."

First-quarter 2020 total natural-gas throughput(1) averaged 4.5 Bcf/d, representing a 3-percent sequential-quarter increase and a 6-percent increase from first-quarter 2019. First-quarter 2020 total throughput for crude-oil and NGLs assets(1) averaged 760 MBbls/d, representing a 3-percent sequential-quarter decrease and a 28-percent increase from first-quarter 2019. First-quarter 2020 total throughput for produced-water assets averaged 717 MBbls/d, representing an 18-percent sequential-quarter increase and a 38-percent increase from first-quarter 2019.

First-quarter 2020 Free cash flow(2), which is calculated as net cash provided by operating activities less total capital expenditures and contributions to equity investments, plus distributions from equity investments in excess of cumulative earnings, totaled $214.6 million, representing nearly a fourfold increase to fourth-quarter 2019 Free cash flow. For the first quarter of 2020, WES declared a per-unit quarterly distribution of $0.3110, which represents a 50-percent decrease from the fourth-quarter 2019 per-unit distribution and an aggregate quarterly distribution of $140.9 million.









(1) Represents total throughput attributable to WES, which excludes the 25% third-party interest in Chipeta and the 2.0% Occidental subsidiary-owned limited partner interest in WES Operating, which collectively represent WES's noncontrolling interests. (2) Please see the definitions of the Partnership's non-GAAP measures at the end of this release and reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures.

REVISED 2020 GUIDANCE

Our revised guidance is based on information obtained through direct discussions with a large majority of our customers. We will continue monitoring producer activity levels and may adjust our 2020 guidance and future distribution levels based on additional curtailments and other changes to producer-planned activities that may be communicated to us throughout the balance of 2020. Notwithstanding and based on known changes to producer activity, our updated guidance is as follows:

Adjusted EBITDA between $1.725 billion and $1.825 billion , which includes previously announced cost reductions of approximately $75 million attributable to estimated operating and maintenance and general and administrative expense cost savings

and , which includes previously announced cost reductions of approximately attributable to estimated operating and maintenance and general and administrative expense cost savings Total capital expenditures between $450 million and $550 million , representing a 45-percent reduction to prior guidance, including costs associated with approximately 15,000 horsepower of compression, over 65 miles of gathering, the completion of the second Latham train during first-quarter 2020, and the addition of two 30 MBbls/d oil-stabilization trains and approximately 120 MBbls/d of saltwater disposal capacity in the Delaware Basin by year-end 2020

and , representing a 45-percent reduction to prior guidance, including costs associated with approximately 15,000 horsepower of compression, over 65 miles of gathering, the completion of the second Latham train during first-quarter 2020, and the addition of two 30 MBbls/d oil-stabilization trains and approximately 120 MBbls/d of saltwater disposal capacity in the Basin by year-end 2020 50-percent distribution decrease from fourth-quarter 2019 per-unit distribution of $0.622

"Our revised 2020 guidance demonstrates our continued focus on exercising capital discipline to create long-term value for stakeholders by generating positive free cash flow after distributions, while continuing to deliver exceptional customer service in a safe and responsible manner," said Chief Financial Officer, Mike Pearl. "Our timely and highly successful bond offering earlier this year coupled with our recent 50-percent distribution reduction results in no near-term need to access the capital markets. Although our largely undrawn $2.0 billion revolver provides us ample liquidity to manage through the current economic downturn, we expect that our full-year 2020 operational and financial performance and distribution reduction will result in the generation of meaningful 2020 Free cash flow after distributions. Our ability to generate near-term Free cash flow after distributions allows us to strengthen our balance sheet through leverage reduction so that we are positioned to be financially flexible and opportunistic as current market conditions abate."

CONFERENCE CALL TOMORROW AT 1 P.M. CDT

WES will host a conference call on Wednesday, May 6, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time (2:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time) to discuss first-quarter 2020 results. To participate, individuals should dial 877-883-0383 (Domestic) or 412-902-6506 (International) 15 minutes before the scheduled conference call time and enter participant access code 2731323. To access the live audio webcast of the conference call, please visit the investor relations section of the Partnership's website at www.westernmidstream.com. A replay of the conference call also will be available on the website for two weeks following the call.

ABOUT WESTERN MIDSTREAM

Western Midstream Partners, LP ("WES") is a Delaware master limited partnership formed to acquire, own, develop, and operate midstream assets. With midstream assets located in the Rocky Mountains, North-central Pennsylvania, Texas, and New Mexico, WES is engaged in the business of gathering, compressing, treating, processing, and transporting natural gas; gathering, stabilizing, and transporting condensate, natural-gas liquids, and crude oil; and gathering and disposing of produced water for its customers. In its capacity as a natural-gas processor, WES also buys and sells natural gas, natural-gas liquids, and condensate on behalf of itself and as an agent for its customers under certain contracts.

For more information about Western Midstream Partners, LP, please visit www.westernmidstream.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements. WES's management believes that its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions. No assurance, however, can be given that such expectations will prove correct. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the projections, anticipated results, or other expectations expressed in this news release. These factors include the ultimate impact of efforts to fight COVID-19 on the global economy and the timeline for a recovery in commodity demand and prices; our ability to meet financial guidance or distribution expectations; our ability to safely and efficiently operate WES's assets; the supply of, demand for, and price of oil, natural gas, NGLs, and related products or services; our ability to meet projected in-service dates for capital-growth projects; construction costs or capital expenditures exceeding estimated or budgeted costs or expenditures; and the other factors described in the "Risk Factors" section of WES's most-recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other public filings and press releases. WES undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.

WESTERN MIDSTREAM CONTACTS

Kristen S. Shults

Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications

[email protected]

832.636.6000

Abby Dempsey

Investor Relations

[email protected]

832.636.6000

Western Midstream Partners, LP

RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO NON-GAAP MEASURES

WES defines "Free cash flow" as net cash provided by operating activities less total capital expenditures and contributions to equity investments, plus distributions from equity investments in excess of cumulative earnings. In prior periods, management considered "Distributable cash flow," defined as Adjusted EBITDA attributable to Western Midstream Partners, LP ("Adjusted EBITDA"), plus (i) interest income and (ii) the net settlement amounts from the sale and/or purchase of natural gas, condensate, and NGLs under WES Operating's commodity-price swap agreements to the extent such amounts were not recognized as Adjusted EBITDA, less (i) Service revenues  fee based recognized in Adjusted EBITDA in excess of (less than) customer billings, (ii) net cash paid (or to be paid) for interest expense (including amortization of deferred debt issuance costs originally paid in cash and offset by non-cash capitalized interest), (iii) maintenance capital expenditures, (iv) income taxes, and (v) Distributable cash flow attributable to noncontrolling interests to the extent such amounts are not excluded from Adjusted EBITDA, as a viable performance-measurement and distribution-assessment tool. Although management continues to recognize Distributable cash flow as a useful metric for purposes of comparing our operating and financial performance against that of its peers, management considers Free cash flow as a superior and improved performance-measurement tool in light of an ongoing transition within the midstream industry that has shifted investor focus from distribution-growth to capital discipline, cost efficiency, and balance-sheet strength. Henceforth, Free cash flow will be the metric that we use to assess our ability to make distributions to our unitholders; however, this measure should not be viewed as indicative of the actual amount of cash that is available for distributions or planned for distributions for a given period. Instead, Free cash flow should be considered indicative of the amount of cash that is available for distributions, debt repayments, and other general partnership purposes.

WES defines Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss), plus (i) distributions from equity investments, (ii) non-cash equity-based compensation expense, (iii) interest expense, (iv) income tax expense, (v) depreciation and amortization, (vi) impairments, and (vii) other expense (including lower of cost or market inventory adjustments recorded in cost of product), less (i) gain (loss) on divestiture and other, net, (ii) gain (loss) on early extinguishment of debt, (iii) income from equity investments, (iv) interest income, (v) income tax benefit, (vi) other income, and (vii) the noncontrolling interests owners' proportionate share of revenues and expenses.

WES defines Adjusted gross margin attributable to Western Midstream Partners, LP ("Adjusted gross margin") as total revenues and other (less reimbursements for electricity-related expenses recorded as revenue), less cost of product, plus distributions from equity investments, and excluding the noncontrolling interests owners' proportionate share of revenues and cost of product.

Below are reconciliations of (i) net cash provided by operating activities (GAAP) to Free cash flow (non-GAAP), (ii) net income (loss) (GAAP) and net cash provided by operating activities (GAAP) to Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP), and (iii) operating income (loss) (GAAP) to Adjusted gross margin (non-GAAP), as required under Regulation G of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Management believes that WES's Free cash flow, Adjusted EBITDA, and Adjusted gross margin are widely accepted financial indicators of WES's financial performance compared to other publicly traded partnerships and are useful in assessing WES's ability to incur and service debt, fund capital expenditures, and make distributions. Free cash flow, Adjusted EBITDA, and Adjusted gross margin as defined by WES, may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. Therefore, WES's Free cash flow, Adjusted EBITDA, and Adjusted gross margin should be considered in conjunction with net income (loss) attributable to Western Midstream Partners, LP and other applicable performance measures, such as operating income (loss) or cash flows from operating activities.

Western Midstream Partners, LP RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO NON-GAAP MEASURES (CONTINUED)

Free Cash Flow





Three Months Ended

March 31, thousands

2020

2019 Reconciliation of Net cash provided by operating activities to Free cash flow







Net cash provided by operating activities

$ 393,311



$ 343,073

Less:







Capital expenditures

172,816



386,144

Contributions to equity investments

10,960



36,543

Add:







Distributions from equity investments in excess of cumulative earnings

5,052



7,792

Free cash flow

$ 214,587



$ (71,822)

Cash flow information







Net cash provided by operating activities

$ 393,311



$ 343,073

Net cash used in investing activities

(178,724)



(2,515,732)

Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities

(162,267)



2,180,564

















Three Months Ended thousands

June 30,

2019

September 30,

2019

December 31,

2019 Reconciliation of Net cash provided by operating activities to Free cash flow











Net cash provided by operating activities

$ 343,458



$ 340,154



$ 297,415

Less:











Capital expenditures

318,281



242,841



241,563

Contributions to equity investments

40,790



30,785



20,275

Add:











Distributions from equity investments in excess of cumulative earnings

9,260



4,151



9,053

Free cash flow

$ (6,353)



$ 70,679



$ 44,630

Cash flow information











Net cash provided by operating activities

$ 343,458



$ 340,154



$ 297,415

Net cash used in investing activities

(349,436)



(269,475)



(253,210)

Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities

1,726



(49,044)



(61,673)



Western Midstream Partners, LP RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO NON-GAAP MEASURES (CONTINUED)

Adjusted EBITDA





Three Months Ended

March 31, thousands

2020

2019 Reconciliation of Net income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA







Net income (loss)

$ (289,400)



$ 211,979

Add:







Distributions from equity investments

65,920



62,013

Non-cash equity-based compensation expense

5,234



1,798

Interest expense

88,586



65,876

Income tax expense





10,092

Depreciation and amortization

132,319



113,946

Impairments (1)

596,802



390

Other expense

4,048



35,213

Less:







Gain (loss) on divestiture and other, net

(40)



(590)

Gain (loss) on early extinguishment of debt

7,345





Equity income, net  related parties

61,347



57,992

Interest income  related parties

4,225



4,225

Income tax benefit

4,280





Adjusted EBITDA attributable to noncontrolling interests (2)

12,765



11,350

Adjusted EBITDA

$ 513,587



$ 428,330

Reconciliation of Net cash provided by operating activities to Adjusted EBITDA







Net cash provided by operating activities

$ 393,311



$ 343,073

Interest (income) expense, net

84,361



61,651

Uncontributed cash-based compensation awards





(570)

Accretion and amortization of long-term obligations, net

(2,100)



(1,511)

Current income tax (benefit) expense

(2,112)



6,027

Other (income) expense, net (3)

1,761



(432)

Distributions from equity investments in excess of cumulative earnings  related parties

5,052



7,792

Changes in assets and liabilities:







Accounts receivable, net

(7,702)



(9,486)

Accounts and imbalance payables and accrued liabilities, net

28,924



55,529

Other items, net

24,857



(22,393)

Adjusted EBITDA attributable to noncontrolling interests (2)

(12,765)



(11,350)

Adjusted EBITDA

$ 513,587



$ 428,330

Cash flow information







Net cash provided by operating activities

$ 393,311



$ 343,073

Net cash used in investing activities

(178,724)



(2,515,732)

Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities

(162,267)



2,180,564







(1) Includes goodwill impairment for the three months ended March 31, 2020. (2) For all periods presented, includes (i) the 25% third-party interest in Chipeta and (ii) the 2.0% Occidental subsidiary-owned limited partner interest in WES Operating, which collectively represent WES's noncontrolling interests. (3) Excludes the non-cash loss on interest-rate swaps of $35.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2019.

Western Midstream Partners, LP RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO NON-GAAP MEASURES (CONTINUED)

Adjusted Gross Margin



Three Months Ended

March 31, thousands

2020

2019 Reconciliation of Operating income (loss) to Adjusted gross margin







Operating income (loss)

$ (214,903)



$ 318,928

Add:







Distributions from equity investments

65,920



62,013

Operation and maintenance

159,191



142,829

General and administrative

40,465



22,844

Property and other taxes

18,476



16,285

Depreciation and amortization

132,319



113,946

Impairments (1)

596,802



390

Less:







Gain (loss) on divestiture and other, net

(40)



(590)

Equity income, net  related parties

61,347



57,992

Reimbursed electricity-related charges recorded as revenues

19,223



16,589

Adjusted gross margin attributable to noncontrolling interests (2)

16,425



15,550

Adjusted gross margin

$ 701,315



$ 587,694

Adjusted gross margin for natural-gas assets

$ 471,366



$ 412,428

Adjusted gross margin for crude-oil and NGLs assets

167,828



131,370

Adjusted gross margin for produced-water assets

62,121



43,896







(1) Includes goodwill impairment for the three months ended March 31, 2020. (2) For all periods presented, includes (i) the 25% third-party interest in Chipeta and (ii) the 2.0% Occidental subsidiary-owned limited partner interest in WES Operating, which collectively represent WES's noncontrolling interests.

Western Midstream Partners, LP CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Unaudited)





Three Months Ended

March 31, thousands except per-unit amounts

2020

2019 Revenues and other







Service revenues  fee based

$ 701,396



$ 579,974

Service revenues  product based

15,921



19,379

Product sales

56,649



72,133

Other

347



397

Total revenues and other

774,313



671,883

Equity income, net  related parties

61,347



57,992

Operating expenses







Cost of product

103,270



114,063

Operation and maintenance

159,191



142,829

General and administrative

40,465



22,844

Property and other taxes

18,476



16,285

Depreciation and amortization

132,319



113,946

Long-lived asset impairments

155,785



390

Goodwill impairment

441,017





Total operating expenses

1,050,523



410,357

Gain (loss) on divestiture and other, net

(40)



(590)

Operating income (loss)

(214,903)



318,928

Interest income  related parties

4,225



4,225

Interest expense

(88,586)



(65,876)

Gain (loss) on early extinguishment of debt

7,345





Other income (expense), net (1)

(1,761)



(35,206)

Income (loss) before income taxes

(293,680)



222,071

Income tax expense (benefit)

(4,280)



10,092

Net income (loss)

(289,400)



211,979

Net income (loss) attributable to noncontrolling interests

(32,873)



93,319

Net income (loss) attributable to Western Midstream Partners, LP

$ (256,527)



$ 118,660

Limited partners' interest in net income (loss):







Net income (loss) attributable to Western Midstream Partners, LP

$ (256,527)



$ 118,660

Pre-acquisition net (income) loss allocated to Anadarko





(29,116)

General partner interest in net income (loss)

5,131





Limited partners' interest in net income (loss)

$ (251,396)



$ 89,544

Net income (loss) per common unit  basic and diluted

$ (0.57)



$ 0.30

Weighted-average common units outstanding  basic and diluted

443,971



299,556







(1) Includes losses associated with the interest-rate swap agreements for the three months ended March 31, 2019.

Western Midstream Partners, LP CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (Unaudited)

thousands except number of units

March 31,

2020

December 31,

2019 Total current assets

$ 490,548



$ 402,412

Note receivable  Anadarko

257,885



260,000

Net property, plant, and equipment

8,986,731



9,064,931

Other assets

2,173,834



2,619,110

Total assets

$ 11,908,998



$ 12,346,453

Total current liabilities

$ 449,725



$ 485,954

Long-term debt

8,088,761



7,951,565

Asset retirement obligations

339,454



336,396

Other liabilities

238,773



227,245

Total liabilities

9,116,713



9,001,160

Equity and partners' capital







Common units (443,971,409 units issued and outstanding at March 31, 2020, and December 31, 2019)

2,684,136



3,209,947

General partner units (9,060,641 units issued and outstanding at March 31, 2020, and December 31, 2019)

(24,990)



(14,224)

Noncontrolling interests

133,139



149,570

Total liabilities, equity, and partners' capital

$ 11,908,998



$ 12,346,453



Western Midstream Partners, LP CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (Unaudited)





Three Months Ended

March 31, thousands

2020

2019 Cash flows from operating activities







Net income (loss)

$ (289,400)



$ 211,979

Adjustments to reconcile net income (loss) to net cash provided by operating activities and changes in assets and liabilities:







Depreciation and amortization

132,319



113,946

Long-lived asset impairments

155,785



390

Goodwill impairment

441,017





(Gain) loss on divestiture and other, net

40



590

(Gain) loss on early extinguishment of debt

(7,345)





(Gain) loss on interest-rate swaps





35,638

Change in other items, net

(39,105)



(19,470)

Net cash provided by operating activities

$ 393,311



$ 343,073

Cash flows from investing activities







Capital expenditures

$ (172,816)



$ (386,144)

Acquisitions from related parties





(2,007,501)

Acquisitions from third parties





(93,303)

Contributions to equity investments - related parties

(10,960)



(36,543)

Distributions from equity investments in excess of cumulative earnings  related parties

5,052



7,792

Proceeds from the sale of assets to third parties





(33)

Net cash used in investing activities

$ (178,724)



$ (2,515,732)

Cash flows from financing activities







Borrowings, net of debt issuance costs

$ 3,586,173



$ 2,430,750

Repayments of debt

(3,470,139)



(467,595)

Increase (decrease) in outstanding checks

(7,308)



(5,890)

Registration expenses related to the issuance of Partnership common units





(855)

Distributions to Partnership unitholders

(281,786)



(131,910)

Distributions to Chipeta noncontrolling interest owner

(1,738)



(1,935)

Distributions to noncontrolling interest owners of WES Operating

(5,807)



(100,999)

Net contributions from (distributions to) related parties

20,489



451,591

Above-market component of swap agreements with Anadarko





7,407

Finance lease payments

(2,151)





Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities

$ (162,267)



$ 2,180,564

Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents

$ 52,320



$ 7,905

Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period

99,962



92,142

Cash and cash equivalents at end of period

$ 152,282



$ 100,047



Western Midstream Partners, LP OPERATING STATISTICS (Unaudited)





Three Months Ended

March 31,



2020

2019 Throughput for natural-gas assets (MMcf/d)







Gathering, treating, and transportation

539



527

Processing

3,649



3,471

Equity investment (1)

444



377

Total throughput

4,632



4,375

Throughput attributable to noncontrolling interests (2)

166



176

Total throughput attributable to WES for natural-gas assets

4,466



4,199

Throughput for crude-oil and NGLs assets (MBbls/d)







Gathering, treating, and transportation

361



302

Equity investment (3)

414



304

Total throughput

775



606

Throughput attributable to noncontrolling interests (2)

15



12

Total throughput attributable to WES for crude-oil and NGLs assets

760



594

Throughput for produced-water assets (MBbls/d)







Gathering and disposal

717



518

Throughput attributable to noncontrolling interests (2)

14



10

Total throughput attributable to WES for produced-water assets

703



508

Per-Mcf Adjusted gross margin for natural-gas assets (4)

$ 1.16



$ 1.09

Per-Bbl Adjusted gross margin for crude-oil and NGLs assets (5)

2.43



2.46

Per-Bbl Adjusted gross margin for produced-water assets (6)

0.97



0.96





















(1) Represents the 14.81% share of average Fort Union throughput, 22% share of average Rendezvous throughput, 50% share of average Mi Vida and Ranch Westex throughput, and 30% share of average Red Bluff Express throughput. (2) For all periods presented, includes (i) the 25% third-party interest in Chipeta and (ii) the 2.0% Occidental subsidiary-owned limited partner interest in WES Operating, which collectively represent WES's noncontrolling interests. (3) Represents the 10% share of average White Cliffs throughput; 25% share of average Mont Belvieu JV throughput; 20% share of average TEG, TEP, Whitethorn, and Saddlehorn throughput; 33.33% share of average FRP throughput; and 15% share of average Panola and Cactus II throughput. (4) Average for period. Calculated as Adjusted gross margin for natural-gas assets, divided by total throughput (MMcf/d) attributable to WES for natural-gas assets. (5) Average for period. Calculated as Adjusted gross margin for crude-oil and NGLs assets, divided by total throughput (MBbls/d) attributable to WES for crude-oil and NGLs assets. (6) Average for period. Calculated as Adjusted gross margin for produced-water assets, divided by total throughput (MBbls/d) attributable to WES for produced-water assets.

Western Midstream Partners, LP OPERATING STATISTICS (CONTINUED) (Unaudited)





Three Months Ended March 31,



2020

2019

2020

2019

2020

2019



Natural gas

(MMcf/d)

Crude oil & NGLs

(MBbls/d)

Produced water

(MBbls/d) Delaware Basin

1,389



1,178



192



145



717



518

DJ Basin

1,407



1,258



128



102









Equity investments

444



377



414



304









Other

1,392



1,562



41



55









Total throughput

4,632



4,375



775



606



717



518



SOURCE Western Midstream Partners, LP

Related Links

http://www.westernmidstream.com


LANSING  Michigans daily COVID-19 case and death counts have been delayed on Monday due to a software issue.

In the evening of May 3, there was a malfunction with the states integration software, which caused it to stop processing messages from COVID-19 testing laboratories to the Michigan Disease Surveillance System.

"Daily, thousands of tests results are sent to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services electronically," reads a press release from the Michigan State Emergency Operations Center Monday. "These messages are processed through software designed to act as an integrator that connects health reporting systems."

According to the release, the software malfunctioned Sunday night and stopped processing messages from testing laboratories.

"The malfunction has been resolved," the release states. "No information was lost and all of the messages were retained. However, processing the backlog of messages will take a significant amount of time."

The release says that data would be reported later Monday evening, and might not represent all data being processed. The Tribune will report the numbers online at www.michigansthumb.com when they are available.

MDHHS (Michigan Department of Health and Human Services) understands many people and programs rely on this information and is working to resolve this issue in as timely a manner as possible, the statement reads.

The state usually publishes its daily numbers on its website at some time between 2:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.
Just 24 hours after participating in a Fox News town hall at Washington, DCs Lincoln Memorial, Donald Trump fired a barrage of scornful tweets at a political lobby group named for the 16th US president, saying their campaign against him is a disgrace to Honest Abe.

His broadside against the group comes after he used the town hall to compare his treatment by the press to the abuse Lincoln suffered, saying he is in fact being treated worse than his murdered predecessor.

The Lincoln Project, a political action committee founded by a group of high-profile Republicans to try and avert a second Trump term, has released a video attacking the Trump administration for its handling of the Covid-19 outbreak.

A homage to Ronald Reagans Morning in America ad from 1984, Mourning in America shows lines of unemployed Americans and bodies being loaded into trucks while a voiceover asks: If we have another four years like this, will there even be an America?

The video has apparently sent Mr Trump into a fury. Citing their failure to obstruct his path to the Republican nomination or the presidency in 2016, Mr Trump raged at the groups leaders, many of whom have worked on previous Republican campaigns.

They dont know how to win, and their so-called Lincoln Project is a disgrace to Honest Abe. I dont know what Kellyanne did to her deranged loser of a husband, Moonface, but it must have been really bad. John Weaver lost big for Kasich (to me). Crazed Rick Wilson....

....lost for Evan McMuffin McMullin (to me). Steve Schmidt & Reed Galvin lost for John McCain, Romneys campaign manager (?) lost big to O, & Jennifer Horn got thrown out of the New Hampshire Republican Party. Theyre all LOSERS, but Abe Lincoln, Republican, is all smiles!

It is not clear what Mr Trump meant by saying Lincoln, assassinated in 1865, is all smiles. The president is known to have suffered bouts of deep melancholy, and the statue at his memorial wears a pensive, solemn expression.

The man Mr Trump refers to as Moonface is George Conway, husband of White House adviser Kellyanne Conway. Mr Conway has been one of the presidents most outspoken critics on the right, regularly sparring with the president on Twitter and founding the Lincoln Project out of his concern for the consequences of Mr Trumps temperament and behaviour.

While Mr Trump derided the groups deliberate invocation of the Reagan ad for its supposed lack of imagination, others pointed out that Make America Great Again can be found on Reagan buttons from 1980.

Mr Trumps claims to victimhood have reached grandiose levels on more than one occasion. He previously complained of suffering the highest level of Presidential Harassment in the history of our Country, placing himself above the four presidents who were assassinated and the two others who survived attempts on their lives.
Joe Biden's former staffer, Tara Reade, says the former Vice President and presumptive Democratic nominee, assaulted her in 1993. Reade's Senate ID card can be seen on the right.

Associated Press, Tara Reade

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is facing heightened scrutiny over his past conduct towards women.

Eight women have alleged that Biden either touched them inappropriately or violated their personal space in ways that made them uncomfortable.

One of those women, Tara Reade, alleges that Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993. Biden has unequivocally denied assaulting or harassing Reade.

Biden has also been criticized for repeatedly commenting on the physical appearance of women on the campaign trail, and for refusing to explicitly apologize for his behavior.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Over the last year, former Vice President Joe Biden has faced scrutiny over his interactions with women, as well as his refusal to apologize for his controversial behavior.

In March 2020, former Senate aide Tara Reade alleged that Biden sexually assaulted her while she worked for his office in 1993. Biden has unequivocally denied assaulting or harassing Reade.

Eight women, including Reade, have accused Biden of touching them inappropriately or invading their personal space in ways that made them feel uncomfortable. Seven of the women said Biden's behavior did not amount to sexual harassment or assault.

Biden released a two-minute video after the initial allegations were made public in April 2019, but he was criticized for giving what critics deemed a "non-apology apology," in which he said he would try to do better moving forward. He later said he's "not sorry for anything that I've ever done."

The Delaware Democrat was further criticized for repeatedly making light of the allegations, and for commenting on the physical appearance of young girls he met on the 2020 campaign trail.

Here are all of the allegations against Biden:

Tara Reade alleged in April 2019 that Biden touched her in ways that made her feel uncomfortable while she worked in his Senate office in 1993. In March 2020, Reade alleged that Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993.

Story continues

Alexandra Tara Reade

Screenshot/YouTube

Reade first alleged in April 2019 that Biden would repeatedly "put his hand on my shoulder and run his finger up my neck" while she was employed in his Senate office from December 1992 to August 1993.

She also alleged that she was asked to serve drinks at a work event because Biden liked her legs. Reade said when she refused to serve the drinks, her work responsibilities were reduced and she left her job.

In March 2020, Reade first publicly alleged that Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993, pressing her against a wall in a Capitol Hill corridor, reaching under her skirt, and digitally penetrating her.

Reade said she filed a complaint with the Senate personnel office concerning Biden's alleged "sexual harassment and retaliation," but didn't mention the alleged assault.

Lucy Flores alleged in March 2019 that Biden grasped her shoulders from behind and kissed the back of her head without her consent during a campaign event in 2014.

lucy flores cnn

Screenshot via CNN

Flores, a Democratic politician from Nevada, made her allegations in an essay published in New York Magazine's The Cut in late March 2019.

Flores said that while she was preparing to go onstage at a 2014 rally during her race for lieutenant governor, Biden came up behind her, put his hands on her shoulders, smelled her hair, and kissed the back of her head.

"My brain couldn't process what was happening. I was embarrassed. I was shocked. I was confused," she wrote. "The vice-president of the United States of America had just touched me in an intimate way reserved for close friends, family, or romantic partners  and I felt powerless to do anything about it ... Even if his behavior wasn't violent or sexual, it was demeaning and disrespectful."

Ally Coll, a former Democratic staffer, told The Washington Post in April 2019 that when she met Biden in 2008, he complimented her smile, squeezed her shoulders, and held her "for a beat too long."

Ally Coll

Screenshot/American Law Journal

Coll initially brushed off the incident, but she told The Post that reflecting on it now, she believes Biden's actions were inappropriate.

"There's been a lack of understanding about the way that power can turn something that might seem innocuous into something that can make somebody feel uncomfortable," Coll told The Post in April 2019.

Sofie Karasek, a progressive organizer, was photographed holding hands and touching foreheads with Biden at the 2016 Academy Awards. Karasek said she felt Biden violated her personal space in that interaction.

Sofie Karasek

Paul Elias/AP Images

Karasek was one of dozens of sexual-assault survivors who stood on stage while Lady Gaga performed, "Til It Happens To You," a song concerning rape and sexual assault, at the 2016 Academy Awards.

A photograph from the event of the then-22 year old and Biden holding hands and touching foreheads went viral, but Karasek told The Washington Post in 2019 that she felt Biden had encroached on her personal space.

She also said she didn't think Biden's 2019 apology video adequately addressed the allegations against him. Biden never explicitly apologized for his actions, and Karasek said he "didn't take ownership in the way that he needs to."

"He emphasized that he wants to connect with people and, of course, that's important," she said. "But again, all of our interactions and friendships are a two-way street  Too often it doesn't matter how the woman feels about it or they just assume that they're fine with it."

Amy Stokes Lappos alleges Biden pulled her face close to him during a 2009 political fundraiser.

Amy Stokes Lappos

Screenshot/WTNH News 8

Lappos, a small business owner and Democratic political activist, told the Hartford Courant in April 2019 that Biden "put his hands behind my head and pulled me close and I thought, 'he's going to kiss me.'"

Lappos said her interaction with Biden occurred at a Greenwich, Connecticut fundraiser for Democratic Rep. Jim Himes in 2009.

Caitlyn Caruso said that after she shared her story of sexual assault at a University of Nevada event in 2016, Biden hugged her "just a little bit too long" and put his hand on her thigh.

Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, speaks at the Poor People's Moral Action Congress presidential forum in Washington, Monday, June 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Associated Press

"It doesn't even really cross your mind that such a person would dare perpetuate harm like that," Caruso told The New York Times in April 2019. "These are supposed to be people you can trust."

DJ Hill alleges Biden rested his hand on her shoulder and moved it down her back at a 2012 fundraising event in Minneapolis. Hill said the encounter made her "very uncomfortable."

D.J. Hill

Screenshot/CBSN

"Only he knows his intent," Hill told The New York Times in April 2019. "If something makes you feel uncomfortable, you have to feel able to say it."

Vail Kohnert-Yount, a former White House intern, said when she met Biden in 2013, he "put his hand on the back of my head and pressed his forehead to my forehead." Kohnert-Yount also said Biden called her a "pretty girl."

Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden.

Reuters

Kohnert-Yount told The Washington Post in April 2019 she was "so shocked" by her encounter with Biden that "it was hard to focus on what he was saying."

She said she wouldn't classify Biden's actions as sexual misconduct, but added that it's "the kind of inappropriate behavior that makes many women feel uncomfortable and unequal in the workplace."

In June 2019, Biden told the brothers of a 13-year-old girl to "keep the guys away" from her at a campaign event.

Biden touches his head to a young girl's forehead as he greets guests after speaking during a campaign event with former President Barack Obama in 2012.

SAUL LOEB/Getty Images

The Boston Globe reported that the interaction occurred when Biden met a voter at a coffee shop before a campaign event in Iowa.

When Biden met the voter's granddaughter, he asked her age. After she replied that she was 13 years old, Biden turned to her brothers and said, "You've got one job here, keep the guys away from your sister."

At a May 2019 campaign event, Biden told a 10-year-old girl, "I bet you're as bright as you are good-looking."

Biden with girl

Screenshot/ Wochit Politics

The girl's teacher and mother defended Biden, but progressive critics argued the comments were further evidence of the candidate's sexism.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Andrew Cuomo

Governors Andrew Cuomo, Gavin Newsom and Mike DeWine emerged as the political stars of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Their steady and fact-based virus briefings stand in sharp contrast to the carnival presentations made by president Trump.

The performance of the gubernatorial trio may explain why Edelman's updated Spring Trust Barometer shows the US registered the greatest gap among the 11 nations polled between trust in state/local leaders and national ones.

The US has a 20 point bulge between trust in local leaders (66 percent) and federal leadership (46 percent). That tops the 15 point gap in Japan and 11 point difference in France.

Democrats have a higher level of trust in local government than Republicans (73 percent vs. 65 percent), though both groups showed an 11 point improvement from the January Barometer.

Democrats appear to be turned off by the Trump Show as their trust in the federal government dipped five percentage points to 40 percent since January.

Republicans rallied around the president as trust in the federal government jumped 10 points to 59 percent.

Russia leader Vladimir Putin is using COVID-19 to crack down on media trying to investigate the truth about the virus, according to a report by PEN America, the advocacy group for writers.

The Russian government initially downplayed the threat posed by the virus and failed to implement programs or public information campaigns to prevent the spread.

PEN reports that Russian media are now being charged with dissemination of false information and sowing panic among the public and provoking public disturbance."

Russia, which spread misinformation in the US during the 2016 presidential election, has new laws aimed at people who spread false information about the epidemic.

That measure gives the Russian leader a wide net to scoop up media figures or dissenters.

Thanks but no thanks. Three-in-ten Americans say they won't take a COVID-19 vaccine, once it is developed, according to a poll by Bospar, tech PR firm.

Young people (18 to 24) are least likely (57.6 percent) to get a vaccine, while those over 65 are the most likely to vaccinate at 78.3 percent.

Democrats are more likely to vaccinate than Republicans (79.1 vs. 67.9 percent). Heterosexuals are more likely to consider vaccination than the LGBTQIA community (71.5 vs 55.9 percent).

The poll asked people how they will treat others who declined to vaccinate.

Almost half (49.4 percent) said they would respect their choice. That was followed by physically avoid non-vaccinators (37.8%), pressure non-vaccinators to change their minds (25%) and warn others about the status of those who did not get vaccinated (18.7%).

More than one-in-ten (11.1%) of the respondents say they wouldn't care one way or another about a person's vaccination decision.
One of the best investments we can make is in our own knowledge and skill set. With that in mind, this article will work through how we can use Return On Equity (ROE) to better understand a business. To keep the lesson grounded in practicality, we'll use ROE to better understand Suoxinda Holdings Limited (HKG:3680).

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. In simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.

View our latest analysis for Suoxinda Holdings

How Is ROE Calculated?

Return on equity can be calculated by using the formula:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations)  Shareholders' Equity

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Suoxinda Holdings is:

2.0% = CN4.1m  CN210m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2019).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. So, this means that for every HK$1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of HK$0.02.

Does Suoxinda Holdings Have A Good Return On Equity?

One simple way to determine if a company has a good return on equity is to compare it to the average for its industry. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. As is clear from the image below, Suoxinda Holdings has a lower ROE than the average (12%) in the IT industry.

SEHK:3680 Past Revenue and Net Income May 5th 2020

Unfortunately, that's sub-optimal. That being said, a low ROE is not always a bad thing, especially if the company has low leverage as this still leaves room for improvement if the company were to take on more debt. When a company has low ROE but high debt levels, we would be cautious as the risk involved is too high. To know the 4 risks we have identified for Suoxinda Holdings visit our risks dashboard for free.

Why You Should Consider Debt When Looking At ROE

Story continues

Most companies need money -- from somewhere -- to grow their profits. That cash can come from issuing shares, retained earnings, or debt. In the first and second cases, the ROE will reflect this use of cash for investment in the business. In the latter case, the use of debt will improve the returns, but will not change the equity. In this manner the use of debt will boost ROE, even though the core economics of the business stay the same.

Suoxinda Holdings' Debt And Its 2.0% ROE

While Suoxinda Holdings does have some debt, with a debt to equity ratio of just 0.32, we wouldn't say debt is excessive. Its ROE is quite low, and the company already has some debt, so surely shareholders are hoping for an improvement. Careful use of debt to boost returns is often very good for shareholders. However, it could reduce the company's ability to take advantage of future opportunities.

Summary

Return on equity is useful for comparing the quality of different businesses. Companies that can achieve high returns on equity without too much debt are generally of good quality. If two companies have around the same level of debt to equity, and one has a higher ROE, I'd generally prefer the one with higher ROE.

But when a business is high quality, the market often bids it up to a price that reflects this. The rate at which profits are likely to grow, relative to the expectations of profit growth reflected in the current price, must be considered, too. So I think it may be worth checking this free this detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

If you would prefer 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.

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.
Tom Cruise might be taking his daredevilry to another level as the Hollywood star is reportedly joining hands with Elon Musk to shoot a film in space.

According to Deadline, Cruise and Musk's aviation company Space X are in talks with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for filming the narrative movie aboard a real SpaceX vessel.

The project has been described as an "action-adventure film". However, there is no Hollywood studio attached with it at present.

The 57-year-old superstar has build a reputation for taking extreme risks to pull off breathtaking stunts for his movies, mainly the "Mission: Impossible" franchise.

Cruise scaled the Burj Khalifa in Dubai for a sequence in 2011's "Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol", while for it's 2015 follow-up, "Rogue Nation", the actor had hung off the side of an airplane mid-flight.

He was injured on the sets of 2018's "Fallout" that resulted in the production being stopped for several weeks. The actor had broken his ankle after colliding with another building during a rooftop jump.

Cruise currently awaits the release of "Top Gun: Maverick", the sequel to his 1986 hit "Top Gun". The film, which was scheduled to hit theatres worldwide in June, has been delayed till December due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The actor is also working on two back-to-back "Mission: Impossible" instalments.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Bahrain Association of Emergency Medicine at Bahrain Medical Society organised a remote seminar during which they discussed ways to strengthen the new treatment steps that can be provided to infected people with coronavirus when they arrive at the hospitals emergency, and how to deal with critical cases and help them breathe.

During the seminar, which lasted for about two hours, the latest medical developments in the field of tackling coronavirus were reviewed, especially in terms of emergency medicine, family medicine and general medicine.

The discussion, which saw the participation of nearly 50 doctors and interested persons from Bahrain and the region, also covered the steps that hospitals must take to strengthen preparedness for the Corona pandemic or any pandemic in general in the framework of "Disaster Medicine", and the treatment protocol issued by the National Committee responsible for tackling the virus in Bahrain.

Measures taken by China and WHO were also discussed in the seminar, especially the measures taken when the virus was first discovered, and the latest information related to vaccines and methods of examination and analysis. The seminar also examined the consequences of the Corona pandemic on individuals from a psychological and social point of view.

The seminar was also attended by the Chairman of Bahrain Medical Society and the Emergency Medicine Consultant Dr Ghada Al Qassim, and the President of the Bahrain Association of Emergency Medicine and the Emergency Medicine Consultant, Dr Salah Al-Ghanem, Many experts participated in the seminar, such as the consultant of emergency medicine and the vice president of the Bahrain Association of Emergency Medicine, Dr Amjad Obaid, and the consultant infectious disease, Dr Tariq Al Musawi, who is also specialized in the field of Intensive Care Medicine, and Dr Khaled Al Salem, an emergency doctor from Saudi Arabia.

Dr Al Ghanem said that this seminar comes within the framework of the Societys keenness to follow up the latest developments in the field of tackling the emerging coronavirus and to use the experts of doctors from different specialties to create an understanding of the best ways to provide health and medical care for infected people.

"Covid-19 is a new virus and this is the challenge that faces everyone, and there are no fixed scientific methods and theories in fighting it, so we tried to combine infectious diseases, intensive care medicine, and emergency medicine in this seminar, with the aim of exchanging views and experiences, and developing our knowledge and understanding of it, which contributes to strengthening the treatment services for patients, " Dr Al Ghanem said. - TradeArabia News Service
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Linkedin Gemma Holliani Cahya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, May 9, 2020 08:25 620 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd620829 1 National COVID-19,coronavirus,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,#COVID19 Free

A white homemade hazmat suit was folded neatly near Sukamtis sewing machine in the corner of her living room in Wukirsari village, Sleman, Yogyakarta.

The suit Sukamti made that morning before cooking stir-fried bok choy for her family lunch was intended for doctors or nurses treating COVID-19 patients.

After lunch I plan to make another one, the 34-year-old mother said.

Sukamti produces around four hazmat suits a day. She is among more than 60 volunteers who have been sewing hazmat suits in their own houses for medical workers across Yogyakarta for the past few weeks as part of a movement called Majelis Mau Jahitin (willing-to-sew initiative).

On normal days Sukamti runs a small tailors shop at her house. She single-handedly makes uniforms and clothes ordered by her neighbors. But her business came to a standstill when the coronavirus outbreak swept through the country. Her small family now relies only on her husband who takes odd jobs.

Sukamti first heard about Majelis Mau Jahitin from her husband. Watching the news about the lack of protective coveralls for medical workers who treat COVID-19 patients, she knew right away she must join the fight.

If I could choose, I would not want to sew these. I am sure if the medical workers could choose, they also would not want to be on the frontline exposing themselves to the contagious disease with a lack of protection," she told The Jakarta Post.

"We are here in this pandemic simply playing our role. It will not end if we do not start to help each other."

Read also: COVID-19: C. Java hospital produces protective gear for medical workers amid shortages

Budhi Hermanto, the initiator of the movement, said the idea came around early March when Yogyakarta reported the first confirmed cases. He saw how medical workers in a hospital in Yogyakarta were left unprotected.

Some doctors told me that they only had a few masks. [] It sounded like a suicide mission. We could not afford to lose them, so we decided to act fast to help protect them, he said.

Working at a health clinic in Yogyakarta himself, Budhi knew nothing about tailoring. He later gathered some of his contacts and they started doing research on how to make protective suits.

They made several prototypes and consulted with surgeons before deciding to use waterproof materials such as spunbonded polypropylene.

It really warms my heart to see so many people eager to work together in this situation to protect medical workers. [] Many strangers came to me and asked me how they could play a part in making protective suits for doctors, Budhi said.

By the end of March, the group had made almost 2,000 hazmat suits for health facilities across Yogyakarta. They also sent some to health facilities in remote areas, such as in Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan.

They provide tutorials on how to make hazmat suits on their website mamajahit.id to encourage others with sewing machines to start their own initiatives to help medical workers in their neighborhoods.

The impact of the pandemic has brought devastation across Indonesia, with 864 deaths recorded officially and more than 11,000 confirmed cases as of Monday.

The government estimates that up to 3.78 million Indonesians will fall into poverty and 5.2 million people may lose their jobs during the pandemic.

Yet, the unprecedented crisis has also brought out peoples compassion despite their own hardships during the pandemic and grassroots communities across the nation have reached out to others in need.

Read also: In Indonesia, rural helps urban to ensure food supply during coronavirus pandemic

In early April, Endang Yuliastuti, 50, a junior high school teacher who rents out small houses in Tangerang, Banten, waived the rents of her tenants until July. The tenants are families of daily paid workers and street vendors whose livelihoods have been badly affected by the pandemic.

"They are young families with babies, I imagine it must be a really hard time for them [...]. My husband and I agreed to pass up their rent because that is the least that we can do to help," she said.

When she told her tenants, Endang said they could not hide their gratitude and wept with joy. Endang said she hoped other landlords could follow in her footsteps.

In Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta, private employee Adista Indri and her mother have put 15 free packs of food in a box in front of their house at around 11:30 a.m. every day since early April. The sign on the box says: Anyone who is in need, please take it.

Adista said most of the people who took the meals were app-based ride-hailing service drivers and delivery men who were passing by their house.

Adisti shared the details of the meals, which cost Rp 11,000 (73 US cents) each, on Twitter on April 3 and it went viral.

My mother makes sure that the meal has enough protein and that there are always vegetables and fruit included, she wrote, adding that her father who has retired and her mother who works as a civil servant planned to provide the free lunches until the outbreak ends.

Di depan rumah mama papaku. Semoga bermanfaat  #spreadlove pic.twitter.com/inq7tiKjgu  Adista Indri (@distalbot) April 3, 2020

I shared that on Twitter because there are a lot of options to help others during this pandemic. We can start something small in our own localities, she told the Post.

Anna Surti Ariani, a child and family psychologist, said that when people focused on acts of kindness toward others and stopped thinking about the impact of the pandemic on their own lives, they might boost their immune systems.

Helping others makes us feel content and that positive energy can improve our immune systems, she said.
British Sikh doctors want a better procurement strategy by the National Health Service for PPE needed on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic. This was after many failed to get important roles in hospital due to their beards.

The Sikh Doctors Association had reports of at least five Sikhs being shifted at the NHS hospitals for refusing to shave their beards.



"These doctors got in touch with us in some distress for being forced out of their usual roles, which was causing tension among colleagues as they had to cover their work," said Dr Sukhdev Singh, chairperson of the Sikh Doctors Association, according to a PTI report.



The problem arose due to a shortage of specialist facial protective masks called Powdered Air Purifying Respirators (PAPRs), which is a hood respirator required in critical areas such as intensive care units. The 'fit tests' and equipment need to be geared towards all staff needs, including orthodox Sikhs with turbans and beards, he said.



AFP

All the individual cases of the five British Sikh doctors have since been resolved through acquisition of PAPRs, a more expensive but reusable kit costing around GBP 1,000.



The association is now working with individual NHS Trusts and more widely with the NHS England to ensure there is greater awareness around procuring such specialist protective gear in sufficient quantities well in time. The regular cloth FFP3 masks would not work with beards, a factor that could impact other communities such as Muslims as well.



"The system of procurement cannot continue blindly. There has to be greater interaction and surveys done to ensure that specific staff requirements are taken on board so that there is sufficient stock of the right kind of PPE available in times of crisis such as a pandemic," added Singh.



AFP

Sikh Council UK has also been liaising with the NHS England alongside the association over the issue and had written to Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive officer of NHS England, last month seeking his intervention over greater clarity on fit tests and taking religious sensitivities into account.



"It has come to our attention that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NHS Trusts around the United Kingdom will be carrying out 'fit tests' in which certain medical staff could be asked to remove facial hair," the council said.

"For Sikhs, their duty of care is intrinsically interlinked with their faith. Therefore, we ask that no Sikh healthcare professional is forcibly made to choose between breaking their faith or breaking their frontline NHS role," it noted.

AFP

NHS England has since confirmed that 'reasonable adjustments', would be made.



"I wholeheartedly agree that reasonable adjustments should be made by providers in this area. As such, in my weekly discussions with trust medical directors and chief nurses from NHS trusts I will state this clearly as a reminder," Stephen Powis, the National Medical Director of the NHS England, said in response.



The short supply of PPE has been a major issue for NHS hospitals tackling the highly infectious coronavirus, with the government under considerable pressure over the lack of enough protective gear for frontline staff.



Several private fundraising efforts have also been launched to raise enough funds to produce and procure required facial masks and aprons.


Former Attorney General Eric Holder and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger discuss redistricting reform at the National Press Club on March 26, 2019, in Washington, D.C. Read more

After leaving the Obama administration, former Attorney General Eric Holder launched a redistricting crusade in the states, supporting, he told the Wall Street Journal, the effort by citizens or nonpartisan commissions to draw electoral lines so neither party benefits. To that end, Holder has been writing high-profile op-eds, one in support of a documentary film which, he claims, examines the broken political system resulting from partisan gerrymandering.

How ironic then that Holders actual work in Pennsylvania and other states is meant to do exactly what he decries: weaponize the redistricting process to help Democrats permanently turn Pennsylvania blue.

Holder has been laying the groundwork for his redistricting effort for years. Almost immediately after leaving the Obama administration, he declared that Congress is broken thanks to Republicans extreme partisan gerrymandering.

This creates a Congress driven by primary party politics and ideological extremism, Holder wrote, not one accountable to the will of the majority of voters.

His solution: the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), a PAC created after the 2016 election and chaired by Holder with the aim of replacing gerrymandered maps that favor Republicans with gerrymandered maps that favor Democrats. NDRC is anything but nonpartisan, billing itself as the strategic hub for a comprehensive redistricting strategy for Democrats.

The NDRC has set its sights on 12 states where Republicans either have a clear legislative majority, such as Texas, or face a close race against Democrats, such as North Carolina, in 2020. Pennsylvania is a high priority, and the NDRC PAC is pouring money directly into state races. In the 201718 election cycle, the NDRC sent $250,000 to Gov. Tom Wolfs (D.) successful reelection campaign, and another $100,000 to the Pennsylvania Democratic Partys Senate PAC. In the 201920 cycle, its already given at least $25,000 to the Democrats Pennsylvania Senate PAC.

NDRC is supported by two sister nonprofits: the National Redistricting Action Fund, a 501(c)(4) that lobbies for state ballot measures supporting California-style redistricting reforms, and the National Redistricting Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that endlessly litigates against Republican-drawn maps.

Their efforts have already paid off. In 2017, the NDRC filed an amicus briefing supporting a lawsuit by the liberal League of Women Voters, which alleged that Pennsylvanias congressional map unfairly favored Republicans. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed, threw the map out, and redrew it in 2018.

It goes without saying that congressional maps should be drawn with fairness in mind, but fairness is hardly Holders goal. Just consider who hes surrounding himself with.

NDRC is closely allied with groups trying to turn Pennsylvania blue, such as America Votes, the self-described coordination hub of the Progressive community. America Votes emerged from the Democrats defeat in the 2004 election as the brainchild of a group of influential Democratic operatives: Clinton official Harold Ickes, then-Service Employees International Union president Andy Stern, then-Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, EMILYs List founder Ellen Malcolm, and Partnership for Americas Families founder Steve Rosenthal.

America Votes quickly gained the support of major labor unions, litigation nonprofits, abortion advocates, environmentalist groups, and professional activists to put together a huge $95 million war chest for churning out likely Democratic voters in key battleground states, including Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

Holders war on Pennsylvania is cynical Washington politics at its worst, waged by the ultimate political insider. Recall that as attorney general, the self-described activist attorney general was held in contempt by the Republican-led House of Representatives with support from some Democrats, and critics on the right accused him of politicizing the U.S. Justice Department by ignoring Democratic voter intimidation cases and hiring only committed leftists to the civil service.

What are the consequences of Holders redistricting crusade? Consider his own words: [W]hen politicians gerrymander the result is not just skewed elections results  it shows up in the policies enacted or blocked and in the hyper partisanship that frustrates so many Americans right now, Holder wrote in the Hollywood Reporter.

In exporting his partisan political tricks to the states, Eric Holder is trying to twist state elections with the same stain that taints our national politics. Thats anything but fair.

Hayden Ludwig is an investigative researcher at Capital Research Center, a right-leaning think tank in Washington, D.C. Kevin Mooney is an investigative reporter with the Commonwealth Foundation, Pennsylvanias free-market think tank.
Susanna Reid spoke of her 'big relief' this morning as fellow Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan tested negative for coronavirus.

GMB presenter Piers, 55, missed today's and yesterday's show after he revealed on Twitter he had developed a 'mild symptom' and would be tested for Covid-19.

But taking to Twitter last night, he confirmed he has been given the all clear.

On today's programme, co-host Susanna Reid said: 'We are happy to report that Piers tested negative for coronavirus, however, he is still a little under the weather and he tweeted this update yesterday evening.'

She said the negative result was a 'big relief', and Dr Hilary Jones added: 'We wish him a quick and swift recovery.'

The Good Morning Britain Twitter account also posted: 'Get well soon @piersmorgan!'

Piers has again returned to Twitter today to post about segments featured on the programme. His tweets follow a further update last night when he confirmed his 'COVID-19 test was negative'.

He continued: 'I was advised to take the test by my doctor after developing possible coronavirus symptoms, and was entitled to do so as a Govt-designated essential worker.

'I'll be back on @GMB as soon as my doctor advises I'm OK to return to work.'

The Good Morning Britain Twitter account also posted: 'Get well soon @piersmorgan!'

On today's programme, host Susanna Reid said: 'We are happy to report Piers has tested negative for coronavirus, however, he is still under the weather and he tweeted this update yesterday evening'

Earlier yesterday, Health secretary Matt Hancock sent his well-wishes to Piers.

Mr Hancock, who had his own battle with coronavirus and who has previously clashed with the GMB host on the ITV morning show, tweeted that he hoped if Mr Morgan did test positive for Covid-19 that the symptoms would be mild.

Earlier this morning, the presenter's co-host Susannah Reid, who was joined on the show by Tipping Point presenter Ben Shephard, sent her 'very best wishes' to Mr Morgan at the start of show.

She said: 'We send our very best wishes to you Piers and promise to be on our best behaviour while you are not here.'

Speaking on this morning's show, TV doctor Hilary Jones explained that Mr Morgan does not have symptoms consistent with Covid-19 but has taken a test and is remaining off the show as a precaution.

Mr Morgan had previously announced on Twitter that he would not be on the show after feeling unwell over the weekend.

Ben Shephard and Susanna Reid (pictured) are hosted Good Morning Britain in Piers' absence

The presenter (left with co-host Susanna Reid) has been one of the strongest voices holding the government to account throughout the crisis

He had been going into the west London studio every morning, doing his own make-up and sitting two metres away from co-host Susanna Reid.

Mr Morgan tweeted on Sunday night: 'UPDATE: On medical advice, and out of an abundance of caution for a mild symptom that arose in past 48hrs, I've had a test for COVID-19 and so won't be working on @GMB until I get the result back, which should be tomorrow.'

He received a number of messages of support on Twitter, including Mr Hancock.

Mr Hancock said: 'Sorry to see Piers Morgan has symptoms of coronavirus.

'If you test positive, I sincerely hope it's mild. Get well soon.'

Mr Morgan's scare comes after co-host Ms Reid self-isolated at her London home for two weeks in March following a member of her household developing symptoms of the bug.

Ben Shepard, Susanna Reid and doctor Hilary Jones discussed Mr Morgan's health on Good Morning Britain this morning

Mr Morgan, who is usually on the show with Ms Reid from Monday to Wednesday, has been one of the strongest voices holding the government to account during the crisis.

Since the country was put in lockdown on March 23, he has become the interviewer ministers fear most due to his ruthless scrutinising of the facts.

He has spoken truth to power at every turn, including fiercely questioning decisions made by both the UK and US governments.

In an article for MailOnline on Thursday, the columnist branded Prime Minister Boris Johnson's first press briefing back after beating Covid 'complete and utter bullsh*t'.

He said Mr Johnson's speech had made US President Donald Trump seem credible and that his Brexit strategy cannot be used to beat the virus.

Mr Morgan wrote: 'When Boris fans, the vast majority of them with union jack flags and Brexit slogans in their profiles, scream abuse at me all day long on Twitter for challenging their hero's coronavirus strategy, they do so because to them, any criticism of the government over this crisis is a re-run of the viciously toxic and partisan Brexit campaign.'

He added: 'None of Boris Johnson's political skills that won him the Referendum and December's election are working like they did before the virus struck.'

The journalist pointed to a chart that was shown at the end of the briefing on the 'Global Death Comparision'.

He spotted how it showed the UK was trending to be the second worst hit country in the world for Covid-19 deaths.

On Sunday the number of fatalities in Britain rose by 315 to 28,446, putting it on course to become the hardest hit in Europe.

Its toll is now 264 behind Italy - the continent's original epicentre - which it will likely overtake tomorrow to suffer the second highest fatalities in the world after the US.

Mr Johnson was not the only world leader Mr Morgan has targeted, with him going toe-to-toe with President Trump over the US's coronavirus strategy.

The presenter has repeatedly called out Mr Trump's approach to the bug, which has rampaged across the US and killed more than 65,000 people.

The presenter has repeatedly called out Mr Trump's (pictured on Sunday) approach to the bug, which has rampaged across the US and killed more than 65,000 people

This culminating in him saying Mr Trump was 'batsh*t crazy' for his handling of the crisis.

The US President faced widespread ridicule after he suggested tackling coronavirus with the use of 'powerful' UV light or even injecting patients with disinfectant.

Starting his column by telling Mr Trump to 'shut the f*** up', Mr Morgan admonished the President for using his position to air the 'batsh*t crazy theories'.

The presenter later announced Mr Trump had unfollowed him on Twitter.

Mr Morgan's approach to politicians was vindicated last week when OFCOM cleared him for his 'combative' style.

The GMB host attracted more than 3,000 complaints from two interviews with care minister Helen Whately on the show last month.

Almost 600 viewers also complained about another interview with Health Secretary Matt Hancock on April 16.

But Ofcom said: 'It is clearly in the public interest that broadcasters are able to hold those making political decisions to account.'

Mr Morgan grilled Ms Whately about the number of NHS and care workers who have died from Covid-19 and accused her of 'massively understating' the effects of the virus.

In the interview Mrs Whately claimed 76 NHS and care workers had died from the disease, to which the host replied: 'You see these numbers again, are completely wrong.

Care Minister Helen Whately (right) was on the receiving end of two of the journalist's (left) most memorable displays within the space of a week last month

'The real figure of all the people who work in the NHS and care homes who have died is actually 111.'

Mr Hancock was challenged by the MailOnline columnist on whether he would volunteer for a salary reduction.

During the exchange on April 16, Morgan was also angered when the politician claimed the Government was prepared for the pandemic, telling him: 'Stop playing that game with me, Mr Hancock. You're buying yourself a bit of time.'

Mr Morgan said he would have 'admired' Mr Hancock more if he would have just admitted that the Department of Health 'had not been prepared' for the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on the National Health Service.

He added: 'Your resolute refusal to concede you made any mistakes here grates with me and misjudges the public mood'.

The pair continued to clash as Morgan chastised Mr Hancock, reminding him he runs the show after the politician urged him to 'let him speak', during the interview.

On Good Morning Britain Mr Morgan said of the watchdog investigation: 'They have not held up any of the complaints. I'm glad about that.

'Freedom of speech matters and journalists doing their job matters. Getting the government to think about every decision they are taking matters, holding them to account matters.

'We do our job they do theirs. But we are all on the same side here and we shouldn't mistake challenging government's with wanting government to fail.

'I want our government to succeed. We do this challenging everyday with ministers to help them make better decisions, so that fewer people die.

'We are on the same side against the same enemy. It's not a referendum, its not an election, its one virus against the world.'
Dr. Laura Perry, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California-San Francisco, saw a patient like this several weeks ago. The woman, in her 80s, had what seemed to be a cold before becoming very confused. In the hospital, she couldnt identify where she was or stay awake during an examination. Perry diagnosed hypoactive delirium, an altered mental state in which people become inactive and drowsy. The patient tested positive for coronavirus and is still in the ICU.
A Warm Springs man was wounded by a tribal police officer Sunday afternoon in a shooting that remains under investigation by the FBI.

The shooting occurred when Warm Springs officers responded to several calls about 2:20 p.m. regarding a man with a gun in the West Hills area of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.

As officers approached the man, later identified as tribal member Macklin Kalama, he was ordered to show his hands and officers could see he had a gun, according to Warm Springs Tribal Police Chief Bill Elliott.

Kalama yelled just shoot me several times, according to the chief.

Kalama made "a movement that led officers to believe that he was about to fire at them, Elliott said. One officer fired at Kalama, wounding him, the chief said.

Kalama, 43, was taken by ambulance to St. Charles Medical Center in Bend and then transferred to a hospital in Portland for treatment, according to Elliott.

The chief and the Warm Springs Police Department didnt release any information on the shooting until two days later. The department didnt identify the officer who fired, how many shots were fired or where Kalama was struck.

Warm Springs police notified the FBI and Oregons U.S. Attorneys Office. The FBIs evidence recovery team processed the shooting scene and is the lead agency investigating the shooting. The officer involved was wearing a body camera at the time of the shooting and the footage will be part of the evidence reviewed.

The unidentified Warm Springs officer who shot Kalama has been placed on administrative leave as is standard practice in officer-involved shootings. Warms Springs Tribal Police will conduct an internal administrative review.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212

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IFCO's rapid growth in the Chinese market requires local production of RPCs

MUNICH and TIANJIN, China, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- IFCO SYSTEMS, the world's leading provider of Reusable Plastic Containers (RPCs) for fresh food, announces today the opening of a production facility for its Reusable Plastic Containers (RPCs) in China in cooperation with POLYTEC GROUP. Starting in April, IFCO is localizing the production of its RPC model Steco 6421 in Tianjin to be used in the Chinese market. Steco 6421 is the most demanded RPC in China.

Local production offers advantages for the environment and customers

In 2015, IFCO opened its office in China and is now experiencing rapid growth in the country. To best serve the market and meet the considerable demand, IFCO has decided to open a local production facility for IFCO RPCs which were supplied from Europe until now. This enables IFCO to respond more quickly to the needs of the local market and raises the production volume of the specific RPC model used in China reducing lead time significantly.

Additionally, the local production positively impacts the footprint on the environment by eliminating transports from European production sites to China. IFCO can now react more quickly to changes in Chinese customers' needs and provide them with optimal support in delivering fresh food from growers to consumers as quickly as possible.

Please find the full announcement as well as image material here: https://bit.ly/2xoLsos

Contact:

FCO:

Daniela Carbone

VP - Global Marketing

Daniela.Carbone@ifco.com

www.ifco.com

Agency:

HBI Helga Bailey GmbH

Corinna Voss / Markus Wild / Annette Hermann

Tel.: +49 (0)89-99-38-87-30 / -51 / -52

ifco@hbi.de

www.hbi.de
Hyderabad, May 5 : Amid a row over various states making stranded migrant workers pay for train journey to their home states, the Telangana government on Tuesday said it is paying all costs for operating special trains to send the workers to their respective states.

State Minister for Industry, Information Technology and Urban Development K.T. Rama Rao tweeted that the state government is paying all the costs.

"It's not just acknowledging dignity of labour but also how you treat them with dignity... Telangana CM KCR Garu showing way forward by arranging 40 trains per day for a week to send home the 'partners in our state development' -- the migrant workers... All costs paid by #Telangana Govt," he tweeted.

The minister, who is also son of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao, tweeted this hours after the second special train left Hyderabad for Bihar with 1,250 migrant workers.

Telangana also has the distinction of operating the first special train for migrant workers in the country. The train with 1,225 workers had left for Jharkhand on May 1. The state government had reportedly paid Rs 5 lakh to railways for running this train.

The Chief Minister on Monday night announced that 40 special trains will be operated from the state every day over the next one week to send migrant workers back to their respective states.

He said the trains will be operated from Tuesday from various stations in Hyderabad, Warangal, Khammam, Ramagundam, Damaracharla and other places to Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and other states.

The state government has already appointed senior IAS officer Sandeep Sultania and senior IPS officer Jitender as special officers to oversee the travel of migrant workers to their native states.

The government said migrant workers who have registered their names with the police stations would be allowed to travel by the special trains. The details of the travel will be given at the police stations.

The Chief Minister said no migrant labour should feel anxious as the government had made arrangements for their travel to their native destinations. He instructed the police officers concerned to inform the migrant workers about the travel details and coordinate with them.
Social distancing impedes productivity at the workplace but it is critical for containing COVID-19, the Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, said on Tuesday.



He emphasised that nose mask-wearing and social distancing are compulsory.



We need to adhere to the advice we are given on COVID-19 - wash your hands, he said, adding; SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, will stay with us indefinitely; therefore, we must strictly adhere to the preventive protocols to remain safe.



The Health Minister, who was speaking at a press briefing on the latest coronavirus management situation in Ghana, said: We should make up our minds that our way of life is going to change for a very long time.



Ghanas COVID-19 case tally spiked to 2,719 on Monday with 294 recoveries and 18 fatalities, according to the Ghana Health Service.



Stay at home if you don't have any essential business to do in town to avoid the spread of COVID-19, Mr Agyemang-Manu warned, saying; If we don't stay home, we will continue to spread the disease.



He said the idea of I don't have money to buy face mask should not be an excuse for anybody not to wear a mask and that; Wearing of face masks in public will continue to be our way of life to contain the spread of COVID-19.



Do not take off the mask when you are talking, do not use a cloth mask for more than 12 hours.



He cautioned the public to be careful with doorknobs, which should be sanitised once somebody touched it.



It is not by individual choice to adhere to the COVID-19 safety protocols, it is in our collective interest.

If you are not sick, stay at home, if you don't have anything important to do outside, stay at home.



The Minister entreated the public to stop turning away personnel doing contact tracing in the COVID-19 exercise.



Dr Dacosta Aboagye, the Director of Health Promotion, Ghana Health Service, warned that it was dangerous to try facemasks on when buying them.



He advised that people visiting the premises of media houses must wear a mask and media practitioners must wear face masks both in their offices and on the field.



The Food and Drugs Authority said it had registered over 41 manufacturers of face masks and urged producers to use only cotton or breathable fabrics to make three-layer masks.



As Ghana continues to battle the spread of the coronavirus, about 54 children are reported to have died from Malaria during the period, Dr Patrick Kuma Aboagye, the Director-General of Ghana Health Service, said.

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
Microgamings Gift of Giving Campaign Raises 210k

Published May 5, 2020 by Mike P

Over the past seven years, Microgaming has raised 210,000 in charitable donations within its PlayItForward and Gift of Giving initiatives.

Since 2013, Microgaming has facilitated a corporate social responsibility (CSR) scheme wherein staff members are encouraged to vote and donate to charitable causes. Staff are able to vote in-house through the PlayItForward initiative to determine which charities shall feature. The aim is to try and generate charitable donations for the Gift of Giving campaign.

30,000 Donated in 2019

In 2019, the campaign succeeded in raising 30,000, which brought total donations up to 210,000 since 2013. Gift of Giving isnt exclusive to Microgaming staff, as global operators and partners are encouraged to donate to charities situated in their home regions.

Regional voting for the 2019 campaign meant that six charities were able to share the 30,000 worth of donations from last year. GamCare won the first-ever vote in the responsible gambling category, while the other success stories were Childline, Foodbank Lifeline Foundation, Save the Children, UNICEF, and WaterAid.

Much-needed Donations

Microgaming CEO John Coleman thanked all involved for voting and donating, noting that CSR was important to the company. Katie Searles of Save the Children expressed gratitude to Microgaming for helping to raise money to support millions of vulnerable children living in more than 100 countries.

Diana Nye of the Foodbank Lifeline Foundation thanked the UK software provider after receiving 5,000, saying that the funds would help to deliver food packs to the impoverished. WaterAid, meanwhile, can use the funds to continue its work in 28 countries, having already given 27 million people the gift of clean water and toilet facilities.

Childline Gibraltars Annie Green explained how the charity is dependent on goodwill to provide at-risk children with support 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. As for UNICEF, Catriona Parry explained that the charity must continue to reach as many children as possible in the more than 190 countries already supported by the charity.
President Trump cant handle the truth  at least, not when it makes his administration look bad. With his move Friday night to replace the top watchdog for the Department of Health and Human Services, the latest in a series of direct attacks on statutory oversight of his administration, its clear that the president remains committed to withholding the truth from the American people as well.

Mr. Trumps latest target, Christi Grimm, is the departments principal deputy inspector general, whose office issued a report a month ago revealing the dire state of the nations pandemic response. After hundreds of hospital administrators across the United States were interviewed, the report detailed enduring equipment shortages and concerns about testing. Further, hospitals reported that changing and sometimes inconsistent guidance from federal, state and local authorities posed challenges and confused hospitals and the public.

Asked about the results of the report at his April 6 news briefing, Mr. Trump declared: Its just wrong. Did I hear the word inspector general? Really? Its wrong. And theyll talk to you about it. Its wrong.

The president then rushed to discredit Ms. Grimm. Where did he come from, the inspector general? Whats his name? No, whats his name? Whats his name? When told of Ms. Grimms two-plus decades in government under Republican and Democratic administrations, Mr. Trump dismissed her as an Obama-era agent of the deep state, an attack he continued on Twitter the next day.
WASHINGTON  Television news programs were airing tapes of President Donald Trump this week saying the coronavirus pandemic would soon be over, but no one told that to the virus.

Trump originally said at the very beginning of the epidemic that the disease would soon disappear like a miracle, and before that was calling it a hoax. But since then, the virus has claimed the lives of more than 60,000 Americans.

Meantime, there were early signs that an experimental anti-viral drug may be effective in speeding the recovery time for stricken COVID-19 patients.

The data shows that remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is leading research at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, announced Wednesday.

Last week, Vice President Mike Pence was predicting we will largely have this coronavirus epidemic behind us by Memorial Day weekend.

Trump said he was ready to give the green light to reopen stores, restaurants and other parts of the nations small business community.

Then calmer heads prevailed. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White Houses Coronavirus Task Force coordinator, went on NBC News Meet The Press to tell the nation that social distancing will be with us through the summer to really ensure that we protect one another as we move through these phases.

Birx also said further testing would be needed before our nation could develop a scientific breakthrough, and a vaccine to combat and kill the virus.

Her sound message was a breath of fresh air and common sense in an administration that, all too often, has been playing politics with this deadly disease.

As the death toll has continued to rise, Trump has been pounding the reopening issue because of fear that a tanking economy could cost him his reelection to a second term.

Emily Landon, chief infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Chicagos school of medicine, told The Washington Post Monday she was concerned about the number of states that are reopening businesses.

Its hard for me to know what Id do in those states where governors have announced business reopenings, Landon said. I wouldnt go. And I wouldnt recommend that my family went. I would recommend that people stay home.

This is a brand-new virus, and we have to do these things in a measured way, she said. Without requirements for things like [personal protective equipment], social distancing and really thoughtful policies for how to do these openings, its not the time to do them.

Across the country, however, some states are already relaxing their social distancing restrictions over pressure from protesters, business groups and others, the Post reported.

The facts in our state are: March 30, we peaked in hospitalizations, with 560 across the state, Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt said on Fox News Sunday. Today we have 300 across the state in our hospitals. We think its time for a measured reopening.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, defended his decision to partially reopen his state on CNNs State of the Union program, maintaining that he is focused on social distancing practices could likely remain in place for months

Weve really been laser-focused on figuring out how we can endure and sustain these kinds of social distancing measures, Polis said. If we cant succeed in doing that, the stay-at-home was for nothing.

These conflicting messages from state and federal leaders, as well as from the Trump administration, revealed a nationwide meltdown of any consensus about how to stop the epidemic in its tracks.

After several weeks of a comprehensive economic pause, companies, workers and consumers are returning to a changed landscape, Washington Post writers David J. Lynch and Abha Bhattarai noted this week.

Hanging over plans to restart the nations economic engine are unprecedented health concerns, as people balance each shopping trip, airplane flight and restaurant meal against the risk of catching a sometimes-fatal illness, they wrote.

This is a time that calls for national leadership, but as of this week, that was sadly missing from the White House.
Nigerian Christian hospitalized after married couple was ambushed with machetes

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A Christian man in the Plateau state of Nigeria was hospitalized after he and his wife were ambushed by a group of four suspected Fulani herdsmen late last month.

With attacks by predominantly Muslim Fulani herdsmen continuing to victimize predominantly Christian farming communities throughout the West African countrys Middle Belt, 40-year-old Yusuf Pam told a contact for Morning Star News from his hospital bed about how he and his wife, Jumai Yusuf, were victims of a machete attack while driving their motorbikes on April 26.

The nonprofit persecution news outlet reports that the residents of Rachos village in the Riyom local government area claim that they were driving from Kuru to their home area of Kwi district when they were stopped by Fulani radicals. The attack left Pam with serious injuries, including cuts on his head.

When the herdsmen stopped us, they had with them sticks, cutlasses, and rifles, Pam told Morning Star News source and area resident Dung Tabari from his hospital bed. We pleaded with them to allow us pass, but they wouldnt, as four among them mercilessly descended on us. They attacked us by cutting us with machetes. They cut me on my head several times, and these left me with deep cuts as I was bleeding.

Pam further claimed that the attackers ganged up on him and beat him with sticks and knives.

Fortunately, his wife was able to escape with only minor cuts and swollen hands as a result of being beaten with sticks.

Yusuf, the wife, said she and her husband shouted for help. But no one was able to immediately come to their rescue. She fled the scene and ran into a nearby village for help.

As Yusuf saw the attackers surround her husband, she feared at the time that he had been killed.

I thought my husband was already dead, she said.

As she got closer to the village, she said that village members ran to help the couple. When she returned to the scene of the crime with village members, they saw her husband lying in a pool of blood.

He was already at a point between life and death, she said.

With the help of the villagers, the couple was taken to a nearby hospital.

This is not the first time that the couple was victimized by alleged Fulani attackers.

Over five years ago, Fulani radicals attacked Rachos village. As a result, the couple and most of the village residents were displaced from their home, Morning Star News reported.

According to the couple, they have been living in a displacement camp ever since the attack.

Im appealing for intervention, as I cannot pay the hospital bills, as all this while we have been living in an Internally Displaced Persons Camp since the attack on our community by the herdsmen in 2015, Pam said.

The husband and wife are members of the Church of Christ in Nations congregation in Rachos village.

The April 29 attack comes as estimates suggest that hundreds of Nigerian Christians have been killed by Fulani attacks in 2020.

Although clashes between Fulani herders and predominantly Christian farming communities have existed for decades, advocates say the severity and quantity of Fulani attacks against farming villages in recent years have greatly increased.

The Nigerian-based nongovernmental organization led by criminologist Emeka Umeagbalasi, International Society for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law (Intersociety), reported in early April that at least 400 Christians were been killed by Fulani herdsmen in 2020 alone.

We are deeply concerned and worried over the continued armed invasions by Fulani herders, who are perpetrating these attacks basically not only to reduce our numerical strength but also to advance their uncivil course of land-grabbing, Tabari told Morning Star News.

Intersociety also reported in April that at least 11,500 Christians have been killed since 2015 by Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram militants and highway bandits.

International human rights groups such as Christian Solidarity International and the Jubilee Campaign have warned international actors that the level of violence against Christians in Nigeria has reached the level of genocide.

Millions of people have been displaced by the violence in the countrys terror-ravaged northeast region by Boko Haram, and the Islamic State West Africa Province as well as in the Middle Belt by Fulani radicals in recent years.

Nigeria is ranked as the 12th worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution on Open Doors USAs 2020 World Watch List. Nigeria is also listed on the U.S. State Department's "special watch list" of countries that have engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedom."

In a recent attack reported by the Stefanos Foundation, three women and one man were reportedly killed and 36 houses were burned when suspected Fulani radicals raided a farming village in the Kaduna State of Nigeria on April 19.

On April 12, 12 Christians were reportedly killed and two others kidnapped when suspected Fulani radicals attacked a church wedding ceremony in northwest Nigeria.

That attack followed other reported Fulani attacks that were said to have occurred in March.
New Delhi, May 5 : India is set to embark on one of the largest rescue operations in the world, sending ships and planes to bring back Indians stranded abroad, with Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday announcing that the Air India Group will operate 64 flights to 12 countries to bring back over 14,000 stranded people in 7 days from May 7.

Passengers would be required to pay a fixed amount for the ferry service, for instance the one-way all inclusive fare between Chicago to New Delhi will be charged at Rs 100,000, while that for Dhaka-Delhi at Rs 12,000 and Manila-Delhi at Rs 30,000.

Addressing the media via video conferencing, the minister said that during the first week of the mammoth air rescue operation, 14,800 Indian nationals will be brought back, while the total number of people to be repatriated back to India in the entire operation could be more than 190,000.

In terms of operational aspects, Air India will operate 40 flights, while Air India Express will fly 24 services to countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Bangladesh, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the US, and the UK.

Puri said that not only the role of the airline but that of airports and state governments is vital since these authorities have to manage the returning passengers.

On their part, the state governments are required to provide quarantine zones for the returning Indians.

Puri said that in the first week, flights will bring back Indians to 10 states adding that services to more states could be started in the coming weeks, depending upon the speed at which facilities are prepared to host these returnees.

He further said that passengers would be required to pay a fixed amount for these flights, since the financial position of Air India is precarious and that the airline requires injection of Rs 500-Rs 600 crore per month for it to stay afloat.

Besides, the minister said that participation of private airlines in the air rescue plans will be taken after the first week of operations.

Puri added that he is aware of the financial constraints being faced by the industry. However, he did not disclose any timeline for the resumption of domestic operations, but said that these will be opened only after seeing the "behaviour of the virus" and the ground level preparations to handle any situation.

Lately, despite its precarious financial position, the national passenger carrier has emerged as one of the few airlines in the world that have evacuated more than 9,000 passengers during the Covid-19 crisis.

The airline till date has carried out massive flight operations to China, Japan and Europe to bring back stranded Indians, mostly students and pilgrims. Additionally, the airline has been instrumental in repatriating foreigners to Israel, UK and Germany.

Moreover, Air India and its subsidiary Alliance Air has reached every corner of the country to supply essential medical equipment.
MIAMI  Roselande Guerrier lies in bed each night, waiting for her cellphone to display 7:30 a.m.  when the Florida unemployment office opens  and calls, aching for answers, searching for help.

"All night, my eyes are open," she said. "Five oclock, my eyes are open. I call at 6 oclock and the office is closed. I call at 7:30 and boom, All lines are busy. Every number they give me, I try, but theyre always busy."

Guerrier, 36, has spent 13 years changing sheets, picking up dirty towels and scrubbing bathrooms as a housekeeper at the Fontainebleau hotel, the iconic Miami Beach resort. At night, she would do the same at the Cadillac Hotel & Beach Club, an art deco resort a few blocks away.

Both those jobs vanished on March 23 when the hotels were forced to close because of the COVID-19 pandemic. With three children to care for, she hasnt seen a nickel of unemployment benefits or federal relief money.

Guerrier is one of the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs during the pandemic. Millions more have been furloughed, seen their hours reduced, their salaries cut and their economic futures cast into doubt as stay-at-home orders and consumer fears of contagion have produced the greatest economic contraction in more than a decade.

The financial crisis comes at a precarious moment for households already teetering on the brink of ruin. Even before the pandemic struck, nearly a third of Americans didn't have a savings account. Average credit card debt per household topped $7,000 and personal loans were the fastest-growing type of consumer debt in 2019. More than 20% of all children lived in families with incomes below the federal poverty level.

The pandemic shutdown has piled on the economic agony, with 52% of lower-income adults saying they or someone in their household have lost a job or taken a pay cut during the outbreak, according to the Pew Research Center.

In the final week in March, 6.6 million Americans filed new unemployment claims. The next week, 6.6 million were hit. In the one after that, 4.9 million filed claims, and so on, each week bringing a new scramble of panic, anxiety and fear as 30 million people filed for unemployment benefits during seven chaotic weeks.

Story continues

USA TODAY spoke with Americans from California and New York  two of the states hit hardest by the economic fallout  and a dozen cities in between to document what the explosion of unemployment has meant for the nation's workers and their families.

Desperate to hold on, Americans are selling off assets, tapping into their savings, taking out loans or finding work delivering food and groceries, which puts them at risk of catching the virus that has killed 70,847 Americans in less than three months.

In Washington state, a mother fed her son tuna and sardines for weeks as she waited for her employers to deliver her final paycheck.

An unemployed garment worker in Los Angeles worried about making rent as the virus tore through her brother's body.

In Delaware, an IT worker begged for donations online as her mortgage lender threatened to foreclose on her home.

Their cash is running out  and so is their hope.

"I feel like I don't know when it's morning, I don't know when it's night," Guerrier said. "I haven't slept since I was laid off."

WEEK OF MARCH 8 - 14

COVID-19 declared a global pandemic as Americans start losing jobs

In the early days of March, the coronavirus outbreak still seemed like a distant threat. There were just over 100 confirmed cases nationwide, and people largely continued their regular routines.

New York locator map

On March 11, change came quickly. The World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and President Donald Trump announced a partial travel ban from European nations, following his earlier decision to limit travel from China.

In a matter of days, a couple in New York City saw their income vanish.

Kate Chumley was told she would no longer be writing for a series of award shows, a $12,500 contract that was supposed to supply her income into June. The shows had been canceled because of social distancing restrictions.

Days later, her husband, Liberty Ellman, began to see his own bookings steadily peel away. The professional guitarist and composer was supposed to perform in Paris and typically spent July playing in venues across Europe, gigs that would have collectively paid between $11,000 and $13,000.

They understood why everything was shutting down. But the economic slump was jarring for their family, including their two daughters, ages 6 and 9, one of whom suffers from Type 1 diabetes.

They applied for unemployment  Chumley's was approved, her husband's was not. The state departments website glitches and freezes. Ellman gets an email saying hes eligible for some relief, then clicks on a link that leads to a dead end.

He cant give up.

Its really important that unemployment come through for him," his wife said. "We have two kids."

They didn't pay their $2,650 rent in April, trying to maintain everything they could in their savings account, which can hold them over for three months without income.

WEEK OF MARCH 15 - 21

Unemployment skyrockets as 3.3 million file claims in seven days of fear

March 16 started like any other day for Candy Bey, a mother in Newark, New Jersey, who has run a childcare center out of her home for 29 years. Ten children ranging from infants to 4-year-olds filled her house day and night, meaning her home was never empty, never silent.

Newark, NJ and New York, NY locator map

That week, the White House issued guidelines calling on Americans to avoid social gatherings of more than 10 people. By the next day, the mayor of Newark had ordered all nonessential businesses closed. Bey's livelihood was gone.

Her husband, a shuttle bus driver, continued working, and their adult children chipped in. But Bey worried about how long her family could go on without her earnings. She still has four children at home, including a 9-year-old, 12-year-old twins and a 17-year-old.

The family had recently moved to a new neighborhood, the rent more than doubling to $2,500. The old neighborhood, said Bey, was rough. Five people were shot outside her home. Two died. And now she didn't have that extra income to help cover the household costs. She had been collecting $125 per child per week.

She's instituted a strict new budget in the house: No more new clothes for herself or her youngest children.

Its been rough, said Bey, 51. But God has been good. ... I just hold onto my faith.

Candy Bey outside her Newark, New Jersey, home.

Bey expects when this is all over parents will bring their children back to her childcare center. They call regularly, especially when their child wants to hear her voice or see her face. That's how she ended up on the cellphone one recent morning coaxing 2-year-old Najayla to go potty.

My worst fear, Bey said, is that I wont be able to open my home back up to my children.

Across the Hudson River in New York City, bar owner Joe Sweigart was struggling to get by after Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered most businesses to close. Bars were allowed to remain open for pickup and delivery.

Other bar owners turned off the lights and locked the door, but Sweigart and his partner, Mike Vacheresse, decided to make a go of it at Travel Bar in Brooklyn, where they specialize in old fashioned cocktails. They make enough to pay rent and utilities but had to lay off three workers.

Joe Sweigart and Mike Vacheresse are co-owners of the Travel Bar in New York City's Brooklyn borough. They've been preparing batches of cocktails for customers to pick up during the limited hours the bar is open.

Some customers hung in, buying gift certificates and placing orders via email. Sweigart said those sales have helped, but he worries a longer outbreak will be too much to overcome as customers lose their jobs and can no longer justify buying whiskey and bourbon that ranges from $6 to $55 an ounce.

"It's not a long walk from here to the brink for everyone," he said.

Even when businesses can fully open, Sweigart doesn't expect people to rush to the bars. He knows they'll be too afraid of getting sick.

"We're not going to flip the switch one day and go back to normal," he said.

Roseville, Minn. locator map

More than 1,000 miles away in Roseville, Minnesota, Nick Clark, a 26-year-old restaurant manager, started his day by telling a dozen employees of Lucky's 13 Pub that they no longer had a job. They would become part of the 3.3 million Americans who filed unemployment claims that week.

At first, Clark thought it would be two, maybe three weeks before his staff could return to work.

"No restaurant wants to lay off all their staff or close the doors," he said. "We're family. Period."

A couple days later, Clark and another manager were told they were being let go, too. The restaurant located in a shopping center in the suburbs of the Twin Cities wasnt able to do enough takeout business.

Clark said he feels lucky. He receives $500 a week for unemployment from the state and $600 a week from the federal emergency package. Its enough to pay his bills.

I would give all that money back to go back and feel safe working, he said.

WEEK OF MARCH 22 - 28

Work or you won't get paid

Shortly after Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced a statewide stay-at-home order on March 23, Laura Gonzalez was watching her son run around with his Boy Scout troop when she got a text. She hunched over her phone and carefully read the message from one of the three families for whom she worked as a nanny in Seattle.

Seattle, Wash. locator map

If she wanted to stay employed, the parents said, she would have to violate the state order and continue coming to their house to care for their children.

After tossing and turning all night, Gonzalez woke up the next day and texted her answer.

"Good morning. I am so sorry but after a very bad night I have decided to follow the stay at home order," she wrote. "I am awake since 5 giving myself justifications until I ran out of them. I am really, really sorry."

The family wrote back that they understood her decision. Then they stopped paying her.

Her other employers cut her off, too, not even paying her for the work she had already done. One owed her pay for two weeks. Another owed her pay for six days.

They still call her to talk to their kids, to video chat when the children are restless. But Gonzalez, 48, who is using her credit card to cover her expenses, said they've never once brought up money.

She has her rent to pay, the basic internet bill, the electric bill, the cellphone bill and the car insurance. She and her son are eating tuna and sardines to save on expenses. She has no savings.

"I can't help but feel sad, ignored," she said. "I care for the kids of my families with all my heart. We're very close. They tell me their kids miss me. But that's it."

Panama City, Fla. locator map

In Panama City, Florida, Emilio Rivamar lost his job on March 27.

That same day, Trump signed a $2.2 trillion stimulus package that included $1,200 payments to laid-off workers, plus $600 a week for those who qualified for unemployment benefits. But as an undocumented immigrant from Argentina, Rivamar, 30, doesn't qualify for assistance.

After arriving in the U.S., Rivamar got to work rebuilding houses that were damaged or destroyed when Hurricane Michael smashed into the Gulf Coast in 2018. He then took another job painting the tourist hotels that line the region as a member of Resilience Force, a group that rebuilds communities following natural disasters.

When he could, he sent money home to his mother and sisters in their small town in the foothills of the Andes. He bought his mother her first real bed. He paid for security bars for the house to protect them from the vandals that terrorize the area.

Emilio Rivamar stands on a balcony of a hotel he was painting in Panama City Beach, Florida, before he was laid off because of a downturn in bookings from the coronavirus pandemic.

But Rivamar's job disappeared as tourism plunged in Panama City, leaving him stuck with three other workers living in a hotel room, wondering how they'll survive the shutdown. He started working as an Instacart delivery man, frequently using the Google Translate app on his phone to communicate with his shoppers.

"This is a country of a thousand opportunities," he said. "Something is always going to work out."

WEEK OF MARCH 29 - APRIL 4

Another 6.6M workers lose jobs as Americans grow sicker

As the calendar turned to April, the coronavirus was spreading faster than ever.

Naperville, Ill. locator map

The world topped 1 million confirmed cases. The U.S. topped 200,000. And a record 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment in the last week of March, doubling the number of claims in one week as consumers stayed home and construction, retail, trade and restaurants struggled to stay in business. By April 4, another 6.6 million people had filed new claims.

In Naperville, Illinois, Rachel Metcalfe's life was starting to unravel.

First came the furlough, where her hours were cut at her social media marketing job. Then she started feeling sick. Seasonal allergies, she thought, but then came the night sweats and difficulty breathing.

At the emergency room, there were a series of tests. Soon, the 22-year-old learned she likely had coronavirus. While testing for COVID-19 is supposed to be free, Metcalfe said she was billed $11,000 for her hospital stay.

"I cannot believe how quickly my life went from normal to complete pandemonium," she said. "I didn't care that they found pneumonia in both my lungs. All I could think about is how I would never be able to pay this bill off."

She launched a GoFundMe effort to cover her blood work, X-rays and CT scan, joining the growing legions of Americans turning to online charity to pay for essential costs. She figured her $1,200 stimulus check would cover one month's rent.

"I never would have imagined that a so-called 'developed country' would have people beg others for money in order to keep their head just above water," she said.

Los Angeles locator map

In Los Angeles, Hilda Lopez also lost her job. She worried she would lose her brother, too.

COVID-19 shut down his kidneys, forcing him onto a dialysis machine. Then it shut down his heart. For two minutes, before the doctors were able to revive him, he was technically dead at 46 years old.

He was placed on a ventilator. Then he went into a medically induced coma.

"They told us he was more dead than alive," Lopez said.

Lopez, 47, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who has been working in the Los Angeles area since 1991, had been working for her brother in a garment factory when the pandemic arrived. After their shipments of cloth, sewing thread and other materials from China stopped in early January, they were forced to shut down.

Lopez cut off the cable and internet in the one-bedroom apartment she shares with her 19-year-old daughter. She stopped buying groceries and relied on whatever she could scrounge up at food banks.

She's down to $200 in cash and $40 in her bank account. She missed her April rent payment. She missed her car insurance payment. She couldn't afford to renew the tags on her 25-year-old truck and is considering donating it to a local charity since she knows she can't get much for a vehicle with 168,000 miles on it.

To keep calm, she plays Christian songs on her guitar. She reads poetry and self-help books. She plays chess with her daughter or against herself.

Sometimes, she turns to a refrain that her brother would always say: "If we keep thinking like poor people, well always be poor. But if we think positive, well overcome anything."

Sometimes, she turns to God: "Whenever I feel like I've reached the bottom, it's the hand of God that lifts me up and tells me to keep going."

Finally, good news arrived. After two weeks on a ventilator, doctors pulled out the breathing tube. Her brother was transferred to a rehabilitation hospital where he struggled to speak but was breathing on his own.

"He's such a fighter, just like all of us in our family," she said. "I know he's going to beat this. We all are."

WEEK OF APRIL 5 - 11

One mortgage payment away from foreclosure

Just a few months ago, the Pauls were riding high.

Denville, N.J. locator map

Giovanni and Sharquana Paul quit their jobs in finance and social services to open my CBD Organics, their own store selling CBD wellness and beauty products in Denville, New Jersey. Even the mayor attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony in October.

Business was going so well they were thinking about opening another store. They were selling so many lotions, gummies, teas and chocolates that they ordered $25,000 worth of product  triple the usual order. Then the pandemic tore through New Jersey.

"As with any start-up business, the first year is crucial," Giovanni Paul said. "To have this now, it's unfortunate, we have to try to see how we're going to survive."

The Pauls laid off one employee and dipped into their savings to cover expenses and the $3,000-a-month lease on the store. While Giovanni, 41, tends to the trickle of orders that come in, Sharquana, 40, cares for their two children.

On April 5, the couple applied for a small business loan under the federal emergency relief package. Hotel chains, restaurant chains and even the Los Angeles Lakers were approved in the first wave of funding, but the Pauls and scores of other small businesses were left out.

Giovanni Paul outside his Denville, New Jersey, store.

"We're trying to come up with a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C," Giovanni Paul said. "It's tough. No one plans for a pandemic."

In Wilmington, Delaware, Jewel Fennell is one mortgage payment away from losing her home.

On April 10, Fennell got a call. The IT contract worker had been struggling to find freelance work during the pandemic, and she had made the agonizing decision to feed her children and miss another mortgage payment on the home she purchased 12 years ago. She had missed several payments in 2019 and her dreams of catching up evaporated as soon as her gigs dried up in March.

Wilmington, Del. locator map

She picked up the phone. It was the bank.

"When I heard the words 'foreclosure,' if felt like my soul was leaving my body," Fennell said. "I told the mortgage bank that I was impacted and they pretty much told me they don't care. They want their payment."

There are mortgage relief options for homeowners with federally backed mortgages under the CARES Act, the relief package passed by Congress and signed by Trump that is providing loans to businesses and cash assistance to unemployed Americans. But Fennell doesn't qualify.

She began asking for donations on Twitter by tweeting her $Cashtag, a unique identifier for people using Cash App, a mobile payment service that allows people to send money directly to each other.

"You pretty much have to beg," she said. "It's like panhandling online."

U.S. Rep. Raul Ruiz, a Democrat who represents the desert communities east of Los Angeles, said calls to his office have tripled since the outbreak, with many of his constituents distressed about how they will feed their children, pay their rent, find a new job. More than 4.9 million Americans lost their jobs in the second week of April.

"Those hardships vary based on where you live, what your job is and your socioeconomic status," he said. "We may all be in this together, but we're not on the same boat. Some are on a rowboat barely holding on and some are on the yacht."

Ruiz and other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are pushing for the next relief bill to include more protections against evictions, excessive late fees and negative reports to credit bureaus, among other things, to help lower-income Americans. So far many of his constituents, he said, still haven't received the unemployment benefits approved by Congress in the previous relief bill.

WEEK OF APRIL 12 - 18

'People are vying for the same jobs'

Coming from a working class family with a deep military tradition  his father was a Marine and his grandparents met in the Air Force  Sven Williams felt the calling of "service and sacrifice."

After spending years working for academia, he got his certified nursing assistant certificate in March and figured it was the perfect time to enter the nursing field given the COVID-19 outbreak. By April 14, a coronavirus death was reported in all 50 U.S. states for the first time, signaling widespread need for medical help.

Orlando, Fla. locator map

But Williams, 34, soon realized his timing couldn't have been worse. With elective surgeries and many basic procedures suspended so health care professionals can focus on coronavirus, hospitals and clinics have been laying people off, not bringing on new staff.

One by one, the rejection emails poured into his inbox. Seven of the 33 applications he sent out cited a hiring freeze because of the pandemic.

As he watches his savings drain away and worries about making his rent in his apartment in Orlando, he's now reconsidering his career shift. He's reading accounts from nurses who complain of not having enough personal protective equipment, of working gruelingly long shifts, of their coworkers dying from the illness they fought to save others from.

"If that's going to be the profession going forward, where nurses are hailed as heroes, but they have to reuse the same N95 mask while their administration is working from home, is that really the right profession for me?" he said.

Williams was saved, for the time being, when one of his old employers reached out offering some part-time work. A university in Qatar brought him back to teach online classes as the Middle Eastern country remains under a strict stay-at-home order.

In California, as an additional 4 million people lost employment, Eleanore Fernandez directed her 12-year-old daughter to turn off the Christmas lights she typically keeps aglow in her bedroom. Fernandez, who was laid off from her job at a catering company and whose husband lost his freelance jobs doing sound production, said they've cut off their HBO, removed an iPad from their cellphone plan, and have been eating less meat at dinnertime.

"My daughter likes ramen, so that's good," Fernandez said.

When she looks for work, she downplays her experience and previous salary.

People are vying for the same jobs, even if its not what they want, she said.

Back in Florida, Guerrier, the housekeeper who lost both of her jobs, is down to $300 in her bank account. She's trying to figure out which bills to pay.

The $192 car insurance payment thats coming due? The cellphone and home internet bills? Forget about the $1,450 rent payment that was due on May 1  shes been trying to get a hold of her landlord to talk about options for an extension on her rent, but she cant get him on the phone.

"I don't know what I should do," she said.

WEEK OF APRIL 19 - 25

'The homeless shelters are full. I already checked'

With each week of job losses, lawmakers across the nation, from the White House to rural city halls, confronted a dark debate: allow more economic suffering, or lift quarantine orders and risk more Americans getting sick.

Silver Spring, Md. locator map

On April 20, governors of several Republican-led states announced plans to begin reopening their economies. They were going to put Americans back to work, they said.

But some expressed reservations. In Maryland, GOP Gov. Larry Hogan said he needs to see several things happen before he reopens the state, including two full weeks of decreased hospitalizations.

For Emma Whelan, the uncertainty has made it impossible to plan for what might come next for her one-year-old brewery, Astro Lab Brewing, in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Will she be able to reopen in May? In June? In July? Can she hire back her workers?

She doesn't know.

On April 20, she received a lifeline when her small business loan was approved. But the $85,000 she received will only cover eight weeks of payroll. The program stipulates that the loan will only be forgiven if all 13 of her employees are back to work by June 30.

Emma Whelan has had to adjust her business to survive. Astro Lab Brewing in Silver Spring, Maryland, went from filling glasses and pouring pints to offering cans of beer to go.

"There are some huge flaws," in the program, Whelan said. "When the funds run out, we may still not be open, and our employees will likely have to go on unemployment."

A couple days after Whelan received her loan approval, Peaches Watson, 64, dashed around her small Caribbean restaurant taking beef patties out of a glass case and spooning cabbage into a plastic to-go container.

She stopped to take an order by phone. Yes, she had whiting. No, she said, only oxtails and jerk chicken were ready.

Watson has been working triple time as head chef, cashier and dishwasher at Peaches Kitchen since March 17. Thats when she had to lay off four employees.

Im afraid that if I close my doors I will never be able to open, she said.

She makes sure safety measures are in place to protect her, her staff and other customers. A sign on the door urges Face covering please, Peaches.

Peaches Watson stands outside Peaches Kitchen Restaurant & Catering Service in Washington, D.C. She said she is struggling to keep her business open amid the coronavirus shutdowns.

I just know I get up every day and I just pray and I just ask God for strength, said Watson, who now starts working at 5 a.m. and ends around 1 a.m.

Watson, a single mother, took her savings and opened the restaurant on Feb. 18, 2007. She got popular, taking large catering orders from local churches and the Council of the District of Columbia. Even former President Barack Obama once made a purchase  a yellow layer cake.

She said she won't let COVID-19 be the end of Peaches' Kitchen. She's tried to apply for aid from the federal emergency relief package for small businesses, but the line was so jammed she couldnt get through.

Some of us that need it more are the ones that are getting left behind," she said.

In Athens, Georgia, Labria Chandler has been waiting for her relief check to arrive.

Athens, Ga. locator map

The 24-year-old mother of three was homeless when she landed a new two-bedroom apartment and a job as a line cook making $9 an hour in December. By March, she was unemployed again, a COVID-19 economic casualty.

Her landlord knocked on her door requesting rent on April 21, but Chandler cant afford to pay.

Chandler said the stimulus check from the government should provide some relief once it arrives in the mail. She plans to use it to feed her three daughters, aged 2, 6 and 9 months.

"I was already barely keeping my head above water before, but I was making it," said Chandler. "It's very scary. I have nowhere to go.

"The homeless shelters are full. I already checked."

Maps created by Karl Gelles, USA TODAY; Mapcreator.io; OSM.org

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus unemployment: Jobless Americans can't pay rent, buy food
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 22:40:57|Editor: huaxia

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LAGOS, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria's Minister of Health Osagie Ehanire on Tuesday called for extra vigilance and compliance with accompanying measures and guidelines amid the easing of lockdown which was imposed because of COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement made available to Xinhua, the minister said the measures and guidelines are meant to assure that the country does not lose the health gains made so far, since the nation's COVID-19 statistics are of considerable concern.

The federal government implemented on Monday the easing of the lockdown of Lagos, Ogun and Abuja to allow restoration of part of economic activities.

The easing of the lockdown, however, was announced with some stringent measures still in place.

Such measures involved adhering to safety precautions to curb spread of the pandemic, which is also slowly ravaging Nigeria with new cases on the rise daily.

"We can say we are fully in community transmission mode and our strategy is to take all persons who test positive to isolation, even if they have no symptoms, so that they do not risk infecting others, who may be more vulnerable due to other diseases," the minister said. Enditem
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Growth hormone has been identified as playing a key role in reducing inflammation and increasing survival rates following liver surgery.

Researchers at The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute investigated how the body's growth hormone assists with liver regeneration in a study using mice.

Project leader Dr. Andrew Brooks said mice did not survive surgery to remove two thirds of their liver if they lacked the receptor needed for transmitting growth hormone signals to cells.

Mice with normal growth hormone receptors survived the procedure and experienced full liver regeneration.

"We found that growth hormone induced production of a protein called HLA-G, which suppressed the inflammatory response after surgery," Dr. Brooks said.

"By administering the HLA-G protein to mice deficient in the growth hormone receptor, we were able to reduce inflammation and enable liver regeneration and survival."

The study demonstrates the important role the HLA-G protein plays in suppressing inflammatory responses.

Dr. Brooks said treating liver transplant patients with the HLA-G protein or growth hormone may also help suppress inflammation following surgery.

"It's thought this treatment may account for the reduction in mortality rates in liver failure patients who've been treated with growth hormone," he said.

"Patients with high levels of HLA-G protein are known to experience low levels of rejection of liver transplants.

"Surgical removal of part of the liver is commonly performed to remove benign or malignant tumours, however liver failure is a leading cause of death following these surgeries.

"It's hoped this study will lead the researchers to explore growth hormone or HLA-G as a new therapy to improve patient outcomes following organ transplants."

This research is published in the journal Hepatology.

Explore further Blood holds key to liver regeneration

More information: Mayumi Ishikawa et al. Growth hormone stops excessive inflammation after partial hepatectomy allowing liver regeneration and survival via induction of H2Bl/HLAG, Hepatology (2020). Journal information: Hepatology Mayumi Ishikawa et al. Growth hormone stops excessive inflammation after partial hepatectomy allowing liver regeneration and survival via induction of H2Bl/HLAG,(2020). DOI: 10.1002/hep.31297
NEW BRITAIN  The state has given a temporary pass to the Bridgeport Police Department over data it was supposed to turn in to the Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Advisory Board.

Instead, it will wait until this summer to report on whether the states largest city engaged in racial profiling when officers stopped drivers for motor vehicle violations during the daytime, when a drivers race and ethnicity are more visible.

The fifth annual racial profiling study, released Tuesday by Central Connecticut State Universitys Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy, was designed to see whether motorists stopped during the day were more likely to be non-white  an indication that local police were stopping people based on color rather than motor infractions.

But data for 2018, the information used in the report, was unavailable for Bridgeport because of what officials there said was a problem with how the information was collected. So Bridgeports information was left out of what was released Tuesday.

Bridgeport officials did not immediately respond to emails for comment.

Minus the Bridgeport data, the findings from the 2018 analysis of Connecticuts traffic stop data indicate that progress continues to be made in terms of the decision to stop a minority motorist, the report states.

The report, which features a study of the 510,000 traffic stops conducted during the 2018 calendar year by all police agencies  some 90,000 fewer than when the study was first done in 2016  also includes a comprehensive five-year analysis of traffic stop disparities for the Connecticut State Police.

One important aspect of the report was to analyze if there was an increase in stops of non-white drivers during the day when their race and ethnicity is visible as opposed to at night.

For the second year in a row, the report said there was no statistical difference.

The release of this report marks a major achievement of reducing racial disparities in traffic stops for a second year in a row. This statewide initiative continues to engender a conversation that will lead to improved relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve, said Racial Profiling Advisory Board Chair William Dyson.

Ken Barone, CCSUs IMRP project manager, said after they received data on the 2018 stops from all police departments, they noticed there were discrepancies with the data they received from the Bridgeport Police Department. They were missing data on thousands of 2018 traffic stops made by officers, he said.

Barone said he and his team met with Bridgeport officials and were told that data on traffic stops in Bridgeport had been set down on paper and the information from the first half of 2018 had been lost.

The city then began recording stop data electronically but only had information for the second half of 2018, Barone said.

We didnt want to just let them off the hook because they are required by law to report the data, Barone said.

In the end, he said, the advisory board decided to wait on Bridgeports 2019 data instead of using incomplete information from 2018.

We will do an analysis of 2019 for a supplemental report and we will likely publish that report in the summer, he added.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Monday highlighted plans to help African Americans and Latinos cope with the health and economic setbacks of the coronavirus, focusing on two communities that have been hit hard by the pandemic - and that constitute a crucial part of his party's electoral coalition.

During a live-streamed event hosted by a prominent Latino group, the former vice president urged greater protections for front-line workers at meatpacking plants, many of whom, he noted, are black or Latino. He also criticized President Donald Trump for anti-immigrant rhetoric at a moment when he said the country is relying on immigrants to do important jobs.

Later, Biden's campaign released what it called "The Biden plan for black America," a blueprint that in part highlighted the disproportionate impact of the crisis on African American families and advocated more expansive steps to ensure that their businesses get access to economic relief.

"Ask yourself this: What good is it going to do if we withhold access to needed treatment from the poorest members of our society, the most vulnerable, the undocumented?" Biden said during the online discussion hosted by the League of United Latin American Citizens, the country's oldest Hispanic civil rights group.

The efforts are part of a broader push by Democrats to draw a contrast between the ways Trump's policies are affecting nonwhite communities at a time of crisis and what Biden says he would do differently. In the fall, turnout among black and Hispanic voters could be pivotal in swing states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Arizona.

Biden has close ties to the African American community, a relationship that was critical to his victory in the Democratic primary race, but he has struggled somewhat to solidify his support among Latino voters.

He made his pitch as he is trying to move beyond an allegation by a former Senate aide that he sexually assaulted her in 1993. Biden has vigorously denied the accusation by the former aide, Tara Reade, but it has attracted attention that threatens to eclipse his proposals and message.

The expected nominee has remained at his home in Delaware as the pandemic sweeps across the country, speaking in online events that often focus on the virus. Last week, he talked with a nurse who works in an intensive care unit. His campaign also enlisted Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., to help highlight issues with Trump's response to the crisis.

Trump has faced criticism of his handling of the pandemic, and recent polls show Biden leading in crucial battlegrounds. Downballot, Democratic candidates have gained steam, causing some Republicans to worry that their Senate majority is at risk.

Biden has regularly zeroed in on the pandemic's impact on the most vulnerable people, including front-line workers and immigrants. On Monday, he proposed cost-free treatment for covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus - regardless of immigration or insurance status - and a $13-an-hour minimum pay hike for front-line workers.

"There's so much we can change," said Biden, who knocked Trump for what he called "malarkey" that casts immigrants as a problem. "We are strong because of that population," Biden said.

Trump and his supporters, despite the intense anger his response has caused among many Americans and the documented dysfunction within his administration, have regularly touted what they call his enormous success in tackling the pandemic, arguing that the White House response has been fast, effective and fair.

A Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of early data released last month suggested that covid-19 was disproportionately infecting groups of color.

Biden faced criticism during the primary contest from some Latino activists who thought that he should have engaged more with Hispanic communities and that he had questions to answer about the Obama administration's deportation policies, seen by many on the left as harsh.

Biden's plan for African Americans said that government efforts to help with the economic effects of the crisis were a "good start" but that more needed to be done.

Among its proposals: providing black entrepreneurs help in finding funding, reserving half of the new funds under the Paycheck Protection Program for businesses with 50 employees or fewer, and creating a "weekly dashboard" to show which small businesses were accessing loans.

Monday's plan, which included ideas Biden has previously touted, also outlined efforts to help protect civil rights and curb gun violence. On the latter issue, Biden is proposing a "$900 million, eight-year initiative to fund evidence-based interventions in 40 cities across the country," the plan said.

Biden's comments Monday also highlighted his larger attempt to differentiate himself from Trump in terms of empathy. On the campaign trail, the former vice president often brings up setbacks he has faced and engages in personal, sometimes emotional conversations with voters.

Trump favors a more hard-hitting approach, frequently appealing to his supporters by bashing his critics.

Immigrants, Biden said Monday, "should be treated with dignity and fairness." He said he had "a little idea what it's like waiting and worrying about your mother and father dying," having "gone though that in a different circumstance."

The crisis has presented Biden with chances to try to spotlight that contrast, while placing limits on his personal interactions with voters, which were a staple of his primary campaign. Gone are the rope line conversations and selfies, replaced with lives treams.
Gulgine Tashmemet disappeared after returning home to Ili Kazakh (in Chinese, Yili Hasake) Autonomous Prefectures Ghulja (Yining) city, in northwest Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region's (XUAR), on Dec. 26, 2017, following her completion of a masters degree at the University of Technology in southern Malaysias Johor state, where she had first moved in 2010. Tashmemet, 33, was set to return to Malaysia to begin doctoral studies in February 2018 after spending a couple of months at home in Ghulja with her parents. She promised her Munich-based sister Gulzire Taschmamat, who had begged her not to go back to the XUAR with its deteriorating political situation, that she would update her WeChat profile picture once a week to signal that she was okay. However, Tashmemet stopped updating her photo shortly after her arriva, and Taschmamat learned that her sister had been detained at one of the XUARs vast network of internment camps, where authorities are believed to have held up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities since April 2017. Taschmamat quickly went public with her sisters story and has campaigned tirelessly on her behalf ever since.

While authorities were never forthcoming with any details about Tashmemets disappearance, Taschmamat and others suspect she was targeted for having lived abroad, and particularly because Malaysia is one of 26 countries that authorities in the XUAR has identified as sensitive for Uyghurs to have lived in or even traveled to, citing a risk of Muslim radicalization. Tashmemets professors and classmates in Malaysia also campaigned on her behalf, gathering signatures to present to lawmakers in the Malaysian government.

On May 1, Taschmamat received a surprise phone call via an unknown WeChat telephone number from her sister and their parentsthe first contact she had with her family in two-and-a-half yearsand immediately reported the news via social media channels. In a video she posted to Facebook, Taschmamat said that her sister is working as an English teacher and that her mother is in good health, but that her father had lost the ability to speak and is suffering from some medical problems. While she was happy to have spoken with her family, Taschmamat recently told RFAs Uyghur Service that she could sense that they are still living in fear and are not totally free. She vowed to continue her activism on behalf of her family and for Uyghurs facing persecution in the XUAR.

I want to say hello to everyone at Radio Free Asia. You took on my sisters cause from the start and took it to the next level, and I want to say a big thanks to you for being the reason for my sisters release from camp. We video-chatted on WeChat for six minutes  She urged me not to tell anyone [about the call]  My sister disappeared on Dec. 26, 2017 and there was no word, and then in the following January and February I came to learn that shed been taken into a camp by calling my friends and so forth. You were the first to break the news, Radio Free Asia, and then I took interviews with different publications and television stations. In July 2018, a journalist went to our house to look for my sister. My parents, who were scared, said she was at home and they were doing well, and thats what they ended up writing. After that, I kept giving interviews to all sorts of people [to make sure that the truth was known].

May Allah grant [my family] patience; may he grant them strength [in the struggle] against China. May He help them. Given that Ive put this all out on Facebook, Im worried that [the Chinese government] is going to continue harassing my parents or take them away. They detained my sister for a while and then released her.

Inside, I was done

Chinas camp policies have had a really significant influence on my life, even living in a free country. In both the spiritual and physical perspective, [Ive felt] suffering, distress, depression, hopelessness. [The situation] even brought me to a state where I thought I would just want to die if it werent for the fact that I have kids. I lived with bravery and hope, but inside, I was done. And even though I got to hear my sisters voice today, Im still not all that happy. My sister might be out, but there are so many more sisters like her who havent gotten out. Theyre working as slaves, or theyre being forced into marriage with Hans [Chinese]. Im never giving up on this. My sister might have gotten out, but I cant say that shes living 100 percent free. She might be out, but shes under surveillance. Today we spoke on the phone while being monitored. Well have to speak under surveillance for now, but I dont want this to continue being the case. I wont give up on this until shes truly free, and until all of our Uyghur brethren, our innocent brethren, are free. Until we can speak normally over the phone. My sister studied computer science but now shes apparently an English teacher. I demand that they allow her to return to Malaysia to begin her doctoral studies.

This is very good news for me. I dont know why they suddenly called to tell me good news, to show themselves to me, but I thank Allah for it. I heard their voices. I saw them. Lets be patient, my brethren. I hope, from the bottom of my heart, that [Uyghurs] will stand up for their relatives and continue working ceaselessly on this path  If we are patient for just a little while, Allah will reward us.

Reported by Gulchehre Hoja. Translated by Elise Anderson. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Islamabad:

Protests were organized by More than 2,000 activists of various religious and jihadi outfits in Pakistan against the visit of Indian home minister Rajnath Singh, accusing him for the unrest in Kashmir.

Activists of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Hizbul Mujahideen, United Jihad Council (UJC)and other such group protested to denounce Singh's trip to attend the South AsianAssociation for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) ministerial conference being hosted by Pakistan.

Syed Salahuddin, the leader of militant outfit Hizbul Mujahidden, who is also chief of UJC, and local leaders of other groups were seen during the protest.Another protest was organised by Mishal Malik, wife of Kashmiri leader Yasin Malik, in front of National Press Club here.

Yesterday, a JuD caravan led by Talha Saeed, the son of Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, had staged a sit-in at the Line of Control near Chakothi in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), where they were stopped by Pakistani security forces.

The protesters today continued their sit-in, demanding that India receives relief materials brought by them for Kashmiris. A JuD statement said that it has no plans to leave the place unless India receives relief goods, dry food and medicines for the Kashmiris.

Hafiz Abdur Rauf, chief of Falayh-i-Insaniat Foundation, a sister organisation of JuD, said many doctors and paramedical staff were also present in the sit-in. "These doctors and para-medical staff want to go SriNagar to treat our injured Kashmiri brethren," he said.

Various religious and jihadi outfits in Pakistan areopposed to Singh's visit as they held him responsible for theunrest in Indian Kashmir. Forty-nine people have been killed in Kashmir in clashessince Indian security forces killed Hizbul commander BurhanWani on July 8.

Earlier, Hafiz Saeed has warned the government thatSingh's presence in Islamabad may create "unrest" amongKashmiris as well as Pakistanis in the face of scores ofkillings in Kashmir.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Congress rushed to get hundreds of billions of dollars out the door to help small businesses amid a collapsing economy. Now lawmakers are preparing to fix the glitches in the next round.

Banks have agreed to lend out more than $500 billion of the $670 billion allocated in the first phases of the small business aid package, known as the Paycheck Protection Program. But many employers are still complaining that the programs hastily written rules are too stringent to help them stay afloat through the pandemic and keep their workers on the payroll.

So a bipartisan group of lawmakers is plotting big changes as they prepare to consider another round of funding. Among the key proposals being considered in the House and Senate: lengthening the time that small businesses can spend the money; allowing them to use less of the aid on trying to retain employees and more for expenses like rent; and expanding the relief to larger companies.

The program, which offers government-backed, low-interest loans that can be forgiven if employers maintain their payrolls, is expected to exhaust its current $320 billion round of funding in the coming days. As of Friday, the Small Business Administration  the agency implementing the effort  had approved 2.2 million loans for a total of $175.7 billion.

But more pressingly, policymakers are considering whether to change the structure of the program to resolve complaints that the terms for converting the government-backed loans into grants are too restrictive and out of touch with the realities of operating businesses in a lockdown.

Restaurants and other businesses are increasingly warning that the requirement to use the money within eight weeks after receiving the loan is impractical and that the mandate to spend at least 75 percent on payroll is too high a hurdle  especially when Congress made unemployment benefits more appealing to many workers.

"It really is important that we simply don't go through the motions of reauthorizing a few hundred billion dollars for PPP without making changes that are essential for the businesses that have gotten hurt the most," Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) said in an interview.

Story continues

The potential retooling of the Paycheck Protection Program comes after more than 3.8 million loans were approved despite a chaotic rollout that was beset by unclear, ever-changing Trump administration guidelines and technical problems that delayed the process.

Now that businesses have received the funds from lenders, many are questioning how to use the money in a way that satisfies forgiveness rules. There are also lingering concerns about whether the loans reached businesses that really needed them, after it was revealed that several large, publicly traded companies including Shake Shack and Ruth's Hospitality Group were among the first to secure the money. Many of the companies decided to return the loans amid a public backlash and pressure from Washington.

There is bipartisan support for funding the program, which has seen massive demand since its April 3 launch. The effort exhausted an initial $350 billion of funding on April 16. Congress then approved another $320 billion, which allowed the SBA to resume approving applications on April 27.

Senate Small Business Chairman Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a key player in the legislation, said Monday that there might be a need for additional funding. Yet Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has recently raised concerns about deficit spending. The last funding bill was a two-week slog for congressional leaders to negotiate.

"The key is to figure out who's not getting the loan," Rubio said in a video posted on Twitter. "The answer to that question will determine what the scope for a Round 3 would look like."

But beyond the funding question, it's looking increasingly likely that lawmakers will try to revamp the program for businesses that have already received loans and for those that try to seek the aid in the future.

Among the ideas under consideration is a proposal from Bennet and Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) that would give businesses twice the amount of time to spend the loan money  16 weeks instead of eight  if they can show they suffered a 25 percent revenue loss during the period they're supposed to spend Paycheck Protection Program funds.

They're also proposing a whole new program that would expand the availability of government-backed loans to mid-size firms with up to 5,000 employees  up from 500 under current rules  while making the terms more flexible and linking the level of loan forgiveness to revenue declines.

The Paycheck Protection Program is working for many small businesses, but we know more needs to be done," Young said. His bill with Bennet would "go a step further by helping to provide longer-term loans to businesses and non-profits that are experiencing economic hardship due to the coronavirus pandemic."

But the most urgent problem for all businesses contemplating how to have their loans forgiven is the lack of detailed guidelines from the SBA and the Treasury Department on what to do next. The administration has yet to release comprehensive steps on how businesses should complete the process in the coming weeks.

It's a huge concern because the forgiveness aspect of the loans  a measure that turns them into grants in practice  was one of the key selling points in convincing businesses to take on the debt in exchange for keeping workers on their payroll.

Lenders that were responsible for distributing the wave of loans are also desperate for more information on how forgiveness will work because they will once again serve as the go-between for businesses and the SBA.

"The forgiveness process is sure to be even more burdensome," Consumer Bankers Association general counsel David Pommerehn said. "There's no process that exists at this point that would make that easier. There's no automation process. There's no guidance out there."

Lawmakers from both parties are demanding that the SBA and Treasury issue guidance as soon as possible. In a letter Friday to SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Sens. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said the terms for forgiveness "were and continue to be ambiguous."

"No concrete information has been given to either lenders or small business owners about how they should go about getting their loans forgiven," they said. "Conflicting information at a time of uncertainty can be harmful to the significant and successful goal of the Paycheck Protection Program."

But even the minimal guidelines released by the SBA and Treasury have made many businesses uneasy.

Though the intent of the program was to make sure workers were paid and attached to their jobs  hence "Paycheck Protection"  some business owners say they need more flexibility in how they can spend the money.

Several business groups are urging Congress and the Trump administration to ease the loan forgiveness requirements. They include the National Federation of Independent Business, the National Restaurant Association, the Independent Restaurant Coalition and the American Institute of CPAs.

New advocacy groups are forming just to lobby on Paycheck Protection Program loan forgiveness issues, such as the Eastern States Hospitality Coalition, which says it represents nearly 1,000 full-service restaurants, hotels and suppliers from Maine to Florida.

"Just allow these funds to be used for the purposes that these businesspeople know they can use them for -- to keep their businesses alive and available to hire people when it makes sense to hire people and to not keep digging a hole," said Bob Garner, co-founder and COO of Glory Days Inc., which operates a regional restaurant chain with 37 locations.

The SBA on Sunday said businesses won't be penalized if a laid-off employee declines to return to work. But Treasury's Mnuchin is refusing to relax key forgiveness requirements on his own, even ones that were drafted by his department and the SBA. In a Fox Business interview Monday, he said the forgiveness rules reflected the desires of Congress and that they have "the right intent to get the money to employees." He encouraged businesses to apply for the SBA's Economic Injury Disaster Loan, another program to help small companies survive the pandemic fallout, if they need more money for costs beyond payroll.

But lawmakers say Mnuchin is wrong  and they aren't taking no for an answer.

"His view is he just doesn't want to reopen this discussion," Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who has pressed Mnuchin to be more flexible with nonpayroll spending, said in an interview. "He thinks it will open up the discussion to other changes. But my view is the regulations were imposed unilaterally. They're not required by the underlying legislation."

In the House, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) is gathering signatures for letters to congressional leadership and the administration with requests to relax some loan requirements, including lengthening the forgiveness period and allowing businesses to use more of the loan to pay rent and suppliers. Wenstrup decided to seek changes to the rules after hearing concerns from the restaurant industry, which will be operating at a diminished capacity even as the economy begins to reopen.

Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) is leading work on a bill that would clarify and ease rules on loan forgiveness and payroll requirements. He said in a statement that it would ensure that "businesses can take these loans and rehire employees without worrying about losing all forgiveness."

"I don't think you can ignore the owners," said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), who is working on the legislation with Panetta. "The whole idea was you want to keep the businesses together, so when this is over the employees have a place to come back to."
The Alabama Senate today approved a General Fund budget for next fiscal year that increases spending over this year but by less than Gov. Kay Ivey proposed before the coronavirus pandemic.

The Senate voted 31-0 in favor of a budget approved that would increase spending by about $170 million over this year, to $2.4 billion.

In February, Ivey had proposed an increase of about $340 million, to $2.56 billion. But that was when the state was enjoying record levels of employment and before the response to the COVID-19 pandemic stalled the economy, putting more than 400,000 Alabamians out of work.

Also today, a House committee approved an education budget that was scaled back from Iveys pre-pandemic proposal.

Both budgets are subject to change as they move through the legislative process during an abbreviated session that until this week had been on hold since March 12 because of the pandemic.

The proposed General Fund budget includes most of the major increases requested by the governor.

Medicaid would get a $94 million increase, to $820 million.

Public Health would get a $35 million increase, to $106 million.

Mental Health would receive a $26 million increase, to $154 million.

The Alabama Department of Corrections would receive about a $23 million increase, to $544 million. The governor had requested a larger increase, to $563 million.

The ADOC faces pressure from the Department of Justice and a federal judge to hire more correctional officers and fix what the DOJ says are unconstitutional conditions because of violence, overcrowding and understaffing.

Senate General Fund budget chairman Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, said the ADOC still has about $18 million for hiring officers that it has not spent from previous budgets.
Donald Trump has failed to win a second term after Democrat challenger Joe Biden was declared the 46th president of the United States.

The office of the US president was established in 1789, and out of all the men who have held office, only ten have failed to win re-election for a second term, when they have attempted to.

US Presidents are only allowed to sit for a maximum of two, four year terms, but although any gender can hold the position, every president so far has been a man.

Read more: Live US election news and updates

One US president, John F Kennedy was assassinated before he could run for re-election.

The longest period the US has experienced without a president failing to complete two terms, was between 1932 and 1976.

The last president to have failed to win re-election was George H W Bush, who lost to Bill Clinton in 1992.

The US has gone 28 years without a president failing to win a second term, but on Saturday, president Donald Trump was beaten by Joe Biden.

Find out about the presidents who failed to win re-election, below.

John Adams

The first US president to fail to win re-election for a second term, was John Adams, who also served as the countrys first vice president.

Read more: Can Trump run again in 2024?

When the position was created in 1789, George Washington was the first to have the honour, and Mr Adams served under him.

After Mr Washington completed his two terms, Mr Adams ran for the position with the Federalist party and took his place as president.

During his time as president, Mr Adams engaged in a quasi-war with France after they captured a merchant vessel in New York City harbour.

He came third in the next election, behind the two candidates the Republican party ran, with Thomas Jefferson eventually becoming the new US president.

John Quincy Adams

Another of the Adams family, John Quincy Adams, was unable to win re-election for a second term as US president.

Mr Adams was the eldest son of the second US president, and was the sixth man to hold the position.

During his time as president, there were big rifts in his party, the Democratic-Republican party, and it stopped him from making much progress.

The party split after Mr Adams failed to win re-election, with the two sides becoming the Democratic party and the Whig party.

Mr Adams became the second US president to fail to win a second term, meaning that at the time the two Adams were the only presidents to have failed to win re-election.

Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison

Martin Van Buren was the next president to fail to win re-election in 1840, but Grover Cleveland proved that a lost election does not stop you from getting your second term.

Mr Cleveland, a Democrat, was the 22nd and the 24th president of the United States, after he won both the 1884 and 1892 elections.

Read more: Who is in Bidens cabinet?

He won the popular vote in 1888, but lost the election to the Republican Benjamin Harrison, who served for the next four years.

The 1888 election was tight and in 1892, Mr Cleveland defeated Mr Harrison, to win back the presidency and cause Mr Harrison to become the fifth president to fail to win re-election.

William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft was the next US president to fail to win re-election, 20 years later in 1912.

Mr Taft, a Republican, is the only person in US history to have held both the position of president and chief justice of the United States.

Recommended Bush warned US to prepare for pandemic back in 2005

As president, Mr Taft said he would not appoint African Americans to federal jobs and removed a majority of Black office holders in the south.

He is considered by most historians as an average president, as his four years in charge were unremarkable.

He served as president from 1909 to 1913 and lost the 1912 presidential election to Woodrow Wilson.

Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover was elected as US president in 1928, and was faced with helping the country rebuild after the stock market crash of 1929.

As president, Mr Hoover oversaw congress voting to repeal prohibition, despite pushing to make sure alcohol remained illegal in the US.

His presidency was overshadowed by the economic crash in 1929, and he spent most of his one term attempting to improve the countrys economy.

The US had not recovered by the time of the 1932 election, and he lost to Franklin D Roosevelt.

Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter

Gerald Ford not only failed to win re-election as the US president, but also never won a presidential election.

Mr Ford, a Republican, became the president after Richard Nixon resigned, following the Watergate scandal.

He served from 1974 to 1977, when Jimmy Carter defeated him in the 1976 election.

Mr Carter, a Democrat served as the US president from 1977 to 1981, but lost the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan.

Despite the fact Gerald Ford never won a presidential election, Mr Carters loss, meant that for the first time, two US presidents in succession failed to win re-election.

George H W Bush

George H W Bush was the last president to fail to win re-election, when he was beaten by Democrat, Bill Clinton, in the 1992 election.

Mr Bush was the 41st US president and was the director of the CIA from 1976 to 1980.

Recommended One quarter of Democratic voters would replace Joe Biden

He served as Mr Reagans vice president from 1981 until 1989, when he was elected to take his position.

As president, Mr Bush engaged in the Gulf War and signed the Americans with Disabilities act 1990 into law.

In 2000, his son, George W Bush was elected as president and completed two full terms, before Barack Obama took over as US president.
NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday said that it will operate at least 64 flights between May 7 to May 13 to bring back Indians stranded in foreign countries. 64 flights will be operated from May 7 to May 13 to bring back stranded Indians from abroad, Union Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.

In the first week, Air India will be conducting all the flights, the Aviation Minister said adding that private airlines will be considered going forward.

Sharing more information, the Civil Aviation Minister said, The government of India will operate two special flights from Doha to India. The 1st on 7th May from Doha to Kochi and 2nd on 10th May from Doha to Thiruvananthapuram.

Puri, however, said that the Indians stranded abroad will be charged for flights bringing them home. ''All passengers will be charged on repatriation flights. Rs 50,000 per passenger for London-Delhi flight, Rs 12,000 for Dhaka-Delhi flight,'' the Minister said.

He also stated that those arriving by repatriation flights will be screened and put under a 14-day quarantine. The Minister added that all prescribed health guidelines will be followed while bringing the passengers home.

The Aviation Minister further added, ''Out of 64 flights to bring back stranded Indians from abroad, 11 from nine countries will land in Tamil Nadu.

The move follows intense criticism against the government that it earlier flew Indians stranded abroad home for free while the migrant labourers were asked to pay for their special train tickets.

Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi had attacked the Centre when she said her party will pay for the tickets of stranded migrants. Defending itself, the Indian Railways said they were charging state governments just 15% of the calculated train fare for the special trains and it was for the states to bear this cost or get the migrant workers to pay.

Central government officials have, for days, been telling state governments not to encourage migrant workers to travel. It would not only slow down the economic revival process and make the recovery process longer but also could, as the World Bank had also warned south Asian countries, spread the vector across the region.

On Friday, the Centre gave in to pressure from state governments which had been demanding special trains to take the stranded workers home and operated the first train between Telangana and Jharkhand.
Few families are willing to risk the usual mass gatherings each evening for their first meal of the day  and with unemployment now well over 50 percent, many cannot afford it  but holiday workarounds are common. Some pay social visits in small groups throughout the day rather than attend large iftar feasts at night. Others play host by having takeout iftar delivered, their treat, to family and friends.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Monday that two U.S. citizens have been arrested among a group of mercenaries who launched a failed raid attempting to capture and oust the socialist leader.

During a nationwide broadcast on state television, Maduro held up two American passports and read the names and birth dates of the two professional American mercenaries, who were arrested with about eight other people.

Video footage shown on state television claimed to show the captives surrendering from their boat and later being handled by Venezuelan authorities.

Maduro blamed the Trump administration as well as the countrys western neighbor Colombia for the plot. Both the U.S. and Colombia have denied involvement.

The United States government is fully and completely involved in this defeated raid, Maduro said.

The two Americans were identified as ex-Green Berets Luke Denman and Airan Berry, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan with former Green Beret Jordan Goudreau, who, according to Maduro, was directing the stymied operation from Florida. The operation allegedly aimed to capture Maduro and liberate Venezuela. Goudreau said that he has spoken to a lawyer in Venezuela and has reached out to the State Department in efforts to repatriate the two soldiers.

There has not been a U.S. embassy in Caracas since Venezuela and the U.S. broke off diplomatic relations last year after the U.S. government recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido over Maduro as the countrys interim president.

Guaido has denied any connection with the groups raid, called Operation Gideon, but called for the prisoners to be treated humanely.

We demand the human rights  of the people captured in recent hours be respected, Guaido said in a statement.

The capture comes after a Venezuelan naval vessel repeatedly rammed a German cruise liner off its coast earlier this month. The German-owned cruise ship was undergoing maintenance in international waters when the Venezuelan vessel ordered it to change direction and began ramming it repeatedly. The Venezuelan vessel was punctured and sank while the German cruise ship sustained only minor damage.

More from National Review
Three Vancouver patrol officers fired their weapons during the fatal April 28 shooting of a 50-year-old man, authorities said Monday.

The Clark County Sheriffs Office identified the officers involved in the shooting as Sgt. Jay Alie, Officer Sammy Abdala and Officer Sean Suarez.

Alie, 53, and Abdala, 52, are veteran Vancouver police officers hired in 1997 and 2001, respectively. Suarez, 36, was hired in 2015 and worked at the countys jail as a corrections officer for nearly eight years before that.

All three are on standard-protocol leave while the Clark County Regional Independent Investigation Team investigates the circumstances of the shooting that killed Vancouver resident William Abbe.

Police have said they were initially called to a fight involving Abbe and a second man near Fourth Plain Boulevard and Stapleton Road. The other man was transported to a hospital. Abbe remained at the scene.

Although investigators have disclosed few other details about what happened, a bystander published a video on YouTube that appears to show the shooting unfold.

The video shows six police officers pointing guns at a man, who appears to be pacing several feet away from the officers, holding what appear to be two stick-like objects.

About 30 seconds into the 4 minute, 15 second video, an officer appears to fire something, possibly a stun gun, at the man, but he doesnt seem to be affected.

The man continues to pace about 15 feet away from the group of officers, most of whom are using a car as a barrier between themselves and the man.

The man eventually moves toward the officers gathered around him. Officers fire at least three shots at him, and he immediately drops to the ground.

The six police then surround the man and continue to point their guns at him. A seventh police officer joins the group.

About 45 seconds after the man was shot, the officers kneel on the ground and appear to inspect the mans injuries.

Police said Abbe was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

-- Jayati Ramakrishnan

jramakrishnan@oregonian.com

-- Jim Ryan

jryan@oregonian.com

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Bengaluru, May 5 : More than a month after international flights have been barred, Karnataka government is preparing to quarantine all 10,823 of the state's people poised to return home from overseas amid the Covid pandemic, an official said on Tuesday.

"The state has planned to quarantine all 10,823 passengers coming back to Karnataka. The quarantine guidelines framed as below would be applicable," said Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey in a statement.

According to the Government of India, 10,823 Karnataka residents have been stranded abroad by April 30, comprising 4,408 tourists, 3,074 students, 2,784 migrants and professionals and 557 ship crew.

Out of the 10,823 people, the state government is expecting 6,100 to return early as the government has decided to allow Indians stuck abroad to return.

"All the passengers arriving at points of entry (airports and seaports) will be compulsorily screened for symptoms of Covid-19," said Pandey.

Point of entry screening will include self-reporting form verification, thermal screening, pulse oximeter reading, briefing with instructions, categorisation, stamping for some and downloading of Aarogya Setu, Quarantine Watch and Apthamitra apps.

Arriving passengers are also required to declare existing comorbidities such hypertension, diabetes, asthma or any lung disease, organ transplantations, cancer, tuberculosis and other ailments.

Passengers will be categorised into three groups: Category A (symptomatic on arrival), Category B (asymptomatic with co-morbidity or aged above 60 years) and Category C (rest of asymptomatic passengers).

Depending on the category into which the people fall, their quarantine place and time will be determined.

Category A arrivals will be subjected to institutional quarantine for a fortnight, Category B one week quarantine at a hotel or hostel, followed by another week at home, and Category C home quarantine for a fortnight.

Karnataka government is making elaborate arrangements and logistical means, deploying healthcare, police and several other departments into action to handle the huge influx of Kannadigas and state residents.

Pandey has issued a 21-page elaborate standard operating procedure (SOP) guidelines on how to face the international returnees.
Lately, I have noticed a trend of constitutionality debates regarding stay-at-home and mask-use orders. Lindy Ursos challenge is not the first of its kind, but being from Greenwich, it quite literally hits home. Lets say his legal arguments have merit. I ask, so what? Even if orders of this nature are unconstitutional, should any attorney work toward striking them down? I think the answer has to be no.

I am second-year law student currently taking a course in Professional Responsibility. One major theme of the course has been what is the right thing to do? This challenges students to determine what the Professional Code allow an attorney to do and what an attorney should do. Just because Mr. Urso is not blatantly violating the Professional Code, it does not mean he made the ethical choice by filing this lawsuit. I think its quite the opposite. So why is he doing this? Is it to make a name for himself in an area outside of his expertise of criminal defense? If so, hes doing so at the expensive of the health and safety, and possibly the lives of, countless Connecticut residents. That is irresponsible, selfish, and unethical.
A couple who met after a letter to a lonely sailor ended up in the wrong hands have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.

Jack and Shirley Godley, from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, were brought together in 1957 when she answered a pen pal advertisement in the paper by a seaman looking for friendship.

However, Shirley's letter was passed over to sailor Jack when the original seaman, stationed on first class at HMS Ganges in Ipswich, was unable to keep up with his correspondence.

Unbelievably Shirley, just 15 at the time, lived just five minutes away from Jack, then 19, and after that first letter, the pair carried on writing to one another and were able to meet in person a year later when he was home on leave.

Now the loved-up couple, who got married after three years of letter writing, have celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary together while stuck in lockdown.

Jack and Shirley Godley, from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, met after a letter to a lonely sailor ended up in the wrong hands

Jack, now 82, was serving as a Seaman when the letter from Shirley Kerrigan, now 78, was given to him from a shipmate whose name the pair have sadly forgotten.

Shirley said: 'I'm glad it ended up with him. I do think it was fate. The other sailor got a sack full and he said "here you go Ginge" - that's what they called Jack in the navy.

'He said, "there's one from Sheffield you can have that one". My dad wasn't right keen - he didn't know I had written off to them.'

The couple kept up their letter writing and finally got to meet when Jack was on leave from a tour in the Far East.

The couple (pictured two days before their wedding in 1960) were brought together in 1957 when Shirley answered a pen pal advertisement in the paper by a seaman looking for friendship

Jack, who had joined the navy aged just 15, wrote a letter to Shirley's dad, George, asking for permission to marry her before buying a ring and proposing on his next trip home.

The wedding was rearranged three times due to trouble on Jack's tour but the pair were finally able to tie the knot after Jack arrived into Portsmouth on the aircraft HMS Centaur on 28 April 1960.

The lovers married at Ecclesfield Church two days later and honeymooned in Blackpool.

Shirley went on to work as an addressograph operator and helped to deliver other penpal sweethearts' letters.

Jack left the navy in 1962, then worked at a tool manufacturers and as a bus driver and a van driver.

However, Shirley's letter was passed over to sailor Jack when the original seaman, stationed on first class at HMS Ganges in Ipswich, was unable to keep up with his correspondence. Pictured: The couple together recently

The couple have five children, Karen, Kevan, Donna, Lisa, and Debra, ten grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

After 60 years of married life, Jack said it is their different personalities that have made their love last.

He said: 'Well we're opposites aren't we, me and Shirley. Opposites attract. That's why we have lasted. Well, that and doing what I am told.'

Speaking about the lockdown anniversary celebration, Shirley said: 'We usually go out and we do a meal somewhere.

'With all this Covid-19 blowing up it was just like a normal day. We didn't do anything special. We're planning to celebrate properly when it's all over.'

Unbelievably Shirley, just 15 at the time, lived just five minutes away from Jack, then 19, and after that first letter, the pair carried on writing to one another and were able to meet in person a year later when he was home on leave. Pictured: The couple on their wedding day in 1960

Their daughter Debra Fletcher, 41, was sad not to be able to celebrate with them at their home on their anniversary.

Debra, a regional manager in the care sector, said: 'You don't get those sort of things in this day and age, so it's lovely to hear the story of how they met.

'They didn't know but the whole family were all going to have a big day out and spend the day with them at the coast. Instead we managed to trim their house up with banners.

'They got attention from cars and things but that was about the best we could do. We all went down separately to wish them a happy anniversary from the road. They did manage to have some lemon meringues - their favourite pudding.'

She added: 'I normally see them every weekend but work in care so I'm just trying to shield them. It's really hard. For the last six weeks the only interaction I've had with them has been in their back yard at a 2m distance. '

'It's hard not being able to give them a kiss and a cuddle but it's for the best.'

Jack and Shirley are planning to celebrate properly with a big family meal when lockdown restrictions have been lifted.
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe bears no resemblance to Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy after his haircut, he said

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe says his teenage son is cutting his hair and he's running the economy from the upstairs spare room in his red-brick terraced house in Phibsborough.

Mr Donohoe has adjusted to life in lockdown, like every other parent in the country.

The minister has had changes made to his office in the Department of Finance. The Tricolour and EU flags have been placed behind his desk and a video-conferencing monitor is out front as he participates in EU finance ministers' meetings.

However, he has taken his work home by converting the spare room into an office.

"To look after my own health, and respect the health of all who I work with, I'm now working from my spare bedroom a few days every week, and my department put in place the technology that I need to do that securely quite a few weeks ago. So I'm able to do all of that," he said.

"Which means that all the contact that I now have with the department, in many cases, is now done electronically.

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"We've significantly reduced the amount of contact even that I would have with other people. Because in the jobs that I do, I meet lots of people all of the time.

"For example, in my government departments now I'm mainly only engaged with the secretary generals, whereas how I would have done it beforehand, is I would have engaged with their teams all of the time.

"Now, we haven't done that, because we have to be careful of everyone's health. And then I'm working in the way anybody who's trying to keep the company afloat is working."

Mr Donohoe lives in the northside Dublin suburb with his wife Justine and children Oscar (14) and Lucy (12). Family life is similar to many others.

Family

"The kids are doing the Zoom calls with school. I'm sitting in my spare bedroom, doing my work. Then I can hear my kids do schoolwork in the house," he said.

"When I'm doing Morning Ireland and Newstalk Breakfast, the family are all making sure as I'm doing it that the country can't hear, you know, the normal hurly burly of family life when I'm doing it from the spare room.

"And then when I'm participating in conferences which I now do and do public events on it, again, kind of taking that, you know, as I'm doing it, homework isn't printing out on the printer or all the other stuff that any other working parent is dealing with. It's the same."

His teenage son is also acting up as his barber.

"I know there's lots of dads at the moment that are looking at their son's haircuts, their scissors and their appreciation and desire to emulate Cillian Murphy and looking at that in a new way," he said.

"For the record, when my hair is done, I bear no resemblance to Cillian Murphy, but at least I hope my hair is a bit more in the control."

Mr Donohoe says he will have to look at financial supports and tax breaks to help keep workers at home after the lockdown. The assistance will be on the table once it becomes clear how many people will continue to work from home.

The minister said he expects some employers to want less office space as more staff work from home after the crisis.

This will have an impact on areas like Dublin city centre.

On the formation of a new government, Mr Donohoe said new laws will need to be passed by the end of June or early July, which the caretaker administration cannot do.

"That road will run out," he said.

Mr Donohoe has also announced a series of supports for small and medium-sized businesses.

As the cost of the economic package grows, he also flags big decisions coming next month on whether to continue with the current income supports, the wage subsidy or so-called Covid dole.

"My message to those people who are concerned about the future of those payments is that we will manage this very carefully," he said.

"And we want to try to manage the future of the scheme that is integrated in terms of people's ability to get back to work."
There is no greater loss than losing a family member.



While it may be comparatively bearable to deal with other forms of losses, saying goodbye to immediate family members inflicts a kind of pain that is only known to those who have been unfortunate enough to experience it.

 Twitter/BiplabSiladitya

But for the family of a soldier, this loss and the news of their son being killed in action during battle comes tinged with a strong sense of pride.



Of course, there is immeasurable pain to live with, but a soldiers family is also prepared for bad news to come calling at any given moment of the day.

They see his passing for what it is - a promise delivered, a duty performed and a sacrifice made for the nations welfare at the cost of their own life.

 Twitter/7seassolutions1

That is exactly how the family of Handwara encounter martyr Colonel Ashutosh Sharma felt upon hearing about the officer getting killed in action.



So, when it was time to bid their soldier a final goodbye, Col Ashutosh Sharmas wife and 12-year-old daughter held back their tears and sent him off with proud salutes that every fallen soldier deserves.

#WATCH Wife, daughter and other family members of Colonel Ashutosh Sharma who lost his life in #Handwara (J&K) encounter, salute him pic.twitter.com/t2yD7fIftO  ANI (@ANI) May 5, 2020

Two-time Gallantry Award winner, Col Sharma had been posted in The Valley for a good part of his time in service in the Indian Army. Yet, the Colonel, who joined the Army in his 13th attempt because he was so adamant about donning the green uniform, did it without any reservation for years.



As massive a loss as this is for the family, we salute their warrior spirit for saying their final goodbyes without giving in to tears, and paying respects to his supreme sacrifice for the nation.

 Twitter/ANI

Earlier, speaking to India Today Col Sharmas wife said, "He had passion and priority for his unit and love for his uniform. His loss is irreparable and unbearable, but I am proud of my husband for what he did for his men and the safety of civilians.



Col Sharma was one of the five security forces personnel who were killed during an encounter with terrorists in Handwara, Jammu and Kashmir earlier this week.

We are proud of you sir, thank you for your service and your sacrifice. The nation will never forget.
U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger discussed US-China relations in depth at the symposium on U.S. diplomacy.

As a former reporter in China, he knows it takes courage to speak to the press in todays China, amid the regimes widespread censorship.

In Mandarin, Pottinger echoes whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliangs statement to the press before he died from the CCP virus.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 5)  The next school year will officially open on August 24 and end on April 30, 2021, Education Secretary Leonor Briones said on Tuesday.

Briones said the start of the academic year 2020-2021 in August does not necessarily mean elementary and high school students will physically return to schools. Classes can be conducted online, until the government allows the reopening of school buildings, which were temporarily closed to mitigate the spread of coronavirus disease..

Ang napili nating school opening date ay August 24 pero hindi ibig sabihin na lahat ay physical na papasok kasi may lockdown tayo, Briones said during the Laging Handa public briefing.

[Translation: The school opening date we chose was August but this does not mean that students will go to schools because we are on lockdown.]

The DepEd chief said she was informed that some public and private schools are ready to implement alternatives to traditional classroom learning.

After consulting the public through an online survey, she said those from far-flung areas preferred having lessons through radio. Teachers can also hold classes through television and cellphones, she added.

Aside from the modes of teaching, Briones said the department also plans to change the contents of its education curriculum.

Teachers back to work in June

She also announced that elementary and high school teachers will have to report for work whether physically or virtually between June 1 and 30, as it is the enrollment period.

She added that by next month, teachers will undergo capacity building activities for new lessons.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases previously recommended moving the opening of classes to September to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

But the education secretary has said this is not allowed under the law.

The law provides that school opening shall start on the first Monday of June but not later that the last day of August, she said.

Palarong Pambansa, other crowd drawing events suspended

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the department has decided to temporarily postpone its national events including the Palarong Pambansa, which draws large crowd.

Yung mga big events na crowd drawers natin ay pansamantalang kinakansela natin," Briones noted.

[Our big events which are crowd drawers are temporarily cancelled.]

Other suspended activities include talent contests, Brigada Eskwela, science fairs, national schools press conference and job fairs.
ALBANY  Justice advocates on Tuesday sharply criticized Gov. Andrew M. Cuomos handling of the coronavirus pandemic in prisons, and implored him to substantially increase his release of state prisoners and test every inmate for COVID-19.

In a panel discussion that painted a ghastly portrait of COVID-19's impact within state correctional facilities, advocates  including a medical expert, a state lawmaker and the mother of an inmate  asked the governor to act quickly.

Time is not on anybodys side here, said Robert Cohen, a doctor and member of the New York City Board of Correction, which oversees the citys jail system. He said the state is doing very little from what I know to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in its prisons.

Cohen said the state needs to conduct mass testing of all inmates, starting with those who are older and risk dying from the disease. He said state prisons need to make sure employees wear proper masks daily, change those masks daily and do more than just put up a sign.

Cohen said New York City prisons basically released half their population, which he said was younger than the state prison population. He said it is not too late for state prisons to stem the spread of COVID-19, but if nothing is done it will overwhelm the medical facilities of the prisons and hospitals.

There is time to act and that time can make an enormous difference, Cohen said.

As of Tuesday at 4 p.m., 407 inmates and 1,129 staff members had been infected with COVID-19, according to the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision the website. Thirteen inmates and four staff members have died. Officials said 224 inmates have recovered and are out of isolation. An additional 52 parolees have been infected. Four of them have died.

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DOCCS officials said the rate of infection in state correctional facilities is lower than the rate of the general public.

On April 14, the agency started to release prisoners with 90 or fewer days left on their sentence, who are 55 or older and whose crime was not a violent crime or sex offense. DOCCS officials said as of Monday, the department had moved 153 people from facilities to the community. Another 791 people had their parole violations cancelled and have been released.

"DOCCS continues to look at other alternatives for those who do not have an approved residence," the agency said in an email. "This will be an ongoing process with additional individuals reviewed as they become eligible. We are in close contact with local government agencies and community-based organizations to coordinate appropriate discharge plans to meet the needs of these individuals. Since the first of the year, the under-custody prison population has declined by more than 3,400 individuals."

On Tuesday, Assemblywoman Carmen De La Rosa, a Manhattan Democrat who took part in the panel discussion, said the states criteria to release inmates has been far too small and does not take into account needs of inmates health or those serving lengthy sentences.

We know that there are people who are languishing behind bars who are sick, the lawmaker said. Were calling on (the governor) to do more.

De La Rosa read part of a letter she said she received from the mother of an inmate. The prisoner told the mother that the situation was so dire in prison, "Its like we are an experiment.

The panel discussion included Cohen; De La Rosa; Anthony Dixon, who served 32 years in prison and is the director of community engagement for the Parole Preparation Project; attorney Michelle Lewin, the executive director of the Parole Preparation Project; and Donna Robinson, an Erie County-based organizer with the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign.

Robinson's daughter is serving a 15-to-life sentence in Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County, a prison for female inmates. She said her daughter informed her that inmates are afraid of where to go in the prison because of the threat of coronavirus. The woman noted that in addition to being the mother on inmate, she also was once the victim of a heinous crime.

Social distancing measures taken in society, she and other advocates said, are impossible behind bars.

"None of are immune from this virus  or the next one down the pike, she said.

The DOCCS website said the agency works with the state Department of Health and uses the same COVID-19 testing process as in the outside world. It states: "Our process identifies patients who are ill and require special monitoring and care and isolates those who create the greatest risk of transmission to others. Asymptomatic patients who wear a mask and follow social distancing and hand hygiene guidelines have minimal risk to others. A nurse will swab the individual and that swab is then sent to an authorized lab. As we await the results, the individual is isolated. If an individuals test result is positive that person is maintained in isolation for a minimum of 14 days."
Every person in America is aware that in the past two months our country has experienced a dramatic cultural transformation resulting from the apparent threat of COVID-19. Though we trust that one day soon the present health threat will end, it is likely that our world has undergone permanent changes, and, in many ways, we will never be the same as we once were.

As the dangers of COVID-19 have become more and more apparent, social isolation has emerged as the main strategy for combatting the spread of the disease. I am certain that when the social distancing and self-quarantines began weeks ago, few people could have foreseen just how challenging life alone would be.

We Were Not Created to Do Life Alone

It is safe to say that most of us were unaware of just how much we depend and thrive on the relational engagement which we experience on a daily basis. How many times have we heard the saying that you dont miss something until its gone? Now just weeks into a federally mandated stay-at-home order, many of us are beginning to feel the adverse effects of living as though we were confined to an island.

For me personally, this has proven to be a valuable and needed time of reflection regarding the idea of community and relationship. In my role as a corporate chaplain, I am constantly counseling people who are lonely and struggling with varying degrees of depression, and almost always, what many of these friends have in common is that they lack deep relationships and intimate communal ties.

Please dont misunderstand me. Im not an expert on depression, and I certainly dont believe that having a friend is all that is required to drive away despair and depression. I am, however, convinced, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God did not create man to do life alone, and when we find ourselves isolated or alone for whatever reason, grave consequences are sure to follow.

From the earliest accounts of creation, the Creator established his ideal relational order when he created the first woman and introduced her to Adam. Gods rationale for his decision to create this particular bond between men and women was simply, It is not good that man should be alone (Genesis 2:18).

Lets not overlook the obvious fact that Adam was not alone in the strictest sense because he was in relationship with the Creator, himself. Was there some need that Adam had which God could not meet?

The answer must emphatically be no! In fact, just the opposite is true. Because God is sufficient to meet every need man has, he is free to meet those needs any way he chooses. Relationships with others are only one way in which God intends to share his own presence with us.

A Relational God

The relationships I enjoy are not experiences apart from or instead of God. Instead, these relationships are designed that I might know and experience God more gloriously through life with others. Adam and Eve, along with you and I, were created to function optimally in community and, as a result, to know God more.

Unfortunately, what Ive described is Gods ideal design for creation, and all of us know painfully well that our relationships seldom function ideally in a way that results in Gods love being displayed. Because of sins curse, mankind has bought into the enemys lie that an individuals needs and desires are more important than those of our communal sphere.

All of us are infected with this innate drive to care, protect, and satisfy ourselves at all costs. We are taught, by our culture, that you have to take care of yourself before anything else. However, this is sinful, man-centered thinking.

The Bible compels us to think and live differently than this when Paul instructs us to Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor (Romans 12:10). This passage speaks of preferring one another over our own needs or desires. Most of us live as though we dont need anyone, and we certainly dont live as though we believe that others need us.

Rather than this being a theological treatise on isolation and loneliness, I would rather like to offer a few practical guidelines for dealing with these real struggles in a day in which relationships and community are valued less and less but needed more and more.

Examples of Loneliness in the Old Testament

First of all, I would like to stress that even though we were not made to live in isolation, God does not waste those seasons even if our own brokenness or the brokenness of those around us has brought it about. The Bible is littered with example after example of people who found themselves alone and confused only to have God reveal himself in profoundly new ways.

Consider Joseph, who was thrown in prison for no fault of his own (Genesis 39:19). Having already been sold by his brothers who hated him and separated him from his father, who loved him, Joseph was cut off from the world. In prison, the Bible tells us that the LORD was with Joseph. . . (Genesis 39:21).

We can deduce, from Scripture, that Joseph may have been in prison for 10-12 years of his life. Joseph was not isolated in the sense that he was in solitary confinement, of course, but he was certainly removed from his world and the relationships that were most important to him. At the same time, though, God was with him.

Then there was Elijah, who after predicting the drought that would come to all the land, did as the Lord instructed and went to live by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan (1 Kings 17:5). We have no way of knowing how long Elijah hid out at the brook, but we do know that the ravens were not his only companions.

Twice we are told, in this passage, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah (1 Kings 17:5,8). Whether Elijahs exile lasted three weeks, months, or years, the LORD utilized this time to stretch the prophets faith and prepare him for greater tasks ahead.

Even Jesus Felt Lonely

One of the most important accounts of isolation may just be the 40 days and nights that our Lord spent being tempted in the wilderness to begin his earthly ministry. No one can begin to imagine what this trial might have been like for Jesus.

In the same manner that Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness, Jesus took the challenge of battling the temptations of the enemy and it was this severe isolation, which instructs us more than any other.

You see, many of the enemys victories have come when he is able to isolate the victims from their community. The enemy would never have a better opportunity than this to cause the God-man to stumble, but Satans efforts were in vain.

Secondly, we must battle isolation by immersing ourselves with the Word. Jesus victorious campaign against the vile serpent in the wilderness was more than a mere show of strength. In overcoming the Tempter, Jesus left a model for how we can do battle in isolation as well.

With each temptation Jesus responded with, It is written (Matthew 4:4,7,10), referring to the truth found only in Gods word. It is essential that we always allow the Word of God to be the lens through which we discern reality. When the quiet whispers of the snake speak lies that produce sorrow and fear, we must turn to the truth of Gods Word to settle the storms of our souls.

If the national media and Facebook are your trusted sources for information and truth, then there is little hope for avoiding depression. Be careful what you read or listen to. This warning is just as true for resources that are labeled Christian as it is for secular resources.

Your heart and mind need to be saturated with the scriptures rather than resources about the scriptures. Allow the Holy Spirit to interpret our culture through the principles of Gods Word. If Jesus battled the enemys deceit with It is written then so should we.

Lastly, I would say to those who might be struggling with isolation and possible depression to seek out godly, healthy relationships with people and families who are already practicing biblical community.

What Does This Mean?

Though God never wastes our isolation, isolation should never become the norm. In these times, you will be more vulnerable and susceptible to the enemys attacks and ambushes like no other time.

It was when David isolated himself from his army and his responsibilities that he succumbed to his lust for another mans wife (2 Samuel 11). Surround yourself with people who love Christ and who love you and who will help you foster a more faithful gospel perspective.

There are no simple fixes to battle depression, but there are steps that can be taken to ensure that we do not battle alone.

iStock/Getty Images Plus/torwai

Rick Kirby, along with his wife and children, live in Anderson, South Carolina. Rick serves as a corporate chaplain in the upstate of South Carolina, in addition to shepherding micro-church movements, which he does in partnership with the Evangelical Free Church in America and the Creo Collective. Rick has written as a freelance writer in the past with organizations such as The INJOY Group, InTouch Ministries, and Walk Through the Bible. Rick holds a Master of Divinity degree from Erskine Theological Seminary and presently is a Doctor of Ministry student at Erskine, as well. Through the years, Ricks family has been deeply engaged in discipling efforts globally in Brazil, Ecuador and most recently in Puerto Rico. Among the many things Rick enjoys are woodworking in his woodshop and roasting (and drinking) coffee.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 5) - Nearly four million low-income households received their cash assistance in the past week.

Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rolando Bautista said Tuesday that over 98 percent of the budget allocated for the governments cash assistance program has already been distributed to the local government units.

Umabot na sa mahigit 68.2 billion ang naipahatid sa 12.5 million na benepisaryo ng social amelioration program, Bautista said in a media briefing Tuesday.

[Translation: Up to 68.2 billion worth of cash aid has been delivered to 12.5 million beneficiaries of the social amelioration program.]

Mayroon nang 459 out of 1,589 LGUs ang nakapagkamit na ng 100 percent completion rate sa pamamahagi ng social amelioration program, he added.

[Translation: There are 459 out of 1,589 LGUs that have achieved 100 percent completion rate on social amelioration program distribution.]

Of this number, at least 8.6 million beneficiaries are not part of the governments Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), while nearly 3.8 million 4Ps beneficiaries have received their cash aid, majority through their cash cards.

The DSWD also reported at least 323.3 million has been distributed to 40,000 transport vehicle service and public utility drivers in the national capital region who have lost their income due to the enhanced community quarantine.

The DSWD earlier said it will finish distributing cash aid to qualified recipients by the end of April. But a day before the deadline, only 8.7 million beneficiaries out of the target 18 million low-income households had received cash assistance.

In response, Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano said that they have granted a one-week extension for the distribution of cash assistance from the social amelioration program in Metro Manila, Cavite, Rizal, Laguna, Bulacan, Cebu City, and Davao City.

A four-day extension has also been granted to other LGUs outside of these areas which are experiencing similar problems on aid distribution.

READ: Gov't extends cash aid distribution in NCR, other areas for another week

The Regional Daily Report revealed that 603,222 households out of the more than 1.5 million target beneficiaries in Metro Manila have received the first tranche of cash aid under the social amelioration program, as of Tuesday.

The bulk of these households are from the City of Caloocan, City of Manila and Pasig City, while the local government units with the highest disbursement rates are Caloocan City at 77.45 percent, Pasig City at 76.06 percent and Valenzuela City at 66.70 percent.

The Department of Interior and Local Government said Saturday that they will provide an additional five million families with cash aid amid the COVID-19 crisis.

READ: DILG to add five million families in COVID-19 cash aid program

DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya clarified that the five million families are apart from the 18 million families who are qualified as beneficiaries of the social amelioration program, which grants 5,000 to 8,000 for each family belonging to the vulnerable sector.

When asked how the DSWD will implement the second phase of cash aid distribution, Bautista said they are awaiting an executive order from the Office of the President regarding the second tranche, as well as the additional five million families who will benefit from the program.

Bautista also expressed his gratitude to qualified beneficiaries who voluntarily waived their cash aid, among them residents of Benguet and Navotas, saying this will allow the DSWD to provide assistance to other households who may need it more.

CNN Philippines' Correspondent AC Nicholls contributed to this report.
Oneida, N.Y.  Testing of workers at a huge Madison County greenhouse operation found to be a hotspot for coronavirus is continuing with more positive cases expected, county officials said today.

Two workers have been hospitalized, county officials said at a news conference in Wampsville. They did not provide the workers conditions.

The New York State health department tested 186 workers at Green Empire Farms in the city of Oneida on Saturday, said Eric Faisst, Madison Countys health director. More workers are being tested today.

So far, 75 workers living in Madison County tested positive, and 64 tested positive in Oneida County, officials said. (The Oneida totals include workers who previously tested positive.)

The workers from Madison County are primarily housed in two hotels  The Super 8 in Oneida and the Days Inn in Canastota, county officials said. There are 49 positive cases in one hotel and 26 in the other, they said. The workers are being quarantined in the hotels.

Living in close quarters helped the virus spread, but it also has helped contain it because many of the cases are in the same location, Faisst said.

In Oneida County, its not known yet where the workers are being housed.

The workers do not live at the greenhouse facility, Faisst said.

The greenhouse facility, which grows and packages strawberries, tomatoes and cucumbers, is continuing to operate, said a spokesperson for Mastronardi Produce, the owners of the facility who are based in Kingsville, Canada. There are no plans to shut it down, she said.

There is no evidence the virus can spread on food, Faistt said.

The first round of testing conducted Saturday covered contract workers, the spokesperson said. The second round today will be offered to all employees of the greenhouse. Many of the workers have been hired through a third-party contractor.

The greenhouse at 1856 West Elm St., Oneida employs 300 people. Some are from the area, others from places within the U.S. and others from outside the U.S., the spokesperson said.

Madison County Supervisor John Becker said people need to be compassionate. The workers "are scared,'' he said.

The greenhouse has been taking steps at the greenhouse to contain the virus, according to the spokesperson. These include:

Conducting daily temperature and health screenings of workers.

Face covering, previously recommended, are required as of April 13.

Face shields for workers.

Significantly increased cleaning and sanitizing of the facility.

Social distancing of workers both in the greenhouse and on the buses to the operation.

The company stressed that the virus is not food-borne, and there is no risk to the produce.

The greenhouse facility sells produce to grocery stores in the Northeast and down the East Coast under the Sunset and Backyard Farms brands, according to papers filed with the county. Among the stores that carry its produce are Wegmans, Price Chopper, Tops and Walmart.

The $120 million greenhouse operation, which is being built in phases, sits on 260 acres in city of Oneida and the village of Wampsville, according to records filed with the county. When completed, it will have 110 acres under glass. A county official today said the project is nearly completed.

A look above the 32-acre hydroponic Green Empire Farms in Oneida, N.Y.N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syra

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Elizabeth Doran covers education, suburban government and development, breaking news and more. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact her anytime 315-470-3012 or email edoran@syracuse.com
ATLANTA  As girls, Nadia Williams and her sister spent countless hours imagining their weddings. Now 30, Williams helped her younger sibling plan her big day, but when it came on Friday, she couldnt be at her side as maid of honor. Instead, she put on a sequined dress, pulled her hair back, held a bouquet, and watched the ceremony alone, via Zoom, from a community for older adults.

Williams is among about 70 employees who are sheltering in place alongside more than 500 residents at an upscale assisted-living facility just outside Atlanta. Since the end of March, Park Springs has had employees live on its 61-acre campus instead of commute from home to protect residents from the coronavirus  an unusual approach, even as nursing homes have been among the hardest-hit places by the pandemic.

Most facilities are so short on space, said Betsy McCaughey, of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, a nonprofit that provides guidelines for preventing coronavirus at nursing homes. She lauded the idea of keeping staff on site, noting it also protects workers families and communities.

The approach has been used elsewhere: In France, staff at a nursing home ended a 47-day quarantine Monday. In Connecticut, the owner of an assisted-living facility that is housing staff on the premises, Tyson Belanger, has called for government funding to help more senior communities do so.

In Georgia, Williams, a health care administrator, said her duty to the residents came first, even though it meant missing the wedding.

I wish I was there, definitely, she said, choking up in a video interview with The Associated Press. I wish I was able to help her get ready.

Park Springs lockdown started after four employees and a resident tested positive for the virus. Most nursing homes have limited visitors, and many screen people for fevers or ask whether theyve had contact with anyone with the virus. Park Springs administrators said they feared those strategies might not be enough.

We knew we had to do something drastic, said Donna Moore, chief operating officer of the company that owns Park Springs.

In some ways, Park Springs is more like a resort than a traditional elder-care facility. Residents  some needing no medical care  are spread out in apartment buildings, homes and duplexes on the gated campus near the base of Stone Mountain, a giant rock formation that lures tourists with a trail to the summit and an enormous carving of Confederate leaders.

Residents pay an entrance fee that can top $500,000, with monthly fees ranging from about $2,500 to over $6,000, depending on the type, size and location of their home and whether they live alone or as a couple, according to Park Springs website. The median cost of a one-bedroom unit at an assisted-living facility in Georgia last year was just over $3,300 monthly, according to a survey by insurance giant Genworth Financial.

Some facilities might not have the amenities or financial resources to keep staff on campus, said Charlene Harrington, a professor emeritus of nursing at the University of California, San Francisco.

If its a lovely place, maybe the workers wouldnt mind staying there, she said.

Park Springs has a gym, tree-lined walking trails to a lake, a steakhouse and an art studio. Employees can use the gym, and administrators have organized karaoke, bingo and Easter dinner for them. Theyre also paying those living on site more  a decision made after volunteers had committed to stay, COO Moore said.

Those employees represent a fraction of Park Springs normal 300-person staff. Another 30 or so are working from home, but the majority have been furloughed.

Employees on-site logistics have required sacrifice. Moore sleeps on an air mattress in a tent she set up in a community hall. Her 18-year-old daughter, Megan, texts recordings of her singing to keep her moms spirits up.

For Justin Craft, who runs Park Springs food service, there have been no returns home for family dinners on a table set by his 12-year-old son.

Instead, he and his wife have weekly date nights and dinners with their boys separated by a fence on campus. On Thursday, she brought takeout from one of their favorite restaurants. He pulled his food under the gate, and she grabbed a small bottle of wine hed left on a fence post. They sat at tables about 15 feet apart on opposite sides of the fence and chatted.

Its our new normal, but were used to it by now, Crystal Craft said.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, and the vast majority recover. But for some others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia or death. Nationwide, 20,000 deaths have been linked to virus outbreaks in nursing homes and other long-term care centers.

The Park Springs employees and resident who tested positive recovered. Since the lockdown, the facility has seen one additional case  a 96-year-old resident with dementia tested positive April 23. Park Springs allows visitors for residents who are near the end of their lives. A daughter and a caregiver saw the woman, and she died three days after her positive test.

On campus, employees workdays are longer, with expanded duties. Resident Kaffie McCullough, 74, teared up praising their efforts.

I expect my family to jump in and help me out when something is somewhat of a crisis in my life. I dont expect that from the people who are providing services for me, she said.

Initially, Moore asked volunteering employees to stay on the property through the end of April. Now, shes asked if they can stay longer, perhaps for all of May.

Moore left an open book on a table with a pen for her staffs answers. When she returned, most had written: Im staying till the end.

___

Associated Press photographer John Bazemore contributed from Stone Mountain.

___

For more coverage of the pandemic, visit https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was not going to let his youngest son's graduation go unnoticed... even if the ceremony itself had been terminated.

In a 'Proud Dad' moment yesterday, Schwarzenegger to son Christopher, 22, on his Instagram by mocking up his own graduation photo, congratulating him on graduating with a Bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan.

Meanwhile, his other son Patrick appeared to be somewhat amused by the collage commenting underneath: "Congrats bro!" then adding: "PS impressed with your photoshop skills pops."

'You are a champion': Arnold Schwarzenegger took to Instagram Monday to congratulate son Christopher, 22, on receiving his Bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan

Katherine Schwarzenegger also commented on the happy news, "THE BEST LITTLE BROTHER EVER LOOK AT HIM" alongside a heart emoji.

The ceremony had presumably been cancelled due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which wouldn't have allowed for a large graduation event to take place.

The Terminator star - who was pictured out exercising on his bike in Los Angeles on Monday - had posted a photo of Christopher in cap and gown mocked up to show him holding his degree and an 'I did it' trophy.

The Hollywood star, 72, wrote: 'Christopher, you are a champion and I love you.'

Playful praise: His son Patrick commented on the mock-up, praising his dad's Photoshop skills

Fit as a fiddle: The Terminator star pictured on Tuesday in LA on one of his regular bike outings

The Hollywood star, 72, wrote: 'Christopher, you are a champion and I love you.'

I'll be back: Arnold will no doubt be planning his own celebration for his son

Arnie continued: 'I know your graduation from Michigan wasnt the big celebration you dreamed about for years, but walking across a stage isnt what makes me so proud of you: its your compassion, your hard work, your vision, your critical thinking, and your selflessness that make me burst with pride.'

'I cant wait to watch you keep climbing and succeeding,' the proud father added.

It's not known what Christopher's degree is in.

Family: Christopher, pictured with his dad on his 72nd birthday last July 30, is the youngest of the Terminator star's four children with ex Maria Shriver. Also shown are Christopher's siblings Katherine, 30, Christina, 28 and Patrick, 26

Big sis: Last September, Christopher's older sister Katherine traveled to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to spend his birthday with him and posted photos on her Instagram

Last September, his older sister Katherine, 30, traveled to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to spend Christopher's 22nd birthday with him and posted photos of the celebrations on her Instagram.

Christopher's other siblings are Christina, 28, and Patrick, 26.

He also has a half-brother Joseph Baena who was born five days after him in 1997.

Ride along: Arnold was flanked by a male pal as they took a casual bike ride around Hollywood on Tuesday

Joseph is Arnold's son with the family's former housekeeper Mildrid Baena, 59.

The illicit relationship and secret son was revealed in a bombshell article by the LA Times just four months after the end of Arnold's term as Governor of California.

As a result of the scandal, Maria moved out of the family home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, and the couple confirmed their 25-year marriage was over.
Two Wisconsin residents are claiming in a lawsuit that the state's "Safer at Home" social distancing order violates their constitutional rights by effectively banning religious worship and political gatherings while allowing "hundreds of customers into Costco at any given time."

The public safety measures - put in place to stem the rate of infections and deaths in Wisconsin during the coronavirus pandemic - are overly intrusive and "cannot survive even basic scrutiny," according to a complaint filed Monday with the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

The suit follows similar complaints that have met with success in Kentucky and Illinois and comes a day after the U.S. Justice Department filed a statement supporting a Virginia church. In that case, the church has challenged an April 5 criminal citation it received after holding a service for 16 worshipers in a space that can accommodate 225 people. President Donald Trump has supported a number of protests against such regulations, urging demonstrators to "liberate" their states.

The Wisconsin plaintiffs said they don't doubt the seriousness of the public health crisis or that it poses life-or-death risks to the state's residents, particularly the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions. But the steps Wisconsin has taken to lessen those risks, "no doubt in good faith, have gone too far, needlessly infringing our most basic constitutional liberties - to an extent that is without precedent and that would have been virtually unimaginable in a free society just two months ago," they said in the lawsuit.

The press office for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who is named in the suit, didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Adam Laxalt, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, Jere Fabick and Larry Chapman, said that ideally there should be no restrictions of any kind on religious services and that religious leaders should decide what social-distancing measures to implement in their facilities, if any.

"If a government is going to restrict the right to attend a church service at all, then they need to do it far more carefully and in a far more narrow way then was done in Wisconsin," Laxalt, the Republican former attorney general of Nevada, said in an interview.

Attorney General William Barr on April 27 directed Eric Dreiband, the head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, to review state and local policies to ensure that civil liberties are protected during the pandemic, the government said in a statement. The U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, Matthew Schneider, is also involved in the initiative.

"The Commonwealth of Virginia has offered no good reason for refusing to trust congregants who promise to use care in worship in the same way it trusts accountants, lawyers, and other workers to do the same," Dreiband said of the department's statement supporting the church.

A federal appeals court on Monday ruled that Kentucky churches can't be stopped from holding drive-in services, while an Illinois judge ruled late last month that social distancing rules violated the liberty of a state lawmaker who sued to block them.
In a relief to the LDF



government in Kerala, the High Court on Tuesday refused to grant interim relief of stay on an ordinance that empowers it to defer payment of salaries and allowances to employees of the state government and government-owned institutions.

Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas observed that the state was going through a difficult time and the court cannot interfere with the provisions of the ordinance.

The court wasconsidering a batch of petitions filed by various employees' organisations challenging the Kerala Disaster and Public Health Emergency (Special Provisions) Ordinance promulagated by the state government in view of economic situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The court also observed that the government is empowered to pass such an ordinance.

The court, however, admitted the petitions and issued notice to the state government.

The matter has been posted for hearing later.

The ordinance promulgated by the government last week empowers the state government to defer the salary of an employee by an amount not exceeding one-fourth of the total monthly pay, for managing a situation arising out of a disaster or public health emergency.

The ordinance empowers the government to defer for six days the salaries of its employees for five months.

The ordinance also allows the government to impose a 30 per cent cut in the monthly gross salary or honorarium of all elected representatives in the State - Ministers, Members of the Legislative Assembly, members of different Boards under the Government and members of Local Self Government bodies, for a period of one year.

In their petitions, the employees' organisations including the Kerala NGO Association and Higher Secondary School Teachers Union alleged that the ordinance was issued to circumvent a recent High Court decision staying a government order which sought to deduct six days salary of government employees every month from April to August.

The petitioners also alleged mala fide intention on the part of the government in promulgating the ordinance.

The Kerala High Court on April 28 stayed for two months the government order to cut one month salary in five instalments saying it lacked legal backing.

The government took the ordinance route following the stay order issued by the court.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Narendra Modi governments decision on Friday to extend the nationwide lockdown for the third time till May 17, may have been well-intended, but in my view it will cause us to fall flat between many stools.

This is not to say that the first lockdown did not serve any purpose. It helped us to achieve three principal goals first, it cut down the initial transmission rate; second, it dramatically drove home the need for social distancing; and, third, and most important, it gave us the much needed time to upgrade our health infrastructure, including personal protective equipment (PPEs), ventilators, hospital beds, testing kits, contact tracing and quarantine facilities.

The second extension may have been a mechanical follow-up of the first, but now a third one raises some very serious questions. The first is whether this extended lockdown will achieve its underlying purpose of imposing self-isolation and social distancing?

I have argued, including in these columns, that these gains were always marginal, given the fact that the vast majority of Indians live in circumstances that makes this almost impossible. Roughly half of our urban landscape consists of slums, unauthorised colonies and jhuggi-jhonpri clusters where self-isolation and social distancing are just not possible.

It is no coincidence that Mumbai, which has the largest number of coronavirus cases in the country, also has Indias largest slum Dharavi.

Moreover, the movement of the oppressed migrant labour back to their homes, and their incarceration in ill-equipped quarantine facilities, or their move on foot on the nations highways, has made a mockery of the principle of lockdown.

Now, finally, the government is planning to run trains and buses to repatriate them. It is clear that in spite of the best efforts of the government, social distancing in this operation will be compromised.

If the lockdown only partially fulfils the purpose for which it has been imposed, what on earth is gained by closing the possibilities for an economic revival? True, certain economic activities have been allowed in the so-called green, orange and red zones.

But the economy is a seamless whole, covering the entire gamut of production, supply chains, retail outlets, vendor networks, pan-India transport facilities and the movement of labour. It cannot begin to function in any effective manner with so many restrictions remaining in place.

Besides, the whole concept of green, orange and red zones, and the classification of what can be done in each, is highly questionable. For instance, a green zone is where there has been no reported case of the coronavirus for at least 21 days.

Suppose industries do open up in this area, but a few days later, due to increased testing, some positive cases of the virus are reported from this zone. If green suddenly turns to orange, and possibly red, what happens to the industries that had already opened there?

There are several other problems as well. Retail outlets for factory outputs may be in red zones, while the factory itself is in a green one; labour for the factory may be in a green zone but separated from the production unit by a red zone in between. The entire opening up of the economy is being held hostage to a colour-coded bureaucratic nightmare.

The fact of the matter is that the economy cannot be put back on its feet in a muddled, tentative, hesitant and half-pregnant manner. There is currently a near anarchy between what the Centre says, and the actions that the state governments take.

A current example of this is the sudden and arbitrary decision by the Haryana government to seal its borders with Delhi. Factories have opened up in Gurgaon, but workers from Delhi cannot reach them because the borders have been sealed.

There is also the worrying problem of the discretionary powers available to local officials. You cannot tell a factory owner to start production and simultaneously issue a threat that if one case of the virus is detected the plant will be closed for weeks.

I was told that the Maruti plant in Manesar, Haryana, could not open because one production line requires 1,100 workers, whereas the local bureaucracy would only allow 600 workers into the facility.

The coronavirus must be fought, but we have to also learn to live with it. This is especially so, since for reasons which epidemiologists are still researching, the fatality rate from Covid-19 is much lower in India, as is the test positive percentage, which at 4.4 per cent, or one out of 23 people. This is the lowest by far among the Covid affected countries. Given this, keeping the Indian economy shut, or not allowing it to run effectively, is not the way to live with Covid. In fact, already the damage to the economy has been astronomical, and it will take months to recover, if that. If the economy does not revive, there will be, as Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy has warned, more deaths from hunger and starvation than from the virus. The country cannot live on doles for the poor in perpetuity, especially when revenues are touching rock-bottom and the state governments are starved of financial resources. It is also inexplicable that a third lockdown was declared without the announcement of a major fiscal stimulus package for the economy. What are particularly vulnerable in the absence of an immediate bailout are Indias 63 million MSME units, which employ 12 crore people.

Our handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has put the entire economy on a ventilator. It is time that we overcome our paranoia, and devise India-specific solutions, instead of mindlessly doing one lockdown after another.
Hundreds of maquiladora sweatshop plants across Mexico have remained opened as the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to accelerate. This includes 68 percent of those factories in Tijuana, across the border from the US state of California, according to the local government.

The manufacturing plants concentrated along the US-Mexico border have become COVID-19 outbreak epicenters, with dozens of workers dying in overwhelmed hospitals. The closings that did occur were largely due to the wave of wildcat strikes that swept across the border cities Matamoros, Reynosa, Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana and Mexicali last month. However, these plantswhich are critical for the reopening of the North American auto industry, along with US defense productionhave been gradually reopening over the past two weeks or have sent notices to workers to prepare to return to work soon.

As in Mexicali last Friday, where the right-wing Workers Congress (CT) organized a protest outside the municipality building against the premature return to work, workers must be wary of maneuvers by the establishment and so-called independent trade unions and associated activists. Their aim is not to defend workers lives but to regain their confidence in order to soften the resistance and corral them back to the plants at the first available opportunity, regardless of the risks.

As of this writing, there are 23,471 cases in Mexico and 2,154 deaths, according to the World Health Organizations tally. While refusing to close non-essential workplaces, provide protection to medical workers or implement mass testing and other emergency measures, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) spent February and March kissing supporters at rallies, claiming that Mexicans should go out, trust their stronger genes, and carry religious icons and a one-dollar bill in the walleta lucky amulet across Latin Americaas guardians.

With the deadly virus spreading and a wave of strikes hitting the maquiladora plants, AMLO finally declared a health emergency on March 30, ordering the shutdown of nonessential production and the payment of full salaries.

Even though it did not have the slightest intention of enforcing these measures, the government sought to deflect popular anger by issuing statements about protecting workers lives. On April 16, Finance Minister Arturo Herrera wrote in a letter to the IMF, Notwithstanding the current uncertainty, it is of utmost importance to send a strong message that there is no trade-off between health and the economy. The global economic crisis cannot be solved until the health emergency is effectively addressed.

That same evening, however, the Trump administration published its plan Opening Up America Again, and the US president called AMLO shortly afterwards to pressure him to reopen plants in Mexico.

On April 23, AMLO declared in his daily press briefing: Weve committed, above all to our national business owners, to analyze the opening [in the US] to little-by-little start going back to normal productivity at the border. But this has not been decided yet because the coronavirus is unfortunately affecting them very much He later announced that the reopening would begin on May 17.

On April 27, Herrera switched his rhetoric about prioritizing health, and said to El Pais that the government would find the mechanism to open suppliers to US corporations even sooner. He explained, What epidemiologists expect is that once we move to the next phase, well start getting a herd immunity with such a high percentage of the population who got it, even though many dont. What kills the pandemic is not avoiding infections but having had enough infections at such a high amount that there is no way to transmit it since others already got it.

This is a homicidal policy that will result, if it is carried out, in hundreds of thousands of deaths.

On Monday, the Detroit Free Press published an article titled, US auto industry preps for restartand it all depends on Mexico. It noted, With about 40% of imported auto parts coming from south of the border, and parts made in the United States that are exported to Mexico for vehicle production there, the interdependency between the two countries cannot be overstated.

The AMLO government and US- and other foreign-based corporations hope to use economic desperation to force workers back to work.

The UK anti-hunger organization Oxfam estimated that, without government aid, 3 million businesses could be affected, leaving 28 million workersor nearly half of Mexicos labor forcewithout a job or enough income to survive. Oxfam reports that providing informal workers a minimum income for a year would cost about $24 billion, less than a quarter of the $108 billion controlled by the six richest Mexican billionaires.

AMLO has refused to provide any aid to those losing their jobs and income in the informal sector. At the same time, he has claimed he would not give handouts to banks and corporations. However, while AMLO proclaims that his priority is not raising debt, Herrera has announced the largest issuance of bonds in Mexicos history, approximately $6 billion, and the government is pledging to the international markets that it will pay back the debt and interest in full.

At the same time, pressure is mounting to shut down the opposition of Mexican workers. Francisco Santini Ramos, the president of the Business Coordinating Council, the main employer organization, said corporations were being stigmatized nationally and internationally by the protests of workers at nonessential plants and the deaths of co-workers, which could undermine the attraction of foreign investment. Specifically referring to two Lear auto parts plants in Ciudad Juarez where at least 16 workers died of COVID-19, he said the company was not at fault and pointed to the health care system.

The daughter of a worker at the plant who recently succumbed to COVID-19 after a long fight against the disease, explained to the WSWS that the Michigan-based corporation forced workers with COVID-19 symptoms to continue working throughout the second half of March. Her father, and many workers on social media noted that the plant would have kept operating if didnt run out of space in its warehouses due to the shutdown of Lear factories in the US. They didnt close the plants even when Lear closed in the US. Its irresponsible that they kept it open and exposed their employees, Monica Rosales told the WSWS.

Regarding the underfunded health care system, the Mexican government has prioritized tax and property incentives for foreign capital, as well as a military buildup to prepare to defend their property and crack down on social opposition.

One of AMLOs first policy initiatives was to create the largest free economic zone along the US-Mexico border by slashing taxes for corporations. This led to an estimated budget shortfall for the first year of US $4.23 billion. AMLO also cut federal health care personnel by 30 percent and the budget of the Epidemiology Department by nearly 10 percent in his 2020 budget.

The supposed opposition by AMLO and his Morena party to the pro-business policies of the previous governments, especially after the 2012 Pact for Mexico that centered on the privatization of oil and social cuts, increased their popularity.

The Mexican ruling class and US imperialism prevented AMLO from coming to power through electoral fraud in 2006 and 2012 in order to smother rising social expectations. In 2018, however, he was allowed to win the presidency in order to contain simmering social opposition fueled by the killing of 43 teacher students in 2014 and the murderous repression of Gasolinazo protesters in 2017.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reported yesterday that AMLO raised the military budget 7.9 percent in his first year to $6.5 billion. During the last decade, military spending has increased 47 percent, ostensibly to combat violent drug cartels, but homicides continue to reach higher levels. The US government has also continued to provide billions in military aid and training through the Merida Initiative.

The main official drug enforcement official who coordinated with US agencies between 2001 and 2012 was Genaro Garcia Luna, who has been indicted in New York for receiving millions of dollars from the Sinaloa Cartel starting as early as 2005.

On Saturday, the US ambassador at the time Roberta Jacobson, who worked closely with Garcia Luna in the development of the Merida Initiative, said that the former Mexican President Felipe Calderon and US governments knew of Garcia Lunas ties. Several of Garcia Lunas closest collaborators remain in top posts under the Morena federal and Mexico City governments.

The Morena government created a new National Guard, which is run by the same corrupt military command, and enshrined the militarys domestic deployment in the Constitution. After its first assignments to crack down on Central American immigrants at the behest of the fascistic Trump administration, the National Guard has been sent to harass striking auto parts workers in Matamoros and to dismantle the blockade of a railway by teachers in Puebla. A National Guard internal memorandum on the COVID-19 crisis notes that it is preparing to move against social unrest.

With the pandemic crisis further eroding AMLOs popularity, the ruling class is preparing for a new stage in the class struggle involving widespread state repression. AMLOs approval rating, according to the polling firm Mitofsky, fell to the lowest point of his administration at 48.8 percent, compared to 67.1 percent in February 2019. The return-to-work campaign, as is the case internationally, is a particularly explosive issuewith the Ipsos MORI Global Advisor finding in a poll that 65 percent of Mexicans oppose a reopening until the pandemic is totally contained.

Despite the efforts by the trade unions and pseudo-left organizations in Mexico and internationally to boost illusions in AMLO, millions of workers, small-business owners and unemployed have seen past his phony left populism. Like the ruling class in the US and countries across the world, the entire political establishment in Mexico is demanding that workers risk their lives for the profits of the transnational corporations and Wall Street.

The only way to protect both the lives and livelihoods of workers is through a mass political mobilization of the working class, leading all oppressed layers behind it and independently of every pro-capitalist party and trade union. The private fortunes of the ruling elite need to be expropriated to end poverty and deprivation and the domestic and foreign-owned factories transformed into public utilities under the control of the working class, as part of the socialist transformation of the economy.

In opposition to the corrupt CTM unions, workers must build rank-and-file factory and workplace committees to unite with US and Canadian workers to demand the closure of all non-essential production and full income to all laid off workers. No production should be resumed until the pandemic is contained, universal testing and contact tracing put in place, and rank-and-file safety committees, working in conjunction with public health experts committed to the interests of workers, not the corporations, can guarantee safe working environments.
A controversy is brewing over the death of a police chief in Cross River state, South-South Nigeria.

Gabriel Amawu, a superintendent of police, was the head of the police division in Obudu, northern Cross River State, when he died of a gunshot wound at his station around 9 p.m. on March 10.

The commissioner of police in Cross River, Nkereuwem Akpan, was quoted by The Nations newspaper as saying that the officer died from accidental discharge from a gun he was trying to load during a face-off between the police and students of the Federal College of Education, Obudu.

The family of the late Mr Amawu is saying that what happened to the police chief was not an accidental discharge, but a clear case of murder.

They are alleging an official cover-up and are calling on the police authorities in Abuja to investigate the incident.

The late officer was shot at the Obudu Police Station, specifically inside the Station counter, said Benedict Amawu, a lawyer, in a petition to the Inspector General of Police, on behalf of the family of the late police chief.

The attorney-general of the federation, Nigerias Human Rights Commission, the Senate president, and the State Security Service are copied in the petition dated March 20, 2020.

To clearly establish the fact that the police officer was shot, we have attached herein Annexure 2 Series, evidently showing an entry point of a straight bullet directly on the right hand chest, beside the breast of the deceased officer, the family said in the petition.

The bullet from the gun shot went straight into the deceased officers chest and exited at his right arm/region; it would not have been possible for the officer to shot himself from that point and speculated in some quarters.

The family said the late police officer was abandoned to die in a pool of his blood.

The above is a clear indication that the act of annihilation, murder and ungodly killing orchestrated by the act of shooting was premeditated and neatly carried out with the intention to ensure that the life of the Officer was completely terminated.

In support of the above fact that the deceased officer was abandoned to die, it is on record that it was an innocent civilian who later rushed the deceased Officer to the Hospital, by this time he had passed on.

The spokesperson of the force headquarters, Frank Mba, told PREMIUM TIMES, Tuesday, he was aware of the Obudu incident but that he had not seen the petition from the family of late officer.

Mr Mba, a deputy commissioner of police, said he would find out the status of the petition, if really it was sent to the inspector general of police.

We dont even need a petition to do investigation, every death at a police facility will always be investigated. So, we dont need any prompting to do our job, Mr Mba said.

If there are petitions, the petitions would be treated because sometimes a petition can also be an open-source intelligence for you. We dont throw away such petition.

If that incident happened in the presence of people then there will certainly be people that detectives would be talking to.
Two persons, including one with



travel history to West Bengal, tested positive for COVID-19 in Assam on Tuesday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 44, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

One person from Kokrajhar district, with a travel history to Cooch Behar in West Bengal, tested positive for COVID-19, the minister said.

The other person hails from Goalpara and since "the person is in containment zone, there is no need to fear", Sarma said.

At present, 11 infected persons are undergoing treatment. One person has died and 32 have recovered and discharged from hospitals.

The fresh two cases are detected after a gap of four days. On April 30, five persons tested positive -- four of them hail from Bongaigaon and one from Karimganj.

The four persons from Bongaigaon have no history of contact with any coronavirus infected person, first such instance in the state.

In Assam, 13,442 people have been tested so far in six laboratories in the state. Results of 953 are awaited.

Meanwhile, the first batch of 124 students from Rajasthan's Kota, quarantined at the Sarusajai facility, were released after they tested negative.

Sarma visited the quarantine facility along with officials to monitor their discharge.

A group of 391 students arrived here from Kota in 17 buses on April 27 and the boys were quarantined at Sarusajai Stadium and the girls in three hotels.

The minister also said that 44 students from Assam studying at Mewar University in Chittorgarh in Rajasthan are returning in two buses.

They have all the "requisite permissions and passes from the state government. They may please be allowed unhindered travel", he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
W arehousing firm LondonMetric on Tuesday outlined plans to raise up to 100 million via a share placing, to capitalise on rising demand for space and more buying opportunities.

The FTSE 250 logistics property firm said the issue of approximately 56 million new ordinary shares would help raise funds that could be used towards a number of deals.

That includes 30 million for the purchase of an identified pipeline of opportunities that comprises a warehouse in London and a sale and leaseback portfolio.

Chief executive Andrew Jones told the Evening Standard: We are very bullish on London warehousing.

He predicts demand by retailers and other businesses for storage and distribution space to cope with online orders will continue after the Covid-19 lockdown eases.

Jones said: I think as a result [of the lockdown], more and more people are being forced to use online, many for the first time. A lot of them will stay with it.

In a company statement, Jones added: These uncertain times are starting to give rise to quality investment opportunities that are seldom available in a normalised market. Through our occupier relationships we have identified some excellent assets, at attractive pricing, which would further strengthen our portfolio's long term income characteristics.

He said: Not only do we expect to see further opportunities arise but also we expect the pitch to be much less crowded than before."

JP Morgan and Peel Hunt are advising on the placing.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5

By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend:

Turkmenistan advocates restoration of energy supplies to world markets on the principles of equality and taking into account the interests of states, Trend reports with reference to Turkmenistans State News Agency.



President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov made this remark during the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in the format of a Contact Group held through videoconference and focused on the fight against coronavirus pandemic.

The attention of the Non-Alignment Movements participants was paid to the fact that the world's energy market has never faced such difficulties before, the report said.



The president of Turkmenistan noted the necessity to create a platform for sustainable development of global economy, emphasizing that the key areas should be energy, industry, transport and trade.



Berdimuhamedov added that the forthcoming session of the UN General Assembly will focus on the post-crisis period, in which the world has to work to recover its economy, as well as its social and humanitarian spheres following COVID-19.



The president of Turkmenistan also stressed the need to restore transport links between countries and regions, transit corridors, as well as to search for new routes. Turkmenistans president highlighted that the adaptation of the global economy to the current situation depends on the states coordinated actions.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @JeilaAliyeva
In an earlier era of California politics, Mike Eng would have been a safe bet to win a solidly blue state Senate seat.

A dedicated liberal, Eng enjoyed the name recognition of having served in the state Assembly. He drew support from Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, a former protege who rose to become one of the states most powerful figures. Eng had the states formidable organized labor movement in his corner. Democratic voters outnumbered Republicans three to one in the Los Angeles district, making a Democratic win a foregone conclusion.

But in modern California politics, the critical fault line isnt between Democrats and Republicans. Its between Democrats, thanks to an election system that allows two Democrats to advance out of primaries and collide in the general election. Eng learned this lesson the hard way.

A potent panoply of well-funded interest groups that included the oil industry, charter schools, agriculture, utilities and health care interests spent more than $3 million to buoy a rival Baldwin Park City Councilwoman Susan Rubio. Groups funded by organized labor and consumer attorneys countered with more than $1 million to aid Eng, replicating a clash that has played out in Democrat-on-Democrat races up and down California.

In the end, Rubio prevailed by nearly 5 points.

Left: Groups funded by organized labor aided Assemblyman Mike Eng, center, as he sought to win a state senate seat. Right: Assemblywoman Blanca Rubio, left, was buoyed by millions from special interest groups as she challenged Eng for the seat.

There is no other state where Democrats wield the absolute power the party enjoys in California. Democrats occupy every statewide office and command two-thirds majorities in both houses. Former GOP strongholds like Orange County have shaded blue. Republicans dont just lag behind Democrats  there are also fewer registered Republicans than no-party-preference voters.

Before 2011, when the state replaced party primaries with a general primary after which the top two vote-getters square off in the general election, establishment-backed Democrats running in safe seats could often sail to assured victories; now, they often find themselves fighting for their political lives against a rival from their own party.

Story continues

The liberal-versus-moderate dynamic in California presaged not only the rift that blew open in this years presidential primaries, it established its parameters: between unions and environmental activists; between single-payer advocates and Democrats working to expand coverage within the health care system; between educational reformers and teachers unions; between law enforcement and those who regard the legal system as hopelessly biased against communities of color.

Teachers and supporters of public education marched through Sacramento, Calif., as part of RedForEd Day of Action on May 22, 2019.

Californias experience with top-two voting, rather than partisan primaries, also offers a lesson for other states that are dominated by a single party  like Democrats in Massachusetts or Republicans in Mississippi. In safe seats that would have allowed an earlier generation of Democrats to comfortably coast to victory, California now regularly sees battles between Democrats who differ on issues that otherwise would split along party lines.

Traditionally conservative interests like the oil industry and charter schools increasingly court friendly Democrats  often by contributing money to a constellation of innocuously named political action committees that then spend millions on advertising: In districts where a Democratic win looks inevitable, the thinking goes, better to boost the Democrat whos likely to vote with you than a Republican who is likely to lose.

David Townsend, a Sacramento political consultant, said he used to have to work to convince business-oriented groups on the wisdom of getting behind Democrats. Now that tactic has become so ingrained that Townsend said he has a waiting list of interested players hoping to invest in moderate Democrats.

Year in and year out the business community, the health care community, the insurance community can look at all the scorecards and see where mods have been on their issues and on trying to tamp down too much regulation, Townsend said. We dont have to do the sell anymore. Everyone totally gets how important the mods are.

Top-two voting does not lack for critics in California. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy found rare common ground in mourning the demise of party primaries. Detractors say the general primary empowers interest groups and deprives voters of clear ideological choices.

Rep. Ro Khanna speaks with reporters in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 8, 2020.

But its fans include Rep. Ro Khanna, an ascendant progressive star who won his seat by ousting Democratic Rep. Mike Honda in 2016. Khanna said the general primary is less about ideology than responsiveness to voters. The new system has opened up a space for newcomers, Khanna said  a development that should appeal to voters across the country.

If you look at the totality of Californias reforms  term limits for assembly members and state senators, independent redistricting and a top-two system  it has led to new voices emerging, more women, more people of color, more independent thinking, Khanna said. And my view is that kind of reform is needed across our political spectrum to shake things up, to get rid of this incumbency and status quo that so many Americans reject.

In the new political world of California, progressives tend to define themselves by their ideals  a "Green New Deal, single-payer health care, policing reforms for victims of racial discrimination  while moderates practice a more complicated equation of balancing goals and practical effects. Theres no formal moderate Democrat designation. The bloc tends to track with Californias geography, drawing its members from the inland, agricultural and oil-producing districts that can feel like different states than San Francisco or Los Angeles.

In a one-party state, its always important to have balance and deliberation and to ensure all parts of our state are being heard and recognized. I come from the Central Valley and we oftentimes struggle to have our voice heard up here, said Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno), who leads the informal moderate caucus. I believe its nice to have aspirational goals, things like getting to 100 percent clean energy  I then wonder how were going to fund that and to pay for it.

Unlike progressives, moderate Democrats often differ with each other: Some are more likely to side with business over labor or vice versa. Many tend to vote with their more progressive counterparts on social issues like abortion or LGBTQ rights while acting more cautiously on economic or law-and-order issues.

Moderates are like Christians, Townsend said. They all have a similar faith, but they often practice it in different ways.

The rise of the California moderate has not so much redefined the Democratic Party as exposed its fissures:

Unions vs. business

Its hard to identify a high-level California policy fight that doesnt prominently feature organized labor, the bedrock of Democratic power in the state and the driving force behind its most far-reaching bills.

The most fiercely contested of those clashes  those that most clearly illuminate the daylight between centrist and liberal Democrats  are often sweeping proposals that would regulate businesses. They tend to appear on the California Chamber of Commerces list of job killer bills, the pressure points around which business groups rally sympathetic Democrats.

Last year, a measure allowing striking workers to collect unemployment benefits failed to advance beyond the state Senate with some moderate Democratic senators voting no or holding off. Fights over how much family or medical leave employers must offer their workers recur annually, as does organized labors long quest to prevent businesses from resolving labor disputes through mandatory arbitration. Business opposition helped sink a labor-priority measure requiring businesses to schedule more predictable shifts for their workers.

New taxes are anathema to various business interests, as are measures that would lower the bar for cities and counties to enact levies of their own. Proposals to do either often falter for lack of Democratic support. A proposed oil severance tax has failed year after year. The 2020 ballot will likely see a teachers-union-supported initiative to alter Proposition 13, Californias cap on property taxes, to lift limits on commercial property taxes. Teachers unions are spending heavily to advance the measure, framing it as a school funding mechanism; business interests have vowed to spend whatever it takes to defeat them.

While Democrats have the legislative supermajorities to enact a compromise measure, the odds of such a negotiation are vanishingly small. Proposition 13 may be reviled by progressives but remains sacrosanct to business interests. Vulnerable Democrats have little incentive to take votes that could cost them at election time.

I dont see an incentive for our lawmakers to go up on a revenue enhancement if its on the ballot anyways, Rendon, the Assembly speaker, told POLITICO before the launch of this legislative session.

Unions vs. tech firms

As major tech companies attract greater scrutiny across the country, Silicon Valley has increasingly come into labors crosshairs. Major California-based tech companies have bolstered their lobbying presence in Sacramento in recent years, and theyre often fighting labor-backed measures.

That dynamic was never more evident than in 2019, when the California Labor Federation pushed a bill to compel companies like Uber and Postmates to treat their drivers as employees with full benefits; the firms were unable to stymie the bill, but now are spending tens of millions of dollars to overturn it via ballot initiative.

While Democrats ultimately closed ranks behind the measure rather than defy labor, their concerns about the potential fallout bubbled up during debate. At one point, a young, tech-aligned Democrat representing Silicon Valley rose on the Assembly floor to caution his colleagues against the demonization of an industry that is California-born.

The conversation on the inside and outside about the tech industry, explained Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell), has been, We dont want to touch it, its too much of a political nightmare.

Anti-fossil fuel activists vs. energy advocates

Despite Californias reputation as a paragon of environmental progress, the oil and gas industry remains an economic pillar in certain districts. Energy flows from wells in the kind of rural, inland areas where moderate Democrats power base lies. Refineries up and down the state supply well-paying union jobs; Chevron is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area.

That economic stature translates into serious political clout. The Western States Petroleum Association regularly tops the list of Sacramentos top lobbying spenders, and oil companies are major funders of PACs that shower chosen Democrats with millions of dollars each cycle.

A vivid illustration of the industrys political clout came in 2015, when then-Gov. Jerry Brown and allies sought to require that California motorists cut the amount of petroleum they use in half. The energy industry mobilized, targeting advertisements at the constituents of centrist Democrats in less-than-safe seats, and derailed the petroleum requirement.

Assemblywoman Eloise Gomez Reyes, left, supported a bill that would compel California to generate 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources.

In a demonstration of how Democrat vs. Democrat politics works both ways, environmentalists and labor then teamed up to defeat a pro-industry Democrat, Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown, whom opponents dubbed Chevron Cheryl.

Oil donated to Cheryl Brown before  she voted for more fracking and blocked clean energy standards, an attack ad intoned over images of spewing smokestacks. The Inland Empire has some of the dirtiest air in the country, but that wont stop Chevron Cheryl.

Democratic challenger Eloise Gomez-Reyes defeated Brown in 2016  and, in 2018, helped lead the charge for a bill that would compel California to eventually generate 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources.

Agriculture vs. environmentalists and labor

On the other side of mountains cradling the states coastal cities is the extraordinarily fertile Central Valley. Peruse any list of crops grown in America, and its likely California leads in total output.

Some Central Valley communities remain solidly Republican  their U.S. House representatives include Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Devin Nunes, two of President Donald Trumps most ardent supporters. But other areas are home to farm-friendly Democrats who uphold a long political legacy of working with prominent industry players like growers and water districts.

Those groups leaned on Democrats to block or dilute measures that would have enhanced labor standards for farm workers and more sharply regulated the use of water  critical economic issues in the Central Valley.

In 2016, the United Farm Workers Union  the storied outfit founded by Cesar Chavez  finally prevailed in its multiyear fight to secure overtime pay for farm workers. While many legislators from agricultural districts warned the bill would devastate small farms, some vulnerable Democrats voted for it.

A man joins United Farm Worker supporters participating in the annual Cesar Chavez/UFW march in Santa Rosa, Calif., on April 2, 2017.

One Bakersfield Democrat who defied agriculture groups to vote for the overtime bill, Assemblyman Rudy Salas, soon faced a barrage of negative ads funded by the powerful Western Growers Association. But he survived thanks in part to a counteroffensive that showed his cross-cutting allegiances. That included help from the oil industry, reflecting Salas business-friendly record  he opposed a gas tax prioritized by former Gov. Brown and legislative leaders  and also aid from the United Farm Workers Union.

Water is a perennial source of conflict in California, and its one of the areas where Democrats from farm-heavy districts tend to be closer to Republicans than to their more liberal fellow partisans. The Republican complaint that Democrats favor fish over farms  that is, environmental safeguards over more water for crops  resonates with some Democrats.

In the past, agricultural Democrats joined with farmers and water purveyors to work against a measure that sought to impose tighter controls on groundwater; what environmentalists saw as preserving a finite resource, agriculture interests saw an effort by Sacramento to yank a lifeline from farms struggling with a crippling drought.

Last year, pro-agricultural Democrats defied legislative leaders to oppose a so-called Trump insurance bill that would have locked in Obama-era environmental standards. The measure could have upset painstakingly crafted water agreements. Multiple Democrats from agricultural districts spoke or voted against the bill. The measure passed but Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed it, later telling reporters it was a solution in search of a problem that could have blown up water pacts.

This would have put that entire [water negotiation] process at peril, and I was not willing to do that, Newsom said.

Education reformers vs. teachers unions

Survey Sacramento insiders on the most powerful player in the California Capitol, and the California Teachers Association would likely sit at or near the top of the list. On issues like teacher employment, education funding and charter school operations, the CTA tends to dictate the agenda. Its positions often predict the outcomes.

That doesnt mean theres no dissent. Organizations that promote charter schools and seek to reform teacher tenure rules have spent heavily to combat union clout, bolstered by millions of dollars from a network of affluent, reform-minded Californians.

The number of charter schools in California rose sharply after a 2010 law empowered a majority of parents to trigger changes to local public schools that can include converting them to charters.

During the 2018 California governors race, charter-school advocates deployed nearly $23 million to try to vault their chosen Democrat, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, into a same-party runoff with then-frontrunner Newsom. A fellow education reformer, former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, gave millions to the pro-Villaraigosa effort.

The gambit failed. Villaraigosa finished third in the nonpartisan primary and Newsom cruised to an easy victory in the general election over Republican businessman John Cox.

Suddenly, charter school advocates had to contend with emboldened union foes and a progressive governor. A flurry of union-backed bills to limit the number of charter schools or make it harder to convert a regular public school into a charter school had the reformers playing defense.

When the Assembly voted on a bill to overhaul the approval process for charter schools, nearly 20 reform-minded Democrats either voted no or withheld their votes. Some of those Democrats had bested other Democrats in crowded primaries after education reformers spent money on their behalf. One of them delivered a floor speech bemoaning efforts to politicize education and pit parents against each other  an address that the California Charter Schools Association later shared online under the hashtag KidsNotPolitics.

Newsom eventually negotiated a compromise measure that prevailed with support from both sides.

Now, in an election year, the charter association issued a slew of endorsements and warned that non-profit charter public schools are under attack in Sacramento from special interests who want to protect their privileges at the expense of our students and families.

Doctors vs. lawyers, nurses and big soda

As an enormous and growing sector of the economy with billions of dollars at stake, health care is ripe for political conflict. And the California Medical Association, which represents doctors, is in the middle of most of them.

While a cluster of California cities have instituted soda taxes, proposals to tax or label sugar-sweetened beverages  pushed year after year by the CMA and public health groups  perish with predictable regularity. Decisive resistance often comes from Democrats who warn those policies would harm unionized bottling plants or burden the poorest Californians. The American Beverage Association and member companies like Coca-Cola regularly spread campaign contributions among both Republicans and centrist Democrats.

Then there are clashes among various health care interest groups. The California Nurses Association is one of the most aggressive and liberal players in California politics, advocating single-payer health care legislation.

That has pitted nurses against other players who claim that converting to a single-payer system would be too costly and unworkable. When a single-payer bill hit the Senate floor in 2017, it had to overcome the opposition of both insurers and the CMA. The single-payer legislation passed narrowly with several Democrats withholding their support and was soon halted by Assembly leadership, setting off an ugly wave of recriminations and Democratic infighting.

The following year, with those wounds still smarting, the CMA launched a new anti-single-payer group with insurers and hospitals.

Beyond the agenda-grabbing issue of single-payer health care, the CMA regularly engaged in turf wars with other interest groups. Groups representing doctors and nurses clashed over scope of practice rules  essentially, how much leeway nondoctors have to perform some procedures. But doctors arent just squaring off with nurses.

Earlier this year, a Senate committee halted a bill, prioritized by LGBTQ groups but contested by doctors, to prohibit early surgical interventions on intersex children. Days before the hearing, the CMA channeled $50,000 to a new committee buoying one of the most centrist Senate Democrats, Steve Glazer, as he faced a union-backed challenger. Glazer chairs the decisive committee.

Doctors also have a longtime nemesis in trial lawyers, another reliable Democrat-backing interest group in California. Tensions between doctors and lawyers most often manifest in battles over Californias cap on medical malpractice payouts, which lawyer-aligned groups have long fought to raise.

With the latest iteration of that clash likely going on the ballot in 2020, the CMA recently uncorked a $5 million initiative to beat it back. The fact that the recurring fight tends to play out via ballot initiative, rather than legislation, speaks to the CMAs power to quash any effort originating in the statehouse.

Law enforcement vs. criminal justice reformers

Not long ago, Californias stringent sentencing laws embodied the tough-on-crime policies prevailing across America. Political dynamics have shifted dramatically since then, with California lawmakers and voters approving a raft of bills and ballot initiatives to ease sentencing, legalize recreational marijuana use, open law enforcement records and restrict when police officers can use lethal force.

Even as that sea change has taken place, law enforcement groups have remained influential in Sacramento. Many lawmakers, particularly those with narrower roads to reelection, are wary of antagonizing local police chiefs, sheriffs and district attorneys.

Groups representing rank-and-file police officers, prison corrections officers and sheriffs deputies regularly give money to Democratic lawmakers. In some cases, the law enforcement tie is explicit: Democratic Assemblyman Jim Cooper, a former sheriffs deputy and a stalwart law enforcement backer, was facing a challenge this cycle from a well-funded Democratic opponent. Earlier this year a new pro-Cooper PAC emerged named Keep a Cop in the Capitol.

In 2018, law enforcement officers successfully quashed legislation that would have limited their ability to use lethal force. When the bill returned in 2019, law enforcement groups sponsored a diluted alternative promoted by a moderate Democrat. They funded advertisements warning that the version sought by reformers would turn cops into criminals; fliers distributed in Sacramento summarized the proposals effect as another dead cop.

Law enforcement advocates ultimately endorsed a more reform-oriented compromise measure.

The compromise was followed by outright losses for law-enforcement interests in sentencing and accountability measures. But the margin of those votes demonstrated how Democrats are far from monolithic on matters of law and order. A 2018 bill that prohibited prosecutors from trying minors in adult court for serious crimes like murder squeaked off the Assembly floor with the bare minimum of votes. So too did a 2019 measure barring certain sentencing enhancements for career criminals.

On the latter, resistant Democrats warned of the consequences: These are the dangerous criminals that we should be locking up and keeping out of the public for public safety, declared one Assembly member who had lost and then regained his battleground seat. Lets not lose our credibility, Democrats, by pushing for all these criminal justice reform bills.

More battles on the horizon

From San Diego to Sacramento, Californias primary in March offered examples of money-saturated battles between Democrats. Oil companies, real estate agents, education reformers and other traditionally right-leaning interests muscled up with contributions to buoy their chosen Democrats, often counteracted by liberal activists and, in some cases, organized labor.

In many cases, Democrats accused their fellow party members of unfair play. In the race to fill the safely Democratic U.S. House seat in San Diego held by retiring Rep. Susan Davis, one Democrat accused her Democratic opponent of trying to push a Republican into the runoff with an ad whose lines of attack  highlighting the Republicans record on guns and Trump  could read like positive qualifications to conservative voters. A top Democratic election strategist denounced the real estate industrys successful effort to boost a baggage-laden Democrat into the general election as the sleaziest tactic Ive ever seen and a crime against humanity.

But the best illustration of the divisions among Democrats may have once again, like the Los Angeles race won by Susan Rubio against Mike Eng in 2018, involved a member of the Rubio family. When Assemblyman Ian Calderon (D-Whittier) resigned his safe seat in the south San Gabriel Valley  near Richard Nixons childhood home in Whittier  a flood of Democratic candidates joined the nonpartisan primary  among them Calderons stepmother, Lisa Calderon, and Susan Rubios younger sister Sylvia Rubio.

Business interests once again lined up behind Rubios sister. Labor went all-in for Lisa Calderon, energized by the revelation that Rubio had once been a registered Republican. By Election Day, both sides had collectively plowed more than $2.7 million into outside spending for a single Assembly seat  a staggering investment by interest groups hoping to elect a Democrat in their image.

As the finals votes trickled in, Calderon led Rubio by about 2,500 votes. A token Republican sat in first, thanks to the fractured Democratic field, making it all but certain that come next year, organized labor will have the Democrat they want.
Abigail Banerji

Editor's Note: The NASA-SpaceX joint human spaceflight was scheduled for liftoff on Thursday, 28 May, 2.00 am IST (Wednesday, 27 May at 4.32 pm EDT) from the Launch Complex 39A from the Kenndy Space Centre, Florida. However, due to bad weather conditions, they had to cancel the launch. It has now been re-scheduled for 31 May, 12.52 AM IST.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and private aerospace company SpaceX are getting ready to launch astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, almost 10 years (2011) after the last Space Shuttle Program lifted off from the Kennedy Space Centre, from American soil.

The launch is supposed to take place on Wednesday, 27 May 4.32 pm EDT, or Thursday, 28 May 2.02 am IST from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

But it is not going to be easy, and there will be risks.

Whether it is the Coronavirus pandemic or the skeleton crew that will be working on the ground on the day of the launch; or the fact that it is the maiden voyage of the Dragon crew capsule.

Human spaceflight is returning to America! 

My heart is sitting right here (motioning to the throat), and I think its going to stay there until we get Bob and Doug safely back from the International Space Station, said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceXs president and Chief Operating Officer, in a press conference, reported Spaceflight. But between now and then, theres still work to do.

Crew Dragon at the Cape undergoing final preparations ahead of first flight to the @Space_Station with @NASA astronauts onboard pic.twitter.com/uMpmroFDD6  SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 1, 2020

The storied US Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle program was a reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system that was operated from 1981 to 2011. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS). It has launched manned satellites and interplanetary probes, as well as the Hubble Space Telescope, and helped in the construction and servicing of the International Space Station. However, the program was now without its failures. With two major, deadly disasters, the program was finally shut down forever.

On 28 January 1986, the STS-51-L disintegrated 73 seconds after its launch, due to equipment failure and killed seven astronauts on board. Again, on 1 February 2003, a spacecraft disintegrated during re-entry and killed all seven of the STS-107 crew. Hurley, the spacecraft commander for SpaceXs Dragon crew capsule, had served as pilot on the last shuttle mission.

A commercial space program

After the Space Shuttle debacle, NASA used Russia's Soyuz rockets to get their astronauts to the ISS. This SpaceX mission is part of the Commercial Crew Mission, where NASA gets private companies to collaborate with them in order to develop and operate spacecraft. The program began in 2010. Boeing and SpaceX are the two companies working on spacecraft that can deliver crew members to the International Space Station (ISS).

Boeing has had a lot of trouble in developing a safe and functional crew capsule that can take NASA astronauts to the ISS. Its last flight test was a massive failure and NASA has even opened an investigation into this disastrous test. Boeing Cos CST-100 Starliner astronaut capsule had a successful launch of its first unmanned test mission, but an automated timer error prevented the spacecraft from attaining the correct orbit for it to rendezvous and dock with the space station. It is supposed to have another test flight, later this year

Since 2011 (when SpaceX joined the program), NASA has given the Elon Musk-owned company funds to the tune of $3.1 billion to develop, test, and fly the Dragon spacecraft reported CNBC. SpaceX has also supplemented its research with its own funding, however no official figures have been made available.

Here's the plan for launch day of SpaceX's Demo-2 mission with NASA astronauts, scheduled for May 27: pic.twitter.com/jvU6vHdA0r  Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz) May 1, 2020

The investments that we have made into SpaceX and the investment SpaceX has made in itself have really resulted in, I think, something that is going to be very beneficial, not just for human space exploration, but beneficial for the economy, said NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine.

The Dragon will be launched atop the Falcon 9 rocket to around 17,000 mph into low earth orbit, and in 24 hours, it will be in the right position to automatically dock with the ISS. While the crew capsule is designed to do this without the astronauts overseeing it, the docking will be monitored, and if anything were to go awry, the crew would be able to take control of it.

Demo 1

On 2 March 2019, SpaceX's Dragon capsule was launched, and on 8 March 2019, it completed its first unmanned flight test by docking to the ISS and returning back to Earth after a five-day mission. This mission was called Demo-1. This was the first spacecraft that was built, operated and launched by a private American company and was also the first crew capsule that docked at the ISS on its own. With the success of this mission, the US was one step closer to re-starting its own human spaceflight program.

Demo 2

After a successful first trial mission, the upcoming mission to the ISS has been termed Demo-2. The spacecraft is supposed to be able to carry around seven passengers, but for its first test run, only two astronauts will be in the capsule.

If all goes well with this mission, NASA will approve SpaceX to carry other astronauts to the ISS, along with the commercial re-supply runs it has been making since 2008. This will reduce NASA's dependence on the Soyuz program and will be more cost-effective in the long run as well. It will also take them another step further to completing the Artemis mission, and the next step is humans on Mars.

The US-built Falcon 9 rocket

SpaceX's Falcon 9 is a partially-reusable two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle. Its first stage is capable of re-entering the atmosphere and landing vertically after separating from the second stage, which is why it is partially re-usable. SpaceX successfully landed its first stage during its 20th flight in December 2015. The second stage of the rocket has a single engine that can deliver its payload to whichever orbit is required. The engine can be restarted multiple times to deliver multiple payloads into different orbits.

A two-stage-to-orbit or two-stage rocket launch vehicle is a spacecraft in which two distinct stages provide propulsion consecutively in order to achieve orbital velocity.

Quarantining

As standard procedure dictates, before the actual launch, the astronauts will go into quarantine two weeks prior. This will be made more stringent due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic that has swept the world. Employees at NASA and SpaceX have, on occasion, had to quarantine themselves as there were positive cases found.

Shotwell, reported Spaceflight, has outlined some of the precautions that they were taking during the press conference, "We've had Bob and Doug here for training and we are ensuring that only essential personnel are near them. They're wearing masks and gloves. We're cleaning the training facility twice daily."

NASA is also ensuring that the crew, working with the astronauts during their flight simulations, are being taken care of. "We're taking temperatures. We're wearing masks in public areas. We are social distancing as well. We've got at least half of our engineering staff working from home," Shotwell said.

"Obviously with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are taking extra precautions for all the teams supporting the launch and all the phases of flight," said Steve Stich, deputy manager for NASA's Commercial Crew Program, reported Al Jazeera. "So in the various control rooms, we've laid out those rooms to have at least two metres between anybody on a console looking at displays."

Hurley, in an interview with CBS News, spoke about the measures he and his co-passenger are taking (like following the rules set out by NASA and their flight surgeons) as well as those undertaken by NASA.

Hurley said, "We're kind of already in a quarantine bubble that includes the two of us and of course, by extension, our immediate families as well. We'll be leading up to launch kind of with similar precautions. It's not a lot different than what we would do for a crew that was going to launch on a Soyuz out of Baikonur (Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan), or what we did back when we launched on space shuttles." When they fly out to Florida, they will use "NASA transportation to try to minimize our exposure".

ISS is short-staffed

The space station is currently being manned by one American astronaut  Chris Cassidy and two Russian cosmonauts  Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. Usually, the orbiting station is staffed with three to six people but it can comfortably accommodate around nine astronauts. However, in 2009, the ISS was able to support 13 crew members at a given time.

If all goes well, Hurley and Behnken's ride to the ISS will mean that the occupants will have more help to conduct their research and experiments in zero gravity. Reuters reported that the astronauts' planned mission has been extended from one to now lasting anywhere between one to four-month. It will also mean that they will have more time to conduct a spacewalk  which is exciting  to change the batteries of the ISS.

"We currently support the station with the bare minimum," said Bridenstine. "Without the presence of Behnken and Hurley, we otherwise would likely defer such an operation until additional NASA crew members are available."

NASA to its spectators

NASA is launching their own astronauts from American soil after a gap of 11 years, and if this were a normal year, it would've been a big moment for the country. Something akin to the excitement people had shown during the initial Apollo mission phase.

But this is not a normal year and these are not normal situations, and NASA has asked all potential spectators to adhere to the lockdown rules set out by the US government.

Futurism reported that NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said, We are very excited about launching a commercial crew. We are asking people to join us in this launch but to do so from home. Were asking people not to travel to the Kennedy Space Center.

He also said that people who break this rule and crowd the beach, or the area near the centre will have to deal with the local authorities. Space.com reported that the Space Centre will be closed to the public as well.

Also Read:

Looking at the journey of how NASA and its astronauts became one of SpaceXs biggest customers

What do we know spacexs astronaut suits and the vehicle they use to travel to the launchpad; launch on Sunday, 31 May, 12.52 am IST
Cornerstone Church and Catholic Charities are among the San Antonio churches and faith-based organizations helping those this week in need during the coronavirus pandemic.

Cornerstone will partner with the San Antonio Food Bank on Tuesday to distribute approximately 50,000 pounds of food at a mass distribution at 9 a.m. at Traders Village on the Southwest Side.

Our faith teaches that we are mandated by God to help those in need, said John Hagee, Cornerstones senior pastor and founder of Hagee Ministries.

During challenging times, the faith community has a unique and vital role to play, and Cornerstone will continue to follow Gods word by working with local organizations to help our neighbors.

On ExpressNews.com: Get the latest update on coronavirus and a tracking map of U.S. cases

Cornerstone has been involved in several humanitarian services during the pandemic, including engaging in food delivery and transportation services for those in need of help getting medical care or buying groceries.

Wednesday, Catholic Charities will partner with area nonprofits and private-sector organizations to provide 2,000 food bundles, diapers and masks at its Food from the Heart initiative.

The event does not require preregistration and is set for 5:30 p.m. at St. Stephens CARE Center, 2127 S. Zarzamora St.

Catholic Charities staffers and volunteers will wear masks, use hand sanitizer and practice social distancing during the distribution to protect others.

Those interested in receiving Food from the Heart should call 210-222-1294 for more information.

Tom Orsborn covers sports news in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Tom, become a subscriber. torsborn@express-news.net | Twitter: @tom_orsborn
[May 05, 2020] InspireHUB Releases The Ultimate Small Business Survival Guide

DALLAS, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- InspireHUB has released a free guide to help small businesses survive during this difficult time. They successfully implemented a Digital Rescue Kit program for their clients and within days were seeing the positive ripple effects of helping small businesses transform and remain open. The InspireHUB team realized that making this knowledge freely available to as many small business owners as possible would have a direct impact on local communities. The President of InspireHUB, Karolyn Hart, is also an award-winning economic developer who knows first hand the power of small business in creating healthy and thriving communities and how they contribute to local economies. "90% of businesses are small," reminds Hart. "In economic development, we know the best use of our time is spent in the business retention and expansion of small businesses. Keeping as many small businesses operating as possible will have a direct, positive economic impact on the communities where they reside because businesses act as micro-economies. Simly put, the more businesses we help complete an online transformation, the more likely they are to stay open. This ultimately means fewer layoffs and more people in the community being able to provide for themselves, which contributes to strengthening our overall economy."



"InspireHUB implemented their Digital Rescue Kit for us, and we are already seeing sales as a result," explains Cooper's Hawk Vineyards and Restaurant co-owner Tom O'Brien. "In less than 48 hours, they had mapped out an entire campaign with us along with our new ordering process. Two days later, we had everything implemented, and within 24 hours of launch, we were already getting orders. We've come to realize this was an opportunity for us to innovate."

The free guide can be downloaded by visiting www.inspirehub.com/survivalguide

About InspireHUB Inc. - InspireHUB is the creator of the IHUBApp, an award-winning Digital Experience Platform that reduces the risk of missing critical information and allows you to build solutions that are personal, accessible, and most importantly, secure. Build apps, hubs, portals, intranets, extranets, and more! Our proprietary suite of tools will elevate your digital experience above the noise. InspireHUB can be found on the web at www.inspirehub.com . For more information, please contact:

Sue Braiden, Communications Manager

Tel: 1 855 355 IHUB (4482)

Email: [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/inspirehub-releases-the-ultimate-small-business-survival-guide-301052880.html SOURCE InspireHUB Inc.

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Low-wage workers who are unable to work from home during shelter in place are at higher risk of contracting the coronavirus, according to preliminary results released Monday by UCSF, which conducted thousands of diagnostic tests in San Franciscos Mission District neighborhood in April.

The findings hint at a grim reality: As local economies begin to reopen and more people go back to work, they may be at higher risk of falling ill. The evidence indicates that low-wage workers who havent had the option of working from home have been at particular risk.

Of the 2,959 people tested in a 16-square-block area of the Mission, 62, or 2%, tested positive for the coronavirus, the researchers said. The overall positive rate in San Francisco is unknown because researchers and health officials have not tested the entire population. Also, the city provides results by the number of tests conducted, not by the number of people tested. Of about 27,000 tests conducted in San Francisco, 6% have been positive.

In the Mission district, researchers divided up participants into two groups, residents and workers. About 1.4% of residents tested positive and 6.1% of workers tested positive. Most of the workers tested work in food and beverage jobs or trade industries such as construction.

Whats most striking (is) the relative risk based on the people that had to work and the people that could stay home, said San Franciscos Deputy Health Officer Dr. Susan Philip.

Notable was that those who tested positive had much in common: The vast majority, 90%, could not work from home. And 75% were men, even though men accounted for just 55% of study participants. Nearly 89% earned less than $50,000 a year, and most lived in households of three to five people. Almost everyone who tested positive, 95%, was Latino, even though Latinos represented only 44% of study participants.

Those tested lived or worked in a single census tract  from 23rd Street and South Van Ness Avenue to Cesar Chavez and Harrison streets. They were tested between April 25 and 28.

Of the 62 people who tested positive, more than half, 53%, showed no symptoms  highlighting the risk of pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic people spreading the virus.

Supervisor Hillary Ronen said she will introduce legislation to ensure residents who are not eligible for unemployment because of their immigration status or other reasons can access replacement income.

If a large number arent eligible for state unemployment, theyre not getting the $1,200 checks in mail from the federal government; there is no way of keeping food on the plates of their families if they dont take that risk and go to work, she said.

Researchers administered diagnostic tests, which detect whether someone currently is infected with the coronavirus, and antibody tests, which detect whether someone has been infected in the past.

The findings released Monday are for the diagnostic testing only. Results of the antibody tests are expected to be released in late May.

Researchers focused on the Mission because of its high population density and large Latino population. The ZIP code that includes the Mission District has the most coronavirus cases in the city, with 214 cases, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Latino residents make up about 15% of San Franciscos total population but account for 37% of the citys confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to city health data.

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 findings highlight economic and racial disparities exacerbated by the coronavirus. But rates of coronavirus among workers is of broader concern as policymakers debate whether reopening businesses to ease the economic toll is worth the potential health risks.

Now Playing: We spoke with workers from San Franciscos Mission District who continue to work  and potentially risk their health  amid the coronavirus shelter in place orders. These are their stories. Video: Erika Betty Carlos

The number of daily U.S. coronavirus deaths is projected to nearly double from 1,750 to 3,000 by June 1, as states begin reopening, the New York Times reported Monday, citing an internal document compiled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And the number of daily new cases is projected to spike from 25,000 to 200,000 by the end of June, according to the FEMA projections.

Several states, including Maine, Texas, Georgia, Florida and Colorado, have started reopening restaurants, stores, hair salons and other public spaces. California will enter the next phase of its multi-stage reopening process as soon as Friday, when some retailers will be allowed to have their customers do curbside pickup for their items, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday.

Newsom acknowledged that as the state gradually moves to reopen, the spread of the virus may pick up, and restrictions may have to be reintroduced.

Catherine Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat_Ho
Police are searching for an aggressive chicken accused of engaging in fowl play at an Louisiana bank.

The Walker Police Department responded to a complaint about the brazen animal Friday, the agency said in a social media post over the weekend.

Witnesses told police the chicken had been spotted at the bank multiple times last week, approaching patrons at the ATM, chasing customers and even attempting to climb into cars in the drive-thru, according to the departments post.

Heres what they shared:

Since being shared people dropped all sorts of comments on the post and most took a hilarious route to express themselves.

LOVE THIS!!!! You just cant make this stuff up!! wrote a Facebook user. Why did the chicken cross the road?? To get away from Walker Police Department! joked another. So is that why the chicken crossed the road?? commented another.

Officials said officers responded to the bank within a few minutes of the call, but found the pesky poultry had already escaped. The suspect remains on the loose and police advised residents to avoid confronting the animal, and instead call for help.

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McLaren Port Huron will begin taking steps to return to normal pre-COVID-19 operations beginning May 4.

The process will be a phased approach that will be carefully implemented to ensure patient safety and prevent the spread of COVID-19 or a resurgence of the virus, hospital officials said.

While we are hopeful the federal, state, and local measures put in place to limit exposure through social distancing will continue to flatten the curve, we also know COVID-19 will be present in our community for some time, McLaren Port Huron President and CEO Jennifer Montgomery said in a news release. Therefore, McLaren has developed a roadmap to resume time-sensitive care, which includes clinical and testing protocols and prioritization of surgical cases that were postponed.

Key elements of the first phase include time-sensitive or previously canceled procedures: diagnostic imaging services, including MRI, CT, X-ray and mammograms; lab services; surgical procedures; cardiac and vascular testing; medical oncology, and radiation oncology appointments.

Later this month, additional surgeries and outpatient care services are expected to resume.

The safety of our patients and staff is always our top priority. Patients seeking care at our hospital and medical offices are being treated by personnel who are adhering to the most current safety precautions, as recommended by the CDC, Montgomery added.

The hospital is caring for all patients during COVID-19 by:

* Screening all patients, visitors and staff for signs and symptoms of coronavirus before entering hospital facilities.

* Supporting social distancing by limiting seating in certain areas to create space between those waiting for care.

* All caregivers and support staff are wearing additional protective equipment to keep patients and themselves safe when providing care. Protective masks are also being provided to patients and visitors as an enhanced safety precaution.

* Additional sanitization and cleaning processes throughout the hospital.

The reopening timeline may be altered, paused or even reversed as the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community is monitored to ensure McLaren Port Huron is able to maintain adequate resources and capacity to care for all patients.

 MediaNews Group staff
By Express News Service

JAJPUR/KALAHANDI: Despite State Government guidelines that mandate migrants workers to register their vehicle of transport in its Covid-19 portal (https://covid19.odisha.gov.in) before starting their journey, 105 workers returned from Surat to Jajpur on Monday without giving the travel details. Of them, 53 belong to Jajpur block, 16 are from Dharmasala, 20 from Rasulpur, six each from Bari and Barchana, two from Binjharpur and one each from Sukinda and Korei blocks.

The Jajpur administration has erected a check post at the district border near Chhatia on NH-16 to check vehicles and give permits to migrant labourers to enter the district. The 105 migrants, who came in two buses from Surat, reached the check post in the morning. When the buses were stopped by police deployed there to check the incoming vehicles, the drivers could not produce permits to travel from Surat.

Receiving information, district administration officials reached the spot and took them to Mahapurusa Hadidas College at Chhatia for medical screening. Collector Ranjan Kumar Das said although the workers had registered their details in the Covid portal, they arrived without any vehicle permit. Instead of Surat administration arranging vehicles for them, the workers had hired two buses to return to their native places.

The Collector informed that all of them have been sent to institutional quarantine facilities for the next 14 days. Their swab samples will be collected and sent for test on Tuesday. The migrant labourers have been asked to strictly abide by the quarantine norms failing which, they will face action under Disaster Management Act, 2005 and Epidemic Disease Act, 1897, the Collector said and warned that no migrants will henceforth be allowed to enter the district without registration.

Similarly in Kalahandi, as many as 117 migrant labourers of 30 families returned to the district from Khamam district of Telangana on Sunday without registering in the State Governments Covid portal. They were working in a cashew nut plantation in Khamam.

The workers along with six children were given passes from Khamam administration to travel to their native places in trucks. They returned in two trucks and one pickup van. However, they returned in the vehicles violating the social distancing guidelines and none of them wore masks. Their sudden arrival left the local officials worried as the latter was not prepared to medically screen or quarantine them. The vehicles were detained at the inter-State border on NH-26 and they were shifted to quarantine centres near their villages. Among them, 20 are from different villages of Golamunda block and 97 belong to Koksara block.
Jeep vehicles are parked outside the Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit, Feb. 26, 2019. (Carlos Osorio/AP Photo)

Detroit Automakers Push for Restart of Plants Within 2 Weeks

DETROITMajor U.S. automakers are planning to reopen North American factories within two weeks, potentially putting thousands of workers back on the assembly line as part of a gradual return to normality.

Fiat Chrysler CEO Mike Manley said on an earnings conference call on May 5, his company plans to start reopening factories May 18, though that depends on an easing of government restrictions.

Fiat Chrysler CEO Mike Manley in a file photo. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Right now, Michigans shelter-at-home order is in effect until May 15.

Detroit automakers will likely be on the same timetable because their workers are represented by the same union.

The United Auto Workers union on Tuesday appeared to be onboard.

Detroit automakers employ about 150,000 factory workers in the United States alone. Auto plants have been shut since mid-March because of the outbreak. At least 25 employees at auto facilities represented by the UAW have died as a result of COVID-19, although its not known if they were infected at work.

Manley said a lot depends on whether Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer allows factories to reopen.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer addresses the state during a speech in Lansing, Mich., on April 13, 2020. (Michigan Office of the Governor/AP, Pool)

Last week, Whitmer hinted that auto plants may soon reopen as the curve of cases continues to flatten. She said the reopening could take place as long as the UAW can ensure employees feel safe.

The UAW said in a prepared statement that workers will return to auto plants starting May 18, and it has agreed on safety procedures to protect them. Under its contracts with Fiat Chrysler, General Motors, and Ford, the companies have authority to pick restart dates. But the union can file grievances and seek closures if the virus spreads at factories.

We all knew this day would come, union President Rory Gamble said Tuesday. We continue to advocate for as much testing as possible at the current time and eventually full-testing when available.

Gamble said his family will be among those returning to work, and the union will make sure safety guidelines will be followed.

The UAW will fulfill its role to continue to actively monitor and aggressively respond regarding all issues impacting the health and safety of UAW members in whatever manner may be necessary as we return to the worksite, Gamble said in a prepared statement.

Divisions over when to start to reopen economies on the state level spilled over in Michigan last week when armed protesters entered Michigans Capitol building last week. The Republican-led state legislature refused to extend Michigans CCP virus emergency declaration. They authorized a lawsuit challenging Whitmers authority and actions to combat the pandemic.

Demonstrators take part in an American Patriot Rally, organized on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, Mich., on April 30, 2020. Michigans stay-at-home order declared by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is set to expire after May 15. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images)

Whitmer faces pressure from the White House to relax restrictions as well.

Auto manufacturing is a major economic driver in Michigan, of course, and the state is facing a crippling cutoff in revenue with the plants closed.

By Tom Krisher and Colleen Barry, Epoch Times staff contributed to this report
A day after Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked all state units to pay for the train journeys of stranded migrant workers who are headed home, the party on Tuesday extended the offer to students and pilgrims who cannot afford the cost of travel.

Congress general secretary in-charge of the organization, KC Venugopal, wrote to the partys state units, asking them to cover the train fare of students and pilgrims as well, besides migrant workers. State units were told to make sure such people arent required to pay the one-way train fare to their destinations if they cannot afford to do so..

Pradesh Congress Committees were told to form advisory committees to frame guidelines and oversee implementation of the initiative, including outreach, identification and reimbursement of beneficiaries besides coordinating with officers appointed by state governments to ensure the orderly movement of migrant workers.

Through another circular, Venugopal also directed the state units to establish help desks with dedicated helpline numbers to enable the stranded migrant workers to approach them.

There should be extensive social media campaigns through all platforms. The migrant workers can be reached out by circulating a Google form to collect the travel details such as contact, source and destination, read the circular.

The state units were also directed to deploy teams at each railway station to coordinate the departure of migrant workers and make payments to the railway authorities. In another move, the Congress sought voluntary contributions from the public to meet the travel expenses of migrant labourers.

Gandhis announcement on Monday that her party would bear the cost of travel of migrant workers who, the Congress alleged were being forced to pay the train fare, triggered a war of words with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The opposition party accused the government of being insensitive to the plight of stranded migrant workers; the BJP rebutted the claim, saying the railways was paying 85% and state governments the remainder, entailing no cost to the workers.

Gandhi on Tuesday called a meeting of the chief ministers of Congress-ruled states and senior leaders on Wednesday to discuss issues related to the coronavirus pandemic and the impact of the prolonged lockdown on the economy.

Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati said it was unfortunate that the Centre and the state governments were charging money from stranded migrant workers for ferrying them home and also offered to pay for their travel. If governments hesitate in paying the fare of the migrants, the BSP will take help of its cadre and will contribute in making arrangements for these workers, she said.

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Marc Vetri is a nominee for best chef, while Kalaya, chef Chutatip Nok Suntaranons BYOB, is up for best new restaurant at the 2020 James Beard Awards. Read more

Philadelphia has two finalists for top James Beard Awards: one veteran and one newcomer.

Kalaya, chef Chutatip Nok Suntaranons Thai BYOB in South Philadelphia, is one of five nominees for best new restaurant. Suntaranon, who opened at Ninth and Catharine Streets on the edge of the Italian Market in June 2019 with then-business partner My-Le Vuong, appeared as part of the Beard Foundations announcement on Twitter. Kalaya, named after Suntaranons mother, was Inquirer critic Craig LaBans 2019 restaurant of the year.

Marc Vetri, who owns Vetri Cucina in Center City and the new Fiorella in the Italian Market as well as a Vetri in Las Vegas, is a nominee for outstanding chef. In this category, Vetri was a nominee in 2014, 2015, and 2019, and made the semifinals in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2016. His book Mastering Pasta was a nominee in 2016. He also won the award for best chef, Mid-Atlantic, in 2005 after two years as a nominee. In 2008, Osteria was nominated for best new restaurant. Vetri, the restaurant, was nominated for outstanding restaurant in 2011 and 2012 and for outstanding service in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, and 2014.

Philadelphia also has three chefs in the hunt for best chef, Mid-Atlantic: Rich Landau (Vedge, V Street), Nicholas Elmi (Laurel, ITV, Royal Boucherie), and Cristina Martinez (South Philly Barbacoa, Casa Mexico). Landau and Elmi have been in the finals since 2014, and Martinez since 2017. Joey Baldino of Zeppoli, a semifinalist since 2012, did not make the final cut.

The announcement was carried over Twitter on what had been scheduled to be the day of the awards before the coronavirus pandemic. The date of the 2020 restaurant awards ceremony has been moved to Sept. 25. The media awards, which include nominations for journalism, books, and television, will be handed out May 27.

That there would be a 2020 awards announcement despite the upheaval in the world was never in doubt. It was clear that those whose work in 2019 led them to be selected as a semifinalist  and perhaps ultimately a nominee or a winner  deserved the recognition they earned, Mitchell Davis, the foundations chief strategy officer, wrote on the James Beard website. Those we consulted felt the awards could also offer a glimmer of hope to an industry looking for light in a very dark time.

The foundation is awarding grants to restaurants and has created a campaign called #openforgood to help sustain restaurants through the next 12 to 18 months.

The Philadelphia-area semifinalists were:

Bolete, chef Lee Chizmar and wife Erin Sheas Fork-ish American restaurant in Bethlehem, was up for outstanding restaurant. It was a nominee in 2019, and Chizmar was a semifinalist in the best chef, Mid-Atlantic category, in 2015.

Jesse Ito (Royal Sushi) was a semifinalist for rising star chef. He was a finalist in 2019, after being a semifinalist in 2017 and 2018. He has now aged out of the category.

Cookie Till of Steve & Cookies of Margate, N.J., was a semifinalist for outstanding restaurateur. This was her first brush with the Beards. Also on the restaurateur list were Mike and Jeff Mastro from Steak 48, opening at Broad and Spruce Streets this year.

Tova du Plessis of Essen Bakery was a semifinalist for outstanding baker. She also made the list in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Jean Broillet IV of Tired Hands was a semifinalist for outstanding wine, beer, spirits producer. This is his first Beard experience as a soloist. Tired Hands was a semifinalist in 2016 for outstanding bar program.

Le Caveau, the second-floor French bar at Good King Tavern in Bella Vista, opened in October 2019 and was a semifinalist for outstanding wine program.

The Horse Inn, a restaurant in Lancaster, was a semifinalist for outstanding bar program.
The doctor who treated the first COVID-19 patient in the United States said yesterday that he fears a second outbreak of the disease when lockdown measures are lifted and doesn't know if the country has the resources to handle it again.

Dr George Diaz treated his first coronavirus patient, diagnosed in January in Washington state, with remdesivir, an experimental anti-viral the US approved for emergency use on Friday.

Despite the drug's apparent success when the patient recovered Diaz said isolation is still the 'most effective' treatment and he worried 'when the economy starts to reopen, we are going to see a second outbreak that is perhaps as big as the first'.

'The first one was very difficult for us and for the whole world,' Diaz told reporters during a video meeting organized by the State Department.

Dr George Diaz (pictured on January 23) treated his first coronavirus patient, diagnosed in January in Washington state, with remdesivir, an experimental anti-viral the US approved for emergency use on Friday

Since that first case in January, the US has overtaken all other countries to have by far the highest caseload - about 1.2 million - as well as the most deaths, around 69,780.

Diaz added: 'And more than anything, I am concerned that I don't know if we are going to have the resources to handle a second outbreak.'

Despite forecasts of a worsening death toll, some states are already reopening to try to ease the economic strain of lockdown orders that have put more than 30 million Americans out of work in six weeks.

WHAT IS REMDESIVIR AND DOES IT WORK AGAINST CORONAVIRUS? Remdesivir, an anti-viral drug first made to try and treat Ebola, has been used experimentally on COVID-19 patients since the outbreak's early days. The FDA issued an emergency use authorization for the drug on May 1, in response to the preliminary results of a notable study that was released at the end of April. According to Hackensack Meridian Health, initially only severely ill hospitalized COVID-19 patients were eligible to be treated with remdesivir, otherwise known as Veklury. On August 28, the FDA extended its authorization to all hospitalized adult and pediatric patients with suspected or laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, irrespective of their severity of disease. 'The FDA continues to make safe and potentially helpful treatments for COVID-19 available as quickly as possible in order to help patients. The data to support todays action are encouraging. The data show that this treatment has the potential to help even more hospitalized patients who are suffering from the effects of this devastating virus,' said FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn, M.D. 'We are working with drug developers to conduct randomized clinical trials to further study the safety and effectiveness of a number of potential therapies for COVID-19.' However in August, a report from the drug's California-based maker, Gilead Sciences Inc found that the effects of the medication may only be seen in those with severe infections. There are claims of miraculous recovery, improved survival odds and shorter illness, but other studies have found it makes no difference to patients in hospital with Covid-19. Remdesivir produced encouraging results earlier this year when it showed promise for both preventing and treating MERS - another coronavirus - in macaque monkeys. The drug appears to help stop the replication of viruses like coronavirus and Ebola alike. It's not entirely clear how the drug accomplishes this feat, but it seems to stop the genetic material of the virus, RNA, from being able to copy itself. That, in turn, stops the virus from being able to proliferate further inside the patient's body. Advertisement

Remdesivir, made by Gilead Sciences, was shown in a major clinical trial to shorten the time to recovery in some coronavirus patients.

Diaz said that, pending development of a vaccine, remdesivir appears to act against the virus, but he cautioned that the drug must be used very wisely.

It should not be a crutch for people to say, ''I can now do whatever I want because we have a treatment". No,' Diaz warned.

They must continue to follow guidance on social distancing, he said.

On Monday two staggering coronavirus projections were released including a private model by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention pulled together in chart form by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

They said the daily death toll of COVID-19 will reach 3,000 cases daily on June 1.

That number is nearly double the current level of 1,750 deaths a day from the disease.

When asked about the leaked projection, president Donald Trump told the New York Post: 'I think its  I think its false, I think its fake news.'

The White House said that the leaked projection had not been 'presented to the coronavirus task force or gone through interagency vetting.'

Also on Monday The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington (IHME), which is often cited by the White House, released new models that forecast a death toll prediction of 134,475 fatalities by August 4, a major jump from its previous prediction of 72,433 deaths.

The spikes in the two models are linked to relaxed social distancing measures and increased mobility as states start to reopen businesses.

'These projections are considerably higher than previous estimates, representing the combined effects of death model updates and formally incorporating the effect of changes in mobility and social distancing policies into transmission dynamics,' The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington said.

IHME director Dr. Christopher Murray said factors that contribute to the heightened death prediction includes states adding presumptive COVID-19 deaths to their statistics and outbreaks in meatpacking plants across the nation.

Now, he says, the nation needs to worry about how reopening states might compound those numbers even further.

'I think the challenge for us all is to figure out what's the trajectory of relaxing social distancing on a measured pace that will protect us from big increases or even a full-scale resurgence,' he said to CNN.

After COVID-19 arrived to the US in January, businesses across the country soon shuttered and the economy began to stagger as confirmed cases  and deaths  spiked at unprecedented levels.

Pictured: Servers wearing masks wait on customers on the deck of Dead Dog Saloon in South Carolina as rules for outdoor eating loosened on Monday

By March, the US had the largest number of infections in the world, even eclipsing China, where the virus originated in the city of Wuhan in December last year.

In recent weeks, restless state officials have slowly peeled back restrictions, led by Georgia, in response to a number of stay-at-home protests.

The southeastern state took another step towards a full restart by letting all businesses reopen from Friday. Large crowds of people were seen in Atlanta on Sunday as shelter-in-place orders expired and businesses opened.

In Florida, which has seen 1,300 deaths and 36,000 infections among its 21.5 million residents, retailers and restaurants opened their doors at a 25 percent capacity.

Clearwater police (pictured yesterday) has a large presence patrolling the beach as officers urge people to socially distance

While some beaches across parts of the state were allowed to reopen last month, Clearwater Beach in Tampa officially reopened to the public before sunrise on Monday morning.

Police removed 'closed' signs from barricades at 7am to the cheers of the 50 or so people waiting to step on the freshly groomed sand. Clearwater police have a large presence patrolling the beach and are urging people to socially distance.

Cafes along the beach also reopened with eateries allowed to resume dine-in services as long as they have outdoor seating and can ensure appropriate social distancing.

Medical practices can also resume elective surgeries and procedures as part of the state's phased reopening.

Large crowds of people were seen in Atlanta on Sunday as Georgia Governor Brian Kemp allowed shelter-in-place orders to expire

Movie theaters, bars and fitness clubs will remain closed for now.

Governor Rick DeSantis has left existing restrictions in place across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties - the three most highly populated in the state.

DeSantis had drawn criticism for waiting until April 2 to clamp down on commerce - after most other states had already done so - in part because of Florida's high proportion of elderly residents - more than a fifth are age 65 and over - who are especially vulnerable to the virus.

But Florida, a key swing electoral swing state, appears to have avoided the worst of the health crisis seen in other states such as New York and New Jersey.

According to the leaked FEMA chart, daily US deaths will reach 3,000 cases by June 1. That number is nearly double the current level of 1,750 deaths a day from the disease

The highest daily number of infections occurred on April 17 with just over 1,400 new cases.

New daily infections have been considerably lower since then and only increased above 1,000 on April 23 and May 1. The highest daily deaths occurred on April 28 with 83 deaths and fatalities appear to be on the decline since then.

The state does not appear to have met all the White House's guidelines for reopening, which include 14 days of declining cases and contact tracers to track infections.

Health experts are now concerned that warmer weather could prove to be challenging to manage coronavirus as restaurants, hair salons and other businesses reopen across the country.

In New York City, the warmest weather yet this spring caused picnickers and sunbathers to flock to green spaces in Manhattan, including crowded conditions at the Christopher Street Pier in Greenwich Village.

Last week, California ordered beaches in Orange County to close, after crowds defied public health guidelines to throng the popular shoreline. Police in the county's Huntington Beach said people were complying on Sunday.

Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner, said on Sunday the country was seeing a 'mixed bag' of results from coronavirus mitigation efforts.

Cones are set up to help beachgoers keep a safe distance from one another after Clearwater Beach in Florida after the beach officially reopened on Monday amid the pandemic

Cafes along the beach also reopened with eateries allowed to resume dine-in services if they have outdoor seating and can ensure appropriate social distancing

He said there were about 20 states seeing a rising number of new cases including Illinois, Texas, Maryland, Indiana, Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. Virginia reported a record number of deaths on Sunday.

'We expected that we would start seeing more significant declines in new cases and deaths around the nation at this point. And we're just not seeing that,' he said on CBS' Face the Nation.

'If we don't snuff this out more and you have this slow burn of infection, it can ignite at any time.'

It comes after the US economy recorded its worst first quarter since the 2008 financial crisis this year, according to new data released on Wednesday which paints a clear picture of the economic havoc the coronavirus pandemic has caused.

Cars line up at one of Utah's food banks on April 24. Millions are flocking to the banks across the country because the sudden shut down of businesses has left them unable to feed their families

A report released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis on Wednesday morning reveals GDP fell by 4.8 percent annualized between January and March.

Consumer spending fell by 7.6 percent and business investment shrank by 8.6 percent.

The data is not final and in a footnote the bureau said the true picture is likely far worse. Analysts had predicted that GDP might shrink by as much as 3.5 percent.
The COVID-19 crisis has once again brought to fore a nationalistic sentiment with many volunteering to feed migrants and poor people and many others contributing liberally to the PM-CARES Fund.

The crisis has evoked an empathetic wave in these fearful times of a deadly uncertainty. However, the Tablighi Jamaat incident led to a large spike in coronavirus cases and made many more vulnerable to the infection.

The attempt to protect the organisers resulted in developing a bias against them, and got further aggravated due to social media videos showing some people trying to infect others with the deadly virus.

Public sensitivities have been very conspicuous and many have gone against government instructions. At this critical juncture, the underlying sectarian differences cropped up and marred the bonhomie across the entire nation.

Instead of subduing the societal/caste/religious differentials in our sub-consciousness and gaining momentum to come together during the national calamity, a blame-game ensued.

The Indian governments bold initiative of imposing a lockdown despite the likely economic adverse fallout has been widely appreciated internationally as it is considered best solution to curb the spread of the pandemic.

Thus, while the nation may suffer considerable economic slowdown, but precious lives are being saved hopefully.

It may not be immediately possible to fathom the time lost in economic activity and its fallout, which may not be easily recoverable, but we need to ensure that we are back on our feet and hit the ground running on mid-term basis or soon thereafter.

While a lot of departments are actively involved in fighting the virus outbreak, others in the governments machinery need to start working overtime to put in place the steps required to revive and accelerate the economic growth curve once the crisis is over.

Industrialists and businesspersons will not be able to restore the lost activity on their own, but will need active government support. The Finance Ministry needs to evolve a blueprint along with a major economic package for them and financial aid for the poor.

Indians are known for their unique ingenuity. They can turn this crisis around by setting aside personal or individual interests and prejudices to dedicate themselves to the national cause work by helping the needy.

At the same time, history shows that for centuries, Indians have been administered by a monarch or been subject to British rule, thereby, being psychologically subservient to the state authorities.

For centuries, they have been used by empires to further their own economic and strategic interests and expansionist ambitions. Even the political hierarchy has not been left out of this mindset, which has a direct bearing on governance issues and functioning.

As a consequence of this colonial mindset, most of us have been nurtured to grow up with individualistic ideals than to be a part of the organisational pack.

It is generally observed that most tend to prioritise their individual aspirations having inherited them at the cost of national interests. However, it is observed that these people have still done extremely well for themselves in their respective fields.

However, Indians serving abroad have been known for their ingenuity, hard work and dedication, and are capable of working much beyond their capacity.

Their highly efficient performance abroad makes them indispensable and this facet has seen many Indian-origin foreigners heading their organisations or occupying high positions.

The culture Indians generally adopt while working in the home country is quite different with individualistic prejudices.

For inexplicable reasons, Indians working abroad are more disciplined than in India. We can observe some people hoarding donated rations and food items at this time of crisis, when most migrants along with their families are undergoing huge sufferings

Some even project inflated bills to the government treasury, and is not considered unethical by them though actually it is a major disciplinary default.

It is said that a young nation like India has tremendous potential and advantage of economic growth, which makes it imperative to demystify the mantra and bring in a paradigm shift in the mindset of our people.

National growth can be given an impetus by our contributions in whatever form possible, bringing the country quickly back to double-digit economic growth.

We need to inculcate and imbibe the culture of honesty and be able to differentiate between avoiding tax and saving tax. Some weeks before the outbreak, the prime minister had said that only 1.5 crore Indians pay income tax, while 3.5 crore go abroad annually.

This habit of people finding ways to beat the system to avoid taxes is sad, resulting in considerable loss and shortfall in tax collections, which adversely affects our infrastructural upgrade.

Looking at the half-filled glass rather than the half-empty, COVID-19 should be considered a blessing in disguise to boost Indias powerhouse, and to strengthen the facets we as a collective body have been found wanting.

We should rise above all perceived personal prejudices and provide the urgently needed stimuli to become an economically strong India to reclaim our erstwhile position in the world.

We have numerous examples in history, wherein nations devastated by war, came out a winner by the resolve of the people and their dedication to the national cause.

For the next few years, adopting the Never Say Die philosophy and eloquence of morality and integrity would vault us into an orbit never ever seen before.

It is believed that the world will not be the same, post this crisis. Can we therefore reboot ourselves and make this crisis a tipping point to usher in a new galloping India or continue with the same old trot?
NI Mask Makers seek to expand

WATERLOO  Northern Iowa Mask Makers from Cedar Valley Makers, a nonprofit organization that runs the maker space in Waterloo, has produced 10,000 face masks using material donated by the University of Northern Iowa and local sewing enthusiasts.

The protective gear has been donated to local hospitals, long-term care facilities, doctors offices, firefighters, police officers and other first responders.

The group is gearing up to produce another 10,000 masks and is fundraising to purchase thousands of yards of material for $3,000. Donations can be made at https://members.cedarvalleymakers.org/donate.

Anyone with a sewing machine can sign up to help at https://tinyurl.com/yaswmtw4. Volunteers will be allowed to keep 10% of the masks they produce for their own use and to personally distribute another 20% to community members who are in a high-risk group. The remaining 70% of production will be distributed by Cedar Valley Makers.

Local organizations in need of face shields or face masks may make requests by contacting Cedar Valley Makers at info@cedarvalleymakers.org.

Northern Iowa Mask Makers was founded by Melissa Sanders and Emily Hess. Using 3D printed parts and parts cut from plastic totes donated by Target, they initially produced 500 face shields. Using fabric donated by American Color Imaging in Cedar Falls, they made 62 washable reusable surgical gowns.

UnityPoint opens follow-up clinic

WATERLOO  UnityPoint Clinic has opened a follow-up clinic for patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the tent outside the Allen Hospital emergency department. It will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday.

The purpose is to maintain contact with patients to assess symptoms and determine if higher levels of care are required. Patients will be connected to this service after treatment at a respiratory illness clinic or other UnityPoint Health facility.

The follow-up will occur in one of three ways:

On-site visits to the tent to physically assess symptoms.

Communication through a secure text messaging system that includes instruction and guidance for self-monitoring of symptoms.

Stable patients may have a virtual visit with a primary care provider.

The tent was originally an extension of the Allen Hospital emergency department last month. With emergency volumes lower than expected, it has been repurposed for the follow-up clinic.

Patients experiencing respiratory illness symptoms such as fever, cough or shortness of breath or who have had contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 are urged to call (319) 833-5888. This will connect them with personnel at one of two dedicated respiratory illness clinics to be advised on next steps.

Farm Toy Show is canceled

DYERSVILLE - The 2020 Summer Farm Toy Show (formally June 5-6) in Dyersville is being canceled due to the coronavirus.

The National Farm Toy Museum remains closed to the public by state mandate, and the future is uncertain.

The tentative date for next years show is June 26-27, 2021.

Hudson Day canceled

HUDSON  Organizers of Hudson Days have decided to cancel this years celebration.

Our top priority is the safety and health of the citizens of Hudson and surrounding areas, officials said on a Facebook post Monday. We have made this decision to protect our community so we can have many more Hudson Days!

The committee is in the process of contacting sponsors, vendors, and entertainers to ensure our financial obligations are honored. Organizers vowed the celebration will return in 2021.

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By Express News Service

BHOPAL: A murder and dacoity convict lodged at Gwalior Central Jail in Madhya Pradesh allegedly cut off his genitals as "offering" to Lord Shiva inside the jail premises early on Tuesday.

The shocking incident happened at 6.30 am in the temple in the jail premises. The prisoner, identified as 30-year-old Vishnu Rajawat, used the sharp edge of a spoon to cut off his genitals.

Rajawat, who is undergoing a double life sentence, was rushed to the Gwalior District Hospital. He is stable now.

"Once his condition stabilizes, the surgeons at Gwalior District Hospital would perform the reconstructive surgery to restore the severed genital," Gwalior Central Jail superintendent Manoj Sahu said.

While justifying the outlandish act, the inmate had said he was ordered by Lord Shiva in the dream to perform the act.

"A case of attempted suicide has been registered against Rajawat at Bahorpur police station in Gwalior," added Sahu.

Hailing from the adjoining Bhind district, Rajawat has been housed in the jail since 2018. In 2019, he was convicted by a local court in a murder and dacoity case and awarded double life sentence.

The incident has exposed the state of security at the jail. "The jail is housing 3000 inmates with each sector having 400 inmates. It is very difficult to keep an eye on every inmate by guards or CCTV cameras by having them in every nook and cranny of the jail," said deputy jail superintendent Prabhat Kumar.
Uruguay Coronavirus Update - Coronavirus cases climb to 655, Total Deaths reaches to 17 on 04-May-2020

In Uruguay total confirmed cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) have increased to 655, while 17 people died due to the growing infection in the country.

Coronavirus (Covid-19) update from around the world:

Gujarat, 02-May-2020: Gujarat reported 333 new COVID-19 positive cases in the past 24 hours raising the total positive cases count to 5,054 in the state. While 262 deaths are reported so far as per Gujarat Health Department.

Tamil Nadu, 02-May-2020: Tamil Nadu government eases the restrictions in non-containment areas as per the Center's fresh guidelines on Covid-19 ongoing lockdown. Tamil Nadu government will allow the resumption of construction activity, road works, opening of SEZs, and some other from May 4 in non-containment areas in the state.

Mumbai, 02-May-2020: Mumbai reported 547 Covid-19 cases and 27 deaths today, raising the total cases of 8,172 and deaths to 322. Over 137 patients have been discharged today which increased the cured patient count to 1704. Public Health Department, Mumbai report provided the details of the patients in the state.

France: France is reporting higher number of deaths but but slightly fewer people with severe conditions were admitted into ICU in past fourth day. France reported 315 deaths last day as compared to 345 deaths the day earlier. In France 133,670 confirmed cases and 14,412 deaths reported so far.

Here are the latest cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in Uruguay:

Sr. No. Date Total Cases New Cases Total Deaths Deaths 1. 29-Apr-2020 625 5 15 0 2. 30-Apr-2020 643 18 17 2 3. 01-May-2020 648 5 17 0 4. 02-May-2020 652 4 17 0 5. 03-May-2020 655 3 17 0 6. 04-May-2020 655 0 17 0

TOP 10 Deaths by country due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak:



1. Europe (140,812)

2. North America (75,265)

3. USA (68,602)

4. Italy (28,884)

5. UK (28,446)

6. Spain (25,264)

7. France (24,895)

8. Asia (19,674)

9. South America (10,871)

10. Belgium (7,924)

Total Deaths Worldwide (248,555)

Globally till now over 248,555 people died due to the outbreak of deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19). The new infection and death cases are increasing fast. Authorities in the Uruguay and other countries are taking proper measures to contain the deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19).

As of now Europe is the worst affected country in the world with over 140,812 deaths and 1,460,196 confirmed cases.

Check latest update: Coronaviurs Covid-19 cases around the world
Cara De La Hoyde has revealed she is expecting a baby girl with husband Nathan Massey as they prepare to welcome their second child together.

The pregnant Love Island star, 29, shared a sweet picture on her Instagram page with her reality star beau as they made the gender reveal announcement.

The couple, who met on the ITV2 dating show, are already parents to their son Freddie, two, who they welcomed in December 2017.

Exciting! Cara De La Hoyde has revealed she is expecting a baby girl with husband Nathan Massey as they prepare to welcome their second child together

Sharing the announcement on her social media, Cara wrote: 'The secrets out. Finally someone for my team in this mad house.'

In March the reality star took to Instagram to announce the news, as she shared a shot of herself posing with her spouse and their toddler son Freddie.

Informing her followers that she had revealed the news to new!, she captioned the image, which showed Nathan kissing her bump as she kissed little Freddie: 'We are so excited to let you know our very nappy news in the latest @new_magazine.'

The snap, which garnered more than 20,000 likes in just 30 minutes, shows Cara wearing a blue blouse, which is opened at her stomach.

Aww: The pregnant Love Island star, 29, shared a sweet picture on her Instagram page with her reality star beau as they made the gender reveal announcement

Doting dad Nathan holds adorable little Freddie on his shoulders as he kisses his wife's stomach, while their fashionably dressed son planets a kiss on his mother.

In a previous interview with OK! magazine, Cara and Nathan revealed that they wanted to have a 'big' family, ideally with their first two children born together, then waiting until their offspring are attending school before having a third.

Cara and Nathan tied the knot in June while in Kent surrounded by family and friends and X Factors Scarlett Lee sang at the ceremony.

Big changes: Last month, reality star Nathan shared a video of himself and his family as he admitted that his Friday nights had 'changed a lot'

Expanding their family: Cara and Nathan have been detailing her pregnancy so far on her Instagram account

The happy gender reveal news comes after the star revealed she was struggling during the global pandemic.

In a candid post to her followers, Cara confessed she feels like she's missing out on all the best bits of her pregnancy and keeps forgetting she's got another child on the way in the midst of all of her other worries.

Cara said: 'I still keep forgetting that we've got another one on the way, and to be honest with you all I'm really not enjoying this pregnancy.

Doting mother: The reality star gave birth to the couple's first son Freddie in December 2017

'It's probably something that I shouldn't say out loud but I just wanted to let any other mums to be if their feeling the same way that I am too.

'I'm sure the mumsbrigade will moan & tell me not to be selfish and I'm lucky to be having and baby and that there is a global crisis going on.

'And I agree with all the statements but it's not taking away from the fact that I feel robbed of being able to enjoy this amazing time with my family & friends.

'Nothing I or anyone can do, just the way it is but thanks for listening & hopefully we might be free again by the time this one is nearly making an appearance'.

The TV star's followers confessed they had also been experiencing the same thing, missing their families and celebrating major landmarks with their friends.
SEATTLE (dpa-AFX) - Amazon's vice president Tim Bray has quit his job at the online retail giant over the recent firing of several employees who criticized the company over Coronavirus safety measures. 'I quit in dismay at Amazon firing whistleblowers who were making noise about warehouse employees frightened of Covid-19,' Bray wrote in a blog post published on his website. Bray described the firing of protesters as 'evidence of a vein of toxicity running through the company culture'. Bray said May 1st was his last day as a VP and senior Engineer at Amazon Web Services, after more than five years in the role. The resignation decision will probably cost him more than $1 million in loss of salary and unvested Amazon stock, 'not to mention the best job I ever had,' he said. In recent weeks, Amazon has terminated several warehouse workers, who had been vocal about the company's response to coronavirus, as well as two corporate employees, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, who criticized Amazon's climate stance. Amazon reportedly had said the workers were fired for violating corporate policy forbidding them from speaking publicly about internal matters. 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.
A group of Conservative MPs are calling for the Church of England to allow small-scale funerals in churches amid lockdown restrictions.

Churches shut down in March amid safety concerns over the spread of coronavirus, with current social distancing rules permitting funerals only at crematoriums or at the graveside.

A letter signed by 36 MPs suggests clergy should be allowed into churches to officiate services while adhering to safety procedures.

The letter, addressed to Lord Archbishops and Diocesan Bishops of the Church of England, voices concerns that 'the wishes of the deceased and bereaved are not being fulfilled with a proper committal in the church of their wish'.

It adds that the Church should 'consider, most intently, the pain and anguish of those families unable to have a funeral'.

Churches shut down in March amid safety concerns over the spread of coronavirus, with current social distancing rules permitting funerals only at crematoriums or at the graveside (file image)

Chris Loder, MP for West Dorset, co-signed the letter asking for the 'wishes of the deceased and bereaved' to be fulfilled 'by allowing clergy back into their churches to provide funerals'

The letter from Conservatives, organised by West Dorset MP Chris Loder and signed by 36 colleagues, said: 'The grief of bereavement is being translated to trauma in many cases, especially where it is resulting in the tragedy of direct cremation.

'The Government guidance is clear: funerals, with proper measures in place, are permitted and indeed encouraged.'

THE 36 MPs WHO SIGNED THE LETTER Sir David Amess MP

Lee Anderson MP

Steve Baker MP

Scott Benton MP

Bob Blackman MP

Crispin Blunt MP

Sir Peter Bottomley MP

Sir Graham Brady MP

Simon Fell MP

Dr Liam Fox MP

Sir Roger Gale MP

Andrew Griffith MP

Richard Holden MP

Ranil Jayawardena MP

Sir Bernard Jenkin MP

Danny Kruger MP

Julian Lewis MP

Jack Lopresti MP

Jonathan Lord MP

Tim Loughton MP

Anthony Mangnall MP

Jerome Mayhew MP

Jason McCartney MP

Stephen Metcalfe MP

Robbie Moore MP

Anne Marie Morris MP

Sir Bob Neill MP

Tom Randall MP

Andrew Rosindell MP

Alexander Stafford MP

James Sunderland MP

Sir Desmond Swayne MP

Martin Vickers MP

Theresa Villiers MP

Craig Whittaker MP

Jacob Young MP Advertisement

They urged bishops to 'consider, most intently, the pain and anguish of those families unable to have a funeral' and allow their 'compassion to shine through' when considering the issue.

The Rev Dr Brendan McCarthy, the Church of England's adviser on healthcare policy, said: 'The death of a loved one is painful under any circumstances and the current situation has made this all the more difficult for those who have been bereaved.

'The House of Bishops has been meeting frequently and advice is reviewed regularly and updated as circumstances allow.

'The Church of England has consistently stated that it will always ensure that, where requested, a priest is present to conduct a funeral service, either at a crematorium or at the churchyard.

'Any suggestion that the Church of England is responsible for 'direct cremation' could not be further from the truth - that is against both Government guidance and the Church's commitment to provide pastoral care for all.

'The advice not to conduct funeral services in church buildings - and it is advice, not instruction - was given because of concerns about parishes having capacity to conduct funerals safely, including being able to deep-clean church buildings between services.'

It comes as the daily number of coronavirus deaths in the UK reached a five-week low of 229 on May 4, but separate figures show a high number of excess deaths in England.

An EU monitoring project reported that England has had the worst excess death rate in Europe during the coronavirus pandemic.

Excess death rates show how many more people have died than would usually be expected for the time of year.

A letter signed by 36 MPs suggests clergy should be allowed into churches to officiate services while adhering to safety procedures

Jamie Livingston (centre), a 25-year-old security officer, helps to carry the coffin of his mother, care worker Janet Livingston, 60, who died of COVID-19, as it arrives at the Parkgrove Crematorium near the village of Friockheim, Scotland, May 4

This chart shows the daily number of coronavirus deaths in the UK. It reached a five-week low of 229 on May 4, but separate figures show a high number of excess deaths in England

This chart shows the excess death rate of ten European nations as calculated by EU-backed monitoring project EuroMOMO, with England in a clear lead. The figures are for Week 16, which ended April 19

The figures are seen as a clue to the number of 'hidden' coronavirus deaths, with official figures almost certain to be incomplete.

Many countries have seen a spike in excess deaths during the pandemic, but figures collected by EU-backed database EuroMOMO show England performing worse than Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or any other European country

EuroMOMO assigns a so-called Z-score to all the countries in its database, showing the deviation from a five-year average of deaths.

England's Z-score peaked at 44.1, according to the monitoring project, with Spain in second place at 34.7.


Doctors on the frontline are ready to fight COVID-19. Photo: Nguyen Tien Anh Tuan





The made in Vietnam SARS-CoV-2 test kits are successfully manufactured. Photo: Cong Dat / VNP





Disinfection is carried out regularly in hospitals treating COVID-19 infected patients nationwide. Photo: Nguyen Tien Anh Tuan





Taking care of a COVID-19 patient at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases. Photo: Ngoc Thanh





Showing students at Hanoi Medical University how to do anti- COVID-19 exercises. Photo: Cong Dat / VNP





Medical worker Nguyen Thanh Binh has deep facial creases after wearing masks

for 4 hours at the quarantine site at FPT University, Hanoi. Photo: Nguyen Tien Anh Tuan





Medical workers take infection risks because they have to take patients samples for testing. Photo: Nguyen Tien Anh Tuan





A patient is under special care at the negative pressure room in the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases. Photo: Phong Son





The youngest COVID-19. patient in Vietnam is discharged from the hospital. Photo: Cong Dat / VNP





COVID-19 patients are happy on the day they recover and are discharged from the hospital. Photo: Phong Son
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A large international team of researchers has conducted an extensive genetic analysis of lions, and in so doing, has learned about their evolutionary history. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes how they confirmed long-term divisions between extant lion populations and showed genetic diversity among modern samples.

Prior research has shown that historically, lions have lived in many parts of the word, even in America. Most such species went extinct, however, including the cave lions that once roamed what is now Eurasia approximately 15,000 years ago. Today, lions live in parts of Africa and India and are endangeredjust 20,000 African lions remain in the wild today, and their numbers are dwindling. In this new effort, the researchers carried out an extensive examination of the lion genome as part of an effort to save them from extinction.

The work involved analyzing the genomes of 20 specimens, including the cave lion and 12 historic lines that were known to live sometime between the 15th and 20th centuriesand six specimens from modern African and Asiatic lions.

One of the major findings was that modern lions and several extinct lions shared a common ancestor. They also found that approximately 70,000 years ago, two unique lineages of modern lion lineages emergedand that cave lions lived in cold climates.

The researchers note that prior studies of the lion genome involved analysis of mitochondrial DNAin this study, they went much further by looking at the whole genomesome of which was derived from 30,00-year-old lion fossils. They learned that modern lines split off from two different lineages in Africaone in northern parts of Africa, the other in the south.

The researchers also found that the Asiatic lions living in the Gir forest in India have low genetic diversity due to their small population. And they found that the Asiatic lions evolved from the northern range lions in Africa, though they still had remnants of southern lions in their genome. They did not find any evidence of African lions being introduced into India in modern times. The researchers suggest their findings will help with lion conservation efforts in both India and Africa.

Explore further Improving assessments of an endangered lion population in India

More information: Marc de Manuel et al. The evolutionary history of extinct and living lions, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2020). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Marc de Manuel et al. The evolutionary history of extinct and living lions,(2020). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1919423117

 2020 Science X Network
Even though the state issued curfew passes to grocery shops and milk parlours, there was a lot of chaos and locals did not know which shops were open and selling essentials in their area. Getting staples and vegetables became risky because of the coronavirus scare and the lack of awareness about running services in our area, says Kumar. So Kumar and three of his other from IIT Gandhinagar ...

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Derek Richard Roberts, 45, was arrested on Sunday and charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill

Florida authorities detained a man who shot six rounds from his rifle at teens in an attempt to 'make awareness' at how loud they had been riding their dirt bikes.

Derek Richard Roberts, 45, was arrested on Sunday and charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill.

According to a Monday release from the Marion County Sheriff's Office, deputies responded to Roberts' home after he reported multiple reckless vehicles in his neighborhood.

Deputies spoke with a father of one of the juveniles at the scene and the parent told law enforcement that a man - later identified as Roberts - had fired multiple rounds ar the group.

Roberts told deputies that the dirt bikes had been driving up and down the roadway and 'tormenting the neighborhood,' according to authorities. He also explained to authorities that one of the juveniles threatened him and caused his dog to run into a fence.

When deputies asked Robert about the firing of his weapon, the man told authorities: 'I shot six rounds in my yard, just to make awareness' (stock photo)

When deputies asked Robert about the firing of his weapon, the man told authorities: 'I shot six rounds in my yard, just to make awareness.'

A deputy on the scene retrieved the gun and found the spent castings.

Security footage from the scene showed Roberts in a verbal altercation with the juvenile, before the man told the group to 'wait right here.'

It was then that the man became in possession of an AR-15, the release states.

The Sheriff's Office determined that the shots fired by the gun were not 'directly at the ground' and were in the general vicinity of where the group was located.

Roberts was taken to the Marion County Jail and is currently waiting his first appearance in court, the release states.
Bottom Line: JAMA is commemorating 40 years of publishing A Piece of My Mind essays with this theme issue of 40 favorite essays from the past 10 years. The essays are often personal vignettes in which physicians discuss the human side of medicine. This editorial highlights some of the topics in the essays. More than 1,300 essays have been published over 40 years.

###

Authors: Preeti Malani, M.D., M.S.J., of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and an associate JAMA editor, is the corresponding author.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

Media advisory: The full editorial is linked to this news release.

(doi:10.1001/jama.2020.3760)

Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflicts of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.
Omilia, a company headquartered in Cyprus that has built a conversational AI for customer support, has raised $20 million in its first ever funding round, having been bootstrapped since 2002.

Backing comes from Grafton Capital and will be used to invest in further growth, after Omilia grew revenue by "more than" 100% in 2019, with the majority of new customers based in the U.S.

Founded by Dimitris Vassos (CEO and Chief Architect), Pelias Ioannidis (Partner and CFO) and John Nikolaidis (Partner and Chief Commercial Officer), Omilia offers a customer care virtual assistant that uses machine learning to offer what it claims is a more "human-like" experience.

It works on all platforms  phone, web chat, social networks, SMS, email, smart speakers and apps  and integrates with existing customer support systems. The technology has also been adapted for 21 languages, including regional dialects and accents.

"Having seen first-hand the pain points -- but also the many benefits -- of speech technology, we founded Omilia to effectively destroy the traditional IVR [interactive voice response technology], which everyone loved to hate, and re-invent it as a truly customer-centric solution," Omilia co-founder Dimitris Vassos tells me. "Our mission was to evolve and adapt the technology so that users don't have to".

When Omilia first launched, Vassos says that although speech recognition tech was pitched as a way to increase call centre efficiency, many companies didnt know what to do with it or how to get the best from it.

"They were just putting it out into the market and relying on users to adapt," he recalls. "This led to what we see in many call centres today: a clunky, automated and frustrating experience. 'Press 1 or say balance' to get your balance... and so on. This not only gives customers a poor opinion of brands, but it lowers trust, and doesnt actually solve the problem of call centre demand. With such systems, people get frustrated and press 0 or repeatedly say 'advisor' until theyre connected with a human".

In response, the Omilia team aimed to build a system that people didnt need to learn or adapt to, and one that was as close to speaking to a human as possible. The resulting product combines a number of technologies into a single omni-channel conversational platform called DiaManT.

Story continues

"It uses a natural language engine, trained via machine learning, to listen and respond to queries and uses voice biometrics to verify callers as they speak," explains the Omilia CEO. "Each process has been built in such a way that the technology is invisible to the final user; as far as they know, theyre getting great customer care, whether thats from a machine or a human".

Enterprise-friendly, DiaManT can either be installed on-premise or via the Omilia Cloud Platform, and claims to be agnostic with regards to which contact centre provider or systems a company is using.

Having been trained on "tens of millions" of interactions across multiple industries, Vassos says Omilias technology already understands thousands of queries across healthcare, banking, insurance, travel and more, and can easily be tailored to include new or different business rules.

"Plus, because it learns via machine learning, the longer its used within these businesses, the more queries and conversations its able to handle," he says. "For instance, if an insurer is getting an increase in calls due to the coronavirus, Omilia knows enough about the business rules to answer and help customers now while constantly evolving as the virus and its impact evolve".

In addition, Omilias platform features "deepVB technology," which uses voice biometrics to verify callers. The deepVB engine samples the speakers voice, and computes the speakers voiceprint in real-time. DiaManT then compares the speakers current voiceprint with the verified voiceprint it has stored.

"This removes the need for the caller to verify their identity at various points in the call," adds Vassos. "The advantage of deepVB over competitive offerings is that we can do a very accurate reading with very little speech sample, and in the background. Users don't need to say anything special. Therefore, we can seamlessly blend this technology in our AI voice bots".

Beyond Omilias full enterprise product, the company offers a "plug-and-play" conversational AI solution dubbed "miniApps," which can be deployed without any coding or training. They consist of independent natural language components, configurable to different business rules and designed to handle single tasks. Examples include recognising when customers are providing addresses, telephone numbers and dates of birth; credit card details; arranging appointments, confirming information and offering generic multiple choice options.

Meanwhile, Vassos describes Omilia's typical customer as any company providing front-facing customer care, but says to date this has mainly been banks, insurance firms, telecoms, healthcare, and travel companies.

An earlier version of this article wrongly stated that Omilia is headquartered in Greece. The company's HQ is in Cyprus.
Three top leaders who served alongside Russell Moore at the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) since the start of his presidency have left the Southern Baptist entity over the past six months.

Outgoing vice presidents Phillip Bethancourt and Daniel Darling and former director Andrew Walker embodied key emphases of the ERLC in recent years, as it developed new ways to equip churches to address racial justice, sexual abuse, and societal pressures around marriage and family.

The ERLC said in a news release that its mission continues uninterrupted, the staff changes providing an opportunity to strengthen the work of the organization.

Bethancourtwho stepped down from his position as executive vice president on April 26 to become pastor of Central Church in College Station, Texascited the trios work as evidence of a generational shift on how Southern Baptists engage the public square.

Days before Bethancourts departure, Darling, the ERLC vice president for communications, announced he too would be leaving, taking on a position as senior vice president for communications at the National Religious Broadcasters. Walker, former director of research and senior fellow in Christian ethics, departed October 31 to become a full-time ethics professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

To fill their roles, the ERLC named former vice president for operations and chief of staff Daniel Patterson as the new executive vice president and spread Walkers responsibilities among other staff. Darlings replacement has not been announced.

Several additional staff shifts were announced last week, including the tapping of Travis Wussow, general counsel and vice president for public policy, to also lead the ERLCs effort to combat sexual abuse in churches. Elizabeth Graham now leads womens and pro-life initiatives, while Brent Leatherwood has become chief of staff.

The ERLC said the moves are unrelated to the scrutiny it has faced from some quarters of the nations largest Protestant denomination, including a newly formed Conservative Baptist Network. In February, an SBC Executive Committee task force was appointed to study past and present activities of the ERLC in light of ongoing concerns over its political positions.

The ERLCs board of trustees opposed the move as unwarranted, divisive, and disrespectful, suggesting it raised undue suspicion toward the ERLC under Moore. The Executive Committee responded and said, This is not an attempt to remove Dr. Moore or to direct his staff.

Since becoming president in 2013, Moore has ushered in a new era at the ERLC. When his predecessor Richard Land took office in 1988, most of Moores staffincluding those three early appointeeswerent even out of elementary school.

Bethancourt was Moores top lieutenant, coordinating the staff and playing a central role in ERLC events, including a 2018 conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination, which drew 5,000 attendees and half a million views online, and a 2015 conference on the gospel and politics, held less than two months after the US Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage.

Over the past two years, Bethancourt led the ERLCs campaign against sexual abuse. He made a motion at the 2018 SBC annual meeting requesting a task force for helping churches protect themselves against sexual predators. When SBC president J. D. Greear formed an abuse study group in conjunction with the ERLC, Bethancourt took the lead in working with survivors and experts, who advised the SBC leading up to a bylaw change regarding abuse in 2019.

My big priority was to put our team in a position to thrive to carry out the mission and the vision of the organization, said Bethancourt, who spoke to CT earlier about transitioning to a new pastor role during the pandemic.

Darling oversaw a shift in the media the ERLC used to communicate its message. Before his arrival, a print magazine and radio program were anchors of the commissions communications strategy. Todaywith the magazine reimagined and the radio program gonethe ERLC produces podcasts, has a redesigned website, and is nearing 40,000 Twitter followers.

Walker became a major Christian spokesman on cutting-edge ethical issues. The same year the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, he published Marriage Is: How Marriage Transforms Society and Cultivates Human Flourishing. His 2017 book God and the Transgender Debate won The Gospel Coalitions public theology award.

While Land was known as a reliable supporter of Republican politicians, Moore and his administration were vocal critics of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. At times, political stances from Moores ERLC made waves among Southern Baptists. In 2017, the SBC Executive Committee formed an ad hoc committee to study reports that churches were withholding funds from the denominations Cooperative Program, in part over the ERLCs perceived criticism of Trump supporters. Eventually, the committee reported little to no impact: Less than .0016 percent of Southern Baptist churches had withheld funds.

The Executive Committee is once again considering ongoing concerns related to the ERLC, with a report expected in September. Among the commissions critics over the past year have been the Calvinist group Founders Ministries, which took issue with the ERLCs alleged advocacy of critical race theory, and the newly launched Conservative Baptist Network, which told CT in March the network has heard from numerous churches across our nation and Southern Baptist family who have serious concerns with some the ERLCs positions.

Meanwhile, the ERLC says staff changes are part of the life cycle of any healthy organization and reflect Gods ongoing work in the lives of its staffnot a response to external pressures.

The new roles assumed by departing staff are perfect fits for the way God has equipped us, Bethancourt said. One of the awesome things about the ERLC is that weve always seen ourselves as an equipping and sending organization that wants to raise up leaders, multiply them, and send them out.

Over the next two years, the ERLC plans to use its retooled staff to continue emphases on protecting religious liberty and combatting sexual abuse while also promoting unity among the body of Christ during the presidential election cycle and addressing new frontiers in technology like artificial intelligence, according to the ERLCs 2020 Cooperative Program Ministry Report to the Executive Committee.

The mission doesnt really change when staff members change, Patterson told Christianity Today. The mission has always been being a people focused on the gospel and speaking to our churches and from our churches into the public square.

In that vein, the rising class of ERLC leaders will have to navigate the latest cultural challenges. Wussow, for instance, will shepherd the anti-sexual-abuse campaign to the end of Greears SBC presidential termextended a year because of the cancellation of this years SBC annual meeting over COVID-19.

Creative director Jason Thacker was named the ERLC chair of research in technology following publication of his book The Age of AI. Elizabeth Graham will shepherd pro-life initiatives leading up to the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Courts Roe v. Wade decision in 2023.

Moore said in the ERLC release, What was needed was a shifting of additional responsibilities, not the hiring of new people, which turns out to be an additional blessing in this time of our countrys great economic distress.

David Roach is a writer in Nashville, Tennessee.
Workers of the Calzaturificio M.G.T shoe factory in Castelnuovo Vomano, central Italy, return to work, on May 4, 2020. (Domenico Stinellis/AP Photo)

As Italy Eases Lockdown, US Haltingly Lifts Some Restrictions

Millions of people were allowed to return to work in Italy on May 4 as Europes longest CCP virus lockdown started to ease, while the United States took halting steps to lift some of its own restrictions even as tens of thousands of new cases were reported every day.

In Washington, the Senate was convening for the first time since March, while dozens of people in Florida were waiting before sunrise for the 7 a.m. opening of Clearwater Beach. In South Dakota, a pork processing plant took its first steps toward reopening after being shuttered after more than 800 employees were infected with CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

Louisiana lawmakers were also restarting their legislatureeven as they feuded over whether they should return at all.

Political battles have become increasingly embedded in CCP virus policy in the United States. In Louisiana, Republican legislators irritated by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards decision to extend Louisianas stay-at-home order through May 15 were eager to return to work.

Beachgoers sunbathe near a beach rules sign after Clearwater Beach officially reopened to the public in Clearwater Beach, Fla., on May 4, 2020. (Chris OMeara/AP Photo)

But Democrats saw things differently: It could be a devastating blow to the strides made and to the safety of our residents, our staff and members if we returned to business as usual prematurely, Democratic leaders wrote in a letter.

More than 29,000 people in Louisiana have tested positive for the CCP virus, and 1,969 people have died, according to state health department data released Sunday. The true number of infections is thought to be far higher.

With pressure growing in many countries for more measures to restart the economy, politicians also were trying to boost funding for research into a vaccine for COVID-19. There are hopes that one could be available in months, but many scientists warn it could take much longer.

Italy, the first European country hit by the pandemic and a nation with one of the worlds highest death tolls, started stirring after its two-month shutdown. In all, 4.4 million Italians were able to return to work, and restrictions on movement eased.

Traffic in downtown Rome picked up, construction sites and manufacturing operations resumed, parks reopened, and flower vendors returned to the Campo dei Fiori market for the first time since March 11.

A couple wear masks as they enjoy the sun in park full of flowers, in Milan, Italy, on May 4, 2020. (Antonio Calanni/AP Photo)

Its something that brings happiness and joy, and people have been missing that these days, vendor Stefano Fulvi said. He doesnt expect to break even anytime soon, but you have to take the risk at some point.

But Europeans new-found freedoms are limited as officials are wary of setting off a second wave of infections.

In Italy, mourners were able to attend funerals, but services were limited to 15 people and there was still no word on when Masses will resume. Restaurants scrubbed their floors in preparation for take-out service, but sit-down service was several weeks away.

Southern Italy braced for the return of students and workers who were trapped in the hard-hit north when the lockdown took effect. Some regional governors said they would require anyone arriving home to go into quarantine for two weeks.

Its a new page that we must write together, with trust and responsibility, Premier Giuseppe Conte said in a message to Italians.

Belgium allowed some companies to open offices to employees, though remote work was still encouraged. Like Italians, Greeks, Spaniards, and many others in Europe, Belgians were told to wear masks on public transport.

A coffee shop opens for takeaway in Rome, Italy, on May 4, 2020. (Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP)

Italians still have to carry certifications explaining why they are out. Greece, which began lifting its seven-week lockdown Monday, dropped a similar requirement for people to send a text message or carry a self-written permit justifying being outdoors.

People in hard-hit Spain ventured out for the first time for haircuts or food take-outs, but many small shops were still closed as owners worked on meeting strict health and hygiene guidelines. Neighboring Portugal also eased its confinement measures and allowed small stores to open.

On Europes western edge, Iceland reopened many of its businesses after the country tamed its CCP virus outbreak.

In the Middle East, Lebanon was allowing restaurants to open at 30 percent capacity during the day starting Monday. But many business owners said they wont reopen because they would be losing more money if they operate under such restrictions in a faltering economy. Cafes, clubs, and bars have been ordered to stay shut through June.

India allowed some economic activities to resume after a five-week halt, even as the pace of infections has slightly accelerated. The lockdown has achieved a slowdown in the spread of the CCP virus but has caused immense hardship for Indias poor.

Customers stand on circles marked on the ground to maintain social distance as they wait to enter the Reliance Mart mall in Ahmedabad, India, on March 26, 2020. (Sam Panthaky /AFP via Getty Images)

An estimated 1.5 million South Africans returned to work after a five-week lockdown. The mining, manufacturing, and select retail sectors began reopening with up to 30 percent of their workforce. Trains, buses, and private minibus taxis resumed operations with reduced occupancy, and all South Africans must wear face masks in public.

Russia reported a steady rise in the number of infections, fueling concerns the nations hospitals could be overwhelmed. Authorities say that broader testing has contributed to a surge. Russias economy has been partially shut since late March, and lockdown measures have been extended through May 11.

Governments around the world have reported 3.5 million infections and more than 247,000 deaths, including more than 67,000 dead in the United States, according to a count by Johns Hopkins University. Deliberately concealed outbreaks, low testing rates, and the severe strain the disease has placed on health care systems mean the true scale of the pandemic is undoubtedly much greater.

Staff wearing hazmat suits are checking the temperature of a driver at a customs checkpoint on the border with Russia at Suifenhe, China, on May 1, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

On Monday, an alliance of world leaders was holding a virtual summit hoping to drum up around 4 billion euros ($4.37 billion) for vaccine research, some 2 billion euros for treatments and 1.5 billion euros for testing. Officials say that amount is just the start.

The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Norway, and top European Union officials said that money raised will be channeled mostly through recognized global health organizations. The EUs executive Commission had hoped that the United States would take part, but it remained unclear what role, if any, Washington might play in the donor conference.

Germanys health minister said there are promising developments but warned that developing vaccines is one of the biggest challenges in medicine.

I would be glad if we succeeded in a few months, but I think we must remain realistic, Jens Spahn told ARD television on Sunday. It can also take years.

By Nicole Winfield and Tim Sullivan

Epoch Times staff contributed to this report.
Caracas, May 5 : Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said that authorities have arrested two US citizens among a group of "mercenaries", following an attempted maritime invasion.

The two Americans, Airan Berry, 41, and Luke Denman, 34, were employees of a Florida-based security company called Silvercorp, whose owner has claimed responsibility for the invasion attempt, Maduro said on Monday in a televised address.

During the address, Maduro also showed their passports and other identification documents.

The armed incursion took place on Sunday in the port of La Guaira, 30 km north of the capital Caracas, which, according to Venezuelan officials, was aimed to overthrow the government of Maduro.

Authorities blamed Colombia and the US for plotting the incursion.

Officials from both countries have denied the allegation.

In a statement on Monday, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry also noted that the operation "took place in the midst of a global pandemic, disregarding the call of the (UN) secretary-general for a cessation of hostilities in the world".
UK applications for fruit and veg picking jobs have soared. (Eddie Keogh/Reuters)

British people are now more likely than migrants to search for jobs on UK fruit farms, new figures suggest.

Data from Indeed shows UK nationals have overtaken jobseekers abroad in their interest in such agricultural work for the first time in at least four years.

Analysis of search trends on the major jobs site shows soaring interest among Brits in roles that UK farms and employment agencies have traditionally struggled to fill with domestic applicants.

The figures point to an exodus from Britains empty restaurants and bars to its farms, with former hospitality workers among the most likely to search for fruit-picking roles.

Farming chiefs said a recruitment drive for UK nationals had received a fantastic response, as the sector struggles with lower migrant labour flows and growing demand for UK food.

The growing migrant labour gap

Almost all of Britains seasonal workforce in horticulture is typically made up of EU nationals, with agencies directly recruiting overseas. Migrants also make up a large proportion of permanent roles in many parts of Britains agricultural and food industries.

But the coronavirus is severely limiting migrant worker numbers, sparking a recruitment drive at home. Many would-be migrants are either unwilling or unable to move to fill seasonal roles because of the virus and travel curbs, despite UK and EU efforts to facilitate their movement.

READ MORE: Furloughed staff urged to pick fruit and veg to fill migrant labour gap

Official figures suggest seasonal migrant farm labour is currently down by around two-thirds on typical levels. The shortages are a significant challenge for farms as demand has soared for fresh fruit and vegetables during the crisis.

The industry has stepped up domestic recruitment, with ministers appealing to millions of furloughed and laid-off workers to fill temporary roles. The government has co-launched a Pick for Britain recruitment site alongside agricultural leaders.

Signs recruitment drive could pay off

Story continues

The number of searches for fruit picking roles per million total UK total job searches on Indeed. (Indeed)

Indeed figures published on Tuesday mark an early sign the recruitment effort could pay off, not only attracting Brits but also boosting migrant interest. Interest soared as the campaign was launched and the UK went into lockdown.

Search levels for fruit picking roles as a share of total searches for UK jobs were 160 times higher at the end of April than the start of March.

The share of all UK-based jobseekers using Indeed who were looking for fruit picking roles soared by 234% in April year-on-year. The share of all overseas users of the UK site who searched for similar roles was also up though less sharply  71% higher.

Tom Bradshaw, vice-president of the National Farmers Union, told Yahoo Finance UK it had been working closely with the government to boost domestic recruitment. He said he expected a further announcement this week on the governments recruitment drive.

We have already seen a fantastic response from the public wanting to pick for Britain this summer. Farmers are incredibly proud to be producing food for the nation at this crucial time, but there are challenges and the support of the British public is incredibly valued, added Bradshaw.

Some scepticism remains in the sector about UK labour however. Employers often complain UK recruits fail to turn up to new jobs, or only last a few days doing long shifts of physically demanding, typically low-paid work.

Exodus from restaurants to fields

Indeed data also shows strong interest from workers with backgrounds in Britains hospitality sector, one of the most hobbled by the governments lockdown to contain the virus.

Analysis of CV data shows the previous jobs that have seen the biggest rise in applications for fruit picking roles. Head chef, chef, sous-chef and bartender were the top four. Painters, electricians, carpenters and groundworkers were also in the top 10.

READ MORE: UK faced perfect storm picking fruit and veg even before COVID-19 hit

Jobs related to food and hospitality have been severely impacted by shutdowns and our data suggests that some people who worked in these industries  as well as construction, which has ground to a near halt  are turning to fruit picker roles as a lifeline, said Jack Kennedy, UK economist at Indeed.

He said search levels overall were extraordinarily high, adding: The virus has turned the labour market on its head.
The road to Energy Efficiency  Our team are ready to help by providing specific, time sensitive, measurable targets at every stage of the process.

Over the last 12 months, energy prices throughout the UK have risen by an average of almost a third, while an increase in the Climate Change Levy means that companies across Britain are under pressure to achieve greater energy efficiency. Thats particularly true for refrigeration systems, where energy accounts for approximately 60% - 80% of total spend over the life of the plant.

With that in mind, Star Refrigeration have devised a roadmap for plant owners who wish to operate as efficiently as possible. The roadmap has been split into six different stages, half of which apply to those looking to construct a new facility and half of which are more geared towards optimising the energy consumption of an existing refrigeration system.



Planning - This targets the site location and its layout, reducing the heat load in the store, the product throughput and the temperature variation this incurs and the ambient design temperature.

Building construction - This targets the materials used in the building and the configuration of its doors, the jointing and vapour seals on individual panels and the overall minimisation of heat ingress.

Refrigeration system and design- This targets the use of the correct system for the sites specific needs, including appropriate sizing, functionality, refrigerant type and defrosting methodology, as well as the inclusion of performance-enhancing technologies and controls. Designing an optimised cooling system from the outset is vital in order to achieve the UKs latest energy performance Best Practice figures for cold and chill refrigeration facilities released at the International Institute of Refrigeration Conference in Montreal in September 2019.

Maintenance. This targets a proactive maintenance regime and a robust response plan, both of which are geared towards detecting potential problems at an early stage, avoiding breakdowns and ensuring system longevity.

System analysis and monitoring. This targets ongoing collection of data about the systems performance and its power consumption, the analysis of which can yield benchmarks and reports that can inform system feedback to identify possible improvements and energy and carbon savings.

Systems and controls optimisation. This targets the optimisation of every aspect of your plants day-to-day running, via the use of the reports and benchmarks gathered in the previous point to adjust setpoints and address underperforming equipment.

David Wallace, Star Refrigerations Director of Sales, said, We want customers to see that making small changes throughout the whole process can have a significant impact when implemented right across the board. For example, even something as simple as raising the temperature setpoint of a cold store facility by a single degree can result in a 2-3% increase in overall efficiency. When similar optimisation measures are brought in at all stage of a plants life  from planning, design and construction to maintenance and performance  the results can be quite incredible. Our roadmap gives a clear route to achieving success through practical insight into effective techniques which have been proven to reduce energy costs and carbon emissions

Our team are ready to help by providing specific, time sensitive, measurable targets at every stage of the process.

For more information about Star Refrigerations roadmap to an energy-efficient temperature-controlled storage facility, visit http://www.star-ref.co.uk/smart-thinking/minimising-cold-chill-storage-energy-consumption-and-carbon-emissions/
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Linkedin Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, May 5, 2020 12:05 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd6010c2 1 Politics COVID-19,coronavirus,house-of-representatives,virus-corona,virus-korona-indonesia,Perppu,Lawmakers,DPR,plenary-meeting Free

The House of Representatives budget committee has agreed to endorse Regulation in Liew of Law (Perppu) No. 1/2020 on COVID-19 pandemic response amid public outcry over contentious articles that would grant the government the power to allocate large sums of money and a legal shield protecting the execution.

Despite agreeing to endorse the regulation in a plenary meeting scheduled for May 12, the House members, however, asked the government to discuss the 2021 state budget with the House through the normal process, not through a presidential regulation (Perpres), like the revision to the 2020 budget.

"For the 2021 state budget, we want the government's commitment to discuss it with the House as usual, Supriyanto of the Gerindra Party said in a virtual meeting with government representatives on Monday.

Some Gerindra faction lawmakers, as well as those of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) previously voiced their objections against the executive order, raising concerns that it could overstep the Houses right to deliberate the state budget.

The lawmakers also previously objected to Article 27 on government officials' impunity.

Read also: House grills govt over unconstitutional Perppu

However, given the urgency, both factions agreed to discuss the Perppu in a plenary session.

"COVID-19 has had great impacts on health, economics and public welfare. Therefore, we understand the urgency of this regulation," Dolfie Othniel Frederic Palit of the PDI-P said.

The Perppu allows the government to extend the state budget deficit beyond the legal cap of 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and allocate the spending for programs related to COVID-19 handling without the approval of the House. The spending will be declared costs to save the country from the outbreak, and any officials executing the related policies in good faith and according to the law cannot be subject to criminal or civil charges.

It has sparked anger among civil groups that challenged the Perppu at the Constitutional Court over fears that it could lead to budget misappropriation and embezzlement if passed. In their petition filed with the court on April 9, the groups demanded the revocation of contentious provisions stipulating that officials responsible for fiscal and monetary policies cannot be criminally charged when using the state budget to counter the negative economic impacts of the health crisis.

Read also: Indonesias COVID-19 stimulus playbook explained

Hendrawan Supratikno of the PDI-P said the party would support the government's efforts to weather the outbreak impacts. However, he reminded that the Constitution stipulates that "all citizens are equal under the law"

"Article 27 [of the Perppu] is a modification of Article 48 Law No. 9/2016 on the prevention and resolution of financial system crises. There should be additional sentences in the Perppu that give assertion that they cannot go against the law unless there is an abuse of authority' so that policymakers be careful, he said.

In addition to the government coalition, parties outside the coalition, namely the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the Democratic Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN) have also agreed to ratify the Perppu into law.

"Regarding Article 27, PAN thinks that it does not violate any legal product because we already have it in existing legal products," Eko Patrio of PAN said.
The Princess Royal has expressed her admiration for healthcare workers in a message to mark International Day of the Midwife which celebrates the profession.

Princess Anne, 69, who is patron of the Royal College of Midwives, shared a message of support in a video clip posted on the Royal Family's Instagram page.

The Princess Royal said she is 'always struck' by 'sense of hope and new beginnings' in maternity wards, explaining: 'Even in these difficult times I'm sure you are doling all you can to allay anxiety and concern, and ensure that joy and hope pervade.'

She appeared to be speaking from her manor house in Gatcombe Park estate in Gloucestershire, where she is isolating. The land is also home to her daughter Zara Tindall, 38, and Peter Phillips, 42, and their families.

Princess Anne, 69, heaped praise on NHS workers as she shared a message to celebrate International Day of the Midwife tday

The Princess Royal recalled past visits to maternity wards across the country and said she was 'always struck' by the 'sense of hope and new beginnings' (pictured, visiting the Royal Cornwall Hospital in July 2019)

In the clip, Princess Anne said she was sending her 'best wishes' with nurses across the UK for today, but acknowleged the celebration was far from conventional.

She said: 'It will be a very different International day of the midwife this year.

'In previous years, there has always been the opportunity to celebrate your profession and fellowship together. This year, those plans have had to be put on hold.'

She added: 'In many ways though, despite not being able to come together as a profession you have never been more united.'

As the patron of the Royal College of Midwives, Princess Anne thanked nurses and healthcare professionals for their hard work amid the coronavirus pandemic

In the message, which was shared on the Royal Family's Instagram account this morning, the Princess Royal praised midwives for 'rising to the challenges' they face amidst the coronavirus pandemic

The Princess Royal thanked those returning to practice from academia and retirement, as well as students who may find themselves in the workplace earlier than anticipated.

She said: 'You have supported each other as colleagues and as friends and in these difficult times, you have shown great care and compassion. That will be what the women in your care will remember for years to come.'

The Princess Royal went on to praise midwives for 'rising to the challenge' of 'finding new ways of working' during the pandemic, adding: 'At the start of 2020, I don't think any of us could have imagined just how much of a momentous year it would be.'

The Royal Family's official Instagram account shared the clip online this morning, posting: 'Over the past few weeks, hundreds of student midwives have voluntarily stepped into clinical roles, and retired midwives have rejoined the front line to support their colleagues as they care for pregnant women and new babies at a time when they are especially vulnerable.

The Princess Royal said she hoped to celebrate International Year of the Midwife with healthcare professionals 'by the end of the year'

'Over 150,000 babies have been born in the UK since the outbreak of the pandemic, and midwives have been embracing new ways of communicating with expectant mothers, through video conference appointments.

'This afternoon, a message from HRH will be shown at a virtual seminar which will bring together midwifery leaders from @who and the International Confederation of Midwives to discuss best practice of caring for mothers and newborns during the pandemic.'

This year has been designated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the Year of the Nurse and Midwife, and aims to recognise nurses and midwives who play a vital role in providing health care services.
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Those working in the emergency services sector were stuck in traffic at Durgadi junction in Kalyan on Tuesday as premonsoon repair works on the bridge has started.

Along with repair work, the new bridge is being built along the new one.

Vehicles slowed down from 8.30am to 10am on Tuesday. A long queue of vehicles could be seen from Lal Chowki to Durgadi bridge in Kalyan.

A resident of Lal Chowki, Kalyan, who works in the accounts department of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), said he returned home as the bus was stuck near Durgadi brige for a long time.

Every day, we travel to our work place in Mumbai by BEST bus. However, we were stuck near Durgadi junction for an hour. I returned home seeing the bad traffic. The traffic police should have diverted vehicles to another road. Most commuters are from the emergency services and the mismanaged traffic led to inconvenience, he said.

The traffic personnel from Kalyan said the traffic jam occurred due to the ongoing repair work.

The pre-monsoon maintenance work of the old bridge has started. Besides, the construction of new bridge is also going on. The work affected the traffic today but it was cleared within an hour, said Sukhdev Patil, traffic in charge of Kalyan.
The death toll due to the



consumption of wild mushrooms at a village near the India- Bangladesh border in Meghalaya rose to six as a 14-year-old girl succumbed at a hospital here, officials said on Tuesday.

At least 18 persons of three families at Lamin village in Amlarem civil sub-division of West Jaintia Hills district fell critically ill after consuming wild mushrooms last week.

The three families, who are neighbors, had consumed the wild mushrooms they collected from a nearby forest.

The girl, identified as Marriaba Khonglah, died around 11.35 pm at the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) on Monday, said Lamin village headman Golden Gashnga.

Her brother Armstrong (23) had died on Sunday, he said.

Both Marriaba and Armstrong are siblings of Katdilia Khonglah (26) who died within a few hours of consuming the poisonous mushrooms.

The other deceased are Synran Khonglah (16), Lapynshai Khonglah (28) and Morison Dhar (40).

Katdilias sister Wanrika is still undergoing treatment at the NEIGRIHMS, while seven-year-old Dimah Gashnga, the son of Morison, is in Woodland Hospital in Shillong.

The other ten persons have recovered and discharged from the hospital.

Home minister Lahkmen Rymbui, who is also the local MLA, expressed heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
On Monday night, Sean Hannity admonished armed protesters who stormed the Michigan statehouse last Thursday and demanded measures taken to combat the coronavirus be lifted. Protests have broken out all over the county in defiance of stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines. Some in the media blame Fox News and President Trump for fueling these protests, with Trump even tweeting last month for Michigan and other states to liberate themselves.

Video Transcript

SEAN HANNITY: No one is a bigger defender of the Second Amendment than yours truly. Everyone has the right to protest, protect themselves, and try to get the country open. This, with the militia look here, and these long guns, no.

KYLIE MAR: On Monday night, Sean Hannity admonished armed protesters who stormed the Michigan State House last Thursday and demanded measures taken to combat the coronavirus be lifted. This happening less than two weeks after President Trump tweeted "liberate Michigan!"

SEAN HANNITY: Show of force is dangerous. That puts our police at risk. And by the way, your message will never be heard, whoever you people are. No one should be attempting to intimidate officials with a show of force. And God forbid something happens. Then they're going to go after all of us law-abiding Second Amendment people.

KYLIE MAR: In a rare occurrence, Hannity split with Trump, who tweeted on Friday that the protesters were very fine people. And Hannity even butted heads with frequent Fox News contributor Dan Bongino, who made a familiar argument.

DAN BONGINO: It's the liberal media's efforts more to paint the people there as some kind of crazed bunch of lunatics more than it is the people there actually trying to represent that they have rights to--

SEAN HANNITY: They could do concealed carry, Dan, if they're worried about their safety. This is to intimidate.
(Newser)  Until recently, France's first three known coronavirus cases were confirmed on January 24. Two of those were people who had recently visited Wuhan, China, and the third was a close contact of one of those people. Now, a doctor says that a patient near Paris who was diagnosed with pneumonia on December 27 actually had coronavirus, the BBC reports. The man, who is in his 50s and has fully recovered, had not recently traveled to any infected areas and it is not clear how or where he contracted the virus. His last known trip had been to Algeria in August 2019.

story continues below

He was swabbed when he went to the hospital in December, and the hospital recently decided to test 24 samples from patients who had flu-like symptoms in December and January but tested negative for influenza, the Guardian reports. The man's swab tested positive, and was confirmed with multiple tests. The news indicates the virus was circulating undetected in Europe weeks earlier than previously thought, CNN reports. "The only contact that he had was with his wife," says the doctor who carried out the test, noting that the woman works at a supermarket grocery stand and it's possible she was infected but had no symptoms. Two of the couple's children also got sick. (The US recently announced a similarly "stunning" discovery.)
Salim Mehajer is begging to be allowed back on social media, for better internet and to return to his suburban home as he confessed to trying to pay off $20 million in debt.

The former deputy mayor of Auburn, in Sydney's west, asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to relax his bail conditions so he could pay off a bill from the Australian Taxation Office.

But a judge rejected most of his requests and told Mehajer, 33, just because he can't use Facebook or Twitter didn't mean he was being 'oppressed'.

The embattled property developer was released from Cooma Prison last May after spending 11 months in jail for fraud and is now on bail awaiting trail on separate charges.

The former property developer (pictured) asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to relax his bail conditions so he could pay off debts owed to the Australian Taxation Office

Salim Mehajer (left) and friends were pictured with fake shotguns on a boat during a birthday party

Mehajer, 33, was found guilty in April 2018 of conducting an electoral fraud plot in 2012 that helped him become deputy mayor of the Auburn City Council.

The businessman is the subject of a firearms prohibition order (FPO) and has charges against him for an alleged car crash scam in 2017, allegedly using a fake letter to get bail in 2018 and allegedly supplying prescription drugs.

Mehajer on Tuesday was only successful in having his reporting conditions reduced to five days a week to police, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Justice Desmond Fagan refused the other requests which include being allowed back on to social media, living at his home in Lidcombe, better internet access and a relaxed curfew.

'I do not regard it as significantly oppressive that you cannot access Twitter or Facebook,' Justice Fagan told Mehajer.

Justice Fagan said the businessman should feel lucky to have been granted bail considering the allegations against him.

Mehajer was declared bankrupt in April 2018 by the Federal Court but he told the court he had the assets to resolve his $20million debt to the ATO.

Last month a passenger in a car that collided with Mehajer's Mercedes in a staged crash was sentenced to a community penalty.

He was on his way to court in October 2017 to face a charge of assaulting a taxi driver at The Star Casino when the crash occurred.

Mehajer (left) was found guilty in April 2018 of conducting an electoral fraud plot in 2012 that helped him become deputy mayor of the Auburn City Council

Notorious Sydney businessman Salim Mehajer has been hit with nine more charges for allegedly providing fraudulent information to authorities to avoid traffic offences. Pictured with girlfriend Melissa Tysoe

In the NSW District Court on April 15, Nora Anne Bush testified to being ashamed of her involvement in the scam, which was set to earn the participants $10,000 to be partly used for a funeral in Tonga.

The 34-year-old pleaded guilty to dishonestly destroying or damaging property for financial gain and to negligent driving.

Mehajer turned heads last December when he and friends were pictured with guns on Sydney Harbour onboard a boat for his girlfriend Missy Tysoe's birthday.

The photograph showed Mehajer and his two friends pointing what appeared to be shotguns over the side of the boat and towards the camera.

However, the guns turned out to be realistic-looking fakes used for laser shooting.

At the time NSW Police said they were 'aware of the photo and conducting inquiries', but no action was ever taken against Mehajer.

In addition to his criminal matters, Mehajer also has a series of civil matters currently before the courts relating to his business dealings.
The China Coast Guard deployed three ships to the Scarborough Shoal on Tuesday, days after China announced a ban on fishing there and at other disputed parts of the South China Sea, ship-tracking software shows.

Scarborough Shoal is contested by China and the Philippines. While it is not uncommon for China Coast Guard (CCG) ships to patrol near disputed islands and reefs, the simultaneous presence of three CCG ships at one location often coincides with a more intense pressure campaign or providing an escort for another Chinese mission at sea.

Beijing last month declared two new administrative districts as part of its intensifying efforts to assert sovereignty over the South China Sea. And on May 1, it announced the start of its annual summer ban on fishing in waters where China claims jurisdiction, north of the 12th parallel. That places Scarborough Shoal within its scope. Chinas government has also vowed strict enforcement of the ban this year. That drew strong protest statements on Monday from Vietnamese and Philippine fishing associations.

Ship-tracking software showed that CCG ships numbered 3303 and 3305 were patrolling the Scarborough Shoal Tuesday morning (local time), although the 3303 later stopped transmitting its location. Both are Zhaoyu-class patrol vessels.

They are accompanied by the CCG ship 3175, which is listed as a research vessel on the International Maritime Organizations publicly available registry, but fits the dimensions of and appears to be a Shuke II-class CCG patrol cutter.

All the ships were last spotted in mid-April. The 3303 was in port at Sanya, in Chinas Hainan province, and the 3305 and 3175 were sailing south of the Pearl Delta near Guangzhou.

It remains unclear how the current situation will play out and whether China will indeed up the ante in its fishing ban by not just policing the activities by Chinese fishing vessels but those from other countries.

In past years, both Vietnamese and Philippine fishing vessels have ignored the ban, which runs until Aug. 16. But fishermen are nevertheless accustomed to heavy-handed action by Chinese vessels in disputed waters and are calling for their own governments to stand up to Beijing.

The head of the Philippine fishing association, PAMALAKAYA, on Monday called on the Philippine government not to wait for Filipino fishermen to be arrested and to launch an official protest.

Scarborough Shoal has been the site of previous confrontations between China and the Philippines. In 2012, Chinese vessels strayed into the shoal leading to a diplomatic rift. The following year, Manila filed an arbitration case against China, arguing the triangular shoal in the South China Sea had long been a fishing ground for Filipinos and was well within the Philippine exclusive economic zone.

China lost the case in 2016 but has essentially ignored the ruling and continues to assert it has historical rights over much of the South China Sea, despite the conflicting claims of the Philippines and other governments.

Chinas recent ship maneuvers have prompted criticism that it is taking advantage of other countries preoccupation with the COVID-19 pandemic to press its sweeping South China Sea claims.

The CCG has been lurking around all the Philippine-claimed features for weeks. The CCG ship 3302 was deployed to Scarborough Shoal in early April. The CCG ship 5402 has been patrolling Second Thomas Shoal, Half-Moon Shoal, and First Moon Shoal since April 10. Another CCG ship, the 5202, has been near Thitu Island since April 3.

Each ship has been able to maintain a continuous presence by refueling at the nearby Chinese bases at Mischief Reef and Subi Reef, respectively, illustrating how Chinas artificial islands and militarization has cemented its presence far from its shores.
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Last weeks executive order from Gov. Greg Abbott partially opened up a Texas economy that had been on lockdown since late March. It also created a policy rift between our state and local leadership.

Abbotts order allowed retail stores, restaurants, movie theaters and malls to reopen, provided that they limit themselves to 25 percent capacity in terms of occupancy. The order overruled a municipal directive that mandated only essential businesses be allowed to operate, as a way of slowing the spread of the COVIC-19 pandemic.

Nonetheless, on Saturday, the day after Abbotts order went into effect, Mayor Ron Nirenberg recommended that San Antonians operate as though shelter-in-place policies were still in effect.

On ExpressNews.com: Gov. Abbott sets May 1 reopening for most businesses, churches, malls, libraries

Stay home. Stay safe. Save lives, Nirenberg tweeted.

The new limits on Nirenbergs ability to implement his preferred COVID-19 response policies were discussed on this weeks episode of the Express-News Puro Politics podcast.

His message hasnt changed, Brian Chasnoff said. Whats changed, I guess, are the teeth in his directives. Theres no teeth anymore.

Joshua Fechter pointed out that on Tuesday, the economic transition team put together by Nirenberg and County Judge Nelson Wolff will offer recommendations to local businesses. But he added that those suggestions wont carry any real authority.

On ExpressNews.com: Abbott eases rule on masks  and S.A. officials plead with public to keep wearing them

What has happened is that early on you had cities and counties having to enact these stay-at-home restrictions while they were waiting for the governor to take some kind of action, Fechter said. There were calls early on for Abbott to enact a stay-at-home order. He finally did.

Now, the governor is sort of in the drivers seat on this and dictating the terms of the reopening  what can open and what can close. Thats kind of left not just Mayor Nirenberg, but mayors and county judges across the state with little authority to determine it on that front.

Hear these and other issues discussed on this weeks edition of Puro Politics.

Gilbert Garcia is a columnist covering the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Gilbert, become a subscriber. ggarcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @gilgamesh470
KITCHENER  It was a random and unprovoked murder that shocked the community.

On the afternoon of Dec. 15, 2007, Hunter Brown, 74, was delivering Christmas cards to his neighbours on quiet Glenwood Drive in Kitchener when Trevor LaPierre attacked him with a large hunting knife.

Brown, a grandfather and retired Bell Canada manager,was stabbed more than 40 times in the face and head, then left to die while LaPierre  dubbed the "Christmas card killer"  casually walked away.

The two had never met.

LaPierre, 22 at the time, claimed he was driven to kill by the devil.

He at first hoped to be found not criminally responsible of first-degree murder but pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2010 after psychological tests showed he was feigning or exaggerating signs of mental illness.

LaPierre got an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole until Dec. 18, 2024  17 years after his arrest.

On Wednesday, an appeal by LaPierre was set to be heard by the province's highest court, the Ontario Court of Appeal. He apparently wants new evidence admitted on whether he was criminally responsible. A ruling could take months.

Less than a year before the killing, LaPierre wrote a blog that chronicled his decline from an honour roll student at Eastwood Collegiate Institute to a tormented young man.

"Every time I leave my house it's a constant struggle in the radio frequencies," he wrote. "Isolate me before I rip your world apart. I am a pained and powerful creature."

In an interview with police, LaPierre was asked why he attacked Brown.

"Because Satan was telling me he was going to kill me," he replied. "He was going to kill me if I didn't kill somebody."

Two psychiatrists who examined La Pierre concluded he was not mentally ill but an alienated man who blamed society for his failure and lashed out with violence.

But soon after entering prison, LaPierre apparently was diagnosed with schizophrenia by another psychiatrist.

Brown is sorely missed.

"He was always the one that was there to help you if you needed help," neighbour Mary Engelmann said in an interview on Wednesday.

"My kids would go over there with their trikes and he would always take time out to play with them. He treated our kids like they were family."

News of LaPierre's appeal brings back terrible memories for Englemann, who went to help Brown immediately after the attack.

"It was very horrific," she said. He was so badly injured, "I didn't know it was him.

"You think that time heals, but certain things it just won't fix."
On Monday, social media witnessed an Instagram group chat named 'Bois locker room' being exposed and the participants being busted for their sexually-explicit conversations about underage girls, and casually talking about committing gang-rape.

This led to an outburst and eventually, the matter reached Delhi Police's Cyber Crime Cell and an FIR was registered against all the members. An investigation is happening as you read this but apparently, this is not the only case in the country.

A similar incident has come to light from Kolkata, in which a Twitter thread was posted by user @Aiyoobrows, accusing a group of men of 'using semi-nude and nude pictures of women in a Google drive and circulating it among their friends'.

The thread also claimed that 'these pictures have been used to threaten women in the past.'

What south Delhi boys do in the form of #boyslockerroom, Kolkata men take it a step further and create a Google drive account using pictures of women.  Aiyoobrows (@Bratmatcat) May 4, 2020

The men accused in this matter are all students of Jadavpur University and once the series of tweets went viral, several others came forward and confirmed that such a drive exists.

TOI has quoted @Aiyooobrows as saying, "I found out about the Google Drive in 2018 through a friend when I offered my solidarity to her on her MeToo post. I was shocked and disgusted to say the least. The Google Drive was started by Souryadeep Basak in 2016 or even earlier to save the pictures from his conquests with women and shared with his friends from the university and perhaps even outside the university. I was really traumatized on finding out that my pictures (sent to him in my first year of college, when he manipulated me into sending him my intimate pictures and sent me his without even asking for it) were being circulated among people without my consent."



These men are well-known in the Kolkata MUN and debating circles. They have been doing this shit for years now. Being from a premier institution and winning multiple awards doesn't absolve them of doing this.  Aiyoobrows (@Bratmatcat) May 4, 2020

The main alleged accused, Souryadeep Basak, who apparently is the owner of the drive issued a long statement which said how he never objectified women but only shared his 'romantic escapades'. In a social media post, his statement said,

"I was a wide-eyed, albeit testosterone-fuelled, teenager who felt honoured, even overwhelmed in the presence of the smart and beautiful women who had expressed their interest in me In all seriousness, I was an immature and bratty child in my college days. I could not commit to a relationship to save the life of me.... In my first and second year of college, in an attempt to be socially relevant, I spoke about these short-lived escapades with a misplaced sense of swagger. I should not have been inconsiderate enough to divulge these details like an insecure braggart. I can plead guilty of sharing stories, but never photos that they sent to me in confidence, nor their names. I have never objectified women. I may have stored the images on google drive... there was no organised hoarding...away from the prying eyes of my girlfriend, but I have deleted them."



However, the social media post cannot be tracked down anymore.

The drive was started by Souryadeep Basak who was actively involved in the MUN circuit. Imankalyan Ghosh also has access to it. I'm sure there are more people who have access to it but I don't know their names.  Aiyoobrows (@Bratmatcat) May 4, 2020





TOI got in touch with Basak and he said, This is nothing new to me. Since the time I was popular in the debating and MUN circuit, I have had multiple affairs, romantic liaisons. In 2016, I was physically restrained by 30 odd other students at Jadavpur University's (engineering institute), who accused me of abusing my partner, and being in an abusive relationship. One of the girls who have named me on social media, is someone I have known since we were both teenagers. The other is someone I met in college. I have cheated on both of them, but I am not proud of my actions. I have not committed any crime and whatever relationship I had with them, it was on mutual consent. I have images of women that have been sent to me on WhatsApp, but I have never circulated them.



Another accused in the matter, Iman Kalyan Ghosh, also took to social media and issued a statement.



In a world where women safety is unfortunately one of the most difficult crisis we deal with every day, such matters only make us realise how far away we are from living in a harmless world. Women are not sexual objects. Being involved with someone does not give you the right to circulate their personal images, text messages, and the like, with others. It also does not give you the license to objectify or harass them - and that's true for everyone irrespective of whether or not you've ever been involved with them in any capacity.

If found guilty, proper legal action should be taken against the alleged culprits.
Rogerwilco, 2021 FM AdFocus Digital Agency of the Year, is an independently owned level 2 B-BBEE full service digital marketing agency with a presence in Cape Town, Johannesburg and London.
There are 2672 aged care homes in Australia. Thankfully, there have been zero deaths from COVID-19 in all but three of these homes: two deaths in Opal Care Bankstown, six in BaptistCares Dorothy Henderson Lodge and 16 in Anglicares Newmarch House. These aged care homes are all in NSW.

While several aged care homes were able to contain the virus, Anglicares Newmarch House was not. So far, Newmarch has recorded 37 residents with confirmed cases of COVID-19 of which 16 have died. This raises questions about its infection control measures to both prevent staff bringing the virus into the aged care home and to stop it spreading.

Health officials suggest a breach of infection-control methods may have sparked a second wave of infections at Newmarch. It is alleged that a member of the federal government's "surge workforce" may have breached protocols.

An infection control specialist is now on site to review all contamination procedures. Could the second wave of infections have been prevented by an expert reviewing infection control procedures earlier?
Long term investing works well, but it doesn't always work for each individual stock. We really hate to see fellow investors lose their hard-earned money. Anyone who held Mongolia Energy Corporation Limited (HKG:276) for five years would be nursing their metaphorical wounds since the share price dropped 92% in that time. We also note that the stock has performed poorly over the last year, with the share price down 69%. Furthermore, it's down 49% in about a quarter. That's not much fun for holders.

We really feel for shareholders in this scenario. It's a good reminder of the importance of diversification, and it's worth keeping in mind there's more to life than money, anyway.

View our latest analysis for Mongolia Energy

Mongolia Energy isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. Shareholders of unprofitable companies usually expect strong revenue growth. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

Over five years, Mongolia Energy grew its revenue at 54% per year. That's well above most other pre-profit companies. So on the face of it we're really surprised to see the share price has averaged a fall of 39% each year, in the same time period. It could be that the stock was over-hyped before. While there might be an opportunity here, you'd want to take a close look at the balance sheet strength.

The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

SEHK:276 Income Statement May 5th 2020

Take a more thorough look at Mongolia Energy's financial health with this free report on its balance sheet.

A Different Perspective

We regret to report that Mongolia Energy shareholders are down 69% for the year. Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 13%. Having said that, it's inevitable that some stocks will be oversold in a falling market. The key is to keep your eyes on the fundamental developments. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 39% per year over five years. Generally speaking long term share price weakness can be a bad sign, though contrarian investors might want to research the stock in hope of a turnaround. 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 risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Mongolia Energy you should know about.

Story continues

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.
The Public Safety Act against former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti was extended by three months on Tuesday, officials said.

In a brief order, district magistrate of Srinagar handed over the continuation of her custody at her residence, hours before her present term under the PSA was to expire.

She was initially detained on August 5 last year when the Centre abrogated special status of the erstwhile state and bifurcated it into two union territories -- Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir.

Having spent over eight months in detention at two government facilities that were designated as sub-jails, Mufti was shifted to her home on April 7 as a partial relief to her.

Mufti heads the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which was in power in Jammu and Kashmir in alliance with the BJP till June 2018.

Initially, she was taken into preventive custody. Later on February 5 this year, she was slapped with the PSA along with Omar Abdullah, who was released in March. Farooq Abdullah had been released early last month.

Earlier, Mufti was lodged a government guesthouse in Chashma Shahi and a bunglow on Maulana Azad Road near Lal Chowk.

Daughter of Mehbooba, Iltija has 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.)
While certain rules, part of the restrictions imposed across the country in the wake of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, were relaxed on Monday, Delhis interstate borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh remained almost sealed.

In Gurugram, over 1,000 travellers, expecting a relaxation in curbs in view of Lockdown 3.0, returned disappointed as police personnel restricted their entry to Delhi. Borders between the two cities were sealed last week and the entry of only those engaged in essential services, carrying valid passes, is allowed. Meanwhile, law enforcement officials kept a strict vigil at the Gautam Budh Nagar-Delhi border on Mondayonly those carrying valid passes were allowed to enter and exit the district via the interstate border after thorough verification.

The Gurugram police said that as many as 1,045 people were turned away from borders between 7am and 6pm on Monday. They had said on Sunday that intra-district movement was allowed, but there would no movement between the national Capital and Gurugram, due to the rising number of cases in Delhi.

Karan Goel, the assistant commissioner of police (DLF), said that people had assumed that they would be allowed to cross the border as they had received emails from their employers to resume work, but they did not have passes. People requested to be allowed as they had not received salaries for the last two months and if they did not report, would not be paid, he said.

With 85 Covid-19 cases, Gurugram is on the Union governments orange zone list. Its 11 borders with Delhi, which is a red zone, were sealed last week.

While the Union home ministry issued federal guidelines on Friday, states and local authorities can frame rules specific to them based on ground reality. Based on that, Gautam Budh Nagar district magistrate (DM) Suhas LY tweeted the dos and donts of interstate travel on Sunday. Restriction on interstate movement/interdistrict movement stands as before. No interstate/inter-district movement of personnel allowed for permitted activities also (except for previously allowed purpose like Covid-19 duty, emergency services, etc.) [sic], he tweeted.

However, health workers on Covid-19 duty, media personnel with authorisation letters and policemen, among a few others, are exempt. Most people who are aware of the regulations are not coming to the border. But there are a few exceptions. All restrictions on the movement at the interstate border with Delhi are in place as they were earlier, Rajesh S, deputy commissioner of police (traffic), Gautam Budh Nagar district, said.
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LAWRENCE, Kan. - A Kansas man who died in a shootout in which he killed a police officer was struggling with drug and alcohol addiction and had become increasingly threatening while awaiting trial on burglary and assault charges, according to a prosecutor and a relative of the man who were trying to have him kept in jail.

Phillip Michael Carney, 38, died Sunday after a shootout with Overland Park Officer Mike Mosher, who was gunned down after stopping Carneys vehicle after an apparent hit-and-run in the Kansas City suburb, authorities said. Police havent said what led to the gun battle or whether Carney was killed by Mosher or killed himself.

Mosher was a nearly 15-year veteran of the police department and was named officer of the year in 2019.

Carney was charged in January with burglaries at a cigar shop in Lawrence, and a Douglas County prosecutor on Friday filed a motion to revoke his bond, The Lawrence Journal-World reported. A relative of Carney wrote a letter to a county judge in February, before his release, saying Carney was a threat to her family.

Carney, a self-employed ballroom dance instructor who lived in Overland Park, also was charged with battery of a law enforcement officer and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer during his arrests in the burglary cases, according to court records.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Eve Kemple on Friday filed a motion to revoke Carneys bond in all four of his pending cases, saying he had a history of violent and erratic behaviour and convictions for misdemeanour battery, domestic battery and assault. She wrote that Carney was being charged with making a criminal threat after he was heard threatening a victim with violence on April 28, but the motion does not go into detail.

That the defendant is capable of violence is demonstrated by his own repeated behaviours and is reflected in the criminal charges he is facing, Kemple wrote.

In a letter to the Douglas County Court, a family member said Carney made several threats against her and other family members, including threatening to kill one relative and slashing the tires of family members vehicles, the Journal-World reported.

He has upped his game as far as threats go, the letter said. He needs help for his addictions and we believe he will only get that help if he is in jail. We do not think it is in our best interest for him to be out since his threats get more and more violent.

At a Feb. 13 hearing for the burglary charges, Carney was charged with tampering with his electronic monitoring device from previous cases. He was remanded back to the Douglas County jail on $290,000 case bond but was released Feb. 20 after making bond.

In her letter, Carneys relative said that Carneys dance students bailed him out several times and enabled him to continue his drug and alcohol use.

These well-meaning friends keep rescuing him from his behaviour and he does not stay sober, she wrote.
The trucking company involved in the deadly Eastern Freeway crash in April has been raided by Victorian police.

Officers went to the head office of Connect Logistics in Riverstone, about 50 kilometres from Sydney, on Tuesday afternoon.

Mohinder Singh Bajwa, the truck driver charged in the fatal Eastern Freeway crash. Credit:Nine News

Mohinder Singh was driving a semi-trailer for Connect Logistics on the Eastern Freeway at Kew in Melbourne's east when he veered into the emergency lane at 100km/h, killing four Victorian police officers who had been in the process of impounding a car.

Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, Senior Constable Kevin King and constables Josh Prestney and Glen Humphris were killed in the tragedy.
Washington: The US Senate convened for its first regular session in five weeks Monday in the heat of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed 68,000 Americans and left tens of millions jobless.

Lawmakers, who under new guidelines are encouraged but not required to wear face masks, are expected to address disputes over how to confront the outbreak and mitigate the devastating economic impacts.

The Senate  with 49 of its 100 members age 65 or older and therefore considered at higher risk  gavelled in for its first full session since March 25.

"Now the time has come for us to continue conducting our nation's business in ways that are only possible with senators here in the capital," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.

"The Senate's going to be as smart and safe as we possibly can, and we are going to show up for work like the essential workers that we are."

Republican McConnell did not wear a mask inside the chamber, but many lawmakers from both parties did. In hallways outside the chamber, nearly all senators, including McConnell, were wearing masks.

Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said members should prepare for "one of the strangest sessions of the US Senate in modern history" -- one where lawmakers do not shake hands or huddle with colleagues.

Democrat Dianne Feinstein, at 86 the oldest current US senator, said that while she did not feel it was appropriate yet for the Senate to hold full sessions, she was unphased about returning to work.

"I'm not worried about it. It's just a little depressing because it's so quiet," she told AFP through her mask. "Other Americans are at work," added Republican colleague Deb Fischer. "We need to be here."

The 435-member House of Representatives opted not to return this week.

Top House Republican Kevin McCarthy said he wants a "hybrid" resumption of House work, including committee hearings, as Washington and the nation debate how and when to open up.

Democratic leaders who control that chamber delayed holding full sessions, citing ongoing health safety concerns and a warning by the congressional physician that the US capital had yet to sufficiently control new coronavirus cases.

Those who do return to Capitol Hill are advised by that doctor, Brian Monahan, to practice social distancing, wear masks, limit the number of in-office staff, screen visitors, use hand sanitizer, and avoid shaking hands.

'Crawl, walk, run'

The Senate's return follows a clash of sorts between congressional leaders and President Donald Trump.

After lawmakers were told last week that Monahan's office would not be able to test every member of Congress for the virus, Trump's administration offered to conduct the rapid screening.

But in a rare joint message, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and McConnell on Saturday rejected the offer, stating that the tests should be reserved for the public.

Democrats have complained that McConnell was resuming full sessions but not considering legislation this week aimed at addressing the pandemic.

In their first full vote in weeks, for an agency inspector general, 87 of 100 senators showed up, participating in an extended voting system that prevented many lawmakers from being on the floor at one time.

Senators will consider the nomination of a federal judge later this week.

Schumer said the Senate's current priorities should be focused on helping Americans through the coronavirus crisis, "not confirming right wing judges or protecting big businesses that threaten to put workers at serious risk," Schumer said.

Some Republicans are calling on Pelosi to bring her chamber back into session immediately.

McCarthy said he is advocating a "crawl, walk, run" approach including the expansion of testing, limited staff and extended House floor votes to accommodate social distancing.
Being sick with COVID-19 and living under the same roof as the prime minister of Canada and their three young children was "not easy," the wife of Justin Trudeau, who contracted the disease in March, said Tuesday.

"My husband worked from 7.00 am to 9.00 pm in his office, then I was the one with the children, so I had to be extremely careful," Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau told public broadcaster Radio-Canada.

"I was alone with the children, I had to distance myself, I had gloves, a mask and everything, but it was not easy," she said.

Trudeau and his family self-isolated for weeks at Rideau Cottage -- the prime minister's official residence in Ottawa -- after his wife was diagnosed with coronavirus upon her return from a speaking engagement in London.

The disease "struck hard for more than a week," said Gregoire-Trudeau, describing how she had "lost the sense of smell and taste" and had to deal with "headaches, body aches everywhere, indigestion, nausea."

She let out a laugh when asked if she was afraid of contaminating the prime minister of a G7 country, but quickly added: "I laugh but it is not funny. I think that in all families, we try to cope, then there's the social distancing."

"But after that, I got back on my feet. And then the children, I think they use up a lot of our energy," she said.

Officially virus-free since March 28, she says she has recovered her sense of smell and taste, but finds that "it's not like it was before."

She has since moved with their children, aged 6 to 12, into the prime minister's summer residence at Harrington Lake in Quebec.

She hailed health care workers on the front line as "heroes."

"Let us be clear, these people demonstrate courage, perseverance, I would even say a vision of a society," said Gregoire-Trudeau, whose mother was a nurse.
The Grand Canyon is located in Arizona, the United States. The iconic red rock landscape was formed by the constant erosion by the Colorado River over millions of years. The Grand Canyon is a popular tourist attraction thanks to the viewpoints that give way to stunning views and the number of picturesque hiking routes that are accessible throughout the national park. However, the Grand Canyon poses many risks, especially if you get lost. Here are 10 reasons why you should never get lost at the Grand Canyon.

Caption

Dehydration

One of the biggest reasons why you should not get lost in the Grand Canyon is due to a lack of water. When you visit the Grand Canyon, you will most likely only spend a couple of hours there and will only take enough water to satisfy that time. If you get lost, you will not have enough water to keep you hydrated, this combined with the hot weather, will cause dehydration. The landscape of the Grand Canyon is semi-arid, and while there are some water sources, you cannot guarantee they will be accessible to you.

Lack Of Food

Like water, most people only bring enough to satisfy them for the amount of time they are planning to spend at the Canyon. People are less likely to bring food; they will bring a couple of snacks at most, which will not be enough to sustain them if they are lost for a long period of time. In addition, if you are not used to hiking in the outdoors, the food you have might not be appropriate. You should have food that can replace the electrolytes you lose through sweating. However, humans can survive a lot longer without food than without water so it is best to have more water than food.

Inappropriate Clothing

You should never get lost in the Grand Canyon if you are not wearing appropriate clothing. Clothes that should be worn in the conditions of the Canyon are good fitting socks that wick away moisture to reduce the risk of blisters, breathable trousers, a long-sleeved t-shirt to reduce the risk of sunburn, sunglasses and a hat. Proper clothing can save your life as it will stop you from losing water through sweat, resulting in dehydration. It will also prevent sunburn and keep you insulated in the cold weather of night-time.

Wildlife

Young elk at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Image credit: Randy Andy/Shutterstock.com

The Grand Canyon is home to a variety of wildlife that can be extremely dangerous to those lost in the wilderness. Mountain lions and coyotes can be found in the Canyon and could cause harm if they feel threatened. You are at greater risk if you enter a cave or cavern that is inhabited by one of the wild animals. Interestingly, one of the most dangerous animals is the rock squirrel. Due to being constantly fed by tourists, the squirrels have little fear of humans and will bite or become aggressive.

Extreme temperatures If you are visiting the Grand Canyon for a couple of hours, it is unlikely you will experience the landscapes varied temperatures. You should never get lost in the Canyon because temperatures can often exceed 100 F during the summer months, and drop to the mid-20s at night time. Without appropriate clothing and enough water, the conditions can be fatal. The Grand Canyon also experiences thunderstorms and flash floods. Flash floods are extremely dangerous and have caused fatalities at the Grand Canyon in the past.

The Colorado River

Colorado River can be very dangerous in the Grand Canyon area. Image credit: Anton Foltin/Shutterstock.com

If you get lost at the Grand Canyon, you may go in search of the Colorado River in order to drink its water. However, the river can be extremely hazardous. There are over 160 rapids that can cause drowning, and the very low temperature of the water can cause hypothermia. Even if you do not intend to enter the water, there are many trip risks around the river bed, which can result in deadly falls.

Falls

Safety sign at Grand Canyon. Image credit: Guilbaud Stan/Shutterstock.com

At the Grand Canyons popular viewpoints, there are barriers, ropes, railings and signs to protect visitors from falling into the chasm. However, if you get lost you may happen upon places that are not protected by barriers. Uneven or loose terrain could cause an accidental fall over the edge. The increased risk of heatstroke can also cause falls, the dizziness may cause you to accidentally stumble too close to the ridge edge and lose your footing.

No-one Knowing Where You Are

Caption

You should always tell people when you are hiking in the Grand Canyon. Without this information, it will be extremely difficult for rescue teams to save you if you wander off the beaten track, especially if you hurt yourself or get sick. Always tell them your planned route and what time you expect to be home.

Poisonous Plants And Animals

Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake in the Grand Canyon. Image credit: Mike V. Shuman/Shutterstock.com

If you cannot find a water source, you may be tempted to extract the water from cacti. However, drinking water from cacti is a myth and can lead to vomiting and diarrhea, which will exacerbate dehydration and could be fatal. There are a number of poisonous plants found in the canyons, including the Sacred Datura and Castor Bean. You must never eat a plant without identifying it with a field guide first. Be wary of turning over rocks as scorpions or snakes may be beneath them. A bite or sting from one of these animals can be deadly, and if you are lost, you will not be able to receive immediate medical care.

Heatstroke

Each year, rangers have to rescue hikers from inside the canyon as they have fallen sick with heat stroke or heat exhaustion. Heatstroke occurs when a person is subjected to high temperatures, lack of shade and limited water sources. The symptoms can develop suddenly and should be treated immediately, but if you are lost, this may not be possible. To avoid heatstroke from occurring, carry more water than you think you will need and do not overexert yourself. Always stick to marked hiking routes and let a family or friend know your hiking plans.
Istanbul, May 5 : Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a series of steps to gradually ease COVID-19 restrictions.

Speaking after attending a cabinet meeting via a video conference from Istanbul on Monday, Erdogan said the government would gradually ease the restrictions during May, June, and July, Xinhua news agency reported.

He said elderlies who are over 65-year-old and those who are under 20 would be allowed outside for four hours one day a week, starting from this weekend.

The travel restrictions for seven cities would be lifted as of tonight, but the limitations for 24 other provinces, including Istanbul, would continue, the president also noted.

"Businesses such as barbershops, hairdressers, and beauty salons will be operational as of May 11 as long as they abide by the rules such as following cleaning rules, working with an appointment system, and serving half of the number of seats," Erdogan added.

Shopping malls will also be operational as of May 11 and the demobilization process would start on May 31, according to the president.

Erdogan also warned that the government could impose much more rigid measures if the normalization plan would not be followed.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca on Monday said at a tweet that Turkey has reported 1,614 new COVID-19 cases and 64 more deaths during the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 127,659 and the death toll to 3,461.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
A number of Indians stranded beyond the seas because of the coronavirus will be brought back by air and by sea from Thursday in the worlds biggest evacuation operation.

More than 14,800 Indians in 13 nations will be brought back using 64 aircrafts in the first week, says the Ministry of External Affairs.

They will be asked to pay in the region of Rs 50,000 for a flight from Europe and Rs 1 lakh from the United States. Navy warships will as well set about for indian citizens trapped in West Asia and the Maldives.

Heres 10 point guide of the story:

1) On 7th May, ten flights will fly back 2,300 Indians stranded because of airspace closures by many nations to curb the spread of Covid-19. Flights will go to US, the Philippines, Singapore, Bangladesh, UAE, UK, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Singapore, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait.

2) Approximately 2,050 Indians will reach Chennai, Kochi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Delhi from nine different countries, as per the plan. A similar figure is anticipated to reach on third day in Mumbai, Kochi, Lucknow and Delhi from 13 countries across the Middle East, Europe, South East Asia and US.

3) On fourth day, the government will cring back 1,850 stranded indians from eight nations, which includes UK, US and UAE.

4) Relying on the aircraft, each flight will put up between 200 and 300 passengers to ensure social distancing. Ahead of boarding the flights, the passengers need to declare whether they have fever, cough, diabetes or any kind of respiratory illness.

5) Only asymptomatic passengers would be permitted to travel, according to the government.

6) The three ships brought into play by the Navy involve INS Jalashwa, based in Visakhapatnam, which has launched into the Arabian Sea for the evacuation. The others are INS Shardul and INS Magar.

7) India place an embargo on all incoming international flights in late March as it imposed one of the world's strictest lockdowns, leaving huge numbers of workers and students stranded.

8) Upto now, the Indian government had withstood such operations, given the logistical and safety nightmare of repatriating and quarantining millions of returnees.

9) In the UAE, more or less 200,000 Indians have put in to come back, as per the Consulate General of India in Dubai.

10) Preference will be given to pregnant women, elderly, people with medical conditions and ones with serious illness in their immediate family, besides stranded tourists, say officials.

Also Read: India to repatriate its stranded nationals in 2 special flights from UAE on May 7
With funding from Goldman Sachs, Aglae Ventures (the venture arm of Groupe Arnault), and Eurazeo Growth, the online marketplace is poised to further solidify its leadership position in the refurbished device market

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / Back Market (www.backmarket.com), the premier global refurbished electronics marketplace, has announced a funding round of $120 million from investors Goldman Sachs, Aglae Ventures, and Eurazeo Growth, joining Daphni as backers of the Company, continuing to tap into an $80 billion-plus opportunity by selling refurbished electronic devices and appliances (smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other products) directly to increasingly eager consumers.

To view the complete and interactive multimedia version of this announcement, click here.

Key Takeaways:

A steady shift in mindsets and markets brings big investors to the table, showing that the circular economy model is here to stay.

The marketplace currently works with over 1,000 professional refurbishers to bring devices to consumers in eight countries with plans to continue to expand.

The new funds will be used to continue strengthening Back Market's position in existing markets with a core focus on the United States, United Kingdom and Germany.

About Back Market

Launched in 2014 by Thibaud Hug de Larauze, Quentin Le Brouster, and Vianney Vaute, Back Market is the first marketplace focused on bringing thousands of refurbished electronic devices and appliances from certified professional sellers to consumers. The company currently operates in 8 countries (The United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, and recently, the United Kingdom and Austria). It employs a team of about 280 employees across its 3 offices located in Paris, Bordeaux, and New York.

About Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division.

Founded in 1869, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is a leading global investment banking, securities, and investment management firm. Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division (MBD) is the primary center for the firm's long-term principal investing activity. MBD is one of the leading private capital investors in the world with investments across private equity, growth equity, infrastructure, private debt, and real estate.

About Aglae Ventures

Aglae Ventures is an international venture capital firm based in Paris, New York and San Francisco backed by Groupe Arnault, the controlling shareholder of LVMH. Aglae Ventures invests from  100K up to  100MM in asset light activities and fast-growing technology companies at all stages. Over the past 20 years, Aglae and its affiliates have backed some of the most iconic global technology companies including Netflix, Slack, Spotify, Airbnb and many others.

About Eurazeo

With a diversified portfolio of approximately 16 billion in assets under management, including 10 billion from third parties, Eurazeo is a leading global investment company with offices in Paris, Luxembourg, New York, Shanghai, and Sao Paulo. Its mission is to identify, accelerate and enhance the transformation potential of the companies in which it invests. As a global long-term shareholder, the firm offers deep sector expertise, a gateway to global markets, and a stable foothold for transformational growth to the companies it supports.

About Daphni

Daphni is a European VC firm that invests in user-oriented startups with European DNA and strong international ambitions. The company is supported by the daphnipolis, a closely-knit community of 300+ entrepreneurs, executives, academics, artists and advisors, and a digital platform to ensure both efficiency and full transparency. The firm was established in 2015 and is based in Paris, France.

Contact:

Rebecca White

rebecca@wiredislandpr.com

408 876 4418

media contact

SOURCE: Back Market

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/587940/Back-Market-Raises-120-Million-As-Consumers-Embrace-The-Booming-Refurbished-Electronics-Market-Worldwide
More Than Two-Dozen Rohingya Refugees Sent to Flood-Prone Island Off Coast of Bangladesh

By VOA News May 04, 2020

Bangladesh has relocated more than two-dozen Rohingya refugees who had been stranded at sea for several days to a flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal.

Officials say the refugees, including 15 women and six children, were taken to Bhasan Char island Saturday. The group is believed to have been among 500 Rohingyas who have been stranded on two fishing vessels that were turned away by Malaysia due to strict border controls imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Bangladesh has built facilities for 100,000 people on Bhasan Char in an effort to relieve the pressure from the crowded camps on Cox's Bazar in southern Bangladesh, where about one million Rohingya have been housed in recent years. But officials say none of those refugees have agreed to voluntarily relocate to Bhasan Char.

About 700,000 Rohingyas living in the Cox's Bazar camps crossed over from neighboring Myanmar to escape a brutal, scorched-earth military campaign against them in 2017 that the United Nations described as ethnic cleansing - involving rapes, killings and torching of homes. Buddhist-majority Myanmar does not consider the Rohingya citizens, despite the fact they have lived in the country for generations.

Thousands of Rohingyas over the years have attempted to escape the Bangladesh camps by boarding crowded boats bound for either Malaysia or Thailand.

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The accumulation of senescent cells plays a significant role in cancer pathogenesis and other diseases. However, senolytic drugs (intended to remove senescent cells) present significant toxicity, which limits their therapeutic benefits.

Now, a new international study involving researchers at CIBER-BBN, the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV) and the Principe Felipe Research Center, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, have just proved the efficiency of a new conjugated drug, Nav-Gal, which selectively removes senescent cells, minimising the effect on healthy cells and reducing toxicity through this therapy. The use of this drug in combination with chemotherapy could be confirmed as a promising strategy in treating cancer. The auspicious results of this study have been published in the journal Aging Cell.

Senescent cells: the target

Senescence is a response to cell damage and stress characterised by the arrest of the cell cycle. When aging, cells permanently stop dividing, thus preventing the propagation of damaged and dysfunctional cells. However, eventually, a massive quantity of senescent cells accumulate in tissues, resulting in the onset and progression of multiple disorders, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, lung fibrosis, neurological disorders or cancer. Moreover, in the case of cancer, several chemotherapies result in cell senescence, and this accumulation of senescent cells due to the treatments has been related to tumourigenesis, associated with metastasis and the recurrence of tumours in different types of cancer. That is why the search for new drugs that remove senescent cells induced by cancer treatments is a key question in order to guarantee the total eradication of the tumour and prevent them from recurring.

On this front, senolytic drugs (compounds that kill senescent cells using several mechanisms) are a promising therapeutic alternative in oncology and for treating other diseases related to the accumulation of senescent cells. However, today senolytics present a low specificity because they also damage healthy cells, and have significant toxicities, which reduce their therapeutic benefits.

Reducing toxicity and preventing "collateral damages"

In this new study, published in Aging Cell, researchers at CIBER-BBN, the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV) and the Principe Felipe Research Center, in collaboration with researchers from CRUK, at the University of Cambridge, worked on the design of a second-generation senolytic, which is more specific and less toxic. They focused on Navitoclax, a drug validated in preclinical models that proved to have a high capacity to destroy senescent cells, modifying it with acetylated-galactose.

The new compound, called Nav-Gal, results in a drug with selective, wide-ranging senolytic activity, which induces the death of senescent cells while preserving the activity of healthy cells.

"To summarize, we suggest the galactose conjugation with certain drugs as a versatile methodology to develop second-generation prodrugs with high senolytic activity and reduced toxicity," explains Ramon Martinez Manez, member of the Interuniversity Research Institute for Molecular Recognition and Technological Development (IDM) of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Scientific Director of CIBER-BBN and one of the study's coordinators.

The researchers tested this drug in combination with chemotherapy (cisplatin) in human lung cancer cells, proving that treatment with cisplatin and Nav-Gal results in the eradication of senescent lung cancer cells and significantly reducing tumour growth. "This study provides evidence of the potential clinical application of combining senescence-induction chemotherapies with senotherapies in cancer," explains Daniel Munoz Espin from the CRUK Early Detection Programme of the University of Cambridge. Moreover, the compound Nav-Gal reduced platelet toxicity and the thrombopenia (reduction of the platelet circulation in bloodstream) caused by the previous drug, Navitoclax.

###
(Updates with Europe, market reaction, comment)

By Jonathan Cable and Sam Holmes

LONDON/SYDNEY, May 4 (Reuters) - Factory activity was ravaged across the world in April, business surveys showed, and the outlook looked bleak as government lockdowns to contain the new coronavirus pandemic froze global production and slashed demand.

The coronavirus has infected more than 3.5 million people globally and killed around 247,000. With the public told to stay home in numerous countries, the global economy is expected to suffer its steepest contraction on record this year as supply chains have been massively disrupted.

In a bid to combat the impact of the lockdowns, central banks and governments have unleashed unprecedented levels of fiscal and monetary policy, suggesting that without this conditions could have been even worse.

Still, a series of Purchasing Managers' Indexes (PMIs) from IHS Markit across Europe and Asia fell deeper into contraction last month, with many diving to all-time lows and others hitting levels last not seen since the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.

A gauge from the United States published on Friday showed manufacturing activity plunged to an 11-year low in April as the coronavirus wreaked havoc, suggesting the world's largest economy was sinking deeper into recession.

On Monday, IHS Markit's final manufacturing PMI for the euro zone sank to 33.4, its lowest since the survey began in mid-1997 and far beneath the 50-point line dividing growth from contraction.

With shops closed and consumers concerned about their health and employment prospects, demand sank in the bloc to by far the lowest in the survey's history, giving scant hope for an imminent turnaround.

It was a similar story from Britain on Friday when its PMI showed manufacturers there suffered their biggest fall in output and orders for at least three decades.

"This past week saw the amazing coincidence of the publication of the deepest quarterly economic decline in the Western world in almost 100 years and the conclusion to the strongest monthly equity rally in more than 30 years," said Erik Nielsen, chief economist at UniCredit.

Story continues

But European stock markets and oil prices fell on Monday as a spat between top U.S. officials and China over the origin of the coronavirus fuelled fears of a renewed trade war that might derail or delay a swift rebound.

Asian PMIs also suffered, with South Korea, the continent's fourth-largest economy and a global manufacturing powerhouse, skidding last month to its lowest reading since January 2009. Japan's PMI released last week similarly fell to an 11-year low.

"Regional PMI manufacturing data kicked off the data dump on Monday, with economies registering deep contractions with most countries employing some form of lockdown," said Prakash Sakpal, Asia Economist at ING.

"Economic data should remind investors of the bleak economic situation ahead even as governments from previous hotspots ready the gradual reopening of their economies."

Last week, China's official PMI showed factory activity still growing in April, albeit more slowly than March, while the private-sector Caixin PMI showed a dip into contraction, although at a much gentler pace than the rest of the world. Significantly, exporters in both surveys were jolted by steep falls in orders.

While China appears to be ahead of others in emerging from the economic paralysis inflicted by the pandemic, any recovery is expected to be gradual and unlikely to fire up an immediate resurgence in global demand.

The PMI for Taiwan, a major producer of high-end technology components, fell to 42.2, its lowest since 2009 and down from an expansionary 50.4 in March.

The declines in South Korea's and Taiwan's PMIs showed the contractions were less severe than those in other economies in the region, with indicators in Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam all reporting plunges to record lows.

Capital Economics said while South Korea and Taiwan held up better than their Southeast Asian counterparts, thanks mostly to effective government policies to contain the virus, conditions have nonetheless worsened.

Official data released last week showed the coronavirus sent South Korean exports plunging in April at their sharpest pace since the global financial crisis.

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd last week said it expected profits to decline in the current quarter due to a slump in sales.

It said while work-from-home orders and growth in online learning would underpin demand for memory chips, the outlook for smartphones and TVs was bleak as consumers put off discretionary spending.

The production slump is of particular concern to policymakers, who are worried about the socially destabilising effects of massive unemployment as firms in both factory and service sectors slash headcount.

A private-sector survey in Australia on Monday showed job advertisements plunging a record 53.1% in April, a decline almost five times larger than the previous record of 11.3% in January 2009. (Writing by Jonathan Cable and Sam Holmes; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Hugh Lawson)
NEW DELHI: Indian consumer goods giant ITC has warned some workers of disciplinary action and pay cuts for missing work during the coronavirus crisis, prompting a showdown with at least two unions, letters from both parties show.

The problems at ITC food plants in Pune in the western state of Maharashtra and in the southern state of Karnataka underscore labour issues facing firms in India, where a lockdown forced thousands of workers to return to their villages.

ITC is one of Indias top consumer goods companies with annual sales of $11 billion, producing staples such as flour, noodles and biscuits as well as being the countrys biggest cigarette manufacturer.

In notices to employees of at least two food factories dated April 29, ITC said the attendance of some workers in April was irregular while some had not reported at all, even though factories were open.

ITC said in a statement it had seen tremendous co-operation by workers to meet the demand of essential goods, and it had taken adequate safety measures at its factories.

And it said more than 50,000 workers have been paid in the last month, irrespective of their presence.

Food production has been classified as essential by the government during the nationwide lockdown.

While ITC had so far not taken any action against workers, the company notices said absence without leave would lead to salary cuts and disciplinary action, without elaborating.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 5)  The Japanese government has agreed to provide the country a free supply of an anti-flu drug to study if it could treat COVID-19, the Department of Health said Tuesday.

"Nais po nating magpasalamat sa bansang Japan sapagkat sila ay nagexpress na sila ay handa tayong bigyan ng libreng supply ng anti-flu drug na Avigan," said Health Spokesperson Ma. Rosario Vergeire in the daily DOH virtual briefing.

[Translation: We wish to thank Japan because they have expressed that they are ready to give us free supply of the anti-flu drug Avigan.]

Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been touting Avigan - which is the Japanese brand name for favipiravir - for its potential to cure the coronavirus disease. The drug has been known to be effective against coronavirus in China, CNN reported.

Japan earlier said it plans to provide the drug for free to 20 countries.

Vergeire said clinical trials on the efficacy of the medicine will begin once they receive the supply. However, the DOH cautioned against its use on pregnant women as studies mentioned it can cause side effects such as birth defects.

"[Ang] pagsasagawa ng clinical trial ay sapagkat tayo ay 'di pa tayo ganap na nakakasiguro sa mga benepisyo ng nasabing gamot ngunit ganoon pa man patuloy nating gagalugarin ang pagkakataon na ito," she said.

[Translation: We are conducting clinical trials since we are not sure yet of the benefits of the said medicine, however, we will still make use of this opportunity.]

A clinical trial means testing the effects of a drug on patients suffering the same condition. The country is also participating in a "Solidarity" clinical trial led by the World Health Organization on antiviral Remdesivir, antimalarial drug Chloroquine or Hydroxychloroquine, antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV Lopinavir with Ritonavir, and Lopinavir with Ritonavir plus Interferon beta-1a.

The University of the Philippines and the Philippine General Hospital also started a clinical trial on convalescent plasma therapy, which involves using the blood plasma of a patient who has recovered from COVID-19 and transfusing it to another patient, hoping that the antibodies the recovered patient had produced would help the sick patient get better.
The northern province of Quang Ninh has offered free tickets for visitors to Ha Long Bay and Yen Tu tourist site.

The move is aimed to attract more travellers to the locality as Vietnam has basically controlled the Covid-19 pandemic.

Visitors on Ha Long Bay



Under the decision signed by Quang Ninh Peoples Committee Chairman Nguyen Xuan Ky, all local residents and domestic visitors who come to the province through Van Don International Airport will receive free tickets to visit Ha Long Bay and Yen Tu tourist site from Monday.



From June 1, Quang Ninh will launch more programmes to attract visitors, focusing on the domestic market.



The province has planned to open a free bus route linking Van Don International Airport, Ha Long Bay and Yen Tu tourist site to serve visitors better. The province has also considered organising the Carnival Ha Long this month.



Quang Ninhs tourist spots have been reopened since May 1 after being temporarily closed due to Covid-19. Over the past four days, visitors to the province have on the rise, but being still much lower than usual.

Laodong/Dtinews

Ha Long Carnival slated for September if COVID-19 under control The Ha Long Carnival and the 2020 Ha Long - Quang Ninh Tourism Week will take place on Vietnams National Day (September 2) holiday if the COVID-19 is brought under control, announced the Quang Ninh provincial Peoples Committee.
Photo: (Photo : pexels.com)

Every day is a perfect day to celebrate the greatness of every mother. They work extra miles to make sure that their children and households are in good shape.

However, every year, mothers get to be celebrated all over the world on their special day: Mother's Day. If today, we see flowers, dinners, or gifts as a sign of Mother's Day, it is far different from the initial intention of this day.

This celebration had a very long history, beginning in the year 1858 through Anna Jarvis.

It all started with her mother.

The Beginning: 1858

In 1858, the mother of Anna Jarvis, Ann Reeves Jarvis, organized Mother's Day Work Clubs. This day was intended to help in improving sanitary conditions and to descend the infant mortality rates in her community.

Ten Years After: 1868

After the civil war, Ann Reeves Jarvis organized Mother's Friendship Day. This celebration was held in West Virginia. Its aim was to bring together former foes. During that time, Mother's Day was celebrated with war veterans from the North and South who meet for the first time after years of war.

The Sacred Right: 1870

Another mother named Julia Ward Howe said that war is a preventable evil and that it is the "sacred right" of mothers to protects their children. Howe was the forerunner of the modern-day Mother's Day Celebrations and suggested a "Mothers' Peace Day."

Three years after, the "Mother's Day" that Howe initially proposed was celebrated. That was in June 1973.

Anna Jarvis Enters: 1907

On the second Sunday of May 1905, Ann Reeves Jarvis died. Two years after, one of her surviving daughters, Anna Jarvis, organized a service in honor of her mother. It was held at the Andrew Methodist Episcopal Church in West Virginia.

Through the efforts of Anna Jarvis, the first "Mother's Day" commemoration was held in 1908. It was on the second Sunday of May and the same church in Grafton. Also, there was a larger ceremony in Philadelphia.

During the celebration in Grafton, Jarvis gave away white carnations for mothers, sons, and daughters.

It's official: 1910-1915

In the year 1910, the governor of West Virginia declared the second Sunday of May an official holiday: Mother's Day.

According to a history professor in West Virginia, Katharine Antolini, Anna Jarvis wanted Mother's Day to be a special recognition of everything a mother does for the family.

In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Mother's Day as an official national holiday.

Canada followed suit in 1915 when they also declared Mother's Day as an official holiday.

Against Exploitation: 1915-1940

In 1915, Anna Jarvis started railing against what she believed to be an exploitation of Mother's Day. Jarvis believed that this day should be a special day for families and not used by public interest groups to make political statements.

In 1922, Jarvis opened boycotts against florists who increased the prices of carnations every May.

Years after that, Jarvis continued to fight groups whom she thought used Mother's Day for a different agenda.

In 1925, she crashed a convention of American War Mothers in Philadelphia.

Also, in 1935, when a commemorative stamp was released in honor of mothers of America, Jarvis was disdained. In the same year, Jarvis accused Eleanor Roosevelt of using Mother's Day to raise funds for charities.

Jarvis was placed in an asylum: 1948

When Jarvis reached 80 years old, she was placed in the Marshall Square Sanitarium. She spent the rest of her life there, alone and penniless.

Ironic as it may seem, Anna Jarvis, the woman who spent most of her life fighting for what she believed is the real essence of Mother's Day, did not become a mother.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 22:25:31|Editor: huaxia

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HARBIN, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Manzhouli, the largest land port on the China-Russia border, saw a rising number of China-Europe freight trains during the first four months this year, authorities said.

The number of outbound China-Europe freight trains via Manzhouli grew 16 percent to 484 and that of inbound trains increased 5 percent to 382 between January and April, according to China Railway Harbin Group Co., Ltd, which administers the Manzhouli railway station.

On Tuesday, a China-Europe cargo train carrying 123 cars left Daqing, a city in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, for Belgium via Manzhouli land port in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Around 2,000 China-manufactured cars have been transported by China-Europe trains through the port since this year.

There are currently more than 50 routes of China-Europe freight trains via the Manzhouli land port, which helps promote trade between China and European countries. Enditem
Bengaluru, May 5 : Karnataka BJP Lok Sabha member Shobha Karandlaje has sought action against an Indian Muslim in Kuwait for allegedly attacking an Indian taxi driver in the oil-rich country for reportedly praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a party official said on Tuesday.

"Action should be taken against the accused (Asi Chullikkara) from Rajapuram of Kasargode in north coastal Kerala for attacking, slapping and humiliating driver Sri Praveen in Kuwait recently for praising Modi and posting it on his social media platform Facebook," Karandlaje wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah on May 3," her spokesman D. Abhishek told IANS here.

The accused forced Praveen, a native of Kerala, to apologise for lauding Modi.

"The accused also pressurised Praveen to admit that any post appreciating Modi is an insult to the Muslim community. A video of the incident has gone viral," said Karandlaje in her letter to Shah.

Terming the attack outrageous, the Chikmagalur constituency member said the accused had to be punished for his anti-Indian act.

"We must mount pressure on the authorities in Kuwait to extradite Chullikkara and brought to India for trial," asserted Karandlaje in the letter.
Unorthodox, the Netflix series starring Israeli actress Shira Haas, is about a Hasidic Jewish woman named Esty. The character of Esty is based off of the author Deborah Feldman, who wrote a book called called Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots. After the memoir was published in 2012, it was later developed into the Netflix series thats airing on the platform today. Much like Estys relatives in the Netflix show, Feldmans real-life family members were not too happy with her for leaving the community. After they found out Feldman was publishing a book, the Unorthodox author began receiving threats and hate mail.

Author Deborah Feldman | Tristar Media/Getty Images

Unorthodox memoir author Deborah Feldman on her real life after living in the Satmar Jewish community

In a 2012 interview with the New York Post, Unorthodox author Deborah Feldman talked about what it was really like to leave her ultra-Orthodox community.

It wasnt an easy decision for me, she admitted. I was thinking, Can I make myself live this life for their sake? And I couldnt. Feldman continued about her new life, emphasizing how different it is, but also how different she is.

Now, I am a pariah, she said. Its over. Ill still go to Williamsburg, to have brunch with [non-Hasidic] friends and walk around. No one recognizes me.

Amit Rahav and Shira Haas in Unorthodox | Anika Molnar/Netflix

As for her ex-husband and his family, there arent many ways back in.

Theres no room for divorced people in the community, so youre relegated to the fringe, she said. However, shes made it workespecially for her child.

We have primary modified joint custody, which means I get the last word, the Unorthodox writer explained.

Feldman says her own family members sent her death threats after she published the book that became a Netflix series

After her Hasidic Jewish family members found out she was writing a book about her experience, Feldman says she started receiving hate mail.

Theyve got my grave ready, Feldman told the Post. In an e-mail she shared with the publications, one relative wrote: R U ready to CROKE. Another former loved one told the Unorthodox author: We are most definitely going to rejoice in your misery.

So Im very careful, Feldman continued. My doorbell doesnt have my name on it. However, she found Unorthodox, her memoir, to be protective in some ways. Her family members are terrified of having their actions become public, she explained. So its an insurance policy, in a way.

Deborah Feldman and Shira Haas in Unorthodox | Anika Molnar/Netflix

Feldmans fear for her own safety is part of the reason Unorthodox the Netflix series put a fictional spin on the main characters present-day life.

Executive producer Anna Winger explained the decision in Making Unorthodox, a short documentary which is about exactly what it sounds like. Winger shared:

It was very important to us to make changes in the present day story from Deborah Feldmans real life. Because she is a young woman, shes a public figure, shes a public intellectual. We wanted Esthers Berlin life to be very different from real Deborahs Berlin.

However, the backstoryincluding those threats from her old community, were very real. As the Unorthodox co-creator explained: more or less, the flashbacks are based on the book, but the present day story is entirely made up.
New Delhi, May 5 : Even as the number of COVID-19 positive cases in the national capital is on the rise, the Delhi government's order allowing services provided by self-employed persons has not gone down well with the residents, who say the decision to allow domestic helps to return to work will take Delhi to "disaster".

"We have seen 1,400 cases in the last 4 days, still you want to relax restrictions. It is time when you need to be more cautions; the cases would rise more than ever before," said B.S Vohra, President of East Delhi RWAs Joint Front-Federation.

Vohra, however, said allowing plumbers and electricians to return to business was justified as life without water and electricity cannot be imagined. But allowing maids was "unjustified" as people can do their daily chores without domestic helps.

"We were all doing our chores for over a month now, but with government allowing domestic helps to return to work, it has become difficult now to convince some residents to not allow maids in their houses," Vohra said.

President of Delhi's biggest RWA union, Union Residents' Joint Action of Delhi (URJA), Atul Goyal, too spoke against the order.

"The order is vague, the government has just forwarded Central government's order to the state, there is no foresight from the state government. You have to understand that a domestic helps goes to various houses and, in the current scenario, how can one be sure that any one of those houses is not infected by virus," Goyal questioned.

Goyal's organisation URJA is an umbrella body of over 2,500 RWAs in Delhi.

Goyal also demanded the state government to bring a new plan for liquor sales, as he claimed that long queues outside these shops will prove to be dangerous.

"When you can distribute ration at home, then why not liquor? You can charge 10 per cent extra for delivery so that people do not step out of houses to get alcohol," Goyal said.

The state government on May 3 extended relaxation in services provided by self-employed persons -- electrician, plumber, lift technician, A/C mechanic, vehicle mechanic, generator mechanic, TV mechanic, Dish TV/ Cable/ CCTV mechanic, computer and internet service provider, opticians, private security guards/ supervisors, gas service, CNG pipeline technicians, sanitation workers, domestic helps/ maids, laundry and press-wallah. They are permitted along with shops related to raw material and on-site construction activities.
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump's nominee to be director of national intelligence carefully navigated questions about the origin of the coronavirus Tuesday during a surreal confirmation hearing, during which masked senators took turns questioning  from a distance  Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, for the post.

In the first in-person Senate hearing since the pandemic, lawmakers took turns in the room, so they would limit their proximity to each other. Ratcliffe sat alone at the witness table  his family absent to limit possible exposure  as he talked about the threat of a rising China and the virus that forced such dramatic precautions in the U.S. Capitol

On the controversial question of whether the coronavirus escaped from a Chinese lab, as Trump and his allies suggested, or whether it originated in a natural setting after jumping from animal to human, Ratcliffe said he had not seen conclusive evidence of either theory.

The Republican congressman's equivocal answers put him at odds with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Trump, who suggested the virus came from a lab, perhaps in an accidental release. The president and Pompeo said they cannot divulge evidence to support the assertion.

The U.S. intelligence committee said in an unusual statement last week that it had no evidence the virus was man-made or genetically modified but that officials were probing whether it had escaped from a lab or began through natural transmission.

Ratcliffe said he had not seen any intelligence to prove the coronavirus originated in a lab, nor had he had seen evidence that it originated in a wet market, as Chinese officials said.

In both cases, Ratcliffe cautioned that he had not been briefed on the latest intelligence about the pandemic.

He was more definitive when asked what he saw as the greatest threat to the United States.

"I view China as the great threat actor right now," he said. "Look where we are with respect to COVID-19."

Story continues

Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, center, bumps elbows with Sens. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Mark Warner, D-Va., left, as they arrive for a nomination hearing.

Senators hardly needed to be reminded as they fiddled with their masks during the questioning and complained that they could hardly see Ratcliffe because he was so far away.

A mask hanging around his neck, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the committee's chairman, noted the hearing would be "a little bit different" from the usual elbow-to-elbow confirmation for the nation's top intelligence position.

He said committee members were asked to watch the hearing from their offices and come to the room only during their allotted time for questions.

Trump says he's seen evidence coronavirus came from Chinese lab. US intelligence agencies say it was not man-made

Burr and most other senators took their masks off when it was their turn to question Ratcliffe, who did not wear a mask during his testimony. One exception was Sen. Michael Bennett, D-Colo., whose questions came out slightly muffled when he pressed Ratcliffe on whether he agreed with Trump that U.S. intelligence agencies have run "amok" and need to be reined in.

"I dont think the men and women of the intelligence community are running amok," Ratcliffe told Bennett.

A former federal prosecutor and staunch Trump supporter, Ratcliffe tried to persuade senators that he would not "shade" intelligence assessments to fit the president's views or policies.

"I will deliver the unvarnished truth" to the president and members of Congress, Ratcliffe told the committee.

'Dangerous dynamic': Coronavirus threatens new 'Cold War' between US and China

The full Senate reconvened Monday for the first time in five weeks despite concerns about lawmakers possible exposure to the virus. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Congress needed to continue conducting our nations business.

The Capitols normally buzzing marble hallways were mostly quiet, marked with signs and floor tape warning the few reporters and staff to stay 6 feet away from each other.

Were all anxious, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said Monday through a University of Alabama patterned mask.

We realized the danger to us, but theres also danger to everybody in America and in the world, Shelby said. Weve got work to do.

Some Democrats complained that McConnell forced the Senate back into session even though theres a deadlock over the next coronavirus rescue package. Instead, the chamber is voting on Trump nominees.

Its amazing to me that McConnell brought us back and not a thing about COVID is on the floor, said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, whose home state of New York has been among the hardest hit in the nation.

Burr said he wanted to move Ratcliffe's nomination quickly. Trump nominated him for the intelligence post, which oversees 17 U.S. intelligence committee, in February  six months after the Texas congressman took his name out of the running for the job.

Ratcliffe initially withdrew his bid to become the spy chief after Democrats and some Republicans raised questions about whether he had exaggerated his work as a federal prosecutor of terrorism. Critics brought up Ratcliffe's lack of experience in the intelligence arena and expressed doubts that he would give the president unvarnished advice on Russia, among other contentious subjects, given his strong partisan views.

Trump said he thought Ratcliffe "was being treated very unfairly."

Trump installed a loyalist, Richard Grenell, as the acting director of national intelligence. Grenell, who had been serving as U.S. ambassador to Germany, has no intelligence experience.

The intelligence position has been without a permanent director since Dan Coats, a former Indiana senator who held the job since 2017, stepped down in August 2019. Disagreements between Coats and Trump on Russia, North Korea and other matters often spilled into public view.

Contributing: Christal Hayes, Michael Collins and David Jackson

Senators practice social distancing during nomination hearing for Rep. John Ratcliffe

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: Senate presses John Ratcliffe, Trump intelligence nominee
The Heid building near 13th and Callowhill Streets, where hospitality startup Sonder offers apartments for hotel length stays. Read more

Chaka Fattah Jr. thought the sunlit loft apartment north of Center City that he saw advertised for short stays would be the perfect place to spend a week getting his head together as he resumed his life as a free man, resonant of the posh quarters he enjoyed before serving time in prison

Too bad, the hotel didnt see the former congressmans son as a suitable guest.

Our system cross-references all publicly available information and your booking was flagged, the hotels operator wrote in an April 26 email shared with The Inquirer. I highly suggest that you do not try to book with us again as we will not be able to host you in the future, either.

Within a week, San-Francisco-based Sonder Corp. reversed course and accepted Fattahs reservation, after The Inquirer contacted the firm. Still, his experience with Sonder, one in a new breed of hospitality start-ups that offer furnished apartments for hotel-length stays, marks a late plot twist in the legal saga surrounding the 37-year-old, who was imprisoned for almost four years on bank- and tax-fraud convictions.

It also raises new questions about how regulations concerning housing discrimination apply to Sonder and its competitors, which walk a line between apartment landlord and hotelier, said Angela McIver, chief executive of the Fair Housing Rights Center in Southeastern Pennsylvania, a legal aid group.

Although its unclear whether Fattahs civil rights were violated, Sonders actions were, at the very least, bad PR, she said. They failed miserably in how they handled this."

A Sonder spokesperson declined to comment on Fattahs situation.

Fattah, who no longer uses the name Chip, was released from prison in December after a 46-month sentence for bilking banks, taxpayers, and clients out of more than $1 million, and for playing a role in swindling the Philadelphia School District out of hundreds of thousands of dollars through his position with a for-profit education firm.

His father, former U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, is serving a 10-year prison sentence on an unrelated conviction for stealing federal grant funds, charitable donations, and campaign cash to pay personal and political expenses. His lawyers have declined to say whether he is pursuing early release due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The terms of Fattah Jr.'s release placed him under house arrest for about six months at his childhood home in Overbrook, where his mother still lives. He was permitted to leave for his work at a prisoner-reentry nonprofit in Germantown, and for occasional restaurant meals.

Since late March, however, Fattah and his mother, Michelle Wingfield, have also been confined to their rowhouse together almost full time by government stay-at-home mandates aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus.

With Fattahs home-confinement period scheduled to end on May 6, he went looking for whatever getaway he could muster amid the pandemic lock-down orders.

On a friends recommendation, he checked out a two-bedroom apartment on Sonders website that the company was renting in the Heid building, a recently renovated former hat factory near 13th and Callowhill Streets. The haberdasher was a Frank P. Heid, hence the current name.

Fattah said the view through the Heids big, industrial-style windows would remind him of his past life as a Center City resident, when he lived in a string of nice places that included, for a time, the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton near City Hall.

Even better, Sonder was aggressively promoting its properties for use by locals with deep discounts to recoup some of the loss of its customary tourist and business-traveler clientele during the pandemic.

One recent Sonder ad seen on Facebook pitches the companys units as Temporary housing near you.

I thought it would be a good opportunity to clear my head and spend some time alone to think about my future plans, Fattah said. Basically this would have been  since I cant go on vacation  like a vacation in Philadelphia."

Fattah first booked himself a five-night stay with a debit card, starting two days after the end of his home-confinement, then texted Sonders customer-service department a few hours later to extend his reservation for a full week.

It was soon after that that he received an email and a text message from Sonder that his booking had been canceled.

I am just reaching out to let you know that we have reviewed the details of your account, and unfortunately we will not be able to host you, Sonder wrote in the email.

Fattah responded with a message, sent directly to Sonder chief executive Francis Davidson, acknowledging that he had a past legal issue which dealt with some tax under-reporting and other paperwork issues.

But, he continued, "I dont think I pose any safety issue for any guest, and do not really understand why my reservation was canceled.

Days later, he spoke with a customer-service agent who told him that his booking had been flagged twice: Once because the home address he provided was local to the property where he wanted to stay, and again because of his payment method.

Those reasons seemed disingenuous, he told The Inquirer after contacting the newspaper to complain about his treatment, since Sonder is actively advertising its apartments to local residents, and Fattah said his debit-card payments cleared.

He heard nothing further from Sonder until Monday, when a representative with the company called hours after it had been contacted by an Inquirer reporter concerning Fattahs reservation. The representative invited him to renew his booking and offered him a cash voucher to apply to the stay, Fattah said.

The representative said Fattahs reservation was originally rejected because the company was still refining its rules for in-town reservations, which are meant to keep local guests from booking apartments for parties, but did not address any issues with his payment method.

Its very possible that theyre using these two explanations to get around that they did a background check and dont want me to stay there, Fattah said last week, before he was cleared to book the apartment.

He said Monday that he intends to stay there, after all.

McIver, from the Fair Housing Rights Center, said landlords may reject applicants because of their criminal records, but only if they do so consistently. Since it accommodates guests for long-terms stays as well as shorter ones, Sonder may be bound by the same rules that apply to landlords, she said.

If Sonder had singled out Fattah for a criminal-background check because of his existing notoriety, or if it treated him differently from others subjected to background probes, she said, it may have run afoul of federal regulations governing how landlords can conduct criminal checks.

Sonder advises guests on its website that it may engage with a vendor to verify your criminal history.

It would be imperative to find out what their policy and procedures are around making sure everyone who submits an application goes through the same vetting process, McIver said. Its hard to know what exactly is going on here, but its easy to speculate, because of his name recognition.
Just as the stay-at-home orders were lifted, business-owner David Fernandez reopened his Iberian-inspired tapas restaurant, Frog & The Bull, on Friday. The night before, Fernandez said he and the staff rebranded the dining establishment into "a badass food truck without wheels."

On the day they reopened, a regular asked his server to charge him and his family double. On top of that, he added a tip for the server, and another $1,000 "for the house."



Tip Helps Restaurant Recover Lost Revenue During Stay-at-Home Period

Last Friday, a man dining with his family ordered a filet mignon, scallops, grilled steak, and among others on the menu. The staff recognized him as a regular customer before the business closed this year in adherence to coronavirus mitigation measures.

Their check amounted to a total of $337, but the man insisted the restaurant charge him double the price.

Fernandez remembered the man told him to charge him double for everything. "I asked, 'Are you sure?' And he said yes."

On top of adding a tip to the server, the customer's total check came out to be $2,029.

During the lockdown, the staff attempted to gain some profit with carryout and delivery menus, especially since they lost much of what they earned in the restaurant's first five months in business.

On the day leading up to the reopening, he said he and the staff were preparing to deal with the advisories, which were strict guidance measures that business owners were expected to follow in the reopening of their stores. Fernandez said they had a "strict" seating scheme "to keep people safe."

Fernandez also said that the money would help the restaurant a great deal in paying off the bills, especially with the current crisis, as Texas is one of the first states to open to boost the U.S. economy. He considered it a generous welcome-back gift for the Frog & Bull.



Check these out!



Businesses Reopen in Texas

New rules by Governor Greg Abbott's taskforce have outlined the plan for businesses in Texas that have reopened as early as Friday. The mitigation measures for the coronavirus pandemic have been instituted on April 2 and have expired on April 30.

Abbott said Texas's expansion on testing and medical supplies like personal protective equipment would allow the state to function regular operations, but with limited capacity.

If the state confirms no "flare-up" of the coronavirus disease, then the governor said that more businesses would reopen with much looser restrictions that may be in effect as early as May 18.

Like the Frog & Bill, businesses are expected to keep the capacity of the stores limited to 25 percent for urban areas. For the rural counties with not as many reported cases of COVID-19, businesses can serve up to 50 percent regular capacity, which is enough for them to gain profit.

Owner of Foreign & Domestic restaurant Sarah Heard did not think this was a wise decision for businesses. As a 40-seat restaurant, having ten guests was not worth reopening up for. They also considered how the staff would be brought back.

"They're going to make not enough money at 25 percent capacity to pay their bills," Heard said in an interview with Spectrum News.

Apart from that, her restaurant was also concerned about safety. She said they'd be more comfortable reopening once the virus was better contained.
Security researchers spotted a new piece of DDoS bot dubbed Kaiji that is targeting IoT devices via SSH brute-force attacks.

Last week, the popular security researcher MalwareMustDie and the experts at Intezer Labs spotted a new piece of malware dubbed Kaiji, that is targeting IoT devices via SSH brute-force attacks.

The malicious code was designed to target Linux-based servers and Internet of Things (IoT) devices and use them as part of a DDoS botnet.

The Kaiji malware is different from other IoT ELF malware, it is written from scratch in the Go programming language, and its detection rate at the time of discovery was only 1.

In late April we identified a new botnet campaign with definitive Chinese origins,targeting servers and IoT devices via SSH brute forcing. While most attackers derive their implants from popular and well-tested sources such as open source (e.g., Mirai) or blackmarket toolsets (e.g., BillGates), this botnet utilizes its own custom implant, which MalwareMustDie named Kaiji based on one of the function names. reads the analysis published by Intezer. The botnet was built from scratch using the Golang programming language, which is rare in the IoT botnet landscape.

The Kaiji botnet doesnt leverage exploits to spread, instead, it carries out brute-force attacks against the root of IoT devices and Linux servers that have left their SSH port exposed online.

Once the malware gains access to a root account of the device, a bash script is executed to sets up the environment for the malicious code.

A /usr/bin/lib directory is created and then Kaiji is installed under the filename netstat, ps, ls, or some other system tool name. continues the analysis.

Kaiji has simple features. It consists of an arsenal of multiple DDoS attacks such as ipspoof and synack attacks, an ssh bruteforcer module to continue the spread, and another ssh spreader which relies on hijacking local SSH keys to infect known hosts which the server has connected to in the past.

The malware is quite simple, it implements multiple DDoS attacks, it includes a module to conduct SSH brute-force attacks and steal SSH keys used to spreads to other devices to infect hosts that the server has connected to in the past.

The Kaiji botnet is clearly a work-in-progress, the source code includes demo strings and the rootkit module would often call itself too many times and exhaust the devices memory, resulting in the crash of the devices.

Experts also noticed some functions named in an English representation of Chinese words, a circumstance that suggests it was developed by a Chinese developer.

The binary contained four command server hostnames, two of which were resolved to localhost since they were registered. The only hostname which worked was operational for two weeks before failing to respond.

I reached MalwareMustDie for a comment:

Well I think I was the first who analyzed it (and other may has seen it too,) after an on-going threat detected in cyber intelligence during this covid19 (can not reveal due to OPSEC), to find this bot ddoser sample that has been coded with a lot of functionalities that covered many botnet aspects already. That was a new stage on its propagation progress and I named it as Linux/Kaiji since it is a hardcoded routine and looks easy to remember. The coding in Go is making the coder can have luxury to focus to code many malicious operations for the botnet purpose since they dont have to work that hard on providing them self encryption, networking communicating activities libraries, it is coded ala previous complex DDoS bot made by China origin attacker and they are aiming some platforms that are having a serious vulnerability now. So after reversed it, I dont have much time to write the whole aspect of this malware in details, yet I figured it was 0 (zero) detection the day it was found (became 1 detection a day after), so I summarized and take screenshots and I was just sharing it quickly as awareness and posted the basic information for this new threat on VirusTotal, for other IR and security entities starting their process to mitigate this threat. The functions of this bot are completed made, in aspect from rootkit, persisting function that supported new Linux systems, some secure protocol propagation tool and it is a variation on local executable bot commands with command execution capability which is there too. What I can say is, be aware of this kit, it is newly developed (since the implementation and code in here and there doesnt look mature nor final yet) and aiming vulnerability in this first infection. I am still working with others to tame for mitigation for its initial propagation while sharing this bot for awareness.

The Kaiji command and control servers are not stable, they would often go offline, anyway, experts warn that the capabilities of this botnet could make it a dangerous actor in the threat landscape.

Intezer has published Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) for the Kaiji bot.

Recently other IoT botnets made the headlines, such as including Hoaxcalls, Mukashi, and dark_nexus.

Please vote Security Affairs for European Cybersecurity Blogger Awards  VOTE FOR YOUR WINNERS

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe8AkYMfAAwJ4JZzYRm8GfsJCDON8q83C9_wu5u10sNAt_CcA/viewform

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs  Kaiji malware, hacking)

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Rachel Weisz has shed light on juggling her successful acting career with being a parent.

In June's edition of Harpers Bazaar UK, the coverstar, 50, who shares son Henry, 11, with ex Darren Aronofsky and a 20-month-old daughter with husband Daniel Craig, 'took her hat off' to fellow working mothers as she championed female empowerment.

Posing in elegant outfits for the publication's accompanying shoot, the screen star also reflected on signing up for Marvel's upcoming film Black Widow nine months after welcoming her second child - an experience she's described as 'daunting'.

'Isn't that just what all mums do all the time?' Rachel Weisz has shed light on juggling her successful acting career with being a parent in June's edition of Harpers Bazaar UK

The award-winning thespian has been active in the film industry since her rise to prominence in 1992.

Rachel insisted she takes pride in following in the footsteps of mothers who manage to maintain their workload with parenthood, sharing: 'Isn't that just what all mums do all the time?

'And we've been doing it for many centuries. Hats off to working mums!', the media personality added.

Last year, the actress was announced as the latest addition to the Black Widow line-up alongside titular star Scarlett Johansson.

'We've been doing it for centuries': The coverstar, 50, took her hat off' to fellow working mothers as she championed female empowerment

Working parents: The TV and film star shares son Henry, 11, with ex Darren Aronofsky and a 20-month-old daughter with husband Daniel Craig (pictured with Daniel in 2020)

In the film, directed by Cate Shortland, Rachel transforms into Melina Vostokoff, an experienced spy trained who serves as a mother-figure to Natasha (Scarlett).

On agreeing to take on the physical role just under a year following childbirth, the Westminster native admitted: 'I think all women would recognise that as daunting.

'I didn't have my core, shall we say. It was a good incentive to do some Pilates and dance cardio...'.

Despite the challenging tasks that came along with being Melina, The Favourite star claimed her character helped her identify with other female superheroes in the Marvel franchise.

Busy bee: Last year, the actress was announced as the latest addition to the Black Widow line-up alongside titular star Scarlett Johansson (pictured left with Scarlett and Florence Pugh)

She explained: 'When I watched Wonder Woman, I completely identified with the character, more than I would do with a male action figure. There's a little tomboy brunette, and she's grown up and now she's saving the world!

'I just loved seeing a [Brie Larson in Captain Marvel] under duress, dealing with all the stuff the world threw at her and being fairly tough, but also funny and vulnerable.

'It made it very interesting to me to see a woman take on foes like that. She really has got incredible superpowers, she can definitely fly, right? Seeing a woman fly! As I watched it, I was her.'

'I think all women would recognise that as daunting': The Westminster native spoke about agreeing to take on the physical role just under a year following childbirth

Rachel also discussed the progression of on-screen representation of women, declaring: 'The Eighties and Nineties were really s**t for women.

Available now: You can read Rachel's full interview in the publication's June issue

'But I used to watch a lot of black and white movies with my mum  Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn, they were very powerful in the narratives. Bette Davis didn't have superpowers but she's powerful as hell.

'I do think it's important for girls growing up to see stories where women are front and centre, and to see a female politician, or a female prime minister. It's about identification, it's seeing possibilities. We need more stories about women. We need more role models!'

While her 28 years on the big screen has earned her an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a British Academy Film Award, The Deep Blue Sea actress admitted she has more gratitude for 'real-world heroes' than fellow performers.

She shared: 'I'm not a nurse or a doctor or a dustman or a teacher. They're the real superheroes. I'm useless. I can't help save anybody's life right now  but I can maybe help to cheer people up.'

During this climate, readers are able to get their print edition Harpers Bazaar UK delivered to their door, by purchasing a single copy via Mags Direct (available from 6th May), or subscribe today and get 6 issues for 6 at Hearst.
German digital bank N26 has raised an additional $100 million in funding, as it braces for economic uncertainty from the coronavirus pandemic.

The investment, backed by existing investors such as Chinese tech giant Tencent and Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures, is an extension to the company's Series D investment round announced early last year. It brings the total raised in that round to $570 million, while the company has now raised $770 million to date.

N26 already topped up its Series D round with another $170 million in July. The startup's valuation remains unchanged at $3.5 billion despite the injection of new capital, but co-founder and CEO Valentin Stalf still believes it was a "successful round" given recent volatility in financial markets that has, in turn, hit venture capital investors.

"It makes us still one of the most highly-valued companies around Europe," Stalf told CNBC in an interview. "It's not only about where we are today at $3.5 billion, but where are we going to be in five to 10 years."

Though N26 is adding more funds to its balance sheet, Stalf insisted the company wasn't running low on cash and said the round instead highlighted a trend of more people opting to "bank from home" instead of at a physical branch. N26's ATM withdrawals have halved in all its major markets, while e-commerce payments have grown dramatically among customers aged 65 and above.

Stalf added that the bank  which has over 5 million users in total  had already been in talks to raise more capital prior to the Covid-19 crisis.

"We've always been a well-financed company. For us it's an opportunity to raise more capital," he said. "Every company at this time is very much focusing on the next two to three years and how we get through the crisis. We just want to be very well-prepared and that's why we decided to raise more capital now."

"With the economic crisis that is resulting out of Covid-19, I think we as a company at least are planning for an impact that will still be ongoing later this year."
A health care worker prepares to collect a sample to test for COVID-19 at a drive-through testing site at a community health center in Miami, in a March 20, 2020, file photo. (Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo)

412 Pork Plant Workers Without Symptoms Test Positive for CCP Virus

Hundreds of workers at a pork plant in Missouri have tested positive for the CCP virus even while not showing any symptoms, state officials said.

Four hundred and twelve employees and contract workers tested positive for COVID-19, the disease the virus causes, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) said on May 5. None were showing symptoms of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. Symptoms include cough, fever, and chills.

Nearly 2,400 workers were tested between April 27 and May 1 as part of the states testing strategy, which focuses on testing when an outbreak is present among people living or working closely together.

Workers who test positive were being notified and told to self-isolate for 10 days.

People who came into contact with those who tested positive were also being identified, state officials said.

The testing was done primarily on employees who werent showing symptoms of COVID-19. Symptoms include chills, fatigue, and fever.

We appreciate the willingness from employees of Triumph Foods to be tested and the collaboration with local health care providers to help prevent further spread of COVID-19 in this community, Dr. Randall Williams, director of DHSS, said in a statement announcing the testing.

A significant percentage of people who contract the illness never show symptoms, and can transmit the virus when asymptomatic, according to federal health officials.

Workers who tested positive will be paid while missing work.

A man shops in the meat section at a grocery store in Washington on April 28, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Mark Campbell, CEO of Triumph Foods, thanked employees for undergoing testing.

The test results will be critical to helping us understand where the coronavirus is in our facilities and communities, Campbell said in a video message.

We will continue to deep clean, sanitize, and disinfect our workplace, and ask that all of you practice good preventative measures of social distancing, frequent hand washing, and wearing a face mask.

As of May 4, Missouri had 8,887 total confirmed CCP virus cases and 383 deaths from COVID-19. Hundreds of patients remain in hospitals, including about 100 on ventilators.

Meat processing companies have struggled amid the pandemic with outbreaks of the virus, and a number of plants have shut down in recent weeks.

Among approximately 130,000 workers across 19 states, nearly 5,000 cases were confirmed, a government report said last week. Twenty of those patients have died.

Facilities that have remained open or later reopened have adopted a range of measures, including installing outdoor break areas, plexiglass barriers between workers, and adjusted stop and start times of shifts and breaks.

The plant closures led to fears of meat shortages, prompting major retailers to limit purchases of meat.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month compelling meat plants to stay open.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union came out against the order.

Meatpacking and poultry workers have been working tirelessly through this health crisis so that millions of Americans continue to have access to the food they need. President Trumps executive order now mandates that they continue to do so, without any language that ensures their safety, President Marc Perrone said in a statement.

Let me be clear, the best way to protect Americas food supply, to keep these plants open, is to protect Americas meatpacking workers.
Former President Barack Obama is delivering a commencement address for the class of 2020  but with actual graduation ceremonies called off across the country, he will be sharing his words of wisdom virtually.

Obama will be joined by his wife, former first lady Michelle, as well as Lady Gaga, K-pop group BTS, and Malala Yousafzai, each of whom will be addressing this year's graduates in an upcoming YouTube special.

The special, called 'Dear Class of 2020,' will premiere Saturday, June 6 on the YouTube Originals channel and YouTubes Learn@Home site.

Tune in! Former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will deliver commencement addresses in an upcoming YouTube special

Get ready: 'Dear Class of 2020' will premiere Saturday, June 6 on the YouTube Originals channel (Obama is pictured receiving an honorary degree at Morehouse College in 2013)

The pros: Both are seasoned experts at delivered graduation speeches (Mrs. Obama pictured at City College in 2016)

Famous names have been known to grace the stages of colleges and universities each May, but this year's graduating seniors will have to make due with video recordings.

On the upside, though, it's certainly a star-studded lineup.

Other speakers will include former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, and Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

The broadcast will also include performances from Gaga, BTS, and more, and there will be celebrity appearances from Alicia Keys, Kelly Rowland, Kerry Washington, Chloe x Halle, Zendaya, and YouTube creators Jackie Aina, AsapSCIENCE, Dude Perfect, Mr. Kate, and The Try Guys.

Double duty: Lady Gaga will deliver an address and perform during the special

In concert: The K-pop group BTS will also perform during the multi-hour event

Notable: Other speakers include Malala Yousafzai (pictured) and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

In addition, the former first lady's Reach Higher initiative will begin the special with an hour of content.

'Graduation is a tradition that students and families look forward to and with the current state of the world, YouTube is lending some inspiration in the form of a virtual commencement,' said Susanne Daniels, global head of content for YouTube, according to Variety.

'We hope bringing together noteworthy, influential speakers along with performances from some of their favorite artists will provide encouragement for the students who have worked so hard to get here.'

The special is being made in partnership with Michelle Obamas Reach Higher Initiative, the Born This Way Foundation, the Malala Fund, NBCs Today show, and Ideas United, and will also include student stories and a crowd-sourced commencement speech.

Mrs. Obama has been doing quite a lot to spotlight student life since leaving the White House, and has particularly taken advantage of streaming and social media platforms.

In January, she announced the launch of an IGTV series called 'A Year of Firsts,' which is still airing new episodes through June.

She teamed up with media company ATTN: for the series, which follows four college freshmen during their first year at school.

The series is part of Obama's Reach Higher initiative, which aims to 'inspire every student in the U.S. to take charge of their future by completing their education past high school, whether at a professional training program, a community college, or a four-year college or university.'
In 2012, when Kim Pham was in middle school, she discovered polymer clay charms on YouTube and knew she had to try her hand at it. She started off with four clay colors and whatever tools she could find in her kitchen.

My first charm was super big, it was really, really bad, said Pham. But I watched YouTube tutorials to get better

Pham spent each day after school making charms. At first, she started with food charms like donuts and Oreos and then worked her way up to creating more complex charms and figurines. For a recent project she made a Baby Yoda figurine that captures the beloved characters likeness.

At first creating charms and figures was a hobby the she enjoyed doing in her spare time. Then she saw that one of the polymer clay Youtubers she followed was selling her charms to raise money for her grandmothers hospital bills.

I was like, thats so cool. Like, I literally don't do anything with my charms, I just have them in a box. Why not sell my charms for a good cause? said Pham.

So thats exactly what she did. In 2017, during her junior year of high school at ESM she created Charms for Smiles and started donating money to Operation Smile, a medical volunteer-based nonprofit that provides free cleft lip surgery to children around the world. Pham chose the organization because she knew that cleft lip is something that impacts a lot of children in Vietnam, where her family is from.

Through Charms for Smiles Pham has raised $1,600 dollars for Operation Smile. She has also raised money to donate to The Syracuse VA Medical Center, MEDLIFE Cornell, and MEDLIFE Peru.

Currently, Pham is finishing her sophomore year at Cornell where she is studying biology. Like many other college students, she had to move to online classes once the coronavirus hit.

I was really worried, because two of my five classes are labs, said Pham. But they (Cornell) figured it out.

Classes werent the only thing Pham was concerned about though. She knew that people were going to be impacted by the current crisis and wanted to find a way to help. So, Pham decided to help out small businesses through a raffle.

I didn't want to just support, through purchasing from them, but also raising money, she said.

There are six businesses participating in the $10 raffle and every person who enters gets a limited-edition key chain with the logo from one of the businesses. The money raised will be split between each of the businesses and the winner will receive a $25 gift card from Glazed and Confused, $25 gift card Hope Cafe Coffee & Tea House, a bag of Moon Blend coffee & stickers from Luna Cat Cafe, a $15 gift card & a bag of Syracuse Blend coffee from Salt City Coffee, a shirt or hat from Syracuse Clothing Co. and a $25 gift card and a few drink chips from Mello Velo Bicycle Shop & Cafe.

Josh Davis, the owner of Luna Cat Cafe, was grateful that Pham thought of small businesses and reached out to him to see if hed be interested in the raffle.

She's like a little mini star in Syracuse, he said.

Davis was in the middle of picking a location for the cafe, which will be the first cat cafe in Syracuse, when the coronavirus caused restrictions on restaurants. He had his search narrowed down to two locations when he made the decision to wait on committing to anything yet. Davis said its a blessing and a curse.

Im bummed but at the same time that would have totally sunk us, he said.

Davis wants to make sure people know that theyve only been delayed and as soon as it can Luna Cat Cafe will be on its way to opening. In the meantime, hes happy for any help he can get and give.

Any excuse we can find to connect with local businesses to help the community we're 100 percent on board with, he said.

Salt City Cafes manager Darian Shuker was also quick to jump on board. When Kim reached out being someone that is creative and craft crafty and also wanting to help local small businesses, it seemed like a no brainer, she said.

Shuker said that the cafes goal has always been to be as supportive of the community as possible. During the pandemic, staying open and providing a sense of normalcy seemed to be the best way to provide that support. Especially with everything going on right now, we can't hug each other, but we always we want to extend that virtual hand to everyone as much as possible. So, it really does mean a lot to us to give but also means a lot that people are reaching out to us, Shuker said. Phams goal is to raise $1,200 and split the money among each of the businesses involved in the raffle. She made 50 of the limited-edition key chains modeled after each of the businesss logos.

Between molding, painting, and baking her charms, it takes Pham over an hour to make each one. Its a process, but one that she has always loved.

A lot of work goes into it, but I enjoy it. Its very therapeutic, said Pham. Im also helping others, so I dont mind.

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French scientists say they might have identified a possible case of coronavirus dating back to December  about a month before the first cases were officially confirmed in Europe.

In a study published in the International Journal of Microbial Agents, doctors at a hospital north of Paris reviewed retrospective samples of 14 patients treated for atypical pneumonia between early December and mid-January.

Among them were the records of Amirouche Hammar, a 42-year-old fishmonger who has lived in France for years and had no recent travel history.

He told French broadcaster BFM-TV that he drove himself to a hospital emergency unit one morning in late December because he felt very sick, with chest pains and breathing difficulties.

They said, Perhaps you have an infection, a pulmonary infection, although its not certain. But what you have is very serious, very serious, because you are coughing blood. Its not normal flu, he said.

Identifying the first infected patient is of great epidemiological interest as it changes dramatically our knowledge Yves Cohen

He was admitted with symptoms doctors say were consistent with Covid-19 patients in China and Italy. When doctors retested his old sample, they found it was positive for coronavirus.

Identifying the first infected patient is of great epidemiological interest as it changes dramatically our knowledge, wrote Yves Cohen, one of the French researchers.

The intensive care specialist works in the northern suburbs of Paris where Mr Hammar lives and which have been particularly hard-hit by Covid-19 infections and deaths.

There does not appear to have been any further transmission of the virus from Mr Hammar, who later recovered.

Dr Cohen and colleagues suggested their results showed there could be many other unidentified coronavirus cases from before the disease was officially detected in Europe.

They acknowledged that because the study was done retrospectively, medical records were not exhaustive and some relevant information might have been missing.

Other experts said the results were interesting but hardly conclusive.

Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, said it was possible the results were due to lab contamination.

If he was infected, then you would expect a more rapid and earlier spread of the virus in France than was seen, he said in a statement.

Sequencing any virus in the sample might give you insight into whether or not the virus truly was an early isolate or likely contamination, but it looks from the data that the amount of virus in the sample was low, so would be difficult to analyse further, he said.

Christian Lindmeier, a spokesman for the World Health Organisation, described the findings as exciting news and said they could help scientists better understand the evolution of coronavirus.

This gives us a whole new picture on everything and yes, of course, it would be great if all countries who have unspecified cases of pneumonia in the recent months, and even in December, and in even in November, would check them against Covid-19, he said.
Property adjoins the Pure Gold Red Lake Mine project where first production is expected in late 2020

VICTORIA, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / GoldON Resources Ltd. (TSX-V:GLD) ("GoldON" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has hired Chibougamau Diamond Drilling Ltd. for the upcoming drill program at the West Madsen gold property (the "Property").

GoldON has the right to earn a 100% interest in the Property through an option agreement with Great Bear Resources (see news release of May 28, 2019 and regional claim map Figure 1).

The Property is comprised of two contiguous claim blocks (Block "A" and "B"), each roughly six kilometres (km) by three km in size for a total area of 3,860 hectares (see Figure 2). The focus of the program will be initial drill testing of four of six main drill targets that trend along in an east-west direction and run sub-parallel to magnetic lineaments on Block A of the Property (see Figure 3). These lineaments are interpreted to represent the contact between the Balmer and Confederation assemblages which is a geological/structural contact that is similar to the adjacent Pure Gold Red Lake Mine property where first gold production is anticipated in late 2020. Mineralization hosted on adjacent and/or nearby properties is not necessarily indicative of the mineralization hosted on the West Madsen property.

"We look forward to working with Chibougamau Diamond Drilling again," said Mike Romanik President of GoldON. "They are currently drilling for Great Bear on their nearby Dixie project and have an office and equipment in Red Lake. We expect drilling to begin within 30 days."

About Chibougamau Diamond Drilling Ltd.

Chibougamau Diamond Drilling has been in operation for over 50 years and specializes in diamond drilling. They develop and build their own drill rigs and currently own 35 drills including surface, underground and heliportable rigs. Headquartered in Chibougamau, Quebec they have branch offices in Rouyn-Noranda, Thunder Bay, White River and Red Lake.

About GoldON Resources Ltd.

GoldON is an exploration company focused on discovery-stage properties located in the prolific gold mining belts of northwestern Ontario, Canada. Active projects include the West Madsen property in the Red Lake Gold Camp, an option/JV with Great Bear Resources; the Bruce Lake property that adjoins BTU Metals' Dixie Halo property and their TNT Target; and the 100% owned Slate Falls project in the Patricia Mining Division, where numerous Au-Ag mineralized zones have been identified over the 13-km breadth of the property. GoldON has 16,858,432 shares issued, all our properties are in good standing and we are fully funded for our 2020 exploration programs.

For additional information: please visit our website at https://goldonresources.com, you can download our latest presentation by clicking here and you can follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GoldONResources.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Signed "Michael Romanik"

Michael Romanik, President

Direct line: (204) 724-0613

Email: romanikm@mymts.net

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.

SOURCE: GoldON Resources Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/588369/GoldON-Hires-Chibougamau-Diamond-Drilling-for-West-Madsen-Gold-Property-in-Ontarios-Red-Lake-Camp
New Delhi, May 5 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday held that cooperative banks come under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Act 2002 (SARFAESI Act) A constitution bench of Justices Arun Mishra, Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran, M.R. Shah and Aniruddha Bose said, "The provisions of Section 2(1)(c) of SARFAESI Act, 2002 is not ultra vires." The top court observed that the recovery is an essential part of banking; as per the recovery procedure prescribed under Section 13 of the SARFAESI Act, legislation relatable to Entry 45 of List I of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution is applicable.

"We find that the SARFAESI Act qualifies the test of legislative competence, as well as the definition, cannot be said to be a colourable piece or over inclusive or beyond the competence of the Parliament," said the court.

The SARFAESI Act was introduced in 2002, and it defined bank and multi-state co-operative banks. Through a notification issued by the Centre in 2003, cooperative banks were allowed to proceed under the SARFAESI Act.

The top court noted that cooperative banks registered under the state legislation and multi-state level cooperative societies registered under the MSCS Act, 2002, with respect to 'banking' are governed by the legislation relatable to Entry 45 of List I of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.

The top court also upheld the 2003 notification under the Banking Regulation Act, where cooperative banks were brought within the class of banks entitled to seek recourse to the provisions of the SARFAESI Act.

The top court held that cooperative banks involved in the activities related to banking are covered within the meaning of 'Banking Company' defined under Section 5(c) read with Section 56(a) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, which is a legislation relatable to Entry 45 of List I.

It governs the aspect of 'banking' of cooperative banks run by the cooperative societies.

"The cooperative banks cannot carry on any activity without compliance of the provisions of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 and any other legislation applicable to such banks relatable to 'Banking' in Entry 45 of List I and the RBI Act," said the court.

The Banking and Regulation Act was made applicable to cooperative banks in 1965, which led to the beginning of a regime of dual control, as these banks were also controlled by laws, which were state specific. In 2013, "multi-state cooperative banks" were included in the definition.

In the backdrop of several conflicting decisions of the courts on this issue, a three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Justice Mishra had referred the matter to a larger bench.
The following letter was sent by a postal worker to the Socialist Equality Party in the UK. It is in response to the Communication Workers Union claiming to have forced Royal Mail Group (RMG) to back down from plans to end permanently Saturday deliveries, which would cost 20,000 jobs.

Last Wednesday RMG announced plans to scrap Saturday letter deliveries from May 2. In less than 48 hours, having threatened strike action, the CWU announced its retreat via a video conference featuring General Secretary Dave Ward and his deputy, Terry Pullinger. The CWU claimed that the union had secured correspondence  that this is now definitely only a temporary change and there will be no job losses.

When we heard Royal Mail had announced it had suspended Saturday letter deliveries, there was lots of outrage. The feeling was that the CWU would finally have to call a strike as we had a successful ballot already and we havent been happy with how things have been for a long time anyway.

The CWU have always made out that Saturday deliveries is a red line that cant be crossed. But once again, nothing. The CWU have refused to take action. Royal Mail are getting what they want and the CWU is allowing it. The union really is useless. There is still anger and no one I talk to has any confidence now in the CWU.

The CWU have said they believe Royal Mail is telling the truth about dropping the threat to end Saturday deliveries. But we dont. We have known from day one that Royal Mail have done nothing to help any of us. They have been trying to keep business as normal because all they want is profit. They really dont care about us.

We have watched over the years how our conditions and jobs have been attacked and there is a lot of worry about our futures in Royal Mail. I have a family to support and a house to pay for. I worry a lot that I wont be able to do so further down the line. And its not like theres anywhere else I can go to, especially not one where I would get an income I can live on.

Now Royal Mail are all of a sudden cancelling Saturday letter deliveries saying it is to help us, after they have refused to take any suggestions from workers of ways to honestly reduce the pressure on uslike stopping the door to doors [unaddressed mail].

Royal Mail and Rico Back are blatantly using COVID-19 to get rid of Saturday deliveries, to reduce the service to 5 days from 6 days as they have been wanting to do for a while now. And this is only going to put more pressure on us for the 5 remaining days. It is disgusting that Rico is using COVID-19 to get what he wants. We are all aware of what he did to workers at GLS (General Logistics Systems) in Germany. We are now having to change our duty shifts to accommodate Royal Mails demands. And we know that when Saturday deliveries are dropped permanently there will be lots of jobs gone.

There is growing anger because of everything we have had to put up with and we know its going to get worse and we dont get any support from Royal Mail or the union. And now with the lockdown, were still at work getting angry with none of the normal outlets to relax.

A lot of guys at the office are starting to think. I work on the machines that sort letters and were worried our specific jobs will be quick to go, particularly because those duties have extra allowances because of the demands of the work and the shift times. Everything is being focused on packets, which is where the profit is. Even though letter deliveries are gone for Saturdays, packets are still being done. So Royal Mail are restructuring everything. And it is a complete shambles, as delivery staff are being made to sort when they dont know what they are doing.

I am having to sort packets where theyre cutting back on the letter deliveries and I dont know what Im doing. I have also heard that managers of different offices are sending work back and forth with each refusing to do it, so some places theres not much work to do and at others too much to do. We are all getting under one anothers feet.

Strangely enough there are lots of casuals in, some who are just there with nothing really to do and we are wondering whyespecially as it is taking work away from permanent staff. They have also stopped any of us doing overtime in the office. We think this is because there will be a strike at some point in whatever way it comes, and Royal Mail have been preparing for this. The CWU have given them enough time to do so. Although we know things are not right, we are all worried about what to do and for how long we can keep going on strike because a lot of us dont get enough income to save much because we cant get overtime. There are a few guys told me they cant afford to strike for more than one or two days. And this is also because we know the CWU wont support or help us.

A lot of us know that any changes that have taken place to help us workers isnt from Royal Mail or the CWU. It is because guys in other offices have decided themselves to walk out, to force changes especially over health and safety concerns. Everyone is asking where is the union in all this? The union says it opposes this and this needs to be done, but it hasnt organised anything.

After 5 weeks we finally have enough of the blue surgical gloves and sanitiser, for example. But its taken 5 weeks to get there, and mostly because of pressure by workers forcing things themselves. Quite a few guys had to supply their own equipment to begin with. Some are even now still providing their own gloves that are more durable because the blue gloves are useless for deliveries and just keep breaking.

I saw the other day a company had dropped off boxes of masks for us. These were quickly packed away by managers. We have asked where they have gone and the managers are saying they dont know. So the masks have suddenly disappeared. The only people wearing masks are those who got their own.

On the sorting areas there are markings to keep us 2 metres apart, but when you go to the delivery frames that are closely packed and down tiny aisles we are still at the same distance as normal therewhich is to say really close to one another. Nothing has been changed there, which makes any other changes pointless. On our top floor we are told we have to go on a one-way system to avoid contact, but on the floor where most people are its still the same as normal.

We had two confirmed cases of COVID-19 recently in my office. One got a test after a relative in their household got sick. The test came back positive. But after getting tested he still had to come into the office to prove to managers that the test was positive. Only then was he told to go home and self-isolate.

After this a team was brought in to fumigate the area where they had been likely working. But nothing had been stopped until it was fumigated. They came in at night, but it was done while the night shift was still working on the machines in the same open space, so the guys were likely breathing in the spray. I asked them why they didnt refuse but they didnt feel sure doing so and were worried they would get in trouble. But thats because they havent got any confidence the union will support them. Its just really not good for us. I think the CWU isnt going to do anything.
WASHINGTON  In March, after Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh took time off from his Supreme Court duties to swear in Justin Walker to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky in Louisville, the newly minted judge recognized how he had gotten there at the age of 37, with zero trial experience but a pedigree in conservatism.

His mother had supported a rising Republican star named Mitch McConnell when her son was just 8, Judge Walker recalled: Ive got to hand it to you, Mom. It has been extremely important to me that Kentuckys senior senator is Mitch McConnell.

Then he turned to Justice Kavanaugh as he addressed the justices liberal opponents: What can I say that I havent already said on Fox News? said Judge Walker, who gave 119 interviews to the news media and several speeches paid for by the Federalist Society rebutting Kavanaugh critics. In Brett Kavanaughs America, he said, we will not surrender while you wage war on our work, or our cause, or our hope, or our dream.

He closed with a broadside against the American Bar Association, which had given him a rare Not Qualified rating for his absence of courtroom work, categorizing the professional organization among his opponents. Although we are winning we have not won. Although we celebrate today, we cannot take for granted tomorrow  or we will lose our courts and our country to critics who call us terrifying and who describe us as deplorable.
Uber Eats is pulling out of a clutch of markets -- shuttering its on-demand food offering in the Czech Republic, Egypt, Honduras, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay and Ukraine.

It's also transferring its Uber Eats business operations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Careem, its wholly owned ride-hailing subsidiary that's mostly focused on the Middle East.

"Consumers and restaurants using the Uber Eats app in the UAE will be transitioned to the Careem platform in the coming weeks, after which the Uber Eats app will no longer be available," it writes in a regulatory filing detailing the operational shifts.

"These decisions were made as part of the Companys ongoing strategy to be in first or second position in all Eats markets by leaning into investment in some countries while exiting others," the filing adds.

An Uber spokesman said the changes are not related to the coronavirus pandemic but rather related to an ongoing "strategy of record" for the company to hold a first or second position in all Eats markets -- which means it's leaning into investment in some countries while exiting others.

Earlier this year, for example, Uber pulled the plug on its Eats offer in India -- selling to local rival Zomato. Zomato and Swiggy hold the top two slots in the market. (As part of that deal Uber took a 9.99% stake in Zomato.)

Uber Eats rival, Glovo, also announced a series of exits at the start of this year -- as part of its own competitive reconfiguration in a drive to cut losses and shoot for profitability. It too says its goal is to be the first or second platform in all markets where it operates.

The category is facing major questions about profitability -- with now the added challenge of the coronavirus crisis. (Related: Another player in the space, Uk-based Deliveroo, confirmed a major round of layoffs last week.) tl;dr, on-demand unit economics don't stack up unless you can command large enough marketshare so it looks like the competitive pack is thinning as it becomes clearer who's winning where.

Story continues

In a statement on the latest round of Eats exits, Uber said: "We have made the decision to discontinue Uber Eats in Czech Republic, Egypt, Honduras, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, and Uruguay, and to wind down the Eats app and transition operations to Careem in U.A.E. This continues our strategy of focusing our energy and resources on our top Eats markets around the world."

The discontinued and transferred markets represented 1% of Eats' Gross Bookings and 4% of Eats Adjusted EBITDA losses in Q1 2020, per Uber's filing.

"Consistent with our stated strategy, we will look to reinvest these savings in priority markets where we expect a better return on investment," the filing adds.

The Uber Eats spokesman told us that the exits do not sum to any change to the 'more than 6,000 cities' figure for the unit's market footprint -- which Uber reported earlier this year.

Asked which markets the company considers to be priorities going forward the spokesman did not respond. It's also not clear whether or not Uber sought buyers for the shuttered units.

Per Uber's filing, Eats operations will be fully discontinue in the Czech Republic, Egypt, Honduras, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay and Ukraine by June 4, 2020.

Uber Rides operations are not affected, it adds.

A source familiar with Uber also said the changes will allow the company to focus resources on new business lines -- such as grocery and delivery.

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the on-demand food delivery business as usual in many markets -- with convenience-loving customers locked down at home so likely to be cooking more, and large numbers of restaurants closed (at least temporarily), putting a dent in the provider side of these platforms too.

At the same time there is a demand upside story in the groceries category. And last month Uber announced a tie-up with a major French supermarket, Carrefour, to expand its delivery offering nationwide. It also inked other grocery-related partnerships in Spain and Brazil.

Grocery delivery has been seeing a massive uptick as consumers look for ways to replenish their food cupboards while limiting infection risk.

While other types of deliveries -- from pharmaceuticals to personal protective equipment -- also potentially offer growth opportunities for on-demand logistics businesses, which is how many major food delivery platforms prefer to describe themselves.
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A Warren police officer has been charged with assault and battery against his girlfriend after he handcuffed her and placed the woman in the backseat of his cruiser because he did not like that she had been drinking alcohol.

The incident occurred Sunday when Massachusetts State Police arrested and placed Police Officer Shawn Morin, 35, in custody, The Telegram & Gazette reported after reviewing court records.

Morin allegedly told troopers he tried to place the woman in protective custody but he did not alert dispatch to what was happening.

He was released on $500 bail and his arraignment is pending.

Because Western Worcester District Court in East Brookfield is where Warren cases are heard, the arraignment will be moved to a different court. The date for that arraignment was not available, the newspaper reported.

Warren Police Chief Gerald Millette confiscated Morins firearms, his license to carry, and placed him on paid administrative leave while the matter is investigated and the criminal case is resolved, the newspaper said.
The oil market is going to run out of available storage due to the demand collapse caused by the coronavirus pandemic. This simple truth has triggered what is likely to be the most turbulent period in oil market history.

Last century, the largest oil industry shocks were after political upheavals in Iran during the 1950s (and again in 1978-79), and after the quadrupling of oil prices in 1973 when OPEC took control of pricing. The aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic is likely to be even more dramatic; the oil industry is set for significant changes and unlikely to go back to business as usual.

We expect to see an extremely volatile period, marked by unsustainably low oil prices for two quarters. A large amount of oil production is likely to be shut down, at least temporarily, in oil fields across the world to get the market to balance.

Our prediction: there will be significant supply reductions as prices crash and storage runs out, primarily in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. China and the North Sea are also going to be hit hard. Some of this lost output will never return.

Low prices and shutdowns will lead to financial distress and bankruptcies across the global oil industry, with the US shale oil industry particularly badly affected and heading into a multi-year decline.

Why Does Storage Matter?

In normal times, the fluctuations in supply and demand seen in the oil markets are never large enough to challenge global storage capacity. However, the coronavirus demand shock is an order of magnitude larger than all previous demand shocks, and this has taken us to a reality where storage will fill to the maximum.

Oil is cheap, but storage is expensive, so spare storage is kept to a minimum. It requires specialist storage, i.e. tanks, tankers, or (in the case of the US strategic reserves), huge pre-prepared salt-dome caverns with the salt leeched out over the course of years. Its flammability and the potential for poisonous gas emissions makes it far harder to deal with than a pile of copper, for example, and it is not easy to add storage facilities quickly.

Story continues

Holding spare storage makes little financial sense, simply because oil is a very cheap commodity. A tonne of oil is worth just 3 percent of a tonne of copper, although a tonne of oil costs more to store than a tonne of copper. A bottle of mineral water bought in the supermarket typically costs ten times as much as the same volume of oil. Because it is so cheap to buy per unit of volume but so expensive to store, oil tends to have a small maximum storage capacity in terms of days of demand compared to other major commodities with the exception of natural gas and electricity.

Storage dynamics, usually a relatively minor variable in the oil price dynamic, have risen to the top of the list. The negative WTI crude oil prices seen in late-April, exacerbated by scarce storage at a key storage hub in Oklahoma, are just an early example of the consequences of storage filling so rapidly.

The Politics Of Oil

The US shale industry is heading into a multi-year decline, leaving the dream of US Energy Dominance as a political slogan, disconnected from the lack of sustainability of the US oil boom.

Oil politics will likely change, with OPEC+ needing to reform in a more sustainable way after its collapse in March if a sequence of exaggerated boom-bust cycles is to be avoided. We expect the US to remain overtly involved in international oil politics now that it has been demonstrated that overly-low prices are as dangerous for the US economy as are overly high oil prices.

The Future Of Oil Demand

As the pandemic changes the future of work and travel, demand patterns for oil will change permanently. The energy consumption of businesses and consumers in Europe and the US will alter in response to long periods of lockdown and even longer periods of social distancing and mobility constraints.

In lockdowns across the globe, necessity has accelerated the adoption of technology solutions that allow remote working. For instance, in just 10 weeks, video conferencing has been more widely used than in the past 10 years.

These adoption trends mean that business travel and commutes to work could be reduced substantially in a post-COVID world.

The year-on-year fall in oil demand is staggering. We estimate that global oil demand has fallen by around 20 million barrels per day (mb/d) in April, will only recover slightly in May, and improvements in June may be very limited with an only partial lifting of lock-downs.

Early signs suggest that the projections of demand falling by 20mb/d are broadly correct. US data for April-to-date shows a demand fall of about 6mb/d (30 percent) and conditions appear to be worsening.

Producer Cuts  Too Little, Too Late

Faced with a catastrophic loss of demand, OPEC and its OPEC+ partners met (virtually) earlier this month to agree 10mb/d of output cuts. These moves are too little, too late. Due to transit times and other lags, the cuts will not significantly reduce cargo arrivals in importing regions until June, and we estimate that cuts will only amount to 7mb/d of voluntary cuts from a March 2020 baseline.

To balance the market in the face of the coronavirus demand shock, the cuts needed to be three times as large and to happen two months earlier. In short, it was too late for OPEC+ to do anything more than lay the groundwork for stabilizing the oil market once the chaos of the next two months has subsided.

The coming weeks will include seismic economic, market, and geopolitical changes. It is going to seem very complicated, but at the heart of the crisis will be the fact that the oil market is going to run out of available storage due to the demand collapse caused by the coronavirus.

About Paul Horsnell

Paul Horsnell is Head of Commodities Research with Standard Chartered. Based in London, Horsnell focuses on the key metals, energy, and agricultural markets with a team of analysts based in Singapore, Shanghai, and London. Prior to this, he served as head of commodities research at Barclays, and head of energy research at JPMorgan. Before becoming a financial analyst, Paul was a researcher at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies for 10 years, where he authored books on the Brent oil market and on Asian energy markets. He holds a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and a doctorate in Economics from Oxford University.

The post The Oil Market Crisis Is Just Getting Started appeared first on Emerging Market Views.
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NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / Arria NLG, a leading provider of Natural Language Generation (NLG) technology, today announced a collaboration with The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation ("BNY Mellon") to help asset managers and asset owners transform data into actionable analytics. BNY Mellon Data and Analytics Solutions' clients will now be able to unlock better insights from their data through the power of natural language generation."Our natural language artificial intelligence technology helps generate automated, real-time insights and narratives in plain, easy-to-understand language directly from data," said Sharon Daniels, CEO Arria NLG. "We are pleased to accelerate speed to new potential sources of untapped alpha for BNY Mellon Data and Analytics Solutions' clients to help them make better informed investment decisions and more effectively grow assets." BNY Mellon Data and Analytics Solutions' clients can now take advantage of Arria's sophisticated natural language generation capabilities integrated with the Eagle Performance and Data Management solutions suite. Arria NLG combined with BNY Mellon's financial technology experience will help clients to accelerate their data analysis and translate data into language and insights across investment data categories, including portfolio management, performance measurement and attribution analysis."We are excited to offer Arria's NLG capabilities inside our leading platform to help clients meet compliance needs while responding to constant market and regulatory changes," said Charles Teschner, Global Head of Data and Analytics Solutions, BNY Mellon. "This collaboration helps our clients to generate consistent bias-free professional commentary, scale their data reporting operations and significantly reduce the time and effort in analyzing large volumes of data." To learn more about Arria NLG, please visit our websiteAbout Arria NLGArria NLG is the global leader in the field of Natural Language Generation (NLG), a form of artificial intelligence, specializing in extracting insights from complex data sources and communicating that information in natural language (i.e. as if written or spoken by a human). To see the value of NLG in Investment Performance Analytics watch this video.Arria has the greatest concentration of NLG expertise in the world and has a growing patent portfolio of 27 core NLG patents. Arria's rapidly growing group of major international enterprise clients-including banking, financial services, insurance, pharmaceutical, consumer product goods, news and media-are now deploying NLG-driven automated reporting within their global organizations using Arria's NLG Studio Platform. Additional information is available at www.arria.com . Follow us on Twitter @ArriaNLG or visit our newsroom at blog.arria.com/in-the-news for the latest company news.ContactsMostafa RazzakWork: 1-917.912.0623m.razzak@ jmrconnect.net SOURCE: Arria NLG
Controversial journalist, Kemi Olunloyo has caused a stir online after she took a swipe at Igbos in Nigeria.

Olunloyo initially stated that Igbo girls are the least educated in the country before she went on to attack their men.

The controversial journalist tweeted;

When I was growing up in 1973 all the petty armed robbers were Igbos and they were led by one huge monster called Oyenusi a Yoruba master armed robber who was executed by the feds. He once said the Igbo boys were the only mumus he could draw into his crime gang. C: @PoliceNG

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Read Also: Chris Oyakhilome Attacks Pastors Who Supported Closure Of Churches

See her tweet below:
UPDATE: This post has been updated with the announcement six additional open park sites.

Oregonians are about to get more access to the outdoors, more than a month after parks and trails closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced Tuesday that the state will begin to allow outdoor recreation areas to reopen this week, including select state parks, outdoor recreation facilities and all ski resorts.

The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department followed up shortly after the governors office with an announcement that eight state park sites will partially or completely reopen to the public May 6, including popular park sites like Tryon Creek, Willamette Mission, The Cove Palisades, Pilot Butte and Prineville Reservoir.

An additional six park sites in eastern and southern Oregon were announced Thursday, including the boat ramp at Wallowa Lake and nearby hiking trails at Iwetemlaykin State Heritage Area.

Limited day use will slowly return to other state parks starting the week of May 11, the parks department said, depending on the readiness of local communities and how prepared each park is with staff, supplies and equipment.

All recreation areas in the Columbia River Gorge will remain closed for the time being, along with coastal areas that are not yet ready to welcome visitors back, Gov. Brown said.

Officials warned that state parks may open and close with little notice. Updates will be posted online at oregonstateparks.org. Not all restrooms will be open, and parking may be limited, the parks department said.

Campgrounds at Oregon state parks will remain closed, with no anticipated date of reopening, officials said. The parks department previously announced that all reservations through at least May 25 have been canceled.

Enjoying Oregons beauty and bounty is one of our states time-honored traditions, Gov. Brown said in the announcement. As we begin to slowly open up recreation sites, state parks, and ski area opportunities, it is critical we ensure the health and safety of staff, volunteers, and the public. And that begins with each of us taking personal responsibility to be a steward of our parks, and each other.

People who decide to visit state parks are encouraged to take precautions to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Officials said visitors should wear face masks and bring their own hand sanitizer, soap, water and toilet paper, in case restrooms arent open.

People are also asked to keep six feet of social distance while out at park sites, and to leave one space between their car and the car next to them. Visitors are asked to recreate only with those in their household, and not venture more than 50 miles from their home.

We know these last six weeks has seemed longer, but your health is important to us, said Lisa Sumption, director of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. It is true outdoor recreation boosts our mental and physical health, but parks concentrate people in a community, and we have to do this carefully if its going to work.

Gov. Browns stay-home order issued March 23 banned camping and closed playgrounds statewide, while allowing local jurisdictions to make their own decisions regarding closing park sites. Most land management agencies in Oregon opted for widespread closures, including the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department and the U.S. Forest Service.

The U.S. Forest Service said it will now begin looking at reopening the trailheads, boat ramps and day use areas that have been closed since late March, though forest officials cautioned there is no timeline and sites wont reopen all at once.

Nothing changes overnight, but we are going to begin the process of reopening our developed recreation areas, Catherine Caruso, a regional spokeswoman for the forest service, said. We know everyones really eager for that information, and that eagerness is one reason we need to be really careful and methodical about deciding which sites we can reopen and when.

Each national forest in Oregon will be making its own decisions about individual recreation sites, Caruso said, meaning some areas will most likely reopen while others remain closed.

Heres the full list of Oregon state park sites set to reopen May 6:

Tryon Creek in Portland

Willamette Mission north of Keizer

Mongold boat ramp at Detroit Lake

State Capitol State Park in Salem

The Cove Palisades boat ramp at Lake Billy Chinook near Culver

Prineville Reservoir boat ramp near Prineville

Joseph Stewart boat ramp on Lost Creek Lake near Shady Cove

Pilot Butte to pedestrians (no vehicles) in Bend

--Jamie Hale; jhale@oregonian.com; 503-294-4077; @HaleJamesB

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The Consulate General of Armenia in Los Angeles has posted the following on its Facebook page:

To provide assistance to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, 100,000 face masks have been provided to Los Angeles on behalf of the Republic of Armenia. This support program will help the authorities of Los Angeles mitigate the consequences of the epidemic and resist the virus.

The author of this major initiative is well-known Los Angeles-Armenian benefactor Jack Youredjian, who is the founding CEO of Western Drug. He and his wife are also implementing a major project in Gyumri, Armenias second biggest city, providing families devastated by the earthquake with apartments and helping children achieve academic excellence, plan their future and participate in professional courses.

Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles, Ambassador Nina Hachigian and Consul General of Armenia, Ambassador Armen Bayburdyan coordinated the supply of face masks to clinics and hospitals and vulnerable groups in Los Angeles. This initiative highlights the strong and growing partnership between Armenia and Los Angeles that was raised to a new and higher level when Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan paid a visit to Los Angeles in September 2019 and was cordially hosted by Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti.

The Armenian community of Los Angeles is one of the largest and most active communities in the world. As an integral part of the city, the Armenian American community also proudly bears the honorary title of a citizen of Los Angeles and doesnt spare efforts to make contributions to the advancement of the city. In April 2020, on the occasion of the 105th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Armenian community of Los Angeles organized a humanitarian fundraiser under the title Thank You, America. The proceeds will be geared towards the Feeding America organization in honor of the activities of the Near East Foundation and will help provide food to Americans in need. The Near East Foundation was the first US Congress-backed non-governmental foundation, which donated funds to save the lives of 132,000 Armenian orphans and established over 400 shelters, schools and hospitals. Currently, the needy have been provided with 5,000,000 portions of food as a result of the fundraiser held by the Armenian American community across the country.
New Delhi: India is set to begin its largest overseas evacuation of stranded Indian nationals abroad since Independence. The operation to bring back Indians stranded in various countries due to airspace closures because of the COVID-19 pandemic will commence in a phased manner, the first phase to begin as early as this week.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has prepared a chart for the evacuation of over 14,000 Indian nationals stranded in 13 foreign countries by 64 flights in week 1 of the operation. According to the MEA plan shared with the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) that is set to begin from May 7, an approximate 14,800 passengers will be evacuated from 13 different countries.

Flights from India will fly to the Philippines, Singapore, Bangladesh, UAE, UK, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Singapore, Phillippines, USA, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait. The first day of evacuation will see 10 flights repatriate 2300 Indians.

On Day 2, around 2050 Indian nationals will arrive in Chennai, Kochi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Delhi from nine different countries, according to the plan.Similarly on Day 3, some 2050 stranded nationals are expected to arrive in Mumbai, Kochi, Lucknow and Delhi from 13 countries spread across the Middle East, Europe, South East Asia and USA.

On Day 4 of the plan, the aviation ministry in collaboration with the MEA will evacuate 1850 stranded nationals from eight different countries, including the USA, UK and the UAE.Prior to boarding the evacuation flights, all persons coming to India are required to fill-up a form and submit a copy each to the Health and Immigration Counter at arrival. The passengers are required to state whether they are suffering from fever, cough, diabetes or any respiratory disease.

This form is similar to the one filled by passengers arriving back into the country during the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The government`s official guidelines say all passengers will be screened before they are allowed to board flights for their return, and only asymptomatic passengers would be allowed to travel. During the journey, they will have to follow the protocols such as those issued by the Health Ministry and the Civil Aviation Ministry.

This airlift by the MEA would be the largest since the Persian Gulf War evacuation of over 170,000 people from Kuwait in 1990. Similar evacuations were also seen in April 2015, when Operation Raahat was launched to evacuate Indians from war-torn Yemen.
In 1992, Ross Perot famously stated that NAFTA would cause a "giant sucking sound" as jobs and industries fled the U.S. for Mexico. For years, progressive Vermont's bloated bureaucracy has increased regulations, social programs, and income and real estate taxes in the fantasy that the rich can just be taxed more to achieve every imagined social good. But the COVID-19 crisis has pulled aside the fiscal veil, and now the Green Mountain State is careening into the red. A "giant sucking sound" is heard from Vermonters fleeing the state.

Vermont has stubbornly avoided funding its state pension system. It "boasts" the second highest per-pupil school costs in America, the fourth highest health care costs, and the fourth highest welfare benefits. Unsurprisingly, it also distinguishes itself as the 49th worst business climate and the only state to have its credit rating downgraded in 2019  when economic times were relatively good.

Liberals scoff at supply-side economics (the idea that cutting taxes causes a "trickle-down effect" that boosts investment, income, and ultimately tax receipts). But taxes do matter.

Vermont's state economists now caution that the state could lose $430 million in tax revenue next year due to this crisis, which is a lot of money when the population is merely 628,000 (the real number is likely much higher). As Vermont weighs how to fill in that gap, an analyst with the government warns, "[I]f lawmakers don't find another source to replace the lost revenue in the education fund, property taxes would have to go up dramatically in the next fiscal year."

Of course, that's just the education fund! And while Vermont wrangles to secure federal funds to bail itself out, blames the virus for its woes, and shelves its ambitious plans to implement new gasoline taxes and subsidies for electric vehicles (to save the planet!), it shuns the very concept of reduced government spending.

Many Vermonters have already packed up and fled. More are preparing to do so. If there is a mass exodus, property prices may plummet, allowing wealthy out-of-staters to buy up properties cheaply  that is, if they are prepared to shoulder those skyrocketing real estate taxes. (Vermont ranks sixth highest property taxes in the nation but 23rd in median income.)

According to that much-derided "trickle-down theory," raising taxes can at some point actually reduce tax receipts. The Laffer Curve represents the effect on behavior of rising tax rates. At some point, raising taxes decreases rather than increases government revenue:

A business is more likely to find ways to protect its capital from taxation or to relocate all or a part of its operations overseas. Investors are less likely to risk their capital if a larger percentage of their profits are taken. When workers see an increasing portion of their paychecks taken due to increased efforts on their part, they will lose the incentive to work harder. Put together these could all mean less total revenue coming in if tax rates were raised.

The Laffer Curve predicts that at some point, increased taxes do cause people to change behaviors in a way that undermines tax revenue. Vermont is well past that point by every standard  and people are leaving. It's not the wealthy fleeing, but the common workers and businesspeople who see greener tax pastures over most all neighboring state fences. Reducing taxes in Vermont by reducing expenditures would help these residents, not imaginary tycoons who don't reside here.

As workers and retirees are compelled to tighten their belts to endure the COVID-19 impacts on the economy, the shocking idea might occur to Vermont legislators that some belt-tightening by government is in order. Otherwise, that giant sucking sound of Vermont homeowners fleeing for friendlier tax climates will increase in volume.
Authorities sealed a floor of Shastri Bhawan, which houses several important ministries, on Tuesday after a senior official tested positive for the coronavirus, the second incident of a government building being partially cordoned off in Lutyen's Delhi within a week.

New Delhi: Authorities sealed a floor of Shastri Bhawan, which houses several important ministries, on Tuesday after a senior official tested positive for the coronavirus, the second incident of a government building being partially cordoned off in Lutyen's Delhi within a week.

The fourth floor 'A' wing from gate 1 to gate 3 has been sealed and is being disinfected, two officials said. Some gates and lifts will also remain closed till Wednesday, the officials said.

A senior official of Department of Legal Affairs in Ministry of Law & Justice tested positive for #COVID19 on May 1. He had last visited his office on 23rd April. As precautionary measure, Shastri Bhawan office of Department of Legal Affairs has been sealed: Law Ministry pic.twitter.com/BnBGvtWRfD  ANI (@ANI) May 5, 2020

They said an official of the Law Ministry, housed on the second floor of Shastri Bhawan, tested positive for the virus, and as per the protocol, the contact tracing has been initiated.

Another senior government functionary said the deputy secretary who tested positive used to take a close relative to a hospital for treatment regularly and "may have got infected there".

"As per the protocol, the ministry has been sealed for sanitisation. The drill that needs to be followed is being carried out. It is mandatory and for everyone's good," the functionary added.

On 28 April, the NITI Aayog building in the high-security zone was sealed for 48 hours after a director-level officer tested positive for the virus.

Before that, Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, which houses the Civil Aviation Ministry, was sealed for sanitisation.

In other such incidents, the CRPF headquarters and a portion of the BSF headquarters were also sealed recently. These buildings are in CGO Complex in the national capital.
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has said 129,461 Coronavirus (Covid-19) tests have been conducted in the country as of May 5.

Professor William Ampofo, head of the Virology Department of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) speaking at a press briefing in Accra, said the center has no backlock of samples to test.

He further noted that a backlock of 1982 samples to be tested at the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR), will also be cleared by Thursday May 7.

Prof Ampofo said with additional testing centers coming on board like that of Ho and Tamale, the country will be able to give test results within 24 hours.

He also hinted that the GHS was working with the health directorate in the Western Regionare on the establishment of another testing center at the Veterinary Service Department in Takoradi and the Afia Nkwanta Hospital.

Looking at the testing centers by the end of May we can have every region testing for Covid-19,  he said.

Ghana has recorded 2719 cases of Covid-19 with 18 deaths.

The country has however recorded 294 recoveries with 200 more awaiting confirmation test results.

---Daily Guide
The last time Bernice Ferguson spoke to her son was on his birthday. It was March 21.

She sang Happy Birthday to him over the phone, with the hope that next year they would celebrate together since her son was set to be released from a South Jersey halfway house this month.

When he last spoke to his mother, Rory Price told his mother that people at the halfway house were sick and coughing and he was worried. The coronavirus had already infected thousands throughout the state.

Can you please cover your mouth and your nose so you will not get sick? his mother asked. I want to see you when you come home.

Last Friday, six weeks after the phone call, Ferguson heard from her sons grandmother that Price had died at Inspira Medical Center Vineland. He was 39.

His death has angered the family, partially because they said they have been left in the dark by the Department of Corrections (DOC) and the hospital staff about how Price died. A medical examiner confirmed to the family Saturday that Price died of COVID-19, Ferguson said, but Prices final days remain a mystery to the family.

They told me absolutely nothing, Ferguson said of the DOC and the hospital. They gave me absolutely nothing. Me as a parent, I dont think I should have to go through that.

I feel like my brother was not treated like a human being, added his sister, Jaqueena Price. He was treated like he was an animal. Thats how I feel. They just let him wither away and they never said anything.

The hospital declined to comment, but a Inspira spokeswoman said the Department of Corrections is responsible for the communications with families of hospitalized inmates. The DOC did not return a request for comment.

At least 36 inmates incarcerated in New Jerseys prison system have died of COVID-19 in the last month, the highest death rate of any prison system in the country. Several families have told NJ Advance Media they have received limited information from the DOC about how their loved ones died. The family of Ricky James, who died April 3 at Mid-State Correctional Facility, only learned of his death the following morning from inmates who witnessed James die. The DOC never called, they said.

Prices family described a similar experience to NJ Advance Media.

The Camden native had been incarcerated since February 2017 on a charge of possessing a weapon while committing a drug offense. Price had been moved to one of the Kintock halfway houses in Bridgeton as the end of his sentence neared. His family said he was due to be released in May.

On April 21, the DOC contacted Prices grandmother, his emergency contact, and told her that Price had been admitted to the Vineland hospital. The department provided no additional information until May 1 when they again called Prices grandmother to tell her first grandson had died, the family said.

From the time he was admitted to the hospital until his death, Ferguson said her family lived through a nightmare. She and her daughter kept trying to get information from the hospital and to speak with Price, but they said they were rebuffed by hospital staff.

We called all day long for days, Ferguson said. No one would give us any information. I said, Listen, I am his mother. I gave him his name. I am his mother. Can you tell me what is going on with my son? Why was he sent to the hospital? What happened to my son?

The family eventually learned that Price was battling pneumonia and two days before his death, Jaqueena Price said the hospital told her that her brother was bed-ridden but was able to eat on his own. They said they felt somewhat optimistic, but Ferguson was distraught with the lack of information they were getting. She was desperate. She said she asked them at one point if hospital staff could at least relay a message to her son.

Can you tell my son that I love him? she asked.

Ferguson doesnt know if that message got to him.

We are all human, she said. People make mistakes. People do wrong things, but you know what, at the end of the day, they are our loved ones. Somebody loved them. Somebody cares about them.

The family was beginning to plan a party for Price when he came home. He wasnt married and didnt have any children, but he was an uncle to seven nieces and nephews and they adored him, his sister said.

Now, they are left planning his burial.

If you can be upfront with me, I could have prepared myself for my son not being here anymore, Ferguson said of hospital and prison officials.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com.
Lydia Miller, author of "A Children's Bible." (Nola Millet)

In the early 1990s, a young woman jumped from job to job on the scruffy edges of Hollywood before falling into copy-editing for knife and gun magazines. She moved through the ranks of the company  Larry Flynt Publications  until she was the copy chief at its flagship title, Hustler.

Some of it I still think is kind of funny: The Busty Beauties, thats just what it sounds like, Lydia Millet recalled with a low laugh. The editor of that was completely obsessed with the large-breasted woman. He slept in his office, surrounded by his own magazine covers plastered on the walls.

Some lives are neat, smooth arcs; Millets has zigged and zagged. While copy-editing porn she wrote a novel, then before it came out she went to grad school for environmental management at Duke. She moved to New York for a while  but 20 years ago ankled its literary scene for the Arizona desert.

Along the way, shes been a Pulitzer Prize finalist and published 11 works of fiction , including one featuring a mermaid with bad teeth and another premised on an obsession with George H.W. Bush . Her twelfth,  A Childrens Bible , is out next week.

Its not for children, nor is it a Bible. Like her other books, it is darkly funny and painfully sharp. Its the story of a younger generation at odds with its elders, set in the near future when an environmental calamity throws American society into chaos. Its nominally narrated by Evie, a skeptical teen, but mostly told by a collective we.

Jenny Offill , who recently published her own climate-themed novel,  Weather , speaks of Millet with pure admiration. She is a brilliant writer who can write circles around everyone else, Offill said via email. The two have been friends for 30 years.

A Childrens Bible is set up like a bourgeois confection, with a group of families jointly renting a grand estate for the summer somewhere on the East Coast. Then Millet turns the premise inside out: Instead of focusing on the fancy house and adult relationships, she lets the younger generation hijack the narrative. They all but banish their parents from their world. They explore the woods and beaches. And they get very angry.

Story continues

Dinner was the only meal we had to attend, and even that we resented, write the children. They sat us down and talked about nothing. They aimed their conversation like a dull gray beam. It hit us and lulled us into a stupor. What they said was so boring it filled us with frustration, and after more minutes, rage. Didnt they know there were urgent subjects? Questions that needed to be asked?

The urgent, unasked questions are about climate change. The parents are liberal, educated and blase; they assume everything is generally going to be alright. They dont pay attention to the warnings of a massive storm blowing in until its too late. Their efforts to prepare and repair the house are ineffective. When theyre isolated by floodwaters, they retreat into their abundant liquor supply.

(W.W. Norton)

Its possible, reading this while sheltering at home in the middle of a pandemic, for parts of the book to ring a little too true.

Isnt that weird? Millet said. I felt that that was also the case of my novel  Sweet Lamb of Heaven . It was about sociopathic powerful males cynically co-opting the religious community and their rise to political power. It came out right when Trump was elected. She deflects the notion that she has any special insight into the times. I think that this stuff is obvious, its in the culture. Ambient, you know?

As we talked, Millets phone occasionally lost its signal. While her kids, 16 and 12, engaged in distance learning inside, she walked through her property with loppers in hand. She was cleaning up dead agave blades to discourage pack rats from nesting, so that fewer rattlesnakes would come by to feed on them.

Other people might just kill the snakes, but Millet thinks in terms of ecosystems. For many years shes worked for the Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson-based nonprofit that protects threatened and endangered species and their habitats. She writes and edits for the group but limits herself to 30 hours a week. Her ex-husband, Keiran Suckling, is its founding director.

For some of her books, Millet can convincingly make the case that her fiction is separate from her job. Her 2002 novel My Happy Life features a hyper-empathetic woman in a mental hospital, 2005s Everyones Pretty a messianic, drunk pornographer.

But many are underscored by her interests in the environment:  Love in Infant Monkeys , a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize, was a collection of short stories about celebrity-animal interactions. Theres taxidermy in 2012s  Magnificence  and endangered hybrids in Mermaids in Paradise (2014). Her middle-grade series The Dissenters, published by Small Beer Press, is described as an eco-fantasy.

A Childrens Bible is her most direct work yet about the devastating effects of climate denialism. I didnt know at this moment how not to write about it, is the thing, she said. I for so long resisted writing directly about things that I work on during the day, but finally, if the sky is falling, you have to write that the sky is falling. She laughed. Youve gotta be Chicken Little sooner or later.

The calamitous future in A Childrens Bible arrives via a storm that floods the Eastern Seaboard, collapsing transportation and power systems and precipitating societal collapse. The teens and children decide to leave their neglectful parents and seek a safer place to stay, finding a farm where they try to survive with the help of a few adults, danger lurking on the periphery of their small community. Evies little brother and his best friend save a haphazard menagerie of animals as the waters rise  yes, like Noah. Its one of many biblical allusions in the novel.

I wanted to hang this on a vaguely biblical skeleton, like a Greatest Hits of the Old Testament, and then you leap to a very particular part of the New Testament, Millet said. She didnt grow up religious; her father was an Egyptologist. I just wanted to play with some of those stories.

Although her books have plenty of plot, Millet claims to be indifferent to it. Im just interested in people, their voices, the language that the storys being told in and the ideas in the story.

The voice Millet channels in the book belongs to the younger generation  whose side shes clearly on  but also her own. The future has not been guarded, has not been kept safe by those who are in charge, she said. And the children in the book are understandably very angry and disgusted by the failure of political will and social will and energy to have taken more rational action. Millet expanded passionately on the links between species and climate collapse: Without the biodiversity that we have now, that we co-evolved with over deep time, we really dont have life support  trees and plants and algae make the atmosphere, and we need them.

She sounded a lot like Evie when she really gets going. At that time in my personal life, I was coming to grips with the end of the world. The familiar world, anyway, Evie says in the book. We knew who was responsible, of course: it had been a done deal before we were born.

If anyone has a shot at conveying the anger of Evies generation and making it take hold the way only fiction can, its Lydia Millet.

Kellogg is a former books editor of The Times. She can be found online @paperhaus.
The parents of a nine-year-old girl with a rare life-limiting condition say they have lost virtually all their support services due to the pandemic.

When Molly Jones was born in December 2010 she struggled to breathe and, in the days that followed, her parents were given no hope of her survival.

The 6lb baby defied the odds to grow into a fiercely determined young girl with a huge personality.

Her condition, however, Ring chromosome 18, has left her with profound disabilities that need round-the-clock care.

Her parents, Barry and Mairead, are now juggling their frontline roles as community support workers with the full-time care of Molly and their two other little girls, Elsie and Cara, as routine respite is no longer operating due to Covid-19.

However, they are comforted by the back-up of Ireland's only children's hospice, LauraLynn.

"Mairead and I are still in work, caring for adults with intellectual disabilities," said Mr Jones.

"We work opposite shifts. We're conscious of what we could bring back to the house.

"If we did contract Covid-19, it is a great comfort to know LauraLynn would help us.''

LauraLynn has launched a Crisis Care Appeal in response to the hit on fundraising caused by Covid-19 as the charity is projecting a 54pc loss in funding.

Difficult

End-of-life care and crisis care continues to be offered at the hospice but planned routine respite nights and short family stays have been put on hold.

Mr Jones said the virus has meant most of their day-to-day help with Molly has had to stop.

"It has been extra difficult because we would get support from LauraLynn, we get support from Molly's school, the Carmona School in Glenageary, we get some from John of Gods, some input from Jack and Jill and that's all gone now," he said.

"LauraLynn did give us a couple of hours one day and even for that one day, it was great."

From the moment she was born, he said they were told by doctors to build precious memories with their daughter.

"Molly has a heart condition, liver disease. Molly is anaemic, she has scoliosis, she has moderate hearing loss, a lot of sight issues, a cleft palate," he said.

"She is about the size of a three-year-old, around 16kg. She has severe intellectual disability, some behavioural issues."

However, he stresses her long list of medical ailments do not do justice to his tiny daughter with a huge personality.

"She's had over 30 general aesthetics for different procedures. She nearly has a consultant for every little bit of her body. It is difficult for her."

He said they feel safe in the knowledge that LauraLynn will be able to care for Molly if he or his wife did fall ill during this time and is appealing to the public to help support the vital services carried out by the hospice.

To donate, go to: lauralynn.ie/donate .
Regulatory News:

Vicat (Paris:VCT):

Consolidated sales up +2.6% in the first three months of the year, stable at constant scope and exchange rates (+0.2%)

Positive price trends overall

Limited impact from Covid-19 over the quarter as a whole, but significant effects in France, Italy and India at the end of the period

Consolidated sales ( million) 31 March 2020 31 March 2019 Change (reported) Change

(at constant scope and exchange rates)* Cement 319 302 +5.5% +3.7% Concrete Aggregates 228 225 +1.4% -2.1% Other Products Service 69 73 -5.6% -7.2% Total 615 600 +2.6% +0.2%

Commenting on these figures, Guy Sidos, the Group's Chairman and CEO, said:

"The Group's performance over the first quarter of 2020 was solid despite a sharp slowdown at the end of the period in France, India and Italy.

Faced with the sanitary crisis, the Group demonstrated its flexibility and responsiveness by putting in place from the outset protective measures for our colleagues, our clients and our suppliers and introducing strong measures to cut costs, increase control of our working capital requirements and reduce our investments in line with the situation.

Industrial and commercial activity was maintained on almost all sites, in line with market evolutions, and this has attenuated the impact of the crisis.

Nevertheless, visibility remains particularly low for the rest of the year, and a significative impact on first-half results and ratios is to be expected from this exceptional situation."

*Alternative performance measures (APMs), such as "at constant scope and exchange rates", "operational sales", "EBITDA", "net debt", "gearing" and "leverage" are defined in an appendix to this press release.

Important information:

In this press release, and unless indicated otherwise, all changes are stated on a year-on-year basis (2020/2019), and at constant scope and exchange rates.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements do not constitute forecasts regarding results or any other performance indicator, but rather trends or targets. These statements are by their nature subject to risks and uncertainties as described in the Company's annual report available on its website (www.vicat.fr). These statements do not reflect the future performance of the Company, which may differ significantly. The Company does not undertake to provide updates of these statements.

Further information about Vicat is available from its website www.vicat.fr.

In the first three months of 2020, the Vicat Group's consolidated sales came to 615.5 million, up +2.6% on a reported basis and almost unchanged (+0.2%) at constant scope and exchange rates compared with the same period of 2019.

The evolution in consolidated sales comprises a positive exchange rates effect of +0.5%, a scope effect of +1.9%, relating to the acquisition of Ciplan in Brazil, and an organic change of +0.2%.

Operational sales advanced +3.0% on a reported basis and 0.8% at constant scope and exchange rates. Developments in operational sales by business were as follows over the first quarter:

The Cement business posted a +6.0% increase on a reported basis and a +4.4% increase at constant scope and exchange rates;

The Concrete Aggregates business posted a +1.8% increase on a reported basis and a -1.7% decrease at constant scope and exchange rates;

In Other Products and Services, operational sales moved -5.4% lower on a reported basis and -6.5% lower at constant scope and exchange rates.

1. Consolidated sales in the three months ended 31 March 2020 by geographical region

1.1. France

( million) 31 March 2020 31 March 2019 Change (reported) Change

(at constant scope and exchange rates) Sales 211 225 -6.5% -8.0%

After a start to the year that saw strong trends under favourable macroeconomic and sector conditions, business activity slowed abruptly following the introduction of lockdown measures on 17 March 2020. Industrial activity was never halted. However, commercial activity has moved in line with the slow return of markets that were stopped by the lockdown measures.

In the Cement business, operational sales were down -2.7% over the period. Volumes were more than 6% lower over the period, due to the sharp slowing of business levels in the second half of March, which is a historically dynamic month. Selling prices were higher in the domestic market but fell in export markets.

In the Concrete Aggregates business, operational sales were down -12.0% at constant scope and exchange rates. This performance was the result of falls in volumes of -9% in Concrete and -13% in Aggregates. The growth recorded in the first two months of the year was not sufficient to offset the sharp downturn seen in the second half of March. Selling prices were higher in both Concrete and Aggregates.

In the Other Products Services business, operational sales fell by -6.8%.

1.2 Europe (excluding France)

( million) 31 March 2020 31 March 2019 Change (reported) Change

(at constant scope and exchange rates) Sales 86 75 +14.7% +7.4%

Sales in Europe (excluding France) in the three months to 31 March 2020 amounted to 86 million, up from 75 million in the same period of 2019. This improvement in sales at constant scope and exchange rates across the region resulted from strong growth in Switzerland. This performance has largely offset the decline recorded in Italy following the introduction of strict lockdown measures in March.

In Switzerland, the Group's consolidated sales rose by +9.1% at constant scope and exchange rates, helped by a much milder winter than in the previous year. Business in this country continued as normal with no significant impact on sector conditions from the epidemic.

In the Cement business, operational sales grew by +11.9% at constant scope and exchange rates in the quarter, with an increase in selling prices and the positive impact of the mild winter on volumes.

In the Concrete Aggregates business, operational sales rose +22.0% at constant scope and exchange rates. This strong growth resulted from a significant volumes increase in Concrete and in Aggregates. Selling prices rose substantially in Aggregates.

In the Precast business, operational sales fell -2.6% at constant scope and exchange rates. The decline was the result of stiff competition in standardised products and a resumption in orders from the national rail operator, which was limited by an unfavourable product mix.

In Italy, consolidated sales fell -15.0% over the first quarter. The impact of the health crisis was felt in a substantial drop in volumes, of over -16.0%, whilst selling prices saw a slight increase.

1.3 Americas

( million) 31 March 2020 31 March 2019 Change (reported) Change

(at constant scope and exchange rates) Sales 134 115 +16.6% +11.4%

Reported figures for the region benefited from the favourable effect of the consolidation of Brazil over the whole of the first quarter of 2020. In 2019, Brazil was only consolidated from 24 January.

In the United States, the macroeconomic and sector environment remained favourable. The strong performance enjoyed in California more than offset the unfavourable weather conditions in the South-East. The Covid-19 epidemic had had no significant impact on sector conditions by the end of March. As a result, the Group's consolidated sales grew +11.2% at constant scope and exchange rates (+14.6% on a reported basis).

In the Cement business, operational sales grew by +14.8% at constant scope and exchange rates over the first quarter of the year. Volumes rose by more than 12% with strong growth in California, thanks in particular to a favourable basis of comparison, which offset the fall in the South-East caused by unfavourable weather conditions. Selling prices saw the full benefits of the increases recorded in 2019, rising in both California and the South-East.

In the Concrete business, operational sales moved up +12.9% at constant scope and exchange rates. Volumes were nearly 10% higher over the period, with growth in California offsetting the fall in the South-East for the same reasons as in the Cement business. Selling prices increased in both California and the South-East.

In Brazil, consolidated sales were 30 million, an increase of +24.4% on a reported basis and +11.9% at constant scope and exchange rates (in 2019, the business was only consolidated from 24 January). Conditions in the industry improved gradually, in an environment that was not visibly affected by the health crisis during the period.

In the Cement business, operational sales were 24 million, an increase of +11.1% at constant scope and exchange rates driven by a significative increase in prices.

In the Concrete Aggregates business, operational sales were 8 million, an increase of +16.1% at constant scope and exchange rates. The marked increase in volumes at constant scope was accompanied by a substantial increase in selling prices, particularly in Aggregates.

1.4 Asia (India and Kazakhstan)

( million) 31 March 2020 31 March 2019 Change (reported) Change

(at constant scope and exchange rates) Sales 81 90 -10.3% -10.5%

The Asia region benefited from a relatively positive overall macroeconomic and sector conditions in the early months of the year, although the impact of the health crisis had contrasting effects from one region to another. Thus, Kazakhstan benefited from favourable competitive conditions at the beginning of the quarter as cement producers operated by Chinese workforces were forced to shut down production due to Chinese lockdown measures. Conversely, the industry in India was completely halted from 24 March as a result of the government's measures to tackle the pandemic.

In India, the Group posted consolidated sales of 69 million in the first quarter of the year, down -15.1% at constant exchange rates. After a small increase in volumes at the beginning of the quarter, the introduction of lockdown measures at end March resulted in the total closure of the business and the shut-down of all of the region's production sites. As a result, over the quarter, volumes dropped by nearly 10% and selling prices were down year-on-year.

In Kazakhstan, the Group posted sales of 12 million, an increase of +32.1% at constant exchange rates. That growth resulted from an increase in volumes over the period as a whole, which largely offset lower prices resulting primarily from price cuts announced at the end of 2019. Over this period, the inability of some operators to continue production operations, due to their Chinese workforces being under lockdown, allowed the Group to increase significantly its sales in the local market.

1.5 Mediterranean (Egypt and Turkey)

( million) 31 March 2020 31 March 2019 Change (reported) Change

(at constant scope and exchange rates) Sales 33 34 -1.1% +0.6%

The Mediterranean region is affected by the deterioration in the macroeconomic and sector situation in Turkey, although this is now stabilising gradually. In Egypt, the security situation and the competitive environment remained difficult throughout the period.

In Turkey, sales came to 21 million, down -1.4% at constant scope and exchange rates and -10.7% on a reported basis. This slight contraction in business levels reflected the gradual stabilisation of macroeconomic and sector conditions, although this process was then affected by the government's sanitary measures.

In the Cement business, operational sales moved -2.6% lower at constant scope and exchange rates over the period as a whole. That was due to a fall in volumes of over -6%.

operational sales moved -2.6% lower at constant scope and exchange rates over the period as a whole. That was due to a fall in volumes of over -6%. Operational sales in the Concrete Aggregates business rose +12.4% at constant scope and exchange rates over the period as a whole. Volumes were up around +2% in both Concrete and Aggregates.

In Egypt, consolidated sales totalled 12.2 million, up +5.3% at constant scope and exchange rates and up +21.2% on a reported basis as a result of the rise in the Egyptian pound. This trend reflected the marked increase in volumes of over +18% in the period as a whole, whereas selling prices were still lower than in the year earlier period.

1.6 Africa

( million) 31 March 2020 31 March 2019 Change (reported) Change

(at constant scope and exchange rates) Sales 71 61 +16.1% +16.1%

In the Africa region, the construction market is growing in a market that has been bolstered by the price increases seen at the end of 2019. Against this background, and helped by improved operating conditions at the Rufisque plant, the Group was able to take full advantage of favourable sector conditions at the start of the year and the opening of its new grinding station in Mali.

In Cement, operational sales rose +33.5% in Africa. This trend was the result of an increase in Cement volumes of nearly +18%, with strong growth in Senegal, and even more so in Mali following the start-up of the new mill, largely offsetting the drop in volumes in Mauritania. Selling prices in Senegal also rose significantly given the price increases introduced in 2019.

operational sales rose +33.5% in Africa. This trend was the result of an increase in Cement volumes of nearly +18%, with strong growth in Senegal, and even more so in Mali following the start-up of the new mill, largely offsetting the drop in volumes in Mauritania. Selling prices in Senegal also rose significantly given the price increases introduced in 2019. In Senegal, consolidated sales in the Aggregates business were 7 million, a fall of -46.3% over the period. Volumes fell -43% following the temporary freeze on government contracts that began in the second half of 2019 and a transport strike in January and February.

2. Profitability and financial position at 31 March 2020

2.1 Group profitability performance in the first quarter of 2020

Given the current circumstances, the Group has elected to provide, on an exceptional basis, figures for its profitability over the first quarter of 2020. It is important to note that historically, and given the highly seasonal nature of the Group's business, EBITDA in the first quarter is not representative of the full-year trend.

Group EBITDA in the first quarter was 57 million, from 58 million in the same period of 2019, a decline of -1.6% on reported figures and -2.9% at constant scope and exchange rates. This performance reflects improvements in operating profitability in most regions, limited by the significant impact of the health crisis in France and India during March.

2.2 Changes in Group financial position to 31 March 2020

At 31 March 2020, the Group's shareholders' equity was 2,486 million and net debt stood at 1,394 million, from 1,410 million at 31 March 2019. On this basis, and taking account of IFRS 16, gearing was 56.07%, from 57.44% at 31 March 2019. Leverage was 2.65x, from 2.85x at 31 March 2019.

Excluding IFRS 16, the reference still used for the calculation of covenants, gearing at 31 March 2020 was 46.62% compared to 47.45% at 31 March 2019, and leverage was 2.53x, compared to 2.67x at 31 March 2019.

It should be noted that the Group had confirmed financing lines, not used and not allocated to the liquidity risk on treasury bills at 31 March 2020 of 399 million, from 440 million at 31 December 2019, sufficient to cope with forthcoming repayments due.

3. Adjustment measures for the current circumstances

3.1 Cost-cutting programme and optimisation of working capital

As announced at the Group's AGM on 4 April, the Group rapidly deployed a package of cost-cutting measures in countries where business levels were significantly affected by the Covid-19 epidemic and by governmental measures to tackle the crisis.

Thus, in France, India and Senegal, the initial measures in the reduction of fixed costs (control of the wage bill, reduction in the use of outside contractors and a reduction in maintenance costs) have netted approximately 24 million over the short term.

Depending on the course of the epidemic, and its effects on economic activity, similar or additional measures are likely to be implemented at pace in affected regions.

Also, the full year impact of the decrease in fuel prices (excluding volume effect) is expected to be around 23 million.

Lastly, with regard to working capital, optimisation measures implemented will significantly reduce working capital at 30 June 2020 when compared to 30 June 2019.

3.2 Deferral of non-strategic investment

At present, the Group has put a freeze on its new investment projects, it is nevertheless continuing its existing strategic investments, notably in terms of energy substitution rates and renewals of industrial facilities. Thus, the new kiln project at Ragland in Alabama is continuing, although the timing of works could be delayed as a result of sanitary measures and their effect on the availability of suppliers.

Other investments, considered non-strategic, have been suspended for the time being, pending better visibility on future conditions in each of the regions concerned.

Considering all of these factors, the cash outflow for industrial investment, is expected to be at a comparable level to that of 2019.

4. Outlook for 2020

In 2020, macroeconomic conditions in all of the countries where the Group is active are likely to be significantly affected by the Covid-19 crisis, to varying degrees depending on health conditions and the governmental responses.

At present, business is conducted within the strict framework of the procedures adapted to the public health conditions in each country where the Group is present. Within this framework, it is important to note that:

The twelve countries where the Group operates have been affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, sometimes with timing differences in the intensity of its impact;

Business levels are highly volatile;

The sharing of experience between countries allows good practice and operating modes to be introduced to help meet the demands of the situation in each country and ensure business continuity where this is allowed.

The Group's business has therefore continued at differing levels:

In France, after a sharp slowing in business levels at the beginning of the lockdown, the activity is on a gradually improving trend with the reopening of trading and, more slowly, of building sites;

In Switzerland, business levels are close to normal, thanks to the strict respect of preventative measures on all construction sites;

In western Africa and the USA, business levels are also close to normal, but the situation could change rapidly;

Business levels in Brazil remain strong but with contrasting situations across the country's regions;

In Turkey and Egypt, where macroeconomic conditions had already deteriorated, the epidemic has not so far had a significant impact;

In Kazakhstan, activity levels have been particularly strong in the early part of this year. The effects of recent lockdown decisions could make themselves felt on business in the second quarter;

Lastly, business levels in Italy and India came to a virtual standstill following the very strict lockdown measures introduced by their respective governments between the end of March and end of April. The Group received authorisation in the third week of April for the gradual reopening of its production facilities in India.

The gradual upturn in activity, particularly in France and India, falling energy costs, the introduction of an ambitious cost-cutting programme, the close attention paid to working capital and, lastly, the scaling back of the initial capital expenditure plan, are all factors that will help limit the impact that this crisis will have on the Group's results and its financial situation.

Given all of these factors, the lack of visibility and the high-level of volatility created by current conditions, the Group expects a decrease in EBITDA over the full year.

Conference call

To accompany the publication of its sales at 31 March 2020, the Vicat Group is organising a conference call in English that will take place on 6 May 2020 at 3pm Paris time (2pm London time and 9am New York time).

To take part in the conference call live, dial one of the following numbers:

France: +33 (0)1 70 72 25 50

United Kingdom: +44 (0)330 336 9125

United States: +1 323-994-2131

To listen to a playback of the conference call, which will be available until 12 May 2020, dial one of the following numbers:

France: 33 (0)1 70 48 00 94

UK: +44 (0) 207 660 0134

USA: +1 719 457 0820

Access code: 8426419#

Next report:

First-half 2020 results on 30 July 2020 after the close.

About Vicat

The Vicat Group has over 9,000 employees working in three core divisions, Cement, Concrete Aggregates and Other Products Services, which generated consolidated sales of 2.740 billion in 2019. The Group operates in twelve countries: France, Switzerland, Italy, the United States, Turkey, Egypt, Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Kazakhstan, India and Brazil. Some 64% of its sales are generated outside France.

The Vicat Group is the heir to an industrial tradition dating back to 1817, when Louis Vicat invented artificial cement. Founded in 1853, the Vicat Group now operates three core lines of business: Cement, Ready-Mixed Concrete and Aggregates, as well as related activities.

Vicat group Financial data Appendices

Definition of alternative performance measures (APMs):

Performance at constant scope and exchange rates is used to determine the organic growth trend in P&L items between two periods and to compare them by eliminating the impact of exchange rate fluctuations and changes in the scope of consolidation. It is calculated by applying exchange rates and the scope of consolidation from the prior period to figures for the current period.

is used to determine the organic growth trend in P&L items between two periods and to compare them by eliminating the impact of exchange rate fluctuations and changes in the scope of consolidation. It is calculated by applying exchange rates and the scope of consolidation from the prior period to figures for the current period. A geographical (or a business) segment's operational sales are the sales posted by the geographical (or business) segment in question less intra-region (or intra-segment) sales.

are the sales posted by the geographical (or business) segment in question less intra-region (or intra-segment) sales. Value-added : value of production less consumption of materials used in the production process.

: value of production less consumption of materials used in the production process. Gross operating income : value-added, less staff costs, taxes and duties (other than on income and deferred taxes) plus operating subsidies.

: value-added, less staff costs, taxes and duties (other than on income and deferred taxes) plus operating subsidies. EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation): sum of gross operating income and other income and expenses on ongoing business.

(earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation): sum of gross operating income and other income and expenses on ongoing business. EBIT (earnings before interest and tax): EBITDA less net depreciation, amortisation, additions to provisions and impairment losses on ongoing business.

(earnings before interest and tax): EBITDA less net depreciation, amortisation, additions to provisions and impairment losses on ongoing business. Cash flow : net income before net non-cash expenses (i.e. predominantly depreciation, amortisation, additions to provisions and impairment losses, deferred taxes, gains and losses on disposals and fair value adjustments).

: net income before net non-cash expenses (i.e. predominantly depreciation, amortisation, additions to provisions and impairment losses, deferred taxes, gains and losses on disposals and fair value adjustments). Free cash flow : net operating cash flow after deducting capital expenditure net of disposals.

: net operating cash flow after deducting capital expenditure net of disposals. Net debt represents gross debt (consisting of the outstanding amount of borrowings from investors and credit institutions, residual financial liabilities under finance leases, any other borrowings and financial liabilities excluding options to sell and bank overdrafts), net of cash and cash equivalents, including remeasured hedging derivatives and debt.

represents gross debt (consisting of the outstanding amount of borrowings from investors and credit institutions, residual financial liabilities under finance leases, any other borrowings and financial liabilities excluding options to sell and bank overdrafts), net of cash and cash equivalents, including remeasured hedging derivatives and debt. Gearing is a ratio reflecting a company's financial structure calculated as net debt/consolidated equity.

is a ratio reflecting a company's financial structure calculated as net debt/consolidated equity. Leverage is a ratio based on a company's profitability, calculated as net debt/consolidated EBITDA.

Breakdown of first-quarter 2020 sales by business

Cement

( million) 31 March 2020 31 March 2019 Change (reported) Change

(at constant scope and exchange rates) Volume (thousands of tonnes) 5,286 5,000 +5.7% Operational sales 374 353 +6.0% +4.4% Eliminations (55) (51) Consolidated sales 319 302 +5.5% +3.7%

Concrete Aggregates

( million) 31 March 2020 31 March 2019 Change (reported) Change

(at constant scope and exchange rates) Concrete volume (thousands of m3) 1,873 1,807 +3.7% Aggregates volume (thousands of tonnes) 4,482 5,156 -13.1% Operational sales 233 229 +1.8% -1.7% Eliminations (5) (4) Consolidated sales 228 225 +1.4% -2.1%

Other Products Services

( million) 31 March 2020 31 March 2019 Change (reported) Change

(at constant scope and exchange rates) Operational sales 87 92 -5.4% -6.5% Eliminations (18) (19) Consolidated sales 69 73 -5.6% -7.2%

Breakdown of first-quarter 2020 sales by business geographical region

Cement Concrete Aggregates Other Products Services Inter-sector eliminations Consolidated sales France 87 102 62 (41) 211 Europe (excluding France) 38 39 21 (12) 86 Americas 79 73 (18) 134 Asia 79 1 15 (1) 81 Mediterranean 27 11 2 (7) 33 Africa 63 7 (0) 71 Operational sales 374 233 87 (79) 615 Inter-sector eliminations -55 -6 -18 79 Consolidated sales 319 228 69 615

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005754/en/

Contacts:

Investor relations contact:

Stephane Bisseuil:

Tel. 33 1 58 86 86 05

stephane.bisseuil@vicat.fr

Press contacts:

Marie-Raphaelle Robinne

Tel. +33 (0)4 74 27 58 04

marie-raphaelle.robinne@vicat.fr
"As we Reimagine Possible to transform Norfolk Southern into a faster, smarter, and more resilient company, we need leaders like Barbara Paul who combine deep experience with an innovative, forward-looking approach," said James A. Squires, Norfolk Southern chairman, president and CEO. "Barbara has been playing a pivotal role, reshaping our people strategy to become a more nimble, tech-savvy organization. We look forward to her continuing that important work as our vice president human resources."

Paul most recently served as assistant vice president of human resources and diversity. She first joined Norfolk Southern in 2005 as an employee development officer and then moved into marketing. After leaving the company in 2009 to earn a Master of Education degree, Paul returned in 2011 and rose through a number of roles in human resources. Her assignments included human resources business partner, manager people development, and director talent management. Prior to joining Norfolk Southern, Paul served a distinguished 20-year career in the U.S. Navy. She is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy.

About Norfolk Southern

Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC) is one of the nation's premier transportation companies. Its Norfolk Southern Railway Company subsidiary operates approximately 19,500 route miles in 22 states and the District of Columbia, serves every major container port in the eastern United States, and provides efficient connections to other rail carriers. Norfolk Southern is a major transporter of industrial products, including chemicals, agriculture, and metals and construction materials. In addition, the railroad operates the most extensive intermodal network in the East and is a principal carrier of coal, automobiles, and automotive parts.

http://www.norfolksouthern.com

SOURCE Norfolk Southern Corporation

Related Links

http://www.norfolksouthern.com


Pictures taken on Aer Lingus Belfast-London flight on Monday morning and posted on Twitter by the BBCs Kelly Bonner

Pictures taken on Aer Lingus Belfast-London flight yesterday morning and posted on Twitter by the BBCs Kelly Bonner

Aer Lingus has said it will be reviewing processes and procedures after images of a crowded flight with no social distancing appeared online.

The images, taken by a passenger on yesterday's 8.45am flight between Belfast City Airport and London Heathrow, caused public outcry on social media.

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Passenger Sean Mallon, who was flying to Heathrow for work, told the BBC around 95% of the seats on the flight were filled.

"There was no social distancing whatsoever," he said.

"Once we got to the other side, I just wanted to get off the plane. Everyone just jumped up and started opening overhead compartments as normal, grabbing their bags, queuing to get off as normal. No change whatsoever."

Professor of Molecular Virology at Queens University, Dr Ultan Power, said the images were "a major concern" but there was a more worrying issue.

"I would be even more concerned for the plane coming back in the opposite direction from a Covid-19 hotspot with potentially a lot of people who had been exposed to the virus," he said.

Expand Close Pictures taken on Aer Lingus Belfast-London flight on Monday morning and posted on Twitter by the BBCs Kelly Bonner / Facebook

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Whatsapp Pictures taken on Aer Lingus Belfast-London flight on Monday morning and posted on Twitter by the BBCs Kelly Bonner

"By not ensuring quarantine, we're almost guaranteeing we will have a reintroduction after the huge efforts of lockdown."

In a statement, Aer Lingus said they would be assessing the impact of traveller numbers on the Belfast to Heathrow service.

"In light of the unexpectedly high loads on the Belfast-London Heathrow service this morning and the level of demand for the route, Aer Lingus is reviewing its processes and procedures applicable to the operation of this service," the airline said.

"The safety and security of Aer Lingus' customers and crew is our top priority and any process changes that are identified as being required will be implemented as a matter of urgency".

Aviation analyst Alex Macheras said that aircraft should not be an exception to social distancing rules.

"This is a disappointing revelation from Aer Lingus, who have decided to not social distance on board, which may other airlines have decided to do. We are still in the middle of this pandemic and there is a lack of any clear direction for rules from regulators," he said.

"We know that social distancing is going to be part of life and ultimately aviation should not be an exception.

"At 90% of airports you will find extra police, temperature checks and quarantine regulations on those coming into the country. The UK is not part of that 90%."
PARIS (Reuters) - Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Monday said France might allow religious services to resume before the end of May if a gradual easing of lockdown rules from May 11 did not result in the rate of coronavirus infections increasing.

In a week's time, secular France plans to join countries such as Italy, Spain and Germany in relaxing unprecedented curbs on public life as it seeks to reboot its economy and ease the frustration of citizens cooped up in their homes.

The government had indicated religious ceremonies would be banned until June 2 at the earliest, but Philippe told the Senate this might be advanced by four days.

"Many faiths have made proposals to reconcile how their meetings are held with social distancing rules," the prime minister told the Senate. "I know the May 29 - June 1 period is for several faiths an important date on the religious calendar."

The Christian holy day of Pentecost, celebrated 50 days after Easter Sunday, falls on June 1. A week earlier, and before the government has said it might allow religious festivities, Muslims mark Eid, the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Last week, Philippe said the lockdown had saved tens of thousands of lives but that now was the time to ease it. Schools will progressively reopen and businesses will be free to resume operations, though restaurants, cafes and beaches will remain closed until at least June.

It will be preferable for people to wear a mask when they leave their homes, and mandatory when travelling on public transport or in a taxi, Philippe said.

Philippe sought on Monday to defuse a dispute between parts of the medical profession and big retailers after several medical associations accused supermarkets of hoarding face masks early in the crisis while doctors on the frontline went short.

The supermarket chains have denied hiding tens of millions of masks and say it is only now that orders are arriving on shelves.

"I struggle to understand what interest the supermarkets would have hiding stocks of masks instead of selling them at a time of shortage," Philippe told senators.

"There were never any hidden stocks. There were massive orders and it takes time for these orders to materialise into millions of masks on sale in stores for citizens."

(Reporting by Marine Pennetier; Editing by Richard Lough and Grant McCool)
On Monday night, Sean Hannity admonished armed protesters who stormed the Michigan statehouse last Thursday and demanded measures taken to combat the coronavirus be lifted. Protests have broken out all over the county in defiance of stay-at-home orders and social-distancing guidelines. Some in the media blame Fox News and President Trump for fueling these protests, with Trump even tweeting last month for Michigan and other states to liberate themselves.

LIBERATE MICHIGAN!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020

Though Hannity acknowledged that those brandishing weapons were well within their rights, the storming of the statehouse was too much.

No one is a bigger defender of the Second Amendment than yours truly. Everyone has the right to protest, protect themselves and try to get the country open. This, with the militia-look here and these long guns, uhhh, no, Hannity said. Show of force is dangerous. That puts our police at risk, and by the way, your message will never be heard, whoever you people are. No one should be attempting to intimidate officials with a show of force, and God forbid something happens, then theyre going to go after all of us law abiding Second Amendment people.

This was a rare split from Trump on Hannitys part. The day after the protest, Trump tweeted that the protesters were very fine people, and Hannity isnt the only one close to Trump who didnt look so glowingly on the protest. Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House coronavirus task force saw another danger at the protest. She called the fact that so many of the protestors werent wearing masks devastatingly worrisome, an understandable takeaway given that as of Saturday, Michigan had the highest coronavirus fatality rate in the country.

After making his original statements against the armed protesters, Hannity was joined by frequent Fox News contributor Dan Bongino, who made a familiar argument, and the two quickly butted heads.

Story continues

Its the liberal medias efforts to paint the people there as some kind of, like, ya know, crazed bunch of lunatics more than it is the people theyre actually trying to represent, that they have rights, too, Bongino argued. They could do concealed carry, Dan, if theyre worried about their safety, Hannity replied. This is to intimidate.

Hannity airs weeknights at 9 p.m. on Fox News Channel.

Watch Oprah, Jon Stewart and others help John Krasinski surprise 2020 grads who are missing their graduation ceremonies on Some Good News:

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 CDCs and WHOs resource guides.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

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India has so far been able to stave off community transmission of COVID-19, says Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, expressing the hope that 'behavioural changes' brought about by the infection could become the 'new normal' for a healthy society after the pandemic abates.

IMAGE: Railway Police Force personnel in protective gear stand guard in a special train carrying stranded migrants from Kerala, on its arrival at Danapur Railway Station, amid ongoing COVID-19 lockdown in Patna. Photograph: PTI Photo

The nation in a post-coronavirus future could well look back on the pandemic period as a 'blessing in disguise' if Indians imbibe hand, respiratory and environmental hygiene and practise it in their everyday lives, the minister said.

Underlining the importance of the lockdown, which has been extended till May 17, the minister said health should be on the radar just as much as the economy.

"The government has to do a balancing act," he said.

On Tuesday, the number of COVID-19 cases shot up to 46,433 from the 42,836 the day before, a sharp rise of 3,597 cases, according to Union Health Ministry data.

The death toll has risen to 1,568 from 1,389.

"Once the havoc caused by the virus subsides and the crisis blows over, people may remember it as a blessing in disguise," Vardhan said.

He added that India has so far been able to keep itself from 'slipping into the stage of community transmission of the novel coronavirus'.

"By now we know that fighting coronavirus is no rocket science. If behavioural changes such as hand, environmental and respiratory hygiene, which are being practiced more rigorously during this period, get imbibed in society it will become the new normal," Vardhan said.

Such practices will bring down the instances of communicable diseases and society will evolve for the better, he stressed.

Other than small pox and polio, no other viral infection has been completely eradicated from this country. Other diseases keep recurring, the minister said, indicating that COVID-19 might be here for the long haul.

"But every cloud has a silver lining," he said.

The situation posed by the COVID-19 pandemic can be seen as an opportunity to shore up health infrastructure and indigenous production of medical equipment and protective gear under the 'Make in India' initiative, the minister explained.

"We have ramped up the production of COVID-19 protective gears like PPE (personal protection equipment) and N-95 masks. Testing facilities have been scaled up significantly," he said.

Efforts are also on to ramp up the production of APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients), the raw material for pharmaceuticals, Vardhan added.

"Thus, this pandemic can be seen as an opportunity to boost the indigenous production of such items, thereby reducing India's dependency on foreign countries for them which are in high demand globally due to the pandemic," he said.

The minister also discussed the chaos outside liquor vends across the country on Monday as several states relaxed the lockdown in accordance with guidelines from the Union Home Ministry and people in several places jostled and shoved to stock up on their alcohol without any thought to social distancing norms.

"We have to weigh every decision objectively and predict their consequences before implementing them to ensure there is no spike in cases."

He said the doubling rate of cases in the country has been showing regular improvement and stands at over 12 days now as against three days before March 25, when the nationwide lockdown began.

The recovery rate has also progressively improved, he said.

Around 27.40 per cent patients have recovered so far in the country.
Highlights Samsung has announced new offers on TVs and applicances

The offers promise attractive cashback on Samsung's best selling products

The sale also brings no-cost EMI option and express home delivery on products

Samsung has announced new offers for buyers planning to purchase televisions and digital appliances as soon as the lockdown is lifted. The company has announced a new scheme under which buyers can pre-book products online from Samsung's website at discounted prices.

These products will then be delivered to the buyer through Samsung's own retail and distribution channels to help customers get new appliances and gadgets straight to their homes without having to step out of their homes.

While the company hasn't revealed an exact date of delivery for the products, it has claimed that the deliveries for these pre-booked products will be initiated as soon as the lockdown ends.

The program, 'Stay Home. Stay Happy Log in to Great Offers', applies to all Samsung consumer electronics products -- Televisions, Refrigerators, Air Conditioners, Washing Machines, and Smart Ovens. Consumers can pre-book products on Samsung Shop till May 8, 2020, and get up to 15 per cent cashback, and avail no-cost EMIs with long term finance options of up to 18 months, besides Express Delivery.

"In the past one month, we have received thousands of queries from consumers across the country as to how they could buy our TV or Digital Appliances, as they felt the need to equip their homes with the latest technology while they stayed home and worked from home. Many are wanting to upsize with Samsung once the lockdown restrictions are relaxed. At Samsung, consumer well-being is top priority and so we are committed to taking every step to provide convenience to them and their families. Through our pre-book offer on Samsung Shop, we want to ensure our consumers get the fastest delivery possible as per Government regulation on relaxation of lockdown from a Samsung authorised retailer nearest to them, without having to step out of their homes till normalcy returns," said Raju Pullan, Senior Vice President, Consumer Electronics Business, Samsung India.

During this offer, consumers can pre-book Samsung products such as the QLED 8K TVs, QLED 4K TVs, Convertible 5in1 and Curd Maestro Refrigerators, Hygiene Steam Clean Washing Machines, Smart Ovens with Masala and Sun Dry, Tandoor and Slim Fry Technologies. Also available are Samsung Smart TVs that transform into a personal computer, and can be used by students at home to pursue their online learning classes.

Consumers pre-booking on Samsung Shop will get 15 per cent cashback when paying with HDFC Debit and Credit Cards as well as options of no-cost EMIs and long-term finance options, up to 18 months. Customers are entitled to cashback even if they do not opt for EMI-based finance options.

Further, consumers buying Samsung televisions will get 1+1 extended warranty on the panel and 30-day trial offer of ZEE5 Premium pack. On Smart Ovens, consumers will get 10-Year Ceramic Enamel Warranty, a Free Borosil Kit and 5-Year Magnetron Warranty.
The Senate on Tuesday mandated its committees on public health, communications and science and technology, and cybercrime to investigate the status of the 5G network in the country as well as its impact on citizens.

It also asked the federal government to suspend deployment and installation of the network in Nigeria.

The 5G is a fifth generation of mobile technology which is an improvement of todays 4G technology with enhanced capabilities. The technology provides the platform for new and emerging technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data to improve the way we live and work.

Last month, the 5G was rumoured to be one of the causes of COVID-19. But the Nigerian Communications Commission cleared doubts over the network, COVID-19 and security.

It also denied that the network was already deployed in the country.

The Senates resolution was sequel to a motion on the present status of 5G network in Nigeria sponsored by Uche Ekwunife (PDP, Anambra Central).

In her motion, Ms Ekwunife said the uncertainty on whether or not the 5G network has been launched in Nigeria will continue to fuel speculations and rumours concerning its effects on citizens of Nigeria.

She noted that it has become a source of concern that the deployment of the network in urban areas would lead to the instalment of a strong radiating mobile communications antenna approximately every 100 meters, producing a radiation tsunami and taking up to a 1000 fold increase in the transmission power.

Several countries including Switzerland, one of the world leaders in the roll out of the 5G mobile technology, has placed an indefinite moratorium on its use because of its health hazards, she said.

The lawmaker urged the Senate to note the concerns by some scientists and medical experts that the emissions from the 5G towers could adversely affect the health of citizens by causing symptoms like damage to the eye, antibiotics resistance, as well as other physiological effects on the nervous system and the immune system.

She expressed interest in investigating the true status of 5G network in the country with a view to ensuring that Nigerian citizens are not exposed to an unreasonable risk or great bodily injury.

Supporting the motion, Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central), said neither the Federal Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy nor the NCC, can tell the scientific step taken so far as regards the status of the Network.

This motion is very timely and sensitive. Its prayer for investigation of the status of 5G Network is in order because experts must be engaged to ascertain its environmental and health harmlessness or otherwise, to Nigerians. The very reason Ministry of Communication and NCC, should not rush into its implementation at all, he said .

Other lawmakers who contributed to the debate, however, noted the recent statement credited to Minister of Communications, Isa Pantami, who said no licence has been granted for the operation of the 5G network in Nigeria.

The Deputy Senate Leader, Ajayi Boroffice, in his contribution, said the motion is self explanatory and straightforward which requires no further debate but for the prayer to be adopted,

The committees were asked to carry out the investigation and report back to the Senate in four weeks.
Teaching unions could block pupils returning to school as the lockdown eases after they warned reopening too early could risk a spike in the transmission of Covid-19 that 'would be catastrophic to the rate of infection'.

The general secretaries of ten teaching unions across the UK and Ireland have penned a letter to ministers, including education secretary Gavin Williamson, urging 'significant caution in any consideration of reopening schools'.

The warning comes after headteachers asked the government to clarify whether they will have to fine parents who refuse to return their children to school after the lockdown is eased.

The letter reads: 'We are convinced by the experience of other systems that a critical tool in preventing a surge of infection is an established capacity to ''test, trace and isolate'' and we would argue that reopening schools before such a regime is in place would be catastrophic to the rate of infection.'

Teaching unions have warned against reopening schools too soon as the government looks to ease lockdown measures. Pictured: Children of key workers comply with social distancing rules while attending a hub school for Edinburgh city centre pupils

Students at Drummond Community High School in Edinburgh are already complying by social distancing rules

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson and other ministers have been asked to clarify whether a return to school is compulsory

The coalition of union leaders argues that schools can only reopen and operate safely if there are 'significant operational changes' in place to ensure effective social distancing, as well as strong hygiene routines and appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) where required.

'We would urge that the initial focus when schools reopen, in any capacity, should be on the health, wellbeing, and emotional resilience of our students,' it adds.

The letter, signed by ten general secretaries of teacher trade unions and sent by the British and Irish Group of Teachers' Unions (BIGTU), follows speculation that schools could be asked to reopen their doors to more pupils before the summer holidays.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to deliver a 'comprehensive plan' this week on how the UK lockdown may be eased and suggested that he would set out efforts to get children back to school.

On Sunday, First Minister Mark Drakeford said schools in Wales could be allowed to reopen their doors from the start of June in a phased approach.

While education secretary Gavin Williamson said schools in England are set to reopen in a 'phased manner' after the lockdown but has yet to set a date.

Patrick Roach, general secretary of the teaching union NASUWT, one of the signatories of the letter, said: 'It must not be forgotten that the decision to close schools and colleges to the majority of children was made on public health grounds.

'Any decision to partially or fully reopen schools and colleges must be guided by the same overriding public health interest.

'Teachers, support staff, pupils and their families must not be used as an experiment and it would be reckless for any government to ignore the scientific evidence and thereby endanger lives.'

Yesterday headteachers asked the government to clarify its rules on whether to fine parents who refuse to return their children to school as the government begins to lift the lockdown restrictions.

More than 1.7 million pupils who are vulnerable, or whose parents are key workers, may be asked to return to school as early as next week, with ministers targeting June 1 for a wider reopening of primary schools.

However, headteachers urged ministers to clarify whether attending schools will be compulsory or optional after restrictions are eased.

Usually, parents could face fines of 60 if their children are absent from school with no good reason, which then doubles to 120 if not paid within 21 days.

The letter warned that reopening schools prematurely 'would be catastrophic to the rate of infection'. (Stock image)

At the school in Edinburgh, teachers are working to ensure social distancing measures are kept in place

If after 28 days the fine is still not paid parents could be prosecuted by the local authority.

However, ministers have yet to make clear whether these rules would apply post-lockdown.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Headteachers, told the Daily Telegraph: 'If parents don't have the confidence, it's not the job of headteacher to make decisions about whether they should be fined or not.

'If we open schools and no one arrives, it seems a bit of a pointless exercise. Children are precious to parents.

'They won't want to be taking any risks with their health and future. '

Welsh schools could reopen at the start of June, First Minister says Schools in Wales could be allowed to reopen their doors next month in a phased approach, the first minister has said. Mark Drakeford said the earliest point schools could resume would be the beginning of June, with a minimum of three weeks needed to prepare from the time it was decided it is safe for pupils and teachers. Some groups could return earlier than others, he said, using examples of year-six children who are due to move up to secondary school, and Welsh medium pupils who may not have had opportunities to use the language at home during lockdown. Mr Drakeford also said work was under way to make sure social distancing guidance was followed and to persuade parents, teachers and pupils that the school environment was safe, saying 'you certainly can't have schools reopen as they did before'. Advertisement

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: 'If they don't think it is safe to send their children to school, they won't do so.'

He has called for official guidance to make clear that vulnerable children at risk of serious illness if exposed to coronavirus are excused from returning to school.

Mr Barton added: 'School attendance should be based on families feeling confident that it is safe to return to school rather than any element of compulsion.'

The NAHT, which is the main union for primary school headteachers, is now undertaking a survey of parents and their attitudes to schools reopening.

Results of the survey will be reported back to ministers later this week.

This week, it was revealed that schoolchildren will be told to sit 6ft apart with strict social distancing measures in place in playgrounds and canteens as they readjust to life after lockdown.

One in five children will be urged to return to the classroom from next week as part of a gradual reopening of schools.

They are expected to follow stringent new rules which will see children split into small groups with siblings in the same class.

More than 1.7million pupils who are vulnerable or whose parents are key workers will be asked to go back.

Students in year six will be first full classes through the doors - potentially from June 1 - to help them prepare for the transition to high school.

Ministers will target later that week for a wider reopening of primary schools, before secondary schools allow pupils in years ten and 12 to return.

Social distancing measures are already in place at Drummond Community High School in Edinburgh.

The school is acting as a hub for 12 schools in the city, taking children from P1  the first year of primary  through to S2.

There are 29 children on the register and the headteachers of the 12 schools take it in turn to lead each day, bringing teachers from their own schools with them.

The children have been split into six groups, with no more than six pupils per class, in order to adhere to social-distancing measures, with siblings kept together in the same class.

Road map for exiting coronavirus lockdown A leaked draft has revealed more details of the shape of the next phase of coronavirus curbs - due to be unveiled by Boris Johnson on Sunday. Key points include: Flexibility around the two metre 'social distancing' rule as long as firms are taking other steps to protect workers.

Installing screens, strict hygiene procedures, and ensuring people are not close together very long are touted as alternative safeguards.

Offices will be ordered to overhaul their rotas, staggering start, finish and break times.

Hot desking will need to end and sharing equipment kept to an absolute minimum.

Staff considered vulnerable who cannot work from home should be put in the 'safest possible roles'. Advertisement

Social distancing is also in place in the lunch hall, while classes take it in turns to rotate around different areas of the playground.

Stephen Gilhooley, quality improvement officer for schools in north-east Edinburgh, said that teachers are adapting well to the unusual teaching environment and showing impressive dedication.

When not working in the hub school, teachers are working from home with their own classes, through distance learning.

Key workers have been entitled to keep sending their children to class throughout the lockdown, but when schools shut six weeks ago they were urged to look after them at home where possible.

The Government is now preparing to issue guidance that will instead encourage these parents to send their children to school.

Just one parent needs to be a key worker for their child to be eligible but parents will not be fined for not sending them in.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, which counsels the government, is targeting June 1 for all year six pupils to be sent back to lessons.

These children are seen as the priority to get back in class due to them transferring to secondary school in September.

A Whitehall source told the Guardian: 'The focus is getting primary school pupils back first but only if the R [a measure of how the virus is spreading] is at a safe level.

What are schools across Europe doing? In April, France revealed plans to begin easing its coronavirus lockdown and begin opening schools from May 11 France, education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said pupils would return gradually over a three-week period starting from that date Under the new plans, classroom will have a maximum of around 15 children per class Meanwhile children in the Netherlands will also start to return on a 'part-time' basis from May 11 In Germany, authorities have prioritised older children who are preparing for summer exams, with students seen returning to schools in Berlin and the eastern state of Saxony last month Other states in Germany will delay the resumption of teaching until May 4 Austria is planning to resume teaching for school leavers in early May and Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said other children would start returning to classrooms in a step-by-step process beginning on May 15 In Norway, the youngest children have started returning to pre-schools Meanwhile Spain has yet to authorise a return to school Advertisement

'After primary schools have returned we will then look at years 10 and 12.'

Figures from the Department for Education show that 3.7 per cent of pupils in England attended school on the first day that schools were closed, falling to 1.3 per cent by the beginning of the second week.

Attendance dropped to 0.4 per cent during the week that would have been the Easter holidays.

But the figures have started to rise with an average of 165,000 children  1.7 per cent of pupils  turning up each day in the week before last.

At the Downing Street press conference last night, Michael Gove said the Government was 'particularly keen to help vulnerable and disadvantaged children to carry on with their education during the pandemic'.

This category includes those at risk of abuse or neglect or with particular special needs.

Schools are expected to start allowing pupils back who are not vulnerable or the children of key workers from the start of June, starting with primary schools.

Officials are looking at options including having classes in on alternate days or weeks to allow them to spread out.

Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman yesterday said there is a 'great deal of logic' in targeting younger children to return to the classroom.

She told Sophy Ridge On Sunday that the younger they are 'the more they need routine'.

But Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: 'While we all want to see a return to some sort of normality, the National Education Union believes it's really premature to talk about a June return date.'

Kevin Courtney (pictured left), General Secretary of the National Education Union, the largest teachers' trade union for England and Wales, says talks about a June re-opening are 'very premature'. But Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman (pictured right) says there is a 'great deal of logic' in targeting younger children to return to the classroom
Its been one of the toughest battles to fight and this is a war that women are winning. From driving research on making the vaccine, to setting testing protocols to assessing states' preparedness, to masks and PPEs, to flawless execution on the ground. This is how the women of India are winning the war against Covid-19.

What does it take to wage a war with a virus? As it turns out, it needs empathy, planning, research, acceptance, humility, flawless execution and the ability to work hard. This is a war that the women of India are winning as they lead key institutions, departments, ministries, states or quietly work in their villages. Amid the deluge of negativity and fear, here are the women who are working against odds and with several constraints.

Clockwise from top left: KK Shailaja, Pomi Baruah, Preeti Sudan, Dr Nivedita Gupta, Renu Swarup and Dr Priya Abraham. (Photo: ANI, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

Did you know that India and Italy reported their first Covid-19 cases on January 30, 2020? Kerala has a population of 3.48 crores while Italy has a population of 6.4 crores. As on May 5, Italy had reported 29,079 deaths while Kerala had reported 500 cases and 4 deaths. At the forefront of the spectacular Kerala story is the health minister of the state, the 63-year-old KK Shailaja  one of the two women ministers in Pinarayi Vijayans cabinet. She was also at the forefront of the states battle against the Nipah virus in 2018. The first case in the country was reported in Kerala.

As Jeemon Jacob from India Today reported, a control room was set up on January 23. A strategy was in place. The state deployed rigorous contact tracing, set up Covid-19 care centres in all districts, health workers supported people with special needs and the elderly living alone. Counsellors made over three lakh calls to personnel working in affected areas, counselling them on how to handle stress.

At the heart of the Kerala success story is acceptance, transparency, empathy, attention to detail, constant monitoring, lots of planning and preparedness. If the Kerala model is now a case study on how to combat the virus, Shailaja is the one who cracked the code.

Meanwhile, in Assam, at the forefront of the fight against Covid-19 is a civil servant, Pomi Baruah. She is the state nodal officer of the 104 helpline desk and was instrumental in collecting data about people, including the Tablighi Markaz attendees. It was based on the data collected by the 104-helpline desk that the district magistrates could track 570 Tablighi Markaz returnees who had gone into hiding.

In New Delhi, Preeti Sudan  a 1983 batch IAS officer from Andhra Pradesh, secretary of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare  is constantly reviewing preparedness of all states and union territories.

At the division of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases in ICMR, Dr Nivedita Gupta, who is the in-charge of viral diseases, is building testing and treatment protocols in India. She was also the primary scientist involved in the investigations and containment of the Nipah outbreak in Kerala last year. She has been instrumental in setting up the virus research and diagnostic laboratory network of ICMR.

Renu Swarup at the Ministry of Science and Technologys Department of Biotechnology is doing crucial research on the coronavirus vaccine. In an interview to The Print, she said she is also working on scaling capacities of start-ups to manufacture low-cost ventilators and testing kits.

Dr Priya Abraham leads the National Institute of Virology, which is affiliated to the ICMR and was initially the only testing centre in the country for Covid-19. The NIV succeeded in reducing the testing time of Covid-19 samples to four hours from 12 to 14 hours.

Away from the cities, in over 90 per cent of Indias districts, 67 million women who are a part of six million self-help groups are producing face masks, running community kitchens, delivering essential food supplies, and combating misinformation in rural India. They are ensuring that India wins this war, fair and square.

Also read | Nirmala, Nusrat, Chandrani, Pramila: Why we are applauding all the women MPs in the House
Face masks have become the most desired weapon in the war against the deadly coronavirus. However, fashion trends have caught up with the usual masks. Remember Billie Eilish flaunting the Gucci facemask?

For months now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been stressing on the importance of homemade face maks. After PM Modi's call to make more and more homemade face maks, many including Union Minister Smriti Irani took to social media to give easy mask-making tutorials. In fact, in one of his lockdown discussion calls, Modi inspired many by wearing a DIY mask.

Combining the two, Kerala MP Shashi Tharoor has decided to go festive and fashionable while ensuring he has kept coronavirus at bay.

Sharing a photo, Tharoor tweeted a mask that celebrates the festivities of Onam. "Designer masks for Onam: the Malayali plans ahead!!" he tweeted along with the photo of the mask with the touch of gold on it.

While the text on the photo read: "   ...  ...! (Masks for Onam Construction has begun ... That's Malayali ...!)."

The Twitter user who had originally posted the special Onam facemasks found an honourable mention in the replies of Tharoor's tweets.

In fact, he also shared the steps that went into making the golden mask.

I have made this....done by converting left over material... pic.twitter.com/j7l6zqFqbh Limi rose tom (@limirose) May 4, 2020

Onam, a popular festivals of Kerala, is celebrated across the state with great fervour and enthusiasm every year. Celebrated in August-September, the annual harvest festival falls on 22nd Nakshatra Thiruvonam in the Malayalam calendar called Chingam.

Onam is also called Thiru-Onam or Thiruvonam (Sacred Onam Day). Sravanmahotsav is another name for this festival.
Days after the death of veteran actor Rishi Kapoor, wife Neetu Kapoor has been thanking people for their support in taking care of the actor who battled with leukaemia for two years. She has now penned a note to express gratitude towards the Ambani family for the countless ways in which they have seen us safely through this time.

Sharing a picture of Mukesh and Nita Ambani with her and Rishi on Instagram, she wrote, For us, as a family, the last two years have been a long journey. There were good days, there were a couple of bad days too.. needless to say it was full of high emotion. But its a journey we would not have been able to complete without the immeasurable love and support of the Ambani family.

She went on to add, As weve gathered our thoughts over the past few days weve also tried to find the words to express the gratitude we feel towards the family for the countless ways in which they have seen us safely through this time. Over the last seven months every member of the family has gone above and beyond in every way possible to care for our beloved Rishi and ensure he experienced as little discomfort as possible. From ensuring he was medically attended to, to making frequent, personal visits to the hospital to shower him with love and attention, to even holding our hand and comforting us when WE were scared.

Naming each and ever member of the Ambani family, Neetu wrote, you have been our guardian angels on this long and trying experience - what we feel for you can not be measured. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your selfless, unending support and attention. We feel truly blessed to count you among our nearest and dearest. Sincerely and with utmost gratitude, Neetu, Riddhima, Ranbir and the entire Kapoor Family.

Also read: Neetu Kapoor thanks doctors, hospital for taking care of actor days after Rishi Kapoors viral hospital video: Immense gratitude

A day before, Neetu had shared a note to thank the doctors and other staff of the hospital where Rishi breathed his last on Thursday. Her note came a few days after a viral video showing Rishi struggling on his death bed was heavily criticised by his fans and friends.

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I dont know if Joe Biden is telling the truth about Tara Reade, or the other way around. Id like to think he is. But I dont know, and I wont guess.

But heres something I do know: There is no effing way that Biden should release those University of Delaware papers in any way, shape, or form. He should not ask for or permit any kind of review of them by anyone to see if Reades name is in there.

First, because like it or not, this is hardball politics, with the future of the country at stake in this election, and caving in to these kinds of demands is how Democrats and liberals lose. Do you think that if this were a Republican politician, hed consider allowing a review of those papers for one second? Not on your life. Republicans stonewall in situations like this. They deny, deny, deny. And they usually win.

I Take Tara Reades Allegations Against Biden Seriously, and Im Still Voting for Him. Heres Why.

Let me be clear: I dont think Biden should be like Trump. In principle, I recognize the journalistic and public interest imperative in opening up the archives. But as a purely political matter, its nuts. And the fact is that these kinds of archives are designed to be seen by the public only after the historical figure in question, Biden, has retired.

Everyone is comparing this to the Brett Kavanaugh situation, but I dont see many people making the correct comparison. The correct comparison is this: Kavanaugh and the Republicans won because they stonewalled.

There was a Kavanaugh friend named Mark Judge whom Christine Blasey Ford named as a witness to the alleged act. He could have been called to testify. He was not. Senate Republicans were doling out lovely quotes about wanting to find the truth, but, as I wrote at the time, If Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley and his fellow Republicans were interested in getting to the truth of the assault matter, they would make Mark Judge testify.

But they did not. Thats how Republicans play these things. Look at Donald Trump. Around two dozen allegations of sexual harassment or assault. He denies, and they melt into the woodwork. Its ugly, demeaning, and horrible. But he won.

Story continues

And when I talk about winning, I dont mean simply that Joe Biden winning will be good for Joe Biden. I mean that it will be good for the country. It will be good for women, especially if Democrats also keep the House and take the Senate and are able to pass legislation that will help frontline essential workers, for example, many of whom are women, and more specifically women of color who dont make much money. He has a legislative record featuring but not limited to the Violence Against Women Act that suggests hell do more for women if he becomes president. Even if he did this despicable thing nearly 30 years ago, which is likely unknowable, its completely legitimate to balance that possibility against the difference between having Biden in the White House and having Trump there for another term, when Roe will almost surely be overturned, just for starters.

More broadly, of course, we need a president who is up to the job, who wont shrink from challenges and duties and responsibilities, wholl spend his days trying to help sick and economically stressed people instead of watching cable news and rage-tweeting and pouting. We have a president who through his self-absorption and denial has cost thousands of Americans their lives. We need a president who will save lives.

So all thats the first reason. And heres the second reason, which is related to the first. Democrats and liberals should not fall for this higher standard bullshit. Playing by rules the other side doesnt play by is a fools errand.

If this were a good-faith effort to get at the truth, then yeah, maybe Biden should let some neutral person/s rifle through the archives. But this is not a good-faith effort. The people who are the most insistent that Biden open his archives are vicious partisans, from Trump to the Fox News propagandists to politicians and operatives wholl say anything to re-elect Trump. As a friend of mine said over the weekend, you give these people an inch, theyll take a light-year.

Heres how Id imagine this playing out. Biden allows the appointmentby the Democratic National Committee, sayof a team of neutral observers to go through the files. They do so. They come back and say the name Tara Reade appears nowhere in the archives.

Do you seriously think that will be the end of it? If you do, you are an idiot. That will be just the end of the beginning. On Fox News, theyll say its all a lie and a cover-up, and theyll have experts of some kind or another coming on their air saying that personnel matters are routinely discussed in such papers.

Republicans will insist that this so-called neutral review was a setup, and they will demand that the archives be opened to journalists. Theyll bang on about sunlight being the best disinfectant. Theyll say if the vice president truly has nothing to hide Some credulous journalists and editorial boards will agree.

Then, if archives were opened, and even if Tara Reades name isnt there, oh boy, imagine what is in there! Who knows? All kinds of material that could be used to embarrass Bidenhis frank assessments of his colleagues or of various political situations from 40 years ago that have aged terribly; I mean, the campaign from that point on would be nothing but Biden defending old and irrelevant comments. That, believe me, is what Trump wants. As the Beast reported Saturday, Trump apparently doesnt even believe Reades charges. And of course the man of a million NDAs (Biden said in his Morning Joe interview on Friday that he has none) has many reasons for not wanting this campaign to turn into a referendum on how these two men treat the women in their lives. He just wants the whole archive flung open so his people can drop a fishing line in there and catch something embarrassing.

These knives are out already. Ari Fleischer tweeted over the weekend that Biden should turn the archives over to the FBI. Right. Give them to the hackiest attorney general in the modern history of the country. As if, say, candidate Mitt Romney would have given files to Eric Holders Justice Department, and Republicans like Fleischer would have pressed for that? These people are totally without shame.

Give them an inch, theyll take a light-year.

Id like to live in a world where Biden could do the clearly honorable and above-board thing here. But we dont live in that world. We live in a world where the level of morality is defined by the least moral actor. Thats Trump.

If Biden opens that archives door a crack, Trump and Fox and the GOP will barge through it and tell any lie they can to destroy him. Thats reality.

Joe Biden is almost certain to be the Democratic nominee. His job isnt to please chin-scratching ethicists. Its to win. Just say no, Joe.

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Lufthansa is close to finalising talks with the German government to negotiate a $10billion bailout after coronavirus travel bans caused a 99 per cent drop in passenger numbers.

Lufthansa needs to be rescued after coronavirus travel bans forced the German group to ground 700 of its aircraft and causing the group to lose about $1.1million in liquidity reserves per hour.

Lufthansa shareholders today also agreed to not distribute $323million in retained profits as a dividend for 2019.

Some 10,000 shareholders followed the meeting online, representing 33.19 per cent of the share capital, Lufthansa said.

The carrier, which is preparing to restart passenger flights slowly from June, is currently in talks with the German, Austrian, Swiss and Belgian authorities about a roughly $10billion bailout. Chief Executive Carsten Spohr said that he expected to clinch a deal with Germany shortly.

A March 2020 file photo shows planes of German carrier Lufthansa parked on a closed runway at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany during the coronavirus spread

'Our focus is on stabilising Lufthansa in its current form and not on acquiring other airlines. We are not planning a takeover at this time,' he said, adding that consolidation among European airlines will slow down due to government bailouts.

Lufthansa's rescue deal is expected to give Germany a 25.1% stake in the airline as well as supervisory board representation, people close to the matter said.

Separately, Lufthansa is expected to receive about $5.42billion in non-voting capital as well as roughly $3.25billion in state-backed loans, they added.

The exact size of the rescue deal as well as the possible contribution from Switzerland, Austria and Belgium is still unclear, the sources said.

Spohr is expected to visit Brussels this week, according to Belgian daily Echo. The airline is seeking $315million in financial aid from the Belgian state. In exchange, Belgium wants guarantees on the future of Brussels Airlines and the development of the Brussels airport.

Spohr said that despite the bailout the German government was not interested in taking an active role in the company, after he had earlier warned about possible state interference.

Pictured: Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr awaits the arrival of a Lufthansa Cargo aircraft from Shanghai, carrying eight million protective masks in Munich, Germany in an April photo

Klaus Schmidt, head of the council of economic advisers to the federal economy ministry, said at a ministry briefing on Tuesday, that the government should not weigh into discussions, for example, on whether Lufthansa's Germanwings division should be shuttered.

To reduce its cash outflows, Lufthansa -- which is taking a 2020 hit of about $1.08billion from crude oil hedging -- said at the meeting that it had asked Airbus and Boeing to postpone aircraft deliveries.

Lufthansa is sticking to its plan to sell its catering activities, Spohr said, adding that further asset sales were not planned and a potential listing of its Lufthansa Technik business would currently only be possible at a massive discount.
The Centre is planning to do away with the mandatory requirement of washing of coal before it is transported to thermal power stations. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), in a discussion note, suggested that coal washing should be done away with, as it does not bring down the ash content in coal.

In 2014, as part of its climate change commitments, the government had made coal washing mandatory for supply to all thermal units beyond 500 kms from the coal mine. This was done in line with Indias stand in climate change negotiations - not to reduce coal ...
What are the unique mental health needs facing the communities of color you work with during this pandemic?

First, we must acknowledge the historic causes of mental health challenges: the legacy of racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, economic stressors, and systemic failures that contribute to our mental health struggles. Adding COVID-19 has greatly amplified this distress.

Data is showing that people of color are more likely to die from COVID-19. Thats not surprising. We have already been living in spaces zoned so that black and brown people arent healthyin food deserts, or where the water isnt safe to drink, for example. And we endure untreated chronic conditions that lead to poorer outcomes from COVID-19, while struggling to access health care. So when COVID-19 began spreading, we were already in distress because of systemic and structural failings.

When people of color actually do manage to receive care, doctors are more likely to minimize their pain and dismiss their symptoms. Serena Williams, a world famous athlete, experienced this. So imagine if youre not a celebrity, but an elder in rural Alabama! Will you be heard? We have a long way to go in dismantling all of the isms within the system.

At BEAM were seeing these factors culminate in greater depressive symptoms and increased isolation within our communities. For instance, we are seeing that our folks who are living with diagnosed mental conditions like bipolar or anxiety disorders report higher distress.

We also rely on our traditions to process grief. After a funeral, we usually return to the home and eat together, a repast. Thats part of our healing process and how we support one another. Mandated bans on traveling and gatherings have interrupted these traditions when we need them the most.

We must acknowledge the historic causes of mental health challenges: the legacy of racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, economic stressors, and systemic failures that contribute to our mental health struggles.

Our community partners such as domestic violence shelters are also witnessing a marked increase in calls related to intimate partner violence or hostile home environments. For instance, social distancing is forcing LGBTQ youth to stay at home with families who are hostile or abusive about their sexuality or gender.

Exacerbating all of this is that the words mental health are a trigger for communities of color. Someone seeking our services shared that when he hears the words mental health, he envisions a social worker taking away his cousin. And not too long ago, the American Psychological Association had to demand that Immigration and Customs Enforcement stop using confidential psychotherapy notes to justify deportations.

Finally, staff at community-based organizations are already overworked and under-resourced. This stress is now amplified as they face increased demands.

How is BEAM adapting its approach to new challenges stemming from COVID-19?

Our work is modeled on the idea that we cannot rely solely on psychiatrists, social workers, therapists, and other professionals to do all of the mental health and healing work within communities, especially now. Our goals have been to educate and equip peers and families with tools, resources and skills so they can support themselves and their friends, families and communities. For instance, we know through our work that young people need the consistent presence of someone who can listen, validate and support them. Its not always a deep clinical intervention thats needed, but rather someone who knows how to listen, hold space, be compassionate, witness and process things. And thats work we need to know how to do wherever we are.

We now have to use our voices, through art, media, and politics, to keep issues of equity at the forefront.

We know our services need to be more accessible during this pandemic so we now have offerings on Instagram Live, Facebook drop-ins, and so on. Previously, much of our work was in person. While weve had virtual options in the past, were now ramping those up. We also acknowledge that many may not have access to the Internet. Not only does that make it harder for us to reach them, but it intensifies their sense of isolation. To address this, we are providing services by telephone and also training the people who can virtually access our platforms to support those within their own networks who are more isolated.

So this crisis has provided an opportunity to reimagine how we plan for accessible and innovative care delivery, how we run our organizations, and how we prioritize mental health and wellness for our staff.

What advice do you have for community health workers who may be feeling overwhelmed?

Many community workers do not prioritize self-care. They may tell themselves Im not doing enough and I should be doing more. There is always work to be done. We must recognize that every dime we raise, every meal we drop off, every phone call we make, any information we share matters and is valuable.

This is a moment for us to concurrently attend to our own stress and anxiety because if we dont, it will show up in our work. Seek out virtual support from other organizers. Find a practice that will ground you and center you as much as possible. If we dont prioritize our own wellness, we will not be able to sustain supporting our communities and ourselves now and especially not beyond COVID-19.

Where do you see hope?

I think back to the early days of the HIV epidemic and am reminded of all the ways advocates had to push the government to respond, over a period of years. They advocated and protested until finally the government put its weight behind finding effective treatments. That also had a very real impact on the structure of health care and the way programs were designed to help people with HIV.

We, too, have to force a discussion and remind ourselves what started and energized national conversations that led to change. It was Martin Luther King, the Black Panthers, Gloria Steinem, Angela Davis, Fannie Lou Hamer, Black Lives Matter, ACT-UP. They got in our faces, even antagonized, and they got us past the collective amnesia and wishful notion that racism or sexism or homophobia dont exist. We now have to use our voices, through art, media, and politics, to keep issues of equity in the forefront.

Another hopeful sign is that a lot of community-based organizations are working together, providing aid to the community, training one another, collaborating. Together theyre trying to make sure that everybody gets groceries and medicine, and theyre checking in on the vulnerable and staying in touch to combat isolation. We hope those alliances continue.

Learn about how another RWJF Award for Health Equity winner is bringing visiblity to community health workers  trusted laypeople who share life experiences with those they serve in their local communities.


President Emmanuel Macron has visited a school in the Paris suburbs and spoken of his desire for life in France to get back to normal despite the presence of the coronavirus.

Macron arrived at the Pierre de Ronsard primary school in Poissy, on the western fringes of the capital on Tuesday morning, accompanied by the education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer.

The school run comes as part of Macron's campaign to woo mayors who must make a decision whether to re-open classes in their areas as part of the government's drive to ease lockdown measures from 11 May.

Sporting a dark blue mask, with small tricolour stripes on the side, Macron smiled and chatted with a small group of students sitting spaced well apart in a brightly lit classroom.

As he spoke, he touched his mask lightly, demonstrating how easy it is to be tempted to move it during the day  a gesture that they would need to avoid.

Then he used hand sanitizer and told the children they must be very careful that the virus does not get spread from tiny droplets landing on their hands or face.

No school exacerbates inequalities

"In a child's life, staying at home for two months is a traumatising experience," he told French television channels T1 and France 2, after the classroom visit.

"There are children who give up ... there are social inequalites, compounded with inequalites regarding accommodation."

He went on to thank school staff for their dedication and efforts adapting to distance learning, as well as those who had volunteered to return to their classrooms next week.

Flexible timetable

"My objective is that all children who need to return to school, can find a school open with an adapted timetable," said Macron.

"It's not the number of schools that counts but that we see successful examples."

Most school children in France stopped classes on 13 March, several days before the official lockdown came in to place.

Since then, only small groups of children have been able to attend classes, a minimum service designed to cater for the children of 'frontline' workers in sectors such as health, the food industry, transport and security.

But mayors in towns in the Ile-de-France region - the area surrounding Paris - are concerned.

They voiced their fears in a letter to the president on Monday calling for a postponement of the proposed return to school. They claim it is impossible to guarantee adequate health and safety measures in such a short time.

Collective effort

Macron acknowledged that the danger of the virus was still present and that people should remain vigilant, especially older citizens or people with fragile health.

He stressed that getting schools open was to be a progessive and collective effort, based on regular consultation with mayors and school directors.

He said that surveys among parents had begun in order to find out which children should be a priority list such as single-parent families, or children struggling with their schoolwork.
Washington did not succeed in buying Greenland, as US President Donald Trump wished last summer. Nevertheless, he wants to provide different financial support to the island

The US has announced that it would provide financial support to Greenland. Thus, it wants to strengthen its positions in the Arctic, where Russia is actively building up its forces and China is striving for influence. But some consider Washingtons actions provocative, not only Moscow and Beijing but also Copenhagen.

Washington did not succeed in buying Greenland, as US President Donald Trump wished last summer. Nevertheless, he wants to provide different financial support to the island, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark but has wide autonomy. Although we are talking about a small amount for the United States at $ 12 million, by the standards of Greenland it is quite substantial. The head of the Greenland government, Kim Kielsen, was moved by this gesture.

Attacks on Russia and China

Shortly before the official confirmation of cooperation in the middle of last week, the US ambassador to Denmark, Carla Sands, in her comment for Altinget online magazine criticized Russia for its aggressive behavior and arms buildup in the Arctic region. In addition, she accused China of increasingly active actions in the Arctic in order to promote its own economic interests and propaganda of authoritarian and anti-freedom values. Given how Beijing operates in other regions, such as the South China Sea, without paying attention to generally recognized rules and regulations, its actions are worrisome, Sands said.

According to her, by offering financial support to Greenland, the United States seeks to advance its vision of the situation in the Arctic, which is based on transparency and democratic values. At the same time, Washington offers itself to other countries as a preferred partner in the polar region.

At the same time, Greenland is important for the United States, not least from a military-strategic point of view. The Tule airbase in the north of the island is part of the US missile threat early warning system. And since Russia is expanding its military presence in the Far North and is building the Nagurskoye Arctic base, the Tule airbase is becoming more vulnerable.

According to political analysts specializing in the Arctic, Washingtons initiative in relation to Greenland is quite logical, because the United States is currently significantly behind Russia and China in terms of developing military and civilian infrastructure in the Far North. Most noticeable is the lag in the naval aspect. Russia and China are rapidly working to strengthen the icebreaker fleets.

Diplomatic exchange of blows

Russian ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, reacted to Carla Sandss statements. According to him, the United States is striving for dominance in the Arctic region, and for this purpose is betting on a policy of confrontation, Barbin wrote at the end of last week in an article for the newspaper Politiken. In an interview with DR radio, Danish foreign policy expert Hans Mouritzen pointed out that this exchange of blows indicates an impending worsening of the security policy in the High North. This, in turn, becomes a challenge for Denmark, especially since a diplomatic dispute erupts on its territory.

However, Americans flirting of with Greenland caused skepticism in Copenhagen itself. Although the Danish Foreign Ministry, which has the final say on Greenlands foreign policy contacts, said that although it was a matter of bilaterally agreed action, opposition representatives were confident that Washington would neglect cooperation with Copenhagen. So, MP Rasmus Yarlov called these actions absolutely unacceptable.

Rudolf Hermann

Read the original text at Neue Zurcher Zeitung
KEEP THIS FAR APART: NYPD means it. Latest coronavirus updates. (Hot Zone) Posted by Staten Island Advance on Monday, May 4, 2020

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The coronavirus pandemic has turned our world upside-down. We need information like we never have before.

How many new cases were there on Staten Island today? How many deaths? How many people have been released from the hospital?

What did President Donald Trump say about the pandemic? What about Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio?

More importantly, when is this pandemic going to be over? When are we going to get back to normal, whatever normal is?

Its almost too much to keep up with.

So twice a day, Mark Stein and I take to Facebook Live to give you all the Island information you need. Look for us around 2 p.m. and again at around 5:30 p.m. Then look for this wrap-up on SILive.com at the end of the day.

Well give you the numbers and all the latest news. Well answer your questions. Well follow up on your news tips.

Well share the good news too, the way that the Staten Island community is coming together in this time of crisis. Or well just share this strange and unique pandemic moment with you, as fellow Staten Islanders.

On Monday we talked about Gov. Andrew Cuomos announcement that the statewide PAUSE order would be allowed to expire on May 15, and that some regions of the state may be allowed to begin re-opening.

But the governor laid out a list of strict conditions under which regions would be allowed to re-open, conditions that no region in the state currently meets. It appears that New York City wont qualify for some time. See the video above for conversation about that.

We also discussed how the PBA no longer wants cops to be the ones to enforce social-distancing guidelines in the city. Plus, we updated you on those ZIP code coronavirus case numbers that everyone clamors for. For more on those fronts, watch the video below.

Were all in this together. Well all get through this together.
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has decided to allow all banks to issue briefed quarterly financial statements in accordance with the Egyptian counting measure number 30 that has been modified in 2015 regarding the banks circular financial statements.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, CBE said that banks are committed to completed annual financial statements by the end of 2020 and the end of June 2021, according to the system applied in each bank.

The CBE also expounded that the six-month credit accounts suspension will not be calculated in the period of repaying delayed dues and will not be considered as a core index of evaluating banks credit risk level, without prejudicing the banks responsibility of assessing their credit portfolios in order to keep their quality, in addition to assessing their clients repaying abilities.

According the statement, the procedures are in line with the measures the CBE has taken to curb COVID-19s impact on Egypts banking and monetary systems.

On 15 March, the CBE launched a number of facilities to make clients financial operations easier, including the postponement of payments on all credit entitlements as of 16 March, including short-term facilities, future and current loan installments, and proceeds.

The facility has been applicable to regular and non-regular clients, individuals and corporations alike, including finance leasing, real estate finance, factoring, and small and medium sized enterprises, in addition to beneficiaries of CBE initiatives.

Under the CBEs facility, consumer loans, including personal loans, credit cards, loans for buying cars for personal use, and real estate loans for personal housing are covered, while new credit facilities applied after 16 March are excluded with no proceeds or delay commission to be imposed due to postponement.

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The daughter of Hollywood star Natalie Wood is speaking out about her mother and her mysterious death in a new documentary due to be released on HBO on Tuesday.

Wood, who was known for her roles in iconic films such as Maria in West Side Story and Deanie in Splendor in the Grass, was just 43 when she died in 1981.

In a the new documentary, Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind, her daughter Natasha Gregson Wagner, 49, says she believes her mother would have been a woman to have moved with the times.

The daughter of Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner, both pictured, is opening up about her famous mother's death and interviews her actor stepfather in a new HBO documentary

Natasha Gregson Wagner, 49, is the daughter of Hollywood icon Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner and was only 11 years old when her mother died

Natalie Wood would have been at the forefront of MeToo and LGBT rights says her daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner

'I think if she were alive today she'd be on the forefront of equal pay for women, she'd be on the forefront fighting for equal rights for the LGBTQ community. She was so ahead of her time in many ways.'

The documentary tells intimate stories of family life and shares never-before-seen home movies.

'A lot of those home movies we hadn't seen at all because they had just been in this box. Super 8s and 16 millimeter,' Gregson Wagner told Good Morning America.

'The biggest thing for me is that it just reminded me that I didn't dream the memories of my childhood. All that really happened.'

Natalie Woods daughter speaks out on the memories of her moms life and death in a new documentary. @ChrisConnelly has the details. https://t.co/0nOJnS4zxy pic.twitter.com/1ADTLB72Tu  Good Morning America (@GMA) May 4, 2020

The last boat she was on: Splendour, the boat owned by Wagner, docked off Catalina Island the day after Natalie Wood drowned November 29, 1981

The couple spent almost all their weekends on the Splendor often with friends

Natalie Wood with her daughter Natasha Gregson Wagner pictured in 1971

During the 1970s, Gregson Wagner saw her mother remarry her first husband, actor Robert Wagner who is now 90 years old.

Gregson Wagner was raised by Wagner, whom her mom married for the second time in 1972.

Her biological father was British producer and screenwriter Richard Gregson, who was married to Wood from May 1969 to August 1971.

Face to face: Natasha persuaded Wagner, now 90, to sit down for an on-camera interview for the HBO documentary Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind on which she serves as a producer

Not forgotten: Speaking about Wood's death, Wagner told his daughter: 'I don't think there's a day that has ever gone by that I don't think about Natalie'

Gregson Wagner interviewed her stepfather for the new documentary.

'My heart was beating a bit because obviously he and I have spoken about that, but never on camera,' Gregson Wagner said as she told what it was like to ask about the final night of her mother's life.

Wood was killed in 1981 after she drowned off the coast of Southern California.

The star of Rebel Without A Cause and West Side Story died during a trip to Catalina Island on Wagner's yacht The Splendour.

She had been on a boat just off Catalina Island with Wagner and fellow actor Christopher Walken.

Mystery: Wood's death was ruled an accidental drowning. But conspiracy theories have persisted and cast a cloud over Wagner's life and career. The couple are pictured in 1960

Star: The documentary remains focused on Wood's life rather than her death and weaves excerpts from Wood's filmography with archival material, including extensive family photos, diaries, never-before-seen home movies and audio recordings

Her body was discovered washed up on the shore of Catalina Island on November 29, 1981, and her death was subsequently ruled to be an accidental drowning.

'To me, what the culprit was that night was the alcohol. Had that not been a factor, I think maybe things would've turned out a little differently,' Gregson Wagner said.

'You know, I feel closure about that night,' she added. 'I'm hoping with the documentary we can focus on her life.

'Its outrageous and completely unacceptable that others have created this narrative about my dad and the night my mom died,' Gregson Wagner told People.

A loving tribute to a Hollywood goddess: Natalie Wood is the subject of a new HBO documentary Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind, which will be released on Tuesday

The star: Wagner seen in October 2019 in LA, left, and with Stefanie Powers on their hit TV series Hart To Hart in the 1980s

'I know that if my mom had been in any kind of distress he would have given his life for her,' she said. 'I know that as as well as I know my name.'

Speaking about Wood's death, Wagner told his daughter: 'I don't think there's a day that has ever gone by that I don't think about Natalie.'

'Everything went out from under me. That night has gone through my mind many times.'

There have been many conspiracy theories over the years about how Wood died.

Packed with good images: Never-before seen footage of Wood's second wedding to Wagner was discovered. Seen in 1972

She did her own thing: Though she was controlled by the movie studios, she was able to select the movie West Side Story

Actress Natalie Wood was often on the sea. Here she is seen in a posed photo on a sail boat

'Since then there's been so much focus on how she died that it's overshadowed who she was as a person,' said Gregson Wagner.

However, the documentary remains focused on Wood's life rather than her death and weaves excerpts from Wood's filmography with archival material, including extensive family photos, diaries, never-before-seen home movies and audio recordings.

In addition to the film, Gregson Wagner has also written a memoir More Than Love: An Intimate Portrait of My Mother, Natalie Wood. The book will be released on May 5.

Explaining why she decided to publish the tell-all, Natasha has said it's about 'sharing my experience of grief and trauma and heartbreak and deep sadness.'

'I know she wanted me to write the book and she wanted the documentary to be made, and this is how she wants to be remembered,' she added.

Hollywood loved her: Here she is seen in a promo photo for her film Sex And The Single Girl, directed by Richard Quine in 1964

Natasha, whose biological father was British producer Richard Gregson, was raised by Wagner whom her mom married for the second time in 1972. She's pictured with her parents and half-sister Courtney in 1976
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5

By Tamilla Mammadova  Trend:

Georgia offers a much more favorable environment for investors and entrepreneurs than most European Union (EU) countries, Trend reports citing the French daily LOpinion's article titled "The European Union: Is Size Decisive?"

The author of the article, Bruno Alomar, noted that Georgia has implemented reforms to ensure such economic dynamism and has left behind some developed countries in the European Union.

"What is even more striking, a country like Georgia offers investors and entrepreneurs a much more favorable environment than the majority of EU member states. The World Bank's doing business indicator ranks it 7th worldwide," he emphasized.

In addition, the author of the article reviews the mechanisms of combating coronavirus in Georgia.

"It's no coincidence that Singapore, Switzerland and Georgia are well able to combat the new coronavirus pandemic. Georgia's fight against this new challenge is quite successful," reads the article.

The French newspaper noted that the low number of coronavirus-related deaths in Georgia was due to the decisive measures taken to manage the crisis, which included restrictions on flights from countries with the highest risk of contagion.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Mila61979356
What would qualify as failure? The question was hanging in the air as Boris Johnson returned to work last week, chirruping about Britains apparent success in handling the coronavirus crisis. It lingered while commentators cooed over the prime minister taking charge after his own illness with the virus. It waited patiently while broadcasters signal-boosted deputy Dominic Raab saying that his boss back at the helm was a boost for the country. And the air turned thunderous as it became clear we were supposed to be placated by the prime ministers ebullience.

Failure is not a metric  not even when the UKs horrifying death toll is now one of the worst in the world. Not when our elderly loved ones were unnecessarily exposed to risk and our health and care workers sent to work without vital personal protective equipment (PPE). And not when media investigations have exposed a shocking lack of government preparation for the pandemic.

In a sense, one huge government success in this crisis has been to fuse national failure with its own, so that to criticise the government is cast as synonymous with doing Britain down. This is why Johnsons relentlessly sunny messages are infused with depictions of plucky Britain and its achievements, and its why journalists who are simply doing their job in scrutinising government are nevertheless harangued for being too negative and critical in a time of crisis, when all the public apparently wants is positivity. The prime ministers inaction may have cost lives, but were told its the media thats killing the mood.
By Shruti Srivastava

India is developing a land pool nearly double the size of Luxembourg to lure businesses moving out of China, according to people with the knowledge of the matter.

A total area of 461,589 hectares has been identified across the country for the purpose, the people said, asking not to be identified because they arent authorized to speak to the media. That includes 115,131 hectares of existing industrial land in states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, they said. Luxembourg is spread across 243,000 hectares, according to the World Bank.

Land has been one of the biggest impediments for companies looking to invest in India, with the plans of Saudi Aramco to Posco frustrated by delays in acquisition. Prime Minister Narendra Modis administration is working with state governments to change that as investors seek to reduce reliance on China as a manufacturing base in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak and the resultant supply disruption.

At present, investors keen on setting up a factory in India need to acquire land on their own. The process, in some cases, delays the project as it involves negotiating with small plot owners to part with their holding.

A call to the spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry went unanswered.

Companies Calling

Providing land with power, water and road access may help attract new investments to an economy that was slowing even before the virus hit, and is now staring at a rare contraction as a nationwide lockdown hit consumption.

The government has hand-picked 10 sectors -- electrical, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, electronics, heavy engineering, solar equipment, food processing, chemicals and textiles -- as focus areas for promoting manufacturing. It has asked embassies abroad to identify companies scouting for options. Invest India, the governments investment agency, has received inquiries mainly from Japan, the U.S., South Korea and China, expressing interest in relocating to the Asias third-largest economy, the people said.

The four countries are among Indias top 12 trading partners, accounting for total bilateral trade of $179.27 billion. The foreign direct investments by the four nations between April 2000 and December 2019 stands at over $68 billion, government data shows.

Making unused land available in special economic zones, which already have robust infrastructure in place, is also being examined. A detailed scheme for attracting foreign investments is expected to be finalized by end of the month, the people said.

Own Programs

States have been separately urged to evolve their own programs for bringing in foreign investments. The Prime Minister held a meeting on April 30 to discuss steps to fast-track strategies for wooing investors.

Andhra Pradesh, a southern Indian state, is in touch with several companies from Japan, the U.S. and South Korea.

We have the advantage of coastline and ready-made industrial parks with necessary clearance, Rajat Bhargava, special chief secretary of the states revenue department, said by phone. We are focusing on certain sectors like IT and related manufacturing, food processing, and chemicals and have been holding video conferences with investors.

The northern state of Uttar Pradesh is also developing an online system for land allotment for all industrial and commercial purposes and is in talks with global companies for attracting investments in sectors such as defense and aerospace.
By Akbar Mammadov

The Prosecutor Generals Office in Azerbaijan has carried out another operation to reveal cases of corruption and bribery in the country, the agency reported in its official website on May 5.

In an operation carried out on May 4, two employees of the Operational Tax Control Department of the Baku Main Department for Small Entrepreneurship were caught while taking bribe.

The operation was carried out jointly with the State Tax Service under the Ministry of Economy and Anti-Corruption General Directorate under the Prosecutor General, employees of the Operational Tax Control Department of the Baku Main Department for Small Entrepreneurship.

The suspects - Azer Allahverdiyev and Jahid Tahirov  had demanded AZN 6,000 ($3,500) from a local bakery in exchange of not conducting tax inspections in 2020.

A criminal case has been launched under Article 311.3 (bribery) of the Criminal Code by Anti-Corruption General Directorate with the Prosecutor General.

"As the grounds for suspicions that the crime was committed by Allahverdiyev and Tahirov were determined, they were detained as suspects and involved in the investigation. Presently, the necessary investigative measures are being taken to explore fully and thoroughly all the circumstances of the criminal case", the press service said.

Earlier, on May 4, the Prosecutor General's Office exposed six local officials in Sabirabad, Agjabadi and Tartar districts for issuing illegal exemptions to the countrys electronically enforced isolation rules and appropriating food aid from Heydar Aliyev Foundation. Their investigation was launched after receiving appeals from the district executive authorities.

Moreover, on April 30, head of Executive Authorities of Bilasuvar District Mahir Guliyev was arrested for four months on embezzlement, abuse of power and bribery charges, consequently. Mahir Guliyev was dismissed from the post of head of the Bilasuvar district Executive Power upon presidential decree on the same day.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan appointed Kamran Aliyev as a new prosecutor general was appointed in Azerbaijan on May 1 after Zakir Garalovs term for service expired. President Ilham Aliyev held a video conference with the newly-elected prosecutor general on the same day, urging fight against corruption, especially those in the districts amid the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

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Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The Mumbai Police on Tuesday received several complaints on crowding at wine shops from residents from Ghatkopar, Mulund, Andheri, Powai and Byculla on their Twitter handle. Residents had posted pictures and videos on @MumbaiPolice of crowds at wine shops throughout the day.

Responding to the repeated complaints for two days in a row, Pranaya Ashok, deputy commissioner of police (operations) and spokesperson for Mumbai Police, said, New measures are being chalked out. No FIRs [first information reports] are registered, but we intensified our patrolling at wine shops.

The police also introduced a token system to disperse the crowds.

Raghvendra Thakur, senior inspector of Versova police station, said, The wine shop owners have been asked to distribute 30 tokens per hour. So only 30 customers will stand in queue while maintaining social distancing and others can stand far away from them to avoid crowding.

Police officers also said that it would have been better if the shops were not allowed to operate but with the government giving a nod for the shops to remain open, the police said they will ensure that social distancing is maintained.

942 migrants set to return to Andhra Pradesh

Since the lockdown began in March, 942 migrant workers from Andhra Pradesh have been stranded in Dongri, Wadi Bunder and other areas of south Mumbai. They were provided food by the Mumbai Police for a month with the help of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) and the civic body. These migrants are finally set to return home. All of them will be taken to Kalyan in buses, from where they will board a train to Andhra, Sangramsingh Nishandar, DCP, zone 1, said.

Truck driver tries to ferry 40 to UP, booked

The RAK Marg police booked a truck driver in Sewri on Monday night for allegedly trying to ferry around 40 daily wage labourers to Uttar Pradesh (UP) without permission. All the daily wages workers were rescued and sent back to their respective shelters in Mumbai. The police said the labourers were from garment and private electronic units in Sewri and Daru Khana.

23-year-old pelts stone at BEST bus

A 23-year-old man was booked by Sakinaka police for allegedly pelting a stone at a Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) bus because he was allegedly denied an entry despite telling the bus driver that he had to visit a hospital for a medical check-up. The accused, Shahid Ahmad, who works with a private company, said, The incident took place on Friday when I was on my way to Sion Hospital for my medical check-up. Due to the lockdown, I didnt find any taxi or autorickshaw and hence I tried to board the bus. The driver asked me if I was a government servant. I explained that I have developed an infection and needed to visit the hospital. The conductor pushed me out and in a fit of rage, I pelted a stone at the bus, Ahmad told HT.

A patrolling police vehicle nabbed him from the spot. Kishor Sawant senior inspector of Sakinaka police said, We have lodged an FIR against Ahmad because as per protocol, citizens have to carry medical documents and can travel by autorickshaws available for patients. But he attempted to board a BEST bus which is exclusively running for medical staff and other government servants.

44 FIRs on Monday

The police registered 44 FIRs on Monday for lockdown violations, of which 25 were from central region, while nine were from the west region. Seventy-one people were booked, while 29 were arrested. Both the areas are the worst-affected owing to the Covid-19 outbreak in the city. A maximum of these (14) were filed for gathering at one place, while 12 each for not wearing masks and illegal use of vehicles.

458 cases reported in Maharashtra police

A total of 458 cases of Covid-19 have been reported among Maharashtra Police personnel, of which a majority (409) are constables. While 419 are being treated, 35 of them have recovered. With one more personnels death in Pune, the total number of deaths owing to Covid-19 in the states police force has now reached four, with previous three deaths reported from Mumbai.

Four police constables from Kandivli police station were quarantined after a 45-year-old police constable from the police station tested positive on Tuesday. The constable and other staff were tested at a special testing centre set up in a private school at Jogeshwari near the station. The police said he was posted at the police station for general duty and its not clear how he got infected. About 211 police personnel from Mumbai Police have tested positive till Monday.

(Inputs from Faisal Tandel, Suraj Ojha and Pratik Salunke)
Balkans-EU: summit to reopen European perspective tomorrow In video conference: adoption of Zagreb declaration expected

(ANSAmed) - ZAGREB, MAY 5 - The summit between the EU and western Balkan countries that vie to become Union members will be held tomorrow, as scheduled. However, in lieu of a large gathering in Zagreb, with many events on the sidelines, some 40 European leaders will meet in video conference due to the coronavirus pandemic. The conference is organized by Croatian Premier Andrej Plenkovic, whose country has the rotating presidency this semester. The conference will be attended, along with the leaders of 27 member States and top EU officials, by the presidents and premiers of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.



Leaders are expected to adopt the declaration of Zagreb in which the EU, as reported by Croatian media, ''will reaffirm the support of the European perspective of the western Balkans'' while the six Balkan countries will request ''their full pledge to a European perspective as their convinced strategic choice''.



The fact that enlargement or integration will not be mentioned and will be replaced by the vague ''European perspective'', wrote today the Zagreb-based Jutarnji list quoting diplomatic sources, is the consequence of skepticism by some countries, especially France and the Netherlands and in part Germany, Denmark and Sweden, who have reportedly asked the Croatian premier ''not to turn this event into an enlargement summit''.



No reference will be made to the fact that in March Brussels approved the opening of adhesion talks with Albania and North Macedonia.



Press reports noted that, compared to the great EU-Balkans summit held in 2000 in Zagreb, tomorrow's summit offers to the region less than what was promised 20 years ago. In order to avoid controversies on Kosovo's status, which is not recognized as an independent state by five EU countries, all leaders will sit in front of a neutral background without symbols of states and names of their respective countries. Only the name of participants will appear on the screen. According to the reports, this format was agreed at Spain's explicit request ''that does not want to attend meetings in which Kosovo is presented as an independent State''. For the same reason, in the final statement the expression ''partners in the western Balkans'' is used to avoid the word ''states''. Along with Spain, Kosovo's independence is not recognized in the EU by Romania, Greece, Cyprus and Slovakia.(ANSAmed).




"Kierston has been extremely dedicated to creating an environment that is based on the principles of a growth mindset, exciting and empowering team members to achieve new heights, breaking new boundaries with our clients, one another, and ourselves," said Paul Elliott, CEO, Tiger Pistol. "Kierston encourages team members to develop and lead new initiatives and use their natural talents to contribute to company culture, content, product innovation, and client success. She brings a wealth of experience in high growth companies, both small and large, making her a perfect fit to lead our innovative company culture."

A dynamic talent executive with a background in the consulting and digital marketing industries, Vaughn holds more than 20 years experience in helping companies build thriving cultures through growth and process change. Having previously worked for companies like Accenture, Rosetta, Razorfish Global, Kalibrate, and Robots & Pencils, her approach to talent is founded in a deep understanding of service industry business models in a global context. She excels at building cultures that enable teams and individuals to deliver their best for client satisfaction. Vaughn will continue to enhance Tiger Pistol's recruitment and engagement efforts to ensure an architecture that aligns talent and experience with the company's aggressive growth.

"I'm so proud and excited to become an official part of the incredible team and culture at Tiger Pistol," said Vaughn. "I'm humbled by this team and their passion for their work. I can't wait to see all the great things our team can accomplish, and I am committed to providing each member with the tools and structure to develop and grow."

Kierston earned a Bachelor's Degree in Organizational Leadership and Supervision from Purdue University and is an affiliate of the Society of Human Resource Management. She has been a certified Professional in HR [PHR] since 2003.

About Tiger Pistol

Tiger Pistol is the world's #1 social advertising automation platform for local. For nearly a decade, the company has been obsessively focused on building the world's most effective social advertising platform for global brands, resellers, and agencies who realize the power of local activation at scale. As a preferred Facebook Marketing Partner and the largest third-party publisher of social advertising for local, Tiger Pistol creates, deploys, manages, and optimizes high-performance Facebook and Instagram ads at unprecedented scale, with over 800k Facebook and Instagram campaigns published to date. Tiger Pistol's first of its kind technology delivers meaningful and measurable business impact for brands, resellers, and agencies alike, helping to unlock value and efficiency through innovation-led social advertising automation. Tiger Pistol has been recognized by Digiday as the Best Social Media Marketing Platform , by Street Fight for Best Social Media Campaign and by Localogy as Best Localized Marketing Campaign . Tiger Pistol Ranks in the Top 100 on the Inc. 5000 List of Texas's Fastest Growing Private Companies and in the top 5 among advertising and marketing companies. To learn more, call (888) 400-8845, visit TigerPistol.com , or follow on Twitter , Facebook , or LinkedIn .

CONTACT: Christina Morello

Director, Marketing and Communications

c [email protected]

(330) 354-0899

SOURCE Tiger Pistol

Related Links

http://tigerpistol.com/


The Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) funded the procurement of the Mobile Medical Labs to augment the US Army's ability to rapidly test individuals for COVID-19. Each Mobile Medical Laboratory will contain state-of-the-art diagnostic test equipment and other supporting infrastructure to allow for the safe processing of over 600 samples every 24 hour period.

This rapid procurement will enable the US Army to expand its capacity and flexibility to meet the growing demands for COVID-19 testing. Lt. Col. Alan Stephens, the Joint Product Manager for CBRNe Analytics and Response Systems said, "In just five short days of understanding the schedule and performance requirements, the JPEO-CBRND teamed with Army Contracting Command at Edgewood to purchase these Mobile Medical Laboratories that can augment the Army's COVID-19 testing requirements, where ever needed. The JPEO is uniquely postured to bring the right material solutions to bear when needed most."

The first Mobile Medical Laboratory will be delivered to Edgewood, Maryland on May 13, 2020, with two subsequent deliveries on May 27, 2020 and June 17, 2020.

About the JPEO-CBRND: The Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense is the Joint Service's lead for development, acquisition, fielding and life-cycle support of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense equipment and medical countermeasures. As an effective acquisition program, the JPEO-CBRND puts capable and supportable systems in the hands of the service members and first responders, when and where it is needed, at an affordable price. Our vision is a resilient Joint Force, enabled to fight and win unencumbered by a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear environment, championed by innovative and state-of-the-art solutions.that they've been awarded a contract valued at over $2 million by the Department of Defense (DOD) for three Athena Next Generation Mobile Laboratories for COVID-19 sample processing and testing.

About MRIGlobal

MRIGlobal addresses some of the world's greatest threats and challenges. Founded in 1944 as an independent, non-profit organization, we perform contract research for government, industry, and academia. Our customized solutions in national security and defense and health include research and development capabilities in clinical research support, infectious disease and biological threat agent detection, global biological engagement, in vitro diagnostics, and laboratory management and operations. MRIGlobal is one of two partners in the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, which manages and operates the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, for the U.S. Department of Energy. For more information, visit mriglobal.org

SOURCE MRIGlobal

Related Links

http://www.mriglobal.org


BOSTON and WAYNE, Pa., May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Xceedance and Xemplar Insights today announced a strategic partnership to bring innovative, mobile-based insurtech solutions to global property/casualty insurance markets.



As a comprehensive consulting and managed services provider, Xceedance collaborates with insurers, reinsurers, MGAs, and brokers worldwide to optimize operations, apply intelligent technologies, increase analytic capabilities, and boost profitability. Xemplar Insights complements Xceedance offerings with innovative digital solutions using smartphone, cloud, and data technologies.

With Xemplars mobile platforms and proprietary smartphone-based telematics for personal and commercial lines insurers, Xceedance will augment its technology capabilities for insurance organizations looking to launch and service user-based insurance (UBI) products. The Xemplar-Xceedance partnership also delivers modern, insurer-branded mobile apps with rich features for policy and claims services.

We are constantly looking to strengthen our leading-edge platforms with solutions to help our clients work more efficiently, said Travis MacMillian, chief business officer at Xceedance. Our partnership with Xemplar is exciting and beneficial for Xceedance clients, as we incorporate and expand advanced mobile functionality within our offerings. As a case in point, clients using the Xceedance MGA Agility Suite can immediately roll-out cohesive mobile apps for their policyholders, encompassing service features such as ID cards, pay premium, FNOL, roadside assistance, and more.

An ecosystem of insurtech solutions and service providers is of immense value to insurers. Pre-integrated technologies and services reduce operational overhead associated with feasibility analysis and implementation, said SK Tirumala, CEO of Xemplar Insights. We are delighted to partner with Xceedance to augment their capabilities with our mobile solutions; and to help Xceedance insurance clients launch usage-based insurance products, or engage and service their policyholders in mobile channels. This partnership enables both companies to seamlessly support the mobile requirements of insurance organizations across the world, added Mr. Tirumala.

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About Xceedance

Xceedance ( www.xceedance.com ) is a global provider of strategic consulting and managed services, technology, data sciences and blockchain solutions to insurance organizations. Domiciled in Bermuda, with offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Liechtenstein, Germany, Poland, India, and Australia, Xceedance helps insurers launch new products, drive operations, implement intelligent technology, deploy advanced analytic capabilities, and achieve business process optimization.

About Xemplar Insights

Xemplar Insights ( www.xemplarinsights.com ) is an independent software solutions company, with a proven record of successful implementations, impactful results and customer satisfaction. In operation since 2015, the Xemplar team has developed several innovative software products and solutions to enable P&C carriers, MGAs, and commercial fleets with digital transformation in the areas of (a) customer engagement, (b) policyholder services, and (c) risk management. Built using robust cloud architecture and native mobile frameworks, Xemplar products are designed to be scalable, flexible and extendible to suit the needs of P&C insurers. Solutions are highly economical and deliver a significant ROI.
The Chinese phone maker Xiaomi recently launched new software updates for its browser apps. It came days after the company was hit by controversy for the allegation that it was tracking behavior and harvesting data from its Redmi Note 8.

In a report on CNET.com, Xiaomi said the software updates would permit phone users to turn off aggregated data collection while on incognito mode in its browser apps. Xiaomi has three browser apps, which are Mi Browser, Mi Browser Pro, and Mint Browser. The company added phone users could download the new software update on Google Play.

"We believe this functionality, in combination with our approach of maintaining aggregated data in a non-identifiable form, goes beyond any legal requirements and demonstrates our company's commitment to user privacy," Xiaomi told CNET.com.

Breaching on Privacy

A week ago, security researchers set the alarm bells ringing about how Xiaomi is using the private data of its users. A report published in Forbes put forward the idea that the Chines phone maker may be gathering data on the website visits of its phone users and collect information about apps used and files opened on the devices.

One security researcher claimed that the default Xiaomi browser on his Redmi Note 8 has "recorded all the sites he visited, including search engine queries." He added that whenever he used it, the device monitored "every item viewed on a news feed feature of the Xiaomi software." Another researcher noticed that the tracking activity continues even when he is browsing in incognito or private mode. There were reports that the data collected was being packaged up and sent to remote servers in Russia and Singapore.

No Regulations Violated

Xiaomi fends off the accusations and saying that its practice does not violate any regulations on user's privacy. The Chinese company noted that users' privacy and security are at the top of their priority. "We strictly follow and are fully compliant with user privacy protection laws and regulations around the world," the company told CNET.com.

As proof, Xiaomi laid out some of its data practices in a blog post. The company said that they gather aggregated usage statistics on things like responsiveness and performance that cannot be used to identify individuals. The phone maker told CNET.com that they only sync web browsing history if users have the feature turned on in their settings. The company completely denied the misconduct in its practice and claiming that Forbes "misunderstood its data privacy principles and policy."

In 2019, data showed that Xiaomi's Redmi Note 8 was the best-selling Android phone around the world after the Chinese made phone claimed the top spot in global sales during the 4th quarter. The Redmi Note 8 features a 6.3-inch screen with Snapdragon 665 octa-core processor, a 48MP rear camera, and a 13MP front-facing camera. It also runs on Android 9.0 Pie. Trailing behind Redmi Note 8 in the best-selling phone category are Samsung's Galaxy A10s, Galaxy A20s, Galaxy A30s, and Xiaomi's Redmi Note 8 Pro. Another Xiaomi phone, Redmi Note 7, was also a hot commodity in 2019.

Also Read: Samsung has a big problem in China. Its name is Xiaomi

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Closure and Reopening of Catholic Churches in the Archdiocese of Chicago

NEWS PROVIDED BY

Catholic Citizens of Illinois

May 4, 2020

CHICAGO, May 4, 2020 /Standard Newswire/ -- Catholics have been obedient to both civil and Church authorities in practicing required social distancing and quarantine orders to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. In mid-March, Cardinal Blase Cupich followed civil recommendations by mandating the closure of all Churches and suspending all public worship services throughout the Archdiocese of Chicago.

This suspension of the public Worship of God, issued a full week before Illinois Governor JB Pritzker's lock down order, came as an unprecedented shock to most Catholics. The measure was accepted because it was obvious that many organizations and businesses were also taking action to prevent mass gatherings of people to prevent viral infection.

However, over 45+ days since the suspension, the restrictions imposed by Archbishop Cupich on his priests and their parishes have far exceeded those employed by other areas of society. During the "shut down," Catholics have gone to grocery stores, convenience stores, post offices, bank ATM's and other places where people congregate temporarily to do what they need to do. People have been responsible with social distancing or protective masks. Would not Catholics follow the same requirements while attending Mass or a prayer service?

We have been deprived of the sacraments of Christ, which only ordained priests can administer. Holy Communion and Confession in particular are central to the lives of many Catholics. Going without them for long periods can cause much spiritual and even psychological distress. Catholics have privately requested permission from priests for one or more lay people to attend their private Masses or prayer services, but have been told that they are strictly ordered NOT to allow anyone into their Church buildings, even if social distancing is respected!

US Attorney General Barr has insisted that regulations for the virus for all business and churches must be even handed and not discriminatory to religious practice. Because public Worship of God is a constitutional and human right, at least as "essential" as going to convenience stores or post offices, Archbishop Cupich should open Church buildings and allow people to practice responsible distancing and health precautions. If retail stores are allowed to increase occupancy to 50% of capacity under Governor Pritzker's new Executive Order, why are churches limited to only 10 congregants? If some businesses are deemed "essential" where people must gather even during a pandemic, how much more so our Church buildings, where Catholics Worship God in public!?

Catholic Citizens of Illinois is calling for Archbishop Cupich to practice common sense and proportionality in handing this COVID-19 pandemic vis a vis the human rights of his flock. So far, we believe Archbishop Cupich has been overly cautious, bordering on excessive and arbitrary in his response.

In the Gospel, Our Lord Jesus Christ touched the leper who came up to Him and asked "Master, if thou will, thou can make me clean?" Jesus reached out and touched the man saying, "I will it! Be clean!" And the leper was immediately healed. (cf. Matthew 8:2-3) The moral is that the leper wasn't afraid to spread his leprosy to Christ and Christ wasn't afraid to catch it!

Catholics aren't afraid and Archbishop Cupich, a direct representative of Christ, shouldn't be afraid either. Of course, we should practice prudence to prevent the spread of this virus. But, neither Catholics nor any else should be expected to sacrifice their God given rights to do so!

Catholic Citizens of Illinois was founded in 1997 to educate our fellow Catholics to help them serve as responsible witnesses to civil society. In the turmoil of the present COVID-19 health crisis, we believe it is time that educated Catholics voice themselves in favor of their fundamental human rights.

SOURCE Catholic Citizens of Illinois

CONTACT: Mary Anne Hackett, 708-354-5373, mah348@att.net

Related Links

https://catholiccitizens.org
University seeks to help K-12 teachers in midst of COVID-19 pandemic

Nashville, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The COVID-19 pandemic brought the classroom instruction to a screeching halt across the country, while K-12 educators scrambled to convert their teaching plans to remote teaching modules.

In Nashville, nearly 90,000 students were affected by the move to remote instruction. Across the state of Tennessee, the 22nd largest school system in the nation, just over 1 million kindergarten through 12th grade students made the shift.

Trevecca wants to help ease the stress of our states educators and help them get back to doing what they love: teaching. Thats why the University will offer a free online professional development training that will help teachers learn the ins and outs of designing classes for remote instruction, using technology to enhance learning outcomes, how to use a variety of learning management systems and more.

This free, online training will help equip Tennessee educators who serve our states K-12 student population with the necessary tools and skills needed for remote instruction, said Dr. Dean Diehl, dean of Treveccas School of Graduate and Continuing Studies. It will also provide a valuable opportunity for teachers to network with other educational professionals who are facing the same challenges and better equip them for the education methods of the future.

Created with the help of leading Tennessee school districts, universities and leadership from the online learning consortium, participants will learn from proven leaders who excel in digital literacy.

One of those leaders is LaMetrius Daniels, the director of Treveccas Center for Innovative Instruction. Daniels leads of team of five full-time instructional designers to develop online courses for the University. She also serves as the director of the Universitys Master of Science in instructional design and technology, a program that equips educators and instructors in all industries to build everything from online educational courses to digital training seminars.

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Through this professional development course, participants will be able to get hands-on experience and practice what theyre learning through project-based assignments, she said. We want educators to walk away from this class with skills they can immediately put into practice as they build rich digital learning environments for their students.

Daniels, who is developing the professional development course, knows what shes talking about. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Trevecca boasted more than 1,500 fully online students, more than any other Nashville-based institution of higher education.

When COVID-19 made in-person classes unwise, Daniels and her team helped Trevecca faculty members convert more than 500 face-to-face courses to remote instruction, bringing Treveccas online student population to just over 4,000.

Participants can expect the free online course to help them:

 Develop remote classroom design

 Demonstrate effective use of instructional technology tools for remote instruction

 Create supplemental, blended or hybrid content deliveries

 Utilize a variety of learning management systems to manage content

 Apply ADA Compliance and Accessibility for Universal Design

 Apply copyright laws to remote classroom instruction

 Implement a specialized IEP plan for content creation

 Improve teaching resiliency

For more information about the free training, educators should visit www.Trevecca.edu/remoteinstruction.

Attachments

Mandy Crow

Trevecca Nazarene University

615-300-2345

mmcrow@trevecca.edu


A plane conveying medical supplies for use in the fight against the coronavirus crashed in Somalia on Monday, killing all the six people on board.

The Somali Transport Minister, Mohamed Salad told Reuters news agency that the six people include the pilot, copilot, flight engineer and a trainee pilot, as well as two people working for the airline. Five bodies were recovered so far, he said.

Salad, who declined to speculate on the cause of the crash, said the unit he sent to investigate the incident will arrive on Tuesday, and that he welcomed international assistance.

Somalia News Agency said the plane belonged to African Express Airways and was ferrying supplies for use in the fight against coronavirus.

An African [Express] Airways plane from Mogadishu flew to Baidoa and then continued its flight to Bardale town where it crashed, the agency said on its website. It is not clear why it crashed.

Somalias former minister of defence, Abdirashid Abdullahi Mohamed, said a witness told him the plane made an initial attempt to land, swung around again because of wildlife on the airfield, and then appeared to be shot on one wing on its second approach.

He provided photographs showing the plane in flames, pieces of it scattered over a small area, and its tail intact, and provided a passenger list with six names. Reuters was unable to immediately verify the images or confirm the names.

Al-Shabab, the al-Qaeda-linked armed group fighting the Somali government, has a presence in the area, but was not immediately available for comment.

KanyiDaily recalls that a Japan-bound chartered medical evacuation flight also crashed on Sunday during takeoff in Manila, Philippines.

The plane carrying medical personnel and supplies helping to fight the coronavirus pandemic in Japan, bursted into flames during take-off, killing all eight on board.
KITCHENER  A "targeted shooting" left a man lying dead on a picnic table in a downtown Kitchener parking lot and sent police on a highway pursuit of a suspect vehicle Thursday morning.

The shooting happened on the corner of Pandora Avenue South and King Street East around 11:15 a.m. in a parking lot next to the Salvation Army's New Directions rehabilitation centre and halfway house.

"We got a call, several calls regarding some gunshots at the area," said Deputy Chief Kevin Chalk of Waterloo Regional Police.

"Officers responded and located a male with obvious injuries. ... They attended to the man that was down and injured and he subsequently was pronounced as deceased."

Chalk said the attack was targeted and multiple shots were fired. Police have not released the victim's identity.

Witnesses reported seeing two people in dark clothing flee the area in a white, four-door Mercedes car, which was spotted by an officer shortly after travelling east on Highway 401 near Townline Road.

The officer pursued the vehicle and called for backup. The vehicle continued east, exited at Highway 6 South briefly and then made a U-turn back onto the 401 eastbound, said Chalk.

During the high-speed pursuit, the police SUV collided with a pickup truck on Highway 6. The officer and the truck driver received minor injuries.

Ontario Provincial Police were called to assist with the chase and Halton Regional Police, Peel Regional Police and Toronto Police were all notified of the pursuit.

The Mercedes was last seen near Erin Mills Parkway in Mississauga. It's not known if the car was stolen, but police said the licence plates on the vehicle did not belong to it.

Travis Johnson, who lives a few blocks away from where the shooting occurred, said he was at home Thursday morning when he heard what sounded like gunshots.

"It just sounded like extremely loud clapping noises," he said.

He waited until police arrived before he left his home and walked toward the scene. He said he saw a body on a picnic table covered in a yellow tarp "with hands sticking out at the side."

"It is kind of frightening to have it right around the corner from your house," he said of the shooting.

Cameron Heights Collegiate, located nearby on Charles Street, was placed under a hold and secure which was lifted around 1 p.m.

Chalk said since the suspects have left the region he doesn't believe there is any risk to the community.

Police say there will be an increased police presence in the area as the major crime unit, general detectives and forensic officers investigate.

Salvation Army New Directions, located in a building next to the scene, declined to comment on the incident.

Police are asking anyone who may have witnessed the shooting, or who has any other information, to call them at 519-570-9777, ext. 8666, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

lbooth@therecord.com, Twitter: @BoothRecord

jjackson@therecord.com, Twitter: @JamesDEJ

- Man killed in targeted shooting identified as Isaiah Macnab
Karl Stefanovic's ex Cassandra Thorburn has been spotted in public for the first time since the Today host welcomed a child with his new wife, Jasmine Yarbrough.

The 49-year-old former journalist dressed casually in leggings, a lightweight jacket and trendy sunglasses while grabbing coffee in Sydney on Monday.

She appeared unfazed by news that Karl, 45, and Jasmine, 36, had become parents on Friday to a daughter named Harper May Stefanovic.

Outing: Karl Stefanovic's ex Cassandra Thorburn has been spotted in public for the first time since the Today host welcomed a child with his new wife, Jasmine Yarbrough

Cassandra looked relaxed while running errands near her multimillion-dollar home with her dog Ponyo.

The children's author shares three children with the Channel Nine presenter, Jackson, 20, River, 12, and Ava, 15.

They separated in mid-2016 after 21 years of marriage, and Karl met shoe designer Jasmine at a friend's party in Sydney five months later.

On Monday night, Karl shared a sweet Instagram post about his fourth child, who was born at North Shore Private Hospital.

Running errands: The 49-year-old former journalist dressed casually in leggings, a lightweight jacket and trendy sunglasses while grabbing coffee in Sydney on Monday

Living her own life: She appeared unfazed by news that Karl and Jasmine had become parents on Friday to a daughter named Harper May Stefanovic

He captioned a photo of the baby girl lying on his chest: 'Harper May. May your life be filled with as much love as I feel. My children. My family. My wife. My life.'

In a statement announcing the child's birth on Saturday, Karl said: 'Harper and Jasmine are doing well and Dad had a great night's sleep.

'I am in awe. Harper is absolutely perfect.'

Too cute! On Monday night, Karl shared a sweet Instagram post about his fourth child, who was born at North Shore Private Hospital

Family: In a statement announcing the child's birth on Saturday, Karl said: 'Harper and Jasmine are doing well and Dad had a great night's sleep.' Pictured: Karl and Jasmine Stefanovic

The happy news was announced on Weekend Today on Saturday morning by Karl's colleague and close friend Richard Wilkins.

Richard confirmed that Harper was born weighing 2.9kg just after midday on Friday.

'Mum and bub are both doing very well,' the entertainment reporter said proudly.
LONDON  OnlyFans, which has seen a remarkable spike in signups since the beginning of the pandemic, has made a big change to its user referral program.

In a new policy instituted last week, OnlyFans referral earnings will only last for a year.

OnlyFans, up until last week, rewarded users five percent for bringing in new creators throughout the lifetime of the referred ones account.

Under the new policy, referring a creator to the platform earns users five percent of that creator's earnings for the first year only.

Referrals started prior to May 1 will have one more year to receive earnings from referrals. But after that, those annual dividends will come to a screeching stop.

OnlyFans allows users to share content behind a paywall, with fans opening their wallets for paid subscriptions in order to gain access.

The platform has become popular for established adult entertainers, who can easily earn money without their own website or working with third-party paysites.

In recent months, it also has hosted a wave of adult newbies.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the platform reported more than a 75 percent increase in new sign-ups and is gaining around 150,000 new users every 24 hours, according to Forbes.

London-based OnlyFans, which has been in business for four years, takes a 20 percent cut from models who offer fare on its site.

The referral program for newbies was popular among established OnlyFans talent, particularly because the five percent bump came out of platforms end.

Vice, which reported on the policy change today, said that adult model Aaron Lowe has launched a petition in an attempt to persuade OnlyFans to reverse its course with referrals.

"The referral system is the only reason OnlyFans became a household name and, without it, there wouldn't be an OnlyFans," said Lowe, who made $50,000 from one referral alone, but under the new terms, he said his income will drop a few thousand dollars per month. "I only referred people because of the lifetime five percent."

"Sex workers get taken advantage of far too often and it has to stop," Lowe told Vice. "They deserve to be treated fairly, as do all people in life. Many creators are looking to join new fan sites already and, if we don't get confirmation from OnlyFans of the lifetime referral program being honored, then thousands of creators will likely leave OnlyFans and their fans will follow."

OnlyFans model Ally Hardesty, who offers a YouTube channel featuring advice and guidance for people trying to get into adult modeling, told Vice that "it's disturbing that OnlyFans chose to make this change in the middle of a pandemic and is punishing the same people who have been the foundation of their growth and success.

"I believe this will demotivate models who have built their business around helping others to succeed and overall defer them from referring new people," she said.

In a response to the policy change, OnlyFans said: "We have made the important decision to invest even more resources in our infrastructure, our technology and our support teams so we can continue to grow as the top platform for creators to earn money."

Pictured: OnlyFans model Ally Hardesty
IT services major Wipro on Tuesday said it will repurpose one of its offices in Pune into a 450-bed intermediary care Covid-19 hospital. The process will be completed in four weeks and the IT firm will hand over the facility to the Maharashtra government by May 30.

The Azim Premji-promoted firm has signed a pact with the Maharashtra government to repurpose its office facility at Hinjewadi, a major IT hub in the city. The hospital will be converted back to an IT facility after a year. The 450-bed hospital, to be equipped to treat moderate cases, will include 12 beds to stabilise ...
The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported there were 50,957 confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus in all 67 counties as of 12 p.m., May 5, 2020. There are at least 3,012 reported deaths from the virus.

Click the image to see a data page including an interactive maps for the state. (Please click the link in the previous sentence if you cant see the image)

Click here for a ZIP code breakdown of cases provided by the Pa. Department of Health.

The state is also providing detailed hospital and respirator data here for desktop users and here for mobile users.

PennLive is monitoring the new cases over a two-week period, part of the Wolf administrations criteria for reopening the state. A map and a database for these are below. If you cannot see either embed, please click here for the map and here for the database.

Below is a map of the current reopening status of Pennsylvania counties. Please click here if you cannot see that map.

Adams County

148 positive cases and 1,670 negative results with 5 deaths.

Allegheny County

1,375 positive cases and 17,636 negative results with 109 deaths.

Armstrong County

53 positive cases and 753 negative results with 3 deaths.

Beaver County

466 positive cases and 2,187 negative results with 73 deaths.

Bedford County

26 positive cases and 253 negative results with 1 death.

Berks County

3,004 positive cases and 6,252 negative results with 147 deaths.

Blair County

25 positive cases and 1,174 negative results.

Bradford County

35 positive cases and 769 negative results with 2 deaths.

Bucks County

3,445 positive cases and 9,540 negative results with 283 deaths.

Butler County

184 positive cases and 2,524 negative results with 6 deaths.

Cambria County

34 positive cases and 1,525 negative results with 1 death.

Cameron County

2 positive cases and 65 negative results.

Carbon County

185 positive cases and 1,161 negative results with 15 deaths.

Centre County

106 positive cases and 1,071 negative results with 1 death.

Chester County

1,601 positive cases and 5,990 negative results with 149 deaths.

Clarion County

23 positive cases and 518 negative results with 1 death.

Clearfield County

21 positive cases and 503 negative results.

Clinton County

33 positive cases and 285 negative results.

Columbia County

298 positive cases and 715 negative results with 16 deaths.

Crawford County

19 positive cases and 725 negative results.

Cumberland County

382 positive cases and 1,796 negative results with 25 deaths.

Dauphin County

695 positive cases and 4,176 negative results with 29 deaths.

Delaware County

4,269 positive cases and 10,186 negative results with 318 deaths.

Elk County

4 positive cases and 190 negative results.

Erie County

93 positive cases and 2,290 negative results with 2 deaths.

Fayette County

84 positive cases and 1,992 negative results with 4 deaths.

Forest County

7 positive cases and 30 negative results.

Franklin County

396 positive cases and 3,242 negative results with 9 deaths.

Fulton County

7 positive cases and 99 negative results.

Greene County

27 positive cases and 463 negative results with 1 death.

Huntingdon County

59 positive cases and 340 negative results.

Indiana County

74 positive cases and 782 negative results with 5 deaths.

Jefferson County

6 positive cases and 348 negative results.

Juniata County

86 positive cases and 176 negative results with 1 death.

Lackawanna County

1,038 positive cases and 2,904 negative results with 103 deaths.

Lancaster County

2,018 positive cases and 8,759 negative results with 144 deaths.

The county is reporting 191 deaths as of 1:50 p.m. May 3. Those deaths are in the following municipalities

Christiana: 12 deaths

Columbia: 3 deaths

East Cocalico Township: 3 deaths

East Hempfield Township: 9 deaths

East Lampeter Township: 1 death

Ephrata Township: 1 death

City of Lancaster: 3 deaths

Lancaster Township: 96 deaths

Lititz: 9 deaths

Manheim Township: 35 deaths

New Holland: 2 deaths

Paradise Township: 1 death

Penn Township: 4 deaths

Providence Township: 1 death

Rapho Township: 5 deaths

Salisbury Township: 1 death

Warwick Township: 2 deaths

Three non-residents also passed away in Lancaster County.

Lawrence County

67 positive cases and 810 negative results with 7 deaths.

Lebanon County

766 positive cases and 2,880 negative results with 15 deaths.

Lehigh County

2,999 positive cases and 7,828 negative results with 94 deaths.

Luzerne County

2,280 positive cases and 5,684 negative results with 104 deaths.

Lycoming County

86 positive cases and 1,253 negative results with 4 deaths.

McKean County

6 positive cases and 194 negative results.

Mercer County

67 positive cases and 817 negative results with 1 death.

Mifflin County

42 positive cases and 757 negative results.

Monroe County

1,186 positive cases and 2,978 negative results with 60 deaths.

Montgomery County

4,687 positive cases and 18,738 negative results with 443 deaths.

Montour County

50 positive cases and 2,970 negative results.

Northampton County

2,279 positive cases and 6,853 negative results with 117 deaths.

Northumberland County

107 positive cases and 683 negative results.

Perry County

34 positive cases and 289 negative results with 1 death.

Philadelphia County

13,563 positive cases and 31,631 negative results with 627 deaths.

Pike County

412 positive cases and 1,365 negative results with 17 deaths.

Potter County

4 positive cases and 88 negative results.

Schuylkill County

109 positive cases and 586 negative results with 5 deaths.

Snyder County

33 positive cases and 234 negative results with 1 death.

Somerset County

30 positive cases and 705 negative results with 1 death.

Sullivan County

1 positive cases and 41 negative results.

Susquehanna County

86 positive cases and 338 negative results with 11 deaths.

Tioga County

16 positive cases and 272 negative results with 1 death.

Union County

38 positive cases and 601 negative results with 1 death.

Venango County

7 positive cases and 269 negative results.

Warren County

1 positive cases and 190 negative results.

Washington County

120 positive cases and 2,364 negative results with 2 deaths.

Wayne County

109 positive cases and 586 negative results with 5 deaths.

Westmoreland County

405 positive cases and 5,094 negative results with 27 deaths.

Wyoming County

27 positive cases and 199 negative results with 2 deaths.

York County

716 positive cases and 7,846 negative results with 11 deaths.

This data is compiled from the Pa. Department of Health. The state will not be providing recovery data at this time.

Several counties have released their own data maps. Information reported at the county level may not be consistent with the state numbers. Those counties include:

Some medical systems have begun releasing discharge data. Those medical systems include:

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.
Africas top oil producer cut its budget for a second time this year; it expects to earn far less oil revenue in 2020.

Nigerias economy is projected to contract by 3.4 percent this year, government officials said on Tuesday, as dwindling oil revenues and the new coronavirus forced it to cut budget plans for a second time. The West African nation was assuming a lower petroleum price of $20 per barrel.

Nigeria, which emerged from a recession in 2017, was already contending with low growth of about 2 percent before oil prices plummeted. Africas top oil exporter relies on crude oil sales for about 90 percent of foreign exchange earnings and more than half of government revenue.

With global oil prices plunging, Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said in March that this years record 10.59 trillion naira ($29.42bn) budget would be cut by about 15 percent.

At the time, she said the initial assumed oil price of $57 a barrel would be reduced to a worst-case scenario of $30 a barrel.

But on Tuesday, she said that benchmark would again have to be revised down.

We are in the process of an amendment that is bringing down the revenue indicator to $20 per barrel, Ahmed said in a web conference about the impact of low oil prices on the country.

Budget revisions need to be approved by legislators before being signed into law by the president.

Ahmed also said Nigerian oil and gas projects would be delivered much later than originally planned due to upstream budget cuts.

Nigerias economy has been battered by low oil prices following a dispute between Russia and Saudi Arabia.

It also plans to cut oil production to 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd), from the 2.1 million bpd initially proposed in the budget, under an agreement brokered by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Ben Akabueze, budget office director-general, said oil revenues were expected to fall by more than 80 percent. He said the government had revised its projections and expected the economy to contract by 3.4 percent this year compared with its previous expectation that it would grow by 2.9 percent.

Nigeria would speed up marginal field licensing and oil mining licence renewals to try to raise revenues, Akabueze said.

The government officials on the call discussed the issue of Nigerias debt servicing costs, a week after the country shelved plans to borrow 850 billion naira ($2.36bn) from international markets and instead tap domestic markets to finance the budget.

The finance minister said Nigeria is in talks to defer debt service obligations to 2021 and beyond.

Its not debt forgiveness, its just rescheduling of our obligations, said Ahmed, with regards to talks with lenders.

She did not provide details of the lenders with whom talks were held. Ahmed said Nigeria was spending approximately 58 percent to 60 percent of revenues to service debt, which was responsible for the request.

And the budget office director-general said debt servicing costs were expected to rise by 200 billion naira in 2020.

The effect of low oil prices has been compounded by shockwaves caused by the new coronavirus pandemic.

Africas most populous country recorded its first confirmed coronavirus case in late February. There have been 2,802 recorded cases and 93 deaths out of 200 million inhabitants.

Lockdown restrictions were eased on Monday in Lagos, the countrys economic hub, and the capital, Abuja. It marked the reopening of the economy after more than four weeks of lockdowns  despite the number of confirmed cases having roughly doubled in the last week.
Debjani Dutta By

Express News Service

PUDUCHERRY: Puducherry Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao on Tuesday recommended the reopening of liquor shops in Puducherry when Tasmac shops are opened in Tamil Nadu and suggested a COVID-19 tax on alcohol similar to what Delhi and other states are levying.

Briefing newsmen, Rao said if liquor shops are not opened, it will be difficult to prevent people from Puducherry from going to adjoining states for purchase of liquor. Such a situation has already arisen in Yanam region of the UT, following the opening of liquor shops in adjoining East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh.

This will have adverse effects in combating COVID-19, as the adjoining districts (Villupuram, Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu, East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh and Kannur in Kerala) are in the red zone. Even if 10 percent of the tipplers from the UT of Puducherry go to the adjoining states to get liquor and return, it could lead to the spread of the virus. At the same time, opening liquor shops in all regions of the UT would also enable the government to earn much needed revenue to pay salaries and implement welfare schemes, he said

Further, the minister said COVID-19 has not spread to Puducherry from the Koyambedu market in Chennai, with all the 157 samples testing negative. The traders and their loadmen who go to Koyambedu to get vegetables as well as others who came in contact with them have been tested. Other vegetable vendors in New Bus stand area are being tested today.

After an inspection last evening with Secretary Health, Director, Health and Family Welfare and police officials along the border, he said a lot of people from neighbouring districts are coming here on flimsy grounds. Rao said that the police has been instructed not to permit anyone except those having passes from the District Collector to enter Puducherry.

He said that several patients with simple illnesses from neighbouring districts of Tamil Nadu have been found to be coming in ambulances to Puducherry. The administration has been directed to restrict patients from entering Puducherry, except those requiring emergency care or having serious ailments. If people from the red zones of TN keep on coming to Puducherry, COVID-19 cases here may go up and it may slip from the orange zone into the red zone, he added.

Now, drones would be deployed to keep a watch on the border areas of Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam. There are around 150 such entry points in all the four regions including 82 in Puducherry and these cannot be manned by the police alone. The revenue department would be purchasing 20 to 22 drones for the purpose. However around 125 more drones would be required. Hence it has been suggested that the drone cameras be procured with funds from CMs relief fund, he said.

There are six cases in Puducherry with two from Puducherry, one from Mahe and three from Cuddalore district. Meanwhile, Muthialpet and Thirukkanur has been withdrawn as confinement zones, while Reddiarpalayam and Ariyankuppam remain in the list.
A bitterly partisan debate unfolding on whether more Americans should cast their votes through the mail during a pandemic is provoking online disinformation and conspiracy theories that could undermine trust in the results, even if there are no major problems.

With social distancing guidelines possibly curtailing in-person voting at the polls in November, states are drawing up plans to rely more heavily on a mail-in system that has until now seen only limited use.

Historically, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud through mail-in voting. But social media users are already pushing grandiose theories casting doubt on the method.

President Donald Trump has encouraged the skepticism, saying during a televised briefing that a lot of people cheat with mail-in voting. On Saturday, he tweeted: Don't allow RIGGED ELECTIONS! Justice Department officials are concerned foreign adversaries could exploit any vulnerabilities in the vote-by-mail process, especially since even minor tampering could trigger widespread doubts about the integrity of the vote.

Is it possible, in particular for a foreign actor, to cause enough mischief in the vote-by-mail process to raise a question in the minds of Americans, particularly Americans perhaps whose candidate has lost, that somehow the result of this election is unfair?



Assistant Attorney General John Demers, the department's top national security official, said in describing a key question confronting law enforcement. Several disinformation experts said they have not found evidence yet that foreign actors are covertly pushing a false narrative about mail-in voting.

But a sham social media campaign that feeds existing doubts about the U.S. election process would align with the Kremlin's playbook, said Bret Schafer, a media and digital disinformation fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a Washington think tank.

During the 2016 election, Russia-linked groups polluted American voters' social media feeds with messages about hot-button topics like race relations, gun laws and immigration.

You don't have to hack the vote to hack people's perception of the vulnerability of the vote, he said. All you need to do is to seed enough doubt about the legitimacy of a vote.

Well before the coronavirus upended America's electoral process, federal officials were girding for the prospect of foreign interference in the U.S. election. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security warned in February that Russia could seek to misuse voter registration data and even secretly advise campaigns or candidates, according to documents The Associated Press obtained.

Now, a potential overhaul of how millions of Americans vote could present new vulnerabilities for foreign adversaries to weaponize.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
VANCOUVER, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SHARC International Systems Inc. (CSE:SHRC) (IWIA.F) (INTWF) and its subsidiary SHARC Energy Systems Inc. ("SHARC" or the Company) are pleased to announce it has signed California Hydronics Corporation (CHC) to a Manufacturers Representative Agreement (MRA) to become a representative (Representative) of SHARC products such as the Piranha, Piranha HC and the SHARC system in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Northern California (north of San Luis Obispo/Kern/San Bernadino county lines) and Nevada.



CHC serves the mechanical and plumbing trades industry as a manufacturer representative of hydronic heating/cooling, steam, heat transfer, plumbing and HVAC equipment. Based out of Hayward, California, their 45,000 square-foot facility boasts warehouse and office space and a manufacturing and fabrication facility. They have additional 5,000 square-foot facilities in Rocklin and San Jose, California, and Reno, Nevada. Furthermore, CHC has offices in Vancouver, Seattle and Spokane, Washington, which provides access to business in Oregon, Washington and Montana, as well as offices in Boise, Idaho and Anchorage, Alaska. Finally, through its CHC Pacific division, it markets and sells products for overseas projects, concentrating on Guam, Federated States of Micronesia, South Pacific and US military installations in Japan and South Korea. CHC remains committed to providing the highest level of value and expertise to their partners.

SHARC is excited to add a highly qualified, reputable and long-standing Representative to promote and sell its products in key target markets. CHC is dedicated to actively train and seek product knowledge of SHARC technology in their quest to become an expert in waste water heat recovery. Their commitment is evidenced by the six early stage deals in their pipeline involving SHARC products. As the relationship continues, SHARC and CHC will continue to work together to grow SHARC technology in these massive economic and progressively eco-friendly markets along the Pacific Coast of North America.

Story continues

In July 2019 in Northern California, Berkeley passed the first natural gas in new buildings ban beginning in 2020. Since then, more than 20 other local governments in California have passed similar measures including West Hollywood, San Jose and Santa Monica. This policy change is evidencing the building electrification movement is growing rapidly in the 5th largest economy in the world.

When comparing Piranha to alternative electric hot water equipment, Piranha is significantly more efficient due to its high Co-efficiency of Performance (COP) ranging from 300% to 700% depending on a buildings installation and source inputs. In other words, for every $1 of energy input, the Piranha is able to output $3 to $7 worth of energy providing for superior efficiency and cost savings compared to electric competitors. In jurisdictions where gas is significantly cheaper than electricity, Piranha and its COP provides for a close to break-even scenario. As policy continues to shift towards electrification, SHARC technology is poised to be a big player in the energy retrofit and new build market.

At the beginning of 2020, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan signed an executive order advancing a Green New Deal for the city. The goals in the Green New Deal mirror those in the citys climate action plan . A key element is to transition municipal buildings away from using fossil fuels. All new and substantially altered city-owned buildings will not be able to use fossil fuels such as natural gas for heating, cooling, cooking or other purposes. The Sierra Club stated that the Seattle building sector is already responsible for 35 % of the City of Seattles carbon emissions. It is estimated that 40% of the energy use in multi-family residential buildings is hot water heating that is lost down the drain every day placing Piranha and SHARC systems at the heart of decarbonization efforts and climate action plans across North America and around the world.

CHC operates in some of the most progressive states within the US when it comes to climate change and adjusting policy to enact rapid change and we are ecstatic to partner with SHARC as the electrification movement continues to ramp up, says Mike Petterson, Vice President of Sales and Marketing of CHC. We see the potential of SHARCs product offering and we are happy to secure the ability to market, promote and sell within our territory.

CHCs focus on Hydronics makes their team one of our most qualified team of representatives in North America. Our SHARC design team reports it is a pleasure working with professionals that understand our system so well, says Jodi Guthrie, Director of North American Sales. The addition of a highly regarded manufacturer representatives with long history of operations like CHC provides the expertise in the market that SHARC has needed for years. SHARC technology will become the standard in retrofits and new buildings moving forward.

About SHARC International Systems

SHARC International Systems Inc. is a world leader in thermal heat recovery. SHARC systems recycle thermal energy from wastewater, generating one of the most energy efficient and economical systems for heating, cooling & hot water preheating for commercial, residential and industrial buildings. SHARC is publicly traded in Canada (CSE:SHRC), the United States (INTWF) and Germany (IWIA.F).

Further information about the Company is available on our website at www.sharcenergy.com or under our profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .

About CHC

CHC was founded in 1957 to serve the mechanical trades industry as a manufacturer representative of hydronic heating equipment, steam components, heat transfer equipment and plumbing accessories. In 1970, The FlowTherm Systems division was formed when CHC expanded into the prefabricated equipment space by developing packaged systems that use many of the manufacturer components CHC represents. FlowTherm Systems provides a pre-engineered, packaged product that overcomes partners unique financial, dimensional and timeline constraints. In 1998, FlowTherm Systems received Underwriter Laboratories (UL) approval statusproviding customers the assurance that FlowTherm products are built to rigid specifications and code compliance. FlowTherm Systems has since received IAPMO, NSF/ANSI 61 and approval by the City of Los Angeles.

CHC main California location is in Hayward, California and has more than 45,000 square-foot facility boasting warehouse and office space and a manufacturing and fabrication facility. As they continued to grow, they have added two additional 5,000 square-foot facilities in Rocklin, California, and Reno, Nevada.

Beginning in 2000, the Company began its rapid expansion up the Pacific Coast after acquiring a renowned company in Vancouver, Washington. Columbia Hydronics Company provides access to a large portion of business in Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho and Alaska. They have continued to grow and in 2009, CHC Pacific division was formed, which markets and sells products for overseas projects, concentrating on Guam, Federated States of Micronesia, South Pacific, and US military installations in Japan and South Korea.

In 2011, after 53 years of dedication and hard work, CHC employees purchased the company through an employee stock ownership program (ESOP). We are 100 percent employee-owned. The ESOP helps fund retirement, build accountability, and influence productivity and collaboration.

CHC has expanded to over 150 employees and opened their new office in Vancouver, WA. They remain committed to providing the highest level of value and expertise to our partners.

Further information about the Company is available on their website at www.chchydro.com .

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Lynn Mueller

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact:

Jason Shepherd

SHARC International Systems Inc.

Telephone: (250) 212-2122

Email: jason.shepherd@sharcenergy.com

The Canadian Securities Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "intend", "should", and similar expressions. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. SHARC's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in this forward-looking information as a result of regulatory decisions, competitive factors in the industries in which the Company operates, prevailing economic conditions, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. SHARC believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking information should not be unduly relied upon. Any forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the Company's expectations as of the date hereof, and is subject to change after such date. 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, except as required by applicable securities legislation.
Around 15,000 stranded Indians are expected to be flown back to India in 64 flights in the first week of the governments mammoth exercise to evacuate stranded Indians from abroad, union civil aviation minister Hardeep Puri said Tuesday.

The passengers will be charged for the flights, said Puri, adding it is a commercial service being carried out under special circumstances. The minister said the exchequer does not have the space to pay for repatriation of more than 2,00,000 estimated stranded Indians.

Some of the fares (one way) from the Gulf countries such as Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha to Kochi, Kerala range from Rs 15,000 to Rs 16,000. Rescue flights from London to India will cost Rs 50,000 while flights from the United States to India have been priced at Rs 1,00,000.

If there was no charge, people wanting to come back would be much higher, said the minister.

The first phase of the evacuation will begin from May 7 to May 13, evacuating Indians from 12 countries: the UEA, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Bangladesh, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, United Kingdom and the United States, according to the first weeks flight plan reviewed by Hindustan Times.

India will be evacuating 2,100 citizens from the United States and 2,000 from the UAE in the first week.

For now, only Air India flights - 40 from the national carrier and 24 from its subsidiary Air India express - will be deployed.

We will consider involving private airlines as well going forward, Puri said.

The government on Monday announced it will begin repatriating Indians stranded around the world because of the Covid-19 crisis in phases from May 7 as a sign of relief for hundreds of thousands of Indians stranded abroad since India shut both domestic and international flight operations due to Covid-19.

Swati Arora, 32, a Gurugram-based housewife, said her husband has been stranded in Kuala Lumpur Since February. She is due to deliver her baby by May end and has been requesting authorities for over a month seeking relief.

My husband had gone for a work trip and his business Visa which was issued for 28 days had expired on March 20. We have been constantly requesting the MEA and the embassy but got no response. We have also been tweeting about it tirelessly. I want my husband to be back in time for the delivery. The embassy has contacted him and a group of others stranded there informing that they will have to pay for their tickets and also quarantine facilities, she said.

According to Puri, the requests received by the Indian embassies are increasing by the day and expected to go much higher than the initial estimate.

Initially, we had estimated 190,000-200,000 stranded Indians wishing to come back. As the MEA and state governments considered the number, many more expressed an interest to travel. A comprehensive plan has been drawn out only for those of our citizens who are in foreign countries and who are stranded either because their visas have expired or they are being deported or they went to these countries just before the lockdown for work and need to get back, Puri said.

We are looking at a possible second wave of infections and we need to take the screening and quarantine process very seriously, he added.

A standard operating protocol (SOP) has been prepared for the repatriation, the government has said. Upon arrival passengers will have to fill a self-declaration form.

Medical screening of passengers would be done before they take the flight and only asymptomatic passengers would be allowed to travel. During the journey, all these passengers would have to follow the protocols, such as the health protocols, issued by the ministry of health and the ministry of civil aviation.

On reaching their destination in India, travellers will have to register on the Aarogya Setu app and undergo another medical screening.

After scrutiny, they will be quarantined for 14 days, either in a hospital or in an institutional quarantine on payment-basis, by the concerned state government.

All the necessary protocols, including thermal screening, social distancing, etc, will have to be followed. State governments have to assure us that they have the necessary infrastructure to handle the passengers coming in. They will have to have adequate quarantine facilities including provisions for paid quarantine, Puri said.

India has suspended its domestic and International passenger flights till May 17, there is no clear indication yet from the government on when they may resume.

Decision on domestic and international flight operations still remain to be taken. The services will continue to remain suspended. We will have to do it in a graded manner initially. It is not possible to open the skies at once. We will have to work out a plan by watching the behaviour of the virus and our capacity to deal with operations on ground, he said.

The government has also kept at least a dozen Indian Navy ships and around 30 Indian Air Force aircraft on standby for the mammoth rescue operation as the Centre expects the numbers to increase.

Among the key routes proposed in the first week, 15 flights from seven countries are expected to ferry more than 3,150 passengers to Kerala. At least 150,000 Indians have registered to return with the Indian missions in the UAE alone, with almost a quarter of them citing job losses as the reason for returning home.

Eleven flights are scheduled for Delhi with more than 3,100 passengers, 11 for Tamil Nadu with nearly 2150 passengers. Flights are also scheduled for states, say, Maharashtra, Telangana, Gujarat, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.
The delegation's line-up is approved by the presidential decree signed on May 5

Leonid Kuchma Open source

Leonid Kuchma, the second President of Ukraine, will be leading this country's delegation for negotiations in the Minsk trilateral contact group. The President's Office press department reported that on May 5, as President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the respective decree.

"President of Ukraine (...) has approved the line-up of the delegation of Ukraine for participation in the trilateral contact group for a peaceful solution of the situation in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The head of the state signed the decree on May 5," says the message.

Oleksiy Reznikov, the Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Reintegration of the temporarily occupied areas, will become Kuchma's deputy. Oleksandr Merezhko, the Head of Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs and Interparliamentary Cooperation will also serve as deputy head of the delegation.

The delegation also includes Yulia Svyrydenko, the Deputy Economy Minister; Deputy Defense Minister Oleksandr Polishchuk; Deputy Head of the Parliamentary Committee for Legal Policy Andriy Kostin, and Halyna Tretyakova, Deputy Head of the Committee for Social Policy and Protection of Veterans Rights.

The next session of the Minsk trilateral contact group is supposed to take place on May 14. The working subgroups will hold a meeting several days before that.
This is the frightening moment a bridge with heavy traffic moved up and down like waves after reportedly being hit by high winds.

Shocking footage shows the Humen Bridge, which spans across the Pearl River in southern Chinese province Guangdong, shaking dramatically while being jam-packed by cars.

Local authorities have temporarily shut down the traffic link. They said the structure wobbled after being hit by whirlwinds, according to the press.

Local authorities have temporarily shut down the pathway and said that the wobbly bridge was a result of its structure being hit by whirlwinds, according to the press

Social media footage showed the surface of Humen Bridge moving up and down while long queues of cars were travelling on it on Tuesday afternoon.

Chinese web users who claimed to have been on the bridge today described the experience as 'terrifying'.

One commenter recalled: 'I just drove through it at about 1pm. [It was] moving up and down. My car wasn't even touching the ground.'

Another wrote: 'It made me feel carsick. It was terrifying.'

Guangdong police shut down the bridge at 3:32pm local time following the incident, an official statement said.

Officials explained to the press that the shaking bridge was a result of its structure being slammed by swirls of high winds.

The wind speed in the area of the Humen Bridge between 3-5pm today was measured to be up to 38 mph, a phenomenon described by the local press as 'very rare'.

This is the frightening moment a bridge with bustling traffic in China is caught on camera today bouncing up and down like waves

An architecture expert said that suspension bridges, such as the Humen Bridge, were designed to be flexible.

'The [bridge] moving up and down is normal when it can be observed with naked eyes,' Fang Zheng, a professor from Wuhan University, told the Beijing News. 'Within a certain range, it will not affect the safety of driving.'

An initial examination from the authorities suggested that the Humen Bridge remained undamaged. But a further inspection is being carried out by local authorities, reports say.
PORTLAND, Ore., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Charter school leaders will learn how to create contingencies and a safety net for the new school year in " Preparing for Fall Deferrals, Delays, and Reductions ," a free webinar on Tuesday, May 12 at 9 a.m. PDT. The webinar is hosted by Charter School Capital , the largest national services provider exclusively focused on charter schools and the students they serve.

"Reduced tax revenues across the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic will impact charter schools as early as this summer and fall," said Stuart Ellis, president and CEO of Charter School Capital. "As charter schools face near-certain deferrals, delays and reductions in state payments, we are prepared to help them not just survive, but thrive. We're pleased to provide the greater charter school community with sage advice from established experts, along with funds to help charter programs continue to flourish during this challenging time."

Presenters of "Preparing for Fall Deferrals, Delays, and Reductions" include:

Nathan Barrett , Ph.D. senior director of research and evaluation for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and recent author of What ChartersNeed to Know: Acting During the Impending Fiscal Downturn

, Ph.D. senior director of research and evaluation for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and recent author of Ricardo Mireles , executive director of Academia Avance, and a charter school veteran who led his school through the Great Recession

, executive director of Academia Avance, and a charter school veteran who led his school through the Great Recession Moderator, Tricia Blum , vice president of business services for Charter School Capital

Webinar participants will be able to ask questions in advance and during the session. Registration is available at this link .

"This is a tremendous collective learning moment," said Mireles. "Together as students, teachers, staff and parents we must learn from each other so that we can adapt and overcome all the impacts of this coronavirus."

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].

SOURCE Charter School Capital

Related Links

http://www.charterschoolcapital.org


Elon Musk is known for his Tesla innovations as well as his hopes and dreams with SpaceX. But he has quite a past when it comes to his relationships. Currently, hes dating tech-pop musician Grimes, and they just welcomed a baby into the world on May 4. But this is far from his first public romance. Musk has been married twice, and hes also dated superstars like Amber Heard. But its his first wife whos really spoken out about her divorce.

Musk has painted himself as a romantic with aspirations of finding a soulmate. So, what happened with Justine Wilson, the first woman he married? According to Wilson, it wasnt all sunshine and rainbows in their marriage.

Elon Musk said he cant stand being alone

Elon Musk and Grimes attend the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Jason Kempin/Getty Images

While Musk has more money than hed ever personally need, its true that money cant buy happiness. And it seems he fears loneliness more than anything else.

During an interview with Rolling Stone in 2017, he got more personal than he usually does with the interviewer  and he even asked the interviewer if they knew of anyone he should date. Im looking for a long-term relationship. Im not looking for a one-night stand, Musk said. Im looking for a serious companion or soulmate, that kind of thing.

While the interview took place right after his breakup with Amber Heard, he also added, If Im not in love, if Im not with a long-term companion, I cannot be happy. And he then noted, Going to sleep alone kills me.

Its not like I dont know what that feels like: Being in a big empty house, and the footsteps echoing through the hallway, no one there  and no one on the pillow next to you, Musk said. How do you make yourself happy in a situation like that?

Musk married Justine Wilson in January 2000, and they had five children together

Elon Musk, Founder and Chief Engineer of SpaceX, speaks during the Satellite 2020 Conference | Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

While Musk felt heartbroken by his breakup with Heard, this wasnt his first high-profile breakup. He had a complicated relationship with actress Talulah Riley, and they ended up marrying twice. But it was Musks relationship with his first wife, Justine Wilson, that got a lot of attention.

Wilson met Musk during her first year of studying at Queens University in Ontario, Canada, she wrote for Marie Claire. She noted Musk was a year ahead of her, and he pursued her after seeing her from across the room in their dorm common area. While they initially pursued a relationship, it wasnt too serious, as they went their separate ways after college. Wilson went to Japan for a year before returning to Canada. But she knew she still had feelings for her ex. Once he called her, the rest was history.

The two married in January 2000, and Musk was starting to attain more and more wealth. They ended up having five children together  twins and triplets  after the death of their first son. But it certainly wasnt perfect, as the dynamic between them started to change.

Wilson said there was a growing void between her and Musk

Elon Musk and actress Talulah Riley | Scott Olson/Getty Images

So, what happened with Wilson and Musk? While they seemed like the perfect match, Wilson wrote for her Marie Claire piece that Musk acted like the alpha instead of her equal, and he delved deep into his work.

It was a dream lifestyle, privileged and surreal. But the whirlwind of glitter couldnt disguise a growing void at the core, she wrote. Elon was obsessed with his work: When he was home, his mind was elsewhere. I longed for deep and heartfelt conversations, for intimacy and empathy.

A little over a month after marriage counseling, Musk served Wilson with divorce papers. The two are estranged now, but Wilson noted she got along well with Talulah Riley, the actress Musk was engaged to just six weeks after the divorce papers were delivered.

Business Insider notes Riley and Musk remain on good terms after their multiple marriage failures (they tied the knot in 2010 and again in 2013). But they still couldnt make their relationship work.

Well have to wait and see if Musk plans on tying the knot with Grimes  or if Wilson will ever meet Musks newborn baby.

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Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - The chairman of the commission in charge of the coronavirus pandemic, Alexis Elira Dokekia, Tuesday announced that Covid-Organics would be administered freely to persons infected by the coronavirus (Covid-19) under medical supervision in health centers selected by the government
Jerry Lara/San Antonio Express-News

SAN ANTONIO  Silver Eagle Beverages, one of the nations largest Anheuser-Busch wholesalers, and its chairman and CEO John L Nau III announced Monday they are making donations of $50,000 to the San Antonio Food Bank and $10,000 to the South Texas Food Bank.

The employees of Silver Eagle, along with John Nau, have been longtime neighbors and partners of the Food Bank, San Antonio Food Bank president and CEO Eric Cooper said. Helping us set the table for those needing help for the first time is an example of the character and charity of this outstanding corporate partner. We are so grateful and humble for the support.
The roles of leaders and their leadership have taken front and center in the lives Americans. The media along with lawmakers have praised the courage and work that leaders have undertaken to mitigate the spread of Covid-19. There are leaders in the medical field, leaders within the administrations of government, and leaders within the ranks of the military. Leader is a title given to an authoritative figure. In the German language the translation of leader is Fuhrer.

Our form of government is a Constitutional Republic, with three coequal branch of government; the executive branch, the judicial branch, and the legislative branch. Each branch of government is limited in its authority and power by the Constitution. Our founders while drafting the Constitution understood the importance for the separation of powers. The founders never wrote about leaders or leadership because they understood leaders dictate policy, and leadership is undemocratic.

Idahos legislators ended the 2020 session prematurely over fears of the spreading Covid-19 virus. The legislators passed their responsibilities onto the executive branch of government and its administrations. Idahos legislators abdicated their Constitutional responsibilities and have abandoned their constituency during this time of crisis. Idaho citizens have been left to fend for themselves, without a voice, because they lack representation.

The provisions within the Stay at Home Orders should have been discussed and debated by the legislature. Committees should have been created, and hearings held with testifying subject matter experts. Representatives should have been drafting legislation to support the governor, while representing the people, and preserving the Constitution.

We have placed leaders on pedestals and have allowed them to dictate policy which undermines the very founding principles of this nation, and circumvents its democratic processes. The people dont need leaders, we need representation. We need our representative to get back to work.

David Leavitt

Twin Falls

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"Although that plant is in Saline County, we have many Lancaster County community members who work there and who carpool to and from work," Lopez said. "That increases the opportunity for contact."

She discouraged carpooling for people who don't live in the same household to reduce the risk of infection.

The department has identified 123 Lancaster County cases  31% of the total Lincoln-area cases  that are related to the Smithfield plant, she said. Of those, 71 are employees, 35 are family members or close contacts and 17 are still being investigated.

The Lincoln Smithfield plant has seven positive cases  four employees and three family members or close contacts.

The difference in the two plants, Lopez said, is that the Lincoln facility has 400 employees and the one in Crete has 2,100 employees. She was not familiar with the Crete plant's protocols, but has worked with the Lincoln plant and said it has done a great deal of work to protect its vulnerable employees.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 20:24:08|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, May 5 (Xinhua) -- More COVID-19 cases and deaths were reported Tuesday in Asia-Pacific, with Bangladesh reporting its highest daily rise of 786 cases and India reporting 179 new deaths, infections in Indonesia also surpassed 12,000.

Bangladesh confirmed 786 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, the highest daily rise since the start of the pandemic in the country on March 8, bringing the total to nearly 11,000.

Nasima Sultana, a senior health ministry official, told an online press conference that "786 new COVID-19 positive cases and death of a youth were reported in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh."

"The total number of positive cases is now 10,929 and the death toll stands currently at 183," she added.

India's federal health ministry Tuesday morning said 179 new deaths due to COVID-19, besides fresh 3,597 positive cases, were reported since Monday evening in the country, taking the number of deaths to 1,568 and total cases to 46,433.

"As on 8:00 a.m. (local time) Tuesday, 1,568 deaths related to novel coronavirus have been recorded in the country," the ministry's statement said.

The Indonesian government on Tuesday announced 484 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections in the archipelagic country to 12,071.

There are also eight new deaths, taking the total number of fatalities to 872, the government's spokesperson for the COVID-19-related matters Achmad Yurianto said at a press conference.

The number of COVID-19 positive cases in Afghanistan has risen to 3,224 as 320 new positive cases have been registered over the past 24 hours, Public Health Ministry spokesman Wahidullah Mayar said Tuesday.

Mayar also said that five patients have died due to COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the number of COVID-19 related deaths to 95 since the outbreak of the disease in February.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines rose by 199 on Tuesday to a total of 9,684 cases of infections.

The Department of Health (DOH) reported 14 new deaths. The country's COVID-19 death toll now has reached 637.

The DOH said 173, or 87 percent of the daily cases, were reported in Metro Manila, one case, or 0.5 percent, from the Central Visayas region in the central Philippines, while 25 or 12.5 percent from other parts of the country.

South Korea reported three more cases of the COVID-19 compared to 24 hours ago as of 0:00 a.m. Tuesday local time, raising the total number of infections to 10,804.

It was the lowest daily increase in 77 days since Feb. 18. The daily caseload hovered below 20 for 18 straight days.

All the new cases were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 1,102. The domestic infection logged zero for the second consecutive day.

Two more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 254. The total fatality rate stood at 2.35 percent.

Tuesday saw for the first time in Thailand to report only one new case of COVID-19, since the outbreak of the virus since January, with no new fatalities.

The total number of cases now stand at 2,988, with seven more recoveries, bringing the total to 2,747, while the death toll remains at 54.

A total of 187 are still being treated in hospitals.

New Zealand reported no new COVID-19 case over the past 24 hours for two consecutive days, which was "very encouraging", Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said on Tuesday.

The country announced Tuesday that the State of National Emergency to support the COVID-19 response will be extended for a sixth time, for a further seven days.

New Zealand and Australia were committed to introducing a trans-Tasman COVID-safe travel zone as soon as it was safe to do so, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her Australian counterpart Scott Morrison said on Tuesday.

The prime ministers agreed to commence work on a trans-Tasman COVID-safe travel zone, easing travel restrictions between Australia and New Zealand. Such an arrangement would be put in place once it was safe to do so and necessary health, transport and other protocols had been developed and met to ensure the protection of public health, said a statement released by the New Zealand government.

This arrangement recognized that Australia and New Zealand were both successfully addressing the spread of COVID-19. Any arrangement would need to take into account state and territory movement restrictions, it said.

The Australian government has committed 352 million Australian dollars (about 226 million U.S. dollars) towards the global effort to fight COVID-19 and to find a vaccine.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison pledged the funding in a video message to the Coronavirus Global Response International Pledging Event on Monday night local time.

"We're very pleased to be part of this important event today, and I want to thank the European Commission for bringing us all together for this important purpose," Morrison said in his message. Enditem
Nearly two months ago the Department of Homeland Securitys own medical experts warned that the continued jailing of immigrants during the COVID-19 pandemic would put all of us in danger.

The doctors wrote to Representatives Mike Rogers (R-Alabama) and Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi) of the House Committee on Homeland Security that our system of immigration detention is "a frighteningly efficient mechanism for rapid spread of the virus to otherwise remote areas of the country."

As Jonece Starr Dunigan reported this week, the Birmingham-based Adelante Alabama Worker Center and other groups have filed a lawsuit requesting emergency action for 18 vulnerable ICE detainees incarcerated at the Etowah County Detention Center in Gadsden.

Williams v. Horton alleges that the Etowah jail, contrary to claims by ICE, continues to transfer ICE and non-ICE inmates with inadequate screening.

According to the suit, the facility has adopted measures which include crowding the entire ICE population of over 100 detainees into a single housing unit within the jail, and using a fogger machine to spray disinfectant throughout the housing units."

These actions are in direct contravention of public health experts recommendations, the suit states.

In fact, substandard medical care at Etowah and egregious violations" by ICE of its own detention center medical standards are the norm, as government watchdog and human rights reports have long shown. The agencys malfeasance has been even more apparent during infectious disease outbreaks.

The 18 people named in Williams v. Horton have proposed various solutions. One option is immediate release or placement in community-based alternatives to detention, monitored by ICE and with appropriate precautionary public health measures. A second possibility is that the detention center and ICE submit a coronavirus mitigation plan overseen by a qualified public health expert.

Any of these choices would also protect ICE and jail employees, as well as the greater Gadsden and Etowah communities. So why will the government spend your money fighting the suit in court?

It will do so for the same reason it has gone to court for decades to fight humanitarian releases, and for the same reason it is fighting right now in courts around the country: ICE always defends its ability to operate a detention regime without restraint or accountability, consequences be damned.

As of May 5th, ICE has acknowledged one COVID-19 case at Etowah. But although only 1,073 ICE detainees nationwide have been tested, nearly half -- 522 --- of those have tested positive.

The agency is now exporting the virus to countries throughout the region, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in a new report about ICE's ongoing deportation flights.

More than half of ICEs approximately 30,000 detainees have no criminal convictions. Besides, former ICE director John Sandweg, urging emergency releases, said in late March that only a small percentage [of detainees] pose any public safety threat. More than 5,000 of those detained are asylum-seekers who have already established claims of persecution or torture in their home countries.

A separate suit, Tamayo Espinoza v. Witte, has been brought on behalf of detained people at the Adams County Correctional Center in Natchez (MS), an ICE jail owned and operated by CoreCivic.

ICE has argued in court that detainee fears of COVID-19 are "hypothetical" and "conjectural" because (in reference to Adams, Etowah, and three Louisiana jails) the agency had "established that there are no current cases of COVID-19 in the five detention facilities." A few weeks later, ICE has reported 92 confirmed detainee cases in those jails, 14 of them at Adams County.

No surprise. Adams County detainees recently told the group Freedom for Immigrants that they must purchase soap and hygiene products from the jail's commissary. They also reported being told to stay 6 feet apart but its really crowded in the showers so its impossible to do that.

Over years of reporting on ICE, I've learned that it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish the agency's incompetence from its intentional brutality. Standard operating procedure is often a combination of these. The consistent disinformation from ICE officials makes the challenge even tougher.

For example, an ICE spokesperson told The Miami Herald that the agency is not responsible for reporting COVID-19 cases among its contract detention employees, such as those at Adams County, even though ICE holds more than 80 percent of its prisoners in contract facilities. A magistrate judge has now ordered the agency to report third-party employee COVID-19 cases, but the ruling is limited to certain Florida lock-ups.

In Fraihat vs. ICE, a class-action suit that includes evidence from dozens of detention centers, including Etowah, a judge wrote that ICE has likely exhibited callous indifference to the safety and wellbeing of those in its custody. He added that the evidence suggests systemwide inaction that goes beyond a mere difference of medical opinion or negligence.

Meanwhile ICE continues to make thousands upon thousands of arrests. Back in March, ICEs acting director had announced that the agency would 'exercise discretion to delay enforcement actions until after the crisis or utilize alternatives to detention,' but there was immediate political backlash from The White House, Politico reported.

Political capital plus revenue make a powerful combination.

Etowah Sheriff Jonathon Horton told Birminghams WBRC last year, 'The jobs is what we do it for . . . I would hate to see 49 people lose their jobs.'

As for the private prison companies, Adams County Correctional is ranked 10th among the agencys largest immigration prisons for those awaiting hearings. All 10 of those are for-profit operations, run by the GEO Group and the Louisiana-based LaSalle Corrections, in addition to CoreCivic. Never mind that its cheaper for taxpayers when detainees are released and monitored. The judge in Fraihat noted that facilities are unlikely to take independent or decisive action given the economic imperative to maintaining full capacity.

Not long ago it would have seemed counter-intuitive, but sheriffs, prosecutors, governors, and judges have been finding ways to release prisoners in the interest of public safety. Though some readers will be surprised, and others will refuse to admit it, ICEs priority has never been the safety of communities, or even of its employees -- much less of those detainees.

The Trump administration is trying desperately to maintain its anti-immigrant agenda in the hopes of re-election. Regardless of political views, local residents must continue to pressure their officials to take a stand against the real dangers posed by the Trump agenda and its ICE enforcers.

###

Mark Dow is the author of American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons. On May 6, he will particpate in an online panel, Immigrant Detention in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, and the Covid-19 Pandemic, sponsored by the Center for Migration Studies.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5

Trend:

Military units of the armed forces of Armenia violated ceasefire 24 times throughout the day in various direction of the front, using large-caliber machine guns and sniper rifles, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.

Armenian armed forces, located in Aygedzor village of Berd region and on nameless hills in Krasnoselsk region subjected to fire the positions of the Azerbaijan Army located in Munjuglu village of Tovuz region, in Zamanly village and on nameless hills in Gadabay region.

The positions of Azerbaijan Army were also fired from the positions of Armenian military units located near the occupied Garakhanbayli, Horadiz villages of Fuzuli region, as well as from the positions located on nameless hills in Goranboy and Terter regions.
Like many students across the world, youve most likely been making the shift from in-person to online classes. This transition may be a little daunting, especially if youve never taken an online class before. As someone who switched to virtual learning almost three years ago, I remember that feeling. Over time, I developed the following five strategies to become successful.

Make Yourself Comfortable

While there are some disadvantages to online learning, the fact that you get to set up your study space is a plus. If it helps you concentrate, turn on some music. Do school work from the comfort of your favorite chair or from your bed! Make some snacks, whatever you need to feel relaxed and ready to work.

Limit Distractions

One of the biggest struggles of doing school from home is that it requires a lot of self-motivation. Instead of going to class at specific times, you can do your work wherever you want. Its hard to make yourself do school work if you are surrounded by things and people vying for your attention.

Make sure that your workspace is designed to limit those distractions as much as possible. Close the door to your room. Tell everyone in your house, Im going to work on my English class now, please dont interrupt me.

More disruptive are self-created distractions. Maybe right as you turn on your computer, you notice your room is messy and you must clean it. Keeping your room tidy, turning your phone on airplane mode, turning off social media notifications, and closing your email tab are all ways to limit distractions. Also, keep school supplies within reach. Even a 30-second distraction to dig your calculator out of your backpack can be disruptive.

Figure Out When Things Are Due and Plan Accordingly

When youre taking five classes at once, it can be challenging to know which one to start on. The first thing you should do is create a calendar of when all of your assignments are due that week. Some distancing-learning websites, such as Canvas, have a calendar built with all your due dates, which is a good starting place.

If your distancing learning site does not have this, youll need to create one from scratch. Look at the syllabus for your classes and figure out what is due when. Then look at all the assignments for the next week and carefully read the instructions. Some might have multiple parts, such as write your answer to the discussion question by Sunday and respond to someone elses response by Wednesday. Both parts should be added to your calendar. Most built-in calendars will only have the final due date. The times the assignments are due should also be included. Most will probably be due by midnight, but not all. I have found that different classes nearly always have things due on different days. Therefore, assignment due dates for your different classes will be spread out across the week. While some days might have more due than other days, seeing it all laid out should give you a good idea of what to work on each day. While this may be time-consuming for the first few weeks, eventually you will get a good feel for what is due when and follow a similar pattern every week.

Dont Cut Corners

Since it is impossible to monitor students as closely with distancing learning, it can be hard to resist the temptation to not do everything required. If I can use the internet on my phone during a test, why would I take notes? Maybe I can watch Netflix and my teachers lecture at the same time? Why would I read all of the supporting documents if I only have to respond to one? This may work as a short-term strategy, but probably not in the long-run. Perhaps, while you have unlimited time on the quizzes, on the test itself you will not have the time to look up every answer. Maybe your lack of knowledge will show on a written assignment. At some point, cutting corners will reflect on your grades and by then it will take more effort to catch up than it would have if you hadnt cut corners.

Dont Be Afraid to Ask for Help

Since you might not even see your professors face for the duration of the semester, it can be hard to remember that there is an actual person teaching you. Throughout the school year problems and confusion are bound to occur. If you misunderstand an important concept early in the year because something wasnt worded clearly, that class can start making about as much sense as ancient Greek.

If youre unsure about something or arent certain about the exact requirements of an assignment, its much better to ask your teacher than have your grades suffer. Just like in an in-person class, your teacher will be happy to help and most respond in a timely manner. They can even help with issues such as turning in an assignment late or technical difficulties. If youve avoided cutting corners and they know you are an honest student, theyll be willing to work with you any way they can.

Sapphire Courter is currently a business major at Butte College in California. She has been doing all of her studies online since the beginning of the school year.
REGINA - Kara Firman should be able open her Saskatoon hair salon in two weeks, but right now she says she won't.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 5/5/2020 (623 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In this Tuesday, April 28, 2020, photo, Pornsupa Hattayong, left, and volunteers of hairdressers give haircuts to medical workers treating COVID-19 patients at Bangkok Metropolitan Administration General Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. Under Saskatchewan's relaxed COVID-19 restrictions, personal protective equipment is required salons, registered massage therapists and acupuncturists want to begin serving customers again on May 19. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Sakchai Lalit

REGINA - Kara Firman should be able open her Saskatoon hair salon in two weeks, but right now she says she won't.

Under Saskatchewan's relaxed COVID-19 restrictions, personal protective equipment is required if salons, registered massage therapists and acupuncturists want to begin serving customers again on May 19.

But Firman wants more specific guidelines about how to use it.

"I just want to see added actual clear information on (personal protective equipment), because we aren't trained in our industry on doffing, donning, disposal, using this properly," Firman said.

Its just very, very, very vague and thats concerning for our stylists.

As Saskatchewan starts to relaunch its economy and employers start to open doors, questions are emerging about the supply of personal protective equipment and how to use it.

Health offices were allowed to open in Saskatchewan on Monday, though provincial Health Minister Jim Reiter has said it was clear some wouldn't until they had enough gloves, masks and gowns required for them to see patients.

Saskatchewan said it has a business response team to answer questions from reopening business.

Hair stylists, such as Firman, should wear procedural or surgical masks, eye protection and aprons.

But Firman said she's received differing answers from the government and wants to know exactly what kind of masks should be worn in a salon and by whom.

Darlene Mitchell, who runs a home-based salon in Regina, said she too sought guidance on how to use protective equipment. She eventually turned for help from a friend who teaches about personal protective gear.

We need more information," Mitchell said. If the goal is protecting people, why wasn't that put out first and foremost?

In a statement to The Canadian Press, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Trade and Export Development pointed to additional online resources employers can reference for specifics about the equipment.

Mitchell and Firman are also worried about purchasing safety items like masks because of reported shortages in health-care fields.

Dr. Sandy Buchman, president of the Canadian Medical Association, said he too is concerned with more sectors looking to acquire personal protective equipment. That could place additional pressure on supplies.

"If we do open up too early, we will be competing for that same limited supply."

The association recently released a survey of about 2,500 doctors suggesting many are still anxious about the availability of masks, gloves and gowns and feel divided about whether the supply has improved.

"Theres confusing messaging coming or no messaging at all, so were not getting a clear idea from government as to what (personal protective equipment) is in the pipeline, when will it arrive, how much is coming," Buchman said.

He said there could be resentment if front-line health workers feel they don't have an adequate stock and other sectors are using it.

In a statement, Health Canada said the provision of protective equipment for health-care workers is mainly up to provinces. The federal government has helped with bulk procurement and domestic production of certain items.

Ontario has published more than 60 guidelines for employers to follow.

"Medical masks should be reserved for health-care workers," said the Ontario Ministry of Labour, adding cloth masks could be considered instead.

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.

Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses CEO Dan Kelly said governments have a role in helping businesses source goods when there are requirements.

Kelly said he is optimistic. Supply chains seem to be delivering more personal protective equipment for the country's health-care workers.

"We need to obviously do more than that and ensure that we can supply not just the emergency services, but the economy more broadly."

Firman, who works with seven other stylists, also wants to ensure that once open, she has an adequate supply of items such as masks and eye protection to stay open.

"As everythings opening and as all these industries need it, then all of a sudden if I cant get it, and then I have to shut down again  thats a huge concern."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2020.
Dubai Police has partnered with Etisalat to launch an initiative providing Etisalat customers in the UAE with free access to Dubai Polices website and mobile application without consuming internet data.

In addition to Dubai Polices website and mobile app, Etisalat customers can access other online services available for individuals, establishments and visitors, upload or download data, without consuming their internet data. The three-month initiative began on April 15.

The initiative reflects Dubai Police efforts in maintaining the security and safety during the current circumstances, allowing the public to utilise Dubai Polices online services. This collaboration supports Police Eye, a programme launched recently by Dubai Police which provides the public with a secure and confidential online platform to report crimes and suspicious activities in the city.

Brigadier Jamal Salem Al Jalaf, Director of the General Department of Criminal Investigation (CID) at Dubai Police, said that maintaining safety and security is a mutual commitment and a national obligation that all parties must participate.

Based on our confidence in the publics cooperation with the police which establishes safety and stability, we have facilitated the public with the ability to report any violations or disturbing crimes through a new service called Police Eye. This programme enables individuals to easily report various security violations such as suspicious gatherings, suspicious vehicles, begging, massage cards, and other illegal practices, said Brigadier Al Jalaf.

Police Eye also allows reporting violations related to precautionary measures taken to combat Covid-19such as failure to wear face masks and not keeping a safe distance etc. In view of this partnership, Etisalat subscribers can upload pictures and videos of any misbehaviour or violation and report to the police without consuming their own internet packages.

Brigadier Khalid Nasser Al Razooqi, Director of the General Department of Artificial Intelligence at Dubai Police, welcomed this partnership with Etisalat, stating: This initiative clearly indicates the collaboration of various government and private entities to fulfill consumers needs and ensure their safety especially under the current circumstances. Police Eye is among the many services offered to the public through smart application and website, such as emergency response service, reporting of e-crimes, reporting bounced cheques, and applying for a police clearance certificate. We encourage the public to take advantage of this initiative and conduct their transactions using the smart services from the comfort of their houses to maintain their safety and the welfare of the community.

Abdulla Ebrahim Al Ahmed, senior vice president, Government Sales, Etisalat, said: During these difficult times, Etisalat is committed to support all sectors in the UAE and to participate - with its technical teams and digital capabilities  in government initiatives that gives them an opportunity to serve the community. We at Etisalat are proud to collaborate with Dubai Police by deploying our extensive network to contribute in the security and safety of the community in line with the Dubai governments objective of making the city the safest in the world.

Dubai Polices mobile application is available for download on Android and iOS app stores and supports seven international languages, namely English, French, Chinese, German, Russian, Spanish and Arabic. - TradeArabia News Service
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has defended his promotion of the Control of Infectious Diseases Bill, arguing that its content and timing was appropriate.

He also pledged that there would be a public hearing where Nigerians would be given the opportunity to contribute to the draft law.

The speaker made this known at the beginning of plenary on Tuesday. He said the bill was conceived in the best interest of the Nigerian people and no one else.

Many Nigerians had rejected a move by the House of Representatives to repeal the Quarantine Act and replace it with the Control of Infectious Diseases Bill.

READ ALSO:

The bill, which scaled second reading before it was stood down last week, has 82 sections.

Sponsored by the speaker, the bill seeks to strengthen the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and make it more proactive and not just reactive and function when there is an outbreak.

The bill seeks to empower the president, the minister of health as well as the director-general of NCDC, and the institutions they head, to make regulations on quarantining, vaccination and prevention of infectious diseases in Nigeria.

The Defence

On Tuesday, Mr Gbajabiamila said the allegation that the bill is a sinister attempt to turn Nigerians into guinea pigs for medical research while taking away their fundamental human rights was far from the truth.

He said since the introduction of the bill a week ago, there has been a barrage of criticisms against it, with allegations of sinister motives.

However, the speaker said, as representatives of the Nigerian people, members of the House would never contemplate doing anything that would jeopardise the wellbeing of the citizens.

Suffice it to say that none of these allegations are true. Unfortunately, we now live in a time when conspiracy theories have gained such currency that genuine endeavours in the public interest can quickly become mischaracterised and misconstrued to raise the spectre of sinister intent and ominous possibility.

This House of Representatives will never take any action that purposes to bring harm to any Nigerian here at home or abroad. As we have thus far shown by our conduct, the resolutions and actions we take in this 9th House of Representatives will always be in the best interests of the Nigerian people who elected us, and no one else.

In the recent uproar, certain fundamental truths have been lost and are worth remembering. Our current framework for the prevention and management of infectious diseases is obsolete and no longer fit for purpose. The current law severely constrains the ability of the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to take proactive action to prevent the entry into Nigeria of infectious diseases and the management of public health emergencies when they occur.

Even now, the government remains vulnerable to claims that some directives already being implemented to manage the present crisis do not have the backing of the law and therefore cannot withstand judicial scrutiny.

I disagree wholeheartedly with the suggestion that this is not the ideal time to seek reforms of the infectious diseases and public health emergency framework in the country. The weaknesses of the present system have already manifested in the inability of the government to hold to proper account those whose refusal to adhere with Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) guidelines led to the further spread of the coronavirus in Nigeria. We have had people break out from isolation centres, and others, who fully aware of their status chose to travel across state lines on public transport.

He said as the number of those currently infected by the coronavirus continues to rise alongside the number of those who have died, there is no timeline for when the disease will pass, and nobody can predict when the next public health crisis will occur, just as nobody predicted the present predicament.

It bears restating that we do not have in our country, a healthcare system or for that matter, a national economy that is sufficiently robust to withstand the dire consequences of a sustained infectious disease pandemic. We cannot tie our own hands in the fight against this disease.

Whether we choose to accept it or not, the world we live in has changed irretrievably. There is no normal to return to as this present crisis has laid bare the fundamental weaknesses in our systems of law and policy and left our nation at risk of devastating outcomes on all sides.

Our current task is first to survive and then to set about building a new world. Inevitably, this demands that we should be willing to consider new ideas, explore novel possibilities, rejecting those ancient shibboleths we have long adhered to without benefit.

The speaker added that citizens may sometimes disagree with the how and the why of policy proposals, but that the parliament of the people is not an echo chamber.

It is a marketplace of ideas where only those proposals that gain currency with the majority should carry the day. However, our disagreements must be grounded in a shared recognition that our present travails demand urgent interventions. And we must not allow ourselves to become victims of the cynical assumption that every policy proposal or response is a result of personal inducement or a grand conspiracy to bring harm to the people on whose behalf we hold political office.

The Control of Infectious Diseases Bill will be put forward to a public hearing where stakeholder contributions will be sought to make improvements to the Bill before it is reviewed and debated by the Committee of the whole.

It is from the accumulation of these myriad views, suggestions and good faith critiques from within and outside the House that we will arrive at final legislation that meets the present and future needs of our country, and which we all can support in good conscience, he said.

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The Speaker added that the social distancing guidelines that the House and the whole country operate for the time being would not allow for a usual format of public hearing, but that If a socially distant public hearing becomes workable, we will certainly explore that option.

Nonetheless, the House will provide alternative platforms for all Nigerians who desire to send in written documents that articulate their concerns, make recommendations on amendments and perhaps present other formulations for a new framework for managing infectious diseases in Nigeria.

All the contributions we receive will be considered and aggregated to improve the proposed legislation.
Graham presents a playful trio of Chronofighter Vintage timepieces that feature animals on their dials, illustrated in a style inspired by early 20th century military art. These illustrations are not simply applied onto the dials of existing Chronofighter Vintage models  other dial elements such as the hour numerals and even the Graham logo are modified to show the animals interacting with them, each in their own unique way.

Chronofighter Vintage Bear  Graham

In the Graham Chronofighter Vintage Bear, the brown bear (once endemic to Switzerland) is depicted in a palette of browns and honey tones, wreaking havoc on the dial landscape. Not content with snacking on the 1 oclock hour marker, the bears flailing paws grab hold of the 2 oclock hour marker and push the Graham logo into disarray. A marauding bear would be a terrifying sight in real life, but safely (yet barely  or bearly!) contained under the dial crystal, the noble Swiss emblem can be observed close-up, at ones leisure. Under his feet, the chronograph seconds scale and chronograph minutes numerals are hopelessly trampled, but thats the price you pay when you invite Ursus arctos arctos into your watch.

Chronofighter Vintage Dragon  Graham

Crossing over into the realm of myth is the imperial Chinese dragon, shown in all his five-clawed glory. (Asian dragons of lesser nobility had fewer claws.) The Chinese dragon is a creature of sagacity associated with water, with clouds and rain, which explains the azure dial background. By comparison, dragons in European legends are diabolical fire-breathing beasts, not something youd want wrapped around your wrist all day. Illustrations of Chinese dragons in antiquity often showed them chasing after a flaming pearl, a representation of wisdom and prosperity, a symbol which on the dial of the Graham Chronofighter Vintage Dragon takes the form of a flaming 12 oclock marker. Tales of Chinese dragons described them as being benevolent as a rule, but they could be mortally offended, having somewhat of a touchy nature  and the dragon on the dial of the Chronofighter Vintage Dragon seems to be in an hour-marker-breaking, chronograph-seconds-upsetting mood.

Chronofighter Vintage Tiger  Graham

Finally, the talent of the Bengal tiger for camouflage in the shadowy jungle is showcased in the Graham Chronofighter Vintage Tiger, where a fully grown example of Shere Khans tribe slips in and out of sight via different subdials. Snarling at a wide-eyed baby Bengal who has, with a remarkable lack of stealth, burst through the 12 oclock hour marker and kicked the Graham logo out of shape, the adult tiger manifests an endlessly amusing echo of exasperated parent-child interactions. Each of these self-winding Graham Chronofighter Vintage timepieces is limited to a numbered series of 100 pieces, and comes with a matching strap in calf leather.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have secrets people want to uncover. They seriously think "Finding Freedom" can satisfy their thirst for more details. The biography quickly reached the New York Bestseller List in just 24 hours after the announcement of its official release date.

It is now the number one on the Top 10 Books of the list.

This, in spite of the fact that it was announced that "Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family' is yet to be released on August 11 online and August 20 in hardcopies. The book's co-author Omid Scobie could not contain his surprise with the development.

On his Twitter, Scobie shared his astonishment. He retweeted the Top 10 Books post from May 3, which is entitled "Bestsellers in the last 24H!! #1: Finding Freedom: Harry, Meghan, and the Making of a Modern Royal Family Omid Scobie, Carolyn Durand publisher Dey Street Books'". He obviously pleased, then added, "Well this is a nice surprise!"

Other books on the prestigious list are Walt Disney's "The Ugly Duckling" and Martha Stewart's "Cookie Perfection." The Ugly Duckling is at number 2 and Cookie Perfection at number 5.

Upon reaching the top of that list, it went climbing to number 2 on Amazon's "Biographies of Royalty" bestsellers list. On top of the list is still "Kensington Palace: An Intimate Memoir from Queen Mary to Meghan Markle." This is written by Tom Quinn.

"Finding Freedom" is priced at $27.99 USD.





#1: Finding Freedom: Harry, Meghan, and the Making of a Modern Royal Family

Omid Scobie, Carolyn Durand

publisher Dey Street Books

USD 27.99 Best sellers in the last 24H!!#1: Finding Freedom: Harry, Meghan, and the Making of a Modern Royal FamilyOmid Scobie, Carolyn Durandpublisher Dey Street BooksUSD 27.99 https://t.co/xTCexJBLRg Mayo 3, 2020

It comes as no surprise that the book will create a buzz and even reach the top of these lists. After all, before and after Megxit, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have caught the interest of the world, with some claiming Markle is the next Princess Diana.

She's a former Hollywood actress, who was seen on the hit show "Suits," but suddenly transformed into a royal when she married Prince Harry. That storyline alone was likely to have intrigued many.

Megxit further created a furor. How could Prince Harry and Meghan Markle just decide to leave their senior royal positions when so many would love to be princes and princesses in this lifetime? Was it that bad?

"Finding Freedom" promises to give answers to these questions.

According to the description of the book, it will "beyond the headlines to reveal unknown details of Harry and Meghan's life together, dispelling the many rumors and misconceptions that plague the couple on both sides of the pond."

The controversies that the two have been embroiled in before and after leaving their royal posts add to the keen interest to know more about them. At present, being in LA and yet striving to survive in the middle of the coronavirus crisis just like everyone else, some could say their decision to leave the UK is wrong. Not to mention the continuous criticisms being thrown at them - at Prince Harry's inability to help the rest of the royal family as they put up a unified front in the UK for the British and the keen interest of Meghan Markle to penetrate Hollywood.

Did they really get the freedom they so seek? Will they become financially independent as they said they wanted to be? Hopefully, August will come rolling around, and the book will get to the hands of those who wish to really know why freedom is so important for the two.

READ MORE: Meghan Markle Defeat: Dad Thomas Markle READY To Fight Her in Court, Brother Says








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The Centre for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) alongside the World Health Organization (WHO) is currently holding the entire world hostage with lies and fabrications surrounding the on-going COVID 19 pandemic, says freelance investigative reporter, Jon Rappoportwho blogs on Nomorefakenews.com

According to the report, the CDC and WHO were only looking for ways to remain in business when they declared COVID 19 (5G Auto-Immune Disease) a pandemic and predicted dire consequences of the disease. The world has gone on for far too many decades with no pandemics and the WHO is afraid that countries may start questioning their budgets. Therefore, the present situation in the world is more of a fight for CDC & WHO to keep their jobs at the expense of millions of people losing their income around the world.

Rappoport quotes a paragraph from the CDCs definition of a COVID case, where the agency admits to counting probable cases as COVID deaths, the blogger believes that this is done only in a bid to inflate the numbers and justify the agencys existence?

As of April 14, 2020, CDC case counts and death counts include both confirmed and probable cases and deaths A confirmed case or death is defined by meeting confirmatory laboratory evidence for COVID-19. A probable case or death is defined by i) meeting clinical criteria AND epidemiologic evidence with no confirmatory laboratory testing performed for COVID-19; or ii) meeting presumptive laboratory evidence AND either clinical criteria OR epidemiologic evidence; or iii) meeting vital records criteria with no confirmatory laboratory testing performed for COVID19.

Rappoport also accuses Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, of switching up case numbers to confuse the public and push his own agenda.

In a February 2020 editorial, featured in the New England Journal of Medicine, entitled, Navigating the Uncharted, Fauci states:

If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases is several times as high as the number of reported cases, the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%. This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of COVID-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and 1968)

Rappoport notes that during the pandemic influenza seasons of 1957 and 1968 the world carried on with business as usual and there were no lockdowns, the reporter wonders why the COVID 19 should be any different since it has been likened to the 1957 and 1968 pandemics.

UK professor,Neil Ferguson, made a computer model of COVID-19 which predicted a worst-case estimate of 510,000 deaths in the UK, and 2.2 million deaths in the US. This is the reason that many governments chose to keep people at home rather than let them go about their lives and develop, through contact, natural immunity to the disease. However, Rappoport questions the accuracy of these computer simulations, and hes not the only one.

In March 2020, Fauci was asked by Jake Tapper of Reason Magazine how many COVID-19 cases the United States should expect to see, he responded To be honest with you, we dont really have any firm idea, Fauci said. There are things called models. And when someone creates a model, they put in various assumptions. And the model is only as good and as accurate as your assumptions.
CHP officers walk toward an object that appears to be a sheathed sword after fatal police shooting Monday in Monterey Park. (KTLA)

A traffic stop ended in a fatal police shooting Monday night and closed a stretch of the 60 Freeway in Monterey Park for more than seven hours, according to the California Highway Patrol.

CHP officers stopped a vehicle traveling east near Garfield Avenue about 8:20 p.m. Monday, Capt. Salvador Suarez told reporters at the scene.

"At some point during the enforcement stop, an officer-involved shooting occurred with one individual," Suarez said. The person was struck by gunfire and died at the scene, authorities said.

Officers were helping the California Department of Transportation with a project on the freeway in the area at the time, CHP Officer Tony Polizzi said.

It was not immediately clear what led to the shooting, but video from the scene showed what appears to be a sheathed sword lying in the roadway.
Contractors Question: What guidance is there for overseas contracting amid the coronavirus? Despite the covid-19 lockdown, would travel to a not very populous business district in Argentina be acceptable? Due to the crisis and the clients need to find high-end skills to get through it, they are willing to double my rate as a senior software developer!

But what would be the correct legal form to offer my services near Buenos Aires? Also, as my spouse is an Argentinian citizen, whats the best way to operate if she wanted to supply her tech support services as a contractor to companies here in the UK?



Experts Answer: Any travelling amidst this covid-19 worldwide crisis can be a significant challenge, regardless of the purpose or the destination.



To travel anywhere from anywhere, you would need to check the conditions that both countries (departure/ destination country) impose, such as the total or partial prohibition of exit/ entry, eventual medical certificates to hold and the possibility of working on-site.

Travel considerations (cont.)

To make the exercise even more challenging, you might need to be quarantined on arrival for at least 14 days, and perhaps at your expense. That, and the risk to your health posed by travelling at this time, is likely behind the clients double-your-rate offer.

At the same time, you should also bear in mind that some countries might allow you to exit, but not permit re-enter during this period. That could be costly too, in terms of your time, money and even your health.

The country list and the associated health and travel instructions change daily, so please consult the latest UK government guidance for Argentina online which, you should note, advises against all but essential travel. The guidance also talks of the Argentinian border being closed (to foreign nationals) until May 10th.

Whenever you do go, you'll need...

In the event that you do make the work trip to Argentina (at some stage), you need to hold a work permit to work on-site, near Buenos Aires or elsewhere in-country. To obtain a work permit, you first need to have a valid job offer by an employer registered with PENURE (National Registry of Petitioners on behalf of Foreign Applicants); see here for further details.

As to the best legal form when contracting overseas, this depends on whether you are allowed to work through your own limited company or not, according to the work permit issued. If you want to work as a self-employed contractor you will need a new work permit every time you change client, as all work permits are linked to the client.

However, in light of the current travel restrictions due to coronavirus in the UK, Argentina and other countries, consider that the nature of the role you mention may permit you to work remotely before you take up a physical presence in the country. And in the current climate, I would recommend this. For as long as this uncertain situation lasts, it is advisable that people work from their home, where they are in principle safer and can reduce transmission risks for other people.

Your spouse

Regarding your wife, it depends on her immigration status in the UK. If she is on a dependent visa that allows her to work as a contractor, then there is no issue, but please check with Home Office first.

If she is on another visa such as Tier 2 visa then, under that visa, she can legally work for her employer who sponsored the visa application. Similarly, if your wife is a holder of a Tier 1 visa, she can certainly work as an independent worker according to that visas terms. Good luck to you both; whatever you decide!

The expert was Kevin Austin, managing director of Access Financial, a contracting overseas advisory.
You have 24 hours, SC to Delhi Govt on rising pollution

Delhi school reopening: Decision to be taken after Christmas-New Year vacation, says govt

Delhi govt to deregister all diesel vehicles that complete 10 years on January 1, 2022

State run liquor stores in Delhi will operate between 9 am and 6.30 pm

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, May 05: The Delhi government has issued an order allowing state-run liquor shops to operate from 9 am to 6.30 pm in the city, and directed deployment of marshals at these outlets to maintain social distancing.

According to a government official, about 150 liquor shops have been allowed to open in accordance with the latest lockdown relaxations given by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

There are around 850 liquor shops in the city including those run by government agencies and private individuals.

Liquor makers pitch for online sale as tipplers crowd shops

In an order on Sunday night, the excise department also directed officials to identify liquor shops, which are being run by private individuals (L-7 licensee) and fulfil conditions laid down by the MHA. The officials have been asked them to submit a report within three days.

The government has so far allowed only those liquor shops (L-7 and L-8) to operate which are being run by four state-run agencies responsible for liquor sale in the national capital.

NEWS AT 3 PM, MAY 5th, 2020

"All liquor shops in malls and markets will remain closed. The government-run shops allowed will operate from 9 am to 6.30 pm.

"The four agencies will deploy marshals to ensure that not more than 5 people are present at one time at the shop," the official said.

The department has asked agencies to coordinate with the local administration and police to maintain law and order.

According to the order, bonded warehouses have been allowed to resume operation from 7 am to 6.30 pm.

Delhi to impose extra 70 per cent tax on liquor amid pandemic

The Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation, the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation, the Delhi State Civil Supplies Corporation Limited and the Delhi Consumer's Cooperative Wholesale Store have been given the permission to open liquor shops in public places, except malls and market complexes.

The agencies will have to give an undertaking stating that liquor shops being allowed to open will fulfil all MHA guidelines, according to the excise department.
(Newser)  Tennessee has allowed restaurants to reopen, provided theyand their customersmeet a few conditions. Handwashing is involved a lot, as are temperature checks. The state issued an eight-page compliance document to restaurants, though the governor's office said it doesn't plan to enforce the new rules, the Commercial Appeal reports. There are issues. One restaurant had to find a new device when a customer told the staff it was using a thermometer meant for heating and air conditioning systems, not people. And employees at O'Charley's, a chain restaurant, told BuzzFeed it's all too much. "Theres no possible way for us employees to do what they're asking us to do," a server said. The rules, per BuzzFeed:



story continues below

Temperature checks for every guest and employee before entering.

Asking guests about exposure to the coronavirus and possible symptoms.

Asking customers to take their food from the server trays themselves and put it back on the trays after their meal. Some guests have refused, saying, "Youre supposed to be serving us."

Servers must replace their gloves every time they go to a different table.

Employees must wash their hands after handling money.

Workers have to wash their hands after every credit card transaction.

(Read more coronavirus stories.)
"We are very grateful for the hard work of essential employees and the service they are bringing to our local communities. Our number one priority at Garnier is to take care of each other. We are working as quickly as possible to produce hand sanitizers to help frontline retail employees stay safe and healthy during this Coronavirus outbreak," says Alanna McDonald, President of Garnier USA.

Garnier's Global Commitment in the Fight Against COVID-19

The Garnier brand is also making a global financial commitment to the fight against COVID-19 by contributing more than $1 million to support the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) and Red Crescent Societies. These funds will provide urgent assistance to the most vulnerable people impacted by COVID-19.

Furthermore, as part of L'Oreal's Coronavirus Solidarity Program, Garnier is currently producing and distributing millions of units of hand sanitizer free of charge to all of its food retailers' employees in Europe. Providing this in-kind donation of sanitizer is a way for Garnier to protect and thank those who are working tirelessly to make our daily life possible.

"At Garnier, we believe it is our corporate social responsibility to support those working on the frontline every day and those who are helping to protect the most vulnerable populations across the world," says Adrien Koskas, Garnier Global Brand President.

About Garnier USA

Garnier, a L'Oreal USA brand, was developed in 1904 in France by hair care expert Alfred Amour Garnier and is now present in more than 65 countries worldwide. Following the launch of Garnier in the United States in 1999 with Nutrisse hair color, the brand has continued to develop beauty products with a keen awareness of its social responsibility to you and the planet. The entire collection of Garnier brands available in the U.S. includes Nutrisse, Fructis hair care and Fructis Style, Olia hair color, Color Sensation hair color, SkinActive and Whole Blends hair care. For more information visit www.garnierusa.com or follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Snapchat @GarnierUSA

About IFRC

IFRC is the world's largest humanitarian network, comprising 192 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies working to save lives and promote dignity around the world.

www.ifrc.org and @IFRC - Facebook - Twitter - YouTube

For Press Inquiries Please Contact

Danielle Macaluso

Garnier, AVP Brand Communications

212.984.4799

[email protected]

Lauren Larkin or Donna Valle

Alison Brod Marketing Communications

212.230.1800

[email protected]

SOURCE Garnier

Related Links

https://www.garnierusa.com


MAY 5, 2020  Six of UTSAs top education experts will be part of the third in the series of Community Conversations, an interactive dialogue hosted by the university. Each educator brings vast experience and research focus on important segments of education, which has been forced to undergo changes due to the impact of COVID-19.

The livestream eventWhat Might K12 Education Look Like in the Fall?is free and open to the public and will provide attendees with an opportunity to ask questions of the panelists during the discussion. Slated for Wednesday, May 6 at noon, the event will be of particular interest to parents, local educators and administrators preparing for changes to educational approaches in a COVID-19 world.

UTSA panelists who will speak about the future of K12 education are Margo DelliCarpini, Michael Villarreal, Vanessa Sansone, Heather Trepal, Ann Marie Ryan and Lloyd Potter.

There are so many topics of discussion surrounding education since students were abruptly taken from the classroom to remote learning, said Margo DelliCarpini, dean of the College of Education and Human Development and vice provost for strategic educational partnerships, who will be the panel moderator. For example, many believe this semester was lost completely and teachers may need a new type of preparation to instruct students partially online and in the classroom. There are financial, mental health and economic issues to consider going forward. Though none of us knows exactly what our situation will look like in the fall, it is sure to be a thought-provoking discussion about changes on the horizon.

The other panelists for the event are Michael Villarreal, director of the Urban Education Institute; Ann Marie Ryan, professor and chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching; Vanessa Sansone, assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies; Heather Trepal, professor and graduate adviser of record in the Department of Counseling; and Lloyd Potter, professor and director of the Institute for Demographic and Socioeconomic Research.

 Watch the livestream or learn more about the event.

Topics slated for discussion during the hour are:

The benefits and limits of distance learning,

Addressing San Antonios digital divide,

What does quality remote learning look like?

Long-term impact of a lost semester,

How struggles with online learning can impact mental health for students and their families,

The pandemics financial impact to our public schools,

Teacher preparation for new modes of learning, and

Implications for students and their postsecondary dreams.

Community Conversations is a series of interactive dialogues with UTSAs leading faculty experts sharing their insights and research involving COVID-19related topics.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday reached out to MLAs from various political parties, seeking their cooperation in his government's efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and assuring them that their feedback and suggestions would be acted upon by the officials concerned.

The chief minister interacted with the legislators at a meeting held via video conferencing which was attended, among others, by his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi, cabinet colleagues Prem Kumar, Vijendra Prasad Yadav and Mangal Pandey besides assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhary.

Those from the opposition camp included RJD leaders Tejashwi Yadav and Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Congress legislature party leader Sadanand Singh and former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi (Hindustani Awam Morcha).

Kumar told the legislators that elected representatives in panchayats were playing an active role in the battle against the coronavirus and officials have been instructed to keep MLAs in the loop, pay close attention to their feedback and suggestions and take necessary action.

"Many elected representatives do call me up directly to apprise me of the situation in their area. Their inputs are taken note of and acted upon. The pandemic is massive, has brought even a world power like America on its knees and we must stand together to fight it out," Kumar told the meeting.

The chief minister recalled pro-active measures taken in the state, which included proroguing of the assembly budget session ahead of schedule on March 16 and a state-wide lockdown clamped on March 22, three days before a nationwide lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi which remains in force and is to continue at least till May 17.

He also informed the MLAs about the government's efforts like door-to-door screening of all people, on the lines of the state's much acclaimed Pulse Polio Campaign a decade ago which eradicated the virus from Bihar.

The door-to-door screening has so far covered seven crore people, more than half of the state's population. "Seventy-six blocks in 32 districts of the state have been affected by the outbreak," he said.

He also shared with the legislators the challenges that the state is likely to face with migrant workers returning in droves on board special trains which are being run, amid a complete suspension of passenger rail traffic, upon the request of state governments concerned.

In the recent past, a spike has been witnessed in fresh cases which has been to a large extent because of people coming to Bihar from outside, carrying the infection. Their contacts formed a chain of contagion which we are trying to break," Kumar said.

He also expressed serious displeasure over attempts by "anti-social elements" to disrupt harmony by posting rumours on the social media and urged the MLAs to do their bit in stemming the rot while his government was at work to crack down on such people.

Scrupulous adherence to lockdown restrictions is a reason why Bihar has been less severely affected than many other states. The threat, however, remains and it is essential that we remain vigilant and take precautionary measures like social distancing," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi: Lockdown 3.0s first day on Monday saw increased relaxations from harsh curbs as commercial activities were allowed in several states and standalone shops for building material, electrical items, computers, optical, mobiles, etc reopened in non-containment zones.

The biggest crowd-puller were liquor shops that opened after 40 days as tipplers made a beeline for them. At some places in Delhi they lost patience and rushed in huge groups, forcing the police to lathicharge crowds to disperse them and shut the liquor shops for the day as social distancing norms were ignored.

In Kerala, however, liquor shops stayed shut while most other shops opened. Five districts in Maharashtra  Solapur, Aurangabad, Jalna, Buldhana and Amravati  were not allowed to open liquor shops though other commercial activities were allowed.

With the second highest cases in the country after Maharashtra (12,974), Gujarat (5,428) decided against any relief in six cities  Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Gandhinagar, Bhavnagar and Rajkot  and six municipalities  Botad, Bopal, Khabhnat, Bareja, Godhra and Umreth  due to the high number of cases.

In Delhi, where the city government allowed domestic helps to resume work, many housing societies and colonies decided to bar their entry till May 17. Health ministry officials said the extension shouldnt be seen as Lockdown 3.0 but Easing Out. Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said at a meeting with state health ministers that it must be ensured that non-Covid essential medical services not be ignored.

Meanwhile, Monday brought little relief from rising coronavrius cases. On the lockdowns 41st day, 2,573 fresh cases and 83 new deaths were reported across India, taking the total positive cases to 42,836. Of these, 29,685 are under treatment, 11,762 have been discharged and 1,389 died. In the past 24 hours, 1,074 patients have recovered, the highest number of recoveries in one day. PTI, however, reported that there were 43,685 total cases, with 1,413 deaths and 11,607 cured.

While over 2,000 fresh cases have been reported daily for the past three days, officials of the Union health ministry have said the Covid-19 recovery rate, now at 27.52 per cent, was very encouraging.
Could the Centre or the Railways have borne the full expenses of the tickets? In these critical times, they surely should have done so.

In the context of the Shramik Special trains, the Indian Railways said on Monday that the 'sending state' should pay the fare to it, and the state could decide whether to bear the cost or take it from passengers.

In principle, there is nothing wrong with this stand. After all, state governments had demanded special trains so that lakhs of migrants workers stranded due to the lockdown could go back home. These migrants were stuck in difficult situations and were desperate to go back to their natives states. This issue was raised on many occasions, including during meetings of chief ministers with the prime minister.

Earlier, the governments of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh had borne the cost of the travel of students who returned home from Rajasthan's Kota. Possibly, this may have led the Railways to believe that states would have no objection to paying for the transportation of migrant workers.

Indeed, if passengers are not to be charged, then either the Centre or the states have to bear the expenses.

The payment mechanism can serve to ensure that only those who registered with the appropriate authorities can board the train. It can also help create a useful database on the origin points and destination points of the trains, and the number of migrants who travelled on them. On the basis of this, other facilities such as health checkups and quarantine facilities near the homes of the returning migrants can be set up.

The payment mechanism was also meant to avoid chaos at railway stations and inside trains.

In this context, let us consider the allegations that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have made against the Centre. The Congress leaders have claimed that migrant workers were asked to pay for their journey back home at a time when they have been reduced to penury. Their allegations are party correct and partly wrong.

The first Shramik Special train travelled from Lingampally in Telangana to Hatia in Jharkhand on the morning of 1 May. At the time, the K Chandrashekar Rao government in Telangana paid the expenses of the journey to the Railways. In fact, sources say that the state government also insisted on paying for for food and water, although the Railways had earlier promised to do that.

The process that was to be followed was that the Railways would give tickets in bulk to the local administration and receive the fare from the administration as well. Although the tickets would mention the fare, it would not be chargeable to individual passengers. As per the Railways, either the sending or the receiving state could pay the fare directly, or the sending state could pay the fare through NGOs.

The problem began when the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Aghadi government in Maharashtra and the CPM-led Kerala government recovered the ticket fares from migrant workers. According to sources, in Mumbai, the problem arose only with respect to trains which were run by the Central Railway. Meanwhile, some states that are receiving migrants in large numbers  such as Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand  have announced that they would pay the fare directly to the Railways. In states where the Congress is in power, Sonia Gandhi has asked Pradesh Congress committees to pay the amount.

Meanwhile, this issue is being milked for political gains. The Congress strident attack has put the Narendra Modi government on the defensive, something that has not happened in a long time. Nevertheless, Rahul Gandhi was not justified in pointing out that the Railways contributed Rs 151 crore to the PM-CARES fund, as the contribution was made by employees who took a one-day pay cut. However, his other charges carried more weight and forced the BJP to carry out fire-fighting efforts. The saffron party took pains to claims that the Centre was paying for 85 percent of the cost and the states were asked to pay 15 percent. Later, several BJP-ruled states that they would pay for migrants' journeys.

Could the Centre and the Railways have avoided this controversy? Yes, certainly. Could they have avoided printing the fare on the ticket? Perhaps yes, because they were seeking payment from the states, not directly from the passenger. Also, could the Centre or the Railways have borne the full expenses of the tickets? In these critical times, they surely should have done so.

In recent times, the Railways had earned laurels for its initiatives to fight coronavirus, including using trains to create quarantine facilities, making masks, PPEs, etc. However, it could have avoided the controversy over the ticket fares of migrants. It had an opportunity to earn public goodwill, but squandered it.
Egypt has released American political prisoner Reem Mohamed Desouky, The Washington Post reported on Monday.

Desouky has reportedly returned to her home in Pennsylvania after spending 10 months in an Egyptian prison for sharing social media posts detailing social and economic conditions in Egypt.

Why it matters: The Donald Trump administration and Congress have called on Egypt to release all American detainees from its overcrowded prisons as the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps the country. Egypt released 15 opposition activists in March.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo raised the issue with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on a phone call last month.

Whats next: Egypt is still holding at least five American political prisoners following Desoukys release. They include Mohamed Amashah, an Egyptian-American medical student arrested last year for protesting against the thousands of political prisoners in Egyptian jails. Amashah, who suffers from autoimmune deficiency and asthma, went on hunger strike last month to protest his treatment.

Amashahs case is reminiscent of the circumstances that killed Mustafa Kassem, a diabetic American who died during a hunger strike in an Egyptian prison earlier this year. His death prompted lawmakers to call on the Trump administration to implement legally mandated sanctions on Egyptian officials involved in the wrongful detention of US citizens.

Know more: Bryant Harris has the story on Kassems death and Congress push to sanction Egypt over political prisoners there.
The Guardian

The Steelers quarterback is headed to the Hall of Fame. But he was unloved outside Pittsburgh for understandable reasons Ben Roethlisberger almost certainly played his final game in the NFL on Sunday. Photograph: Ed Zurga/AP Ben Roethlisberger is lucky that football legacies are not decided by finales. If Sunday night was indeed Big Bens last ever NFL game, as he has strongly hinted, it wasnt exactly a mic drop. In the 42-21 beatdown by the Chiefs, Roethlisberger struggled with rollouts, and l
Clyde Common, the restaurant and cocktail bar inside Portlands Ace Hotel, does not plan to reopen as we know it once the coronavirus crisis ends, owner Nate Tilden said Monday.

The restaurant, which opened in 2007, plans to erect a wall between the bar, home to one of Americas best-known bartenders in Jeffrey Morgenthaler, and the restaurant, which will transition into a takeaway operation during the coronavirus crisis.

Clyde Common, as it is, is done, owner Nate Tilden told The Oregonian/OregonLive.com on Monday. I dont think any restaurant of that size and with that large of a staff is going to come back.

In an email to staff informing them of the decision Sunday, Tilden pointed out that Clyde Common, which is known for its innovative cocktails, including some of Americas first barrel-aged drinks, is particularly reliant on alcohol sales. So far, Oregon has not allowed restaurants and bars to sell cocktails to-go, as more than 20 states including California, Washington and Idaho have done.

According to Tilden, the tavern side will remain largely as is, only smaller, with a full wall separating the former dining room from the bar. At first, the restaurant side will serve a small takeaway menu of sandwiches and salads, with Tilden and his family cooking much of the food themselves. When dine-in customers are eventually allowed by the state  Tilden estimates this happens by July at the earliest  the restaurant will go back to its roots, transitioning back to a casual gastropub model.

We are shifting our business model to survive, and the new model is going to include a takeaway model that can weather future storms, Tilden said.

In the meantime, Tilden plans to use the Paycheck Protection Program loan Clyde Common received last Friday to pay off rent and begin his restaurants remodel. As currently structured by the Small Business Administration, restaurants are supposed to begin bringing staffing back to 100% of its pre-coronavirus levels within 10 days of approval. Using more than 25 percent of a loan on rent, utilities and other overhead means the loan would no longer be forgivable.

According to Tilden, who says he would incur a $500,000 penalty for breaking his lease on the Clyde Common space, hes willing to take a chance on having to repay a 1% interest loan. The idea of putting staff back on payroll using that loan right now is a lose-lose: He would be asking employees to drop off the unemployment rolls  and the weekly $600 federal bump that accompanies those payments through July 31  for 20 hours a week of employment at a low wage without much to do.

Still, Tildens email was heartbreaking, said Mike Kapski, 37, a Clyde Common line cook. I dont have the time to wait five years for the industry to recover. Its daunting to think about starting from scratch in a whole new industry.

Kapski, who moved to Portland in 2007, just as Clyde Common was opening, swore he would some day work at the restaurant attached to the Ace Hotel lobby. He left his sous chef job at Interurban last September to join Clyde Commons kitchen.

It was a really special, wonderful place, and to see it go away is really sad, Kapski said.

-- Michael Russell, mrussell@oregonian.com, @tdmrussell

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A Nigerian man has offered to discuss poverty with business mogul, Femi Otedolas last daughter, Temi with the hope that shell learn one or two things.

This comes after the fashion influencer took to her Twitter page to speak on the kinds of people she likes having conversations with.

Temi wrote;

I love conversations with people who know more about a specific topic than me.

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Nigerians on Twitter trooped to her comment section to applaud her mindset while others mentioned their area of expertise and offered to teach her about it.

@ray_orji tweeted;

Come lets discuss poverty

Read Also: I Am So Happy  DJ Cuppy Reacts To Davido, Nicki Minaj Collaboration

See the exchange below:
A consignment of five million tablets of hydroxychloroquine or HCQ shipped from India, arrived in Canada on Monday.

This is part of the series of shipments of the drug made by the Indian Government to various countries across the world, including Canada. The consignment was received in Toronto and will be distributed across the country.

Welcoming the arrival of the tablets, Indias High Commissioner to Ottawa Ajay Bisaria tweeted, Special provision by India for strategic partner Canada. India will continue to be the pharmacy of the world, maintaining integrity of global supply chains even in tough times.

The Indian Consulate in Toronto tweeted, India-Canada cooperation continues in these critical times.

The shipment was arranged after discussions between Indian and Canadian officials. Mary Ng, Canadas Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade had spoken in this regard to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal last month, while the Foreign Ministers of the two countries, S Jaishankar and Francois-Philippe Champagne, had also discussed the matter.
EDWARDSVILLE  City council members voted 5-1 Monday to delay the start of the food-and-beverage tax to Sept. 1.

Alderman Craig Louer remained opposed and Alderman Chris Farrar either stepped away from his computer before the vote or his microphone was muted.

This tax was initially approved Feb. 18 and was supposed to kick in on May 1 but it was delayed to July 1 to coincide with the Home Rule sales tax hike that was approved and will start July 1. After the pandemic began, Alderman SJ Morrison proposed the idea of delaying the taxs enactment until Sept. 1 as a gesture of good faith to local businesses.

The 1 percent food-and-beverage tax is slated to generate $380,000 for the citys capital equipment fund and $50,000 for future land for greenspace allocations. Pushing the start date back to Sept. 1 is anticipated to cost the city $60,000 in revenue and it meant deleting a capital expenditure.

Morrison and alderman William Krause supported waiting until Sept. 1 as a way to help area small businesses now that some businesses, such as Cleveland Heath, are reopening.

Alderman Craig Louer criticized their idea as an empty gesture previously and opposed the amendment. He counter-proposed with the idea that local businesses should collect the tax starting July 1 but wait at least three or four months before remitting those funds to the city.

Morrison said Monday he has spoken to three or four business owners in town and they were unanimous in that they dont want to have to bother collecting and retaining these funds; they felt that it was just one more task to do. Morrison discussed last week doing a survey but a proper survey and getting its results would take more than a week.

Alderwoman Janet Stack asked why they were not doing both taxes on July 1 to make it easier for the retailers point-of-sale software. Mayor Hal Patton said it did not really matter to a majority of retailers contacted by the Edwardsville/Glen Carbon Chamber of Commerce.

The other long-standing item that was voted on Monday is the tax-increment financing amendment as one of the foundation steps toward building a city parking garage. In this amendment, it extends the TIF by 12 years and adds four minor parcels along North Main Street to the project.

Farrar asked why the representative from Lewis and Clark Community College did not approve of the extension but in fact, the colleges rep abstained from voting during a meeting earlier this year.

Patton said he could not answer why the college abstained, but with the Manny Jackson Center for the Humanities on North Main Street, he said the college is well acquainted with how much of a challenge parking is in town. Patton said earlier, the TIF was used effectively for lots of things except for downtown parking solutions. The council passed it unanimously.

In other action, the council unanimously approved the following items:

 A Fair Housing Resolution to qualify for community development block grants

 A resolution for the 2020 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) transition plan update

 A resolution for the mayor to apply for a community development block grant from Madison County for a stormwater project on West Dunn Street

 A variety of spring and summer activity dates from the citys RASE Board

Reach reporter Charles Bolinger at (618) 659-5735
Katy Perry has shared a sneak peek at 'what would have been' her Met Gala 2020 costume.

The 35-year-old star - who is expecting her first child with fiance Orlando Bloom - revealed on Monday night that she was due to wear a stunning Jean Paul Gaultier corset, highlighting her baby bump on the red carpet.

The beautifully crafted, blush pink look is an homage to the designer's iconic cone bra, famously worn by his muse Madonna during her Blonde Ambition tour in 1990.

Corset creation: Katy Perry has shared a sneak peek at 'what would have been' her Met Gala 2020 costume on Monday night, revealing she was set to wear a Jean Paul Gaultier design

Pining for the ball: Sharing a picture of the garment on a mannequin wearing a faux baby bump, Katy wrote: 'what would have been... #TheMetBall2020'

Gaultier originally created the look in 1983, launching the trend of wearing underwear as outerwear.

The theme of this year's Met Gala was set to be About Time: Fashion and Duration - and Katy's look would certainly have been a timeless testament to the French designer's legacy.

Sharing a picture of the garment on a mannequin wearing a faux baby bump, Katy wrote: 'what would have been... #TheMetBall2020'.

Despite Anna Wintour's annual ball - which is known as 'fashion's biggest night out' - being put on hold indefinitely in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, celebrities are paying homage to the first Monday of May.

Fashion lover: The 35-year-old star - who is expecting her first child with fiance Orlando Bloom - always pulls out all the stops at the annual event (pictured in March)

This year's Met Gala was postponed 'indefinitely' in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the glitzy event is held every year, revealed all events had been called off in an attempt to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The news came just days after the museum announced it would close its doors 'until further notice' after two of its employees were found to be suffering from symptoms associated with the disease.

This is the first time that the event - for which tickets can cost up to $35,000 a 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.

Since then, the event has become a must-attend for Hollywood's most prominent and glamorous stars, with A-listers going above and beyond to embrace each year's fashion-focused theme, while also showcasing their own style credentials on the red carpet.

Iconic: The beautifully crafted, blush pink look is an homage to the designer's iconic cone bra, famously worn by his muse Madonna during her Blonde Ambition tour in 1990

Daring: Gaultier (pictured with Madonna) originally created the look in 1983, launching the trend of wearing underwear as outerwear

Indeed, over the years, the outfits that have made their way up the famous steps to the museum have become all the more bizarre and over-the-top, with stars like Katy, Lady Gaga, Jared Leto, and Rihanna pulling out all the stops to make a lasting impression.

While last year's theme - Camp: Notes on Fashion - saw Katy turning up dresses as a chandelier, while Gaga did a full costume change in front of photographers, this year's theme, About Time: Fashion and Duration, was set to be even more flamboyant.

And not only that, it was reported earlier this month that Meghan Markle was set to make her Met Gala debut at this year's event, with sources revealing to The Sun that the former royal was planning to attend alongside her close friend, British Vogue editor Edward Enninful.

This year's Met Gala was also due to be the first time actress Meryl Streep was going to attend; despite portraying a character based on Anna Wintour in the popular movie The Devil Wears Prada, the Oscar winner had never actually been a guest at the star-studded party.

Swing from the chandelier: Katy modelled this dazzling creation for last year's Met Ball - the theme was Camp: Notes on Fashion

Fallen angel: In 2018, Katy donned lavish feather wings to attend the opening of the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination exhibit

Her debut as a co-chair would have also been her first time attending the party - which was due to celebrate an exhibition around the theme, About Time: Fashion and Duration, which would have featured 160 pieces of women's fashion from the last 150 years.

When speaking to The New York Times, Andrew Bolton, the curator in charge of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, explained the inspiration behind the new exhibit and theme.

'I wanted to do an exhibition focused on the collection, but not a traditional masterworks exhibition,' he said. 'Something that connects to the zeitgeist, and what people are talking about now.'
The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection has revealed today that they have issued payments valued at 209.3m to 598,000 people in respect of their application for the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment. Around 11,000 people are receiving a payment for the first time.

There are now over 52,000 employers who have registered with the Revenue Commissioners for the Temporary Covid-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme. The payments are in addition to the approximate 205,000 people who were on the Live Register as of the end of March.

All Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment payments issued will be in recipients bank accounts or at their local post office today, Tuesday 2nd May.

Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty today said: The Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment was introduced at speed for maximum impact so that we could help as many people as possible during what is an unprecedented, once in a century, health emergency. The fact that so many have been moved into payment so quickly is a testimony to the agility and innovation my Department has demonstrated to respond to this crisis.

We need to respond to the post-pandemic challenge with the same qualities and with a similar impact. Already, on Saturday, the Government announced a suite of measures to further support small, medium and larger businesses to restart, reconnect and rehire staff who have been laid off or furloughed.

However, as our recent Working Paper on the initial impacts of the pandemic on our labour market demonstrated, some sectors have suffered more than most  particularly retail and hospitality.

Working with the new Labour Market Advisory Council I recently appointed, my officials are now planning the necessary further supports and initiatives we will need to put in place to ensure that the thousands of workers who have been displaced can return to work as quickly as possible. We are determined that this short term health crisis will not be a long-term economic one for all those workers and families who have been affected.

Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment

In total (since launch on the 16th March, 2020), and excluding duplicate claims, the Department processed applications from 694,000 people for the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment or a jobseekers payment.

As is the case, for all social welfare schemes, the Department conducts a series of pre and post payment checks. For example:

- Integrity checks are made against records already held by the Department including Public Service Information data and cross checks with payments on other schemes. These help to verify if a person is who they claim to be and that they are entitled to claim payment.

- Each week when the Department processes the Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payments (PUP), a reconciliation takes place between the Departments payment file and Revenues payment file for the Covid-19 Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme. This results in claims from those who are being paid by their employer being withheld and therefore not processed by the Departments payment process. These people are then contacted by the Department to inform them of the position.

- A prior employment status check is made by comparing all claims for PUP against prior earnings and employment records from Revenue data. Where this check indicates that a person may not have been employed, as claimed, the person is contacted and asked to submit corroborating information. Failure to submit corroborating information leads to the claim being closed.

- As with other welfare schemes, the Department contacts recipients to ensure that they continue to satisfy the eligibility criteria of the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment.

- Data analytics is also used to identify claims where a person may not satisfy other conditions  for example residence in Ireland - and Department inspection staff check these cases.

- The Departments inspection staff also participates with Garda and Customs staff, in security checks on major transport routes and transport hubs.

- Confidential reporting facilities are available to the public (1890 927999 and at https://www.welfare.ie/en/ Pages/secure/ReportFraud.aspx ) and to employers (email to: C19EmployerReports@welfare.ie ) to report cases of suspected mis-claiming.

Following the application of these checks and controls the Department has this week paid 598,000 people out of the 694,000 unique claims processed, the vast majority of these claims were paid within a week of receipt. This indicates the efficiency of using data analytics to both identify incorrect claims and ensure prompt processing of valid claims.

To date, over 73,000 people have contacted the Department to close their Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment. Many of these requests are because employers are taking people back onto their payroll under the Temporary Covid-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme.

The Department is continuing to resolve any issues, such as invalid IBANS or PPSNs, with legitimate applications and is contacting the people concerned directly over the next few days. We wish to remind people to take care when submitting applications, to ensure that critical information such as dates of birth, PPSN and IBANs are entered correctly. An IBAN has 22 characters and people should take care that it is entered correctly. Any errors by individuals in submitting their incorrect IBAN or PPSN will cause their application to be rejected by the Department.

Temporary Covid-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme

There are now over 52,000 employers who have registered with the Revenue Commissioners for the Temporary Covid-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS). Workers whose employers have registered them on the scheme are not eligible to receive a pandemic unemployment payment. In addition workers who were in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment but who have now been registered by their employers on the TWSS are no longer eligible to receive a payment pandemic unemployment payment

The Department is aware that some workers may be incorrectly registered as part of the TWSS or may face difficulty in transitioning back from the pandemic unemployment payment to the employer payroll. Such a situation may arise, for example, because a worker has been registered in error by their employer, or because an employer having registered for the TWSS has since ceased operating their payroll, or, due to differences in the weekly payment pattern of the pandemic unemployment payment as compared with a monthly or fortnightly payroll from the employer. Any worker affected by these issues can contact the Department and arrangements will be made to restore their payment or provide them with interim income support as appropriate.

Covid-19 Enhanced Illness Benefit Payment

There are now 39,100 people medically certified for receipt of the Covid-19 enhanced Illness Benefit. This predominantly relates to applications in respect of people who have been advised by their GP to self-isolate together with a smaller number in respect of people who have been diagnosed with Covid-19.

Please apply online at www.MyWelfare.ie

The Department wishes to thank its customers for submitting the majority of applications through our online portal www.MyWelfare.ie. This is the quickest and easiest way to submit an application and enables the Department to allocate resources to contacting those who submitted invalid applications.

Individuals can close their Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment online at www.MyWelfare.ie.
Controversial journalist, Kemi Olunloyo has stirred another controversy as she expressed that Igbo ladies are the least educated in Nigeria.

The controversial character took to her Instagram page to express this controversial view and she attributed to the failure of Igbo female icons in empowering younger ones.

Also Read: Theres An Alleged Murder Cover-Up  Kemi Olunloyo Reacts To Clarence Arrest (Photo)

She expressed that the average Igbo girl has a house girl and street prostitute mentality.

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Olunloyo went on to accuse Igbo female icons of forgetting their roots when they get to the top.

Sse her post below:
Residents of a Derry care home are now able to maintain regular contact with their family members during the coronavirus pandemic thanks to a generous donation from a local businessman.

Older people in care homes across the city have been struggling with the current government-imposed lockdown restrictions which prohibit visitors.

Those residing at one local home, which didnt wish to be named, can now communicate with close family on a daily basis via Facebook Portal  a modern video chat technology device.

A member of the public brought the kind gesture to the attention of the Derry News.

It emerged that local comedy writer Ciaran Murray, best known as the man behind Pure Derry, purchased the portal for the home.

His mother and father are both residents and he saw the value in it for, not only his own parents, but all residents living in the home and by extension their families.

When Ciaran discovered that a staff member was using her own phone to set-up video calls he offered to source the equipment which now allows residents to communicate more effectively with family and friends.

Ciarans own family were coming to terms with their parents illnesses when the coronavirus outbreak first surfaced and they realised instantly that it would present a massive obstacle to communicating with them.

He commented: I would prefer to have donated anonymously but with my platforms I realise there is a chance to do some good and highlight the issue.

This is a huge emerging need in care facilities and whilst they should be stepping up to provide this technology given the situation, we all realise that goodwill will get the solution in place quicker.

With both my parents isolated for the foreseeable I wanted to make sure we could still communicate with them.

I knew that the other families would also get the benefit though, and its been incredible to hear about all the visits' from abroad already!

In normal circumstances people can visit their elderly relatives to wave in the window or drop off food.

However, dementia affects memory and comprehension, so my mammy and daddy wouldn't understand why were outside the window waving at them without coming in for a hug, it can get really upsetting.

From that point of view the video technology is great. They respond to it and know its us, but they recognise we arent actually there.

He added that the sad reality is the longer the pandemic, and in turn isolation and social distancing continue, these calls could be the last goodbyes some people have with their parents.

LOVELY VIDEOS

Given that older people are one of the most at risk groups Ciaran believes it is likely that care homes could remain under lockdown for a while meaning this device could assist families long-term.

A quiet room has been set aside for residents to use the technology.

It has allowed them to connect with family members in Derry but also those in England, Scotland, America and Canada.

The beauty of the device is that it enables conference calls so several family members can connect at the same time.

Ciaran added: Ive got a couple of really lovely videos of people singing with their mother. Theyre all booking chats in with relatives and it allows different family members to join in.

In the current climate it ends up being a family catch up at the same time where I can talk to my sister too. Its a difficult situation but its the best that we can do.

Through his LAB fund and Pure Derry Ciaran is heavily involved in buying and funding the production of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for frontline workers.

Hes raised over 15k selling the remaining 500 copies of his 2013 book, Pure Derry. Your Derry have also donated 5k from their LAB Fund - a community crowd fund launched last year.

Ciaran now hopes others will follow suit and help local care homes put this technology in place by donating money or technology.
The state will widen an investigation into the growing death toll from COVID-19 at New Jerseys nursing homes, and called for anyone with information about misconduct in any facility to report those allegations through a special tips line, Gov. Phil Murphy said Tuesday.

An on-line link, covid19.nj.gov/ltc, will allow them to alert the state to problems anonymously.

According to Murphy, the states investigation will examine all long-term care facilities that have experienced what he called a disproportionate number of deaths, in the wake of the tragedy at the Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center that garnered national headlines, after 17 bodies were discovered in a makeshift morgue on Easter Sunday.

"We are not alleging misconduct, but we will evaluate whether some facilities put profits over patients, said New Jersey Attorney General, Gurbir S. Grewal of the investigation Tuesday during the states daily coronavirus press briefing. We are looking back and we will hold people accountable if anything criminal happened.

Murphy said the industry does not have it within itself to make the changes, or they would have done so. Change will be coming.

The governor said "the long-term care issue has been among our biggest challenges  if not the biggest. The data spells out why we need to undertake these efforts.

Murphy noted the number of long-term care facilities reporting cases of COVID-19 continues to increase, and the number of cases continues to increase along with it.

Statewide, there are now 509 long-term care facilities with COVID-19 outbreaks. According to the latest numbers, 22,602 residents of those facilities have tested positive for the coronavirus. The death toll now stands at 4,151.

Weve lost too many lives of long-term care facility residents to COVID-19. Roughly half of all of our COVID-19 deaths statewide have been of individuals who had been within the long-term care system, he said.

The state is asking those with information to report misconduct to a special tip-line.NJ Office of the Governor

Andover Subacute, a 699-bed facility in northern Sussex County, has been under scrutiny ever since the discovery on last month of more than a dozen bodies that had been stored in a temporary morgue on site.

To date, at least 67 of its residents at its two buildings, Andover I and Andover II, have died from the coronavirus  the most of any nursing home in the state. New admissions there have already been barred. The facility was ordered by the health department to retain a new infection control specialist and other key personnel. Separately, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is investigating.

Grewal had earlier reported that he was looking specifically into what happened at Andover.

Speaking with the governor, the attorney genera said his departments expanding investigation was not alleging any misconduct by any one facility.

As we look into issues involving long-term facilities, well follow the facts and the law," he said.

While acknowledging that for many facilities, the coronavirus crisis this was the equivalent of a 500-year flood, Grewal said his office will be looking at how nursing facilities operated. Among those issues, said the attorney general: If they lied to regulators. If they put profits before patients."

He said the investigation will be driven by data and numbers.

We have an incredible team and we started on comprehensive plan three weeks ago, he said.

He would not name specific facilities.

Jon Dolan, president & CEO of the Health Care Association of New Jersey, which represents the long-term care industry in the state, said its members understand the need for transparency and oversight regarding any challenges healthcare providers have faced during the pandemic.

We welcome the additional staffing, increased PPE (personal protection equipment), and especially the move to universal testing the governor has promised today, all of which we have needed for some time, he said. We are entrusted with the care of the states elderly and frail population. We appreciate any assistance the state can provide under these challenging circumstances, particularly because it will enable us to dedicate resources to care for our residents and communicate more effectively with their families.

The state Department of Health, which announced it was taking a number of new steps to enforce critical safety measures and protocols to protect residents and staff at New Jersey long-term care facilities, announced it was expanding testing in nursing homes.

According to the governor, there are some in the nursing home industry who have have been slow to respond and adapt to the emergent threat of COVID-19.

We intend to hold folks accountable, Murphy said. We know there are many good actors who will do all they can to protect their residents and staff, unfortunately, we also know that there are bad actors in this industry.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com.
Findings on Victoria Police's conduct in recruiting supergrass lawyer Nicola Gobbo as an underworld informer have been delayed until November.

The findings of the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants were due to be handed down by Margaret McMurdo on July 1, but the state government has granted an extension to November 30 because of ongoing delays.

Nicola Gobbo on the ABC. Credit:ABC

The inquiry will also get another $11.5 million to complete its work, taking the bill for the royal commission to $39.5 million.

That's on top of the $27 million Victoria Police Commissioner Graham Ashton estimated the inquiry was costing the force and Ms Gobbo's legal bills, which are being footed by the state.
Photo credit: Afro Newspaper/Gado - Getty Images

From Popular Mechanics

On March 24, 1945, the 332nd Fighter Group of the U.S. Fifteenth Air Force departed from its base in Italy to escort B-17 heavy bombers on a 1,600-mile round trip flight to the German capital. It was the units longest and most dangerous bomber escort mission of World War II. The target: Daimler-Benzs tank assembly plant in Berlin, heavily guarded by fighter planes like the lightning-fast Messerschmitt 262sthe worlds first jet fighters, flown by some of the Luftwaffes best pilots.

Approximately two dozen Me 262 jets attacked the American bomber formation as it approached the target. The Tuskegee Airmen, flying their red-tailed P-51 Mustangs, fought back against the German jets. While the Me 262s were much faster than the propeller-driven planes, the Mustangs were more maneuverable. The Tuskegee Airmen shot down three enemy aircraft in the skies over Berlin that day, successfully hitting the tank factory and helping clear the path for the Allied Advance into Germany.

Flying bombers on these long-range raids into Nazi-controlled Europe was one of the most dangerous jobs in World War II. The Luftwaffe frequently targeted behemoth bomber planes like the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator; in many early raids into Nazi territory, more than half the crews never made it home. The only protection the vulnerable bombers had were the fighter escorts that guarded them over enemy territory.

And if you wanted the very best escorts, you wanted the Tuskegee Airmen, the first black pilots in U.S. military history.

Photo credit: USAAF / Public domain

Fighting to Exist

Nicknamed the Red Tails for the distinctive red-painted tails of their fighter planes, the Tuskegee Airmen flew more than 15,000 individual sorties and some 1,500 combat missions in World War II. In nearly 200 escort missions, they lost just 27 bombers , significantly fewer than the average loss of 46. But these pilots werent just fighting against fascism overseasthey were also battling racism at home.

Story continues

And against all odds, they won.

In the late 1930s, the German army was spreading through Europe. Although the U.S. hadnt yet declared war, thousands of Americans were signing up to fight overseas as pilots. But at the time, racist stereotypes were widespread in the U.S. military. The Armed Forces were segregated, with black servicemen often restricted to working menial labor jobs. Nowhere was this inequality more apparent than in the Army Air Corps, which didnt just segregate black servicemen from their white counterparts, but outright excluded them.

Photo credit: FDR Presidential Library and Museum

To justify, military leaders pointed to a racist Army War College report released after the First World War. The report claimed black people were an inferior sub-species of human who lacked the intelligence and courage to serve in combat, especially in challenging roles like pilots.

For decades, civil rights leaders had been fighting against such prejudice, lobbying for equal treatment in the military. The pressure mounted when the U.S. started preparing for war. In 1938, anticipating the need for more pilots, the Army Air Corps began establishing flight schools at colleges all across the country, excluding black schools. However, advocates efforts were about to pay off. In 1940, while campaigning for his third presidential term, Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised to start the first training program for black military pilots.

After winning reelection, Roosevelt ordered the War Department to form its first black flying unit: the 99th Pursuit Squadron, later renamed the 99th Fighter Squadron. In July 1941, the first members began cadet training at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. After the attack on Pearl Harbor six months later, the U.S. would go to war.

Photo credit: Bettmann - Getty Images

The "Tuskegee Experiment"

With the U.S. mobilizing for war in the early months of 1941, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Tuskegee Institute, jumped in the back of a biplane, andreportedly ignoring the advice of her security detailwent for a 40-minute flight over Alabama with Charles Alfred Anderson, a black pilot and chief instructor at the institute.

After the flight, Roosevelt posed for a photo with Anderson, and the image soon filled newspapers around the country, helping publicize an increasingly controversial program.

Photo credit: Courtesy photo / Public domain

The Army Air Corps had reluctantly agreed to train black pilots for combat, but insisted on keeping the unit segregated. Dubbed the Tuskegee Experiment, the Air Corps designed the program to test whether black pilots had the ability to fly planes as well as white pilots. Many military leaders fully expected the experiment to fail, but the pioneering aviators were fiercely determined to prove them wrong.

The first aviation cadets at Tuskegee were a small group of college-educated men from across the country. The 12 students in the first class, many of whom had prior flying experience, included one student officer, Captain Benjamin Davis, Jr., who later took command of the 99th Fighter Squadron and eventually became the first black general in the U.S. Air Force.

Davis was the son of one of the first black officers in the U.S. military, and he himself was the fourth black American to ever graduate from the West Point Military Academy, which he accomplished despite being ostracized and ignored by the white cadets and faculty at the school.

Photo credit: Bettmann - Getty Images

Living as a prisoner in solitary confinement for four years had not destroyed my personality, nor poisoned my attitude toward other people, Davis later wrote in his autobiography . I had even managed to keep a sense of humor about the situation; when my father told me of my many supporters, the many people who were pulling for me, I said, Its a pity none of them were at West Point.

By the end of the war, 992 pilots had earned their wings at the Tuskegee flight school. Another 14,000 support personnel also graduated from the program to serve as navigators, mechanics, radio operators, instructors, medics, and other crucial members of the flying unit. Stationed in the heart of the Jim Crow South, the trainees endured shameful discrimination throughout the rigorous program. They were banned from certain areas on the base and in the surrounding towns, where many businesses wouldnt serve them.

But Davis encouraged his crew to respond to each injustice with exceptional discipline. The Tuskegee Airmen resolved to fight against racism by proving themselves in the cockpit. We would go through any ordeal that came our way, Davis wrote , be it in garrison existence or combat, to prove our worth.

In April 1943, the Army Air Corps sent the 99th Fighter Squadron to war, and Davis led the first black pilots in American history into combat.

Photo credit: Bettmann - Getty Images

Heading to War

During World War II, the Tuskegee Airmen carried an extra burden. They knew an exemplary performance in combat would challenge the racist stereotypes held by many Americans. We knew we had to have discipline, former Tuskegee pilot Milton Holmes later told a local newspaper in 2017. We had to be better than everyone because everyone expected us to fail."

After first arriving in North Africa, the 99th Fighter Squadron headed to the Italian islands of Pantelleria and Sicily, where they provided air cover for Allied ships in the Mediterranean and attacked enemy targets on the ground. But discrimination followed them everywhere they went.

In North Africa, a group of senior officers attempted to have the squadron pulled out of combat duty completely. Davis, at this point a lieutenant colonel, passionately defended his squad to the War Department, which found no fault with the units performance. In fact, the 99th Fighter Squadron soon received a Distinguished Unit Citation for its missions over Sicily, and another for shooting down 13 enemy aircraft while covering the Allied invasion of the Italian mainland during the Battle of Anzio .

The unit continued the fight, but it was once again segregated as the 99th was joined by three other squadrons out of Tuskegee to form the 332nd Fighter Group, an all-black unit within the Fifteenth Air Force. It was also given a new primary mission: to escort heavy bombers over enemy territory, a task that would make the Tuskegee Airmen famous.

Photo credit: Portland Press Herald - Getty Images

The Legendary Red Tails

In July 1944, the Tuskegee Airmen were given new planes: the P-51 Mustangs. For identification, the tail sections of the Mustangs sported a distinctive crimson color. With the color came a new name: the Red Tails.

The coveted P-51 Mustang could fly faster and farther than any of the units previous planes. It was originally designed as a dive-bomber for the British Royal Air Force. When it was upgraded for the Air Corps with powerful new Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, it became one of the greatest fighter planes of World War II.

The P-51s were perfect for guarding bombers on long-range missions into Axis-controlled territory. The planes had a range of up to 1,000 miles and could out-maneuver the best Luftwaffe fighters in the air. Tuskegee Airmen made a name for themselves on these escort missions. Over the course of 179 escort missions, enemies only shot down 27 bombersfar fewer than the average fighter escort.

As commander of the 332nd Fighter Group, Colonel Davis set a high bar for excellence. He ordered his pilots to stick close to the bombers they were guarding, rather than peel off to chase down enemy planes. As a result, the Red Tails had no aces, or pilots who shot down five enemy planes. But the units main focus wasnt scoring aerial victoriesit was protecting Allied bombers. And the Red Tails did this exceptionally well.

Photo credit: PhotoQuest - Getty Images

By some reports, bomber crews would specifically request the Tuskegee Airmen as their escorts, and began calling them the Red-Tailed Angels. The German Luftwaffe also had a nickname for the Tuskegee pilots in recognition of their skills, calling them the Schwarze Vogelmenschen, or "Black Birdmen."

Targeting enemy oil refineries, factories, and airfields, the 332nd Fighter Group flew all over southern and eastern Europe in the final months of the war against Nazi Germany. Eventually, they flew all the way to Berlin in their longest escort mission of the war, shooting down three German Me 262 jets during the raid and earning a third Distinguished Unit Citation.

On May 7, 1945, a little more than a month after the Berlin raid, the Germans surrendered to the Allies.

Photo credit: Bettmann - Getty Images

The Fight Back Home

By the end of World War II, the Tuskegee Airmen had achieved a record of excellence that left little doubt as to the ability and courage of black aviators in combat. The squad earned more than 850 awards, including 95 Distinguished Flying Crosses, eight Purple Hearts, one Silver Star, and 744 Air Medals. As for the cost, 66 airmen were killed in action, and another 32 were captured as prisoners of war.

With such accolades, the Tuskegee Airmen should have been welcomed home as heroes, but instead they were met with racial prejudice, sometimes as soon as they stepped foot back onto American soil.

When I came back to the U.S. and down that gangplank, there was a sign at the bottom: Colored Troops to the Right, White Troops to the Left. Tuskegee pilot Lt. Col. Lee Archer told the Chicago Tribune in 2004. At that time I said, well, you know, this is a pity, he later added .

The fight in Europe may have been over, but the crusade for racial equality in America was just beginning, and the Tuskegee Airmen helped pave the way. They forged an indelible example that inspired President Harry S. Truman to sign an executive order in 1948 banning racial discrimination in the military. With the help of Col. Davis, the newly formed U.S. Air Force was the first of the military branches to desegregate its ranks.

The integration of the military set a precedent for desegregation in America. The Tuskegee Airmen preceded Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, Robert D. Rose, the vice president of Tuskegee Airmen Inc, told the New York Times in 2008. If they hadnt helped generate a climate of tolerance by integration of the military, we might not have progressed through the civil rights era. We would have seen a different civil rights movementif we would have seen one at all.

More than half a century after the war, the pioneering airmennow the subject of two feature films and a permanent exhibit in the Smithsonianwere formally honored for their contribution. In 2007, some 300 of the original airmenmany of whom had gone on to lead extraordinary lives of service as activists, professors, doctors, politicians, and war heroes in Korea and Vietnamtraveled to the U.S. Capitol to receive the Congressional Gold Medal .

Two years later, the surviving airmen, by then in their 80s and 90s, were again invited to Washingtonthis time to attend the inauguration of Barack Obama, the first black president of the U.S. At the ceremony, Obama told the group , My career in public service was made possible by the path heroes like the Tuskegee Airmen trail-blazed.

The determination and courage of the Tuskegee Airmen helped change the country they fought for. As of 2020, nearly 50,000 black pilots and personnel serve in the United States Air Force, making up around 15 percent of Americas flying force.

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Defiant campaigners opposing the UK's largest infrastructure project have today clashed with workers as they refuse to leave a tree-top camp set up in ancient woodland.

Anti-HS2 protesters were confronted by officers for positioning themselves on an articulated lorry, while an activist last night claimed to have been assaulted by an employee at Crackley Woods, near Kenilworth, Warwickshire, which is set to be destroyed to make way for the high-speed railway.

Police are investigating the assault allegations, as two people were today arrested: a 37-year-old woman on suspicion of interfering with a motor vehicle and a 46-year-old man on suspicion of traffic offences.

It comes as the Extinction Rebellion and Stop HS2 groups have joined forces to reside at the makeshift camps over the last six weeks.

Their camp of around 20 tents and camper vans is said to feature a roundhouse built from hay bales, complete with a field kitchen.

Today, a campaigner in a hi-vis jacket had to be removed after climbing atop a truck on site, unfurling a banner reading 'NHS Not HS2',

Other demonstrators also appeared to be asked to move on by officers.

Police remove an anti-HS2 campaigner from an articulated lorry in Crackley Woods, near Kenilworth, Warwickshire, pictured

A campaigner in a hi-vis jacket climbed atop a truck on site and unfurled a banner, pictured, reading 'NHS Not HS2'

Police were on site, pictured, as the protest, which has been running for six weeks, continued today

Pictured: A protester wearing a face mask and an NHS Not HS2 T-shirt on the site today

A ladder was used to remove campaigners from the top of an articulated lorry parked in the woods

The demonstration, which has seen campaign groups join forces, has rumbled on for more than six weeks

In a video shared on social media by figures including TV naturalist Chris Packham last night, a protester can be seen accusing a security guard of injuring him.

The man is heard saying 'they're attacking us' as footage shows what appears to be blood seeping from his head.

He adds: 'One of the security hit me on the head repeatedly. I believe it was this man'.

He then points towards one of the workers as other campaigners demand the employee to provide his identity number.

Warwickshire Police said it had received a report of assault and was carrying out enquiries, while the contractor is also investigating.

It comes as claims have also been made that employees on site have been targeted and attacked during recent weeks.

Those at the so-called Protection Camp claim to be self-isolating amid the coronavirus crisis as one large household would, demonstrators said yesterday.

Supporters have been bringing the group food and care packages to leave at the edge of the camp as they continue to protest against the high speed rail link.

One of the campaigners holds up his hand, pictured left, and claims to be bleeding from the head, pictured right, after alleging he was assaulted

Campaigners say the ongoing work to HS2 should be classed as non-essential and is putting the lives of workers and their families at risk.

Environmentalists including Mr Packham are also angry that the development of the railway is leading to 'irreversible destruction' of ancient habitats and woodlands.

Warwickshire Police is investigating the alleged assault after a video, pictured, circulated on social media

Demonstrators arrived at Crackley Woods in March as trees in the woodland began to be felled, despite HS2 contractors erecting fences to keep protesters out.

The group instead built platforms in trees adjacent to the work site so they could see across the fence and witness what is happening to the woodland.

A spokesperson for HS2 insisted the demonstrators are not 'living in trees', but have instead travelled from across the country during the lockdown to set up a camp near the site.

More than 35 people are understood to have been arrested at the site since the protest began in March.

Campaigners have claimed some 108 ancient woods could be destroyed by the high-speed railway, though HS2 insists this is an exaggeration.

Paul Faulkner, chief executive of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, told the BBC only a 'tiny fraction' of the country's ancient woodland will be cleared.

HS2 Rebellion says that health workers remain without personal protective equipment (PPE) and that money used for construction projects should be channelled to such medical supplies instead.

The protesters said they were respecting social distancing guidelines by wearing gloves and masks and claimed the actions were part of their state-sanctioned daily exercise.

Pictured: HS2 line, phase one, is seen running close to Crackley Woods in Warwickshire

Defiant campaigners have refused to leave a tree-top camp set up in ancient woodland, pictured

Campaigners, pictured, say the ongoing work to HS2 should be classed as non-essential and is putting the lives of workers and their families at risk

An HS2 spokesperson said: 'The Government has given the green light to start building Phase One of HS2, which will generate thousands of jobs across the country and create 400,000 contracts opportunities, many for British small businesses.

'This is an important investment in the UK's future as we recover from the pandemic.

'During the current health crisis, the actions of these Extinction Rebellion protesters have put our workers and the public at risk, and the emergency services under unnecessary strain.

'All leading environmental organisations agree that climate change is the biggest future threat to wildlife and habitats in the UK.

'By providing a cleaner, greener way to travel, HS2 will help cut the number of cars and lorries on our roads, cut demand for domestic flights, and help the country's drive to a net zero carbon economy.

'We'd urge all green groups to help us in getting people out of their cars, off planes and onto low-carbon, high speed rail.'
Donald Trump and White House officials refused to wear face coverings while touring a Honeywell factory in Phoenix, Arizona, where workers are manufacturing N95 masks, despite warnings posted onsite to do so. Instead, the president wore goggles.

Before leaving the White House on Tuesday morning, he said: "I think it's a mask facility, right? If it's a mask facility, I will. Yeah. I don't know if it's a mask facility. ... We're going to see Honeywell. They have done an incredible job on many fronts. And so I'm going to pay my respects to a great company and a great state: the state of Arizona."

He added: "They make N95. And they do  and they make them good. They don't make the ones that don't work, like we got sent from certain other countries. No, no  like other people got sent from other countries."

Later, at Joint Base Andrews, he said: "I haven't decided because I don't know, if it's a mask environment, I would certainly do that. I'll know when I get there. But I would wear it. If it's a mask environment, I would have no problem. ... I'm supposed to make a speech. You'll tell me: Should I leave the mask on when I'm speaking? I don't know. It doesn't sound right. But if it's a mask environment, I would certainly wear a mask."

The president has been unwilling to wear a mask in public despite federal guidance urging all Americans do so to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

On 3 April, following new guidance from federal health officials urging all Americans to wear face coverings, the president  unprompted  said: "I don't think I'll be doing it."

He said: "It's only a recommendation ... I'm choosing not to do it."
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Loree Jones, 51, becomes the newest CEO of Philabundance, one of the region's two largest hunger-relief agencies. Most recently the chief of staff to the chancellor of Rutgers University-Camden, Jones was chief of staff for the School Reform Commission, and served as managing director for the City of Philadelphia in the John Street administration. Read more

Loree D. Jones, who has worked in education, the nonprofit world, and city government, will become the new head of Philabundance, one of the regions largest anti-hunger organizations.

She takes over in the midst of a pandemic that is killing hundreds in the area and disrupting the emergency food supply upon which more and more residents rely. Philabundance distributed 26 million pounds of food in 2019, which fed more than 90,000 people weekly in Philadelphia, its suburbs, and portions of South Jersey. This years figure is expected to top 30 million pounds in the wake of the virus.

Jones, 51, chief of staff to the chancellor of Rutgers-Camden, will become CEO of Philabundance on June 2, succeeding Glenn Bergman, the former executive director, who left in March.

These are unprecedented times, said Jones, who served as chief of staff of the School Reform Commission, the former governing body of the Philadelphia School District, from 2012 till 2014. She also was chief of external affairs for the district from 2014 to 2015, and managing director of the city under Mayor John F. Street in 2007.

I believe thats what Im here for  my experience," she said. "But Ill be joining a strong team, which gives me comfort. Its a huge challenge for us.

Because of COVID-19, growing unemployment is causing hunger to spike, and at the same time, shelf-stable food supplies are dwindling because panic buying has left the stores with little food to donate.

Adding to the difficulties, the corps of mostly senior citizens who help run pantries has been decimated, not by the coronavirus but the fear of it, resulting in the shuttering of at least 70 of 350 pantries supplied by Philabundance.

 FAQ: Your coronavirus questions, answered.

The agency is joined in the effort to bring food to low-income residents by the Share Food Program, which distributes food to about 500 pantries in the area.

I cant think of a better person to put in the middle of a crisis than Loree, said Estelle Richman, herself a former managing director of the city, as well as Pennsylvania secretary of welfare and chief operating officer of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Loree can stay focused on the main issue for Philabundance, which is making sure people are fed. Shes calm in crisis. And shell be thinking of not only what we do in the middle of the coronavirus, but how to help people in the future.

What will guide Jones through the pandemic and beyond are her abilities to communicate as well as to energize other people to do great things, said her latest boss, Phoebe A. Haddon, chancellor of Rutgers-Camden. She has the skill set to be a terrific leader.

Jones said she was drawn long ago to public service, as corny as that sounds."

A graduate of the Philadelphia High School for Girls, Jones has a history degree from Spelman College, a historically black liberal arts college for women in Atlanta. She earned a masters degree in history from Princeton University. She is single and lives in Mount Airy.

She served as co-executive director of City Year Greater Philadelphia, an educational nonprofit in which young people serve as tutors and mentors to public school students. She also has been executive director of the African Studies Association, the worlds largest scholarly association for the study of Africa.

Loree has consistently delivered extraordinary results in the nonprofit and public sectors, said John F. Hollway, chair of the Philabundance board and associate dean of the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. To achieve our goal of reducing not just hunger but also poverty ... we will need to expand our current services and work with like-minded organizations ... to redesign our regions social safety net.

For anyone who might doubt Jones ability to focus, those who know her bring up her days of working with Street when he was leading very long walks to train for a 20-mile charity walk around 2007.

He asked a few of us working for him to commit to it, and I said, Sure, why not? Jones recalled.

The why not? part soon became obvious, as Jones was walking more than eight miles every Sunday with Street and others for about four months.

She doesnt walk those distances anymore, she said. But, she added, I tell young people thats an interesting way to connect with a new boss.

Its not clear what Jones salary will be. Bergman, her predecessor, made around $170,000 annually, according to public filings.

Staff writer Dylan Purcell contributed to this article.
A team of American (Microsoft) and Chinese (Huazhong University) researchers recently released FairMOT (Fair Multi-Object Tracking), an open-source (free for anyone to use) AI Object Detector system. What this software system does is speed up (30 frames a second) the identification of objects on video that more quickly and precisely follows objects in the video. Civilian uses include security and monitoring hospitals or elder-care facilities to detect potential problems. This also has military uses, the major one being able to make better use of the huge American databases of UAV and ground-based security videos. Currently, all this video overwhelms the ability of troops to extract useful information. Since the 1990s there have been numerous projects undertaken to make better sense of all this data. The proliferation of video cameras on the battlefield, especially UAVs (as well as ground and underwater vehicles) for surveillance or base security has created a huge library of images that show bad guys doing what bad guys do and what they look like while doing it. This can range from moving around carrying weapons, to using those weapons, to the particular driving patterns of people up to no good. These images are a unique resource, and the U.S. is putting together a library of these images. This is similar to older still pictures libraries, which were eventually used by pattern recognition software to let machines examine the millions of images digital photo satellites began producing decades ago. The basic problem was that very soon there were too many pictures for human analysts to examine. Computers had to do much of the work, or else most of the images would go unexamined. This technology was quickly adapted to the kind of combat encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan, and terrorist operations in general.

There are other benefits of FairMOT. Research has shown that people staring at live video feeds start losing their ability to concentrate on the images after about twenty minutes. This problem has been known for some time, and the military (not to mention civilian security firms) have been seeking a technological solution. It's actually not as bad with UAVs, because the picture constantly changes, but cameras that are fixed can wear operators out real quick.

The basic tech solution is pattern analysis. Since the most common video is digital, it's possible to translate the video into numbers, and then analyze those numbers. Government security organizations have been doing this for some time but after the fact. It's one thing to have a bunch of computers analyzes satellite photos for a week, to see if there was anything useful there. It's quite another matter to do it in real-time. But computers have gotten faster, cheaper and smaller in the last few years, and programmers have kept coming up with more efficient routines for analyzing the digital images. Commercial firms already have software on the market that will analyze, in real-time, video, and alert a human operator if someone or something (you are looking for) appears to be there. The AI object detector takes advantage of faster computers and more powerful video cards to do what it does.

While some military analysis does not have to be real-time, like the system used in Iraq and Afghanistan to compare today's and yesterdays photos of a road to see if a bomb may have been planted, the most common need is for real-time analysis. Several times a year now, a new software package shows up that does that or tries to. These systems are getting better. Many can definitely beat your average human observer over time (several hours of viewing video). The real-time analysis software is rapidly evolving. You don't hear much about it, because if the enemy knows the details of how it works, they can develop moves that will deceive it or, to be more accurate, make the pattern analysis less accurate. That is changing as the need for commercial AI object detector appears. For a decade this software has been used as an adjunct to human observers, and gradually taking over. There will always be a human in the loop, to confirm what the software believes it has found.

But the big breakthrough, which may already have been achieved, is a predictive analytics system that can quickly examine thousands of hours of video from a specific area and calculate the probability that certain vehicles, or individuals, down there, are up to no good, or will simply be traveling down a certain road. This works if you have lots of examples of people you know, and are trying to find. The predictive analysis looks for enough indicators to make it likely that something specific is going to happen. When done in real-time, the analysis software can instantly alert users that something specific is about to happen at a specific location. If nothing does happen, that is saved and added to the library of experience the analysis software uses to make predictions. In effect, the predictive analysis software gets smarter the more often it is used. And the library of combat zone video images grows larger as well, making it possible for the analysis software to sniff more behavior patterns that predict bad actions.
A new support service, Together 4 Cancer Concern has been launched by the Irish Cancer Society, the National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP) and Cancer Care West.

The organisations have come together to build a virtual community of care for people who are struggling with the emotional and psychological effects of living with cancer during this very challenging and uncertain time.

The development of this support service was prompted by queries presenting to cancer support groups and centres across the country. The emergence of Covid-19 has added another layer of stress as cancer patients know that they may be in a higher risk group if they develop the virus.

Added to this are the effects of isolation and cocooning, a completely unnatural way for people to live in 2020. There has been a noticeable increase in the level of distress over the past three weeks.

With this new service, there is the opportunity for cancer patients, their families and carers to access support from cancer nurses, their local cancer support centre staff, counsellors or clinical psychologists depending on the issue they are struggling with. This joint initiative makes the best use of the expertise that has been developed in community cancer support over the past 15 years.

The National Cancer Control Programme is currently implementing Irelands National Action Plan in response to Covid-19 for cancer patients and their families. The plan includes supporting peoples psychological well-being in this time of uncertainty. Together 4 Cancer Concern recognises this and aims to provide psychological support and care for cancer patients and their families. This initiative also fits with the current National Cancer Strategy in that its aim is to offer cancer patients and their families support when and where they need it.

To implement this service the National Cancer Control Programme, Cancer Care West and the Irish Cancer Society have set up a dedicated national telephone service to provide access to a comprehensive psychological service to cancer patients, survivors, their families and carers. The service is also available for children and teenagers using appropriately trained and vetted practitioners.

Following screening from Irish Cancer Society Support line, patients deemed to be experiencing psychological distress, at Level 1, 2 and 3 (as per the Model of Psychosocial Distress, ODwyer & Collier, 2003) will be referred to their local support centre or a panel of counsellors. People presenting with Level 4 and 5 distress, will be referred to Cancer Care West Clinical Psychologists.

The free service will be available from anywhere in Ireland and can be accessed through the Irish Cancer Societys Support line Freephone 1800 200 700. It includes a panel of counsellors who have experience with cancer patients, with connections to community cancer support centres across the country and a team of clinical psychologists from Cancer Care West. This will ensure that everyone, no matter what their level of distress, can access the right support, at the right time.

The Together 4 Cancer Concern helpline will be in operation 7 days per week; 9am-8pm Monday-Thursday and 9am-5pm Friday-Sunday. To contact the helpline please call: 1800 200 700 or email cancernurseline@

irishcancer.ie.

Bridget Kerrigan, General Manager, Sligo Cancer Support Centre situated at 44 Wine St, Sligo told the Observer We at Sligo Cancer Support centre are delighted to be part of this initiative in supporting cancer patients during this most difficult time with the outbreak of Covid-19.

Our centres are both working remotely to ensure we continue to provide support to cancer patients and their families at this difficult time. Our office Hours are Monday  Friday 9-5. 071 9170399. Outside of these hours please contact the Together 4 Cancer Concern through the ICS Nurseline on:1800200700

We are doing this by providing phone/video counselling, we are also running some of the support groups virtually along with a mindfulness class.

We are doing our best to continue the supports during this time. We are open for new clients so if you or a family member are struggling with Cancer or a recent diagnosis please get in touch.

We also offer bereavement support to those who have lost a loved one to cancer.

All our staff are available to support you at what is a very difficult time as we understand how you may feel very isolated with your Cancer diagnosis along with the added worry and fear of Covid-19.

We look forward to opening the doors of No 44 Wine Street and 53 Ard Aisling, Tubbercurry where we can return to our comprehensive supports for our clients which also includes supporting Oncology patients in Sligo University Hospital and Letterkenny Hospital, North west hospice.

If you require any further information or would like to Support Sligo cancer support centre please telephone 071 91 70399 or http://www.sligocancer supportcentre.ie/ you can also follow us on Facebook or Instagram.
A 16-year-old girl who was shot to death early Sunday at a Balcones Heights apartment complex was identified Monday.

Miranda Martinez died from a gunshot wound to her head, according to the Bexar County Medical Examiners Office. Her death was ruled a homicide.

Balcones Heights Police Chief John Jahanara said officers were investigating an alarm at Planet Fitness at around 4 a.m. when they heard gunshots coming from The Rise Apartments at 4300 Fredericksburg Road.

Jahanara said there may have been some sort of gun or drug exchange at the apartment when the shooting occurred. He said Martinez, who is from San Antonio, was at the complex with family.

Police arrested two men in connection with an incident after the slaying, but no suspects have been charged in Martinezs death as of Monday.

Jacob Beltran is a reporter covering San Antonio and Bexar County. To read more from Jacob, become a subscriber. jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSA
Approvals for residential building continued to hold steady over the March quarter, proving that the housing market had momentum as it entered 2020, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Building approvals clocked a 1.8% quarterly growth in March, with houses and units registering gains of 1.9% and 1.5%, respectively.

"At least up until the end of March, we were looking at solid home building activity across most regions for 2020," said Tim Reardon, chief economist at the Housing Industry Association.

New South Wales helped boost the overall quarterly growth after it recorded a seasonally-adjusted 16.5% increase in building approvals. Tasmania also posted a robust gain at 6.1%.

"New South Wales had the strongest month for multi-unit approvals since February 2019, to make the March quarter 28.6% higher than the December 2019 quarter. This suggests that there was another cycle, albeit smaller, of apartment building on the way," Reardon said.

Also read: Property Values Stable Amid COVID-19

Tasmania also posted a robust growth at 6.1% while approvals in Western Australia, Victoria, and Queensland remained flat. On the other hand, approvals in South Australia declined by 19.1%.

In terms of housing type, both detached housing and units approvals grew over the quarter, up by 1.9% and 1.5%, respectively.

While the gains in approvals indicate strong housing market fundamentals, Reardon said the recent data have yet to reflect any impact of the restrictions imposed due to COVID-19.

"Due to the lag between purchasing a dwelling and getting a building approval, these results are from sales prior to the restrictions on trade and travel," he said.

Reardon said the approval figures and the data on new home sales, house prices, and housing finance showed that the market was starting the new decade strongly.

Maree Kilroy, economist at BIS Oxford Economics, said the COVID-19 shock has yet to manifest through in the approval data.

"Dwelling approvals are expected to weaken over the remainder of 2020 as a response to significantly weaker demand for new dwellings," she said.

Denita Wawn, CEO of Master Builders Australia, said the COVID-19 outbreak could potentially halt the construction of 43,000 homes over the next 12 months. Master Builders previously projected that there would be around 159,000 new housing commencements in 2020/21.

We now expect there to be only around 116,000, a drop of 27%. There is already a current shortfall in achieving the required target of 200,000 homes a year which means that the impact on housing needs of our community will be severe, she said.

Wawn said the federal and states governments policies and stimulus measures will be vital in ensuring that the impacts of the outbreak will not be severe.

We want the building and construction industry to be in shape to rebuild Australia. We want to protect the viability of hundreds of thousands of small businesses and the jobs of a million Australians. For that we need governments to act now, she said.
[May 05, 2020] Recorded Future to Provide Free Access to Elite Intelligence Through New Browser Extension

BOSTON, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Recorded Future, the largest global security intelligence provider, today released a free browser extension that helps prioritize SIEM alerts and vulnerability patching, in addition to providing enhanced malware analysis. With this release, Recorded Future is the only intelligence company to openly offer access to its data. The new offering, Recorded Future Express , gives users real-time Risk Scores for any domain, hash, vulnerability, or IP, further democratizing access to critical intelligence for all security teams. Designed to work where security professionals do, Express is compatible with most security websites and technologies, including Splunk, Tenable, Qualys, and IBM QRadar. Express provides users with high-level indicator data, including dynamic Risk Scores that highlight the relative severity level associated with each item being viewed or researched. Each Risk Score is calculated based on intelligence gathered from an automated analysis of vast amounts of data from open, closed, and technical sources. "With Express, we're able to reduce the first round of intelligence gathering significantly across three critical security functions to weed out false positive alerts, avoid non-critical patching, and immediately understand risk from IPs. Any security solution that helps my team and me move faster is a meaningful resource  this is like having a Swiss Army knife in my back pocket at all times."  Aaron Isaacs, Cyber Security Officer, CisCom Solutions Delivered through a lightweight browser extension, Express can be used directly within existing security and technology solutions, including: From 30 Minutes to 30 Seconds: Address SIEM Alerts Faster Users can layer Recorded Futureintelligence directly over their SIEM to confidently prioritize and triage alerts fast. Clicking on an indicator allows users to jumpstart an investigation by learning relevant risk information immediately, like whether or not an IP is a current command-and-control server.



Take Vulnerabilities from 20 to 1: Prioritize Patching By focusing on the 5.5% of vulnerabilities that are "ever actually exploited in the wild ," Express helps users prioritize patching on the vulnerabilities that matter most. Recorded Future real-time security intelligence helps users instantly understand which vulnerabilities pose the most risk, so they can patch those first. Express can be used to view real-time Risk Scores directly on any webpage, or directly over vulnerability management solutions.

Verdict IOCs In 1 View: Enhance Malware Analysis Express eliminates the need to spend valuable time reviewing malware analysis. Express provides external security intelligence on indicators of compromise so users can quickly identify and understand high-risk IPs and hashes. Recorded Future's intelligence drives faster action, empowering users to proactively prevent malware before it hits their environments. "The research and response time afforded to security and IT professionals to defend their organizations continues to rapidly shrink. Recorded Future Express offers action-oriented, initial intelligence for any defender working with security tools or information in a browser-based environment, or looking to understand the risk associated with technical indicators found during research. We're providing real intelligence that you can act on, without even having to leave your browser, for free."  Stuart Solomon, Chief Operating Officer, Recorded Future To download Express, sign up at recordedfuture.com/express . Know Everything: Accelerating Security With Intelligence The Recorded Future Security Intelligence Platform enables collaboration across security functions while providing a single authoritative source for all intelligence needs, including: SecOps and Response, Threat Intelligence, Brand Protection, Vulnerability Management, Third-Party Risk, and Geopolitical Risk. Clients and analysts have recently shared the following outcomes using Recorded Future: Reduced time spent on due diligence and reference checking by 50%

Improved threat intelligence workflow efficiency by 50%

Improved overall visibility of threats targeting the organization by 25% Request a demo of Recorded Future at recordedfuture.com/demo . About Recorded Future Recorded Future delivers security intelligence to amplify the effectiveness of security and IT teams in reducing exposure by uncovering unknown threats and informing better, faster decisions. Working to provide a singular view of digital, brand, and third-party risk, the Recorded Future platform provides proactive and predictive intelligence, analyzing data from open, proprietary, and aggregated customer-provided sources. Recorded Future arms threat analysts, vulnerability management teams, security operations centers, and incident responders with context-rich, actionable intelligence in real time that's ready for integration across the security ecosystem. Learn more at www.recordedfuture.com and follow us on Twitter at @RecordedFuture. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/recorded-future-to-provide-free-access-to-elite-intelligence-through-new-browser-extension-301052834.html SOURCE Recorded Future

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(Newser)  The fatal shooting of a security guard at a Family Dollar in Michigan over a face mask argument is the most violent dispute yet related to the backlash over coronavirus safety restrictions. But police are investigating a spate of other incidents around the country as well. Coverage:

In Flint: Police say Sharmel Teague, 45, entered a Dollar Store with her unidentified daughter, in her 20s. Teague was wearing a mask, but her daughter was not, and security guard Calvin Munerlyn ordered the daughter to leave, reports the Detroit News. After he and Teague argued, police say she left and returned 20 minutes later with her husband, Larry Teague, and son, Ramonyea Bishop, and they accused Munerlyn of "disrepecting" Sharmel Teague, police say. Witnesses say Bishop, 23, shot Munerlyn in the head, according to prosecutors. All three have been charged in the killing, and the men are still at large.

Police say Sharmel Teague, 45, entered a Dollar Store with her unidentified daughter, in her 20s. Teague was wearing a mask, but her daughter was not, and security guard Calvin Munerlyn ordered the daughter to leave, reports the Detroit News. After he and Teague argued, police say she left and returned 20 minutes later with her husband, Larry Teague, and son, Ramonyea Bishop, and they accused Munerlyn of "disrepecting" Sharmel Teague, police say. Witnesses say Bishop, 23, shot Munerlyn in the head, according to prosecutors. All three have been charged in the killing, and the men are still at large. The victim: Munerlyn was a married father of nine, including three stepchildren, reports the Detroit Free Press. "From all indications, Mr. Munerlyn was simply doing his job in upholding the governor's executive order related to the COVID-19 pandemic," says the Genesee County prosecutor. (Michigan has seen big protests over the rules.) A GoFundMe page for the man nicknamed "Duper" had raised more than $160,000 as of Tuesday morning.

story continues below

Another in Michigan: Police in Holly are looking for a man who wiped his nose on the sleeve of a Dollar Tree customer when ordered to wear a mask, reports the Free Press.

Police in Holly are looking for a man who wiped his nose on the sleeve of a Dollar Tree customer when ordered to wear a mask, reports the Free Press. In Illinois: Police charged a 59-year-old man in Decatur with battery after they say he refused to wear a mask while paying for gas and shoved an employee, reports the Herald-Review.

Police charged a 59-year-old man in Decatur with battery after they say he refused to wear a mask while paying for gas and shoved an employee, reports the Herald-Review. In Ohio: Gov. Mike DeWine ordered residents to wear masks on April 27, but he reversed himself the next day after people expressed outrage, reports Politico. It became clear to me that that was just a bridge too far," said the governor. "People were not going to accept the government telling them what to do."

Gov. Mike DeWine ordered residents to wear masks on April 27, but he reversed himself the next day after people expressed outrage, reports Politico. It became clear to me that that was just a bridge too far," said the governor. "People were not going to accept the government telling them what to do." And this in California: A man in Santee, near San Diego, was pictured in a Ku Klux Klan hood while shopping at a supermarket, reports the Los Angeles Times. Store employees say they repeatedly asked the white man to remove the hood or leave, and he finally took it off when a store supervisor ordered him to do so while in the checkout lane. The incident took place a day after rules went into place mandating face coverings in public in San Diego County. Police are investigating, per the Times of San Diego.

A man in Santee, near San Diego, was pictured in a Ku Klux Klan hood while shopping at a supermarket, reports the Los Angeles Times. Store employees say they repeatedly asked the white man to remove the hood or leave, and he finally took it off when a store supervisor ordered him to do so while in the checkout lane. The incident took place a day after rules went into place mandating face coverings in public in San Diego County. Police are investigating, per the Times of San Diego. More generally: The New York Times has a broader look at those protesting coronavirus restrictions. It seems to be a wide-ranging mix of "resurrected Tea Party activists, armed militia groups and protesters carrying Confederate flags, as well as some merely demanding to open their businesses." Anti-vaxxers also are out in force. "There is a tremendous amount of cross-pollinization of ideas as these factions get to know each other, Devin Burghart of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights tells the newspaper.

(Read more Family Dollar stories.)
Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-Wen, wearing a mask, observe soldiers demonstrate drills at a military base camp in Tainan, Taiwan, April 9, 2020. Reuters



Only Taiwan's democratically-elected government can represent its people on the world stage, not China, its foreign ministry said on Tuesday, calling on the World Health Organization (WHO) to "cast off" China's control during the coronavirus pandemic.



Taiwan's exclusion from WHO, due to China's objections which considers the island one of its provinces, has infuriated Taipei, which says this has created a dangerous gap in the global fight against the coronavirus.



Taiwan has been lobbying to attend, as an observer, this month's meeting of the WHO's decision-making body, the World Health Assembly (WHA), although government and diplomatic sources say China will block the move.



Steven Solomon, the WHO's principal legal officer, said on Monday that the WHO recognised the People's Republic of China as the "one legitimate representative of China", in keeping with U.N. policy since 1971, and that the question of Taiwan's attendance was one for the WHO's 194 member states.






The Mumbai Police on Tuesday



granted permission to 900 migrant labourers to travel in a special train to their home state Andhra Pradesh amidst the coronavirus lockdown.

A total of 29 buses were arranged to transport the labourers to Kalyan railway station in neighbouring Thane district from where they will board a train to Guntakal in Anantpur district of Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday night, an official said.

These 900 migrant labourers are residents of Dongri, Wadi Bunder and other parts of south Mumbai, he said.

The police in collaboration with a city-based NGO had been distributing essentials to these labourers ever since the lockdown was enforced in March, the official said.

"We have permitted them to travel to their hometowns and made all arrangements for them, as they were living in our jurisdiction," senior inspector Sandip Baglikar said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
May God not reduced humans to this. Residents of Samson, situated on the northern coast of Turkey, were surprised over the weekend when they looked out of their windows to see a huge flock of sheep overrunning the streets below.

As people were staying in-doors due to the countrys coronavirus lockdown, a huge number of sheep were seen flocking into the city, with some even stopping on grassy patches to graze.

A resident in one of the citys apartment blocks filmed the sheep from above, showing just how many of the animals had found their way onto Samsons streets, and took to social media to share the surprising experience.

Another video of the same incident shows a man, very nonchalantly, at the front of his herd as he leads them through the streets, while his sheepdogs keep the sheep in-line.



The bells on she sheep can be heard ringing and echoing off the tall apartment blocks in the city as the sheep baa their way down the roads, following their owner.

As roughly a third of the worlds population is currently under some form of coronavirus lockdown in an effort to fight the global pandemic, nature has taken the opportunity to try and reclaim some lost ground.

Many other wild animals have also dared to explore deeper urban areas and have been found in places which would usually be impossible for them to venture to; usually-packed beaches, city roads and waterways.

From surfing hippos to playful dolphins, animals have been taking advantage of a world in coronavirus lockdown, and now, the flock of sheep has become the latest group of urban adventurers.

A wild hippo was pictured splashing and surfing in the waves off the usually packed tourist beach of Ponta do Ouro, Mozambique, on April 21.

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A well-known market intelligence company, Infiniti Research, has announced the completion of its latest article exploring critical challenges facing the Swiss manufacturing industry

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005844/en/

This blog provides insights into:

An overview of the Swiss manufacturing industry

Manufacturing industry challenges in Switzerland

As the center of gravity of manufacturing has gradually migrated to Asia over the past decade, it has become acceptable in more developed nations to assume that manufacturing industry can no longer play a substantial role in the expansion and continued sustainability of their economies. Switzerland is known for setting itself apart internationally by being a highly competitive and attractive market to do business. The Swiss manufacturing industry has come under increased pressure over the past couple of years. The global financial crisis and the subsequent strength of the Swiss franc posed several manufacturing industries challenges. In the view of these manufacturing industry challenges, the questions to find answers to here is how long Swiss manufacturing companies can remain competitive and how they are going to do so.

During the COVID-19 crisis, it is critical for companies in the manufacturing market to take calculative and well-executed measures to ensure business continuity in the long run. Request a free proposal to know how industry experts at Infiniti Research can help you plan and create comprehensive action plans to navigate the crisis.

We examine some of the manufacturing industry challenges in Switzerland:

Economic volatility : The Swiss economy is characterized by rising volatility and increased uncertainty since the global financial crisis almost a decade ago. Subsequently, there was an increased pressure on margins of companies in the manufacturing industry due to the strengthening of the Swiss franc. This situation was stabilized to a considerable degree when the Swiss national bank implemented the EUR/CHR exchange rate floor. However, the increasing pressure has resulted in several companies in the Swiss manufacturing sector to make additional operational adjustments. Manufacturing companies exporting primarily to Europe are most likely to shift their focus outside traditional markets to growth regions.

: The Swiss economy is characterized by rising volatility and increased uncertainty since the global financial crisis almost a decade ago. Subsequently, there was an increased pressure on margins of companies in the manufacturing industry due to the strengthening of the Swiss franc. This situation was stabilized to a considerable degree when the Swiss national bank implemented the EUR/CHR exchange rate floor. However, the increasing pressure has resulted in several companies in the Swiss manufacturing sector to make additional operational adjustments. Manufacturing companies exporting primarily to Europe are most likely to shift their focus outside traditional markets to growth regions. Rising global competition: Amidst rising global competition, innovation, the need to introduce new and innovative products are becoming paramount for companies in the manufacturing industry. While targeting new growth markets, manufacturers must ensure that their products are tailored to suit local needs. Product innovations are essential in developed markets to survive despite the rising competitive pressure. The challenge here for companies in the Swiss manufacturing industry will be to reinvent themselves amid these tensions, especially because new products from emerging markets are increasingly being imported to developed countries and has become a source of competition for manufacturers in domestic markets.

Ensuring business continuity a challenge due to COVID-19? Request more info to learn how Infiniti is helping companies around the globe assess the business impact of the coronavirus outbreak and plan for business revival post-COVID-19.

About Infiniti Research

Established in 2003, Infiniti Research is a leading market intelligence company providing smart solutions to address your business challenges. Infiniti Research studies markets in more than 100 countries to help analyze competitive activity, see beyond market disruptions, and develop intelligent business strategies. To know more, visit: https://www.infinitiresearch.com/about-us

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005844/en/

Contacts:

Infiniti Research

Anirban Choudhury

Marketing Manager

US: +1 844 778 0600

UK: +44 203 893 3400

https://www.infinitiresearch.com/contact-us
The local arm of Honda motorcycles in the Philippines expressed pride over their offering throughout the years being utilized as workhorses in during this time of pandemic.

Honda Philippines, Inc. President Susumu Mitsuishi said that many of the delivery riders are using their units, especially the Honda Click and Beat scooters.

The usage of these Honda motorcycles does not come as a surprise as Honda 3S Shops in the Philippines have already reached the 600-mark this year.

HPI, the No. 1 motorcycle manufacturer locally, joins the country as it works to meet the challenges posed by the global health crisis through the work of delivery riders in ensuring the transportation of essential goods and services.

I am proud to see that our motorcycles have become indispensable and are being used with a great purpose. A purpose of keeping people safe at home and encouraging social distancing, during this crisis, Mitsuishi said.

Honda motorcycle delivery

Since the implementation of lockdown, traffic was reduced due to social distancing between people and encourage them to stay at home.

Other than some essential services remaining open such as food delivery and medical needs, the e-Commerce industry is on the rise due to the sole reason that people can buy what they need online and have it delivered right to their homes, thereby making delivery couriers important frontliners as well.

Couriers are allowed to operate and continue doing their jobs as long as they maintain safety precautions imposed by quarantine guidelines, like wearing facemasks and gloves, and being equipped with alcohol and other hygiene essentials, which were also a requirement by their own courier companies.

Honda motorcycle courier

Locally, riders from motorcycle taxi-hailing apps, which were once under the feasibility study, have shifted their services from providing transportation for people to delivering food and other essential goods, in line with government-imposed guidelines.

Aside from providing livelihood during this pandemic, riders are providing an important lifeline to many people forced to stay home through the delivery of food and medicines, not to mention aiding in the governments efforts in keeping human interaction as minimal as possible.

Story continues

"We also commend the effort of our Hero Riders as they offer courage and aid during this crisis," the HPI executive concluded.

Also read:

Honda PH to Locally Manufacture BeAT

Honda motorcycles Now Being Used by PRC
Savers facing financial difficulties due to Covid-19 have been thrown a lifeline.

In a welcome move, HM Treasury has finally agreed to reduce the punishing exit fee it previously charged anyone wanting to withdraw money from a Lifetime Isa (Lisa) for an unapproved reason. It means savers no longer risk ending up with less than they put in.

Until now, savers who have needed to access their cash because their circumstances changed have been forced to hand over millions to the Government in fees  even if they needed the money for essential bills.

Fee relief: HM Treasury has finally agreed to reduce the punishing exit fee it previously charged anyone wanting to withdraw money from a Lifetime Isa for an unapproved reason

Some savers have discovered they must withdraw part of the money in their Lisa in order to claim Universal Credit, as you must have less than 16,000 in savings. Any benefit is reduced if you have more than 6,000.

The Lisa was launched in April 2017 to help people save for their first home and later life.

Plans are open to anyone aged 18 to 39, and you can save up to 4,000 a year until you are 50.

The government adds a 25 per cent bonus which you use to buy your first home or put towards your retirement.

However, if you withdrew money for any other reason there was a hefty 25 per cent penalty.

How do Lifetime Isas work and should you get one? What's on offer to young savers hoping to get on the housing ladder - read more here.

You would forfeit the 25 per cent government top-up and lose 6.25 per cent of your own cash.

Since the scheme was introduced, Lisa savers have paid 9 million in early withdrawal charges, according to a Freedom of Information request by insurer Royal London.

The reduced fee applies from March 6 this year until April 5 next year.

If you have paid the charge on a withdrawal made after March 6, your provider can claim the money back for you.

The new rules apply to all withdrawals on Lisa money held in cash or in stocks and shares. You dont have to prove you need the money to benefit.

Until the rule change is made official in Parliament, which the Treasury has said will happen as soon as possible, some providers may insist you pay the higher penalty now and will then refund you later.

However, experts warn against cashing in your Lisa unless you have no choice.

Those with money in shares will have likely seen the value of their savings plummet and should hold fire until the market recovers.

Adrian Lowcock, head of personal investing at Willis Owen, says: This move is very welcome now, but think very carefully about the long-term effect on your savings.

There are only a handful of providers which offer a cash Lisa. The best deal, at 1.25 per cent, is online with Nottingham Building Society and Moneybox, via its smartphone app.

sy.morris@dailymail.co.uk
Burma Six Labor Strike Leaders Jailed for Breaking Myanmar's COVID-19 Rules

Workers from Blue Diamond Bag factory strike at their factory entrance. / Supplied

Yangon  Six labor rights activists, including two union leaders from a factory in Yangons Dagon Seikkan Township, were jailed for three months on Monday for leading strikes which violated COVID-19 orders.

Since May, 2, more than 100 workers from the Blue Diamond bags factory have blocked the entrance to demand full wages during April, although operations stopped from April 19 to 30 due to government orders.

The strike was led by members of the unregistered All Burma Federation of Trade Unions (ABFTU).

Ma Thet Htar Swe of the ABFTU told The Irrawaddy that the authorities on Monday broke up the strike and arrested two leaders and four ABFTU members without holding any talks.

That evening factory union leaders Ma Zar Zar Htun and Ma Lay Lay Mar and ABFTU members Ko Kyaw Myo, Ko Myo Gyi, Ko Min Min Naing and Ko Thet Oo Maung were sentenced to three months in prison by the Dagon Seikkan Township Court under the Prevention and Control of Communicable Diseases Law, according to ABFTU.

On April 16 the government banned gatherings of five or more people under coronavirus preventative measures with the threat of up to six months in prison and fines.

Dagon Seikkan Township administrator U Zaw Naing Oo confirmed the prosecutions to The Irrawaddy.

Before the Thingyan holidays, Blue Diamond workers held strikes demanding their employer close the factory for a month with full pay to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

There will be strikes for labor rights in the future. Our demands for rights cannot be halted by prosecutions, said labor activists Ma Thet Htar Swe.

She said five other workers leaders from the Rainwear House and Brightberg factories in Dagon Seikkan also were arrested last night over strikes held before Thingyan.

State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi told representatives of employers and labor unions via a video conference on April 22 that the government would take action against anyone violating COVID-19 restrictions.

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Building New IDP Camps Requires Security Considerations: Rakhine State Govt

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Myanmar Govt Lists Essential Businesses Prioritized for Reopening Amid COVID-19
Herndon, VA, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) today announced that four contracts have been issued to build Staffords technology testbed, a key milestone for the public-private partnership developing Virginias first ground-up smart community. Expected to be up and running in six weeks, the smart city technology testbed will focus on Internet of Things (IoT) device security to help prevent community ransomware attacks, and protect the privacy of citizens, while providing critical data to help the county improve operations and services.



The Stafford testbed will act as a living laboratory - testing emerging technologies in real-world situations and providing a long-term capability that can be used to validate innovation before bringing it into the operational Smart Stafford infrastructure.



Contracts were awarded to the following companies to begin the build:







Security and privacy are a critical foundation for building sustainable smart communities. We are excited to see this groundbreaking project kick off today with the support of our technology partners, said John Holden, director of Stafford Economic Development and Tourism. The testbed illustrates our commitment to public-private partnerships, innovation, and entrepreneurship in Stafford and provides a unique opportunity for Downtown Stafford to be the model for smart cities across the Commonwealth.



The project builds on work done for the Department of Homeland Security at George Mason Universitys EagleBank Arena last fall - a large-scale experimental IoT deployment at the Arena that demonstrated dual-use capability for both daily facility operations and first responder information in emergency situations. The Stafford County effort is funded through investments from the Department of Homeland Security and Virginia Smart Community initiatives. It will include activities in both Stafford County and Arlington.



About the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT)

Investing for Commonwealth Growth | CIT concentrates on the early commercialization and seed funding stages of innovation, helping innovators and tech entrepreneurs launch and grow new companies, create high paying jobs and accelerate economic growth throughout the entire state of Virginia. Founded in 1985, CIT accelerates next-generation technologies and technology companies through commercialization, capital formation, market development initiatives, and expansion of broadband throughout Virginia. Our programs include | CIT GAP Funds | Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund (CRCF) | Virginia Founders Fund | Broadband/Rural Broadband | Smart Communities | Cybersecurity | Unmanned Systems | SBIR/STTR Support (Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) & Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs) | University Partnerships | Startup Company Mentoring & Engagement. CITs CAGE Code is 1UP71. Contact: 2214 Rock Hill Road #600, Herndon, VA 20170 | 703.689.3000 | www.cit.org

You can also follow CIT on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.



About Aer Wireless

Aer Wireless, a Virginia-based company, offers an innovative wireless last-mile technology solution that provides simple, fast, affordable broadband connectivity with a focus on rural America. Aer Wirelesss mission is to provide rapid deployment of high-speed Internet to help communities improve economic development, telemedicine, distance learning, and other smart city and quality-of-life services anywhere...regardless of the terrain. With a proprietary mesh network technology, powered by Mage Networks, and a unique combination of technology and services, customers can enjoy ultra-fast Wi-Fi Internet at home, outdoors, or on the move. For more information, please visit www.aerwireless.com.



About Mutualink

Mutualink, Inc. provides an interoperable communications platform that enables community-wide multimedia sharing of radio, voice, text, video, data files, and telephone communications in a secure environment. Mutualinks system is deployed by thousands of public safety and private security entities and facilities, including homeland security, police and fire departments, emergency operations centers, hospitals, schools and universities, transit authorities, stadiums, shopping malls, casinos, and more. Mutualink is a privately held company headquartered in Wallingford, CT, with R&D facilities in Westford, MA; Allen, TX; and Mayaguez, PR. For more information, please visit www.mutualink.net.



About Onclave Networks

Onclave Networks, Inc. is a Virginia-based technology company offering Secure IoT through a channel of system integrators and device OEMs globally. Onclave formed and patented its technology in 2016. Secure IoT is a Zero Trust secure communications platform for Enterprises and device OEMs that runs and protects Operational Technologies regardless of age, operating system, manufacturer, or protocol. Secure IoT includes continuous monitoring with isolation and containment by design to eliminate the OT attack surface and dramatically improve enterprise protection while reducing costs. For more information please visit www.onclave.net.



About OST Global

OST Global, Inc. is a leader in implementing Smart City projects and a provider of C4ISR, Cyber, Engineering, Logistics, Managed Services, and Smart technologies. OST serves multiple industries, including aviation, defense, financial, health, insurance, utility, and transportation. Its client base consists of Fortune 1000 companies and public sector organizations such as the US Department of Defense (Air Force, Army, Navy, and Joint programs), Commerce, Education, Energy, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, plus state and local governments. OST is externally appraised/registered as CMMI-DEV Level 3, CMMI-SVCS Level 3, ISO 9001, ISO 10002, ISO 20000, and ISO 27001. For more information, please visit www.OSTGlobal.com.


The ten cheapest places to buy a home in Australia have been revealed with eight homes in rural towns selling for less than $35,000.

The mining town of Broken Hill in the far west of New South Wales had the most properties listed under $50,000.

Properties and plots of land are up for sale from $20,000 and up to $25,000 in the small town of Andamooka, approximately 600km north of Adelaide in far north South Australia.

The cheapest was a one-bedroom home inside the Lake View Hall in South Australia which sold for $5,500.

The cheapest property was a one-bedroom home inside the Lake View Hall in South Australia which sold for $5,500

Other towns such as Coober Pedy in South Australia and Katanning in Western Australia all had properties for sale from under $25,000.

One of the cheapest properties was a three-bedroom home in Moree, northern New South Wales, which sold for $14,000.

Most of the properties were significantly damaged by fire or located in rural areas, but could see a significant financial return for renovators willing to put in the work.

The homes that were already sold saw an average rental return of 10 per cent compared to only 3 per cent in Sydney.

Properties excluded from the analysis were caravan sites, homes in retirement villages and holiday houses.

A three-bedroom house in Coober Pedy in South Australia sold for $15,000 in January and sits on a 1069sqm block of land.

455 Ferrall Street, Coober Pedy, South Australia

This three-bedroom house sold for $15,000 in January and sits on a 1069sqm block of land.

Pictures of the home revealed every window was covered with corrugated iron and rubbish and metal littered the exterior.

The listing stated the home required extensive repairs, with one image showing a large hole in a wall that was boarded up with more corrugated iron, and had fire damage.

One three-bedroom home in Moree, NSW sold for $14,000 in January but featured significant fire damage both on the inside and the outside which was allegedly started by an arsonist

11 Grace Street, Moree, New South Wales

A three-bedroom home sold for $14,000 in January but featured significant fire damage both on the inside and the outside which was allegedly started by an arsonist.

One section of the roof had caved in from the fire and the front window was completely burnt.

Majority of its interior was destroyed by the fire with several walls damaged and debris covering the floor.

The kitchen and bathroom were the only rooms that were relatively untouched by the fire.

Lot 632 in Andamooka, South Australia is a 2428sqm plot of land listed for a price of $20,000 to $22,000 and comes with a small. one-bedroom, one-bathroom fibro shack

Lot 632 Clark Street and Lot 75 Government Road, Andamooka, South Australia

Lot 632 is a 2428sqm plot of land listed for a price of $20,000 to $22,000.

It comes with a small. one-bedroom, one-bathroom fibro shack.

Lot 75 is 1224sqm plot of land priced at $20,000 and located near a hospital and close to the main road.

Approximately 270km from southeast Perth, a three-bedroom home in the town of Katanning, Western Australia a was priced at $24,500 and sold for an unknown price in April

18 Blantyre Street, Katanning, Western Australia

Approximately 270km from southeast Perth, a three-bedroom home a was priced at $24,500 and sold for an unknown price in April.

The property was initially listed for $29,000 in December 2018.

Most of the windows were boarded up with corrugated iron and the exterior walls had several holes.

The two-bedroom, one-bathroom property in Broken Hill, NSW was listed for $24,000 and sold for an unknown price in March

237 Williams Lane, Broken Hill, New South Wales

The two-bedroom, one-bathroom property was listed for $24,000 and sold for an unknown price in March.

Majority of the interior was significantly damaged, with the bathroom covered in debris and the kitchen covered with newspapers, planks of wood and an electrical port hung from the ceiling.

Wall covering in one of the bedrooms had detached and fallen to the ground while most of the walls in the house were damaged or had their covering removed.

This three-bedroom property in Mullewa, Western Australia is listed for $20,000 and consists of two blocks side-by-side

30 and 32 Carson Street, Mullewa, Western Australia

This three-bedroom property is listed for $20,000 and consists of two blocks side-by-side.

Most of the windows have been boarded up with planks of wood and corrugated iron as they have been smashed and there is a large hole in one of the walls attached to the lounge room.

There are two large holes on the walls either side of the hallway and the flooring has been ripped up or severally damaged.

Lot 406 in Andamooka, South Australia is listed for $25,000 and features a three-bedroom transportable house with an open plan kitchen, lounge room and is situated close to the main road

Lot 406 Koska Street, Andamooka, South Australia

Lot 406 is listed for $25,000 and features a three-bedroom transportable house with an open plan kitchen, lounge room and is situated close to the main road.

There is no significant damage to the transportable home but some panels in the roof are stained from water.

The painting on the window frames have been slightly damaged and the home is held up cinder blocks.

The listing entices buyers to 'come and finish off this project and make it your own.'

Initially sold for $15,000 in February, this three-bedroom home is back on the market for $35,000 after significant repairs

45 Angove Street, Norseman, Western Australia

Initially sold for $15,000 in February, this three-bedroom home is back on the market for $35,000 after significant repairs.

All of the carpets have been replaced and all the walls have been freshly painted.

It features a large lounge room and a new kitchen which are connected.
If you're looking for something to quarrel about in Hamilton, transportation is a splendid subject area.

There is nothing that raises blood pressure and polarizes the community better than a civic discussion about getting around.

In fact, the ugliest moment in the history of the city involved public transit. On Nov. 24, 1906, amid a violent HSR strike, Mayor Sanford Biggar invoked the riot act that sent club-waving police and cavalry charging into an unruly mob of thousands of strikers, union sympathizers and street thugs.

Hamilton police started clearing hooligans from the streets immediately after the Riot Act was read on Nov. 24, 1906. | Hamilton Street Railway

Hundreds were injured and more than 30 arrested. It was one of only two times the act has been called in Hamilton, and things weren't nearly as bad on the other occasion.

And who can forget the 40-year squabble between proponents and opponents of the Red Hill Creek Expressway? Even after the parkway opened in November 2007, controversy continued with a protracted lawsuit between the city and the federal government. Now, a judicial inquiry is trying to figure out why a report about slippery pavement on the crash-prone highway was hidden for years.

Bike lanes. One-way streets. Red light cameras. Speed bumps. Pot holes. They are issues of blown gasket discourse and public policy gridlock.

And then, of course, there is the LRT. North-South. East-West. Build it. Don't build it. The city needs it. Buses are good enough. Now the province says it's too expensive but it's being studied some more. It goes on and on.

But the other interesting thing about the rise and fall of LRT is the remarkable similarity to another major provincially funded transit proposal that went off the rails 40 years before.

It was called "elevated transit" and the story line was very similar to the LRT saga (although the LRT plan was east-west and elevated transit was focused on north-south).

A Hamilton HSR streetcar limps back to the sheds after encountering downtown mobs in 1906. | Special to The Hamilton Spectator

Vast amounts of provincial and federal money were available to build an electric rail system that would have transformed the city. The provincially owned Urban Transit Development Corp. wanted a demonstration project - to help market the technology around the world - and Hamilton was the perfect mid-sized community to showcase it. Essentially, it was an overhead rail system similar to the SkyTrain monorail that Vancouver ended up with years later.

With Hamilton, the UTDC folks particularly loved the chance to show off the driverless system running up and down the Mountain on a route between Jackson Square and Lime Ridge Mall.

But in December 1981, Hamilton-Wentworth Regional Council voted down the $111 million proposal amid opposition from the public.

"It was a big mistake. Our staff supported it. We thought it would have been a huge advantage for the city," says Doug Lychak, who was the region's planning and development manager back then.

Suzanne Boutin, community relations co-ordinator for the Hamilton-Wentworth Rapid Transit Project Office, inspects a model of a MacNab Street station in Hamilton's proposed elevated transit system. | The Hamilton Spectator file photo

"It was the parochial attitude of a number of councillors that killed it," he said in a telephone interview from his home in Okanagan Falls, B.C. "Think how different Hamilton would be today if they had put in that elevated transit system 40 years ago. Think how different the core would be and how overall transportation would have improved. It would be a far stronger and better city."

Among the opponents was then Hamilton mayor, Bill Powell Sr. He didn't think there would be enough riders and feared enormous operating costs.

Others complained it was nothing more than a preposterous Disneyland fantasy that could never fly in the real world.

Lorna Kippen, who was chair of the Coalition on Sane Transit, a citizens' group that opposed the project, thought it was a terrible idea. She felt people who lived along the proposed route were "being shafted."

"I was so relieved when it was finally over and they finally came to their senses," she said in a recent interview.

But others disagreed.

Frank Cooke Sr., who was general manager of the HSR at the time and deeply involved in the issue, took the disappointment to his grave when he died in 2015, says grandson Terry Cooke.

"The last conversation we had, when he was 100 years old, was that it was the biggest lost opportunity that he saw in his 40 years of public service.

Dr. Elizabeth Bagshaw sets out on her morning rounds on Oct. 16, 1976. | The Hamilton Spectator file photo

"And when it came to LRT, he said 'surely to God we're not going to make that mistake again,'" recalled Cooke, a former Hamilton-Wentworth regional chair and current CEO of the Hamilton Community Foundation.

On This Day in Hamilton History

On March 3, 1932, Canadian medical history was made when a controversial Birth Control Clinic opened in Hamilton, amid bitter opposition.

The clinic, the first of its kind in the country, was led by crusading physician, Dr. Elizabeth Bagshaw, who worked there for 30 years providing contraceptives and counselling birth control, something that technically was a violation of the Criminal Code of Canada at the time.

Bagshaw argued that amid the Great Depression many families could not possibly handle additional mouths to feed. "They couldn't afford children if they couldn't afford to eat. So the families came to the clinic and we gave them information," she once said.

Bagshaw practised medicine well into her 90s and died Jan. 5, 1982, at 100 years of age.
With Mobile County leading the state in coronavirus infections and deaths, city and county leaders are focusing coordinated testing on areas where outbreaks are the worst, such as nursing homes and the Mobile Metro Jail.

On Tuesday, a temporary testing site was set up outside the jail where employees  corrections officers, medical care employees and maintenance workers  were given the option to voluntarily take a nasal swab test.

Its an excellent turnout, Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson said.

A line of uniformed and non-uniformed employees formed early in the morning and stretched around a fenced off area. They were greeted by employees from USA Health dressed in protective equipment who administered the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) nasal swab test. The test that collects mucus from deep within the patients nasal passages where the virus accumulates, is viewed as the most accurate of the tests available to determine if someone has COVID-19.

Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran said he anticipated more than 120, and perhaps up to 200 people being tested at the temporary site within the next two days. The results have a 48-hour turnaround and will help determine how much of a COVID-19 spread is occurring within the jail.

There have been more than 60 positive cases at the jail with slightly more inmates than employees being infected with the virus.

None of the inmates will be tested for coronavirus at the temporary site. A WPMI-TV report citing the jails warden suggests that hundreds of inmates are in isolation as a precaution.

Cochran said the he doesnt believe there is a need for inmates to be administered a PCR test. He said his department is following recommendations of public health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on isolating inmates, saying that if an inmate shows symptoms or is around someone who we already verified (as having COVID-19), we automatically assume he or she has the virus and we treat them the same as someone who 100% (has the virus).

The jail population has been reduced in the past month as the coronavirus spread through the facility, lowering from 1,580 inmates to 1,100 in less than four weeks. Inmates with non-violent crimes, misdemeanors other than domestic violence or DUI charges, those who are over 55 years old and have pre-existing medical conditions, were run through the court systems via Skype and Zoom in early April.

Cochran said there were 1,050 inmates as of Tuesday morning, some of whom are state prisoners. He said the state had quit taking inmates 1-1/2 months ago and that Mobile County was in a 30-day backlog of inmates going to the prisons.

So many of our inmates  were sentenced to long prison terms and we are stuck with them, said Cochran. We are at an impasse with the Department of Corrections.

Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran speaks to the local media on Tuesday, May 5, 2020, outside the Mobile Metro Jail in Mobile, Ala. (John Sharp/jsharp@al.com).

A response from the Alabama Department of Corrections was not immediately available Tuesday. The ADOC on April 16 announced it was beginning to accept inmates again from county jails following a temporary moratorium. The state announced it wasnt accepting inmates with COVID-19 symptoms or from jails that had an inmate test positive within the past 14 days.

Cochran said he was aware of one inmate being released from the jail who had been exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19. But Cochran said that particular inmate didnt have the virus after all.

The departments entire staff has already received the antibody tests for coronavirus. Those tests, done through blood samples, determined which employees are carrying the antibodies for the virus but are not considered as reliable as the PCR test for determining if someone is presently infected with COVID-19.

Again, Cochran said, the inmates have not undergone antibody testing.

When an inmate comes down with a fever, he or she is immediately separated and that particular wedge (within the jail) is put on lock down, said Cochran. If someone else tests positive for it, they are further separated.

Cochran said separation of inmates is occurring within the jail and the nearby minimum-security barracks building on St. Emanuel Street.

Anyone who gets newly arrested, we segregated them (from the general population) for seven days, said Cochran. Any new inmate that comes in, they have their temperatures checked.

He added, I wished, in time, we could do the antibodies on the inmates. Wed find a huge percentage have had the virus, but well know more in the next several days from the PCR tests (on the jail employees).

The testing at the jail comes as Mobile County continues to lead the state in confirmed cases (1,223) and deaths (68). The county, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health statistics, has tested 2% of its population.

Stimpson has said he believes the reason for Mobile Countys high numbers is related to the recent surge in testing that has been administered by local hospitals like USA Health, which is conducting the COVID-19 testing outside the jail.

He also said the focus on clusters  like nursing homes and jails  is leading to the increases. For instance, at Crown Health Care of Mobile on Navco Road, 101 residents and employees have tested positive for coronavirus. Of the residents who have tested positive, 25 remain at the facility and 22 are in local hospitals, according to figures furnished on Friday. There have been 19 deaths (17 residents and two employees) from the coronavirus outbreak at Crowne Health.

Said Stimpson, Anywhere you have people living in confined areas, youll find a proliferation of this virus.
Photography: Doisneau show in Bologna reopens on May 21 At Palazzo Pallavicini 143 images by Parisian artist

(ANSAmed) - BOLOGNA, MAY 5 - The doors of Palazzo Pallavicini, in Bologna, will reopen to the public on May 21 to showcase images shot by the author of the most discussed 'kiss' in the history of photography. The photo is among 143 shots on display for the exhibit on 'street photography' taken by Parisian photographer Robert Doisneau. The show was suspended after just two days in March due to the COVID-19 emergency and was extended until July 21 with a limited number of visitors admitted and social distancing measures.



The show is a result of the project by Francine Deroudille and Annette Doisneau, the photographer's daughters, who selected from 450,000 negatives produced in over 60 years of activity autobiographical images of the artist, the author of 'Le baiser de l'hotel de ville', among the most famous images of post-WWII.



The photos portray grey outskirts of Paris, factories and shops, the war seen from the Resistance, people at work or celebrating, the countryside, meetings with artists and celebrities.(ANSAmed).




Damion Miller before his freak accident with his partner Celeste and daughter Maddison

A father who was left quadriplegic after snapping his neck in a horrific surfing accident is facing deportation - and could be forced to leave his young daughter behind.

Damion Miller, 35, was at Newport Beach in Sydney's north for a surf on February 21 when he dived over a wave and broke the C3 and C4 discs in his neck and severed his spine.

The freak accident left the father-of-one paralysed from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair.

Mr Miller, who has been in Australia since he was a teenager, met his partner Celeste and worked six-days a week, paid his taxes and took out a mortgage on an apartment.

The Millers thought he would be eligible for the National Disability Scheme (NDIS) while the 35-year-old was receiving treatment in Sydneys North Shore hospital.

But a social worker and three doctors soon informed him his NDIS claim was rejected because he was still classed as a New Zealand citizen.

This also meant Mr Miller would not be able to receive the rehabilitation required to better cope with his new life.

Mr Miller dived over a wave and broke the C3 and C4 discs in his neck and severed his spine. He is now confined to a wheelchair

Mr Miller was told he can stay in the hospital under coronavirus restrictions are lifted and he can fly back to New Zealand leaving behind his daughter Maddison (right) and partner Celeste

With coronavirus restrictions still in place, Mr Miller was given the option to remain in hospital but will have to fly back to New Zealand once everything is back to normal.

He said this would separate him from his daughter and he had a sick mother back home who would not be able to look after him.

Mr Miller now says the government is threatening to separate him from his daughter despite living in Australia for nearly 20 years.

'It's hard for a five-year-old to understand and I don't know what to say to her,' he told A Current Affair.

'Let me be a dad to her, let me teach her the rights and wrongs and watch her grow up.'

His daughter Maddison said 'I want him to stay with me' as Mr Miller teared up beside her.

'The only thing that gets him through the days and nights is watching his little girl grow up and now they're trying to take that off him,' his partner said.

'He's lost his whole life and now they're telling him he's going to lose his little girl too.'

Mr Miller is not eligible for the NDIS because he is still considered a New Zealand citizen (pictured kissing his daughter Maddison with partner Celeste)

Devastated at their situation, Ms Miller reached out to her federal MP, Jason Falinski, in the hope of allowing Mr Miller to become an Australian citizen, which would make him eligible for the NDIS.

'They can't break up a dad and his little girl, they can't send him home,' she told the program.

Mr Falinski offered his full support to the family when they lodge Mr Miller's form to become an Australian citizen.

Mr Miller broke his C3 and C4 discs in his neck and severed his spine in a freak surfing accident

'She's my future, she's the one i'm trying to be strong for and get through this. I want to get to that stage where we get to be a family again,' Mr Miller said.

'I don't want my daddy to go back to New Zealand and I want him to stay with me,' Maddison said.

'Every child needs a dad in their life, I just can't accept that they would actually send her father to another country because he had an accident.'

A Give a Little page was launched to help support the family.
New Delhi, May 5 : : In a relief to the makers of Vir Das' latest web series "Hasmukh", the Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to grant an interim stay on the streaming of the show on the OTT platform Netflix.

The stay had been sought after allegations that the show makes disparaging comments against lawyers, particularly in episode four of season one, titled "Bambai Main Bambu".

"The very essence of democracy is that a creative artist is given the liberty to project the picture of the society in a manner he perceives. One of the prime forms of exposing the ills of the society is by portraying a satirical picture of the same," said a single judge bench of the High Court presided by Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva.

"Stand-up comedians perform that very purpose. In their portrayal they use satire and exaggerate the ills to an extent that it becomes a ridicule. In the humorous portrayal of the ills of the society the stand-up comedians use satire," the bench observed.

While dismissing the application, the court stated that the "plaintiff has not been able to show that the impugned comment in any manner refers to the plaintiff or refers to a definite group of individuals or lawyers out of the entire class of lawyers to which the plaintiff belongs".

The plea filed by Advocate Ashutosh Dubey sought the court's directions to the web series producers, directors and writer to tender unconditional apology online, saying that the web series had "maligned the image of the lawyers' community, which includes judges as they too had been lawyers at one point of time".

The plea further read: "The said remarks have caused utmost damage to legal profession and impugn the image of lawyers in the eyes of millions of viewers/ subscribers who visit the streaming website where the show is being streamed." The plea also sought deletion or removal of certain objectionable content from the series, especially from season one, episode four.

The plea alleged that in the said episode, the makers have alleged lawyers to be "thieves, scoundrels, goons and have had the indecency to address, lawyers as rapists".

Advocate Priyanka Khimani, who represented defendant in the case, seemed extremely happy and welcomes the court's decision.

"This is a welcome decision that reinforces artistic and cinematic freedom of speech and expression, without which the world of storytelling would not survive. The content universe today thrives on its ability to express and communicate freely, as it rightly should in any free-thinking and free-speaking nation. So this decision is a gentle reminder of the fact that that freedom and ability are still, very much, intact," Khimani said "Hasmukh" also stars Ranvir Shorey, Manoj Pahwa, Ravi Kishan and Amrita Bagchi.
Since the foreign workers are identified by name, mission, logo, with the domestic workers, how does it interfere one whit less if we accept your argument? Breyer asked. They will be seen, domestic, as well as the foreign ones, as hypocrites or, worse, interfering with their mission. If we accepted that argument before, why dont we accept it now?
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 5)  The Palace has downplayed comments made by the Presidential Legal Adviser about how the "invasion" of COVID-19 could be basis for the declaration of martial law.

Speaking at his regular briefing Tuesday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Secretary Salvador Panelo was just stating an opinion.

"I thnk that is the personal view of Secretary Panelo... We cannot, of course, deprive Secretary Panelo of his freedom of speech," he said.

When asked if this was advice given to President Rodrigo Duterte, Roque said it could have been, but the President had the experience to judge it himself.

"The President being a long-time public servant, is a specialist not only in criminal law because he was a prosecutor for many years, but also a specialist in Constitutional law because for the past 30 years ay siya po ay naging [he has been] elected public official. He's probably one of the most noted constitutionalists in this country right now by experience if not by academic training," he said,

Panelo stirred talk on Monday after stating a legal theory that Duterte can declare martial law on the basis of invasion of the novel coronavirus.

He said during his commentary show on state broadcaster Peoples Television that the term invasion has changed throughout the years and can also mean the entry of a disease and the transfer from one area to another.

There is an actual invasion of the coronavirus disease, which is pandemic. It threatens, in fact, the entire country, so may aktwal na invasion (there is an actual invasion), Panelo said.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra also disagreed with that definition of invasion, adding that it, along with rebellion, refers to armed actions by human beings, not by non-living things like viruses.

When asked if he agreed with Guevarra's assessment of the issue, Roque said, "In legal parlance, I concur with the view of Secretary Guevarra."

Panelo has not commented on either Roque or Guevarra's statements.
LANSING, MI -- A software bug in the computer system delayed daily reporting on COVID-19 cases in Michigan on Monday, but the viruss impact was still being felt.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been thrust into the national spotlight as her handling of the situation continues to be scrutinized both locally and by President Donald Trump. Whitmer said she is focused on Michigans response to the outbreak and is not concerned about her national profile.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey said Monday he supports efforts to curb some of Whitmers powers. The governor has used her emergency powers to issue 69 executive orders in the last 56 days.

Below is a look at the most recent developments related to the crisis.

Less than 10% of Michigan coronavirus tests coming back positive; 86 new deaths reported

Statewide coronavirus case numbers came late and incomplete Monday, but there was a positive note in the data.

In early April, about 40 percent of Michigan coronavirus tests were coming back positive.

Now, the number has dipped below 10% for the first time since the start of the pandemic. About 8.8% of the 10,577 tests done on Saturday, May 2  the most recent testing data available  came back positive. The day before, 9.9% of tests were positive.

The statewide total number of COVID-19 cases was 43,950 Monday, with 4,135 deaths, but state health officials said those numbers were incomplete because a software glitch.

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Whitmer is now a national figure

From being tweeted about by the president, to being parodied on Saturday Night Live, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has become a national figure during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its even led to speculation that she could be considered as Joe Bidens nominee for vice president.

This story takes a deep look at how Michiganders have come to know the governor and what the future may look like for her as the spotlight focuses in on her even more.

Here are the 69 executive orders issue by Gov. Whitmer in the last 56 days

Understanding the various executive orders and what they mean can be difficult. This list lays out all the orders Whitmer has signed since the coronavirus outbreak began in Michigan, how they impact daily life and when they are scheduled to expire.

Shirkey supports petition to limit Whitmers emergency powers

During a radio interview Monday morning, Sen. Majority Leader Mike Shirkey said he supports a petition drive for a ballot measure to limit the emergency powers of the gorernor. Shirkey, R-Clark Lake says he has not formed a ballot committee or taken steps to begin a petition drive himself, but supports the idea.

I would look forward to starting that process, which I hope we do within the next couple weeks," Shirkey said, per a Detroit News report.

Whitmer launches office to oversee enormous sums of coronavirus spending

Whitmer announced the creation of a new office Monday that will be tasked with overseeing the states spending in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The COVID-19 Office of Accountability will be responsible for ensuring coronavirus funds from federal, state and philanthropic sources are spent wisely, in compliance with the law and in a transparent and accountable manner."

The office will make recommendations for changes to the purchasing process used by state agencies, and also monitor spending transparency. Michelle Lange has been named the temporary supervisor of the office. The Department of Technology, Management and Budget will name a permanent supervisor soon.

Congressman sues Whitmer over stay-home orders, claims constitutional rights violations

A federal lawsuit filed Monday by a Michigan congressman accuses Whitmer of violating the U.S. Constitution with her lockdown orders."

U.S. Rep Paul Mitchell III, R-Dryden, filed the lawsuit Monday, May 4 in Grand Rapids federal court against Whitmer and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon, who has also issued emergency orders amid the outbreak.

The lawsuit claims violations of due process rights and asks the federal court to deem Whitmers orders unconstitutional, even if they are lifted before the lawsuit is resolved.

Michigan shortens timeline for handling bodies, making funeral arrangements

Funeral homes and hospitals will have to be quicker to contact families and make arrangements after deaths as part of an executive order signed Monday. The order gives hospitals and funeral directors 24 hours to attempt to contact individuals with authority over disposition of a body. If that person cannot be contacted, the responsibility falls to the county medical examiner.

If a person with authority over the disposition of a body is identified, they have 48 hours from the time of death -- not from the time they were notified -- to make a decision and complete arrangements regarding disposition. Failure to act within 48 hours forfeits the right to make a decision.

State buys back $3.3M in liquor as part of relief program

A state program to help bars and restaurants led to $3.3 million in spending by the state to buyback unused liquor. Licensees were permitted to sell back unused liquor to the state at full price with the understanding that the licensee would buy it back from the state at the same price within 90 days of the state of emergency order being lifted.

There are 657 bar and restaurant owners taking part in the program, receiving a total of $3.3 million  which averages to more than $5,000 each, according to the state.

I am pleased that through this innovative program, we can provide much-needed cash to hundreds of Michigans bars and restaurants that are struggling right now, to help tide them over until theyre open for business again," Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a news release.

Michigan grocers, cattlemen say theres no meat shortage but urge against panic buying

Although national headlines warn of a potential meat shortage, local ranchers and grocers say they arent having a problem meeting demand. While prepackaged products may be in shorter supply, finding ground beef shouldnt be a problem long term.

However, there is concern that a spree of panic buying over fears of a perceived shortage could do harm to the supply chain and make it harder for your local stores to keep product in meat cases.

Thousands of West Michigan businesses applied for coronavirus relief

Roughly 3,300 West Michigan businesses applied for financial grants through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation as part of the Michigan Small Business Relief Program. The businesses sought a total of $71 million in grants.

However, a fraction of that amount will be made available as 195 businesses will share $1 million in funding according to The Right Place, a Grand Rapids-based economic-development group. The group will distribute the $1 million to the business. The group also forwarded 33 applications for the program to the MEDC.

Michigan hospitals will receive $1.3B for treating coronavirus

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Monday $1.3 billion in federal funding for Michigan hospitals that continue to treat COVID-19 patients. Included in the grant is $900 million to 30 high-impact provider" hospitals that treated more than 100 COVID-19 patients as of April 10. It also includes $95 million to Wayne County for treatment of low-income patients; and $326 million to 259 healthcare providers in Michigans rural communities.

HHS declined to release a list of Michigan hospitals receiving the funds or the specific amounts but said a database that includes that information is being created.

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

Complete coverage at mlive.com/coronavirus
The accused Claremont serial killer swore, expressed disbelief and proclaimed his innocence after police stormed his home in an early morning raid and arrested him.

Footage of Bradley Robert Edwards, a former Telstra technician hearing the allegations against him for the first time in December 2016 was played at his epic Supreme Court of Western Australia trial on Tuesday.

Cuffed and sitting on the floor in his Kewdale house, the 51-year-old, exclaimed 'what the f***' after detectives told him he was suspected of murdering secretary Sarah Spiers, childcare worker Jane Rimmer and solicitor Ciara Glennon in 1996 and 1997.

He used the same expletive when told he was also suspected of abducting a teenager from a Claremont park and raping her at nearby Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995 - which he admitted the month before his trial started in November.

Bradley Robert Edwards (pictured) is accused of murdering secretary Sarah Spiers, childcare worker Jane Rimmer and solicitor Ciara Glennon in 1996 and 1997

Edwards is accused of murdering childcare worker Jane Rimmer (left) and secretary Sarah Spiers (right) in 1996 and 1997

Edwards asked 'who?' when further accused of breaking into a Huntingdale home and indecently assaulting a sleeping woman in 1988, which he also confessed to last year.

'You've got to be joking,' he said as detectives read his rights.

'My head is spinning.

'I understand. I'm just trying to process what's going on.'

When prompted to ask questions, he said: 'Why me? I'm innocent.'

Edwards was repeatedly asked if he wanted a lawyer but declined.

'I don't know what to do,' he said during his interview at cold case homicide squad headquarters.

'I just want to go to sleep and wake up and this will be all a bad dream.

'What you've accused me of, they're obviously serious things.

'I'm innocent - I don't know why you're accusing me of them.'

Ciara Glennon, 27, the third victim of the Claremont serial killer, allegedly Edwards

Edwards said he 'vaguely' remembered the Huntingdale woman's name as she lived nearby when he was young, he'd known her indirectly and once visited her home for a swim.

Asked if he had been back to her property, he replied: 'Not that I can ever remember'.

Edwards insisted he had 'not much' association with the Claremont area and replied 'yep' when asked if he was positive he hadn't been to Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995.

He had his head slumped in his hand when asked why his DNA was associated with the offences, including the murder of Ms Spiers, whose body has never been found.

'I can't believe what you're saying,' he said.

'I'm being as honest as I can with you guys about everything.'

Samples of his DNA were taken, but police already had it on file, having covertly taken it from a soft drink bottle he discarded while at the cinema with his stepdaughter.

Showing the interview video - in which Edwards reveals one of his social media user names is Bogeyman - marks the end of the prosecution case.

They allege DNA on a kimono he left behind at the Huntingdale house matched DNA found underneath Ms Glennon's fingernails, which partly broke off as she fought her attacker.

The state also says fibres from his work trousers and Telstra-issued car were found on the rape victim, Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon.

The defence team has argued the evidence could have been contaminated.
Former lawmaker, Senator Shehu Sani has called on the federal government to engage the private sector in order to halt mass unemployment looming as a result of Coronavirus pandemic.

Also Read: Shehu Sani Reacts To Approval Of Oronsaye Report On Restructuring Of FG Agencies

Recall that some days ago, the Minister for Labour, Chris Ngige ordered private firms to take clearance from the federal government before retrenching their workers.

Reacting to this directive, the former lawmaker from Kaduna expressed that the government should devise a way of supporting the private sector to save millions of jobs rather than issuing statements.

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See his tweet below:
OAKLAND, Calif., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- StructionSite, the automated site capture software that uses cameras and artificial intelligence to automatically track installs on a construction site, has been doing its part to aid the construction industry in a time of uncertainty. Following the reports of worldwide site shutdowns and restricted jobsite access due to the COVID-19 outbreak, StructionSite announced it would offer free access to its site documentation platform for 60 days to any company that needs to quickly document their jobsites during this time.

Companies that choose to stop using the platform after 60 days will have the ability to fully export their project data (drawings and hyperlinked 360 photos) to an offline format for archiving.

According to Ted Jennings, Senior VDC Manager at Barton Malow, "Throughout the COVID pandemic there have been multiple challenges thrown at construction projects. One challenge that Barton Malow was faced with was photographic documentation for jobsites. Documenting existing conditions across many of our sites in the most organized and efficient way became a large priority. With the help of StructionSite, their platform has provided Barton Malow with the best solution for detailed, easily accessible photo navigation and comparison." He added that, as an additional benefit, "the ease of accessibility through StructionSite's intuitive user interface allows teams to remotely view their projects."

"As the construction industry experiences a new set of challenges as a result of COVID-19, our partners at StructionSite are increasing the ability to track progress on-site, helping contractors avoid risk while keeping projects moving," said Kris Lengieza, Sr. Director of Business Development at Procore. "Connecting into the Procore platform provides one place for project teams to work together with an integrated set of construction applications that are mobile-ready for the field."

StructionSite also just announced that it has secured a $7 million Series A round of financing. The round was led by D20 Capital, with participation from Prelude, CEMEX Ventures, 500 Startups, Obayashi Corporation, and several industry-defining Angel Investors. With roots in the construction industry, the founding team is intimately aware of the many challenges that the industry faces, and the company plans to use this funding to continue its efforts to build innovative products that provide solutions to some of those pain points.

That dedication is felt by many of StructionSite's customers as well as industry leaders, as the company has seen exceptional customer growth over the course of the last year, coupled with a significant increase in strategic partnerships with standout construction technology companies. Now trusted by 75% of the ENR Top 20 construction companies in North America, StructionSite continues to deliver on its promise to help contractors reduce rework, improve communication, and mitigate risk. According to Kaushal Diwan, National Director of Innovation at DPR Construction, "StructionSite has been an invaluable solution for many DPR projects, especially during the COVID crisis. It has really helped those crews quickly document projects."

In the wake of this pandemic and beyond, StructionSite's platform is able to give distributed project teams complete, 360-degree access to the jobsite at any time, from any device. By simply walking the site while recording 360-degree video with their VideoWalk functionality, a wealth of in-the-moment project knowledge is gained that can be shared across disparate teams during the course of construction. With SmartTrack , StructionSite's upcoming product, image data is quantified using computer vision and machine learning, allowing project teams to easily see and visualize the daily status of work completed for specific trades.

Now more than ever, this data will continue to be critical to contractors as the industry prepares to shift to post-pandemic business operations.

Highlighted features

"This new investment ultimately means we have an expanded capacity to deliver an amazing customer experience while also having the resources to build new and unique products that solve serious business problems," said StructionSite Chief Executive Officer Matt Daly. "It's not a coincidence that several of our investors have roots in construction, meaning they have a long-term stake in making our industry better. It is our honor to be partnered with both investors and customers who share our vision to optimize construction project performance, fueled by reality capture data and artificial intelligence."

About StructionSite

StructionSite offers a smarter, easier way to document the progress of your jobsites. Using our iOS or Android application, walk the jobsite recording 360 videos and our AI-powered algorithms place them on the project drawing for you. Our automated site capture tool translates daily project updates into actionable insights and valuable data for your team. With StructionSite, you'll be able to reduce rework, increase your efficiency and minimize risk on all of your projects.

About D20 Capital

D20 Capital is a newly formed investment firm based in San Francisco, with a focus on backing bold entrepreneurs in traditional industries historically underserved by technology. Leveraging a close partnership with Doosan Group, a Korean industrials conglomerate, the D20 Capital team offers startups a unique mix of investing experience, domain expertise, and a broad industry network.

SOURCE StructionSite

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By Jun Ji-hye







A five-year-old Korean child, recently diagnosed with leukemia in India, arrived in Korea, Tuesday, with the help of Japan Airlines.







The child and her mother, who boarded the JAL plane at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi Airport at about 7 p.m., Monday, were able to return via Tokyo.







The child entered a hospital in Gurugram near New Delhi after suffering from a high fever. She was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia there, with her condition worsening over the next few days.







Her parents wanted to have her treated in Korea where medical-related systems are better, but there were no available flights due to the COVID-19 pandemic.







The Indian government has had the country under lockdown since March to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.







Korean nationals living India who wanted to return to Korea already retuned home in April on four charter planes.







The head of the association of Korean residents in India said a fifth charter plane could fly later this month, but there were many variables and uncertainties.







In a desperate effort to send the child to Korea, the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in India asked embassies of other countries for cooperation.







The embassy succeeded in receiving permission for the girl and her mother to take the JAL flight arranged to repatriate Japanese nationals living in India.







"We also got permission from the hospital to let the child board the plane," a Korean embassy official said.







In a bid to help the girl and her family, a Korean national living in India posted a petition on the Cheong Wa Dae website, calling for government support.







The petitioner said, "I believe the child can recover once she receives treatment in Korea. I hope the government will do something for this child such as dispatch an Air Force transport or a presidential plane."


Simon Institute awards 2020 scholarships honoring former directors

CARBONDALE, Ill.  Southern Illinois University Carbondales Paul Simon Public Policy Institute has selected two outstanding SIU students to receive scholarships honoring two former directors of the Institute.

Dwight Cox, a junior studying political science and an Alexander Lane Intern, received the Mike Lawrence Scholarship. Jorden Thomas, a graduate student studying public administration and the Celia M. Howard Fellow, received the David Yepsen Directors Award. They will each receive a $1,000 scholarship.

Mike Lawrence Scholarship

Cox, who is from Belleville, Illinois, became involved with the Institute after being selected as the spring 2020 Alexander Lane Intern. He has been serving on the Illinois House Democratic Staff during this springs legislative session.

Dwight Cox is exactly the kind of student that Mike Lawrence had in mind when he established this generous scholarship, said Institute Director John Shaw. Dwight is an excellent student with a serious interest in political science and criminal justice. He is a very impressive young man  bright, serious, modest, determined, and kind-hearted. He is a very deserving recipient of this important scholarship.

This scholarship honors Mike Lawrence, former Institute director from 2004-2008. Lawrence became the Institutes second director following the death of U.S. Sen. Paul Simon. A veteran journalist, political analyst, and former press secretary for former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar, Lawrence joined the Institute in 1997 as associate director.

Recipients are outstanding students who are involved in Institute internships, fellowships, and other volunteer opportunities, and who have demonstrated positive leadership qualities.

David Yepsen Directors Award

Thomas, who is from Griffin, Georgia, is completing her fellowship research on the implementation of a plastic bag tax in Illinois. She will graduate from SIU Carbondale in May.

Jorden Thomas exemplifies the qualities of leadership and service that this award celebrates, said Institute Director John Shaw. Jorden is energetic, kind, and constructive. She is deeply interested in Paul Simons work and legacy. She is one of those rare people whose first instinct is to say, How can I help? I believe she is going to have a great career in public policy.

This scholarship honors the Institutes third director, David Yepsen, who retired in 2016. Yepsen originated this scholarship to give back to the students who help the Institute thrive. Yepsen joined the Institute in 2009 after a 34-year career as a political writer, editor, and columnist for the Des Moines Register.

Contribution Information

Additional information on the Mike Lawrence Scholarship and David Yepsen Directors Award is available by visiting www.paulsimoninstitute.org. Contact Associate Director Victoria Gajc at victoriag@foundation.siu.edu or 708/287-0938 for further questions about supporting the Institute.
LOS ANGELESLate last year, Stormy Daniels won a $450,000 settlement from the city of Columbus, Ohio, in a lawsuit over her 2018 arrest while she was performing in a strip club there. But on Monday, a lawyer for Donald Trump filed a motion in a California federal court claiming that nearly $300,000 of that cash belongs to him.

Daniels was arrested in July of 2018 on charges that she broke a local law by making physical contact with strip club patrons  who turned out to be undercover vice officers  during a nude performance. But the charges were dropped within hours and the Columbus police later ruled Daniels arrest improper, and disciplined the vice cops involved.

Daniels sued, and in September of 2019 settled the case for a cash payout. Within weeks, however, Trumps lawyers told a court in Ohio that Daniels owed them $293,000, and they wanted it paid out of her wrongful arrest settlement.

Their claim stemmed from a defamation suit against Trump filed by Daniels and her then-lawyer Michael Avenatti, over a Twitter post in which Trump said that Daniels was running a total con job with her claim that a man had physically threatened her on behalf of Trump in 2011.

But in October of 2018, federal Judge James Otero tossed Daniels lawsuit, and ordered her to pay Trumps attorneys fees in the case. And on Monday, attorney Charles Harder filed a motion in the Central District Court of California to get that money  out of Daniels Ohio settlement.

To Mr. Trumps knowledge, Ms. (Daniels) does not possess any assets in this jurisdiction, Harder wrote in the court document. In contrast, she possesses substantial assets in the Southern District of Ohio in the form of the $450,000 in settlement funds being held by that court.

Harder goes on to ask the California court to allow him to collect the money from Daniels in Ohio, taking a cut of her settlement payout there.

Complicating the matter, however, is the fact that Daniels is appealing Oteros dismissal if her defamation lawsuit. In fact, on February 4, Harder squared off in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, against Daniels new lawyer, Clark Brewster, in oral arguments before a three-judge panel.

But the Ninth Circuit has not yet issued a ruling on Daniels appeal.

Harder in his motion filed Monday, however, claims that the award of attorneys fees was not properly appealed by Daniels, and therefore should not be subject to the Ninth Circuits eventual decision, according to the legal site Law & Crime.

Photo By WDTN TV YouTube Screen Capture
REC Silicon ASA (REC Silicon) will release its Q1 2020 results on Tuesday, May 12, 2020 at 7:00 a.m. (CEST).

The same day at 8:00 a.m. CEST, the company will host a conference call to present the results. Following the presentation, it will be opened for questions from the audience.

The presentation will be in English.

To join this event, use one of the following access numbers. Please make sure to dial in 5-10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time.

Norway: +47 2195 6342

Sweden: 46 8 1241 0952

United Kingdom: +44 203 769 6819

United States: +1 646 787 0157

United States/Canada (Dial-in Tollfree/Freephone): 800 204 4368

Participant code for all countries: 908834

For further information, please contact:

Nils O. Kjerstad, IR Contact

Phone: +47 9135 6659

Email: nils.kjerstad@crux.no

About REC Silicon:

REC Silicon is a leading producer of advanced silicon materials, delivering high-purity polysilicon and silicon gas to the solar and electronics industries worldwide. We combine over 30 years of experience and proprietary technology with the needs of our customers, and annual production capacity of more than 20,000 MT of polysilicon from our two US-based manufacturing plants. Listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (ticker: REC), the company is headquartered in Fornebu, Norway.

For more information, go to: www.recsilicon.com



This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS

Doctors refer to cases where patients were billed thrice the normal rates

Maharashtra govt directs hospitals not to charge exorbitantly, imposes price caps

Hospitals argue that costs treatments are patient-specific and cannot be generalised

Pull up erring hospitals, but do not impose price caps across the board, hospitals plead

Can a COVID-19 patient end up with a hospital bill running as high as Rs 4 lakh for a day's treatment? Yes, say some doctors, referring to bills from some of the leading Indian private hospitals. They point out that most of the charges - be it for pathology, radiology tests or others - are at least three times the usual charges. In some cases, cost of personal protective equipment (PPE) that the patient is billed for is also way beyond the MRP. Therefore, it is not without reason that the Maharashtra government has come up capped charges that hospitals can levy for treatment of coronavirus. [Some of the doctors treating these patients have talked of elements like care and hygiene charges that run into few thousands and the usually long list of consumables getting even longer. Plus lot of miscellaneous charges and expenses getting added.]

The Maharashtra government in a notification has prohibited hospitals "from charging more amount than that applicable to lowest bed category irrespective of the availability of beds in the lowest category". The state government notification further says that "healthcare providers that have agreements with various TPAs will provide treatment at the lowest package rate prevailing among the various TPAs in its facility". It specifically states that "items/services including intraocular lenses (IOL), pacemakers, orthoprosthesis, stents, staplers, guide-wires, catheters, balloons, medical implants, consumables, PPEs (Personal Protective Equipments) shall not charge more than 10 per cent mark up on their net procurement cost incurred".

Some of the leading private corporate hospitals are, however, miffed with the price cap. Their argument is that treatments are all patient-specific and the costs therefore cannot be generalised. Plus, providing COVID-19 treatment was an expensive proposition for hospitals as several additional costs had to be incurred, along with higher financial compensation to the medical staff attending to coronavirus cases, and cost of providing transport facility, separate accommodation and meals to them within the hospital during the period of lockdown. They argue that if there are erring hospitals then the government should take action against them and desist from imposing blanket curbs and price caps across the board. Hospital managements are trying to talk to the state government and represent their case. Hospitals stated that only Maharashtra is the only state that has imposed such price caps.

The Maharashtra government's bid to impose a cap on fees of COVID-19 treatment at private hospitals, has been imposed in keeping with the the Disaster Management Act and Epidemic Act. The state Health Minister Rajesh Tope was also recently reported to have announced that all citizens will be covered under the state government's health scheme, making Maharashtra the first state to provide free and cashless insurance protection to its people.
(TNS)  For several months in 2017 and 2018, the cameras sat on utility poles in Peabody and Lynn, Mass., quietly recording the comings and goings from five different homes.Police and DEA agents were looking for evidence of a drug ring that was alleged to be selling fentanyl, heroin and oxycodone on the North Shore.The investigation eventually led to the arrests of 13 people, the seizure of what is alleged to be at least two pounds of heroin and fentanyl and 2,400 oxycodone pills, and more than $400,000 in cash in May, 2018.Now, the state's highest court is being asked to consider whether police should have been required to obtain a warrant, like the ones required when police want to listen in on phone calls, track cellphone locations or put a GPS tracker on a vehicle, before they installed the cameras on Swampscott Avenue in Peabody and four locations in Lynn.Lawyers for Randy Suarez and Lymbel Guerrero of Peabody and Nelson Mora of Lynn, who are awaiting trial in the case, argue that police should have been required to get a warrant, regardless of past court rulings that warrants are not required to conduct surveillance of a public place.The lawyers, Elliot Weinstein, Mark Miliotis and Stephen Judge, say that the prior court holdings do not reflect the significant technological advances since law enforcement began using the cameras.They say that the massive compilation of data by law enforcement -- in the case of their clients, six terabytes worth -- without a warrant should be concerning."The ability to digitize and manipulate the seized information and images suggests that facial recognition, biometric identification and the capturing of things no person could ever anticipate a casual passerby seeing, let alone remembering or identifying, creates infinite future trespasses to our own person, image and information possible by the government," they argue.Last year, they asked a Salem Superior Court judge to suppress evidence that was found as a result of those cameras. Judge Timothy Feeley denied the request, leading to an appeal.The Supreme Judicial Court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case Tuesday morning.It's a case that's also being watched by privacy and civil rights advocates, including the ACLU, which submitted a friend of the court brief in the case.Law enforcement have used cameras on utility poles for decades, and courts have justified their use by pointing to the lack of any expectation of privacy once someone is outside their home.The cameras were set up on poles that were on public sidewalks, and "could neither peer inside any home nor observe behavior that would not have been readily apparent to any passerby or neighbor," the Massachusetts Attorney General's office, which is prosecuting the case, wrote in its brief. "Unsurprisingly, courts have found no reasonable expectation of privacy on such facts in case after case, spanning decades."But in their brief, the ACLU and two other groups, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Democracy and Technology, say that in the face of advances in technology that allow cameras to zoom in on tiny details like license plate numbers and to collect the images and and then create a searchable database, that argument is "Orwellian.""They give police previously unimaginable capabilities to monitor individuals for weeks or months, and to indefinitely store and search this detailed surveillance information," the advocates argue.The attorney general is also arguing that even if the court takes that view, it should not penalize law enforcement by throwing out evidence, given that investigators were acting in good faith, based on the existing state of the law.
The IIT-Kanpur has tied up with two firms for the production of affordable ventilators for use during the coronavirus pandemic, an official said on Tuesday.

The premiere institute signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard with public sector undertaking Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL) and Nocca Robotics Private Ltd (NRPL).

Institute Director Abhay Karandikar said in response to the call given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Nocca Robotics developed a high-end affordable ventilator for critical coronavirus patients under the supervision of an IIT-K team led by Prof Amitabha Bandyopadhyay.

Now, with the BDL supporting us, we will be able to scale up the production and make this critical device widely available as a Make in India product," he said.

Apart from providing support to critical patients, the ventilator's design has unique features to safeguard the frontline healthcare workers from exposure to the virus, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
05.05.2020 LISTEN

Additional 30 persons have contracted meningitis in the Upper West Region within the past two weeks, bringing the total number of cases in that region to 303.

One more person has also died of the disease, increasing the number of fatalities to 44.

This was contained in a press release issued today, Tuesday and signed by the Upper West Regional Minister, Dr. Hafiz Bin Salih.

According to the release, the Nandom and Jirapa municipalities, as well as the Nadowli-Kaleo districts continue to record a majority of the cases.

The Ghana Health Service deployed a team of experts to help bring the disease under control.

The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye who visited the region last week to assess the situation reported to Parliament that the pandemic was under control.

But the statement said, laboratory investigations indicate an increase in the number of cases with the majority of them being caused by Neisseria Meningitides Sero Group X which currently has no vaccine.

The statement, however, stated that with an increased risk communication, individuals now report to health facilities for treatment, which has witnessed a significant reduction in the case fatality associated with the disease.

On what the region is doing to curtail the endemic, the Minister said the Rapid Response Teams (RRT) at both regional and district levels have intensified monitoring and investigations on all suspected cases and rumours as they are reported.

The release urged the general public to drink more water, sleep in well-ventilated areas, cover their mouths and noses when coughing or sneezing and report to the nearest health facilities when experiencing symptoms such as high temperature, fever, stiff neck, as well as headache.
SEATTLE, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- This #GivingTuesdayNow, May 5, Thirty-One Gifts is once again partnering with World Vision  providing 1,000 Family Emergency Kits in the U.S. to help care for those hard-hit by the effects of COVID-19. Each kit provides a week's worth of food for a family of five, hygiene and protective items, educational supplies and resources for kids, and more.

#GivingTuesdayNow is a new global day of giving and unity on May 5, 2020  in addition to the regularly scheduled Dec. 1, 2020 #GivingTuesday  as an emergency response to the unprecedented need caused by COVID-19.

"During this uncertain time, we have been united by faith, family, and optimism. If there was ever a time to help each other, it's now. Our hope in providing these family emergency kits is to ease some of the hardships people are experiencing by distributing life-sustaining supplies to those in critical need," said Cindy Monroe, Founder and CEO of Thirty-One Gifts.

From 14 strategic locations across the country in major cities including New York City, Seattle, Dallas and Chicago, World Vision is working through partners like Thirty-One Gifts to reach 650,000 vulnerable people with Family Emergency Kits.

"School closures and unemployment at historic levels means limited or no access to food for a lot of families, and we are thankful for the partnership of Thirty-One Gifts this Giving Tuesday Now in helping us reach those vulnerable families during this time of need," said Edgar Sandoval Sr., president of World Vision U.S. "It's a unique time because we are seeing the impact of the crisis right in our own backyard  affecting our neighbors, schools, and churches. We want to bring hope like never before, trusting in God, uniting in prayer, and moving swiftly to help those who are the most vulnerable here in the U.S. and around the world."

World Vision and Thirty-One Gifts have partnered together on Giving Tuesday for the past six years to spread generosity during the holiday season, and that giving collaboration has extended to now respond to the mounting needs of those impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic for Giving Tuesday Now. Since this partnership first formed in 2014, Thirty-One Gifts has donated more than $42 million in products and cash to the humanitarian organization.

In response to the pandemic, the Christian humanitarian organization World Vision has been providing high-demand personal protective equipment to local hospitals and first responders; hygiene supplies such as disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer to school and church partners and family emergency kits to thousands in need.

In its warehouses around the U.S., World Vision receives corporate donations of new, top-quality goods made available to local community partners for distribution. Goods that are distributed include building materials, school supplies, personal care items, and clothing to over 4 million people in low-income communities annually. World Vision also uses the supplies to donate to communities during natural disasters.

Globally, World Vision has launched the largest humanitarian response in its 70-year history  aiming to reach 72 million people  half of them children. The ambitious response plan is focused on the world's most vulnerable and will help curb the spread of the virus, support health and community life-savers as well as help people recover from the devastating economic impacts of the pandemic. It will be executed in over 70 countries, mobilizing 37,000 staff, 400,000 faith leaders and 220,000 community health workers to support prevention and response initiatives.

About World Vision

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. World Vision serves all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender. For more information, please visit www.worldvision.org or follow on Twitter @WorldVisionUSA

About Thirty-One Gifts

Founded in 2003, Thirty-One Gifts has been on a mission to celebrate, encourage and reward women, by offering its Independent Sales Consultants an opportunity to run their own business. Its philanthropic program, Thirty-One Gives, was established in 2012 and has proudly donated $100 million in product and cash to charitable organizations that share the Gives mission of empowering girls, women and families. For more information, please visit www.mythirtyone.com

SOURCE World Vision

Related Links

http://www.worldvision.org


COVID-19 poses an unprecedented threat to Hoosiers, especially the individuals who call nursing homes and assisted-living facilities home, Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, said in a release. "At a time when the free flow of information could help families save lives, Governor Holcomb is hiding behind privacy laws intended to protect individuals, not nursing homes or regulators. No one is asking that the state divulge potentially identifying information as to individuals, were asking to know what is happening inside of these facilities.
(Natural News) Around the globe, nations are beginning to relax their lockdowns following an initial peak of coronavirus (COVID-19) infections. While this is happening, attention is now turning to how these nations can avoid a second wave of infections as social distancing is eased.

Two of the hardest-hit nations in the world, Spain and Italy, have begun to allow people outside to exercise for the first time in almost two months. Meanwhile, in the United States, several states are now allowing businesses to open.

France is set to lift its confinement measures on May 11. French Prime Minister Edouard Phillipe said that there is a fine line between lifting restrictions on movement and avoiding a new surge in coronavirus infections.

The risk of a second wave  which would hit our already fragile hospitals, which would need us to reimpose confinement and waste the efforts and sacrifices weve already made  is serious, Phillipe said last week.

Preparing for a possible second wave

Social distancing measures have been effective in flattening the curve of new coronavirus infections, buying healthcare systems much needed time to recover and regroup. However, it also means that a much smaller percentage of the populations are likely to have been infected by the virus and developed an immunity to it.

In France, experts estimate that only around six percent of the countrys population will have been infected by May 11. Even in the countrys virus hotspots, its believed that only 25 percent of people caught the virus during the outbreaks first wave.

It will take several weeks or even several months to see the virus circulating again, stated virologist Anne Goffard to radio station France Inter.

According to Goffard, the second wave of infections was likely to hit at the earliest, at the end of August.

Experts divided on how bad the second wave will be

While most experts more or less agree that a new spike in infections is coming as lockdowns are eased, there is some debate on how this second wave will compare with the first.

Senior health officials in countries like the U.S. and Germany have warned that it could bring even more infections than the peak during March and April. Director Robert Redfield of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has expressed worries that the second wave could also coincide with a seasonal flu epidemic, compounding the situation if the former hits in winter.

Others, however, feel that the changes in peoples behavior could slow down new cases. According to Pierachille Santus, a lung expert based in Milan, the second wave of infections will likely be smaller than the first, thanks to control measures.

One unknown factor is how the virus behind COVID-19 responds to warmer weather. Other viruses tend to go dormant during the summer months.

Theres probably a link [between the virus] and heat and humidity, stated Jean-Francois Delfraissy, president of Frances science council. Delfraissy said that theyre expecting a peaceful Summer, though he warned that it virus could return forcefully next year.

However, some are saying that the summer heat will not slow down the coronavirus. Studies from China have shown that changes in the weather had no effect on the transmission rate of the virus when it first broke out there.

Social distancing and mask-wearing could blunt the second wave

Even if businesses reopen and people return to the streets, the behaviors people have picked up during the lockdowns  keeping their distance, avoiding touching their face, washing hands and wearing masks in public  could slow down the spread of the second wave.

One model, run by the Public Health Expertise research group, showed that such measures could reduce the expected total deaths from COVID-19 to 85,000 in France, down from an expected 200,000 without social distancing or mask-wearing.

However, even with these best-case scenarios on new infections, the healthcare systems will still likely be inundated with new cases.

Sources include:

News.Yahoo.com

Barrons.com
Hillary Clinton is set to host a pricey virtual fundraiser for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden later this month, her first fundraiser appearance as an official surrogate for the Biden campaign.

On May 19, the former first lady and failed 2016 Democratic nominee will hold a virtual conversation on the teleconferencing platform Zoom along with Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez. The event will raise money for the Biden Victory Fund, a joint committee of the DNC and the Biden campaign.

Hosts will pay $100,000 to attend the virtual event while the least expensive tickets, which have limited availability, go for $2,800. Other tickets are available for $50,000, $41,100, $15,600, and $5,600.

Clinton endorsed the former vice president last month at a virtual town hall, which addressed the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on women, after largely staying out of the political fray during the Democratic primary.

I am thrilled to be part of your campaign  to not only endorse you but to help highlight a lot of the issues that are at stake in this presidential election, the former secretary of state said in her endorsement.

Ive been in the lobby of the Senate. Ive been in the cloakroom and Ive watched Joe bring people together. We have a lot of the same values in common, the same work ethic, the same belief in America, the same focus on family, she said. We need a leader  a president  like Joe Biden.

I really appreciate your friendship. What a, just a wonderful personal endorsement, Biden responded to her endorsement during the event.

In the weeks since Senator Bernie Sanders ended his presidential bid early last month, Biden has received endorsements from some of the nations most high-profile Democrats. Former president Barack Obama endorsed his former running mate, and Sanders himself endorsed his former primary rival. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who dropped her presidential bid in March, as well as former vice president Al Gore have also endorsed Biden.

Story continues

The endorsements have rolled in despite increasing coverage of Tara Reades sexual assault allegation. Reade, who served as Bidens staff assistant in 1993, claims the then-senator pinned her up against a wall in the Capitol Building and penetrated her with his fingers. A number of prominent female Democrats, including Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have emphasized Reades right to be heard but have said they believe Bidens denials.

More from National Review
"Black Mirror" creator Charlie Brooker says bringing another season of his dystopian anthology series during the coronavirus pandemic would not be a good move.

The writer said he is unsure if the audience could "stomach" another chapter of the Netflix cult sci-fi show, exploring the negative impact new technology on the modern world, in such depressing times.

Asked about another season, Brooker told Radio Times, "I've been busy, doing things. I don't know what I can say about what I'm doing and not doing.

"At the moment, I don't know what stomach there would be for stories about societies falling apart, so I'm not working away on one of those."



The fifth season of "Black Mirror" released last June and consisted of just three episodes starring Anthony Mackie, Andrew Scott, Topher Grace and Miley Cyrus among others.

The last installment followed the release of "Bandersnatch" - an interactive "Black Mirror" stand-alone film, where viewers are asked at various points to make a choice which affects the storyline. It starred Fionn Whitehead and Will Poulter.

Brooker further said he is keen to revisit his "comic skill set", so he has been writing scripts aimed at "making myself laugh".

The British writer is returning to the BBC with a special coronavirus-centric episode in his famous "Screenwipe" series. It will premiere on May 14 on BBC Two.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal may soon ease its coronavirus lockdown, but widespread use of protective equipment will be essential and the country does not rule out "taking a step back" if the situation worsens again, Prime Minister Antonio Costa said on Monday.

During a visit to one of hundreds of textile firms reorienting to produce protective gear, he praised the industry for supporting the relaxation of restrictions and said facemasks would likely be obligatory in certain locations such as schools and public transport.

"We are likely to go down a level (on restrictions), but normality will only come when we have a vaccine in a year, or year-and-a-half," Costa said while visiting textile manufacturer Petratex, which is producing more than 100,000 masks a week.

"Until then, reopening will come with conditions - like using hand sanitizer, and masks. This industry initiative to produce them en masse is essential for public safety," he said.

Hundreds of firms whose revenues plummeted after the state of emergency was imposed on March 18 are producing near to a million masks per week in Portugal to meet the surge in demand likely to accompany the easing of lockdowns across Europe.

As one of the few EU countries with the capacity for a fully running supply chain, the industry in Portugal hopes that by providing its European customers with the equipment needed to get back to business it can contribute to its own recovery.

"We should be producing millions of PPE per week in the next fortnight," said Mario Jorge Machado, president of Portugal's textile association ATP, referring to various types of personal protective equipment.

"The industry can't survive from masks - Europe's economy restarting is what will save us. But by supplying PPE, we could help with that," Machado said.

Health authorities have recommended people wear masks in confined public spaces, and several municipalities have begun distributing them for free.

Story continues

Portugal has so far reported 24,027 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and 928 deaths.

Just under 30 firms have received official accreditation from product testing and certification centre CITEVE to produce masks that meet health and safety requirements, with hundreds more currently having their proposals assessed.

Some are already producing for export - Calvalex, in the country's north, sells 90% of the 200,000 masks it produces per week to Britain, France, Spain, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands.

Last Thursday, the government reduced value-added tax on masks and hand gel to the minimum level of 6%.

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; Additional reporting by Catarina Demony; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Hyderabad, May 5 : An NGO working for child rights has urged the Telangana government not to allow the annual 'fish medicine' event here scheduled next month in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

Balala Hakkula Sangham (BHS) said the state government should not facilitate the event usually held in the first week of June to administer the 'fish medicine' to people suffering from asthma and other respiratory problems.

Reiterating that the 'fish medicine' is unscientific, BHS honorary president Achyuta Rao said the state government should not facilitate Bathini brothers from administering it to thousands of people coming from various states.

"Even if one person in the gathering is Covid-19 positive, the infection will spread to all the people including volunteers. The main sufferers will be children as even the World Health Organization has stated that children and elderly are vulnerable to the virus," said Rao.

Thousands of asthma patients from various parts of the country gather in Hyderabad to receive the 'fish prasadam' (offering), as the medicine began to be called by the Bathini Goud family a decade ago after rationalists challenged its efficacy.

Members of Bathini Goud family administer the 'wonder drug' on 'Mrigasira Karti', which heralds the onset of monsoon.

Despite the controversies which hit its popularity in recent years, people continue to throng the venue in the hope of finding some relief to their nagging respiratory problems. However, the numbers have dwindled over the years.

The asthmatics gulp down a live 'murrel' fish with a yellow herbal paste in its mouth, which is believed to provide the much-needed relief, if taken for three consecutive years. For vegetarians, the family gives the medicine with jaggery.

The Goud family has been distributing the 'fish medicine' free of cost for the last 175 years. It claims that the secret formula for the herbal medicine was given to their ancestors in 1845 by a saint after taking an oath from him that it would be administered free of cost.

Every year, various government departments make elaborate arrangements for the annual event held in Exhibition Grounds in the heart of the city.
Supporters of a proposed $5.5 billion bond measure that would keep Californias stem cell research institute in business say they have submitted enough signatures to qualify it for the November ballot.

The campaign behind the initiative pleaded for people to mail in thousands of signatures last month, after the states stay-at-home order during the coronavirus pandemic all but halted the efforts of signature gatherers who ordinarily collect petitions in public places.

On Tuesday, backers submitted about 925,000 signatures to county elections officials. Roughly 10,000 of those were gathered through the mail-in effort.

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. Now the institute is running out of money and has begun to scale back grants for new research.

Bob Klein, chairman of Californians for Stem Cell Research, Treatments and Cures, said the mail-in effort speaks to the initiatives strong support among patients and their families.

More for you California stem cell advocates plead for mail-in signatures to put measure on ballot

Submitting signatures in time to qualify for the general election would not have been possible without our coalition of patient advocates, who banded together to help us overcome the unprecedented challenge of signature gathering during a global pandemic, Klein said in a statement.

Supporters had hoped to collect at least 25,000 more signatures through the mail-in effort. Nevertheless, Klein said they are confident the measure will qualify for the ballot.

The state requires 623,212 valid signatures to qualify a measure, but campaigns must typically collect hundreds of thousands more to make up for invalid or duplicate signatures. Its also unclear whether counties will have enough time to validate the petition signatures before the June 25 deadline.

Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner
My husband and I are old, retired, and part of the coronavirus vulnerable population. We are grateful for the information from the state and federal governments about how to stay well during this pandemic. We take personal responsibility for doing so.

At the same time, we do not understand the apparent reluctance of so many elected leaders to take responsibility for the economic welfare of the state and country. (The April 30) Journal reports that Gov. (Michelle Lujan) Grisham has rejected the idea of treating counties in New Mexico differently. Really?

Counties with no COVID-19 cases or those with no new cases in 14 or more days or those that have cases in the single digits should be treated the same as San Juan, McKinley and Bernalillo? Really? Healthy, less vulnerable populations should be required to stay home even if they live far from the hot spots in the northwest part of New Mexico?

Our federal system means that governors, not the president, should be responsible for decisions about when to allow which activities to resume. A national, one-size-fits-all approach would be a disaster, constitutionally, economically and in terms of public health. Do we really need a national testing program or is it reasonable to expect governors to decide what kinds of testing need to happen?

One wonders if the apparent reluctance to let the economy get moving again indicates a fear not uncommon to elected politicians: namely, their worst nightmare that they might be blamed for anything negative that would or even could happen during their term of office. Its a bipartisan worry and intensifies as the number of years in elective office increases and the time for elections approaches..

Heres a possible antidote for worries about opening up the economy:

First, elected leaders should remind themselves that most of us are quite capable of taking care of ourselves without the governments minute-by-minute intervention. Remember, were the people who elected them in the first place  we must have some degree of good judgment. Hence, we can be trusted to use good judgments at work, at church, at parks and playgrounds, at sporting events, etc.

Next, remind the vulnerable populations that continued vigilance is absolutely necessary to avoid getting COVID-19. Require special care at nursing homes and other extended care facilities.

Then, let hospitals get back to operating more or less routinely. Remember that the reason for all of the current restrictions was to avoid overwhelming hospital capacity  it wasnt to reduce the number of cases and deaths. Ironically, the restrictions have been so successful that a number of hospitals across the country are furloughing medical staff or taking other drastic measures because revenues are down so far that continued operations are impossible.

If testing somehow lessens the fears of elected officials, then just get on with it.

Finally, be resigned to the endless investigations and reviews that will happen once this is over. Many will be about as useful as second-guessing usually is. Few elected leaders will come out of that process as heroes. But some may avoid becoming goats if they take a risk or two now before economies completely collapse.
HOUSTON, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Over the past five weeks, more than 26.45 million Americans have filed for unemployment. As unemployment continues to grow at an unprecedented rate, Airzai, a tech startup that recently introduced their patent-pending smart fragrance diffuser, is hiring a core team of managerial roles to ramp up production of sanitizer for their new manufacturing and filling facility in Houston, Texas. Airzai is setting up a facility in Houston to ramp up production of both hand and air sanitizers as demand is at an all-time high.

Airzai Care

Airzai's Houston facility will create dozens of local jobs right away and eventually hundreds of jobs for local workers seeking employment. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate rose to 4.4% in March and is expected to be significantly higher in the reports for April.

"Airzai's team is grateful to be able to allocate our resources to produce an essential product for this pandemic, while in a position to be hiring during a time when unemployment rates are at an all-time high," said Airzai's CEO and co-founder, Muneeb Mushtaq. "With the ever-growing demand for hand sanitizer across the U.S., we made the decision to utilize all resources to assist in the most impactful way we can by producing hand and air sanitizers. This is an essential resource in the fight against COVID-19, and our choice to produce locally will maintain quality standards while providing job opportunities to locals at this critical time."

Airzai is producing a critical product that frontline organizations and communities can immediately benefit from  an air sanitizer called Airzai Care, as well as high-quality hand sanitizer. Additionally, Airzai plans to donate over 10,000 bottles of hand sanitizer and air sanitizer to heavily impacted communities around U.S. in an effort to assist in providing essential resources to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Currently, Airzai is shifting a portion of their current air sanitizer production facility to accommodate the substantial demand of hand sanitizer, while working to open their Houston facility. If you are interested in applying to become a core operations team member in the Houston facility, send an email to [email protected]. To learn more about Airzai, visit airzai.com.

About Airzai

Airzai is a Toronto-based direct-to-consumer lifestyle tech brand creating products that is transforming the home and hospitality fragrance industry. Aroma, Airzai's flagship product, is the first dual smart home fragrance diffuser for consumers that utilizes curated luxury fragrances with premium ingredients. AirzaiAroma was designed by award winning designer Fred Bould, who also created Roku, Nest, and GoPro. Airzaialso recently introduced CARE, a line of disinfectant products that embodies Airzai's luxury fragrances. For more information, visit airzai.com.

Media Contact:

Samantha Miller, Interdependence PR for Airzai

[email protected]; (616) 901-4667

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Linkedin Tracy Withers (Bloomberg)  Tue, May 5, 2020 13:39 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd60dd7a 2 World Australia,New-Zealand,travel,coronavirus,virus-corona,COVID-19,COVID-19-travel-ban,COVID-19-travel-restriction Free

Australia and New Zealand are committed to introducing a shared travel zone as soon as it is safe to do so, Prime Ministers Jacinda Ardern and Scott Morrison said.

The two leaders agreed to commence work on a trans-Tasman COVID-safe zone that will ease travel restrictions between Australia and New Zealand, they said in a joint statement Tuesday. Earlier Ardern attended Australias National Cabinet meeting via video link to discuss the zone and other aspects of the fight against COVID-19.

New Zealand and Australia have both had success in containing COVID-19 and avoided the exponential growth in cases seen in many other countries. As they look to relax lockdown restrictions, the focus has shifted to reigniting their economies and both would benefit if they could open the borders to each others tourists and business travelers.

Building on our success so far in responding to COVID-19, continuing to protect Australians and New Zealanders remains an absolute priority, the prime ministers said. We will remain responsive to the health situation as it develops.

The travel zone would be put in place once it is safe to do so and necessary health, transport and other protocols had been developed and met, to ensure the protection of public health, they said. Officials will work with business leaders from both nations as the plan develops.

A trans-Tasman COVID-safe travel zone would be mutually beneficial, assisting our trade and economic recovery, helping kick-start the tourism and transport sectors, enhancing sporting contacts, and reuniting families and friends, the two leaders said. We need to be cautious as we progress this initiative. Neither country wants to see the virus rebound so its essential any such travel zone is safe.
Captain America and the Avengers face off with the Eternals ahead of Marvel's Judgment Day

Eternals #10 teases first shot in war between Avengers and the Eternals
Celebrations spill out onto the street in London after the war ended in May, 1945

On May 8, 1945, Belfast was in a buoyant mood, celebrating the end of the war in Europe. Harold Fine, a young sailor, recalls joining the happy celebrations with his shipmates that night and, for a dare, he climbed up Queen Victoria's statue outside Belfast City Hall.

His high jinks were interrupted by two RUC men, who threw him and his mates into the Crumlin Road gaol to sober up for the night. But, while Belfast was joyful, that joy was not shared elsewhere.

And while Victory in Europe Day was certainly celebrated with fun and jollity in London and Belfast, in mainland Europe there was little real sense of joy; just relief that the nightmare was over.

What was left behind throughout the continent was massive destruction, economic collapse, death and injury on a horrendous scale. Just an exhausted, traumatised and deeply divided Europe remained; a Europe with its peoples broken in spirit after so much appalling suffering.

For all of the self-congratulation and chauvinistic chest-puffing that will take place on Friday among the Western Allies, it should be acknowledged that the most decisive factor in the defeat of Hitler was not the British Army, nor indeed the American army's undoubted successes, but the military success of the Soviet Red Army.

The often-strained and tense relations between Britain and Russia nowadays should not be allowed to detract from the historical truth of the pivotal role that Russia played in defeating Nazi Germany.

It was only after massive fighting in the first four months of 1945 that the war in Europe actually came to a complete end, with the surrender, on May 8, of the German Army to the Allies, which included the USA, Britain and the USSR.

Although, in retrospect, we regard the end of the war as being inevitable in 1945, there really was no inevitability about it ending in 1945 at all.

The war was fought simultaneously on two fronts, the Western and the Eastern. In the first three months of 1945, hostilities did not gradually diminish, but were significantly heightened.

The powerful German counter-offensive in the West, leading to the Battle of the Bulge, was strongly contested by the then-fledgling superpower the USA and was only defeated after the greatest of military efforts and many casualties. Thereafter, the Americans launched a massive offensive into Germany itself.

In February and March 1945, the RAF and US Air Force systematically devastated many German cities by intensive carpet bombing, including the egregious and inhumane destruction of the city of Dresden.

By the end of April, the defeat of the Third Reich was imminent, with Hitler taking his own life in his famous bunker in Berlin. Berlin itself fell to the Allies on May 2.

On May 7, in Reims, the German high command signed an unconditional surrender of all German forces. The next day, May 8, the final formal surrender was made in Berlin itself.

In the East, during that same period, the Soviet armies crossed over into Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and East Prussia.

By April 25, the Red Army had successfully reached Berlin and had encircled the city. It then took two more weeks for the Russians to completely capture Berlin.

During this crucial final period of intensive fighting, from January to April, the Russians incurred half-a-million casualties, but their victory was total and Germany was crushed.

But the most decisive victory of the whole war for the Allies was the tenacious stand of the Red Army at Stalingrad in 1942/43. Without Stalingrad, there would have been no Allied victory over Hitler.

After the Russian success at Stalingrad, the tide had definitively turned against the Wehrmacht.

They were then steadily driven from the Soviet Union and were gradually squeezed out of Eastern and Central Europe by the Red Army.

At this time of commemoration, it should be remembered that this victory over Nazi Germany was only accomplished by enormous human cost to the Russian people.

They lost, in total, a staggering eight to 11 million servicemen. By contrast, the British lost 383,000 servicemen and the USA 407,000.

On the 75th anniversary of VE Day, the question arises as to whether we should continue to commemorate VE Day at all. Continued commemoration glorifies militarism and stirs up misplaced nostalgia. Indeed, was there much to commemorate in the past 75 years, given the enormity in human cost and the negative consequences of a divided Europe and the subsequent clash of ideologies that gave rise to the conflicts of the Cold War?

Maybe we should simply - and sadly - recognise the terrible tragedy of the Second World War for the catastrophe that it really was and now give it a respectful and dignified burial.
On March 25, North Carolina officials announced that they were suspending the prison work release program. And they made it clear why: They wanted to prevent inmates from being exposed to the coronavirus.

Despite that announcement, officials continued to send inmates from at least one prison  the North Carolina Correctional Institute for Women in Raleigh  to work in government buildings outside the prison until mid-April, the Charlotte Observer has learned.

Prisoner Natasha Purvis told the Observer that she and other inmates would load into crowded prison vans that took them to state Department of Public Safety office buildings in Raleigh.

For a dollar a day, they would clean and disinfect bathrooms, door handles, phones, light switches and elevator buttons. They would also clean and disinfect the offices of top DPS officials, including state prisons director Todd Ishee and DPS Secretary Erik Hooks.

Now, Purvis is among at least 90 inmates at the womens prison whove tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. She said last week that she was suffering from body aches, sweats and a nasty cough.

Purvis and three other inmates on the cleaning crew told the Observer they werent issued masks until April 15. State employees were working in most of the buildings they cleaned, and there were times when you got a lot closer than six feet from other people said Purvis, who is scheduled to finish her six-year drug trafficking sentence in 2022.

I feel like they put us out there for a dollar a day to keep them safe, the 42-year-old inmate said. But they werent thinking about us at all.

Natasha Purvis

Its unclear how the coronavirus entered the womens prison. State prison officials say that at the DPS buildings that were cleaned, theyre not aware of any employees who have tested positive for COVID-19.

John Bull, a spokesman for the state prisons, said in a statement that the cleaning assignments were deemed to be essential to the continued effective operations of the Department of Public Safety during the response to this pandemic.

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Tim Moose, the states Chief Deputy Secretary for Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice, said in a statement that prison officials closely monitored the health of the cleaning crew  a practice that he said could not be guaranteed by an outside cleaning agency.

During the weeks that the cleaning crew was doing its work, there was no indication that any of the inmates had been exposed to people who might have contracted COVID-19, Bull said. But on April 16, the first person at the womens prison exhibited potential symptoms of COVID-19, he said. Thats when the prison ended the cleaning assignments.

The moment anyone showed symptoms, the whole thing was shut down, Bull said.

Now, Bull said, employees at DPS buildings are responsible for cleaning their own offices.

Blatant disregard for their lives

But critics question why state officials kept sending the inmates out on work assignments long after the risks of infection inside prisons had become clear.

Experts say prisons and jails are breeding grounds for infectious diseases because inmates live so closely together.

How irresponsible for leadership to act in this way, said Elizabeth Forbes, who heads the inmate advocacy group North Carolina CURE. Not only did they put these women at great risk, they also put their own staff at great risk. Thats just so irresponsible in my mind.

ACLU official Kristie Puckett Williams agreed.

Kristie Puckett Williams

This is a blatant disregard for their lives, said Puckett Williams, who heads an ACLU initiative to reduce the population  and the risks posed by COVID-19  in the states prisons. It was unnecessary to put people in harms way in this way. For them to know the risk and not provide them what they need to be safe is unconscionable.

State prison officials note that theyve taken many steps to reduce the risks to inmates and staff. On March 13, they suspended all visitation at state prisons. Later they began taking the temperatures of all employees before they enter prisons each day.

And on March 25  following a story in the Marshall Project which noted that the state prisons had been letting hundreds of inmates work inside poultry plants, construction sites, factories and offices  officials announced they were ending the work release program in order to limit the risk of exposure.

But the womens prison continued sending inmates out to clean DPS buildings for three more weeks.

By April 21, the first inmates had tested positive at NCCIW. And by the beginning of May, 90 inmates at the prison had been diagnosed. Its now among the state prison systems largest outbreaks, second only to Neuse Correctional Institution, where more than 460 inmates have tested positive.

They put my life  in danger

One of the women on the cleaning crew, 67-year-old Doris Sadler, suffers from chronic asthma and high blood pressure  ailments that could make her more vulnerable to complications from COVID-19. Last week she said she tested positive for the coronavirus.

Another was Daisey Watkins. She said last week that she, too, has tested positive for COVID-19. Last week, she said she was suffering from periodic chills, fever, sore throat and body aches.

Daisey Watkins

Purvis, Sadler and Watkins arent the only ones. All but one of the 11 people on the cleaning crew have been diagnosed with the disease, Watkins said.

She said she was sometimes no more than an arms length away from employees at the DPS buildings she cleaned.

During the second week in April, Watkins said, she became ill  unable to smell or taste anything and suffering from a sore throat, chills and a fever. A prison nurse gave her cold medicine and nasal spray, she said, but a prison officer told her that if she didnt report to work on the cleaning crew, shed be disciplined.

They sent us out after they stopped everybody else from going out (to work), said Watkins, 39, who in September is scheduled to finish her prison sentence for obtaining property by false pretenses. We had to go out and run the chance of getting sick. And we did get sick.

Another inmate on the cleaning crew, Ritamarie Blosser, recounted a similar story. She suffers from chronic diabetes and says she has also tested positive for COVID-19.

Ritamarie Blosser

They put my life and everyone I work with in danger, and thats not fair, said Blosser, 42, who is doing time for identity theft and is scheduled to be released in October.

Blosser recalled a day in mid-April when she had a cough and a runny nose and was feeling so weak she could barely stand. She said she reported her symptoms to a prison sergeant, who told her she needed to work her shift with the cleaning crew regardless.

She said if I didnt go out, Id get written up, Blosser said.

Bull, the DPS spokesman, said inmates arent expected to work when theyre sick. He said staff members are instructed to send inmates with respiratory symptoms to prison infirmaries for appropriate treatment.

Everyone is instructed to look for any symptoms of respiratory illness  and to report it immediately, he said.

Dr. Marc Stern, a physician who once served as the top medical officer for the Washington State Department of Corrections, said hes reluctant to assess whether the work assignments at the womens prison were prudent. That, he said, would depend on whether state officials took proper precautions to prevent infections.

But he said theres little question that sending inmates out on such jobs would increase the risk that they would bring the virus back to the prison.

And when prisons house older inmates with health problems  people like Doris Sadler  it starts to become less wise to send prisoners out on work assignments, Stern said.

If you didnt manage the risk and you brought the virus back to the facility, was it worth it? he asked. Probably not.

Dear readers: The Observer needs your help

Q&A: Charlottes projected coronavirus peak date moved. Why do the numbers change?
Dublin-based mural artist Emma Blake catapulted to Insta fame after rapper Cardi B reposted one of her house-side murals. The painting, which featured Cardi B shouting Coronavirus, provided a guide on how much distance people should be keeping between them.

Appearing on new video series Up Close And Socially Distant, Emma, who has been a street artist for many years, told host Kate Thornton that friends first gave her the idea for the Carid B mural.

READ MORE: Six ways the UK's coronavirus lockdown could be eased under Boris Johnson's recovery plan

I was lying in bed thinking about it, she said. I was like, actually, do you know what would be really good? If I actually did the speech bubble two metres long to try and encourage people then to keep their two metres distance.

She continued: When people go in the park gate for their daily walk, it's just in the entrance, so loads of people get to see it then when they're going out to get their exercise in.

Emma caught the worlds attention when Cardi B reposted her mural  and Emma was gobsmacked by just how many people saw it.

She told Kate: Cardi B screen-shotted that and posted it up onto her Instagram to, like, 62 million followers or whatever she has - so, it just kind of blew up from there. I think it's on 3.1 million likes at the moment, which is nearly the population of Ireland.

READ MORE: Worst excuses given by Brits who break lockdown rules

Emma first got the idea to do lockdown-related murals because she thought the Government information was not getting through to younger people.

I was trying to think of a way that would grab people's attention more or they could relate to more, so we decided to paint some that included pop culture, she said.

The first mural Emma painted was on the wall of her own house, and featured Dua Lipa and her  currently very relevant  song lyrics Dont show up, dont come out

Story continues

I've never actually painted in my own housing estate before, she revealed. Loads of my neighbours wouldn't have even known that I was a street artist. All of them then were like, Oh my godThat was unreal. You could use our walls if you want.

Since then, Emmas murals have featured a variety of famous faces from the very retro Tia and Tamara to the more modern pop star Robyn. Emma hopes that her distinctive murals are helping to get the message through to people to stay home and keep their distance.

READ MORE: From less pollution to family bonding: The unexpected benefits of social distancing

It just seemed like everyone  not everyone, but a lot of people  were taking it as a holiday, Emma said about the early lockdown days. Everyone was going out to the seaside and going to the same places, and there were so many photos going online of, like, hundreds and hundreds of people all in the same place.

Not all her murals feature famous faces though. One mural, based on the famous We Can Do It American wartime poster, features a nurse wearing PPE.

I had wanted to do one to encourage people working on the front line and of the medical staff, she said.

She continued: Ive actually got a nurse that I know  she's working in ICU at the moment  and so I asked her if she would send me a photo of herself with her mask, and gloves, and scrubs on, and then I painted it from that. Loads of people have told me now that that's their favourite one.

Emma announced her next mural is inspired by the local children in her housing estate.

READ MORE: Pub murals honour NHS workers

I wanted to bring the community into it a bit more, she told Kate. I asked kids to submit their drawings and messages of support. I got two of my friends' kids to pose as models with cans of spray paint, so I'll paint the two of them on the wall spray painting.

Then in between all of that, I'm going to recreate all of the children's drawings so they have ownership of the work as well, and they can all see their work up on the wall.

You can see more of Emma Blakes work on Instagram and Twitter or by visiting www.emmaleneart.com

Up Close And Socially Distant is hosted by Kate Thornton and features weekly video catch-ups with people who are all doing whatever they can to help those around them get through lockdown.

This week Kate speaks to Julie Graham about writing and starring in the first YouTube drama to be filmed entirely in lockdown, Dun Breedin, to raise money for the Trussell Trust foodbank network, to the founder of the Rooms4NHS website, Dr Joseph Alsousou, and to Dublin-based mural artist, Emma Blake.
Accuver, a leader in next generation wireless test and measurement solutions, today announced that its XCAL and XCAP tools are ready to support 5G NR Standalone.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005326/en/

XCAL-M 5G NR SA Signaling Message (Graphic: Business Wire)

Accuver first developed its XCAL-M and XCAP-M tools for 5G in February 2018 to assist Samsung and Korea Telecom in launching the world's first pre-standard 5G trial network during the Winter Olympics in South Korea. Now, the entire XCAL tool product line supports 5G NR Standalone (SA), which is the next major step in the architecture evolution of 5G networks.

"The evolution of 5G NR networks to SA mode is top of mind in both the strategy and actions of our customers so we are pleased to continue supporting their efforts towards becoming 5G leaders in our industry," said Jinman Kim, Accuver Americas General Manager. "Accuver offers a faster time to market with XCAL and XCAP tools to readily assist with testing and optimizing a provider's 5G networks."

XCAL-M and XCAP-M are able to provide the following 5G NR SA features and capabilities in addition to our current 4G and 5G NR Non-Standalone (NSA) capabilities:

Support for Samsung Galaxy S20 family of devices (X55 Qualcomm chipset)

5G SA Mode RRC/NAS Call Flow Analysis

Supports EPS Fallback and Return to NR for VoLTE

Supports KPIs based on RRC/NAS specific to SA such as RRC setup, Registration, MCG Mobility and others

Supports 5G SA Cell configuration Info based on SIB

NNDC Support

About Accuver

Accuver is a leading provider of wireless test and measurement solutions that optimize the performance and reliability of mobile networks. Working with all major network operators, infrastructure vendors, chipset manufacturers and wireless equipment OEMs, we measure, troubleshoot and optimize network performance and wireless service delivery. This involves a seamless blend of user insight, design innovation, software development, cutting-edge engineering, and support services.

www.accuver.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005326/en/

Contacts:

Media

Robin Bectel

REQ for Accuver

rbectel@req.co

703-287-7827
Goudreau later told The Post he had known Berry and Denman for years. Goudreau and Denman deployed together in Iraq in 2010, said a former Special Forces soldier who served with all three of them. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
KITCHENER  The man killed in a brazen downtown Kitchener shooting is 20-year-old Isaiah Thomas Macnab, a resident of a halfway house operated by the Salvation Army.

Macnab's sister took to Facebook the day of the shooting on Thursday to comment on her brother's death.

"I will confirm the victim of todays (sic) shooting in Kitchener was in fact my younger brother, Isaiah Macnab," reads a Facebook post by Claudia Macnab. "Isaiah was my best friend, my world and my source of happiness through life. I don't know how I'm going to make it through life without you Isaiah."

Claudia linked to a Facebook page belonging to her brother, which says he had attended St. Mary's High School and lived in Kitchener. The family provided The Record with a photo of the victim but did not want to comment further.

Macnab was killed Thursday at about 11:15 a.m. in a parking lot adjacent to the halfway house at Pandora Avenue South and King Street East. Dan Millar, spokesperson with the Salvation Army, said the victim was a client of New Directions, a rehabilitation centre and halfway house.

"We are deeply saddened by this tragedy, and our thoughts and prayers are with the victim's family and loved ones during this difficult time," the agency said in a news release Friday afternoon.

"The Salvation Army takes the safety and security of staff, clients and the broader community extremely seriously and we are working closely with the authorities throughout this investigation."

Court records show a man with the same name and age as the victim was charged with assault causing bodily harm and aggravated assault in Kitchener following an incident on May 6, 2017. He was sentenced to two years in jail and two years of probation, and was also directed to attend anger management and substance abuse rehabilitation programs.

Police said Macnab was shot multiple times in a targeted attack and two people were seen fleeing from the scene in a white, four-door Mercedes. The vehicle had a stolen licence plate reading: BZBP153.

Police continue to search for the suspects.

Shortly after the shooting, police spotted the car travelling east on Highway 401 near Townline Road. An officer followed the vehicle and called for backup. The Mercedes continued east, exited at Highway 6 South briefly and then made a U-turn back onto the 401 eastbound.

During the pursuit, a police SUV collided with a pickup truck on Highway 6. The officer and the truck driver received minor injuries.

Ontario Provincial Police were called to assist with the chase, and Halton Regional Police, Peel Regional Police and Toronto Police were all notified of the pursuit.

The Mercedes was last seen near Erin Mills Parkway in Mississauga.

The intersection where the shooting occurred was closed to traffic for a second day Friday as police set up a command post and canvassed the area.

Police released two surveillance video images of the suspect vehicle and asked anyone who saw the car to contact police at 519-570-9777 ext. 8666.

lbooth@therecord.com, Twitter: @BoothRecord

- Man shot dead in downtown Kitchener in targeted hit
A move this week by the state of Texas to mandate cuts in oil production is "dead" and won't even be the subject of a vote by the state's governing regulatory body, according to the regulator most closely aligned with the proposal.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV Monday morning, Ryan Sitton of the Texas Railroad Commission said the three-member TRC is not expected to take up his proposal that the commission use its authority to order production cutbacks in the state.

"At this point, we are probably going to leave it to market forces," Sitton said in the interview. He said the oil market looks like it is "bottoming out," in part because of production cutbacks by U.S. producers, including those in Texas. "At this point, I don't think we're going to prorate," Sitton added.



Wholesale diesel rack prices, national average. Source: SONAR

Sitton said that with the sharp fall-off in U.S. production, "in this case what was the right thing eight weeks ago is not the right thing today."

The TRC hasn't used its authority to shut in oil production since the '70s. At one point, when Texas was the world's dominant producer, the TRC essentially served the role that OPEC then filled for many years: ordering reductions in output to help keep global supply and demand in check.

Although Sitton was the force pushing prorationing, he said there is not an actual proposal. "We have not evaluated waste, and we've not done our calculations on how prorationing could have a positive effect on the economics," he said. "It's been a purely political discussion so that at this point we're still not ready to act."

The fall-off in activity in Texas has been sharp. The state's land rig count most recently stood at 201, according to Baker Hughes. A year ago, it was 481, though those figures include wells drilling for natural gas.

While full state-by-state oil production data is not available yet, Texas' production in February was 5.4 million barrels a day. That was up from a bit over 4 million b/d two years earlier.

Story continues

Overall, U.S. production is down to 12.1 million b/d, according to the latest Energy Information Administration weekly data. It was recorded at 13.1 million b/d in two separate reports in late February and early March.

The global oil market was about 100 million b/d before the pandemic struck. Sitton said that in "another year or two," when global demand returns to 90 million to 95 million b/d, "the country with the biggest loss in production will be the U.S."

"We will be the biggest loser," he added.

The broader issue raised by the now-dead plan for the TRC to require an output cut for the first time in roughly 50 years is what role government has to "support key industries' infrastructure in the middle of a crisis."

Sitton noted that it's not that the oil industry is thinking it should go it alone. Rather, a lot of different parts of the industry are pursuing different strategies. Some companies that argued against prorationing have requested loans or other support from the federal government "so you've got different companies all over the map, and they're arguing for their interest rather than the nation's interest."

The end result of that, Sitton said, will be that "it's going to be the small, independent, privately owned companies, of which there are 2,000, and most of them will feel the pain." They were the types of companies who supported prorationing, he added.

Texas' neighbor to the north, Oklahoma, has allowed a backdoor way of restraining production. It has approved an emergency order that allows companies to maintain their rights to develop and produce from an individual property without jeopardizing their lease. The state's Corporation Commission is also studying a proposal for a mandated shut-in like that Sitton had proposed for consideration.

See more from Benzinga

 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
(Newser)  An Ohio state lawmaker is refusing to wear a mask because, well, it would cover his face. In a Monday Facebook post, GOP Rep. Nino Vitale cited his religious beliefs in refusing Republican Gov. Mike DeWine's recommendation to wear a mask to limit the spread of COVID-19, per the Hill. "This is the greatest nation on earth founded on Judeo-Christian Principles," Vitale wrote. "One of those principles is that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. That image is seen the most by our face." Therefore, "I will not wear a mask."

story continues below

With the state moving to reopening certain nonessential businesses, DeWine announced April 27 that people in stores would be required to wear masks. However, he quickly reversed course, saying masks would be recommended but not mandated. Vitale's post included video clips of DeWine and Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton discussing the recommendation. He directed officials to "ignore the unelected Dr. Acton's orders" and "open your counties now, before it's too late." He also asserted the virus was no worse than the flu, though research to date on COVID-19 shows it has a higher death rate and is more contagious, per Live Science. (Read more coronavirus stories.)
When Joyce Sweeney was first diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia as a teenager 18 years ago, she didnt know how difficult life would become.

From being out of High Tech High School for months to losing her hair, reality began to set in just how serious it was. The 14-year-old Jersey City girl was referred to Make-A-Wish in 2002 and her wish to be a model for a day with the Barbizon Modeling and Acting School was granted.

The experience was life-changing.

With her 32nd birthday approaching, Sweeney is now giving back to the non-profit organization that gave her so much during that tumultuous time. She is hosting a virtual fundraising event for Make-A-Wish New Jersey, with the theme of Making Wishes Come True Through Self Love, on Thursday, May 7, from 8 to 9:30 p.m. on Zoom.

With a passion for helping others overcome lifes challenges through her story, encouragement and self love," Sweeneys goal is to raise $7,000 and help grant the wish of another New Jersey child battling a critical illness.

I know what its like to be that kid who is battling a life-threatening illness, says Sweeney. Its important not to give up and I cant even imagine what its like for any kid suffering from cancer while theres (the coronavirus) pandemic going on."

When Sweeney was first told about Make-A-Wish while battling her illness, her mother initially had a misconception of the organizations mission and the children it serves.

My mother immediately thought that it was kind of like a last request, she says. The reality of it was that it was a break from the constant hospital visits and treatments. It was a way to forget about all the chaos going on for a day and just enjoy myself. She loves it just as much as I do now."

Sweeney chose modeling as her wish because she had low self-esteem as a child, and knew her wish would be a 2-for-1 deal, helping her get a mental break from treatment and also helping boost her self-esteem. She participated in a photo shoot, had her makeup done, learned to apply makeup herself and learned how to walk a runway.

Joyces wish was a milestone for Make-A-Wish New Jersey: the 3,000th wish in the state chapters history, and was featured at the annual gala that year.

Sweeney remains connected to the organization by sharing the impact it had on her and the role it has played in setting the course for her career in the medical field as a mental health professional at Jersey City Medical Center.

These kids teach us to move on, even when the darkness surrounds us, says Tom Weatherall, CEO of the state Make-A-Wish chapter. Cancer tried to take away Joyces self-esteem, but through her own perseverance she didnt let that happen.

Weatherall, who was born and raised in Jersey City, has served with Make-A-Wish New Jersey since 2002. In 2005, he was appointed as the CEO of the state chapter.

Sweeneys fundraising event was originally intended to be an in-person event with dinner and music. While public gatherings have been put on hold due to COVID-19, Sweeney has not let the current circumstances slow her down.

She set into motion plans to make the celebration virtual via Zoom, and provide an opportunity for her friends, family, colleagues and the entire Jersey City community to show their support to Make-A-Wish during this time. She is asking for a contribution of $5 per person to participate in the celebration.

During the event, Sweeney will premiere a self-produced documentary on her struggles with self-esteem as a kid, cancer patient, survivor and a Make-A-Wish alum. She has also set up opportunities for prizes that will be given to those who raise the most through friends and family.

To refer a child to Make-A-Wish New Jersey, visit nj.wish.org/refer-a-child. Donations for Thursdays event can be through Cash App: $Joycesweeney, Venmo: @Joyce-Sweeney-8, and Zelle: Joyce Sweeney, email: jsweeney2427@gmail.com. Donations can also be made through nj.wish.org/donate.

You can select to make a gift in honor of someone and dedicate their gift to Joyce Sweeney. Make-A-Wish New Jersey is located at Samuel & Josephine Plumeri Wishing Place, 1384 Perrineville Rd., Monroe Township.

Each state in the U.S. has its own chapter of the Make-A-Wish foundation. Some states such as New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and California have two.
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(Kitco News) The worlds second-largest gold consuming nation saw a massive drop in gold imports in April, down 99.9% on an annual basis  the lowest level in three decades, according to reports citing government sources.

Indias annual plunge was blamed on nationwide shutdowns of jewelry stores and an air travel ban due to the coronavirus outbreak.

India imported only around 50 kilograms of gold in April, down from 110.18 tonnes a year ago, Reuters quoted a government source as saying. In terms of dollar value, April gold imports fell to $2.84 million from $3.97 billion posted in April of last year.

Bloomberg reported similar numbers, citing Metals Focus data that said that gold imports were down 99.5% at about 60 kilograms in April.

Indias lockdown has been extended to May 17th, so next months numbers could be just as bad.

The worst part is even if we open our stores, who will come to buy? Bloomberg quoted N. Anantha Padmanaban, chairman of the All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council, as saying. They will question if it is very much required to exchange or buy jewelry, or is it safer to be at home?

Padmanaban estimated that Indias gold imports for 2020 could halve to just about 350 tons.
High school principals are confused by conflicting advice from the Premier on rushing year 12 students back to school, with some feeling pressured to change their back-to-school plans at the last minute.

At a press conference on Monday, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the government had encouraged all public schools to fast-track the return to school of year 12 students when face-to-face teaching resumes next week.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian at the press conference on Monday. Credit:AAP

"We wanted a staged approach but obviously [for] year 12, we wanted them [schools] to make an exception," she said. "That was in the guidelines the department and Education Minister had sent out to schools."

But principals say this contradicts written guidelines, while the Labor opposition accused the Premier of "re-writing history" and back-tracking on her plan for all students to return one day a week.
Offering details on the flights planned to evacuate stranded Indians across the world, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the London-Mumbai flight will have a fare of about Rs 50,000.

Similarly, flights from US, including those originating from San Francisco and Newark, will cost about Rs 1 lakh. A Dhaka-Delhi flight will cost Rs 12,000.

The government had made it clear on May 4 that passengers will have to pay for their flights back home.

Confirming Moneycontrol report, Puri added that in total 64 flights will be operated in the first week of evacuation. About 15,000 Indians will be brought home.

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

Apart from these, flights will also land in Telangana, Gujarat, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.

At each airport, Puri added, passengers will have to go through screening and will be quarantined for 14 days.

About 1.9 lakh Indians will be evacuated, Puri said, but added that these numbers will be ramped up in later stages.



"The indication was that many more people, are interested to come back. So we dont know what the final figure would be," the Minister said.

Giving a break-up of nearly 15,000 Indians who are set to be back, the Minister said Kerala will receive 3,150 passengers, from seven countries. Tamil Nadu will get 2,150, and Maharashtra, 1,900 Indians.
Brandon police arrested several different people who were all wanted on outstanding warrants on Friday and Saturday.

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This article was published 4/5/2020 (624 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Brandon police arrested several different people who were all wanted on outstanding warrants on Friday and Saturday.

On Friday afternoon, police arrested a 22-year-old man for stealing from Canadian Tire. Officers eventually discovered that this suspect was the subject of two arrest warrants for three counts of failing to comply with probation and one count of theft under $5,000. He was later released from police custody and is scheduled to appear in court on July 9.

While dealing with an unrelated matter, police also located a 25-year-old male who was wanted for possession of a stolen debit card and fraudulent use of a debit card. He was arrested based on the strength of this warrant, but was eventually released from custody to appear before a judge on July 16.

Later that night, police arrived at a residence on Westaway Bay after receiving reports that another 25-year-old male was causing problems. Officers eventually located the intoxicated man in the area and discovered that he is the subject of an unendorsed warrant for failing to comply with a probation order. This suspect appeared in court over the weekend.

On Saturday afternoon, police arrested a 35-year-old man from Minnedosa at the Corral Centre without incident. He was wanted on two outstanding warrants for two counts of failing to comply with a release order and one count of theft under $5,000. He appeared in court over the weekend.

 The Brandon Sun
MADRID, May 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In the last two years, Colombian fish exports to the United Kingdom grew exponentially due to the product's high quality and sustainability standardstwo important factors for the British consumer.

The cosmopolitan character of traditional British cuisine is one of its main traits. Although the UK's food industry is characterised by a wide variety of imported products from vendors all around the world, some of its culinary traditions and flagship dishes remain deeply rooted in British culture.

Fish and chips is certainly one of them. With approximately 10,500 restaurants specializing in traditional fried fish with French fries, international seafood suppliers can count on continued demand. In fact, two thirds of fish consumed in the United Kingdom is imported.

Now, a new South American player has been gaining ground in the market. Until 2017, fresh fish imports from Colombia were uncommon, and a rather odd concept for English diners. In fact, the only Colombian fish products in the UK market were fish by-products and processed fillets. None, however, were a decisive success for the sector.

This has significantly changed. Aquaculture exports from Colombia to the UK have grown exponentially in the last two years, increasing by 214% from 2018 to 2019mainly due to tilapia fillets, which increased by 126% in the same period.

Although this growth might be considered newsworthy, it is no coincidence. On the contrary, it is the result of two determining factors in Colombia's fish industry: high standards for product quality and a strong commitment to production sustainability.

These two differentiating elements have allowed Colombian fish to position itself in the United Kingdom's main fish marketsincluding Billingsgate in Londonas well as in supermarkets such as CostCo, which has 29 stores in the country.

Year-round provider

Colombia has several characteristics that make it an ideal supplier to both the aquaculture and fisheries sectors. For example, its diverse hydrobiological organisms, along with suitable land, freshwater, and saltwater bodies all offer great potential for further developing aquaculture.

Additionally, Colombia's unchanging climate allows year-round production in much of the country.

Furthermore, high levels of compliance with government standardsspecific criteria for area selection, cultivation systems, fattening and reproduction, and monitoring responsible use of water resources, forests, and landsguarantee the sector's sustainability, in order to avoid environmental damage and preserve the environment.

SOURCE PROCOLOMBIA
A biting new anti-Trump ad by a group of dissident Republicans, including the husband of a top White House aide, prompted the US president to lash out Tuesday at the "losers" who created it. Tens of thousands of Americans have been killed by "a deadly virus Donald Trump ignored," according to the one-minute online video, titled "Mourning in America." It is a play on the famous 1984 re-election campaign commercial and slogan by Ronald Reagan, "Morning in America," and attacks Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic. "Under the leadership of Donald Trump, our country is weaker, and sicker, and poorer," the ad's narrator says, describing an "economy in shambles" with 26 million Americans out of work due to a nationwide shutdown. "And now, Americans are asking, if we have another four years like this, will there even be an America?" The total number of first-time claims for jobless benefits topped 30 million in the six weeks to the end of April. The spot, which quickly went viral and has been seen more than five million times since its Monday release, mimics the cadence of Reagan's famous commercial. But while that one projected prosperity and optimism, the anti-Trump ad showed dystopian images of dilapidated homes, abandoned factories and a man applying for unemployment insurance. The video was produced by "The Lincoln Project," a group of self-described "never-Trump" Republicans including George Conway, husband of counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway. Trump attacked the group in a four-tweet rant in the early hours of Tuesday. "Their so-called Lincoln Project is a disgrace to Honest Abe," Trump added, referring to revered Civil War-era president Abraham Lincoln. "I don't know what Kellyanne did to her deranged loser of a husband, Moonface, but it must have been really bad." Trump, apparently still incensed, addressed the issue again Tuesday with reporters before departing for an event in Arizona. "I would have them change the name to the 'Losers Project,'" he said. "They're Republican losers." Trump has always used fiery language to push back at opponents, but he has been particularly vocal during the pandemic as critics savage his response. The ad, and the president's reaction, suggests a fierce war of words lies ahead as Trump and his Democratic opponent Joe Biden begin campaigning ahead of November's election.
The official U.S. unemployment rate for April, due out this Friday, will likely vastly understate job destruction from the coronavirus pandemic, so a pair of economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago set out to create a measure that captures the true extent of labor market losses.

Their estimate: a 'U-Cov' rate in April of somewhere between 25.1% and 34.6%. That's compared to the 16% rate forecast by economists polled by Reuters, who also estimate American employers shed more than 20 million jobs last month.

"The official unemployment rate may only capture a fraction of these losses," Chicago Fed economists Jason Faberman and Aastha Rajan wrote in a blog released Tuesday, describing their proposed U-Cov measure of labor market underutilization.

Many of those newly out of work will not be captured in the traditional U.S. unemployment measure, which counts only those who are out of a job and actively looking for work.

The Labor Department also publishes broader measures to include those working fewer hours than they want to, and people who have looked for work in the past but not recently.

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 even such broader measures may miss those who are on unpaid leave and expect to return to their jobs once the crisis has passed, or people who are not searching for jobs because of stay-at-home orders, the Chicago Fed researchers wrote.

"The unique nature of the COVID-19 crisis has led to the furlough of many workers and has also made it difficult for people to look for new work, even if jobs are available," they said. "The evidence suggests that employment losses are likely in the tens of millions, but many individuals are finding it hard to actively look or be available for work and therefore be classified as unemployed."

In charts accompanying the blog, the researchers showed the previous 'U-Cov' high had been just over 20% in the wake of the Great Recession, more than double the 10% high registered by the traditional unemployment rate.
A pedestrian walks past the Federal Reserve building on Constitution Avenue in Washington on March 19, 2019. Leah Millis | Reuters

The Federal Reserve is about ready to fire up its promised corporate debt-buying program, and the market is starting to get excited. Following through on an announcement it made nearly a month ago, the central bank said Monday it will start its Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility "in early May." The Primary Market Credit Facility will begin "soon thereafter." The announcement sparked a move higher in funds that track high-yield debt and anticipation over how such an unprecedented effort would be carried out. The two programs allow the Fed to start purchasing corporate debt either directly from companies or though exchange-traded funds that track broad indexes of the bonds. When the Fed announced the facilities, it came against a backdrop of frozen credit markets where companies that needed operating cash couldn't find buyers. Yields on the debt soared, blowing out the gap between government bonds of similar duration to the widest since the financial crisis.

Since then, the nearly $10 trillion market has settled down, spreads have narrowed and the market picture has brightened. Still, the Fed intends to follow through on its intentions to keep the wheels turning. "Spreads have come in a lot just based on the Fed's announcement, so they haven't had to buy anything," said Kathy Jones, chief fixed income strategist at Charles Schwab. "They can take their time, they can move very slowly. That being said, there's still going to be a need to use the facilities."

An investing opportunity

Indeed, market demand remains strong. Corporate debt issuance hit record monthly levels in March and April, so a hesitant Fed now could damage a still-fragile ecosystem. "Bond king" Jeffrey Gundlach at DoubleLine Capital said recently he suspects recent buyers of corporate debt are counting on the Fed's activity in the space and hope to "to sell to the Fed shell company at today's or higher prices in the future." tweet However, some investors see a more fundamental picture taking shape. The area of Fed activity getting most of the market's attention is in high-yield, or junk, bonds. The central bank said it will be including as part of its purchases recently downgraded "fallen angels" that have slipped from investment grade into junk because of ratings agency downgrades that happened because of the coronavirus. These are companies such as Macy's, Occidental Petroleum and the Gap. The Fed likely will purchase such bonds through ETFs. While there is some danger investing in companies that have suffered during the coronavirus-induced lockdown, the group as a whole provides "equity-like returns with bond-like risk," said Manuel Hayes, senior portfolio manager at Mellon. "Look at the current landscape we are in today, with lower corporate earnings and a weaker economic outlook," Hayes said. "There are companies that might have been a little reckless during this period and are now being downgraded by ratings agencies. For us, this provides a favorable landscape for the fallen angels investment universe." Hayes estimated that about $150 billion worth of fallen-angel debt has been downgraded so far in 2020, with the potential for another $500 billion more later this year. Some of the companies on the bubble now and classified as "potential fallen angels" include General Motors, Kraft Heinz and Delta Air Lines, according to Moody's. He said the prospect for growth represents "a pretty significant opportunity" for an investing group that recovered from the financial crisis in much quicker fashion than the stock market  seven months to recoup losses for high yield compares to 37 months for stocks. An ETF that tracks fallen angels, the iShares Fallen Angels USD Bond fund, has been on the rise since the Fed's interventions in credit markets. Its biggest components are Continental Resources, Occidental and Telecom Italia.

More moral hazard
Two British Airways planes were covered in five tons of foam leaving a six-figure clean-up bill, with staff reportedly blaming disgruntled employees amid claims of 'sabotage'.

The Boeing 777 and 787 were engulfed in fire retardant at London's Heathrow airport on Sunday.

It was announced last week that up to 12,000 jobs will be lost at BA, representing more than a quarter of the workforce.

Some of the 931 engineers among those being sacked were at the scene on Sunday, according to a newspaper report.

A video, above, shows foam gushing out of the British Airways plane in the hangar at London's Heathrow airport on Sunday. The airline say the incident was due to a technical fault

A source told The Sun: 'There's a lot of p***ed off people at BA at the moment and suddenly two of their jets have been ruined.

'Suppressant foam is not easy to clear up. This mess is going to take weeks to sort out. It's ruined the tools, aircraft, everything in sight.

'BA staff claimed sabotage. There is so much anger.'

But a BA spokesman said it is a technical issue, pointing the blame towards one of their fire prevention systems.

The aircraft which was in the hangar is not believed to be damaged.

It follows BA announcing plans to reduce its headcount by a quarter while its Spanish parent company signed a 900m loan with the Madrid government to save jobs at Iberia and Vueling.

BA is part of the International Airlines Group who have said they have no intention of seeking a similar bailout from the British government.

In a letter to staff, BA chief executive Alex Cruz wrote: 'There is no Government bailout standing by for BA.'

The BA plane with its wheels seen in the foam at London's Heathrow airport. The aircraft in the hangar is not believed to be damaged and is said to have experienced a 'technical issue'

A nearby van can be seen partially submerged in the foam, alongside nearby equipment. It follows an announcement last week that 12,000 jobs will be lost at the airline

The foam seen spreading outwards as the area is engulfed in fire retardant. A BA spokesperson said the foam was dispersed 'as part of a safety feature'

The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) has warned the industry is facing a 'tsunami of job losses' amid the pandemic.

Brian Strutton, BALPA's general secretary, said: 'Before coronavirus the UK aviation industry was world leading. But now aviation workers are facing a Tsunami of job losses.

'There is no more time for delay. The UK Government should follow the example set by others in Europe and around the world, recognise that aviation is vital to the UK economy and keep to the promise made by the Chancellor on 17 March to help airlines.

'Without swift action, UK aviation will fall behind our global competitors and it simply won't be there to aid recovery when the demand returns.

'Aviation will suffer, and so too will the industries that rely on aviation indirectly and our ability to trade on a global scale. That can only be bad for the UK economy.'

A British Airways spokesperson told MailOnline: 'One of our fire prevention systems in our hanger experienced a technical issue causing foam to be dispersed as part of a safety feature.'
BJP leaders have approached



Nagpur police commissioner flagging "threatening messages" being put out on social media against former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis amidst the COVID-19 situation and registration of "false cases" against BJP workers.

A complaint application was submitted to police commissioner Bhushan Kumar Upadhyay on Monday by Nagpur city BJP chief Pravin Datke and others.

A similar complaint was filed by another MLC Prasad Lad with the Ratnagiri district superintendent of police on Tuesday.

Datke alleged that Fadnavis, currently the Leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Assembly, was "threatened with encounter messages whenever he comes live on social media to talk about the COVID-19 situation".

"If the Leader of Opposition is being threatened in such manner how will common people stay safe in Maharashtra?" he asked.

BJP leader and MLC Anil Sole, also from Nagpur and believed to be close to Fadnavis, said that leaders of the saffron party have been constantly targetted by trolls in the last few days.

"Many comments are very personal in nature and are in bad taste," he said.

Apart from Fadnavis, former ministers Chandrashekhar Bavankule, Sudhir Mungantiwar and Vinod Tawde were also allegedly got trolled during their social media interactions.

Mungantiwar said online bullying was a deliberate attempt to target the BJP.

"I have retrieved data of the people trolling me during my Facebook live as well as of other BJP leaders. I found that many online accounts have common names which means that some people are purposefully trolling us," he told PTI.

Mungantiwar also said the BJP would not stop holding the state government accountable for its performance notwithstanding trolling.

"The Maharashtra government has recently taken action against a so-called BJP leader from Nashik district for allegedly making some offensive remarks. If this is the case, then we are also giving out complaints to police officials. We will see how the state government takes action against these trolls, who are indirectly helping the ruling government," said another BJP leader.

The online war with political hues had turned physical when an engineer was beaten up recently allegedly by the men close to state Housing Minister and NCP leader Jitendra Awhad in Thane.

Awhad had also released some of the tweets purportedly posted by the engineer against him and some NCP leaders.

Maharashtra NCP unit president and Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil said police had not taken any action against trolls during 2014-19 (when the BJP was in power) despite several complaints.

"We had then tried to file complaints with police officials in various parts of the state against trolls, but police didn't accept our complaints then," he said.

Patil claimed that many social media handles had been supporting then CM Fadnavis and the BJP.

"The BJP should first clarify whether they were paid accounts or not," Patil said.

Meanwhile, Nagpur BJP chief Datke alleged that leaders of a ruling party have been criticising the state governor, which he said amounted to indiscipline.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi government is headed by the Shiv Sena, with the NCP and the Congress as its constituents.

State Home department had registered 341 cyber crime cases in various parts of the state, an official had said last week.

As per the National Crime Records Bureau data, Maharashtra recorded 2,380 cases of cyber crime in calendar year 2016 followed by 3,604 in 2017 and 3,511 in 2018.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 17:29:43|Editor: huaxia

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Healthcare workers from the Philippine Coast Guard are seen wearing wearing protection equipments inside a newly-converted COVID-19 mass testing center in Manila, the Philippines, on May 5, 2020. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines rose by 199 on Tuesday to a total of 9,684 cases of infections. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali)

MANILA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines rose by 199 on Tuesday to a total of 9,684 cases of infections.

The Department of Health (DOH) said 93 more patients have recovered from the virus, raising the country's total number of recoveries to 1,408.

However, the DOH reported 14 new deaths. The country's COVID-19 death toll now has reached 637.

The DOH said 173, or 87 percent of the daily cases, were reported in Metro Manila, one case, or 0.5 percent, from the Central Visayas region in the central Philippines, while 25 or 12.5 percent from other parts of the country.

Philippine Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a virtual media briefing that 36,271 people have had close contact with the confirmed COVID-19 patients across the country. Many of these have already been traced but there are still a few that are being traced, she added.

Meanwhile, John Wong, who is part of the data analytic expert group of the government coronavirus task force, told a virtual media briefing that the case doubling time in the Philippines is now 4.6 days, or higher than the baseline of 2.5 days.

Wong, an associate professor at the Ateneo de Manila University, added that the flattening of the curve is now "more evident" in the National Capital Region (NCR), where majority of the virus cases are recorded.

At the briefing, Wong presented data from 10 days ago showing case doubling time at 4.6 days for Metro Manila, 5.8 days for the main island of Luzon excluding Metro Manila, 5.4 days for Visayas region in the central Philippines, and 5.3 days for Mindanao in the southern Philippines.

Vivencio Dizon, the deputy chief implementer of the government's response to combat COVID-19, said the government's goal is to build 78 testing laboratories across the country by May 31.

Dizon said that increasing the number of testing laboratories will further boost the country's capacity to test more people and isolate them.

"Our target is to conduct 30,000 tests per day by May 30," Dizon said in a televised briefing.
Throughout history, humankind witnessed many feuds. Some rivalries gave birth to amazing inventions that advanced our society, so feuds are not necessarily always bad. They do not always need to result in battles, either; however, sometimes they do. There were many unnecessary deaths due to pride or the desire for power, which are often driving forces behind violent feuds. In this article, we will take a look at some of the most famous feuds from human history.

The Medici Family And The Pazzi Family

Close up lion stucco at Palazzo Pitti, the old palace of Medici family in Florence, Italy.

This historical feud happened in the 15th century in Florence, Italy. The Medici family was well known as the most powerful family in the city, and their power threatened the Pazzis. On April 26th, 1478, a couple of members of the Pazzi family decided to organize an assassination attempt on some Medici members. They did so during a mass at the Florence Cathedral. They managed to kill Giuliano de Medici, and as retaliation, the Medici family executed the assassins and exiled the rest of the Pazzi family.

Adolf Dassler Versus Rudolf Dassler

Both of these men were shoemakers from the German city of Herzogenaurach.

Both of these men were shoemakers from the German city of Herzogenaurach. They were also brothers, which makes their feud all the more bizarre. No one knows exactly what happened, but even though they achieved success when Jesse Owens wore their shoes at the 1936 Olympics, the brothers decided to part ways. And they did so on bad terms. They split their company and became enemies. However, both achieved success, one with the company Adidas, and the other with his company Puma.

Alexander Hamilton Versus Aaron Burr

US Treasury Department Alexander Hamilton Statue Washington DC.

These two politicians in the 18th century were good friends until Burr managed to beat Hamiltons father in law for a seat in the New York Senate. This turned their friendship into a widely known feud that resulted in an actual duel. With guns! It ended tragically, Hamilton shot his gun in the air because he never wanted to duel, and Burr shot him in the stomach. Hamilton died the next day.

The Feud Of Biddulph, Ontario

This feud involved an entire city going against a family called the Donnellys. Image credit: wikiwand.com

This feud involved an entire city going against a family called the Donnellys. The father of the family was imprisoned for murder in 1857, but his two sons opened up a successful business in the town of Biddulph. However, the people living there did not like this, so they constantly tried shutting them down. The tensions exploded eventually, and the feud culminated in people breaking into Donnellys house and killing five members of the family.

The Stewarts And The Douglases

In 1440, King James II of Scotland invited two members of the Douglas family to dinner and had both murdered. Image credit: Sergey Goryachev / Shutterstock.com

This feud happened in Scotland in the 15th century. These two families were at constant war with each other, and there was no end in sight. In 1440, King James II of Scotland invited two members of the Douglas family to dinner and had both murdered. A few years later, he murdered another member of the family by throwing them out of the window of his castle. This was all done to instigate the feud supposedly, and it worked. The families met on the battlefield in 1455, and the Stewart family won.

The Ako Vendetta

AKO, JAPAN - JULY 18, 2016: Statues of famous 47 ronin in the Oishi Shrine. Image credit: Joymsk140 / Shutterstock.com

This legendary event happened in Japan during the 17th century. Kira Yoshinaka, a military official, continuously disrespected Asano Naganori, a feudal lord. Naganori eventually got fed up and attacked Yoshinaka in self-defense, but he was arrested and forced to commit ritual suicide known as seppuku. After they learned of his death, his loyal samurai warriors decided to avenge him. There were 47 of them, and they attacked Yoshinakas home and killed him. They were eventually arrested and forced to commit seppuku as well.

The Kay Clan And The Chattan Clan

The battle became known as the Battle of North Inch, and eventually, clan Chattan emerged victoriously. Image credit: historic-uk.com

Another feud from medieval Scotland, this one involving two clans. People are not sure where exactly the Kay clan came from, with the majority believing they were actually a part of the Chattan clan who wanted more power. Their feud culminated in 1396 in head-to-head combat. They constructed a closed battlefield, and thirty men from each side were chosen to fight it out with weapons. The battle became known as the Battle of North Inch, and eventually, clan Chattan emerged victoriously.

The Campbells And The MacDonalds

The feud started as small arguments involving cattle but culminated when the MacDonalds refused to give an oath of loyalty to the British flag in 1692. Image credit: highlandtitles.com

What a big surprise, we are in Scotland once more! This feud was even more extreme than the previous one, and it happened in the 17th century. You would expect people to be more civilized by then. It started as small arguments involving cattle but culminated when the MacDonalds refused to give an oath of loyalty to the British flag in 1692. The British monarchs wanted to make an example of them, and the Campbells were quick to accept that offer. The Campbells infiltrated the MacDonald camp acting as friends and then killed them while they were sleeping.

Thomas Edison And Nikola Tesla

Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931), in his West Orange, New Jersey, laboratory, ca. 1901.

The rivalry between these two inventors can be easily described as the battle between the electrical currents they discovered - AC versus DC. Nikola Tesla actually worked for Edison for a short while and tried warning him how limited direct current is when compared to alternating current. Edison did not like Teslas ideas, so Tesla quit and sold his patents to a different company. Throughout the years, Edison continued to belittle Teslas work out of jealousy; however, they were both posthumously recognized for their important work.

Muhammad Ali And Joe Frazier

Outside of the ring, Ali constantly tried to antagonize Frazier and insulted him every chance he got. Image credit: Featureflash Photo Agency / Shutterstock.com

These two legendary boxers were feuding outside the ring more often than inside. They fought three matches in the 1970s, with Ali taking two wins. Outside of the ring, Ali constantly tried to antagonize Frazier and insulted him every chance he got. It was a widely publicized feud.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 19:35:49|Editor: huaxia

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MONROVIA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- At least 45 miners were killed early Tuesday due to mudslides in the northwestern Liberian towns of Massakpa and Bamgoma, according to a local source.

Banku Sheriff, a youth leader of Bamgoma who assisted in the rescue operation, told Xinhua that rescuers have recovered at least 45 bodies from the two mining sites.

He said the victims were involved in illegal mining activities in the gold-rich towns located in Liberia's Grand Cape Mount County.

Liberia's Internal Affairs Minister Varney Sirleaf confirmed with Xinhua the accidents and described them as "sad". Sirleaf said an investigation has been launched into the incident. He however did not reveal the casualties.

According to local experts, mudslides can occur when mud and other earth materials fall down a slope, usually, after a period of heavy rain.

Liberia has recorded a number of mudslides in recent years. The government declared a national mourning period in February last year when over 21 people died in a mudslide in the Gbanipea town of Tappita district in the Lower Nimba county. Enditem
Evgen_Prozhyrko/iStockBy IVAN PEREIRA, ABC News



(ODESSA, Texas) -- Cops in western Texas said they arrested a bar owner and a group of armed men Monday after they violated the state's order.



Ector County Sheriff Mike Griffis said during a news conference Tuesday that his officers were alerted that the owner of Big Daddy Zane's in West Odessa, Texas, opened her bar even though Gov. Wayne Abbott's reopening plan explicitly mandated that bars remain closed. When officers arrived, they saw six men in body armor and armed rifles standing outside the establishment, according to Griffis.



"This was not a protest of their second amendment rights. It was a show of force to ensure this lady could violate the governors order," Griffis told reporters.



The officers arrested the owner and charged her for violating the governor's orders and arrested the armed men for having weapons on a licensed property, Griffis said. The owner will be fined, according to the sheriff.



Abbott's reopening plan, which went into effect Friday, allowed for restaurants and stores to reopen but with only a limited number of patrons. Bars were not included in the first phase of the plan.



Attorney information for the owner and the suspects was not immediately available. The bar posted a Facebook event scheduled for May 4 called "Bars and bartenders standing united," which had a photo of armed men in body armor posing in an undisclosed location.



"They will be here to help protect our rights as a small business owner to open and be able to feed our families," according to the post.



Griffis said he didn't have more details about the armed men, but said they were not from the town and they were there to intimidate people. He acknowledged the hardships that people are facing because of the coronavirus restrictions, but said there are more civilized ways to express their frustration with the governor's order.



"If you dont like this, go ahead and vote for another governor," he said.



Griffis reiterated that the virus is a very serious health risk and people should take the precautions seriously. As of Monday, 84 people in Ector County contracted the virus, and four died from it, according to data from the state and the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.



Texas has 32,783 confirmed cases and 901 related deaths as of Monday, the Johns Hopkins data showed. On Thursday, the number of positive cases in the state increased by 1,033, the biggest one-day jump in three weeks, according to health officials.



"This is all new to us. Its all new to the officials," Griffis said. "My message here is, 'Lets work together.'"



Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
The US Departments of State and Energy should commit to regular, substantive briefings to Congress on nuclear cooperation negotiations with Saudi Arabia, said a congressional watchdog in a report. The Government Accountability Office (GA) said on May 4 that Congress should consider amending the Atomic Energy Act to specify the timeliness and substance of briefings.

It is unclear whether the Departments of State and Energy kept Congress fully and currently informed of nuclear cooperation negotiations with Saudi Arabia, as required by the Atomic Energy Act, said the GAO in its report.

The current and prior US administrations have engaged in discussions and negotiations about nuclear cooperation with the Saudi government after the countries signed a memorandum of understanding related to it. However, the negotiations have been stalled since the two countries have not been able to resolve disagreements on several nonproliferation conditions.

Read: Pompeo Reaffirms US' Goal Of Denuclearizing North Korea After Leader Kim's Reappearance

Concerns over non-proliferation

According to the watchdog, one of the conditions was Saudi Arabia agreeing to enrichment and reprocessing restrictions and signing an additional protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which would have allowed IAEA to obtain additional information about and access to Saudi nuclear activities.

There have been concerns over Saudi Arabias commitment to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, especially after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans statement in 2018. The Crown Prince told a news channel that Saudi Arabia is not interested in acquiring nuclear weapon but would do so if Iran tries to acquire one.

Read: Amid Covid, US And Russia In Wrangle Over Low-yield Nuclear Warheads; China Also In Fray

The GAO said in its report that there is a lack of clarity on which US agencies were present at or aware of various interactions, except formal negotiations, where nuclear cooperation may have been discussed. The congressional watchdog added that it was unable to determine whether the agencies kept the committees fully and currently informed.

By committing to regular briefings to Congress on nuclear cooperation negotiations and initiatives, State could better support congressional oversight on nuclear nonproliferation matters, said the GAO.

Read: Another Earthquake, Tsunami Could Overrun Fukushima Nuclear Plant Seawall: Report

Read: Ukraine Says Only Small Burning Fires Remain In Chernobyl Nuclear Zone After Rain

(Image credit: US State Department)
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Most electrical activity in vertebrates and invertebrates occurs at extremely low frequencies, and the originand medical potentialof these frequencies have eluded scientists. Now a Tel Aviv University study provides evidence for a direct link between electrical fields in the atmosphere and those found in living organisms, including humans.

The study's findings may change established notions about electrical activity in living organisms, paving the way for revolutionary, new medical treatments. Illnesses such as epilepsy and Parkinson's are related to abnormalities in the electrical activity of the body.

"We show that the electrical activity in many living organismsfrom zooplankton in the oceans, to sharks and even in our brainsis very similar to the electrical fields we measure and study in the atmosphere from global lightning activity," explains Prof. Colin Price of TAU's Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, who led the research for the study, published in the International Journal of Biometeorology on February 8.

Colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Alaska also contributed to the study.

"We hypothesize that over evolutionary timescales living organisms adapted and evolved to actually use the electricity in the environmentglobal lightning," Prof. Price continues. "This has likely not changed over billions of years and is similar to the evolution of our eyes, which evolved using the sunlight nature gave us."

As living organisms evolved over billions of years, the natural electromagnetic resonant frequencies in the atmosphere, continuously generated by global lightning activity, provided the background electric fields for the development of cellular electrical activity. Prof. Price's research found that, in some animals, the electrical spectrum is difficult to differentiate from the background atmospheric electric field produced by lightning.

"Neither biologists nor doctors can explain why the frequencies in living organisms (0-50 Hz) are similar to those in the atmosphere caused by lightning," adds Prof. Price. "Most of them are not even aware of the similarity we presented in our paper."

"Our review of previous studies revealed that lightning-related fields may have positive medical applications related to our biological clock (circadian rhythms), spinal cord injuries and maybe other bodily functions related to electrical activity in our bodies," says Prof. Price. "The connection between the ever-present electromagnetic fields, between lightning in the atmosphere and human health, may have huge implications in the future for various treatments related to electrical abnormalities in our bodies."

The study comprised a retrospective review of previous studies on the link between lightning-related fields in the atmosphere and human and animal health. "We collected many different studies over the years to build a clear picture of this link," concludes Prof. Price. "Going forward, we need to design new experiments to see how these extremely low frequency fields from lightning may impact living organisms, and to investigate how these fields can be used to benefit us. One new experiment we are now planning is to see how these fields may impact the rate of photosynthesis in plants."

Explore further Lightning's electromagnetic fields may have protective properties

More information: Colin Price et al, Natural ELF fields in the atmosphere and in living organisms, International Journal of Biometeorology (2020). Journal information: International Journal of Biometeorology Colin Price et al, Natural ELF fields in the atmosphere and in living organisms,(2020). DOI: 10.1007/s00484-020-01864-6
[May 05, 2020] Raghav Sahgal appointed President, Nokia Enterprise and a member of the Nokia Group Leadership Team as Kathrin Buvac prepares to leave Nokia to pursue a new opportunity

Nokia Corporation

Stock Exchange Release

May 5, 2020 at 8:00 (CET +1) Raghav Sahgal appointed President, Nokia Enterprise and a member of the Nokia Group Leadership Team as Kathrin Buvac prepares to leave Nokia to pursue a new opportunity Strong succession designed to maintain momentum in fast-growing Enterprise business

Buvac to step down from Nokia Group Leadership Team on May 31, Sahgal to join on June 1 Espoo, Finland  Nokia announced today that Kathrin Buvac, President of Nokia Enterprise, has decided to leave the company at the end of May to take a leadership position at a global technology company. At that time, she will also step down from her position on the companys Group Leadership Team. Buvac will be succeeded by Raghav Sahgal, currently Senior Vice President of Nokia Software with responsibility for global sales and market services. Sahgal will formally assume his new position and join the Group Leadership Team on June 1, 2020. Nokias commitment to our fast-growing Enterprise business remains strong, and I am pleased that we have an excellent leader in Raghav Sahgal, who is ready to take on the position of President, Nokia Enterprise, said Nokia President and Chief Executive Officer Rajeev Suri. Raghav has a demonstrated record of success in his current role in Nokia Software. I look forward to him joining the Group Leadership Team and building on the strong momentum and fast growth we have in the enterprise segment. Sahgal joined Nokia in April 2017 from NICE Systems, where he served as President of the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions. Prior to NICE, Raghav held a number of executive and senior leadership positions with Oracle, Comverse, CSG, Kenan and Lucent. Sahgal holds a Bachelor of Science and Engineering degree in Computer Engineering from Tulane University and a Master of Science from the University of Maryland, USA. He also attended the General Management Program at Harvard Business school.? Kathrin has been with Siemens, Nokia Siemens Networks and then Nokia for close to 20 years, and I both understand and support her desire to take on a new challenge, said Suri. Kathrin has held key leadership positions at Nokia, including Chief Strategy Officer, and has been at the heart of many of our transformational changes, including the turnaround of Nokia Siemens Networks and the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent. In her most recent role as President of Nokia Enterprise, she led Nokias entry into a new customer segment focused on enterprise networks and industrial automation, delivering profitable, double-digit growth. For the full year 2019, the Nokia Enterprise had revenues of 1.4 billion, an increase of 18% in constant currency from 2018. Customers include Societe du Grand Paris, Deutsche Bahn, SBB, Elektro, Florida Power & Light, UPMC, Lufthansa Technik, BMW, some of the world's largest webscale companies, and many others. Additional background on all current members of the GLT can be found at https://www.nokia.com/en_int/investors/corporate-governance/group-leadership-team. 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. Media Inquiries

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Tel. +358 (0) 10 448 4900

Email: [email protected]

Katja Antila, Head of Media Relations RISKS AND FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS It should be noted that Nokia and its businesses are exposed to various risks and uncertainties and certain statements herein that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect Nokia's current expectations and views of future developments and include statements regarding: A) expectations, plans or benefits related to our strategies, growth management and operational key performance indicators; B) expectations, plans or benefits related to future performance of our businesses and any expected future dividends including timing and qualitative and quantitative thresholds associated therewith; C) expectations and targets regarding financial performance, cash generation, results, the timing o receivables, operating expenses, taxes, currency exchange rates, hedging, cost savings, product cost reductions and competitiveness, as well as results of operations including targeted synergies, better commercial management and those results related to market share, prices, net sales, income and margins; D) expectations, plans or benefits related to changes in organizational and operational structure; E) expectations regarding competition within our market, market developments, general economic conditions and structural and legal change globally and in national and regional markets, such as China; F) our ability to integrate acquired businesses into our operations and achieve the targeted business plans and benefits, including targeted benefits, synergies, cost savings and efficiencies; G) expectations, plans or benefits related to any future collaboration or to business collaboration agreements or patent license agreements or arbitration awards, including income to be received under any collaboration or partnership, agreement or award; H) timing of the deliveries of our products and services, including our short term and longer term expectations around the rollout of 5G, investment requirements with such rollout, and our ability to capitalize on such rollout; as well as the overall readiness of the 5G ecosystem; I) expectations and targets regarding collaboration and partnering arrangements, joint ventures or the creation of joint ventures, and the related administrative, legal, regulatory and other conditions, as well as our expected customer reach; J) outcome of pending and threatened litigation, arbitration, disputes, regulatory proceedings or investigations by authorities; K) expectations regarding restructurings, investments, capital structure optimization efforts, uses of proceeds from transactions, acquisitions and divestments and our ability to achieve the financial and operational targets set in connection with any such restructurings, investments, capital structure optimization efforts, divestments and acquisitions, including our current cost savings program; L) expectations, plans or benefits related to future capital expenditures, reduction of support function costs, temporary incremental expenditures or other R&D expenditures to develop or rollout software and other new products, including 5G and increased digitalization; M) expectations regarding our customers' future capital expenditure constraints and our ability to satisfy customer concerns; and N) statements preceded by or including believe, expect, expectations, consistent, deliver, maintain, strengthen, target, estimate, plan, intend, assumption, focus, continue, should", "will or similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, which could cause our actual results to differ materially from such statements. These statements are based on managements best assumptions and beliefs in light of the information currently available to them. These forward-looking statements are only predictions based upon our current expectations and views of future events and developments and are subject to risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future. Factors, including risks and uncertainties that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to: 1) our strategy is subject to various risks and uncertainties and we may be unable to successfully implement our strategic plans, sustain or improve the operational and financial performance of our business groups, correctly identify or successfully pursue business opportunities or otherwise grow our business; 2) general economic and market conditions, general public health conditions (including its impact on our supply chains) and other developments in the economies where we operate, including the timeline for the deployment of 5G and our ability to successfully capitalize on that deployment ; 3) competition and our ability to effectively and profitably invest in existing and new high-quality products, services, upgrades and technologies and bring them to market in a timely manner; 4) our dependence on the development of the industries in which we operate, including the cyclicality and variability of the information technology and telecommunications industries and our own R&D capabilities and investments; 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10) exchange rate fluctuations, as well as hedging activities; 11) our ability to successfully realize the expectations, plans or benefits related to any future collaboration or business collaboration agreements and patent license agreements or arbitration awards, including income to be received under any collaboration, partnership, agreement or arbitration award; 12) Nokia Technologies' ability to protect its IPR and to maintain and establish new sources of patent, brand and technology licensing income and IPR-related revenues, particularly in the smartphone market, which may not materialize as planned, 13) our dependence on IPR technologies, including those that we have developed and those that are licensed to us, and the risk of associated IPR-related legal claims, licensing costs and restrictions on use; 14) our exposure to direct and indirect regulation, including economic or trade policies, and the reliability of our governance, internal controls and compliance processes to prevent regulatory penalties in our business or in our joint ventures; 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Other unknown or unpredictable factors or underlying assumptions subsequently proven to be incorrect could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent legally required.





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By Easton Sanders May. 04, 2020 | 09:11 PM | MCCRACKEN COUNTY





The lawsuit, filed by former jail employee, Danielle Wolfe, makes numerous allegations. Under the lawsuit, Knight faces three counts, a violation of the Kentucky Whistleblower Act, wrongful termination, and discrimination in violation of the Kentucky Civil Rights Act.







Wolfe, who was a mental health nurse at the jail, and the only Registered Nurse at the facility, claims that initially she was required to meet with inmates in the attorney meeting room where other inmates and attorneys were present, with no privacy for her patients. An inmate reportedly filed a grievance alleging a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. After this, Melanie Tynes, an LPN in charge of the medical department, reportedly told deputy jailers that taking inmates to see Wolfe should be their last priority.







Wolfe claims that in the fall of 2018 she noticed what the lawsuit calls "improper, illegal, unethical, and unsafe practices" in the medical department, and the inhumane treatment of inmates on suicide watch.







According to Wolfe, she noticed an LPN falsify vital signs for inmates and reported it to Tynes. Tynes reportedly acknowledged the problem but chose to ignore the issue.







Wolfe also reportedly saw LPNs place loose pills in white envelopes with only an inmate's name on it, which other medical staff members would then pass out to inmates, an illegal practice that reportedly led to inmates receiving the wrong medications or wrong dosages.







Wolfe allegedly complained to Tynes once more, however Tynes reportedly scolded Wolfe, telling her "You're mental health; not medical."







She also claims that the medical department is staffed entirely by LPNs, who are handling sick call requests from inmates, evaluating conditions, and determining which medications to prescribe, although an LPN is not permitted to perform patient assessments without the presence of a Registered Nurse or a Nurse Practitioner for verification. Wolfe says they did have an off site medical director and Nurse Practitioner, but Tynes reportedly forbade staff from contacting them, instead having the LPNs perform sick calls.







Furthermore, she claims that medical department staff and deputy jailers were destroying inmate grievances regarding treatment.







Wolfe says she had tried to resolve the issues by discussing the problems with Tynes, without involving Knight, because beginning in January of 2019, Knight had reportedly began making unwanted sexual advances. She claims Knight frequently spoke about sexual matters, sending her sexual messages which became increasingly dirty, including nude videos and inappropriate photos.







According to Wolfe, she would frequently recommend that a patient see the Nurse Practitioner for medication. Tynes then reportedly told Wolfe that she should not schedule inmates to see the Nurse Practitioner, and instead she needed to make a recommendation to Tynes, who would then decide which inmates could see the Nurse Practitioner, although overruling an RN is beyond the scope of the LPN practice.







Up to this point, Wolfe claims that she had an agreement when she took the job, that she would work a part-time schedule with flexible hours in order to care for her children. However, on February 10, she claims that Tynes gave her a warning for tardiness, although she had reportedly arrived at an agreed upon time under her flexible schedule.







Tynes then reportedly told Wolfe that if she wanted to keep her job, she would have to agree to a new schedule that Tynes had designed, which included working on a day that Tynes reportedly knew Wolfe would not be able to work.







Wolfe says that on February 24 and 25 she spoke with an Emergency Medical Technician and a Medical Assistant and allegedly learned that they had been required to perform acts, such as injecting insulin, which the lawsuit says should not have been performed without supervision from a nurse.





On February 27, allegedly after months of getting no-where by speaking with Tynes, she decided she would speak with Knight. On February 27, reportedly after arriving to work, Knight called her into his office and reportedly terminated her for alleged HIPAA violations.







In the lawsuit, Wolfe requests the following resolutions:







1) A jury of twelve to try the case.



2) That Knight be required to respond.

3) Payment for damages.



4) Front pay.



5) Additional compensatory damages for emotional stress, pain, suffering, embarrassment, and humiliation.



6) All costs be placed on the defendant.



7) The defendant be ordered to pay punitive damages.



8) the costs and attorney's fees be assessed against the defendant.



9) Necessary remedies to eliminate all alleged violations.



10) Any other relief the court finds appropriate.







You can see the full text of the lawsuit at the link below.

A lawsuit has been filed against the McCracken County Fiscal Court and McCracken County Jailer, David Knight.

On the Net:
My independent view on the debate: Should Elections 2020 be held? There is no doubt that COVID-19 is asking questions of our democracy that are as novel as they are tricky.

On Thursday April 30 episode of the University of Ghana's Law in Crisis seminar; as well as all the many reaction pieces that have followed show, opinions differ on the matter, and our republic is richer for the diversity of views that this situation is eliciting. There are good arguments on all sides.

Legal pragmatism within the strictures of the law in my view should prevail over any legal utopian contortions, no matter how creative they get!

Here is what we know: the Constitution does not provide us with a clear solution post Dec 7th if we do not hold elections. In effect, there is no denying that the question whether we should hold an election entails both the taking of a constitutional position; and the making of a political choice. However, here are the facts: a decision to not hold the presidential elections in 2020 will not only lead us to certain constitutional crisis but will also clearly be a political choice that could lead us into political instability.

At the moment, the constitutionally mandated Electoral Commission has NOT indicated that it cannot hold a COVID-PROOF elections. It appears the Commission intends to hold the elections within the public health guidelines.

The Right to Vote and the Administration of the right to vote are two separate but related things! The right to vote must be exercised in a free, fair and I add safe manner. So, if in the view of a voter, the measure put in place by the Electoral Commission does not provide for a free, fair and safe elections, a voter may challenge the commission in Court for it to put in place measures ensure the voter is able to exercise his franchise in a free, fair and safe

In light of this, my answer to the question is three fold:

a. The EC has a constitutional duty to hold elections. So yes, the EC must perform it duties within the limits of the law and the public guidelines! Any indication of that not being possible must come from the Electoral Commission in consultation with all stakeholders, including the political parties. This is where a political and not necessarily a constitutional decision might be taken on how to maintain the governance architecture of the country post Dec 7th.

b. The voter must be satisfied with the measures put in place by the EC. If satisfied, the voter must exercise his civic duty to go out and vote. If not satisfied, the voter can seek redress in Court for better measures to be put in place.

c. While some claim that the public health risk outweighs the right to vote. They are asking the wrong questions and weighing the wrong variables. Does a public health risk outweigh the likelihood of political instability? This is where the balance must be struck. My sense is that the constitutional position we adopt and the political decision we take must both be informed by our past and led by our aspirations as a democratic society. Do we want still to stay a democracy after COVID-19 is over?

So, my simple answer to your question is YES we need to find the best way to build consensus with genuine inclusion of ALL relevant stakeholders on how to organise election 2020 in a free, fair and safe manner and avoid the constitutional cocktails, gymnastics and rigmarole on what should happen post Dec 7 without elections.

Lord let this cup pass us by!

Clement Kojo Akapame, Moderator, UG School of Law Panel on Elections and Pandemics and Lecturer GIMPA Faculty of Law.
Aer Lingus has said it will be reviewing processes and procedures after images of a crowded flight with no social distancing appeared on social media.

The images, taken by a passenger on the 8.45am flight yesterday between Belfast City Airport and London Heathrow, caused public outcry on social media.

Passenger Sean Mallon, who was flying to Heathrow for work, told the BBC around 95pc of the seats on the flight were filled.

"There was no social distancing whatsoever," he said.

"Once we got to the other side I just wanted to get off the plane. Everyone just jumped up and started opening overhead compartments as normal, grabbing their bags, queuing to get off as normal. No change whatsoever."

Read More

Professor of molecular virology at Queen's University, Belfast, Dr Ultan Power said the images were "a major concern" but there was a more worrying issue.

"I would be even more concerned for the plane coming back in the opposite direction from a Covid-19 hotspot with potentially a lot of people who had been exposed to the virus," he said.

"By not ensuring quarantine we're almost guaranteeing we will have a reintroduction after the huge efforts of lockdown."

In a statement, Aer Lingus said it would be assessing the impact of traveller numbers on the Belfast to Heathrow service.

"In light of the unexpectedly high loads on the Belfast-London Heathrow service this morning and the level of demand for the route, Aer Lingus is reviewing its processes and procedures applicable to the operation of this service," the airline said.

"The safety and security of Aer Lingus' customers and crew is our top priority and any process changes that are identified as being required will be implemented as a matter of urgency".

Aviation analyst Alex Macheras said aircraft should not be an exception to social distancing rules.

"This is a disappointing revelation from Aer Lingus, who have decided to not social distance on board, which many other airlines have decided to do," he said.

"We are still in the middle of this pandemic and there is a lack of any clear direction for rules from regulators."
H ospitality bosses on Tuesday breathed a sigh of relief as the Chancellor signalled the furlough scheme will not come to a sudden halt.

Rishi Sunak last night said there would be no cliff edge end to the scheme, due to finish in late June.

The Standard understands a number of options are being considered including paying a subsidy for those returning to work or reducing the current subsidy from 80% of wages initially to 60% with further small reductions to follow.

Pubs entrepreneur Charlie McVeigh said: Terrific news and this flexible approach will help save jobs and companies.

Battered hospitality firms have been calling for a rent holiday, dubbed National Time Out, as trade is expected to return gradually.

McVeigh added: It's painful to say but the next big task is to deliver a nine month rent free for hospitality and retail. Rent cannot be paid when there is zero or minimal sales.

Serial restaurateur Jamie Barber, behind Mayfairs Hush, said: A transitional job retention scheme which may include support for people actually working is very welcome for particularly hard hit sectors like hospitality where it could be a very long time before there is a return to anything that even remotely resembles normal. Whats clear is were not in Kansas anymore.

Entrepreneur Jonathan Downey, co-founder of London Union, which runs street food venues and event spaces, said: Its great news that the furlough scheme will be extended beyond the end of June. The Chancellor would have had to do this (on a sector specific basis) anyway, for those businesses, like pubs and restaurants, that are likely to remain closed throughout the summer.

Downey added: He now needs to do something about the upcoming rental apocalypse by extending the lease forfeiture moratorium beyond 30 June and announcing a #NationalTimeOut. If he doesnt, everything extraordinary that hes done so far will be for nothing.

Mark Selby at Wahaca said: Whilst this is great news we still need to tackle the bigger issue of the #NationalTimeOut to grant a 9 months rent pause in the hospitality industry.

Des Gunewardena at D&D London welcomed the chancellors message there will be no cliff edge end to the furlough scheme. He said: This is is a huge and necessary relief.

Clive Watson, chairman of City Pub Group: The hospitality sector has no revenue and until its revenue streams return in a meaningful way the Chancellor needs to maintain the job retention scheme to avoid a bloodbath in the hospitality sector.

Simon Emeny at Fullers said: I suspect that pubs and restaurants will be later in the reopening programme, but will play a vital role in regaining any sense of normality, raising much needed tax revenue and in establishing a feel good factor in society, and the extension of the furlough scheme is vital to achieving this.
Pfizer and the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech announced that their potential coronavirus vaccine began human trials in the United States on Monday. If the tests are successful, the vaccine could be ready for emergency use here as early as September.

The two firms are jointly developing a vaccine candidate based on genetic material known as messenger RNA, which carries the instructions for cells to make proteins. By injecting a specially designed messenger RNA into the body, the vaccine could potentially tell cells how to make the spike protein of the coronavirus without actually making a person sick.

Because the virus typically uses this protein as a key to unlock and take over lung cells, the vaccine could train a healthy immune system to produce antibodies to fight off an infection. The technology also has the advantage of being faster to produce, and tends to be more stable than traditional vaccines, which use weakened virus strains.

Moderna, Inovio, CanSino and several other pharmaceutical companies are trying similar approaches, some of which began the first phase of tests in humans a few weeks ago. But no vaccine made with this technology for other viruses has ever reached the global market.
SIX60 Saturdays 2022!

In true SIX60 style, 2022 sees the band going bigger once again announcing six massive stadium shows across Aotearoa
Patients suspected of the coronavirus (COVID-19) infection are brought by ambulance to Kommunarka Hospital in Moscow, Russia on April 17, 2020.

Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Three doctors in Russia fell out of hospital windows in the span of two weeks, prompting questions and speculation on the treatment of frontline healthcare workers amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Two doctors died after the falls, and one remains in critical condition after sustaining a skull fracture after falling from a second-floor window.

Two of the three doctors had been outspoken critics on Russia's lack of preparedness for the coronavirus and PPE shortages for medical workers on the frontlines.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Two medical workers are dead and one has been hospitalized after falling from hospital windows in the span of two weeks under unknown circumstances, The Moscow Times reported.

Russian law enforcement is investigating the three separate incidents, which have prompted questions and speculation on the treatment of frontline healthcare workers amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Alexander Shulepov, 37, a paramedic in the city of Voronezh, is in critical condition after suffering from a skull fracture as a result of a fall out of a second-floor window. The Moscow Times reported Shulepov fell from the window of the hospital where he was being treated for coronavirus.

In an April 22 video, Shulepov's colleague Alexander Kosyakin posted a video of Shulepov claiming that he was forced to continue working at the hospital in spite of his COVID-19 diagnosis. Three days later, Shulepov withdrew his claims, saying he was "overwhelmed by emotions" at the time of the video.

"[Shulepov] is [in] an intensive care unit, as far as I know in a serious condition, last time I spoke to him was on the 30th of April, we checked in with each other," Kosyakin told CNN in an interview. "He felt fine, he was getting ready to get discharged from the hospital ... and all of a sudden this happened."

"It's not clear why and what for, so many questions that I don't even have the answer to," Kosyakin added.

Story continues

Last Friday, Yelena Nepomnyashchaya, the interim head doctor at a hospital in Krasnoyarsk, succumbed to her injuries following a fall from the fifth floor on April 25, according to a Fox News report.

Nepomnyashchaya reportedly fell out of the window after a meeting with regional health officials to discuss turning the hospital where she worked into a coronavirus care facility.

However, Nepomnyashchaya had said there were PPE shortages and the staff was unprepared, leading to her to oppose changing the hospital into a coronavirus care facility.

The regional department of the Health Ministry denied her allegations in a statement to CNN, adding that "the hospital is in 'reserve' for coronavirus patients and its staff has been trained and equipped," CNN reported.

Natalya Lebedeva, who served as chief of emergency medical service at Star City  a cosmonaut training center outside Moscow  was being treated for suspected coronavirus, before she died after a fall from the hospital where she was being treated.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The Nigerian man, who gave actress, Eniola Badmus the sum of 500k for giveaway, has come out to apologize to her.

The actress, was dragged on social media and accused of getting involved in a giveaway fraud.

Taking to Instagram, Badmus gave an update of the situation as she shared a picture of the messages the sponsor of the giveaway sent to her.

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In the message, sponsor identified as Piusomoyele said he was sorry her for all the damages caused and he noted that it was never his intention.

The actress captioned the post;

A LETTER FROM MR GIVEAWAY

Read Also: Make Your Pages Accessible Before I Reply You -Nkechi Blessing To Men Sliding Into Her DM

See the full post below:
Despite the enthusiasm for the legalization of hemp, Ohio Department of Agriculture received 198 applications for hemp cultivation for the 2020 growing season.

This number may seem low, given the interest in hemp in Ohio since the state legalized production in 2019. Recent Ohio State University webinars on hemp production had 1,115 participants. Pennsylvania approved 324 permits for growing hemp in 2019, and West Virginia received more than 400 applications for the 2020 season.

To some industry experts, however, Ohios application numbers are not surprising, given that it is Ohios first full season of hemp production, and that many farmers are finding that hemp is not as simple or as lucrative a crop as they originally believed.

Hemp cultivation applications closed May 1 in Ohio. The ODA did not have data on how many applications were approved as of May 4.

Labor

Tim Johnson is a co-founder of the Ohio Cannabis and Hemp Chamber of Commerce, and consults with farmers and businesses that want to get into the hemp and cannabis industries.

Were seeing a lot of people that do want to jump in, but theyre backing down, Johnson told Farm and Dairy May 1.

For one thing, Johnson said, many of them didnt realize how much work growing hemp takes.

One farmer he talked to originally wanted to grow 2,000 acres of hemp. But hemp needs a lot of attention. Farmers have to monitor THC levels and pests. Growing that many acres would require multiple people to manage the crop every day. Most of the farmers Johnson talked to who did decide to grow hemp this year cut back on the number of acres they originally planned to grow.

In a March 30 Ohio State webinar, Brad Bergefurd, an OSU horticulture specialist, noted that, while some states have grown hemp recently through research pilot programs, it has been more than 80 years since hemp was grown in Ohio.

Just because its legal and we can grow it in Ohio now does not mean were quite ready, he said.

Markets

In addition to the labor, there is no guarantee of dramatic financial rewards in hemp. Hemp can be grown for CBD, fiber or seeds. CBD is the largest market for hemp right now, but, Johnson said, that market seems to be saturated.

Everybody sees this quick grab in the CBD hemp side, Johnson said.

Bergefurd noted that farmers in some states were making up to $75,000 per acre in gross income for hemp in 2018, but in 2019, that number dropped to $20,000 per acre as more farmers got involved in the industry. Its hard to know what these numbers will look like for the 2020 season.

Now, keep in mind, its gonna cost you $10-15,000 (per acre) to plant this crop and get it to market, Bergefurd added.

THC level limits also pose a risk. Hemp crops must have their THC levels tested, and crops that go over the 0.3% limit are legally classified as marijuana and must be destroyed. So, considering all these challenges, some Ohio farmers are holding off on growing hemp.

We see more of them decide not to get into the industry, Johnson said. They are seeing how it plays out.

Fiber

Johnson noted that recently, he has seen some companies turn away from CBD hemp and towards fiber hemp for textiles.

Craig Schluttenhofer, research assistant professor of natural products at Central State University, in Wilberforce, Ohio, said in an April 9 webinar for Ohio State that hemp fiber and grain could be well-suited for growing in Ohio, once those markets develop more.

A lot of people will see fiber being eventually the largest part of the industry sector and grain is definitely going to be in there as well, Schluttenhofer said.

Johnson believes that more companies will turn to hemp fiber products over the next five to 10 years as more infrastructure is built in the U.S.

There is a demand for the textile side; its just building the infrastructure, he said. Thats probably where the growth and the money is gonna be.
Launched in 2007, Alden owns about 200 publications through an operating company now known as MediaNews Group, formerly Digital First Media. The chain has come under fire for sweeping layoffs at its newspapers, including major dailies such as The Denver Post; The Mercury News of San Jose, California; and the St. Paul Pioneer Press, as well as smaller weeklies.
Students at a school in the southern city of Can Tho use Thien Long's crayons. Photo courtesy of TLG.

Pen maker Thien Long Group recorded a Q1 net loss of VND20 billion ($860,000) as schools closed over the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is the first time that the group, TLG, posts a loss after 10 years of going public.

The groups first quarter financial statement records approximate net revenues of VND470 billion ($20 million), down 20 percent year-on-year, with domestic market sales seeing a double digit negative growth. This market accounts for nearly 70 percent of TLG's revenue structure.

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted the company's business operations with the prolonged schools closure across the country and around the world, resulting in lower product consumption, the group said.

The leading Vietnamese pen maker also saw its total assets value decrease slightly from the beginning of the year to about VND2.26 trillion (nearly $96.2 million).

The company estimates reduced net revenues and profit this year of around VND3.2 trillion (around $136 million) and VND325 billion (nearly $13.8 million), respectively. These figures are based on the government's decision to allow students in Vietnam to return to school on Monday.
(Newser)  Russian President Vladimir Putin has given a commemorative World War II medal to the recently resurfaced Kim Jong Un. The North Korean leader was awarded "for his great personal contribution to the commemoration of dead and buried Soviet citizens on the territory of [North Korea] and showing concern about the safety of the Soviet soldiers' graves and memorial sites," Russia's embassy in Pyongyang said Tuesday, per the Moscow Times. But neither Putin nor Kim, who reportedly made his first public appearance in 20 days after rumors that he'd fallen ill, were present for the ceremony at the Pyongyang legislature.

story continues below

Russian Ambassador Alexander Matsegora handed the medal to Ri Son Gwon, the foreign minister of North Korea, where some 1,375 Soviet soldiers are buried, according to Russian state media. The embassy said the pair discussed "further developing and strengthening multifaceted Russian-Korean cooperation." Photos of the meeting showed faces hidden by masks, though North Korea has yet to report a case of COVID-19, per the AP. The ceremony comes days before Russia celebrates the 75th anniversary of Victory Day, when Soviet forces took control of Berlin, bringing World War II to an end in Europe. Kim attended celebrations in Russia last year. (Read more North Korea stories.)
(CNN)  Demand for dogs has shot up during lockdown as potential pet owners look to get a new furry friend, but one UK animal charity is asking people to think about whether they are ready for the commitment.

Dogs Trust, the UK's largest dog welfare charity, said a recent spike in interest in dogs could result in a wave of abandoned pooches when unprepared new owners return to normal life after coronavirus lockdown measures end.

"This is the sad reality that often follows Christmas when people also get dogs on a whim," said the charity in a press release.

Dogs Trust is known for its slogan, "A dog is for life, not just for Christmas," but the charity will temporarily tweak it to read: "A dog is for life, not just for lockdown."

Online searches for "buy a puppy" and "adopt a puppy" saw huge spikes after the UK announced lockdown measures on March 23, said the charity, which wants potential owners to do a quiz to see if they can handle a dog.

Questions test whether people can spend the time and money required to keep a happy dog, as well as going for walks in all weather types and completely changing their schedule.

Owners are also asked if they are willing "to be chief pooper scooper" and "to learn the language of your dog so you can give them everything they need."

Owen Sharp, Dogs Trust chief executive, said that the aim was to remind people what a huge responsibility it is to own a pet.

"Like Christmas, when people are at home more, they might think now is the perfect time to get a dog," said Sharp in the statement.

"For some people this will be the case, but we're asking people to consider when the lockdown lifts how your life will need to change to accommodate your four-legged friend."

There has also been a surge in dog adoptions in the US.

Last month, a Florida kennel that is normally packed with stray and abandoned dogs was filled instead with cheering staff and volunteers because all of the animals found new homes.

And Foster Dogs Inc., a New York-based nonprofit that connects animal rescue organizations with adopters and fosters, saw a more than 1,000% increase in foster applications in March in the New York area compared with the same month in 2019.

This story was first published on CNN.com "'A dog is for life, not just for lockdown,' UK charity says as searches for pups surge"
You cant fly to a five-star celebrity-baiting hotel in the Maldives for a luxurious spa treatment  but you can make one. And all you need for a spot of lockdown pampering are foods that you can buy in the supermarket.

Behold the Edible Spa Menu, courtesy of the Coco Bodu Hithi hotel in the North Male Atoll, a popular choice with the likes of supermodel Adwoa Aboah, actress Billie Piper and Hayley Atwell.

Its award-winning Coco Spa team has unveiled 10 treatments  from scrubs to hair masks - you can make at home using ingredients such as honey, bananas and kiwis. Scroll down for the full how-to guide

The Coco Bodu Hithi hotel. Its spa team has unveiled 10 treatments you can make at home

Coco Lassi Mask

INGREDIENTS: Half a mango (remove skin and puree).

2 Kiwis (remove skin and puree).

1 tbs pure honey.

3 tbs coconut milk powder.

METHOD: 1. Puree both fruits into a creamy paste. 2. Add a spoonful of honey. 3. Add coconut milk powder. 4. Stir until all ingredients are combined.

APPLICATION: 1. Do a facial cleanse. 2. Apply the paste for half an hour and then rinse with lukewarm water followed by applying moisturiser.

CUSTOMER: This mask is for customers with very dry skin. This is also an anti-ageing mask. CONSERVATION: Same day.

Mango Smoothie Mask

INGREDIENTS: Half a mango (remove skin and puree).

2 Kiwis (remove skin and puree).

1 tbs pure honey.

The Edible Spa Menu includes turmeric, avocados, honey, brown sugar, banana and kiwi

METHOD: 1. Puree both fruits into a creamy paste. 2. Add a spoonful of honey. 3. Add coconut milk powder. 4. Stir until all ingredients are combined.

APPLICATION: 1. Do a facial cleanse. 2. Apply the paste for half an hour and then rinse with lukewarm water, followed by applying moisturiser.

CUSTOMER: This mask is for customers with normal skin. This is also an anti-ageing mask. CONSERVATION: Same day.

Papaya Panna Cotta Mask

INGREDIENTS: 1 cup papaya (remove skin, seeds and puree).

1 tbs warm water.

1 tsp plain yoghurt.

1 tsp pure honey.

METHOD: 1. Blend the papaya for two to three minutes. 2. Add one tbs of warm water 3. Add honey. 4. Add one tbs yoghurt (drain before adding).

APPLICATION: 1. Apply to skin using fingers in a thick layer and leave for 15 minutes. 2. Rinse off.

CUSTOMER: This mask has skin-brightening qualities. CONSERVATION: One day.

Coco Rice Pudding Scrub

INGREDIENTS: One cup of organic rice flour.

2 cups of dried coconut milk powder.

1 tsp of essential oil.

Rice pudding scrubs, milk hair masks and chocolate cake scrubs are all on the menu

METHOD: 1. Mix dry ingredients then add warm water for desired consistency. 2. Add essential oil to the mixture. 3. Blend for ultimate relaxing and exfoliating body scrub that recharges skin for undeniable vitality that emits a glow.

APPLICATION: 1. Gently scrub for three minutes. 2. Rinse with cool water.

CUSTOMER: This mask has skin-brightening qualities. CONSERVATION: Keep refrigerated for two weeks.

Turmeric Rice Pudding Scrub

INGREDIENTS: One cup of organic rice flour.

2 cups of dried coconut milk powder.

3 tbs turmeric powder.

1 tsp of essential oil.

METHOD: 1. Mix dry ingredients then add warm water for desired consistency. 2. Add essential oil to the mixture. 3. Blend for ultimate relaxing and exfoliating body scrub that recharges skin for undeniable vitality that emits a glow.

APPLICATION: 1. Gently scrub for three minutes. 2. Rinse with cool water.

CUSTOMER: This mask has skin-brightening qualities. CONSERVATION: Keep refrigerated for two weeks.

Way to glow: Next time you're at the supermarket, pick up some pampering spa ingredients

Golden Milk Hair Mask

INGREDIENTS: 4  5 tbs turmeric powder.

1 bowl of raw milk.

1 tsp pure honey.

METHOD: 1. Mix the turmeric and milk to make a semi-liquid paste. 2. You may add honey to act as a conditioner.

APPLICATION: 1. Cover scalp and massage gently. 2. Let it dry for half an hour under a shower cap and a towel wrap. 3. Wash off with regular shampoo.

CUSTOMER: Do not use on inflamed scalp. Do not use on blonde or light-coloured hair as this might stain. If pregnant consult doctor first. CONSERVATION: Same day.

Chocolate Cake Scrub

INGREDIENTS: Half a cup of white sugar.

Half a cup of brown sugar.

Half a cup of coconut oil.

1 tbs cocoa powder.

Half a tsp essential oil.

METHOD: 1. Mix all ingredients until fully incorporated. 2. Spoon into a bowl.

APPLICATION: 1. Apply. Let set under wrap for five to ten minutes as this will increase the oils in the scrub. 2. Then scrub in circular motion.

CUSTOMER: This scrub will temporarily darken skin. This is a good scrub for hard and very dry skin. CONSERVATION: Same day.

Coco Ice Cream Scrub

INGREDIENTS: Three-quarters of a cup of fine sea salt or sugar.

Half a cup coconut oil.

2 tbs lemon juice.

METHOD: 1. Mix all ingredients. 2. Store in fridge, the coconut oil will harden and make the scrub thick and creamy.

APPLICATION: 1. Apply to skin in gentle circular movements. 2. The scrub will melt on customers skin when applied. 3. Remove with warm wet towel.

CUSTOMER: This scrub is very good for slightly sunburnt skin. ADDITIONAL: One tbs grated ginger  promotes circulation and creates a warming effect. CONSERVATION: One week.

Banana Ice Cream Wrap

Maumoon Musthafa, Resident Manager at Coco Bodu Hithi, said: 'From fruity skin brightening masks to ice cream body scrubs, we hope people can unwind and relax in their own luxurious spa - feeling a world away from current realities'

INGREDIENTS: Three-quarters of a cup fine sea salt or sugar.

Half a cup coconut oil.

2 tbs lemon juice.

1 banana (pureed).

METHOD: 1. Mix all ingredients. 2. Store in the fridge - the coconut oil will harden and make the scrub thick and creamy.

APPLICATION: 1. Spread over skin. 2. Wrap for 15 to 20 minutes. 3. Remove with warm wet towel.

CUSTOMER: This scrub is very good for slightly sunburnt skin or very dry skin. CONSERVATION: One week.

Neem Tea Mask

INGREDIENTS: 1 tbs aloe vera gel.

1 handful of basil.

1 handful of neem.

METHOD: 1. Grind down the herbs. 2. Place the ground leaves in a mixing bowl with one tbs of water. 3. Stir until all the water is gone. 4. Pour in 1 tbs of aloe vera gel. 5. Mix until the gel covers all the leaves.

Supermodel Adwoa Aboah, actress Billie Piper and Hayley Atwell are all fans of the Coco Bodu Hithi hotel (pictured)

APPLICATION: 1. Wash face and neck with warm water and oil-free cleanser to remove makeup and open pores. 2. Spread over face, neck and decollete and let set for 15 minutes. 3. Rinse with lukewarm water then cold water to tighten pores.

CUSTOMER: This mask is very good for dry skin. CONSERVATION: Same day.

Maumoon Musthafa, Resident Manager at Coco Bodu Hithi, said: 'From fruity skin brightening masks to ice cream body scrubs, we hope people can unwind and relax in their own luxurious spa - feeling a world away from current realities.'
India to use planes and naval ships to bring back hundreds of thousands of nationals stuck abroad due to COVID-19.

India has embarked on a massive operation calling on passenger jets and naval ships to bring back some of the hundreds of thousands of nationals stuck abroad due to coronavirus restrictions, the government said.

India banned all incoming international flights in late March as it imposed one of the worlds strictest virus lockdowns, leaving vast numbers of workers and students stranded.

A defence spokesman told AFP on Tuesday that two ships were en route to the Maldives and another to the United Arab Emirates (UAE)  home to about 3.4 million Indian nationals, who make up about 30 percent of the Gulf states population.

A government statement said repatriation flights would start bringing nationals home from Thursday, and that Indian embassies and high commissions were preparing lists of distressed Indian citizens.

Evacuees will have to pay for their passage the statement said, without elaborating, and spend 14 days in quarantine on arrival.

COVID test would be done after 14 days and further action would be taken according to health protocols, it added.





Almost 200,000 applications in Dubai

The consulate in Dubai said it alone had received almost 200,000 applications, appealing on Twitter for patience and cooperation as India undertakes the massive task of repatriation.

The oil-rich Gulf region is reliant on the cheap labour of millions of foreigners  mostly from India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka  many of whom live in squalid camps far from the regions showy skyscrapers and malls.

But coronavirus and the devastating economic effect of the pandemic has left many workers sick and others unemployed, unpaid and at the mercy of sometimes unscrupulous employers.

More than 60 flights are also being arranged to bring home those stranded in the Gulf, the United States, the United Kingdom, Bangladesh, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, Punjab states special chief secretary KBS Sidhu tweeted on Tuesday.

The flights will bring an average of 2,000 people back to various Indian states and territories every week, a foreign ministry document shared by Sidhu stated.

So far, some 20,000 Indians in the US have signed up for the evacuations, The Times of India reported.

Plea for help

But some Indians said they would not be able to pay for their evacuations and pleaded with the government for help.

I request govt to take all of us at no charge during this crisis situation as we are all struggling here due to prolonged lockdown, tourist Sadhana Srivastava tweeted from Dubai.

Im homeless now after I lost my job in March, please take me to India or else I will be in a big trouble here in Dubai, please help me sir, Saroj K Swain wrote on Twitter.

The UAE has been the most vocal among Gulf countries in demanding governments take workers back, with almost 23,000 having left as of April 20.

But New Delhi had, until now, refused to cooperate, baulking at the logistical and safety nightmare of repatriating and quarantining returning citizens.

India had earlier evacuated some 2,500 Indians from China, Japan, Iran and Italy before banning international and domestic travel.

India, the worlds second-most populous nation with 1.3 billion people, on Tuesday reported 46,433 cases of the infectious disease and 1,568 deaths.

It was the biggest single-day jump with 3,900 new infections and 195 deaths in just 24 hours.
Caracas, May 5 : Venezuela's Foreign Ministry has blamed the US for attempting to unload mercenary groups onto the country's central coast that left eight dead and two arrested.

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday that several people were captured in the operation, including one individual who confessed to "being a veteran agent of the US Drug Enforcement Agency", reports Xinhua news agency The statement said that "Venezuelan military deserters and a former member of the US Army Special Forces have taken responsibility for this failed operation".

Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said on Sunday that "Colombian terrorist mercenaries" were also involved in the maritime invasion.

The alleged invaders were also planning to "murder of leaders of the revolutionary government, increase the spiral of violence, generate chaos and confusion among the population and thereby lead to a new attempted coup", he added.

But Colombia denied involvement in the incident.

In its statement on Monday, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry also noted that the operation "took place in the midst of a global pandemic, disregarding the call of the (UN) secretary-general for a cessation of hostilities in the world".
The global pandemic of COVID-19 has brought about an unprecedented crisis on all fronts. In the area of education, this resulted in massive closures of educational institutions in more than 190 countries around the world in order to prevent the spread of virus and mitigate its impact. According to UNESCO1, as at early April 2020, over 1,576,021,818 students worldwide were out of school. Of these, more than 160,000,000 were students from Latin America and the Caribbean2.

This situation has provoked an acute emergency for national education systems. The governments of the region, led by the Ministries of Education, have rapidly implemented distance learning modalities, supporting educational staff and mobilizing parents, caregivers and communities, with a view to ensuring the continuity of learning as an immediate response.

At the regional level, multiple instances of technical and political dialogue have been convened, which clearly demonstrated strong commitment and corresponding action by Governments with the support of international, regional and national organizations. The various dialogues held during the first month of pandemic then highlighted three common central themes that require immediate and longer-term political and programmatic support:

(1) Important advances and innovation in the area of distance education have been made through the use of technologies in recent weeks more than at any other time. However, there are still important challenges to guarantee equity and inclusion, considering the most vulnerable and marginalized population groups;

(2) There is need to move towards flexible educational systems, with a focus on preparedness; and

(3) A new mentality and paradigm shift towards interdisciplinarity and intersectoriality is required beyond education sector-focused planning and implementation. Cooperation and collaboration across different sectors and actors is paramount.

In other words, this crisis presents itself an unprecedented opportunity to transform national education systems into one of resilience, making the SDG-Education 2030 Agenda more relevant and necessary than ever.

Regional Webinar Series

It is against this background that in collaboration with the Regional Education Group for Latin America and the Caribbean, UNESCO launched on 17 April, a biweekly series of knowledge and information exchange, and of policy dialogue, in order to respond to the pandemic, focusing on the four pillars of

1 https://en.unesco.org/themes/education-emergencies/coronavirus-school-closures

2 https://es.unesco.org/fieldoffice/santiago/covid-19-education-alc

SDG-Education 2030: equity, inclusion, quality and lifelong learning.

The objective of this initiative is to support the Ministries of Education and the different educational actors for the development, management and dissemination of relevant evidence and to inform the immediate response as well as the medium and long-term actions towards the 2030 goal. In addition, considering the need for interdisciplinary response, the dimension of culture and other areas will also be touched upon during the series.

Considering the specific contexts of each sub-region, Latin America and the Caribbean, two parallel schedules will be implemented.

Each webinar will be recorded and made available with presentations and reference materials on UNESCOs portal dedicated to COVID-19 (https://es.unesco.org/fieldoffice/santiago/covid-19- education-alc). At the same time, for each webinar, in-depth country experiences will be further

explored and documented both in Spanish and English with a view to promoting sustainable knowledge exchange and policy dialogue with regional public goods across the region and to contributing to the same at the global level.

The Caribbean webinar series will be organized in partnership with CARICOM Secretariat.

The Caribbean Webinar Series n 1: Supporting teachers and education personnel to ensure continuity of learning in the Caribbean

As a result of school closures due to the spread of COVID-19, many countries have resorted to distance education in order to continue the continuity of teaching and learning. According to the estimates by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), at least 63 million primary and secondary school teachers worldwide have been affected in the response to COVID-193.

This emergency occurred with little time for teachers to prepare, acquire or improve their ICT, digital or social media skills necessary for technology-enhanced distance education4. While being exposed to the potential risk of infection themselves, many education personnel have had to also provide food, healthcare and socio-emotional support for students and their own families. Meanwhile, the potential risk of job loss or lower wages has been a concern for many of them. Ensuring that quality learning continues in its new adopted forms during the crisis requires that teachers have access to adequately resourced and safe teaching environments and decent working conditions5

Teachers in the Caribbean have shown commitment, creativity and professionalism to maintain communication with their students and respond to the demands generated from governments. They are in acute need of support to continue delivering quality education to learners.

How empowered and safe teachers are will determine the quality and commitment of their response to emergencies. Therefore, it is essential that teachers have recognition, guidance and support in various dimensions. The purpose of this webinar is thus to provide a platform where knowledge and experiences in teacher and education personnel support can be shared and exchanged, with a focus on the Caribbean region.

The first inaugural webinar of the SDG-Education 2030 series for the Caribbean will thus touch upon the heart of education system: teachers and education personnel.

3 https://en.unesco.org/news/teacher-task-force-calls-support-63-million-teachers-touched-covid-19-crisis

4 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373248

5 https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_dialogue/---sector/documents/briefingnote/wcms_742025.pdf

Objectives:

 To highlight issues and challenges confronting national education systems in support of teachers and education personnel

 To share promising and innovative approaches and practices

Agenda:
Hyderabad, May 5 : Contactless terminal entry system, automated thermal cameras for screening body temperature, acrylic glass shields on counters, 'hygiene stations' with automatic hand sanitisers, social distancing markers across the terminal and frequent sanitisation of the premises and the equipment.

These will be some of the key features of Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport when it reopens for commercial operations after the ongoing lockdown.

The airport has prepared an elaborate Covid-19 exit plan with operational preparedness to be implemented once the operations resume after the government's approval.

Shut since March 22, the airport implemented various initiatives during the lockdown period to be operationally prepared once the lockdown is lifted and the airport is allowed to resume flight operations.

The airport sources said they have put in place a contactless terminal entry system to avoid any possible contact between the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel and the passengers. There will be temperature screening by CISF with automated thermal cameras at all terminal entry points.

The airport has made social distancing markers at several points including terminal entry points, check-in counters, security screening, and boarding gates.

The authorities will encourage use of self check-in and Self Bag Drop (SBD) machines to minimize any possibility of contact and reduce waiting time in queues. There will be counter allocation to ensure strict adherence to social distancing guidelines. Acrylic glass shields have been installed on check in counters to separate the airport personnel and the passenger.

To enable frequent sanitisation of hands by passengers, 'hygiene stations' are being set up with automatic hand sanitisers. There will be frequent sanitiation and disinfection of the queue managers, acrylic glass shields, Common Use Self Service (CUSS) machines and SBD machines.

Hazardous Material (HAZMAT) suits will be provided to the security personnel involved in the passenger screening. There will be frequent sanitisation and disinfection of the trays, Door Frame Metal Detector (DFMD), Hand Held Metal Detectors (HHMDs) and the monitors.

Marking the seats which are not to be used to ensure social distancing, frequent fumigation and disinfection of the seats, aerobridges and boarding gates after every departure, implementation of social distancing markers at the boarding gates will be the other operational features post lockdown. In case of remote bays, the number of passengers being boarded onto the buses will be restricted.

Thermal screening to be done on all the arriving passengers using non-contact temperature screeners and thermal screening cameras. Self-declaration forms with records of the passengers' travel history, health status and the contact details will be captured. There will be provision of dedicated areas for the passengers to fill in the self-declaration forms.

Dedicated waiting room has been provided for the Airport Health Organisation (APHO) personnel if a passenger is found symptomatic and further screening is required. There will be designated areas of bus entry, baggage reclaim and thermal screening areas for arrivals from countries with community transmission.

The airport is geared up with high levels of hygiene and new operational procedures, said S.G.K. Kishore, Chief Executive Officer, GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL), which operates the airport.

He said passengers' role in keeping the airport safe would also be equally important and requested passengers to extend their cooperation and support for measures such as usage of face masks, thermal screening and social distancing.

"In line with our motto of 'passenger is prime', the entire Hyderabad Airport family including all our stakeholders is working through the lockdown period to ensure that we have the right measures in place for ensuring passenger safety once the commercial flight operations are permitted to resume by the government," he said.
The Nebraska Secretary of States Office and the Lancaster County Election Commission say they are having success getting poll workers for the upcoming state election primary May 12.

Cindi Allen, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Bob Evnen, said the state is recruiting well and having people step up to work in the polls.

The offices needed to recruit poll workers for the primary because of the potential that some who usually work can't because they are older or vulnerable to COVID-19 because of underlying health conditions.

The number of virus cases is not expected to peak until sometime next week, according to projections.

To find more poll workers, Evnen has asked the Nebraska State Bar Association, the Nebraska Board of Public Accountancy and the Nebraska Society of Certified Public Accountants Society to help with ensuring counties will have enough poll workers.

I am recruiting poll workers for the May primary to support counties in their efforts to adequately staff all polling locations with poll workers who are not in the high-risk category for COVID-19, he said in a news release.

Historically, lawyers have helped at polling sites, and service as a poll worker is a natural activity for CPAs as well, Evnen said.

A record number of Nebraskas voters have requested early ballots, but there will be an opportunity for voters to vote at the polls if they wish to do so, Evnen said.

Attorneys and CPAs who register to serve as poll workers will receive 1.5 hours of free continuing-education credits after completion of the election training and working at the polls. Election training is available online. Those who wish to register should contact their county clerk or election commissioner and let them know that they are a Nebraska attorney or CPA when signing up.

Allen said recruiting this spring has been done with social media, news releases, public service announcements, paid media advertisements and letters.

"We're not at a triage moment here as far as recruiting," she said. "It is working well."

Lancaster County Election Commissioner Dave Shively said the county is in pretty good shape for workers and starting to see additional people volunteering for the primary. On any given day, however, they may lose a few and gain a few.

"We're trying to get a minimum of three at every polling site," Shively said. "We usually have five for a statewide election, but with a push for people to vote early ... we think we're going to have a slower pace on election day."

But the county would use almost anyone who applied and is qualified to work at the polls. Shively would like to have 50 to 75 people on call the morning of the election if some of the workers don't show up.

The county went over 80,000 requests for mail-in ballots by Friday's deadline, he said.

For county contact information visit https://sos.nebraska.gov/elections/election-officials-contact-information.

The 2020 Voter's Guide

Reach the writer at 402-473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSLegislature
" " The yak (Bos grunniens) is as commonplace in the Himalayas as the cow (Bos taurus) is in Tennessee. hbieser/Pixabay

For those adventurous travelers who make the trek up the peaks of the Himalayan mountains in Central Asia, it's not uncommon to spot a yak  a herd animal that could pass for a large, hunchback cow donning a shaggy skirt and handlebar horns. These hardy, agile creatures can withstand temperatures as low as -40 degrees F (-40 degrees C), and their impressive lung capacity allows them to breathe easier than any hiker they'll encounter  even when carrying out their duties as a pack animal.

For the rest of us who forgo the climb, seeing a yak is still quite possible  in the U.S., for example, small farms in Colorado and some of the northern coastal states are raising yaks in growing numbers. According to Jandy Sprouse, former president of the Colorado-based International Yak Association, they're becoming increasingly popular for their easy maintenance, nutritious food byproducts and valuable fiber.

While yaks share the bovine family tree with cows, they are a different species altogether, and fossil records show they first appeared over 4,500 years ago in the Tibetan plateau. Most are now domesticated, but an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 still live in the wild in Tibet and Central Asia. No longer on the endangered species list, they unfortunately remain quite vulnerable due to the dwindling size of their habitat and increased hunting.

Let's take a look at some fun facts that show why the highly versatile yak is such an important mammal:

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1. Yak Butter Is Huge in Tibet

When it comes to providing useful food and goods, these shaggy bovines are a bit of a yak of all trades.

Their super-nutritious milk is used to make a unique cheese that once dried, can be stored for years. But the thick, fatty yak butter is perhaps the most coveted sustenance in the sparse terrain. Mixed with black tea and salt, it creates po cha, known as Tibetan butter tea. The traditional drink is definitely an acquired taste, but it provides loads of vital calories. It's such a big part of the culture that the Dali Lama drinks it daily.

The locals make sure none of the butter goes to waste  it's also used to fuel lamps, bring shine to fur coats and create a base for traditional butter scuplture.

Yak meat has long been another important source of nutrients, and it's slowly growing in popularity around the globe. Low in cholesterol and high in omega-3 fatty acids, it's a healthier alternative to red meat  for us and for the land. Since they're quite efficient at absorbing nutrients, yaks only consume a third of the food that cows do.

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2. Their Fur May Just Become the Next Cashmere

There's a new player in the world of luxury fashion: yak fiber. The outer layer is used to make anything from sturdy tents to rugs to the decorative saddles the yaks themselves wear on treks. But the most valuable prize is the super-soft undercoat. As yaks shed this ultrafine layer in the spring, the fiber is combed out and harvested to make warm, oh-so-soft clothing that rivals the luxury of cashmere.

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3. Their Poop Doesn't Stink

It's not that they think they're better than everyone else, but when yaks are given sufficient access to water and forage to eat, their dung has little to no odor. That's a big perk for those collecting the dried excrement for fuel. The Tibetan plateaus don't have trees, making yak dung the only easily obtainable fuel.

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4. They're Gentle-natured and Intelligent

Yaks are known to be friendly and even playful. They aren't typically aggressive toward humans, but like most mamas, they can get pretty protective of their young.

They're also quite easy to train and are good at surviving harsh elements. The herd will cuddle up together during a snowstorm, always making sure to keep the calves safe in the middle of the pack.

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5. They Sound More Like a Pig than a Cow

Despite their cow-like features, there's no mooing here. Known as the "grunting ox," yaks make a low grunting noise to communicate with each other or when they get excited and want to play. Otherwise, they're relatively silent creatures.

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6. They Have Large Lungs and Hearts

Yaks are genetically built to survive in altitudes up to 20,000 feet (6,100 meters)  topping the list of high altitude dwelling mammals. Their lungs are so unusually large that they require an extra pair of ribs  a yak has 14 to 15 pairs of ribs instead of 13 like a cow  just to support them. A greater lung capacity along with a greater number of red blood cells allows them to get enough oxygen out of the thin, mountain air.

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7. Female Yaks Rule the Herd

The size of a yak herd tends to be relatively small, but it can range anywhere from 10 to 100 yaks. Female yaks, known as a dri or nak, tend to make up almost all of the herd. A few males may join them, but most either travel alone or with a few other bachelors until it's time to track down the females and make those adorable little calves.

A vital part of Himalayan culture and economy, yaks have earned their reputation as highly adaptable and uniquely beautiful bovines. If you don't get to make the trip to Central Asia to see them in action, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for a local farm or that oh-so-luxurious sweater.

Now That's Fun Mongolia celebrates their beloved yaks during the annual Mongolian Yak Festival. After tasting the numerous cheese varieties, you can kick back to watch yak wrangling, a yak rodeo and even a yak race.
The nationwide tally of COVID-19 cases rose by a record 3,900 on Tuesday and the death toll topped the 1,500-mark with nearly 200 more fatalities, even as the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said "fighting coronavirus is no rocket science" and the people may remember this pandemic as a "blessing in disguise" if they imbibe good hygiene practices.

Vardhan told PTI that India has been able to stave off community transmission of COVID-19 and hoped that "behavioural changes" brought about by the infection could become the "new normal" for a healthy society after the pandemic abates.

In its 5 PM official update on the spread of the deadly virus infection, the Union Health Ministry said the death toll due to COVID-19 has risen to 1,583 with 194 fatalities reported since Monday evening, while the number of cases saw a big jump of 3,875 to reach 46,711 cases.

However, a PTI tally of numbers reported by different states and union territories till 6.30 PM showed more than 47,000 people testing positive for the deadly virus so far, while it put the death toll at over 1,500. It also showed nearly 13,000 COVID-19 patients having recovered.

Tamil Nadu reported more than 500 new cases on Tuesday, which took its tall past 4,000, while Gujarat also tested 441 more people positive for the virus, taking its total to more than 6,200. Several other states also reported rising numbers.

Experts, however, said the peak of this deadly virus outbreak was yet to come and may be witnessed in India over the next 4-6 weeks, while another spurt might be seen later during the winter season.

The numbers suggested that more than one-third of the confirmed cases across the country has been detected in the past one week, with only a few urban centres in a handful of states including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi accounting for a bulk of it.

Fears also emerged that India's tally may increase further with the government announcing plans to bring back a large number of Indians from various countries, beginning Wednesday, in what is being called the world's biggest ever evacuation programme. Sources said over 3 lakh people have registered for the evacuation from the Gulf region itself.

While the absolute number of cases and the death toll in India is lower than many others, with more than 2.5 lakh people having lost their lives and over 35 lakh having been infected worldwide ever since the emergence of this virus in China last December, the lockdown restrictions have been lifted in several countries and many of them are now reporting few or zero cases.

China and South Korea together reported only four cases on Tuesday, while Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand were among the countries having reported no cases for two consecutive days. Also, focus seems to have shifted globally towards developing a vaccine with several world leaders committing more than USD 8 billion since Monday for this purpose.

The government officials, however, maintained that India has managed to stave off a community transmission risk and the country remains in a "comfortable" position in terms of managing the COVID-19 crisis, though they cautioned against any laxity at the field level.

The Health Ministry said the country recorded a record single-day increase of 195 deaths and 3,900 cases between Monday 8 AM and Tuesday 8 AM. These included fatalities reported from West Bengal, Maharahstra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, among other places.

At the same time, the recovery rate has improved to 28.17 per cent, joint secretary at the health ministry Lav Agarwal said during a press briefing on the COVID-19 situation.

"We are very comfortable in terms of managing COVID-19 as of now, but any laxity at the field level or any lack of cooperation may have its consequences, he warned. Agarwal also said that the delay in reporting of COVID-19 cases by certain states has led to the sudden spurt in figures.

The country's top medical institute AIIMS' Director Randeep Guleria also said the COVID-19 curve has remained relatively flat so far, but he cautioned that the continued rise in the number of cases at a steady rate is a cause of concern.

Different modelling experts have predicted that a peak in number of cases of novel coronavirus infection may occur in the next four to six weeks, that is by the end of May or the middle of June, Guleria said, while stressing on the need to be extra vigilant and to make efforts to reduce the number of cases in the hotspots.

He also said that the country may see a rise in COVID-19 cases during the winter again.

At the same time, Guleria said the curve has remained relatively flat so far because of the lockdown and other containment measures and this has given the authorities time to prepare the health infrastructure and ramp up testing facilities in the country.

Several state and central government officials also said that the numbers have been going up in recent days due to increased number of tests being conducted.

"However, the number of cases continue to rise at a steady rate and this is a cause of concern. Every citizen should understand his responsibility and sincerely follow the principles of lockdown and social distancing, especially if they are in hotspots or containment areas," Guleria, a pulmonologist, said.

Separately, Health Minister Vardhan also underlined the importance of the nationwide lockdown, imposed since March 24 and scheduled to remain in place till May 17, and said health should be on the radar just as much as the economy.

Several experts have already flagged the huge economic cost of the pandemic and the lockdown, while the economic activities are yet to gain any significant traction despite various relaxations given to the industrial and agriculture units from the lockdown curbs.

Several states are also looking to shore up their depleting revenues with Delhi announcing a 70 per cent 'corona fee' on liquor sales, allowed since Monday, and by increasing the local taxes on petrol and diesel. Andhra Pradesh also announced a hike in liquor prices.

But several industry organisations have expressed their inability to resume their operations due to the labour shortage and other operational issues. Lakhs of migrant labour are returning to their native places including in special trains organised by the central and the state governments after most of them were rendered jobless and homeless.

The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said in a report that India's unemployment rate has soared to 27.11% amid the COVID-19 crisis, from below 7 per cent in mid-March.

The Mumbai-based think tank said the rate of unemployment was the highest in the urban areas, which constitute the most number of the red zones due to the COVID-19 cases, at 29.22 per cent, as against 26.69 per cent for the rural areas.

The government has to do a balancing act, Vardhan said on the need to focus on the health of people as well as on the economy.

He also said the nation in a post-coronavirus future could well look back on the pandemic period as a blessing in disguise if Indians imbibe hand, respiratory and environmental hygiene and practise it in their everyday lives.

"By now we know that fighting coronavirus is no rocket science. If behavioural changes such as hand, environmental and respiratory hygiene, which are being practiced more rigorously during this period, get imbibed in society it will become the new normal," Vardhan said.

Other than smallpox and polio, no other viral infection has been completely eradicated from this country. Other diseases keep recurring, the minister said, indicating that COVID-19 might be here for the long haul.

In the meantime, new cases that were detected on Tuesday included the serving and retired armed forces personnel in the Army's Research and Referral hospital in the national capital.

Authorities also sealed a floor of Shastri Bhavan, which houses several important ministries, after a senior official of the Law Ministry tested positive for the coronavirus. This was the second incident of a government building being partially cordoned off in the Lutyen's Delhi within a week, after the NITI Aayog building in the high-security zone was sealed on April 28 for 48 hours after a director-level officer tested positive for the virus.

Before that, Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, which houses the Civil Aviation Ministry, was sealed for sanitisation.

In other such incidents, the CRPF headquarters and a portion of the BSF headquarters were also sealed recently. These buildings are in CGO Complex in the national capital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Attorney General Bill Barr reportedly tried to convince members of the Trump administration that they should abandon their efforts to have the Supreme Court strike down all of Obamacare ahead of the November election.

Barr told Vice President Mike Pence, White House counsel Pat Cipollone, members of the Domestic Policy Council, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, and other officials in a Monday meeting that the administration should change its stance on the case ahead of a Wednesday deadline to alter its challenge for the Supreme Court, according to CNN. The Supreme Court is set to hear the case in the fall.

Barr reportedly argued that advocating for a complete repudiation of Obamacare would hurt Trumps reelection prospects, but a verdict was not reached in the meeting and it remains unclear whether the administration will alter its case.

In 2019, Barr expanded a suit originally filed by Republican-led states to argue that the entire law should be found unconstitutional; but he now favors preserving aspects of the law. After the GOP-led Congress effectively eliminated the individual mandate, which formerly penalized Americans who chose to go uninsured, Texas and 17 other states sued in 2017 over the legality of the statute.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 December vote that the individual mandate was unconstitutional, and kicked rest of the case back down to Texas district judge Reed OConnor. But the Supreme Court intervened after Democratic states and the House, which are leading the defense of the 2010 healthcare statute, requested a fast-tracked decision from the Court. While the Supreme Court decided against making a ruling by June, the decision to hear the case on a regular track is still unusual, as it has yet to be fully considered by OConner.

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The 17th century mansion once home to a controversial heir of designer brand Gucci, who had his own father arrested, could be yours for a fashionable 2.75million.

The country pile of Normans Rusper, is located close to the Surrey/West Sussex border and comes complete with a music room, family room, games room, kitchen, two utility rooms, lounge, study, 10 bedrooms, an outside pool, six bath and shower rooms, dressing rooms and a perfectly situated roof terrace.

The 28-acre property was the 1980s home of the late Paolo Gucci, a playboy, fashion tycoon and grandson of Guccio Gucci, founder of the Italian luxury brand.

He was the former vice-president and managing director of both Gucci Shops Inc., and Gucci Parfums of America.

The 17th century mansion, pictured, was the 1980s home of the late Paolo Gucci, a playboy, fashion tycoon and grandson of Guccio Gucci, founder of the Italian designer brand, and has now gone on the market to buyers for a cool 2.75million

The property, which sits in the village of Rusper, close to the border of Surrey and West Sussex, boasts ten bedrooms, including this spacious offering, pictured, with plenty of natural light provided through the room's windows and doors

The property's warm and cozy lounge area, pictured, is an ideal place to pull up a comfortable chair or a spot on the sofa after a long, hard day. Particularly on those cold winter evenings, a night in front of the house's impressive fireplace will prove just the tonic

An outdoor swimming pool, pictured, surrounded by leafy hedges, where homeowners can relax and enjoy the summer sunshine, is one of the many intriguing aspects of this property, which has gone on the market for less than 3million

The home's spacious kitchen, pictured, is largely kitted out in wood to add extra warmth and charm when preparing those big family dinners. Plenty of natural light is also provided through a number of windows scattered around the room

In front of the fireplace, pictured, may have been somewhere Paolo Gucci used to relax. Famous for his squabbles within the family, he once brought assault charges against his two brothers and provided the evidence to have his father arrested for tax evasion

'Rusper is noted for its charming period houses and cottages and provides good local facilities, including the village stores, primary school, two village inns and the Ghyll Manor Hotel,' states the listing for the 28-acre property, pictured

Wood is again the theme in the property's impressive dining area, pictured, creating a warm and charming environment for families to settle down and eat meals together, while overlooking the rest of the 28-acre estate through the room's windows

The Gucci coat of arms, pictured, adorns the staircase of the property, which comes complete with a music room, family room, games room, kitchen, two utility rooms, lounge, study, 10 bedrooms, an outside pool, six bath and shower rooms, dressing rooms and a perfectly situated roof terrace

The mansion includes a total of six bath and shower rooms, including this tastefully-decorated room, pictured. The town of Horsham is located around five miles south of the property and provides 'comprehensive shopping facilities', the listing says

The kitchen, pictured, will have once been used by Paolo Gucci, grandson of the founder of the luxury Italian designer brand. He went on to sell his interest in the company before being declared bankrupt in 1993. On October 10, 1995, he died of chronic hepatitis

A quaint looking chair, pictured, provides somewhere to sit and unwind in one of the 10 bedrooms available in the house. For families looking to bring up children in the area, local schools include Hurtwood House, Farlington, Handcross Park and Pennthorpe

One of the six bath and shower rooms around the property has been brought to life with an underwater-themed painted mural, giving the children the chance to splash about in the tub in the company of fish and other creatures from the ocean

Famous for his squabbles within the family, he once brought assault charges against his two brothers and provided the evidence to have his father arrested for tax evasion.

He later went on to sell his interest in the company before being declared bankrupt in 1993. On October 10, 1995, he died of chronic hepatitis.

The property is believed to date back to the 17th century and is currently on the market with House Partnership.

'Rusper is noted for its charming period houses and cottages and provides good local facilities, including the village stores, primary school, two village inns and the Ghyll Manor Hotel,' the listing states.

'Horsham is about five miles to the south and provides comprehensive shopping facilities. There are excellent road and rail communications including the Gatwick Express (London Victoria in about thirty minutes).

'Schools in the area include Hurtwood House, Farlington, Handcross Park and Pennthorpe.'

Normans Rusper is on the market with House Partnership for 2,750,000. Visit here for more information.
A paramedic in Kentucky has been removed from the Board of Emergency Medical Service after he was criticized for writing that a woman arrested for flouting social distancing guidelines should've used 'deadly force' again the cop who took her into custody.

Treyton Oak Towers nursing home employee, Kendra Burnett, 37, had tested positive and police put her in an ankle monitor because they couldn't locate her after she tested positive for coronavirus.

But she refused to self-isolate and went shopping at a Kroger supermarket where she came into contact with five people and was later arrested for wanton endangerment.

Robbie Smither, a paramedic in Shelbyville, outraged social media users last Tuesday when he commented on Facebook: 'This is tyranny. I wish this lady would have used deadly force against these tyrants and then a jury nullify the case.'

Robbie Smither, a paramedic in Shelbyville, outraged social media users last Tuesday

He wrote on Facebook a a woman's run-in with cops: 'I wish this lady would have used deadly force against these tyrants and then a jury nullify the case'

The Board publicly denounced his comment and said: 'Although we believe in the protection of freedom of speech, we do not condone speech or actions that promote violence or discrimination.'

Smither removed the post by Wednesday and explained to WHAS11 that he never intended to promote violence against police.

The man who represented emergency medical technicians and licensed paramedics, said there was no due process in Burnett's case.

'I believe people have the right to their own personal liberties, this is not a matter of anti-law enforcement,' he said. 'This is me as a citizen speaking in a public forum.'

But last Thursday Governor Andy Beshear signed an executive order saying the social media post was 'sufficient cause to remove him from a board that oversees the certification of and establishes standards for the training of emergency medical first responders.'

Kendra Burnett, 37, was arrested at a Kroger store when she should have been self-isolating. Smither said: 'I believe people have the right to their own personal liberties, this is not a matter of anti-law enforcement'

In some other social media posts Smither showed support for Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron who had criticized Beshear's ban of church gatherings and other mass events.

Executive director of the Kentucky Board of Emergency Medical Services, Mike Poynter, said in an email on Monday that the 'deadly force' post 'was of concern to many.'

While we certainly believe in the protection of freedom of speech, we cannot comment on the situation; however, we can assure you that KBEMS does not, and will not, condone or support any speech or actions which incite or promote violence, hate or discrimination,' Poynter told WHAS11.

Smither was appointed by former Republican Gov. Matt Bevan in 2018.

He unsuccessfully made a bid for Shelby County magistrate that year.

His term was due to end September 19, 2021.

Governor Andy Beshear signed an executive order on Thursday after Smither removed the Facebook post
A father-of-two was praised as 'one nice fella' by friends today after he was allegedly stabbed to death on the doorstep of his home in Kent last night.

Jamie Simmons, 29, was said to have been attacked a number of times with a large knife at his property in Maidstone following a fight which broke out at about 9pm.

Mr Simmons had recently had a daughter only two months ago, and his young family were thought to have been inside his ground floor flat when he was knifed. He is said to have had a boy from a previous relationship, while his partner has another girl.

A woman - thought to be his partner - was heard screaming after the attack, and locals said they saw police possibly chasing a suspect shortly after the incident.

Two men and a woman, who were known to keen fisherman Mr Simmons, are being questioned by police today after being arrested in a murder investigation.

Father-of-two Jamie Simmons, 29, pictured with his family, praised as 'one nice fella' by friends today after he was allegedly stabbed to death on the doorstep of his home in Kent last night

Keen fisherman Mr Simmons was said to have been attacked a number of times with a large knife at his property in Maidstone following a fight which broke out at about 9pm

Emergency services rushed to the victim's aid and the air ambulance landed on the green outside on Cambridge Crescent, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Paramedics wearing white protective suits desperately tried to resuscitate him outside Truro House on an estate in the Shepway area of Maidstone.

A blue and white forensics tent was today pitched up on the ground where he is said to have been stabbed.

Mr Simmons, who worked for a driveway resurfacing firm, died at the scene. His red work van was seen parked next to the forensics tent.

One neighbour said they heard 'a lot of shouting' for a period of ten to 15 minutes, just moments before the stabbing happened

People gather near the flat in Maidstone today following the news of Mr Simmons's death

A woman hugs a man outside the flat in Maidstone today as police conduct a murder probe

At least two men's voices were heard and a woman was screaming. A woman was also seen 'crying her eyes out' after police arrived.

Local sales assistant Frank Holsgrove, 30, said: 'My girlfriend and I heard a commotion and didn't make much of it at first.

'There was a lot of shouting, but we couldn't make out what was being said. Then about ten to 15 minutes later we saw the blue lights and critical care cars arrive.

'We saw a woman crying her eyes out and screaming. She was really distressed walking around near the flats. It must have been awful for her.'

Mr Holsgrove said he has mutual friends with Mr Simmons. He added: 'We also saw a man being arrested. He was in handcuffs.

A large number of police are on the scene in Maidstone today following last night's stabbing

A blue forensics tent has been established at the scene this morning as police investigate

A forensics investigation van is at the scene today as Kent Police investigate what happened

'It's terrifying to think something like this has happened to someone so close to home. My friends said Jamie was very lovely, a good father and partner - and he was known by a lot of people.'

Another neighbour said: 'There was a lot of arguing, screaming and banging. It went quiet for a second and then a woman said 'he's been stabbed' and a man said 'call an ambulance'. It was horrible.'

More than ten police officers have been searching grass around the block of flats today.

Some of Mr Simmons's devastated loved ones gathered inside the cordon and laid a bouquet of flowers but did not want to speak.

Grandfather Stephen Young, 69, who lives nearby, said: 'I knew him. He was a nice bloke and had just had a daughter about two months ago and was excited about it.

'He already had a young boy who's about five or six from a previous relationship. It's so tragic that they've lost their father.

'I saw the police turn up and people in white protective suits giving him CPR.

'All I heard was screaming. It must have been his girlfriend. They were probably all inside the flat. I saw police chasing a bloke up the road as well.'

He added: 'I've known them both for some time. He was always reasonable and anything you needed doing, he'd do.'

Police officers at the scene in Maidstone today following the death of the father last night

Police search the area and establish a tent today following the stabbing in Maidstone last night

The area has been swarmed by police with a large cordon in place, also taping off two other flats on the estate.

Another local, a 72-year-old woman, said: 'I saw loads of blue lights flashing through my window and I looked out and saw them trying to resuscitate him.

'It was terrifying for something like that to happen on your doorstep. I feel so sorry for anyone who knew him. It's heartbreaking.'

Friends paid tribute to him on Facebook today, with Sherri Rees saying: 'He was such a kind and warm person. Very good friend of mine from a young age.

Police investigate at the scene in Maidstone, Kent, this morning after last night's fatal stabbing

A police tent is erected at the scene of the murder as officers investigate in Maidstone today

'Many, many broken hearts this morning. Thinking of all of his family.' And Danny Price wrote on social media: 'RIP. Jamie was one nice fella. Really sad. God bless.'

Amy Stubberfield added: 'I can't believe this. So sorry.' Another wrote: 'Sending love and strength to his family and pray you find something to get you through.'

Melvin Jennings, who owns Jennings Surfacing, told KentOnline: 'He worked for me for around two years and was a good worker. I am very shocked at the news.'

A large crime scene was put in place around the house with surrounding roads sealed off - and a silver car was taken away on a low loader.

The incident took place on Cambridge Crescent in the Kent town of Maidstone last night

Detectives from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate are leading the investigation and said the three arrested people were all known to Mr Simmons.

The trio are being questioned by detectives at police stations in Kent, and officers are now appealing for anyone with information and witnesses to come forward.

Mr Simmons attended the since-closed Oldborough Manor Community School in Maidstone as a child.

A Kent Police spokesman said: 'Three people have been arrested on suspicion of murder following the death of a man in Maidstone.

A police forensics officer investigates at the scene of the murder in Maidstone last night

Two police cars are stationed at the scene of the murder in Maidstone yesterday evening

A forensics officer looks for clues at the scene in Maidstone as they investigate last night

'Kent Police was called to a disturbance at a property in Cambridge Crescent at around 9.15pm on Monday May 4, 2020.

'Officers and South East Coast Ambulance Service attended the scene where a man in his 20s, with injuries consistent with stab wounds, was declared deceased.

'Two men and a woman, who were known to the victim, were arrested on suspicion of murder. They remain in police custody while an investigation by detectives from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate continues.'

Anyone with information is asked to call Kent Opolice on 101 quoting reference 04-1448 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111
A Huntsville aerospace company is moving its headquarters to Redstone Gateway  the growing office complex just outside Redstone Arsenals Gate 9.

Corporate Office Properties Trust announced Monday that Cummings Aerospace will relocate to Redstone Gateway in a build-to-suit, 46,000 square foot facility.

Cummings currently has its HQ on Voyager Way in Cummings Research Park near Bridge Street Town Centre. Cummings is a Native American, woman-owned small business founded in 2009 by President and CEO Sheila Cummings.

Related: Why Redstone Gateway appears to be slow-moving project

Cummings is scheduled to move into its new headquarters during the first quarter of 2021, according to the announcement.

Were excited for our employees as we consolidate into a new corporate headquarters at Redstone Gateway," Sheila Cummings said in the announcement. "This new facility will allow us to continue to serve our customers with the highest level of service within close proximity. This move reflects our commitment to the future of our employees, our customers, and our company.

Redstone Gateway develops its sprawling site for clients as called for by demand. The office park has eight buildings with 650,000 feet of space that is 100 percent occupied and has another seven buildings under construction with another 802,000 square feet of space.

We are thrilled to have this opportunity to support Cummings Aerospaces continued success, and to welcome another leading Huntsville based company to Redstone Gateway, Steve Budorick, COPT president and CEO, said in the announcement. "This decision reaffirms Redstone Gateways unrivaled combination of efficiency, convenience, walkable amenities and access to important commands at Redstone Arsenal.
A map showing the potential reach of Chinas fishing ban in the South China Sea, north of the 12th parallel.

Fishermens associations in Vietnam and the Philippines protested Monday Chinas annual summer fishing ban in the South China Sea and called for their national governments to oppose it, amid the threat of strict enforcement by the China Coast Guard.

Vietnamese fishermen have complete rights to fish in waters under their sovereignty, the Vietnam Fisheries Society said in a statement posted to its website that was reported by Vietnamese state media. It added that the ban also violates Vietnams sovereignty over the Paracel Islands and international law.

China, which claims virtually all the South China Sea despite competing claims from five other governments, announced Friday its annual moratorium on fishing within waters it claims jurisdiction over. That includes waters down to the 12th parallel of the South China Sea, encompassing the Paracel Islands and Scarborough Shoal.

China usually only enforces the ban on its own fishing vessels, although fishermen from other countries are also meant to comply with it. This year, however, the China Coast Guard (CCG) and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs have promised a crackdown on illegal activity during the three-and-a-half month ban that runs to Aug. 16. State-run Xinhua News said that the law enforcement campaign would safeguard the rights and interests of marine fisheries and protect the marine ecological environment.

That law enforcement campaign, coupled with the aggressive behavior of Chinas coastguard in recent months, has some fishermen associations in the region clamoring for a response from their respective governments.

The Philippine government should not waste time and wait for Chinese maritime officers to arrest our fishermen. Fernando Hicap, chairman of PAMALAKAYA, the National Federation of Small Fisherfolk Organizations in the Philippines, said in a statement. Chinas bullying should immediately stop, and be protested. We have international and local fisheries laws that can be implemented to combat Chinas aggression.

"They have no right and moral ascendancy to declare a fishing ban in the guise of conserving fish stocks in marine waters that they have no any legal claim, and they have massively destroyed through reclamation activities," Hicap said.

RFA spoke to a Vietnamese fisherman who said he and others would continue to operate near the Paracel Islands, but are concerned about the CCG and maritime militia harassing them. If we are chased by Chinese ships, we would report to the [local Vietnamese maritime police], but normally the [maritime police] do not help at all.

No fishermen have been arrested and brought to the Chinese mainland before, to his knowledge. He claimed there were about 10 fishing boats at the Paracel Islands on Monday, defying the fishing ban.

The Vietnam Fisheries Society said it had sent a document to the Vietnamese government and ruling Communist Party. It called for Vietnamese authorities to take drastic measures to oppose and attempt to halt Chinas actions. The government-backed society called for increased sea patrols to protect local fishermen in Vietnams territorial waters.

Another Vietnamese source within the fishing community at Binh Chau, Quang Ngai province, told RFA that fishermen in the area typically contact the local Maritime Search and Rescue Center when Chinese ships cut their fishing nets or steal their catch. The center then compensates the fishermen for their losses.

Both of the Vietnamese fishing community sources requested anonymity to avoid any repercussions with authorities for speaking to news media.

Chinas summer fishing ban is a recurring point of contention with other South China Sea claimants. When last years ban was announced, Vietnam issued an official protest. But the Philippines, whose President Rodrigo Duterte has sought closer ties with Beijing, did not formally protest.

Hunter Stires, a fellow with the U.S. Naval War Colleges John B. Hattendorf Center for Maritime Historical Research, said the purpose of the fishing ban was to create a closed, unfree, and Sino-centric order in the South China Sea.

To make its draconian vision a reality, China is working to impose its will and its own domestic laws on other countries' fishermen and local Southeast Asian civilian mariners throughout the South China Sea, he said.

The fishing ban covers an area that is flagrantly beyond Chinas lawful jurisdiction and deep within its neighbors exclusive economic zones, Stires added.

China maintains that the summer fishing ban is meant to promote sustainable practices in its territorial waters.

But Stires noted that China is notorious for paving over more than 3,200 acres of coral reefs to create a series of militarized artificial islands in the Spratly Islands. He added that Chinas massive fishing fleet has destroyed swaths of the seafloor in other countries' exclusive economic zones through bottom trawling, and has targeted the endangered giant clam by destroying reefs with boat propellers at Scarborough Shoal  a feature disputed by China, the Philippines and Taiwan.

Jason Gutierrez of BenarNews in Manila and RFAs Vietnamese Service contributed to this report.
A woman who has now recovered from COVID-19 has explained how she thought a panic attack was the cause of her chest pains.

Casey Edmonds, 26, travelled from Western Australia to the UK on March 12, but cut her trip short days later after Scott Morrison urged Australians to return home and flights were being cancelled. She arrived home on March 19.

Ms Edmonds spoke candidly with reporters about her experience with the virus during the Western Australia Health Ministers COVID-19 update on Tuesday.

She explained she had almost completed her mandatory 14 days in isolation upon returning from overseas when she started to experience severe symptoms on her 12th day back in Australia.

Casey Edmonds, 26, has spoken about her experience with COVID-19 after she returned home from a UK holiday earlier this year. Source: AAP

Ms Edmonds said she "felt a little bit off" and had the sweats, so she did an online test but still thought "she'll be right".

Then she did a test over the phone and was urged to seek further medical help, so she drove herself to Royal Perth Hospital to get tested.

She explained she was asked while she was getting tested if she had any symptoms and she mistook the panic attack she had a few days prior to be the source of her chest pains.

I thought it was anxiety, she told reporters.

I didnt realise the chest pains were COVID-19. Had I been able to differentiate those two, then I probably would have known a little bit earlier.

When asked what was going through her head when she received the call informing her she had tested positive, Ms Edmonds laughed and said: I kind of already knew.

I was a bit upset, she admitted.

But I think I was more upset because I knew that I had to isolate for another two weeks and that had been really hard for me because Im quite extroverted, Ive never lived alone before  so being alone in a tiny little flat for four weeks is probably what upset me most.

Now Ms Edmonds has recovered from the disease, but she says even when she over exerts herself, she has to calm herself down.

The day she got herself tested, Ms Edmonds said she started to feel extremely ill, doing what most 20-somethings would do and called her mother.

Story continues

"I was on the phone to my mum, as any 26-year-old would be, telling her I'd never felt so sick in my life," she told reporters on Tuesday, further explaining she had been very fortunate with her health.

The 26-year-old had almost completed her 14-day isolation period when she tested positive for coronavirus and had to start all over again. Source: AAP

Out of all her symptoms, she said the fever was the worst for her.

Ms Edmonds also struggled to sleep for about five days, suffered chest pains and her lingering symptoms included no sense of smell or taste.

But her condition improved when her appetite returned and said she had been "super lucky" overall.

Coronavirus patient gives insight into living with virus

After she tested positive, the 26-year-old was alarmed the first time four police officers turned up to her house in gas masks to make sure she was staying at home.

Ms Edmonds also said she had been scared during her illness because she was not sure which medicine to take, so she only took Panadol at night as well as vitamins.

In the lead up to her trip to the UK to visit friends as Ms Edmonds used to live there, she was checking the Smart Traveller website, where there was no advice prior to her departure indicating it was unsafe to travel to the UK.

Ms Edmonds has now recovered from COVID-19 and the WA Health Minister warns her experience highlights the importance for social distancing and hand hygiene. Source: AAP

Ms Edmonds admitted she didnt think she would get the virus.

"I maybe should have been a little bit more cautious but I just didn't know at the time, she said.

The young woman thought the coronavirus would mean she would be forced to stay in the UK, however she is ultimately happy she decided to come back home.

"I'm so glad that I came home to WA because it's definitely the best place to be in the world," she said.

After recovering from the illness, Ms Edmonds says it is important people dont let the anxiety surrounding the illness get to them.

I think thats hurtful to people, she said.

But of course, you cant get complacent, things like this can spread so fast, I think its important to look at the rest of the world.

Yes, were doing very well but thats because weve had really good structures put in place and its not a good time, you dont want to get it  Im alive and its fine, but I wouldnt recommend it to a friend, for sure.

Health Minister Roger Cook said Ms Edmonds' experience showed the importance of following social distancing and personal hygiene warnings.

"This virus can take a heavy toll, even on young and fit West Australians," Mr Cook said.

 with AAP

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

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When Princess Diana perished in a car crash in Paris on the last day of August 1997, shed been divorced from the future king of England for a little more than a year. That doesnt mean Diana was not still in love with him, however. In fact, a close friend of the late royal recently revealed that Diana loved Prince Charles until the day she died.

How Diana met Prince Charles

Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer | Getty Images.

The future peoples princess was an innocent 16-year old the first time she laid eyes on the Prince of Wales. The location was Althorp, Dianas ancestral family home, and the occasion was a grouse hunt.

Prince Charles was there because he was dating Dianas older sister, Lady Sarah Spencer. The pair had been seeing one another casually for a while, but the romance never quite took off. Dianas feelings for Prince Charles certainly did, though.

In her 2008 book, The Diana Chronicles, author Tina Brown explained that after Prince Charles left the hunt, the teenage Diana told her friends that she would one day marry the prince. In response to her friends query about how she could be so sure of an eventual marriage to the oh-so eligible royal, Diana replied: Hes the one man on the planet who is not allowed to divorce me.

When Diana was 18 years old, some friends who lived in Sussex invited her over for a visit, noting that the prince was staying at their home while mourning his friend and mentor, Lord Louis Mountbatten. In later years, Diana explained that when she told Charles she was sad to see him alone at Mountbattens televised funeral and suggested he might be lonely, the prince seemed instantly smitten, according to Readers Digest.

The wedding of the century

Prince Charles and Diana exchanged vows in an elaborate fairy tale wedding at St. Pauls Cathedral in London in July of 1981. Although the pair would not divorce until 1996, the union was strained from the beginning due to the princes unwillingness or inability to call things totally off with one Camilla Rosemary Shand with whom hed been romantically involved since 1972.

Diana bore two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. By the final decade of the 20th century, rumors of the princes infidelities were more than Diana could bear.

In 1992, Prime Minister John Major read an official statement on behalf of the royal family announcing the formal albeit amicable separation of the prince and princess of Wales, explains Pop Sugar. The royal divorce was finalized on August 28, 1996.

In the weeks and months leading up to and following their split, Diana and Prince Charles seemed to go their separate ways. Prince Charles finally went public with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

The newly single princess famously hooked up with Pakistani heart surgeon, Hasnat Khan, before becoming involved with her final lover, Dodi Fayed. Did she love them? Perhaps, but she also carried a torch for her one and only husband until she passed away in Paris in 1997.

Princess Diana defended Prince Charles to the end

I think she loved Charles till her dying day, said Dianas astrologer, Debbie Frank. Im not saying she longed for him. She didnt. But there was still that wound there like there was with her mother. And it was probably more about the mother than Charles actually.

Biographer Tina Brown and Frank, werent the only ones who insist that the princess loved Prince Charles until her dying day. Back in 2008, fashion maven Roberto Devorik revealed to the UK Daily Mail that despite the fact that the beloved royal was devastated by her husbands dalliance with Camilla, she defended his good name from criticism.

To illustrate his point, Devorik shared a story about a time when Diana and other friends were dining at his home, and the subject of Charles came up in an unfavorable way. Without batting an eye, the princess told her dinner companions: He is the father of my children and the future King of England and if I have a difference with him that is my problem. Nobody should make a mockery of him.
The chemistry between South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be used to benefit both countries as they work towards recovering their economies post COVID-19, according to South African High Commissioner to India Sibusiso Ndebele.

The diplomat was participating in a webinar organised on Tuesday by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Exim Bank that linked up Indian and African business leaders and diplomats, who shared ideas for recovering the economies in both countries that have been severely impacted by COVID-19.

The webinar, titled "Africa Economic Update COVID & Beyond: Focus Southern Africa", was part of a series that will cover the different regions of the continent.

"As far as our bilateral trade with India is concerned, the institution of a fairly restrictive lockdown on both sides has had an equally negative impact at a time when our countries are determined to increase trade links between them," Ndebele said.

"As an immediate impact, there will be congestion at the ports in shipments while the supply chain in different countries returns to normal, depending on the different stages of the virus in their respective countries.

"The warm and cordial relationship between our two countries needs to fully deliver on its economic potential," Ndebele said, adding that visits by the heads of state to each other's countries have resulted in a unique "chemistry" between Ramaphosa and Modi.

"As both countries move out of their respective lockdowns and new opportunities are explored, we will need to work together to ensure that we fully support the private sector to realise these opportunities and ensure that our bilateral trade and investment relations hit new heights," the diplomat said.

The participants in the webinar shared a number of suggestions, which Mukul Sarkar, Chief General Manager at Exim Bank, said would be pursued further between CII members and the bank.

Rajesh Ranjan, High Commissioner to Botswana, believed that opportunities existed for pension funds in the country to be invested in India.

In Namibia, which borders both Botswana and South Africa, consideration is being given to establishing an alternative port to those currently used in South Africa to ship good to countries in the region, according to High Commissioner Prasant Agrawal.

Sandra Uwera, CEO of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Business Council, called on Indian companies to develop e-commerce in the region and also to set up export processing zones jointly.

Rajiv Jaiswal, Regional Manager for Southern & East Africa at Tata Motors, South Africa, felt that the Make in India Ambulance project, which had seen success in Sri Lanka, Seychelles and Malawi, could be extended to the rest of Africa.

Srikar Reddy, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, said southern Africa had emerged as an important trade partner of India.

"In order to mitigate the adverse effect of COVID-19 on India-South Africa trade, new ways and means are being considered to continue and expand that trade," Reddy said as he called on mission heads to play a key role in diversifying export opportunities to southern Africa.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Shiv Sena on Tuesday pitched



for a surgical strike without tom tomming about it to avenge the killing of five security personnel in an encounter with terrorists in Kashmirs Handwara area two days ago.

It is not a good sign that the brave men were killed in one go on Indias own land, an editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said, adding that this happened when a strong and quite patriotic government is in power at the Centre.

The country has forgotten "Kashmir war" due to the war situation triggered by COVID-19, but Pakistan has not, the former NDA constituent said.

Noting that the armed forces recently saluted the efforts of frontline workers in the battle against COVID-19 by conducting fly-pasts and showering flower petals on hospitals, the Shiv Sena said the fight against coronavirus and the appreciation of policemen, doctors and nurses will continue, but Kashmir cannot be ignored".

"Let there be a surgical strike without tom tomming about it to avenge the martyrdom of the five jawans. It is not a good sign that five of our jawans are killed in one go, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said.

India had carried out retaliatory surgical strikes on seven terror launch pads across the LoC, with the Army targeting terrorists preparing to infiltrate from PoK after the Uri terror attack in September 2016.

Opposition parties like the Congress had later accused the BJP of using the surgical strike for political gains.

"Our jawans are getting killed on our own land. It is happening at a time when a strong and quite patriotic government is in place in Delhi (Centre)," the Shiv Sena said.

The attacks by terrorists have gone up along the Kashmir border while India is battling coronavirus crisis, it said, and alleged "India has forgotten the Kashmir war due to the situation triggered by COVID-19, but Pakistan has not."



Without naming any party or government, the Sena said somebody should also shower petals on the kin of the five security personnel killed in the Handwara encounter.

It said the security personnel who made supreme sacrifices for the country included a Muslim, and asked those who are into Hindu-Muslim not to forget this.

An Army Colonel and a Major were among five security personnel killed in an encounter with terrorists at a village in north Kashmir's Handwara area two days back.

The deceased included Colonel Ashutosh Sharma -- Commanding Officer of the 21 Rashtriya Rifles, Major Anuj Sood, Naik Rajesh and Lance Naik Dinesh and JKP sub-inspector Shakeel Qazi.

The Sena said Colonel Sharmas daughter marked her birthday on May 1 and he died protecting the country on May 3.

Observing that the incident happened around the same time when the armed forces saluted the efforts of policemen, doctors and nurses fighting the COVID-19, it said, "Somebody should shower petals on the relatives of these martyrs also. Play bands, light up lamps, candles to salute them too."



There was lockdown in Kashmir ever since Article 370 was scrapped (last year) and the infiltrators carried out attacks during lockdown, the Marathi daily said.

It has to be admitted that the Article could be scrapped because of the strong intentions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. But, the killings of Indian soldiers still continued there, the Shiv Sena said.

What is the use of only paying tributes to soldiers who achieve martyrdom in Kashmir? it asked.

The bodies of the five personnel were kept wrapped in the tricolour at the Handwara military camp and the picture of it gave pain to people of the country, the Shiv Sena said.

"The picture stifles the slogan of Jai Hind in the throat itself. The land of Kashmir is soaked with the blood of Colonel Sharma and other brave soldiers at a time when the Indian Army showered flowers on COVID-19 warriors. This is not a good picture, is what we can say, it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Linkedin Stephen Nellis and Paresh Dave (Reuters)  Tue, May 5, 2020 18:02 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd624f90 2 Science & Tech Apple,Google,contact-tracing-tool,mobile-application,coronavirus,COVID-19 Free

Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google on Monday said they would ban the use of location tracking in apps that use a new contact tracing system the two are building to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Apple and Google, whose operating systems power 99 percent of smart phones, said last month they would work together to create a system for notifying people who have been near others who have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The companies plan to allow only public health authorities to use the technology.

Both companies said privacy and preventing governments from using the system to compile data on citizens was a primary goal. The system uses Bluetooth signals from phones to detect encounters and does not use or store GPS location data.

But the developers of official coronavirus-related apps in several US states told Reuters last month it was vital they be allowed to use GPS location data in conjunction with the new contact tracing system to track how outbreaks move and identify hotspots.

The Apple-Google decision to not allow GPS data collection with their contact tracing system will require public health authorities that want to access GPS location to rely on what Apple and Google have described as unstable, battery-draining workarounds.

Alternatives likely would miss some encounters because iPhones and Android devices turn off Bluetooth connections after some time for battery-saving and other reasons unless users remember to re-activate them.

But some apps said they planned to stick to their own approaches.

Software company Twenty, which developed the state of Utah's Healthy Together contact tracing app with both GPS and Bluetooth, said on Monday the app "operates effectively" without the new Apple-Google tool.

"If their approach can be more effective than our current solution, well eagerly incorporate their features into our existing application, provided it meets the specifications of current and prospective public health partners," Twenty said.

Canada's Alberta province, which does not collect GPS data, said it has no plans to adopt the Apple-Google system for its ABTraceTogether app.

Privacy experts have warned that any cache of location data related to health issues could make businesses and individuals vulnerable to being ostracized if the data is exposed.

Apple and Google also said Monday they will allow only one app per country to use the contact system, to avoid fragmentation and encourage wider adoption. The companies said they would, however, support countries that opt for a state or regional approach, and that US states will be allowed to use the system.
US Navy Ships Enter Arctic's Barents Sea for First Time in Decades

By Carla Babb May 04, 2020

Four U.S. Navy surface ships entered the Barents Sea on Monday for the first time in decades as part of maritime security operations aimed at asserting freedom of navigation in the Arctic Circle.

The destroyers USS Donald Cook, USS Porter and USS Roosevelt, along with the fast combat support ship USNS Supply, were joined Monday by the Royal Navy's HMS Kent.

U.S. surface ships, as opposed to U.S. submarines that regularly prowl the Arctic waters, have not operated in the Barents Sea since the mid-1980s.

"In these challenging times, it is more important than ever that we maintain our steady drumbeat of operations across the European theater," said Vice Adm. Lisa Franchetti, commander, U.S. 6th Fleet.

She added that the operation was critical to reinforcing "a foundation" of readiness in the Arctic, where the austere weather environment places extreme demands on vessels.

The Russian Ministry of Defense was notified of the visit to the Barents Sea on Friday "in an effort to avoid misperceptions, reduce risk, and prevent inadvertent escalation," according to a statement from U.S. 6th Fleet.

U.S. Gen. Tod Wolters, NATO's supreme allied commander Europe and head of U.S. European Command, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee in February that the Arctic remains a "great concern" to the alliance, as Russia and China increase military activity there. He said he believed the U.S. needed to be as focused in the Arctic as they are in the Baltics and elsewhere.

An alliance exercise in the Arctic kicked off in March but was canceled midway by the Norwegian government due to COVID-19 concerns. The exercise, dubbed Cold Response, was part of NATO's larger Defender Europe 2020 exercise, which has seen cancellations, postponements and modifications across the board this year due to the pandemic.

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Malaysia's surprise move to ease coronavirus restrictions early and start reopening the economy has alarmed scientists, who warn it could trigger a second wave of infections across the country.

The Movement Control Order shuttered businesses and schools, stopped people congregating at religious, sporting, arts and cultural events, blocked Malaysians travelling overseas and restricted interstate travel.

It was put in place on March 18 and was due to expire on May 12.

A woman walks home with groceries next to barbed wire in the locked-down area of Selayang Baru in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Credit:AP

But with the economic costs mounting - Barclays Bank estimated the domestic economy is losing $800 million per day - Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced the order would be softened, starting from Monday, May 4.
TOWN OF NORWAY  A woman allegedly got into a physical altercation with a relative while under the influence and then broke into an abandoned home.

Sarah Palmersheim, 33, of 8000 block of Scenic View Drive, was charged with disorderly conduct with domestic abuse assessments, obstructing an officer and seven counts of misdemeanor bail jumping.

According to a criminal complaint:

On April 30, a Racine County deputy responded to a call from the victim stating that a relative, Sarah Palmersheim, was actively assaulting her and was breaking things. Dispatchers advised that Palmersheim was heard stating she wants to be gone and wants to die.

Upon sheriffs deputies arrival, the victim said that Palmersheim had left prior to the arrival of law enforcement. It was learned that she had entered an abandoned home by breaking a window. A neighbor advised that Palmersheim often breaks into the home to do drugs.

Deputies attempted to make contact with Palmersheim numerous times before using a door ram to breach the house. Once inside, the woman yelled OK, Im coming out. Deputies took her into custody and noticed she had blood and wounds on both hands.

A deputy returned to the victims house and noticed she had a bruise on her upper left arm. The victim said that at around 6:30 p.m. Palmersheim was at the end of the driveway in a car, drinking with a friend.

She then came inside and started acting goofy. She became agitated and started yelling and throwing things around the home. The victim told Palmersheim that she needed to go outside, then she started kicking the door from outside.

The deputy then spoke to a male who was also at the house. He said he was in a different bedroom but then came out when he heard the altercation escalate.

He said he saw Palmersheim on top of the victim with another person trying to pull her off of the victim. He said he then separated the victim and Palmersheim.

Palmersheim has two prior charges of disorderly conduct with domestic abuse assessments on Feb. 4, 2019 and November of 2018, online records show. Palmersheim has a plea and sentencing hearing scheduled for May 19 in Racine County Circuit Court. She remained in custody as of Tuesday at the County Jail.

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MARLBOROUGH, Mass., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today DALBAR recognized Nationwide Retirement Plans for outstanding service delivery to plan participants with the 2020 Customer Experience Excellence Award. This award is based on a detailed review of the customer service channels which form the majority of customer interactions.

"It is hard to overstate the importance of the customer experience where retirement plans are concerned," explains DALBAR Director Brendan Yeager. "Having easy access to information and the right planning tools, backed up by friendly and knowledgeable associates who are able to answer any questions they may have, leads to more informed participants. This in turn leads to the most important goal, greater success in saving for retirement. Nationwide understands this, has made the participant's experience a real priority, and it shows."

2020 is the first year in which DALBAR recognized leading providers with the Customer Experience Excellence Award. The award can only be earned after an extensive Customer Experience Audit looking at the service channels that make up the majority of customer touchpoints. DALBAR's audit approach entails a thorough review of the specific tools available to, and actual service interactions with, Nationwide's retirement plan participants. These are compared against DALBAR's industry-leading criteria, top-performing firms and accumulated best practices. For Nationwide the following channels were reviewed:

Public sector telephone support

Private sector telephone support

Public sector participant website

Private sector participant website

Mobile website

"Our business is built on a model of providing extraordinary care to the partners and participants we serve," says Eric Stevenson, president of the retirement plans business at Nationwide. "This award demonstrates that commitment to delivering an exceptional service experience, across all channels, that addresses customer needs and demonstrates our passion for supporting the financial futures of America's workers."

For more information about DALBAR Awards and Customer Experience Audit programs, please contact Brooke Halloran at 617-624-7273 or [email protected].

DALBAR, Inc. is the financial community's leading independent expert for evaluating, auditing and rating the customer experience, business practices, investor behavior, and product quality. Launched in 1976, DALBAR has earned a reputation for consistent and unbiased evaluations. DALBAR awards are recognized as marks of excellence in the financial community.

SOURCE DALBAR, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.dalbar.com


Eta Aquariid meteor shower occurs every May and is set up to light up the southern hemisphere during the early hours. It is expected that the Eta Aquariid meteor shower will probably be between 4:30 AM and 5:00 AM of May 6, 2020. Though this spectacular event will be historic to witness, it is going to keep a lot of enthusiasts up through the night in order to get the best glimpse.

Also read: Asteroid 1998 OR2 live stream: Where to watch the asteroid pass planet Earth?

Eta Aquariid meteor shower 2020

As per the American Meteor Society, this meteor shower activity will favour to people living in the southern hemisphere where 30-40 meteors can be witnessed every hour. Whereas, on the northern hemisphere, only 10-20 meteors will be witnessed. The meteor shower is reportedly expected to peak during the morning of May 5 and 6. Enthusiasts will be greeted with lovely skies over the course of this month as Comet SWAN and Comet Atlas will also be close to the earth during that period.

Also read: 'What if the Asteroid is the UFO? Will Aliens help fight Covid?' Netizens have questions

Source - Vincentiu Solomon on Unsplash

Various official science authorities across the globe have confirmed that the meteor shower will be visible during the wee hours of the night. Prof Michael Brown from Monash University recently revealed to a leading news daily that the meteor will travel at a speed of 60 kms per second which makes them burn up and become shooting stars. As per reports, Australia is expected to witness 15-20 meteors in the shower.

Fancy catching a meteor? The Eta Aquariid meteor shower is due to peak around 4-5 am AEST on Wednesday in Australia. 



In a city, you can expect to see around 15-20 meteors. Get to a dark spot, look east towards the constellation Aquarius, and enjoy. : @museumsvictoria pic.twitter.com/Zq0kt5Vsir  Australian Academy of Science (@Science_Academy) May 5, 2020

Also read: Star Wars Day 2020: Binge watch the space-opera franchise in chronological order

According to Brown, the best way to experience the meteor shower 2020 would be getting outside at around 4:15 AM and looking roughly towards the east. Though adjusting one's eyes can take up to 15 minutes, it is advised to lie down and look for about 30 to 40 degrees over the horizon. The dust particles from the meteor shower 2020 will be visible roughly above 80 Kms from the Earth's surface.

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Welcome to the latest issue of the Future of Security newsletter. Lets get started:, and raising concerns about surveillance and privacy.By last week, more than 2,000 public health workers in the country were performing contact tracing  the job of locating people who have been in close contact with an infected patient and making sure they quarantined for two weeks to stop the spread. The task is considered crucial to allowing businesses to reopen and returning the country to a more normal life as the pandemic recedes, say experts.But the operation is occurring without any national plan, leaving the states to fund and manage what is considered to become a massive undertaking that will last at least 18 months and involve tens of thousands of volunteers and workers. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials estimate that at least 100,000 additional trained workers and more than $3.6 billion will be needed to safely manage the spread of the virus once businesses start reopening., with California, Michigan , Massachusetts and New York taking the lead. But the existing approach is labor-intensive, so it has attracted attention from the tech industry to come up with a digital solution to the problem.In early April,s cybersecurity reporter Lucas Ropek reported how Kansas was taking advantage of a recently launched platform that uses cellphone data to track the whereabouts of state residents in the hopes of further containing the coronavirus.The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) operates a "Social Distancing" dashboard that uses phone GPS data to illustrate the spread of the virus.The data, which is anonymized and aggregated, can show at a county level whether residents are basically abiding by local stay-at-home orders or not. The data, which updates on a daily basis, is synthesized from a number of different sources, including public data and data that the company has previously purchased from other vendors, said a company representative.Many companies are already working on apps that will link to the Bluetooth-based software Apple and Google are releasing and which is designed to provide some measure of privacy to the users. That software will power apps built by state and local public health agencies, according toreporter Joseph Marks.It's designed to log any time two people who have consented to be tracked are in proximity using anonymous signals that don't identify the individuals themselves. If someone reports being diagnosed with the coronavirus, the app will alert everyone he or she was in contact with they should consider getting tested or self-quarantining, reported Marks, adding that an app that plans to incorporate the Bluetooth technology is already available in North Dakota and another is in the works in Utah.About half with smartphones say theyre probably or definitely unwilling to download apps being developed by Google and Apple to alert those nearby that they came into contact with someone who is infected, a-University of Maryland poll has found, according to the
Photo: (Photo : unsplash/itfeelslikefilm)

Children who are suffering from chronic illness have higher rates of having a mental illness in adulthood. Reports showed that children who had a long-term illness during childhood had higher chances of having a mental illness at ten years of age and health problems continued until ages 13 to 15 which is associated with poor health.

Study author from the Queen Mary University of London in the UK, Dr. Ann Marie Brady said that the research that they did provide the strongest evidence regarding the study of late childhood and early adolescence. She added that the effects of chronic conditions on mental health are concerning which can be seen in late childhood, before adolescence.

They studied and investigated 7000 children on the occurrence of mental health disorders which includes depression or anxiety, and chronic illnesses. Mothers were advised to assess their children's health from ages 10 to 13. Those with conditions that could not be cured but could be controlled by medication and other therapies and those with minimal disease activity because these are considered chronic conditions.

According to the study, children with chronic health conditions appeared to be twice as likely to present a mental health disorder from ages 10 to 13 compared to the control group. The control group consisted of children whose mothers reported to be healthy and no problems.

They also found that when children with chronic health problems reached age 15, they were 60 percent more likely to have the said mental disorders.

They also studied a subset of chronic illness in children that have been diagnosed with asthma. Symptoms of asthma are generally mild and well-controlled but it showed a similar pattern with those that have chronic health conditions. Their subjects also had higher rates of having mental illnesses at ages 10, 13, and 15 versus healthy children.

The researchers also reviewed any additional factors that might cause the connection between chronic health illness in childhood with mental health disorders during adolescent age. They took samples from the children that were studied in the 90s where information about parents and children is contained.

Family and friendship issues, children's activity levels, health-related absenteeism, and bullying from school were taken into consideration and analyzed. They found that among the additional factors, bullying and health-related school absenteeism had the most significant effect on mental health issues.

The most consistent factor for predicting mental health problems over time was health-related school absenteeism according to the study.

In conclusion, chronic illnesses, asthma, bullying, and health-related absenteeism all resulted in higher chances of the children to have mental health disorders in early adolescence.

Dr. Brady said that chronic illnesses, including asthma, can affect children's development and wellbeing, as well as disrupting their normal lives. Adding to that, she said that adults should keep an eye on school attendance and be on the lookout for any evidence of bullying to children will chronic illnesses to rule out who are at high risk of developing mental health disorders as the children are growing up.
Undeterred by steep price hikes or the urgent need to maintain distance, impatient crowds were back outside liquor vends on Tuesday, pushing and jostling in many places as they sought to lay their hands on a bottle of their favourite tipple.

A day after lockdown curbs were eased and liquor shops opened across large parts of India, triggering near riot situations, lakhs of people lined up or gathered outside from early morning, counting the hours for the shutters to go up and then more hours till they reached the counter.

The scenes played out in towns and rural centres in states such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Delhi, just as they did on Monday, the fear of COVID-19 eclipsed by the eagerness to access alcohol after more than 40 dry days.

On Tuesday, the Andhra Pradesh government enhanced prices by 50 per cent, over the 25 per cent hike it had imposed the day before. Late on Monday, the Delhi government announced a 70 per cent special corona fee' on alcohol.

But it clearly didn't matter much, not to casual drinkers who wanted to stock up their bars and not to the more serious tipplers and addicts reduced to despair without any alcohol. The price, whether of premium scotch or wine or of humbler spirits, was of no consequence it seemed.

It's not the cost. It's the availability that matters right now. See the crowd even though the shop has not opened yet, said Prateek Singh, a student, pointing to the crowds outside a liquor shop in east Delhi's Shakarpur locality early in the morning.

Ayush, who works in a private company was waiting near him to buy his booze. He said he was not a regular drinker and the price did not really matter.

"Everything is costly during lockdown. Prices of food items are more than usual. The hike is exorbitant but still I am here to buy because it has been more than a month since I had a drink, he said nonchalantly.

Not far away from Shakarpur, in Vishwas Nagar police personnel wielding sticks tried to bring order to a long snaking queue of eager buyers, closely packed together as they shoved and shuffled their way to the shop.

I haven't had a drink for 42 days. So let me have it today, said a man in the queue as police struggled to maintain discipline.

Similar scenes were seen in Jheel Khurenja and Kalyanpuri.

In some places, restless crowds milled around and had to be chased away and dispersed.

About 150 government-runliquorshops have been allowed to open from 9 am to 6.30 pm in the national capital in accordance with the latest lockdown relaxations allowed by the Ministry of Home Affairs. On Monday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a stern message that all relaxations in the areas where people violate social-distancing and other health norms will be withdrawn.

Clearly, not many people paid heed.

Bharat Kumar, a resident of Burari, waited an hour and a half to buy three bottles even though he had reached before the shop opened.

Asked about the government's decision to impose a hefty 'corona fee' to discourage tipplers, he said, "It will not affect us. People will getliquorfrom Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad." There were also those who still could not manage to buyliquorfor the second day.

"I searched for some shops in Krishna Nagar but there were long queues of around 400-500 people. It's not fair, the government has raised the price so much and still there are problems if one tries to buy it," said Raj Kumar, 38, in east Delhi.

They came in their cars, two wheelers and some walking, all in the quest for the longed for bottle of alcohol.

And not just in Delhi.

Come rain, hail or hot summer sun, they wanted their alcohol at any cost.

From the hill town of Nainital came videos on social media of people standing under umbrellas in the hail waiting a suitable distance from each other to get to the liquor shop.

Serpentine lines going round the corner and beyond formed in many parts of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal and Maharashtra among other places



Andhra Pradesh Special Chief Secretary (Revenue) Rajat Bhargava said the increase inliquorrates was to 'discourage' people from consumption and safeguard health.

In Jodhpur, security personnel used batons to disperse crowds waiting to buy alcohol in a bid to reinforce social distancing norms.

And in Kolkata, long queues were seen outside standaloneliquorshops with either police or local administration ensuring that tipplers maintain social distancing. In the Karnataka capital Bengaluru, as if proving right the naysayers, drunken brawls claimed two lives.

A man in his mid-thirties was stabbed to death by his friend after an altercation at a party organised to celebrate the resumption of alcohol sale on Monday as part of the easing of lockdown restrictions.

In the second incident, a youth was beaten to death by his friend in an inebriated state.

In a bid to reduce the crowds, the Chhattisgarh government launched a web portal for home delivery ofliquorin green zones of the state.

Some states like Kerala and Madhya Pradesh have kept liquor shops closed. The Tamil Nadu government has announced resumption of liquor sales from May 7.

Liquor sales are an important source of revenue for states.

According to All India Brewers' Association (AIBA) Director General Shobhan Roy, the liquor industry contributes around Rs 2.5 lakh crore to the exchequers of the state government.

It is the revenue of Rs 250 lakh crore which the state government gets from the liquor industry. As liquor is only state subject, centre does not get any stare in that, he said.

The industry size is around 330 million cases of beer (9 litres each), 350 million cases of spirits and 300 million cases of country liquor.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
'I probably have the best view of the Rock of Cashel from my farm, as we're right under it here," says Erica O'Keeffe of her drystock farm.

Erica has been farming since she was 17, with her father, and took over the drystock farm in 2005. At the time it was mainly a sheep farm, with the family also breeding National Hunt horses.

According to Erica, who is the IFA South Tipperary chairperson, it was difficult to make a living out of sheep alone.

"We had a good few hundred sheep but prices were low for a few years and we decided to go into suckling," she says.

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Erica started to buy heifers in 2017 and has been breeding replacement heifers from the 120 cows she kept on the farm. In recent years she has scaled back to around 50 suckler cows, along with 120 ewes.

The ewes are Suffolk cross and Charollais cross.

"We had been lambing the ewes early but in recent times we have gone back to lambing at the end of January."

This year, with a wet spring the farm is two weeks behind last year and it will be another two weeks before Erica sells the first lambs off the farm.

"We usually sell them through Cashel Marts and hope to have about 30 ready in two weeks' time," she says.

"I run Charollais and Vendeen rams with the flock and the average weight for the lambs going to the mart is 45-46kg.

"When I buy my rams I put a good bit of effort into ensuring I'm buying the right specification of ram, with good conformation and length. I like to keep replacement ewes on the farm, so I have a young flock all the time."

All the lambs will be creep-fed from the time they went out to grass in the third week of February, and Erica is pleased with the lambs this year.

"I'm very happy with this crop of lambs. I dosed them three weeks ago and they are thriving well and have come on along," she says. "The good weather and warmth recently has really helped them come along nicely."

The mix of sheep and cattle gives her variety, and while the sheep are labour-intensive, they are less dangerous than the cows.

Her herd of cows are mainly Limousin cross and she has bred a lot of replacements for the farm with stock bulls.

"We used to sell them at Cashel Mart, and the last two years I've sold weanlings off the farm to buyers at about 9-10 months of age."

This, she says, is the third tough year for farmers after the drought in 2018, the beef crisis last year and now Covid-19.

"Here in south Tipperary it's mainly beef, tillage and dairy dominated. Sheep farmers have declined in numbers in the last 10 years, a lot of suckler people have gone down the dairy route."

And with marts and co-ops operating under Covid-19 restrictions, she says it's difficult for those in the farming sector.

"The marts know their clients so they have been trying to match up buyers and sellers, but it's difficult for them," she says.

"It's difficult for a farmer selling his stock, as it is a buyer's market and it's hard to put a value on your own stock when you're not going through the mart ring.

"Farming is a way of life but it's an isolating life; going to the mart is some farmers' only chance to meet people during the week.

"In a sense we are lucky that we are isolated, we have less chance of picking up this virus, but it's tough, and it's difficult to conduct business."
A barber in Washington state who said it was his "constitutional right" to reopen his business despite the governor's stay-at-home order drew a long line of customers.

Robert Martin, owner of Stag Barber and Styling in Snohomish, about 30 miles north of downtown Seattle, told CBS affiliate KIRO-TV that more than 130 people came to his shop for haircuts over the weekend.

Video footage from outside the shop showed a line of men, many not wearing a mask. Some customers came from other counties and waited hours to get a haircut at Martin's barbershop, according to the outlet.

Martin, 78, could not immediately be reached at numbers listed for him Tuesday. Calls to Stag Barber and Styling went unanswered and the voicemail box for the business was full.

Image: Stag Barber and Styling (Google)

"The overhead is expensive here, and I had to make sure I could pay for that," Martin told the outlet.

He also said the government cannot deprive people of their livelihoods.

"They don't have the authority to take that away from us," the barber told KIRO. "It is our constitutional right to do what we are doing."

Martin also said he felt emboldened by Snohomish County Sheriff Adam Fortney's stating publicly that he would not enforce the governor's "Stay Home, Stay Healthy" order.

"My statement that we, the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office, will not be enforcing the order has not changed since the order went into effect on March 23," Fortney wrote in a Facebook post Monday.

Fortney said the governor has not asked any law enforcement agencies to enforce the order, which Gov. Jay Inslee's office disputed Tuesday.

"The Governors Office and State Patrol have both provided guidance that local law enforcement should take the lead on enforcing the states ban on gatherings," Mike Faulk, a spokesman for the governor, told NBC News.

Faulk also said in a statement that the state received 140 complaints about the barbershop's reopening.

Story continues

"It has been referred to the Department of Licensing, which will be reviewing the complaints for action including contact with the business and further enforcement as necessary," the statement said.

Inslee on Monday announced a four-phase approach to reopening the state. Barbershops fall under phase two. The governor also said Monday he was extending the stay-at-home order until May 31, but that parts of the order could be lifted "as it is responsible to do so."

He has said he believes the order has helped slow the spread of the coronavirus in Washington, which has more than 15,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with 841 deaths, according to state health data.
Indian-American NASA astronaut Sunita Williams has advised Indian students stranded in the US due to the coronavirus-linked global travel restrictions to use the occasion to think how they could be a productive and positive addition to the society.

During a virtual interaction, she compared the Indian students' experience to her being in space in a spacecraft "where you don't get to go, see your family and friends and give them a real hug."

Organised by the Embassy of India Student Hub on Friday, the interaction was watched by 84,000 people on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in the first 24 hours.

Williams drew on her 322 days of orbiting in space to encourage a move from "I" to "We", saying "Isolation also provides a time to reflect and think about" how you can be a productive, active, positive addition to the society".

She joined the live session virtually from her kitchen in Houston, where she is undergoing training for another human spaceflight in 2021.

During the interaction, Williams stated how everyone could achieve something significant right now.

"Even just staying home and being responsible and not infecting others or getting infected gives you the opportunity to be a part of something much bigger than yourself," she said.

She said that the COVID-19 crisis was making them stronger as it was teaching them to "push through and finish what is important."

The Indian students praised Williams for sharing her thoughts. "Suni (Williams) has been my inspiration since I was in school. She gave me the impetus to follow my fascination with aircraft and spacecraft and take up Aerospace Engineering in undergrad. I was really glad to have a dialogue with a global icon!" said 2020 graduate and India Student Hub volunteer Cherie Singh.

"It was brilliant to get the perspective of an astronaut who experienced social isolation from the whole mankind! I also realised that she is a regular person like all of us - that we don't have to become a 'superhuman' in one day to be a part of one of mankind's greatest achievements," said Arshiah Yusuf Mirza.

Williams first travelled to the International Space Station in 2006. She took a box of samosas, the Bhagavad Gita and an idol of Lord Ganesha to "keep her grounded" and help her "feel closer to home."

"A view from the stars! Thank you Sunita Williams @Astro_Suni for sharing your experiences from Space and inspiring our students. Excellent initiative by India Student Hub @IndianEmbassyUS," Indian Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu said in a tweet.
WATERLOO REGION  More residents of Forest Heights Revera will be moved into local hospitals this week in the ongoing effort to contain the Kitchener homes serious and lengthy COVID-19 outbreak.

That will help the home be able to even better separate residents and decrease the load in terms of the number of residents that need to be cared for in the home by their staff, said Waterloo Regions acting medical officer of health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang.

Last week 21 residents from Forest Heights were moved, in addition to 23 in the first round. About 11 more will follow this week, Wang said at Mondays regional briefing.

The original plan announced almost two weeks ago was to temporarily move about 40 residents to hospitals, which would then look after providing care.

Forest Heights is the only home in the region transferring patients to hospital  a significant measure among several being implemented to contain the virus spread among both residents and staff.

Their staff in particular are working very hard to implement all the measures that are being requested, and staff from other agencies that are going into Forest Heights are also doing the same, Wang said.

An outbreak was declared at the home on April 1  one of the first in the region  and the number of cases continue to grow.

Forest Heights had a total of 162 cases in residents and 55 staff by Sunday evening. There have been 40 deaths.

Forest Heights has a particularly significant outbreak, Wang said. This has been a more challenging outbreak to bring under control.

Staff from other health sector partners in the community are being redeployed to the home to provide additional support. Public health consults every day with Forest Heights, owner Revera, health system partners and the province on the outbreak.

Were working daily with them to continue to provide them the support that they need to continue to manage this outbreak, Wang said.

New cases are being detected due to aggressive and repeated testing  more than recommended by the province, and continual, Wang said. Often the new cases are found in people without symptoms.

The testing could just be an early indicator of spread that has already occurred, she said.

A total of 87 people have died of COVID-19 in the region.

The Monday morning update by public health is an additional 16 confirmed cases on Sundays 801 for a total of 817. Of the current local cases, 361 are resolved and 39 are hospitalized.

Outbreaks are declared at 15 long-term care and retirement homes across the region  two more since Sundays update. Two homes had outbreaks declared on Sunday: Twin Oaks long-term care home in Maryhill and Doon Village Retirement Residence in Kitchener.

Wang urged people to continue following the measures needed to curb COVID-19, even as the weather warms and people want to get outdoors.

As we approach summer, our measures to slow COVID wont get easier, she said.

But she stressed those measures have protected people in the community and essential workers, lessened the strain on local hospitals and saved lives.

We are at a very important moment locally in our fight against COVID-19, Wang said. I understand peoples impatience and that its been difficult. But we just need to continue to stay the course.

The more people in the community stick to the measures now, the less it will be necessary to backtrack later when the number of cases starts to rise again.

How difficult is it going to be for all of us to backtrack, asked Regional Chair Karen Redman. People have to take personal responsibility because it is for the greater good.

The province announced on Friday that certain businesses and workplaces could begin reopening, but Redman cautioned that is not a sign to start relaxing the rules.

Although certain businesses are permitted to reopen, its critical that people continue to stay home, practise physical distancing and only go out for essential reasons, she said. It is through these simple actions that the region is beginning to make progress to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Wang added that its not just about staying two metres from others, although that is key.

People should still stay home as much as possible, Wang said. Thats still a fundamental request.
[May 05, 2020] Valor Compounding Pharmacy Transforms Model to Meet COVID-19 Challenges

BERKELEY, Calif., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Valor Compounding Pharmacy, a company that makes customized medications for patients with unique needs, has transformed its business model to meet the challenges of healthcare during the coronavirus pandemic. To support the changing needs of doctors and patients, ValorTM pivoted quickly to design several new programs: After-hours access to a pharmacist; free shipping of Rxs to patient's homes, flat-rate pricing for mental health, menopause, and erectile dysfunction, and direct access to recommended supplements to protect your health from coronavirus. With anxiety at peaked levels and limited access to primary care physicians, the ability to speak with a pharmacist or another team member at the pharmacy is more critical than ever before. "With anxiety levels at all-time highs due to COVID-19, and with it being national mental health awareness month, we felt compelled to develop and launch these new offerings to support our patients and providers," says Rick Niemi, CEO of Valor Compounding Pharmacy. On May 15, 2020, Valor will launch ValorConnectTM, an after-ours HIPAA-secure phone and chat service for its doctors and patients. ValorConnectTM provides a continuity of care to speak directly with a Valor team member, including a pharmacist, after hours on weekdays and throughout the weekend.



Valor recognizes how telemedicine is rapidly emerging and gaining popularity as a conduit for health care needs during COVID-19. In response to this, Valor created a secure, fast, and easy way for patients to transfer their compound prescription to Valor and receive their medicine without ever stepping foot outside of their home. Valor ships direct to patients' doors for free in California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, New York, Washington, and Washington, DC. Christine Stephanos, President, and Chief Pharmacy Officer for Valor states "While we can't control the pandemic, we can control what we do to support our patients and providers. Serving our patient's healthcare needs is priority number one. Our goal is for every doctor and patient to feel supported, while reducing anxiety and building trust. In addition to making and donating hand sanitizer to the front lines, and securing hydroxychloroquine for lupus and other autoimmune-compromised patients, we wanted to do more."

"Your health is our business. Your health has never been more important," says Sherine Khalil, President, and Chief Business Officer of Valor Compounding Pharmacy. "Valor is here to help ensure you receive your custom medication without interruption during and after the COVID-19 pandemic." Coronavirus is the primary and current healthcare issue of focus, but Valor understands that people continue to have other acute or chronic medical conditions that need to be addressed during this time. For many patients with these conditions, it has been difficult to obtain the medicine needed with medical offices closed and shelter-in-place ordinances requiring people to stay at home. Valor acknowledged the need to make healthcare more accessible for patients to obtain their medication during COVID-19 and developed a Flat Rate Pricing Program to make the process easier for patients to get custom made medicine for mental health, menopause, and erectile dysfunction. To help strengthen and boost individual immune systems, Valor partnered with specific high-quality supplement manufacturers and hand selected supplements that are recommended during the coronavirus pandemic. Valor's e-Store for Supplements allows anyone to purchase such products as high-potency vitamin C and zinc to fight flu-like symptoms, and high-potency vitamin D 3 to help support lost exposure to being outdoors in the sun. About Valor

Valor Compounding PharmacyTM, Inc. is a multi-state licensed 503A facility housing both sterile and non-sterile laboratories, located in Berkeley, CA. Valor is a specialized pharmacy that makes custom medications to meet the unique needs of the individual patient. Our goal is to reinvent pharmacy from a reactive vendor to a proactive partner in patient health care. We do that by optimizing turnaround time, being data driven, and by reducing patient anxiety. Our focus is on non-sterile and sterile, hazardous and non-hazardous compounded medication, and we work with a network of providers, patients, health systems / institutions, and research scientists in multiple states in the United States. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/valor-compounding-pharmacy-transforms-model-to-meet-covid-19-challenges-301052562.html SOURCE Valor Compounding Pharmacy

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Theo Hayez was last seen leaving the Cheeky Monkey's Bar at Byron Bay on the New South Wales mid-north coast on May 31 last year

Investigators are secretly combing over an area of bushland they believe could solve the disappearance of missing Belgian backpacker Theo Hayez.

The 18-year-old was last seen leaving the Cheeky Monkey's Bar at Byron Bay on the New South Wales mid-north coast on May 31 last year.

Detectives have conducted searches around the Cape Byron Lighthouse in a final attempt to track down the backpacker's belongings, according to The Australian.

The efforts were centred around trying to find Mr Hayez's mobile phone where its signal was last traced on June 1.

Detectives are meanwhile asking the family of Mr Hayez to keep quiet about the results of DNA testing on a hat found in bushland off Tallows Beach.

The cap - discovered by a member of the public - matched the one Mr Hayez was wearing on the night he disappeared.

Detectives have been secretly conducting new searches around the Cape Byron Lighthouse (pictured) in a final attempt to track down the belongings of missing Belgian Backpacker Theo Hayez

Theo Hayez (pictured with his girlfriend) went missing on May 31 after leaving Cheeky Monkey's bar in Byron Bay in northern NSW

Police suspect Mr Hayez might have fallen while trying to climb the cliffs near Tallows Beach.

His family say they have not given up hope of finding the missing backpacker a year after his disappearance.

They posted a heartfelt message in the Looking For Theo Facebook group, thanking those who had helped to search for the backpacker - as well as giving an insight into the latest police efforts in 2020.

'Since the beginning of the year, we have spoken less publicly about developments,' the post reads.

'Far from us giving up hope or dedication, the main reason is because the ongoing police process means we need to be careful about what we say.

'We think about Theo every minute and would like to share any information that may help find out what happened to him - but we have to be careful that we also give the police the best chance of finding this out.

'It breaks our hearts every day and we hope that they will soon have some clarity for us. The police investigation is ongoing and we are grateful for this but we have been asked not to provide details.

'New searches have taken place and police have provided us with the results from the DNA testing conducted on the two hairs found in the cap.'

The hat was found by a member of the public in the same area where the last 'ping' from Theo's phone was recorded on June 1 around the Cape Byron Lighthouse.

A grey Puma hat was found in bushland at Tallows Beach, with Theo's family believing the cap belonged to the missing backpacker

A search party trawls through the Tyagarah Nature Reserve looking for Theo in June 2019

Data from Theo's phone has traced this route as his last known movements before he vanished on the night of May 31 2019

Theo's family is certain the hat is his.

The family has urged anyone with information on the backpacker's disappearance to contact them and police.

They have maintained Theo was not alone on the night he disappeared and believe anyone with new information should come forward.

Theo's family have not given up hope on finding him and have launched a new website to broaden their voice to more international audience

A new website has been launched to help the family extend their voice and reach a more broad international audience to find any leads to track down Theo.

'It will soon be one year (since his disappearance) and it is still important that you keep talking about Theo,' the post continues.

'We still believe that someone out there could help us to find out what really happened by providing us with some information about that night.'

Parents Laurent Hayez and Vinciane Delforge believe he was not alone on the night of his disappearance

Theo was travelling in Australia on a gap year after finishing school in Belgium.

Police began a land, sea and air search when they were alerted to his disappearance by staff at the Wake Up! Hostel in Byron Bay on June 6.

The hostel staff raised the alarm after finding his belongings, including his passport, left there untouched.

Theo's father, Laurent Hayez, flew into Australia that month and made an emotional public appeal to help find his son.

'I promised Theo's little brother that I would bring his brother home. Please, help me keep my promise to him,' he told reporters through tears at Tweed Heads Police Station.

Theo's disappearance made headlines around the world and several volunteer groups formed to search for him.

The case has been referred to the New South Wales Coroner.
By Express News Service

PATNA: A group of locals in Bihars Muzaffarpur district thrashed and tonsured three women before parading them half-naked on suspicion of practising black magic.

The video of the incident, which happened on Monday at Dakrama village under the Hathaura PS limits, went viral on social media on Tuesday.

Sources said that a group of locals caught the victims when they were allegedly performing some ritual at a place in the village and thrashed them. Later, the group tonsured them and paraded half-naked in the village. The trio was also allegedly forced to drink urine.

Confirming the incident, ADG (HQ) Jitendra Kumar said that nine accused including the plotter Shayam Sahni and the barber who tonsured the heads have been arrested.

Cops have filed FIRs against 100 unidentified persons who indulged in the incident. The Police are conducting search operations to nab them", Kumar said.
The disastrous effect that the coronavirus is having on container lines finances is being masked, for the time being, by the stable freight rates, says Peter Sand, BIMCOs Chief Shipping Analyst

Over the past two years, the container shipping industry has faced several challenges, many of which were felt on the Far East to US West Coast (USWC) route. This route has taken the biggest direct hit from the trade war that started in 2018 and which, despite the signing of the Phase One Agreement between the US and China, is not over yet. Adding to the trade war headaches were higher fuel costs due to the IMO 2020 Sulphur regulation that came into effect on 1 January 2020, and now, the coronavirus is causing volumes to drop.

Despite lower volumes being fixed in the spot market, it is key to tracking developments in the container shipping market, as it quickly responds to the changing situation and adjustments to demand and supply. On the other hand, the longer-term contract rates are key to understanding where profits in the liner industry are being generated.

The long-term contract rates generate the most money for carriers, but their stability hides the volatility that the market is facing. The trends in the spot market are a much better reflection of the market conditions globally, as well as on individual trade lanes, and can therefore offer important input into the decision-making processes.

The volatile spot market; a better indicator than the more stable long-term contracts The long-term contract rates have been very stable since the start of 2018 when they stood at USD 802 per forty-foot equivalent unit (FEU). They remained around that level until May 2019 when they rose to USD 974 per FEU and have since then been slowly creeping upwards to USD 1,083 per FEU on 21 April 2020 (source: Xeneta).

In the same period, the spot rates have given a better indication of what the container shipping market experienced. Here, the effects of frontloading towards the end of 2019, ahead of a tariff hike on US imports of goods from China, are clearly visible with rates quickly rising from USD 735 per FEU at the end of June 2018 to USD 2,066 per FEU in mid-November. As usual in the in the gap between the calendar new year and the Lunar New Year, spot rates remained elevated until the first quarter of 2019, after which volumes and rates fell as the stockpiling rush ended.

IMO 2020 did little to lift freight rates

The much talked about IMO2020-adjusted Bunker Adjustment Factors (BAFs) did little to lift freight rates on the Far East to US West Coast route as bunker prices rose in response to the 1 January 2020 implementation of the IMO Global Sulphur Cap. Carriers that managed to implement BAFs mainly did so by

lowering the basic freight rate. It is particularly clear on long term rates that the total cost of sending a container from the Far East to the USWC did not increase in response to the new environmental regulation. Short term freight rates experienced a small hike as we entered the new year: going from USD 870 per FEU on 31 December 2019 to USD 1,159 per FEU on 1 January 2020.

However, this was not enough to cover the additional fuel costs at that time, and in fact represents (mostly) normal seasonality with rates rising at the start of the new year, as more goods are shipped ahead of the lull in production in the far-eastern manufacturing hubs over the Lunar New Year.

The overcapacity that is rife in the market limits carriers ability to pass on their additional fuel costs linked to compliance with the Sulphur Cap. Although the bunker fuel price spread, between high- and low-sulphur marine fuels, has narrowed considerably since the start of the year, this power imbalance between carriers and shippers continues to hinder higher rates.

Coronavirus has had little effect on freight rates, hiding the real story

Both long- and short-term rates have remained stable even as the coronavirus pandemic has forced large parts of the global economy to shut down and thereby lower demand for container shipping. Freight rates have been largely unaffected due to the many sailings that carriers have blanked, resulting in large scale capacity reductions on many of the worlds major container trades.

Carriers have chosen a range of measures to lower capacity, including the idling of ships, and blanking of sailings, which has driven the idle containership fleet to record highs in the past few months. On top of this, some carriers have chosen to slow down their ships or avoid expensive canal tolls. A few containerships have chosen the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, rather than the shorter and more expensive route through the Suez Canal. The falling oil price has resulted in lower bunker fuel prices, lowering the cost of sailing the longer distance to below that of the Canal tolls.

These measures also reduce the available capacity and artificially hold up freight rates.

While the cost of freight per container has remained stable, the lower volumes and fewer sailings mean that although carriers can reduce some losses by blanking sailings, the disastrous effect that the coronavirus is having on their bottom lines is masked by the stable freight rates for the time being.

Peter Sand is Chief Shipping Analyst at the worlds largest international shipping association BIMCO

https://www.bimco.org

Further recent shipping market overview and outlook reports on related issues can be found at: https://www.bimco.org/news-and-trends/market-analysis
Springtime in the United States looks a whole lot different this year. No kids playing on playgrounds or filing into classrooms. No groups of friends sitting at sidewalk cafes to enjoy the warmer weather. Beaches and public parks? Roped off.

But few areas are more altered than the process of home buying and selling. In some places, real estate agents can't even visit a client's house until stay-at-home orders are lifted.

Since it became apparent that COVID-19 was spreading across the United States, many of the usual spring sellers have opted to hold off listing their propertieswhether real estate has been deemed an essential business in their state or not.

Theres a noticeable change in inventory and market behavior in general, says Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers & Consulting.

Although news of the deadly pandemic spreading across Asia had been coming in for weeks, for many Americans the threat didn't become real until many states closed schools and businesses and instituted stay-at-home rules in early to mid-March. Today, the inventory of homes for sale is down all across the United States, from Portland, ME, to Portland, OR.

But some places have been more deeply affected than others. The metros with the highest COVID-19 infection rates per capita, pervasive fears from a health perspective, and the most stringent shelter-in-place mandates have seen greater numbers of sellers pulling their homes from the market. Considering that the U.S. housing market already had a shortage of homes for sale, this means buyersmany of whom are still motivated to get a new home even amid the pandemicwill have even fewer choices.

In the short to medium term, real estate professionals expect to see more listings enter the market as the spread of the novel coronavirus slows and restrictions on public life are lifted. But the economic and housing recovery will continue to vary from place to place.

I see a tale of two markets, says Javier Vivas, director of economic research for realtor.com. Those that will have a healthy economic recovery, and markets that will struggle to see buyers come back fast enough because they've been impacted by job losses.

To figure out which parts of the country are currently seeing the sharpest declines, the realtor.com data team pulled listing stats from the 100 largest metros in the United States for the month of April to see where new listings are down the most compared with the year before. To get a better sense of the regions affected, we limited the rankings to just two per state (otherwise, five of the top 10 metros would have been in Pennsylvania). The remaining metros were clustered in the mid-Atlantic area, the Midwest, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Ready to take a look? Let's look at some of the trends across the U.S.

Metros With the Biggest Drop in New Listings Tony Frenzel

Pennsylvania: Challenges in the Rust Belt

On March 18, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf issued a stay-at-home order commanding all businesses that were not "life-sustaining" to closeincluding real estate.

Its very restrictive, says Joe Golant, a real estate agent with Weichert Realtors. He says he can no longer meet clients in person, visit homes, or even send a photographer out to market a new listing.

Some homeowners have made their own arrangements for video and photography," he adds. "We cant facilitate that right now.

Things had been really looking up for Allentown and the greater Lehigh Valley before it became one of the state's biggest hot spots for COVID-19. Now it's No. 1 on our list of areas in the U.S. with the steepest year-over-year declines in listings.

Set at the juncture of interstate highways that lead straight to New York City and Philadelphia, the region has been transformed into a logistical transport hub, which has led to a booming economy and a slew of new jobs at companies like Amazon and ADP financial services.

Allentowns affordable real estate has been booming, a solid sellers market for the past three years. In March, the median sale price of $235,000 was $66,000 above the median asking price.

But when the state shut down, real estate activity ground to a screeching halt. The metro saw the biggest year-over-year decrease in new listings in the nation, down a whopping 80.5%.

But the few homes that are on the market are going quicklydays on market decreased 20% in Marchand the median sales price increased 10.6% for the homes that did sell.

Things are still happening, Galant says. Someone in our office had a listing under contract in two days.

Nearby Scranton (No. 3) is in a similar position, with easy interstate access as well as a growing population, job market, and real estate market. It has also been deeply affected by the coronavirus lockdown. New listings have dropped 78%, the third-steepest hit in the nation.

The other Pennsylvania metros that would have made it into the ranking if it weren't capped at two per state were Pittsburgh (minus 74.8%), Harrisburg (minus 74.2%), and Philadelphia (minus 68.8%).

Midwestern metros

Milwaukee, WI benkrut/Getty Images

With similar amenities to nearby Chicago and housing that is just a fraction of the price, Milwaukee has been a millennial magnet in recent years. While the city's economy hasn't been its strong suit since the Great Recession, it has been growing nicely over the past two years. And it had recently been experiencing a strong sellers market with a shortage of inventory. But with a COVID-19-related decline in economic activity, recent job losses, and stay-at-home order, few homeowners are putting their places on the marketeven though real estate has been deemed an essential business in Wisconsin. Brew City has seen the second-steepest drop in new listings in the pandemic, down 80% year over year.

Were still working, and things are selling fast, says Colleen Prostek, a real estate agent with Homestead Realty. But were in a conservative area where many are, like, 'let's wait and see what happens.'

The state of Michigan, like Pennsylvania, is still on total lockdown, with real estate deemed nonessential. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the Stay Home, Stay Safe executive order on March 23 in response to the dramatic coronavirus spread in Detroit, one of the hardest-hit cities in the nation.

The strict orders and understandable fears of localswho have already been experiencing long-standing economic difficultieshave led to a decrease in new listings by 75.3% from last year, the fourth-biggest decline in the U.S.

The binding statewide order has also affected metros that havent been as affected by the virus. That includes Grand Rapids (No. 6), which has seen a 69.4% drop in new homes on the market.

Agents are not allowed to take photos, hang For Sale signs in yards, or place lockboxes on doors. So they have had to use technology, virtual tours, and open houses to bridge the gap on the few listings that have been going live.

And there are still people out there who want to buy a home.

"Three months ago, home values were increasing and there was nothing to buy, says Steve Volker, a broker with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Michigan Real Estate. So some buyers who couldnt buy before feel like they might as well get out there before the big buyer pool comes back.

The tri-state area: Pandemic central

Buffalo, NY benedek/Getty Images

New York City has become the tragic epicenter of America's COVID-19 pandemicbut the former industrial hub update, Buffalo, has also been deeply affected by the virus. On Wednesday, the home of New York states second-largest population is heading in the wrong direction in terms of managing the pandemic, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said.

The revitalizing border town already had low inventoryand lots of bidding warsbefore the coronavirus spread across the globe. But since New Yorks stay-at-home order went into effect on March 22, Buffalo has dropped to fifth place for the largest decline in new listings in the United States, down 69.5% from 2019.

While Buffalo has seen the highest drop in the tri-state area, New York City (No. 7), which has suffered nearly 20,000 deaths from the virus, has experienced a 67.9% drop in new listings. However, given how long and hard the city has already been attacked by the novel coronavirus, experts hope the city and its housing market will begin its recovery shortly.

Were at the apex, says Miller Samuel's Miller. Theres some sense were moving to the other side. Theres an expectation that as markets wake up from their slumber, you will see inventory ramp up significantly.

Right behind the Big Apple with the eighth- and ninth-highest drops in new listings are nearby Conecticut metros Bridgeport (minus 67.1%) and, a bit farther out, New Haven (minus 56.3%), both of which are economically aligned with New York City. Between the high infection rates for the region and shelter-in-place mandates, many people do not want potential buyers going in and out of houses in their neighborhoods.

An agent put up open house signs in mid-March, and someone posted on Nextdoor, How dare these realtors show open houses in this period? says Matt Murray, real estate salesperson with the Higgins Group.

Given the antipathy toward foot traffic, listings are down and sales have slowed substantially. However, there has been a surge in interest for furnished short-term rentals throughout the more affluent Bridgeport metro burgs. Because of the rush of new people, one community had to strongly suggest that anyone coming in from New York City quarantine for 14 days. The trend has led agents to expect a potential inundation of New Yorkers seeking more room to spread out.

Im anticipating that we get an influx of people wanting to buy here, says Murray. If we get a second [COVID-19] wave, people will think, Get me out of New York City. I want a house now.

Northern California: An early epicenter

San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a local emergency due to the coronavirus on Feb. 23, following a similar declaration in Santa Clara County, about 40 miles to the south. Although there were no cases in San Francisco at the time and only a handful in Santa Clara County, the greater Bay Area is a major gateway for travel between the United States and China, so the area started to see an uptick in cases weeks before most of the rest of the country.

San Francisco and five other Bay Area counties were the first in the nation to establish a shelter-in-place order, on March 16. This decisive action is credited with flattening the region's curvethe graph of new cases. On March 19, Gov. Gavin Newsom locked down the rest of California.

Those orders were taken seriously by residents of San Francisco, the second-most densely populated city in the nation. Along with everything else, property showings and contracts came to a dead stop. Many listings were pulled off the market. San Francisco, once one of the hottest housing markets in the country, took the 10th spot on the list of metros where new listings have dropped the most, down 56.1% over last year.

As agents, sellers, and buyers have been getting accustomed to this new normalwith orders slightly relaxed this weekend and extended until the end of Mayfolks have been starting to pop their heads out of their hiding holes.

Activity has been ticking up in recent weeks as agents, buyers, and sellers have been slowly figuring out how and how much business can continue in a safe manner, says Patrick Carlisle, Compass chief market analyst for the Bay Area. But it is still far below what it would usually be during what is typically the biggest selling season of the year."

Metros that have seen the biggest drop in new listings

Allentown, PA, minus 80.5% Milwaukee, WI, minus 80% Scranton, PA, minus 78% Detroit, MI, minus 75.3% Buffalo, NY, minus 69.5% Grand Rapids, MI, minus 69.4% New York City, NY, minus 67.9% Bridgeport, CT, minus 67.1% New Haven, CT, minus 56.3% San Francisco, CA, minus 56.1%

The post Where the Market Has Stalled: 10 Cities With the Steepest Drops in New Listings appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.
With world desperately awaiting a vaccine to battle out the Coronavirus, Italian scientists have claimed to come up with one to protect humans from contracting the virus. According to Italy's news agency ANSA, a firm called Takis has invented a Coronavirus vaccine that has antibodies generated in mice that work on human cells. The vaccine has been tested in Rome's Spallanzani Hospital.

As per latest reports, Luigi Aurisicchio, CEO of Takis has stated that for the first time the candidate vaccine has neutralised the COVID-19 virus in human cells. He added that this is the most advanced stage of testing of a candidate vaccine created in Italy and human trials are expected after this summer.

READ | Covid Vaccine Hunt Heats Up Globally; Still No Guarantee As Hundreds Line Up For Trials

Vaccine tested on mice

Aurisicchio added that according to Spallanzani Hospital, Takis is the first in the world so far to have demonstrated neutralisation of Coronavirus by a vaccine and it is expected to work on humans too. After a single vaccination, the mice developed antibodies that can block the virus from infecting human cells, Aurisicchio said. Italian researchers remarked that the results are encouraging and well beyond expectations. Aurisicchio has also claimed that Takis is exploring more interesting technological platforms with an American drug company, LineaRx.

The Coronavirus has claimed 253,974 lives globally, and each country has stepped up its efforts in battling the pandemic. At present, there are around 70 COVID-19 vaccines that have been developed globally. Out of which, 5 are in advanced stages of human trial.

READ | COVID-19: World Leaders Pledges $8 Billion To Research Vaccine; US Gives The Event A Miss

Israel Claims Breakthrough

Israel's Defence Minister Naftali Bennett has claimed that his country has made a significant breakthrough towards the treatment for the deadly virus. The "monoclonal neutralising antibody" developed at the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) "can neutralise it [the disease-causing coronavirus] inside carriers' bodies," Israel's defence minister said in a statement.

READ | EU Hosts Coronavirus Telethon, Raises $8.1 Billion To Finance Vaccine Without US

Bennett visited the labs of the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR), a secretive unit that works under the Prime Ministers Office, in Ness Ziona and was shown the antibody that attacks the virus in a monoclonal way and can neutralize it within the bodies of those ill, according to the statement from his office.

READ | UK PM Johnson: Coronavirus Vaccine Hunt Is 'most Urgent Shared Endeavour'
There was more than just recall and nostalgia when Sonia Gandhi, the Congresss interim president, responded with clarity and sharpness to the plight of distressed migrant workers who are returning home on designated trains and buses after being asked to pay specified fares.

Sonia had tried hard to leave her imprint on the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) governments programmes and policies as the chairman of the National Advisory Council (NAC). The NAC cast as an advisory body, was helmed by Sonia, who was also the UPA chairperson. Its clout in the coalition government was enormous although its endeavour to privilege welfare and inclusiveness over economic conservatism and social moderation was occasionally thwarted by the government.

Sonias astute move leaves BJP scrambling for explanations

As reports poured in of how the hapless and cashless migrants were allegedly forced to cough up money for the tickets on the Shramik Special trains, carrying them back home, Sonia stepped in. She asked if the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government could spend Rs 100 crore to ferry people to a Gujarat event (Donald Trumps reception at Ahmedabad) and the railways could donate Rs 151 crore to the PM-CARES corpus, then why cant these essential members of our nations fabric be given a fraction of the same courtesy, especially free rail travel, at this hour of acute distress?

Ahmed Patel, Sonias long-time political aide, and general secretary KC Venugopal, directed the Congresss state units to mobilise the funds and work with the railways and the state administration to underwrite the travel costs. Earlier, D K Shivakumar, the Karnataka state Congress chief, took the lead when he donated Rs 1 crore to the state-run Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation to bail out workers, left stranded because they had no money for the fare.

Karnataka wasnt the only one to exacerbate the pain suffered by the migrant workers. A railway official in Maharashtras Bhiwandi said on a video that the workers had to pay Rs 800 to go back to their hometown, Gorakhpur. Those journeying from Gujarats Nadiad to Ballia in Uttar Pradesh were charged the full amount of Rs 645. The norms stipulated for the special trains stated in rule 11, clause (c) that the local state government authority shall hand over the tickets to the passengers cleared by them and collect the ticket fare and hand over the total amount to railways. The railways had unambiguously decided the special facility was not a freebie.

However, the political salience of Sonias entreaty to the Congress registered fast on the government/Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that for all of yesterday, insisted that it was the host and home states at whose requests the trains were organised and they would have to incur 15 percent of the costs while the railways would pick up the rest 85 percent tab. Obviously, it was a post-facto explanation that was not borne out by real-life accounts from the travellers.

What also apparently hurt the BJP was a tweet from its MP, Subramanian Swamy, posted minutes after Sonias exhortation. Swamy, though on the BJPs fringes, habitually disconcerts the leadership that sees him as a contrarian voice with a following in its larger Hindutva constituency. He said, Migrant labour will go free. But the Centre adhered to its purported 85-15 formula that was of a piece with the Narendra Modi governments overall approach to the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic: Shift the onus on the states for relief and repair. The Centres around as some sort of a guardian angel.

But there was no denying that Sonias interventionindeed the first substantive mediation from the Opposition that largely remained silent, afraid that a reaction might be construed as anti-national in the midst of a crisisnudged the government to sit up.

Congress Old Guard strike back?

The Congresss traducers might be tempted to interpret Sonias move as an attempt by the sidelined Old Guard to regain its relevance. Those sniffing out conspiracies dont have to look afar because Rahul Gandhi had flagged the migrants issue in an online dialogue he had with Raghuram Rajan, the former RBI Governor, last week. Rajan, who is a member of a high-level IMF external advisory group constituted to think up perspectives on key global developments and policy matters, stressed the need to put in place a safety net to mitigate the adverse impact of the inevitable job losses, especially in the unorganised sector. Rajan gave a ballpark estimate of Rs 65,000 crore funds for this purpose.

Indeed, the video chat was seen as the start of the Congresss exercise to pull itself out of a state of seeming confusion and political restrictiveness to a position of focus on the economy, with a slant towards the poor and the under-empowered.

Opportunity for Congress to rediscover its aam aadmi roots

Notwithstanding the BJPs obsession with its core agenda, aimed constantly at enlarging a Hindu base, the government will be forced to grapple with the terrible economic fallout of the pandemic sooner than later. The Centre cannot pass the buck to the cash-strapped states. Nor can it leave it to a line-up of its chosen bureaucrats, principally from the Gujarat cadre, to straighten out the mess because India is not Gujarat.

Perhaps the Congress intends to amplify the class theme, evident in Sonias point-counterpoint use of the money spent on the Trump jamboree versus the parsimony shown towards the poor. Of course, the political landscape transformed almost unrecognisably since the Congress was voted out of power in 2014. Under Modi, the BJPs discourse and mobilisation tactics were tailored to bring the poor, across the caste and class divide, under the Hindutva umbrella. The direct and collateral damage wrought by COVID-19 is ironically a godsend to the Congress to rediscover its aam aadmi roots and refashion itself as a party of the have-nots.

Ironic too, Sonia must rue not forcing the Manmohan Singh dispensation to legislate the NACs version of a law enshrining a security net for the unorganised workers who in its estimate made up 93 percent of Indias workforce, contributed 60 percent of the GDP and have insecure jobs and low incomes.

(Radhika Ramaseshan is a Delhi based political analyst and columnist)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the authors own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.
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Health officials in New York City said Monday that 15 children have been recently hospitalized with a rare inflammatory condition that medical professionals worry is linked to the coronavirus. Doctors in the U.K. warned last week of a possible connection between the virus in children and Kawasaki disease, a treatable but potentially deadly condition that in severe cases leads to inflammation of blood vessels, including near the heart. The children in New York exhibited symptoms associated with toxic shock and Kawasaki diseasesuch as fever, a rash, vomiting, or diarrheaand while none have died from the illness, according to New York health officials, a third have required a ventilator to assist in breathing and most have needed support to maintain adequate blood pressure. Most of the children tested positive for the coronavirus.

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The impact of the coronavirus has so far left young children relatively unscathed; the hospitalization and mortality rate rises with age and typically with the existence of preexisting conditions. The prevalence of Kawasaki disease is very low, typically affecting 8 in 100,000 children, mostly under 5, according to the U.K.s National Health Service. When it does occur, it often follows a viral infection, such as the common cold, and is usually treatable. The consequences can also be much more significant, however, such as organ failure.

The New York City cases follow reports of clusters of similar symptoms in children in Europe, which has prompted health officials to investigate whether these cases are possible complications from the coronavirus. So far, from what we understand, this is a rare complication in the pediatric population that they believe is related to COVID-19, New York state health commissioner Howard Zucker said. We are following it very closely.
A frontline nurse treating coronavirus in New York has claimed that patients are 'literally being murdered' by medical negligence and mismanagement every day, but that 'nobody cares because they're all minorities.'

Speaking out in despair 37-year-old Nicole Sirotek described work at the frontline as like 'going into the f***ing twilight zone,' and told of hospital units in such disarray that she was once assigned to care for a patient already in a body bag.

She said, 'They're not dying of COVID. Yes people are going to die of COVID, I know this, I'm not like a new grad student. I am literally saying they're murdering these people.

'And nobody cares because they're all minorities and we're in the f***ing hood and that's not okay.'

ICU nurse Nicole Sirotek spoke out in a tearful video about the mismanagement and medical negligence at New York City hospitals

Sirotek, 37, (pictured with her husband) told of one patient who died while waiting for an X-ray because her warning that the anesthesiologist had misplaced a ventilator tube was ignored

According to Sirotek, 'I legitimately don't know what to do anymore. Even the advocacy groups don't give a s*** about these people. Like literally, Black Lives Don't Matter here.'

Sirotek made her whistleblowing allegations in an emotional video posted on YouTube. Her decision to go public was driven by despair as her attempts to advocate for her patients have all fallen on deaf ears.

She said, 'What I need is someone to help me save these people from being killed from gross negligence and medical mismanagement and no-one is listening to me.'

New York City has been hit the hardest of anywhere in the country with the latest figures quoting 13,724 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and another 5,383 probable deaths.

The city has had more than 170,000 cases of the virus. It became the epicenter of America's pandemic spread in a wave that saw hospitals and medical staff overwhelmed by sickness in their own ranks and patients beyond their help.

The mother-of-two from Elko, Nevada was one of hundreds of medics to travel to New York as the virus surged.

She left her young family hundreds of miles away to bring vital support to the city at the peak of its crisis. Posting on his Facebook page her husband, Ryon, 39, told how he missed his wife but was proud of her, 'kicking a**' in New York.

But according to the nurse's emotional video hospitals are no longer swamped as they once were and there are plenty of nurses in the wards on which she has worked.

There is now, she said, 'no reason' for the deaths that she has witnessed other than incompetence, mismanagement and a seemingly reckless lack of care on the part of some hospital personnel.

Sirotek said, 'They're medically mismanaging these patientsNobody is listening. They don't care. I'm literally coming here each day and watching them kill them.'

Speaking from a hospital breakroom between changing units she recalled a series of deaths that she had witnessed that were not only avoidable but in some cases actively brought about by medical intervention.

She described how a resident doctor defibrillated a patient with an already beating heart and a nurse who placed a feeding tube into a patient's lungs

Sirotek's husband Ryon told how he missed his wife but was proud of her, 'kicking a**' in New York in a Facebook post

The mother-of-two from Elko, Nevada was one of hundreds of medics to travel to New York as the virus surged

She told of one patient who died while waiting for an X-ray because her warning that the anesthesiologist had misplaced a ventilator tube was ignored. She said, 'Literally only one side of his chest is inflating. He dies.'

She described how a resident doctor defibrillated a patient with an already beating heart. She recalled, 'The resident starts doing chest compressions which is not what you do. I run to stop him. He f***ing defibrillates him and kills him. I was literally saying, ''Can you stop him he's going to kill that patient?'' And the director of nursing just shook his head and I turned around and he killed the dude.'

Among other horrific incidents she listed are a nurse who placed a feeding tube into a patient's lungs, a nurse who administered a lethal dose of short acting insulin when she confused it for long acting and another who fell asleep at her station while a patient's blood pressure dropped without notice causing permanent mental impairment.

She told of one patient who choked to death on his own blood when the anesthesiologist ruptured his esophagus trying to intubate him and another whose lungs were 'blown out' by a wrongly set ventilator.

Several medics working with COVID-19 patients have raised concerns over the efficacy and potential dangers of ventilators.

A recent survey found that around 25 per cent of New York patients put on ventilators died with some doctors claiming they do little good to most patients and actual harm to many.

In a state of clear exhaustion, the nurse said, 'Guys they don't even know when people are dead. How many times have I told you they've assigned me a dead person?'

On one occasion she was assigned to care for a patient about whom she had expressed repeated concern the previous night. She said, 'They assigned him to me, and he was already in a body bag.'

In a desperate attempt to put the situation into some sort of context Sirotek said, 'I know this is a kind of extreme example but it's the only one I can come up with.

'It's like if we were in Nazi Germany and they were taking the Jews to a gas chamber and I'm the one saying, 'Hey that's not okay. This is wrong.' And then everyone tells me, 'Hang in there. You're doing a great job. You can't save everybody.'

The nurse accepted that some people will suffer organ failure and die and that not everybody can be saved but said, 'I'm pretty sure when you defibrillate someone with a heart rate of 40 and a stable rhythm that's murder.

'And I'm pretty sure when you put someone's PEEP (Positive End Expiratory Pressure on a ventilator) up to 25 and PEEP doesn't go past like 15 or 20 and you blow someone's lungs out and they die - that's murder.'

Sirotek's attempts to alert advocacy groups and nursing administration made, she said, no difference. She said, 'Can someone come up with some kind of solution for me? Because I'm kind of out of ideas. Am I the only one who's not a sociopath? To think that this is not okay?'

She said, 'I grew up poor. I know how it feels to have nothing and for nobody to advocate for you and that's why I get really upset.'

Before signing off to start her shift at a new unit Sirotek ended with the chilling message, 'Stay safe. Stay out of New York City for your health care.'
Multiple sclerosis sufferer Mary Wilson fears the coronavirus pandemic could have robbed her of her dream to play badminton at the Paralympics. Wilson, who hoped to qualify for Tokyo 2020, says if she does make it to Japan next year it will "be the biggest thing ever" but she recognises time may not be on her side. The 56-year-old Scot has faced -- and overcome -- some astonishing challenges since being diagnosed with MS, a chronic neurological condition, in 2004. She survived an attack during a military tour of duty in Afghanistan, an ugly incident involving a Ugandan policeman, and has climbed every one of the Munros, the 282 mountains in Scotland over 3,000 feet (914 metres) high. But Wilson's Paralympic hopes are on hold after Olympics and Paralympics organisers bowed to the inevitable at the end of March, delaying both events until next year and meaning badminton could not make its Paralympic debut in 2020. Wilson agreed with the decision but admits it is a huge blow for her personally as she has secondary progressive MS. "It is definitely going to affect my chances with an extra year," Wilson told AFP by phone from the Edinburgh home she shares with partner Judi and their German Shepherd dog Max. "A year is a long time trying to train hard. I feel my body is going backwards. It (the MS) is affecting it." "To tell you the truth I think it should have been called off sooner," she said. "It dragged on a bit (the official announcement was made on March 24). People in other countries were dying." Wilson was in Spain for a competition when that country went into lockdown due to COVID-19. "I went out walking and a police car went past and stopped," she said. "The policeman threatened to handcuff me and take me to the station as I shouldn't have been out walking although I was unaware that was the case. "They followed me back to the hotel to make sure I was going there." Wilson managed to find a seat on a flight back to Scotland and is now following a radically adapted training regime at home. "I set up a programme each day, strength and conditioning from press-ups to sit-ups, lunges, calf raises," said the athlete, who has to take extra care during the coronavirus lockdown due to her condition. "The kitchen is my gym. I do press-ups off the kitchen surface but I wear kitchen gloves as the surfaces are really sharp." Wilson said para-badminton was an expensive sport -- competitors need adapted equipment and transport -- and many of her rivals struggle to fund themselves. She estimates she has spent 50,000 ($62,000) since she began competing internationally in 2017. Aside from some funding from the charity Path To Success, she has had to dip into her Army pension and a legacy left to her by her late father. - Battle-scarred - She is fortunate to be even contemplating appearing at Tokyo after an Afghan truck driver tried to run her over at Camp Bastion, the former British Army airbase in Helmand Province, in 2008. The psychiatric nurse, who served with Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps, had to leave her tent one evening. "There were no lights in case we got mortared," she said. "I heard this vehicle behind me. He had a dimmed light on and he was driving faster and faster and tried to run me over. I managed to dive off the road." Wilson woke up after an operation to find a neighbouring bed was occupied by a wounded Taliban fighter. "We stared at each other both in shock," she said. "I said to myself 'I must not show my emotions'." The former staff sergeant said her army training served her well when in 2018, on her way to Kampala airport after a tournament, she was forced off the hotel bus at gunpoint by a Ugandan policeman. He had a taxi driver take them to a secluded spot and demanded $1,000 or else a trip to a police station. "My army training kicked in there," she said. "I was very calm, I did not scream or shout. "I came to an agreement with him, gave him some money and managed, unbeknownst to him, to take a photo of him. "When I returned home I notified the authorities and he was arrested and jailed. At least he got his comeuppance." Badminton player Mary Wilson's dream is to represent Britain at the Tokyo Paralympics Badminton player Mary Wilson's Paralympic dream is on hold The Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics have been postponed until 2021 British badminton player Mary Wilson trains at her home in Edinburgh during the coronavirus lockdown
US, UK officials did not say which countries were responsible for the attacks on healthcare and research institutions.

Government-backed hackers are attacking healthcare and research institutions in an effort to steal valuable information about efforts to contain the new coronavirus pandemic, the United Kingdom and the United States have said in a joint warning.

In a statement on Tuesday, the UKs National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said the hackers had targeted pharmaceutical companies, research organisations and local governments.

The NCSC and the CISA did not say which countries were responsible for the attacks. But one US official and one UK official said the warning was in response to intrusion attempts by suspected Chinese and Iranian hackers, as well as some Russian-linked activity.

The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss non-public details of the alert. Tehran, Beijing and Moscow have all repeatedly denied conducting offensive cyberoperations and say they are the victims of such attacks themselves.

State hacking groups frequently target organisations in order to collect bulk personal information, intellectual property and intelligence that aligns with national priorities, the NCSC and the CISA said.

For example, actors may seek to obtain intelligence on national and international healthcare policy or acquire sensitive data on COVID-19 related research.

The warning follows efforts by a host of state-backed hackers to compromise governments, businesses and health agencies in search of information about the new disease and attempts to combat it.

Reuters news agency has reported in recent weeks that Vietnam-linked hackers targeted the Chinese government over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, and that multiple groups, some with ties to Iran, tried to break into the World Health Organization.

The officials said the alert was not triggered by any specific incident or compromise, but rather intended as a warning  to the attackers and the targeted organisations that need to better defend themselves.

These are organisation that wouldnt normally see themselves as nation-state targets, and they need to understand that now they are, said one of the officials.

The agencies said hackers had been seen trying to identify and exploit security weaknesses caused by staff working from home as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

In other incidents, the attackers repeatedly tried to compromise accounts with a series of common and frequently-used passwords  a technique known as password spraying.

Its no surprise that bad actors are doing bad things right now, in particular targeting organisations supporting COVID-19 response efforts, a CISA spokesman said.

Were seeing them use a variety of tried and true techniques to gain access to accounts and compromise credentials.
The US may not be able to lower the transmission of coronavirus much more than the current rate, former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has said, warning this may be the new normal.

During an interview with Savannah Guthrie on NBCs Today show, Mr Gottlieb said that the US will struggle in the coming months to keep transmission rates for the virus much lower than the current level of 30,000 new cases a day.

I think that we need to understand this may be the new normal, he said. We may not be able to get transmission down much more. I hope we can, the former FDA commissioner added.

Mr Gottlieb told Ms Guthrie that instead of a fall in transmission rates, he expects the numbers to rise, as the summer continues and social distancing measures are eased in states across the US.

The most likely scenario is that cases go up, not down, Mr Gottlieb said. And so we need to think about what it looks like in the country if we have transmission of this virus and we try to get back to some sense of normalcy.

Although positive cases are falling in New York, he added that theres about 20 states where cases are going up on a daily basis, and so are hospitalisations.

Mr Gottlieb spoke to Ms Guthrie the same week that two separate forecasters predicted that deaths related to coronavirus will increase in the US in the coming months.

An internal Trump administration model, has predicted that deaths from coronavirus in the US will increase to 3,000 a day from 1 June, according to a report obtained by the New York Times.

Separately, a model created by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, is now predicting that 134,000 people will die from coronavirus in the US, a figure that is close to double its previous prediction.

Ali Mokdad, a professor of Health Metrics Sciences at IHME, told CNN that the increase in predicted deaths is due to social distancing measures being relaxed in states including Texas and Georgia.

He said that one of the reasons for the increase in predicted deaths is increased mobility before the relaxation, premature relaxation, of social distancing, and said that were seeing an increase in mobility thats leading to an increase in mortality, unfortunately, in the United States.

Despite the concerning figures presented by the two models, Mr Gottlieb told the Today show that its unclear whether the models are accurate, but insisted that the US should prepare in case the predictions become reality.

Modelling is imprecise and thats why we shouldnt put stock in any one model, he said. Its not like forecasting the weather where you make a prediction and then you see what happens. You make these predictions and then you take actions based on those predictions.

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, there are now upwards of one million people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 70,115.
Kim Bryson knew her daughter Billie Brysons 6-year-old birthday Saturday would be a birthday Billie would never forget.

With the coronavirus and isolation precautions still in place, Billie wasnt able to have her usual pizza birthday party.

Instead, the Council Bluffs Fire Department agreed to help her celebrate. Department members drove by in a firetruck with lights flashing and the horn honking as part of a car parade.

Until the fire department did this it would be a birthday shed always remember because it wouldnt have been really good, now its going to be an awesome birthday because theyre doing this awesome thing, said Kim Bryson.

Other members of the parade included Kim Brysons sister Stephanie Kring and mother Genny Kring from Colorado Springs, Colorado  who made the nine hour trip.

My mom and aunt decided to really surprise her. The only thing my daughter ever wants for is for people to come visit her for holidays, Kim Bryson said. Whenever they ask what she wants for Christmas she says just come over.

Kim Bryson estimated around 10 people were in the parade celebrating Billies birthday.

Other ways they celebrated was with Hawaiian birthday decorations from a couple years prior, balloons, cake, ice cream and Popeyes spicy chicken. The fire truck and car parade was the biggest surprise since Billie had known about everything else beforehand.

Its a little something to cheer them up when theyre not able to celebrate their birthday, said Dan Roberts, fire prevention officer for the Council Bluffs Fire Department

The department has field multiple requests to help celebrate birthdays during the pandemic. They look at each request always keeping safety in mind, Roberts said.

Kim Bryson said shed initially reached out to the fire department mid-April. She was pleasantly surprised when they said they were able to help celebrate Billies birthday, and it helped her feel like even more a part of the community.

I always thought it was a wonderful community, and I felt like really part of a community. After this I feel like our community really does care for us, Bryson said. Thank you for always taking such good care of Council Bluffs and making us feel like family.

With two daughters, Bryson also wanted to thank the Council Bluffs Fire Department for helping both of them. Her oldest daughter Katie Kring had been in the paramedic program at Iowa Western Community College and did most of her clinical training at Station 6, Bryson said.

By helping with this birthday request, Bryson said the Council Bluffs Fire Department now positively impacted both of her daughters lives.

What a bunch of heroes. Its not just the scary stuff, theyre heroic in nature, she said.
Paid 6k: Glenis Madden had previously asked the DWP to check her state pension - but was told it was CORRECT just a few months ago

An untold number of elderly women could have lost out on thousands of pounds in state pension due to a devastating blunder by the Government.

In the past few weeks, This is Money has discovered a further six women were underpaid state pension totalling around 22,000 over many years.

That is on top of two women who got backpayments totalling 14,000 last month as a result of our investigation.

We are also aware of many other retired women pursuing enquiries with the Government independently.

The Department for Work and Pensions has refused to confirm whether a full, systematic review is under way to find all women who are being underpaid, but remain in the dark that they could be owed significant sums.

It is still unclear how errors were made in so many cases, and how they remained undetected for so long.

>>>Are you being underpaid state pension? Find out how to check here.

The Government has previously told us it is exploring how it could identify if there are other, similar cases.

In a statement to This is Money, the DWP says: 'If any further cases are identified, their state pension award will be reviewed and any arrears paid.'

But our new cases reveal a scandalous level of incompetence by the DWP when people approach it for help on their own.

Why are some married women being underpaid state pension? Married women who retired on small state pensions before April 2016 should get an uplift to 60 per cent of their husband's payments once he reaches retirement age too. Since 2008, the increases are supposed to be automatic, but before that women had to apply to get the full sum they were due. Find out how to check if you are underpaid and what to do about it here.

Glenis Madden, a retired accountancy administrator aged 72, suspected her state pension was too low.

But after asking for it to be checked at the end of last year, she was assured in writing it was correct in February.

She received a 6,000 backpayment after we pressed the DWP to look at her case again.

Marilyn Fuller, a housewife aged 71, got a 8,200 backpayment when she raised a query with the DWP after former Pensions Minister Steve Webb first brought this issue to light in a column for This is Money.

But she received no interest on the sum - unlike the two readers featured in our subsequent story last month.

After we intervened, the DWP agreed to pay her an additional 127.

Webb is now calling for a full investigation to ensure all elderly women are paid correctly, and receive backpayments where necessary, so this is not a problem 'solved one person at a time'.

He says the DWP cannot pretend each person affected is just an isolated case.

'It is clear that there is a systematic problem here which needs to be addressed systematically.'

And his successor as Pensions Minister, Ros Altmann, says that while the DWP must focus its resources on the coronavirus crisis right now, once it is behind us there should be 'a proper review' to find other women who have been underpaid.

What did our investigation uncover, and why are some women only getting ONE YEAR backpayments?

We reveal today six more cases of women who were underpaid state pension and have now received backpayments ranging from 8,200 to 500.

Tipped off by Steve Webb's column or our last story, some initially went straight to the DWP while others came to This is Money for help.

Do you have to pay tax on state pension backpayments? Some women could face tax bills on their lump sum backpayments that they might not have got if their state pension was paid correctly in the past. Though some will be non-taxpayers, because their income is under 12,500 a year, others may find their payout pushes them into the basic rate tax bracket. If so, HMRC is likely to collect tax in small chunks through their tax code in the following year.

They have received money direct into their accounts, but no explanation - and no compensation, even though some might now face a tax bill on their backpayments. See the box on the right.

And in a cruel twist, some women are getting fully repaid while others only get a one-year backpayment - all depending on when their husband was born.

This is because increases to married women's state pension only started being applied automatically for those whose spouses reached state pension age from 17 March 2008.

Before that date, the Government was meant to write to the couples affected and ask them to apply for an increase.

But all the women who have missed out are adamant neither they not their husbands received such a letter, and insist they would have acted on it if they had done so.

One couple kept all old correspondence relating to their state pensions, and trawled back through their files but can find no trace of a letter, nor a mention of applying for an uplift in any other documents.

The DWP has refused to respond to claims they failed to communicate with couples in this position, leaving them facing the permanent loss of pension stretching back decades.

'Many of these women may be locked down at the moment, but once things open up again, they will want to spend the money they should have had over the past years Ex-Pensions Minister Ros Altmann

It has also not said whether it will check back through its records now, to find all other women who are unwittingly being underpaid, so they can get at least one year backpayment and receive the correct amount going forward.

Several women who have potentially lost many thousands of pounds in backpayments have appealed against this to the DWP, but so far unsuccessfully.

They plan to take their cases to the Parliamentary Ombudsman in the hope of getting full redress.

Pension expert Kay Ingram, of LEBC, says the DWP should fully backdate payments if it can't prove it wrote to those eligible for increased payments.

'DWP should address the moral as well as the legal argument for revisiting their records and providing full compensation.

'Many of these women will now be frail and some may have died, they deserve justice.'

Find out what Ingram and other commentators say about the DWP's failures below.

DWP refuses to explain blunder or what steps it is taking to fix it 'We're exploring how we can identify if there are other, similar cases.' the DWP has told us. 'If any further cases are identified, their state pension award will be reviewed and any arrears paid.' We received no response to the following questions. 1. Will the DWP fully review whether married women are being underpaid state pension - both before and after the 17 March 2008 cut-off? 2. Is interest being paid to all women who get backpayments now? 3. Will you pay compensation to those affected? 4. What is your response to readers who say they never received letters about applying for an increase? 5. If women who were underpaid state pension have died, will what they are owed be paid to their estates?

I told the DWP something was wrong, but it insisted my state pension was correct - though I was owed 6k

Glenis Madden, who lives in Spain, phoned the DWP to query the size of her 66.24 a week state pension last November and followed up with a letter.

After not receiving a reply she phoned again, and in early February received an email saying: 'I have checked your records and can confirm you are receiving the correct amount of state pension due to you.'

It adds: 'Your pension rate is based on the rules that applied in 2008 when you reached state pension age.'

DWP cannot now claim that it doesn't know this is going on and - crucially - cannot pretend that each person affected is just an isolated case Ex-Pensions Minister Steve Webb

But after This is Money raised her case with the DWP, she received arrears of 5,922.80 and interest of 52.53 for a period covering 2017 to 2020.

Mrs Madden worked in the finance departments of a string of employers during her career, and her 67-year-old husband Michael was a banker.

Her case highlights the struggle people face to get DWP to investigate state pension errors - and then to do so properly - even when they strongly suspect something is wrong.

Mrs Madden feels the DWP should have investigated her initial complaint thoroughly and corrected her state pension then, without her having to come to This is Money for help.

'They said there was no error. I rang two or three times to even get that information,' she says.

While she is happy to have finally received the amount owed, Mrs Madden says she wants an explanation from a Government department that should take more care when dealing with people's finances.

'I feel that after being fobbed off for so long, telling me that my pension payments were correct, they should send me a copy of the calculated amount now paid, together with a reason for the error, and an apology for their incompetence.

'Without this information, how will I know that my future pension payments are correct?'

Facing demands for full probe: The DWP has refused to confirm whether a full, systematic review is under way to find all women who are being underpaid

We asked DWP to explain 8k underpayment, and were told 'human error'

Marilyn Fuller, who lives in Middlesex with husband Edward, 70, got a 8,196 payout after approaching the DWP in response to Steve Webb's column earlier this year.

But it omitted to pay her interest, until after she discovered two other This is Money readers had received this on top of their backpayments, and made a further complaint.

Mrs Fuller, who was previously getting 48.33 a week, has now received a letter of apology that she was underpaid for so long and confirmation she will receive interest of 127.35 due to the 'exceptional circumstances' of her case.

She initially only received a backpayment statement covering six years from 2014 to 2020, which said an increase had been awarded on her state pension but offered no further explanation.

Mr Fuller, a retired taxi driver and policeman, says when he rang the DWP to ask why his wife was underpaid he was told 'human error'.

He adds that he finds it 'unbelievable' that the DWP hasn't acted before now to sort this out when there might be many more cases like his wife's out there.

The DWP has so far paid interest in addition to backpayments in all cases This is Money has raised directly with its press office.

But its spokespeople have refused to tell us if it is routinely paying interest to women who contact it independently.

It's fantastic I've now got 3k - but I can't spend it until after the coronavirus crisis

Barbara Greenacre: Got more than 3k after being underpaid state pension for seven years

Barbara Greenacre, 72, a former secretary, was getting a state pension of 69.81 a week, but it turned out she had been underpaid for seven years.

She has now received arrears of 3,163.27 and 57.11 in interest.

Mrs Greenacre, who lives with her husband Stephen in Suffolk, says of the news of her backpayment: 'It's absolutely fantastic. But I can't spend it.'

She says she will wait until after the Covid-19 crisis to do so.

Mr Greenacre, a retired manager aged 71, wrote to This is Money in response to our previous story about two women being underpaid large sums of state pension.

'It has come as quite a shock to find out that my wife may have lost several thousands of pounds since my retirement on an uplift that we knew nothing about,' he told us.

Mr Greenacre adds that he regards the blunder by the DWP as 'horrendous', and he believes many others might be in the same situation as his wife.

We assumed DWP would get its sums right - but it was out by 3k

Retired care assistant Christina Shapcott, 71, who was on a state pension of 52.36 a week, has received a lump sum of 3,042.35 and 23.51 in interest.

Public trust in the fairness of the system can only be restored if women who have missed out are proactively contacted and offered full compensation Kay Ingram, LEBC

She was underpaid from 2018, when her husband Raymond reached state pension age, until the couple from Dorset were alerted that her payments could be wrong by reading about This is Money's investigation.

Mr Shapcott, 67, who is a semi-retired self-employed builder, says they had previously assumed the DWP would get its sums right.

'It's like when the bank puts your interest through. You just presume they have calculated it right.'

We will fight on after only getting a one-year backpayment of 1,300

Ros Altmann: DWP is focused on Covid-19 right now, but once it is behind us it should carry out 'a proper review' to ensure married women are paid correct state pension

Kathleen Brennan, 72, has received a one-year backpayment of just 1,311 because her husband Michael, 77, reached state pension age before March 2008.

This was when the DWP started automatically increasing married women's state pensions to 60 per cent of their husband's where they were below this level.

When their spouses started getting a state pension too, the DWP was supposed to send letters informing women about this little-known option allowing them to get higher payments, asking them to apply for it.

But Mrs Brennan, a former school catering assistant, and her retired groundworker husband are certain they didn't receive a letter.

The Birmingham couple now plan to take their case to the Parliamentary Ombudsman to argue she should be fully repaid like the other women we write about above.

Her son, Shaun Brennan, says: 'If my mum had got a letter she would have acted. I always thought she was underpaid.'

Mr Brennan estimates his mother could be owed more than 10,000 in backpayments, and says: 'That's a big sum of money to my parents who don't have private pensions and rely on state pension.'

We did not get a letter from the DWP, and will take our case to the Ombudsman

Mary Jones (not her real name) has received a one-year backpayment of around 500 and will also fight on to get more.

Mrs Jones, 80, a former administrator, and her retired manager husband, aged 78, insist they did not receive a letter about applying for an increase when he reached state pension age.

The couple, who live in north west England, have contacted their MP to ask for support, and now plan to take their case to the Parliamentary Ombudsman.

Mrs Jones's daughter tells us: 'They have gone through his paperwork from when he retired.

'I have spoken to the DWP and they said there will have been information in there referring to my mum's pension, giving her a 60 per cent uplift! This information is NOT in the pack he received when he retired.'

These aren't isolated cases and DWP must do full investigation: Pension experts give their take on failures

Ex-Pensions Minister Sir Steve Webb, now a partner at pension consultant Lane Clark & Peacock, has worked closely with This is Money in identifying cases where women are being underpaid state pension.

Steve Webb: DWP should be checking its computers for women who have missed out

And he has promised to support those who only received one-year backpayments in their fight for full payouts.

He says: 'More and more women are finding out that their state pension has been underpaid for years and are getting refunds often running into thousands of pounds.

'But it should not be down to campaigning journalists or individual members of the public to have to sort this out.

'DWP cannot now claim that it doesn't know this is going on and - crucially - cannot pretend that each person affected is just an isolated case.

'It is clear that there is a systematic problem here which needs to be addressed systematically.

'DWP should be checking its computers for women who have missed out on an automatic uplift when their husband turned 65 and should also be contacting the women who needed to make a claim to get an uplift.

'This is not a problem that should be solved one person at a time.'

Baroness Altmann, who succeeded Webb as Pensions Minister, says: 'Of course I recognise that right now the DWP must focus its resources on the current coronavirus crisis and ensuring people receive the benefits they are entitled to straight away.

'But once this is behind us I do hope the department will consider launching a proper review of this situation, to identify others who have been underpaid.

'Many of these women may be locked down at the moment, but once things open up again, they will want to spend the money they should have had over the past years.

'It should not be up to a national newspaper to identify those women affected, but well done to This is Money for highlighting the problem and helping some of those who were underpaid.'

Altmann adds that women's pensions are already lower than men's, so every additional pound is important, and if they did not receive automatic uplifts this must be put right urgently.

Kay Ingram: For many of these women with lower pensions this money will make a vital difference to their standard of living in old age

Kay Ingram, director of public policy at LEBC Group, has written a practical guide for women to help them end up with decent retirement savings.

She says it is worrying that the DWP, after introducing an automatic system for updating women's state pensions in 2008, failed to conduct a full audit of their records in the intervening 12 years to ensure they are paid what they are owed.

'It is only by chance and the efforts of the This is Money team that some of these women have been made aware of the pension lost.

'It is not reasonable to expect those affected to self-identify and rely on them hearing about this story by chance.

'DWP must understand that the complexity of the state pension is not well understood by those it is intended to support and public trust in the fairness of the system can only be restored if women who have missed out are proactively contacted and offered full compensation.'

Ingram adds that is is plausible that mistakes were also made before 2008, when women still had to apply for uplifts to their payments when their husbands reached state pension age.

'For many of these women with lower pensions this money, to which they are entitled via their husband's National Insurance record, will make a vital difference to their standard of living in old age.

'If DWP cannot prove that they wrote to those eligible, full backdating of payments is the only answer.

Stephen Lowe: Attempts to simplify state pension rules have actually added more layers, adding to the complexity

'DWP should address the moral as well as the legal argument for revisiting their records and providing full compensation. Many of these women will now be frail and some may have died, they deserve justice.'

Stephen Lowe, group communications director at Just Group, which carries out annual research on how many people are missing out on state benefits, urges people to check what they are owed and take up the free guidance available from Pension Wise.

'State pension rules have been built up over many years with different rules now applying depending on when you reached state pension age.

'Attempts to simplify the rules have actually added more layers, adding to the complexity.

'Nevertheless it is important that people persist, by requesting state pension forecasts while working and being willing to think about the full range of state benefits they might be entitled to.'
Coronavirus pandemic has brought the entire world at a standstill. With the rise in the number of cases each passing day, the anxiety and fear among the people are increasing. Though the government is leaving no stone unturned to control the spread of the virus, the war against COVID-19 is getting difficult every day. Though many are finding it difficult to stay at home, many are risking their own lives outside to save others. From doctors, medical staff, policemen, Indian army to civil workers, everyone is contributing to this battle.

In order to thank all the frontline workers and to pay tribute, the entire film industry came together by dedicating songs, music videos, and poems. From Salman Khans Pyaar Korona, Akshay Kumars Teri Mitti, Ajay Devgns Thahar Ja, the actors, and the producers found the musical route the best to thank the coronawarriors.

Recently, Rashami Desai also collaborated for a special coronavirus song titled as Salmaan Hai sung by Ankit Tiwari. The song is dedicated to all the frontline warriors who are fighting the battle to save the other citizens of the country. The song is composed by Sayam and Mohit also features other actors like Aanchal Khurana, Gaurav Bajaj, Farnaaz Shetty, Vaishali Takker, Ankita Khare, Balraj Syal, Shafaq Naaz and many more.

Also Read: Pataal Lok trailer: Backed by Anushka Sharma, Amazon Primes latest offering starring Jaideep Ahlawat, Neeraj Kabi starrer will keep you hooked

Further, Rashami Desai revealed that she is very happy to be a part of the project as this comes as a big opportunity to thank people for fighting on their behalf outside. Rashami Desai said that it is a crucial time for the entire nation and everyone should pay special attention to their health by taking all precautions and following rules. Further, Ankit Tiwari also opened up about the song and said that the biggest challenge for the song was the set-up as he didnt had one at his residence. He further recorded the song at his neighbours place.

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SCHENECTADY  Even with threatened layoffs of about 40 cops and 33 firefighters, Mayor Gary McCarthy warned the city would also need to make deep cuts to other departments unless federal aid is restored.

McCarthy told City Council members Monday night during their committee meeting that if that money doesnt materialize and the job cuts dont happen, the municipality could go bankrupt by the end of the year. The mayor is trying to plug a projected $11.5 million budget hole that is a result of reduced revenue coming in because of the coronavirus pandemic.

His ominous warning came in response to concerns raised by councilwomen Leesa Perazzo and Marion Porterfield about the staff reductions to public safety.

We have to do everything that we can possibly do to make sure were not reducing our police and fire, said Perazzo.

McCarthy reiterated that employees from other departments in City Hall, not just the police and fire, could face furloughs.

Perazzo also lamented that the mayor didnt alert city leaders before going public last week with the possible cuts to public safety.

She also pushed for a conversation about alternative options  including using fund balance and reviewing overtime costs  but that discussion did not happen.

Porterfield said first-responders is not the first place to go, and suggested that some of the stimulus monies and possible community development block grant money the city might receive in the future could help bridge the budget deficit gap.

McCarthy took aim at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells suggestion last month about allowing states to use the bankruptcy route.

The mayor, a Democrat, said that many upstate cities  including Albany, Troy, Saratoga Springs, Syracuse and Binghamton  are facing the similar fiscal crises as a result of COVID-19.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

There are going to be major reductions in staffing across not only Schenectady but other communities, and we collectively need to get the message out that we need the federal government to step up and be a partner and provide some funding, added McCarthy. "We will have to make cuts or this city goes really to the point of bankruptcy by the end of this year."

In the end, the government body agreed on drafting a resolution urging McConnell and other politicians in Washington to restore funding to Schenectady and other municipalities in financial dire straits because of COVID-19.

Last week, McCarthy announced police and fire departments would have to make $3 million and $2 million cuts, respectively.

The mayor conceded laying off dozens of cops and firefighters would have a devastating impact on the city.
North Wales Rainbow Hospitals to remain in place for a number of months ahead of possible future spikes

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, May 5th, 2020

Temporary hospitals in North Wales could be used to help support the return of more activity in the NHS as one option being actively considered by the Welsh Government.

Last month work began across Wales to create field hospitals to help cope with any increased demand on capacity due to coronavirus  with venues in Llandudno, Bangor and Deeside announced as the three North Wales locations.

The three sites were handed over to Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to provide a combined 1,000 additional beds to help meet any increased demand.

As well as preventing admissions to health boards three acute hospitals, the rainbow hospitals are also expected to help patients who have received treatment at Ysbyty Gwynedd, Glan Clwyd Hospital and Wrexham Maelor Hospital to recover in order to return home.

It was expected that the hospitals would begin providing care for patients at the end of the month.

Speaking last week Dr Chris Stockport, Executive Director of Primary and Community Care, said: Work is progressing well on our three temporary Rainbow Hospitals (Ysbytai Enfys).

These Rainbow Hospitals are being rapidly established to help ensure that we are well prepared for a surge in demand.

Current modelling indicates that these beds will not be needed for some weeks.

This is because of the measures we have already taken to increase bed capacity in our existing hospitals, and the efforts of the North Wales public who are following the stay at home guidance.

We would like to thank people in communities across the region who are protecting the NHS and saving lives by staying at home.

Earlier this week it was announced that the Nightingale Hospital in London would be mothballed for any future spike in coronavirus cases after a thankfully lower use requirement than first thought.

At todays Welsh Government press conference we asked Health Secretary Vaughan Gething about the situation regarding admissions to the three North Wales field hospitals and given the concern over future spikes of coronavirus, would they be kept in reserve for a long term period.

Mr Gething said that two options for the future use of the field hospitals were being actively considered, including using the sites to help support the return of more NHS activity.

He continued: Weve said for a number of weeks that we want people who have urgent care needs to carry on coming in to our health and care system and its a real concern to me that people with urgent care needs havent been coming in, in the sort of numbers that we would expect.

That bothers me because theres avoidable harm taking place because people are not coming and presenting themselves to the National Health Service.

Ive asked the health service to think about this and to come back with some advice and a plan for a framework for restarting wider areas of NHS activity to, and how to make use of the physical capacity weve got in field hospitals.

However Mr Gething warned that the hospitals would not be used to full capacity due to the risk of a second wave of coronavirus and the number of staff that would be required at the sites.

He added: I absolutely will not agree to making full use of field hospitals, because we need to staff those.

Im very grateful people are returned to the National Health Service, to the over 2000 undergraduate students who are working in this unprecedented time.

But we cannot fill up our field hospital capacity, because if we do have a further spike in Coronavirus, which is possible, then we will need that capacity to make sure that our healthcare system isnt overwhelmed.

So yes, were looking at how to make use of the capacity we have.

We certainly wont be making use of all of it, that will be the wrong thing to do because I have to make sure that were prepared for a possible future peak, which means well need to have these field hospitals in place and ready to use for a number of months to come.

You can watch todays briefing, along with the Q&A session below:
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti shows a memorandum with COVID-19 city departments guidelines as he takes questions at a news conference in Los Angeles in March. (Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press)

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and more than a dozen other mayors from across the country have called on Congress to provide more federal funding to fight gun violence, which has continued during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The mayors, along with the gun policy reform organization Giffords, specifically called for assistance in maintaining violence interruption programs as economic turmoil related to the coronavirus continues to create budget shortfalls.

"Our emergency resources are dedicated to protecting public health and safety, but we do not have enough healthcare resources to fight both these battles," Garcetti and the other mayors wrote. "We need our healthcare resources to combat COVID-19, and we need specific resources to tackle gun violence and support the frontline workers and organizations who are already working to do so."

Violence intervention workers have been deemed "essential workers" in Los Angeles and continued working to smother street beefs and keep the peace amid state and local shutdowns. They are viewed as trusted arbiters in neighborhood disputes, particularly in areas where law enforcement enjoy little trust.

However, strain on the city's budget has left them vulnerable. Gang intervention programs were identified for reduced city funding under Garcetti's latest proposed budget, along with things like street repairs, tree trimming and graffiti removal.

Last month, Garcetti said without an influx of federal funding to bolster the city's budget during this downturn, "there may be further cuts and there may be even deeper things that we have to do with our city services and our workforce."

The letter to Congress was dated Friday and addressed to leaders including Sen. Mitch McConnell, (R-Ky.) the Senate majority leader, and U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, (D-San Francisco), the House speaker.

"While combating the virus is a top priority, gun violence and gun deaths continue to claim lives and devastate communities," the mayors wrote. "Despite social distancing and stay-at-home orders, gun violence rates remain persistently high in cities, disproportionately impacting black and brown communities who are also among the most vulnerable to COVID-19."

Story continues

On Monday, Garcetti said the federal funding he is seeking would not be used to simply backfill cuts in his budget, but to expand the number of gang intervention workers in the city overall, including in neighborhoods that are "right on the cusp" of a brighter future.

"We've always been looking toward expanding," he said of the city's gang intervention work. "We know we can stop gun violence. We can save lives."

He said he did not have a specific funding level in mind, but believes the city could benefit from having the program be much larger.

"The best way to stop a bullet is with jobs and programs, not with more policing," he said.

In California, Garcetti was joined in signing the letter by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs. Other mayors signed from all across the country, including in some of the nation's most violent cities, such as Baltimore.

Los Angeles saw a decline in crime in the first weeks of social distancing measures and shutdowns related to the coronavirus spread, but that lull has ebbed. Overall shootings through April 25 remained down nearly 14%, though they had picked back up from larger initial declines compared to the same period the year prior. Homicides had returned to near even, with 81 people killed in Los Angeles this year compared to 80 during the same period the year prior.

Other cities have seen much larger increases in gun violence and killings, the coalition of mayors noted.

"As the COVID-19 pandemic depletes our budgetary resources, many cities may be unable to sustain these lifesaving community-based interventions," the mayors wrote. "To help keep violence interrupters on the job, keep the peace, and protect lives in our communities, we write to request that federal emergency funding measures include funding dedicated specifically toward sustaining community-based violence intervention initiatives in communities most impacted by shootings and community violence, as well as direct emergency aid to cities battling these twin challenges."




The latest skirmish between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates-Saudi Arabia bloc is over the media. In mid-April, Saudi Arabia announced it was blocking access to Turkish state-funded news agencies and several websites. Within a week, several Saudi and Emirati news outlets became inaccessible in Turkey.

The head of the Turkish-Arabic Media Association, Turan Kislakci, told Al-Monitor, This was purely a reciprocal move. Indeed, Turkey had no intention to censor Saudi-backed media outlets. Most of these outlets operate with the blessing and support of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government.

The latest tit for tat between Ankara and Riyadh is only the visible phase of Saudi Arabia and the UAE's cold war with Turkey since 2013. Tensions between Ankara and Riyadh have been intense, especially since Riyadh chose to ally closely with Abu Dhabis anti-Muslim Brotherhood policies in the region. Erdogans support for the Muslim Brotherhood is the root of the tensions. Ankara views the Emirati-Saudi bloc as the main culprit behind the coup to topple democratically elected Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in 2013. Erdogan is also convinced that Emiratis supported the botched coup to topple him in July 2016.

Both sides accuse each other of harboring dissidents. Istanbul became a refugee for exiled members of the Muslim Brotherhood, while Abu Dhabi hosts exiled Palestinian leader Mohammed Dahlan. Dahlan is on Ankaras most wanted list with a $1.7 million bounty for his alleged role in the 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan. While the Saudi- and UAE-led blockade of Qatar in 2017 forced Turkey to openly side with Doha, this was not Erdogans first preference.

Most pro-AKP figures Al-Monitor interviewed downplayed harsh criticism coming from Saudi and UAE sources by portraying them as paid trolls. Yet that is not the complete story. For example, Saudi Islamic scholar Aid al-Qarni, who has almost 20 million followers on Twitter, posted a video in late February berating Erdogan. The cleric repeatedly called Erdogan a bluffer and not a true Muslim. Qarni's allegations against Erdogan were ignored by much of the Turkish media. And in the handful of outlets that did carry the cleric's video, it was portrayed as a reaction to Turkeys decision to charge 20 Saudis in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was slain at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

When asked about Saudi-Turkish relations, sources among Ankaras top bureaucrats from the Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry found ways to place the blame on the UAE rather than Saudi Arabia. They pointed to the growing differences between the two Gulf nations' interests and Emirati aggression against Turkey. Turkey may soon tackle the Emirates directly and more aggressively. The collective tone among Ankara officials was basically, Our patience with Emirati royals is running low. This is an indication that Ankara still hopes to mend bridges with Riyadh. But a quick scan of Saudi-owned media outlets in the last week shows several harsh pieces about Erdogan and his family. So the enmity is beyond just a few trolls and is not limited to Emiratis.

On April 30, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hamdi Aksoy released a statement asking the UAE to stop its "destructive policies" by fueling civil wars in Libya, Yemen and Somalia. A senior Turkish official told Al-Monitor, "It is an open secret that Emiratis were in Khartoum [Sudan's capital] to recruit fighters for [Turkish-opposed Libyan National Army leader Khalifa] Hifter." As Ankara called on Emirati officials to end their hostile attitude, the prompt reaction from the UAE indicates this is not likely to happen soon.

There also are recent instances where Ankara has targeted Riyadh directly. For example, in late March Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu blamed Saudi Arabia for keeping foreign countries whose citizens make pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in the dark about COVID-19 cases in the kingdom.

In turn, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, along with Egypt, have long been asking their citizens to boycott Turkish goods and discouraging tourism to Turkey. The two sides also have clashing views on the changing status of Jerusalem. In late January, Erdogan blasted the silence of Arab countries on the controversial US Middle East peace plan. Although the Arab League did denounce Washington's decision to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018.

Overall, Erdogan has been quite calm about Riyadh and Abu Dhabis aggressive anti-Turkish policies. There is little to no anti-Saudi rhetoric in Turkey at a time when Erdogan needs an enemy desperately. Birol Baskan, a nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute, told Al-Monitor that one reason Erdogan prefers not to directly challenge these countries is simply because they are not seen as main rivals such as the United States or EU nations. Erdogan has always been cautious about provoking leaders of other Muslim countries, particularly those who are on good terms with US President Donald Trump.

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a fellow for the Middle East at Rice University's Baker Institute, told Al-Monitor, "Turkey and the UAE have ramped up their support for opposing actors and have sought to rally US political opinion to their side," through their lobbying efforts in Washington.

Senior bureaucrats in Ankara told Al-Monitor indicated that in the main, there are two divergent views in Ankara. One sees the UAE and Saudi Arabia as a unified front. The other hopes bridges between Ankara and Riyadh can be mended if the Emirates can be isolated.

In the current state of affairs, Erdogan simply follows a tit-for-tat cold war policy. Financially it has been costly for Turkey because of declining tourism income, exports and investments from Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. However, the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with dwindling oil revenues will hurt the economies of both Gulf countries. Ankara is watching to see whether the oil price collapse leads to declining influence for Abu Dhabi and Riyadh in the United States as well as the Middle East. Tables will soon turn is a frequently heard statement in Ankara about the Gulf.
[May 04, 2020] BLOCKCHAINARMY FOUNDER PRESIDENT INVITES GOVERNMENTS FOR A COOPERATION ON PANDEMIC

New York, NY, May 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (via Blockchain Wire) BlockchainArmy Founder President Erol User point out that Coronavirus pandemic which has taken the whole world by surprise. The pandemic has bought the whole world at a stand still, As of 1st May 2020, the no of people affected are 3 214 256 world wide and total death 86,748 according to worldometer. The pandemic has crashed economies and broken health-care systems, filled hospitals and emptied public spaces. It has separated people from their workplaces and their friends. It has disrupted modern society on a scale that most living people have never witnessed. As per initial estimations the number of cases must have been quite high, Due to strict measures taken by certain government world wide the number has decreased. Wherever we have seen the government entities not taking the right measures and ignoring the spread the growth has been extreme an example being USA, leading in no of cases today, though they were affected at last. The effective measures taken have been in two dimensions, Isolating patients and people who might have come in contact with patients, and might be spreading the virus. The second measure is in direction of educating the community about the spread of the virus, taking precautionary measures building digital platforms Many new initiatives are being taken by governments around the world, some of these initiatives, are identifying the first patient, isolating them and also finding out where these patients have travelled across and might have spread the virus to other and asking people o self-quarantines, many governments have launched application focused on information sharing. Avoiding the spread of fake information. Some government have done an excellent job in controlling the spread, but the efforts being made are focusing on immediate need, these initiative are not focused on long term plan, there is lack of platform, lack of medical supplies and the ever increasing demand of cases filling hospitals. Lot of experts dealing in contagious virus have studied, that early spread and detection of virus greatly reduces the spread as per doctors who first identified Ebola and stopped it spread across the globe. Lot of studies have suggested that, only when a specific virus spreads quickly and including how and when transmission can occur, In the absence of any treatment or vaccine our main hope of controlling the epidemic is the rapid identification of cases and the immediate prevention of onward transmission through patient isolation and infection control. The efficacy of those interventions would be compromised if significant levels of transmission occurred before symptoms appeared and the patient reported to a health care facility There are various challenges and how the panademic could have been better managed and the spread could have been avoided. But this is not the time to point fingers, but the question being what is that can be done. On the Global Health Security Index, a report card that grades every country on its pandemic preparedness, the United States has a score of 83.5the worlds highest. Rich, strong, developed, Americ is supposed to be the readiest of nations. That illusion has been shattered. Despite months of advance warning as the virus spread in other countries, when America was finally tested by COVID-19, it failed. No matter what, a virus [like SARS-CoV-2] was going to test the resilience of even the most well-equipped health systems, says Nahid Bhadelia, an infectious-diseases physician at the Boston University School of Medicine. More transmissible and fatal than seasonal influenza, the new coronavirus is also stealthier, spreading from one host to another for several days before triggering obvious symptoms. To contain such a pathogen, nations must develop a test and use it to identify infected people, isolate them, and trace those theyve had contact with. That is what South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong did to tremendous effect. It is what the United States did not.



If the country could have accurately tracked the spread of the virus, hospitals could have executed their pandemic plans, girding themselves by allocating treatment rooms, ordering extra supplies, tagging in personnel, or assigning specific facilities to deal with COVID-19 cases. None of that happened. Instead, a health-care system that already runs close to full capacity, and that was already challenged by a severe flu season, was suddenly faced with a virus that had been left to spread, untracked, through communities around the country. Overstretched hospitals became overwhelmed. Basic protective equipment, such as masks, gowns, and gloves, began to run out. Beds will soon follow, as will the ventilators that provide oxygen to patients whose lungs are besieged by the virus.A recent analysis from the University of Pennsylvania estimated that even if social-distancing measures can reduce infection rates by 95 percent. Using technology in face of pandemic

Blockchainarmy a Blockchain consulting company is working with government entitles by launching BCA ID, A blockchain based digital id which helps you track spread of coronavirus and offers information required, by user, in order to mitigate spread and provide information to user in real time. The Mobile application has been designed by keeping in mind all the challenges faced today in management of pandemic situation. BCA ID is a unique initiative a single platform to store user information. User download the mobile application, Once downloaded they have to signup with their national id and verify their details. The user is guided to a step by step journey. A list of questionnaires are presented to check if user might have come across any coronavirus affected patients. User are also asked to fill details regarding their health condition, upload health records and emergency contact information. The application also provide multiple service such as provide details regarding the prevention guidelines as per WHO, emergency service contact and also schedule test in test center. The user can see the location of the COVID 19 test center

Information about the virus and precautionary measure are updated as new information is available. The patients can book an appointment to test for corona virus. COVID 19 test: Locate test center and also raise schedule tests. All government updates and notification can be viewed by user and stay away from fake information. Test reports and previous test results will be stored in the mobile application. They can see the virus spread information and real time updates on the app. The application will make use of GPS to track the user movements and if they come in contact with someone who is diagnosed, with coronavirus. The Blockchainarmy team is also making use of Artificial intelligence and using prediction models in order to identify patient and predict the forecast of the growth of patient, this information also helps government agencies to be prepared for the challenges,. The platfrom can also be integrated with telematics, hospital EMR system, test centers and government agencies. Also creating a priority list of patients based on criticality and health condition of patient. Data privacy and connecting multiple agencies through a secured platform is most critical part of the solution. Making use of Blockchain for user privacy and to store the data allows multiple entities to collaborate over period of time as more and more hospitals and government joins the network. They can seamlessly work together. The objective is to be a single platfrom across EU, a single digital id which will not only help In dealing the current pandemic, but also full fill need of future challenges. Privacy by design, All the user data is encrypted and stored over a blockchain network, providing greater privacy and security for user data. Also the information stored cannot be manipulated, hence it is single source of truth. User health records are also stored on the mobile app to instantly access them in time of need, User can contact emergency service with a click during an emergency. The application will help government to prevent the spread of coronavirus and take precautionary measures and constantly update the user about the current situation. It will also allow them to avoid spread of fake news. Blockchainarmy is committed to its efforts to help the government use technology to mitigate the risk during pandemic. Even a perfect response wont end the pandemic. As long as the virus persists somewhere, theres a chance that one infected traveler will reignite fresh sparks in countries that have already extinguished their fires. This is already happening in China, Singapore, and other Asian countries that briefly seemed to have the virus under control. Under these conditions, there are three possible endgames: one thats very unlikely, one thats very dangerous, and one thats very long. The first is that every nation manages to simultaneously bring the virus to heel, as with the original SARS in 2003. Given how widespread the coronavirus pandemic is, and how badly many countries are faring, the odds of worldwide synchronous control seem vanishingly small. Contact:

Erol User

[email protected] https://blockchainarmy.com/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
A plan to furlough 100,000 public employees in New Jersey because of the coronavirus pandemic and have them recoup their lost pay through enhanced unemployment insurance will go to a state Senate committee on Thursday and onto the floor the following week, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney said Monday.

Sweeney, D-Gloucester, told The Star-Ledger editorial board that he did not have support for his plan yet from Gov. Phil Murphy or state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, but that would not stop him from a holding a virtual hearing Thursday and bringing the bill up for a vote on May 14.

Im very confident the Senate will pass it, Sweeney said. Its a common-sense approach.

Murphy said Tuesday that he told Sweeney that he was open-minded to the idea of furloughs.

I think weve got to be very careful," Murphy said during his daily coronavirus press briefing in Trenton. And weve said this to him, and he knows this, and we all understand this, we need government in many cases more than weve ever needed it before.

"People are working to the bone. I dont know where a lot of that opportunity is. But if there is an opportunity, were open-minded to it.

Under the plan proposed by Sweeney in response to falling state revenues, 100,000 public employees would be furloughed for several days a week over three months, while retaining their health benefits.

Meanwhile, New Jersey and local governments could save hundreds of millions of dollars as their workers receive unemployment payments instead of their full salaries, Sweeney said.

And they would be able to recoup most of their pay, depending on their salary level, because the federal government approved an extra $600 a week unemployment insurance payment for laid off or furloughed workers through the end of July.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage

Sweeney said he would move ahead with his plan on Monday, the same day Murphy said the state was on the brink of having to make very tough and, quite frankly, very unpalatable decisions without a new infusion of funds from the federal government.

Murphy earlier said the state could face historic public worker layoffs without federal aid, and told President Donald Trump last week that the hit to New Jersey by the coronavirus could be $20 billion to $30 billion.

Sweeney said his proposal was a more palatable alternative to laying off public employees.

The governor is talking about laying off thousands of people but hes not talking about this, which could save some of those jobs, the Senate president said. Why wouldnt we take advantage of a program thats available?

Every day you delay is money lost, Sweeney said.

The state Senate Majority Office estimated that state and local governments would save $750 million over three months by furloughing one-quarter of their 400,000 public employees.

Sweeney also suggested that some state workers could be reassigned to be contact tracers as New Jersey moved to reopen its economy. If a person is infected by the coronavirus, the tracers try to find out who he or she had been in contact with and let them know to self-quarantine in order to stop the spread of the virus.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com.
A woman, along with her adult son and husband, have been charged in the fatal shooting of a Family Dollar security guard, after he refused to let her daughter enter the shop without a face mask amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Calvin Munerlyn, 43, a father of six, was shot dead on Friday around 1.40pm while working at a Family Dollar store located at 877 Fifth Avenue in Flint, Michigan.

Sharmel Teague, her husband Larry Teague, 44, and her son Ramonyea Bishop, 23, have been charged with first-degree premeditated murder and gun charges.

Munerlyn had told Sharmel she had to leave the store because her daughter lacked a mask, leading Teague to argue with the security guard.

A short while later two men later entered the store. Larry Teague yelled at Munerlyn about disrespecting his wife and Bishop shot Munerlyn in the back of the head, according to Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton.

Sharmel Teague has been arrested but Teague and Bishop remain at large.

Three people have been charged with murder for the fatal shooting of Family Dollar security guard Calvin Munerlyn, 43, (above). He was killed on Friday in Flint, Michigan following an argument over a customer failing to wear a face mask in accordance with state lockdown orders

Sharmel Teague (above), her husband Larry Teague, 44, and her son Ramonyea Bishop, 23, have been charged with first-degree premeditated murder and gun charges in Munerlyn's death. Sharmel got into an argument with Munerlyn after he denied her daughter entry into the store because she did not have a face mask on

While Sharmel has been arrested, Larry Teague, 44, (left) and Ramonyea Bishop, 23, (right) are still at large

The shooting took place at the Family Dollar located in downtown Flint, Michigan on Friday

Larry Teague faces additional charges of violating Gov. Gretchen Whitmers executive order mandating all customers and employees wear face coverings inside retail stores.

The premeditated murder charge in Michigan carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole if they are convicted.

No information has been released about the daughter that was not wearing a face mask.

'From all indications, Mr. Munerlyn was simply doing his job in upholding the Governor's Executive Order related to the COVID-19 pandemic for the safety of store employees and customers,' Leyton said in a statement Monday.

'It is important that the governors order be respected and adhered to, and for someone to lose their life over it is beyond comprehension,' he added.

Munerlyn was left laying in the doorway suffering a gunshot wound to the head.

He was taken to Hurley Medical Center, where he later succumbed to his wounds.

He was a doting father and beloved member of the community, known to his loved ones by his childhood nickname, 'Duper.'

Munerlyn was a doting father-of-six and beloved member of the community, known to his loved ones by his childhood nickname, 'Duper'

Munerlyn leaves behind his wife of 10 years, Latryna Sims-Munerlyn (left and right), and their six children

He is survived by his wife of 10 years and their six children.

Munerlyn's eldest son also works at the same Family Dollar store but was not present when his father was killed.

After opening fire on the security guard, the suspects fled toward high-rise apartment buildings located behind the store.

On Sunday, about 150 relatives and friends gathered outside the Family Dollar on Fifth Avenue for an emotional candlelight vigil honoring Munerlyn.

Munerlyns mother, Bernadett, said she wants justice for her son.

'They didnt have to take my baby and it wasnt that serious,' she said.

'All you people just have to do is listen to the law, listen to the governor. Just stay home. If you dont have to come out, then you wouldnt need a mask unless youre out getting groceries or necessities. All my baby was doing was his job working and doing his job.'

'It is incredibly sad that in this crisis that this life was lost. We are mindful of how important it is that people keep a level head, that we do the right things protecting ourselves and protecting others,' Gov. Whitmer told reporters Monday.

On Sunday, about 150 relatives and friends gathered outside the Family Dollar on Fifth Avenue for an emotional candlelight vigil honoring Munerlyn

Pete Tedford, a cousin of Calvin Munerlyn, and Dorothy Nelson, the victim's sister, hold each other closely outside a Family Dollar store on Sunday

Maalik Mitchell, center left, sheds tears as he says goodbye to his father, Calvin Munerlyn, during a candlelight vigil on Sunday

Family and friends lift their candles to the sky and release balloons to honor Munerlyn, who was allegedly killed after barring a customer from entering the store without a mask

Candles are left lit next to a wall of the Family Dollar store on Fifth Avenue, where Munerlyn had worked as a security guard for a little more than one year

His wife, Latryna Sims-Munerlyn, told MLive.com that she first learned of the shooting when her son called her on Friday afternoon, telling her to get to the discount store.

'I just instantly thought my baby was gone,' she said during the vigil.

Munerlyn was hired at the store a little over a year ago after working security in Michigan for decades.

He was described by loved ones as a loving husband and father who enjoyed spending time with his family.

Munerlyn was also known for helping those in need, including at-risk teenagers in the community.

A family member has launched a GoFundMe campaign seeking donations to help with Munerlyn's funeral expenses.
A woman adjusts her child's protective mask as they wait in line to be screened for COVID-19 at Gotham Health East New York, Thursday, April 23, 2020, in Brooklyn. Read more

New York City health authorities warned this week of an unusual and potentially serious inflammatory condition possibly linked to COVID-19 that they have seen in 15 hospitalized children.

The children, ages 2 to 15, experienced persistent fever and elevated inflammatory markers, similar to a syndrome known as Kawasaki disease. More than half had a rash, abdominal pain, vomiting or diarrhea. Fewer than half had respiratory symptoms.

All of the patients described in a bulletin issued Monday were admitted to intensive care and required cardiac or respiratory support, including five who required mechanical ventilation. None have died.

Britain's national health authority issued a similar alert in late April warning of an "apparent rise in the number of children of all ages presenting with a multi-system inflammatory state requiring intensive care across London and also in other regions."

Doctors across the United States emphasized that the numbers, which represent children hospitalized in New York from April 17 to May 1, are very small. They stressed that the vast majority of children infected with the novel coronavirus have mild symptoms or none at all. They also noted that they are early in their research and that its possible that the inflammatory condition may be caused by something other than COVID-19.

"We have long suspected that there may be different triggers for KD based on individual genetics," wrote Jane Burns, director of the Kawasaki Disease Research Center at the University of California at San Diego, in a letter to families of children who have suffered from Kawasaki disease before. "The emergence of this new problem suggests that the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, may be a trigger for some children to develop KD."

"It would be a terrible mistake for parents to worry. The chance for a child up to this point of becoming critically ill is very, very rare," said Jeffrey Burns, chief of critical care at Boston Children's Hospital.

Craig Sable, associate division chief of cardiology at Children's National Hospital in the District, said many of the children with similar illnesses described by European colleagues have recovered, but it's unclear whether they will suffer any longer-term consequences.

"The numbers are too small and follow-ups too short," he said.

Kawasaki disease traditionally affects children younger than 5 and involves inflammation of blood vessels throughout the body. There's no cure, but doctors have been very successful in using tools such as anticoagulants and antibodies to help most children recover.

Demetre Daskalakis, deputy commissioner for disease control for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, urged doctors seeing such cases to report them immediately.
LONDON, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- This week, UK-based telecommunications company, eSIM.net Group Ltd, launched a virtual Pay As You Go SIM card that can be downloaded online and instantly gives its user a second number on their smartphone. A companion to the traditional SIM, the PAYG plan makes use of eSIM-technology and is the first to come with a +44 telephone number for voice calls and data and SMS services that are not locked to any one network provider.

An eSIM is a chip embedded inside many of the latest handsets and can be activated with mobile services, such as the PAYG eSIM plan from eSIM.net. By using an eSIM, users benefit from dual SIM functionality; two phone numbers and identities in one device.

Adopters of dual SIM can enjoy separate personal and business billing from within one handset, as well as additional privacy and safety. Individuals can choose which telephone number they wish to provide, for example, when buying services online, signing up to dating websites, or when networking at events. The service works globally and users can receive and make calls and send or receive SMSs on either number.

By removing the necessity for a person to give out their personal phone number, an eSIM plan is also benefitting those working from home as users can give out their secondary number to customers or suppliers, for example. The user can, optionally, keep their phone number for as long as they like.

"Many people have heard of dual-SIM phones. However, operators in Europe have been reluctant to supply these as it encourages their subscribers to insert SIMs from their competitors," James Ashby, Product Manager for eSIM.net explained. "However, with the advent of eSIM-equipped phones, like the new iPhones, people now have the freedom to have two phone lines in one phone. In fact, you can have as many eSIM lines as you like."

With fixed rates across the UK, EU and USA, at 0.5p per MB and 5p per minute, the eSIM plan is among the cheapest PAYG options available on the market and can be purchased and topped-up by visiting eSIM.net.

About: eSIM.net Group Ltd are a leading online eSIM store and European MNVO. For more information, visit eSIM.net or email info@esim.net.
In the driver's seat. Credit:Illustration: John Shakespeare

Former Fortescue Metals chief executive Nev Power was back in Canberra on Tuesday, outlining the plans for a post-coronavirus economic recovery with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Attorney-General Christian Porter.

Power has been chairing Morrisons COVID-19 commission since late March, providing advice on how to stem the economic fallout from the pandemic with fellow commissioners including ex-Telstra boss David Thodey, IFM Investors chairman Greg Combet and EnergyAustralia chief Catherine Tanna.

But Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrests former lieutenant also has other interests. Hes not only Perth Airport chairman, but an avid pilot (and owner of a private jet). No word yet on how much the COVID-19 commission gig is paying. Whatever it is, his appointment is delivering some unexpected perks in Canberra.

Power has been generously ferrying some of Morrisons West Australian MPs to and from Perth and Canberra in his Embraer Phenom 300. At the end of the last sitting week in April, he flew back not only Porter but also Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Ben Morton.
The Federal Council

Bern, 30.04.2020 - Switzerland and 18 other WTO members officially informed the WTO on 30 April 2020 that they had agreed upon an interim appeals procedure in place of the WTO Appellate Body, which has been inoperative since December 2019. Under the temporary multiparty agreement, an arbitration tribunal will hear appeals based on existing WTO rules. The arrangement will remain in force until the Appellate Body becomes fully operational again. The Federal Council decided on 3 April 2020 that Switzerland should join the agreement.

The purpose of the agreement is to resolve the uncertainties surrounding the current situation of the WTO Appellate Body. Since 2017, the USA has been blocking the appointment of new judges to the Appellate Body, rendering it inoperative since 11 December 2019. The multiparty agreement establishes an interim procedure that allows participating members to appeal panel decisions on trade disputes by means of an existing arbitration procedure under the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU). The agreement will remain in force until the Appellate Body becomes fully functional again.

Besides Switzerland, 18 other WTO members have joined the temporary agreement: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, the European Union, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Iceland, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Singapore, Ukraine and Uruguay. These include many states that frequently make use of the WTO dispute settlement procedure. At present, Switzerland is not involved in any disputes with the current members. The agreement is open to any WTO member wishing to join.

Switzerland supports a rules-based multilateral trading system and therefore has a strong interest in resolving the current problem. The temporary agreement allows the conclusive settlement of trade disputes, thereby increasing the planning ability of economic stakeholders. While the reinstatement of the Appellate Body remains a priority for Switzerland and the other participating members, the temporary and non-binding agreement is a pragmatic and flexible solution to the current situation. In the meantime, Switzerland will continue working towards achieving a lasting solution with all WTO members.

Address for enquiries

Antje Baertschi, Head of Communication and Media Spokesperson, SECO

antje.baertschi@seco.admin.ch, +41 58 463 52 75

Publisher

The Federal Council

https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start.html



Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research

http://www.wbf.admin.ch



Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research

http://www.wbf.admin.ch




CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - New Zealand will on Wednesday release Q1 numbers for unemployment, setting the pace for a modest day in Asia-Pacific economic activity. The jobless rate is expected to come in at 4.3 percent, up from 4.0 percent in the three month prior. Australia will see March numbers for retail sales; in February, sales were up 0.3 percent on month. The Philippines will provide March figures for imports, exports and trade balance; in February, imports were down 11.6 percent on year and exports were up 2.8 percent on year for a trade deficit of $1.656 billion. Hong Kong and Singapore will see April results for their private sector PMIs from IHS Marketing; in March, their scores were 34.9 and 33.3, respectively. Finally, the markets in Japan and Thailand are closed on Wednesday, for Constitution Day and Wisakha Bucha Day, respectively. They will re-open on Thursday. 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.
- Russia has become the seventh most affected country in the world after confirming over 10,000 coronavirus cases in days

- The country's prime minister Mikhail Mishustin was among those who contracted the deadly virus

- President Vladimir Putin suspended celebration for the country's victory during second world war

Russia has become the seventh most affected country in terms of coronavirus after confirming over 10,102 new infections bringing number of cases to 155,370.

On Tuesday, May 5, over 95 people succumbed to COVID-19 bringing the total toll to 1,451.

READ ALSO: Lovely Emmy Kosgei happy she'll be clocking 40 while hubby turns 62 in 2020

President Putin and Dr Dennis Protsenko who later tested positive for coronavirus. Photo: CNN

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: 2 Kenyan pilots, 4 passengers killed after African Express plane is brought down in Somalia

In a report by Moscow Times, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin confirmed he lhad also contracted coronavirus, making him the highest-ranking official in Russia to catch the virus.

However, despite the sharp rise in cases, Russia's official fatality rate remained low in comparison to countries including Italy, Spain and the United States.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin was recently confirmed positive for COVID-19. Photo: CNN

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Defence council approves 7 military officers to join Nairobi Metropolitan Services

Officials credit quick moves to close the country's borders, as well as widespread testing and tracking of infections, but critics cast doubts on the numbers.

President Vladimir Putin had organised for a major celebration of Russia's 75th anniversary to celebrate defeat of Germany during second world war.

World leaders were expected to attend the event and on Monday, May 4, cancelled the event saying only aircrafts will fly over major cities to mark the holiday.

As of May 5, there were 3.58 million confirmed cases of coronavirus with 1.17 million recoveries and over 252,000 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.

Source: TUKO.co.ke
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Photo: The Canadian Press FILE - In this Feb. 22, 2018, file photo Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky speaks during an event in San Francisco. Airbnb is laying off 25% of its workforce as it confronts a steep decline in global travel due to the new coronavirus. In a letter to employees, Tuesday, May 5, 2020, Chesky said the company is letting 1,900 of its 7,500 workers go and cutting businesses that dont directly support home-sharing, like its investments in hotels and movie production.(AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

Airbnb is laying off 25% of its workforce as it confronts a steep decline in global travel due to the new coronavirus.

In a letter to employees, CEO Brian Chesky said the company is letting 1,900 of its 7,500 workers go and cutting businesses that dont directly support home-sharing, like its investments in hotels and movie production.

We are collectively living through the most harrowing crisis of our lifetime, Chesky wrote. He said Airbnb expects its revenue to drop by more than half this year.

Chesky said departing employees will receive at least 14 weeks of their base pay. U.S. employees will continue to receive health care coverage for a year; in other countries, employees will keep their health coverage through the end of this year.

Chesky said travel will eventually return, but will look different. Airbnb expects travellers will want options that are closer to home and more affordable, for example. The company is scaling back its investments in luxury properties as a result.

Airbnb also recently announced a new cleaning protocol that its asking hosts to adhere to in order to make travellers feel more secure.
CARGO congestion at the Tema Port, occasioned by last weeks disconnection of the technology cargo clearance systems of service providers, has reduced drastically.



Work by the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), in collaboration with terminal operators and shipping lines, last Friday and Saturday facilitated the clearance of the backlog of goods by importers and agents.



According to the Commissioner of the Customs Division, Col Kwadwo Damoah (retd), considerable progress was made on the exercise, leading to the release of cargo to importers and agents who went through the clearance chain and paid the necessary import duties.



A decision by the government to get the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) to become functional at the port last Monday, April 28, 2020, led importers stranded, as they could not undertake pre-arrival processes on their imports.



That was after the Ghana Community Network Services (GCNet) and West Blue Consulting, which had previously provided platforms for cargo clearance, was asked by the government to shut down.



Progress



The Daily Graphic gathered yesterday that while revenue payment on imports had picked up marginally, as a result of the parallel operations being run by the service providers, considerable progress had also been made on the ICUMS integration to the various freight stations at the port.



Operators of the new ICUMS system had been able to accept and process documentation on imports and exports at the Customs Divisions James Town Collection Point.



Meeting



The Minister of Trade, Mr Alan Kyerematen; the Commissioner-General of the GRA, Mr Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah; Col Damoah and the technical committee on the ICUMS implementation held closed-door meetings with the shipping lines, the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) and the Meridian Port Services (MPS) yesterday.



A source told the Daily Graphic that the parties agreed that the simulation of import declaration documents through the new system should begin from today.



It further said although declarants could process import declarations on the ICUMS to a certain point and even pay duty, the inability of the operators to interface the system to the various freight stations would be a setback to the release of cargo through the platform.



I can confirm that we can receive vessel manifest on about five shipping lines, including Bollore, among others, so we are trying to get the integration connectivity right, the source added.



For his part, Col Damoah said operators of the ICUMS had been able to register a number of importers and agents onto the system.



From the progress, we have made, I am certain that by tomorrow we can have petroleum revenue receipt fully on the ICUMS, he said.

Source: Daily Graphic









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REGINA, Saskatchewan, May 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Information Services Corporation ("ISC" or the "Company"), the operator and manager of the Saskatchewan Land Registry (the Land Registry) on behalf of the Government of Saskatchewan, is advising of the recent occurrence of unusually high search volumes of publicly available free data in the Land Registry.



ISC reminds its customers to always be cautious of any unusual or suspicious correspondence, emails or phone calls related to ISC, the Land Registry and its records, or requesting personal or financial information.

Customers are encouraged to contact ISC with questions about any correspondence and to ensure their account information is accurate and up to date. Please contact the ISC Customer Support Team by email at ask@isc.ca .

There is no evidence to date of any compromise of Land Registry or ISC technology systems or security. In addition, there is no evidence to date that these searches accessed any non-public data or information or that the information collected is being used for improper purposes.

ISC is working with the Government of Saskatchewan to further investigate this activity and to ensure that no breach of privacy or security occurred.

The information obtained through these searches is all publicly available through a valid and common Land Registry search function accessible by any member of the public, including name, address and ownership information for land and interest holders. It is a long-standing policy and practice of the Land Registry to provide certain initial public registry information searches free of charge.

The search activity was performed using false information to conduct multiple searches as the means of collecting a large volume of free data. The use of false information to create a customer account is a violation of ISC terms and conditions of use and applicable Land Registry law.

In response to this matter, ISC has implemented enhanced monitoring activity. The Land Registry has robust controls and procedures in place to prevent fraud and protect data in the registry.

The Land Registry contains public information on land ownership and transactions affecting titles to land in Saskatchewan owned by private business, the general public and the government. This includes ownership changes and registration of interests against land.

About ISC

Headquartered in Canada, ISC is the leading provider of registry and information management services for public data and records. Throughout our history, we have delivered value to our clients by providing solutions to manage, secure and administer information through our Registry Operations, Services and Technology Solutions segments. ISC is focused on sustaining its core business while pursuing new growth opportunities. The Class A Shares of ISC trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol ISV.

Media Contact

Shea Haverstock

Manager, Corporate Communications

306-520-2307

shea.haverstock@isc.ca
Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) on Monday said it is surrendering its 15 terminals with a turnover of Rs 277.50 crore to railways due to "commercial and business viability considerations". These terminals, spread across various states, have 'net block' worth Rs 64.84 crore, the company said.

"Due to commercial and business viability considerations, the company has decided to re-organise its number of terminals by surrendering/ handing over certain terminals of the company which are built on the land taken on lease from the railways," CONCOR said in a BSE filing. According to the company's assessment, the surrender or handover of the terminals to the railways will not impact the business of the company materially, it said.

The company said its Madho Singh (Rajasthan), Rourkela (Odisha), Tatanagar (Jharkhand), and Maharashtra's Chinchwad, Miraj and Bhusawal terminals were found "not viable for business". About the Rewari (Haryana) terminal, it said that road-based terminal will continue and traffic will be cleared from Khatuwas railhead; while about the Ballabhgarh (Haryana) terminal, it said that business has been shifted to Delhi.

Giving the reason behind surrender of the Babarpur (Haryana) terminal, it said the existing traffic of Babarpur has been diverted to CONCOR's newly developed MMLP Barhi; and for the Desur (Karnataka) terminal, it said the "railways has demanded land back". About the Visakhapatnam terminal, it said the existing traffic has been shifted to MMLP/Vishakhapatnam.

Other terminals surrendered included Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Sabarmati (Gujarat), Ratlam (Madhya Pradesh) and Nagpur (Maharashtra).

Also read: Coronavirus crisis: Govt declares Rs 50 lakh compensation for port workers in case of loss of life

Also read: MSMEs allege shipping lines, container freight stations defying govt order to waive charges
NORWALK  Norwalk confirmed four new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday and one new death.

There are now 1,702 reported cases of coronavirus in Norwalk. There have been 92 coronavirus-related deaths.

The city is beginning preparations to continue distance learning through the rest of the academic year after Gov. Ned Lamont announced on Tuesday Connecticut wouldnt return to in-person classes this school year. This means Norwalk Public Schools will continue to provide free meals weekdays from 12 p.m. - 2 p.m. at pick-up locations.

On Monday night, the Board of Estimate and Taxation approved a $1.6 million appropriation for Norwalk Public Schools to buy personal digital learning devices for every student in the district in preparation for distance learning into the summer and fall.

Mayor Harry Rilling said its a real possibility schools could be closed for an extended amount of time again in the future.

This is a good investment since we do not know what the future holds and how COVID-19 will continue to impact Norwalk, Rilling said. While much of the future is unknown, we do know that our young people are the next generation of leaders. It is incumbent on us to make sure they have the tools and resources they need. 

The boat launch at Veterans Park will be open for daily launches and marina slip holders on Saturday, May 9, and Sunday, May 10, from 7 a.m. - 7 p.m. Daily launch passes and seasonal permits will be available to purchase via credit card on-site. Please email vetsmarina@norwalkct.org for more information. 

Under a previous executive order signed by Governor Lamont, for rent due in May 2020, landlords must grant a 60-day grace period for payment upon the request of tenants. Under this provision, a tenant must to notify the landlord that they have lost a job, lost hours, or otherwise lost revenue or faced significant increased expenses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The deadline for renters to request an extension in writing is May 10, 2020.

erin.kayata@hearstmediact.com
'This health emergency has brought a lot of people together with the common purpose of getting Feluda to play detective as quickly as possible.'

'As a scientist, if we can make a small difference in people's lives, we are happy'

IMAGE: A medic holds up a sample for COVID-19 rapid testing at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai. Photograph: R Senthil Kumar/PTI Photo

Seven pairs of eyes watched the strip of paper.

60 seconds. 80 seconds. 100. Nothing. 120 seconds. Dr Debojyoti Chakraborty glanced at his mentor and senior Dr Souvik Maiti. 140 seconds.

A line appears on the paper strip.

A pronounced dark grey line.

Positive.

After two months of work, up to 20 hours some days, the team had finally hit the jackpot.

"Frustration is synonymous with a scientist's job. I think that's our state of being 90% of the time. It was a defining moment for us," Dr Chakraborty says. "We celebrated with pizza and cake."

Happenstance gave birth to Feluda.

The team, Dr Chakraborty says, was experimenting on a sickle cell anaemia test kit for the last two years.

In January, news of COVID-19, a novel coronavirus, filtered in and the team directed their focus on it to study how the virus mutated.

Despite being a government body weighed down by bureaucracy, the team did not wait for instructions.

"We didn't have patient samples at the time so we worked on synthetic DNA and RNA. Using a paper strip to get test results for a viral disease is completely new technology -- the chemistry, the biology involved -- has never been used in this manner. We had to file a patent immediately so that the Intellectual Property was protected," Dr Chakraborty says.

In early March, Professor K Vijay Raghavan, principal scientific adviser to the Government of India, stepped in and asked CSIR-IGIB to develop a cost-effective COVID test that gave error-free results quickly.

"When the PSA called us we already had a prototype for Feluda ready. Actually, it was almost 3/4th ready. We have conducted over 100 tests till now and Feluda has detected the virus every single time. But the invention had to be christened," says Dr Chakraborty.

"My wife, who is not a Bengali, suggested we call the test kit Feluda. She knows how obsessed Bengalis are about Satyajit Ray, so who better to name the kit after than his detective!"

He admits to being a huge Ray fan. "Jana Aranya is my favourite Bengali film, a Ray classic, the complexity of the characters makes me watch it several times, just as I have watched Rang De Basanti for the emotions it evokes."

Ray's detective Feluda has a Dr Watson, Jatayu -- and so as a tribute to the Master, the scientists have their own JATAYU, which is a Web server that assists Feluda by designing the experimental parameters.

Feluda is itching to get to work.

"We are excited at the possibilities Feluda offers. Apart from COVID-19 detection, it can be put to use to detect any diseases caused by genetic mutations like Duchene's Muscular Dystrophy, Sickle Cell anemia, Cystic Fibrosis and cancer causing mutations," says the soft-spoken scientist.

"The possibilities are endless. All we have to do is tweak the test kit a little," he explains.

In less than 30 days, Feluda, an inexpensive, robust and user-friendly COVID-19 test detection kit will be available for use in India.

It can transform the way we deal with the pandemic by enabling what the World Health Organisation and health experts world over have been asking of each government -- intensive and widespread testing.

A seven-member team of scientists headed by Dr Chakraborty and Dr Souvik Maiti of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research's Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), took just two months to invent Feluda for use in COVID-19 detection; in normal circumstances it would take much longer.

Dr Chakraborty speaks to Swarupa Dutt/Rediff.com on the making of, and way ahead for, Feluda.

When can India use Feluda?

Feluda is ready.

But we are doing a large number of blind sample tests where results from Feluda are matched with the gold standard for COVID tests -- the Quantitative Real-Time Reverse Transcription Polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) Test -- which is what is used in India and the world over.

Feluda, incidentally, is an acronym for FnCas9Editor Linked Uniform Detection Assay.

We are working with laboratories as well as hospitals and we are doing third party verification too.

The paperwork with the regulatory authorities is almost at an end.

CSIR-IGIB has discussed and signed technology transfer agreements with several interested pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, who, as we speak, are scaling up production plans.

As far as we at the lab are concerned, there is a lot of R&D that is still going on to make it even better, even faster, more cost effective, more robust, error-free and a more accurate test.

You see, Feluda is a totally indigenous design that uses CRISPR-Cas9 technology and the model is very new in that it uses paper strips unlike most other testing kits in use elsewhere around the world, so we have to ensure it doesn't ever fail.

The virus is also mutating, it is changing its sequence, so our detection has to also incorporate these changes.

Will CSIR-IGIB make the test kits and market them?

We are an academic institution.

So production of the kit or scaling up of the kit will have to be done by biotechnology or pharmaceutical firms.

Over the last one month, a large number of firms have got in touch with us and discussions are at an advanced stage with several of them, for manufacturing the kits.

Once the kits are ready they have to be validated by ICMR and other regulatory agencies.

At our end the prototype is ready and we are satisfied with it, but like I said, we are still working to make it better.

Reports say your COVID-19 detection kit has an edge over existing tests for its low cost and quick, real-time results. How so?

Beginning with testing the RNA to the final detection takes less than an hour.

If you break that down, the RT-PCR step takes about 30 to 35 minutes, the incubation with the CRISPR Cas9 complex takes about 15 minutes at the most and the action on the strip takes just about two minutes.

That's less than an hour or an hour at the outside.

The regular qRT-PCR tests take between three to six to eight hours for results to show.

Feluda can also be tested in a multiplex format which is testing different samples together.

Another important feature of the test kit is the visualisation.

You can see the test result.

It is visual.

You do not need very complex instrumentation to read it.

The result is right there on the strip in the form of a line.

What is this line?

The result shows up on a paper strip like that which is used in a pregnancy kit.

There are two lines on the strip.

The strip is normally totally white.

When you dip it into a solution which contains CRISPR-bound DNA, a line will show up, which we call the control line.

This control line tells you that the strip is working fine.

Thereafter, if another line -- a grayish line -- called the test line develops, you know that the sample is positive for COVID.

If that line does not appear then you know the sample is negative.

It's that simple.

IMAGE: A medic collects samples for swab tests from a COVID-19 mobile testing van in New Delhi. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI Photo

What are the components of Feluda?

The components include chemical reagents, buffers and plasticware required for pipetting solutions.

In addition, we currently need a very basic Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) machine (which we are trying to eliminate in future versions of the test) and finally, the paper strips.

We do not use the qRT-PCR that is used in Covid tests worldwide.

You must remember, the end user is not the man on the street.

This is not a home testing kit.

The user is a technician working in a pathology lab or a diagnostic centre.

Yet, the test is designed in such a way that it does not require any complex instrumentation.

How do you take a sample for your test?

The sample collection is pretty much the same as in qRT-PCR tests -- through oral swabs or nasal pharyngeal swabs.

You extract the RNA from that sample and you subject it to an RT-PCR reaction, in which you convert that into DNA and then you amplify that.

What will Feluda cost?

Our estimates at the lab level works out to between Rs 500 and Rs 600 for a kit.

The whole aim was to reduce this cost as far as possible so that a patient can benefit from the economies of scale.

As compared to the test kits currently in use which cost between Rs 4,500 and Rs 5,000, this is way, way cheaper.

Will the price be marked up before it hits labs?

It is almost impossible for us to say at the lab level whether companies who are picking up Feluda for mass production will retain our price or not.

CSIR labs do not have the resources to make 1 million kits or 10 million kits, or whatever the number.

But it's unlikely there will be too much deviation from our price.

But you haven't answered the question. When will Feluda be available for use in India?

The time factor can only be answered by the biotech or pharma companies which will manufacture the kits.

But because the components of the kit are very easy to procure, it should take not more than maybe three or four weeks at the most, which means by the end of May.

Who has sanctioned this project?

The sanction came from the CSIR-IGIB where we work and the PMO.

IMAGE: Dr Debojyoti Chakraborty plays the sitar when he has the time. "My time for riyaz is at night, but it is strictly rationed due to work obligations." His favourite raag? Bilaskhani Todi, created, legend has it, by Tansen's son. Photograph: Ashish Gupta

How is the test different from existing COVID-19 tests?

So, there are two different ways by which you can detect a COVID virus presence.

One is that you try to detect the virus directly, which is the viral RNA and the second one is you try to measure the body's immune reaction, which is the antibodies that it produces.

The RNA test or the nucleic acid test is the methodology being used in India and the world over where you directly detect the presence of the viral DNA or viral RNA.

This is called the RT-PCR test.

Now, for our test we get RNA samples of the virus from the patient. We then convert this RNA into genetic material or complimentary DNA (cDNA).

Then we amplify it using a polymerase chain reaction (done on a simple PCR machine) and mix this with a complex CRISPR Cas9 protein.

The Cas9 protein specifically binds on to the DNA signature of the Covid-19 virus.

Finally, this mixture is applied on a paper strip. And as I mentioned earlier, a line appears.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA and the University of California, Berkeley use other CRISPR proteins (Cas12/13) for detection.

Now, the other test, called the Rapid Test Antibody test is a secondary reaction of the human body against an infection from the virus.

So it is not a first line test, it happens only if you have been infected with the virus.

You have tested close to 100 samples. Did you test on patients directly?

No.

When a patient or suspected patient comes to a hospital or a collection centre, a swab is taken by the doctor or the technician; it's put in a viral inactivation media which means it basically kills the virus.

Then this 'dead' sample comes to our lab where the RNA is extracted from that virus or that sample and then we start using Feluda from thereon.

How accurate is Feluda?

From the large number of samples we have tested I can say that our accuracy is extremely high.

I won't be able to disclose the figure because it is confidential, but it's better than the gold standard or the RT-PCR tests, that are being used widely.

I would always refrain from giving numbers because there is no test in the world which can give you 100 per cent results.

Even the gold standard test that is being used now, it is gold standard because they are supposed to give 100 per cent accuracy, but even in a lab setting where variables are controlled, one day it can give 60 per cent accuracy, another day 90 per cent accuracy.

So as a responsible scientist it is wrong to give out a number.

The issue is whether it is scientifically accurate. It is.

No test can say with 100 per cent confidence that every time it will give you 100 per cent results even if it has been validated at the lab.

Is a sample base of 100 good to go?

Yes it is, but that is also why I said there is continuous R &D involved to make Feluda absolutely perfect and what you get is the best possible level of detection.

Is there peer review done for your test?

Yes, absolutely.

The Feluda manuscript is on a preprint server (Biorxiv) and very soon an updated version will be available online.

The manuscript and its review in a journal is being done in parallel.

This is an emergency situation so all the processes are working in tandem.

We won't wait for one to finish and another to start.

In normal times, testing, validation, approvals and industry talk would take months and sometimes years to complete.

You say Feluda will be available for use by end May. Could it possibly have been done faster?

Most of us have been working day and night, without exaggeration, over the last two months.

Most of the work is being carried out by exceptional PhD students who have voluntarily stayed back at the institute and not gone home during this lockdown.

They stay up and work till 3 or 4 in the morning.

They are the actual heroes.

This health emergency has bought a lot of people together with the common purpose of getting Feluda to play detective as quickly as possible.

There are logistics teams who deliver patients's samples.

There are authorities in government who are working on permissions.

CSIR-IGIB has been has been behind us right from the security guard to the person holding the highest office at the institute.

It would have been a bit quicker actually but the lockdown has delayed processes a bit.

If there was no health emergency, the entire process of getting Feluda out in the market would take months and months.

Will you also be doing antibody tests?

No.

Our total focus and domain is on the nucleic acid test, which is the COVID test.

IMAGE: Health workers conduct door-to-door thermal screening at a slum in Kolkata. Photograph: Swapan Mahapatra/PTI Photo

Is there a fear of false negatives in your testing?

It's not a fear, it's just that you have to refine your work and ensure the test is as good as it possibly can be.

False negatives can happen in three ways.

One is if the test kit itself is not sensitive enough to detect the virus quickly and correctly.

In that case, the kit has to be refined more.

The second instance where you get a false negative is if the sample itself is not of the best quality, then the test may not work very well.

The third factor is human interface -- whoever is doing the test should have the requisite skills.

As scientists we need to ensure these variables are factored into the test kits.

We are very confident that our Feluda will work well with all conditions factored in.

What are the other diseases that Feluda can detect?

Feluda can detect DNA/RNA sequences including all possible mutations (disease causing or otherwise) in them and can also infer how the disease presents itself in an individual.

The basic technology will remain the same but kits would be optimized for every application.

In other words, Feluda can detect mistakes in DNA or RNA that manifests as disease. So the list is endless.

Rare genetic disorders, cystic fibrosis, cancer causing mutations, diseases that have multiple mutations (like COVID), blood group sensitivity, Duchene Muscular Dystrophy, Sickle Cell anemia.

The possibility is immense whether it is identifying a disease, diagnosing it correctly, or offering a foolproof test.

We are not the only ones doing this kind of thing in the world.

But in India I have not heard of anyone else using a paper strip.

But tests for these diseases are already available. So why bother?

Tests for these conditions are available but they are expensive and inaccessible in rural India.

So, for example, we were using a Feluda prototype to detect and diagnose Sickle Cell Disease.

The current tests for the disease are not genetic tests (a DNA or RNA test) but antibody tests.

The antibody test detects the body's response to an infection.

So with the existing antibody test you can identify if the person has the disease but you can't identify the carrier.

It is more difficult to find the carrier instead of a patient because the patient is anyway showing the symptoms.

The antibody test will not tell with a great accuracy if you are a carrier. Our effort is to identify a carrier because then you can save generations from the disease.

In India, tests for sickle cell anemia are almost never carried out.

In the extensive research that we have done, we have seen more cases in the rural populations in West Bengal and Odisha for instance, where almost every family has got a sickle cell patient.

There is no diagnosis, no screening and they dont understand genetic loading.

There is also a social stigma attached especially with young women that if they undergo tests and if they are found to be a carrier, nobody will marry them.

So it is very important that screening can be done at a very early age. We dont even need a blood sample, we use saliva, so its non-invasive.

A young child can be easily asked to spit.

We have developed a technology which will tell whether the particular genetic mutation is present in the DNA of a person or not.

Now, without Feluda, you have to do DNA sequencing.

It is not a very easy process and is only available in a few institutes in the country. And it's expensive.

So the reason we are using Feluda to test sickle cell disease is because the technique is cost effective and simple to use.

It can be used at small primary health centre in a village.

As a scientist, if we can make a small difference in people's lives, we are happy.

We are foot soldiers. We have to do the legwork to make that difference.

People with sickle cell disorder have atypical haemoglobin molecules called haemoglobin S, which can distort red blood cells into a sickle, or crescent, shape. Patients have anemia, repeated infections, and periodic episodes of pain.

CRISPR technology is a simple yet powerful tool for editing genomes. It allows researchers to easily alter DNA sequences and modify gene function. Its many potential applications include correcting genetic defects, treating and preventing the spread of diseases. Genome editing (also called gene editing) is a group of technologies that give scientists the ability to change an organism's DNA. These technologies allow genetic material to be added, removed, or altered at particular locations in the genome. Several approaches to genome editing have been developed. The CRISPR-Cas9, which is short for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR-associated protein 9. The CRISPR-Cas9 system has generated a lot of excitement in the scientific community because it is faster, cheaper, more accurate, and more efficient than other existing genome editing methods.
Wizz Air has announced the launch of six new routes serving Luton Airport from next month after resuming flights to European destinations for the first time since lockdown.

The budget airline said the new routes would include flights to Faro in Portugal on June 18, four Greek islands from early July and Morocco in late October.

Airline giants easyJet, Ryanair and British Airways remain grounded due to the pandemic, with only a few services operating for emergency travel.

But Wizz Air said the new routes are part of its planning for the easing of restrictions, and said that new rules it had introduced, such as compulsory face masks for passengers and staff, should give customers confidence to fly.

It is not yet clear if the Hungarian-owned business will open up traditional summer holiday destinations for this year.

Owain Jones, managing director of the Hungarian airline's UK subsidiary, said: 'Although travel is currently restricted by government regulations, we are planning for the easing of restrictions as the situation improves and our customers are able to start travelling again.

Passengers board the Wizz Air flight to Sofia in Bulgaria at London Luton Airport on Friday lunchtime after the airline resumed flights last week

The airline resumed services on Friday last week to Budapest, Lisbon and Sofia today and plans to restart flights to Slovakia, Serbia, and Israel in the coming weeks

'The Wizz team is excited that our network from London Luton will continue to grow to include many new summer and winter sun destinations, and our new sanitising protocols will give our customers the confidence that they can safely rely on Wizz Air's ultra-low-cost fares to visit these new and exciting destinations on board Europe's greenest fleet.

How the man behind Wizz Air went from humble beginnings to being one of Hungary's richest men Jozsef Varadi's family struggled to survive during his childhood in Debrecen, Hungary. His father took part in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and was jailed for his involvement. Now Varadi is the 34th richest man in Hungary with a wealth of 33.5billion forints, equivalent to more than 82million pounds. At 18 he moved to Budapest and won a degree in economics from Budapest University of Economic Sciences before going on to become a Master of Law at the University of London in 2014. The airline's chief executive Jozsef Varadi, pictured, said he hoped to have 70 per cent of services back between July and August He worked for Procter & Gamble for ten years, rising through the ranks to sales director for Central and Eastern Europe. In 1999 he took up the role of CEO at the Hungarian state-owned airline Malev Hungarian Airlines and left in 2003 when he started up Wizz Air. The group aimed to make flying affordable for everyone and after three months of planning Wizz Air was a registered company ready to fly. Less than a year later, in May 2004, the first Wizz Air flight took off from Katowice, Poland, to London Luton Airport, 19 days after Hungary and Poland joined the European Union. In the first year more than 1.4 million customers flew with the airline with that figure rising to five million within in two years. In its fourth year of business it had flown ten million passengers to various destinations. More than 34million passengers were carried in 2019. Today the airline has 120 Airbus A320s in its fleet which fly to 154 airports and across 710 different routes. The UK's arm of Wizz Air opened at London Luton Airport in 2017 and is run by managing director Owain Jones. In 2019 the company were named the greenest airline in Europe, with the smallest environmental footprint per passenger, and in early 2020 it was hailed as the best low-cost airline by Airlineratings. The businessman is married to Kinga Bota, a world champion and Olympic silver medalist in kayaking. Advertisement

'As always, our primary concern is the health, safety and well-being of our passengers and crew, and our enhanced protective measures will ensure the most sanitary conditions possible.'

Wizz became one of the first European airlines to restart commercial routes from London Luton and Vienna on May 1, carrying people from Bulgaria and Romania amongst other places, which the airline said was for work.

But it has imposed a number of new safety protocols in what it called 'the new era of sanitized travel.'

As part of these new policy, throughout the flight, both cabin crew and passengers are required to wear facemasks, with cabin crew also required to wear gloves.

The aircraft are cleaned with an antiviral solution all of the airlines aircraft are further disinfected overnight with the same antiviral solution.

Sanitising wipes are handed to each passenger upon entering the aircraft, onboard magazines have been removed from the aircraft, and any onboard purchases are encouraged to be made by contactless payment.

Passengers are requested to follow physical distancing measures introduced by the local health authorities and are encouraged to make all purchases prior to the flight online to limit coming into contact with one another.

Wizz Air reopened its base at Luton airport this morning, with flights to Sofia, Bulgaria, at 7.50am, 1.35pm and 9.45pm.

There were other planes going to to Budapest at 10.50am and 8.35pm as well as to Lisbon at 6.30pm, according to data from Flightradar24.

A solitary flight was due to leave Gatwick Airport for Cluj-Napoca in Romania at 9pm.

Arrivals on the Bedfordshire runway included planes from Sofia at 7.20am, 12.55pm and 9.05pm, as well as from Budapest at 7.55pm, bringing mainly seasonal workers destined for fruit and vegetable farms.

In the morning on Friday, the Mangusher family turned up to catch a flight to Sofia to visit grandparents and catch up with other family members in their native Bulgaria.

The family of four, who live in the UK, said they were excited at the prospect of visiting their family for the short break.

Gergi, his wife Nina and their sons Kristian, 18, and Stivan, 11, were all wearing face masks for the 1.35pm flight.

Businessman Slavey Slavchev also arrived at the airport for the flight because he needed to sign important business papers but said that would only happen after he had spent a period in quarantine.

He said: 'I have a number of farms both here in the UK and back home in Bulgaria and not being able to fly over the last few weeks has been a problem.'

Wizz Air also plans to resume services to and from Tenerife and Tel Aviv, Israel, in the coming weeks, pending travel restrictions.

Current UK Government advice is for Britons to avoid all non-essential global travel indefinitely, but people are able to fly for other reasons such as to return home after being stranded overseas or if they are travelling for work.

The Mangusher family, Dad Gergi (left), his wife Nina and their sons Kristian, 18 (right), and Stivan, 11, (second on the left), boarded the flight to visit their family in Bulgaria on Friday last week

Despite the guidance, the airline said it was important to get the infrastructure operating and there are people across Europe who need to travel for work.

It added it does not expect flights to be full, which will enable passengers and crew it to maintain social distancing on board.

According to the company's chief executive Jozsef Varadi, the airline will run 10 per cent of its services during May and hopes to have 70 per cent of its jets in the air by August.

Mr Varadi told the FT: 'Whatever crisis we look back on in history, one conclusion you can certainly make is peoples' memories tend to be very short. While today looks like a huge concern, a life changing moment, in a year or two nobody remembers.'

A statement issued by the airport on Friday last week said 'Today Wizz Air resumed three routes from London Luton Airport, all of which are subject to travel restrictions imposed by their local governments.

'In the case of both Hungary and Bulgaria, only citizens of those countries are permitted entry.

'The safety of our passengers and staff is our top priority and we continue to rigorously implement all Government guidance.

'This includes deep cleaning, the installation of sanitiser across the airport and floor markings and signage to remind customers to maintain a safe distance. We are also displaying the latest public health guidance throughout the terminal.

Travellers were seen wearing masks outside the airport terminal as three flights arrived and departed from Luton on Friday

'Air links for both passengers and freight have been recognised as essential services and the Government has asked airports to remain open where possible to ensure they can continue.

'The decision to operate individual routes is a matter for each airline. As well as adhering to travel restrictions in the country of travel passengers also need to follow those imposed in the UK.'

Despite research by Bank of America showing Wizz Air has a substantial cash reserve which could pay the customer refunds three times over, the company has said it will not be issuing any.

Passengers will not be able to cancel their flight even if the country they are due to be flying to won't let them in.

Those who have their flight cancelled will get 120 per cent off the price of the flight in the form of vouchers which can be used in the next two years.
The following editorial appeared in Monday's Japan News-Yomiuri:

- - -

Priority should be given to curbing the military face-off between the United States and Russia, and the United States and China, to create an environment for constructive discussions on nuclear disarmament.

The 2020 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, originally scheduled to be held in New York from late April, was postponed due to the spread of the new coronavirus. The conference is slated to be convened within a year.

The NPT aims to limit the possession of nuclear weapons to five states - the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China - and prevent the spread of such weapons to other nations. While the five countries are obliged to reduce their nuclear arsenals, other nations are guaranteed the right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

More than 190 countries and regions have joined the treaty since it came into force in 1970. The NPT has played a certain role in restraining the nuclear arms race.

However, the harsh reality remains. The United States and Russia are competing to enhance their nuclear weapons capabilities. A bilateral treaty designed to eliminate all intermediate-range nuclear forces expired last year. China is stepping up its development and deployment of intermediate-range ballistic missiles by taking advantage of its position, unfettered by U.S.-Russia nuclear disarmament treaties.

Another issue is the fact that disputes between nuclear and non-nuclear powers are intensifying, as the latter have increasingly felt disappointed with the stalemate over nuclear disarmament.

Some non-nuclear states seek an early entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, adopted at the United Nations in 2017. Other nations, including the United States and France, oppose the move, arguing that the treaty is unsuited to the current reality, as it rejects nuclear deterrence and thus weakens the NPT regime.

Even if the NPT review conference, which is held every five years, had been convened as scheduled, it would have ultimately been unable to adopt an agreed-upon document. It would have only revealed the deep division between the two sides.

The important thing is to promote discussions on nuclear disarmament in line with the actual security environment. A new framework needs to be explored to cope with the development of military technologies utilizing artificial intelligence, among other innovations, and China's military expansion.

Whether U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been reluctant to work on nuclear disarmament, is reelected in November is an important variable, but the significance of arms control by the United States, Russia and China will remain unchanged, irrespective of who the U.S. leader may be.

The three countries are expected to move forward with easing tensions and establish a situation in which they can feel assured of securing their safety without relying on nuclear weapons.

This year marks 75 years since atomic bombs were detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As the only nation to have suffered atomic bombings, Japan has a responsibility to persistently assert the inhumane nature of nuclear weapons. On the other hand, as the country is now facing threats from China and North Korea, it must be said that extended U.S. nuclear deterrence has a certain role to play.

Because it is caught in this dilemma, however, Japan has a solid understanding of both nuclear and non-nuclear powers' viewpoints. Japan should proactively work to break the deadlock, acting as a go-between for the two sides.
CARACAS: Two Americans were detained in Venezuela on Monday on suspicion of plotting to topple President Nicolas Maduro's government, which has accused US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido of bankrolling the scheme.

The arrests came a day after the government said it foiled an "invasion" from the sea, killing eight assailants and capturing two others.

Maduro appeared on state television to show the passports of Luke Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, and told the Venezuelan military high command that the pair were members of the US security forces.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab earlier told reporters that "hired mercenaries" had signed a $212 million dollar contract with Guaido using funds "stolen" from state oil company PDVSA.

The United States -- one of more than 50 countries backing Guaido as Venezuela's acting president as he challenges Maduro for power -- has slapped sanctions on PDVSA and allowed Guaido to use funds from frozen accounts belonging to the firm's Houston-based subsidiary Citgo.

Saab said Guaido had signed a contract with former US special forces soldier Jordan Goudreau, linked in several press reports last week to an allegedly bungled attempt to topple Maduro.

The Canadian-born Goudreau, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran, is accused of training a mercenary force to invade Venezuela that disbanded after Colombian authorities seized a weapons shipment meant for the group.

Saab also shared on social media a video of Goudreau, who now runs a private security firm called Silvercorp USA, in which the former soldier claims an operation against Maduro's regime is ongoing.

Guaido's press team released a statement on Monday denying the accusations and insisting it had no agreements with private security firms.

US, Colombia blamed

On Sunday, Venezuela claimed a group traveling on speedboats and embarking from Colombia tried to land before dawn in the northern coastal state of La Guaira but were intercepted by the military and special police units.

Diosdado Cabello, deputy leader of the ruling Socialist Party, claimed the operation was "orchestrated" by the United States and its Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), with Colombian support.

Colombia denied any involvement, while Maduro claimed on Monday that the mission's aim was to assassinate him.

Venezuela frequently accuses Colombia of fomenting plots to overthrow the Maduro government and of allowing mercenaries to train in its territory.

Saab said authorities had detained 114 people and issued warrants for the arrest of 92 others accused of involvement in plots against Maduro and his regime since an alleged assassination attempt using explosives-laden drones in 2018.

He added that Venezuela had seized arms during the apparent invasion that were stolen from parliament during a failed military uprising led by Guaido last year.

The public prosecutor has launched a number of investigations against Guaido but has never ordered his arrest.
Kerala reported three new coronavirus cases on Tuesday -- the first in the state in three days -- as it prepared to receive the first batch of expatriates from West Asia.

Four special flights are expected to arrive in the state on Thursday and all returnees will have to undergo at least one weeks quarantine in care homes arranged for them, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.

Many of them are coming without tests there. So we cant take any risk at this point. It would have been ideal if they undergo tests before taking the flights, he said.

The Kerala government had been planning to send the returnees home after screening them and instructing them to stay in home quarantine for two weeks. But it dropped the plan after coming to know that most of them wont be tested before they board the flights.

Minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan on Tuesday contested Vijayans assertion that the Union government was flying back expatriates from West Asia without any tests being conducted on them.

I dont know why he is indirectly blaming the Centre like this. On medical side, the standard operating procedure (SOP) is being prepared by the ICMR {Indian Council of Medical Research}. Its SOP came late in the evening and the CM s version was based on some hearsay. We will bring back people only after tests, he told HT.

More than 400,000 people have registered themselves on a portal the state government launched last week for Keralites stranded in other countries, particularly in the Persian Gulf, who wish to return home. But the CM said the Centre had made it clear that such a massive evacuation was not possible at this juncture .

The CM said all three new Covid-19 cases were from Wayanad in north Kerala; they contracted the virus from a Chennai-returned truck driver who tested positive two weeks ago. Kerala has 37 active coronavirus cases -- those who are under treatment. Of 33,800 samples sent for testing, 33, 265 returned negative.
STAMFORD  Firefighters battled two fires Tuesday morning, losing one North Stamford house to flames on Blackwood Lane.

Chief Fire Marshal Walter Seely said the first blaze firefighters were called to was at 81 Blackwood at 1:17 a.m.

With no one living in the three-bedroom house, it was neighbors who called the blaze in to 9-1-1 dispatch. By the time firefighters got there minutes later they found the 21/2-story structure fully enveloped in flame.

Seely said no one was inside 1,800-square-foot structure at the time. Deputy Chief Patrick Tripodi later said no one has lived there for five months.

The structure was damaged so severely it was too dangerous to send investigators inside to determine the fires cause, said Seely.

Neighbor Steve Labkoff said he was awakened by the pumper trucks revving their engines and shaking his house across the street from the blaze.

Ive never seen a house fire like that before. It was huge, said Labkoff. Im just glad nobody was hurt. It was really just a big inferno.

Firefighters battled the blaze with multiple hose lines; water was pumped from a hydrant on High Ridge Road. Five tankers were called to the scene, plus equipment and crews from seven engine companies, according to officials. Fifty-three career and volunteer firefighters got the fire under control by 3 a.m., Tripodi said.

Seely said the owner of the house was notified and was on his way to Stamford Tuesday.

The second fire was called in at 4:59 a.m. for a three-family home at 6 Colonial Road. The owner of the home had a fire in her kitchen, which spread to the kitchen on the second floor, Seely said.

The home was equipped with functioning smoke detectors, which alerted the tenants and the 93-year-old woman, officials said.

Thus, nobody got hurt, Seely said.

Police Officer Stephane Smarth was the first responder on scene and with the help of tenants of the house he was able to pull the elderly woman through a first floor window to safety, Seely said. She twas taken to Stamford Hospital where she was checked out and found to be uninjured.

Seely said the fire began when the woman was trying to warm up some soup on her stove. The fire began when she turned the wrong burner on, mistakenly setting something else that was sitting on the stove on fire, he said.

The kitchen suffered extensive damage, and because fire spread to the second floor firefighters had to open in order to extinguish the fire, officials said. There was smoke damage to the entire first floor of the dwelling.

Seely said the home was deemed be uninhabitable.

The American Red Cross was working with displaced residents Tuesday to find them places to live.

The firefighters did a great job and made a really good stop. Many times with that type of construction the fire can climb through the structure and get into the attic, and when that happens you will lose the house, Seely said. They did a great job stopping this fire.

The fire was declared under control at 6:01 am. One occupant was treated for injuries by Stamford EMS and transported to Stamford Hospital for treatment. A total of five engine companies responded with a total of 42 career and volunteer firefighters.

jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com
Emergency Medical Service workers unload a patient out of their ambulance at the Cobble Hill Health Center in New York, on April 18, 2020. (Justin Heiman/Getty Images)

1,700 More COVID-19 Linked Deaths Reported in NY Nursing Homes

New York late Monday added 1,700 additional deaths linked to COVID-19 to a list of fatalities at nursing homes in the state.

The state is the hardest hit in the nation by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, a novel coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease.

COVID-19 kills a percentage of patients, particularly among the elderly.

Nursing homes told the state of 3,086 deaths in the homes as of Friday. The toll rose to 4,813 deaths in the latest disclosure.

The New York State Department of Health labeled 2,274 as confirmed COVID-19 deaths.

The other deaths were listed as probable under a recent revision of reporting requirements.

Emergency medical workers arrive at Cobble Hill Health Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York, on April 17, 2020. (John Minchillo/AP Photo)

Nursing Home Order

The department in late March ordered nursing home facilities to accept people even if they tested positive for COVID-19.

No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to a nursing home solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19, the order stated. The order is no longer accessible on the NY state Department of Health website, but a copy is available on the web archive (pdf).

The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine called the order deeply concerning. In a resolution (pdf), the group said admitting patients with suspected or documented COVID-19 infection represents a clear and present danger to all of the residents of a nursing home.

State officials said Tuesday it was up to nursing homes to decide whether to accept the residents back.

All they have to do is say no and tell the Department of Health and that person will go somewhere else, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters in Albany.

Cuomo said officials knew nursing homes were the most vulnerable place from the beginning of the pandemic. Whatever we do, they will be a target, he said.

What can you do better going forward? I dont know. We did some very harsh things here that, frankly, I wasnt even comfortable with, but the health experts insisted, he said, citing the policy of forbidding any visitors from entering the homes.

The Isabella Geriatric Center in New York City, on May 1, 2020. (Frank Franklin II/AP Photo)

Most Deaths in NYC, and Long Island

The updated figures (pdf) only list people who died inside nursing homes and not those who were transferred to hospitals before dying.

The Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation in the New York City borough of Queens reported the most deaths. All 71 deaths at the 527-bed facility were confirmed, according to the list. The Isabella Geriatric Center in Manhattan reported the second-most, with 21 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 43 believed to be linked to the disease.

Most of the deaths in nursing homes took place in the city or on Long Island, which sits just outside the Big Apple.

Officials at the Isabella Geriatric Center, which has 705 beds, said last week that it had 66 confirmed or suspected deaths happen at the facility. Another 38 residents died after being transferred to hospitals.

Isabella, like all other nursing homes in New York City, initially had limited access to widespread and consistent in-house testing to quickly diagnose our residents and staff. Sadly, while we have always had daily health screenings of staff, this hampered our ability to identify those who were infected and asymptomatic, despite our efforts to swiftly separate anyone who presented symptoms, the center said in a statement.

The updated figure still comprises only about 25 percent of all deaths in New York, a much lower percentage than nearby states. Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New Jersey have all seen over half of COVID-19-linked deaths happen in nursing homes. According to the latest death figures, 64.3 percent of all deaths in the state were among those 70 or older. The data is as of May 4.

Cuomo on Friday threatened to revoke licenses from nursing homes that didnt accurately report COVID-19 figures.

They submit these numbers under penalty of perjury, Cuomo said. You violate, you commit fraud, that is a criminal offense.
Islamabad:

Upping the ante, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today said Kashmir was witnessing a "new wave of freedom movement and asked the diplomats to apprise the world that Kashmir was not an internal matter of India.



Addressing the concluding session of the three-day Envoys Conference organised by foreign ministry here, Sharif said, resolution of the lingering dispute in accordance with the UN resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people is the corner stone of Pakistans foreign policy.



Today Kashmir is witnessing a new wave of freedom movement, Sharif said, needling India on a day when Home Minister Rajnath Singh arrived here to attend the SAARC Interior Ministers Conference.



This movement is running into the bloods of third generation of Kashmiri people and the world has itself seen its intensity in the wake of July 8, Sharif said, referring to the killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani in Kashmir.



The Kashmiri youth are writing new chapters of sacrifices to get the right to self determination, he said.



They have lost eyesight due to bullets but the desire for freedom is guiding them to the destination, he added.



He asked Pakistani envoys to apprise the world that the Kashmir was not an internal matter of India.



The ambassador should make the world feel that Kashmir is not the internal problem of India, as India already accepted it as dispute territory and the UN also declared it as a dispute between India and Pakistan, he said.



The conference was attended by envoys of Pakistan posted at Washington, Beijing, New Delhi, Afghanistan, UN New York, UN Geneva, Vienna, Brussels and Moscow among others.



Sharing his vision with the envoys, Sharif said that all bilateral issues with other regional countries should be solved though talks in a peaceful way.



We cannot afford a conflict. If we became part of any conflict, then our progress in the social and economic fields would be affected, he said.



He said Pakistan wants peace in the world on the basis of honour, dignity and equality. But our desire for friendly ties should not be considered as weakness. We believe in mutual interests, respect for sovereignty and non-interference in the affairs of others, Kashmir said.



Earlier, the Prime Ministers advisor on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz told the concluding session that it was wrong to portray that Pakistan was facing isolation.



Pakistans Permanent Representative to UN Maleeha Lodhi said the conference acquired special importance in view of the Prime Ministers directives to take stock of the current situation.



She said, Kashmir remained top agenda of the conference in view of the indigenous Kashmir uprising in the backdrop.



Lodhi said that in line with the Prime Ministers directive, she would step-up diplomatic campaign to highlight alleged human rights violations in Kashmir at the UN.

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A California shopper has been criticised of wearing what looked to be a Ku Klux Klan-inspired white hood to a grocery store amid coronavirus face mask recommendations.

The man was spotted in Vons supermarket in Santee, a suburban city in San Diego, on Saturday.

Images showed the man pushing around a shopping cart and making his food selections while a white hood, mirroring that of what the KKK wears, covered his face.

The unidentified man was approached by several grocery clerks to remove his hood while shopping in the store, a Vons spokesperson told the San Diego Tribune.

Later, the store manager approached the man at checkout and told him he needed to remove his hood or leave the store. The man paid for his items and then left, according to the newspaper.

At Vons, fostering an environment of courtesy, dignity, and respect is one of our highest priorities, and we work hard to hold everyone in our stores to these standards, including customers, spokesperson Melissa Hill told the newspaper. This was a disturbing incident for our associates and customers, and we are reviewing with our team how to best handle such inappropriate situations in the future.

Santee Mayor John Minto later condemned the incident in a statement published on the citys website on Sunday.

Many thanks to all who stepped forward to curtail this sad reminder of intolerance. Santee, its leaders, and I will not tolerate such behaviour. Santee and its citizens are great, and this particular individuals actions are not representative of us as a people and a wonderful city.

Outrage circulated on social media after multiple shoppers shared images of the man while he was picking out food items within the store.

Current Centres for Disease Control and Prevention advised for people to wear face masks when out to protect both themselves and others when it comes to spreading the novel virus. But these guidelines do not encourage residents to promote symbols of hate when out and about, such as wearing a KKK-inspired mask.
Duchess loses

round in lawsuit

The Duchess of Sussex lost an early round in a London court when a judge dismissed part of her lawsuit against the publisher of a British newspaper that put out excerpts of a letter to her estranged father.

Meghan sued Associated Newspapers for invasion of privacy and copyright infringement last year over a series of articles in the Mail on Sunday that reproduced parts of the letter she wrote in August 2018, several months after the former actress known as Meghan Markle married Britains Prince Harry.

Judge Mark Warby threw out some of the causes of action argued in her lawsuit, including the claim that the newspaper publisher acted dishonestly by quoting only certain passages of her letter.

Warby also struck the claim that Associated Newspapers deliberately stirred up a dispute between Meghan and her father, Thomas Markle, and had an agenda to publish intrusive or offensive stories about her.

Warby said the dismissed claims could be revived at a later stage of the case.

Associated Newspapers denies the allegations.

Press secretary

pledges no lies

President Donald Trumps new spokeswoman, Kayleigh McEnany, vowed not to lie to reporters from the podium as she made her debut at the first White House briefing by a press secretary in more than a year.

I will never lie to you, McEnany told reporters. You have my word on that.

But the briefing that followed included several misstatements and mischaracterizations nonetheless.

McEnany, who joined the White House last month, took the stage behind a podium that had quite literally been collecting cobwebs before the president began the practice of holding his own daily briefings because of the coronavirus.

McEnany said she spends most of the day with the president and is constantly with him, absorbing his thinking. She said she sees it as her mission to bring you the mindset of the president, deliver those facts, so this president gets fair and accurate reporting and the American people get fair and accurate information.

During past administrations, a formal briefing by a White House press secretary would hardly be news. But it was the first such briefing since March 11, 2019, when Sarah Sanders took to the podium for the first time in more than a month and was pressed on comments Trump reportedly made at a fundraiser claiming that Democrats hated Jewish people. Sanders left her post that summer, and her successor, Stephanie Grisham, never held a briefing during her entire nine-month tenure.

 Associated Press
It is not true that blood pressure pills will affect the occurrence of coronavirus symptoms and make them worse, experts say.

Some were worried that blood pressure pills may have a bearing on the coronaviru and put those taking in a higher risk, according to three major studies.

No link between COVID-19 and blood pressure drugs

Last March, doctors made a possible connection with blood pressure pills, known as ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) - and COVID-19.

One concern based on animal studies is these medicines might increase the production of ACE-2, that the COVID-19 uses as a subterfuge in invading host human cells, which make the host cells more susceptible to getting hijacked.

These three new studies that were published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), have confirmed that these drugs do not severely impact anyone taking them.

According to the study, those with blood pressure, type 1 or type 2 diabetes, need the drugs to create more ACE-2 in the cell to keep their illness under control.

Approximately, there 16 million afflicted in the UK, it is not clear how many patients are taking the drugs too. Drugs that are prescribed are mostly Ramipril, Losartan, Lisinopril and Candesartan, according to the National Health Service data.

These common medications were given almost 65 million times in England just last year, with a cost of 100m or more as they were prescribed.

Medicine was primarily given for the treatment of diabetes or high blood pressure for about 10% of the UK population or approximately 6.6 million who take them regularly.

Also read: Israeli COVID-19 Treatment Reports 100% Survival Rate

Patients can continue taking their medications

The NEJM studies were done by reviewing all the records of all patients that are currently taking these drugs or not. Then were checked if they got the COVID-9, investigating how the disease is affecting them.

Using statistical methods as a control for factors that include other health conditions which can aggravate the conditions and symptoms of COVID-19.

Otherwise, the researchers were looking for loopholes that will allow the COVID-19 to attack and infect the host cell, and kill it.

This is an important part of the study which cannot be ignored. One conclusion reached by the study is there is no increase in the susceptibility of the host when tested positive or risk for acquiring COVID-19. Even if taking the 'five common classes of antihypertensive medications.'

Besides and linking the findings to the results, "There was no association between any single medication class and an increased likelihood of a positive test." When examined the medications were not connected to any 'substantial increase in the risk of severe illness among patients who tested positive.'

Dr Harmony Reynolds, a cardiologist at New York University, who is also one of the lead,s said, "We saw no difference in the likelihood of a positive test with ACE inhibitors and with angiotensin receptor blockers."

Studies done were mostly observational, which is the scientist did no clinical studies but instead observed the risk factor.

Observational is not as good as experimental, and using intervention at some point with control will less to chance.

Authors of the study are confident it is representing sound findings in the conclusion. Dr Reynolds said, "I'm very happy to be able to tell patients that they should continue their blood pressure medications."

Related article: Scientists Say Anti-Viral Nasal Spray Could be Key in Curing Coronavirus

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Sports The Guardian

The Steelers quarterback is headed to the Hall of Fame. But he was unloved outside Pittsburgh for understandable reasons Ben Roethlisberger almost certainly played his final game in the NFL on Sunday. Photograph: Ed Zurga/AP Ben Roethlisberger is lucky that football legacies are not decided by finales. If Sunday night was indeed Big Bens last ever NFL game, as he has strongly hinted, it wasnt exactly a mic drop. In the 42-21 beatdown by the Chiefs, Roethlisberger struggled with rollouts, and l
New Delhi, May 5 : Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, after a conversation with Nobel laureate and noted economist Abhijeet Banerjee, has suggested that the government should consider all the aspects of fighting coronavirus and reopening the economy.

"While tackling the virus, think in terms of zones. While reopening the economy, think in terms of supply chains," Gandhi tweeted, here on Tuesday.

Insisting on stimulus for the economy, Banerjee said, "That's what the US is doing, Japan is doing, Europe is doing. We really haven't decided on a large enough stimulus package. We are still talking about 1 per cent of the GDP. The US has gone for 10 per cent of the GDP." While interacting with Rahul Gandhi, Banerjee said the revival of economy should have a durable effect on poverty. "Will the economy revive, and how does one think through the possible time paths of this disease through that process are the real concerns," he said.

Stating that the lockdown had defined hardship for farmers, the Congress said the government must step in immediately to provide them some relief.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
The California Supreme Court refused Monday to order state officials to release large numbers of inmates from local jails and juvenile detention centers to ease crowded conditions that spread the coronavirus.

The court redirected inmate advocates to the counties that run the facilities, but did not rule out further lawsuits against the state.

The claims in the statewide lawsuit call for prompt attention in a manner that considers the diversity of local conditions throughout the state, the justices said in a unanimous order.

The state has taken steps to reduce crowding in its prisons and county jails, where protective equipment and testing for COVID-19 have sometimes been in short supply and social distancing is virtually impossible.

The state Judicial Council has ordered state prisons to release inmates with 60 days or less to serve on their sentences, and has told local judges to release recently arrested defendants without bail unless they are charged with serious or violent crimes. Gov. Gavin Newsom has halted transfers of inmates from county jails to state prisons. Despite substantial population reductions in the past decade, state prisons remain filled 30% above their designed capacity.

Inmate advocates have urged federal judges, unsuccessfully so far, to order substantially more releases from state prisons. Mondays order involved a separate suit filed in the states high court April 24 by organizations led by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers arguing for statewide action to protect inmates in jails and juvenile halls.

Lacking infrastructure for physical distancing and without vigilant hygiene, Californias jails and juvenile facilities are at grave risk of becoming petri dishes for rampant spread of the virus, the suit said.

It also said law enforcement offices in some counties had defied the Judicial Councils order to release most newly arrested defendants without bail.

Sheriff Chad Bianco of Riverside County said on April 2, in response to the order, If you dont want to get this virus while in custody, dont break the law. Health officials say 149 jail inmates in the county have tested positive for the coronavirus.

But Attorney General Xavier Becerra said California law assigns counties, not the state, primary responsibility for conditions in local detention  county sheriffs for the jails, and probation departments for juvenile facilities.

Neither the governor nor the attorney general has a duty to coordinate or manage conditions at local detention facilities, Becerras office told the court last week. That responsibility and discretion lies with the counties.

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.

In Mondays order, the court said inmate advocates could file similar suits in individual counties, naming both state and local officials as defendants.

Local judges should act quickly, the court said, to facilitate discussion among all parties to achieve a negotiated resolution that is responsive to local conditions and avoids protracted litigation.

Sylvia Torres-Guillen, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said the order may allow suits against individual counties and the state to be consolidated.

Its nearly impossible to find advocates in 58 counties to address the unique emergency we have with COVID-19, she said. Statewide relief is the most effective way to address this pandemic.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
Excess white fat causes obesity, which in turn can drive diabetes and many other metabolic diseases that are growing at epidemic rates around the world.

But all white fat is not born equal. For instance, "intra-abdominal" fat, i.e. fat within the belly, is known to carry higher risks of disease than "subcutaneous" fat that sits under the skin and often accumulates in the hips and thighs.

Researchers from Joslin Diabetes Center and Boston University now have discovered different types of white fat cells, even within a single site, that may play distinct roles in disease.

A central question in our research on metabolic disease is whether white fat cells in different parts of the body, and even within a single part of the body, are different enough that some might predispose you to disease and some might not," If so, determining the mechanisms for these differences could lead to development of novel therapies for diabetes, obesity and related conditions." C. Ronald Kahn, MD, Joslin's Chief Academic Officer and Head of the Section on Integrative Physiology and Metabolism

Earlier studies had identified several types of white fat cells in mice, but this is one of the first to discover multiple types in humans, says Kahn, who is co-senior author on a Nature Communications paper presenting the work and professor at Harvard Medical School.

Within fat tissue, fat cells evolve from "preadipocytes" or precursor cells to mature cells. As they do, their patterns of gene expression change. A technique called single-cell RNA sequencing examines these expression patterns on a cell-by-cell basis, offering an extremely detailed look at how the patterns vary between cells.

The collaboration between Joslin and Boston University began with two sets of single-cell RNA sequencing data on human subcutaneous white fat preadipocytes that progressed into mature stages in culture. Gathered from healthy humans, one data set was collected by scientists at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and the other by the lab of Joslin's Yu-Hua Tseng, PhD.

Simon Kasif, PhD, Boston University professor of biomedical engineering and co-senior author on the paper, then led an integrated analysis of both data sets with a novel mathematical approach to understanding the patterns of gene expression in these cells.

The analysis identified two subtypes of human white subcutaneous fat that displayed quite distinct patterns of gene expression. Among the distinctions, one subtype showed patterns indicating much higher intake of glucose, a crucial resource in metabolism.

Additionally, the investigators found that "zinc nuclear finger" genes, a group of master regulator genes whose function in fat cells is not well understood, were expressed at much higher levels in one class of preadipocytes. This expression may help to control whether the cells become mature fat cells, the scientists suggested.

"We think this research is the tip of the iceberg--if we study more samples of human fat, we will find more subtypes," says Kahn. It would be very helpful, for instance, to examine samples of intra-abdominal fat and fat from people with various metabolic conditions.

Broadening the research into white fat cell types would aid in connecting various patterns of obesity with the risks and mechanisms of metabolic disease, he says.

"Body fat is linked to many different conditions beyond diabetes," Kahn emphasizes. "This research could be important for understanding the risk factors for other metabolic diseases such as fatty liver disease and atherosclerosis, and even non-metabolic diseases that are increased by obesity, such as cancer and Alzheimer's disease."

"The study highlights the potential of bringing interdisciplinary expertise from four laboratories to integrate biology, artificial intelligence, systems biology and data obtained from clinical samples to catalyze discovery," says Kasif.

"Metabolic diseases are highly associated with environmental factors," Kasif adds. "This work supports the relatively understudied hypothesis that environmental factors may modify the trajectory of how cells develop and our understanding of how this process may influence biology and metabolic disease."
The new NHS contact-tracing app which is designed to track the spread of coronavirus and could help the UK lift its lockdown will be rolled out for the first time today on the Isle of Wight.

NHS and council staff on the Isle of Wight have been urged to download the Covid-19 smartphone app from Tuesday, with the rest of the islands population invited to follow them from Thursday.

If the trial is successful, the app could be used across the UK within weeks as ministers look for a way to ease lockdown restrictions and allow some economic activity to resume.

Bob Seely, the Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight, has urged people in his constituency to support the technology.

Talking to the experts and the scientists, anything above 20 per cent and 25 per cent [of the population using the app] gives us decent and good data, Mr Seely said.

The exponential benefit hits when you get about 50 per cent, or near that, and then, effectively, you can trace the virus.

Then, by helping those people with it, we starve the virus of other people to infect and the virus dies out.

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has appealed to everyone who is able to download the app to do so and insisted that backing the governments test and trace programme will save lives.

The test, track and trace programme will allow the government to take a more targeted approach to the lockdown while still containing Covid-19, he said.

However, Matthew Gould, the chief executive of NHSX, suggested to a parliamentary committee on Monday that there would be issues with the app in its early stages.

There will be unintended consequences, there will for sure be some things we have to evolve, Mr Gould said.

We need to level with the public on this, that when we launch it, it wont be perfect and as our understanding of the virus develops, so will the app.

The government has also faced resistance from some Tory MPs who have raised concerns about the trials implications for civil liberties over the gathering of data on individuals movements.

Marcus Fysh, the MP for Yeovil, warned widespread surveillance was not acceptable in the UK and said it was essential the system was voluntary.

The contact tracing app uses Bluetooth to track and trace contacts between users, and alerts people if someone they interacted with has displayed symptoms or tested positive for Covid-19.

Officials have insisted it has been designed with privacy and security front of mind with the data stored on an individual's phone until the point they contact the NHS to report symptoms and request a test.

Nevertheless, Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said the government should look at decentralised app models - where contact-tracing data stays on a user's device.

We're extremely concerned that the government may be planning to route private data through a central database, opening the door to pervasive state surveillance and privacy infringement, with potentially discriminatory effects, she said.

A total of 28,734 people have died after testing positive for Covid-19 in the UK, as of Monday, following an increase of 288 deaths in the last 24 hour period - the lowest day-on-day increase since the end of March.

Additional reporting by PA
Apple and Google have reportedly banned contact tracing apps from accessing location data. The move is aimed at ensuring that governments do not misuse the system to compile data on citizens.

It seems like developers making contact tracing apps for tracking COVID-19 wont be able to rely on location tracking. According to a report by Reuters, Apple and Google will be banning the use of location tracking in apps that use the new contact tracing system that is being developed by both the companies.

Last month, both technology giants announced that they would be working together to make it easier for public health authorities to develop contact tracing applications. However, both also noted the privacy would be a key aspect of the new system. Therefore, both companies would not want to use various governments from misusing the system to compile data on their citizens. As such, the new system would only rely on Bluetooth signals to detect encounters and not use or store GPS location data.

Apple and Google will ban location tracking on contact tracing apps

However, Reuters report also notes that developers of official Coronavirus-related tracking apps in the US have told the publication that it was vital that they are allowed to use GPS data in conjunction with the new contact tracing system. They argue that this would allow them to track how outbreaks move and identify hotspots.

The report also adds that both the companies will only allow one app per country to use the contact tracing system. This has been reportedly done to avoid fragmentation and encourage wide adoption. However, the two companies said that they would support countries that opt for a state or regional approach like the US.

Of course, many health agencies have developed their own contact tracing system that does not use the one developed by Apple and Google. The report mentioned the Healthy Together app used in Utah, USA that works with both GPS and Bluetooth. However, there are some like Canadas Alberta province used ABTraceTogether app that does not use the Apple-Google system, but does not collect GPS location data either.

India's own contact tracing app Aaryoga Setu

India has also developed its own contact tracing app called Aarogya Setu. The app uses both location and Bluetooth data in order to work. Since launch Aarogya Setu reached the 50 million downloads milestones in 13 days, the fastest ever for an application, Android or iOS. You can learn more about the application here. The Indian government has also released the Aarogya Setu Mitr app which adds online doctor consultation and more. You can read more about that, here.
David M. Driesen is University Professor at Syracuse Universitys College of Law.

By David M. Driesen | Special to Syracuse.com

New York has done the right thing by authorizing widespread absentee balloting in the months ahead, so that New Yorkers can vote without risking their lives by going to crowded polling places. New York is not alone. Thirty-eight states offer no-excuse absentee balloting routinely and others may expand absentee voting to safeguard their elections from coronavirus interference. Many states recognize that no one should be forced to choose between protecting their health and participating in our democracy.

Absentee balloting has worked well in the states that use it as the primary means of voting  Utah, Colorado, Hawaii and Oregon, with no evidence of fraud. North Carolina did encounter fraud in its more limited absentee voting program in 2018. But since absentee voting creates a paper trail, the bipartisan electoral commission was able to catch and correct it. By contrast, if a foreign power flips vote counts on voting machines over the internet, it will prove impossible to detect the changed results in many states.

Expanding absentee balloting responsibly safeguards elections from coronavirus disruption and enjoys the support of Ohios respected Republican governor and many other responsible state and local officials of both parties.

But we need to avoid a Wisconsin-like debacle  where the state could not process absentee ballots in time and thousands were disenfranchised or forced to stand in long lines at a few open polling places during a COVID-19 surge. Nationally, widespread absentee balloting while keeping polling stations open safely, and early voting for those who need these options, will require $4 billion of federal funding. We will also need close to $100 billion for the U.S. Postal Service, which faces bankruptcy, partly because of the economic downturn. All of the states offer some form of absentee balloting, and they usually depend on the postal service to mail out and receive them after voters fill them out. This is not the time to destroy an institution that employs 500,000 people and provides an essential service.

The amount of money needed is small in the context of economic stimulus packages of $2.5 trillion (and counting) and relative to the $500 billion the federal government has lavished on large corporations, who are free to use the money to raise executive pay. Its a small price to pay for safeguarding our democracy during a pandemic.

Yet, some officials have signaled hostility to absentee balloting. President Donald Trump has stated that Republicans cannot win if we have absentee balloting. Republicans, however, have done fine in Utah, which has depended on absentee balloting for years. We need congressional representatives to support American democracy and not just vote based on partisan guesses about whether permitting voting to occur during a pandemic advantages one party or another. We voted during a Civil War, during World War II and during the last pandemic. We have to provide the means for all Americans to vote safely during this crisis.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, has objected to aiding state and local governments more generally, saying that they should go bankrupt. McConnell knows, however, that the states run elections, and allowing COVID-19 losses to destroy them would disrupt elections. If we are going to securely restart the economy and create conditions where voters can participate in our democracy without risking their lives, we need to rescue state and local governments from a crisis that they did not create. It is not the right time to let extreme anti-governmental ideology or partisan opposition to the core values of democracy determine our priorities.

We need Rep. John Katko to exercise strong leadership in this context. He should champion protection of American democracy and resist ideological extremism. He should fully support the $4 billion appropriation needed and emergency legislation to expand absentee and early balloting in the upcoming election. And he must support adequate funding for the Postal Service.

If we preserve our democratic institutions, our economy will recover at some point. But if we fail to safeguard our democracy during this crisis, we may never recover from its loss. Even if Trump does not use the coronavirus to try and postpone elections (as some fear), preserving sufficient unity for a functioning democracy to survive this crisis will require free, fair, and unimpaired elections in 2020. Congress must fully fund the elections and the postal service we inherited from the Founding Fathers.

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With Pennsylvania now on the path toward reopening its economy, a lot of questions weigh in the minds of state senators about what lies ahead in this ongoing battle against the coronavirus and how this reopening plan will work.

Members of the Senate Local Government and Health and Human Services committees on Monday began searching for answers at a joint hearing with representatives from Gov. Tom Wolfs administration as well as some local and health care officials.

Wolf announced on Friday 24 northcentral and northwestern counties will move into the yellow phase of this three-tiered color-coded reopening plan, starting this Friday. Those counties will still be asked to exercise caution and continue their social distancing practices, among other restrictions.

Here are some highlights from the testimony that was offered at the hearing:

Is this the new normal? Sen. Scott Martin, R-Lancaster County, who chairs the local government committee, pointed out past outbreaks of flus have resulted in high case counts, hospitalizations and deaths. He pointed the state didnt shut down for them and asked why is this virus different.

Is this the new normal in terms of what were going to do in terms of shutting down the economy, shutting down elective procedures at hospitals to the point where they could collapse and not being able to provide services? Martin asked a panel of local and health care officials.

Michael Ripchinski, chief clinical officer at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, replied that compared to other flus, COVID-19 is twice as contagious. In a population that doesnt practice social distancing, wear masks and practice good hand hygiene, the "speed by which others can get infected and then get sick is a lot faster, he said. Along with that, the virus effect on patients with other underlying health issues puts them more at risk for death.

Dr. Valerie Arkoosh, a Montgomery County commissioner, elaborated on Ripchinskis statement. She said, We have seen in this country in just two months more people killed than our decade-plus involvement in the Vietnam War so it just shows to what was just said, the infectivity of this virus and how quickly it can be deadly.

She also urged senators not to get caught up in the narrative about the virus resulting in far fewer deaths than the 2 million originally forecasted in this country.

That didnt happen because this entire country shut down and practiced extreme social distancing, Arkoosh said. "So it has been the collective action of people across this great country of ours that has kept the death toll where it is. I can guarantee you that if we just throw the doors open and head out about our business in the way we did two months ago, we will have a real problem on our hands in four to six weeks.

Focus on long-term living facilities: Since state health secretary Dr. Rachel Levine acknowledged that most of the coronavirus infections that occur in nursing homes and personal care facilities are introduced by staff, Sen. Scott Hutchinson, R-Venango County, asked why isnt there more of a targeted testing or quarantining response focused on their staff.

Something should be done to say you are a conduit and we have to nip that conduit in the bud in both directions, both in and out, Hutchinson said.

Levine said quarantining the staff would be challenging for several reasons. She cited their low pay and the staffing challenges those facilities already have. Plus, she said there are over 2,500 of those facilities across the state. Quarantining all of those workers is an interesting thought, she said.

As for testing, Levine said the staff is tested if they display symptoms of the virus. She said they talked about testing those employees once a week but the state doesnt have the capacity to test them everyday at this point.

But she added: We will consider all of those ideas.

Bringing in the Pennsylvania National Guard: The state has called on citizen soldiers to provide assistance to nursing homes and long-term care facilities that have experienced staffing shortages due to outbreaks of the coronavirus.

David Padfield, director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, said the Guards role is to try to stabilize the situation in those facilities so that it doesnt end up having an adverse impact on the health care system.

Ultimately if we get to a point where we have to evacuate these homes, they are ultimately going to impact the greater health care system so that they will use a lot of beds," Padfield said. "They will use a lot of other things in the health care system. So thats a concern of ours. So the key is to try to stabilize that the best we can.

Going yellow: Mercer County Commissioner Matt McConnell said on Wednesday morning that his county was still waiting on further guidance from the state about the resources being made available to counties that will move into the yellow phase of the governors reopening plan.

Most of the information has been to a lesser extent than the detail I would have liked, McConnell said.

For example, he said their Little League wanted to start its season. We believe that to be probably ill advised but were not getting clear direction out of the state on those type of activities, he said.

The Wolf Administration released some more guidance to the 24 counties entering this phase on Monday afternoon.

While he had some senators ear, McConnell used the opportunity to remind them when they hand down mandates without funding attached, it falls on the counties and thats where taxes will need to be raised.

Preparing for a second wave: Responding to a question from Sen. Art Haywood, D-Philadelphia, Levine said many of the models forecasting virus spread anticipate a surge of new cases in the fall so they are trying to prepare for that.

Right now, she said personal protective equipment is hard to come by and what it does receive is going out to long-term care facilities and those hospitals still very much affected in the red zone.

We do have a large number of n95 masks with two large shipments from the federal stockpile but they have told us at least right now not to expect surgical masks, not to expect gowns, and not to expect gloves. So the teams have been literally scouring Pennsylvania, the nation and the Earth to try to get those PPE equipment, Levine said. Hopefully, it things are quieter in the summer well be able to stockpile.

Levine said the governor has challenged his team with the aspirational goal of moving toward population-based mass testing this fall. Right now, that is not possible. Along with expanded antibody testing, she said they are working to develop robust contact tracing of positive COVID-19 cases to try to prevent the type of mass community spread that we saw in the spring.

What areas will open up next: Community and Economic Development Secretary Dennis Davin said the administration is looking at regions of the state as it decides which counties will be the next to start to reopen.

He said some counties in a region may not be able to open up but perhaps counties close to region could. Wolf said on Friday when announcing the initial 24 counties that will start to reopen, that he would be looking at counties in the southwest and southcentral parts of the state next.

But when it comes to the southeastern portion of the state, Levine said the governor has indicated he would be looking at that region in a more global way as opposed to individual counties.

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.

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Restaurants are hurting right now, and every little bit we can do to help is welcome. The Great American Takeout is encouraging everyone to participate in Takeout Tuesday each week, supporting our local favorite restaurants by ordering up some delicious food to enjoy at home. This week Takeout Tuesday coincided with Cinco de Mayo, so its about to be a fiesta around these parts.

On March 16, Governor Whitmer announced the closure of all dine-in services at Michigans restaurants, bars, breweries and distilleries. While restaurants are closed for sit-down dining, many of them have transitioned into take-out places in order to still serve great food to you, and to keep their staff employed during this difficult time.

This week, The Great American Takeout is encouraging you to order food from a Mexican restaurant, and to share a picture of your taco, burrito, enchilada or nachos on social media and youll be entered to win one of fifty-five $55 gift cards, courtesy of Land OLakes Foodservice and TABASCO brand. Share your picture, and use the hashtags #theGreatAmericanTakeout, #HVR, #sweepstakes in order to enter.

Please check out these regional lists of restaurants our local reporters have compiled from all over Michigan, places that are still open and have food available for take-out. Help support these places, and other Michigan restaurants, by ordering and tipping generously, if you can.

We are all in this together, and can get through it, one delicious dish at a time.

Take-out Tuesday May 5

Take-out Tuesday in Flint is a Cinco de Mayo edition

Take-out Tuesday: 5 Grand Rapids area spots to check out for Cinco de Mayo

Here are some Take-out Tuesday ideas to satisfy your cravings for Jackson specialities

Try these Ann Arbor restaurants for Take-out Tuesday

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo in Kalamazoo with Take-out Tuesday

Try Taste of Bay City for Cinco de Mayo and Take-out Tuesday

Take-out for Cinco de Mayo in Saginaw County

Take-out Tuesday in Muskegon features tacos and more

A few more Michigans Best restaurants have reopened this week.

Two of our favorites have reopened for take-out this week, and we wanted to give them a shout out. If you are in the area, please pay them a visit for some incredible food, that is truly some of Michigans Best.

Togos Subs-One of Michigans Best Subs

Open daily 11-7pm

1000 N 3rd St,Marquette, Michigan 49855

(906) 226-6535

Peepos Subs and Shwarma-one of our best sub nominees, and home to the AFRICANO

Open Monday-Saturday 11-7pm

10890 S Beech Daly, Taylor, Michigan 48180

(313) 299-9992

Stories that highlight how our communities are Powering Positivity are being done in partnership with The MediLodge Group, which has skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities throughout Michigan.
Qatars ambassador to Russia has debunked rumors of an alleged coup detat in the Gulf country after video footages circulated showing gunshots in streets.

Ambassador Fahad bin Mohammed Al-Attiyah told Russian state-run news agency TASS, the footages were fake.

Earlier, several youtube accounts and several social media networks circulated video footages of shooing and screams.

One of the footages showing gun shots fired on May 3 in Qatar was also proved fake by online media I love Qatar.

The outlet claimed the footage was related to gun shots fired near a palace in Saudi Arabia on April 22, 2018.
The Hulu/BBC Two drama Devs has gripped fans with its mind-bending imagining of Silicon Valleys dark underbelly.

The show has also made a breakout star of its British lead, Sonoya Mizuno, as tough and resourceful developer Lily Chan. Right now, the 33-year-old actress should be soaking up the buzz and planning her next move, but a sad set of circumstances has put everything on pause.

Mizunos Japanese father died suddenly in February so she flew out to Tokyo with her five other siblings  then the pandemic shut everything down. They have all been squashed in his two-bedroom house ever since.

Its been a really, really strange year, to say the least, she sighs down the phone, But Im definitely not the only one.

Getty Images

Mizunos chameleon-like ability to melt into a role means you might not immediately twig shes the same actress who played the flamboyant heiress Araminta in Crazy Rich Asians  remember the scene-stealing moment she floats down a water-filled aisle in couture?  or Emma Stones jazz-handing roommate Caitlin in La La Land.

Devs is her third project with the writer-director Alex Garland; he gave Mizuno her first acting break as disco-dancing robot Kyoko in 2014 movie Ex Machina. He is loyal to most people he works with, she says.

BBC/FX Networks

Prep for the show saw them visit the secretive Google X lab in Silicon Valley to meet real experts in quantum computing.

I didnt understand a single word, she laughs. You know an and would pop up every now and then  it was like they were talking in another language.

Devs examines the god complex of Silicon Valleys most powerful in the character of Lilys boss, Forest (Nick Offerman). Mizuno has her own fears about the accountability of tech giants. Though many are good people trying to use their technology for good she says. I am a bit fearful of it. Power is in the hands of people whose best interests might not be our best interests.

BBC/FX Networks

A highlight of the project for Mizuno was having her two older sisters on set  one is a stills photographer, the other an assistant director.

The trio worked on Garlands movie Annihilation. Some days wed be like, guys how did we trick the system, this is so fun! she laughs. But some days Id have to say to them, Dont look at me, dont talk to me, because I knew that theyd make me feel happy, and I need to be really sad.

Getty Images

The siblings have been through a lot. Mizuno grew up in rural Somerset, her parents separated when she was young, and her British-Argentinian mum died when she was 13.

Like some weird Von Trapp family they would sing The Sound of Music as they cleaned the house (We still do that, she says), put on plays and run around the field in pig s**t.

Her uncle, an actor, advised her to take up dancing as a route into performance, but I quickly fell in love with ballet, she says. She graduated from the Royal Ballet School and worked in a number of companies including Dresden Semperoper Ballet and the Scottish Ballet.

There was modelling work too, initially to pay the bills. She moved to Tokyo in her early twenties and found such a lucrative market for half-Japanese people  and [it] was a wonderful opportunity to spend some time in Japan and get to know my father, a graphic designer.

Mizuno in Crazy Rich Asians as Araminta / 2018 Warner Bros

She also found a connection with a culture she had never known as a child. Growing up so far away from it, my interaction with my Japanese identity was often through some kind of racial comment, she says.

She decided to make the leap into acting, walking away from a dancing job to audition for Ex Machina.

Despite some promising supporting roles, the past six years have been a hustle, she says. There have been many moments that Ive really considered stopping  I think thats quite normal for any actor because being out of work is not great for ones mentality, as we all know now.

The cast of "Crazy Rich Asians" at the Premiere in Los Angeles / Getty Images

After auditioning for Crazy Rich Asians, she wanted the part so much she sent director Jon M Chu an extra tape of herself doing Araminta.

The film was a watershed moment for Asian actors  and audiences. There were reports of audience members breaking down in tears in the cinema.

When we were filming I sensed that it was for us, for the ones doing it, because wed all had similar experiences in film. But I could never have anticipated the effect on other people, she says.

Mizuno says there are no plans for a season two of Devs, but Garland aims to bring the cast back together for a completely different story. Mizuno also started an Open University degree last year. She has lived between New York and the UK for several years but as her family is in London, shell base herself here after lockdown. Im thinking about growing vegetables, she says.

BBC Two, Wednesday, 9pm, and on iPlayer
Campaigners have called for the end of the fur trade after mink became the latest animals to become infected with coronavirus.

Two fur farms in the Netherlands have been put into quarantine after mink there tested positive for Covid-19.

The ferret-like animals, who were testing after showing signs of having trouble breathing, are believed to have been infected by employees who had the virus.

While the creation of new mink farms in the Netherlands was banned in 2013, existing fur farms have until 2024 to close.

The animal rights organisation Peta has written to ministers demanding the farms are shut immediately.

Allowing mink farms to maintain business as usual for nearly four more years  in the face of a global crisis stemming from animal exploitation  would be inexcusable from the perspective of both the risk posed to humans and the harm inflicted on the mink themselves, a letter from the organisation said.

Animal protection charity Humane Society International has warned that factory farming of tens of millions of mink, fox racoon dogs, chinchillas and rabbits in other countries presents an unnecessary and unacceptable risk for both human and animal health.

Claire Bass, executive director of Humane Society International/UK, said such factories were breeding grounds for infectious diseases where thousands of animals are confined in unsanitary, crowded and stressful conditions, with precious little veterinary care.

She added: One of the lessons we must learn from Covid-19 is that we cannot carry on pushing animals to the limit of their endurance without serious consequences for both animal and human health.

We urge the Netherlands and other countries in the process of phasing out fur farming to speed up their industry closures, and countries yet to commit to bans, including China and Finland, to do so now.

According to a report released by the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2016, 75 per cent of Chinas wildlife trade is dominated by fur production, with animals such as racoon dogs, foxes and mink commonly appearing at wildlife wet markets.
While Morton Grove veterans, scouts and residents will not be parading from the American Legion Memorial Civic Center to the library as they usually do on the last Sunday in May, they are still aiding military veterans and their families.
Augustine Mahiga speaks with Under-Secretary-General for Field Support Ameerah Haq (centre) after a meeting with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud in Mogadishu in November 2012.  UNHCR/UN Photo/Stuart Price

GENEVA  Tributes have flowed following the sudden death of Tanzanian Justice Minister and former top UNHCR official Augustine Mahiga, described as a great friend of UNHCR and steadfast advocate for refugees.

Noble man, inspirational figure, loving father, proud African, untiring advocate of human rights were just a handful of the plaudits paid to Mahiga, 74, who died on May 1 in Dar es Salaam after a short illness.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi led the accolades, calling Mahiga: a wise statesman, fine diplomat dedicated former UNHCR and UN colleague  and above all a profoundly good man and wonderful friend.

Mahiga served UNHCR during the 1990s - one of the most challenging periods in its history. He served as UNHCR Chief of Mission in Liberia during the civil war and from 1994-98 was coordinator for the Great Lakes region of Africa at headquarters. He also served in leadership positions in Asia and Europe.

I was saddened to learn of the passing of Augustine Mahiga, Minister of Constitutional and Legal Affairs of Tanzania: a wise statesman, fine diplomat, dedicated former UNHCR and UN colleague - and above all a profoundly good man and wonderful friend.



May he rest in peace. pic.twitter.com/Wa7Q5yrvzV  Filippo Grandi (@FilippoGrandi) May 1, 2020

From 2003-2010, he served as the Permanent Representative of Tanzania to the United Nations and from 2010-2013 as the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia. In 2015, he was appointed Tanzanias Foreign Minister and at the time of his death was Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.

Former colleagues throughout the organization spoke movingly of Mahigas commitment to his work and passion to help those forced to flee conflict and abuse.

Romani Urasa, UNHCR's Representative in Rwanda 1994-1998, described Mahiga as a very astute and skilled diplomat and tireless advocate for the cause of human rights.

He was a very diligent and hard-working man he helped UNHCR solve a number of seemingly intractable problems during a very difficult period, he recalled.

Urasa, a fellow Tanzanian who retired in 2002 after a 25-year career, said Mahiga had played a pivotal role as head of the Great Lakes unit at headquarters in Geneva in maintaining and building the agency's reputation as a respected and independent UN body in pre- and post-genocide Rwanda.

He was instrumental in helping Sadako Ogata (who was then High Commissioner) receive the praise she did for the organizations work during that difficult time. He also earlier played a hugely important role in Liberia, Urasa said. But he added that it would be as a proud African, role model and mentor for many younger staff, including many Africans, that Mahiga would also be fondly remembered.

Arjun Jain was one of those forever grateful for the experience of having worked alongside the Tanzanian diplomat.

I first met him in late-1998 when he was assigned to India as the UNHCR Country Representative," Jain recalled. "He always led by example  something that was critical for me to witness in my first ever job after law school. He treated everyone around him with immense respect and that had a profound effect on those around us.

"A huge and unexpected loss."

Currently based in New York as a Senior Policy Advisor, Jain recalled that Mahiga also made a point of inviting refugee groups to his office and spent hours listening to their concerns.

He always had time for them, and frequently represented their voices during his meetings with the government That too was a lesson that has held me in good stead these past years, he said.

However, it will be as a husband  he was married for 45 years to Elisabeth  and devoted father of three children that he will be most sorely missed.

Daughter Veronica followed her fathers footsteps into UNHCR.

He was a man of great honour and nobility who saw so much in his lifetime. He was such a great man, a truly great inspiration to me. Growing up I could not always understand why he did what he did. Later, it just became huge admiration, he totally inspired me, she declared. "It is a huge and unexpected loss, a terrible shock."

Friends and former colleagues also stress his human touch and speak of how he never forgot his roots.

Jain recalled the last time the two met in 2018, almost 20 years to the day since that first encounter in India.

By then, he was Tanzanian Foreign Minister, leading the government delegation to the General Assembly High Level Week He instantly recognized me, gave me a bear hug and we caught up in the 45 seconds we had to ourselves! In a very fatherly way, he said how very proud he was that I was still working with UNHCR. I had to take a selfie with him of course. I had a grin on my face for the rest of the day, he said.
Portland police confirmed two men were found dead from gunshot wounds in a Northeast Portland home Monday morning.

Police responded to reports of two people shot in the 13600 block of Northeast Milton Street shortly after 7:30 a.m., and found two men dead inside the home from apparent gunshot wounds. Officers said they also found the gun believed to have been used in the shooting.

Police said the two men knew each other, but officers did not disclose the nature of their relationship. Homicide detectives are investigating the deaths.

Police did not identify any suspects or mention anyone else involved in the shooting, but also did not specify whether they were investigating the shooting as murder-suicide. Officers said they do not believe the shooting poses a current threat to the community.

Police did not say if anyone else was in the home at the time of the shooting.

Police asked anyone with information about the shooting to call 503-823-0696 or email brad.clifton@portlandoregon.gov.

Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR

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As Trump Calls for Grid Security, Will Utilities Break With Beijing?

Commentary

President Donald Trump issued an unprecedented executive order on May 1, taking significant and long-overdue steps to remedy what the order described as a national emergency with respect to the threat to the United States bulk-power system.

The order identifies the grave threat to Americas electrical grid from malicious foreign actors through supply chain vulnerabilities and cyber threats, where outsourcing foreign parts and software leave the grid vulnerable to espionage and sabotage.

The need to have critical parts and equipment produced in the United States has been brought into stark relief during the ongoing Wuhan coronavirus crisis. Ensuring critical components and materials are produced by U.S. companies in the United States has, thankfully, always been a major agenda item for the president.

In the presidents executive order, the term foreign adversary means any foreign government or foreign non-government person engaged in a longterm pattern or serious instances of conduct significantly adverse to the national security of the United States or its allies or the security and safety of United States persons.

Trump didnt identify China as an adversary in his executive order, but over the past three-plus decades, the Chinese Communist Partys long-term pattern of conduct clearly indicates the threat posed by it to the security of the United States and our allies.

The presidents executive order comes after years of self-regulation of the bulk power electric system by the North American Electric Reliability Corp., its overseer the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and a resulting bureaucratic gridlock that has endangered the electric gridand every citizen of the United States, as thoroughly documented by retired U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Mabee.

The Edison Electric Institute (EEI), which represents nearly all investor-owned U.S. electric utilities and is among the most effective lobbying organizations for the entire utility industry, publicly commended Trump on his executive order, as reported in The Wall Street Journal. Tom Kuhn, the president of EEI, said the order reflects this ongoing collaboration with the federal government and provides new ways to mitigate threats to electric-sector critical infrastructure.

Unfortunately, though, it isnt only the federal government that EEI has ongoing collaboration with. EEI includes among its membership the China Southern Power Grid and State Grid Corp. of China. These EEI international members are state-owned corporations that have an obligation under Chinese law to support, assist and cooperate with the state intelligence work.

In the past, EEI opposed improved cybersecurity protection for grid infrastructure, downplayed the threat of electromagnetic pulse (EMP), and argued that companies violating federal Critical Infrastructure Protection standards should be withheld from public scrutiny. All of which make the grid more vulnerable to foreign adversaries, including China.

Chinas early efforts to deceive the world about the effects and origins of the recent pandemic, and the regimes ongoing drive to exploit the disaster, have shamed and embarrassed U.S. universities and biological laboratories that partnered with China prior to the outbreak. Utility providers and lobbyists should take a serious look at their collaboration with China before a similar disaster befalls Americas electrical grid.

On May 4, EEI released a short video titled Powering Through Together as a tribute to its members on the front lines keeping the lights on during the current pandemic. Indeed, we must all be grateful for the hard work of our electric utilities to keep the power flowing to our hospitals and homes.

At the same time, we must also expect that the leaders of these utilities and their lobbying associations prioritize their security as much as their profits and public image. Trump just gave them the top cover to do this, so now is the time for them to break with communist China. Will they?

Tommy Waller serves as director of infrastructure protection at the Center for Security Policy. Waller currently manages the Secure the Grid Coalitiona group of policymakers, defense professionals, and activists working diligently to secure Americas most critical infrastructurethe U.S. electric grid. Learn more at SecureTheGrid.com

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Regular Press Conference of the Ministry of National Defense on Apr. 30

PLA Daily

Source: Ministry of National Defense

Editor: Yang Tao

2020-05-04 16:42:09

(The following English text of the press conference is for reference. In case of any divergence of interpretation, the Chinese text shall prevail.)

Question: The military medical teams to Hubei have recently returned after successfully accomplishing their tasks. Could you please tell us what achievements the military has made in supporting the fight against COVID-19? And what's your comment?

Answer: With the approval of President Xi Jinping, also Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the military medical teams to Hubei have successively returned after accomplishing their tasks. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the whole military has resolutely implemented the decisions and orders of the CPC Central Committee, CMC, and President Xi Jinping, and lived up to its duties and missions regardless of daunting difficulties, making a great contribution to winning the people's war against the virus. The military medical teams came to Hubei on January 24 and withdrew on April 16 from the three designated hospitals under their charge. Thanks to their arduous efforts for more than 80 days, great results have been achieved while not a single team member was infected.

First, the task of curing COVID-19 patients was successfully accomplished. Wuhan-based Huoshenshan Hospital, Wuhan Taikang Tongji Hospital, and Guanggu Branch of Hubei Maternal and Child Health Hospital provided 2,856 sickbeds, received 7,198 confirmed COVID-19 patients in total, and cured 346 patients aged over 80, the oldest being 100 years old. The Huoshenshan Hospital created a record of receiving 421 patients in a single day.

Second, important progress was made in scientific research. Scientists at the PLA Academy of Military Sciences worked against time on scientific research breakthroughs and the recombinant COVID-19 vaccine they developed has passed registration and review for clinical research and entered the second phase of clinical trials, playing a critical role in winning the battle against the virus.

Third, rich experience in epidemic prevention and control was garnered. While scientifically treating the patients, the military also makes a point of gathering experience in medical treatment, nursing, prevention and control, and logistic support, so as to lay a solid foundation for next-step virus containment and international cooperation in this field.

We strongly believe that under the firm leadership of the CPC Central Committee, CMC, and President Xi, the Chinese military and people will certainly defeat the virus and achieve the final victory in this grave war through concerted efforts and unity.

Question: As COVID-19 is still spreading across the world, many countries have asked China for help. Please brief us on the foreign assistance provided by the Chinese military.

Answer: China highly appreciates the help and assistance that many foreign defense authorities and militaries have provided to us since the outbreak of the epidemic. "You give me a peach, and I will return you a white jade for friendship." It is China's traditional virtue to repay goodwill with greater kindness. Upholding the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind advocated by President Xi Jinping, the Chinese side has provide the international community with assistance as its capacity permits while continuing to promote domestic epidemic prevention and control.

As of April 30, the Chinese military has provided material aid or sent medical experts to a number of foreign militaries, namely Iran, Pakistan, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Lebanon. Medical experts of the Chinese military have also held video conferences with their counterparts in Pakistan, Singapore and Russia to share experience on pandemic control.

The virus knows no borders. All countries in the world live in a community with a shared future and face a common enemy of the pandemic. Only through unity can the world defeat the enemy. The Chinese military will continue to strengthen disease control and prevention cooperation with the defense authorities and militaries of other countries, and stand with them to overcome the difficulties, so that we can drive away the pandemic through cooperation and protect our common homeland through concerted efforts.

Question: China and Pakistan, as well as their militaries, have had frequent interactions since the COVID-19 outbreak to give each other strong support. Could you please brief us on that and make a comment?

Answer: China and Pakistan are good friends, neighbors, partners, and brothers. Mutual help is a tradition between the two countries and the two militaries. As "iron brothers", we can achieve great things with the same mind.

We will not forget that when China was at the most difficult time of fighting the disease, Pakistan's state and military leaders wrote us letters of sympathy at the first opportunity and Pakistani President Arif Alvi paid a special visit to China. The Pakistani government and society did their very best to help us.

Likewise, the Chinese people are concerned about the pandemic in Pakistan now. The Chinese government and military have provided batches of medical supplies to Pakistan and sent experts to help contain the spread of the virus. Medical experts in the two militaries also held video conferences to share experience in COVID-19 prevention and control.

Only the toughest grass can stand strong winds. People of worth show their morality during hardships. China and Pakistan have an all-weather strategic partnership of cooperation, which means they will always stand by each other.

We firmly believe that bilateral and mil-to-mil relations between the two countries will embrace new and greater developments through the joint battle against COVID-19.

Question: Since the COVID-19outbreak, the US defense and military leaders have repeatedly accused China of withholding information, claiming that the information from the Chinese Communist Party has misled the public. What is your comment on that?

Answer: Since the COVID-19 broke out, some politicians in the US, including US defense leaders, have been continuously attacking China in an attempt to stigmatize it. China is firmly opposed to that.

China has maintained an open, transparent, and responsible attitude in the fight against the COVID-19. We notified the WHO of the pandemic, shared the genome sequencing of the virus, and carried out international cooperation in pandemic containment, all at the earliest time possible. What China has done is widely appreciated by the international community.

Some American politicians' eager attempt to shift the blame is completely out of political and personal purposes, which is extremely selfish and irresponsible. China's position on this has always been clear and consistent - we will not take the blame for the US.

You mentioned the Community Party of China in your question. I must emphasize that the CPC has served as the mainstay during the fight against the COVID-19. The CPC Central Committee has exercised firm leadership. President Xi Jinping, the core of the CPC Central Committee, ccommander-in-chief of the military and leader of the people, has personally directed and deployed the national response. CPC branches at all levels have acted proactively with a strong sense of responsibility, and CPC members have been working on the front line. Almost all of the PLA supporting team members are CPC members. If you know something about Chinese history, you will understand that the CPC comes from the people, takes roots among the people, and serves the people. CPC and Chinese people are of one mind and share a common destiny. Any attempt to disrupt or sever the ties between the Party and the people are doomed to failure.

The pandemic is a touchstone and a magic mirror that reveals the true and the false, the right and the wrong, the kind and the vicious. Only through unity and cooperation can we defeat the pandemic. China stands ready to join hands with all the peoples in the world, including the American people, who love peace, pursue justice, and aspire for a beautiful life to win this global war against the virus.

Question: According to Japanese media, Japan's Minister of Defense Taro Kono mentioned the task force of Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning passing through the Miyako Strait in his recent speech, saying that in past few years, the Chinese military has been increasingly active and as a result, the responding frequency of Japanese Self-Defense Force's scrambling fighter jets has been rising since 2019. He also commented that China's operations are extremely disgraceful in the context of the international cooperation against the COVID-19. What is your comment?

Answer: The Chinese military conducted training exercises in accordance with the annual training plan, which is in full compliance with international laws and practice. The accusations from the Japanese side are totally unjustified and highly inappropriate. The Chinese military will continue to organize training exercises in relevant air and sea areas in accordance with the law.

Question: Recently, we noticed the news that the military medical teams to Hubei quietly withdrew. There were neither police cars escorting them, nor people lining the road to see them off. Some netizens said they "rushed to help in winter snow and left quietly in the spring breeze." Some netizens also noticed on social media the clean and spotless hospitals, the orderly-positioned medical equipment, and the neatly arranged personal bedding they left behind. There were comments saying it reflected the return of the fine tradition of the Red Army in a new era. Do you have any comment on this?

Answer: With the joint efforts of the whole nation, there have been positive results in disease prevention and control and the most difficult time has passed. We owe this achievement to the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, to the great strength of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, to the growing overall national strength since reform and opening up, and to the unity of the people and the military.

With regard to the quiet withdrawal you mentioned, I would like to underline that the PLA is a people's military under the absolute leadership of the CPC. Serving the people wholeheartedly is the purpose of our military and a glorious tradition passed down from generation to generation. In the face of the people's interests, the military will always follow the Party's command, be able to fight and win battles, and stick to a good style of conduct. Quiet withdrawal is a true portrayal of the close relationship between the people and the army.

Question: Many touching stories of the PLA medics are circulating online during the pandemic. Their strong will, bravery, and dedication moved many people and also inspired many to join the military and serve the country. Could you please introduce the overall conscription arrangement of this year?

Answer: Based on the overall plan of national disease prevention and control and with the approval of the State Council and the CMC, conscription in the first half of this year has been postponed to the second half, with the recruitment task merged to be completed in the second half. At present, the conscription registration for the second half-year has started. People of draft age can visit the official website designated by the Conscription Office of the MND, National Conscription Website (http://www.gfbzb.gov.cn), to register. The online registration for females will start at the end of June. Those who have registered in the first half-year and eligible for recruitment will automatically be registered for the second half. The deadline for registration is August 15. Male college graduates can register any time before the deadline and visit local conscription stations for medical examination.

We welcome more aspiring young people to join the big family of the armed forces, and make their efforts to create a better future for the motherland, contribute to the military and be the most-admired people in the new era.

Question: The US State Department issued an arms control report claiming that China may have conducted a secret underground nuclear test recently. Could you please confirm that and what's your comment?

Answer: The US report is not true and is full of fabricated facts. On international arms control, unlike the US, China has always been faithful to its commitments and true to its words.

Question: It is reported that the Chinese military sent military aircraft to transport medical supplies to Pakistan. The mission was conducted by China's indigenous Y-20 large military transport aircraft, nicknamed "Chubby Girl" by fellow netizens. Comment has it that it was Y-20's first overseas mission. Please confirm it.

Answer: Thanks for your interest. It is true that Y-20 large military transport aircraft were deployed to transport medical supplies and Chinese expert teams to Pakistan. It marked the first overseas mission of Y-20. The official name of the "Chubby Girl" as you mentioned is "Kunpeng". Like Kunpeng, a mythical bird that can fly for thousands of miles, I firmly believe Y-20 will play a greater role in the military.

Question: It was reported that the US military recently conducted frequent military operations in the sea and air areas surrounding China. US warships and aircraft conducted training for several consecutive days in the South China Sea and had military drills with the Australian Navy. What's your comment on this?

Answer: We pay close attention to and stay highly vigilant about the movements of the US and Australian forces. For some time, some countries outside the region such as the US and Australia have frequently carried out military activities in the South China Sea to strengthen their military presence in the region. This approach is not conducive to the security and stability in the South China Sea and we are firmly opposed to this. Facts have repeatedly proved that the US is the biggest promoter of militarization in the South China Sea and a troublemaker for regional peace and stability. The PLA has always maintained a high degree of vigilance and will resolutely defend national sovereignty, security and development interests, and resolutely safeguard regional peace, stability, and prosperity.

Question: The US Naval Institute (USNI) Journal recently published an article saying that the US should issue letters of marque to the privateers, which allows the privateers to capture the Chinese merchant ships and goods when bilateral conflicts occur between China and the US. What is your comment?

AnswerThe so-called "letters of marquee" is actually an act of piracy and a criminal activity forbidden in international laws. The activity is opposed and by the international community. In today's society, it is appalling that someone encourage piracy activities and there was a journal publish these ideas. The international community should stay vigilant to the power politics and the Law of the Jungle mindsets behind such words and deeds.

Question: As a result of the COVID-19, the national college entrance examination in 2020 will be postponed. Many senior high school students preparing for the exam are concerned whether there will be corresponding adjustments to the 2020 military college enrollment policies and plans? Please brief us on it.

Answer: The national college entrance examination for 2020 will be postponed for one month. The enrollment of military colleges will follow the overall requirements of national disease prevention and control. The political assessment, physical examination, interviews, admission and other arrangements will follow the territorial principle, and be jointly determined by the enrollment offices of provincial military command and provincial authorities under the guidance of local party committees and government.

In 2020, the enrollment of all military colleges will further promote the "sunshine initiative" in college entrance exams, and strictly implementing the seven transparent requirements concerning policy and regulation, admission plan, qualification, exam result, admission information, complaint channels and violation handling. During the pandemic, we will unify competitive resources and take advantage of the "Sunshine Initiative" website of the Ministry of Education, PLA Daily, WeChat official account and other multimedia platforms to promote enrollment publicity on the Internet. Enrollment information will be published and interpreted through out the process to ensure openness and fairness.

Question: Will there be any corresponding adjustment to the entrance examination of military academies designated for enlisted personnel in 2020?

Answer: This year's academic examination for the admission of enlisted personnel to military schools is scheduled to be held from July 7 to 8 and the examinations on common military subjects, in principle, will be held no earlier than June 1. The arrangement has been made to keep in alignment with the requirements of national disease prevention and control, and to ensure orderly and smooth admission. The examinations on common military subjects will be organized by the theater commands, services, Academy of Military Sciences, National Defense Universities, National University of Defense Technology and the People's Armed Police Force separately. They will take place in units of or above division/brigade level at their convenience or in the forms of examination tour.

Question: Taiwan media reported that Taiwan "defense officials" recently claimed that the PLA has threatened the island by offensive words and show of force. They said that Taiwan is well prepared for any potential war between the two sides across the Strait. What is your comment?

Answer: Taiwan is an integral part of China. The PLA organized related military operations to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity and protect the well-being of compatriots in Taiwan from "Taiwan independence" attempts. They are not targeted at the compatriots in Taiwan, but at a small number of "Taiwan independence" separatists and their activities. I should emphasize that any attempt to resist reunification with force is doomed to failure and will damage the interests of the Chinese nation.

Question: At present, China's disease prevention and control situation is gradually improving. However, the task of maintaining the momentum and preventing a rebound is still heavy. What prevention and control tasks are being undertaken by the military and what will be the focus of the military in the future?

Answer: At present, COVID-19 is basically contained in China. In accordance with the decision of the CPC Central Committee and the CMC, the Chinese military has been following the development of the pandemic and implementing regular control and prevention measures. We will continue to play an active role in the fight against COVID-19.

First, we will strengthen the pandemic prevention and control of overseas military personnel, establish and improve the response mechanism, strictly strengthen personnel management and control, and do a good job in material collection and medical treatment. Second, we will make efforts to strengthen disease prevention and control at border areas, and increase medical preparedness. Third, we will promote international military cooperation in disease control and prevention and provide strong support for the armed forces of relevant countries by sending experts and medical supplies and hosting video conferences. Fourth, we will carry out a patriotic public health campaign within the military and launch the 32nd patriotic public health month under the theme of "promoting traditions, eradicating bad habits and fostering new habits".

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An international team led by Emory scientists has gained insight into the pathological mechanisms behind two devastating neurodegenerative diseases. The scientists compared the most common inherited form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia (ALS/FTD) with a rarer disease called spinocerebellar ataxia type 36 (SCA36).

Both of the diseases are caused by abnormally expanded and strikingly similar DNA repeats. However, ALS progresses quickly, typically killing patients within a year or two, while the disease progression of SCA36 proceeds more slowly over the course of decades. In ALS/FTD it appears that protein products can poison cells in the nervous system. Whether similar protein products exist in SCA36 was not known.

What Zachary McEachin, PhD and Gary Bassell, PhD from Emory's Department of Cell Biology, along with a team of collaborators at Emory, Mayo Florida, and internationally from Spain and Japan, discovered have provided a new paradigm for thinking about how aberrant protein species are formed. Despite the disparate clinical outcomes between these diseases, this research could broaden the avenue of research toward genetically targeted treatments for such related neurodegenerative diseases.

Their study, published Tuesday in Neuron, provides a guide to types of protein gobbledygook that build up in brain cells in both disorders, and which should be reduced if the new mode of treatment is working in clinical trials.

"We are thinking of these diseases as genetic doppelgangers," says McEachin, a postdoctoral fellow in Bassell's lab. "By that, I mean they are genetically similar, but the neurodegeneration progresses differently for each disease. We can use this research to understand each of the respective disorders much better -- and hopefully help patients improve their quality of life down the road with better treatments."

An estimated 16,000 people in the United States have ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. The most common inherited form of ALS/FTD occurs because there is an abnormally expanded repeat of six DNA "letters" stuck into a gene called c9orf72.

Some of the degeneration of motor neurons comes from the expanded repeat being made into proteins that repeat two amino acids over and over. It's like a printing press being forced to print entire pages of "GPGPGPGP", "GAGAGAGA"..." or "PRPRPRPR" In c9 ALS, those proteins are thought to build up inside brain cells and poison them. A striking finding is that in c9 ALS, there are others chimeric variants e.g. "GAGAGAGPGPGP" suggesting these toxic proteins are more complex than previously thought.

"A major goal in the field has been to identify and characterize the various types of pathological aggregates that accumulate in patient brains as 'bad actors' that cause neurodegeneration," Bassell says. "Here we identify fundamental differences in this process for these two neurological diseases with disparate clinical outcomes. I think this is a paradigm shift for how heterogenous this process is in ALS and points to possible therapeutic strategies that might mitigate multiple bad actors simultaneously."

The two diseases (c9 form of ALS and SCA36) both have abnormally expanded 6-letter genetic repeats, but the letters that are being repeated are different. McEachin was able to show that the nonsensical protein products from the expanded repeats aggregate in c9 ALS patients' cells but do not in SCA36. He says it was surprising because the proteins were predicted to be similar in the two diseases.

"Studying the differences in the aberrant proteins gives insight into both diseases," McEachin says.

SCA36, one of several types of SCA, is a condition characterized by progressive problems with movement that typically begins in mid-adulthood. They also develop hearing loss and muscle twitches over time, including losing the ability to move their tongue. Their legs, forearms and hands atrophy as the condition worsens.

The mutation for SCA36 was discovered around same time as the c9 form of ALS/FTD in 2011. The ALS/FTD discovery has since formed the basis for myriad studies implicating these toxic protein aggregates as contributing drivers of disease in ALS and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

"The genetic overlap was known, however the rate limiting step in studying SCA36 has been the availability of patient samples," says McEachin.

He traveled to Spain and Japan where there are known pedigrees of SCA36 patients to learn more about the disorder. To obtain SCA36 patient samples, the authors reached out to neurologists Maria-Jesus Sobrido, MD and Manuel Arias, MD at the Hospital Clinico Universitario in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and neurologist Koji Abe, MD of Okayama University in Japan.

Emory University's ALS Clinic, directed by Jonathan Glass, MD, a close collaborator on this study, is the largest in the southeast and has curated a substantial biorepository of C9orf72 ALS and FTD biospecimens, including those used in this study.

"The study would not have been possible without the interest of these clinicians and willingness of their patients to participate," McEachin says. "We are truly grateful for their collaboration as this study wouldn't have been possible otherwise."

The authors also worked in collaboration with Leonard Petrucelli, PhD, and Tania Gendron, PhD at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, who developed specialized antibodies to analyze the nonsensical protein products. Wilfried Rossoll, PhD now at Mayo Clinic, formerly at Emory, was also a collaborator.

In a separate paper released the same day in Cell Reports, these finding were further supported by similar observations in a novel mouse model of SCA36 generated by Leonard Petrucelli, Wilfried Rossoll and colleagues at Mayo. McEachin and Bassell were also co-authors on this manuscript.

A new technology for treating diseases with expanded DNA repeats - including Huntington's disease and myotonic dystrophy, as well as some forms of ALS and SCA -- is emerging. "Antisense oligonucleotides" can be delivered to the nervous system and shut down production of the toxic proteins. The Emory ALS clinic is participating in some of the ASO clinical trials.

"We think our analysis will guide future research into potential treatments, for example, by developing drugs that can best target these related aggregation-prone molecules," Bassell says.

###

Other collaborators involved in this study include Jie Jiang, Chadwick Hales, Thomas Kukar, Zhexing Wen and Nicholas Boulis from Emory University, Malu Tansey from the University of Florida, Brent Fogel from the University of California-Los Angeles, Susana Teijeira from the Universitario de Vigo (Spain), Nathalie Streichenberger from Hospices Civils de Lyon (France), Ryuichi Ohkubo from Fujimoto General Hospital (Japan), and Toru Yamashita from Okayama University (Japan).

Grant support was provided by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R21 NS114908) and the Emory University Training and Research in Translational Neurology Training Grant (2T32 NS007480-15).
A statement of Health Minister of Ukraine Maksym Stepanov that the healthcare financing reform will be revised means de facto the denial of the reform, and there will not be the improvement of the situation in healthcare, ex-deputy health minister Pavlo Kovtonyuk has said.

"This is de facto the denial of the reform. They leave the National Health Service of Ukraine, but actually turn it into a transmitter of the subvention, return to financing on the principle of simply giving out money to everyone," he told Interfax-Ukraine.

Kovtonyuk said that the "revision of the reform" will not improve the situation in healthcare and will only lead to a reduction in the financing of clinics, which, thanks to better preparation and efforts, were able to increase their financing.

"The ministry will not receive negative messages, but those clinics that tried to do something, prepared, tried to work well and received more funding, now will receive less. We always have better ones who pay for populism, for paying to those who did not prepare and did not apply any effort," he said.

At the same time, Kovtonyuk said that there are mechanisms to cancel the reform, which can be applied if there is a consolidated political will. In particular, it will be necessary to amend the law on government financial guarantees (the law on healthcare reform) and the law on the national budget.

"It is a matter of price. It is a matter of effort. They will probably have to change the law for this, at least the budget law. But if there is already some kind of consolidated will to do this, I think that this will not stop them. With the previous two the ministers they didn't have such consolidation, the ministers did not take any obvious positions, therefore the reform continued. Now, I see that the minister has the support," Kovtonyuk said.

At the same time, he said that at present, the budget does not have the funds for the changes announced by Minister Stepanov, in particular, there are no funds to allocate an additional UAH 11 billion to increase the salaries for doctors.

"The authorities will hide behind the fact that now COVID-19, that we are spending additional resources, but it's not yet known where to get additional resources, and the finance minister does not know where to get UAH 11 billion, the minister does not know anything about this either, as I spoke to him, not to mention 6% of GDP," Kovtonyuk said.

The former deputy health minister believes that the decisions voiced by Stepanov "actually turn the National Health Service into a transmitter of subvention."

He also doubts that such changes will last until the autumn.

"You don't even need to be a finance minister to understand that in April our economy fell by 4%, that it will fall in May and will fall all summer. They would not have an additional UAH 11 billion, but they would remove something from healthcare at the end of the year to pay pensions. These are all reasons to cancel the reforms," he said.

"We can talk about the abolition of healthcare reform. In form, it will be the National Health Service, but in fact the National Health Service will be just to tell the IMF, donors, the World Bank that we have not killed the National Health Service and a kind of reform is going on. This is not the first government that thinks that the IMF is fools. In fact, we are returning to a subvention, because there is no other way that we went," the ex-deputy health minister said.
Soldiers who turn to crowdfunding websites to solve COVID-19-related financial troubles may end up breaking Army standards of conduct, according to an Army legal expert.

The novel coronavirus pandemic has caused economic hardship to spread across the country, prompting businesses to cut back and unemployment to rise. Soldiers are still getting paid, but spouses may not be so lucky.

Related: Record-Breaking Unemployment Signals Hard Times Ahead for Veterans

That's why the Army recently put out a reminder to soldiers that they should stay away from crowdsourcing sites like GoFundMe or Kickstarter as a quick way to raise money.

"It is problematic for soldiers to solicit funds or gifts on crowdsourcing platforms," John Kent, associate deputy general counsel at the Army Office of General Counsel, told Military.com.

For starters, soldiers are not allowed to use their status as a member of the U.S. Army to solicit money for themselves or someone they know, Kent said. They cannot accept money from "prohibited sources," such as most defense contractors or 501(c)(3) charitable organizations.

This means it's usually a bad idea to work with crowdsourcing sites that typically don't give out this information, Kent said.

"It's difficult or problematic and sometimes you can't even ... identify who [is] actually making the donations on those crowdsourcing solicitations that go out," Kent said.

"You've got this base rule that precludes you from accepting gifts based on your status as a soldier ... when you crowdsource, you are going to get donations from lots of people and if you are identified as a soldier, we are going to tell you, 'hey, you probably can't accept that.'"

The same rules apply if a neighbor sets up a crowdsourcing fundraiser for a soldier who is suffering from financial troubles, Kent said.

"It's still going to be a problem, because when the sergeant comes to us and says, 'hey, look someone started a GoFundMe thing, and they are offering me $5,000,'" Kent said. "We would have to dig into it ... how did they identify themselves? Show us the crowdsourcing solicitation. What do they say?

"And if they say 'hey, help an Army [noncommissioned officer] out. He's going through financial troubles; his wife has been laid off because of COVID-19. Send your money in his name.' ... "Well, we would say it looks to me like you have tied your affiliation to the U.S. Army to the solicitation."

The rules, however, can be different if soldiers are trying to help each other in troubled times, Kent said.

"There are rules that cover the solicitation of donations or seeking of funds ... amongst federal employees," he said. "You cannot solicit a contribution for an official superior or accept a gift from an employee receiving less pay."

In general, federal employees cannot solicit money for another federal employee, nor can they accept money in that situation, but there are exceptions known as "a special and infrequent occasion," Kent said.

"Let's say the specialist's wife had gotten sick and the family was going through some hard times," Kent said. "There is an exception that would allow federal employees to donate money to help that specialist because of his family's situation based on that exception."

There was a case in Virginia that involved an Army captain's house being destroyed by a falling tree during a storm, Kent said.

"The question I got was, can we have a collection among the people in this directorate to help this captain out based on what has happened. And yeah, you can accept food, clothing and whatnot, to include cash, because it meets this exception of special and infrequent occasion. We can allow an NCO to contribute to a captain under that specific exclusion," Kent said.

If soldiers are uncertain about the rules, they should talk to a government attorney who deals with ethical issues, Kent said.

"We are always happy to try to get the rules out there and explain to people how things work," Kent said. "We don't want you to spin your wheels and do something where you have to give it back, but there also may be ways you can do it, and we'd like to work that out for you in advance."

Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.

Read More: F-15 Skids to a Stop During Emergency Landing at Andrews
"Yes, a really ideal setting for suspense..." British film director Alfred Hitchcock at the The Gap on May 6, 1960. Credit:John O'Gready

Mr Hitchcock, famous Hollywood film and TV producer, went out to see The Gap on Friday.

Alfred Hitchock thinks Sydney's Gap would be "ideal" for a suspense movie.

A better use for The Gap

First published in The Sydney Morning Herald on May 8, 1960

He took an umbrella with him. "Just in case I decide to float over the edge," he explained.

"Before I make a picture I must always experience the hero's emotions myself."

Over he goes

He poised his rolypoly figure on a railing of the safety fence and looked down at the seas breaking on the rocks hundreds of feet below.

The westerly blew his umbrella inside out; the renowned chins and jowl quivered with the cold.
LONDON, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- HMA, the net neutrality and anti-censorship campaigner, today announced that it has introduced a No Logging Policy (NLP) to improve user privacy. The move forms part of a broader initiative by the company to become a privacy champion that will also tackle challenges such as user tracking by advertiser networks.

In November 2019, HMA took a first step towards deepening its commitment to online privacy by ceasing to collect the exact IP addresses of its users. The new NLP announced today further enhances HMA's promise to its privacy-focused users to be the VPN of choice by offering total privacy along with speed and access. The NLP will be audited by third-party cybersecurity consulting firm VerSprite, which will verify the disconnection of online usage and transmission data from personally identifiable information (PII) that HMA stores for legal and billing purposes. This ensures that all online user activity remains private, even from HMA.

Andrei Mochola, Commercial Director at HMA, said, "The VPN industry has been struggling with a trust issue. Consumers are unknowingly handing over their data to VPN companies with unclear ownership based in jurisdictions with questionable consumer protection laws. There are VPN providers claiming to offer no logging when all they are offering is IP protection. The point of difference with the new HMA No Logging Policy is that transparency is the foundation upon which it was built."

"As we enter a new chapter at HMA, our No Logging Policy is not the ceiling but the floor of our ambition. We will add new privacy features such as advertiser anti-tracking which solves a very real problem for users, but currently goes beyond the scope of a traditional VPN. We see taking such steps as important for us to maintain our fight against censorship and we will continue to innovate to become a champion of privacy in the VPN market."

The No Logging Policy applies to HMA for Windows, Mac, Android, AndroidTV, iOS, Linux. Read more here.

HMA VPN has over 1,000 servers in 290+ locations across 190 countries - the largest selection of server locations in the VPN market. It is available to download from www.hmavpn.com.

About HMA

HMA helps millions of people all over the world to safely and securely enjoy the internet, preserving our fundamental right to choose how and when we share personal information. HMA has more than 1,000 servers in over 290 locations in over 190 countries and is a global company based in London with offices in the UK, Czech Republic, and Serbia.

In 2016, HMA was acquired by Avast (LSE:AVST), a global leader in digital security products, which has added HMA VPN to its existing portfolio of security software and services.

HMA is a champion of net neutrality and a committed anti-censorship campaigner. It believes strongly that everyone should be entitled to freedom of association and open access to online information.

SOURCE HMA

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Downtown in the shadow of the coronavirus was a virtual dead zone Monday despite Gov. Greg Abbotts tentative steps to reopen the Texas economy.

Most street-level restaurants, including once-bustling eateries such as La Panaderia and Rosella at the Rand, remained closed, their owners apparently unwilling to reopen under the governors new order, which allows them to operate at 25 percent capacity.

Not that many would have come; the streets lay mostly empty at the lunch hour, save for a smattering of stray wanderers.

Very little has opened downtown, said Jessica Probost, owner of Royal Blue Grocery on Houston Street. Without tourism and without all the downtown workers, its just not  office workers are not going back. I think most businesses just dont feel comfortable yet. Its not time. Theyre not ready for it.

As an essential business, Royal Blue stayed open through the shutdown. But it almost feels slower since the reopening, Probost said.

Beyond its urban core, the city was scarcely more vibrant.

Other than grocery shoppers  all donning face coverings  at Whole Foods and Trader Joes, the Alamo Quarry Market was largely deserted Monday afternoon.

STAY SAFE SAN ANTONIO WE WILL BE BACK, read a marquee on the front of the Regal Alamo Quarry, a movie theater that had yet to reopen despite the governors blessing.

Most of the stores were shuttered as well.

Kin Man Hui /Staff photographer

Shopping carts blocked the glass sliding doors that looked into the empty Nordstrom Rack. Just one vehicle waited in front of Pottery Barns curbside order sign. Sephoras entire storefront was boarded up with black plywood  with the exception of a sign on each door reading, A precautionary measure due to COVID-19.

Learning Express Toys had opened its doors, but only three to six customers a day have come to shop there since Friday, said Cindy French, the stores manager. Customers are screened with a contact-less thermometer and must wear a face covering to enter the store.

I think a lot of people are still scared to venture out, she said, adding that most of the stores business is from curbside orders.

Richard Perez, president of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, said he expects that people will slowly begin to return to restaurants and retail establishments in greater numbers as fear of the virus begins to lift.

I do think that is the key, Perez said. Because people are concerned still.

Downtown, most businesses wont see a boost until offices reopen, he added.

My organization, everyones still working from home, Perez said. I think just about every single office downtown is doing the same  that is, everyone is working remotely  and not until they start coming back in greater numbers do I think other businesses will start opening up.

Despite ongoing spread of the virus, Will Holshouser wasnt too scared Monday to dine in at Fratellos Italian Market & Deli for lunch. The local financier took comfort in the total number of confirmed cases in Bexar County  1,652 as of Monday.

When you look at the numbers of infections in Bexar County, were very low, he said. So the question is, playing the odds, what are the likelihoods that we would catch it, and what is the likelihood that I, as a healthy 40-year-old, would succumb to it? These are all very low odds. And so, Im comfortable playing those odds.

Inside the Broadway deli, tables and chairs were piled in a corner and covered with a black tablecloth, leaving space for social distancing. A sign on the entrance read, You must wear a face covering at all times inside the building (except when dining at your table).

But Holshouser and three of his colleagues, all in dress shirts and ties, had not brought along any masks.

Aaron Retersdorf, another well-dressed co-worker, emerged from the restaurant.

So were trying to order, he said. You have to wear a mask when youre at the table.

A waitress came outside.

How many of yall dont have masks, three? she said, handing out some face coverings to the financiers. Ill give you these and grab another.

A few blocks south, at the Pearl, a family of three strolled aimlessly on the street, removing masks made uncomfortable by the heat. Two sunbathers stretched on the green lawn  now open to the public after weeks of being roped off with yellow caution tape, but with a sign indicating that no more than 40 people are allowed on its surface.

Josie Norris, The San Antonio Express-News / Staff Photographer

But there was none of the hustle and bustle once typical of the Pearl district, home to numerous restaurants and hundreds of apartments for the young and affluent.

There was one change: a faint hum. It came from the Boiler House, which was playing music again and was one of only two restaurants that appeared to have resumed seating customers.

The other was Green Vegetarian Cuisine, where waitress Gabriela Gonzalez Rios, 20, was celebrating her first day back at work since the pandemic hit. She said she was laid off March 18. Last week, shortly after Abbotts announcement, she got a call with an offer to return to work. She said over a dozen other former employees also were hired back.

Its so nice to see faces again that arent my family, she said, wearing a white mask adorned with sequins.

Around 4 p.m. Monday, she said that only about a dozen people had entered the restaurant. The bulk of orders were still curbside or delivery.

People are for the most part staying in. It sucks for us, but on the other hand, theyre following the rules and staying safe, she said.

Back downtown, more restaurants had reopened along the tourist-driven River Walk than at street level. Iron Cactus Mexican Grill & Margarita Bar had been bustling Sunday, general manager James Reynosa said.

We did like $6,000 in sales, he said. There were a lot of people from Austin, Laredo. Some people were coming in to do shopping from the small towns. They come in to eat on the River Walk.

Many of the reopened restaurants  Rainforest Cafe, Joes Crab Shack, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.  are operated by Landrys Inc., whose owner, billionaire Tilman Fertitta, served on Abbotts strike force to reopen Texas.

Outside Rainforest Cafe, a family of seven visiting from Fort Worth said they simply had to get out of the house.

So they had traveled south to the packed beaches of Port Aransas, then swung by San Antonio on the drive back home.

My kids have literally been locked up in the house for a month and a half, said Angela Robinson, 33. And at some point I had to make a decision  What do I have to lose here?

Her five children, all of them sunburned, stood around her.

My kids, they need to see stuff, Robinson said. They need to get the hell out of there.

bchasnoff@express-news.net
While the 1st District House race emerges as what appears to be a more intriguing  and perhaps more competitive  contest than usual this year, there is no way of accurately predicting the political landscape that lies ahead in November as the pandemic either surges or recedes, leaving its economic devastation behind.

Meanwhile, it is metropolitan Omaha's competitive 2nd District that will command the most attention.

Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Papillion will be seeking the GOP nomination for a third term, while three Democrats, including 2018 nominee Kara Eastman and Ann Ashford, the wife of former Democratic Rep. Brad Ashford, battle to challenge him in November. Gladys Harrison, restaurant owner of Big Mama's Kitchen in Omaha, is also a Democratic candidate.

Bacon unseated Brad Ashford in 2016 after he had defeated Republican Rep. Lee Terry in 2014.

The district is composed of predominantly Democratic precincts in Omaha and heavily Republican portions of Sarpy County, and it is destined to once again be in play, perhaps especially so in a highly contentious presidential election year when the district's presidential electoral vote also is at stake.
CHICAGO, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- According to Arizton's recent research report, Central Vacuum System Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025 is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 11% during the period 20192025.

Key Highlights Offered in the Report:

The global central vacuum system market will post an absolute growth of approximately 90%, thus adding around $260 million to market by 2025. APAC is the fastest growing market for wall mounted central vacuum system and is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 13% during the forecast period. The commercial segment has witnessed a readier adoption in North America and Europe . These two regions accounted for over 70% of the revenue share of the global ground mounted central vacuum systems market in 2019. Europe leads the market for central vacuum systems with a capacity of 3,000 to 6,000 sq. ft and is expected to add revenues of around $24 million by 2025. In Latin America , the healthcare segment will witness a growth of over 120% during the forecast period.

Key Offerings:

Market Size & Forecast by Revenue | 20192025

Market Dynamics  Leading trends, growth drivers, restraints, and investment opportunities

Market Segmentation  A detailed analysis by installation, capacity, type, end-users, and geography

Competitive Landscape  Profile of 3 key vendors and 26 other vendors

Get your sample today! https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/central-vacuum-system-market

Central Vacuum System Market  Segmentation

The market share of wall-mounted devices is lower than ground-mounted ones. Europe is the largest market due to the high adoption of these vacuum cleaners in Germany , France , Italy , and the UK. The market share of ground-mounted devices has traditionally been on the higher side.

is the largest market due to the high adoption of these vacuum cleaners in , , , and the UK. The market share of ground-mounted devices has traditionally been on the higher side. Central vacuum systems with capacity of more than 6,000 sq. ft are designed for heavy-duty commercial applications. They can continuously remove dust and provide high airlift. However, these machines are highly expensive and require routine maintenance, thereby hampering their growth prospects.

Bagless systems are highly popular in the non-residential end-user segment. The increasing application in commercial buildings is highly likely to drive the segment. The increasing demand for hygienic surroundings is likely to boost the demand for central vacuum systems.

Market Segmentation by Installation

Wall Mounted

Ground Mounted

Market Segmentation by Capacity

<3,000 Sq. ft.

3,0006,000 sq. ft.

>6,000 sq. ft

Market Segmentation by Type

Bag

Bagless

Central Vacuum System Market  Dynamics

With the advent of cleaning technologies as well as cleaning products, the adoption of non-conventional products like mechanical sweepers, scrubbers, and vacuum cleaners. The standard and hand-held vacuum cleaners found adoption owing to their ability for easier cleaning. However, vacuum cleaners with collection unit moving along with the user, the chances of dirt and other allergens coming in contact with the user are high. The central vacuum systems are designed to keep the user and debris separate with options of collecting the dust and debris in a filter bag or collection unit kept in secluded area of the house or commercial space and are thus finding adoption in all end user segments. One of the major drivers for adoption of central vacuum systems among residential end-use segment is the rising awareness regarding presence of allergens inside homes.

Key Drivers and Trends fueling Market Growth:

Rising Need for Dust-free Environment

Enhancing Functionalities of Central Vacuum Systems

Improving Hygiene in Commercial Landscape

Rising Adoption of Green Cleaning Technologies

Central Vacuum System Market  Geography

North America, which includes the US and Canada, are among the largest economies in the world. North America is also the second largest market for central vacuum systems and accounts for approximately 1/3rd of the global market share. Good prospects of economic growth, the establishment of new businesses, company expansions, and increased construction activities are mainly driving the demand for cleaning services in the region. The demand for professional cleaning equipment, including commercial grade central vacuum systems, is mainly driven by the need for stringent cleaning mandates and general wellbeing of the workers and other personnel in the premises. The demand for central vacuum systems is also rising among residential households in the regions.

Get your sample today! https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/central-vacuum-system-market

Market Segmentation by Geography

North America

US



Canada

APAC

China



Japan



Australia



South Korea

Europe

Germany



UK



France



Italy



Spain



Nordic



Others

Middle East & Africa

South Africa



Saudi Arabia



UAE



Others

Latin America

Brazil



Argentina



Mexico



Others

Major Vendors

Trovac

Drainvac

Nuera Air

Other vendors include  Nilfisk, Techtronic Industries, Delfin, American Vacuum Company, Quirepace (BVC), Vac-U-Max, RGS Vacuum System, Broan-Nutone, Disan, Electrolux, Eureka, Nadair, Lindsay Manufacturing (Vacumaid), Cana-vac, Johnny Vac, Powerstar, Cen-tec, Wessel-Werk, Smart Vac, Rhino Vac, Ness Corporation (Valet), Airvac, Aqua-Air, Bissell, Duovac, Dust Care (Essco), Busch, Tri-Tech Medical, Atlas Copco, Toshniwal Instruments, Medikar, Medicare Gas Pipeline Services, Labconco, Dustcontrol, AutoVac, Becker, Dint-Tech Control, Mils, Republic Manufacturing, BGS General, NOVAIR, Megasan, MIM Medical, Millennium Medical Products, Powerex, Allway, Draeger, Dynapumps, Silbermann, and Prolux.

Explore our Industrial Machinery profile to know more about the industry.

Read some of the top-selling reports:

About Arizton:

Arizton Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers cutting-edge research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.

We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare, and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals and materials, IT and media, logistics and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.

Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered in generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.

Mail: [email protected]



Call: +1-312-235-2040

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SOURCE Arizton Advisory & Intelligence
NIIT Ghana (www.niitghana.com) has donated 500 pieces of face masks to the Head Potters (Kayayei) Association of Ghana amid the coronavirus pandemic as part of its corporate social responsibility to the community.

Ms. Joana Abbiw, Center Manager of NIIT Tema branch said, We all know that Kayayei people are living in a poor condition with minimal income. Mostly, they are unaware of things happening outside the market, Hence it is our responsibility to create an awareness among them and support them with necessary materials to safeguard their life.

She also appreciated the founder of the association for rendering us the needed support in reaching out to the community.

Ms. Joana Abbiw and Mr. Asadullah presented the masks to the founder of the association, Mr. Mohammed I. Salifu, and a couple of delegates of the porters at their office in Agbogbloshie Accra.

Mr. Salifu was thankful to the NIIT group for their kind gesture and said it will go a long way to help the porters who are for the most part of their lives exposed to all manner of diseases including the covid-19 in their day to day activities.

Two weeks ago, NIIT Kumasi branch donated to the people of Atonsu community, Kumasi in the Ashanti Region to aid in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr. Omnath Tiwary, the Center Manager for NIIT Kumasi Branch urged the school children to make use of the online platforms and learn wisely.

He also appreciated the initiatives of government in conducting virtual classes for the SHS students through a dedicated TV Channel.
The death toll due to the novel coronavirus rose to 1,583 with 194 fatalities reported since Monday evening, while the number of cases saw a big jump of 3,875 to go up to 46,711 cases on Tuesday, according to the Union health ministry.

The ministry also released a data for cases and deaths from Monday 8 am to Tuesday 8 am. It said in this 24 hours period, India registered a record single day increase of 195 deaths and 3,900 cases, taking the total number of COVID-19 fatalities to 1,568 and cases to 46,433.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 31,967 while 13,160 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, according to the ministry's updated data on Tuesday evening.

"Thus, around 28.17 per cent patients have recovered so far," joint secretary at the health ministry Lav Agarwal said during a press briefing on the COVID-19 situation in the country.

The total number of cases include 111 foreign nationals.

A total 194 deaths were reported since Monday evening, of which 98 fatalities were reported from West Bengal, 35 from Maharashtra, 29 from Gujarat, 11 from Madhya Pradesh, eight from Uttar Pradesh, six from Rajasthan, two each from Punjab and Karnataka and one each from Chandigarh, Haryana and Tamil Nadu.

Of the 1,583 fatalities, Maharashtra tops the tally with 583 fatalities, Gujarat comes second with 319 deaths, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 176, West Bengal at 133, Rajasthan at 77, Delhi at 64, Uttar Pradesh at 53 and Andhra Pradesh at 36.

The death toll reached 31 in Tamil Nadu, 29 in Telangana, while Karnataka has reported 28 fatalities due to the respiratory disease. Punjab has registered 23 COVID-19 deaths, Jammu and Kashmir eight, Haryana six and Kerala and Bihar have reported four deaths each. Jharkhand has recorded three COVID-19 fatalities.

Meghalaya, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Assam and Uttarakhand have reported one fatality each, the data stated.

According to the health ministry data updated in the evening, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 14, 541 followed by Gujarat at 5,804, Delhi at 4,898, Tamil Nadu at 3,550, Rajasthan at 3,061, Madhya Pradesh at 3,049 and Uttar Pradesh at 2,859.

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 1,717 in Andhra Pradesh and 1,259 in West Bengal.

It has risen to 1,233 in Punjab, 1,085 in Telangana, 726 in Jammu and Kashmir, 659 in Karnataka, 529 in Bihar and 517 in Haryana.

Kerala has reported 500 coronavirus cases so far, while Odisha has 170 cases. A total of 115 people have been infected with the virus in Jharkhand and 102 in Chandigarh.

Uttarakhand has reported 60 cases, Chhattisgarh has 58 cases, Assam has 43, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh have registered 41 cases each so far.

Thirty-three COVID-19 cases have been reported from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Tripura has registered 29 cases, Meghalaya has reported 12, Puducherry nine, while Goa has seven COVID-19 cases.

Manipur has two cases. Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have reported a case each.

"Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR," the ministry said on its website.

State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A late rush of high-level Democratic endorsements in a Southern California congressional runoff race is giving Republicans a chance to strike back for earlier anti-President Trump attacks on their candidate.

In the past couple of weeks, Assemblywoman Christy Smith, D- Santa Clarita (Los Angeles County), has received the backing of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and, on Tuesday, former President Barack Obama. Smith is running against GOP businessman Mike Garcia to fill out the remaining term of former Rep. Katie Hill, a Democrat who resigned last year.

Now, in the regular world, there would be nothing strange or nefarious about a Democratic congressional candidate being endorsed in next Tuesdays runoff vote by top national Democrats. It would be every bit as normal and unsurprising as, say, a GOP candidate getting the backing of a sitting Republican president.

But the political life is anything but the regular world, and in these hyper-partisan times, both Republicans and Democrats are ready to go on the attack over anything.

Thats why, after Smith and her supporters slammed Garcia for his April 30 endorsement from Trump, its no surprise that Republicans were quick to bring out their own knives.

After Clintons May 1 tweet saying she was happy to support Smith, the Republican National Congressional Committee immediately accused the assemblywoman of playing the Hillary-style girl card  even after she said she wouldnt  arguing Smith was desperate to grab Clintons endorsement.

On Tuesday, less than an hour after Obama said in a statement that he was proud to endorse Smith as one of the pragmatic, experienced and effective leaders needed in Washington, Republican were out with their own statement, suggesting the endorsement was a sign of Democratic desperation.

President Obama was so on the fence about endorsing Christy Smith that he waited until CA-25 voters had been returning their ballots for THREE WEEKS before endorsing her? wrote Torunn Sinclair, a spokeswoman for the GOP committee. What a vote of confidence!

But for both campaigns, the endorsements are more about who than why. And with only days to go in what promises to be a tight contest, those names can translate into campaign cash.

Now Hillary Clinton and Amy Klobuchar have joined have joined (former presidential candidates) Pete Buttigieg, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren in supporting Christy Smith for Congress, her campaign said in fundraising appeal last week. Its great news, but it wont nearly be enough if we dont raise enough money over these last few days.

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com
May 05 : Amid lockdown, everyone is bored to death. Youngsters who love to spend their time shopping, going to parties, being friends, and going to the beach and park, are probing different gateways to entertain. Particularly the love birds who are longing to meet each other. But due to the continuous extension of lockdown, their dream has turned into a nightmare. ZEE5 to keep such starry-eyed couples and youngsters amused is showing some unique and exciting shows.

Here is the list of few relatable shows which are really out of ordinary. So rather than hanging on more and memorizing your love, download the ZEE5 App and enjoy these passionate and unique series.

Rejctx  A coming of age story of a group of youngsters who form a rap band to showcase their talent and express their angst. This film stars a group of talented youngsters like Anisha Victor and Ahmed Masi. This musical drama also stars the veterans of web series Sumeet Vyas and Kubbra Sait.

Love Bites - The ZEE5 Original series is based on the novel 7 Days Without You. This series follows the life of Vishwas (Anshuman Malhotra) who travels from a small town to a big city for his first job and meets 7 women in 7 days all of whom he falls in love with and learns different lessons. This series stars Raima Sen, Priyal Gor, and Teena Singh among others.

Never Kiss Your Best Friend - Is another series based on the bestselling novel of the same name. This series about best friends falling in love and being scared to admit it to each other, resonated with young Indians all over the country. This series has all the makings of teenage friendships like fooling each others parents and running a check on each others partners.

Life Sahi Hai  Comes from the makers of Pyaar Ka Punchnama. This series follows the life of four bachelor roommates to come to Delhi to live independently but face problems in every aspect of life. The first season of this series stars Siddhanth Chaturvedi of Gully Boy fame as well.
Barack and Michelle Obama will deliver commencement speeches during a star-studded event for graduating students.

The remote celebration, called Dear Class of 2020, will stream live on YouTube on 6 June.

In addition to the Obamas, Lady Gaga, BTS, Malala Yousafzai, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and former US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will also give addresses.

Alicia Keys, Kelly Rowland, Kerry Washington, The Try Guy, Zendaya and more are scheduled to make special appearances.

The former US president announced his participation to the live stream on Tuesday, writing on social media: Ive always loved joining commencementsthe culmination of years of hard work and sacrifice.

Even if we cant get together in person this year, Michelle and I are excited to celebrate the nationwide Class of 2020 and recognise this milestone with you and your loved ones.

The former first lady also shared an announcement, writing: To the #Classof2020, I know how hard you all have worked to make it to graduation. Youve put in long hours studying. Youve thrown yourself into extracurricular activities and after-school jobs. And youve done everything you can to be there for your friends through it all.

Some of you will be the first in your families to graduate from high school or college, making this occasion all the more special. And I know that none of you imagined you would be closing this chapter of your life through a computer or phone screen. But I still want to make sure you still get the celebration you deserve.

Ahead of the commencement address, Barack Obama will join another remote event on 16 May.

Dubbed Graduate Together: America Honours the High School Class of 2020, the celebration will air at 8pm ET on major TV networks including ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC. Streaming partners will broadcast the event online.

President Obama will congratulate the Class of 2020 on their accomplishments over the past four years  and reflect on the past two months, as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced students in every high school across the country to adjust to new ways of learning and connecting and miss out on highly anticipated rites of passage like graduation, reads a release for the event.

LeBron James, Malala Yousafzai, the Jonas Brothers, Yara Shahidi, Lena Waithe, Pharrell Williams, Megan Rapinoe, HER, Bad Bunny, Ben Platt, and more will join the former president.
Thane: A medical worker has lodged a complaint against a group of policemen for allegedly assaulting him in the premises of a hospital in Ulhasnagar town of Maharashtra's Thane district, police said on Tuesday.

According to the police complaint, Satish Wagh had gone to Central Hospital in Ulhasnagar on Monday to hand over some equipment and was parking his two-wheeler near the building when some policemen objected to it, an official said.

An argument ensued, following which the complainant alleged that he was assaulted by the policemen, he said.

Around 500 to 600 people were present at the hospital at the time and police personnel were trying to control the crowd, senior inspector S C Suradkar said, claiming that the complainant's vehicle was blocking the way.

The allegations were being investigated and no case has been registered so far, he said.
Coronavirus may linger on in the most disadvantaged parts of British society long after social distancing and testing measures have driven it out of the mainstream, a leading government scientist has warned.

Dame Angela McLean, the Ministry of Defences chief scientific adviser, said that even after lockdown has been lifted and infection numbers have subsided, the virus could find a haven among the most hard to reach people  often taken to include the homeless, long-term benefit claimants and migrant workers.

The authorities will have a responsibility to carry on hunting down pockets of infection in every part of our society, she said.

Dame Angela was speaking just moments after first secretary of state Dominic Raab told the daily Downing Street press conference that Boris Johnsons recent illness showed that coronavirus doesnt discriminate.

Standing alongside Mr Raab in No 10, Dame Angela took a markedly different tone: Infectious diseases always do and always will target the disadvantaged.

Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Show all 30 1 /30 Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Staff react outside Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester during a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Staff inside Camberwell bus depot in London, during a minute's silence PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus NHS staff at the Mater hospital in Belfast, during a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak. PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Shoppers observe a minute's silence in Tescos in Shoreham Getty Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Firefighters outside Godstone fire station PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Salford Royal Hospital Getty Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Salford Royal Hospital PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Hospital workers take part in a protest calling on the British government to provide PPE across Britain for all workers in care, the NHS and other vital public services after a nationwide minute's silence at University College Hospital in London AP Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus A school children's poster hanging outside Glenfield Hospital during a minute's silence Getty Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus A man holds a placard that reads "People's health before profit" outside St Thomas hospital Getty Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Staff members applaud outside the Royal Derby Hospital, following a minute's silence PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill, Prime minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, stand inside 10 Downing Street, London, to observe a minutes silence in tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus University College Hospital, London Hospital workers hold placards with the names of their colleagues who have died from coronavirus as they take part in a protest calling on the British government to provide PPE AP Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Staff at Waterloo Station in London, stand to observe a minute's silence, to pay tribute to NHS and key workers who have died with coronavirus AP Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Medical staff at the Louisa Jordan hospital stand during a UK wide minutes silence to commemorate the key workers who have died with coronavirus in Glasgow Getty Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus London An NHS worker observes a minute's silence at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Reuters Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London AFP via Getty Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Belfast, Northern Ireland NHS staff observe a minutes silence at Mater Infirmorum Hospital Reuters Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Plymouth NHS workers hold a minute's silence outside the main entrance of Derriford Hospital Getty Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus NHS Frimley Park Hospital staff at the A&E department observe a minute's silence Getty Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Mater Infirmorum Hospital People applaud after a minutes silence in honour of key workers Reuters Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Waterloo Station, London AP Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Wreaths laid outside Sheffield town hall PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus A group of trade unionists and supporters standing outside Sheffield town hall PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus First Minister Nicola Sturgeon stands outside St Andrew's House in Edinburgh to observe a minute's silence in tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Staff stand outside the Royal Derby Hospital, during a minutes silence PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus London Police officers observe a minutes silence at Guy's Hospital Reuters Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus A woman standing outside Sheffield town hall PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Royal Derby Hospital PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Leicester, NHS workers during a minute's silence outside Glenfield Hospital Getty

And I think one of the things that we fear, as we hopefully bring the incidence of infections and the number of people who are infected every day right down to very low levels, is that infection will disappear into parts of our communities that are really, really hard to reach.

Its incumbent on all of us, including our scientists, to find ways that we can make sure that we can track the ongoing spread of infection amongst every part of our society.

She was responding to a question from community volunteer Bren McInerney, who was chosen from members of the public to take part in the daily conference.

Mr McInerney, from Gloucester, asked how Britain can ensure that as it emerges from the Covid-19 outbreak we address inequalities across community and neighbours and continue to invest and empower local communities to thrive.

Mr Raab told him that the pandemic had been a timely reminder of the importance of the levelling up agenda set out by Mr Johnson in last years general election.

And he added: One of the things that we found with coronavirus is that hasnt discriminated. Weve got the prime minister whos been laid low with it. Weve got people all across the country, no-one has been impervious to this virus.

And I think its also taught us to appreciate those key workers that I mentioned, not just those in the NHS and care homes who obviously do an amazing job, but also those keeping our supermarkets running, keeping deliveries flowing.

Mr Raab said the UK must make sure it comes out of the crisis together as one country and keeps alive the spirit of national mission which allowed it to tackle the coronavirus.

With Mr Johnson expected to set out his roadmap out of lockdown in an address to the nation on Sunday, the foreign secretary warned that the next stage of the recovery wont be easy.

As we consider the decisions which we will take next, to protect life but also to protect our way of life, its now clear that the second phase will be different, he said.

We will need to adjust to a new normal where we as a society adapt to safe new ways to work, to travel, to interact and to go about our daily lives.

We have never experienced anything like this first stage of Covid-19 in terms of the scale of the lives lost but also the lockdown it has required.

As we go forward we want to make sure that the next phase is more comfortable, is more sustainable and prevents lasting damage to jobs and livelihoods.

But we need to be under no illusions  the next stage wont be easy.

If we are going to protect life and preserve our way of life, we must continue to be guided by the scientific advice we receive and make sure that the next steps we take are sure-footed and sustainable.
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Pakistan's Cabinet on Tuesday decided to discuss the ways to ease nationwide lockdown with chief ministers of all the provinces on Wednesday, even as the death toll from coronavirus crossed 500.

Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired the Cabinet meeting which was briefed by Planning Minister Asad Umar about the status of ongoing lockdown which will end on May 9 unless extended.

Information Minister Shibli Faraz told the media that the Cabinet decided to discuss lockdown and other coronavirus related issues in the meeting of the National Command and Control Centre (NCOC) on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Khan will chair the meeting which would be attended by the chief ministers of all four province.

"They will sit down and build consensus for a unified policy regarding easing the lockdown. By this time tomorrow, whatever their recommendations are, will be with us, he said.

The issue of lockdown has become important as Khan has been saying that it will destroy Pakistan's fragile economy. Though, it is feared that lifting the lockdown completely and easing it could speed up infection.

Officials said that the number of confirmed cases reached 21,843 as new cases were being regularly added. They said the number of deaths jumped to 505. Punjab reported 8,133 case, Sindh 8,189, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 3,288 Balochistan 1,321, Islamabad 464, Gilgit-Baltistan 372 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 76 cases. Another 5,782 patients recovered so far.

So far 222,404 tests were conducted, including 9,857 in the last 24 hours.

Prime Minister Khan on Monday said that the nationwide lockdown will be lifted gradually, asserting that Pakistan cannot afford an indefinite closure.

Separately, the parliamentary leaders of various political parties agreed to summon the meeting of the National Assembly on Monday afternoon.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told the media that the session will be held on alternate days by having a break of one day after each sitting and social distancing will also be followed.

Also, the Cabinet in its meeting decided to allow the export of sanitisers to other countries. "The government is trying to export all possible products to push our foreign exchange and exports, Faraz said.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Supreme Court has expressed dismay over the shutting down of business activities by the provincial governments to contain the spread of the virus, questioning if their decision was against the mandate of the Constitution.

Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, while hearing a case about the tackling of the pandemic in the country, questioned which authority had empowered the provincial governments to encroach upon the revenue generation domain of the federation and that too without prior concurrence of the president or the federal government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
DALLAS, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Large Practice Sales, (LPS) the most effective U.S. monetization advisor to dentists with larger practices, today announced they have been engaged by owners that represent $267,000,000 in practice value since April 1. More importantly, Invisible DSOs have committed to purchase over $75,000,000 worth of LPS advised clients since March 1.

"While we expected an influx of new clients seeking silent partners to weather the COVID crisis, we did not expect so many eager buyers. Apparently, investors continue to believe in the profit potential of dental practice consolidation." Said Chip Fichtner, Principal of LPS.

"Certain practice buyers are accelerating their activity in specialist practices while the larger Dental Service Organizations (DSO) are pre-occupied performing triage on their existing GP practices. These investors include legacy DSOs, Private Equity, Family Offices and SBIC's."

LPS specializes in structuring transactions which enable the doctor to sell between 60% and 90% of their practice to an Invisible DSO, or silent partner. Doctors get cash now and continue to lead the practice under their brand and team as owners for years or decades in the future.

Doctor's benefit from the new partner's deep resources of capital, marketing, purchasing power and payor negotiation leverage. Doctors gain an experienced partner for upcoming CDC, OSHA and ADA compliance mandates due to the COVID crisis. They also have a known upside and exit strategy for their retained ownership when they are ready to retire.

"Surprisingly, many of our clients are in their 30's and 40's and view an Invisible DSO partnership as an opportunity to accelerate the growth of their practice using a partner's capital and management expertise, while retaining unlimited upside value potential." Fichtner continued, "the silent partnership is not a retirement strategy for these doctors, but a growth vehicle in many cases."

Dentists interested in understanding their practice value today to an Invisible DSO partner are invited to schedule a confidential, no obligation phone call to learn more about the FREE process. Doctors should contact LPS at 877-437-3353 or email us at [email protected] or visit www.invisibledso.com.

About Large Practice Sales

Large Practice Sales (LPS) advises Dentists of all specialties on the monetization of all or part of their practice value, achieving far higher values than typical "transition advisors." We focus exclusively on the sale of practices with $500,000+ in annual earnings, (EBITDA) not collections. LPS does not provide consulting, valuations, associate searches or any other ancillary services. For more information please visit www.largepracticesales.com.

Media Contact: John Harris, Principal

Large Practice Sales, LLC

Office: (954) 300-2644

[email protected]

SOURCE Large Practice Sales

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http://www.largepracticesales.com


The main gate of GM Korea's plant in Bupyeong-gu, Incheon / Courtesy of GM Korea



By Nam Hyun-woo



GM Korea will be suspending its production of the Trailblazer SUV throughout this month, as the COVID-19 outbreak is hurting its exports to the U.S. as well as disrupting parts supplies, according to industry officials, Tuesday.



The Trailblazer is a model with a strategic importance for General Motors' South Korean unit, because the compact SUV is a global export model necessary for the company's mid- to long-term survival and stands as General Motors' promise to use Korea as a manufacturing base in return for a $750 million government aid injection in 2018.



GM Korea temporarily stopped operation of its Bupyeong plant No.1 in Incheon, Monday, and is expecting to experience more "temporary production stops" throughout the rest of this month.



"The Bupyeong plant No.1 had a temporary production stop Monday and we expect further disruptions from issues relating to the procurement of certain parts," a GM Korea spokeswoman said. "We expect some temporary production stops in May but this is subject to change."



The spokeswoman did not say how the temporary shutdowns will affect vehicle output, but added the plant was changing its production plan on a "daily basis" because of increasing uncertainties stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.



A ranking official at GM Korea's union also said noted that there would be temporary production halts at the Bupyeong plant No.1, but said he had yet to receive a fixed production schedule from management regarding this.



"The company normally reports production schedules on a weekly basis, so it is difficult to expect how many days will be affected at this point," the official told The Korea Times.



According to the official, employees will receive 80 percent of their average wage if the shutdown period is longer than 11 business days, but this will decline to 70 percent if the shutdown ends within 11 business days.



To save costs, the plant is anticipated to have temporary production stops on 11 days. Reuters also reported that the plant will be idle for 11 business days, citing a production plan that came into its possession.





Chevrolet Trailblazer / Courtesy of GM Korea
Good Omens writer Neil Gaiman has split from wife Amanda Palmer after nine years of marriage.

The British author, 59, confirmed the separation on his Twitter page on Monday after American singer Amanda, 44, blogged about the couple's marital woes on her Patreon page.

In the blog Amanda revealed she was in lockdown with their son Anthony, known as 'Ash', four, in New Zealand while Neil had 'returned to the UK', and wrote that her heart was 'broken.'

Over: Good Omens writer Neil Gaiman has split from wife Amanda Palmer after nine years of marriage (pictured May 2019)

Writing on her Patreon page on Sunday, Dresden Dolls singer Amanda said: 'Since people are getting confused and asking and my phone and inbox is blowing up with 'where's Neil ?' a few times a minute 

'I can only gather that he's finally told the internet that he's left New Zealand, and I thought I would come here with a short note.'

In her statement, she wrote: 'I'm still in lockdown here in New Zealand with 4-yr-old Ash for the foreseeable future. 

'All i can say is that i'm heartbroken, I really am profoundly struggling and I need to call my community to me like never before. i need you.

Happier times: The British author, 59, confirmed the separation on his Twitter page on Monday after American singer Amanda, 44, blogged about the couple's marital woes on her Patreon page (pictured 2013)

Family: In the blog Amanda revealed she was in lockdown with their son Anthony, known as 'Ash', four, in New Zealand while Neil had 'returned to the UK', and wrote that her heart was 'broken' (pictured 2018)

'I am so far from home and so alone right now. I do not know what is going to happen.

'So you all know: this did not happen because of COVID or lockdown, though the timing is comically bad; other things came to light after we got here to New Zealand.

In fairness to all, and to keep little ash (who will not always be little) protected, the details aren't for the public.

'My commitment to radical compassion has not shifted. i am trying. i have a great deal of compassion for Neil. I always have and always will. I love him, deeply.

After Amanda released her statement, American Gods author Neil took to Twitter and wrote: 'I see @amandapalmer has told people that we (like much of the world) are going through rocky times right now.

Candid: Amanda wrote a lengthy post about the couple's marital woes

Response: After Amanda released her statement, American Gods author Neil took to Twitter and wrote: 'I see @amandapalmer has told people that we (like much of the world) are going through rocky times right now5'

'It is true, we are. It's really hard, and I'd like to request privacy (as I'm not going to be talking about it publicly) and kindness, for us and for Ash.'

Amanda responded: 'Thank you Neil. Since many people are asking; no, what we are going through isn't a result of the lockdown or COVID.

'And we thank everybody for your well-wishes, respect, understanding and kindness. you're all the best.'

She also wrote: 'To everyone sending me messages of support, rage & condolences - thank you. I've got the kid full time in lockdown & wish i could spend time answering.

'Neil moved to the UK, my heart has been broken, and i am really struggling. your love & support means a lot to me. thank you.

Twitter: Amanda was quick to respond to Neil on Twitter as she spoke candidly about the marriage breakdown

'I am grateful to all the people on the internet who are being kind. to me. to my family. to one another. we are all having a hard time. Keep being one of the kind people.

'I posted a few more words here. i love you all so much. i love Neil. this is all very hard. thank you for your care. I got you if you got me, people.'

Neil is known for being the co-creator of 1990 fantasy novel Good Omens alongside the late Terry Pratchett.

Neil is also known for writing The Sandman, Coraline, Stardust and American Gods.

The couple began dating in 2009, and announced their engagement in 2010 before having a non-legally binding 'flash-mob' wedding later that year.

They legally married in January 2011, with Amanda giving birth to the couple's son Ash in September 2015.

The couple had previously spoken candidly about their open marriage. In 2019 Palmer told The Times: 'Weve both shattered one anothers hearts occasionally through bad choices, but our relationship stands it.

'Were not interested in having big, multiple relationships. We're just slutty, but compassionately so.'

He was previously married to Mary McGrath from 1985 to 2007, with the former couple sharing three children.
Man with links to terrorists caught in J&K. Image Source: IANS News

Man with links to terrorists caught in J&K. Image Source: IANS News

Srinagar, May 5 : A joint team of the police and Army apprehended a man for his alleged links with terrorists from Doda in the Jammu region on Tuesday morning, defence sources said.

A pistol was recovered from him, sources added.

Tanvir Ahmad Malik had been missing for the last couple of months and was arrested from the Tantra area of Doda on the basis of intelligence input, sources said.

Inspector General Jammu Mukesh Singh, confirming his arrest, told IANS that Malik was associated with Hizbul Mujahideen 'commander' Haroon Abbas killed on January 15.

"He had links with terrorists and was in constant touch with them," Singh said.

The police have started investigations to find out more about his terror links and role in fomenting violence in the Chenab valley region.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly reminded his compatriots about life after Covid-19 with facemasks. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has now said India will have to live with coronavirus as it is not going to go away. The statements reflect the understanding the political leadership has arrived at fighting the pandemic. This is all the more pertinent as the nation enters the third phase of the national lockdown. The new thinking is also reflected in the Union governments decision to allow more relaxations in the third phase so that lives and livelihoods are protected to the maximum extent possible.

No human life is expendable, and the governments at the Centre and in the states will have to negotiate a tough path to save them all. Realistic measures that keep the virus at bay and allow people to go about their normal lives are the only feasible way forward. It will be a changed life, and it will be a new normal with which we will have to live hereafter. This is because while none questions the legitimacy of the lockdown, many had expressed the fear that the continued lockdown with stringent conditions will lead to more deaths due to hunger than due to the virus.

There are a number of models which the world has come up ever since the virus was noticed widely in China in January. One of them was imposing a complete lockdown in an entire region, practised by China and Italy. Then there are the Kerala and Bhilwara models, which came with aggressive contact tracing, screening, testing and quarantine of all potential patients. It also entailed virtual curfew in the entire region and quarantining all those who are a potential risk -- people who had an active contact with a patient or those who returned from hotspots-- while the rest of the people were asked not to venture outside. The strategy paid off well. Kerala, which reported the first infection in the country and once led the chart has brought the active cases to two digits now.

But there are doubts if the strategy works if the virus has spread far and wide. We may now need to extrapolate the model to address the changing demands.

The main focus of all successful models has been the human being, counting the last man on the street. The challenge now is to retain the focus while allowing economic activity to start. Experts now talk of concepts such as reverse quarantine where people of vulnerable age and those with co-morbidities such as high blood pressure, diabetes or heart ailments, are asked to stay home while the rest return to life and work strictly meeting social distancing norms. This model protects the potential victims and ensures that the health infrastructure can take care of those who fall ill. Its an unusually dynamic situation that the virus has landed humanity in, and our response ought to be equally dynamic.
Panaji:

Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today said the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) can have a tie-up with the IITs. We have signed an agreement with DRDO for jet propulsion lab which is to be jointly set up with IIT Mumbai and Madras, the total cost of which is about Rs 160 crore, Parrikar said after inaugurating the IIT Goa campus in presence of Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar. Some 8,000 scientists of DRDO can be a big resource for the educational institutes, Parrikar said, adding, We can teach. We can select a few scientists who have done top-end research (for teaching).

On the quality of research at DRDO, the Defence Minister, himself an IIT graduate, said in the next one or two years the country would not need to import any part of its missile technology, adding, We will be in the position to manufacture it here.

We can have tie-ups with IITs, including Goa IIT, after a couple of years, to develop something, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said, adding, DRDO laboratories can be used for summer vacation training of IIT students.

We can tie-up with DRDO to get visiting faculty in various subjects which can give proper adoptable technological edge in education, he added.

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LOGANTON  State police have opened a criminal investigation as requested by an animal rights organization into cruelty allegations about a guinea pig breeder in Clinton County.

The request by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) about John K. Esh is based on U.S. Department of Agriculture reports of inspections that a veterinarian conducted in January, February and March.

State police at Lamar have acknowledged they have opened an investigation.

No PETA representative has visited the Loganton area facility, Daniel Paden, vice president of evidence analysis, said Tuesday.

His letter to state police that refers to five guinea pigs being killed over a six-month period using blunt force trauma is based on the Agriculture Department reports, he said.

Those reports reveal a hellhole where hundreds of guinea pigs were left to suffer in filth, including without veterinary care, while others' heads were bashed in," PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch said.

Observations the veterinarian made at the Esh facility as documented in the Agriculture Department reports included:

Newborns were lethargic with abnormalities that included sunken eyes that were crusted shut and the hair around the eye wet with a clear discharge.

A dead newborn embedded in the bedding of the enclosure in a pen.

Sales slips do not include the name and address of the dealer or person to whom the guinea pigs are sold thus making it difficult to track the animals and document changes in ownership.

The facilitys inventory of 509 guinea pigs listed only adult females but a total of 1,248 adults, weanlings and newborns were counted.

Pens had unsealed bare wood surfaces that are difficult to clean and sanitize.

Approximately 90 percent of the self-feeders attached to the inside of the guinea pig enclosures contained fecal material mixed in with the feed

The majority of the enclosures had accumulations of excess fecal material, soiled bedding and discarded food throughout.

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AER Lingus Regional operator Stobart Air is considering adding a new base in the Isle of Man, but the Dublin-based carrier has been told by Aer Lingus that it won't support any such move, the Irish Independent understands.

That would leave struggling Stobart Air having to deploy a new, separate booking engine for the new services.

Stobart Air and its Stobart Group owner have tapped the Isle of Man government for support, it's believed.

The carrier is also understood to be eyeing up a possible base in Belfast.

Stobart Air operates the Aer Lingus Regional service under a franchise agreement. The current contract expires at the end of 2022.

"The current challenges facing the aviation industry are unprecedented, with the demand for airline services at an all-time low globally. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is unparalleled," said a Stobart Air spokesperson.

They added: "Like all businesses, we are assessing the impact of this pandemic on our airline and are focusing on the future, considering our post-Covid operations and evaluating opportunities for the business."

The UK's Stobart Group recently acquired Stobart Air from EY, the administrator of Connect Airways, of which Stobart Air was a part.

Stobart Group has pledged an initial 25m to Stobart Air, but a majority of that will be consumed by aircraft lease payments and aircraft maintenance costs.

Stobart Group said last week that in the event Stobart Air does not secure an extension to its Aer Lingus contract beyond 2022, the group's Propius leasing unit will shoulder a $21.2m (19.4m) break fee in April 2023 payable to German firm Goal.

Propius has eight aircraft leased from Goal that are used by Stobart Air. It's understood that on top of the break fee, the cost of handing back each aircraft could be in the region of $1.3m.

It's also unclear if Propius would also be liable for lease payments on the eight aircraft between January 2023 and April 2023 should a new contract not be secured. Stobart Group did not respond to a request for comment.

Stobart Air, whose managing director is Andy Jolly, was operating successfully until the pandemic struck, with more than 1,000 flights a week between Ireland and the UK.

It had also strengthened its board in 2018 with the appointment of aviation veteran Conor McCarthy as non-executive chairman. He stepped down from the role last September.

Early last year, Stobart Air's staff were ostensibly given a 51pc stake in the airline by Stobart Group - which then owned it entirely - as it sought to ensure the Dublin carrier would remain in compliance with EU airline ownership rules post-Brexit. The move was approved by the Commission for Aviation Regulation.

Some workers have said they weren't informed until this year that they had the stake.
The fact is that because we havent had to use as many beds as we thought, in fact most of McCormick Place we havent yet had to use, that is an indicator of the success that weve had both at issuing the stay-at-home order and at getting people to adhere to it, Pritzker said Monday. I think the total number of patients that have been in there at any time is about 29 or 30  and thank God for that, that its only that number.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  The Ministry of National Economy in the Gaza Strip allowed on April 27 restaurants and cafes to reopen. This comes as part of the government measures to ease restrictions previously imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the enclave.

The Gaza Strip is still maintaining a low number of cases, as the Ministry of Health recorded 17 infections since March 21. As of the end of April, 12 individuals had recovered and seven remain under medical observation in Gaza hospitals. No confirmed cases have been registered since April 23.

On April 28, Abdel Nasser Sobh, director of the World Health Organization office in Gaza, warned that it is only a matter of time for the coronavirus to spread in Gaza.

As a precautionary measure, the crisis cell to confront the pandemic formed by Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, in cooperation with government agencies, issued a decision to close wedding halls, restaurants and cafes on March 21. The measures have forced business owners to lay off up to 5,000 workers and incur huge losses.

The government agencies in Gaza have yet to issue inclusive statistics on the size of the losses inflicted on the Gazan economy due to the coronavirus pandemic. We do not have an accurate figure on the size of economic losses, Abdel Fattah Abu Moussa, spokesman for the Ministry of National Economy in Gaza, told Al-Monitor. In cooperation with official and trade union organizations we are still assessing these losses and we will announce them in the future.

Abu Moussa said that the decision to open restaurants and cafes came in light of the decline in the number of cases in the Gaza Strip. He explained that the ministry required the owners of those cafes and restaurants to take strict preventive measures when receiving customers.

He noted that the ministry will send monitoring teams on a daily basis to those establishments to assess their compliance with the preventive measures. The ministry will close any establishment that fails to comply with the conditions their owners have been notified of, he warned.

The tourism and hotel sector is one of the most affected by the pandemic in the Gaza Strip. Gaza Hotels and Tourist Restaurants Commission chairman Salah Abu Hasira told Al-Monitor that 500 tourist and hotel establishments were closed due to the pandemic, incurring losses exceeding $10 million from March 21 to April 26.

He said around 5,000 workers were laid off from those establishments, which deprived them of their monthly salaries. Most of these establishments will not be reemploying all their workers after reopening their doors, he added. People still fear the spread of the virus and are reluctant to visit restaurants and cafes, even if they apply safety measures.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Economy published a list of the protective conditions and measures to be applied by the owners of restaurants and cafes before and during the reception of customers. This includes requiring workers to wear masks and gloves, keeping a distance of no less than 2 meters (8 feet) between customers and disinfecting door handles and so on.

The public relations and media officer at Thailandy Restaurant in Gaza City, Rami Abu Shanab, told Al-Monitor that they have had a good turnout compared to other restaurants since the reopening. They have taken the necessary preventive measures to ensure the safety of customers.

During the lockdown period, we sold takeaway food. But our losses during more than a month of closure amounted to 70%, as the total of our daily earnings during the state of emergency period reached $1,000 compared to $4,500 before this period, he said.

The manager of Al-Dar Restaurant in Gaza City, Moataz al-Mazraawi, told Al-Monitor, Two days after the decision to reopen restaurants, customer turnout remains weak amid the prevailing fear of infection. He noted that his restaurant lost 155,000 Israeli shekels ($44,000) due to the closure over the course of five weeks.

Mazraawi said that a large segment of customers ask for takeaway meals, noting that only 18 out of his 35 workers were reemployed.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Labor in the Gaza Strip, and in cooperation with the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, announced April 27 the start of electronic registration for Gaza workers to benefit from a program aimed to support and assist workers affected by the state of emergency due to the coronavirus. This comes after the ministry distributed $1 million to 10,000 workers in mid-April.

Maher Tabbaa, director of public relations and media at the Gaza Chamber of Commerce and Industry, expects the tourism and hotel sectors to keep incurring heavy losses. This is all the more true in light of some restrictions imposed by the Ministry of Economy on some activities, such as closing wedding halls and banning hookahs in restaurants and cafes. Many restaurants and cafes are frequented by young people who just smoke a hookah and have a drink, he told Al-Monitor.

Tabbaa noted that 45,000 workers in the Gaza Strip have lost their jobs since the lockdown measures. The financial assistance to the unemployed workers in Gaza is trivial, he added. Many breadwinners are unable to provide daily food for their families.

The fear of infection and the discovery of new cases still haunt Gazans, who are staying away from public places and restaurants. The besieged enclave has modest health capabilities, as hospitals suffer a shortage of ventilators and beds in intensive care units
A stakeholders meeting on the implementation of a reproductive health project which seeks to empower out-of-school adolescent girls in the Bosome Freho District, has been held at Asiwa.



The project dubbed, Empowering Adolescent Girls, is expected to build the capacity of young girls to take the right decisions on their sexual and reproductive health by providing them accurate information on sexual and gender-based violence.



Funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the project is being implemented by the Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR) in collaboration with Rights and Responsibilities Initiative Ghana (RRIG).



The meeting was attended by representatives from traditional authorities, district assembly, the district health directorate, persons with disability, clergy, opinion leaders, and parents.



It was to discuss implementation strategies and the role that stakeholders could play to achieve the desired results in the District, which has one of the highest prevalence of teenage pregnancies in the Ashanti Region.



The participants took turns to appreciate the impact of the project and how it could address the rampant teenage pregnancy in the District.



They also called for the review of the modules for community education to bring it to the level of the targeted girls who are mostly out of school.



Mr. Nii Ankonu Annorbah-Sarpei, Director of Programmes of ARHR, said the project was mainly to provide adolescent girls in the District with reproductive health services through peer network meetings, drama and sports.



He said young girls with various forms of disability would not be left out since they were susceptible to sexual abuse.



We are also seeking to change perception and knowledge regarding sexuality and the project is structured in such a way that it would benefit adolescent between the ages of 10 to 19 years, he stated.



Hopefully, we are looking at using community scorecards to generate evidence on the readiness of health facilities to provide services for adolescent girls.



We will also engage the adolescents to verify if their expectations are met at the facilities, Mr. Sarpei further explained.



Ms. Francisca Esinam Ahiavih, the District Director of Health Services, said the project would contribute significantly to efforts being made by the health directorate to address the high rate of teenage pregnancy in the District.



She said the directorate would continue to partner ARHR and RRIG in the implementation of the project to make young girls in the District more assertive when making decisions on their sexuality.



She disclosed that adolescent corners had been set up in all health facilities in the District as part of efforts to make reproductive health services accessible to adolescent girls.

Source: GNA









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Congress general secretary KC Venugopal on Tuesday termed as "inhumane" the government's decision to "impose excessive costs" on NRIs and expatriates for bringing them into the country from COVID-19-affected nations.

He demanded that the central government fly in the poor and vulnerable free of cost while charge the others with normal fares instead of high costs.

"The central government's decision to impose excessive costs on NRIs flying in special flights from the Covid-affected countries is an inhumane act," he said in a statement.

Venugopal said it was due to protests by a large number of expatriates and their relatives as well as the general public over the past few days that the central government took the decision to bring back Indian citizens from abroad.

"However, it is cruel that the Central government has taken advantage of this plight of expatriates by increasing the price of air fares up to three times. This is inhumane," Venugopal said in his statement.

He urged the Centre to take urgent steps to provide free travel to the most vulnerable, unemployed, sick and pregnant women and to others on normal fare.

Air India will operate 64 repatriation flights for a week from May 7 while the Navy deployed two ships as India rolled out a massive evacuation plan on Tuesday to bring back thousands of its nationals stranded abroad due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.

Those availing the repatriation flights will be charged, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told a virtual press conference in New Delhi. A passenger on a London-Delhi flight will be charged Rs 50,000 and on a Dhaka-Delhi flight Rs 12,000, he added.

From the Gulf countries to Malaysia and the UK to the US, the multi-agency operation christened 'Vande Bharat Mission' will see the state-owned airline operate the non-scheduled commercial flights till May 13 to ferry around 15,000 Indian nationals from 12 countries.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(Newser)  An Illinois man who spent years making crosses and bringing them to the sites of mass shootings and other disasters around the US died Monday. The death of Greg Zanis, announced by his daughter, Susie Zanis, was expected after a recent announcement that he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer and did not have long to live. On Friday, the 69-year-old Zanis greeted supporters who drove by his Aurora home as part of a drive-by procession and living visitation that was organized by his daughter. Zanis established Crosses for Losses as a tribute to his father-in-law, who was fatally shot in 1996. Since then, he set up crosses near the mass shootings at Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Parkland, and drove 2,000 miles to install crosses in Las Vegas, reports the AP.

story continues below

He also set up crosses in places where the deaths did not receive nearly as much publicity, such as the spot in New Mexico where six children died in a bus accident. Just last year, he made crosses for his hometown after a warehouse worker opened fire, killing five of his co-workers before he was killed during a shootout with police. In December, after making and delivering 27,000 crosses, he announced he was retiring. "I had a breaking point in El Paso," he said, referring to the mass shooting outside of a Walmart there. "I hadn't slept for two days, it was 106 degrees and I collapsed from the pressure when I heard there were two more victims of the mass shooting." On Aurora's Facebook page, Mayor Richard Irvin paid tribute to Zanis. "Greg Zanis was a giant among men. He was a man of action who simply wanted to honor the lives of others."

(Read more obituary stories.)
Charlie Merrow, a seventh-generation manager of Merrow Manufacturing in Fall River, estimates the company will produce up to 4 million medical gowns, coveralls and other protective items in the coming months in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Enlisting the help of the Baker administration, Merrow pivoted from making sewing machines and apparel to producing protective gear for hospital workers and others on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response.

This is a significant moment where industries that long ago thought that they had been left for dead are now vital, Merrow said.

The Republican governor visited the Fall River facility Tuesday afternoon, touting the public-private partnerships under the states Manufacturing Emergency Response Team program, known as M-ERT.

Under the program, M-ERT allows manufacturers reopen their facilities to product protective gear. If selected, they are eligible for funding, advice and other resources to produce protective equipment. Merrow said he did not take funding, but he did receive advice and is fulfilling orders for the state.

The state has received 676 requests from manufacturers, including 424 from Massachusetts-based companies, Baker said. Thirty-four of those requests came from Bristol County, where Merrow Manufacturing is based.

One of the best parts about this particular initiative and this particular company that were standing in here today is theyre located here in the commonwealth, theyve been working with us several years, Baker said Tuesday afternoon.

Baker projected Merrow will become the largest manufacturer of PPE with U.S.-sourced fabric, thread and trim.

Merrow Manufacturing plans to distribute 4 million pieces of equipment in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, as well as other organizations who put in orders. Merrow said the orders range from as little as five items to as many as 5 million.

Massachusetts created its Manufacturing Emergency Response Team, or M-ERT, in April, giving manufacturers a chance to help with the response, either by producing protective gear or sharing materials needed by the health care sector.

The program is open to manufacturing companies in other states, but some lawmakers recommend prioritizing Massachusetts businesses.

Rep. Mindy Domb, an Amherst Democrat, filed a bill that would make the Department of Public Health distribute face coverings to municipalities to give out to municipal employees and residents.

Under the bill, the state Department of Public Health would be required to contract with Massachusetts-based manufacturers whose face coverings meet the standards set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bill also requires the state prioritizes companies whose employees have a union contract.

Last week, Baker announced residents would be required to wear face coverings in public. The new rules take effect Wednesday. Baker said the state would offer suggestions on how people can make their own masks.

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Some Island barbers and hairdressers are pushing back against the province's plan to allow them to return to work later this month.

P.E.I's Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Heather Morrison announced last week that hair salons and barber shops, will be allowed to resume operation May 22, as part of Phase 2 of the reopening plan.

"I had a lot of anxiety," said Rhonda Myers, owner of Ray's Place Barber on Kent in Charlottetown. "My first thought was, it's too soon."

Myers said with Morrison constantly stressing the importance of physical distancing, and with so many public health guidelines built around that, she can't understand why barbers and hairdressers would be among the first businesses allowed to reopen.

So much is still unknown and they are sending people with no choice to physical distance back in Phase 2.  Angela Rusk, co-owner of Lavish Hair and Beauty

"With us, [physical distancing] is completely impossible," said Myers.

New protocols

"So you can come into my barber shop, sit in my chair, while I'm literally hovering on top of you. But then once we go out onto that same sidewalk, now all of a sudden we have to maintain six feet of distance.... I still can't hug my family, but I can cut their hair."

The province has written up protocols for barber shops and hair salons aimed at protecting staff and customers.

Submitted by Rhonda Myers

Among other things, all stylist and waiting room chairs will need to be kept two metres apart. Employees will have to wear non-medical masks and single-use gloves. All chairs and tools will have to be sanitized after each client and double booking won't be permitted to limit crowding.

On Monday, Morrison said the protocols are intended to limit the risk "where physical distancing may not be able to be maintained."

She added that "the phase [hairdressers and barbers] are included in is similar to some of the other provinces. So this is in keeping with that."

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But Angela Rusk, a stylist and co-owner of Lavish Hair and Beauty in Charlottetown, said she's still worried.

"This virus has only been around for three to four months and so much is still unknown, and they are sending people with no choice to physical distance back in Phase 2," she said.

'Tough to see as many customers'

Rusk said following all the protocols will also make it tough to see as many clients, and to justify going back to work.

"We have to double book and work eight to 10 hour days to make it through each month," said Rusk.

I have to believe that if they're saying we can open then the risk is low.  Sean Aylward, P.E.I. Barbers Association

Sean Aylward, owner of The Humble Barber and head of the P.E.I. Barbers Association, said he understands the concerns of some of his colleagues, especially given that similar businesses such as tattoo parlours and estheticians cannot open until Phase 3 of the reopening plan, potentially set for June 12.

But Aylward said he's putting his trust in the government.

"I have to believe that if they're saying we can open then the risk is low."

Submitted by Angela Rusk

He said cleanliness is a natural part of the industry, so the new safety measures won't be a big change.

"It is important that we start to get back to some resemblance of what life was. We can't be out of work forever," he said.

"There are going to be people who don't think it's safe. Ultimately, it's up to them. If the clients don't want to come in, then don't come in. That's totally fine. But there are others who are going to want to come in."

For Myers's part, she's confident she and her staff will be able to cut enough hair each day to justify opening.

Still, she's written to her MLA, asking that the province move barbers and hairdressers to Phase 3.

According to Myers, she "knows of about a dozen others" who have made the same request with their MLAs.

If the May 22 opening date remains, Myers said she will reluctantly start cutting hair again.

"If the shop down the street opens up, you have to be open," she said. "Regardless, the client is going to go  wherever he can find someone with a pair of scissors. And we have to be there and ready for them. I don't feel it's optional."

COVID-19: What you need to know

What are the symptoms of COVID-19?

Common symptoms include:

Fever.

Cough.

Tiredness.

But more serious symptoms can develop, including difficulty breathing and pneumonia, which can lead to death.

Health Canada has built a self-assessment tool.

What should I do if I feel sick?

Isolate yourself and call 811. Do not visit an emergency room or urgent care centre to get tested. A health professional at 811 will give you advice and instructions.

How can I protect myself?

Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.

Clean regularly touched surfaces regularly.

More detailed information on the outbreak is available on the federal government's website.

More from CBC P.E.I.
The Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) has urged the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court to direct the police to allow advocates who reside in the NCR to cross Delhi border during the lockdown imposed to contain the spread of coronavirus.

DHCBA, in a letter to Chief Justice D N Patel, said that a large number of advocates practicing in the high court and district courts here reside in Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Faridabad and they are unable to travel to their offices situated in Delhi.

The letter, signed by DHCBA President and senior advocate Mohit Mathur, said those lawyers have no access to their files, records and books as they are lying in their offices in Delhi and many of them do not have the facility of video conferencing or books and commentaries at their residence to effectively participate in the hearings held by the courts.

To assist the courts in the hearings being held during the lockdown period and to enable the litigant public to completely access justice, it is imperative that such advocates are permitted free movement into and out of Delhi upon production of valid identity cards issued by any court annexed bar association of Delhi / the bar council with which the advocates are enrolled, the letter stated.

It said similar facilities have been given to Delhi Police personnel and sought direction to the Delhi Police to take up the matter with their counterparts in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Editor's Note: This story was originally published in June of 2019. We updated it with teacher Shannon Anderson's clever way of adapting to the COVID-19 situation.

While third grade teacher Shannon Anderson loves writing, she knows many of her students think it, well, stinks. But she discovered a way to help them be excited about it. The secret? She transforms their characters into stuffed animals.

I thought, How cool would it be to have stuffed animals? the teacher from Van Rensselaer Elementary School in Rensselaer, Indiana, told TODAY Parents.

In addition to turning each student's artwork into stuffed animals, Shannon Anderson has each student draw on her dress so she has a keepsake at the end of the school year. Before the pandemic, she hosted a publication party where students could see their plush toys and books at once. This year looked a little different. (Courtesy of Shannon Anderson)

But having personalized plush toys for her students is more than just an awesome thing to do. It also encourages her students to see that writing is a joy. To do that, she works with them on a long-term book project. Each student writes a story and illustrates it. She then takes the illustrations of the characters and submits it to Budsies, a company that makes custom stuffed animals.

Then comes the big reveal. Anderson allows them to un-box their toys and records their reactions. Even the toughest of children coo in excitement when they see their fictional characters have come to life.

Every single students instinct is to be in awe, to hug it and love on it, she said. It is something very special that they created. It is powerful.

As a children's book writer, Shannon Anderson loves writing and wants her students to enjoy it, too. Having them write their own books and receive a plush toy of their main characters keeps her students engaged in writing. (Courtesy of Shannon Anderson)

But Anderson knew 2020's writing project would be different and so did her students. When school first closed, the children felt bereft.

"Over half the class was in tears," Anderson said.

They worried that their books and characters would be incomplete without class and the annual publication party. So, Anderson started thinking about a social distancing reveal that involved her delivering the toys to each student and filming their reaction. After receiving permission from their parents, Anderson dropped off 24 different stuffed animals at her students' homes.

"There was only one door that I had to knock on because everyone else saw me coming," she explained. "I would go up to the door set the Budsies back down and then step away at least 6 feet."

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The reactions felt even more moving than usual.

"It was the best day ever. I had a blast delivering those. It was like being Santa Claus because I got to give them a little bit of joy in the midst of all of this," she said. "They've only seen me on video for the last six weeks so it was nice to be able to just talk in person."

Joshua's older sister wrote a book featuring a robot when she was in Ms. Shannon's class. When it was time for Joshua to write his own, he knew he wanted to continue the story his sister started. (Courtesy of Shannon Anderson)

Anderson loves how detailed the animals and stories are. One student, Joshua, has an older sister who was in her class a few years ago. He decided to make a sequel to his sister's book, both featuring a robot main character. When Anderson dropped the toy off, she enjoyed seeing them together.

"I got a picture of the two of them holding both of their robots and smiling ear to ear," she said. "It was just really sweet that he wanted to continue his sister story."

Whats more, students feel impressed by seeing something they once only imaged become tangible.

Students just create these characters that came from their brain, Anderson. The kids absolutely love and treasure the animals."

Even though toughest student becomes excited when they see their artwork as a stuffed animal. (Courtesy of Shannon Anderson)

Throughout her 25-year career, Anderson always encouraged her students to write. When she taught first grade, the students wrote a page with a picture for a class book. Third graders are more advanced so theyre able to write an entire book with drawings. While shes only been making the stuffed animals for three years, she knows her former students still keep their creations.

I have had some siblings that have done this project and they have pulled out their stuffed animal to show me, she said.

While providing about 20 stuffed animals can be expensive, Anderson applies for grants to offset the cost. She wants all the students to have one even if their families cannot afford an extra expense.

Things like that help the parents out and help the kids not feel different if they dont have resources, she said.

Receiving their plush toys this year looked a little different than it did in the past. Shannon Anderson had to deliver the toys to each student. But the children still reacted the same, hugging their characters and gasping in amazement after seeing their thoughts come to life. (Courtesy of Shannon Anderson)

But more importantly, Anderson said working on the book with the children creates lasting memories.

It is just a very special project and I love that we are able to do it over time, she said. It gives them a lot of ownership and excitement.
When the pandemic has eventually subsided, the global economic battle between the United States and China will continue. At the center of this contest will be Huawei, the telecommunications company that is Chinas technology champion. The Trump administration has been waging a multi-front war on Huawei, trying to block transfer of U.S. technology by placing the company on an entity list of dangerous competitors, and by pressuring Britain and other allies not to buy Huawei gear for their 5G networks.
By Monday, more than 1.2 million Americans tested positive for the COVID-19.

Washington: The number of coronavirus deaths in the US will jump to over 3,000 and new cases to about 200,000 per day by June 1, an internal draft report has said, even as more than two dozen American states announced to open up their economy amid the health crisis.The US is the worst-hit country from the pandemic. By Monday, more than 1.2 million Americans tested positive for the COVID-19 and the total number of fatalities increased to more than 69,000.

The country's economy has come to a standstill and over 30 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits.

Multiple media reports on Monday quoted the draft report projecting the horrifying figures of about 200,000 confirmed cases per day accompanied with 3,000 daily deaths by June 1.

The numbers underscore a sobering reality: while the United States has been hunkered down for the past seven weeks, not much has changed. And the reopening to the economy will make matters worse, The New York Times reported.

There remains a large number of counties whose burden continues to grow, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned according to the daily.

However, both the White House and the CDC disavowed the report. The slides carry the CDC's logo, The Washington Post reported.

According to the report, the projection was prepared by Justin Lessler, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

I had no role in the process by which that was presented and shown. This data was presented as an FYI to CDC it was not in any way intended to be a forecast, Lessler told The Washington Post.

Lessler said he didn't know how the update was turned into a slide deck by government officials and shared with the news organisations.

There are reopening scenarios where it could get out of control very quickly, he said.

Judd Deere, a White House Spokesperson said, This is not a White House document nor has it been presented to the Coronavirus Task Force or gone through interagency vetting.

This data is not reflective of any of the modelling done by the task force or data that the task force has analyzed, he said.

The President's phased guidelines to open up America again are a scientific driven approach that the top health and infectious disease experts in the federal government agreed with. The health of the American people remains President Trump's top priority and that will continue as we monitor the efforts by states to ease restrictions, Deere said.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen US states eased COVID-19 restrictions and another over a dozen have announced their plans to do so in the coming days.

States like Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas and Illinois, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, Vermont, and West Virginia have lifted restrictions.
BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje on



Tuesday alleged that she received threatening calls from the Middle East and Gulf countries for writing to Union Home Minister Amit Shah about the "ill-treatment" meted out to an Indian in Kuwait for hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In a video message, Karandlaje said she recently came to know that the Indian, a driver from Kerala, was beaten up in that country.

"After I wrote to Amit Shah about it, I received hundreds of threat calls from the Middle East and Gulf countries in a vulgar language," Karandlaje alleged in the message.

In her letter to Shah dated May 3, she said the driver was slapped and forced to apologise for praising Modi.

Karandlaje shared the video of the purported incident on her Twitter handle.

"We must mount pressure on the authorities of Kuwait to extradite him (perpetrator) and be brought to India for trial," Karandlaje stated in her letter and described the incident as "outrageous and unacceptable.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Those 86 new Space Force lieutenants who graduated at the Air Force Academy Saturday left school early, and theyll be needed fast.

Russias test of an anti-satellite missile last week shows Americas desperate need to defend our assets in orbit. The U.S. has deep reliance on space for combat on the ground, but has left billions of dollars worth of satellites nearly undefended. Since the Cold War, America hasnt had enemies in space, allowing leaders to launch satellites without concern of enemies reaching them.

It will be the job of those 86 lieutenants to figure out how to defend a region where we cant station troops. And its a place that requires new thinking that a new generation can bring.

New satellites must be built to guard our spacecraft and new weapons must be conceived to target enemies without creating massive clouds of debris that would turn Earths orbit into a useless wasteland.

Its easy for older people to poke fun at young people who were seemingly born with an Xbox controller in their hands. But that videogame experience in youth has never been more useful. They understand how to control things they cannot touch.

That means theyre perfect for maneuvering American satellites from harms way  and for controlling the robotic warriors that will suffice for U.S. troops in space.

They and their comrades who will soon join Space Force have a big job. Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and India have the basic technology to take out American satellites in orbit. Those attacks could deprive troops on the ground of the communications and navigation they need to see over the next hill.

It would take the Air Force and Navy back to World War II in terms of their ability to target enemies.

But the biggest impacts could hit on the homefront. America could be blinded to enemy missile attacks, making our cities attractive targets. And without the timing and navigation signals from the Global Positioning System, the internet would stop working, banking and stock trades would halt, and those Amazon packages would quit hitting the porch.

This small group of troops headed to Space Force is the equivalent to the first American sailors who hit the waves aboard frigates including the USS Constitution.

Those sailors first took on pirates and protected civilians from marauders, including the warring European powers. Later, they proved a match with the planets greatest seagoing power, Britain.

The Space Force faces growing threats, and a clear outline for countering those threats has yet to emerge.

Keeping space safe for a new generation is going to require new thinking.

And the best brains to come up with those plans are possessed by 86 new lieutenants.

Contact Tom Roeder: 636-0240
Srinagar, May 5 : Having failed to incite Kashmiris to some sort of a mass public unrest after abrogation of Article 370 in August last year, separatists and Pakistan are back to their old games in Jammu and Kashmir, suggest senior officers of intelligence agencies, army, paramilitary and the local police.

"Pakistan had threatened a bloodbath if Delhi tried to assimilate what it called the disputed region of J&K. Handlers of terrorists and their overground supporters called 'separatist politicians' believed they had a godsent opportunity when Article 370 was abrogated and the state broken down into two Union territories.

"This, Pakistan thought, would generate a public frenzy in Kashmir that would give Pakistan the right opportunity to rake up Kashmir's disputed status internationally.

"Terrorists, separatists and their sympathisers were asked to lie low. India had completely and irretrievably annoyed Pro-India politicians, and Pakistan thought these Pro-India politicians would do their bidding since it was believed that an uncontrollable public uprising would sweep the pro-India politicians off their feet.

"Nothing like that happened. Not only did the people not resort to violence of any sort, but contrary to expectations they appeared to silently celebrate the arrest of politicians who people believed had robbed Delhi in the name of Kashmir to further their self and pelf", said a senior intelligence officer who has been in the thick of handling law and order and local intelligence network for long in J&K.

The officer added that the powers across and the handlers of terrorists were stupefied for at least four months till the end of last year.

"For sometime they believed we had made such heavy deployments of the security forces that violence could not happen on ground. As the foot fall of the security forces was gradually reduced and restrictions eased, the real frustration started building up in the anti-national elements overground and the weapon wielding terrorists underground.

"They needed to give it their best shot unless they accepted the finality of J&K as an integral part of India. Terrorists were ordered to start armed violence not only against the security forces, but also against the common Kashmiri who had betrayed the 'cause' as Pakistan saw it", the officer said.

Sources in the Army and the paramilitary forces say the snowbound routes of infiltration along the LoC have started opening up due to the melting snow. Engaging the army in sustained firing exchanges by ceasefire violation has been the standard practice of Pakistan to provide fire cover to infiltrators.

Since January this year, Pakistan has violated bilateral ceasefire on the LoC more than 1,550 times against 3,168 violations during the entire year in 2019.

This has resulted in heightened vigil by the security forces on the LoC and the hinterland that has in turn resulted in the killings of 64 terrorists so far this year.

"There are around 300 trained terrorists waiting at the launch pads in Pakistan occupied Kashmir to infiltrate into our side this year. We are waiting to give them a hot reception. For any terrorist trying to infiltrate into J&K it is going to be a one-way road", said a senior army officer.

Intelligence sources say while trying to infiltrate terrorists from across the LoC is the top priority of powers across, they have given clear orders to those terrorists lying low in Kashmir to increase violence in the hinterland. We have had more than 40 militancy related incidents since January this year.

"Handwara encounter in which a foreign mercenary was used is a typical example of trying to intimidate the common Kashmiri. The terrorists involved in the Handwara encounter in which we lost five of our bravehearts were initially spotted in the thickly forested area of the Rajwar jungle.

"They came down and entered a civilian house in Chanjimulla village hoping that there would be civilian casualties during the encounter and that would result in public anger and protest against the security forces setting the agenda for the summer 2020 for the separatists.

"Our brave soldiers led by Colonel Ashutosh Sharma risked their lives and laid them down in the service of the nation because they entered the house to evacuate civilians. The martyrs ensured that the terrorists are eliminated without any collateral damage", said an army officer.

Summer 2020 is going to be extremely important for the security forces to root out terrorism so that people are able to choose their representatives without any fear during the Assembly elections likely to be held in 2021.

This year is also going to be the last opportunity for the terrorists and their handlers to give violence the last push to defeat democracy and the people's power to rule themselves.

Summer 2020 is, therefore, a watershed period that will decide whether J&K gets its much awaited peace or whether its people are perpetually doomed to boil in their own soup.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Alesso is proud to be a Directioner, especially now that he can count one of the former boy band members as a collaborator.

The Swedish DJ, 28, first met Liam Payne, 26, at a studio in Stockholm to record their new hit, "Midnight," which has amassed more than 18 million streams since its release last month.

"I was fanboying hard when Liam came in," Alesso told PEOPLE during a recent chat with Payne. "I was like, 'Oh my gosh, Liam Payne!' How could you not have heard about these guys? They're huge. My sister, I had to calm her down. She was like, 'Is he here?' I had to lie to her and say he was there when she wasn't and stuff like that."

"But it's [nerve-wracking] a little bit when you meet someone for the first time, especially when it's a song like this that I really, really love," he added. "Imagine if you flew over and it turned out s, you know? But it honestly turned out exactly the way I hoped. We just had those awesome goose-bump moments in the studio, and it was great fun."

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images; Sebastian Reuter/Getty Images Alesso; Liam Payne

Filming the music video for the track was a totally new experience for both Alesso and Payne, who had to film it separately while self-isolating in different countries amid the ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

"At first, it was the weirdest thought of how we're going to film this and make it interesting for people," Payne says. "Then it came together really quickly, and it was quite nice having such a small crew. I was really lucky that I happened to be quarantining with my camera guy so we got it shot and done."

RELATED: Liam Payne Talks Possible One Direction Reunion: 'Louis Told Me Off for Revealing a Bit of Our Plans'

In the music video, Alesso is featured in a Los Angeles studio while Payne is shown singing outside on the rooftop of his London home.

Story continues

"They probably think I'm the local crazy guy at this point," Payne said. "I was out with my arms open screaming, 'I just want to stay here and fall into midnight!' There was an old lady on the balcony, like feet up with a glass of wine in hand."

Alesso jokingly added: "I'm still waiting for an invitation [to your house]. When this is over, if I don't get invited to check it out, I'm gonna contact one of the other One Direction guys."

Since Alesso and Payne got along so well, they said fans might see another collaboration from them in the future.

"I've gotten to work with a lot of great, different people, and I love collaborating with people when you get on as well," Payne says. "It just makes it so much easier and so much more fun, especially when we've been in quarantine. We both enjoy the same stuff and part of the reason I wanted to work with Alesso is I like learning about dance music. That's something I've always been interested in because I studied how to produce music and dance music was always the one thing I was really drawn to."
One of the closest associates of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan Sasun Mikaelyan demonstrated all his cynicism and unacceptable attitude to veterans of the Great Patriotic War, motivating Pashinyans My Step Alliance not to increase veteran payments in honor of the 75th anniversary of the Great Victory. According to him, the defenders of the fatherland are so old that it would be more profitable for the state to postpone the payment date in order to wait for their death.

It seems to me that this is not a big deal. If we wait a little more, then, in May, there will be no one left. In this case, it will be easier for us to make these payments, he said during the parliamentary meeting.

After this proposal, The My Step Alliance did not even include on the agenda the bill of Prosperous Armenia MP Vahe Enfiajyan on doubling the honorary payments to veterans of the Great Patriotic War to 200, 000 drams ($ 417) per month. There are only about 276 veterans left, thus Enfiajyan proposed to increase their pensions by only $ 57.5 thousand per month in total.

The initiative was put forward last Thursday at a meeting of the Permanent Parliamentary Commission on Health and Social Affairs but was sharply rejected by representatives of Pashinyans team. Already then Vestnik Kavkaza noted the disappointing attitude of the new, revolutionary authorities of Armenia towards the veterans of the Great Patriotic War that can only cause regret.

Considering the refusal of The My Step Alliance to discuss the bill and Mikayelyans words as of one of the modern leaders of Armenia (Pashinyan appointed him the head of the Armenian militant organization - the so-called Yerkrapah Volunteer Union - instead of a member of the Karabakh clan Manvel Grigoryan), that is saying something.

Firstly, this indicates that the velvet revolution, despite all the slogans, sunk into oblivion and could not solve a single economic problem in Armenia, which is why today, amid the pandemic, the state is forced to save every dram and is not able of raising pensions for 276 veterans. Moreover, their natural reduction benefits the budget, despite the fact that this benefit is miserable even in a country with such a modest budget. For comparison, only Nikol Pashinyans apparatus spends $ 73,500 per month.

And secondly, which is more important, the development shows, there is nothing sacred for the new authorities. They only care about one thing - to remain in power, and if any group of the population does not pose a political threat to them Pashinyans team ready to ignore these people. 62-year old Mikaelyan, the representative of veterans children generation, offers to betray the feat of the closest to him older people.

Yes, there are few veterans left, thus, each of them is more valuable as a direct carrier of historical memory of the Great Patriotic War and the Great Victory, as a living defender of the Motherland, who contributed to its salvation from the ruthless Nazi threat. To save on veterans, and even offer to delay payments and wait for their death, means to work for the oblivion of their heroism, abandon the historical memory of their own people.

The true history of the Armenian people, who won together with other Soviet peoples in the Great Patriotic War, once again turned out to be unwanted by the Armenian state.
The Department of Social Protection will continue to support workers until they go back to work, a government Minister has said.

However, Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty also warned that the current payments would not sustainable in the long term.

Ms Doherty hopes all construction workers will come off the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment and return to work in the coming weeks, which would take 78,000 people off the live register, she said in an interview on Morning Ireland.

We will continue to look after people long after this pandemic is over, she said.

The vast majority of people will return to work by the end of year, said Ms Doherty, but she acknowledged that there are some industries that will need a lot of help to recover and some people may have to re-train for work.

There are emerging sectors that will require workers which will offer an opportunity for workers to reskill, she said.

The governments 6.5bn package to support business was a recognition of the need for assistance, she said. Only part of the package will require legislation which would take weeks which was why government formation negotiations were important.

The focus now is on rebuilding society, she added and to do so there needs to be a stable government, having a government that only lasts only a few months would not help.

When asked if the government should have informed the Northern Ireland Assembly of its plans to ease out of lockdown before announcing it to public, Ms Doherty said maybe, with hindsight".

"The most important thing was to tell the people we serve, she added.
SPRINGFIELD  State Rep. Avery Bourne, R-Morrisonville, has joined with other members of the House Republican Womens Caucus to ask Gov. J.B. Pritzker to bring legislators back to Springfield to take action on ways to move Illinois forward safely, reasonably, regionally and responsibly in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.

The letter, signed by the eight women Republicans in the House of Representatives, also outlined ideas to reopen the economy and put Illinoisans back to work.

Our constituents want action, and they want the Governor to consult with the General Assembly before issuing Executive Orders. As members of the legislature, we hear daily from constituents who are having issues filing for unemployment, whose businesses were forced to close, or who are struggling during this time, said Bourne. Together we represent close to 900,000 Illinoisans. We have valid ideas for how we can reopen the economy safely while still protecting public health. We deserve a seat at the table as discussions take place for when and how that will happen.

As a group, the eight members of the House Republican Womens Caucus are business owners, scientists, mayors, lawyers, community organizers, volunteers, officers, mothers, grandmothers, caregivers and legislators. In their April 28 letter, they said they are ready to work with Pritzker to implement a safe and reasonable regional plan to reopen Illinois and asked for a meeting to discuss it. They said that while Pritzker continues to state he is talking to all lawmakers about potential next steps for Illinois, the real answer is to call the legislature back to session.

Our April 28 letter outlined suggestions, strategies and solutions for how we can get Illinois economy back on track, but its been nearly a week and we have received no response to the letter, our request for a meeting, or our request that we return to Springfield, said Bourne. I renew those requests today, because as members of a co-equal branch of government, we should be involved with determining Illinois next steps.
AI or artificial intelligence has been a favourite subject in the realm of American speculative fiction. Almost all big-name SF writers have written about it and taking a cue from their writings, as well as from Japanese manga, which too depicts worlds populated by AI robots, the Hollywood filmmakers started making films on the subject on a regular basis. Presenting six acclaimed Hollywood films from recent times having AI at the centre of the story. We hope the list will add to your quarantine movie watching.Director: Alex GarlandCast: Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Sonoya Mizuno and Oscar IsaacThis psychological thriller is a story about a programmer named Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) who is invited to administer the Turing test to an intelligent humanoid robot by his CEO Nathan (Oscar Isaac). The film revolves around Ava (Alicia Vikander) whom Nathan claims is the most intelligent robot around. He wants to test the extent of her intelligence and manipulates things in such a way that his employee Caleb ends up falling in love with her. He claims that shell use Caleb to escape his house permanently and thats exactly what happens. Tired of constant humiliations, Ava does emotionally blackmail into helping him escape. She also manages to kill Nathan. The last scene has her merging into the crowds and soon shes lost to the eyes.Director: Wally PfisterCast: Johnny Depp, Morgan Freeman, Rebecca Hall, Kate Mara, Cillian Murphy, Cole Hauser, Paul BettanyWill Caster (Johnny Depp) is a scientist who is an authority in the field of artificial intelligence. His wife, Evelyn (Rebecca Hall), is also a scientist and helps him with his work. When Will is shot by a group of terrorists, his wife advocates putting his consciousness inside a computer so that he may live on. Wills consciousness begins to take over the internet. He wants to create a utopian world where man resides in harmony with nature and begins to manipulate minds with the help of nanoparticles. Both the government and the cyber terrorists want to put a stop to him and so does his wife. Ultimately, his wife sacrifices himself to put an end to him and Will goes on a self-destruct mode. His death leads to a global technology collapse. Ironically, this also serves his purpose as by the time the humans get back on track the planet would have healed itself.Director: Denis VilleneuveCast: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Robin Wright, Mackenzie Davis, Carla Juri, Lennie James, Dave Bautista, Jared LetoIts a sequel to the 1982 film Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford. The film is based on characters from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. In 2049, bioengineered humans known as replicants are slaves. Ryan Gosling plays K, a Nexus-9 replicant "blade runner" -- someone who hunts down and kills rogue replicants. He comes to know of a case where a female replicant is said to have died during childbirth. This is a new discovery as traditionally replicants arent supposed to reproduce. Circumstances lead him to believe that he might be the child born of that woman. His investigations make him cross the path of former blade runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford). The two join forces to serve the cause of The replicant freedom and to stop the new technology from falling in the hands of the Wallace Corporation. K finally sacrifices himself to save Rick, leaving the future of replicants secure in his hands.Director: Rupert SandersCast: Scarlett Johansson, Michael Carmen Pitt, Pilou Asbk, Chin Han, Juliette BinocheThe film is based on the Japanese manga of the same name by Masamune Shirow. Its set in a future where the line between humans and robots has blurred. Major Mira Killian (Johansson), a cyborg supersoldier investigates her past to find out her true origins. As she delves into her past, she comes to know that her memories are implanted. And that shes part of a new experiment by Hanka Robotics where an artificial body or "shell" can integrate a human brain rather than an AI. She becomes a liability for Hanka when she learns this and several attempts are made on her life. Kuze (Michael Carmen Pitt), an artificial entity just like her, gives away his life to save her so that she lives on and investigates further into the case and makes life better for everyone concerned. The film was criticized for whitewashing the original source material. Ideally, Japanese actors should have been cast in the film.Director: Leigh WhannellCast: Logan Marshall-Green, Betty Gabriel, Harrison GilbertsonGrey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green), a mechanic, asks his wife Asha (Melanie Vallejo) to accompany him while hes returning a refurbished car to his client Eron Keen (Harrison Gilbertson), a renowned tech innovator. Eron showcases his current creation to the couple, a multi-purpose chip called STEM with almost unlimited potential. Returning home, Grey and Asha's self-driving car malfunctions. Four men attack the couple. Asha is killed and Grey is shot in the neck, severing his spinal cord. Now a quadriplegic, Grey accepts the offer of Eron when the latter says he could walk if injected with STEM. Soon, STEM takes over his life and makes him avenge his wifes death. Grey comes to know that Eron was behind the attack but Eron reveals that STEM has been controlling him as well all along. STEM is in fact in total control of Greys mind as well as body and through that control kills everyone who knows his secret and walks off. Greys own consciousness is caught in a dream state and the artificially created STEM is free to do anything that pleases him in the wide, wide world.Director: Robert RodriguezCast: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Casper Van Dien, Jackie Earle Haley, Michelle Rodriguez, Jeff Fahey, Ed SkreinAlita: Battle Angel is based on the Japanese manga series Gunnm by Yukito Kishiro. Rosa Salzar plays Alita, an amnesiac cyborg who sets out to learn about her origins after she awakens in a new body with no past memory of who she is. The heroine goes through several tests to fully understand her powers and gains both physical and emotional maturity through her experiences. Salazar, playing a big-eyed, motion-captured version of herself is the soul of the film. Despite having a metal body, her human qualities show through and the actor makes the viewer root for Alita as she faces various hurdles
New Delhi:

Coronavirus is caused by this, coronavirus is caused by that... the real reason for COVID-19 infection is...the social media is full of odd theories and bizarre claims about the spread of the novel coronavirus. Despite the best of the efforts by scientists, researchers and health experts, weird stories in name of 'news' are being circulated on the internet. Joining the list of odd news is the latest claim that says 5G technology is responsible for novel coronavirus! Western social media is brimming with such posts. People are citing random news articles and unnamed experts for backing the claim. British tabloids carried and stories about some experts linking the radiation caused by 5G network with the spread of novel coronavirus. (Coronavirus Outbreak Live Updates)

First up, what has been claimed about the odd link: It all started with news about a 5G tower being set ablaze by angry residents in the UK's Birmingham claiming that the radiation caused by the high-speed network is the real culprit of the pandemic. The local news was picked up by several British tabloids. In no time, unnamed experts also joined the '5G behind coronavirus' chorus. Soon, a video clip went viral on British social media where a woman spoke about the dangers of the 5G network. The Facebook post titled 'Stop 5G UK' linked the technology with COVID-19 infections claiming that 'Wuhan is where 5G was rolled out.' On Twitter, an in a viral video clip, an unidentified woman claimed that 5G sucks oxygen out of your lungs. 'On your oxygen molecules, the little electrons, with 5G they start to oscillate. So 5G is absorbing the oxygen and then your haemoglobin cant take up the oxygen...So how long do you think its going to take the human body to fall over because it suddenly cannot take up oxygen into cells?

So what is the fact? From BBC to other independent media outlets, several fact-checking sites have confirmed that there is no link between novel coronavirus and 5G technology. Those in the field of communication say that similar conspiracies were floated in the market at the time of the launch of 3G and 4G networks.

The guy who collects money at a car park just told me that COVID-19 is a global conspiracy involving 5G, the CIA, Mossad, KGB & the Chinese Secret Service

He should know  nazir afzal (@nazirafzal) April 3, 2020

Only this time, the 5G technology is linked with the COVID-19 infections. Researchers say that the 'level of radiation from 5G is far below levels of electromagnetic radiation'. That is so low that it cannot cause any damage to cells in the human body. The International Commission on NonIonizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) that is responsible for testing the risks of radio broadcasts have checked the 5G networks and found it safe.

His source: A friend.



His evidence: No coronavirus in the Caribbean, coronavirus in US and China, which have 5G. (Fact check: there is coronavirus in parts of the Caribbean, but its not as bad as the US)  Alex Kane (@alexbkane) March 29, 2020

And for those who have been claiming that the only 5G-less places on the Earth are free of coronavirus, well that is not entirely true. Alex Kane a freelance journalist has also debunked this myth. "No coronavirus in the Caribbean, coronavirus in US and China, which have 5G. (Fact check: there is coronavirus in parts of the Caribbean, but its not as bad as the US)," he said on Twitter.

For all the Latest Fact Check News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Anderson Cooper is counting on his close friend Andy Cohen for pointers on being a dad  and nanny recommendations, too.

On Monday's episode of his SiriusXM Radio Andy show, Cohen, 51, revealed that one-year-old Ben's former nanny is now working for Cooper, 52, after a handoff that was done 'very carefully' during this time of quarantine and social distancing.

The media personalities have been vocally supportive of one another's efforts to grow their respective families, with Anderson often visiting Andy and Ben over the past year, and Cohen sharing sincere well wishes when Cooper announced the birth of his son Wyatt Morgan on social media last week.

Sharing nannies: On Monday's episode of his SiriusXM Radio Andy show, Andy Cohen revealed that his son one-year-old Ben's former nanny is now working for his friend Anderson Cooper, father to newborn son Wyatt; Andy seen with his son Ben in New York over the weekend

On his radio podcast this week, Andy started the segment off by reflecting on how 'eagle-eared' his listeners were, as he said he received 'a bunch of DMs' asking about his nanny moving to Cooper's 'the moment Anderson announced' Wyatt's birth, which was via surrogate on April 27th.

'The answer is yes, that is where my nanny went!' said Cohen excitedly.

'We had long planned this transition,' he continued, 'but I certainly didn't expect it to happen during a quarantine, of course.

Sharing the love: The media personalities have been vocally supportive of one another's efforts to grow their respective families, with Cohen sharing sincere well wishes when Cooper announced the birth of his son on social media last week

'We had long planned this transition,' Cohen said on his radio show, 'but I certainly didn't expect it to happen during a quarantine, of course'

'So we had to really handle this hand-off from one home to the next very carefully, but we did and she is now with Anderson and I know she's gonna get Wyatt on a great sleep schedule just like she got Ben,' Andy added.

'I'm so happy for Anderson,' the Watch What Happens Live host also said. 'We've been talking about this for a long time and I have been really enjoying Anderson coming over. His visits with Ben have taken on a special significance since we both knew for a while that Anderson was planning on [becoming a dad] himself.'

It's clear that Cohen is excited about sharing the experience of becoming a father with the CNN news anchor, in no small part due to the fact that they are both gay men.

New father: Cooper, a CNN news anchor, announced Wyatt's birth last Thursday on social media; seen here the next day in NYC

Cute: Wyatt Morgan was born via surrogate on April 27th

'You really have to jump through a lot of hoops to have a baby as a gay man,' Cohen said on Monday's podcast.

But he is choosing to focus on the positive side of things, namely the fact that his young son will now have a friend to grow up with.

'Im so excited for the two of our sons to grow up together and be friends,' he enthused. 'It's a great age difference for them to be pals, only one year!'

Enthused: It's clear that Cohen is excited about sharing the experience of becoming a father with the CNN news anchor, in no small part due to the fact that they are both gay men

'Im so excited for the two of our sons to grow up together and be friends,' Andy said of his friend Anderson, and their sons Wyatt and Ben

Last Thursday, Cooper announced the birth of his son with a heartfelt confessional post.

'As a gay kid, I never thought it would be possible to have a child, and I'm grateful for all those who have paved the way, and for the doctors and nurses and everyone involved in my son's birth,' his emotional caption read, in part.

Cohen was so overjoyed by the news that he reposted the same picture of Cooper with his baby, writing alongside it, '"New life, new hope!" Wyatt Cooper, you couldn't have come at a better time! I know a friend who can't wait to meet you! '
Plans to increase fines and car registration fees from July have been frozen by the state government to provide financial relief to Victorians.

The government will also exempt businesses from payroll tax if they are participating in the federal governments JobKeeper scheme.

Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui

On Tuesday ,the Andrews government announced a $491 million tax and financial relief package as the Victorian economy braces for a massive blow from the coronavirus pandemic.

All fees will be frozen, including car registration, drivers licences, traffic fines, court-imposed penalties and the fire services levy.
Doctors are baffled by the mystery of the new COVID-19 side effect. The Guardian reported that some patients are found to be talking and apparently not in distress, even having oxygen levels that are too low that can typically cause unconsciousness or even death, making it a prime concern for doctors.

The phenomenon known as "Happy Hypoxia" is raising questions about how exactly the coronavirus is attacking the lungs and whether there could be a more effective way to treat patients experiencing it.

The baffling mystery of the new COVID-19 symptom

Doctors are reporting patients in the A&E to have 80% or 70% or sometimes below 50% oxygen percentage levels. That is too low compared to the expected normal oxygen saturation levels of at least 95% on a healthy person.

Dr. Jonathan Bannard-Smith, a consultant in critical care and anesthesia at Manchester Royal Infirmary, said that seeing many patients coming to the hospital hypoxic are very intriguing as they have very low oxygen saturation and yet are unaware of it.

This phenomenon is not usual on influenza or community-acquired pneumonia. It is very much more intense and an example of bizarre physiology going on before the eyes of the experts.

While other lung conditions such as pneumonia or a pulmonary embolism could cause severe hypoxia, patients of these conditions would usually appear ill, and they would not be sat up in a bed talking, said Dr. mike Charlesworth, an anesthetist at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester.

Doctors still do not know if this happy hypoxia could cause undetectable organ damage or if it is the body's way of compensating.

Read Also: Llama vs COVID-19: Its Antibodies Are Used to Bind to SARS-CoV-2's Spike Protein to Stop Infecting Cells

Not a good sign

One anesthetist at a London hospital, who spoke anonymously, said that there was one patient who attended the A&E saying she felt cold. Immediately, the doctors put her on the stats probe and found that her oxygen saturation level was 30%. They just thought that was wrong since typical hypoxic patients are likely to have cardiac arrests.

But when a blood sample was taken from her, the blood was very dark and have oxygen levels equivalent to those seen in people adapted to high altitudes. She was placed later on a ventilator, but she died a week later. The doctor said that he had a few patients like this, and sadly the outcomes tend to bad.

Typically, when oxygen supplies fall, organs such as the heart, brain, and other vital organs are placed at risk, and its effect is thought to be cumulative. Patients usually lose consciousness below an oxygen saturation of 75%.

But the fall in oxygen level does not leave people feeling breathless. It is the rising of carbon levels that typically co-occur as the lungs are unable to clear gas as efficiently. However, this response does not appear to be kicking in some COVID-19 patients.

Read more: Coronavirus Pandemic Likely to Last for Two Years Unless Two-Thirds of the World Become Immune: Study
Three out of four of the largest e-commerce sites saw the numbers of visits decreasing in Q1, a time when experts predicted would see a boom as the COVID-19 epidemic reached its peak.

Business activities shrank, many offline shops closed doors during the social distancing period, and people hesitated to go shopping for fear for coronavirus. However, these factors could not help e-commerce take off.





The Q1 e-commerce map released by iPrice and SimilarWeb showed that the number of web visits to three out of four largest marketplaces in Vietnam decreased in Q1.



Tiki had 23.99 million visits each month, a slight decrease of 500,000 compared with Q4 2019. Lazada Vietnam and Sendo also reported decreases in the number of visits, by 7.3 million and 9.6 million, respectively.



Shopee Vietnam was the only site of the big four reporting an increase in visits, and it continues to lead the market with 43.16 million visits each month. This is the third consecutive quarter Shopee saw growth in number of visits.

Tiki in April also ran a sale promotion program worth VND39 billion under which it delivered goods free of charge in Hanoi and HCM City for bills with certain minimum value.

Tiki in April also ran a sale promotion program worth VND39 billion under which it delivered goods free of charge in Hanoi and HCM City for bills with certain minimum value.



The number of web visits on the sites, except Shopee, decreased by 9 percent on average in Q1 2020.



According to iPrice Group, this is partially because marketplaces restricted ads and sale promotion activities during the period. Instead, they intensified livestream and games on apps and social networks. People spent more time at home and in front of computer screens.



Prior to that, when the epidemic escalated, Nguyen Ngoc Dung, deputy chair of the Vietnam E-commerce Association (Vecom) predicted that online business would bear effects because of weak purchasing power, and that only the sale of essential goods had opportunity to grow.



Vietnams e-commerce in Q1 saw hot growth for non-key products. iPrice Groups data showed that demand for face masks and hand washing liquid increased by 610 percent and 680 percent, respectively, in February compared with January.



In March, when people stayed home more, the hot growth was reported for grocery sales. The web visits to Bach Hoa Xanh, surged by 49 percent compared with Q4 2019.



However, these products did not make big contribution to market sales. Of 50 e-commerce sites in Vietnam, only two specialize in groceries, namely Bach Hoa Xanh and Big C, much lower than the 10 sites specializing in mobile products and 7 sites specializing in fashion products.

Thanh Mai

E-commerce provides opportunities for VN firms to boost exports Amid the negative coronavirus impact, local small and medium-sized enterprises are paying attention to digital solutions that utilise artificial intelligence technology to increase exports by connecting buyers globally via e-commerce channels.
Kyiv's Pechersky District Court has selected a measure of restraint for former President of Ukraine (2010-2014) Viktor Yanukovych in the form of detention in absentia under the case on making amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine with the aim of seizing power in the country.

A source from the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) told Interfax-Ukraine that such a measure of restraint was selected for Yanukovych upon a petition of the PGO within the proceedings on the criminal case in which the ex-president is suspected of having committed a crime under Part 2 of Article 27 and Part 1 of Article 109 (actions aimed at forceful change or overthrow of the constitutional order or take-over of power) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The Aver Lex bar association has also confirmed this information to the agency.

According to the press service of Aver Lex, Yanukovych's defense lawyer Vitaliy Serdiuk said that the court's ruling was illegal and based on the case files fabricated by the PGO.

"The amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine were made by the Constitutional Court in 2010 in line with the legal procedure, and Viktor Yanukovych did not intrude in the process. The employees of the PGO, Andriy Neskorodiany and Oleksandr Suprun, have entered into a collusion on criminal case No. 42017000000003538 dated November 7, 2017. They are using forged materials as evidence and are trying to legalize them in court under control of the incumbent government," the lawyer said.

He also said that in 2010 the persons, who later became representatives of the oppositional forces during the events on Maidan, actively supported the cancellation of the amendments made to the Constitution in 2004, which were approved by the Constitutional Court.

"The PGO has no claims against the judges of the Constitutional Court who approved the decision in 2010. The prosecutors' long-lasting hard work in search for proofs of a non-existent guilt of Viktor Yanukovych has ended up with an attempt to legalize the so-called "shadow accounting book" using which he allegedly influenced the judges It is known that the information about the existence of this "book" was inspired by Ukrainian law enforcers and their western curators with the aim of intruding into the U.S. presidential election in 2016. This information has been confirmed by NABU [National Anti-Corruption Bureau] Director Artem Sytnyk And the investigation materials about the so-called shadow accounting were used exactly for this purpose. Just as well as the closure of cases against other defendants in the so-called shadow accounting case due to alleged absence of the event of a crime," the lawyer said.

Serdiuk mentioned as an example a case against former Head of the Central Election Commission Mykhailo Okhendovsky, which was opened in December 2016 on suspicion of taking a UAH 1.2 million bribe, which was allegedly registered in the "shadow accounting book" of the Party of Regions. The case was closed in January 2020 under Article 284 (absence of occurrence or elements of criminal offence) of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.

As it is known, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine returned the country to the presidential-parliamentary form of government, returning part of the lost powers to the president. The decision of the Constitutional Court, essentially, put into effect the 1996 Constitution.

On October 1, 2010, the text of the "new Constitution" was published in the special issue of the bulletin "Official Bulletin of Ukraine."
Two Eye-catching with black and orange marks and long stingers were spotted late last year near Blaine, Washington. This then prompted scientists to begin a massive search to stop the creatures from increasing in number.



Succeeding examination revealed the discoveries were identified as "Asian giant hornets," the largest wasps of the world, growing almost two inches long.

Also, scientists have expressed concern that these hornets could spread throughout Washington State and even beyond, fostering a threat to bees in the US. Reports said, nobody knows how until now, how the hornets arrive in the country.

However, discoveries initiated alarms, and these insects started trending on social media, being labeled as "murder hornets." These so-called "predators," native to Japan and East Asia, are said to be notorious when it comes to destroying colonies of the honeybee.



These Hornets are Known for Killing People

With the venoms the large stringers of these "murder hornets" deliver, they are already recognized "for killing their native habitats." Mainly, in Japan, roughly 50 people, on average, die each year from the stings of hornets.

Then, in 2013, when the Hornets' population was extraordinarily high, they killed more than 40 people in a single province in China. Most serious incidents usually take place when people are coming near or distract the hives of these insects.

According to Chris Looney, a Washington State Department of Agriculture entomologist, the said insects "Are pretty formidable," and this, he said, worried him a lot.

Looney, at the same time, warned, beginning with the nickname, "murder hornet." The entomologist shared, he had not heard the said nickname before the recent media coverage of the hornets, admitting he does not like it.



Ravenous Species

Currently, researchers cannot confirm the "murder hornets" arrived. Most likely, Looney said it is the insects got accidentally stuck in shipping containers, which came from one of the countries they originated.

Reportedly, the insects' complete hive was discovered and destroyed late last year in neighboring Nanaimo, Canada. However, according to genetic tests, the said giant hornets were separately introduced.

Essentially, the Asian giant hornets that came from East Asia and Japan have already established themselves as intrusive species in other countries like South Korea, for one.

Moreover, these large wasps form colonies that consist of a queen and a lot of workers who can fly and reach half-a-dozen miles or even farther from their hive to search for food.

Hornets eat many different kinds of insects. However, they appear to enjoy eating bees, specifically. That is why, each time they encounter honeybees, these wasps' attack begins with what Looney explained, "A slaughter phase."

Slaughter phase, the entomologist elaborated, means the serial biting of the heads off bees with the hornets' large mandibles. He added, within just 90 minutes or an hour and a half, a small group of these Asian hornets or "murder hornets" to some, can destroy the workers' entire colony.

The hornets then switch to feeding. They inhabit the honeybee nest for at least a week, feeding on the larvae and pupae. Then, they have their own young to eat it.

Wasp expert and researcher at the Kyoto Sangyo University in Japan, Jun-ichi Takahashi, agreed that the damage of wasps to the environment could be considerable wherever they spread. He also backed the initiatives to contain the said spread.

Takahashi, who was interviewed through e-mail said, the label, "murder hornet" is suitable as the species is as hazardous as killer bees, a nickname used for the African honeybee.







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Its scary and it feels threatening to my health to just be outside, said Mr. Lewis, who has been posting photographs of sometimes disturbing Tenderloin street scenes on his Facebook page. He straps on a mask and form-fitting goggles to venture to grocery stores and walks in the street, rather than on the sidewalk, to keep his distance.

Mr. Lewis is not alone in his frustration. A group of residents, businesses and the University of California Hastings College of Law, located in the Tenderloin, sued the city in federal court Monday to clean up the neighborhood, alleging squalid conditions that threaten peoples health in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Rather than acting as an equalizer, the coronavirus is deepening socioeconomic rifts. The wealthiest receive the best care, have access to testing and enjoy emotional support from family members over video calls, while the most vulnerable are too often simply ignored. Less than 2 percent of the U.S. population has been screened for the virus, while wealthy enclaves like Bolinas, Calif., have arranged for each of its 1,300 citizens to get a test.

Were already having problems as it is with the Tenderloin, Mayor Breed told me. We think that just because theres a pandemic that the problems that many people who are homeless face would just all of a sudden disappear and this would become the priority.



But people who suffer from substance-use disorder and mental illness, that just doesnt turn off because of a pandemic, she said.

When it comes to the poorest in places from Philadelphias Kensington to Los Angeless Skid Row, city officials grappling with Covid-19 are collectively shrugging. Their options are few and unpalatable: Put them in shelters, large encampments or even jails, where the virus has spread quickly, or in costly and logistically difficult hotel rooms; or simply let them fend for themselves. Critics say officials too often are choosing the latter.

And these solutions seem more like a Band-Aid than a long-term fix.

A lack of reliable information means many in the nations most-downtrodden districts resist wearing masks or altering their daily routines and still more simply have nowhere else to go other than makeshift tents.

Sheltering in place works, but it is a recourse for the privileged who can afford to stay at home for weeks on end, because their jobs or bank accounts permit it. Panhandling is only possible out in the open.
The Sensex surrendered all its early gains to end 262 points lower on Tuesday due to emergence of a sudden sell-off in financial stocks at the fag-end of the sessio

Shrugging off the positive trade in global markets, domestic market remained under pressure as investors are cautious over the economic slowdown amid rising coronavirus cases over the last few days. There are also higher uncertainties over the possibility of govt announcing another relief package, denting investors sentiments.

The benchmark indices opened on a positive note but the bourses turned negative in the afternoon session due to sell-off in Bank Nifty and ended in the red territory with a decline of 0.9 percent. All sectoral indices ended in red except energy and infra. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices fell 1 percent each.

There were major selloffs in FMCG, pharma and banking indices. Bharti Infratel, M&M and Power Grid ended as top gainers while SBI, Bajaj Finance and Britannia were the top laggards. Crucial events which can impact market for this week include services PMI data, govts measures to combat the impact of economic lockdown extension and the US, China relationship.

Slumping over 810 points from the day's high, the 30-share BSE index settled 261.84 points or 0.83 percent lower at 31,453.51, and the NSE Nifty fell 87.90 points or 0.95 percent to close at 9,205.60.

State Bank of India (SBI) was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, shedding over 4 percent, followed by Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, Axis Bank, Kotak Bank and ICICI Bank.

Sumeet Bagadia, Executive Director, Choice Broking said, "It is the second consecutive day that the Index has given a negative close at 9,212-level with the loss of 80 points. On a daily chart, the index has formed an Abandon Baby Candlestick which is a bearish reversal formation and indicates a downside movement. At present level, the index has strong resistance at 9450 while downside good support comes at 9,170-9,000-level," he said.

The indices witnessed profit booking post 2-PM and ended lower for the second consecutive day on Tuesday. Financials, auto and aterials stocks came under selling pressure, said Deepak Jasani, Head Retail Research, HDFC Securities. "The moves to reopen economies shut down to help curb the coronavirus pandemic helped boost oil prices, with the US benchmark jumping 10 percent-its longest run of gains in nine months. Many European countries that have seen new infections tapering off amid strict social distancing measures and nationwide lockdowns have begun relaxing some restrictions.

"European stocks trimmed an advance after Germanys top judges gave the European Central Bank three months to fix its asset-purchase program. The German judges said that some parts of the quantitative-easing program arent backed by European Union treaties. Poor macro data continued to pour in. Prices at factory gates in the 19 countries sharing the euro fell 1.5 percent month-on-month in March and 2.8 percent year-on-year. Hong Kongs economy shrank 8.9 percent year-over-year in the first quarter, its worst showing since 1974.

"Technically, with the Nifty correcting further after the sharp correction seen in the previous session, the bears remain in control for the near term. Further downsides are likely once the immediate support of 9191 is broken towards 8909. Any pullback rallies could find resistance at 9,396," Jasani said.

Rupee settles 10 paise higher

The Indian rupee surged 10 paise to close at 75.63 (provisional) against the US dollar on Tuesday, amid higher domestic equity markets and gains in some Asian currencies.

Forex traders said the rupee is trading in a narrow range as positive domestic equities supported the local unit, while sustained foreign fund outflows and concerns over coronavirus outbreak weighed on the local unit, according to a PTI report.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 75.62, and finally settled at 75.63, registering a rise of 10 paise over its previous close.

#Rupee ends slightly higher at 75.62 against the US dollar pic.twitter.com/KrkFaBqgN1  CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) May 5, 2020

During the day the domestic unit saw an intra-day high of 75.50 and a low of 75.72 against the US dollar.

On Monday, the rupee had settled at 75.73 against the US dollar.

Domestic bourses were trading on a positive note with the benchmark Sensex trading 85.45 points higher at 31,800.80 and broader Nifty 15.30 points at 9,308.80.

"Other Asian currencies have also started with gains against the US Dollar this Tuesday morning amid risk appetite returned to the market as many countries planned to ease the restrictions on the lockdown enforced due to the COVID-19 pandemic," Reliance securities said in a research note.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban has accused his political opponents and Hungary's allies alike of "spreading fake news" about the EU member's coronavirus law that allows his government to rule by decree for an unlimited period.

Hungary's parliament, where Orban's right-wing Fidesz party holds a comfortable majority, approved legislation on March 30 giving him sweeping new powers under -- and possibly beyond -- the country's state of emergency to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

The move triggered a wave of criticism from both EU politicians and the United States.

In recent weeks, we have witnessed an unprecedented attack and disinformation campaign against Hungary, Orban wrote in a letter sent on May 5 to the center-right European Peoples Party (EPP), the European Parliaments biggest grouping.

Its the most cynical one I ever experienced because it deliberately disregarded that the government, which was targeted, was desperately fighting for saving human lives, Orban wrote.

The EPP suspended Fidesz from its ranks in March 2019 over concerns over the rule of law backsliding in Hungary as well as attacks against the European Commission. The suspension was extended indefinitely in February, before the Hungarian lawmakers' move to grant Orban sweeping powers.

Orban argued in his letter that the parliament has been in session ever since the law was passed, adding that the competence to terminate the state of danger (emergency) or any decree taken by the government was handed over to the parliament.

However, rights groups say such an argument overlooks one critical point: While the parliament can annul the extra prerogatives handed over to the government, Hungary's constitution gives the government the power to lift the state of danger -- the Hungarian equivalent to a state of emergency, according to the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a civil rights watchdog that analyzed the law.

Orban also lashed out at his critics, writing that our formal political opponents, but more worryingly, some EPP politicians, too, have been actively involved in spreading fake news.

Last month, several of Europes center-right political leaders sent a joint letter to Donald Tusk, the EPP president, calling for the Fidesz expulsion. The letter was signed by politicians from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, and Sweden.

Although it warned in a statement on March 31 against the use of the pandemic as an excuse to undercut democracy, the European Commission has so far refrained from directly criticizing Orban.

But members of the U.S. Congress were quick to blast Orban's move at the time.

Representative Eliot Engel (Democrat-New York), chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Senator Jim Risch (Republican-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on March 31 said it was particularly disturbing that a NATO ally and EU member would implement what Engel called a blatant power grab that allows Orban to rule by decree like a dictator.

Engel also added that it is "particularly egregious that...Orban attempts to capitalize on the suffering of his own citizens for personal gain."

With reporting by euractiv.com
New Delhi:

Curfew will be imposed in Haryana from 7 pm to 7 am with effect from May 4, state Chief Secretary Keshni Anand Arora said on Sunday. Haryana's neighbouring state Punjab and common capital Chandigarh had imposed curfew before the nationwide lockdown was announced.

"As per the directions issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, the curfew will be imposed in the state from 7 pm to 7 am from May 4, 2020," Arora said. Haryana has given relaxations from April 20 to restart the economic activities like opening of industry and the shops in non-containment zones while following the Centre's guidelines.

An official release issued on Sunday evening said the Haryana government "is working to bring the health and economic conditions of the people of its state back on track and is taking important steps in this direction". "Following the guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, while some areas will be given relaxation in Haryana during the third phase of lockdown from May 4, there are some areas where gathering of five or more people will remain restricted," the release said.

Haryana Chief Secretary Keshni Anand Arora gave directions regarding lockdown 3.0 to all the deputy commissioners, superintendents of police and other senior officers during a meeting, the release said. She made it clear to the officers concerned that their districts will be reviewed every week by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

"And if it is found that guidelines are not being followed in an area and is declared as red zone, all supplies except the supply of essential goods will be restricted and all permissions (pertaining to relaxations) will cease with immediate effect," she added. Arora also directed the officers concerned to ensure that the guidelines of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs are followed at all times while starting the industrial units.

Haryana has a total of 442 coronavirus cases with five COVID19-related deaths. Director General of Police Manoj Yadava directed the SPs to ensure the seamless management of traffic and to check that masks are worn by everyone even in cars and social distancing is maintained.

He said that anyone who spits in public places should be fined as per rules. Truck drivers returning from long-distance trips from outside the state should be screened at the police checkpoints with the help of a team from the Health Department, he added.
Tamil actor Vijay Antony on Tuesday, taking into consideration the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic, has announced a cut in remuneration of 1 crore for his upcoming three projects.

At present, Vijay Antony has three Tamil projects Tamizharasan, Agni Siragugal and Khaki -- at various stages of production in his kitty. As Tamil cinema got affected due to coronavirus lockdown from March 2020, the completion and releases of these three films were delayed by three months and by the time these films release, it may take another 3-4 months. Considering the loss that will be incurred by the producers of these three films and with a view to support them overcome from this situation, Vijay Antony came forward and offered 25% reduction in his salary for these films, read a statement.

The 25% pay cut can be estimated to 1 crore per project.

Commenting on the actors magnanimous gesture to reduce salary, producer T. Siva said: It is very kind of Vijay Antony to accept salary reduction considering the situation we are in due to the lockdown for over 50 days. We request that all actors and technicians should also come forward and accept reduced salaries so that the overall cost of all the current film producers reduces to tide over this crisis that all of us are facing currently.

Also read: Kareena Kapoor visits Ranbir Kapoor, aunt Neetu after the death of Rishi Kapoor, see pic

It has to be seen whether other actors will come forward and support this decision.

A producer, on the condition of anonymity, told Hindustan Times that all actors should be willing to reduce their salary. Its not going to be easy to return to normalcy when all this is over. It will take a while before a lot of producers would even think of going back to the sets. Keeping in mind the current scenario, every rupee saved would make a lot of difference. It will benefit a lot of producers if actors welcome the decision to reduce their salaries. Its the need of the hour, he said.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop
Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, introduced a bill Tuesday requiring the state to collect data on how the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic affects the LGBTQ community.

Currently, the state collects coronavirus case, death and hospitalization data by race and ethnicity, age and gender but not by sexuality. Wiener's bill, Senate Bill 932, would require the state to begin collecting virus data on the LGBTQ community to understand how the virus affects it.

Wiener suggested that LGBTQ people could be suffering more from the virus because the community has higher rates of cancer, HIV and AIDS, respiratory issues due to smoking, homelessness and youth homelessness.

The data collection, Wiener said, would also demonstrate the state government's support for the LGBTQ community, which has been routinely neglected by state and local governments, most notably during the HIV and AIDS crisis in the 1980s.

"We know that COVID-19 is harming the LGBTQ community, but because no data is being collected, we're hamstrung in making the case to devote attention and resources," Wiener said. "The history of the LGBTQ community is a history of fighting against invisibility. Without data, we quickly become an invisible community and risk being erased."

Equality California is sponsoring the bill, according to Wiener's office.

Wiener did not give an estimated date of when the state Legislature could begin discussing the bill. The Legislature reconvened Monday for the first time since mid-March after the pandemic upended the legislative session.

In the coming weeks, state lawmakers will also be required to juggle the pandemic response and the state budget, which must be approved by June 15.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 16:21:03|Editor: huaxia

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CANBERRA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Prime Minister Scott Morrison has declared that restarting the economy is Australia's next challenge in the fight against coronavirus.

The National Cabinet, which consists of Morrison and state and territory leaders, met on Tuesday to discuss getting Australia back to work.

As of midday on Tuesday, Australia had 6,849 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 96 people died.

According to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Tuesday, almost 1 million Australians have lost their jobs since the introduction of social distancing measures in March.

As a result restrictions are costing the economy 4 billion Australian dollars (2.5 billion U.S. dollars) per week, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said.

The ABS found that the total employee jobs decreased 7.5 percent, while total wages paid by employers dropped 8.2 percent, between March 14 and April 18.

The ABS noted that the fall in job numbers was getting steeper rather than flattening in mid-April.

"Looking at the week-to-week changes, the decrease in the number of jobs in the week ending April 18 was 1.5 percent, which was larger than the 0.3-percent decrease in week ending April 11," Bjorn Jarvis, the head of ABS labour statistics, said in a statement.

Food services and accommodation staff have been the hardest-hit with more than one-third losing their jobs, followed by arts and recreation services where 27 percent of staff are out of work.

The data also showed that jobs in accommodation and food services worked by people aged 20-29 and people over 70 decreased the most (-40.8 percent and -43.7 percent).

In response, Morrison said the National Cabinet was intent on keeping the economy moving in the safest way possible.

"To get Australians back to work, we have to get Australians back to work in a safe economy. We are trying to find what that safe economy looks like, so we can move towards that," he told reporters.

"The National Cabinet are not in any way unaware of the serious implications of the decisions we have had to take now over many months, and that is why we are not seeking to delay any time at all in terms of trying to get things moving again, but we must be able to move them forward safely."

Jacinda Ardern, the PM of New Zealand, joined Tuesday's National Cabinet meeting to discuss the potential of allowing international travel between Australia and New Zealand.

However, Morrison said negotiations on the idea would likely take months.

"The Prime Minister and I have been now for several weeks been talking about a safe travel zone between Australia and New Zealand," he said.

"It is still some time away. It is important to flag it because it is part of the road back, at some point both Australia and New Zealand connect with the rest of the world again, the most obvious place for that to start is between the two countries."

The National Cabinet will meet again on Friday to plan the details of a three-step framework to gradually remove baseline restrictions, with the aim to "to enable Australians to live in a COVID-19 safe economy," according to the statement from Morrison on Tuesday.
Pakistan on Monday reported 755 new cases of coronavirus, taking the total confirmed infections to 20,941 with 476 deaths in the country, the health ministry said. The Ministry of National Health Services said that out of the total patients, Punjab reported 7,646 cases, Sindh 7,882, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 3,288, Balochistan 1,218, Islamabad 464, Gilgit-Baltistan 372 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir reported 71 cases.

"Pakistan's coronavirus cases reached 20,884 after 694 new patients were diagnosed by Monday evening," said the statement issued by the health ministry.

The new cases came as Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday that the nationwide lockdown will be lifted gradually, asserting that Pakistan cannot afford an indefinite closure. The health ministry said that 14 more patients died on Monday, taking the total toll to 476.

"Another 5,635 recovered so far. The authorities so far had conducted 212,511 tests, including 9,522 in the last 24 hours," the statement said. Separately, a district and sessions court's judge in Tank area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province was tested positive for the coronavirus, the Peshawar High Court's Protocol Officer said in a statement.

"As per reports received till date no other Judicial Officer or staff of District Judiciary Tank has been found positive for COVID-19," the statement said. The judge, the first officer of district judiciary to have contracted the virus, is in self-isolation, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Khan telephoned also his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau to discuss the situation arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic and other matters of mutual interest. He thanked Canada for its support to include Pakistan in the G20's debt relief initiative.

Also read: Coronavirus Lockdown Live Updates: After Delhi, Andhra Pradesh hikes liquor price by 75%; India's cases-46,433

Also read: Pakistan records highest single day jump with 1,297 new coronavirus cases
The controversial bill on Vaccine titled, Control of Infection Diseases Bill 2020, which first surfaced in the House of Representati...





The controversial bill on Vaccine titled, Control of Infection Diseases Bill 2020, which first surfaced in the House of Representatives, has been submitted for debate in the Senate on Tuesday.





The Senates version is titled, National Health Emergency Bill; 2020.





The bill was sponsored by Senator Chukwuka Utazi representing Enugu North Senatorial district and also the Chairman of Senate Committee on Health.





Though the bill scaled first reading, former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who is also another lawmaker from Enugu State and of the Peoples Democratic Party ironically kicked against the bill after it passed the first reading.





Expressing his reservations on the bill, Ekweremadu demanded for the draft copy of the bill in line with the tradition of legislative debate on bills.





I havent seen the draft of this bill and I think nobody has seen it to study its contents and its important we have it before next adjourned date, Ekweremadu said.





In his remark, Senate President, Dr Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan ordered the sponsor of the bill to make copies available to Senators before the next sitting.





Lawan also ruled that the bill will be tabled for second reading on Tuesday, next week.





DAILY POST reports that a group, Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) alleged a $10 million bribe for accelerated passage of the bill, a claim that the House of Representatives was yet to react to, hours after.




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The Rolls-Royce Cullinan glides evenly over the rutted single-lane dirt road, barely unsettling its passengers. Nobody is speaking in the lush cabin, not even my normally chatty 7-year-old. All eyes are turned to the Delaware River gliding by, a dozen feet away, through a skim of skeletal hardwood trees. Theres no sign of humanity or habitation. Its almost a scene in a movie. The Last of the Mohicans, perhaps.

Today we are exploring the Old Mine Road, and it is making us think of ghosts. Its 104 miles of asphalt and dirt make up one of the oldest continuously-used roads in America, stretching from New Yorks Catskills to the Pennsylvania Delaware Water Gap. The Lenape are thought to have first threaded a path here in the 1300s.

It is also a pathway wending its way through the Northeasts violent history, from bloody skirmishes between the original Native American inhabitants and European settlers to the Americans and Brits in the Revolutionary War. Little wonder that out here in the quiet, that history  and those ghosts  feel close.

Amazingly, the 40-mile section in New Jersey that follows the eastern banks of the Delaware looks much like it did a hundred years ago. There are million-dollar views, but as part of the Delaware recreation area, no development is allowed.

Instead of the gated McMansions youd expect less than 1.5 hours from New York City, we are greeted by silent forest and twin lanes of bumpy or shattered asphalt. Theres a section of dirt and gravel, narrowing to a single lane. Easy to imagine hundreds of years of horses and mules stamping down the thin path.

It is early spring and like everyone else, we have cabin fever. My wife, son and mother-in-law are sheltering-in-place at our country house in the Poconos. America is locked into a struggle with an invisible enemy. It seems a good time to get some historical perspective. If our ancestors lived and endured under harsh conditions, so can we.

Story continues

There is nothing inherently unsafe or socially unacceptable about taking a short road trip on a virtually unused road, so we pack a lunch of cold pizza and snacks, and pile into the leather-bound, environmentally-controlled cocoon of the Rolls.

We make our way to Kingston, N.Y., where the road begins. Im finally going to drive the entirety of the Old Mine Road.

Our Barney-purple Cullinan is a rolling sanctuary, a movable fortress of social isolation. It rides atop the Ghosts architecture, and is powered by the same 6.75-liter twin-turbo V12, with 571 horsepower and an eerily smooth 627 pound-feet of torque. The difference is the oversized tires and tall ride height, supplemented by an independent air suspension.

The Royce is not made for serious off-road applications: With a starting price of $330,000 and an as-tested sticker of $426,700 youd have to be insane to run it in Baja. But the Old Mine is a perfect test.

The stretch from Kingston to Port Jervis, N.Y., is officially US 209. Its two lanes are uninterrupted by traffic lights, passing through rolling hills and hamlets like Hurley, Accord and Godeffroy. Its very rural, with scant traffic. Our purple SUV captures its share of attention, as a Roller surely isnt a common sight. The Cullinan fills the entire lane, but the rear-axle steering helps guide us along even the curviest bits. Theres no sense in pushing hard  were looking for serenity and escape.

Notice all of the old blue-and-yellow signs along 209: historical plaques. Which brings us back to historys ghosts. The Old Mine Road served as a conduit for early Dutch settlers in the 1600s, and earned its name for the Pahaquarry copper mine in the 1700s. Forts were created along its back during the French and Indian wars. And it was a vital circuit during the Revolutionary War, as it linked the Delaware River to the Hudson River, a route that the Brits badly wanted to control.

In Hurley, a sign commemorates the spot where a British spy, Lt. David Taylor, was hung from an apple tree behind a familys residence in 1777. (A 1904 issue of the local Kingston newspaper noted that in the 1800s, The mound over the grave was distinctly visible, and it was a proper thing for patriotic lads to dance upon it.)

The Old Mine Road leads through the bustling community of Port Jervis, which anchors the borders of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Main Street was once part of the Old Mine` Road, and youll see signs for Fort Decker, burned down in the summer of 1779 by a famous Mohawk military leader. Joseph Brant (nee Thayendanegea) was sympathetic to the British and during his life met historic luminaries like George Washington and King George III.

Past Port Jervis, and into New Jersey, the road pretty much ceases to be much of a road at all. It hasnt seen any new asphalt in a very long time, and the Cullinans suspension takes the constant hits stoically. It is never uncomfortable for its passengers, front or back.

We reach the dirt section, which hews closely to the river in sections. My son is hungry, as usual, so I take a very muddy side road down a steep hill toward the river. Im thankful for the clearance.

The wind is coming off the water, and its cold, but the views are gorgeous, and we pull out the picnic lunch we had packed.

Which is where the Rolls-Royce panache kicks in. Pop the rear tailgate down, activate an electronic switch, and two leather-bound chairs electronically swivel out, complete with a center cocktail table. Royce brands the swish feature its viewing suite, a $19,900 option.

Max hops up and promptly gets pizza grease all over the leather. The adults open both the front doors and the rear suicide doors and crouch in the lee, hiding from the wind.

Back on the dirt road, we pass a stone building called the Van Campen Inn, where some 150 settlers crammed inside its flagstone walls to hide from a Native American attack (or so the park literature goes).

There are only a few old stone cottages to be found on the route, including one house where nine generations of a family resided from the 1730s until the 1970s  and were evicted by the federal government.

After a series of floods on the Delaware that killed 99 people in 1955, a dam was planned. Most homes and structures were torn down and 15,000 families kicked out. The dam project was canceled in the 1970s, and the properties became part of the recreation area. One cant help feel both bad for the old families, but also thankful for the unusual circumstances that left this region so pristine.

Eventually we reach the roads final few miles, once again paved but narrow. It leads along the high banks of the Gap itself  the spot where the river has carved out a massive fissure through the ridges of the Appalachian Mountains.

And we hit a closed and padlocked gate. No sign, no warning. And no passing beyond it. Perhaps it has something to do with the New Jersey closings of public parks due to the virus. Unclear.

Oh, snap! says my kid from the back, with a mixture of surprise and annoying delight. The rest of my passengers  my wife and her mom  are less delighted. Despite the comfort of the car, theyre restless and it means many miles of backtracking.

So I summon the power of the Cullinan and its accommodating suspension and we fly back the way weve come; eventually getting off the Old Mine Road (farewell, for now!), and onto back country lanes of New Jersey.

We reach I-80 and turn west, letting the Cullinan fly. As we pass over the Delaware Water Gap Toll Bridge, I look down and can see the single lane of the Old Mine Road, cutting through the trees and hugging the side of the ridge precariously.

Ill be back another time, I promise, to finish those last few miles.

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A span is being placed on pillars of the Padma Bridge at a construction site in Munshiganj, Bangladesh, on May 4, 2020. The 29th span of Bangladesh's largest Chinese-built Padma Bridge has been installed amid the country's nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, making 4.35 km of the main structure of the bridge visible. (Str/Xinhua)

DHAKA, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The 29th span of Bangladesh's largest Chinese-built Padma bridge has been installed amid the country's nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, making 4.35 km of the main structure of the bridge visible.

Dewan Abdul Quader, a senior Bangladeshi engineer of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project, told journalists that engineers of China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group Co., Ltd (MBEC) on Monday morning successfully installed the span.

The around 3,200-ton span was placed on the pillars 19 and 20 of the bridge, he said.

With the installation of the 150-meter long span, the 29th span among the 41 spans has been installed on the 6.15-km bridge and 4.35 km of the bridge is now visible.

Despite the COVID-19 outbreak, many Chinese-built major projects including Padma Bridge are still under regular construction in the country.

According to the project engineer, the next span of the bridge is likely to be installed later this month as MBEC continued efforts to ensure timely completion of the core structure of the bridge despite the COVID-19 outbreak that has kept Bangladesh under the lockdown since March 26.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the main works of Padma Bridge project, the biggest of its kind in the country, in December 2015.

Apart from connecting nearly 30 million people in Bangladesh's southwest region to the rest of the country, the bridge will enhance regional trade and collaboration along the Asian highway No. 1 and the Trans-Asian railway network.
Advertising expert Kristopher Kale Sligh explains the importance of digital advertising and how it can help businesses succeed in 2020, and beyond.

FRANKLIN, TN / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / Digital advertising has become the norm in recent years, as more people spend time looking at computer screens than newspapers or magazines. According to advertising expert Kristopher Sligh, digital advertising is no longer just an option for businesses, it's absolutely essential.

"It's not just corporations that are benefiting greatly from digital advertising, small businesses are seeing major results too," Kristopher Kale Sligh says.

Kristopher Kale Sligh explains that businesses of all sizes can benefit from quality digital advertising campaigns, and he outlines many of the benefits. First, Kale Sligh describes how digital advertising can be an extremely cost-effective way of getting your name and message out there. Traditional advertising, such as billboards, commercials, and print ads, is drastically more expensive. He further explains that many times, digital advertising is cheap or even 100-percent free.

"Posting on local social media platforms is entirely free, and it can help get your brand noticed by your local community. That's a win-win," Kale Sligh says.

Kale further explains that just for a small amount of money compared to traditional advertising, businesses can purchase Google or Facebook ads to reach a wider audience. Kristopher Kale Sligh describes that digital advertising is also much easier and faster to plan than traditional advertising. Billboards or TV ads can take months to create and complete, while digital advertising can be thought up and published almost immediately.

"Imagine that you decide you want to run a special sale for your local customers today," Kale Sligh says. "You just log onto Facebook or other social media platforms and post your special prices for the day. That simply can't be done with print or TV advertising."

Kristopher Kale Sligh also expresses how convenient the tracking of online advertising can be. He explains that tracking can be done instantaneously through analytics that come with almost every digital advertising outlet.

"Even something as simple as a Facebook ad shows an exact number of how many people have been reached," Kristopher Kale Sligh says. "With a billboard, that number is just an estimate."

He explains further that digital ads are easy to target directly to a certain audience. Instead of advertising to the entire public with a costly print or TV ad, businesses can direct a more affordable advertisement at the people who are more likely to buy.

"Digital advertising is becoming one of the most popular advertising routes, and it's giving businesses of all sizes more opportunity to grow," Kristopher Sligh says. "A hardworking team with digital marketing knowledge will see the sky is the limit for any business."

CONTACT:

Caroline Hunter

Web Presence, LLC

+1 7865519491

SOURCE: Web Presence, LLC

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/588448/Kristopher-Kale-Sligh-Explains-the-Importance-of-Digital-Advertising-and-How-It-Can-Help-Businesses-Reach-Their-Potential
CINCINNATI, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- VNDLY, a leading cloud-based workforce management systems provider, announced its most recent round of Series B-1 funding -- $8.5 million led by Madrona Venture Group. Madrona's Steve Singh will join the VNDLY board. This brings the company's external funding total to $57.5 million, with the previous Series B investments totaling $35 million in 2019. Madrona Venture Group is a Seattle-based venture firm that has backed many industry-defining technology companies like Amazon, Smartsheet, and Snowflake.

Founded in 2017, VNDLY is recognized by industry experts as a top-ranking technology provider in the vendor management systems category (VMS). The company, which already has many Fortune 500 clients, will use the most recent investment to continue its industry-changing innovation, global expansion, and product development that includes building out new software modules. "We're honored that Madrona sees VNDLY in the same light as the other technology greats they stand behind. We know this will be a major driver for us as we move to the next level in our industry, continuing our mission to successfully challenge the status quo offered by legacy VMS firms," said Shashank Saxena, VNDLY's CEO.

Singh, the former CEO and co-founder of Concur, joined Madrona earlier this year as a managing director after participating for many years as a strategic advisor and angel investor. Concur was acquired by SAP in 2014 for $8.3 billion. He remained with the company through 2017 and was responsible for the majority of their cloud businesses, including Ariba, Fieldglass and Concur. Singh currently serves as the Chairman of Talend and on the boards of DocuSign and WaFd Bank. "As the contract workforce grows, VNDLY's cloud-native vendor management solution gives employers and contractors an AI-based platform that adapts to the changing needs of both groups. I am looking forward to working with Shashank and the VNDLY team to build the market-leading workforce management company," Singh said.

Contact:

Dominique Castle

(513) 572-2512

[email protected]

About VNDLY

Founded in 2017, VNDLY transforms how companies manage the contingent workforce. With its SaaS Work Management System (WMS), companies can manage the entire non-employee engagement lifecycle from talent acquisition to training to payment and offboarding. VNDLY serves as the ERP system of record for multiple Fortune 500 companies to manage their entire contingent and non-employee workforce on a single platform. VNDLY is a cloud-native platform that helps simplify the implementation, integration, and change management aspects compared to legacy VMS solutions. The VNDLY platform is composed of four modules: contingent workforce management, statement of work (SOW) management, independent contractor (IC) compliance, and total talent acquisition. For more information, please visit www.VNDLY.com.

About Madrona

Madrona ( www.madrona.com ) has been investing in early-stage technology companies in the Pacific Northwest since 1995 and has been privileged to play a role in some of the region's most successful technology ventures. The firm invests predominately in seed and Series A rounds across the information technology spectrum, and in 2018 raised a fund to expand initial investments into acceleration stage companies. Madrona manages approximately $1.8 billion and was an early investor in companies such as Amazon, Smartsheet, Rover, and Redfin.

SOURCE VNDLY

Related Links

https://vndly.com/


An Iranian airline fuelled the Middle East's coronavirus crisis by flying infected passengers into Lebanon and Iraq and continuing flights to China, an investigation has found.

Mahan Air, a private company linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), is accused of lying about these passenger flights after Tehran barred all flights to China on January 31.

Arrival and departure data from Tehran's Imam Khomeini and Chinese airports shows that flights continued for another full week and into March, according to BBC News Arabic.

One flight, a repatriation effort carried out for the government on February 6, brought 70 Iranian students living in Wuhan back to Tehran before flying to Baghdad the same day.

Mahan Air, a private company linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), is also accused of concealing these flights, which included Wuhan, despite Tehran barring all flights to China on January 31 (file photo of a Mahan Air A310 landing at Dusseldorf, Germany, in 2015)

China's ambassador to Iran, Chang Hua, posed with Mahan Air CEO Hamid Arabnejad on February 2 and noted that the boss had told him he wanted to keep working with China

China's ambassador to Iran, Chang Hua, posed for a tweet with Mahan Air CEO Hamid Arabnejad on February 2 and noted that the boss had told him he wanted to keep working with China.

Two days later the semiofficial Iranian Students' News Agency slammed the ongoing flights.

Mahan Air then claimed it had ended all flights from China on February 5, but travel to four major hubs (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen) continued for another 55 times to February 23, Flightradar data showed.

And on March 4, two weeks after Iran officially recorded its first deaths from COVID-19, Mahan Air was still flying to these Chinese cities, ForeignPolicy.com reported.

The BBC's investigation found that the first cases in Lebanon and Iraq came from Mahan Air flights.

Jets landing in Tehran from China also made onward travel within 24 hours to Barcelona, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and Istanbul.

Sources within Mahan Air told the BBC that cabin crew were kept quiet by the airline when they tried to raise concerns about the handling of the contagion and a lack of PPE.

The airline claimed it had only flown cargo planes with humanitarian aid to China and that all of its passengers flights were grounded. However, the data shows these were passenger not cargo flights.

Furthermore, Iran's severe lack of PPE and medical equipment makes it seem even more unlikely that it would fly humanitarian cargo to China. Indeed, by late March Beijing had sent medics to Iran to help with the crisis.

Mahan Air claimed it had ended all flights from China on February 5, but it had continued travel to four major hubs, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, another 55 times by February 23, Flightradar data showed

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani speaks during the cabinet meeting in Tehran on May 3

Tehran had downplayed reports of the virus and President Hassan Rouhani has said February 19 was the first time the government knew coronavirus was in the country.

However, at least one leaked dossier purports to refer to cases in Qom in January, but social distancing measures were not put in place until after the February 21 general election.

Qom, the epicentre for the disease in Iran, is suspected of becoming the ground zero due to Chinese students who attend the university in the city, which has some 400,000 immigrant students.

Mahan Air has refused to comment.

The coronavirus death toll in Iran rose by 74 on Monday to 6,277, while the total number of cases rose to 98,647. The daily death toll has stayed below 100 since mid-April (pictured: People wearing protective clothing attend the funeral of a victim who died from the new coronavirus, at a cemetery in the outskirts of the city of Babol, in north of Iran)

Relatives of a victim who died from the new coronavirus, mourn at the gate of a cemetery, in the outskirts of the city of Babol, in north of Iran, Thursday, April 30

The airline has been sanctioned by Washington for helping to transport IRGC personnel and arms to Bashar al-Assad in Syria. And more recently it repatriated the body of slain IRGC commander General Qassem Soleimani, after he was blown up by a US missile outside Baghdad airport in the New Year.

The coronavirus death toll in Iran rose by 74 on Monday to 6,277, while the total number of cases rose to 98,647. The daily death toll has stayed below 100 since mid-April.

Iran was due to open mosques in 132 cities and towns on Monday, President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday, part of a broader plan to ease restrictions. It was not immediately clear how many reopened.

The 132 cities and towns were chosen because they were deemed low-risk and have not had new coronavirus infections or deaths for a period of time.
WASHINGTON  Senate officials said Monday that they cannot legally release any potential records related to a complaint purportedly filed by a former aide to Joe Biden who has since accused him of sexual misconduct, rebuffing a request by the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Tara Reade has accused Biden, who was then a senator from Delaware, of sexually assaulting her in 1993, although she has said a formal complaint she filed that year describes only harassment, not assault. Biden, who denies all the allegations, has responded in part by calling on the Senate to release all the documentation pertaining to the complaint that Reade says she filed.

Responding to a letter Biden sent Friday, the secretary of the Senate's office, on the advice of legal counsel, concluded that the "Secretary has no discretion to disclose any such information as requested." The office, which did not confirm or deny the complaint's existence, based its decision in part on a review of confidentiality requirements.

The letter from Biden was related to Reade's allegation that Biden reached up her skirt and penetrated her with his fingers in 1993. Biden unequivocally denied the allegations on Friday, speaking directly about them for the first time. He also said he did not recall any complaint being filed.

Reade has told The Washington Post that her complaint dealt with harassment in the office, not assault. She has said that she cannot recall the office to which she filed her complaint and that she does not have a copy.

Reade was employed in Biden's Senate office for nine months, ending in 1993. She said she filed a complaint that year with a congressional human resources or personnel office. The Senate Office of Fair Employment Practices fielded complaints starting in 1992.

On Friday, Biden said relevant documents would not be found in his Senate papers, which are closed to the public, but would rather be housed at the National Archives.

A spokesperson for the Archives said that it has no control over the release of such records and that any documents "would have remained under the control of the Senate." A Senate resolution requires that such personnel records remain out of public view for 50 years.

On Friday afternoon, Biden's campaign released a copy of a letter the candidate had sent to the secretary of the Senate.

"The Archives now states that the records would have remained under the control of the Senate. Accordingly, I request that you take or direct whatever steps are necessary to establish the location of the records of this Office, and once they have been located, to direct a search for the alleged complaint and to make public the results of this search," Biden wrote.

He added, "I would ask that the public release include not only a complaint if one exists, but any and all other documents in the records that relate to the allegation."

The latest development adds to the fog surrounding the Reade allegations and illustrates the difficulty of looking into a 27-year-old alleged incident.

After the secretary of the Senate's statement, Biden campaign attorney Bob Bauer responded with follow-up questions about the possibility for a more limited release.

"Is just the existence of any such records subject to the same prohibition on disclosure?" Bauer asked, according to a statement from the campaign.

Without naming Reade, he asked if the accuser might be able to obtain the records: "Is there anyone, such as a complainant, to whom such records, if they exist, could be lawfully disclosed?" Finally, Bauer asked whether the Senate could release "the procedures and related materials" in 1993 for processing a complaint such as the one Reade has described.

The secretary of the Senate's office responded late Monday to say it was advised by legal counsel that even disclosing the existence of such records "would amount to a prohibited disclosure under the Government Employee Rights Act of 1991." The office said it was not aware of any exceptions in the law allowing it to disclose any records, "even to original participants in a matter."

In response to the campaign's third question, the office attached a public document from the time of the alleged complaint titled "Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices"  the entity that Bauer referred to in his question and that the secretary of the Senate's office referenced in its initial response to Biden.

The document outlines the procedure for bringing concerns to the attention of that office. It states that an employee would first submit a request for counseling to the director of the Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices, in person, by phone or in writing. Unless the employee and the director agreed in writing to contact the employee's office, the information relating to the counseling would not be disclosed to anyone outside the Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices, the document states. If the matter were not resolved, the employee could request mediation, at which point the employee's office would be contacted and involved, the document says. If the matter still remained unresolved after mediation, an employee could file a "formal complaint," according to the document.

Reade did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Over 35 months, which covered Reade's employment period, 479 people sought assistance from the Senate fair employment office, according to congressional testimony in 1995.

Of those, 325 sought informal advice, while 102 went into a five-step process that included counseling and mediation. Only 38 people ended up filing a formal complaint.

If Reade was among those who filed a formal complaint, her record would not normally be available until 2043, based on a Senate resolution passed in 1980 mandating that such information remain private for 50 years.

____

The Washington Posts Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.
The Mental Health Nurses Group in Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital has petitioned President Akufo-Addo to consider the construction of psychiatric hospitals across the country in the wake of COVID-19.

The group said the psychiatric hospitals could be built as part of the 88 hospitals the President announced will be constructed across the country.

With reference to your last update on the measures taken against the spread of Coronavirus in Ghana on 26th April, 2020, in which you announced the construction of 88 districts hospitals in the districts without hospitals in Ghana, we petition your high office to, as a matter of necessity, consider the construction of some psychiatric hospitals across the country out of the 88 intended in the various districts to serve the need of mental health care, portions of a statement from the group said.

The group believes the provision of district psychiatric hospitals will assist in managing psychiatric emergencies, including managing mental issues relating to COVID-19.

It will also in the long term serve the purpose of the Mental Health Law, 2012 (Act 846) which focuses on decentralizing mental health care to the community level to ease the pressure on the only three state psychiatric hospitals in Ghana and also ease the burden on family and relatives who have to travel long distances to access mental health care at the only three psychiatric hospitals in the country, the statement added.

There have been concerns about the government not paying enough attention to mental healthcare in Ghana.

Some have suggested that mental healthcare has not seen any improvement, despite the passing of the Mental Health Act in 2012.

Some psychiatric hospitals in the country keep deteriorating, forcing health officials at some of these facilities to call for the governments intervention.

Some of these hospitals have, in some instances, also turned away patients due to the lack of basic supplies.

At a point, the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital in the Central Region threatened to discharge over 100 patients due to the lack of funds to run the facility.

Need for mental health fund

The Mental Health Authority has, in the past, urged the government to pass the Legislative Instrument (LI) on Mental Health to end the frustration of Psychiatric Hospitals continually relying on government for funding.

The LI includes the establishment of the mental health fund which will provide funds to run the various mental health facilities in the country.

Ghana has a Mental Health Bill that was passed into law in 2012, but observers have noted that it lacks the necessary LI for its smooth implementation to help navigate the problems that have plagued mental health care in Ghana.

---citinewsroom
YEREVAN.  The Investigative Committee of Armenia has launched a criminal caseunder the Criminal Code articles on murder and causing suicideon the Tuesdays tragic incident in Yerevan. The committees the press service informed about this.

At 7:30am, an anonymous call was received informing that three people were lying on the ground in the courtyard of a building, and two of them were children.

It turned out that one of them was a resident of this building, he was born in 1980, and the aforesaid children were his.

Evidence was obtained that the man's ex-wife and childrenthe boy, born in 2013, and the girl, born in 2015were hosted at his ninth-floor apartment in this building, and the man had thrown his kids out of the window of his apartment, and then thrown himself.

The investigation is still in progress.
A new airline is expected to replace South African Airways, according to report monitored on Aerotime.

For the past three years, more than $1.1 billion have been injected into the company.

While the airline managed to secure a 3.5 billion rands ($240 million) funding from investors that included the state-owned Development Bank of Southern Africa in January 2020, the coronavirus crisis currently affecting the air transport industry precipitated its demise.

After refusing to pay another 10 billion rands ($532 million) of emergency aid, the Ministry of Public Enterprises announced on May 1, 2020, that the national carrier, created in 1934, would disappear to give way to a new airline. Stakeholders have agreed on a long-term vision and strategy with a view to the creation of a new dynamic airline, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan said, predicting the beginning of a new journey.

South African Airways on the brink, after state denies support

While the financial administrators appointed in December 2019 pleaded for a pure and simple liquidation with severance packages offered to the employees, the government preferred partial privatization with a bicephalous structure: one governmental head, the other composed of private owners.

The project of the government has yet to be approved by the courts.

Unions are wary of upcoming layoffs. The government warned the 5,200 people currently employed by SAA that sacrifices would need to be made.

South African Express, a domestic and regional airline also owned by the state but managed independently from SAA, was declared on provisional liquidation on April 30, 2020  a month after suspending all operations.

---Daily Guide
Some grandparents in Italy have celebrated the easing of lockdown by seeing their grandchildren for the first time since restrictions began in March.

The Italian government lifted some of its coronavirus restrictions on Monday after almost two months of lockdown, allowing families to see one another again.

Maria Antonietta Galluzzo, a grandmother who lives in Rome, took full advantage of the announcement, taking her three-year-old grandson for a walk in the Villa Borghese park.

I woke up at 5.30 a.m. I was so excited, she said.

He has grown by this much ... It is wonderful, Ms Galluzzo added.

As well allowing relatives to reunite, the new rules mean construction work can begin again and some cafes can open for takeaways.

More than 29,000 people in Italy have died as a result of Covid-19, and there were 195 new deaths from the virus on Monday.

In other European countries, grandparents are also now able to see their grandchildren once more.

On Monday, Denmarks Health Authority issued new coronavirus guidelines, which permit grandparents to see and hug their grandchildren.

You can of course give hugs to those closest to you, for example your partner, children and grandchildren, the guidance says.

As part of the new advice, Danish authorities have raised the age of those deemed to be at risk from Covid-19 from 65 to 70.

In Switzerland, Daniel Koch, the countrys infectious diseases chief, said last week that children under 10 are allowed to see their grandparents.

According to Mr Koch, young children dont transmit the virus and therefore do not put their older relatives at risk.

He added that grandparents live to see their grandkids, stressing that it was important for their mental health to do so.

The revised guidelines came after the health ministry had consulted with scientists at universities in Zurich, Bern and Geneva, the Swiss broadcaster SRF said.

The UK still has lockdown measures, which forbid people from meeting up with family members from different households.

Arlene Foster, the first minister of Northern Ireland, told the public on Friday that people should continue to stay at home.

We know that you are desperate to get back to the life that you had before. Grandparents long to hug their grandchildren ... however as strong as that desire may be, we also need to be realistic and as we head into another weekend we have to stay home as much as possible, she said.
The announcement comes two weeks after Prince Harry and Meghan said they would no longer cooperate with several British tabloid newspapers because of what they called distorted, false or invasive stories.

London: Freed from the constraints of life as full-time royals  and enmeshed in a feud with Britains tabloid press  Prince Harry and his wife Meghan plan to tell their story in a book penned by sympathetic journalists.

Harper Collins UK announced Monday that it will publish Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family in Britain and the Commonwealth on 11 August. The book will be published in the US the same day by HarperCollins-owned Dey Street Books.

The book is written by Harpers Bazaar royal editor Omid Scobie and Elle magazine royal correspondent Carolyn Durand, who said they aim to capture the real Harry and Meghan and finally present the truth of misreported stories about them.

The publisher said the book will tackle the many rumors and misconceptions that plague the couple on both sides of the pond. It says the authors have been given unique access and the cooperation of those closest to the couple.

The announcement comes two weeks after Harry and Meghan said they would no longer cooperate with several British tabloid newspapers because of what they called distorted, false or invasive stories.

Meghan is suing publisher Associated Newspapers for invasion of privacy and copyright infringement over a series of articles in the Mail on Sunday that reproduced parts of a letter she wrote to her father, Thomas Markle.

Harry, who is a grandson of Queen Elizabeth II and sixth in line to the British throne, married the American actress Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle in May 2018, in a lavish ceremony watched around the world.

The couple later said they found the scrutiny they received from the British media intolerable and claimed it tipped into harassment.

In January, they announced they planned to quit as senior royals, seek financial independence and move to North America. The split became official at the end of March, and the couple have relocated to the Los Angeles area, where Meghan was raised.
Ever since Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex announced their decision to step away from the British royal family, opinions, think pieces, and discussions have bubbled up concerning their very personal choice. While some people have expressed frustration with Megxit, others seem to understand where the Sussexes are coming from.

Publically, the British royal family has accepted the Sussexes choice, with Queen Elizabeth II issuing a statement of support and Prince Charlesreportedly helping the couple financially until they are able to launch their profitable projects. Rumors are swirling that amid Megxit and the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Harry has been able to make amends with his older brother Prince William.

Still, the one thing that has remained on peoples minds is Princess Diana. What would Harrys late mother, who had her own struggles in the royal spotlight, think of all of this?

Diana Princess Of Wales, Prince William & Prince Harry Visit The Thorpe Park Amusement Park | Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Images

Princess Diana was adamant about Prince William and Prince Harry having some normalcy in their lives

Following her separation and leading to her divorce from Prince Charles in the early to mid-90s, Princess Diana began shining a light on many of her experiences as a royal. She spoke openly about the harassment that she endured at the hands of the press.

The princess was also steadfast about making sure that her sons had some semblance of normalcy despite their status. The princes were the first royals to attend public school at their mothers insistence. She also took them on family vacations, on volunteer trips, to amusement parks, and fast-food restaurants.

Ive taken the children to all sorts of areas where Im not sure anyone of that age in this family has been before, she told BBC in 1995. And they have a knowledge  they may never use it, but the seed is there, and I hope it will grow because knowledge is power.

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and their baby son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor at a meeting with Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation during their royal tour of South Africa on September 25, 2019 in Cape Town, South Africa. | Toby Melville  Pool/Getty Images

Prince Harry wants Archie to have a normal life

Having lived his life in the spotlight, Prince Harry was adamant about his son, Archie Harrison not having to endure the same kinds of pressure. When the baby was born on March 6, 2019, the Sussexes made the decision not to give him a royal title.

Now that they have left the royal fold and moved to LA, Archie will certainly experience a much quieter life than his royal cousins, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis. In fact, even before Megxit, Meghan and Harry rarely showcased their son in public.

Sometimes the right decision isnt always the easy one, Harry said during a leaked phone call. And this decision certainly wasnt the easy one but it was the right decision for our family, the right decision to be able to protect my son.

Princess Diana would have supported Prince Harry and Meghan Markles decision

Though the princess is no longer with us, considering the new life she tried to carve out for herself following her separation from Prince Charles suggests Princess Diana would have supported Megxit.

Over the next few months, I will be seeking a more suitable way of combining a meaningful public role with, hopefully, a more private life, she said in 1993 at a benefit lunch for the Headway National Injuries Association. The princess also ditched her security in the year following her divorce in an effort to remain under the radar.

No matter what, like any loving mother, we can assume that ultimately, Princess Diana would have wanted Prince Harry to be happy.
Lucknow, May 5 : As the Uttar Pradesh government allowed liquor vends to reopen during the nationwide lockdown's third phase, the state registered sale of liquor of over Rs 100 crore as tipplers queued up at liquor stores on day one, an official said on Tuesday.

Several shop owners had to shut down by Monday afternoon after they ran out of stock.

The average daily sale of liquor in the state in normal times is around Rs 70-80 crore.

According to Excise Department officials, the sale of liquor in state capital Lucknow was recorded at Rs 6.3 crore on Monday, the first day of the start of the third phase of the lockdown that ends on May 17.

Principal Secretary, Excise, Sanjay Bhoosreddy said: "I don't think there would be any single industry with just less than one lakh work force that gives Rs 100 crore revenue (to the state exchequer) in a day." More than 25,600 liquor shops in Uttar Pradesh remained closed for around 40 days after imposition of the lockdown from March 24 midnight, causing a huge revenue loss to the state.

The liquor sellers' association pegged the figures at over Rs 200 crore, adding that about 75 per cent of the amount would have come from the sale of Indian-Made Foreign Liquor or beer.

Kanhaiya Lal Maurya, secretary of Lucknow Liquor Sellers' Association, said: "The sale of country liquor was minuscule in cities as the labour class, which usually purchases it, had either left for their villages or has no money. The sale would have been higher in villages, but there too, money may have been a constraint." Meanwhile, Bhoosreddy said that a cap on individual purchase on liquor had been imposed to prevent hoarding.

A person will not be allowed to purchase more than one bottle (750 ml), or two halves (375 ml each), or three quarters (180 ml each), or two bottles of beer or three cans. This is being implemented only for the first 2-3 days, he said.

Bhoosreddy said liquor production had started about two weeks ago and supply to wholesalers would remain uninterrupted.

The official said: "Wearing of face masks has been made compulsory. People without masks will be pulled out of the queues. Shops have also been directed to keep hand sanitizers."

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Mother Lode Job Training COVID-19 worker assistance View Photo

Sonora, CA  Local workers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic can now get financial support through a grant awarded to Mother Lode Job Training (MLJT).

A total of $135,000 will be provided through the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and administered by the Employment Development Department and the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency. MLJT will supply services to help individuals apply for up to $800. The funds can be used for assistance with housing, utilities, childcare, transportation, and telework equipment, like computers and the internet.

Mother Lode Job Training is committed to helping our community recover from this health and economic crisis, said Executive Director Dave Thoeny. We will use this investment to provide rent and utility assistance for individuals impacted by COVID-19 and help stabilize their lives until they can return to work.

For the specific rules, questions and application information for receiving funding assistance contact the MLJT main office at (209) 588-1150. Individuals can also get help at local offices in Sonora, San Andreas, Mariposa, and Sutter Creek in Amador County.
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 5, 2020) - Royal Road Minerals Limited (TSXV: RYR) ("Royal Road" or the "Company") is pleased to announce results of recently completed ground magnetic and micro-gravity surveys from the Caribe gold discovery in northeastern Nicaragua.

The Caribe project forms a part of the Company's Strategic-Alliance agreement (see press release; September 6, 2017) with Hemco Mineros Nicaragua ("Hemco" a subsidiary of Colombia's Grupo Mineros S.A. MINEROS:CB) and is located in the highly prospective Golden Triangle of northeastern Nicaragua, approximately 16 kilometers to the southeast of the Company's Luna Roja Gold Skarn project (see press release; October 1, 2019). Royal Road Minerals is operator of the Strategic Alliance.

Royal Road's exploration team discovered the Caribe prospect during reconnaissance follow-up of an airborne geophysical anomaly in February of 2018. Topographically the prospect area is planar, outcrop is non-existent and there is no previous record of mineralization in the area. Initial grab sampling of strongly weathered float material returned anomalous gold with associated anomalous values in molybdenum. Follow-up deep auger soil sampling was then conducted using a 3-meter long hand-auger to access the deep residual soil horizon located below organic and saprolitic layers. Soil-sampling identified a strongly anomalous area of gold geochemistry (see press release; May 15, 2018) of 600 by 400 meters in area. Additionally, 18 1 meter square and 2 to 3 meter deep shafts were dug in order to expose bed-rock, assist mapping and collect channel and grab rock-chip samples. The highest result from grab rock-chip samples collected from these shafts was 3.5 grams per tonne gold (range 0.01 to 3.54 grams per tonne gold; note grab samples are selective samples and are not necessarily representative of the mineralization hosted on the property).

In August and September of 2019, Royal Road and Hemco completed an initial 4-hole, 413 meter, exploratory drilling program at Caribe (see press release October 7, 2019); all drill holes intersected gold with significant intersections including:

CB-DDH-001 28m at 1.1 g/t gold

CB-DDH-002 14m at 1.0 g/t gold

CB-DDH-004 18m at 1.0 g/t gold

Drill holes CB-DDH-003 and CB-DDH-004 ended in gold grade, with the last samples returning 2.1 and 2.3 grams per tonne gold respectively.

The lack of outcrop at Caribe means the Company is relying on petrographic observations from drill core to interpret the style of gold mineralization and results from deep auger sampling, hand dug pits and geophysics to target extensions and potential bulk-tonnage drilling objectives. Drill core petrography has revealed that host rocks to gold mineralization at Caribe are predominantly silica and sericite altered brecciated porphyritic rocks of dacitic to andesitic composition and gold is hosted for the most part in micro-veinlets comprised of quartz, carbonate and adularia. Gold is associated with molybdenite, covellite, chalcopyrite and bornite. These observations suggest a porphyry-epithermal style of gold mineralization at Caribe and may be interpreted to imply that initial drilling is located on the outlying alteration of a nearby porphyry gold and/or copper system.





Figure 1



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4008/55389_royalroad2.jpg

Caribe was initially discovered during reconnaissance follow-up of a discrete, approximately 500 meter diameter, magnetic high anomaly interpreted to represent the possible magnetic core to a porphyry copper and/or gold occurrence (see Figure 1). This anomaly is completely concealed and so surface samples could not be collected at its locality. New ground magnetic data has now confirmed the location of the airborne anomaly (Figure 1) and 3D inversion suggests that it is located between some 100 and 200 meters below surface. The location of auger sampling and scout drilling at Caribe is approximately 2 kilometers to the southwest of this anomaly and is associated with magnetic lows which parallel a strong and persistent gravity high feature over a strike length of some 1.5 kilometers.

"New analysis and interpretation of the drill core at Caribe is implying a porphyry to epithermal mineralizing environment which is in keeping with our initial interpretation of the airborne geophysics and the main driving factor behind our exploration of the area in early 2018" said Tim Coughlin, Royal Road's President and CEO "The new geophysical information has confirmed target criteria, implied bulk tonnage potential and identified drilling objectives not only in the immediate vicinity of our 2019 scout drilling, but also and more conceptually, at the magnetic anomaly located some 2 kilometers to the northeast. We plan to drill test these targets this year, following the completion of expansion drilling at the nearby Luna Roja project"

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.

The information in this news release was compiled, reviewed and verified by Dr. Tim Coughlin, BSc (Geology), MSc (Exploration and Mining), PhD (Structural Geology), FAusIMM, President and CEO of Royal Road Minerals Ltd and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Royal Road Minerals employees are instructed to follow standard operating and quality assurance procedures intended to ensure that all sampling techniques and sample results meet international reporting standards. More information can be found on Royal Road Minerals web site at www.royalroadminerals.com

Quality Assurance and Quality Control:

Diamond drill core is cut in half over 1-meter downhole intervals using a core saw. Samples are prepared and assayed by independent and ISO accredited laboratories of Bureau Veritas Minerals (BVM) and their local subsidiaries. Bagged 1-meter samples are collected from site and delivered to BVM sample preparation laboratories in Managua. Samples are prepared using the BVM codes PRP70-250 plus PUL85, where samples are crushed to 70% less than two millimeters, a riffle split of 250 grams is collected and then pulverized to better than 85 per cent passing 75 microns. Prepared sample pulps are then sent for analysis to BVM labs in Vancouver Canada. Gold is analyzed by fire assay with an atomic absorption finish and a measurement range of 0.005 to 10 ppm. Samples over 10-ppm gold are re-analyzed by fire assay with a gravimetric finish. Multielement concentrations are analyzed by four-acid digestion and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer. Samples over 10,000ppm Cu, Zn, Pb or Mn and 200 ppm W, are re-analyzed with four acid digestion and Inductively Coupled Plasma Emission Spectrometer (ICP-ES). Commercially prepared standards (gold-copper pulps), blanks (pulps and coarse chips) and field duplicates are inserted into the sample stream by Royal Road Minerals for a total of 15% QA/QC to ensure sample precision. In the case of duplicate analyses of a sample, the average of both analyses is used as the final reported value. Unless otherwise stated, gold grades are not capped for calculation of length-weighted averages.

Cautionary statement:

This news release contains certain statements that constitute forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements") including statements relating to the Hemco-Mineros Alliance and those describing the Company's future plans and the expectations of its management that a stated result or condition will occur. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or developments in the Company's business or in the mineral resources industry, or with respect to the Hemco-Mineros Alliance, to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance, achievements or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include all disclosure regarding possible events, conditions or results of operations that is based on assumptions about, among other things, future economic conditions and courses of action, and assumptions related to government approvals, and anticipated costs and expenditures. The words "plans", "prospective", "expect", "intend", "intends to" and similar expressions identify forward looking statements, which may also include, without limitation, any statement relating to future events, conditions or circumstances. Forward-looking statements of the Company contained in this news release, which may prove to be incorrect, include, but are not limited to, those related to the Hemco-Mineros Alliance, Hemco-Mineros, and the Company's plans exploration plans.

The Company cautions you not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. There is no guarantee that the anticipated benefits of the Hemco-Mineros Alliance and the Company's business plans or operations will be achieved. The risks and uncertainties that may affect forward-looking statements include, among others: economic market conditions, anticipated costs and expenditures, government approvals, and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with Canadian provincial securities regulators or other applicable regulatory authorities. Forward-looking statements included herein are based on the current plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions of the Company management and, in part, on information provided to the Company by Hemco-Mineros, and, except as required by law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements should assumptions related to these plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions change.

For further information please contact:

Dr. Timothy Coughlin

President and Chief Executive Officer

USA-Canada toll free 1800 6389205

+44 (0)1534 887166

+44 (0)7797 742800

info@royalroadminerals.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/55389
One of the suspects who killed Sogakope South Assemblyman, Marcus Mawutor Adzahli, has told the police that they were not contracted to commit the murder.



Amos Abakla confessed to the police that they stabbed Mr Adzahli and shot him dead after he fought them while they robbed his family.



The Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department, COP Isaac Ken Yeboah, told journalists at a press conference on Monday, 4 May 2020 that: He [the suspect] confessed that he and one other person, who is on the run, shot the deceased after he put up resistance, which made Adjei  another suspect  to stab him.



According to Amos, the murder of Mawutor was as a result of resistance by the deceased during the attack and that it was not contract killing, COP Yeboah added.



Mr Adzahli, who had been newly-elected for the Sogakope South electoral area within the South Tongu District of the Volta Region, was killed on 1 March 2020 in his private residence.



His neighbours said at the time that the attackers entered the bedroom of Mr Adzahli and his wife and stabbed them first and later shot the man in the head.



The wife survived the attack with multiple knife wounds.



Eyewitnesses who spoke to Class News' regional correspondent Albert Kuzor said the incident happened at about 1 am on Sunday, 1 March 2020 but the widow managed to contact the police and neighbours after the assailants fled.

Source: Class









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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With the U.S.s patience wearing thin on its dealings with neighbouring Iran, endemic corruption still prevalent in both the south of the country and in the northern semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, and enduring political chaos with frequently-changing prime ministers popping up whilst the real power remains with firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the last thing Iraq needed was Saudis oil price war. Even before Saudi Arabia embarked yet again on exactly the same oil price strategy that nearly bankrupted it and all of its neighbours the last time it tried and failed to destroy the U.S. shale oil industry in 2014 to 2016, Iraq was trying to minimise outgoing payments to the international oil companies (IOCs) that operate its fields and to come to some accommodation the government of Kurdistan (the KRG) on co-ordinating oil exports and sales revenues. All of this now hangs on a thread, and Russia and China are just waiting for it all to collapse so that they can continue to accelerate their drive to further dominate Iraqs oil (and gas) sectors.

At the beginning of this month, Iraqs economic parliamentary committee suggested that IOCs be paid with crude oil rather than cash or cash-equivalents as a means to reduce near-term state expenditure. It also proposed delaying payments of foreign debt (including reparations to Kuwait), introducing salary cuts of 60 per cent for various state sector employees, and reducing all non-essential spending. Despite pumping at least 4.65 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil in February - above its OPEC+ quota of 4.46 million bpd  and exporting around 3.4 million bpd of crude that month, and almost the same in March, Iraqs oil-related revenues had fallen by nearly 50 per cent at that point. This is in line with the collapse in oil prices and the fact that about 90 per cent of Iraqs government revenues still come from oil, hence the requests to the IOCs.

Story continues

The problem with the idea of reducing output to reduce per barrel reimbursements to the IOCs is that in some cases Iraq is liable under the terms of the TSCs [technical service contracts] to pay out very large amounts in compensation to the same IOCs for lost production, and this includes such operations as those at Rumaila [run by BP and CNPC], West Qurna 1 [ExxonMobil] and West Qurna 2 [Lukoil], and Zubair [ENI], among others, a senior oil industry figure who works closely with Iraqs Oil Ministry told OilPrice.com last week. Some of the operators have already signalled or action some degree of cutting expenditure due to the demand effect of the coronavirus, such as BP [which announced a 25 per cent capital expenditure cut this year from the previous US$12 billion across its entire global portfolio] but this doesnt necessarily mean any extra cuts in Iraq and even if it does include Iraq in part, it doesnt meant that actual oil output will be significantly reduced, he added.

Related: The Most Critical Oil Storage In The United States

With extremely limited scope for further manoeuvre in cutting payments to the IOCs, then, last week saw a last-ditch attempt at the least-likely option for success in improving its financial position: doing a deal with the KRG in Erbil. To this effect, a Kurdish delegation - led by the KRGs Finance Minister, Awat Sheikh Janab - arrived in Baghdad to discuss oil production and the federal budget, in a familiar dance of death that has been occurring on and off since 2014. In November of that year, faced with an equally ruinous economic scenario, this one almost entirely due to industrial-scale graft - according to the Oil Minister at the time, Adil Abdul Mahdi, Iraq lost US$14,448,146,000 from the beginning of 2011 up to the end of 2014 as cash compensation payments relating to these fields development  Baghdad and Erbil struck the first of its oil-for-budget payments deals.

This envisaged the KRG exporting up to 550,000 bpd of oil from its own fields and Kirkuk via Iraqs State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO). In return, Baghdad would send 17 per cent of the federal budget after sovereign expenses (around US$500 million at that time) per month in budget payments to the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in the north. From the start, both sides relentlessly cheated on the deal, with the KRG at various times stopping all oil shipments to SOMO and preferring instead to try to sell it to a range of other countries, including much of the energy-starved Former Soviet Union states, Turkey, and Israel, among others. Baghdad has sought to take the KRG to court repeatedly to stop such activity on the basis that it is illegal.

For its part, Baghdad has at various times withheld payments or underpaid, and at one point, shortly after the 2017 yes vote in the Kurdistan independence referendum, sought to change the entire parameters of the deal, completely to the detriment of Kurdistan. Specifically, Baghdad came up with a particularly tricky new tactic to base all payments to Kurdistan on its analysis of what percentage of Iraqs total population is made up of Kurds living in the KRG region. Although this figure is impossible to pinpoint  ranging from around 10 per cent to about 20 per cent  Baghdad managed to pinpoint it, at 12.67 per cent, in fact. At around that point, the KRG teamed up with Russia and suggested to Baghdad that the Kurdistan area receive 40 per cent of the revenues for the oil that it sends to the south as a starting point. On top of that, though, the KRG suggested an additional sliding scale of further payments to compensate it for the security for the fields that would be provided by the Kurdish Peshmerga in light of ongoing threats from Islamic State and similar outfits, which would have brought the total up to between 55 and 58 per cent for the KRG.

It was finally agreed between the KRG and the new Iraqi federal government formed in October 2018 (now gone, of course) - centred on the 2019 national budget bill - that Baghdad transfer sufficient funds from the federal budget to pay the salaries of KRG employees along with other financial compensation in exchange for the KRG handing over the export of at least 250,000 bpd of crude oil to SOMO. This deal also broke down a number of times  either because the KRG did not send the required oil in exchange for the payments received or because Baghdad did not send the required money for the oil received  but is nonetheless the same deal that is now back on the table. In the interim, following an order from Baghdads Council of Ministers on 16 April, the federal government did not send any budget transfer to the KRG in April.

Related: Iraqi Kurdistan On The Brink Of Collapse As Oil Prices Crash

The tacit threat from the KRG is that it will increase the pace of its independent exports of all, which Baghdad maintains is illegal, although the Iraq Constitution is unclear on the issue, which does not help matters. According to a senior lawyer spoken to by OilPrice.com throughout the breakdown of the various KRG/Baghdad deals, the basic legal architecture that defines the Iraqi oil industry has been the battleground for bitter disputes between the two sides for years and will continue to be so. A test-case in May 2014 that prompted the November agreement, failed to finalise the dispute but acts as a neat example of why the disputes between the two sides continue.

At the time, Iraqs Oil Ministry, represented by SOMO, filed an arbitration claim with the International Chamber of Commerce claiming that: By transporting and storing crude oil from Kurdistan, and by loading that crude oil onto a tanker in Ceyhan, all without the authorisation of the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, Turkey and BOTAS [Turkeys state owned pipeline operator] have breached their obligations under the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline [ITP] Agreement. In this context, the Kurdistan government maintained, and still maintains, that it is entitled to export oil through the ITP, and that the Federal (Iraq) government does not have exclusive exporting authority under the 2005 Iraq Constitution that sought to delineate the legal boundaries within which the energy sector would operate.

According to the KRG, it has authority under Articles 112 and 115 of the Constitution to manage oil and gas in the Kurdistan Region extracted from fields that were not in production in 2005, the year that the Constitution was adopted by referendum. SOMO, however, argued, and still argues, that under Article 111 of the Iraq Constitution oil and gas are the ownership of all the people of Iraq in all the regions and governorates. In addition, the KRG maintains that Article 115 states: All powers not stipulated in the exclusive powers of the federal government belong to the authorities of the regions and governorates that are not organised in a region. As such, the argument runs, the KRG says that as relevant powers are not otherwise stipulated in the Constitution, it has the authority to sell and receive revenue from its oil and gas exports. Moreover, the Constitution provides that, should a dispute arise, priority shall be given to the law of the regions and governorates.

By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

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WASHINGTON  The White House will allow Dr. Anthony Fauci to testify next week at a Senate hearing on the federal governments response to the coronavirus pandemic but has blocked him from appearing at a similar hearing in the House.

In remarks to reporters Tuesday, President Donald Trump confirmed Faucis appearance before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on May 12. But he defended the decision to bar Fauci from testifying before a House subcommittee, claiming that hearing was a setup.

The House is a bunch of Trump haters, Trump said at the White House before departing for a trip to Phoenix. They put every Trump hater on the committee.

Vaccine push: To find a coronavirus vaccine, can we ethically infect people with a disease with no cure?

The House Appropriations Committee wanted Dr. Anthony Fauci to testify at a subcommittee hearing Wednesday on the administrations response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The House Appropriations Committee had sought Faucis testimony at a subcommittee hearing on Wednesday to look into the Trump administrations response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed nearly 70,000 Americans.

But the White House last week barred Fauci from appearing before the panel, saying that at a time when the administration is busy fighting the spread of the coronavirus and working to reopen the economy, "it is counterproductive to have the very individuals involved in those efforts appearing at congressional hearings."

Trumps comments on Tuesday suggested that political considerations also played a role in the decision.

House Democrats dont want us to succeed, Trump told reporters. They want us to fail so they can win an election, which theyre not going to win.

They do everything they can to make things as bad as possible, Trump said, adding that Fauci looks forward to appearing before the Senate panel.

Early signs: Patients in Florida had coronavirus symptoms as early as January

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: Anthony Fauci to appear before Senate but not House panel
Mysuru: A seven-months pregnant woman fled Covid-19 hotspot Mumbai along with her family, and made it to her village 1000 km away in KR Pet taluka in Mandya district of Karnataka, flashing her mothers ID card at each checkpost. After reaching her destination, she got herself tested for Covid-19.

She tested positive for the virus on Monday in Mandya.

The 20-year-old woman (assigned the number P637) had been living with her husband and in-laws at Santa Cruz East, Agripada in Mumbai for the past three years. To get out of the containment zone, they started out from Mumbai at 7.30 pm on April 23 -- she, her husband, brother-in-law, co-sister and their children, and a 19-year-old girl. She made it past checkposts at Belagavi, Hubballi, Davanagere, Kadur, Arasikere, Channarayapatna and Shravanabelagola and reached her village Jaaginakere at 3 pm on April 24.

She stayed at her home in the village from 24 April to April 29. With the Mandya district administration testing people on a campaign mode in the entire district, she and her family got themselves tested on May 1.

Her test returned positive on May 4, according to deputy commissioner M V Venkatesh.

Along with her, the 19-year-old girl (P638) who travelled with the family also tested positive. The girl is in the sixth semester of her BE Electronics course at an engineering college in Mumbai.

This is not the first case of a corona fugitive from Mumbai. Earlier, a 50-year-old man who ran a hotel in Mumbai travelled in a vehicle carrying dates and reached Channarayapatna in Hassan district.

In fact there have been three such incidents, including that of seven people coming to Mandya from Mumbai transporting a dead man's body for cremation in his native village of B Kodagalli in Pandavapura taluk.

Mandya deputy commissioner Dr Venkatesh has appealed to natives of Mandya who are stuck in Mumbai to stay there till the Covid situation comes to control.

So far 28 people in Mandya diatrict have tested positive for Covid 19. Seven people have been discharged. Currently there are 21 active cases being treated at the Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences.
UK-based PR services collective 4media group has acquired Bethesda, MD-based broadcast media relations firm News Generation.

Terms of the acquisition werent publicly disclosed.

News Generation, which specializes in radio placements, audio news releases, satellite media tours, podcasts and public service announcements, was founded in 1997 by president and CEO Susan Matthews Apgood. Clients include associations, non-profits, government agencies and corporations.

News Generation retains its name and branding for the foreseeable future in light of the acquisition. Apgood and all News Generation staff will be integrated into 4media group and News Generations Bethesda, MD office will remain open.

4media group said the acquisition will bolster the communications groups suite of tailored media relations services.

For more than 20 years, News Generation has had a reputation for being one of the preeminent broadcast media relations companies in the Washington D.C. area, Ed Cyster, global CEO and founder 4media group, told ODwyers. Their expertise in earned media in radio complements our television and digital-expertise. It was immediately apparent we would be a seamless match, and Im confident all of our clients will see immediate benefit.

London-based 4media group, which was founded in 2016, specializes in market research, digital, broadcast services and PR. It maintains a half-dozen offices in the U.S., in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington DC, Orlando and Bentonville, Arkansas.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 20:34:38|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

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CANBERRA -- Coronavirus restrictions are costing the Australian economy billions of dollars every week, the country's treasury has revealed.

In a speech to the National Press Club (NPC) on Tuesday, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg revealed that the shutdown aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19 is costing the economy about four billion Australian dollars (2.5 billion U.S. dollars) per week.

- - - -

CAIRO -- Egypt has carried out the highest number of clinical trials in the Middle East and Africa in a bid to help find a treatment for coronavirus, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar said Tuesday.

"Egypt conducted 22 trials out of a total of 30 carried out in Africa and 44 in Middle Eastern countries," the minister said in a statement.

- - - -

SOFIA -- Bulgarian customs inspectors have seized smuggled 498,000 protective masks, 54,600 bottles of antibacterial gel and 2,300 sets of protective clothing at the Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint, authorities said Tuesday.

The products that are currently in high demand due to the coronavirus spread were found in a truck, which was declared to be carrying detergents from Turkey to Romania, the National Customs Agency (NCA) said in a statement.

- - - -

RIGA -- Latvia has recorded the first day with zero new COVID-19 cases since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, the Baltic country's health authorities reported Tuesday.

The Latvian Center for Disease Prevention and Control said that none of the COVID-19 tests carried out over the past 24 hours came back positive.

- - - -

MOSCOW -- Russia has confirmed 10,102 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, raising its total number of infections to 155,370, its coronavirus response center said in a statement Tuesday.

Single-day increases have been over 10,000 for three consecutive days, the center's data showed.

- - - -

CAPE TOWN -- Researchers in South Africa on Monday vaccinated hundreds of health workers with a 100-year-old tuberculosis (TB) in clinical trial in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

TASK, a clinical research organization in Cape Town, conducted the trial at Tygerberg Hospital, an officially-designated COVID-19 treatment center in South Africa.

- - - -

WELLINGTON -- New Zealand reported no new COVID-19 case over the past 24 hours for two consecutive days, which was "very encouraging", Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said on Tuesday.

Bloomfield told a press conference that one probable case has been reclassified as not being the case, so the total case number dropped by one to 1,486.

The country's death toll remained unchanged at 20, Bloomfield said, adding four people are in hospital, with none in ICU.

- - - -

SEOUL -- South Korea reported three more cases of the COVID-19 compared to 24 hours ago as of 0:00 a.m. Tuesday local time, raising the total number of infections to 10,804.

It was the lowest daily increase in 77 days since Feb. 18. The daily caseload hovered below 20 for 18 straight days.

All the new cases were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 1,102. The domestic infection logged zero for the second consecutive day. Enditem
A baker who opened his first corner location February in Bethlehem soon will have a second place to call home in Phillipsburg.

Charlies Bakery owner Charlie Dalrymple has plans to open sometime in July in space that formerly housed a deli at 390 S. Main St. Dalrymple of Bethlehem, a Phillipsburg native and 1976 Phillipsburg High School graduate, said he wanted to return to his roots with the new business venture.

You can take the boy out of Phillipsburg, but you cant take Phillipsburg out of the boy, he said.

At the corner of Greenwich and High streets in Bethlehem, Charlies Bakery is best known for staples mostly arriving from a Brooklyn, New York vendor. Dalrymple has said the citys code limitations have prevented him from doing on-premises baking in Bethlehem. He ran into a snag when he couldnt put in commercial baking ovens due to fire codes.

Bethlehem patrons have come to know the filled cases of cannolis, muffins, danishes and an assortment of fresh breads and croissants. Most popular are the cheesecakes and special occasion cakes coming from an Amish vendor with the most requested cake have a peach jam filling with lavender icing. His tomato pie -- the winner of a recent Philadelphia contest -- sells out often, Dalrymple said.

Its absolutely nostalgia, Dalrymple said of bakeries gaining popularity across the Lehigh Valley. We dont do a menu, we try to make it a visiting experience. We want you to be excited when you walk in and not know what youre about to experience prior to your visit. That is half the fun of going to a bakery.

Dalrymple recalls the same experience traveling to a downtown Phillipsburg bakery as a child with his father, Charlie Dalrymple, Sr., now 90. Dalrymple Jr. was in awe, he said, of the baked assortment laid out in front of him.

It was magical, he said. Like entering Disneyland for the first time.

In keeping those memories alive, the Bethlehem bakery has a vintage kitchen-type theme throughout with vintage cookie jars, canisters and old-fashioned appliances. The Phillipsburg location will be more of a mechanical feel with vintage toy displays, Dalrymple said.

While Dalrymple plans to have similar vendors at the Phillipsburg site, he also got the green light from the town to do some baking himself at that location. What exactly remains a mystery because Dalrymple wants to also keep the menu a secret in Phillipsburg.

Itll be the best of both worlds," Dalrymple described of the Phillipsburg bakery.

Charlie's Bakery, 1401 High St., opened this past February in Bethlehem after months of renovation. Pictured is owner Charlie Dalrymple. (Sara K. Satullo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Dalrymples professional background up until now has mostly been in the nursing field.

He worked for Genesis Healthcare for 25 years and holds degrees in nursing and floral design, as well as received wound certification from Tennessee Christian Medical Center in Madison, Tennessee. Prior, he was a design and window manager of all five of Orrs Department stores -- with locations in Easton, Bethlehem, Phillipsburg, Flemington, and Chester, N.J. -- before the chain went defunct in 1993.

Dalrymple turned to baking during a turbulent time in his life when he was divorced and needed a therapeutic outlet, he said. He started baking holiday cookies in his home kitchen and the passion grew from there, he said.

Just like the characteristics of being a nurse, Dalrymple described baking as the proper measuring of ingredients.

Asked about his future plans, Dalrymple isnt ruling out opening a third Lehigh Valley bakery.

We are always eyeing out other locations ... but our main project at the moment is for the people of Phillipsburg, my old hometown, and to continue making the people of Bethlehem smile with our goodies, he said.

The Bethlehem location is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays. It is closed on Monday and Tuesday. The Phillipsburg location plans to be open six days a week with hours pending based on customer demand.

Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com.
A Chief Superintendent of Police serving with the Akwa Ibom State Police Command, Mr Celestine Umeh, allegedly arrested, detained and framed-up a businessman, Mr Clement Asuquo Etim, and two others on trumped-up charges after he was caught in bed with the wife of Mr Etim in Uyo.

Sahara Reporters reports that CSP Umeh (pictured above) had been having an affair with Mrs Lawrentia Asuquo, Etims wife for a long time before he was finally caught at about 7:00pm on April 27, 2020 at their home at Aba Ukpo Estate, which is not too far from where the Akwa Ibom State Police Command in Uyo is located.

Etim told Sahara Reporters that the senior police officer had been having a se.xual affair with his wife for a long time and that he has been hoping for a day that he will catch them red handed.

Etim told the publication, Whenever I travel to Calabar where I do my business, I usually receive reports that my wife invites her lover, CSP Umeh, to our matrimonial home to spend the night.

They were having se.xual affair in my house not minding the presence of my home help, a boy of 15 years old.

According to Etim, luck however, ran out on the police officer and his wife when he got a tip off that CSP Umeh was in his house again to spend the night on April 27.

Following that information, Etim decided to return to Uyo immediately.

He said, On getting home in the evening last Monday, I caught the CSP with my wife enjoying themselves on the matrimonial bed.

Etim said he was provoked on seeing CSP Umeh in bed with his wife and decided to confront him along with his cousin that came with him from Calabar as a witness.

Following the confrontation, the policeman ran out of Etims house with his wife and abandoned his SUV.

About two hours later, heavily armed officers from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad stormed Etims house with his unfaithful wife and arrested him, his cousin, Mr Patrick Okon Edet, and his young home help, Christopher Bassey.

They were taken to the Akwa Ibom State Police Command.

On getting to the police command, Etim said that the police tortured him and falsely accused him, his cousin and house help of assaulting CSP Umeh and stealing his mobile phones.

Etim was detained illegally from April 27 to 30th when he was temporarily released to go and search for the keys of the SUV belonging to CSP Umeh which was abandoned at his house.

However, the cousin and house help were detained in police custody from April 27 April to May 4 when they were arraigned before a Chief Magistrate Court in Uyo on trumped-up charges of assault and stealing.

Etim told the publication that when he was released, he decided to go to the hospital for medical checks as blood kept coming out from one side of his ear as a result of torture by the Officer-in-Charge of General Investigation, a Superintendent of Police named Ekene Nwosu, and other policemen at the Akwa Ibom State Police Command.

He said that SP Ekene used a plank to hit his ear and also assaulted his house help and kept shouting at them for fighting with Umeh.

Surprisingly, on getting to his house after he was released, Etim met his three bedroom flat apartment empty.

He said his neighbours and estate management told him that his wife came with strangers and moved out all his properties and household items and relocated to an unknown location.

When she was confronted by people in the estate, a certain SP Ekene instructed the estate management to allow my wife leave the estate with all my properties or face the consequences, he said.

According to the charge sheet obtained by Sahara Reporters, the three men were accused of hitting the police officer with a bottle.

Count two, three and four of the charges reads, That you Clement Asuquo Etim, Patrick Okon Edet, and Christopher Bassey Effiong on the 27th day of April, 2020 at Aba-ukpo Estate, in the Uyo Magisterial District, unlawfully assaulted one Celestine Umeh, a Chief Superintendent of Police, by giving him fist blows all over his body and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 360 Of the Criminal Code, Cap.38, Vol, 2, Laws of Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria 2000.

That you Clement Asuquo Etim, Patrick Okon Edet, and Christopher Bassey Effiong, on the 27th day of April, 2020 at Aba-ukpo Estate, in the Uyo Magisterial District, unlawfully assaulted one Celestine Umeh, a Chief Superintendent of Police, by smashing a bottle on his head which caused him harm. Thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 364 of the Criminal Code, Cap.38. Vol.2, of Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria, 2000.

That you Clement Asuquo Etim, Patrick Okon Edet, and Christopher Bassey Effiong on the 27th day of April, 2020 at Aba-ukpo Estate, in the Uyo Magisterial District, did steal Samsung phones valued at N135,000 and infinity car key being property of one Celestine Umeh, a Chief Superintendent of Police, and thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 408 of the Criminal Code.

Human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, whose law firm is representing Etim, his cousin and home help, told the publication that the conduct of CSP Umeh, SP Ekene and other police officers at the Akwa Ibom State Command involved in the case was reprehensible and deserves immediate disciplinary action from the Inspector-General of Police and Commissioner of Police in Akwa Ibom State.

He said, I am alarmed by what these police officers have done to this man, his cousin and home help. It is reprehensible, unprofessional and damaging to the image of the Nigeria Police Force. This is one of the most repulsive cases of abuse of the police institution. Where lies the hope for Nigeria if this kind of atrocious and scandalous action is allowed to go unpunished?

It is more troubling that the police resorted to filing a criminal charge against them in their desperation to cover-up their illegal and abominable conduct. We cannot allow this to go unpunished.

The Akwa Ibom Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Nnudam Fredrick, when contacted, claimed not to be aware of the matter but promised to confirm if the state had such matter.

Source  Sahara reporters
Commercial Driver License Training

Western Texas College is a federally approved training provider.

Western Texas College on the Square designed the Commercial Driver License (CDL) program for CDL Class A licenses to work around your schedule. We offer flexible classes year-round and can immediately schedule your start date upon acceptance into the program.

Our goal is to train safe drivers who are prepared to take the CDL Texas State Exam within four to six weeks.



100% of our students who completed the program passed the State Exam.

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS

To enroll in the CDL program, the State of Texas requires you to meet the following qualifications.



You must:

Be at least 18 years of age

Have an acceptable driving record (a three-year driving record must be provided)

Hold a current Department of Transportation Medical Card or pass a DOT physical exam

Pass a drug screening

In order to obtain a learners permit, you will also need:

A valid Texas Department of Transportation Class C License

Proof of Texas residency for six months

A Social Security card, Birth Certificate, or Passport

Please note that students must pass the mandated classroom hours with a score of 80 or greater before testing for a learners permit at the DMV. Learn more about the early drive train requirements, here.

CLASS SCHEDULE

Our program provides quality one-on-one instruction so you can get trained and employed in the shortest time possible. We offer flexible day and evening instruction so that the program works with your schedule.

Western Texas College's CDL program provides 160 hours of training: 40 hours of classroom instruction to obtain a Learners Permit followed by 120 hours of behind the wheel training. The training prepares you to take the CDL Texas State Exam for a CDL Class A license and become a safe driver.

Our first goal is to get you ready to obtain a State of Texas CDL Learners Permit. Youll receive 40 hours of technical classroom instruction so you can acquire all the necessary skills to get behind the wheel. After completing the forty hours of classroom instruction, youll test at the Department of Motor Vehicles to get your Learners Permit.

Students who already obtained Learners Permit prior to February 7, 2022, will only be required to take the 120 hours of behind-the-wheel training.

Once you have your permit, your behind-the-wheel training starts. Behind-the-wheel training consists of 120 comprehensive hours with you behind-the-wheel under an Instructors supervision.

Students will be evaluated continually to determine when they are ready to take the State Exam. If students need additional time to learn a particular skill, this will be provided. Most students are prepared to take their State exam within 4-6 weeks.

COST AND FINANCING

Financial assistance for eligible students is available through the Texas Workforce Commissions Workforce Solutions office. Please visit their website for more details: https://www.wfswct.org/ or contact them at 325-795-4200.

Eligible low-income students can also contact West Texas Opportunities in Sweetwater, Texas, to apply for assistance at 325-236-9201.

Western Texas College is also happy to partner with your employer to cover the cost of the program. We have grants and payment plans available to help fund workforce training. Please have your supervisor or business office contact us for details.

The total cost of the program is $4,500 for the full 160-hour course and $3,500 for behind-the-wheel training only. Our CDL program is a Workforce Training course and not eligible for academic financial aid such as Pell grant, student loans, or GI bill.

The course fee is due in full before beginning the course. The course fee includes a DOT physical and drug screening if needed.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)

Entry-Level Driver Training (ELDT) Regulations

Federal Training Provider Registry

National Association of Publicly Funded Truck Driving Schools (NAPFTDS)

MORE INFORMATION
A group of Kilkenny-led musicians have recorded a single dedicated to our hero frontline workers.



Castlecomer man Fran ONeill found himself out of work because of coronavirus, like many others. With his new free time he had been watching Covid-19 sessions on Facebook and it gave him the idea to get some musicians together to record a single in aid of frontline workers.



His own partner Fiona Redmond works in St Lukes General Hospital in Kilkenny and he thought it would be a good idea.

All the musicians were asked to record from their own homes, and then the parts were put together.



Fran found a recording studio, an engineer and about 30 musicians, from Wexford to Fermanagh, and as far away as Australia and Dubai got on board - including one man originally from Kilkenny but living in the UK. That man had lost his own mother to the virus just days before and was unable to travel home to Kilkenny to say goodbye. He really wanted to support the project.

Keep on rockin

Fran chose two songs that symbolise the dedication of frontline workers - Something Inside So Strong, and Keep on Rockin in the Free World. They are two songs that mean a lot at a time like this, Fran said.

The band needed a name, so they have called themselves The Antibodies!



Ive worked day and night over the last two and a half weeks to get everyones material in, Fran said, and he was delighted to be able to release the single online last weekend.

All proceeds from the single will go to another Castlecomer company, IntoSport, who are making medical uniforms and scrubs to support frontline staff in hospital and other facilities.



This was a huge team effort. Its going back to the old Irish way of neighbours and friends helping each other. I was overwhelmed by the support I got, Fran said.

The single from The Antibodies can be downloaded from a website called Bandcamp.



The set minimum price for the download of the single is 5 but Fran said he hopes people will donate more if they can.

You can find out more about The Antibodies, and the single, with links to Bandcamp, on their Facebook page The Antibodies 2020. Click here to buy the single!
The Kaduna State committee on COVID-19 has said that two policemen are among the 72 active cases being currently treated for the new coronavirus in the state.

The government also revealed in a statement, signed by Muyiwa Adekeye , the spokesman to Kadunas Governor Nasir Elrufai, that 65 of the cases, which represent 90 percent of the COVID-19 patients currently in the states isolation center, are Almajiris (Islamic pupils) recently repatriated from Kano State.

The Kaduna government said that policemen are amongst security officials flouting interstate restriction of movement imposed by the government to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Standing Committee is aware of documented instances of police and paramilitary personnel that have been involved in illegal interstate travel, Mr Adekeye, a Special Adviser to Kaduna State Governor Media & Communications, said.

This is unfortunate. Two policemen are among the 72 persons the state is treating for Covid-19. This should serve to remind everyone that nobody is immune to the virus.

Mr Adekeye , whose statement gave an update on the COVID-19/situation in the state

said as on 4th May 2020, Kaduna State is treating 72 Covid-19 patients.

And the Almajirai (Islamic pupils) that recently returned from Kano constitute 65 of these cases.

The seven other cases on admission are persons with travel history outside Kaduna State or their contact, he explained.

Mr Adekeye said since the index case, which was Governor Elrufai, was reported on March 28, the state has discharged eight patients and has recorded one fatality who died before his positive test result was received.

READ ALSO:

Overall, 81 cases have been recorded in the state but the active cases are now 72.

The committee has warned against illegal interstate travelling.

Such persons are violating the states Quarantine Orders as well as the nationwide prohibition of interstate travel by the Federal Government, the statement reads.

Beyond illegal conduct, such persons are risking the health and lives of Kaduna State residents by recklessly spreading the virus across state lines.

The spokesman said sneakers into Kaduna should not be allowed to spread sickness and make nonsense of the sacrifices the people of Kaduna State are making in enduring the tough but necessary measures announced to protect them.

He also urged citizens who presume that they have been exposed to the new coronavirus should act responsibly, avoid infecting others, contact health officials, and isolate themselves until the authorities come to see them.

Such persons are urged to readily volunteer all relevant information on their health, travel history, and contacts.

Kaduna is currently on the second week of its renewed COVID-19 lockdown that is expected to last for 30 days.
An attacker by a group of terrorists in Daraa has left nine police officers dead, with officials vowing to bring the perpetrators to justice writes SANA.

Nine policemen from Mzairib district in Daraas western countryside were martyred on Monday morning following an attack by a terrorist group on the district building.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement that nine members of the Daraa Police Command were martyred when terrorists attacked them while they were carrying out their duties, and that the bodies were transported to Daraa National Hospital.

Commander of Daraa Police Brig. Gen. Dharrar Mejhem al-Dandal told SANAs reporter that at around 8:00 a.m., a terrorist group consisting of 50-60 members armed with light weapons attacked the district building, taking the personnel by surprise and opening fire on them, martyring nine, asserting that the perpetrators will be found and brought to justice.

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.
Eighteen people died of the coronavirus disease on Monday in Mumbai, the capital of worst-affected Maharashtra, taking the toll in the state to 583. Thirty five people died of Covid-19 across the state on Monday.

Mumbai is among the worst-hit cities in the state, the others being Thane, Raigad, Pune and Palghar. These districts have nearly 90 per cent of the states Covid-19 cases.

Mumbai Police have announced that Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) has been imposed in the city till May 17, news agency ANI reported. Section 144 of CrPC prohibits the assembly of four or more people in an area.

The Movement of one or more persons for all non-essential services, except for medical reasons, will be prohibited between 8 pm and 7 am, the police said in a statement reported by ANI.

As per state authorities, Mumbai has recorded 9,310 cases and 361 deaths so far. Dharavi, Asias biggest slum, alone recorded 42 new cases, taking the tally to 632 cases. Twenty people have been killed in Dharavi so far.

Three employees of civic body BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), including an assessment inspector serving in hotspot Dharavi, had died due to the infection. In a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, the Municipal Union said civic staff were risking their lives while ensuring the outbreak is contained.

The Mulund area or T ward of the BMC, which had one of the lowest numbers of Covid-19 cases, saw a 42 per cent hike on Monday, with 52 cases in a single day. The tally of positive cases in Mulund is now 123.

T ward was among the top three wards including R North (Dahisar-Borivli) and C ward (Kalbadevi-Chira Bazaar) that had the lowest number of cases in the past one month. This one-day spike in the T ward has created a worrisome situation for the civic administration.

Of the 52 infected, a majority were found in Amarnagar, Indiranagar, and Ramgad slums.

The number of coronavirus cases in Dadar and Mahim increased by four and three respectively, taking the tally to 54 and 71.

There are 1,927 active containment zones in the city at present, of which 641 are red zones (congested, need police help), 502 are orange zones (congested but manageable), and 784 are blue zones (manageable gated communities).

Maharashtra, meanwhile, recorded a single-day jump of 1,567 new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases on Monday, taking the states tally to 14,541.
Photo: Jeff Turner/Flickr

Missed the most recent top news in Sacramento? Read on for everything you need to know.

Steinberg: Masks in public should be mandatory in Sacramento County

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg wants county health officials to make wearing masks in public mandatory.

Read the full story on KCRA 3.

Sacramento County dentists able to reopen for non-emergency procedures

Sacramento County's new public health order gives dentists the green light to reopen for non-emergency procedures.



Read the full story on FOX40.

1 man in critical condition after hit and run in Romona Village

A man is in critical condition after he was struck in a hit and run early Monday, the Sacramento Police Department said.

Read the full story on The Sacramento Bee.

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.
Park City, Utah, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A tiger shark on the OCEARCH Tracker tagged by collaborating scientists at Biopixel Oceans Foundation and the Oceanographic Research Institute confirms that the species is capable of crossing the Indian Ocean. The 10-foot-4-inch mature female named Sereia was tagged on the African coast in Mozambique in November 2018 and was detected via satellite in April 2020 about 800 miles off the Indonesian coast, a transoceanic journey of more than 4,000 miles. Sereia now has the longest confirmed migration for the species on record.

We had no idea a shark from Mozambique would end up off the coast of Indonesia, said Dr Ryan Daly of the Oceanographic Research Institute in Durban South Africa. Dr. Daly is also a research associate at the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity. This is incredibly important because it confirms that tiger sharks are roaming throughout the Indian Ocean and we need to take this into account when thinking about improving conservation for them in the region, he adds.

Sereia is one of 21 sharks tagged by Biopixel Oceans Foundation and the Oceanographic Research Institute in Mozambique as part of a project to lay down a baseline understanding of tiger shark movements and habitat use in the West Indian Ocean. Prior to starting the project, very little was known about the residency patterns and migration dynamics of tiger sharks in this region. The tags for Sereia and other tiger sharks in the project were deployed in the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve which neighbours South Africa. Researchers hope that by studying the trans boundary movements of tiger sharks in this area that it will help in implementing congruent management plans on both sides of the border.

Sereias groundbreaking journey also sheds light on another important question the study aims to answer regarding the range tiger sharks are capable of covering. Prior to Sereias journey, most of the other sharks tagged in the study remained close to the African coast, with a couple venturing as far as Madagascar. Sereias most recent detection at the end of April shows she may have turned around, but the magnitude of her migration still opens up a whole new line of questioning.

We have been interested in the connectivity of tiger sharks from different locations in the Western Indian Ocean, however, this shark moving across the Indian Ocean puts the question of connectivity into a much larger scale, especially if she does make it all the way to Indonesia or Australia, said Biopixel Oceans Foundation and James Cook University Researcher Adam Barnett, who was also OCEARCHs lead scientist during our Eastern Australia Expedition. An interesting aspect of this large scale movement is understanding not just where this shark is moving to, but why. I hope everyone keeps following her on the OCEARCH Tracker with us to see if she really does push farther east.

The research by Biopixel Oceans Foundation and the Oceanographic Research Institute also received funding from Save Our Seas Foundation along with National Geographic and the Guy Harvey Institute. The data was shared with OCEARCH so that it could be displayed on the Tracker. These organizations share OCEARCHs philosophy about opening up the data to share with the public so that it can be used to engage communities across the world and unite them in our mission to ensure healthy oceans for future generations.

About OCEARCH

OCEARCH is a data-centric, non-profit organization built to help scientists collect previously unattainable data in the ocean. Its mission is to accelerate the ocean's return to balance and abundance through fearless innovations in scientific research, education, outreach, and policy using unique collaborations of individuals and organizations in the U.S and abroad. OCEARCH provides an open sourced Shark Tracking service and app that allows scientists, educators, and fans alike to learn about the never before documented movements of our ocean's apex predators. Learn more at OCEARCH.ORG and Track Sereia The Tiger Shark here.
RYE, N.Y., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Quest Patent Research Corporation (OTCQB: QPRC) ("Quest" or "Company"), an Intellectual Property asset monetization company, today announced additional development in the settlement and dismissal of actions in the Semcon IP Inc. ('Semcon') intellectual property portfolio licensing program.

"Since acquiring the Semcon portfolio in 2015, we have licensed the portfolio to 10 companies, including two so far this year with two trials docketed for 2020," Mr. Jon Scahill, CEO of Quest, commented. "The Semcon IP portfolio is typical of what Quest seeks to achieve in all of its IP portfolio investments. Namely the ability to identify, source and invest in IP assets which are integrated across a variety of end use applications, industries and end users to create large multi-year and multi-company licensing programs."

The Semcon portfolio consists of 4 United States patents that cover fundamental technology for adjusting the processor clock and voltage to save power based on the operating characteristics of the processor and one United States patent that relates to coordinating direct bus communications between subsystems in an assigned channel.

In April 2016, Semcon brought patent infringement suits in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against Huawei Technologies, MediaTek Inc., STMicroelectronics Inc., Texas Instruments Incorporated and ZTE Corporation. All of these actions were settled and dismissed in 2018.

In May 2018, Semcon brought patent infringement actions in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against Amazon.com, Inc., AsusTeK Computer Inc. ('Asus'), TCT Mobile International Limited et. al., Kyocera Corporation, Louis Vuitton, SE, Shenzhen OnePlus Science & Technology Co., Ltd., and Michael Kors Holdings Ltd.

Trials have been docketed in the TCT Mobile and Shenzhen OnePlus actions for September 14, 2020 and December 7, 2020, respectively, with the remaining matters having been resolved. Most recently, on May 4, 2020, TCT Mobile's final attempt to get the case dismissed before trial was rejected by the United States Supreme Court by their denial of TCT's Petition to overturn the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals and the District Court.

For more information please refer to the Company's Form 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

About Quest Patent Research Corporations

Quest is an Intellectual Property ('IP') licensing and commercialization company. The Company acquires and manages IP rights from a variety of sources, including large and small corporations, universities and other IP owners. Quest specializes in both mature and emerging technologies, delivering a suite of value add financial, strategic and legal resources to efficiently monetize IP throughout the full commercialization lifecycle. For more information please visit www.qprc.com

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements made in this press release include 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. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may," "will," "plan," "should," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," or comparable terminology. Such forward-looking statements are inherently subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties, many of which the Company cannot predict with accuracy and some of which the Company might not even anticipate, and involve factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or suggested. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements and are advised to consider the factors listed above together with the additional factors under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Reports on Form 10-K, as may be supplemented or amended by the Company's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. The Company assumes no obligation to update or supplement forward-looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent events, new information or otherwise.

SOURCE Quest Patent Research Corporation

Related Links

http://www.qprc.com


In 1990, I was invited to judge the Pillsbury Bake-Off in Phoenix. It was terrific fun, although I wish I had known that the charming Scot to whom I confessed my loathing of Poppin Fresh was Pillsburys CEO. That was when I learned that my foot fits neatly in my mouth.

Californian Linda Rahman won the bake-off that year with her blueberry-poppyseed brunch cake  a decision I still remember as one of the most contentious judging sessions Ive ever taken part in.

But the bake-off wasnt my main memory from that trip. The hotel where the judges stayed offered machaca at breakfast as an alternative to bacon, ham, or sausage. Id never seen machaca or tasted it, so I had to give it a go.

It was so good that when I returned to my food writers desk at the Detroit News, I called the executive chef at the Phoenix hotel and begged him for the recipe. He was cheerful about sharing it but, of course, his recipe was written with a yield of 50 pounds. Yikes! It was terrific, but I didnt need to make 50 pounds at a time.

Sometimes recipes scale down easily; sometimes they dont. In this case, I had to fiddle around with the recipe a little to get to a family-sized yield.
LEWISBURG  Every unit at the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary will have multiple rooms with televisions, computer stations and telephones once the transition into a medium-security facility is complete.

Although the Big House as it is known is nearly 90 years old, much of the required wiring for those amenities was already in place, the Bureau of Prisons says.

That is because Lewisburg was designed for general population inmates in an open setting, spokesman Emery Nelson explained.

However, between 2010 and last year approximately 900 inmates in all but two of the 11 housing units were locked in their cells 23 hours a day because they had disrupted operations at other prisons.

Those prisoners last year were transferred to the Thomson, Illinois, maximum-security prison that was completed in 2001.

Inmates in medium-security prisons in the federal system have freedom of movement during the day and access to telephones, televisions and computers along with inside and outside recreation.

They also have access to educational, psychology, release and vocational training programs along with work assignments.

Lewisburg currently offers exploratory computer application and custodial maintenance vocational training programs, Nelson said.

A certified personal trainer will be offered and additional vocational training positions are being sought for culinary arts and welding, he said.

Education programs available to inmates include GED, Spanish GED, special learning needs, English as a second language and college correspondence courses plus an apprenticeship program in HVAC, plumbing, electrical and commercial housekeeping, he said.

The prisoners have access to the facilitys gymnasium that was not available to the special management inmates whose recreation time was spent in cages.

The fact the inmate population went in several days last month from 179 to 1,108 has not hindered the transition work, Nelson said. The transfer of inmates from the tornado-damaged Estill prison in South Carolina caused the rapid population change.

The Bureau of Prisons in April announced it was evaluating the staff complement because the allotted complement of 504 full-time positions compared with 278 at other medium-security prisons.

Asked if the evaluation had been completed and if so what are the results, Nelson responded the complement has not changed.

Lewisburg has guard towers because, unlike other medium-security prisons that have fences, it has two perimeter walls separated by razor wire that cannot be seen through.

The first staff member at Lewisburg to test positive for COVID-19 currently is in quarantine. He was among those who voluntarily deployed to other prisons before the Estill inmates arrived.

All deployed staffers are tested before they return to work at Lewisburg according to BOP policy.

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Some liberals are backing Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who ranks far above others on the left as a potential running mate. But rancor from the primaries has led to schisms on the left: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the final competitor to cede to Biden and the liberal figure best positioned to push for concessions, has declined to support Warren despite their ideological alliance, according to three people familiar with his conversations with Biden, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to recount the private discussions.
Idowu Ipaye, 44, of Frederick, Md., was found in the home in the 11000 block of Westport Drive in the Mitchellville area about 9:10 a.m. after a stabbing was reported there, county police said. Ipaye had been stabbed multiple times and died at a hospital, they said.
A former school psychologist in St. James Parish is suing her old employer, saying she was forced to resign after she refused to alter her evaluations of children when school principals wanted them incorrectly labeled special education.

In a lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, Latasha Cubas, who worked in the river parish school district for almost five years, claims the St. James Parish school district routinely changed special education evaluations, falsified or tossed documents, and changed student plans without parent permission, all of which had the effect of discriminating against African American students.

Cubas is seeking compensatory and punitive damages as well as attorney and court costs.

St. James School Superintendent Ed Cancienne is named as a defendant along with seven other school administrators.

Canienne said he has not seen a copy of the litigation and is unfamiliar with the case.

Im totally caught off guard, Cancienne said on Monday. I dont know anything about this.

Cubas, who started to work in St. James schools in March 2015, claims in her suit that when she resisted and tried to alert her superiors to the districts special education problems, she was labeled a troublemaker and a roadblock.

She alleges that between August and December 2019 she was increasingly harassed, the subject of false accusations, retaliated against and was not assisted in trying to do her job. Cubas alleges that during an August 20 meeting Cancienne told her she needed to decide whether to get on the boat or get off the boat and that principals would be making decisions regarding special education.

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Unable to sleep, crying uncontrollably and suffering anxiety attacks, Cubas decided to resign at the suggestion of a mental health professional she was seeing, according to the suit.

Cubass attorney, Anundra Martin, of Metairie, said her clients decision to resign was not voluntary, that she was constructively discharged due to how she was treated. Consequently, Cubas might be able to claim damages under Louisiana law as a whistleblower.

The suit also alleges that Cubas suffered retaliation in violation of federal civil rights law, as well as harassment and discrimination due to her being African American and female. Further, Cubas alleges the defendants violated state law by making defamatory statements about her and that they were intentionally inflicting emotional distress.

Martin said her client kept a lot of records, including video and audio recordings, documenting what happened to her. And Martin expects when it comes time for legal discovery more evidence will come to light.

Cubas initially filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Earlier this year, she asked the federal agency to drop the complaint so she could pursue her own suit. Once the agency dropped the complaint on Feb. 7, Cubas then had 90 days to file suit.

Martin said the push to wrongly put children into special education was a way of generating more state education funding, but also gave those students undeserved advantages on standardized tests. She said Cubas found that African American students labeled special education were not receiving all the services they were entitled to and that St. James made it harder for smarter African American children to qualify for gifted services.

This was an ongoing, not a once or twice, issue. This was occurring on a regular basis, Martin said. If the principal wanted them in special education, they did whatever it took.

The lawsuit, in and of itself, does not seek to help children who may have been wrongly labeled, but Martin said she expects that in the future she or another attorney will file additional litigation to help those children.

I dont want to have kids lives altered at the beginning of their life, she said.
Comment



The most urgent need right now is getting food to all the needy people throughout the country. It has been two weeks since the Prime Minister, Ambrose Dlamini, announced plans to feed the poor as one of the measures to cushion the effects of the national partial lockdown that is now entering its sixth week.



Embarrassingly, political bickering over who should oversee the distribution of the food parcels has derailed this noble intention. As our politicians clamour to become the middle man, could they take a moment to seriously ponder on the approach proffered by Eswatini billionaire Nathan Kirsh, which could work well for government and achieve greater results.



Kirsh has commendably donated E45 million towards food assistance for over 320 000 beneficiaries. This is part of a E110 million injection to the COVID-19 fund and serves as one of the largest donations from an individual donor in local history.



His approach of direct cash transmission to beneficiaries is informed by research into the food distribution exercise conducted during the drought period back in 2016, where figures show that 35 per cent of money donated then went towards logistics. This included food procurement, transportation, storage, commission and wastage. Politicisation of food support was also a costly factor, which is what we see playing out today. All the while, needy people are going hungry.



Food suppliers and distributors may not agree with this approach; nor would transporters who see a lost business opportunity. However, given a choice of feeding more needy people through cash than taking a third of the funds just to pay a few businesspeople for their services, the Kirsh way beats the latter. Whats more is that the spend by the recipients would be more widely distributed across the country among SMEs rather than it benefiting only a few large businesses.



It is such logic and approach that probably makes Kirsh successful in business. We can learn a lot from this. Our MPs, tindvuna and bucopho should comprehend that this is not the time for distributing favours to the electorate; its a time to save our people from hunger and disease.



If they must, our politicians should rather volunteer to assist where their input is required, not to interfere in the process of an agency that is a product of their own making. The National Disaster Management Agency was primarily legislated to carry out the very functions that our MPs now want to usurp.



The danger of their selfish actions is discouraging others from emulating the good deed by Natie Kirsh and condemning the electorate to starvation.
President Trump has slammed Kellyanne Conway's lawyer husband as a 'deranged loser' and 'moonface' in a series of bizarre tweets.

It comes after George Conway's political action committee released an advertisement Monday demonizing Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic and questioning the vitality of America as a nation if the president is reelected.

Trump took aim at the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump PAC led by Conway, and referred to the group as 'RINO Republicans'.

George Conway released an ad Monday blaming the severity of the coronavirus pandemic and the economic downturn as a result of Donald Trump's response to the outbreak in the U.S.

President Trump has slammed Kellyanne Conway's lawyer husband as a 'deranged loser' and 'moonface' in a series of bizarre tweets

In a series of tweets, the President said: 'A group of RINO Republicans who failed badly 12 years ago, then again 8 years ago, and then got BADLY beaten by me, a political first timer, 4 years ago, have copied (no imagination) the concept of an ad from Ronald Reagan, 'Morning in America', doing everything possible to get even for all of their many failures.

'You see, these loser types don't care about 252 new Federal Judges, 2 great Supreme Court Justices, a rebuilt military, a protected 2nd Amendment, biggest EVER Tax & Regulation cuts, and much more.

I didn't use any of them because they don't know how to win, and their so-called Lincoln Project is a disgrace to Honest Abe.

'I don't know what Kellyanne did to her deranged loser of a husband, Moonface, but it must have been really bad. John Weaver lost big for Kasich (to me). Crazed Rick Wilson lost for Evan 'McMuffin' McMullin (to me).

'Steve Schmidt & Reed Galvin lost for John McCain, Romney's campaign manager (?) lost big to 'O', & Jennifer Horn got thrown out of the New Hampshire Republican Party. They're all LOSERS, but Abe Lincoln, Republican, is all smiles!'

Conway's minute-long political ad which was released yesterday asserts: 'There's mourning in American. And under the leadership of Donald Trump our country is weaker and sicker and poorer.'

The ad includes several desolate images of the struggling U.S. economy, including empty roads and shut down factories

'And now Americans are asking: If we have another four years like this, will there even be an America?' the narrator questions in his conclusion.

'There's mourning in America,' the ad reiterated, then goes on to blame Trump for the poor economic downturn due to the coronavirus outbreak. 'Today more than 600,000 Americans have died from a deadly virus Donald Trump ignored.'

'Trump bailed out Wall Street, but not Main Street,' it asserted. 'This afternoon, millions of Americans will apply for unemployment, and with their saving run out, many are giving up hope. Millions worried a loved one won't survive COVID-19.'

In a statement released Monday, the group said the ad is a play on Ronald Reagan's 1984 campaign ad titled Morning in America, where he highlighted the positive impact of his first term.

Jennifer Horn, the co-founder of The Lincoln Project, said the goal of the PAC ad is to highlight Trump's failures as president, specifically during a time of crisis.

'Americans are asking: If we have another four years like this, will there even be an America?' the ad, titled Mourning in American, concludes

Conway, a former Republican who turned independent in 2018, is a vocal and public Trump critic  even though his wife works closely as one of the president's top advisers.

Kellyanne Conway currently serves as counselor to the president and has previously held roles as campaign manager and strategist in the Republican Party.

George Conway helped start The Lincoln Project in December 2019 with other anti-Trump Republicans to derail his reelection efforts while remaining true to their conservatives roots and values.

The new ad comes as Trump's 2020 campaign has launched its own national advertising blitz after internal polling showed the president slipping in some battleground states.

The ad campaign is aimed at praising the president for his response to the coronavirus outbreak  and reports indicate a second wave of ads will come soon attacking his presumed Democratic contender Joe Biden.
Police are appealing for more information after livestock rustlers stole 23 cows and calves from a farm in Cornwall.

The Jersey herd, which includes 10 calves, were stolen from Lower Bodiniel Farm, in Bodmin, on either Wednesday or Thursday last week (29/30 April).

After an initial police investigation, it is understood that the animals were most likely stolen.

Devon and Cornwall Police said the dairy cattle may have easily been loaded onto a vehicle.

"Thefts of sheep are reported to us from time-to-time, but it is particularly unusual for cows to go missing," said PC Chris Collins.

He added that the incident's financial implications for the farmer has had a 'significant' effect.

We appreciate the publics support and would like to hear from anyone who was in the area at the time of the cows going missing."

Anyone with any information which could assist enquiries have been urged to get in touch.

It comes as farmers in North Wales recently notified authorities after 120 ewes and lambs were stolen from their farm.

Livestock rustlers raided the Gwynedd farm on 21 April and took 50 Welsh ewes and around 70 lambs, all born in early April.

Figures show that that livestock worth 3 million were stolen from farms in the United Kingdom last year.

Large-scale sheep thefts over the past two years have contributed to a 19.4% rise in value since 2017, according to NFU Mutual.
First, do no harm.

Its a saying almost as old as the idea of medicine itself. New Mexicos leaders need to think long and hard about it now.

At the beginning of our fight with COVID-19, our leaders acted quickly on limited information. But now, we have better data and experience that beg a more sophisticated approach as our nation grapples with balancing public health and the economy.

Theres another saying: The cure must not be more deadly than the disease.

The more we delay reopening, the more lives we endanger. Domestic violence has drastically increased in Albuquerque, as reported by Second Judicial District Attorney Raul Torrez and the Domestic Violence Resource Center.

New Mexico is second in the country for suicides per capita. We are vulnerable to increased unemployment and poverty rates, factors intimately associated with suicide.

Those advocating for earlier business reopening have been called a death cult by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams spokesman. Yet, on April 16, the U.N. warned that the economic downturn would cause tens of millions to fall into extreme poverty and that hundreds of thousands of children could die.

People die from poverty. There is a well-documented relationship between poverty and disease.

But advocates for later reopening dont seem to appreciate that a robust economy saves lives every day. They argue that those who discuss economics dont value human life.

What began as slowing the spread has morphed into the argument that we should all stay home until a cure is found. That, Im afraid, is not only an unreasonable mentality, but also a fundamentally dangerous one.

Experts agree the number of Americans who will contract COVID-19 wont change. The virus will run its course.

Slowing the spread was never supposed to be a way to prevent transmission entirely, or to shut down the nation for 18 months or more to find a vaccine. It was to make sure hospitals could keep up.

Clearly, New Mexicos hospitals are dealing with the demand just fine.

We all agree human life is precious. We should take every reasonable measure to protect life.

What we have to deliberate about is what is reasonable.

Is it reasonable to ask people to give up careers to lower the possibility of overwhelming a hospital?

We hate the loss of control.

Perhaps the most well-respected infectious disease doctor in the world, Paul Farmer, said, We know that the risk of acquiring HIV does not depend on knowledge of how the virus is transmitted, but rather on the freedom to make decisions. Poverty is the great limiting factor of freedom.

This principle is impacting the Navajo Nation, disproportionately affected by COVID.

Our leaders should pay attention to the massive death toll that economic devastation and closure of our health-care system takes on society at large. If our society were a patient, the doctor in me says we need to treat the whole patient, not just one symptom.

Re-opening businesses and our health-care system shouldnt be viewed as devaluing human life. It should be seen as an act of love.

(N.M. Rep. Gregg Schmedes, a Republican, represents District 22, which includes a portion of Sandoval County. He is a surgeon, clinical assistant professor of surgery with the University of New Mexico and the New Mexico director of the American Academy of Medical Ethics.)
Punjab witnessed another significant rise in coronavirus cases on Tuesday with 219 more people, mostly Nanded pilgrims, testing positive for the infection

Chandigarh: Punjab witnessed another significant rise in coronavirus cases on Tuesday with 219 more people, mostly Nanded pilgrims, testing positive for the infection.

Two peoplea 55-year-old Hoshiarpur man and a 22-year-old woman from Amritsaralso succumbed to the infection, taking the death toll to 25 in the state. Both died on Monday.

Of the state's tally of 1,451, those who have returned from Maharashtra's Nanded account for 67 percent (969 cases), a health official said.

Of the 219 cases reported on Tuesday, 174 were linked to the Nanded pilgrims.

The maximum 48 fresh cases surfaced in Gurdaspur, followed by 47 in Tarn Taran and 34 in Fazilka, a medical bulletin said.

Twenty-seven people were found infected with the virus in Faridkot; 22 in Sangrur; 15 in Muktsar; 14 in Ludhiana; six in Jalandhar; five in Kapurthala; and one in Patiala.

Meanwhile, notorious Punjab gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria also tested posted for the virus in Gurdaspur's Batala, where he was brought on a production warrant from a Patiala jail in the murder case of an Akali leader.

Over 30 police personnel who interrogated him will be quarantined and tested, the authorities said.

Five COVID-19 patientsfour from Patiala and one from Pathankot--were discharged from hospitals after recovery.

So far, 133 patients have recovered from the disease, officials said.

Amritsar continued to top the coronavirus tally with 218 coronavirus cases in the state, followed by Jalandhar (134); Ludhiana (124); Mohali (95); Hoshiarpur (88); Patiala and Tarn Taran (87 each); SBS Nagar and Sangrur (85 each); Gurdaspur (84); Muktsar (64); Faridkot (45); Ferozepur (42); Fazilka (38); Bathinda (36); Moga (28); Pathankot (27); Barnala (19); Kapurthala (18); Mansa (17); Fatehgarh Sahib (16); and Rupnagar (14).

Two patients are on ventilator support.

A total of 30,199 samples have been taken so far in the state, of which, 23,352 tested negative for the infection. Reports of 5,396 samples are awaited.

Currently, there are 1,293 active cases in the state, as per the bulletin.
SHANGHAI, CHINA - APRIL 12: Adam Neumann, co-founder and chief executive officer of WeWork, speaks during a signing ceremony at WeWork Weihai Road flagship on April 12, 2018 in Shanghai, China. World's leading co-working space company WeWork will acquire China-based rival naked Hub for 400 million U.S. dollars. (Photo by Jackal Pan/Visual China Group via Getty Images)

WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann accused SoftBank Group of abusing its power in a new lawsuit filed Monday that alleges breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty for pulling a $3 billion tender offer for WeWork shares.

The lawsuit, filed in Delaware Court of Chancery, included a motion to consolidate his case with a lawsuit filed last month by a Special Committee of WeWork's board. Both lawsuits focus on SoftBank Group and its Vision Fund's decision to back out of a deal to buy shares of the co-working company.

SoftBank Group pulled its $3 billion tender offer for WeWork shares April 1, citing COVID-19's impact on the business but also closing conditions not being met. Specifically, it pointed to outstanding regulatory investigations, a growing body of litigation against the company and the failure to restructure a joint venture in China as reasons to torpedo the agreement.

SoftBank will vigorously defend itself against these meritless claims," Rob Townsend, senior vice president and chief officer at SoftBank, said in a statement. "Under the terms of our agreement, which Adam Neumann signed, SoftBank had no obligation to complete the tender offer in which Mr. Neumann  the biggest beneficiary  sought to sell nearly $1 billion in stock.

A deal was struck in October 2019 to buy out some of the equity held by Neumann, as well as the venture capital Benchmark Capital and many individual company employees. Neumann was set to receive almost $1 billion for his shares.

WeWork and Neumann gave control of the company to SoftBank, which increased its ownership at a significantly reduced price, according to the complaint.

"SoftBank has abused its position of power to "renege on its promise to pay [Neumann, shareholders, and hundreds of employees] for the benefits it already received," the complaint said. The lawsuit claims that SoftBank was "secretly taking actions to undermine it" by pressuring investors not to waive certain rights and preventing the China roll-up transaction from closing.

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The lawsuit further alleges that SoftBank's financial condition influenced the company's decision to terminate the tender offer.

The lawsuit alleges that SoftBank "abused its power" after WeWork's special committee filed a lawsuit by insisting that only the board, which is controlled by SoftBank, could take legal action.

"In real time, SoftBank Group and SoftBank Vision Fund are abusing their control of WeWork in an effort to stop the Special Committees meritorious lawsuit from being heard," the complaint reads.
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Linkedin Dmitry Zaks and Damon Wake (Agence France-Presse) Rome, Italy/Brussels, Belgium  Tue, May 5, 2020 08:34 624 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd5f0c14 2 World coronavirus,virus-corona,COVID-19,COVID-19-drugs,COVID-19-lockdown,COVID-19-quarantine,pandemic,vaccines Free

Hopes rose in the fight against the coronavirus on Monday as world leaders pledged billions of euros for a vaccine in a special telethon and European countries edged out of lockdown.

Despite US President Donald Trump snubbing the fundraising effort, the World Health Organization hailed the 7.4 billion euro ($8.1 billion) haul as a "powerful" show of global solidarity.

The world is desperately hunting a vaccine for the disease that has killed nearly 250,000 people across the planet and infected 3.5 million since it emerged in China late last year.

Countries are keen to lift lockdowns imposed on half the planet that have sent the world economy into a tailspin, but there are fears doing so too early could cause a second wave of the pandemic.

Italy, the world's longest locked down country and the worst hit after the United States, led the way with easing restrictions on Monday, with more than a dozen other European nations taking similar steps.

Governments believe they have passed the peak of the disease with death tolls in Europe's worst affected countries having dropped as a result of nearly two months of confinement.

'Joy and fear'

"We are feeling a mix of joy and fear," 40-year-old Stefano Milano said in Rome.

"There will be great happiness in being able to go running again carefree, in my son being allowed to have his little cousin over to blow out his birthday candles, to see our parents," the father-of-three said.

Italian restaurants reopened for takeaway orders, but bars and ice cream parlors will remain shut. The use of public transport is being discouraged and everyone will have to wear masks in indoor public spaces.

Spain and Portugal made face masks mandatory on public transport starting Monday as they further eased their lockdowns.

In Germany people queued up at hair salons as they finally reopened, while Slovenia, Poland and Hungary also allowed public spaces and businesses to partially reopen.

"I looked like Robinson Crusoe," joked 87-year-old Helmut Wichter as he emerged clean shaven from a barber in Berlin.

But a vaccine is widely seen as the only real hope of avoiding more deaths from a once-in-a-century pandemic and bringing back normality to the world.

'Powerful and inspiring'

Leaders of major European powers along with Japan and Canada made the biggest pledges, along with philanthropists including Bill and Melinda Gates, at the videoconference hosted by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.

They called for cooperation and not competition in the search for a cure that could not only be potentially lucrative but also spark fights over who gets access to a vaccine first.

"This was a powerful and inspiring demonstration of global solidarity," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said of the donations.

But the shine was taken off the pledges by the absence of the United States, with Trump in open warfare with the WHO over its handling of the pandemic and its relationship with China.

Trump -- fighting for reelection in November -- said Sunday that the United States will have a coronavirus vaccine ready by the end of the year.

His prediction was met with skepticism in some quarters, with Germany's Health Minister Jens Spahn warning it could take years for anyone to develop a vaccine.

With 30 million Americans out of work and his poll numbers sagging, Trump has increasingly taken to blaming China for the coronavirus outbreak.

'Insane'

China's state broadcaster on Monday attacked US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for "insane" remarks in which he said the virus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, the city where the pandemic first emerged.

The WHO also risked a fresh clash with Trump, saying it had received no evidence on the "speculative" Wuhan lab claims

The renewed tensions between the US and China -- the world's two biggest economies -- set financial markets on edge on Monday from Asia to New York.

The United States has the most coronavirus deaths in the world at more than 67,600.

Trump had initially played down the virus, before later warning that it could cost 60,000 lives, but on Sunday he acknowledged a higher eventual death toll of between 75,000 and 100,000.

"That's a horrible thing," he said.

Many parts of Asia have, however, begun to inch towards a post-pandemic life, with schools in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi reopening on Monday after two weeks without new infections anywhere in the country.

Malaysians headed back to work, while Australia and New Zealand discussed creating a "trans-Tasman bubble" that would allow travel between the two countries.

But regional heavyweight Japan extended its state of emergency to the end of the month, despite a comparatively small-scale outbreak.

The disease continued its march in some places.

Russia is rapidly becoming Europe's black spot, with officials in Moscow urging residents to stay home in an effort to tamp down the growing daily tally of new cases.

"The threat is apparently on the rise," Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin told citizens.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba agreed on Estonias support for Ukraines positions and interests in the framework of Estonias presidency of the UN Security Council in May 2020.

Kuleba discussed this issue during a phone conversation with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Urmas Reinsalu on Monday evening, according to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministrys press service.

"The parties agreed to make efforts to counter the spread by Russia of distorted historical facts, including those related to the anniversary of the end of World War II. The discussion of World War II in the UN Security Council on May 8 aims to disseminate true facts about the European historical past as the basis for peaceful and friendly coexistence of peoples," the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported.

Minister Reinsalu reaffirmed Estonias consistent support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and noted the need to maintain international sanctions pressure on the Russian Federation until the full implementation of the Minsk agreements and de-occupation of Ukrainian territories.

Kuleba informed Reinsalu about the security situation in Donbas and Ukraines efforts to achieve progress in the Normandy format talks.

The ministers discussed the involvement of Ukraine in events within the Three Seas Initiative summit to be held in Tallinn in October 2020 and agreed to exchange visits after improving the epidemiological situation.

As reported, Estonia was elected a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for 2020-2021 and took on the month-long rotating UNSC presidency from May 1.

ish
Blackstone Resources AG (SWX: BLS) is pleased to announce that First Cobalt has announced positive feasibility study results for their cobalt refinery. First Cobalt is an important investment interest in Blackstone's battery metal mining portfolio.

Strong demand for onshoring cobalt supply in North America

According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, there are no plans to commission new cobalt refineries outside China, other than First Cobalt. At the same time, auto manufacturers in North America have a strong desire to source cobalt sulphate in North America. The report also estimates that cobalt demand from nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) batteries used in EVs will increase from approximately 20,000 tonnes in 2019, to over 730,000 tonnes in 2040. This places First Cobalt in a very strong position. The company has, therefore, attracted considerable attention from investors.

In July 2009, First Cobalt entered into a partnership with Glencore AG to fully fund (in an undiluted manner) a phased recommissioning of First Cobalt's refinery. This agreement was subject to the completion of a positive feasibility study. Glencore plans to use First Cobalt's refinery to treat cobalt feed material supplied from their DRC operations on a four in-a-half year rolling basis. The objective of this project is to produce approximately 25,000 tonnes of cobalt sulphate for the electric vehicle market.

It is estimated that USD 56 million will need to be invested into the refinery, which will deliver an operating cost of an estimated USD 2.72/lb of cobalt produced.

The feasibility study also estimated that USD 37 million in pre-tax cash flow will be generated by the project, during the first full-year of production.

The battery metal supply chain still needs building

The news from First Cobalt is significant, as it represents an important part of the battery market supply chain in North America. Blackstone is in the process of building a vertically integrated battery company that will supply the next generation of battery technology to electric vehicle manufacturers.

To achieve this, its operations have focused on building the supply chain to deliver next-generation solid-state batteries in the global market. This will involve mining battery materials (both from exploration and production projects), refining these battery metals and then using them with the latest battery technology.

First Cobalt's success is a vindication of Blackstone Resource's ongoing investment thesis. The company is very pleased with the results presented by First Cobalt yesterday.

Blackstone Resources AG

Blackstone Resources is a Swiss Holding Company, with its legal domicile in Baar, Kanton Zug and is concentrating on the battery metals market as primary metals. In addition, it sets up, develops and manages refineries used for gold and battery metals. It offers direct exposure to the battery metal revolution that is being driven by the demand of electric vehicles that need vast quantities of these metals. These include cobalt, manganese, graphite, nickel, copper and lithium. In addition, Blackstone Resources has started a research programme on new battery technologies on solid state batteries and its production process.

For more information please visit www.blackstoneresources.ch

The disclaimer is an integral part of this press release.

Please ensure you consult the disclaimer for a full understanding of the content within: http://www.blackstoneresources.ch/investors/disclaimer/

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005683/en/

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MIDDLETOWN  City police are investigating a stabbing that took place over the weekend that left a man in stable but critical condition.

The incident happened Monday at 12:10 a.m. at the Traverse Square housing project, according to Middletown police Lt. Heather Desmond.
In their small apartment in the Gulfton area, third grader Yousuf Durrani and his three siblings have been trying to keep up with schoolwork with just one computer. Its a slow device their father bought 10 years ago in Afghanistan.

It hasnt been easy.

Its like difficult because we all do assignments in one computer, and they have like a lot of assignments to do, so it takes a long time, said the 8-year-old Sutton Elementary student who is in an English as a Second Language program. He also said the laptop needs to be constantly charged, requiring even more time.

You constantly have to do a lot.

The novel coronavirus forced the closure of campuses throughout the school year in Texas and most states, compelling districts to turn to online instruction. For many immigrant students like Yousuf, whose families face economic hardship and often lack technology, online instruction can be a challenge. The distance learning also presents language barriers for many immigrant parents who were expected to become home-school educators overnight.

Naqui Hernandez, a Guatemalan mother with limited English language, sometimes wonders if her two children are actually studying as they tell her. They use a mobile phone for classroom assignments, because they dont have a computer.

She has a 9-year-old daughter in the fourth grade at a Houston ISD school in the Sharpstown neighborhood where they live, and a 14-year-old son in seventh grade who attends a YES Prep charter school. Both have been in English Learners programs and the mother is concerned about their progress.

I see them a little slower on school things, Hernandez said. Now that they are home, I feel thats not very good for my kids.

Once school does reopen, the challenges brought by COVID-19 will affect immigrant students and American children from immigrant families at a greater scale than other students, said Bob Sanborn, president and CEO of Children at Risk, a research and advocacy organization that ranks Texas public schools.

We are going to have a coronavirus lag, and we know that its going to be a significant lag, Sanborn said.

Sanborn explained that, during summer, students typically lose some of what theyve learned, commonly referred to as brain drain. The pandemic has magnified the problem, he said, for immigrants or their parents who are learning English. Those concerns become apparent during conversations hes had with educators.

They could be as much as a year behind other children when they finally get back to school, Sanborn said.

The difference

More than 40 percent of the children in the Houston area and 34 percent in Texas have immigrant parents, according to a study by the think tank Urban Institute, using census data from 2018. The majority of those kids are U.S. citizens, live in low-income households and their foreign-born parents have been in the country for at least 15 years. About one-fourth of the immigrant parents have less than a high school education.

More than 17 percent of American-born children with immigrant parents in the Houston metro area have limited English proficiency, a proportion that increases to 39 percent for foreign-born kids.

The technology in most (of their) homes consisted of a smartphone or portable tablet, (and) most educational systems are not compatible with those particular devices, said Liz Garza-Garcia, with the Texas Association for Bilingual Education.

Garza-Garcia added that English learners and immigrant families face other obstacles when trying to access online curriculum, troubleshoot problems and check grades provided in a language they do not commonly speak.

The transition to e-learning left many students and their parents in the dark because of a lack of training, for them, she said.

The pandemic also adds to the heightened hostile environment for immigrants, both legally and illegally in the country, said Debbie Ortiz, spokesperson with the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans.

Some students in immigrant households have already disappeared from their teachers radar, she said. The organization sponsors the George I. Sanchez Charter School campuses, where the majority of students are from immigrant families. About 10 percent of the students are unaccounted for, after many attempts to contact them, she said.

Some of them are not in stable home environments; their parents may have been deported, Ortiz said. They helped a 17-year-old student pay rent, with a donation, for a place where he takes care of a younger sibling after their father was deported. Their mother died last year.

Educators believe that others may have been forced to look for work as their families lose income and studying takes a back seat.

At HISD every school has a specialist to address students social and emotional needs, said interim Chief Academic Officer Yolanda Rodriguez. If a family within a school needs support, they can assist.

Rodriguez also said the district launched several initiatives during the pandemic to serve students in English Language Learners programs and immigrant parents. The resources include TV classes, a webinar for parents and a hotline to answer questions.

Kids out of the radar

Parents like Hernandez are trying their best. She said she has managed to communicate in Spanish with her childrens teachers by text message, the only digital tool she has learned to use.

You know, I was only able to go to school until sixth grade, she said.

For parents with limited English, education and access to technology, one organization is trying to help.

Its a huge burden for these parents, said Aisha Siddiqui, founder and executive director of Culture of Health  Advancing Together, which provides tutoring for disadvantaged school children in Houston.

Sometimes the tutors become the computer techs as well.

OK, (can) you see the button at the bottom left? ... OK, youre going to press on that, and the cameras going to switch, said Rosaly Rosario, a bilingual volunteer tutor, recounting a conversation she often has with struggling parents. That process alone, while simple for many, can consume a good part of her tutoring sessions, before she can get to the math, reading and homework.

Its been rough, said Rosario, who is graduating in May from the University of Houston. But families are very grateful for the work that were doing to help them.

Experts like Sanborn said that Texas should prepare for an extraordinary upcoming school year to bring kids back up to speed, with special programs such as intensive tutoring targeting the most impacted and vulnerable students.

Districts are all trying to do their very best, but there are inconsistencies across the board, Sanborn said. Some just dont see the urgency of this. We are fooling ourselves if we think what we are doing is going to be enough.

Yousuf, who is being tutored by CHAT, said he is eager for this period to end.

He used to be excited about school, but not anymore, after the long hours of classwork with limited resources.

My teacher told me that you have to do one online work, and then two more, and then I do one and work a lot, and then I forget about the other one, he said. And then my brother comes to the computer and I cant.

I dont like this, he said.

olivia.tallet@chron.com

twitter.com/oliviaptallet
Israel reportedly carried out two airstrikes in northern and eastern Syria amid increased Israeli action against Iranian targets there.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said today that Israeli jets struck Iran-backed militia targets in the Deir ez-Zor countryside in the countrys east, killing 15 Iranian and Iraqi citizens. Late last night, Israel also bombed a weapons depot belonging to Syrian government and Iranian forces near Al-Safira outside Aleppo, the observatory said.

Syrias state media SANA reported that a hostile flight dropped missiles targeting military depots in Al-Safira late Monday evening. The damage is unknown and Syria activated its air defense systems as a result, according to SANA, which did not attribute the strikes to Israel.

SANA did not report the strikes in Deir ez-Zor.

The news comes at a time of increased alleged Israeli airstrikes in Syria targeting Irans allies and assets. Last week, Israel bombed Iran-backed militias near the Syrian capital Damascus. There were also strikes in the central city of Homs and in the Syrian Golan Heights close to the Israeli border days later.

The strike near Aleppo occurred farther north than other alleged Israeli airstrikes, which typically have been near Damascus and the Lebanese border.

Israeli officials typically do not confirm their operations in Syria against Iran. However, Israeli leaders have made statements indicating attacks against Iran in the region. Last August, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran has no immunity anywhere after suspected Israeli airstrikes on Iran-backed militias in Iraq.

More recently, after last weeks bombing in Damascus, Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel is blocking Irans entrenchment in Syria.
United Nations:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not attend the annual high-level UN General Assembly session in September. The Indian delegation will be led by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, according to the provisional agenda released by the UN.

Senior Indian diplomats also confirmed to PTI that Swaraj is as of now scheduled to head the Indian delegation for the General Debate of the 71st session of the General Assembly.

The General Debate will open on September 20 and will run through September 26, when Swaraj will address the annual high-level debate.

According to the first provisional list, Pakistans Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to attend the General Debate and address the global leaders on September 21.

Sources however added that the programme for Sharif to attend the General Assembly session could change as they cited his health.

Modi had given his maiden address to the UN General Assembly as Prime Minister in 2014, when addressing the world leaders in Hindi he had also made a clarion call to commemorate an annual International Yoga Day.

Last year, he had attended the high-level UN Sustainable Development Summit ahead of the General Debate, when world leaders had adopted the ambitious 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an intergovernmental set of aspiration Goals with 169 targets.

He had also attended the UN Peacekeeping Summit hosted by President Barack Obama when he had announced that India will contribute an additional battalion of 850 troops for UN peacekeeping operation.

The summit was the only forum when Modi and Sharif had come face to face during their visit for the UN General Assembly.

The two leaders had only waved at each other as they sat across from each other on a horse shoe-table for the peacekeeping summit.

According to the provisional list, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and President Maithrapala Sirisena of Sri Lanka are also expected to address the world leaders. As per tradition, Brazils president opens the General Debate every year and is followed by the US President.

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BEIRUT - At least 14 militants, including Iranian citizens and other nationalities, have been killed in air raids allegedly carried out by Israel last night in eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Tuesday.

The UK-based monitoring group, which has a network of sources on the ground, said the attacks targeted the region of Dayr az Zor on the Euphrates river and in particular the area of Mayadin, where intense movements of pro-Iranian militias and Iranian Pasdaran fighters have been recorded for a while now.

The information cannot be independently verified on the ground although over the past few hours multiple local and regional sources have confirmed that the area was repeatedly struck by air raids.

Syria's state-controlled Sana news agency reported two waves of air raids, which it attributed to Israel, in northern and eastern Syria. The raids reportedly targeted a weapons cash of pro-Iranian militias.

Syrian and regional sources all reported a first round of air raids at around midnight local time in the eastern area of Mayadin, along the Euphrates river, not far from the border with Iraq.

Subsequently, another wave of air raids, also attributed to Israel but not confirmed by the Jewish State, targeted the northern area of Aleppo, striking in particular facilities of a ''scientific research center'', south-east of the city, already targeted in the past.

Sana explicitly accused Israel but only reported about the attack in the area of Sfeira near Aleppo. It also said that the enemy raid hit ''military depots'', causing ''damages that need to be verified''.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack in Mayadin, which was confirmed by local sources and by the website Dayrazzor24, targeted positions and arms depots of ''pro-Iranian militias''.

According to the Observatory, other arms depots of pro-Iranian militias were hit in the area of Aleppo ''and there were human losses''.

After a diminution in March of air raids in Syria, attributed to Israel or officially claimed by the Jewish State, raids increased in April against positions and bases described as ''Iranian'' or of ''pro-Iranian militias''.
Vaughan, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 5, 2020) - Spyder Cannabis Inc. (TSXV: SPDR) ("Spyder" or the "Company") and its wholly-owned associated applicants, The Green Spyder Inc. and Spyder Cannabis Subco Inc., is pleased to announce that it has received a licence from the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis commission (the "AGLC") to open its first store in Calgary, Alberta. It is anticipated that the store, located at 104-58th Ave, SE, suite 140 Calgary, Alberta and operate as SPDR Cannabis, will open in the month of June. It will offer a full assortment of cannabis products from licenced producers.

"We are excited to open our first licenced cannabis store in Calgary, Alberta, a province which led the way in the rollout of the Canadian cannabis market. The store is ideally located in a busy hub of commercial retail establishments", said Daniel Pelchovitz Spyder's President & CEO. "We very much look forward to bringing the Spyder brand and retail experience focus to Calgary".

About Spyder Cannabis Inc.

Spyder is a Cannabis, Vape and CBD retailer that operates in jurisdictions where the products are federally legal in both Canada and the United States. The Company, through its subsidiaries, is a retailer involved in the development of three retail business units. The first is the sale of Cannabis products, the second is the sale of CBD in the United States only, the third is the sale of smoking cessation products in Ontario.

Cautionary Statements

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.

This news release includes statements containing certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). Forward- looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

For more information, please contact:

Spyder Cannabis Inc.

Dan Pelchovitz

President & Chief Executive Officer

Telephone: 1.888.504.7737

Email: corporate@spydercannabis.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/55360
Fasten your seatbelts, travelers. We are in for a bumpy ride. Travel as we know it is going to be a lot different over the next year or so as the world awaits a vaccine or some other breakthrough to rid us of the coronavirus and reopen our travel horizons.

Overall, the travel industry, which has ballooned in recent years as the world economy expanded, is going to become much, much smaller in the near term. Airline ticket prices will likely soar. Weekend jaunts to faraway places will fly away. Getting through the airport is going to take longer, and require much more patience than before. Hotel stays will become dull, utilitarian and depressing with guests and staff hiding smiles behind masks. Hotels will also become more expensive. Joyful meals in popular, crowded restaurants? Nope. International travel? As residents of the country with the largest COVID-19 outbreak in the world, Americans are going to have a tough time finding a warm welcome in other countries for a while. Big company events and boondoggles where you can schmooze with clients and colleagues? Off the table for at least a year.

While it's nice to dream of breaking free of stay-at-home orders with big, glossy trips far and wide, the reality is going to be more prosaic. I don't foresee anything close to what we experienced in 2019 for at least three years or longer. As a matter of fact, for the next couple years I think the travel experience is going to be more like what we saw in the 1970s.

First off, travel is going to become much more expensive. Airlines, hotels and rental car companies are not going to be able to discount their way out of this crisis.

In order to comply with social-distancing rules, which are here to stay as long as there is no vaccine to prevent COVID-19, airlines are reducing capacity on each flight by not booking middle seats. What happens when a third of a company's inventory is no longer available? Basic economics says that when you reduce supply, prices will increase. Demand for airline seats will come back slightly, but it's not going to pop back to pre-COVID-19 levels until there's a proven vaccine and fliers don't have to worry about sharing arm rests or cabin air any longer. In order to survive until then, airlines are going to have to raise prices significantly on the few flights left operating. Their mothballed fleets will stay mothballed until demand comes back. We are already starting to see this play out... tried booking a holiday 2020 trip yet? A quick scan shows that it's not cheap.

Significantly fewer travelers means that getting through the airport screening process should be faster, but it won't until there's a vaccine. In addition to screening for bombs or knives, we will soon face a whole new layer of health screening. Like we've already seen in Dubai, passengers could have to submit to rapid coronavirus tests at the airport. Or passengers will have to get screened beforehand and arrive at the airport with a "health passport." Temperature checks will become mandatory. Some airports are already talking about disinfecting passengers with chemical sprays or beams of UV light.

Who wants to put up with all that? These airport hassles mean that only travelers with serious business on the other end are going to put up with flying  this will be people going to visit sick or dying relatives, technicians needed to keep machinery humming, medical or scientific professionals and the like. Planeloads of kids headed to Europe for singing tours, or seniors jetting off to catch a cruise lined up at airport security? Frequent flyers taking "mileage runs?" We won't see any of that until there's a vaccine.

Moxy Hotels

Hotels have spent billions over the last decade turning lobbies into social spaces where travelers can eat, drink, work and interact with each other. Now they are going to have to spend millions to modify those spaces to protect guests. They will also have to discourage use of public spaces until there's a vaccine, which means guests sheltering in their "sanitized for your protection" -style rooms. And who wants to do that?

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Big hotels will also have to reduce capacity  by booking only certain floors or every other room down a corridor. And imagine the problems high-rise hotels will have around social distancing on elevators? Ugh. Hotel pools are going to be another tough area for social distancing with fewer chairs spaced further apart, and rules such as allowing only one person in the pool at a time.

As we all measure our personal risk tolerance for travel, I think vacations are going to look a lot like they did in the 1970s when I was a kid. Airline ticket prices were prohibitive for families eager for a summer vacation. And planes flew about 60 percent full. Instead of flying, back then we loaded up the station wagon and headed to the beach, the mountains or the lake for two weeks every summer.

That usually meant a day-long drive to somewhere in our state or a neighboring state. That's what I think we will seen this summer and next summer, too. Vacations by car close to home. And instead of heading off to big resorts or amusement parks or national parks, we will book Airbnbs or VRBOs with big yards and backyard pools or private beach or lake access. Family trips by RV, relatively sealed off from other vacationers, will be popular. And like the 1970s, cheap gasoline is going to fuel the resurgence of the road trip.

There is a bright side to this murky outlook, however. Most major tourist destinations have suffered massively from over-tourism in recent years, which has frustrated locals, degraded the experience for travelers, and ruined many cherished destinations. Think of the coral reefs ruined by suntan lotion, hillsides strewn with trash, plastic and sewage seeping into waterways from overtaxed systems or wildlife bothered into near extinction. For about two more years, the worldwide tourist economy, which has been pushed to its limits, will get a much-needed rest.

Chris McGinnis is SFGATE's senior travel correspondent. You can reach him via email or follow him on Twitter or Facebook. Don't miss a shred of important travel news by signing up for his FREE weekly email updates!
The humanitarian picture of countries in conflict is becoming more and more gloomy as reports indicate that conflicts and natural disasters forced more than 33 million people to flee their homes in their own countries in 2019. This has brought the total number of people fleeing due to conflicts and natural disasters to 50.8 million, while over 26 million people displaced from their countries have sought asylum in other countries. The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that the COVID-19 epidemic may break out and affect conflict areas. The lives of people in hot spots will face additional challenges with the emergence of the pandemic in many countries such as Syria, Libya and Yemen.

One of the serious challenges in conflict-stricken countries is political division, which often hinders information sharing and makes it difficult to access areas for humanitarian purposes. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) cited a Global Report on Food Crises in 2020 as saying that 135 million people in 55 countries were trapped in a food crisis in 2019. This is the highest number in the last four years. Almost 60 per cent of all those people came from countries with conflict or instability, especially South Sudan, Yemen and Sahel.

Executive Director of the World Food Programme David Beasley pointed to a grim picture of 135 million people facing crisis levels of hunger or worse, coupled with an additional 130 million on the edge of starvation, prompted by the coronavirus.

The new draft resolution of the UN Security Council mentioned a series of conflicts in such countries as Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Mali, Central Africa, Libya and Colombia and Sudan. Years of turmoil and clashes in these countries have ruined the health infrastructure, leaving people vulnerable to infectious diseases. Unrest and conflict in Syria has entered its 10th year, creating one of the most severe humanitarian crises in history with millions of people displaced.

According to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, nearly one million vulnerable displaced people and refugees in Yemen are at risk of losing their shelter, vital cash assistance for essentials like food and medicine, and much more. After five years of conflict, more than 80% of Yemens total population (about 24 million people) require some form of assistance. The UNHCR is urgently seeking US$89.4 million to secure life-saving protection and assistance for internally displaced families, refugees, and asylum-seekers and their host communities.

The UN also warned that Sudan is also facing a humanitarian disaster due to the COVID-19 epidemic, if sanctions on the country are not lifted and international financial support is not available. West and Central Africa are also now seeing huge flows of refugees, with about nine million people forced to flee their homes due to conflicts and climate change.

Concerned about the risk of further humanitarian tragedies, the UN Security Council has called on the concerned parties to cease fire, to strictly abide by international humanitarian law and the relevant resolutions of the Council, in order to facilitate relief activities.

In addition to maintaining its humanitarian aid commitment to needy people, the UN and the international community should also cooperate, support countries in post-conflict recovery, improve people's livelihoods, as well as find solutions to build peace and ensure food security.

The current remedies promoted by the international community are only temporarily. In order to solve the root of the problem, it is necessary to focus on supporting a comprehensive solution to prevent the vicious cycle of poverty and conflict in the future.


Germany and France are set to reopen schools. However, the two nations are taking very different approaches.

Germany is starting with two sets of students. Those about to move from primary school to secondary school and those about to take graduation/college entrance examinations will be the first back. Germany is still considering when other sets of students will be allowed to return.

France will start with a much younger group of students. It plans to reopen kindergartens and elementary schools starting on May 11 (a week from today). The reopening will be voluntary in the sense that parents are permitted to keep their kids at home.

The case for starting with the youngest students may be based on evidence that the very young are far less vulnerable than others to the Wuhan coronavirus. However, older children and young adults dont seem to be vulnerable, either.

The case for starting with those transitioning to secondary school and those who are scheduled to take examinations presumably is based on the idea that these groups need to get started sooner than others.

One potential problem with Frances approach is that its difficult to imagine kindergarten and early-grade students complying with the social distancing rules the government plans to impose. In addition, I wonder whether French authorities have any clear idea of how many students will return and how many will be kept at home by their parents. Such uncertainty reduces staffing decisions to guesswork.

Theres also the fact that France is faring significantly worse than Germany in this pandemic. Paris has been very hard hit, and mayors in the Paris area are urging the French government not to reopen kindergartens and elementary schools in this region on May 11.

When Norway and Denmark reopened their schools, they started with the youngest students. However, unlike France, neither country was hit hard by the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, William Bennett and Seth Leibsohn argue that the U.S. never should have closed its schools in the first place. I take it they would have all students come back as soon as possible. (Perhaps they would consider the case for keeping AP U.S. History classes shut down.)

Bennett and Leibsohn acknowledge that it was perhaps understandable that at the beginning of the outbreak, with predictions of millions dead, we quickly and immediately put a pause on our nations schools. However, it is now clearer that children were far more affected by other and worse problems for them than the coronavirus, and thus the schools should have opened up.

However, in the U.S., schools are still debating when and if they can re-open this term, or re-open for summer school, or even in the fall.
Kootenai River  The water flows from Lake Koocanusa are at about 17,900 cfs. The water temperature is at 39 degrees. The water has some off-color downstream from the tributaries, but for the most part the clarity is perfect. Hatches in the river are midge, baetis, March browns, caddis, and stoneflies. Some useful patterns to fish with are Zebra Midge, Midge Pupa, Parachute Adams, Bullet Head and Bullethead Skwala. The stretch from Libby dam downstream to Highway 37 Bridge/Fisher River is now closed for spawning until June 1. Below Highway 37 the river is open to all angling. March brown, caddis and stoneflies have started to pop later in the afternoon each day. Dry fly fishing is spotty. If you see bugs, you will likely see rising fish. Nymphing is still the best way to fish. Nemoura stoneflies have been active as well as early caddis. A Rasta Skwala (12), Purple Chubby, or Bugmeister with a Pheasant Tail (16) will roll nicely. Look for fish in slower currents, pools, tailouts, and especially around cover. Nymphing the Kootenai River is still the most consistent technique this time of year. Be brave and confident and get out the bigger rods and throw streamers. This is a great time of year to catch a big fish. Dont get concrete feet. Cover water and swing small streamers and fish them slowly with a pulse now and again to make them look like struggling baitfish.  Linehan Outfitting Company, Troy.
Michigan health officials are announcing 447 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 44 new deaths on Tuesday, May 5.

The daily numbers come with a few caveats, but weekly averages show an overall downward trend in cases and deaths.

In the last week, Michigan is averaging 734 new cases per day and 87.4 deaths per day. In the week prior, the state averaged 899 new cases per day and 123.9 deaths per day  thats an 18.3% decrease in cases and 29.4% decrease in deaths.

A state software malfunction on Sunday, May 3, caused issues with reporting data for the following day. Instead of reporting numbers as of 10 a.m., Mondays data included data on the system through 4 p.m. But because of a backlog, not everything was counted on Monday.

While Tuesdays data includes some of the extra backlogged data, it also only accounts for 18 hours worth of new data instead of the usual 24.

Additionally, eight of the 44 deaths reported Tuesday come from prior days.

State officials have been reviewing death records every few days, and if a person who tested positive for the virus died, but wasnt already on the coronavirus death list, they are added to it. This adjustment also increased death totals reported April 10, 16, 21, 23, 25 and 28 and May 2.

Long story short: There are variables that can unnaturally cause daily peaks and valleys in data. State officials have recommended looking at weekly averages to better understand the trends of cases and deaths in Michigan.

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In total, Michigan has 44,397 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 4,179 deaths.

Of Michigans 83 counties, 79 have at least one COVID-19 case and 59 have at least one coronavirus death.

Michigan is releasing recovery data once per week. So far, 15,659 people have recovered from the virus in the state  meaning they tested positive for COVID-19 at some point, theyre still alive and its been at least 30 days since symptoms began.

Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties remain the three hardest-hit areas in Michigan with 69.2% of the total confirmed cases and 80.5% of the states deaths from the virus. The trio of Southeast Michigan counties are home to 39% of the states residents.

In Detroit alone, there were 9,424 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 1,108 deaths. The disproportionate number of cases in the metro Detroit area is a result of multiple factors, including the large population, more aggressive testing in those counties, proximity to a major airport and community spread of coronavirus, experts say.

The virus is heavily affecting African Americans. About 32% of cases and 41% of deaths in Michigan are for African Americans, while they make up 14% of the states population.

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Here's a look at the Michigan counties with the most confirmed cases:

1. Wayne County: 17,391 cases (1,945 deaths)

2. Oakland County: 7,522 cases (772 deaths)

3. Macomb County: 5,789 cases (647 deaths)

4. Kent County: 1,914 cases (40 deaths)

5. Genesee County: 1,688 cases (200 deaths)

6. Washtenaw County: 1,123 cases (76 deaths)

7. Saginaw County: 742 cases (70 deaths)

8. Ingham County: 518 cases (14 deaths)

9. Kalamazoo County: 489 cases (22 deaths)

10. Jackson County: 367 cases (26 deaths)

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For more statewide data, visit MLives coronavirus data page, here.

COVID-19 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 Michigan coronavirus coverage here

Tuesday, May 5: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

Six weeks into extreme social distancing, how are Michiganders still catching coronavirus?

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Washington: The Trump administration is "turbocharging" an initiative to remove global industrial supply chains from China as it weighs new tariffs to punish Beijing for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, according to officials familiar with US planning.

President Donald Trump, who has stepped up recent attacks on China ahead of the November 3 US presidential election, has long pledged to bring manufacturing back from overseas.

Now, economic destruction and the US coronavirus death toll are driving a government-wide push to move US production and supply chain dependency away from China, even if it goes to other more friendly nations instead, current and former senior US administration officials said.

"Weve been working on (reducing the reliance of our supply chains in China) over the last few years but we are now turbo-charging that initiative," Keith Krach, undersecretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment at the State Department told Reuters.

"I think it is essential to understand where the critical areas are and where critical bottlenecks exist," Krach said, adding that the matter was key to US security and one the government could announce new action on soon.

The US Commerce Department, State and other agencies are looking for ways to push companies to move both sourcing and manufacturing out of China. Tax incentives and potential re-shoring subsidies are among measures being considered to spur changes, the current and former officials told Reuters.

There is a whole of government push on this, said one. Agencies are probing which manufacturing should be deemed "essential" and how to produce these goods outside of China.

Trump's China policy has been defined by behind-the-scenes tussles between pro-trade advisers and China hawks; now the latter say their time has come.

"This moment is a perfect storm; the pandemic has crystallized all the worries that people have had about doing business with China," said another senior U.S. official.

"All the money that people think they made by making deals with China before, now theyve been eclipsed many fold by the economic damage" from the coronavirus, the official said.

ECONOMIC PROSPERITY NETWORK

Trump has said repeatedly that he could put new tariffs on top of the up to 25% tax on $370 billion in Chinese goods currently in place.

US companies, which pay the tariffs, are already groaning under the existing ones, especially as sales plummet during coronavirus lockdowns.

But that does not mean Trump will balk at new ones, officials say. Other ways to punish China may include sanctions on officials or companies, and closer relations with Taiwan, the self-governing island China considers a province.

Commerce on Monday launched a national security probe that could lead to new US tariffs on imports of key components of power transformers, saying it needed to assure domestic access to such goods to be able to respond to power disruptions.

Discussions about moving supply chains are concrete, robust, and, unusually for the Trump administration, multi-lateral.

The United States is pushing to create an alliance of "trusted partners" dubbed the "Economic Prosperity Network," one official said. It would include companies and civil society groups operating under the same set of standards on everything from digital business, energy and infrastructure to research, trade, education and commerce, he said.

The US government is working with Australia, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Vietnam to "move the global economy forward," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said April 29.

These discussions include how we restructure ... supply chains to prevent something like this from ever happening again," Pompeo said.

Latin America may play a role, too.

Colombian Ambassador Francisco Santos last month said he was in discussions with the White House, National Security Council, Treasury Department and U.S. Chamber of Commerce about a drive to encourage U.S. companies to move some supply chains out of China and bring them closer to home.

China overtook the United States as the world's top manufacturing country in 2010, and was responsible for 28% of global output in 2018, according to United Nations data.

The pandemic has highlighted China's key role in the supply chain for generic drugs

HARD SELL FOR COMPANIES

Many US companies have invested heavily in Chinese manufacturing and rely on China's 1.4 billion people for a big chunk of their sales.

"Diversification and some redundancy in supply chains will make sense given the level of risk that the pandemic has uncovered," said Doug Barry, spokesman for the US-China Business Council. "But we dont see a wholesale rush for the exits by companies doing business in China."

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Monday said Trump had already signed an order that could allow limits on imports of components for the U.S. power grid from Russia and China, and would soon issue a separate order that would require federal agencies to purchase US-made medical products.

John Murphy, senior vice president for international policy at the Chamber of Commerce, said that US manufacturers already meet 70% of current pharmaceutical demand.

Building new facilities in the United States could take five to eight years, he said. "We're concerned that officials need to get the right fact sets before they start looking at alternatives," Murphy said.

Trump White House pledges to punish China have not always been followed by action.

A move to block global exports of chips to blacklisted Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, for example, favoured by hawks in the administration and under consideration since November, has not yet been finalized.
Soon ballots will be mailed to voters throughout Montana, and Republicans will have an important choice to make. After 16 years of single-party control of the governors office, we can win in November and put Montana back on the right track. I support Greg Gianforte for governor because he offers a positive, hopeful vision for what we can achieve and where he will lead our state.

Im disappointed, though, by some of the outrageous, false charges Ive seen against Greg Gianforte  particularly by fellow Republicans. Ive been involved in politics for a while, and I know its a full-contact sport. Candidates contrast their differences, and those differences should be based on facts.

Greg Gianforte promised us in 2017 that hed be transparent and avoid any conflicts of interest as he serves us in Congress. Hes kept that promise.

Unfortunately, his political opponents are pushing false accusations about Greg Gianforte and misrepresenting the truth about Gianfortes financial interests and how his financial decisions are made. In the process, Democrats in Washington, D.C., and Helena are emboldened, and extreme progressive activists are celebrating the baseless attacks of one Republican against another.

So where did all this nonsense come from?

In late March, a liberal blogger wrote a story accusing Gianforte of profiting off the coronavirus outbreak. The blogger relied on flimsy, cherry-picked information from a Washington-based, liberal super PAC funded by George Soros.

The super PAC and the blogger worked tirelessly to push this false accusation against Gianforte. Few reporters took it seriously, because theres nothing there.

Well, there was nothing there until Tim Foxs campaign ran with the misleading information and upped the ante by accusing Gianforte of insider trading. Foxs campaign took the dishonest charges by liberal special interests and recklessly expanded them with undocumented, unsubstantiated accusations.

Despite the fact that one Montana journalist reported no red flags with Greg Gianfortes investments, the Fox campaign and Montana Democrats have continued to try and keep this misinformation campaign alive.

The problem with what the D.C.-based, liberal super PAC, the progressive blogger and the Fox campaign are saying is that it isnt based in truth, fact or reality. To put it plainly, they are wrong.

After he was elected to Congress, Greg Gianforte kept his promise to us to be transparent and avoid conflicts of interest. He set up a blind investment agreement.

It takes control of his investments out of his hands. It turns control entirely over to an investment manager. It prohibits Gianforte from consulting with the investment manager. It ensures financial decisions are made without Gianfortes knowledge or approval.

And importantly, it ensures public transparency by requiring that all investments are reported to the U.S. House of Representatives and disclosed to the public.

Gianfortes decision to employ a blind investment agreement keeps a bright light shining on his investments  something a blind trust does not do. What Gianforte did is a very ethical and fairly common practice for public officials, and it also provides for the maximum amount of transparency. Gianfortes opponents know that, too.

Gianfortes decision represents the kind of good government, transparency and accountability we desperately need in Helena.

Republicans will soon decide who our nominee for governor will be. We deserve to know the facts, which is why Im writing this. Greg Gianfortes political opponents have misrepresented the truth to gain a political advantage. Shame on them.

Rick Hill represented Montana for two terms in Congress. He lives in Helena.

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Adams Council on Aging Looking Out For Seniors

ADAMS, Mass.  Although the Visitors Center is shut down, the Council on Aging has continued to look after area seniors.

Council on Aging Director Erica Girgenti said COVID-19 has created new challenges for seniors and elder services throughout the country are finding new ways to protect the community's most vulnerable.

"The feedback we're getting is starting to change. Within the first few weeks, it was optimistic, we got a lot of 'we're OK.' Now we're getting more expressed sadness," she said. "We need to do more to lift the spirits of others. By offering a good deed, we lift our own spirit. Those we've been in touch with are grateful. When you can hear a smile through the phone you know it was worth the effort."

Girgenti said she knows of seniors who segregated from family and friends and missing the exercise of leaving their home. She said something as simple as not being able to go to the Council on Aging to play a game of cards is a detriment to many.

"In those two to three hours spent there, they would have participated in the activities of daily living that encouraged them to get up, groomed, dressed, into their car and down to the center," she said. "While here they would have used their voice to hold numerous conversations, facial muscles to both speak, smile, and laugh. A good game of cards would have had them thinking critically for their next play. Now, none of that is happening, or at least perhaps only some."

COVID-19 has also disrupted the social connections many seniors have and Girgenti said although many are finding ways to cope, others aren't.

"Some people crave the socialization I fear they are not following the 'only go to the store when absolutely necessary' warning," she said. "Many are still making that daily trip to the market and I wish they wouldn't."

Girgenti said they are continuing efforts to keep seniors indoors and, for the most part, Councils on Aging are continuing food programs such as the grab-and-go-style Elder Services Meals on Wheels program. She said the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts has continued to support the brown bag programs and the Mobile Food Banks.

"Food is reachable and obtainable. There is a concern that when some individuals wait long enough to finally go out to the store what they need is not there, like toilet paper, cleaning supplies and thermometers," she said. "We have been getting a lot of calls for those items. People don't want to drive store to store to find them, it further risks their potential exposure to the virus.

The Adams Council on Aging also administers an emergency grant from the Berkshire Taconic Foundation called Neighbor to Neighbor.

"Thanks to their donors, we just increased our grant distribution and are allowed to offer assistance upwards to $1,000 to those in need, toward a variety of areas," she said.

Girgenti said they are also trying to make a point to contact all seniors and volunteers are running through the entire database.

She urges everyone to be aware of those who may be shut in.

"All anyone has to do is look into their neighborhood to see Mrs. Smith or Mr. Jones vehicle not leave the driveway as much as it had," she said. "They don't have libraries to go to, pool halls, local sport games, convenient store stops, etc. Even those with grandchildren locally can't see them right now, if they are being safe."

She said it is still possible to practice social isolation and be social. Councils on Aging are pooling resources and ideas on how to make this easier for area seniors.

Technology is a great tool but noted many seniors do not know how to interact remotely or have access to the internet or devices.

"As we know the internet isn't available to everyone in Berkshire County and to many who can have access to it, they can't get the one-on-one support to learn how to use it or perhaps they can't afford it," she said. "We certainly don't have all the answers and we're finding many more challenges to address then ever before. The landline can be a wonderful tool."

Girgenti also encouraged seniors to do what they can to stay active

"Staying active will not only keep their immune systems stronger but it will help them to return or keep to their normal or baseline once these restrictions lift," she said. "Something as simple as continuing to get in and out of your car several times a day can be good routine practice. We often underestimate the muscles we use to perform normal daily activities."

She urged that those with access to the internet look for virtual offerings but noted there are plenty of ways to stay active around the house.

"While I am not a fitness instructor, I think it's safe to say they can use the tools they have," she said. "They can practice getting up and down from their chair, stretch, do arm circles, lift cans as if they were weights and if they can safely navigate stairs then set a goal of how many times they can climb them in a day."

Girgenti said staying mentally active is just as important and urged seniors to turn off the television and start a puzzle or pick up a book.

She said she is proud of Adams and the greater region and how it has stepped up to protect the community's most vulnerable.

"Saying I am impressed would be an understatement," she said. "Town borders are breaking down, there are more conversations about how 'we' can accomplish something and less about what you have and I have for services. ...

"Speaking for Adams, I think we're doing the best we can with what we have but we will continue to strive for more."
Anyone who is part of the Star Wars fandom, whether theyve simply seen the films or have decked out their homes with Jedi paraphernalia, will know that 4 May is a significant date for fans across the globe.

The phrase May the force be with you was first uttered by General Dodonna in the 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV  A New Hope, as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo and co prepared for battle on the Death Star.

The catchphrase has since been said on multiple occasions by characters in the subsequent films, becoming one of the most famous lines in cinematic history.

Shortly after the first Star Wars film was released, the strong similarity between the phrase May the force be with you and May the Fourth was noted, with one of the earliest references being made in 1979 upon the news of Margaret Thatcher becoming prime minister. May the Fourth Be with You, Maggie. Congratulations, a Conservative Party advertisement read at the time.

However, it wasnt until 2011 that a Star Wars Day event was organised on a larger scale, taking place in Toronto, Canada.

In 2013, Walt Disney Studios recognised Star Wars Day as an official celebration, a year after purchasing the production company behind the film franchise, Lucasfilm.

While Star Wars fans who planned on attending May the Fourth events this year will have had to cancel their plans, that hasnt stopped cosplayers from sharing their most creative, meticulously-made costumes on social media in celebration of the day.

From the Mandalorian to Baby Yoda, here are some of our favourite costume creations:

Rey

As the protagonist of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Rey has become a popular cosplay choice for fans since she first appeared on the silver screen in 2015.

The scavenger turned Jedi dresses in a practical manner, donning a robe, trousers and utility belt as she traipses across the universe in a galaxy far, far away.

Baby Yoda

Baby Yoda has become a firm fan favourite since appearing in the new Disney Plus series The Mandalorian.

One of the most memorable moments from the hit Star Wars series came in episode four, when baby Yoda stood sipping soup nonchalantly from a cup as he watched the Mandalorian in a fight with a potential adversary.

Ahsoka Tano

For this years Star Wars Day, Disney marked the occasion by releasing the final episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, an animated series that has been running for more than a decade.

Ahsoka Tano, a Padawan apprentice of Anakin Skywalker, is the series lead character, and as such holds a special place in the hearts of the shows fans.

Poe Dameron

Portrayed by Oscar Isaac in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Poe Dameron is a pilot for the Resistance who escapes capture in the first film with the help of former Stormtrooper Finn.

While this cosplayer is not in Poes X-wing fighter aircraft, they are decked out in the appropriate Resistance attire.

Princess Leia

One of the most treasured characters in Star Wars, Princess Leias journey in the film franchise saw her become a General in the later releases.

She was portrayed by Carrie Fisher, who passed away in 2016, a year before the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

The Mandalorian

While the Mandalorian never removes his helmet in the Disney Plus series, he has proven popular among fans thanks to his strength of character, sharp-witted manner and masterful portrayal by Pedro Pascal.

These Star Wars cosplayers put on an impressive display recreating the Mandalorians hefty armour.

Stormtrooper

In the Star Wars universe, the ruthless Stormtroopers are highly feared, serving the powers in battle against the Resistance.

Nonetheless, these cosplayers made the Stormtroopers appear slightly more approachable.

Chewbacca

Who better to portray Han Solos hairy Wookie comopanion than a Chihuahua?

This dog even goes by the name Chewie the Wookie on Instagram, boasting more than 70,000 followers.

Kylo Ren

The son of Han Solo and Princess Leia, Kylo Ren was brilliantly played by Adam Driver in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

This cosplayer ensured he included every minute detail of the characters look, from his facial scar to his crossguard lightsaber.

Resistance pilot

This X-wing Resistance pilot looked ready to take to the skies in his costume, an outfit that was hand-sewn for Star Wars Day.

For all the latest news on Star Wars, click here.
More countries are suing the Chinese regime over the pandemic. Many wonder about the people inside China. We spoke with a lawyer in Wuhan to find out about the situation on the ground.

A State of Emergency has been declared in a city in northern China. But the provincial CDC states that there are zero new virus cases or asymptomatic cases.

An internal Chinese report warns that Beijing could face a rising wave of hostility over the virus outbreak not seen since the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre.

Taiwans successful virus response sets an example for the world. But the Chinese regime is constantly trying to marginalize Taiwan. Today, we look at how the Chinese regime seeks to influence local politicians to suppress Taiwan and expand its clout, and why it matters.

World leaders seeking to raise $8 billion from nations and public figures in an effort to develop a vaccine and other treatment methods.

Subscribe to our Youtube channel for more first-hand news from China

For more news and videos, please visit our website and Twitter
So, the most important thing is that we have a ballot, if you want to vote for someone, you vote for that person, and if you don't want to vote [VIDEO ERROR] take votes from Joe Biden and Donald Trump because I'm gonna win the election - and we need to win this election for the American people.

They might prefer one candidate or the other if you have a two-candidate field, but if you make it a three-candidate field, and you have a compelling candidate, they'd be delighted to go to that candidate.

And for too long, we've had the same system where these two parties go at each other, and Washington is totally dysfunctional. That's why I left the Republican Party, because there was this partisan death spiral. We need someone who's going to come in as president, respect our Constitution, defend our rights, and fix our representative system of government so that people will actually feel represented at home - and I know that millions of Americans want that.

I think we're at a crossroads. There is a difference over the last decade or so where people are more polarized, more upset - but actually, most Americans are delightful people, are polite people, want to work with each other, respect each other, and these two factions that really control our political system are destroying our system and making it impossible for the rest of us to, frankly, enjoy our lives.

So, I want to go there and represent these millions of people, and I think we are at that crossroads where this kind of change can happen. Things are not settled the way they were maybe 30/40 years ago. We have a lot of uncertainty right now, and there's an opening for a Libertarian Party to become a major party in this country.

On Sunday, Rep. Justin Amash (I-MI) appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" with host Jake Tapper to discuss his recently-announced entrance into the 2020 presidential campaign.Amash first addressed the protests at the Michigan state Capitol building, saying that Governor WhitmerWhile Amash denounced the usage of "Nazi symbols" and the bearing of firearms by protesters because ithe added that "everyone has the right to protest," so long as they do it responsibly.Amash stated.Tapper then asked Amash about the idea that, as a candidate, he might siphon votes away from presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, thus handing the election to President Trump.Amash replied, noting thatAmash continued, although due to a video error, a portion of his response was lost:Tapper pressed Amash about alleged dissatisfaction with Democrats and Republicans, saying that after taking "a dive into some numbers, just over 10% of voters have an unfavorable view of both President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden," according to a recent CNN poll.Tapper said.Amash pushed back on that idea, claiming that polling showsTapper stated before asking Amash why he believes he's different.Amash responded, saying that he's going toAmash later added:
In a bid to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus outbreak in the United Kingdom, Health Secretary Matt Hancock, while addressing the daily briefing, announced the next part of the plan- The test, track and trace. The programme, which will begin on the Isle of Wight, involves contact tracing and tracking via the smartphone app.

The application will help people, who have developed COVID-19 symptoms, to register. The phone app will then use proximity information and Bluetooth signal to register peoples interactions in a bid to trace any contacts that the symptomatic person may have been involved in. According to Hancock, the new system will allow the authorities to take a more targeted approach to fight the deadly virus.

READ: Motormouth UK TV Host Piers Morgan Tests Negative For Coronavirus After Showing Symptoms

While Hancock urged people to stay at home, install the app, protect the NHS and save lives, he also added that the government will look to roll the system out across the country in the middle of the month. He went on to say that the goal of the app is to help the government keep the R number down and simply to flatten the curve to get the occurrence of infections very low. Furthermore, he also informed that the number of deaths in the 24 hours leading up to Monday morning was 288, which is the lowest number of deaths since the beginning of March.

WATCH: Were launching our pilot #coronavirus test & trace programme on the Isle of Wight pic.twitter.com/7vebKxb9jn  Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) May 4, 2020

READ: UK To Pilot Coronavirus Contact Tracing Smartphone App

UK past the peak: Johnson

Meanwhile, the UK PM Boris Johnson on April 30 said that the country is past the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. At his first press conference since being hospitalised with the virus, Johnson stated that the UK is past the peak and is also on the downward slope. However, he also warned that it is too soon to remove lockdown measures, and said that in coming days he would unveil a comprehensive plan for eventually reopening the economy, schools, and workplaces.

Currently, the UK has more than 190,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and the deadly virus has claimed nearly 28,734 lives in the country. Despite the increasing number of COVID-19 cases, Johnson expressed optimism and added that the rate at which the virus is spreading among people was below one which is the outcome of the general publics adherence to the social distancing measures. The UK authorities also believe that the virus is almost contained and the government, in the future, could both relax and tighten measures.

(Image credit: AP)

READ: Scientists Fault UKs Pandemic Strategy As Deaths Rise

READ: Netizens Have A Field Day As UK Armed Police Find Out The Truth About A Tiger On The Prowl
The official says he hopes for American and European partners' support.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak says that EU and U.S. sanctions against Russia over the occupation of Ukraine should continue until Donbas and Crimea are returned.

"European sanctions should be maintained at the same level until all those areas which are not controlled by Ukraine are returned back to Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula," he said during an online event, titled "Pandemic, Reform, War, and Peace: The View from Ukraine's White House," organized by the Atlantic Council think tank on May 4, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

Read alsoUkraine's Rada calls on international community to strengthen sanctions against Russia, sever military relations

Yermak says his position on EU sanctions against Russia is the same as on U.S. sanctions.

"We understand that after the pandemic situation, the economic situation is very bad, that is why Ukraine stands very active as for the implementation of the Minsk agreements, and I do really hope that our American and European partners will continue to support us in moving in this direction," he said.
Iran to launch 5 new free trade zones

Iran Press TV

Monday, 04 May 2020 6:04 PM

The Iranian parliament has approved plans for launching five new free trade zones (FTZ) in north and east of the country.

The parliament on Monday allowed the government to prepare the required conditions for developing two major FTZs in Sarakhs and Dogharoun, areas on the border with Afghanistan.

Dogharoun, the gateway for official trade between Iran and Afghanistan for more than a century, will be developed as Iran's largest FTZ in an area of around 8,700 hectares, said reports in the local media.

Establishing the zones in the eastern province of Razavi Khorasan is expected to help local economy in the normally underdeveloped regions across the border between Iran and Afghanistan as more investment will be attracted to the FTZs due to eased restrictions governing such areas.

According to the parliament bill passed on Monday, the Iranian government will also launch three FTZs in the northern province of Mazandaran, a hub for agriculture where exports of farming products to countries to north of Iran have increased over the past years.

The three new FTZs will be developed in port cities on the Caspian Sea, namely Amirabad, Fereydunkenar and Noshahr, said the media reports.

Some of the five Iranian locations approved to become FTZs had already served as special economic zones (SEZ).

Iran's Guardian Council, which vets legislation by the parliament, should endorse the bill passed on new FTZs before its come into force.

Announcing new economic and trade zones in Iran come as the country seeks to boost trade with neighboring countries in a bid to access new sources of foreign currency and offset the impacts of a series of American sanctions that have hampered its sale of oil.

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FILE PHOTO: A Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet operated by Polish airline LOT pictured through the window at Chopin airport in Warsaw

WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish airline LOT is in talks with Boeing <BA.N> to modify its 787 Dreamliner jets into temporary cargo carriers, a LOT spokesman told Reuters, in a move that could help to narrow losses from the coronavirus crisis.

With passenger air travel virtually halted, airlines such as LOT are searching for alternative ways to generate revenue until demand picks up again.

"We are in talks with the aircraft manufacturer about ... adapting the passenger aircraft (Dreamliner) to cargo transport," Michal Czernicki told Reuters.

"If we get approval and meet all safety requirements, we will become the first airline in the world that will adapt the Dreamliner for such transport."

Boeing had no immediate comment.

Several airlines have redeployed passenger jets for cargo by removing some seats and filling passenger cabins with boxed freight.

The move fills a gap left by the grounding of many of the world's passenger planes, whch usually carry about half of the world's air freight, with the rest in purpose-built freighters.

LOT, central Europe's biggest state-controlled airline, has spent the past month mainly bringing home Poles stranded abroad after Poland suspended inbound flights from March 15.

The airline transported some 54,000 people aboard these flights between March 15 and April 5, compared with abount 10 million passengers flown by LOT in 2019.

LOT is working on a rescue plan and is likely to need state aid, given that air traffic has been suspended, Minister of State Assets Jacek Sasin said this month.

The company, which operates 15 Dreamliners, is currently using some of the space in the jets to transport face masks, helmets and other medical supplies needed in Poland to help to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

Czernicki declined to comment on possible timing, what kind of cargo it would seek to transport or how long it would use the Dreamliners for such trips, emphasising that no final decisions have been taken and that such a move would depend on the demand for passenger and cargo services.

(Reporting by Anna Koper; Editing by Michael Kahn and David Goodman)
MENANDS  Nine bodies in nine nearly identical cardboard coffins rested on rows of wooden chairs in the cool, darkened mausoleum chapel of Albany Rural Cemetery.

Sunlight streamed through a Tiffany stained-glass rose window and dappled the stillness with jeweled hues.

Its sad that some died alone in hospitals or nursing homes. I am with them for the final step of their journey and treat each one with care and respect, said Dameon Hood, chief crematorium operator.

He prefers not to know their names. To guard against errors, he double-checks paperwork and makes sure each body has a specific number that corresponds with a flame-resistant metal tag the size of a quarter.

I make sure that tag never leaves the body, he said.

He makes it a tranquil ritual. I dont rush, he said. I do it exactly the same way each time.

A record number of bodies arrived on Thursday, some from as far away as Brooklyn. It was one day in a record-setting month of cremations at Albany Rural  112 in April, nearly three times the normal volume  due to a spike in deaths caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The surge in demand has meant 60-hour weeks for Hood, who works every day but Sunday. He will work from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on this day operating two retorts simultaneously. He avoids using the full term, retort furnaces.

Hoods job is an essential, yet overlooked task during the coronavirus pandemic.

To learn more about everyday heroes during the coronavirus pandemic, join our Facebook group.

I think of Dameon as an everyday hero, said David Quinn, the cemeterys general manager. He brings in boxes of chocolate chip granola bars, Hoods favorite snack, to keep him going through the long shifts.

Funeral directors downstate are desperate, Quinn said. He has been accepting bodies from around New York City and counties along the lower Hudson Valley to ease long waits of six to eight weeks for cremation.

The bodies are driven hours north by funeral home employees who rent vans and trucks to handle the large volume. The driver picks up cremains on a return trip and delivers them to the deceased persons family.

Albany Rural Cemeterys backlog is increasing and the wait can be more than a week. Quinn leaves capacity to handle slightly elevated numbers of bodies from local funeral directors. Cremation services are also available at Oakwood Cemetery in Troy as well as at Vale Cemetery and Park View Cemetery  both in Schenectady. Officials with the state Division of Cemeteries discussed with Quinn the possibility of parking a refrigerated truck at the crematorium if the high volume continues when warm weather arrives.

A New York Times article on May 1 highlighted a heartbreaking backlog at morgues, funerals homes and cemeteries across New York City and its surrounding metropolitan area. On Wednesday last week, police found dozens of decomposed bodies piled inside two trucks outside a funeral home in Brooklyn. I ran out of space, the owner said.

The number of COVID-19 deaths across New York state is approaching 25,000 and continues to rise. At the peak, New Yorker was dying almost every two minutes, more than 800 per day, or four times the citys regular death rate.

I wake up in a panic some nights, Quinn conceded. What are we going to do with all these bodies?

Quinn spent 28 years as chief administrative officer of the Firemens Association of the State of New York before he came to Albany Rural Cemetery three months ago. He replaced John Buszta, who retired after 41 years at the cemetery. Quinn, 54, grew up in Schodack and graduated from Maple Hill High School in 1984. He earned an accounting degree from SUNY-Utica. He is a former chief of the South Schodack Fire Department and has been a volunteer firefighter for 30 years.

I picked a very challenging time to learn the cemetery business, said Quinn, who oversees a staff of 10, a $1 million budget and severe financial strains.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Generations of Quinns ancestors are buried at Albany Rural. He recalled his grandmothers stories about bringing a picnic lunch and spending afternoons at the family plot with her sisters in the 1930s. Quinns great-uncle worked as a groundskeeper in the 1940s.

Quinns appreciation runs deep for Albany Rural Cemetery, a 467-acre city of the dead, where nearly 140,000 burials have taken place since it was established in 1841. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and represents one of the earliest and grandest examples of the rural cemetery movement in America. Granite stones etched with grief commemorate infants and children cut down by diseases such as smallpox and scarlet fever. Dozens of all ages were buried during the three waves of the 1918 influenza pandemic.

Operating the crematorium has given a new sense of purpose to Hood, 33, a high school dropout who grew up in Cohoes. He is the father of four and worked landscaping jobs before being hired on the cemetery grounds crew three years ago. When the crematorium operator job opened a year ago, he applied, undertook special training and received state certification.

I considered it a promotion, said Hood, who has a black lip ring, Transformers tattoos on the back of his hands and a Gothic look. He tattooed the name of his son, Dameon Jr., on his wrist.

Some people are creeped out by what I do, said Hood, whose fiance works in a nursing home. Both are careful about wearing personal protective equipment at work. Hood frequently disinfects his workspace, the coffins and the rolling lift he uses. Funeral directors are taking extra precautions against COVID-19 by disinfecting body bags and double-bagging the corpses.

Each cremation takes about three hours, at 1,800 degrees. Hood lets it cool down for one hour before thoroughly vacuuming and brushing out the cremains and ashes. I take pride in my work and there is absolutely no commingling, he said

The cost of cremation in a pandemic is unchanged: $360.

Hood does daily checks and routine maintenance on the 1960s-era retorts. Theyre old units, but theyre reliable, he said.

In the small room behind the chapel, with two retorts burning hot, Hood finds the gentle hiss oddly comforting.

It sounds like a far-off jet to me, he said.

Hood is at the controls, honored to serve this critical function. Im lending a helping hand in fulfilling their final request, he said.

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 grondahlpaul@gmail.com
The American College of Cardiology together with other North American cardiovascular societies has issued a framework for ethically and safely reintroducing invasive cardiovascular procedures and diagnostic tests after the initial peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The document was published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced appropriate, but significant, restrictions on routine medical care, including invasive procedures to treat heart disease and diagnostic tests to diagnose heart disease.

Many hospitals and practices have attempted to defer and replace these critical procedures with intensified triage and management of patients on waiting lists; however, many patients with untreated cardiovascular disease are at an increased risk of adverse outcomes, and delays in the treatment of patients with confirmed cardiovascular disease can be detrimental.

Also, reduced access to diagnostic testing can lead to a high burden of undiagnosed cardiovascular disease that will further delay time to treatment.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women and men worldwide and these patients need prioritization as health care systems return to normal capacity. In this document, North American cardiovascular societies outline how to reintroduce regular cardiovascular care in a progressive manner with appropriate safeguards.

The authors have outlined three areas that must be considered when reintroducing services, including:

Ethical considerations that include maximizing benefits by prioritizing procedures that will ensure the most lives or life years are saved over those that benefit fewer people to a lesser degree, ensuring fairness in how cases are treated, ensuing proportionality so that the risk of further postponing treatment is weighed again exacerbating the spread, and maintaining consistency in reintroduction across populations regardless of ability to pay and assuring health equity.

Collaboration between regional public health officials, health authorities and cardiovascular care providers to manage the dynamic balance between provision of essential cardiovascular care and responding to future fluctuations in COVID-19 infections and hospital admissions.

Protection of patients and health care workers through regions having the necessary critical care capacity, personal protective equipment (PPE), and trained staff available, and a transparent plan for testing and re-testing potential patients and health care workers for COVID-19. Strategies for social distancing between patients and health care workers should also be considered, including virtual pre-procedural clinics, virtual consenting for procedures and diagnostic tests, and minimizing the number of health care workers in physical contact with any given patient.
The special evacuation flights for thousands of Indians stranded in the United States due to the coronavirus-linked global travel restrictions are most likely to begin this week from San Francisco and other cities, according to officials.

IMAGE: Indian nationals being evacuated from Wuhan in China. Image used for the purpose of representation. Photograph: ANI Photo

While no exact dates have been announced yet, the flights could take off from San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Washington DC, the officials said.

Given that a large number of Indian students and visitors are stranded in the US because of the strict travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, more flights are likely to be scheduled in the coming weeks.

Community leaders have welcomed the move of the Indian government which on Monday announced that special flights facilitating the return of Indian nationals stranded abroad on compelling grounds would begin in a phased manner from May 7.

The Indian embassy and its consulates in the US last week started preparing a list of Indians planning to travel back home. The list is being prepared through an online registration form.

"This is for the first time in my memory that such an evacuation effort is being carried out by the Indian government for its citizens in the US," Jaipur Foot USA Chairman Prem Bhandari said as he thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the efforts.

Bhandari, who had been receiving calls from various stranded Indians, sometimes from students seeking accommodation, or visitors who had run out of medicine, last week wrote a letter to Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola, bringing to their attention the grave situation.

In the letter, he said: 'There are a large number of students who have run out of money. They don't have a place to stay. What is more worrisome is the fact that this uncertainty is having a toll on their mental and physical health.'

A large number of Indian visitors, in particular senior citizens and parents of those working in the US, have run out of their essential medicines.

To get them medicine, even with a traveler's health insurance, is often not affordable.

'The evacuation flight is the need of the hour. This shows how much this government cares for its citizens,' Bhandari said.

Over the past few weeks, several Indians have been reaching out to Indian Ambassador in the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu and the helpline established by it seeking an early repatriation back home.

'Please start some flights for Indian citizens on humanitarian grounds. We have critically ill senior citizen parents who are alone and have to be looked after. Please understand our plight and bring this to the notice of the Indian government,' one of them tweeted last week.

'Please look after students those who are under 22 years, they are alone in Penn State college want to come back Home please arrange airlift and give priorities to students and old people,' one student Asha Tiwari wrote on Twitter.

Some Indian origin people having Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cards have also sought help in travelling back to India.

'Please also take care of OCIs as well. I am a resident of India and working in India. My family is in India too. I visited US for a month and got stuck here,' wrote Kranthi Borra.

In a separate letter last week, Bhandari requested Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to waive off the visa extension fee of $455 given the exceptional circumstances due to the coronavirus pandemic.

'The visa extension fee of $455 (including biometric service fee of $85) imposed by the US Department of State is further hitting these visitors real hard. As the Government of India is working tirelessly on expeditious repatriation of its citizens, I sincerely urge you to reconsider the visa extension fee and waive these charges on humanitarian grounds and as a gesture of compassion,' he said.

The Indian government in a statement said that medical screening of passengers would be done before the flight.

'Only asymptomatic passengers would be allowed to travel,' it said.

During the journey, all these passengers would have to follow the protocols, such as the Health Protocols, issued by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

On reaching the destination, everyone would have to register on the Arogya Setu app, the official statement said.

Everyone would be medically screened. After scrutiny, they would be quarantined for 14 days, either in a hospital or in an institutional quarantine on payment-basis, by the concerned state governments.

COVID-19 test would be done after 14 days and further action would be taken according to health protocols, it said.

The Ministries of External Affairs and Civil Aviation would soon share detailed information.

The coronavirus pandemic has infected over 1.2 million people and killed nearly 70,000 in the US, the worst affected country in the world.
A passenger walks through Reagan National airport as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to keep airline travel at minimal levels and the U.S. economy contracts in the first quarter at its sharpest pace since the Great Recession, in Washington, April 29, 2020. Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

The coronavirus pandemic has rocked the international economy and disrupted our lives like nobody could have imagined at the beginning of 2020. Things may never return to the way they were before the Covid-19 crisis. But the world won't stay on lockdown forever. We asked experts in public health and various industries for their best predictions on what the world will look like when the pandemic finally recedes. In this segment of our series, "The Next Normal," we look at what experts are saying about when travel might resume. *** In April 2019, more than 2 million travelers passed through U.S. airports every day. A year later, the coronavirus pandemic all but shut down air travel, as people sheltered in their homes, scared that recycled air and close quarters will make airplanes a breeding ground for Covid-19 infections. Air travel has dropped by more than 95%, with some days seeing fewer than 100,000 air travelers across the country. Is this the beginning of a permanent decline in air travel? Or will things return to normal? While the experts acknowledge they don't have a crystal ball, they all agreed that it would take around 18 to 24 months before there's a significant spike in demand and the industry begins to return to regular levels. In the meantime, the travel industry will undergo some very big changes: Airports may institute new kinds of security checks to screen travelers who are sick, nervous tourists will vacation closer to home, and the travel experience will be dominated by large chains as small hotels and restaurants struggle or go out of business. A survey published last week from Longwoods International, a market research firm focused on the travel industry, found that 82 percent of Americans have already changed their travel plans for the next six months because of the coronavirus. Fifty percent said they would cancel trips, and 45 percent expect to reduce travel in that time frame, according to the survey of 1,000 American adults. "What we have seen since the country went into shutdown with talks to reopen is that intent was directionally heading up," said Amir Eylon, the firm's president and CEO, who has been conducting regular surveys since the pandemic was declared. "But now we're seeing a plateau."

Air travel: Risky and slow to return

Some countries are thinking about how to get people traveling again while reducing exposure. Airlines like Delta are considering issuing informal "immunity passports," for instance, to people who can prove they have already been infected. But those in public health, like Harvard global health professor Ashish Jha, are skeptical. Jha notes that the test results might be inaccurate, especially given the variable quality of the antibody tests. "The testing is still very flawed," he warned. And even if people have recovered and have antibodies, it's possible they could be infected again. Temperature checks at airports could also become the norm. But Jha notes that these might not catch cases where the person is asymptomatic. All in all, without "aggressive testing, tracing, and isolation," he said, it will be very challenging for airlines to reassure travelers that people with Covid-19 aren't on board. "When it comes to resuming activities as before, it's about your risk tolerance," Jha said. "There's no magic formula."

People who do hop a flight will find the experience is very different. Airlines are starting to require passengers and crew to wear masks, and many carriers are leaving middle seats open and doing away with beverage service. Many airlines are still canceling international flights through the summer and into fall. Even as airlines and authorities put safety measures in place, people will have to feel safe before demand picks up. Some people  particularly the one-third of Americans at high risk of hospitalization if they get exposed to the virus  will stay home until there's a vaccine or some kind of proven treatment, which would likely mean a year or longer avoiding travel. Others will wait for reassurance from senior health officials and scientists, not just airlines and travel experts. "Many people are not going to feel safe going back to crowded airplanes ... until they see that the number of new deaths from the virus has gone down to almost none in their region, or until there is a vaccine or much better ways of tracing and isolating who has it," said Robert Reich, the former U.S. Labor secretary and a professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

The rise of the 'staycation'

Safety is not the only factor. As the economy sours, people are also nervous about splurging on air travel to luxury destinations. "We're still talking about whether we might see a U-shaped recovery, or more of an L, or even a W, if there's a second wave of coronavirus cases," said Josh Collins, who runs marketing for Streetsense, a branding firm that specializes in hospitality, travel and real estate. He thinks the days of taking a lavish annual trip to a tropical destination might be over for a while until people feel confident about their finances again. Instead, they might look for local options, like camping or road trips, that are easier on the wallet. For example, Noble House Hotels & Resorts in San Francisco, which includes the high-end Argonaut Hotel and Hotel Zoe, is fielding calls from European tourists who say they need to postpone their trip for later in the year or even into 2021, according to area manager Stefan Muhle. He's also seeing a drop in bookings from business travelers because of the cancellation of conferences, including Dreamforce, which brings 200,000 people to San Francisco every November. Now, he's considering a new market: staycationers. Rather than the standard excursions, which might involve booking a tour bus for a large group, he's thinking creatively about marketing the hotel as a luxurious place to spend the night after a hike in a nearby national park, such as Muir Woods. Trips with an emphasis on the outdoors might be particularly appealing after people have been cooped up in their homes for months. After studying consumer sentiment, Longwoods' Eylon said this strategy has the best shot of success for many hoteliers. He expects that travel will resume in a slow, careful and highly phased manner. It will kick off with local outings as the economy reopens. From there, some people will increasingly feel confident driving for a night or two away from home. It could take much longer before most people are comfortable getting on a plane for a long-haul trip. "The first signs of a new normal will be that parents start taking their kids to the zoo or the park," he said. "From there, they'll venture a little further for a night away from home."

Big chains will dominate and deals will be available
VALENCIA, Spain, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Military author and strategist David Kilcullen warned today that one of the main consequences of the coronavirus pandemic may be social unrest -including the potential for violence in water-insecure cities around the world.

"Access to water is one of the leading indicators for social unrest; after COVID-19, we are going to see populations blaming governments and potential conflict in the world's more fragile urban environments," he explained.

"We are starting to see significant security implications in countries that have been affected by coronavirus. We can expect that populations will blame, punish and defy governments at all levels. Mid-term to long-term impacts of the virus will go well beyond today's public health crisis and the coming economic collapse. They may include a human security crisis, internal instability or even international conflict," he alerted.

Kilcullen, who leads the international risk consultancy Cordillera Applications Group and is considered one of the world's leading experts on unconventional and hybrid warfare, took part in the Idrica Water Security Series Middle East, a digital meeting on security organized by the Spanish water technology company Idrica.

Idrica is one of the world's leading water security companies. It boasts a team of 180 professionals spread over three continents optimizing digital processes to manage the integral water cycle.

In his presentation, Kilcullen, who has just launched his latest book "The Dragons and the Snakes: how the rest learnt to fight the west", explained that "Water crisis immediately become triggers for security breakdowns, and the use of technology to optimize and improve access to hydric resources is key."

Cordillera provides geopolitical analysis and risk management to governments, corporate clients and NGOS in North America, Europe, Latin America and Africa. The firm's suite of technological tools, and its distributed operations model, have allowed it to take the current crisis in stride.

Based in Valencia, Spain, Idrica provides services and implements a proprietary technological solution called GoAigua.

At the event, Kilcullen spoke with Idrica's CEO, Jaime Barba, and Qatar-based communications expert Sarmad Qazi.

Barba, a specialist in innovation and technological development applied to the water sector, explained that, throughout this crisis, "We have been lucky enough to have all the technology available to deal with COVID-19 from the point of view of water and the data that the networks throw at us."

"Smart metering and coordination with governments are going to be key to alert the presence of the coronavirus in sewage systems, to alert about leaks in houses that should be empty," Barba said.

Although he explained the importance of dealing with cyberattacks that target critical water infrastructure, Idrica's CEO suggested the development of protection plans against possible new waves that occur as a result of the virus.

He added that Idrica's technology system allows for warnings of the presence of the coronavirus in the drinking water and sanitation system up to times before it spreads, and that water data is more important than ever in order to prevent health crises.

"The pandemic has taught us the need to increase technological processes in the management of water systems," he stated.

The Idrica Water Security Series are a number of digital meetings sponsored by Idrica to bring together the world's leading experts on water security.

The first of these events focused on Latin America and brought together Dr Judith Dominguez, one of the leading global experts in the field and researcher at El Colegio de Mexico, and academic and internal security expert Roman D. Ortiz.
HOUSTON, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Era Group Inc. (ERA) today reported net loss attributable to the Company of $7.2 million, or $0.35 per diluted share, for its first quarter ended March 31, 2020 (current quarter) on operating revenues of $57.1 million compared to net loss attributable to the Company of $0.7 million, or $0.03 per diluted share, for the quarter ended December 31, 2019 (preceding quarter) on operating revenues of $60.4 million. Excluding the impact of special items and foreign currency losses, as discussed below, adjusted net loss attributable to the Company (Adjusted Net Loss) would have been $1.3 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, in the current quarter.



Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was $4.1 million in the current quarter compared to $10.1 million in the preceding quarter. EBITDA adjusted to exclude special items was $8.3 million in the current quarter compared to $13.7 million in the preceding quarter. Special items in the current quarter consisted of $4.2 million of non-routine professional services fees and other costs related to the expected merger with Bristow Group Inc. ("Bristow"). In addition, the current quarter results were adversely impacted by foreign currency losses of $1.7 million primarily due to the weakening of the Brazilian real relative to United States (U.S.) dollar. Excluding the impact of these primarily non-cash foreign currency losses, EBITDA adjusted to exclude special items would have been $10.0 million the current quarter. Special items in the preceding quarter consisted of a $1.6 million non-cash impairment charge related to the Company's last remaining H225 helicopter, a $1.0 million non-cash charge due to the impairment of an intangible asset related to the Companys subsidiary in Colombia and $1.0 million of non-routine professional services fees related to the expected merger with Bristow. EBITDA further adjusted to exclude gains and losses on asset dispositions, as well as the aforementioned special items, was $8.3 million in the current quarter compared to $10.6 million in the preceding quarter. Losses on asset dispositions were less than $0.1 million in the current quarter compared to gains on asset dispositions of $3.1 million in the preceding quarter.

Story continues

With the severe demand shock related to COVID-19, substantial excess supply, and the resulting significant decline in oil prices, we expect challenging conditions in the oil and gas industry for the foreseeable future, said Chris Bradshaw, President and Chief Executive Officer of Era Group Inc. Fortunately, with our strong balance sheet, efficient cost structure, and experience managing through industry downturns, we are well-prepared to navigate through these difficult conditions. The current industry situation further strengthens the rationale for our expected merger with Bristow. The combined company will be larger and more diversified, particularly with UK SAR revenues that are not tied to the oil markets. The expected cost savings of at least $35 million not only create substantial value for shareholders but also position the combined company to better deal with the difficult challenges the oil and gas industry is likely to experience for some time to come. We are pleased to announce that the merger process is proceeding well, and we now expect to close the merger by mid-June.

Sequential Quarter Results

Operating revenues in the current quarter were $3.3 million lower compared to the preceding quarter primarily due to the end of emergency response services and dry-leasing contracts as well as lower oil and gas services revenues.

Operating expenses were $1.0 million lower in the current quarter primarily due to decreased personnel, repairs and maintenance and fuel costs, partially offset by higher insurance premiums and other operating expenses.

Administrative and general expenses were $1.4 million higher in the current quarter due to increased professional services fees related to the expected merger with Bristow, partially offset by lower compensation expenses.

Foreign currency losses were $1.7 million in the current quarter primarily due to the weakening of the Brazilian real relative to the U.S. dollar.

Calendar Quarter Results

Operating revenues in the current quarter were $5.8 million higher compared to the quarter ended March 31, 2019 (prior year quarter) primarily due to higher utilization of helicopters in U.S. oil and gas operations and the commencement of a new emergency response services contract.

Operating expenses were $1.8 million higher in the current quarter primarily due to an increase in personnel costs and other expenses related to increased activity in the current quarter, partially offset by lower repairs and maintenance costs.

Administrative and general expenses were $3.9 million higher in the current quarter primarily due to increased professional services fees and other costs related to the expected merger with Bristow.

Foreign currency losses were $1.6 million higher in the current quarter primarily due to the weakening of the Brazilian real relative to the U.S. dollar.

Net loss attributable to the Company was $7.2 million in the current quarter compared to $5.9 million in the prior year quarter. EBITDA was $4.1 million in the current quarter compared to $4.5 million in the prior year quarter. EBITDA adjusted to exclude special items was $8.3 million in the current quarter compared to $5.6 million in the prior year quarter. Special items in the current quarter are discussed above. Special items in the prior year quarter consisted of $0.2 million of non-routine professional services fees related to the expected merger with Bristow and $1.0 million of equity losses from the Companys Dart Holding Company Ltd. (Dart) joint venture, which was sold in 2019. EBITDA further adjusted to exclude losses on asset dispositions, as well as the aforementioned special items, was $8.3 million in the current quarter compared to $5.8 million in the prior year quarter.

Liquidity

As of March 31, 2020, the Company had $113.5 million in cash balances and $124.3 million of remaining availability under its Amended and Restated Senior Secured Revolving Credit Facility (the Facility) for total liquidity of $237.8 million. As of March 31, 2020, the Companys senior secured leverage ratio, as defined in the Facility, was 0.3x compared to the covenant requirement of not more than 3.25x, and the Companys interest coverage ratio was 3.2x compared to the covenant requirement of not less than 1.75x.

The Facility requires that the Company maintain certain financial ratios on a rolling four-quarter basis. The interest coverage ratio is a trailing four-quarter quotient of (i) EBITDA (as defined in the Facility) less dividends and distributions divided by (ii) interest expense. The interest coverage ratio is not a measure of operating performance or liquidity defined by GAAP and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. The senior secured leverage ratio is calculated by dividing (i) the sum of secured debt for borrowed money, capital lease obligations and guaranties of obligations of non-consolidated entities by (ii) EBITDA (as defined in the Facility). The senior secured leverage ratio is not a measure of operating performance or liquidity defined by GAAP and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. EBITDA is calculated differently under the Facility than as presented elsewhere in this release.

Capital Commitments

The Company had unfunded capital commitments of $79.6 million as of March 31, 2020. The Company may terminate all of its commitments without further liability other than aggregate liquidated damages of $2.1 million.

Included in these capital commitments are agreements to purchase three AW189 heavy helicopters and five AW169 light twin helicopters. The AW189 helicopters are scheduled to be delivered in 2021. Delivery dates for the AW169 helicopters have yet to be determined. In addition, the Company has outstanding options to purchase up to ten additional AW189 helicopters. If these options are exercised, the helicopters would be scheduled for delivery in 2021 and 2022.

Conference Call

Management will conduct a conference call starting at 10:00 a.m. ET (9:00 a.m. CT) on Wednesday, May 6, 2020, to review the results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020. The conference call can be accessed as follows:

All callers will need to reference the access code 844510.

Within the U.S.: Operator Assisted Toll-Free Dial-In Number: (888) 378-4398

Outside the U.S.: Operator Assisted International Dial-In Number: (323) 701-0223

Replay

A telephone replay will be available through May 20, 2020 by dialing 888-203-1112 and utilizing the access code above. An audio replay will also be available on the Companys website at www.erahelicopters.com shortly after the call and will be accessible through May 20, 2020. The accompanying investor presentation will be available on May 6, 2020 on Eras website at www.erahelicopters.com.

For additional information concerning Era, contact Jennifer Whalen at (713) 369-4636 or visit Era Groups website at https://ir.erahelicopters.com/.

About Era Group

Era is one of the largest helicopter operators in the world and the longest serving helicopter transport operator in the U.S. In addition to servicing its U.S. customers, Era provides helicopters and related services to customers and third-party helicopter operators in other countries, including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, India, Mexico, Spain and Suriname. Eras helicopters are primarily used to transport personnel to, from and between offshore oil and gas production platforms, drilling rigs and other installations. In addition, Eras helicopters are used to perform emergency response services, firefighting, utility, VIP transport and other services. Era also provides a variety of operating lease solutions and technical fleet support to third party operators. To learn more, visit our website at www.erahelicopters.com .

About Bristow Group

Bristow Group Inc. is the worlds leading provider of offshore oil and gas transportation, search and rescue (SAR) and aircraft support services to government and civil organizations worldwide. Bristows strategically located global fleet supports operations in the North Sea, Nigeria and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico; as well as in most of the other major offshore oil and gas producing regions of the world, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Guyana and Trinidad. Bristow provides SAR services to the private sector worldwide and to the public sector for all of the United Kingdom on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. To learn more, visit the Bristow website at www.bristowgroup.com .

Additional Information and Where to Find It

In connection with the proposed merger with Bristow Group Inc. (Bristow), on April 3, 2020, Era filed with the SEC a preliminary registration statement on Form S-4, as amended by Amendment No. 1 thereto filed on April 23, 2020 (the Preliminary Registration Statement) that included a preliminary joint proxy and consent solicitation statement of Era and Bristow that also constitutes a preliminary prospectus of Era (the Preliminary Joint Proxy and Consent Statement/Prospectus). Each of Era and Bristow will provide, when it is available, the definitive joint proxy and consent statement/prospectus to their respective stockholders. Era and Bristow also plan to file other relevant documents with the SEC regarding the proposed transaction. This document is not a substitute for the Preliminary Joint Proxy and Consent Statement/Prospectus, the registration statement or the definitive joint proxy and consent statement/prospectus or any other document which Era or Bristow may file with the SEC in connection with the proposed transaction. INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ THE PRELIMINARY JOINT PROXY AND CONSENT STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS (INCLUDING ALL AMENDMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTS THERETO) AND OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED WITH THE SEC CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN AND WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION, THE PARTIES TO THE TRANSACTION AND THE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH THE TRANSACTION. You may obtain a copy of the Preliminary Joint Proxy and Consent Statement/Prospectus, the Preliminary Registration Statement and other relevant documents filed by Era and Bristow without charge at the SECs website, www.sec.gov, or by directing a request when such a filing is made to (1) Era by mail at 945 Bunker Hill Rd., Suite 650, Houston, Texas 77024, Attention: Investor Relations, by telephone at (713)-369-4700, or by going to the Investor page on Eras corporate website at www.erahelicopters.com ; or (2) Bristow by mail at 3151 Briarpark Drive, Suite 700, Houston, Texas, 77042, Attention: Investor Relations, by telephone at (713) 267-7600, or by going to the Investors page on Bristows corporate website at www.bristowgroup.com .

Participants in Proxy Solicitation

Era, Bristow and certain of their respective directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from Era and Bristow stockholders in respect of the proposed transaction under the rules of the SEC. You may obtain information regarding the names, affiliations and interests of Eras directors and executive officers in Eras Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, which was filed with the SEC on March 6, 2020 and its Preliminary Joint Proxy and Consent Statement/Prospectus. Investors may obtain information regarding the names, affiliations and interests of Bristows directors and executive officers on Bristows website. Other information regarding the participants in the proxy solicitation and a description of their direct and indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, are contained in the Preliminary Joint Proxy and Consent Statement/Prospectus filed with the SEC and the definitive joint proxy and consent statement/prospectus and other relevant materials to be filed with the SEC regarding the proposed transaction if and when they become available. Investors should read the Preliminary Joint Proxy and Consent Statement/Prospectus and the definitive joint proxy and consent statement/prospectus (when it is available) carefully and in its entirety before making any voting or investment decisions.

No Offer or Solicitation

This communication does not constitute an offer to buy or solicitation of an offer to sell any securities or an invitation to purchase or subscribe for any securities or the solicitation of any vote in any jurisdiction pursuant to the proposed transaction or otherwise, nor shall there be any sale, issuance or transfer of securities in any jurisdiction in contravention of applicable law. Subject to certain exceptions to be approved by the relevant regulators or certain facts to be ascertained, the public offer will not be made directly or indirectly, in or into any jurisdiction where to do so would constitute a violation of the laws of such jurisdiction, or by use of the mails or by any means or instrumentality (including facsimile transmission, telephone and the internet) of interstate or foreign commerce, or any facility of a national securities exchange, of any such jurisdiction.

For additional information concerning Era Group, contact Jennifer Whalen at (713) 369-4636 or visit Era Groups website at www.erahelicopters.com .

Forward-Looking Statements Disclosure

Certain statements discussed in this release as well as in other reports, materials and oral statements that the Company releases from time to time to the public include "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. Such forward-looking statements concerning management's expectations, strategic objectives, business prospects, anticipated performance and financial condition and other similar matters involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause the Companys actual results, performance or achievements of results to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements discussed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties and other important factors include, among others, risks related to the Companys recently announced combination with Bristow, including: the ability of Bristow and the Company to obtain necessary shareholder approvals, the ability to satisfy all necessary conditions on the anticipated closing timeline or at all, the outcome of any legal proceedings, regulatory proceedings or enforcement matters that may be instituted relating to the Merger, conditions imposed in order to obtain required regulatory approvals for the Merger, the costs incurred to consummate the Merger, the possibility that the expected synergies from the Merger will not be realized, difficulties related to the integration of the two companies, disruption from the anticipated Merger making it more difficult to maintain relationships with customers, employees, regulators or suppliers, and the diversion of management time and attention to the anticipated combination; the Companys dependence on, and the cyclical and volatile nature of, offshore oil and gas exploration, development and production activity, and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) and general economic conditions and fluctuations in worldwide prices of and demand for oil and natural gas on such activity levels, including instances of below-zero prices in oil futures and concerns of an excess of oil supply for a sustained period and limitations of storage capacity for such excess oil supply; the impact of COVID-19 and supply decisions by Saudi Arabia and Russia have resulted in a decrease in the price of and demand for oil, which has caused, and may continue to cause, a decrease in the demand for the Company's services; the Companys reliance on a limited number of customers and the reduction of its customer base resulting from bankruptcies or consolidation; risks that the Companys customers reduce or cancel contracted services or tender processes or obtain comparable services through other forms of transportation; dependence on United States (U.S.) government agency contracts that are subject to budget appropriations; cost savings initiatives implemented by the Companys customers; risks inherent in operating helicopters; the Companys ability to maintain an acceptable safety record and level of reliability; the impact of increased U.S. and foreign government regulation and legislation, including potential government implemented moratoriums on drilling activities; the impact of a grounding of all or a portion of the Companys fleet for extended periods of time or indefinitely on the Companys business, including its operations and ability to service customers, results of operations or financial condition and/or the market value of the affected helicopter(s); the Companys ability to successfully expand into other geographic and aviation service markets; risks associated with political instability, governmental action, war, acts of terrorism, trade policies and changes in the economic condition in any foreign country where the Company does business, which may result in expropriation, nationalization, confiscation or deprivation of the Companys assets or result in claims of a force majeure situation; the impact of declines in the global economy and financial markets; the impact of fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates on the Companys asset values and cost to purchase helicopters, spare parts and related services; risks related to investing in new lines of aviation service without realizing the expected benefits; risks of engaging in competitive processes or expending significant resources for strategic opportunities, with no guaranty of recoupment; the Companys reliance on a small number of helicopter manufacturers and suppliers; the Companys ongoing need to replace aging helicopters; the Companys reliance on the secondary helicopter market to dispose of used helicopters and parts; the Companys reliance on information technology and potential harm from cyber-security incidents; the impact of allocation of risk between the Company and its customers; the liability, legal fees and costs in connection with providing emergency response services; adverse weather conditions and seasonality; risks associated with the Companys debt structure; the Companys counterparty credit risk exposure; the impact of operational and financial difficulties of the Companys joint ventures and partners and the risks associated with identifying and securing joint venture partners when needed; conflict with the other owners of the Companys non-wholly owned subsidiaries and other equity investees; adverse results of legal proceedings; significant increases in fuel costs; the Companys ability to obtain insurance coverage and the adequacy and availability of such coverage; the possibility of labor problems; the attraction and retention of qualified personnel; restrictions on the amount of foreign ownership of the Companys common stock; and various other matters and factors, many of which are beyond the Companys control. In addition, these statements constitute the Company Group's cautionary statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. It is not possible to predict or identify all such factors. Consequently, the foregoing should not be considered a complete discussion of all potential risks or uncertainties. The words "estimate," "project," "intend," "believe," "plan" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of the document in which they are made. the Company Group disclaims any obligation or undertaking to provide any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement to reflect any change in the Company Group's expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which the forward-looking statement is based. The forward-looking statements in this release should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect the Company's businesses, particularly those mentioned under "Risk Factors" in the Company Group's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, in the Preliminary Joint Proxy and Consent Statement/Prospectus, Form 10-Q and in the Company Group's current reporting on Form 8-K (if any). This press release reflects the views of the Companys management as of the date hereof. Except to the extent required by applicable law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement.





ERA GROUP INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

(unaudited, in thousands, except share and per share amounts) Three Months Ended Mar 31,

2020 Dec 31,

2019 Sep 30,

2019 Jun 30,

2019 Mar 31,

2019 Total revenues $ 57,056 $ 60,377 $ 58,909 $ 55,480 $ 51,293 Costs and expenses: Operating 38,506 39,508 39,522 38,820 36,696 Administrative and general 12,745 11,366 9,142 8,895 8,875 Depreciation and amortization 9,507 9,337 9,312 9,520 9,450 Total costs and expenses 60,758 60,211 57,976 57,235 55,021 Gains (losses) on asset dispositions, net (34 ) 3,095 754 (68 ) (124 ) Loss on impairment  (2,551 )    Operating income (loss) (3,736 ) 710 1,687 (1,823 ) (3,852 ) Other income (expense): Interest income 749 845 956 934 752 Interest expense (3,439 ) (3,517 ) (3,464 ) (3,432 ) (3,461 ) Loss on sale of investments    (569 )  Foreign currency gains (losses), net (1,704 ) 102 (718 ) 270 (126 ) Loss on debt extinguishment    (13 )  Other, net 10 (3 ) (5 ) (9 ) (11 ) Total other income (expense) (4,384 ) (2,573 ) (3,231 ) (2,819 ) (2,846 ) Loss before income taxes and equity earnings (8,120 ) (1,863 ) (1,544 ) (4,642 ) (6,698 ) Income tax expense (benefit) (831 ) (1,052 ) 515 1,394 (1,588 ) Loss before equity earnings (7,289 ) (811 ) (2,059 ) (6,036 ) (5,110 ) Equity earnings (losses), net of tax    10,910 (975 ) Net income (loss) (7,289 ) (811 ) (2,059 ) 4,874 (6,085 ) Net loss attributable to noncontrolling interest in subsidiary 60 131 149 66 142 Net income (loss) attributable to Era Group Inc. $ (7,229 ) $ (680 ) $ (1,910 ) $ 4,940 $ (5,943 ) Basic earnings (loss) per common share $ (0.35 ) $ (0.03 ) $ (0.09 ) $ 0.22 $ (0.28 ) Diluted earnings (loss) per common share $ (0.35 ) $ (0.03 ) $ (0.09 ) $ 0.22 $ (0.28 ) Weighted average common shares outstanding, basic 20,702,670 20,652,207 20,625,408 21,448,115 21,323,312 Weighted average common shares outstanding, diluted 20,702,670 20,653,699 20,629,328 21,448,115 21,323,312 EBITDA $ 4,077 $ 10,146 $ 10,276 $ 18,286 $ 4,486 Adjusted EBITDA $ 8,288 $ 13,662 $ 10,458 $ 8,112 $ 5,629 Adjusted EBITDA excluding asset dispositions $ 8,322 $ 10,567 $ 9,704 $ 8,180 $ 5,753





ERA GROUP INC.

REVENUES BY LINE OF SERVICE

(unaudited, in thousands) Three Months Ended Mar 31,

2020 Dec 31,

2019 Sep 30,

2019 Jun 30,

2019 Mar 31,

2019 Oil and gas:(1) U.S. $ 37,054 $ 37,462 $ 36,226 $ 33,270 $ 32,466 International 13,281 13,655 14,740 14,499 13,616 Total oil and gas 50,335 51,117 50,966 47,769 46,082 Dry-leasing 3,076 3,911 4,250 4,287 3,463 Emergency response 3,645 5,349 3,693 3,424 1,748 $ 57,056 $ 60,377 $ 58,909 $ 55,480 $ 51,293





FLIGHT HOURS BY LINE OF SERVICE(2)

(unaudited) Three Months Ended Mar 31,

2020 Dec 31,

2019 Sep 30,

2019 Jun 30,

2019 Mar 31,

2019 Oil and gas:(1) U.S. 5,027 5,644 6,181 5,689 5,101 International 2,531 2,396 2,599 2,548 2,224 Total oil and gas 7,558 8,040 8,780 8,237 7,325 Emergency response 162 120 144 110 76 7,720 8,160 8,924 8,347 7,401

____________________

Primarily oil and gas services, but also includes revenues and flight hours from utility services. Does not include hours flown by helicopters in our dry-leasing line of service.





ERA GROUP INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(in thousands) Mar 31,

2020 Dec 31,

2019 Sep 30,

2019 Jun 30,

2019 Mar 31,

2019 ASSETS (unaudited) (unaudited) (unaudited) (unaudited) Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 113,518 $ 117,366 $ 107,736 $ 88,430 $ 49,612 Receivables: Trade, net of allowance for doubtful accounts 39,856 37,964 37,176 35,658 37,178 Tax receivables 2,159 2,860 2,705 2,680 2,843 Other 15,006 15,421 11,567 16,478 7,204 Inventories, net 19,941 20,066 20,826 21,004 20,893 Prepaid expenses 3,412 2,184 2,851 2,822 2,233 Total current assets 193,892 195,861 182,861 167,072 119,963 Property and equipment 893,585 895,063 901,580 918,972 918,252 Accumulated depreciation (345,457 ) (338,164 ) (334,730 ) (336,825 ) (327,444 ) Net property and equipment 548,128 556,899 566,850 582,147 590,808 Operating lease right-of-use 8,672 9,468 9,907 8,080 8,460 Equity investments and advances     24,427 Intangible assets 92 96 1,094 1,098 1,102 Other assets 1,726 2,191 6,363 6,487 21,081 Total assets $ 752,510 $ 764,515 $ 767,075 $ 764,884 $ 765,841 LIABILITIES, REDEEMABLE NONCONTROLLING INTEREST AND STOCKHOLDERS EQUITY Current liabilities: Accounts payable and accrued expenses $ 12,475 $ 12,923 $ 11,940 $ 13,467 $ 12,643 Accrued wages and benefits 6,565 10,554 8,960 8,222 5,524 Accrued interest 3,309 520 3,321 536 3,376 Accrued income taxes 2,297 3,612 2,945 938 2,874 Accrued other taxes 1,539 937 1,986 1,410 1,414 Accrued contingencies 701 598 548 647 656 Current portion of long-term debt 17,901 18,317 1,845 1,859 1,938 Other current liabilities 3,310 3,315 2,851 2,902 3,092 Total current liabilities 48,097 50,776 34,396 29,981 31,517 Long-term debt 142,004 141,832 158,731 158,981 159,961 Deferred income taxes 101,984 103,793 105,440 106,929 104,824 Operating lease liabilities

7,103 7,815 8,166 6,387 6,773 Deferred gains and other liabilities 920 745 850 850 721 Total liabilities 300,108 304,961 307,583 303,128 303,796 Redeemable noncontrolling interest 2,752 2,812 2,945 3,094 3,160 Equity: Era Group Inc. stockholders equity: Common stock 230 224 224 224 224 Additional paid-in capital 452,701 452,009 451,103 449,687 448,690 Retained earnings 7,463 14,692 15,372 17,282 12,342 Treasury shares, at cost (10,744 ) (10,183 ) (10,152 ) (8,531 ) (2,481 ) Accumulated other comprehensive income, net of tax     110 Total equity 449,650 456,742 456,547 458,662 458,885 Total liabilities, redeemable noncontrolling interest and stockholders equity $ 752,510 $ 764,515 $ 767,075 $ 764,884 $ 765,841



Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Metrics

The Companys management uses EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Loss to assess the performance and operating results of its business. EBITDA is defined as Earnings before Interest (includes interest income and interest expense), Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA further adjusted for certain special items that occur during the reported period, as noted below. Adjusted Net Loss is defined as net loss attributable to the Company adjusted for certain special items that occurred during the reported period, as noted below, and significant foreign currency changes. The Company includes EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Loss to provide investors with a supplemental measure of its operating performance. Neither EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA nor Adjusted Net Loss is a recognized term under generally accepted accounting principles in the U.S. (GAAP). Accordingly, they should not be used as an indicator of, or an alternative to, net income as a measure of operating performance. In addition, EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Loss are not intended to be measures of free cash flow available for managements discretionary use, as they do not consider certain cash requirements, such as debt service requirements. Because the definitions of EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Loss (or similar measures) may vary among companies and industries, they may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures used by other companies.

The following table provides a reconciliation of net income, the most directly comparable GAAP measure, to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA (in thousands).

Three Months Ended Mar 31,

2020 Dec 31,

2019 Sep 30,

2019 Jun 30,

2019 Mar 31,

2019 Net income (loss) $ (7,289 ) $ (811 ) $ (2,059 ) $ 4,874 $ (6,085 ) Depreciation and amortization 9,507 9,337 9,312 9,520 9,450 Interest income (749 ) (845 ) (956 ) (934 ) (752 ) Interest expense 3,439 3,517 3,464 3,432 3,461 Income tax (benefit) expense (831 ) (1,052 ) 515 1,394 (1,588 ) EBITDA $ 4,077 $ 10,146 $ 10,276 $ 18,286 $ 4,486 Special items (1) 4,211 3,516 182 (10,174 ) 1,143 Adjusted EBITDA $ 8,288 $ 13,662 $ 10,458 $ 8,112 $ 5,629 Losses (gains) on asset dispositions, net 34 (3,095 ) (754 ) 68 124 Adjusted EBITDA excluding asset dispositions $ 8,322 $ 10,567 $ 9,704 $ 8,180 $ 5,753

(1) Special items include the following:

Three Months Ended Mar 31,

2020 Dec 31,

2019 Sep 30,

2019 Jun 30,

2019 Mar 31,

2019 Non-routine professional services fees and other costs related to the Bristow merger $ 4,211 $ 965 $ 182 $ 154 $ 168 H225 impairment  1,557    Colombia intangible asset impairment  994    Equity (earnings) losses    (10,910 ) 975 Loss (gain) on debt extinguishment    13  Loss on sale of investment    569  $ 4,211 $ 3,516 $ 182 $ (10,174 ) $ 1,143

Free Cash Flow represents the Companys net cash provided by operating activities plus proceeds from disposition of property and equipment, less expenditures related to purchases of property and equipment. Adjusted Free Cash Flow is Free Cash Flow adjusted to exclude professional services fees paid in relation to the expected merger with Bristow. Management believes that the use of Adjusted Free Cash Flow is meaningful as it measures the Companys ability to generate cash from its business after excluding cash payments for special items. Management uses this information as an analytical indicator to assess the Companys liquidity and performance. However, investors should note numerous methods may exist for calculating a company's free cash flow. As a result, the method used by management to calculate Adjusted Free Cash Flow may differ from the methods used by other companies to calculate their free cash flow.

The following table provides a reconciliation of net cash provided by operating activities, the most directly comparable GAAP measure, to Free Cash Flow and Adjusted Free Cash Flow (in thousands).

Three Months Ended Mar 31,

2020 Dec 31,

2019 Sep 30,

2019 Jun 30,

2019 Mar 31,

2019 Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities $ (2,132 ) $ 7,708 $ 9,970 $ 7,240 $ 2,635 Plus: Proceeds from disposition of property and equipment  4,000 9,252   Less: Purchases of property and equipment (400 ) (1,390 ) (2,588 ) (1,268 ) (1,312 ) Free cash flow $ (2,532 ) $ 10,318 $ 16,634 $ 5,972 $ 1,323 Plus: Non-routine professional services fees(2) 2,591 329 237  168 Adjusted free cash flow $ 59 $ 10,647 $ 16,871 $ 5,972 $ 1,491

____________________

(2) Non-routine professional services fees related to the expected merger with Bristow.




BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5

By Nargiz Ismayilova - Trend:

President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev launched the drilling of a new well at the Umid field, Trend reports referring to SOCAR.

Abdullayev visited the Umid-1 platform at the Umid field on May 5 and reviewed the overhaul and reconstruction works carried out there, the message said.

SOCARs president was informed about the repair work being carried out on the production site.

Two more wells will be drilled from the Umid-1 platform to accelerate the production at the Umid field, the message said.

"The drilling of a new production well on the Umid-1 platform was launched with the participation of SOCARs president, the message said. The design depth of the well is 6,270 meters and production volume is 1.5-2 million cubic meters of gas per day. After commissioning the well, gas production is expected to increase from 3-3.5 million cubic meters to 4.5-5 million cubic meters per day.

The design of the new well was carried out by SOCARs Oil and Gas Projects Institute and agreed with UKs well-known Norwell Engineering company, the message said. The preparatory work for drilling the well was launched in May 2019. For the first time, the entire drilling process at the site will be controlled by the Umid Babek Operating Company.

In connection with the drilling of new wells, reconstruction work was carried out on the platform, production capacity was increased and daily gas production was planned to be increased to 6.6 million cubic meters, the message said. The automated fire extinguishing systems, digital control systems and video surveillance systems were installed and put into operation on the platform to strengthen security measures."

Umid is the first field discovered in 2010 through the internal resources during the period of Azerbaijans independence, the message said. It is located in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, 40 kilometers south of Baku. A total of 3.4 billion cubic meters of gas and 540,000 tons of condensate have been extracted from the gas condensate field since 2012 up till now. Three wells are currently used on one platform at the field at the field.

It is planned to build and install another platform at the Umid field - Umid-2, as well as conduct exploration and drilling operations in the nearby Babek structure in the coming period. The Dashgil-2 terminal with a capacity of 24 million cubic meters per day is being built for the primary processing of gas and condensate which are extracted from the Umid-Babek block. The extracted product will be supplied through the underwater pipe of the terminal.

The extracted product will be supplied through the underwater pipe of the terminal. The construction of the terminal launched in September 2019, is underway. In the future, it is planned to transport the extracted products from an exploratory well to the Umid-1 platform through a pipeline to the Babek structure, and from there via an underwater pipeline to the Dashgil-2 terminal.
Mumbai, May 5 : Indian screenwriter Sudip Sharma says the upcoming web series "Paatal Lok" comes with global appeal thanks to its themes.

" 'Paatal Lok' is every creator's dream. This is an Indian story at heart but with great global appeal thanks to the themes it portrays and the characters it presents," Sudip said.

"I am positive 'Paatal Lok' will keep viewers from around the world at the edge of their seats till the very end," added Sudip, who is making his digital debut with the show.

Actress Anushka Sharma's debut digital production, the thriller web series "Paatal Lok" will release on May 15. The trailer was launched on Monday night.

The over three-minute trailer gives a glimpse into a layered crime story, which revolves around Hathi Ram Chaudhary, a police officer in Delhi who is put on an extremely high-profile case.

He is on the lookout for four criminals -- serial killer Vishal "Hathoda" Tyagi (Abhishek Banerjee), Tope "Chaaku" Singh (Jagjeet Sandhu), Kabir M. (Aasif Khan), and Mary "Cheeni" Lyngdoh (Mairembam Ronaldo Singh) -- behind a failed assassination attempt of a well-known journalist Sanjeev Mehra (Neeraj Kabi). The thrilling chase leads him to the dark alleys of -- 'Paatal Lok'.

The trailer also introduced Gul Panag as Renu, Chaudhary's wife.

"The show has been a labour of love, and I hope audiences across the globe experience the same joy we did creating it," said Anushka's brother Karnesh Ssharma, who is a producer of the show at the actress's Clean Slate Filmz.

The nine-part Amazon Original Series, stars Jaideep Ahlawat, is directed by Avinash Arun and Prosit Roy. It will stream on Amazon Prime Video.
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China underplayed the scale of the coronavirus outbreak and may have suffered ten times as many cases as it has confirmed, documents released today suggest.

Documents released today from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) show that UK scientists believed that the number of cases was vastly higher than admitted by Beijing.

They do not accuse the authoritarian regime of lying but the revelation in Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) minutes released today will fuel claims that China has questions to answer over its handling of the outbreak.

It also suggests that deaths from the outbreak in China could be many times higher than the 4,300 so far admitted to.

In the US, President Donald Trump is blaming China for covering-up the lethality of coronavirus and colluding with the WHO to let it spread around the world while Beijing saved face.

Trump and his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also say they have seen 'overwhelming' evidence that the virus was accidentally leaked from a lab near Wuhan.

A raft of documents from Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) meetings over the past few months on coronavirus were released today.

Chinese ambassador in the UK Lui Xiaoming warned Tory MPs critical of his regime that ongoing animosity could 'poison' Sino-British relations

It came as the Chinese ambassador in the UK Lui Xiaoming warned Tory MPs critical of his regime that their ongoing animosity could 'poison' Sino-British relations.

Speaking in a China-Britain Business Council webinar today, he said: 'Such talks are a political virus.

'If they go unchecked they'll poison UK-China relations and even international solidarity.'

He insisted that the outbreak in his country was 'under control'.

Afterwards the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'We have continued to work with all of our international partners including China on the global response to this pandemic.

'The First Secretary of State (Dominic Raab) has also talked about the fact that once this response is over there are questions that need to be answered about the origin and the spread of the virus.'

A raft of documents from Sage meetings over the past few months on coronavirus were released today.

They included a statement from a sub-committee on modelling contagious disease outbreaks on February 3.

The Defence Secretary Ben Wallace yesterday reignited the war of words over whether China suppressed information about the virus

It noted: 'The number of confirmed cases of 2019-nCoV in China is estimated to be at least 10 times higher than the number currently confirmed.'

Downing Street has said China has 'questions to answer' over the outbreak and many Try MPs have voiced their own anger.

The Defence Secretary Ben Wallace yesterday reignited the war of words over whether China suppressed information about the virus - whose first cases were reported in Wuhan - which prevented other countries from taking steps to save more lives.

It came as Donald Trump's US administration scaled up its rhetoric over Chinese culpability, with the president accusing the communist state of a cover-up after making a 'horrible mistake'.

The SAGE files: Government science experts warned ministers 'immunity certificates' mean firms could discriminate against those who haven't had coronavirus - and desperate workers could TRY to get infected

Employers could shun workers who have not had coronavirus after lockdown, prompting people to actively try to catch the disease, the government's science experts warned ministers.

Secret documents prepared by the independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) last month outlined the potential drawbacks of introducing widespread antibody testing and so-called 'immunity certificates'.

Such tests would show if someone has had the disease and if they have some degree of immunity with accompanying digital certificates then showing employers the health status of staff.

Antibody tests are viewed as one of the key pieces in the puzzle when it comes to getting the UK back to work.

But SPI-B, a sub-committee of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), said introducing the tests could result in people trying to 'game' the system.

The documents suggest workers who do not have antibodies could be discriminated against, effectively creating two classes of employee, with those who have had the disease prized because of a belief that they will not get ill again.

Those who are antibody negative could then turn to trying to obtain fake test results or even trying to get ill on purpose to boost their chances of returning to work.

Meanwhile, the documents also warned positive tests could result in people wrongly thinking they no longer need to wash their hands, risking an increase in the transmission of the disease.

Those who are antibody negative could also be too afraid to leave home and could refuse to return to work, the group said.

The warnings about antibody testing came as separate documents showed scientists were urging Boris Johnson to tell people to stop shaking hands on the same day that he boasted he was still shaking hands with 'everybody'.

Newly-released records on the advice given to the government as the coronavirus crisis erupted show Mr Johnson seemingly flouted the recommendations from his own experts.

A meeting of the behavioural group that feeds into SAGE on March 3 concluded that 'Government should advise against greetings such as shaking hands and hugging, given existing evidence about the importance of hand hygiene'.

Boris Johnson, pictured in St James' Park this morning, was warned by the government's science experts that antibody testing and 'immunity certificates' could have unintended negative consequences

Mr Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock have relied heavily on advice from Professor Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance during the crisis. The four are pictured in Downing Street on March 12

Scientists advised against shaking hands on same day Boris Johnson said he was still shaking hands with 'everybody' Scientists were urging Boris Johnson to tell people to stop shaking hands the same day the PM was boasting about shaking hands with 'everybody', it was revealed today. Newly-released records on the advice given to the government as the coronavirus crisis erupted show Mr Johnson seemingly flouted the recommendations from his own experts. A meeting of the behavioural group that feeds into SAGE on March 3 concluded that 'Government should advise against greetings such as shaking hands and hugging, given existing evidence about the importance of hand hygiene'. 'A public message against shaking hands has additional value as a signal about the importance of hand hygiene,' the Independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) said. 'Promoting a replacement greeting or encouraging others to politely decline a proffered hand-shake may have benefit.' However, that evening Mr Johnson told a press conference in Downing Street that he 'continued to shake hands' and the important thing was washing them. He said: 'I was at a hospital the other night where I think there were a few coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody, you will be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands. 'People obviously can make up their own minds but I think the scientific evidence is our judgement is that washing your hands is the crucial thing.' Advertisement

A mass-produced antibody test which is accurate enough to be rolled out at a national level is yet to be identified by any country in the world.

But the UK government is hoping for a breakthrough in the near future with the tests viewed as one of the keys to getting Britain back to work.

Ministers are in talks with tech firms about developing an 'immunity certificate' app which would show if someone has been tested and if they have coronavirus antibodies.

The SPI-B committee was tasked with examining the potential negative outcomes of introducing antibody testing.

Documents written on April 13 and finally published today show such a regime could have devastating unintended consequences.

The experts warned that 'some employers may discriminate on the basis of antibody status'.

That could include not allowing people who have tested negative to return to work or only hiring people who are antibody positive.

The group said that could prompt people to try to cheat the system or to try to catch coronavirus.

The experts wrote: 'If a test result is a requirement for a resumption of work, a range of strategies to "game" the system may arise.

'These include people deliberately seeking out infection or attempting to purchase a fake test result, commercial organisations selling unapproved tests, or approved tests becoming available through private organisations at prices that make them unavailable to most.'

Meanwhile, those workers who have not had coronavirus could be too afraid to go outside, reducing their social contact to unhealthy levels, and some could simply refuse to return to work.

The group said: 'It is possible that people told they have not yet had the virus may feel more vulnerable and wish to avoid specific activities at work that pose a risk to their health, or seek to avoid attendance at work entirely.'

The group also expressed major concerns that positive tests could drastically alter people's behaviour.

Those who have tested positive for antibodies may wrongly 'believe they have no chance of becoming infected with COVID-19 in the future'.

That means that if they developed the key symptoms of a cough or fever they may not think they need to self-isolate, increasing the risk of infecting others.

Experts: More than 12 coronavirus strains were spreading across UK in March At least a dozen different strains of coronavirus were spreading through the UK in March, a Government-funded study has found. Leading genetic scientists analysed the genomes of the killer virus in 260 infected patients from all corners of the UK. They say they have identified 12 unique lines of the virus, one of which has only ever been found in Britain  meaning it mutated on UK soil. But the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK) said the number of strains is very likely substantially higher due to under-sampling in the UK. The scientists say most of the strains were imported from Italy and Spain, the worst-hit countries in the world at the time the research was carried out. There is no suggestion that any of the strains are any more potent or infectious than another, infectious disease experts say. Advertisement

People who test positive could also stop washing their hands, the scientists said, which would also boost transmission.

Scientists are yet to determine with 100 per cent certainty whether people who have had coronavirus have a high level of resistance to the disease. They are also trying to establish whether that immunity could wane over time. But total immunity has already been ruled out.

The SPI-B group also raised concerns about the accuracy of the tests and the potential for people to be given a false sense of protection.

For example, if five per cent of tests were actually incorrect then thousands of workers could wrongly believe they are safe from the disease.

This would have particularly bad consequences if people with positive antibody tests decided to volunteer for high coronavirus exposure jobs, the group said.

'Some testing Antibody Positive may actively volunteer to take on activities at work with high exposure to COVID-19,' the experts said.

'This might include customer-facing roles or tasks within health or social care that involve greater contact with COVID-19 patients.

'This would be particularly problematic if the test result was incorrect.'
Finn Partners is spearheading Britain's push to establish a Free Trade Agreement with the US in the aftermath of its exit from the European Union.

Under a $540K three-year contract with London's Department for International Trade, the independent firm faces a challenge of tackling the perception among trade & investment audiences that the UK is less innovative, creative and technologically advanced than some of its competitors.

"The relatively new Boris Johnson government, the transition after Brexit and interest in an FTA with the US provides a major opportunity to communicate the strengths of the UK at this critical moment," according to Finn Partners' contract with the DIT.

A "GREAT Ready to Trade" campaign will highlight how UK businesses are designing the future by meeting the challenges facing society and in some of the UKs key business sectors.

Finn Partners is tasked with delivering a campaign that will "build on the UKs strong free trade narrative and paint a holistic picture of the UK as a desirable trade and investment partner for North American companies," says the agreement.

The firm's messaging will promote reasons "why the UK is producing such innovative goods and services (strong talent and skills, universities, catapults, etc.), and the opportunity for international businesses to partner and grow."

Via strategic communications, digital content, media placement and events, Finn Partners will highlight the UKs innovation as well as showcasing opportunities to collaborate with North American businesses to bring to life DITs vision of being the "good news" department.

Finn Partners' Jessica Berk Ross, managing partner, and Robin Crawford, senior partner, lead the six-member DIT team.

They report to Chantal Robinson, head of marketing for DIT Americas.
Drs. Steven White and Brad Haines Offer Gum Disease Treatment to Charlotte, NC The CDC says half of Americans age 30 or older have periodontitis. This equals approximately 64.7 million Americans.

Drs. Steven White, Brad Haines and Colton Fischer of White and Haines Advanced Dentistry identify and treat gum disease in Charlotte, NC. Without proper treatment, gum disease can grow from causing mild bad breath and swollen gums to causing loose teeth and, ultimately, effecting a persons systemic health. Advancements in periodontal equipment and technology allow the team of dentists at White and Haines Advanced Dentistry to offer comfortable, reliable care that halts the progression of this common condition.

Gum disease, also known as periodontal disease, is one of the most frequently diagnosed oral concerns. However, dental patients may be asymptomatic at the very earliest gum disease stage, gingivitis. Even those who present symptoms may mistake warning signs such as bad breath, swollen gums or bleeding gum tissue for other issues.

Without proper and immediate treatment, the bacteria that cause gum disease will continue to develop and destroy healthy gum tissues. Over time, the teeth and jawbone will also be damaged, leading to tooth and bone loss unless intervention is taken. From a systemic perspective, unmanaged gum disease has been linked to critical health concerns including cardiovascular events like stroke, exacerbation of rheumatoid arthritis, complications of existing diabetes, development of certain cancers and a weakened immune system. Pregnant women who develop gum disease during gestation may increase their chances of giving birth to a baby with a lower than normal weight.

The CDC says half of Americans age 30 or older have periodontitis. This equals approximately 64.7 million Americans, explains Dr. Haines. Our office tests for and emphasizes early detection of periodontal disease and offers many options for treatment including local antibiotic placement and non-surgical periodontal therapy.

During the gingivitis stage, Drs. White, Haines and Fischer can often eradicate the underlying bacteria causing gum disease. Patients whose gum disease has moved to a more advanced stage, periodontitis, cannot completely get rid of the bacteria but can keep it from growing with routine, specialized cleanings. At White and Haines Advanced Dentistry, the dentists and staff offer a variety of leading-edge services and tools to effectively fight gum disease. From ultrasonic scaling and root planing to gentle gingivectomies and guided tissue regeneration, the dentists goal is to find and address gum disease as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Those with bad breath or swollen gums in Charlotte, NC are welcome to connect with the dentists at White and Haines Advanced Dentistry for a gum disease consultation. The practice is located in Cornelius, NC and wants to help patients eradicate gum disease before it spreads. To schedule an appointment, the office can be reached by calling 704-896-9535 or by visiting http://www.drswhiteandhaines.com.

About the Dentists

White and Haines Advanced Dentistry is a general dental practice offering personalized dental care to patients in Cornelius, NC. Dr. Steven White offers more than 20 years of experience in general and cosmetic dentistry. He has served as a mentor at the Nash Institute for Dental Learning as well as an instructor with the Advanced Aesthetics Program. Dr. Brad Haines was named a Top 40 Dentist Under 40 in Incisal Edge Magazine and brings more than a decade of experience in general and cosmetic dentistry. Dr. Colton Fischer brings a patient-centric approach to care, participating in programs that give back to the community including the North Carolina Dental Society Foundations Missions of Mercy (MOM). Drs. White, Haines, and Fischer strive to understand each patients unique set of goals to help them reach a healthy smile and they are members of the American Dental Association, Dental Organization for Conscious Sedation and Charlotte Dental Society, among many others. To learn more about Drs. White, Haines, or Fischer, or the services they offer at their practice, please visit their website at http://www.drswhiteandhaines.com or call 704-896-9535 to schedule an appointment.
Chinese paramilitary police and security officers stand guard outside an entrance to the Forbidden City in Beijing on May 1, 2020. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)

Yes, the Chinese Communist Party Endangered the World. Whats Racist About Saying So?

Commentary

On April 29, CBC News published an article critical of a recent Epoch Times special edition distributed to areas across Canada. With the front-page headline How the Chinese Communist Party Endangered the World, the eight-page issue contained a collection of articles on how Beijings coverup of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan led to the global pandemic.

The article quoted a resident of Kelowna who worried the special edition was racist and inflammatory because of its criticism of the Chinese regime, and seemed to allude to conspiracy theories for suggesting that the virus may have originated in a Chinese lab.

These concerns are widely overblown, and the article questions the journalistic integrity of Canadas national broadcaster.

Start with the lab. On the surface it sounds like a social media conspiracy theory: that the virus that causes COVID-19 came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, either deliberately or accidentally. But given that the United States has launched an investigation into the lab link, and with the U.K., Australia, and EU calling for an international probe into the origin of the outbreak, the theory has earned its place in mainstream discourse. These investigations may indeed end inconclusively, but their occurrence alone demonstrates that the theory could use some critical media examination, rather than being relegated to the status of just another conspiracy theory.

More problematic is the CBCs insinuation, in a paraphrase before quoting the Kelowna resident, that the special issues anti-Communist Party messaging could inflame racial tensions in Canada during the pandemic.

Criticism of governments and holding them to account, both in Canada and abroad, is the core purpose of an independent press and is why democratic societies hold the Fourth Estate in such high esteem. It is deeply worrying that the CBC is backing away from carrying out such journalistic scrutiny when it comes to the Chinese regime.

After all, it is now known that the viruss origin and early spread were covered up by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which censored whistleblower doctors, imprisoned journalists, and spread disinformationall while bullying and levying attacks against countries that criticized it, like the United States, Australia, and Taiwan. This is why saying that the CCP endangered the world is a fair and accurate claim. Muting such criticism for fear of causing offence is a violation of journalistic responsibility and is fundamentally un-Canadian.

Labelling criticism of the CCP as racist is music to the ears of communist propagandists. The Party has successfully exploited Canadians instinctive politeness by declaring all its critics to be racist. They equate the Party, the country, and the people all as Chineseeven those Chinese-Canadians who have never lived in China, or who fled to avoid persecution. Critics of the Party are instantly labelled as racista strategy designed to avoid scrutiny, deflect accountability, and turn the blame upon critics.

We should see equating criticism with racism for what it is: nonsense.

Our oversensitivity to racism comes from a deep-rooted Canadian desire to do right by our neighboursespecially at a time when discrimination against Asian-Canadians is rising because of the pandemic.

But we should not forget that some of the sharpest critics of the Chinese Communist Party are Chinese immigrants, including the founders of The Epoch Times. I can think of few things more racist than assuming that Chinese-Canadians must be supportive of the repressive and authoritarian ruling regime in their home country.

Alex Ra Lee is director of strategy and policy at Alliance Canada Hong Kong, a collective that mobilizes and empowers Hong Kong-Canadians to take political action. ACHK stands in support of all communities who are also suffering from the tyranny of the Chinese Communist Party, and invites Canadians to join their online campaign.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
SPRINGFIELD  Attorneys for a northwest Illinois church said Monday that they have appealed a federal judges ruling that upheld Gov. JB Pritzkers stay-at-home order as it applies to worship services.

The announcement came one day after U.S. District Judge John Z. Lee ruled against a petition by Beloved Church in Lena and its pastor, Stephen Cassell, to block the order, saying the public interest in preventing the spread of COVID-19 outweighed their First Amendment right to hold a public service with large numbers of people.

Governor Pritzkers arbitrary 10-person limit applies only to churches but not to the many other businesses open in Illinois today, from liquor stores to lawyers to pet groomers, Peter Breen, vice president and senior counsel for the Thomas More Society, which represents the church, said in a statement late Monday. Our Constitution requires that churches receive at least equal treatment as any secular enterprise. Pritzkers latest threat of jail for people of faith is outrageous, and we will seek immediate relief from the court of appeals to defend our clients.

In his ruling Sunday, Lee acknowledged that freedom of religion is a fundamental right, [b]ut even the foundational rights secured by the First Amendment are not without limits; they are subject to restriction if necessary to further compelling government interests  and, certainly, the prevention of mass infections and deaths qualifies, Lee wrote. After all, without life, there can be no liberty or pursuit of happiness.

The judge noted that more than 60,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, more than the number of people who perished during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Pearl Harbor, and the Battle of Gettysburg combined.

The suit was filed on Thursday, April 30, against Pritzker, Stephenson County Sheriff David Snyders, Lena Police Chief Steve Schaible and Craig Beintema, administrator of the Stephenson County Department of Public Health. It sought to permanently block enforcement of Pritzkers latest, revised stay-at-home order, which went into effect May 1 and extends through May 30.

Under that revised order, churches may hold public services in groups of 10 or fewer as long as they follow social distancing requirements. Despite that, the church reportedly held its regular service on Sunday. WREX-TV in Rockford reported that a public relations firm representing the church said churchgoers were provided hand sanitizer and family units were spaced 6 feet apart.

As of Monday, according to the states COVID-19 website, there have been 63 cases of the disease in Stephenson County, but so far, no deaths.

The Beloved Church case is just one legal challenge seeking to overturn the stay-at-home order. Republican Reps. Darren Bailey, of Xenia, and John Cabello, of Machesney Park, are both challenging the order in state courts.

A circuit court judge in Clay County last week ruled in favor of Baileys complaint that the order violated his civil rights. But while that case was being appealed, Bailey asked that the order be vacated and the case returned to circuit court, where he plans to file an amended complaint.

Cabellos suit challenges the legality of the order as a whole and is seeking to have it overturned statewide. A hearing in that case is scheduled for May 14 in Winnebago County.

Empty classrooms, churches, bars and stores: Southern Illinois COVID-19 impact, in photos
SILVER SPRING, Md.  Katie and Timothy Carney were searching for a larger home to accommodate their growing family. But equally important to them was finding a place within easy distance of Washingtons Metro rail line. They finally pounced when they saw a 2,500-square-foot colonial-style house in a mixed-use development less than a mile from the nearest rail stop in Silver Spring.

He can leave his office downtown and be home in 50 minutes, Mrs. Carney said of her husband, who works as a journalist at The Washington Examiner. He can walk to the transit stop in less than 15 minutes.

Thats music to the ears of planners and housing advocates trying to address the housing crisis ravaging cities like San Francisco and Seattle. But some developers worry that the coronavirus pandemic will stop the momentum as social distancing and telecommuting become the norm.

Transportation and denser housing have been the two focal points of urban residential development for the last decade, as cities try to combat a severe shortage of affordable housing. In areas where car commute times continue to climb, and freeways are at capacity, building denser communities along transit lines is seen as a panacea.
Remote psychological support services are struggling to manage COVID-19 fear and stress, as experts warn a mental illness pandemic is on its way.

In places with histories of epidemics, such as Africa, psychological issues that commonly results from disease outbreaks are re-emerging. This will contribute to a global mental health crisis, scientists warn.

There are parallels between the mental health impact of COVID-19 and what was seen during African Ebola outbreaks, says Yuval Neria, a professor of medical psychology at Columbia University.

His research looked at the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which was the largest, longest and deadliest since Ebola was discovered.

"Those at the forefront are fighting the virus itself. That doesn't leave capacity to give comfort and counselling that should be a prerequisite," he says.

"Nearly 50 per cent of families, survivors and those who had contact with survivors of Ebola had PTSD and depression."

A recent survey in Uruguay found that people there feel three times sadder, almost four times more worried and 20 per cent more lonely than at the same time last year. The percentage of people who said they were stressed went from 26 to 46 per cent, with a corresponding drop in reports of feeling tranquil.

These data are particularly concerning for regions with shortages of skilled caregivers. Africa has just 1.4 mental health workers per 100,000 people, compared with a global average of nine workers.

There is a deep-seeded misunderstanding of the unknown that we are currently experiencing, and that's driving a stigma attached to COVID-19, People do not identify themselves as being at risk of COVID-19 or possible sources of contact because of the stigma from others in their communities." Lochandra Naidoo, President of the South African Federation for Mental Health

Stigma and fear

Ncebakazi Willie, a 27-year-old survivor of COVID-19 in a rural community in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, tells SciDev.Net: "I was having an emotional break down, and it affected me and my family. People started calling my son 'corona kid' and they called my house 'corona house'."

Willie says she felt anxious and became afraid from the moment she was tested for COVID-19, feelings that continued throughout her positive test results and a 14-day isolation period.

"I was scared because people are dying from this. It's a deadly disease," she says. The feelings intensified when she received death threats.

"People wrote on social media that they were planning to kill me. I also got anonymous phone calls from someone saying they were planning to kill me in the hospital so that I wouldn't come back to the community," she says.

Remote therapies bring help closer

In Africa, at least 50 per cent of people with depression do not receive treatment and a lack of information, stigma and cultural issues are significant barriers to people seeking help, says Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization regional director for Africa.

But, online and phone-based therapies are being established across the developing world to plug the gaps in health systems and provide support to those struggling with their mental health.

Substance abuse and gambling support groups, as well as regular counselling services are offering psychological support via phone, email and video conferencing tools.

The Argentine Psychoanalytic Association created a free helpline for referrals to counsellors. In Latin America, calls to domestic violence hotlines have increased up to 70 per cent, leading some services, such as those in Brazil, to expand online.

The Costa Rican Social Security Fund began a pilot plan for virtual visitsby relatives to hospitalised patients, using tablets and phone calls, to improve patients' moods and health.

In Argentina support is also being offered to another group vulnerable to psychological stress  frontline health workers.The Ministry of Health has set up a telemedicine system for workers who are distressed or need support.

Ongoing consequences of COVID-19 crisis

"Pandemics like these are not just medical phenomena;they also affect everyone's quality of life, causing social dysfunction," says Debanjan Banerjee, a psychiatrist at the India's National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience, in a letter to theAsian Journal of Psychiatry.

Biologist Bettina Tassino, from Uruguay's University of the Republic, tells SciDev.Netpeople are experiencing disrupted sleep as body clocks are altered from spending more time inside.

"Being indoors leads us to be less exposed to natural light during the day and this has consequences for the secretion of melatonin [the hormone that helps regulate the sleep cycle] at night," she says. "Where every day and hour seem the same, we function uncoupled from the environmental keys that adjust circadian rhythms."

Mental health practitioners agree the world is facing a desperate psychological situation.

Saths Cooper, president of the Pan-African Psychology Union, attributes the lack of attention to mental health issues in Africa to ailing health systems, which will compound pandemic-driven restrictions such as social distancing and isolation.

"A second pandemic of mental health problems related to COVID-19 is coming and we are not ready," says Neria.
The spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Bangkok

(Reuters) - Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:

Health over economy

Two-thirds of more than 13,200 survey respondents in 11 countries including China, France, Germany, India, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the United States agreed that their governments should prioritise saving lives over restarting economies.

"It's complicated because you have two crises simultaneously - a health crisis and an economic crisis," said Richard Edelman, chief executive of U.S. communications firm Edelman, which did the survey.

"But people are saying, 'We've already had six to seven weeks of this (restriction on activity), what's another week or two?'"

No choice but to continue working

Almost a month after Tokyo declared a state of emergency, dozens of call centre employees still commute into crowded offices, and a labour union has received more than 100 calls from operators worried about their safety in the last month.

Some who opted to take leave were told it would hurt their careers, a representative of the labour union said.

Japan Inc has been reluctant to embrace telecommuting, with firms citing concerns about data security. Companies also fear a decline in worker productivity and customer service.

Under the post-World War Two constitution, the government cannot order companies to close, but it has tried to curb infections while keeping the economy ticking over by encouraging a reduction in person-to-person contact.

Tipping point

An internal Chinese report presented early last month by its Ministry of State Security to top Beijing leaders including President Xi Jinping concluded that global anti-China sentiment was at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and could result in confrontation with the United States, people familiar with the paper told Reuters.

China has been accused by the United States of suppressing early information on the virus, which was first detected in the central city of Wuhan, and downplaying its risks.

Story continues

Beijing has repeatedly denied that it covered up the extent or severity of the virus outbreak.

Relations between China and the United States are widely seen to be at their worst in decades, with deepening mistrust and points of friction, from U.S. accusations of unfair trade and technology practices, to disputes over Hong Kong, Taiwan and contested territories in the South China Sea.

Bright spot

With its commodities sector suffering only minor disruptions from the coronavirus, Western Australia is one of the world's few bright spots, even as the national economy faces its first recession in three decades.

Economists, miners and farmers believe global demand for food and iron ore will mark a return to prosperity for the region that fell into the doldrums in 2014.

Western Australia has succeeded in stopping almost all new infections and analysts expect the state to lead a national recovery.

(Compiled by Karishma Singh; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
LONDON, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Chubb has today announced the appointment of Robert Wilson as Deputy Chief Underwriting Officer and Head of Underwriting Operations for Chubb Global Markets (CGM).

In his new role Robert will have responsibility for growing the business and to further enhance the operational resilience and underwriting of CGM, which comprises Chubb's London Market wholesale and specialty business including the company's Lloyd's platform.

Robert will report to Jason Keen, Division President, Chubb Global Markets. He will continue to be based in London and the appointment is effective immediately.

Previously Business Development Manager for CGM, Robert first joined Chubb in 2009 as part of its Overseas General Ceded Re team. Prior to that he worked as a reinsurance treaty broker with Marsh, JLT and Aon.

Jason Keen, Division President, Chubb Global Markets, said:

"One of Chubb's many strengths is our ability to develop and promote from within and acknowledge talent across the company. Robert's appointment is testament to this and reflects the enormous contribution he has made already to the success of CGM. I am delighted to appoint Robert to his new role and look forward to working closely with him to navigate the wholesale market's challenging headwinds and trading conditions, while ensuring we continue to deliver for our clients and producer partners."

About Chubb

Chubb is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. With operations in 54 countries and territories, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. As an underwriting company, we assess, assume and manage risk with insight and discipline. We service and pay our claims fairly and promptly. The company is also defined by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength and local operations globally. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London, Paris and other locations, and employs approximately 33,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at: www.chubb.com

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The young Vietnamese diaspora in Cambodia is facing a blockage in attempts to resume education at schools in Vietnam as the countrys borders remain under tight control due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

An Giang is a province in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam with a shared border with Cambodia.

Due to the presence of a large Vietnamese community on the other side of the border, public schools in An Giang welcome every year a bevy of Vietnamese students who travel across the border from Cambodia for education.

Prior to the epidemic, the students could go to school in Vietnam and then come back to Cambodia within the same day.

With borders being put under strict monitoring in accordance with Vietnams COVID-19 prevention and control measures, these students are facing obstacles in attending Vietnamese schools which have been reopened since Monday.

Any person crossing the border from Cambodia into Vietnam is now required to undergo 14-day isolation at a centralized facility.

Tran Thi Ngoc Diem, director of An Giangs Department of Education and Training, said on Monday that the province saw 363,000 students from 531 schools of all educational stages  except for pre-schools and kindergartens  resume classes on Monday after a three-month hiatus to hinder COVID-19s spread.

The attendance rate for high school was 97.76 percent, while the figures for middle school and elementary school were 95.25 percent and 94.73 percent, respectively.

Most notably, there were seven students of Vietnamese origin living in Cambodia who have agreed to enter Vietnam and be quarantined at a centralized facility for 14 days as per regulations so that they could catch up with their schools curricula as early as possible.

These students are receiving lessons through television, the Internet, and printed materials supplied by teachers to their quarantine zone. After the isolation period, they will be able to attend school again, Diem said.

Thousands of other Vietnamese students in Cambodia cant afford to do the same. They dont have a place to stay in Vietnam to pursue education, even if they agree to undergo a 14-day isolation period.

According to the provincial Department of Education and Training, An Giangs An Phu District, which borders Cambodia, had reported 1,254 Vietnamese students 'stuck' in Cambodia due to border control measures as of Monday, two hundreds of whom are in ninth grade.

Schools in the province have been conducting online classes, yet the average attendance rate in such remote schooling sessions has been a meager five percent.

Other provinces in the Mekong Delta also reported a considerable number of students who were absent on the first day of school reopening this week.

Long An Province recorded 1,629 middle school students and 472 high school students who did not show up in class on Monday.

The most common reason given by the students families for their absence was 'family business.'

On the first day of pre-school and elementary school reopening in Ca Mau Province on Monday, 94.77 percent of the latter's students showed up, with 3,560 marked absent.

The attendance rate was 67.6 percent among pre-schoolers, with 11,365 marked absent.

All 63 provinces and cities of Vietnam have announced plans to get students back to school, with most universities, colleges, high schools, and middle schools being the first to reopen from May 4, while pre-schools and elementary schools are set to follow suit later this month.

Vietnam has eased weeks of social distancing rules from April 23, but people are still required to wear face masks and avoid any gathering of more than 30 people in public places.

The Southeast Asian country has reported 271 patients to date, with 232 having recovered and no deaths.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Authorities identified 26-year-old Delvis Paulino-Fernandez Tuesday as the man slain in a drive-by shooting in Lawrence over the weekend that injured two others.

Police responded shortly after 9 p.m. on Sunday to a report of shots fired at 141 Newton St., the Essex District Attorneys office said in a statement.

Paulino-Fernandez, who lived at 141 Newton St., was found dead at the scene, the statement said.

The two other men who were shot were taken to Lawrence General Hospital, where they were treated and eventually released, according to the district attorneys office.

People were gathered outside at the time of the incident when someone drove by in a car and shot at them, Carrie Kimball, a spokesperson for the district attorney, told MassLive.

The shooting remains under investigation.

Related Content: One man killed, two others injured in drive-by triple shooting in Lawrence
District residents will continue to suffer unless city leaders ask themselves, How can we come out of this disruption better than we went in? With the coronavirus upheaval, our government and business leaders have an opportunity to reshape components of the city so that they are better than before the pandemic. Weve seen how much more vulnerable the working class and specific D.C. communities are to health hazards. How can we make these residents safer? What can we take from the learn-at-home experience that might better educate D.C. students?
[May 05, 2020] Assurant Acquires American Financial & Automotive Services

Assurant, Inc. (NYSE: AIZ), a leading global provider of lifestyle and housing solutions that support, protect and connect major consumer purchases, today announced it has acquired American Financial & Automotive Services, Inc. (AFAS). AFAS is a provider of auto finance and insurance products and services, including vehicle service contracts, guaranteed asset protection insurance, and other ancillary products sold directly through a network of nearly 600 franchised dealership clients across 40 states. Assurant has been the primary provider of vehicle service contracts and related auto products and services sold by AFAS for over 20 years. AFAS CEO and founder, Arden Hetland, along with the AFAS management team, will join Assurant upon the closing of the transaction. "Following our acquisition of The Warranty Group, our agreement to acquire AFAS further underscores our confidence in the long-term growth potential of the global automotive market," said John Laudenslager, president of Assurant Global Automotive. "Having Arden and his team join Assurant gives us the benefit of their years of experience and expertise, which we will count on as we continue to grow the business together." With nearly two million vehicle service contracts in-force, AFAS will provide greater scale and operating efficiencies, and the ability to benefit from long-term favorable market trends that support increasing vehicle service contract attachment rates. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, AFAS has over 200 employees and differentiates itself competitively within the auto third-party administrator distribution channel with its tenured field force, extensive dealer training programs, technology platforms, and 40 years of industry leadership. Hetland will lead the AFAS business, focusing on delivering an even more superior client experiece. "Joining Assurant enables AFAS to benefit from the global expertise, scale and breadth of an industry leader," said Hetland. "Having partnered with us for so many years, they clearly value our team's depth of experience and high-touch relationship approach, which are key factors in our shared commitment to servicing clients and growing the business."



AFAS will retain its brand and continue to operate as a separate direct-to-dealer channel under Assurant Global Automotive, throughout a multi-year transition process. The transition will focus on building a seamless customer experience that integrates the best of each company's offerings. About Assurant

Assurant, Inc. (NYSE: AIZ) is a leading global provider of lifestyle and housing solutions that support, protect and connect major consumer purchases. Anticipating the evolving needs of consumers, Assurant partners with the world's leading brands to develop innovative products and services and to deliver an enhanced customer experience. A Fortune 500 company with a presence in 21 countries, Assurant offers mobile device solutions; extended service contracts; vehicle protection services; pre-funded funeral insurance; renters insurance; lender-placed insurance products; and other specialty products. The Assurant Foundation strengthens communities by supporting charitable partners that help protect where people live and can thrive, connect with local resources, inspire inclusion and prepare leaders of the future. Learn more at assurant.com or on Twitter (News - Alert) @AssurantNews. About American Financial & Automotive Services, Inc. For over 40 years, American Financial & Automotive Services, Inc. (AFAS) has assisted dealers nationwide in maximizing profits, legally and ethically. Putting client's needs first and exceeding their expectations has been the driving force behind AFAS' continued growth in the automotive industry. AFAS' proven status as a market leader is based on the ideal that by combining experienced personnel and a portfolio of innovative products and services, backed and insured by the industry's strongest carriers, each dealership can reach their true profit potential. # # # Cautionary Statement Some of the statements included in this press release, including with respect to the closing of the proposed transaction and the benefits and synergies from the proposed transaction, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are based on management's best estimates, assumptions and projections and are subject to significant uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Neither Assurant nor American Financial undertakes any obligation to update or review any forward-looking statements included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or other developments. For a detailed discussion of risk factors that could affect Assurant's results, please refer to the risk factors identified in Assurant's annual and periodic reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005962/en/

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She was supposed to move into a new place with her boyfriend Seb Guilhaus on Sydney's Northern Beaches, earlier this year.

But Married At First Sight's Elizabeth Sobinoff has been forced to continue living with her parents at their family cottage in Newcastle, after the coronavirus pandemic canceled the couple's plans.

The Sobinoffs purchased their family home for $305,000 in 1999, and it has been the perfect backdrop for Elizabeth's influencer career since the brunette found fame last year.

Staying put! Married At First Sight's Elizabeth Sobinoff has been forced to continue living with her parents at their family cottage in Newcastle, after the coronavirus pandemic canceled her plans to move in with boyfriend, Seb Guilhaus

When she's not away filming or visiting Seb, she shares her never-ending stream of selfies and sponsored posts from various locations around the property.

Her favourite spot is the terrace, which has cosy chairs and a decorative railing.

The sun-kissed backyard is also regularly featured in Elizabeth's photographs, where she is often seen posing on the family bench or using potted plants for props in her social media content.

Picturesque! The Sobinoffs purchased their family home for $305,000 in 1999, and the property has proven to be the perfect backdrop for Elizabeth's influencer career over the last 15 months

Cosy! On Monday, Elizabeth shared a picture of herself relaxing in the family's comfortable lounge room. She sat on one of their leather chairs with a tea pot and chocolate bunny beside here while she watched some TV

On Monday, Elizabeth shared a picture of herself relaxing in the family's comfortable lounge room.

She sat on one of their leather chairs with a tea pot and chocolate bunny beside here while she watched some TV.

'Please do some kind things for yourself': In April, Elizabeth shared a picture of herself enjoying a candlelit bath while self-isolating

Photo op! Her favourite spot for selfies, sponsored posts and taking pictures with friends is the front terrace, which has cosy wicker chairs and a decorative railing

In April, Elizabeth shared a picture of herself enjoying a candlelit bath while self-isolating.

'During this time please remind yourself that you are amazing and please do some kind things for yourself,' she captioned the photograph.

Over the past two years, Elizabeth has often posed for pictures in her home's bathroom.

Perfect spot! Over the past two years, Elizabeth has often posed for pictures in her home's bathroom

Beachy! She has also given fans a glimpse inside her cosy bedroom. Elizabeth's bedroom walls are blue at the bottom and yellow at the top, with a paper boarder featuring pictures of the sun dividing the two beachy colours

She has also given fans a glimpse inside her cosy bedroom.

Elizabeth's bedroom walls are blue at the bottom and yellow at the top, with a paper boarder featuring pictures of the sun dividing the two beachy colours.

The star welcomed Married At First Sight viewers into the family home in March.

Viewers watched as Elizabeth's mother Gillian quizzed Seb over his future prospects around their sizeable dining room, while they all sat under a chandelier.

Family dinner: The star welcomed Married At First Sight viewers into the family home in March. Viewers watched as Elizabeth's mother Gillian quizzed Seb over his future prospects around their sizeable dining room, while they all sat under a chandelier
Minister Simon Coveney said plan would be hard to sell

Health officials advised that over-70s should keep cocooning in their homes until August, but were overruled by the Cabinet.

The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) recommended cocooning for older and vulnerable people should remain in place for the next four months in the original draft of the road map for re-opening the country.

However, after a cabinet debate, ministers decided to remove the recommendation from the Government's Road Map for Reopening Society and Business.

The revelation comes as over-70s are today allowed to leave their homes once a day to exercise.

Last Friday, ministers were presented with plans for reducing social distancing by Nphet, the emergency response team chaired by Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan.

The framework document set out five phases for easing restrictions introduced to limit the spread of Covid-19.

In phase five, which the Government decided will start on August 10, Nphet recommended the continuance of "cocooning of over-70s and the extremely medically vulnerable until the later phases due to a higher risk".

However, during a cabinet meeting, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe raised concerns about the recommendation.

He was supported by Tanaiste Simon Coveney, Agriculture Minister Michael Creed, Culture Minister Josepha Madigan and Transport Minister Shane Ross.

Anger

Mr Coveney said the document would be "hard to sell" to older people who have been asked to cocoon in their homes for the past three weeks.

There was concern that the reference to older people being asked to continue to cocoon in the final phase of the road map would anger those who have been asked to stay in their homes.

Ministers also said the recommendation was confusing, as phase two advises an easing of restrictions for over-70s, which will see them allowed to visit family and go shopping at certain times in June.

It was also noted that the document makes reference to World Health Organisation guidance that recommends "cocooning measures for the over-70s and for those in at-risk groups be continued".

Ministers felt this was a more appropriate way of addressing cocooning rather than mentioning it directly in the final stages of the road map.

"It was already in the document and didn't need to be stated like that because cocooning is something that can evolve over time, so you couldn't be so definitive about it," a cabinet source said.

The meeting also heard that Health Minister Simon Harris is required to bring a report to the Cabinet before progressing between phases, and this will directly address the impact of the easing of measures on older people

After some debate, ministers agreed to remove the reference to older people cocooning in the final phase of the plan.

Department of the Taoiseach officials are said to have raised similar concerns.

"Nphet is fine with it, it was seen as more of a textual change than a substantive change," a government source said.

Last week, Dr Holohan described the cocooning measures as "draconian" and said the plight of older people was at the "top of our minds".

"We'll give ongoing consideration to these people in vulnerable groups for whom the most difficult measures are continuing," he said.
Help India!

By TCN News

NEW DELHI: Scholars and activists from all sections of Indian civil society have come out in support of Dr Zafarul Islam Khan, the Delhi Minorities Commissioner days after he was booked for sedition by Delhi Police.

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Pertinently, a delegation of Delhi BJP MLAs had met Governor Anil Baijal demanding registration of a case against him.

Jamaat-e-Islami, Popular Front, Campus Front, Students Islamic Organization of India and other groups have condemned sedition charges against Dr Khan.

Popular Front Chairman O M A Salam said, This is indicative of the very low level of individual targeting and character assassination ongoing in our country under the patronage of BJP government, expressing that a malicious campaign of vilification of Indian Muslims is being perpetuated by Hindutva agents.

Praising his efforts for speaking out against extremism and intolerance, Syed Sadatullah Hussaini of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind has said that if Khan says something against the growing extremism and communalism in the country, then it should be taken as his love for the people and the nation and as part of his ongoing fight against extremism and radicalism.

The supporters of Khan have also quoted his latest clarification he issued after media reported he had deleted his tweet.

In the last few days, several media agencies had published in the last few days that he has apologized and deleted his tweet of thanking Kuwait for supporting Indian Muslims, but Dr Khan has refuted the claims in a statement.

I have apologized not for the tweet itself but because it was ill-timed and insensitive in the midst of a medical emergency faced by our country, Dr Khan said in a statement.

Khan was booked under sedition charges after special cell of Delhi Police received a complaint against one of his tweets calling out Islamophobia by Indians on Arab social media.

In the statement, the renowned Muslim writer and intellectual clarified that I will continue, now and in future, the fight against hate politics in the country.

Dr Khan further said that FIRs arrests and imprisonments do not change the course he had chosen for representing a secular India.

A number of individuals including Kavita Krishnan, Saba Naqvi, Iftikhar Gilani, Mariya Salim, Shamsul Islam, and many other professors, doctors, journalists and activists have spoken in support of Dr Khan.

A public statement, signed by more than 50 individuals, NGOs and groups was also released to condemn FIR on Dr Khan, stating that any attack and targeting of him, is actually an insult to Indian constitution and ethos. The signatories of the public statement have demanded strong legal action against those who are distorting Dr Khans Facebook post, and spreading vicious false propaganda against him.
A man allegedly tried to strangle his ex-partner when she broke the news she had suffered a miscarriage, a court has heard.

The accused, who is in his early 20s, cannot be named for legal reasons.

He appeared before Judge Grainne Malone at Dublin District Court charged with five counts of breaking a protection order, within the first week of it being issued.

Garda Christina Lawless objected to bail and said the injured party, a woman also in her 20s, was in fear for hear life and will no longer stay in her own home.

She said the protection order was issued on April 20 and served on the accused when he was contacted and asked to attend Tallaght Garda station. The man could face assault charges.

Garda Lawless agreed with defence counsel Kevin McCrave that the accused had been invited by the complainant to come to her house on Friday.

However, she added this was to tell him that she had suffered a miscarriage and she had contacted him because he was the father and she wanted to make him aware.

It was alleged that he became very agitated and assaulted her and began to strangle her.

The accused claimed not to understand the protection order issued in his absence following an ex parte application in the family law courts.

Garda Lawless said that when the man was aware of the reason for his arrest.

She also said evidence included photographs and messages.

Garda Lawless said the woman was now afraid to stay in her own home.

He was also alleged that he made a threat against his former partner.

The court heard that on the day he was served a copy of the protection order he waved a copy of it at her from a car as he verbally abused the woman.

Counsel said his client had just received a copy of the order and had not realised its significance. The garda told the court it would have been explained to him when the order was served.

Mr McCrave suggested the court could impose a number of strict bail conditions and his client could reside at an address in the midlands.

The accused is on a disability benefit and explained to the court that he suffered from a mental health problem.

The judge noted he had no prior convictions or any history of bench warrants. The protection order did not bar him from the womans house but it did bar him from putting her in fear, she said.

She noted the garda evidence, fears of witness intimidation and the seriousness of the charges. However, she had not heard evidence that he had breached a bail order. The charge of breaching a protection order has not yet been decided, that was an allegation but she had to be concerned at the seriousness of the case.

As a consequence money would have to be lodged for bail to be granted.

It was set in his own bond of 100 and required a 350 independent surety to be approved. He was ordered to live at an address in the midlands, have no contact with the woman and to stay away from parts of west of Dublin. He was also ordered to provide gardai with a contact phone number.

A date for the full hearing of his case has yet to be set
Egyptian security forces said Sunday that they had killed Islamic State (IS) militants in a battle in the Sinai Peninsula.

Egyptian police raided an IS hideout in a small village and exchanged fire with them, killing 18, according to The Associated Press. Egypts Interior Ministry did not say when the firefight took place and The Associated Press could not confirm the information due to press restrictions in the Sinai Peninsula.

In a statement posted to its Facebook page Sunday, the Egyptian army said the military and police destroyed dozens of hideouts, cars and explosive devices belonging to terrorists in ground and air raids in Sinai. The statement did not say when the operation took place.

This confirms the armed forces and polices continuation in their struggle to find terrorists, the statement read.

However, the London-based Arabic-language news site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed published an article today with a different version of the events. From Saturday night to Sunday morning, Egyptian police took a group of prisoners to an area in Sinai, sealed it off, and then shot them to death, the article read  citing an unnamed source.

Pictures the army released alongside the statement show men with blurred faces laying on the ground in a desert area.

The announcement follows IS April 30 attack on Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai peninsula. Up to 10 soldiers were killed when an improvised explosive device targeted a military vehicle, and IS later claimed credit for the bombing.

The Sinai Peninsula is a strategic area in the Middle East that hosts the Suez Canal and connects to Egypts mainland on the African continent. The Egyptian government has plans to develop the desert area with several infrastructure, water and agriculture projects.

Security has long been an issue on the peninsula and for its inhabitants. Last year, some residents told Al-Monitor the Egyptian government forcibly removed them from their homes amid its conflict with IS.
Health officials have come under fire as they have not published the number of care homes dealing with Covid-19 outbreaks for almost a week.

A daily record of the number of care home outbreaks has not been updated since last Wednesday, when it revealed that the total from Tuesday stood at 70.

The Department of Health has not said why it has stopped releasing the information, or whether it will provide the figure again in the future - despite the fact that Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill last week said of Covid-19 that "the battle is now in our care homes".

Former Health Minister Jim Wells has hit out at the failure by the Department of Health to keep the public informed about the most up-to-date situation in care homes in Northern Ireland as "totally unacceptable".

The DUP MLA, whose wife, Grace, lives in a care home after she suffered a series of debilitating strokes, said: "It does raise suspicions that the situation is so bad that the Department of Health is too embarrassed to release the figures.

"It is totally unacceptable that the public isn't being kept informed, they can't hide behind patient confidentiality, it is essential that they are open and transparent about what is happening in care homes.

"When you look back at the situation with Swine Flu, it emerged that 13 people had died and that had been kept quiet and the explanation that was given was that they didn't want to cause alarm.

"However, husbands, wives, guardians, children, they all have a right to know what is happening in care homes in case they wish to take their loved one out of a care home in the event of an outbreak.

"I'm not saying that families would necessarily want to do that, but at least they would have the information to make the decision that works best for them.

"I do fear that up and down the country, the situation in care homes is deteriorating very quickly.

"The hospitals are coping remarkably well, but it is certainly the case that the battlefront is now in care homes, and that's why it is so important that this figure is updated on a daily basis."

Alliance Party health spokeswoman Paula Bradshaw, who is a member of the Stormont health committee, also hit out at the failure to update the care home outbreak figure.

She said: "I see no reason that this information has been withdrawn.

"The Northern Ireland Statistic and Research Agency figures show that the number of people dying in care homes is an increasing share of the total.

"This only re-emphasises that we need full transparency on what the situation is in care homes."

Health officials have come under increasing pressure to take measures to slow the spread of the virus in care homes across Northern Ireland.

They have faced repeated criticism for their handling of the sector, including delays to implement a comprehensive testing policy, admitting people to care homes without knowing whether they have Covid-19, and a lack of personal protective equipment for staff. Concerns have been raised over the response to date given the fact that Covid-19 is known to be most dangerous to elderly people with pre-existing health conditions.

Last week, a whistleblower revealed care home staff are working between residents who have Covid-19 and those who are healthy.
New Delhi: Walmart-owned Flipkart on Tuesday said it has appointed Sriram Venkataraman as the Chief Financial Officer for Flipkart Commerce (Flipkart and Myntra) with immediate effect.

Venkataraman succeeds Emily McNeal, who held the role of Flipkart Group CFO since September 2018. She has decided to return to the US to pursue a career opportunity outside the Walmart Group, a statement said.

In his new role, Venkataraman will be responsible for key finance operations and functions at Flipkart and Myntra, including tax, risk management and treasury, it added.

He will also be responsible for corporate development at Flipkart, while heads of Procurement, Planning and Analytics and Decision Sciences will continue to report to him, the statement said.

"Sriram has consistently demonstrated his expertise managing several diverse functions at Flipkart and is well poised to take on the responsibilities as Flipkart Commerce CFO.... We thank Emily for her leadership and guidance in strengthening the governance process and financial reporting at Flipkart post the Walmart investment," Flipkart Group Chief Executive Officer Kalyan Krishnamurthy said.

He added that McNeal was instrumental in driving key investments that have enhanced the company's hyperlocal and fresh food capabilities, and had been a strong partner in the organisation's diversity and inclusivity journey.

Venkataraman - who most recently served as the CFO and COO at Flipkart - will now begin reporting to Chris Nicholas, Executive Vice President and CFO at Walmart International.

Dawn Marie Ptak, Vice President and Group Controller, continues to be responsible for the group controllership and the divisional controllership functions for Flipkart, Myntra and PhonePe reporting to the International Controller in Walmart International.

Ptak will take on the responsibility of the Flipkart Group Corporate Level responsibilities for tax, treasury, risk management, financial planning and analysis, and internal audits, the statement said.
As some Houston offices that closed due to coronavirus are asking employees to get back to work, the state allows some workers to choose not to, while collecting unemployment.

Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott announced new Texas Workforce Commission guidelines for Texans receiving unemployment benefits.
May 05, 2020





Artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud computing, and gene editing are just a few of the most significant technological advancements of the last century. And, if you come to think about it, we owe most of our health and safety to such advancements.







We live in a world that is more interconnected than ever, and technology is contributing to keep this world as safe as possible both in our personal and professional life. For the past decade, multiple technologies have helped turn hazardous working places, such as construction sites or manufacturing plants, into safe workplaces with minimum risks.

Below are seven ways technology can help turn the workplace into an even safer environment if companies start implementing them right away.

State-of-the-art training software

One of the main reasons for workplace injuries is improper use of machinery or equipment. Oftentimes, this happens because employees have not been given the proper training to safely use the equipment, or because training courses are not as comprehensive as they should be.

Thanks to virtual reality, which has become a very popular training tool, employees can now immerse themselves in a simulated environment that is identical to the one they are working in, to learn how to properly use certain equipment. This way, they can be put in potentially hazardous situations, without actually being exposed to risks.

Augmented reality can also be used in training, as it allows workers to experience bot the real world and enhanced features simultaneously. Even though they involve a higher initial cost, these technologies can turn out to be cost-effective in the long term, as they eliminate the need for human trainers or instructors.

3D visualization and data technology

Employees that are required to work in remote or secluded environments, such as mine workers, for example, are often exposed to many unknown risks. By using 3D visualization technology, paired with real-time data from the location, they can collect real-time insights about the place, knowing is there are potential risks involved. 3D visualization technology can help digitally recreate environments so that workers can analyze then and determine the safest procedures they can use.

Sewer inspectors, for example, which are known to work in hazardous environments, can use cameras to survey hardly-accessible areas and see if they are safe to enter. This way, they are not entering uncharted territory and can be protected from potential harms.

It can be compared to how doctors use cameras to assist them in surgery, in order to perform less invasive procedures.

IoT technology

Lately, Internet of Things technology has been used in many industries, including workplace safety. IoT technology helps connect machines or equipment through the use of the internet, so that they can send or receive information.

Mainly, there are two IoT categories that can help improve workplace safety: wearable technology and machines connected to devices:

Equipment monitoring

As Corey Pollard, workers compensation lawyer in Virginia points out, malfunctioning equipment is one of the major reasons for workplace injuries. But if the equipment is kept in a good state, then these injuries can be avoided. IoT technology can help equip machinery with sensors that monitor operations and can signal if there is a problem with it. This way, the repair can be done promptly, to avoid issues and reduce costs.

Wearable technology

Wearable devices can be used to monitor vital workers vital signs such as temperature, heart rate, or blood oxygen levels so that employees working in dangerous environments can be protected. This wat, if a workers temperature, for example, reaches unhealthy levels, the device can send a signal, and operations can stop.

Wearable technology can monitor environmental conditions as well, and alert workers if a certain area is safely accessible. For example, employees working in areas with harmful gases can wear gas monitoring devices, which can alert them if high levels of carbon monoxide or other toxic gases are present.

Health and safety management software

Another type of technology that has been proven very efficient for keeping the workplace safe is called environmental, health, and safety (EHS) management software. This can be typically purchased from software development companies that either create off-the-shelf or customized products.

Although EHS management software can be custom-tailored to fit a companys needs, they typically help businesses with the following:

Risk analyzing and developing plans for risk reduction

Record and evaluate workplace-related accidents, to improve prevention

Monitor employee health and safety

Comply with OSHA rules and environment regulations

Surveillance drones

Drones are small flying devices equipped with sensors and cameras, that can surveil areas and send information to the person operating them. These aircrafts are small, easy to use, and quite inexpensive, and can travel long distances.

They can be used to inspect secluded or uncharted areas, which could otherwise be difficult or dangerous to access. Examples include rooftops, high-rise construction sites, or disaster zones. This way, they can make sure that the area is safe to access and reduce the potential for safety risks.

Robotics

There is probably no technology that revolutionized workplace safety more than robotics. Robotic technology can help reduce tedious tasks and improve employee efficiency. Repetitive and dull tasks can result in stressful work environments, reducing attention span, and promoting accidents.

The manufacturing industry is probably the one benefiting most from robotics assistance, as collaborative robots can now work alongside humans. And because of new technologies, robots are equipped with sensors to detect human workers and cease operations if someone is too close to them and could get hurt.

Wearable devices

Not everyone is the same, meaning that what isnt harmful to a person can create serious issues for someone else. People could have allergies or health conditions they are not aware of, and certain work environments can accentuate those issues.

By using wearable devices, businesses can monitor employee health and ensure they are not exposed to threatening situations. Data can then be stored and analyzed, providing monthly health reports to employers. These can also be helpful when creating healthcare plans for employees so that they can be customized to fit their needs.
-Unprecedented policies to resume production, ease financial pressure, boost market confidence and prevent debt risks have been rolling out in each country, while the world waits to see if the measures work.

-The epidemic will function as a catalyst to accelerate the shift of global supply chains, according to media outlets.

-A global crisis needs a global response. From the research and development of drugs and vaccines, to information sharing and resource mobilization, none of these can live without global efforts and coordination.

BEIJING, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The world has rarely seen, if ever, four market circuit breakers and negative oil prices during the same period, while numerous planes are grounded in some of the world's busiest airports and production has stopped in plants across the world.

Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, the United States, (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)

The sudden outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease, or COVID-19, has frozen the world economy and presented the toughest financial outlook in decades.

Can the world economy recover? Will there be a transformation in globalization and supply chains? What are the opportunities after the pandemic?

Those are questions concerning the well-being of humankind, and demand immediate answers.

HOPE AMID RECESSION

"It's just gut-wrenching," dairy farmer Jason Leedle from the U.S. state of Wisconsin, who has recently had to dump more than 10 tons of milk each day, told visiting Reuters reporters.

Mass closures of restaurants and bakeries have driven down demand, while logistics are not up and running as usual.

"All I can see is that line going down the drain," Leedle said.

The extraordinary picture reflects the obvious toll of COVID-19 on the economy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects that the global economy is on track to contract sharply by 3 percent in 2020, making it the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters is seen in Washington D.C., the United States, April 13, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Cumulative loss to global GDP over 2020 and 2021 from the pandemic could be around 9 trillion U.S. dollars, greater than the economies of Japan and Germany combined, the IMF has also said.

One cannot help but asking: Is it going to be a long-term recession, or just a short-period contraction?

The IMF predicted in a report published in April that the COVID-19 outbreaks in most countries will peak in the second quarter and then subside in the second half of this year.

The report also expects that global growth in 2021 will rebound based on that assumption. But it also warns that the recession could go deeper and last longer for lack of global coordination.

Stephen Roach, a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute of Global Affairs, told Xinhua recently that unlike the financial crisis in 2008-2009, when "a crisis began in the financial sector and spread to the real economy," today's crisis is one "that has begun in the real economy and spread back to the financial sector," as countries worldwide try to contain the spread at the expense of massive lockdowns and the halting of economic activities.

Unprecedented policies to resume production, ease financial pressure, boost market confidence and prevent debt risks have been rolling out in each country, while the world waits to see if the measures work.

CHINA AND SUPPLY CHAINS

COVID-19 has disrupted global supply chains, particularly those among multinational corporations, making them rethink the relationship between interest and stability.

The epidemic will function as a catalyst to accelerate the shift of global supply chains, according to media outlets.

The idea for future supply chains is nothing but to strike a new balance between cost savings and supply chain resilience, Gu Qingyang, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

A recent survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in China and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) showed that almost 70 percent of U.S. companies say they have no plan to relocate production to outside of China due to COVID-19.

A container is lifted at Erenhot Port in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, April 11, 2020. (Xinhua/Lian Zhen)

"We are very confident in the Chinese market. We will make another successful year with partners in China," Jean-Paul Agon, chairman and CEO of L'Oreal Group, has told Xinhua recently.

China has the world's most complete industrial support system and ecological system, abundant financing ability, a vast high-quality workforce, and increasing scientific and technological innovation ability, Gu said.

"China occupies a central position in the global industrial chain and supply chain," he added.

BEYOND ECONOMY

Emergencies "fast-forward historical processes," wrote Yuval Noah Harari, the author of "Sapiens," "Homo Deus" and "21 Lessons for the 21st Century," in an article titled "The world after coronavirus" on the Financial Times website.

When countries are in trouble and face an economic slump, there are signs that skepticism of globalization resurfaces, along with decoupling theories. Some say the pandemic is one of the latest tests for globalization.

The advantages of the powerful deployment of labor and resources -- thanks to globalization -- will not be easily altered by the COVID-19 pandemic, which will wane eventually.

A global crisis needs a global response. From the research and development of drugs and vaccines, to information sharing and resource mobilization, none of these can live without global efforts and coordination.

Aircrafts are parked on the tarmac at Paris Orly airport in France, April 3, 2020. (Photo by Aurelien Morissard/Xinhua)

As Harari wrote, "both the epidemic itself and the resulting economic crisis are global problems. They can be solved effectively only by global cooperation."

The world has witnessed quick actions to strengthen global governance, which is now embracing opportunities to upgrade itself.

The Group of 20 has set out agendas ranging from stimulus plans and energy security to debt alleviation within a month; the United Nations, the IMF, and the World Bank have all beefed up preparations for post-pandemic economic recovery. Meanwhile, the international community is joining hands to promote information sharing and address medical supply shortages.

In a world that is best defined as a community with a shared future for mankind, a concerted response from all countries to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic will go a long way toward an early economic recovery.
Curious just how far your dollar goes in Houston?

We've rounded up the latest places for rent via rental sites Zumper and Apartment Guide to get a sense of what to expect when it comes to scoring apartment rentals in Houston if you've got up to $1,150/month earmarked for your rent.

Take a peek at what rentals the city has to offer, below. (Note: Prices and availability are subject to change.)

Hoodline offers data-driven analysis of local happenings and trends across cities. Links included in this article may earn Hoodline a commission on clicks and transactions.

3000 Murworth Drive (Braeswood Place)

First, listed at $1,103/month, this 1,052-square-foot two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment is located at 3000 Murworth Drive.

The apartment offers a dishwasher and hardwood flooring. Building amenities include a gym and secured entry. Pet lovers are in luck: This property is both dog-friendly and cat-friendly. Expect a $300 pet deposit.

According to Walk Score's assessment, this location is somewhat walkable, is bikeable and has some transit options.

(See the complete listing here.)

11770 Westheimer Road (Briarforest Area)

Next, there's this two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment located at 11770 Westheimer Road. It's listed for $1,105/month for its 1,000 square feet.

You can expect to find a fireplace, a dishwasher and carpeted floors in the unit. The building boasts secured entry. Good news for animal lovers: This rental is both dog-friendly and cat-friendly.

Walk Score indicates that the area around this address is friendly for those on foot, is relatively bikeable and has a few nearby public transportation options.

(See the complete listing here.)

10411 South Drive (Alief)

Finally, check out this two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment that's located at 10411 South Drive. It's listed for $1,109/month.

In the apartment, plan on a walk-in closet and a balcony. Building amenities feature on-site laundry, additional storage space and outdoor space. The rental is cat-friendly. Future tenants needn't worry about a leasing fee.

According to Walk Score, the surrounding area requires a car for most errands, isn't particularly bikeable and has some transit options.

(Check out the complete listing here.)

Working with a tight budget? Here are the cheapest rentals recently listed in Houston.

This story was created automatically using local real estate data from Zumper and Apartment Guide, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Additionally, if youre in the real estate business learn how to do local real estate advertising in your ZIP codes.

Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
Riverwoods police and the Lake County Coroners Office both confirmed the bones appeared to be of human origin after responding to the scene. Authorities said they dont know how long the bones were in the woods, but added they appeared to be there for an extended period.
Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee on Tuesday said that India should consider a big stimulus and give cash in hand to create demand and prevent chains of bankruptcies to save the economy hit hard by the nationwide coronavirus lockdown.

India needs a stimulus package. We have not dedicated a large enough financial package yet, he told former Congress president Rahul Gandhi during a conversation.

Spending is easiest way to revive economy. It will have stimulus effect, Banerjee added.

Gandhi is currently holding a series of conversations with global and Indian thought leaders to discuss the Covid-19 crisis and its consequences on the Indian economy.

Banerjee said the government should issue temporary ration cards for three to six months for every person who needs food grains to save their lives. Use those ration cards for transferring money, wheat and rice to them, he added.

Banerjee, an Indian-American economist, had won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics, along with Esther Duflo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Michael Kremer of Harvard University for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.

The three were recognised for their ability to divide the issue of tackling global poverty into smaller subjects.

Banerjee told Gandhi that it is important to revive demand. Nothing bad will happen if we give money to bottom 60%. But to give direct cash transfer to only poorer people is debatable, he said.

On April 30, Gandhi was in dialogue with former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan who suggested that the government transfer cash directly to the poor and supply food through the public distribution system (PDS) to as many people as possible to help them tide over the impact of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak and the consequent 40-day lockdown, estimating the effort will cost Rs 65,000 crore.

The money is small given that Indias gross domestic product is to the tune of about Rs 200 lakh crore, he had said.

Banerjee said the Aadhaar-based claims for PDS would have saved a lot of misery for poor as many of them are still not in the system.

We should take a cue from the US by pumping in more money in the hands of people to revive demand. Also, it is wise to put moratorium on debt payments, he said.

On lifting the lockdown, Banerjee called for caution. You cant take out the lockdown when a lot of people are getting sick. We need to be aware of diseases path before taking a decision on lifting the lockdown, he added.

The Nobel laureate said that India should be optimistic about the overall economic revival post-lockdown.

On the centralisation versus decentralisation debate, Banerjee said there is a visible tension as evident from the movement of the migrant workers which could not be handled by state governments only.

The central government should have tested the migrant people before they boarded the trains for their home towns, he added.

Banerjee also suggested that state government should be given money to chalk out their own schemes aimed at reaching a wider section of the people and not thing about some of that money getting wasted.

Be brave and take risks. When you are in dire straits, being brave is the only option, he said.

Banerjee said the strongman theory has been disastrous in the US and Brazil where the leader are messing up right and left.
These are the wild pictures of Florida sheriff Gregory Tony attending swinger parties in Miami, seen in photos exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com squeezing his wife's breasts and smiling with a man between his legs.

Tony was photographed posing happily in various unsheriff-like situations, showing off his toned physique with his equally in-shape wife Holly, a registered nurse.

The series of 11 snapshots of couple-swapping parties in Miami are accessible to the general public on a website that 'organizes erotic events' and shows the 41-year-old hugging his wife from behind with his hands cupping her bare breasts.

Another photo shows the lawman laughing while lying down as Holly places her face on one side of his muscular chest and an unidentified man places his face on the other side.

In yet another picture, the husband and wife are in a foursome, posing with another couple. Both women are topless but their nipples are covered with pasties.

These are the wild pictures of Florida Sheriff Gregory Tony attending a swinger party in Miami, seen in photos exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com squeezing his wife Holly's breasts

Another photo shows the lawman laughing while lying down as Holly places her face on one side of his muscular chest and an unidentified man places his face on the other side

In yet another picture, the husband and wife are in a foursome, posing with another couple. Both women are topless but their nipples are covered with pasties

The series of 11 snapshots of couple-swapping parties in Miami are accessible to the general public on a website and show the 41-year-old in various unsheriff-like situations

And in another snapshot, the sheriff's wife is kissing another topless woman while cupping her breasts into her hands.

When approached by DailyMail.com, Tony refused to confirm o r deny thatthe photos were of him and his wife and declined comment. He referred questions to his personal attorney in Tallahassee, Natalie Kato.

Kato said on Monday morning: 'I have no motherf**king comment. I'm not authorized to give any statement.'

She did, however, appear to confirm the photos were indeed of Tony and his wife, saying: 'Whoever is going to use these photos will risk legal action. His wife and the other people on the photos are not a public persons. Only he is.'

Kato also said the photos were on a members-only website, an inaccurate statement.

The photos were taken in August 2015 and April 2016 at monthly 'Liquid Bliss' parties in a secret location in downtown Miami only revealed to couples vetted by organizers for their physical appearance.

Tony was a sergeant in the Coral Springs police department at the time. He was appointed sheriff in January 2019 when the governor suspended Scott Israel, the elected sheriff.

Israel had been criticized after an investigation revealed several of his deputies refused to enter Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and confront former student Nikolas Cruz who, armed with an assault rifle, killed 17 people and injuring 17 others.

In suspending Israel, DeSantis cited incompetence and dereliction of duty in his agency's response to the massacre.

Tony as appointed sheriff in January 2019 when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (left) suspended Scott Israel (right), the elected sheriff. Israel had been criticized when an investigation revealed several of his deputies refused to enter Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

Gunman Nikolas Cruz (pictured) who, armed with an assault rifle, killed 17 people and injuring 17 others on February 14, 2018

Tony took over a beleaguered Broward County Sheriff's Office and was tasked with lifting up the spirits of 5,400 generally demoralized employees, a daunting endeavor where leftover Israel political appointees ruled.

His deputies, however, turned against him. On April 20, they cast a vote of no-confidence against him.

Meanwhile, the sex parties Tony and his wife attended were run by local DJ Nathan Bliss and hundreds of photos of each party, up to 12 a year, are posted on the website VIPBliss.com.

VIP Bliss bills itself as an organizer of 'erotic events' and 'the world's premier party organization for bi-sexy women and select couples.'

To attend, candidates must apply with up to six full-body photos  'G rated photos are OK,' the website reads  and provide height, weight, age and notes about experience at parties 'of this genre' for each applicant.

'While not all our members are models,' the website notes, 'we look for people that are youthful and fit into the South Florida nightclub scene, that take care of themselves, take pride in their fitness and physical appearance, and try to be the best they can be.'

Once the applicants are approved, they are given the address of the venue for the upcoming party, often a hotel pool or a nightclub.

When reached by text message, Bliss didn't respond to requests for comment.

Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony, who was handpicked by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, was photographed showing off his toned physique and his equally-in-shape wife Holly, a registered nurse, in various unsheriff-like situations

Meanwhile, the sex parties Tony and his wife attended were run by local DJ Nathan Bliss and hundreds of photos of each party, up to 12 a year, are posted on the website VIPBliss.com

The website, however, took down the sheriff's photos overnight but left those of his topless wife for anyone to see.

'I don't comment on a person's private life,' said Broward County Commissioner Mark Bogen.

The sexy revelations pop up at a bad time for the sheriff. He is in the middle of a re-election campaign against Israel, who was in his second term when Tony replaced him.

Over the weekend, the investigative journalism non-profit website Florida Bulldog published a story revealing Tony had killed a man in his hometown of Philadelphia when he was 14 years old in 1993.

A jury found Tony not guilty after a trial, but because the case was handled by a juvenile court, records were sealed and Tony kept the homicide a secret from DeSantis and his previous employer, the Coral Springs Police Department.

Tony claimed he killed an armed 18-year-old Hector Rodriguez with his father's gun in self-defense. But the Rodriguez family told Florida Bulldog a different story, one where Rodriguez was unarmed, and his only crime was to have made fun of Tony.

In an televised interview Tony claimed Rodriguez tried to kill him and his brother outside their home and he responded in self-defence.

'Unfortunately, we had a dispute with him  my brother and me  in front of our home and he made threats to kill us and he literally pulled out a gun. He had no problem with shooting us right there,' Tony said.

In an interview with Local 10 Sunday Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony (pictured) addressed a report that was published on Saturday by a watchdog news group that revealed he shot and killed a man in 1993

The photos were taken in August 2015 and April 2016 at monthly 'Liquid Bliss' parties in a secret location in downtown Miami only revealed to couples vetted by organizers for their physical appearance

'There was no crime, no arrest and this was considered a self-defence case, as it should have been,' he added.

He was appointed head of the Broward Sheriff's Office in 2019 but said in the application process 'it doesn't require you to bring it up'.

Tony added: 'I don't want to be some 14-year-old black kid who survived a shooting. I don't want to be someone's victim.'

The office of the Governor DeSantis did not reply to an email and phone call seeking comments about the homicide and the swingers parties.

In Florida, sheriffs wield tremendous power through total control of their budget and hiring. Law enforcement experience is not mandatory.

South Florida boasts one of the largest swinger communities in the country with a half-dozen clubs between Miami and West Palm Beach.

Many members are known to be police officers and sheriff's deputies, judges, lawyers and medical professionals.

'People's lifestyle is their problem,' said a Broward County Sheriff's deputy who asked to remain anonymous because he feared retribution. 'But not when you're the sheriff of one of the most populated areas in Florida.

'We've heard Sheriff Tony was told about the photos being visible on the website months ago and his answer was ''It's not illegal, is it?'''
I know how important it is for so many students and teachers to finish out the school year, and I was holding out hope  particularly for high school seniors  that wed at least be able to complete the final few weeks, Mr. Lamont said in a statement. But given the current circumstances and to protect everyones safety, it has become clear that its just not possible.

At a subsequent news briefing, Mr. Lamont said he would provide details about the states plans for colleges and universities later in the week.

On the front lines: Ben Rapp, 19, Instacart shopper.

Image Credit... Ben Rapp

The Times is regularly profiling essential workers in the New York region during the pandemic.

Where do you live? Far Rockaway, Queens.

Where do you work: Queens and Long Island.

How has your job changed in the last two months?

I worked as a shopper over the summer and when I was home for winter break [he is a student at N.Y.U.]. It was easy money then. Six weeks ago I wasnt wearing gloves and a mask. Then one day I get a message from a customer asking me to wear P.P.E. and everything changed. Now, with the concern with the health aspect of it all, it can be very stressful.

Whats been your strangest order?

There was an order for 120 packs of eight-pack Gatorades. I obviously couldnt get it all because the store didnt have that much and it wouldnt have fit in my car. But I got all the store had and brought it over. It was a crazy amount of Gatorade.

Why are you continuing to work as a shopper through this?

I see the need for it. As a 19-year-old with no pre-existing conditions Im able to do this and be less at risk than some others. On a larger scale, knowing that Im helping to limit the spread means a lot. Ive done six orders in a couple of hours. That means I stopped six people from going to the store. Thats 30 people a week. If every week Im stopping 20 people from going out, Im keeping 100 people a month from going out. Im stopping the spread.
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It would be hard to overstate how much things have changed since Katie Hill, a popular Democratic Congresswoman, left public office just 10 months into her term.

So it is in the middle of a pandemic that voters in the 25th congressional district in North L.A and eastern Ventura County must cast a ballot by next Tuesday, May 12 to choose her replacement.

And exactly how people are able to vote is now an issue of concern for Democrats who are hoping to hold on to the seat that was part of a blue wave in Southern California in 2018. Local Democrats say the lack of in-person vote centers in the city of Lancaster threatens to hurt African American turnout there.

Concerns about safety and COVID-19 affecting voter access led Governor Gavin Newsom to issue an executive order for special elections, including a chance for every voter to vote by mail. Ballots have now been sent out.

The Governor also "authorized, and encouraged" counties to provide in-person voting opportunities. The first three L.A. County vote centers -- out of a total of nine planned -- opened up over the weekend in the cities of Palmdale, Littlerock and Valencia.

NO VOTE CENTERS IN LANCASTER

However, no vote centers are planned for Lancaster, a high desert city which boasts one of the most racially diverse populations in the district, including a large African American community. According to the 2018 Census American Community Survey, black residents make up about 7% of the 25th congressional district, while nearly 22% of Lancaster residents are black.



Several centers are slated for the neighboring city of Palmdale [check the county's map of vote center locations].

"We find it concerning," said Kunal Atit, a spokesperson for Democratic candidate Christy Smith in a statement. "[We] call upon the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk to review and rectify this oversight."

Mark J. Gonzalez, who chairs the L.A. County Democratic Party, agreed.

"Lancaster is the single most diverse part of the district, and yet the nearest voting center is nine miles away," he said. "Registrar Logan's voting center placement decisions need to be consistent with our state's focus on ensuring that every voter has the opportunity to exercise their right to vote... especially in communities of color."

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The L.A. County Registrar's office said in an email it's offering in-person vote centers "throughout the District" and "within the guidelines of the public health orders and the Governor's Executive Order in relation to conducting elections and COVID-19."

The county included vote center locations with each mail-in ballot and the election materials sent to every voter.



"That information has been widely available to all voters in the District," said Registrar-Recorder spokesperson Michael Sanchez via email.

ALL-MAIL ELECTION

Campaigns for Democrat Christy Smith and Republican Mike Garcia are urging their supporters to return vote-by-mail ballots in this hotly contested race -- either by mail or at one of the 22 in-person drop boxes located in L.A. County (there are three drop boxes in Lancaster).

There is some evidence that an all-mail election could disadvantage diverse parts of the electorate.

Election officials reject African American, Latino, Asian and other minority voters' mail-in ballots at a higher rate than white voters, according to a 2018 ACLU/University of Florida study. And voters of color are also less likely to get their ballots "cured" -- fixed and accepted -- after a signature mismatch is flagged, according to the study.

In the midst of COVID-19 health concerns, election officials should encourage voters to mail-in ballots, said Rep. Gregory Meeks, chair of the political arm of the Congressional Black Caucus. But many African American voters simply trust physical polling locations more.

"We know the long history of the African American community that fought for the right to vote," Meeks said. "They want to make sure their vote counts. Because they take it very seriously."

"This probably will be a very close election, and what could make the difference is the turnout of African Americans," Meeks added.

VOTING ACCESS ISSUES

"This is something the county should fix immediately," said Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris, a Republican and supporter of GOP candidate Mike Garcia. "There should not be even the appearance of affecting the outcome by limiting the ability to vote."

"I want Mike to win, I think he'd be a better congressman, but I don't want to 'jimmy' the election," Parris said.

The Smith campaign and the County's Democratic Party also accused the Registrar of overseeing a wider pattern of voting obstacles in the region.



"This unfortunately mirrors voting access issues that occurred in the primary in the Antelope Valley, which resulted in voter confusion and ultimately low turnout," Atit said.

California voters have plenty of reasons to prefer to vote in person: if they lost their absentee ballot, need disability or language accommodations, want to change their party registration, or if they're new to the district or just turned 18 -- the state allows people to register to vote in person up to and including the day of an election.

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A report released by Irans Health Ministry says 15 out of the countrys 31 provinces are experiencing a resurgence of the novel coronavirus pandemic, despite a flattened curve after more than two months of containment efforts.

While the capital Tehran appeared to have begun a downward trend in cases, several popular tourism areas including Isfahan, Gilan and the pilgrimage city of Qom  the epicenter of the outbreak  are now facing another wave of infection.

The impoverished southern province of Hormozgan is also on the list. The growth in infections despite 36-degree temperatures (97 Fahrenheit) in Hormozgan once again dashed hopes that hot weather may subdue the virus. One Health Ministry test conducted in a Hormozgan seafood market alone identified over 100 cases of people who exhibited no obvious symptoms.

The resurgence has also slammed the oil-rich province of Khuzestan in the past 10 days, with Governor Gholam-Reza Shariati blaming the situation on the publics disregard for social distancing measures. If the current trend holds, Shariati warned, the earlier restrictions will have to return in force.

Starting April 11, Iran introduced a phased relaxation of the strict containment measures, lifting travel bans and restoring much of the economy to pre-pandemic activity. The government also allowed religious gatherings to resume in mosques across 132 cities and Friday prayers in many more after mounting pressure from the conservative clergy, who argue that a continued closure on religious sites will deal an irreparable spiritual blow to the Iranian theocracy.

Nonetheless, Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi warned that even in those areas, designated as COVID-19 white spots, the resumption of collective religious activities by no means indicates the situation is back to normal, and that social distancing will have to drag on until the world finds a vaccine.

Questions surrounding how much longer those precautions will have to be observed remain an open debate in Iran, with some officials accused of serving as inappropriate examples by ignoring the measures before the public eye. Video from a May 5 parliament meeting broadcast on state TV showed speaker Ali Larijani  a coronavirus survivor himself  urging lawmakers to maintain the recommended distance from each other.

For several days in a row, Iran had registered double-digit mortality figures. But as of May 5, the total number of infected neared 100,000.

Iran's flattened curve remains fragile, some experts have noted with serious concern about the return to normalcy. Iranian health officials sounded the alarm last month that it is only a matter of time before second and third waves of infection, a situation that would reimpose massive burdens on Iran's already overstretched first responders and sanctions-hit medical infrastructure.
The Shared History of Wild Horses and Indigenous People

Horse sanctuaries along the Native American Horse Trail are working to save Americas last Indigenous horses and rewrite official histories that claim they dont exist.

YES! Magazine

The horses at the Sacred Way Sanctuary in Florence, Alabama, are among the last of their kind. Some have dark stripes like arrows tracing the spine or climbing up the forelegs. Some have curly, poodlelike coats or manes that cascade to the ground.

According to the history books, these horses dont exist. In the official narrative, Americas original horses went extinct thousands of years ago, killed off by the frigid temperatures of the last Ice Age . Horses that live in the Americas today, claim historians, are descendants of those first brought by European explorers and settlers in the early 16th century.

But according to Indigenous oral histories and spiritual beliefs from Saskatchewan to Oklahoma, Americas Native horses never went extinct. They survived the Ice Age and lived among Native people before, and after, the arrival of European colonizers, and a mountain of historical and archaeological evidence proves itfrom ancient clay and wood horse figurines from North America and horse petroglyphs in Peru to accounts recorded by early explorers

Horses on the wildlife preserve at Sacred Way Sanctuary. Photo from Sacred Way Sanctuary

Now, with only a few thousand Native horses believed to be left in the Americas, Native people are beginning to share the knowledge they have quietly protected for centuries. For many Indigenous people, these Native horses arent beasts of burden but relatives and sacred medicine. And in recent years, reserves such as the Sacred Way Sanctuary and South Dakotas Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary have stepped up their work to rescue Indigenous horse lineages from extinction as part of the Native American Horse Trail . An alliance of Indigenous and non-Indigenous caretakers, the sanctuaries on the trail are dedicated not just to preserving Native horses but to promoting their history and protecting related sacred sites and ceremonies.

There were certain relatives that Creator sent that specifically are designed to help us in our journey spiritually, to help strengthen us. One is the horse, explains Dr. Yvette Running Horse Collin, co-founder of the Sacred Way Sanctuary. They literally share our experience, With only a relative few Native horses remaining, she says, we have decided that we will now speak and were not going to stop.

Native horses and the medicine they provide

The Sacred Way Sanctuary is set off a semirural road in the bucolic hinterlands of northwestern Alabama. Bound by 2 miles of freshwater streams, it lies within the original borders of one of the first federal Indian Reservations in the United States, a place meant to contain and civilize members of the Cherokee Nation.

About 100 horses live on the land, each a descendent of Native North American horse lines named for the nations associated with them, including the Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Lakota, Cheyenne, Apache, Ojibwe, and Pueblo. The horses at the Sacred Way Sanctuary and the others along the Native American Horse Trail are different from those of European lineages. Theyre smaller, for starters, rarely more than 14 hands high (4.7 feet high at the withers). They stand differently, consume foods that European horses cant digest, and their coats have distinct patterns and markings. There are speckled appaloosas and patchwork paints. There are horses with webbing on their faces.

Photo from Sacred Way Sanctuary

Above all, the horses at these sanctuaries are sacred beings that can help to heal the wounds that cause the mind, body, and soul to shift out of alignment, says Running Horse Collin. The horses, or parts of the horse, are incorporated into ceremonies. An Oglala Lakota rite of passage ceremony, for example, involves piercing the ears of young boys and girls with earrings made of horsehair, says Loretta Afraid of Bear-Cook, an Oglala Lakota elder, faith keeper, cultural specialist, and a governing council member at the Sacred Way Sanctuary.

Another form of horse medicine was used by Oglala Lakota leaders in the 19th century, including famed chief Crazy Horse. Once the horse dies, theres a part on the leg that looks like a little circle, and thats where the power comes from, Afraid of Bear-Cook explains. The chiefs of that time period, they [took] that horse medicine off the leg and they dried it and put it back behind the ear. Whenever they were going to ask for anything, whether it was spiritual or physical, they had the mindset that they would include the horse.

Just being around a horse is healing medicine, too. From watching the horses, watching what they do, you learn responsibility. You can talk to that horse, which we still do today. If you look directly into its eyes, [it] will look to you, itll put its nose to you and it will open up, Afraid of Bear-Cook says.

Indeed, in recent years Western science has begun to confirm what Indigenous communities have always known. Riding and caring for horses can activate the sympathetic nervous system in children and influence the rhythm of the human heart rate . Equine therapy is becoming increasingly popular for treating PTSD in military veterans and children experiencing anxiety and depression or recovering from trauma . Horses are incredibly sacred, theyre more than sacred, Running Horse Collin says. Our people didnt need those kind of studies, we just knew it worked.

Photo from Sacred Way Sanctuary

A shared history

Horses and the Native people of North America are not just spiritually intertwined; their histories echo each other. After the conquistadors arrived, both were slaughtered, forced into subservience, and pushed onto inferior lands. Both have survived. Side by side, they are with us, and theyve experienced everything weve been through, Running Horse Collin says.

The memory of those injustices still live on in the stories of Native people. Afraid of Bear-Cook was just a girl when the Bureau of Indian Affairs stormed the Pine Ridge Reservation with a fleet of empty trailers. They came for the horses and cattle of her people, the right to which the U.S. government claimed because the Lakota had failed to pay taxes on their livestock.

The bureau rounded them up one by one, loaded them on the trailers and drove away. Afterwards, remembers Afraid of Bear-Cook, the women cut their hair in mourning. The BIA hadnt just taken their animals, they had severed the tribes relationship to their sacred relatives. They were never seen again.

Removing horses from their Indigenous caretakers (or slaughtering them outright) was a common tactic used by the U.S. government to force Native people to assimilate. Going through our lives, we became aware that to further invalidate our existence in our communities, the bureau, the first thing that they did was come to [take] the cattle and horses, says Afraid of Bear-Cook.

Photo from Sacred Way Sanctuary

But denying Native claims to horses didnt start with the U.S. government. Early explorers and settlers chronicled the presence of horses throughout North America. In 1521, herds were seen grazing the lands that would become Georgia and the Carolinas. Sixty years later, Sir Francis Drake found herds of horses living among Native people in coastal areas of California and Oregon. In 1598, Don Juan de Onate described New Mexico as being full of wild mares.

Yet, the official story that was written into the history books, and which persists today, is that the New World had no horses before the arrival of the Spanish. According to the narrative, the first horses to arrive in the New World in 1519 were the progenitors of every horse found on the continent in later years. That it would have been biologically impossible for a small group of horses in Mexico to populate regions thousands of miles away in as little as two years is never discussed.

Thats by design, says Running Horse Collin who, after being asked by elders from different Native nations to set the record straight, conducted more than a decade of research and wrote her Ph.D. dissertation on the topic of Native horses in the Americas . In the Spain of the late 15th and 16th centuries, horses were associated with nobility, power, and cultural refinement. If indeed there were horses here and the Native people had a relationship with them, with Europes standards at that time, we were civilized. And, in order for them to conquer and do what they wanted to do, we had to be uncivilized, she says. Covering up the accounts of those who bore witness to horses in the New World and denying that horses existed in the New World at all, helped to sell the myth of settler colonialism on which the conquest of the Americas was built.

Crossbreeding with European horses and their slaughter in the name of herd management have reduced the Native horse population to just a few thousand. Still, Running Horse Collin believes its not too late to bring their story to light. In addition to her work with Sacred Way, this past fall she began talks with a team of French geneticists to analyze the DNA of the sanctuarys native horses. She expects that their results will provide undeniable scientific proof not just that American horses persevered through the Ice Age, but that they, like Native people, have survived through the centuries.

Protecting Native horses and their spiritual relationship to Native people as well as educating the public about their existence drive not just the Sacred Way Sanctuary but other horse sanctuaries along the Native American Horse Trail. A handful of reserves participate in the partnership, established in 2014, each with its own area of focus. The Red Pony Stands Ojibwe Horse Sanctuary, for example, is dedicated to the preservation of the endangered Ojibwe pony, while the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary is dedicated to caring for and preserving the wild American mustang, sacred sites, and the range.

Yvette Running Horse Collin feeding a horse. Photo from Sacred Way Sanctuary

There is no doubt in my mind that wild horses are native to North America, says Rob Pliskin, a 30-year volunteer of the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary and former board member of The Cloud Foundation , an organization dedicated to protecting wild horses and burros. The sanctuary is for the benefit of the horses and their opportunity to live as they were intended to live. It also offers firsthand on-the-ground education about the nature of the wild horse and its presence in the ecology of the American West.

Ultimately, raising awareness about Native horses does more than just assure their continued survival. It makes Native experiences, as a whole, more visible. Its many times hard to talk about [the Indigenous experience] directly because the world doesnt want to hear it. But you can talk about the horses, concludes Running Horse Collins. Were still alive. Are we battered? Sure. Are the horses battered? Sure. But is it over? No.

Shoshi Parks is a freelance writer and anthropologist specializing in history and travel. Her work has appeared at NPR, Smithsonian.com, Atlas Obscura, and other publications.

Note: This article originally appeared on YES! Magazine . It is published under a Creative Commons license

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Nimbaheda, a cement hub in Rajasthans Chittorgarh district, has emerged a hotspot of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) with 99 cases reported in just over a week. Like in Jaipurs Ramganj, just one person has emerged the superspreader in the area, infecting 100 people including his wife and daughter.

On Tuesday, 66 new Covid-19 cases were reported in the state, taking the total tally to 3127. Five more deaths were reported, taking the death toll to 82.

Chief minister Ashok Gehlot has expressed concern over the rising number of cases and asked that the ruthless containment model of Bhilwara be replicated in Nimbaheda.

Meanwhile, Chittorgarh MP CP Joshi from the Bharatiya Janata Party has written to union health minister Harsh Vardhan requesting that a special health team be deputed from AIIMS Delhi to Nimbaheda.

Nimbaheda Principal Medical Officer Dr Mansoor Khan admits the administration was caught unawares since no cases had been reported for a month. We were, in fact, readying for re-opening after the lockdown and were not prepared for this sudden spurt, he said.

He said the cases are being reported from three areas and all are either contacts of the first Covid-19 patient or those residing nearby.

However, shortage of doctors and lack of resources has affected work of the health department, Khan said. Of the 90 posts of health staff at the sub-district hospital, only 41 are filled. One senior physician and four doctors who came in touch with the first positive patient have been quarantined, leading to a staff crunch. The health department has posted a senior physician from Udaipur to Nimbaheda.

Till April 24, Nimbaheda did not have any Covid-19 case. On April 25, a 46-year-old gold trader was found positive. The man was being treated for cold and cough in a private hospital and had continued to meet people and also keep his shop open.

He died on April 30 while undergoing treatment in the government hospital in Udaipur.

After he tested positive, the street where he resided was placed under curfew and the town was sealed. Health authorities rushed to trace his contact history and a list of 300 people was prepared. All th positive cases are from that group.

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Chinas communist government has continued to monitor and persecute Sichuan provinces Early Rain Covenant Church, demanding church members cease all online worship services.

Over two years after shuttering the 5,000-member church, breaking down the doors of church members and leaders homes and arresting more than 100 people, police have continued to harass ERCC members, according to a new report from China Aid.

A Christian, who did not reveal her name, told the persecution watchdog that over the weekend, police brought in ERCC members in charge of church activities and online services and demanded that they stop all activities.

Among those brought in to the police station was Ran Yunfei, who had originally been scheduled to give a testimony during a church service Friday. Ran was escorted home only after the service ended.

Because police only summoned Christians during the churchs online services, the source who informed China Aid believes police are still monitoring the church.

In April, several members of the church were arrested by the Public Security Bureau for participating in an online Easter worship service on Zoom and ordered to cease all religious activity.

A supporter of ERCC shared on Twitter, Since 8:30 a.m., some security officials have entered these Christian families homes and pretended to be chatting with them casually. At 9:30 a.m., the worship began, and they were also invited to participate. Once they realized that the sermon was from ERCCs imprisoned pastor Wang Yi, they immediately shut it down.

Her account was corroborated by church leader Zhang Jiangqing, who was warned by the police at his house, saying, Dont participate in already banned [religious] activities anymore! Dont listen to pastor [Wang]s sermons anymore! If you do this again, we will deal with it seriously and take you away!

ERCC, led by pastor Wang Yi, has not been able to gather in person since the communist regime shut down the church in 2018 and arrested their pastor and other leaders. Pastor Wang was later sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of subversion of power and illegal business operations.

Church members have continued to face harassment from authorities, even amid the countrys coronavirus outbreak.

According to International Christian Concern, Pastor Wangs son, Shuya Wang, celebrated his 13th birthday on March 9 without his father. Forced to attend a public school since last year, he has been escorted in a police car each day. During the coronavirus pandemic, with schools closed, Shuya and his mother are reportedly still being monitored by police.

Open Doors USAs World Watch List ranks China as one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to the persecution of Christians. The organization notes that all churches are perceived as a threat if they become too large, too political or invite foreign guests.

In addition to Early Rain Covenant Church, the Chinese Communist Party has shuttered a number of well-known churches, including Rongguili Church in Guangzhou and Xunsiding Church in Xiamen.

China has also been labeled by the U.S. State Department as a country of particular concern for continuing to engage in particularly severe violations of religious freedom.

In its annual report released last week, the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom called the country the worlds foremost violator of human rights and religious freedom. The report cited the Chinese governments harassment of human rights advocates outside its border as well as the CCPs continued persecution of Christians, Muslim-majority Uighurs, and other ethnic minorities.

Addressing the report, commissioner Johnnie Moore said that while China has the capability of being a nation we can all admire, the CCP has chosen to violate inherent human rights ... any chance they can.

Enough is enough, he stressed. And we've said enough is enough.

Moore warned that China is exporting their intolerance around the world. The light is blinking red, and its time for the Chinese government to take a different path.

Courtesy of The Christian Post
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci speaks next to US President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, during a coronavirus briefing on April 22

In the latest sign that the Trump administration no longer considers the coronavirus pandemic its top daily priority, the White House is set to disband the emergency task force handling the outbreak.

Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday that the emergency task force he heads will not be needed much longer than the end of this month.

"I think we're starting to look at the Memorial Day (May 25) window, early June window" for shutting it down, he told reporters.

The coronavirus task force has spearheaded the complex response to the fast-spreading virus, which has already killed about 70,000 Americans.

The group headed by Pence and reporting to President Donald Trump coordinates between medical institutes, political staff and state governors, some of whom have spent weeks frantically trying to help overwhelmed hospitals.

The task force also drew on medical experts to formulate national recommendations on social distancing.

Pence said that those efforts will soon be ready to be turned over to regular government agencies working "in a more traditional manner."

That downgrading of the situation from an outright emergency goes with Trump's new focus on pushing the country to embrace reopening of the economy.

Trump says that while he wants a "safe" reopening, the hardship caused by the economic shutdown is the main threat.

"We can't keep our country closed for the next five years," he said Tuesday while on a trip to a masks-making factory in Arizona.

He conceded that some people would be "badly affected."

Critics say that the health situation remains far from secure and that Trump is rushing to try and boost the devastated economy in time for his difficult reelection battle in November.

White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany insisted that Trump will continue to be briefed by the medical teams, even if there is no formal crisis group.

"Reporting on the task force is being misconstrued to suggest the White House is no longer involving medical experts. This is totally false. President @realDonaldTrump will continue his data-driven approach towards safely re-opening," she tweeted.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5

By Tamilla Mammadova  Trend:

President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili talked to Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg over the phone, Trend reports citing the press office of the Georgia's president.

During the conversation, the difficult situation created by the coronavirus pandemic was discussed. The Secretary General of NATO highly praised the efforts made by the Georgian government to combat the virus and called them effective.

The president of Georgia stressed that, despite the crisis caused by the pandemic, Georgias relations with the European Union and NATO are strengthening.

In turn, Stoltenberg noted that Georgia remains a partner country of NATO. He added that the crisis caused by the virus should not turn into a security crisis.

Zourabichvili expressed confidence that despite the postponement of the large-scale NATO exercises in Europe due to the pandemic, the exercises will be hosted by Georgia next year as planned.

According to Zourabichvili, Georgia has two priorities in cooperation with NATO including the Black Sea security, which is important not only for Georgia, but also for NATO and the EU, and cybersecurity.

To ensure the security of the Black Sea, the parties should exchange more information and implement more initiatives, said Stoltenberg.

The NATO Secretary General emphasized the importance of NATO-Georgia cooperation in Afghanistan. The participation of the Georgian military in the mission is impressive, he said.

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JEFFERSON CITY  Gov. Mike Parson promoted the end of his statewide stay-at-home order Monday by visiting a handful of businesses, as the state recorded its largest single-day jump in COVID-19 cases.

Parson stayed clear of coronavirus hot spots Monday and headed to the southwest part of the state, touring a thrift store and an electrical contractor in Joplin.

He later stopped at Bass Pro Shops and a hospital in Springfield before returning to the Capitol for his daily coronavirus briefing.

We believe we are on the downside of this virus, Parson said. This reopening is a gradual process but we are on the right track.

Except for his stop at Cox Medical Center South, Parson did not wear a mask during his visits, despite a recommendation from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for people to cover their faces when out in public.

I chose not to, Parson said. I dont think that it is governments role to mandate who wears one. It really goes back to your personal responsibility.

As of Monday afternoon, 8,754 people in Missouri had tested positive for the disease, which has killed 358 in the state.
All three of Algerias mobile operators have come under fire from the countrys regulator ARPCE (Autorite de Regulation de la Poste et des Communications Electroniques).

Djezzy, Mobilis and Ooredoo have all received warnings from the regulator for failing to meet their obligations for both 4G network coverage and QoS (quality of service), reported Agence Ecofin.

The regulator issued the warnings based on network monitoring conducted between February and March this year across the Algerian provinces (wilayas) of Adrar, Blida, Constantine, Djelfa and Tlemcen.

In terms of network coverage, Veon-backed Djezzy performed the worst, meeting requirements in just one of the five provinces tested. For QoS, Mobilis  the mobile unit of state-owned Algeria Telecom - was the weakest of the three.

Mobilis and Ooredoo Algeria both offer commercial LTE services in all of Algerias 48 wilayas, while Djezzy has a 4G footprint in 37 provinces. The initial licensing terms permitted the operators to offer LTE services in certain provinces, with expansion dependent on their meeting QoS criteria.
Arab Israeli local councils began a one-day strike this morning against the government's failure to allocate enough funds to compensate for their losses due to the novel coronavirus crisis. A committee of Arab Israeli council heads condemned the government's distribution of compensation to local governance for the loss of property tax payments from business owners who were forced to their close doors by coronavirus restrictions. They say that the compensation was distributed disproportionately, discriminating against the Arab localities.

Last week, the Arab council heads sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warning that unemployment among Arab Israelis has surpassed 40% as businesses close down one after another. The letter also states that the Arab municipalities received only 47 million shekels ($13 million), less than 2% of the total compensation funds for Israeli localities, for a public that constitutes about 20% of the countrys population.

On May 4, Arab leaders and Knesset members demonstrated in front of the Finance Ministry, demanding increased compensation. Joint List Knesset member Yousef Jabareen tweeted, "Together with dozens of heads of Arab local councils we are standing in front of the Ministry of Finance  an outcry by Arab society over criminal neglect that will lead to collapse."

The Knessets Finance Committee convened on May 4 for a special discussion on the issue, but no miracle solutions were presented. Joint List Knesset member Ahmad Tibi, who led the meeting, said that Arab councils have been punished twice over, explaining that the state has neglected these towns and villages for years and avoided developing industrial and commercial zones within their boundaries. Thus, unemployment is currently at an all-time high. And now the pandemic compensation is being allotted mainly to the localities with industrial zones  Jewish localities.

The heads of Arab localities are warning of an imminent collapse, with no funding to collect trash, clean the streets or maintain school buildings. The last is an especially acute and sensitive problem in the week the government has decided to reopen schools. Dozens of (Jewish) mayors warned on May 3 that they will not reopen schools in their towns, citing unclear instructions and gaps in health measures.

On April 29, the committee of Arab council heads had already decided not to reopen schools in their towns and villages, fearing a spike in the virus. Parent groups in the Arab towns of Tira and Umm al-Fahm said that in view of high infection rates among the Arab public, they would not send their children back to school until the end of Ramadan on May 24.

The Israeli press paid little attention this morning to the Arab councils strike, focusing instead on High Court debates and the fate of Netanyahus unity deal. With more dramatic developments expected in the political arena in the coming 48 hours, this sidelining is not about to change.
FILE PHOTO: A logo is pictured on the headquarters of the WHO in Geneva

By Stephanie Nebehay and Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization said on Monday that comments by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo citing "evidence" that the new coronavirus had emerged from a Chinese laboratory were "speculative", and called for a science-based inquiry.

Pompeo said on Sunday there was "a significant amount of evidence" that the virus emerged from a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan, but did not dispute U.S. intelligence agencies' conclusion that it was not man-made.

Dr Mike Ryan, WHO's top emergencies expert, told an online press conference from Geneva:

"We have not received any data-specific evidence from the U.S. government relating to the purported origin of the virus. So from our perspective, this remains speculative."

As an "evidence-based organisation", Ryan said, the WHO was keen to receive any information on the origin of the virus, as this was "exceptionally important" for its future control.

"So if that data and evidence is available, then it will be for the United States government to decide whether and when it can be shared," he said.

Scientists have advised the WHO that genome sequencing shows the virus to be of "natural origin".

Ryan said science, not politics, should be at the heart of exchanges with Chinese scientists on the issue, warning against projecting an "aggressive investigation of wrongdoing".

The virus is believed to have originated in bats and jumped to humans via another species. Dr Maria van Kerkhove, a WHO specialist in viruses that make such jumps, said it was important to determine this intermediate host.

As countries begin easing lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of the virus, many hope to contain new clusters of infection through systematic contact tracing, helped by mobile phone apps and other technology.

But Ryan said these did not make more traditional "boots-on-the-ground" surveillance redundant.

Story continues

"We are very, very keen to stress that IT tools do not replace the basic public health workforce that is going to be needed to trace, test, isolate and quarantine," he said, praising South Korea and Singapore for their strategy.

Ryan said the WHO welcomed recent clinical trial data for Gilead Sciences Inc's <GILD.O> antiviral drug remdesivir, saying there were "signals of hope" for a potential use against COVID-19.

"We will be engaging in discussions with Gilead and the U.S. government as to how this drug may be made more widely available as further data emerges on its effectiveness," he said.

Steven Solomon, the WHO's principal legal officer, said two countries had proposed consideration of letting Taiwan attend the WHO's May 18-19 annual health assembly as an observer.

Solomon said the WHO recognised the People's Republic of China as the "one legitimate representative of China", in keeping with U.N. policy since 1971, and that the question of Taiwan's attendance was one for the WHO's 194 member states.

China, which views the island as a wayward Chinese province and not a country, says it represents Taiwan adequately in the WHO.

(Reporting by Emma Farge and Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Michael Shields and Kevin Liffey)
Theres not too many states that I know of that are going up. Almost everybody is headed in the right direction, Trump said during a Fox News town hall on Sunday, in which he presented a misleading and rosy assessment of the crisis. Were on the right side of it, but we want to keep it that way, but we also want to get back to work.
New York responds to revenue losses

Bravos to Gov. Cuomos administration for cutting state spending in response to the fiscal emergency brought on by the widespread shutting down of businesses. The administration has ordered state agency directors to cut all nonessential spending and put a freeze on discretionary grants to municipal governments. We have just begun to feel the pain of the enormous economic slowdown caused by the pandemic. Governments will have to respond, just as households have to respond, by spending as little as possible. The Cuomo administration has estimated a budget shortfall this year of $10 to $15 billion, with further shortfalls expected for several subsequent years. All states, all local governments and the federal government are going to be forced make cuts and to curb spending. State officials should have begun earlier, but at least they have now started what will be a long, painful process.

School canceled for the year

Bravos to the state for canceling the rest of the school year. As difficult as this is for students and parents, it makes no sense to return students to school for a month or so, given the risks. We have learned that people infected with COVID-19 can show no symptoms for several days and that some people who are infected never feel sick but, nonetheless, can be contagious. Responding to the disease is a tricky but critical balancing act. We can't confine everyone to their homes for a month, but we need to slow the spread, and the only tool we have is social distancing. We must avoid close-contact situations and large gatherings, and school requires both. It's unrealistic to think precautions that would avoid transmittal could be taken in the hurly-burly of a school environment, so canceling school is the responsible course. The cancellation will give school leaders time to plan for the fall  to change the school schedule, if necessary; and to rethink situations where close contact is inevitable, like gym class and sports. It's possible  according to some scientists, it's likely  we will still be living with COVID-19 in September. So the challenge for school leaders now is to come up with ways to make school safer, even if that means dramatic transformations of the experience.

Hospital stopped from reopening

Boos to New York's Department of Health for its inadequately justified decision to prohibit Glens Falls Hospital from reopening. Based on the number of COVID-19 cases in the Glens Falls region, particularly at nursing homes, the Health Department decided the hospital could face a surge of cases and so must keep space available. But the hospital would reopen gradually, not all at once. It seems inexplicable that the Health Department allowed Saratoga Hospital to reopen, when it's smaller and has had to deal with more COVID-19 cases, but ordered Glens Falls to keep much of its operation shut down. The pandemic is the state's top health care priority, the state has not made a convincing case for its decision. The average of coronavirus patients at Glens Falls Hospital has been about six per day, with a high of 12 three weeks ago. Meanwhile, great damage is being done to the hospital's finances, with revenue down about 50% from the same time last year, and 350 workers furloughed. The state should revisit this decision.

Everyone working to make a difference

Bravos to everyone wearing face masks in public places and to the great majority of people who continue to make sacrifices to keep themselves and others safe. This isn't easy, and no one should diminish the difficulty of being forced to leave your job. This is a time of anguish for many New Yorkers. But its even worse for those battling COVID-19 and their families. But, whether it's wearing a mask or sanitizing the handle of a grocery cart or passing up a trip to the store that isn't necessary, everything each one of us can do is helping all of us get  someday  to the other end of this crisis.

Transfer station hours lengthened

Bravos to Queensbury and Moreau for adjusting to conditions and returning their transfer stations to their full schedules. Both towns had cut hours at the municipal transfer stations, on the premise that workers would spend fewer hours per week interacting with the public and would, therefore, be safer. But with the same number of people (or perhaps more) coming in far fewer hours, the stations became crowded. And all the people spending more hours at home are doing more home projects, which means larger loads at the transfer stations. Under the circumstances, it would make more sense for towns to lengthen hours at their transfer station hours, not shorten them.

Efforts made to salvage a festival

Bravos to Adirondack Theatre Festival's leaders, especially its director, Chad Rabinovitz, for trying as hard as possible to come up with a way to stage some part of the festival this summer, even if it's only a small part. Although many summer events and other theater festivals have already canceled, Rabinovitz wants to make sure he has considered every possibility. The festival is critical to the success of downtown businesses, and the rejuvenation of downtown has led the way over the past decade in the increasing prosperity of the city of Glens Falls and the entire region. The logistics of staging live theater during a pandemic are daunting, however. In the end, the most important thing is limiting losses so that, when the day comes that we emerge from the pandemic, our businesses and festivals and local governments will be able to get going again.

Detailed numbers released

Bravos to Warren County for releasing on Monday the total number of coronavirus cases that have been confirmed in the county  182  and breaking that figure down into the following categories: 91 involving residents in nursing homes, 11 in assisted living and 80 in the community. Its notable that a full 50 percent of the cases have been in nursing homes, demonstrating the enormous challenges nursing home workers face, as they care for a vulnerable population living in tight quarters. The prevalence of the virus in nursing homes should be kept in mind as we try to reopen businesses and allow people to get out of their houses more often. Because the only way to slow the pandemic is to keep people away from each other, and the more it spreads, the more this most vulnerable population will be at risk.

Local editorials represent the opinion of the Post-Star editorial board, which consists of Editor Ken Tingley, Projects Editor Will Doolittle and Publisher/Controller/Operations Director Brian Corcoran.
A ntibody tests at 98 per cent accuracy would put up to a quarter of population at risk of infection, government advisers have warned.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has set a minimum standard of 98 per cent accuracy for antibody test kits.

However, documents published on Tuesday reveal that tests with 98 per cent accuracy would still leave a quarter of those told they were immune at risk of infection.

The documents, which have been seen by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), say that if five per cent of the population are thought to have antibodies, then from a random sample of 1,000 people this will equate to 50 people who have antibodies.

At 98 per cent accuracy, only one of those 50 people will be said to not have antibodies when they actually do.

But according to the documents, the real problem arises from those who do not have antibodies being told that they do have antibodies.

Even 99% accuracy would leave 16% of those told they had antibodies exposed to infection / POOL/AFP via Getty Images

If five per cent of the population have antibodies then this leaves 950 people out of 1,000 who do not have antibodies.

At 98 per cent accuracy, 931 of those 950 people will be correctly identified as not having antibodies. This leaves the remaining 19 as being incorrectly identified as having antibodies.

So 49 people who have antibodies will be told they have them and 19 people who not have antibodies will be told they have them. This is a total of 68 people being told they have antibodies.

If 19 of those 68 people are being told they have antibodies, but do not have antibodies, then that means that 27.9 per cent of those 68 people are being told they have antibodies - when they do not have antibodies.

The document's explosive conclusion is that even with 98 per cent testing accuracy, 27.9 per cent of people told they have antibodies would not have antibodies.

Even if an antibody test is 99 per cent accurate, under the same reasoning it would still incorrectly tell 16 per cent of people that they have antibodies when they do not.

One minute silence to NHS heroes who lost lives to the Coronavirus 1 /25 One minute silence to NHS heroes who lost lives to the Coronavirus London Ambulance Staff observe the minute silence today at their HQ in Waterloo Road Jeremy Selwyn Staff stand outside Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester during a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Shoppers queue in the rain outside Costco in Thurrock during a minutes silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA A minute silence in honour of key workers who have lost their lives due to COVID-19 Sky News London Ambulance Staff observe the minute silence today at their HQ in Waterloo Road Jeremy Selwyn Staff react outside Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester during a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA A staff member reacts outside Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester during a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Members of the public, NHS staff, and Police offices, some wearing PPE (personal protective equipment) of a face mask as a precautionary measure against COVID-19, pause for a minute's silence to honour UK key workers AFP via Getty Images A police officer observes a minute silence in honour of key workers who have lost their lives due to COVID-19 outside 10 Downing Street, Reuters London Ambulance Staff observe the minute silence today at their HQ in Waterloo Road Jeremy Selwyn Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill, Prime minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak stand inside 10 Downing Street, London, to observe a minutes silence in tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA A minute silence in honour of key workers who have lost their lives due to COVID-19 Sky News London Ambulance Staff observe the minute silence today at their HQ in Waterloo Road Jeremy Selwyn Staff stand outside the Royal Derby Hospital, during a minutes silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Staff stand outside the Royal Derby Hospital, during a minutes silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Staff stand inside Camberwell bus depot in London, during a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA National Shop Stewards Network protesters outside St Thomas' Hospital in London, during a minute's silence which was to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak. PA Staff members applaud outside the Royal Derby Hospital, following a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak. PA First Minister Nicola Sturgeon stands outside St Andrew's House in Edinburgh to observe a minute's silence in tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA

It comes as Quotient, a Swiss company with scientists based in Edinburgh, has developed a new antibody test that they has 99.8 accuracy.

Quotient have warned that the UK could miss out on the test due to interest in Europe.

Meanwhile, Sir Patrick Vallance told the Health and Social Care Committee on Tuesday that evidence from around the world suggests the vast majority of people who have had the infection have some form of antibody response, adding so that looks quite promising.

He said: What we dont know is the degree of immune protection that provides.

He said some degree of protection would be expected, but that it almost certainly will not provide absolute immunity.

Whether someone can still carry the virus and be infectious after having developed antibodies also remains unknown, he said.

UK scientists create coronavirus antibody test

Giving a potential timeframe for immunity based on experience from other coronaviruses, he said: It may last for one, two, three years, but not for many, many years.
Around a quarter of employees in Britain have been furloughed and companies have claimed 8 billion pounds ($9.9 billion) from the government to sustain their wage bills during the coronavirus lockdown, tax authorities said on Monday. HM Revenue and Customs said on Twitter that 6.3 million workers from 800,000 employers had been furloughed, citing figures up to midnight on Sunday. That accounts for 23% of Britain's 27.5 million private sector workers, according to the most recent labour market data, and underlines how heavily the world's fifth-largest economy is leaning on ...
North Adams Budget Projections Raise Specter of Great Recession

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The administration is looking for guidance in the past it tries to project a budget for fiscal 2021  the past as in the Great Recession.

The novel coronavirus pandemic is presenting similar grim financial picture for the state and communities as the global economic collapse did just over a decade ago. That's the worst-case scenario that Mayor Thomas Bernard said he and his financial team are keeping in mind as they look at possible losses on the order of $2.6 million.

"I'll talk about how we're using what happened from 2008 onward as a guide for some of the assumptions that we're making, but again, tax revenues dropped 10 percent  greater than 10 percent and aid was cut by more than 20 percent," Bernard told the Finance Committee on Tuesday.

He told the committee, meeting virtually on the Zoom platform, that there will likely be many unanswered questions because of the "tremendous level of uncertainty," particularly at the state level.

"But I want to walk through a little bit of what we know, what we guess, and how we're using that to shape and build the budget," he said. Normally the budget process would be well under way at this point, "but we're just honestly not there yet because there's just too many too many unknowns."

Referring to a roundtable held more than a week ago by the state's Ways & Means chairmen, the prognosis was distressing. The budget process started in January has basically gone by the wayside as lawmakers seek to rebuild a spending plan with an expectation of declines in revenue of more than 14 percent, or more than $4 billion.

"There are projections that go to $5 billion, which I think is the reasonable starting point," Bernard said. "But, as the budget process at the state level moves forward, we could imagine that number going higher."

The depth and length of the crisis will depend on how fast the region can rebound from the COVID-19 outbreak. Numerous businesses and cultural institutions have been shuttered or are operating in a limited capacity since mid-March while record numbers of residents have sought unemployment benefits. Gov. Charlie Baker on Tuesday extended the lockdown another two weeks to May 18.

Bernard said his financial team was working with placeholder numbers until there was more certainty from the state. In the meantime, a hiring and spending freezing was instituted three weeks to help buffer the current budget until it ends on June 30.

The Great Recession had opened the door for communities to begin levying surcharge taxes on rooms and meals. But the closure of Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and the nearby Clark Art Institute, along with restaurants, shops and some hotels has severely damaged a tourist trade that's helped bring in more than a half-million in revenue a year.

"Those revenues are threatened, because the longer we are closed and the longer we get before our summer tourist season begins," the mayor said. "That first quarter, in particular, we're going to be very strained on those on those receipts."

He anticipated a decline in unrestricted local aid and Chapter 70 state education aid as well that could total $2.6 million

Administrative Officer Michael Canales said he took a look a the lowest quarterly payments received from the state and then revenues from the first quarter, usually the lowest out of the year to calculate an estimated reduction.

"We assume that right now based with everything shut down, we're going to lose about 80 percent of that first quarter payment," he said. "Then assume that we're going to get back to normal operations, or semi normal operations, by the fall, then we would just base it on our lowest other three quarterly payments from the state, and that gave us a number loss of $266,000."

Canales said it was just an estimate and noted the city had been tracking about 10 percent above estimates from last year. But, he added, "this is going to be a substantial reduction across the year." Bernard said Canales had run those numbers through several models so they felt the projections were pretty close.

Committee member Keith Bona, however, thought differently. "I would say that's actually sort of optimistic, to think that in the fall, you know, we move back to regular," he said. "A lot's going to depend on the colleges, Mass MoCA and some other culturals."

It's not known if Fresh Grass, the annual weekend folk music festival at Mass MoCA, will be held and colleges are considering how they will be able to open, particularly as scientists and infectious disease experts are warning of a second and possible even third wave of the pandemic that's killed more than 60,000 Americans and more than 3,000 Baystaters to date.

As for new growth, the mayor also said a number of projects may not move forward immediately, such as slow-moving Cumberland Farms construction on Ashland Street.

So far, tax collections are holding at 97 percent but the administration is keeping a close eye on that figure.

"Every point we lose on the collection rate is $200,000," the mayor said. "So a 5 point drop is a million dollars."

The city has little levy capacity to make up the difference, a problem shared across the state as municipalities are closing in on their levy limits. North Adams expects its budget to exceed its levy ceiling by fiscal 2023.

"I think a good opportunity for the state to look at these levy ceilings because that is something dictated by the state," said Canales. "There's other cities that are in worse shape than us and we know some of them are going to hit sooner sooner than others but I'm just saying it's an opportunity for them to realize this could become a real crisis for them."

Bernard said the city has a couple of options: pass a budget by June 30 based on projected reductions or do a continuing appropriations budget based on monthly needs.

A budget is being developed with department heads and the administration will be following how the state and federal government approach municipal needs, but Bernard said he didn't want to rely on any "magical thinking" of a federal stimulus.

"We will continue to carefully monitor the current year's budget to prepare for the year's close out," he said. "We want to end this year in as solid a position as we can, protecting as many or as much of our reserves as we are able to, and not dip into those unnecessarily."

He and Finance Committee Chairwoman Marie T. Harpin said they will continue to be in contact on a regular basis and would bring the committee back when there was more to report.
One person is dead and two were revived after three suspected fentanyl overdoses in 12 hours in Norfolk county.

The Norfolk County Ontario Provincial Police say there were three investigations into suspected overdoses, and in one case a 37-year-old resident died.

Two others, from the Simcoe and Port Dover areas were revived by paramedics using naloxone.

In a media release the detachment issued a stern warning about ingesting the powerful opioid.

Taking fentanyl even in very small quantities can cause death or serious health issues, police warn.

Fentanyl is a highly dangerous, tasteless, odourless substance that can be lethal in very small amounts. It can be altered to any colour and added to other illicit drugs.

Police are reminding drug users that Canadas Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act protect individuals from possession charges who call 911 when someone is overdosing.

Drug users looking for support can contact their health care provider, the local Haldimand-Norfolk addiction support service and the Canadian Mental Health Association.

If anyone has any information surrounding these incidents, they are being asked to contact the OPP at 1-888-310-1122. Should you wish to remain anonymous, you may call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or leave an anonymous online message at www.helpsolvecrime.com.
Dear Graduating Students,

As May 16 approaches, the entire Hendrix community feels a sense of loss because we cannot be together that day to honor you at the originally scheduled Commencement ceremony. While we still plan to have a Class of 2020 celebration on campus when it is safer to do so, we also want to mark this traditional season of recognizing accomplishments and embarking upon new beginnings. To that end, we have arranged for online versions of Honors Convocation, Graduate Celebration, and Commencement.

Honors Convocation:

In place of our traditional Honors Convocation, the College plans to recognize the special achievements of students and faculty during the past year on a dedicated page of the College website.

The Honors Convocation 2020 page will be available beginning the afternoon of Wednesday, May 13 , via the Hendrix homepage.

, via the Hendrix homepage. Arrangements will be made to mail awards to recipients.

Graduate Celebration:

On the weekend Commencement was originally planned, a video honoring graduates and featuring their photos will be available on the Hendrix homepage. This Graduate Celebration video will appear on the homepage for two days, May 16-17 .

. Information about submitting photos for the Graduate Celebration is included below in the What We Need from Graduates section.

Commencement:

This specially arranged Commencement ceremony will be available to watch online beginning Saturday afternoon, May 23, 2020. A link will be available on the Hendrix homepage.

In addition to being available on May 23, the Commencement video will remain on the website for viewing afterward.

Commencement will include formal remarks and slides honoring each graduate.

A Commencement program will be produced and mailed to graduates. A downloadable version will also be available on the website.

Diplomas will be mailed the week following Commencement.

What We Need from Graduates:

Because we cannot celebrate together in-person at this time, we request that each person graduating share some photos with us to use for the Graduate Celebration and Commencement. It is recommended that the photos be horizontal/landscape orientation .

to use for the Graduate Celebration and Commencement. It is recommended that the photos be . The photo to be included in the Graduate Celebration should be celebratory and less formal. It will be displayed on the Hendrix homepage throughout the weekend of May 16-17, when we were originally scheduled to be together for Commencement.

should be celebratory and less formal. It will be displayed on the Hendrix homepage throughout the weekend of May 16-17, when we were originally scheduled to be together for Commencement. The photo to be included in your Commencement slide should be a more professional or formal image. (If you are unable to provide a photo or if we are unable to use the one you provide, we may use other photos on file, such as a yearbook or ID photo.)

should be a more professional or formal image. (If you are unable to provide a photo or if we are unable to use the one you provide, we may use other photos on file, such as a yearbook or ID photo.) Submit your photos at www.hendrix.edu/forms/gradphoto. You may submit one photo for Commencement and up to five photos as options for the Graduate Celebration.

Photos must be submitted by Monday, May 11 to be included.

must be submitted by to be included. Graduates should submit an audio recording of their name via their Student Checklist in CampusWeb by Sunday, May 17.

If you have questions about any of these virtual events, please send them to commencement@hendrix.edu.

Again, we wish we could celebrate and honor you in person this month, as originally planned. Please know that the entire Hendrix community is proud of you and stands with you in celebration and support, now and in the years to come.

Sincerely,

W. Ellis Arnold III 79






Nissan will pull back from Europe and elsewhere to focus on the United States, China and Japan under a plan that represents a new strategic direction for the embattled carmaker, people with direct knowledge of the plan told Reuters.

The "operational performance plan" is due to be announced on May 28 and goes beyond fixing problems from ousted leader Carlos Ghosn's aggressive expansion drive, the people said.

The company's struggles predate the current global economic shutdown. Nissan's 2019 sales slumped severely.

Nissan was already planning to implement what was described as a "do or die" plan in January, before the global coronavirus pandemic froze automotive production and sales worldwide.

Pursuit of market share, particularly in the United States, led to steep discounting and a cheapened brand. Under the new, three-year plan  reported here for the first time  Nissan aims to restore dealer ties and refresh lineups to regain pricing power and profitability, the people told Reuters.

"This is not just a cost-cutting plan. We're rationalizing operations, reprioritizing and refocusing our business to plant seeds for the future," one of the people said.

The plan also aims to cut competition and expand cooperation with alliance partners, the people said. Nissan will follow Mitsubishi in plug-in electric hybrid vehicle technology, with the smaller peer taking the lead in Asian markets outside China and Japan. France's Renault will likely focus on electrical vehicle technologies and Europe.

Nissan and Mitsubishi declined to comment. Renault did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The plan, led mainly by Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta rather than Nissan's low-key chief executive, Makoto Uchida, is aimed at freeing resources to invest in products and technology for the United States, China and Japan, the people said.

"The net effect is even though we reduce our R&D spend this year versus last year and make other savings, we pump those freed-up resources back into core markets and core products," said one of the people, who declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak with media on the matter.

Story continues

The plan is likely to take up to two weeks to be finalized, with sales and earnings targets complicated by the anticipated long-term impact on auto sales of government measures worldwide taken to stop the coronavirus outbreak, the people said.

In July, Nissan targeted an operating margin of 6% on revenue of 14.5 trillion yen ($135.83 billion) by March 2023, versus 3% and 13 trillion yen forecast at the time for the year ended March 2020  the results of which are scheduled for release later this month. Management has since changed, with Uchida and Gupta appointed in December.

To be sure, focusing on its three core markets does not mean a total retreat from elsewhere for Japan's second-largest automaker by volume after Toyota.

Nissan will try to maintain a presence in Europe through stepped up efforts with its Qashqai and Juke crossover sport-utility vehicles (SUVs). In Asia, it plans to further expand sales in Thailand and the Philippines which, with Australia, generate roughly 90% of sales and profit in the region excluding China, Japan and India.

Still, its new plan calls for tighter, targeted lineups in countries such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa, Russia, Brazil and Mexico  such as focusing on the beefy Patrol SUV in Africa and the Middle East. That means Nissan might need to shutter more than the 14 assembly lines announced in July. In March, it also announced plans to stop production in Indonesia.

Nissan previously put its annual global production capacity at over 7 million vehicles based on three daily shifts per plant. The new plan is based on two shifts which, with the 14 closures, puts capacity at about 5.5 million, the people said.

Under the plan, the Yokohama-based automaker aims to remain in the U.S. market where it is tasked with eliminating the perception of being a bargain-basement brand. Though its North America sales have grown, its operating margin has narrowed.

"For several years, everything was based on volume growth, then we shifted our emphasis to quality of sales, and we did it overnight," said one of the people. "We did it too fast, and that choked our business."

Nissan's U.S. models have an average age of over 5 years. To lower that to 3.5 years, the automaker plans to launch new and significantly redesigned cars, including a next-generation Rogue crossover SUV, the people said. It will also reduce sales to rental and other fleet operators, they said.

Nissan has been slow to launch models in Japan too. Under the new plan, the automaker will introduce six new or redesigned models over the next three years to bring the average lineup age to under 2.5 years from an undisclosed figure, the people said. Domestically, the average age of lineups from competitive auto brands is generally two to three years.

In China, Nissan's new plan involves designing vehicles more specifically for consumers in the world's largest auto market, instead of offering cars designed for U.S. consumers. Its China-only Venucia brand will need to be re-positioned to better respond to competition from a multitude of indigenous brands, the people said.

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COVID-19 has given triple killer Jon Rallo what he has wanted for years  the ability to live full-time in the community.

The aging and reportedly ill federal offender  who murdered his wife and small children  has been granted an expanded medical leave from his Sudbury halfway house to protect him from coronavirus. The Parole Board of Canada (PBC) decided Tuesday that for the next 90 days Rallo, 77, can live full-time in the home he shares with his girlfriend.

The request was made by Correctional Service of Canada (CSC). Rallo did not submit any documents to the PBC.

Until recently, Rallo was living with his long-time girlfriend for five days a week, spending the other two in his halfway house.

When asked how many other offenders have been moved out of halfway houses and into the community because of the pandemic, the PBC said it is not in a position to report on the number of cases specific to COVID-19.

Rallo was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder. In 1976, he killed his wife Sandra and their children Jason, 6 and Stephanie, 5, in their Hamilton Mountain bungalow. Sandra and Stephanies bodies were soon found in area waterways. Jason has never been found.

At every parole board hearing, Sandras sister, Janice Orovan, has begged Rallo to reveal where Jasons body is.

This month, she wrote to the board asking it not to approve Rallos COVID-19 medical pass.

He is a triple murderer who savagely killed my family. What is more detestable is that he now wants special consideration. He never showed any consideration or compassion when he killed my family.

The spread of COVID-19 in halfway houses is a concern for offenders, staff and possibly the community at large. Like long-term care homes where the virus has been most fatal, halfway houses are shared living quarters where many residents are older and in ill health. On its website, the PBC lists policy changes due to COVID-19, including that it is working with CSC to better accommodate the circumstances of offenders during the pandemic, such as to change a residency requirement from a community-based residential facility to a home or family environment where such placement is risk-appropriate.

Every year or two since 2008 when he was first released on day parole, Rallo has asked the PBC for full parole. Each time he has been denied. Despite his nearly spotless institutional record, hundreds of volunteer hours and being deemed at low risk of reoffending, board members have denied him his freedom for one reason: his denial stance.

Rallo has never admitted his guilt.

Without that, parole board members say they cannot understand why he killed his family. Therefore, they cannot take steps to control his triggers that may cause him to hurt someone again.

They denied him full parole as recently as September.

Nothing about Rallo has significantly changed since then. But now there is a pandemic.

Now the life of a killer is being protected.

Parole board documents say Rallo, who has been hospitalized several times in recent years, has already had a 30-day leave to quarantine in accordance with medical recommendations.

You have a number of well documented health conditions, in addition to your advancing age, the PBCs decision says. You are therefore more vulnerable than others to experience complications due to COVID-19. However the board is not granting expanded medical leave solely due to your increased vulnerability. Rather, it weights this vulnerability in the context of your risk to re-offend. Public safety remains paramount.

Normally, Rallo must meet with his parole officer once a month. During this medical leave, that has doubled.

Previous conditions to report all relationships with women to his parole officer and to have no contact with Sandras family remain in place.

The PBC no longer requires Rallo to have psychological counselling.

So, for now, Rallo is living his best life. And it opens the possibility that when the pandemic is over, the PBC will look back at his months of freedom and decide  despite no confession, or remorse, or disclosure of his sons resting place  to make it permanent.
Robert Bailey UC Berkeley has Written Five Books on Getting into College

BERKELEY, CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / Robert Bailey UC Berkeley's former director of Admissions and Records has a long history of helping students of color and other non-traditional students attend college. While director, and before that as an admission officer and registrar, Robert Bailey UC Berkeley helped the University of California, Berkeley, enroll a freshman class that reflected the ethnic makeup of the state of California as a whole. For the first time in its history, the flagship campus of the University of California system resembled the state it supported.

Robert Bailey UC Berkeley has taken the knowledge he gained at the University of California and at other universities and distilled it into a series of five books. This quintet of books is useful for any student or family exploring a college education, but especially so for minority students and other non-traditional students. Robert Bailey UC Berkeley's books cover topics such as navigating the financial aid process, getting the most out of your relationship with your high school guidance counselor, and on minority admissions.

Robert Bailey Implemented a Free Subscription Program

In addition to working at Cal, Robert Bailey UC Berkeley was Senior Vice President for Research at CollegeSource in San Diego and was the Director of Registration at the University of Oklahoma. Robert Bailey UC Berkeley has also taught as a visiting lecturer in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of British Columbia. At CollegeSource, he implemented a free subscription program for all California community colleges. He was also a senior lecturer in a new Information Studies program at Temanic Polytechnic. The program at Temanic Polytechnic was the first of its kind in all of Singapore.

Robert Bailey UC Berkeley has a doctorate degree in administration from the University of Oklahoma. He holds a master of technology from the Association for Information and Image Management in Silver Spring, Maryland, and a master's degree in education from the University of Oklahoma. He earned his bachelors' degree from the University of Washington in Seattle where he majored in speech and English.

Robert Bailey Holds Several Certifications

Robert Bailey UC Berkeley earned certification in Teaching in Higher Education from Brunei University in London, England. He also holds several certifications in records management from the Institute of Records Management in Washington, DC, the Association for Intelligent Information Management, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

CONTACT:

Caroline Hunter

Web Presence, LLC

+1 7865519491

SOURCE: Web Presence, LLC

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/588485/Robert-Bailey-UC-Berkeleys-Former-Director-of-Admissions-and-Records-Helps-Minority-Students-Attend-College
Pennridge to vote on one textbook; further review on other one
On April 22, Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced it had successfully launched a military satellite into space. The launch, the first claimed by the IRGC, shows the Iranian regime is not interested in space flight for peaceful, civilian purposes.

Countries around the world have long been concerned about Irans space program. The technologies used to launch satellites into orbit are virtually identical to those used in intercontinental ballistic missiles. UN Security Council Resolution 2231 calls on Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.

At a press briefing, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo noted the inconsistency of Irans missile launch and Resolution 2231:

Every nation has an obligation to go to the United Nations and evaluate whether this missile launch was consistent with that Security Council resolution. I dont think it remotely is, and I think Iran needs to be held accountable for what theyve done. Theyve now had a military organization that the United States has designated terrorists attempt to launch a satellite.

Secretary Pompeo also spoke about Irans dangerous threats to U.S. ships patrolling the Persian Gulf and President Donald Trumps directive to the U.S. military to destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea. Secretary Pompeo said that President Trump has made very clear the United States will take whatever action is necessary to protect and defend its military officers and diplomats around the world.

Secretary Pompeo also noted the hypocrisy of the Iranian government in claiming it needs more resources to fight the COVID-19 virus at home, while at the same time, it launches satellites, threatens ships, and funds proxy forces like Hezbollah:

I hope the Iranian regime will respond to the Iranian peoples demands to prioritize resources -- resources that the Iranian regime clearly has -- to the health and security and safety of the Iranian people, rather than continuing their global terror campaign.

Secretary Pompeo reiterated the U.S. offer of humanitarian aid to the people of Iran, which government leaders have rejected. Weve assisted other countries in delivering humanitarian assistance to the Iranian people, he said. I only wish that the Iranian regime cared about is people as much as the rest of the world has demonstrated that it does.
<! Buhari, Obasanjo and Fani-Kayode >

Critic, Femi Fani-Kayode has drawn comparison between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to Fani-Kayode, he would always like Obasanjo (OBJ) more than Buhari (PMB), saying that comparing Buhari with Obasanjo was like comparing Count Dracula with Mother Theresa.

OBJ united Nigeria, PMB divided her. OBJ brought peace, PMB brought war. OBJ brought prosperity, PMB brought poverty. OBJ brought life, PMB brought death. OBJ brought hope, PMB brought despair

OBJ paid off our foreign debt, Buhari indebted us to the tune of $30 billion and turned us into Africas biggest debtor & beggar. OBJ solved our problems, PMB created them. OBJ brought restoration, PMB brought degeneration. OBJ brought us pride, Buhari brought us shame, he said on his twitter handle.

He added that while Obasanjo brought the nation success, Buhari brought stark failure.

OBJ loved all Nigerians and treated them equally, Buhari loves only northerners and treats all others like field hands and slaves. OBJ saw Nigeria as a nation, PMB sees her as a conquered territory

OBJ led the best, most successful, most intelligent, most enlightened & most productive cabinet & Govt. in the history of Nigeria whilst PMB leads the worst, most destructive, most savage, most ignorant & most corrupt cabinet & Govt. in the history of Africa, he said.

.
A 45-year-old man has been booked for repeatedly raping the two minor daughters of his tenant for several months in Gurmel Park area of Tibba.

Mother of the victims, aged 12 and nine, said the accused, Balkar Singh, also threatened her daughters to keep mum. In her complaint, the victims mother, who works at a hosiery factory, said she and her husband, a labourer, had three children, including two daughters. They live in a rented accommodation, while the accused lives with his family in an adjoining house.

ACCUSED WOULD CALL GIRLS AT HIS HOUSE IN ABSENCE OF THEIR PARENTS

The complainant said from past one month, she had been home due to the coronavirus lockdown. On Monday, her younger daughter told her that Balkar used to call her sister and her to his house and rape the duo when their parents were out for work earlier. On being coaxed, the 12-year-old girl also revealed that their neighbour had raped her repeatedly, and whenever she tried to raise the alarm, he threatened to kill her, the complainant told police.

Investigating official sub-inspector Amandeep Kaur said the accused was a labourer and his wife worked with the victims mother.

Tibba police have registered a case under Sections 376-AB (rape on women under twelve years of age), 376 (2) (n) (committing rape repeatedly on the same person), 354-B (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. Efforts are on to arrest the accused.
Kate Garraway has shared a moving tribute to her husband Derek Draper after spending her first birthday in 16 years without him.

The Good Morning Britain presenter turned 53 on Monday, admitting it was a 'tough one' for her family as her spouse continues to fight for his life in hospital following his COVID-19 diagnosis.

The star resolved to stay positive and be grateful for the 'joy of life', thanking her friends and family for their kind gestures of support and gifts to make her day better.

Strange day: Kate Garraway has shared a moving tribute to her husband Derek Draper after spending her first birthday in 16 years without him on Monday

She wrote: 'So yesterday was always going to be a tough one - 1st birthday in 16 years without Derek - so for the kids & I, his absence was very present.

'But we resolved to do what I think we are all having to do at the moment arent we - treasure & be grateful for the love around us - however distanced we are from it .

'And focus on the joy of life & love in the moment - the small things that are huge & really should be at the core of everyday but usually the everyday gets in the way.'

Kate accompanied her post with two pictures - a throwback snap of Derek in his younger years at university, and a picture of the birthday cake she received from her I'm A Celebrity campmate Roman Kemp.

Support system: The star thanked her friends and family for their kind gestures of support and gifts - including this delicious-looking cake from Roman Kemp and the Global team

Difficult day: The Good Morning Britain presenter admitted it was a 'tough one' for her family as her husband continues to fight for his life in hospital following his COVID-19 diagnosis

She continued: 'So THANK YOU so much for all your messages they mean such a lot, to the friends @itv who sent chocolate for the kids & uplifting smellies for me , to mates who dropped off food, posh teabags & milk & made me smile at silliness ( derek is a great believer in the healing power of silliness), to my amazing family, to dereks friends who sent me messages of fun times they have had with him

'(pictured is when Derek was editing a student newspaper - insert your own  his taste in birds joke here!)

'And the strangers who got this cake >>> from @romankemp & all at @global & worked out it was actually meant for me ( was it the bourbons that gave it away??!!) - THANK YOU all.

'But most of all thank you to the NHS teams keeping derek still with us e& battling everyday to inch him toward recovery #hope #positivethinking #standtogether'

Missing her husband: Kate accompanied her post with two pictures - including a throwback snap of Derek in his younger years at university. She joked, 'insert your own  his taste in birds joke here!)'

Kate had remained silent on social media on her 53rd birthday on Monday as she spent the day with her children Darcey, 14, and William (Bill), 10.

Her GMB colleague Ben Shephard wished her a happy birthday as he updated viewers on her husband's condition,

The TV presenter, 45, was appearing on the show on Monday after taking over for Piers Morgan who went into self-isolation after displaying symptoms of the disease.

Ben gave his best and said Kate and her family were 'keeping everything crossed' for her other half continued to fight COVID-19.

Wishing her well: Her GMB colleague Ben Shephard wished her a happy birthday as he updated viewers on her husband's condition on Monday

Wishing her well, he said on the show: 'I wanna say happy birthday to Kate, who turns 40-13 today.'

'She is with her family and keeping everything crossed, obviously, because Derek is still critically ill but we just want to say happy birthday, Kate, however you can celebrate today.

'I'm sure that Darcey and Billy have got a cake or something, but we're sending lots and lots of love.'

Susanna Reid, who was co-hosting the show with him, added: 'Yes, huge love to you and your family, of course.'

Update: Discussing her husband, Ben said, 'She is with her family and keeping everything crossed, because Derek is still critically ill but we just want to say happy birthday, Kate'

Last Thursday night, Kate shared a video on Instagram of herself applauding with her family, writing that they have 'so much to be grateful for tonight.'

'Derek is still with us but what a battle it is. So grateful too for our amazing NHS doing so much for Derek everyday,' Kate wrote in a lengthy caption.

Hours after her appearance, on Friday morning her GMB co-hosts Ben and Ranvir Singh gave another update and revealed former Blair adviser Derek, 52, remains 'unresponsive'.

Update: Joining the clap for carers on Thursday night, Kate applauded with her family and said they have 'so much to be grateful for tonight'

On Good Morning Britain, after Ben read out Kate's tweet, he said: 'It's a dreadful time and I think she's at home with two children and trying to keep it going. It's a total unknown. But as she said, as long as he's here there's absolute hope.'

He went on: 'Twenty four hours at a time and she rightly pointed out, he's getting extraordinary care, she gets the chance to phone in the evenings and talk to him.'

Ranvi reiterated he's not able to respond yet: 'He's not responding yet, I don't think', before Ben quipped: 'That's pretty standard with Kate!'

In the original post from Thursday evening which Ben read out, Kate wrote: ''Wonderful to see all the support for them & our key workers every Thursday. We can't thank them enough can we ? So brave,'

'Sending love to everyone during this ghastly time , particularly all those struggling for whatever reason- none of this is easy.'

Battle: 'Derek is still with us but what a battle it is. So grateful too for our amazing NHS doing so much for Derek everyday,' Kate wrote in a lengthy caption

'Thank you so much for your messages - they mean so much to me. . Love and so much thanks from me and the whole family. X'

The video showed Kate banging pots and pans on the doorstep of her London home, before she turned to face the camera with a smile on her face.

Last month, Ben revealed that Derek was in a coma in intensive care after contracting the virus.

Kate shared another heartbreaking update with fans on her Club Garraway Wellbeing website last week, as she thanked them for their messages of support.

Staying positive: Ben gives regular updates on Derek's condition as he continues to co-host the show without her

The presenter went onto praise NHS staff for their incredible care of her husband as he remains in a 'deeply critical condition.'

Kate wrote: 'You may have seen over the last few week that my husband Derek has been seriously ill in hospital with COVID-19.

'I am afraid that he remains in a deeply critical condition and is very ill, but he's still alive so there is hope.

'It remains an extremely worrying time for us all and the last couple of weeks have been the hardest of my life.

In our thoughts: Kate also took to Twitter on Wednesday to reply to a fan whose mum lights a candle for Derek every night

Kate went onto once again praise NHS staff for their incredible work caring for her husband, and thanked her fans for sending their own well wishes.

She added: 'From the bottom of my heart a billion thank yous to the extraordinary NHS workers whose skills, dedication and downright guts in the face of so much personal risk, are keeping my Derek alive, just as they are for thousands of other COVID patients

'Sending so much love and support to the thousands who have had that hope for their loved ones stolen by this hideous disease. You are not alone and I hope that helps give you strength to withstand the torture of grief.

'I wanted to send a huge thank you to all of you who have sent me such a wonderful messages wishing Derek well. It has meant the world to me.

Challenges: Last month, Kate explained on her blog that Derek remains in a 'deeply critical condition' and praising NHS staff for their care (pictured in 2010)

'I am sorry I have not been able to reply to them individually, as I am sure you will understand that I am focusing on my family and Derek right now.'

At the time, Ben shared another update on Derek's condition on behalf of his colleague Kate while he co-hosted the show.

The previous evening Kate had written in a post about her husband: 'He is still critically ill in intensive care, but where there is life there is hope'.

Speaking further about the former Blair adviser's condition, Ben revealed to audiences: 'She's been able to speak with Derek in the evenings, in a coma. She's been able to share music with him, talk to him.'

Ben continued: 'She's been able to talk to him, just to support him. A bit of reassurance [to him] hearing her voice.'

Kate also sent her thanks, via the show, to fans who have sent messages of support and admitted they have been a great source of comfort for her.

He said: 'She said she's passed on the messages you've sent to her along to Derek as well so he's getting a sense of the support and positivity coming from all of you...

'She can't respond to everybody but in quieter moments when she has 10 minutes, she can scroll through and the support she's getting from them is really helping... It's really tough. It's really tough because as she said he is critically, critically ill.'
It took almost two years for Massachusetts marijuana company T. Bear, Inc., to receive approval to commence operations, which finally came down on March 20, recounted owner and CEO Angela Brown.

That approval authorized the East Wareham company to start operations on March 24, which happened to end up being the day an order from the governor shut down businesses deemed non-essential, including marijuana companies.

Just one day before we were able to make our first sale, we were shut down, said Brown on Tuesday, testifying before state lawmakers in support of a bill that would offer a Massachusetts version of the federal Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brown said her company was forced to furlough its whole team.

All I can do now is wait, with no income and no revenue, she said. And while I wait, I still pay my rent, my lenders, my utilities and my health insurance for my furloughed employees.

Gov. Charlie Baker in March issued an order that shut down non-essential businesses starting March 24. While medical marijuana companies are allowed to operate during the pandemic, adult-use marijuana businesses have been shuttered since. The order has been extended multiple times, and now has an end-date of May 18.

The Joint Committee on Community Development and Small Businesses met virtually Tuesday to hear testimony on two bills, S. 2564, An Act to support MassMakers, and S. 2643, An Act establishing a Massachusetts Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for businesses ineligible for the comparable federal PPP.

While the PPP bill would assist several different industries that have been left out of the federal PPP, the majority of the conversation during Tuesdays hearing was centered around recreational marijuana.

We cant keep having cannabis be the odd business out," said Caroline Pineau, the owner and CEO of Haverhill Stem and an economic empowerment applicant. Governor Baker said liquor stores can stay open yet closes down cannabis. This arbitrary reasoning further disproportionately impacts the entire industry, an industry that has demonstrated we can safely operate with proper social distancing, appointment only and online ordering."

Pineau reiterated that cannabis businesses like hers have payrolls, taxes, licensing fees, mortgages and high insurance premiums. But because marijuana is still federally illegal, marijuana businesses have been left of economic relief measures.

What am I supposed to do, asked Pineau, who told the committee she invested millions into her business while doing everything by-the-book.

Business owners repeated many of the same points: Massachusetts is the only state with legal marijuana that has shut down adult-use sales amid the pandemic, and that the state is not benefitting from tax revenue with these businesses shuttered.

Without the bills passage, the future for small businesses in the states marijuana industry could be grim, some predicted.

Without this bill passing, local cannabis companies face extinction before we get going. We cant let this be our legacy, said Brown, who told the committee that last year, there was upwards of $84 million in tax revenue from cannabis sales.

Ellen Rosenfeld, the president of CommCan, which she owns with her brothers, testified that CommCan has contributed more than $1.1 million in sales tax to the state in fewer than 5 months. A PPP loan would return $400,000 to CommCan, she said.

We have done all we can to protect our employees, said Rosenfeld, who testified that the company has not laid off any of its 90 employees. The PPP loan would add to that protection.

CommCan has a cultivation facility in Medway, a co-located medical and adult-use dispensary in Millis and a medical-only dispensary in Southborough.

Segun Idowu, the executive director of the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts, said any Massachusetts version of the PPP must have a specific carve-out for minority-owned businesses to access the funds.

We believe that the cannabis industry provides Massachusetts with a unique opportunity to grow wealth in already suffering communities," Idowu said. [The governors] order may have been well-intentioned but it will have the disastrous effect of destroying any chance that the state had of creating equity in an industry that was already and is already deeply inequitable."

In particular, Idowu said he was thinking of Pure Oasis, the states first economic empowerment applicant to open, which greeted its first customers in Boston just before the non-essential business order.

David OBrien, the president and CEO of the Massachusetts Cannabis Business Association, asked the committee to consider approaching the Cannabis Control Commission, which has a meeting scheduled for Thursday, to see if it would offer a letter of support for a Massachusetts version of the PPP.

State Sen. Diana DiZoglio, the senate chair of the committee, testified as the sponsor of the legislation and said that small businesses are in crisis and that its up to the state to close those gaps and provide equitable relief.

After Bakers order closing down recreational businesses, a group launched a lawsuit against the governor. A judge ruled that Baker was acting constitutionally in his decision to shutter recreational businesses, but suggested that there are ways for the companies to operate safely during the pandemic.

As recreational stores shut their doors, the state saw a spike in new registrations for medical marijuana patients. Cannabis regulators have allowed for the recreational market to support the medical market with wholesale transfers.

Related Content:
Iran: U.S. Push To Extend Arms Embargo 'Illegitimate'

May 04, 2020

Iran has criticized what it calls the "illegitimate" efforts by the United States to prolong the UN Security Council arms embargo on Tehran and said it would react to them with "proportionate" measures.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed on April 29 to use all means available to extend the ban on conventional arms sales to Iran beyond October and he was "hopeful" the UN Security Council would prolong the restriction before it expires.

"Iran is not seeking to exit the 2015 nuclear deal with six powers.... America's move is illegitimate and our reaction will be proportionate," Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Musavi said on May 4 in a televised weekly news conference, referring to an agreement with global powers that the United States left in 2018.

"The United States is not a member of the nuclear deal anymore.... Iran's reaction to America's illegal measures will be firm," Musavi said.

Security Council members China and Russia, which stand to win major new arms contracts with Iran, are certain to oppose an extension of the embargo.

After withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal, U.S. President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions on Tehran that have hit its economy hard.

Iran has gradually rolled back its commitments under the accord since the United States quit, arguing that Washington's actions justified such a course.

Under the 2015 deal, Iran agreed to halt its sensitive nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief.

Washington believes the nuclear program is secretly working toward military capabilities, while Tehran claims it is solely for civilian purposes.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-us-push-to-extend-arms -embargo-illegitimate/30592322.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 devastation caused by storms that tore through East Texas last month can be seen from satellite images shared by NASA.

Among the areas affected was Onalaska, a city located about 85 miles north of Houston. A tornado on April 22 damaged more than 290 homes, Polk County Judge Sydney Murphy previously told the Chronicle.
Craig Pike wont be using Uber Eats anymore.

The owner of Craigs Cookies, a Toronto-based bakery offering desserts and decadent snacks for delivery, decided to abandon his relationship with the company after battling over a policy that prohibits customers from tipping restaurants more than $2 at a time.

He says the 30 per cent commission the company takes on orders is too high, and  after some consideration  hes opted to use DoorDash instead.

The mounting backlash toward companies such as Uber Eats, as well as Foodoras sudden departure from Canada, marks a rare moment of upheaval in the countrys app-based food delivery industry. Its a moment that new competitors could seize on, some experts say.

This is an interesting time to operate in this market. While incumbents like Uber Eats will be able to absorb the market share that Foodoras left behind, startups and new competitors have an opportunity here to find potentially better ways of delivering food, said Jackie Csonka-Peeren, a lecturer at the Ted Rogers School of Management and adviser for the University of Torontos startup incubator.

Startups have a natural nimbleness that incumbents dont. Delivering a better value proposition, finding perhaps a niche market segment that other competitors dont do well in, is a good way of entering the market now.

With Foodora out of the picture, Uber Eats faces its heaviest competition from SkipTheDishes and DoorDash. But younger companies including Chanmao, based in Richmond Hill, and Chicagos Tock To Go have also made inroads throughout Canada.

Chanmao, which serves cities across the country including Toronto, Edmonton and Winnipeg, saw a 20 per cent increase in orders one weekend in April, the company told The Canadian Press.

The startups potential for success have been bolstered by an ongoing movement among restaurateurs to boycott companies with steep commission costs and late deliveries. Some local services have eliminated commission fees entirely, while others have offered rates lower than the 10- to 30-per cent typically charged by Uber Eats, SkipTheDishes or DoorDash.

Tock To Go, founded by Chicago-based restaurateur Nick Kokonas, only takes three per cent commission from restaurants in Vancouver and Toronto. From To, which will operate locally in Vancouver starting this month, will give restaurants the ability to decide whether to pay for, split with or pass on customers delivery costs.

Despite the difficulties facing the market now, those who have a solution and a strategy that makes sense  both for customers and restaurants  have an opportunity to get some attention right now, said Csonka-Peeren.

The momentum of these local delivery services could be a sign of things to come, says Brad Poulos, a professor of entrepreneurship and strategy at Ryerson University.

Its never safe to say that a market cant be entered, and thats certainly the case here, said Poulos. Regardless of the competition, you can always innovate in a category and find new, better ways to offer a product.

But the primary hurdle that new competition will face is the process of attracting investors, said Poulos.

Investors are for sure going to look at Foodoras exit and think this industry isnt as promising as they thought it might be, Poulos said. But that doesnt mean somebody couldnt be successful here, and companies like SkipTheDishes or DoorDash are a testament to that.

Foodora, which served customers in 10 cities across the country, announced its exit and initiated bankruptcy proceedings early last week, citing a highly competitive and saturated Canadian environment that appears to have dampened its profitability.

Though Foodoras couriers hadnt unionized by the time of the companys departure, the provinces labour relations board handed them a historic victory by ruling that the couriers were not independent contractors and could, in turn, unionize.

Workers for competing companies have not indicated any intention of unionizing as of yet, though Csonka-Peeren notes that even local groups should be aware of that prospect and incorporate an accommodating business model.

Clearly, the tide has shifted towards more protections for vulnerable workers who now have the right to organize, said Csonka-Peeren. Thats not a bad thing for companies, it just means theyll have to find a business model  like so many other industries have  that can meet their profit targets while accommodating organized labour.

With files from Sarah Mojtehedzadeh and The Canadian Press

Jacob Lorinc is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Stars radio room in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @jacoblorinc

Read more about:
Nigerias Minister for Foreign Affairs, Geofferey Onyeama has said that the evacuation of Nigerians from the abroad due to the Coronavirus pandemic, will begin on Wednesday May 6th with the first evacuation from Dubai.

The Minister made this known when he spoke at the daily briefing of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 earlier today May 4. According to Onyeama, an Emirates flight from Dubai is expected in Lagos on Wednesday May 6, this will be followed by a BA flight from the UK on Friday May 8.

From Wednesday by Gods Grace, we will start the process of evacuation of our Nationals from outside the country. There are almost 4000 Nigerians wishing to come back home. If we had our way, we will bring them back home all at once but there are various constraints and the biggest constraint is where to quarantine them., particularly the bed.

So we have done everything we can to get beds in Abuja and in Lagos.

In Lagos we have about 300 bed available.

The first flight that we hope to have on Wednesday is Emirates and it will be to Lagos. Then we are hoping that soon after that, a British Airways flight that is coming to Nigeria to evacuate some British citizens will help bring Nigerians coming back. So we are hoping that on Friday, we will be able to evacuate from the UK anything up to 300 or less Nigerians.

We have also told our mission in the US that if there are any flights available, they should do a deal with them and get them to bring our people back. Our missions in New York, Atlanta and Washigton have told us that Ethiopian airline does have a regular commercial programme out of the US. So we are hoping that Monday next week, we can do a deal with Ethiopian airline to bring back a significant number of our people.

AirPeace has been chartered for a medical evacuation by a couple based here in Nigeria to London, so we are trying to also do a deal with them to have another UK flight coming in probably on Saturday.

China of course is a huge crisis and we are trying to see if we can get a plane to go and evacuate. There is a large number of our people there who have additional challenges so we are also working to bring them back. We are hoping to have an agreement with one of the carriers so maybe by a week or two, we can move into China to bring our people home.

South Africa, India, they are all also waiting. There are about 4000 of them so we will have to be patient. It is not easy but we are doing everything possible to bring our people back  he said
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- MustGrow Biologics Corp. (CSE: MGRO) (OTC: MGROF) (FRA: 0C0) (the "Company", "MustGrow"), an agricultural biotech company developing and commercializing a portfolio of natural, science-based biological crop protection products, is pleased to announce the initiation of its South American strategy for bio-pesticide registration of TerraMG for use in several crop groups. TerraMG is MustGrow's signature mustard-derived liquid pre-plant bio-pesticide formulation that has been proven to control soil-borne pests and diseases such as Fusarium, Botrytis, Rhizoctonia, Pythium, Verticillium, Phytophthora, Sclerotinia, and Nematodes.

MustGrow has already been working towards its US-EPA and Canadian-PMRA registrations of TerraMG for pre-plant treatment of soil-borne pests and diseases in high value crops such as fruits & vegetables and turf & ornamental. Now, MustGrow is looking to replicate that strategy in South America, starting with Colombia  pursuing registration of TerraMG as a bio-pesticide for use in Colombian crops including fruits & vegetables, coffee, oil palm, and various floriculture. This entry will coincide with proof-of-concept testing of TerraMG on the Panama Disease, a devastating disease threatening the global banana supply.

"We are very excited to introduce our natural technology into Colombia as our initial entry into the extremely important South American crop production market." remarked MustGrow COO Colin Bletsky. "We look forward to testing in Colombia, targeting continual crop protection needs in South America and potentially helping farmers control key soil-borne diseases and nematodes."

MustGrow is currently awaiting final import approval from the Colombian government. MustGrow anticipates testing its liquid bio-pesticide in laboratory then field settings for soil-borne pests and diseases affecting bananas, fruits & vegetables, coffee, oil palm, and various floriculture. This work will build on MustGrow's existing field data and serve as a benchmark for achieving registration labels in Colombia and further South American advancement.

Panama Disease (Fusarium wilt TR4)

Panama Disease, caused by a new Fusarium pathogen strain known as Fusarium wilt Tropical Race 4 ("Fusarium wilt TR4"), is a soil-borne disease pathogen plaguing the global banana supply. MustGrow's previous independent efficacy studies involving the treatment of Fusarium oxysporum, a soil-borne pathogen potentially similar to Fusarium wilt TR4, have demonstrated 100% control of the fungus.

The spread of Fusarium wilt TR4 to banana plantations in South America has prompted Colombia to reportedly declare a National State of Emergency, enacting special measures to stop the disease from spreading, including the preventive eradication of 168 hectares of infected crop. A flurry of media reports has followed, revealing a research race to save bananas from extinction.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(1)

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ("FAO") Fusarium wilt disease has been a major constraint to banana production for more than a century. Its new race, Fusarium wilt TR4, has been causing serious banana losses in Southeast Asia, resulting in abandonment of thousands of hectares. Fusarium wilt TR4 is among the most destructive diseases of bananas, affecting particularly Cavendish bananas, supplying around half of global banana production. Effective eradication is currently not possible, with Fusarium wilt TR4 remaining viable for decades in the soil. Once established in a field, it can cause 100 percent yield loss.

(1) Source: http://www.fao.org

About MustGrow

MustGrow is a publicly traded (CSE: MGRO) (OTC: MGROF) (FRA: 0C0) agriculture biotech company focused on providing natural science-based biological solutions for high value crops, including organic fruits & vegetables. MustGrow has designed and owns a United States EPA-approved organic solution that uses the mustard seed's natural defence mechanism to protect plants from pests and diseases. Over 110 independent tests have been completed, validating MustGrow's safe and effective signature products. This product, in granule format, is EPA-approved across all key U.S. states as a bio-fertilizer and bio-pesticide (currently limited to a bio-fertilizer in California) and is designated by Health Canada's PMRA (Pest Management Regulatory Agency) as a fruit & vegetable bio-pesticide and bio-fertilizer. MustGrow has now concentrated a liquid format that with regulatory approval, could be applied through standard drip or spray equipment, improving functionality and performance features.

The Company has approximately 37 million basic common shares issued and outstanding. For further details please visit www.mustgrow.ca.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements included in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may affect the results, performance or achievements of MustGrow.

Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "occur" or "be achieved".

Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of MustGrow to differ materially from those discussed in such forward-looking statements, and even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, MustGrow.

These risks are described in more detail in MustGrow's Prospectus and other continuous disclosure documents filed by MustGrow with the applicable securities regulatory authorities and available at www.sedar.com. Readers are referred to such documents for more detailed information about MustGrow, which is subject to the qualifications, assumptions and notes set forth therein.

This release does not constitute an offer for sale of, nor a solicitation for offers to buy, any securities in the United States.



Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Important

Always read and follow label use directions.  2019 MustGrow Biologics Corp. All rights reserved.

SOURCE MustGrow

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Some have more dollars than sense, they say, so even companies that have no revenue, no profit, and a record of falling short, can easily find investors. But the reality is that when a company loses money each year, for long enough, its investors will usually take their share of those losses.

So if you're like me, you might be more interested in profitable, growing companies, like LPKF Laser & Electronics (ETR:LPK). While that doesn't make the shares worth buying at any price, you can't deny that successful capitalism requires profit, eventually. While a well funded company may sustain losses for years, unless its owners have an endless appetite for subsidizing the customer, it will need to generate a profit eventually, or else breathe its last breath.

See our latest analysis for LPKF Laser & Electronics

How Fast Is LPKF Laser & Electronics Growing Its Earnings Per Share?

In the last three years LPKF Laser & Electronics's earnings per share took off like a rocket; fast, and from a low base. So the actual rate of growth doesn't tell us much. Thus, it makes sense to focus on more recent growth rates, instead. Like a falcon taking flight, LPKF Laser & Electronics's EPS soared from 0.35 to 0.54, over the last year. That's a impressive gain of 54%.

Careful consideration of revenue growth and earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) margins can help inform a view on the sustainability of the recent profit growth. The good news is that LPKF Laser & Electronics is growing revenues, and EBIT margins improved by 5.7 percentage points to 13%, over the last year. That's great to see, on both counts.

In the chart below, you can see how the company has grown earnings, and revenue, over time. Click on the chart to see the exact numbers.

XTRA:LPK Income Statement May 5th 2020

Of course the knack is to find stocks that have their best days in the future, not in the past. You could base your opinion on past performance, of course, but you may also want to check this interactive graph of professional analyst EPS forecasts for LPKF Laser & Electronics.

Story continues

Are LPKF Laser & Electronics Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders?

It makes me feel more secure owning shares in a company if insiders also own shares, thusly more closely aligning our interests. As a result, I'm encouraged by the fact that insiders own LPKF Laser & Electronics shares worth a considerable sum. Given insiders own a small fortune of shares, currently valued at 52m, they have plenty of motivation to push the business to succeed. That holding amounts to 11% of the stock on issue, thus making insiders influential, and aligned, owners of the business.

It's good to see that insiders are invested in the company, but are remuneration levels reasonable? Well, based on the CEO pay, I'd say they are indeed. For companies with market capitalizations between 182m and 727m, like LPKF Laser & Electronics, the median CEO pay is around 990k.

The LPKF Laser & Electronics CEO received 548k in compensation for the year ending . That comes in below the average for similar sized companies, and seems pretty reasonable to me. CEO remuneration levels are not the most important metric for investors, but when the pay is modest, that does support enhanced alignment between the CEO and the ordinary shareholders. It can also be a sign of a culture of integrity, in a broader sense.

Does LPKF Laser & Electronics Deserve A Spot On Your Watchlist?

Given my belief that share price follows earnings per share you can easily imagine how I feel about LPKF Laser & Electronics's strong EPS growth. If that's not enough, consider also that the CEO pay is quite reasonable, and insiders are well-invested alongside other shareholders. This may only be a fast rundown, but the takeaway for me is that LPKF Laser & Electronics is worth keeping an eye on. Before you take the next step you should know about the 2 warning signs for LPKF Laser & Electronics that we have uncovered.

Although LPKF Laser & Electronics certainly looks good to me, I would like it more if insiders were buying up shares. If you like to see insider buying, too, then this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying, could be exactly what you're looking for.

Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction.

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.
By Cynthia Fernandez of Spotlight PA

Spotlight PA is a nonpartisan, reader-funded newsroom covering Pennsylvania state government and urgent statewide issues. Today through May 7, all donations to Spotlight PA will be DOUBLED. Give now at spotlightpa.org/donate.

HARRISBURG  The state has told hospitals it will not provide them with masks, gloves, and other protective equipment if they choose to resume elective surgeries, as the priority shifts to nursing homes, where most of Pennsylvanias COVID-19 deaths have occurred.

Teams have been literally scouring Pennsylvania and the nation and the Earth to try to get [personal protective equipment], and we have been able to do that, Health Secretary Rachel Levine said at a state Senate hearing Monday. In the past, that has gone to hospitals. And we will give out to hospitals when necessary now, but the focus ... is on long-term care living facilities."

On March 20, Levine ordered hospitals to cancel or postpone elective procedures in an effort to reserve beds, ventilators, and other resources for coronavirus patients, who were expected to flood the health-care system. These procedures include heart catheterizations, joint replacements, and colonoscopies.

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A month later, as at least one major health system pressed ahead without state approval, Levine updated the order, allowing hospitals and ambulatory surgical facilities to resume elective procedures, as long as they could do so without compromising COVID-19 response.

States have been forced to compete for PPE since the coronavirus pandemic began, as suppliers and a federal stockpile struggled to keep up with rising demand. In early April, Gov. Tom Wolf ordered hospitals to disclose their inventory of ventilators and PPE, so the state could possibly commandeer those supplies to redistribute them to areas of highest need.

The worst has not come to pass in most parts of Pennsylvania, though there is a continuing need for equipment as many health-care professionals reuse masks and gowns in an effort to make limited supplies last. Levine said Monday that, while the state will still assist hospitals in hard-hit areas like Philadelphia, those that resume elective procedures will be cut off from the departments stockpile.

If youre doing elective procedures, were not giving you any more PPE, Levine said. If you have enough PPE to do important but not emergency procedures, then were not going to be pushing out PPE to that hospital.

Robert Shipp, vice president of the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, which lobbies on behalf of the states providers, said at Mondays hearing many necessary surgeries and procedures have been put on hold since March.

Having flattened the COVID-19 curve, it is crucial to start to safely reintroduce needed care for Pennsylvania patients, Shipp said. Continued postponement of care could result in negative health outcomes.

But theres also a financial incentive to resume these procedures.

A report by Health Management Associates, which was commissioned by the Hospital and Healthsystem Association, found operating margins for hospitals in the state dropped $914 million below estimates in March, partially as a result of the cancellation and delay of all non-emergent procedures. It warned that if the trend continued, the industry could see $4 billion in losses through June.

To resume elective procedures, the Department of Health asked facilities to affirm they could do so without jeopardizing the safety of patients and staff. However, these facilities do not need to seek approval from the state to proceed.

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The state adopted guidance from a number of groups including the American College of Surgeons and American Society of Anesthesiologists. In a joint statement, the organizations said hospitals should be prepared to meet an immense pent-up patient demand for surgical and procedural care.

The groups recommended hospitals hold off on returning to regular services until there is a marked reduction in COVID-19 cases in the region and until they meet other testing and supply benchmarks.

While most hospitals appear to be handling COVID-19 cases without any major issues, nursing homes are continuing to struggle. As of Monday, 67% of deaths in the state were attributed to fatalities of residents in long-term care facilities.

At the beginning of the pandemic, workers at these homes called for more protective equipment. The Pennsylvania Homecare Association, an industry organization that represents providers, wrote a letter to Levine in March asking for guidance on shortages of personal protective equipment.

Nursing homes and personal care homes are where the vast majority of our PPE is going now, Levine said Monday. Many hospitals  not all  but most hospitals are doing fine with PPE, so we are pushing out PPE almost exclusively to long-term care living facilities.

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Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Tuesday appealed to migrant labourers stranded in the state due to COVID-19 lockdown not to leave for their home towns and assured them work, as the state reported two deaths and 22 new cases.

With this the death toll in the state increased to 29; while the total number of infections surged to 673.

Meanwhile, the state is also bracing for the return of about 10,000 people from the state stranded abroad.

"I appeal to labourers with folded hands don't pay heed to any rumours, it is the responsibility of the government to see to that you get work at the place you were working... don't take hasty decision of going to your natives. Stay here and work, as in the past," the Chief Minister said pointing to easing of norms allowing construction and industrial activities in non-red zones.

This is the second appeal made by Yediyurappa to the migrant workers since last week and it came after a group of builders met him here amid fears of shortage of labourers.

The government had recently allowed one-time inter- state and inter-district movement of those stranded due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

"As of 5 pm of May 5, cumulatively 673 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, it includes 29 deaths and 331 discharges," the health department said in its bulletin.

Out of 312 active cases, 306 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 6 are in ICU.

Ten patients who have recovered, have been discharged on Monday.

Two patients have died in the state, they are- 62- year-old woman from Vijayapura, who was a known case of COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and BA (Bronchial Asthama) and was admitted on May 3 to ICU of designated hospital in the district with complaint of breathlessness.

She died today due to cardiac arrest.

While the other is a 50-year-old woman from Davanagere with complaint of breathlessness (diagnosed as SARI) and died today at a designated hospital in the district.

Of the 22 new cases reported, 12 are from Davangere, three from Bengaluru urban, two from Bagalkote and one each from Ballari, Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada, Haveri and Dharwad.

Among them 17 are contacts of patients already tested positive, two are with Influenza Like Illness (ILI), one each with travel history to Uttarakhand and Mumbai, while the other's contact is under tracing.

Contact tracing has been initiated and is in progress for all the cases, the department said.

"In March, Karnataka was in third place, today we are in 13th place...the average compounded daily growth rate of positive cases during the last five days shows- the national average at 5.97 per cent, while Karnataka's is 3.13 per cent," Minister S Suresh Kumar, who is spokesperson for COVID-19 in Karnataka told reporters.

From across the state most number of infections have been reported in Bengaluru urban with 153 cases, followed by Mysuru 88 and Belagavi 71.

Out of total 331 patients discharged so far maximum 80 are from Mysuru, 75 from Bengaluru urban, 26 from Belagavi.

A total of 83,806 samples were tested so far, out of which 4,613 were tested on Tuesday alone.

So far 78,860 samples have reported as negative, and out of them 4,196 were reported negative on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in continuation to the Government of India decision on allowing Indian citizens to come back to country from abroad, the Commissioner Health and Family Welfare Services, Karnataka, has issued Standard Operative Procedure for handling international travelers landing in the state.

Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey said passengers may come through Bengaluru and Mangaluru airports and Karawar and Mangaluru sea ports in the state, where we will have large number of health screening teams.

Stating that following screening passengers will be divided into two sets, one symptomatic and other asymptomatic, he said, symptomatic will be taken to dedicated COVID health centres (isolation hospitals) and non-symptomatic will be taken to hotels or hotels of choice, where they will be quarantined on cost.

For both symptomatic and asymptomatic swab tests will done, he said, adding that an approximate list of 10,000 passengers has come from the Central government and the first set of passengers may land in the state on May 8.

The government has issued the notification on the regulations under 'Karnataka Epidemic Disease Regulation, 2020', making it mandatory on wearing mask and maintaining social distance.

It has fixed penalty of Rs 200 in Municipal Corporation area and Rs 100 in areas other than the Municipal Corporation areas.

(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) Istanbul, Turkey  Tue, May 5, 2020 09:15 624 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd5f57f4 2 World Turkey,coronavirus,virus-corona,COVID-19,COVID-19-lockdown,COVID-19-quarantine,pandemic Free

Turkey will relax confinement rules on people aged 65 and over, and those under 20, as the country moves to a "new normal", President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday.

Since March 21, around 7.5 million senior citizens have been under lockdown, forbidden from going outside in a measure taken to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.

The same restriction was brought in by the government for people aged under 20 on April 4.

"We will gradually return to normal life," Erdogan said in Istanbul after a cabinet meeting held by videoconference.

"But this will be a new normal," he warned.

Barbers, hairdressers and shopping centers will be able to reopen on May 11, said Erdogan.

From Sunday, those aged more than 64 will be able to go out for fours a day, between 0800 and 1200 GMT, he added.

From May 13, the same four-hour window will be extended to children under 15 -- and to those aged between 15 and 20 from May 15, said Erdogan.

Turkey's death toll from the coronavirus is 3,461, according to the official figures as of Monday, while the number of cases has passed 127,000.

The government hopes the domestic tourism sector can start in June after the Eid holiday, which follows the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

But Erdogan insisted that all-day weekend curfews in 31 cities, including Ankara and Istanbul, would continue.

After recording more than 5,000 new cases in a single day in mid-April, the number of infections in a 24-hour period has declined substantially, with recoveries now overtaking new infections.
American Electric Power Company, Inc. AEP is set to release first-quarter 2020 results on May 6, before market open. In the last reported quarter, the companys earnings came in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate.

In the trailing four quarters, American Electric came up with average positive earnings surprise of 5%.

Lets see how things have shaped up prior to this announcement.

Factors at Play

During the January-March 2020 quarter, some parts of the company's service territories witnessed warmer-than-normal temperatures, while in some other parts temperature remained below normal. Moreover, a few states like Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee and Louisiana experienced notable storm activities, followed by heavy rainfall.

So, overall, weather conditions seem to have boosted electricity demand in American Electrics service territory, which, in turn, must have contributed its top-line growth in the soon-to-be-reported quarter.

American Electric Power Company, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

American Electric Power Company, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

American Electric Power Company, Inc. price-eps-surprise | American Electric Power Company, Inc. Quote

In December 2019, the Arkansas Public Service Commission (APSC) approved an annual base rate increase of $53 million for American Electric, based upon a 9.45% return on common equity. This favorable rate case outcome is to have boosted the top line.

Moreover, growth in pipeline transportation sector during the first half of the first quarter is likely to have boosted sales from oil and gas industries.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for American Electrics first-quarter revenues is pegged at $4.32 billion, indicating a rise of 6.6% from the year-ago quarter figure.

While heavy showers tend to bolster electricity demand, storms before showers cause damages to electricity poles and grids. This many a times pushes up maintenance cost for utility providers.



Considering the fact that in January alone, 396 storms were reported in American Electrics service areas, its first-quarter results are expected to reflect higher operating and maintenance costs. These costs, in turn, might have weighed on the companys bottom line in the soon-to-be-reported quarter.

Story continues

Further, the aforementioned base rate increase, approved by the APSC, also includes increased annual depreciation expense worth $6 billion, which became effective with the first billing cycle in January 2020. This may also have dragged down the companys quarterly earnings.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the companys first-quarter earnings is pegged at $1.09 per share, suggesting 8.4% decline from the year-ago quarter reported figure.

What the Zacks Model Unveils

Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for American Electric this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. This is not the case here.

Earnings ESP: American Electric has an Earnings ESP of 0.00%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Stocks to Consider

Here are a few players from the Utilities sector that have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat when they report first-quarter 2020 results.

Consolidated Edison ED has an Earnings ESP of +0.52% and a Zacks Rank #3. The company is set to announce report results on May 7.

NewJersey Resources NJR has an Earnings ESP of +3.86% and a Zacks Rank #3. The company will release earnings on May 8.

Algonquin Power & Utilities AQN has an Earnings ESP of +1.59% and a Zacks Rank #2. The company is set to announce results on May 7.

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"You must reside in Ward 3, and have been a resident in Ward 3 for at least a year," said borough Manager Christine Hart.
Abu Dhabi-based Gulf Marine Services (GMS) said its board has unanimously has rejected the unsolicited approach by Seafox International, a leading global offshore jack-up company, to acquire GMS for $32 million.



GMS said it is performing well with refocused and streamlined and that its management and the Board have been strengthened. It added that new business has been successfully secured with 11 new contracts since the start of 2019 and the backlog stands at $240 million



The Board said it is confident in future value creation as an independent company, noting that all available vessels in the fleet are currently contracted - secured utilisation for 2020 of 76 per cent versus 69 per cent in 2019.



"Operationally and commercially, GMS is in much better shape today than it was 12 months' ago. The Company is performing well notwithstanding the difficult environment; we have reduced costs and we will continue to reduce them further in 2020, said Tim Summers, Executive Chairman of GMS.



We have agreed in principle a deal with our banks that provides the Company with long-term financial stability. The Board remains highly confident in the future success of the Company. Now is not the time for shareholders to sell at a price that is far below the true worth of GMS."  TradeArabia News Service
Unionized field organizers working for Joe Biden's campaign have ratified a contract with his campaign, officials announced Monday, setting the stage for the first time a major party's apparent presidential nominee will employ unionized workers under a collective bargaining agreement.

The Biden campaign and Teamsters Local 238 announced the agreement in a joint statement. The union's secretary-treasurer, Jesse Case, said it "includes overtime pay for all hours worked after 40 in a week, 100 percent employer-paid health insurance, a six-day work week, a union grievance procedure and other protections afforded by a union contract."

Biden is the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. He is expected to officially secure that title at the Democratic National Convention this summer.

Field organizers are entry-level workers who are typically dispatched to states to help persuade and turn out voters, and the joint statement says the agreement only applies to them.

The Biden campaign had previously said its organizers had unionized, and in November the campaign recognized Local 238 as their bargaining agent. The contract approval marks another major step in the process.

The move toward embracing unions for their employees highlights the growing pressure for Democratic campaigns to practice the ideals often voiced by candidates such as Biden regarding worker rights and benefits.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., etched his place in history last year, when campaign employees below the rank of deputy director gained union representation, making it the first unionized presidential campaign in a major party. Employees for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., also reached a collective bargaining agreement with her campaign.

Although a unionized workforce can win a campaign plaudits from supporters and loyalty from organized labor, it can also lead to standoffs between workers and management that, if made public, can expose internal tensions.

The Washington Post reported on one such clash inside the Sanders campaign last summer, as field hires demanded an annual salary they said would be equivalent to the $15-an-hour wage that Sanders advocated for the federal minimum.

Monday's joint statement said the agreement, which took effect Friday, will "guarantee an hourly wage above $15.00 and overtime wages for all hours above 40 hours each week." Field organizers will also receive "a 100% employer contribution for employee medical and vision coverage," the statement said.
HSC-26 Maintains Mission Readiness during COVID-19 Pandemic

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS200504-07

Release Date: 5/4/2020 1:56:00 PM

By Lt. j.g. Evan Sternstein, Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 26 Public Affairs

NORFOLK, Va (NNS) -- As the world adapts to the unique challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the "Chargers" of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 26 have demonstrated flexibility while continuing to execute training and operational missions in support of the nation's defense at home and abroad.

Since implementing sanitization and various protective procedures, HSC-26 has remained steadfast in its commitment to ensuring mission capabilities and task requirements are met, and successfully completed the Helicopter Advanced Readiness Program in preparation for an upcoming deployment overseas. Additionally, on the home front, HSC-26 pilots, aircrew, maintenance, and support personnel have undergone training to ensure preparedness in case of COVID-19 related tasking.

Aircrew from HSC-26 recently returned to Naval Station Norfolk after joining HSC-9 on the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), the Navy's newest aircraft carrier, during a Post-Delivery Test and Trials (PDT&T) at-sea period. As the plane guard and search and rescue asset, the detachment supported the completion of carrier qualifications (CQ) for Fleet Replacement Squadrons and student aviators from Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA).

HSC-26 has a permanent four helicopter detachment in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Desert Hawk's primary mission is to provide logistical support to naval forces throughout the Arabian Gulf. The Desert Hawks also serve as a combat-ready unit that is capable of a wide array of missions, such as Maritime Attack, Personnel Recovery, and Non-Traditional Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance. To combat the spread of COVID-19, the detachment has implemented procedures for the safe transportation of personnel. This includes the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), strict sanitization procedures, and specific medical precautions in conjunction with the host nation, Bahrain. Mitigations such as these enable the detachment to remain a formidable combat logistics asset without interruption of operations

"I am extremely proud of the teamwork, dedication, ingenuity, and leadership displayed by all members of the command and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic," said Cmdr. Benjamin Foster, commanding officer, HSC-26. "The Chargers of HSC-26 continue to be ready, both at home and abroad, to answer the nation's call. I could not have asked for a more motivated and professional team to navigate the past few months.

HSC-26's mission is to deploy expeditionary-armed helicopter detachments that execute naval special warfare, amphibious search and rescue, theater security cooperation, strike coordination and reconnaissance, anti-surface warfare, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief and utility missions in support of the fleet and our national defense.

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On April 21, Facebook announced a $5.7 billion investment in Jio Platforms Limited, Indias largestand the worlds third-largestmobile network operator, with over 370 million subscribers. In their official announcement, representatives of Facebook wrote, India is in the midst of one of the most dynamic social and economic transformations the world has ever seen, driven by the rapid adoption of digital technologies. The rest of the announcement focused on how this collaboration would seek to empower Indian businesses.

But in augmenting its association with India, where it already has 280 million users, Facebook must also come to reckon with Indias fraught and divided media.

Indian publications are divided on their portrayal of Narendra Modis BJP government. In August 2019, the government annexed Jammu and Kashmir and subsequently imposed an internet shutdown in the region (at 213 days, the longest ever Internet shutdown in a democracy). Outlets differed in their portrayal of the situation in Kashmir, some arguing that things were rapidly returning to normal, others drawing attention to human rights violations running rampant. The December 19th 2019 passage of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, which expedites Indian citizenship for migrants from three of Indias neighbours of any regional religion except Islam, was met with similarly polarized coverage.

Recently, this division has shaped Indian coverage of COVID-19. On April 5, the government claimed to link more than a thousand positive COVID-19 cases to the annual meeting of a Muslim missionary group, the Tablighi Jamaat between March 8th and 10th.

Vitriol against the groupand all of Islamfrom bhakts (staunch Modi supporters), flowed online. Hashtags like #BioJihad and #CoronoJihad trended on Twitter, the latter seen by up to as many as 165 million people according to an analysis by Equality Labs, an activist organization in the US. Understandably, missionaries who were at the meeting were required by law to report to health authorities in their home states. Less understandably, in some states they were told they would be charged with attempted murder if they failed to do so. Many in the media blamed the spread of Coronavirus on Indias Muslims.

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In the midst of this frenzy of hate, The Wire, a publication often critical of the Modi governments Hindu nationalism, published a story on March 31 pointing out that the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (UP), Yogi Adityanath, okayed and attended a Hindu religious ceremony on March 25 along with dozens of others in violation of a nationwide lockdown. A day after the story ran, the UP government registered 2 FIRs requests for information that might lead to future arrestagainst The Wires editor, Siddharth Varadrajan. Varadrajan had misattributed a quote by another person associated with the event to Adityanath. For this single misquote Varadrajan was charged with five violations of four different laws, including transmission of obscene material and computerized identity theft.

Varadrajan tweeted a correction and updated the original article to correctly attribute the quote, but the charges against him remain. On April 10th, the UP government sent policemen to his home in Delhi (at least 2 of whom were not wearing masks, according to his wife, Nandini Sundar) to summon him to appear physically in court in Ayodhya, 427 miles away. They later allowed him to respond to the charges over email.

Two weeks later, some of the media turned its Islamophobic gaze on Mumbai. On April 14, 2,000 people gathered at a Mumbai train stationa dangerous violation of the lockdown. The throng was initially identified as migrant workers who believed special trains had been organized to take them to their home states from the camps in Mumbai where they are living while they are unable to work. But there were no such trains.

ICYMI: William F. Buckley and Argentinas Dirty War

Arnab Goswami, one of Indias best-known news anchors, focused early coverage of the incident on the fact that there was a mosque near the gathering. A report on ABP News, a prominent network, questioned whether the group were migrants at all, suggesting that they had been exhorted by Muslim leaders to gather at the station to spread Coronavirus. The network later corrected its coverage and confirmed that the people were indeed migrants trying to find a way home. They had been misled about the trains, and Mumbais police force set out to find the perpetrators.

The police arrested eleven people, including one of ABP News own correspondents, Rahul Kulkarni, not for unsubstantiated accusations against Muslim leaders, but for circulating an internal railway document that he claimed suggested special trains were being organized to transport stranded migrant workers back home. He has since been granted bail.

The police in Mumbai, where Modis BJP are not in power, are investigating Goswami for alleged slander against an opposition leader. On May 3rd, they filed an FIR against him for allegedly trying to disturb communal harmony for his coverage of the incident in Mumbai.

A few days later, Kashmiri photojournalist Masrat Zahra was arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), an anti-terrorism law, for purportedly anti-national social media posts. An example the police cited was a picture Zahra tweeted out from a December 2019 article in The New Humanitarian titled Kashmirs mental health crisis goes untreated as clampdown continues, depicting the widow of a man who was shot by the Indian army.

titled Kashmirs mental health crisis goes untreated as clampdown continues, depicting the widow of a man who was shot by the Indian army. On April 20th, despite backlash against the use of UAPA to arrest Zahra, the same police force filed an FIR in Kashmir against The Hindu reporter Peerzada Ashiq for fake news, citing a story that was later shown to be incorrect.

reporter Peerzada Ashiq for fake news, citing a story that was later shown to be incorrect. Though the story did contain false information, to file an FIR against its author seemed disproportionate to the Editors Guild of India, an organization created to protect press freedom and comprised of some of the nations foremost journalists. The Guild also condemned the use of UAPA against Zahra. Its only purpose can be to strike terror into journalists. they wrote . The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the Kashmir Press Club echoed the Guilds sentiments.

The government has also questioned student activists and other journalists under UAPA recently.

At a time of polarization within the Indian media over how to cover the government and whether to indulge Islamophobia, and as the Indian government reaches across its armoury of weapons to use against the press, Facebook might soon find it needs an updated set of Community Standards to engage with these issues.

In October 2019 the Tow Center released research on political parties use of WhatsApp during the 2019 General Election campaign. We hope to continue our research on platforms in India and investigate what Facebooks entry into the Indian telecom market might mean for Indian journalism.

Ishaan Jhaveri, senior research fellow

An update on how platforms and publishers are reacting to the pandemic

Amid continuing layoffs and cutbacks, some news outlets have found temporary relief through the governments Paycheck Protection Program, which grants up to $10 million to small businesses that are struggling during the pandemic. A wide range of publishers have received funding from the program, including daily newspapers like The Seattle Times, legacy publications like Harpers magazine, and online publishers like Bustle Media Group, which owns properties including Bustle, Elite Daily, and the recently relaunched Nylon. Notably, BMG shut down The Outline just one month ago, a year after acquiring it.

Some newspapers hardest hit by pandemic-related cost-cutting are not eligible for the loans because theyre owned by chains like Gannett, Tribune, and McClatchy. Meanwhile, venture-backed political news site Axios qualified for a loan of almost $5 million, which it later returned, citing an alternative source of capital and noting that the program has become much more politically polarized since its inception.

Elsewhere, the New York Post laid off 20 staffers to ensure the stability and long-term sustainability of our brands, according to a statement provided by a Post spokesperson to The Daily Beast. The layoffs are accompanied by a temporary hiring freeze and severe cuts to freelance budgets. Women-focused newsletter startup The Skimm is also reportedly laying off 20% of its staff of about 130.

READ: The problem of seeing a pandemic through a partisan lens

From Vox Media to the Los Angeles Times, media unions have been instrumental in negotiating better deals for journalists and media workers affected by pandemic-related cutbacks. However, New York Times media columnist Ben Smith argued that these unions efforts would be better spent fighting tech companies like Facebook and Google rather than the management of the already-struggling media companies that employ them. Recounting his former role at editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, he writes,

At BuzzFeed last year, I tried to persuade both my skeptical management colleagues and (in a secret meeting I wasnt supposed to be having) skeptical union leaders that we should together confront the forces weakening our industryrather than focus solely on adversarial bargaining issues. The unions could use their big new voiceand their members outsize presence on social mediato fight for the changes that would reorder the whole industry. In particular, they could join a global push to retake ground from Facebook and Google, which have sucked up much of the advertising revenue that used to pay journalists salaries.

As Smith discloses elsewhere in the piece, he still retains stock options in BuzzFeed. Commenting on this conflict of interest, BuzzFeed tech writer Katie Notopoulos tweeted, This is like the NYTimes letting Joe Exotic report on Carole Baskin as long as he includes a small disclaimer he no longer owns the GW Zoo, referencing the Netflix series Tiger King.

In other news reported by Smith, Heath Freeman, president of the hedge fund Alden Capital, is circulating a letter to other newspaper owners suggesting a campaign to push Google and Facebook to pay them fees. Alden Capital, which Vanity Fair recently called the hedge fund vampire that bleeds newspapers dry, is known for purchasing local newspapers and aggressively laying off reporters and editors to squeeze out their last remaining profits. In his letter, Freeman writes,

Facebook, Google, Twitter, Apple News and other online aggregators make billions of dollars annually from original, compelling content that our reporters, photographers, and editors create day after day, hour after hour Clearly, content-usage fees are an appropriate and reasonable way to help ensure newspapers exist to provide communities across the country with robust high-quality local journalism.



We at Tow are reminded of one of our favorite pieces of digital journalism.

Other stories of note

Sinclair Broadcasting Group is spreading misinformation and right-wing talking points about COVID-19 through local news stations across the country. America This Week , hosted by Trump ally and personal friend Eric Bolling, has promoted the unproven theory that coronavirus was accidentally released from a Chinese lab, and has even gone so far as to suggest that the Chinese scientists genetically engineered the virus to be more deadly. The show airs on dozens of Sinclair-owned or -operated local news stations on weekends, and streams on Sinclair station websites. Bolling was fired from Fox News in 2017 for sending explicit photos to work colleagues.

is spreading misinformation and right-wing talking points about COVID-19 through local news stations across the country. , hosted by Trump ally and personal friend Eric Bolling, has promoted the unproven theory that coronavirus was accidentally released from a Chinese lab, and has even gone so far as to suggest that the Chinese scientists genetically engineered the virus to be more deadly. The show airs on dozens of Sinclair-owned or -operated local news stations on weekends, and streams on Sinclair station websites. Bolling was fired from Fox News in 2017 for sending explicit photos to work colleagues. EU regulator Margrethe Vestager spoke to the New Yorkers Isaac Chotiner about the tension between public health and privacy: [Y]ou can do so many things with technology that are not invasive of your privacy. I think that, very often, when people say its only doable in one way, its because they want the data for their own purposes.

spoke to the Isaac Chotiner about the tension between public health and privacy: [Y]ou can do so many things with technology that are not invasive of your privacy. I think that, very often, when people say its only doable in one way, its because they want the data for their own purposes. According to a new survey from the Pew Research Centers Election News Pathways project, a solid majority of Americans say the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way journalists report the news, but they are far less certain about how the outbreak is affecting news organizations bottom lines.

a solid majority of Americans say the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way journalists report the news, but they are far less certain about how the outbreak is affecting news organizations bottom lines. A week after being laid off from Bloomingtons Gannett-owned Herald-Times, 54-year-old Rich Jackson moved to a Motel 6. His new blog is called The Homeless Editor. He told The New York Times that he is hoping to stay in journalism: Theres something about being in a newsroom where I feel like Im wrapped in a warm quilt Its where my home is.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

George Civeris and Ishaan Jhaveri work at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, a research and teaching center based at Columbia Journalism School.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to grant a stay on the streaming of Hasmukh, a Netflix series, dismissing a plea that had claimed the fictional series maligned the reputation of advocates..

On the last date, the court had reserved its order on the interim application which had sought deletion of some parts, especially episode four. The petitioner, advocate Ashutosh Dubey, had contended that the series showed lawyers and the profession in a bad light.

Also read: Hasmukhs writing could have been much better: Nikkhil Advani accepts what went wrong with Netfix show

The main suit is still pending and both the parties have been asked to file their replies in this regard. The plea claimed that the series has allegedly portrayed lawyers as thieves, scoundrels, goons and rapists.

The petition said that the makers have not only demeaned the advocates, but have the police and politicians. It said that the statements made against the community are highly disparaging, defamatory and bring disrepute to the law profession, lawyers and advocates in the eyes of the general public.

(With PTI inputs)

Follow @htshowbiz for more
DALLAS, May 4, 2020 -- The American Heart Association, together with 14 cardiovascular societies in North America, today issued joint guidance, "Safe Reintroduction of Cardiovascular Services during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Guidance from North American Society Leadership," to outline a systematic, phased approach to safely reintroducing cardiovascular procedures for diagnosis and treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We acted quickly to protect patients and health care professionals when COVID-19 arrived in the United States, and for many patients, essential diagnostic, interventional or surgical cardiovascular procedures performed at hospitals were postponed. As many states have begun to re-open or introduce progressive re-openings since the national COVID-19 lockdown, this guidance provides a critical framework for prioritizing and resuming cardiovascular care as safely and as appropriately as possible," stated Robert Harrington, M.D. FAHA, president of the American Heart Association, Arthur L. Bloomfield Professor of Medicine and chair of the department of medicine at Stanford University. "We must continue to strike the delicate balance of ensuring optimal and timely cardiovascular care that can reduce morbidity and mortality, weighed against the risk of COVID-19 exposure. A tailored and collaborative approach that adapts based on the number of COVID cases and the mortality rate within each community, in tandem with local health and government leaders, is ideal. The safety of our patients and their families from both cardiovascular disease and COVID-19 is our priority."

As significant delays in diagnosis and/or treatment can lead to serious consequences for cardiovascular patients, it is appropriate that these patients are prioritized as health care systems return to normal capacity. The challenge this presents for health care delivery systems and providers is how to reintroduce cardiovascular services while ensuring the safety of patients, providers and their families.

The framework balances the risk of COVID-19 exposure with the need for prompt diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. It highlights the importance of adequate supplies of personal protective equipment and COVID-19 testing for patients and staff, while at the same time protecting the pre-pandemic gains made in reducing morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease.

###

The guidance is from the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, the American Society of Echocardiography, the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, the Canadian Association of Interventional Cardiology, the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, Canadian Heart Failure Society Heart Rhythm Society, Canadian Society of Cardiac Surgeons, the Heart Valve Society, the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography, the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and is jointly published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

Co-authors of the statement are David A. Wood, M.D.; Ehtisham Mahmud, M.D.; Vinod H. Thourani, M.D.; Janarthanan Sathananthan, M.B.Ch.B., M.P..H; Alice Virani, M.A., M.S., M.P.H., Ph.D.; Athena Poppas, M.D.; Robert A. Harrington, M.D.; Joseph A. Dearani, M.D.; Madhav Swaminathan, M.D.; Andrea M. Russo, M.D.; Ron Blankstein, M.D.; Sharmila Dorbala, M.D.; James Carr, M.D.; Sean Virani, M.D., M.Sc., M.P.H.; Kenneth Gin, M.D.; Alan Packard, Ph.D.; Vasken Dilsizian, M.D.; Jean-Francois Legare, M.D.; Jonathon Leipsic, M.D.; John G. Webb, M.D.; and Andrew D. Krahn, M.D. Disclosures are detailed in the manuscript.

The American Heart Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. We are dedicated to ensuring equitable health in all communities. Through collaboration with numerous organizations, and powered by millions of volunteers, we fund innovative research, advocate for the public's health and share lifesaving resources. The Dallas-based organization has been a leading source of health information for nearly a century. Connect with us on heart.org, Facebook, Twitter or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

As restaurants scramble to offer online ordering and delivery in the coronavirus lockdown, most are relying on third-party providers such as Uber Eats to deliver food, but Lavu Inc. says it has a much cheaper alternative that virtually eliminates the middlemen.

The Albuquerque startup is known for its point-of-sale software system that allows restaurants to manage internal operations online. But with the pandemic now forcing all food services into takeout and delivery, Lavu has pivoted to focus almost exclusively on deploying its MenuDrive platform, which permits food establishments to almost instantaneously begin online ordering and delivery free of charge, with only a 4.5% commission that includes delivery service by a partner company. That commission is paid by the restaurant only when a customer sale is made.

Third-party providers generally charge much more, sometimes up to 40% of a sale for delivery service, and they usually manage the entire online system themselves, marginalizing a restaurants ability to have direct contact or follow-up with customers.

Until now, the Albuquerque restaurant chain Twisters used Uber Eats and Grubhub for online services. Last week, it installed MenuDrive at all its locations, said Twisters Chief Financial Officer and Business Director Saagar Grover.

MenuDrive gives us full control over the customer business and experience, Grover told the Journal. With third-party providers, our sales continued in the coronavirus, but its much less profitable. The providers send us an order, their driver picks up the food, and we dont even know who the customer is.

Thats a problem because restaurants like Twisters want to establish direct relations to build a loyal online following.

We want those connections and tracking points on customer ordering patterns and history, Grover said. Capturing and customizing that data is a huge opportunity thats become a front-line priority for us in the coronavirus.

Lavu already has point-of-service system customers in about 100 countries, but coronavirus forced it to refocus its marketing efforts on MenuDrive, said Lavu CEO Saleem Khatri.

Theres about 900,000 restaurants in the U.S., and the overwhelming majority dont have online ordering, so they use third-party providers that charge high commissions, Khatri said. We can now offer online service at a fraction of the cost.  We dont charge any installation or monthly fees, just 4.5% when theres an order, so we only make money when the restaurant makes money.

Lavu uses a national partner for fixed-price, commission-free deliveries, which is included in the 4.5% customer sales fee that restaurants pay.

MenuDrive, a Pennsylvania startup Lavu acquired last year, is now adding self-service options for restaurants to install the system themselves in minutes, plus new marketing tools to build customer relations.

Restaurants have been hammered during the coronavirus pandemic, with sales down an average of 30% nationwide in March, Khatri said. But restaurants using MenuDrive actually reported that March sales climbed by 147% compared with average monthly sales in 2019, he said.
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The Department for Promotion of Industry and and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has asked the telecom department and state-owned BSNL to put on hold the tender for setting up 4G network, valued at Rs 9,000 crore, after allegations emerged that the tender favoured foreign companies.

The tender was floated by BSNL in March under the new management for setting up 4G network. This was the first tender issued by the telecom PSU after the government announced Rs 68,751 crore relief package for BSNL and MTNL in October 2019.

TEPC, the government body for promotion of domestic telecom products, equipment and services, has filed a complaint against BSNL with the Department of Telecom (DoT) and DPIIT alleging that the tender violates norms for procurement and favours foreign companies.

"BSNL and MTNL are ignoring Public Procurement (Make in India) Order of the government and tender floated has no provision for compliance of the government order," TEPC alleged.

The tender floated by BSNL included the requirement of MTNL. "It was decided that MTNL will use the core network of BSNL for 4G services. MTNL had shared requirements of towers etc with BSNL for purchase. The total tender is valued at around Rs 9,000 crore," a BSNL official said on condition of anonymity.

In September 2018, the government came out with rules that had provisions to take action against erring officials found responsible for including restrictive or discriminatory norms against domestic suppliers in bid documents.

The Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order 2017 mandates preference for domestic products in all public-funded projects.

The Telecom Equipment and Services Export Promotion Council (TEPC) alleged that BSNL bypassed discussion with domestic companies and framed tender norms in collaboration with multinational companies to keep Indian companies out of the bid.

"None of the homegrown companies are aware of any consultation by BSNL on technical requirements, without which, the current tender is being construed as having technical specifications prepared in close coordination with MNCs to keep out the Indian companies and to get rid of PMI norms.

Taking note of the TEPC allegations, DPIIT has asked the DoT to examine the complaint and take corrective and disciplinary actions against erring officers for putting restrictive conditions against domestic manufacturers "in malafide fashion".

"It may also be noted that the subject procurement will not be finalised till the aforesaid grievance is disposed of by the competent authority," a DPIIT letter to DoT, BSNL and TEPC said.

DoT on April 28 is learnt to have taken up the matter with BSNL Chairman and Managing Director PK Purwar and asked him to furnish details to the department within 15 days.

Queries sent to BSNL were unanswered.
The oddest connection has arisen in Britain between coronavirus and Kashmir.

What began as one of those PR exercises that political parties launch with community groups, with the eventual election in mind no doubt, delivered a diplomatic gift that Indian officials would have claimed a coup if it were they whod got it in the bag.

But it wasnt them, it turned out to be the Hindu Council UK at a meeting with new Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer.

The Labour Party set up the meeting. We were meeting on this issue of Covid-19, on the many disproportionate deaths within the Indian community, Umesh Sharma, Chair of Hindu Council UK, an influential umbrella group, tells CNN-News18.

He (Starmer) was taking up that issue but Im very sure he wanted to pass on that shift in policy via Hindu Council UK. It was a major shift, Sharma said. I could not believe my ears when he stated the fresh policy.

In a statement following the meeting (that began with the effects of coronavirus), Starmer said, Any constitutional issues in India are a matter for the Indian parliament, and Kashmir is a bilateral issue for India and Pakistan to resolve peacefully.

Starmer further said that he is committed to rebuilding trust with the Indian community in Britain, and that issues involving Kashmir should not divide communities here.

Consider the Labour position earlier, and the fallout from it that led the Indian government to officially break relations with the Labour Party, a historic ally of India, last year.

The Labour position was capped in a resolution passed at the annual Labour conference in September last year.

The resolution supports international intervention in Kashmir and more particularly a UN-led referendum. The resolution was passed almost surreptitiously, with few leaders in attendance. That didnt stop it becoming the official party position.

Britains Labour Party no doubt sits in opposition, and at this time, it is in a particularly weak opposition. But its position over Kashmir under its old leader Jeremy Corbyn became nevertheless a continuously painful thorn in the Indian side that not all the extrication efforts from Indian officials could dislodge.

It was a position that in effect backed an independence movement within Kashmir. Theoretically stated, within all of Kashmir, but aimed really at Kashmir on the Indian side.

For Pakistan, that Labour policy was a diplomatic aphrodisiac. The knock-on effects of Labour policy were far out of proportion to the relatively little one might expect from an opposition partys views.

One parliamentary debate after another was called on Kashmir, one censuring speech after another was amplified through chosen media and social media into Kashmir itself.

The Pakistani government went so far as to issue an official statement asking for support to Jeremy Corbyn in the last election - when Corbyn as it turned out led Labour to its heaviest election defeat since 1935.

An Indian voter swing away from Labour is widely believed to have contributed to that defeat.

The new Labour Party leader has changed that old policy that so pleased Pakistan, and changed it enough into near reversal.

It is a significant change in that it is completely different from what was being said by Jeremy Corbyn, senior Labour leader and former minister Keith Vaz told CNN-News18.

However, he pointed out, the party resolution of last year still represents the Labour Party policy.

The new sentiment from Starmer does not change that policy and does not change that resolution.

For that to happen, Vaz said, We need to get the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party either to make a statement of its own, or to bring forward a resolution in September this year where the previous policy is rescinded, and the sentiments that the new Labour leader has talked about are reflected in Labour Party policy.

That effort, he warned, would lead to further conflict within the party.

This is going to take some time to resolve, there are going to be people who would want to stick by the views expressed last year, he said, while adding that this change now is an important step forward and we must make sure we build on it.
Doctors often refuse to treat the sweepers, who are seen as unclean and untouchable.

Karachi: Before Jamshed Eric plunges deep below Karachis streets to clean out clogged sewers with his bare hands, he says a little prayer to Jesus to keep him safe.

The work is gruelling, and he wears no mask or gloves to protect him from the stinking sludge and toxic plumes of gas that lurk deep underground.

It is a difficult job, Eric said. In the gutter, I am often surrounded by swarms of cockroaches.

After a long day, the stench of his work lingers even at home, a constant reminder of his place in life. When I raise my hand to my mouth to eat, it smells of sewage, he said.

A recent spate of deaths among Christian sewer cleaners in Pakistan underscores how the caste discrimination that once governed the Indian subcontinents Hindus lingers, no matter the religion.

Like thousands of other lower-caste Hindus, Erics ancestors converted to Christianity centuries ago, hoping to escape a cycle of discrimination that ruled over every aspect of their lives: what wells of water they could drink from, what jobs they could hold. Manual sewer cleaners, known as sweepers, are at the bottom of that hierarchy, the most untouchable of the untouchable Hindu castes.

But when the Indian subcontinent broke up in 1947 and Pakistan was formed as a homeland for the regions Muslims, a new, informal system of discrimination formed. In Pakistan, Muslims sit at the top of the hierarchy. And as one of Pakistans small Christian minority, Eric has now been forced into the same work his Hindu ancestors had tried to avoid through religious conversion.

Although India has outlawed caste-based discrimination with mixed success, in Pakistan it is almost encouraged by the state. In July, the Pakistani military placed newspaper advertisements for sewer sweepers with the caveat that only Christians should apply. After activists protested, the religious requirement was removed.

But municipalities across Pakistan rely on Christian sweepers like Eric. In the sprawling port city of Karachi, sweepers keep the sewer system flowing, using their bare hands to unclog crumbling drainpipes of faeces, plastic bags and hazardous hospital refuse, part of the 1,750 million litres of waste the citys 20 million residents produce daily.

On a recent day Eric, 40, had been hired to clean three sewers for $6.

Eric sends his son to school far from the crowded and segregated neighbourhood the citys sewer cleaners live in, hoping to free him of the discrimination that forced him into this work. Back home, the neighbourhood lacks safe drinking water and schools. Swarms of mosquitoes, piles of garbage and overflowing gutters are the areas only abundance.

While most sweepers like Eric are illiterate, his generation has been more determined to push their children to attend school to break the cycle of discrimination, just as their ancestors tried to do when they converted. But the children still find themselves discriminated against, forced to adopt the profession of their fathers.

Mary James Gill, a former parliamentarian who runs the Sweepers are Superheroes advocacy group, has lobbied for years to pressure the government to formally ban manual sewage cleaning work. But most of the sweepers are illiterate and unorganised, she said, making it easy for authorities to pressure them to accept the jobs as their only means of income.

While Christians make up only 1.6 percent of Pakistans population of some 200 million, according to a 1998 government census, rights groups believe they fill about 80 percent of the sweeper jobs. Lower-caste Hindus mostly fill the rest of the slots.

When Karachis municipality tried to recruit Muslims to unclog gutters, they refused to get down into the sewers, instead of sweeping the streets. The job was left to Christians like Eric, known derogatorily as choora, or dirty.

They spend hours inside the citys sewers. Almost all of them develop skin and respiratory problems because of constant contact with human waste and toxic fumes. And for some, the job has been lethal.

I have seen death from very near, said Michael Sadiq, legs trembling as he thought about his two-decade career as a sweeper.

Last August, Sadiq and his relatives, Rafiq Murad and Riaz Masih, sweepers for Karachis municipality, were relaxing on their only day off when they were interrupted by a call from their supervisor, ordering them to snap to it.

Murad was the first to step into a gutter 18 feet deep with a rope tied around his waist. As he cleaned the detritus, a flood of putrid black water carrying sand, stones, sludge and a swarm of gases swept him away.

Sadiq scrambled into the sewer to save his cousin but was overwhelmed by the toxic mix and fainted. Masih followed to help his cousins, but the fumes asphyxiated him, his lifeless body swept away without a struggle.

While Sadiq and Murad were saved, Masih was buried so deep, an excavator worked for four hours to extract his dead body from the stinking sludge it was buried under.

This work has become so dangerous that I need to find a way out, Sadiq said. But he, like the rest of the sweepers, is a poor and illiterate Christian, and no other jobs are open to him, he lamented.

Two months after Masih died, two more sewer cleaners died on the job a few miles away. Another sweeper died at the beginning of this month.

Doctors often refuse to treat the sweepers, who are seen as unclean and untouchable.

Officially, Pakistan denies the existence of caste-based practices in the country. But across the country, the discrimination persists.

One form of abuse commonly meted out on Pakistans religious minorities has been to accuse them of blasphemy, a crime that is punishable by death in the country and that at times has been used to settle personal disputes.

In one infamous case in 2010, Asia Bibi, a Christian woman, was sentenced to death, accused of blaspheming Islam. It later emerged that her Muslim colleagues had ordered her to fetch water as they harvested berries on a hot day. When she drank from the communal cup, they accused her of polluting it, and an argument ensued.

The case was eventually thrown out for lack of evidence after Bibi spent eight years on death row and her family was forced into hiding by the death threats they received.

Pakistan has taken a few steps to protect and empower some minorities, but the efforts have failed to help much. A bill was passed in 2009 to reserve 5 percent of all government jobs for non-Muslims. But over a decade later, that goal has not been reached, officials say.

Eric feels it is only a matter of time before he dies on the job. But he hopes his son can excel in school and shake off the discrimination that has plagued the family for generations.

After hearing of the deaths in the gutters, I think about what will happen to my family if I die, Eric said. But Jesus Christ will take care of them.

I dont care about my life as long as I can provide my family with a decent living.

Zia ur-Rehman and Maria Abi-Habib c.2020 The New York Times Company
A Labour MP working on the NHS frontline has hit back at Health Secretary Matt Hancock after he told her to watch her "tone" during a debate in the House of Commons.

Shadow health minister Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, who has continued to work as an A&E doctor alongside her duties as an MP in her Tooting constituency, asked Mr Hancock about the Government's failure to test frontline workers for Covid-19.

Mr Hancock, who was in the Commons to answer an urgent question from Labours shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth, denied Dr Allin-Khan's claim that the lack of testing in the UK was costing lives and told her to take a leaf out of the shadow secretary of state's book "in terms of tone".

Dr Rosena later defended her tone on Twitter saying: "I will respectfully challenge the Government - I want our country to succeed.

"However I will not 'watch my tone' when dozens of NHS and care staff are dying unnecessarily."

People took to social media to defend Dr Allin-Khan and accuse Mr Hancock of acting in a "condescending" way.

Labour MP Diane Abbott said on Twitter: "Absolutely nothing wrong with your tone.

"It reflects and reverberates with the reality of what yourself and other NHS workers are experiencing. Hancock very unwise to be so dismissive."

Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson also spoke out on Twitter to defend the Labour MP. She said: "There was absolutely nothing wrong with your tone."

Former Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman said: Something creepy about a man telling a woman to watch her tone! Worse that he recommends she adopts the tone of another man. I suggest Matt Hancock changes his.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: Matt Hancocks tone should change, not Rosenas. Looks like the truth hurt the Secretary of State.

Shadow justice secretary David Lammy said it was no way for the Health Secretary to speak to a serving A&E doctor, adding that Mr Hancock should apologise for telling Dr Rosena to watch her tone after asking a perfectly factual question.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Dr Allin-Khan told MPs: The testing strategy has been non-existent. Community testing was scrapped, mass testing was slow to roll out, and testing figures are now being manipulated.

The Government failed to meet its coronavirus testing targets for a third day in a row / PA

Does the Secretary of State commit to a minimum of 100,000 tests each day going forward?

And does the Secretary of State acknowledge that many frontline workers feel that the Governments lack of testing has cost lives and is responsible for many families being unnecessarily torn apart in grief?

Mr Hancock replied: I think she might do well to take a leaf out of the shadow secretary of states book in terms of tone.

Dominic Raab: Next phase won't be easy

Im afraid what she said is not true. Theres been a rapid acceleration in testing over the last few months, including getting to 100,000 tests a day.

The news comes as the Government missed its coronavirus testing target over three consecutive days by a total of more than 50,000 tests.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told the daily Downing Street press briefing that 84,806 tests for Covid-19 were carried out in the UK on Monday.

It makes it the third day in a row the Government has failed to hit its 100,000 daily test target, after managing to achieve it on Thursday and Friday last week.

A total of 85,186 tests were carried out on Sunday while 76,496 were done on Saturday.

Taken across all three days, the Government failed to carry out 53,512 of the 300,000 tests it was aiming to.
The Japanese government's decision to extend the state of emergency over the coronavirus outbreak is putting further pressure on restaurants and other businesses in Japan.

Toyoshima Tadashi, 69, has run a restaurant for over four decades in Chofu City, Tokyo, but decided to close permanently after Prime Minister Abe Shinzo announced the decision at a news conference on Monday.

The restaurant, located inside a city-run complex that includes a concert hall, has been closed since late March. It saw sales plummet after events in the hall were cancelled due to the outbreak. Toyoshima says 450 reservations were cancelled.

He said he'd had high expectations for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics and that he had never imagined he would be in such a bind.

Chofu City will likely provide Toyoshima with financial support for rent and utility bills for the March through May period.

But he still has trouble keeping his two employees on the payroll, as monthly sales dropped to zero. Before the outbreak, his restaurant racked up millions of yen in sales every month.

Watching Abe's news conference on Monday, he decided not to reopen. Toyoshima, who was a chef for nearly 50 years before the pandemic, says he has not cooked for more than two months and has lost his motivation.

Toyoshima said he doesn't understand why he has to suffer so much because of the coronavirus.
UK aviation is in a death spiral and in need of immediate government support to save jobs, the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) has warned.

Brian Strutton, general secretary of the pilots union, has written to the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to demand a moratorium on job losses in aviation.

Since the coronavirus pandemic took hold, passenger aviation to, from and within the UK has dropped by around 95 per cent.

British Airways last week revealed plans to make 12,000 of its 32,000 staff redundant, including around 30 per cent of its pilots. BA has warned it may close its base at London Gatwick.

Further job losses are expected to be announced by other UK airlines this week, in addition to pay cuts for pilots of up to 70 per cent, according to Balpa.

The union has accused airlines of deliberate exploitation of the situation.

Hundreds of airline staff lost their jobs when the regional airline Flybe collapsed in early March, just as Covid-19 started to deplete passenger numbers.

Mr Strutton said: Government has not recognised the crisis in aviation and has not done enough to prevent what is now happening: a death spiral that could severely damage UK aviation.

Balpa will not stand by and watch the industry crumble  or allow airlines to use this as a chance to make unfair redundancies, or make unnecessary reductions to terms and conditions.

The government needs to step in now: not only with a package of support, but also to put a proper aviation plan in place, agreed by all stakeholders, to avoid opportunistic attacks on terms and conditions.

In the meantime there should be no knee-jerk decisions and a moratorium on any job losses.

A Treasury spokesperson said: The aviation sector is important to the UK economy, and firms can draw upon the unprecedented package of measures announced by the government including schemes to raise capital, flexibilities with tax bills, and financial support for employees.

We will continue to work closely with the sector and are willing to consider the situation of individual firms, once all other government schemes and commercial options have been explored, including raising capital from existing investors.

On Wednesday, the Transport Select Committee will hear evidence on the impact of coronavirus on UK aviation. British Airways was invited to attend, but declined.

The chair of the committee, Huw Merriman MP, said: It seems remarkable that British Airways cannot find anyone with sufficient responsibility to join others from the aviation sector for our select committee inquiry this Wednesday.

With so many questions, this would be an ideal platform for BA to set out its challenges, to reassure and seek parliamentary support should it need more assistance from the UK authorities.

The committee now expects to take evidence from Willie Walsh, chief executive of BAs parent company, IAG, on 11 May.

The Independent has asked British Airways for a response.

Union representatives will appear before the Transport Select Committee on 20 May.
The political fallout generated by the influenza pandemic of 1918 helped fuel the Nazis rise to power in Germany, new research has shown, in what comes as a warning about the potential implications of the current coronavirus crisis.

The study, published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, examined how the Spanish flu reshaped Germanys society and political system between 1918 and 1920.

It showed that voting behaviour was changed in cities with the highest number of influenza fatalities, often in favour of the Nazis.

Influenza deaths themselves had a strong effect on the share of votes won by extremists, specifically the extremist national socialist party, the paper, written by economist Kristian Blickle, said in reference to the Nazi party.

This holds even when we control for a citys ethnic and religious makeup, regional unemployment, past right-wing voting, and other local characteristics assumed to drive the extremist vote share, Mr Blickle wrote.

The deaths brought about by the influenza pandemic of 1918-1920 profoundly shaped German society.

While the Nazis benefited from the social dislocations of the 1918-20 pandemic, and more obviously the defeat in World War One, there was no such electoral boost for any other extremist parties.

The same patterns were not observable for the votes won by other extremist parties, such as the communists.

The subsequent lurch to the right was was also heightened within those parts of the country that had deep anti-Jewish roots.

The correlation between influenza mortality and the vote share won by right-wing extremists is stronger in regions that had historically blamed minorities, particularly Jews, for Medieval plagues, the study found.

As the globe continues to tackle Covid-19, along with the political and economic disruption it has generated, such findings highlight the enduring social risks that come with a pandemic.

Although coronavirus does not match the influenza pandemic of 1918-20  some 50 million people died from Spanish flu  the current crisis has yet to run its course, with it unclear how the world order will stand post-Covid-19.

Economies and government finances remain under enormous strain while authoritarian regimes, such as those in Hungary, Turkmenistan and Rwanda, have used the pandemic to crack down on opposition voices and critics.

We are cautious about the interpretation of our results, Mr Blickle wrote. Nevertheless, the study offers a novel contribution to the discussion surrounding the long-term effects of pandemics.
With the technology developed by Spartan Bioscience, a test result could be returned in 30 minutes from a machine the size of a coffee cup. (Getty)

Health Canada has halted orders of COVID-19 testing devices from Ottawa-based pharmaceutical company Spartan Bioscience.

While testing The Spartan Cube, the National Microbiology Laboratory, found that the carriage of the device worked well but the swab used to collect the sample appeared to need some retooling.

Tests in the federal lab found the swab that accompanies the kit isnt collecting enough material to properly test for the virus. The swab, which has been used in other tests on the inside of the cheek, was repurposed for the COVID-19 tests to be used in the nose and back of the throat. However, the National Microbiology Laboratory found it wasnt as effective when used in this way.

The company now intends to modify the tip of the swab so it successfully collects more material from the patients nose and back of the throat. They will do this by making the surface more textured.

Spartans CEO Paul Lem told CBC that the company is still scaling up production and that creating a more effective swab is a minor technical issue to fix. He suspects it will take a few weeks to make changes to the swab and produce a large quantity of them to bring to a clinical study to assure they work.

Lem suspects his company will be shipping out hundreds of thousands of tests per week by the summer. The company voluntarily recalled 5500 tests that have already been shipped out.

Spartan Bioscience was tapped by several governments to produce the rapid tests.

The test, which is about the size of a portable speaker, can take either nose or throat swabs and can be administered by non-laboratory workers. By taking out that step, it allows for faster results from testing at places like doctors offices, pharmacies, airports, and border crossings.

There is an urgent unmet need for rapid COVID-19 testing, and as a proudly Canadian company, we are excited that our technology will be an important part of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, Lem said in a press release.

Story continues

Spartan Bioscience has primarily developed products that range from contaminated water tests to the worlds smallest DNA test. Some of its customers include the American Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the New York State Department of Health and the Mayo Clinic.

So far, the province of Ontario has ordered 900,000 of the companys COVID-19 tests, while the province of Alberta will pay $10-million for 250 portable DNA analyzers and 100,000 tests.

We have been spending millions and millions of dollars in the last week and a half to ramp up our supply chain, Lem told Yahoo Canada.

They are aiming to have manufacture millions of tests in the next 12 months.

Lem described the current energy at his company as absolutely insane since we know that every day matters.

Were looking to ship out product as quick as humanly possible, he says.

For the past 14 years, Spartan Bioscience has been focused on developing a portable DNA analyzer, which turned out to be well suited for something like the COVID-19 outbreak.

Right now with testing, the central labs are being overwhelmed because people have to collect a swab, ship it off to a lab, then wait days to get the results back, says Lem.

In contrast, the companys analyzer a square cube that can be held in one hand. Once a swab has been collected, its put in a test cartridge and then a box, and results are available within half an hour.

Lem explains that DNA testing works like a blood glucose metre. The device has a test strip, which tests for whatever specific thing youre looking for. Once a sample is taken from the mouth or back of the nose, its placed in the single-use cartridge, which is then inserted into a box. Thirty minutes later, it displays results.

The company is in need of financing and purchase orders, and is working with the government to get that capital in place. Theyre also looking to work with private investors to fund the company to scale.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in March that the government is working with Spartan Bioscience and two other companies to ramp up supplies for essential medical services, including tests for COVID-19.

We anticipate (the tests) will be available through the government, theyll give us purchase orders and then help us disseminate our tests across the country, Lem said. We want to do our best in the fight against COVID-19.

This story was updated on May 5, 2020.
Iran's state-run IRNA agency says that the country's president, Hassan Rouhani, has spoken over the phone with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Tuesday's report says the two discussed bilateral cooperation on fighting the coronavirus pandemic, and that during the phone call, Rouhani thanked the Japanese government for its humanitarian assistance to Iran on combating the virus.

Rouhani was quoted as saying that with the escalation of the United States' cruel and inhumane sanctions against Iran, the country faces many problems today, even in the field of medical equipment and food supply. Iran, which has been the hardest-hit country in the Middle East in the pandemic, says its death toll rose to over 6,300 after 63 more people died on Monday. The Health Ministry's spokesman, Kianoush Jahanpour, says Iran has so far confirmed nearly 100,000 cases.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
When Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his New Zealand counterpart, Jacinda Ardern, joined each other in Tuesday's meeting of our national cabinet, they would have been entitled to exchange cautious congratulations.

Few of us could have imagined weeks ago that the progress of COVID-19 through the two countries' populations would have been so effectively arrested, and many countries around the world would have paid handsomely to find themselves in the position we occupy now.

As optimism has grown, earlier comments by Ms Ardern's deputy, Winston Peters, about the possibility of a trans-Tasman "bubble" for holidaymakers have attracted wide attention. Australians and New Zealanders have always been significant contributors to each other's visitor numbers; at a time of severe economic privation for the tourism industry and the airlines that serve it, they could become a lifeline.

On Tuesday, Mr Morrison cautioned that the "safe travel zone" was still some time away and that it would not precede the easing of curbs on interstate travel. As he put it, once Australians are able to travel from Melbourne to Cairns, it will be possible to consider them travelling to Auckland or Christchurch.
In late March, Dr. Josiah Child, an emergency room physician at Daly Citys Seton Medical Center, was at his doctors office seeking care for COVID-19 when he got some concerning news: A blood test showed he had three times the normal level of D-dimer, a protein fragment released by the body when it tries to dissolve blood clots.

At the time, Child and his doctor chalked it up to his bodys overall inflammatory response to the virus.

But the next day, Child felt severe rib and chest pain each time he took a breath. He felt nauseous, and the pain cascaded up and down his back as his wife rushed him to the hospital. It turned out a blood clot had traveled from his leg to his lungs.

Today, just weeks later, Child, his doctor and the medical community across the country know a lot more about the coronavirus, and are taking action because of it  giving many hospitalized patients low doses of blood thinners to prevent such clots and immediately ordering a CT scan to see if clots are forming.

It is a shift in treatment strategy that doctors say reflects their fast-changing knowledge of the disease, which had been thought of as damaging primarily the lungs. The coronavirus, they now know, can cause far more extensive damage.

Doctors have also found benefit from using simple CPAP machines  continuous positive airway pressure devices commonly used to help people with sleep apnea breathe regularly though the night  instead of placing as many people with COVID-19 on ventilators. While not cures, the treatments appear to help many patients avoid infections and other complications down the line.

The fact that physicians are adjusting their approach to treatment within weeks of COVID-19 hitting U.S. hospitals is almost unprecedented. The medical community typically relies on large, long-term peer-reviewed studies, which kick off years of debate and additional research before changing clinical practices. But because SARS-CoV-2  the specific coronavirus that causes COVID-19  is so new and fast-moving, it hasnt yet been possible to conduct large, well-designed trials to determine whether blood thinners lead to better outcomes for patients.

Ive been practicing emergency medicine for 25 years and I dont recall in my time ever having confronted any sort of disease process where were literally learning on the run, said Dr. Gary Tamkin, an emergency room doctor at Mercy Medical Center in Merced and a UCSF associate professor.

Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

Around the time Child was hospitalized, his colleagues and counterparts across the country and the world were discussing  in phone calls, webinars, medical blogs and podcasts  the same phenomenon in their COVID-19 patients that Child experienced. Many had small or large blood clots. Some had strokes or heart attacks  even young, otherwise healthy people.

Doctors and scientists have yet to determine why some COVID-19 patients develop blood clots or how often it happens because there are not enough large studies to draw definitive conclusions. It may simply be part of the bodys response to a serious viral infection, since blood clots are not uncommon in critical illness in general  particularly when patients are hospitalized and immobile for long periods of time.

Regardless of the cause, anecdotal evidence of blood clots in COVID-19 patients is prompting many physicians to examine more closely whether a certain subgroup of these patients  those sick enough to be hospitalized  should receive blood thinners as a preventive measure as soon as theyre admitted. The American Society of Hematologys recently updated recommendations include the use of low-dose blood thinners for hospitalized COVID-19 patients unless they have a condition that puts them at higher risk of bleeding. At Seton, for instance, hospitalized COVID-19 patients receive a low dose of heparin, a blood thinner, even if they have not developed known clots.

Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

But experts caution against using higher-dose blood thinners, which some medical centers have started doing, until randomized controlled trials can determine whether they improve patient outcomes. Higher doses can lead to bleeding complications.

Blood thinners arent the only seemingly beneficial treatment that doctors have stumbled upon during the pandemic.

Because the Bay Area has had a relatively small number of COVID-19 hospitalizations, local physicians often confer with colleagues in New York, the hardest-hit coronavirus hot spot in the U.S. In particular, it was New York emergency room doctors who told their West Coast counterparts about the apparent unexpected benefits of keeping patients off ventilators as much as possible.

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.

I have a lot of colleagues out there Id speak to a couple times a week, said Dr. Jahan Fahimi, an emergency physician and medical director at UCSF. Before I heard it from anywhere else, I heard it from a colleague. He was saying, Dont intubate the patients, you should keep them breathing on their own for as long as possible.

This is a pivot away from earlier thought, which was that COVID-19 patients who came to the hospital struggling to breathe should be intubated, or placed on a ventilator. But anecdotal evidence from hospitals in New York and Italy shows that patients often do better than expected with less invasive treatments that help them breathe  CPAP machines, which administer oxygen through a mask, and high-flow nasal cannula, where oxygen tubes are inserted into the nostrils.

Doctors also find that flipping some patients onto their stomach, called proning, helps get more oxygen into their lungs. Physicians have long done this for intubated patients because there are more air sacs, or alveoli, near the back of the lungs than the front. Many New York doctors have found that the move appears to help COVID-19 patients  and have noted that some patients discovered it on their own by repositioning themselves during nasal cannula treatment.

Child, the Seton emergency room doctor, eventually recovered after being treated with a CPAP machine, oxygen and blood thinners, and is now back at work.

Given how quickly new information about COVID-19 is surfacing, there is always a chance that a month or two from now, current treatment plans may prove wrong, said Tamkin, the Merced emergency physician.

While theres risk in wanting to wait for absolute answers in perfectly conducted studies, he said, theres also significant risk in not responding to the experience that our bright, thoughtful colleagues are having ahead of us, or alongside us.

Catherine Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat_Ho
A 32-year-old Delhi Police woman constable was found shot to death in a car that was parked in a lane surrounded by government-allotted residential quarters in south Delhis Lodhi Colony early on Tuesday.

The police are working on the theory that her husband, a head constable in the police force who has been missing since the murder took place sometime between 2 am and 9 am on Tuesday, had killed her over a marital discord.

The body was found on the front passenger seat of a Maruti Ritz car owned by a colleague of the head constable, the police said. The recovery of an empty bullet shell used in 9 mm pistols from the car has given the police a reason to believe that a police weapon was used to kill constable Renu Malik who was posted in outer-north districts Covid cell.

Her husband Manoj, who uses one name, is attached with the special cell of Delhi Police and posted at its Lodhi Colony office.

It is the fifth murder reported in Delhi between Monday and Tuesday. Four of the murders were reported on Monday.

Joint commissioner of police (southern range) Devesh Chandra Srivastava said a case of murder has been registered at the Lodhi Colony police station and the head constable is the prime suspect. Multiple teams are conducting raids to nab him. The exact sequence of the incidents leading to the murder can be ascertained only when we question him. We have learnt that the couple was living separately for the last two-three years.

Deputy commissioner of police (south) Atul Kumar Thakur said that around 9 am, a local resident spotted the womans body in a Ritz car and informed the police.

Forensic experts inspected the crime scene. The investigating team later established that the car belonged to a head constable posted in the special cell. He (the car owner) told us that at around 1.30 am, his colleague Manoj borrowed the car. Manoj turned out to be the dead constables husband, even as she used to claim herself unmarried, an investigator said. The police raided Manojs home in Kotla Mubarakpur, but did not find him. Renu lived with her uncle in Burari. Her family members also suspected Manojs role in the murder, the officer said.
Arole Oodua & Ooni of Ife, Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi(Ojaja II) has given two fumigating machines to the BauchI state government in fulfilment of his promise to donate 2 units of his invented locally manufactured motorized modular fumigators to each of the 36 states and FCT with a view to ensuring that Nigeria is freed from the Covid-19 pandemic ravaging the entire globe.

Ooni Ogunwusi, represented by his Traditional Secretary, Idowu Salami and his Director of Media & Public Affairs, Comrade Moses Olafare made the donations on Monday at his Ile-Oodua palace in Ile-Ife.

Comrade Olafare who spoke on behalf of the Ooni said the pandemic is another world war which can only be defeated by collective efforts. He described Ooni Ogunwusi as a very busy critical thinker and problem solver who has no time for distractions and frivolities.

"Our father, Ooni Ogunwusi is such a critical thinker and problem solver with no time for distractions and frivolities. Having studied the trends, he looked at ways to add values to the ongoing fight against this common enemy called Covid-19, he then invented this modular fumigators also manufactured right here at this palace.

Baba Ooni sees this Covid-19 as the world's deadliest enemy that can be likened to the 3rd world war because of its ruthlessness against the humanity.

"This is a well developed and good initiative from the Arole Oodua Olofin Adimula, Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi(Ojaja II) to support the Federal and state governments in Nigeria to curb the COVID-19.

"Baba Ooni'risa, being the natural father of the entire Oduduwa race and Co-Chairman, National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria(NCTRN) observed that government cannot do it alone, he then decided to contribute his quota complementing the government efforts to fight against the COVID-19. This is because he believes that all Nigerians are subjects of respective kings." Olafare said.

He further added assurances that the Ooni will make sure the fumigators get to the remaining regions through the various state liaison offices in Lagos and Abuja, saying the foremost monarch had at different times last week handed over two fumigators each to all the Southwest states; Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun personally received by the governors.

"The fumigators will be dropped at each of the state Liaison offices in Lagos for them to picked to various states while Bauchi government officials are already here today at Ile-Ife to pick theirs. We started from home because our adage says "charity begins at home". From Ife to Osun State Government and to all the South-West state Governments.

"It will be given to all the 36 States of the federation, reason the officials government of Bauchi state are here to collect theirs.

Receiving the motorised fumigators on behalf of Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed, Mr. Isaac Bassey, Protocol Officer, Bauchi State Government, Lagos Liaison Office expressed profound appreciation on behalf of the governor to the Ooni of Ife.

"His Excellency the governor, the government and good peopleof Bauchi state are extremely happy for what His Imperial Majesty, Ooni Ogunwusi has done for us with these motorised fumigators."

Because our governor, Senator Bala Mohamed would stop at nothing in his efforts to defeat Covid-19 in Bauchi state, he has directed that we should come to Ile-Ife to receive our state fumigating machines donated by the Ooni. We are deeply grateful for the successful initiative of the traditional ruler".

"As a detribalized leader like Governor Bala Mohammed, His Imperial Majesty has shown his love to us as his children with this. Mr Governor and all of us in Bauchi state will remain grateful," Bassey said.

In his words, Head of Machines and Tools unit at the Ooni's Palace, Mr. Victor Badejo who is the Technical Officer of the homegrown motorized fumigator asserted that the initiative came up out of necessity by turning liquid to fog which made it airborne without any health hazard and can move as far as 30 feet radius.

"If you look at the current situation, you would see that we are facing a great difficulty which has among other disadvantages locked us down, this means that we must look inward for solution and bounce back stronger.

"Materials for this equipment were sourced for within the country and assembled within the Palace of the Ooni.

"It is flexible, durable and simple to use. In order to expand the fumigation, the Ooni approved our request to partner with FTS Drones Ltd for the supply of drones fumigation services". Badejo explained.
An 8-year-old boy in Bridgewater was seriously injured Tuesday morning after a box truck struck him on his bicycle, police said.

At about 11:30 a.m., the Bridgewater police and fire departments responded to a crash involving a child on Scotland Boulevard. When first responders arrived, they saw the 8-year-old boy was suffering from serious injuries after being hit by the truck, police said.

The boy was treated at the scene by paramedics, then transported to Scotland Park, where he was picked up by a medical helicopter and flown to Massachusetts General Hospital, police said.

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The boys condition is unknown, police said.

The driver of the truck, a 27-year-old man from Roslindale, remained on the scene and is cooperating with police, authorities said.

Police said an initial investigation indicates the child was on his bike and veered into the path of the truck. The child was with a relative at the time of the crash.

Authorities continue to investigate the crash.
Oil is headed for the longest run of daily gains in more than nine months as production cuts start to whittle down the surplus and amid positive sentiment from more economies easing their coronavirus lockdowns.

Brent topped $30 dollars a barrel for the first time since April 15. Futures in New York rose for a fifth day, with OPEC+ and other producers slashing output. The American crude benchmark has more than doubled from an intraday low near $10 a barrel last week.

WTI for June delivery rose $3.64 to $24.03 a barrel as of 9:23 a.m. Midland time.

Diamondback Energy Inc., Parsley Energy Inc. and Centennial Resource Development Inc. on Monday became the latest Permian Basin shale explorers to say they were dialing back on production, despite Texas Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton saying that OPEC-style production caps in Texas were not going to happen.

We are currently seeing accelerating oil-production curtailments outside the OPEC+ countries, said DNB analyst Helge Andre Martinsen. Even though the oil-market balance still looks quite oversupplied in the very short-term, we believe this is about to change quite quickly.

In oil options markets, sentiment is also starting to improve. The premium of bearish put options over bullish calls is heading for its smallest close since early March, a sign of diminished pessimism among investors. The discount on crude for June delivery relative to July, a structure known as contango, tightened to its narrowest in about a month, indicating that concerns about oversupply may be easing.

Morgan Stanley says the supply glut has probably hit its peak, though the market will likely remain oversupplied for several weeks. Inventories in China appeared to have peaked, according to satellite data, and the U.S., Russia and Brazil are showing signs of a rebound in driving.

There are also early signs that the plunge in fuel consumption caused by the spread of the coronavirus might have bottomed out in some markets, prompting U.S. President Donald Trump to tweet on Tuesday: Oil prices moving up nicely as demand begins again!

Nevertheless, a substantial glut of crude remains, with supplies from the Middle East soaring to their highest level since at least January 2017 last month.

Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and the U.A.E., which account for about 70 percent of OPECs production, shipped a combined average of 18.9 million barrels a day of crude and condensate in April, tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. Thats 2 million barrels a day more than revised March levels.
Algeria, May 05, 2020 (SPS) - The President of the Republic of Algeria, HE, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, called on Monday for the United Nations Security Council to meet as soon as possible and adopt a resolution through which it officially calls for the immediate cessation of all hostilities in the world.

The President of Algeria, in a speech to the Virtual Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), invited the UN Security Council to "meet as soon as possible and adopt a resolution requesting officially the immediate cessation of all hostilities worldwide, especially in Libya, without neglecting the situation "in the territories under occupation, such as in Palestine and Western Sahara."

The Algerian president underscored the need to work to "give opportunity, where there were no conflicts, to all actors to work to confront the Covid-19 pandemic."

In this sense, the Algerian president proposed to develop an action plan to minimize the severity of the repercussions of the pandemic in developing countries, and Africa in particular.

Representatives from 15 states took part in the virtual Summit on Monday: Algeria, Azerbaijan, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Mauritania, Mauritius, Nepal, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Palestine, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Vietnam.SPS

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ARDE MADRID: BURN MADRID BURN Stream on MHz Choice. Talk about an escape. This black-and-white limited series transports us to 1960s Madrid. Under the orders of Spains dictator, Gen. Francisco Franco, Ana Mari (Inma Cuesta), a strait-laced spinster, poses as a maid to spy on the actress Ava Gardner (Debi Mazar of Goodfellas and Entourage), who spent time in Spain after divorcing Frank Sinatra. To get the job done, Ana pretends to marry Avas driver, Manolo (Paco Leon, who also directed the series), a cocky opportunist whose freewheeling lifestyle goes against everything Ana stands for. The mission forces the fake couple to step outside their comfort zone. Manolo gets in touch with his emotions, while Ana, influenced by Avas lavish parties and hedonistic lifestyle, slowly starts to let loose and fall for Manolo.

GOLD DIGGER Stream on Acorn TV. This six-part romantic thriller questions whether older women have the same sexual freedom as men, particularly onscreen. Sixty-year-old Julia (Julia Ormond) has always placed her family first. But after her husband leaves her for her best friend and her adult children prove to be selfish snobs, she finds happiness in Benjamin (Ben Barnes), an attractive copywriter who is nearly half her age. Their relationship blossoms quickly, but doesnt sit well with Julias children, who criticize the age gap and worry that Benjamin is after Julias wealth. The series hints that Benjamin is hiding something throughout, but the truth doesnt come to the fore until the final episode.
LIMERICK man and New York Times journalist Malachy Browne has won a Pulitzer Prize - regarded as the highest honour that US-based journalists and organisations can receive.

The Broadford native who works as part of a visual investigations team for the US news organisation was honoured for his work on a series of stories about Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime.

Malachy is the first Limerick man to be honoured with a Pulitzer Prize for Journalism. Another Limerick man, Frank McCourt, won a Pulitzer Prize for his book Angela's Ashes.

Malachy and his team were acknowledged with the international reporting prize for a set of enthralling stories, reported at great risk, exposing the predations of Vladimir Putins regime. It also included Malachys documenting of a Russian bombing campaign in Syria.

This years awards were initially due to be announced in April but were postponed due to the evolving Coronavirus pandemic. The 2020 Pulitzer Prize winners in 15 Journalism and seven Book, Drama and Music categories were announced online instead this Monday.

Prize board administrator Dana Canedy declared the winners from her living room via a live stream on YouTube rather than at a ceremony at New York's Columbia University.

A jury of five men and women made the decision. The New York Times were up against the Staff of Reuters who compiled a series of deeply-reported, original dispatches from the Hong Kong protests; and another team from The New York Times who compiled gripping accounts that disclosed Chinas top-secret efforts to repress millions of Muslims through a system of labor camps, brutality and surveillance.

This isnt the first major award for Malachy - in 2018 he and his team at The New York Times won an Emmy Award for an investigative film documentary into the Las Vegas massacre of 2017. He was also honoured with a Limerick Person of the Month award last year.

Malachy and his colleagues on the Visual Investigations team received several other awards in 2020, including the Polk Award for investigative international reporting, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for their Russia series, and two Overseas Press Club Awards for their investigations on Russia and similar outrages in Venezuela, Libya, and Afghanistan.

The son of Mary and David Browne, Malachy attended Broadford National School and St Munchins College in Limerick city. He studied engineering in UCD before going on to complete a masters in international relations in UL. He is a nephew of the journalist and broadcaster Vincent Browne who gave him an apprenticeship at Village, the current affairs and cultural magazine which ceased publication in 2008 before later relaunching under a new editor.

Malachy is married to Siobhan, a native of Rathkeale and they have three children Diarmaid, Sarah, and Emmett.

Malachy gets back to Limerick at least once a year, if not twice, to see his parents Mary and David, sister Susan and her family.

See our weekend edition for reaction to Malachy's great achievement
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has suggested member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) step up cooperation and share experience at all levels and in all spheres during the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaks at the online summit (Photo: VNA)

He made the suggestions at an online Summit of the NAM on May 4 that saw the attendance of heads of states/governments of 40 member countries.

The present context requires the NAM to strengthen and affirm the spirit of solidarity in order to overcome challenges and stamp out the epidemic, he stressed.

Member countries should map out strategies to complete the twin target of containing the disease and developing the economy, ensuring social welfare, the PM proposed.

He also called for support for enhancing multilateralism and international solidarity, and persistently pursuing major multilateralism commitments.

The NAM should continue to play the leading role in promoting respect for the law, democratising international relations, opposing power-based political behaviour, promoting the lift of sanctions and unilateral embargoes, and responding to the UN Secretary Generals appeal for a global ceasefire to maintain an international environment of peace and stability.

Phuc attributed Vietnams active achievements in the COVID-19 fight to the involvement of the entire political system and society with the spirit of fighting the pandemic as if fighting an enemy.

The Vietnamese Government has made all-out efforts to fight the disease while ensuring social welfare so that nobody is left behind, he emphasised.

The leader also spoke of Vietnams efforts in its capacity as ASEAN Chair 2020 and a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council in forging regional and international cooperation in order to effectively contain the epidemic.

He highlighted Vietnams financial and material contributions to some countries affected by the illness.

The UN General Assembly President, the UN Secretary General and the WHO Director General also attended the event.

At the end of the summit, member countries issued a joint statement supporting multilateralism as well as the role of international organisations in general, and the UN and the WHO in particular, while calling for enhanced international cooperation.

NAM member countries also condemned and called for the lifting of unilateral embargoes that violate the UN Charter and international law, and target some of its member states.

They agreed to establish the Non-Aligned Movement Task Force to work on a database that will include the basic humanitarian and medical needs and requirements of NAM member states.

Established in 1961, NAM is dedicated to representing the interests and aspirations of developing countries, and now has 120 members from Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, accounting for 60 percent of UN members. Vietnam joined the organisation in 1976./.VNA
Nearly 70,000 stranded migrants have been ferried to various parts of the country in 'Shramik Special' trains since May 1 at the estimated expense of over Rs 50 crore, railway officials said on Tuesday even as the issue of their travel cost remained a matter of political bickering with the Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party leaders attacking the railways for charging money from these migrants.

IMAGE: Migrants in all smiles as they arrive at Dankuni Station by a special train from Ajmer, during ongoing nationwide COVID-19 lockdown in Hooghly. Photograph: Ashok Bhaumik/PTI Photo

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of migrants in many states anxiously awaited to return home, including in Goa, where nearly 80,000 labourers, mostly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, have registered themselves to return to their natives places even as chief ministers of Goa and Karnataka appealed to these workers stranded there due to COVID-19 lockdown not to leave the states and assured them work.

A day after opposition parties, including the Congress launched a scathing attack against the Union government and the railways for charging money from migrants for the travel, sources in the railways said the national transporter is spending around Rs 80 lakh per service for the special trains, and it has run 67 such trains carrying around 67,000 stranded migrants since May 1--- incurring an expenditure of

over Rs 50 crore.

While the Railways has not made official how much it has spent on running these trains so far, the government has said the cost was shared on a 85:15 ratio with the states.

The railway officials also indicated that for the first 34 trains, the national transporter has spent Rs 24 crore, while the states have spent Rs 3.5 crore.

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati said it was "unfortunate" that the Centre and the state governments were charging money from stranded migrant workers.

"If governments hesitate in paying the fare of these migrants, the BSP will take help of its cadre and will contribute in making arrangements for these workers," she added.

IMAGE: Migrants react as they arrive at Dankuni Station by a special train from Ajmer, during ongoing nationwide COVID-19 lockdown in Hooghly. Photograph: Ashok Bhaumik/PTI Photo

After his party on Monday offered to pay for stranded migrants, senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel on Tuesday claimed that the railways collected Rs 3.5 crore running trains and the money came from the poor migrants.

"The railways collected Rs 3.5 crore by running trains last week. This money came from poor migrants who had no income since last 2 months yet some propaganda factories claimed this was untrue. The Congress is committed to support any individual-who can't afford to pay-to board these trains," Patel tweeted.

Meanwhile, the Gujarat chief minister's office said the state government does not keep any money collected from the sale of train tickets to migrant workers heading to their hometown and merely acts as a facilitator and transfers fares to Railways, officials said on Tuesday, rejecting the allegation of charging such travellers.

The assertion came in the wake of the Congress claim that the state government is not providing free of cost travel to the poor and unemployed migrant workers heading to their native places amid the COVID-19 lockdown.

Over two dozen trains carrying migrant workers have left from various railway stations of Gujarat to different states in the last few days.

IMAGE: Stranded migrants arrive at Danapur Railway Station from Kerala by a special train, amid ongoing COVID-19 lockdown in Patna. Photograph: PTI Photo

Secretary in the Chief Minister's Office, Ashwani Kumar said,"The Gujarat government doesn't keep any money collected from the sale of train tickets. On the other hand, we are facilitating the travellers in registration, providing transportation till the train station and assisting in smooth boarding of passengers."

Over 1,100 labourers and pilgrims, who reached Dankuni in West Bengal from Ajmer, were greeted with flowers, officials said, adding all 1,186 passengers, including women and children, were subjected to medical examination for any COVID-19 symptom at a camp set up by the Health Department outside the station.



Another special train carrying about 1,200 migrant workers left for Khagaria in Bihar from Telangana's ghatkesar, a senior south central railway official said, adding that all the passengers were screened before they were allowed to board.

This is the second train arranged for the workers in Telangana.

Similarly, another train from Rayannapadu near Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh left for Chandrapur in Maharashtra, the SCR official added.

In Ahmedabad and Surat, scores of migrant workers, desperate to travel back to their native states, came out on streets, officials said. While more than 1,000 migrant workers carrying luggage gathered in Nikol area in Ahmedabad following a rumour that buses would be run for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, several others came on streets in Varachha area of Surat city.

IMAGE: Police personnel clap as migrant workers board a train to their native places, during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown, in Kolar district. Photograph: PTI Photo

It took almost two hours in Ahmedabad for local police to persuade the migrants to vacate the busy crossroad near Ajit Mill police chowky, they said.

Thousands of migrant workers who left for their native places have got stranded in western Madhya Pradesh after they were stopped from proceeding further.

Majority of these stranded labourers are from Uttar Pradesh, a Madhya Pradesh administration official said.

Meanwhile, the railways issued detailed guidelines on security and sanitisation protocols to its various zones, running 'Shramik Special' trains, asking them to watch out for the possibility of sectarian feuds and troublemakers on board, and keep an eye on the behaviour of passengers.

The Railways, in its guidelines issued on Monday, has divided the protocols into three broad sections -- originating station, destination station and on board the trains. It has also spoken on security arrangements that need to be made at all entry and exit points at the stations as well as on the trains.

"Enhanced presence of security personnel. Hiring of ex-servicemen, home guards, private security etc. Close interaction with intelligence agencies will be maintained to ascertain any possibilities of a sectarian feud or group conflict among the passengers. In the event of information about any such possibility, suitable precautions may be taken like enhanced presence of security personnel at the origin,

en route and destinations.

"Intensive watch on the behaviour of the passengers will be kept and any troublemakers identified and separated from the group. In the event of increased hostility, state police may be informed to intervene as soon as possible," the guidelines said.

The Railways also stated that sanitisation of trains has to be done both at the originating and the destination stations.
Prince William and Kate Middleton once suffered a devastating row that led them to question their relationship, according to an expert.

Long before the pomp and their fairytale wedding ceremony at Westminster Abbey and before Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis were even a twinkle in their eyes, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were secondary school leavers in the distress of a long-distance relationship after the royal couple met at university.

It was at this point that the prince and Middleton had an argument after the prince said he did not want to celebrate New Year's Eve with her family. The Middletons had booked Jordanstone House located in the snowy countryside on the fringes of Alyth, North of Dundee. Prince William had initially intended to come, but then changed his mind, which upset Middleton.

This row resulted in a fleeting split that broke their hearts and caused both to ruminate more about themselves and their relationship. Thus, their road to happily ever after encountered a brief detour.

In a discussion about Prince William and Middleton's wedding, amid the royal pair's 9th wedding anniversary on 29 April, royal expert Angela Mollard pointed out that the brief breakup had provided the Cambridges the necessary space to question their relationship.

On the "ROYALS podcast" this week, Mollard said, "It felt like a wedding that came not in a hurry."

They questioned if their relationship can go forward.

Both had not seen each other during the festive season, as Prince William regularly spent Christmas with the Queen and the royal family at Sandringham.

Also Read: Kate Middleton's True Colors: Duchess Has a 'Wicked' Hidden Personality Trait

Christmas at Sandringham was uncompromisingly a royal affair, so it meant that the couple, unless they were married, would not be able to spend Christmas Day together.

Prince William was then stationed outside of London with the Household Cavalry and media pressure mounted further, provoking the college sweethearts to grow apart.

Mollard spoke about the recent photographs of the pair and how their bond is now closer. "And when you look at those pictures they certainly appear more solid than ever."

Prince William has previously acknowledged the split gave him the space that was necessary at the time, He suggested not to believe everything you read in the newspapers but at that point, he did break up with Middleton.

He detailed, "But that was just, we both were very young, it was at university, we were sort of both finding ourselves as such and being different characters. It was very much trying to find our own way and we were growing up, and so it was just sort of a bit of space and a bit of things like that and it worked out for the better."

Middleton said that although she was not happy about the brief split, she came out as a stronger person. She learned things about herself that she did not grasp before.

Related Article: Kate Middleton Has Reportedly Changed After Meghan Left

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, May 5, 2020 14:18 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd611ce0 1 National COVID-19,animal-conservation,zoo-management,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,coronavirus,virus-corona,zoo,workers,unpaid-leave Free

The Indonesian Zoo Association (PKBSI) has estimated that at least 22,000 zoo workers across the archipelago may lose their livelihoods because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

PKBSI secretary-general Tony Sumampau said the estimate was based on the total number of workers employed in zoos across the country. He went on to say that some workers, including security guards, cleaning service personnel and ticketing staff, had been told to take unpaid leave.

Those who are still working are the zookeepers, who feed the animals [in captivity], Tony said as quoted by kompas.com on Monday.

He added the zookeepers had continued feeing about 70,000 animals from 4,300 species kept in captivity, although food stocks for these animals had also been depleting.

Read also: Medan Zoo seeks donations to feed animals at risk of 'dying from hunger'

To cushion the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, the association had begun an internal fund-raising initiative among members. The PKBSI had also sent a letter to President Joko Jokowi Widodo asking for government assistance.

Tony, however, said the association did not know when the help would come.

The PKBSI is also running an online fund-raising campaign called Food for Animals. It is seeking funds to improve the living conditions of animals in zoos, especially those endemic to the country, such as the Sumatran tiger, Bornean orangutan and Sumatran elephant.

A survey conducted by the association last month showed that 92 percent of the associations members in Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok and Borneo, or 55 zoos, only had enough stock to feed their animals until mid-May.

The survey also found that only three zoos would be able to provide food for one to three months, while only two had enough for more than three months. (asp)
Coronation Street legend Julie Hesmondhalgh has claimed she wouldn't be offered the chance to reprise her role as transgender Hayley Cropper.

The actress, 50, appeared on Tuesday's edition of Lorraine to discuss breaking boundaries for playing the first-ever transgender character in a serialised drama from 1998 until 2014.

Admitting we were 'in a very different world' during the early stages of the waitress' stint, the soap star insisted she now feels 'strongly' about having those 'controversial' storylines represented by transgender actors instead of non-LGBT thespians.

'In 1997, it was a very different world': Corrie legend Julie Hesmondhalgh claimed she wouldn't be offered the chance to reprise her role as transgender Hayley Cropper on Tuesday's Lorraine

Julie recently revealed her character was originally written as a 'politically incorrect' joke and was only meant to last for two weeks, but she ended up playing Hayley - born as Harold Patterson - for an incredible 16 years.

The factory supervisor took her own life on the show six years ago following a battle with terminal pancreatic cancer.

While British soap fans have witnessed many characters return from the dead, the Broadchurch star admitted she wouldn't want to take the opportunity from a real transgender performer.

'We had little understanding': The actress, 50, discussed breaking boundaries for playing the first-ever transgender character in a serialised drama from 1998 until 2014 (pictured in 2013)

'I was their ally': The soap star insisted she now feels 'strongly' about having those 'controversial' storylines represented by transgender actors instead of non-LGBT thespians

The TV personality explained: 'I don't think I'd be offered it to be honest, I feel very strongly about that. In 1997 it was a very different world, the way we spoke about trans-people... we had little understanding.

'All I could do at the time was reassure the different trans activist groups who were concerned I was playing the role that I was their ally.

' I think there would have been unbearable pressure on a trans-actor coming out in such a public way on a huge and controversial storyline. It wasn't why I left but [my exit] came at the exact right time.'

MailOnline has contacted ITV representatives for further comment.

Elsewhere in the interview, the Happy Valley star touched on joining drama series The A Word, which follows the life of an autistic boy Joe (Max Vento).

On her role as teacher Heather, who Joe becomes fixated on, Julie said: 'It's such a lovely programme, I was so chuffed to be part of it.

'It has so many people with additional needs as main characters with their own storylines, it's just brilliant. It's such an honour. We had some kids who were actors and some kids from the school.'

Sharing her admiration for teachers, especially during the UK's coronavirus lockdown period, she added: 'I thought I could do this as another career, but three weeks into homeschooling and I'm slapping my head.

'I was so chuffed to be part of it': Elsewhere in the interview, the Happy Valley star touched on joining drama series The A Word, which follows the life of an autistic boy Joe (Max Vento)

'It's so challenging, I was never good at maths so I have such respect for teachers.'

Amid the global crisis, the theatre star has been putting smiles on healthcare professionals' faces by surprising them with online chats.

On offering a helping hand during the pandemic, she added: I've never felt as useless in my life.

'I get these requests in as it's a little boost to people. I'm like, ''Really? A doctor who is on a 10-min break from a 12-hour shift wants to speak to me?'' It's really nice.'
[May 05, 2020] Findings by Epicrop Technologies Founder Launches New Era in Epigenetics Applications for Agriculture

TechAccel, the Kansas City-based technology and venture development company, today congratulates Dr. Sally Mackenzie, founder of Epicrop Technologies Inc., for publication of an important discovery in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Communications. The paper describes important epigenetic mechanisms that plants use to respond to environmental stress. Plants cannot typically pick up their roots and move to avoid a stress, but they can employ these mechanisms - described as "memory" - to change the relative expression levels of their existing genes. As a result, some of their progeny appear to be better adapted to resist the stress. Previous research showed that manipulation of one critical gene, MSH1, can be effectively used to control this process and create enhanced plants with improved vigor and yield. The epigenetic technology involves the expression of existing DNA; it does not require the introduction of new genetic material from another source. "The finding has importan implications for plant and crop breeding," said Brad Fabbri, Ph.D., TechAccel Chief Science Officer. "Dr. Mackenzie's group has worked for years to advance the science behind MSH1 and has demonstrated promising results in multiple plant species."



He added: "In light of climate change, environmental stress and increased demand for food, our crops are under increasing pressure. This technology gives us a new way to help equip plants with the resiliency to respond." Dr. Mackenzie is a professor of plant science in the College of Agricultural Sciences and professor of biology in the Eberly College of Science. She holds the Lloyd and Dottie Huck Chair for Functional Genomics and serves as the director of the Plant Institute at Penn State. She founded Epicrop, an agricultural biotechnology company, following her research discoveries in epigenetics while at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

TechAccel's business model funds the commercialization of promising research in ag biotechnology and animal health. TechAccel has supported Dr. Mackenzie's research since investing in Epicrop's extended Series A round in 2017. Since then, Epicrop and TechAccel have launched two ventures to apply Epicrop's epigenetic platform to canola and strawberry crop improvements, while Epicrop focuses on increasing yields and stress tolerance in soy and tomato. "What is most compelling about the MSH1 system is it's amenability to application," Mackenzie said. "The system is basically ready for deployment in soybean and tomato." Fabbri said, "This research could have significant impact in global agriculture. We're honored to be collaborating with Dr. Mackenzie and her team." About TechAccel TechAccel, LLC, was founded in 2014 as a first-of-its-kind venture and technology development company in the agriculture, animal health and food sectors. TechAccel sources, invests in and acquires early-stage innovations. Through collaborations with universities and research institutions, TechAccel conducts advancement and de-risking research and development to ready technologies for commercialization. For more information, visit www.TechAccel.net or follow @Tech_Accel. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005351/en/

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At least 125 countries hold more prisoners than their correctional systems were designed for, including 20 that have more than two times the number of inmates theyre equipped to secure, according to the World Prison Brief, a database kept by the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research at the University of London.
Two major municipal corporations



adjoining Mumbai on Tuesday announced complete sealing of their borders, including prohibiting movement of people towards and from the metropolis, from May 8 to halt the coronavirus spread.

According to letters issued by the municipal commissioners of Kalyan-Dombivli and Ulhasnagar, residents who have offices in BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) areas will either have to shift to somewhere in Mumbai so that they can attend work or will have to stay home.

There have been several COVID-19 cases in Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation and Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation, where the source of infection was traced back to Mumbai.

"The number of COVID-19 cases in these civic bodies is increasing and to put a check on it, these civic bodies have decided to seal their borders, said officials from the two corporations.

The decision will come into effect from May 8, they said.

Residents from these civic bodies working in Mumbai will have to stay back in their houses as they will not be exempted from the sealing order, the officials stated.

They have some time. Residents can discuss with their employer and make some arrangement of staying in Mumbai.

"But we will not allow return of these people to their homes until both civic bodies withdraw their decision.

The sealing of borders is aimed at reducing the number of COVID-19 cases in areas under these civic bodies," they said.

Kalyan-Dombivli and Ulhasnagar are some of the early towns near Mumbai city that flourished with residential complexes over a period of times and lakhs of people from there travel daily to Mumbai for work.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two men indicted for killing two transgender women in Puerto Rico on April 21 have already been charged under the federal hate crimes law.

In relation to this, an affidavit which Lazaro Duprey-Ojeda, a Special FBI Agent signed, and the Justice Department released on Friday, stated that 19-year-old Sean Diaz reportedly "wanted to shoot and kill" Layla Pelaz when the latter told him she was trans after their sexual relations at her Las Piedras home.

Las Piedras is located at a municipality which the southeast coast of Puerto Rico. Also, in the affidavit, it was noted that 21-year-old Juan Carlos Pagan Bonilla and Serena Angelique Velazquez had sexual relations, too, inside the home of Pelaz.

The said sworn statement said the 19-year-old old Pagan that Velasquez too was a trans. More so, Diaz reaffirmed to the 21-year-old that he wanted to kill both Pelaz and Velasquez for tricking them by not telling them they were transgender when they had sexual relations.

While Pelaz, also identified as Victim 2, attempted to calm Diaz down and suggested that all four of them get some more marijuana so they could "smoke and talk a little more."

Diaz, according to the affidavit, pulled Pagan aside and told him to accept Victim 2's proposal to go out. It was then their plan that Diaz would shoot Pelaz and Velasquez the moment they approached the highway.

The Victims Shot and Killed

In the said affidavit, it was also noted that Pelaz gave Pagan her car keys. It was also stated in the same sworn statement that the two victims were shot and killed by Diaz while Pagan drove the vehicle of Pelaz.

Moreover, Diaz reportedly drove the car to a place under a Humacao bridge. Humacao is a municipality bordering Las Piedras. Duprey-Ojeda, on the other hand, stated that the two Puerto Rico men set the car on fire while the two trans women shot and killed were inside it.

Specifically, Diaz and Pagan allegedly filled the vehicle with garbage they found in the nearby area to make it more flammable. Then, after that, the two set the car on fire, intending to destroy any proof of their involvement in the crime.

Meanwhile, the police department in Puerto Rico announced on April 29, the arrests of Pagan and Diaz, linking to the trans women's murder.

They are the first two suspects in Puerto Rico ever indicted under the "Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act" that former US President Barack Obama signed in 2009.

According to the Justice Department, Pagan and Diaz are currently under federal custody. Additionally, they have been indicted by a criminal complaint with carjacking, as well as carrying and using a firearm, in the federal district court.

The charges had something to do, too, with the crime of violence related to the two transgender women's death. And if convicted, both Pagan and Diaz, according to the statement the department released, could be punished with the death penalty.

Two of the Five Murdered Trans People

Pelaz and Velazquez are only two of the five trans individuals to be killed in Puerto Rico this year. Before the two's killing, a homeless trans woman, Alexa Negron Luciano, was brutally murdered on February 24, in Toa Alta, a few hours after police responded to a report that she peeped on people inside the restroom of a fast-food restaurant.

Two months later, another transgender woman, Penelope Diaz Ramirez, was murdered inside a jail in Bayamon. Then, on March 5, a transgender man, Yampi Mendez Arocho, got killed in Moca.

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L.A. City Mayor Responds to Governor Newsoms Announcement of the Second Stage of the Economy Re-opening

Monday, May 4. The Los Angeles City Mayor Eric Garcetti provided the most recent information surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak. Los Angeles is gearing to build the economy back up. There are predictions of a second and third wave of the spread of coronavirus, as some Angelenos are set to head back to work within the coming weeks. Mayor Eric Garcetti addresses concerns of the financial instability the city is currently in. The mayor is looking at the numbers and data surrounding this pandemic; the science and test results behind coronavirus governs the next move. Eric Garcetti speaks about hopes he has during this dark time. Mayor Garcetti shared how the announcement of Governor Newsoms framework will directly influence Los Angeles.

According to the California State Governor Gavin Newsom, the state is looking to officially begin Stage 2 of his outlined four-stage initiative on May 8. Stage 2 allows gradual reopening of lower-risk workplaces, including bookstores, clothing stores, florists, and sporting goods. Governor Gavin also disclosed a new framework to allow counties to move more swiftly through the stages if certain criteria are met. Later this week, there is anticipation for a public health guidance for certain stage 2 sanctions. It will enlist eligible retail, manufacturing, and logistic businesses. The State issued four-stage framework does leave a window of opportunity for counties to have more restrictive measures.

The Mayor communicated the appreciation with Governor Newsoms plan; it allows county liberty to be in control of the social distancing measures that will take affect by the end of this week. Eric Garcetti stated, We will continue to be guided by first, the medical advice that we get from public health professionals, second by making sure that we are not just saving lives but thinking about peoples livelihoods. He continued, and third, we will always share of the decision making and all of our data with you. Restrictions may vary for the L.A. economy; there will be details outlined on when and how L.A. will create a new normal for the city.

Mayor Eric Garcetti shared the latest updates behind the COVID-19 outbreak in L.A. Over 190,000 people have been tested for COVID-19, 13 percent of those reports were positive. The elected Official shared as of May 4. there were 28 additional deaths. That accounts for a six percent increase since the report on May 1. This brings the total COVID-19 related deaths in the L.A. County to 1,256. The average death rate in a week has been 46 fatal cases per day. There were 568 new cases reported, bringing the total of positive COVID-19 reports to 26,217. The latest numbers reflect a two percent increase, since yesterday. There is a daily average of 854 new cases. Within the city of L.A., the new report reflects 12,525 COVID-19 cases.

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Eric Garcetti stressed the importance of testing over the course of time, the information gathered behind the tests will influence the recovery stages. Mayor Garcetti clarified the re-opening of the citys economy is a gradual step with limitations on what businesses will be allowed to be open. There will be new standardized requirement for the low-risk businesses to abide by in order to adhere to the social distancing guidelines. Eric Garcetti disclosed previously that the re-opening of the economy will not happen on May 15. However, there will be eligible businesses opening through the following weeks. The Mayor will continue deliberating with other neighboring mayors and public officials, to design a gradual plan to safely open the economy. Los Angeles County Officials are looking to prioritize not only the lives of Angelenos but the livelihoods of all L.A. residents.
HOUSTON, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (NYSE: GPI), ("Group 1" or the "Company"), an international, Fortune 500 automotive retailer, today reported 2020 first quarter net income of $29.8 million, diluted earnings per common share of $1.61, adjusted net income (a non-GAAP measure) of $30.6 million, and adjusted diluted earnings per common share (a non-GAAP measure) of $1.66. The Company's 2020 first quarter total revenue was $2.7 billion.

First quarter 2020 adjusted net income and diluted earnings per share excluded a net after-tax adjustment of $0.8 million, or $0.05 per share, primarily related to severance costs in Brazil associated with downsizing the operation due to COVID-19. First quarter 2019 excluded a net after-tax gain of approximately $0.5 million, or $0.02 cents per common share, which was primarily comprised of $3.8 million of net after-tax gains related to dealership and real estate dispositions, partially offset by $1.9 million in after-tax losses related to legal matters, and $1.5 million in after-tax catastrophic losses related to hail storms. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures are included in the attached financial tables. Certain disclosures may not compute due to rounding.

"Beginning in early March 2020, all three of our regions were negatively impacted by "shelter in place" mandates in most of the cities where we operate. Up until that time, we were operating at record sales and profit levels in both the U.S. and the U.K.," said Earl J. Hesterberg, Group 1's president and chief executive officer. "By mid-March, our U.K. operations were virtually closed except for emergency service work and many of our U.S. showrooms were closed. Although most of our U.S. workshops remained open, service work declined dramatically as customers stayed home as instructed by local governments. Our Brazilian dealerships were entirely closed for much of March though some workshops have been permitted to open in April. Since the second week of March, our focus has turned to fulfilling customer needs within local government mandates and re-sizing our business to dramatically lower activity levels."

Consolidated Results for First Quarter 2020 (year-over-year comparable basis)

For ease of comparison, we have included constant currency metrics (a non-GAAP measure) both below (shown in parenthesis) and in the financial tables that follow:

Total revenue decreased -4.2 percent (-3.2 percent), to $2.7 billion .

. Total gross profit decreased -3.5 percent (-2.7 percent), to $416.5 million .

. New vehicle revenues decreased -5.1 percent (-3.8 percent) on a -9.0 percent decrease in unit sales.

Retail used vehicle revenues decreased -4.9 percent (-4.2 percent) on -5.3 percent lower unit sales.

Parts and service gross profit was about flat at -0.2 percent (+0.4 percent) on revenue growth of +0.4 percent (+1.0 percent). U.S. Same Store parts and service revenues and gross profit grew +1.6 percent and +0.9 percent, respectively.

Finance and Insurance (F&I) gross profit per retail unit (PRU) increased +6.8 percent (+7.4 percent), to $1,559 . U.S. Same Store F&I gross profit PRU grew +8.3 percent, or $144 , to $1,880 .

. U.S. Same Store F&I gross profit PRU grew +8.3 percent, or , to . Selling, General and Administrative (SG&A) expenses as a percent of gross profit increased 280 basis points, to 78.7 percent. Adjusted SG&A as a percent of gross profit increased 240 basis points, to 78.5 percent.

Segment Results for First Quarter 2020 (year-over-year comparable basis)

United States :

The Company's U.S. operations accounted for 74.6 percent of total revenues and 81.8 percent of total gross profit. Total U.S. revenues decreased -2.7 percent, to $2.0 billion . Total gross profit decreased -1.7 percent, to $340.9 million . Same Store U.S. total gross profit decreased -3.0 percent, to $333.6 million .





The Company's U.S. operations accounted for 74.6 percent of total revenues and 81.8 percent of total gross profit. Total U.S. revenues decreased -2.7 percent, to . Total gross profit decreased -1.7 percent, to . Same Store U.S. total gross profit decreased -3.0 percent, to . Parts and service revenues increased +2.4 percent and gross profit increased by +1.9 percent. Same Store parts and service revenues grew +1.6 percent. Same Store part and service gross profits increased +0.9 percent, to $160.0 million .

.

F&I revenues increased +1.3 percent, to $97.4 million . F&I gross profit PRU grew $141 , to $1,868 , or +8.2 percent. Same Store F&I gross profit PRU increased $144 , to $1,880 , or +8.3 percent.

. F&I gross profit PRU grew , to , or +8.2 percent. Same Store F&I gross profit PRU increased , to , or +8.3 percent.

SG&A expenses as a percent of gross profit increased 170 basis points, to 75.5 percent. Adjusted SG&A expenses as a percent of gross profit increased 130 basis points, to 75.5 percent.





United Kingdom :

The Company's U.K. operations accounted for 22.0 percent of total revenues and 15.6 percent of total gross profit. Total Same Store U.K. revenues decreased -12.4 percent (-10.5 percent), to $539.9 million . Same Store total gross profit decreased -14.7 percent (decreased -12.7 percent), to $58.5 million . Same Store SG&A expenses as a percent of gross profit increased 820 basis points, to 89.5 percent.





The Company's U.K. operations accounted for 22.0 percent of total revenues and 15.6 percent of total gross profit. Total Same Store U.K. revenues decreased -12.4 percent (-10.5 percent), to . Same Store total gross profit decreased -14.7 percent (decreased -12.7 percent), to . Same Store SG&A expenses as a percent of gross profit increased 820 basis points, to 89.5 percent. Brazil :

The Company's Brazilian operations accounted for 3.4 percent of total revenues and 2.6 percent of total gross profit. The Company's Same Store new vehicle revenues decreased -9.0 percent (+7.1 percent), with units down -7.3 percent. On a constant currency basis, Same Store total revenues increased +8.7 percent, driven by constant currency revenue growth of +20.3 percent in total used vehicles, +7.1 percent in new vehicles, and +3.5 percent in F&I. Same Store SG&A expenses as a percent of gross profit increased 780 basis points, to 98.7 percent. Adjusted Same Store SG&A as a percent of gross profit decreased 50 basis points to 90.4 percent.

Operational Update: Pandemic Business Practices

Our primary focus is a commitment to the safety of our customers and employees in order to provide essential services to those needing vehicles and/or parts & service work during these challenging times. Since mid-March 2020, almost all of our 119 U.S. dealerships and collision centers have been deemed "essential businesses" in compliance with applicable national, state, and/or municipal orders. In almost all cases, our service operations are permitted to be open to facilitate customer repairs and most of our stores are also able to offer vehicle sales on an appointment or remote delivery basis. The capabilities we have developed with our Acceleride platform to support online sales over the past 18 months are providing important benefits during this time of limited showroom availability. In the U.K., we are following national directives that have closed our 50 dealerships with the exception of providing repair services to essential workers. Brazil has allowed most of our dealerships to re-open for aftersales operations after a period of total closure, and we anticipate in-person sales resuming shortly.

To protect our people and to be compliant with the evolving nature of mandates across our markets in the U.S., U.K., and Brazil, most of our office and field support staff have transitioned to working from home. To promote a productive and organized integration of telecommuting, the Company established communication policies and methods to facilitate secure, routine, and efficient access to information, team members, and management.

For those employees that are not able to work remotely, we have worked to implement a variety of standards to promote safety and to provide protective equipment in our offices, dealership showrooms, service departments, and collision centers.

The Company is actively monitoring government and CDC guidelines to enhance and promote safety processes. Plexiglass shields have been installed where needed to ensure proper distancing. Hand sanitizer is supplied for staff and accessible for use in customer areas. High-touch surfaces within Company facilities are being frequently treated with disinfectant spray. The Company's parts & service technicians are also provided with disinfectant spray to clean accessed door handles, steering wheels, vehicle levers, etc., of customer vehicles in which they are working. Two cotton washable/reusable masks are being provided to staff members in compliance with orders to reserve N95 masks for the medical community. While gloves are provided to staff, the Company is also providing plastic seat covers and steering wheel wraps as well as "sandwich" style bags to further reduce risks of cross-contamination when interacting with small items such as keys, levers within vehicles (gearbox, turn signal, wipers, etc.) and pens. Many of our OEM's have provided specific processes for cleaning and disinfecting customer service vehicles.

The Company has also initiated several best practices for promoting additional safety for both our staff and customers. Reduced hours and split shifts are being assigned. Meetings are being conducted by video and teleconference. Service techs are occupying every other service bay or ramp (lift), and are texting part orders needed for their service work, rather than interacting at the shop-parts counters. Customer appointments are also being scheduled in such a way to ensure space for social distancing within the facility. If there is concern over customer proximity in service department lounges, customers are asked to wait in their vehicles before proceeding to those areas. The Company is also offering free pickup and delivery options at all of our U.S. stores for service work and at-home purchase completion for vehicle sales delivery. Approximately 20 percent of our vehicle purchases are now being completed via home deliveries.

While it is unknown when the pandemic crisis will end, for the protection of our employees, customers, and the community, the Company intends to continue with these protocols for the foreseeable future.

Liquidity & Capital Resources Update

As of March 31, 2020, the Company had $19 million of cash on hand and another $83 million that was invested in our floorplan-offset accounts, bringing total cash liquidity to $102 million. In addition, there was $258 million of additional borrowing capacity on our U.S. syndicated acquisition line, bringing total immediate liquidity to $360 million at the end of the first quarter 2020.

We currently have approximately $225 million in U.S. liquidity before an additional $50 million of mortgage funding in process, and ample local liquidity in the U.K. and Brazil. We do not have any material debt maturities before our 5.00% bonds are due in June of 2022, and our $1.75 billion U.S. credit facility was extended in 2019 through June of 2024. The Company does not anticipate any material liquidity constraints or issues with its ability to remain in compliance with its revolving credit facility and debt covenants. Our U.S. credit facility rent-adjusted leverage ratio was 3.31 at the end of the first quarter, leaving plenty of cushion under the 5.50 limit.

As previously announced in April 2020, we redeemed all $300 million of our 5.25% bonds due 2023. This redemption was funded through acquisition line borrowings, mortgage borrowings, and cash on hand. We funded over $130 million of mortgages in April, with another $50 million in process and planned to be funded in May. Additionally, as also announced in April 2020, the Company suspended its dividend and canceled its share repurchase program, as well as implemented capital expenditure deferrals, to preserve liquidity.

Outlook

Prior to March, both the U.S. and the U.K. were on track for record first quarter 2020 results, with U.S. Same Store revenues up 10.7 percent reflecting strength in all areas of the business and U.K. Same Store revenue up 3.8 percent, including a very strong order bank for March delivery. Only 65 percent of our sold U.K. order bank was delivered prior to the shutdown order. As the market shutdowns began to roll-out, March U.S. sales dropped sharply, with new and used volumes dropping approximately 50 percent across most markets and parts and service revenues declining about 50 percent as well. This pace continued in early April, but recently has begun to show signs of improvement in the U.S. For the last week of April, U.S. retail unit sales were down approximately 25 percent and parts and services revenues were down about 30 percent as compared with the same week a year ago. In the U.K., shelter in place orders remain in effect across the country and our stores are closed except for providing service to essential workers' vehicles. This service does not generate material gross profit. Expansion of operations within the U.K. is not anticipated until sometime in mid-to-late May.

In all regions, we have taken aggressive actions to reduce costs, with about 4,800 employees furloughed in the U.S., 2,800 employees (over 90 percent of the workforce) furloughed in the U.K., and over 450 employees terminated or furloughed in Brazil. In addition, other costs have also been significantly reduced in all three markets including cuts of as much as 50 percent in management, all remaining Board cash compensation, over 75 percent reduction in advertising expense, and cuts across all other cost categories. As we are starting to see improvements in our weekly sales pace in the U.S., we have begun to recall some of our furloughed workers, with plans to add back 495 positions by June.

While the potential long-term impact of COVID-19 pandemic is difficult to predict, we expect our second quarter results to be significantly lower than the prior year. Moving forward, we anticipate service will recover more quickly than vehicle sales, with both beginning to recover in the late spring and summer months as shelter in place policies continue to be lifted and consumers transition to more normal habits.

First Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call Details

Group 1's senior management will host a conference call today at 10 a.m. ET to discuss the first quarter 2020 financial results. The conference call will be simulcast live on the Internet at www.group1auto.com , then click on 'Investor Relations' and then 'Events' or through this link: http://www.group1corp.com/events . A webcast replay will be available for 30 days.

The conference call will also be available live by dialing in 15 minutes prior to the start of the call at:

Domestic: 1-888-317-6003 International: 1-412-317-6061 Conference ID: 9778036

A telephonic replay will be available following the call through May 12, 2020 by dialing:

Domestic: 1-877-344-7529 International: 1-412-317-0088 Replay ID: 10143292

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 strategic investments, goals, plans, projections and guidance regarding our financial position, results of operations, 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, (i) our ability to retain key personnel, (j) the impacts of COVID-19 on our business, (k) the impacts of any potential global recession and (l) our ability to maintain sufficient liquidity to operate. 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.

NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES, SAME STORE DATA, AND OTHER DATA

In addition to evaluating the financial condition and results of our operations in accordance with U.S. GAAP, from time to time our management evaluates and analyzes results and any impact on the Company of strategic decisions and actions relating to, among other things, cost reduction, growth, profitability improvement initiatives, and other events outside of normal, or "core," business and operations, by considering alternative financial measures not prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. In our evaluation of results from time to time, we exclude items that do not arise directly from core operations, such as non-cash asset impairment charges, legal matters, gains and losses on dealership franchise or real estate transactions, and catastrophic events, such as hailstorms, hurricanes, and snow storms. Because these non-core charges and gains materially affect the Company's financial condition or results in the specific period in which they are recognized, management also evaluates, and makes resource allocation and performance evaluation decisions based on, the related non-GAAP measures excluding such items. This includes evaluating measures such as adjusted selling, general and administrative expenses, adjusted net income, adjusted diluted earnings per share, and constant currency. These adjusted measures are not measures of financial performance under U.S. GAAP, but are instead considered non-GAAP financial performance measures. Non-GAAP measures do not have definitions under U.S. GAAP and may be defined differently by, and not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by, other companies. As a result, any non-GAAP financial measures considered and evaluated by management are reviewed in conjunction with a review of the most directly comparable measures calculated in accordance with U.S. GAAP. We caution investors not to place undue reliance on such non-GAAP measures, but also to consider them with the most directly comparable U.S. GAAP measures.

In addition to using such non-GAAP measures to evaluate results in a specific period, management believes that such measures may provide more complete and consistent comparisons of operational performance on a period-over-period historical basis and a better indication of expected future trends. Our management also uses these adjusted measures in conjunction with U.S. GAAP financial measures to assess our business, including communication with our Board of Directors, investors, and industry analysts concerning financial performance. We disclose these non-GAAP measures, and the related reconciliations, because we believe investors use these metrics in evaluating longer-term period-over-period performance, and to allow investors to better understand and evaluate the information used by management to assess operating performance. The exclusion of certain expenses in the calculation of non-GAAP financial measures should not be construed as an inference that these costs are unusual or infrequent. We anticipate excluding these expenses in the future presentation of our non-GAAP financial measures.

In addition, we evaluate our results of operations on both an as reported and a constant currency basis. The constant currency presentation, which is a non-GAAP measure, excludes the impact of fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. We believe providing constant currency information provides valuable supplemental information regarding our underlying business and results of operations, consistent with how we evaluate our performance. We calculate constant currency percentages by converting our current period reported results for entities reporting in currencies other than U.S. dollars using comparative period exchange rates rather than the actual exchange rates in effect during the respective periods. The constant currency performance measures should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, the measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

The Same Store amounts presented include the results of dealerships for the identical months in each period presented in comparison, commencing with the first full month in which the dealership was owned by us and, in the case of dispositions, ending with the last full month it was owned by us. Same Store results also include the activities of our corporate headquarters. Certain disclosures are reported as zero balances or may not compute due to rounding.

Investor contacts:

Sheila Roth

Manager, Investor Relations

Group 1 Automotive, Inc.

713-647-5741 | [email protected]

Media contacts:

Pete DeLongchamps

Senior Vice President, 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]

Group 1 Automotive, Inc. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (Unaudited) (In millions, except per share amounts)





















Three Months Ended March 31,



2020

2019

Increase/(Decrease)

% Change REVENUES:















New vehicle retail sales

$ 1,342.2



$ 1,414.5



$ (72.3)



(5.1) % Used vehicle retail sales

779.0



819.2



(40.2)



(4.9) % Used vehicle wholesale sales

86.5



92.1



(5.6)



(6.1) % Parts and service sales

370.6



369.2



1.4



0.4 % Finance, insurance and other, net

112.5



113.4



(0.9)



(0.8) % Total revenues

2,690.8



2,808.4



(117.6)



(4.2) % COST OF SALES:















New vehicle retail sales

1,279.4



1,343.1



(63.7)



(4.7) % Used vehicle retail sales

736.9



771.4



(34.5)



(4.5) % Used vehicle wholesale sales

85.5



91.7



(6.2)



(6.7) % Parts and service sales

172.6



170.7



1.9



1.1 % Total cost of sales

2,274.3



2,376.9



(102.5)



(4.3) % GROSS PROFIT

416.5



431.5



(15.1)



(3.5) % Selling, general and administrative expenses

328.0



327.7



0.2



0.1 % Depreciation and amortization expense

18.6



17.0



1.6



9.5 % INCOME (LOSS) FROM OPERATIONS

69.9



86.8



(16.9)



(19.5) % INTEREST EXPENSE:















Floorplan interest expense

12.9



15.7



(2.8)



(18.1) % Other interest expense, net

18.1



18.9



(0.8)



(4.1) % INCOME (LOSS) BEFORE INCOME TAXES

38.9



52.2



(13.3)



(25.5) % (Benefit) provision for income taxes

9.1



13.5



(4.4)



(32.6) % NET INCOME (LOSS)

$ 29.8



$ 38.6



$ (8.9)



(22.9) % Less: Earnings (loss) allocated to participating securities

1.1



1.5



(0.4)



(27.2) % Net income (loss) available to diluted common shares

$ 28.7



$ 37.2



$ (8.5)



(22.8) % DILUTED EARNINGS (LOSS) PER SHARE

$ 1.61



$ 2.08



$ (0.47)



(22.6) % Weighted average dilutive common shares outstanding

17.8



17.8







(0.2) % Weighted average participating securities

0.7



0.7







(4.4) % Total weighted average shares

18.5



18.6



(0.1)



(0.4) % Effective tax rate

23.4 %

25.9 %

(2.5) %





Group 1 Automotive, Inc. Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited) (In millions)





















March 31,

2020

December 31,

2019

Increase/

(Decrease)

% Change ASSETS CURRENT ASSETS:















Cash and cash equivalents

$ 19.2



$ 23.8



$ (4.6)



(19.4) % Contracts-in-transit and vehicle receivables, net of allowance of $0.3 and $0.3, respectively

115.5



253.8



(138.3)



(54.5) % Accounts and notes receivable, net of allowance of $3.4 and $2.8, respectively

177.1



225.1



(48.0)



(21.3) % Inventories, net

1,992.6



1,901.7



90.8



4.8 % Prepaid expenses

82.6



96.4



(13.8)



(14.3) % Other current assets

12.3



15.5



(3.2)



(20.5) % TOTAL CURRENT ASSETS

2,399.3



2,516.3



(117.0)



(4.7) % Property and equipment, net of accumulated depreciation of $405.7 and $400.2, respectively

1,549.0



1,547.1



1.9



0.1 % Operating lease assets

218.7



220.1



(1.4)



(0.6) % Goodwill

999.8



1,008.3



(8.5)



(0.8) % Intangible franchise rights

251.7



253.5



(1.9)



(0.7) % Other long-term assets

22.5



24.8



(2.3)



(9.2) % TOTAL ASSETS

$ 5,441.1



$ 5,570.2



$ (129.1)



(2.3) %

















LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY CURRENT LIABILITIES:















Floorplan notes payable  credit facility and other, net of offset account of $82.6 and $106.8, respectively

$ 1,168.6



$ 1,144.4



$ 24.2



2.1 % Floorplan notes payable  manufacturer affiliates, net of offset account of $0.2 and $4.1, respectively

484.9



459.9



25.0



5.4 % Current maturities of long-term debt

354.7



59.1



295.5



499.6 % Current operating lease liabilities

24.4



24.6



(0.2)



(1.0) % Accounts payable

410.7



527.5



(116.8)



(22.1) % Accrued expenses and other current liabilities

197.1



206.7



(9.6)



(4.6) % TOTAL CURRENT LIABILITIES

2,640.4



2,422.3



218.1



9.0 % Long-term debt

1,137.7



1,432.1



(294.4)



(20.6) % Long-term operating lease liabilities

208.9



210.7



(1.8)



(0.9) % Deferred income taxes

135.8



145.7



(9.9)



(6.8) % Other long-term liabilities

143.6



103.6



40.0



38.6 % STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY:















Common stock

0.3



0.3







(0.2) % Additional paid-in capital

287.8



295.3



(7.6)



(2.6) % Retained earnings

1,566.7



1,542.4



24.3



1.6 % Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss)

(206.0)



(147.0)



(59.0)



40.2 % Treasury stock

(474.1)



(435.3)



(38.7)



8.9 % TOTAL STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY

1,174.6



1,255.7



(81.1)



(6.5) % TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY

$ 5,441.1



$ 5,570.2



$ (129.1)



(2.3) %

Group 1 Automotive, Inc. Additional Information - Consolidated (Unaudited)

















Three Months Ended March 31,





2020 (%)

2019 (%) New vehicle unit sales geographic mix





Region Geographic Market







United States Texas

34.9



34.3



Oklahoma

6.8



6.1



California

4.8



5.3



Georgia

4.5



4.2



Massachusetts

4.4



4.3



Florida

2.6



2.7



Louisiana

2.1



2.3



South Carolina

1.8



1.6



New Hampshire

1.7



1.6



New Jersey

1.6



1.8



Kansas

1.1



1.0



New Mexico

1.1



0.2



Mississippi

1.0



1.2



Alabama

0.5



0.7



Maryland

0.4



0.4







69.3



67.9













International United Kingdom

25.1



26.6



Brazil

5.6



5.5







100.0



100.0











New vehicle unit sales brand mix





Toyota/Lexus

23.3



23.1

Volkswagen/Audi/Porsche/SEAT/SKODA

16.1



15.1

BMW/MINI

11.7



12.5

Ford/Lincoln

10.1



10.6

Honda/Acura

9.4



10.9

Chevrolet/GMC/Buick/Cadillac

6.8



6.3

Nissan

5.4



6.0

Mercedes-Benz/Smart/Sprinter

5.3



5.4

Hyundai/Kia/Genesis

4.1



3.5

Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep/RAM

3.5



3.1

Jaguar/Land Rover

2.5



2.5

Other

1.7



1.0





100.0



100.0



Group 1 Automotive, Inc. Reported Operating Data - Consolidated (Unaudited) (In millions, except unit and per unit amounts)





Three Months Ended March 31,

2020

2019

Increase/

(Decrease)

% Change



Currency

Impact on

Current

Period

Results

Constant

Currency

% Change Revenues:























New vehicle retail sales $ 1,342.2



$ 1,414.5



$ (72.3)



(5.1) %



$ (19.2)



(3.8) % Used vehicle retail sales 779.0



819.2



(40.2)



(4.9) %



(5.7)



(4.2) % Used vehicle wholesale sales 86.5



92.1



(5.6)



(6.1) %



(1.0)



(5.0) % Total used 865.6



911.3



(45.8)



(5.0) %



(6.7)



(4.3) % Parts and service sales 370.6



369.2



1.4



0.4 %



(2.4)



1.0 % F&I, net 112.5



113.4



(0.9)



(0.8) %



(0.6)



(0.3) % Total revenues $ 2,690.8



$ 2,808.4



$ (117.6)



(4.2) %



$ (29.0)



(3.2) % Gross profit:























New vehicle retail sales $ 62.8



$ 71.4



$ (8.6)



(12.0) %



$ (1.1)



(10.5) % Used vehicle retail sales 42.1



47.8



(5.7)



(11.8) %



(0.3)



(11.2) % Used vehicle wholesale sales 1.0



0.5



0.5



121.7 %







128.8 % Total used 43.1



48.3



(5.1)



(10.6) %



(0.4)



(9.9) % Parts and service sales 198.0



198.5



(0.4)



(0.2) %



(1.2)



0.4 % F&I, net 112.5



113.4



(0.9)



(0.8) %



(0.6)



(0.3) % Total gross profit $ 416.5



$ 431.5



$ (15.1)



(3.5) %



$ (3.3)



(2.7) % Gross margin:























New vehicle retail sales 4.7 %

5.0 %

(0.4) %













Used vehicle retail sales 5.4 %

5.8 %

(0.4) %













Used vehicle wholesale sales 1.2 %

0.5 %

0.7 %













Total used 5.0 %

5.3 %

(0.3) %













Parts and service sales 53.4 %

53.8 %

(0.3) %













F&I, net 100.0 %

100.0 %

 %













Total gross margin 15.5 %

15.4 %

0.1 %













Units sold:























Retail new vehicles sold 35,360



38,874



(3,514)



(9.0) %









Retail used vehicles sold 36,790



38,836



(2,046)



(5.3) %









Wholesale used vehicles sold 12,086



12,989



(903)



(7.0) %









Total used 48,876



51,825



(2,949)



(5.7) %









Average sales price per unit sold:























New vehicle retail $ 37,957



$ 36,386



$ 1,571



4.3 %



$ (544)



5.8 % Used vehicle retail $ 21,175



$ 21,094



$ 82



0.4 %



$ (155)



1.1 % Gross profit per unit sold:























New vehicle retail sales $ 1,777



$ 1,836



$ (60)



(3.3) %



$ (31)



(1.6) % Used vehicle retail sales $ 1,146



$ 1,231



$ (85)



(6.9) %



$ (9)



(6.2) % Used vehicle wholesale sales $ 83



$ 35



$ 48



138.3 %



$ (3)



145.9 % Total used $ 883



$ 931



$ (48)



(5.2) %



$ (7)



(4.4) % F&I PRU $ 1,559



$ 1,459



$ 100



6.8 %



$ (9)



7.4 % Other:























SG&A expenses $ 328.0



$ 327.7



$ 0.2



0.1 %



$ (3.0)



1.0 % Adjusted SG&A expenses (1) $ 327.1



$ 328.5



$ (1.5)



(0.5) %



$ (2.7)



0.4 % SG&A as % gross profit 78.7 %

75.9 %

2.8 %













Adjusted SG&A as % gross profit (1) 78.5 %

76.1 %

2.4 %













Operating margin % 2.6 %

3.1 %

(0.5) %













Adjusted operating margin % (1) 2.6 %

3.1 %

(0.4) %













Pretax margin % 1.4 %

1.9 %

(0.4) %













Adjusted pretax margin % (1) 1.5 %

1.8 %

(0.3) %













Interest expense:























Floorplan interest expense $ 12.9



$ 15.7



$ (2.8)



(18.1) %



$ 



(17.8) % Less: Floorplan assistance 10.6



10.5



0.1



0.8 %







0.8 % Net floorplan expense $ 2.3



$ 5.2



$ (2.9)



(56.0) %



$ 



(55.2) % Other interest expense, net $ 18.1



$ 18.9



$ (0.8)



(4.1) %



$ (0.1)



(3.7) %





(1) See the section in this release titled "Reconciliation of Certain Non-GAAP Financial Measures" for the GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation of these figures.

Group 1 Automotive, Inc. Reported Operating Data - U.S. (Unaudited) (In millions, except unit and per unit amounts)





















Three Months Ended March 31,



2020

2019

Increase/

(Decrease)

% Change Revenues:















New vehicle retail sales

$ 988.4



$ 1,031.7



$ (43.4)



(4.2) % Used vehicle retail sales

570.3



594.4



(24.1)



(4.1) % Used vehicle wholesale sales

46.8



42.8



4.0



9.3 % Total used

617.1



637.2



(20.1)



(3.2) % Parts and service sales

304.6



297.6



7.0



2.4 % F&I, net

97.4



96.2



1.2



1.3 % Total revenues

$ 2,007.6



$ 2,062.8



$ (55.2)



(2.7) % Gross profit:















New vehicle retail sales

$ 47.3



$ 50.8



$ (3.5)



(7.0) % Used vehicle retail sales

31.9



38.3



(6.3)



(16.6) % Used vehicle wholesale sales

0.8



1.2



(0.3)



(28.9) % Total used

32.8



39.4



(6.7)



(16.9) % Parts and service sales

163.5



160.5



3.0



1.9 % F&I, net

97.4



96.2



1.2



1.3 % Total gross profit

$ 340.9



$ 346.9



$ (6.0)



(1.7) % Gross margin:















New vehicle retail sales

4.8 %

4.9 %

(0.1) %



Used vehicle retail sales

5.6 %

6.4 %

(0.8) %



Used vehicle wholesale sales

1.8 %

2.7 %

(1.0) %



Total used

5.3 %

6.2 %

(0.9) %



Parts and service sales

53.7 %

53.9 %

(0.2) %



F&I, net

100.0 %

100.0 %

 %



Total gross margin

17.0 %

16.8 %

0.2 %



Units sold:















Retail new vehicles sold

24,495



26,390



(1,895)



(7.2) % Retail used vehicles sold

27,668



29,317



(1,649)



(5.6) % Wholesale used vehicles sold

7,027



7,150



(123)



(1.7) % Total used

34,695



36,467



(1,772)



(4.9) % Average sales price per unit sold:















New vehicle retail

$ 40,350



$ 39,096



$ 1,254



3.2 % Used vehicle retail

$ 20,613



$ 20,276



$ 338



1.7 % Gross profit per unit sold:















New vehicle retail sales

$ 1,929



$ 1,925



$ 4



0.2 % Used vehicle retail sales

$ 1,154



$ 1,306



$ (152)



(11.6) % Used vehicle wholesale sales

$ 118



$ 163



$ (45)



(27.7) % Total used

$ 944



$ 1,082



$ (137)



(12.7) % F&I PRU

$ 1,868



$ 1,727



$ 141



8.2 % Other:















SG&A expenses

$ 257.5



$ 256.2



$ 1.4



0.5 % Adjusted SG&A expenses (1)

$ 257.5



$ 257.6



$ (0.1)



 % SG&A as % gross profit

75.5 %

73.8 %

1.7 %



Adjusted SG&A as % gross profit (1)

75.5 %

74.2 %

1.3 %



Interest expense:















Floorplan interest expense

$ 11.0



$ 14.0



$ (3.0)



(21.6) % Less: Floorplan assistance

10.4



10.3



0.1



1.0 % Net floorplan expense

$ 0.5



$ 3.7



$ (3.1)



(85.4) % Other interest expense, net

$ 16.0



$ 17.2



$ (1.2)



(6.8) %





(1) See the section in this release titled "Reconciliation of Certain Non-GAAP Financial Measures" for the GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation of these figures.

Group 1 Automotive, Inc. Reported Operating Data - U.K. (Unaudited) (In millions, except unit and per unit amounts)





Three Months Ended March 31,

2020

2019

Increase/

(Decrease)

% Change



Currency

Impact on

Current

Period

Results

Constant

Currency

% Change Revenues:























New vehicle retail sales $ 296.3



$ 318.6



$ (22.3)



(7.0) %



$ (9.1)



(4.1) % Used vehicle retail sales 188.8



203.6



(14.8)



(7.3) %



(2.3)



(6.2) % Used vehicle wholesale sales 35.8



45.3



(9.4)



(20.8) %



(0.4)



(19.8) % Total used 224.6



248.8



(24.2)



(9.7) %



(2.7)



(8.6) % Parts and service sales 56.4



59.6



(3.1)



(5.3) %



(0.8)



(3.9) % F&I, net 13.3



15.2



(1.9)



(12.4) %



(0.3)



(10.3) % Total revenues $ 590.7



$ 642.2



$ (51.5)



(8.0) %



$ (12.9)



(6.0) % Gross profit:























New vehicle retail sales $ 12.1



$ 16.8



$ (4.7)



(28.1) %



$ (0.5)



(25.2) % Used vehicle retail sales 9.2



8.3



0.9



10.5 %



(0.1)



12.1 % Used vehicle wholesale sales 



(1.0)



1.0



96.9 %







96.4 % Total used 9.1



7.3



1.9



25.4 %



(0.1)



27.2 % Parts and service sales 30.3



32.7



(2.4)



(7.4) %



(0.5)



(5.9) % F&I, net 13.3



15.2



(1.9)



(12.4) %



(0.3)



(10.3) % Total gross profit $ 64.8



$ 72.0



$ (7.2)



(9.9) %



$ (1.4)



(8.0) % Gross margin:























New vehicle retail sales 4.1 %

5.3 %

(1.2) %













Used vehicle retail sales 4.9 %

4.1 %

0.8 %













Used vehicle wholesale sales (0.1) %

(2.2) %

2.1 %













Total used 4.1 %

2.9 %

1.1 %













Parts and service sales 53.7 %

55.0 %

(1.2) %













F&I, net 100.0 %

100.0 %

 %













Total gross margin 11.0 %

11.2 %

(0.2) %













Units sold:























Retail new vehicles sold 8,894



10,344



(1,450)



(14.0) %









Retail used vehicles sold 8,024



8,431



(407)



(4.8) %









Wholesale used vehicles sold 4,584



5,367



(783)



(14.6) %









Total used 12,608



13,798



(1,190)



(8.6) %









Average sales price per unit sold:























New vehicle retail $ 33,314



$ 30,798



$ 2,517



8.2 %



$ (1,021)



11.5 % Used vehicle retail $ 23,528



$ 24,144



$ (616)



(2.6) %



$ (281)



(1.4) % Gross profit per unit sold:























New vehicle retail sales $ 1,356



$ 1,621



$ (266)



(16.4) %



$ (54)



(13.0) % Used vehicle retail sales $ 1,141



$ 983



$ 158



16.1 %



$ (17)



17.8 % Used vehicle wholesale sales $ (7)



$ (188)



$ 181



96.4 %



$ 1



95.8 % Total used $ 724



$ 527



$ 197



37.3 %



$ (10)



39.2 % F&I PRU $ 787



$ 810



$ (22)



(2.8) %



$ (19)



(0.4) % Other:























SG&A expenses $ 59.8



$ 59.2



$ 0.7



1.1 %



$ (1.0)



2.8 % SG&A as % gross profit 92.3 %

82.2 %

10.1 %













Interest expense:























Floorplan interest expense $ 1.8



$ 1.6



$ 0.2



9.7 %



$ 



11.0 % Less: Floorplan assistance 0.1



0.2







(15.2) %







(13.6) % Net floorplan expense $ 1.6



$ 1.5



$ 0.2



12.3 %



$ 



13.6 % Other interest expense, net $ 1.9



$ 1.6



$ 0.3



22.1 %



$ 



24.6 %

Group 1 Automotive, Inc. Reported Operating Data - Brazil (Unaudited) (In millions, except unit and per unit amounts)



























Three Months Ended March 31,

2020

2019

Increase/

(Decrease)

% Change



Currency

Impact on

Current

Period

Results

Constant

Currency

% Change Revenues:























New vehicle retail sales $ 57.5



$ 64.2



$ (6.7)



(10.4) %



$ (10.2)



5.4 % Used vehicle retail sales 19.9



21.2



(1.3)



(6.1) %



(3.4)



10.1 % Used vehicle wholesale sales 3.8



4.1



(0.2)



(5.0) %



(0.6)



10.0 % Total used 23.8



25.3



(1.5)



(5.9) %



(4.1)



10.1 % Parts and service sales 9.6



12.0



(2.5)



(20.4) %



(1.6)



(7.0) % F&I, net 1.7



2.0



(0.3)



(13.4) %



(0.3)



1.8 % Total revenues $ 92.5



$ 103.4



$ (10.9)



(10.5) %



$ (16.1)



5.1 % Gross profit:























New vehicle retail sales $ 3.5



$ 3.8



$ (0.3)



(7.9) %



$ (0.6)



8.2 % Used vehicle retail sales 1.1



1.2



(0.2)



(15.1) %



(0.2)



0.1 % Used vehicle wholesale sales 0.2



0.3



(0.1)



(31.3) %







(18.7) % Total used 1.3



1.5



(0.3)



(18.2) %



(0.2)



(3.5) % Parts and service sales 4.2



5.3



(1.1)



(20.2) %



(0.7)



(6.8) % F&I, net 1.7



2.0



(0.3)



(13.4) %



(0.3)



1.8 % Total gross profit $ 10.7



$ 12.6



$ (1.9)



(15.2) %



$ (1.8)



(0.5) % Gross margin:























New vehicle retail sales 6.1 %

5.9 %

0.2 %













Used vehicle retail sales 5.3 %

5.8 %

(0.6) %













Used vehicle wholesale sales 5.3 %

7.3 %

(2.0) %













Total used 5.3 %

6.1 %

(0.8) %













Parts and service sales 43.9 %

43.8 %

0.1 %













F&I, net 100.0 %

100.0 %

 %













Total gross margin 11.5 %

12.2 %

(0.6) %













Units sold:























Retail new vehicles sold 1,971



2,140



(169)



(7.9) %









Retail used vehicles sold 1,098



1,088



10



0.9 %









Wholesale used vehicles sold 475



472



3



0.6 %









Total used 1,573



1,560



13



0.8 %









Average sales price per unit sold:























New vehicle retail $ 29,169



$ 29,987



$ (817)



(2.7) %



$ (5,154)



14.5 % Used vehicle retail $ 18,154



$ 19,508



$ (1,353)



(6.9) %



$ (3,137)



9.1 % Gross profit per unit sold:























New vehicle retail sales $ 1,782



$ 1,783



$ (1)



 %



$ (313)



17.5 % Used vehicle retail sales $ 957



$ 1,137



$ (181)



(15.9) %



$ (172)



(0.8) % Used vehicle wholesale sales $ 430



$ 629



$ (199)



(31.7) %



$ (78)



(19.2) % Total used $ 798



$ 984



$ (186)



(18.9) %



$ (143)



(4.3) % F&I PRU $ 560



$ 615



$ (55)



(8.9) %



$ (98)



7.1 % Other:























SG&A expenses $ 10.6



$ 12.4



$ (1.8)



(14.3) %



$ (1.9)



1.4 % Adjusted SG&A expenses (1) $ 9.7



$ 11.8



$ (2.1)



(17.7) %



$ (1.7)



(3.3) % SG&A as % gross profit 99.1 %

98.2 %

1.0 %













Adjusted SG&A as % gross profit (1) 90.9 %

93.7 %

(2.8) %













Interest expense:























Floorplan interest expense $ 0.1



$ 0.1



$ 



21.4 %



$ 



43.8 % Other interest expense, net $ 0.2



$ 0.2



$ 



22.4 %



$ 



43.8 %





(1) See the section in this release titled "Reconciliation of Certain Non-GAAP Financial Measures" for the GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation of these figures.

Group 1 Automotive, Inc. Same Store Operating Data - Consolidated (Unaudited) (In millions, except unit and per unit amounts)































Three Months Ended March 31,



2020

2019

Increase/

(Decrease)

% Change



Currency

Impact on

Current

Period

Results

Constant

Currency

% Change Revenues:























New vehicle retail sales $ 1,298.4



$ 1,393.8



$ (95.4)



(6.8) %



$ (18.6)



(5.5) % Used vehicle retail sales 752.8



803.9



(51.1)



(6.4) %



(5.6)



(5.7) % Used vehicle wholesale sales 82.9



88.6



(5.6)



(6.3) %



(1.0)



(5.2) % Total used 835.7



892.5



(56.8)



(6.4) %



(6.6)



(5.6) % Parts and service sales 357.6



360.4



(2.8)



(0.8) %



(2.3)



(0.1) % F&I, net 110.4



112.2



(1.8)



(1.6) %



(0.6)



(1.1) % Total revenues $ 2,602.2



$ 2,759.0



$ (156.8)



(5.7) %



$ (28.1)



(4.7) % Gross profit:























New vehicle retail sales $ 59.7



$ 70.5



$ (10.8)



(15.3) %



$ (1.1)



(13.8) % Used vehicle retail sales 40.6



47.3



(6.7)



(14.2) %



(0.3)



(13.5) % Used vehicle wholesale sales 1.0



0.6



0.4



63.8 %







69.1 % Total used 41.6



48.0



(6.3)



(13.2) %



(0.3)



(12.4) % Parts and service sales 191.1



194.3



(3.2)



(1.6) %



(1.1)



(1.1) % F&I, net 110.4



112.2



(1.8)



(1.6) %



(0.6)



(1.1) % Total gross profit $ 402.8



$ 424.9



$ (22.1)



(5.2) %



$ (3.2)



(4.5) % Gross margin:























New vehicle retail sales 4.6 %

5.1 %

(0.5) %













Used vehicle retail sales 5.4 %

5.9 %

(0.5) %













Used vehicle wholesale sales 1.2 %

0.7 %

0.5 %













Total used 5.0 %

5.4 %

(0.4) %













Parts and service sales 53.4 %

53.9 %

(0.5) %













F&I, net 100.0 %

100.0 %

 %













Total gross margin 15.5 %

15.4 %

0.1 %













Units sold:























Retail new vehicles sold 34,154



37,906



(3,752)



(9.9) %









Retail used vehicles sold 35,669



38,043



(2,374)



(6.2) %









Wholesale used vehicles sold 11,615



12,592



(977)



(7.8) %









Total used 47,284



50,635



(3,351)



(6.6) %









Average sales price per unit sold:























New vehicle retail $ 38,017



$ 36,771



$ 1,246



3.4 %



$ (544)



4.9 % Used vehicle retail $ 21,105



$ 21,132



$ (27)



(0.1) %



$ (156)



0.6 % Gross profit per unit sold:























New vehicle retail sales $ 1,747



$ 1,859



$ (112)



(6.0) %



$ (31)



(4.3) % Used vehicle retail sales $ 1,140



$ 1,245



$ (105)



(8.4) %



$ (9)



(7.7) % Used vehicle wholesale sales $ 86



$ 49



$ 38



77.6 %



$ (3)



83.3 % Total used $ 881



$ 947



$ (66)



(7.0) %



$ (7)



(6.2) % F&I PRU $ 1,581



$ 1,477



$ 104



7.0 %



$ (9)



7.6 % Other:























SG&A expenses $ 315.0



$ 323.4



$ (8.4)



(2.6) %



$ (2.9)



(1.7) % Adjusted SG&A expenses (1) $ 314.1



$ 320.6



$ (6.6)



(2.1) %



$ (2.6)



(1.2) % SG&A as % gross profit 78.2 %

76.1 %

2.1 %













Adjusted SG&A as % gross profit (1) 78.0 %

75.5 %

2.5 %













Operating margin % 2.7 %

3.1 %

(0.4) %













Adjusted operating margin % (1) 2.7 %

3.2 %

(0.4) %



















(1) See the section in this release titled "Reconciliation of Certain Non-GAAP Financial Measures" for the GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation of these figures.

Group 1 Automotive, Inc. Same Store Operating Data - U.S. (Unaudited) (In millions, except unit and per unit amounts)

















Three Months Ended March 31,

2020

2019

Increase/

(Decrease)

% Change Revenues:













New vehicle retail sales $ 970.4



$ 1,024.0



$ (53.6)



(5.2) % Used vehicle retail sales 558.0



587.9



(29.9)



(5.1) % Used vehicle wholesale sales 46.4



41.6



4.8



11.5 % Total used 604.4



629.5



(25.1)



(4.0) % Parts and service sales 298.4



293.6



4.7



1.6 % F&I, net 96.6



95.5



1.1



1.1 % Total revenues $ 1,969.7



$ 2,042.6



$ (72.8)



(3.6) % Gross profit:













New vehicle retail sales $ 45.1



$ 50.5



$ (5.4)



(10.6) % Used vehicle retail sales 31.1



38.0



(6.9)



(18.1) % Used vehicle wholesale sales 0.8



1.2



(0.3)



(29.2) % Total used 31.9



39.2



(7.2)



(18.5) % Parts and service sales 160.0



158.7



1.4



0.9 % F&I, net 96.6



95.5



1.1



1.1 % Total gross profit $ 333.6



$ 343.8



$ (10.2)



(3.0) % Gross margin:













New vehicle retail sales 4.6 %

4.9 %

(0.3) %



Used vehicle retail sales 5.6 %

6.5 %

(0.9) %



Used vehicle wholesale sales 1.8 %

2.9 %

(1.0) %



Total used 5.3 %

6.2 %

(0.9) %



Parts and service sales 53.6 %

54.0 %

(0.4) %



F&I, net 100.0 %

100.0 %

 %



Total gross margin 16.9 %

16.8 %

0.1 %



Units sold:













Retail new vehicles sold 24,154



26,145



(1,991)



(7.6) % Retail used vehicles sold 27,210



28,868



(1,658)



(5.7) % Wholesale used vehicles sold 6,960



6,962



(2)



 % Total used 34,170



35,830



(1,660)



(4.6) % Average sales price per unit sold:













New vehicle retail $ 40,175



$ 39,164



$ 1,010



2.6 % Used vehicle retail $ 20,509



$ 20,365



$ 144



0.7 % Gross profit per unit sold:













New vehicle retail sales $ 1,867



$ 1,930



$ (63)



(3.3) % Used vehicle retail sales $ 1,142



$ 1,315



$ (173)



(13.1) % Used vehicle wholesale sales $ 121



$ 171



$ (50)



(29.2) % Total used $ 934



$ 1,093



$ (159)



(14.5) % F&I PRU $ 1,880



$ 1,736



$ 144



8.3 % Other:













SG&A expenses $ 252.0



$ 256.2



$ (4.2)



(1.6) % Adjusted SG&A expenses (1) $ 252.0



$ 253.5



$ (1.5)



(0.6) % SG&A as % gross profit 75.5 %

74.5 %

1.0 %



Adjusted SG&A as % gross profit (1) 75.5 %

73.7 %

1.8 %









(1) See the section in this release titled "Reconciliation of Certain Non-GAAP Financial Measures" for the GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation of these figures.

Group 1 Automotive, Inc. Same Store Operating Data - U.K. (Unaudited) (In millions, except unit and per unit amounts)



























Three Months Ended March 31,

2020

2019

Increase/

(Decrease)

% Change



Currency

Impact on

Current

Period

Results

Constant

Currency

% Change Revenues:























New vehicle retail sales $ 270.6



$ 306.7



$ (36.1)



(11.8) %



$ (8.4)



(9.0) % Used vehicle retail sales 174.8



196.4



(21.6)



(11.0) %



(2.1)



(9.9) % Used vehicle wholesale sales 32.7



43.5



(10.8)



(24.8) %



(0.4)



(23.8) % Total used 207.6



239.9



(32.3)



(13.5) %



(2.5)



(12.4) % Parts and service sales 49.7



55.1



(5.4)



(9.8) %



(0.7)



(8.5) % F&I, net 12.1



14.7



(2.6)



(17.9) %



(0.3)



(15.9) % Total revenues $ 539.9



$ 616.4



$ (76.5)



(12.4) %



$ (11.9)



(10.5) % Gross profit:























New vehicle retail sales $ 11.1



$ 16.2



$ (5.1)



(31.6) %



$ (0.5)



(28.8) % Used vehicle retail sales 8.5



8.0



0.5



6.7 %



(0.1)



8.3 % Used vehicle wholesale sales 



(0.9)



0.8



94.7 %







94.1 % Total used 8.5



7.1



1.3



18.8 %



(0.1)



20.6 % Parts and service sales 26.9



30.5



(3.6)



(11.9) %



(0.4)



(10.6) % F&I, net 12.1



14.7



(2.6)



(17.9) %



(0.3)



(15.9) % Total gross profit $ 58.5



$ 68.6



$ (10.1)



(14.7) %



$ (1.3)



(12.7) % Gross margin:























New vehicle retail sales 4.1 %

5.3 %

(1.2) %













Used vehicle retail sales 4.9 %

4.1 %

0.8 %













Used vehicle wholesale sales (0.1) %

(2.0) %

1.8 %













Total used 4.1 %

3.0 %

1.1 %













Parts and service sales 54.1 %

55.4 %

(1.3) %













F&I, net 100.0 %

100.0 %

 %













Total gross margin 10.8 %

11.1 %

(0.3) %













Units sold:























Retail new vehicles sold 8,029



9,635



(1,606)



(16.7) %









Retail used vehicles sold 7,361



8,117



(756)



(9.3) %









Wholesale used vehicles sold 4,180



5,180



(1,000)



(19.3) %









Total used 11,541



13,297



(1,756)



(13.2) %









Average sales price per unit sold:























New vehicle retail $ 33,699



$ 31,834



$ 1,865



5.9 %



$ (1,047)



9.1 % Used vehicle retail $ 23,749



$ 24,195



$ (445)



(1.8) %



$ (289)



(0.6) % Gross profit per unit sold:























New vehicle retail sales $ 1,379



$ 1,680



$ (301)



(17.9) %



$ (57)



(14.5) % Used vehicle retail sales $ 1,157



$ 983



$ 173



17.6 %



$ (18)



19.4 % Used vehicle wholesale sales $ (11)



$ (165)



$ 154



93.4 %



$ 1



92.7 % Total used $ 734



$ 536



$ 198



36.9 %



$ (11)



38.9 % F&I PRU $ 786



$ 830



$ (44)



(5.3) %



$ (19)



(3.0) % Other:























SG&A expenses $ 52.4



$ 55.7



$ (3.3)



(6.0) %



$ (0.9)



(4.4) % SG&A as % gross profit 89.5 %

81.3 %

8.2 %















Group 1 Automotive, Inc. Same Store Operating Data - Brazil (Unaudited) (In millions, except unit and per unit amounts)



























Three Months Ended March 31,

2020

2019

Increase/

(Decrease)

% Change



Currency

Impact on

Current

Period

Results

Constant

Currency

% Change Revenues:























New vehicle retail sales $ 57.5



$ 63.2



$ (5.7)



(9.0) %



$ (10.2)



7.1 % Used vehicle retail sales 19.9



19.7



0.3



1.4 %



(3.4)



18.9 % Used vehicle wholesale sales 3.8



3.5



0.4



10.9 %



(0.6)



28.4 % Total used 23.8



23.1



0.7



2.8 %



(4.1)



20.3 % Parts and service sales 9.6



11.7



(2.2)



(18.6) %



(1.6)



(4.8) % F&I, net 1.7



2.0



(0.2)



(11.9) %



(0.3)



3.5 % Total revenues $ 92.5



$ 100.0



$ (7.4)



(7.4) %



$ (16.1)



8.7 % Gross profit:























New vehicle retail sales $ 3.5



$ 3.8



$ (0.3)



(8.4) %



$ (0.6)



7.7 % Used vehicle retail sales 1.1



1.4



(0.3)



(24.9) %



(0.2)



(11.6) % Used vehicle wholesale sales 0.2



0.3



(0.1)



(26.2) %







(12.8) % Total used 1.3



1.7



(0.4)



(25.2) %



(0.2)



(11.8) % Parts and service sales 4.2



5.1



(0.9)



(17.6) %



(0.7)



(3.8) % F&I, net 1.7



2.0



(0.2)



(11.9) %



(0.3)



3.5 % Total gross profit $ 10.7



$ 12.6



$ (1.9)



(14.9) %



$ (1.8)



(0.2) % Gross margin:























New vehicle retail sales 6.1 %

6.1 %

 %













Used vehicle retail sales 5.3 %

7.1 %

(1.8) %













Used vehicle wholesale sales 5.3 %

8.0 %

(2.7) %













Total used 5.3 %

7.3 %

(2.0) %













Parts and service sales 44.0 %

43.5 %

0.5 %













F&I, net 100.0 %

100.0 %

 %













Total gross margin 11.5 %

12.6 %

(1.0) %













Units sold:























Retail new vehicles sold 1,971



2,126



(155)



(7.3) %









Retail used vehicles sold 1,098



1,058



40



3.8 %









Wholesale used vehicles sold 475



450



25



5.6 %









Total used 1,573



1,508



65



4.3 %









Average sales price per unit sold:























New vehicle retail $ 29,169



$ 29,709



$ (540)



(1.8) %



$ (5,158)



15.5 % Used vehicle retail $ 18,154



$ 18,584



$ (429)



(2.3) %



$ (3,141)



14.6 % Gross profit per unit sold:























New vehicle retail sales $ 1,782



$ 1,803



$ (21)



(1.1) %



$ (312)



16.2 % Used vehicle retail sales $ 957



$ 1,323



$ (366)



(27.7) %



$ (171)



(14.8) % Used vehicle wholesale sales $ 430



$ 615



$ (185)



(30.1) %



$ (78)



(17.4) % Total used $ 798



$ 1,112



$ (314)



(28.3) %



$ (143)



(15.4) % F&I PRU $ 560



$ 613



$ (53)



(8.6) %



$ (98)



7.4 % Other:























SG&A expenses $ 10.5



$ 11.4



$ (0.9)



(7.7) %



$ (1.9)



9.4 % Adjusted SG&A expenses (1) $ 9.7



$ 11.4



$ (1.8)



(15.4) %



$ (1.7)



(0.6) % SG&A as % gross profit 98.7 %

90.9 %

7.8 %













Adjusted SG&A as % gross profit (1) 90.4 %

90.9 %

(0.5) %



















(1) See the section in this release titled "Reconciliation of Certain Non-GAAP Financial Measures" for the GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation of these figures.

Group 1 Automotive, Inc. Reconciliation of Certain Non-GAAP Financial Measures - Consolidated (Unaudited) (In millions, except per share amounts)









Three Months Ended March 31, 2020



U.S. GAAP

Severance costs

Non-GAAP

adjusted SG&A expenses

$ 328.0



$ (0.9)



$ 327.1

Income (loss) from operations

69.9



0.9



70.8















Income (loss) before income taxes

$ 38.9



$ 0.9



$ 39.8

Less: (Benefit) provision for income taxes

9.1



0.1



9.2

Net income (loss)

29.8



0.8



30.6

Less: Earnings (loss) allocated to participating securities

1.1







1.1

Net income (loss) available to diluted common shares

$ 28.7



$ 0.8



$ 29.5















Diluted income (loss) per common share

$ 1.61



$ 0.04



$ 1.66















Effective tax rate

23.4 %





23.2 %













SG&A as % gross profit (1)

78.7 %





78.5 % Operating margin (2)

2.6 %





2.6 % Pretax margin (2)

1.4 %





1.5 %













Same Store SG&A

$ 315.0



$ (0.9)



$ 314.1

Same Store SG&A as % gross profit (1)

78.2 %





78.0 %













Same Store income (loss) from operations

$ 70.1



$ 0.9



$ 71.0

Same Store operating margin (2)

2.7 %





2.7 %





(1) Adjusted SG&A as % of gross profit excludes the impact of SG&A reconciling items above. (2) Adjusted operating margin and pretax margin exclude the impact of SG&A reconciling items above.

Group 1 Automotive, Inc. Reconciliation of Certain Non-GAAP Financial Measures - Consolidated (Unaudited) (In millions, except per share amounts)









Three Months Ended March 31, 2019



U.S. GAAP

Catastrophic

events

Dealership and

real estate

transactions

Legal matters

Non-GAAP

adjusted SG&A expenses

$ 327.7



$ (2.0)



$ 5.2



$ (2.4)



$ 328.5

Income (loss) from operations

86.8



2.0



(5.2)



2.4



86.0























Income (loss) before income taxes

$ 52.2



$ 2.0



$ (5.2)



$ 2.4



$ 51.3

Less: (Benefit) provision for income taxes

13.5



0.5



(1.4)



0.5



13.1

Net income (loss)

38.6



1.5



(3.8)



1.9



38.2

Less: Earnings (loss) allocated to participating securities

1.5



0.1



(0.1)



0.1



1.4

Net income (loss) available to diluted common shares

$ 37.2



$ 1.4



$ (3.7)



$ 1.8



$ 36.7























Diluted income (loss) per common share

$ 2.08



$ 0.08



$ (0.21)



$ 0.10



$ 2.06























Effective tax rate

25.9 %













25.6 %





















SG&A as % gross profit (1)

75.9 %













76.1 % Operating margin (2)

3.1 %













3.1 % Pretax margin (2)

1.9 %













1.8 %





















Same Store SG&A

$ 323.4



$ (2.0)



$ 1.1



$ (1.8)



$ 320.6

Same Store SG&A as % gross profit (1)

76.1 %













75.5 %





















Same Store income (loss) from operations

$ 84.8



$ 2.0



$ (1.1)



$ 1.8



$ 87.5

Same Store operating margin (2)

3.1 %













3.2 %





(1) Adjusted SG&A as % of gross profit excludes the impact of SG&A reconciling items above. (2) Adjusted operating margin and pretax margin exclude the impact of SG&A reconciling items above.

Group 1 Automotive, Inc. Reconciliation of Certain Non-GAAP Financial Measures - U.S. (Unaudited) (In millions)















Three Months Ended March 31, 2019



U.S. GAAP

Catastrophic

events

Dealership and

real estate

transactions

Legal matters

Non-GAAP

adjusted SG&A expenses

$ 256.2



$ (2.0)



$ 5.2



$ (1.8)



$ 257.6

SG&A as % gross profit (1)

73.8 %













74.2 %





















Same Store SG&A

$ 256.2



$ (2.0)



$ 1.1



$ (1.8)



$ 253.5

Same Store SG&A as % gross profit (1)

74.5 %













73.7 %





(1) Adjusted SG&A as % of gross profit excludes the impact of SG&A reconciling items above.

Group 1 Automotive, Inc. Reconciliation of Certain Non-GAAP Financial Measures - Brazil (Unaudited) (In millions)









Three Months Ended March 31, 2020



U.S. GAAP

Severance costs

Non-GAAP

adjusted SG&A expenses

$ 10.6



$ (0.9)



$ 9.7

SG&A as % gross profit (1)

99.1 %





90.9 %













Same Store SG&A

$ 10.5



$ (0.9)



$ 9.7

Same Store SG&A as % gross profit (1)

98.7 %





90.4 %









Three Months Ended March 31, 2019



U.S. GAAP

Legal matters

Non-GAAP

adjusted SG&A expenses

$ 12.4



$ (0.6)



$ 11.8

SG&A as % gross profit (1)

98.2 %





93.7 %













Same Store SG&A

$ 11.4



$ 



$ 11.4

Same Store SG&A as % gross profit (1)

90.9 %





90.9 %





(1) Adjusted SG&A as % of gross profit excludes the impact of SG&A reconciling items above.

SOURCE Group 1 Automotive, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.group1auto.com


(Newser)  Airlines are not doing well amid the coronavirus pandemicand in a memo recently sent to staffers, United Airlines' COO is urging employees to consider voluntarily separating from the company, CNN reports. "You may want to seriously consider if you're in a position to take a voluntary separation," Greg Hart wrote. "You, alone, can decide if a [Voluntary Separation Program] works for you and your family." Hart warned that the company will need to "right-size" its workforce. "Travel demand is essentially zero for the foreseeable future," a company spokesperson recently said.

story continues below

The airline was forced to cut its May and June schedule by 90% of what was originally planned. A federal assistance package prevents it from laying anyone off for six months, but it plans to start letting staff go as of Oct. 1, and will give those affected notice sometime in July. The memo urged employees to consider voluntarily separating before that comes to pass. Anyone who does so will keep travel and medical benefits for an extended period of time, and will also receive "some continuation of pay," an airline VP said in the memo, per the Chicago Tribune. Those who are laid off without taking the voluntary separation package will not receive severance. Reuters reports the airline plans to cut 30% of management in October. (Read more United Airlines stories.)
Russian Ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova says the number of domestic violence complaints in the country has jumped markedly since early April, when coronavirus restrictions in the country were tightened.

Moskalkova told RIA Novosti news agency on May 5 that data, based on information provided by nongovernmental organizations, showed domestic violence had more than doubled from before the outbreak.

"According to the provided data, there were 6,054 [domestic violence] complaints, while in April the number of such complaints passed over 13,000," Moskalkova said, adding the numbers are likely higher since many Russian women are reluctant to call hotlines and report domestic violence fearing retaliation from abusive spouses.

"I assume that communication is a problem here.... Using electronic devices to report domestic violence might be dangerous for the violence victims. We also monitor media reports about the issue and the situation is not optimistic," Moskalkova added.

Experts had warned that the combination of economic and social stresses brought on by the pandemic, as well as restrictions on movement to slow the spread of the coronavirus, could lead to an increase in domestic violence.

In early April, the United Nations called the situation a growing crisis within a crisis, estimating that six months of lockdown could result in an additional 31 million domestic violence cases worldwide.

First-time abuse offenses were decriminalized in 2017 and some Russian lawmakers, including those who are trying to push for a new domestic violence law, asked the government in April to take emergency steps to protect victims during the coronavirus lockdown.

Valentina Matviyenko, the chairwoman of parliament's upper chamber, the Federation Council, said last month that lawmakers might consider the legislation to recriminalize domestic violence as soon as the circumstances permit.

With reporting by RIA Novosti
WALLINGFORD  Police are investigating a possible murder after the body of 17-year-old boy was found in the Quinnipiac River on Sunday afternoon.

Police said the two kayakers found the body of Nolvin Diaz in the Community Lake behind the senior center in Wallingford around 1 p.m. Sunday, Lt. Cheryl Bradley said in a release Monday.
John Magufuli, Tanzanian president, has expressed worries over the testing kits imported into the country after samples conducted on t...





John Magufuli, Tanzanian president, has expressed worries over the testing kits imported into the country after samples conducted on them using both goat and pawpaw tested positive for COVID-19.





According to Aljazeera, Magufuli, who spoke on Sunday at an event in Chato, northwestern part of the country, said he had ordered investigation into the quality of the testing kits.





It was gathered that they had randomly obtained several non-human samples, including from a pawpaw, a goat and a sheep.





The animals were consequently assigned human names and ages before they were being forwarded to the countrys laboratory to be tested for the virus with the lab technicians left deliberately unaware of their origins.

Magufuli, however, said theres possibility of technical errors with the test. According to the president, results from the laboratory had shown the pawpaw and goat tested positive for the virus.Magufuli, however, said theres possibility of technical errors with the test.





He said the development was a pointer to the possibility of people being declared to have tested positive to the virus when they are actually not infected with the virus.





There is something happening. I said before we should not accept that every aid is meant to be good for this nation, he said.





The development comes about the same time when the president had reportedly ordered for Covid Organics, a herbal medicine touted as potential cure for the novel disease  though without scientific evidence  from Madagascar.





I have already written to Madagascars president and we will soon dispatch a plane to fetch the medicine so that Tanzania can also benefit from it, he said.





The country has so far confirmed 480 cases of the killer virus with 16 deaths, according to worldometers.info.




Raja M Shanmugham, president, Tirupur Exporters Association has confirmed the development and said that the decision was taken at the meeting held today at Tirupur District Collectorate. It has been decided to permit for opening of the units tomorrow just by submitting application with the District Collectorate. He added that the inspection would be carried out later and there is no need to ...

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* Western Australia exports most of its crops and minerals

* State economy has been in doldrums since 2014

* Western Australia helped lead national recovery after GFC

By Jonathan Barrett and Melanie Burton

SYDNEY/MELBOURNE, May 5 (Reuters) - In the world's biggest iron ore loading hub, Western Australia's Port Hedland, huge vessels line up near the red-dirt coast, waiting to be loaded with the sought-after steel-making material.

Further south, the state's wheatbelt has started planting the year's main crop, buoyed by high grains prices and global demand for flour.

With its commodities sector suffering only minor disruptions from the coronavirus, Western Australia is currently one of the world's few bright spots, even as the wider national economy faces its first recession in three decades.

Economists, miners and farmers believe global demand for food and iron ore will mark a return to prosperity for a region that fell into the doldrums in 2014.

Farmer Lyndon Mickel recently started planting wheat on his 6,000 hectare property near Esperance in the state's southern wheatbelt. He sees "business as usual" with good selling prices for grains in the past month.

"Someone needs to maintain that supply of produce for home cooking and wheat for pasta - and it may as well be us," Mickel said.

Australia is one of the world's largest wheat producers with Western Australia's grain exports accounting for roughly 40% of the national total. Strong global prices are partly due to Russia, another major producer, curbing exports due to concerns about a domestic shortage.

Australia, like other countries, closed its borders and shut down almost all domestic travel in March to halt the local coronavirus spread.

Those measures appear to have worked with the national new infection rate now below 1% from a peak of about 25%. Australia has recorded around 6,800 infections and 96 deaths.

Western Australia has succeeded in stopping almost all new infections.

Story continues

Analysts now expect the state to lead a national recovery.

"Western Australia is less dependent on international tourism, which will be the last thing to come back. It is a massive provider of iron ore and prices have held up," AMP Capital chief investment strategist Shane Oliver told Reuters.

While public finances in other states and at a federal level are expected to deteriorate, as revenues plunge and spending balloons, Western Australia is expected to maintain a balanced budget, economists say.

Fuelling export demand is China's own cautious emergence from the economic paralysis caused by the outbreak.

Australia's government in March forecast iron ore exports worth A$101 billion ($65.1 billion) in the financial year ending June 30, up from $79 billion a year earlier.

Iron ore prices have remained resilient, holding around $80-85 per tonne throughout the pandemic, backed by production cuts from Brazils Vale and export curbs elsewhere.

Prices are expected to hold up as governments spend on steel-heavy projects to revive growth.

Shipments are proceeding in full, said John Finch, general manager of operations at Australia's Pilbara Ports, which channels the world's biggest iron ore exports.

"March was our third highest throughput month ever. We haven't missed a beat. The demand is very, very high and we still have the same 30 or 40 ships sitting off the port waiting to come in," he told Reuters.

RECOVERY RISKS

A decade ago, while many countries were dealing with the global financial crisis, pubs in some West Australian boom towns were selling beer to highly paid mine workers at about twice the normal price seen elsewhere in the country.

That strong growth came to an end in 2014 as China's industrial demand declined significantly, triggering a fall in local property prices.

Still, the state's economy remains highly export-dependent with 80% of its agricultural production and almost all its ore sent overseas.

Overhanging its more upbeat outlook are several risks, including a possible second wave of infections.

Australia is also engaged in a hostile diplomatic dispute with Beijing over Canberra's push for an international inquiry into the coronavirus, drawing threats of a trade backlash.

Broker Argonaut Securities warns iron ore prices could fall if there is a prolonged global slump in steel demand.

And while many West Australian farms have good sub-soil moisture, most are yet to receive a planting rain needed for a good harvest.

For now, however, real demand from China has given the state and wider national economy a much needed tailwind.

Last week, Fortescue Metals Group, the world's fourth biggest iron ore miner, forecast record shipments.

"Our iron ore shipments have continued as planned...we've seen strong ongoing demand for our products," Fortescue Chief Executive Elizabeth Gaines said.

($1 = $1.0000) ($1 = 1.5523 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Jonathan Barrett and Melanie Burton; Editing by Sam Holmes)
The Associated Press (AP) won 2020 Pulitzer Prize in the category of feature photography for their coverage on Kashmir during the clampdown, where curfew and shutdowns of phone and internet service created a challenge to show the world about was happening inside Kashmir. AP photographers Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin snaked around roadblocks, sometimes took cover in strangers homes and hid cameras in vegetable bags to capture images of protests, police and paramilitary action and daily life. Then they headed to an airport to persuade travelers to carry the photo files out with them and get them to APs office in New Delhi. In above photo, AP photographer Dar Yasin celebrates his win with his family. (Image: AP)

Associated Press photographer Channi Anand celebrates with his family following the announcement that he was one of three AP photographers who won the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography for their coverage of the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir. (AP Photo)

Associated Press photographer Mukhtar Khan celebrates with his family at his home in Srinagar following the results announced. (AP Photo/Afnan Arif)

Kashmiri Muslim devotees offer prayer outside the shrine of Sufi saint Sheikh Syed Abdul Qadir Jeelani in Srinagar, Dec. 9, 2019. Hundreds of devotees gathered at the shrine for the 11-day festival that marks the death anniversary of the Sufi saint. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Kashmiri Muslim children attend recitation classes of the holy Quran on the first day of the fasting month of Ramadan in Srinagar, May 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

An Indian paramilitary soldier stands guard as Kashmiri Muslims offer Friday prayers on a street outside a local mosque during curfew-like restrictions in Srinagar, India, Aug. 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Flames and smoke billow from a residential building where militants are suspected to have taken refuge during a gun battle in Pulwama, south of Srinagar on Feb. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

A wounded woman is carried on a stretcher for treatment after she was injured in a bus accident, at a local hospital in Srinagar, June 27, 2019 after a minibus carrying students to a picnic fell into a gorge along a Himalayan road. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

An Indian Border Security Force (BSF) soldier keeps vigil near the India Pakistan border at Garkhal in Akhnoor, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) west of Jammu, India, August 13, 2019. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

Kashmiri men dismantle a portion of a house destroyed in a gunbattle in Tral village, south of Srinagar on March 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Masked Kashmiris shout slogans during a protest after Friday prayers on the outskirts of Srinagar, October 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

A masked Kashmiri protester jumps on the bonnet of an armoured vehicle of Indian police as he pelts stones at it during a protest in Srinagar, May 31, 2019. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
DGAP-News: Photon Energy NV / Key word(s): Quarter Results



The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



Invitation to Webcast of Photon Energy's First Quarter Results 2020



Amsterdam - 4 May 2020 - Photon Energy N.V. (WSE: PEN, the 'Company') will release its first quarter results on Tuesday 12 May 2020.

The company will present the results followed by a Q&A session via a live webcast on Thursday 14 May at 11:00 am CEST. You are invited to ask questions through the webcast chat box or you can email them in advance to ir@photonenergy.com.

Webcast: https://tailorsgroup.clickmeeting.com/photon-energy-q1-2020-results-presentation

INVESTOR RELATIONS CONTACT

Joanna Rzesiewska

Investor Relation Manager

+420 777 486 464

ir@photonenergy.com



MEDIA CONTACT

Martin Kysly

PR & Communications Manager

T +420 774 810 670

E martin.kysly@photonenergy.com



ABOUT PHOTON ENERGY

Photon Energy N.V. is a global solar energy solutions and services company covering the entire lifecycle of solar energy systems. Additionally, its subsidiary Photon Water Technology (PWT), focuses on developing and providing water purification, remediation and treatment systems for worldwide deployment. Since its foundation in 2008, Photon Energy has built and commissioned over 80 MWp of solar power plants across two continents and 57.1 MWp as part of our own portfolio. Current project development includes a project pipeline of 738 MWp in Australia (580 MWp in partnership with Canadian Solar) and 17.7 MWp in Hungary, with a target of 75 MWp by 2021. The O&M division provides operations and maintenance services for 300 MWp worldwide. Photon Energy is headquartered in Amsterdam and has offices in Europe and Australia. For more information, please visit www.photonenergy.com.





04.05.2020 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.

Archive at www.dgap.de


VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / Mota Ventures Corp. (CSE:MOTA)(FSE:1WZ1)(OTC PINK:PEMTF) (the "Company") is excited to announce for the month of April, it acquired 17,996 new customers. This represents an increase of 48% compared to April 2019. In April, the Company also experienced strong demand from customers enrolling in a subscription, totaling of 14,091 new subscribers during the month. This represents a new subscriber increase of 78% compared to April 2019.

The Company's Natures Exclusive brand offers a CBD hemp-oil formulation intended to provide users with the therapeutic benefits that hemp may offer. The hemp oil used in the products is derived from hemp grown and cultivated in the United States. The extraction process is designed to maintain all the beneficial qualities that hemp may offer. Natures Exclusive offers a range of products, which include CBD oil drops, CBD gummies, CBD pain relief cream, CDB skin serum and CBD coffee.

"We continue to see strong consumer demand for our entire range due to our concentrated customer acquisition efforts and by providing compelling products our customers are asking for. Our April new customer acquisition and subscription numbers are continued evidence of the strength of the business. Additionally, I am excited about our recent launch of a CBD hand sanitizer product and anticipate we will see very strong sales through this current quarter," stated Ryan Hoggan, CEO of the Company.

The Company also announces that it has granted 7,995,000 incentive stock options to certain directors, officers and consultants of the Company. The options vest immediately, and are exercisable at a price of $0.30 for a period of 60 months. The options are governed by the terms of the Company's incentive stock option plan, and the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange.

About Mota Ventures Corp.

Mota Ventures is an established eCommerce, direct to consumer provider of a wide range of CBD products in the United States and Europe. In the United States, the Company sells a CBD hemp-oil formulation derived from hemp grown and formulated in the US through its Nature's Exclusive brand. Within Europe, its Sativida brand of award winning 100% organic CBD oils and cosmetics are sold throughout Spain, Portugal, Austria, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. Mota Ventures is also seeking to acquire additional revenue producing CBD brands and operations in both Europe and North America, with the goal of establishing an international distribution network for CBD products. Low cost production, coupled with international, direct to customer, sales channels will provide the foundation for the success of Mota Ventures.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MOTA VENTURES CORP.

Ryan Hoggan

Chief Executive Officer

For further information, readers are encouraged to contact Joel Shacker, President at +604.423.4733 or by email at IR@motaventuresco.com or www.motaventuresco.com

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 press release, which has been prepared by management.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statement

All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are "forward-looking information" with respect to the Company within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including with respect to anticipated product sales under its Natures Exclusive and Satavida brands, its plans to offer a CBD infused hand sanitizer product, its plans to become a vertically integrated global CBD brand, its plans to cultivate and extract cannabis to produce CBD and high-quality value added CBD products in Latin America for distribution domestically and internationally and its plans to acquire revenue-producing CBD brands and operations in Europe and North America. The Company provides forward-looking statements for the purpose of conveying information about current expectations and plans relating to the future and readers are cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. By its nature, this information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited those identified and reported in the Company's public filings under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. 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 information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. 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 unless required by law.

SOURCE: Mota Ventures Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/588371/Mota-Ventures-Announces-Record-Number-of-New-Subscriptions-in-April
[May 05, 2020] Tyler Technologies to Improve Enterprise Resource Planning Operations at Tennessee School District

Tyler Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: TYL) today announced that it has signed an agreement with the Hamilton County School District in Tennessee for Tyler's Munis enterprise resource planning (ERP), ExecuTime time and attendance, Tyler Content Manager, and Socrata Connected Government Cloud. Munis will manage financials, HR, procurement, and revenues, helping the district automate and streamline processes and procedures. "A key focus area of our strategic plan is efficient and effective operations, and replacing and modernizing our ERP system is a critical component of that strategy," said Brent Goldberg, chief business officer, Hamilton County School District. "We are very excited about unleashing the power of Munis to modernize the way the school district operates, and we are also looking forward to using Socrata to transform the way we share our data and our successes with the community." Hamilton County School District is the sixth largest school district in Tennessee, comprising 78 schools and nearly 45,000 students. The district has been using anther ERP system that is nearing end of life, and it selected Tyler for its solutions' fully integrated functionality and the company's industry expertise.



In addition to Munis, Hamilton County School District will also take advantage of Tyler's ExecuTime time and attendance solution to effectively manage employees' schedules

Tyler Content Manager to help easily transform paper forms and documents into electronic images

Socrata Connected Government Cloud solution as a strategic asset in the design, management, and delivery of its data "We're proud to be selected by the Hamilton County School District as they look to improve operations from ERP management to data analysis," said Chris Hepburn, president of Tyler's Enterprise Group. "This growing and innovative district will benefit from combining the power of several Tyler solutions to best serve its staff, students, and parents."

Hamilton County is located in southeast Tennessee and is the fourth-most populous county in the state. It has a population of more than 260,000. About Tyler Technologies (News - Alert), 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/20200505005046/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Over 4,600 stranded migrant workers arrived in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday in four special trains--one from Maharashtra and three from Gujarat.

While the train from Maharashtra's Akola brought 1,195 labourers to Lucknow in the morning, 1,115 workers arrived at Gorakhpur around 4 pm from Gujarat's Nadiad.

A batch of 1,116 migrant workers arrived in Lucknow on Tuesday evening from Vadodara.

In Kanpur, another special train carrying 1,220 migrant workers stranded in Godhra (Gujarat) due to the coronavirus lockdown reached in the afternoon afternoon, said a railway official.

On Monday, over 3,000 labourers stuck in Maharashtra were brought to Uttar Pradesh in three special trains.

Uttar Pradesh State Roadways Transport Corporation MD Raj Shekhar said 54 buses were deployed to take the Akola workers to districts of Jalaun, Kannauj, Allahabad, Farrukhabad, Kanpur, Gorakhpur and Jaunpur on Tuesday.

Gorakhpur (Sadar) SDM Gaurav Singh Sogarwal said the workers were sent to 29 districts after thermal scanning and verification of documents.

A senior official of the roadways corporation in Gorakhpur said 57 UPSRTC buses took them to their destinations.

Kanpur District Magistrate Brahmdeo Ram Tiwari said the labourers who arrived there hailed from 53 different districts of the state.

The workers also seemed relieved after returning to their home state.

Ravi (38), who returned from Nadiad, said he worked at a brick kiln there and belonged to Noorpur village of Hathras district.

After the lockdown, I had no work. I was living on my little savings and it was difficult for me to feed my family. I was depressed. Thankfully, I was left with some money and I was able to return, he said.

"We were served food twice in the train," he added.

Zahir Alam (55) of Kasganj district said he was only bread winner for his family and was worried about them.

I am still not able to believe that I have reached my state. I am very thankful to the government for this train."



Earlier briefing reporters here, Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Information) Awanish Awasthi had said so far, nearly 65,000 labourers and students have been brought to the state or sent to other places.

Awasthi said UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has told them that in coming days, Indians stranded abroad are likely to return, for which screening and quarantine facilities should be ensured.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Guwahati, May 5 : As India continues its all-out fight against the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic, the Assam government finds itself battling on an additional front: the contagious African Swine Fever (AFS), which has so far killed around 3,000 pigs in the state, ministers and officials said on Tuesday.

Officials of Assam's Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department said this is for the first time that due to the massive outbreak of AFS, over 2,905 pigs have died so far in six districts. According to the census in 2019, Assam's pig population was around 21 lakh, which by now might have gone up to around 30 lakh.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has directed officials of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary and Forest Departments to work with the National Pig Research Centre of ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) and draw an effective roadmap to curb the pigs' deaths.

Sonowal has asked workers and officials, including doctors and other functionaries, to ensure cleanliness and total sanitization of the pig inhabitable areas and use disinfectants.

Animal Husbandry and Veterinary and Agriculture Minister Atul Bora, while talking to the media, said his department has been working for several weeks to deal with the highly infectious AFS disease, whose mortality rate is very high -- 90 to 100 per cent.

"We have already taken a series of steps, including creation of containment zones, within one km radius of an infected area and surveillance zone within 10 km, to prevent spread of the virus to other adjoining districts. We have formed a committee with officials, experts, specialists and pig farmers and are working according to their advices," the Minister said.

Despite the Central government's advices, the Minister said as of now, the department did not have any plans to cull the pigs.

Northeast Progressive Pig Farmers' Association's founding President Manoj Basumatary, who is himself a pig farmer, said the pig farmers had been severely affected, first by COVID-19 pandemic and now by AFS. Due to the ASF, hundreds of pigs' deaths were reported from the Dhemaji, North Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Dibrugarh, Sivasagar and Jorhat districts of Assam and in West Kameng, Papum-Pare, Lower Siang, Upper Siang, East Siang, Lohit, Lepa-Rada, Namsai, Changlang districts of Arunachal Pradesh.

Because of the outbreak of ASF in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, all the state governments in the North-East have sounded a high alert and asked people, especially owners of piggeries, to refrain from bringing pigs from other states.

Animal resource experts in northeast India suspect that the highly contagious ASF came to the region from Tibet in China through Arunachal Pradesh. The annual pork business of the northeast is worth around Rs 8,000-10,000 crore with Assam being the largest supplier. Pork is one of the most common and popular meats consumed by both tribals and non-tribals in the northeastern states.

According to the animal resource experts, the pigs generally are affected by the Classical Fever, Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) besides the ASF.

The AFS was first detected in 1921 in Kenya. No vaccines or medicines have been discovered so far. According to some experts, human beings do not get infected by the AFS, but they could be the carriers of the virus.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Pregnancy support helplines are experiencing a massive spike in distressed pregnant women asking for urgent help as charities warn coronavirus upheaval is placing pregnant women at risk.

Frontline service providers warn mothers-to-be are anxious about whether they will be denied pain relief options such as water and be separated from their newborn babies due to them being put in neonatal units.

The chief medical officer has said all women expecting babies are in a vulnerable group and the NHS states pregnant women could be at higher risk from coronavirus and should only be leaving home for very limited reasons.

Birthrights, a maternity care charity, found enquiries to its advice line in March were up by 464 per cent in comparison to March last year.

Maria Booker, of Birthrights, told The Independent: Now that we are past the first peak, trusts need to consider how they can do better at communicating with women about the changes that have been made to services and how individuals should raise any concerns, which will help to allay fears.

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus Show all 13 1 /13 Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus Cheryll Mack, 46, a registered nurse in the emergency department, poses for a photograph after a 12-hour shift outside the hospital where she works. "The Covid-19 spread has affected a lot of livelihood, a lot of people's lives. It has created a crisis, death in general. So I would like to ask not one single person, but all people worldwide, to converge and join the platform that this is something that nobody can fight individually," said Mack. Reuters Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus Dr Laura Bontempo, 50, an emergency medicine doctor wears her personal protective equipment she uses when she sees patients, while posing for a photograph after a nine-hour shift, outside the hospital. "The hardest moments have actually been separating families from patients, there is a no-visitor policy now and taking people away from their loved ones is very challenging," Bontempo said. "I'm used to treating sick patients. I treat sick patients all the time. It's very different knowing that the patient you are treating, is actually a risk to you as well. That's the main difference here. No one who works in hospitals is afraid of treating sick people. Just want to keep staff safe and the patients safe at the same time." Reuters Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus Ernest Capadngan, 29, a registered nurse who works at a biocontainment unit poses for a photograph after a 12-hour shift, outside the hospital. "The hardest moment during the shift was just seeing Covid patients die helpless and without their family members beside them," Capadngan said. Reuters Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus Martine Bell, 41, a nurse practitioner in an emergency department, poses for a photograph after a six-hour shift outside the hospital where she works. "The hardest thing in all of this, has been taking care of fellow healthcare providers. It really hits home and it's really scary when you see someone that could be you coming in and now you're taking care of them. It's also hitting home that once healthcare providers start getting sick, who is going to be taking care of the public," Bell said. "It's very stressful, everyone is on edge. We don't know who's coming in next, or how sick they're going to be, or if we are going to get a whole bunch of people or if we're not going to get no one. It's a really stressful and just a completely unusual time for all of us." Reuters Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus Kaitlyn Martiniano, 25, a registered nurse who works at a biocontainment poses for a photograph after a 12.5-hour shift, outside the hospital. "We have a lot of patients and they are pretty sick right now but we have not yet been hit as hard as New York or Seattle, so I feel like we are very lucky with that so far. Every day you have to just be optimistic." Said Martiniano. "I think the reason that we are not being hit as hard right now is because so many things are closed, and because so many people are staying at home." Reuters Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus Tracey Wilson, 53, a nurse practitioner in an intensive care unit (ICU), poses for a photograph after a 12-hour shift, outside the hospital where she works. "I had a patient fall out of bed today and I had to call his wife and tell her and she couldn't come see him, even though she pleaded and begged to come see him," Wilson said. "There is a lot of unknowns and with that unknown is a lot of anxiety and stress that we're not used to dealing with." Reuters Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus Meghan Sheehan, 27, a nurse practitioner in an emergency department, poses for a photograph after a 12-hour shift, outside the hospital where she works. "I think the hardest moment has been the fear that lives within all of us. There is a lot of unknown right now. We fear what's going to happen tomorrow, how the emergency department will look next week when we come in. We have fears about our own colleagues, whether they will fall ill. We also fear that we could be asymptomatic carriers and bring this virus home to our families and our loved ones. There has been a lot of fear over our supplies and whether we'll run out. And then obviously there is the fear that we will see patients and not be able to do everything we normally can to help save patients' lives," Sheehan said. Reuters Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus Kimberly Bowers, 44, a nurse practitioner in an ICU, poses for a photograph after a 13-hour shift, outside the hospital. "The hardest moment was a young woman who died and her family wasn't able to be here with her," Bowers said. "I think right now, it's just frustrating and scary just not knowing what comes next." Reuters Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus Tiffany Fare, 25, a registered nurse who works at a biocontainment unit poses for a photograph after a 13-hour shift, outside the hospital where she works. "One of the hardest moments was having to see a family member of a Covid patient, say goodbye over an iPad, rooms away. That was a tough one, I can't imagine how hard it would be to be saying goodbye, you can't see your loved one and then they're gone," Fare said. "My team has been really great to me. We've worked really well together and we've really come together in this crisis. We don't really know each other, we all come from different units within the same hospital, so for us to come together and work so well as a team, it's been a journey but I think that's what is giving me hope." Reuters Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus Dr Kyle Fischer, 35, an emergency medicine doctor, poses for a photograph after a 12-hour shift, outside the hospital where he works. "Since it's a new virus, we don't have any experience with it. For most diseases I am used to seeing it and taking care of it and this, I don't have any starting place. I know what I'm hearing from New York, I've read all of the papers it seems like, but no one knows what the correct answers are, so there's a huge amount of uncertainty and people are really, really sick. So it's hard to second guess whether or not you are doing the right thing when you think you are but you never quite know," said Fischer. Reuters Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus Julia Trainor, 23, a registered nurse at a surgical ICU, poses for a photograph after a 14-hour shift, outside the hospital. "The hardest moment was having to put a breathing tube in my patient who could no longer breathe for herself and after the breathing tube went in, we called her family and the husband, of course, couldn't visit her because of visitor restrictions at the hospital. So I had to put him on the phone and hold the phone to her ear, as he told her that he loved her so much and then I had to wipe away her tears as she was crying," said Trainor. "I'm used to seeing very sick patients and I'm used to patients dying but nothing quite like this. In the flip of a switch, without the support, they're completely isolated. They're very sick. Some of them recover and some of them don't. But the hardest part, I would think, is them having to go through this feeling like they are alone." Reuters Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus Lisa Mehring, 45, a registered nurse who works in a biocontainment unit with Covid-19 patients, poses for a photograph after a 12.5-hour shift, outside the hospital where she works in Maryland. "Seeing these new moms have babies has been the hardest moment along with having do their pumping for the new moms and them not being able to be with their newborn children, it's hard to think of the family that they are missing," Mehring said. Photos Reuters Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus Jacqueline Hamil, 30, a registered nurse in an emergency department, poses for a photograph after a 12-hour shift outside the hospital. "The hardest moment of my shift today, I was in charge, and we had a really sick patient that was in a really, really small room and usually, when we have sick crashing patients, we can have a ton of resources and a ton of staff go in and help with the nurse and the doctors that are taking care of that patient. But due to the patient being ruled out for the coronavirus, we could only have five or six people in the room at a time and putting on all the gowns and gloves and masks and face shields to protect us in case the patient does have coronavirus, it takes a while, so the nurse that was in there, ended up being in the room for you know 6, 7 hours with minimal breaks and it was hard being in charge and knowing that she was stuck in the room and really nothing I could do to help her," Hamil said. Reuters

Some trusts had little or no information on their websites, weeks into the pandemic. In addition, we have written to NHS England urging them to increase transparency around why changes to maternity services are being made and when they will be reviewed.

Ms Booker said women contacting them are concerned about whether a birth partner will be able to be there during labour and the actual birth, partners not being able to join scans by video calls, and limits on having visitors at other times.

The latter is especially acute when women have additional physical or mental health issues or cant speak English, Ms Booker added.

Women getting in touch also raised concerns about home birth services being withdrawn, midwifery-led birth centres shutting their doors and elective caesareans being discontinued due to the Covid-19 crisis.

Baby charity Tommys experienced a 71 per cent surge in demand for advice from midwives on its pregnancy helpline last month  citing the fact the pandemic has made it difficult for pregnant women to get proper advice as being behind the rise.

Recommended Pregnant women are being kept in jail despite the risk to their lives

The organisation warned coronavirus turmoil is placing pregnant women at risk after their midwives answered 514 urgent calls for help in April which is a sizeable rise from the 300 enquiries they would generally get.

Women expecting babies frequently reported they were not able to get in touch with their local GP, midwife or Early Pregnancy Unit (EPU) due to health services struggling under coronavirus  as well as also feeling hesitant about overburdening them and scared to attend important appointments.

The charity called for pregnant women to pursue healthcare advice if they experience symptoms such as changes in their babys movements or severe pain or heavy bleeding.

Jane Brewin, the charitys chief executive, said: Antenatal care is vital for the wellbeing of mother and baby  but the coronavirus outbreak means that many dont know who they can ask for help, or dont want to bother our busy and beloved NHS.

Although services are adapting, they are still running, so pregnant women should not hesitate to raise concerns with their midwife and go to appointments when invited. The large increase in people contacting us demonstrates that coronavirus is creating extra confusion and anxiety for parents-to-be, making midwives expert advice and support even more important at this time.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of Midwives has told women there is no evidence to suggest pregnant women are at greater risk from coronavirus.

[This self-isolation for 12 weeks] is a precautionary measure to reduce the theoretical risk to the babys growth and risk of preterm if the mother becomes unwell, the organisations said.

Rosalind Bragg, director of Maternity Action, told The Independent their advice lines have been swamped by calls from distressed pregnant women having problems in the workplace.

She added: The government has not issued guidance on health and safety for pregnant women at work, leading many employers to wrongly insist on pregnant women working in unsafe, public-facing roles. From our advice lines, we are aware that employers have refused to place pregnant women on furlough, and instead directed women to take sick leave or unpaid leave, which is unlawful.

We are very concerned that poor health and safety protections for pregnant workers are impacting on the physical and mental health of women during pregnancy and the postnatal period. This is a time when women should be able to relax and focus on their family, rather than worrying that their working conditions are putting their health and their babys health at risk.

It is important that women contact their midwife if they have any concerns about their pregnancy.

The warnings come after The Independent reported that senior lawyers are warning that pregnant women are at risk of being fired from their jobs if they follow the governments social-distancing advice.

Employers may be breaking the law by making women expecting babies work in public-facing roles, which range from supermarket checkouts to busy office environments and health and care sectors where keeping away from other members of the public isnt possible.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 23:37:42|Editor: huaxia

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BEIRUT, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The President of the American University of Beirut (AUB) Fadlo Khuri announced on Tuesday that the university is facing its greatest crisis since its foundation in 1866 and is forced to cut costs in the coming year.

"This is the result of a confluence of calamities, starting with the collapse of the Lebanese economy, now compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated global recession," Khuri was quoted as saying in a statement published on AUB's website.

Khuri said that the university's revenues are expected to drop by 60 percent for the 2020-2021 period to 249 million U.S. dollars from 609 million U.S. dollars in 2019-2020.

Khuri noted that the university, which is among the top 200 universities in the world, continues to look everywhere for savings, including a reduction in capital expenditure, travel, and in many other areas. Enditem
New Delhi, May 5 : India is set to embark on one of the largest rescue operations in the world, using naval and air platforms to bring back Indians stranded abroad, with Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday announcing Air India Group will operate 64 flights to 12 countries to bring back over 14,000 stranded people in 7 days from May 7.

During the first week of the mammoth air rescue operation, as many as 14,800 Indian nationals will be brought back, while the total number of people to be repatriated back to India in the entire operations could be more than 190,000, he said.

Addressing the media via video conferencing, the minister said that not only the role of the airline but that of airports and state governments is vital since these authorities have to manage the returning passengers.

On their part, the state governments are required to provide quarantine zones for the returning Indians.

Puri said that in the first week, flights will bring back Indians to 10 states and that services to more states could be started in the coming weeks, depending upon the speed at which facilities are prepared to host these returnees.

He further said that passengers would be required to pay a fixed amount for these flights, since the financial position of Air India is precarious and that the airline requires injection of Rs 500-Rs 600 crore per month for it to stay afloat.

Besides, the minister said that participation of private airlines in the air rescue plans will be taken after the first week of operations.

Puri added that he is aware of the financial constraints being faced by the industry.

However, he did not disclose any timeline for the resumption of domestic operations, but said that these will be opened only after seeing the "behaviour of the virus" and the ground level preparations to handle any situation.
[May 05, 2020] Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP, a Leading Securities Fraud Law Firm, Announces Investigation of Treasury Wine Estates Limited (TSRYY) on Behalf of Investors

Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP ("GPM"), a leading national shareholder rights law firm, today announced that it has commenced an investigation on behalf of Treasury Wine Estates Limited ("TWE" or the "Company") (OTC: TSRYY) investors concerning the Company and its officers' possible violations of the federal securities laws. If you suffered a loss on your TWE investments or would like to inquire about potentially pursuing claims to recover your loss under the federal securities laws, you can submit your contact information here or contact Charles H. Linehan, of GPM at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9224, via email [email protected] or visit our website at www.glancylaw.com to learn more about your rights. On January 28, 2020, the Company issued a press release announcing hat "based on our revised full year forecast our growth rate in F20 will be lower than previously guided" driven by "underperformance in our US results." Further, TWE noted that the "Americas reported a 17% decline in EBITS to $98.3m and an EBITS margin of 16.1%" due to a "loss of execution momentum" and "the persistence of challenging conditions in the US wine market."



On this news, the Company's American depositary receipt ("ADR") price fell $1.33 per ADR, or 13%, to close at $8.83 per ADR on January 29, 2020. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

Whistleblower Notice: Persons with non-public information regarding TWE should consider their options to aid the investigation or take advantage of the SEC (News - Alert) Whistleblower Program. Under the program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Charles H. Linehan at 310-201-9150 or 888-773-9224 or email [email protected]. About GPM Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP is a premier law firm representing investors and consumers in securities litigation and other complex class action litigation. ISS Securities Class Action Services has consistently ranked GPM in its annual SCAS Top 50 Report. In 2018, GPM was ranked a top five law firm in number of securities class action settlements, and a top six law firm for total dollar size of settlements. With four offices across the country, GPM's nearly 40 attorneys have won groundbreaking rulings and recovered billions of dollars for investors and consumers in securities, antitrust, consumer, and employment class actions. GPM's lawyers have handled cases covering a wide spectrum of corporate misconduct including cases involving financial restatements, internal control weaknesses, earnings management, fraudulent earnings guidance and forward looking statements, auditor misconduct, insider trading, violations of FDA regulations, actions resulting in FDA and DOJ investigations, and many other forms of corporate misconduct. GPM's attorneys have worked on securities cases relating to nearly all industries and sectors in the financial markets, including, energy, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, real estate and REITs, financial, insurance, information technology, health care, biotech, cryptocurrency, medical devices, and many more. GPM's past successes have been widely covered by leading news and industry publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, Reuters, the Associated Press (News - Alert), Barron's, Investor's Business Daily, Forbes, and Money. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005995/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited is an Indian telecom company which is a subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). The telco is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Jio was launched on December 27, 2015. The telecom service provider operates a national 4G LTE network with coverage across all 22 telecom circles in India. Reliance Jio has over 38.8 crore subscribers.

In August 2017, the company introduced its feature phone called JioPhone to reach the masses that could not afford smartphones to support Jio's LTE network. By 2019, Jio had its content apps such as JioCinema and JioTV. The company launched fiber to home service in September 2019. The service offers home broadband, television and telephone services at very competitive rates. Jio has also launched Wi-Fi routers by the name JioFi.

Also read: Silver Lake to invest Rs 5,655 cr in Jio Platforms at higher valuation than Facebook deal

Various Jio apps include JioChat, JioCinema, JioCloud, JioMags, JioMoney Wallet, JioSaavn,JioSecurity, Jio4GVoice, and MyJio.

Reliance Jio is the biggest telecom company in India. Jio turned profitable within less than 18 months of its commercial launch. The telco created a world record in customer acquisition in one month of its commercial launch. It is the fastest by any other company including Facebook, WhatsApp and Skype.

On May 4, global tech investor Silver Lake announced an investment worth Rs 5,655.75 crore in Jio Platforms at an equity value of Rs 4.9 lakh crore and an enterprise value of Rs 5.15 lakh crore. Similarly in April 2020, Mark Zuckerberg-led Facebook acquired a 9.9 per cent stake in Jio, which was the highest foreign direct investment in the Indian technology sector.

Also read: Facebook-Jio deal: FB investment values Jio Platforms at record Rs 4.6 lakh crore
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 23:48:55|Editor: huaxia

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DHAKA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Police in Bangladesh capital Dhaka have arrested 17 members of a banned militant outfit, Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Masudur Rahman said Tuesday.

The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of the DMP made the arrests during raids in Dhaka on Monday night.

Masudur Rahman told Xinhua Tuesday that the militants are the members of the banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh or JMB, blamed for the deadly attack on the Spanish cafe in Dhaka's diplomatic Gulshan zone on July 1, 2016.

He said the CTTC members seized 19 mobile phones, about 234,000 taka (about 2,659 U.S. dollars) and 922 U.S. dollars from the arrestees who had been in contact with one fugitive Rabiul Syed Mostaq bin Arman who inspired them for joining a so-called jihad or holy war after migrating into Saudi Arabia by road from Bangladesh.

In the wake of the Dhaka cafe attack, Bangladesh police have conducted series of large-scale operations against militants and hunted down and killed scores of terror suspects. Enditem
In extending these measures, RCN will continue to help ensure that customers are able to continue to work, learn, and stay informed from the safety of their own homes." - Chris Fenger, COO of RCN

RCN, an award-winning and leading provider of fiber and broadband services, announced it will extend its commitments through June 30 to ensure business and residential customers remain connected to the internet during the COVID-19 crisis.

Originally announced on April 6, the company made the following commitments that will now be extended through June 30, 2020:



RCN is offering free internet and WiFi for 60 days to all qualifying low-income households, especially students in low income households who do not already subscribe to the companys internet service and who enroll in the Internet First program.

-- The Internet First program is affordable internet designed to help families and students in low-income households have reliable access to the internet. It will enable them to home school, do homework, and access educational resources and more. RCN is partnering with school districts to ensure local communities are aware of the programs extension and the tools to help students learn remotely.

-- The Internet First program includes 25Mbps high-speed internet service at $9.95 per month and is available to all eligible new residential customers who do not currently have RCN service. Installation fees will be waived for eligible students and new customers.

-- More information on Internet First is available at rcn.com/internet-first.



RCN will not terminate service to any residential or business customer because of their inability to pay their bills due to disruptions caused by COVID-19. Customers can reach out to make special arrangements to keep services active.

RCN will waive any late fees that any residential or small business customer might normally incur because of their economic circumstance related to COVID-19.

RCN continues to see excellent performance of their network with engineers, field technicians, and operations centers on point 24/7 to meet shifts in usage patterns and increased traffic. While many are still working, learning and connecting from home, the company remains vigilant in monitoring all network and support systems to ensure customers receive the fastest and most reliable connections and service.

Now, more than ever, keeping people connected is a critical priority, said Chris Fenger, Chief Operating Officer of RCN. In extending these measures, RCN will continue to help ensure that customers are able to continue to work, learn, and stay informed from the safety of their own homes. We are committed and ready to do our part in supporting our employees and our customers during this time.

In addition, RCN is supporting the broader communities it services with its newly launched Everyday Hero program. Residents are invited to nominate a local hero in their community via the website here. In the coming weeks, the company will launch its partnership with Feeding America to donate 10% of installation fees for 30 days.

For details on all RCN programs and additional updates on the companys response to COVID-19, please visit rcn.com/we-care.

About RCN

RCN Telecom Services, LLC (http://www.rcn.com and http://www.rcn.com/business) provides industry-leading high-speed internet, digital TV and phone services for residential, small/medium and Enterprise business customers. As a five-time recognized provider, RCN has been acknowledged in multiple residential and business categories in PCMag's Readers' Choice Awards in the years 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019. RCN is YouTube HD Verified, earning the company the highest-ranking that Google offers. RCN is also a Netflix Open Connect partner, placing in the Top rankings on the Netflix USA ISP Speed Index in the markets RCN serves. RCN's affordably priced advanced digital services are delivered through its proprietary, state-of-the-art fiber-rich network and supported by 100% U.S.-based customer service. RCN's primary service areas include Boston, Chicago, Lehigh Valley (PA), New York City, Philadelphia (Delaware County) and Washington, DC.

###

MEDIA CONTACT

Jackie Fraser

Matter Communications

rcn@matternow.com

978.358.5840
KENT, Ohio (AP)  The Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed college students during a war protest at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. Four students were killed, and nine others were injured. Not all of those hurt or killed were involved in the demonstration, which opposed the U.S. bombing of neutral Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

The confrontation, sometimes referred to as the May 4 massacre, was a defining moment for a nation sharply divided over the protracted war, in which more than 58,000 Americans died. It sparked a strike of 4 million students across the U.S., temporarily closing some 900 colleges and universities. The events also played a pivotal role, historians argue, in turning public opinion against the conflicts in Southeast Asia.

In the hours immediately after the shootings, reporters at the chaotic scene struggled to determine who had fired the shots and why. Among the theories was that Guard members shot after spotting a sniper, a theory later proved untrue.

Kent States campus, about 30 miles southeast of downtown Cleveland, will be still on the 50th anniversary Monday. An elaborate multi-day commemoration was canceled because of social distancing restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Some events, activities and resources are being made available online.

Fifty years after the events, the AP is making some of its photos and a version of its text coverage from the time available.

____

An official of the Ohio Highway Patrol today disputed reports from the Ohio National Guard that a sniper was spotted by police helicopter before Guardsmen shot four Kent State University students to death Monday during an antiwar demonstration.

The university, ordered evacuated after the shooting, was virtually deserted this morning and under heavy police and military guard.

Earlier, fire destroyed a barn and several farm tractors in one corner of the campus, and fire officials said they believed the blaze was deliberately set.

Sgt. Michael Delaney of the guard public relations staff said after the shootings that, At the approximate time of the firing on the campus, the Ohio Highway Patrol-via a helicopter-spotted a sniper on a nearby building.

Face mask rage? Man wipes nose and face on store clerk who asked he wear one

Today, a patrol official, Maj. D. E. Manly, said, There is nothing on the log on the sighting. Manly said if patrolmen in the helicopter circling the campus had seen a gunman it would have been recorded.

Guard officials claimed Monday and again today that the Guardsmen were returning the fire of a small caliber weapon in defense of their lives. A student crowd had surrounded some 30 Guardsmen and were throwing rocks and chunks of concrete at them.

The Justice Department and officials of the National Guard launched separate investigations of the gunfire outburst which took the lives of two girls and two young men.

The dead were:

Miss Allison Krause, 19, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Miss Sandy Lee Scheuer, 20, Youngstown, Ohio; Jeffrey G. Miller, 20, Plainview, N.Y., and William K. Schroeder, 19, Lorain, Ohio.

Portage County Coroner Dr. Robert Sybert said all four had been shot from the side, left to right. All died of a single bullet wound, he said.

Miss Krause was hit in the left shoulder, Miss Scheurer in the neck, Schroeder in the left underside of the chest and Miller in the head.

Dr. Sybert said the final autopsy report wouldnt be completed for about a week.

Three students remained in critical condition today. One of them, Dean Kahler, of East Canton, Ohio, was paralyzed from the waist down, according to Paul Jacobs, administrator at Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna.

Eight other persons, including two guardsmen were hospitalized. One of the two guardsmen was treated for shock and the other had collapsed from exhaustion.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohios largest newspaper, called editorially for an immediate investigation and prompt steps to prevent a recurrence of the most tragic campus violence ever in the United States.

Many questions will have to be answered: Why were these people shot? Who shot first? How could these deaths have been avoided?

President Nixon deplored the campus deaths. In a White House statement, he said:

This should remind us all once again that when dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy. It is my hope that this tragic and unfortunate incident will strengthen the determination of all the nations campuses, administrators, faculty and students alike to stand firmly for the right which exists in this country of peaceful dissent and just as strongly against the resort to violence as a means of such expression.

The campus and the City of Kent were sealed off following the shootings.

School officials ordered the faculty, staff and 19,000 students to leave. Classes were suspended indefinitely by University President Robert I. White.

Police probe killing of store security guard over coronavirus face mask

Later, Portage County Prosecutor Ronald Kane, armed with a court injunction, officially closed the university until further notice.

Patrols of guardsmen and state patrolmen roamed the campus and blocked all entrances Monday night.

Businesses in the City of Kent and the approaches to the city were cordoned by police and guardsmen.

Nixon said that he would order a Justice Department investigation if the state so requested and Gov. James A. Rhodes then asked for the FBI to carry out an inquiry.

The governor had ordered the Ohio National Guard to the campus Saturday night following a demonstration by some 1,000 students during which the Army ROTC building was destroyed by fire.

Jerry Stoklas, 20, a campus newspaper photographer, said he witnessed the shootings from a rooftop.

He said about 400 students were harassing the guardsmen and they turned and opened fire. I saw five people go down.

Other witnesses said the demonstrators were pelting the guardsmen with rocks and chunks of concrete.

Stoklas said the troops had backed away, but the demonstrators followed. He said the guardsmen had turned around several times, apparently trying to scare them.

Sgt. Michael Delaney of the guard public relations staff said 20 to 30 rounds of MI rifle ammunition were fired.

At the approximate time of the firing on the campus, he added. the Ohio Highway Patrol-via a helicopter-spotted a sniper on a nearby building.

Some students contended the sniper actually was one of several student photographers atop Taylor Hall.

Guard spokesmen said 900 to 1,000 persons had been involved in the demonstration at the universitys Commons and that guardsmen had exhausted their tear gas supply in dispersing the crowd.

The states National Guard commander, Adj. Gen. Sylvester T. Del Corso, said the troops began firing from semiautomatic rifles after a rooftop sniper had shot at them.

Gene Williams, a member of the student newspaper staff, said he saw the troops turn in unison, as if responding to a command, and fire into the crowd.

Brig. Gen. Robert H. Canterbury, who was in direct command of the guard contingent on the campus, said no order was given to shoot.

A military man always has the option to fire if he feels his life is in danger, he said. The crowd was moving in on the men on three sides.

The shooting lasted about two or three seconds. Officers at the scene immediately called for a cease-fire.

Canterbury said an investigation into the shooting would attempt to determine which guardsmen fired first, what others fired and actually hit students, and how many rounds of ammunition they expended.

The shooting climaxed student demonstration and disturbances on the campus and in the city that began Friday in the wake of President Nixons address to the nation Thursday night on sending U.S. troops into Cambodia.

About 500 students attended a peaceful demonstration on the campus at noon Friday but late that night about 500 persons, most of them students, went on a rampage downtown. Bonfires were set in the streets and several windows of stores and cars were broken.

About 1,000 students demonstrated on the campus Saturday night and some of them set fire to the ROTC building with railroad flares. That was when the National Guard, which had been on standby at Akron, was ordered to the city.

About 1,200 students staged a sit-in at a street intersection Sunday night in defiance of an emergency order from Rhodes banning any outdoor meetings in the city or on the campus. They were driven back to the campus by guardsmen with bayonets on their rifles.

Earlier Sunday night the guard used tear gas in breaking up a march on the campus by an estimated 1,500 students who were violating the governors emergency order.

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WAs Department of Justice is under fire and being asked how letters from a convicted paedophile could be sent from WAs maximum security jail to the family of one of his child victims.

Michael Cyril Hyde, dubbed the lollipop paedophile as he worked as a traffic warden at a western suburbs primary school for 14 years before his arrest, was convicted in 2019 and jailed for molesting three young girls, including a child aged just 22 months at the time.

Despite being slapped with a violence restraining order, Hyde has been sending letters to a teenage girl who still lives at the Perth address where many of his sickening crimes were committed.

He had befriended the girls family while working as a crosswalk attendant.
WASHINGTON - The Trump administration failed to prepare for the onslaught of the coronavirus, then sought a quick fix by trying to rush an unproven drug to patients, a senior government scientist alleged in a whistleblower complaint Tuesday.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 5/5/2020 (623 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FILE - This Tuesday, April 7, 2020 file photo shows a bottle of hydroxychloroquine tablets in Texas City, Texas. On Friday, April 24, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned doctors against prescribing the malaria drug to treat COVID-19 outside of hospitals or research settings. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration failed to prepare for the onslaught of the coronavirus, then sought a quick fix by trying to rush an unproven drug to patients, a senior government scientist alleged in a whistleblower complaint Tuesday.

Dr. Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, alleges he was reassigned to a lesser role because he resisted political pressure to allow widespread use of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug pushed by President Donald Trump. He said the Trump administration wanted to flood hot spots in New York and New Jersey with the drug.

I witnessed government leadership rushing blindly into a potentially dangerous situation by bringing in a non-FDA approved chloroquine from Pakistan and India, from facilities that had never been approved by the FDA, Bright said Tuesday on a call with reporters. Their eagerness to push blindly forward without sufficient data to put this drug into the hands of Americans was alarming to me and my fellow scientists.

Bright filed the complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, a government agency that investigates retaliation against federal employees who uncover problems. He wants his job back and a full investigation.

The Department of Health and Human Services issued a terse statement saying that Bright was transferred to the National Institutes of Health to work on coronavirus testing, a crucial assignment. We are deeply disappointed that he has not shown up to work on behalf of the American people and lead on this critical endeavour, HHS spokeswoman Caitlin Oakley said.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar speaks about protecting seniors, in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, April 30, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

According HHS, Bright has not reported to his new post. But his spokeswoman said that Bright is on sick leave, following his doctor's orders, and that HHS has provided him no details on his new role.

Bright's complaint comes as the Trump administration faces criticism over its response to the pandemic, including testing and supplies of ventilators, masks and other equipment to stem the spread. There have been nearly 1.2 million confirmed cases in the United States and more than 70,000 deaths.

Bright said his superiors repeatedly rejected his warnings that the virus would spread in the U.S., missing an early opportunity to stock up on protective masks for first responders. He said he acted with urgency to address the growing spread of COVID-19  the disease the virus causes  after the World Health Organization issued a warning in January.

Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., chair of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health, said she plans to hold a hearing into his complaint next week, and Brights lawyers said he would testify. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, appearing on MSNBC, called the complaint very damaging.

In his complaint, Bright said he encountered resistance from HHS leadership, including Secretary (Alex) Azar, who appeared intent on downplaying this catastrophic event.

During a Feb. 23 meeting, Azar, as well as Bright's boss, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Robert Kadlec, responded with surprise at (Brights) dire predictions and urgency, and asserted that the United States would be able to contain the virus and keep it out, the whistleblower complaint said.

In this image provided by Public Health Emergency, a department of Health and Human Services, Rick Bright is shown in his official photo from April 27, 2017, in Washington. Bright filed a complaint May 5, 2020, with the Office of Special Counsel, a government agency responsible for whistleblower complaints. Hes the former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Bright alleges he was removed from his job and reassigned to a lesser role because he resisted political pressure to allow widespread use of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug favored by President Donald Trump. (Health and Human Services via AP)

Bright said White House trade adviser Peter Navarro was a rare exception among administration officials, extremely concerned about the potential consequences of an outbreak. He described working with Navarro to break a bureaucratic logjam and set up military transport from Italy for swabs needed in the U.S.

Navarro was the author of several urgent memos within the White House. Bright said Navarro asked for his help, saying the trade adviser told him the memos were needed to save lives.

Navarros memos to top officials raised alarms even as Trump was publicly assuring Americans that the outbreak was under control.

Brights allegation that he was removed over his resistance to widespread use of the malaria drug was already public, but his whistleblower complaint added details from emails and internal communications while bringing to light his early attempts to acquire N95 respirator masks, which he said were ignored by superiors.

In late January, Bright said he was contacted by an official of a leading mask manufacturer about ramping up production. It was estimated that as many as 3.5 billion would be needed, while the national stockpile had about 300 million.

The complaint said that when Bright tried to press the issue about masks with superiors at HHS, he was ignored or rebuffed. HHS publicly represented not only that COVID-19 was not an imminent threat, but also that HHS already had all the masks it would need, the complaint said.

As the epidemic spread in the U.S. and engulfed the New York metropolitan area, Bright alleges that political appointees at HHS tried to promote hydroxychloroquine as a panacea. The officials also demanded that New York and New Jersey be flooded with these drugs, which were imported from factories in Pakistan and India that had not been inspected by the FDA, the complaint says.

Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned doctors against prescribing the drug except in hospitals and research studies. In an alert, regulators flagged reports of sometimes fatal heart side effects among coronavirus patients taking hydroxychloroquine or the related drug chloroquine.

Bright felt officials had refused to listen or take appropriate action to accurately inform the public and spoke to a reporter about the drug. He said he had to tell the public about the lack of science backing up its use, despite the drug being pushed by the president at press briefings.

As the death toll mounted exponentially each day, Dr. Bright concluded that he had a moral obligation to the American public, including those vulnerable as a result of illness from COVID-19, to protect it from drugs which he believed constituted a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety, the complaint says.

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.

On Jan. 20, according to the complaint, the WHO held an emergency call that was attended by many HHS officials, and WHO officials advised that the outbreak is a big problem.

Trump has accused the U.N. agency of mismanaging and covering up the spread of the virus after it emerged in China. He has also said he wants to cut the WHO's funding.

Brights agency works to guard against pandemics and emergent infectious diseases and is working to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus.

Top officials also pressured him to steer contracts to a client of a lobbyist, he reported.

"Time after time I was pressured to ignore or dismiss expert scientific recommendations and instead to award lucrative contracts based on political connections, Bright said in the call with reporters. In other words, I was pressured to let politics and cronyism drive decisions over the opinions of the best scientists we have in government.

Zachary Kurz, a spokesman for the agency where Bright filed his complaint, said the office couldnt comment or confirm the status of open investigations.
Hue, the director of a media company, has put most of her employees on unpaid leave, with most customers cutting advertising contracts.

After vacating a rented office in Ho Chi Minh City's Binh Thanh District, Hue and some of her remaining staff have been working from home, mainly looking for new customers and making post Covid-19 recovery plans.

Allowances for petrol, lunch and birthday gifts for employees have to be cut after going three months without any income."If the situation does not improve next month, I will terminate the labor contracts with the remaining employees and suspend the business to limit losses," she said.

To, owner of a transport company, has also been struggling because of the ban on interprovincial transport which only came to an end by the end of April. Nearly a month without revenue, the company has had to negotiate with the bus station for rent exemption for ticket kiosks and reduced wages linked to actual performance by drivers. "Without savings and profit from several years ago, we would have had no choice but to close," To said.

Suspension plans are on the agenda for tens of thousands of Vietnamese enterprises hit by the Covid-19 crisis. According to statistics from the Business Registration Management Agency, since early 2020, nearly 10,440 Vietnamese enterprises have been withdrawing each month from the market. In 16 of 17 sectors, the number of enterprises ceasing to do business increased over the same period last year. Most of the business suspension happened in real estate, accommodation, catering, tourism and transportation.

A bus station in Ho Chi Minh City before the social distancing campaign was launched on April 1, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran.

In 2015-2019 period, the number of enterprises registering to suspend business in the first four months of the year increased by about 20 percent on average year-on-year, but the rise this year was 33.6 percent, a new record, showing the direct impact of Covid-19.

"Businesses are tending to wait and hibernate to watch and review the progress of the disease before deciding to continue or shut down completely. This is shown by the sharp increase in the number of enterprises in short-term suspension," said a representative of the Business Registration Management Agency.

A report by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) shows that at the beginning of last month, nearly 85 percent of businesses noticed their consumption markets had narrowed and 60 percent complained about the lack of capital and cash flow. If the situation continued, only about 30 percent of Vietnamese enterprises will maintain operations for three months at the most, and 50 percent for six months, the report says.

"There is no saying when the pandemic will end, but it is certain that the consequences and impact on the economy will be lasting and irreparable. Accumulated challenges lie ahead," said Vu Tien Loc, VCCI chairman.

He suggested some relief measures including deferment of VAT, corporate income tax, personal income tax, social insurance and trade union fee payments. He also proposed that the government enacts policies to exempt and reduce taxes, social insurance, fees and other charges.

The representative of the Business Registration Management Department said the Covid-19 crisis was an opportunity for businesses to reassess their strengths and weaknesses and set new orientations and directions to suit market demands.

"Businesses can seize the opportunity to transition from being frozen to rapid growth when the pandemic is under control," he said.

The reported noted that despite the "complicated developments of Covid-19 in the first four months of the year, more than 37,000 new businesses were established in the country. During the same period, the number of businesses returning to operation increased 2 percent, while this figure was 52 percent last year.
Though exports to Hong Kong, a major destination for India's polished diamonds, have resumed, the industry is currently sitting on an inventory worth around $2.3 billion.

The diamond industry in Surat has heaved a sigh of relief with the resumption of exports, though in a small quantity.

Though exports to Hong Kong, a major destination for India's polished diamonds, have resumed, the industry is currently sitting on an inventory worth around $2.3 billion.

Initial exports are estimated to the tune of Rs 900 crore, which is minuscule when compared with the polished diamond inventory.

"The industry, especially in Surat, is in no position to resume production until the cost of production becomes viable.

"While exports have begun, it is nothing compared to the diamond inventory lying in the country, said Dinesh Navadia, regional chairman of Gems & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC).

After a meeting with the Customs authorities, the council was informed that the first 10 shipments were being exported from the Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB).

Surat to Mumbai trans-shipment was done via air cargo.

GJEPC is further coordinating with agencies to propose competitive charges to trans-ship the export parcels from Surat to Mumbai once or twice in a week based on the Hong Kong cargo flight connectivity to enable members to start exports. GJEPC is also coordinating with district authorities to permit interstate road transport, he said.

Around 60 export shipments have been processed by the SDB for their transfer to Mumbai, with the Surat collectorate granting interstate travel permission to 24 entities for the collection of inventory.

"Roughly over two months of inventory is lying with the industry.

"Since social distancing in the diamond industry is not possible while maintaining productivity since at least three-four workers simultaneously work on one stone, the resumption of normal production will take a few months.

"Besides, while Hong Kong may have opened up, there are concerns over the purchasing power of consumers and demand for diamond globally," said Kirti Shah, a diamantaire.

Diamond polishing units and traders who import rough diamonds are also facing payment challenges because of rupee depreciation.

"In January, the price of rough diamonds had risen by 15-20 per cent, but as the virus started spreading across the world, the price of polished diamonds fell 15-20 per cent, leaving traders and exporters in a lurch.

"First, it is now uncertain when will businesses resume and payments for the exports be made.

"Second, while the import price for rough diamonds may have fallen of late, the rupee has depreciated, leading to more payment being made in dollar terms," Shah said.

Meanwhile, among other steps for easing pricing pressure, diamantaires have reached out to grading laboratories like GIA, HRD, and IGI, requesting them to reduce fees for diamond grading certificates, Shah added.

Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters
Shelter-in-place orders and limits on public gatherings forced Apple to cancel the in-person portion of its Worldwide Developers Conference, but the show will go on -- and now we know when. The company confirmed this morning that this year's online-only WWDC will begin on June 22nd, and will be available for free to all developers interested in tuning in. (The usual asking price? $1,600, plus accommodations.)

WWDC20 will be our biggest yet, bringing together our global developer community of more than 23 million in an unprecedented way for a week in June to learn about the future of Apple platforms, said Phil Schiller, Apples SVP of Worldwide Marketing in a press release.

Apple has previously said it was committing to a "full program," complete with a keynote and breakout developer sessions, and noted today that it would also run a challenge for students to develop their own Swift Playgrounds scenes in exchange for WWDC swag. More importantly, WWDC 2020 will also provide our first real glimpse at Apple's latest major software updates for iPhones, iPads, Macs and Apple Watches. The iPhone in particular may see dramatic interface changes this year: Current rumors suggest a new homescreen design with support for movable home widgets, a list view for all installed apps and iPad-inspired multitasking.

WWDC has also historically served as a focal point for new hardware rumors -- after all, devices from the iPhone 3GS in 2009 to the redesigned Mac Pro last year made their first appearances at Apple's developer conference. Since the 2020 iPad Pro, the second-generation iPhone SE and the updated MacBook Pro have already been announced, though, it's possible this year's show will be completely hardware-free. (For now, the leading "pleasant surprise/curve ball" announcement would be confirmation of ARM-powered Macs in 2021.)

This shift to a purely digital event format means WWDC is one of a few major developer conferences not to be canceled outright over COVID-19 concerns. Facebook's F8 was originally slated to run on May 5th and 6th and San Jose, California, before the company's leadership officially scuttled it in late February. (CEO Mark Zuckerberg later said that Facebook would abstain from large events entirely through June 2021 at the earliest.) Google I/O, which would have taken place between May 12th and May 14th in the company's native Mountain View, was canceled in March. To date, Microsoft is the only other major industry player to successfully jettison its in-person plans and go online-only -- Build will also be freely available to fans and advocates when it begins on May 19th.
Rishi Kapoor death: Neetu Kapoor took to social media to thank her "guardian angels", the Ambani family, for their love and attention for the past two years when Rishi Kapoor was battling cancer. She thanked them and said that every member of the Ambani family including Mukesh Ambani, Nita Ambani, Akash, Shloka, Anant and Isha went over and beyond in every way possible to help them in such turbulent times.

"For us, as a family, the last two years have been a long journey. There were good days, there were a couple of bad days too... needless to say it was full of high emotion. But it's a journey we would not have been able to complete without the immeasurable love and support of the Ambani family," said Neetu Kapoor in her Instagram post.

Also read: Bollywood actor Rishi Kapoor passes away at 67 due to cancer; India mourns

She said that she and her family have gathered their thoughts over the past few days to express their gratitude to the Ambani family for the "countless ways in which they have seen us safely through this time."

Also read: Rishi Kapoor death: Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth mourn demise of legendary actor; check celebs Twitter reaction

Neetu Kapoor said that the Mukesh and Nita Ambani and their family made sure that Rishi Kapoor was medically attended to and also made frequent, personal visits to the hospital to "shower him with love and attention". She added that they also comforted them when they were scared.

"To Mukesh Bhai, Nita Bhabhi, Akash, Shloka, Anant and Isha - you have been our guardian angels on this long and trying experience - what we feel for you can not be measured. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your selfless, unending support and attention. We feel truly blessed to count you among our nearest and dearest," she said.

Rishi Kapoor, who charmed moviegoers with films such as Bobby, Amar Akbar Anthony, Chandni, Mulk, Kapoor & Sons, passed away on April 30 at the age of 67. He was battling cancer that was diagnosed in 2018. He was admitted to Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital on April 29 after he complained of uneasiness.

Also read: Rishi Kapoor death: 'Powerhouse of talent, anguished by his demise,' says PM Modi

Also read: Rishi Kapoor death: 'Life is fragile, uncertain,' say Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Anand Mahindra
CHICAGO, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- 8 Ways to Lead with Heart During Times of Uncertainty and Change is the latest eBook to be released by The Grossman Group, an award-winning Chicago-based leadership and communications consultancy that focuses on organizational consulting, strategic leadership development and internal communications for its clients.

Released this month, the eBook is complete with the "Great Eight" strategies for communicators and leaders to connect with employees, customers and stakeholders in this unprecedented time.

The Grossman Group

"In the midst all the upheaval resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, it's natural for leaders to feel powerless and anxious. Many are wondering how their business will survive, what the new normal will look like, and just what the pandemic will mean for their personal and professional lives," says David Grossman, founder and CEO of The Grossman Group. "But there are in fact concrete things leaders can do to navigate the uncertainty, actions they can all take to lead and communicate with heart  and guts. That's what this eBook provides, clear direction for how to be the very best leader and communicator you can be during this critical moment."

Inspired by a recent series of popular webinars on this topic, The Grossman Group developed the eBook to provide leaders an additional valuable resource, featuring the "Great Eight" ways to communicate in a courageous and thoughtful way. They include:

Lead Yourself First Know Your Audience and Their Needs Show Your Human Side Communicate Regularly Frame the Context and Make It Relevant Talk Openly About What's Happening Be Respectfully Authentic Be Ready to Answer Questions

The eBook also includes best practices from inside a variety of companies, where new communication strategies are already helping leadership address the many new and critical needs of employees and customers today. As these leaders share, challenging times call for new methods, flexibility and an extraordinary commitment to treating employee teams with patience, flexibility and heart.

Readers can download the 8 Ways to Lead with Heart During Times of Uncertainty and Change ebook here: https://www.yourthoughtpartner.com/8-ways-to-lead-with-heart-ebook

About The Grossman Group

The Grossman Group is an award-winning Chicago-based communications consultancy focusing on organizational consulting, strategic leadership development and internal communication. A certified diversity supplier, The Grossman Group works closely with Fortune 500 companies and other organizations including Amazon, Astellas, Hillrom, Lockheed Martin, McDonald's, and Sage Therapeutics, among others.

About David Grossman

A leading consultant, speaker and author, David Grossman ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA, CSP is one of America's foremost authorities on communication and leadership inside organizations. He is Founder and CEO of The Grossman Group, an award-winning Chicago-based leadership and communications consultancy that focuses on organizational consulting, strategic leadership development and internal communications for Fortune 500 clients. A frequent media source, David provides expert commentary and analysis on employee and leadership issues. He's been featured on "NBC Nightly News," WSJ.com, Today.com, in the Chicago Tribune, LA Times, and CBS MoneyWatch, among others. His latest book "No Cape Needed: The Simplest, Smartest, Fastest Steps To Improve How You Communicate By Leaps and Bounds" recently won the Pinnacle Book Award for the "Best in Business" category and the Beverly Hills International Book Award's President's award.

Contact: Kayla Ellsworth

The Grossman Group

312.850.8211

[email protected]

SOURCE The Grossman Group
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  New Mexico voters are flooding their county clerks with requests to vote absentee as the state plunges into an unusual election season.

Through Monday afternoon, more than 91,000 voters had applied for absentee ballots, putting the state on track to blow past the 23,000 absentee votes in the primary election four years ago.

Its just off the charts, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, told the Journal on Monday.

Election officials throughout New Mexico are pushing absentee voting this year as a way to protect voters and poll workers amid the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed 156 people in the state and infected more than 4,000.

Tuesday, May 5, is the first day voters can cast ballots in the June 2 primary election. A limited number of in-person voting sites  such as the clerks annex at 1500 Lomas NW in Albuquerque  will open for voting.

County clerks on Tuesday will also begin mailing absentee ballots to people who have requested them.

Early voting at an expanded field of polling locations will start May 16.

Only Democrats, Libertarians and Republicans  New Mexicos major political parties  may cast votes in the primary election. Tuesday is also the last day for voters to change their party affiliation.

Bernalillo County Clerk Linda Stover, a Democrat, said voter response to the absentee campaign has been incredible. Her office is set to begin mailing out about 40,000 absentee ballots  after having processed that many applications  to voters Tuesday.

Just a little over 10,000 voters cast absentee ballots in the 2016 primary election.

The thing is, people have paid attention, Stover said, and theyre doing what is best for everyone.

The start of voting comes after Toulouse Oliver, Stover and dozens of other election officials asked the Supreme Court to shift the June 2 primary largely to a mail-in election.

The court rejected the petition, finding that state election law doesnt permit clerks to mail a ballot to every eligible voter. But the justices ordered election officials to mail each voter an application for an absentee ballot  a step permitted by law.

The Republican Party of New Mexico was among the opponents who argued against moving to an election by mail. The party said the application process for absentee voting ensures that the ballot will be sent to where the voter actually lives, not an outdated address.

Steve Pearce, chairman of the state Republican Party, said New Mexicos election system is working as intended, allowing voters to decide how to cast their ballots.

I think people can stay safe and vote in person or absentee  either one, Pearce said. Its working under a pretty extreme situation.

Marg Elliston, chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, said her organization helped launch an advertising campaign to encourage voters to vote absentee. The digital ads, she said, are getting incredibly high click-through rates  demonstrating voter interest in absentee balloting.

Many voters, Elliston said, seem to be trying it out for the first time. Absentee ballots have some advantages, she said, such as allowing voters to take their time filling them out at home.

We want people to be safe, she said.

Voters who show up at early voting or election day polling places can expect some changes.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, has closed nonessential businesses and banned public gatherings as part of a strategy to limit the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

Her administration issued an order last week to allow voting locations to operate, but with some restrictions.

Most polling places can operate at 20% of their occupancy limit, or with four voters in the room at any one time, whichever is greater.

Voters are to remain at least 6 feet apart, whether inside the polling location or waiting for their turn outside. The order also imposes requirements for disinfecting surfaces and hand-washing.

Some counties are also proposing to operate fewer polling places  a reflection of the expected difficulty recruiting poll workers and reduced demand for in-person voting.

In Bernalillo County, for example, Stover said she expects to operate 16 early voting sites  rather than the usual 20  and 61 Election Day locations, down from 71.

The primary election will determine the major-party nominees for the U.S. Senate and House, legislative seats and a variety of local offices.

Among the key federal races are the Republican nomination for an open Senate seat, the Democratic nomination for the open seat in the 3rd Congressional District, and the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic incumbent Xochitl Torres Small in the 2nd Congressional District.
Ukraine's Prime Minister Open source

Small and medium businesses might now prepare for the opening. The Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Shmygal said this on the air of one of the Ukrainian TV channels, UNN reports.

"Today, this is a message for the business that it may prepare for the opening," Shmygal said.

He explained that small businesses would be able to start operating on May 11.

"Starting From May 11, we envisage the easing of quarantine restrictions. It includes the opening of parks, squares, playgrounds, catering establishments, shops of non-food groups of companies. This will be implemented according to the relevant norms, parameters, protocols, prescribed by the Ministry of Health, the chief sanitary doctor, in order to ensure the safety of citizens ... easing of the lockdown leads to the start of small and medium-sized businesses. This decision was made in order for the business to be able to prepare by May 11  it is both the purchase of goods and disinfection," he stated.

As we reported earlier, Ukraines Cabinet of Ministers will launch a program of loans for small and medium-sized businesses under state guarantees.
Verizon requires any OEM that sells unlocked devices with support for its LTE 4G network to apply for certification. When OnePlus began selling the 8 and 8 Pro from its online store in the US on April 29  neither of these phones were officially supported on Verizons network. OnePlus initially issued a statement prior to the 8 and 8 Pros launch that it would not be compatible with Verizon until possibly June.

In a turn of events, effective immediately, US unlocked variants of the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro can be activated on Verizons LTE network. The news was brought by Verizon Corporate PR Manager, George Koroneos via Twitter.

To activate your new OnePlus 8 phone on an existing Verizon account, simply go to our BYOD website, login and then enter your IMEI and then follow the prompts. https://t.co/A8QkSElYR8  George Koroneos  (@GLKCreative) May 4, 2020

Koroneos recommends that Verizon customers go to the Verizon BYOD (Bring your own device) website, log in, and enter the devices IMEI number. Simply popping your SIM card into the phone is not recommended and doing so may limit the full activation of features on Verizons network.

Real Talk: Please don't swap your SIM when you get your new unlocked OnePlus 8 and call it a day. If you do that, you might not enable all the phone's features. Instead, follow all the steps above to ensure the best possible experience on @Verizon. pic.twitter.com/VoJ5J1gJGh  George Koroneos  (@GLKCreative) May 4, 2020

We should also remind you that neither unlocked version of the 8 or 8 Pro is compatible with Verizons mmWave 5G network. Only the OnePlus 8 (non-Pro) sold directly from Verizon will support 5G on the carrier.

Verizon was once a CDMA carrier, which meant it wasnt compatible with any GSM unlocked device that you could simply pop a SIM into. Verizon required devices to have CDMA hardware that would specifically support Verizon. Once 4G LTE became the standard and the carriers 3G-CDMA network was phased out, Verizon stuck with the notion of only allowing certain devices to work on its network.
By WestKyStar & MCHS Staff May. 04, 2020 | 09:26 AM | PADUCAH

GSE exposes young aspiring entrepreneurs to the mindset, culture, innovative thinking and skills necessary to start a company.





Hyde is a member of the Mustangs Marching Band. He is the son of Jarrod and Kim Hyde.





GSE brings students from across the state into a three-week residential program, immerses them in a creative space and equips them with the tools needed to unleash their innate entrepreneurial spirits for the betterment of Kentucky. During the program, teams of high school students develop a business model, design a prototype and pitch their startup to a large audience and a panel of judges. GSE teaches the opportunities, benefits and pitfalls of taking a business concept from the idea phase to pitching it to potential investors. Several GSE alums subsequently launched their own small businesses in Kentucky.





This will be the second year NKU has hosted GSE's summer program. The partnership targets the high school and college level to cultivate talented entrepreneurs across Kentucky. The success of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, housed in the Haile/US Bank College of Business, helped to lay the groundwork for this partnership. NKUs innovative, transdisciplinary academic experience complements GSE's entrepreneurial experience.





Through partnerships with collegiate partners, GSE provides more than $2.7 million in scholarship funding opportunities to Kentucky high school students each year. Since 2013, more than 350 student entrepreneurs have received scholarship funding through the program.

McCracken County High School student Ethan Hyde has been selected as an alternate to attend the Governor's School for Entrepreneurs. GSE is a college and career ready program giving Kentucky high school students a hands-on, experiential immersion into innovation and entrepreneurship in order to empower them to make a positive impact on their communities through innovation and to become business leaders of tomorrow.
Picture shows the delegation and the MP seatedA

05.05.2020 LISTEN

The chiefs and people of Dagbiribo-ari, a community in the Nalerigu/Gambaga constituency in the North East Region have rendered an unqualified apology to the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Hajia Alima Mahama for a purported rude behaviour exhibited against her by a section of the youth in the community.

Hajia Alima who is also the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development was reported to have visited the community on Wednesday, April 22 with some leadership of the party to interact with some delegates ahead of the partys primaries as well as donate some items to the residents to help in the fight against the COVID-19.

The reports alleged that the MP was hooted at and chased out of the community by some aggrieved members of the NPP for allegedly failing to fulfil her promises.

A development which prompted a group calling itself Patriotic Communicators Front of the North East Region to issue a statement refuting the reports and describing it as "as malicious and desperate attempt to create bad press for the hard-working MP".

To disassociate themselves from the said reports, a delegation led by chiefs including Mba Wudana, Mba Dinnobi Daana, Sulley and the assemblyman of the area on Monday, May 5, 2020, visited the MP at her residence in Nalerigu to apologize on behalf of the entire community.

According to the delegation, such incident never occurred in the community as been misreported in a section of the media, explaining that " after the minister left, the Deputy Regional Minister was still in town to visit some elders on the minister's behalf when some small boys by the roadside started making noise to convey their grievances to the Deputy Minister".

They called on the general public to disregard such report which was geared towards tarnishing the image of the community and the MP, adding that achievement of the Hajia Alima was unmeasured and that they would continue to be proud of her.

On her part, the MP accepted the apology and thanked the chiefs and people of Dagbiribo-ari for their thoughtfulness.

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She indicated that she had nothing against the people of Dagbiribo-ari since the people who were behind that agenda were minors who could easily be influenced by some faceless individuals to engage in such an act.

She urged the people of the community to remain calm and cooperate with her and the government as they work hard to provide them with the needed development.

"Dagbiriboari is one of the over 36 beneficiaries communities connected to be connected onto the national electricity grid within 3 years of my tenure as MP, it has also benefited from a CHPs compound, so though there are still challenges I am working hard to resolve them so I need your support " Hajia Alima noted .
A Melbourne meat-processing facility at the epicentre of a growing cluster of coronavirus cases in Victoria recorded its first case more than a month ago.

There are now 45 cases of the deadly respiratory infection linked to Cedar Meats in Brooklyn, west Melbourne.

Authorities initially suggested the first case was identified on April 24, but have now admitted an employee contracted the virus three weeks earlier, on April 2.

Health authorities did not consider his place of work an area for concern, because he 'had not been an work while infectious.'

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There have now been 45 cases of the deadly respiratory infection linked to Cedar Meats in Brooklyn, west Melbourne

Medics are now testing at drive-through clinics, including this one at Footscray, Melbourne

The second case linked to the abattoir was diagnosed on April 24 and it wasn't until April 29 that the department took additional actions, including testing all staff.

Prior to that, staff were not ordered to quarantine or get tested themselves, despite another employee testing positive.

Cedar Meats general manager Tony Kairouz said one of his 350 employees had been rushed to Sunshine Hospital for an unrelated issue - he had severed his thumb - and was identified as a coronavirus carrier on April 27.

Following a quick succession of newly diagnosed cases between April 24 and 27, health authorities took extra precautions at the facility, including widespread testing and eventually shutting the business down entirely for a deep clean.

Medics are still working to establish the source of infection.

Two weeks prior to the spike in cases, Cedar Meats fulfilled an order of mutton which was shipped to Wuhan, China.

Cedar Meats general manager Tony Kairouz said one of his 350 employees had been rushed to Sunshine Hospital for an unrelated issue - he had severed his thumb - and was identified as a coronavirus carrier on April 27

There are 6,849 known cases of coronavirus in Australia, including 97 deaths

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

On Tuesday, health authorities identified 17 new cases in Victoria. Of those, 11 were linked to the Cedar Meats cluster.

Nineteen cases were identified there on Monday.

The new cases announced on Tuesday brought the state's total so far to 1,423 although only 112 are active.

'The increase in cases illustrates once again that while we have been flattening the curve, our battle against COVID-19 is far from over,' Victoria's Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton said.

Premier Daniel Andrews is set to maintain all social distancing restrictions until May 11 based on expert advice.

The national cabinet will meet on Friday to discuss national guidelines to relax these measures.

To obtain more detailed information about whether Victoria should follow other states and lift some of these restrictions, the government is aiming to achieve 100,000 tests in two weeks.

The blitz has resulted in 55,000 people tested so far.

The Victorian Government has set up additional COVID-19 testing clinics across Melbourne in a bid to test up to 100,000 people in two weeks

A mother helps her daughter with protective face mask on George Street, Sydney amid the pandemic

Meanwhile, the state government continued distributing financial aid that has scuttled hopes of a 2020/21 budget surplus.

'Essentially, the state will be running deficit positions. I don't think there's much surprise about that,' Treasurer Tim Pallas said on Tuesday.

On a day when he was meant to deliver Victoria's now-delayed budget, Mr Pallas also revealed an extra $491 million in virus relief measures.

Businesses participating in the federal government's JobKeeper scheme will be exempt from payroll tax, at a cost of about $225 million to the state.

They also won't have to pay WorkCover premiums on payments to their employees if their staff are currently stood down, costing the state about $200 million.

Victoria's Public Accounts and Estimates Committee has begun a public inquiry into the Andrews government's response to the pandemic.
BAY PORT  Another well-loved festival will not be celebrated this year in Huron County because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The 2020 Bay Port Fish Sandwich Festival has been canceled following an emergency meeting Monday of the Bay Port Chamber of Commerce board.

Along with canceling of the Fish Sandwich Festival, the chamber also canceled the Wild Game Dinner.

The Bay Port Fish Company, which is the oldest, continuously operated business on the Great Lakes, wasnt able to start fishing like it usually does as soon as the ice melts because of restrictions related to COVID-19.

The Bay Port Fish Company at 1008 First St., has operated since 1895. It is owned by the Williams family.

Forrest Williams bought the business in 1977 from Henry Engelhard, and the third generation of the Williams family helps run the business.

It was the fish company helped create the annual fish festival.

In 1949, Henry Engelhard started selling fish sandwiches in front of his house to pay for his daughter's college education. The popularity of his sandwiches made with locally caught fish dipped in a secret batter grew so popular in 1978, Englehard's fish sandwich became the Bay Port Fish Sandwich Festival.

A sign along the driveway to the fish market proudly proclaims, The Bay Port Fish Company, where the fish caught the man.
Hanwha Life Vietnam has paid nearly VND532 billion ($23.13 million) of insurance benefits to thousands of customers since entering Vietnam in 2009

The customer purchased two policies from Hanwha Life Vietnam in 2015, including An Khang Tai Loc and Tich Luy Linh Hoat. During the insured period, unfortunately, she suffered from a critical illness and passed away in February 2020. After receiving the benefit payment request, the company has immediately settled the claim, and also sent representatives to visit and help the customers family overcome the emotional distress and financial loss.

After receiving the payment, the beneficiary said that the benefit payment is a timely financial support helping the family to overcome the tough time and settle down for the future. At the same time, he highly appreciated the care and support from Hanwha Life Vietnam for the family.

With great appreciation and deep gratitude, we thank Hanwha Life Vietnam from the bottom of our heart for the support. The benefit expressed the companys strong commitments, kindness, and encouragement to our family during this hard time, said a family member.

Sharing about the historical claim settlement, Nguyen Nha Ngoc Tram Anh  the companys chief management officer  said, To share the loss and the difficulties of our customers, Hanwha Life Vietnam quickly settled the procedures for payment of insurance benefit that surpasses VND21 billion ($913,000). It showed the companys strong commitment to always stand by and protect customers from every risk and difficulties in their lives."

We believe that it would be a solid financial foundation helping the customer's family to settle down and continue to pursue their plans in the future, she added.

During its operation in Vietnam, the company has donated more than VND30 billion ($1.3 million) for community support such as handing over houses, schools, and health centres in many localities across the country.

With the mission of Bringing peace of mind and protecting customers and their families through life insurance products, Hanwha Life Vietnam has paid nearly VND532 billion ($23.13 million) of insurance benefits to thousands of customers since going into operation in 2009. Particularly in 2019, Hanwha Life Vietnam paid VND172 billion ($7.48 million) of insurance benefits to customers. The financial support helps customers and their families overcome adversity, settle down, and plan for their future.

Established in Vietnam since 2008, Hanwha Life Vietnam is one of the leading companies in corporate social responsibility activities. Last month, joining the Vietnamese government's efforts to prevent the COVID-19 disease, the company came up with a series of practical activities such as giving 8,000 medical protective suits to the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City departments of health, delivered 3,257 health insurance cards, donated 175 blood units, as well as donated hand sanitizers and masks, and more.

During its operation in Vietnam, the company has donated more than VND30 billion ($1.3 million) for community support such as handing over houses, schools, and health centres in many localities across the country.

Currently, Hanwha Life Vietnam has a nationwide customer service network with more than 150 service points, 44,000 financial advisors and more than 400 employees. In 2018, the company scaled up its charter capital to nearly VND4.9 trillion ($213 million) and became one of the financially strongest life insurance companies in Vietnam, helping bring top-quality services and attesting to long-term commitment to the Vietnamese people and society.
Detective Marrapodi: I noticed when we were at your house earlier, you've obviously got a number of computers ... tell me about your computing.

Mr Edwards: I just like computers.

He said he began liking computers around the age of 14 and used them mostly to play games and for Facebook.

Detective Marrapodi asked if he has any other social media accounts under different names.

"Going back, [my second wife] was getting paranoid about me having an affair with someone, I used to have a number of different Facebook accounts because I was playing the games on Facebook and if you've got different people playing you can donate different bits and pieces from the game to other people," he said.

He said some of his other Facebook names were Boogie Man 1, Boogie Man 2 and Boogie Man 3, but couldn't recall any others. He said he had multiple accounts so he could play Farmville.

He also said he had some website domains including one for Belmont Little Athletics, which he was once the president of.

He said he set up the club's website and helped time races.

Detectives have asked how many emails he had.

He has given a few different emails saying, "My wife used to get in there and search through my emails".
The left-leaning lobby group J street endorsed a letter today featuring 32 foreign policy professionals urging the Democratic National Committee to make Palestinian rights part of its 2020 platform.

Past party platforms have rightly stated a commitment to Israels security and included condemnations of threats and actions against our ally, in addition to embracing a two-state outcome, wrote the 32 signatories. Those platforms have, however, also been nearly silent on the rights of Palestinians, on Israeli actions that undermine those rights and the prospects for a two-state solution, and on the need for security for both peoples.

The letter goes on to note that President Donald Trumps peace plan greenlights the annexation of Israeli settlements in the West Bank as well as the entire Jordan Valley, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hopes to implement by July as part of a unity deal with his chief political rival, Benny Gantz.

Why it matters: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a significant point of contention in the battle over the 2016 Democratic platform between the centrist and progressive wings of the party. Pro-Israel delegates loyal to the nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, won out over delegates pledged to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who had sought to references Israels occupation of the West Bank and its settlements. As in prior years, the 2016 Democratic platform contained no reference to either.

Whats next: Former Vice President Joe Biden is the presumptive Democratic nominee but has reached a deal with Sanders to appoint some of his supporters as delegates, giving the Vermont senator more influence over the 2020 party platform. While J Street has endorsed Biden in the general election against Trump, the Democrat still boasts decades-long ties to the rival American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). It remains to be seen whether the J Street or AIPAC wing of the party will prevail in the inevitable fight over the 2020 platform.

Know more: Bryant Harris explains how J Streets endorsement of Biden last month laid the groundwork for a battle with AIPAC over Bidens ear.
SyncSings Newzik Raises $3M To Revolutionize Sheet Music

French company SyncSing has closed a $3.3 million USD private funding round.

The startup, known publically as Newzik, has been using its own funds for development over the past five years.

Newziks benefits include no paper waste and handling costs as more fluidity in sharing musical content made possible by Newziks new collaborative features. Its iOS app is already used by tens of thousands of musicians.

Newzik includes:

a cloud-based library: download or purchase scores and build a digital library;

professional working tools: an annotation palette, automatic or foot-switch page-turning and audio recording;

collaborative spaces: share annotations and scores in real-time based on the Google Docs model.

The Newzik application is available free of charge on the App Store. Premium access is available via a subscription.

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Send more money, commissioners tell legislators

Henderson County will receive $2,160,413 in funding to pay for expenses associated with the coronavirus public health emergency, state Rep. Jake Johnson told the Henderson County Board of Commissioners on Monday night.

Commissioners greeted the news with less than full-throated gratitude, saying legislators need to do more to help cities and counties facing a huge drop in sales tax, hotel tax and other revenue. None of the emergency aid can be used to replace the tax loss local governments have seen since the coronavirus-caused economic shutdown.

Johnson updated the Board of Commissioners on the Legislature's work to allocate $1.6 billion in federal coronavirus relief funding. The money includes funding for education, small business, broadband expansion and assisted living facilities.

"As you can see, we're putting an enormous focus on on-line learning," he said. "This is the first round. I fully anticipate the federal govenrment will issue another round of funding. And then we're going to be looking at municipalities" in the next round of relief, he said.

The Saluda Republican acknowledged that the state was unprepared for the wave of unemployment claims that resulted when the virus ground the economy to a halt in March.

"The system was built to handle 3,000 people a week," he said. "Within three weeks, we were trying to push a half million people through it."

"Raleigh's strategy for dealing with this is completely backward," Commissioner Grady Hawkins said. "Instead of leaving the small businsess, bread and butter, open, we closed them and left the big box stores open. If all of a sudden you've got 300,000 people unemployed, you didn't approach it the right way."

The allocation of $125 million for small business through the state's Golden Leaf Foundation is too little, Commissioner Michael Edney said.

"Next round, try to do more than a small percentage of it for the people that are putting it back in," he said. "If you were to vote to hold us harmless on sales tax, we would greatly appreciate it."

Later, Edney said legislators ought to focus their effort not just on distributing federal emergency aid but should appropriate state funds as well.

"So far they've not been willing to come out of pocket with any money that our local guys sent to Raleigh," he said.

Because it's neither a rural hospital or teaching hospital, Pardee will get only a small amount, Edney said, urging Johnson to do what he can to change.

McCall asked Johnson how legislators managed to meet under the coronavirus regulations.

"It has been very new," he said. "We are doing Zoom meetings." In the General Assembly, legislators had their temperature taken. Proxy voting was allowed. Voting was open for 40 minutes instead of 15 seconds. "We've had to make some adjustment but hopefully we get back to normal soon."

The General Assembly had granted the governor broad power to use executive orders to respond to emergencies, Johnson said, and Republican leaders doubt a repeal or revision of the law would survive Cooper's veto.

Cane Creek-Municipal Sewer District merger

County Attorney Russ Burrell reported on a public hearing on the merger of the Municipal Sewer District and county-owned Cane Creek Sewer District.

"It was the most successful public hearing I've ever been a part of," he said. County Engineer Marcus Jones made a 10-minute presentation about the merger before a state Environmental Management Commission hearing officer. "And we sat for 28 minutes as no one came in to comment" on the merger. "The hearing officer strongly supports the merger of these two entities. I have no reason to believe there's going to be any opposition."

Blue Ridge Community College

Commissioners heard about the upcoming bid process for $20.1 million for new classroom building and renovation of the Patton Building at Blue Ridge Community College and $1 million for a Police Officers Physical Abilities Test facility. Commissioners selected Vannoy Construction as the construction manager at risk in December. On Monday commissioners authorized a fee of $126,600 to Vannoy for pre-construction services.

Commissioner Bill Lampley asked about the time frame for receiving bids so commissioners can see the final cost.

"We will not bring you a project that does not conform with the conceptual budget which you've already approved," John Mitchell, director of Business and Community Development, responded.
(Nikkei Asian Review)  As Asia focuses its resources on containing the coronavirus outbreak and its economic impact, large infrastructure projects funded by China have come to a standstill across Southeast Asia.

Construction on a roughly 140-kilometer high-speed rail link between Jakarta and the Indonesian provincial capital Bandung recently came to a halt. The project, which is financed by a Chinese state-owned bank and has another Chinese state enterprise involved in construction, is now expected to be delayed from the planned 2021 opening.

With the worlds fourth-largest population of 270 million, Indonesia is Southeast Asias biggest economy. China considers the country a key link in its Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.

But Indonesia has strictly restricted foreigners from entering the country since March in an effort to contain the coronavirus, meaning Chinese laborers have been locked out of the construction site. We will have a discussion after the outbreak has been stabilized, said Luhut Pandjaitan, coordinating minister for maritime affairs and investment, on April 14.

Thailand has pushed back its deadline for negotiations over a high-speed railway planned to eventually stretch all the way to China. It now hopes for agreement on a roughly 250-kilometer section of the link from Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima in October instead of May.

The State Railway of Thailand had said in mid-April that China was not responding to its inquiries. The project has likely slipped down on Beijings priority list, since it is unlikely to be completed anytime soon.

In Myanmar, a power plant being built by a Chinese state-owned company and a Hong Kong company has run into delays, due partly to supply chain issues from the outbreak. A Chinese-built power plant in Cambodia will likely not come online in May as planned.

The Communist Party affirmed its commitment to the Belt and Road Initiative at an April meeting of its powerful Politburo. But with the delayed annual congress back on for May 22, China is focusing resources on lifting its own virus-hit economy. Southeast Asia is expected to be placed on the back burner for some time.

In the January-March quarter, Chinese companies signed $26.2 billion worth of new construction contracts in the 57 countries participating in the Belt and Road project, Chinas Commerce Ministry said. The figure was 14% lower than a year earlier. Major contractor China Communications Construction logged a 4% decrease by value for new contracts and construction revenue in January-March.

Chinas first priority is a recovery in its domestic economy, and the second is mending supply chains in cooperation with neighboring countries, Jin Canrong, a professor at Beijings Renmin University, told local media.

For now, China will have no choice but to reduce investments into infrastructure and other hardware overseas, said Koji Sako at the Mizuho Research Institute.

Given the lack of growth in Chinas current-account surplus, limiting investments also keeps cash from leaving the country, he said. The Belt and Road Initiative was launched in part as a way to cancel out some of Chinas surplus by taking the money back abroad.

Mainland media report that the coronavirus outbreak will have a limited impact on the Belt and Road project, given that the initiative still led to many new contracts in the January-March period. But construction could face further delays if host countries continue to limit the entry of foreigners. This in turn could hurt Southeast Asias growth and its appeal to foreign investors.

This story was originally published by Nikkei Asian Review

Contact editor Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com)
Shailene Woodley would like everyone to know that she is 'such a big Star Wars fan'.

The Big Little Lies star, 28, got in on the May the Fourth Star Wars Day festivities on Monday, when she video chatted with late night host Conan O'Brien as a remote guest for his #ConanAtHome show for TBS.

Shailene started off by passionately confirming her SW fandom, before sharing a sweet childhood anecdote as well as her ideal role in a new Star Wars film.

Nerd alert: Shailene Woodley let fans know that she is 'such a big Star Wars fan' when she video chatted with late night host Conan O'Brien on Monday for his #ConanAtHome show for TBS

'I as a child in kindergarten refused to go by my name,' the Fault In Our Stars actress reminisced. 'People had to call me Leia.'

She went on to explain how she then selected two boys in her class, a 'cute' one to play Han Solo, and another one to portray her brother Luke Skywalker.

Soon after, Conan prompted Shailene to talk about her recent (pre-quarantine) experience at Galaxy's Edge, the premiere Star Wars attraction at Disneyland.

'This is fully an unpaid advertisement,' Woodley gushed. 'You have to go to Disneyland to witness Galaxys Edge if you like Star Wars!'

'I as a child in kindergarten refused to go by my name,' the Fault In Our Stars actress reminisced. 'People had to call me Leia'

Shailene and the trooper: Soon after, Conan prompted Shailene to talk about her recent (pre-quarantine) experience at Galaxy's Edge, the premiere Star Wars attraction at Disneyland

O'Brien then shared some footage that was taken of the Golden Globe-nominated actress at the amusement park, where she was seen laughing with a storm trooper.

Finally, when asked what type of role the actress would go for if she had the chance to be in a new Star Wars film, Shailene's answer was far from expected.

'If the opportunity to be a lead in a Star Wars film came around, listen  I wouldnt say no,' the actress allowed.

'But I also think it would be very cool to be an extra!'

If it were up to her: When asked what type of role the actress would go for if she had the chance to be in a new Star Wars film, Shailene's answer was far from expected

'I also think it would be very cool to be an extra!' Woodley told an incredulous O'Brien

She explained that the chance to 'put on a storm trooper uniform' and do 'the same walk back and forth, just witnessing the magic' would be a special thing for her.

'Theres something so magical about movies like that,' Shailene mused, going on to explain that sometimes, as a principal actor, the magic of the movies can be diminished.

And while it might be a wait for the possibility of seeing Shailene in a Star Wars movie, fans can catch her in the new film Endings, Beginnings opposite Sebastian Stan released on VOD last week on Apple, Amazon, Fandango and more.

Interesting choice: She explained that the chance to 'put on a storm trooper uniform' and do 'the same walk back and forth, just witnessing the magic' would be a special thing for her

Diehard fan: Woodley posted a fun side-by-side with an AT-AT on the occasion of Star Wars Day to her Instagram
100 Hours 100 Stars: Zareen Khan Says She's Been Dreaming About Airports, Calls People With Time To Kill 'Lucky'
Former Gov. Chris Christie on Monday told CNN the country should reopen despite projections that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic could kill thousands of Americans.

Christie, a Republican and backer of President Trump, pointed to the "economic devastation" from widespread closures of businesses put in place to help slow the spread of the virus.

"Of course, everybody wants to save every life they can -- but the question is, towards what end, ultimately?" Christie said in an interview with CNN's Dana Bash for The Daily DC Podcast. "Are there ways that we can... thread the middle here to allow that there are going to be deaths, and there are going to be deaths no matter what?

The former New Jersey governors comments came as an internal federal report warned daily deaths from COVID-19 will reach about 3,000 on June 1. That figure marked a surge from the current 1,750, according to the New York Times.

"We sent our young men during World War Two over to Europe, out to the Pacific, knowing, knowing that many of them would not come home alive," Christie said in the interview with CNNs Bash.

I enjoyed the chance to discuss the COVID-19 crisis with @DanaBashCNN on the DailyDC podcast. I hope youll give it a listen! https://t.co/Zsny1hfpow  Governor Christie (@GovChristie) May 5, 2020

And we decided to make that sacrifice because what we were standing up for was the American way of life. In the very same way now, we have to stand up for the American way of life, the former governor said.

Christies successor in Trenton, Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy, ordered sweeping closures of businesses, schools and other venues in an effort to stave off the outbreak in New Jersey, which has been hard-hit by the virus.

Murphy on Monday on announced schools would stay closed for the rest of the year while parks have reopened.

New Jersey has at least 128,269 cases of the virus with 7,910 deaths attributed to the outbreak.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.
Simon Cowell and his girlfriend Lauren Siverman have hit back at claims that she accused him of having an affair with Mel B.

A source close to the couple rubbished reports that Lauren furiously claimed Simon was having an affair with Mel, which they both denied, and has insisted they are 'very happy' and continuing to isolate together in Los Angeles.

It comes just hours after Simon's Britain's Got Talent co-judge Amanda Holden's daughter Hollie also sparked confusion about whether the couple had split during an Instagram Live.

Not true! Simon Cowell, 60, and his girlfriend Lauren Siverman, 42, have hit back at claims that she accused him of having an affair with Mel B (pictured November 2019)

The source exclusively told MailOnline: 'Clearly this story is utterly ridiculous and completely pointless - because there was no affair.

'Simon and Lauren are very happy together as a couple. They have been in lockdown together in LA for more than six weeks now.'

It comes following reports that Lauren had furiously confronted Simon about his friendship with Mel in a series of angry messages.

Drama: A source close to the couple rubbished reports that Lauren furiously claimed Simon was having an affair with Mel, which they both denied (Mel and Simon pictured August 2016)

Simon and Mel had worked together on The X Factor in 2014, and America's Got Talent in 2016.

A source told The Sun: 'Simon obviously gets on well with Mel and all his female co-stars, but that's all there's ever been to it; absolutely no hint of romance.

'They were both pretty livid - and mortified - when Lauren accused them of a ridiculous affair which never, ever happened.

'Things have been resolved now, and everyone is on good speaking terms - but, for a while, it was obviously extremely awkward.'

MailOnline has contacted representatives for Mel B for comment.

The cat out of the bag? It comes after Amanda Holden's daughter Hollie (left) sparked confusion by claiming that Simon and Lauren had split during an Instagram Live

It comes after Amanda's daughter sparked confusion by claiming that Simon and Lauren had split during an Instagram Live.

Amanda, 49, had been reminiscing about the moment she played her charity single to Simon, before going onto mention Lauren, who had sent her pictures of the family cooking.

Speaking to her 1.4 million followers, Amanda said: 'I did play the album to Simon because Simon was very kind and he invited me to come and sing on Britain's Got Talent live shows, which I still will do whenever that is.

'But I thought I'll take it round and have a cup of tea and see what he thinks, I don't know why I did that  it was one of the most nerve-wracking things I have ever done in my whole of my life. It was like the opening night of a West End show.

'I was sat in his lounge; I had some lovely homemade biscuits from Geoff the chef. I don't think they have a chef in lockdown.

'In fact, lovely Lauren, Simon's girlfriend, sent me some lovely pictures of them cooking the other day. Simon's quite good at cooking, I think.'

'I thought they broke up?': Britain's Got Talent judge Amanda panicked and told Hollie 'Don't be stupid' after she claimed Simon and Lauren had parted ways (pictured November 2019)

Hollie said: 'I thought they broke up?'

Amanda replied: 'Simon and Lauren?' Before Hollie said: 'Yeah.'

In a panic Amanda replied: 'Don't be stupid.'

During the broadcast, Amanda then appeared to nudge her daughter in an attempt to silence her from revealing any more details  with Hollie flinching and letting out a noise indicating she was in pain.

The live took place at Amanda's home in her lounge and she wore matching floral silk pyjamas to Hollie.

Slip up: Amanda, who's also a mum to Alexa, 14, (right) tried to stop Hollie from revealing any more details about Simon and his family, who are currently isolating together in the States

Co-stars: Simon and Amanda are currently starring on Britain's Got Talent together, alongside judges David Walliams and Alesha Dixon  and Simon's son Eric is often on set

A spokesman for Simon told MailOnline: 'Simon and Lauren are very much still together and are in lockdown together in California.'

Simon has been isolating in the States along with longterm partner Lauren, their son Eric, six, and Adam, 14, who Lauren's a mum to from a previous relationship.

The family has been pictured together throughout lockdown  wearing protective masks and going on bike rides to keep fit.

X Factor boss Simon was last pictured on his own during a shopping trip on Sunday.

Simon and New Yorker Lauren started dating in 2013 but the pair still haven't commented on whether they plan to marry.

Heart presenter Amanda has been celebrating her charity single Somewhere Over The Rainbow topping the iTunes charts, with all proceeds going to the NHS.

The TV star told MailOnline she was excited to tell Simon about her achievement, saying: 'Simon doesn't know yet.

'As soon as LA wakes up I'm going to be straight on the phone to Lauren because Simon doesn't use a mobile phone.'

A spokesperson for Amanda declined to comment.
Global luxury sales could drop up to 35 percent by the end of 2020, according to a recent report by Bain & Company, a management consultant firm.

The popular luxury brands across the globe have turned their focus towards the manufacture of essential items to protect health professionals and those working to combat COVID-19. A slew of the world's luxury brands announced they would make sanitisers, medical overalls to surgical masks. Louis Vuitton's parent company LVMH declared it would convert its perfume factories to manufacture anti-viral solutions and also non-surgical face masks and hospital gowns. Gucci announced it would manufacture medical overalls for medical professionals, while Bvlgari transformed production towards handing out free-hand sanitisers for the Italian public services. So did Kering Group, the parent of French fashion houses such as Alexander McQueen, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, to produce 3 million surgical masks.

With luxury products taking the backseat in the global coronavirus crisis, sales are likely to drop to 35 percent by the end of 2020, according to a recent report by Bain & Company, a management consultant firm. According to various studies, the impact may be very subjective in regards of the country or the target population.

However, some in the luxury products sector believe the slowdown is just right for brands to reinvent themselves. They can now use this pause in the business to digitize their processes and enhance their systems and technology. This will allow them to develop operational efficiencies and provide personalised experiences to the consumers, said Smita Jain, Director, Master in Global Luxury Goods & Services Management, S P Jain School of Global Management in an interview with Firstpost.

Excerpts from the interview

The luxury sales sector, like many others, is looking at a steep drop in sales due to COVID-19. What lies ahead?

The novel Coronavirus has dramatically changed things overnight. The pandemic has presented a paradigm shift in consumer behaviour, be it on daily lifestyle or spending on luxurious goods. COVID-19 has slashed revenues in half for most brands, but the luxury industry still remains hopeful that Chinese consumers will return to their previous levels of consumption soon after the outbreak stabilises. The pandemic may bring a major change in the consumers' mindset and the value system that underpin their luxury buying decisions.

What is the cumulative economic impact of this segment on India's GDP?

According to a UN Report, Indias GDP growth for the current fiscal year is expected to slow down to 4.8 percent from 5 percent, a warning that the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to result in significant adverse economic impact globally. Last year in October, Statista-an online portal for statistics, had estimated Indias luxury goods segment to be worth $8 billion and forecast 6.6 percent CAGR growth during 2019-23. But, with the coronavirus outbreak, the future of Indian luxury market has once again become questionable.

What could be the hit on turnover/revenues and month-on-month growth

Brands will constantly need to adjust their quarterly and annual outlooks as the COVID-19 pandemic and the situation around it evolves. Most of the top luxury power houses be it LVMH, Richemont or Kering are expecting a decline in turnover by nearly 15 percent.

What will be the losses to the sector?

The coronavirus could be a black hole for the industry tha, for years has managed to remain hidden to any kind of external volatility, be it macro-economic or political. The luxury industry has forged through the global market but with a huge dependency on Mainland China for its supply chain. The worldwide scope of the outbreak is particularly bad for luxury, even though it is one of the most globalised industries on the planet. As per a recent study by Boston Consulting Group in association with Altagamma, it is predicted that COVID-19 can bring down global luxury sales between 30 billion euros to 40 billion euros. With the store closures and customers staying under lockdown, the luxury market has been severely hit. The industry will see the sectors value drop to 309 billion euros (around 335 billion) a 5-year low.

What would be the impact on employment at the grassroots level-daily wage earners, artisans hired by these brands

A number of large luxury companies have pivoted to address urgent public health needs. At the same time, with thousands of workers relying on the luxury goods industry to make a living, be it factory workers, store employees or artisans and craftsmen at a nation-wide and global level, the industry leaders are planning measures keeping in mind long-term strategies to ensure basic survival of their businesses. Artisans and daily wage earners will find it difficult to secure their finances due to the sudden pause in businesses. If we take Indian artisans, most of them represent the lower-class income segment who have relocated from their home towns to find a better income-earning opportunity. Due to the pandemic, they are out-of-work. However, large conglomerates are paying their employees or at least providing food and shelter. This situation may continue for a couple of months given that work-from-home option is impossible given their nature of jobs.

What would be the disruption in the supply chain due to restriction on the import of luxury goods

China may no longer be the priority territory for luxury brands to look towards for their supply chain. Currently, more than 70 percent of the global luxury products in the fast-moving luxury goods category (FMLG) such as small leather goods, cosmetics and hand bags are being produced in China. The supply chain side will see a slow transition with brands shifting their focus to new territories such as Vietnam, Taiwan and India. These markets have already been contributing, but only on a small scale in comparison to Mainland China. It may take a couple of years before we see a complete shift resulting in brands gearing up their production with full force with these new markets in place.

How long and deep you think would the impact of the virus outbreak continue for this sector?

The pandemic may continue till 2021, as stated by WHO in their research. However, for now, it is safe to say that businesses will define new set of terms to resume operations and find new possibilities to ensure they can make a smashing comeback by the next year. Most of the luxury business have their flagships and headquarters in the European region. For now it can be seen that flattening the curve message across all of the European Union is finally being taken seriously. By 2021, we expect luxury business to make a comeback. However, possibly their approach towards re-entering the market will be slowed down, buyers will be more careful and humble in their buying preferences. After the crisis is over, brands will be more reluctant to aggressively launch new collections six times a year. Instead they will adopt a minimalist approach and less-is-more will be the new mantra for the luxury sector.

Will this lead to consumers accepting their local products and designers more

Yes, given the current government restrictions on global import / export and worldwide travel restrictions, both brands and consumers would have to re-look their sale /purchase options in their home markets at least for the next quarter. This would create an even playing field for both local designers and home-grown brands. Most luxury consumers prefer to buy luxury products from international brands during their travels. The restrictions would mean that the consumers would now shift their purchase patterns completely. Their purchase decision towards a particular brand or designer in the local market would be based on the level of digital engagement that the brand can seamlessly engage them in. Storytelling, craftsmanship and complete transparency would be the primary methods of brand engagement in the digital space.

Will the luxe brands revamp their accessible price points reflecting the reduced spending power of many customers?

Yes. One of the key drivers for brands to revamp their strategies would be to explore new product categories at a cheaper price point or revitalise their brands to bring in new strategies or completely diversify. This would be a global trend due to the heightened omni channel approach that brands are already beginning to embrace. The global luxury consumer will see a new era, where luxury brands will explore market with dual strategies both at an accessible premium/entry level price point and where luxury will become more and more exclusive. The middle market consumer will drive sales for brands playing at the lower level while the niche luxury consumers will become more conscientious towards their purchases. Italian brands like Armani, Gucci and Prada that are known to be more commercial and unconventional in their approach would take the lead, catering to all level of customers. It would be interesting to see how traditional and classic French/Swiss brands (high fashion jewellery and watches) are going to re-invent themselves due to the global shift in perception of luxury post-the pandemic.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba has officially received from Ambassador of India to Ukraine Partha Satpathy a batch of the medication with hydroxychloroquine, which the Government of India transferred to Ukraine as humanitarian aid to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, the ceremony of handing over the party took place on Tuesday, May 5, in the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Further distribution of a batch of 30,000 tablets among Ukrainian medical facilities and control of their use will be carried out by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.

"This is a real gesture of friendship on the part of the Indian people and the government of India. This step further enhances the partnership between our countries and demonstrates that India and Ukraine are able to jointly confront global challenges," said Kuleba.

Ambassador Satpathy called India and Ukraine "two large democracies." According to him, both countries responded promptly and effectively to the start of the epidemic. He noted that this decision of the Government of India demonstrates a high level of Indian-Ukrainian partnership.

The parties emphasized that the interaction of Ukraine and India in the pharmaceutical industry demonstrates high growth dynamics.

In addition, a batch of typhoid, meningitis, cholera and malaria vaccines intended for the Ukrainian peacekeeping contingent in Congo also arrived in Ukraine as part of Indian humanitarian aid.

The Government of India has also granted a special permit for the commercial purchase of hydroxychloroquine for the needs of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.

The Foreign Ministry emphasized that this drug is currently being studied in the U.S. and EU countries for efficacy in the treatment of patients with COVID-19 coronavirus disease and the Indian government has limited the export of drugs with its contents: separate permits are provided for its purchase in a certain amount or on free donation to friendly countries as humanitarian aid.
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The U.S. will get some much-needed extra time to build its $60 million pavilion for the world's fair.



By JON GAMBRELL

Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  Dubai's Expo 2020 world's fair will be postponed to Oct. 1, 2021, over the new coronavirus pandemic, a Paris-based body behind the events said Monday.

The announcement by the Bureau International des Expositions came just hours after police in Kuwait dispersed what they described as a riot by stranded Egyptians unable to return home amid the coronavirus pandemic. The riot was the first reported sign of unrest from the region's vast population of foreign workers who have lost their jobs over the crisis.





. . .
The detention of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti under the Public Safety Act was on Tuesday extended by three months. In a brief order, district magistrate of Srinagar handed over the continuation of her custody at her residence, hours before her present term under the PSA was to expire, reported news agency PTI.

Along with People Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mufti, the detention of PDP leader Sartaj Madani and National Conference leader Ali Mohammad was also extended.

Reacting to this, former J&K CM Omar Abdullah tweeted, "Unbelievably cruel & retrograde decision to extend Mehbooba Muftis detention. Nothing she has done or said in any way justifies the way the Indian state has treated her and the others detained. For a government that is making tall claims about normality in J&K the last few days coupled with the extension of Ms Muftis detention is proof enough that Modi ji has single-handedly pushed J&K back decades."

She was initially detained on August 5, 2019, when the Centre abrogated special status of the erstwhile state and bifurcated it into two union territories -- Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir.

Having spent over eight months in detention at two government facilities that were designated as sub-jails, Mufti was shifted to her home on April 7 as a partial relief to her. Mufti heads the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which was in power in Jammu and Kashmir in alliance with the BJP till June 2018.

Initially, she was taken into preventive custody. Later on February 5, 2020, she was slapped with the PSA along with Omar Abdullah, who was released in March. Farooq Abdullah had been released in April. Earlier, Mufti was lodged in a government guesthouse in Chashma Shahi and a bungalow on Maulana Azad Road near Lal Chowk.

Daughter of Mehbooba, Iltija has 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.
A community leader died of the coronavirus a month after he and other residents marched towards a south-central Mexico hospital and threatened to set it on fire if treated COVID-19 patients.

Roman Iguanero was pronounced dead Monday, a day after he had tested positive for the deadly virus that has killed more than 252,000 across the globe.

Iguanero and other concerned leaders and habitants appeared on video recorded outside Axochiapan Hospital on March 30 and intimidated the hospital staff, promising to attack the facility in the event state officials permitted the medical center to accept sickened patients.

Roman Iguanero (second from the left) was part of a contingent of community leaders and residents in the state of Morelos that protested outside the Axochiapan Hospital on March 30 and threatened to set it on fire if state officials permitted the treatment of COVID-19 patients. Iguanero died Monday at the hospital after testing positive for the deadly bug

Morelos state health officials announced Monday the death of a local community activist who died of the coronavirus after he threatened to attack it and burn it down during a March 30 protest if any sickened patients were treated by the staff

'I think we are giving a lot of thought to the matter,' Iguanero then said. 'If the doctors have already said that they do not have the capacity to care for these people, we are being responsible to tell them that if they come here we will act. But to act, not just talk. Act!'

A female resident could be heard in the background shouting, 'we'll burn the darn hospital and there will be no hospital.'

Roman Iguanero, pictured front center, at the protests outside the hospital

Hector Baron, director of the Morelos Health Services, said in a press conference Monday that Iguanero showed up at the hospital Saturday and reported difficulties with breathing.

Morelos Health Services assistant director Mario Balbuena Basurto said Iguanero was immediately administered a test for COVID-19 and that results turned out to be positive Sunday.

The global pandemic has killed 2,271 people and sickened 24,905 others in Mexico, according to the Health Ministry stats released Tuesday.

Hugo Lopez, assistant director for the Health Prevention and Promotion department, said that death totals could reach 6,000 in the coming weeks despite recent studies that shows the coronavirus has reached its curve in Mexico.

'We have 2,271 people who have lost their lives. We are near the point of the epidemic curve. In the descent of the curve we can have another 2,000 or 3,000 and with it we can reach almost 6,000,' Lopez said Monday. 'The forecast considered a more intense epidemic wave in different cities and in the last week, not only by direct observation, but by mathematical projections. It is noted that some cities are already on the decline side.'
NEW YORK, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation (NYSE: MIC) today announced its first quarter 2020 operational and financial results. The first quarter results reflect the stable performance of its operating businesses through the first ten weeks of the quarter and a sharp decline in Atlantic Aviation and MIC Hawaii's performance in the last two weeks as a result of the implementation of travel, public gathering and other restrictions to combat the outbreak of COVID-19.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Atlantic Aviation and MIC Hawaii was partially offset by improved performance by International-Matex Tank Terminals ("IMTT"), excluding the impact of an approximately $39 million contract termination payment ("termination fee") received in the first quarter of 2019 ("the prior comparable period"). IMTT benefited from the recognition of $15 million in fees from customers for tank cleaning and higher utilization driven by increased demand for storage of petroleum and other liquids.

MIC's Chief Executive Officer, Christopher Frost, said: "I am very proud of our team's efforts and appreciate their commitment to ensuring that the essential services our businesses provide continue to be delivered safely and efficiently as we navigate the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. We remain focused on ensuring the health and safety of our employees and customers, while maintaining business continuity."

MIC reported net income from continuing operations of $11 million, down 83% compared with the first quarter of 2019. This decrease reflects the absence of the termination fee at IMTT, reduced sales activity at Atlantic Aviation and MIC Hawaii and increased general and administrative expenses primarily related to MIC's pursuit of strategic alternatives.

Adjusted EBITDA excluding non-cash items from continuing operations totaled $152 million for the quarter, down 25% versus the prior comparable period or 7% excluding the termination fee. The decrease reflects the reductions in contributions from each of Atlantic Aviation and MIC Hawaii and costs recorded in Corporate and Other related to MIC's pursuit of strategic alternatives, partially offset by the larger contribution from IMTT, excluding the 2019 termination fee.

MIC generated cash from operating activities of $99 million for the quarter, a decrease of 34% versus the prior comparable period. The decrease primarily reflects the reduction in EBITDA and declines in the amounts of products purchased and lower wholesale product prices, partially offset by declines in the amount of products sold and lower retail product prices.

The Company's Adjusted Free Cash Flow from continuing operations totaled $104 million, down 34% versus the prior comparable period or 13% excluding the termination fee. The decrease reflects the reduction in EBITDA, higher maintenance capital expenditures and cash interest.

Actions Related to COVID-19

In response to the impact of COVID-19 and the uncertainty around when travel and other restrictions may be eased, MIC's businesses have taken decisive steps to reduce operating expenses and maintain strong cash positions. These include furloughing a small number of employees and reducing scheduled work hours, eliminating certain non-payroll expenses, deferring maintenance capital expenditures unrelated to health and safety and reducing general and administrative expenses.

To preserve value and ensure the continued safe operation of its businesses through the pandemic, MIC has also sought to retain and increase its available cash where appropriate. In mid-March the Company announced that it had drawn $599 million on its holding company revolving credit facility and $275 million on the revolving credit facility at Atlantic Aviation. The drawn cash added to the Company's approximately $300 million of cash on hand.

MIC has since repaid and terminated the revolving credit facility at Atlantic Aviation (other than with respect to a $10 million commitment, currently undrawn, in place solely in support of outstanding letters of credit). The amendment of the revolving credit facility de-risks the Company's investment in Atlantic Aviation by eliminating any ongoing leverage-based maintenance covenant from the business' debt package. As a result, MIC currently has cash on hand of approximately $870 million.

In addition to drawing on credit facilities, on April 2, 2020, MIC announced that it was suspending its quarterly cash dividend as a means of retaining cash. The Company will retain approximately $260 million should the suspension remain in place through 2020. MIC notes that it has no immediate need for the additional liquidity and that these measures are prudent and strictly precautionary given the uncertainty surrounding the impact of COVID-19 on the Company's businesses and the absence of visibility into an easing of travel restrictions and economic recovery.

As an additional precaution, the MIC Board has established an Executive Committee ("the Committee") comprising the Chairman (or alternate), the Chief Executive Officer (or alternate) and one of the independent members of the board (or alternate) to exercise all powers and authority of the board when the board is not in session or in the event one or more of its members are incapacitated. Decisions of the Committee require the approval of a majority of its independent members, and a majority of the Committee's independent members may refer any matter to the full board for determination. The Committee does not have powers that, under Delaware corporate law, cannot be delegated including approving a sale of the Company. In addition, the Committee may not, among other things, reinstate or declare a dividend or amend or terminate the Company's Disposition Agreement with its Manager, Macquarie Infrastructure Management (USA), Inc.

First Quarter 2020 Segment Results and Outlook

"Atlantic Aviation performed well through the first ten weeks of the year consistent with the increases in general aviation flight activity reported by the Federal Aviation Administration although stay-at-home orders and other travel restrictions have reduced average daily flight activity substantially from mid-March. Similarly, travel restrictions and mandatory quarantines have all but eliminated visitors to Hawaii. The impact on Hawaii's hotels and restaurants has materially reduced demand for gas produced and distributed by Hawaii Gas.

"IMTT performed well with demand for storage of petroleum and liquid chemical products increasing materially during the quarter. Storage utilization is expected to increase to over 95% by mid-May from 86% at the end of 2019 with the incremental leases having an average duration of approximately one year," said Frost. "Nearly all leasable capacity is now under contract."

IMTT generated EBITDA excluding non-cash items of $77 million in the first quarter of 2020, down 26% versus the prior comparable period. Excluding the termination fee, EBITDA would have increased by 18%. The improved operating results reflect the recognition of tank cleaning fees from customers and higher average capacity utilization in the quarter of 85.4% compared with 82.5% in the first quarter of 2019.





IMTT believes that the increase in utilization will support storage rate improvement in the medium term and notes that certain customers have sought to renew contracts early to ensure continued access to storage. Partially offsetting these improvements are costs associated with COVID-19 preparedness and potential reductions in ancillary services such as throughput. Given the contracted nature of most of the revenue generated by IMTT, MIC expects these items to have a net positive impact on the financial performance of the business in 2020.





in the first quarter of 2020, down 26% versus the prior comparable period. Excluding the termination fee, EBITDA would have increased by 18%. The improved operating results reflect the recognition of tank cleaning fees from customers and higher average capacity utilization in the quarter of 85.4% compared with 82.5% in the first quarter of 2019. IMTT believes that the increase in utilization will support storage rate improvement in the medium term and notes that certain customers have sought to renew contracts early to ensure continued access to storage. Partially offsetting these improvements are costs associated with COVID-19 preparedness and potential reductions in ancillary services such as throughput. Given the contracted nature of most of the revenue generated by IMTT, MIC expects these items to have a net positive impact on the financial performance of the business in 2020. Atlantic Aviation generated EBITDA excluding non-cash items of $66 million in the first quarter of 2020, down 16% versus the prior comparable period. General aviation flight activity declined by approximately 80% at the end of March compared with the same period in 2019 and has remained at similarly reduced levels through April.



Although approximately 20% of Atlantic Aviation's gross profit is generated from base tenant hangar rental, most of the business' top line is correlated with the level of general aviation flight activity in the U.S. Given the uncertainty around the duration of travel and other restrictions and the rate at which they will be lifted, the status of commercial aviation and consumer travel preferences post-COVID-19, it is not possible to accurately forecast the financial performance of Atlantic Aviation in 2020 at this time. The Company notes that under any scenario the result is expected to be below the guidance (since withdrawn) it provided to the market in February.





in the first quarter of 2020, down 16% versus the prior comparable period. General aviation flight activity declined by approximately 80% at the end of March compared with the same period in 2019 and has remained at similarly reduced levels through April. Although approximately 20% of Atlantic Aviation's gross profit is generated from base tenant hangar rental, most of the business' top line is correlated with the level of general aviation flight activity in the U.S. Given the uncertainty around the duration of travel and other restrictions and the rate at which they will be lifted, the status of commercial aviation and consumer travel preferences post-COVID-19, it is not possible to accurately forecast the financial performance of Atlantic Aviation in 2020 at this time. The Company notes that under any scenario the result is expected to be below the guidance (since withdrawn) it provided to the market in February. MIC Hawaii generated EBITDA excluding non-cash items of $15 million in the first quarter of 2020, down 25% versus the prior comparable period. The decrease primarily reflects realized hedge losses as a result of a decline in propane prices and the impact of reduced consumption of gas by commercial customers such as hotels and restaurants in the second half of March. Travel and other restrictions have reduced average daily visitor arrivals to Hawaii by over 95%.





Commercial and industrial gas consumption (including by hotels and restaurants) is expected to remain low, while residential consumption is expected to remain largely intact for as long as travel and other restrictions remain in effect resulting in an aggregate decline in total gas sales of between 30% and 40%. Given the uncertainty around the duration of travel restrictions and the rate at which they will be lifted, the status of commercial aviation and consumer travel preferences post-COVID-19, it is not possible to accurately forecast the financial performance of MIC Hawaii in 2020 at this time. The Company notes that under any scenario the result is expected to be below the guidance (since withdrawn) it provided to the market in February.





in the first quarter of 2020, down 25% versus the prior comparable period. The decrease primarily reflects realized hedge losses as a result of a decline in propane prices and the impact of reduced consumption of gas by commercial customers such as hotels and restaurants in the second half of March. Travel and other restrictions have reduced average daily visitor arrivals to by over 95%. Commercial and industrial gas consumption (including by hotels and restaurants) is expected to remain low, while residential consumption is expected to remain largely intact for as long as travel and other restrictions remain in effect resulting in an aggregate decline in total gas sales of between 30% and 40%. Given the uncertainty around the duration of travel restrictions and the rate at which they will be lifted, the status of commercial aviation and consumer travel preferences post-COVID-19, it is not possible to accurately forecast the financial performance of MIC Hawaii in 2020 at this time. The Company notes that under any scenario the result is expected to be below the guidance (since withdrawn) it provided to the market in February. MIC's Corporate and Other segment includes primarily interest expense on holding company level debt, fees payable to the Company's external manager and public company expenses, offset in the prior comparable period by income from a relationship with a developer of renewable power generation opportunities. The relationship with the developer was concluded in July of 2019. The increase in general and administrative expenses the first quarter of 2020 reflects primarily costs incurred in connection with the Company's pursuit of strategic alternatives.

Balance Sheet Strength and Financial Flexibility

MIC's results from ongoing operations in the first quarter increased the Company's aggregate leverage to approximately 4.3x net debt/Adjusted EBITDA excluding non-cash items (trailing twelve-month basis) at March 31, 2020. Additional reductions in trailing twelve-month EBITDA related to the expected decrease in contributions from Atlantic Aviation and MIC Hawaii, along with MIC's use of cash to fund growth investments, is likely to result in a further increase in leverage during the year. MIC continues to forecast deployment of growth capital of between $200 and $225 million across its portfolio in 2020 to projects which it has previously committed.

"We believe that the continued funding of growth projects is prudent from the standpoint of meeting our contractual obligations to our customers and ensures that we will benefit from the incremental earnings they are expected to generate," noted Frost. "The Company's current cash balance and the additional funds we expect to retain from the suspension of our dividend, combined with the cash generated by our ongoing operations, is anticipated to fund operations and meet our financial obligations over the course of the year."

Strategic Alternatives

On October 31, 2019, MIC announced its intention to pursue strategic alternatives for the Company and has since been actively engaged in processes that could result in the sale of the Company or one or more of its operating businesses. MIC continues to believe that this course of action will ultimately maximize value for shareholders and it intends to move forward with these alternatives, although recent volatility in the capital markets and the limitations of travel bans and other restrictions on interactions imposed by COVID-19 are expected to slow the process. The measures undertaken to date, including the suspension of the quarterly dividend, will provide MIC with additional financial flexibility to proceed with such processes in a manner consistent with maximizing value for shareholders.

"We remain confident that there is a significant opportunity to unlock value for our shareholders through a sale of the Company or one or more of our businesses and we are continuing to pursue all opportunities that we believe could be in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders," said Frost.

Summary Financial Information





Quarter Ended

March 31,

Change

Favorable/

(Unfavorable)



2020

2019

$

%

($ In Millions, Except Share and Per Share Data) (Unaudited) GAAP Metrics















Continuing Operations















Net income

$ 11



$ 64



(53)



(83)

Net income per share attributable to MIC

0.13



0.75



(0.62)



(83)

Cash provided by operating activities

99



151



(52)



(34)

Discontinued Operations















Net income

$ 



$ 5



(5)



(100)

Net income per share attributable to MIC





0.07



(0.07)



(100)

Cash used in operating activities





(13)



13



100

Weighted average number of shares outstanding: basic

86,686,972



85,872,132



814,840



1

MIC Non-GAAP Metrics















EBITDA excluding non-cash items - continuing operations

$ 141



$ 202



(61)



(30)

Investment and acquisition/disposition costs

11



1



10



NM

Adjusted EBITDA excluding non - cash itemscontinuing operations

$ 152



$ 203



(51)



(25)

Cash interest

$ (29)



$ (28)



(1)



(4)

Cash taxes

(7)



(7)









Maintenance capital expenditures

(12)



(10)



(2)



(20)

Adjusted Free Cash Flow - continuing operations

$ 104



$ 158



(54)



(34)

EBITDA excluding non-cash items - discontinued operations

$ 



$ 10



(10)



(100)

Cash interest





(3)



3



100

Free Cash Flow - discontinued operations

$ 



$ 7



(7)



(100)

Adjusted Free Cash Flow - consolidated

$ 104



$ 165



(61)



(37)







NM  Not meaningful

Conference Call and Webcast

When: MIC has scheduled a conference call for 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, May 5, 2020 during which management will review and comment on the first quarter 2020 results.

How: To listen to the conference call dial +1(650) 521-5252 or +1(877) 852-2928 at least ten minutes prior to the scheduled start time. A webcast of the call will be accessible via the Company's website at www.macquarie.com/mic. Allow extra time prior to the call to visit the site and download the software needed to listen to the webcast.

Slides: MIC will prepare materials in support of its conference call. The materials will be available for downloading from the Company's website prior to the call.

Replay: For interested individuals unable to participate in the live conference call, a replay will be available after 2:00 p.m. on May 5, 2020 through midnight on May 12, 2020, at +1(404) 537-3406 or +1(855) 859-2056, Passcode: 4997454. An online archive of the webcast will be available on the Company's website for one year following the call.

About MIC

MIC owns and operates a diversified group of businesses providing basic services to customers in the United States. Its businesses consist of a bulk liquid terminals business, International-Matex Tank Terminals; an airport services business, Atlantic Aviation; and entities comprising an energy services, production and distribution segment, MIC Hawaii. For additional information, please visit the MIC website at www.macquarie.com/mic.

Use of Non-GAAP Measures

Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) excluding non-cash items and Free Cash Flow

In addition to MIC's results under U.S. GAAP, the Company uses certain non-GAAP measures to assess the performance and prospects of its businesses. In particular, MIC uses EBITDA excluding non-cash items and Free Cash Flow.

MIC measures EBITDA excluding non-cash items as a reflection of its businesses' ability to effectively manage the volume of products sold or services provided, the operating margin earned on those transactions and the management of operating expenses independent of the capitalization and tax attributes of those businesses. The Company believes investors use EBITDA excluding non-cash items primarily as a measure to assess the operating performance of its businesses and to make comparisons with the operating performance of other businesses whose depreciation and amortization expense may vary widely from MIC's, particularly where acquisitions and other non-operating factors are involved. MIC defines EBITDA excluding non-cash items as net income (loss) or earnings - the most comparable GAAP measure - before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and non-cash items including impairments, unrealized derivative gains and losses, adjustments for other non-cash items and pension expense reflected in the statements of operations. EBITDA excluding non-cash items also excludes base management fees and performance fees, if any, whether paid in cash or stock.

The Company's businesses can be characterized as owners of high-value, long-lived assets capable of generating substantial Free Cash Flow. MIC defines Free Cash Flow as cash from operating activities - the most comparable GAAP measure - which reflects cash paid for interest, taxes and pension contributions, less maintenance capital expenditures, which includes principal repayments on capital lease obligations used to fund maintenance capital expenditures and excludes changes in working capital.

Management uses Free Cash Flow as a measure of its ability to provide investors with an attractive risk-adjusted return by sustaining and potentially increasing MIC's quarterly cash dividend and funding a portion of the Company's growth. GAAP metrics such as net income (loss) do not provide MIC management with the same level of visibility to into the performance and prospects of the business as a result of: (i) the capital intensive nature of MIC's businesses and the generation of non-cash depreciation and amortization; (ii) shares issued to the Company's external manager under the Management Services Agreement, (iii) the Company's ability to defer all or a portion of current federal income taxes; (iv) non-cash unrealized gains or losses on derivative instruments; (v) gains (losses) on disposal of assets, and (vi) pension expense. Pension expenses primarily consist of interest expense, expected return on plan assets and amortization of actuarial and performance gains and losses. Any cash contributions to pension plans are reflected as a reduction in Free Cash Flow and are not included in pension expense. Management believes that external consumers of its financial statements, including investors and research analysts, use Free Cash Flow both to assess the Company's performance and as an indicator of its success in generating an attractive risk-adjusted return.

In its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, the Company has disclosed Free Cash Flow on a consolidated basis and for each of its operating segments and MIC Corporate. Management believes that both EBITDA excluding non-cash items and Free Cash Flow support a more complete and accurate understanding of the financial and operating performance of its businesses than would otherwise be achieved using GAAP results alone.

Free Cash Flow does not take into consideration required payments on indebtedness and other fixed obligations or other cash items that are excluded from MIC's definition of Free Cash Flow. Management notes that Free Cash Flow may be calculated differently by other companies thereby limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure. Free Cash Flow should be used as a supplemental measure to help understand MIC's financial performance and not in lieu of its financial results reported under GAAP.

See the tables below for a reconciliation of Net Income (loss) to EBITDA excluding non-cash items from continuing operations and a reconciliation of cash provided by operating activities from continuing operations to Free Cash Flow from continuing operations.

Classification of Maintenance Capital Expenditures and Growth Capital Expenditures

MIC categorizes capital expenditures as either maintenance capital expenditures or growth capital expenditures. As neither maintenance capital expenditure nor growth capital expenditure is a GAAP term, the Company has adopted a framework to categorize specific capital expenditures. In broad terms, maintenance capital expenditures primarily maintain MIC's businesses at current levels of operations, capability, profitability or cash flow, while growth capital expenditures primarily provide new or enhanced levels of operations, capability, profitability or cash flow. Management considers a number of factors in determining whether a specific capital expenditure will be classified as maintenance or growth.

MIC does not bifurcate specific capital expenditures into growth and maintenance components. Each discrete capital expenditure is considered within the above framework and the entire capital expenditure is classified as either maintenance or growth.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. MIC may, in some cases, use words such as "project", "believe", "anticipate", "plan", "expect", "estimate", "intend", "should", "would", "could", "potentially", or "may" or other words that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements. Such statements include, among others, those concerning our expected financial performance and strategic and operational plans, statements regarding the anticipated specific and overall impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as all assumptions, expectations, predictions, intentions or beliefs about future events. Forward-looking statements in this release are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond MIC's control including, among other things: changes in general economic or business conditions; the short and long term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; its ability to service, comply with the terms of and refinance debt, successfully integrate and manage acquired businesses, retain or replace qualified employees, complete growth projects, deploy growth capital and manage growth, make and finance future acquisitions, and implement its strategy; the regulatory environment; demographic trends, the political environment, the economy, tourism, construction and transportation costs, air travel, environmental costs and risks; fuel and gas and other commodity costs; its ability to recover increases in costs from customers, cybersecurity risks, work interruptions or other labor stoppages; risks associated with acquisitions or dispositions, litigation risks; risks related to its shared services initiative and its ability to achieve cost savings; reliance on sole or limited source suppliers, risks or conflicts of interests involving its relationship with the Macquarie Group and changes in U.S. federal tax law.

MIC's actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities could differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements. Additional risks of which MIC is not currently aware could also cause its actual results to differ. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, you should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. The forward-looking events discussed in this release may not occur. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this release. MIC undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

MIC is not an authorized deposit-taking institution for the purposes of the Banking Act 1959 (Commonwealth of Australia). The obligations of MIC do not represent deposits or other liabilities of Macquarie Bank Limited ABN 46 008 583 542 (MBL). MBL does not guarantee or otherwise provide assurance in respect of the obligations of MIC.

MACQUARIE INFRASTRUCTURE CORPORATION CONSOLIDATED CONDENSED BALANCE SHEETS

($ in Millions, Except Share Data)



March 31,

2020

December 31,

2019

(Unaudited)



ASSETS





Current assets:





Cash and cash equivalents $ 1,156



$ 357

Restricted cash 1



1

Accounts receivable, net of allowance for doubtful accounts 71



97

Inventories 24



31

Prepaid expenses 14



13

Income tax receivable 12



11

Other current assets 16



19

Total current assets 1,294



529

Property, equipment, land and leasehold improvements, net 3,220



3,202

Operating lease assets, net 332



336

Investment in unconsolidated business 8



9

Goodwill 2,044



2,043

Intangible assets, net 717



729

Other noncurrent assets 11



13

Total assets $ 7,626



$ 6,861

LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY





Current liabilities:





Due to Manager-related party $ 2



$ 3

Accounts payable 34



67

Accrued expenses 83



86

Current portion of long-term debt 286



12

Operating lease liabilities - current 19



20

Fair value of derivative liabilities 13



7

Other current liabilities 26



35

Total current liabilities 463



230

Long-term debt, net of current portion 3,253



2,654

Deferred income taxes 679



679

Operating lease liabilities - noncurrent 318



320

Other noncurrent liabilities 169



167

Total liabilities 4,882



4,050

Commitments and contingencies 





Stockholders' equity (1):





Additional paid in capital 1,123



1,198

Accumulated other comprehensive loss (40)



(37)

Retained earnings 1,652



1,641

Total stockholders' equity 2,735



2,802

Noncontrolling interests 9



9

Total equity 2,744



2,811

Total liabilities and equity $ 7,626



$ 6,861













(1) The Company is authorized to issue the following classes of stock: (i) 500,000,000 shares of common stock, par value $0.001 per share. At March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, the Company had 86,814,466 shares and 86,600,302 shares of common stock issued and outstanding, respectively; (ii) 100,000,000 shares of preferred stock, par value $0.001 per share authorized. At March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, no preferred stocks were issued or outstanding; and (iii) 100 shares of special stock, par value $0.001 per share, issued and outstanding to its Manager as at March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019.

MACQUARIE INFRASTRUCTURE CORPORATION CONSOLIDATED CONDENSED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

(Unaudited)

($ in Millions, Except Share and Per Share Data)





Quarter Ended March 31,

2020

2019 Revenue





Service revenue $ 356



$ 418

Product revenue 60



64

Total revenue 416



482

Costs and expenses





Cost of services 145



168

Cost of product sales 42



40

Selling, general and administrative 96



80

Fees to Manager-related party 7



8

Depreciation 51



48

Amortization of intangibles 14



15

Total operating expenses 355



359

Operating income 61



123

Other income (expense)





Interest income 



3

Interest expense(1) (42)



(42)

Other income, net 1



4

Net income from continuing operations before income taxes 20



88

Provision for income taxes (9)



(24)

Net income from continuing operations 11



64

Discontinued Operations(2)





Net income from discontinued operations before income taxes 



3

Benefit for income taxes 



2

Net income from discontinued operations 



5

Net income 11



69

Net income from continuing operations 11



64

Net income from continuing operations attributable to MIC 11



64

Net income from discontinued operations 



5

Less: net loss attributable to noncontrolling interests 



(1)

Net income from discontinued operations attributable to MIC 



6

Net income attributable to MIC $ 11



$ 70

Basic income per share from continuing operations attributable to MIC $ 0.13



$ 0.75

Basic income per share from discontinued operations attributable to MIC 



0.07

Basic income per share attributable to MIC $ 0.13



$ 0.82

Weighted average number of shares outstanding: basic 86,686,972



85,872,132

Diluted income per share from continuing operations attributable to MIC $ 0.13



$ 0.73

Diluted income per share from discontinued operations attributable to MIC 



0.06

Diluted income per share attributable to MIC $ 0.13



$ 0.79

Weighted average number of shares outstanding: diluted 86,718,067



93,913,267

Cash dividends declared per share $ 



$ 1.00















(1) Interest expense includes losses on derivative instruments of $9 million and $4 million for the quarters ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.



(2) See Note 4, "Discontinued Operations and Dispositions", in our Notes to Consolidated Condensed Financial Statements in Part I of Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2020, for further discussions.

MACQUARIE INFRASTRUCTURE CORPORATION CONSOLIDATED CONDENSED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (Unaudited) ($ in Millions)



Quarter Ended March 31,

2020

2019 Operating activities





Net income from continuing operations $ 11



$ 64

Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities from continuing operations:





Depreciation and amortization of property and equipment 51



48

Amortization of intangible assets 14



15

Amortization of debt financing costs 2



3

Amortization of debt discount 1



1

Adjustments to derivative instruments 12



7

Fees to Manager - related party 7



8

Deferred taxes 2



17

Other non-cash expense, net 5



4

Changes in other assets and liabilities, net of acquisitions:





Accounts receivable 23



(11)

Inventories 7





Prepaid expenses and other current assets (2)



(5)

Accounts payable and accrued expenses (27)



(2)

Income taxes payable 4



7

Other, net (11)



(5)

Net cash provided by operating activities from continuing operations 99



151

Investing activities





Acquisitions of businesses and investments, net of cash, cash

equivalents and restricted cash acquired (13)





Purchases of property and equipment (71)



(44)

Loan to project developer 



(1)

Net cash used in investing activities from continuing operations (84)



(45)

Financing activities





Proceeds from long-term debt 874





Payment of long-term debt (3)



(3)

Dividends paid to common stockholders (87)



(86)

Debt financing costs paid 



(1)

Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities from continuing operations 784



(90)

Net change in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash from continuing operations 799



16



MACQUARIE INFRASTRUCTURE CORPORATION CONSOLIDATED CONDENSED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS  (continued) (Unaudited)

($ in Millions)



Quarter Ended March 31,

2020

2019 Cash flows (used in) provided by discontinued operations:





Net cash used in operating activities $ 



$ (13)

Net cash used in investing activities 



(8)

Net cash provided by financing activities 



23

Net cash provided by discontinued operations 



2

Net change in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash 799



18

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, beginning of period 358



629

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, end of period $ 1,157



$ 647

Supplemental disclosures of cash flow information from continuing operations:





Non-cash investing and financing activities:





Accrued purchases of property and equipment $ 25



$ 12

Issuance of shares to Manager 9



8

Leased assets obtained in exchange for new operating lease liabilities 5



1

Taxes paid, net 3



1

Interest paid, net 21



31



The following table provides a reconciliation of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash from both continuing and discontinued operations reported within the consolidated condensed balance sheets that is presented in the consolidated condensed statements of cash flows:

As of March 31,

2020

2019 Cash and cash equivalents $ 1,156



$ 603

Restricted cash - current 1



23

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash included in assets held for sale(1) 



21



Total of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash shown in the consolidated statement of cash flows $ 1,157



$ 647











(1) Represents cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash related to businesses classified as held for sale. See Note 4, "Discontinued Operations and Dispositions", in our Notes to Consolidated Condensed Financial Statements in Part I of Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2020, for further discussion.

MACQUARIE INFRASTRUCTURE CORPORATION CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS  MD&A



Quarter Ended

March 31,

Change Favorable/(Unfavorable)

2020

2019

$

%

($ In Millions, Except Share and Per Share Data) (Unaudited) Revenue













Service revenue $ 356



$ 418



(62)



(15)

Product revenue 60



64



(4)



(6)

Total revenue 416



482



(66)



(14)

Costs and expenses













Cost of services 145



168



23



14

Cost of product sales 42



40



(2)



(5)

Selling, general and administrative 96



80



(16)



(20)

Fees to Manager - related party 7



8



1



13

Depreciation 51



48



(3)



(6)

Amortization of intangibles 14



15



1



7

Total operating expenses 355



359



4



1

Operating income 61



123



(62)



(50)

Other income (expense)













Interest income 



3



(3)



(100)

Interest expense(1) (42)



(42)









Other income, net 1



4



(3)



(75)

Net income from continuing operations before income taxes 20



88



(68)



(77)

Provision for income taxes (9)



(24)



15



63

Net income from continuing operations

11





64



(53)



(83)

Discontinued Operations













Net income from discontinued operations before income taxes







3



(3)



(100)

Benefit for income taxes 



2



(2)



(100)

Net income from discontinued operations







5



(5)



(100)

Net income

11





69



(58)



(84)

Net income from continuing operations

11





64



(53)



(83)

Net income from continuing operations attributable to MIC

11





64



(53)



(83)

Net income from discontinued operations







5



(5)



(100)

Less: net loss attributable to noncontrolling interests 



(1)



(1)



(100)

Net income from discontinued operations attributable to MIC







6



(6)



(100)

Net income attributable to MIC $ 11



$ 70



(59)



(84)

Basic income per share from continuing operations attributable to MIC $ 0.13



$ 0.75



(0.62)



(83)

Basic income per share from discontinued operations attributable to MIC 



0.07



(0.07)



(100)

Basic income per share attributable to MIC $ 0.13



$ 0.82



(0.69)



(84)

Weighted average number of shares outstanding: basic 86,686,972



85,872,132



814,840



1











(1) Interest expense includes non-cash losses on derivative instruments of $9 million and $4 million for the quarters ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

MACQUARIE INFRASTRUCTURE CORPORATION RECONCILIATION OF CONSOLIDATED NET INCOME TO EBITDA EXCLUDING NON-CASH ITEMS AND A RECONCILIATION FROM CASH PROVIDED BY OPERATING ACTIVITIES TO FREE CASH FLOW



Quarter Ended

March 31,

Change

Favorable/(Unfavorable)

2020

2019

$

%

($ In Millions) (Unaudited) Net income from continuing operations $ 11



$ 64









Interest expense, net(1) 42



39









Provision for income taxes 9



24









Depreciation 51



48









Amortization of intangibles 14



15









Fees to Manager - related party 7



8









Other non-cash expense, net (2) 7



4









EBITDA excluding non-cash items - continuing operations $ 141



$ 202



(61)



(30)

EBITDA excluding non-cash items - continuing operations $ 141



$ 202









Interest expense, net(1) (42)



(39)









Non-cash interest expense, net(1) 13



11









Provision for current income taxes (7)



(7)









Changes in working capital (6)



(16)









Cash provided by operating activities - continuing operations 99



151









Changes in working capital 6



16









Maintenance capital expenditures (12)



(10)









Free cash flow - continuing operations 93



157



(64)



(41)

Free cash flow - discontinued operations 



7



(7)



(100)

Total Free Cash Flow $ 93



$ 164



(71)



(43)

















(1) Interest expense, net, includes adjustments to derivative instruments, non-cash amortization of deferred financing fees and non-cash amortization of debt discount related to the 2.00% Convertible Senior Notes due October 2023.



(2) Other non-cash expense, net, includes primarily pension expense of $2 million for the quarters ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, unrealized gains (losses) on commodity hedges, non-cash compensation expense incurred in relation to the incentive plans for senior management of our operating businesses and non-cash gains (losses) related to the disposal of assets. Pension expense consists primarily of interest cost, expected return on plan assets and amortization of actuarial and performance gains and losses. See "Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) excluding non-cash items and Free Cash Flow" above for further discussion.

MACQUARIE INFRASTRUCTURE CORPORATION RECONCILIATION OF SEGMENT NET INCOME (LOSS) TO EBITDA EXCLUDING NON-CASH ITEMS AND A RECONCILIATION FROM CASH PROVIDED BY (USED IN) OPERATING ACTIVITIES TO FREE CASH FLOW IMTT

Quarter Ended March 31,

Change Favorable/(Unfavorable)

2020

2019



$

$

$

%

($ In Millions) (Unaudited) Revenue 132



161



(29)



(18)

Cost of services 50



50









Selling, general and administrative expenses 9



8



(1)



(13)

Depreciation and amortization 34



33



(1)



(3)

Operating income 39



70



(31)



(44)

Interest expense, net(1) (15)



(13)



(2)



(15)

Other income, net 1







1



NM Provision for income taxes (7)



(16)



9



56

Net income 18



41



(23)



(56)

Reconciliation of net income to EBITDA excluding

non-cash items and a reconciliation of cash

provided by operating activities to Free Cash Flow:













Net income 18



41









Interest expense, net(1) 15



13









Provision for income taxes 7



16









Depreciation and amortization 34



33









Other non-cash expense, net(2) 3



1









EBITDA excluding non-cash items 77



104



(27)



(26)

EBITDA excluding non-cash items 77



104









Interest expense, net(1) (15)



(13)









Non-cash interest expense, net(1) 5



3









Provision for current income taxes (2)



(11)









Changes in working capital (17)



8









Cash provided by operating activities 48



91









Changes in working capital 17



(8)









Maintenance capital expenditures (6)



(6)









Free cash flow 59



77



(18)



(23)















NM  Not meaningful



(1) Interest expense, net, includes non-cash adjustments to derivative instruments and non-cash amortization of deferred financing fee.



(2) Other non-cash expense, net, includes primarily pension expense of $2 million for the quarters ended March 31, 2020 and 2019 and non-cash compensation expense incurred in relation to incentive plans. Pension expense consists primarily of interest cost, expected return on plan assets and amortization of actuarial and performance gains and losses. See "Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) excluding non-cash items and Free Cash Flow" above for further discussion.

Atlantic Aviation



Quarter Ended March 31,

Change

Favorable/(Unfavorable)

2020

2019



$

$

$

%

($ In Millions) (Unaudited) Revenue 224



258



(34)



(13)

Cost of services (exclusive of depreciation and

amortization shown separately below) 95



118



23



19

Gross margin 129



140



(11)



(8)

Selling, general and administrative expenses 64



61



(3)



(5)

Depreciation and amortization 27



26



(1)



(4)

Operating income 38



53



(15)



(28)

Interest expense, net(1) (19)



(19)









Provision for income taxes (5)



(9)



4



44

Net income 14



25



(11)



(44)

Reconciliation of net income to EBITDA excluding non-cash

items and a reconciliation of cash provided by operating

activities to Free Cash Flow:













Net income 14



25









Interest expense, net(1) 19



19









Provision for income taxes 5



9









Depreciation and amortization 27



26









Other non-cash expense, net(2) 1













EBITDA excluding non-cash items 66



79



(13)



(16)

EBITDA excluding non-cash items 66



79









Interest expense, net(1) (19)



(19)









Non-cash interest expense, net(1) 5



5









Provision for current income taxes (9)



(7)









Changes in working capital 16



(4)









Cash provided by operating activities 59



54









Changes in working capital (16)



4









Maintenance capital expenditures (3)



(2)









Free cash flow 40



56



(16)



(29)











(1) Interest expense, net, includes non-cash adjustments to derivative instruments and non-cash amortization of deferred financing fees.



(2) Other non-cash expense, net, includes primarily non-cash compensation expense incurred in relation to incentive plans and non-cash gains (losses) related to the disposal of assets. See "Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) excluding non-cash items and Free Cash

Flow" above for further discussion.

MIC Hawaii

Quarter Ended March 31,

Change

Favorable/(Unfavorable)

2020

2019



$

$

$

%

($ In Millions) (Unaudited) Revenue 60



64



(4)



(6)

Cost of product sales (exclusive of depreciation

and amortization shown separately below) 42



40



(2)



(5)

Gross margin 18



24



(6)



(25)

Selling, general and administrative expenses 6



6









Depreciation and amortization 4



4









Operating income 8



14



(6)



(43)

Interest expense, net(1) (3)



(3)









Provision for income taxes (2)



(3)



1



33

Net income 3



8



(5)



(63)

Reconciliation of net income to EBITDA

excluding non-cash items and a

reconciliation of cash provided by operating

activities to Free Cash Flow:













Net income 3



8









Interest expense, net(1) 3



3









Provision for income taxes 2



3









Depreciation and amortization 4



4









Other non-cash expense, net(2) 3



2









EBITDA excluding non-cash items 15



20



(5)



(25)

EBITDA excluding non-cash items 15



20









Interest expense, net(1) (3)



(3)









Non-cash interest expense, net(1) 1



1









Provision for current income taxes (2)



(3)









Changes in working capital (5)



(2)









Cash provided by operating activities 6



13









Changes in working capital 5



2









Maintenance capital expenditures (3)



(2)









Free cash flow 8



13



(5)



(38)















(1) Interest expense, net, includes non-cash adjustments to derivative instruments related to interest rate swaps and non-cash amortization of deferred financing fees.



(2) Other non-cash expense, net, includes primarily non-cash adjustments related to unrealized gains (losses) on commodity hedges, pension expense and non-cash compensation expense incurred in relation to incentive plans. Pension expense consists primarily of interest cost, expected return on plan assets and amortization of actuarial and performance gains and losses. See "Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) excluding non-cash items and Free Cash Flow" above for further discussion.

Corporate and Other Quarter Ended March 31,

Change Favorable/(Unfavorable)

2020

2019



$

$

$

%

($ In Millions) (Unaudited) Selling, general and administrative expenses 17



6



(11)



(183)

Fees to Manager - related party 7



8



1



13

Operating loss (24)



(14)



(10)



(71)

Interest expense, net(1) (5)



(4)



(1)



(25)

Other income, net 



4



(4)



(100)

Benefit for income taxes 5



4



1



25

Net loss (24)



(10)



(14)



(140)

Reconciliation of net loss to EBITDA excluding

non-cash items and a reconciliation of cash

used in operating activities to Free Cash Flow:













Net loss (24)



(10)









Interest expense, net(1) 5



4









Benefit for income taxes (5)



(4)









Fees to Manager - related party 7



8









Other non-cash expense, net 



1









EBITDA excluding non-cash items (17)



(1)



(16)



NM EBITDA excluding non-cash items (17)



(1)









Interest expense, net(1) (5)



(4)









Non-cash interest expense, net(1) 2



2









Benefit for current income taxes 6



14









Changes in working capital 



(18)









Cash used in operating activities (14)



(7)









Changes in working capital 



18









Free cash flow (14)



11



(25)



NM















NM  Not meaningful



(1) Interest expense, net, included non-cash amortization of deferred financing fees and non-cash amortization of debt discount related to the 2.00% Convertible Senior Notes.

MACQUARIE INFRASTRUCTURE CORPORATION RECONCILIATION OF NET INCOME (LOSS) TO EBITDA EXCLUDING NON-CASH ITEMS AND A RECONCILIATION FROM CASH PROVIDED BY (USED IN) OPERATING ACTIVITIES TO FREE CASH FLOW



For the Quarter Ended March 31, 2020

IMTT

Atlantic Aviation

MIC Hawaii

Corporate and Other

Total

Continuing

Operations

($ in Millions) (Unaudited) Net income (loss) 18



14



3



(24)



11

Interest expense, net(1) 15



19



3



5



42

Provision (benefit) for income taxes 7



5



2



(5)



9

Depreciation and amortization 34



27



4







65

Fees to Manager-related party 











7



7

Other non-cash expense, net(2) 3



1



3







7

EBITDA excluding non-cash items 77



66



15



(17)



141

EBITDA excluding non-cash items 77



66



15



(17)



141

Interest expense, net(1) (15)



(19)



(3)



(5)



(42)

Non-cash interest expense, net(1) 5



5



1



2



13

(Provision) benefit for current income taxes (2)



(9)



(2)



6



(7)

Changes in working capital (17)



16



(5)







(6)

Cash provided by (used in) operating activities 48



59



6



(14)



99

Changes in working capital 17



(16)



5







6

Maintenance capital expenditures (6)



(3)



(3)







(12)

Free Cash Flow 59



40



8



(14)



93





For the Quarter Ended March 31, 2019

IMTT

Atlantic

Aviation

MIC

Hawaii

Corporate and Other

Total

Continuing

Operations

Discontinued

Operations

Total

($ in Millions) (Unaudited) Net income (loss) 41



25



8



(10)



64



5



69

Interest expense, net(1) 13



19



3



4



39



5



44

Provision (benefit) for income taxes 16



9



3



(4)



24



(2)



22

Depreciation and amortization 33



26



4







63







63

Fees to Manager-related party 











8



8







8

Other non-cash expense, net(2) 1







2



1



4



2



6

EBITDA excluding non-cash items 104



79



20



(1)



202



10



212

EBITDA excluding non-cash items 104



79



20



(1)



202



10



212

Interest expense, net(1) (13)



(19)



(3)



(4)



(39)



(5)



(44)

Non-cash interest expense, net(1) 3



5



1



2



11



2



13

(Provision) benefit for current income taxes (11)



(7)



(3)



14



(7)







(7)

Changes in working capital 8



(4)



(2)



(18)



(16)



(20)



(36)

Cash provided by (used in) operating activities 91



54



13



(7)



151



(13)



138

Changes in working capital (8)



4



2



18



16



20



36

Maintenance capital expenditures (6)



(2)



(2)







(10)







(10)

Free Cash Flow 77



56



13



11



157



7



164











(1) Interest expense, net, includes adjustments to derivative instruments, non-cash amortization of deferred financing fees and non-cash amortization of debt discount related to the 2.00% Convertible Senior Notes.



(2) Other non-cash expense, net, includes primarily pension expense of $2 million for the quarters ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, unrealized gains (losses) on commodity hedge contracts, non-cash compensation expense incurred in relation to the incentive plans for senior management of our operating businesses and non-cash gains (losses) related to the disposal of assets. Pension expense consists primarily of interest cost, expected return on plan assets and amortization of actuarial and performance gains and losses. See "Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) excluding non-cash items and Free Cash Flow" above for further discussion.

SOURCE Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation

Related Links

http://www.macquarie.com


T hree family members have been charged with murder after a security guard was shot in the head for telling a daughter to wear a facemask in a shop.

Calvin James Munerlyn, 43, got into a verbal dispute with customer Sharmel Lashe Teague after her daughter did not comply with Covid-19 pandemic precautions at the Family Dollar Store in Flint, Michigan.

After Mr Munerlyn warned Teague's daughter to put a face covering on, the mother started shouting and spitting at him on May 1 at 1.40pm local time, officials said.

He told the cashier not to serve the family and they left the store only to come back with husband, Larry Edward Teague, 44 and her son Ramonyea Travon Bishop, 23.

Michigan is one of the hardest-hit states in the US by the pandemic and an executive order has been issued ordering all customers to wear face masks while shopping. As of Monday, 43,754 in the area have been infected with coronavirus and 4,049 have died.

Bishop is then alleged to have pulled a gun and shot Mr Munerlyn through the back of his head.

City of Flint police were called to the shop and found Mr Munerlyn on the floor, unconscious and bleeding.

He was transported to the Hurley Medical Centre where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

Sharmel Lashe Teague was arrested on suspicion of first degree premeditated murder and a firearm charge.

Larry Edward Teague, Sharmel Lashe Teague and Ramonyea Travon Bishop have been charged with murder

Her husband and son are still at large but charged with the same offences and additional charges including carrying a concealed weapon.

Office of Genesee Country Prosecutor, David Leyton, said the death of the security guard was "senseless and tragic" and those responsible will be held accountable to the "fullest extent" of the law.

"From all indications, Mr Munerlyn was simply doing his job in upholding the Governor's Executive Order related to the Covid-19 pandemic for the safety of store employees and customers," he said.

"It is important that the Governor's order be respected and adhered to and for someone to lose their life over it is beyond comprehension."

Calvin James Munerlyn was shot in the head while working as a security guard / Facebook

Sharmel Lashe Teague is in custody and awaiting arraignment in the 67th District Court. Larry Teague and Bishop are being sought by police and prosecutors warned that anyone assisting them may be charged with a crime.

Around 150 people attended a candlelight vigil for the security guard on Sunday night and a makeshift memorial was later seen outside the Family Dollar store.

Mr Munerlyns mother, Bernadett, said she wants justice for her son.

They didnt have to take my baby and it wasnt that serious, she said.

All you people just have to do is listen to the law, listen to the governor. Just stay home. If you dont have to come out, then you wouldnt need a mask unless youre out getting groceries or necessities. All my baby was doing was his job working and doing his job.

The news comes as gun-carrying protesters and other demonstrators rallied inside the state Capitol on Thursday, calling for coronavirus-related restrictions to be lifted. Some protesters with guns  which are allowed in the statehouse  went to the Senate gallery. Some senators wore bulletproof vests.

Prosecutor David Leyton said: The hostile tone that we have seen in recent days on television and in social media can permeate our society in ways we sometimes dont fully realise or anticipate.

Decisions like staying home when we can, wearing a mask when going to the store and staying a safe distance from those around us  these should not be political arguments. They dont necessitate acts of defiance, and we simply cannot devolve into an 'us versus them' mentality.
Moscow: The multi-millionaire daughter of Kazakhstan's former president has been stripped of powers that would have put her first in line for the leadership of the oil-rich central Asian nation.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the current president, gave no reason for Dariga Nazarbayeva's surprise dismissal as senate speaker, but the decision comes shortly after a high-profile London court battle that exposed details of her vast personal fortune.

Ousted: Dariga Nazarbayeva, daughter of the outgoing leader of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, in Astana, Kazakhstan. Credit:AP

Nazarbayeva was made senate speaker last year when her father Nursultan Nazarbayev stepped down after almost 30 years as president, handing over to his protege Tokayev.

The speaker automatically takes power if the president resigns or is incapacitated, leading to speculation that 56-year-old Nazarbayeva was positioning to succeed her father.
Robert Waldinger at his home in West Newton. Credit: Rose Lincoln/Harvard file photo

As the COVID-19 crisis has hammered America, its citizens have responded with the turtle defense. Encouraged by government stricture and rapidly evolving social norms, we've pulled heads, arms, and legs inside our shells, drawing away from potentially infected others, with the salutary side effectshould we be the sick onesof also being unable to infect them.

But as we pull away, rising loneliness appears to be among a host of mental health impacts that are inevitable side effects. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll from late March showed that 45 percent of those surveyed reported mental health effects from the crisis, with 19 percent reporting a "major" impact. While social distancing's physical isolation can enhance feelings of loneliness, experts also caution that isolation and loneliness are not the same thing. They also say, however, that there are things we can do to ease it, some of which may even help others.

"The experience of loneliness is 100 percent subjective," said Jeremy Nobel of the Center for Primary Care at Harvard Medical School and adjunct faculty in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he teaches a course on loneliness and public health. "Isolation is the objective state of being physically separate. Loneliness is the self-perceived gap between our social connectedness and that which we aspire to have."

While loneliness itself is not considered a mental illness, Nobel said it is a risk factor for depression, suicide, and addiction. He put its ill health effects on a par with smoking and obesity and said its physiological impacts include increased inflammationwhich has been implicated in negative health consequencesand decreased immune response, both potentially important during pandemic times.

Karestan Koenen, a Harvard Chan School psychiatric epidemiologist and expert in the mental health impacts of trauma, said the pandemic's loneliness-inducing effects may be particularly acute for those who lived alone even before the coronavirus hit.

"Loneliness is a big concern, especially for people already isolated," she said. "We know it's toxic to health, not just mental health but physical health."

Robert Waldinger, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital and head of the long-running Harvard Study of Adult Development, agreed that loneliness can impact health and warned that pre-existing conditions can further hamper one's ability to get out and connect with others.

"We find that that people who are more connected are healthier and healthier people are more connected," Waldinger said. "It's bi-directional."

Being alone and lonely can also result in a kind of emotional inertia, Waldinger said, which means it may take a force of will to reach out. It may help, Waldinger said, to first reach out to a friend you think may also be lonely.

"There's inertia if you're alone. You think, "People probably don't want to talk with me.'"

Waldinger said. "Research has shown that human connection is a big way we get through tough times. We don't do nearly as well isolated as we do together."

Losing a loved one is trying during normal times and may be particularly difficult now, Waldinger said. The normal comfort of family coming together to grieve and support each other may be postponed or foregone entirely due to social-distancing concerns. The impact of grief compounded by isolation may be particularly hard on surviving husbands, since studies have shown that women are better at maintaining social networks and husbands often rely on those maintained by their wives.

Nobel, who recently founded The UnLonely Project and has responded to the pandemic with a "Stuck at Home (together)" website to provide free, arts-based support for those struggling with involuntary isolation, said that the creative arts have been shown to have remarkable health effects. Nobel has blogged about how to write your way out of loneliness and conducted studies that showed that the creative arts can be healing in surprising ways. He said the effect may be because creating forces one to focus on the moment and encourages one to express thoughts and feelings in a healthy way. An important aspect of using the arts to heal, he said, is sharing one's creationwhether art, a poem, or a cooked meal.

"In the moment, you're not worried about your 200 emails," Nobel said. "Making art, even a doodle or an arranged bouquet of flowers, gives you an artifact you can share with another human being and that person can have some sense of you. It's reliably powerful, like closing an electric circuit, and both people are connected."

Unlike pandemics past, Nobel and Waldinger agreed that many of those social distancing at home have the benefit of technology to stay connected. Though physical presence can't be entirely replicatedhaving someone with you in a doctor's office, for example, is calming, Waldinger saidvideoconferencing platforms such as Zoom provide ways to stay in touch and approximate in-person connectedness.

"Connecting with others remotely is better than I thought it would be before the pandemic," Waldinger said. "My meditation group meets every Monday night, virtually, and it's good. We've had cocktails with friends, and it's not the same, but it's better than nothing."

This story is published courtesy of the Harvard Gazette, Harvard University's official newspaper. For additional university news, visit Harvard.edu.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is refusing to let Dr. Anthony Fauci testify in the House because the Democratic-run chamber is comprised of 'Trump-haters.'

He claimed Democrats 'don't want us to succeed' in the fight against the coronavirus, and acknowledged the reason was not the one previously stated by the White House  that they were too busy battling the outbreak.

Asked by DailyMail.com why he wouldn't let Dr. Fauci testify, Trump responded: 'Because the House is a set up. The House is a bunch of Trump-haters. They put every Trump-hater on the committee. The same old stuff,' he vented.

'They frankly want our situation to be unsuccessful, which means death. Which means death. And our situation's going to be very successful,' Trump said as he departed the White House on a trip to Arizona to tour a face mask factory.

'The House has put on a committee, an oversight committee with Maxine Waters and Maloney, and the same people. And it's just a set-up. But Dr. Fauci will be testifying in front of the Senate and he looks forward to doing that,' the president said, confirming a May 12 appearance before a GOP-run committee there.

He was referencing Democratic Reps. Maxine Waters and Carolyn Maloney, although the hearing where Fauci was invited to appear is chaired by Rep. Rosa DeLauro. Neither Waters nor Maloney sit on the committee, though both chair other powerful oversight panels  the Banking Committee and the Oversight Committee.

Donald Trump reasserted Tuesday that he will block Dr. Anthony Fauci from testifying before the House about coronavirus

Facui (right) is the federal government's top infectious disease expert and serves on the White House coronavirus task force, often appearing beside the president for briefings

Trump called out Reps. Maxine Waters and Carolyn Maloney, who each chair powerful panels but would not be there for Fauci's appearance

Fauci is the nation's top infectious disease expert and has been a fixture on airwaves. But a House Appropriations subcommittee wants to hear from him as it conducts oversight, with more coronavirus legislation coming in addition to the $3 trillion Congress has already enacted.

Any future legislation would require support in both the House and the Senate.

The White House said last week Fauci was being blocked due to his busy schedule.

'While the Trump Administration continues its whole-of-government response to COVID-19, including safely opening up America again and expediting vaccine development, it is counter-productive to have the very individuals involved in those efforts appearing at Congressional hearings,' White House spokesman Judd Deere told DailyMail.com on Friday.

'The Appropriations Committee sought Dr. Anthony Fauci as a witness at next week's Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee hearing on COVID-19 response. We have been informed by an administration official that the White House has blocked Dr. Fauci from testifying,' House Appropriations panel spokesman Evan Hollander said in a statement Friday.

Trump repeatedly attacked House Democrats when asked about Fauci, claiming they did not want him to 'succeed.'

'The House, they should be ashamed of themselves. Frankly the Democrats should be ashamed. Because they don't want us to succeed. They want us to fail so they can win an election, which they're not going to win,' Trump said.

'Think of it. They do everything they can to make things as bad as possible. And right now the stock market's way up. Everybody's excited. They're going back to work safely .. We're opening up our country again. The whole world is excited watching us, because we're leading the world,' Trump said. Then he turned his fire on China. 'What happened should never ever have happened. China should have informed us that they had a problem,' Trump said.

Trump has repeatedly clashed with Democrats since they took the majority in 2018 over providing administration witnesses, including during impeachment and probes of his finances and other matters.
A medical worker puts on personal protective equipment before entering a patient room inside a COVID-19 intensive care unit at Temple University Hospital's Boyer Pavilion in North Philadelphia on Tuesday, April 7, 2020. Health workers nationwide, strapped for protective equipment, have had to scramble for solutions going by unclear guidelines from officials. Read more

Recently, when Vice President Mike Pence visited the Mayo Clinic, despite hospital policy requiring masks for all people at all times, he declined to wear one. This action sent a mixed message that exemplifies the difficulty the public currently faces in navigating what protections are important and necessary during the COVID-19 crisis. Are cloth masks effective at preventing infection? Maybe. Should you disinfect your mask in a microwave? No.

Given how little quality information is available, though, how would most people know what they should be doing? As health-care professionals and students, we recognize a huge gap between the evidence and communication with the public about how to protect ourselves. Specifically, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not been clear in its recommendations and messaging to the public about personal protective equipment (PPE), and should be doing more.

While the CDC did put out guidelines in March, they did not make limitations clear. For example, their guidelines state that masks can be decontaminated in a hot oven, but fail to mention that studies have only proven decontamination in extremely high temperatures in industrial ovens. Members of the public and health-care workers, confused by the mixed messages, have tried decontaminating PPE in their home ovens and microwaves, which has been found to compromise mask integrity.

 READ MORE: FEMAs leader in Philly on what states still need to deal with coronavirus

Likewise, the CDC lists ultraviolet light (UV) as a decontamination method, without any details of how it has worked. That evidence only shows proof for bacteria, not for viruses, and not with the type of UV in a nail salon machine. The public does not know the difference. Given the lack of CDC guidance, they cannot be faulted for resorting to experiments with all kinds of UV light devices, most of which will almost certainly not work, leaving them falsely reassured and unprotected.

Instead, the CDC should be disseminating information with explicit limitations to the public in an easily digestible format, e.g., video spots and carefully designed social media posts for sharing. Do we need to wear masks? What kind? At all times, just outside the home, or in what setting? Lacking clear answers, people are left with inconsistent rules and rampant use of questionable protective wear and sterilization methods.

 ASK US: Do you have a question about the coronavirus and how it affects your health, work, and life? Ask our reporters.

The government also must ensure we are protecting our health-care workers, who have been implementing and sharing over social media novel strategies to adjust usual hospital practices for PPE conservation and replacement. Some tactics are intuitive, such as moving patient monitors outside of patient rooms to reduce in-room visit frequency. But others deserve more scrutiny, such as using plastic trash bags to decrease aerosolization during intubation and converting operating rooms into intensive care units.

 READ MORE: Face masks: Your questions, answered

Given the urgency, we understand that not all approaches can be formally studied for safety or quality before trying them during this unprecedented pandemic. Yet, in the latest guidelines (under Administrative Controls), the CDC does not address, promote, or refute any of the widely circulating, unvalidated strategies that continue to be implemented across the country. Without any communication, hospitals improvise on the fly, unsure if what they are doing is working.

The lack of more comprehensive guidelines or strong evidence to support a single set of best practices has increased public confusion and facilitated the spread of misinformation. The government must do more and arm the public with clear, vetted information while properly acknowledging limitations. In doing so, the U.S. can empower public responses to future crises and promote safety for the public and frontline providers. Should the government be letting frontline workers wear trash bags and microwave masks if it isnt going to protect them? Lets be vocal and clear in addressing the American public with the best information that we have.

Monique Sager and Ramie Fathy are medical students at the University of Pennsylvanias Perelman School of Medicine, where Jules Lipoff is an assistant professor of clinical dermatology.
Espoo, Finland  Nokia announced today that Kathrin Buvac, President of Nokia Enterprise, has decided to leave the company at the end of May to take a leadership position at a global technology company. At that time, she will also step down from her position on the companys Group Leadership Team. Buvac will be succeeded by Raghav Sahgal, currently Senior Vice President of Nokia Software with responsibility for global sales and market services. Sahgal will formally assume his new position and join the Group Leadership Team on June 1, 2020.

Nokias commitment to our fast-growing Enterprise business remains strong, and I am pleased that we have an excellent leader in Raghav Sahgal, who is ready to take on the position of President, Nokia Enterprise, said Nokia President and Chief Executive Officer Rajeev Suri. Raghav has a demonstrated record of success in his current role in Nokia Software. I look forward to him joining the Group Leadership Team and building on the strong momentum and fast growth we have in the enterprise segment.

Sahgal joined Nokia in April 2017 from NICE Systems, where he served as President of the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions. Prior to NICE, Raghav held a number of executive and senior leadership positions with Oracle, Comverse, CSG, Kenan and Lucent. Sahgal holds a Bachelor of Science and Engineering degree in Computer Engineering from Tulane University and a Master of Science from the University of Maryland, USA. He also attended the General Management Program at Harvard Business school.

Kathrin has been with Siemens, Nokia Siemens Networks and then Nokia for close to 20 years, and I both understand and support her desire to take on a new challenge, said Suri. Kathrin has held key leadership positions at Nokia, including Chief Strategy Officer, and has been at the heart of many of our transformational changes, including the turnaround of Nokia Siemens Networks and the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent. In her most recent role as President of Nokia Enterprise, she led Nokias entry into a new customer segment focused on enterprise networks and industrial automation, delivering profitable, double-digit growth.

For the full year 2019, the Nokia Enterprise had revenues of 1.4 billion, an increase of 18% in constant currency from 2018. Customers include Societe du Grand Paris, Deutsche Bahn, SBB, Elektro, Florida Power & Light, UPMC, Lufthansa Technik, BMW, some of the world's largest webscale companies, and many others.
A popular model used to forecast deaths related to COVID-19 has readjusted its outlook for Texas, dramatically increasing the number of deaths projected for the state.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, which has been used by the White House, is now forecasting 3,632 deaths in Texas by Aug. 4. Thats up from 1,288 forecast on April 29.

Nationwide, IHME is forecasting 134,475 deaths, up from 72,433 forecast on April 29.

Previously from IHME: The model showed 6,000 would die in Texas. Now it's 1K. What's changed?

According to a news release, the new projections reflect rising mobility as social distancing measures are eased. Increased testing, more contact tracing and warmer weather (with more needing to be learned on the latter) are factors that could help slow the diseases spread, but they dont offset people leaving their homes and intermingling.

The projections released Monday came with a major overhaul to the IHME model. Its initial model released on March 26 to estimate hospital resource demand is now combined with a disease transmission model. The new hybrid model captures the impact of changes in social distancing mandates, mobility, testing and contact tracing. This model can predict a resurgence in the disease that might be caused as social distancing mandates are relaxed, according to the news release.

This new model is the basis for the sobering new estimate of U.S. deaths, IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray said in the news release. The model will allow for regular updating as new data are released on cases, hospitalizations, deaths, testing, and mobility. It can also be used to identify what may be the trajectory to progressively relax social distancing while still limiting the risk of large-scale resurgence.

Models often change and adapt to new data and policies. The IHME model initially forecast around 6,000 deaths for Texas. Then it dropped to 4,000. It went down lower to around 1,000, but now its back up to 3,600.

And while models provide one specific forecast number, they also tend to have a range to indicate what else is possible. IHME, for instance, is forecasting 3,632 deaths in Texas by Aug. 4 but says the actual number of deaths could be as low as 1,470 or as high as 10,721.

Youyang Gu, a data scientist who graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, created covid19-projections.com and is forecasting 3,985 deaths in Texas by Aug. 4, with a range from 1,527 to 8,409.

Some other models listed on the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions website dont look as far out. It is, after all, easier to forecast the weather tomorrow than next week.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology forecast 1,336 deaths in Texas by June 15. Los Alamos National Laboratory forecast about 1,900 deaths in Texas by June 14, with a range from 1,200 to 4,500 deaths. The University of Texas at Austin forecast 1,355 deaths in Texas by May 26, with a range from 1,130 to 1,867. For the Houston metropolitan area, its forecasting 400 deaths, with a minimum of 292 and maximum of 749.

Houston coronavirus updates: What you need to know for May 5

Lauren Ancel Meyers, who heads the University of Texas COVID-19 Modeling Consortium, previously told the Chronicle that projections far into the future are plausible scenarios more than forecasts.

As of Tuesday, a Houston Chronicle analysis reported 937 deaths related to COVID-19 in Texas and 225 deaths in the Houston region.

andrea.leinfelder@chron.com

twitter.com/a_leinfelder
FILE PHOTO: The spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York

By Jane Wardell

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Global coronavirus cases surpassed 3.5 million on Monday and deaths neared a quarter of a million, according to a Reuters tally, concerning experts who fear substantial underreporting even as the rate of fatalities and new cases slows.

North America and European countries, where growth rates are easing, still accounted for most of the new infections reported in recent days.

But case numbers were rising from smaller bases in Latin America, Africa and Russia, and experts expressed concern that the overall data falls well short of the true impact of the pandemic.

Globally, there were 74,779 new cases over the past 24 hours, according to the Reuters tally that is based on official government data, taking total cases to around 3.52 million.

That compares with around 3 million to 5 million cases of severe illness caused annually by seasonal influenza, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), but falls far short of the Spanish flu, which began in 1918 and infected an estimated 500 million people.

"We still have to be skeptical about the numbers we get," Peter Collignon, an infectious diseases physician and microbiologist at Canberra Hospital, told Reuters. "That's a huge problem."

"The mortality rate is also 10 times higher than for influenza in all age groups."

Cases may cause only mild symptoms and not everyone with symptoms is tested, while most countries only record hospital deaths, meaning many deaths in private homes and nursing homes have not yet been included.

Deaths related to COVID-19, the disease caused by the new virus, stood at 246,920. The first death was reported on Jan. 10 in Wuhan, China, after the virus emerged there in December.

LIFTING LOCKDOWNS?

The daily rate of new cases worldwide has been sitting in a 2%-3% range over the past week, versus a peak of around 13% in mid-March, prompting many countries to begin easing lockdown measures that have upended businesses and crippled the global economy.

Story continues

The loosening of restrictions has proved controversial, however, as experts debate the best strategy to ensure there is no large "second wave" outbreak.

"We could easily have a second or a third wave because a lot of places aren't immune," Collignon said, noting the world was well short of herd immunity, which requires around 60% of the population to have recovered from the disease.

Health officials have also expressed concern about the rising case numbers in countries where there is a shortage of testing and a lack of medical facilities.

While the number of new cases has come off a peak of 104,495 reported in a single day last week, it is still at around 75,000 to 90,000 cases per day globally.

In the United States, around half the country's state governors partially reopened their economies over the weekend, while others, including New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, declared the move was premature.

In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who battled COVID-19 last month, said on Sunday the country was over the peak but it was still too early to relax lockdown measures.

Even in countries where the suppression of the disease has been considered successful, such as Australia and New Zealand which have recorded daily rates of new infections in the low single digits for weeks, officials have been cautious.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has predicated a full lifting of curbs on widespread public adoption of a mobile phone tracing app and increased testing levels.

(Reporting By Jane Wardell; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Richard Pullin)
US clothing retailer J. Crew filed for bankruptcy and US Steel and GE Aviation announced major job cuts as the economic catastrophe engulfing US workers continued to grow amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Along with a general meltdown of brick and mortar retail, manufacturing, health care and public services face deep cuts.

Despite the push by the Trump administration to abandon social distancing standards and reopen wide sections of the US economy, the official US COVID-19 death toll is holding steady at about 2,000 daily. By the latest count, cumulative US deaths are near 70,000, with over 1.2 million confirmed infections.

A report by the Centers for Disease Control published in the New York Times Monday contradicted the rosy official reports by the White House suggesting that the virus is in decline. It predicted that the US daily death rate would reach 3,000 by June 1, with 200,000 new cases daily as the virus spreads into less urbanized areas that previously had been only lightly impacted. While the Trump administration has distanced itself from the report, the numbers were based on modeling solicited by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The health crisis is being compounded by a continuing meltdown of the US economy, with 30 million having filed for unemployment benefits and unknown millions more either not eligible for jobless pay or unable to file due to overloaded state offices. This does not take into account the millions of small businesses facing ruin due to the drying up of customers.

On top of the millions impacted by temporary business closures, major corporations are announcing permanent job cuts in anticipation of a protracted recession.

US fashion retail chain J. Crew filed chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 4, the first national retail casualty of the pandemic. It has agreed to turn over effective control of the company to its creditors in exchange for the cancellation of $1.7 billion in debt. It said it had no plans at present to close stores, but its future, like that of many retail businesses, remains highly uncertain.

Other major retailers could follow. Neiman Marcus and J.C. Penney are reportedly struggling to raise cash and are likely considering following the examples of J. Crew.

Meanwhile, US Steel said in a filing Friday that it is preparing for the layoff of as many as 6,500 employees, although it expects the actual number affected to be about 2,700 of the 27,500 it currently employs. Even before the coronavirus pandemic hit, the company faced slowing demand as auto sales stagnated.

The company has now idled seven out of its 10 blast furnaces in the United States. These include three at the Gary Works site in Indiana, one at Granite City in Illinois, two at Great Lakes Steel in Michigan and one at the Mon Valley Works south of Pittsburgh.

On Monday, General Electric said it planned to cut the global workforce in its aviation division by 25 percent, impacting up to 13,000 jobs. The cuts come amidst a collapse in air travel and a likely sharp fall in orders for new planes from struggling airlines. The cuts will involve both voluntary and involuntary layoffs.

GE said the cuts were permanent, as it expected a prolonged depression in air travel. In a letter to employees, GE Aviation CEO David Joyce said, To protect our business, we have responded with difficult cost-cutting actions over the last two months. Unfortunately, more is required as we scale the business to the realities of our commercial market.

The spiraling economic crisis is forcing state and local governments to prepare for massive cuts as tax revenue dries up. According to an estimate by the National League of Cities, between 300,000 and one million public-sector workers could be furloughed or laid off, impacting areas such as education, sanitation, public safety and health. The city of Detroit has already reduced hours or furloughed 3,000 workers. The City of Los Angeles has presented a 2020-2021 budget calling for the temporary furlough of 15,000 employees.

Underscoring the irrationality of for-profit medicine, health care providers across the US have carried out massive layoffs, furloughs or pay cuts. Hospitals have seen revenue dry with the cancellation of nonessential procedures, while facing high costs for treating COVID-19 patients, including the inflated cost of supplies such as masks. Some hospitals are concerned that vendors are buying up available supplies to sell them at higher prices.

The onset of the pandemic has seen a wave of bankruptcies, as already struggling firms are pushed over the edge. Among the recent casualties are:

Art Van Furniture, a Warren, Michigan-based retail chain, filed for bankruptcy March 8 and closed all 176 of its retail locations, with the loss of about 3,700 jobs.





Miami, Florida-based CMX Cinemas, a movie theater chain that also runs dine-in restaurants and bars, filed for bankruptcy April 25. All 41 of its theaters located in 12 states had been closed during the pandemic.





The slump in oil prices and demand forced Diamond Offshore Drilling to file for bankruptcy April 27. The Houston, Texas-based company employs 2,500 people and had revenue of $981 million last year.





Another petroleum company impacted by the oil glut, Denver-based shale oil producer Whiting Petroleum, filed for bankruptcy on April 1, though it said it would continue to operate its business. One analyst predicted that it was only the first domino to fall in the US energy sector amidst the collapse in oil prices. The US shale oil sector has the highest production costs in the world and needs a $50-$55-a-barrel world price to operate in the black.





Frontier Communications FTR, one of Americas largest telecom companies, filed on April 14. FTR is facing $10 billion in outstanding debt. Private equity firm BlackRock is the companys largest stockholder, with a 9 percent investment. Vanguard Group and Charles Schwab each hold about 6 percent. Frontier is the fourth largest telecommunications provider, but was loaded up with debt following the acquisition of Verizon wireline services in several states, including Texas, California and Florida.





Modells Sporting Goods, based in New York, filed for Chapter 11 on March 11 and said it would close all 153 stores in the northeast. It had been in business since 1889.





Auto parts maker Spectra Premium filed for bankruptcy in Canada on March 10, with a simultaneous filing in the US. The company said that its operations had been hurt by US tariffs against China.





SpeedCast International, a satellite internet company that provides internet service to the cruise industry when ships are out at sea, filed for bankruptcy on April 23. The company serves 80 percent of cruise brands globally.





National fitness chain Golds Gym filed for bankruptcy Monday. It will close 30 gyms, but continue operations at its 700 other locations, including about 63 that are company-owned and operated.

An analysis by Gusto, a support platform for small business, found that young people and low-wage workers are being hardest hit by the economic meltdown. Those earning less than $20 per hour were 115 percent more likely to be laid off than those making $30 an hour or more. In addition, those under age 25 experienced a 93 percent higher rate of job loss than those age 35 and above.

According to their data, the vast majority of workers in food and beverage, accommodations and salon and spa are paid hourly, and more than 75 percent earn less than $15 an hour. These industries being hardest hit by state lockdowns.

The so-called stimulus measures by the US government, far from addressing the crisis, have been targeted to line the pockets of the super-rich, not to alleviate social distress. Tens of millions have not received even the meager $1,200 one-time stimulus check, and millions more are still waiting for unemployment benefits, assuming they can get through to overwhelmed state offices.

This is not merely the result of bureaucratic incompetence, but part of a policy. The ruling class is using the growing economic distress as a weapon to force workers back in the factories to crank out profit for the corporations, even as the pandemic continues and the death toll mounts.

Workers must oppose the antisocial, homicidal policy of the corporate elite with its own strategy, based on the unification of workers globally in the fight for socialism. The resources to fight the pandemic must be mobilized by seizing the vast fortunes of the billionaires to provide economic relief to workers and small businesses and the implementation of mass testing and other measures needed to stem the pandemic.
GENESEE COUNTY, MI -- COVID-19 is restricting big social gatherings but it doesnt have to stop the celebration of Cinco de Mayo on Tuesday, May 5.

A number of restaurants in the Flint area are still offering takeout on Tuesday, the Mexican holiday marking the victory of Mexican troops over French forces in Puebla, Mexico, on May 5, 1862.

Here at 10 options to try this special Takeout Tuesday.

Cocina Mio

Cocina Mio in Flint is offering its full menu of Mexican cuisine for takeout.

The restaurant is open from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. and promises whatever you choose will be freshly made, including homemade tortillas, menudo, breakfast tacos, enchiladas and tacos.

Call 810-336-0926 to place an order.

Cocina Mios menu can be seen on its Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/cocinaflint/.

Tia Helitas

Tia Helitas, a Flint area Mexian restaurant staple since 1970, is open 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. for takeout of tacos, burritos, enchiladas and much more.

The restaurant is located at 4070 S. Saginaw St. in Burton.

Call 810-742-5525 to place an order.

Tia Helitas menu can be seen at its web site: https://www.tiahelitas.com/ .

Sagebrush Fenton

Sagebrush Fenton is open from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. seven days a week.

The restaurant is offering curbside carry-out at 14284 Fenton Road in Fenton.

Call 810-629-3955 to make an order.

The Sagebrush menu can be found at its web site: http://mysagebrushcantina.com/sagebrush-cantina-michigan/sagebrush-cantina-fenton-michigan.html .

El Potrero

El Porero offers its Mexican cuisine at multiple locations and is open for takeout from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m.

The restaurants are located at 5490 Fenton Road, Mundy Township; 8296 S. Saginaw St., Grand Blanc; 8284 Saginaw St., Mt. Morris; 1706 W. M-21, Owosso; and 6104 Miller Road, Swartz Creek.

Its promoting Cinco de Mayo specials on its Facebook page, including a family pack of five enchiladas, five corn tacos, rice and beans, chips, salsa and cheese for $24.99.

Its El Adobe location in Mt. Morris was singled out a year ago by Michigans Best as having some of the best tacos in the state.

Call 810-237-8844 to order from the Mundy Township location, 810-953-0899 for Grand Blanc, 810-686-1226 for the location in Mt. Morris, 989-720-8226 for Owosso, and (810) 644-7066 for Swartz Creek.

El Poreros full menu is available at its web site: http://therealtasteofmexico.net/ .

Don Felipe Mexican Restaurant

Don Felipe Mexican Restaurant is open from 11 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. in downtown Clio, offering takeout and free delivery on orders of $30 or more within 5 miles.

The restaurant is located at 138 W. Vienna St.

Call 810-640-7185 to order.

A full menu can be found at Don Felipes Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/donfelipe46/.

La Familia Morales

La Familia Morales is another Flint-area Mexican restaurant to be recognized by Michigans Best for serving some of the states best tacos.

Of course, theres more at the business located at 725 Garland St. in Flint.

La Familia is offering carry-out service from 10:30 a.m. until 9 p.m. by calling 810-341-6888 or 810-239-8936.

You can find more menu information at the restaurants Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/flintsmostwantedtacos/.

El Topo

El Topo is offering not only its Mexican street food for takeout but also Jalapeno Paloma Cocktail Kits, which includes a sealed mix of fresh-squeezed lime juice and jalapeno syrup, along with 2 bottles of grapefruit Jarritos to top off your cocktail. Just add the tequila, follow the instructions, and enjoy at home.

Its also promoting its Four Grill at Home Carne Asada Tacos, which can be pre-ordered on its web site for pickup Tuesday.

Located at 113 Mill St. in Fenton, the restaurant is open from 5-9 p.m.

Call 810-215-1024 to order or visit El Topos web site at https://eltopofenton.com/?fbclid=IwAR1wPy8oSZ98Wz-aYz4-d2JC3YAkRRnb6lhqwrqQXQKZOV7wSShMiavKXfY .

La Azteca

La Azteca is offering takeout on Cinco de Mayo and throughout the week.

The restaurant is located at 1902 W. Court St. in Flint and is open from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. Tuesday.

Call 810-233-3104 to order.

La Aztecas menu can be found on its Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/laaztecath/.

Puerto Vallarta

Puerto Vallarta is offering takeout from its sit-down restaurant in downtown Flushing.

The restaurant is located at 119 E Main St.

Call to order at 810-659-5780.

More information is available on Puerto Vallartas Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/PuertoVallarta1946/.

Stories that highlight how our communities are Powering Positivity are being done in partnership with The MediLodge Group, which has skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities throughout Michigan.

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There's one thing that can be said in defence of Mike Nesbitt, the former TV presenter and current MLA for Strangford, who's been caught breaking the lockdown on two separate occasions by travelling to stay with a female friend on the north coast, and it's that he promptly resigned from his role as deputy chair of the Committee for the Executive Office at Stormont when it came out.

He didn't make excuses for his behaviour. He didn't stamp his feet and play the victim.

That doesn't cancel out the error. But, in a world where politicians are notoriously reluctant to resign, even when they've messed up badly, that tells its own tale about the former Ulster Unionist leader's character.

It took Sinn Fein's Barry McElduff 10 days to bow out as MP for West Tyrone after being accused of mocking victims of the Kingsmill massacre by posting a video of himself with a loaf of bread on his head on the anniversary of the killings.

Mike Nesbitt didn't wait to see whether he could ride out the storm. He accepted responsibility and stepped down at once.

Of course, it could be argued that he was left with no choice, not having the proverbial leg to stand on.

The committee on which he served exists to give advice to Executive ministers; and, though Mike Nesbitt has by no means been a prominent figure during the coronavirus crisis, it's never a good look when people in public life are shown to be better at giving out advice than they are at following it.

The guidelines on social distancing and non-essential travel had been clear for some time when he breached the lockdown, after all.

His first visit to Portballintrae on the Co Antrim coast reportedly took place on the weekend of April 4/5. That was just one day after it was announced that there had been 12 more Covid-19 deaths in Northern Ireland, the largest daily increase to date.

By the time of his second visit, two weeks later, the total number of deaths here was just under 200. There could have been no doubt about the seriousness of the crisis facing the country, but he went anyway.

It was, as Mike Nesbitt readily acknowledged, a dreadful lapse in judgment. Just days after ordinary families were being praised for staying away from seaside resorts, such as Portrush, over Easter, one of the UUP's last remaining MLAs was ensconced a few miles further along the coast in someone else's home. There can be no clearer example of a "Do as I say, not as I do" mentality.

It's important, at the same time, not to go overboard with the condemnation. If Mike Nesbitt and his female friend were both isolating at home the rest of the week, then the risk of them either catching coronavirus, or spreading it to others, would have been minimal.

A few days before that second visit, Health Minister Robin Swann had even announced that the peak of the outbreak had already been reached and that the death toll as a result of the virus "may now potentially be less severe than we feared".

None of this is a justification for his actions. He shouldn't have done what he did. Let's be honest, though: he's hardly the only person in Northern Ireland who's broken the lockdown.

Thousands of fines and warnings have been issued by police across the UK as people test the limits of the restrictions. Other politicians aren't exactly setting a shining example, either. The DUP's Jim Shannon and Ian Paisley actually flew in to London to take part in a session in Parliament a few weeks ago at which only around 20 MPs were present.

Both expressed concern about potential issues with electronic voting, as new social distancing measures in Parliament came into place. Jim Shannon declared that he himself wasn't technically proficient.

As excuses go, they don't come much more feeble. Other MPs had stayed at home and contributed through video-links. Was it really necessary for Jim Shannon and Ian Paisley to be in Westminster in person?

If they don't know how to work remotely, then learn. Grandparents on lockdown are getting to grips with Skype and Zoom. Jim Shannon should be able to do it, too. He's only 65, not Methuselah.

Incidents like this are a reminder that people in public life often try to tell everyone else how to live while doing the exact opposite themselves. Celebrities fly around the world while preaching about climate change. They constantly moan about Press intrusion while selling photographs of their luxury weddings to magazines like Hello! It's infuriating.

Mike Nesbitt has been foolish, too, but what pointing an accusing finger at him really exposes is a deep urge in people to find heroes and villains at moments of national emergency.

Doctors and nurses in the NHS are - rightly - being hailed for risking their own lives to save others; but there's a need for bad guys to blame as well and everyone has their favourite suspects.

Commentators in Dublin are blaming the north for moving at a slower pace. Political opponents elsewhere berate Boris Johnson, or President Trump. Sinn Fein still seems to want to deprecate the efforts of their unionist counterparts in the Executive.

There's nothing more alarming than an invisible enemy that lives in the air and doesn't care who it strikes. All this mutual recrimination is a way of coping with fear.

If we can only find someone, or something, to blame - Chinese eating habits, the Brits, 5G phone masts, whatever it happens to be - it all begins to feel that bit more manageable, as if it's part of the ordinary world of political scandal, rather than something entirely new and terrifying and beyond our control.

Now there's another villain to add to the list in the unlikely form of Mike Nesbitt.

If we're honest, the real reason he's come under so much scrutiny is probably because it allows us a chance to speculate intrusively on his private life and that's fair enough. We're only human.

But so is he. Mike Nesbitt has reportedly been living alone in rented accommodation since January, away from his wife of 28 years, former on-screen partner Lynda Bryans. His mother sadly died in February.

It's a harsh philosophy of life which can't find some sympathy for a man in that situation.

People's mental health matters, too. Loneliness and isolation can take their toll.

He did the wrong thing and now he's done the right thing. He should at least be given the chance to make amends.
Even as the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Canada passed the 60,000-mark , gradual reopening of the economy began on Monday with retail outlets being allowed to conduct business. Restrictions lifted on other commercial activity in several provinces as well.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the country was on a positive trajectory as the easing of restrictions commenced. That view was echoed by Canadas chief public health officer Dr Therera Tam, as she said, In some places, the epidemic has been brought under good control and the time is right for a cautious reopening. The country counted 60,650 cases of coronavirus infection by Monday evening, including 3,842 deaths.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage

The easing is taking place in retail stores in many places, with a couple of provinces even seeing some restaurants back to serving customers.

However, in the province of Quebec, which accounts for over half the recorded cases in Canada, permission to reopen such establishments has been delayed by an additional week in the city of Montreal and its vicinity, as the area has been hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Click here for Covid-19 updates

Meanwhile, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business welcomed the careful, phased approach to the reopening of the economy. In a statement, it said it was good news that some businesses in some provinces will be permitted to serve customers once again.

The closure of businesses across the country has played havoc with the economy and has led to record unemployment. Given these circumstances, Trudeau said, during his daily media briefing, that there was no timeline for presenting the Federal Budget, which was scheduled for March.

A budget in normal times is a forecast of the measures that will be presented in the year to come. Right now we are in a period of uncertainty, extraordinary uncertainty, as to what might happen next month or in three months, he said. This was to be the first Budget to be presented since he formed a minority Government following Federal elections in October.
Software vulnerabilities are more likely to be discussed on social media before they're revealed on a government reporting site, a practice that could pose a national security threat, according to computer scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

At the same time, those vulnerabilities present a cybersecurity opportunity for governments to more closely monitor social media discussions about software gaps, the researchers assert. Their findings were published recently in the journal PLOS One.

"Some of these software vulnerabilities have been targeted and exploited by adversaries of the United States. We wanted to see how discussions around these vulnerabilities evolved," said lead author Svitlana Volkova, senior research scientist in the Data Sciences and Analytics Group at PNNL. "Social cybersecurity is a huge threat. Being able to measure how different types of vulnerabilities spread across platforms is really needed."

Social media -- especially GitHub -- leads the way

Their research showed that a quarter of social media discussions about software vulnerabilities from 2015 through 2017 appeared on social media sites before landing in the National Vulnerability Database, the official U.S. repository for such information. Further, for this segment of vulnerabilities, it took an average of nearly 90 days for the gap discussed on social media to show up in the national database.

The research focused on three social platforms -- GitHub, Twitter and Reddit -- and evaluated how discussions about software vulnerabilities spread on each of them. The analysis showed that GitHub, a popular networking and development site for programmers, was by far the most likely of the three sites to be the starting point for discussion about software vulnerabilities.

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It makes sense that GitHub would be the launching point for discussions about software vulnerabilities, the researchers wrote, because GitHub is a platform geared towards software development. The researchers found that for nearly 47 percent of the vulnerabilities, the discussions started on GitHub before moving to Twitter and Reddit. For about 16 percent of the vulnerabilities, these discussions started on GitHub even before they are published to official sites.

Codebase vulnerabilities are common

The research points at the scope of the issue, noting that nearly all commercial software codebases contain open-source sharing and that nearly 80 percent of codebases include at least one vulnerability. Further, each commercial software codebase contains an average of 64 vulnerabilities. The National Vulnerability Database, which curates and publicly releases vulnerabilities known as Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures "is drastically growing," the study says, "and includes more than 100,000 known vulnerabilities to date."

In their paper, the researchers discuss which U.S. adversaries might take note of such vulnerabilities. They mention Russia, China and others and noted that there are differences in usage of the three platforms within those countries when exploiting software vulnerabilities.

According to the study, cyberattacks in 2017 later linked to Russia involved more than 200,000 victims, affected more than 300,000 computers, and caused about $4 billion in damages.

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"These attacks happened because there were known vulnerabilities present in modern software," the study says, "and some Advanced Persistent Threat groups effectively exploited them to execute a cyberattack."

Bots or human: Both pose a threat

The researchers also distinguished between social media traffic generated by humans and automated messages from bots. A social media message crafted by an actual person and not generated by a machine will likely be more effective at raising awareness of a software vulnerability, the researchers found, emphasizing that it was important to differentiate the two.

"We categorized users as likely bots or humans, by using the Botometer tool," the study says, "which uses a wide variety of user-based, friend, social network, temporal, and content-based features to perform bot vs. human classification."

The tool is especially useful in separating bots from human discussions on Twitter, a platform that the researchers noted can be helpful for accounts seeking to spread an agenda. Also regarding Twitter, the researchers found a subset of its users -- for example FireEye, The Best Linux Blog In the Unixverse, The Hacker News and individual accounts belonging to cybersecurity experts -- focused on news about software vulnerabilities.

Ultimately, awareness of social media's ability to spread information about software vulnerabilities provides a heads-up for institutions, the study says.

"Social media signals preceding official sources could potentially allow institutions to anticipate and prioritize which vulnerabilities to address first," it says. "Furthermore, quantification of the awareness of vulnerabilities and patches spreading in online social environments can provide an additional signal for institutions to utilize in their open source risk-reward decision making."

Other PNNL authors of the research, which was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency SocialSim program, included Prasha Shrestha, Arun Sathanur, Suraj Maharjan, Emily Saldanha and Dustin Arendt.
With travel restrictions in place worldwide, weve launched a new series, The World Through a Lens, in which photojournalists help transport you, virtually, to some of our planets most beautiful and intriguing places. This week, Marcus Westberg shares a collection of photographs from Madagascar. (His last essay explored wildlife in Zambia.)

Situated some 250 miles off the coast of southeast Africa, Madagascar  the fourth largest island on Earth  is a world of its own.

Sometimes referred to as the eighth continent, Madagascar split from the Indian subcontinent 88 million years ago and the African mainland some 47 million years before that, so it is perhaps not surprising that about 90 percent of its fauna and flora is found nowhere else on earth.
A research team at Northwestern University and Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago has developed a smart device, worn on the skin like a Band-Aid, that can detect early signs and symptoms of COVID-19 and then monitor the disease round-the-clock as it progresses.The bandage, which is roughly the size of a postage stamp, is attached at the base of the throat and can be worn all day long. It measures five different factors at once: temperature, heart rate, coughing patterns, respiratory sounds and movement of the chest/lungs.The data that the device collects is transmitted to a cloud, protected by Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations, where it is analyzed by AI algorithms. These algorithms can pick subtle signs out of the data, providing the ability to catch the disease at very early stages. These devices are in use at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, where 25 COVID-19 patients have been wearing them for the past two weeks.
Two soldiers assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, were arrested last week and charged with murder in the death of an Army veteran whose body was found in a creek about 130 miles from the base, according to local authorities.

Raylin D. James and Joshua Q. Gerald, both 20-year-old privates assigned to the 555th Engineer Brigade at Lewis-McChord, were being held on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of 20-year-old Leroy Scott of Louisiana, according to the Kittitas County Sheriff's Office and Kittitas County Corrections Center.

"We are aware of the incident that occurred on April 29, 2020, in the vicinity of Ellensburg, Wash., and are cooperating with Kittitas County law enforcement who maintain lead in this investigation," said Maj. Matthew J. Ercolani, spokesman for I Corps at the joint base.

Related: Soldiers' GoFundMe Campaigns May Get Them in Legal Trouble, Army Warns

Scott's body was spotted in a creek just off a county road in Ellensburg on April 25, according to the news release. Detectives determined Scott had ties to the Army base, but he was not employed by the military at the time of his death.

Scott served in the same brigade as James and Gerald, but separated from the Army as a private in December, Ercolani said.

Based on the circumstances, the sheriff's office said it investigated the case as a homicide and five days later arrested the two soldiers.

The three men were connected to Kittitas County through mutual friends and were said to have been attending a party in Ellensburg on the night of the murder, according to police. Ellensburg is located about 130 miles east of the base.

Gerald, of Olanta, South Carolina, entered the Army in June 2018 and arrived at Lewis-McChord six months later, according to his service record. His first and only assignment in the Army was with the 555th Engineer Brigade as an automotive logistics specialist.

James, of Shreveport, Louisiana, entered the Army in May 2018 and joined the brigade in September of that year for his first and only assignment as a horizontal construction engineer, according to his service record.

Joint Base Lewis-McChord is located near Tacoma and has about 44,000 active-duty personnel under the command of I Corps, which also oversees activities in the Pacific, Hawaii, Alaska and Japan. Units stationed at the base include the 7th Infantry Division, 1st Special Forces Group and the 2nd Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment.

Read more: Service Member Supporting ISIS Fight Dies in Non-Combat Incident
The Taraba State Government on Monday rejected several almajiri children transferred from Nasarawa State.

Almajiris are children who are sent to live with Islamic clerics to learn about the religion. However, many of them end up on the streets where they beg for food and other necessities. The practice is common in Northern Nigeria where thousands of almajiri children roam the streets, lacking education and other basic necessities of life.

The almajiri children reportedly arrived the Taraba capital, Jalingo, from Lafia, Nasarawas capital, on Sunday alongside officials of the Nasarawa State Ministry of Women Affairs.

The kids had to sleep outside the office of the Secretary to the Taraba State Government and were only attended to at 10 a.m. on Monday.

Turned back

Multiple sources say that the returning children were later asked to go and stay by the signboard welcoming travellers into the capital along the Jalingo-Wukari road to wait for the officials of the state.

The officials from the Taraba SSGs office later arrived at welcome to Jalingo (billboard) at about 12.45 p.m. where they formally rejected the children with a letter addressed to the Secretary to Government of Nasarawa State with instructions to the officials to take the children back.

The letter from the office of the Secretary to Taraba State government, dated May 4, 2020 with reference no SSG / ADM/ S/ 167/ 11/ 125 was signed by one Sunday Maiyaki, Permanent Secretary Political Cabinet Affairs and General Services.

The letter read in part:

The unphysical verification the number of pupils brought to Taraba State are 79 not 102 as stated in the letter brought from Nasarawa state.

The government of Taraba State wish to return the pupils to you and requests that the pupils should be properly profiled indicating their local government of origin in Taraba State and individual status in respect of the pandemic.

The letter further directed that when the children were subsequently brought back, they should be accompanied with their teachers to assist in proper profiling so the state could hand them over to their parents.

Dismay

One of the Nasarawa officials who accompanied the children expressed dismay over the action.

All the almajiris were kept in isolation in a secondary school in Lafia and tested for coronavirus and all of them are negative.

Almajiris brought were not provided with food and left inside vehicles that brought them for several hours and only to be rejected even though they are indigenes of the state, he said.

The official stated that Nasarawa had evacuated over 1000 almajiris to their respective states but said it was only Taraba that turned them back.

We were asked to take the almajiris back to Nasarawa with a letter addressed to the Secretary to Nasarawa State Government with N100,000 to fuel our vehicles, the distraught official said, declining to provide his name.

Due protocol not observed  Taraba Govt

Meanwhile, the Taraba commissioner of information, Danjuma Adamu, said the kids were rejected because Nasarawa officials did not observe due protocol.

Due protocol was not followed in returning them back. The (Taraba) state government needs to know their exact number, health status (positive or negative to COVID-19) in details and their respective local government areas, he said. Not just pack them in buses for the sake of returning them.

Since the coronavirus pandemic broke out in Nigeria, many state governors have taken strict measures to curb its spread including closing their boundaries and restricting movement.

In the north, one of the measures adopted by northern state governors was the transfer of these street kids to their states of origin.

Many northern states have since transferred hundreds of almajiri children to their states of origin.

The move has drawn mixed reactions from Nigerians. While some condemned the move as a violation of the rights of the children to freedom to live anywhere across a Nigeria, others described it as a necessary step to end the unhealthy practice.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the federal government, through the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 denounced the transfer of the kids across states during the coronavirus pandemic saying it violates the ban on interstate travel.

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The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha , who chairs the task force, also warned that Nigeria was sitting on a time bomb if the country does not address and end the almajiri phenomenon.

If we do not deal with the issues relating to the almajiris, we are building an army that would overwhelm us as a people and as a nation in the future, he said.
Geneva: The World Health Organisation's emergencies chief said on Monday that it has received no evidence from the US government to back up allegations by President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the coronavirus could have originated at a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO's Health Emergencies program, talks during a press conference at the World Health Organisation headquarters in Geneva. Credit:AP

"From our perspective, this remains speculative," Dr Michael Ryan told reporters in Geneva.

"We have not received any data or specific evidence from the US government relating to the purported origin of the virus."

He said WHO would be "very willing" to receive any such information the US has.
The logo of Walgreens is seen at their Times Square store in New York

By Rebecca Spalding

(Reuters) - AmerisourceBergen Corp, one of the largest U.S. drug distributors, has approached Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc to explore a deal for its pharmaceutical wholesaling division, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Walgreens owns about 27% of AmerisourceBergen and is its biggest customer.

The two companies have explored various possibilities for combining operations in recent years, including a sale of AmerisourceBergen to Walgreens, on the theory that their drug distribution businesses would be better positioned to withstand competitive price pressures through even bigger scale.

The coronavirus pandemic has weighed on Walgreens' retail business since then, however. Its shares have fallen more than 28 percent this year, compared to a 12% drop in the S&P 500 index due to the outbreak. AmerisourceBergen shares are flat year-to-date.

AmerisourceBergen is willing to pay about $6 billion for the Walgreens pharmaceutical wholesale business, which operates mainly under the Alliance Healthcare brand, one of the sources said.

There is no certainty that the two companies will negotiate a deal, the sources added, asking not to be identified because the matter is confidential.

Walgreens and AmerisourceBergen, which have market capitalizations of $37 billion and $18 billion, respectively, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

While Walgreens stores have remained open during the pandemic, the company said in April that sales at its locations had fallen as consumers stay home, often because they are avoiding doctor visits and have fewer prescriptions to fill.

Walgreens has lost about half its value over the last five years amid growing distress in the retail sector and competition from online retailers, including Amazon.com Inc .

Last year, the debt-laden pharmacy chain explored going private and held preliminary discussions with private equity firms, people familiar with the matter said at the time.

Story continues

A full or partial divestment of Alliance Healthcare would give Walgreens a cash injection and make it easier for Chief Executive Stefano Pessina, the company's largest shareholder with a 16% stake, to take it private.

The Deerfield, Illinois-based company, which operates the Walgreens and Duane Reade pharmacies in the United States and Boots in Britain, has more than 18,750 stores in over 25 countries.

It has an agreement to source branded and generic drugs from AmerisourceBergen in the United States. It also allows AmerisourceBergen to access generic medicines through its global sourcing network.

(Reporting by Rebecca Spalding in New York; editing by Grant McCool and Sonya Hepinstall)
On Tuesday, Bad Boys for Life action star Vanessa Hudgens donned a Baywatch-style swimsuit and a virtual sombrero to wish her 63.4M social media following a happy Cinco de Mayo.

The half-Filipina 31-year-old's tone deaf attempt to honor Mexico's 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla fell flat due to her offensive cultural appropriation.

Coincidentally, Vanessa's ex-boyfriend Zac Efron starred as Mitch Buchannon in Paramount Pictures' 2017 big-screen adaptation of NBC's 1989 series, Baywatch.

Not again! On Tuesday, Bad Boys for Life action star Vanessa Hudgens donned a Baywatch-style swimsuit and a virtual sombrero to wish her fans a happy Cinco de Mayo

Hudgens remotely reunited with the 32-year-old SAG Award nominee - whom she dated 2005-2010 - during the High School Musical portion of ABC's Disney Family Singalong on April 16.

The homeschooled former child star - who split with Austin Butler in December - has been in quarantine at her $5M Los Feliz home with her mother Gina and her younger sister Stella.

This Thursday at 8am PST, Vanessa will team up with Torch'd trainer Isaac Calpito for an Instagram Live work-out in order to raise money for the non-profit, No Kid Hungry.

Hudgens has been in full-on damage control mode since 'offending anyone and everyone' with her cringey comments about 'inevitable deaths' from COVID-19 via Instagram Live on March 16.

'Lol she's in Baywatch!' The half-Filipina 31-year-old's tone deaf attempt to honor Mexico's 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla fell flat due to her offensive cultural appropriation

Speaking of Baywatch: Coincidentally, Vanessa's ex-boyfriend Zac Efron starred as Mitch Buchannon in Paramount Pictures' 2017 big-screen adaptation of NBC's 1989 series

Dated 2005-2010: Hudgens remotely reunited with the 32-year-old SAG Award nominee (R) during the High School Musical portion of ABC's Disney Family Singalong on April 16

'Um, yeah, [quarantine] until July sounds like a bunch of bulls***. I'm sorry,' the SoCal native said at the time.

'It's a virus, I get it. Like, I respect it. But at the same time, like, even if everybody gets it, like, yeah, people are gonna die, which is terrible but, like, inevitable?'

The very next day, Vanessa called the scandal a 'huge wake-up call' and she realized 'my words were insensitive and not at all appropriate for the situation our country and the world are in.'

Family matters: The homeschooled former child star has been in quarantine at her $5M Los Feliz home with her mother Gina (L) and her younger sister Stella (R)

'Can't wait!' This Thursday at 8am PST, Vanessa will team up with Torch'd trainer Isaac Calpito for an Instagram Live work-out in order to raise money for the non-profit, No Kid Hungry

1,315 have died in Los Angeles: Hudgens has been in full-on damage control mode since 'offending anyone and everyone' with her cringey comments about 'inevitable deaths' from COVID-19 via Instagram Live on March 16

LA County's stay-at-home order was extended through May 15 due to the 27,836 confirmed coronavirus cases in LA, which has led to 1,315 deaths as of Tuesday - according to Johns Hopkins University.

Hudgens executive produced and pulled triple duty starring in Mike Rohl's sequel The Princess Switch: Switched Again, which premieres later this year on Netflix.

The Knight Before Christmas actress takes on the roles of Duchess Margaret, her double Stacy De Novo, and a third trouble-making character called 'party girl Fiona' - according to THR.
[May 04, 2020] Taiwan Excellence brings in Remote Video Conferencing and Education Appliance and Solution for the rising remote work trends

HANOI, Vietnam, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On 7th May, 2020, Taiwan Excellence  the international campaign organized by the Bureau of Foreign Trade and Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) is holding a Livestream Press Conference, showcasing the breakthrough solutions, honored by Taiwan Excellence, for Remote Video Conferencing and Education. With the pandemic outbreak, 2020 is expected to be a year with an explosive growth for connecting solutions when the demand for online working is rocketing. Owning strong R&D talent and innovation technology passion, Taiwanese brands have set their names with many optimal products that support the rising trends. In the conference, 5 top solutions that gain attention would be presented to audiences.



CyberLink U Communication Suite is designed for business communication with fully integrated service for online meetings, presentations and business chat. The application is featured with its ease of use on any device, complete organization management, Information Security Certification, and Unparalleled Video Quality with AI technology. AVer Mechanical Arm Wireless Interactive Visualizer combines the power of a 13-megapixel camera with the versatility of a small wireless visualizer that delivers optimal performance while giving teachers more options for engaging students. It is created to be most compact and lightweight with a fully adjustable camera and mechanical arm, delivering flawless 4K resolution and 60fps real-time performance.

DeltaKnEW Academy is an innovative and open platform for Smart Learning, launched in October 2018 to equip professionals and enterprises with the latest Industry 4.0 skills. With both web version and mobile app, DeltaKnEW Academy enables on-the-job, in the moment and on-the-go learning for workers to embark a versatile and personalized learning journey for re-skill and up-skill. BXB Image Auto-tracking Video Conferencing Solution includes 3 main features: Look at Me speaker's image auto-tracking with high-sensitivity microphone, Compatible with mainstream messaging software, and Smart sound processing accurately recognizing human voice and avoiding receiving other noises such as applause and private discussions. Gemtek CuClass is an on-line education and video conference system, fully providing fluent & sharpness service through internet. CuClass did big fine tune for downsizing the volume for serving various internet services for end-user no matter teaching or learners. The Conference would be held online at 13:00 - 14:00 on 7th May, 2020. Livestream Press Conference link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNxrM33TISE&feature=youtu.be Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200428/2788466-1 SOURCE TAITRA

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In its second year, the Island Resilience Forum's shift to a virtual format at EarthX underscored the urgency of its mission in the midst of a global pandemic. Despite being separated by thousands of miles, climate change challenges and solutions resonated from islands across the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea. The forum was attended by the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Tonga, Prime Minister of Sint Maarten, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Prime Minister of Curacao, the Premier of Anguilla, and several United Nations Ambassadors and high-ranking island leaders who discussed solutions and challenges for addressing the climate crisis and coronavirus.

Conversations throughout the day focused on how island nations organize and share information to achieve long term environmental goals set by the UN. "The Island Resilience Forum is an action-oriented event that is designed to help island communities achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through the creation of partnerships," said Matt Tranchin, Executive Director of the Island Resilience Partnership and President of March for Science, who kicked off the day-long conference on Saturday morning in his opening remarks.

Leaders from the Kingdom of Tonga to Anguilla announced new partnerships over the course of the forum. Collaboration was a strong theme, from public-private partnerships and the works of NGOs, to ongoing regional partnerships that bring islands together for dialogue and action. Signature event partner, GridMarket, was showcased in several panels that demonstrated how its innovative platform and marketplace were helping islands achieve their energy and carbon goals.

Prime Minister Pohiva Tu'i'onetoa announced Tonga's partnership with GridMarket to achieve 100 percent renewable energy. GridMarket, a US-based artificial intelligence company, works with countries around the world to develop economies-of-scale national energy transitions with secured financing to achieve climate goals, strengthen infrastructure resilience, and lower the cost of energy for governments and consumers. "If there is one thing that we lack in the battle against climate change, it is 'time,'" said Nick Davis, CEO of GridMarket. "So, any partnership that helps accelerate the speed and scale of this global transition is a partnership that's really worth taking on. We hope other island nations will join our coalition." GridMarket and the Island Resilience Partnership are already working with the Independent State of Samoa and the Republic of Palau on similar initiatives, with GridMarket's digital platform enabling progress even while travel and in-person collaboration are prevented by COVID-19.

Premier Victor Banks announced Anguilla's collaboration with March for Science, the Island Resilience Partnership, and Thoughtful Digital Agency to replicate Beatcovid.ai, a new Anguillan digital platform that centralizes information on COVID-19 news and updates for the public. The comprehensive website incorporates all relevant ministries, effectively bridging the gap between what the government knows and the relevant information that the public needs. "It's a collaborative effort in the region and we are always looking out for things we can prepare ourselves for," Premier Banks said in a morning session. "As soon as we recognized the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, we needed to put things in motion."

As island nations drive climate goals forward, they face unique challenges in the immediate response to COVID-19 and its economic impact on communities. "If this isn't a wakeup call for humanity, I don't know what is," said Taholo Kami, Special Representative for Oceans for Fiji. Fiji is among the Pacific islands recovering from Cyclone Harold, an effort complicated by a pandemic that limits access to aid. "This is the time for the big conversations, while the world is sitting in our living rooms," he said. Many of the islands shared pressing challenges tied to the loss of tourism, access to healthcare, and the threat to food security.

Leaders addressed initiatives in networks around the world, including the Global Island Partnership's (GLISPA) work to create sustainable island communities. One session focused on the work of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to advocate for small islands on climate action and the health needs of the most vulnerable. Dr. Al Binger, Secretary General of SIDS-DOCK, addressed his organization's effort to create awareness around climate change to small island developing states, while developing scalable solutions.

Some regional groups shared how islands are pooling together to combat global warming. UN Ambassador Samuelu Laloniu of Tuvalu explained how the Pacific Island Forum, established in 1971, created a platform for 18 independent government territories, including Australia and New Zealand, to have more influence collectively. "To have 18 self-governing territories speaking as one voice gives us a lot of power," he said. "We have always called for 1.5 or less degrees. We are living the impacts of climate change in our region. That's the message."

Other sessions focused on how data is informing decision making on climate-driven policy. The Global Health Security Index, released in the fall of 2019, assessed 195 countries' health and security capability. "There's a lot of power in data. Understanding challenges is powerful to understand solutions," said Priya Bapat, a project manager for the Economist Intelligence Unit that helped spearhead the GHS Index.

After a day of impactful programming led by the Island Resilience Forum's expert moderators, the message was clear: though much is left to be done in the effort to combat climate change, island nations draw from collective strength. Moderator Danni Washington captured the sentiment of the programming, "I vote that we change the name from small island nations to mighty island nations."

ABOUT EarthX

EarthX convenes the world's largest environmental expo, conference and film festival, and is a member of IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature. Founded in 2011 by environmentalist and businessman Trammell S. Crow, the Texas-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization promotes environmental awareness and impact through conscious business, nonpartisan collaboration and community-driven sustainable solutions. In 2019, the event drew over 177,000 attendees, 2,000 environmental leaders, 700 exhibitors, 450 speakers, 63 films and 49 Eco-virtual reality experiences. Earthx2020 was held virtually on April 16-26, 2020. Visit www.EarthX.org or follow us @earthxorg on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

ABOUT The National Geographic Society

The National Geographic Society is a global nonprofit organization that uses the power of science, exploration, education and storytelling to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world. Since 1888, National Geographic has pushed the boundaries of exploration, investing in bold people and transformative ideas, providing more than 14,000 grants for work across all seven continents, reaching 3 million students each year through education offerings, and engaging audiences around the globe through signature experiences, stories and content. To learn more, visit www.nationalgeographic.org or follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

SOURCE EarthX

Related Links

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Vietnamese lender Techcombank has explained that an upgrade was responsible for system failure early this week after many customers complained they could not access its digital banking system.

Many customers said they had not been able to log into Techcombanks Internet banking system or mobile banking app to transfer money as of Monday evening.

Account holders also reported inter-bank transfers suffering delays.

Techcombank, or Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank, is one of the biggest commercial joint stock banks in Vietnam.

Phuong, who lives in Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City, said she could not log into Techcombanks Internet banking system on Monday.

She received the same 'connection lost or too slow' error message after every effort to access the system.

I ate out with my friends this afternoon but couldnt withdraw money despite having tried different ATMs, Phuong told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

I had planned to pay with my bank card after eating but it was also denied. The fact that I couldnt even log into the app as a last resort to make the payment made me feel very embarrassed, she said.

Similarly, V.H., who lives in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City, said she had accessed four ATMs to withdraw money on Monday without success.

On top of that, her Techcombank account could not receive money sent from other banks either although the process had normally been very quick.

The problem reportedly persisted until Monday evening, prompting many Techcombank customers to vent their complaints on social media.

In a discussion with Tuoi Tre, a Techcombank representative explained that the bank had been carrying out two phases of their regular upgrade.

The first phase was from 11:00 pm on April 29 to 12:00 am on April 30, while the second one lasted for two hours, from 11:00 pm on May 2 until 1:00 am on May 3.

Before launching this upgrade plan, Techcombank had announced it on their website and Facebook Page, as well as reminding their clients to reconsider making their transactions on the banks Internet banking system during the time frames.

According to Techcombank, the problems occurred because of the unexpectedly increased number of transactions being made after a long public holiday.

Because of this fact, many customers found it difficult to access and make transactions via the Internet banking system, the bank representative explained.

Vietnamese enjoyed a four-day holiday break from Thursday to Sunday last week in celebration of Reunification Day (April 30) and International Workers Day (May 1).

Techcombank said it had taken note of customers feedback related to the malfunction, assuring that improvements would soon be made to its system to tackle the problems, and apologizing to all its customers for the inconvenience.

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KADIMA, Israel, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Nemesysco, a leading provider of voice analytics technologies and solutions for genuine emotion detection, today announced that the company has won the 2020 People's Choice Award from Speech Technology Magazine, the leading global source of news and analysis on the speech technology industry.

The 2020 People's Choice Awards recognize this year's favorite speech tools and platforms according to a panel of speech technology end users and other readers of Speech Technology Magazine.

Nemesysco and its Layered Voice Analysis (LVA) technology for genuine emotion detection and analysis have been voted as this year's favorite Speech Analytics solution.

The LVA technology is built to reveal the genuine emotional state of a person by detecting and measuring uncontrolled psychophysiological changes to a person's voice during open conversations. The technology is indifferent to language or the content of speech and can detect and measure a range of emotions, including excitement, stress, uncertainty, anger, happiness, hesitation, embarrassment and more.

The LVA core technology is embedded in all of Nemesysco's portfolio of voice analytics offerings and has applications for call centers, insurance and financial services, human resources, mental health and more.

"We are very proud of the technology we have developed and are pleased that it has been recognized as a favorite among users of speech analytics solutions," stated Amir Liberman, CEO of Nemesysco. "As more and more business and government organizations understand the importance of emotion detection analysis, our unique approach and the benefits our technology provides are gaining momentum in the call center and human resources spaces, especially across APAC and Latin America."

Nemesysco is currently offering a free, no obligation trial of its recently released InTone solution. InTone utilities the LVA technology and is designed for genuine emotion detection and measurement of callers and agents in call center environments.

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
The first flight bringing back stranded Indians could be on the London-Mumbai route.

According to the government plan that industry sources shared with Moneycontrol, the flight from London with about 250 stranded Indians on board, will land in Mumbai on May 7, at 1.30 pm, setting off what is now being called the biggest repatriation exercise ever undertaken.

It will be the first in over 64 flights that will end the long wait for thousands who have been stuck in other countries since the start of the lockdown.

The flight, operated by Air India, is scheduled to leave London's Heathrow airport at 12 pm, local time, on May 7, and will reach India by 1.30 pm IST.

That will mark the start of what is now being called the biggest repatriation exercise ever undertaken. Reports suggest that nearly two lakh Indians have registered with local Indian consulates to return home.

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 Air India flight will first leave Mumbai airport on May 6 to London's Heathrow airport from where it will bring back the Indians.

Moneycontrol has seen a copy of the detailed plan.

May 7 will also see flights from San Francisco, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Dhaka. The Manila flight will also stop at Ahmedabad, on its return, as will the Dhaka flight in Srinagar.

All Air India

The national airline will be operating all the flights, if one goes by the plan. That will not amuse the private carriers, who were hoping to take part in the evacuation plan.

The government has made it clear that passengers will have to pay for their tickets, and with nearly 15,000 Indians expected to fly back in the first week itself, that will be significant earning for the airlines.

Interestingly, Air India may the only beneficiary.

"There has been plenty of time to plan and all airlines are willing to bid for the flights," said a senior aviation executive.

"It shouldn't be portrayed that the national airline has again come to the rescue, while private airlines only want a bailout and do nothing to help the country at a time of need," he added.

Within hours of this story getting published, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri confirmed that it will be only Air India that will operate the flights. Addressing a conference, the Minister however added that as the evacuation is ramped up in later stages, "private airlines will be able to contribute."
Pork chops cut by Heather Marold Thomason, owner and butcher at Primal Supply Meats in a photograph from October 9, 2017. Read more

By now, empty shelves have grown familiar to supermarket shoppers, as have reports of farmers plowing vegetables back into the soil and dumping milk onto their pastures.

But warnings of a national shortage from Tyson  the meat-processing behemoth that also owns brands like Hillshire Farms, Jimmy Dean, and BallPark hot dogs  and meat-packing rivals like Smithfield and JBS have arguably been the most pronounced. That may be due to Americans love of beef, pork, and poultry, the per capita consumption of which was more than 220 pounds in 2019.

One might wonder: What if you skip the grocery store and go to the local butcher shop? Will the shortage affect them? And what about the restaurant suppliers who have recently started selling to the public? What about farmers markets?

We spoke to local butcher shop owners, wholesalers, and farmers to better understand the meat situation.

 READ MORE: Worried about meat shortages? Try these Philly-area suppliers.

Demand is up as supply is down

One thing is true across the board for markets of all stripes: Customer demand has surged. As restaurant-goers remain confined, theyve been buying more food to cook at home.

Weve never done this much business, said Heather Thomason, owner of Primal Supply Meats, a high-end butcher shop based in Brewerytown and South Philly. Pre-pandemic, 45% of Primal Supplys revenue came from selling to restaurants; today, 100% of revenue is coming from the shops meat-subscription program and its web store. Even cuts that used to be a hard sell in the butcher case  beef hearts, chicken livers, oxtail  get snapped up online.

Were sold out all the time. Were selling everything at full retail, rather than having to wholesale some of it, Thomason said. She reported hearing the same from industry colleagues. Its unprecedented to all of us.

Meat-centric North Philly wholesaler Ashley Foods pivoted to selling to the public in mid-April. Since then, more than 1,000 people have signed up for home delivery. It just keeps growing and growing, said owner Ashley Hanlon.

Hanlon said customers text her pictures of empty meat sections at grocery stores and ask, Can you help?

 READ MORE: Meat processing plants are closing due to coronavirus outbreaks, potentially leading to beef shortfalls

But just as mainstream supermarkets cant escape coronavirus effect on meats national supply chain, neither can wholesalers or butcher shops. Outbreaks among employees have forced several processing plants (also known as slaughterhouses) to temporarily close, creating the bottleneck that lead to shortages.

Pork has pretty much dried up, Hanlon said. Its been two weeks since we can get pork tenderloins in. Getting shoulders or butts has been difficult.  Its becoming more and more scarce, [and] more expensive.

[Suppliers] prices have gone up dramatically, sometimes 100%, said Louis Esposito, owner of Espositos Meats in the Italian Market, which recently reopened after a three-week hiatus to establish curbside pickup and delivery protocols.

 FAQ: Your coronavirus questions, answered.

The shop couldnt restock everything  Espositos daughter Monica said large, economical cuts such as chuck roast that can feed an entire family were in especially short supply. Those are also the items getting sold to the grocery stores, she said.

Because the U.S. meatpacking industry is so consolidated, Espositos suppliers are often the same suppliers used by Acme, Giant, and other large chains. If youre doing some volume, youre part of that mainstream system, Louis said. So were all chasing the same short supply.

Every supplier out there has pretty much  told you youll get 40% of what you ordered, Hanlon said.

The squeeze is felt even at a small outfit like Bucks Countys Blooming Glen Pork and Catering, a sixth-generation business run by the Moyer family. The butcher shop makes its own sausages, bacon, and scrapple in addition to selling fresh cuts of pork.

Coronavirus has prevented the Moyers from opening their barbecue pit for the season, and their pork suppliers  J.F. Martin in Lancaster County and Leidys in Souderton  have shorted recent orders, said Lorraine Moyer.

We just keep reordering and hope that were going get what we asked for, Moyer said. Sometimes the guys order a little bit more hoping well get what we need.

 READ MORE: Pa. has more coronavirus cases among meat plant workers than any other state, CDC says

Getting meat from farm to table

The best way to circumvent mainstream meat suppliers is to go directly to the source: the farms.

But even farmers dont have control over the supply chain: Theyre constrained by the time it takes to raise animals, and by the limited number of meat processing plants.

Mandy Arrowsmith owns Hillacres Pride farm in Lancaster County. Aside from milk and cheese production, the family sells about 40 beef cattle, 60 pigs, and 4,000 chickens each year via CSA shares and farmers markets, including those in Headhouse Square and Collingswood.

Hillacres Pride builds up a reserve of products over the winter while many farmers markets are dormant, Arrowsmith said, but the stockpile has been dwindling as demand spikes. And the farms options for responding are limited.

I cant just all of a sudden come up with more beef, Arrowsmith said. It takes Hillacres two years to raise beef cattle, six to seven months for heritage pigs, and six weeks for chickens to reach their target weight. (They only raise chickens from March through November, when the birds dont have to expend energy staying warm.)

Even if Hillacres could conjure up more cattle and pigs, they would have to arrange for more dates to bring them to the USDA-inspected slaughterhouse they must use to retail products themselves. Arrowsmith did finagle an extra date for beef recently, but when she tried to arrange for another one, she was told the processor was fully booked through August.

The dates arent available, she said. I know that there is definitely going to be people like me who may run out of product more quickly.

 READ MORE: Phillys farmers markets roll with the punches during a pandemic

Primal Supplys supply chain  constructed completely of local and independent farms  faces similar issues. All of its meats are processed at Smuckers Meats in Mount Joy, and Thomason schedules an entire years worth of dates with them at the beginning of each year.

In the past few decades, the slaughterhouses have slowly been closing without new ones reopening, she said. Theres a couple in the region that all of us work with, but every single one of them is pretty much always at capacity.

What next?

As Thomason watches meat sell out day after day, shes contemplated increasing the number of animals Primal Supply promises to buy over a year. But she weighs that against the risk that consumer demand might bottom out when mainstream meat catches up again.

I dont really know whatll happen in a few months. [If] suddenly the pendulum swings and the market gets flooded again and people dont want this product or theyre not so desperate for our delivery service, I dont want to end up with all these animals on the ground.

Animals that are pastured on small farms take more time to raise and cost significantly more than animals raised in pens on factory farms. That means locally sourced meat isnt for everyone.

Arrowsmith acknowledges the need for more economical alternatives. Im not putting down the confinement facilities at all, because thats the way that animals need to be raised for mass people to be able to afford to eat meat. Its just the reality of it.

For the many customers who cant afford to pay upward of $6 per pound of ground beef or $10-plus for pork chops, there are options (besides eating more fish, beans, or tofu).

At Espositos, high-end cuts of beef  tenderloin; rib eye, T-bone, and flat-iron steaks  have become relatively affordable now that restaurant business has slowed. And the butchers there are steering customers to other restaurant cuts they wouldnt have before: veal cheeks, pork osso buco, Frenched pork chops.

People that are missing that fine dining experience can recreate it at home, Louis Esposito said.

And for those who can only be placated by a chuck roast or Smithfield ham, Hanlon has some advice: Calm down. [The processing plants] are not going to be closed for a long time. Theyre going to sanitize. Theyre going to open back up.
Even the person running the new branch of the armed services is in need of a vacation.

The first full-length trailer for Space Force debuted on Tuesday as it featured Steve Carell as the four-star general and decorated pilot, Mark R. Naird, who is tasked with leading the charge to colonize space.

However the job certainly seemed to already be taking its toll in the two-and-a-half minute clip as Naird locked himself in his office and attempted to make himself feel better by singing and dancing to Beach Boys classic Kokomo.

Funnyman: The first full-length trailer for Space Force debuted on Tuesday as it featured Steve Carell as the four-star general and decorated pilot, Mark R. Naird, who is tasked with leading the charge to colonize space

Carell puts on a hilarious performance reminiscent of his The Office character Michael Scott as he passionately mimes the words while peering out of his window.

The clip for the upcoming television series begins with the announcement of the new branch created by the President of the United States.

The military division is based on US President Donald Trump's actual initiative to build a military force in space.

Oh no: However the job certainly seemed to already be taking its toll in the two-and-a-half minute clip as Naird locked himself in his office

Interesting approach: He attempted to make himself feel better by singing and dancing to Beach Boys classic Kokomo

Wanna get away? Carell puts on a hilarious performance reminiscent of his The Office character Michael Scott as he passionately mimes the words while peering out of his window

Naird laughs under his breath after his appointment but is shocked to find out that he has been put in charge of it.

Things are not going swimmingly and at one point he even passes one of his subordinates who is trashing his ability to lead.

The man said: 'He is blowing it, just like you thought. Yeah, it is a complete s***-show.'

The unnamed man played it off like he wasn't talking about him but things continue to go poorly as a prototype blows up costing them 'as much as four new middle schools.'

Spoke to soon: Naird laughs under his breath after his appointment but is shocked to find out that he has been put in charge of it

'It's a complete s***-show': Things are not going swimmingly and at one point he even passes one of his subordinates who is trashing his ability to lead

The stress gets to him as he runs to his office to perform that aforementioned rendition of Kokomo.

Things seemingly take an even harder turn for the worse as once he takes the reins however, Mark is 'squeezed between the politicians and the scientists,' series co-creator Greg Daniels recently told Variety.

As well as starring, Carell, 57, serves as co-creator on Space Force.

Leading the charge: The military division is based on US President Donald Trump's actual initiative to build a military force in space

Not good: Things seemingly take an even harder turn for the worse as once he takes the reins however, Mark is 'squeezed between the politicians and the scientists,' series co-creator Greg Daniels recently told Variety

The show -which is being made by the core team behind workplace comedy classic The Office- is set to hit the streaming service on May 29.

Co-starring in the sitcom are John Malkovich, Diana Silvers, Tawny Newsome, Ben Schwartz, Jimmy O. Yang, Noah Emmerich, Alex Sparrow and Don Lake.

Lisa Kudrow plays Maggie Naird, wife of Carell's Mark R. Naird.

A video released by Netflix early last year announced news of the show and revealed the inspiration behind it, Trump's 2018 announcement that he had directed the Department of Defense and the Pentagon to establish a Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces.

Legend: John Malkovich also stars in the series

Talented: Former star of Silicon Valley and comedian Jimmy O. Yang is also shown throughout the clip

Sweet smooch: Lisa Kudrow plays Maggie Naird, wife of Carell's Mark R. Naird

VP Mike Pence later announced that the goals of the new branch would be to 'defend satellites from attack and perform other space-related tasks'.

Daniels was responsible for adapting the original UK series of The Office to the hugely successful US version which aired from 2005 to 2013.

And while there has been buzz about a reboot for some time, Carell shut down rumors in October 2018 telling Esquire: 'I just don't think that's a good idea, it might be impossible to do that show today and have people accept it the way it was accepted 10 years ago. The climate's different.'

Space Force begins streaming on Netflix on May 29.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says people need to understand some form of enforced social distancing will remain in place for the foreseeable future, despite relaxing of restrictions and moves to restart tourism.

Queensland recorded five new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, a potentially worrying rise after a streak of either one, two or no new cases over several days.

Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young explained that three of the cases were contracted interstate and only added after some bookkeeping between governments.

So the actual rise on Tuesday is two, Dr Young said.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar faced calls from his party members to protect major road infrastructure projects in government negotiations with the Green Party.

During a teleconference call with the Taoiseach, Fine Gael TDs and senators insisted that key infrastructure projects must be ring-fenced when official talks with the Green and Fianna Fail begin.

Senior party figures also raised concerns about the impact of Green Party policies on the economy in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Government Chief Whip Sean Kyne said the development of the Galway City Ring Road and Moycullen bypass must be protected from Green demands to cut Government spending on roads.

Minister of State Patrick ODonovan and Limerick City TD Kieran ODonnell raised concerns about the Foynes to Limerick road and Adare bypass. Mr ODonovan also questioned whether a major natural gas pipeline planned for Limerick would be abandoned.

The Green Party is insisting on 2:1 split in favour of spending on roads over public transport as a condition of entering into negotiations.

Agriculture Minister Michael Creed objected to the lack of consultation within the party before Fine Gaels committed to reducing carbon emissions by 7pc per year on average over the next decade.

Sources at the meeting said Mr Creed was critical of Green polices and went through each of them and tore them apart. The Agriculture Minister said he did not believe it was possible to achieve a 7pc per year reduction in emissions without reducing the national herd, according to a source.

He is very concerned about the impact of the emissions target on farming and sought clarification about how this was agreed and when, a source said.

Mr Kyne also raised the lack of consultation with party members before the significant policy shift.

Local Government Minister of State John Paul Phelan said the Greens demands were contrary to the national interest when trying to restore the economy after the coronavirus crisis. Mr Phelan also raised the impact of the Green agenda on farmers and rural communities.

Wexford senator Michael DArcy insisted going into government was no in the best interests of the party. He said the party did not win the election and were under no obligation to form the next government.

However, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the meeting he believes a new government will be in place next month.

In a statement after the meeting Fine Gale Parliamentary chairperson Martin Heydon said: Fianna Fail and the Greens, due to begin on Thursday, would be successful, and a Government formed that would last four to five years.

A significant number of party TDs and senators sought reassurances that Fine Gael core values and policys would be reflected in an agreed Programme for Government, he added.

Sources said the Taoiseach committed to more parliamentary party meetings to formulate the Fine Gael position during the talks.

Mr Varadkar held talks with Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Ryan said he hoped to have an agreement on the programme for government by the end of the month.

Mr Ryan also revealed the commitments he received from Mr Martin and Mr Varadkar on reducing emissions by 7pc per year on average over the next 10 years.

The clarification from the two leaders said: We are happy to confirm that a new government comprising our three parties will commit to developing measures to achieve an average 7pc per annum reduction in annual emissions for the next decade.

They said they fully accept reducing emissions will provide better air quality and better quality of life.

It will create jobs and allow for economic opportunities to develop across Ireland as a result of deep retrofitting, renewable energy, peat lands management and green technology, they added.

They said it is important they work with the agriculture sector and rural communities to achieve this goal and ensure there is a just transition built into the process.

We will of course seek to improve farmer incomes and protect the family farm mode as part of the European Green Deal and a revised Common Agriculture Policy, they added.
Financial supports and tax breaks will be examined to help keep workers at home after lockdown, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe says.

The assistance will be on the table once it becomes clear how many people will continue to work from home beyond the crisis.

In an interview with the Irish Independent, Mr Donohoe also said the national roll-out of broadband needs even greater urgency so people living in rural areas are not at a disadvantage.

The minister said he expects some employers to want less office space as more staff work from home after the crisis.

Read More

On the formation of a new government, Mr Donohoe said new laws will need to be passed by the end of June or early July, which the caretaker administration cannot do.

That road will run out, he said.

Mr Donohoe has also announced a series of supports for small and medium-sized businesses.

Mr Donohoe says the next government will have to look at financial supports and tax breaks for people working from home, whether it's equipping their workspaces or adding on extensions.

His predecessor as finance minister, Michael Noonan, brought in a home renovation incentive for homeowners to claim a tax credit on the cost of repairs, renovations and improvements to their house.

Mr Donohoe says supports for people working from home will have to be examined after the lockdown is lifted. He anticipates a large number of people will continue to work from home.

"Yes, we're going to have to give consideration to all of this because there is a degree of behaviour change at the moment that will be temporary. And then there will be some behavioural change at the moment, on behalf of citizens, that will become permanent.

"And at the moment, where we all sit, it's very difficult to know, with all the wisdom in the world, what is a temporary shift in behaviour, or what is a permanent shift in behaviour.

"I would think we'll probably have a real sense of what that looks like some time during the summer, when the public health guidance will have changed. And because of the public health guidance, and we all hope being in a better place than it is now, we'll begin to get a feel as to how people's lives are changing and adjusting in relation to a new normal. And it could well be the case that we then have to support people who are getting ready to work more from home," he said.

The Finance Minister added employers will also be looking at the type and size of office space they are using.

"I would anticipate there will be changes in relation to the space in our cities. Like, for example, I would imagine there are companies that will be considering the use of office space. They'll be asking the question, if we're in a position that more work can happen from home, do we need to continue to use the amount of commercial space they have.

"But then as against that, it may be the case that they need the same amount of commercial space, but with fewer people in it to be consistent with social distancing. And these are the kind of big questions that every employer will have to be answering later on in the year," he said.

Mr Donohoe added that the rollout of the national broadband plan is needed with "a degree of even greater urgency" to ensure workers have the chances whether living in a small village or living in a large city.

"Whether you're on Zoom or Google Hangouts or on Skype, we all know that moment when you're on it, and you're in a meeting, and suddenly lose a person at the other end of it, because the broadband falls and the connectivity falls, and what that is like for the meeting, and for the person participating in the meeting, and also what it will mean, then, for example, for people's ability to access internal company software," he said.

Continued from Page 1
The Prominent Civil Rights Advocacy group-: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has appealed to the Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai to stop some of the military commanders in Kaduna State from arresting and detaining the HUMAN RIGHTS campaigner Mr. Steve Kefas for raising alarm about alleged links of some rogue soldiers and the armed Fulani herdsmen raiding most parts of Southern Kaduna State.

The Rights group said it is imperative that the Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai is made aware of the reported plots by some of his officers in Kaduna to destroy whatever evidence may have been generated after the suspected armed Fulani herdsmen attacked some communities and dropped their handsets which allegedly contain some phone contacts of some soldiers working in Kaduna metropolis just as the Rights group said it is by the media Statement hereby petitioning the Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai and the Chief of civil military Affairs at the Army headquarters to ensure that the legacy of respect for the fundamental human rights of citizens as preached by the hierarchy of the Nigerian Army spearheaded by the current Army Chief Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai is not undermined by some officers in Kaduna State.

"HURIWA wants to plead with the Army Chief who is busy at the theatre of the counter terror war to kindly direct his officers in Kaduna to comply WITH the due process of the law and procedurally investigate the alleged nexus between some of the soldiers in Kaduna whose phone contacts were found in the handsets of some fleeing armed Fulani herdsmen who attacked some Southern Kaduna communities in Kaduna State last week and the armed attackers and if there is a link then the General Officer commanding 1st Division of the Army in Kaduna should constitute a court MARSHAL to deal with the alleged rogue soldiers if the evidence is anything to go by. The Army Chief and the Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu should monitor the process of this investigation to remove any chances of cover up by the officers in Kaduna state."

The Human Right Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) through the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf said it also desires to draw the attention of the general public to the continuous threat to freedom of liberty of Citizen Steven Kefas, a Kaduna based activist. Steven Kefas who spent over a 160 days in Kaduna Prison under very controversial and questionable circumstances has been living as a fugitive months after regaining his freedom.

In a distress call made to HURIWA the writer and freelance journalist narrated how he has been getting strange calls which suggest he is under surveillance. According to him it all started on the 24th of April 2020 after he tweeted a headline from a report published by Zenger News a Washington DC based media organization where a certain mobile phone was recovered from the scene of herdsmen attack in Ungwan Magaji Chawai in Kauru local government area of Kaduna state. The report narrated how some contacts found on the recovered phone are for military and police officers, below is the link to the publication;

https://zenger.news/ 2020/04/23/cell-phone-raises-questions-of-links-between-attackers-and-nigeria-authorities/.

HURIWA recalled that the tweet went viral within hours generating thousands of reactions from Nigerians home and abroad who expressed their various views on the report.

HURIWA recalled that few hours after the tweet, he, Steven got a call from a friend close to the authorities that his tweet didn't go well with the authorities and they are looking for him.

48 hours later he got another call from a friend who works with the security telling him of plans to arrest him over the said tweet.

HURIWA is concerned because neither the Nigerian Army in Kaduna State nor the Kaduna command of the Nigerian police have debunked the report published by Zenger News despite the weighty allegation indicting their personnels of complicity in the various terror attacks that have rocked Southern Kaduna.

HURIWA therefore calls on the Kaduna state government, the Nigerian Army and the Police to ensure that the recovered mobile phone is thoroughly investigated using forensic technology and findings be made public as soon as possible, this will go a long way in dowsing the tension and suspicion created against the security by the report published by Zenger News.

We also call on the security to stop the threat and harrasment to the right to liberty of Citizen Steven Kefas as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Such energy should instead be channeled into bringing the attackers of innocent villagers into book and ensuring that Communities under siege are rescued and are safe for the villagers.

HURIWA wants to reiterate that the news of the recovered mobile phone didn't originate from Steven Kefas as it was earlier published by Zenger News 24 hours(23/4/2020) prior to his tweet and therefore should not be subjected to unecessary emotional torture by the security.

Finally, HURIWA is totally against the spread of fake news and also support prosecution of those found wanting but such must be done according to the rule of law as enshrined in various laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
IntelliSites open, scalable and remote device managed IoT platform combined with its established relationships with key carriers and system integrators has allowed it to demonstrate measurable outcomes and value across a myriad of market segments.

IntelliSite Corporation, a provider of advanced surveillance and monitoring solutions that delivers measurable outcomes for its customers Internet of Things (IoT), Safety & Security and Computer Vision needs, today shared the vision of its new CEO Ken Mills. With a proven track record of building organizations, Mills is rallying IntelliSite around its unique foothold on the marketplace, new brand, and proven IoT cloud platform to build a customer-centric organization whose actionable solutions combine video monitoring, IoT sensor data and artificial intelligence. Mills vision for IntelliSite is built around three core pillars:



Grow IntelliSite through organic growth and acquisitions

Align with todays technology leaders to develop and deliver targeted IoT solutions

Create scalable turnkey solutions that create a safer and smarter world

Mills joins IntelliSite from Dell, where he served as General Manager Safety & Security, Computer Vision and IoT, and was responsible for the development and growth of that business unit from less than $100 million to over $1 billion of global revenues in less than seven years. Mills appointment as CEO has Mario Campos taking over as President of Business Development and Strategy and Jorge Campos assuming the role of Chief Innovation Officer.

I am excited to partner with both founding Campos brothers and DFW Capital to continue to build IntelliSite into a world-class organization, said Mills. IntelliSites open, scalable and remote device managed IoT platform combined with its established relationships with key carriers and system integrators has allowed it to demonstrate measurable outcomes and value across a myriad of market segments. Understanding the needs of the evolving market, we are actively delivering solutions that provide an immediate impact.

Todays announcement coincides with a majority stake of IntelliSites business being acquired by funds managed by DFW Capital, a private equity group. Investment from DFW bolsters IntelliSites position within the IoT sector and allows it to build out its management team, as well as its product development, sales, and marketing organizations. DFWs investment is a critical element to accelerating the growth of IntelliSite both organically and through acquisition of complementary technology and service-oriented companies.

IntelliSites best-in-class technology has allowed it to deliver a value-added platform that can operate independently or in conjunction with an organizations existing infrastructure. IntelliSites Cloud Engine is an IoT platform that enables rapid development, management and scaling of IoT cloud or on-premise solutions. For example, the University of South Florida at St. Petersburg recently turned to IntelliSite to deliver an intelligent crosswalk solution that creates a safer environment for visitors and students. IntelliSite delivered a turnkey, cloud-based solution that combines video monitoring, sensors and analytics, all in accordance with the local laws and the Universitys needs. The versatility of IntelliSites cloud engine platform has allowed IntelliSite to establish a foothold within the healthcare, utility, municipalities, education and water management industries.

IntelliSites third emphasis is building out its ecosystem of partners. With open and scalable solutions, IntelliSites products have the capacity to engage with a wide arrange of partners, including global service providers, system integrators, distributors and complimentary technology providers.

The pervasiveness of IoT continues to drive businesses and their use of collected data to transform and address business critical challenges across every industry. Research by Statista Research Department states that IoT growth will continue to be rapid  with the global market for IoT end-user solutions expected to grow to around $1.6 trillion by 2025.

IntelliSites Unique Value

IntelliSites customers include PG&E, The City of Riverbank, City of Vallejo, University of South Florida, CalTrans, and Friant Water Authority among many others. The companys LTE-equipped IoT platform offers utilities, telecommunications, healthcare and other businesses and public organizations a comprehensive, plug and play cloud-based data-management solution featuring:

The IntelliSite Cloud Engine, which offers dashboards, analytics and remote device management for increasing bandwidth and control in a secure environment

The Universal IoT Gateway, which empowers enterprises with the ability to manage data collection from remote sensors

The IntelliSite Edge Controller, which provides remote management of device connectivity

About IntelliSite Corporation

IntelliSite Corporation, a portfolio company of DFW Capital Partners, is an industry leader of advanced surveillance and monitoring systems that delivers outcomes for its customers Internet of Things (IoT), Safety & Security and Computer Vision needs. Tapping into the connectivity afforded by the Internet of Things, IntelliSites platform delivers a wide range of managed applications that creates connected businesses and actionable outcomes. Founded in 2001, IntelliSite Corporation provides enterprise-scale solutions spanning across public works, financial, energy, agriculture, retail, and education. IntelliSite can be found at http://www.intellisite.io or via Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook.
By ANI

KABUL: The Afghan government has released 102 more Taliban prisoners in line with the US-Taliban peace deal signed in February this year.

"Pursuant to President Ashraf Ghani's decree, the government released 102 Taliban yesterday. Over 850 has been released, getting us more than halfway to 1,500. More can be released upon the start of talks," National Security Council Spokesperson Javid Faisal wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

On Sunday, Javid Faisal had said that Taliban prisoners were being released based on their age, health, and length of remaining sentence as part of efforts toward peace and battling COVID-19.

The prisoner exchange and launch of the intra-Afghan talks became possible after the Taliban and the United States reached a peace deal in February this year.

However, at this point, the talks have been delayed due to Afghanistan's electoral tussle and mutual disagreements over the release of prisoners.

The Taliban is demanding that the Afghan government to release 5,000 prisoners on the basis of the peace deal. Meanwhile, the Afghan government is gradually releasing 1,500 members of the movement.
Response to 'Illegitimate' US Plan to Extend Iran's Arms Embargo Will Be Proportionate - Mousavi

Sputnik News

06:17 GMT 04.05.2020(updated 06:45 GMT 04.05.2020)

Earlier, US State Secretary Mike Pompeo said that Washington would do everything to extend the arms embargo against Iran and is working with the UN Security Council members on the issue.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said that Tehran not seeking to withdrew from 2015 nuclear deal.

Iran dismissed as "illegitimate" efforts by the US to extend the UN Security Council arms embargo on Tehran, he added.

"Iran is not seeking to exit the 2015 nuclear deal with six powers ... America's move is illegitimate and our reaction will be proportionate," Abbas Mousavi said in a televised weekly news conference.

In 2015, Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and the European Union.

It required Iran to scale back its nuclear program and severely downgrade its uranium reserves in exchange for sanctions relief, including lifting the arms embargo five years after the deal's adoption.

In 2018, the United States abandoned its conciliatory policy on Iran, withdrawing from the JCPOA and hitting Iranian petroleum industries with sanctions.

A Sputnik

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Environmental activists and diplomats welcomed the U.N.'s decision to put off climate talks until next year, saying the delay would allow world leaders to recalibrate their plans in light of the coronavirus pandemic and avoid the uncertainty surrounding the next presidential election in the U.S.

Organizers said Wednesday that the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change conference scheduled for November in Glasgow, Scotland, would be postponed until sometime next year in light of the global pandemic. Under the original schedule, the talks were set to open six days after Election Day in the U.S.; now negotiators will have at least several months to prepare for how to respond to the outcome.

"It was never ideal that the [conference] was going to start a couple days after the U.S. election, said Sue Biniaz, a former State Department climate official who left the government in 2017. It might actually be better for the Paris agreement to give countries a little more time. In 2015 when we said lets do this 2020 update of enhancing [national pledges], we were certainly not imagining a global recession at this point.

President Donald Trump can officially remove the U.S., the worlds largest historical emitter, from the Paris climate agreement in November. Democratic White House contenders Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders have said they would rejoin the pact of nearly 200 countries.

The diplomats who designed the Paris agreement envisioned the 2020 meeting as a crucial political deadline for countries to enhance their climate commitments to more aggressively corral planet-warming gases  even though many nations are still far from reaching the initial pledges they made in 2015. But it has become increasingly clear that few governments have the capacity or luxury of working on comprehensive plans to green their societies given the effort to manage the coronavirus pandemic.

I think it's a very good decision  it would be crazy to organize this, said Laurence Tubiana, who led the process on the Paris agreement, of the postponement. Everybody is fixed on the solution of the health crisis and the recovery.

Story continues

Tubiana and others said pushing the talks to next year could lead to a stronger outcome, if they encourage governments to craft post-coronavirus stimulus plans with climate action in mind. Tubiana suggested spending packages could focus on resilient infrastructure and preparing a workforce for zero-carbon energy, transportation and manufacturing sectors.

Soon, economies will restart. This is a chance for nations to recover better, to include the most vulnerable in those plans, and a chance to shape the 21st century economy in ways that are clean, green, healthy, just, safe and more resilient, said Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Even the European Union, which has positioned itself as the worlds climate leader, has seen coronavirus overshadow its ambitious Green Deal plan that aims for a sweeping decarbonization of its economic and energy system.

EU Green Deal chief Frans Timmermans said Wednesday the decision makes sense," adding the Commission won't slow down our work domestically or internationally to prepare for an ambitious COP26, when it takes place.

Over the past year, European climate diplomacy has focused on persuading major emitters  especially China, India and other emerging powerhouses  to raise their pledges this year, and follow Europes lead in adopting a climate neutrality goal by 2050. For the U.K., hosting the conference was meant to showcase the countrys international reach  even after Brexit.

We will continue working tirelessly with our partners to deliver the ambition needed to tackle the climate crisis and I look forward to agreeing a new date for the conference, COP26 President-Designate and U.K Business Secretary Alok Sharma said in a statement.

Last month, former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, whos advising the U.K. government on climate finance, warned that the coronavirus pandemic was making it more difficult to prepare for Novembers COP26. Within the private finance work there is international and financial diplomacy which will have to be conducted by other means, but we will do our utmost in order to accomplish that, he said.

Some nations also worry financing for climate change will come to a trickle as countries necessarily shift resources to combat the virus, said Ambassador Janine Felson of Belize, who is the deputy chairwoman of a group of smaller island states. She said delaying this year's meeting might therefore be beneficial in some ways. Belize already is diverting funds and personnel away from climate initiatives to address the coronavirus, and the Central American nation will also face other pressures like preparing for the Atlantic hurricane season.

Countries really are in a pickle, Felson told POLITICO. How do we expect countries will be able to put forward something meaningful and robust in terms of climate ambition?

The calls on the U.N. to postpone the conference had been growing louder as scores of international bodies, such as the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, had postponed their programs, and others moved meetings online.

Germanys Environment Minister Svenja Schulze said late last month that Germany would hold Aprils Petersberg Climate Dialogue, one of the political summits leading up to the climate conferences, via videoconference. The U.K. team leading the upcoming talks has been engaged in virtual diplomacy even while dealing with travel restrictions wrought by the coronavirus, noted Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

But insiders say the U.K. doesnt want a repeat of Madrid where large blocs of vulnerable parties felt excluded from the process. Virtual consultations can cover some part of the work, but youre not going to get those agreed to until you can get people together physically, Meyer said.

Activists and long-standing climate summit participants also cautioned that shifting negotiations online risked sidelining vulnerable and developing countries which might not have access to the internet and face other challenges to connect. Campaigners also worried that online negotiations would limit the number of outside groups that could participate and undermine transparency in the process.

Still, many say Covid-19 offered an opportunity to rebuild with an eye toward climate change. They noted climate change is another looming global crisis that scientists have for years warned nations are not adequately addressing or prepared to handle.

Country delegations should use this extra time to ensure the economic response to Covid-19 doesnt entrench the climate crisis, but instead accelerates the transition to a zero carbon world, said Mohamed Adow, a climate activist with Power Shift Africa.

One of the main unresolved issues from previous climate talks that required extra attention in the run up to Glasgow hits at the center of economic recovery and climate change: How to boost green finance, especially for poorer nations and those most immediately affected by rising seas, drought and other events linked to climate change.

Given its role in global finance, the U.K. team has planned to make banking and money flows a main pillar of the COP26 program. Some climate advocates suggested the extra time between the crisis and the conference would enable countries to consider stimulus plans that put people back to work while also achieving long-term emissions reductions and preparing for the effects of climate change.

Maybe you have really intense focus on the [climate] finance and economic issues  bring those two together in the recovery from this virus, said Rachel Kyte, the former World Bank vice president and special envoy for climate change who is now dean of Tufts Universitys Fletcher School. If in the teeth of this crisis the public sector has understood that it has a role and it can print money, we need to carry that new re-realization into this recovery for climate.

Charlie Cooper contributed to this report.

This article is part of POLITICOs Sustainability Pro service, which dives deep into sustainability issues across all sectors, including: circular economy, waste and the plastics strategy, chemicals and more. For a complimentary trial, email pro@politico.eu mentioning Sustainability.
For much of the last two months, President Donald Trump has rarely left the grounds of the White House as he's dealt with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and sought to minimize his own exposure to the disease.

But that changes Tuesday, when Trump is scheduled to travel to Arizona to visit a Honeywell facility that makes N95 masks in what the president suggests will mark the return to more regular travel.

The trip also means a small army of advisers, logistical experts and security staff a coterie of hundreds that includes personnel from the White House, Defense Department, Secret Service and more will resume regularly hitting the road again and taking a measure of risk to assist Trump.

In addition to Tuesday's trip to Honeywell, Trump says he will travel soon to Ohio, to New York in June for the US Military Academy graduation, and to South Dakota in July for a holiday fireworks display at Mount Rushmore. Trump says he's also eager to get back on the campaign trail, though he acknowledged during a Fox forum Sunday that it might not be able to hold his signature big-stadium rallies until the final months before the November 3 election.

I've been at the White House now for many months, and I'd like to get out, as much as I love this. ... Most beautiful house in the world, Trump said in announcing his travel plans.

At a moment when public health officials have asked Americans to postpone nonessential travel to help stem the coronavirus, Trump is looking to rev the engines of Air Force One as he tries to prod a shell-shocked American electorate reeling from the death and economic destruction wrought by the virus to edge back to normal life.

But White House officials are also taking precautions to try to prevent Trump and Vice President Mike Pence from exposure to the virus. Honeywell workers who meet Trump on Tuesday just like anyone else who comes in close proximity to the president and vice president will be first required to take a rapid point-of-care test to determine if they're carrying the virus.

When preparing for and carrying out any travel, the White House's operational teams work together to ensure plans to incorporate current CDC guidance and best practices for limiting COVID-19 exposure are followed to the greatest extent possible," White House spokesman Judd Deere said.

But Matt Bennett, who served as Vice President Al Gore's trip director, said he worries that Trump is putting his staff, military personnel and local and state officials at unnecessary risk.

"I think there is a value of seeing our leaders out in the country and escaping the White House," said Bennett, executive vice president at the center-left think tank Third Way. "But it has to be balanced against the cost. The cost here could be the health and safety of a lot of people.

James McCann, a Purdue University political scientist who has studied presidential travel, said that Trump early in his term traveled significantly less frequently on official presidential business compared to his four predecessors. But now that a big campaign rally is not possible, Trump is searching for a way to assert himself.

Trump is itching to get into campaign mode, McCann said. Marc Short, Pence's chief of staff, told reporters the vice president, who last week traveled to Indiana and Minnesota, has been debriefing the White House Military Office after each trip to discuss planning and protocols.

Typically, White House advance staff fly commercial airlines when traveling to scout a location before a presidential or vice presidential visit. But Short said staffers are now taking military aircraft. Ahead of Pence's trip to an Indiana plant where ventilators are being manufactured, advance staffers were not allowed to leave the military base where Air Force Two landed, Short said.

The Secret Service, which is tasked with protecting the president and his family, wouldn't get into the details of how it's altering operations but said it's following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance.

Since the beginning of this pandemic, the Secret Service has been working with all of our public safety partners and the White House Medical Unit to ensure the safety and security of both our protected persons and our employees, said Justine Whelan, a spokeswoman for the agency.

In addition to the White House advance staff, which is tasked with plotting out the smallest details of the president's visit, the Secret Service sends its own advance team that maps out security for the visit. Officials from the White House communications office advance team are dispatched to set security telephone access for the president should he need it.

The president flies on Air Force One, military-operated aircraft, on all trips, regardless of whether it is White House business, political or personal travel. The Defense Department also airlifts equipment such as armored limousines and occasionally helicopters for the president's travel.

The Military Working Dog Programme and Explosive Ordnance Disposal Programme are dispatched to support protection of the president. Typically, about a dozen members of the media travel with the president on Air Force One at their organization's expense.

The president usually travels with a representative from the press office, the chief of staff's office and the National Security Council, as well as a personal assistant. Other aides, like his economic advisers, a Cabinet secretary or lawmakers, also may join depending on the nature of the visit.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Anne Papsodero, a Brooklyn native and mother of three who works for a major furniture company and resides with her husband and children in Orlando, Florida, has published her new book The Journey Back: One Mans Fight: a detailed reflection on her husbands courageous battle to recover from a devastating medical event that changed their lives forever.

This is a harrowing true story of how one man overcame a near-death experience and lived to tell about it. He fought every day with his wife and children by his side. Relearning everything from speaking to feeding himself, his wife never gave up hope. No matter what the cost, his wife would do it to make sure that he was well taken care of. She spent many sleepless nights wondering when he would be coming home. Balancing a full-time job, children, family discord, and her husband clinging to life, she was at her wits end and needed all the support she could get. Reluctantly, she moved her mother-in-law in with her. Would her husband make a full recovery? Would life return to normal? That and many other questions still remained unanswered.

Published by Page Publishing, Anne Papsoderos engrossing book is an inspiring true story of love, determination, and tragedy in a close-knit Florida family.

Readers who wish to experience this engaging work can purchase The Journey Back: One Mans Fight at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708.

About Page Publishing:

Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues to focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com.
Local COVID-19 mobile testing sites, including units in Pearland and League City, are opening this week.

In addition, state Sen. Carol Alvarado, District 6, is hosting free drive-through mask distribution from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, May 5 at BakerRipley Cleveland Campus, 720 Fairmont Parkway, Pasadena and from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 9 at South Houston City Hall, 1018 Dallas St. South Houston.

MORE FROM TED DUNNAM: Pasadena drive nets food pantries $50,000, truckloads of food

Drive-through testing in League City

Registration is open for Community ERs appointment-only drive-through testing beginning Wednesday, May 6 at Creekside Intermediate School, 4320 W. Main St. in League City.

Appointments are available between 9 a.m. and noon. To register, visit www.CommunityERHouston.com, click on Get Tested and choose Clear Lake Location.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Coronavirus live updates: Gov. Abbott announces reopening dates for Texas salons, barbershops

Individuals may also call 281-453-7777 to register or obtain further information. The cost at this site is insurance required or cash payment. Those without insurance are encouraged to call the Galveston County Health District at 409-938-7221.

Free mobile testing in west Pearland

The Texas Department of Health and Human Services will provide a free mobile testing site at Shadow Creek Ranch High School at 11850 Broadway. That testing will be conducted from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 6.

Those wanting to be tested must register either online at www.txcovidtest.org or call 512-883-2400 for an appointment time. Tests are conducted by appointment only.

MORNING REPORT: Get the top stories on HoustonChronicle.com sent directly to your inbox

On April 24, Texas Health and Human Services provided a free mobile testing site at Pearland Junior High School. At this site, 74 tests were administered. Sixty-three Brazoria County residents were tested, plus 11 tests conducted on people living outside of the county, according to a press release from County Judge Matt Sebesta Jr.s office. No Brazoria County residents tested positive, and of the 11 tests on people from outside of the county, one tested positive.

Testing planned in Sweeny, Lake Jackson

Also in Brazoria County, Community Health Network is partnering with the county, Homeland Preparedness Project, Sweeny Community Hospital and Brazosport College to offer free COVID-19 testing to Brazoria county residents this week in Sweeny and Lake Jackson.

Sweeny Community Hospital will have testing through Tuesday through Friday, May 5-8. The hospital is at 305 N. McKinney Street in Sweeny.

Brazosport College, 500 College Drive in Lake Jackson, will host testing from May 12-15.

Hours of operation at both sites is from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

CHNs Call Center is available at 281-824-1480. The call center is open Monday- Friday from 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m.

CHN accepts Medicaid, CHIP, Medicare, private insurance, and cash payments. Individuals and families that are uninsured may be eligible for care at a discounted price. More information is available at www.mychn.org.
On the Frontline Against China, the US Coast Guard Is Taking on Missions the US Navy Can't Do

Competition with China has drawn more Pentagon resources to the Pacific, but the most visible U.S. military presence there...
- Financialnewsmedia.com News Commentary

PALM BEACH, Florida, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The global nanoemulsions market is forecast to reach USD $16.18 Billion by 2026, according to a new report by Reports and Data. Nanoemulsions have proved to be a novel drug delivery system that allows controlled or sustained release of drug, genetic material, and biologically active ingredient. The interest in the market was developed approximately two decades ago for its nanoparticle preparation, but only recently, was the drug being commercially used in cosmetics and pharmacy. Increasing application in the cosmetic industry is encouraging the growth of the product. The report says that nanoemulsion is witnessing a steep demand from the cosmetics industry and its growth will also spread out across other markets. For example, an increase in application of nanoemulsions in anesthetic drug delivery is also propelling the growth of the market. The segment is forecasted to have the highest growth rate of 7.0% during the forecast period. Active companies in the markets this week include: Pressure BioSciences, Inc. (OTCQB: PBIO), Coty Inc. (NYSE: COTY), The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE: EL), Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: NUS), Revlon, Inc. (NYSE: REV)

The report continues: "On the basis of the route of administration, the topical route is forecasted to have the highest growth rate of 10.0% during the forecast period. Nanoemulsion is the positive alternative to increase the drug delivery system penetration by increasing its absorption through the skin, which provides more and better retention in affected areas leading to lesser side effects. Nanoemulsion of plant-based extracts is increasing the demand for the market. Nanoemulsion drugs are generally found in hospitals. The hospital chain is forecasted to have the largest market share of (about) 47% in the year 2018 whereas retail stores are forecasted to grow with the highest CAGR of 9.9% during the forecast period owing to the high demand of the market in cosmetics and baby-care product."

Pressure BioSciences, Inc. (OTCQB: PBIO) BREAKING NEWS:Pressure BioSciences Announces Planned Name Change to "Availa Bio" Following Completion of Cannaworx and SkinScience Labs Transactions - Pressure BioSciences, a leader in the development and sale of broadly enabling, pressure-based instruments, consumables, and platform technology solutions to the worldwide biotechnology, biotherapeutics, cosmeceuticals, nutraceuticals, and food & beverage industries, today announced its intention to change the corporation's name to Availa Bio upon completion of the acquisitions and merger of Cannaworx, Inc. and SkinScience Labs, Inc. with PBI. The three companies will operate as synergistic divisions within the combined "Availa Bio" entity. This strategic change in corporate identity and branding reflects the science-driven collaboration of the companies focused on the overarching priority of leveraging the revolutionary Ultra Shear Technology(UST) platform to bring significant new value to consumers in optimized bioavailability, absorption, quality and performance across Availa Bio's diverse range of human, animal and agricultural products being introduced in the coming months or already on market.

Mr. Richard T. Schumacher, President and CEO of PBI, explained: "PBI's UST platform offers the potential to deliver an extraordinary breakthrough in creating unique, high quality nanoemulsions of oil in water. A vast range of personal care and consumption products, including nutraceuticals, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, food & beverages, all face the perplexing challenge of getting active oil-based nutrients or therapeutic ingredients to become easily absorbable and effective in the water-based biology of our bodies. The opportunity to combine our strong engineering and biotech capabilities with two companies that already provide product innovation and brand leadership in diverse consumer product areas is very exciting and allows us to clearly move the identity and market focus of the combined companies from science platforms to the value delivery of availability and performance of active ingredients in final products."

Dr. Bobby Ghalili, President of Cannaworx, Inc., expanded: "My co-founder in Cannaworx is Dr. Adrienne Denese, MD, Ph.D., the founder, innovator and spokesperson behind over $500M in Dr. Denese SkinScience product line sales for the past 17 years on QVC. These skin care and anti-aging products are part of our planned rollup of companies under Availa Bio. In our rapidly expanding line of innovative human, veterinary and agricultural products, several of which incorporate phytocannabinoids from hemp oil, we are utilizing our own oral and topical proprietary bioavailability and absorption delivery technology. The UST platform will now allow us to deliver high performance nanoemulsions, further increasing both bioavailability and absorption rates. Our planned rollout of Cannaworx products over the coming months includes two patented oral phytocannabinoid formulations that incorporate indications for pain relief allowed under an FDA OTC monograph. We believe our combined portfolios of intellectual property will give Availa Bio a significant competitive advantage within the industries we serve." 

 Dr. Denese, President of SkinScience Labs, added her enthusiasm for the combination of the three companies: "My decades of development and marketing of skin care and anti-aging products that meet the scrutiny and demands of an extremely loyal following of consumers has always required us to be leaders in quality and performance, not just for results but in the entire product experience perceived by our users. We quickly realized that the Ultra Sheer Technology platform offered the opportunity to improve not only the performance of our existing, highly-regarded formulations, but also to achieve new heights within the entire cosmetics industry."Read this and more news for Pressure BioSciences at:https://www.financialnewsmedia.com/news-pbio/

Other recent developments in the markets include:

Coty Inc. (NYSE: COTY) recently announced it has started producing hydro-alcoholic gel, which is used as hand sanitizer, to help combat the COVID-19 virus. Production and donations are expected to reach tens of thousands of units per week. The products are free of charge and are being distributed to medical and emergency services staff who are facing shortages due to the fast-spreading COVID-19 virus. Products will also be provided to Coty employees working in the plants and distribution centers producing sanitizers, as well as pharmacy staff at some retail customers.

The Company has produced its first batches of hand sanitizer at factories in the United States and Monaco. Additional factories will start production within the week. Production depends on the resources and materials available as well as local government regulations.

The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE: EL) recently reported net sales of $3.35 billion for its third quarter ended March 31, 2020, a decrease of 11% from $3.74 billion in the prior-year period. Excluding the impact of currency translation, net sales decreased 9%. The net sales decline was driven by retail store closures as a result of the global spread of COVID-19 that was partially offset by the inclusion of net sales from the Company's recent acquisition of Have&Be Co. Ltd. ("Dr. Jart+"), which contributed approximately 2 percentage points to reported net sales growth.

The Company reported a net loss of $(6) million, compared with net earnings of $555 million last year. Diluted net loss per common share was $(.02), compared with diluted earnings per common share of $1.51 reported in the prior-year period. Excluding the negative impact of currency translation, adjusted diluted earnings per common share, which excludes items detailed on page 5, fell 45% to $.86.

Fabrizio Freda, President and Chief Executive Officer said, "While the terrific double-digit momentum in sales growth from the first half of our fiscal year carried into January, the dynamics in the quarter changed significantly as COVID-19 spread beyond Asia. By early March, consumers around the world began social distancing which resulted in lower traffic in retail locations. As March evolved, most retail stores temporarily closed and consumers increasingly stayed home. In this very complex and unprecedented environment, there were several bright spots across our portfolio which drove global prestige beauty share expansion in the quarter. The Estee Lauder, Darphin, and Le Labo brands grew, global online sales rose strong double-digits, sales in mainland China and global travel retail increased, and skin care sales grew internationally, including Dr. Jart+. The surge in our online business worldwide, coupled with the recovery we are seeing emerge in China, confirm consumers' passion for our prestige beauty portfolio.

Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: NUS) Nu Skin's ageLOC LumiSpa was recently named the recipient of the 2020 NewBeauty Award for Best Cleansing Device. Award winners were selected by NewBeauty editors for the 10th Annual NewBeauty Awards, one of the leading publications and awards programs in the beauty industry.

ageLOC LumiSpa is a dual-action personal skin care device that works with specifically formulated treatment cleansers to deliver dramatic skin renewal and deep cleansing in a single treatment. It has been a top-selling product for Nu Skin in the world's number one at-home beauty device system brand in 2017 and 2018*. LumiSpa's success since its launch two years ago has also helped the ageLOC product line to grow into a cumulative $10 billion brand worldwide.

Revlon, Inc. (NYSE: REV) recently announced two important steps forward in strengthening the Company's business, capital structure and foundation for future growth. First, the Company executed an agreement with Jefferies Finance LLC that will significantly enhance the Company's capital structure by refinancing the Company's Senior Notes due February 2021 and 2019 Term Loan, extend the Company's near-term maturities and deliver new funding for the business.

Second, the Company announced a new Revlon 2020 Restructuring Program that is expected to generate significant annualized cost reductions of between $200 and $230 million by the end of 2022. The goal of the 2020 Program is to build a stronger global business operation, enhance the Company's cost efficiency, and improve operating margin to continue accelerating the growth in operating income and profitability that the Company saw in 2019.

DISCLAIMER: FN Media Group LLC (FNM), which owns and operates FinancialNewsMedia.com and MarketNewsUpdates.com, is a third party publisher and news dissemination service provider, which disseminates electronic information through multiple online media channels. FNM is NOT affiliated in any manner with any company mentioned herein. FNM and its affiliated companies are a news dissemination solutions provider and are NOT a registered broker/dealer/analyst/adviser, holds no investment licenses and may NOT sell, offer to sell or offer to buy any security. FNM's market updates, news alerts and corporate profiles are NOT a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell or hold securities. The material in this release is intended to be strictly informational and is NEVER to be construed or interpreted as research material. All readers are strongly urged to perform research and due diligence on their own and consult a licensed financial professional before considering any level of investing in stocks. All material included herein is republished content and details which were previously disseminated by the companies mentioned in this release. FNM is not liable for any investment decisions by its readers or subscribers. Investors are cautioned that they may lose all or a portion of their investment when investing in stocks. For current services performed FNM has been compensated forty six hundred dollars for news coverage of the current press releases issued by Pressure BioSciences, Inc. by the Company. FNM HOLDS NO SHARES OF ANY COMPANY NAMED IN THIS RELEASE.

This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may", "future", "plan" or "planned", "will" or "should", "expected," "anticipates", "draft", "eventually" or "projected". You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company's annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and FNM undertakes no obligation to update such statements.

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If youre like me, the first time you encountered the term suspended animation was in comic books. It was a convenient device for getting a character out of the way for a while.

It also happens to perfectly describe the current state of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. If events had gone off on schedule, Joe Biden would have been piling up primary victories and delegates.

But then came the coronavirus, just in time to knock Bidens big March 17 win in Florida out of the news.

Other primaries were postponed. That means Bidens now got just 1,435 of the 1,991 delegates needed for a first-ballot victory at the party convention this summer.

I put that word in quotes because theres a good chance the partys planned gathering in Milwaukee could devolve into a giant Zoom session.

That leaves plenty of room for maneuvering, and if I were the Democrats Id take advantage of it to find a new candidate to go up against President Trump.

The best choice certainly is not the guy who stumbled his way through an interview on Morning Joe last week.

The subject was the charge from former Biden aide Tara Reade that he sexually assaulted her back in 1993.

Co-host Mika Brzezinski brought up Bidens statements during the hearings on sex-assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. She asked Biden, Given the fact that you have said in the past that if a woman goes under the lights and talks about something like this, we have to consider that the essence of this is real, is the essence of what she is saying real? Why do you think she is doing this?

Im not going to question her motive, Biden replied. Im not going to get into that at all. I dont know why shes saying this. I dont know why after 27 years all of a sudden this gets raised. I dont understand it.

I understand it. Ever since the confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, the Democrats have employed allegations of sexual misdeeds to try to derail the nominations of candidate that they couldnt get rid of on other grounds.

That has sparked a debate among my fellow conservatives about the tactical value of attacking Biden. In the beginning, there were many such attacks. But lately a lot of conservatives are laying off Biden on the theory that they dont want to give the Democrats a do-over.

No one other than Biden and Reade knows what happened back in 1993. But everyone can see the still photos and videos of him laying hands on various women.

That was brought up a year ago, as Biden was entering the race, by a candidate for lieutenant governor of Nevada named Lucy Flores. Flores complained that before a rally Biden pulled his trademark move of coming up behind her, putting his hands on her shoulders, and planting a big slow kiss on the back of her head.

"His behavior wasn't violent or sexual, it was demeaning and disrespectful," Flores said last year.

Reade also complained of that type of behavior by Biden before the encounter that - if she is to be believed  led to her getting pushed out of her job.

I remember talking about him wanting me to serve drinks because he liked my legs and thought I was pretty and it made me uncomfortable, Reade has said.

It may be true that Donald Trump has been accused of much worse. But Trumps not running as a Democrat.

Biden is. Hes also, at 77, the first presidential nominee in history who appears unable to run for a second term because of his age.

Those videos he has been releasing from quarantine in his Delaware home give a hint of what Democrats could expect from their flag-bearer as we head into the general election.

In one, Biden motions with his hand to some unseen person for help as he says, And uh, in addition to that, in addition to that, we have to make sure that we, uh, are in a position, that we are, we. Let me go to the second thing.

Watching it, I started feeling sorry for the poor guy. He has to realize hes only the nominee because of the most bizarre week in recent politics.

Going into the South Carolina primary on Feb. 29, Biden looked like a sure loser. But after a win there and a streak of wins on Super Tuesday, Biden suddenly became the consensus nominee.

That consensus was based on the need to keep self-described democratic socialist Bernie Sanders from getting the nomination.

But there were better ways of accomplishing that.

I imagine quite a few Democrats are pondering them.

ADD - AN INQUIRY PANEL?

A New York Times editorial calls for the formation of a panel to investigate Reades claims against Biden.

If the Democratic leaders agree, that will only prolong the publicity about Bidens behavior, which makes him look like a stereotypical dirty old man.
A petition has been filed in the



Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court against a civic body notification imposing a revised lockdown in the city on par with the Mumbai, Pune and Malegaon regions.

As per the notification issued on Sunday by Nagpur Municipal Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe, the restrictions in place till May 3 will remain in force during the lockdown period till May 17.

The plea, filed by five lawyers Prakash Jaiswal, Kishore Lambat, Kamal Satuja, Manoj Sable and Shreerang Bhandarkar, has challenged the notification and termed it as illegal, arbitrary and unreasonable.

As per the plea, the Union government on May 2 issued guidelines under which each area or district across the country was divided into three zones red, orange and green



depending on the severity of COVID-19 in that particular area.

The guidelines prescribed activities and relaxations on the lockdown in each zone.

The Maharashtra government also issued guidelines, permitting of opening standalone shops, liquor outlets, private offices with 33 per cent and other relaxations in COVID-19 non-containment zones.

It extended the easing of restrictions for shops in the red zones as well.

The petition said even though Nagpur was in the red zone, the guidelines permitted liquor shops, stand-alone shops and private offices with 33 per cent staff strength to start functioning.

"However, on the same day, the Nagpur civic body through its commissioner altered the guidelines issued by the Union government on the ground that considering the number of COVID-19 positive cases in Nagpur, it was necessary to implement even more strict measures during the lockdown period till May 17, the petition said.

The revised lockdown puts Nagpur on par with the lockdown imposed in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Pune Metropolitan Region and Malegaon (in Nashik district), the plea said.

"The notification issued by the Nagpur civic body is abuse of power and passed without any authority under law, and is illegal, arbitrary, unreasonable and perverse, which deserves to be quashed and set aside, the petition said.

The petition is likely to be taken up for urgent hearing this week.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP >> In the wake of several pedestrian fatalities, the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors is moving forward with a multi-pronged plan to improve safety along Sycamore Street, the townships downtown commercial corridor. At its Jan. 13 meeting, the board voted unanimously to follow the short term and long term recommendations of its traffic engineer, Derek Kennedy, who was...
The Walt Disney character Mickey Mouse greets children at Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida. Getty Images

Last year, Disney's Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products segment was its fastest-growing profit driver. Now, it could be the company's biggest drag on earnings, thanks to the Covid-19 outbreak. The coronavirus pandemic has caused many headaches for Disney. The company has faced movie theater closures, film and TV production shutdowns, docked cruise ships and the suspension of most live sporting events. However, its theme parks are expected to take the biggest hit.

On Tuesday afternoon, Disney is set to tell investors how the company fared during the first three months of the year, its fiscal second-quarter. However, the true scale of the outbreak's impact on Disney won't be clear until late summer. The coronavirus pandemic has crippled the theme park industry, causing amusement parks around the globe to shutter in order to stem the rate of infection. Disney's parks are part of a larger segment that includes experiences  cruises, resorts and guided tours  and consumer products that range from T-shirts to kitchenwares.

Last year, this segment accounted for 37% of the company's $69.6 billion in total revenue. The success of the Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products arm of the company is likely part of the reason that its head Bob Chapek was tapped to take the role of CEO from long-time Disney leader Bob Iger. Disney declined CNBC's request for comment on this story.

Park closures

The first theme park closures Disney faced were in Asia. On Jan. 25, the company was forced to shutter Shanghai Disney. A day later, it closed Hong Kong Disneyland. When Disney reported its first-quarter earnings on Feb. 4, it told investors that it expected to take a $175 million hit from the closures of those two parks, if they remained shuttered for two months. By Feb. 29, Disney was forced to close Tokyo Disneyland, as Japan tightened restrictions on public gathering locations. Disney was able to reopen Disneytown, a shopping center, Wishing Star Park and the Disneyland Hotel in Shanghai on March 9. However, almost a week later on March 14, the company shuttered Disneyland in California and Disneyland Paris. Walt Disney World closed to the public on March 15.

Disney theme parks are closed as the coronavirus continues to spread across the United States on March 14, 2020 in Anaheim, California. Rich Fury | Getty Images

Over the next week, Disney hotels and shopping centers in California and Florida closed. As of Monday, Disney has not disclosed plans for any park reopening. Currently, analysts are split on when theme parks will reopen in the U.S., in particular. John Hodulik, the managing director of investment research at global financial firm UBS, doesn't foresee park doors opening until 2021. Whereas, Alexia Quadrani, from JPMorgan, suggests parks could open as soon as June 1. Rival Universal Studios is using May 31 as a placeholder date for a possible opening.

The coronavirus effect

In 2019, Disney's Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products segment garnered $6.17 billion in revenue during the second quarter ending March 30, representing 41.3% of Disney's total revenue during that three-month period. While Disney will take a hit from parks being closed for a portion of the second quarter, the third quarter will be much worse, as parks will likely have been closed for the full three-month period. To reduce costs, Disney has furloughed as many as 100,000 workers, mostly park employees, slashed executive pay and taken a $5 billion line of credit. In June, Disney's board will decide if it will pay its usual summer dividend. Hodulik predicts that profit in the Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products division will fall around $500 million this year and $200 million in 2021. Disney, as well as other theme park owners, will likely face difficulties when reopening parks, as the need for social distancing, travel restrictions and new health precautions will remain until there is a widely available vaccine.

Tourists at Disney town on May 05, 2020 in Shanghai, China. Hu Chengwei | Getty Images
When the World Health Organization announced that 2020 would be the Year of the Nurse and Midwife, it could not have anticipated how appropriate that title would be. There has been one constant in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic  the care of a nurse.

The University of Houston College of Nursing is committed to teach the next generation of nurses what it means to build professional leaders and clinical experts for excellence in health care through strong inter-professional collaborations and partnerships, said Kathryn Tart, professor and founding dean of the college. It takes us all, working together, to support our community, our state, our nation and the world.

As health care workers move to the front lines of the pandemic, the colleges faculty members and students are answering that call.

Professor of Practice Tracy McManaman-Bridges is a lecturer in the colleges Second Degree BSN program. She oversees students activities in the obstetrics simulation lab and the obstetrics curriculum. She has her faculty practice at Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital as an OB nurse caring for patients throughout the pandemic.

Lee Anne Lightfoot, clinical assistant professor at the college, has served at two area hospitals, through her faculty practice, as an operations administrator, screening and treating positive COVID-19 patients in the intensive care units and on designated medical/surgical COVID-19 units.

Every time we discharge a recovered COVID patient, The Beatles song, Here Comes the Sun or Andra Days inspirational song, Rise Up is played overhead, she said. It brings a tear to my eyes  another life saved by the heroes in scrubs.

Lightfoots area of expertise is in administration leadership and medical surgical nursing. She said at each shift change, a round of applause is played overhead to thank the staff at the front lines.

The nurses are resilient, she said. Best profession ever.

The impact of the colleges faculty is felt by their students, whose passion for nursing is sparked and nurtured.

Raul Silva, a student in the colleges RN-to-BSN program, chose to pause his academic goals so he could use his nursing skills in New York, one of the highest-concentrated areas of

COVID-19 cases.

Silva, a registered nurse who already was employed at HCA Kingwood as an emergency room nurse, now is working 12- to 14-hour days, five days a week at the Mamonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York.

I am placed in a recovery hospital to aid in continuity of care for all recovering COVID patients, he said. We can see up to 10 patients per nurse. Our role is to encourage breathing exercises, wean them off oxygen dependency and help them with their medication regimens.

This is the first time Silva ever has been to New York. He plans to return to UH for classes in the fall.

I want to give recognition to all health care workers, from housekeeping personnel to all nurses and physicians, who are risking their lives to help their communities, he said. We each are one piece of the elaborate puzzle and together we will overcome this crisis, one patient at a time.
Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 3:59PM

In provinces where restrictions are easing, Bell has announced plans to open stores in areas that it can. But it promises to keep the health, well-being, and safety of its employees and customers in mind. You can use Bell's store locator to see if there's a store open in your area. However, Bell's flanker brand Virgin Mobile will remain closed.

The national carrier said in a statement: "As provinces gradually restrictions, we will open more store locations. To protect the health and well-being of our employees and customers, extra sanitation measures will be in effect in all open stores and, as a precaution, we will be limited the number of customers in a store at any given time."

Source: MobileSyrup
Two US citizens among dozens arrested by Venezuela after a beach invasion allegedly aimed at overthrowing Maduro.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the United States government had nothing to do with an alleged incursion into Venezuela that landed two US citizens behind bars in the crisis-stricken South American country.

Trump said he had just learned of the detention of the pair, accused by Venezuela of being mercenaries. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said they were part of an operation to kill him that was backed by neighbouring Colombia and the US.

Whatever it is, well let you know, Trump told reporters in Washington, DC, before departing from the White House to Arizona. But it has nothing to do with our government.

Maduro said: The United States government is fully and completely involved in this defeated raid and praised members of a fishing village for cornering one group and netting the professional American mercenaries.

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper echoed Trumps comments later on Tuesday, saying The United States government had nothing to do with whats happened in Venezuela in the last few days.





Authorities in Venezuela identified the two detained men as Luke Denman and Airan Berry, both former US special forces soldiers associated with the Florida-based private security firm Silvercorp USA.

A third US ex-Green Beret and Silvercorp founder, Jordan Goudreau, claimed responsibility for leading Operation Gideon, which was launched with an attempted beach landing before dawn on Sunday that left eight suspected attackers dead.

The two former US soldiers were detained on Monday dozens of kilometres from the first attempted beach landing in a fishing village. Authorities say they confiscated equipment and detained dozens of others.

Shoestring budget

Goudreau said the operation was designed to capture  and not kill Maduro. He said he carried it out on a shoestring budget after signing an agreement with US-backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who Goudreau accuses of failing to pay him. Guaido denies having any relationship with Goudreau.

Venezuela is gripped by a deepening social, politico and economic crises under Maduros rule that has led nearly five million residents to flee crumbling social services, such as unreliable water, electricity and broken hospitals.

Personal documents allegedly owned by what Venezuela termed as terrorist mercenaries from Colombia were presented by authorities on Monday [Miraflores Palace via Reuters]

The US is among nearly 60 countries that back Guaido as Venezuelas legitimate leader. Guaido invoked the constitution more than a year ago and declared himself interim president. Maduro, who maintains the backing of China, Russia and most of Venezuelas state institutions, including the military, accused Guaido and the US as staging a coup at the time.

Venezuela and the US broke diplomatic ties a year ago, so there is no US embassy operating in Venezuelas capital of Caracas.

It shocks me how insane they were, said Mike Vigil, the former head of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration. They walked right into a coiled rattlesnake without even having minimally studied the capacity of the Venezuelan armed forces. Theres no way the US government wouldve supported an operation like this.

Guaido  often derided by Maduro as a US puppet  has cast doubt on the governments version of Sundays events.

Theyre trying to create a state of apparent confusion, an effort to hide whats happening in Venezuela, Guaido said in a virtual session of Congress on Tuesday, citing gasoline shortages, a deadly prison riot and a violent gang battle in Caracas. The Venezuelan government is also struggling to cope with the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.
Glamour Salon in downtown Salem reopened for business Tuesday morning  one client at a time  in defiance of Gov. Kate Browns order that such businesses must remain closed to avoid making the COVID-19 pandemic worse.

About 40 protesters waving signs and American flags showed up at 195 Liberty St. SE to show their support for owner Lindsey Graham, who could face significant fines from the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division.

See more photos from the Statesman Journal in Salem

She and her husband own six businesses, all of which have been closed because of the virus, Graham said. This was the only business she believed she could open safely at this time.

I want (people) to understand Im doing this to provide for my family, she said. No other reason.

Aaron Corvin with the states Occupational Safety and Health Division, the agency enforcing Browns orders, said he cannot discuss ongoing or planned activities in relation to any particular place of employment.

Protesters  including some with their infants and children  waved to cars passing by, several of which honked back. They flew flags and listened to Toby Keith's song "Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue (The Angry American)."

Some brought flowers for Graham and cheered as they came out from appointments. Signs included messages such as, Every job that puts food on the table is essential, Small businesses support each other, and Live while youre alive.

Graham said they are open to sell retail products and take clients, which she plans to do "as long as the government allows me to," she said, "before they throw me in jail." The salon specializes in hair and eyelash extensions, as well as waxing, according to its website.

Graham said they are abiding by all Oregon health and licensing laws, as well as regularly disinfecting and sanitizing all equipment. Staff are wearing gloves and masks and are keeping a distance as much as they can, she said.

There are two GoFundMe accounts set up to support Graham for if, or when, she needs to pay attorney fees or government fines.

Tuesday's gathering took place just days after 1,000-plus Reopen Oregon protesters rallied at the state Capitol on Saturday.

Brown said a week ago that some parts of Oregon, primarily rural areas, could start opening again as early as May 15.

Yet a strong majority of Oregonians support stay-at-home measures to quell the spread of the new coronavirus.

In a statewide survey of 900 Oregonians conducted April 17-21, the public opinion firm DHM Research, partnering with the Oregon Values and Beliefs Center  both nonpartisan  found that 82% of Oregonians either strongly or somewhat supported the stay at home order.

Those who opposed it made up 16% of respondents, while another 2% said they didnt know if they supported it.

Forty percent of Oregon households have a member who has lost a job or had their hours cut due to COVID-19, the survey found. More than 360,000 Oregonians have filed initial claims for unemployment benefits since mid-March, according to the state's employment agency.
People and buses are seen on London Bridge at the height of the traditional morning rush hour, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, London, Britain, May 5, 2020. REUTERS/Toby Melville

Britain has overtaken Italy to report the highest official death toll from coronavirus in Europe with more than 32,000 deaths, figures released on Tuesday showed.

The high death toll could increase political pressure on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who waited longer than other European leaders to order a lockdown to curb the spread of the virus in March.

Weekly figures from Britain's national statistics office added more than 7,000 deaths in England and Wales, raising the total for the United Kingdom to 32,313.

The figure is one of several methods for calculating deaths and difficult to compare with other countries, but it offers the clearest sign yet that Britain could emerge as the worst-hit country in Europe, despite being hit later than other countries.

Read More

Opposition parties have raised questions about Johnson's initial decision to delay a lockdown at a time when hospitals in Italy were already being overrun.

They also say his government was too slow to introduce mass testing and provide enough protective equipment to hospitals.

The true figure for deaths from coronavirus may be even higher. The Office of National Statistics said 33,593 more people had died than average up to April 24 in England and Wales, compared to 27,365 cases in which coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificates.

It comes as the British government's chief scientific adviser said if the UK had ramped up testing for COVID-19 earlier, it could have been beneficial.

Asked by the British parliament's Health and Social Care Committee to reflect on what he would have done differently, Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance said: "I'd be amazed, if when we look back, we don't think: yep we could have done something differently there."

"In the early phases, I think if we'd managed to ramp testing capacity quicker it would have been beneficial. And you know for all sorts of reasons that didn't happen," Valance said.

"It's completely wrong to think of testing as the answer - its just part of the system that you need to get right," he said.

The British government has ramped up testing over the past month and 945,299 people have so far been tested, though opposition parties say Prime Minister Boris Johnson was too slow to increase testing.

"I don't think it's chance that two huge cosmopolitan well-connected cities with multiple imports from all over the world - New York and London - got very hard hit," Vallance said.
DETROITMajor U.S. automakers are planning to reopen North American factories within two weeks, potentially putting thousands of workers back on the assembly line as part of a gradual return to normality.

Fiat Chrysler CEO Mike Manley said on an earnings conference call on May 5, his company plans to start reopening factories May 18, though that depends on an easing of government restrictions.

Fiat Chrysler CEO Mike Manley in a file photo. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Right now, Michigans shelter-at-home order is in effect until May 15.

Detroit automakers will likely be on the same timetable because their workers are represented by the same union.

The United Auto Workers union on Tuesday appeared to be onboard.

Detroit automakers employ about 150,000 factory workers in the United States alone. Auto plants have been shut since mid-March because of the outbreak. At least 25 employees at auto facilities represented by the UAW have died as a result of COVID-19, although its not known if they were infected at work.

Manley said a lot depends on whether Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer allows factories to reopen.

Last week, Whitmer hinted that auto plants may soon reopen as the curve of cases continues to flatten. She said the reopening could take place as long as the UAW can ensure employees feel safe.

The UAW said in a prepared statement that workers will return to auto plants starting May 18, and it has agreed on safety procedures to protect them. Under its contracts with Fiat Chrysler, General Motors, and Ford, the companies have authority to pick restart dates. But the union can file grievances and seek closures if the virus spreads at factories.

We all knew this day would come, union President Rory Gamble said Tuesday. We continue to advocate for as much testing as possible at the current time and eventually full-testing when available.

Gamble said his family will be among those returning to work, and the union will make sure safety guidelines will be followed.

The UAW will fulfill its role to continue to actively monitor and aggressively respond regarding all issues impacting the health and safety of UAW members in whatever manner may be necessary as we return to the worksite, Gamble said in a prepared statement.

Divisions over when to start to reopen economies on the state level spilled over in Michigan last week when armed protesters entered Michigans Capitol building last week. The Republican-led state legislature refused to extend Michigans CCP virus emergency declaration. They authorized a lawsuit challenging Whitmers authority and actions to combat the pandemic.

Demonstrators take part in an American Patriot Rally, organized on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, Mich., on April 30, 2020. Michigans stay-at-home order declared by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is set to expire after May 15. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images)

Whitmer faces pressure from the White House to relax restrictions as well.

Auto manufacturing is a major economic driver in Michigan, of course, and the state is facing a crippling cutoff in revenue with the plants closed.

By Tom Krisher and Colleen Barry, NTD staff contributed to this report
An "old guard" of Provisional IRA members recruited by violent dissident republicans are behind what the Army has termed the "growing sophistication" of bombs found in Northern Ireland.

A report for the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) by David Seymour, the independent reviewer of justice and security issues, noted how bomb disposal teams working here are "concerned activity is ramping up".

He also revealed that the devices "with which they have to deal show signs of a growing sophistication."

Sunday Life can reveal this is down to dissident groups like the New IRA and Continuity IRA recruiting into their ranks disaffected former Provos, several of whom have bomb-making capabilities.

In the 12 months until July 2019, the Army's bomb disposal squad was involved in 229 call-outs - an increase from 198 the previous year.

Among the experienced terrorists the New IRA, the most active of dissident republican groups, has recruited into its ranks are Ciaran 'Zack' Smyth, Paul Campbell and Christopher 'Christy' O'Kane.

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Smyth had his early release licence suspended in March over his growing links to the New IRA.

A former Provisional IRA prisoner and convicted armed robber, he was suspected by security chiefs of being behind plans to fire a mortar at Musgrave Street PSNI station in Belfast - an allegation he denies.

The 60-year-old is currently listed as a New IRA prisoner in Maghaberry jail, where he shares a segregated Roe House landing with Paul Campbell, a convicted Provisional IRA bomber from Tyrone.

Campbell (41) is serving a reduced two-year sentence for trying to blow up Coalisland RUC station in 1997.

Because the attack took place before the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, he could only be caged for a maximum two years.

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Another former Provo bomber at the centre of the New IRA is Christy O'Kane from Derry. The 46-year-old was among a group of dissidents protesting outside Bishop Street courthouse when Paul McIntyre, who is charged with the murder of journalist Lyra McKee, appeared in court earlier this year.

In 2008 O'Kane was sentenced to 10 years in prison after walking into a PSNI station and confessing to involvement in five IRA shootings and bombings that took place between 1993 and 1994.

Because the offences took place before the Good Friday Agreement he only had to serve two years behind bars.

It is republicans like Smyth, Campbell and O'Kane who are adding to what security chiefs have termed the "growing sophistication" of dissident attacks.

Outside of the New IRA, the Continuity IRA is also relying heavily on the expertise of former Provisional IRA members.

This newspaper has previously revealed how Fermanagh-based Continuity IRA chief John Joe McCusker had been seeking help from Omagh bomb suspects Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly.

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Both men were found guilty by a civil court of involvement in the 1998 slaughter that claimed the lives of 29 innocent civilians and two unborn twins.

Murphy and Daly had been aligned to the violent Oglaigh na hEireann (ONH) gang which called a ceasefire in 2018. It was after this that McCusker reached out to them for assistance.

Since then the Continuity IRA has re-emerged, trying to kill police in booby-trap bomb attacks in Fermanagh and Lurgan.

Rival dissident faction the New IRA were behind a massive car bomb blast at Bishop Street courthouse in Derry in January 2019, and a device placed under a police officer's car in east Belfast which failed to explode last June.

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Backing up security expert David Seymour's dissident 'sophistication' report to the NIO are comments from Chief Constable Simon Byrne.

When a New IRA mortar was discovered aimed at Strabane PSNI station last autumn, he said: "We've seen changing types of engineering and capability that show determination and motivation clearly aimed at killing and maiming officers.

"It (the mortar) was complex, and it was sophisticated, and the threat is clearly changing."

Mr Byrne also confirmed that the mortar may have been built by someone "who had previously been involved in terrorist activity".

MI5, which is tasked with monitoring dissident republican activity, has described the threat posed as "severe" and that future attacks are "highly likely".
It's been 56 days since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic on March 11. And while some states have begun to lift various pandemic-related restrictions, things haven't slowed down one bit for 79-year-old White House advisor and immunologist Anthony Fauci.

"I have to wake up in the morning and literally, without being facetious, ask my wife, 'What day is it?'" Fauci told National Geographic for a story published Monday.

Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, became the face of America's Covid-19 response, often standing alongside President Donald Trump at press briefings.

In the early days of the pandemic, Fauci admitted he was "foolish" and tried to get away with "almost no sleep" so he could work 20 hour days fighting the virus.

He says he would typically only sleep about three hours a night.

"I did that for a few weeks, and it almost killed me. It really wore me down badly," Fauci told National Geographic.

Fauci credited his wife of 35 years, Christine Grady, a nurse bioethicist, for reminding him to get proper rest and to drink water. (Grady spoke to CNBC Make It in April about her push to get her husband to take care of himself during the pandemic.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 18:11:20|Editor: huaxia

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JOHANNESBURG, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The African continent has received a total of 61 million U.S. dollars to the COVID-19 Response Fund to be used to tackle the pandemic in the continent, said the African Union (AU) chairperson Cyril Ramaphosa.

Ramaphosa was speaking at a virtual pledging conference which was co-hosted by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on Monday.

"To date, a total of 61 million dollars have been committed to the Fund and to support the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition to the investments we have made to these and other research initiatives, South Africa is committing an amount of 1.3 million U.S. dollars at this historic pledging conference," said Ramaphosa.

The AU established the Fund for it to be used to tackle the pandemic in the continent.

Ramaphosa said the continent has been responding to COVID-19 with the urgency it deserves. He called for the countries of the world to unite to tackle the pandemic.

"Now, more than ever, the world needs solidarity and cooperation to mobilize and guide investments, and drive delivery towards equitable access for new COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. We require coordinated and consistent international action so that all countries are sufficiently capacitated," Ramaphosa said,

He said South Africa is pledging the Biovac Institute to support the global effort to develop, manufacture and distribute a COVID-19 vaccine.

Ramaphosa mentioned that the country is investing significantly in science and innovation to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. He said they are participating in several research initiatives with partners across the world. Enditem
India is set to begin its largest overseas evacuation of stranded Indian nationals abroad since Independence.

Image used for representational purpose. Photograph: PTI Photo.

The operation to bring back Indians stranded in various countries due to airspace closures because of the COVID-19 pandemic will commence in a phased manner, the first phase to begin as early as this week.

The ministry of external affairs has prepared a chart for the evacuation of over 14,000 Indian nationals stranded in 13 foreign countries by 64 flights in week 1 of the operation.

According to the MEA plan shared with the ministry of civil aviation that is set to begin from May 7, approximately 14,800 passengers will be evacuated from 13 different countries.

Flights from India will fly to the Philippines, Singapore, Bangladesh, UAE, UK, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Singapore, Phillippines, USA, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait.

The first day of evacuation will see 10 flights repatriate 2300 Indians.

On Day 2, around 2050 Indian nationals will arrive in Chennai, Kochi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Delhi from nine different countries, according to the plan.

Similarly, on Day 3, some 2050 stranded nationals are expected to arrive in Mumbai, Kochi, Lucknow and Delhi from 13 countries spread across the Middle East, Europe, South East Asia and USA.

On Day 4 of the plan, the aviation ministry in collaboration with the MEA will evacuate 1850 stranded nationals from eight different countries, including the USA, UK and the UAE.

Prior to boarding the evacuation flights, all persons coming to India will be required to fill up a form and submit a copy each to the health and immigration counter upon arrival. The passengers will be required to state whether they are suffering from fever, cough, diabetes or any respiratory disease.

This form is similar to the one filled by passengers arriving back into the country during the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The government's official guidelines say all passengers will be screened before they are allowed to board flights for their return, and only asymptomatic passengers would be allowed to travel.

During the journey, they will have to follow the protocols such as those issued by the health ministry and the civil aviation ministry.

This airlift by the MEA would be the largest since the Persian Gulf War evacuation of over 170,000 people from Kuwait in 1990. Similar evacuations were also done in April 2015, when Operation Raahat was launched to evacuate Indians from war-torn Yemen.

See: The evacuation plan for the first week
[May 04, 2020] Analysis on New Product Launches in Covid-19 Related Markets-Global Vision Processing Unit Market 2020-2024 | Growing Adoption of Deep Learning and AI to Boost Market Growth | Technavio

The vision processing unit market is expected to grow by USD 892.45 million during 2020-2024. The report also provides the market impact and new opportunities created due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact can be expected to be significant in the first quarter but gradually lessen in subsequent quarters - with a limited impact on the full-year economic growth 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/20200504005524/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Vision Processing Unit Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) AI collects, analyzes, and stores large volumes of real-time data. The technology enables computers to perform numerous critical functions that require human intelligence such as learning, reasoning, and problem-solving. Governments and organizations around the world are focusing on the development of AI and are adopting AI for different purposes. Smartphone manufacturers use AI and deep learning to provide advanced features such as real-time DoF, and gesture and facial recognition in their smartphones. For instance, MediaTek (News - Alert) launched a new SoC, which is designed for next-generation dual-lens camera smartphones. The SoC has ARM Cortex-A53 processing units and supports dual camera setups and AI enhancements through MediaTek's NeuroPilot. The growing adoption of AI in several sectors will increase the demand for VPUs, which are used for image processing for visual awareness. Hence, the growing adoption of deep learning and AI is expected to drive the growth of the 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=IRTNTR43075



As per Technavio, the rising investments in autonomous vehicles 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. Vision Processing Unit Market: Rising Investments in Autonomous Vehicles

The rising investment in autonomous vehicles is expected to drive the growth of the vision processing unit market during the forecast period. Several automotive manufacturers are investing in AI technology to develop autonomous vehicles. For instance, in February 2020, Toyota announced an investment of around USD 400 million in Pony.ai, a self-driving start-up based in Silicon Valley, US, and Guangzhou, China, to test self-driving cars on public roads in two Chinese cities, namely, Beijing and Shanghai. Autonomous vehicles are equipped with several electronic systems such as forward collision warning systems, lane departure warning systems, front-view camera systems, smart cameras, and ADAS. VPUs are required for the functioning of such systems. VPUs accelerate the machine vision of autonomous vehicles. Several vendors provide specific VPUs for autonomous vehicles. For instance, GEO Semiconductor incorporated Cadence Tensilica Vision P5 DSP VPU, which was designed by Cadence Design Systems (News - Alert), for ADAS systems. "Factors such as the increasing application of virtual reality (VR), and the increasing demand for commercial and consumer drones will have a significant impact on the growth of the vision processing unit market value during the forecast period," says a senior analyst at Technavio. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Vision Processing Unit Market: Segmentation Analysis This market research report segments the vision processing unit market by end-user (consumer electronics, automotive, industrial, and others) and geography (North America, APAC, Europe, South America, and MEA). The North American region led the vision processing unit market in 2019, followed by APAC, Europe, South America, and MEA respectively. However, during the forecast period, the APAC region is expected to register the highest incremental growth due to factors such as increasing demand for consumer electronic devices, and the product portfolio expansions in the end-user industry. 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 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. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200504005524/en/

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Islamabad: Pakistan on Tuesday (May 5) summoned a senior diplomat from the High Commission of India and registered its protest over the alleged ceasefire violations by Indian security forces along the Line of Control.

The Foreign Office (FO) said that six civilians sustained serious injuries in the firing in Bagsar sector on Monday.

It alleged that the Indian security forces along the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary (WB) have continuously been targeting civilian areas with artillery fire, heavy-caliber mortars and automatic weapons.

The further alleged that "India has committed 957 ceasefire violations" so far this year.

The Indian side was asked to respect the 2003 Ceasefire Understanding; investigate this and other such incidents of ceasefire violations and maintain peace along the LoC and the WB, the FO said.

It also urged India to allow the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to play its mandated role as per the United Nations Security Council resolutions.

India maintains that the UNMOGIP has outlived its utility and is irrelevant after the Simla Agreement and the consequent establishment of the LoC.
Millions of people were allowed to return to work in Italy on May 4 as Europes longest CCP virus lockdown started to ease, while the United States took halting steps to lift some of its own restrictions even as tens of thousands of new cases were reported every day.

In Washington, the Senate was convening for the first time since March, while dozens of people in Florida were waiting before sunrise for the 7 a.m. opening of Clearwater Beach. In South Dakota, a pork processing plant took its first steps toward reopening after being shuttered after more than 800 employees were infected with CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

Louisiana lawmakers were also restarting their legislatureeven as they feuded over whether they should return at all.

Political battles have become increasingly embedded in CCP virus policy in the United States. In Louisiana, Republican legislators irritated by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards decision to extend Louisianas stay-at-home order through May 15 were eager to return to work.

But Democrats saw things differently: It could be a devastating blow to the strides made and to the safety of our residents, our staff and members if we returned to business as usual prematurely, Democratic leaders wrote in a letter.

More than 29,000 people in Louisiana have tested positive for the CCP virus, and 1,969 people have died, according to state health department data released Sunday. The true number of infections is thought to be far higher.

With pressure growing in many countries for more measures to restart the economy, politicians also were trying to boost funding for research into a vaccine for COVID-19. There are hopes that one could be available in months, but many scientists warn it could take much longer.

Italy, the first European country hit by the pandemic and a nation with one of the worlds highest death tolls, started stirring after its two-month shutdown. In all, 4.4 million Italians were able to return to work, and restrictions on movement eased.

Traffic in downtown Rome picked up, construction sites and manufacturing operations resumed, parks reopened, and flower vendors returned to the Campo dei Fiori market for the first time since March 11.

Its something that brings happiness and joy, and people have been missing that these days, vendor Stefano Fulvi said. He doesnt expect to break even anytime soon, but you have to take the risk at some point.

But Europeans new-found freedoms are limited as officials are wary of setting off a second wave of infections.

In Italy, mourners were able to attend funerals, but services were limited to 15 people and there was still no word on when Masses will resume. Restaurants scrubbed their floors in preparation for take-out service, but sit-down service was several weeks away.

Southern Italy braced for the return of students and workers who were trapped in the hard-hit north when the lockdown took effect. Some regional governors said they would require anyone arriving home to go into quarantine for two weeks.

Its a new page that we must write together, with trust and responsibility, Premier Giuseppe Conte said in a message to Italians.

Belgium allowed some companies to open offices to employees, though remote work was still encouraged. Like Italians, Greeks, Spaniards, and many others in Europe, Belgians were told to wear masks on public transport.

Italians still have to carry certifications explaining why they are out. Greece, which began lifting its seven-week lockdown Monday, dropped a similar requirement for people to send a text message or carry a self-written permit justifying being outdoors.

People in hard-hit Spain ventured out for the first time for haircuts or food take-outs, but many small shops were still closed as owners worked on meeting strict health and hygiene guidelines. Neighboring Portugal also eased its confinement measures and allowed small stores to open.

On Europes western edge, Iceland reopened many of its businesses after the country tamed its CCP virus outbreak.

In the Middle East, Lebanon was allowing restaurants to open at 30 percent capacity during the day starting Monday. But many business owners said they wont reopen because they would be losing more money if they operate under such restrictions in a faltering economy. Cafes, clubs, and bars have been ordered to stay shut through June.

India allowed some economic activities to resume after a five-week halt, even as the pace of infections has slightly accelerated. The lockdown has achieved a slowdown in the spread of the CCP virus but has caused immense hardship for Indias poor.

An estimated 1.5 million South Africans returned to work after a five-week lockdown. The mining, manufacturing, and select retail sectors began reopening with up to 30 percent of their workforce. Trains, buses, and private minibus taxis resumed operations with reduced occupancy, and all South Africans must wear face masks in public.

Russia reported a steady rise in the number of infections, fueling concerns the nations hospitals could be overwhelmed. Authorities say that broader testing has contributed to a surge. Russias economy has been partially shut since late March, and lockdown measures have been extended through May 11.

Governments around the world have reported 3.5 million infections and more than 247,000 deaths, including more than 67,000 dead in the United States, according to a count by Johns Hopkins University. Deliberately concealed outbreaks, low testing rates, and the severe strain the disease has placed on health care systems mean the true scale of the pandemic is undoubtedly much greater.

On Monday, an alliance of world leaders was holding a virtual summit hoping to drum up around 4 billion euros ($4.37 billion) for vaccine research, some 2 billion euros for treatments and 1.5 billion euros for testing. Officials say that amount is just the start.

The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Norway, and top European Union officials said that money raised will be channeled mostly through recognized global health organizations. The EUs executive Commission had hoped that the United States would take part, but it remained unclear what role, if any, Washington might play in the donor conference.

Germanys health minister said there are promising developments but warned that developing vaccines is one of the biggest challenges in medicine.

I would be glad if we succeeded in a few months, but I think we must remain realistic, Jens Spahn told ARD television on Sunday. It can also take years.

By Nicole Winfield and Tim Sullivan

NTD staff contributed to this report.
In 1957, an English doctor was accused of killing his patients for their money. The courtroom drama that followed was called the "murder trial of the century." In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe the case of John Bodkin Adams and its significance in British legal history.

Well also bomb Calgary and puzzle over a passive policeman.

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The streets of Mare, a favela complex in Rio de Janeiro's north, were being disinfected on Monday in an effort to combat the spread of COVID-19.

More than 80 people were working in this operation in the one of the largest and most populous favelas in Rio de Janeiro.

Residents, such as Andressa da Costa, agreed that the measure was important, because "you don't know who has the virus" which made it difficulat to protect oneself.

More than 7000 people died in Brazil due to the COVID 19, with at least 101 thousand cases confirmed by Sunday.

For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the new coronavirus can cause more severe illness and lead to death.
[May 05, 2020] Accenture Acquires Callisto Integration to Help Clients Make Manufacturing More Efficient and Flexible

Accenture (News - Alert) (NYSE: ACN) has acquired Callisto Integration ("Callisto"), a Canada-based provider of consulting and technology services. The company provides digital manufacturing services to large companies in the food and beverage, chemicals, utilities and other industries. The acquisition expands Accenture's capabilities to help clients in North America ensure the timely production of orders, increase their yield and enhance the quality of their products. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005162/en/ Digital manufacturing services provider Callisto Integration is now part of Accenture Industry X.0 (Graphic: Business Wire) Among Callisto's key services are the design and implementation of manufacturing execution systems, industrial internet of things (IoT) systems and shop-floor control systems. These systems ensure the materials, workers and equipment for each production order are ready when needed. They also provide real-time data on the production process. As a result, companies can better detect and address quality issues and more accurately predict machine failure. The 160 Callisto employees join Accenture's Industry X.0 practice. This part of Accenture uses digital technologies - such as the IoT, data analytics and artificial intelligence - to improve how companies design, engineer and manufacture products and services and operate industrial facilities. Callisto is headquartered in Oakville, Ontario. It also has two offices in the United States - in Richmond, Virginia and Albany, Oregon - as well as offices in Warwick in the United Kingdom and Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Callisto will play a key role in creating a collaborative environment for digital manufacturing in North America, which will help clients develop and quickly execute innovative ideas, supported by a team of digital technology experts and a full manufacturing technology stack. The acquisition includes Callisto's MeasureTek subsidiary, based in Albany, which uses IoT technology to provide precision farming services, such as dynamic field monitoring and irrigation information. "Our clients, who include the leaders in virtually every industry, are under tremendous pressure to harness the power of disruption for competitive advantage," said Jimmy Etheredge, CEO, North America at Accenture. "Our acquisition of Callisto shows how we continue to scale our digital manufacturing capabilities to help our clients innovate and succeed in an environment of accelerating digitization." Craig McNeil, the managing director at Accenture who leads its Industry X.0 practice in North America, said, "Digital technologies are fundamentally transforming the factory floor. The combination of our Industry X.0 capabilities with Callisto's digital manufacturing expertise can help our clients make their production processes more efficient and flexible. It can also help them produce higher-quality products and increase the safety and sustainability of their plant operations." Jeffrey Russell, president, Accenture in Canada, said, "With Callisto, Accenture will offer a unique combination of manufacturing, technology and analytics services. We're thrilled to welcome Callisto's employees to the Accenture family and to work together to solve our clients' biggest challenges." Mike Grasley, Callisto Integration's chief innovation officer, said, "Becoming part of Accenture Industry X.0 and Accenture's global organization is an incredible opportunity. It allows us to bring our digital manufacturing solutions to more clients at a scale that hasn't been possible before and presents new opportunities to our people." Callisto Integration is the third digital manufacturing advisory and services provider that Accenture has acquired recently, following Silveo in France and Enterprise System Partners in Ireland in 2019. Other recent acquisitions Accenture has made to strengthen its Industry X.0 business include German embedded software company ESR Labs, Dutch product design and innovation agency VanBerlo, U.S. product innovation and engineering company Nytec, U.K. innovation firm Happen, and German technology consultancy Zielpuls.



Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. 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 Industry X.0 helps businesses master the digital reinvention of industry when they use advanced digital technologies to transform core operations and unlock new revenue streams and business models. We support every aspect of our clients' multi-phase transformation, including workforce, customer experience, R&D, engineering, manufacturing, business support, and ecosystems. Visit https://www.accenture.com/us-en/services/industryx0-index. 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/20200505005162/en/

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MANSFIELD, MA  Mansfield police said residents have been inundated in recent weeks with attempts from those pretending to be from established companies, such as Comcast and Amazon, seeking to defraud residents.

Mansfield police issued a warning last week about one scam in which full or partial customer past or present passwords were referenced in emails from Comcast/Xfinity  in an attempt to get some residents to believe they were legitimately from the sending company  and advised deleting those emails immediately, and possibly changing passwords.

Police said this Amazon email  provided by a town resident  is another example of a scam email. While it looks to be official in many ways, hints to fraudulent emails can often be found with grammatical, sentence structure and spelling errors in the body of the email.

Checking on the sender's address can also indicate that an email might be fraudulent. If you click on the info about the sender's email, instead of an official (XXX@amazon.com) address, it may include a long series of numbers and random letters.

Police said companies, such as Amazon, will never ask you to follow a link back to their site, and instead will ask you to log on to the site using your credentials independently of the email.

In the email below, notice the "we" is not capitalized at the start of the third bullet point:

Mansfield police said residents have been smart enough to delete suspicious emails recently. Both town and county law enforcement have said there has been a dramatic rise in phising email scams recently while many people are home during the coronavirus health emergency.



Related Patch Coverage: Mansfield Police Warn Of Cable Scam

This article originally appeared on the Mansfield Patch
Vietnamese doctors said Monday that the novel coronavirus in two of Vietnams relapse cases were inactive and unlikely to infect others.

An announcement of the two having recovered after relapsing is expected Tuesday. They will be the first among the 14 relapse cases to have recovered.

A spokesperson for the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi said Monday that relapsed cases "Patient 74" and "Patient 137" have tested negative four times in a row. The sample results also show the virus have not developed and are inactive.

Doctor Nguyen Thanh Binh, Deputy Head of the General Planning Department, formerly the secretary of the Covid-19 treatment team at the hospital, said the real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR) tests, a technique that combines reverse transcription of RNA into DNA and amplification of specific DNA targets using a PCR, can be very effective.

Sometimes, even if only "a strand of the viruss RNA" remains in their sample, the test result can be positive, but this does not provide certainty that the patient is indeed positive for the coronavirus," Binh said.

"Results of the virus being cultured are the most accurate evidence, confirming that the relapse cases no longer have pathogenic viruses in their bodies and are unable to transmit the disease among the community," he said.

Doctor Pham Quang Thai, Deputy Head of Infection Control Department at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, said: "A positive result on a real-time PCR test means that you find genetic material of a virus, which does not mean the virus is alive and still causing the disease."

In addition to real-time PCR tests, experts at the institute have also conducted additional tests in the relapsed cases, including checking them for antibodies and cultivating the virus to see if it replicates or not. So far, there is no evidence that shows relapsed cases carry the possibility of being infectious, the experts have concluded.

"Patient 74" is a 23-year old Vietnamese man from the northern province of Phu Tho. He was confirmed positive for the novel coronavirus March 18 and discharged from the Bac Ninh General Hospital April 10 after treatment. He returned home in Phu Tho and isolated himself at home for another 14 days. During this period, he showed no symptoms of fever, cough or breathing difficulty.

On April 25, he had his samples taken for testing the last time before completing the 14-day home quarantine. However, the result came back positive and he was transferred to the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi.

"Patient 137," a 34-year-old man in the north central province of Nghe An, who was released from Hanoi April 7, was also quarantined for another 14 days. He was confirmed positive a day after he returned to his hometown.

"However, after recovery, patients should still be isolated in hospitals for doctors to monitor and do their research to better understand the mechanism of the pathogen of the virus, which is very new to medicine," doctor Thai said.

Three hypotheses

Doctor Le Quoc Hung, Head of the Department of Tropical Diseases at the Cho Ray Hospital in HCMC, said there have been three main hypotheses about Covid-19 relapses. Patients either relapsed after getting re-infected, the testing was wrong, or the virus was inactive.

The majority of relapsed cases in Vietnam do not show clinical symptoms and are detected with the virus after being tested after being discharged as part of the medical protocol. Only one of the 14 relapse cases seen so far shows mild symptoms, but this could be because the patient was infected with other viruses. People who have come into close contact with relapsed cases have all tested negative and there has not been a community transmission, Hung noted.

"The fact that the relapses show no clinical symptoms and have not spread to those in close contact shows a very low possibility of them being re-infected," Hung said.

However, experts have not been able to give a concrete conclusion because it takes at least three weeks to see the results of experiments where the coronavirus is cultured using samples of the relapse cases.

Several other countries have also reported relapses. In South Korea, more than 260 relapse cases have not infected others. Experts at the Central Clinical Committee for Emerging Disease Control believe that RNA can remain in patients after the virus has been inactive, so remnants of the virus can still be found.

In China, more than 30 people in Hubei Province have also relapsed after being discharged from the hospitals. Zhang Boli, President of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said the genetic sequence remaining in some patients showed that the virus was inactive.

This means it is possible that there is only genetic material of the virus in the body, Zhang said.

Vietnams Health Ministry confirmed no fresh Covid-19 cases Tuesday morning, marking the country's 19th straight day without community transmission.

The country has recorded 271 coronavirus cases to date, of whom 50 are active infections. Of the 50, 12 are relapses.
New Delhi, May 5 : Congress Interim President Sonia Gandhi has convened a meeting of Chief Ministers of the Congress ruled states to take stock of the situation following the lockdown phase three.

The meeting will be held on Wednesday through video conferencing. And the Chief Ministers of Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Puducherry will be attending.

The meeting comes in the wake of the announcement by the Congress to bear the cost of travel of the stranded migrants, and Rahul Gandhi's talk with Noble laureate Abhijeet Banerjee.

Congress is harping on the condition of the migrant labourers and the poor, who it says have been badly affected by the unplanned lockdown. By taking up this issue, the party is strategically avoiding direct conflict with the Union Government and yet taking up the issue to corner the Centre on the plight of the poor.

Sonia Gandhi has written a slew of letters to the Prime Minister and suggested a number of measures, including Direct Cash Transfer of Rs 7,500 to each account.

In the interaction session with Rahul Gandhi, noted economist Abhijit Banerjee had suggested to pay Rs 10,000 into the bank accounts of the poor. Banerjee said people should get money to spend more and this will lead to the revival of the economy.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday acknowledged the repatriation of over $311 million Abacha loot from the United States and Jersey. The president also declared that the recovered funds have already been allocated to various projects in the country.

President Buhari in a statement on Tuesday by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, admitted that on Monday, May 4, 2020, some $311 million  stolen from the citizens of Nigeria during the Abacha regime  were safely returned to the country from the United States.

The president said that the funds have already been allocated, and will be used in full for vital and decades-overdue infrastructure development: He said that the second Niger Bridge, the LagosIbadan and AbujaKadunaKano expressways  creating tens of thousands of Nigerian construction jobs and local skills, which can then be useful in future projects are given priority.

He added that part of the funds will also be invested in the Mambilla Power Project which, when completed, will provide electricity to some three million homes  over 10 million citizens  in the country.

The receipt of these stolen monies  and the hundreds of millions more that have already been returned from the United Kingdom and Switzerland  are an opportunity for the development of our nation, made far harder for those decades the country was robbed of these funds.

Indeed, previous monies returned last year from Switzerland  some US$320 million  are already being used for the governments free school feeding scheme, a stipend for millions of disadvantaged citizens, and grain grants for those in severe food hardship.

Without these funds, the fight against Covid-19 would be even tougher, the President said.

The President in self-praise said that the latest return is a testament to the growing and deepening relationship between the government of Nigeria and the government of the United States.

Without the cooperation both from the UK Government, the US Executive branch and US Congress, we would not have achieved the return of these funds at all.

The president narrated that for years, many countries deemed successive Nigerian administrations as too corrupt, too venal and too likely to squander and re-steal the stolen monies  so they did not return the funds.

He added that, today, US, UK and other jurisdictions have found the partnership with the nation of Nigeria they can finally trust.

It added his administration is committed to  and is enacting  total and zero tolerance to corruption in politics and public administration.

The days when government was seen and used by the political class as their personal ATM to empty are over.

The time of better governance and clean hands in the affairs of state is here to stay, the president declared.
The brother of one of the American 'mercenaries' captured during a failed military incursion in Venezuela has pleaded with the U.S. government to help save his life.

Former U.S. special forces soldiers Luke Denman and Airan Berry are believed to be among eight men captured by the security forces of the ruling Maduro regime in a coastal town 100 miles east of Caracas.

The arrests came a day after an attempted military coup was launched to overthrow the socialist Venezuelan government, which is not recognized by the US, with the armed group using speedboats to land on a beach just north of the capital.

State media reported there was a firefight, with eight men killed and two captured.

An official called the men 'terrorists' and 'mercenaries', boasting they had thwarted the plan.

Mark Denman, brother of ex-Green Beret Luke, said his family were in shock but hopeful the US government would use all its resources to bring him home.

Luke Denman (right) and Airan Berry (left), both former U.S. special forces soldiers, were identified by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during a press conference

The men are former U.S. special forces soldiers and are believed to be among eight men captured by the security forces of the ruling Maduro regime

On Monday, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro used a press conference to display the equipment that had allegedly been seized by Venezuelan armed forces after capturing the 'mercenaries'

The 34-year-old is one of three siblings to have served in the military, with deployments in Iraq with the Green Berets.

As a special forces soldier, he received specialist field medical training.

Mark Denman, brother of ex-Green Beret Luke, said his family were in shock but hopeful the US government would use all its resources to bring him home

Exclusive photos released to DailyMail.com by members of Operation Gedeon show Berry and Denman on a speedboat on their way to Venezuela Sunday.

The group also provided passport photos of the men to confirm their U.S. citizenship.

'Luke's motivation has always been to help others in any way he can,' said Mark. 'He thinks of kids who are being harmed and innocent people who are suffering and Im sure this was his motivation to do this.

'He is good at what he does and he always wanted to use this to deal with the most horrific things that happen in the world.'

The law school graduate made an emotional plea for the U.S. government not to idly stand by while his brother is in the hands of the Maduro regime.

'My brother spent a significant amount of his adult life putting his life on the line for other people,' he said.

'He does it out of patriotism and pride for this country - and I really hope they can return that favor and be there for him as well.

'He has done more than anyone could have ever asked him for and he deserves to be allowed to come home.

'Every military family knows what Im talking about. Everyone knows what our boys sacrifice to get out there.'

He added: 'He is a strong guy and if anyone can get through this it will be him. We just want to get him back.'

Mark tells DailyMail.com: '[Luke] does it out of patriotism and pride for this country - and I really hope [the U.S.] can return that favor and be there for him as well'

Members of Operation Gedeon provided passport photos of the men to confirm their U.S. citizenship

Luke Denman (left) and Airan Berry (right): Two arrested U.S. 'mercenaries playing Rambo' are paraded after failed attempt 'to kill' Venezuela's Maduro in a failed raid, the president claimed

Luke Denman (bottom) and Airan Berry (top) as pictured during their arrest in Venezuela on Monday

In a video posted to social media a few hours after the attempted coup, retired U.S. Green Beret Jordan Goudreau, speaking alongside rebel captain Javier Nieto Quintero, laid claim to the operation  codenamed Operation Gedeon - and said their men were 'continuing to fight'.

But in an interview with DailyMail.com Goudreau claimed their operation was 'over' and that his focus was on getting his men back to American soil.

He confirmed reports that a group had been captured in the coastal town of Chuau, including Denman, 34, and Berry, 41, whom he said were in the mission in a medical aid role.

Local authorities claimed two U.S. citizens had been arrested as 25,000 troops were mobilized to hunt for other rebels operating in the country.

'Im worried that my men are going to be tortured or killed,' he said. 'Because in Venezuela thats what happens to detainees.'

The countrys opposition, including Juan Guaido, who is recognized by the U.S. as its legitimate president, have denied any role in the operation even though Goudreau has shown a contract alleging they had hired his Florida based private security firm Silvercorp USA, to launch it.

'The opposition government are not going to get involved in this at all even though they were there at the beginning,' he said. 'So we are trying to go through the State Department.

'They werent aware of any of this. I hope they get our U.S. citizens back. They are American heroes, great men and great soldiers who have done so much for this country.

'So far we have not had any response. Our leaders should burn in hell if they ignore this.'

Former Green Beret Jordan Goudreau (pictured center) said earlier on Monday that he was working with the two men on a mission intending to detain Maduro and 'liberate' Venezuela. Goudreau has claimed responsibility for the operation

The equipment used by the group of 'mercenaries' aiming to capture the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The president blamed the attacks on the Trump administration, Venezuela's opposition leader and neighboring Colombia all of which have denied involvement

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro accused the U.S. and Colombia of orchestrating the plan with members of the opposition to have him killed.

'The main objective was to kill the President of Venezuela,' Maduro said Monday during a televised speech on state television.

'A terrorist attack in the middle of a pandemic while our people rested one night.'

Maduro charged that the failed plot was the latest attempt by the U.S. and neighbor Colombia to overthrow his government - a claim that has been denied by Washington and Colombian officials.

'We have proof that this group trained in Colombian territory. We have the places where they were trained,' he said.

Maduro accused ex-Green Beret Goudreau of leading the incursion 'with terrorist mercenaries trained in Colombia to assault Venezuela and try to kill me.'

Photographs circulating in social media Monday showed a group of men, including Americans Denman and Berry, lying face down on a street with their hands cuffed behind their backs while a masked security forces soldier watched on.
When it comes to vehicle production, constant communication is key to efficiency. The more efficient a plant runs, the less an automaker will spend for correcting any possible hiccups on the line. Volkswagen's solution to making communications faster is by going to the cloud, the Industrial Cloud, that is.

Volkswagen believes that the Industrial Cloud can improve their productivity by approximately 30 percent. Not only that, they also believe they can save on costs totaling several billion Euros when the data of all 124 plants can be evaluated in a standardized way. But you're probably wondering how can a cloud network save automaker billions?

Volkswagen says that one of the focuses of this whole Industrial Cloud is predictive maintenance. The cloud system will be placed in machines and robots that revolve around the assembly line. With that in place, these robots then continuously send data to the cloud. From there, the company will know which machine might need service even before a possible fault is detected. The less downtime a piece of equipment needs, the more efficient a plant runs.
Drunken brawl claimed two lives



while a woman health worker and her husband were injured in an attack in separate incidents in Karnataka, where sale of liquor was allowed as part of easing COVID-19 lockdown curbs, police said on Tuesday



In the first incident, a man in his mid-thirties was stabbed to death by his friend after an altercation between them at a party organised to celebrate the resumption of alcohol sale in Bengaluru on Monday.

The accused is absconding, they said.

Another murder was reported at Jeevan Bima Nagar here, where a youth was beaten to death by his friend in an inebriated state.

The incident occurred on Monday night when the both were having drinks at the accused's house, police said.

A search is on for the accused who is absconding, they said.

In the third incident, a woman health worker was attacked at Shidlaghatta in Chikkaballapura district.

Ravanamma had gone to a village in the district to carry out a COVID-19 related survey with her husband, where a resident attacked them, under the influence of alcohol, for visiting the hamlet.

The accused is said to have attacked the duo owing to personal enmity, a police officer told PTI.

Police are on the lookout for the accused.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The world needs to rein in its use of fossil fuels, the researchers say (Getty)

Around a third of the human race will live in near unliveable conditions within half a century unless greenhouse gas emissions are reduced.

Researchers from the US, China and Europe have said that 3.5 billion people will soon live outside the normal climate humans have lived in for 6,000 years.

The researchers predicted that the changes could result in migration on a huge scale.

Read more: Melting snow in Himalayas drives growth of green sea slime visible from space

Human populations are largely concentrated in narrow climate bands, with most people living in places where the average annual temperature is about 11-15 Celsius and a smaller number of people living where the average temperature is about 20-25 Celsius.

Under a scenario in which emissions continue to increase unabated, the temperature experienced by the average person will have risen 7.5 Celsius by 2070.

This rapid temperature rise, combined with projected global population changes, mean about 30 percent of the worlds projected population will live in places with an average temperature above 29 Celsius within 50 years, if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase.

These climate conditions are currently experienced by just 0.8 percent of the global land surface, mostly in the hottest parts of the Sahara desert.

By 2070, the conditions could spread to 19 percent of the planets land area.

Read more: A 1988 warning about climate change was mostly right

This would bring 3.5 billion people into near-unliveable conditions, said study co-author Jens-Christian Svenning, of Aarhus University in Denmark.

The researchers found that people, despite all innovations and migrations, have mostly lived in the same climate conditions for several thousand years.

This strikingly constant climate niche likely represents fundamental constraints on what humans need to survive and thrive, said Professor Marten Scheffer, of Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

He said: The coronavirus has changed the world in ways that were hard to imagine a few months ago and our results show how climate change could do something similar.

Story continues

Change would unfold less rapidly, but unlike with the pandemic, there would be no relief to look forward to: large areas of the planet would heat to barely survivable levels and they wouldnt cool down again.

Not only would this have devastating direct effects, it leaves societies less able to cope with future crises like new pandemics. The only thing that can stop this happening is a rapid cut in carbon emissions.

Read more: Why economists worry that reversing climate change is hopeless

The researchers said that reductions in greenhouse gas emissions could greatly reduce the scale of the crisis.

Rapid reductions could halve the number of people affected, said study co-author Tim Lenton, climate specialist at the University of Exeter.

Our computations show that each degree warming above present levels corresponds to roughly one billion people falling outside of the climate niche, he said.

It is important that we can now express the benefits of curbing greenhouse gas emissions in something more human than just monetary terms.

The authors noted that a percentage of the 3.5 billion people exposed to extreme heat if climate change goes unabated may seek to migrate.

Foreseeing the actual magnitude of climate driven migration remains challenging, Scheffer said.

People prefer not to migrate. Also there is scope for local adaptation in part of the world within limits, but in the Global South this will require boosting human development rapidly.
The Shiv Sena on Tuesday called for another surgical strike to avenge the killing of five security personnel in an encounter with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmirs Handwara area two days ago. The Sena, however, said that the strike should be carried out without anyone boasting about it.

It is not a good sign that brave men were killed in one go on Indias own land, an editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamana said on Tuesday, adding that this happened when a strong and quite patriotic government is in power at the Centre.

Also read: In Pakistans new script for terrorism in Kashmir, Handwara is the key

Let there be a surgical strike without tom tomming about it to avenge the martyrdom of the five jawans. It is not a good sign that five of our jawans are killed in one go, said Sena who was a part of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) till last year.

The country has forgotten Kashmir war due to the war situation triggered by Covid-19, but Pakistan has not, the Saamana editorial further said.

A Colonel, a Major and three other security forces personnel were killed in an encounter with terrorists in north Kashmirs Handwara on Sunday. This was the biggest loss to the Army in recent years.

Colonel Ashutosh Sharma, Major Anuj Sood, Naik Rajesh Kumar, Lance Naik Dinesh Singh and sub-inspector of Jammu Kashmir Police Shakeel Qazi were martyred in the line of duty while rescuing civilians held hostage by the terrorists.

Also read : Hostages, gunfight, assault teams: How the Handwara encounter ensued

Two terrorists were also shot dead by the security forces in the Handwara encounter.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and other leaders paid tribute to the brave soldiers.

Tributes to our courageous soldiers and security personnel martyred in Handwara. Their valour and sacrifice will never be forgotten. They served the nation with utmost dedication and worked tirelessly to protect our citizens. Condolences to their families and friends, PM Modi said on Twitter.

Army chief General MM Naravane said on Monday that India is proud of five security personnel who laid down lives saving civilians from terrorists at Handwara. He also said that the army will give proportionate response to all acts of infringement of ceasefire and support to terrorism.
Advertisement

The NHS track-and-trace app considered vital to getting the UK out of coronavirus lockdown could be illegal and may not work abroad, experts warned today.

The software will be tested on the Isle of Wight from this morning onwards - but there are growing concerns about its privacy settings and why the Government shunned a Google-Apple alternative adopted by other countries.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has decided the first public tests on their contact tracing software would begin on the self-contained island of 140,000 people, with NHS and council staff the first to be given access - and has insisted they would enjoy 'high privacy'.

But question marks have been raised after other nations, such as Germany, the Republic of Ireland and Switzerland have chosen to implement a decentralised system - where the data always remains on a person's phone.

Their model, seen as more secure and immune from hacking by some experts due to spreading the collected information, is also backed by tech giants Apple and Google.

The UK has instead developed its own centralised app with data sent to the Government's servers when someone registers coronavirus symptoms, allowing the NHS to send them a test in the post.

Critics have argued that by not using the same app or framework as the Europeans the two systems are not compatible, meaning Brits travelling to those countries could be unnecessarily placed in quarantine for 14 days upon arrival once the lockdown is eased. The US is also expected to plump for the Apple - Google model.

Lawyers have also suggested that it may also breach human rights and data protection laws - and the NHS is now facing questions about the decision to develop an app when other countries are plumping for the more privacy-centric approach.

Matthew Ryder, a QC at Matrix Chambers in London - who sits n the Guardian's Scott Trust - has warned the app could be illegal and suggested it is 'inevitable' the nationwide rollout of the app could be challenged in the High Court.

Tory MP Damian Collins has also published ten questions about how the government will protects app users' data.

How will the NHS app work? The NHS is rolling out its new coronavirus track-and-trace app today for testing across the Isle of Wight. This is how it will work STEP ONE: DOWNLOAD THE APP Britons will be able to download the app for free from the Department of Health website. It is also available vi the Apple and Android app stores or via a link sent by email to NHS and public sector workers. It is being tested on the Isle of Wight before a potential roll-out across the country, probably one region at a time. STEP TWO: PROVIDE A PARTIAL POSTCODE To register the person will be asked to provide the first half of their postcode, which shows the NHS the town or borough they live in - but not their name or their exact home address. The user will be asked to allow the app to use the phone's bluetooth to keep track of other phones it comes in to close to and for how long for. The NHS insists it will not be tracking location data - only phones But while the Government has said 'your postcode will not be used to track your location' - it is less clear if they also mean your location will not be tracked at all. STEP THREE: KEEP YOUR PHONE ON The user will be told to keep their phone and Bluetooth switched on at all times and the app will run in the background without them doing anything. The user will also be asked to allow 'push notifications' - which allows the NHS to send a person messages directly to their phones. When an individual goes out, the app will keep a log of every time it comes within Bluetooth range of another phone - but that person must also have the app. All IDs will be anonymous, with each app registered to a code rather than a person or address. STEP FOUR: REPORT YOUR SYMPTOMS IF YOU BECOME ILL If someone becomes ill they will be asked to log on to the app and input it. They will be asked if they have the common symptoms of coronavirus such as a high temperature and a continuous cough. If no, nothing will happen. If yes, they will be told to order a coronavirus test. STEP FIVE: APP SENDS YOUR DATA TO THE NHS SERVER FOR ANALYSIS BY EXPERTS If it is a suspected coronavirus case these symptoms and the anonymous IDs of all the phones the user has come into contact with are automatically sent to an NHS server. The NHS will analyse the data sent by the original sufferer using what it calls a 'complex algorithm'. Although it is believed to be largely based on distance of between one and two metres, and the amount of time, probably around ten to 15 minutes. STEP SIX: NHS SENDS A TAILORED YELLOW AND RED ALERTS TO CONTACTS It will then alert app users who have been in significant contact with the original person with symptoms. For those who have been in contact with someone who has self reported symptoms, the app will send a yellow alert. In early versions of the app, this warns the user that they have been in contact with someone who has reported symptoms. If the original sufferer tests positive, everyone they have been in contact with will receive a stronger 'red' alert telling them to go into quarantine. The origInal sufferer triggers the red alert by entering a PIN issued by the NHS after they test positive. The Department of Health has not revealed exactly what the alerts will say. The Department of Health says: 'The app will advise the public what action to take if a user has been close to someone who has become symptomatic. The advice on what people should do can be adapted as the context and approach evolves.' The app will calculate how at risk a contact is by measuring their exposure to the person with symptoms. It will measure exposure by time and proximity. The NHS analysts will set the risk parameters that trigger alerts. STEP SEVEN: ORIGINAL SUFFERER CONTACTED BY HUMAN NHS CONTACT TRACERS The app will issue the original person with symptoms instructions on how to get a test using the software. One of around 10,000 UK human contact tracers may also get in contact on the phone and ask the app user how many people are in their household, where they have been and who they have been close to, that they know of, to find people who may not have been picked up by the bluetooth. They will also try to contact these new contacts if required. STEP EIGHT: SUFFERER IS TESTED Once the Covid-19 test arrives at the person's home they will be expected to swab and then put it back in the post to an NHS testing centre. They may also be eligible for a home test by a health worker or visit one of the country's test centres. The result should be available within 48 hours. There are then two possible outcomes:  The person tests negative. In this case, your contacts are told via a message that it was a false notification.  The person tests positive. In this case, your contacts are asked to isolate for 14 days, and get them into the clinical testing path. STEP NINE: HUMAN CONTACT TRACERS CONTACT AT-RISK CONTACTS OF ORIGINAL SUFFERER AND PLOT HOTSPOTS The NHS' army of human contact tracers will contact app users who have been in 'significant contact' with the original person with symptoms will be alerted through the app. They will provided with 'health advice'  which may include self isolation  based on the NHS' assessment of their level of risk. Not everyone who has been in contact will be alerted based on the NHS algorithm. This advice will be constantly modified by doctors based on the current sutuation. If a hotspot of new cases emerges, the users will be advised to take more urgent action, such as staying at home or even seeking medical attention. The NHS team of contact tracers will then individually contact everyone who has been in contact with the sufferer, either through the app or by other means. Advertisement

Countries who have adopted the Apple-Google Covid-19 tracing app 'not compatible' with the NHS' own software Germany Italy Switzerland Austria Estonia Ireland - The United States of America is expected to use it - but no final decision has been made yet Advertisement

He told the BBC: 'The government needs to justify why they are going for the system that has a greater interference than the one that should do the job with less interference.

'If Germany, the US and Italy can all do the job that we want to do with a decentralised system that Apple and Google have facilitated, which is the least interference of privacy, we need to understand why the UK thinks it can't do the job and needs a different system.

'What the Information Commissioner said that we agree with is that there needs to be a data impact assessment. So that the information commissioner and everyone else can understand what the data impact assessment is and why the NHS thinks they need these extra interferences with our privacy in order to be able to do the job. This is a really important thing and we need to protect rights'.

He added: 'It's almost inevitable that if the Government doesn't take the approach that the information commissioner and others are suggesting, hopefully they will, then are going to be legal implications including the possibility of a legal challenge. '

After today's tests all Isle of Wight residents will be able to download the software on to their smartphones from Thursday.

If the tests are successful it could be rolled out across the country within weeks as ministers seek to shape a strategy to allow some economic activity to resume, with the long-awaited 'roadmap' for easing lockdown being published on Sunday.

Users will input into the app when they have symptoms linked to Covid-19. Developed by NHSX, the health service's tech innovation arm, the software will then use Bluetooth to anonymously monitor and log when app users come into contact with each other.

The software will alert people if they have been in close contact with someone who later fell ill with coronavirus, which has killed 28,734 in the UK so far, so they can self-isolate and be tested if necessary.

Some MPs have raised concerns about privacy and the amount of data it will gather - but the NHS insists it is vital to stop further outbreaks of the virus and to prevent people from spreading the virus without realising they have it, as well as alerting authorities to local clusters of cases.

Google and Apple have managed to develop software which serves the same function but in a way that contains all the necessary data inside someone's phone and doesn't need a server. Other countries including Germany and Switzerland are using this approach.

Because no movement or tracking information is stored on a central server, it would be invisible to Google, Apple and the NHS and there would be nothing to hack.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said a user's phone will store anonymously the information about all the phones it has been within two metres of for more than 15 minutes in the previous few days.

He said one of the aspects being tested in the trial on the Isle of Wight is whether the best thing is for someone who gets a message saying they have been in contact with someone with symptoms should self-isolate 'in case you develop the symptoms'.

He told BBC Breakfast: 'This is one of the reasons that we want to test it to ensure that we get the rules right around what we advise people to do as soon as the contact tracing pings you.'

Mr Hancock said the app would allow the Government to have a picture of where there might be virus hotspots.

He said: 'The more people who have the app the better.'

He said human contact tracing is important alongside technology.

He said: 'Of course we use the technology but we're going to be using people too in this test, track and trace system.'

Mr Hancock said it was being used on the Isle of Wight because the fact that the population is small and cut off from the mainland meant the experiment could be carried out in 'proper scientifically-controlled conditions'.

Pressed on privacy and the use of data, Mr Hancock reiterated that information will be stored on a person's phone until the point they need to get in contact with the NHS to get a test.

He said: 'I think we can give very significant reassurances on the privacy aspect but what I can tell you is that if you download the app then you are doing your duty and you are helping to save lives, and you're helping to control the spread of the virus, and that's true as of this morning on the Isle of Wight amongst NHS staff, but it'll be true increasingly across the country as we roll it out.'

Mr Hancock said the app is 'a very, very positive step in terms of us all being able to get some of our liberty back'.

Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen has said the Government should look at decentralised app models - where contact-tracing data stays on a users device.

The organisations concerns that the Government may be planning to route private data through a central database, opening the door to pervasive state surveillance and privacy infringement, with potentially discriminatory effects was put to the Health Secretary.

Mr Hancock responded: Thats completely wrong.

Asked why, he said: Firstly because the data is stored on your phone until you need to get in contact with the NHS in order to get a test and secondly because the purposes of this are purely and simply to control the spread of the virus, which is really important.

Thirdly because weve all had to give up significant infringements on our liberty, for instance with the social distancing measures and the lockdown, and we want to release those, and this approach will help us to release them ... I can reassure you that its completely untrue.

If the island trial is successful the Government plans to roll out the app to everyone across the UK as a crucial element of its 'test, track and trace' plan for keeping the country out of lockdown in future as it adapts to life with the virus.

Deputy chief medical officer, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, said today: 'It's highly unlikely that the COVID-19 virus is going to go away... therefore, testing and contact tracing is going to have to become part of our daily lives for the future'.

Experts say 60 per cent of the population or more will need to download the app for it to work well. Government figures have not put a target on uptake but will urge everybody who can to download the app when it becomes available, adopting the mantra 'download the app, protect the NHS, save lives'.

The app will rely on people being honest about when they feel ill - data must be put into the app by the user. It is not clear what will constitute close enough contact for someone to be alerted that they are at risk. The World Health Organization's rule is 15 minutes within six-and-a-half feet (2m), but the Department of Health said a 'complex risk algorithm' would dictate who would be warned.

The programme on the Isle of Wight will carry on for around two weeks to check whether the system works and whether people actually download and use it properly. If successful, the app will start to be used on mainland Britain from mid-May, the Department of Health said, while continuing on the Isle of Wight.

But there are concerns that the data the NHS app collects might be vulnerable because officials have elected to store it on a central database on NHS servers.

Some other countries including Switzerland and Germany are using technology which stores all data on someone's own phone and never submits it to authorities.

The CEO of NHSX, the digital arm of the health service, today said he could not confirm exactly who would have access to data collected by the NHS app, saying only that an organisation must have a valid public health reason to access it. He insisted that the app will never upload private, identifying information such as someone's name or address.

The app has also failed the tests it must pass to be officially listed on the NHS app store, including cyber-security measures, according to claims made by an NHS official in the Health Service Journal.

It is reported to be below the normal standards the NHS requires to officially publish an app for mobile users, and has not lived up to expectations set on cyber-security, performance and its 'clinical safety'. Exactly how it failed those measures is unclear.

The Department of Health disputed the reports and called them 'factually untrue', insisting the app is being fast-tracked, has not failed any tests and will go through normal approval channels after it is rolled out on the Isle of Wight.

People will be asked to give the first half of their postcode so the NHS can collect vague, anonymised data - at town or village level - about where outbreaks of the coronavirus are appearing (pictured left). If someone has been close to a person who is later believed to be ill with COVID-19 they will receive an anonymous alert that they are at risk (right)

People eligible for the app will be sent a download link when it is available for them to start using. It will rely on people accurately reporting whether they are ill or not, or have tested positive. Contacts will be advised to self-isolate while someone is tested

Downloading and using the app will be voluntary but officials hope huge numbers of people will be persuaded to take part in the hope of lifting movement restrictions.

HOW IS THE NHS TRACING APP DIFFERENT TO ONE MADE BY APPLE AND GOOGLE? The app technologies developed by Google/Apple and the NHS are based on the same principle - they keep a log of who someone has come into close contact with - but the way they store data is the main difference. The NHS's keeps information in a centralised database, while the Google/Apple app is de-centralised. NHS app: Lists on NHS servers The NHSX app will create an alert every time two app users come within Bluetooth range of one another and log this in the user's phone. Each person will essentially build up a list of everyone they have been in 'contact' with. This will be anonymised so the lists will actually just be numbers or codes, not lists of names or addresses. If someone is diagnosed with the coronavirus or reports that they have symptoms, all the app users they got close to during the time that they were considered infectious - this will vary from person to person - will receive an alert telling them they have been put at risk of COVID-19 - but it won't name the person who was diagnosed. NHSX insists it will delete people's data when they get rid of the app. Apple/Google: Contained on phones In Apple and Google's de-centralised approach, meanwhile, the server and list element of this process is removed and the entire log is contained in someone's phone. That app works by exchanging a digital 'token' with every phone someone comes within Bluetooth range of over a fixed period. If one person develops symptoms of the coronavirus or tests positive, they will be able to enter this information into the app. The phone will then send out a notification to all the devices they have exchanged tokens with during the infection window, to make people aware they may have been exposed to COVID-19. The server database will not be necessary because each phone will keep an individual log of the bluetooth profiles someone has come close to. These will then be linked anonymously to people's NHS apps and alerts can be pushed through that even after the person is out of bluetooth range. It is understood that if someone later deletes the Google/Apple app and closes their account their data would be erased. Will NHS benefit from central data? If the NHS collects the data it may be able to use it as part of wider contact tracing efforts as well as being able to detect local outbreaks using location data. In future, if someone is diagnosed with COVID-19, members of an army of 18,000 'contact tracers' will be tasked with working out who else that patient has come into contact with and put at risk. It is not clear how much access the human contact tracers will have to data collected through the app. Advertisement

NHS and council staff on the Isle of Wight will be sent a download link by email today, and residents on the island will receive letters in the post with instructions on how to get the app on Thursday.

It is being trialled on the Isle of Wight because it is a small, self-contained community which is easier to control, Mr Hancock said. Initial testing was carried out on an even smaller self-contained community at RAF Leeming, an air base in North Yorkshire, and it is now being scaled up.

Mr Hancock claimed that on the Isle of Wight it could be tested in 'scientific' conditions because people cannot come and go freely - there is no bridge or tunnel between the Isle and mainland Britain.

It will be easier for officials to get a clear idea of what proportion of the population has downloaded the app, and to get tests for large parts of communities quickly.

But privacy concerns have been raised about the way the app works.

Dr Michael Veale, a lecturer in digital rights at University College London, said on BBC Radio 4 this morning: 'One thing people need to do is have deep trust that this data will not be misused or that the system will not turn slowly into something that starts to identify people more individually.'

The NHSX app focuses on a centralised approach in which any interactions between people are recorded by the phone and then, if someone is flagged as a coronavirus patient, sent back to a server run by the NHS.

NHSX is on an offensive to assuage people's concerns about privacy and insists that no personal information will be collected. People will be identified by codes which are not linked to their name or address.

Instead, the app will keep a log of Bluetooth connections between codes and, when one of the codes is upgraded to signify that the patient attached to it has tested positive or become ill (this will be done by the user via the app), other codes which had been in contact with that one will be alerted anonymously.

All the connections - which will look to the human eye like a series of pairs of numbers, with one number in common - will then be uploaded to a central NHS database and stored.

NHSX chief executive, Matthew Gould, confirmed the app will collect no specific personal data from users such as their name or address.

He said: 'The app is designed so you don't have to give it your personal details to use it  it does ask for the first half of your postcode but only that.

'You can use it without giving any other personal details at all  it doesn't know who you are, it doesn't know who you've been near, it doesn't know where you've been.'

But experts say this level of data collection - tracking the movements of one unchanging number and linking it to others - is fraught with hazards.

It is possible that if the data was hacked, one of the codes - each person's identifying code remains the same over time - could be linked to a person if the hacker could pinpoint the code and person in the same place. This could then be used to track them repeatedly as their Bluetooth checked in at other places.

The NHS is now facing questions as to why it needs to develop the app in this manner when other countries are plumping for the more privacy-centric approach.

Google and Apple have managed to develop software which serves the same function but in a way that contains all the necessary data inside someone's phone and doesn't need a server. Other countries including Germany and Switzerland are using this approach.

Because no movement or tracking information is stored on a central server, it would be invisible to Google, Apple and the NHS and there would be nothing to hack.

That technology works by exchanging a digital 'token' with every phone someone comes within Bluetooth range of over a fixed period.

If one person develops symptoms of the coronavirus or tests positive, they will be able to enter this information into the app.

The phone will then send out a notification to all the devices they have exchanged tokens with during the infection window, to make people aware they may have been exposed to COVID-19.

The process is confined to the individual's handset and the scope of the information sent to the NHS is strictly limited.

Experts fear that the system could be used to label people as infected or at-risk in a way that other people would be able to see, meaning they could face discrimination.

Dr Veale said: 'We've seen in China the traffic light system of red, yellow, green - 'are you suitable to come into this building or come into work' - and a centralised system is really just a few steps away from creating those kind of persistent identifiers that allow you to make that kind of approach.

'Whereas a decentralised system really does proximity tracing and does not do more than that. People can trust that technically.'

With the NHS's approach, people will have to trust the health service and therefore the Government with their personal information.

Human rights group Amnesty International raised alarm about the prospect.

Scientists have said they are worried about 'mission creep' in which people are told the data will be used for one thing but then the people controlling the data decide to use it for something else.

Amnesty International UK director, Kate Allen, said the Government should be looking at decentralised app models where contact-tracing data stays on a user's device.

ISLE OF WIGHT FACTFILE The Isle of Wight is an island off the south coast of England, linked by ferry to Portsmouth and Southampton. The island has a population of around 141,000 people. More than a quarter of all its residents (27.3 per cent) are older than 65, and the proportion is increasing. It is one of the most elderly communities in England & Wales. Its biggest town is Newport and has a population of just 18,700 people. Only three towns on the island have more than 10,000 residents. One in six houses are occupied by someone older than 65 living on their own. The Isle of Wight is off the coast of Portsmouth and Southampton The vast majority of people on the island are white and British - 94.8 per cent, compared to 85.9 per cent in England. Just under two per cent are 'other white', while just over one per cent are Asian. Bob Seely MBE is the MP for the island. He is a member of the Conservative Party and has held office since 2017. The Conservatives also hold a majority on the borough council.

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However, officials says they are maintaining strict privacy rules while also gathering anonymous data about the numbers of coronavirus cases in certain areas, which could help hospitals to plan for outbreaks, for example.

Ms Allen said: 'We're extremely concerned that the Government may be planning to route private data through a central database, opening the door to pervasive state surveillance and privacy infringement, with potentially discriminatory effects.

'Ministers should instead be examining decentralised, privacy-preserving models such as those many European governments are pursuing.

'In these extraordinary times, contact-tracing apps and other technology could potentially be useful tools in responding to COVID-19, but our privacy and rights must not become another casualty of the virus.'

Dr Veale also promoted the benefits of the de-centralised model, adding: 'In the Apple and Google approach... you don't need to trust Apple and Google with your data because it never leaves your device.

'It removes the need to have an identifiable central database of any sort whatsoever. This is being used in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Estonia and also in Ireland.'

The app will form a crucial part of the Government's three-point 'test, track and trace' plan for helping the country to recover from its current crisis.

This will work by officials closely watching where and when new cases and outbreaks of the virus appear and isolating people to stamp them out.

First, anyone who is suspected of having the virus will be tested - there are still currently limits on who can get a test, but these are expected to be lifted by the time the country moves out of lockdown.

If someone tests positive, they will be told to self-isolate as long as they are otherwise healthy and don't need hospital treatment.

Their households will have to isolate with them and then Government 'contact tracers' will work to establish a social network around the patient.

This will involve working out everyone who has come into close enough contact with the patient that they are at risk of having been infected with COVID-19.

All the people in that social network will then also be told to self-isolate until they can be sure they're virus free, or until they are diagnosed with a test. If they test positive, the same contact tracing procedure will begin for them.

The app will be a vital part of this contact tracing effort, because it will be able to alert people who the patient may have put at risk without them knowing - at a shop or doctor's surgery, for example.

Cybersecurity experts and human rights experts are also concerned about 'mission creep' in which the app starts off with one purpose but then officials decide to use its data for something else.

Professor Mark Ryan, a computer security lecturer at the University of Birmingham, said: 'Everyone agrees that proximity tracing is a vital part of combating COVID and ending the lockdown.

'However, we have to be sure that proximity tracing technology does not lead to unfettered surveillance of people's movements and activities.

'To this end, we call upon the government to publish open source code of the apps and server processes that will be used.

'Remember that, unlike the cases of surveillance to combat terrorism or other crime, there is no requirement of secrecy in what strategies and technologies are being used against COVID.'

Information collected by the app will also give the Government insight into where the virus is spreading.

As officials continue to track the virus in future, they will have to try to work out how many people who have had COVID-19 in the past and recovered.

The roll-out of 'immunity passports' is being considered by ministers as part of the government's attempts to get Britain back to work after the coronavirus lockdown is eased.

Ministers are believed to be in talks with tech firms about developing a form of digital identification which would verify who someone is and show whether they have been tested for the disease.

The passports could either be based on antigen testing which shows if someone currently has coronavirus or on antibody testing which shows if someone has had it.

The digital documents would show if someone has tested negative on an antigen test or if they have shown to have some resistance to coronavirus after an antibody test, demonstrating to an employer they are safe to re-enter the workplace.

Such a scheme could be a game-changer for ministers as they try to figure out how to kickstart the UK economy.

But the World Health Organization has warned against these immunity passports because scientists are not sure whether people actually become immune after illness.

In a statement the WHO said: 'There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection.'

Boris Johnson is expected to unveil his lockdown exit strategy in an address to the nation on Sunday, having delayed the announcement from Thursday as frantic work continues in Whitehall.

Today it emerged that reduced hot-desking, the closure of office lifts and canteens, and putting tape on the floor to mark where people should stand are all likely to be proposed by the government under plans to restore office working.

How does the NHS COVID-19 contact tracing app work? Will it track my every move? Will it drain your battery? And why has the government shunned Apple and Google's system?

The NHS is rolling out its new coronavirus track-and-trace app today for testing across the Isle of Wight.

Health and council workers will be asked to download the software on to smartphones to see if it works - and if phones can accurately trace personal contacts via bluetooth.

But critics have questioned why the Government has chosen to collect the data of millions of people in one central system, rather than spreading the risk using a decentralised model adopted in Germany, backed by tech giants Apple and Google.

This is how the NHS app works - and the key differences between the UK's software and the Google-Apple app.

1. DOWNLOAD THE APP

Britons will be able to download the app for free from the Department of Health website.

It is also available via the Apple and Android app stores or via a link sent by email to NHS and public sector workers.

It is being tested on the Isle of Wight before a potential roll-out across the country, probably one region at a time.

2. PROVIDE A PARTIAL POSTCODE

To register the person will be asked to provide the first half of their postcode, which shows the NHS the town or borough they live in - but not their name or their exact home address.

The user will be asked to allow the app to use the phone's bluetooth to keep track of other phones it comes close to and how long for.

The NHS insists it will not be tracking location data - only phones.

But while the Government has said 'your postcode will not be used to track your location' - it is less clear if they also mean your location will not be tracked at all.

3. KEEP YOUR PHONE ON

The user will be told to keep their phone and Bluetooth switched on at all times and the app will run in the background without them doing anything.

The user will also be asked to allow 'push notifications' - which allows the NHS to send a person messages directly to their phones.

When an individual goes out, the app will keep a log of every time it comes within Bluetooth range of another phone - but that person must also have the app.

All IDs will be anonymous, with each app registered to a code rather than a person or address.

4. REPORT YOUR SYMPTOMS IF YOU BECOME ILL

If someone becomes ill they will be asked to log on to the app and input it. They will be asked if they have the common symptoms of coronavirus such as a high temperature and a continuous cough.

If no, nothing will happen. If yes, they will be told to order a coronavirus test.

5 APP SENDS YOUR DATA TO THE NHS SERVER FOR ANALYSIS BY EXPERTS

If it is a suspected coronavirus case these symptoms and the anonymous IDs of all the phones the user has come into contact with are automatically sent to an NHS server.

The NHS will analyse the data sent by the original sufferer using what it calls a complex algorithm. Although it is believed to be largely based on distance of between one and two metres, and the amount of time, probably around ten to 15 minutes.

6 NHS SENDS A TAILORED ALERT TO CONTACTS

It will then alert app users who have been in significant contact with the original person with symptoms.

The Department of Health has not revealed what the alerts will say. NHS analysts will write the alerts and they will be distributed by algorithm according to a contact's risk level. They could range from self isolate immediately to watch out for symptoms.

The app will calculate how at risk a contact is by measuring their exposure to the person with symptoms. It will measure exposure by time and proximity. The NHS analysts will set the risk parameters that trigger alerts.

7. ORIGINAL SUFFERER CONTACTED BY HUMAN NHS CONTACT TRACERS

The app will issue the original person with symptoms instructions on how to get a test using the software.

One of around 10,000 UK human contact tracers may also get in contact on the phone and ask the app user how many people are in their household, where they have been and who they have been close to, that they know of, to find people who may not have been picked up by the bluetooth.

They will also try to contact these new contacts if required.

SUFFERER IS TESTED

Once the Covid-19 test arrives at the person's home they will be expected to swab and then put it back in the post to an NHS testing centre. They may also be eligible for a home test by a health worker or visit one of the country's test centres. The result should be available within 48 hours.

There are then two possible outcomes:

 The person tests negative. In this case, your contacts are told via a message that it was a false notification.

 The person tests positive. In this case, your contacts are asked to isolate for 14 days, and get them into the clinical testing path.

HUMAN CONTACT TRACERS CONTACT AT-RISK CONTACTS OF ORIGINAL SUFFERER AND PLOT HOTSPOTS

The NHS' army of human contact tracers will contact app users who have been in significant contact with the original person with symptoms will be alerted through the app. They will provided with health advice  which may include self isolation  based on the NHS assessment of their level of risk. Not everyone who has been in contact will be alerted based on the NHS algorithm. This advice will be constantly modified by doctors based on the current sutuation.

If a hotspot of new cases emerges, the users will be advised to take more urgent action, such as staying at home or even seeking medical attention. The NHS team of contact tracers will then individually contact everyone who has been in contact with the sufferer, either through the app or by other means.

What are the differences between the NHS' 'centralised' app and the Apple-Google 'decentralised app'?

The app technologies developed by Google/Apple and the NHS are based on the same principle - they keep a log of who someone has come into close contact with.

But the way they store data is the main difference.

Britain has decided to develop an app with a 'centralised' system where smartphone data is sent to them - in Europe countries have gone for a less complex 'decentralised' system where the data is largely kept on their phones

THE NHS APP IS CENTRALISED

It keeps information of users who report symptoms and who they have been in contact with on centralised database on government servers. This lets NHS analysts access the data, analyse trends and contact people who are at risk. The data does not identify users, however privacy experts fear they could be unmasked by hackers.

THE GOOGLE/APPLE APP IS DE-CENTRALISED

It also keeps a log of the users contacts, but this information is always held within the app and is not uploaded to a government server. If a user reports symptoms, they report it to the app database. Other phones search the app database for users who have symptoms and they have been in contact with. The app alerts the government when users report symptoms but not who they have been in contact with. The alerts issued by the app or generic to all users and have no input from health officials.

What are the differences in the way each app handles data?

NHS app: Patient data and 'contacts' are sent to the Government's servers

The NHSX app will create an alert every time two app users come within Bluetooth range of one another and log this in the user's phone.

Each person will essentially build up a list of everyone they have been in 'contact' with. This will be anonymised so the lists will actually just be numbers or codes, not lists of names or addresses.

If someone is diagnosed with the coronavirus or reports that they have symptoms, all the app users they got close to during the time that they were considered infectious - this will vary from person to person - will receive an alert telling them they have been put at risk of COVID-19 - but it won't name the person who was diagnosed.

NHSX insists it will delete people's data when they get rid of the app and that data is deleted every 14 days.

If the NHS collects the data it may be able to use it as part of wider contact tracing efforts as well as being able to detect local outbreaks using location data, also also send out warnings to people in specific areas.

In future, if someone is diagnosed with COVID-19, members of an army of 18,000 'contact tracers' will be tasked with working out who else that patient has come into contact with and put at risk.

It is not clear how much access the human contact tracers will have to data collected through the app.

Apple/Google app: Most patient data is contained on phones

In Apple and Google's de-centralised approach, meanwhile, the server and list element of this process is removed and the entire log is contained in someone's phone.

That app works by exchanging a digital 'token' with every phone someone comes within Bluetooth range of over a fixed period.

If one person develops symptoms of the coronavirus or tests positive, they will be able to enter this information into the app.

The phone will then send out a notification to all the devices they have exchanged tokens with during the infection window, to make people aware they may have been exposed to COVID-19.

The server database will not be necessary because each phone will keep an individual log of the bluetooth profiles someone has come close to. These will then be linked anonymously to people's NHS apps and alerts can be pushed through that even after the person is out of bluetooth range.

It is understood that if someone later deletes the Google/Apple app and closes their account their data would be erased.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each app?

Advantages of the NHS centralised app:

An ill user reports gives all their anonymous contacts to the NHS

The NHS can use risk modelling to decide which contacts are most at risk, and then notify them

The health authority can issue individually tailored health advice to contacts based on the strength of the users contact with someone with symptoms

The NHS has anonymous data to help it understand how coronavirus is spreading

Disadvantages of the NHS centralised app:

Privacy fears of the public will be greater than with decentralised system

Legal hurdles to clear data protection laws

NHS' app will not tie up with other countries' meaning travel for Britons could be hit and people forced to go into quarantine.

Advantages of Apple/Google de-centralised apps:

Fewer privacy fears among the public

No risk of legal challenge using data protection laws

Backing of tech giants makes international compatibility likely

Potentially higher take-up rate and simpler to use;

Disadvantages of Apple/Google decentralised apps:

People who contact a carrier get only a general warning and are not put in touch with NHS

The NHS would have no contact data to help them understand how the virus is spreading

The NHS cannot issue tailored alerts to people who are more or less at risk

The NHS cannot analyse the contact data to identify hotspots and trends

Could the NHS app be illegal?

Lawyers have also suggested that the NHS' new app may breach the The Human Rights Act 1998 and the Data Protection Act 2018 - therefore making it unlawful.

Leading barrister Matthew Ryder, a QC at Matrix Chambers in London, has warned it could be illegal and suggested it is 'inevitable' the nationwide rollout of the app could be challenged in the High Court.

Mr Ryder says the app needs a full Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) - a process to help identify and minimise the data protection risks of a project. A DPIA is only required for a project likely to result in a high risk to individuals. These are overseen by Britain's data watchdog - the Information Commissioner's Office.

He told the BBC: 'The government needs to justify why they are going for the system that has a greater interference than the one that should do the job with less interference.

'If Germany, the US and Italy can all do the job that we want to do with a decentralised system that Apple and Google have facilitated, which is the least interference of privacy, we need to understand why the UK thinks it can't do the job and needs a different system.

'What the Information Commissioner said that we agree with is that there needs to be a data impact assessment. So that the information commissioner and everyone else can understand what the data impact assessment is and why the NHS thinks they need these extra interferences with our privacy in order to be able to do the job. This is a really important thing and we need to protect rights'.

He added: 'It's almost inevitable that if the Government doesn't take the approach that the information commissioner and others are suggesting, hopefully they will, then are going to be legal implications including the possibility of a legal challenge. '

Will the app drain my battery?

Developers insist that shouldn't empty a phone's battery - and should only have the same impact as an Apple watch, which should only take a matter of minutes off the average battery life each day.

The app automatically searches for nearby phones that are using the same app by using Bluetooth Low Energy. This will only send information at around 200 kilobits per second.

Whereas normal bluetooth used around three megabits per second, more than ten times as much.

What happens if someone fakes coronavirus as a prank?

The system relies on honesty - but the NHS believes any foul play can be rooted out and set right.

The Government will be using thousands of human tracers who will contact people after they use the app to declare Covid-19 symptoms. If they continue the charade they will be asked to take a test - which will either be ignored or come back negative.

Health workers will have the means to send messages to potential contacts telling them it is a false alarm.The ploy will, however, waste time and money for the NHS as they try to identify genuine cases.
Despite some who would dismiss it as xenophobic or racist, it is becoming increasingly clear China covered up the extent of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, allowing it to become a pandemic that has infected millions of people, killed hundreds of thousands and inflicted enormous economic damage on nations around the globe.

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security Intelligence report dated May 1 obtained by The Associated Press alleged Chinese leaders intentionally concealed the severity of the pandemic while increasing imports and cutting exports of supplies such as masks, gowns and gloves (aka PPE) needed to treat the outbreak. There have been shortages of PPE as governments have struggled to provide sufficient supplies for first responders and front-line health workers in hospitals and nursing homes.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went a step further this weekend when he said there is a significant amount of evidence the virus came from that laboratory in Wuhan. The Wuhan Institute of Virology is near the wet market that has been blamed as the source of the virus. On Monday, China shot back against the groundless accusations in an editorial in its state-owned Global Times newspaper, writing since Pompeo said his claims are supported by enormous evidence, then he should present this so-called evidence to the world. He should. Knowing where this came from could play a big role in slowing its spread, treating it and eventually vaccinating against it.

Meanwhile, the Chinese actions have ranged from blocking travel from Wuhan to other parts of China while allowing people to leave Wuhan for Europe and other destinations to insisting it was not transmissible from human to human  a misstatement initially parroted by the World Health Organization. It appears the Chinese knew about the virus in December and aggressively began censoring information late that month and into January.

The U.S. is not alone in taking a dim view of Chinese behavior. A report in Australias The Saturday Telegraph reported on a 15-page document compiled by the Five Eyes, an intelligence collaborative of the U. S., Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. It catalogued the Chinese Communist Partys deliberate suppression and destruction of evidence regarding the outbreak, concluding the malfeasance was an assault on international transparency that included silencing or disappearing doctors who spoke out and destroying evidence of the virus in laboratories.

The Chinese have countered with a range of strategies ranging from internet disinformation campaigns using bots, to threats and intimidation. That hasnt deterred the Australians. Or others. Swedish Health Minister Lena Hallengren wrote in a message to Parliament it is both reasonable and important that an international independent investigation be conducted to gain knowledge about the origin and spread of the coronavirus.

There are demands from Republican lawmakers for retaliatory actions ranging from allowing people to sue the Chinese Communist Party in U.S. courts to defaulting on debt. There are calls to bring China before the international courts.

But the most important takeaway here is the U.S. can never again be dependent on China  or anyone else  for essential things ranging from antibiotics and other medicine to rare earth materials used in high technology.

Other nations get that. Japan has earmarked $2.2 billion of its economic stimulus package to help its manufacturers shift production out of China.

Yes, China deserves blame for the scope and severity of the virus that has been unleashed. Compensation and a sense that justice has been done would be nice. But looking to the future is far more important. As the 2020 campaign unfolds, voters should demand candidates present clear positions on how this relationship with China changes  because change it must or face a repeat that could prove even more devastating.

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.
A woman killed by an alligator at a South Carolina pond told a friend she wanted to get close to the animal and didn't scream as it attacked her and dragged her into the water, according to a police report.

The victim, named as animal lover Cynthia Covert, 58, died in the attack on Friday afternoon on Kiawah Island in Charleston County.

A police deputy had to shoot and kill the alligator to get Covert away from the animal, according to the police report released Monday.

Cynthia Covert, 58, was reportedly killed by an alligator on Friday after she walked towards the beast, and did not scream as it pulled her under the water in a small pond, police have said (stock image)

The friend Covert was staying with said she didn't seem herself Friday and walked towards the alligator, which lunged and grabbed her in its mouth when she was about 4 feet (1.2 meters) away, deputies said.

Covert, of Johns Island, made no sound as the alligator pulled her under, the woman told police.

The woman's husband and another man tried beating the alligator with shovels, but the animal swam deeper, the police report said.

When deputies arrived, the alligator kept surfacing with Covert and going under. One officer was able to shoot the animal as it surfaced again, police said.

A deputy on the scene found the gator and fatally shot it before retrieving the reptile in the attack on Friday afternoon on Kiawah Island in Charleston County

The Charleston County Sheriff's Office said in a Friday Twitter post that deputies responded to the pond near Salt Cedar Ln, Kiawah Island, after getting reports of an alligator encounter with a woman

Firefighters used poles to get Covert out of the pond but she died at the hospital, authorities said.

An autopsy Monday found Covert died of drowning, the Charleston County Coroner's Office said.

The body of alligator was retrieved by police to help with their investigation into the attack.

South Carolina rarely has any serious alligator attacks, according to the Charleston Post and Courier.

The July 2016 death of a 90-year-old woman near a West Ashley extended care facility was the state's first fatality associated with alligators.
Thousands of people covered by a medical card or GP visit card will have them automatically renewed for a year during the coronavirus crisis.

It means that those whose card comes up for renewal will not have to worry about completing an updated application with the HSE.

The move comes amid growing concern about the health needs of patients who do not have Covid-19 and fears about the impact on waiting lists as well as the reluctance to seek medical care during the crisis.

The medical card and GP visit cards will reduce any financial disincentive for people on lower incomes to contact their doctor.

Health Minister Simon Harris confirmed the automatic renewal yesterday and said: "I know this is a worrying time for everybody.

"We have made the decision to extend eligibility to ensure people do not lose their medical card or their GP visit card during this time.

Expand Close Ollie, Sam and Max Mitchell enjoy the fine bank holiday Monday weather with a break from home at Coliemore Harbour, Dalkey. Photo: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos / Facebook

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"I hope this will make things a bit easier when things are tough enough. I also hope this will ensure people continue to access care beyond Covid."

Sixteen more deaths from the virus were announced by the Department of Health yesterday, bringing the to 1,319.

An additional 266 newly confirmed cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed, signalling a downturn that has seen the daily growth fall to around 2pc for the past eight days.

So far, 21,772 people have caught the virus in Ireland.

The number of seriously ill patients in intensive care units is 93, plus 20 suspected cases also in ICU.

Fragile

Overall, around 900 patients who have the virus are ill enough to be treated in hospital.

This prompted Mr Harris to describe the overall situation as "fragile", despite plans to begin the gradual unwinding of the lockdown in two weeks.

HSE infection control experts said they are not recommending using gloves while doing shopping or when out and about.

Prof Martin Cormican, HSE lead on infection control and antibiotic use, said: "A lot of people are using disposable gloves in everyday life.

"One of our key messages is that we do not recommend using gloves while doing your shopping or when you are out and about.

"If there are bugs on your gloves, those often end up on your hands when you take the gloves off, and from there they can very easily end up in your mouth, nose and eyes.

"It's much better to clean your hands regularly and properly.

"Even in special settings such as hospitals, where gloves are valuable, there is still a need to perform hand hygiene when the gloves come off.

"In hospitals, gloves are single use for single patient care tasks."

Prof Cormican was speaking on World Hand Hygiene Day.

He said: "Most years when it comes around, we wonder how we will find a fresh way to talk to people about the importance of hand hygiene in preventing infection.

"This year it is all very different. Preventing infection with Covid-19 is now on everyone's mind."

People aged over 70 and those whose health leaves them at increased risk are advised they can go for a daily walk from today.

However, the charity Alone said the Government should consider the long-term detrimental effect cocooning is having on the physical and mental health of older people.

Suicidal

Last week, Alone released figures relating to older people's mental health as a result of the pandemic, with increases in callers to its helpline expressing suicidal thoughts.

"Alone has noted that the long-term physical health and well-being of older people is also being affected, with cocooning measures preventing older people living in the community from staying active, accessing home support and attending medical appointments," it said.

Enda Egan, of Inclusion Ireland, which represents families of people with an intellectual disability, also welcomed clarification in Department of Health guidelines on the care of disabled people during the pandemic.

Earlier documents caused concern that some might face difficulty getting life-saving treatment based on frailty scales.

"As should always be the case, this supplementary document states people with disabilities should not be discriminated against when it comes to accessing healthcare, up to and including intensive care," he said.

"It is reassuring that the minister and the department have provided this written clarity regarding access to treatment.

"There were many people with intellectual disabilities and their families who were very concerned with the previous wording in documents and the absence of consideration for the rights of persons with disabilities within them."
An FCA security agent scans the body temperature of an employee of Italian automobile manufacturer FCA on April 28, 2020 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Stefano Guidi/Getty Images)

As businesses prepare to open up while fears of contracting COVID-19 still linger, some are taking steps to try to reduce the risk of spread by using thermal technology to identify potential carriers.

In Vancouver, a locally-owned liquor store has installed a thermal camera system, while a large grocery chain is using handheld temperature scans at the point of entry.

We thought this was the best, the safest and the most consistent way to screen people, said Abri van den Berg, General Manager of Value On Liquor Store in Vancouver.

Last Friday, van den Berg had the dual camera system installed which he said is approved by Health Canada as it measures the body temperature of anyone entering the store by scanning their forehead.

It helps us to screen customers and employees to not have anyone in the store who has an elevated body temperature like a fever, said van den Berg.

The two camera system relays audible notifications of someone with an elevated temperature to staff, and also pings van den Bergs cellphone.

Weve positioned it by the entrance to the store, so it is scanning people as theyre coming in, so if anyone has a temperature of 37.5 degrees or more itll give a warning. A warning over 38 would give an alarm, he said.

Once staff are then notified of the person, they are then advised to ask the person to leave the store.

We would politely ask that person to leave the premises, if their body temperature is that high, theyre clearly running a fever, it might not be coronavirus, but they need medical help, he said.

Van den Berg said since the COVID-19 breakout, theyve taken extra precautionary steps to ensure that safety comes before profit.

Were taking all the precautions we can to keep our staff and consumers safe, weve installed plexiglass shields, our staff are wearing PPE while on shift and were disinfecting the stores multiple times throughout the days, he said. It is expensive, it is the best that money can buy, Im fortunate the owner has supported us extensively and that hes willing to invest into our wellbeing.

Story continues

While the liquor store has opted for a camera system, T&T Supermarket, which has locations in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, is using a hand-held device to measure temperatures of customers.

Last month, T&T began a voluntary temperature check service in all T&T stores. The service uses an infrared thermometer which can be used at a safe distance with no physical contact, wrote T&T CEO Tina Lee in a press release. T&T is owned by Loblaw Companies Limited.

Much like at Value On Liquor, Lee said that customers have been responding positively to the new change.

Customers are reacting positively to the service, fully understanding that we all have a role to play in keeping our communities safe, she wrote.

The company also announced that as of May 11 it will be compulsory for customers shopping in stores to wear masks. The parent company of T&T which runs Real Canadian Superstore, Loblaws, Shoppers Drug Mart and other brands said they do not have any plans to incorporate similar technology or measures at this time.

Concerns of privacy

While van den Berg appreciates other companies taking similar approaches, he believes the handheld version of temperature scans will violate physical distancing measures.

Its contrary to social distancing rules, you need an employee to be scanning and they have to get within two metres of every customer to scan them with the handheld device, he said.

Other than physical distancing, Michael Bryant, Executive Director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association has greater concerns than just which version of temperature reading is best suited.

My biggest concern would be the marginalized, the vulnerable and the indigent who dont have a network of support and where will they go if their temperature is up? said Bryant.

Van den Berg argues that the system is objective based on trying to find people with high temperatures and there are no biases internally built.

Its an automated system with preset parameters, we are not collecting any data, were not recording anyone, we are purely measuring their temperature, he said.

While Bryant is also concerned about how the scanner will work in the summer and against people who live on the streets and dont have secure housing, van den Berg argues the scan doesnt account for overall body heat.

Its aware of its conditions, its not influenced by physical exertion, it only scans the temperature on the forehead and that stays quite consistent, he said.

Bryant said T&T is taking the right approach by voluntarily asking consumers to take their temperatures compared to Value On Liquors system that scans people without getting their consent.

As long as it is offered voluntarily to people the risks of discrimination and privacy rights are very low, but when it becomes a precondition to any businesses the main obstacle is the humans rights code, he said.

The concept of temperature scanning is ideal in big cities where walking from one grocery to another may take a few minutes, but if smaller towns adopt the practice, Bryant feels it could have greater effects.

If in a big city if they get a false positive rating, they walk to another place and get in, but thats not the choice for many Canadians and this could have an effect on food security and wellness, he said.

While there is little to no regulation of what is okay and what is not, Bryant thinks municipalities and provinces will need to keep a close eye on how the technology is being used.

They should be careful, governments will need to step in and mandate and look at this technology before privacy and human rights are being taken for granted, he said.
Sky News

Boris Johnson's former chief adviser has said the prime minister knew in advance about a Downing Street drinks party during the first coronavirus lockdown and agreed that it could go ahead, claims that have been confirmed to Sky News by a second source. In an updated post on his Substack page, Dominic Cummings said he raised his concerns about the event in the Number 10 garden in May 2020 directly with the PM and would "swear under oath this is what happened". Mr Johnson's principal private secretary Martin Reynolds emailed officials with an invite to the event on 20 May, suggesting attendees "BYOB" (bring your own bottle, or booze).
The country is slowly easing the lockdown, stranded migrants are being transported to their home states and economic activities are now allowed in many parts of India.

However, as we stare at a long and hard road to economic recovery, the reiteration by Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee on Tuesday morning about providing direct cash transfers to a sizeable part of the population to revive demand seems pertinent.

In conversation with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Banerjee has suggested that instead of obsessing about who is poor and eligible for state support, the government should begin transferring cash to cover 60% of the population. This would mean those who do not have Jan Dhan accounts (most migrants do not) would also get covered.

Banerjee said the idea was to assure people of some ready money so that they can spend as and when the lockdown is lifted. This will not only take care of the poor and the unbanked, untargeted migrants, but also help small businesses  such as those in the medium, small and micro enterprises (MSME) sector  to revive since this will aid in overall demand revival in the economy.

Another significant suggestion  one that has come from Banerjee earlier too  is about universalisation of the PDS system. This entails allowing anyone with an Aadhaar card and in need of free foodgrain to have access to the public distribution system for at least the next three months. As of now, only those people who have an existing ration card have access to the PDS system.

All of these steps  transferring significant amounts to cash into the bank accounts to cover more than half the countrys population and offering free rice, wheat and daal (pulses) to anyone who needs these in the short term  obviously require the government to open its purse strings.

Till now, the Centre has announced a Rs 1.75 lakh-crore package for small businesses, MNREGA workers, those who already have Jan Dhan accounts and women. Of this outlay, only about Rs 70,000 crore is a new spend, the remaining money was just repackaged from the Budget provisions for 2020-21.

As Banerjee and others have noted, India has provided a stimulus which doesnt even equal a percent of the countrys GDP when other countries have already pumped funds far in excess into their respective economies.

Japan has pumped money exceeding 20% of its GDP, UK 18.8%, US nearly 9% and Germany over 10%. Some analysts have said that perhaps we should look at 3-4% of GDP as the initial stimulus package and then tweak the offering as the COVID-19 trajectory becomes clearer.

Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Chief Economist at the State Bank of India (SBI), had suggested a package of at least Rs 3.5 lakh crore to prevent an economic slide.

SBI had forecast last month that falling tax revenues and shrinking income of the government from various sources would anyway lead to fiscal deficit rising to at least 5.7% of GDP.

Analysts at brokerage firm Motilal Oswal had pointed out that even if there were no further fiscal stimulus, the deficit this year would reach 5.6% of GDP.

Business chambers FICCI and CII (who represent India Inc) have spoken of a stimulus package of anywhere between Rs 9-11 lakh crore to kickstart production at factories and alleviate corporate stress.

Union MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari has frequently hinted at suggestions from his ministry on a sizeable package to alleviate the stress in the sector which could exceed Rs 1 lakh crore. However, Banerjee has pointed out the need to address woes of the migrants, the unbanked and the poor.

The Supreme Court has already asked the government to expand the One Nation, One Ration Card scheme so that a beneficiary can get access to the PDS system from anywhere in the country. But till now, all of these suggestions seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

So there are two key questions really: can the government afford to put aside its fiscal deficit worries for a while and think in terms of a stimulus package which is multiple times bigger than what has been offered till now?

And will it offer access to free food and income security to a large section of the population, even if temporarily, besides ensuring corporate India gets through these tough times?

Top government officials have already indicated there wont be any big bang stimulus and the government was focused on offering small dozes to specific sectors.

As for Banerjees suggestions, the government has, till now, merely extended the validity of PDS to more states without making any comment on offering cash transfers to large swathes of people.

Even on the issue of transporting migrants by trains to their home states, the government seems to have lost at least the battle of perception to the Congress with its flip flops on who will pay for this exercise.

If the state has been unwilling to shell out such meagre amounts needed to help the destitute, perhaps it is signalling that a large stimulus package is out of the question.

One can quibble with Banerjees suggestions so far as to say that his prescriptions, for how large numbers of funds transfers can be done, are a little vague.

There will possibly also be doubts over allowing anyone and everyone to take grains from the PDS system but the larger point  that the government needs to feed the hungry and aid businesses as well as the economy by pump priming it is well made.

Meanwhile, ratings agency CRISIL has said that the Indian economy could grow at just 1.8% this fiscal (from 5% in 2019-20) though risks are tilted towards zero growth.

It has found that 4% of GDP has been permanently lost due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown and India Inc (along with the rest of the economy) is slated to post its worst decadal financial performance.

In such times, perhaps worries of escalating fiscal deficit will have to be kept alongside the growing clamour for providing for the needy.
Firefighters extinguish smoldering peatland in Chornobyl zone State Emergency Service of Ukraine

Fires in forests of the Chornobyl exclusion zone are localized. Rescuers continue to extinguish individual nests of smoldering peatland. The press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported this.

As of 07:00 on May 5, the State Emergency Service units assist GAZO in extinguishing individual nests of smoldering peat. 210 people and 74 units of equipment were involved in the extinguishing, of which 142 people and 36 units of equipment are from the State Emergency Service, the department stated.

At the same time, in the Zhytomyr region, fires in forests in the territory of Luhinsky and Olevsky districts are localized. On May 4, rescuers liquidated the ignition of forest litter in three settlements of the Ovruch district.

In the Zhytomyr region, the units of the State Emergency Service assist forestry workers in extinguishing individual nests of smoldering forest litter, hemp, and wood.

In total, 114 people and 28 units of equipment were involved in extinguishing fires in the Zhytomyr region, of which 56 people and 21 units of equipment were from the State Emergency Service.

As we reported before, on April 28, in the Chornobyl exclusion zone, two last fire seats were localized.
"As the tissue paper market represents significant opportunities for us with its strong growth prospects, especially outbreak of COVID-19 stimulates consumption surge of life necessaries such as tissue paper, we plan to launch the third tissue paper production line in addition to the existing PM8 and PM9. With the feature of energy conservation of the PM10, the company will continuously launch new tissue paper production lines, which we believe will provide significant profits for the Company in the future." said Mr. Zhenyong Liu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IT Tech Packaging.

About IT Tech Packaging, Inc.

Founded in 1996, IT Tech Packaging, Inc. is a leading manufacturer and distributor of diversified paper products in North China. Using recycled paper as its primary raw material (with the exception of its tissue paper products), ITP produces and distributes three categories of paper products: corrugating medium paper, offset printing paper and tissue paper products. With production based in Baoding and Xingtai in North China's Hebei Province, ITP is located strategically close to the Beijing and Tianjin region, home to a growing base of industrial and manufacturing activities and one of the largest markets for paper products consumption in the country. ITP has been listed on the NYSE MKT since December 2009.

Safe Harbor Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated, including risks outlined in the Company's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's latest annual report on Form 10-K. All information provided in this press release speaks as of the date hereof. Except as otherwise required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements.

For more information, please contact:

At the Company Email:

[email protected]

Tel: +86 0312 8698215

Investor Relations:

Janice Wang

EverGreen Consulting Inc.

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE IT Tech Packaging, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.itpackaging.cn/


Delhi reported another big jump of 206 cases on Tuesday, with the total infections doubling to 5,104 in 11 days, even as the national capital ramped up testing amid concerns of a surge in the number of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases nudged by a graded exit from the ongoing lockdown.

About 1,500 cases have been added to the Delhi tally in the last five days. The Capital accounts for 10.3% of the total cases in the country, with chief minister Arvind Kejriwal saying recently that his government was prepared to tackle a spike in infections.

After the first three Covid-19 cases were reported in India in January and were contained, a second wave of infections emerged on March 2, as Delhi and Telangana reported one case each.

A 45-year-old man who returned from Italy to his house in Mayur Vihar was the first reported infection in the Capital. Since then, it took more than a month for Delhi to record its first 1,000 cases till April 11. The numbers in early April were driven up largely by those evacuated from a religious gathering at Nizamuddin.

After the emergence of the cluster  16,500 people who attended the gathering have so far been identified  it took only eight days for Delhi to add another 1,000 cases to its tally. The last 2,000 cases in Delhi have been reported in just eight days, with the highest number of infections  427 in a day  being recorded on Sunday. The previous highest single-day tally was on Saturday, with 384 cases.

Delhi saw the first spike in cases in early April after over 2,300 people from Nizamuddin Markaz were evacuated in March-end. Many of them tested positive subsequently, driving up the numbers. However, once the cases from Markaz and those who had come in contact with them came down, many of the new cases were being reported in health care workers and their families, a district health official said on condition of anonymity.

Several clusters of infections have been reported from hospitals. At the Babu Jagjivan Ram Memorial Hospital in Jahangirpuri, 75 health care workers have so far tested positive. At the state government-run Baba Saheb Ambedkar hospital, at least 45 people have been confirmed of having contracted the disease. The first cluster of infections from a hospital, however, was reported at the Delhi State Cancer Institute in the first week of April  26 health care workers, four cancer patients and a two-year-old child were among those who tested positive.

An official from Delhis health department, who asked not to be named, said: Now, the concern is with the government relaxing the lockdown norms. More and more people will go out and be exposed to the infection. There will be a spike in cases around two weeks from now.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday that a complete lockdown has affected the economy and livelihoods, and that relaxations were important to ensure life is not completely thrown out of gear. He said that people will have to learn how to live with the disease in their midst and that the Delhi government was prepared to tackle the surge in cases.

When the first Covid-19 case was reported in Delhi in March, there was only one sample collection centre, located at Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, and the tests were being conducted by the National Institute of Virology in Pune. On Tuesday, 3,744 samples were collected at about 42 centres and tested at 24 centres in the city.

It is possible that we are detecting more cases now that we are testing more. Earlier, only those who were symptomatic were being tested. However, now we know that around 80% people either have no symptoms or very mild symptoms. So we might have missed many cases who have now spread the infection in the community, said another district official, asking not to be named.

Now, most people from the community  many without any symptoms  are being tested positive. This could be the second generation of transmission from the travellers that we might have missed and soon we will see the third generation of transmission, with the relaxation in norms, said the district official.

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Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Monday drew flak from the opposition for charging the RJD-Congress combine with failure to contribute a single paisa into the Chief Ministers Relief Fund from which money is drawn to provide assistance to those badly affected by the lockdown.

The senior BJP leader had made the allegation in a tweet on Sunday wherein he had also launched a veiled attack on a sitting Congress MLA, who had shot off a letter to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, seeking return of Rs 50 lakh released from his local area development fund.

During the crisis that has arisen out of corona outbreak and lockdown, legislators of JD(U) and BJP contributed their one-month salary. Those in the RJD-Congress, failed to contribute a single paisa and displayed their insensitivity by demanding return of Rs 50 lakh, Sushil Modi known for routinely taking potshots at political adversaries via the micro-blogging site had remarked.

His allusion was to Md Tauseef Alam, the multiple-term MLA from Bahadurganj in Kishanganj district, who had written the angry letter last week and displayed its copies to the media alleging that his constituency had been in a state of total neglect by the health machinery, with even bare essentials like hand sanitisers in short supply.

Modis tweet drew an indignant response from Congress MLC and AICC panelist Prem Chandra Mishra, who warned the deputy CM that he take back his words, failing which he will be slapped with a legal notice.

I had myself donated my salary in March. So have many of my party colleagues. The Deputy CM has made remark that is false and seeks to demean us in the eyes of the public. He should withdraw his remarks else we will send him a legal notice, Mishra told reporters.

Danish Rizwan, spokesman of the Hindustani Awam Morcha founded and headed by former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, said in a statement that his party boss who is a sitting MLA had donated his one-month salary and posted on social media a screenshot of the transaction receipt.

Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi must apologise for coming out with a false remark that seeks to defame opposition leaders, Rizwan said.

RJD MLA and spokesman Bhai Virendra pointed out that the partys de facto leader Tejashwi Yadav had announced that 50 per cent of his salary for his remaining term, which comes to an end with the expiry of the assembly later this year, shall go to the corona eradication fund set up by the health department.

Moreover, 15 per cent pay cut has been announced by the government for all members of the legislature, which has only been welcomed by the opposition and ought to be seen as a contribution. It does not behoove a person holding a high office to make petty comments, he added.

Notably, contributions were made to the corona eradication fund from the Mukhyamantri Kshetra Vikas Yojana, Bihars revamped version of the local area development fund for members of the bicameral legislature, following a cabinet nod for release of Rs 50 lakh from the quota of each legislator.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had said that legislators were free to contribute more out of the fund, which empowers every member of either house to recommend works worth Rs 3 crore every year.

While the corona eradication fund is meant for fighting the pandemic and preventing its spread, allocations from the Chief Ministers Relief Fund go towards schemes like monetary assistance to stranded migrant laborers, running of relief centres where they are provided with food, shelter and medical aid.

Meanwhile, the BJP sought to back the deputy CM to the hilt.

The partys state unit spokesman Nikhil Anand came out with a strongly-worded statement claiming that Congress-RJD leaders consider the public money at their disposal, raised through the efforts of the common people, as their private property. They should be ashamed of what Tausif has done.
On 29 April, the Centre allowed the movement of migrants back to their home states, but with strict guidelines.

The Centre as well as state governments seem to be caught in a Catch-22 situation on the issue of allowing migrant labourers to return home.

Earlier, host states faced the challenges of providing food and shelter for migrant labourers, and of convincing them of the necessity of staying where they were. Now, with migrants being allowed to return to their native states, there is a new fear of the coronavirus infection spreading in areas that have been relatively unscathed till now.

On 29 April, the Centre allowed the movement of people back to their home states, but with strict guidelines. Subsequently, the Indian Railways operated the first train ferrying migrants back to their natives states on 1 May. Since then, there have been multiple incidents that have been a cause of deep concern. On 2 May, seven labourers who had arrived in Uttar Pradesh's Basti from Maharashtra tested positive for COVID-19. In Chhattisgarh as well, 14 people who had returned to the state from elsewhere tested positive for COVID-19. In Odisha's Ganjam, over 100 labourers who had returned from Surat escaped from a quarantine centre alleging a lack of proper amenities and bad food.

If such incidents increase, they can deepen the public health crisis and also lead to yet another administrative nightmare. Till now, broadly speaking, source states of migrants have not been as badly affected by the coronavirus as compared to states. For example, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have reported 529, 115 and 58 cases, respectively, till now, according to the health ministry's data.

However, with lakhs of migrant labourers eager to return home, there is a risk of the situation taking a turn for the worse. For example, Gujarat has constituted a team of 16 IAS and IPS officers to manage the task of sending them back to their native states. According to News18, over 20 lakh workers have registered themselves within a few days and the figure is expected to rise.

To prevent the spread of coronavirus due to migrants returning to their native places, state governments are taking several precautions. According to a report in The Times of India, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are ensuring that migrants are screened while entering the state, their body temperature is checked, and they go into home quarantine for 14 days.

In Gujarat, people wishing to return home need to procure a medical certificate issued one or two days before the scheduled departure. These migrants also have to undergo a mandatory temperature check at the railway station or bus depot, and those with symptoms will not be allowed to travel.

However, the plight of migrants stranded away from their native places is no less worrisome. Such labourers have been without work since the lockdown began, and they are also unable to send any money home. For example, an article in Firstpost quoted a migrant labourer as saying that he is worried about his old mother, who lives at his native village in Jharkhand's Latehar. The article also quoted a labourer as saying that social distancing is an impossible task, as about 10 people live in one room.

Conditions such as the ones described above explain why labourers are making a beeline for trains and buses taking them back to their native places. However, with some of them having tested positive for COVID-19 after reaching their destination, the challenge of fighting the infection has become all the more daunting.
As much as one-third of the world's population will be exposed to Sahara Desert-like heat within half a century if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at the pace of recent years.

Scientists from China, the US and Europe found that the narrow climate niche that has supported human society would shift more over the next 50 years than it had in the preceding 6000 years.

Dust storm near Orange, NSW in January. The relatively stable climate that has supported human civilisation for the past six millennia is likely to shift in the next 50 years because of climate change. Credit:Nick Moir

As many as 3.5 billion people will be exposed to "near-unliveable" temperatures averaging 29 degrees through the year by 2070. Less than 1 per cent of the Earth's surface now endures such heat.

That heat compares with the narrow 11- to 15-degree range that has supported civilisation over the past six millennia, according to research published Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Switzerland loves bunkers and Switzerland loves gold.

The simple difference between the Swiss government and the US government is that the Swiss government loves to prepare its citizens for hardship, and Americas government leaves its citizens totally unprepared for hardship, while engaging in relentless debt-funded bully tactics against the rest of the world.

If US government would spend a few moments of time helping citizens save and prepare for crisis, rather than endlessly bragging about how great they themselves are, US citizens could be sailing through this Corona crisis with relative ease.

Instead, millions of Americans are on their knees, begging the government and central bank to borrow and print even more ridiculous amounts of fiat money than theyve already been borrowing and printing. The bottom line:

Gold, food storage, preparation for germ and physical warfare these go together like Swiss peas in a golden pod!

While the US government shows no interest in protecting its citizens with savings, hazmats, or bomb shelters, it shows maximum interest in the stock market.

The stock market is now the governments poster boy for the well-being of the citizens.Double-click to enlarge this long-term US stock market chart.

Making money in the stock market isnt that hard. Retaining that money is another matter.

For years, Ive identified Dow 21,700, 18,300, 15,500, and 14,200 as investor buy zones.

Dow 27,000 and 30,000 are the sell zones. Investors who want to make money that is retained need to focus on these zones. The 21,700 and 18,300 zones were recently touched.

I bought modestly, and suggested investors buy modestly too.

Double-click to enlarge this short-term Dow chart. The stock market has oozed sideways after breaking down from a bear wedge pattern.

Whether the market now goes higher or lower will be determined mainly by the amount of government borrowing and central bank money printing.

If theres enough borrowing and money printing, and I think there will be, the market can move higher and the debt-infested government can tell more ridiculous mightiest economy of all time stories to anyone stupid enough to listen.

I recommend putting some capital into the US stock market at my key support zones, and then taking some money off the table at key resistance zones.

The stock market is not just a poster boy. Its an asset class. The skills and willpower of the private sector citizens is a factor that investors need to consider as a positive force that is separate from government propaganda, debt, and money printing.

The bottom line: Put some capital into the stock market, but do it modestly, and with professionalism.

Double-click to enlarge this short-term GDX chart.

The technical action is solid. April to September is typically the soft season for gold demand, and gold stocks often suffer, but thats not the case so far in 2020!

Basis GDX, gold stocks are in a range trade, between $31.25 and $34.80.

Double-click to enlarge this monthly GDX chart.

A move above $34.80 would target the $37-$38 area and define the breakout over $32 as solid.

Note the thick green trendline channels Ive highlighted on this chart. They show GDX in an uptrend, defined by trading between the dotted Keltner middle line and the upper supply line.

This occurred in the 2009-2011 uptrend and its occurring again now, in what could become a much steadier and bigger channel of upside action! By Stewart Thomson Contributing to kitco.com Follow @KitcoNewsNOW www.gracelandupdates.com

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
The COVID-19 calamity is having the same general effect on artists and the art world as it is on every other workforce and economic sphere. It is devastating the lives of many artists, threatening to drive smaller galleries and related enterprises out of business and resulting in an even greater divide between haves and have-nots.

The great issue is the extent to which the crisis widens the perspective of artists, radicalizes them and encourages their conscious opposition to capitalism, the source of the present misery.

A recent study by the Art Newspaper and Rachel Pownall, professor of finance at the University of Maastricht, revealed that art galleries around the world are expecting to lose an average of 72 percent of their annual revenue due to the pandemic.

The mid-April survey of 236 international art and antiques dealers and galleries found that those in the UK forecast the largest drop, 79 percent, followed by Asia (77 percent), North America (71 percent) and the rest of Europe (66 percent).

Approximately one third of galleries worldwide (33.9 percent) do not expect to survive. According to the Art Newspaper, Emphasising the vulnerability of smaller businesses, dealerships with 59 employees reported the lowest likely chance of survival (62%), while larger galleries with more than ten employees were more optimistic, with three-quarters expecting to weather the crisis.

Galleries are also, the survey found, struggling to pay hefty rents for premises that they cannot even enter, let alone trade fromtwo-thirds of galleries report they are either very concerned or concerned about this. For many smaller galleries it is make-or-break time; they say that if they do not get some form of rent relief nowbe it a rent reduction, hiatus or total waiverthey will not survive the shutdown. In New York City, the average art dealers rent is almost 40 percent of monthly expenses.

Alison Cole, editor of the Art Newspaper, told the Guardian, At the top end, the art world is a luxury industry, but many of the people who work in itthe artists, the handlers, gallery staffare in very precarious positions. We published an article the other day saying that a third of French galleries could close by the end of 2020. Even if the art market bounces back, its going to be a much smaller world.

The greatest financial burden, as in every crisis, falls on those least able to bear it. Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that both Sothebys and Christies, the giant art auction houses, would be furloughing staff and cutting salaries.

The online Observer (formerly the New York Observer) commented: Auction houses, which of course rely enormously on the person-to-person dynamics established in sales rooms and offices, are now coping with the challenge of transferring the entirety of the business they do into a digital arena. Unfortunately, their employees are currently paying the price for a sharp decrease in sales.

Workers from every different industry have suffered due to the immense impact of the deadly contagion, and both full time and part time arts workers are finding themselves scrambling in a new landscape thats temporarily prevented access to museums, galleries and bustling art fairs.

In The Last Days of the Art World  and Perhaps the First Days of a New One, New York magazine art critic Jerry Saltz argued that the coronavirus disaster will only exacerbate the inequalities that more and more dominate this universe, with megagalleries and art stars surviving and the gap between them and everyone else only widening, rendering the scrappier artists and galleries something close to invisible.

The coronavirus is acting here too as an accelerant of processes well under way. Saltz noted that conditions were already difficult for those not at the top of the food chain. Numerous galleries were reporting being financially strapped by skyrocketing costs and paying to participate in (keep up with?) endless art fairs, always flying to biennials and exhibitions around the world. Artists were leaving smaller galleries in droves for megagalleries. COVID-19 has multiplied this a hundredfold.

Most galleries, Saltz pointed out, dont have cash reserves to go through a lockdown of six months. Or to open and then go through it again in the fall and winter should the virus return. The Wall Street Journal reported that many performing organizations dont have the reserves to go more than a month. The majority of galleries arent much more prepared. These galleries will close. Employees are already laid off across the gallery world.

Art schools might follow suit, the critic added. Last week, he wrote, the 150-year-old San Francisco Art Institute announced that thered be no incoming fall class. Art schools got too expensive, but its still possible a centurys worth of educational infrastructure will be decimated, as will the jobs and benefits of tens or hundreds of thousands of people who work in these spheres. These jobs are the only way many artists make a living.

The commercial art world has grown exponentially in recent decades in line with the stock market surge and the mania for accumulation by parasitism and speculation. The Guardian in April pointed to the wealth that has fueled the art world for the past 20 yearsa period of discombobulating growth, museum expansions, soaring auction prices, more art fairs by the month.

To what extent that entire process will simply come to an abrupt end is unclear. The present stock market rise, based on the Federal Reserve pouring trillions into banks and corporations, may give new and even more unstable and corrupt life to the more exclusive portions of the art world, those catering to the wealthiest buyers and investors.

For the auction houses, even under the present conditions, all is not lost. CNN reported on April 23 that Sothebys, despite shuttering outposts around the world and furloughing staff due to the coronavirus pandemic, had recently pulled off its biggest ever online art auction. Featuring work by the likes of Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst, the Contemporary Curated sale generated more than $6.4 milliona new online record for the auction house.

Different social processes are at work. The coronavirus pandemic has provided a harsh dose of reality for wide layers of the population. Associated with that, it seems, has come a burst of interest in art, history and culture, as though masses of people were suddenly, objectively driven by the terrible crisis to look for answers to a host of complex problems.

Visite virtuelle de la galerie du British Museum

Like numerous orchestras and opera companies, museums and galleries have taken to putting their work and contents online. The public response in many cases has been great. The British Museums online collection page jumped from roughly 2000 daily visits to 175,000 early last week, and is now averaging 75,000 a day (New Statesman). In mid-March, the Courtauld Gallery in London, an art museum that specializes in French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, experienced an increase of 723 percent from one week to the next in visitors taking its virtual tour. Visits to the Paris Louvres website have exploded, going from 40,000 to 400,000 visits per day. The website of the world-famous Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, has been accessed 10 million times since the museums temporary closure.

No doubt, much of this is to be accounted for by the loss of access to other means of viewing art and museum collections generally, but not all. The disaster is producing a hunger for knowledge.

Visite virtuelle du Musee de lErmitage

Meanwhile, at the other end of society, Bored Rich People Are Shopping Online For $500,000 Bracelets, Bloomberg recently commented.

To the astonishment of Catharine Becket of Sothebys, in charge of the auction houses magnificent jewels sale, Bloomberg reported, collectible jewelry sales started to do wellvery well. Speaking to her wealthy clients, she discovered they were buying jewels as a sort of pick-me-up. Clients are sequestering at home and, generally speaking, leading relatively dreary lives, she says. Some, Becket adds, told her theyre wearing their big diamonds inside their homes because it brings joy.

Everyone, she says, is waiting for this to be over, and I suppose knowing that a million-dollar piece of jewelry is waiting for you is a fulfillment of when things return to the new normal. This hardly requires a comment.

Vente aux encheres Sothebys

What will the painters, writers and filmmakers make of the present painful and contradictory circumstances? The current disaster makes the position of the serious and honest artist even more untenable within bourgeois society. Official politics, from right to left, in every country can only increasingly generate disgust and horror. The illusions in politicians who, by their brutal return to work policies, are condemning hundreds of thousands to death, must largely fall away. Then what?

The pandemic has also exposed the bankruptcy of the politics of gender and race, which has dominated the art world in recent years. What does any of that, the selfish strivings by a handful for more privileges and positions, have to do with the needs of broad layers of the population, whose very lives are endangered by the continued existence of the profit system? In their great majority, those who are suffering and dying belong to the working class or the less privileged sections of the middle class. The class question has once againin the most graphic and horrifying mannerrevealed its overwhelming significance. The most sensitive artistic figures must begin to take note!

The objective situation demands, in our view, a turn by the artists to historical and social realitythe present levels of understanding are utterly inadequateand a turn also to the working class and its fate. We will develop this theme in future articles.
A cattle station worker who molested kids while they slept and bribed others for sex with cigarettes has been convicted over a series of child sex offences.

Laurie Yeeda, 52, will go to jail for nine and a half years after pleading guilty to raping and abusing four children in West Australia's East Kimberley region.

Judge Gillian Braddock found Yeeda had used his authority to overpower the children as young as 10 between 1994 and 2017.

'There was a pronounced power imbalance between the victim and the offender,' Judge Braddock said during the sentencing at the Perth District Court on Monday, reported ABC News.

The accused has spent a large part of his life working in the industry across the Northern Territory (pictured) and in Western Australia's Kimberley region

'You set this up so that these children were with you, alone or you crept up on them when they were sleeping in bed, and you did to them what you thought you would enjoy, [with] no regard for them at all.'

Yeeda, 52, appeared by video link for the sentencing hearing from Kununurra Courthouse on Monday after pleading guilty to the 16 charges in November.

The charges included multiple counts or rape and indecent dealings against four victims aged between 10 and 15.

Judge Braddock said the charges were 'extraordinarily serious.'

The court heard he had preyed on victims while they were asleep or after arranging to be alone with them.

He had also tried to bribe one victim with cigarettes.

Prosecutor Caja Polglase said there were also a significant age difference between Yeeda and his victims, and the offending demonstrated a serious breach of trust.

Victim impact statements read out during court proceedings revealed the children were still coming to terms with the trauma years later.

The court heard Yeeda's family was well known across the cattle industry, with the accused and his brother heavily connected to the Lamboo Cattle station west of Halls Creek (PICTURED: a cattle station at the Ord Valley muster event near Kununurra in the East Kimberley)

The court heard Yeeda's family was well known across the cattle industry, with the accused and his brother heavily connected to the Lamboo Cattle station west of Halls Creek.

The accused has spent a large part of his life working in the industry across the Northern Territory and in Western Australia's Kimberley region.

Defence Laywer Ben White urged the judge to consider mitigating circumstances surrounding Yeeda's upbringing when it came to determining the sentence.

Mr White told the court his client had been exposed to alcohol abuse and domestic violence from his childhood.

He also urged Judge Braddock to consider the life expectancy of Aboriginal Australians when determining the sentence.

He has been sentenced to nine and a half years in jail, and will be eligible for parole after seven and a half years.
The pass the brush video trend during lockdown has featured cosplayers, horror makeup artists, goth dudes, and been used to showcase cultural heritage. The folks at Campus Univers Cascades in France gave it a fighting twist and Bell has taken that and jump kicked with it.



You likely know Zoe Bell from Death Proof. She started her career on Xena: Warrior Princess, and ended up on Quintin Tarantinos radar thanks to her appearance in Double Dare. She was Uma Thurmans stunt double in both Kill Bill movies, and doubled for Cate Blanchett in Thor: Ragnarok. Recently shes forged a path as a stunt coordinator with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

When a performer of her caliber wants to put together a long distance fight, big names respond. Peppered among the great stuntwomen featured in the video are Lucy Lawless, Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis, Rosario Dawson, Cameron Diaz, Florence Pugh, Rosie Perez, Halle Berry, Scarlett Johansson and Margot Robbie. Im hoping for a sequel.
Namofo.org scored 44 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team

This CoolSocial report was updated on 3 Jun 2013, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.

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An Oregon judges national injunction that bars President Donald Trump from requiring immigrants to prove they can get or pay for health insurance before theyre granted visas should remain in place as a government appeal on the merits of the case is considered, a divided federal appeals panel ruled Monday.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed 2-1 with U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simons finding that the plaintiffs would suffer irreparable harm without the injunction.

It also agreed with Simon that the record did not support the governments claim of heightened costs to health care providers and taxpayers from uninsured immigrants.

In this case, the public interest lies with maintaining the status quo while the appeal is pending, Chief Judge Sidney R. Thomas wrote. For countless decades, a stable immigration system has provided for families to be united through a visa system that did not require purchase of selected insurance products for entry into the United States.

Document: Appeals Court ruling

Trumps proclamation says immigrants applying for U.S. visas cant enter the country unless they can show theyll be covered by health insurance within 30 days or show they have the financial resources to pay for reasonably foreseeable medical costs.

A day before it was set to take effect on Nov. 3, Simon issued a temporary restraining order and then on Nov. 26 granted a nationwide injunction, barring it from going into practice.

Simon found Trumps proclamation inconsistent with the Immigration and Nationalization Act of 1965. He ruled it was issued without any properly delegated authority and little, if any, justification for linking uncompensated health care costs to legal immigrants.

The plaintiffs are seven U.S. citizens in Oregon, California, New York, Massachusetts and Illinois who are sponsoring family members for immigrant visas and whose family members have successfully completed the traditional steps for obtaining an immigrant visa but would be barred from entering the United States under Trumps proclamation. The Latino Network, a nonprofit organization in Multnomah County that supports Latino residents by connecting them with housing, financial and social support services, is also a plaintiff.

The appeals panel also found that the government isnt likely to succeed in the case, noting that the evidence provided so far showed that Trumps proclamation prevents otherwise eligible immigrants from accessing either subsidized or unsubsidized health insurance plans as Congress intended and instead requires them to obtain  if they can  different, lower quality insurance to be eligible for a visa.

In short, the record evidence shows that the impact of uninsured immigrants on uncompensated healthcare costs is minimal, and that many of the affected immigrants could obtain health insurance if permitted to look beyond the plans and 30-day limitation in the Proclamation. The government has submitted no evidence disputing these points, Thomas wrote.

The appeals panel further upheld the scope of Simons injunction.

Because the certified class is nationwide in scope and promotes uniformity in administering federal immigration law, the district court did not abuse its discretion in entering a nationwide injunction, the majority opinion said.

Circuit Judge Daniel A. Bress, a recent Trump appointee, dissented, arguing that the majority opinion gives deference to everyone but the President, and called Simons analysis deeply flawed.

Bress described it as an unjustified intrusion on presidential prerogative.

It is a bad day for the separation of powers when the Executive  operating at the apex of his constitutional mandate  loses out to players who lack the authority that the Constitution and Congress entrusted to him, Bress wrote.

As with many immigration policies, reasonable minds will differ as to whether Proclamation No. 9945 is good or bad policy, Bress continued. But the great policy debates of our time should be resolved in the halls of Congress, the public square, and at the ballot box, not by a district court in Oregon or a three-judge panel in San Francisco. What I know is that Proclamation No. 9945 is valid as a matter of law. And that is what matters here.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs applauded the appeals court decision.

Todays ruling is a very important victory in our fight to protect family unity, Stephen Manning, executive director of Innovation Law Lab, said in a statement.

Carmen Rubio, executive director of Latino Network, pledged that the agency wont stop fighting to try to unite families.

"Todays decision is a gratifying step towards our families reunification and a reinforced commitment to the family-based immigration system that has been in place in our country for over a hundred years, she said in a statement.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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Press Release - Boston, London, Nice, Paris, Singapore, Tokyo, May 4, 2020

Scientific Beta warns against design flaws in European Commission proposals on Climate Benchmarks and Sustainability Disclosures

This draft regulation makes the weights of stocks in the new climate indices depend more on their stock market performance than on their ecological performance

In the context of the ongoing consultation on the draft delegated acts implementing the November 2019 update of the EU Benchmarks Regulation, the smart beta index provider Scientific Beta takes exception to key provisions of the European Commission's projects and puts forward remedial proposals.

In a letter dated May 4 addressed to the European Commission in response to the call for feedback that it carried out on these draft delegated acts, and which will also be sent to the European Council and the European Parliament, Scientific Beta criticises the lack of a serious study and the significant flaws in this draft regulation. In particular, Scientific Beta worries about the substitution of enterprise value for revenues in the definition of carbon intensity, which introduces capital market biases (e.g. real estate development, software, and online retailing will be particularly favoured) and instability into carbon metric measurement. It observes that the dramatic rise in carbon intensity sustained by index products that embarked the new metric vindicates its earlier warnings that these products would fall foul of the decarbonisation trajectory of the regulatory proposal if faced with a significant fall in equity markets. Last but not least, it explains that the insistence on incorporating value-chain emissions data of insufficient quality to support security selection will lead to financial decisions that will disregard the greenhouse gas emissions reduction efforts in the real economy, which it calls a travesty of the objectives of the Regulation. Scientific Beta recommends giving administrators flexibility in sector allocations while neutralising sector effects to assess decarbonisation, to use the standard version of carbon intensity and to incorporate important value-chain considerations with metrics of sufficient granularity.

Story continues

Scientific Beta questions the authority of the Commission with respect to the imposition of extensive and expensive sustainability disclosures and warns against officially condoning indicators, (ESG ratings) whose inherent divergence has been described in academic literature as an impediment to prudent decision-making. Scientific Beta calls for sustainability disclosures not only to be theoretically relevant but also be to be fully specified and highly standardised to permit comparisons. In this spirit and to minimise costs to investors, it calls for the creation of an administrative body to produce the data required for sustainability disclosures, including in respect of controversies, in the manner of the Council of Ethics set up to support Nordic reserve funds. Instead of being a business opportunity for the ESG data and service providers that drove the work of the Commission, this act should be the occasion to build a stronger European Union identity on matters of sustainability.

Commenting on the company's stand, its CEO, Professor Noel Amenc, states that "Like all providers that are highly active in the area of ESG, and particularly Low Carbon, investing, we support initiatives that aim to favour the adoption of high standards. Unfortunately, this proposal does not go in the right direction and our previous criticism of the proposal from the Technical expert group on sustainable finance (TEG) remains relevant for the most part. Even though we have planned to provide versions of our flagship indices that will comply with these standards, which will be a business opportunity for us, we will not recommend that our clients adopt these indices. Scientific Beta was set up by an academic institution to advance state-of-the-art equity investing based on scientific ethics and we believe that it is our duty to highlight the flaws and risks that this draft regulation poses for the fight against climate change. In very concrete terms, the new carbon metric will allow a company that has a better stock market performance than the market average to participate proportionally more in the emission of greenhouse gases than others. Ultimately, this regulation makes the weights of stocks depend more on their stock market performance than on their ecological performance."

For more details, please refer to the following documents:

Scientific Beta Letter to the European Commission, May 4, 2020

Unsustainable Proposals, A Critical Appraisal of the TEG Final Report, Scientific Beta Publication, February 2020

As part of its policy of transferring know-how to the industry, EDHEC-Risk Institute has set up Scientific Beta. Scientific Beta is an original initiative which aims to favour the adoption of the latest advances in smart beta design and implementation by the whole investment industry. Its academic origin provides the foundation for its strategy: offer, in the best economic conditions possible, the smart beta solutions that are most proven scientifically with full transparency of both the methods and the associated risks.

Scientific Beta, 1 George Street, #15-02, Singapore 049145. For further information, please contact: contact@scientificbeta.com, Web: www.scientificbeta.com.

Attachment
[May 05, 2020] First Class Action Lawsuit on Behalf of TCA Fund Investors Accuses Management Group of Scheme to Falsify Net Asset Value

Weinberg Wheeler Hudgins Gunn & Dial, Silver Law Group, and Gibbs Law Group have filed the first TCA Funds Class Action Lawsuit on behalf of investors against TCA Fund Management Group, which is the investment advisor to the TCA Global Credit Master Fund, L.P., and other TCA Funds. The lawsuit charges the defendants with intentionally inflating the value of the Master Fund by failing to remove bad loans and charging advisory fees that were not earned or collectable. Attorneys at Weinberg Wheeler Hudgins Gunn & Dial, Silver Law Group, and Gibbs Law Group are reviewing potential legal claims on behalf of additional TCA investors. The victims assert that TCA Fund Management Group intentionally inflated the Master Fund's Net Asset Value with bad loans and phantom investment advisory fees, and as a result, defendants collected excessive management fees for advising the Master Fund, among other things. The Master Fund announced it would be liquidating in January 2020 following reports that TCA insiders blew the whistle to the SEC (News - Alert) charging that the Funds' numbers were fabricated and that, in fact, TCA had losses of over $200 million, according to the complaint. "The victims of this scheme were intentionally misled and deprived of the opportunity to make an informed decisio about their investment," said David Stein of Gibbs Law Group



Scott Silver, managing partner of Silver Law Group added, "Our clients were shocked to learn about TCA Management's troubled history and involvement in multiple lawsuits." TCA investors who would like to learn more about their legal rights in the TCA Class Action Lawsuit may contact our team at 888-410-2925.

About Silver Law Group Silver Law Group is a nationally recognized securities and investment fraud law firm representing investors worldwide to recover their investment losses. The law firm focuses on plaintiff-side class action litigation and securities arbitration claims representing individual investors and institutions in claims against brokerage firms, investment advisors, commodities firms, hedge funds and others. Silver Law Group also routinely serves as counsel to receivers and trustees in matters relating to the recovery of investor losses in Ponzi schemes. Admitted to practice in New York and Florida, our attorneys have recovered millions of dollars for defrauded investors. About Weinberg Wheeler Hudgins Gunn & Dial Fueled by the steadfast commitment of our loyal clients, Weinberg Wheeler Hudgins Gunn & Dial met and surpassed the vision of creating a powerhouse, national trial firm when we formed in 1999. Since then, our attorneys have taken to trial or arbitrated more than 415 cases, in addition to countless matters resolved as a matter of law or settled where compromise was advantageous to our client. Since 2010, WWHGD attorneys tried 132 cases to verdict. We are highly experienced, thoughtful in our role as advocates, and committed to being responsive to what our clients need and demand. About Gibbs Law Group Gibbs Law Group is committed to protecting the rights of investors and consumers nationwide who have been harmed by corporate fraud and misconduct. The firm has recovered over a billion dollars for its clients against some of the world's largest corporations, and our attorneys have received numerous awards for their work, including "Class Action Practice Group of the Year," "Top Boutique Law Firms in California," "Best Lawyers in America," "Titans of the Plaintiffs Bar," "Top Plaintiff Lawyers in California," "California Lawyer Attorney of the Year," and "Top Class Action Attorneys Under 40." This press release may constitute Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005372/en/

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The Queen has phoned Prime Minister Scott Morrison to congratulate Australia on the country's success in slowing the spread of COVID-19.

Mr Morrison revealed the pair spoke about coronavirus, the bushfire recovery effort and the drought during a phone call he took from his office on Tuesday night.

The prime minister shared the news to his Instagram account.

'The Queen was very interested to hear about our progress in combating COVID-19 and was so pleased we have managed to prevent the terrible impacts,' Mr Morrison wrote.

The Queen has phoned Prime Minister Scott Morrison to congratulate him on Australia's success in slowing the spread of COVID-19. Mr Morrison is pictured taking the call

'Our recovery from the bushfires was also a key area of interest for her as well as the ongoing drought.'

While all sporting leagues across the Australia have been suspended, Mr Morrison said the Queen was 'pleased to hear' horse races were still running.

Queen Elizabeth recently contacted New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for a progress report on COVID-19.

Ms Ardern said it was a 'treat' to speak with Her Majesty.

The PM shared the news to his Instagram account, revealing Queen Elizabeth (pictured with Mr Morrison and his wife Jenny in London in June 2019) wanted to send her best wishes to the nation during the tough time

'Her affection for New Zealand, her interest in whats happening here and her memory of places and events that are special to us never ceases to amaze me,' she said.

Meanwhile, Mr Morrison on Tuesday announced plans to ease restrictions across the country would be unveiled by the week's end.

Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said there is a case for 'gently promoting' domestic tourism and reopening state borders in the 'second tranche' of relaxations.

Queen Elizabeth recently contacted New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (pictured during a press conference on Tuesday) for a progress report on COVID-19

Before then, restaurants, shops and schools will be gradually reopened.

'Opening our cafes and restaurants will mean that farmers will have a home for their produce,' Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on Tuesday.

'For every extra week the current restrictions remain in place, Treasury estimates that we will see close to a $4 billion reduction in economic activity from a combination of reduced workforce participation, productivity, and consumption.'
WASHINGTON, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Small business owners: how would you elevate your brand if you had an extra $500,000+ in innovation funding? Defense Innovation Network (DIN) unveiled a new small business contest offering you an opportunity to compete for expert mentorship and consulting services worth $32,342 to guide your competitive application for a government grant.

Pitch Leap Contest

Pitch Leap is a national small business competition that delivers big rewards to innovators. DIN launching the competition as part of SBA's National Small Business Week (May 3-9) to give business leaders the chance to compete and leap over their peers by presenting their unique, compelling technology.

One lucky business owner will win expert mentorship and consulting worth $32,342 to help them secure military innovation grants, worth millions of dollars through the Department of Defense.

Access to innovation capital is critical for small business leaders looking to improve cash flow and profitability, especially navigating through the COVID-19 pandemic. All small businesses with great ideas should be able to win innovation grants to accelerate their potential and advance our nation's interests.

Winning a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant through the Department of Defense may be within reach, yet less than 10% of teams who apply ever receive funding. At Defense Innovation Network, we believe writing winning grants shouldn't be so difficult, which is why we reduce guesswork and offer a comprehensive strategy to clarify offerings, prepare applications, and help obtain government funding.

"When we first applied for a grant, it was difficult and confusing. I had no idea how much the process could positively transform our business," said Peter Paulin, CEO at 300 Below, Inc. and a DIN founding member. "DIN helped us win a $50,000 Air Force grant to transform our marketing. Thanks to DIN, we made it into the second phase, where AFWERX provided ~$1.5M in R&D funding to validate our technology with third-party independent laboratories, confirming that our technology offers 200%+ longer life for firearms used by our Warfighters. Because of the guidance we received from Defense Innovation Network experts, we were awarded Innovation of the Year in 2019 for Manufacturing Technology."

Small businesses of all types are encouraged to enter. Businesses present a written pitch to explain why their technology or innovation deserves to win direct support from the 'SBIR Dream Team' experts as they help structure the process of applying for government funding. Business owners may submit their pitch free at www.pitchleap.com. The deadline to enter is May 24, and a public voting period will influence the outcome of selecting a winner. Contest rules may be found on the 'Pitch Leap' website.

One lucky business will win expert guidance from advisors who successfully advised multiple teams to win millions of dollars in Department of Defense Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant funding, providing direct consultations to help teams through the application process.

The winner will receive valuable help with branding their solution via a StoryBrand certified guide, Eric Marvin, who helped drive $200M in revenue for companies in outdoors and firearms industry verticals. Stacy Swider, Director for UMass Lowell's SBIR Center of Excellence, will provide one-on-one strategic guidance along with Darrin Blaine, a prior US Air Force contracting officer who studied intellectual property law at Harvard.

ABOUT Defense Innovation Network:

Defense Innovation Network (DIN) connects military leaders to high-tech innovators while helping businesses improve cash flow and profitability through innovation efforts. DIN's team of industry experts offers ongoing support for marketing, secure communications, and grant applications to provide small and medium-sized businesses and manufacturers with a competitive advantage.

Media Contact:

Prescott Paulin

[email protected]

307-363-5432

SOURCE Defense Innovation Network
The Central Industrial Security Force has donated over Rs 16.23 crore, equivalent to the one-day salary of its staff members, to the PM CARES Fund to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, a force spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The donation was made on Monday after CISF Director General Rajesh Ranjan handed over a cheque of Rs 16,23,82,357 to Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

"The amount is equivalent to the one-day salary of the over 1.62 lakh personnel of the force," CISF spokesperson Assistant Inspector General Hemendra Singh said.

This is a voluntary contribution and commitment of the force towards the nation and the amount has been deposited in the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund), he said.

The CISF is the national civil aviation security force and is also tasked to guard vital infrastructure in the aerospace and nuclear power domain apart from securing some units in the private domain. It functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
CARACAS, Venezuela  Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said authorities arrested two U.S. citizens among a group of mercenaries on Monday, a day after a beach raid purportedly aimed at capturing the socialist leader that authorities say they foiled.

Maduro held up a pair of blue U.S. passports, reading off the names and birth dates on them in a nationwide broadcast on state television. He showed images of the fishing boats the alleged attackers rode in on and equipment like walkie-talkies and night-vision glasses collected in what Maduro called an intense couple of days. He blamed the attacks on the Trump administration and neighboring Colombia, both of which have denied involvement.

The United States government is fully and completely involved in this defeated raid, Maduro said, praising members of a fishing village for cornering one group in the sweep netting the professional American mercenaries.

Before dawn on Sunday, officials say the first attack started on a beach near Venezuelas port city of La Guaira, when security forces made the first two arrests and killed eight others attempting to make a landing by speedboats.

The two U.S. citizens arrested Monday were identified as as Luke Denman and Airan Berry, both former U.S. special forces soldiers.

Florida-based ex-Green Beret Jordan Goudreau said earlier Monday that he was working with the two men in a mission intending to detain Maduro and liberate Venezuela. Goudreau has claimed responsibility for the operation.

The two served in Iraq and Afghanistan with him in the U.S. military, Goudreau said, adding that they were part of this alleged mission in Venezuela called Operation Gideon. The aim was to capture Maduro.

Venezuela has been in a deepening political and economic crisis under Maduros rule. Crumbling public services such as running water, electricity and medical care have driven nearly 5 million to migrate. But Maduro still controls all levers of power despite a U.S.-led campaign to oust him. It recently indicted Maduro as a drug trafficker and offered a $15 million reward for his arrest.

Venezuela and the United States broke diplomatic ties last year amid heightened tensions, so there is no U.S. embassy in Caracas. Officials from the U.S. State Department did not respond Monday to a request by The Associated Press for comment.

Ive tried to engage everybody I know at every level, Goudreau said of the attempt to help his detained colleagues. Nobodys returning my calls. Its a nightmare.

Goudreaus account of the confusing raid has at times seemed contradictory  for example, he says he was plotting a rebellion for months while claiming not to have received a single penny. Meanwhile, a self-aggrandizing Maduro has thrived broadcasting videos on state TV of what he says was a flawless defense of the nations sovereignty.

Kay Denman, the mother of one of the Americans, said the last time she heard from her son was a few weeks when he texted her from an undisclosed location to ask how she was coping with the coronavirus pandemic. She said she never heard her son discuss Venezuela and only learned of his possible capture there after his friends called when they saw the reports on social media.

The first time I heard Jordan Goudreaus name was today, she said when reached at her home in Austin, Texas.

Goudreau has said he reached an agreement with the U.S.-backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido to overthrow Maduro, which Guaido has denied. The opposition leader said he had nothing to do with Sundays raid.

Goudreau says Guaido never fulfilled the agreement, but the former Green Beret pushed ahead with an underfunded operation with just 60 fighters, including the two U.S. veterans.

He said he last communicated with Denman and Berry when they were adrift in a boat hugging the Caribbean coast of Venezuela. They were still in their boat following an initial confrontation with the Venezuelan Navy early Sunday, he said.

They were running dangerously low on fuel, Goudreau said. If they had gone onto landfall, they would have gone to a safe house.

Goudreau said the two were waiting for a boat on the Caribbean island of Aruba with emergency fuel to help extract them.

Venezuelan state TV showed showed images on state TV of several unidentified men handcuffed and lying prone in a street. One video clip showed authorities handling a shirtless man in handcuffs.

He was identified as a National Guardsman Capt. Antonio Sequea, who participated in a barracks revolt against Maduro a year ago. Goudreau said Sequea was a commander working with him in recent days on the ground in Venezuela.

Maduro ally and Attorney General Tarek William Saab said that in total theyve arrested 114 people suspected in the attempted attack and they are on the hunt of 92 others.

Goudreau, a three-time Bronze Star U.S. combat veteran, claims to have helped organize the deadly seaborne raid from Colombia. Goudreau said the operation had received no aid from Guaido or the U.S. or Colombian governments.

Opposition politicians and U.S. authorities issued statements suggesting Maduros allies had fabricated the assault to draw attention away from the countrys problems.

Goudreau said by telephone earlier Monday that 52 other fighters had infiltrated Venezuelan territory and were in the first stage of a mission to recruit members of the security forces to join their cause.

An AP investigation published Friday found that Goudreau had been working with a retired Venezuelan army general  who now faces U.S. narcotics charges  to train dozens of deserters from Venezuelas security forces at secret camps inside neighboring Colombia. The goal was to mount a cross-border raid that would end in Maduros arrest.

___

Investigative researcher Randy Herschaft in New York contributed to this report.
May the Fourth be with you today as Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian gives Disney Plus subscribers an inside look at how the show was made, which premieres today, May 4.

The Mandalorian, the first live-action Star Wars television show, which finished its first season in December of last year, has been renewed for a second season which will premiere later in October. Baby Yoda (also known as The Child) flooded the internet for months with cute memes. Now viewers get a chance to see what went on behind the scenes of the show.

Disney Gallery: The Mandalorians is eight episodes and each will give a new perspective on an aspect of the show through interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and roundtable conversations hosted by Jon Favreau. There will also be a look into the filmmaking process, including casting, technology, models, effects, and score, as well as taking a look at the legacy of George Lucas.

Where can I watch it?

Prop Culture is exclusively on Disney Plus. Disney+ offers a 7-day free trial and then costs $6.99/month or $69.99/year.

Theres also a Disney+ bundle option available, which includes access to Hulu (with ads) and ESPN+ for just $12.99/month.

What if Im already a Hulu subscriber and want to add Disney+?

Sign up for Disney+ using the same email thats associated with your Hulu account, no matter which type of Hulu account it is. Youll still be charged for the full price for your Hulu account every month, but you will receive a $5.99 credit toward a Disney+ subscription.
A Green Party councillor from Cork has said Sinn Fein will secure an absolutely massive majority in the next Dail if Fianna Fail puts them into Opposition.

Cllr Lorna Bogue, from Cork City South East told Newstalks Pat Kenny show that Sinn Fein has been 'excluded' from government formation talks with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.

However, Limerick Fianna Fail TD Niall Collins rejected that suggestion: We as a Fianna Fail parliamentary party took a decision to pursue a course of action. When we hear the narrative of Sinn Fein, dismissing Fianna Fail and the other parties, theyre basically dismissing our mandate.

Cllr Bogue pointed out that there was a document sent out to every party except Sinn Fein by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, effectively excluding Sinn Fein from the government formation process.

If Sinn Fein didnt receive a correspondence from Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, how are they dismissing it?

Cllr Bogue said that the process to date has been about making Micheal Martin Taoiseach. Im just still flabbergasted at this idea that Sinn Fein has not been involved in the negotiations through their own problem - they were not approached by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.

At no point were Sinn Fein involved in any of this. If Fianna Fail wants to put them into opposition, I tell you now they will come back with an absolutely massive majority next time.

Mr Collins said he had no issue with Sinn Feins mandate and respected it, but said that Sinn Fein should recognise and respect the mandate of other parties.

He acknowledged that there'd been a small amount of 'pushback' within the party about the prospect of a coalition with the Greens, but that there had been more opposition to the idea of an arrangement with Fine Gael.

There was a silent majority of party members who recognised the need to form a government as soon as possible, he said.

Some of the environmental red lines being put forward by the Greens were 'unsettling' to some Fianna Fail members, he said.

Cllr Bogue said it shouldn't be a surprise that the Greens were pushing for such measures. The idea that the Green Party would have the temerity to have red lines going into negotiations is quite amusing to me. We as a party have been campaigning on environmental issues for 40 years, so it shouldnt be surprising that we would enter into a negotiation saying we have red lines.
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Dozens of projects benefiting Minnesotas natural resources are now in limbo because of a political dispute at the state Legislature.

The disagreement among state lawmakers over whether the states Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund should be used to pay for wastewater treatment plant improvements instead of funding has left many researchers and conservation officials uncertain about the future of their work.

The projects at stake include efforts to study wolves in Voyageurs National Park to learn how they spend their summers, control invasive species, improve pollinator habitat, protect native prairie, buy land for parks and trails and teach students about the environment.

Steve Morse, executive director of the non-profit Minnesota Environmental Partnership, said projects waiting for funding have already gone through a complicated and competitive selection process and would be grossly unfair if they couldnt go forward when the money is available.

There will be people (who) will be laid off and projects that will be lost in mid-course, if they decide not to proceed, he said.

The root of the dispute is Republicans want to use some of the trust fund money to pay for wastewater infrastructure to improve water quality, especially in rural cities currently facing expensive improvements to aging treatment plants.

What better way to clean your water than to help these small towns who cant afford funding the whole thing, fixing their pipes now that are 60, 70 and sometimes 80 years old, that are going to start leaching into our lakes, rivers and streams? said Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen in an interview with Minnesota Public Radio News.

If the Legislature doesnt pass a bill appropriating money for the fund, it will delay a many environmental projects that impact the state in positive ways, according to U of M professor Lee Penn.

Lawmakers have until May 18  when the spring legislative session ends  to reach a resolution on the trust fund spending bill.
Washington: Over recent weeks in the US there has been a growing feeling the country was emerging from its coronavirus nightmare.

The Trump administration's social distancing recommendations lapsed at the end of April, and dozens of US states have lifted their stay-at-home orders.

People enjoy the outdoors in New York's Central Park as some lockdown measures eased over the weekend. Credit:AP

Temperatures are on the rise, tempting many people to escape their homes and head to parks and beaches. Wandering around Washington DC over the weekend I saw people gathering in large groups for birthday celebrations, something I haven't seen for months. Television news is no longer full of confronting footage of mass graves being dug in New York or body bags piling up in nursing homes.

Having stopped his daily White House briefings, President Donald Trump plans to visit Arizona and Ohio this week - adding to the sense that life is returning to normal.
The convenience and safety for pedestrians worldwide has been a topic gaining much attention, when we consider road designs, crosswalks, traffic signals and transportation regulations and infrastructure. The research study conducted by Dr. Fady M. A. Hassouna, from An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine, focuses on the pedestrian walking speed change patterns with reference to different factors related to pedestrian characteristics in Palestine. The factors that were considered included the age of the pedestrians, gender and crossing patterns based on traffic control at different locations, i.e. signalized and unsignalized crosswalks.

The researchers gathered data of crossing speeds for 4,301 pedestrians in a populous city of Palestine, Nablus. The data was taken from six different locations, of which three had traffic signals and three did not have traffic signals. Statistical analysis including Z-Test and ANOVA Test was conducted and certain significant results were found from the study.

The research concluded that male pedestrians walked significantly faster than female pedestrians. Considering the age, younger people turned out to be faster crossing pedestrians than the older generation, which was much anticipated. But the walking speed on crosswalks for unsignaled crosswalks compared to signaled crosswalks did not appear to be significantly high.

Lastly the research found the average and the 15 degree percentile for the pedestrians crossing the crosswalks. These figures were essential to design the facilities and traffic signals for the pedestrians.

###

This research article is open access and can be obtained from the following link: https://benthamopen.com/ABSTRACT/TOTJ-14-44
Representative Image

A group of scientists from Kenya and the United Kingdom has found a microbe that can wipe malaria off the face of the earth.

A person contracts malaria when bitten by an infected mosquito and this newly discovered microbe protects mosquitoes from the infections, thus showing an enormous potential to control the disease.

The microbe, Microsporidia MB, lives in the genitals and guts of mosquitoes found on the shores of Kenyas Lake Victoria. While conducting a study, the scientists realised that no mosquito carrying the microbe got infected by the malaria parasite.

Following this, experiments were carried out and it confirmed that the Microsporidia did protect the insects from malaria.

It primed the mosquitos immune system in a way that can fight off infections such as malaria. Moreover, Microsporidia MB infections last for life and only grow more portent with passing time, which means its malaria-blocking capacity would be lasting.

"The data we have so far suggest it is 100% blockage, it's a very severe blockage of malaria," Dr Jeremy Herren from the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Kenya told the BBC.

The research was published in the journal Nature Communications on May 4, 2020.

Microsporidia MB is a parasitic fungus that exists naturally in barely five percent of the mosquito population that was studied.

Researchers are now looking at ways to release male infected mosquitoes into the wild who could sexually transmit the parasite to female insects or release Microsporidia spores in large numbers to infect the insects en masse.

More than 4,00,000 people die of malaria every year, children below five are the worst hit.

To help control the disease, a minimum of 40 percent of the mosquito population in a region needs to be infected with Microsporidia MB, following which the parasite can naturally be passed from the female insect to her offspring.
The 190 tests are available to travellers flying from Vienna, so they can prove a negative test at their final destination.

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Passengers can now get test for the novel coronavirus at Vienna International Airport.

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If they test negative, they can avoid going to the 14-day quarantine, the TASR newswire reported.

Travellers arriving in Austria must prove that they are COVID-19 negative with a test no older than four days. Otherwise, they are required to enter 14-day quarantine.

The airport started providing tests on Monday, May 4. Test results are available within two to three hours.

Avoidance of quarantine

Related story:

Related story: Wizz Air plans to re-launch some flights from London Luton Read more

Aerial transport  either business trips or inevitable (private) trips  will be safer and easier, airport representatives said, as quoted by TASR.

People who start quarantine will have the option to leave if they test negative for COVID-19, the airport said.

The test provided at the airport costs 190 and is available to travellers flying out of Vienna as well since they must present negative tests at their destination.

Vienna International Airport runs regular lines to Doha, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Lisbon, Minsk and Sofia, as well as charter flights and business flights. Flights from high-risk destinations are forbidden to land in Vienna.
Vice President Mike Pence addresses the daily COVID-19 task force briefing in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, on April 15, 2020. (Reuters/Leah Millis)

Pence: White House Considering Scaling Back CCP Virus Task Force

The White House is considering scaling back the CCP virus task force as its work could wind down by June, Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday.

In an off-camera White House briefing, Pence told reporters that the United States may be in a very different place by the end of this month and early June, adding that the Trump administration is eyeing the time around Memorial Day weekend as the time to have federal agencies change their responses to the pandemic, according to a transcript from his office.

I think were having conversations about that and about what the proper time is for the task force to complete its work and for the ongoing efforts to take place on an agency-by-agency level, Pence told reporters.

He added, And as Ive said before, as we continue to practice social distancing and states engage in safe and responsible reopening plans, I truly believeand the trend lines support itthat we could be in a very different place. And by late May and early Juneand that probably represents the timetable for our agencies.

The move comes as many states are preparing to rescind some restrictions that were imposed to slow the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, a novel coronavirus that emerged in China late last year, and as top health experts have said there has been a decrease in hospitalizations. However, a number of new areas including Des Moines, Iowa, and Chicago have begun to see a surge in cases.

The task force was created in January, and its members have been meeting nearly every day, with Pence being in charge of the group. Up until late last month, the task force, including President Donald Trump, gave daily briefings on the pandemic.

President Donald Trump, followed by Vice President Mike Pence, arrives to speak about reopening the country, during a roundtable with industry executives in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington on April 29, 2020. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)

The group has been less visible after Trump and others have tried to transition to reopening the economy. There havent been any task force briefings in more than a week.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal governments top infectious diseases expert and a task force member, told CBS News on Tuesday that he was not aware of any discussions to wind down. And Dr. Deborah Birx, the task forces coordinator, told The Associated Press that the federal government will still keep a close eye on virus data should the task force be disbanded.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, on Twitter, addressed some of the criticism of the move to wind down the task force. She said it was inaccurate to suggest that Trump would not involve medical experts in reopening the country.

Reporting on the task force is being misconstrued to suggest the White House is no longer involving medical experts. This is totally false, she said, adding that Trump will continue his data-driven approach towards safely re-opening.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the United States has more than 1 million cases of the CCP virus and over 70,000 deaths. Simultaneously, over the past two months, more than 20 million people have filed for unemployment insurance, according to Labor Department statistics.

At the same time, Trump told the New York Post this week that he and McEnany will provide semi-regular briefings on the pandemic.

You know, we didnt stop them, Trump said. I mean, this is breaking, this, but we didnt stop them. Because well probably do maybe one a week, sometimes two depending on the news, but Kayleighs going to be able to do them.

Update: The headline on this article was updated on May 5, 2020, to more accurately reflect the content of the article.
T he coronavirus death toll in the UK has risen to more than 32,000 - and may now be the highest in Europe.

Data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Tuesday revealed that 29,648 deaths linked to coronavirus had taken place in England and Wales as of April 24.

Including deaths for Scotland and Northern Ireland, this takes the total death toll to 32,313, according to calculations by Reuters.

This figure far exceeds the death toll in Italy, Europe's worst-hit country until now, which stands at 29,029, according to John Hopkins data.

John Hopkins currently states the UK has 28,809 deaths.

Europe takes it's first steps out of Coronavirus lockdown 1 /25 Europe takes it's first steps out of Coronavirus lockdown People queue at a hardware store during a partial reopening after the Austrian government eased lockdown restrictions Reuters A worker checks the temperature of a customer at the entrance of a supermarket in Itay Reuters Customers hold flowers in front of a DIY store in Graz, Austria, after it re-opened on April 14, 2020, following a "shutdown" in a measure to limit the spread of the new coronavirus APA/AFP via Getty Images People wearing protective face masks and gloves walk in the streets as the Italian government allows the reopening of some shops while a nationwide lockdown continues following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Venice, Italy, Reuters People queue to enter a hardware store during a partial reopening after the Austrian government eased restrictions following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Eisenstadt, Austria Reuters Camilla Cocchi wears a face mask and gloves as she sorts out clothing in her children's clothes shop after it was allowed to reopen following lockdown measures to contain the spread of Covid-19, in Rome AP A man wearing a face mask shops in a hardware store during a partial reopening after the Austrian government eased restrictions following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Eisenstadt, Austria Reuters "Respect the 2 meters distance" banner is seen at a fish stand as the Italian government allows the reopening of some shops while a nationwide lockdown continues following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Venice, Italy, Reuters Customers wearing face masks push shopping carts in front of a DIY store in Vienna, Austria, after it re-opened on April 14, 2020, following a "shutdown" in a measure to limit the spread of the new coronavirus APA/AFP via Getty Images A worker checks the temperature of a customer at the entrance of a supermarket, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Turin, Italy Reuters Customers line up in front of a DIY store in Graz, Austria APA/AFP via Getty Images Gianfranco Mandas wears a face mask as he sorts out clothing in his children's clothes shop after it was allowed to opens following restriction measures to contain the spread of Covid-19, in Rome AP Customers wearing face masks push shopping carts in front of a DIY store in Vienna, Austria, after it re-opened on April 14, 2020, following a "shutdown" in a measure to limit the spread of the new coronavirus APA/AFP via Getty Images Customers queue at the Trastevere market, as new restrictions for open-air markets are implemented to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Rome, Italy, Reuters Customers wearing face masks push shopping carts in front of a DIY store in Vienna, Austria, after it re-opened on April 14, 2020, following a "shutdown" in a measure to limit the spread of the new coronavirus APA/AFP via Getty Images A man wears a protective face mask and gloves at the newsstand as the Italian government allows the reopening of some shops while a nationwide lockdown continues following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Venice, Italy Reuters People wearing face masks work in a hardware store during a partial reopening after the Austrian government eased restrictions following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Eisenstadt, Austria Reuters Customers queue at the Trastevere market, as new restrictions for open-air markets are implemented to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Rome, Italy Reuters A general view of the parking area of a hardware store during the partial reopening of shops after the Austrian government loosens its lockdown restrictions during the global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Vienna Reuters

According to the ONS data, 71.8 per cent (19,643 deaths) of the deaths registered up to April 24 occurred in hospitals.

Some 5,890 deaths took place in care homes, 1,306 in private homes, 301 in hospices, 105 in other communal establishments, and 111 elsewhere.

There were 2,794 care home deaths linked to Covid-19 and registered in the week ending April 24, up from 2,050 during the previous seven days. This is an increase of 36 per cent.

The number of registered deaths occurring in hospitals fell from 6,107 in the week ending April 17 to 4,841 in the week ending April 24  a decrease of 21 per cent.

The ONS said the numbers are based on where Covid-19 is mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, including in combination with other health conditions.

Greater testing capacity earlier would have reduced deaths, minister admits

Previously, daily figures on new coronavirus cases and deaths published by Public Health England included only hospital deaths.

It began reporting deaths in all settings last week.

It comes as separate data showed care homes notified the Care Quality Commission (CQC) of 6,391 deaths of residents in homes between April 10 and May 1.

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

Overall, deaths from all causes registered in England and Wales fell for the first time since March 20, the ONS figures also showed.

In the week ending April 24, there were 21,997 deaths, down by 354 from the previous week.

Worldwide, more than 3.4 million people have been infected by coronavirus, with the death toll passing 246,000.
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Vice-Chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar on Monday (May 4) announced that a webinar on Bhagwad Gita will be held in the university on May 7.

"JNU welcomes you to a webinar on "Lessons from the Bhagavad-Gita during the Covid-19 Crisis by Prof. Subhash Kak, Oklahoma State University, USA. He is a member of PM's Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council since 2018 and was awarded the Padma Shri in 2019," tweeted VC Kumar.

JNU welcomes you to a webinar on "Lessons from the Bhagavad-Gita during the Covid-19 Crisis by Prof. Subhash Kak, Oklahoma State University, USA. He is a member of PM's Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council since 2018 and was awarded the Padma Shri in 2019. pic.twitter.com/yxoNJghkp9  Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar (@mamidala90) May 4, 2020

Prof. Kak is a Honorary Visiting Professor at School of Engineering, JNU and it is learnt that he will begin the lecture with a review of the disruptive changes that technology has thrust upon the world and how the coronavirus COVID-19 crisis, while a serious challenge in itself, is a kind of a reset and an opportunity to make changes to be better prepared for the future. The lecture will draw upon the Bhagavad-Gita for a deeper understanding of recent history and strategies for a humanistic response.

Prof. Kak works in the area of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, archaeoastronomy, and history of science. He is a member of Indian Prime Ministers Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC) since 2018, and he was awarded the Indian civilian award Padma Shri in 2019.

Prof. Kak is the author of twenty books that include Mind and Self, The Asvamedha and The Wishing Tree, and his autobiography The Circle of Memory. He discovered a long-lost astronomy of the Vedic period that was published in scholarly journals of the West and India and in the book The Astronomical Code of the Rigveda.

It may be recalled that JNU had organised Ramayana session on May 2-3 from 4pm till 6 pm. Titled 'Leadership Lessons From Ramayana', the session was beamed live on video sharing platform Zoom. The Ramayana session was organised jointly by School of Sanskrit and Indic Studies and School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies.



Talking about Lord Rama, the JNU VC had said that in 1946 Mahatma Gandhi had said that he is one without second and there is none greater than Lord Rama. "About Rama, in 1946, Mahatma Gandhi said: He is one without a second. He alone is great. There is none greater than He. He is timeless, formless, stainless. Such is my Rama. He alone is my Lord and Master. JNU organizes leadership lessons from Ramayana. All from JNU are welcome," VC Kumar had tweeted.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Monday drew flak from the Opposition for charging the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress combine with failure to contribute 'a single paisa' into the Chief Minister's Relief Fund from which money is drawn to provide assistance to those badly affected by the lockdown.

The senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader had made the allegation in a tweet on Sunday wherein he had also launched a veiled attack

on a sitting Congress MLA, who had shot off a letter to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, seeking return of Rs 50 lakh released from his local area development fund.

'During the crisis that has arisen out of corona outbreak and lockdown, legislators of Janata Dal-United and BJP contributed their one-month salary. Those in the RJD-Congress, failed to contribute a single paisa and displayed their insensitivity by demanding return of Rs 50 lakh,' Sushil Modi, known for routinely taking potshots at political adversaries via the micro-blogging site, had remarked.

His allusion was to Md Tauseef Alam, the multiple-term MLA from Bahadurganj in Kishanganj district, who had written the angry letter last week and displayed its copies to the media alleging that his constituency had been in a state of 'total neglect' by the health machinery, with even bare essentials like hand sanitisers in short supply.

Modi's tweet drew an indignant response from Congress MLC and All India Congress Committee panellist Prem Chandra Mishra, who warned the deputy CM that he take back his words, failing which he will be slapped with a legal notice.

'I had myself donated my salary in March. So have many of my party colleagues. The Deputy CM has made remark that is false and seeks to demean us in the eyes of the public. He should withdraw his remarks else we will send him a legal notice,' Mishra told reporters.

Danish Rizwan, spokesman of the Hindustani Awam Morcha founded and headed by former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, said in a statement that his party boss who is a sitting MLA had donated his one-month salary and posted on social media a screenshot of the transaction receipt.

"Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi must apologise for coming out with a false remark that seeks to defame opposition leaders," Rizwan said.

RJD MLA and spokesman Bhai Virendra pointed out that the party's de facto leader Tejashwi Yadav had announced that 50 per cent of his salary for his remaining term, which comes to an end with the expiry of the assembly later this year, shall go to the 'corona eradication fund' set up by the health department.

"Moreover, 15 per cent pay cut has been announced by the government for all members of the legislature, which has only been welcomed by the opposition and ought to be seen as a contribution. It does not behoove a person holding a high office to make petty comments," he added.

Notably, contributions were made to the 'corona eradication fund' from the Mukhyamantri Kshetra Vikas Yojana, Bihar's revamped version of the local area development fund for members of the bicameral legislature, following a cabinet nod for release of Rs 50 lakh from the quota of each legislator.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had said that legislators were 'free to contribute more' out of the fund, which empowers every member of either house to recommend works worth Rs 3 crore every year.

While the corona eradication fund is meant for fighting the pandemic and preventing its spread, allocations from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund go towards schemes like monetary assistance to stranded migrant laborers, running of relief centres where they are provided with food, shelter and medical aid.

Meanwhile, the BJP sought to back the deputy CM to the hilt.

The party's state unit spokesman Nikhil Anand came out with a strongly-worded statement claiming that 'Congress-RJD leaders consider the public money at their disposal, raised through the efforts of the common people, as their private property. They should be ashamed of what Tausif has done'.
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Linkedin Puspa Amri, Kurnya Roesad and Yose Rizal Damuri (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, May 5, 2020 08:57 624 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd5f1f2c 3 Opinion environment,#COVID19,COVID-19,pandemic,sustainable-development Free

In the race for the worst year on record, 2020 has already passed 2001 (9/11) and is nipping at the heels of 2008 (Global Financial Crisis); although stalwarts such as 1929 (The Great Depression) and 1939 (World War II) remain firmly in the distance.



To be clear, the COVID-19 pandemic is first and foremost a public health and humanitarian crisis. The economic impact, however, has been devastating. From Johannesburg to Jakarta, images of empty streets in otherwise bustling metropolises are vivid reminders that the solution to this pandemic has put a firm stop to economic activities.



The International Monetary Fund forecasts Indonesias growth in 2020 to shrink tenfold to 0.5 percent, although effective physical distancing policies combined with fiscal stimulus could ameliorate this scenario considerably, according to Arief Anshori Yusuf, a professor of economics at Padjadjaran University.



While moments such as these leave permanent scars on the body economic, they also inspire moments of reflection. One of the unintended consequences that has not gone unnoticed is the sudden (re)appearance of rare glimpses of natural beauty in large cities, thanks to the clearing-up of air quality.



For some, the post-COVID recovery is an opportunity to boost low-carbon development, including a scaling-up of cleaner and more sustainable transportation systems. However, many remain doubtful.



Like other emerging economies, Indonesia faces many daunting environmental challenges, such as deforestation, severe air and water pollution and extreme weather patterns that lead to disruptions to agricultural. Policies to address these problems require strong public support nearly everywhere, particularly in a country like Indonesia whose main exports (extractive industries and commodities) are the product of economic activities deemed harmful to the environment.



A lack of public support makes it difficult to mobilize voters to create the political capital to push through the wide-ranging economic reforms needed to combat environmental problems. Without a strong civil society that continuously applies pressure to keep the government on track with its climate goals, the ability to implement these reforms at all levels of the government will be uncertain.



However, our analysis using the 2019 CSIS Indonesia survey also suggests that public attitudes toward environmental protection in Indonesia may be less pessimistic and more nuanced than were accustomed to believe. In fact, concerns for the environmental issues appear to increase the more local and contextualized they are.



In this vein, it is equally important to remind the public that air pollution, which is temporarily on the decline, is only one of the many environmental issues Indonesia faces. Under the Paris Agreement, Indonesia committed to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 29 percent from a business as usual scenario by 2030 using its own financial resources. While transportation and energy make up a significant part of Indonesias carbon profile (22 percent based on 2013 figures), the largest contributor to GHG emissions in Indonesia is actually forestry and land-use.



Without substantial progress in reducing deforestation, forest degradation and fires, particularly those affecting peatlands, Indonesia will be hard-pressed to meet its emission reductions commitments. Again, we believe this will be difficult to achieve without continued public support.



A major cause of deforestation in Indonesia is the consumption of vegetable oil, such as palm oil, which is used in food and biodiesel. Yet, palm oil is an important export commodity for Indonesia, valued at about US$17 billion in 2013, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Since 2011, a moratorium on new primary and peatland forest use licensing has been in place to curb the draining of peatland and land clearance for agriculture, including palm oil plantations. These moratoriums are economically costly.



What can governments do in this situation? It may be useful to point out that another headline finding from our study is that while Indonesian voters may be more dismissive of long-term environmental issues such as the degradation of forests, there is evidence that they tend to hold their government leaders accountable for environmental degradation.



We found that of respondents who rated the incumbents environmental conservation programs favorably, 62 percent intended to vote for the incumbent presidential candidate, while 24 percent would vote for the opposition candidate. This should provide an incentive for the Indonesian government to continue stepping up its environmental commitments, including meeting its emissions reduction targets.



How do we connect this with government policy responses to COVID-19? To an extent, the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 virus on climate change will be a function of the kinds of fiscal stimulus/fiscal relief measures adopted in the post-pandemic world. Ideally, one would want to avoid what happened in the aftermath of the 2008-2009 global crisis, where Chinas stimulus measures actually boosted GHG emissions and carbon emissions rose globally by 6 percent in one year, according to a 2020 World Bank study.



A more successful model would be to borrow from South Korea, whose 2008 stimulus package included big investments in energy efficiency, nature conservation, clean energy options and sustainability of transportation.



The Indonesian government seems to have made an aspirational commitment to combat climate change, yet the COVID-19 fiscal stimulus and relief packages make no mention of redesigns of development, industry, transportation and energy activities to control emissions. In fact, during the Presidents inauguration speech in October 2019, the environment was not mentioned at all.

______

Puspa Amri is an assistant professor of economics at Sonoma State University and a regular visiting fellow at CSIS Indonesia. Kurnya Roesad is a senior economist at the Global Green Growth Institute Indonesia. Yose Rizal Damuri is the head of the economics department at CSIS Indonesia. This article originally appeared in CSIS Commentaries.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, health experts have said smokers are at greater risk of complications from COVID-19 than non-smokers. But could just the opposite be true  that smokers are actually less likely to become seriously infected?

A controversial new French study, Low incidence of daily active tobacco smoking in patients with symptomatic COVID-19, raises the possibility that nicotine may actually inhibit the development of symptoms.

The study of hospital patients strongly suggests that daily smokers have a very much lower probability of developing symptomatic or severe SARA-CoV-2 [COVID-19] infection as compared to the general population, the study states.

So, is what seemed like a no-brainer  smoking lowers resistance to COVID-19 because it inflames the lungs and reduces breathing capacity  now up for debate? Or is this yet another study that adds to the confusion swirling around so many aspects of the coronavirus mystery.

Cleveland.com sought answers from others in the medical community, including Dr. Keith Armitage, medical director for University Hospitals Roe Green Center for Travel Medicine; Dr. Humberto Choi, pulmonary and critical care specialist at Cleveland Clinic; and Dr. Yasir Tarabichi, a pulmonologist at the MetroHealth System.

Are the French researchers on to something?

Armitage, Choi and Tarabichi all have serious doubts.

Armitage said its way too early to presume nicotine is beneficial and certainly no reason for any doctor to ever recommend smoking given the established link to cancer and other illnesses.

While theres some sort of biological plausibility model showing that nicotine may inhibit the coronavirus from invading cells, the research that has been conducted so far is unproven like so much about coronavirus, Armitage said.

He cited previous French studies related to the coronavirus that have not panned out, including one that suggested ibuprofen may be harmful to coronavirus patients and another touting hydroxychloroquine, a drug used for malaria, to treat the virus.

Cho i also puts little stock in the claims that nicotine could suppress coronavirus symptoms.

I wouldnt get anyone excited thinking smoking could protect them against this, he said.

Choi said the only way to verify the hypothesis is to conduct a clinical trial, which French researchers have said they are going to do by testing the effectiveness of the nicotine patch.

Choi said he is skeptical that anything will come of the research.

Tarabichi said suggests the French research would never withstand a peer review.

Im not buying into it, he said. This data is not compelling to me.

Tarabichi likens the study to what is known within the medical community as the smokers paradox.

It was once thought a smoker was less likely to die from a first heart attack than someone who did not smoke, he said. That initial research was sketchy and incomplete, and when age and other factors were taken into account, the theory was completely debunked and just the opposite was shown to be true.

Why do experts think the study is flawed?

Anna Gilmore, a professor at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom and a partner in Stopping Tobacco Organizations & Products, cities a variety of reasons in a review of the French study.

Among other things, she reports that the pro-nicotine research relies on self-reporting and that a significant number of those studied were health-care workers, who tend to have lower rates of smoking.

The study also did not address the relatively high number of ex-smokers in the study and whether they were taking nicotine.

Prior studies, including several out of China, also run counter to the French research. They suggested smokers were more likely to have adverse outcomes than those who didnt smoke, according to a March 20 article from the medical journal Tobacco Induced Diseases.

The article called for further research and said other factors could have impacted the limited data, but is also concluded that smoking is most likely associated with the negative progression and adverse outcomes of COVID-19.

Will we be hearing more about this claim?

Probably, given some of the recent coverage dedicated to the French research as well as evidence that some people are willing to use nicotine in an effort to combat the virus.

On April 30, Sally Satel, a resident scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning public policy think tank in Washington, D.C., wrote: This inverse relationship between smoking and COVID is striking and unexpected  a potential bombshell if proven and if shown to be a robust effect. Right now, available data suggest, but by no means prove, that smokers are protected from becoming infected by the coronavirus or that, once infected, they are less apt to develop the symptoms of COVID-19, or both.

A May 2 article in The Economist, says that while smokers may be more susceptible to initial infections because transmission often takes place through the mouths mucous membranes, it appears that infected smokers develop milder symptoms, if any at all, and that means they are less likely to wind up in a hospital.

All this suggests that something in tobacco smoke is having a protective effect, The Economist writes. The best guess is that the something in question is nicotine.

Shortly after the study was released in April, the French government felt compelled to restrict the sale of nicotine products to prevent a run on what some people apparently believe could be a lifesaver.
BUCKS COUNTY, PA  Another 27 people in Bucks County died of the coronavirus over the past three days, including 20 deaths reported on Monday alone.

Last week was Bucks Countys deadliest of the pandemic, with 92 deaths reported. That's up from 61 the week before. Monday now ties with April 29 for the deadliest single day in Bucks County during the coronavirus outbreak.

Get the latest updates on coronavirus in Bucks County by signing up for Patch news alerts.



Sixteen of those whose deaths were reported Monday were older than 70, one was a 64-year-old woman and three were men under 60  ages 58, 50 and 42. All had underlying health issues and all but two were residents of long-term care facilities, officials said.

The county also reported 110 new positive COVID-19 cases on Monday. Forty-seven were residents or workers at long-term care facilities, while 12 were attributed to community spread.

The county had reported 100 new cases and two deaths on Saturday and 50 new cases and five deaths on Sunday.

At an online town hall meeting Monday, Bucks County Commissioners announced they had sent a letter to Gov. Tom Wolf, asking for flexibility in how coronavirus cases in nursing homes and other care facilities are factored into the county's total.

The number of active cases in an area will be the key factor as parts of Pennsylvania begin reopening under Wolf's color-coded plan.

"(W)e are submitting this letter as one of appeal as we endeavor to decrease the specific reliance on the incidence rate of COVID-19, per capita, as a major contributing factor to reopening," said the letter, dated April 29. It requests a dialogue on the subject with Wolf, Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine or a member of Wolfs staff.

At a news conference on Monday, Levine appeared to throw cold water on such appeals, though.

"We have been asked this question before and we are not going to separate nursing home cases from other cases in counties," Levine said. "What we have certainly learned in this global pandemic of COVID-19 is that we are all interconnected. One section of our community, such as a nursing home or personal-care home, impacts the general community and the community impacts that facility."

Story continues

View Bucks County's letter to Gov. Tom Wolf here.

Wolf has set out a three-tiered strategy for Pennsylvania regions and counties to reopen, in which they move from a shut-down red status to a partially open yellow stage and, finally, to an open green status. He announced on Friday that 24 counties, mostly in low-population areas with relatively few COVID-19 cases, will be moving to yellow status this week.

Under the plan's formula, Bucks County would have to have no more than 320 new cases over a 14-day period, or an average of 23 new cases per day. The county has not had that few cases since March 26 and has had at least 100 new cases per day on more than half of the days in the past three weeks.

Bucks County health officials have noted that a large number of the cases have been in 61 nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, while community spread has been relatively scant.

Of the county's 258 COVID-19 related deaths, 81 percent have been residents of long-term care facilities, officials said. The median age of those who have died is 82.

In all 41 percent of the county's 3,429 coronavirus cases have been residents or staff of those facilities.

On Monday, 253 people remained hospitalized with the coronavirus in Bucks County, with 28 of them in critical condition and on ventilators. To date, 882 patients have recovered and been released from isolation in Bucks.

Statistics, charts and other coronavirus-related information for Bucks County can be found on the county's coronavirus data portal.

>>>Full coverage of coronavirus in Pennsylvania





This article originally appeared on the Bensalem Patch
BNP Paribas reported a fall in net income for the first quarter on Tuesday, as it warned the coronavirus has had three "major negative impacts" on its balance sheet.

The French lender reported a net income of 1.3 billion euros ($1.42 billion) for the first three months of the year, down 33% from 1.9 billion euros a year ago, according to results released Tuesday.

"The first quarter started very well and then towards the end it was impacted by the Covid-19 in particular around three aspects that impacted the result," Lars Machenil, chief financial officer of BNP Paribas told CNBC.

"The first one is, of course, a step up in the cost of risk. So, we stepped up our costs of risk to half a billion and then there are two one off events in the top line," he told CNBC's Charlotte Reed.

The bank set aside 502 million euros for potential loan losses as a result of the ongoing pandemic. It also reported a 184 million revenue loss from new dividend restrictions and a 384 million euro drop in market valuation.

Other key metrics from the latest quarter include:

Revenues came in at 10.9 billion euros versus 11.1 billion a year ago;

Operating expenses were 8.2 billion euros versus 8.5 billion euros a year ago;

CET 1 ratio rose to 12% from 11.7% a year ago.

Revenue in its international financial services unit fell more than 5% from a year ago, as the recent decline in stock market valuations impacted the value of its assets under management.

Recent market volatility also hit the bank's equity and prime services' business. Revenues fell to -87 million euros from 488 million euros a year ago.

In its domestic market, France, revenues in the retail business dropped 4.4% from a year ago. BNP Paribas managed to keep almost 90% of its branches open in March despite the health crisis.
Once upon a time, a New Jersey mom and her four kids were bored having to stay home while the wicked coronavirus was still making people sick. So, the family of Inga Wismer in Lebanon Township decided to have some fun by dressing up their black border collie, Kevin, and two golden labrador retriever puppies, Carl and Frankie, like characters from Little Red Riding Hood.

Wisner said the idea came from her 7-year-old daughter, Yuna, who loves to be read fairy tales.

The other day she mentioned that Kevin looks like a Big Bad Wolf from Red Riding Hood story, Wismer said in an email. Then she suggested that we dress up our puppies as characters from that fairy tale. So we did!

I just hope this story can put a smile on somebodys face when so many people are struggling now, Wismer added.

The puppies looked so cute that the family sent pictures for NJ Advance Media to share with other families on NJ.com. They also sent a contemporary version of the Medieval fairy tale written by Canadian childrens author Leanne Guenther.

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Guenthers version borrows heavily from Little Red Cap, a 19th Century story by the German folklorists and brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.

Below, find our version of the classic tale, complete with quotes of Geunthers opening line, and later three lines from the Grimm brothers most famous passage, which Geunther used word-for-word.

If reading aloud to children, skip whats in the parentheses.

Little Red Riding Hood, as portrayed by Carl, a golden retriever puppy.Inga Wismer

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a village near the forest, (Geunthers tale begins). Whenever she went out, the little girl wore a red riding cloak, so everyone in the village called her Little Red Riding Hood.

Little Red Riding Hood hadnt seen her grandma in a while so she asked her mother if she could go for a visit.

Her mother like the idea, and packed a basket lunch for Little Red Riding Hood to take to Grandmas house.

Her mother told her to go straight to Grandmas house, and not to talk to strangers.

Grandma (Frankie) lived alone on the other side of the woods, and LIttle Red Riding Hood hadn't seen her in a long time.Inga Wismer

Little Red Riding Hood told her mother not to worry, and that shed be very careful. Then she put on her hooded red cape and off she went.

But Little Red Riding Hood loved flowers, and when she saw some pretty ones in the woods, she forgot all about what her mother said and stopped to pick some.

Then she got distracted by the butterflies and the frogs.

All of a sudden, a wolf appeared, and casually asked what she was doing in the woods with a basket.

Little Red Riding Hood told the wolf she was on her way to see her grandmother, who lived on the other side of the forest, near the brook.

Then she realized she was late, and she told the wolf she had to get to her grandmothers house for lunch, and hurried on her way.

But the wolf had his own ideas about lunch.

The hungry wolf (Kevin) gets his own ideas about lunch, after Little Red Riding Hood (Carl) tells him that's why she's headed to her grandmother's house.Inga Wismer

And since he lived in the woods, he knew a shortcut to Grandmas house. And thats where he ran, planning to get there before Little Red Riding Hood.

When the wolf got to the door, he knocked gently and Grandma answered, thinking it must be Little Red Riding Hood.

It was late, she said, and she had been so worried that something must have happened in the woods.

At that moment, the wolf burst through the door and gobbled up Grandma in one gulp. Burp!

Then, to disguise himself, the wolf put on one of Grandmas nightgowns and sleeping caps, and even some of her ruby red lipstick. The wolf was a strange sight, indeed!

When Little Red Riding Hood finally knocked on the door, the wolf pulled grandmas covers over his furry nose, and asked who was knocking.

It was Little Red Riding Hood, the innocent little girl answered.

And in his raspy wolf-voice, trying to sound like Grandma, the wolf told her to come in.

But something about Grandma didnt seem quite right to Little Red Riding Hood, and she asked if anything was wrong. Not really, Grandma said. She just had a cold.

The hungry wolf (Kevin), shows off his big teethInga Wismer

Grandmother! What big ears you have, Little Red Riding Hood told the wolf (in identical language that appears in both Geunthers version and the Grimms).

"The better to hear you with, my dear," replied the wolf.

"Grandmother! What big eyes you have," Little Red Riding Hood shrieked.

"The better to see you with, my dear," went the wolfs reply, as his eyes widened.

Grandmother! What big teeth you have, said Little Red Riding Hood, her voice now shaking with fear.

The better to eat you with, my dear, answered the wolf, who leaped from the bed and chased after the terrified girl.

Little Red Riding Hood ran out of the house, yelling for help, and was heard by a woodsman who was nearby splitting logs.

The hungry wolf (Kevin) spits out Grandma (Frankie), in front of a terrified Little Red Riding Hood (Carl).Inga Wismer

The woodsman caught the wolf and made him spit Grandma out. Luckily, the wolf had never learned table manners, and he had been so hungry that he swallowed her whole, without chewing his food first. So out she came, still in one piece, alarmed but unhurt.

A sobbing Little Red Riding Hood told Grandma how scared she had been, and she promised never to talk to strangers again.

Little Red Riding Hood (Carl) and Grandma (Frankie) finally get to have their lunch.Inga Wismer

The woodsman bid farewell, and took the wolf so far away that he would never eat anyone again.

Then, at last, Grandma and Little Red Riding Hood finally had their lunch.

The end.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.

Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com.
The boat was the fourth carrying migrants to depart Libya in less than a week, the IOM said. One boat carrying 57 people reached harbor at the island nation of Malta, where it was quarantined because of the coronavirus pandemic, and a boat with 68 migrants arrived at Italys island of Lampedusa. The third vessel was intercepted and returned to Libya with 51 aboard.
Vijay Mallya on Monday filed an application seeking leave to appeal in the UK Supreme Court, exactly two weeks after the embattled liquor baron lost his London High Court appeal against an extradition order to India on charges of fraud and money laundering related to unrecovered loans to his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines

London: Vijay Mallya on Monday filed an application seeking leave to appeal in the UK Supreme Court, exactly two weeks after the embattled liquor baron lost his London High Court appeal against an extradition order to India on charges of fraud and money laundering related to unrecovered loans to his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

The 64-year-old businessman had 14 days to file this application to seek permission to move the higher court on the High Court judgment from 20 April, which dismissed his appeal against a Westminster Magistrates' Court extradition order certified by the UK Home Secretary.

"The leave to appeal has been filed. We have until 14 May to respond, said a spokesperson for the UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which represents the Indian authorities in the legal process of the extradition.

The leave to appeal to the Supreme Court is on a point of law of general public importance, which according to experts is a very high threshold that is not often met.

"The High Court effectively ruled that even if the approach of the Chief Magistrate was wrong, her decision was not wrong. It is therefore clear that Mallya now faces a significant hurdle in getting it to the Supreme Court, notes Toby Cadman, co-founder of Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers and an extradition specialist.

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As a further step, in principle, Mallya can also apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to prevent his extradition on the basis that he will not receive a fair trial and that he will be detained in conditions that breach Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which the UK is a signatory.

The threshold for an ECHR appeal is also extremely high, with very limited chance of success in Mallya's case because he would also have to demonstrate that his arguments on those grounds before the UK courts have been previously rejected.

Therefore, the dismissal of the High Court appeal last month marked a major turning point for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) case against the businessman, who has been on bail in the UK since his arrest on an extradition warrant in April 2017.

"We have held there is a prima facie case both of misrepresentation and of conspiracy, and thus there is also a prima facie case of money laundering, Lord Justice Stephen Irwin and Justice Elisabeth Laing, the two-member bench at the Royal Courts of Justice in London presiding over the appeal, had ruled last month.

Mallya had expressed his disappointment at the ruling and indicated plans for further legal remedies and also challenged the alleged Rs 9,000 crore figure of the unpaid loans to India's state-owned banks led by State Bank of India (CBI).

I am disappointed with the media narrative which states that I must face trial in India for a fraud of Rs 9,000 crores. Please note that the allegations against me and others are specifically and only related to three tranches of borrowing from IDBI Bank for a total of Rs 900 crores in 2009, he said.

I have repeatedly offered to repay the banks in full, but sadly to no avail, he said.

Mallya, declared a fugitive by India, has been based in the UK since March 2016 and remains on bail on an extradition warrant executed three years ago by Scotland Yard on 18 April, 2017.

The High Court verdict upheld the 2018 ruling by Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot at the end of a year-long extradition trial in December 2018 that the flashy former Kingfisher Airlines boss had a case to answer in the Indian courts.

She found there was clear evidence of dispersal and misapplication of the loan funds and accepted a prima facie case of fraud and a conspiracy to launder money against Mallya, which has now also been accepted by the High Court.

The Chief Magistrate had also dismissed any bars to extradition on the grounds of the prison conditions under which the businessman would be held, as she accepted the Indian government's assurances that he would receive all necessary medical care behind bars at Barrack 12 in Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai.

India and the UK have an Extradition Treaty signed in 1992 and in force since November 1993. Two major extraditions have taken place under this Treaty so far  Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, who was sent back to India in 2016 to face trial in connection with his involvement in the post-Godhra riots of 2002, and more recently alleged bookie Sanjeev Chawla, sent back in February this year to face match-fixing charges.
[May 05, 2020]

eBay Celebrates #GivingTuesdayNow, Extends $1 Million Charity Matching Program Through May 31

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In celebration of #GivingTuesdayNow - a new global day of giving and unity - today, May 5th, eBay is encouraging sellers and shoppers to support causes on the frontlines of the COVID-19 relief efforts. eBay will match dollar for dollar, up to $1 million, through May 31 for any US donations made to Feeding America , Direct Relief and The Opportunity Fund . Additionally, eBay's Charity Shop has teamed up with Nyjah Huston , Adam Lambert , Jim Lee , and more on exclusive charity auctions for fans.

As part of eBay's matching pledge, there are many ways to celebrate Giving Tuesday Now on eBay.com/DoGood . From decluttering and donating a percentage of your sales to charity, to donating as little as $1 at checkout, or buying a Gifts That Give Back for just $5, learn how you can come together with our community to make a difference:







Sell for Charity:

With people stuck at home during spring cleaning season, decluttering and selling from home is a great way to give back. eBay allows sellers to donate a portion of their sales to charity, with the option to donate between 10-100% of their sales to organizations like Feeding America, Direct Relief, and The Opportunity Fund. To help you get started, eBay is currently offering 200 additional free listings per month through July.

Donate:

Give at Checkout: When you purchase on eBay via PayPal, you can donate between $1 and $25 during checkout. Each week eBay is featuring a different charity, working on the relief efforts.

When you purchase on eBay via PayPal, you can donate between and during checkout. Each week eBay is featuring a different charity, working on the relief efforts.

Gifts That Give Back: You can also buy a direct charitable donation when you're shopping on eBay. These donations range in value, from $5 to $100 , and benefit Feeding America, Direct Relief, The Opportunity Fund and many more.

You can also buy a direct charitable donation when you're shopping on eBay. These donations range in value, from to , and benefit Feeding America, Direct Relief, The Opportunity Fund and many more. Shop:

Browse eBay's Charity Shop for items that benefit charity, from one-of-a-kind collectibles to electronics and celebrity memorabilia. Here's some of the exciting auctions live right NOW:

for items that benefit charity, from one-of-a-kind collectibles to electronics and celebrity memorabilia. Here's some of the exciting auctions live right NOW:

Skateboarder Nyjah Huston is auctioning off signed memorabilia inclusive of sneakers and skateboards to benefit Feeding America - which means eBay will match your donation.

is auctioning off signed memorabilia inclusive of sneakers and skateboards to benefit Feeding America - which means eBay will match your donation.



Adam Lambert and his charity, The Feel Something Foundation, has partnered with eBay to auction off his iconic stage looks from prior tours to benefit GLAAD.

and his charity, The Feel Something Foundation, has partnered with eBay to auction off his iconic stage looks from prior tours to benefit GLAAD.



Help a Life Foundation has curated a charity art auction featuring one-of-a-kind pieces from renowned artists including Pablo Picasso , Thomas Hussung , Andy Warhol , and more!

has curated a charity art auction featuring one-of-a-kind pieces from renowned artists including , , , and more!



Slipknot's Corey Taylor is auctioning off 13 signed guitars from his personal collection to raise money for Direct Relief's COVID-19 response efforts. The auction features a mix of electric, acoustic and bass guitars

is auctioning off 13 signed guitars from his personal collection to raise money for Direct Relief's COVID-19 response efforts. The auction features a mix of electric, acoustic and bass guitars



Jim Lee , DC Chief Creative Officer, Publisher and world-renowned comic book artist is auctioning 60 original sketches of DC characters in 60 days to benefit The Book Industry Charitable Foundation's Comicbook United Fund supporting struggling comic book stores.

To date, eBay community has raised more than $1 billion for charities with more than 83,500 global charities registered on the platform  and is enabling $211 every minute in charity funding by eBay buyers and sellers.

Visit eBay.com/DoGood to find out more about how you can donate and take advantage of eBay's $1 million matching pledge.

View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ebay-celebrates-givingtuesdaynow-extends-1-million-charity-matching-program-through-may-31-301052553.html

SOURCE eBay for Charity
As the coronavirus pandemic dwindles medical supplies across the nation, two Alabama teens are using their technology skills to help healthcare workers at multiple hospitals.

Meghan Goyal and Noah Warren, students at the Altamont School in Birmingham, have been working together the past couple of weeks to 3D print almost 100 face shields and masks. The students are working with the schools computer science teacher Ryan James, who has taught both teens in his classes. James said he is inspired by the students collaboration.

What they have done during this project has far exceeded what they have done in the classroom, James said. Its really empowering to see kids doing this because they are the ones who are pushing the adults to make change.

Medical professionals across the nation and the state are concerned about a shortage of masks and other medical supplies. Alabama doctors told Al.com in April about wearing the same N95 mask for multiple shifts. The state received its last shipment of medical supplies and equipment from the Strategic National Stockpile a little more than a month ago.

Goyal, a 16-year-old sophomore, had felt an urge to help others ever since school campuses were forced to closed to prevent the spread of the outbreak in mid-March. Originally, she wanted to help feed children who depend on school breakfast and lunches. But when she read about a group called Bham Support, which is a coalition of technology companies and volunteers who are 3D printing UAB Hospital-approved face shields and masks, Goyal said she was inspired the join the effort.

At the end of March, she emailed James and other school officials about using Altamonts 3D printer and laser cutter to create face shields. Since no one is allowed on school campus, administrators allowed Goyal to use the printer at home until school is back in session.

Goyal discovered her love for 3D printing while taking one of James classes last year. A skill she once used to make puzzles and chess pieces has now been used to create 50 face shields for medical workers at UAB, St. Vincents Hospital, DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa and seven other medical facilities.

Its really cool how far technology has come and how we can use it to better peoples lives in ways you would have never thought of before, Goyal said. With 3D printing, most people would be like, oh, you can make figurines and stuff like that. But no one would actually think about 3D printing face shields that would be going around and helping people.

As James delivered one of the schools 3D printers to Goyals home, he received an email from Warren who wanted to use Altamonts equipment to print masks. So James thought it was a good idea for the two students to collaborate. James said it didnt take long for new requests to come in.

We have some alumni in Atlanta who found out about this and they said, We would love it if yall could send us some masks, James said. Its one of those things where people told us there was a need and we were like, Alright, we have the technology. Lets see if we can fill that need.

According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, 908 healthcare workers tested positive for the coronavirus on April 28. By Monday, 218 more medical workers were diagnosed with COVID-19.

The need to protect healthcare workers hits home for both Goyal and Warren, a 15-year-old freshman at Altamont. Both of Goyals parents are doctors. Warrens mother is a nurse anesthetist at UAB Highlands.

Warren has been tinkering with 3D printers since he was in the third grade. Not only has he helped Goyal by creating an additional 39 face shields, but he also 3D-printed different attachments that were used to convert a scuba masks into medical-grade face masks. Warren said he has made 10 masks for medical personnel at UAB Highlands.

Making the medical equipment hasnt always been smooth sailing, especially while juggling online schooling, Goyal said. Each shield takes about four hours to make. Goyal said she starts a face shield in the morning and sets a timer before completing her school work. If shes on a video conferencing call for class, she excuses herself for a couple of minutes and sets up the machine to complete another shield.

I know school is important right now, but I also have to keep telling myself the PPEs are so needed at the moment, Goyal said. Its going to make such a difference and its going to help so many people. So, I just tell myself, You have to balance this.

James said the project is a great way to exercise the students critical thinking skills. While he is always there to help Goyal and Warren with technical issues, it is up to them to figure out the logistics of their operation such as where to find plastic and how to deliver materials to each others homes while practicing social distancing.

My philosophy on teaching is to guide the students on what they need to know and then step out of their way to let them do what they want to do, James said. The more we as teachers are dictating what they should be doing, the more I feel like we are stifling their creativity.

The students will continue to produce as many face shields and masks. They may not get to everyone, but Warren believes they are spreading optimism with every time a new product is printed.

The virus can be stopped, he said. Clearly, we have figured out that these face shields and masks are helping people. So, I feel like its a sign of hope. It can be beaten.
A Parry Sound surgeon accused of harassing nurses and making crude gestures with amputated toes in the operating room has been cautioned by Ontarios medical watchdog for unprofessional behaviour.

Dr. Bill Smyth, who was chief of surgery at the local hospital until the allegations surfaced, told the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) he made mistakes and now understands how inappropriate some of his behaviour was, according to the CPSO decision in his case.

The CPSO has directed the orthopedic surgeon to appear in person to receive his caution. The CPSO has not said when this will happen.

(Dr. Smyth) acknowledged that he failed to communicate as well as he should have, particularly with two nurses, and that he used to hold amputated digits between his fingers as a joking gesture, reads the recent CPSO decision in the long-running case.

Nurses who complained to the hospital and the CPSO are upset that the decision did not go further. Here we have just one more kick in the face to women who speak out, said a nurse (the Star is not identifying complainants as they fear for their job security). If a female nurse or a female doctor did this, including using amputated human digits in a sexualized manner, they would be suspended immediately.

The case is one of the oddest to come before the medical regulator. On the one hand: a series of bizarre allegations involving a doctor whose unusual behaviour is akin to the antics of some of the military doctors on the fictional 1970s television show M*A*S*H (a medical unit in the Korean War was the backdrop for the long-running series) and whose own email is drbonebanger. On the other: a doctor whose list of testimonials on his own website credit the northern physician for life-saving work. We are thankful and just happy we share the planet with such an amazing human, says one unsigned testimonial.

The motorcycle-driving Smyth is a familiar sight in Parry Sound, a community in Georgian Bay known as a centre for cottagers, hunters and as the hometown of Boston Bruins great Bobby Orr. Smyth, who wears colourful clothes and workboots in the operating room, also operates an orthopedic surgery clinic at the hospital with his wife.

Reached by the Toronto Star Monday, Smyth hung up the phone before answering any questions.

A Toronto Star story brought issues of Smyths conduct to light in December 2017. At the time, Smyth was chief of surgery at the West Parry Sound Health Centre. Two investigations were launched, one by the hospital, the other by the provinces medical watchdog.

Among the complaints brought forward by nurses were allegations of threatening and bullying and that after an operation to amputate a patients toe he made a crude gesture with the toe sticking up between his fingers. One nurse described it as a f--- you gesture.

Nurses interviewed by the Star  who also made complaints to investigators  said Smyth was known to make honking sounds with his hands towards the scrub nurses breasts while she helped him put on a sterile gown. It was also alleged Smyth would hit nurses in the back of the head or kick them as he walked by in the hospital.

In another complaint investigated by the CPSO, a nurse said she felt unsafe when, while she was alone in a room, he walked in and stared at her silently. When she blushed, the nurse alleged Smyth called in another doctor and laughed, pointing out how he had made the nurse get red for Big Daddy.

Another nurse complained of Smyths actions during the operation on a female patient who was under general anesthesia awaiting a hip replacement, Smyth is alleged to have sent a young nurse to another room for what he called a pedonga dilator, a device that does not exist. When the nurse returned empty-handed, doctors were laughing, including Smyth, according to the complaint. In interviews, nurses told the Star Smyth uses the word pedonga as slang for vagina. Another nurse had complained Smyth belittled her in an operating room to the point she burst into tears.

Its awful behaviour. Its not OK, said one senior nurse in an interview with the Star. If we get cultured to believe it is OK to carry on like this, then people will be able to do what they want.

The hospital initially carried out its own probe using an independent investigator and in April 2018 the hospitals CEO, Donald Sanderson, said the results of that investigation have concluded that Dr. Smyth has engaged in behaviour that was found to be unprofessional, disrespectful and harassing in relation to these complaints.

The hospital asked for and received Smyths resignation as chief of surgery. He was allowed to maintain his privileges as a surgeon at the hospital. Smyth was also required to complete an ethics and boundaries program and to issue a written apology to any person whose complaint against him was substantiated, the hospital told the Star.

Separate from the hospitals investigation, the provinces medical watchdog launched a probe. That led to a lengthy investigation, with the results brought this February in front of a special surgery committee of the CPSO (doctors with surgery backgrounds are on the committee).

According to a summary of the committees final report, Smyth denied many of the claims made against him. He detailed specific witness information refuting the majority of the allegations and putting others into context, the committee report states.

However, the committee still found there was concerning information demonstrating that (Smyth) engaged in some inappropriate behaviour in the OR (Operating Room).

In response to queries from the CPSO committee, Smyth acknowledged his habit of joking gestures with amputated toes, the committee report states. Nurses told the Star Smyth had revealed in the operating room this was a ritual he had done for years after removing a toe (for diabetes, frostbite or other health concerns).

As part of the CPSO procedure, the committee heard from the hospitals chief nursing officer and director of patient care, who indicated Smyths behaviour is well monitored and continues to be satisfactory. No new complaints have been made since he completed his boundary course in 2018.

The CPSO committee decided to order Smyth to appear in person for a caution because it remained concerned about his unprofessional communications and the manner in which he behaved in the OR.

The Parry Sound hospital confirmed Tuesday that Smyth has no management role at the hospital, but maintains appropriate surgical privileges. Hospital spokesperson Jim Hanna said the hospital continues to focus on fostering and sustaining a just culture dedicated to respectful teamwork in a safe workplace committed to the delivery of safe, quality care.

This is not Smyths first run-in with allegations of improper behaviour. He came to Parry Sound after an arbitrator reviewing his time at the Perth and Smiths Falls District Hospital found in 2008 the recurrence of disruptive and aggressive behaviour by Dr. Smyth over a prolonged period of time.

According to information made public in court when Smyth appealed what he agreed would be binding arbitration, the Perth hospital had for years dealt with allegations of bullying behaviour by the surgeon. Smyth was sent to a conflict resolution program and made to attend anger management evaluation. In addition to his actions toward others, the arbitrator noted that Smyth allegedly would not complete patient charts or provide on-call services to the hospital.

Doctors have to apply annually for privileges to work at a hospital, and in 2007 his application was denied by the Perth hospital administrators, leading to the arbitration.

The arbitrators report found there was a history dating back to 1999 of Smyths aggressive and destructive behaviour. Further, the arbitrator noted Dr. Smyths behaviour has been bullying, obstructive and manipulative and that he seemed to have no understanding of the impact of his behaviour on colleagues.

It is clear that Dr. Smyths behaviour has had a profound impact on his colleagues, having permanently damaged professional relationships and trust between many of his colleagues and himself. His behaviour has created a poisoned environment which has extended beyond the medical staff to involve the (hospital) board and the community, the arbitrator, Dr. Peter McLaughlin, ruled.

Offered a chance to leave the hospital, Smyth opted to fight in court, up to the Ontario Court of Appeal, an effort that was ultimately unsuccessful, and he moved to Parry Sound. The court ruled Smyth had to pay the Perth hospitals medical advisory committee $25,000 to cover its costs of fighting the appeal.
Tuesday afternoon might bring more information about the next group of residents expected to back to work after a weekend of relative silence from the Texas governors office.

Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday afternoon announced he would hold a press conference Tuesday to update residents on the states recovery  a meeting Hardin County Judge Wayne McDaniel a few hours later said he had not been made aware of.

McDaniel early Friday morning directed residents to Abbotts office for questions related to his executive order on the reopening after McDaniel and several other local county judges did not receive responses to several questions posed to the office using an email address specifically created for questions and comments from elected officials. On Monday, McDaniel said the only additional communication he was aware that other local county judges had with Abbotts office was a relatively vague answer to a question posed by Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick.

State Rep. Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, said hes had more luck posing questions to the governor and his staff, but Abbott hasnt tipped his hand regarding much of the substance expected during Tuesdays address.

>> Related: What's reopening in Southeast Texas

Phelan said hes at an advantage when posing questions to statewide officials because he, as well as his staff, have built relationships that come in part as the result of working so closely in state government.

Hes specifically asked if certain other businesses could reopen in a safe way, such as allowing salons to once again begin operations but requiring them to space out appointments and have everyone wear masks or other safety equipment.

The stories are rough and youre trying to get answers to put peoples mind at ease, he said. Abbotts staff said Tuesday at 2:30 there should be some very firm dates on when people can go back to work. It sounded like that was for all businesses  thats what I understood.

More Information Helpful numbers (409) 550-2536: Hotline for residents of Jasper, Jefferson, Hardin, Newton, Orange and Tyler counties who want to be tested for coronavirus. 211, option 6: For general coronavirus inquiries. At a glance What: Orange County one-day county run testing When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday and May 12 Where: Orange County Convention and Expo Center, 11475 Farm Road 1142, Orange What: Port Arthur testing When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday Where: Bob Bowers Civic Center, 3401 Cultural Drive, Port Arthur What: West Hardin County testing When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday Where: West Hardin CISD School, 39221 Highway 105, Saratoga What: Hamshire-Fannett testing When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday Where: St. Mary's Catholic Church, 9894 Gilbert Road What: Jasper County testing When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 13 Where: Jasper County Sub-Courthouse, 33625 Highway 96 S., Buna What: Hardin County testing When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 14 Where: Hardin County Old Courthouse Annex, 440 Monroe, Kountze Details: A test must be scheduled in advance by calling the number above. Only 100 appointments will be scheduled for each location. Proof is residency is required. What: Beaumont one-day state run testing When: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday Where: 747 College St., Beaumont Details: Individuals will be screened to see if they have symptoms including cough, fatigue and shortness of breath. Registration at txcovidtest.org or by phone 24-hours testing begins at (512) 883-2400 is required before testing. See More Collapse

The number of Southeast Texans tested at locally run sites has increased by almost 35% since Abbotts last news conference, where he announced the first phase of his plan to reopen businesses in the state and goals to ramp up testing of state residents.

As of Monday, the region had confirmed 563 cases of coronavirus  up 11 from Sunday  and 29 deaths.

>> Related: Hardin County Judge: State needs to be more clear on reopening

While state-run coronavirus testing sites had relatively strong showings last week in Orange and Jasper counties, only about 25 people were expected to have been tested at one in Hardin County by the end of the day Monday. Hardin County already is the location of one of two testing sites run by a coalition of six Southeast Texas counties, which could contribute to the low number.

However, McDaniel said, only a few people have signed up to be tested at a site planned for the western part of the county.

The one-day testing site planned for West Hardin County is one of several put on the books by the six-county coalition. Individuals interested in being tested must call the hotline established by the six counties to streamline the screening and testing process to get an appointment. However, they do not need to be experiencing symptoms.

Potentially as a result of the increased number of opportunities for testing, the number of people calling the hotline on Monday skyrocketed, reaching almost 300 calls  more than any other day in several weeks.

kaitlin.bain@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/KaitlinBain
Madagascars President Andry Rajoelina gave a long, televised address last weekend praising the benefits of artemisia, a herbal remedy increasingly promoted as a treatment for Covid-19. It's also gaining traction in other African countries. But the World Health Organization has warned it must be tested for efficacy and adverse side effects.

During a one-and-a-half-hour speech on Sunday, Rajoelina sat next to an artemisia plant, a bottle of artemisia tonic and boxes of Covid-Organics, the branded artemisia products that he is promoting as a treatment for the coronavirus.

Clinical trials of artemisia-based injections on new Covid-19 patients will start next week, said Rajoelina, saying that any criticism of the plant-based remedy must stop, according to RFIs correspondent in Antananarivo.

The president called for people to continue following measures put in place to stop the spread of the virus. But much of Rajoelinas address focused on artemisia. He talked about increasing production of the plant and setting up a factory to process it over the next month.

This plant can treat lots of diseases. If we dont act quickly, other researchers will overtake us, said Rajoelina, as reported by RFI correspondent Laetitia Bezain.

Africas coronavirus cure

Authorities in other African countries have expressed interest in using artemisia in the fight against Covid-19.

Tanzanias President John Magufuli said he was in touch with Madagascars government and had despatched an airplane to pick up supplies of artemisia.

Following a video conference with Rajoelina, Congo Brazzavilles President Denis Sassou Nguesso said his country would also import artemisia and adopt the Covid-Organics treatment, according to government spokesman Thierry Moungalla.

Senegal on 24 April placed its first order, depicted in a social media post by Madagascars leader.

The scramble for artemisia

The Malagasy authorities are not the only ones to see the potential benefit of artemisia in the struggle against Covid-19  Germanys Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces and US company ArtemiLife Inc are also working on tests.

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The study, conducted in Denmark and Germany, focuses on the same plant as the one cultivated and processed in Madagascar  artemisia annua. The plant materials for the test are being provided by ArtemiLife Inc, a Delaware-based company, that says it has fields growing artemisia outside Lexington, Kentucky.

ArtemiLife is advertising two products containing artemisia annua  tea and coffee. The company recommends that customers take the products twice daily to maintain an active shield and to maximize the benefits.

A 30-day supply of ArtemiCafe is to be available for sale at 91 euros and ArtemiTea for 73 euros. Customers are encouraged to register their interest on the ArtemiLife website since the products are currently in development and not yet on sale.

The company says these products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. ArtemiLife says their claims about artemisia have not been evaluated by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Centuries-old malaria treatment

Artemisia annua has long been used for the treatment of malaria. The plant's antimalarial properties were first identified in 340 BC as part of traditional Chinese medicine, according to expert Zhou Yiqing from the Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology of the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences.

Zhou's research in the 1970s led to the plant's application against the mosquito-borne disease.

Artemisia was selected for further research from a list of herbs and traditional medicines used to treat malaria screened by experts.

The research, known as Project 523, involved two groups pursuing antimalarial drug development: one investigating synthetic medicine, the other examining traditional remedies.

Project 523 first isolated the compound artemisinin from the plant and then ran clinical trials confirming its antimalarial effects.

Researchers later identified the molecular structure of artemisinin and discovered more derivatives, eventually producing the first artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) for malaria, known as Coartem.

ACT therapy combined artemisinin with another active ingredient to provide different actions within the same treatment. ACTs are considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be the most effective antimalarial medicines available today.

Artemisia in fight against HIV and SARS?

Artemisia has been researched for many other medicinal uses besides combatting malaria, perhaps providing some guidance as to its possible use in treatment of Covid-19.

A study by researchers at Leiden University and the University of Basel published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology looked at artemisia tea infusions and their activity in combatting HIV.

Chinese researchers in July 2005 published a study exploring the use of herbal extracts for antiviral properties in treatment of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus.

The research, published in the Antiviral Research journal by experts at different institutions and companies in Beijing, identified four herbal extracts, including artemisia, that could be considered as candidates for the development of drugs for treatment of SARS.

Threatening the pharmaceutical industry

Artemisia is the subject of some questions surrounding its use against malaria, notably the form of treatment administered either a tea infusion based on plant extracts, or artemisinin, which is usually produced by pharmaceutical companies through a chemical process of semi-synthesis.

A January 2019 documentary produced by France 24 asked whether the use of artemisia tea infusions for malaria treatment was discouraged and subject to pressure by big pharmaceuticals.

The documentary suggested that offering infusions based on the plant could threaten the business of synthetic ACT treatments produced by drugs companies.

At forefront of this battle is Congolese doctor Jerome Munyangi from the faculty of medicine at the University of Kolweri-Lualaba.

Munyangi has conducted research in the Democratic Republic of Congo comparing tea infusions to an ACT treatment using a combination of artesunate, a derivative of artemisinin, and amodiaquine, another commonly used antimalarial drug.

The large-scale, double blind randomised clinical trial was published in the Phytomedicine journal in April 2019. It concludes that infusions of artemisia annua and artemisia afra, another species of the plant, provide better outcomes than the ACT treatment.

Fears over drug resistance

However, the WHO in its guidance on malaria treatment warns against using artemisinin as an oral monotherapy. It says this promotes the development of drug resistance to artemisinin as a treatment.

Use of the artemisia plant is outlawed in France. The French health ministry has warned about a lack of rigorous, methodically controlled clinical trials proving its effectiveness. The National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) has previously acted to ban products based on artemisia.

French non-governmental organisations such as La Maison de lArtemisia continue to promote the plants use as a malaria treatment, claiming the plant can save millions of lives. The NGO focuses on countries in sub-Saharan Africa, encouraging the use of artemisia as a tea infusion, although it warns people from outside malaria-endemic countries against taking it.

Malaria and Covid-19 not the same

Artemisias use in treating malaria is clearly beneficial in the fight against the deadly parasite, although some raise questions about the exact nature of the treatment. But its use in combatting malaria does not necessarily mean it will be effective against Covid-19.

The African Union bloc said it was in contact with Madagascar with a view to obtain technical data regarding the safety and efficiency of artemisia used to treat Covid-19, according to a statement.

It was agreed that the member state would furnish the African Union with necessary details regarding the herbal remedy, the AU said on Tuesday.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) would review the scientific data gathered so far on the safety and efficacy", the AU added.

Frank van der Kooy, who led the research on artemisia and treatment of HIV at Leiden University and the University of Basel, told RFI that he could not continue this work due to a lack of funding, while research on its use against SARS must be cautiously interpreted.

At the moment we are therefore not sure if artemisia annua/afra will be active against Covid-19 but I do believe it warrants conducting clinical trials, which in turn needs funding, said van der Kooy, who currently works at North-West University in South Africa.

The WHO is careful not to rule out the possible use of artemisia as a treatment for Covid-19, saying it should be tested for its efficacy and adverse side effects.

Africans deserve to use medicines tested to the same standards as people in the rest of the world, the WHO said in a statement published on Monday. Even if therapies are derived from traditional practice and natural, establishing their efficacy and safety through rigorous clinical trials is critical.

Many plants and substances are being proposed without the minimum requirements and evidence of quality, safety and efficacy. The use of products to treat Covid-19, which have not been robustly investigated can put people in danger, giving a false sense of security and distracting them from hand washing and physical distancing which are cardinal in Covid-19 prevention, the WHO added.
The following speech was delivered by Socialist Equality Party (Australia) assistant national secretary Cheryl Crisp to the 2020 International May Day Online Rally held by the World Socialist Web Site and the International Committee of the Fourth International on May 2.

One aspect of the coronavirus pandemic is that the experiences facing the broad mass of the worlds population are international ones. This virus knows no borders, and even in countries such as Australia, which appear, at present, to have lower infection and death rates, the situation can change very rapidly.

Here, there are almost 6,800 infections, with 93 deaths. While infection rates are reportedly down, so is testing. But deaths are increasing. The Actuaries Institute has stated that the infection rate could be six times higher than the government is declaring.

The speech by Cheryl Crisp begins at 30:36 in the video.

But this has not prevented the drive for a return to work, which has reached a crescendo. Business and corporations are demanding that the economy be restarted to restore profit levels, no matter what the risk.

Open discussions are being held on the death calculus, to determine whether the cost of saving lives is worth it. The calculation is that if the limited lockdown is maintained, it would save an extra 3000 lives, but at a cost of $9 million eachsomething regarded as too costly.

Governments have widely acknowledged that lifting restrictions will result in increased infections and death. What is being established is life with coronavirus.

Teachers have been especially targeted because, without reopening the schools, there will be no restart of the economy. There is seething anger among educators for being used as guinea pigs. Similar opposition exists on building sites, and factories, which the unions have ensured remain open, despite the risk of infection. Hundreds of health workers have been infected due to chronic shortages of PPE. In Tasmania, due to the high numbers of infections, two hospitals were closed, all the staff and their families quarantined, and the hospitals taken over by the military.

The reopening of the economy is conditional on the uptake, by at least 40 percent of the population, of a tracing app, which can be used to increase surveillance on the population. In the inevitable event of outbreaks, local areas will be locked down with the possible use of the military.

The governments bailout packages of $320 billionthe largest in history and almost 10 times that during the 2008-9 global financial crisis bailouthas resulted in the further transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. This handout was agreed by what is, in effect, a de facto national unity cabinet, made up of the federal Coalition government and state premiersmost of whom lead state Labor governments.

27.4 percent of the population is either unemployed or underemployed. The much vaunted JobKeeper program, initiated to purportedly save millions of jobs, has been revealed as a fraud. At least 2 million peopleoverseas students and casualsare unable to even apply for it. The demand for food banks has increased by more than 150 percent, as the almost 4 million people, thrown out of work overnight, struggle to maintain their existence.

The bailout package will have to be paid backthrough cuts to government expenditure on education, health and social programs, and a wholesale assault on the conditions of the working class.

The pandemic is being used as the pretext for the destruction of workers pay levels and working conditionssomething that governments have been unable to achieve for 20 years. With the total complicity of the peak union body, the ACTU [Australian Council of Trade Unions], and the Labor Party, award rights (that is, contract rights and conditions) are being scrapped. ACTU president, Sally McManus, has assured the government that it can get everything it wants, as far as changing award conditions, through cooperation with the unions, rather than through legislation.

She allayed the governments fears that this would take too long, by pointing to changes to two awards, covering 2.5 million workers, in just one week, claiming no fuss was required. With the stroke of a pen, penalty rates (that is wage increases for working outside normal hours) were eliminated, and the level of minimum hours reduced.

What has been exposed through the response of all the political representatives of capitalism, whether the Liberal-National coalition or Labor governments, the Greens or the unions, is that workers cannot defend their conditions, their rights and now their very lives, through these organisations and under capitalism.

The experience of the past months has presented the real face of capitalisma system that constitutes the greatest threat to mankind. Workers, young people and professionals must fight for a socialist internationalist perspective, the only means by which society can go forward.

This requires the building of a new revolutionary socialist leadership in the working classthe Socialist Equality Parties and the International committee of the Fourth International. I urge you to join our party today.
A Belfast family has said they are "sickened" after a tumble dryer fire destroyed their mother's house, just a few days after she was diagnosed with a tumour.

Sharon Brown (51) and her son Ryan (25) have been left homeless after the fire on Sunwich Street off the Lower Ravenhill Road in south Belfast, which started on Saturday morning.

Daughter-in-law Andrea (26), who lives in Holywood, said Sharon was sitting at home when she saw smoke coming from the four-year-old Beko tumble dryer in her kitchen.

"She shouted to Ryan and when he came down, he opened the tumble dryer and the flames came out. They grabbed the dogs and got out of the house and got out and rang the fire brigade," she said. "They literally had to stand there and watch the flames."

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The fire caused extensive damage inside the house and the family was not able to salvage any possessions, Andrea said.

"My husband rang his Mum and she just told him her house was burning down. When he showed me the photos of the house, it was just sickening - nothing was saved."

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It was a second blow to the family just two days after Sharon was told she has a tumour which is causing the loss of the sight in her right eye.

She was advised to visit Belfast's Royal hospital as soon as possible by her GP but was told due to coronavirus restrictions, it is not possible at the moment to operate.

"My husband George dropped her up last Thursday and she had to go in alone. The hospital said there is a tumour there behind the right eye but because of coronavirus, they wouldn't be able to operate and if the circumstances were different, they would have taken her in last week."

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Both experiences have left Sharon "drained and devastated", Andrea said. "She's staying with her daughter at the moment and we're waiting for the phone call just to see if she can get a house. Her daughter has a young one and Sharon's son Ryan is in the house as well, so it's very cramped because they also have three dogs.

"There's no perfect time for this to happen but with everything that's going on, it affects everyone that little bit more."

Andrea has now launched an appeal to provide Sharon and Ryan with the basic essentials after they were left with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

"They've been told not to go into the house because of how bad it is. Clothes, bedding, nothing - nothing was saved," she said.

"The fire brigade is hoping that when things calm down, we'll know whether the house can be cleared and repaired - but it might not be for five or six months. "

Andrea said her family has been amazed by the generosity of the public, who have bought items while also donating to a GoFundMe appeal.

"On the Amazon Wishlist with things like toiletries, so many things were gone within a couple of hours. The support and generosity of people has been insane and we really appreciate it."

She said her family is thankful to have Sharon and Ryan still with them after the ordeal but asked that people be mindful of the danger of tumble dryers.

"A lot of people think it's OK because the tumble dryer will only run for an hour and then it will switch off. Sharon didn't have it on that long, there wasn't a big weight in it. Thankfully Ryan was able to get her out.

"Thankfully, they were saved and it could have been much worse, which we are grateful for."

A spokesperson for Beko said: "This is a difficult time for the Brown family and were working as quickly as we can to investigate the situation."
Phil Wickham, Lecrae give Westmont College graduates surprise concert while in quarantine

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Westmont College had to postpone its commencement ceremony to later in the year because of nationwide restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But it decided to celebrate their graduates this month with messages and music from award-winning guests Lecrae and Phil Wickham.

The Christian college in Santa Barbara, California, hosted a virtual concert featuring both of the popular artists, on Saturday.

Gayle D. Beebe, president of Westmont College, kicked off the event with an emotional speech assuring graduates that they will reschedule their graduation for the fall.

"We do want to do something special to really honor and celebrate you and that is we're having a special concert with two distinguished Christian artists. This is really just to honor and celebrate you as you graduate, but it's also an opportunity for us to invite in the entire Westmont family, Beebe said.

Wickham performed a 20-minute worship set featuring some of his popular songs, including Great Things and This is Amazing Grace.

"I love that in Jesus, even in the midst of grief, you know there can be joy. Even in the midst of loss and expectations being demolished, we can experience joy, and we can still say thank you, we can still say we trust you, Wickham said during the event.

Following a word from two graduating seniors, rapper Lecrae took time to give a sermon on faith with the class of 2020.

"This is an important opportunity. Right now, we're in some extremely challenging times and when Westmont called me and asked me if I would do this, I said absolutely, of course, the rapper said.

"As Westmont graduates, if there was ever a time that the world needed you, [it] is now. So go out with audacious dreams, big hearts to change the world for Christ. You guys have got this. You're gifted with talents that God has given you. So take it to the next level.

"Your graduation will never be forgotten, not just because you graduated during a time period when the world was looking for answers and looking for hope," he added. "And who better to go out into the world and be beacons of hope in life.

Lecrae concluded with his song Ill Find You.

The novel coronavirus isnt the only challenge the graduating class of Westmont had to face during their years there. In 2017, students had to evacuate campus due to the Thomas Fire and later due to the Montecito debris flows. College officials hope to hold commencement for the class of 2020 in October.

Westmont College is an undergraduate residential, Christian, liberal arts community serving Gods kingdom by cultivating thoughtful scholars, grateful servants and faithful leaders for global engagement with the academy, church and world.
Police in Kilifi have arrested 21 suspects linked to the cold-blooded murder of an officer in Rabai Sub-County on Sunday night.

Police Constable Kelvin Kiragu was found decapitated along the Bondora-Mwakirunge Road after he was attacked by a gang armed with machetes and other crude weapons at around 7.30 pm.

Kilifi County Police Commander James Mugera said the assailants attacked Kiragu and and his colleague Brian Mwadime who were heading to their station.

Two of our officers based at Kambe-Ribe Police Station within Rabai Sub-County were going back to the station after patrol and they were using Bondora-Mwakirunge road and as they were heading back they arrested a bodaboda rider who was transporting mnazi and they were escorting him to the police station for further action, said Mugera.

The police boss said Kiragu was carrying the evidence when he was attacked from behind by unknown people.

The officer was seriously injured and he succumbed to the injuries. During the incident we lost a G3 rifle with 20 rounds that had been issued to that police,he said.

The attackers made away with the officers G3 rifle Serial Number J42057 which had 20 rounds of ammunition of 7.3mm calibre.

Mr Mugera said they are in the process of recovering the gun.
Jaipur, May 5 : In a bizarre order, Rajasthan Minister of State for Medical and Health Subhash Garg directed the officials to hire earthmovers to dig up roads for ensuring no entry of vehicles from Uttar Pradesh in the Bharatpur district except for the people on the medical grounds.

In an official release, besides giving the above directions, he further directed officials to prevent movement of vehicles from the Uttar Pradesh side.

"Since Bharatpur borders are connected with UP, there are people entering Bharatpur from the UP villages using kaccha roads illegally by motor bikes. It is difficult to check such movement and hence have ordered for the same," he said.

The minister also said that the COVID-19 cases in Bharatpur are increasing due to illegal commuting of people from Agra. He instructed officials to install CCTV cameras at entry points of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Bharatpur till Tuesday morning registered 115 COVID-19 cases and two deaths. One positive was registered on Tuesday as well, said Additional Chief Secretary, Health Rohit Kumar Singh.
Family members of the Icheon warehouse fire victims cry at the joint memorial hall installed in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. Sunday. Yonhap



By Kim Se-jeong



Two Kazakh workers killed in the warehouse fire in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province were brothers who moved to Korea with their families in pursuit of a better life.



The two were ethnic Koreans from former Soviet states.



"One was a father of three children," said Kim Young-sook who leads a group dedicated to helping ethnic Koreans from the former Soviet Union in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province. "I met the guy with three children in February. He dropped by because he needed help visiting a medical clinic."



According to Kim, they were living in Ansan and traveled across the country for work.



"Their relatives in Kazakhstan want to fly to Korea for their funerals, but can't because of financial difficulties. They are not in a good situation and need help. We're trying to help them with whatever we can." Almost 18,000 ethnic Koreans from former Soviet states are currently living in Ansan.



The brothers were among 38 who lost their lives in the fire that broke out on April 29. One was a Chinese national. In addition to the 38 fatalities, 10 were injured.



Investigations are still underway to identify the exact cause of the fire, but it is reported to have started in a basement where workers were doing insulation work using urethane foam next to other employees installing a freight elevator. Urethane foam emits a combustible oily mist, and the elevator installation involved welding.



Survivors said they heard several explosions and noticed a strong-smelling "toxic smoke."



The investigators continued their inspections of the fire site on Tuesday. The National Forensic Service completed autopsies on 18 victims to find the exact cause of death but haven't released the results to the public. The police conducted an additional investigation into six companies, including Han Express which ordered the construction and Keonwoo which carried out the construction.



The fire is the latest accident to shed light on lax safety measures at construction sites. The law requires construction companies to appoint supervisors to ensure workers follow safety guidelines, such as removing any flammable materials and ventilating the space before welding work begins.



"The disaster could have been prevented if the site had had at least one supervisor. I want the government to really learn from this and to make sure the safety measures are implemented in the field," one bereaved family member said during a press conference at the fire site, Monday.



Reportedly, Keonwoo received warnings from the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency about the guideline violations multiple times but ignored them.



The families also demanded Han Express be held accountable for the accident. Until recently, companies hiring subcontractors for construction jobs were not legally responsible for accidents that took place on site.



The government responded to the accident, vowing to undertake a special round of safety inspections at the Ansan construction site. But critics said the measures, as usual, came too late.










About 1,900 stranded Indian nationals are expected to fly back to the city starting May 7, as part of the Central governments plan to evacuate citizens stuck abroad amid Covid-19 pandemic.

Total seven flights will land in the state through the week. On May 7, three flights will arrive at the citys Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), with 800 passengers-- a special flight from London (250 passengers), a flight from Singapore (250 passengers) and one from San Francisco in the USA (300). The San Francisco flight, however, will further depart to Hyderabad.

The second day around 250 passengers from Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and 250 from New York will land in the city.

The next day, a special flight will be departing from Chicago to Mumbai and Chennai and is scheduled to bring back around 300 stranded Indians. Further, around 200 Indian nationals from Dhaka (Bangladesh) and around 250 from Manila (Philippines) will be landing in Mumbai on the same day.

The seventh flight to the city will fly from London on the fourth day (May 10), with around 250 passengers. This will be the last set of stranded passengers to land at the CSMIA for the week.

The government had announced on Monday that they will be operating special flights to evacuate thousands of citizens stranded abroad. Hence, it had been compiling details of distressed Indians, making a list of people who should be prioritised on the initial round of evacuation flights. Other flights will be operating from New Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai.
We have known about the Peoples Republic of Chinas exploitation of American enterprise for years. The problem is that we have not wanted to confront it. Ever since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, it has been a relentless and pernicious economic adversary, routinely taking advantage of the greed and weakness of American companies. We should have taken actions previously to address imbalances in our trade relationships, but we didnt. Now the pandemic has put these issues front and center.

In early December, China knew an infectious virus had been discovered in Wuhan. It was not until December 31 that China reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) that there was a risk of human-to-human transmission of the virus. The WHO failed the world by not publishing this. However, our intelligence services briefed the president on January 3, and eleven times after that throughout January and February about the magnitude of the coronavirus threat. Nothing happened.

While the world suffers from health and financial challenges, China has touted its ability to take advantage of the American economy and our weakness in trade. China controls many critical products and components of Americas supply chains. Of U.S. imports, China accounted for 95 percent of ibuprofen, 91 percent of hydrocortisone, and 80 percent of all antibiotics. Our dependence on Chinese medicine has crippled our ability to fight COVID-19 and various illnesses. This must change.

Chinas scope of power goes beyond its domination of the production of everyday medications. Its exploitation of intellectual property led me to introduce the SHEET Act to prevent countries such as China from stealing technology and intelligence from educational foreign-exchange programs, a method which illustrates the Communist countrys desire to steal and misuse intellectual property from the U.S.

Since Chinas addition to the WTO, it has been carefully but fully abusive toward American companies and businesses. The Institute for Supply Management estimates that three-quarters of American companies report supply-chain disruptions in China. Their manipulation goes beyond supply-chains. When Marriott and Delta posted maps showing Taiwan as an independent country, China objected and demanded that they remove these maps from their websites. Sadly, both companies buckled to authoritarian China and changed their maps. As Lenin said, the capitalists will sell us the ropes we will hang them with.

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How can American business and government oppose Chinas outsized influence? One way is to create new supply chains and reinforce existing ones with U.S. allies in Asia, and in the Western Hemisphere and Europe. Chinese leaders do not think that our leaders and businesses have the resolve to accept higher costs in a less efficient supply chain for imported products, and we need to call their bluff. Policymakers should create new incentives for businesses to reorient supply chains away from China and disincentives for companies to invest there. A sovereignty tax on American investment in China, reflecting the value that U.S. companies derive from U.S. sovereignty but the damage they are doing to our strategic position by investing there, could be an example. It is worth incurring higher costs to be strategically secure.

As the pandemic abates, the U.S. and our allies should clearly and openly call out the abuses that China has perpetrated on the Western world since its admission to the WTO. The mantra of accommodation to China to mollify the PRC and slowly integrate them into existing global trade relationships has failed  or, more precisely, has worked for China but no one else. Chinas leaders are repressive, they violate trade norms, and they steal intellectual property. They project hegemonic power wherever they can. We need to develop a partnership with American, European, and Asian businesses and governments to bring Chinas exploitation to an end.

More from National Review
A Pearland nursing home reported Monday that seven residents and one employee have tested positive for COVID-19.

The Windsong Care Center reported seven of the eight cases to the Brazoria County Health Department on Sunday. The department reached out to Texas Health and Human Services and the Department of State Health Services to test all residents and employees at the facility.
Coronavirus deaths in care homes peaked nine days after the crisis in NHS hospitals, official figures today revealed.

April 17 was the darkest day of the outbreak for the care sector in England and Wales, when 415 COVID-19 fatalities occurred. In contrast, the number of daily deaths peaked on April 8 (983) in hospitals - where the majority of coronavirus fatalities happen.

The data - crunched by the Office for National Statistics - comes after it was revealed growing numbers of British families are seeking legal advice to remove their relatives from care homes.

Legal firms have reported a spike in the number of people desperate to overturn Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, which prevent elderly residents being removed from care facilities.

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) are strict processes which apply to people in care homes and hospitals, stopping them from leaving the facility without permission from a social worker.

Legal firm Leigh Day told The Guardian it is receiving 'at least 10 calls a week from families attempting to persuade local authority social workers to let them remove residents from care homes'.

April 17 was the darkest day of the outbreak for the care sector in England and Wales, when 415 COVID-19 fatalities occurred. In comparison, the number of daily deaths peaked on April 8 in hospitals - where the majority of coronavirus fatalities happen

When the number of COVID-19 patients dying was at its highest in hospitals, around April 8, it was still relatively low in care homes, which then surged in the days and weeks following

The number of people dying each week during the UK's coronavirus crisis has been significantly higher - more than double in recent weeks - than the average number of deaths for this time of year

Legal firms have reporter a spike in the number of people looking to overturn safeguards which prevent them removing elderly residents from care facilities. Pictured: Careworker Fabiana Connors visits client Jack Hornsby at his home on May 3 in Elstree

What are Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards? The Mental Capacity Act 2005 includes the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS)  a set of checks that aims to make sure that any care that restricts a person's liberty is both appropriate and in their best interests. DoLS only apply for people in care homes and hospitals. There is a separate system for people in 'supported living arrangements'  where people live and receive care in the community. Examples of making decisions or placing restriction on someone with dementia could include deciding on the person's routine, stopping them from walking about at night, or preventing them from leaving. Care home or hospital staff should make sure that all care a person receives involves as little restriction as possible. However, sometimes it will be necessary to take away some of the person's freedom to provide them with the care they need. If a care home or hospital plans to deprive a person of their liberty in the ways listed above, they must get permission. To do this, they must follow strict processes called the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). DoLS are a set of checks that are designed to ensure that a person who is deprived of their liberty is protected, and that this course of action is both appropriate and in the person's best interests. Source: Alzheimers.org Advertisement

Helen Wildbore, the director of the Relatives and Residents' Association, also told The Guardian its helpline had seen an increase in calls about the issue.

More than 5,000 care home residents have died from COVID-19.

Official data shows care home deaths account for more than a third of all fatalities.

Office for National Statistics data today revealed that 29,710 people in England and Wales had COVID-19 mentioned on their death certificate by April 24.

A further 2,219 people had died in Scotland, according to National Records Scotland, and 393 in Northern Ireland, its statistics agency, NISRA, shows. This was a total of 32,322.

The Department of Health had, by that time, counted only 22,173 fatalities linked to the virus, meaning the ONS records put the country's death toll 42 per cent higher.

Delays in death reports, uncounted victims who died at home or in care homes, and a refusal to count anyone who hasn't been tested mean the daily death counts are not the most accurate measure of how many people are being killed by the illness.

Yesterday the Health Secretary announced that a total of 28,734 people had died after testing positive for the disease.

This suggests the true total - if 42 per cent higher - could be 40,802.

One former head health analyst from the ONS said that the numbers of excess deaths could even put the UK's coronavirus death toll at more than 45,000.

The ONS bulletin today showed that one in five of all people who have died so far in the crisis have been care home residents. Some 5,890 people in homes succumbed to the disease by April 24.

CORONAVIRUS IN CARE HOMES PEAKED ON APRIL 17 - A WEEK AFTER CRISIS IN HOSPITALS The COVID-19 death toll in care homes peaked more than a week after it did in hospitals, according to official figures released this morning. ONS statisticians trawled through all the coronavirus deaths in England and Wales to analyse when they actually occurred. April 8 (1,318 deaths) was found to be the darkest day of the outbreak - which officially began to spread on British soil back in February. Data showed this coincided with the peak in hospital deaths (983), which have since plummeted (402 on April 24). However, the daily care home death toll did not peak until nine days later - April 17 (415), according to the ONS analysis. DATE 01-Apr 02-Apr 03-Apr 04-Apr 05-Apr 06-Apr 07-Apr 08-Apr 09-Apr 10-Apr 11-Apr 12-Apr 13-Apr 14-Apr 15-Apr 16-Apr 17-Apr 18-Apr 19-Apr 20-Apr 21-Apr 22-Apr 23-Apr 24-Apr CARE 76 99 135 139 171 187 224 252 269 281 310 363 289 329 338 399 415 358 337 330 325 345 302 285 HOSPITAL 683 743 730 823 815 772 867 983 841 806 829 790 748 705 714 702 637 598 570 596 522 520 463 402 Advertisement

And deaths of any cause in care homes appeared to still be rising on April 24, with 7,911 people dying in homes that week - some of these may have been indirect casualties of the virus outbreak or people who had it but were never diagnosed.

COVID-19 fatalities in care homes appear to have peaked in the official count on April 17, when 415 people died - this was nine days after the daily peak in NHS hospitals, on April 8, with 867 deaths.

ONS data is the most accurate picture of how many people have died with COVID-19, but the statistics are backdated so only relate to a period two weeks earlier.

Its release next Tuesday is expected to show evidence of the virus starting to taper off as the last of the pre-lockdown patients' hospital stays ended in death or discharge; some patients may spend more than three weeks in hospital.

By April 24, a total of 5,890 people had died in care homes with confirmed or suspected COVID-19, out of a total of 27,356 people (21.5 per cent). The 27,356 is lower than the 29,710 total for that date because of a recording cut-off.

The scale of care home deaths is expected to continue rising - the National Records of Scotland last week revealed that 39 per cent of victims there have been in nursing homes.

Elderly people and those with long-term health issues are known to be the most at risk of the virus and close proximity living makes outbreaks difficult to stop.

Deaths in care homes also appeared to keep accelerating after the virus deaths peaked in England's hospitals, ONS data shows.

The week between April 18 and 24 was another weekly high for the number of people succumbing to the virus in homes.

A total 2,794 residents died and had coronavirus mentioned on their death certificate that week, up from 2,050 the week before (36 per cent higher).

Liz Kendall, Labours Shadow Minister for Social Care, said: 'These figures show that talk of being "past the peak" of this awful virus simply does not hold true for social care.

'Ministers must take urgent action to get to grips with this problem  including getting proper PPE to the frontline, making care workers a top priority for testing and ensuring the NHS does more to support social care services and help keep elderly and disabled people safe.'

Monitoring deaths in homes is complex because there has not been routine testing for residents.

More than 4,000 care home residents in England and Wales have died during the pandemic up until April 17, official data shows, 19 per cent of the total on that date. This compares to Germany's 2,401. A third of its total deaths have been in care homes, but that includes prisons and other community settings

In other developments in the UK's coronavirus crisis today:

The Government today launches a trial on the Isle of Wight of the NHS's contact-tracing mobile app, which will alert people when they have been in close contact with someone who might have the coronavirus;

The Virgin Atlantic airline will lay off 3,000 of its staff and stop flying out of Gatwick Airport as it faces huge financial difficulties;

McDonald's has started to reopen for delivery orders, starting with 15 stores nationwide - six of which are in Luton and Chelmsford;

Chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, has said it is unlikely people will develop total immunity to COVID-19 after having it once;

The Government's furlough scheme is now paying the wages of 6.3million people, meaning it's subsidising half of the country's workforce. The Chancellor said it is 'not sustainable' but would continue;

Unions have warned they will not accept members being put at risk as lockdown eases and could call for strikes if health and safety demands are not met;

Legal firms have reporter a spike in the number of people looking to overturn safeguards which prevent them removing elderly residents from care facilities;

Real-time traffic information shows increasing numbers of Britons are returning to the roads despite the lockdown still being firmly in place.

CARE HOMES STILL STRUGGLING TO SOURCE SUFFICIENT PPE, BOSSES WARN Care homes in the UK are still struggling to source sufficient levels of personal protective equipment (PPE), causing 'really high' levels of stress for workers. Bosses say the requirement to wear PPE at all times while working in care homes, coupled with increased costs, mean that supplies often run out extremely quickly. Colin Angel, policy director for the UK Homecare Association (UKHCA), said sourcing equipment for workers is a main concern for care providers. He told BBC Breakfast: 'I think every homecare provider in the country is really struggling to get a sure supply of PPE, and having enough to be confident that they can continue providing care services across, sometimes even days, if not just a few weeks. 'And it's a real stress. I have a provider who was telling me he was spending 90% of his time trying to phone round and get PPE delivered. 'That means he's looking for PPE rather than being able to run the rest of his service. 'That's a huge problem, and the levels of stress it's creating both for providers delivering care and their frontline care workers is really high.' There were 5,890 coronavirus-related care home deaths registered up to April 24 in England and Wales, the Office for National Statistics said. Mr Angel said the response from Government has been slow, and that more support is needed as additional cost pressures mount. 'We're seeing homecare providers having to use personal protective equipment that they've never needed before, and face masks and visors aren't usually necessary in home care,' he said. 'And now we're using them for virtually every contact that we have with somebody. 'The prices are increasing, the amount of PPE needed to deliver care services safely has shot up in a month or so. 'So, all of these additional cost pressures need to be funded, and that's either funded by the local authorities in the NHS who are buying care, or potentially by private individuals who are buying their own care. 'We don't think that's a cost which should be borne by private individuals. 'We think we need some real support from Government which has been very slow in appearing.' It comes as more than 130 frontline NHS and care workers have died during the coronavirus pandemic. Health Secretary Matt Hancock acknowledged that there would be further competition for PPE from businesses seeking to reopen as the lockdown eases, but said that the NHS and care homes must remain a priority. 'The first call on PPE must go to the NHS and social care and those other essential services who need it to keep the people delivering those services safe,' he said on Monday. Care home resident Pat, who appeared on the BBC with Mr Angel and her carer, Emily, said she is worried about the safety of her carers, without whom she would be 'totally lost', and echoed calls for more PPE. 'It's very important because I had a stroke so I can do very little for myself - so I totally depend on them ... I would be totally lost, I don't know what I would do without them,' she said. 'It can be very depressing sitting here on your own all the time and I look forward to them coming in for the company as well.' Mr Angel continued: 'We need to get money coming to the frontline care providers, we need to recognise the huge increase in costs, and sort out the supply of PPE so that Pat and Emily can carry on working together and receiving support.' Advertisement

This comes as a new report by the London School of Economics has highlighted how the UK Government's response to tackling Covid-19 in care homes has been different to other countries.

The LSE report highlights how the UK Government has taken a reactive approach rather than precautionary measures to prevent an outbreak.

In contrast, Hong Kong - which took action to prevent a crisis early on - has recorded no official deaths in care homes.

In some cases, swab tests have been limited to six residents with symptoms per care home, forcing staff to make assumptions on who may have the killer infection.

Carers are allowed to continue working even if they have had contact with a positive case, while in Germany a 14-day self isolation period is compulsory.

In South Korea, where total and care home deaths have been relatively low, regular temperature checks are taken of residents. A fever is one of the tell-tale symptoms.

Similarly in Hong Kong, residents are self-isolating even if there is no outbreak and must wear a face mask if they leave their room.

Adelina Comas-Herrera, an author of the report, said she expects the UK number of deaths of care home residents to amount to half of all deaths, as is happening in France, Belgium and Canada.

The pattern has been reported in Spain and Italy - where governments were slow to act and were underprepared for the pandemic with low levels of PPE - but the data is not as reliable.

Ms Comas-Herrera, an assistant professorial research fellow in the Department of Health Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, has been gathering resources worldwide to create LTCcovid.

LTCcovid (Long-Term Care responses to COVID-19) will document the impact of COVID-19 in care settings over the course of the pandemic.

Its most recent report said: 'While it is early to come to firm conclusions and there are many difficulties with data, these differences suggest that having large numbers of deaths as result of COVID-19 is not inevitable and that appropriate measures to prevent and control infections in care homes can save lives.'

LTCcovid collection of information finds that countries that appear to have had relative success in preventing COVID-19 entering care homes have very strict processes to isolate and test all care home residents and staff.

They don't just focus on those who have symptoms, but anyone who may have had contact with people who have tested positive for COVID-19.

At least in the UK, timely and systematic testing of care home residents and staff has been lacking.

It has come to light that testing was initially done on the first five symptomatic residents, meaning potentially several more would have gone untested.

Testing capacity has been and is still very limited since the start, so priorities lie with people in hospitals and NHS workers.

Care homes have to decide who to isolate based on assumptions of who has the illness, leaving others to mingle with each other while following social distancing rules.

But 'there is also growing evidence of asymptomatic transmission in care homes, which highlights the importance of regular testing in care homes instead of relying on symptoms to identify people with potential COVID-19 infections', Ms Comas-Herreras writes.

'Geriatricians are also raising concerns that, among care home residents, the symptoms of COVID-19 may not be the typical cough and fever that is covered in the guidance documents for care homes in many countries, but that a range of other symptoms (such as delirium, diarrhoea, lethargy, falls and reduced appetite) are more frequent among care home residents with COVID-19.'

Current guidelines in the UK only require the isolation of residents and staff who are symptomatic. Similar guidelines were in place in Spain until the 24th of March.

FOUR OF 10 DEADLIEST WEEKS IN ENGLAND AND WALES WERE IN APRIL, DATA SHOWS Four of the 10 deadliest weeks ever recorded in England and Wales occurred in April, MailOnline can reveal. ONS figures show 22,351 deaths were registered during the week that ended April 17 - the worst seven-day spell since records began. It was followed by the week that finished April 24, which saw 21,997 deaths recorded across England and Wales. In comparison, the average number of fatalities registered each week across the two countries is around the 10,500 mark. More than 18,500 deaths were recorded in the week that ended April 10, while 16,387 fatalities were registered in the previous seven-day period. COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate of 8,237 victims (37.4 per cent) in Week 17 (ending April 24). Not all of the deaths will be directly from COVID-19. For example, scores of victims who tested positive will have died from other causes. As well as people dying as a result of catching the virus and falling ill with it, people are also believed to be becoming indirect COVID-19 victims. A&E attendances for all conditions, and notably heart attacks, have plummeted since the outbreak started because people are afraid of catching the virus in hospital. Only one other week in modern times has seen more than 20,000 deaths in England and Wales - January 1-7 2000 (20,566). The huge spike came during the worst flu outbreak to hit Britain in decades, which saw hospitals use lorries as make-shift morgues. THE 10 DEADLIEST EVER WEEKS IN ENGLAND AND WALES, SINCE ONS RECORDS BEGAN 17/04/2020 24/04/2020 07/01/2000 08/01/1999 10/01/1997 10/04/2020 14/01/2000 03/01/1997 17/01/1997 03/04/2020 22,351 21,997 20,566 20,116 18,541 18,516 17,776 17,646 16,652 16,387 Advertisement

But the World Health Organization's guidelines insist on isolation of residents and staff who are suspected to have COVID-19.

The Government has been slated for its lack of support to nursing homes, with no routine testing available, no up-to-date records of the number of people infected or dead, and 'paltry' attempts to deliver adequate protective clothing for staff.

The South Korean approach has been robust, albeit potentially distressing for care home residents.

Any resident that displays symptoms of COVID-19 enter quarantine facilities such as the Human Resources Development Institute and the English Learning Campus, both in Seoul.

Care workers clean their room and the resident can only return once they have tested negative after a two-week isolation period.

Authorities acted fast to prevent outbreaks if there were a spike in cases in the community.

In Gyungsang-do, the region with the second highest recorded rate of COVID-19 cases in South Korea, 564 care homes were quarantined to prevent the virus entering the home, local media report.

Staff were stopped from leaving the facility for two weeks with financial incentives to keep them going.

Ms Comas-Herrera said Germany was 'an outlier' in Europe owing to its proactive stance on testing and stricter guidelines on discharging elderly patients from hospital, The Times reports.

States across Germany have reacted differently to control infection in care homes, with measures ranging from quarantining COVID-19 patients at separate facilities to compulsory wearing of face masks by staff when entering residents' rooms.

Meanwhile the Italian government acted late on the COVID-19 outbreak management in nursing homes, restricting visitations after the lockdown when thousands were already infected in the population.

It's difficult to compare death rates of COVID-19 in care homes because there are differences in how deaths are recorded, how data is published and testing.

There have been large numbers of deaths in care homes in Italy, Spain, the UK and the US but official data for these countries is either incomplete or difficult to interpret, LSE say.

The percentage of COVID-related deaths - suspected or confirmed - among care home residents ranges from 19 per cent in the UK to 62 per cent in Canada, where care homes have been hard hit.

The lower total deaths a country has, the lower the care home deaths tends to be. For example in Singapore, two per cent of its 18 deaths have been in care homes.

There have been no infections or deaths in care homes in Hong Kong - only four deaths in total and 1,040 cases of infections in the total population.

Singapore, where there are 18,700 cases, there has been relative success at preventing infection from reaching care homes, LTC Covid report.

Data for Germany suggests that 36 per cent of deaths would have happened in communal establishments. This includes care homes, prisons and other group living settings.

Ms Comas-Herrera said it is currently complicated to understand how many COVID-19 deaths have occurred among care home residents because they might also be included in hospital death data, if that is where they died.

But Ms Comas-Herrera said she expects the UK will see care home deaths reach 50 per cent, similar to France where official data records 51 per cent, and Canada.

Although it seems we have reached a peak in hospital deaths, she is not sure whether we have reached the peak in care homes deaths. Her thoughts echo other experts.

Last week, Sir David Spiegelhalter, a highly regarded statistics expert and an OBE recipient, said he believes the numbers of care home deaths are still climbing as Government statistics show hospital fatalities are trailing off.

He spoke of a 'massive, unprecedented spikes' in the number of people dying in nursing homes.

Britain's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, revealed he and other senior scientists warned politicians 'very early on' about the risk COVID-19 posed to care homes.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) has been meeting approximately twice a week since its first coronavirus discussion on January 22.

Sir Patrick, who chairs the group along with Professor Chris Whitty, said they had 'flagged' the risk of care home and hospital outbreaks at the start of the epidemic.

Environment Secretary George Eustice said on April 29 'we have always recognised there was more vulnerability there'. He denied that more testing would have saved lives.

The number of residents dying of any cause has almost tripled in a month, from around 2,500 per week in March to 7,300 in a single week in April - more than 2,000 of the latter were confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Are you trying to take a relative out of a care home? Contact amie.gordon@mailonline.co.uk
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

OTTAWA, ON / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / InterRent Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX:IIP.UN) ("InterRent" or the "REIT") today reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020 and announces that it has received approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") for a Normal Course Issuer Bid (the "Bid") commencing on May 11, 2020 up to and including May 10, 2021.

Quarter Highlights

Operating revenues for the quarter increased by $5.6 million, or 16.7%, over Q1 2019. Operating revenues for the same property portfolio increased by $2.5 million, or 7.4%, over Q1 2019.

Average monthly rent per suite for the entire portfolio increased to $1,270 (March 2020) from $1,204 (March 2019), an increase of 5.5%. The same property portfolio increased to $1,296 (March 2020) from $1,209 (March 2019), an increase of 7.2%.

Occupancy for the overall portfolio was 95.3%, a decrease of 50 basis points (March 2020 compared to March 2019). Occupancy for the same property portfolio was 96.6%, a decrease of 10 basis points (March 2020 compared to March 2019).

Net Operating Income (NOI) for the quarter was $24.7 million, an increase of $3.5 million, or 16.8%, over Q1 2019. NOI margin for the quarter was 62.8%, up 10 basis points over Q1 2019.

Same property NOI for the quarter was $22.7 million, an increase of $1.8 million, or 8.7%, over Q1 2019. Same property NOI margin for the quarter was 63.7%, up 80 basis points over Q1 2019.

Repositioned properties had an average monthly rent per suite of $1,320, occupancy of 97.5% for March 2020 and an NOI margin for the quarter of 65.2%.

Fair value gain on investment properties in the quarter of $1.0 million was driven by property level operating improvements.

Net income for the quarter was $37.9 million, an increase of $24.3 million compared to Q1 2019. This difference was due primarily to the Unit price decrease in the quarter that resulted in higher non-cash fair value gains on unit-based liabilities and Class B unit liability.

Funds from Operations (FFO) increased by $2.9 million, or 24.7%, for the quarter. Fully diluted FFO per unit increased by 9.5% from $0.105 per unit to $0.115 per unit.

Adjusted Funds from Operations (AFFO) increased by $3.0 million, or 30.7%, for the quarter. Fully diluted AFFO per unit increased by 14.9% from $0.087 per unit to $0.100 per unit.

Adjusted Cash Flow from Operations (ACFO) decreased by $0.7 million, or 7.3%, to $9.0 million for the quarter.

Debt to GBV ratio at quarter end was 33.4%, an increase of 90 basis points from December 2019.

Purchased one building in Mississauga (57 suites) for $18.2 million as well as a property with 4 suites that is contiguous to the Richmond/Churchill development site in Ottawa.

Financial Highlights

Selected Consolidated Information

In $000's, except per Unit amounts

and other non-financial data 3 Months Ended March 31, 2020 3 Months Ended March 31, 2019 Change Total suites 10,226 9,203 +11.1% Average rent per suite (March) $1,270 $1,204 +5.5% Occupancy rate (March) 95.3% 95.8% -50bps Operating revenues $39,368 $33,731 +16.7% Net operating income (NOI) $24,708 $21,160 +16.8% NOI % 62.8% 62.7% +10bps Same property average rent per suite (March) $1,296 $1,209 +7.2% Same property occupancy rate (March) 96.6% 95.8% +80bps Same property NOI $22,654 $20,842 +8.7% Same property NOI % 63.7% 62.9% +80bps Net Income $37,911 $13,630 +178.1% Funds from Operations (FFO) $14,484 $11,614 +24.7% FFO per weighted average unit - diluted $0.115 $0.105 +9.5% Adjusted Funds from Operations (AFFO) $12,562 $9,611 +30.7% AFFO per weighted average unit - diluted $0.100 $0.087 +14.9% Distributions per unit $0.0775 $0.0725 +6.9% Adjusted Cash Flow from Operations (ACFO) $9,030 $9,742 -7.3% Debt to GBV 33.4% 39.4% -600bps Interest coverage (rolling 12 months) 3.18x 2.97x +0.21x Debt service coverage (rolling 12 months) 1.90x 1.81x +0.09x

Gross rental revenue for the quarter was $38.8 million, an increase of $5.6 million, or 17.0%, compared to Q1 2019. Operating revenue for the quarter was up $5.6 million to $39.4 million, or 16.7% compared to Q1 2019. The average monthly rent across the portfolio for March 2020 increased to $1,270 per suite from $1,204 (March 2019), an increase of 5.5% and from $1,260 (December 2019), an increase of 0.8%. The March 2020 vacancy rate across the entire portfolio was 4.7%, an increase from 4.2% recorded in March 2019.

On a same property portfolio basis (same properties are income properties owned by the REIT throughout the comparative periods), the average monthly rent per suite increased from $1,209 (March 2019) to $1,296 (March 2020), an increase of 7.2%. Management expects to continue to grow revenues organically, as well as continuing to drive other ancillary revenue streams.

NOI for the quarter was $24.7 million, or 62.8% of operating revenue, compared to $21.2 million, or 62.7% of operating revenue, for the three months ended March 31, 2019. NOI from the same property portfolio increased to $22.7 million for Q1 2020, an increase of $1.8 million, or 8.7%, over Q1 2019. Same property NOI margin for the quarter was 63.7%. Net income for the quarter was $37.9 million, compared to $13.6 million for Q1 2019. The increase of $24.3 million was partly attributed to higher non-cash fair value gains on unit-based liabilities and Class B unit liability compared to Q1 2019.

The agreement to internalize the property management function that closed on February 15, 2018 contained amongst other things, a right to use CLV Group's property management brand without cost for a period of 24 months following closing of the transaction and a restrictive covenant in favor of the REIT that locked-up the Class B LP Units, or the REIT Units into which they are exchangeable, received by the former property manager. At the request of the former property manager and in appreciation of the extension of the right to use CLV Group's property management brand for up to 5 more years, the Board has agreed to an early release of the lock-up effective May 5, 2020. CLV Group has advised InterRent that there are no plans at this time to sell any of these Units.

Operational Update

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the novel strain of coronavirus "COVID-19" a global pandemic. The outbreak has resulted in the federal and provincial governments enacting emergency measures to combat the spread of the virus. These measures, which include the implementation of travel bans, self-imposed quarantine periods and social distancing, have caused material disruption to businesses globally resulting in an economic slowdown.

The health and safety of residents and team members remains the Trust's top priority. InterRent REIT took quick action at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis by introducing several new building protocols and procedures designed to ensure the wellbeing of all our communities. The Trust has also placed a high priority on maintaining strong, ongoing communication with our residents through multiple channels. The Trust recognizes that the pandemic has created significant hardship for many residents. Accordingly, the Trust is working to support residents experiencing financial difficulties through various means. The Trust has been extremely encouraged by the goodwill, positive sentiment, and community spirit that our residents have shown in the face of the pandemic and in response to the Trust's actions.

The following information provides an operating update on the REIT's portfolio and liquidity position as of May 5, 2020:

InterRent REIT has collected approximately 98% of residential April rent payments, in-line with a typical month, and is providing specific rent deferment and payment plans for those residents who have faced economic hardship due to the pandemic.

Currently we have entered into rent deferral agreements with approximately 0.25% of our residential residents.

Suite Occupancy of the Trust's portfolio on April 30, 2020 was 96%.

InterRent REIT is not applying any rent increases at this time.

InterRent REIT has enhanced cleaning protocols for all of its buildings and stepped up maintenance of ventilation systems. Building team members and cleaning contractors are making extra efforts to ensure high-touch common areas (elevator call buttons, door handles, washroom facilities, etc.) are kept clean and disinfected with industry-appropriate products.

In recognition of their outstanding and ongoing efforts keeping our properties clean and safe through this pandemic, wages have been temporarily increased by $4 per hour for our front-line workers.

All building common areas and amenity rooms have been temporarily closed in accordance with Public Health Authority recommendations.

InterRent REIT has developed an online information hub (interrentreit.com/covid-19) to provide residents and stakeholders with information regarding the pandemic as well as an online Bulletin Board for residents to communicate with each other and provide assistance to their fellow residents.

The Trust has conducted wellness phone calls to all residents to check on their safety and to identify residents in need of additional assistance.

InterRent REIT's sales and leasing teams have implemented an end-to-end contactless rental process.

The REIT's current credit facilities total $140.5 million as well as a further $50 million available through an accordion feature on one of its committed revolving term loan facilities. Based on the current security in place, the REIT is also in negotiations to extend one of the facilities by a further $40 million. Of the total potential $230.5 million, there is approximately $30 million drawn on these facilities.

To-date, mortgage financings and renewals have progressed on schedule with no mortgage financing delays noted as a result of COVID-19. The REIT is currently working with several lenders on mortgages that would provide approximately $95 million in up-financing over the next 2-4 months.

The REIT has approximately $100 million in assets that are fully unencumbered and with a debt to GBV ratio of 33.4% has significant liquidity available through both CMHC insured and conventional mortgage financing.

"InterRent has invested extensively in its portfolio to ensure it is best in class in its operating nodes. This has allowed the REIT to achieve industry leading rental growth while also ensuring that the portfolio has minimal deferred maintenance and thus providing the REIT with a very defensive portfolio that is well-positioned to face uncertain economic times. We are very fortunate to have such a strong team, many of which are Unitholders, who support each other and work tirelessly to provide clean and safe homes for our residents," said Mike McGahan, CEO

Normal Course Issuer Bid

Under the terms of the Bid, InterRent may purchase up to 11,481,830 trust units ("Units") (representing approximately 10% of the REIT's public float of 114,818,300 Units). As at April 30, 2020, InterRent has 121,829,009 Units issued and outstanding.

For the past six months, the average daily trading volume of InterRent Units was 502,837. A maximum of 125,709 Units (being 25% of the average daily trading volume) may be purchased by InterRent on any one day under the Bid, except where purchases are made in accordance with "block purchases" exemptions under applicable TSX policies. Purchases pursuant to the Bid will be made through the facilities of the Toronto Stock Exchange and other Canadian alternative trading systems. InterRent will pay the market price at the time of acquisition for any Unit purchased through the facilities of the TSX and other Canadian alternative trading systems and all Units acquired by the REIT under this Bid will be cancelled.

InterRent is pursuing the normal course issuer bid because it believes that, from time to time, the market price of its Units may not fully reflect the underlying value of its business and its future business prospects. The REIT believes that, in such circumstances, the purchase and cancellation of such Units represent an attractive investment for InterRent and its unitholders.

About InterRent

InterRent REIT is a growth-oriented real estate investment trust engaged in increasing Unitholder value and creating a growing and sustainable distribution through the acquisition and ownership of multi-residential properties.

InterRent's strategy is to expand its portfolio primarily within markets that have exhibited stable market vacancies, sufficient suites available to attain the critical mass necessary to implement an efficient portfolio management structure and, offer opportunities for accretive acquisitions.

InterRent's primary objectives are to use the proven industry experience of the Trustees, Management and Operational Team to: (i) to grow both funds from operations per Unit and net asset value per Unit through investments in a diversified portfolio of multi-residential properties; (ii) to provide Unitholders with sustainable and growing cash distributions, payable monthly; and (iii) to maintain a conservative payout ratio and balance sheet.

*Non-GAAP Measures

InterRent prepares and releases unaudited quarterly and audited consolidated annual financial statements prepared in accordance with IFRS (GAAP). In this and other earnings releases, as a complement to results provided in accordance with GAAP, InterRent also discloses and discusses certain non-GAAP financial measures, including Gross Rental Revenue, NOI, Same Property results, Repositioned Property results, FFO, AFFO, ACFO and EBITDA. These non-GAAP measures are further defined and discussed in the MD&A dated May 5, 2020, which should be read in conjunction with this press release. Since Gross Rental Revenue, NOI, Same Property results, Repositioned Property results, FFO, AFFO, ACFO and EBITDA are not determined by GAAP, they may not be comparable to similar measures reported by other issuers. InterRent has presented such non-GAAP measures as Management believes these measures are relevant measures of the ability of InterRent to earn and distribute cash returns to Unitholders and to evaluate InterRent's performance. These non-GAAP measures should not be construed as alternatives to net income (loss) or cash flow from operating activities determined in accordance with GAAP as an indicator of InterRent's performance.

Cautionary Statements

The comments and highlights herein should be read in conjunction with the most recently filed annual information form as well as our consolidated financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for the same period. InterRent's publicly filed information is located at www.sedar.com.

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning applicable to Canadian securities legislation. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "anticipated", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". InterRent is subject to significant risks and uncertainties which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward looking statements contained in this release. A full description of these risk factors can be found in InterRent's most recently publicly filed information located at www.sedar.com. InterRent cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with these forward looking statements and InterRent assumes no obligation to update or revise the forward looking statements contained in this release to reflect actual events or new circumstances.

The Toronto Stock Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For further information about InterRent please contact:

Mike McGahan

Chief Executive Officer

Tel: (613) 569-5699 Ext 244

Fax: (613) 569-5698

e-mail: mmcgahan@interrentreit.com

Brad Cutsey, CFA

President

Tel: (613) 569-5699 Ext 226

Fax: (613) 569-5698

e-mail: bcutsey@interrentreit.com

Curt Millar, CPA, CA

Chief Financial Officer

Tel: (613) 569-5699 Ext 233

Fax: (613) 569-5698

e-mail: cmillar@interrentreit.com

web site: www.interrentreit.com

SOURCE: InterRent Real Estate Investment Trust

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/588408/InterRent-REIT-Reports-Results-for-the-First-Quarter-of-2020-Operational-Update-related-to-COVID-19-and-Implementation-of-Normal-Course-Issuer-Bid
This early preparation may give China a head start in its crisis response. As most of the world remains engulfed in day-to-day pandemic relief, China has begun broader strategic pushes, gradually expanding its sphere of influence in the Pacific and declaring greater control over Hong Kong. Beijings overseas push has been made easier by the Trump administrations domestic focus, with the United States withdrawing from some of its traditional international roles.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Otsego County went from 35 to 90 in the last two weeks of April.

But what seems an alarming community spread in the rural northern Michigan county is mainly the result of an outbreak at a Gaylord long-term care facility, said Lisa Peacock, head of the Health Department of Northwest Michigan, which includes Otsego, Emmet, Charlevoix and Antrim counties.

We had at least 30 staff and at least 33 residents who tested positive in that outbreak, Peacock said.

Its a trend reflected across Michigan. Six weeks after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer implemented a stay-at-home order, COVID-19 remains a big issue in Michigan, with hundreds of new cases being reported every day. But transmission patterns have become more apparent, and there are far fewer cases among those without obvious exposure, experts say.

Statewide, many of the new cases involve essential workers, especially health-care workers, as well as people in congregate living situations such as nursing homes and correctional facilities, said Emily Martin, a University of Michigan epidemiologist working with the governors office to analyze the data.

A lot of highly exposed people, is what were seeing, Martin said.

Thats the pattern in his region, said Mark Cheatham, who heads the Mid-Michigan District Health Department, which includes Clinton, Montcalm and Gratiot counties.

This is just anecdotal based on conversations with my nurses, but they say they have seen less COVID in the community in general, and a shift into nursing homes, jails and some large workplaces, Cheatham said. I know my neighbors to the north have seen it in farms with migrant workers.

Statewide, about 3,300 Michigan residents in long-term care facilities have tested positive for coronavirus, as well as 1,870 inmates in the state prison system. The latter group alone accounts for 9% of the new cases reported since April 15.

Thousands of hospital workers have been sickened across Michigan, and other workplaces have become hot spots too.

In Marquette County, 39 of the countys 50 cases, are linked to an outbreak among staff and residents at a Marquette nursing home. There were 86 cases among workers at the JBS meat-packing plant in Allegan County. At least 43 Lansing-area residents tested positive for coronavirus from an outbreak at Herbrucks Poultry Ranch in Ionia County.

Our recent cases have been essential workers, said Steve Hall, who heads the Central Michigan District Health Department, which covers Isabella, Clare, Arenac, Gladwin, Osceola and Roscommon counties.

In Washtenaw County, the newer coronavirus cases have been related to three primary risks: household contact with a confirmed case; exposure at a group setting, such as a resident, inmate, patient or worker; or employment as a health-care worker, said Susan Ringler Cerniglia, head of the Washtenaw County Health Department.

In the past few weeks, as the stay-at-home order has slowed down transmission, public-health officials are getting a really clean view on whos getting infected, Martin said.

That wasnt the case in the beginning of the coronavirus where we couldnt even figure out where the problem was coming from because its so widespread, Martin said. That was one of the motivations of the stay-at-home order."

Despite the increase in the number of cases, Peacock said she feels like the situation is getting better in her corner of the state.

I know that we have pockets of increase, but theyre related to specific situations that we can identify and work on, she said. "Outside of the long-term-care setting, things have really slowed down.

Increased testing

One reason Michigan continues to have hundreds of new cases a day is increased testing.

In recent weeks, the state has loosened the criteria of who qualifies for coronavirus testing and has expanded the number of testing sites.

Michigan completed about 104,000 coronavirus tests from April 16 to 30, state data shows. That compares to about 70,000 tests conducted April 1 to 15 and 34,500 in the last two weeks of March.

The more testing you do, the more cases you will find," said Lynn Sutfin, spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

And even with more testing, the number of cases has declined. In the last seven days of April, Michigan had 4,365 new COVID-19 cases, compared to 7,786 during the first seven days, a 44% drop.

Increased testing means the data is capturing more people who have mild cases of coronavirus or are asymptomatic, evidenced by the fact that hospitalizations are declining at faster pace than case numbers. As of May 4, Michigan hospitals had 1,948 in-patients with COVID-13, including 839 in critical-care units. Thats less than half of the 3,986 in-patients on April 12 -- 1,570 of whom were in ICU.

But public health officials also note that access to testing remains an issue, and they still dont have a good handle on the true prevalence of COVID-19 in Michigan.

We just dont know how widespread it is, because we havent been able to test everyone, said Ringler Cerniglia. Weve been testing folks that are most severely ill. So its hard to say how widespread it is or what to expect when the economy re-opens.

Essential employees, congregate living places

Kent County has been one place that has seen a big jump of cases in recent weeks, from 354 on April 15 to 1,854 on Monday, May 4.

Much of that has to do with aggressively testing congregate living environments and places where vulnerable populations live, said Adam London, who heads the Kent County Health Department.

The shelters for those who are experiencing homelessness, weve seen a high rate of positivity there, London said. Weve seen a couple of of employers that saw increased cases, and weve found a couple of hot spots at long-term care homes."

London said the health department also is seeing cases among random essential workers and their household members. Another hot spot are the people who are going to work every day, or they live with someone is working outside the home, he said. Maybe even that worker was asymptomatic, but we test them, it turns out they had it, too.

London said there also are cases where the transmission source is unknown. We dont have a real good breakdown in numbers as to what portion are people who just going out for groceries or things like that vs. those who are having to go to work every day, he added. Thats a good question.

Linda Vail, who heads the Ingham County Health Department, said she doesnt have a breakdown either, adding the recent caseload is quite a mix. In Ingham, the number of cases went from 270 on April 15 to 506 as of Monday, May 4.

We are still seeing cases that are travel related, Vail said. We are seeing cases that are as a result of direct contact with a known case. We are seeing community transmission," as well as cases involving essential workers and long-term care facilities.

We have areas in our community with more crowded housing or where, as a whole, there are just lots of apartment complexes and such, she said. We have some of our numbers that align with that kind of issue in the community.

The coronavirus caseload in Detroit, Michigans hardest-hit community, is still too high to do contact tracing, said Vickie Winn, spokeswoman for the Detroit Health Department.

But like Kent County, Detroit is now undertaking targeted testing in places where they think coronavirus is most likely to be prevalent, such as nursing homes and other congregate settings, Winn said.

About 60% of confirmed confirmed coronavirus cases in Bay County involve essential employees, said Joel Strasz, head of the Bay County Health Department. Most of these are health-care workers. Many are from facilities -- hospitals and long term care facilities -- where outbreaks of the virus have occurred."

He added, Theres clear evidence of spread within residences from positive cases, especially with some of the affected health-care workers.

A similar pattern is apparent in Muskegon County, according to Jamie Hekker, spokeswoman for Muskegon health department:

So far we have seen clusters of COVID-19 infections in the same households, at same work places, at long-term-care facilities. They were all as the results of close contacts, Hekker said.

In Shiawassee County many of the new cases are related to long-term care facilities, both in residents and employees, said Larry Johnson, head of the Shiawassee Health Department.

Worries about reopening

While the stay-at-home order has slowed transmission rates, it obviously hasnt stopped it.

And the current pattern in which essential workers are more vulnerable to catching COVID raises the question of what will happen as the economy reopens.

I will be very interested in seeing what the ramifications are when more and more go back to work and the state opens up again, said Dr. Mark Hamed, who serves as medical director for Lapeer, Huron, Sanilac, Tuscola, Alcona, Iosco, Ogemaw and Oscoda counties.

Martin, the U-M epidemiologist, said the big question is can we restructure the ways that we work and we interact with each other so that it doesnt just re-explode, because all the tinder is still there.

Workplace safety is going to be extremely important going forward, Peacock said. That includes everything from health screenings of employees, to restricting common areas such as lunchrooms, to promoting use of masks and frequent hand-washing.

Its also making sure that they have a process to quickly identify someone whos sick and know what to do about it -- notifying public health, isolating that person, contact tracing back to make sure that we know whose co-workers were involved so that we can quickly get a handle on this spread," she said.

Certain workplaces that are safer than others, which is a topic of discussion, she said. Long-term care facilities, and congregate living settings are going to be our most difficult setting, and what were learning from those with outbreaks now are that infection-prevention measures are extremely important.

Cheatham, the Mid-Michigan District Health Department chief, said hes already seen the impact that asymptomatic carriers can have in the workplace.

You have an employee who is an asymptomatic spreader who passes screening just fine, but is still making co-workers sick, he said. Even universal testing wont solve this problem because a certain percentage of the time someone who has COVID will still test negative. This is why even as we try to open up businesses we have to continue with intense social distancing.

London, the Kent County public-health officer, said his hope is that people have become smarter about prevention methods such as hand-washing, wearing masks and staying six feet away from people outside their household.

Those are things were going to have to stick to for a long period of time, London said.

The reality is that theres an awful lot of completely susceptible hosts in our community," London said. "And if we start bringing in the dry wood back together into a pile, we could have a fire that burns it up fast.

COVID-19 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 all of MLives coverage on the coronavirus at mlive.com/coronavirus.

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.

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A task-force set-up by the Sunyani Municipal Security Council (MUSEC) to enforce social and physical distancing protocols among traders in the Municipality at the weekend, seized quantities of items and consumables from recalcitrant traders.



The traders failed to comply with directives from the Municipal Assembly to relocate to satellite markets created by the Assembly in the Municipality to control overcrowding at the central market.



During their usual monitoring and compliance assignment, the taskforce impounded quantities of second clothing, footwear, cosmetics and food stuffs.



The taskforce urged the traders and commercial drivers in the Municipality who refused to wear nose masks to acquire and use the protective material.



In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) Superintendent Haruna Alhassan, the Commander of the taskforce comprising personnel of the security services in uniform, a four-member team from the Sunyani Traditional Council (STC), and representatives of the Sunyani Youth Development Association, said the seized items would be kept at the premises of the STC for further action.



He expressed regret that despite the numerous intensified public education on radio stations and other platforms and warning notices, many of the traders were not complying with health and safety protocols and warned recalcitrant traders that the taskforce would clamp down on them.



Supt. Alhassan expressed regret that in the absence of the taskforce, the traders reverted to the normal way of business without even wearing nose masks, which is unsafe.



Nana Kwame Addai Kuntuma IV, the Nifahene of Sunyani and a member of the STC team, explained that per the rules governing the operations of the Taskforce, any owner of seized goods and wares would have to follow up to the Traditional Council to pay a fine to collect the items.



But failure to that, within three days implies the items would be donated to the inmates of the Sunyani Central Prison, he added.



Meanwhile, the Sunyani Municipal Assembly has scaled-up measures to strengthen the social and physical distancing protocols among traders in the Municipality to stem the spread of the COVID-19.



The Assembly at a meeting with the MUSEC, leadership of the markets and the STC resolved that markets would not be opened on Wednesdays, being the official market day in the Municipality.

A statement signed by Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive and copied to the GNA said only stalls and stores would be allowed to operate on Wednesdays.



But, the daily and all satellite markets in the Municipality would be opened on the other days apart from Wednesdays, and traders were expected to close by 1600 hours on Tuesdays.



In addition, children between age two and 16 years would not be allowed to roam about or hover around the market places and other public areas in the Municipality, it stated, adding It is now compulsory for every passenger to wear nose masks.

Source: GNA









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Worldviews have consequences. The pandemic that grips the whole world is symptomatic of the deadly grip that the ungodly leadership in China holds over a wide populous (including tens of millions of Chinese Christians).

The coronavirus did not just come out of nowhere. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) claims that it came out of the wet markets of Wuhan, a city of about 11 million people. But there is evidence that it may have originated in a biolab, the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Steven Mosher, the president of the Population Research Institute, certainly thinks so. He says corners were being cut, leading to the virus escaping from the lab. But the CCP tried to hide these things. As we know now, they allowed flights from Wuhan to the rest of the world, but not flights from Wuhan to other parts of China.

Recently I interviewed Mosher on my radio show. He argued, This didnt come from nature. This came from man. This came from the leadership of the Communist Party, which was putting a rush on research in their biolab in Wuhan. And I think they were putting so much pressure on the research that the researchers cut corners, and this dangerous coronavirusescaped from the lab.

Mosher continued, And there the story gets even worse. Because after it escapes, it could have been contained very, very quickly by using means that were all familiar with  contact-tracing, finding out who Patient Zero was, tracing that persons contacts, putting those people under quarantine. Instead, the deadly virus was allowed to spread throughout the city of Wuhan. China hid it.Even to this present day, they are still hiding what they know about the virus.

And yet millions of Americans are ready to blame President Trump for the virus crisis rather the actual perpetrators.

Furthermore, millions of young Americans want to see America become a socialist nation  which often leads to communism. They think socialism means sharing and fairness to everybody.

A recent Gallup poll found that the younger you are in America, the higher your view of socialism. Only 51% of Americans aged 18-39 had a high view of capitalism with 49% preferring socialism. At the same time, of those older than 55, 68% were positive toward capitalism with only 32% in favor of socialism.

Gary Bauer of American Values told me in a recent TV interview: I think all of us have been disturbed by polling data that shows that young Americans particularly seem to be very open, if not outwardly and completely supportive, of socialism.The majority of students that are saying that socialism is a good thing have not been educated in any way shape or form about what socialism is.

Mosher noted the CCP (and communism everywhere) is built on a series of lies:

There is no God.

Man is not made in the image of God; instead hes just a little higher than the apes.

The Party can create paradise on earth, if you give it all power.

Chairman Mao who forced communism on China in 1949 is the greatest mass-murderer in the history of humanity, exterminating as many as 45 million of his own people. When he took over the worlds most populated country, one of the goals was to dominate wider parts of the world, notes Mosher. And in 1958, Mao set up the Earth Control Committee.

Thus, it is possible that the whole world has been upended by a group of atheists who reacted criminally in response to accidents in a lab that was dealing with very dangerous substances. No wonder the state of Missouri filed a lawsuit last week against the government of China.

At least we can say that their irresponsible reaction to the virus once it began to spread has brought misery to many parts of the world. Many Chinese people themselves would gladly not have the Communists rule over them. But, amazingly, as noted, we have many in America who want communism or socialism.

I asked Mosher about this trend among young people. He chalked it up to the naivete of the young and the miseducation many of them receive in the schools.

They think socialism can work  if just the right people put it into practice. But in every communist regime, Mosher observes, they kill at least about 10-15% of their own people in order to remove the counter-revolutionaries.

Of all the sins and crimes of communism throughout the last century and a half  and there have been many  the outbreak of the coronavirus and the failure of the CCP to truly cooperate with other agencies to control this before it became a pandemic has got to be among the greatest crimes of all.

There was an old saying during the Cold War, You can trust the communists to act like communists. It is about time naive Americans woke up to the rotten fruit of communism.
New Delhi: The Government of India has decided to bring Indians trapped abroad due to Coronavirus epidemic. As a result of this decision, the Indian Navy's war ships INS Jalashv, INS Magar and INS Shardul have left for Maldives and United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday.

Threat of corona in animals, zoo administration cautious

INS Jalashv had climbed from East Coast towards West Coast in the past. A total of 14 warships have been deployed to bring back stranded Indians in the Gulf countries. In these, INS Jalashv, INS Magar have been sent to Maldives. INS Shardul has been taken to Dubai, from where people have to be brought back to India. INS Shardul will complete his journey and bring Indians to Kochi. INS Magar is part of INS Shardul Navy's South Command, while INS is part of Jalashwa East Command.

Agra model failed in Meerut, the entire city was declared as the Containment Zone

The government say that more than 2500 Indian workers are trapped in Maldives, who have to be brought back. Now they will be brought back by sea. It is worth mentioning that on Monday itself, the Indian government had decided that the process of returning home to Indians stranded abroad will start from May 7. Airways will also be used for this, special planes will reach India on 7 May from Dubai and Abu Dhabi, in which Indians will be brought back.

Three women beaten brutally in the village, police assured of strict action
SAVANNAH, Ga. - A Georgia prosecutor said Tuesday that he wants a grand jury to decide if criminal charges are warranted in the death of a man shot after a pursuit by armed men who later told police they suspected him of being a burglar.

Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was killed Feb. 23 in a neighbourhood outside the coastal port city of Brunswick. No one has been arrested or charged in the case, prompting an outcry from the local NAACP and others. Arbery was black and the men who chased him are white.

All I want to do is get justice for my son, said Marcus Arbery, the slain mans father, who believes his son was out jogging when he was killed. This is terrible. It could happen to anybodys kid.

The announcement that a grand jury will review the case came as an attorney for Arberys mother posted a cellphone video on Twitter that he said shows the shooting. This is murder, lawyer Lee Merritt said.

Mr. Arbery had not committed any crime and there was no reason for these men to believe they had the right to stop him with weapons or to use deadly force in furtherance of their unlawful attempted stop, said a statement by Merritt, who represents Arberys mother, Wanda Cooper.

Tom Durden, an outside prosecutor assigned to examine the case, said he plans to have a grand jury hear the evidence in the shooting. That wont happen for more than a month, as Georgia courts remain largely closed because of the coronavirus until at least June 13.

I am of the opinion that the case should be presented to the grand jury of Glynn County for consideration of criminal charges against those involved in the death of Mr. Arbery, Durden said in a statement Tuesday.

Reached by phone, Durden said no arrests have been made in connection with the shooting. He declined to say what charges he would have a grand jury consider.

The cellphone video, initially posted by a Brunswick radio station, shows a black man running at a jogging pace on the left side of a two-lane road. A truck is parked in the road ahead of him, with one man in the pickup bed and another standing beside the open drivers side door.

The runner crosses the road to pass the pickup on the passenger side, then crosses back in front of the truck. A gunshot sounds, and the video shows the runner grappling with a man in the street over what appears to be a shotgun or rifle. A second shot can be heard and the runner can be seen punching the man. A third shot is fired at point-blank range. The runner staggers a few feet and falls face down.

I think the video is very clear that they were on the truck with guns hunting him down, said Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Arberys father. I dont know what more you need to make an arrest.

Durden declined to comment Tuesday when the prosecutor was asked if he could verify that the video showed the shooting of Arbery.

According to an incident report filed by Glynn County police, Arbery was shot Feb. 23 after two men spotted him running in their neighbourhood and armed themselves with guns before getting in a truck to pursue him. Gregory McMichael told police that he and his adult son thought the young man matched someone caught on a security camera committing a recent break-in in the neighbourhood.

According to his father, Arbery didnt live far from the Satilla Shores neighbourhood where the McMichaels gave chase after spotting him on a Sunday afternoon.

The police report says Gregory McMichael told officers he and his son first tried to stop Arbery by shouting, Stop, stop, we want to talk to you!

McMichael said his son got out of the truck and the Arbery began to violently attack him and the two men then started fighting over the shotgun, the police report said.

The police report says Gregory McMichael turned Arbery onto his back to see if he was armed  but the report doesnt say whether he had a weapon or not.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil rights group, has demanded the U.S. Justice Department investigate.

A phone number listed for Gregory McMichael has been disconnected. The Associated Press could not immediately find a phone listing for Travis McMichael.

Jackie Johnson, the district attorney for Glynn County, recused herself from the case because Gregory McMichael worked as an investigator in her office. He retired a year ago.
Gulf economies will see



significant economic revival from next year post COVID-19 pandemic, a former Indian enovy said on Tuesday, asserting that he does not see a scenario where the Indian expatriate communitys presence will be jeopardised in the region.

On reports about a large number of people from the Gulf region seeking to return to India, Talmiz Ahmad, a former Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE, said due to lockdown of airlines, there was a backlog of people who wanted to come back in normal course.

These people included those who have completed their work contract and those who no longer have employment.

"Most of them would have traveled in the normal course. There is no panic departure, no panic return," Ahmad told PTI.

"Next year onwards, with (crude) oil prices stabilising (to around USD 30 per barrel) and global demand stabilising and I think Gulf countries will make every effort to return to business as usual. I do not see any scenario in terms of which Indian communitys presence will be jeopardised, he said.

Ahmad added: Only a small number (of Indian expats) will come back, this year we are already seeing the beginning of the stability in prices, from next year we will see significant revival in the economic activity in the Gulf and therefore I do not envisage any scenario where our peoples presence will be seriously jeopardised.

According to Indian Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Pavan Kapoor, the first two special flights that will operate from Thursday to evacuate Indians stranded in the UAE due to the coronavirus pandemic will begin with applicants from Kerala, who formed the majority of the expatriates who have registered to be repatriated from Dubai.

On Monday, the Centre announced plans to begin a phased repatriation of its citizens stranded abroad from May 7.

"The missions have prioritised the list of passengers and have given it to the Air India. We would call and email each passenger to contact Air India to get their tickets issued. The first two flights on Thursday would be to Kerala, considering the high number of applicants from the state, Kapoor was quoted as saying by the Gulf

He said the priority list includes blue collar workers in distress, people with medical emergencies, including the elderly and pregnant women, and those who have lost jobs, the report added.

Ahmad, a former Additional Secretary for International Cooperation in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, meanwhile, said about two lakh Indians lost their jobs in the UAE in 2009 when global economy crashed leading to sharp fall in the real estate market and very uncertain outlook for the Emirates economy.

According to him, those returning to India from the UAE this time would be in the range of 50,000 to 75,000 in the next three months, including a large number of people who have completed their contracts, whose companies have close down, those coming back for personal reasons and family members of those still working.

He said oil prices had started going down from 2015 and the COVID-19 pandemic has only aggravated the problem.

"Gulf countries have experienced price fluctuations very often. It is not as if the Gulf economies are not familiar with this (low oil prices), said Ahmad, considered an expert on Gulf region.

"Gulf countries have very deep pockets, and they have extraordinary, unique capacity to manage such crises.

Gulf economies have resilience that no other country can match, and they have huge resources available to them, already in their sovereign funds.

"Their credit worthiness globally is very high. So, international organisations are very happy to support their projects, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A former minister for aviation, Fani Kayode says comparing president Muhammadu Buhari to former president Olusegun Obasanjo is like comparing a Count Dracula to Mother Theresa.

Read Also: APC Lauds Atiku Over His Advise To Buhari

Speaking via his official Twitter handle on Tuesday, he went on to highlight why he thinks the duo are incomparable.

He wrote:

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Comparing PMB to OBJ is like comparing Count Dracula to Mother Theresa.

OBJ united Nigeria, PMB divided her. OBJ brought peace, PMB brought war. OBJ brought prosperity, PMB brought poverty. OBJ brought life, PMB brought death. OBJ brought hope, PMB brought despair.

OBJ paid off our foreign debt, Buhari indebted us to the tune of $30 billion and turned us into Africas biggest debtor & beggar. OBJ solved our problems, PMB created them. OBJ brought restoration, PMB brought degeneration. OBJ brought us pride, Buhari brought us shame.

OBJ brought us good success, PMB brought us stark failure. OBJ loved all Nigerians and treated them equally, Buhari loves only northerners and treats all others like field hands and slaves. OBJ saw Nigeria as a nation, PMB sees her as a conquered territory.

OBJ led the best, most successful, most intelligent, most enlightened & most productive cabinet & Govt. in the history of Nigeria whilst PMB leads the worst, most destructive, most savage, most ignorant & most corrupt cabinet & Govt. in the history of Africa.

OBJ fought terror & despised terrorists, PMB rewards terror & pampers terrorists. OBJ was a leader, PMB is a ruler. OBJ was a lion, PMB is a mouse.

Comparing the two is like comparing night & day or chalk & cheese or heaven & hell: it makes absolutely NO sense!

Comparing PMB to OBJ is like comparing Count Dracula to Mother Theresa. OBJ united Nigeria, PMB divided her. OBJ brought peace, PMB brought war. OBJ brought prosperity, PMB brought poverty. OBJ brought life, PMB brought death. OBJ brought hope, PMB brought despair1/4  Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) May 4, 2020

..OBJ paid off our foreign debt, Buhari indebted us to the tune of $30 billion and turned us into Africa's biggest debtor & beggar. OBJ solved our problems, PMB created them. OBJ brought restoration, PMB brought degeneration. OBJ brought us pride, Buhari brought us shame2/4  Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) May 4, 2020

OBJ brought us good success, PMB brought us stark failure. OBJ loved all Nigerians and treated them equally, Buhari loves only northerners and treats all others like field hands and slaves. OBJ saw Nigeria as a nation, PMB sees her as a conquered territory3/4  Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) May 4, 2020

OBJ led the best, most successful, most intelligent, most enlightened & most productive cabinet & Govt. in the history of Nigeria whilst PMB leads the worst, most destructive, most savage, most ignorant & most corrupt cabinet & Govt. in the history of Africa4/5  Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) May 4, 2020
More severe weather will erupt across the southern United States into Tuesday evening after parts of the nation were hammered by back-to-back days of long-lived severe storm complexes. And while forecasters say the thunderstorms will target smaller areas, the dangerous weather could still pack a punch.

This image, taken during the midday hours on Tuesday, May 5, 2020, shows clusters of thunderstorms from northeastern Texas to the Carolinas. (NOAA/GOES-East)

For the second day in a row, severe thunderstorms traveled along a narrow but several-hundred-mile-long corridor of the Central and Southern states on Monday. The complex of severe weather, known as a derecho, hammered eastern Kansas and southern Missouri all the way to northern Georgia with frequent incidents of high winds and power outages along the way. One person was killed when a tree crashed onto a house in Butler, Missouri.

Even though the area covered by severe thunderstorms is expected to be much smaller into Tuesday night compared to storms this past weekend and on Monday, storms can turn severe and unleash dangers from eastern Tennessee to central North Carolina, northern Georgia and northern South Carolina.

"The greatest threats from the storms over the interior South appears to be strong wind gusts of 60 mph and hail the size of quarters or a bit larger," AccuWeather Senior Storm Warning Meteorologist Eddie Walker said. Since a few storms can develop rotation, there will also be the potential for an isolated tornado as well.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP

On the northern edge of the severe thunderstorm threat, thundery downpours can cause the most trouble. "Areas from eastern Kentucky to southern West Virginia and southwestern Virginia can experience enough rainfall in a short period of time to trigger flooding along small streams and in urban areas," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Rob Miller said.

Rainfall in excess of 2 inches is possible in a few hours. The same storem system is forecast to produce a cold rain and some wet snowflakes over the central Appalachians on Wednesday.

Story continues

Farther to the southwest, along an advancing push of cooler air, another cluster of storms could turn severe across southwestern Louisiana to the upper coast of Texas into Tuesday evening. Storms that erupt in the Deep South will unleash the risks of strong wind gusts as well as the potential for flash flooding. As the storms approach the Gulf of Mexico, an isolated waterspout cannot be ruled out along with rough seas and surf.

Later this week, as another storm system moves along the leading edge of even colder air heading to the East, more severe thunderstorms are forecast to erupt over parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas, northern Texas, northern Louisiana and Mississippi. These storms could bring the potential for high winds, flash flooding and large hail.

Widespread chilly air is expected to reduce the risk of violent thunderstorms over much of the eastern half of the U.S. this Mother's Day weekend and into next week. Instead, rounds of storms may focus over part of the Central states, near the boundary between the cold air in the East and hot air in the West.

Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Tuesday that rare but "unusual phenomena" affecting children could be linked to the coronavirus, demonstrating that "we don't understand this virus well."

"It's really a remarkable thing, after so many months with the virus, and so much reporting in the medical literature, we're still learning a lot about it," Gottlieb said on "Squawk Box." "I think the incremental information that we're learning leads us to believe that this is a much more fearsome virus than we perceived perhaps at various points."

Gottlieb's comments came a day after New York City health officials warned of an inflammatory disease impacting 15 children that could possibly be associated with Covid-19. The condition is characterized by persistent fever and was likened to Kawasaki disease and toxic shock syndrome. Children who have had this complication have been admitted into intensive care. There have been no reported deaths among the patients, whose ages range from 2 to 15.

According to the New York City Health Department, four of the children tested positive for Covid-19 through diagnostic testing. Six other children who initially were negative through diagnostic screening later tested positive from an antibody test.

Officials in the United Kingdom last week reported cases of a rare inflammatory condition in children that could be connected to the coronavirus. They said that many, but not all, of the children with symptoms of the condition had Covid-19.

World Health Organization officials have said they are investigating whether there is a link between the inflammatory response and Covid-19.

Gottlieb, former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, noted that reports of the condition have not been widespread. But he pushed back against any suggestion that Covid-19 only impacts older adults or those who have underlying medical conditions.

"There was a notion that this wasn't really affecting kids. It does appear that there are kids being affected by it," said Gottlieb, a CNBC contributor who sits on the boards of Pfizer and biotech company Illumina. "We certainly know that there are children who've been hospitalized and gotten very sick, but now it appears there's some unusual phenomena that are affecting children, not in high numbers."

In New York City, the 15 hospitalizations of patients with illnesses similar to this syndrome were recorded between April 17 and May 1. So far, only severe cases may have been recognized, according to the health department. Less than half of the patients reported respiratory symptoms, the department said. A rash, vomiting, abdominal pain or diarrhea was reported in more than half of patients.

The department stressed the importance of early detection and treatment of children who show these symptoms.
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. Investors are also awaiting March quarter earnings that are scheduled to be released today. Companies set to announce their earnings are Adani Ports, Astec Lifesciences, Tata Coffee, SBI Life, Varun Beverages.

Share Market Update: Sensex, Nifty likely to open higher amid positive global cues, SGX Nifty up 150 points

Key highlights on share market; check the latest stock market news

- On Monday, Sensex closed 2,002 points or 5.94% lower at 31,175 and NSE Nifty lost 566 points or 5.74% to 9,293.

- Rupee closed at 75.71 against the last closing of 75.12 per US dollar.

- On a net basis, FIIs sold Rs 1,374 crore while DIIs also offloaded Rs 1,661.6 crore in equities on Monday's session

Marico Q4: The company reported 50% drop (YoY) in consolidated net profit to Rs 199 crore during the quarter ended March 31, 2020 as against Rs 403 crore, recorded in a year-ago period. Total income fell 7% (YoY) to Rs 1,496 crore in the January- March quarter of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 1,609 crore in the same period last financial year.

Punjab Sind Bank: Company board plans to meet and approve to raise equity capital upto Rs 500 crore through QIP route.

Lupin: The company announced positive top-line results from its pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial to assess efficacy and safety of single-dose Solosec (secnidazole) 2g oral granules in 147 female patients with trichomoniasis.

ICICI Securities: Company board plans to consider Q4, FY2020 results, dividend on May 7, 2020.

5Paisa Capital: Company board plans to approve quarterly results on May 7, 2020.

Dharamsi Morarji Chemical: Company board plans to announce Q4, FY20 results on May 11, 2020.

Shree Cement: Company board to consider Q4, FY2020 results on May 8, 2020

Q4 Earnings: Adani Ports, Astec Lifesciences, Rallis India, NIIT Technologies, Tata Coffee, SBI Life, Varun Beverages will be reporting their March quarterly figures today.
KYODO NEWS - May 5, 2020 - 12:34 | All, Coronavirus, Japan, World

A group of 130 Filipino and other crew members left a cruise ship docked in southwestern Japan for their countries on Tuesday, after they tested negative for coronavirus, Nagasaki's prefectural government said.

The group includes 125 Filipino, according to the local government, which did not disclose the nationality of the others.

A total 149 out of 623 crew members aboard the Costa Atlantica, docked for repairs at a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. plant in Nagasaki city, have tested positive for the virus, some of them hospitalized with severe symptoms. The ship has no passengers.

Of the crew members from more than 30 countries, mostly in Asia, those who tested negative began disembarking Sunday, while some 400 remained aboard.
The Health Ministry says around 1,330 highly skilled oil industry experts will be quarantined in the coming days as they enter the country.

Deputy Health Minister Do Xuan Tuyen said leaders of state-owned oil giant Petrovietnam should make detailed plans about bringing the foreign oil experts into the country so that the health ministry can prepare adequate solutions.

The experts are scheduled to land at Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCMC and will be taken to the neighboring beach town Vung Tau in specialized cars.

"Our goal is to monitor and immediately quarantine foreign experts upon arrival to prevent infection from spreading among the community while still ensuring economic benefits," Tuyen said.

PetroVietnam also said that 74 experts were coming to Vung Tau by sea. However, local authorities have not yet agreed to let these experts go ashore. The 74 guests are still on two offshore rigs.

Earlier, another 270 oil experts had been given entry into the country earlier. Among them, a British oil expert who arrived in HCMC last week to work on a Petrovietnam project was confirmed positive for Covid-19, becoming Vietnams 271st and latest patient.

Vietnam banned all foreign nationals from entering the country starting March 22. In certain cases, as in those with diplomatic or official passports, or coming for special economic projects, are given entry, but they need to present a Covid-19 free certificate from a recognized authority in the country of embarkation.

All persons are put under 14 days of quarantine upon arrival and tested for the coronavirus. One of the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic is that more than 20,000 foreigners, most of them Chinese and South Koreans, have not been able to enter the country to work, according to data released late March by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.

The Health Ministry confirmed zero fresh Covid-19 cases Tuesday evening, keeping the national count at 271 since Sunday evening, with no deaths. Of the total cases so far, 221 have recovered and 39 are still under treatment.
The first such dialogue was held last week when Rahul Gandhi discussed the coronavirus pandemic and its economic implications with former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan.

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's dialogue with Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee on dealing with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis will be aired today as part of his series of deliberations with experts on economy and health.

The Congress party has tweeted a 1.44-minute clip from the conversation which will be aired in full at 9 am today.

Tomorrow at 9 AM, tune in to watch my conversation with Nobel Laureate, Abhijit Banerjee on dealing with the economic fall out of the #COVID19 crisis. To join the conversation & for regular video updates, subscribe to my YouTube channel: https://t.co/4WBysSnKTg  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 4, 2020

The first such dialogue was held last week when Gandhi discussed the coronavirus pandemic and its economic implications with former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan.

Rajan had said India should be "cleverer" in lifting the lockdown and should open up its economy in a "measured way" soon to save jobs.

He had also said that Rs 65,000 crore should be spent to support the poor hit hard by the crisis.
FILE PHOTO: The logo of French oil and gas company Total is seen in a petrol station in Paris

PARIS (Reuters) - Energy major Total has been told by Occidental that it cannot acquire oil and gas assets in Algeria that were part of an $8.8 billion deal reached by the companies on Anadarko's assets in Africa.

"Occidental officially told us that we cannot acquire the Algeria assets," the French company's CEO Patrick Pouyanne told analysts during a conference call after its first quarter 2020 results.

"It releases part of the acquisition budget," Pouyanne said.

As part of its cash-raising to fund its purchase of Anadarko, Occidental agreed with Total that Total would take over some of Anadarko's assets.

The Anadarko assets in are in Algeria, Ghana, Mozambique and South Africa. The deal in Mozambique, which includes a giant LNG project has been concluded.

Algerian authorities had moved to block Total's acquisition of the assets.

Pouyanne told analysts the decision was based on the objection of Algiers, and Occidental will remain as operator unless it can find a way to sell it to Total.

On the assets in Ghana, Pouyanne said things were moving on with the deal, but declined to comment further.

(Reporting by Bate Felix; editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten and Barbara Lewis)
New Delhi: A portion of Shastri Bhavan in Delhi, which houses several important ministries, was on Tuesday (May 5) sealed by authorities, after a senior official tested positive for the coronavirus COVID-19 infection. This is the second government building to have been sealed after NITI AYOG due to the coronavirus in the Lutyen's Delhi within a week.

The fourth floor 'A' wing from gate 1 -3 of the government building has been sealed and is being disinfected. Some gates and lifts will also remain closed till May 6.

According to reports, an official of the Law Ministry housed on the second floor of Shastri Bhavan, tested positive for the virus. The health workers have initiated tracing the immediate contacts of the official. "As per the protocol, the ministry has been sealed for sanitisation. The drill that needs to be followed is being carried out. It is mandatory and for everyone's good," the functionary said.

Earlier on April 28, the NITI Aayog building in the high-security zone was sealed for 48 hours after a director-level officer tested positive for the virus. Before that, Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, CRPF and BSF headquarters have also been sealed.
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Avid star gazers in the southern hemisphere will have a front row seat to the stunning Eta Aquariid meteor shower lighting up the sky tonight.

The meteor shower will peak between 2am and 5am on Wednesday morning, presenting the best time for Australians to catch a glimpse of dozens of shooting stars by facing east.

The Eta Aquariids are created from tiny grains of dust that shed from Halley's comet which flash across the sky every year from the middle of April until the end of May.

Scroll down for video

The Eta Aquariid meteor shower (pictured) will be gracing skies in the southern hemisphere on Wednesday morning, peaking between 2am and 5am

'The dust slams into the atmosphere at 66 kilometres per second, burning up at roughly 100 kilometres altitude, producing meteors, or shooting stars,' Associate Professor Michael Brown, from the Monash School of Physics and Astronomy told 9News.

Professor Brown said the best viewing is from dark skies in the country during clear weather conditions, though, 'city dwellers can still see some of the brighter meteors racing across the sky.'

The Eta Aquariids, named after the constellation Aquarius as they fall from that point in the sky, are visible to the naked eye.

To find the right position there are apps available to locate Aquarius's direction.

According to astrologists, the southern hemisphere is an ideal viewing point as up to 40 meteors can be spotted every hour at their peak compared to only ten in the northern hemisphere.

But those further living west can expect to see slightly more meteors, as the radiant point- the path from which the meteors appear to originate- is higher in the sky before sunrise.

'The best time to observe any meteor shower is after midnight, usually a few hours before dawn, so on the morning of the 5th, look towards the east,' the Sydney Observatory's Melissa Hulbert said.

Astronomers are urging Australians to get out of bed in the middle of the night for the Eta Aquarids and gaze towards the east to catch a glimpse

Renowned for their speed the meteors will be entering the earth's atmosphere at about 238,000km per hour and will leave a trail of glowing debris following them

'This year, Full Moon occurs on the 7th, however the Moon will set at 3.28am in the west on the 5th and twilight doesn't begin until 5.37am, and with Aquarius nicely above the east horizon, conditions should be good for observers.'

To view the Eta Aquarids, Nasa recommends packing a sleeping bag, blanket or lawn chair and heading to an area well away from city or street lights.

'Lie flat on your back with your feet facing east and look up, taking in as much of the sky as possible,' the advice reads.

'After about 30 minutes in the dark, your eyes will adapt and you will begin to see meteors. Be patientthe show will last until dawn, so you have plenty of time to catch a glimpse.'
Intelligence shared between the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand indicates that it's "highly unlikely" the COVID-19 coronavirus originated in a Wuhan, China, laboratory, two officials told CNN on Monday, citing an intelligence assessment.

The countries make up the Five Eyes alliance, and two officials said the nations are uniting around the assessment. One Western diplomat told CNN the intelligence points to the coronavirus outbreak coming from a market in Wuhan, and it's "highly likely it was naturally occurring and that the human infection was from natural human and animal interaction."

Another official said "clearly the market is where it exploded from," but it's not clear how the virus got there. This official noted that each Five Eyes country does keep some intelligence to themselves, and the U.S. might not be sharing everything it knows about the coronavirus.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has claimed there is "enormous evidence" the coronavirus spread as a result of a lab accident, backing up earlier comments made by President Trump. Officials who have examined classified U.S. intelligence reports told The New York Times that several theories are being investigated, and there is no evidence the virus was man-made or genetically modified.

More stories from theweek.com

Adele thanks essential workers, shows off weight loss in return to Instagram

Member of Trump's reopening council warns we'll 'have body bags of businesses' if they remain closed

Jared Kushner put a dozen young volunteers in charge of finding PPE. It went poorly, 1 reports.


This is the moment a Range Rover was smashed to pieces when it spun out of control and crashed into a lamp-post, minutes after being stolen from a nearby street.

The driver is believed to have escaped unscathed from the smash in Purley, south London, in the early hours of Monday.

Shocking footage shows the white vehicle being flung across Brighton Road by the force of the impact before smoke rises from the wreckage.

Pictures from the scene reveal the car's twisted hulk lying on one side of the road, with its engine, bonnet and tyres detached.

Police were called to a car burglary in connecting Smithams Down Road at 3.15am on Monday. A car was found 15 minutes later.

Officers arrested a man but later released him without charge. They are also seeking a second man.

This is the moment a stolen Range Rover slammed into a lamp-post on Brighton road in Purley, south London, in the early hours of Friday morning

The vehicle was shattered in the collision. The driver is believed to have escaped unscathed

The white Range Rover was shattered in the crash and had the front of the vehicle ripped off

CCTV footage shows the luxury car skidding down the road moments before the crash.

Video shot on a mobile phone then shows residents coming out to view the shattered vehicle. Its entire front had been snapped off.

Blue emergency lights are also seen flashing as shouts and yells are heard in the background.

Pictures taken the next morning show the car's bonnet and part of its door lying next to a bus stop while its engine sits outside the frontdoor of a shuttered Post Office.

The main body of the car is seen stationary in a bed of twisted metal, tyres, smashed windows and branches.

The airbags appear to have been deployed as the vehicle responded to the crash.

The engine was also thrown from the vehicle. It is pictured lying outside a post office

The front left side of the vehicle was pulled off in the crash and seen lying next to a bus stop and post box, above

Police arrested a man over the crash but later released him without charge. Officers are still searching for two men

A Met police spokesman said police had initially been called to the area to reports of a car burglary.

'Two men were believed to be involved in the incident and remain outstanding,' they said. 'Enquiries continue to trace them.'

Footage was uploaded to social media with the caption: 'Sheer madness.'

Brighton Road, A23, is a major trunk road connecting south Croydon to the M23, M25 and Brighton.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 17:52:43|Editor: huaxia

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VIENNA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) daily basket price increased to 18.36 U.S. dollars a barrel on Monday, compared with 16.52 dollars on last Friday, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations released on Tuesday.

Also known as the OPEC reference basket of crude oil, the OPEC basket, a weighted average of oil prices from different OPEC members around the world, is used as an important benchmark for crude oil prices. Enditem
Fellow Ghanaians, now that Vice president Dr. Bawumia surfaces from his cocoon to ask us to compare their leadership with that of former President Mahama's, in terms of better management of crisis, the matter is eventually settled between them.

Dr. Bawumia has really answered himself regarding former President Mahama's economic management and the rest of other African countries he compared the Mahama's administration within his multiple economics lectures in the build-up to the 2016 elections.

According to Dr. Bawumia, it was an internally generated crisis, not by President Mahama or his NDC government, but an inheritance from the NPP government under former President Kufuor in which Dr. Bawumia served as a member of the economic management team, that was responsible for Ghana's Dumsor situation under President Mahama.

If that is the case, why did Dr. Bawumia create the impression as if the economic nosedive which was created by Dumsor that the NPP government massaged and couldn't fix while in office at the time, happened as a result of Mahama's incompetence, a problem Mahama actually solved?

Now Dr. Bawumia wants us to compare internal crisis (Dumsor) of four years from 2004 to 2008 that caused economic meltdown, which he gladly compared to economies of other countries in Africa that didn't have same power challenge, to the impact of external crisis (corona virus) which other countries, face!

As for the Dumsor of four years, President Mahama fixed it, why must we compare lip service by Akufo Addo about a crisis (corona virus) of over two months old that continues to escalate, to that of a crisis (Dumsor) that lasted more than eight years?

Undoubtedly, activities of politicians, and for that matter leadership in our dear country, has become unappetizingly flavorless to many observers.

One does not require an Afrobarometer's report to appreciate that majority of Ghanaians have lost great deal of both interest and confidence in our political space over the last four years under the unable stewardship of President Akufo Addo.

Every now and then, Ghanaians rotate their gazes, shake their heads in disbelief, and continue to ventilate their spleen of hopelessness about the manner our collective affairs has been managed with the now disappointing and dissatisfying slogan: "all politicians are the same" chorused.

However, I personally beg to differ on this score. And certainly, majority of Ghanaians are also not subscribers of this political philosophy. We may make mistake to have mistaken "political devils" for "angels" which is normal for any mortal to do, but many Ghanaians never hold the view that all politicians are the same.

They are certainly selfless politicians who are actually concerned about the real growth of their country and what legacy it is that they shall bequeath to the next generation.

And of course, there are the political "useful idiots" and very selfish politicians whose main concerns never bother on the future of the country which they get the chance to govern out of electoral miscarriage.

And I trust in His magnanimity, God would never be that too unkind to Ghanaians and deny us the former group of politicians amidst these "scramble for public treasury" group of leaders, by hook or by crook.

Fellow Ghanaians, with all components of common sense at anybody's command, the discerning among us can certainly tell, from the activities of our leaders, those who are really governing with compassion, positive vision with transparency, probity and accountability (integrity, a moral commodity that has been in short supply in Ghana since 2017).

In my previous articles published on Ghana web, I described president Akufo Addo as probably the most vilified man in Ghana when his claims of being in hurry met forces of the main opposition with every intellectual energy they could lay their hands on. I even asked President Mahama to shelve his second coming ambition because we were made to believe the man is incompetent. God forgive me.

I was dead wrong for supporting the man (Akufo Addo) against President Mahama. For he was in hurry for destruction which I later came to appreciate.

It was not my fault, sometimes one needs to catch a cold or develop a boil on his buttocks in order to appreciate the greatest wealth of health in life.

Fellow Ghanaians, literally, I threw a punch in the air when President Akufo Addo declared the construction of 88 hospitals this year alone, to combat the deadly Covid 19 pandemic. I had to debate myself to reconcile his Finance Minister Hon. Ken Ofori Atta's declaration of this year as a year of roads in that 419 2020 budget presented to the House of Parliament and what the President said, when the government doesn't have the capacity to provide adequate PPE for health workers.

Thus, the President, in the nutshell, vindicated former President Mahama that Ghana really needs infrastructure first and foremost before reckless stomach infrastructure to grow phantom economy. That every reasonable government must pursue it even if it has to compromise the comfort of the citizens.

Exactly what former President John Dramani Mahama envisioned, and determined to pursue which he did and became the greatest villain of our national body polity. But I think the chicken has finally come back home to roost.

Fellow Ghanaians, we were all in this country when the NPP said President Mahama was incompetent because of his vision to invest in infrastructure ranging from building roads to world class Interchanges, etc.;

They badmouthed him because he said it was not sensible to be borrowing money to pay allowances;

They accused him of borrowing too much because of the 40 billion he invested in these infrastructural projects that were definitely going to create jobs upon completion for the teeming graduates, that included hospitals, schools, roads, revamping of factories, Airports, etc.

The NPP even quarrelled with President Mahama's spartan lifestyle, simplicity and sense of prudence for choosing Toyota over BMW; They accused him of corruption which "started since Adam" and yet, corruption under their watch has become a household name today though strongly deodorized and insulated.

Today, after almost four years in government, President Akufo Addo's legacy can be best adjudged as dead on arrival. All his sugarcoated projects he borrowed money on behalf of Ghanaians to undertake, are more scandalous than his largest government itself.

Have you seen the dams?

Fellow Ghanaians, it will only be a courtesy of a gentleman for those of us who really bought into the "incompetent tag" levelled against the former President by then candidate Akufo Addo, because he made infrastructure the building blocks of his government, to sincerely apologize to him by electing him back to office. The wanton borrowing must stop!

Indeed, there were many of us who made a quick U-turn from that deceptive and smear campaign bandwagon led by the government against President Mahama, having realized we were persecuting an innocent man. But I think it is not enough. Let every man who lampooned president Mahama, find the humility to publicly render an unqualified apology to him.

Daddy, we are very sorry. Forgive us this political trespass. You were right. God brought the NPP to power in order to justify your innocence for what they accused you of. And indeed, for Ghanaians to actually judge between real public officials and political gangsters!

If Akufo Addo didn't become President and Dr. Bawumia didn't get to appreciate the difference between organizing streets economics lectures as a running mate, and what it takes to actually marshal a country's economy in the right direction, they both would have had their names inscribed in gold in the pantheon of our national history. Posterity is indeed a just judge.

Personally, it took a political role model to explain to me I was actually fighting a friend and not an enemy. And that, I am yet to experience diarrhea leadership under Akufo Addo to appreciate the leadership of President Mahama. How true he was.

I trust they are many young colleagues of mine out there who are also under this optical illusion of wicked political mudslinging employed by the government to perpetually tarnish the image of former President Mahama because of mere "spoil of office".

Let every youth wake up from their long slumber of NPP's deception to help rescue their future from their self-serving and self-seeking government.

Let no youth of this country buy into their so-called economic growth. It's a gargantuan scam, a world class deception ever propagated, to say the least.

Note that the international community report what they are told to see and report on. They really don't care what constitutes such a silver lining.

And to have a quick and vivid understanding of that lazy man approach to economic management by the NPP, my fellow young Ghanaians should take a look at the national debt stock in 2016 under President Mahama, and how much is it currently?

President Mahama left it at around 122 billion in 2016, from 82 billion when he took over office in 2013.

As of September through November 2019 last year, according to the Bank of Ghana, the national debt stock meandered its way from 122 billion cedis to over 208 billion in less than three years! And this is chiefly the magic that brought about their so-called economic growth.

Space won't allow me to define GDP growth which is responsible for a country's economic growth. However, simply, GDP takes into account all economic output in a country. Hence, economic growth is realized when there's an increase in production of goods and services.

Commonsensically, there won't be increased production of goods and services if there's no money in the system or if money is left sitting in banks without being put to use.

We can infer from the above that if there's distribution of much cash among citizens, likely their purchasing power would have been increased. And once they continue to buy, production has to go up definitely in order to meet the high demand. Payment of services rendered by employees hired to produce more would have gone up as well.

So, here what the one in charge of such a system (government) needs to do is to keep the money flowing to the people so that they would continue to buy so as to increase production of goods and services, and in effect, an economic growth is realized!

The question now is, where or how the government would get the fund, and how rapid and voluminous it would get it?

The two fundamental ways are either through "revenue generation" or borrowing. And a government that finds ways of generating revenue without having to borrow much can claim competence.

In this scenario, the bigger the cash you borrow to govern as a government, the more incompetent you are because anybody can do that.

Between President Mahama and both Akufo Addo and Dr Bawumia put together, who is more incompetent, considering how much they have borrowed and what they have achieved with that money and the relevance of those achievements to the people Ghana?

Remember that Akufo Addo now sees the need to build hospitals. How could a competent president be obsessed with flying drones without hospitals?

Nevertheless, let's assume you the reader has all of a sudden received an amount of 100 million cedis free of charge. Be honest, can't that change your life financially with your bank balances soared, and with relatively quality and expensive clothes, furniture, cars, etc., that would have changed your social class?

But wait a minute. Imagine that money was borrowed. Would you have used it for such things as expensive clothes, furniture, cars, etc. in order to brag?

And with all resources of common sense at your possession, would you reasonably borrow such a huge sum of money to do that if you would be the one to pay it later with dire consequences if you later can't pay?

Now, assuming that money were to be paid by your children and grandchildren, would you still do that for them to pay? And should you be called a good parent if you borrow such a huge sum of money on their behalf in order to amass expensive things with huge bank accounts, merely for people to praise you so that your progeny yet unborn shall settle the debt on your behalf?

Okay. Imagine some natural disaster (corona virus) suddenly strikes and everything amassed out of this borrowed money perished, be honest, would you have still given such a parent the opportunity to further borrow for his vain desires so that you pay the debt later?

Ah, this is the classic example of Ghana under Akufo Addo. Ghana has been led to receive over 86 billion as of September last year, and almost more than over 104 billion cedis, ballooning the national debt profile from 122 to over 220 for you and I to come and pay.

Fellow youngsters, this is the pious-fraud economic growth the NPP government has done and say we should praise it and possibly, allow it another four years to misgovern us. May God forbid!

With almost four years of this mouthwatering economic growth that now collapses in stages due to the pandemic, and President Akufo Addo now sees the need to build 88 hospitals in less than a year, it is only appropriate that Ghanaians find the humility to apologize to former President John Dramani.

Perhaps, who knows, the government may have been punished by God for painting former President Mahama black to us which we actually bought into with alacrity. May God forgive us.

The pandemic has certainly taken us back to square one! It is why the vice President has suddenly appeared from his hideout.

Ladies and gentlemen, they are those who keep asking what at all would President Mahama do again? In the first place, Ghana needs him more than PPE. Secondly, he would come back to lead this country to charter a nobler economic development path that would create opportunities for all, by striking the fine balance between realizing our greater tomorrow (attainment of development status) and increasing the living standard of all citizens today.

We cannot continue to borrow money to grow economies that collapse at the pinpricks of natural disasters because they were grown out of consumption.

Long Live Ghana.

God Bless Incoming President Mahama with the wisdom to lead us out of this Mafia state of affairs.

Abdul Hakeem Iddrisu

(The Young Prof.)

0557762967
A day after thousands of migrant workers took to the streets of Surat demanding that they are allowed to go home, Gujarat government on Tuesday formed a committee to ensure the overall management and coordination for sending back migrant workers from the city to their homes.

Gujarat police on Monday had arrested 204 migrant workers who allegedly stoned policemen demanding that they were allowed to go home. The workers, mainly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, were charged with rioting and attempt to murder after the fourth incident of violence in Surat in the past 23 days.

Secretary to chief minister, Aswani Kumar, said the committee will be headed by the minister of state for health Kishor Kanani, MM Patel, commissioner of municipalities administration and three other officers. The committee will coordinate with regional administrations in Botad, Bhavnagar, Amreli, etc and ensure the safe return of migrant workers from Surat, Kumar said.

He said the state government, had successfully ensured the safe return of 3.25 lakh migrant workers to their homes. These include 42 thousand migrant workers from other states, while the remaining were migrant workers from within the state.

Kumar said, The state government, in coordination with the central government, has successfully sent 42 thousand migrant workers in 35 labourers trains to various states like U.P, Bihar, Odisha, etc. In addition, the state government also provided permission to labourers residing in Surat to return to their native districts. This includes 5,500 workers travelling in-state buses, 1.67 lakh workers in private transport and 1.14 lakh workers through their own vehicles /other private means by the permission of Surat Municipal Corporation. This takes the tally to 3.25 lakh migrant workers.

Around 28,000 migrant workers have been sent to their respective home states through 23 trains in the last three days. These include eight trains from Surat to Odisha and one each to Bihar and Jharkhand. Two trains from Vadodara took the migrants to U.P, three trains from Ahmedabad carried the workers to Bihar, and four trains from Ahmedabad went to UP. Apart from these, one train each from Godhra, Nadiad, Palanpur and Rajkot was sent to UP with the migrant workforce.

Director General of Police (DGP) Shivanand Jha said the migrant workers from various cities must be patient and cooperative as they are in large numbers. If people take the law into their hands, strict actions will be taken against them, said Jha.

Talking about an incident that took place in Surat, the DGP said that 204 people have been arrested under various sections including damage to Public Property Act, Rioting, 304, 120(B).

Meanwhile, the Gujarat Government on Tuesday decided to reduce the fuel surcharge on electricity by Rs. 0.16 paisa per unit, to provide some relief to the industry. As a result of this decision, more than 1.30 crore electricity customers will collectively save approximately Rs. 310-crore, officials said.

Gujarat energy minister Saurabh Patel said that the previous fuel surcharge for the period of January to March 2020 was Rs. 2.06 per unit. It has now been reduced to Rs. 1.90 per unit for the period of April to June 2020. The fuel surcharge has been reduced to pass on the benefit of the Central governments decision to reduce the price of gas, the energy minister said.

The Gujarat government has also received Centres permission to conduct the Solidarity Trial for the Covid-19 virus, state government officials said. The Solidarity Trial will compare four treatment options against the standard of care, to assess their relative effectiveness against Covid-19, the World Health Organization states.

The Centre has given the permission to conduct the Solidarity Trial for the Covid-19 virus at BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad, said Jyanti Ravi, principal secretary (health), adding that the permissions to conduct similar trials at four other colleges are the under process.



Also Read: Covid 19 hotspot Ahmedabads municipal chief self-isolates after contacting patients, vows to rejoin fight

After receiving permission from the Government of India, the registration process for conducting the trials on Covid-19 patients has begun at the BJ Medical College.

These four medicines are Remdesivir, Lopinavir, Interferon (beta 1 a) and hydroxychloroquine or Chloroquine. As a result of these experiments, an effective and proper medicine for the treatment of Covid-19 will be found quickly. Not only this, but it will also enhance the probability of faster recovery of the infected patients, Ravi added.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, 441 more coronavirus cases have been reported in the state. According to health bulletin of the state government, total infections in state have reached 6,245 and 368 people have died.

For Coronavirus Live Updates
The Governor of Kano state, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has appointed Alhaji Kabiru Mohammed Inuwa, the district head of Kibiya, as the new Emir of Rano.

Read Also: BREAKING: Emir Of Rano Dies After He Was Hospitalised

The appointment comes barely four days after the death of the previous first class Emir.

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Inuwa, before his latest appointment, was the District Head of Kibiya in Kano State.

He succeeds the late Emir Tafida Abubakar Ila, who died on Saturday in Kano at the age of 74.

The late emir died after battling with an undisclosed ailment.

Ila was reportedly rushed to the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital in a critical condition and was later referred to the Nasarawa Specialist Hospital before he gave up the ghost.
BUCHAREST, Romania - The European Court of Human Rights said Tuesday that Romania violated the right to a fair trial and the right to free speech of the former head of the countrys anti-corruption office, who has since become the European Unions first chief prosecutor.

The court based in Strasbourg, France, found in its unanimous ruling that there had been no way for Laura Codruta Kovesi, who was fired in July 2018, to make a court claim against her removal from office, while her freedom of expression was violated because of her dismissal for criticizing the governments anti-corruption legislation.

The ECHR also found that Kovesis firing may have had wide-ranging repercussions within Romanias judicial system.

It appeared that her premature removal had defeated the very purpose of maintaining judicial independence and must have had a chilling effect on her and other prosecutors and judges in taking part in public debate on legislative reforms affecting the judiciary and judicial independence, the court said.

While ruling in her favour, the court did not award Kovesi any monetary compensation as she had not asked for any.

Kovesi said the ECHR ruling would help strengthen judicial independence across the continent.

We all know that my dismissal was part of an intimidation campaign against the justice system, in an attempt to discourage the fight against corruption, Kovesi told Romanian news channel Realitatea Plus. This ruling by the ECHR strengthens the position of all European magistrates, defending them from discretionary political interference.

Kovesi spent five years as the head of the Romanian Anti-corruption Directorate, achieving remarkable results. Those indicted included 14 Cabinet members, 53 lawmakers and a Romanian member of the European Parliament. In Romania, her removal was seen as political retaliation for her departments successes.

Her dismissal initiated by the since-ousted Social Democratic government 10 months before her second three-year term was set to end in May 2019 was widely criticized both domestically and abroad and only served to heighten Kovesis reputation.

President Klaus Iohannis, who had fired Kovesi on orders of Romanias constitutional Court, said the ECHR decision could not remain without consequences.

The credibility of the constitutional Court, already affected by some controversial decisions over the past few years, is now even more seriously shaken, Iohannis said in a televised statement. The decision by ECHR shows us that this institution needs to be reformed at the constitutional level.

In October 2019, Kovesi was named to lead the EU Public Prosecutors Office, which has been joined by 22 of the 27 EU member states and is scheduled to begin operating in November 2020.

Its main task will be to investigate fraud connected to the use of EU funds and other financial crimes. Romania, Poland and Hungary are among the EU countries which did not join the office.
Rishi Kapoor's wife and actor Neetu Kapoor has expressed gratitude towards the people who stood by the Kapoor family during the treatment of Rishi. In an Instagram post, Neetu has thanked the Ambani family for all the support they gave during Rishi's illness.

While calling it 'immeasurable love and support', Neetu has penned down a post alongside a picture of Mukesh and Nita Ambani. She thanked the Ambanis for the countless ways in which they stood beside the Kapoor family.

"For us, as a family, the last two years have been a long journey. There were good days, there were a couple of bad days too.. needless to say it was full of high emotion. But its a journey we would not have been been able to complete without the immeasurable love and support of the Ambani family," she wrote.

Neetu also mentioned how over the last seven months every member of the Ambani family went "above and beyond in every way possible" to care for Rishi and "ensure he experienced as little discomfort as possible".

"From ensuring he was medically attended to, to making frequent, personal visits to the hospital to shower him with love and attention, to even holding our hand and comforting us when WE were scared," she wrote, adding, "To Mukesh Bhai, Nita Bhabhi, Akash, Shloka, Anant and Isha - you have been our guardian angels on this long and trying experience - what we feel for you can not be measured. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your selfless, unending support and attention. We feel truly blessed to count you among our nearest and dearest."

Rishi Kapoor breathed his last on April 30 after two long years of battle with leukaemia. Followed by a prayer meet at the Kapoor residence, his ashes were immersed in Mumbai's Banganga tank on Sunday.

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Greece's prime minister says it appears absolutely feasible for restaurants and cafes to reopen on June 1 if the coronavirus outbreak keeps slowing.

On Monday, Greece reported two deaths and six confirmed infections, bringing the total death toll to 146, with confirmed infections at 2,632.

Greece began easing its lockdown measures on Monday, with the opening of a limited number of retail businesses, such as beauty salons and bookshops, and people allowed to leave their homes.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis held a video conference with several cabinet members Tuesday to discuss how to reopen the restaurant and caf sector while maintaining social distancing regulations. One possibility was increasing the outdoor space for tables and chairs.

Greece imposed a lockdown early on in its coronavirus outbreak, a move credited with containing the number of deaths.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
OTTAWACanadas health research granting agency has postponed its usual funding competition due to COVID-19, sparking concern the lack of money could disrupt regular health research.

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research put off its regular $275 million competition this spring to focus on delivering federal grants related to the novel coronavirus.

Researchers rely on that funding, and Dr. Tarik Moroy, president of the Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences, said the delay is likely to disrupt vital work on other health conditions.

He told the House of Commons health committee last week that Canada is the only country that had a major national health research funding agency cancel its grants during the crisis.

He acknowledged that Canada was quick to mobilize funds for research related to COVID-19, but worries about the long-term impacts.

We worry that this is at the expense of other health research that then will still be necessary after the pandemic is over, Moroy told the committee.

The CIHR says delaying the competition was a difficult decision, and that Moroy has a point about the effect delaying funds could have on researchers.

That competition ran twice a year like clockwork for 15 years, said Adrian Mota, the associate vice-president of research at the granting agency.

Cancelling the competition has an important impact on people who are trying to get their research going, theyre trying to maintain their lab. They lose that opportunity for four to six months.

For people who rely on grants to pay their staff, losing out on the money could have a big impact, he said. Losing staff is especially difficult because they often have specialized skills, and it can be hard to get them back. That will mean training someone new when the funds finally become available again, Mota said.

Mota said all that was weighed against the challenges of trying to move ahead during the pandemic, he said.

CIHR has been one of several granting agencies trying to quickly deliver funding to researchers who are working to better understand COVID-19, its impact and possible treatments. Mota expects the federal agencies to give a total of about $200 million in COVID-19 grants.

On top of that new workload, staff have had to figure out how to work from home, Mota said.

While the United States and Australia were able to handle their competitions remotely, CIHR worried that putting together evaluation panels of 20 to 30 scientists would be impossible, given they have little experience carrying out the process virtually.

Instead, it has put $31 million into trying to mitigate the impacts on researchers whose grants are set to expire.

Admittedly, youre never going to be able to capture all the cases, Mota said.

The rest of the grant money that was supposed to be allocated this spring will be added to future funding competitions.

CIHR said it is committed to moving ahead with the next one, scheduled in the fall, even if it has to evaluate applications remotely.
A Sioux Falls meatpacking plant was forced to close when it became the epicenter of COVID-19 in South Dakota. Three weeks after executives from its Chinese owner, WH Group, visited the plant, a month after President Trump's ban on travel from China, nearly 600 of Smithfield Foods' 3,700 employees tested positive for the virus, as have 135 additional people in close contact with employees.

Smithfield Foods was started in 1936 by a family in Virginia. Today, the Chinese own Armour and the famous Smithfield hams, together with the most quintessential American brand of all: Nathan's Famous hot dogs, with its iconic annual eating contest.

In 2013, Smithfield Foods was bought by the Shanghui Group, later rebranded as the WH Group, for $4.7 billion. It remains the largest total acquisition of a U.S. company by the Chinese. With that purchase, the Chinese owned one in four pigs raised in the U.S. and, by adding 146,000 acres, continued to be the world's largest buyer of American farmland.

The purchase was underwritten with a $4-billion Bank of China loan facilitated by the Chinese Communist Party. The deal was an integral part of the CCP's 2011 five-year plan to improve the Chinese economy with purchases of overseas farmland and food processing companies. Food is poised to become the oil of the 21st century, with demand increasing for a scarce resource. The CCP identified meat processing as a strategically important industry, and, with the Smithfield acquisition, China gained access to the world's most advanced animal processing technology. Former Smithfield CEO Larry Pope said, "In many respects, this is carrying out the (Chinese) government's five-year plan, which is to improve the quality and the security of their food supply."

The Chinese consume half of the world's pork production. Pork supply is so important to them that, just as the U.S. government maintains a strategic oil reserve, China stashes away vast amounts of frozen pork in case of shortages, outbreaks of swine disease, or war. Smithfield has retooled to give greater focus to the China market. "Down the road, if this continues and we ship a lot of product to China, certainly I think we (in America) could see shortages, particularly on hams and bellies," admitted Smithfield's director of procurement.

Smithfield is run by Wan Long, a former foot soldier in Mao Zedong's army. WH Group is the world's largest producer of packaged meats. Wan's path to dominance was cleared by Li Keqiang, now a member of the CCP's Politburo Standing Committee, the party's supreme leadership circle.

Here is why you should care.

For decades, China has been fighting a stealth war against us with the objective of replacing America as the dominant world power. "The removal of the United States as what they call the hegemon is the most important thing" to them, according to China expert Michael Pillsbury. The Chinese would prefer to win a 21st-century war involving acquisitions of strategic industries like food and communications over a traditional military conflict.

In an article in the Atlantic, H.R. McMaster, President Trump's former national security adviser, notes that Chinese president Xi Jinping told Trump in 2017 that the CCP is relentlessly pursuing the "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation"  the "China dream." McMaster relates a conversation with Li Keqiang, who indicates that the U.S. role in the future global economy will be "to provide China with raw materials, agricultural products, and energy to fuel its production of the world's cutting-edge industrial and consumer products."

According to McMaster, China's leaders believe they have a narrow window of opportunity to revise the international order in their favor before other countries realize that the party is pursuing national rejuvenation at their expense.

Our response to the coronavirus pandemic has been severely impacted by Chinese control over the manufacturing of strategic pharmaceuticals and essential personal protective equipment  masks, surgical gowns, and gloves. This should be the shot across our bow. The Smithfield story is another reminder that Beijing's economic grab is strategic and goes far beyond drugs and medical supplies. Chinese ownership of our essential food producers generates a similar vulnerability to our national security.

It's time to counter the "China dream" with an American wakeup call. The alarm is ringing.

Ziva Dahl is a senior fellow with the news and public policy group Haym Salomon Center.
By Maximilian Heath

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine biodiesel exports have ground to a complete halt due to the coronavirus pandemic hammering demand in Europe, the head of the local industry chamber told Reuters.

Last year, biodiesel exports amounted to around 1 million tonnes worth $775 million (623 million pounds). The top destination was the European Union, which has quotas for blending petrol with biodiesel. The drop in fuel consumption there during the pandemic has paralysed the Argentine biodiesel industry, which has generated up to around $1.7 billion in yearly revenue.

"Currently the export industry is stopped," said Luis Zubizarreta, head of the Argentine biofuels chamber (CARBIO), which includes grains trading giants like Bunge and Cargill.

"Today our only market is Europe and second quarter exports to Europe are totally stopped."

Zubizarreta said export biodiesel plants in the country are currently inactive, and that due to the stoppage there will be a soybean oil surplus in Argentina this year.

The country is one of the world's top biodiesel exporters and the No. 1 supplier of soybean oil, which is used to make the fuel. Soy is Argentina's main cash crop and the suspension comes at the height of soy harvesting season on the Pampas farm belt.

According to data from the state statistics agency, last year Argentina exported about 1 million tonnes of biodiesel, which went almost entirely to the European bloc.

"Next quarter will surely be complicated by low fuel demand. Today the exporting industry is 100% stopped," said Zubizarreta, adding that a reopening of the U.S. market for Argentine biodiesel would hopefully ease the situation.

Argentina is waiting for the United States to review anti-dumping tariffs that Washington applied in 2017 to imports of Argentine biodiesel, which closed the U.S. market to the South American country. Zubizarreta pointed out that the pandemic has slowed that review down as well.

(Reporting by Maximilian Heath, writing by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by David Gregorio)
After people gathered en masse in San Franciscos Dolores Park to enjoy sunshine and fresh air this weekend, Mayor London Breed threatened to close the large, popular park if crowding continues.

City officials are beginning to lift restrictions and open some outdoor businesses and recreation, but on Monday during a news conference, Breed and other city leaders stressed that it is not the time to let up on social distancing measures as San Francisco works to fend off the coronavirus.

Dolores continues to be a real challenge because we know that on nice days, that is the place to be for many folks, Breed said. Were all adults here. Theres no reason we should have to send in any of our law enforcement to tell people what they should already be doing.

San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said in Dolores and other parks around the city, people are gathering for picnics in large groups with people from different households.

Nows not the time to have large picnics (or) large gatherings, even though the weather is great and everyone is anxious about being in the house. We have to stay the course and listen to the advice of medical professionals, he said.

On Monday afternoon, people stretched out to sunbathe, chatted with friends and read or worked on blankets at the park, but it was much less crowded than it was during the weekend. For the most part, people sat in twos or threes with ample grassy space between them.

Two groups of San Francisco police officers patrolled the park, approaching various groups  especially louder and larger ones  to tell them to space out and maintain social distancing. One officer said they had no issues and were simply monitoring.

Neel Iyer and Oshi Jain sat on a patch of grass with coffees and laptops open. They said they had avoided the park on weekends, and chose to come during a quieter time instead to get some work done in the sunshine.

You would like for this to be open, Iyer said, but added that public health is most important. If this place is really getting crowded, I guess Id understand (if it closes).

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.

Julian Wallace tossed a bright orange ball for his dog to chase. He lives across the street and brings his dog to the park between work meetings so they both can get some air and exercise. Hed be disappointed if it closed.

What is the point of doing it now? Wallace said, adding that he thinks enforcement and compliance would be difficult. People are going to get really pissed off.

Dominic Fracassa contributed to this report.

Anna Bauman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: anna.bauman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @abauman2
Sixty children and youth organisations have come together to deliver a resounding call for the retention of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in the next Government following unconfirmed reports that the Department may not survive in the new Government configuration.

We are deeply concerned about reports that the Department of Children and Youth Affairs may be carved up in the next government, said Tanya Ward, Chief Executive of the Childrens Rights Alliance. We have been in this position before. We know that when responsibility and accountability are fragmented between departments, so too are the services and supports for children and young people. The Covid19 pandemic will have serious repercussions for our society. Children and young people will have been out of education for six months. Were facing serious levels of child poverty, school disengagement and drop out and a potential explosion on child protection cases once services operate normally again. Without a Minister for children at the Cabinet table, were concerned that the recovery will be too focused on the economy and not on those most vulnerable and most need of support. The needs of children and young people cannot come last.

The Alliance along with sixty of its member organisations has written to all negotiating parties to call for the retention of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

During the General Election period, we fought hard with our members to get children and young people on the agenda. Their voice was heard loud and clear when it came to results on the day. They are demanding more, and they deserve more, from the next Government. This starts with keeping their seat at the table. This is a red line issue for us and our members. A policy framework that commits to Supporting Young Ireland is worth nothing if we remove the Minister and Department that enables young people to have a voice in political discussions, continued Tanya Ward.

Speaking on the importance of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, Chief Executive of Barnardos, Suzanne Connolly said, When we advocated for the creation of a Minister and Department for Children, our vision was that children would not just have their voices heard at Cabinet level, but that childrens needs and best interests would shape the policies which affected their lives. To close the Department would send a signal that we do not listen to children, we do not value children and we do not protect children to the same extent we do adults. Systems do not care about children, people do. We must not forget how systems have failed children in Ireland in the past.

Chief Executive of the ISPCC Childline, John Church, emphasised the need to protect and support the Department of Children and Youth Affairs as we slowly emerge out of the public health crisis we are experiencing stating, A quarter of Irelands population are under the age of 18. They experience challenges unique to their age and developmental stage. In recent weeks, many have told Childline how they are experiencing abuse, mental health difficulties, self-harm, suicide ideation and other issues at this time. They will need dedicated support in the wake of these Adverse Childhood Experiences, as Ireland re-builds. The work of the Department of the Children and Youth Affairs is critical to safeguarding children's futures and ensuring that children's voices are heard, now and at all times. It is imperative that a dedicated Department of Children and Youth Affairs, with a full Ministerial portfolio at cabinet level, is protected and retained in the next government. Anything less would be to significantly fail Irish children, Irish society and Ireland's future."

Teresa Heeney, Chief Executive of Early Childhood Ireland, stated The Department of Children and Youth Affairs plays a pivotal role in co-ordinating the First 5 strategy, Irelands first ever strategy for young children until 2028. It leads its comprehensive, whole-of-government implementation. It is critical that this continues and only a full department will be able to do this effectively. Having taken the important step to bring this national strategy to fruition, its dilution by the next government will set back Irelands provision for families with young children by decades.

The establishment of the Department for Children and Young Affairs in 2011 and the appointment of the first ever cabinet level Minister, was a significant development. After several damning reports and inquiries which demonstrated that since the foundation of the State that the needs, concerns and voice of children and young people were too often forgotten and ignored in Government, the Department was a demonstration that the State valued children and young people and was at last willing to address their needs and concerns in a coordinated manner across Government. The proposal that the Department now may be dismantled and its functions be cast to the four winds is a betrayal of this generation of children and young people and must be rejected, concluded Mary Cunningham, CEO of the National Youth Council of Ireland
- President Magufuli said his government would do all it can to protect its citizens but expressed doubt on the number of COVID-19 cases in Tanzania

- The CCM leader said the high number of cases could be attributed to faulty testing kits after a goat and a pawpaw tested positive for the disease

- Madagascan president Andry Rajoelina said the "herbal medicine" made in his country would be availed to all coronavirus patients in all friendly countries across the African continent

Tanzanian president John Pombe Magufuli has said his country will import Madagascar's herbal tea, named COVID-Organics (CVO), which has been touted as a cure for coronavirus.

Magufuli who has been widely criticised over his handling of the pandemic as cases continued to soar in Tanzania, said he would dispatch a plane to collect the medicine.

READ ALSO: Defence council approves 7 military officers to join Nairobi Metropolitan Services

Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli. Photo: John Magufuli.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Nyandarua family resorts to using cartons, sacks as face masks

In a viral video seen by TUKO.co.ke, Magufuli expressed doubt on the number of COVID-19 cases in the country but said his government will all do its can to ensure safety of its citizens.

"I am communicating with Madagascar, and they have already written a letter saying they have discovered some medicine. We will dispatch a flight to bring the medicine so that Tanzanians can also benefit. So as the government we are working day and night," he said.

The herbal medicine developed by Malagasy Institute of Applied Research contains Artemisia- a plant on the Island used in the fight against malaria.

Madagascan President Andry Rajoelina said the "herbal medicine" would be availed to all coronavirus patients in all friendly countries across the African continent and the around the world.

"Madagascar and its African brothers are united in the response to the coronavirus. It is with honor that we send these CVO herbal teas to the 15 member countries of ECOWAS through Guinea Bissau," "

"Madagascar will make Tambavy CVO available to all coronavirus patients in all friendly countries in Africa, in the Indian Ocean and around the world," he said on his Instagram page.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), however, said there was no proof the herbal tea could cure the disease, warning against the widespread use of untested remedies.

Tanzania had confirmed 480 cases of the virus as of Tuesday, May 5 with 167 recoveries and 18 death but Magufuli said business would continue as usual in the country.

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.

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Source: TUKO.co.ke
This article is written for those who want to get better at using price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). We'll apply a basic P/E ratio analysis to Bank of Qingdao Co., Ltd.'s (HKG:3866), to help you decide if the stock is worth further research. Based on the last twelve months, Bank of Qingdao's P/E ratio is 11.99. In other words, at today's prices, investors are paying HK$11.99 for every HK$1 in prior year profit.

View our latest analysis for Bank of Qingdao

How Do I Calculate Bank of Qingdao's Price To Earnings Ratio?

The formula for P/E is:

Price to Earnings Ratio = Share Price (in reporting currency)  Earnings per Share (EPS)

Or for Bank of Qingdao:

P/E of 11.99 = CN4.755  CN0.396 (Based on the year to March 2020.)

(Note: the above calculation uses the share price in the reporting currency, namely CNY and the calculation results may not be precise due to rounding.)

Is A High Price-to-Earnings Ratio Good?

The higher the P/E ratio, the higher the price tag of a business, relative to its trailing earnings. All else being equal, it's better to pay a low price -- but as Warren Buffett said, 'It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price'.

Does Bank of Qingdao Have A Relatively High Or Low P/E For Its Industry?

One good way to get a quick read on what market participants expect of a company is to look at its P/E ratio. The image below shows that Bank of Qingdao has a higher P/E than the average (5.3) P/E for companies in the banks industry.

SEHK:3866 Price Estimation Relative to Market May 5th 2020

That means that the market expects Bank of Qingdao will outperform other companies in its industry. Shareholders are clearly optimistic, but the future is always uncertain. So further research is always essential. I often monitor director buying and selling.

How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios

Companies that shrink earnings per share quickly will rapidly decrease the 'E' in the equation. Therefore, even if you pay a low multiple of earnings now, that multiple will become higher in the future. So while a stock may look cheap based on past earnings, it could be expensive based on future earnings.

Story continues

Bank of Qingdao's earnings per share grew by 3.0% in the last twelve months. But earnings per share are down 7.7% per year over the last five years.

Remember: P/E Ratios Don't Consider The Balance Sheet

Don't forget that the P/E ratio considers market capitalization. That means it doesn't take debt or cash into account. The exact same company would hypothetically deserve a higher P/E ratio if it had a strong balance sheet, than if it had a weak one with lots of debt, because a cashed up company can spend on growth.

Spending on growth might be good or bad a few years later, but the point is that the P/E ratio does not account for the option (or lack thereof).

So What Does Bank of Qingdao's Balance Sheet Tell Us?

Bank of Qingdao has net cash of CN8.6b. This is fairly high at 39% of its market capitalization. That might mean balance sheet strength is important to the business, but should also help push the P/E a bit higher than it would otherwise be.

The Bottom Line On Bank of Qingdao's P/E Ratio

Bank of Qingdao's P/E is 12.0 which is above average (9.3) in its market. Earnings improved over the last year. Also positive, the relatively strong balance sheet will allow for investment in growth -- and the P/E indicates shareholders that will happen!

Investors should be looking to buy stocks that the market is wrong about. As value investor Benjamin Graham famously said, 'In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine. Although we don't have analyst forecasts you might want to assess this data-rich visualization of earnings, revenue and cash flow.

Of course you might be able to find a better stock than Bank of Qingdao. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have grown earnings strongly.

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.
[May 04, 2020] AdvaMed Announces VentConnect Online Platform to Scale the Production and Distribution of Ventilators

As part of the medical technology industry's multi-front battle to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, today the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) announced the launch of a new platform (www.VentConnect.org) to connect ventilator companies with component suppliers to help quickly scale production and distribution of these vital devices. The new platform was developed pro bono with the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), Google (News - Alert), and other industry alliances and partners. AIA represents more than 300 high-tech manufacturers and suppliers of all sizes across a range of sectors. AdvaMed is the world's largest medical technology association, representing more than 400 companies, including ventilator manufacturers. In addition to AIA members, more than 50 companies - such as Stanley Black & Decker (News - Alert), and Arrow Electronics - from a range of industries are contributing as suppliers to VentConnect. Scott Whitaker, AdvaMed President and CEO, said: "The medical technology industry is stepping up to meet the unprecedented demand from hospitals and patients across the country for ventilators. Our companies have added shifts, started new production lines, and hired new workers so that soon our capacity will be tenfold what it was before the pandemic. But to keep producing these life-saving devices, our member companies need a steady stream of key components from beyond the normal supply chain, and that's where this new online platform developed with the AIA and Google will be of tremendous value. We thank the Aerospace Industries Association for their creativity in striking up this collaboration - and we thank Google for so generously offering to build this valuable, powerful resource pro bono."



Eric Fanning, President and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association, praised the alliance: "Unprecedented challenges offer unique opportunities to think outside the box, to harness ingenuity and innovation for the greater good, and this partnership is a prime example. Working hand-in-hand, across multiple dynamic industries will not only help meet the increased demand for ventilators, it can also serve as a model for strategic collaboration in the future." ResMed CEO Mick Farrell said: "This site is a valuable digital platform to support the race against time for patients worldwide who need invasive ventilators, non-invasive ventilators, including bilevels, as well as ventilation masks, and accessories. Every parts and component manufacturer large and small that can contribute more efficiently to this effort will help us all save more lives faster."

Jonathan Rennert, CEO of ZOLL Medical Corporation said: "In just one month, ZOLL quintupled our production of ventilators, on the way to a 25-fold overall increase, to meet the demands of this global crisis. This rapid mobilization to save lives puts tremendous strain on the supply chain, so the ability to safely, securely, and quickly find and communicate with qualified suppliers through VentConnect is a game changer - and it will help save lives." Tim Hatch, Chief Technology Officer of Stanley Black & Decker, said: "As part of Stanley Black & Decker's response to the COVID-19 outbreak, we are honored to collaborate with AdvaMed and AIA on the VentConnect.org website as we strive to leverage our global manufacturing and supply chain to help companies produce critical ventilators, respirators and other medical devices to support our nation's citizens and to protect our brave medical professionals." Ventilator manufacturers can sign up on the VentConnect site and create secure spreadsheets identifying parts and components that are in short supply. Suppliers wishing to help complete a brief application on their company's capacity and materials. Manufacturers can review supplier applications and decide whether to share their supply list needs. The manufacturer and supplier can then separately choose whether to enter an agreement to provide the needed materials. While the immediate objective of the new platform is to support the production of ventilators and vent-critical devices that may have parts and materials constraints, the platform - VentConnect.org - may serve to address additional challenges that may arise related to ventilator logistics, distribution, or other operational needs. AdvaMed member companies produce the medical devices, diagnostic products and health information systems that are transforming health care through earlier disease detection, less invasive procedures and more effective treatments. AdvaMed members range from the largest to the smallest medical technology innovators and companies. For more information, visit www.advamed.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200504005790/en/

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WASHINGTON  Amid a concerted push to blame China for the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration has issued an intelligence analysis claiming China purposely delayed notifying the World Health Organization about the spread of the contagion in order to stockpile medical equipment, according to two recent government documents obtained by Yahoo News.

The analysis, which some former officials and experts are questioning based on its limited methodology, relies exclusively on trade data to draw its conclusions.

In recent weeks, President Trump and some of his top allies have been pushing a theory being investigated by the intelligence community that the virus originated from a Chinese lab in Wuhan, rather than from a wet market, where exotic wildlife is sold. I can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview with ABC on Sunday.

A worker sorts masks at Wuhan Zonsen Medical Products Co. (Ng Han Guan/AP)

Just two days before that interview, analysts at the Department of Homeland Security citing a new analytic technique concluded that China had, in fact, concealed the spread of the coronavirus in order to hoard medical supplies. Specifically, they looked at Chinese imports and exports of medical equipment, ranging from surgical face masks to ventilators, from October 2019 to February 2020, and then compared that data with statistics from the prior five years.

We assess the Chinese Government intentionally concealed the severity of COVID-19 from the international community in early January while it stockpiled medical supplies by both increasing imports and decreasing exports, the analysts wrote in the document, dated May 1. We further assess the Chinese Government attempted to hide its actions by denying there were export restrictions and obfuscating and delaying provision of its trade data.

An accompanying reference aid, issued the same day as that report, reviews the trade data in more detail, citing the increase and decrease of exports and imports of specific medical equipment.

Story continues

Both documents are unclassified but marked for official use only. ABC first reported the existence of the intelligence document. Yahoo obtained it and the accompanying reference aid and is publishing them in full.

New Analytic Technique by Sharon Weinberger on Scribd

Nate Snyder, who served as a DHS counterterrorism official during the Obama administration, questioned the purpose of the document, which he called ridiculous.

We know through the intelligence community this was bad, that China was likely downplaying the severity of it, and was attempting to mitigate it themselves quietly, Snyder said. Yet we ignored that and all the intel and indicators. So Im not sure what this product is trying to prove aside from finding convenient open sources to point the finger further at China.

Snyder was particularly critical of the accompanying reference aid, which includes some of the data DHS uses to back up its claims.

This thing really isnt deeply cited, said Snyder, who worked on similar reference aids during his time at DHS. He noted that the sources cited by the reference aid include a local Maine news site and a blog entry posted by a commercial company.

Snyder said this type of document would be shared throughout the intelligence community and with senior policymakers. The significance of it is now that its out there as a reference point, it can be cited and used in synopsis or arguments within the intelligence community now that its got the stamp of approval, he said. This is considered an official source.

Among the examples DHS cites is a 200 percent increase in imports of surgical facial masks in January and February 2020, and then a nearly 50 percent decrease in exports in February. For ventilators, DHS reports that China increased its imports by 54 percent in February and decreased exports of the devices by 45 percent.

Employees of a railway equipment manufacturing company in Nanchang, China, work on a production line of surgical masks for export on April 8. (China Daily via Reuters)

Daniel Hoffman, a retired CIA senior intelligence officer, warned against drawing immediate conclusions about a DHS report based on trade data alone.

Id rather hear the [intelligence communitys] analytical judgment, with a low, medium or high level of confidence, he said. Its trade data. Thats not going to answer the question of Chinas strategic intent. You need a human source who says this is connected, who can potentially prove intent.

Hoffman highlighted the challenge of accurately collecting the data on which DHS was relying, given that China has a history of providing unreliable numbers. China is a ruthless dictatorship, with a long history of not revealing the truth, he said.

It is unclear precisely what data DHS relied on for the report, since it cites an unspecified commercial vendor as the source for data, but says it has high confidence in the conclusions about exports and imports.

This assessment is based on a commercial service that collates world trade data, the reference aid says. The data is highly reliable because official U.S. trade data shows similar patterns to the world trade data from the commercial service.

Joshua Meltzer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who specializes in trade policy, was less critical of the data but warned against drawing too sharp a conclusion. It doesnt tell you what is going on; it does support the theory of the case that they were stockpiling, he said.

Its going to give you supporting data for the theory, he said. I dont know if its going to be conclusive. It does raise a red flag.

Trade Data on China and Med... by Sharon Weinberger on Scribd

In the reports, DHS says it has moderate confidence in its assessment, which it says also considers the effects of U.S. tariffs that could have also contributed to a decline in exports from China to the United States earlier this year. DHS did not respond to a request for comment.

Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert Spalding said the DHS report likely doesnt change what the U.S. government already knows about Chinas concealment. I think you can already draw conclusions already based on the timeline of what we know to be true, he said, pointing to Chinas delays in shutting down international travel and informing the WHO on human transmission of coronavirus.

You don't even need the DHS report to know this was obfuscated on purpose by the Chinese Communist Party, he said.

Spalding, now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and the author of Stealth War: How China Took Over While America's Elite Slept, points to open source information from January that showed China was hoarding personal protective equipment. You can look at the records, on social media, you can see pictures of pallets and equipment that essentially have been stockpiled by Chinese companies, he said.

The trade data is another fact in the overall understanding of what they did, he said. Its additive  its not required to make a determination.

Hoffman, the former CIA official, says that regardless of the report, Chinas efforts to withhold critical information about coronavirus are not in doubt.

At the end of the day, China saw more value in concealing than in sharing information and revealing they had a problem which was going to impact the rest of the world, he said. They should have requested partnership rather than lying.

_____

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.

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WINNIPEGThe Manitoba government said Monday it has identified non-essential public-sector jobs that can be temporarily cut to free up money for the fight against COVID-19.

It did not provide details on how many jobs that would involve, which workers would be affected, or how many employees might get to share jobs instead of being laid off until the pandemic ends.

We hope to continue to work with the unions to avoid layoffs. (Public-sector) employers have other options to explore, such as voluntary reduced work weeks and work-sharing options, Finance Minister Scott Fielding said.

The Progressive Conservative government is expecting the COVID crisis to be a $5-billion hit to the budget  a combination of increased health-care costs and reduced tax revenues from a slumping economy.

Last month, the government asked public-sector workers to consider accepting reduced work weeks and job-sharing to help control spending, or face layoffs.

Shortly after that, the government ordered universities, Crown corporations and other public agencies to map out three scenarios for cutting their labour costs between now and September  by 10, 20 and 30 per cent.

Fielding said the government ended up with an average reduction that will save 2.2 per cent in labour costs. But that is over the full fiscal year  not just the four-month temporary reduction period.

The percentage also varies greatly between each public body, he added.

The provinces Crown corporations, for example, are to see cuts that amount to an 11.2 per cent saving over the full year, Fielding said. Much of that is linked to Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries, which operates two casinos that have been shut down by the pandemic.

School divisions and universities are to see labour-cost cuts of about 1.3 per cent.

Fielding said the temporary job cuts, along with a reduction in non-essential travel and other government spending, will free up $860 million this year to held fight COVID-19.

The Manitoba Government and General Employees Union said it has been left in the dark as to how many jobs are going to be axed.

Theyve still not talked to us at all, union president Michelle Gawronsky said.

Weve had three weeks of people waking up every morning, wondering if theyve got a job at the end of the day.

Also on Monday, the government reported that there were no new COVID-19 cases in keeping with a long trend of zero or single-digit increases.

Total cases remain at 281. Six people have died and 238 have recovered, leaving 37 active cases in the province.

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New Delhi, May 5 : Celebrated lyricist Prasoon Joshi was in constant touch with late actor Irrfan Khan while he was going through a "really painful" treatment for his rare illness. Joshi says Irrfan's brave fight against the disease is inspiring.

Irrfan, who was diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumour in 2018, passed away last week at the age of 54. He was admitted to Mumbai's Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital with a colon infection. He succumbed to his ailment in hospital.

"I was in constant touch with Irrfan. I talked to him a lot during this crisis of what he was going through. It was remarkable to see (him fight the illness)," Prasoon told IANS.

"His treatment was really painful. He had a rare kind of disease. Despite the painful treatment, he was trying to keep up with his commitments and he fought till the last breath. It is very inspiring," he added.

Prasoon also opened up on the demise of veteran actor Rishi Kapoor, who died on April 30 after battling leukemia.

"I knew him for a long time, and his family too. He was an alive person and he was somebody who would light up the place, wherever he went. It is sad that they went pretty young -- I mean Irrfan has gone really young, and Rishiji, in today's time, also went pretty young," said Prasoon, who added that "even the grief is suffering" referencing to not being able to to pay his last respects to the late stars amid the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown.

Recently, on work front, Prasoon joined hands with Oscar and Grammy-winning Indian composer AR Rahman to give a musical tribute to the nation's fight against COVID-19, with song "Hum haar nahi maanenge".

The song has been conceptualised to spread hope, positivity and motivation. The emotional track reminds people that we all are in this together, stating that we will get through it together. The song is composed by Rahman, and the lyrics are penned by Joshi.

The song was released by HDFC Bank last week.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, May 5 : The Court of Appeal in London has refused permission for the British subsidiary of Punjab National Bank (PNB) to appeal against a judgment dismissing its $45 million claim for fraud and misrepresentation in loans given to Indian and US renewable energy companies.

This was the third consecutive defeat for PNB in this case, with the English High Court having found that no fraud had been committed by the defendant borrowers against PNB and criticising the PNB's failure to disclose existing proceedings it had brought in the debt tribunal in Chennai, according to Zaiwalla & Co., a London-based law firm.

Sarosh Zaiwalla, Senior Partner of Zaiwalla & Co, the London law firm representing the defendants, said: "The case serves as a message to Banks that the English Courts will take a very dim view of a 'lack of candour' with the Court, if they are seeking an Order in the absence of the defendant and claiming that the English Courts are the correct place to deal with a claim." Despite the fact that an English judgment is not necessarily recognised by courts in India or other countries, Indian banks frequently seek to commence proceedings in England to obtain a substantive judgment which it can then deploy in foreign jurisdictions.

PNB had claimed that it had been misled and defrauded by the actions of the defendants following the granting of loans amounting to $45 million to companies in the US and India controlled by the individual defendants.

The bank also alleged that money had been siphoned off and payments due had not been made under the loan facilities and guarantees. The defendants were associated with two groups of companies, Pesco Beam and Trishe Resources. Those and related companies borrowed sums from the PNB to fund, respectively, oil re-refining and wind farm projects in the US.

The law firm said that although the defendants were all based in India and the US, PNB asserted that on the basis of the loan facility agreements, the proper place for its claims was England. The court accordingly granted permission to the Bank to serve proceedings in India and the US.

However, unbeknown to the court, the Bank had already issued proceedings for the same debts in the Debt Tribunal in Chennai, and, with its syndicated partner Bank of Baroda, in the US. The revelation of the foreign proceedings proved to be the bank's undoing, it said in a statement.

The Bank has been ordered to pay 335,000 pounds towards the costs of eight defendants represented by Zaiwalla & Co.
Preventive detention prolonged, Zaky's attorney tells ANSA 'After 7 postponements. Length will be announced Wednesday'

(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, MAY 5 - Hoda Nasrallah, an attorney for Patrick George Zaky, an Egyptian Bologna university student and rights activist who has allegedly been tortured after his arrest in Egypt, has told ANSA that his preventive detention has been extended for a length of time that will be announced at a hearing on Wednesday. Zaky has been in pre-trial custody in Egypt for nearly three months on charges of subversive propaganda on Facebook ''Today there was a renewal, not a postponement'', the lawyer wrote in a message, adding that only ''tomorrow we will know the length'' of the extension - which is usually for 15 days, although this one was decided after seven one-week postponements.



The student has been detained since February 7 and a month later the pre-trial custody was extended for 15 days. Since then, for three times in March and four last month, including on the 28th, the hearing was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A curfew has been in place in the evening and at night in the country for over a month. Flights have been suspended and gatherings including at restaurants and mosques have been banned. Prayers have not been allowed in mosques during the holy Islamic month of Ramadan which began on Friday. Charges against the student, which are based on a Facebook account that his legal team says is managed by others, include ''publishing fake news'', ''inciting protests'' and ''instigating violence and terrorist crimes''. (ANSAmed).




New study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine documents the 'sleeper effec't among veterans who become homeless years after leaving the military

Ann Arbor, May 5, 2020 - According to a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, homelessness among US military veterans rarely occurs immediately after military discharge, but instead takes years to manifest with risk increasing over subsquent years. The study shows that this sleeper effect delay is evident among veterans who served before the Persian Gulf War era, as well as more recent groups from the post-9/11 conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"The study points to the long-life cycle leading to homelessness among veterans. It often takes years for problems stemming from military service to build up before a veteran becomes homeless," explained Jack Tsai, who holds a doctorate in clinical psychology and is a clinical psychologist and health services researcher. "The team and I found that the risk increases exponentially over time in the period 5-15 years post-military discharge."

Dr. Tsai is research director for the US Department of Veterans Affairs, National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans, Tampa, Florida, USA. He is also affiliated with the School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, San Antonio, TX, and the Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.

Data from two nationally representative samples were analyzed, including the records of 275,775 homeless veterans who used Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) services from 2000-2019, as well as a 2018 population-based community survey of 115 veterans with a history of homelessness. The average time between discharge and homelessness was found to be 5.5 years in the VA sample and 9.9 years in the survey sample.

Significant factors associated with longer discharge-to-homelessness periods include service in the Vietnam War, younger age at military discharge, income, and chronic medical and psychiatric conditions (e.g., depression and alcohol abuse). The findings suggest that some medical and psychiatric conditions take time to develop and do not quickly lead to homelessness but follow a more chronic course that, if untreated, can eventually lead to homelessness.

Deployments to the post-9/11 conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan were significantly associated with shorter duration between discharge and homelessness, a phenomenon that is accelerating. Among homeless VA service users discharged from 2000 to 2008, it took 10 years or more for 10 percent of them to become homeless; among those discharged from 2009 to 2014, more than 10 percent were homeless seven years after discharge. This finding confirms previous research that veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan experience considerable difficulties with social adjustment.

"Understanding what happens to people after they leave the military and at what point they become homeless is important for policymakers, service providers, veterans, and their family members in order to prevent new generations of veterans from becoming homelessness. Those who end up homeless have very low quality of life, and developing strategic early interventions at various stages after military discharge can mitigate that risk," noted Dr. Tsai.

Primary and secondary prevention focused on chronic health conditions and social adjustment are crucial to prevent homelessness among these veterans. Further research is needed on how best to deploy resources to develop innovative interventions to prevent homelessness among veterans. The study also points to the effect of intersectional macro socioeconomic issues, such as the lack of affordable housing, unemployment, and barriers against subgroups (women veterans with children and veterans with cognitive impairments).

###
Pushkar Banakar By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday announced the process of repatriation of lakhs of Indians stranded abroad would begin on Thursday, bringing relief to their near and dear ones.

The exercise from May 7, believed to be the largest evacuation to bring back civilians, will begin from the Gulf, sources said. For, the Gulf countries are home to at least 70% of the Non-Resident Indian population. The Gulf is being prioritised as there are a number of Indians there who have lost their jobs and want to return, sources said.

The travel would be arranged by aircraft and naval ships. The standard operating procedure in this regard has been prepared. The travel would begin in a phased manner, the government said, adding the facility will be offered on payment basis.

READ| 14 warships readied for evacuating Indians from Gulf countries: Navy Vice Chief

Indian embassies and high commissions are preparing a list of distressed Indian citizens. Non-scheduled commercial flights would be arranged for air travel, the statement stated.

Cabinet Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, in his meeting with officials of state governments last week, had urged them to make preparations like setting up quarantine facilities and testing facilities for facilitating the streamlined return of Indians from abroad.

According to sources, requests for repatriation had been received from Indians stuck in countries like the US, the UK, Singapore, Phillippines and Russia apart from the Gulf.

Scores of Indians had been stranded in different parts of the world after the government suspended international flights in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Ever since, the government has been urging Indians to stay put wherever they are.Everyone would be medically screened before boarding and only asymptomatic Indians would be allowed to travel.

On reaching the destination, everyone would be registered on the Arogya Setu app and would be medically screened. They would be quarantined for 14 days in a hospital or an institutional quarantine on a payment-basis by the state government, the statement read.

This is a big relief for me and all other parents. There is so much happiness amongst the parents in WhatsApp/Telegram groups. The decision has come just before final exam of the children. This will ensure that the kids will give their exam with a free mind and heart, Nitu Khan, a Ghaziabad resident whose son is in the US said.
Kim Brent / The Enterprise

If the Beaumont City Council wanted to move beyond the controversy over Mayor Becky Ames visit to a nail salon that had been closed, it mishandled that opportunity. The council issued a joint statement late Friday, the classic way and time to bury bad news, hoping that most people would overlook it. Thats not the most straightforward and open way to communicate with taxpayers, something that should always be their goal.

The council should have included this statement on todays agenda  posted in advance, of course  and voted on it in open session. That would have shown taxpayers they arent trying to hide anything. It would have given residents the opportunity to comment on it if they wanted to.
All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Tuesday (May 5) announced that M.D/D.M/M.Ch final exams will be conducted from May 30 2020. AIIMS said in a notice that exams will be conducted with strict social distancing norms due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. AIIMS also said that external examiners for practicals will interact via video conferencing.

AIIMS, New Delhi : M.D/D.M/M.Ch final exams to be conducted from 30th May 2020. Exams will be conducted with strict social distancing norms and external examiners for practicals will interact via video conferencing. pic.twitter.com/V2f6b6Yej2  Srinivas M.D(AIIMS) (@srinivasaiims) May 5, 2020

The final exams will take place on three days - May 30, June 1 and June 3 respectively. The exams are scheduled to begin at 9:30 AM and end at 12:30 PM. The venue of exams will be Examination Centre, Convergence Sector, First Floor of AIIMS Main Building.

AIIMS also said that the date, time and venue for practical/clinical/viva voice exam will be fixed by the concerned department. AIIMS has asked all the students to to submit their examination fee before the last date of registration. The students can take a print out of the admit card from the website of AIIMS.
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Linkedin Inforial (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta, Indonesia  Tue, May 5, 2020 12:08 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd60177e 4 Inforial Free

Indonesia's efforts to improve shipping safety by protecting the maritime environment and facilitating the safe passage of ships in the Malacca Strait and the Singapore Strait have finally paid off with the recent issuance of a circular from the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

Uploaded on April 30 to the IMO website, the circular SN.1-Circ. 338 informs international organizations and the maritime community that the Voluntary Pilotage Services (VPS) had been implemented in the Malacca Strait and the Singapore Strait on Jan. 1, 2019, and was provided by pilots certified by the respective authority in each of the three Littoral States of the Straits (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore).

The circular also includes links to the official websites of the three Littoral States that contain guidelines on the implementation of pilotage services. The guidelines were adopted by the three states at the Tripartite Technical Expert Group Meeting on the Straits of Malacca and Singapore (TTEG) in 2016.

"Our efforts to carry out voluntary scouting together with the three littoral states of the two straits has been officially recognized by the IMO and the world," said Director General of Sea Transportation R. Agus H. Purnomo.

Director of Ports Subagiyo said that the voluntary piloting services in the two straits was first introduced in IMO document Res. A.375 (x) dated Nov. 14, 1977 with respect to navigation passage through the Strait of Malacca and the Singapore Strait. Annex V of the resolution recommends that all Deep Draft Vessels (DDV) and Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC) use piloting services when available.

The resolution was later updated through SN. Circ 198 dated May 26, 1998. Item 3 of Annex 1 on general provisions in the circular recommends that all ships with deep drafts use piloting services when crossing the Malacca Strait and the Singapore Strait.

Previously in 1993, discussions were also raised at the 18th TTEG Session in Malaysia on improved shipping safety and maritime environmental protection through piloting services.

However, special discussions on the pilotage agenda in the Malacca Strait and the Singapore Strait only resurfaced in 2016 at the 41st TTEG Session in Yogyakarta, which agreed to the VPS guidelines in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore.

The agreement came following a series of meetings among the three littoral states, which sought to draft its guidelines on voluntary pilotage in the Malacca Strait and the Singapore Strait.

"The guidelines contain provisions on the implementation of joint voluntary piloting in the Malacca Strait and the Singapore Strait by the three littoral states," Subagiyo said.

The three states then agreed to discuss the technical implementation of voluntary pilotage in their respective territories and to submit the draft to the IMO Secretariat for further input and circulation.

"The IMO Secretariat then expressed its support and willingness to proceed with the draft, after the three littoral states held an informal meeting with the IMO Secretariat on the sidelines of the 7th NCSR IMO session in London in January 2020, until finally [the circular] was officially issued this April," said Subagiyo.

According to the agreed guidelines, the VPS in the Malacca Strait and the Singapore Strait includes granting assistance to the shipmaster by pilots who have been certified to provide pilotage in both straits by the authorities of the three littoral states.

The use of VPS is entirely up to the discretion of the captain or owner of the vessel. The authorities of the three littoral states or other authorities may not impose any conditions or show preference in determining pilotage for ships transiting the Malacca Strait or the Singapore Strait, or heading to any port located in either strait.

The pilot only acts as an advisor to the captain of the ship, who is responsible for the safe navigation and maneuvering of their vessel.

Furthermore, the authorities of the littoral states must take the necessary steps in accordance with the existing laws in their respective states in implementing and supervising the implementation of the VPS guidelines.
Australia and New Zealand have agreed to establish a "trans-Tasman bubble" that would allow safe travel between the two countries, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Tuesday, underlining that it was an important part of the economic recovery after the pandemic outbreak.

Morrison said that Australia must now work to flatten the curve of rising unemployment, pushing the need for workplaces and the broader economy to become "COVID-safe" so they can re-open. Discussions are going on easing restrictions over the coming months.

"We need to continue to have the right controls in place to test more people, trace those who test positive and respond to local outbreaks when they occur. These are precedent conditions to enable Australia to relax baseline restrictions and enable Australians to live and work in a COVID-19 safe economy," he said while confirming that there were only 1,000 active cases in the country and the daily infection rate has been low.

The Tuesday's National Cabinet chaired by Morrison with state and territory leaders also included the New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern who is currently visiting Australia to discuss the COVID-19 situation.

Arden was invited by Australia to discuss a "trans-Tasman bubble" that would enable New Zealanders and Australians to freely travel between the two countries.

"We agreed to start work on a trans-Tasman COVID-19 safe travel zone, easing travel restrictions between Australia and New Zealand," Morrison confirmed after the meeting.

The travel arrangement between the two neighbouring countries would be put in place once it is safe, with necessary health, transport and other protocols to protect public health.

"A trans-Tasman COVID-safe travel zone would be mutually beneficial, assisting our trade and economic recovery, helping kick-start the tourism and transport sectors, enhancing sporting contacts, and reuniting families and friends," Ardern and Morrison said in a joint-statement.

He told the media after the meeting the bubble was "still some time away" but it was important to flag early as it was an important part of the economic recovery after the pandemic outbreak.

Morrison said he expected New Zealand would be the first country Australia would open its borders to.

The total number of coronavirus cases in Australia reached 6,850 with 97 deaths whereas 1,486 cases and 20 deaths in New Zealand.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 21-year-old man, who tested positive for the novel coronavirus, died in in Shimla on Tuesday, the third fatality in Himachal Pradesh.

The youth, who was stranded in Delhi during lockdown, had returned to his house in Sarkaghat area of Mandi district in April, Chief Medical Officer Jeevanand Chauhan told PTI.

"As per his preliminary report, he was suffering from novel coronavirus. Confirmatory report of his second test is being awaited," Chauhan added.

The officer said the man had only one kidney since birth and was getting treatment from a Delhi hospital.

He was shifted to the IGMC hospital on Monday when his health deteriorated and he died on Tuesday, Chauhan said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Police Arrest Professor Who Linked Virus to The Chinese Communist Party

2020-05-04 -- Authorities in the Chinese capital have formally arrested a retired professor who called COVID-19 a "Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus," as supporters of the ruling party unleash a political backlash against its critics and the authorities investigate supporters of Wuhan Diary author Fang Fang.

Beijing police formally arrested Chen Zhaozhi on April 14 for "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," a charge frequently used to target peaceful critics of the regime, after he made comments linking the coronavirus to the CCP.

Chen, a former professor at the Beijing University of Science and Technology, had weighed in on a raging online debate about the origin of the coronavirus pandemic by saying it should be described as a "Chinese Communist Party virus" rather than a Chinese virus.

Chen, 68, told his lawyer during their first meeting on April 24 that police had tried to force him to confess but he refused to do so, according to the overseas based Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) network.

Chen, who is currently being held at the Haidian Detention Center in Beijing, has high blood-pressure and has previously suffered a stroke, sparking concerns about his health, especially if he becomes infected with the coronavirus himself.

He also suffers from dementia, adding to concerns for his well-being.

Beijing resident Ma Xinli, who has been trying to find out more about Chen's case, said he was initially called in for questioning at the Haidian police station on April 10.

"According to his [ex-]wife, the police came to his home before they detained him and checked the contents of his cell phone," Ma said. "After they detained him, they took his computer away as well."

'A very sensitive topic'

Ma said Chen's detention was "very likely" linked to his remarks about the coronavirus.

"The Wuhan pneumonia is a very sensitive topic right now, so it's risky to post or repost anything relating to it," he said.

Ma said Chen was diagnosed with dementia on a recent trip to hospital.

"It was the police who took him there, so they know about it," he said. "He shouldn't be detained at all."

Chen's lawyer Ma Gangquan said Chen was refusing to "confess," which didn't bode well for him, as he was already being watched by police after shouting "Down with Li Peng!" outside Beijing's Babaoshan crematorium last year, on the day of the former premier's funeral.

"He won't plead guilty, because he thinks that what he wrote online should come under freedom of expression, and was therefore legal," Ma Gangquan said. "This is purely an act of revenge by the police department."

Nationwide backlash

Chen's arrest comes amid a nationwide backlash, both online and by law enforcement, against anyone criticizing China's handling of the coronavirus epidemic after it emerged in Wuhan.

Liang Yanping, a professor at Hubei University, is currently under investigation by the authorities, and has been targeted by a deluge of hate speech and threats online since she spoke out in support of Fang Fang, who authored the mildly critical Wuhan Diary when the city was under lockdown.

"Little pink" CCP supporters and paid "50-cent army" commentators have also targeted retired Hainan University professor and acclaimed poet Wang Xiaoni for a torrent of online abuse.

Guo Yuhua, sociology professor at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University, said there appears to be a renewed nationwide political campaign targeting outspoken academics and intellectuals under way.

"This is happening in colleges and universities," Guo said. "It's not, I think, just about restricting speech, but also about the targeted elimination of people who express dissenting views."

"They are targeting anyone who expresses their support ... for Fang Fang," she said.

She said those targeting Fang Fang and her supporters, many of whom are older women from a literary background, lack the ability to think critically.

"I don't know them, but they behave in such a disgusting way, like they can't tell right from wrong," Guo said. "They don't have minds of their own, or any capacity for independent thought; I actually pity them."

Online comments likened the online witch-hunt to the chaotic and arbitrary political campaigns and struggle sessions of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).

Intimidation, harassment

Meanwhile, authorities in the central province of Hubei have intimidated and harassed potential litigants

"Chinese police intimidated and harassed potential plaintiffs in litigation against Wuhan and Hubei governments for failure to release vital information about the novel coronavirus in a timely manner, which resulted in deaths and damage," CHRD said in a statement on its website.

"Authorities pressured victims and families to abandon efforts to seek legal consul online, give media interviews, or contact lawyers offering legal aid," it said.

By April 22, at least six families who lost loved ones to the virus and one woman who recovered from it were forced to abandon lawsuits "under intense threats and harassment," the group said.

Meanwhile, an internal Chinese report has warned that Beijing faces a rising wave of hostility in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that could tip relations with the United States into confrontation, according to Reuters.

The report, presented early last month by the Ministry of State Security to top Beijing leaders including President Xi Jinping, concluded that global anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

The Chinese foreign ministry declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

Reported by Wong Lok-to for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Gao Feng for the Mandarin 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 May 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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Linkedin Dzulfiqar Fathur Rahman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, May 5, 2020 19:05 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd62c5ae 1 Business staple-food,stocks,dry-season,government Free

Facing the possibility of a prolonged dry season, the government has pledged to maintain the supply of staple foods and the stability of food prices.

On Tuesday, Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo stated that the national stock of 11 key food products, including rice, would be sufficient to meet the nationwide demand until June.

The rice stock is expected to stand at 14 million tons between April and June, exceeding the estimated consumption of 7.6 million tons within those three months.

However, the ministry acknowledged six provinces experienced rice supply shortages last month, including Riau, Riau Islands, Bangka Belitung Islands and North Maluku, whose stocks were over 25 percent less than demand.

If there is a province facing shortages, we have to be careful and pay utmost attention, reminding ourselves about the distribution amid the COVID-19 outbreak, Syahrul, a Nasdem Party politician, said in an online briefing on Tuesday.

The Agriculture Ministry and the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), the government body tasked with securing national staple food stocks, has since addressed the shortages by distributing products from provinces with excess supplies to those facing shortages.

However, on top of the looming risk of drought, the countrys food supply chain currently faces logistical disruption caused by the social restrictions to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.

Some 30 percent of the countrys regions face a worse-than-usual dry season this year, said President Joko Jokowi Widodo on Tuesday, referring to data from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).

The President, therefore, instructed the government to store rainwater and start filling reservoirs, retention ponds and other artificial water-storage places.

Water supply in centers of agricultural production is key, Jokowi said in an online briefing on Tuesday. We have to make use of the remaining rain right now, ensure farmers continue harvesting while complying with the health protocols.

To ensure enough stocks of garlic, beef and sugar until June, the Food Security Agency reported that it would expedite imports.

The Coordinating Economic Minister, Airlangga Hartarto, reported on Tuesday that firms had procured 94,000 tons of garlic from China in April and estimated they would import 78,000 tons more this month.

As a result, the average price of garlic declined by 5 percent to Rp 42,650 (US$2.62) per kilogram last month compared with the price in March.

In late April, the President also stated that 30 provinces faced shortages of sugar and 31 provinces faced shortages of garlic, which resulted in soaring prices.

The average price of sugar rose by 9.6 percent to Rp 18,250 per kg between March and April, way above the governments price ceiling of Rp 12,500 per kg, data from the Information Center for Strategic Food Prices (PIHPS) show.

In response to the anticipated dry season, the Food and Agriculture Organizations Indonesia office (FAO Indonesia) has discouraged people from stockpiling food at home and buying too much fresh food at one time as products may spoil.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defence Secretary Mark Esper said on Tuesday that the Taliban were not living up to their commitments under an agreement signed this year, amid signs the fragile deal is under strain by a political deadlock and increasing Taliban violence.

After lengthy talks behind closed doors, the Taliban and Washington signed an agreement in February for reduced violence and a move towards talks with the Afghan government, but attacks by the group have increased since then.

"I don't think they are," Esper told reporters when asked if the Taliban were living up to their commitment.

He added that he believed the Afghan government was also not living up to its commitment. The Afghan government was not part of an agreement between the United States and the Taliban.

Esper said the Afghan government and the Taliban "both need to come together and make progress on the terms that (are) laid out."

Progress on moving to negotiations between the militant group and the Afghan government has been delayed, in part by the political feud between President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, who both claimed to be Afghanistan's rightful leader following September's disputed election.

The political deadlock comes as the Taliban has increased the pace of violence.

The Taliban have mounted more than 4,500 attacks in Afghanistan in the 45 days since signing a deal with the United States that paves the way for a U.S. troop drawdown, according to data seen by Reuters.

The United States is continuing it's drawdown of forces in Afghanistan, which are expected to reach about 8,600 troops in this summer.

Senior Western, Afghan and independent officials tracking the ground situation say that the increase in attacks shows the insurgent group's wilful disregard of a pledge to reduce violence made as part of the accord signed in late February.

The violence in the war-damaged nation has coincided with the rapid spread of the coronavirus infection.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by David Gregorio)
Maharashtra on Tuesday reported 984 coronavirus cases, taking the total number of positive cases in the state to 15,525; the state also recorded 34 fatalities, taking the Covid-19 death toll to 617. Of the new cases, 841 were reported in the last 24 hours, while remaining 143 were carried forward from the last few days as per the central governments directive to bring the data at par with the national figures on the website of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the state government stated.

635 new cases were from Mumbai, which also saw 26 deaths on Tuesday. Six deaths were reported from Pune and one each from Aurangabad and Kolhapur. At least 14 of the deceased on Tuesday were above 60 years of age, while 28 had high-risk comorbidities. The mortality rate in the state stood at 4.01%, down from 7.21% on April 12, but the number of deaths, 299, in the past ten days since April 26 has increased. The countrys mortality rate hovers around 3.23%.

State government has directed the district collectors and municipal commissioners to concentrate on the containment zones fearing their monitoring may become difficult after the additional relaxations in the lockdown came into effect from Monday.

There are complaints of crowding in many places after liquor and other non-essential shops were allowed to operate. Restricting the spread from the Red and containment zones will become more important after the relaxations. The clampdown in containment zones, especially in MMR and PMR should not be relaxed at any cost, a governments directive to the district authorities said.

According to the officials, despite chief minister Uddhav Thackerays directive to districts, the full containment of coronavirus by May end looks difficult.

He has set the target and asked the authorities to ensure the strictest monitoring under the principle of 3-Ts (tracing, testing and treatment) in containment areas. He has also asked them to focus on shrinking the containment zones to neutralize the areas. Though the cases are not expected to come to nil so soon, we expect a downward trend to begin by then, said an official.

The official said that though there are various projections about the curve of the diseases spread, the government expects the downward trend to begin in the next two to three weeks.

Dr TP Lahane, director, Directorate of Medical Education and Research, said, Almost all the contacts of positive patients are traced and will be quarantined in next ten days. During this period the rate of growth in cases will move northward and once two weeks of quarantine is over, we expect a drastic fall in the numbers by the end of this month.

Officials said that May 31 target to flatten the curve was set to contain the spread effectively enabling the lifting of the lockdown in Mumbai, Pune and other cities.

For Coronavirus Live Updates

Meanwhile, the state government issued a clarification saying there would be no restrictions on the number of days in a week or on the number of hours a shop can operate unless specified by the municipal commissioners and the district collectors.

All shops and markets which are allowed to remain open as per the order shall remain open to their full operations timing and day. However, the municipal commissioners in Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Pune Metropolitan Region, Nagpur, Nashik and Aurangabad and district collectors in other areas will have the right to decide on the timing of operation in case there is need of regulating these commercial activities.

There were too many authorities issuing orders without any uniformity on the timing and days at the local level. This order brings clarity, said Bhushan Gagarani, principal secretary, Maharashtra government.

Late on Tuesday, Mumbai civic body issued a notification saying liquor shops and non-essential goods shops will not be allowed in the city to prevent crowding.

State health minister Rajesh Tope said that the recovery rate in Maharashtra has improved.

As many as 354 patients were sent home after they recovered from the infection fully. This was the highest single-day recovery since the first patient was reported on March 9. We are conducting more than 7000 tests in 45 laboratories daily and the number is highest in the country, he said.

In the past 24 hours, the state has carried out 6,561 coronavirus tests and 12.81% of the total people tested were found positive. The total number of tests conducted in the state so far reached 1,82,884 on Tuesday including 1,67,205 negative results.

The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19

199,182 people are currently under home quarantine, while 12,456 are under institutional quarantine. 11,629 teams of health workers have screened 50.81 lakh suspects.

Meanwhile, some districts namely Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg and some municipal authorities, namely in Ulhasnagar and Kalyan Dombivali, have been imposing restrictions on the movement of people from Mumbai, the worst-hit city.
When we speak, we give little thought to how the words form in our brain before we say them. It's similar for deaf people using sign language.

Speaking and signing come naturally, except when we stumble over words, or swap one word for another when we speak or sign too quickly, are tired or preoccupied.

Fluency and the occasional disfluency both happen because of how we choose what to say or sign, when a neural mechanism takes place in our brains as we make decisions and monitor how we communicate.

It's this mechanism that fascinates San Diego State University researchers Stephanie Ries and Karen Emmorey in the School of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences. Their analysis could help inform rehabilitation therapy for those relearning how to speak or sign after a stroke.

Using electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings, they studied how hearing and deaf signers process the act of signing and found the same monitoring mechanism took place in the brains of both groups. Among deaf signers, it was more prevalent with those for whom American Sign Language (ASL) is their first language.

"When we are doing an action, whether it's speaking, signing, pressing buttons or typing, we see the same mechanism," Ries said. "Any time we are making a decision to do something, this neural mechanism comes into play."

Their study, published by MIT Press in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience on April 30, may advance our understanding of how deaf individuals recover their ability to sign after a traumatic brain injury or stroke, when they suffer aphasia: the inability to understand others or express themselves due to brain damage.

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"When stroke victims are more aware of their speech errors and have a better functioning speech monitoring mechanism, they have a better chance of recovering than those who don't have that awareness," Ries said. "This study helped us extend that understanding to signing ability for deaf people."

Melding speech with sign language expertise

The work also represents a long-held dream to combine the skills and training of two researchers with niche expertise in complementary fields -- speech monitoring and sign monitoring.

Ries is an assistant professor specializing in the neuroscience of speech and language disorders who first met Emmorey at a workshop on language production in 2007 when Ries was a Ph.D. student in Marseille. Emmorey, a distinguished professor, sign language expert and director of the Laboratory for Language and Cognitive Neuroscience at SDSU, presented a study about sign monitoring which sparked an abiding interest in Ries, who wanted to work with Emmorey. When they crossed paths at another conference five years ago, Emmorey urged her to apply for the assistant professorship at SDSU, and they eventually began working together.

"I've always been interested in what inner signing would be like, and if it's similar to inner speech," said Emmorey, the study's senior author. "It's an internal process. When you speak, you can hear yourself. But if you're signing, are you seeing yourself like in a mirror, or is it a mental image of you signing, or a motor representation so you can feel how you sign?"

These were the underlying aspects of signing no one quite understood, and it has long been Emmorey's goal to tease them apart so we truly understand what sign language processing is like. Knowing this will help sign language educators figure out the best learning strategy for signers, much like the techniques used to teach hearing people foreign languages.

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Since Ries was already working on speech monitoring with hearing people in France, when she joined SDSU, the two researchers combined their expertise to study sign monitoring in hearing and deaf people.

Monitoring for self-editing

They used the EEG data recorded with 21 hearing signers and 26 deaf signers in the Neurocognition Lab of Philip Holcomb and Katherine Midgley, colleagues in the psychology department. The participants were shown pictures to identify by signing, while wearing an EEG cap with 32-channel tin electrodes to monitor the mechanism behind signing.

"We wanted to study sign monitoring in-depth to understand the underlying mechanism and whether it's universal," Ries said. "Before people start to sign, you see this component rising, and we observed it happen with hearing signers as well, except it wasn't as clear."

This difference was possibly because deaf signers were more proficient in ASL than hearing signers. It's important to note that both deaf and hearing signers are bilingual in English and ASL, except ASL is more dominant for deaf signers.

"When we're speaking we catch ourselves when we are about to make an error. That's thanks to this monitoring process which is located in the medial frontal cortex of the brain," Ries said. "It peaks 40 milliseconds after you begin speaking, so it's extremely fast. We make an error because we may not have selected the right word when semantically related words are competing in your brain."

Words that share similar meanings such as 'oven' and 'fridge' or names may be switched in the brain (e.g., swapping your children's names). Other times, syllables get transposed.

Such errors can happen in signing too, when signs for different words are mixed up or an incorrect handshape is swapped for the desired handshape, which indicates signers are actually assembling phonological units during language production, similar to assembling the phonemes in a spoken word.

"Learning how sign production is represented in the brain will help us understand sign language disorders, and if a signer needs epileptic surgery we will know which part of the brain processes sign," Emmorey said.
China's New Stealth Bomber Expected to Make First Public Appearance Before End of Year - Report

Sputnik News

19:08 GMT 04.05.2020

According to an unnamed source in the People's Liberation Army (PLA), China's new H-20 stealth bomber will likely make its first public appearance at the Zhuhai Air Show in November, assuming the event isn't cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The world could get its first peek at China's most advanced aircraft ever at the Zhuhai Air Show, a November venue where Beijing shows off its military might.

The South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong-based publication, reported on Monday that the H-20 stealth bomber is expected to be completed this year and might be shown off as soon as November 2020. However, a number of factors could influence that decision, including the ongoing pandemic as well as the state of regional political relations.

"The Beijing leadership is still carefully considering whether its commission will affect regional balance, especially as regional tensions have been escalating over the COVID-19 pandemic," an unnamed military source told the Post. "Like intercontinental ballistic missiles, all strategic bombers can be used for delivering nuclear weapons  if China claimed it had pursued a national defense policy which is purely defensive in nature, why would it need such an offensive weapon?"

The bomber is purported to have a maximum takeoff weight of at least 200 tons (400,000 pounds), a payload of up to 45 tons (90,000 pounds), a range of 5,000 miles (8,050 kilometers) and utilizes a "flying wing" design similar to that used by the United States' B-2 Spirit and B-21 Raider stealth bombers, the latter of which could also make a 2020 debut.

The PLA has often used the Zhuhai Air Show to show off its new technology. The J-20 "Weilong" stealth fighter was also seen for the first time at the 2011 air show, and the FC-31 experimental stealth aircraft debuted at the 2014 air show, which may or may not become the PLA Navy's new carrier-based fighter.

The H-20 will round out the PLA's sweeping new series of modern aircraft intended to replace the aging Cold War-era air fleet, some of which still uses Soviet designs built under license or reverse-engineered. Alongside the H-20 stealth bomber are the Y-20 transport aircraft, the Z-20 helicopter and the J-20 stealth fighter - together dubbed the "20 series" by observers.

Sputnik reported in early 2019 that Beijing was developing two stealth bombers: one, the Hong-20 or H-20, was confirmed by the PLA, but a second aircraft, dubbed the J/H-XX by observers, remains largely in the world of speculation.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a British military think tank, wrote in its annual report "The Military Balance" in February 2020 that the J/H-XX is likely a fighter-bomber somewhat analogous to the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. It is purported to be supersonic, with a combat radius of up to 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers). Some unofficial art depicting the aircraft appeared on the cover of the May 2018 edition of Aerospace Knowledge, a Chinese publication, and the IISS description of the jet similarly assumes it to have a sleek silhouette with four tail surfaces similar to the failed Northrop/McDonnell Douglas YF-23 Black Widow.

One unnamed military source told SCMP on Monday the H-20 could make use of the Russian-made NK-321, built by Kuznetsov Design Bureau for Moscow's Tu-160 "White Swan" supersonic bomber. However, another said the bomber could get an upgraded Shenyang WS-10 engine, used by several fighters built by the Chinese design firm.

"The WS-10 is still a transitional engine for the H-20 because it is not powerful enough. The eligible replacement may take two to three years for development," one of the sources said. "That's why the American air force doesn't care about the H-20, because it is not strong and powerful enough to cause any challenge to their B-2 and B-21 bombers."

Of course, neither the B-2 nor B-21 is supersonic, either. But, like both aircraft, the H-20 will carry nuclear weapons, which could help give Beijing a true nuclear triad. If so, China would join the ranks of Russia, India and the US as the only nations able to deliver a nuclear strike by submarine-launched ballistic missiles, intercontinental ballistic missiles and air-deployed nuclear weapons.

China has also been developing an air-launched ballistic missile to be fired from a specially modified H-6 bomber, which would also give it nuclear triad capability.

A Sputnik

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Even though Meg St-Esprit only lives 30 minutes away from her niece, Avery, her family was thrilled when they found a letter from her in the mailbox. Since receiving it, St-Esprit's 6- and 8-year-old children have been drafting their message back. They have embraced the joy of letter writing.

It breaks up the monotony. They get excited to walk to the mailbox down the block (change of scenery) plus it teaches writing in a more sneaky way than some of the rote learning provided by crisis distance learning, St-Esprit, a freelance journalist in Pittsburgh, told TODAY via email. Its nice to get a little surprise.

Meg St-Esprit's 5-year old niece Avery sent her 6-year-old son Ezra McKivigan a letter and he and his siblings are busy drafting a reply. Sending letters brings a little excitement to the family's pandemic life. (Courtesy Meg St-Esprit)

St-Esprits children also wrote a letter to an aunt who lives in Florida, who "loves it."

She said she cried when she got the letter, she said. Travel plans are indefinitely halted during the pandemic and we arent completely sure when we will see her again."

St-Esprits family isnt alone. As the quarantine lingers and travel and visits are postponed, people are finding new ways to connect. Letter writing is a good way to check on loved ones and stay busy. But it also has another benefit: It boosts mental health.

It provides enhanced structure around the day, particularly for people who take a moment to be reflective about it, Lily Brown, an assistant professor of psychology and director at the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, told TODAY. It might also help people get a sense of giving back to society by doing something that's consistent with their values and those kinds of activities are really likely to be helpful in the face of a really isolating crisis.

As social media and texting makes it easier for people to share (or overshare) details of their lives, sending a letter requires the writer to be more thoughtful. This reflection can help deepen relationships and these strong bonds make it easier for people to deal with stress.

Story continues

The content you might share in a personalized letter might be more vulnerable and less filtered in a way that might help people connect more, Brown explained.

While few studies have looked specifically at letter writing, research on journaling found that focused writing improves mood and builds resilience. Thats because it uses different parts of the brain that pull people away from being too overwhelmed by feelings and encourages people to think differently.

Writing can be a potentially helpful exercise when any of us are feeling emotional because it can help to recruit activation of the executive functioning parts of the brain that help build rationality and help to give us some perspective, Brown said. That can work to reduce emotional activation.

Whats more, writing down how we feel helps process our thoughts.

Labelling your emotional experience, verbalizing your emotions or writing them down can be helpful for processing anxiety-based emotions in particular, Brown said. Letter writing might help people open up and be self-reflective in a way that could be helpful.

And, right now everyone can use a little help worrying less.

Any time there's a certain amount of uncertainty the emotion that tends to follow is anxiety, she said. "Its an anxiety-fueled time for everybody.
Mumbai, May 5 : Wipro Ltd will convert one of its Information Technology campuses in Pune into a 450-bed intermediary care Covid-19 hospital within this month and hand it over to Maharashtra government, an official said here on Tuesday.

The transformation of the Hinjewadi IT Campus is expected to be completed by May 30 and the hospital will revert to its original status as an IT facility after one year.

A memorandum to the effect was signed between the state government and Wipro Ltd, whereby the company will provide the physical infrastructure, medical furniture and equipment besides an administrator and skeletal support staff to help operationalise the hospital on priority with the requisite medical professionals.

The hospital will be equipped to treat moderate cases, including 12 beds to stabilise critical patients before shifting them to a tertiary care facility.

The independent, isolated Covid-19 dedicated complex also includes 24 well-appointed rooms to accommodate doctors and medical staff.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray lauded the initiative and said the humanitarian gesture by Wipro Ltd will further strengthen the medical infrastructure and benefit the medical fraternity who are at the forefront in the war against the virus.

"We are completely committed to supporting the country's response to the pandemic and believe we must all work together to deal with this crisis and minimize its human impact," said Wipro Ltd Chairman Rishad Premji.

The MoU was signed in the presence of Pune Collector Naval Kishore Ram, CEO of Pune Zilla Parishad Ayush Prasad on behalf of the state government and Wipro Ltd Senior Vice-President and Global Head-Operations Hari Prasad Hegde.

Last month, Wipro Ltd Wipro Enterprises Ltd and Azim Premji Foundation committed Rs 1,125 crore towards tackling the unprecedented health and humanitarian crisis in the form of coronavirus pandemic.

Wipro Ltd and Azim Premji Foundation are engaged in Covid-19 related relief works benefitting 34 lakh people, including in different parts of Maharashtra in Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad, Waluj, Amalner, Ahmednagar, Akola, Beed, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli.
Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which owns the iconic Amul brand of milk and dairy products, will have to pay Rs 2 as TDS for every Rs 100 worth of cash payments it will make to new dairy farmers joining its network on request of Gujarat and Maharashtra governments.

Amul has been asked to procure milk from these non-members by state governments of Gujarat and Maharashtra after their normal supply sources - local dairy firms and sweet shops - either shut down during the lockdown or failed to procure enough quantities.

While all of Amul's regular suppliers are paid via electronic, cashless transfers, the new farmers require payments in cash. Amul's cash withdrawal from banks to pay these farmers incurs a 2 per cent TDS. As a result, every Rs 100 worth of milk procured in cash is costing Amul Rs 102.

"Payment for non-members is by way of cash, and that is a problem. If you withdraw more than Rs 1 crore, there is a 2 per cent TDS that you need to pay. We are requesting the government to keep this limit in abeyance for the lockdown period because we do not have bank facilities everywhere, and our staff is limited," R S Sodhi, managing director of Amul says.

Thousands of new diary farmers, who have temporarily joined its supply ecosystem during the ongoing lockdown

Due to lockdown-linked restrictions, GCMMF is finding it difficult to get non-members on e-payment platforms and, thus, looking to reimburse them in cash.

None of these farmers, who require cash payments, are the members of milk cooperatives from whom GCMMF sources milk on a normal business day.

Amul is procuring 35 lakh litres of milk from farmers every day during the lockdown period.

The direct payouts to farmers due to the additional milk procurement itself could amount to Rs 600 crore for the last 40 days, Sodhi says.

In Union Budget 2019-20, the government announced levying 2 per cent TDS on cash withdrawals above Rs 1 crore. This was done in a bid to discourage cash transactions and move towards cash-less economy.

The change came into force in September 2019.

Also Read: Coronavirus lockdown 3.0: India sees biggest jump with 3,900 new cases, 195 deaths in 24 hours

Also Read: Indian retail sector lost Rs 5.5 lakh crore in 40 days of lockdown: CAIT

Also Read: IPO not necessary, Jio Platforms eyes Rs 1.4 lakh crore strategic investment
An American financial organisation has agreed to sanction USD 15 million loan to an Indian start-up to expand the access to quality by providing critical financing to schools that serve low-income students in India.

The financing will help Bengaluru-based Varthana to reach more schools by meeting its need for long-term capital that is unavailable in the Indian market, US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) said in a statement.

The DFC, America's Development Bank, said that the financing will be especially critical as schools work to adapt to and recover from disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition to providing timely loans, Varthana has been helping schools implement digital learning tools and teaching methods so that students can continue their remotely through the pandemic, it said.

Set up by Brajesh Mishra and Steve Hardgrave in 2013, Varthana supports more than 3,500 schools with 84,000 teachers and 2.5 million students, in particularly among low-income populations across the country.

The company utilises a unique cash-flow underwriting model that enables it to flexibly and sustainably provide loans to low-fee schools. The typical Varthana borrower operates a school that charges USD 5 to USD 25 per month in fees.

India's economy has grown rapidly over the last several decades, but more investment in education will be required to keep pace with this growth and extend its benefits across a broader segment of the Indian society, the DFC said.

Low-fee private schools have stepped in to provide low- and middle-income families access to quality, affordable education.

However, these schools need better access to financing in order to grow and improve, it said.

DFC CEO Adam Boehler said this will help low-income students in India access quality education so they can learn, thrive and give back to their communities.

Varthana is a testament to the impact that early-stage ventures can deliver when given the opportunity to scale their innovative approaches, he said.

As a specialised lender to affordable private schools, Varthana is well positioned to provide both capital and remote education solutions to help schools navigate the current challenges.

DFC's willingness to provide funding in the midst of this crisis truly demonstrates their commitment to support the education sector when it needs the most, and for that we are very grateful, said Varthana CEO Hardgrave.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ka Tum, in Khmer language means pomegranate or "wrapped inside", is a kind of dumpling wrapped by leaves of thot not (Asian palmyra palm) that looks like pomegranate fruit.

The dumplings ingredients include sticky rice, white bean, coconut, sugar and salt. Leaves of Asian palmyra palm are used to form the dumplings cover.

The delicacy has a meaning of wealth and prosperity that is always made during traditional holidays of Khmer people in the southern province of An Giang like Chol Chnam Thmay, Sen Dolta, and Ok om bok.

The dumpling is now popular only in O Lam, Tri Ton District of the province.

The cover of the dumpling is knitted sophisticatedly using young leaves of Asian palmyra palm. The very complex cover has resulted in very few who can make the dumpling, as it requires rather a long time to learn how to make properly.

The dumpling looks beautiful like a pomegranate with a flower on top.

Neang Phuong, who resides in the province's Phuoc Loc Village, is the only one offering the dumpling in the whole region.

Taught by her mother when she was 16, Phuong has made the dumpling for 40 years.

Her dumpling won the Gold Medal at the annual Southern Folk Cake Festival in 2016. Her product has also been recorded in Vietnams Record Book as the most sophisticated dumpling wrapped in leaves of Asian palmyra palm in Vietnam.

Neang Phuong cooks the Ka Tum dumpling.

The leaves of Asian palmyra palm are popular in An Giang Province. Young leaves are used as they are more flexible and easier to fold than old ones. Besides, the light green colour of young leaves makes the dumpling more attractive.

The leaves are knitted into a shape of a pomegranate with a flower on top. It takes 15-30 minutes for a dumpling maker to knit the cover for the dumpling, which is the most time-consuming stage in the whole dumpling making process.

The dumpling inside is made of sticky rice, white bean, coconut, salt and sugar.

The sticky rice is the Chon Ho genre raised by Khmer people for six months and has a special fragrance. Yet now the genre is more scarce, so they have replaced it with normal sticky rice.

The sticky rice is soaked overnight before being mixed with white bean, coconut milk, mashed coconut, some salt and sugar. The whole mixture is put inside through a small hole in the cover and then the maker ties up the hole.

After being boiled, the dumplings are put in cool water so that the inside doesnt stick to the cover. The stage also helps enhance the fragrance for the inside.

The dumpling is then boiled in water for 45-60 minutes. A professional dumpling maker like Phuong needs a day to make 100 dumplings.

Mrs Neang Phuong (second from right) teaches local women to make the dumpling. VNA/VNS Photos Cong Mao

The final dumpling will have a clear, yellow colour. Each bunch has ten small dumplings. The inside is sticky, soft, fat and has a natural fragrance of coconut and the palms leaves.

Phuong has handed down the dumpling making skills to her family members and locals who want to learn. She wants to diversify the inside with more kinds of ingredients to make it more tasty and eye-catching. VNS

Unique festivals in Southwestern region The Southwestern region in Vietnam is well-known for a number of typical traditional festivals, including Sene Dolta, Ok Om Bok and Chol Chnam Thmay.
The government of Venezuela said it foiled a marine invasion by the so-called "terrorist mercenaries" who tried to enter the country via speedboats from nearby Colombia. As a result of this intrusion, eight people were reportedly killed, while two were apprehended.

The mercenaries landed early Sunday on a beach in La Guaira's port city, about 32 kilometers or 20 miles from the capital Caracas. This was according to Venezuela Interior Minister Nestor Reverol during his televised address.

However, the government of Colombia denied any link to the occurrence, while Venezuela's opposition claimed that the suspected attack appeared to be a staged one.

Speed Boats from Colombia

According to Reverol, the speed boats came from nearby Colombia, and the plan, he continued, was to assassinate the government leaders, not to mention, create chaos.

The all-powerful Constituent Assembly Diosdado Cabello announced the apprehensions and fatalities via a press conference, and that a huge supply of weapons had been in the custody of the security forces, "along with some vehicles."

According to Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, the administration has evidence associated with the attack "to a mercenary from the United States." the nation's vice president also alleged that the US and the Colombian governments were behind the destabilization initiatives.

Colombia's Claim

The foreign ministry of Colombia, for its part, said in a statement that Venezuela's allegation was baseless and blamed it for trying to "divert attention from the actual problems that the Venezuelans currently live in."

Meanwhile, Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro, who was considered illegitimate by more than 50 nations after the 2018 re-election that was said to be deceitful, has condemned innumerable attempts to take him out of power.

Last year, the opposition leader, as well as the National Assembly head, Juan Guaido, rallied several soldiers behind him to attempt "to force Maduro from power although it swiftly failed" when several vital players backed out the last minute.

In a statement, the office of Guaido said that the certified version was perforated with some inconsistencies, contradictions, and doubts. More so, the statement indicated the "alleged event" could have been performed to tar the opposition or conceal extrajudicial killings by the state troops.

The Defense Minister of Venezuela, Vladimir Padrino, said that among the seized weapons were used in the unsuccessful uprising which Guaido reportedly led last year. The defense minister added, the army stayed loyal to Maduro and would even launch patrols that would focus on the coast "in the wake of the incident."

Nations Disowning Maduro

As earlier mentioned, the US and the more than 50 other nations disowned Maduro after his doubtful 2018 election, which, according to many, was rigged, and preferably have recognized opposition head, Guaido as Venezuela's "legitimate interim leader."

However, Maduro retains the support of the armed forces of the country, and other countries such as Russia and China, which have also harshly criticized the sanctions of the US.

In addition, Maduro and his allies allege that the Trump administration is determined to end the socialist government of Venezuela to exploit the South American country's massive underground oil reserves.

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[May 05, 2020] Mvix is Making Its Digital Signage Players Cheaper

STERLING, Va., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Mvix, a leading provider of turnkey digital signage solutions with free software, today announced a major price drop on two of its digital signage players. The price reduction makes the Xhibit Lite and Xhibit Plus players more accessible to budget-minded businesses and improves the ROI of digital signage. "With our Xhibit line of media players now well-established, we're able to reduce the price so that digital signage is more affordable," says Mike Kilian, VP of Client Relations. "The new price makes the players an easy choice for SMBs looking to pilot or roll out ROI-driven digital signage deployments." The Xhibit Lite player will be reduced by 38% to $429, while Xhibit Plus will drop by 17% to $699. The Xhibit Lite player includes mainstream HTML5 performance and full HD content playback for YouTube, event listings, weather, MS Office, and more. It supports multi-zone screen layouts, allowing users to display up to four content at the same time. This makes it perfect for meium-sized digital signage deployments such as building directories, event listings displays, and large deployments of menu boards with video content.



Xhibit Plus is an upgrade from Lite. It is a commercial-grade digital signage player for enterprise projects. Featuring advanced HTML5 performance, the player supports playback of social media, KPI dashboards, traffic, maps, Google Docs and Slides, and more. To multiply content delivery, users can display up to six content at the same time. Xhibit Plus is ideal for deployments that demand high processing power such as employee communication displays, production and metric displays with KPI dashboards, waiting room signage and more. Price and Availability

The players come bundled with Mvix digital signage software for free. There are no subscription fees or contracts. The cloud-based, content-rich software enables users to easily deploy and manage content on one or 100s of screens over the internet. The players will be available to ship starting May 5, 2020. Both players include a standard one-year warranty. Mvix is extending it to a three-year warranty for the Xhibit Plus player. For more information, visit www.mvixdigitalsignage.com or contact us [email protected] | 866.310.4923. Related Images mvix-is-making-its-digital-signage.png

Mvix is Making Its Digital Signage Players Cheaper

Mvix is slashing prices on two digital signage players, saving buyers 17%-38%. The price drop makes digital signage more accessible to SMBs. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mvix-is-making-its-digital-signage-players-cheaper-301052937.html SOURCE Mvix

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PMU repels several Daesh attacks as report warns of US-Saudi scheme to revive group

Iran Press TV

Monday, 04 May 2020 6:40 AM

The Daesh Takfiri terrorist group has launched several attacks across Iraq as the Kata'ib Hezbollah resistance group warns of a Saudi-US plan to revive the group.

The Arabic Al-Mayadeen news network reported on Sunday that Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units' 21st Brigade thwarted a Daesh assault on the al-Eith region of the eastern Salahuddin Province.

The PMU's 47th Brigade also repelled a Daesh operation in the Jurf al-Sakhar region in the central Babil province, resulting in one PMU casualty.

Another attack in the eastern Diyala province, however, lead to five casualties among the country's pro-government tribal units, according to a security official.

Earlier on Sunday, a Daesh operation seeking to infiltrate the central Karbala province from the western Anbar province was forced to retreat with casualties following the intervention of Iraqi security services.

Iraqi forces also launched numerous raids on Daesh terror cells on Sunday.

Four terrorists were killed after PMU artillery units targeted Daesh elements east of the city of Tikrit in Salahuddin.

Another four terrorists were captured in the northern Kirkuk province.

Separate Iraqi security operations also led to the arrests of two prominent Daesh figures in the northern Nineveh province, known as "Abu Talha al-Ansari" and "Humam al-A'li".

The spike in terror and anti-terror operations comes after at least 10 PMU fighters were killed in a coordinated attack in the cities of Mekeeshfa and Balad in the Salahuddin Province in a Daesh raid on Saturday.

The engagements mark the latest of an increasing string of Daesh sleeper cell attacks in the past few weeks, usually concentrated between the provinces of Salahuddin, Kirkuk and Diyala.

The uptick in Daesh operations has happened nearly simultaneously with Washington's latest string of airstrikes openly targeting PMU forces, which are formally part of the Iraqi security forces.

Washington most notably assassinated the PMU's deputy commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, alongside Iran's top anti-terror Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, in the capital city Baghdad in January.

Iraqi resistance groups have responded by vowing to take up arms against US military presence if Washington fails to comply with a parliamentary order calling for the expulsion of US troops following the assassination.

The increased Daesh attacks across the country also come as the government's ability to respond has been affected by political uncertainty and preoccupation with controlling the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

Daesh overrun large swathes of the country after unleashing a deadly campaign in 2014.

The formation of voluntary forces later known as the PMU, however, allowed Iraq to gradually bring the Daesh advance to a standstill, ultimately leading to the group losing all control over Iraqi territory in 2017.

'Daesh attacks incited by Saudi-US plot'

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Iran's IRNA news agency, Mohammed Muhyee, spokesman for the Iraqi Kata'ib Hezbollah resistance group affiliated with the PMU, said that the recent Daesh operations stemmed from US and Saudi provocations.

Muhyee's remarks echoed statements published by numerous other Iraqi resistance groups in the last few days.

Muhyee added that Riyadh and Washington were using the group to impose their will on the country, with the US specifically seeking to justify prolonging its military presence.

"We can not expect Daesh's recent operations to have occurred naturally; international and regional intelligence organizations are supporting it with logistics, intelligence and weapons," he said.

Muhyee added that the US and Saudi plot sought to force the PMU to leave Iraq's western, northern and eastern regions.

Referring to Daesh's attack on Mekeeshfa and Balad on Saturday, Muhyee said that Daesh control over the two areas could bring the country to the edge of a new security crisis similar to the one which lead to Daesh's initial expansion in 2014.

The spokesman added that Daesh's simultaneous operations across several provinces may be intended to provide cover for a future and larger operation.

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The dependence on Wi-Fi in parking lots shows the lengths to which people are going to combat the countrys digital divide, one of the most stubborn problems in technology  and one the coronavirus has exacerbated.

One in four Americans has no high-speed internet access at home, according to the Pew Research Center, either because its too expensive or because the home is in a rural area with limited service. Some use their smartphone data plans for high-speed internet access, but those plans are often insufficient to handle work from home and distance learning. That makes it harder for many people to work from home during the health crisis and for their children to keep up with their schoolwork away from the classroom.

In recent weeks, numerous federal lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, have pushed for legislation to make service more affordable, especially for families with school-age children. But such legislative pushes have happened in the past without ever crossing the finish line.

What is disappointing is that we have done nothing for years to address the problem, said Mignon Clyburn, a former commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission who has long pressed for more funding for rural broadband and subsidies for low-income families. Now we are in a crisis, and we are triaging.

On federal internet service maps, Louis Derry appears to have broadband access, because a few people in his area of upstate New York have high speeds, defined by the government as 25 megabits per second. But at his home, seven miles from Cornell University, only a much slower speed is available from his provider  5 megabits per second. It is not enough to support the needs of his family.

The family takes turns driving down to Brooktons Market, a small country store with a gravel driveway, to park and connect to its free internet. Mr. Derrys daughter, Ellie, a freshman at Colorado College, goes almost daily for her Zoom class sessions and to download big files that she can take home and work on offline. Other cars are almost always parked nearby, drivers typing away at their laptops and using the free Wi-Fi. They often keep one empty spot between them, to follow social distancing guidelines.

In more urban areas, the problems are due to affordability. Mary Anne Mendoza, 26, a doctoral student at the University of California, Irvine, shares the least expensive internet service available with her mother and sister in their two-bedroom apartment near the college. When her mother, an M.B.A. candidate, is on a videoconference call, and her sister is online for an undergraduate class, the Wi-Fi at home slows to a crawl.
On a typical Cinco De Mayo, people across the country would be heading out to their favorite Mexican eatery to enjoy chips, cheese and a margarita or two. This isnt a typical time, however, and coronavirus lockdowns means many restaurants are only open for take out.

That doesnt mean you cant celebrate Cinco de Mayo (May 5) with some tasty deals.

Here are 3 offers:

Chipotle

Get free Queso Blanco with an entree. Chipotle is extending its free delivery offer through May 10; order through the Chipotle app or Chipotle.com with promo code QUESO55 at checkout.

Moes Southwest Grill

Moes is offering free delivery on purchases of $10 or more made through its app and website.

Taco Bell

Enjoy a DIY taco kit. The customizable food bar feeds about six and includes 8 flour tortillas, 12 crunchy taco shells, seasoned beef, nacho chips, nacho cheese sauce and more. Offer available via delivery or pickup.

Another Cinco de Mayo deal

Jose Cuervo Tequila is offering to pay for your food ordered from an authentic independent Mexican restaurant. You can see details on the giveaway here.

What is Cinco de Mayo?

Cinco de Mayo officially commemorates the day in 1862 when the Mexican army, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza, conquered the French forces of Napoleon III at the Battle of Puebla. The victory provided a significant morale boost to the Mexican people and came to serve as a symbol of the country's spirit and perseverance.

Today, the holiday is often confused with Mexican Independence Day, a totally separate holiday that occurs on Sept. 16 and marks the start of the war of Mexican independence from Spain.

The Battle of Puebla pitted 2,000 Mexican troops against 6,000 French. At the end of the day, almost 500 French soldiers were killed while Mexican forces lost less than 100 men. The French retreated though it would take six more years - and more battles - to convince the French to exit Mexico.

Cinco de Mayo - which literally translates to "May 5" - is not Mexican Independence Day, which is celebrated on Sept. 16, and marks the start of the war of Mexican independence from Spain.

In the U.S., Cinco de Mayo celebrations were first held in California in the 1860s, marked among the hundreds of Mexican miners who had crossed the border to work in the west. The celebration spread as Hispanic culture grew in the U.S., getting a commercial boost in the 1980s when restaurants and bars began cashing in on the event.

Cinco de Mayo is not a national holiday in Mexico, though many schools close and a larger celebration is held in the State of Puebla, where the battle took place.
New Delhi, May 5 : In a direct barb aimed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday raised the issue of non-decentralisation of power amid the Covid-19 crisis to Nobel laureate Abhijeet Banerjee, who said there is a misconception that strong leaders can fight the virus better, as the US and Brazil have evidently messed it up.

"That has been disastrous. The US and Brazil are two countries that are messing up right and left. These are two strongmen behaving like.. pretending like... they understand anything.. but even what they say every day is kind of laughable.

"If anyone wanted to believe in the strongman theory, this is the time to dissuade themselves," Banerjee told Gandhi during a conversation on the economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis as part of a series of discussion with experts.

The professor was replying to a query "What is being sold is that it requires one man to charge in against the virus" underlying undercurrent is that strong leaders can take on this virus.

This question is considered a direct barb against Prime Minister Narendra Modi whom the Congress has accused of ignoring the suggestions made by the opposition.

The supporters of the Prime Minister consider him a strong leader who takes tough decisions, including the announcement of the lockdown.

The Congress is alleging that the Prime Minister himself takes decisions and there is no decentralisation of powers and states are not taken into confidence.

When asked by Rahul on the decentralisation, Banerjee replied, "This is a tension and clearly the migrant movement question cannot be handled by a state government. It is a bit odd that it is being handled so much bilaterally. In a sense, I feel like that is a problem." He said that the issue of migrants should be dealt by the Union Government.

"This is a place where you don't want to decentralise because you want to actually aggregate the information. If this is a population of people who were very infected, you don't want them to be moving through the whole country.

"I feel this is a place where we should have tested people where they are allowed to board a train or something. That is a central question, and something that only a federal government can do. Tell the government of Uttar Pradesh that you cannot just bring your migrants home."

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Why did you start IndiaRises Initiative?

The reason behind this mission called IndiaRises Initiative is to allow people to spend time with their families while still earning a steady income.

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What is the USP of IndiaRises Initiative?

The USP of using IndiaRises Initiative is that you can spend time with your family without having to worry about a steady income. It helps you handle both personal and professional lives at an easy pace through this revolutionary money-making system.

What is Dropshipping exactly?

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When did you begin your career?

I began my career in 2007 with dabbling in internet marketing and affiliate offers. My first associations were with Clickbank, Warrior Forum, etc. Ive done a lot of things. I have lost a lot of money through testing and trying different opportunities over the years.

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What are your other ventures apart from IndiaRises Initiative?

Till date, Ive launched multiple digital programs such as the following 

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Having an insight into personal finance, I also used that to write a book TheBreedBusiness: From Dogs to Dollars. Through this book, Ive shown passionate pet-owners how they can create a six-figure business through pets. This book showcases the complete process to start your own unique pet print products business and how you can launch in as less as 60 minutes.

What are your future plans?

Through my company, I am keen to create thousands of more jobs, especially in the digital marketing sector. These jobs would be based throughout India, Europe and North America.

Disclaimer: This is a company press release. No HT journalist is involved in creation of this content.

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SEYMOUR  Residents soon will be able to weigh in on towns proposed budget, as they are every year  just not in person this year amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The pandemic has forced the public hearing on the proposed 2020-21 budget to take place online. A Zoom teleconference meeting has been scheduled for 7 p.m. May 12.

Public comment, however, will not happen during the virtual meeting, in an effort to prevent any audio drop-outs or lags in the video, which tends to happen if too many try to speak at the same time, according to First Selectman Kurt Miller.

That doesnt mean Miller and the Board of Finance dont want to hear from residents. Comments and questions are welcome and encouraged, they just need to be submitted by email to rburke@seymourct.org.

The proposed $58.1 million budget holds the line on taxes for the fifth consecutive year, keeping the tax rate at 36 mills.

The finance board didnt want to further burden residents who may be financially struggling from losing income because of the health crisis, according to Chairman Bill Sawicki.

A lot of people are suffering from layoffs and furloughs during this COVID-19 mess were all in, Sawicki said during the boards virtual meeting April 22. This virus has thrown everything and everyone for a loop. Our main concern with this pandemic has to be the residents and not to put any more of a burden on them.

The proposed budget represents a 1.2 percent increase over the current budget, and includes $34.6 million for the Board of Education, and about $23.4 million for the towns side of expenses.

In order to keep the tax rate flat, the town will use about $228,000 from its rainy day fund.

Sawicki had said using money from the fund balance is necessary in light of the current economic environment caused by the pandemic, and isnt being done to build an artificially low mill rate.

Miller said the proposed budget contains no frills, and takes into account spikes in retirement pensions and employee health insurance benefits.

Following the May 12 hearing, and after reviewing residents comments, the finance board then has sole authority this year to vote on the budget. During normal times, residents get the final say on the budget at a townwide referendum. But due to social distancing guidelines, the town opted to suspend in-person voting this year, and give the finance board the authority to approve a budget in accordance with Gov. Ned Lamonts executive orders.

The finance boards next regular (virtual) meeting is May 26, at which time Sawicki said the board will take formal action to adopt the budget.

More information about the proposed budget can be found online at www.seymourct.org. To watch the meeting from a computer, tablet or smartphone, people need to have the Zoom app downloaded. The Zoom meeting ID is: 874 3599 4126. Those who want to listen in from their phones can call 646-558-8656.

jean.sos@snet.net
In fact, OSHAs statistics tell a troubling story. In fiscal 2019, OSHA reported receiving 2,084 complaints of retaliation under Section 11(c) of the OSH Act, 29 U.S.C.  660(c). Of those, 545 complaints were settled, OSHA dismissed 1,067, and only 14 resulted in a finding of merit. As a labor lawyer, I know that record simply is not good enough to encourage workers to speak up about the lack of protection in their workplaces. The 1,067 employees in 2019 who did not get a merit finding from OSHA have no right to a hearing and no right to go to court. If the meat and poultry industries response to the novel coronavirus has told us anything, with employees dying from the virus and the survivors concealing their identities when telling their stories for fear of losing their jobs, it is that Congress needs to modernize this antiquated whistleblower protection.
Punjab reported a big spike of 219 coronavirus disease cases on Tuesday out of which 174 of those infected were pilgrims who returned from Nanded gurdwara in Maharashtra, officials said. With the fresh cases, the state tally rose to 1,451 while it reported two fatalities taking the toll to 25.

The Nanded pilgrims now account for 67 % (969) of the total 1,451 coronavirus cases detected so far in the state, a health official said. Officials said the death toll in the state rose to 25 after a 55-year-old Hoshiarpur man and a 22-year-old woman from Amritsar succumbed to the infection. So far, 133 patients have recovered from the disease, officials said.

The maximum 48 fresh cases surfaced in Gurdaspur, followed by 47 in Tarn Taran and 34 in Fazilka, a medical bulletin said.

Twenty-seven people were found infected with the virus in Faridkot; 22 in Sangrur; 15 in Muktsar; 14 in Ludhiana; six in Jalandhar; five in Kapurthala; and one in Patiala.

Five Covid-19 patientsfour from Patiala and one from Pathankot--were discharged from hospitals after recovery.

Amritsar continued to top the coronavirus tally with 218 coronavirus cases in the state, followed by Jalandhar (134); Ludhiana (124); Mohali (95); Hoshiarpur (88); Patiala and Tarn Taran (87 each); SBS Nagar and Sangrur (85 each); Gurdaspur (84); Muktsar (64); Faridkot (45); Ferozepur (42); Fazilka (38); Bathinda (36); Moga (28); Pathankot (27); Barnala (19); Kapurthala (18); Mansa (17); Fatehgarh Sahib (16); and Rupnagar (14). A total of 30,199 samples have been taken so far in the state, of which, 23,352 tested negative for the infection. Reports of 5,396 samples are awaited.

(With PTI inputs)
Colombia Denies Involvement in Failed Boat Invasion of Venezuela

Sputnik News

03:14 GMT 04.05.2020

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Colombia is rejecting Venezuela's claims that it was involved in the failed boat invasion on Sunday, Colombia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

"The Foreign Ministry, on behalf of the National Government, rejects the claims that have been made by the dictatorial regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro trying to blame our country for alleged destabilization events", the ministry said on Sunday.

The ministry claimed that the Venezuelan government is trying to deflect attention from the real problems in Venezuela, from the "internal crisis" it is facing.

The Venezuelan military was on a heightened level of alert on Sunday after foiling a pre-dawn boat attack by armed men described by the government as Colombian militants.

Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said the attackers tried to invade the northern state of La Guaira on high-speed boats. Eight militants were killed and two others were captured, one of them was an agent of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, Reverol said.

The Venezuelan Defene Ministry said it had seized weapons similar to those used in a failed coup attempt on 30 April. The military searched the sea bottom near the beach where the attack took place for more weapons after one of the boats capsized.

Russian Ambassador in Caracas Sergey Melik-Bagdasarov said that the attempted boat invasion was organized in order to bring weapons to Venezuela to be later used to destabilize the situation in the country and stage a coup.

"It is widely known, and several media have reported on this multiple times, that in areas bordering Venezuela special military training camps are operating where they train militants, including former Venezuelan servicemen, deserters, who gave in for the promised 10,000 dollars. However, instead of a generous reward for their betrayal, they were recruited, convinced that now they need to free their homeland from dictatorship", Melik-Bagdasarov explained.

The Russian ambassador added that the United States supports the armed groups that organize various acts of sabotage and terror in Venezuela.

"On the night of 3 May, the Venezuelan security forces stopped another attempt to illegally import into the Venezuelan territory a batch of weapons used to organize terrorist attacks, various sabotage acts, and destabilize the situation in order to overthrow the legitimate government of Venezuela led by Nicolas Maduro. So who are these criminals who staged another coup attempt?" Melik-Bagdasarov said, adding that "it is such mercenaries - the products of a factory of terror and murder, fostered with the support of the US - that comprise such armed groups, one of which was neutralized today".

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has repeatedly denounced groups receiving support from Colombia and the US, accusing them of seeking "to undermine the stability of our homeland with violent actions". Last month, Maduro announced the mobilization of artillery in strategic areas to protect the country from incursion.

 Sputnik

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The Philippines' top broadcaster ABS-CBN was forced off air on Tuesday over a stalled operating licence renewal, drawing fresh accusations that the authorities are cracking down on press freedom. Since running afoul of President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016, ABS-CBN has seen proposals to extend its franchise languish in Congress as the leader repeatedly attacked the conglomerate in speeches. Duterte is notorious for tangling with media outlets critical of his policies, sparking concern that press freedoms have been eroded in the Philippines. "It's painful for us that we are being shut down, but it's also painful for millions of our countrymen who believe that our service is important to them," chairman Mark Lopez told viewers just before the main channel went dark. Outside the company's broadcast compound, a handful of supporters waved placards against a backdrop of burning candles. ABS-CBN's 25-year licence expired on Monday, but officials had previously given assurances the radio, TV and internet giant would be allowed to operate provisionally. However, the National Telecommunications Commission's cease-and-desist order on Tuesday cited the expiration and said the outfit's operators would have to appeal for a return to the airwaves. Early in his term, Duterte accused the network of failing to broadcast his 2016 campaign advertisements and not returning the payments made for them. - 'Dark day'- Pressure groups said the shutdown order was an assault on the right to free speech, as the conglomerate broadcasts news coverage watched by millions daily. The shutdown also comes as the nation battles to contain the coronavirus pandemic and an accompanying flood of online disinformation. "This is a very serious blow to press freedom in the Philippines," said Carlos Conde of Human Rights Watch. "It's hard to think that Duterte doesn't have anything to do with this." Amnesty International's Butch Olano said the move was "especially reckless as the country deals with the COVID-19 pandemic". "This is a dark day for media freedom in the Philippines, reminiscent of martial law when the dictatorship seized control over news agencies." It appeared the broadcaster would get its renewal after publicly apologising to Duterte earlier this year. However, government lawyer Jose Calida had filed a legal case that sought ABS-CBN's immediate closure. Although the Supreme Court has yet to rule on the case, Calida warned it would be unlawful for the broadcaster to operate after its licence expired. Several major media outlets have suffered the consequences after battling Duterte. Journalist Maria Ressa faces years behind bars, after publishing critical stories on her website Rappler -- which is now also battling a government closure effort. Both Rappler and ABS-CBN are accused of violating a constitutional ban on foreign ownership of mass media outlets, allegations they deny.
Donors in Ireland have sent money to native American tribes badly hit by the coronavirus to repay a debt from the Great Famine.

Over 70 people have died with Covid-19 in the Navajo Nation, which lies across parts of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.

Navajo and Hopi families set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for food, water, essential supplies and personal protective equipment, which has raised more than $1.6m (1.3m).

Several donations came from Ireland, inspired by the help provided by the Choctaw Nation tribe during the Great Famine.

The native American tribe donated $170  the equivalent of $5,000 today  to help the Irish people in 1847.

Around 60,000 native Americans, including the Choctaw, had suffered through the Trail of Tears, a series of forced relocations from their ancestral homelands during which thousands died from starvation, disease and exposure.

A message from one Irish donor, Pat Hayes, said: From Ireland, 170 years later, the favour is returned!

To our native American brothers and sisters in your moment of hardship.

One of the campaigns organisers, Vanessa Tulley, wrote: The heartache is real.

We have lost so many of our sacred Navajo elders and youth to Covid-19. It is truly devastating. And a dark time in history for our Nation.

In moments like these, we are so grateful for the love and support we have received from all around the world. Acts of kindness from indigenous ancestors passed being reciprocated nearly 200 years later through blood memory and interconnectedness.

Thank you, Ireland, for showing solidarity and being here for us.
Brasilia, May 5 : Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has appointed Rolando Alexandre de Souza as the new director general of the Federal Police (PF), according to a decree.

De Souza's nomination was made official on Monday five days after Supreme Federal Court (STF) judge Alexandre de Moraes suspended Alexandre Ramagem's nomination for the position, calling his nomination an alleged "deviation from purpose", as Ramagem is a friend of the President's children and was the head of Bolsonaro's security team during his campaign and through his inauguration, reports Xinhua news agency.

Ramagem was initially selected by Bolsonaro to replace Mauricio Valeixo, a man trusted by the former Minister of Justice and Public Security, Sergio Moro.

Moro resigned in protest on April 24 over the dismissal of Valeixo, accusing Bolsonaro of trying to interfere in the PF, which has caused the most serious political crisis since the president assumed power in January 2019.

Alexandre de Souza is a career officer and also held leadership positions in the Division of Combating Financial Crimes within the PF.

In September 2019, Alexandre de Souza became Secretary of Planning and Management for the Brazilian Intelligence Agency at the invitation of Ramagem.
NEW YORK  Had there been no coronavirus pandemic, Americas largest mainline Protestant denomination would be convening this week for a likely vote to break up over differences on same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBTQ pastors.

Instead, the United Methodist Church was forced to postpone the potentially momentous conference, leaving its various factions in limbo for perhaps 16 more months. The deep doctrinal differences seem irreconcilable, but for now theres agreement that response to the pandemic takes priority.

The people who are really in trauma right now cannot pay the price of our differences, said Kenneth Carter, the Florida-based president of the UMCs Council of Bishops. What is in our minds and hearts is responding to death, illness, grief, loss of work.

The conference was to have taken place at the Minneapolis Convention Center starting Tuesday, running through May 15. Instead, bishops are proposing to hold it there Aug. 31-Sept. 10 of next year.

The differences have simmered for years, and came to a head in February 2019 at a conference in St. Louis where delegates voted 438-384 for a proposal strengthening bans on LGBTQ-inclusive practices. Most U.S.-based delegates opposed that plan and favored LGBTQ-friendly options; they were outvoted by U.S. conservatives teamed with most of the delegates from Methodist strongholds in Africa and the Philippines.

In the aftermath of that meeting, many moderate and liberal clergy made clear they would not abide by the bans, and various groups worked throughout 2019 on proposals to let the UMC split along theological lines.

There have been at least four different proposals for how to implement a split.

The most widely discussed plan has a long name  the Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation  and some high-level support.

It was negotiated by 16 bishops and advocacy group leaders with differing views on LGBTQ inclusion. They were assisted by renowned mediator Kenneth Feinberg, who administered victim compensation funds stemming from the 9/11 attacks and the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Under the protocol, conservative congregations and regional bodies would be allowed to separate from the UMC and form a new denomination. They would receive $25 million in UMC funds and be able to keep their properties.

Formed in a merger in 1968, the UMC claims about 12.6 million members worldwide, including nearly 7 million in the United States. Leaders of the various factions have avoided making predictions of how many members might leave for a new denomination.

In hopes of minimizing friction, the protocol calls for a moratorium on enforcement of bans related to LGBTQ issues. Most bishops seem comfortable with that proposal, although Virginia-based Bishop Sharma Lewis approved initial disciplinary proceedings against a pastor in her region who officiated at a same-sex marriage.

There have been tangible benefits for one of the protocol negotiators, the Rev. David Meredith, who entered into a same-sex marriage with his long-time partner while serving as a pastor in Cincinnati.

The bishop of Merediths West Ohio region, Gregory Palmer, also served on the protocol team and endorsed the moratorium that freezes ongoing judicial proceedings against Meredith.

Everything that has been a threat is now in a drawer collecting dust, Meredith said.

Some conservatives worry that further flouting of the bans will occur ahead of the rescheduled national conference.

For any clergy to try to use this interim to willfully violate their own vows  would demonstrate an extreme lack of integrity and self-control, said John Lomperis, who works with the conservative Institute on Religion & Democracy and will be a delegate at next years conference.

Lomperis is among a faction of UMC conservatives, now eager to form a new denomination, who worry that bishops supporting LGBTQ inclusion will use the delay to tilt outcomes in their favor during decision-making by regional bodies.

The Rev. Tom Lambrecht, general manager of the conservative Methodist magazine Good News, said he and his allies have heard of instances where liberal pastors were appointed to lead conservative congregations and where small conservative churches were closed.

We will be vigilant to call out such behavior after the coronavirus crisis passes, Lambrecht said via email.

Some conservatives complain that the proposed $25 million payment to a new traditionalist denomination is unfairly small.

But the Rev. Tom Berlin of Herndon, Virginia, a supporter of LGBTQ inclusion who served on the protocol team, says the proposal is generous in allowing departing churches to keep their property.

The majority of the wealth in the UMC is found in the real estate and bank accounts of the local churches, he said. The protocol allows them to retain that.

Berlin says debate over LGBTQ policies is on the back burner for now.

Once we get out of this, well get back to the future of the UMC, he said. But now, churches of all varieties are working to respond to this pandemic in positive ways.

Support for the protocol is far from unanimous, though its backers predict it will win majority support next year. One dissenting faction, known as the liberationists, believes the proposal doesnt go far enough in curbing racism, sexism and anti-LGBTQ sentiment within the UMC.

A leaders of that faction, the Rev. Jay Williams of Union Church in Boston, hopes local churches will use the coming year to innovate and adapt without awaiting top-down directives.

I hope that we might claim this moment as an opportunity to courageously confront the systemic oppressions that have plagued our denomination since its beginning, he said via email.

When the conference does convene, the African delegates will be a key voting bloc. In St. Louis, they were pivotal in approving the strengthened bans on LGBTQ-inclusive practices.

The Rev. Keith Boyette, president of the conservative Wesleyan Covenant Association and one of the protocol negotiators, has met with many African delegates. He says they have pledged support for the protocol, but want some changes  for example, giving them the option of retaining the words United Methodist in the name of whatever new traditionalist body they join.

Bishop John Yambasu of Sierra Leone, the lone African among the protocol negotiators, said the proposal was by no means perfect but seemed to be the most acceptable option.

In an email, he depicted the pandemic as a holy call to action from God. to make make Christian disciples for the transformation of the world.
When it became clear that her mom wasnt going to recover, Bender had her transferred to JourneyCare hospice in Barrington to live out her final days. Her room had a little patio, and Bender and her husband were able to sit outside and talk to Morello through a screen door. They did that for hours.
SOUTHBOROUGH, Mass., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cable Matters, an industry-leading supplier of connectivity solutions, today launched a new all-in-one Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C docking station, solving a costly compatibility problem in the docking station market. The new Cable Matters Thunderbolt 3 Docking Station with Dual 4K DisplayPort & 60W Power Delivery takes advantage of a dedicated chipset to seamlessly switch between full Thunderbolt 3 mode and USB-C mode depending on the capability of the host device.

Cable Matters Launches Its First All-In-One Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C Docking Station

Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C share the same plug form factor but are very different technologies. Thunderbolt 3 boasts 40Gbps of high-speed bandwidth  up to four times as much bandwidth as USB-C only. Until now, Thunderbolt 3 docking stations were only compatible with laptops with Thunderbolt 3. Consumers searching for an all-in-one solution for multiple devices either compromised with a slower device or purchased two docking stations.

Taking advantage of the Intel Titan Ridge, the docking station detects if the connected host supports Thunderbolt 3 or USB-C only, and automatically switches its operation mode to accommodate either connection. This solution allows consumers to use the docking station with a high-performance laptop with Thunderbolt 3 ports, and their USB-C devices.

The docking station features two DisplayPort ports for connecting external monitors, two USB-C ports for connecting smartphones and USB-C devices, three USB-A ports for connecting flash drives, mice, and other peripherals, a 3.5mm audio jack for connecting headphones or a headset, and a Gigabit Ethernet port for wired network access. One USB-A and the two USB-C ports support speeds of up to 10Gbps, while previous Thunderbolt 3 docking stations were limited to 5Gbps USB ports. The host USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 connector features Power Delivery support, which can charge the host device with up to 60W of power.

Docking station features include:

Thunderbolt 3 Mode: 40Gbps bandwidth, supporting up to one [email protected] display or dual [email protected] displays

40Gbps bandwidth, supporting up to one [email protected] display or dual [email protected] displays USB-C Mode (Windows/Linux): 10Gbps bandwidth, supporting up to one [email protected] display or dual [email protected] displays

10Gbps bandwidth, supporting up to one [email protected] display or dual [email protected] displays USB-C Mode (Mac): 10Gbps bandwidth, supporting up to one [email protected] display

10Gbps bandwidth, supporting up to one [email protected] display Docking Station Ports: 2x DisplayPort, 2x USB-C, 3x USB-A, 1x 3.5mm audio, 1x Gigabit Ethernet

2x DisplayPort, 2x USB-C, 3x USB-A, 1x 3.5mm audio, 1x Gigabit Ethernet Power Delivery: Up to 60W

The Cable Matters Thunderbolt 3 Docking Station with Dual 4K DisplayPort & 60W Power Delivery is now available for purchase at cablematters.com.

About Cable Matters

Cable Matters, with headquarters in Southborough, Massachusetts, offers a complete line of cables, adapters, docking stations, and networking products for the home, office, and data center. Cable Matters offers first-class quality products, backed by exceptional customer service, at an affordable price. Established in 2009, Cable Matters serves markets in the U.S., Canada, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Japan.

Cable Matters is a registered trademark of Cable Matters Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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UPDATED

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has made educational choice a priority during her tenure; her move last week to offer microgrants for parents using coronavirus emergency aid is one recent example. And her department just issued a new directive about that relief money that illustrates the extent to which shes also focused specifically on private schools.

Under the Every Student Succeeds Act , children who are failing or a risk of failing, live in public school attendance areas with high concentrations of students from low-income families, and attend private schools, are entitled to receive whats called equitable services from the local public school district. The local district and a private school can negotiate over what services will be provided and how theyll be providedbut theyre paid for by the public school system.



These services, which are covered Title I and other ESSA programs, can be things like parent-training activities and professional development for educators teaching those private school students. More details from the U.S. Department of Education can be found here .

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which was signed into law in March and provides billions in aid to K-12 schools, says districts shall provide equitable services in the same manner as provided under ESSAs Title I for educating disadvantaged students.

Late last week, the Education Department released guidance on equitable services for the CARES Act. This guidance, which amounts to the departments interpretation of the law, says that when a school district sets aside CARES Act money for equitable services, All students and teachers in a non-public school are eligible to receive equitable services under the CARES Act programs.



Why? The new guidance notes that unlike Title I programs, CARES Act aid is clearly available to all public school students as well as their teachers. For CARES Act services to be equitable in comparison to public school students and teachers, the guidance continues, it follows that the same principles must apply in providing equitable services to non-public school students and teachers.

What could that interpretation mean in practical terms? Because the guidance says all students can receive equitable services and not just the student groups specified in ESSA, it could direct a lot more pandemic relief money to services for private school students. More on the potential financial impact for schools in a bit.

Notably, the guidance highlights several areas where, unlike what we highlighted above, providing equitable services under the CARES Act should work the same way it does under ESSAs Title I, such as how funding for equitable services is determined. For-profit private schools, by the way, cant participate in equitable services under the CARES Act, the guidance states.

(Governors and state education departments can set aside relatively small shares of CARES Act money for specific populations of students; the department says its new guidance for equitable services doesnt apply to those set-asides.)

The Education Departments guidance includes a basic chart for how this would work; in that chart, GEER is the governors CARES Act education fund, and ESSER is the CARES fund earmarked mostly for school districts:

Where could this have a sizeable impact? Think of a big city, for example, where theres a school district with a large population of disadvantaged students, along with several private schools.

Private schools arent required to participate in equitable services. But this guidance could make negotiating for equitable services using CARES money a lot more interesting to private schools.

Under equitable services, districts dont simply send cash to private schools: Its about services, not strictly dollars. But money is fungible, and the potential for expanded equitable services from school districts could lead private schools to change how they allocate their resources. So if you think DeVos guidance could help private schools that are struggling during the coronavirus economic slide, youre probably not alone.

Private Schools Have Been Hit Hard

We asked Michael Schluttloffel, the executive director of the Council for American Private Education, about this guidance and what it could mean for private schools.

Private schools have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, as they must rely upon tuition and philanthropy in order to survive, Schutlloffel wrote in an email. With millions of Americans losing their jobs and the economy plunging into recession, the continued existence of many private schools is in question. Of the 5 million students in private schools, he said, many are low income.

Schuttloffel noted that if private schools have to shut their doors, untold numbers of private school students would suddenly show up at public schools at the same time that public schools are seeking their own assistance to help them weather the slumping economy.

It stands to reason that in a time of crisis, this policy would be reaffirmed so that private schools can continue to educate their students and provide a safe environment for all who enter their doors, Schluttloffel wrote.

The Education Department stressed that the provision of the law in question provides services for private school students and not cash payments. The department did not respond to questions about the reasoning behind key aspects of the guidance, or whether the guidance is intended in part to help private schools.

Some say the guidance distorts the purpose of equitable services in general. Its not a program to provide funding for the rich kid in the private school, said Noelle Ellerson Ng, the associate executive director of AASA, the School Administrators Association. Its a misallocation of federal dollars.

Since districts share of CARES Act aid is based on their enrollment of disadvantaged kids used for their share of Title I aid, it doesnt make sense, critics argue, to force school districts to turn around and set aside money for equitable services for all private school students. Ng added that shes still waiting for the department to put out guidance on other key issues, such as the extent to which states must maintain current K-12 spending in order to tap CARES money.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees the education departments budget, said the CARES Act clearly intends equitable services to focus on low-income student populations and not all students attending private schools. Secretary DeVos appears to be exploiting emergency relief legislation in order to advance her political agenda, DeLauro said in a statement about the new guidance. The Trump administration cannot pick and choose which parts of the CARES Act they agree with to implementthe Secretary needs to implement the law as it was written.

Theres a certain logic to what the department is proposing, because the pandemic is having a broad, negative affect on all schools and students, said Julia Martin, the legislative director for Brustein and Manasevit, an education-focused law firm. But ultimately, the guidance runs counter to what Congress intended when it passed the CARES Act, she said.

The people who are best insulated from the pandemic are white-collar people who send their kids to private schools, she said. I think there are more arguments against it than in favor of it.

A Louisiana analysis of the guidances potential impact on the state found that it could result in a $22.9 million increase, or a 267 percent rise, in the amount of money 69 school districts would have to reserve for equitable services for private schools. That represents roughly 10 percent of the states CARES money that is earmarked for school districts.

For a little context, recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics found that Louisiana had 1.6 percent of the nations private schools, and 2.6 percent of the nations private school student enrollment.

And the Council of Chief State School Officers wrote to DeVos Tuesday to criticize the move in the letter, CCSSO Executive Director Carissa Moffat Miller told the education secretary that the guidance could significantly harm the vulnerable students who were intended to benefit the most from the critical federal COVID-19 education relief funds.

Miller asked DeVos to clarify the guidance by advising districts to set aside the same share of CARES aid for equitable services as they previously did under Title I; however, that clarification would essentially overturn the key point in the guidance. Other education groups, including the two national teachers unions, sent a similar letter to DeVos on Tuesday as well.

Remember that this new document from the feds is guidance. The guidance doesnt constitute regulations and it doesnt have the force of law. And it doesnt impact equitable services under ESSA. Yet as with any form of federal guidance, many districts might not want to run afoul of the departments interpretation of the law.

Private schools have played an interesting role in federal coronavirus emergency relief:



Some private schools sought and received money through the Paycheck Protection Program that distributes loanswhich can convert to grants under certain circumstancesintended help qualifying small businesses and nonprofit organizations retain staff during economic turmoil caused by the pandemic. When news outlets reported that well-heeled private schools had obtained this aid, they were scolded U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin , who said they should return the money. Mnuchins children, as it happens, attend a private school that got a PPP loan.

, who said they should return the money. Mnuchins children, as it happens, attend a private school that got a PPP loan. On April 26, we noted that in its application for state education agencies to seek CARES Act money, the department emphasized equitable services a few times . In retrospect, perhaps the Education Department was telegraphing additional forthcoming guidance on the issue.

In 2018, DeVos eased restrictions on contractors with religious affiliations providing equitable services. The secretary said those restrictions ran counter to the Supreme Courts 2017 ruling in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer, which found that a Missouri program that denied a church the opportunity to apply for a grant for playground resurfacing was unconstitutional.

Also in 2018, DeVos change the departments organizational chart so that its office of nonpublic education would report directly to her office .

Photo: Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos walks in with Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., right, to testify before a House committee hearing. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP-File)

Follow us on Twitter @PoliticsK12 . And follow the Politics K-12 reporters @EvieBlad @Daarel and @AndrewUjifusa .
The modern corporate office is renowned for open, collaborative workspaces, in-house coffee bars and standing desks with room for two giant computer monitors.

Soon, there may be a new must-have perk: the sneeze guard.

This Plexiglas barrier that can be mounted on a desk is one of many ideas being mulled by employers as they contemplate a return to the workplace after coronavirus lockdowns. Their post-pandemic makeovers may include hand sanitizers built into desks that are positioned at 90-degree angles or that are enclosed by translucent plastic partitions; air filters that push air down and not up; outdoor gathering space to allow collaboration without viral transmission; and windows that actually open, for freer air flow.

The conversation about how to reconfigure the American workplace is taking place throughout the business world, from small startups to giant Wall Street firms. The design and furniture companies that have been hired for the makeovers say the virus may even be tilting workplaces back toward a concept they had been moving away from since the Mad Men era: privacy.

The question is whether any of the changes being contemplated will actually result in safer workplaces.

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

We are not infectious disease experts, we are simply furniture people, said Tracy D. Wymer, vice president for workplace at Knoll, a company that makes office furniture and has been engaged by anxious clients, including some of the countrys largest corporations, to come up with ways to make workplaces less of a health risk.

The actual disease experts say that a virus-free office environment is a pipe dream. Dr. Rajneesh Behal, an internal medicine physician and the chief quality officer of One Medical, a primary-care chain that recently held a webinar for businesses on how to reopen, said, A core message is, do not expect your risk goes down to zero.

Much of what is known on the subject of workplace and disease transmission comes from studies about workplace transmission of the flu, which shares some similarities with the novel coronavirus, said Dr. Lisa Winston, the hospital epidemiologist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General at the University of California, San Francisco. We know that flu spreads in workplaces among healthy working adults, she said. A 2016 analysis of various research papers from around the world found that around 16% of flu transmission takes place in the office.

The research also shows that one of the best ways to prevent transmission has nothing to do with furniture or layout; slowing the spread comes from letting potentially sick workers stay home with pay so they dont feel pressure to come into work. Keeping contagious people at home can reduce transmission numbers by as much as a third.

Another basic step to lower risk, Winston said, is simply having fewer people in a space.

That is a concept that runs counter to the workplace zeitgeist of the past two decades. The embrace of open floor plans stretches back to the first dot-com boom in the late 1990s. It was hailed as essential to collaboration and creativity, but is, of course, also about cramming more people into expensive office space, a situation that people now realize creates unnerving petri-dish conditions.

Wymer of Knoll, the furniture design company, said his goal had changed from making offices virus-free, which is impractical, to remaking them so that workers feel safer.

We cant ask employees to come back to the same office, he said. Companies feel we have to address the root fear.

For now, that may mean no more shared desks (a concept in the business world known as hoteling), elbow-to-elbow seating or cafes where people congregate to chat about a project over a fruit water or hazelnut latte. It could mean more use of materials, like copper, that are less hospitable to germs, and reconfiguring ventilation systems that flow air from the ceiling down rather than the floor up, which is considered safer.

Mobify, a Vancouver, British Columbia, company that builds online storefronts for major retailers like Under Armour and Lancome, has 40 employees who share space with other startups. Its the epitome of the 21st century workplace with side-by-side desks in a row, sans partitions, and open space for a total of 100 people at full capacity to congregate for meetings, or for playing Ping-Pong and pool.

Now, Igor Faletksi, the companys chief executive, said, Its less about fun and more about safety.

Huge buffets? he said, Forget about that for now.

Faletksi is contemplating allowing more employees to work from home and even moving headquarters to a new building with better air circulation and more outdoor space.

People want to have safe collaboration, he said.

Some companies have begun mentioning a return to one of historys more derided office-design concepts: the cubicle. There is talk also of the cubicles see-through cousin, known as the sneeze guard.

Cough and Sneeze Protection Screens, is how they are being marketed by the California company Obex P.E. in emails to potential customers. Plenty of options to fit your style and needs, the email says, adding: Decrease person-to-person contact. Practice Social Distancing.

These guards already have a home in banks and grocery stores, but they are getting a new push into the corporate office space.

Add tall laminate gallery panels to workstations or benching stations is suggested in a 12-page Power Point report called COVID 19 and The Future of Furniture produced by CRBE, one of the worlds largest commercial real estate firms.

Taller plastic barriers that extend over desks have long been in use at an office run by one of the countrys top infectious disease experts, Dr. Susan Huang, medical director of epidemiology and infection prevention at the University of California, Irvine. The barriers werent designed for coronavirus, Huang said, but, rather, to maintain a sense of collaboration while cutting down noise. Now, the barriers may have an added benefit of creating some biological isolation.

But Huang said that safety in the workplace would require more than plastic shields. In fact, her lab reopened last week, and the first thing she did was hold a meeting to explain the new hygiene rules. At a meeting in the conference room, Huang gave each employee a bottle of hand sanitizer and a mask. I had to tell them youre going to wear a mask all day long, she said, and tell them how to do it right and that they have to do it.

And dont touch your mask without first using your hand sanitizer, she recalled saying at that meeting.

For smaller companies, the changes may be more modest but the issue weighs just as heavily. Howard Cao, chief executive officer of Form & Fiction, a startup incubator in San Francisco, said he had been thinking about changing out the touch-pad at the front door to the office that his seven employees shared with workers from other startups. Well probably have to reconfigure that into something with Bluetooth or a key fob, Cao said.

Inside the office, he is looking to create physical space or barriers between employees who sit together at long tables. It may be as simple as a mini-divider between people, he said.

Like a cubicle?

Yes, he conceded, though its not a nice word for him. Ive always been very anti-cubicle, he said.

The proposed changes to the offices have struck some as more cosmetic than substantive, especially the sneeze guard.

I call it social distancing theater, like TSA security theater after 9/11, said Ron Wiener, chief executive of iMovR, a Seattle company that designs standing desks that are used at many large employers, from Google and Facebook to the Department of Defense.

In the end, the solution for many employers may not be to spend a lot of money on outfitting their new office spaces, but rather simply having many employees continue to work at home, as a way to accomplish two goals: keeping people safe and saving money.

This is the punchline of a story about the post-pandemic office makeover. In the name of safety, there is likely to be a long, hard look at money, too. In this case, the goals may go together like hand-in-protective-glove.

Moving to home offices has worked really great, said Susan Stick, general counsel at Evernote, a maker of digital note-taking programs with 282 employees. You cant put that genie back into the bottle.

c.2020 The New York Times Company
Members of the Xingguang Church were meeting at a private home to pray. Their Church has refused to join the state-approved Three-Self Patriotic Association. Members of the Early Rain Covenant Church have also been arrested.

Xiamen (AsiaNews/RFA)  Nine Protestants have been arrested and several have been beaten in a raid by the police and Religious Affairs Bureau in Xiamen on Sunday.

The group of Christians had gathered in a private home for an informal prayer meeting when hundreds of agents forced their way into the house ordering an end to the religious meeting.

Mayhem followed as some of those present resisted. Some of the Christians suffered cracked ribs and bruises on arms and legs as police dragged them away.

Those arrested belong to the Xingguang Church, an unofficial Protestant community.

According to its pastor, Rev Yang Xibo, the raid was likely due to the Churchs refusal to join the Three-Self Patriotic Association, the state-approved Protestant body.

China has an estimated 80 million Protestants, but only 23 million belong to the Three-Self Patriotic Association, considered by some to be a, easy tool in the hands of the atheist regime.

For many years, the Communist Party of China has tried to eliminate underground Protestant communities if they do not submit to the official organisation.

Recently, some members of the Early Rain Covenant Church were arrested in Chengdu (Sichuan) for organising online meetings and liturgical services.

Under new regulations on religious activities, the Internet is off limits to religious services. However, under lockdown conditions caused by the coronavirus outbreak, the authorities relented a bit, allowing some services to be carried online.

However, this does not apply to Early Rain Covenant Church, which is under a total ban. its founder, Rev Wang Yi, was arrested last December and sentenced to nine years in prison for "subversion.

In addition to the Early Rain Covenant Church, the government has closed several other Protestant churches. These include Rongguili Church in Guangzhou and the Xunsiding Church in Xiamen.

As repression against Protestant Churches  and Catholic communities  has increased, the Communist Party has turned to extolling nationalism, accusing Christian communities of promoting "harmful Western ideas".
Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

05.05.2020 LISTEN

Even though by 2015, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had performed below the high expectations of many Nigerians and had rightly earned their rejection, I highly dreaded the disastrous possibility of Nigerians falling for the massive, overwhelming but vacuous propaganda of the All Progressives Congress (APC), backed by a formidable coalition of tragically naive activists, intellectuals and opinion leaders, to seriously consider that the APC could by the widest stretch of the imagination, qualify as even a manageable alternative.

There was massive corruption in the PDP, but it was just impossible for me to buy the tasteless myth that the APC which was mostly made up of the very characters that gave the PDP its unwholesome image could, no matter the relentless efforts of their tireless spin doctors, qualify to be classed as something that has the slightest resemblance with a party of saints and an assemblage change agents, and that once a person moved from the PDP to the APC, the person would receive instant beatification from a band of holy angels waiting to perform that sacred assignment. This should make no sense even to a two-year old!

Also, despite how strongly they tried with their humongous propaganda, the APCs leading lights failed miserably to inspire any confidence in their capacity to effectively manage a modest government department or mere small public corporation, let alone a country as large and complex as Nigeria. Looking at the monstrous antecedents of several of them, their brazen insistence that they were on a mission to cleanse Nigeria of corruption and change her for the better sounded so terribly ridiculous, even exasperating. Their hypocrisy and chicanery stank to high heavens.

The evidences were too glaring for everyone to easily see. That was why I kept wondering how my otherwise brilliant and perceptive friends who had remonstrated with me for holding a different view about the self-anointed deliverers from Mars could not see that they were being led by the nose to eagerly embrace a well-packaged and overly scented fraud. The APC completed its distasteful image by the egregious confidence it exuded about its ability to continue mesmerizing Nigerians with outrageous claims and the tantalizing promises it recklessly dropped which even Kindergarten kids could see were clearly unrealizable. Although, many chose to blindly flow with the herd, it took only a few months of the APC being in power for scales to fall off many eyes and my friends to be astounded by the insufferable deception, howling inadequacy and irredeemable incompetence they had willingly agreed to temporarily live in denial of, which they probably thought would go with the aggressive campaigns, but which had now become the distinctive feature of the Change regime. Sadly, it was now too late. The eagle already had the chick securely in its claws. By the time 2019 arrived, the party was already too powerful to be voted out despite the widespread disgustful feelings of many Nigerians towards it.

Sadly, nothing seems to have changed even after five years of being in office. The same propaganda has remained about the only thing the APC regime has continued to deploy to consolidate its hold on power. It is often safe to make all sorts of claims about your accomplishments when you know that people are too sick and tired and too busy trying to exist in an impossible economy to bother about their falsity, until a real challenge that threatens something as sacred as lives emerges. Then even the best of propaganda will readily betray its limits. That is what Coronavirus has achieved in Nigeria.

When news of the approaching Covid-19 was everywhere, the federal government confidently and repeatedly told Nigerians that it had put in place formidable measures to halt its spread if it eventually strays into the country. I doubt if Nigerians took the assurances serious but, then, what would they have done than sit in their various corners nursing their benumbing doubts and fears quietly. Even when calls began to be made by well-meaning Nigerians on the presidency to halt international flights to Nigeria and close all entry points into the country, they all fell on deaf ears. By the time President Buhari was able to come around to agree to close the airports, seaports and land borders, the number of infected persons had already exploded, and the acclaimed efforts by the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to contain the spread had been badly sabotaged by the sad delay.

Gov Sanwo-Olu lamented this tragic failure in his interview with the CNN a few days ago. He stressed that if the borders had been closed early enough, and people who had recently come into the country were isolated and their contacts carefully traced and equally isolated, the pandemic would have been easily contained. What was mostly done at that time was to simply advise returning Nigerians and visiting foreigners to self-isolate which many of them simply ignored. Some were given papers to state their recent travel history and several of them filled the forms with fictitious details. Which serious country does that? Should not the people have been compulsorily isolated if there were enough isolation centres ready to receive them? Thats the problem.

The truth was that the presidency had enough time to prepare for Covid-19, but it was merely savouring its familiar game of making empty claims and probably hoping that the virus would never enter the country to explode their imaginary claims.

Despite being widely regarded as the richest country in Africa, the Nigerian government seems to derive immense pleasure from flaunting the country as poor, helpless and beggarly. If her resources are not continuously mismanaged and looted by her leaders, shouldnt several African countries by now be looking up to Nigeria for help, especially, in desperate and trying times such as the one the world is in now? But the sad situation is that even the most leanly-endowed African countries have since left Nigeria very far behind in the area of provision of basic amenities for their people. For instance, whereas other African country have since achieved reasonable stability in power supply, Nigeria is still very far behind, struggling with debilitating darkness and has remained the proud, pathetic dumping ground for mostly substandard power generating sets from China. The same goes for provision of potable water, another sector in which government has failed so woefully. If the Nigerian government is allowed, it would beg for alms from places like Togo or Swaziland!

And so, always shamelessly wearing its beggar mentality, when the American billionaire, Elon Musk, announced on twitter that his organization had some ventilators to give out in support of the treatment of Covid-19 patients, Nigeria was the only country in Africa, to the best of my knowledge, which through the twitter handle of the Federal Ministry of Finance publicly begged the US billionaire to donate the ventilators to her! It was such a disastrous and self-diminishing move that instantly attracted angry reactions from embarrassed Nigerians across the world, forcing her to quickly withdraw the request. Yet, as the pandemic gained strength in the country, and Nigeria still proudly wore the same badge of shame as that very poor country that could not afford ventilators, enough testing kits and centres and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for her toiling and sacrificial health workers (thereby, exposing them to serious dangers of being infected), the dishonourable characters that converge at the House of Representatives as lawmakers were before the world, busy, celebratorily sharing very expensive, imported luxury cars to themselves, and the whopping sum of N37 billion had already been put aside to renovate the National Assembly. That is the face of the Change on whose back they rode to power, although, they rarely mention that badly abused word these days.

Prodded by Nigerians to do something more meaningful to lead the anti-Covid-19 war from the front like his colleagues across the world, President Muhammadu Buhari emerged from his hideout, locked down Lagos and Ogun states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and vanished again. Nigerians who depended on their daily earnings to feed their families were the worst hit by the hunger that immediately followed. Although palliatives were promised to cushion the harsh effects of the lockdown, what most Nigerians only heard were the outrageous figures which government claimed had already been spent as disbursements to poor and vulnerable citizens. They were not even privileged to perceive even the smell of the disbursements!

It became clear then that the government would badly mismanage the no-movement restrictions and stay-at-home order. And Nigerians wasted no time in voicing their anger at being asked to stay at home and be killed by hunger. Unable to respond to this all important need to feed its people rendered incapable of earning a living by the lockdown, a problem that even countries Nigeria is supposed to be richer than had managed so amazingly, the Buhari regime has now decided to ease the restrictions at a time the number of infected persons was rising alarmingly!

Why is this government too eager to show that it is too impoverished to give palliatives to needy Nigerians? Only a few days ago, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced that the private sector relief fund it is organizing to raise money to fight Covid-19 has now hit N27.160 billion. Recently, the European Union (EU) donated EUR 50 million (N21 billion) to help Nigeria fight Covid-19. There have been reports of sundry monetary and material assistances that have come in from within and outside country, so, why is Nigeria about to further compound the Covid-19 pandemic by its strange claim that there are no funds to sustain the lockdown?

Recent reports suggest that very soon, Nigeria might consider the option of home treatment for positive cases because of lack of bed spaces to keep them. It is dreadful to imagine such a possibility and how far it can go to complicate the pandemic. Please, can somebody who has the ears of President Muhammadu Buhari walk across to Aso Villa and ask him to bring in knowledgeable, altruistic, honest and competent people to help him manage Nigeria at this very critical period before the country is plunged into a boundless and unmanageable health disaster? It should never be imagined that anything slightly similar to the experience of Italy or Spain, UK or the United States with Covid-19 (countries with world-standard healthcare systems) be repeated here. Indeed, I have never seen where such level of unseriousness is being brazenly applied to the running of a country, more so, at a time of a dreaded health emergency and in a large, complex country of more than 200 million like Nigeria, with one of the worst health facilities in the world!

Ebola was more virulent when it hit Nigeria in 2014, but the clueless Goodluck Jonathan regime was able to swiftly contain it to the admiration of the whole world. In fact, an American magazine, Foreign Policy, screamed in a headline, In Fight to Stop Ebola, Nigeria Got Right Everything America Wrong.

Nigerians are, therefore, right to demand the full accounts of how the suspicious disbursements of billions of naira purportedly made by the federal government were undertaken. With the pandemic already badly mismanaged, the future is indeed heavily pregnant. Only God will save Nigeria.

*Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye, a Nigerian journalist and writer , is a Columnist and Member, Editorial Board, Daily Independent newspaper. His articles are archived at www.ugowrite.blogspot.com . He is the author of the book, NIGERIA: Why Looting May Not Stop([email protected] )
FAIRFIELD  Residents venturing out to beaches and parks might hear a whirring sound above their heads.

The Fairfield Police Department has been using a drone to monitor people at the recently reopened public spaces to ensure they are still social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, Cpt. Robert Kalamaras said. But, he said, that is not the only thing drones were used for over the weekend.

(The drone) was deployed to observe social distancing and provide guidance for deployment resources in the public beach area, Kalamaras said. We also had a complaint of juveniles on the Sherman Elementary School roof. We were able to identify and warn them.

Drone usage by town police is not new.

Previously, the department has used a drone to locate missing persons and monitor traffic during large scale shutdowns on state highways and parkways, Kalamaras said. He said they have also been training with it to deploy flotation devices to swimmers in distress as part of rescue operations.

We have only used them in a reactionary capacity, the police captain said, adding they currently have one licensed drone operator with two more in training.

Drones recently became a contentious issue in neighboring Westport, where police planned to launch a pilot program to use the technology to monitor residents during the pandemic.

In a partnership with Draganfly, a health care data service, and the University of South Australia, the town planned to use drones with software that takes biometric readings to understand population patterns and allows quicker reaction time to ongoing events or potential health threats, Police Chief Foti Koskinas said at the time.

The Westport proposal was met with strong push back from citizens and the American Civil Liberties Union.

David McGuire, executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut, said the organization has been monitoring the use of technology during the pandemic by the government and law enforcement.

What we are concerned about is the use of any advanced technology, such as drones, by police with the potential of criminal sanctions to enforce (coronavirus guidelines), McGuire said.

The director said public health experts and civil liberties groups have made it clear that the government should seek voluntary compliance with COVID-19 safety measures and not utilize criminal penalties to enforce them.

Its really important that people see the authorities as a group that they trust and want to comply with, he said. We are very lucky here in Connecticut to see wide-scale compliance with COVID-19 executive orders, for example.

Westport quickly scrapped its plan, with Koskinas and First Selectman Jim Marpe saying the program was not well-received.

McGuire said his organization recommends that, when considering the use of similar technology, municipalities have meaningful conversations with the people who live and work there to help them understand the reasoning behind the decision. He said that never happened in Westport in a meaningful way.

The biggest red flag for the ACLU, McGuire said, is when the use of technology can lead to arrests.

We have no suspicion that they are doing that yet in Fairfield, McGuire said. But, we would caution strongly against that and call for an approach where theres education and, ultimately, with that comes wide scale compliance.

Kalamaras said his departments usage of drone technology is different from Westports program, pointing to the neighboring towns plan to collect data on individuals, such as their temperature, to enforce social distancing.

Fairfields use of the drone, Kalamaras said, is similar to how they would use a helicopter, provided they were not so expensive to purchase and operate.

We can use drones for observational purposes and other things  like dropping a life preserver to a swimmer in distress, he said.

Editors note: A previous version of this story said Fairfield police had two licensed drone operators. They have one licensed drone operator and two more in training.
Djibouti Coronavirus Update - Coronavirus cases climb to 1,112, Total Deaths reaches to 2 on 04-May-2020

In Djibouti total confirmed cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) have increased to 1,112, while 2 people died due to the growing infection in the country.

Coronavirus (Covid-19) update from around the world:

Gujarat, 02-May-2020: Gujarat reported 333 new COVID-19 positive cases in the past 24 hours raising the total positive cases count to 5,054 in the state. While 262 deaths are reported so far as per Gujarat Health Department.

Tamil Nadu, 02-May-2020: Tamil Nadu government eases the restrictions in non-containment areas as per the Center's fresh guidelines on Covid-19 ongoing lockdown. Tamil Nadu government will allow the resumption of construction activity, road works, opening of SEZs, and some other from May 4 in non-containment areas in the state.

Mumbai, 02-May-2020: Mumbai reported 547 Covid-19 cases and 27 deaths today, raising the total cases of 8,172 and deaths to 322. Over 137 patients have been discharged today which increased the cured patient count to 1704. Public Health Department, Mumbai report provided the details of the patients in the state.

France: France is reporting higher number of deaths but but slightly fewer people with severe conditions were admitted into ICU in past fourth day. France reported 315 deaths last day as compared to 345 deaths the day earlier. In France 133,670 confirmed cases and 14,412 deaths reported so far.

Here are the latest cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in Djibouti:

Sr. No. Date Total Cases New Cases Total Deaths Deaths 1. 29-Apr-2020 1,077 5 2 0 2. 30-Apr-2020 1,089 12 2 0 3. 01-May-2020 1,097 8 2 0 4. 02-May-2020 1,112 15 2 0 5. 03-May-2020 1,112 0 2 0 6. 04-May-2020 1,112 0 2 0

TOP 10 Deaths by country due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak:



1. Europe (140,812)

2. North America (75,265)

3. USA (68,602)

4. Italy (28,884)

5. UK (28,446)

6. Spain (25,264)

7. France (24,895)

8. Asia (19,674)

9. South America (10,871)

10. Belgium (7,924)

Total Deaths Worldwide (248,555)

Globally till now over 248,555 people died due to the outbreak of deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19). The new infection and death cases are increasing fast. Authorities in the Djibouti and other countries are taking proper measures to contain the deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19).

As of now Europe is the worst affected country in the world with over 140,812 deaths and 1,460,196 confirmed cases.

Check latest update: Coronaviurs Covid-19 cases around the world
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse police have identified the man shot and killed Sunday on the citys East Side.

Anthony Perry, 36, of Syracuse, was shot multiple times at 11:31 a.m. in the 200 block of Croly St., Syracuse police spokesman Sgt. Matthew Malinowski said.

Officers found Perry suffering from multiple gunshot wounds after they arrived at the scene Sunday morning, Malinowski said.

American Medical Response (AMR) ambulance took Perry to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, where he was pronounced dead.

About 15 minutes after Perry was shot, police were called to another shooting a half-mile away at Parkside Commons apartment complex on East Fayette Street, police said.

Police say a 24-year-old man was shot multiple times at 11:45 a.m. Sunday in the 1800 block of E. Fayette St. He is expected to survive, Malinowski said.

Investigators are still trying to determine whether Perrys homicide is in any way connected to the shooting at Parkside Commons.

The investigation is active and ongoing, Malinowski said.

About 12 hours later, Syracuse police were called to a third shooting at 11:36 p.m. Sunday. A 28-year-old woman was shot in the mid-section near the Blue Star Gas Station, 1410 S. Salina St. A short time later, she arrived at Upstate University Hospital in a private vehicle. Her injuries are not considered life threatening injuries, police said.

No arrests have been made in any of the shootings Sunday.

Syracuse police ask anyone with information about the shootings to call them at (315) 442- 5222.

Have a tip or a story idea? Contact Catie OToole: cotoole@syracuse.com | text/call (315) 470-2134 | Twitter | Facebook
About 1,900 households received assistance from the San Antonio Food Bank on Tuesday at Traders Village in the first mass distribution at the Southwest Side outdoor market since 10,000 showed up there nearly a month ago with lines that made national news.

An overhead photograph taken by the San Antonio Express-News of thousands of cars waiting for food April 9 at Traders Village became a symbol of the economic desperation of the coronavirus recession.

Being out here again, we are a little shell-shocked, Food Bank president and CEO Eric Cooper said in a reference to his staff nearly being overwhelmed last month at Traders Village after thousands more showed up beyond the 6,000 households the Food Bank preregistered.

This was the place where we first saw the avalanche of need, Cooper recalled. That is when our community was at its lowest point. It was three to four weeks in. People had lost their jobs. Their last paychecks were spent and there was no federal support yet. All that stuff that pulls people a little bit back from the edge wasnt in place, and we just knew our community was in need.

On ExpressNews.com: Food Bank event gives dramatic display of economic effects of COVID-19

While the lines of cars Tuesday werent nearly as long as the first distribution at Traders Village, Cooper said it shouldnt be viewed as a sign that the number of food-insecure families has diminished.

For nearly two months, the Food Bank has been helping feed 120,000 households a week, more than double the number it aided before COVID-19 triggered whats expected to be the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The unyielding demand, coupled with a thinning supply chain, has left the Food Bank to operate under the constant threat that its warehouse could eventually be depleted.

Before the pandemic, the Food Bank benefited from a steady stream of donations of shelf-stable items from grocery chains, manufacturers, restaurants and wholesalers. But since COVID-19 hit, those shipments have all but dried up.

Families, meanwhile, continue to struggle even after receiving aid from the $1.8 trillion coronavirus relief package Congress passed last month.

Weve watched ebbs and flows of support come  stimulus checks, unemployment, (Gov. Greg Abbott) reopening the economy  but nothing has knocked our numbers down from the 120,000 a week, Cooper said.

With preregistration now capped at roughly 2,000, the number of households aided Tuesday is typical of what the Food Bank has been serving since the dramatic showing at Traders Village. Another factor in the smaller crowds has been the Food Banks decision to hold several mini distributions per week at its headquarters and other locations.

Rather than doing one distribution with 10,000, we are trying to do 10 distributions with 2,000, he said. How much longer will we have to do this? When will we start to shrink these distributions? I dont know. But until there is not a need, we are going to continue to make sure people get nourishment.

On ExpressNews.com: In times of high stress, Food Bank staffers redouble efforts to help others

Fulfilling that mission is a major challenge for the Food Bank even after it received a promise last month of public aid from state and federal authorities and a recent influx of private funding, including $5.4 million from a televised fundraising initiative philanthropist Harvey Najim organized along with WOAI-TV and KABB Fox 29.

Back in March, I didnt think we would make it this long, but San Antonio stepped up, Cooper said. It really is defying logic and reason that we are still in position of having three weeks worth of inventory in our warehouse.

Constantly searching for ways to alleviate the demand on the Food Bank, Cooper is hopeful the U.S. Department of Agriculture will approve Texas request to operate a Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program that would help food-insecure children. Authorized by Congress, the program issues benefits on an EBT card equal to the value of the free or reduced-price school meals children would receive if schools were open.

Texas hopes to become the 20th state to receive approval to operate a P-EBT program.

We heard it was going to be approved this week, but we havent received any confirmation yet, said Celia Cole, CEO of Feeding Texas, a coalition of 21 food banks from around the state.

The P-EBT program would be super critical for the Food Bank because it would help alleviate the demand on the nonprofit, Cooper said.

I believe it will pull people out of our parking lots and into a grocery store, Cooper said. It would be a huge blessing for them.

Before volunteering at Tuesdays distribution, U.S. Representative Will Hurd, R-San Antonio, met with Cooper to discuss the P-EBT program.

Food security is national security, Hurd said. If a family has no hope, can't feed its children, that's what leads to pandemonium.

Both Cooper and Hurd called on school district superintendents to educate parents about the benefits of the P-EBT program and how it would be rolled out by the state.

The easiest population to enroll, of course, will be families that already get SNAP, Cole said, referring to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program the USDA oversees. That will just be an administrative change, where the state can automatically load those additional P-EBT benefits on those families EBT cards they already have.

People waiting in their cars for food praised the Food Bank for its tireless efforts to feed food-insecure South Texans.

We need food, said Williams Lankford, 63. Im on disability and most of my money goes toward my bills and my rent. And food is so expensive now, the meats and everything else. My wife (a former secretary at Kinetic Concepts Inc.) hasnt been working for months since getting laid off, and she told me, Go over there (to Traders Village).

A former construction worker who lives on the Southeast Side near Highlands High School, Lankford said he hasnt been able to work since he nearly got killed from a fall he took on the job in 2004.

Its not like we are starving, but this food will help us a lot, he said. It will get us through this month and then hopefully my wife will be able to get back to work.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has allotted a 55-minute slot everyday till June 30 to the Rajasthan government for broadcasting educational content on 25 All India Radio (AIR) stations in the state.

School minister Govind Singh Dotasara informed that the ministry has allotted a free slot and school students of the state will now be able to listen to the educational content through AIR.

He said his department had urged the government of India to provide free slots for student classes, which has been approved.

"The Rajasthan State Council of Educational Research and Training (RSCRT) will provide contents, which will run daily till June 30," Dotasara said.

The minister said Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and state BJP president Satish Poonia too had urged the Centre to provide the free slot on AIR.

He said the broadcasting of classes will benefit students from class 1 to 12. RSCRT has made the list of experts who will prepare the content.

AIR, in a letter to RSCRT, stated that the broadcast will be done from 25 stations, including 16 primaries and nine relay stations. AIR can upload the content provided on its digital platform after signing an MoU for the same.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Calgary, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BASF will join COVID-19 hunger relief efforts with a $64,398.20 donation to Food Banks Canada. The companys employees participated in a virtual food drive in March and April to support the 3,000+ food banks and community agencies across Canada. The contribution will support food purchasing, distribution and resourcing for food banks across the country helping ensure that Canadians have the support they need during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ensuring Canadians have access to an affordable, abundant and safe food supply is a common mission the agriculture industry strives to provide each and every day, said Jonathan Sweat, Vice President, Business Management, Agricultural Solutions for BASF Canada. The need is never more pressing than during and after a crisis of this magnitude. Through this donation our employees are supporting food banks in the communities where they  and our customers  live and work and I couldnt be prouder of the united contribution.

BASF employees throughout Canada participated in the virtual food drive by making financial contributions online. All funds raised will be donated to Food Banks Canada to be dispersed to food banks across the country including the communities where BASF employees live and work.

Food Banks Canada launched a special $150M appeal to help ensure that food banks can continue their critical work during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are so appreciative of everyone who has come together, including BASF Canada, to help ensure our neighbours living with food insecurity have enough to make it through this pandemic and into the future, says Chris Hatch, CEO Food Banks Canada.

About BASFs Agricultural Solutions division

With a rapidly growing population, the world is increasingly dependent on our ability to develop and maintain sustainable agriculture and healthy environments. Working with farmers, agricultural professionals, pest management experts and others, it is our role to help make this possible. Thats why we invest in a strong R&D pipeline and broad portfolio, including seeds and traits, chemical and biological crop protection, soil management, plant health, pest control and digital farming. With expert teams in the lab, field, office and in production, we connect innovative thinking and down-to-earth action to create real world ideas that work  for farmers, society and the planet. In 2019, our division generated sales of 7.8 billion. For more information, please visit www.agriculture.basf.com or any of our social media channels.

About BASF

BASF Canada, headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, has over 1,200 employees at production facilities and offices located across Canada. BASF Canada is a subsidiary of BASF SE, and an affiliate of BASF Corporation. To find out more about BASFs activities in Canada, visit www.basf.com/ca or follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/basfcanada. At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. More than 117,000 employees in the BASF Group work on contributing to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio is organized into six segments: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care and Agricultural Solutions. BASF generated sales of 59 billion in 2019. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchange in Frankfurt (BAS) and as American Depositary Receipts (BASFY) in the U.S. Further information at www.basf.com.

About Food Banks Canada

Food Banks Canada provides national leadership to relieve hunger today and prevent hunger tomorrow in collaboration with the food bank network from coast-to-coast-to-coast. For 40 years, food banks have been dedicated to helping Canadians living with food insecurity. Over 3,000 food banks and community agencies come together to serve our most vulnerable neighbors who  last year  made 1.1 million visits to these organizations in one month alone, according to our HungerCount report. Over the past 10 years, as a system weve sourced and shared over 1.4 billion pounds of food and Food Banks Canada shared nearly $70 million in funding to help maximize collective impact and strengthen local capacity  while advocating for reducing the need for food banks. Our vision is clear: create a Canada where no one goes hungry. Visit http://www.foodbankscanada.ca/ to learn more.

Attachments
DUBLIN, Calif. - A man facing a second trial after a fire killed 36 partygoers at a San Francisco Bay Area warehouse hes accused of illegally converting into a cluttered artists enclave was released from jail Monday over coronavirus concerns.

Derick Almena, whos been behind bars since 2017, was released after a court hearing by phone, the Alameda County sheriffs office said. He will be under electronic monitoring while he waits for a new trial.

The 50-year-old is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the Dec. 2, 2016, fire that swept through an electronic music party at the so-called Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland. Prosecutors allege Almena, who was the master tenant on the lease, was criminally negligent when he turned the industrial building into a residence for artists and held events without proper permits.

The building was packed with furniture, extension cords and other flammable material but had only two exits and no smoke detectors, fire alarms or sprinklers, prosecutors say.

A jury deadlocked on the charges in September and a new trial has been scheduled for July. His co-defendant, Max Harris, was acquitted of the same charges.

At least 35 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported at the Santa Rita Jail where Almena was held. According to his attorneys, a report by jail medical staff said Almenas psychological and physical health were in jeopardy.

Almena was released in the rural community of Upper Lake, where his wife and children live. He is banned from contacting relatives of victims or witnesses. He cant leave home unless a court gives written approval, and any violation can send him back to jail, the Mercury News reported.

Almena posted $150,000 bail last month, and officials verified where he is staying Monday, the last step for his release, the newspaper reported.

Jails and prisons in California and across the U.S. have released inmates in response to the pandemic, with crowded quarters and a lack of protective equipment making it ripe for the virus to spread behind bars.

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. The vast majority of people recover.
An internal Chinese report warns that Beijing faces a rising wave of hostility in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that could tip relations with the United States into confrontation, people familiar with the paper told Reuters.
WILLIAMSPORT  A Lycoming County barber has asked Gov. Wolf to lift the quarantine of his profession, contending that barbers can practice social distancing in their work.

Countless Pennsylvanians are desperate for a haircut to obtain some sense of normalcy and are turning to underground unlicensed barbers, said Timothy S. Miller, owner of The cHair Barbershop and Beard Lounge in Williamsport.

Saying he was designated to speak for other barbers in Lycoming County, he wrote a letter Monday to the governor saying barbers are highly trained and can be a valuable resource in the fight against COVID-19. To be licensed, barbers must complete 1,250 hours of study and training in nine months, he noted.

I am not aware of any other business, industry or profession outside of the medical field currently permitted to operate in Pennsylvania with the level of training we receive to practice under our licenses, he wrote.

He took issue with a statement by Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine that it is impossible for barber shops and hair salons to operate while maintaining social distancing.

His said in his letter that barbers could operate safely by:

Employing infrared thermometers and refuse service to anyone with a temperature over 100 degrees.

Controlling the number of clients by operating under appointment only.

Wearing disposable capes and a protective barrier on faces that would be no different than the Plexiglas barriers being used in checkout lines.

Using sign-in books to assist in contact tracing in the unlikely event of a situation that needs to be addressed.

Limiting the number of clients to one per hour to allow time to properly disinfect work areas and tools.

Barbers in Lycoming County are preparing a video Miller said will be provided to Wolf to demonstrate they can safely operate without spreading the coronavirus.

Levine last week said that while face masks are useful in preventing the spread of germs for short periods of time, protective gear wouldnt necessarily keep the virus from passing between barbers and their customers.

We certainly appreciate the lengths that businesses can take to protect themselves and others," said Nate Wardle, spokesman for the health department, when asked to respond. "At this time, as Dr. Levine said, in the yellow phase barber shops are not among the businesses permitted to open.

Miller argued that its inconceivable that particulates carrying the virus arent landing on peoples hair, and touching the hair, then touching the face, can spread the virus. So encouraging hair growth is a risk factor, he said.

Training to become a barber includes methods to eliminate or reduce the transmission of infectious organisms including bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses, Miller said. And there are countless hours of training on specific steps to prevent the spread of disease such as cleaning, sanitation, disinfection and sterilization, Miller said.

I have developed a protocol for my business and I can prove we are an asset to the state of Pennsylvania in the fight against the coronavirus and are not being utilized, he told Wolf.
: The number of coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu continued its upward trend on Tuesday, going past the 500 mark for the second consecutive day as Chief Minister K Palaniswami attributed the rise to testing a higher number ofsamples.

Of the total cases reported so far in Tamil Nadu, approximately 950 are linked to the Koyambedu hotspot, authorities said and those who tested positive today too were contacts.

A day after the government said state-run liquor outlets will be opened on May 7, Chennai Corporation, on its twitter handle said shops in the state capital areas that fall under the jurisdiction of city police will not resume operations.

Several areas, though form part of neighbouring districts including Chengelpet and Tiruvallur, are under the city police control.

Two deaths were reported, taking the toll from the deadly virus in the state to 33, a Health Department bulletin said.

With 508 new patients on Tuesday, the cumulative tally stood at 4,058 and the active cases at 2,537, it said.

After chairing a review meeting at the Greater Chennai Corporation, the Chief Minister told officials that only Tamil Nadu has as high as 50 labs to conduct COVID-19 tests and added that the number of people being tested has also been increased.

The government later updated the number of labs as 52 (36 in government and 16 others in private sector) following two private labs getting permission for testing coronavirus.

"Daily about 12,000 people are being tested and only due to such a high number of tests is the number of those turning positive also on the rise," he said.

Palaniswami said the public need not fear over more people testing positive as anti-COVID-19 initiatives were being pursued on all fronts, including prevention.

He said rice ration card holders would get essential commodities free of cost in June as well, like in the months of April and May.

Chennai remained at the top among the 37 districts, as it recorded 279 of the fresh cases, taking its total to 2008, followed by Cuddalore (229 cases) with 68 additions.

Among the reasons for rapid spread of the contagion in the state capital was higher density of population in cramped localities and through public toilets, Palaniswami said.

To address such concerns, disinfection was being carried out thrice a day in containment zones and public conveniences were often cleaned up.

Mobile testing facilities were also being deployed, he pointed out.

Also, IAS, IPS officials and 10 committees, comprising officials, besides a nodal officer (a senior State official) were appointed to coordinate anti-COVID-19 initiatives in Chennai, he said.

As many as 4,000 beds are ready in Chennai alone and immunity boosting preparations like zinc and multivitamins, besides Ayush formulations were being provided to people, including front line warriors, the Chief Minister said.

As regards fatalities today, a city-based 56 year-old man with co-morbidities and a woman aged 60 became the latest fatalities at the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital.

They were admitted to the hospital on April 26 and May 2, respectively, the bulletin added.

So far, 1,74,828 samples have been taken for testing.

COVID-19 tests were being done in 36 government and 16 private labs all over the state, it said.

With the number of cases showing a steady increase, the government asked the general public to adhere to health and travel advisories issued by it.

The government also rescinded the nod it had accorded for domestic workers to resume work inview of increasing cases.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Spokesman of Iran's Judiciary on Tuesday accused two recently detained university students of being affiliated with the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) which is designated as a terrorist organization by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Gholam-Hossein Esmaili who was speaking to reporters said these students -- who were not named -- had established contact with the MEK and had been trained by the organization to "carry out terrorist operations in the country".

The students referred to by the Judiciary spokesman may be the 20-year-old award-winning computer science student of Tehran's Sharif Industrial University, Ali Younesi and another award-winning physics student, Amir-Hossein Moradi, who were both arrested on April 10. The family of Ali Younesi says he was assaulted and injured by the twelve security agents who arrested him at his home.

The Judiciary spokesman also alleged that explosives had been discovered in the residences of the students who had carried out harassment operations but not succeeded in causing serious damages. "This was a conspiracy by the enemy that wanted to instigate a riot amid the coronavirus situation, but the conspiracy was neutralized as a result of the diligence of security forces," Esmaili claimed.

The Iranian legal system works in secrecy and individuals arrested on security-related charges and dissidents are never given access to unbiased legal representation or a chance to challenge such accusations.

The Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (also known as People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran) and its members have been persecuted in Iran since 1981. The group was designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department in 1997 but was delisted in 2012.

In recent weeks Iranian courts have sentenced some university students for participating in rallies to protest to the downing of a Ukrainian airliner on January 8 on charges of "acting against national security". The plane was shot down by Revolutionary Guard missiles and all 176 passengers and crew members on board were killed in the crash.
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey opened an investigation into a Friday night incident at the Bristol County House of Correction involving immigrant detainees and Sheriff Thomas Hodgson.

The Attorney Generals office requested surveillance footage and other records from the Bristol County Sheriffs Office, in which the sheriff says he was rushed by detainees. Advocates who spoke with detainees say they were assaulted by correction officers, including Hodgson.

Healeys office reached out to the office, as well as advocates who are in touch with the detainees, to get more information.

Reports about the incident at Bristol County jail are very concerning," Healey said in a statement. My office has opened an investigation to get more details about what happened and to ensure public health and safety at this facility.

The Bristol County jail made national headlines last week as conflicting stories circulated about what occurred in the C. Carlos Carreiro Immigration Detention Center in North Dartmouth. Hodgson said that detainees, who showed COVID-19 symptoms but refused to get tested, rushed him and correction officers. He accused them of trashing the unit, causing $25,000 in damage.

Three detainees were hospitalized after the incident. One had symptoms of a panic attack, another had a pre-existing medical condition and a third had a medical incident after being removed from the unit, according to a news release from the Bristol County Sheriffs Office.

Advocates who spoke with detainees said they sought testing but refused to be transferred out of their unit to be tested because they feared they would be exposed to COVID-19 in the process. Advocates say detainees told them that sheriff and correction officers assaulted them and pepper sprayed them.

In no moment did anyone refuse to be tested for COVID-19. Rather they refused to be tested in a way that exposed them to COVID-19, said Vanesa Suarez, an organizer for the Connecticut Bail Fund.

Hodgson calls the accounts of immigration advocates untrue. He said the detainees were told to act out by advocates.

These are the same people who have been calling their attorneys, advocate groups, saying that they need to be released because theyre going to get contaminated and its dangerous in here," he said during a news conference on Saturday.

The Bristol County Sheriffs Office is also the subject of a class-action lawsuit in which attorneys are calling for the release of immigrant detainees, arguing they are all at higher risk of contracting COVID-19 because they are kept in a congregate setting.

Hodgson tweeted Tuesday afternoon that the Department of Homeland Securitys Office of Inspector General plans to investigate the incident. Im looking forward to the results of the final report," he wrote.

When asked about the incident, Gov. Charlie Baker cautioned against drawing conclusions at this point.

What I would say is there is a whole series of back and forth with respect to what happened there, and people need to be careful about drawing conclusions one way or another, he said during a news conference Monday afternoon.

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As part of our #LockdownLessons series, Bizcommunity is reaching out to South Africa's top industry players to share their experience of the current Covid-19 crisis, how their organisations are navigating these unusual times, where the challenges and opportunities lie, and their industry outlook for the near future.

Karl Muller, operations manager at Tiger Brands Foundation

What was your initial response to the crisis/lockdown and has your experience of it been different to what you expected?

Comment on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on your organisation or economy as a whole.

Comment on the challenges and opportunities.

How has the lockdown affected your staff? / What temporary HR policies have you put in place regarding remote working, health & safety, etc.?

How are you navigating physical distancing while keeping your team close-knit and aligned?

How have you had to change the way you operate?

Any trends youve seen emerge as a result of the crisis?

Your key message to those in the sector?

What do you predict the next six months will be like?

We chatted to Karl Muller, operations manager at Tiger Brands Foundation to get his take.We pivoted our business towards providing food hampers to families of learners in our programme. Thus far we have provided 6,000 hampers in the last two weeks and will provide more than 6,000 in the two weeks coming in order to ameliorate food insecurity during May.The foundation provides nutritious in-school breakfasts at over 100 non-fee paying schools across South Africa. It currently serves a hot cooked breakfast to a total of 74,300 learners every school day. The foundation also provides food hampers for learners during long school holidays. The hampers ensure that these learners and their families have access to basic food supplies for the school holiday period, ensuring that they do not return to school malnourished when the new term commences.It tested our agility to quickly shift operations from delivering breakfast cereals to schools to facilitate in-school breakfast to providing food hampers to families of learners in our programme.Opportunities: scenario planning to examine existing business model and systems to see if there are areas we can change or optimise to meet the changing context of a lockdown and even the post-lockdown society. We are asking ourselves, among others, what interventions are most relevant in the different levels of the governments Covid-19 interventions. For example, at level five food hampers meet the most important needs of families, but once level four starts, what changes in society and what are our best options to meet the needs of our beneficiaries.We have not seen a big change here other than ensuring contact between staff at the national office to ensure business continuity. We have added hygiene interventions for our staff in the field, such as face masks and hand sanitisers.All team members are working from home. We have regular touch-base meetings as a group and managers make regular one-on-one calls with subordinates.The impact has mainly been on our national office team. The team in the field were already working remotely. The office team has had to learn to work from home.There may be a longer term impact of more people working from home. The lockdown had forced many organisations to reorganise around this and once the savings from this become real to companies, we may see smaller or shared office space (more hot desking).Food security, especially learners in schools, will be a key challenge going forward and it requires a combined intervention. We would like to reach out to other organisations in the space of in-school nutrition and look for a combined response going forward once schools are open.We implore the Department of Basic Education to explore ways and means to re-introduce the lunch meal, vouchers, or food hampers for learners whilst schools remain closed during the lockdown.Further to the trends already noted, we do not believe that our team will be able to return to regular office work in the next two to three months. We are a small team and if anyone were to get ill, it would leave a big gap in our capacity. We are keeping key staff members apart to assure their safety and business continuity.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 07:16:58|Editor: huaxia

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Jamyang Pasum is seen at his clothing store in Xining, northwest China's Qinghai Province, May 3, 2020. Jamyang Pasum, a 34-year-old Tibetan, has been running stores of his clothing brand "REWA" in Xining. Jamyang Pasum founded "REWA" in 2013 to sell traditional Tibetan clothing as well as many homemade clothing that combines Tibetan characteristics and popular elements. He now has a design team that integrates more Tibetan cultural elements into clothing design. At present, "REWA" has 40 specialty stores online and offline. (Xinhua/Wu Gang)
Aircraft from the Alabama National Guards 187th Fighter Wing and the 117th Air Refueling Wing will be honoring healthcare workers and first responders today with a series of hospital flyovers.

Tentative schedule

F-16s from 187th Fighter Wing based out of Montgomery

Auburn, Tuskegee, Montgomery: Noon  12:15

Tuscaloosa: Noon  12:15 p.m.

Mobile: 12:10-12:20 p.m.

Decatur: 12:15  12:25 p.m.

Dothan: 12:30  12:40 p.m.

KC-135 from the 117th Air Refueling Wing based out of Birmingham

Huntsville Hospital: 12:45 p.m.

St. Vincents East: 1:07 p.m.

St. Vincents: 1:10 p.m.

UAB: 1:10 p.m.

Princeton: 1:10 p.m.

Shelby: 1:16 p.m.

Grandview: 1:23 p.m.

Brookwood: 1:23 p.m.

UAB Highlands: 1:24 p.m.

#UPDATE: We will also be flying over Childrens of Alabama in BHM today. This was included in prior flight plans due to its proximity to other facilities, but has not been specifically noted. We are always thankful to those who care for our future generations. #WeSaluteAlabama pic.twitter.com/pxCbfGi0jp  AL National Guard (@AlabamaNG) May 5, 2020

The flyovers will use the pilots and crews required training time to perform this thank you salute. We continue to do all we can to enable and assist our communities, but we are proud to take this opportunity to support the heroes who have inspired us all, the National Guard said.

The Guard said it is encouraging officials to view the flyovers from their homes or businesses or, if they are out, to abide by social distancing rules and not gather in large groups.

The flyovers may be delayed or postponed due to weather, maintenance or air traffic. You can follow along at the 187th FW Facebook page and 117th ARW Facebook page.
Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis opened up about the Quarantine Wine brand they launched last month, which has far surpassed their expectations.

The 42-year-old Kutcher and 36-year-old Kunis appeared on The Tonight Show At Home edition, where they revealed their original goal.

'You have to do an allotment of cases. So we were like, let's just play it safe. We bought 2,000 cases. In eight hours, we sold out 2,000 cases. We were shocked.'

Quarantine Wine: Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis opened up about the Quarantine Wine brand they launched last month, which has far surpassed their expectations

Kutcher added that they only did one video on social media to promote the wine, with Kunis adding, 'It blew our minds,' and they had to 'procure more wine.

Kutcher added they've raised $1 million, and Kunis wants people to 'keep giving and knowing it's going to the right places. And toast to yourselves for trying something.'

When Fallon asked how the idea for Quarantine Wine started, Kunis revealed, 'This all happened with doing Zoom dates or Facetime dates with our friends.'

Blown minds: Kutcher added that they only did one video on social media to promote the wine, with Kunis adding, 'It blew our minds,' and they had to 'procure more wine

Fundraisers: Kutcher added they've raised $1 million, and Kunis wants people to 'keep giving and knowing it's going to the right places. And toast to yourselves for trying something'

'I also realized a lot of our friends reached out to us and wanted to know how they can reach out to help,' Kunis said, adding Kutcher was working with Flexport at the time, a company that gets PPE materials to hospitals.

'I realized how good I selfishly felt when I was able to donate, so in a weird way, I just combined two of my favorite things, drinking and donating,' Kunis said.

She added that she contacted their friends at Nocking Point, and the wine came together very quickly.

Quickly: She added that she contacted their friends at Nocking Point, and the wine came together very quickly.

Favorite things: 'I realized how good I selfishly felt when I was able to donate, so in a weird way, I just combined two of my favorite things, drinking and donating,' Kunis said

'We don't want money, it's wasn't about that. It was just about allowing people to have a way to feel good about themselves, donate their $50 and get something in return, and have some fun with it.'

The wine, a pinot noir from Nocking Point which is available at OfficialQuarantineWine.com at $50 for two bottles, is also unique in that it has a blank, white label.

'We started with, can we just do the simplest thing?' Kutcher said. 'We see a bunch of people who are like celebrating. This is not a celebration time. This is like let's buckle down and figure out how to do things.'

No money: 'We don't want money, it's wasn't about that. It was just about allowing people to have a way to feel good about themselves, donate their $50 and get something in return, and have some fun with it.

Website: The wine, a pinot noir from Nocking Point which is available at OfficialQuarantineWine.com at $50 for two bottles, is also unique in that it has a blank, white label

At the top of the blank label, it reads, 'Toasting To' and you can write whoever you want to toast to.

'Right now it's teacher's appreciation week, so it's Toast to Teachers,' Kutcher said, while writing Teachers on the bottle as Kunis said to take photos of their bottles and post them to social media with the hashtag #QuarantineWine.

Kutcher added, 'We were thinking about doing a wine and our friends at Nocking Point turn things around very quickly. In three weeks, we had a label approved, a trademark, samples, figured out what was going in the bottle, and it was ready to ship.'

Teacher toast: 'Right now it's teacher's appreciation week, so it's Toast to Teachers,' Kutcher said, while writing Teachers on the bottle as Kunis said to take photos of their bottles and post them to social media with the hashtag #QuarantineWine

The sale of the wine will benefit five charities, Flexport, Give Directly, Direct Relief, Frontline Responders Fund and America's Food Fund.

'I had been working with Flexport with the PPE issues and there was a bind between the hospitals and the PPE because they couldn't fund the orders,' Kutcher said.

'We selected the American Food Fund, and then Direct Relief, which is another PPE fund,' Kutcher said.

Sale: The sale of the wine will benefit five charities, Flexport, Give Directly, Direct Relief, Frontline Responders Fund and America's Food Fund

'We made sure the overhead was small and we wanted to make sure it went to the people who need it,' Kunis added.

The couple also talked about teaching their kids during quarantine, with Kunis joking that the kids were occupied during the interview.

'They have an iPad and some pretzels so you've got about 20 minutes, Jimmy, ' Kunis joked.

Small overhead: 'We made sure the overhead was small and we wanted to make sure it went to the people who need it,' Kunis added

They also talked about home-schooling their kids, with Kutcher stating, 'We set up a curriculum throughout the week. We did a week on energy and electricity and how to build things and architecture.'

'We enlisted our friends to do like 20 minute zoom sessions with our kids, to teach them anything,' Kunis added also gives them a break and gives the kids new teachers.

Kutcher says this week they're doing the 'skeletal system.'

Home school: They also talked about home-schooling their kids, with Kutcher stating, 'We set up a curriculum throughout the week. We did a week on energy and electricity and how to build things and architecture'

'This week one of the questions is how long does it take to get the poop out,' Kunis added.

The couple also played a new game with Fallon, where they each had to answer for their partner while the partner moved their lips.

Mila can't stop laughing and wonders how he can keep it together. Mila says her 'worst fear' is SNL because she can't 'hold it together.'

Mila, voicing Ashton, says he can't wait to walk around naked and Ashton takes his shirt off as Mila loses it again.

New game: The couple also played a new game with Fallon, where they each had to answer for their partner while the partner moved their lips

Westworld star Evan Rachel Wood also appeared on the show, and she was asked about the Westworld Season 3 finale on Sunday night, where she spoke carefully without offering any specifics or spoilers.

'I think a lot of things are unknown, given how the finale ended. I think, obviously, it's quite hard to get rid of characters, but I do think certain things are final.

She did also hint that she may return to Westworld in some capacity, since the show has been renewed for a fourth season on HBO.

No spoilers: Westworld star Evan Rachel Wood also appeared on the show, and she was asked about the Westworld Season 3 finale on Sunday night, where she spoke carefully without offering any specifics or spoilers

When asked about her six-year-old son, who she shares with ex-husband Jamie Bell, Wood revealed that he has been visiting the set and actually 'directed' a scene this season.

'He's been visiting the set of Westworld since he was one years old. He got to direct a scene this season,' Wood said.

'It was Episode 7, (director) Helen Shaver brought him behind the monitor and had him deliver me and Aaron Paul's directions,' Wood explained.

'We'd hear action and cut, and then it'd be my little son, and he'd come over to Aaron and go, "That was good. If you can take a beat before the last line,"' she said, adding her co-star Aaron Paul, 'played along so well.'

Visiting: 'He's been visiting the set of Westworld since he was one years old. He got to direct a scene this season,' Wood said
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 19:51:36|Editor: huaxia

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Jimmy Lai Chee-ying arrives at the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in Hong Kong, south China, May 5, 2020. An instigator of the Hong Kong riots Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and two others appeared in court on Tuesday to attend a hearing on the unauthorized assembly charge against them. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)

HONG KONG, May 5 (Xinhua) -- An instigator of the Hong Kong riots Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and two others appeared in court on Tuesday to attend a hearing on the unauthorized assembly charge against them.

The three appeared in the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Tuesday afternoon.

Lai, Lee Cheuk-yan and Yeung Sum were arrested on Feb. 28 for violating Hong Kong's Public Order Ordinance by participating in an unauthorized assembly between Wan Chai area and Central area on Aug. 31, 2019.

They were jointly charged with the count of "knowingly participating in unauthorized assembly."

Lai, also suspected of violating Hong Kong's Crimes Ordinance by verbally intimidating a man during an assembly on June 4, 2017 in the Eastern District on Hong Kong Island, was charged with the count of "criminal intimidation."

The court adjourned the case of unauthorized assembly to May 18.

For the case of criminal intimidation, the court granted Lai bail pending trial. He was prohibited from leaving Hong Kong and was required to report to the police station every week.

Dozens of Hong Kong residents gathered outside the court building on Tuesday afternoon, holding banners and chanting slogans that condemn Lai for inciting riots and call for severe punishment on him.

Lai has been arrested by the Hong Kong police twice this year for his role in the riots.

He was arrested on April 18 along side with 14 others for violating the Public Order Ordinance by organizing and taking part in the unauthorized assemblies last year.

They were prosecuted with relevant charges and are scheduled to appear in court on May 18.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 14:04:34|Editor: huaxia

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WELLINGTON, May 5 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand reported no new COVID-19 case over the past 24 hours for two consecutive days, which was "very encouraging", Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said on Tuesday.

Bloomfield told a press conference that one probable case has been reclassified as not being the case, so the total case number dropped by one to 1,486.

The country's death toll remained unchanged at 20, Bloomfield said, adding four people are in hospital, with none in ICU.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern asked New Zealanders to continue following the country's lockdown rules and do not do things that would jeopardize the last few weeks' anti-epidemic efforts.

The country moved from Alert Level 4 to 3 last Tuesday and will stay for at least two weeks at Level 3 before a further review and Alert Level decision on May 11.

Ardern confirmed she attended an Australian national Cabinet meeting on Tuesday to discuss possible opening of the borders for people to travel between Australia and New Zealand.

"I would note that such a discussion has only been possible as a result of the world-leading results on both sides of the Tasman to get the virus under control and I do think that we should both be proud of the efforts that have been made," Ardern said.

"New Zealand is Australia's second-largest source of tourists after China with 1.2 million visitors last year, and 1.6 million Aussies visited us, so we both stand to benefit from getting travel up and running again.

"When we feel comfortable and confident that we both won't receive cases from Australia, but equally that we won't export them, then that will be the time to move," she added. Enditem
Arizona News

Phoenix, Arizona - As Arizona works to slow the spread of COVID-19 and gradually reenergize our economy, there are employment opportunities and other resources for those in need.

The Arizona Office of Tourism partnered with employers and organizations statewide to promote job connectivity through the Arizona Hospitality Workforce Connection. The program connects employers who have immediate openings with tourism employees who have been displaced because of the COVID-19 health emergency.

Pipeline AZ has employment, education and financial resources for Arizonans in need. Individuals who lost their jobs to COVID-19 can register for virtual hiring events, find immediate jobs and access other opportunities.

ARIZONA@WORK continues to provide innovative workforce resources to employers and job seekers amid the health emergency. It offers tools to retain employees, information on the Paycheck Protection Program and more.

Additionally, the Arizona Department of Economic Security offers information on employment and education resources for Arizonans including job opportunities, employment preparation, help with resumes, interview training and more. Individuals can also access information on financial literacy, personal development and mentorship programs.
A police officer in Central Massachusetts was placed on administrative leave after he was arrested on a domestic assault and battery charge, MassLive has confirmed.

The officer, Shawn Morin, is a member of the Warren Police Department. He was previously fired in 2018 then reinstated after filing a grievance over his termination.

Morin is accused of handcuffing his girlfriend and forcing her in his police cruiser because she was drinking and smoking, according to records filed in East Brookfield District Court.

Late in the evening on Sunday, April 26, Massachusetts State Police received a call about an ongoing investigation into an alleged incident of domestic assault involving a Warren police officer.

The woman was at a neighbors house on East Street in Warren.

Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Thomas Eliason went to the address and met with troopers who were already at the scene.

A woman told investigators she was involved in a physical altercation with her boyfriend, identified by her as Morin. The altercation happened at their residence in Warren.

Morin was on-duty at the time.

The woman told state police she was home and entertaining two friends when Morin stopped to visit while on duty sometime around 7 p.m.

The woman said she had been drinking a few bottles of nips and smoked a cigarette, which she stated, Morin doesnt allow her to do.

The girlfriend said, Morin was enraged and aggressively put her in handcuffs and forced her into his Warren PD cruiser, the state police report said.

The girlfriend began kicking the plexiglass in the cruiser, hoping Morin would let her out.

Morin, according to the girlfriends report to state police, took her out of the cruiser and put her on the ground in the front yard. The officer removed the handcuffs and let her go back inside their home.

Morin took her cell phone, state police said.

The girlfriend told investigators Morin stopped her from leaving the residence, but she escaped from the basement and ran to a neighbors home, according to court records.

The girlfriend showed state police troopers a bruise on her right arm.

Morin told state police he found his girlfriend at a different neighbors home while he was on duty. The officer told investigators that his girlfriend is an alcoholic and is violent while drinking, the sergeant wrote in his report.

According to Morin, the neighbor did not want the girlfriend at their home, and he attempted to get her to leave. Morin said his girlfriend attempted to bite him, so he handcuffed her and put her in his cruiser.

Morin stated he was attempting to place her in protective custody but admitted he never called in any of his actions to dispatch, state police wrote. He stated that when she began to kick his cruiser windows, he released her and removed the handcuffs.

Morin was then arrested on the domestic assault and battery charge.

Warren Police Chief Gerald Millette requested state police retrieve Morins police identification and his license to carry a weapon. The identification and license to carry were seized by state police.

Chief Millette confirmed that Morin had not called in any of his actions and made no official or unofficial report of his actions earlier in his shift, according to the court record.

Morins service weapon was previously locked up in the police headquarters. Three personal firearms, a shotgun, a rifle and a handgun, and ammunition were seized by state police.

The girlfriend declined to take out a protection order.

A witness told state police that Morins girlfriend called him the day of the alleged incident. Morins girlfriend told the man she was drunk and wanted to make sure her children were properly supervised, according to a witness statement filed in court.

The man and his wife drove to the home of Morins girlfriend in Warren. The witness told state police the girlfriend kept texting Morin while he was on duty until Morin drove to the home.

The witness believed the girlfriend was intentionally attempting to agitate Morin by threatening to text Morins ex-wife, according to a statement on file in court.

The witness said Morin took his girlfriends cell phone after she refused to give it to him. The girlfriend tried to bite Morin and he then forcefully restrained her in handcuffs, the witness told state police.

The witness believed Morin was having a difficult time drawing the line between boyfriend and police officer.

Records show Morin, 35, was arrested by Massachusetts State Police on April 26 and posted $500 cash bail the following morning.

Morins arraignment is scheduled for June 26, but it appears the case is being transferred to another courthouse.

In a statement to MassLive, Millette said Morin was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation. The statement did not specify if the leave was paid or unpaid.

Morin was reinstated as a Warren police officer in October 2018 after he had been fired a few months earlier over a picture he posted on the town fire departments Facebook page, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported.

The picture, or meme, was viewed as racially insensitive by some, the newspaper reported.

Morin was reinstated after arbitration, the Telegram & Gazette reported.

MassLive reporter Melissa Hanson contributed to this report.
Cicero, N.Y.  A Syracuse man stole a Dodge Charger from a Cicero auto auction business, then crashed the vehicle and ran into the woods injured early Monday, Onondaga County sheriffs deputies said.

Sheriffs deputies, state police and Cicero police responded to ADESA Auto Auction, at 5930 Route 31 in Cicero, at 2:22 a.m. Monday after security spotted someone in the auction yard on cameras and called police.

As a deputy approached the business, he saw a car without headlights or taillights speeding away, heading west on Route 31, sheriffs spokesman Sgt. Jon Seeber said. The car matched the description of the Dodge Charger that had just been reported stolen, he said.

As more deputies responded toward the business, one deputy spotted the Dodge Charger in a ditch in the 4900 block of Route 31, Seeber said. The car door was open and no one was inside, he said. But someone who lives nearby told the deputy that a man had just run into the woods.

Several officers arrived and set up a perimeter, Seeber said. Sheriffs deputies and state police K-9 then began tracking the suspect, he said.

An Onondaga County Air 1 flight crew used the helicopters infrared camera system to detect a heat source coming from the suspect in the woods, Seeber said. The state police K-9 and its handler then went to that location, where they found the suspect, he said.

The suspect, later identified as 40-year-old John Jackson, appeared to have a broken leg, Seeber said.

Due to the suspects injuries, members of the Clay Fire Department and the South Bay Fire Department, utilized a UTV to remove the suspect from the woods, Seeber said.

Northern Onondaga Volunteer Ambulance (NOVA) then transported Jackson to St. Josephs Hospital Health Center in Syracuse for a leg injury, Seeber said.

Jackson, of West Onondaga Street in Syracuse, was charged with fourth-degree grand larceny, third-degree criminal trespass, fourth-degree criminal mischief, third-degree unlawful fleeing from a police officer and he also was issued several traffic tickets. Jackson is scheduled to answer the charges at a later date in Cicero Town Court.

Have a tip or a story idea? Contact Catie OToole: cotoole@syracuse.com | text/call (315) 470-2134 | Twitter | Facebook
An inmate at the Bexar County Sheriff's Office has died after testing positive for COVID-19.

The department announced that 66-year-old Clifford Childs was taken off of life support Monday night while he was receiving treatment for the coronavirus at University Hospital.

READ MORE: The latest news and features about coronavirus in San Antonio

Childs had been admitted to the hospital on April 17 because of a combination of preexisting medical conditions plus ailments associated with the virus. Hospital staff made the decision to intubate Childs and place him on a ventilator because of his condition.

While the official cause of death has not been determined by the Bexar County Medical Examiner yet, preliminary reports indicate that Childs' death is COVID-related.

Childs' death comes just days after BCSO Deputy Timothy De La Fuente died after testing positive for COVID-19.

As per procedure, the Bexar County Sheriffs Office Criminal Investigations Division, Internal Affairs, and the Public Integrity Unit are investigating the death. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards and Converse Police Department have been notified as well.

Childs had been in the Bexar County Jail since March 2018, awaiting trial for two murder charges.

As of Monday, 294 inmates at the detention center have tested positive for COVID-19, with 217 of those cases reported as asymptomatic, BCSO said. Over 830 inmates have been tested for COVID-19 since mass testing became available for staff and inmates.

Taylor Pettaway is a breaking news and general assignment reporter for MySA.com | taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wealth Minerals Ltd. (the Company or Wealth) - (TSXV: WML; OTCQX: WMLLF; SSE: WMLCL; Frankfurt: EJZN), reports that it has negotiated an option agreement for the Goldsmith gold property (Goldsmith) in south eastern British Columbia. This property adjoins Wealths existing Kootenay base metal project (the Kootenay Project or the Project; Figure 1), where the primary target is nickel-rich volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) mineralization. Goldsmith comprises 11 claims totaling 782 hectares.



Wealths Kootenay Project is within the prospective Lardeau Group, which hosts numerous volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits, including the past-producing Goldstream mine, located 90km north of Revelstoke. Two properties, Ledgend and Lardeau, cover some of the most prospective (95th and 99th percentile) of the anomalous nickel-cobalt silt anomalies produced by the historic regional stream sampling programmes of the B.C. Ministry of Mines. Highly anomalous gold was detected in silt samples on both properties by government sampling and was duplicated by Wealth reconnaissance silt sampling.

Henk Van Alphen, Wealths CEO, states: Goldsmith is a welcome addition to the Kootenay Project and the indications of high-grade gold mineralization there provide further evidence that the particular mineralized horizons we are pursuing in the Lardeau rocks are highly prospective for both base and precious metals.

Goldsmith Property: A Long History of High-Grade Gold Discovery

The Goldsmith Property is located 65km north of Kaslo in southeastern British Columbia. The claims lie west of the Lardeau River, between Poplar Creek to the north and Cascade Creek to the south. Highway 31 crosses the east edge of the claims and access is via the Cascade Forest Service Road. The Property is being optioned from vendors Jack and Bob Denny.

In 1890, the discovery of placer gold in the Lardeau River below Trout Lake was closely followed by the discovery of gold in Poplar Creek, and then the related greenstone-hosted vein occurrences in 1898. The main rush to the area was in June 1903, with the discovery of coarse visible gold in quartz and sulphide veins on the Gold Park, Swede (later the Goldsmith) and Lucky Jack claims. The initial gold rush only lasted several months, as the high-grade surface mineralization was quickly mined out, but significant workings remained active until 1930.

Story continues

Historical workings on the property consists of at least six adits on the Bullock and Goldsmith claims plus various workings on the north side of Poplar Creek, most of which are a part of the historical Gold Park group (now all part of the Goldsmith property), all completed before 1930. Numerous veins were exposed in open cuts and short adits in greenstone and coarsely crystalline carbonate rock, the weathered product of which yielded much free gold.

No further systematic exploration was recorded until 1980-81, when Westmin conducted geological mapping, soil and rock geochemistry, trenching and 409m of diamond drilling in six short holes. From 2003 to 2009, Cream Minerals confirmed the existence of the historical high grade gold mineralization by locating and sampling many of the historical workings. They also completed trenching, soil sampling and 200 line-kilometres of airborne magnetics and electromagnetics. Highlights from the adit and trench sampling included 101.78g/t over 0.2m, 63.78g/t over 0.8m, and 27.63g/t over 0.35m.

Between 2016 and 2019, Black Tusk Resources conducted 32.5 line-kilometres of ground magnetic and VLF-EM surveys, trenching, rock sampling, and brushing out roads, trails and historical workings. Several northwest trending gold structures were tested along the Bullock-Goldsmith zone, with mineralization and geology indicating that they may be aligned along a controlling shear. The structure contains an abundance of quartz veining as well as sulphide minerals including arsenopyrite, pyrite, and pyrrhotite. Large (20-90kg) trench samples were subjected to Met-Solve Analytical bench-scale processing for gold recovery, which indicated that most of the samples were amenable to centrifugal gravity concentration of gold. Calculated head grades included 14.42g/t gold from the Arsenopyrite Vein, 5.34g/t gold from the Black Vein, and 5.26g/t gold from Hamburger Vein. This area, about 500m in strike length, will be the initial focus of further work.

Note that the exploration results described above are preliminary in nature and not conclusive evidence of the likelihood of a mineral deposit. All historic production, drill or sample figures quoted herein are based on prior data and reports obtained and prepared by previous operators. The Company has not completed the work necessary to verify results and the historical figures should not be relied upon as they have not been verified by a Qualified Person.

Adjoining Lardeau Property

The Lardeau property, the northern claim block of the Kootenay Project, adjoins the Goldsmith property to the south and covers 6136 hectares of mostly low-lying forest with sparse outcrop west of the Lardeau River. It was staked on the basis of anomalous nickel-cobalt regional silt anomalies produced by the regional sampling programmes of the B.C. Ministry of Mines. Initial work by a previous operator in 2017 generated highly anomalous Ni (>100 ppm), Co (>30 ppm) and Cu (>50 ppm) values in three different drainages over three kilometres of their length. Gold and base metal soil anomalies on Goldsmith trend southeast onto the Lardeau property.

Limited reconnaissance work along the access roads at Lardeau identified listwanite float in the northern anomalous creeks, the same rock type associated with gold at Goldsmith. Listwanite is a quartz-carbonate alteration product of nickel-bearing ultramafic rocks (commonly serpentinite) and is associated with both nickel-cobalt bearing VMS and high-grade orogenic-style gold mineralization. Listwanite-altered ultramafic rocks are associated with massive sulphides and orogenic gold throughout the range of the Lardeau Group greenstone rocks, from the Goldstream mine 90km north of Revelstoke, to the Ledgend property 25km north of Kaslo, as well as in several other gold belts in the Cordillera.

Wealth intends to fly a helicopter-borne VTEM and magnetic geophysical survey covering 2900 hectares (641 line-kilometres) over the Lardeau claim block. Base and precious metal mineralization at Lardeau is expected to be associated with pyrrhotite, which has a strong magnetic signature based on results from the Ledgend property. New logging roads planned for this area will aid in access for prospecting and geochemical sampling of geophysical anomalies to generate drill targets. If overburden is problematic, then ground geophysical surveys will be used to delineate drill targets.

Exploration Potential

Wealth believes the greenstone units of the southern Lardeau Group to have excellent potential for hosting volcanogenic massive sulphides (VMS) and orogenic gold mineralization. Other known VMS and gold occurrences in the Lardeau belt were either discovered in areas of good rock exposure, at high elevations, or by chance during construction of forestry roads. The heavily vegetated low-elevation regions are under-explored, and few previous local workers have recognized the potential for gold and base metal mineralization related to widespread, narrow ultramafic horizons altered to talc-schist and listwanite.

More details on each project are available at www.wealthminerals.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cf415b8f-ab9f-4cde-b6b5-98130ce1e20f

Details of Option Terms



The option agreement applies to the Goldsmith Property, comprising 11 claims totaling 782 hectares. The underlying owners are Jack and Bob Denny. Wealth has been granted the exclusive option to acquire a 100% interest Goldsmith by issuing 500,000 common shares and CAD$100,000 over a four-year term, the details of which are as follows:

Date Cash (CAD) and Wealth Shares Closing $5,000 and 100,000 shares Year 1 Anniversary $15,000 and 100,000 shares Year 2 Anniversary $20,000 and 100,000 shares Year 3 Anniversary $30,000 and 100,000 shares Year 4 Anniversary $30,000 and 100,000 shares Total $100,000 and 500,000 shares

All of the claims are subject to a 2% net smelter return royalty. Wealth will have the right to purchase the royalty for a payment of CAD$1,000,000 in cash at any time following the date that Wealth exercises its right to acquire the properties.

Qualified Person

John Drobe P.Geo., Wealth's Exploration Manager and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed the scientific information that forms the basis for this news release, and has approved the disclosure herein. Mr. Drobe is not independent of the Company as he is an officer, a shareholder and holds incentive stock options.

About Wealth Minerals Ltd.

Wealth is a mineral resource company with interests in Canada, Mexico and Chile. The Companys main focus is the acquisition and development of lithium projects in South America.

The Company opportunistically advances battery metal projects, namely copper and nickel, where it has a peer advantage in project selection and initial evaluation.

Lithium market dynamics and a rapidly increasing metal price are the result of profound structural issues with the industry meeting anticipated future demand. Wealth is positioning itself to be a major beneficiary of this future mismatch of supply and demand. In parallel with lithium market dynamics, Wealth believes other battery metals will benefit from similar industry trends.

For further details on the Company readers are referred to the Companys website (www.wealthminerals.com) and its Canadian regulatory filings on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of

WEALTH MINERALS LTD.

Hendrik van Alphen

Hendrik van Alphen

Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact: Marla Ritchie or Henk van Alphen Phone: 604-331-0096 Ext. 3886 or 604-638-3886 E-mail: info@wealthminerals.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 press release, which has been prepared by management.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, forward-looking statements) within the meaning of applicable Canadian and US securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the anticipated content, commencement, timing and cost of exploration programs, anticipated exploration program results, the discovery and delineation of mineral deposits/resources/reserves, the Companys expectation that it will be able to enter into agreements to acquire interests in additional mineral projects, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, the state of the financial markets for the Companys equity securities, the state of the commodity markets generally, variations in the nature, quality and quantity of any mineral deposits that may be located, variations in the market price of any mineral products the Company may produce or plan to produce, the inability of the Company to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required, including TSXV acceptance, for its planned activities, the inability of the Company to produce minerals from its properties successfully or profitably, to continue its projected growth, to raise the necessary capital or to be fully able to implement its business strategies, and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in the Companys latest interim Management Discussion and Analysis and filed with certain securities commissions in Canada. All of the Companys Canadian public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com and readers are urged to review these materials, including the technical reports filed with respect to the Companys mineral properties.

Caution Regarding Adjacent or Similar Mineral Properties

This news release contains information with respect to adjacent or similar mineral properties in respect of which the Company has no interest or rights to explore or mine. Readers are cautioned that the Company has no interest in or right to acquire any interest in any such properties, and that mineral deposits, and the results of any mining thereof, on adjacent or similar properties are not indicative of mineral deposits on the Companys properties or any potential exploitation thereof.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 03:20:20|Editor: huaxia

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UNITED NATIONS, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations is deeply concerned for more than 4 million civilians in northwest Syria -- half of them are displaced -- because of intermittent shelling despite a cease-fire accord, a UN spokesman said on Tuesday.

Artillery shelling reportedly affected nine communities in the Idlib governorate as well as one in northern Aleppo and two in Hama, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Reports of intermittent shelling occurred over the weekend despite the March 6 cease-fire agreement between Russia and Turkey, he said.

Massive cross-border humanitarian relief efforts continue to provide life-saving assistance to people in need throughout the northwest, including health items to prepare for COVID-19 outbreaks, Dujarric said.

In April alone, some 1,365 trucks crossed from Turkey, providing food, health items and other critical humanitarian support. In the first days of May, 33 trucks have already crossed, he told correspondents in a virtual briefing.

"We continue to call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and urge all parties, and those with influence over them, to ensure the protection of civilians as well as civilian infrastructure, and that is of course in line with their obligations under international humanitarian law," the spokesman said. Enditem
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Black Knight, Inc. (NYSE:BKI) announced today that Carrington Mortgage Services has signed an agreement to implement a comprehensive suite of Black Knight origination solutions. Carrington Mortgage Services is one of the nation's largest privately held non-bank lenders, offering a full slate of conventional Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, VA and USDA products through its wholesale, retail and correspondent lending channels. The implementation includes the Empower loan origination system (LOS), as well as other Black Knight applications, to help improve operational efficiency, reduce risk and enhance the customer experience.

"Black Knight's origination solutions suite features the advanced functionality necessary to support straight-through loan processing, which will help us be more productive and, most importantly, better serve our customers," said Brent Rasmussen, executive vice president and chief information officer for Carrington Mortgage Holdings. "Black Knight has best-in-class solutions and a commitment to innovation that will enable us to further streamline the loan process for our customers and operations, as well as support our future growth plans."

Carrington Mortgage Services will use Empower, Black Knight's comprehensive loan origination system (LOS), to support its retail, wholesale and correspondent channels, helping to electronically capture, process, underwrite and close loans on a single platform. The Empower system's advanced capabilities are designed to automate processing of certain tasks based on the lender's configuration without the need for constant human intervention  often referred to as "lights-out processing." The LOS actively monitors for key data changes  or lack of necessary changes  and triggers automated or manual tasks to be completed based on configurable logic, when appropriate.

Integrated with the Empower LOS, Black Knight's standards-based eSign and eDocument delivery platform supports lenders with securely connecting, ordering and managing loan-related products and services electronically with their approved service providers. Carrington Mortgage Services will also use Black Knight's Fee Monitoring Service, which minimizes costly fee cures by helping to provide accurate recording fees, transfer taxes, and property tax, title, settlement and inspection data.

To gain maximum visibility into its operations, Carrington Mortgage Services will implement Black Knight's Actionable Intelligence Platform (AIP). This advanced data-delivery framework combines Black Knight's extensive data assets, big data ecosystem and enterprise business intelligence capabilities into a single solution. Using an array of pre-configured suites, Black Knight's AIP helps both lending and servicing clients gain and retain customers, reduce risk and decrease operational costs.

"We are excited to support Carrington Mortgage Services' unique business," said Joe Nackashi, president, Black Knight. "By leveraging multiple integrated Black Knight solutions, Carrington Mortgage Services will gain significant value to help drive growth, and enhance the experience for its retail, wholesale and correspondent customers."

About Carrington Mortgage Services

Founded in 2007, Carrington Mortgage Services, LLC (CMS), a subsidiary of Carrington Holding Company, is a retail, wholesale and correspondent mortgage lender headquartered in Anaheim, Calif. CMS's diverse product offerings, which are designed to meet the needs of today's wholesale mortgage brokers and non-delegated originators, include conventional Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac products, FHA, VA and USDA.

About Black Knight

Black Knight (NYSE:BKI) is a leading provider of integrated software, data and analytics solutions that facilitate and automate many of the business processes across the homeownership life cycle.

As a leading fintech, Black Knight is committed to being a premier business partner that clients rely on to achieve their strategic goals, realize greater success and better serve their customers by delivering best-in-class software, services and insights with a relentless commitment to excellence, innovation, integrity and leadership. For more information on Black Knight, please visit www.blackknightinc.com.

For more information:







Michelle Kersch





Mitch Cohen Black Knight, Inc.





Black Knight, Inc. 904.854.5043





704.890.8158 [email protected]





[email protected]

SOURCE Black Knight, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.blackknightinc.com


U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Jovita Carranza look on during a signing ceremony for the "Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act," approving additional coronavirus disease (COVID-19) relief for the U.S. economy and hospitals treating people sickened by the pandemic, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 24, 2020.

Two New England men have become the first people charged in the United States with fraudulently applying for aid from a federal program designed to help small businesses deal with financial fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

The men allegedly applied for more than $500,000 in assistance from the new CARES Act Payroll Protection Program, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

David Staveley, 52, a resident of Andover, Massachusetts, and David Butziger, 51, of Warwick, Rhode Island, allegedly claimed to "have dozens of employees earning wages at four different business entities when, in fact, there were no employees working for any of the businesses," the Justice Department said.

Staveley and Butziger are charged in a federal criminal complaint with conspiracy to make false statements to influence the Small Business Administration and conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

Staveley, who also is known by the name Kurt Sanborn, additionally is charged with aggravated identity theft, and Butziger also is charged with bank fraud.

Under the name Kurt Sanborn, Staveley was sentenced in 2015 to 27 months in federal prison for fraud related to mortgages on properties in New Hampshire.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that he and Butziger are alleged to have discussed via email "the creation of fraudulent loan applications and supporting documentations to seek loans guaranteed by the SBA for COVID-19 relief."

Rhode Island U.S. Attorney Aaron Weisman, whose office lodged the charges, said in a statement, "Tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs and have had their lives thrown into chaos because of the coronavirus pandemic."

"It is unconscionable that anyone would attempt to steal from a program intended to help hard working Americans continue to be paid so they can feed their families and pay some of their bills," Weisman said.

Authorities said that Staveley claimed in loan applications seeking $438,500 "that he had dozens of employees at three restaurants he owned, two in Warwick, Rhode Island, and one in Berlin, Massachusetts."

"An investigation determined that one of the Rhode Island restaurants, the former Remington House, and the Massachusetts restaurant, On The Trax, were not open for business prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, at the time the loan applications were submitted, or at any time thereafter," according to the Justice Department.

"Moreover, Staveley did not own or have any role in the second Rhode Island restaurant, Top of the Bay, for which he was seeking financial relief."
Adam Neumann, a co-founder of WeWork, sued SoftBank on Monday, accusing it of breaching a contract by withdrawing an offer to buy up to $3 billion in WeWork stock from Mr. Neumann and other shareholders.

SoftBank, a Japanese conglomerate that has invested in many fast-growing but unprofitable start-ups, included the stock offer in a bailout that saved WeWork from financial collapse last year. Mr. Neumanns lawsuit, filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery, contends that SoftBank and one of its investment funds reneged on their promise to pay for the benefits they had already received when they withdrew the offer last month.

SoftBank, which gained effective control of WeWork in the rescue, previously said it walked away from the stock-purchase offer because certain provisions of the deal had not been met. But Mr. Neumanns lawsuit asserts that SoftBank was secretly taking actions to undermine the deal.

To complete the transaction, WeWork had to assume full ownership of a joint venture in China. Mr. Neumanns lawsuit contends that SoftBank and its chief executive, Masayoshi Son, worked to prevent that from happening.
As the number of nursing home residents dying of the coronavirus mounts, officials in Bucks and Delaware Counties sought on Monday to speed their ability to lift shutdown restrictions by asking the state to consider their infection rates without including deaths in long-term care facilities.

Health Secretary Rachel Levine said such cases cannot be severed from the rest in society  noting that staff members go back and forth between those facilities and the broader community  and would not be considered separately.

"What we have certainly learned in this global pandemic of COVID-19 is that we are all interconnected, Levine said. One section of our community  impacts the general community.

Philadelphia reported no deaths for the first day since March 24, though the city health commissioner cautioned that more from the past 24 hours could come in later. The number of cases in Camden City passed 1,000, and Camden County reported 48 previously uncounted deaths in April.

Officials in Pennsylvania and New Jersey urged people not to shirk their duty to wear face coverings in public  Just put on the damn mask, said Mayor Jim Kenney, specifically addressing people 30 and younger, an age group he noticed over the weekend as especially noncompliant.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy ended speculation on the status of the rest of the school year, announcing schools will remain closed for the remainder, as they are in Pennsylvania.

But reopened state parks  which were popular over the weekend  will remain open, Murphy said Monday, because there were very few incidents of knucklehead behavior.

New Jersey reported 1,621 new positive tests, bringing the states confirmed caseload to 128,269, and 45 deaths, increasing the states toll to 7,910. Health officials said the numbers were underreported because of weekend network outages.

Still, hospital admissions were dropping in the north and central parts of the state and staying steady in the south as the infection rate flattens, Murphy said.

 READ MORE: For hospital workers staying at Philly hotels, the pendulum swings between relief and anxiety

Pennsylvania surpassed 50,000 reported cases of the coronavirus on Monday, when 825 new cases were confirmed, and 2,458 Pennsylvanians have died. Officials couldnt say when they might announce the next batch of counties approved to move to the first phase of reopening.

The health-care system, though challenged in Philadelphia, has stood up very well, Levine said. But if we release the mitigation efforts too soon in areas that are very affected by COVID-19, areas that still have significant community transmission, we would just go right back into that exponential rise, and it could even be higher than the rise we saw before.

Deaths of people living in nursing homes make up about three-quarters of all coronavirus deaths in both Bucks and Delaware Counties, and an even higher proportion in Chester and Montgomery Counties, according to Mondays state data.

Asked about the neighboring counties requests to count nursing home cases separately, Montgomery County Commissioners Chair Val Arkoosh said that while she believed those cases should be included in totals, it could be quite appropriate to track them separately.

We may see differing rates of both infection and decline when comparing individuals in the community to individuals who live in a congregate-care facility, said Arkoosh, a physician with a background in public health. She added, These are our grandparents, our parents, our brothers and sisters.  These are human beings  and they should be treated with respect and care.

A group of eight Republican state lawmakers from Bucks County, writing to Wolf in support of the county commissioners request that the governor reconsider the metric for reopening, said Bucks had very little community spread."

Delaware County still has too much spread of the virus to reopen, and officials were not calling on Wolf to reopen until it was safe, said County Council Member Kevin Madden. But they wanted Wolf to provide the area with more testing and a separate assessment of new cases in its long-term care population in addition to reconsidering the metric.

The governor has set targets for counties to open. We are calling on the state to give us the necessary resources to meet these targets as soon as we can, said Madden, a Democrat.

State health officials are planning to expand testing in Philadelphias collar counties, Levine said, but she did not say when or by how much.

 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.

City officials made testing more widely available in Philadelphia on Monday, to include anyone, regardless of age, who has a new cough, shortness of breath, or two of the following symptoms: fever, chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache, and loss of taste or smell.

Until we have the ability to test everyone who may have been exposed to COVID-19 coronavirus, we wont know how safe it will be to reopen Philadelphia. And contact tracing will require that we identify as many people with the infection as possible. Expanding our recommendations on who should be tested is the first step in that process, said Health Commissioner Thomas Farley.

Due to shortages of testing materials, the city had previously recommended that only people with symptoms in at-risk groups should be tested.

We've been through some tough times in this epidemic, but over the weekend, the situation here in Philadelphia is starting to look better, Farley said at a virtual news conference Monday, reporting 186 new cases with some delayed test results still expected to come in.

This is now the third day in a row where the daily case count is below 400, and that's despite the fact that we are increasing the number of tests that we are doing, so that clearly is good news, he said.

As the state monitors areas that have yet to move to the first reopening phase, Levine said officials are tracking case data, lab capacity, and contact tracing ability. They are also looking toward the fall, when some experts predict a second wave of coronavirus cases will occur. She said Pennsylvania hopes to have enough rapid testing  and perhaps even antibody testing  to ensure any second wave would be less devastating than the first.

In New Jersey, Murphy enacted a set of measures Monday to shore up state finances. He rescinded an order he signed last year that called on the state treasurer to build a surplus and vetoed several bills that would have directed, among other things, $20 million in wage support to those unemployed due to the pandemic, $10 million for coronavirus sanitation efforts, and $15 million to local food banks.

I have no other choice, Murphy said. We need the federal government to step forward with significant investment in our states, both red and blue, to prevent our recovery from being held back, because we cannot fund it.

Staff writers Allison Steele, Sean Collins Walsh, and Jeremy Roebuck contributed to this article.
During the covid-19 crisis, Russia's authoritarianism is on full display. Surveillance technologies, global power plays, misinformation and government propaganda make easy fodder for critics of Russia's coronavirus response. But Russia's approach shares much in common with the United States. These similarities may make Russia more relatable than Winston Churchill's famous assessment of it as a "riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma."

In my work on Russia's immigration policy, I argue that policymakers sometimes frame issues as crises in order to solve unrelated problems or to mobilize certain ideas. Other work on Russia reveals that crisis response can produce benefits such as electoral gains, but it doesn't always achieve intended aims and may lead to perpetual crisis cycles.

In important ways, Russia is used to crisis. Even though modern crises are increasingly borderless, domestic policy shows how committed leaders are to sustainable solutions.

In the process of collecting data on Russia's response to covid-19 for the CoronaNet Research Project - an initiative tracking government responses worldwide - I observed three broad similarities with the United States that have little to do with authoritarian personalities or the politics of President Trump and Vladimir Putin.

1. Russia relies on local decision-making. Russia is a federal system that divides power between the government in Moscow and more than 80 regions. Some regional leaders are competent and relatively independent from the Kremlin. Others are not. In response to the covid-19 crisis, local leaders have initiated raids on Chinese citizens, created digital pass systems and even closed borders between regions. These types of policies make international headlines because they fit into the ready-made box of authoritarianism.

More mundane local policies are less newsworthy. In Moscow, the city government established a coronavirus task force, built hospitals, increased production of masks and was the first in the country to institute a citywide stay-at-home order. Other regions followed suit. These policies are the domain of mayors and governors.

2. National-level policies depend on many government leaders. While Russia lacks U.S.-style checks and balances, many policy areas depend on the input of numerous decision-makers. A task force established in January has led the covid-19 crisis response. Under the direction of Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova and chief state sanitary doctor Anna Popova, the task force oversaw the development of a test kit, created procedures for isolation and quarantine, posted daily updates on the coronavirus situation, and drafted myriad authoritative recommendations for border closings, travel restrictions and the use of public spaces.

By the time Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin took direct control of the task force in mid-March, the policy course had already been set. Putin began taking a more active role by the end of March, but his decisions relied on the advice and expertise of policymakers in the task force. My prior research suggests that government policymakers often lobby policies up to Putin, rather than the other way around - policies aren't always unilaterally dictated downward. What we see in Russia in the current crisis seems to follow this pattern. Like in the United States, policymaking involves many levels of government bureaucracy and official input.

3. Russia is reporting incomplete figures. In every country, the coronavirus crisis has laid bare the limitations of even the best and most transparent data to reduce uncertainty in real time. Experts and pundits alike have suggested Russia's coronavirus data is incomplete or even manipulated. Similar debates about statistics in the United States have centered around case identification and death counts.

These debates reaffirm the essential role of numbers in modern politics. Russia's data capacity is tremendous, powered by meticulous number-crunching bureaucrats. But the focus of this data isn't always relevant to the problem at hand.

Russian government reports are replete with figures of the number of people examined by mobile medical brigades, coronavirus hotline calls, people on sick leave, border temperature checks, regulatory documents issued, etc. As in the United States, when government officials report on numerical minutiae such as the quantities of protective gear delivered to prisons, the goal is to show that the government is doing something - even if the figures have little connection to concrete results. While the reporting of numbers is crucial for transparency, numbers on their own don't produce accountability.

Are Russia and the U.S. really comparable? Experts have criticized the Russian and U.S. responses to covid-19. Some point to structural problems such as unequal access to health care in the United States and inadequate medical infrastructure in Russia. Others focus on Putin's hands-off approach or Trump's inconsistency as major problems.

It may be popular to compare Putin and Trump's leadership styles - and highlight their cozy relationship. But as the covid-19 crisis shows, it's not possible to simply sort "good" or "bad" policy into democratic or authoritarian categories.

But comparing Russia with the United States is useful in another way. As political scientist Joel Migdal observed, "States . . . may be subject to coming apart at the seams simply because there are so many seams." The more mundane details of governance, such as task force meetings, infrastructure funding and data collection happen far below the level of the president with career policymakers and bureaucrats. This work may be the everyday glue that holds together the seams of authoritarian and democratic systems alike.

- - -

Schenk is associate professor of political science at Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan, a member of the PONARS network, a contributor to the CoronaNet Research Project and author of "Why Control Immigration?: Strategic Uses of Migration Management in Russia" (University of Toronto Press, 2018). The views expressed here are solely the author's and do not reflect those of Nazarbayev University or affiliated bodies.

For other analysis and commentary from The Monkey Cage, an independent blog anchored by political scientists from universities around the country, see www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage
By Maria Cervantes

LIMA, April 24 (Reuters) - Indigenous tribes in Peru's Amazon say the government has left them to fend for themselves against the coronavirus, risking "ethnocide by inaction," according to a letter from natives to the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

The formal complaint asks the U.N. and international courts to force the government to take "concrete action" to ensure their survival, citing the 1948 U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Eight native leaders representing 1,800 communities in the Peruvian Amazon signed the letter which was published by indigenous group AIDESEP on Thursday.

Health experts have warned the spreading virus could be lethal for the Amazons indigenous people, who have been decimated for centuries by diseases brought by Europeans, from smallpox and malaria to the flu.

"They send messages every day about what the (government) is going to do in the cities, but nothing for indigenous peoples," Lizardo Cauper, president of AIDESEP, told Reuters. "For us, this is discrimination."

Government representatives did not respond to requests for comment. But President Martin Vizcarra said two weeks ago officials were working to bring aid to the region after natives had voluntarily isolated themselves to avoid the virus.

At least four natives from the Puerto Bethel region, a remote Amazon wilderness community two hours by river from the capital of Ucayali, have contracted the disease, according to a spokesman for the Ministry of Health.

The Ministry of Culture said earlier this week that it shipped supplies for improving sanitation and hygiene to Puerto Bethel and was monitoring the situation.

BANANA LEAVES

The natives infected with coronavirus have self-isolated in a local community, said Ronald Suarez, president of the Shipibo Konibo Xetebo ethnic group. But they have few supplies to protect themselves, he told Reuters.

Story continues

"People put up banana leaves to protect themselves," Suarez said, explaining they could be used as a makeshift mask.

He said medications and treatment options are also in short supply, forcing many to treat symptoms with medicinal plants.

Peru's Ombudsman's Office warned earlier this month the disease could spread quickly to other indigenous communities if officials do not take fast action.

The ombudsman says only 4 of 10 communities have health care facilities in this poor, remote region of the Amazon.

Peru reported 21,648 cases of the coronavirus on Friday, the second highest tally in Latin America, and 634 related deaths. There have been no reports of indigenous people killed by the virus. (Reporting by Maria Cervantes; Additional reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
Mumbai, May 5 : Producers Guild of India has issued a statement clarifying that the final safety protocols and guidelines for resumption of shooting activities are yet to be formalised.

"A work-in-progress document prepared by the guild of draft guidelines for resumption of shooting activities has recently been circulating widely in the media and industry," Producers Guild of India spokesperson said.

"This is to clarify that the document is only an early internal draft prepared by the Guild in preparedness for the future resumption of shooting activities. Any final safety protocols and guidelines will be formalised only after comprehensive consultations with government officials, medical professionals and relevant industry bodies." This comes after certain media outlets reported that the guild has drafted several safety measures for shooting post the lockdown, which includes the cast and crew providing the result of their swab test before reporting on the set. There will be temperature checks of the unit every morning, a doctor and a nurse would be present on the set for an initial period.

Meanwhile, the Producers Guild of India had earlier donated fully-equipped tents and vanity vans of Bollywood stars to the police force, particularly female cops, across 22 key locations in the city, as the uniformed personnel battle it out to protect Mumbai from the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic.
News

Washington, DC - Last week, the Presidents Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice completed its hearings on crime reduction, with a panel on technology tools for law enforcement, specifically drones, facial recognition technology, and body worn cameras, and a panel featuring survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and human trafficking. The Commission also held its first hearing on reentry.

The hearings were held over three days via teleconference. Each teleconference featured expert witnesses who provided testimony and, subsequently, answered questions from the Commissioners.

On Tuesday, April 21, the Commission received testimony from Colonel Edwin Roessler Jr., Chief of the Fairfax County Police Department; Damon Mosler, Assistant District Attorney for San Diego County; Dr. Richard Vorder Bruegge, Senior Physical Scientist for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and; Kevin Jinks, Senior Counsel for the Department of Justice Office of Legal Policy.

Testimony and discussions focused on technology tools for law enforcement. Colonel Roessler and Assistant District Attorney Mosler discussed body worn cameras. Colonel Roessler stated, The biggest need is the public accountability for community and the police officers in the body-worn camera program. Assistant District Attorney Mosler testified that although public perception and expectation have made it almost essential for law enforcement to have cameras given the public desire for transparency and accountability, this trend poses new challenges for prosecutors and the entire criminal justice system due, in part, to the quantity of data collected. Dr. Vorder Bruegge spoke of opportunities and challenges associated with the use of facial recognition to combat violent crime. The final panelist, Mr. Jinks, discussed how governments at all levels can first use UAS, or Unmanned Aerial Systems, also known as drones, to further our missions and second counter the threat posed by dangerous drones and their operators.

On Wednesday, April 22, the Commission concluded its hearing on Crime Reduction with testimony from Joyce Bilyeu, Director of Client Services for the Sacramento Regional Family Justice Center; Adrianna Griffith, SA/DV Specialist/Lived Experience Expert for the Womens Center - Youth and Family Services; Bella Hounakey, Subject Matter Expert for the United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking, and; Natasha Alexenko, Founder of Natashas Justice Project.

Testimony and discussion featured the personal experiences of survivors of sexual and domestic violence and human trafficking. Director Bilyeu shared her story as a survivor of domestic violence. She stressed the challenges victims face to leave their abusers, noting that each time she tried to take control of her situation by calling the police, her husband spiraled further out of control and the abuse worsened. Ms. Griffith shared her experiences of witnessing abuse as a child and falling into the cycle of crime as a victim herself. She advocates for early social services intervention for children who experience/witness abuse so that they have the chance to lead healthy lives. Ms. Hounakey shared her story of being trafficked by her aunt from Togo to the United States at nine-years-old to work up to 18 hours a day. She described how trafficking victims are conditioned by their traffickers to not trust law enforcement. She explained how, in addition to the federal agents who rescued her in 2014, she would have liked to have been met by medics, social workers, and translators so that she and the other victims would have better understood their situation. Ms. Alexenko provided the final testimony of the day, sharing her story as a survivor of sexual assault at gunpoint. She waited 10 years for her rape kit to be tested and 15 years before her rapist would face a jury.

On Thursday, April 23, the Commission began its hearing on Reentry with testimony from Tony Lowden, Executive Director for the Federal Interagency Council on Crime Prevention and Improving Reentry; Jason Hardy, Author of The Second Chance Club: Hardship and Hope After Prison, and Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation; John Koufos, the National Director of Reentry Initiatives, Right on Crime, and; Grant Duwe, Director of Research for the Minnesota Department of Corrections.

Testimony and discussion focused on the state of reentry. Executive Director Lowden testified that reentry is all about redemption & providing every opportunity for a person to be who they were created to beReducing the risk of a prisoner re-offending upon release is one of the most effective ways to ensure public safety. Special Agent Hardy discussed the economic benefit to quality reentry programs: Every dollar committed to reentry services at probation and parole agencies has the potential to return enormous taxpayer savings down the road. Mr. Koufos offered similar testimony, stating: Successful reentry empowers people to participate in meaningful work opportunities, which helps many pay child support and restitution, and strengthens tax bases. Director Duwe provided the days final testimony, stressing that reentry begins the day a person walks into prison. He stated the need to focus time in prison on quality evidence-based programming and not simply warehousing people behind bars.
Egged on by Trump, social media users push conspiracy theories about plans to change voting because of coronavirus.

A bitterly partisan debate unfolding on whether more voters in the United States should cast their votes through the mail during the coronavirus pandemic is provoking online disinformation and conspiracy theories that could undermine trust in the results, analysts believe, even if there are no major problems.

With social-distancing guidelines possibly curtailing in-person voting at the polls in November, states are drawing up plans to rely more heavily on a mail-in system that has until now seen only limited use.

Historically, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud through mail-in voting. But social media users are already pushing theories casting doubt on the method. US President Donald Trump has encouraged the scepticism, saying during a televised briefing that a lot of people cheat with mail-in voting and repeatedly tweeting about elections being rigged by the process.

Officials in Trumps Justice Department say they are concerned that foreign adversaries could exploit any vulnerabilities in the vote-by-mail process, especially since even minor tampering could trigger widespread doubts about the integrity of the vote.

Is it possible, in particular for a foreign actor, to cause enough mischief in the vote-by-mail process to raise a question in the minds of Americans, particularly Americans perhaps whose candidate has lost, that somehow the result of this election is unfair? Assistant Attorney General John Demers, the departments top national security official, said in describing a key question confronting law enforcement.

Republicans should fight very hard when it comes to state wide mail-in voting. Democrats are clamoring for it. Tremendous potential for voter fraud, and for whatever reason, doesnt work out well for Republicans. @foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2020

Several disinformation experts said they have not found evidence yet that foreign actors are covertly pushing a false narrative about mail-in voting.

But a sham social media campaign that feeds existing doubts about the US election process would align with the Kremlins playbook, said Bret Schafer, a media and digital disinformation fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a Washington, DC think-tank. During the 2016 election, Russia-linked groups polluted US voters social media feeds with messages about hot-button topics like race relations, gun laws and immigration.

You dont have to hack the vote to hack peoples perception of the vulnerability of the vote, he said. All you need to do is to seed enough doubt about the legitimacy of a vote.

Only five US states currently conduct mail-in voting, where a ballot is automatically mailed to every eligible voter.

To make mail-in voting work, the remaining states would have to make major changes to their voting and tabulating systems in less than six months. Any last-minute changes could spur unsubstantiated claims about rampant voter fraud, an unsupported theory that Trump and some of his supporters have already pushed for years.





Conspiracy theories that Democrats are hyping the coronavirus pandemic to push for mail-in voting or that forecasts of a second wave of infections are part of a ploy to cancel an in-person vote have received thousands of likes, retweets and shares on Facebook, Twitter and Reddit. The theories are popular in dozens of Facebook groups that have been created in recent weeks to protest governors stay-at-home orders.

Negative chatter around mail-in ballots spiked in those Facebook groups after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi proposed expanding early voting and mail-in voting last month, said Madelyn Webb, a research reporter for First Draft News, an organisation that tracks disinformation.

One popular meme accused Democrats of extending the quarantine to push mail in ballots so they can cheat. The image received a combined 90,000 likes, comments and shares, mostly on pro-Trump and conservative Facebook pages.
By Express News Service

KOCHI: The Union government has chalked out a detailed plan to evacuate the Non-Resident Indians stranded in various countries due to suspension of flights in view of the COVID-19 outbreak.

According to sources, the evacuation will start on Thursday with two flights from the UAE transporting 409 passengers to Kerala.

Meanwhile, the Indian Navy on Monday night deployed three vessels for the evacuation operation.

While two vessels - amphibious transport dock INS Jalaswa and warfare vessel INS Magar set sails for the Maldives, another vessel INS Shardul attached to Southern Naval Command set sails for Dubai.

"The Navy has deployed three vessels - two to the Maldives and one to Dubai on Monday night. INS Shardul is expected to dock at Dubai on Thursday and the details of evacuation will be decided by the consulate. It will take two days for the vessel to reach Kochi from Dubai. Details of the evacuation plan and deployment of more ships are expected to be announced by today afternoon," Navy spokesperson told TNIE.

Meanwhile, the Ministry for Civil Aviation has unveiled a detailed schedule for the evacuation of NRIs from various countries.

As per schedule 64 flights will be operated aiming to bring 15000 Indians from May 7 to May 14.

The first flight carrying 209 passengers from Abu Dhabi in the UAE will touch down at Cochin International Airport on May 7.

Another flight will transport 200 passengers from Dubai to Kozhikode in Kerala on the same day.

Flights will be operated from the UAE, USA, UK, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Kuwait and other countries to various Indian cities facilitating smooth evacuation, said sources.

India has been under a lockdown since March 25 to curb the spread of the coronavirus and it will continue till May 17.

All commercial passenger flights have been suspended for this period.

Therefore, the Ministry of Home Affairs announced on Monday it will facilitate the return of asymptomatic Indian nationals stranded abroad from May 7 onwards, in a phased manner, through aircraft and naval ships on a payment basis.

Between May 7 and 13, India is likely to conduct 10 flights to the UAE, seven flights each to the US and the UK, five to Saudi Arabia, five to Singapore and two flights to Qatar, the officials told PTI.

It is also likely to conduct seven flights each to Malaysia and Bangladesh, five each to Kuwait and Philippines, two each to Oman and Bahrain, the officials noted.

Out of the 64 repatriation flights, 15 would be from Kerala, 11 each would be from Delhi and Tamil Nadu, seven each would be from Maharashtra and Telangana, and remaining flights would be from five other states, the officials said.

"Approximately 14,800 Indian nationals are likely to return to the country through these 64 flights during the seven-day period. The government will run more repatriation flights after May 13," one of the officials said.

(With PTI Inputs)
People traveled to Harrisburg even though the state was ordered to stay at home. They brought posters reading Wolf is our virus and Liberate PA. They stood close enough to rub shoulders, and not all were wearing masks. They wanted to get back to work now.

The anti-shutdown rallies across the nation, like the one in Harrisburg on April 20 or another in Boston on Monday, are among the most high-profile political acts of defiance since the coronavirus outbreak brought the country to a standstill. But a new report seems to indicate that a majority of Pennsylvanians dont hold similar views.

At the end of March, Daniel Hopkins, a University of Pennsylvania professor who is one of the reports authors, set out to evaluate if people supported policies like shutting down businesses and ordering everyone to stay at home.

Almost 60% of Pennsylvanians who responded to the survey agreed that we must continue to stay home for as long as necessary, even if the economy suffers. However, views split significantly by party. More than 90% of Democrats responding said people should stay home as long as necessary, while half of the Republicans said the country should reopen the economy as soon as possible, even if more people get sick."

In surveys, it is typical to see extreme polarization, like how most Democrats responded that they didnt trust information from President Donald Trump while most Republicans did. But on many questions from this survey, Pennsylvanians across parties seemed to have similar views.

Hopkins said he chose to survey Pennsylvanians because he works and lives here, and its a key swing state with a population split among large, diverse cities, bustling suburbs, and sprawling rural regions. The April report, authored by professors from Swarthmore College and Penn, is based on a 20-question online survey of 1,912 Pennsylvanians between April 4 and 8, and examines reactions to these policies. Respondents were recruited through online ads targeting Pennsylvania residents from diverse backgrounds. There was a 2.5% plus/minus margin of error.

Although people who take online political surveys tend to be more politically engaged than the average person, and 87% of the survey respondents were white in a state where 82% of the population is white, the responses include people from all 18 congressional districts, Hopkins said.

This kind of survey work is going to be really vital in identifying how the public is reacting," Hopkins said, and what kinds of messages are more or less influential on attitudes and behaviors.

Charles Bernsteel, a 58-year-old Trump supporter from Northeast Philadelphia, did not take the survey, but is among Pennsylvanians who think the economy should be opened again.

Bernsteel said he did not always believe the coronavirus was real. At first, he thought China and the Democrats got together and were using the threat of the virus to crash the economy and try to get Trump voted out of office. But once Bernsteel saw that people were dying, he accepted that the virus was a reality.

Bernsteel also believes the city and state should not be shut down. Businesses, he said, can implement the same safety precautions people like him are taking, and open their doors.

All these governors shutting these states down. It is crazy. They overrule us. It is like we are living in a communist country, Bernsteel said. They need to get this country going again."

When he goes out, he said, he wears a mask and gloves, and practices social distancing. The report shows that a majority of respondents, Republican and Democratic, said in the poll that it is extremely or very important to practice social distancing.

People of both political parties strongly opposed the governments using cell phone data to make sure residents comply with quarantine orders, agreed it was important to practice physical distancing, and overwhelmingly said they had a great deal or a good amount of trust in experts, according to the survey.

Ultimately the fight against coronavirus is going to be determined by actions citizens take from their own volition, because they understand the risks and they understand the benefits, Hopkins said. We shouldnt hesitate to lead and shouldnt be overly influenced by a vocal minority who may be calling for other approaches.

In Mohnton, Berks County, Jennifer Moorehead said she believes people arguing to open up the economy as soon as possible are short sighted.

She also wishes life was back to normal  she had to lay off 22 employees from her business, Science Explorers, last month  but said she listens to the warnings and knows how dangerous the coronavirus is. She got a PPP loan two weeks ago and was able to hire back some employees.

The hardest part, said Moorehead, a 55-year-old Democrat, is that she cant hug her six grandchildren. She has only been able to hold her now-3-month-old grandson once because of the pandemic. Moorehead also did not take the survey, but believes people should stay home as long as needed.

I want to go grab my grandchildren and hold them more than anything, Moorehead said. But right now I believe that the social distancing is the best way I can love them.
Lynn Daly joins Sims as Executive Vice President in its new Chicago location with 30+ years of experience working with non-profit organizations in financing. Daly was acting head of Senior Living Investment Banking at BB&T Capital Markets, where she managed BB&T's senior living relationships in the Midwest, facilitating financings of $1.3+ billion. Prior to BB&T Capital Markets, Daly spearheaded the Catholic Initiative within senior living investment banking for Ziegler, and served as Head of Allied Irish Bank's Midwest region. Daly earned a BS in economics from Kalamazoo College, and an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

"We are so thrilled to welcome Lynn Daly to the HJ Sims family. Lynn is a well-respected and nationally recognized thought leader in the senior living sector and the perfect leader to grow our presence in the Midwest and to work with our team as we continue to expand throughout the US. Lynn's extensive experience as both a senior commercial and investment banker, along with her integrity, deep knowledge, and client-centered approach, are vital characteristics and values that will guide our clients and business partners through these challenging times," said Aaron Rulnick, Managing Principal, Sims.

Brady Johnson joins Sims as Senior Vice President in its new west coast office, in Orange County, CA. Previously with Hunt Real Estate Capital, Johnson was responsible for real estate debt originations for seniors housing and healthcare properties. He helped establish the firm's seniors housing real estate lending platform, including a proprietary bridge loan program and expansion of the firm's agency and HUD financing capabilities. Johnson closed the firm's first Fannie Mae seniors housing loan, followed by its first seniors housing Freddie Mac loan. Prior to joining Hunt, Johnson served as Director of Seniors Housing & Healthcare at RED Capital Group, and served with GE Capital in various commercial finance roles. Johnson earned an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management and Bachelor's degrees (Economics and Spanish) from the University of Utah.

"We are excited to welcome Brady Johnson to the Sims family. Brady will help establish our west coast presence serving for-profit and non-profit senior living clients. Brady's broad experience in FHA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, mezzanine and senior housing finance, and his focus on achieving the best solutions for his clients make him a great asset," said Jeffrey Sands, Managing Principal, Sims.

In late 2019, Sims expanded its Private Client team, adding an office in Jupiter, FL, housing a three-person advisory team, as well as a senior partner of Sims Energy. HJ Sims' Puerto Rico private client office moved its Guaynabo headquarters to a larger space in Metro Office Park. The spacious quarters enable the team to better host clients, while the expansion reinforces Sims' established presence and growth on the island.

HJ SIMS: Founded in 1935, HJ Sims is a privately held investment bank and wealth management firm, headquartered in Fairfield, CT, with nationwide locations. www.hjsims.com. Investments involve risk, including loss of principal. This is not an offer to sell or buy any investment. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Member FINRA, SIPC. Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram Twitter.

CONTACT: Tara Perkins, AVP Marketing Communications | 203-418-9049 | [email protected]

SOURCE HJ Sims

Related Links

http://www.hjsims.com


Cinemas in Australia are aiming to reopen in July, with exhibitors describing the scheduled worldwide release of Christopher Nolan's big-budget film Tenet as a "totem" guiding them towards re-emergence from the coronavirus shutdown.

The National Association of Cinema Operators, which represents the major chains, issued a statement late on Tuesday that said it was "enthusiastic about the prospect of reopening and is hopeful of conditions enabling it to do so in July".

Christopher Nolan, left, on the set of his 2017 film Dunkirk with actor Kenneth Branagh. Credit:AP

However, the association said operators will not reopen until the government advises it is safe to do so, and are likely to do so with reduced seating capacity because of social distancing measures.

Although the industry body has not indicated a precise date for reopening, several senior figures within the sector have indicated a target of July 16, the date Warner Bros has slated for Nolans high-concept time-travel action thriller, starring Robert Pattinson and John David Washington, the son of Denzel Washington.
North Carolina Police Find Bodies in Car Missing Women Were Last Seen Driving

Authorities in North Carolina said Monday they had found two bodies in a vehicle matching the description of a car that was being used by two missing women who hadnt been seen in weeks.

Wilmingtons interim Police Chief Donny Williams told WECT on Monday that the car involved was a 2013 grey Dodge Dart connected to two Wilmington women who went missing on April 15. Its not clear if the two women were found inside the vehicle.

Stephanie Mayorga, 27, and Paige Escalera, 25, were seen last in video footage captured on that day, leaving in a 2013 grey Dodge Dart, police said, according to WECT.

Due to the effects of decomposition, police cannot positively identify the two bodies at this time, said a news release from the police department. The car was found with the bodies deep in the woods off River Road on Monday, said officials.

Investigators have previously said their disappearance as suspicious, adding that the two left behind their belongings in their apartment.

It is not unusual for persons of this age group to be spontaneous, Wilmington police Capt. Thomas Tillman told news outlets last week. It was unusual that the roommates didnt come back home and also that they had left all their property in the home.

Tillman, however, said there was no sign of foul play inside the apartment they had left.

Investigators have also spoken to the family members of both women in an attempt to gather information of where they might have gone and where they went missing, Tillman told reporters.
SAN FRANCISCO, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The global fiducial markers market size is estimated to reach USD 142.0 million by 2027 registering a CAGR of 4.2%, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Increasing prevalence of cancer and growing adoption of radiotherapy procedures are the factors expected to contribute to the market growth. Fiducial markers are widely used in external beam radiotherapy procedures. Therefore, increasing number of external beam radiotherapy procedures is also expected to boost the adoption of these markers. In addition, over most of the cancer patients receive radiation therapy, which in turn, is increasing the product demand.

Key suggestions from the report:

Gold fiducial markers segment held the largest market share in 2019 and is expected to expand at a healthy CAGR over the forecast period owing to product advantages, such as biocompatibility and enhanced visibility across multiple imaging modalities including CT, MRI, ultrasound, and fluoroscopy.

Based on application, prostate cancer segment held the largest market share in 2019 and is expected to register a significant CAGR over the forecast period.

Based on end user, radiotherapy center segment is projected to register the fastest CAGR during the forecast period.

North America is estimated to be the largest regional fiducial markers market over the forecast period due to growing number of cancer cases and adoption of advanced technologies.

Some of the prominent companies in the global market are CIVCO Radiotherapy; IZI Medical Products, LLC; Naslund Medical AB; Medtronic PLC; QlRad, Inc.; QFIX; Boston Scientific Corp.; Nanovi A/S; Eckert & Ziegler; and IBA Dosimetry GmbH.

Read 130 page research report with ToC on "Fiducial Markers Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Modality (Ultrasound, CT/CBCT), By Product (Gold, Gold Combination), By Application (Prostate, Lung, Breast Cancer), By End User, And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2027" at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/fiducial-markers-market

Rising awareness about the safety and efficiency of advanced radiotherapy techniques, such as stereotactic radiosurgery, intensity-modulated radiotherapy, and image guide radiotherapy, in cancer treatment is expected to boost the market growth. Moreover, several initiatives undertaken by various governments for the development of new radiotherapy centers through direct funding or tax waive-off will aid in market growth.

On the other hand, availability of alternative treatment methods, such as chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, and surgery, is expected to have a negative impact on the product demand. Furthermore, with the advent of advanced imaging modalities, such as PET-based LINAC system, eliminates the need for fiducial markers hampering the market growth. However, high cost of PET-based LINAC systems is expected to contribute to the increased usage of fiducial markers for radiotherapy.

Grand View Research has segmented the global fiducial markers market on the basis of product, modality, application, end user, and region:

Fiducial Markers Product Outlook (Volume, Units; Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

Gold



Gold Combination



Polymer



Other Metal



Liquid

Fiducial Markers Modality Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

CT/CBCT



MRI



Ultrasound



X-Ray

Fiducial Markers Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

Breast Cancer



Lung Cancer



Prostate Cancer



Head and Neck Cancer



Other

Fiducial Markers End User Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

Hospitals



Radiotherapy Center



Academic and Research Center

Fiducial Markers Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

North America



U.S.





Canada



Europe



U.K.





Germany





France





Italy





Spain





Russia





Switzerland





The Netherlands





Sweden





Belgium



Asia Pacific



Japan





China





India





South Korea





Thailand





Indonesia





Philippines





Taiwan





Malaysia





Singapore



Latin America



Brazil





Mexico





Argentina





Colombia





Chile



Middle East & Africa

&

South Africa





Saudi Arabia





UAE





Kuwait





Israel

Find more research reports on Medical Devices Industry, by Grand View Research:

Urology Laser Market - Increase in the number of patients suffering from urology-related disorders, rising preference for minimally-invasive surgeries, and technological advancements are some of the factors driving the market growth.

Pelvic Floor Electric Stimulator Market - Rising prevalence of urinary incontinence, increasing awareness initiative by various organizations and favorable government policies are few factors driving the market growth.

Cochlear Implant Market - This high growth can be attributed to the advancements in cochlear implants, growing penetration of implants due to expanded geographical reach of market players, and government support.

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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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MINNEAPOLIS, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Vireo Health International, Inc. ("Vireo" or the "Company") (CNSX: VREO, OTCQX: VREOF), the science-focused multi-state cannabis company with active operations in exclusively medical-only markets and licenses in 10 states and the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, today announced the Company will be relying on the general order of the British Columbia Securities Commission (the "BCSC") made under BC Instrument 51-515 entitled "Temporary Exemption from Certain Corporate Finance Requirements" ("BCSC Instrument 51-515"), dated March 23, 2020, to postpone the filing of its annual financial statements and accompanying management's discussion and analysis for the financial year ended December 31, 2019 (together, the "Annual Filings") and the interim financial statements and accompanying management's discussion and analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2020 (together, the "Interim Filings").

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the BCSC and other securities regulatory authorities in Canada have granted coordinated blanket exemptions allowing issuers an additional 45-day to complete their regulatory filings that were otherwise due during the period from March 23, 2020 to June 1, 2020. The Company will be relying on the temporary exemption pursuant to BCSC Instrument 51-515 in respect of the following filing requirements:

the requirement to file audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2019 (the "Annual Financial Statements") within 120 days of the Company's financial year end, as required by Section 4.2(b) of National Instrument 51-102 Continuous Disclosure Obligations ("NI 51-102");

(the "Annual Financial Statements") within 120 days of the Company's financial year end, as required by Section 4.2(b) of National Instrument 51-102 Continuous Disclosure Obligations ("NI 51-102"); the requirement to file interim financial statements for the three month period ended March 31, 2020 (the "Interim Financial Statements") within 60 days of the Company's first quarter, as required by Section 4.4(b) of NI 51-102;

(the "Interim Financial Statements") within 60 days of the Company's first quarter, as required by Section 4.4(b) of NI 51-102; the requirement to file management's discussion and analysis for the period covered by the Annual Financial Statements within 120 days of the Company's financial year end, as required by Section 5.1(2) of NI 51-102; and

the requirement to file management's discussion and analysis for the period covered by the Interim Financial Statements within 60 days of the Company's first quarter, as required by Section 5.1(2) of NI 51-102.

In addition, the Company also intends to rely on the temporary exemption to extend the date by which it must, under applicable securities laws, send an annual request form, as required by Section 4.6(1) of NI 51-102 and deliver annual or interim financial statements and management's discussion and analysis, including the Annual Filings and Interim Filings, as required by Sections 4.6(3) and (5) and Sections 5.6(1) and (3) of NI 51-102.

The Company presently anticipates filing its Annual Filings on or before May 16, 2020 and its Interim Filings on June 16, 2020.

Until the Company has filed and announced the required Annual Filings and Interim Filings, members of management and other insiders are subject to an insider trading black-out policy that reflects the principals in section 9 of National Policy 11-207 Failure to File Cease Trade Orders and Revocations in Multiple Jurisdictions. The Company confirms that there have been no material business developments, other than as disclosed through news releases, since September 30, 2019, being the date of the last interim financial reports that were filed. Copies of the Company's news releases are available under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

About Vireo Health International, Inc.

Vireo Health International, Inc. is a physician-led cannabis company focused on building long-term, sustainable value by bringing the best of medicine, science, and engineering to the cannabis industry. With operations strategically located in early-stage, limited-license medical markets, Vireo manufactures pharmaceutical-grade cannabis products in environmentally-friendly greenhouses and distributes its products through its growing network of Green Goods retail dispensaries and hundreds of third-party locations. Its current core medical markets of New York, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Arizona, New Mexico, Maryland, Ohio and Rhode Island all have the potential to enact adult-use legalization in the next three to 24 months, and three additional markets in Puerto Rico, Massachusetts and Nevada also have potential for commercialization. Combined with its teams' focus on driving scientific innovation within the industry and securing meaningful intellectual property, Vireo believes it is well positioned to become a global market leader in the cannabis industry. In aggregate, Vireo's total license portfolio spans 11 state markets with a total addressable population of over 80 million patients. Today, eight of its 11 state markets are operational with 13 of its 32 total retail dispensary licenses open for business. For more information about the company, please visit www.vireohealth.com.

Caution Regarding Cannabis Operations in the United States

Investors should note that there are significant legal restrictions and regulations that govern the cannabis industry in the United States. Cannabis remains a Schedule I drug under the US Controlled Substances Act, making it illegal under federal law in the United States to, among other things, cultivate, distribute or possess cannabis in the United States. Financial transactions involving proceeds generated by, or intended to promote, cannabis-related business activities in the United States may form the basis for prosecution under applicable US federal money laundering legislation.

While the approach to enforcement of such laws by the federal government in the United States has trended toward non-enforcement against individuals and businesses that comply with medical or adult-use cannabis programs in states where such programs are legal, strict compliance with state laws with respect to cannabis will neither absolve Vireo of liability under U.S. federal law, nor will it provide a defense to any federal proceeding which may be brought against Vireo. The enforcement of federal laws in the United States is a significant risk to the business of Vireo and any proceeding s brought against Vireo thereunder may adversely affect Vireo's operations and financial performance.

COVID-19 Risk Factor

The Company may be impacted by business interruptions resulting from pandemics and public health emergencies, including those related to COVID-19. An outbreak of infectious disease, a pandemic, or a similar public health threat, such as the recent outbreak of COVID-19, or a fear of any of the foregoing, could adversely impact the Company by causing operating, manufacturing, supply chain, and project development delays and disruptions, labor shortages, travel, and shipping disruption and shutdowns (including as a result of government regulation and prevention measures). It is unknown whether and how the Company may be affected if such a pandemic persists for an extended period of time, including as a result of the waiver of regulatory requirements or the implementation of emergency regulations to which the Company is subject. Although the Company has been deemed essential and/or has been permitted to continue operating its facilities in the states in which it cultivates, processes, manufactures, and sells cannabis during the pendency of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no assurance that the Company's operations will continue to be deemed essential and/or will continue to be permitted to operate. The Company may incur expenses or delays relating to such events outside of its control, which could have a material adverse impact on its business, operating results, financial condition and the trading price of the Company's subordinate voting shares.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. To the extent any forward-looking information in this news release constitutes "financial outlooks" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws, such information is being provided as preliminary financial results and the reader is cautioned that this information may not be appropriate for any other purpose and the reader should not place undue reliance on such financial outlooks.

Forward-looking information contained in this news release may be identified by the use of words such as, "may", "would", "could", "will", "likely", "expect", "anticipate", "believe, "intend", "plan", "forecast", "project", "estimate", "outlook" and other similar expressions, and include statements with respect to the Annual Financial Statements, the Interim Financial Statements, the reliance on BCSC Instrument 51-515 and COVID-19. Forward-looking information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company or its subsidiaries to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release. Financial outlooks, as with forward-looking information generally, are, without limitation, based on the assumptions and subject to various risks as set out herein. Our actual financial position and results of operations may differ materially from management's current expectations and, as a result, our revenue and cash on hand may differ materially from the revenue and cash values provided in this news release. Forward-looking information is based upon a number of estimates and assumptions of management in light of management's experience and perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors relevant in the circumstances, including assumptions in respect of the availability of BCSC Instrument 51-515, current and future market conditions and the current and future regulatory environment.

Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking information is based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to COVID-19 risk factor included in this news release and the risk factors set out in the Company's listing statement dated March 19, 2019, filed with the Canadian securities regulators and available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

The statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release. The Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, other than as required by applicable securities laws.

The Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE") has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy of this news release. Neither the CSE nor its "regulation services provider" (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell 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 U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

Contact Information:

Investor Inquiries

Sam Gibbons

Vice President, Investor Relations

[email protected]

(612) 314-8995

Media Inquiries

Albe Zakes

Vice President, Corporate Communications

[email protected]

(267) 221-4800

SOURCE Vireo Health International, Inc.

Related Links

www.vireohealth.com


After lodging an FIR against the members of 'bois locker room', an Instagram group reportedly created to exchange photos of minor girls and pass lewd comments, the Delhi Police apprehended a 15-year-old boy on 4 May.

After lodging an FIR against the members of 'bois locker room', an Instagram group reportedly created to share photos of minor girls and exchange lewd comments, the Delhi Police apprehended a minor boy on 4 May. The 15-year-old, who is from a well-known school in New Delhi, also identified 20 other members who were active on the now-deleted group, reported ANI.

A school student (a juvenile) has been apprehended in connection with the #BoysLockerRoom group case. Almost all the group members (21) have been identified. All of them will be examined: Delhi Police Cyber Cell on Delhi school boys glorifying rape on a Instagram chatroom  ANI (@ANI) May 5, 2020

The juvenile's mobile phone was confiscated and is being examined by Delhi Police Cyber Cell personnel. An FIR under Sections 465 (forgery), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and Sections 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) and 67A (publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act in electronic form) of the IT Act has been filed, DCP (Cyber Cell) Anyesh Roy told The Indian Express. The cyber crime wing has also sought a response from the Facebook-owned photo-sharing platform on which the group was created to allegedly share photographs of underage girls and make sexually-charged comments. Some of the members of the group are also accused of threatening to leak private images of certain accusers, once the allegations came to light.

The mobile phone of the apprehended student has been recovered and it is also being examined: Delhi Police Cyber Cell on Delhi school boys glorifying rape on a Instagram chatroom https://t.co/qiPO9eNgY5  ANI (@ANI) May 5, 2020

A series of purported screenshots of conversations held on the Instagram group were posted on social media platforms by at least three women whose photos were shared and discussed on the group without their knowledge. Soon after the screenshots were circulated widely, the Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal issued a notice to both the Delhi Police and Instagram. The notice stated that the Commission had taken suo motu cognisance of the matter, terming the actions of the accused as being illegal and asking for their arrest.
The Wadia group, which, owns low-cost airline GoAir also drew comparison with other western economies which have provided financial assistance to their airlines for payment of salary and restructuring their operations.

Wadia group promoters Nusli Wadia and son Jeh said there have been no signs of help from the Centre and banks to bail out the aviation sector.

The Wadia group owns low-cost airline GoAir, which has sent 90 per cent of its employees on leave without pay till May 4.

The group stated this in a letter to the airlines employees on May 3.

In the past, the Wadias had pledged shares worth Rs 80 crore, held by a group company, to raise debt for GoAir.

It has also provided a corporate guarantee of Rs 500 crore for working capital limits raised by the airline.

We have been in touch with the government requesting for both structural changes and financial assistance but nothing has been forthcoming.

"Likewise, we have been requesting the banks but they havent also reached a conclusion on how to support the airlines, the Wadias noted in the letter.

The airline hasnt yet paid salaries of March except to the lower ranks.

They also drew comparison with other western economies which have provided financial assistance to their airlines for payment of salary and restructuring their operations.

These airlines have got substantial help and financial assistance from their government and banking system, the letter stated.

Indias airlines and airports, the most impacted by outbreak of the virus, has been seeking help from the government to mitigate the financial impact of the epidemic.

The aviation industry needs an urgent bailout from the government, industry body FICCIs aviation committee chairman Anand Stanley wrote to the government.

Stanley is also head of Airbus in India.

The government may immediately provide direct cash support to Indian carriers so that airlines can meet their fixed costs, at least for the period where loss of revenues and liquidity is directly attributable to the governments directive to cease operations, said Stanley.

To gauge the impact of the crisis, passenger numbers for Indian airlines fell by 33 per cent in March, which had just six days of closure, as compared to the corresponding period last year.

GoAir has mostly been profitable due to its slow growth approach and healthy revenue from sale and leaseback of aircraft.

The airline plans to resume operations with 8-10 aircraft upon relaxation of lockdown.

Pre-lockdown, it operated over 300 flights daily with 45 aircraft and could start with only around 50 flights to begin with.

According to the airlines business plan, it would be March 2021 when it will resume full operations again. Hence, it doesnt need as much crew, said a person aware of the development.

Network expansion will be gradual and initial stage staff requirements for operations would be less.

Photograph: Reuters
A hotelier of Bihar on Tuesday



moved the Patna High Court contending that his hotel, situated in the states biggest hotspot, has been taken over by the government for a quarantine center and he feared damage to or loss of furniture and other items until authorities concerned were made accountable.

The petitioner, Bharat Yadav, owns the White House hotel, situated in Jamalpur town in Munger district the only one in the state where the total number of cases is more than 100.

Yadavs counsel Ansul argued before the single judge bench of Justice Rajeev Ranjan Prasad that he was not challenging the taking over of the hotel premises, though he has a concern about the furniture and other equipment and accessories which may be lost or damaged because of unsafe keeping.

The authorities of the state have entered the premises and taken over the same but without preparing any inventory of the articles," the counsel submitted and prayed for directions to the respondents to do the needful in presence of the petitioner or his authorised representative.

He added that a copy of the inventory be made available to the petitioner and it be ensured that while handing the hotel back to its owner all the items were in fine condition.

Appearing on behalf of the state government, Additional Advocate General Sarvesh Kumar Singh admitted that the petitioners concerns deserved to be addressed but added that he would need to seek appropriate instructions, especially from the District Magistrate of Munger under whose direction the hotel has been taken over.

After taking instruction, an appropriate affidavit will be brought on record along with an inventory of articles inside the hotel," the AAG submitted and added that the states affidavit will also make a mention of the measures being taken for preventing damage to furniture, etc.

The court issued directions to the DM for preparing the inventory either in presence of the petitioner or his manager within one week from today and hand over a copy of the same to the petitioner.

In order to instill confidence in the inventory making process, videography of the premises and the articles (installed therein) may also be done," the court added.

Posting the matter for further hearing on June 2, the court directed the AAG to file counter affidavit within three weeks, hand over a copy of the same to the petitioner who could file a rejoinder if so desired within a week.

A township with a population of less than two lakhs, Jamalpur has witnessed an explosion of COVID 19 cases since April 14 when it reported its first case. The number of those testing positive for the coronavirus in the township is more than 80.

Out of 102 cases that have been confirmed in Munger till date, 71 are active, of which most are in Jamalpur.

Close to 1,500 people are currently staying at 305 quarantine centers across Bihar, as per the state health department.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Researchers at two Harvard-affiliated hospitals are adapting a proven form of gene therapy to develop a coronavirus vaccine, which they expect to test in people later this year, they announced on Monday.

Their work employs a method already used in gene therapy for two inherited diseases, including a form of blindness: It uses a harmless virus as a vector, or carrier, to bring DNA into the patients cells. In this case, the DNA should instruct the cells to make a coronavirus protein that would stimulate the immune system to fight off future infections.

So far, the team has studied its vaccine candidates only in mice. Tests for safety and potency in monkeys should begin within a month or so at another academic center, the researchers said. But two of seven promising versions are already being manufactured for studies in humans.

The research is one of at least 90 vaccine projects speeding ahead around the world in desperate efforts that hold the best and probably only hope of stopping or at least slowing the pandemic.
An Indian-origin man has been sentenced to 52 weeks imprisonment after admitting writing offensive graffiti at a number of locations across the city centre in Leicester, some of which was deemed to be racially or religiously aggravated.

The Leicestershire police said on Tuesday that Amit Divecha, 41, pleaded guilty to being responsible for the graffiti found at places including the Boer War Memorial in Town Hall Square and outside a Hindu temple. The city has a large population of Indian origin.

Other graffiti, which was written using a black marker pen, was found on walls outside different businesses and premises in the city. CCTV was analysed by police and Divecha was identified by an officer, the police said.

Divecha pleaded guilty to eight counts of racially/religious aggravated criminal damage and 12 counts of criminal damage when he appeared at Leicester Magistrates Court. He also admitted one count of possession of class A drugs and one count of possession of class B drugs.

Police constable Sam Burton said: The damage caused in the city centre was extremely offensive and a full investigation was undertaken to quickly bring the person responsible to justice.

Thankfully Divecha was identified and arrested quickly before he could cause further offence to others. The street cleaning and care team at Leicester city council also ensured the damage was cleared away quickly.

We will not tolerate any form of hate against our communities and will investigate any such incidents thoroughly.

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For the first time in Pakistan's history, a Hindu has been selected as a pilot in the country's air force. The youth named Rahul Dev has been recruited as a General Duty pilot officer in the Pakistan Air Force.

According in Pakistani media, Rahul Dev hails from Tharparkar, the largest district in Sindh province. Tharparkar is the place where a large population of the Hindu community resides.

All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat Secretary Ravi Dawani expressed happiness over Dev's appointment. He said many members of the minority community are serving in the civil service as well as the army. Many doctors in the country also belong to the Hindu community. He said that if the government continues to focus on the minorities, then in the coming days many Rahul Devs will be ready to serve the country.
The White House revealed on Monday that members of its coronavirus task force - and that official's deputies - is barred from testifying before Congress unless the person gets special permission from Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. The reason being given for blocking public health officials is that they're busy trying to get control of a contagion that has now killed at least 68,172 and infected 1,175,000 Americans.

But this is just the latest in a growing list of power plays by President Donald Trump to thwart congressional oversight and independent watchdogs from scrutinizing his administration's response to the novel coronavirus and the way trillions of dollars are being distributed by the government.

A memo to congressional staff directors said this restriction on testimony also applies to the departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and State. It decrees that committees are limited to no more than four virus-related hearings this month. "Given these competing demands in these unprecedented times, it is reasonable to expect that agencies will have to decline invitations to hearings to remain focused on implementing of COVID-19 response, including declining to participate in multiple hearings on the same or overlapping topics," the memo states.

Last week, the White House blocked Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease official, from testifying before a House committee, which is controlled by Democrats. But Fauci received permission from Meadows to testify next week before the Senate's health committee, which is controlled by Republicans.

Trump hinted at a more partisan motivation than the memo let on as he boarded Marine One on Tuesday morning, telling reporters that Fauci is not being allowed to testify before the House because its members are "Trump haters." During his Fox News interview on Sunday night, the president grumbled that House Democrats are trying to embarrass him. "When you see all these committees, seven or eight committees, we haven't even started, and they have all these committees looking for trouble, just looking for trouble," Trump said at the Lincoln Memorial. "Every enemy I have is put on a Democrat committee."

Democrats are outraged. "President Trump should learn that by muzzling science and the truth, it will only prolong this health and economic crisis," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "The president's failure to accept the truth, and then his desire to hide it, is one of the chief reasons we are lagging behind so many other countries in beating this scourge."

The Monday memo signaled that this will be the administration's modus operandi. With GOP-controlled Senate committees, Trump allies on Capitol Hill acknowledge that administration witnesses can bank on friendlier questions and exert more influence over ground rules for hearings. Then the White House might feel freer to say that an official has already appeared on Capitol Hill and therefore will not return any time soon.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., mocked the White House for saying that officials on the coronavirus task force are too busy to visit the Capitol when they've stood by Trump's side for hours at a time as he's held court on matters that had little to do with the contagion during news conferences. "The fact is that we need to allocate resources," Pelosi said Monday night on CNN. "In order to do that, any appropriations bill must begin in the House and we have to have information to act upon. So the fact that they said, 'We're too busy being on TV to come to the Capitol' is, well, business as usual for them. But it is not business that will be helpful to addressing this."

Trump has also sought to sideline inspectors general. Outside groups that advocate for transparency in government say Trump's moves make a mockery of the watchdog system created after Richard Nixon's resignation to prevent future presidents from Watergate-style abuses of power.

After 8 p.m. on Friday, Trump moved to replace the top watchdog at HHS. She released a report last month on shortages in testing and personal protective gear at hospitals that undercut his public insistence that there were no such shortages. Now he's nominated a permanent inspector general to take the job away from Christi Grimm, the principal deputy inspector general who has run the office in an acting capacity since January. She's worked there in a nonpolitical capacity as a career investigator and auditor since the 1990s, uncovering waste, fraud and abuse. A White House spokesman declined to comment about the move, citing personnel decisions. But Trump lashed out at Grimm on Twitter and during a news conference after she published her findings.

Late on another Friday night, April 3, Trump fired the intelligence community's inspector general who complied with a legal obligation to notify Congress that an urgent and credible whistleblower complaint had been filed with his office. That complaint, which drew public attention to the president's July 25 phone call with Ukraine's president, led to Trump's impeachment.

On April 7, Trump blocked the Defense Department's then-acting inspector general from overseeing a panel of watchdogs created to oversee $2 trillion in spending related to the coronavirus response. He did this by replacing Glenn Fine, the acting Pentagon inspector general who had been selected by the other watchdogs to lead the group, with Sean O'Donnell, the inspector general at the Environmental Protection Agency. O'Donnell is now serving in both the EPA and Pentagon watchdog roles, which makes Fine ineligible to lead the pandemic response panel.

The president has also nominated one of his own lawyers at the White House, who was involved in defending Trump during impeachment proceedings, to serve in the new role of special inspector general for pandemic recovery. That lawyer, Brian Miller, will appear before the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday afternoon for his confirmation hearing. In a draft of his opening statement, Miller promised to be fair and impartial. Democrats plan to press him on this. This will be the first in-person hearing related to the coronavirus response since the House and Senate mostly left town in March.

- - -

The Washington Post's Mariana Alfaro contributed to this report.
Three arrested for drug trafficking in Carlisle County
HRW says relocation of 29 Rohingya to flood-prone Bhasan Char island without access to aid poses risk to refugees.

Rights groups and aid agencies have raised concerns after dozens of stranded Rohingya refugees, who landed at Bangladeshs southern coast at the weekend, were sent to an inhabitable island in the Bay of Bengal.

Authorities said the 29 Rohingya were relocated to the controversial Bhasan Char island late on Saturday to prevent a possible coronavirus outbreak in the refugee camps located in the Coxs Bazar district of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh faces the tremendous challenge of assisting Rohingya boat people while preventing the spread of COVID-19, but sending them to a dangerously flood-prone island without adequate health care is hardly the solution, said Brad Adams, the executive director of the Asian division of Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a statement on Tuesday.

Any quarantines need to ensure aid agency access and safety from storms, and a prompt return to their families on the mainland.

Bangladesh last year constructed facilities for 100,000 people on Bhashan Char, a muddy silt islet in the cyclone-prone coastal belt, saying they needed to take pressure off crowded border camps that are home to almost one million Rohingya.

They are the first group of Rohingya to be sent to the island, local government administrator Tanmoy Das told AFP, adding they were being looked after by navy personnel who had built the facilities.

Officials said the group  including 15 women and five children  were detained after coming ashore on Saturday from one of two boats suck at sea while trying to reach Malaysia.

The two trawlers  carrying an estimated 500 Rohingya women, men and children  were stuck in the Bay of Bengal after being rejected by Malaysia, which has imposed restrictions on all boats in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Bangladesh has refused to let the fishing boats land on its territory despite United Nations calls to allow them in as a powerful storm bears down on the region.

Late last month, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told Al Jazeera that the Rohingya refugees were not Bangladeshs responsibility.

Why you are asking Bangladesh to take those Rohingyas? They are in the deep sea, not even in Bangladeshs territorial water, Momen said, adding that there are at least eight coastal countries surrounding the Bay of Bengal.

So far, no coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the sprawling camps in Coxs Bazar that house Rohingya who fled a 2017 military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar.

The plan to move the refugees to Bhashan Char has been staunchly opposed by the Rohingya community.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR said on Sunday comprehensive assessments were needed before anyone is moved to the island, spokeswoman Louise Donovan told AFP.

UNHCR has all preparations in place to ensure the safe quarantine of any refugees arriving by boat to Coxs Bazar, as a precautionary measure related to the COVID-19 pandemic, she added.

In mid-April, 396 starving refugees were rescued from a trawler stranded in the Bay of Bengal for more than two months. At least 60 people died on the boat.

The survivors were moved to transit centres near the border camps where they were quarantined.

Thousands of Rohingya try every year to reach other countries, making the perilous journey on crowded, rickety boats.
Washington: The White House has launched a major review of whether spy planes, intelligence officials and other US assets should be withdrawn from Britain after Downing Street agreed Huawei can help build its 5G network.

The US air force RC-135 reconnaissance plane.

Sources, including current US and UK officials, have said that the process - not yet made public - is under way, threatening the "special relationship" between the two countries.

Every military and intelligence asset the Americans have in Britain is being assessed to understand the knock-on implications of letting Huawei, the Chinese tech giant, construct part of the new wireless network.

A group of RC-135s, sophisticated reconnaissance aircraft used to gather battlefield intelligence, is thought to be among the most vulnerable, say well-placed sources.
A court here on Tuesday directed the crime branch of Delhi police to file a status report in a case relating to an attack on students and teachers in the JNU campuson January 5.

The court was hearing a plea filed by Professor Sucharita Sen, who suffered head injuries during the attack allegedly by masked people inside the Jawaharlal Nehru University campuson the date of incident, seeking registration of FIR in a case.

Metropolitan Magistrate Vipul Sandwar passed the direction after taking on record a status report filed by the police station of Vasant Kunj, North in pursuant to an earlier order.

The report filed by police on Tuesday said that an FIR was filed in the matter which has now been transferred to the crime branch along with the present complaint filed by Sen.

As per the submissions and the status report the only thing that can be ascertained is that an FIR at the crime branch has been lodged.

Let a status report be called from crime branch, New Delhi within seven days from today mentioning the details of the FIR and the action taken pursuant to it, the judge said in the two-page order and posted the matter forMay 18.

In her submission, the professor claimed that no action has been taken so far and that the case that was transferred to crime branch was a separate FIR.

In her plea, she had told the court that the lodging of an FIR was urgent since investigation could take place only after the case is registered.

The court had in February directed the Station House Officer (SHO) concerned to file an action taken report (ATR).

The professor had said she had to approach the court on account of inaction on the part of the police authorities despite "clear and cogent" facts and underlying material placed by her before the investigating agency.

On January 5, masked men armed with sticks and rods attacked students and teachers and damaged property on the campus, prompting the administration to call in police which conducted a flag march.

At least 28 people, including JNU Students'' Union president Aishe Ghosh, were injured as chaos reigned on the campus for nearly two hours.

Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Senior Union ministers and JNU alumni S Jaishankar and Nirmala Sitharaman had condemned the violence.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi, May 5 : Just days after writing a scathing letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, BJP's Bengal in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya has shot off another letter on Tuesday, highlighting "discrepancies and infirmities in the health bulletin dated May 4 released by the government of West Bengal".

Expressing his "concern" over the "quality of information being issued by the state government, Vijayvargiya wrote, "Figures of total number of Covid deaths still missing. Instead, two separate columns mentioning patients who died due to Covid and patients who died due to comorbidities were given. ICMR/WHO-ICD guidelines require Covid to be mentioned as a reason for all patients, who were Covid positive and died." The senior BJP leader alleged that there is no mention of the number of people who were "deprived" of Covid-19 tests and were "clandestinely buried/cremated as per Covid protocols".

He also cited newspaper reports to allege that the Alipurduar district was shown to have 'nil' cases, "but multiple mainstream media reports have shown health officials admitting that there were at least 4 cases in the district".

Similarly, he quoted news reports to allege, "Same with the number of Covid deaths, which was also shown to be 'nil' in Alipurduar even though multiple media reports showed Covid positive patients being cremated on the banks of the Teesta river in Alipurduar district." Vijayvargiya, who has been openly questioning the Mamata Banerjee-led government on its handling of the Covid-19 situation in the state, cited a news report published by a magazine to claim, "The Covid health bulletin of WB government dated May 4 shows 'nil' death due to Covid in Paschim Bardhaman district. But WB Chief Secretary is himself on record (at a press conference on April 21) admitting to one Covid death in Paschim Bardhaman." The list goes on and so does the citation of news reports which Vijayvargiya used to bolster his argument in the three-page letter. He concluded by saying, "There are several unanswered questions on how the state government is handling the Covid pandemic. But I hope, in the interim, you will take note of the above observations and ensure these discrepancies are addressed at the earliest."
J ason Manford has said he was turned down for a job at Tesco.

The comedian said on social media that he applied for a job as a driver when he had been made recently unemployed as he wanted to feel useful.

However, a spokesman for the supermarket said that Manford missed the deadline for applying to the job.

He added: Jasons skills would have no doubt brought a lot of joy to our customers and colleagues, so its a shame he didnt make the deadline for this vacancy.

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

But should he ever want to join the Tesco family in the future, wed be happy to receive an application from him.

Manford joked that he was absolutely livid about the rejection, adding: I was only trying to do my bit.

I hope the better person got and enjoys the job, Ill be watching.

The 38-year-old said he had submitted his application earlier on in the coronavirus pandemic when it looked like supermarkets etc were going to need thousands of extra hands.

He added: I even signed my CV off Previous experience: comedian. So I know its all in the delivery. Still nothing!

After another social media user joked that he would do anything to get out of the house, Manford joked: Oh dont get me wrong, my extracurricular volunteer work is a purely selfish way of having an hour to myself.

He also shared an image of a smashed jar lying on his kitchen floor, saying: All it takes is one look at my social media to know why I didnt get the Tesco job.

According to the screenshot of the rejection letter he shared online, Manford had applied to work at a Tesco Express in Wilmslow, Cheshire.

The letter said: We appreciate your interest to work for Tesco during these unprecedented times and thank you for your application for the customer assistant  convenience.

Regrettably we are unable to progress your application forward this time as the vacancy is now closed.

Having failed to get a job at Tesco, Manford has been working as a volunteer for the NHS for more than a month and has been doing jobs such as taking the elderly and vulnerable to hospital.

Additional reporting by Press Association
A Russian newspaper has published a report about the internal struggles between Assad and Makhlouf and what it could mean for Syria writes Ana Press.

Russian newspaper Svobodnaya Pressa published a report about the sparring over Rami Makhlouf and its repercussions, titled The disintegration of Damascus most influential clan will not have a happy ending.

According to the report, Assad does not have enough money to recover the part of the country he seized control of, adding that, Assad needs, in the final stage, either a war with the Kurds who occupied almost all the oil fields, or a hidden diplomacy.

As for Makhlouf, the newspaper added that he had begun to lose his influence, all because he dared to confront Bashar al-Assad and his wife.

The main point raised by the newspaper in its report was that Makhlouf, is under house arrest and has very few choiceshe now only has the internet and Facebook.

In a similar context, British newspaper The Guardian published a report on the spat between Makhlouf and Bashar al-Assad in Syria, writing that:

The tycoon has bankrolled the Syrian leader for the past 20 years and much of the regimes war effort since 2012. Through a conglomerate empire that has controlled up to 60 percent of the Syrian economy, Makhlouf had amassed a fortune thought to be as high as 10 billion dollars  attracting US and EU sanctions but considered untouchable inside Syria until a family split last October.

The Guardian added that, the unravelling and its unusual public nature comes as Assad has been subjected to rare criticism from one of his two patrons, Russia, which has grown impatient as the long, costly war grinds slowly on and is looking for returns on its five-year investment.

For his part, Israeli writer Edy Cohen ignited Twitter with a post in which he discussed signs indicating the fall of Assad. He mentioned that the Hemeimeem Airbase in Syria, which is controlled by Russia, has seen heavy, strange movement since the morning. Remember my words from less than a month ago about the repercussions of Assads fall, Cohen wrote. It will be earth-shattering, and Cohen has the truth.

Rami Makhloufs vague statements carry many question marks, and confirm the burning of power in Syria from the inside, as well as a lack of confidence between those in the palace walls. Makhlouf opened up his dialogue to Assad directly as if on a phone call, yet it was broadcast over Facebook instead of a telephone line. The line of communications between Makhlouf and his cousin are cut off. Expectations are at the forefront, with many prayers begging for Makhlouf to candidly and directly accuse Assads circle of corruption.

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.
Irish airline Aer Lingus has told unions it is seeking staff cuts of around 20% due to the coronavirus pandemic, a source close to the talks told Reuters.

Aer Lingus, part of International Airlines Group (IAG) , which also owns British Airways, declined to comment, saying it was "continuing to communicate directly with our employees and engage with their representative bodies."

Cuts of 20% would represent around 800-900 staff, with management promising to offer a voluntary redundancy program, the source said.

British Airways is seeking to cut up to 12,000 jobs, or more than a quarter of its workforce, as it slashes costs to weather the crisis that has grounded aircraft around the world.

The proposed cuts come as rival Ryanair said on Friday it would cut 15% of its staff and reduce the pay of the remaining workers by 20%.

Irish national broadcaster RTE reported earlier that Aer Lingus informed union representatives of the plan at a meeting on Friday. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
Setting an example for others, a



section of the people in a remote hamlet of Mizoram are helping the needy by sharing a part of their free ration with them during the lockdown, an official said on Tuesday. More than 170 families of Vahai village in south Mizoram's Siaha district donated over 5 quintal of rice from their free quota of ration for distribution among the poor, Mara Autonomous District Council (MADC) member K. Chhaubei said. Mizoram food, civil supplies and consumer affairs director Lalhriatzuali Ralte told PTI that Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Households (PHH) beneficiaries of the village, about 400 km from here, have shared their free ration with those who need it more. Ralte said households, especially those having more than 5 members, have not taken whole quota and donated 50 to 60 kg of rice each to village level task force, which distributed it to the poor. Free ration is currently being distributed to AAY and PHH beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) scheme across the state for April and May.

According to officials, there are 1,29,410 PHH card holders and 25,995 AAY beneficiaries in the state.

The Centre has allocated 10 thousand metric tonne of rice to Mizoram to be distributed among beneficiaries during the lockdown.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Our firm is committed to working with the active community of restaurateurs and hospitality operators, many of whom are our clients, to help with the rescue and reopening of their industry.

Bielat Santore & Company is asking restaurateurs for their feedback. On Wednesday, May 6th, by visiting the firms website, industry professionals can participate in a short survey comprised of questions related to the challenges the restaurant industry is facing during the Covid-19 pandemic. The survey site will remain open until such time as the company can collect enough data to produce a written report which it will distribute to the restaurant community. It is the companys objective, provided sufficient response to the survey is received, that this report can serve as an aid to restaurateurs in making decisions on how to operate a restaurant most effectively post-Covid-19

In addition to producing the report, Bielat Santore & Company will donate $1 dollar for every valid survey response it receives to the Independent Restaurant Coalition (IRC). The Independent Restaurant Coalition was formed to save the local restaurants affected by COVID-19. Our firm is committed to working with the active community of restaurateurs and hospitality operators, many of whom are our clients, to help with the rescue and reopening of their industry, states Richard Santore, Partner at Bielat Santore & Company, Allenhurst, New Jersey.

To participate in the survey, visit Bielat Santore & Companys website at http://www.123bsc.com. The survey will also appear in the firms Restaurant Industry Daily Alert email and Facebook page on Wednesday.

About Bielat Santore & Company

Bielat Santore & Company is an established commercial real estate firm. The companys expertise lies chiefly within the restaurant and hospitality industry, specializing in the sale of restaurants and other food and beverage real estate businesses. Since 1978, the principals of Bielat Santore & Company, Barry Bielat and Richard Santore, have sold more restaurants and similar type properties in New Jersey than any other real estate company. Furthermore, the firm has secured in excess of $500,000,000 in financing to facilitate these transactions. Visit the companys website, http://www.123bsc.com for the latest in new listings, property searches, available land, market data, financing trends, RSS feeds, press releases and more.
A 22-year-old man, Cletus Chisom has been sent to an early grave after he was stabbed to death by a security man enforcing the use of face mask in the popular Coca-cola market in Onitsha on Monday.

According to reports, trouble started after the suspect, Ibuchi Nwoju prevented a lady who had gone to the market with her mum from entering the market for failing to wear face mask as required.

The lady was then said to have rushed home to call his elder brother (the deceased) and a fight ensued.

Read Also: No Be Me And You  Davido Says As He Shows Off His Face Mask And Face Shield

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The suspect was then said to have brought out a knife and stabbed the deceased on the chest leading to his death on the spot.

Anambra State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Mr Haruna Mohammed, who confirmed the incident, said the Commissioner of Police, Mr John Abang, has ordered for immediate transfer of the case to the State CID, Awka for investigation.

He said: Today (yesterday) at about 8:45 am, Police operatives from Okpoko Division in Onitsha arrested a private security guard attached to Coca-Cola Market, Onitsha, one Ibuchi Nwoju, aged 26 years, of Asa village, Abia State, but resides in Onitsha, Anambra State.
Jason Busse is an associate professor of the departments of anesthesia and of health research methods, evidence, and impact at McMaster University. Credit: McMaster University

Media pressure on chiropractors advocating against vaccinations has led to the removal of vaccine-related information from their websites.

A McMaster University study has found that a small minority of chiropractors provide vaccine information on their websites. In the past three years, half of the online vaccination information, mostly negative, has been removed from surveyed websites of the regulated health-care group.

The details of the study were published in Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) Open.

Principal investigator Jason Busse, a chiropractor himself, says the removal of vaccine information from chiropractors' websites was associated with a large increase in Canadian media coverage of the topic.

"The Canadian media has drawn attention to anti-vaccination statements by some chiropractors, and that seemingly had a large impact on curbing publication of such online material," said Busse, associate professor in the departments of anesthesia, and of health research methods, evidence, and impact at McMaster.

"While this is laudable, chiropractic regulatory colleges should monitor chiropractors' websites and social media accounts for misleading information and enforce their standards of practice."

He added that, with approximately 9,000 practitioners, chiropractic is Canada's third-largest regulated health-care profession.

"Historically, some prominent chiropractors have been extremely critical of vaccination, and a number of traditional practitioners maintain these attitudes," he said.

The research team conducted a prospective cohort study focused on Canadian chiropractors' websites between July 2016 and April 2019.

As of July 2016, the team identified 94 unique sites maintained by Canadian chiropractors that provided information on vaccination. Of these sites, almost two-thirds (63 per cent) were critical of vaccination, 20 per cent were neutral, and the rest (17 per cent) were supportive of vaccination.

The quality of vaccination content present on chiropractor's websites was generally poor with a median Web Resource Rating Tool score of 19 per cent.

The four main themes identified on the sites offering vaccination information were that there are alternatives to vaccination; that vaccination is harmful; mixed evidence regarding vaccination, and concerns regarding vaccination policy.

Researchers also focused in on Canadian media coverage and potential impact on the chiropractors' websites.

Between 2012 to 2016, they identified one Canadian newspaper story concerning anti-vaccination statements by chiropractors. However, between 2017 and 2019 there were 51 news articles published on this topic.

Researchers revisited all identified websites from 2016 in April 2019 to explore changes to posted vaccination material. Approximately three years after a number of Canadian media outlets began exploring anti-vaccination statements by some chiropractors, almost half of the websites identified in 2016 (47 per cent) had been discontinued or all content regarding vaccination had been removed.

Following media attention, the College of Chiropractors of Ontario standard was amended in 2018 and 2019 to prohibit chiropractors from providing information on vaccination on a member's website or social media account.

In December 2019, the Canadian Chiropractic Association updated their position statement to explicitly state that vaccination is a safe and effective public health practice for the prevention of infectious diseases.

Busse urges collaboration between physicians, public health and chiropractic associations.

"It may be helpful for medical and public health associations to work with Canadian chiropractic associations to collaborate on promotion of vaccination programs," he said.

Explore further Mandatory vaccination ups prevalence of vaccine coverage

More information: Yechan Kim et al. Association between media attention and presentation of vaccination information on Canadian chiropractors' websites: a prospective mixed-methods cohort study. CMAJ May 5, 2020 vol. 8 no. 2 E338-E345. Journal information: Canadian Medical Association Journal Yechan Kim et al. Association between media attention and presentation of vaccination information on Canadian chiropractors' websites: a prospective mixed-methods cohort study.May 5, 2020 vol. 8 no. 2 E338-E345. DOI: 10.9778/cmajo.20190204
A massive fire broke out at a residential tower in United Arab Emirates Sharjah on Tuesday night, reported news agency ANI.

Residents have been evacuated from the 40-floor Abbco Tower in Al Nahda, according to local media.

At least a dozen fire trucks and scores of firefighters were rushed to the spot and the fire was doused, according to the local daily Khaleej Times. Cooling operations were underway.

It took several drones, at least a dozen fire trucks, and scores of firefighters but authorities finally put out a massive #fire that ravaged the 40-floor Abbco Tower in #AlNahda #Sharjah. Cooling ops underway

Video: Fire breaks out in Sharjah building https://t.co/8f4ND1H1z8 pic.twitter.com/gEDRRtOlV0  Vicky Kapur (@vickykapur) May 5, 2020

Authorities said that the quick response by Sharjah Civil Defence teams averted a major disaster.

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The U.S. energy industry is facing unprecedented challenges: an international oil price war, a global pandemic that has not only changed our way of life but depressed economy activity and transport, and the implementation of protocols that ensure social distancing while maintaining essential operations. But even in these challenging and uncertain times, the industry is stepping up. Operators are finding ways to do whatever they can to support those battling COVID-19 on the front lines, from converting operations to develop protective gear for healthcare workers to rallying to raise donations for direct relief.

And yet, somewhat inexplicitly, there are some New York lawmakers and activists looking to instead take advantage of this crisis to push for a politicized stance against this very industry. Even more perplexing, the push is coming from the state at the epicenter of the fight against this pandemic.

At a time when COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on the country and the world undergoes a once-in-a-generation crisis, members of the New York City Council introduced a resolution last week calling on the banks, asset managers and insurance companies with which the city government does business to divest from oil, gas and coal to, as they say, put fossil fuels in our past. This resolution will now move to their environmental protection committee and, if passed, does little more than send a message on the citys view on the topic.

But the question remains: why are New York Citys leaders surfacing this issue now?

The same can be said at the state level, where earlier this month pro-divestment groups Go Fossil Free and 350.org made noise about all the support a watered-down divestment bill has among New York state senators and imploring them to pass it.

Many of these same groups have also taken to virtual Earth Day celebrations, holding all day and even 72 hour long virtual webinars to increase calls for divestment from the very same companies providing critical supplies and energy to fuel our response to the pandemic. Others have gone so far as to push headlines like Fossil Fuel Companies Are Suffering Under the Coronavirus. Good.

On a good day, these efforts ignore the fact that divestment does nothing for the environment and that giving up investments in a sector of the economy that provides roughly 80 percent of U.S. energy consumption is simply bad economics. But at a time of COVID-19, they show something else. This crisis is a time to focus on solutions and to give back, whatever we can, to those on the front lines. While activists spend their time on all day webinars, energy companies are focusing on solutions.

Do a quick search online and you will see countless examples underway.

Chevron has doubled down on its commitments to support teachers and students in high-need school districts. ExxonMobil and the Global Center for Medical Innovation have initiated a joint project to spur development of personal protection equipment for health care workers, such as face shields and masks. Baker Hughes is using its 3D printing capabilities to make parts for protective gear. BP has donated over $2 million to the World Health Organizations Covid-19 Solidarity Response. Williams has pledged $1 million to provide community support. Range Resources provided N95 masks and safety apparel to its local health system. And lets not forget the thousands of men and woman who continue to work around the clock to perform essential services that maintain access to stable and reliable energy so that our response to COVID-19 is not disrupted.

These are just a few examples of efforts underway to help combat the impacts of this public health crisis, while providing safe, reliable energy to consumers and protecting our workforce.

Leaders in government in New York and across the country have a lot to work through right now: how to support residents losing their livelihoods, how to keep healthcare workers safe, and how to support teachers and students as the world moves remote. The oil and gas industry continues to help, investing in technology and solutions to support our men and women at the front lines of response efforts.

We are reminded in this moment of the value of real solutions. Empty gesture divestment from an industry helping to fuel our response and recovery is bad politics on a good day, and it is plain irresponsible in the midst of this global crisis.

Jeff Eshelman is Senior Vice President of Operations and Public Affairs for the Independent Petroleum Association of America.
Health care workers carry a significant burden of coronavirus infections worldwide, but a new evidence review by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University shows the rate can be lowered with the use of personal protective equipment combined with proper training in infection control.

The review, funded by the World Health Organization, published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

"Most people understand it's a high priority to protect our nurses and doctors," said senior author Roger Chou, M.D., director of the Pacific Northwest Evidence-based Practice Center at OHSU and a professor of medicine (general internal medicine and geriatrics) in the OHSU School of Medicine. "In addition to the impact that COVID-19 would have on infected health care workers, they can pose a transmission risk. Plus, they can't work if they become infected, and maintaining health care capacity throughout the pandemic is important."

Adequate supplies of personal protective equipment such as masks, gowns and eye protection have been the subject of heightened attention throughout the pandemic. Chou said the evidence suggests that lowering the rate of infection among health care workers must also include adequate training and education to ensure workers use the equipment properly.

"Infection control training is important," Chou said. "It's not just about providing the equipment, but helping health care workers understand how they need to use it. Training and education were consistently associated with decreased risk of infection."

Other key findings:

Front-line exposures: Certain exposures, such as involvement in intubations, direct contact with infected patients, or contact with bodily secretions, were associated with increased risk of infection.

Mental health impact: Researchers found high rates of depression, anxiety and psychological stress among health care workers on the front lines of the pandemic. Chou said this finding underscores the importance of focused employee wellness programs such as one instigated by OHSU.

Researchers conducted an evidence review of 64 studies related to rates of infection among health care workers exposed to the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 along with earlier outbreaks caused by coronaviruses known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS.

The researchers will continue to track new evidence and update the findings as a "living rapid review."

Chou noted that the SARS-Cov-2 virus appears to be much more transmissible than the strains involved in the previous outbreaks of SARS and MERS. With some health care workers staying in hotels to isolate themselves from family members, researchers looked for evidence about the risk of transmission in their own homes.

"Unfortunately, we have no data yet for risk factors on health care workers transmitting the infection to household contacts," Chou said. "That's a big area we need to understand in order to reduce risk of transmission from health care workers to family members and other close contacts."

###
Governments need to implement three things to break Covid-19's "chains of transmission" before reopening their economies, a global health expert and physician told CNBC. Peter Drobac, director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University, warned on Tuesday that easing lockdowns without taking certain action would risk a second surge in coronavirus infections. Speaking to CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe," Drobac  a physician who has also been an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and co-founded the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda  suggested three steps governments could take to minimize that risk. "The way to interrupt (a second surge) is by testing, contact tracing and then being able to isolate and quarantine those who are infected and exposed to break those chains of transmission," he said. "If you don't have that infrastructure in place, you're taking a really significant risk."

According to Drobac, a lot of the best lessons on how to handle the pandemic had come from Asia. He pointed to South Korea as an example, which has been widely hailed as a role model for successfully containing its outbreak by instituting widespread testing, intensive contact tracing and quarantine measures. The country, which is slowly reopening its economy, has recorded 10,804 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 254 deaths from the virus to date, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Singapore could also be looked to as an Asian nation that had responded well to the outbreak, Drobac said, although he noted that the country had struggled to contain the virus within its migrant communities. Singapore has reported 19,410 cases of the coronavirus and 18 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins data. By comparison, the U.S. has recorded more than 1.1 million cases and almost 69,000 deaths, while the U.K. has reported 191,832 cases more than 32,000 fatalities. "In Europe, some of the earliest lessons are coming from places like the Czech Republic, Austria and Norway, which had really good success in crushing the curve early and staving off the worst of things," he told CNBC. "So what we're seeing is a slightly different approach in lots of different countries that shows there's not an exact playbook for how exactly to open up."

Global coordination needed

Another hurdle in overcoming the coronavirus pandemic is a lack of cross-border cooperation, Drobac noted. "Nationalism is not going to solve this problem for any country," he said. "The virus doesn't know or care about our borders or politics  so none of us are safe from the virus until all of us are. In the early days of the response, the very country-specific, inward-looking efforts and the competition for testing and PPE was really very concerning." However, he said there had been some encouraging news more recently, such as the EU-led videoconference which saw world leaders and international organizations on Monday raise 7.4 billion euros ($8 billion) for global research on Covid-19.
BuzzFeed News has a new editor in chief: Mark Schoofs, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who is an alumnus of the site, having created its investigations unit in 2014.

Unlike the founding editor of BuzzFeed News, Ben Smith, who left in March after eight years to become the media columnist for The New York Times, Mr. Schoofs will work out of Los Angeles, rather than New York.

Jonah Peretti, the founder and chief executive of BuzzFeed, announced the hiring of Mr. Schoofs on Tuesday.

Mr. Schoofs, 57, has been a visiting professor at the University of Southern Californias Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism since 2018. He will continue teaching there after he starts the new job on May 18.
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Paris  Tue, May 5, 2020 14:07 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd6111a8 2 Books Woody-Allen,memoir,Apropos-of-Nothing Free

Woody Allen's controversial autobiography "Apropos of Nothing" will finally be published in French in June after the first US edition was pulled and then pulped.

His French publisher Stock jumped to the veteran filmmaker's defense in March when Hachette staff in New York walked out when they learned that the company was printing his memoirs.

Allen has been dogged by persistent allegations that he sexually abused his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow when she was a child -- claims he denies.

Her journalist brother Ronan Farrow said he would no longer work with Hachette -- which published his bestseller "Catch and Kill" -- before the books giant decided not to release the memoir.

But Stock's chief executive Manuel Carcassonne said Allen -- whose films are still popular in France -- was "not Roman Polanski", a reference to the filmmaker accused of raping a number of women.

He said Allen "had been cleared twice" by the courts of abuse and "there was no moral or legal obstacle to publishing and supporting him", Carcassonne told French media.

A smaller US imprint, Arcade, picked up the rights to Allen's book and it has since become an Amazon bestseller.

Stock had been due to release the book in France on April 29, but with bookshops shut by the coronavirus lockdown, said it would now appear on June 3.

The book has also been published in Spanish and Italian.

Critical reaction to the memoir has been mixed, particularly in English.

The New York Times damned it with faint praise, saying it is "sometimes funny and tone deaf and banal", while The Guardian said it enjoyed his self-deprecating wit but that the "spiteful tone" in which Allen talks of his marriage to Mia Farrow "helps no one".

Allen settled a US$68 million lawsuit against Amazon Studios in November after it scrapped a four-film deal with the 84-year-old for his comments on the #MeToo movement.
Migrant workers who want to travel



back to their home states in special trains will have to pay the requisite fare, Pune divisional commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar said on Tuesday.

The only exception is being made for migrants from Madhya Pradesh as that government had informed Pune authorities that it will bear their travel expenses, he said.

"The process of receiving applications from migrant workers stuck in Pune and sending them to their respective states for their approval has already been started. It's bit time consuming but we have expedited the process by appointing dedicated nodal officers," Mhaisekar said in a press conference.

When asked about the fare bill of migrant workers, he clarified that, as on today, migrant workers who want to go back to their home states will have to pay the requisite fare.

"The only exception to this rule is Madhya Pradesh government which has communicated to us that they will bear the expenses of migrant workers from their state who are stuck here," he said.

Mhaisekar said some states have been asking us to conduct COVID-19 tests on migrant workers before repatriating them, which is an impossible task.

He also said that some states also told authorities that workers will have to pay their own fare.

Mhaisekar said some NGOs, employers and political parties have come forward and showeda willingness to bear the fare expenses of the workers, for which the district administration has no objection.

As far as the Railways' decision about charging of the fare is concerned, it will come in the next two to three days, he said responding to a query.

"As per the Railways, if there is a group of 1200 people, they can arrange a special train which will not stop between its originating station and end destination," he said.

Speaking about mandatory medical certificates needed for inter-state travel, Mhaisekar said they can be obtained from any registered medical practitioner, be it a BAMS or MBBS.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An Australian student threatened with expulsion after he was highly critical of Beijing has been warned that he could also be removed from the University of Queensland (UQ)'s student senate later this month, as the university authorities set a date for his expulsion hearing.



"It is almost certain there will be an attempt to remove me from the UQ Senate on May 13th," UQ student Drew Pavlou said via his Twitter account. "I was elected by a majority of students on a platform supporting Hong Kong and opposing the Confucius Institute."



Pavlou said that if he is removed, a candidate supportive of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would likely replace him.



Meanwhile, a Change.org petition in Pavlou's support had garnered more than 25,000 signatures by 2.00 p.m. GMT on Tuesday.



Pavlou said via Facebook that he also faces an expulsion hearing via video link on May 20.



Ali Amin, National Welfare Officer of the National Union of Students (Australia), tweeted: "This is some of the worst attacks on political organizing and freedom of speech Ive ever seen from a university and sends a dangerous signal to the student union movement."



"If what theyve alleged ... is expulsion worthy then the majority of the student union movement would be facing expulsion hearings," Amin said.



The university is taking disciplinary action against Pavlou, 20, for harming its reputation, engaging in intimidating and disrespectful conduct, and disrupting the running of the university, among other charges.



Pavlou -- who suffers from depression -- faces 11 allegations of misconduct, including activities that the authorities say breached its integrity and harassment policies and the student charter.



The authorities have presented as "evidence" of his alleged misconduct social media comments he made regarding the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, in which he claimed to be speaking "on behalf of the university" following his election as student representative to the university senate.



Physically attacked



Pavlou has also reported being physically attacked by Chinese Communist Party supporters during a campus brawl at UQ sparked by Chinese students' opposition to a Hong Kong protest-related activity.



According to UQ, Pavlou also allegedly placed a sign on the UQ Confucius Institute -- a cultural organization embedded in campuses around the world and directly staffed and controlled by the Chinese government -- in March, declaring it was a "biohazard" amid the coronavirus epidemic, according to a post he made on Facebook.



Pavlou says he is being singled out because of his specific criticisms of UQ's relationship with China, as well as his support for the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement and for the Turkic Uyghur ethnic group, who have been subjected to mass incarceration in "re-education" camps by the CCP.



Pavlou also burned a copy of the collected works of Chinese President Xi Jinping outside the Chinese consulate in Brisbane.



Xu Jie, the Chinese Consul General in Brisbane, has previously accused Pavlou of engaging in "anti-China separatist activities." China's Global Times tabloid newspaper, published by Communist Party paper the People's Daily, has made similar claims.



Xu was awarded the post of visiting professor by UQ vice president Peter Hoj on July 12, 2019, a move which also drew criticism from Pavlou at the time.



'Using anything they can'



Feng Chongyi, a political researcher at the University of Technology in Sydney, said UQ authorities are likely trying to use anything they can find in the rulebook to expel Pavlou.



"This is exactly the same way that China suppresses freedom of speech and attacks rights activists," Feng said. "They won't make direct political accusations, but they will accuse them of something inexplicable, like picking quarrels and stirring up trouble."



He said the proceedings against Pavlou were likely a direct result of the CCP's United Front strategy to export its model of government and boost Beijing's influence overseas.



"The principal is very pro-CCP indeed, and the CCP regime has many agents in place overseas," Feng said. "A lot of Australian universities have undertaken joint research programs with [Chinese state-backed institutions] and opened Confucius Institutes when they lack funding."



"But the benefit of this increased income comes at the cost of silencing any voices that speak out against the CCP's dictatorial regime," he said.



Wu Lebao, an international student at the Australian National University, said there had been cases in recent years of Australian teachers and lecturers being forced to apologize to China after referring to Taiwan as a country -- an idea that is anathema to Beijing -- and sparking angry protests from Chinese students.



"There have been a lot of these cases in the past few years, where teachers touch on topics sensitive to mainland China in the classroom," Wu said.



"Fewer and fewer teachers in Australia are willing to touch on these sensitive topics at all now," he said.



Public opinion shifting



Public opinion may be shifting to a warier position, however, as Australian media have repeatedly reported that Chinese companies and individuals under the aegis of the CCP's United Front shipped crucial personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies to China from Australia at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in central China.



Australian author and professor of public ethics Clive Hamiltons book, Silent Invasion: Chinas Influence in Australia, was initially turned down by three publishers citing fears of reprisals from Beijing.



Finally published in February 2018, Silent Invasion argues that Australias elites, and parts of the countrys large Chinese-Australian diaspora, have been mobilized by Beijing to gain access to politicians, limit academic freedom, intimidate critics, gather information for Chinese intelligence agencies, and organize protests against Australian government policy.



According to Reuters, the Chinese Communist Party was behind a massive cyber attack on the Australian national parliament ahead of May's general election.



The agency cited the country's cyber intelligence agency, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), as saying that Beijing was responsible for the attack on the parliament and the three largest political parties, and that it had originated with the Ministry of State Security in Beijing. The findings were initially kept secret to avoid damaging trade ties.



Canberra last year said it would crack down on suspected Chinese Communist Party influencers in the country following the introduction of new laws targeting activities by lobbyists and agents of foreign governments in June 2018, and later denied a passport to a top Chinese businessman.



In February 2019, the authorities rejected the citizenship application of a prominent Chinese billionaire and revoked his permanent residency there over concerns about his ties to Beijing.



Huang Xiangmo had made donations of nearly U.S. $1.9 million to political parties in Australia over the five years prior to lodging his application.



Reported by Gao Feng for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
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The global vaccine delivery devices market size is expected to reach USD 6.21 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is primarily driven by growing immunization programs, financial support from government & nongovernment organizations, increasing vaccination initiatives & campaigns, and rising prevalence of infectious diseases globally. Growing research in the field of vaccines and development of new products is also contributing to the growth of the market.

Adoption of needle-free approach for administering these products is gaining momentum due to growing awareness and demand to avoid pain & injuries associated with the use of a needle stick. Data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that an estimated 385,000 sharp injuries including needle stick injuries occur every year in hospitals in the U.S. Advancing technologies in administering vaccines and their increasing adoption is propelling market growth. Rising interest of various key players, national institutions, and organizations in novel delivery technologies is expected to further contribute to market growth.

Various governments and international organizations are increasingly investing in the development of vaccination programs. For instance, the UK government also announced funding up to 1 million from its Global Challenges Research Fund through Medical Research Council to investigate the Zika virus and its transmission. Organizations such as GAVI Alliance, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Path, and WHO are actively involved in the field of vaccines. Many governments are also undertaking several immunization programs on priority.

To request a sample copy or view summary of this report, click the link below:

http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/vaccine-delivery-devices-market

Further key findings from the report suggest:

The syringes segment held majority of the revenue share in 2016 due to increasing vaccination programs, spreading immunization coverage, and technological advancements

Jet injectors is expected to register highest growth during the forecast period owing to rising concerns regarding needle stick injuries and growing preference for needle-free technologies

Intramuscular vaccination dominated the route of administration segment in 2016 as majority of vaccines are given through this route owing to its advantages

North America dominated the global vaccine delivery devices market owing to increasing awareness levels, high adoption of technology, and rising prevalence of infectious diseases

Some of the key players include Becton Dickinson & Company, Bioject Medical Technologies, Inc. (Inovio Pharmaceutical Inc.); Gerresheimer AG; PharmaJet; Corium International, Inc.; and SCHOTT AG

Grand View Research has segmented the global vaccine delivery devices market on the basis of devices, route of administration, and region:

Vaccine Delivery Devices Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

Syringes

Jet Injectors

Other Devices

Vaccine Delivery Devices Route of Administration Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

Intradermal Vaccination

Intramuscular vaccination

Subcutaneous Vaccination

Other Vaccinations

Vaccine Delivery Devices Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

North America US. Canada

Europe Germany UK

Asia Pacific China Japan

Latin America Brazil Mexico

Middle East & Africa South Africa



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.
A principal who oversees two Springfield elementary schools, the superintendent of Granby schools and a high school principal were selected as finalists to take over as superintendent of the Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont Regional School districts.

Rhonda Sennaite Stowell Lewis, principal of Glenwood Elementary and Hiram L. Dorman Elementary School in Springfield, Sheryl Stanton, superintendent of Granby Public Schools and Thaddeus King, principal of Murdock High School in Winchendon, were chosen as the finalists in a joint school committee on Tuesday.

The members of the Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont School Committees met in a telephone conference due to the coronavirus. The candidates will each be interviewed publicly, as required by the states Open Meeting Law, but those meetings will be held in a teleconference and the public will be able to dial in to listen, school officials said in a written announcement.

The dates for the interviews, which will be held with school staff, administrators, families and students, have not been determined yet, officials said.

A search committee narrowed down applications for the position to select the three candidates. Mohawk Trail Regional School District School Committee Chairwoman Martha Thurber described the choices as a diverse selection of professionals with varied experience.

We were fortunate to have a number of highly qualified applicants, said Thurber. The search committee met frequently over the past month to review applications and perform initial interviews. We believe any of the candidates we have recommended to the School Committees would be an excellent choice.

The School Committees began the search after Superintendent Michael Buoniconti resigned in January after acknowledging an affair with an employee. He had worked for the districts for 15 years.

Leann Loomis, director of pupil services, has been serving as acting superintendent for the nine-town regional system in Franklin County since his resignation.

The Mohawk district includes Mohawk Trail Regional School in Shelburne for grades seven through 12; Buckland-Shelburne Elementary School; Colrain Central School; and Sanderson Academy in Ashfield for prekindergarten through grade six. The Hawlemont School Committee oversees a prekindergarten through grade six school for the towns of Hawley and Charlemont.
When Russia refused two months ago to join the deeper OPEC oil cuts, it was because Moscow found them unnecessary. Two months later, Russia agreed to cut quite a bit more than it was asked to at the ill-fated March meeting.

It is now doing its best to achieve its promised cuts. Why? Because it has the motivation that it lacked two months ago.

Nobody, including the Kremlin and Rosnefts Igor Sechincalled by some the architect of the price war that led to the initial oil prices slumpcould have anticipated the effect that the coronavirus pandemic could have on the oil industry. Russian officials kept repeating that Russia would be fine with cheap oil, even if it lasted for years.

And then, earlier this month, the countrys flagship Urals blend swung into negative territory. Cheap oil is one thing. Oil trading at negative prices is quite another. So Russia is cutting.

This has allowed critics to call Moscow on what they call a long-running bluff. In an article for the New York Times, Andrew E. Kramer points out that Russia had on multiple occasions declined to take part in price-control activities with OPEC because it has claimed shutting in oil wells in the Siberian permafrost could render them unusable at a later point in time.

Kramer quotes oil experts as saying there is little difference between an oil well in Siberia and one in Texas, both obeying the same physical rules. The experts admit that the cold environment does present some challenges when shutting in a well. At the same time, the shut-ins themselves could eventually result in greater production once the wells are reopened. This is because, the experts explain, when an oil well is shut in, the pressure inside it has no escape route. As a result, this pressure builds up. The greater the pressure, the easier the flow of oil when the well is reopened.

However, not all agree on that, and not just on Russian fields. U.S. experts are warning that well shut-ins could result in reduced flow of oil when reopened: pressure in an oil well is not a constant, they note, and it, like the oil the well contains, may diminish over time.

Story continues

Russian experts agree; when Moscow said it would cut deep, they warned that this could lead to a loss of not just production, but also reserves.

Related: Russia And China Are Battling For Influence In Oil Rich Iraq



Well shut-ins are trickier during the winter, according to Russian oil industry executives. But why is anyone talking about well shut-ins at all? According to the industry, these are not even necessary to cut production by even 200,000 to 300,000 bpd.

Oil producers can cut this amount of oil production in a matter of less than an hour, the head of Zarubezhneft told RIA Novosti recently. All they need to do is adjust the flow of oil at a 2-3 percent lower rate. Another executive chimed in as well: to reduce production substantially, it is enough to reduce maintenance drilling, Transnefts president Nikolay Tokarev said. Production in Western Siberia has been declining for years, which has necessitated drilling operations aimed at maintaining a certain rate of production. Cut that drilling, and you cut production.

As usual, the truth is in the middle. Shutting in an oil well in Siberia in December is bound to be a little bit more difficult than shutting an oil well in Saudi Arabia or Texas. But things are different when you dont need to shut in wells as the abovementioned executives have stated plainly, busting Moscows bluff about the hardships of production cuts.

The bluff worked before because Russia did not have the motivation to cut. In fact, it continued to increase its production through April despite price trends. Once Urals slipped below zero, it likely acquired the motivation that it needed to start cutting--and deep--without having to shut in wells.

In the end, everything is about motivation.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

Read this article on OilPrice.com
Germany officially supports completion of Nord Stream 2

15:40, 05.05.20 11860

The German authorities say the slowdown in the construction of Nord Stream 2 threatens the country's energy security.
A planned shipment of $50,000 worth of personal protective equipment donated by Brisbane City Council to two Chinese cities in February was scrapped despite lord mayor Adrian Schrinner promising to send it before the end of the month.

On February 14, Cr Schrinner announced the donation of 150,000 personal protective items to Brisbane's sister cities Shenzhen and Chongqing, including hair nets, safety goggles and latex gloves.

Goggles were some personal protective equipment planned to be sent to China by Brisbane City Council. Credit:CHINATOPIX

It is understood the planned items did not include face masks or hand sanitiser.

"Council will invest about $50,000 on sending medical supplies, and wherever possible we will be buying local, so not only are we helping to deliver critical medical supplies abroad, but also putting money back into local businesses," the lord mayor said in a press release issued on February 14.
AccuWeather forecasters are warning chances of snow and other wintry weather to break out across portions of the eastern United States, just after a winter storm spent the weekend making a mess of places from the Tennessee Valley through the Southeast and up the Eastern Seaboard into New England.
[May 05, 2020] Steel Manufacturer Acciaieria Arvedi Selects In Mind Cloud for Configure Price Quote (MX CPQ)

MUNICH, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In Mind Cloud, provider of a leading manufacturing sales platform, today announced that Acciaieria Arvedi has signed a long-term contract for the Configure Price Quote Platform (MX CPQ) to power more efficient and profitable sales. Acciaieria Arvedi is a leading steel provider with customers around the globe and from various industries, including the automotive market. The Arvedi Group employs 3800 people with consolidated revenues of about 3 billion Euros. Acciaieria Arvedi values In Mind Cloud's Configure Price Quote platform for its rich capabilities in empowering efficient management of product configuration and quotation processes, including advanced costing and seamless ERP integration. In Mind Cloud's certified integrations into front- and backend will enable the company to create streamlined sales processes, reducing costs and delivering an excellent customer journey. "We are looking forward to support the management to make Acciaieria Arvedi more efficient and profitable. We are especially happy to welcome another customer from the Steel & Metals industry and to contribute our vast expertise in this field," states Markus Schoierer, VP Sales of In Mind Cloud. Furthermore, In Mind Cloud will be participating at the SAP Conference for Mining & Metals in Madrid, Spain on 24 and 25 June 2020 to share their industry knowledge and sales automation best practice with the audience. Abou In Mind Cloud:



In Mind Cloud ( https://www.inmindcloud.com/ ) is an independent provider of a manufacturing sales platform specialized for industries such as Steel & Metal, Automotive, Machinery, and Engineering. Their solution "Manufacturing X" combines the power of CRM and CPQ with production expertise and intelligent insights to boost operational excellence, profitability and growth. Based on the SAP Cloud Platform their solution is deeply integrated into manufacturing processes and front-end sales operations. In Mind Cloud is operating globally through its offices in Singapore, Germany, China and a high-value partner network. About Acciaieria Arvedi:

Acciaieria Arvedi produces a wide selection of steel coils of different grades, with different finishes and with various thickness and width. The Arvedi Group, which Acciaieria Arvedi is part of, has a large presence on the Italian market, abroad and in the automotive market. The Group currently employs about 3800 people, it produces and transforms 4 million tonnes of steel products with consolidated revenues of about 3 billion Euros. About Manufacturing X: In Mind Cloud's Sales Platform "Manufacturing X" (MX) transforms the profitability of manufacturing businesses by combining the power of CRM and CPQ applications with production expertise and intelligent insights. The unique platform provides the ability to offer truly mass customized solutions in a significantly reduced time to market, fuelling the potential of Industry 4.0. Empowering manufacturers to successfully counter the commoditization of their products and allowing them to constantly learn and improve to stay ahead of competition is the core value of Manufacturing X. The Manufacturing Sales Platform is built to perfectly fit the needs of manufacturers navigating their route to success during the Age of the Customer and the Factory Technology Revolution. For additional information, visit www.inmindcloud.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/steel-manufacturer-acciaieria-arvedi-selects-in-mind-cloud-for-configure-price-quote-mx-cpq-301052697.html SOURCE In Mind Cloud

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West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday wrote another letter to chief minister Mamata Banerjee and pointed to a collapsing health sector and politicised public distribution system in West Bengal and triggered a fresh war of words with the states ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC). He alleged West Bengal was emerging as a police state where voices of opposition parties were being muzzled.

Dhankhar countered Banerjees allegation that he was trying to usurp power and said, People in the state know only too well who in the state is usurper and extra-constitutional fountain of power. Who runs government and syndicates? Who is this ABCD! An open secret! Surely, I am not the person.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, have accused the TMC of running syndicates, which loosely refers to groups forcing people to buy products from them. Banerjee earlier replied to Dhankhar in response to the latters series of letters and social media posts. Dhankar wrote two letters to Banerjee on April 23 and 24.

TMC lawmaker Sudip Banerjee dismissed Dhankars charges as nonsense. We would take a call whether to respond to his statements and letters at all. He speaks gibberish. He is merely playing his role in the Centres plan to discredit Bengal, he said.
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Representatives from Huawei and Sri Lankan government attend a hand-over ceremony of hi-tech equipment donated by Huawei in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on May 4, 2020. Chinese tech giant Huawei on Monday donated hi-tech equipment to the Sri Lankan government as part of its efforts to support Sri Lanka's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, a statement from Huawei Sri Lanka said. The donation, handed over to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa here, included five sets of high definition video conference system and six high precision thermal cameras. (Xinhua)

COLOMBO, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese tech giant Huawei on Monday donated hi-tech equipment to the Sri Lankan government as part of its efforts to support Sri Lanka's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, a statement from Huawei Sri Lanka said.

The donation, handed over to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa here, included five sets of high definition video conference system and six high precision thermal cameras.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said at the hand-over ceremony that he was glad to see ICT sectors contribute unique values during this challenging time, and the Sri Lankan government appreciated Huawei's timely support.

Liang Yi, chief executive officer of Huawei Sri Lanka, said Huawei believed emerging ICT technologies would play important roles under the current situation.

"Huawei will continuously support Sri Lanka with cutting-edge technologies, to help this beautiful island to win this epidemic battle and bring joy and contentment back to people's life," Liang said.

Over 700 people have been infected with the COVID-19 in Sri Lanka to date while eight deaths have been reported, figures showed. Enditem
Gov. Greg Abbot to hold press conference Tuesday

Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday afternoon announced he would hold a press conference Tuesday to update residents on the states recovery. Read more here.

LU opens application for federal coronavirus aid

Lamar University has opened an application for their students to apply for funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act and the Cardinal Emergency Fund. Read more here.

Southeast Texas' new normal

Click through this photo gallery to see how Southeast Texans have adjusted during the coronavirus pandemic. See more here.

PAISD ends meal service at two schools

Starting Monday, meals will no longer be served at Lincoln Middle School, or Port Arthur Memorial High School due to staffing issues. Read more here.

By the numbers

Click through the slideshow to see a by-the-numbers look at coronavirus in Southeast Texas. Read more here.
The death toll in the US surged to 70,847 deaths and 1,201,337 cases, leading worldwide.

251,718 people around the world have now died from COVID-19, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed cases exceeds 3.5 million, while nearly 1.2 million people have recovered.

The death toll in the United States continues to surge with 70,847 deaths and 1,201,337 cases. The US continues to lead worldwide cases and deaths from the virus.

Coronavirus deaths in the United Kingdom have surpassed the 30,000 mark, the highest in Europe, according to official data.

Here are the latest updates:

Tuesday, May 5

22:30 GMT  Brazil announces 6,935 new cases

Brazils health ministry said on There have been 6,935 new cases of coronavirus in Brazil since Monday evening and 600 new deaths, bringing the total to 114,715 confirmed cases of the virus and 7,921 deaths, the ministry said.

New cases increased roughly 6.4 percent from Monday evening, while deaths increased roughly 8.2 percent.

21:30 GMT  Trump says coronavirus task force will wind down as focus shifts to reopening

US President Donald Trump said the White House coronavirus taskforce would wind down as the country moves into a second phase of dealing with the aftermath of the outbreak.

Mike Pence and the task fore have done a great job, Trump said during a visit to a mask factory in Arizona. But were now looking at a little bit of a different form and that form is safety and opening and well have a different group probably set up for that.

Asked if he was proclaiming Mission Accomplished in the fight against coronavirus, Trump said: No, not at all. The mission accomplished is when its over.

20:40 GMT Is China facing a global backlash over coronavirus?

Attempts by Chinas leaders to divert attention from early cover-ups of the coronavirus outbreak seem to be backfiring.

Can China overcome suspicion of its motives and regain trust?

Watch: Inside Story  Is China facing a global backlash against coronavirus?





20:25 GMT  Coronavirus: What is Madagascars herbal remedy Covid-Organics?

As COVID-19 spread across Africa and leaders put their countries in lockdown, Madagascan President Andry Rajoelina last month launched an herbal remedy that he claimed could prevent and cure the disease. The announcement caught medical experts by surprise.

Soldiers have since been going door-to-door in the Indian Ocean island country, which has reported 149 cases and no fatalities, dispensing the concoction.

Read more here

20:10 GMT  Scientist: Trump officials ignored virus warnings

A government scientist was ousted after the Trump administration ignored his dire warnings about COVID-19 and a malaria drug President Donald Trump was pushing for the coronavirus, according to a whistleblower complaint.

Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, said the Trump administration rejected his coronavirus warnings after he acted with urgency to address the growing spread when the World Health Organization issued a warning in January.

But he said he encountered resistance from HHS leadership, including Health and Human Services Secretary [Alex] Azar, who appeared intent on downplaying this catastrophic event.

19:55 GMT  Fauci dismisses Trump claim that coronavirus started in Wuhan lab

Top US scientist Dr Anthony Fauci again dismissed claims the coronavirus was created in a Chinese laboratory.

If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and whats out there now, [the evidence] is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told National Geographic magazine in an interview published on Monday.

Read more here

19:15 GMT  Tajik health minister fired amid surge in coronavirus cases

Tajikistans health minister Nasim Olimzoda was sacked after the authorities spent weeks playing down the threat the country faced from COVID-19.

Tajikistan reported its first coronavirus cases in late April, one of the last countries in the world to confirm it had been affected by the pandemic.

Read more here

18:45 GMT  US coronavirus death toll exceeds 70,000

The death toll in the United States continues to surge, with 70,115 deaths and 1,192,119 cases. The US continues to lead worldwide cases and deaths from the virus.

More than 187,000 patients have recovered in the US, according to the data.

New York is the worst-hit state with 25,073 deaths and more than 321.000 cases, followed by New Jersey with 8,244 deaths and an excess of 130,600 cases.





18:15 Peru confirms coronavirus caseload now over 50,000

Perus President Martin Vizcarra said that 51,189 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus had been detected, in a press conference in the capital Lima, and confirmed 1,444 deaths.

Peru was one of the first Latin American countries to shut down to prevent the virus spread yet nonetheless within ten days saw a doubling of its confirmed cases to become the regions second worst-hit nation after Brazil.

17:50 GMT  Yemen rebels report first coronavirus death in capital

Yemens Houthi rebels announced the first coronavirus death in the capital Sanaa, which they control.

The Houthis health minister, Taha al-Mutawakel, told a news conference the case involved a man from Somalia who was found dead in a hotel on Sunday and posthumously tested positive for the virus.

It is the first known infection in rebel-controlled territory.

Read more here

17:40 GMT  France reports more than 25,500 coronavirus deaths

The number of people who have died from a coronavirus infection in France increased by 330 to 25,531 in 24 hours, the sharpest rate of increase in six days, government data showed.

In a statement, the Health Ministry said the number of people in intensive care units fell to 3,430 from 3,696 on Monday, down for a 27th consecutive day.

The number of people in hospital with coronavirus also fell again to 25,775 from 25,548 also continuing a now uninterrupted three-week fall.

17:00 GMT  UN Palestinian refugee agency operating on month-to-month basis

Scrambling to tackle COVID-19 in camps across the Middle East, the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees said it only has enough cash to operate until the end of May because of American funding cuts.

Elizabeth Campbell, UNRWAs director in Washington, told reporters the loss of US aid had a corrosive impact on the agencys ability to help vulnerable people.

We are basically operating on a month-to-month basis. Right now, we have funding to pay our 30,000 healthcare workers until the end of this month, Campbell said.

Read more here

16:20 GMT  Turkeys coronavirus death toll rises by 59, slowdown continues

The number of people who have died from COVID-19 in Turkey has risen by 59 in the last 24 hours to 3,520, Health Ministry data showed, as a slowdown in deaths and ICU patients continued.

The overall number of cases rose by 1,832 to 129,491, the data showed, the highest total outside Western Europe, the United States and Russia.

A total of 73,285 people have so far recovered.

Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 236, against 195 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said, while the daily tally of new infections came in at 1,075 against 1,221 on Monday.

The daily number of new infections fell slightly to 1,327 from 1,401 on Thursday, taking the total of confirmed cases since the epidemic began to 217,185, the third highest global tally behind those of the United States and Spain [Remo Casilli/Reuters]

It was the lowest number of new cases for two months.

The total death toll since the outbreak came to light on February 21 now stands at 29,315 the agency said, one of the highest in the world. The number of confirmed cases amounts to 213,013.

15:50 GMT  Jordan to continue night curfew

Jordan is to continue to impose a daily night curfew even after containing the spread of the coronavirus and allowing businesses to reopen and more movement, government spokesman said.

Amjad Adailah said the cabinet, which imposed a curfew on March 21 after enacting emergency laws that gave the government sweeping powers, would also continue to impose a weekend lockdown.

We have contained the outbreak but the danger is real and the possibility of its return is real and serious, Adailah said.

15:00 GMT  Trump says US will report virus origins, gives no timeline

President Donald Trump said the United States would release its report detailing the origins of the coronavirus over time, but gave not other details or timeline.

We will be reporting very definitively over a period of time, the Republican president told reporters at the White House.

Trump, who initially praised China over its response to the outbreak but has since blamed Beijing harshly over the virus, also said that he has not spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping

14:50 GMT  Virgin Atlantic cuts over 3,000 jobs on virus impact

Virgin Atlantic will cut over 3,000 jobs  around a third of staff  as the coronavirus pandemic grounds planes worldwide, the British carrier part-owned by tycoon Richard Branson announced.

With the virus having decimated international air travel over the past two months, Virgin said it was obliged to make the cuts to preserve its financial future, adding it was in talks with the UK government about potential support.

In order for the airline to emerge from the crisis, regrettably it must reduce the number of people employed and today the company is announcing a planned reduction of 3,150 jobs across all functions, a Virgin Atlantic statement said.

14:35 GMT  State-backed hackers targeting coronavirus responders, US and UK warn

Government-backed hackers are attacking healthcare and research institutions in an effort to steal valuable information about efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak, Britain and the United States said in a joint warning.

In a statement, Britains National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said the hackers had targeted pharmaceutical companies, research organisations and local governments.





The NCSC and CISA did not say which countries were responsible for the attacks. But one US official and one UK official said the warning was in response to intrusion attempts by suspected Chinese and Iranian hackers, as well as some Russian-linked activity.

The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss non-public details of the alert.

Tehran, Beijing and Moscow have all repeatedly denied conducting offensive cyber operations and say they are the victims of such attacks themselves.

14:30 GMT  Sudan reports 4 deaths, 100 virus cases in a day

Sudans Health Ministry confirmed four more deaths due to the novel coronavirus, taking the nationwide death toll to 45.

A ministry statement said 100 new virus infections were detected in the country over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 778.

So far 70 people have recovered from the virus.

14:15 GMT  India to launch massive evacuation mission

Tens of thousands of Indians stranded abroad because of the coronavirus crisis will be repatriated starting on Thursday.

A total of 190,000 Indians will be repatriated in the coming weeks from several countries, including those in the Middle East, where huge numbers of Indian blue-collar workers live, civil aviation minister Hardeep Puri said.

In the first week, 14,800 Indians will be brought back from 12 countries such as the United States, Britain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia.

Three ships of the Indian Navy will bring back 1,000 Indian nationals from West Asia and the Maldives, broadcaster NDTV reported.

Read more here

13:50 GMT  Turkish auto factories to resume operations as of May 11

All main Turkish automotive factories will resume operations as of May 11, Industry Minister Mustafa Varank said, a day after President Tayyip Erdogan announced a normalisation period to restart the economy following the coronavirus outbreak.

Turkey has about 130,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, but the country will start easing containment measures in May, June and July amid a slowdown in the outbreak, Erdogan said on Monday.

13:35 GMT  Iran says virus infections near 100,000

Iran announced that confirmed coronavirus infections had reached almost 100,000 in the country as fresh cases picked up again after a brief drop in recent days.

The number of confirmed infections with this disease is now close to 100,000, health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said in televised remarks.

We lost 63 of our countrymen in the past 24 hours, reaching a total of 6,340 deaths from COVID-19 to date, he added.

Jahanpour said that another 1,323 people tested positive for the virus during the same period, bringing the overall number to 99,970.

Iran has reopened mosques in parts of the country deemed at low risk from the virus after allowing a phased reopening of businesses since April 11.

13:30 GMT  Mideast ride-hailing firm cuts nearly a third of jobs over virus

Middle East ride-hailing firm Careem set about slashing nearly a third of its workforce due to the severe economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, its CEO said.

Starting tomorrow 536 of our colleagues who make up 31 percent of Careem will leave us, Mudassir Sheikha said in a statement released late on Monday.

Our business is down by more than 80 percent and the recovery timeline is alarmingly unknown.

Dubai-based Careem, acquired by Uber last year for $3.1bn in the Middle Easts biggest technology transaction, operates taxi-hailing apps in 14 countries across the Middle East and North Africa.

13:15 GMT  Snubbing Merkel pleas, German states ease curbs further

Germany is accelerating its return to normality from a crippling lockdown, with regional leaders pushing back against Chancellor Angela Merkels pleas for prudence in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

On the eve of a key meeting between Merkel and premiers of Germanys 16 states to debate a new round of easing of stay-at-home measures, the countrys biggest state pre-empted talks by saying it would reopen its restaurants and hotels this month.

The time has come for a cautious reopening, said Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder, pointing to the success in containing the spread of the virus.

Pressure has been growing on Merkel to ease curbs on public life that have sunk the economy into a deep recession.

13:00 GMT  Promising virus-fighting antibody found: study

An antibody that can stop the new coronavirus infecting cells in laboratory tests has been identified by researchers in the Netherlands, in what scientists say could help the development of therapies.

The antibody neutralised the new coronavirus, according to the research published in Nature Communications, and the authors said it offers the potential to prevent and/or treat COVID-19.

Observers commenting on the study cautioned that there was a long way to go before knowing if the newly discovered antibody would work as a treatment.

Simply because we have found an antibody which neutralises a virus in a group of cells in a lab Petri dish doesnt mean that we can expect the same response in patients, said James Gill, honorary clinical lecturer Warwick Medical School.

But he described the discovery as very promising.





12:50 GMT  Yemens Houthis announce first coronavirus case: Masirah TV

Yemens Houthi-controlled government has recorded a first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus in the capital Sanaa, the groups al-Masirah TV reported, citing the health minister.

Masirah added the infection was recorded in a Somali national.

12:40 GMT  Dutch police disperse coronavirus protest in The Hague

The mayor of The Hague issued a statement ordering police to break up a demonstration by around 200 people who had gathered to protest against measures ordered by the government to slow the countrys coronavirus outbreak.

Police said in a statement that they were detaining demonstrators that ignore the mayors order. Local press agency ANP said dozens had been detained.

The Dutch government has banned public gatherings since mid-March, with people required to stand at least 1.5 metres apart in public spaces.

12:20 GMT  Frances Macron says major foreign travel to be limited this summer

French President Emmanuel Macron said it was unlikely that French people would be able to undertake major foreign trips this summer and that even trips within Europe may have to be limited in order to reduce the risk of a resurgence of the coronavirus epidemic.

It is too soon to say whether we can take holidays. What I can say is that we will limit major international travel, even during the summer holidays. We will stay among Europeans and, depending on how the epidemic evolves, we might have to reduce that a little more. We will know early June, Macron told reporters during a visit to a school outside Paris.

France is set to end its lockdown on May 11, when people will be allowed to move up to 100 kilometres around their residence.

Macron says it is too soon to say whether French people can take holidays or not [Benoit Tessier/Reuters]

11:55 GMT  Yemen records nine new coronavirus infections

Yemens internationally-recognised government announced nine new coronavirus cases and one death, raising total infections to 21 and three deaths, the countrys supreme national emergency committee said on Twitter.

Eight cases were detected in the southern port city of Aden and another infection was recorded in Hadhramout region, it said.

The health ministry of the Houthi-controlled government in the north has not announced any infections so far. Authorities have said all suspected cases there had tested negative.

11:40 GMT  Afghanistan distributes free bread as prices soar

Afghanistans government began distributing free bread to hundreds of thousands of people across the country this week as supplies have been disrupted during the coronavirus shutdown and prices have soared.

More than 250,000 families in the capital Kabul started receiving ten flat Naan breads per day in the first phase of the project.

President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has said the bread distribution programme was also taking place in other cities as rising prices were hitting what is already one of the poorest countries in the world, with more than half of the population living below the poverty line.

11:20 GMT  Palestine extends coronavirus state of emergency in occupied West Bank

The Palestinian Authority has announced a one-month extension of a state of emergency imposed in the occupied West Bank to try and curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

In place since March, the emergency measure has introduced a full lockdown that confined Palestinians to their homes, except for essential travel. Restrictions have since been eased, with some businesses allowed to open in a bid to revive the weakened economy.

Read more here.

Palestinian workers are seen at the Nalin control point, located between Ramallah and Israel [Anadolu]

10:55 GMT  Spain reports coronavirus daily death toll of 185

The daily number of coronavirus deaths registered in Spain remained below 200 for a third consecutive day, the countrys health ministry said, as it reported 185 deaths in 24 hours.

The overall coronavirus death toll in the country rose to 25,613 up from 25,428, the ministry said, while the overall number of diagnosed cases rose to 219,329 up from 218,011 the day before.

10:40 GMT  South Korea baseball league reopens in empty stadiums

South Korea has resumed professional sports with the start of its baseball league in a hushed atmosphere without spectators, one of the first signs of the country returning to normal life amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) kicked off play in empty stadiums under strict safety measures, with five matches on the schedule, after the seasons opening day was pushed back by more than a month due to the pandemic.

Read more here.

League has kicked off in empty stadiums under strict safety measures [EPA]

10:20 GMT  Israel extends coronavirus cell phone surveillance by three weeks

A parliamentary panel authorised Israels Shin Bet security service to continue using mobile phone data to track people infected by the coronavirus until May 26, prolonging an initiative described by critics as a threat to privacy.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had sought a longer extension, of six weeks, as his government advances legislation to regulate the practice in line with the demands of the Supreme Court, which is worried about dangers to individual liberty.

Circumventing parliament in March, as the infection spread, Netanyahus cabinet approved emergency regulations that enabled the use of the technology, customarily deployed for anti-terrorism.

09:55 GMT  France case in December not surprising: WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was not not surprising that a report of COVID-19 had emerged in December in France, earlier than it was thought to have spread there, saying more reports of early cases were possible.

Its also possible there are more early cases to be found, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told a briefing in Geneva. He encouraged other countries to check records for cases in late 2019, saying this would give the world a new and clearer picture of the outbreak.

A French hospital which has retested old samples from pneumonia patients discovered it treated a man who had COVID-19 as early as December 27, nearly a month before officials confirmed the countrys first cases.

09:15 GMT: UK COVID-19 deaths highest in Europe

More than 30,000 people in the UK have died with suspected COVID-19, the highest official toll yet reported in Europe, according to data published.

The Office for National Statistics said 29,648 deaths had taken place as of April 24 in England and Wales with COVID-19 mentioned in death certificates.

Including deaths for Scotland and Northern Ireland, the toll on this measure now exceeds 30,000. That is more than Italy, though the recording of deaths there has differed.

Data shows 29,648 deaths took place as of April 24 in England and Wales [Tolga Akmen/AFP]

08:45 GMT  Russia reports 10,102 new coronavirus cases

The number of new coronavirus cases in Russia has risen by 10,102 over the past 24 hours, compared with 10,581 the previous day.

This brought Russias nationwide tally to 155,370, the countrys coronavirus crisis response centre said.

It also reported 95 new deaths from COVID-19, bringing the total death toll in Russia to 1,451.

08:30 GMT  Philippines reports 14 deaths, 199 more coronavirus infections

The Philippines health ministry reported 14 new coronavirus deaths and 199 additional infections.

In a bulletin, the health ministry said total deaths from the outbreak have reached 637, while confirmed cases have increased to 9,684. But 93 more patients have recovered, bringing total recoveries to 1,408.

An additional 93 patients have recovered in the Philippines, bringing total recoveries to 1,408. [AP]

08:20 GMT  Swedish economy shrinks in Q1

Swedens economy shrank slightly in the first quarter, flash estimates from the Statistics Office showed, with worse to come in the April-June period when full effects of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus are set to be felt.

The economy had already started slowing at the end of 2019 after years of rapid expansion.

While Sweden has not followed other European countries with a complete lockdown, the virus outbreak and measures to contain it still have hit international supply chains, cut demand and forced companies to lay off tens of thousands of workers.

The government expects the economy to contract around 7 percent  the worst recession since 1940  this year before rebounding sharply in 2021.

08:00 GMT  Australian PM: Coronavirus origin likely wildlife market

The most likely source of the novel coronavirus was a wildlife market in China, Australian Prime Minister said.

Scott Morrison said Australia has seen no evidence to change its view that it originated from a wildlife market, though he would not rule out Trumps theory.

We cant rule out any of these arrangements thats what I said the other day, but the most likely has been in a wildlife wet market, Morrison told reporters in Canberra.

Morrison says he is not ruling anything out over the origin of the virus [File: Rohan Thomson/Getty Images]

07:45 GMT  Fauci: No scientific evidence virus was made in Chinese lab

Anthony Fauci, the director of the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the best evidence shows the novel coronavirus was not made in a laboratory in China.

Fauci shot down the discussion that has been raging among politicians and pundits, calling it a circular argument in a conversation with National Geographic.

If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and whats out there now, [the scientific evidence] is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated  Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species, Fauci said.

Anthony Fauci has become the scientific face of Americas COVID-19 response [Reuters]

07:20 GMT  EU has not been naive in dealings with China: Breton

The European Union has not been naive in its dealings with China, said EU Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton, as rifts emerge between the United States and China over the origins of the coronavirus.

We are absolutely not naive, Breton told France Info radio, when asked if the EU might have shown any gullibility in its dealings with China.

Britain said that China has questions to answer over the information it shared about the coronavirus outbreak, while the United States has scaled up its rhetoric over Chinese culpability for the virus in recent days.

06:55 GMT  France hoping to deploy StopCovid app by June 2: Minister

France is hoping to deploy its state-supported StopCOVID contact-tracing app by June 2, the Minister for Digital Affairs, Cedric O.

We hope to have something by June 2, Cedric O told BFM Business TV. We are pursuing our roadmap, he added.

Frances state-supported StopCOVID contact-tracing app should enter its testing phase in the week of May 11 when the country starts to unwind its lockdown, the minister said earlier this month.

Frances StopCOVID contact-tracing app should enter its testing phase in the week of May 11 [Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters]

06:36 GMT  How coronavirus measures in Nigeria affect Ramadan

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan is ongoing with many countries around the globe in lockdown due to the new coronavirus pandemic.

This includes Nigeria, which is the most populated country in Africa and home to West Africas largest Muslim population.

Here is a look at how the coronavirus restrictions in Nigeria are affecting Ramadan.

It's not possible for me to fast without food. A look at how coronavirus restrictions in Nigeria is affecting #Ramadan pic.twitter.com/oSVizX8XWL  Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 4, 2020

06:20 GMT  Wizz Air passenger numbers plunge 98 percent in April

Hungarian low cost airline Wizz Air said its passenger numbers plunged 98 percent in April compared to the same month last year as the novel coronavirus halted most flying across Europe.

Wizz Air said that it carried 78,389 passengers in April, but its figures will improve this month as it became one of the first European airlines to restart commercial routes from London Luton and Vienna on May 1.

The company also said a new airline it is planning to launch with flights between Abu Dhabi in the Middle East and eastern Europe is progressing in line with its initial timeline to start flying this year.

05:50 GMT  Thailand reports one new coronavirus case

Thailand reported one new coronavirus case and no new deaths, the lowest number of new infections since March 9.

The new case is a 45-year-old Thai man from the southern province of Narathiwat, authorities said.

The number of new cases have been declining in the last two weeks with the exception of a cluster at an immigration detention centre in southern Thailand that has seen 60 new cases in that period, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, spokesman for the governments Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration.

Since Thailands outbreak began in January, the country has seen a total of 2,988 coronavirus cases and 54 deaths. Taweesin said 2,747 patients have recovered, while 187 are still being treated in hospitals

05:05 GMT  Names not numbers: Remembering those who died from coronavirus

A piano teacher who imparted to his son a lifelong passion for music, an Indonesian tax consultant who sewed her daughters wedding dress, a chef who was a fierce defender of workers rights in Italy  these are just some of the people the world has lost to the coronavirus pandemic.

You can find out more about them and others who have died in the outbreak here.

04:25 GMT  Indigenous leaders in Brazil call for WHO help

Indigenous leaders in Brazil have asked the World Health Organization (WHO) to set up an emergency fund to help protect their communities from the coronavirus.

In a letter to WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, they asked for help to provide personal protective equipment that is unavailable to health workers in tribal reservations and villages.

It is a real emergency, Joenia Wapichana, the leader of the appeal to the WHO and the first Indigenous woman elected to Brazils Congress, told Reuters.

Indigenous people are vulnerable and have no protection.

Joenia Wapichana, centre, the first Indigenous congresswoman to be elected to Brazils lower house, has called on the WHO to set up an emergency fund for Brazils Indigenous people [File: Eraldo Peres/AP Photo]

Many of Brazils 850,000 Indigenous people live in remote Amazon areas with little access to healthcare, and Indigenous groups say the government of President Jair Bolsonaro has not included the communities in national plans to fight the virus.

04:10 GMT  People want lives prioritised over economy: Edelman survey

A substantial majority of people around the world want their governments to prioritise saving lives over the economy, according to the findings of the latest Edelman Trust Barometer, produced by US communications company Edelman.

Overall, 67 percent of the 13,200-plus people interviewed between April 15 and April 23 agreed with the statement: The governments highest priority should be saving as many lives as possible even if it means the economy will recover more slowly.

Just one-third backed the assertion: It is becoming more important for the government to save jobs and restart the economy than to take every precaution to keep people safe.





The study was based on fieldwork carried out in Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the US.

03:10 GMT  US researchers double death forecast, citing eased lockdowns

A newly-revised coronavirus mortality model predicts nearly 135,000 Americans will die from COVID-19 by early August, almost double previous projections, as physical-distancing measures are relaxed;

The projections from the University of Washingtons Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) predict the cumulative number of US deaths from COVID-19 will run from as few as 95,092 to as many as 242,890 by August 4  with 134,475 lives lost representing the most likely, middle ground.

In a previous, April 29, revision, the middle-case figure was 72,400 deaths, within a range between 59,300 and 114,200 fatalities.

Some US states are easing lockdowns; researchers warn that could double the number of coronavirus deaths by August [Cristobal Herrera/EPA]

03:05 GMT  Germany reports 685 new cases, 139 more deaths

Germanys Robert Koch Institute says the number of coronavirus cases in the country has risen by 685, bringing the total to 163,860. A further 139 deaths were reported, bringing the total to 6,831.

02:25 GMT  Fugitive in China gives himself up after failing to get health code

Health monitoring through phone apps is at the centre of Chinas return to normal life after the coronavirus outbreak.

The app is colour-coded according to each persons health status, and allows them to move around, get work and even buy food.

But it seems it has also ensnared a man who had been on the run for more than two decades after a murder. The Global Times says he turned himself in because he couldnt get the code.

A man from NW #China's #Gansu Province who had been at large for 24 years for killing someone finally turned himself in #Zhejiang as he has no green health code amid #COVID19 to allow him to find a job, rent a house and buy food. pic.twitter.com/Q8Fgx0VvEI  Global Times (@globaltimesnews) May 5, 2020

01:45 GMT  New Zealand reports no new cases for second day

New Zealand has recorded no new coronavirus cases for the second day in a row, as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern joined a coronavirus cabinet meeting with Australia.

The two countries discussed opening borders and Ardern said while it was unlikely New Zealand would open its borders to the rest of the world for a long time, it was looking to work something out with Australia.

23:50 GMT  China reports one new case of coronavirus, no deaths

Chinas National Health Commission says the country found just one case of coronavirus on Monday, in someone who had returned from overseas. It also reported 15 asymptomatic cases of the disease.

There were no new deaths.

-

Hello and welcome to Al Jazeeras continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Im Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur.

Read all the updates from yesterday (May 4) here.
It is no exaggeration to say that there is now no guaranteed safe place in Trinidad and Tobago.

We have moved from the stage of being prisoners in our homes behind metal bars to being afraid to enjoy the beautiful outdoors and even to sleep, for fear that if crime comes knocking we may have no recourse but to cower and beg for our lives. The society is being overpowered by the force of the criminal will with insufficient resources to resist and break that power.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda greeted Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on his birthday on Tuesday.

Khattar turned 66.

"Best wishes to Haryana CM@mlkhattar Ji on his birthday," the prime minister tweeted.

"Manohar Lal Ji has been working assiduously for Haryana's progress. May Almighty bless him with a long and healthy life in service of people," he said.

Expressing his gratitude, Khattar praised Modi's leadership, saying India is fighting the coronavirus pandemic with its full capability.

"Under your robust leadership India is fighting Corona with full capacity & we are in a stronger position compared to other countries. On My birthday I pray to God for the well-being of my fellow countrymen," the chief minister said in his reply.

Describing Khattar as a popular leader who has established good governance in the state with hard work and honesty, Amit Shah said Haryana would continue to march on the path of progress and prosperity under him.

Greeting the chief minister, Nadda said Haryana was unitedly moving ahead in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic under his leadership.

Khattar also expressed his gratitude to Shah and Nadda for their wishes.

Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, whose party JJP is a coalition partner of the BJP in Haryana, also greeted Khattar on his birthday.

"Birthday wishes to Shri @mlkhattar Ji. Praying for his good health and long life," Chautala tweeted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Virgin Atlantic plane taxiing at Heathrow Airport. The airline has admitted flying planes that are "almost empty" in order to keep take-off and landing slots despite demand plummeting due to the coronavirus. (PA)

The airline Virgin Atlantic has announced plans to slash 3,150 jobs across its workforce, blaming the devastating coronavirus crisis.

The company, majority owned by Virgin tycoon Richard Branson, warned a recovery in air travel could take up to three years, with travel fears and lockdowns hammering passenger numbers.

It comes after recent announcements by Ryanair and IAG-owned (IAG.L) British Airways of similar drastic cost-cutting measures including thousands of redundancies.

Ryanair (RYA.L) and Wizz Air (WIZZ.L) both revealed the scale of the collapse in air travel on Tuesday, with Ryanair passenger numbers down 99.6% and Wizz Air down 97.6%in April.

Shai Weiss, CEO of Virgin Atlantic, said in a media statement: We have weathered many storms since our first flight 36 years ago, but none has been as devastating as COVID-19 and the associated loss of life and livelihood for so many.

READ MORE: Ryanair reveals passenger numbers down 99.6% in April

However, to safeguard our future and emerge a sustainably profitable business, now is the time for further action to reduce our costs, preserve cash and to protect as many jobs as possible. It is crucial that we return to profitability in 2021.

The company will also stop using Gatwick, focusing only on Heathrow flights. Virgins travel arm Virgin Holidays will close 15% of its branches and be rebranded Virgin Atlantic Holidays as part of the cost-cutting plans.

READ MORE: Virgin Atlantic seeks fresh cash amid Richard Branson tax row

Only within the past fortnight a spokesperson had told Yahoo Finance UK the company was in a stable position. The company said on Tuesday it had tried to safeguard jobs, but regrettably announced plans to consult staff and unions over redundancies from Tuesday.

It has been trying to secure a government bailout, warning previously it risked collapse without such support. Branson wanted a 500m ($624m) rescue package involving commercial loans and guarantees.

Story continues

The appeal appears to have fallen on deaf ears so far, but the airline maintains discussions are ongoing. Last month the airline was also reported to have approached more than 100 potential investors in a bid to raise cash.

Watch the latest videos from Yahoo Finance UK
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Gracepoint Publishing, the world's first Collaborative Publisher, will release four new book titles in the month of May and is preparing to release four more titles in June. Gracepoint Publishing has seen a surge in people who have used the time of social isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic to write and publish their own books.

"A lot of businesses have died down during social distancing, but we have seen a giant surge of interest in publishing since Covid-19 started," reports Gracepoint Publishing CEO, Michelle Vandepas, "People are using this slow down to write that book they've been wanting to write for years". "Suddenly they have the time to get it done," reports Vandepas who has not only seen an increase in publishing but also book sales.

Gracepoint will release the following three titles in May: Doors of Love and Light Auracle by Rita Morgin which includes a companion set of cards (ISBN 978-1-951694-03-6), The Star Nation Messages, An Invitation for Humanity to Evolve by Gary Lee Christensen (ISBN 978-1-951694-06-7), The Health Code: Aligning Body and Mind for Optimal Wellness by Dr. John Daugherty (ISBN 978-1-951694-09-8) and Unblock your Body: The simple technique to release chronic pain, anxiety and trauma (ISBN 978-1-951694-10-4)

Gracepoint Publishing, a woman-run and owned publishing house, is the world's first collaborative publisher, offering writers multiple publishing options including self-publishing and traditional publishing and distribution marketing options.

If you would like more information about this topic, please call

Michelle Vandepas  COO/Publisher

719-527-1404

[email protected]

SOURCE GracePoint Publishing
[May 05, 2020] LogicMonitor Extends Global Channel Reach with New International Partners

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LogicMonitor , the leading cloud-based IT infrastructure monitoring and intelligence platform for enterprise IT and Managed Service Providers, today announced the global expansion of its LogicMonitor Partner Network . New channel partners include Sirius in the U.S., Atos in the U.K., Blue Turtle in South Africa, AIS in Mexico, and Aquion in Australia.

They join a select group of the worlds best resellers, systems integrators, Managed Service Providers and technology integrators in LogicMonitors Partner Network . To capitalize on significant recurring revenue, LogicMonitors Partner Network delivrs sales and marketing collaboration, training and certification programs, dedicated partner managers, competitive portfolio differentiation, accelerated onboarding, and automated deal registration.



Partners are absolutely essential to LogicMonitors global expansion, and were delighted to partner with these world class organizations in meeting the needs of their customers in their local markets, said Sanjay Gupta, Global Vice President of Channels & Alliances at LogicMonitor. These new partnerships enable LogicMonitor to reach new markets and new customers whilst also accelerating the growth and profitability for our partners. With a keen eye on business continuity and transformation, were committed to delivering the best monitoring intelligence platform to complement their portfolio of services today and in the future. The expansion of the LogicMonitor Partner Network coincides with several awards recognizing the companys channel program and executives. Earlier this year, CRNs 2020 Channel Chiefs recognized both Sanjay Gupta , Global Vice President of Channels & Alliances, and Michael Tarbet , Vice President of Sales for demonstrating exemplary leadership, influence, innovation and growth for the IT channel. LogicMonitor was also included in CRNs 2020 Partner Program Guide .

Additionally in April, JMP Securities included LogicMonitor on its Hot 100 List of best privately held software companies. This annual list identifies the best-performing companies based on criteria such as financial growth, products and services, quality of leadership, customer traction and market potential. For more information about the LogicMonitor Partner Network or becoming a LogicMonitor partner, please visit https://www.logicmonitor.com/partners. About LogicMonitor Monitoring unlocks new pathways to growth. At LogicMonitor , we expand whats possible for businesses by advancing the technology behind them. LogicMonitor seamlessly monitors infrastructures, empowering companies to focus less on problem solving and more on evolution. We help customers turn on a complete view in minutes, turn the dial from optimization to innovation and turn the corner from sight to vision. For more information, visit www.logicmonitor.com . LogicMonitor Contact:



Anna Lindsey

LogicMonitor

Tel: (805) 323-3901

Email: [email protected]

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
The government troops sustained no casualties during the day

Since the beginning of the day, Russian mercenaries landed six attacks on positions of the Ukrainian military, using the weapons of banned calibers. The Joint Forces Operation HQ reported that on May 5.

In the Donetsk region, the enemy used 82 mm mortars to shell the emplacements near Nevelske. Near Pavlopol and Bohdanivka, hostile combatants opened fire from small arms, heavy machine guns, and anti-tank grenade launchers.

In the Luhansk region, pro-Kremlin armed gangs used automatic grenade launchers and sniper rifles to open fire near Orikhove. Grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and small arms were used in attacks on Krymske.

None of the Ukrainian servicemen were injured or killed in action.

Leonid Kuchma, the second President of Ukraine will be leading this country's delegation for negotiations in the Minsk trilateral contact group. The President's Office press department reported that on May 5, as President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the respective decree.

The next session of the Minsk trilateral contact group is supposed to take place on May 14. The working subgroups will hold a meeting several days before that.
This, the Bono East Minister said was one of the effective measures to reduce overcrowding, especially at the market to contribute to the prevention of outbreak and spread of the COVID-19 disease in the Municipality and the region in general.

The region has not yet recorded any confirmed case of the COVID-19 and Techiman being one of the largest market centres in the West African sub-region records influx of a large number of people from other parts of Ghana and neighbouring countries such Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to engage in trading activities during its weekly market.

By its enormous size and patronage, the market starts on late Wednesday and ends on Saturday but peaks on Thursday-Friday.

Against this background, there could be a quick spread of the disease in the town, its environs and perhaps the entire region should there be an outbreak, the Regional Minister indicated.

He stressed the need for the traders to do business at the satellite markets to protect their health and safety and that of others.

Mr. Amoakohene who doubles as the Member of Parliament for Atebubu-Amanten gave the advice when he addressed traders at the Techiman Central market at the weekend on the need for them and the populace to adhere to the social and physical distancing protocols and other health and safety measures against COVID-19.

The Minister and his entourage later visited the newly-created satellite markets in the 'city' to address traders there on the COVID-19 as part of a working tour of the region to have first-hand information on how the Assemblies have been working against the spread of the disease.

Mr. Amoakohene commended the leadership of the central market for ensuring compliance with the measures and directives by the traders against the spread of the disease.

Besides the creation of large spaces in-between sheds and the wearing of nose mask by particularly the female traders in foodstuffs and other edible items, the leadership has provided public address systems at vantage points to educate the traders, buyers and the general public on the need to stop the spread the virus.

---GNA
DALLAS, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- OutMatch has been named to Inc. magazine's annual list of the Best Workplaces for 2020. Hitting newsstands May 12 in the May/June 2020 issue, and as part of a prominent Inc.com feature, the list is the result of a wide-ranging and comprehensive measurement of private American companies that have created exceptional workplaces through vibrant cultures, deep employee engagement, and stellar benefits.

"This recognition by Inc. magazine is a direct result of the hard work and enthusiasm that every OutMatcher displays every day," said OutMatch CEO, Greg Moran. "Our mission is to 'match people with purpose' and accomplishing this mission starts with our team. It is thrilling to have our company, and our dedicated, diverse, and fun-loving OutMatchers, recognized in this way."

The foundation of the OutMatch culture are the guiding principles, "Build Bridges," "Sherpa Attitude," and "Pack Light and Travel Fast." Individual employees are recognized company-wide each week by their peers for exhibiting these principles. To maintain tight connections among employees all year long, OutMatch gathers everyone twice a year for an annual kickoff session, including an all company hack-a-thon and announcement of "OutMatcher of the Year," as well as a mid-year "Base Camp" focused on employee development. It is this culture and connection that has led OutMatch to create their industry leading Talent Intelligence platform.

Collecting data from more than 3,000 submissions, Inc. singled out 395 finalists for this year's list. Each nominated company took part in an employee survey, conducted by Quantum Workplace, on topics including trust, management effectiveness, perks, and confidence in the future. Inc. gathered, analyzed, and audited the data. Then they ranked all the employers using a composite score of survey results. This year, 73.5 percent of surveyed employees were engaged by their work.



The strongest engagement scores came from companies that prioritize the most human elements of work. These companies are leading the way in employee recognition, performance management, and diversity. It is a different playbook from a decade ago, when too many firms used the same template: free food, open work environments, and artifacts of "fun."

"Building a great corporate culture comes only from strong leadership," says Inc. magazine editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. "The companies on Inc.'s Best Workplaces list are setting an example that the whole country can learn from, especially now, when company culture is more important to the workforce than ever."

While researching the finalists, Inc. and Quantum saw distinct themes:





100 percent provide health insurance.

50 percent allow employees to bring pets to work.

62 percent take employees to offsite retreats to relax and recharge.

20 percent offer paid sabbaticals to reward length of service.

About OutMatch

The OutMatch Talent Intelligence Platform brings clarity to talent decisions by gathering the right data and putting the insights companies need at their fingertips. We help the world's biggest brands to select and develop great people, maximizing the employee life cycle. Nearly 100 million candidates and employees have used OutMatch technology, with over 10 million flowing through per year. This volume of data gives OutMatch unique insight into the workforce and prepares OutMatch clients for the future of work.

About Inc. Media

The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

About Quantum Workplace

Quantum Workplace, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is an HR technology company that serves organizations through employee-engagement surveys, action-planning tools, exit surveys, peer-to-peer recognition, performance evaluations, goal tracking, and leadership assessment. For more information, visit QuantumWorkplace.com.

SOURCE OutMatch

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Linkedin Reyner Valiant Tumbelaka (The Jakarta Post) Surabaya, East Java  Tue, May 5, 2020 13:00 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd606e30 3 Opinion COVID-19,medical-workers,doctor,patients,honesty,pandemic,hospital Free

During this pandemic, honesty is the best policy. Patients who have not fully disclosed their travel history, the state of their health or symptoms similar to those known to be related to COVID-19 have exposed medical workers to the virus, leading to bigger problems.

As the pandemic expands within communities and as the disease progresses, many medical workers are running low on personal protective equipment (PPE). Some hospitals are struggling with a drop in staff, as some have been required to self-isolate or have fallen ill. Several physicians and nurses have even died. Hospitals will soon be overwhelmed with patients they cannot treat. A patient who has lied or has not disclosed the whole truth will only to bring more damage to our overstretched healthcare system as it battles the disease across 34 provinces.

Among the latest health workers who have become victim to COVID-19 was Berkatnu Indrawan Janguk, a general practioner in Soewandhi General Hospital in Surabaya who passed away on April 27. He was believed to have contracted the virus from a patient without being aware of the patients medical status. Earlier 46 medical workers at Dr. Kariadi General Hospital in Semarang were infected after they reportedly treated patients who failed to reveal their travel history to coronavirus red zones. This shows how important honesty is.

As Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo said, the unbelievable infection of so many health workers in one hospital around the same time [...] serves as a lesson for us that doctors, nurses and other health workers are very vulnerable.

In other cities in this country, medical workers are facing the same risk, and of course safety protocols, such as wearing standard PPE for every medical worker in clinical and surgical settings, are non-negotiable. Protecting medical workers means protecting the community.

In clinical situations, for best results in diagnosis and treatment, the relationship between patient and medical worker should be built on mutual trust and honesty. Physicians realize that recording an accurate medical history to make a diagnosis relies on the provision of reliable information by patients and their families,

which in turn depends on effective communication between physicians and patients and their families.

Hospital management and health workers themselves should offer direct assurance that they are there to help, not to judge. This assurance can go a long way toward helping many patients open up and feel more comfortable in sharing everything, amid the pandemic and more generally. It all comes back to good interpersonal communication. Patients have to speak up, and clinicians need to listen.

Despite the best intentions, humans aren't always the most honest species. Both patients and medical workers are often challenged by complicated communication; patients withhold or lie about information that is crucial to the doctor-patient relationship and for effective treatment. Such untruths and manipulation of information can damage relationships, compromise clinical care and can increase the contagion rate of the virus.

From telling untruths to selective reporting and glossing over details, there are a lot of ways to skirt the truth. And it is likely to occur when the topic is sensitive or makes the patient uncomfortable in some way.

In the experience of health professionals, patients lie for a variety of reasons, such as to obtain prescriptions for their preferred drugs, to avoid incarceration or other undesired legal consequences of their actions (such as

in cases of substance abuse) or to ensure their insurance covers the hospital admission.

In clinical encounters, the main reason for patients to hide relevant information during this pandemic is to avoid social stigma.

Social stigma in the context of health is the negative association of a person or group of people who share certain characteristics and a specific disease. In a pandemic this may mean people are labeled, stereotyped, discriminated against, treated separately or made to experience a loss of status because of a perceived link with a disease.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has indeed provoked social stigma and discriminatory behavior against people of certain backgrounds, as well as anyone perceived to have been in contact with the virus.

When talking about COVID-19, certain language (e.g., suspected case, isolation, etc.) may have a negative connotation for people and fuel stigmatizing attitudes. This language can perpetuate existing negative stereotypes or assumptions, strengthen false associations between the disease and other factors and create widespread fear of those who have the disease. It probably shouldn't come as a surprise that people aren't always completely honest with their physicians or health workers.

It is important now for all parties is to focus on creating an environment that encourages honesty. Dont let a fear of the virus turn into stigma against those who have it or are thought to have contracted it. Here, the government must take the lead, followed by the media and all citizens. The most crucial thing is to set a tone of tolerance, care, empathy and the capacity to fight social stigma, rejection and fear  even the stigma and fear of victims of COVID-19 who have died.

***

Orthopedic and traumatology resident, Airlangga University, RSUD Dr. Soetomo Hospital, Surabaya, graduate of Airlangga University Faculty of Medicine.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
The garment and textile sector saw slower business in the first four months

According to the statistics published by the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas), the total import-export turnover of the garment and textile sector in the first four months was $17.04 billion. The yarn export turnover saw a deep decline by 12 per cent to $1.18 billion and nonwoven fabric by 22 per cent.

The import turnover for fabric and raw cotton was down 11 and 8 per cent to $3.63 trillion and $345 million, respectively.

The trade surplus of this industry in the first four months was $5.38 billion, signifying a decrease of 3.19 per cent on-year.

The two major reasons of these bleak results come from the impact of the US-China trade war and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vitas forecast that the garment and textile industrys future will remain bleak this year with the plunge in both import-export turnover for the whole year. Vitas issued numerous scripts for this industry. Accordingly, by the most optimistic expectations, the trade turnover of this sector will touch $35 billion, down 10 per cent on-year and the worst case scenario is $30-31 billion.

Textiles is one of the industries using the highest number of workers, most of whom are unable to switch to other jobs in the current situation. Therefore, maintaining employment and income for workers is not only a vital business problem but also a great impact on society.

These enterprises have proposed the government to quickly disburse the approved economic stimulus packages and consider the partial use of the unemployment insurance fund and social insurance fund to help businesses continue paying their workers.

Under the growing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, face mask production is considered a viable solution for garment companies to maintain operations and offset losses from lower demand for garments.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, 50 local garment firms have reported that they could produce eight million face masks per day, or around 200 million per month.

The figure would be higher if the nationwide production capacity is taken into account, said the ministry, thus Vietnam is capable of becoming a major exporter of cloth face masks in the world, the governmental portal reported, citing the ministry.
Manuel Fraga-Madan, 66, from Florida, has been charged with murder with special circumstances that include rape, burglary, robbery, lying in wait and torture in connection to a 1984 cold case out of California

An ex-convict from Florida was charged on Monday with killing a man and raping a woman in a Los Angeles County motel more than 35 years ago thanks to DNA evidence.

Manuel Fraga-Madan, 66, of Hialeah, was arrested on Friday on counts of murder with special circumstances that include rape, burglary, robbery, lying in wait and torture. Prosecutors havent decided whether to seek the death penalty.

Prosecutors alleged that on July 12, 1984, Fraga-Madan and an unidentified man forced their way into the Vermont Motel in the Lennox area where Johnny Williams, 40, and others were staying, seeking drugs and cash.

While waiting for Williams to return, the men allegedly raped a 23-year-old woman at gunpoint in front of her one-year-old child.

When Williams entered the room, the men demanded money and drugs. Williams denied having either, at which point he was shot once in the leg, then killed, prosecutors said.

The woman was hiding in the bathroom at the time of the killing. She has since died of natural causes, reported Los Angeles Times.

Fraga-Maden is accused of forcing his way into a room at the Vermont Motel in Los Angeles County in July 1984, raping a 23-year-old woman at gunpoint, then shooting and killing Johnny Williams, 40

The murder and rape had gone unsolved until 2018, when the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office's cold-case unit took over the investigation, focusing on physical evidence collected from the scene more than three decades ago, when DNA testing technology that was not available.

The sheriff's office had semen collected from the motel bedding entered into a DNA database, which matched Fraga-Madan's.

The suspect has a criminal history in California and Florida, mostly stemming from drug offenses.

Authorities have not been able to locate Fraga-Madan's suspected accomplice, nor the rape victim's son.
So have the Democrats changed their standards for evaluating claims of sexual assault, and if so, what does that mean for the future of #MeToo? Heres what people are saying.

Democrats always set standards that come back and bite them

The response to Tara Reades allegation is exposing the hypocrisy of the Democratic Party, the Times columnist Maureen Dowd writes. Ms. Dowd has always found the principle that all women must be believed to be absurd, but she argues that Democrats have a history of hewing to it when it serves their partisan ends (see the cases of Clarence Thomas and Justice Kavanaugh) and abandoning it when it critically imperils them (see the case of Bill Clinton, who was accused of sexual harassment and assault by three women in the 1990s). Now, as during Mr. Clintons presidency, the conditional nature of Democrats commitment to believing women has been exposed.

But whatever party leaders might be saying, many left-leaning voters are still urging that Mr. Biden play by the rules of #MeToo, as the Times columnist Jennifer Senior puts it. The author Jessica Valenti, for example, has reiterated the importance of believing women, even when its politically inconvenient. If Reade is smeared as a liar or opportunist by a movement that claims to believe women, she writes, what moral standing will we ever have again? That potential loss of moral standing is one reason the Times Opinion writer Elizabeth Bruenig has called on Democrats to consider an alternative nominee.

Opinion Debate Will the Democrats face a midterm wipeout? Mark Penn and Andrew Stein write that "only a broader course correction to the center will give Democrats a fighting chance in 2022" and beyond.

write that "only a broader course correction to the center will give Democrats a fighting chance in 2022" and beyond. Matthew Continetti writes that time and again, the biggest obstacle to a red wave hasnt been the Democratic Party. Its been the Republican Party.

writes that time and again, the biggest obstacle to a red wave hasnt been the Democratic Party. Its been the Republican Party. Ezra Klein speaks to David Shor, who discusses his fear that Democrats face electoral catastrophe unless they shift their messaging.

speaks to David Shor, who discusses his fear that Democrats face electoral catastrophe unless they shift their messaging. Michelle Cottle examines two primary contests that will shake the parties well beyond the states in play.

[Agree to disagree, or disagree better? Broaden your perspective with sharp arguments on the most pressing issues of the week. Sign up for the Debatable newsletter.]

Was #MeToo an overcorrection?

The accusations against Mr. Biden should inspire liberals to re-examine the vindictive excesses of the #MeToo movement, the Times columnist Bret Stephens argues. While the intentions of the movement were good, he says, he doesnt recall politicians and pundits who championed the #BelieveWomen approach ever worrying about how it might trample on the due-process rights of the accused. Belief in the absence of convincing evidence is a form of religion. It should not be a part of our legal system, confirmation hearings, campus codes, or political campaigns, he writes. What I do believe in is the presumption of innocence, whether in courts of law or public opinion, and in high standards of proof for high sorts of crime.
Gunmen on Monday night attacked some members of staff of Radio Nigeria, Pacesetter FM Umuahia, and abducted one of them, Chinenye Iwuoha.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt the incident took place around 7pm near Amakama Estate in Umuahia, the state capital.

The gunmen had trailed the staff who were in a Hilux van belonging to the General Manager of the station, Uche Ndukwu, before shooting the driver and abducting a presenter, Chinyere Iwuoha.

A source who spoke to our reporter said the four workers had closed for work and were heading home when the gunmen, who were trailing them in a Sienna vehicle and a motorcycle, intercepted them.

Those in the car include Chinenyee Iwuoha, the GM, Mr Uche Ndukwu , the driver, Kingsley Onyeokuche and another staff, Nnamdi Egwuagu, the source said.

They probably thought that Ms Chinenye was the GM as she sat at the back while the GM sat in the front with the driver.

They were shouting who is the GM? When they got to the car, they shot the driver in the stomach and whisked Miss Iwuoha away in their car.

The gunmen, it was gathered, also made away with the valuables belonging to the GM and other staff, including their laptops.

Meanwhile, the driver, Kingsley Onyeokuche who was shot in the stomach was rushed to hospital where doctors battled all night to save his life.

It was learnt that he was operated upon and the operation was successful, though his condition is still very critical.

He just came out of the theatre this afternoon and doctors are hopeful he will pull through.

The source also said the kidnappers have made contact with the station and are demanding for a ransom of N20m for the release of the presenter.

READ ALSO:

The Commissioner for Information in Abia State, John Kalu, confirmed the incident.

He said the state Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, has directed for the immediate release of the abducted victim.

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has directed security agencies to do all within their power to secure her release. As I speak with you now, I am on my way to a meeting with security stakeholders in the state geared towards securing her safe release.

The police Spokesperson in the state, Geoffrey Ogbonna, could not be reached for comments. Calls to his phone were not answered.
DENVER  Democrats in the Colorado Legislature have set aside an effort to pass a bill this year creating a public health insurance option.

The prime backers of the legislation said Monday the coronavirus crisis made it impossible to ensure all relevant stakeholders including hospitals, doctors and insurance companies can be involved in the lawmaking process, The Colorado Sun reports.

Democrats pushing for the measure said the pandemic highlighted the need for the public option, which was planned to be a private insurance plan with hospital prices and other strict regulations set by the state. The initiative is a priority of Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.

As the economic devastation unfolds and more Coloradans lose their access to employer-based insurance, its more clear than ever that our system is broken and that Coloradans deserve more choice and lower prices, Democratic state Rep. Dylan Roberts said in a statement.

The very people we need to work on it with are obviously focused on other stuff. We cant give them one more thing to do right now, said Democratic state Sen. Kerry Donovan, a prime sponsor of the effort.

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 vast majority of people recover.
T3 Expo Double Hoop Bed Tent at Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital When the events industry came to a halt, we immediately pivoted our focus to identify how we could help given our creative expertise, said Nate Derby, T3 Expo co-founder.

T3 Expo, Inc. the general service contractor for creating shareable moments for trade shows and corporate events, today announced that it has introduced a new product to help protect medical staff where Covid-19 or other infectious disease may be present.

The innovative product, called a Double Hoop Bed Tent, is now being used by several Boston-area hospitals in Emergency Rooms and ICUs, including Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital. It was designed to help protect healthcare staff from infection, yet allow comfort and access to the patient.

The idea for the Double Hoop Bed Tent came from one of our employees who has a family member working at a local Boston hospital. Being on the front lines helping Covid-19 patients, they expressed an immediate need for a shield to protect them and to prevent the spread of the virus as they transport patients around the hospital and during intubation procedures, said Nate Derby, co-founder, T3 Expo. Through an R&D project with the hospital, we were able to refine this solution to the point where we decided to file a patent. Our hope is to help support as many other hospitals and healthcare workers across the country as we can during this pandemic.

I am really pleased that T3 Expo helped design a safe way for our staff to intubate COVID-19 positive patients, said Kim Hollon, president and CEO, Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital. Signature has been focused for years on creating a safe environment for our staff as well as staff-led problem solving and innovation. This is a great example of staff collaboration and the spirit of community collaboration.

The Double Hoop Bed Tent includes two custom shaped PVC arches with uniquely formed ends, clear plastic sheeting and clips to secure the plastic over the hoops. The Double Hoop Bed Tents are very easy to install and the uniquely formed ends were designed to fit all hospital bed types and gurneys.

When the events industry came to a halt, we immediately pivoted our focus and looked to our partners, the healthcare industry and municipalities to identify how we could help them given our creative expertise, added Derby. At the same time we have been focusing on our current customers and taking this unique opportunity to further refine our service model. Our employees are driven toward innovative solutions that leverage our expertise to design, develop and deliver products and solutions using creativity and innovative thinking, which we are proud to say is making a difference.

T3 Expo has recently helped the State of New York build a makeshift hospital at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City to treat Covid-19 patients and it has built over 1400 modular beds, with its partner The Gilman Brothers Company. The beds were set up by the Connecticut National Guard at Western Connecticut University's O'Neill Center to support the overflow of COVID-19 patients from the hospitals.

T3 Expo is offering a limited demo trial period for its Double Hoop Bed Tents to get these protective devices and kits into as many hospitals as possible and continue to support healthcare workers.

There remains a need for improved protective devices and protective techniques for our medical workers, and we are happy to help, Derby added. In these times, it is important to focus on doing the things you can do, and not fixate on the things you cant.

About T3 Expo

T3 Expo is the shareable moment general contractor that defines, develops and delivers what is needed for event managers to better manage what exhibitors want and attendees dream. T3 Expo has scores of Eventgineers, who apply their collective experience each and every day to redefine the design, development and delivery of events around the world.

Our Eventgineers can rebrand entire events overnight or apply their decades of experience to save clients planning and production headaches. With the use of T3s Presta technology, T3 Eventgineers are able to work with clients to create an event space that is needed to foster important ideas and shareable moments that generate community and commerce.

All trademarks, service marks and company names are the property of their respective owners
(Alliance News) - Budget airlines Ryanair Holdings PLC and Wizz Air Holdings PLC on Tuesday posted dismal trading performances for April as a result of air travel restrictions imposed by governments across Europe to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.

Airlines around the globe have furloughed or shed thousands of staff in a bid to stay afloat, as the majority of the world's air travel remains restricted.

Ryanair on Tuesday reported a 99.6% drop in April traffic to just about 40,000 passengers from 13.5 million in April 2019 due to flight bans and travel restrictions.

The core Ryanair branded airline carried all the 40,000 passengers in the month, while Lauda in Austria flew none at all.

The Irish company said it operated just 600 scheduled flights in April and expects to carry minimal traffic during the months of May and June as well.

At the start of May, Ryanair had warned that it could slash up to 3,000 jobs, implement a 20% pay cut and close several European bases in response to the destructive effects of Covid-19 on travel.

Eastern European-focused Wizz Air separately reported a 98% fall in April passenger numbers to 78,389 from 3.3 million in April 2019.

More positively, Wizz Air announced five new destinations to Abu Dhabi, with the first flights from Budapest and Bucharest commencing in June 2020, and three additional destinations starting in September. The launch of the company's new low-cost airline Wizz Air Abu Dhabi is progressing in line with the initial timeline, it said.

Shares in Ryanair were up 2.0% at EUR9.41 each in London on Tuesday morning. Wizz Air was up 0.2% at 2,616.00 pence each.

By Tapan Panchal; tapanpanchal@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
C hina has launched a newly designed spacecraft as part of its ambitious plan to build an orbiting space station.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the unmanned spacecraft and its return capsule were sent into space aboard a Long March 5B rocket in its debut flight on Tuesday.

The capsule, set off from the Wenchang launch centre in the southern island province of Hainan, is reportedly an improvement on the Shenzhou capsule, based on the former Soviet Unions Soyuz model, and can carry six astronauts rather than just three.

The new Long March 5B rocket has been specially designated to propel modules of the future space station into orbit.

China hopes to rival the United States, Russia and private companies in outer space exploration.

Long March 5 was launched on December 27 last year / AFP via Getty Images

The country earlier launched an experimental space station that later crashed back through the atmosphere, and plans to build a larger facility with multiple modules to rival the scale of the International Space Station.

Chinas burgeoning space programme achieved a milestone last year by landing a spacecraft on the largely unexplored far side of the moon and has plans to launch a lander and rover on Mars.

Amazing NASA Space Images - In pictures 1 /80 Amazing NASA Space Images - In pictures Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the lunar surface during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 NASA This 1969 photograph of the eclipse of the sun was taken with a 16mm motion picture camera from the Apollo 12 spacecraft during its trans-Earth journey home from the moon. The fascinating view was created when the Earth moved directly between the sun and the Apollo 12 spacecraft NASA Astronaut Bruce McCandless II photographed 320 ft from the Space Shuttle Challenger during the first untethered EVA, made possible by his nitrogen jet propelled backpack (Manned Manuevering Unit or MMU) in 1984 NASA The brilliant tapestry of young stars flaring to life resemble a glittering fireworks display in the 25th anniversary NASA Hubble Space Telescope image NASA Space shuttle Atlantis blasts off from Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida in 2011. This lift off is the last in the 30-year-old shuttle program Getty Images The first teklevision image of Earth from a weather satellite taken by the TIROS-1 satellite in 1960 NASA The Echo 2 satellite in 1960. Once the balloon was launched into orbit, a prerecorded message from President Dwight Eisenhower was transmitted from California and heard with clarity in New Jersey NASA The original seven Mercury astronauts and pioneers in human space exsploration pose in their silver spacesuits in 1961 NASA President John F. Kennedy calls for a moon landing in 1961 durning Congress NASA Astronaut John Glenn climbs into his Friendship 7 space capsule in the Atlas rocket in 1962. Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth NASA A close-up view of an astronaut's bootprint in the lunar soil, photographed with a 70mm lunar surface camera during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the moon in 1969 NASA Man's first landing on the Moon. Lunar Module, "Eagle," touched down gently on the Sea of Tranquility on the east side of the Moon. Astronauts Edwin Aldrin and Neil Armstrong wre the first men to walk on the Moon in 1969 NASA After an 8 month voyage to Mars, Mariner 4 makes the first flyby of the Mars (the red planet) in 1965 and became the first spacecraft to take close-up photographs of another planet NASA Astronaut Edward H. White II, pilot on the Gemini-Titan 4 spaceflight, is shown during his egress from the spacecraft. His face is covered by a shaded visor to protect him from the unfiltered rays of the sun. White became the first American astronaut to walk in space. He remained outside the spacecraft for 21 minutes during the third revolution of the Gemini-4 mission in 1965 NASA The X-15 completed 199 flights to the edge of space from 1959-1968. Neil Armstrong was one of it's budding young pilots NASA Earthrise over the moon from Apollo 8 in 1968 NASA American astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins lift off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, in the mammoth-sized Saturn V rocket on their way to the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 Astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. saluting the US flag on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 11 lunar mission in 1969 NASA Home View of Moon limb with Earth on the horizon in 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission NASA Apollo XI astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin laugh with President Richard Nixon aboard the USS Hornet in 1969 Richard Nixon Foundation via Getty Images Lunar mission Astronaut John W. Young, commander of the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission, leaps from the lunar surface as he salutes the United States flag at the Descartes landing site during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity (EVA) in 1972 NASA First image of Viking 1's foot plantid on martian soil foot in 1976 NASA The first ever long distance image of the Earth and Moon together. The image photograph was taken by Voyager 1 in 1977 NASA A dramatic view of Jupiter's Great Red Spot and its surroundings in 1979 NASA The first space shuttle launch Columbia lifts off in 1981 NASA Astronaut Sally Ride on the flight deck of the space shuttle Challenger in 1983. She became the first American woman in space NASA One of the most celebrated images taken by the Hubble called 'Pillars of Creation' NASA Space shuttle Challenger destructs after lift off in 1973 NASA NASA's Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope aboard ESA's SOHO spacecraft took this image of a huge, handle-shaped prominence in 1999. Prominences are huge clouds of relatively cool dense plasma suspended in the Sun's hot, thin corona NASA Trailing a column of flame and smoke that dwarfs it, Space Shuttle Endeavour leaps into the clear blue Florida sky on mission STS-99 in 2000 Space Shuttle Atlantis clears the tower as it roars into space on mission STS-106 after a perfect on-time launch in 2000 NASA 2004 The deepest view of 10,000 galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope called the Hubble Ultra Field Deep (2004) NASA 2005 A new view of the Eagle Nebula, one of the two largest and sharpest images Hubble Space Telescope has ever taken (2005) NASA International Space Station pictured by the crew of Atlantis in 2008 NASA The rim of Gale Crater is visible in the distance, through the dusty haze, in this view of NASA's Curiosity rover of a sloping hillside on Mount Sharp NASA Taken on June 03, 2008 and released by NASA on June 4, 2008 shows US space shuttle Discovery Mission Specialist Michael Fossum being photographed by US Mission Specialist Ronald Garan (reflected in Fossum's face shield) as they work outside The International Space Station during the first of three planned space walks. AFP/Getty Images In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, NASA's Great Observatories -- Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray Observatory -- have produced a matched trio of images of the central region of our Milky Way NASA A striking black and white image showing the detail of the planet Saturn NASA This majestic false-color image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows 'mountains' where stars are born. These towering pillars of cool gas and dust are illuminated at their tips with light from warm embryonic stars NASA The space shuttle Atlantis is seen over the Bahamas in 2011 prior to a perfect docking with the International Space Station NASA Aurora Australis, seen from a point over the southeast Tasman Sea near southern New Zealand. in 2011 NASA NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Expedition 32 flight engineer, appears to touch the bright sun during the mission's third session of extravehicular activity (EVA). During the six-hour, 28-minute spacewalk in 2012 NASA Behold one of the more stunningly detailed images of the Earth yet created. This Blue Marble Earth montage, created from photographs taken by the VIIRS instrument in 2012 on board the Suomi NPP satellite, shows many stunning details of our home planet NASA Numerous recognizable features appear in this detailed view of London, photographed by an Expedition 10 crew member on the International Space Station (ISS). The most striking visual features are green open spaces such as Regent's Park, Hyde Park and St. James's Park east of Buckingham Palace NASA International Space Station image of London at night NASA This image of Tropical Storm Anna taken from the International Space Station in 2015 NASA Pluto's haze layer and its blue colour, taken by the New Horizons Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) in 2015 NASA NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, dark, narrow streaks on the slopes of Hale Crater are inferred to be formed by seasonal flow of water on surface of present-day Mars. These dark features on the slopes are called "recurring slope lineae" or RSL NASA Earth observation taken during a night pass by the Expedition 49 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2016 NASA The moon rises in low Earth orbit by NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik from the International Space Station in 2017 NASA Hurricane Harvey is pictured off the coast of Texas in 2017 NASA The International Space Station continues its orbit around the Earth as Expedition 50 astronauts captured this night image of sparkling cities and a sliver of daylight framing the northern hemisphere in 2017 This composite image made from a series of 2018 photos shows a self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover in the Gale Crater NASA US. National Parks From Space. Mt Saint Helen's looking spectacular from above NASA SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft as it lifts off on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in 2018 NASA NASA's Juno spacecraft captures Jupiter's southern hemisphere, as the spacecraft performed its 13th close flyby of Jupiter in 2018 NASA The stunning iamge was shared on social media by astronaut Paolo Nespoli NASA The Bailey's Beads effect is seen as the moon makes its final move over the sun during the total solar eclipse NASA The Moon is seen passing in front of the Sun during a solar eclipse from Ross Lake, Northern Cascades National Park, Washington NASA Swirling cloud belts and tumultuous vortices within Jupiter's northern hemisphere picture taken by NASA's Juno spacecraft as it performed it's 13th flypast. Juno was about 9,600 miles (15,500 kilometers) from the planet's cloud tops. NASA

The programme has developed rapidly, especially since its first crewed mission in 2003, and has sought co-operation with space agencies in Europe and elsewhere.

The United States has banned most space co-operation with China out of national security concerns, prompting China to develop its own equipment.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, attends the daily briefing of the Coronavirus Task Force at the White House in Washington on April 10, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

White House to Limit Testimony of Coronavirus Task Force Members, Memo Says

White House coronavirus task force officials cannot testify to Congress in May unless they get express approval from Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, according to a memo made public on May 4.

The memo was sent by the White House Office of Legislative Affairs to staff directors in the House of Representatives and Senate.

For the month of May, no Task Force members, or key deputies of Task Force members, may accept hearing invitations. Exceptions may be made only with the express approval of the White House Chief of Staff, it states.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Deborah Birx, response coordinator, are two task force members who will be restricted from testifying, along with Dr. Robert Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For departments that are directly involved in the response to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, in order to preserve resources, no more than four virus-related hearings should be scheduled with relevant House and Senate committees and subcommittees.

While other departments, agencies, and witnesses can accept invitations to testify, agency resources will be prioritized toward the response efforts, the White House stated.

The demands on agencies staff and resources are extraordinary in this current crisis. Agencies must maximize their resources for COVID-19 response efforts and treat hearing requests accordingly, the memo states.

Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Robert Redfield are sworn in during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing concerning government preparedness and response to the CCP virus, in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington on March 11, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Some invitations to testify will be declined, especially if officials feel that topics overlap with another hearing.

The memo came after the Trump administration said it wouldnt let Fauci testify before a House subcommittee, although hes still expected to testify at a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on May 12.

While the Trump administration continues its whole-of-government response to COVID-19, including safely opening up America again and expediting vaccine development, it is counterproductive to have the very individuals involved in those efforts appearing at congressional hearings, White House spokesman Judd Deere said last week.

We are committed to working with Congress to offer testimony at the appropriate time, he added.

Top Democrats reacted strongly to the new restrictions.

Senate needs to hear from Dr. Fauci, Dr. Brix, Sec. Mnuchin. We need to know why so many small businesses have had trouble getting loans. We need to know why unemployment insurance checks are failing to get to workers. We need to know we still dont have enough tests! Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.

The White House is blocking key officials from testifying to Congress about the response to the coronavirus crisis. This is just the latest sign of Trumps efforts to keep the truth from the American people, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) added.
For several weeks from March into April, new regulations to mitigate the threat from the novel coronavirus sprang up almost every day: first social distancing recommendations, then stay-at-home orders, then restaurant bans, gym closures and nonessential business shutdowns. Now, as the country looks to reopen the economy, an entirely different set of standards are being introduced. For small businesses, operating under these increasing regulations has become nearly impossible  not that they have much choice. In the latest CNBC|SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey, almost a third of small business owners have been required by their state or local government to close their in-person business operations, and 23% have temporarily closed their entire business. Looking further ahead, small business owners are daunted by the idea of keeping up with a continually changing gauntlet of regulatory hurdles. In the survey, conducted April 2127, 38% of small business owners said they expect changes in government regulations to have a negative effect on their business in the next 12 months. That is the highest that value has been in the three-plus years of the survey, which reaches more than 2,000 small business owners in the U.S. every quarter. The rise in pessimism is steep. Just three months ago only 26% anticipated a negative impact from regulatory changes, and the 12 percentage-point quarter-over-quarter increase is the sharpest change in that measure over the history of the survey. Meanwhile, the number saying they expect a positive effect on their business ticked down from 23% to 20%, and the number saying they expect no effect dropped from 50% to 40%.

SurveyMonkey

As difficult as it may be, small businesses will have to adjust to increased regulations in order to reopen. Simply declaring the economy to be open for business will serve no purpose if people are afraid to leave the safety of their homes. Regulations provide reassurance that the public and private sectors are working together to protect everyone: consumers, workers and business owners alike.

What it will take to reopen

Reopening will require some trade-offs. Government regulations can help allay fears among workers and consumers as well as provide guidance and resources for business owners who want to know how to proceed. Various public opinion polls conducted in the past few weeks reveal that despite a deep desire to return to normal, most people in the general public are hesitant to eat at restaurants, attend events, go shopping, go back to work or send their kids to school without precautions. Protests like those in Illinois over the weekend may draw outsized media attention, but regular tracking polls conducted by Gallup and others continue to find that a solid majority of the public is content to comply with stay-at-home orders by local public health officials. These numbers hold for people of every age group and in all regions of the country. A recent Washington PostUniversity of Maryland poll found widespread support for state restrictions on businesses and public gatherings. In that survey, two-thirds of people (66%) say current restrictions on how restaurants, stores, and other businesses operate are "appropriate," while just 17% say they are "too restrictive" and another 16% even say they are "not restrictive enough."

A shopper wears a protective mask while browsing through the Island Cotton Company store as the state of Florida enters phase one of the plan to reopen the state on May 4, 2020 in Stuart, Florida. Joe Raedle | Getty Images

More regulations will continue to come from all levels of government. Many localities now require grocery stores and other essential storefronts to turn away customers who aren't wearing masks. Restaurants that are allowed to reopen may be required to have a minimum distance between tables or a steeply reduced maximum number of people allowed inside at one time. Even businesses without customers will likely face new regulations on cleaning or sick leave policies that are meant to protect employees from infecting each other. In SurveyMonkey's own coronavirus tracking polling, 64% of people in the U.S. surveyed April 27-May 3 said they are more concerned that businesses in their area will reopen too quickly rather than reopen too slowly. A majority of people continue to consider the coronavirus outbreak more of a health crisis than an economic crisis, both for themselves and for the country as a whole. Those numbers have remained steady for the past three weeks' running.

SurveyMonkey

The coronavirus outbreak has had a devastating effect on the economy, but most people consider it to be first and foremost a health crisis. Without a vaccine, and with hospitals still overwhelmed by patients, businesses can't expect to reopen without significant operational changes and safety precautions in place.

The new normal on Main Street
The National Rifle Association (NRA) has cancelled its annual convention and laid off dozens of employees, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The organisation took the measures, after their convention and key shooting events were cancelled, due to the coronavirus outbreak.

In a memo to staff last week, Wayne LaPierre, the organisations CEO, announced that there would be a 20 per cent cut in salary for employees, and added that some higher earners voluntarily took the pay cut.

He said it is intended to be temporary, but did not give a timeline for when he expected staff to be back to their full salaries, or confirm if he had also taken the measure.

Andrew Arulanandam, spokesman for the NRA, told the Associated Press that with key membership events unable to go ahead, the organisations revenue has been badly affected by the crisis.

The cancellation of the annual meeting had a significant financial impact but, beyond that, the health crisis has caused us to postpone countless fundraising and membership events along with competitions, training seminars and other revenue streams  those disruptions are the primary drivers of our decision-making process, he said.

Like every other business and nonprofit, we are forced to make tough choices in this new economic environment.

In an email to staff last week, Mr LaPierre said he was confident that the NRA would be in a healthy position after the crisis.

Defending freedom has never been easy. Over the years, weve weathered more tough times than most, Mr LaPierre said in an email to NRA employees.

But we will rise from this stronger and well positioned to lead the fight to protect our Second Amendment, the First Amendment, and all our constitutional freedoms during the crucial upcoming elections and for years to come, he added.

Although the pandemic is the cause behind the recent lay offs, Robert J Spitzer, chairman of political science at the State University of New York, told the AP that the NRAs financial issues predate the outbreak.

Everybodys in the same boat as the NRA. The NRAs real problem is they had real existing financial problems before this happened, he said.

The organisation has faced negative attention in the last few years, and students and parents have regularly protested against the NRA, in reaction to the 2018 Parkland shooting.

They have also struggled with institutions, and last week, Wells Fargo, who have worked with the organisation in the past, said that its relationship with the NRA is declining.

Mr Spitzer added that without their annual convention and the financial support they are used to, the NRA will struggle to have an effective impact on the 2020 presidential election.

In 2016, the organisation spent around $30m (24.1m) to help Donald Trump be elected president, but with financial difficulties, they will be unlikely to spend anywhere near that amount this time around.

Mr Spritzer added that their financial position simply does not bode well for their impact on the upcoming election.

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, there are now upwards of one million people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 68,406.

Additional reporting by Associated Press.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights has document the killing of journalists in Syria since the start of the conflict, with the majority being killed by the regime.

In a report published on Sunday, the Syrian Network for Human Rights documented 707 journalists killed since March 2011, with 78 percent of the deaths carried out by the Syrian regimes forces.

The Network reported that the 707 deaths included seven children, six women and nine foreign journalists, killed at the hands of Syrias warring parties. Among them were 52 journalists who perished under torture.

At least 1,563 journalists were wounded with various injuries by the warring sides from March 2011 to May 2020.

The report showed the distribution of the killings by the main parties. The regime was responsible for 551 deaths, including five children, one woman and five foreign journalists, in addition to 47 journalists who died due to torture in detention centers.

The report also showed that Russian forces were responsible for 22 journalists deaths, and the Islamic State (ISIS) was responsible for 64 (including one child, two women and three foreigners, in addition to three journalists who died due to torture).

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham killed eight journalists, including two who died due to torture. Opposition factions killed 25 journalists, including one child and three women. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) killed four journalists. The International Coalition forces killed one journalist, according to the report.

The Network also recorded 32 journalists killed at the hands of other parties, including one killed by the pro-opposition Syrian National Army faction during Operation Peace Spring in eastern Syria.

The report mentioned 1,169 cases of arrest and kidnapping of journalists by the main warring parties in Syria from March 2011 to May 2020. Some 422 of them remained in detention or forcibly disappeared, including three women and 17 foreign journalists.

The report documented 353 journalists who remained in detention or forcibly disappeared at the hands of regime forces, including two women and four foreigners. Meanwhile, ISIS detained 48 journalists, including one woman and eight foreignersall of whom remain forcibly disappeared.

The report documented 12 journalistsincluding five foreignerswho remain in detention or disappeared by armed opposition factions, with six others in SDF detention and three forcibly disappeared by Tahrir al-Sham.

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.
Nurses at Einstein Medical Center demanded more PPE in April. Now the state says hospitals that perform elective procedures will have to find their own. Read more

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HARRISBURG  The state has told hospitals it will not provide them with masks, gloves, and other protective equipment if they choose to resume elective surgeries as the priority shifts to nursing homes, where most of Pennsylvanias COVID-19 deaths have occurred.

Teams have been literally scouring Pennsylvania and the nation and the Earth to try to get [personal protective equipment], and we have been able to do that, Health Secretary Rachel Levine said at a state Senate hearing Monday. In the past, that has gone to hospitals. And we will give out to hospitals when necessary now, but the focus ... is on long-term-care living facilities."

On March 20, Levine ordered hospitals to cancel or postpone elective procedures in an effort to reserve beds, ventilators, and other resources for coronavirus patients, who were expected to flood the health-care system. These procedures include heart catheterizations, joint replacements, and colonoscopies.

A month later, as at least one major health system pressed ahead without state approval, Levine updated the order, allowing hospitals and ambulatory surgical facilities to resume elective procedures as long as they could do so without compromising their COVID-19 response.

States have been forced to compete for PPE since the pandemic began, as suppliers and a federal stockpile struggled to keep up with rising demand. In early April, Gov. Tom Wolf ordered hospitals to disclose their inventories of ventilators and PPE so the state could if necessary commandeer those supplies to redistribute them to areas of highest need.

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The worst has not come to pass in most parts of Pennsylvania, though there is a continuing need for equipment, as many health-care professionals reuse masks and gowns in an effort to make limited supplies last. Levine said Monday that while the state will still assist hospitals in hard-hit areas like Philadelphia, those that resume elective procedures will be cut off from the departments stockpile.

If youre doing elective procedures, were not giving you any more PPE, Levine said. If you have enough PPE to do important but not emergency procedures, then were not going to be pushing out PPE to that hospital.

Robert Shipp III, a vice president of the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, which lobbies on behalf of the states health providers, said at Mondays hearing that many necessary surgeries and procedures had been put on hold since March.

Having flattened the COVID-19 curve, it is crucial to start to safely reintroduce needed care for Pennsylvania patients, Shipp said. Continued postponement of care could result in negative health outcomes.

Theres also a financial incentive to resume these procedures. A report by Health Management Associates, which was commissioned by the hospital group, found operating margins for hospitals in the state dropped $914 million below estimates in March, partially as a result of the cancellation and delay of all non-emergent procedures. It said that if the trend continued, the industry could see $4 billion in losses through June.

To resume elective procedures, the Department of Health asked facilities to affirm they could do so without jeopardizing the safety of patients and staff. They do not need to seek approval from the state to proceed.

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The state adopted guidance from a number of groups, including the American College of Surgeons and the American Society of Anesthesiologists. In a joint statement, the organizations said hospitals should be prepared to meet an immense pent-up patient demand for surgical and procedural care.

The groups recommended that hospitals hold off on returning to regular services until there is a marked reduction in COVID-19 cases in their region and until they meet other testing and supply benchmarks.

While most hospitals appear to be handling COVID-19 cases without any major issues, care homes are continuing to struggle. As of Monday, 67% of deaths in the state were ascribed to residents in long-term-care facilities.

At the beginning of the pandemic, workers at these homes called for more protective equipment. The Pennsylvania Homecare Association, an industry organization that represents providers, wrote a letter to Levine in March asking for guidance on shortages of PPE.

Nursing homes and personal care homes are where the vast majority of our PPE is going now, Levine said Monday. Many hospitals  not all, but most hospitals are doing fine with PPE, so we are pushing out PPE almost exclusively to long-term-care living facilities.

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C ircumstances are everything. When I first read Normal People in 2018 I thought it was a beautifully written love story about failure to communicate. Now watching the BBC adaptation I am noticing details I barely paid attention to in the novel; all of which are impossible in lockdown  holidays in Italy, birthday parties in restaurants and the best hairstyle on TV since The Rachel in Friends.

Some are quite rightly lusting after Connells chain necklace, the surprise hit of the show. Who knew a piece of jewellery described as Argos chic could cause such a collective swoon, with a dedicated Instagram feed and a surge in necklace sales? But what I would give my last stockpiled loo roll for is to have hair like Mariannes. She has the same hair for four years, save for a micro trim at university, and who can blame her? Its lightly tousled with a heavy fringe that looks cool without trying too hard, works worn up or down and goes with her enviable wardrobe and fave yellow jumper. My previous hair crush Damian Hurley seems far too high maintenance now Ive fallen for The Marianne.

With not much else to do Ive been debating if ordering hairdressing scissors counts as an essential purchase and deep googling how to cut a Marianne. The sensible answer is wait a few months and leave it to a hairdresser, but where is the thrill in that? Anyway, appointments will be like gold dust  Germanys newly opened salons are already booked up. The last time I was this fixated on a haircut it was the late Nineties and I wore a hat while my hair was wet to make it dry straighter like Jennifer Anistons. It just went flat.

In some ways, lockdown is the ideal time to experiment with a new look because your social circle is limited. The drawback is that emotions are heightened. Unless you are Dua Lipa and can pull off an Orangina Quarantina tint theres a lot to be said for keeping little things like hair as normal as possible when the world is careering into an unsettling new dimension. Even perma-confident Richard Madeley looks alarmed to now have hair as blonde as his wifes. Its why theres a black market of mobile hairdressers breaking social distancing.

A friend who tried to go blonde now has a green mane and a boyfriend who isnt talking to her. She cried at the results, he told her to get some perspective and made jokes about how he hopes this isnt her persistent coiff for locksdown; she regrets everything.

She reminded me I dont have a good track record on haircuts. When I was younger I attempted a prototype version of The Marianne, hid the cut hair under the bed, and when my mum asked what had happened claimed ignorance. Theres no chance of using my boyfriend as a guinea pig  he fears it would be like the salon scene in Paddington 2. But my scissors arrive on Friday. Marianne has a lot to answer for.

I've been overanalysing disco balls

Jarvis Cocker / Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Some overanalyse politicians bookshelves on Zoom; Ive been assessing disco balls. Sophie Ellis-Bextor hosts a Friday dance party on Instagram with a trad mirror ball  her husband, The Feeling bassist Richard Ashcroft, dressed as a fox for the last one. Jarvis Cocker goes one further with a light-up disco pineapple at his Domestic Disco on a Saturday; his partner Kim Sion dances, Gwendoline Christie provides commentary. His song House Music All Night Long is my lockdown anthem.
Bexar County Sheriff's Office

A 56-year-old man was arrested after he was accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl, according to an arrest affidavit.

Police were tipped off to Gregory Montemayor while they were investigating a human trafficking case involving a 16-year-old girl, who told police that Montemayor sexually assaulted her, the arrest affidavit said. She also said she visited him over 100 times, according to the affidavit.
Although she was trying to add context to what Madison Stalker was dealing with, Georgia Grobler from Below Deck Sailing Yacht seems to have broken Stalkers trust.

Georgia Grobler, Byron Hissey | Karolina Wojtasik/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

In the latest episode, Grobler shared with chief engineer Byron Hissey that Stalker was dealing with considerable stress after her sister was murdered. Stalker was acting erratically at dinner and Hissey wondered why she was lashing out. However, Stalker expressed that she was annoyed that everyone on the boat was coupling up when new deckhand Chris Miller expressed an interest in Grobler.

Although Hissey was very understanding and compassionate, Stalker was angry with Grobler for sharing her personal news. Stalker confronts Grobler and while Grobler could have gotten defensive, she instead feels empathy and complete and utter remorse.

Grobler comes clean to Stalker

Instead of hiding that she shared Stalkers personal backstory with Hissey, Grobler decides to come clean. I have to tell you something now, she says to Stalker. Grobler begins by telling Stalker that the crew was thrown off by her remarks during dinner.

Grobler continues by sharing with Stalker that the crew wondered if a trauma occurred in Stalkers life. And I answered  your sister was attacked, Grobler quietly says. Stalker immediately reacts with anger.

Thats not your place, Stalker shoots back. Grobler immediately apologizes but Stalker is not in a mindset to even hear her. Thats really f**ked up, Georgia, Stalker says becoming increasingly upset. Grobler agrees and adds thats why she told her.

Whenever I have an emotion, to have it be about my sister is so beyond f**ked up, Stalker says to Grobler. Im so done with this sh*t. My sister is not a thing. Its f**king bullsh*t. As Stalker rants, Grobler shrinks inward, appearing to be upset.

Grobler regrets that she shared the information

Stalker now seems devastated, feeling betrayed by the one person on the boat she truly trusted. Grobler tries to explain, telling Stalker she was trying to give the crew some insight into Stalkers reactions at dinner.

Stalker and Groblers discussion ends up becoming so loud, chief stew Jenna MacGillivray walks over to see what is happening. Stalker says the reason she was annoyed was the coupling on the boat, not her previous trauma. At this point, the entire fight is becoming a central focus as other crew members can hear Stalker reacting.

Although Grobler continues to apologize, Stalker reminds her it wasnt her place to share her personal pain with others. Oh, Im pissed off, Stalker says and walks away. She tries to explain and further apologize but Stalker is far too angry and annoyed to even hear her.

Grobler breaks down in tears

Grobler retreats saying that she cant understand why Stalker became so angry. However, Stalker says in a confessional that her trust has now been betrayed. Meanwhile, MacGillivray tries to comfort Stalker and empathizes with her. She suggests that Stalker take a break and then return to reassess.

I would have something weighing on me if I didnt actually just say what Ive done, Grobler says in a confessional as she tears up. If it was me, it would really f**king hurt. And I dont like that Im inflicting that on someone. Grobler seems devastated shes upset her friend and continues to sob in her confessional.

Finally, Stalker finds Grobler in the laundry room. Grobler apologizes again, adding that she feels humiliated to have been the idiot who upset her. Thankfully Stalker is ready to forgive and asks for a hug.

Below Deck Sailing Yacht is on Monday at 9/8c on Bravo.
The head of the Egyptian syndicate for Quran reciters and learners, Sheikh Mohamed Mahmoud El-Tablawy, died at his home in Menoufiya governorate on Tuesday at the age of 86 after a long illness.

Syndicate spokesman Mohamed El-Saaty said the funeral of the famous chanter will take place on Wednesday at his family's tomb in El-Basatin in southern Cairo.

Born on 14 November 1934, El-Tablawy memorised the whole Quran by the age of nine and became a professional reciter when he was 15.

He took nine successive tests to become a reciter on the radio and finally succeeded.

He went on to become one of the main Quran reciters in the country, performing at the most prestigious religious ceremonies, attended by successive presidents since the era of president Anwar Sadat.

El-Tablawy also released many versions of his recitation of the Quran in different official variants (qiraat).

The sheikh was a master in breathing techniques and had a musical ear, allowing him to move smoothly between different scales.

He is the only reciter to have gone inside the Kaaba in Mecca at the request of Saudi Arabias King Khaled bin Abdel-Aziz in order to recite the whole Quran.

He had visited many countries in the course of his career, and had been honoured numerous times for his contributions and talent.

He retired when he turned 84.

"One of the most outstanding icons of Quran readers. He will always remain in the hearts and mind of Muslims, with his sweet voice that urges contemplation of the verses of the Wise Quran," said the grand imam of Egypt's Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayyeb, in a statement.

Dar Al-Ifta and the Islamic Chanters Syndicate also released statements of condolence on his death.

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Chicago-based CCF is a leader in branded popcorn seasonings, a category it created in 2000 with the introduction of Kernel Season's , now America's No. 1 selling brand with more than 20 popcorn flavors. CCF has expanded into new food categories recently with brands that include Tasty Shakes oatmeal mix-ins and Veggie Season's vegetable seasonings. A new line of premium truffle-flavored popcorn seasonings, Truffle Season's, is set for release later this year.

Sauer Brands, a portfolio company of Charlotte, North Carolina-based private equity firm Falfurrias Capital Partners, will operate CCF as a separate business unit under the leadership of Jason Roy, CCF's current CEO and a 17-year veteran of the company. Roy will report to Sauer Brands CEO Martin Kelly.

"CCF has done a tremendous job growing the Kernel Season's brand, creating a culture of innovation and leveraging an impressive degree of merchandising savvy that we can learn from," said Bill Lovette, executive chairman of Sauer Brands Inc. "We are excited about adding another strong brand to our lineup and partnering with Jason and his team to grow the business through supply chain efficiencies and other synergies."

"I couldn't be prouder of the results our team has achieved in extending our market leadership in popcorn seasonings and developing new offerings for the hot cereal and fresh produce categories," said Roy. "We are excited about joining the Sauer Brands family and look forward to working with Bill and Martin to accelerate growth for all of our brands."

CCF's products are sold through more than 30,000 distribution points in the U.S. and internationally, including mass merchants, grocery stores and specialty retailers, as well as in movie theaters in 30 countries around the world. Its Kernel Season's brand has enjoyed strong sales as popcorn and other snack foods continue to gain favor with consumers.

"Kernel Season's is a great fit with the rest of the product portfolio and is in line with the Industry First packaged foods investment thesis that led to our initial investment in Sauer Brands," said Falfurrias Capital Partners principal Chip Johnson. "We continue to seek out opportunities to invest in strong, authentic brands with significant growth potential based on shifting consumer preferences and other durable trends."

About Chicago Custom Foods

Chicago Custom Foods, a business unit of Sauer Brands Inc., is a leader in branded seasonings including Kernel Season's popcorn seasonings, Tasty Shakes oatmeal add-ins, and Veggie Season's vegetable seasonings. Chicago Custom Foods sells to consumers at movie theaters and retailers, including mass merchants, grocery stores and specialty retailers throughout North America and internationally. For more information on Chicago Custom Foods, please visit www.kernelseasons.com.

About Sauer Brands Inc.

Founded as The C.F. Sauer Company in 1887, Richmond, Virginia-based Sauer Brands Inc. manufactures a broad line of inspired flavors including condiments, spices, seasonings and extracts. From the company's manufacturing facilities in Richmond, Virginia; Mauldin, South Carolina; New Century, Kansas; and San Luis Obispo, California, the company sells well-known brands such as Duke's Mayonnaise, The Spice Hunter, Sauer's, Gold Medal and BAMA, as well as high-quality private label products, through the retail and foodservice channels. Learn more at www.sauerbrands.com.

About Falfurrias Capital Partners

Falfurrias Capital Partners is a Charlotte-based private equity investment firm founded in 2006 by Hugh McColl Jr., former chairman and CEO of Bank of America; Marc Oken, former CFO of Bank of America; and Managing Partner Ed McMahan. The firm is focused on acquiring or investing in a diverse portfolio of growth-oriented middle-market companies. By leveraging the extensive strategic and operational experience and business relationships of the firm's principals, Falfurrias Capital Partners is positioned to be a value-added partner for both its portfolio companies and its limited partners. Learn more at www.falfurriascapital.com.

SOURCE Falfurrias Capital Partners

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BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - Despite data showing consumer confidence in the country hitting a historic low, the Switzerland stock market ended on a firm note on Tuesday, as several countries across Europe relaxed shutdown restrictions and reopened some businesses.



The benchmark SMI ended up 121.90 points, or 1.3%, at 9,512.17, after staying positive right through the session.



Alcon, the top gainer in the SMI, moved up 5.2%. Novartis, Sika, Richemont and Nestle gained 2 to 2.4%, while ABB ended nearly 2% up.



Geberit, UBS Group, Lonza Group, Givaudan, Roche Holding and Zurich Insurance Group also ended on a firm note, while Credit Suisse ended nearly 1% down.



In the midcap section, Vifor Pharma soared more than 8%. Straumann Holding gained 5.1% and Sonova ended 4.4% up.



AMS, BB Biotech, Partners Group, Temenos Group, Swiss Prime Site and Lindt & Sp Ps surged up 2 to 3.7%. VAT Group ended nearly 2% up.



Clariant, Dorma Kaba Holding, Bucher Industries, Julius Baer and Georg Fischer also ended with strong gains.



Kuehne & Nagel International said it signed a five-year contract with Leonardo, an aerospace, defence and security industries company. The stock gained about 0.65%.



Dufry declined more than 7%. Helvetia and Baloise Holding ended lower by 1.4% and 0.9%, respectively.



Swiss consumer confidence reached a historic low in April amid coronavirus pandemic, survey results from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, or SECO, showed. The consumer sentiment index fell to -39 in April from -9 points in January. The preliminary reading was -40.



The survey showed that coronavirus is dampening expectations regarding general economic development and unemployment. The indicator for future economic situation plunged to -78.3 from -7.1.



Respondents were getting ready for tough times in terms of their own financial situation. The index for past financial situation improved to -7.2 from -14.2, while expectations deteriorated to -23.6 from -8.0.



The major purchases index came in at -48.0 versus -8.3 in the preceding period.



Data from the Federal Statistical Office showed Switzerland's consumer prices declined the most in over four years in April, decreasing 1.1% year-on-year, following a 0.5% fall in March. Economists had expected a 0.8% decline.



On a monthly basis, consumer prices fell 0.4% in April, after a 0.1% rise in the previous month. Economists had expected a 0.1% decline.



The monthly decline was driven by falling prices for air transport, hotel accommodation and petroleum products. In contrast, prices for vegetables and clothing increased, the agency reported.



The core CPI fell 0.5% annually in April and declined 0.2% from the previous month.



The EU measure of harmonized index of consumer prices rose 0.1% percent monthly in April and fell 0.1% from the previous year.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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Sharon Arkell and her husband booked a trip to Europe in the middle of last year and were due to fly out on their dream holiday on May 11.

However, like hundreds of thousands of others whose travel plans are in tatters because of the coronavirus pandemic, they are left scrambling to salvage as much of the travel costs as they can.

Sharon Arkell would have preferred a refund for her cancelled fights, but reluctantly decided to take vouchers. Credit:Joe Armao

"I know it is a bit of a first-world problem to be complaining about these things in the midst of the coronavirus, but it's not right that customers are left out of pocket," Sharon says.

"Nobody's cancelled because of a change of mind; Australians are effectively banned from travelling," says the 56-year-old Melburnian, who works in financial services.
Bhubaneswar, May 5 : The Odisha government has decided to formulate a model policy to resolve the problems faced by industries due to the COVID-19 lockdown, said an official on Tuesday.

It was decided at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on COVID-19 situation in the state.

Discussions will be held regarding the problems faced by the industries with Chamber of Indian Industries, Indian Chamber of Commerce and Banks as early as possible, said the official.

Talks have already been started to attract more investments from Japan, Korea, and USA.

Meanwhile, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Pradeep Jena said the government has issued necessary orders to facilitate hassle-free inter-district movement of workers.

Normal labour intensive works will continue in both rural and urban areas of the districts and Municipal Corporations coming under Green and Orange Zones, he said.

Also all sorts of labour intensive works are permitted in the rural areas of the districts and Municipal Corporations under Red Zone.

Construction works in urban and Municipal Corporations areas under Red Zone will be carried on if required number of workers are available in those areas. In such urban areas under Red Zone, workers from outside shall not be permitted, said Jena.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 22:07:12|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Kenya is in the final stages of linking Chinese-built modern railway to an older line in the agriculture-rich central region to ensure commodities are easily transported to the Port of Mombasa for export, senior Kenya Railways Corporation official confirmed on Tuesday.

The plan involves about 240 kilometers, linking the old meter gauge railway line from the Nanyuki town to the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) in the capital Nairobi.

"The rehabilitation of the old railway line is in the final stages. It should be operational by June 2020," said Phillip Mainga, the managing director of the Kenya Railways Corporation.

The Kenya Railways Corporation official told Xinhua that the plan is to upgrade the current railway line from a 50-pound-load type, which is only capable of carrying three light locomotives, to 80-pound-load so that a single train can carry about 1,400 tons of goods.

The meter gauge traverses across the central Kenya region, which is a top producer of coffee, tea, flowers, vegetables, pineapples and macadamia nuts, some of Kenya's top agriculture exports, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.

Kenya is the world's leading producers of black teas, according to the World Bank. And its coffee, grown in the highlands, is used to blend other coffees because of its high quality, according to International Coffee Organization.

Ndiritu Muriithi, Governor of Laikipia County, where the meter gauge line starts in Nanyuki town, confirmed that train engines and locomotives have arrived in town to make final repairs to the old railway line that has been dormant for about two decades now.

"Road transport has been the only alternative mode of transport in this region for over two decades now, for bulky agricultural cargo as well as commercial goods such as oil," said Governor Muriithi.

The revival of the old meter gauge railway line, which collapsed in the early 1990s, will bring back to life the former "railway towns" in the central region of Kenya which had literally collapsed because of the lack of train services.

The initiative is part of taking advantage of the modern and efficient Mombasa-Suswa SGR that was built by Chinese companies to improve the overall movement of good and people. Enditem
India has sent three naval ships to evacuate its citizens stranded in the Maldives and UAE due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a defence spokesperson said in the early hours on Tuesday.

Image used only for representation.

INS Jalashwa deployed off Mumbai coast, along with INS Magar, diverted for Maldives on Monday night, he said.

While INS Shardul diverted to Dubai to evacuate the expatriates, the spokesperson added.

The three ships will return to Kochi, he said.

INS Magar and INS Shardul are Southern Naval Command ships, while INS Jalashwa is from Eastern Naval Command.
By Express News Service

VELLORE: Around 11,000 people from various states continue to be stranded in Vellore district and have been frequently thronging the collectorate at Sathuvachari demanding that their return journey be expedited.

The home states of the stranded people are working out arrangements to facilitate their return, Vellore SP Pravesh Kumar told The New Indian Express on Tuesday.

We have nothing to do with arranging the transportation facility. It is the responsibility of the home states, Pravesh Kumar noted, adding, "Our role stops with screening the stranded persons before boarding."

About 9,000 patients and their kin who visited CMC Hospital and 2100 migrant workers have been stranded in Vellore district ever since the lockdown came into effect in March. Most of them are from north and northeastern states.

Recently, several patients and their attendants left for their home states after arranging ambulances and cabs.

However, the crew of the ambulances and cabs ran into trouble as they were blocked by local authorities in Odisha and Jharkhand. They were allowed to go only after the Tamil Nadu government had intervened and took up the matter with the state governments.

The Vellore district administration had instructed the owners of lodges/mansions not to oust them for not paying the rental charges. The district authorities, earlier, declared that the district administration would bear 25 per cent, the owners of the lodges/mansions another 25 per cent of the costs while the home states of the stranded people must bear the remaining 50 per cent.

However, a man went to the Madras High Court challenging the order and the court had issued a stay on it.
It was appropriate that during the week in which we commemorated the 100th anniversary of the San Remo Conference, Israelis and Americans were discussing the Israeli governments declared intention to annex large portions of occupied Palestinian lands. As was the case at San Remo, the arguments made and the language used by the parties to this discussion were deeply upsetting, demonstrating no respect for the victims of their designs  the Palestinian Arab people.

One of the purposes of San Remo was to ratify British and French claims to divide up the Arab East, which they saw as the spoils of World War I. It made no difference to them that the Arab inhabitants of the region opposed their imperial ambitions. Nor did they care to honour the agreements they had previously signed with Arab leaders in which they claimed to respect the Arabs right to independence at the wars end. The signed agreements had been but a ruse to secure Arab support against the Ottoman Empire. And with the war over, the British representative said, in Palestine, we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the desire and prejudices of the Arabs who inhabit that ancient land.

Masking their real intent to control territories that would give them footholds in the Eastern Mediterranean, the participants at San Remo declared that the Arabs were not ready for self-rule and so would require British and French tutelage. The result was that the Arab East was carved up into Lebanon and Syria, which became French Mandates, and Palestine and Trans-Jordan, which were placed under British control, with the British pledging to honour their commitment to support a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

By what right were these decisions made? On the one hand, the justification was the imperialists right of conquest. Underlying this claim, however, was a deep and abiding racism that viewed Arabs as a lower form of humanity not deserving of the same consideration accorded to Westerners.

One hundred years later, much the same is in evidence in the discussion over Israels plans to annex occupied Palestinian lands. And it is true for most of the American sides involved in this discussion  the Trump administration and the foreign policy establishment.

For its part, the Trump administration issued its own updated version of San Remo, calling it the Deal of the Century. They recognised Israels right of conquest, giving them the nod to annex large portions of the lands Israel occupied in 1967. That the Deal was Israel-centric was no surprise, since it was concocted by three US administration officials invested in an illegal West Bank settlement.

Like San Remo, the Deal declared that the Arabs werent ready for statehood, so it didnt recognise their sovereign rights. Instead, it laid out specific terms and conditions they must fulfill before they are to be allowed to practise a form of limited self-rule in portions of the West Bank.

Which parts of the territories could Israel annex? According to the Deal, that would be decided by a US-Israeli map-making committee, once again replicating the San Remo Conferences arrogant contempt for Arab rights. In the end, however, the decision on what to include would be, in the words of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, an Israeli decision.

The way Israels annexation plans are being discussed by Washingtons foreign policy establishment isnt much better. While most in that establishment are opposed to Israel annexing the occupied territories, their reasoning is oftentimes disturbingly Israel-focused. Largely made up of former administration officials, whose failures have brought us to where we are today, or media commentators who have had a dismal record on Middle East issues, this foreign policy crowd are wringing their hands in nervous anticipation of annexation, but for all the wrong reasons. The rhetoric they have been using to express their concerns displays a total lack of understanding of their responsibility for the current state of affairs, coupled with a strong undercurrent of racism.

A featured opinion piece in The Washington Post by that papers prize-winning Jackson Diehl, serves as a good example. The article, headlined Trump now has the power to forever alter Israels character, establishes from the outset that the concern was about annexations effect on Israel.

There are, it appears, two major concerns. Annexation will aggravate Israels future relations with a post-Trump United States. It would alienate liberals and put bipartisan support for Israel at risk. The other major concern is that annexation would compromise the establishment of a two-state solution in which Israel can remain a Jewish democratic State. Heres Diehl: If there is no Palestine, Israel will be doomed to become a binational state rather than a Jewish one, or else adopt an apartheid system in which millions of Palestinians are ruled by Israel but lack full political rights.

There are several observations to be made in pointing out where this analysis falls short. In the first place, it ignores the fact that apartheid already is the current reality for Palestinians living under varying forms of oppressive Israeli rule in Gaza, East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank. Despite having a Palestinian Authority, Israel continues to conduct nightly raids into Palestinian cities, confiscate Arab-owned lands and stifle Palestinian freedom and economic development by controlling all access and egress for Palestinians.

It also fails to recognise the hypocrisy of claiming that Israel can ever be both Jewish and democratic  a fact brought home by the racist campaign waged by Benjamin Netanyahu against the recently elected 15 members of Israels Knesset from the Arab-led Joint List. This incitement took the form of Netanyahus claim that should his opponents have established a government with Arab support, it would be an illegitimate minority government.

What the foreign policy establishment also fails to acknowledge is their responsibility for this mess. Their acquiescence, in and out of government, to Israeli settlement expansion, and their silence in the face of Israels gross violations of Palestinian human rights, are the reasons why there are 650,000 settlers in the West Bank and what Israel calls East Jerusalem  more than triple the number that existed when the current peace process began. Past administrations failures to take effective measures to rein in these Israeli policies have created a sense of impunity, helping to move Israeli politics to where it is today. They have also contributed to weakening and discrediting Palestinian leadership, leading to a dysfunctional situation in the Palestinian polity.

So spare me the crocodile tears or the nervous hand-wringing over the lost prospects of a two-state solution. That might have been possible 30 years ago, if the terms of the Oslo Accords had been honoured. They were ignored because Israels refusal to honour these terms was not punished by the US honest broker. What we have today is one state  an Apartheid state  with slightly more Arabs than Jews living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Nor will we see the fulfillment of the Deal of the Century since that holds no promise for the Palestinians who will not accept a future as a people who will be permanently subordinate to Israel.

This is the reality created over the past 100 years since San Remo. And it will continue to be the reality until Palestinians are seen by Israeli Jews and US policymakers as equal human beings with full rights.

The writer is president of the Arab American Institute.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 7 May, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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The Delhi BJP on Tuesday said the AAP government's decision to hike VAT on diesel and petrol will negatively impact people, especially poor and farmers, already facing problems during the lockdown and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari demanded Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to withdraw the VAT (value-added tax) hike, saying it will lead to rise in the prices of essential items.

"It's pure injustice by the Kejriwal government. The Delhi BJP demands him to withdraw the hike because things like foodgrains, vegetables and other items of daily consumption will become costlier due to it," Tiwari said.

Petrol price in the national capital was hiked by Rs 1.67 a litre on Tuesday and diesel by a steep Rs 7.10 per litre after the Delhi government raised local sales tax or VAT) on the two fuels.

Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said the hike in VAT will negatively impact the people, especially poor, farmers, middle class and transporters.

"The VAT on petrol and diesel in the Arvind Kejriwal regime in Delhi in the past 5-6 years has been hiked by 2.5 times and 1.5 times, respectively. No other state in the country has caused such a high increase in VAT," Bidhuri said in a statement.

He said Kejriwal should withdraw the hike since it was "against the people of Delhi" who were already facing problems due to the lockdown and the COVID-19 epidemic.

East Delhi BJP MP Gautam Gambhir took a dig at the AAP government, saying its economics is unmatched, referring to various schemes like free water and power supply promised by the ruling party before the assembly polls in February this year.

"Before elections - we will give everything free, there is no lack of money. Two moths later - impose two times tax, there is no money even for salaries. Unmatched economics of the AAP," Gambhir tweeted Hindi.

With the fresh hike in VAT, petrol in Delhi now costs Rs 71.26 a litre as against Rs 69.59 previously, oil industry sources said.

Diesel price has been hiked to Rs 69.39 per litre from Rs 62.29.

This follows the Delhi government's decision to raise VAT on petrol to 30 per cent from 27 per cent, previously. Incase of diesel, VAT has been almost doubled to 30 per cent from 16.75 per cent.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The leaders of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Greens said they have agreed to start formal negotiations for a programme for government this week.

Micheal Martin, Leo Varadkar and Eamon Ryan held discussions on Tuesday morning to outline the negotiations process on a programme for government.

The negotiations are expected to go on for a few weeks.

The Greens have said a 7% annual reduction in carbon emissions is a red line issue for them entering into a coalition government.

Speaking after the meeting on Tuesday morning, Mr Ryan that the leaders of the two parties have committed to 7% carbon cuts.

Its important for the country and important for the people that there is a way out of the current crisis we are in, he said.

Its really hitting people hard. For the Green Party, it was helpful at the weekend we got further clarification with regard to one of the questions we asked of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael in response to their framework document around the issue of climate change.

It was saying that all parties are committed to reducing emission  we need to follow that and go for 7% reduction in emissions.

That can and will be good for our country, that it is going to be good for every part of our country, that it is an area where we can create a lot of quality new jobs, and critically we have to bring social justice with it.

We can and will be good at that in this country.

Mr Ryan also produced a document he received from Fianna Fail and Fine Gael which states that the parties will commit to developing measures to achieve an average of 7% reduction in annual emissions for the next decade.

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But the negotiation is going to be more than that, it has to encompass the wide gambit of everything the government has to do, he added.

Mr Ryan said the meeting was about the logistics around timetables and structures and teams.

I think one of the things I am really pleased with is we are going to involve our parliamentary parties right the way through, he added.

It was mainly talking about the structures and mechanisms and the logistics so it was a good working meeting setting out those broad arrangements.

My preference would be to try and get this done by the end of the month. It will take a bit of time to go through the postal ballot but I think the Irish public will expect this to be done in a matter of weeks and not longer and I share that.
Saturdays interim lightweight title fight between Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje at UFC 249 is as cant miss of a fight as there has ever been in the UFC. Gaethje has won seven post-fight bonuses in six career bouts in the UFC, while Ferguson has been in the Fight of the Night in five of his last six bouts.

Anyone who even marginally follows the sport knows that Ferguson-Gaethje is likely to be an all-timer.

Yet, strangely, most interesting is the heavyweight bout on the undercard between Francis Ngannou and Jairzinho Rozenstruik, which should determine who is next in line for a title shot after Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier complete their trilogy.

Ngannou just might be the hardest puncher in the history of the UFC. If he is, Rozenstruik is certainly up there close to him.

Often when there is a heavy puncher, we see him matched with someone with a contrasting style. But in this fight, its power versus power for as long as the fight lasts.

There is no such thing as a sure thing in fighting, and I was among those in 2018 saying that the Ngannou-Derrick Lewis was as close to a sure thing as it gets. Yet, that bout turned out to be a complete dud.

But while Lewis is a KO artist, his game is a lot more diverse.

Since that awful bout with Lewis, Ngannou has scored three consecutive first-round knockouts. He finished Curtis Blaydes in 45 seconds on Nov. 24, 2018, in Beijing. He followed that with a 26-second knockout of ex-champion Cain Velasquez on Feb. 17, 2019, and then KOd ex-champion Junior dos Santos in 71 seconds on June 29.

Impressive.

Francis Ngannou holds a 14-3 professional MMA record with 10 wins coming via knockout. (Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

Rozenstruiks performances have been nearly as impressive. Hes 10-0 with nine KOs in his MMA career and is coming off a last-second finish of Alistair Overeem on Dec. 7 with just four seconds remaining in the fifth round. He was going to lose by decision until landing a blow that grossly split Overeems lip.

Rozenstruik opened 2019 on Feb. 7 in his UFC debut with a head-kick KO of Junior Albini at 54 seconds of the second round. He followed that with a nine-second KO of Allen Crowder on June 22 and a 29-second KO of ex-champion Andrei Arlovski on Nov. 2 at UFC 244.

Story continues

So this one figures to go to the guy who lands the first big shot.

Ngannou showed against Velasquez that his power is so great, he doesnt even need to land flush.

Ngannou appears to be in magnificent shape, but he told MMA Fighting that hed struggled mentally with the ups-and-downs of not knowing if, or when, hed get to fight because of the coronavirus pandemic.

It made it hard to push himself in training.

Right now, after three cancellations, its very tough to be confident about something, Ngannou said. You just hope, cross your fingers and hopefully that happens. But you dont know exactly. The reality is that things are not what they were before. You just have to make it work somehow. I think we are all going through this. This is not especially for you. So all the fighters are dealing with this.

Maybe someone has a better way of dealing with this, or they adjusted very fast, [but] everyone has to go through this. Its awkward, its weird, its not the best conditions that you would like to be in, but at the end of the day, its still some sort of challenge that you can take, so you take it.

Rozenstruik isnt yet the big name in the sport that Ngannou is, so hes hungry to use the opportunity to beat Ngannou to seal his reputation.

He knows what he is in for and hes vowed to put on a show.

Im going to make this one of the best fights of 2020, he told BJPenn.com. Im going to get a knockout win. I have to. Thats the only thing that counts. I have trained so hard, I have to win this fight. Ill KO him in the second round. But dont be surprised if I knock him out in the first.

The winner of the bout should not only get a title shot, but figures to earn the title of Scariest Man in the Sport. There are a number of fearsome fighters in the UFC, and Ferguson has carved the faces of opponent after opponent like a Halloween pumpkin, but that ability to end a fight with a single, thudding, crushing shot is something nobody is better at than Ngannou and Rozenstruik.

If this card lives up to its potential, it could be one of the best the UFC ever staged.

Something tells me, though, that no matter what happens on the rest of the card, the Ngannou-Rozenstruik bout is going to be one were talking about on Sunday, and for a long time after that.

More UFC 249 coverage from Yahoo Sports:
New Delhi: The Delhi police cyber cell group on Tuesday was successful in tracking the teenage boys who were accused of planning gang rapes and making derogatory remarks on girls in an Instagram private chat group named 'Bois locker room'.

Nearly 20 boys were part of the group in which they shared pictures of minor girls and commented on their body parts. The teenage boys are students of schools located in South Delhi.

The Delhi police has seized their mobile phone and further investigation is underway.

A case was filed against the group under IT Act 66 and 67A and Delhi Police has already started investigating the matter.

Taking notice of the incident, Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal on Monday (May 4, 2020) issued notices to the Delhi Police as well as Instagram. The commission also asked Instagram to share important information such as user IDs and locations of each group member, and its administrators.

Swati Maliwal took to Instagram and wrote, "DCW has issued notice to Instagram and Delhi Police in the matter of a group named "boys locker room" being used by some miscreants to share objectionable pictures of minor girls and planning illegal acts such as gangrape of minor girls. All the people involved in this act should be immediately arrested and a strong message needs to be given out."

The matter came into light after a Delhi based girl leaked screenshots of the group chat on Instagram and Twitter after which social media was flooded with posts demanding strict action against the boys.
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Linkedin Dimas Muhamad (The Jakarta Post) Cambridge, Massachusetts  Tue, May 5, 2020 11:24 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd5fd155 3 Opinion COVID-19,pandemic,industry,industrial-revolution,ventilator,test-kits,Research-and-Development,imports Free

Notwithstanding the heated discourse on how Indonesia should curb the COVID-19 outbreak, everyone concurs that one of the most daunting challenges we face is a severe lack of testing. Indonesia has only carried out 0.17 test per 1,000 people. That figure is lower than that of our neighbors including Malaysia (3.29), Vietnam (1.6) and Thailand (0.6).



This unacceptably low rate is due to the fact that we are overly reliant on imported testing kits, particularly polymerase chain reaction (PCR) reagents. Skyrocketing global demand and export restrictions imposed by some countries make it more difficult for us to import critical supply. In addition to testing kits, we also depend heavily on the import of ventilators, which will be increasingly important as the virus continues to spread.



Indonesias plight in acquiring test kits and ventilators should not have occurred according to the globalization orthodoxy that holds we can easily import anything in the borderless world. After all, the sacrosanct dogma of globalization is comparative advantage, the notion that countries should only produce what they are relatively most efficient at and import what they are not.



Accordingly, the traditional prescription holds, Indonesia should not delude itself and attempt to produce more advanced products. We should just stick to producing what we are good at, such as palm oil, and we should import more sophisticated products such as ventilators.



Some are skeptical of this doctrine because many fast-growing economies, such as the East Asian juggernauts, did not conform to this laissez-faire zeal when they were catching up. They, instead, resorted to various heretical industrial policies.



The crisis has demonstrated that overreliance on foreign imports and weak domestic productive capacity do not only create an economic predicament, they can be a matter of life and death.



So what does this all mean? First, we should distinguish between short term and long term reforms. In the short run, with our limited industrial capacity, there is not much wiggle room for changes. In order to meet our emergency supply needs we have to try to import the test kits and ventilators from abroad.



However, in the medium to long run, we cannot sustain a status quo that perpetuates excessive reliance on imports, even when it comes to strategic supply.



First, we should earnestly set the revival of our domestic industrial capacity as an utmost national priority. We have grand plans such as Making Indonesia 4.0, but we continue to suffer from premature deindustrialization as the share of manufacturing in our economy shrinks to less than 20 percent. This has to change.



In revitalizing our nations industry, we have two parallel paths: the foreign investment and the domestic firm tracks. On the first track, we need to attract the right kind of investments, and doing so may necessitate flouting some conventional norms.



We should consider unorthodox measures such as local content requirements that would compel foreign advanced companies not only to invest in Indonesia but also to strengthen the capacity of our domestic firms by building domestic linkages.



China extensively utilized this policy in the past by leveraging the size of its market. We should consider doing the same thing. If major companies want to tap into Indonesias behemoth consumer market, then they can do so by raising our domestic firms productivity.



While on the first track we should learn from China, on the second one we should heed the lessons of South Korea and Taiwan, which grew rapidly by supporting and protecting their own domestic firms. Indonesia can explore this track, especially considering that we have several productive firms with vast potential. For instance, we have Bio Farma, which with the right support can help us weather subsequent pandemics.



To this end, we can capitalize on our planned sovereign wealth fund, which has attracted billions of dollars of commitments from various corners. Instead of merely financing our infrastructure projects, such as the construction of our new capital city, we should also harness the fund as a smart development bank that can offer favorable long-term lending for the strategic expansion of our firms. The fund can also invest in new start-ups that attempt to employ new technology.



The government may not be able to unilaterally pick winners. Thus, the government must collaborate with the private sector to identify strategic sectors that warrant greater support and also to rectify some possible policy failures. In 2018, the government announced a plan to establish a national industrial committee (KINAS) as a public-private platform on policy deliberation. We need to operationalize this plan.



The COVID-19 pandemic is devastating, but at least it offers a wake-up call on how the status quo is untenable. We were caught off guard by this pandemic, but if we have stronger productive capacity when another crisis strikes, we will be better equipped to aid our distressed compatriots instead of being entirely dependent on help from abroad.

______

Master in Public Policy candidate at Harvard Kennedy School with a focus on trade and industrial policy

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
The number of children in the United States showing signs of this new syndrome  which first was detected in Europe last month  is still small. None are known to have died, and many have responded well to treatment.

No solid data yet exists about how many children in the United States have fallen ill with what doctors are calling pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome.

This is really only a disease that has been clear for two weeks now, so there is so much were trying to learn about this, the chief of pediatric critical care at Cohen Childrens, Dr. James Schneider, said in an interview on Tuesday.

Doctors say this condition does not seem to be driven by the virus attacking the lungs, a hallmark of coronavirus infection in adults.

While some of the children with this condition do end up with respiratory problems and a few have needed to be on ventilators, it seems to be less a lung-specific disease, said Dr. Steven Kernie, chief of pediatric critical care medicine at Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Childrens Hospital, which has treated between 10 and 20 children with the condition, ranging from infants to older teenagers.
The Kogi State Government has alleged plans to import cases of coronavirus into the state through illicit means.

The government also said the plan is part of an unholy conspiracy to declare COVID-19 in all states of the federation.

It alleged there were recent pressures from some interesting quarters for Kogi State to find and declare cases of the disease.

It did not elaborate on those behind the alleged conspiracy.

A statement on Tuesday by the states commissioner for information, Kingsley Fanwo, alleged attempts to import the disease or declare fictitious cases.

The North-central state, surrounded by states with confirmed cases of the virus is engrossed in battle of wits with federal officials over its claim of having no case of the virus.

The government, in an earlier statement said it will not manufacture cases to satisfy the expectations of unnamed health officials.

Controversy

Reacting to a controversy over a case of an expatriate with a suspected case of the COVID-19 infection, the state government said it had doubts about the patients demand for COVID-19 test.

The demand, according to the official statement, was suspicious because the said lady confessed that she had stopped feeling the initial symptoms and her temperature was at a healthy 36.8C.

The government concluded that the case does not fit into the spectrum of criteria set by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for actual or suspected CoviD-19 cases requiring testing.

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In view of the fact that Kogi State is one of only two states still COVID-19 free in Nigeria and having regard to recent pressures from some interesting quarters for Kogi State to find and declare cases of the disease, we are wary of an unholy conspiracy to declare COVID-19 in all states of the federation.

Nobody has been tested for the virus in Kogi.

Read full text of the statement below:

KOGI STATE GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA

PRESS STATEMENT

MAY 4, 2020.

UPDATE ON THE CASE OF AN EXPATRIATE WHO FEARED SHE HAD COVID-19 IN KOGI STATE

1. Background

A distress call from an expatriate working with an international organization in Kogi State who suspected that she had symptoms similar to those associated with COVID-19 had generated widespread speculation and it is therefore pertinent that we set the records straight.

2. Determination

The case does not fit into the spectrum of criteria set by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for actual or suspected CoviD-19 cases requiring testing.

3. Facts

1. The expatriate, an adult female, sent message to the Kogi State COVID-19 Squadron Committee, expressing fears that she was exhibiting symptoms similar to those of COVID-19.

2. Immediately the message was received, the Incident Manager who is also the Kogi State Commissioner for Health, Dr Saka Haruna, led a team of medical experts to assess the situation with a bid to ascertaining if the alleged symptoms fit into the criteria set by the National Centre for Disease Control for CoviD-19 testing.

3. Upon arrival at the residence of the expatriate, she narrated to the team in an interview captured on video how the symptoms she earlier communicated in her phone call had disappeared.

4. The Incident Officer still went ahead to take her temperature using the recommended infrared thermometer and her temperature was at a healthy 36.8C.

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5. The temperature readings fell totally within normal range and she did not exhibit any of the other symptoms which by the latest NCDC guidelines ought to have paired her nonexistent fever to necessitate further tests for COVID-19.

6. Curiously, the said individual still insisted that her case be escalated to the NCDC for CoviD-19 testing.

4. Statement of Intent

1. The Kogi State Government is genuinely suspicious of the motive behind her insistence, especially as we strongly suspect there are attempts to import the disease or declare fictitious cases in Kogi State.

2. In view of the fact that Kogi State is one of only two states still CoviD-19 free in Nigeria and having regard to recent pressures from some interesting quarters for Kogi State to find and declare cases of the disease, we are wary of an unholy conspiracy to declare COVID-19 in all states of the federation.

1. It is therefore pertinent to note that while the Kogi State Government will never conceal any real case of the novel coronavirus disease if it occurs in the state, she will adhere strictly to NCDC guidelines to vehemently resist all attempts to manufacture false figures or cases of COVID-19 in Kogi State.

2. The great people of Kogi State have shown admirable resilience and a strong sense of responsibility since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out and we urge them to continue observing the recommended personal, environmental and respiratory hygiene protocols as recommended by both international and national regulatory authorities.

3. We assure all Kogites that His Excellency, Governor Yahaya Bello and his team take seriously indeed the duty to safeguard them from all threats to their health and will continue to safeguard them from all diseases, including COVID-19, Lassa Fever and other ailments.

Signed: Kingsley Fanwo

Hon. Commissioner for Information and Communication
The government on Tuesday announced relaxation for funerals during the Covid-19 pandemic.

To maintain social distancing, gathering of not more than 50 people are allowed at wedding functions and not more than 20 people in the last rites of deceased persons, Punya Salila Srivastava, joint secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA said at the governments daily briefing on Covid-19.

On March 15, the Union health ministry in its guidelines had said that large gatherings at the crematorium/ burial ground should be avoided as a social distancing measure as it is possible that close family contacts may be symptomatic and/ or shedding the virus.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage.

In many cases of Covid-19 casualties, a maximum of five people were allowed to attend funerals.

At Tuesdays briefing, the government also said it will be the responsibility of employers to ensure that employees of offices that are operational to register on Aarogya Setu app to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

The offices that are operational now must ensure thermal scanning of employees. The in-charge must ensure sufficient availability of masks and sanitisers. Social distancing norms must be followed. Employees must be registered on Aarogya Setu app and it will be the responsibility of the head of the organisation to ensure it, said Punya Salila Srivastava, joint secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

The Aarogya Setu app helps users identify whether they are at risk of the Covid-19 infection and provides important information, including ways to avoid coronavirus.

The Congress has opposed the governments decision to make the Aarogya Setu app mandatory for all employees and said that it raises serious privacy issues.
The Petrapole land port



authorities are trying to hold talks with local people and the state government in order to resume Indo-Bangladesh trade, which was stopped on May 2 after two days of operation following protests by local people, officials said on Tuesday.

Villagers are afraid that truck drivers and labourers might spread coronavirus infection when they return from Benapole, located on the other side of the border and has been affected by the disease, they said.

Trade between the two neighbours via this land port in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district has been in deadlock over various issues including quarantine norms after India imposed the nationwide lockdown from March 25. According to rules, truckers have to go on a 14-day quarantine once they return from another country.

The trade had resumed on April 30, after a solution was worked out that no truck from either country would cross the border, and goods would be unloaded at the no mans land. If a truck does not enter another country, there is no question of quarantine for the drivers and helpers.

"However, local people demand that as long as the lockdown is in place, trucks should not enter even the no man's land. They are afraid that resumption of trade might spread the infection," an official of the land port said.

Only 15 trucks from the Indian side could unload goods at the no man's land from April 30 to May 1, and the trade came to a halt on May 2, they said.

"The customs department has sent a report to the Centre. Till now there is no information of any proposed meeting with the local administration and the villagers. Efforts are on to sit for talks with the state administration and locals to chalk out an amicable solution," the official said.

Local people have put up road blockades on Sunday and Monday on a road linking to the Petrapole border demanding immediate suspension of export activities.

The blockade was withdrawn after police assured the protesters that the matter would be taken up with the administration.

Around 2,100 trucks are stranded in and around Petrapole border with essential and non-essentials cargo for Bangladesh. Most of these trucks are ferrying consignments of onions as it is in huge demand in Bangladesh during the period of Ramzan.

The local panchayat run by the Trinamool Congress is of opinion that Benapole, the corresponding place in Bangladesh, has been seriously affected by Covid-19 and export activities could lead to spread of the contagion to this side of the border.

"Anyone could be a carrier. How do you know who is COVID positive or not? It is better that trade remain suspended till this pandemic is over," a local TMC leader said.

Petrapole is about 80 kilometres from Kolkata. On a normal day, 500-550 trucks cross the border there from India and about 100-150 come from Bangladesh.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Syracuse, N.Y.  A woman had already climbed over the Bear Street bridge overlooking Interstate 81 South in Syracuse when two Syracuse police officers arrived Monday evening.

Officers James Pastorello and Joseph Tolone saw the woman standing on the bridge, over the ledge  about to fall into traffic below, city police spokesman Sgt. Matthew Malinowski said.

To complicate matters, there was a high, chain-link fence that was between the (woman) and the officers, he said.

The officers rushed to the bridge, approached the woman and quickly grabbed her clothing through the chain-linked fence.

The woman was emotionally distressed and needed help, Malinowski said.

Additional police officers, Syracuse firefighters and American Medical Response (AMR) crews also responded. Police shut down all lanes of I-81 at Bear Street while they tried to help the woman.

The woman was trying to jump and struggled with the officers, Malinowski said.

At one point, the woman took her feet off the ledge. But Tolone and Pastorello kept holding on and kept her from falling onto the interstate below, Malinowski said.

Syracuse firefighters, meanwhile, set up a ladder on I-81, climbed up and rescued the woman, according to police.

Firefighters were able to save the women with the use of the ladder, Malinowski said.

AMR ambulance then took the woman to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse for treatment, officials said.

Traffic on I-81 reopened in both directions shortly after 6 p.m., about 20 minutes after multiple people began calling 911 to get the woman help, dispatchers said.

Have a tip or a story idea? Contact Catie OToole: cotoole@syracuse.com | text/call (315) 470-2134 | Twitter | Facebook
Over two dozen House Republicans have demanded that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) stop blocking the release of 53 witness interviews from his committees Trump-Russia probe.

Representative Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, and 27 other Republican lawmakers said in a Tuesday letter that the American people deserve to have transparency about why public figures such as Chairman Schiff continued to promote such wild accusations.

We understand now that Chairman Schiff is blocking the release of these transcripts. This news, if accurate, is disturbing  especially in light of Chairman Schiffs cries in 2019 for transparency regarding allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, the letter reads. For almost four years, prominent Democrat politicians and commentators alleged that President Trump colluded with Russia, with Chairman Schiff going as far as to say that he had direct evidence of collusion.

The House Intelligence Committee voted to release the interviews in September 2018, and a spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which conducted a review of the transcripts to proof for and redact classified information, told the Daily Caller on May 31, 2019, that the process would be completed very soon. But the transcripts have yet to be made public, with the Washington Examiner reporting that 43 of the 53 interviews have been declassified, while ODNI wants the other 10 transcripts to be reviewed by the White House as part of the declassification process  a move Schiff has blocked.

The Republicans state that short of full public disclosure, they still require access to this material for our ongoing oversight of the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation. On Monday, Jordan and Representative Mike Johnson (R., La.) asked FBI Director Christopher Wray to turn over all documents and communications related to the FBIs Crossfire Razor investigation of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn. The request comes days after the release of FBI notes that Republicans have argued prove Flynn was ensnared in a perjury trap.

More from National Review
MANZINI - The pavilions at Mavuso Trade and Exhibition Centre will be the next quarantine centre for COVID-19 positive patients.



In fact, senators visited the centre yesterday to view and discuss the possibility of upgrading the pavilions into a quarantine centre and they gave the proposal the green light.



According to an invitation which was sent to the senators on Sunday morning, inviting them to the meeting which started at 2:30pm yesterday, the Ministry of Health had noted that a greater number of COVID-19 positive people had mild sicknesses. Therefore, the ministry, which is worried about the capacity of Lubombo Referral Hospital, started looking for alternative isolation centres.



The ministry said the alternative quarantine centre would help ease the beds challenge for COVID-19 positive patients, who had moderate to severe sicknesses.



Options



As it weighed the options, the ministry considered using the pavilions at Mavuso Trade and Exhibition Centre. It said if the proposal was given the green light, the Eswatini Investment Promotion Authority (EIPA) would help to set up one of the pavilions so that government could see how it may work. Isaac Magagula, the Chairman of Senate Health Portfolio Committee, confirmed that as senators, they went to Mavuso Trade and Exhibition Centre yesterday to view the pavilions and discussed the proposal by the Ministry of Health. He said this was necessitated by the fact that the country was hit by COVID-19 and the number of confirmed cases was continuing to rise, as such there was a worry about the capacity of the Lubombo Referral Hospital.



The chairman said since the pavilions were not being utilised, the senators welcomed the idea of upgrading them into a quarantine centre for COVID-19 positive people with mild sicknesses. He said the modification would not be a complex thing, but like the partition which was done during trade fairs.



However, he said they were still going to consult with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade over the matter.

On the same note, the Minister of Health, Lizzie Nkosi, said they were demonstrating what it would be be like before they made proposals and necessary requests. She said they were also looking at other alternatives as well.



On another note, Magagula thanked the international community, the Republic of China (Taiwan) in particular, for assisting the country with equipment for fighting COVID-19.



It is worth noting that currently, the country has recorded 116 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 49 of them are admitted to the referral hospital, while 50 are under home care. At least 12 of the confirmed cases had been discharged after they recovered and there is only one death. The other four are new cases which were announced yesterday afternoon.
As businesses and individuals across the country continue to donate to coronavirus relief efforts as part of the #GivingTuesdayNow campaign, a Boston-based bank is stepping up.

Eastern Bank, which has already given $3 million in financial support to New England communities amid the COVID-19 pandemic, announced Tuesday it will be donating an additional $5 million to help vulnerable populations impacted by the public health crisis in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

On this #GivingTuesdayNow, were doing what we can to inspire support, share our thanks, and stand with the most vulnerable populations in our communities, Bob Rivers, CEO of the bank, said in a statement. As we all go through this COVID-19 crisis together, Eastern is providing relief to where its needed most locally and ensuring the people most impacted are not left behind."

The bank will be donating to organizations that support emergency child care centers, families with young children in need of aid, child care professionals, immigrants and refugees, homeless individuals, the elderly, domestic violence victims and people with mental health challenges, according to the companys statement.

Of the total $5 million, $2 million will go to aid to families as well as child care providers and workers who are in need, Eastern Bank said in its statement.

The remaining $3 million will support other vulnerable populations, the statement said. Organizations aiding immigrants and refugees are expected to receive $1 million, and the other $2 million will go to groups that support the homeless, domestic violence victims, older residents and people with mental health needs.

With the $8 million it has already pledged to donate, the banks annual community giving is expected to reach an all-time high of $14 million by the end of the year, the company said.

It takes a community of public and private partners working together to stave off the devastating and long-lasting impacts of this disease, and this philanthropic investment is intended to make a meaningful contribution to this effort, Rivers said.

As part of the Giving Tuesday campaign, businesses, nonprofit organizations and members of the public across the state have stepped up to contribute funds to aid those suffering amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The event is usually celebrated in November, but people throughout the world have decided to hold Giving Tuesday in May due to mounting financial concerns stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Worcester Together fund - a partnership between the city of Worcester, the Greater Worcester Community Foundation and the United Way of Central Massachusetts - has raised more than $5.8 million, and in Western Massachusetts, the Springfield Symphony Orchestra recently thanked the community for its generous giving.

Nike announced this week it would be donating 30,000 pairs of shoes to health systems and hospitals across the United States, and Dunkin launchd a program Tuesday that aims to help frontline medical workers dealing with traumatic stress.

Evidence of the impact of this virus outbreak on our neighbors, families, and small businesses is everywhere. And, we also see the resiliency, sheer will, and hope of people across our region as they band together to help one another," said Nancy Huntington Stager, CEO of the Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation. The need for assistance continues to grow, and we will continue to do whatever we can to give back.

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United Airlines Holdings Inc. will cut at least 30 percent of its managerial and administrative jobs when government restrictions lift in October, bracing for a prolonged travel slump in the age of Covid-19.

In addition to cutting the roughly 3,500 positions, the company will require that management and administrative employees take 20 days off without pay between May 16 and Sept. 30 to help pare costs, Kate Gebo, executive vice president of human resources, said in an internal memo Monday. Employees in non-operational roles will begin working a four-day week, and cash severance payments will end for managers who are laid off.

The cutbacks are the latest indication that there will be mass job losses in the U.S. airline industry when the federal governments $25 billion in payroll support runs out at the end of September. The coronavirus outbreak has prompted a decline of about 95 percent in U.S. airline passenger totals, and carriers are preparing for the risk of a protracted global recession that would further sap demand for flights.

Uniteds disclosure to office staff came two days after the airline notified roughly 4,500 pilots that it will displace them by shifting aircraft around its network and consolidating Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner and 777 jets at certain hubs, while flying only 767-300s and not the larger 767-400.

The changes mean that nearly half of Uniteds pilots will be transferring to different, mainly smaller aircraft with lower hourly pay rates. United also flagged the risk of involuntary furloughs in October.

We simply dont know what conditions will be like in the fall, Bryan Quigley, senior vice president of flight operations, wrote Monday in a memo to pilots. If conditions do not improve before October, we wont be able to avoid furloughs.

More than 100,000 workers at the four largest U.S. carriers already have taken voluntary leave, reduced hours or early retirement to reduce expenses.

Weve worked hard these past several years to build an incredible team and make investments in our business that differentiate us, Gebo said in the memo. But now we all have to expect that our world, and our airline, will not quickly return to where they were just a few months ago.

The job cuts will affect at least 30 percent of management and administrative staff, Gebo said, affecting a group that numbers about 11,500 employees. While some work areas will see deeper reductions than others, a United spokesman declined to say which areas will be chopped more deeply.

Most United management employees who will lose their jobs will be notified starting in July.

The reality we are faced with, especially heading into what would normally be our busiest time of year, is daunting to say the least, Gebo wrote.

The cutbacks in office staff were reported earlier by Reuters.

United has been far more aggressive than its U.S. rivals in signaling deep job cuts starting Oct. 1, a date that marks the end of the federal aid packages restrictions against mass layoffs. The Treasury Department has said airlines can use the payroll-support funds after Oct. 1, even if they commence job cuts.

Executives at the Chicago-based company have said repeatedly that they see little sales recovery for much of 2020, and that their top priority is to ensure the airlines existence through the crisis.

Other carriers, such as American Airlines Group Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc., have warned employees that the carriers will probably be forced to shrink to adjust to lower demand, but have been more circumspect on how deep the cuts will extend.

On May 1, United notified about 15,000 airport customer service and baggage employees that the company would shift full-time employees to 30-hour work weeks effective May 24. Their union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, has threatened legal action and urged members to protest with their Congressional representatives.

In a separate memo Monday, Chief Operations Officer Greg Hart urged employees in operating roles to seriously consider taking a voluntary separation from the company.

We recognize that this is painful news, Hart said. But it provides what we believe is the most accurate assessment of what lies ahead for our company.
Marshaj2020 via Wikimedia Commons

The British scientist known colloquially as Professor Lockdown, who pushed Prime Minister Boris Johnson to impose a nationwide lockdown, resigned on Tuesday after he defied social distancing guidelines to have a rendezvous with his married lover in his London home.

Professor Neil Ferguson, who had been praised for his expertise and guidance during the U.K.s coronavirus outbreak, allowed 38-year-old Antonia Staatswho is married with two childreninto his home at the same time he was publicly advising everyone else to adhere to strict guidelines banning couples from seeing each other if they didnt live together.

Ferguson, who is the head of the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London, had delivered stark warnings to Downing Street about how many people could die of the coronavirus if the government did not impose restrictions. His renowned work also reportedly informed government responses to coronavirus in the United States, France, and Germany.

I accept I made an error of judgment and took the wrong course of action, Ferguson told The Telegraph, which first reported on Fergusons ouster. I have therefore stepped back from my involvement in SAGE [the governments Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies]. I deeply regret any undermining of the clear messages around the continued need for social distancing to control this devastating epidemic. The government guidance is unequivocal, and is there to protect all of us.

The scientists lover reportedly made several trips to his home in March and April even though she admitted to her friends that her husband was experiencing symptoms of the coronavirus. Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jenny Harries and Health Secretary Matt Hancock informed the public one week before the lovers first reunion on March 30 that if the two halves of a couple are currently in separate households, ideally they should stay in those households.

According to The Telegraph, Staat and her husband are in an open marriage and Staat did not believe their actions to be hypocritical because she considers the households to be one.

Story continues

Ferguson has for years modeled the spread of major pathogen outbreaks such as swine flu and Ebola. He tested positive for the coronavirus on March 19 after speaking at a Downing Street press conference two days earlier. He recently completed two weeks of self-quarantine, according to The Telegraph.

This virus is probably the one that concerns me the most of everything Ive worked on, Ferguson said in a February 14 interview in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak.

The scientist had been on the forefront of the coronavirus fight in the U.K., frequently appearing in interviews to praise very intensive social distancing measures. Ferguson heads an Imperial College team that presented a staggering report to the government that projected more than 500,000 deaths in the UK without enforced restrictions.

Scientists like him have told us we should not be doing it, so surely in his case it is a case of we have been doing as he says and he has been doing as he wants to, said British Member of Parliament Iain Duncan Smith. He has peculiarly breached his own guidelines and for an intelligent man I find that very hard to believe. It risks undermining the government's lockdown message.

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DANBURY  Police are investigating the Monday morning crash on Main Street that resulted in two people  including a firefighter  being hospitalized with minor injuries.

Emergency personnel responded to the area of 120 Main Street around 12:07 a.m. Monday, after a car crashed in front of the Connecticut Institute for Communities.

Evidence in the vehicle suggests alcohol was involved, Detective Lt. Mark Williams said Tuesday morning.

Police said the vehicle had been heading north on Main Street when it struck the center median in front of St. Peter Church, crossed both northbound lanes and crashed into a railing and shrubbery at 120 Main Street.

Shortly after impact the engine compartment caught fire and was extinguished by responding officers, Williams said.

The driver was on the sidewalk when first responders arrived.

Danbury Fire Department spokesperson Jamie Gagliardo said the man removed himself from the vehicle and was transported to the hospital with minor injuries.

Shortly after fire department personnel arrived to assist, a second accident occurred, which involved one of the firemen being struck by an EMS vehicle at the scene, Williams said.

The firefighter sustained a minor foot injury after being bumped by the vehicle and was transported to Danbury Hospital, evaluated and released shortly after, Gagliardo said.

Williams said there is an ongoing investigation into the initial crash.
The flight plan for repatriation of Indians stranded in foreign countries due to COVID-19 pandemic has been accessed by Republic TV on Tuesday. As per sources, the mega rescue operation has been scheduled for a whole week starting from May 7. According to the schedule, one the first day, around 2000 Indians from various countries like UAE, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore will be rescued.

Centre to run flights for 1 week

Sources added that Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri will address a press conference at 3 pm on Tuesday to share more details about the rescue operation. This development comes after the Centre on Monday announced that the travel for stranded Indians will be arranged via aircraft and naval ships in a phased manner. It added that the Indian High Commissions and embassies are preparing a list of distressed Indian citizens. However, it clarified that this facility is available on payment-basis and will begin in a phased manner on May 7.

Here is the Full Evacuation Plan, as per sources

Centre to bring back Indians stranded abroad

The Centre added that only asymptomatic people will be allowed to travel after medical scrutiny. It also mandated the installation of Aarogya Setu app and 14-day institutional quarantine on payment basis.

READ | Indian Navy's second-largest ship & 2 others to return stranded persons from Maldives, UAE

READ | Govt to facilitate return of Indians stranded abroad from May 7 in a phased manner
(This story has been updated to provide additional information on the General Motors message to employees.)

FLINT, MI -- General Motors says significant planning is underway to safely restart production of vehicles in North America and advised workers Monday, May 4, that they will be paid for up to 14 days if the company requires them to self-quarantine because of COVID-19.

In a Facebook update to employees, GM says if its medical team identifies employees through contract tracing who have been potentially exposed to coronavirus in the workplace after plants reopen, they will be paid up to 40 straight-time hours per week for up to two weeks.

Plants across the country have been closed since mid-March due to market conditions, to deep-clean facilities and to prevent the spread of the virus. The suspension in production was to last until at least March 30 and has been reevaluated week-to-week since that time.

Significant planning is underway to safely restart production, GM spokesman Jim Cain said in an email to MLive-The Flint Journal. We are in regular contact with federal, state, and local authorities, our suppliers, the UAW, and our manufacturing team. We have not yet announced a restart date. When people do return to work, whether for planning or for regular production, we will use screening, cleaning, and social distancing strategies designed using the best medical advice and scientific data available, including guidance from the CDC.

Contact tracing will also be a part of the companys efforts to prevent the spread of conronavirus among workers.

Contact tracing is the process by which a medical provider interviews a person with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 to determine who they came in close contact during the 48 hours before symptoms developed, the message says. "Direct contacts are colleagues, social contacts and fellow employees who may have shared an environment for prolonged periods of time and have frequently come within 3 feet of each other without a mask.

Direct contact includes talking, sitting,/standing next to, and direct touching. Our medical team will use this definition to determine if anyone needs to self-quarantine due to exposure in the workplace.

Although the vast bulk of GMs plants have been closed for weeks, parts plants like GMs Customer Care and Aftersales facility in Burton, where employees have tested positive for COVID-19, have continued to operate and the company is also running retooled plants in Kokomo, Indiana, where it is producing ventilators, and Warren, where it is manufacturing face masks.

Safety protocols in those plants, including an entry screening process that asks employees to conduct self-assessments of potential conronavirus symptoms, are working, according to the company.

This self-assessment is followed by a temperature screening, the notice to employees says. In addition, every person entering our site is require to sanitize their hands and put on a face mask.

GM has factories in Ohio, New York, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, Missouri, Indiana and Kansas, but its operations are most concentrated in Michigan, where the company has plants in Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Saginaw, Bay City, Orion, Brownstown Township, Romulus, Warren and Lansing.

GM says new safety protocols will be used to restart plants when the time is right

GM will build ventilators in Indiana, surgical masks in Warren

4 employees at Burton GM parts facility test positive for coronavirus
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WA property has sat at the bottom of its cycle for what feels like forever. Homeowners, trapped in negative equity, have listened with rising scepticism to real estate agents slightly desperate-sounding promises we had definitely hit rock bottom and the tide was about to turn.

In recent pre-pandemic months it actually seemed they were about to deliver on these predictions, with prices showing signs of life for the first time in years.

Developer Paul Blackburne says his projects, including as One Subiaco at the former pavilion markets site, are back to strong sales after a tough fortnight in April.

Then COVID-19 hit. National property news acquired horrorstruck tones and in late March, a prominent Perth developer struck a further note of foreboding.

Finbar announced the May launch and October construction start dates of its landmark Civic Heart towers in South Perth would be dumped, along with any other new launches.
India is planning to bring back as many as 15,000 Indians stranded in various Gulf and Western countries due to the worldwide lockdown. As per the plan put in place by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, total 64 flights will operate for seven days starting May 7 from overseas to airports in different states of India. Notably, all passengers will have to pay ticket fare for their return; a similar procedure was followed by countries who evacuated their citizens from India.

Also read: Big Bull Rakesh Jhunjhunwala increases stake in Rallis India in March quarter

The official document suggests 15 such flights carrying Indians stuck abroad will land in Kerala; 11 in Delhi; 11 in Tamil Nadu; seven in Maharashtra; seven in Telangana; five in Gujarat; and three each in Karnataka, J&K; and one each in UP and Punjab.

The government has decided to evacuate citizens from the US, the UK, the Philippines, Singapore, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Bangladesh. The 'Flight Plan for the Return of Indian Nationals Stranded Abroad', accessed by CNBC TV 18, says 2,300 citizens will be brought on May 7; 2,050 on May 8; 2,050 on May 9; 1,850 on May 10; 2,200 on May 11; 2,500 on May 12; and 1,850 on May 13.

Also read: Coronavirus Lockdown Live Updates: Delhi, Andhra Pradesh hike liquor prices; wine shops open; cases-46,433

All standard procedures will be followed. Passengers will be screened before boarding flights and only those with no symptoms will be allowed to board. Upon arrival, they will be screened again and all of them will have to mandatorily download the Centre's Aarogya Setu app. All of them will be quarantined for 14 days. They will either stay in government hospitals or new facilities set up for quarantine purpose.

They will again be tested after 14 days of quarantine, and those showing no signs of COVID-19 will be allowed to go home after following the due procedure. Notably, the Centre has asked all states receiving such individuals to make arrangements for their testing, quarantine and other mandatory procedures.

Meanwhile, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country jumped to 46,433 on Tuesday, including 32,138 active cases, 12,726 recoveries, 1 migrated and 1,568 deaths. India registered a record-high number of 1,074 novel coronavirus recoveries in the last 24 hours but the government cautioned that the lockdown restrictions could be re-imposed if people did not follow the containment and social distancing rules.

Also read: Lockdown 3.0: Bengaluru man buys Rs 52,841 of liquor; seller booked

Edited by Manoj Sharma
Some remembered experiencing racism from the age of 4; white kids laughing at Black History Month movies at school; being told they talk white but have braids.

Others explored the complexities of being a police officer in a predominantly white male space or being bullied for their lips and body.

It was something that I felt like we needed to talk about, particularly in Richmond, where the city is still very much divided, Brown said. There were many times I wanted to say, Me too. ... It makes you know that its not just you.

Brown and artist Austin Miles, a muralist whose work focuses on women of color and body image, wanted this mural to be a source of healing from these experiences, and for a neighborhood that has long experienced displacement and high eviction rates.

When communities are becoming gentrified, the people who were there originally arent seen, Miles said. Women in this mural matter. The black people in that community matter. I hoped that that would be a motivator for togetherness.

Especially now, in the era of 6-foot distancing, she added.
Posted on: May 5, 2020 3:57 PM

Archbishop Allan Migi of Papua New Guinea announces health-related resignation

The Primate of the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea, Archbishop Allan Migi, has announced that he will step down on Monday (11 May) on health grounds. His resignation letter was sent to Senior Bishop Nathan Ingen, who will act as interim Archbishop until a new primate is elected.

In his resignation letter, Archbishop Allan said that a prolonged health condition and slow recovery had affected his episcopal roles and responsibilities within the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea over the past few months.

Announcing the news, the General Secretary of the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea, Dennis Kabekabe, thanked Archbishop Allan for his humility, leadership, obedience and commitment in serving ACPNG in 30 years of ordained ministry.

We wish you well in recovery to good health after this resignation, he said. We take this time to also thank Mother Mary Migi for her support to Archbishop Allan Migi and the work she has done with the Mothers Union.

Couple marry online during Abu Dhabi Covid-19 lockdown

An Anglo-French couple have married online after a lockdown in their home city Abu Dhabi prevented the planned ceremony taking place. Liam Bek, 40, and his new wife Solene Montiege, 36, had arranged a ceremony at St Andrews Anglican Church in Abu Dhabi on 26 March; but the United Arab Emirates went on a Coronavirus lockdown on 11 March, forcing the wedding to be cancelled alongside all other public gatherings.

But Liam, a teacher from England, and Solene, a horse-riding instructor from France, were able to tie the knot when the Priest in Charge of St Andrews, Canon Andrew Thompson, agreed to conduct the ceremony using the Zoom video conferencing platform. The couple stayed at their home in the Abu Dhabi suburb of Mushrif, while Canon Thompson led the service from an otherwise empty church.

More than 100 guests took part in the wedding from all over the world. We were worried that it wouldnt have the feel of a real wedding and the technology wouldnt work for a lot of people, Liam Bek told The National English-language newspaper. It hit us like a thunderbolt during the wedding that it was actually happening and we were going to become husband and wife. It was such a massive relief we were able to do it with everything going on.

Canada needs Guaranteed Basic Income for all  Anglican and Lutheran bishops argue

A group of 41 bishops from the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada have issued a plea for a guaranteed basic income. In an open letter to Canadas Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau; Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland; and Finance Minister, Bill Morneau; the Church leaders say that they applaud the governments pandemic-related programs, but say that more needs to be done.

These programs address vital needs, they said. As you have seen in practice, each of these programs is based on specific inclusion and exclusion criteria, with the result that there are different entitlements for individuals in varying circumstances. Way-finding through this can be daunting and some are excluded from all programs. We aspire to share this goal: that no one should fall through the gaps, and that everyone should have straightforward access to equitable support.

There is a way to that goal: an alternative, affordable, just, evidence-based policy option called Guaranteed Basic Income. As Pope Francis wrote last week: This may be the time to consider a universal basic wage. We would extend and amplify the Pontiffs remarks: This IS the time.

US-based Episcopal Church explores what a post-pandemic church might look like

[Episcopal News Service, by Egan Millard] At a special virtual meeting of the US-based Episcopal Churchs Executive Council on 29 April, church leaders discussed some of the possible changes in store as the church prepares to re-tool in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The brief, previously unscheduled meeting of Executive Council  called for by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, House of Deputies President Gay Clark Jennings and Council Secretary Michael Barlowe  was held on Zoom in advance of the councils regular June meeting, which was scheduled to take place in San Juan, Puerto Rico, but will now be held online.

During his remarks, Curry praised the church for its swift and creative response to restrictions on in-person worship, as bishops and other church leaders navigated unprecedented legal, medical and theological dilemmas. Questions emerged about the logistics of the Eucharist  including canonical concerns about the availability of both the bread and wine and hypothetical scenarios like remote consecration  that required quick and thoughtful responses, and ministries like food pantries adapted their practices to the new reality on the fly.

I saw this church do what I wouldnt have dreamed of, and I thank God for that, Curry said, praising clergy for their ingenuity in pastoral care and remote Holy Week worship.

Click here to read more

Nigerian Primate, Archbishop Chukwudum Ndukuba, urges Church leaders to train and retrain

The Primate of Nigeria, Archbishop Chukwudum Ndukuba, has called on Christians, pastors and church leaders to rethink the way we do ministry in light of the Covid-19 lockdown, which he said had taken the Church by surprise.

We have gotten so used to the traditional way of gathering people in large numbers in our Churches, especially during major Christian celebrations such as Christmas and Easter. But, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Churches have been advised to stop all public gatherings, and members have been instructed to stay at home, which has left many Churches empty and at a loss on what to do, and how to reach out to their congregations.

Therefore, as Christians and Church leaders, we must rise up to the challenge and utilise every technology at our disposal, to keep on propagating the gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

It is a learning process, because many of us are not used to online services and the likes. But, we must continue to train and retrain ourselves, as ministers of the gospel, and work together to ensure that the Church of God continues to match on.

Publication of Church of Englands Living in Love and Faith resources delayed

The Church of England has announced that publication of its major new collection of resources to help Christians discuss and consider issues of human identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage has been postponed. In a statement, the Church of England said that its House of Bishops has agreed that, in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the publication of the Living in Love and Faith resources, which had been scheduled to take place in June, should be postponed.

The statement said that work on the resources would continue, and that publication would initiate a process of whole Church engagement, within a clear timeframe, to enable the Church to discern and decide about the way forward on the issues.

More than two years of work has gone into the resources, and consultation has taken place across the Anglican Communion. The vision continues to be one of enabling the whole Church to explore the resources together and so to contribute to the Churchs discernment about these matters that affect deeply our life together in love and faith, the statement said.

Archbishop of York to lead valedictory debate in the House of Lords

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, will lead a debate on poverty in the upper house of the UK Parliament tomorrow (Wednesday). Dr Sentamu, who retires on 7 June, is one of 26 Church of England bishops who sit in House of Lords. Tomorrows sitting of the House of Lords will take place via video conferencing  the House of Lords has moved to Virtual Proceedings as part of the UKs Covid-19 lockdown. Members of the House of Lords will debate the case for increasing income equality and sustainability in the light of the recent health emergency.
Woody Harrelson's hitman father was twice accused of murder before being convicted of assassinating a judge, according to a new podcast.

Charles Harrelson, who at one time also claimed to have killed John F Kennedy, was jailed over the 1979 killing of U.S. District Judge John Wood Jr in San Antonio, Texas.

He had already been convicted of the murder of Sam Degelia Jr. in 1973 and served five years for that crime. In 2013 trial lawyer David Berg claimed to have unearthed new evidence that proved Charles was also behind the 1968 slaying of his brother Alan, for which he had been acquitted in 1970.

Now new podcast Son of Hitman will speak to actor Woody's two brothers, Brett and Jordan, about their father and his grisly crimes.

A new podcast will look into the life and crimes of Woody Harrelson's, pictured, father Charles

Charles V. Harrelson arriving at the federal courthouse in San Antonio in 1982

Professional gambler Charles, who died of a heart attack in 2007 aged 69, had been held at Colorado's Supermax federal prison until his death, serving two life sentences for the assassination of district judge Wood.

The alleged mastermind behind Judge Wood's death was Jimmy Chagra, who was facing drugs charges to be looked at by the victim.

Brett said: 'It's important for me to expose the magnitude of how corrupt this trial was and how my father, Charles Harrelson, didn't receive a fair trial.

'My mother and Woody, I can just tell their opinion is they don't want to talk about it because it's a personal private matter.'

Chief prosecutor Ray Jahn tells the podcast Charles was 'an outright psychopath, a cold-blooded killer'.

Charles Harrelson, who at one time also claimed to have killed John F Kennedy, pictured shortly before his assassination in 1963, was jailed over the 1979 killing of U.S. District Judge John Wood Jr in San Antonio, Texas.

U.S. District Judge John H. Wood, center, was ambushed and killed outside his front door in San Antonio, Texas in 1979. Government sources listed convicted hit man Charles V. Harrelson, left, and convicted narcotics trafficker Jimmy Chagra, right as 'targets' in the investigation

Actor Woody, 58, said he first learned of his dad's dubious profession for the first time at age 12, years after the man had run away leaving his mother to raise him and his two brothers alone.

He has not taken part in the latest podcast but told The Guardian in 2012 that he heard his father's name mentioned as a suspect in the assassination of US District Judge John H. Wood Jr. outside of his home in San Antonio, Texas.

'I'm sitting there thinking there can't be another Charles V. Harrelson. I mean, that's my dad! It was a wild realization,' he told the newspaper.

'I tried for years to get him out. To get him a new trial...just being a son trying to help his dad. Then I spent a couple of million beating my head against the wall. Lawyers upon lawyers.'

Charles Harrelson is interviewed in a Harris County Jail visitor's room

After two years on the run, Harrelson was arrested and admitted not only to Wood's for-hire murder but also claimed he was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He later denied this.

Despite his dad's occupation and absence in his life, the pair reconciled. When his father died of poor health aged 69 in prison in 2007, Woody was said to be 'devastated.'

Before his death, he said in a TV interview: 'How do I feel about him? Well I love him. I definitely love him. Very fond of him. I mean, there's probably a lot of people who should be behind bars. I don't necessarily think he's one of them.'
Mr. Suzuki said he also sold the nests, which are popular trophies throughout the region. Lacquered brown hives, sometimes cut open to expose their complex lattice work, adorn vestibules and reception rooms in homes, schools and public offices.

Historians say the insects, which range throughout Asia but are found most commonly in Japan, were once valued along with other wasps as a cheap source of protein in poverty-stricken rural areas.

The cuisine is celebrated each November in Gifu Prefecture at a festival, known as the Kushihara Hebo Matsuri, where prizes are handed out for the largest nests, and gourmands bid for the privilege of taking one home with them.

Even at this insect jubilee, the danger posed by the giant hornet, which has killed dozens of people in Japan in recent years, is evident. A flyer for the 2018 event warned participants to be on the lookout for hornets on the loose near the fairgrounds, advising attendees to please take ample care to avoid being stung. Organizers, it added, bear absolutely no responsibility for the consequences of ignoring the warnings.

The admonitions go well beyond this single event. Every spring, government offices across the country issue advisories about the bugs, known in Japan as giant sparrow hornets because of their size. People venturing into the wild have learned to avoid hair spray and perfume, which can attract the frightening pests.

So it may be no surprise that the practice of hunting and eating the insects, as with many traditions in aging rural Japan, is less common than it used to be.
Murder Hornets or the Asian Giant Hornets are the largest existing species of hornets in the world. They have come to limelight after they destroyed a US-based man's beehive.

A report published in The New York Times emphasized how a beekeeper's hives were destroyed by this breed of hornets. The beekeeper was not aware of what went wrong till he came to know about these. The Vespa mandarinia can actually destroy an entire beehive in a matter of few hours. They are said to do this so that they can take bee thoraxes to feed the younger Asian Giant Hornets.

According to the official website of the Washington State Department of Agriculture, the hornets enter a slaughter phase where they kill bees by decapitating them. They then defend the hive as their own, taking the brood to feed their own young.

Here are a few things that you should know about them:

They are seven times more poisonous than a honey bee. They usually attack in groups. Each year in Japan around 50 people get killed by the murder hornets.

This is the first time they were found in Blaine, the US, in December.

The Murder Hornet is not active throughout the year and only start coming out in April and are in action through Summer and Autumn. Its sting can grow as large as 2-1/2 inches (6.35 cm) in length.

The lethal insects are not usually found in open plains and high altitude as they are said to prefer the low-altitude forests and mountains.

Sven-Erik Spichiger, managing entomologist at the Washington state Agriculture Department, told Reuters, an Asian giant hornet can sting you multiple times and deliver larger doses of venom just because of the size of them. The venom itself is fairly toxic and creates localized necrosis around the wound so youll see melting flesh around the wound.

The murder hornet can fly at a good speed and can reach up to 20 miles per hour. They are known to fly several miles in a day.
The global automakers are moving ahead this week with either restarting production or finalizing plans to reopen operations, even as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread. At the same time, the blatant disregard for workers health and safety by capitalist governments, the corporations and their accomplices in the trade unions is generating widespread resistance to the back-to-work drive.

The auto giants have already begun to bring production in Europe back up. Last week, Fiat Chrysler (FCA) restarted its van plant in Atessa in Italy, the country hardest-hit by COVID-19 in Europe, even before the official lockdown was lifted. The company is starting up other Italian plants this week.

In addition, luxury automakers Ferrari in Italy and Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin in the UK are all resuming operations this week.

Ford Motor Company demonstrates a temperature scan to be used to screen workers. Credit: Ford

In North America, the Detroit Three auto companies are now targeting a restart date of May 18, less than two weeks away, despite the center of the auto industry, Michigan, continuing to be hammered by the pandemic. FCA has already begun erecting medical tents outside its Windsor and Brampton assembly plants in Ontario, Canada, along with some plants in the Detroit area. FCA, Ford and General Motors in recent weeks have solicited workers to return and beginning prepping factories to reopen in the US.

However, other automakers such as Hyundai, Kia, BMW, and Daimler have already restarted their factories in the US South, reopening plants in Montgomery, Alabama; West Point, Georgia; Spartanburg, South Carolina; and Vance, Alabama, respectively. Honda, Toyota, and Subaru are reported to be planning US production restarts next Monday, May 11.

The automakers confront virtually unprecedented challenges in restarting and coordinating vast supply chains across North America. Much of US assembly relies on parts produced in Mexico, where COVID-19 cases continue to rapidly climb. Like their brothers and sisters in the US, workers in Mexico confronting a lack of protective equipment and safety measures have rebelled in a series of walkouts at maquiladora sweatshops just across the border in recent weeks.

However, the government of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) is collaborating closely with the US manufacturing industry and the Trump administration in order to ensure that there is no disruption of supplies and parts to US corporations, regardless of the death toll. The president of Katcon, a global auto supplier, told the Detroit Free Press, The feeling in Mexico, based on the statements from the government and the president of Mexico himself, have been very clear and sensible, balancing health and economic concerns as best as possible. AMLO, the company executive added, has said if the US and Canada are going to reopen, we will allow the automotive industry to reopen. Dialogue in Mexico is very positive and encouraging.

On the part of the Detroit Three, press releases and public statements by company executives and union officials have ritualistically repeated talking points on the careful preparation of safety protocols, and concern for workers health being the highest priority. The facts, though, speak otherwise. It was not until workers launched a wave of wildcat strikes in March across Ontario, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio that the companies were forced to idle production. Even so, the belated shutdown of plants still allowed the virus to spread unhampered for weeks, resulting in at least two dozen workers succumbing to COVID-19 at the Detroit Three companies to date, and many more seriously sickened by it.

The Detroit News reported Monday that four workers from FCAs Warren Truck plant had died, including 65-year-old Catherine Bright Pace, who worked in the paint shop where workers conducted a job action over the spread of the virus on March 16.

Both the companies and the United Auto Workers union are touting measures such as temperature checks as supposedly ensuring the conditions will be safe for workers to return. However, scientific reviews of the pandemic continue to provide evidence that large percentages of those who are contagious show no signs of fever or other symptoms, with a study in Iceland finding 50 percent of cases were asymptomatic.

Asked whether workers at GM Wentzvilles Assembly plant near St. Louis felt it was safe to return to work, a veteran worker told the WSWS, No! Everyone I speak to are not with it at all. A lot of folks are saying if they start back up so soon, they are immediately going on sick leave.

My plant thinks that a mask and cleaning will keep us safe, an auto parts worker at Metalsa in Kentucky said. I have preexisting conditions myself, which are linked to a higher level of death, so I am completely terrified. The UAW will not help, the local union president has never done anything but help himself.

Workers also continue to take to social media to voice their opposition. Posts on the UAWs official Facebook page typically attract dozens to hundreds of angry comments, with workers denouncing the indifference of the union to their health and safety.

In response to UAW President Rory Gambles letter on April 30 lauding talks with Ford on restart plans, one worker wrote, Wanna know how we can avoid any infections? Stay shut down. Not even a question, we see the money influencing these decisions. Another commented, You cant even keep the bathrooms clean.

While it continues to slavishly repeat company PR about safety protocols, the UAW has at the same time begun ominously warning workers about the necessity of self-reporting symptoms, seeking to shift responsibility for any future outbreaks from the companies onto workers. Last week, UAW-Ford Vice President Gerald Kariem said, We also recognize that we all have a role in self-reporting any exposure without repercussions and in following through on implementing these protections.

The auto companies and broader sections of corporate America are angling to secure the same liability protections granted by the Trump administration to the meatpacking industry, in the hopes of dodging lawsuits for knowingly subjecting workers to hazardous working conditions.

Industry lobbying groups such as the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association and the National Association of Manufacturers published a letter to Congress Sunday, writing, Companies doing their best to control the spread of this disease with the limited guidance available deserve legal protection.

Attempting to cloak their clutch for their pocketbook with the cover of preventing shortages in goods and services, the letter continued, Temporarily suspending suits that threaten to shut down vital industries  is a sensible step to ensure every American has access to basic life essentials without creating new shortages and exacerbating the crisis.

Even as the auto giants are rushing to reopen production and renew the flow of profits, company executives and industry analysts have increasingly signaled their intentions to respond to the collapse in sales with ruthless cost-cutting measures.

On a recent conference call with investors, Ford CEO Jim Hackett said, One truth, right? Dont waste a crisis. Hacketts remarks reprise the comment made by Obama administration Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in 2008: You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. What Emanuel had in mind was to be made clear within a few months, as the Obama administration forced General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy, working with the auto companies and the UAW to close down a swath of plants, lay off thousands, and slash pay and benefits for new hires.

And in a recent Automotive News Daily Drive podcast, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas outlined the drastic extent of layoffs and other cost cuts expected by Wall Street if there is not a rapid return to business as usual. He noted that if auto sales remain at the recent level of 11 million a month, the automakers run the risk of being a zombie industry. In such a scenario, most companies to remain viable would have to permanently reduce their headcount and/or fixed cost bases by 30 percent or more [emphasis added]. This would entail tens of thousands of job cuts, in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The drive to restructure the auto industry at workers expense is already generating opposition.

On Monday, workers at Nissans Barcelona plant in Spain began an indefinite strike, the same day the company sought to restart production at the facility. Nissan has thus far refused to release longer-term plans for the future of the plant, raising concerns that it may eventually seek to shutter it.

Autoworkers must reject the false dilemma presented to them of either joblessness and destitution or sickness and death. In every country, workers confront the need to form new organizations, rank-and-file factory and safety committees, in order to protect themselves from the pandemic and ensure that their rights are secured.

In opposition to the demands of the companies and their union partners for profits over workers lives, rank-and-file committees must demand the extension of the shutdown of all nonessential production, full compensation and income protection for the unemployed and furloughed, and a massive expansion of testing and medical care. To achieve these demands, the multitrillion-dollar government bailout of Wall Street and the major corporations must be reversed, and the auto industry placed under workers democratic control.
The Federal Government on Monday announced that it would commence the decontamination of schools across the country.

The Minister of Environment, Muhammad Mahmood, disclosed this at the Presidential Task Force briefing on COVID-19 in Abuja.

He said the ministry would get the data of schools nationwide from the Federal Ministry of Education.

Mr. Mahmood said, We are initiating a programme of decontaminating and disinfecting our schools before they open.



Because subsequently in the phases (of easing the lockdown), I believe we will get to that point when we start opening the schools.

So, we will be liaising with the Federal Ministry of Education to make sure we have the needed data to carry out the exercise.

Although the minister did not state when the exercise would start, he said his ministry had been making efforts to commence the programme.

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Bengaluru: Thousands of migrant workers mostly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar protested near a big international exhibition centre in Bengaluru, demanding the authorities to send them back home in their native states amid the extended lockdown necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic.

The migrants marched towards the Bengaluru International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) and also blocked the Bengaluru-Tumakuru highway for some time.

It was reopened again after Revenue Minister R Ashok and Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao reached the spot and assured the protesters that they will be sent home as soon as possible.

The migrant workers had gone to Freedom Park on Monday morning to catch transport for their states. Later, the municipal agency BBMP took them near BIEC and made arrangements there for their stay.

Then they started protesting in the evening. A policeman was reportedly injured in the incident. The Karnataka government has already sent thousands of workers to their homes across the state in government-run buses.

Special trains are being run in several states such as Kerala and Rajasthan to send back migrant workers to their home states. Last week, the central government allowed the transfer of migrants using buses and trains after 36 days of intense criticism and pushback.

Thousands of migrant workers and others, stranded after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the lockdown on March 25, had been desperate to go home for weeks.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 5, 2020) - Forum Energy Metals Corp. (TSXV: FMC) ("Forum") announces that it has staked 13 claims ("The Wollaston Uranium Project") covering 11,067 hectares immediately to the east of the all-weather road to the Rabbit Lake and McClean Lake uranium processing plants.



Rick Mazur. President & CEO stated, "Forum has a rich history of exploration in the Athabasca Basin with seven drill ready projects, three of which are under option or in joint venture with Cameco, Orano, Nexgen and Rio Tinto. Forum is constantly monitoring opportunities in the Basin and have acquired some exceptional exploration lands at the Wollaston project."

Forum's most recent Option to Joint Venture agreement was completed with Orano on its Fir Island project, also in the northeast part of the Athabasca Basin (see news release dated November 12, 2019). To date, Orano has funded, with Forum as Operator, a resistivity survey and a 6 hole diamond drill program completed in March. Assay results are expected later this month.

The Wollaston Uranium Project

The Wollaston Uranium Project is well located with road and power access in proximity to two uranium mills. The property hosts near surface uranium mineralization given its location at the margin of the Athabasca Basin and the occurrence of radioactive boulders at surface.

The claims cover over 30km of conductive trends where surface radioactive boulders have only been sporadically drill tested on the property. The claims were staked to cover areas with offsets or folds along the conductive systems, areas of structural complexity that increase the potential for uranium mineralization. Most of the uranium mines in the area are strongly controlled by structures (Figure 1).

Historic drilling that investigated some of the conductors, or that followed up radioactive boulders, intersected strong graphite, structural disruption and clay alteration. Fifteen graphitic/pegmatite boulders with grades of up to 0.2% U3O8 were located on Burman Island and also in the northwest part of the project, near a large north-northeast offsetting fault (Figure 2).

Ken Wheatley, Vice President, Exploration stated, "Initial plans for work on this project are to conduct a ground gravity survey, searching for gravity lows that may indicate an alteration halo. Due to the lack of sandstone cover on this project, the gravity results will be very clear and alteration systems should be well-defined. Any gravity lows would be followed up with diamond drilling."







Figure 1: Location of the Wollaston Project with respect to Local Uranium Mills

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4908/55376_8056265cc44f78fa_003full.jpg







Figure 2: Claim and Location Map of the Wollaston Project

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4908/55376_8056265cc44f78fa_004full.jpg

Ken Wheatley, P.Geo., Forum's VP, Exploration and Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.

About Forum Energy Metals

Forum Energy Metals Corp (TSXV: FMC) explores for energy metals, including copper, nickel, platinum, palladium and uranium in Saskatchewan, Canada's Number One mining province. In addition, Forum has also established a strategic land position in the Idaho Cobalt Belt. For further information: www.forumenergymetals.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Richard J. Mazur, P.Geo.

President & CEO

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.

For further information contact:

NORTH AMERICA

Rick Mazur, P.Geo., President & CEO

mazur@forumenergymetals.com

Tel: 778-772-3100

UNITED KINGDOM



Burns Singh Tennent-Bhohi, Director

burnsstb@forumenergymetals.com

Tel: 074-0316-3185

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/55376
Despite limited resources, but with strong determination, Vietnam has gradually brought the novel coronavirus epidemic under control. The success story has been shared and admired by many overseas Vietnamese no matter where they live.

With the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic crippling over 200 countries and territories worldwide, devastation is expected on a scale larger than the 2008 global financial crisis. In the face of this health crisis, Vietnam, a small Southeast Asian nation with limited resources, has taken great strides in weathering the storm and has enjoyed initial success with only 270 COVID-10 cases confirmed and no deaths reported.

In light of these efforts, the international community has widely recognised the country as a success story, praising Vietnam as a role model for other nations to follow. As a result, plenty of Vietnamese citizens living abroad can take pride in their homeland.

From California, Khanh Nguyen Nye says it is the top-down bureaucracy in Vietnam which helps bring the epidemic under control

Khanh Nguyen Nye, a Vietnamese expat who married an American citizen and moved to California to live eight years ago, has stayed updated about news from her homeland, despite living in the United States.

Nye explained she was filled with joy after hearing news of the Vietnamese governments decision to lift the social distancing order in 28 cities and provinces on April 23, telling her husband the news with pride.

I often asked myself why Vietnam had responded to the pandemic so effectively, I then found the answer myself, she said. It is because Vietnam's political system is suitable for dealing with an emergency. It is a well-organised top-down bureaucracy from the central to grassroots levels which is able to discover, quarantine, zone off, and then trace suspected cases swiftly and effectively, alongside implementing social distancing measures.

She went on to explain that the second reason is the absolute resolve and strong co-operation given by local people in the fight against the epidemic. This quality, according to her, originates from the tradition of building and defending a nation over centuries, with Vietnamese people being aware that only when they are united will they have the strength to succeed.

Moreover, Nye believed that most important factor in the countrys success is the swift response of the government at the start of the outbreak. Although the nations resources are more limited in comparison to many countries, the government has made the health of citizens a priority, therefore providing free testing and treatment to suspected cases and patients. This humane policy has served to help Vietnam successfully control the outbreak.

In terms of those on the frontline fighting the virus, Nye was especially impressed with the qualifications of Vietnamese doctors, whom she described as talented.

When by chance I read a news story that stated Vietnam has produced a COVID-19 test kit which had been ordered by 20 countries, I told my husband about it because at that time there were millions of Americans waiting to be tested. It is amazing that Vietnam has not reported any fatalities since the first COVID-19 case was confirmed on January 23. That reflects the truth that Vietnamese doctors are very good.

Phan Bich Thien, who is residing in Hungary, says she was moved to see images of soldiers working hard to take care of people in quarantine

Elsewhere, Phan Bich Thien, a Vietnamese citizen residing in Hungary, said she has followed developments in her homeland with keen interest. To her surprise, the governments drastic preventive measures have proved effective, successfully bringing the outbreak under control.

During the past few weeks, all local governments and people have shown their determination and stayed united to combat the disease. I am so moved to see soldiers work very hard around the clock to take care of those in quarantine. In fact, it is hard to quarantine and manage all returnees from abroad for 14 days  an uphill task is not seen in many countries.

In addition, images of rice ATMs set up by philanthropists to support people in need also impressed me a lot. This once again indicates the Vietnamese peoples age-old tradition of mutual assistance between the haves and the have-nots.

In a recent interview granted to Hungarian newspaper 168 Ora, Thien stated her appreciation for the implementation of Vietnams effective preventive measures, recalling the governments declaration that combating the epidemic is fighting the enemy along with making the safety of local citizens the top priority.

She concluded by saying, This is a very convincing and humane act, and I am very proud of the Vietnamese achievements in this battle. I also feel pride when such news grabbed headlines in both Hungary and around the globe.

Quach Hung Tong, who lives in San Jose, California, says Vietnam's initial success in the COVID-19 battle has surprised the world

Like many other Vietnamese nationals living overseas, Quach Hung Tong, a resident of San Jose, California, the US, questioned himself regarding why the Vietnamese battle against the COVID-19 has surprised the world. After some consideration, he was able to find the answer in that it is a battle which requires a high sense of responsibility, discipline, and determination of both the government and people to win. The nations success is therefore a testimony to peoples unity in strictly following the governments regulations as a means of preventing the virus from spreading among the wider community.

In the fight against the pandemic at this time, Vietnams image once again shines globally. There is a tradition of mutual assistance in difficult circumstances among Vietnamese people and between them and the international community, Tong said.

Not only me, but lots of people are very touched by what soldiers and doctors have contributed to the countrys efforts. They are really heroes fighting on the front line against the epidemic, and as far as I know, the majority of the public appreciate their high sense of responsibility towards the community.

I cannot forget the images of soldiers taking care of students returning from abroad in quarantine facilities, displaying extreme kindness and thoughtfulness. Such sentiments cannot be fabricated, but are a sign of the sincere treatment and care taken by Vietnamese soldiers and doctors.

Increasingly, more touching stories of Vietnamese citizens living abroad discussing the nations efforts to contain the epidemic during this difficult time are beginning to emerge. In such circumstances, they are becoming more aware about the bravery, strength, resilience, and humanity of the nation, with the country always remaining in their hearts and minds. VOV

Overseas Vietnamese preserve traditional culture Vietnamese people, no matter where they live, always turn their heart to the homeland.
Full list of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize winners.

The 2020 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced on 4 May through an online video, after being delayed for two weeks because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Pulitzer administrator Dana Canedy talked about the deeply trying times amidst which the prizes were being announced, reminding of the importance of journalist and of how the arts continue to sustain, unite and inspire.

The Fiction prize was awarded to Colson Whitehead for his novel The Nickel Boys, about an abusive reform school in Florida, making it his second Pulitzer, having first won for his 2017 book The Underground Railroad.

This year, a new prize for audio reporting was also introduced, and awarded to the This American Life podcast's staff, along with Molly O'Toole of the Los Angeles Times and Emily Green, a Vice News freelancer, for the episode 'The Out Crowd,' about the impact of the Trump administration's Remain in Mexico policy.

Ida B Wells was also honoured with a posthumous special citation for her courageous reporting on lynching, and $50,000 will be donated to support her mission.

The full list of 2020 Pulitzer Prize winners:

JOURNALISM

Public Service

Anchorage Daily News in collaboration with ProPublica

Breaking News Reporting

Staff of The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.

Investigative Reporting

Brian M Rosenthal of The New York Times

Explanatory Reporting

Staff of The Washington Post

Local Reporting

Staff of The Baltimore Sun

National Reporting

T Christian Miller, Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi of ProPublica

and

Dominic Gates, Steve Miletich, Mike Baker and Lewis Kamb of The Seattle Times

International Reporting

Staff of The New York Times

Feature Writing

Ben Taub of The New Yorker

Commentary

Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times

Criticism

Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times

Editorial Writing

Jeffery Gerritt of the Palestine (Tx) Herald-Press

Editorial Cartooning

Barry Blitt, contributor, The New Yorker

Breaking News Photography

Photography Staff of Reuters

Feature Photography

Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin of the Associated Press

Audio Reporting

Staff of This American Life with Molly OToole of the Los Angeles Times and Emily Green, freelancer, Vice News for 'The Out Crowd'

LETTERS AND DRAMA

Fiction

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Drama

A Strange Loop by Michael R. Jackson

History

Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America by W Caleb McDaniel (Oxford University Press)

Biography

Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser (Ecco/HarperCollins)

Poetry

The Tradition by Jericho Brown (Copper Canyon Press)

General Nonfiction

The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care by Anne Boyer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

and

The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America by Greg Grandin (Metropolitan Books)

Music

The Central Park Five by Anthony Davis, premiered by Long Beach Opera on June 15, 2019

Special Citation

Ida B Wells

The Pulitzer Prizes are considered the most prestigious journalism honour in the United States.

The 19-member Pulitzer Board consists of journalists and news executives from across the US, and five academics or persons in the arts.

The Prizes were established by Hungarian-American journalist and newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, who bequeathed his money to Columbia University upon his death in 1911. The Pulitzer Prizes, from a portion of this money, were first awarded in 1917.
Beyhadh 2 actor Shivin Narang has injured himself at home and was hospitalised because of it. As per a report, Shivin injured his left hand and was rushed to a hospital in Andheri, Mumbai. Detailing the accident, the report states that Shivin accidentally fell on a glass table at his residence.

A source close to the TV actor said about the matter, "When Shivin fell, the glass table broke into pieces, injuring him badly. He lost a lot of blood and was rushed to the hospital. He has not been discharged, as the extent of the injury needs to be diagnosed."

The report adds that even Shivin's parents are not allowed to visit him in the hospital due to social distancing guidelines and orders issued by the government in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Shivin's Beyhadh 2 has been axed by the channel amid the coronavirus pandemic. He also featured in Khatron Ke Khiladi 10, hosted by Rohit Shetty.

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Tucson just cant seem to get a break when it comes to the prestigious James Beard Award  the Academy Award for foodies.

Once again, none of Tucsons semifinalists made the cut when the finalists were announced during a Twitter presentation Monday afternoon. The closest we came was former Tucson chef Kevin Fink, who was named a finalist for Best Chef Texas for his Austin restaurant Emmer & Rye. It is his second James Beard nomination.

But the biggest news from Mondays presentation was the nomination of Phoenix restaurant Pizzeria Bianco as a finalist for the prestigious Outstanding Restaurant Award. Think of it as the equivalent of the Academy Awards Best Picture honor.

If it wins, this would be the second James Beard Award attached to the pizzeria; chef-owner Chris Bianco won a regional James Beard Award in 2000.

"I'm just honored to be recognized," Bianco said Monday afternoon.
Syria: Makhlouf has fled to UAE, international attorneys Guernica 37 group says Assad's cousin is an accomplice

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, MAY 5 - Rami Makhlouf, the cousin of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, is suspected of having fled Syria for the United Arab Emirates. Makhlouf is considered one of the most influential Syrian businessmen who has garnered media attention recently for his unprecedented statements on social media in response to the alleged arrest of dozens of people who are close to him.



According to the Guernica 37 international justice chambers, which is based in London and has offices in Spain and the United States, Makhlouf is suspected of currently being in the UAE although he has been targeted by US sanctions in 2008 and European Union sanctions since 2011.



The platform of human rights lawyers said Makhlouf has been considered for years as an accomplice of crimes attributed to the Syrian regime to crack down on protests that began in 2011.



The organization asked the UAE to honor its obligation to respect international law and not allow for its territory to be used as safe shelter by those who are accused of ''the most shocking crimes we know''.(ANSAmed).




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(Bloomberg) -- Leyou Technologies Holdings Ltd. has received a new non-binding takeover offer from a Shenzhen-listed rival gaming firm after months of buyout talks with a different suitor.

Zhejiang Century Huatong Group Co. and Leyous controlling shareholder Charles Yuk signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the possible sale of shares, Leyou said in a stock exchange filing late Monday, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report. The parties aim to enter into a formal deal within 90 days of the MOU should they agree to proceed, according to the statement.

Shares in Leyou jumped as much as 6.1% in Hong Kong after trading resumed on Tuesday. The Shenzhen exchange, where Century Huatong trades, is closed until Wednesday for the Labor Day holiday in China.

A bid by Century Huatong would set up a clash with iDreamSky Technology Holdings Ltd., which has been in talks with Leyous Yuk and other selling holders since late last year. iDreamSky, which counts Tencent Holdings Ltd. among its investors, was in discussions with CVC Capital Partners for a joint offer but the Covid-19 pandemic has brought their talks to a stalemate, Bloomberg News reported last month.

Leyou is still in conversation with iDreamSky and other suitors have expressed interest in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. Century Huatong will likely kick off due diligence soon, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private.

CVC and iDreamSky had proposed to jointly acquire Leyou for $1.23 billion, which was revised from an initial $1.4 billion offer, Bloomberg News reported previously. Century Huatongs offer was slightly higher than its rival bidders, the people said this week.

No final decision has been made and Leyou could still decide against a transaction, the people said. Century Huatong didnt immediately respond to requests for comment during holidays in China. A spokeswoman for iDreamSky declined to comment on Monday, adding the company will provide the latest progress in a timely manner on the stock exchange website.

Story continues

Century Huatong, founded in 2005, specializes in internet games and auto parts, according to its website. The companys game titles include The Legend of Mir 2, The World of Legend, Crazy Arcade and Final Fantasy 14. It has over 1.8 billion registered users. Last year, the firm completed an acquisition of the online game business of Shanda Games Ltd. in a 29.8 billion yuan ($4.2 billion) deal. Century Huatongs market value was about 87 billion yuan as of April 30.

(Updates Leyous share price in third paragraph.)

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If your looking for that Afghan Kush the local retailers have your back.

Cannabis and cannabis accessories are legally still available through Burlington stores. Despite some early confusion around the provincial government's COVID-19 essential services list, cannabis retailers are now temporarily able to sell their product through a curbside or delivery model.

Supporters argue that the continued sale of cannabis through the pandemic is important because it helps the societal goal of keeping people calm in their homes, reduces demand that would go to the black market and allows those businesses to continue to have a revenue stream.

James Jesty, president of the Friendly Stranger Holdings Corp, said cannabis supports the cause of social distancing.

It helps people chill out. It keeps people calm. It certainly helps loosening people up, said Jesty. We always felt that if the LCBO and Beer Store can be open then so should we. We fulfil that same need for people.

Early in the government's pandemic response, cannabis stores were forced to close as they didn't appear on the original list of essential workplaces permitted to operate.

On April 7, the province changed course.

While it did not add cannabis retailers to the list of essential services, Queen's Park issued an emergency order permitting curbside and delivery sales.

Jean Major, the registrar and chief executive of the Alcohol Gaming Commission of Ontario, said the agency had been working on a way to support cannabis consumers despite the state of emergency.

This new measure helps address consumer demand and maintain a revenue stream for store operators while supporting the governments broader objectives, said Major.

The marijuana black market has been a key concern for regulators since cannabis was legalized. With retailers shuttered, the fear was that cannabis users would be pushed back to illegal drug dealers who are likely less concerned with pandemic safety measures like social distancing.

There's still a very robust illicit market that's out there and that is kind of booming through this point, said Jesty.

They have delivery and all this access. The other risk is if we were shut down people will find it and they'll go back to the illicit market, which is not what any of us want.

Delivery and pickup of cannabis will be arranged so that it respects social-distancing protocols.

Said Jesty: What we've done in Burlington is you can order products on our website  both cannabis and accessories  it's the product we have in the store.

"What we do is you pull up to the store (and) text or call us and say, 'I'm James. I'm here, and I'm in the black Ford car.' We just bring it out and we ask to see your ID because obviously we have to confirm it's you and you're of age.

Home deliveries are similarly handled, with minimal human interaction. But recipients are still required to show ID before the product is dropped off. Payment will be dealt with online.

For more information visit www.friendlystranger.com.

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NEW HAVEN  This years annual spring luncheon to benefit Planned Parenthood of Southern New England (PPSNE), due to social distancing regulations, was hosted entirely online. The event has raised nearly $700,000 to date to help keep sexual and reproductive health care accessible to Connecticut and Rhode Island residents during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A recording of the livestream is available to view at bit.ly/ppluncheon2020.

The virtual event featured a conversation between PPSNE Medical Director Dr. Tim Spurrell and Director of Primary Care Nicole Phillips, moderated by Skinner, about the impact of the COVID-19 public health crisis on Planned Parenthood and our public health system.

The event was hosted, as in years past, by Greenwich resident Jane Condon, a longtime PPSNE supporter and comedian who was named an audience favorite on NBCs Last Comic Standing. During the livestream, Amanda Skinner acknowledged Kay Maxwell of Stamford, former PPSNE board president and the recipient of this years Community Impact Award, an honor traditionally presented during the luncheon, recognizing an individuals commitment to service or social action that makes a difference in their community. The luncheons previously announced guest speaker, author and social justice activist Brittany Packnett Cunningham, will be featured at an upcoming PPSNE event.

Crucial to the success of the spring luncheon is the dedication of a committee of volunteers, led by co-chairs Anne Goodnow of Darien and Danielle Eason, Katey Goldberg, Donna Moffly, Sheila Mossman, and Brice Russian of Greenwich. Eason and Mossman are members of the PPSNE Board of Directors and Moffly is a former board member.

Participants at the virtual event raised an additional $55,000 during the live text to give, demonstrating their commitment to the Planned Parenthood mission. These donations will be matched, dollar-for-dollar up to $40,000, through a challenge gift by an anonymous philanthropist.

Proceeds support essential sexual and reproductive health care services delivered at 17 health centers in Connecticut and Rhode Island and virtually through telehealth. Since the launch of telehealth services at the end of March, PPSNE has conducted nearly 600 visits, providing birth control, primary care services, screening and treatment of STDs, and more  keeping patients healthy, home, and out of the hospital.

Film festival is on; submissions wanted

NEW HAVEN  One of the major impacts of Covid-19 on the New Haven Documentary Film Festival has been on the student competition. Students usually are completing their films during the Spring semester, now they find themselves at home, without access to the resources in their schools. The festival is calling on all Connecticut middle school, high school, and college students to make a short documentary, 5 minutes or less, with the resources you have in your home. The theme can be anything, but we challenge you to convey your feelings about the coronavirus and/or being quarantined in the film.

Participants in the NHdocs Quarantine Student Film Challenge can sign up for three 15-minute video-chat mentor sessions with professional filmmakers during the process of making their films. The goal of these mentorship sessions is to equip students with creative ideas for telling their stories within the confines of their current limited resources.

Winners will hae their film screened at the festival on a large screen for an audience. There will be a special prize category for these films, with first, second, and third place prizes. Winners will be recognized on our website.

To sign up, visit http://www.nhdocs.com/quarantine/ to register for the event and receive instructions on how to schedule mentoring sessions and submit the film. Applications will be taken on a first-come, first-serve basis. All films must be submitted through FilmFreeway by June 30, under the Quarantine Student Film Challenge Category. Submission is free. Limit one film per student.

Scholarship offered in memory of schoolteacher

WEST HAVEN  The West Haven Breast Cancer Awareness Committee is accepting applications for a scholarship fund it founded in memory of a third grade Savin Rock Community School teacher who died of breast cancer. The 18th annual Susan A. Ruickoldt Scholarship Fund will award $2,000 to a female high school senior from West Haven who plans to continue her education.

Candidates must submit an application form, a 250-word essay on achievements and goals, and a 250-word essay on the importance of breast cancer screening and education. Applicants must also submit a letter of acceptance from a postsecondary school and a letter of intent to attend the school. Download an application at http://cityofwesthaven.com/DocumentCenter/View/2390/Susan-A-Ruickoldt-Breast-Cancer-Awareness-Scholarship-Application-DOCX. Applications are also available by calling the personnel office at 203-937-3558. Applications are due by 5 p.m. May 27 to the City of West Haven, Department of Personnel, 355 Main St., West Haven 06516. Applications can also be inserted into the drop box at the Main Street entrance of City Hall.
On the first day of Indias third phase of the lockdown  where substantial relaxations were introduced  there was a degree of chaos. And nothing symbolised this more starkly than the long queues, the rush, the jostling, and the quarrels in front of liquor shops. It almost appeared that after 40 days, India was ready to party. However, the violation in social distancing norms worried governments considerably. Indeed, it opens up the possibility of a greater spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), and squandering away of the gains made so far.

There have been a variety of responses to this chaos. But the sharpest came from the Delhi government. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, rightly, issued a warning that if violations continued, he will have to reintroduce restrictions. On Monday night, the government also imposed an extra 70% corona(virus) tax on liquor. Andhra Pradesh has hiked liquor prices by 75%. One may, intuitively, think of this as a wise measure. Governments aim to meet two objectives with higher prices. The first is to disincentivise people from lining up and purchasing alcohol, and thus controlling crowds. The second, at a time when state public finances are under great strain, is to ramp up extra revenues.

But this is a mistake. One, there is a clear class bias in the decision because making alcohol expensive is unfair on the poor, while those with resources will continue to purchase alcohol legitimately. Second, it is not going to necessarily stop those who cannot afford the legitimate prices from drinking. Examples from states which have imposed prohibition show that there is an immediate parallel economy that springs up  and a nexus between those who deal in illegal liquor and crime flourishing. Three, illicit liquor also has serious public health implications, and can lead to a sudden rise in hooch deaths. And four, if revenue generation is the aim, hikes have to be reasonable and proportionate. Seventy per cent is excessive. In fact, governments need to recognise the surge in demand  and reform and liberalise alcohol sales. Allow more shops to engage in the liquor trade; allow online delivery  and the increase in volumes will lead to higher revenues. All of this, of course, must be done along with instituting more strict measures for social distancing at shops, and holding liquor vendors and citizens responsible. Indian political leaders have had an uncomfortable relationship with alcohol. However, the solution does not lie in more controls and prohibition, but a more liberal regime with regulation.
Gratiot Countys second person has died from COVID-19, part of an outbreak that now accounts for more than half of the countys confirmed cases.

As of last Wednesday, the county had 10 confirmed cases of COVID-19. As of Monday, that number had more than doubled to 25. Fifteen of those cases are part of an outbreak at Riverside Healthcare Center, 1149 W. Monroe St., in St. Louis; 12 residents and one staff. The death involved one of the residents, a woman, according to a press release from the Mid-Michigan District Health Department.

Riverside Healthcare Center took extensive measures to protect its residents and staff from COVID-19, but the virus still managed to infiltrate the building, said Sarah Doak, MMDHD Community Health and Education Division Director. COVID-19 is very contagious and can spread easily among a vulnerable population, such as those residing in long-term care centers.

The countys first COVID-19 death was an elderly man in a Saginaw hospital and who died April 19.

Separately, the Michigan Department of Corrections has confirmed that two members of its staff at Central Michigan Correctional Facility, 320 Hubbard St. in St. Louis, have also tested positive for the disease. The MDOC has tested 56 inmates at the prison, with all of them but nine returning nine negative tests. It has also tested seven inmates at St. Louis Correctional Facility, 8585 N. Croswell Road, and all of those were negative.

Nursing homes and prisons have become a focus of the states campaign to contain COVID-19. A nursing home outbreak at the Isabella County Medical Care Facility in Mt. Pleasant, 17 residents were infected, with four dying, and another eight members of the staff.

A software glitch prevented the state from releasing its numbers until Monday evening, and when it did it issued a warning that the information might not be complete.

Tuesdays numbers were posted seamlessly, and showed significant promise of good news. Just 447 new cases and 44 additional deaths were reported, with eight of those deaths recorded after a review of vital records. It brings the states total cases to 44,397 cases and 4,179 deaths.

Its also been several days since most mid-Michigan counties have seen additional cases. Aside from Gratiots nursing home outbreak, only one, Montcalm County, has seen a change in cases of more than one. Its number has grown to 46 since being at 40 on Friday.

Isabella County currently has 61 cases and seven deaths. Aside from Friday, where it dipped to 60, its been there since. Clare has stood at 11 cases and one death since early last week; Mecosta Countys 14 cases and one death is the same. Gladwin County has counted 16 cases and one death since Friday. Midland County, 61 cases and six deaths, hasnt had any new cases since Friday.

Kent Countys outbreak continues to grow rapidly, however. On Friday, it had 1,600 cases and 36 deaths. As of Tuesday, it was up to 1,914 cases and 40 deaths.

Part of that is probably attributable to increased testing. In a four-day span starting last Wednesday, the state conducted more than 40,000 tests. That is double the number during a comparable four-day span last month.

The rate of positive results has also dropped over that four days, from 11.7 percent to 8.8 percent. A smaller number is generally considered an important metric used to help guide Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as she makes decisions about what parts of the state to reopen. The more tests conducted and smaller percentage that return as positive is a sign that the state has found the disease where it is and is isolating it.

Kent County  along with Isabella, Mecosta, Clare and Montcalm  belongs to the West Michigan Regional Healthcare Consortium, a mutual aid pact that allows member counties to share emergency healthcare services. During that same four-day space, more than 4,500 tests were conducted, with 8.8 percent of tests returned as positive on Saturday. During the same time frame last month, approximately 800 tests were conducted.

Michigans mortality rates continue to follow global data in skewing as especially dangerous the older a person is. People 60 and older account for 87 percent of all deaths, people 70 and older account for 69 percent of all deaths, people 60 and older account for 87 percent of all deaths. Half of all deaths occurred in ages 76 and older, with an average age of death at 74.9 percent.

Globally, people approximately 13 percent of people 80 and older diagnosed with the disease die of it, that drops to 8 percent from 70-79, 3.6 percent 60-69, 1.3 percent from 50-59 percent, .3 percent from 20-49, .18 percent from 10-18 and a negligible number of people younger than 10 die.

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As economies open after a decline in coronavirus cases, investors hope for higher business activity and more oil demand.

Shares and oil prices climbed in Asia on Tuesday on the hopes of a budding economic recovery as countries began to emerge from weeks of coronavirus-led lockdowns.

Countries and states have begun reopening their economies as new coronavirus cases declined. Italy and Spain have begun to relax strict lockdown rules while Hong Kong may soon reopen cinemas and gyms.

In the United States, the Treasury Department announced it would borrow a record-breaking $3 trillion to fund stimulus, which has included cash handouts to households and subsidies for businesses

California, which was the first US state to shut its economy down due to the coronavirus outbreak, said it would start loosening its lockdown on Friday by allowing some stores to reopen for curbside pickup. New York, which has been the hardest-hit state in the pandemic, has planned a phased reopening outlined by its Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday.

Can you lift restrictions and begin to phase in economic activity and yet keep the number of cases at bay? That is what the market is focused on right now, said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey to Reuters news agency.

Asian stock indexes followed a late rally on Wall Street in the previous session which was led by tech shares and oil gains.

Early on Tuesday trading in Asia, futures for the S&P 500 were up 0.6 percent and the Australian S&P/ASX 200 were up 1.42 percent. Hong Kongs Hang Seng index rose 0.5 percent.

Japan and mainland China markets are closed for public holidays.

The market continues to price in the idea that things are improving, Gene McGillian, vice president of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut told Reuters.

The US Treasury Department said late on Monday that it plans to borrow close to $3 trillion in the second quarter of 2020, more than five times larger than its previous record, to mitigate the effect of the coronavirus to the economy.

The Treasury said the increase is driven by new stimulus spending legislation and tax receipt deferrals, steps taken to help the economy overcome social distancing measures that shuttered businesses.

It borrowed $1.8 trillion in the second half of 2008 during the global financial crisis.

In commodities, oil continued rising from the previous days session as production cuts began to take effect, easing supply concerns especially in the US. Investors were also optimistic that demand would pick up as cities eased stringent lockdown measures.

US West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 5.7 percent to $21.56 a barrel after data pointed to the smallest weekly increase in inventories. Brent crude rose 4.6 percent to trade at $28.44 a barrel.

Analysts at Commonwealth Bank of Australia said the structure of the oil price rises, with bigger gains in nearer-dated contracts, suggested expectations of more production cuts and a restoration of fuel demand later this year.

They added, though, that this meant prices are highly unlikely to recover the big falls since the start of the year.
On the day Nigeria relaxed a lockdown of major cities, the country announced its highest number of daily coronavirus cases yet, with the figure for Monday at 245.

The announcement was made by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Monday night. The figure brings the total tally for the country to 2,802, the agency said.

On the 4th of May, 245 new confirmed cases and 6 deaths were recorded in Nigeria, it said.

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The breakdown of the new cases showed that Lagos leads with 79 cases, followed by Katsina 37, Jigawa 32, Kano 23 and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with 19 cases.

On Monday, 16 states reported at least a case of the virus.

245 new cases of #COVID19 reported; 76-Lagos, 37- Katsina, 32  Jigawa, 23  Kano, 19  FCT, 18- Borno, 10  Edo, 9  Bauchi, 6  Adamawa, Oyo and Ogun reported 5 cases , Ekiti, Osun, Benue, Niger and Zamfara reported one case each.

As at 11 :46 pm 4 May  2802 confirmed cases of #COVID19 reported in Nigeria. Discharged: 417 Deaths: 93, the health agency wrote.

The 245 cases on Monday brings the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 2,802 including 417 patients who have been discharged after recovery, and 93 deaths.

BREAKDOWN

Nigeria has so far tested 18,536 persons since the beginning of the pandemic in the country.

A breakdown of the 2,802 confirmed cases shows that Lagos State has so far reported 1,183 cases, followed by Kano  365, FCT  297, Borno  100, Gombe  96, Kaduna  81, Ogun  85, Bauchi  80, Sokoto  66, Edo  62, Katsina  83, Osun  37, Oyo and Jigawa  39, Delta  17, Kwara and Akwa Ibom  16, Rivers  14, Yobe, Zamfara and Ondo  13, Ekiti, Adamawa, Kebbi  13,Nasarawa  11, Enugu and Taraba  8, Ebonyi and Baylsa  5, Plateau  3, Niger  4, Imo, Benue and Abia  2 while Anambra has one case.

The number of infected people in the country is expected to rise as the country has entered into the community transmission phase. The country has also increased its testing capacity.

Relaxing lockdown

After five weeks of a lockdown of three major cities  Lagos, Ogun and Abuja  the government eased the lockdown on Monday and replaced it with a night curfew.

The government also announced mandatory safety precautions including wearing of face masks and social distancing.

However, the precautions were largely breached in the major cities as thousands thronged banks and other public places.

The government Monday evening admitted the violations and appealed to residents to comply with the directives so as to limit the spread of coronavirus.
New Delhi, May 5 : The Centre on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that May 7 onwards it will begin bringing back Indian citizens stranded due to the nationwide lockdown and travel restrictions in place in various countries.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan comprising Justice S.K. Kaul and B.R. Gavai that only May 7 onwards Indian citizens could be brought back in special flights, including those Indians stuck in Nepal.

The bench was hearing a plea, through video-conferencing, seeking direction to the Centre to ensure safe movement for migrant workers, hailing from Nepal, and stranded in Uttarakhand. On April 30, the petitioner had informed the apex court that around 1,700 migrant workers from Nepal were stranded at the India-Nepal border in Uttarakhand due to the nationwide lockdown. The petitioner urged the Centre to allow them to return to their country.

The apex court noted that the government must know that workers are still stranded at few places, and the government must look into it. The petitioners said 1,000 Nepali workers had to go back. "A large number have been sent back... the remaining 214 have not been sent back", the petitioner's counsel submitted in the court.

Mehta told the bench he has got instructions from the Ministry of External Affairs that all Indian citizens stranded abroad, including Nepal, would be brought back from May 7 onwards.

The counsel, appearing for petitioner Ganga Giri Goswami, contended before the bench that around 1,000 Indian citizens are also stranded in Nepal in a precarious situation. The counsel insisted that the government has issued a notification on Monday that they will bring back Indians stranded abroad.

Mehta replied that supply of essentials has been made for Indians stuck in Nepal and the authorities concerned are also in touch with the consulate in Nepal.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
[May 05, 2020] AUM LifeTech and AUM BioTech Launch "Knockdown Coronavirus"

PHILADELPHIA, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The coronavirus pandemic has significantly disrupted life in most countries around the globe, causing a severe health and economic crisis. AUM LifeTech, Inc., a preclinical stage biotech company developing RNA therapeutics, and AUM BioTech, LLC, a genetic research startup, have jointly launched a research program called Knockdown Coronavirus with a goal of developing a treatment for COVID-19. Under this initiative, the two Philadelphia-based companies are offering self-delivering RNA silencing research products, powered by FANA ASO technology, to the global coronavirus research community to facilitate research and fast track therapeutic development. AUM LifeTech is currently working with collaborators with the goal of developing a therapy for COVID-19. AUM BioTech's next-generation gene silencing research tools have the capability to selectively knockdown RNA of the virus. Further, AUM BioTech's RNA targeting technology can be used to perform high-throughput genetic screening to identify the function of viral and host genes and help identify new targets for COVID-19 therapy development. "We are very excited to launch this program and serve the global scientific community, which is working tirelessly to find a cure for COVID-19 in these unique and challenging times," said Veenu Aishwarya, founder and chief executive officer of AUM LifeTech, Inc. and AUM BioTech, LLC. "RNA targeting technology works by silencing (knocking down) the RNA that plays a crucial role, causing a loss of function, thus inhibiting viral replication and transmission. We are very proud to offer our RNA silencing platform, to better understand the biology of SARS-CoV-2 and its interaction with the host. Our goal is to provide our expertise and resources to facilitate COVID-19 research with a hope to develop a potential antiviral therapy for COVID-19 using our self-delivering FANA ASO technology. Additionally, we are actively seeking new alliances and invite the scientific community to partner with us to knockdown coronavirus and defeat COVID-19." Information on:

COVID-19 therapy development partnerships: https://www.aumlifetech.com/COVID-19/

COVID-19 drug discovery and preclinical research tools: https://www.aumbiotech.com



AUM LifeTech's scientific advisory board member Dr. John Rossi is a distinguished infectious disease scientist working on development of RNA targeting therapies for HIV and his expertise is globally recognized. Dr. Rossi, is the Lidow Family Research Chair and Morgan and Helen Chu Dean's Chair of the Irell and Manella Graduate School at Beckman Research Institute at City of Hope in California, and is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Beckman Research Institute. "Coronavirus is an RNA virus. We have in the past shown and published that AUM's self-delivering FANA ASO technology can inhibit replication of HIV (which is also an RNA virus) by selectively targeting the RNA of HIV without showing any apparent immune response," Rossi said. "We were very pleased with the RNA technology's utility and effectiveness in our anti-HIV applications. Unlike the antibody approach which targets the proteins and sometimes may take a longer time for development, nucleic acid-based approaches directly target the viral RNA and can potentially help develop a therapy in a relatively shorter time. We are confident that AUM's RNA silencing platform powered by FANA ASO technology can be effectively used to understand the biology of SARS-CoV-2, identify critical targets, and facilitate therapy development for COVID-19. We are excited about the prospect of seeing self-delivering FANAs ASOs as anti-coronavirus agents." AUM is offering FANA ASO RNA silencing research reagents to the scientific community across multiple institutes who are currently working to find a therapy for COVID-19. This also includes some current members of COVID-19 International Research Team (COV-IRT). This team is co-lead by Dr. Afshin Beheshti, a scientist at NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley and Dr. Todd Treangen, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Rice University. COV-IRT is focused on understanding SARS-CoV-2 through analyzing omics data, predicting potential targets, and help develop a therapy. AUM is working with some COVIRT members to help identify and narrow down genetic targets which can be used to develop RNA-targeting therapeutics for COVID-19.

AUM LifeTech is also collaborating with McGill University in Canada on another COVID-19 project using FANA ASO technology. Dr. Masad Damha is the distinguished James McGill Professor of Chemistry at McGill University and also the founding Scientific Advisory Board member of AUM LifeTech. He is globally recognized for the development of various next-generation nucleic acids chemistries and is the inventor of FANA technology. "McGill is a leader in developing innovating medicinal chemistries. In collaboration with Dr. Jerry Pelletier, we have identified some key targets and are currently evaluating self-delivering FANA ASOs to target SARS-CoV-2. We look forward to working with AUM LifeTech to further COVID-19 therapy development," said Dr. Damha. The list of AUM's collaborators working on COVID-19 programs is growing. By providing genetic research resources to scientists across multiple disciplines AUM hopes to gather data which can be utilized to develop an effective therapy for COVID-19. "AUM LifeTech and AUM BioTech are young biotech companies and small businesses and are stepping up to do our part to facilitate R&D," added Aishwarya. The two companies that launched with the incubation support from the University City Science Center are now located at Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) in Philadelphia. CIC together with the Science Center, are part of the dynamic uCity Square community consisting of over 200 early-stage, emerging, and established technology and life science companies. CIC provides state-of-the-art office and lab coworking space to support founders and entrepreneurial teams in solving the world's problems through innovation. "We created CIC more than 20 years ago to further research and innovation into important problems facing humanity. The real-time work AUM LifeTech and AUM BioTech are doing to fight the pandemic is a great example of this. The impact of COVID-19 is felt in every corner of the world, and seeing this tremendous challenge, AUM is stepping up to try to help design solutions. We are impressed by how AUM has improved RNA silencing and regulation technology that may help develop coronavirus therapies. We're proud to have been able to provide a supportive environment allowing this type of critical research to take place," said Tim Rowe, co-founder and CEO of CIC. About AUM LifeTech, Inc.: AUM LifeTech, founded in 2013, is an American biotechnology company focused on using self-delivering RNA silencing FANA ASO technology to develop solutions in diverse life science verticals including biomedical research, medicine, agriculture, and aquaculture. Specifically, AUM's custom products include the next generation of innovative genetic tools in the area of gene silencing and manipulation for biomedical research and therapeutic development. RNA silencing products using FANA technology provide fast track target discovery and drug development. AUM's goal is to provide innovation at the genetic level for a better life. About AUM BioTech, LLC.: AUM BioTech, founded in 2015, is a Philadelphia based biotechnology company that offers next-generation genetic research tools in the area of gene silencing and regulation. AUM's products are globally being used by biomedical scientists and researchers working on basic, transitional, and pre-clinical research. Contact: AUM LifeTech, Inc.

[email protected]

www.aumlifetech.com AUM BioTech, LLC.

[email protected]

www.aumbiotech.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aum-lifetech-and-aum-biotech-launch-knockdown-coronavirus-301053020.html SOURCE AUM LifeTech, Inc. and AUM BioTech, LLC.

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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.  As the state and nation continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Sen. Jim Tedisco (R,C,I-Glenville) announced support for an innovative approach to enable high school seniors and their families to celebrate their graduations together, while still practicing social distancing: holding graduation ceremonies at drive-in movie theaters.

Tedisco is asking Gov. Andrew Cuomo to issue an Executive Order to allow school districts who want to do so to work with municipalities and drive-in movie theaters that are willing to participate, to host graduation ceremonies while safely complying with all COVID-19 prevention social distancing and safety protocols.

The drive-ins can project a pre-taped video onto their screens that could include remarks from school officials, teachers, students and an address by valedictorians and salutatorians. The video could then show photos of each graduate with a narrator announcing each students name. Students would receive their diplomas in the mail.

Many drive-in movie theaters can safely fit hundreds of cars in their lots and as the audio is transmitted via radio, there is no need for attendees to have their car windows down.

In the 49th Senate District, the popular Malta Drive-in Theatre has come forward to offer their facility for a socially-distant graduation ceremony for local high schools.

Walking across a stage to accept your high school diploma as your family and friends cheer you on is a rite of passage and a special memory thats part of growing up and moving on to the next stage in our lives. It breaks my heart that due to the COVID-19 crisis, thousands of young people in New York State may not have that momentous opportunity, Tedisco stated.

While its certainly not the same thing as a traditional high school graduation ceremony, I think we have a unique solution that could work for some school districts and communities and thats to allow drive-in movie theaters to safely host a version of a graduation ceremony while maintaining social distancing. I ask the Governor to give this proposal serious consideration as a viable attempt to allow young people to come together in a socially distant way and celebrate the important milestone of graduating from high school, Tedisco continued.

I want to thank Malta Town Councilman Timothy Dunn and Malta Drive-In owner Ed Caro for bringing this innovative idea to my attention so we can bring some joy to our graduating seniors and their families in this challenging time, Tedisco added.

The Malta Drive-In is a gem in our town and this opportunity to safely allow graduation memories to be made is a home run. My deep thanks to Ed Caro of the Drive-In and Senator Tedisco for being such as champion for this common sense approach to making memories safely. This is how #MaltaWorks, Malta Town Councilman Timothy Dunn remarked.

Our schools are looking for an opportunity to safely hold graduation ceremonies and many of them have contacted us to see if we would be available to host them given that the drive-in movie business is already set-up with many of the safety protocols that are needed now. We think this is a great opportunity to allow local high school seniors to celebrate their graduations. I want to thank Senator Tedisco and Councilman Dunn for following up and bringing this to the Governor, Ed Caro, owner of the Malta Drive-In Theater added.
Australia's richest woman sent an email to her employees urging them to take extra precautions to stay healthy during the coronavirus crisis.

Gina Rinehart sent a three-page email to thousands of staff at Hancock's Roy Hill mining detailing her own routine to keep fit amid the pandemic, The West Australian reported.

In the email, she reportedly suggested her staff take vitamin C injections and drink ginger, hot water with lemon and turmeric to keep in peak condition.

But Andrew Miller, the president of the West Australian branch of the Australian Medical Association, said people should follow official medical guidelines.

In the email, Ms Rinehart reportedly included a lengthy disclaimer warning her employees that her advice should be paired with a professional medical opinion.

Gina Rinehart (pictured) reportedly told her staff via an email that she encouraged them to take Vitamin C intravenously and to drink ginger tea

Mr Miller said regularly washing your hands and avoiding people who were already sick were the most effective preventative methods in the fight against coronavirus.

Currently, there are 6,847 known cases of COVID-19 in Australia, including 864 which are still active. At least 5,863 have recovered, while 96 people have died.

Mr Miller told The Australian the medical body would 'never recommend intravenous vitamins because they are simply a waste of money and can be harmful if you have too much.'

But he clarified the organisation is 'not against complimentary medicines if they do no harm.'

Mr Miller said the safest way to overcome the deadly respiratory virus is to listen to doctors.

Andrew Miller, the president of the West Australian branch of the Australian Medical Association said his body wouldn't encourage intravenous shots of vitamins (stock image)

In the initial email, which was seen by The West Australian, Ms Rinehart spoke of the benefits of consuming ginger, turmeric and garlic, drinking hot lemon water (stock image)

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

In the initial email, which was seen by The West Australian, Ms Rinehart spoke of the benefits of consuming ginger, turmeric and garlic, drinking hot lemon water and 'adding whisky if you wish at night'.

She also praised the health benefits associated with taking Vitamin C intravenously 'to avoid infection'.

'Your health and safety is something I have discussed with several doctors and read much about,' Ms Rinehart wrote.

Anyone who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 was advised to consider taking tamiflu, additional Vitamin C injections, and a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin.

The two drugs have been touted as a potential medication to treat coronavirus, but they have not yet been proven effective.

Ms Rinehart said the advice was based on her own actions during the crisis, but urged her employees to seek medical advice in addition to her notes.

A Hancock spokesman would not comment on the supposed email.
All the while, Sheriff Mendrick and his friends, in complete defiance of the governors executive order, were allowed to parade through neighborhoods of color to show off their man toys at the taxpayers expense. This behavior and the approval of the event demonstrate a complete lack of sensitivity, a lack of leadership, and frankly a complete lack of common sense, Childress said in his letter.
[May 05, 2020] Draganfly CEO Cameron Chell to be featured on Newsmax

Los Angeles, CA, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Draganfly Inc. (CSE: DFLY) (OTCQB: DFLYF) (FSE: 3U8) (Draganfly or the Company), an award-winning, industry-leading manufacturer within the commercial Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), and unmanned vehicle sector, announced today that Cameron Chell, Draganfly CEO will be featured on Newsmax.com on May 5th with Shaun Kreisman and Emma Rechenberg at 11AM EST.

The segment on Newsmax will focus Draganflys position as a North American based drone systems developer and recent announcement it has been selected as the exclusive global systems integrator for a project with Vital Intelligence Inc., a healthcare data services and deep learning company in conjunction with the University of South Australia, using technology developed with help from the Australian Department of Defence Science and Technology Group. I am super excited to share our story with Newsmax, said Cameron Chell, CEO Draganfly. With the new North American security concerns around foreign manufacturing in this sector, our advanced capabilities and the post COVID-19 reality, new frontiers have opened up for Draganfly. We are a secure North American Drone solution and in conjunction with our partners, we are the first to be commercially implementing multiple new state-of-the-art technologies with the ability to provide real data that aids in the reopening of the economy and protecting human lives. To watch the live stream of the interview on Newsmax click here. About Draganfly Draganfly Inc. (CSE: DFLY; OTCQB: DFLYF; FSE: 3U8) is the creator of quality, cutting-edge, UVS and software that revolutionizes the way people do business. Recognized as being at the forefront of technology for over 22 years, Draganfly is an award-winning, industry-leading manufacturer within the commercial UAV and UVS space, serving the public safety, agriculture, industrial inspections and mapping and surveying markets. Draganfly is a company driven by passion, ingenuity and the need to provide efficient solutions and first-class services to its customers around the world with the goal of saving time, money and lives. For more information on Draganfly, please visit us at draganfly.com .





https://www.thecse.com/en/listings/technology/draganfly-inc , https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/DFLYF/overview or https://www.boerse-frankfurt.de/aktie/draganfly-inc . Media Contact

Arian Hopkins

email: [email protected]

Company Contact

Phone: 1-800-979-9794

Email: [email protected] Forward-Looking Statements This release contains certain forward looking statements and certain forward-looking information as defined under applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements and information can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as may, will, expect, intend, estimate, anticipate, believe, continue, plans or similar terminology. Forward-looking statements and information are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions that, while believed by management to be reasonable, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Forward-looking statements and information are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the ability of the Company to control or predict, that may cause the Companys actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied thereby, and are developed based on assumptions about such risks, uncertainties and other factors set out here in, including but not limited to: the potential impact of epidemics, pandemics or other public health crises, including the current outbreak of the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 on the Companys business, operations and financial condition, the successful integration of technology, the inherent risks involved in the general securities markets; uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future; the inherent uncertainty of cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses, currency fluctuations; regulatory restrictions, liability, competition, loss of key employees and other related risks and uncertainties. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information except as required by applicable law. Such forward-looking information represents managements best judgment based on information currently available. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual future results may vary materially. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. The CSE has not in any way passed upon the merits of the listing of the common shares of Draganfly and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Listing of the common shares of Draganfly is subject to satisfaction of the listing requirements of the CSE, including customary deliverables in satisfaction of the conditional approval.

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Hamilton has spent close to $2 million so far on a judicial inquiry into the crash-prone Red Hill Valley Parkway.

But given the COVID-19 pandemic ban on large gatherings, it is not clear when public hearings will be held to hear from witnesses or shed light on the findings of the multimillion-dollar investigation.

City council voted in February 2019 to ask a Superior Court judge to investigate why a troubling friction study on the parkway was inexplicably hidden for years.

Justice Herman Wilton-Siegel was appointed to head the city-funded inquiry almost a year ago. An update report going to council Wednesday says document collection and interviewing of potential witnesses is well underway despite ongoing COVID-19 restrictions.

The report lists more than $1.9 million spent so far on the inquiry. The city has earmarked up to $7 million in a reserve that could be used if needed for the investigation. The breakdown so far includes:

$1.1 million associated with work by the office of the commissioner, Justice Wilton-Siegel. (The commissioner has an office for the inquiry and employs his own lawyer, Robert Centa;)

$714,000 by the city for its own lawyers and legal work associated with the inquiry;

$44,000 is listed for other expenses.

Most of the judicial inquirys work has happened behind the scenes, but Wilton-Siegel earlier held meetings to hear from individuals who want to formally participate at planned public hearings.

Those hearings  which include witness testimony and cross-examination  were originally expected late this year.

But inquiry staff say it is still too early to say whether the pandemic restrictions will affect the timing of such hearings.

Council will hold a remote closed session Wednesday to discuss unspecified legal details related to the inquiry and threatened class-action lawsuit by families of Red Hill crash victims.

That proposed $250-million lawsuit has yet to be certified and efforts to move forward have been delayed by COVID-19 related court shutdowns.
Reid Bartelme loves podcasts. Jack Ferver doesnt even listen to the one they host together.

Yes, theyre different, but their ability to dish out one-liners and eloquent descriptions of just about anything  from a George Balanchine ballet to the Netflix series Cheer  comes out of a long friendship. (Theirs goes back to their teenage years at Interlochen Center for the Arts.) Listening to Whats Going on With Dance and Stuff, their chatty and illuminating podcast, feels like being with good friends  and thats a rare sort of lifeline in these days of social isolation.

Mr. Ferver is a writer, choreographer and director whose psychological works explore the fine line between darkness and humor. Mr. Bartelme is a dancer, who has performed with ballet and contemporary companies, as well as a sought-after costume designer. What they have created is more than just a weekly podcast; its a community.

We may not be able to watch dance in a theater, but in the Dance and Stuff universe, it can live through voices, and that is a balm for the present moment, which Mr. Ferver described as the worst and slowest sci-fi horror movie.

Were in the parts that they skipped in between the action parts, Mr. Bartelme said. Its like in that movie A Quiet Place, where theyve been silent for years  but we dont see that part.
(Natural News) With the pandemic taking hold just after the new year began, 2020 has proven to be one of the worst years in history for people everywhere, and residents of the United States are no exception. For many, fears about getting ill with the coronavirus have now been eclipsed by desperate anxiety about where their next paycheck will come from or how they will find the money to feed their families.

By early April, over 16.8 million Americans had filed for unemployment benefits  a number so large and unprecedented that labor departments nationwide have been completely overwhelmed, creating a massive backlog of applications.

This backlog, in turn, has meant that millions have been left stranded without any source of income for many weeks. And since most Americans live paycheck to paycheck, this has ultimately left a huge number of people without the resources to even buy their next meal.

As reported by the U.K.s Daily Mail, this has left many with no option but to turn to food banks for help, and these food banks are quickly becoming overwhelmed as well. (Related: Talking about reopening the economy, Texas Lt. Gov Dan Patrick says There are more important things than living.)

The hungry line up

The situation is fast becoming desperate in Los Angeles, as the Mail reported:

Grim footage has shown lines of cars stretching for miles outside a Los Angeles food bank as droves of desperate Americans continue to [sit in] line for hours across the country amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Thousands of cars were spotted crawling along the street to receive food items being distributed by the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank at the The Forum arena in Inglewood at the weekend.

And California is by no means the only state where people are having to rely on handouts to survive. The Mail reported further:

In other scenes across the country in recent days, hundreds of people lined up in their cars on Tuesday in order to get free food from the Feeding South Florida food bank in Opa-Locka.

About 10,000 families lined up in their cars for hours at a food bank in San Antonio, Texas and cars lined for more than a mile at a drive-up food bank site in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the weekend.

Desperation has also meant that social distancing rules have been disregarded or have become unenforceable in many places.

The Mail reported:

Crowds of people were also spotted huddling together in the rain outside a soup kitchen in New York City on Monday despite social distancing guidelines being enforced by the city.

Eric Cooper, CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank, and a 25-year industry veteran, told NBCs Today show recently that he has never seen anything like this level of need in his community.

We typically feed about 60,000 a week, he said. The need has risen to 120,000 people a week and we are just working as hard as we can to meet that need. (Related: Will people in the U.S. have to cope with another 18 months of rolling coronavirus shutdowns? This expert thinks they will.)

Sadly, many of those now turning to help from food banks are people who just a few weeks ago were gainfully employed in the hospitality industry, gig economy and other industries, who have never had to seek outside help to support themselves before. In fact, Cooper noted that some have even volunteered at food banks themselves in the past.

Now that the last of their money has dwindled away, however, they have no choice but to seek aid. And with no end in sight to the coronavirus pandemic, thousands more are sure to swell their ranks in the coming months.

Sources for this article include:

DailyMail.co.uk

Reuters.com
Solicitor general Jose Calida warned the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) against allowing the ABS-CBN television network to operate while the companys franchise is pending approval in Congress. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) express dismay at the warning and call on authorities to grant the franchise to the broadcasting company.

The Philippines largest television network, ABS-CBNs franchise expires yesterday on May 4 after months of delays in the Senate attempting to approve the franchise. On World Press Freedom Day, May 3, Jose Calida threatened to prosecute NTC commissioners if they approve the provisional authority, stating only Congress could grant a franchise to ABS-CBN, despite the senate resolution and a letter from the house committee urging NTC to grant the provisional authority until Congress has made the final decision on the franchise renewal.

Previously on February 10, 2020 Calida expressed his discontent with ABS-CBN when he filed a petition to the Supreme Court to revoke the ABS-CBN license. Calida claimed ABS-CBN was unlawfully exercising their legislative franchises and accused it of highly abusive practices.

NUJP said: It would do no good to the Filipino people if the countrys biggest media corporation, one that is relied upon by a great number of the people during this pandemic for news, entertainment and relief delivery, if it ceases operations tomorrow.

IFJ said: The failure to renew ABS-CBN will have profound impacts beyond press freedom, resulting in the potential termination of thousands of media workers. The IFJ condemns Jose Calidas statement and urges authorities to grant the franchise a provisional authority hastily.
In this article KOTAKBANK-IN

Branches of State Bank Of India, Syndicate Bank and Canara Bank in New Delhi, India. Pradeep Gaur | Mint | Getty Images

India's economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis could be delayed if banks stop lending to borrowers with low credit scores, or charge them a much higher interest on loans. The financial sector faces an erosion of loan growth and higher credit costs as it prepares for a rise in bad debt from retail and corporate borrowers  and with India's lockdown extended again, the economic impact could exacerbate. "I think banks would also want to be a lot more careful in terms of incremental lending," Sanjeev Prasad, managing director, and co-head at Kotak Institutional Equities, told CNBC. He explained that a lot of borrowers who would have previously received loans from banks and non-bank financial institutions would not qualify if lenders become more stringent over whom they lend to. "It will have its own repercussions on recovery in the economy going forward."

Bad loans are going to increase and the longer the lockdown, the more prolonged the economic recovery, the more it will be the increase in bad loans. Sanjeev Prasad Kotak Institutional Equities

India this week entered another 2-week extension of its national lockdown which began in late March. The country extended its lockdown twice as infection cases continued to rise, and is currently expected to lift restrictions on May 18. Still, there has been some easing of rules, especially in low-risk areas, though most economic activities remain on hold.

Three types of borrowers at risk

Millions of daily wage-earners have lost their jobs since the lockdown started, while others, particularly in the services sectors, have been furloughed. "Bad loans are going to increase and the longer the lockdown, the more prolonged the economic recovery, the more it will be the increase in bad loans," Prasad said in a late-April interview before India extended the lockdown for a second time. Bankers and government officials already expected bad loans to potentially double as the outbreak brought economic activity to an abrupt halt, Reuters reported. For its part, the central bank had already anticipated an increase in bad debts between September 2019 and September 2020, before the Covid-19 crisis occurred.

A few months of lost income and the resulting rise in the retail delinquency rate could prove to be a potential double whammy for the banks on top of the expected surge in corporate defaults. Kunal Kundu Societe Generale

Prasad said there are three segments of borrowers that are of concern: First, the micro, small and medium-sized companies which, unlike the larger corporations, do not have the financial ability "to withstand any sort of slowdown in business for an extended period of time." Another segment would be the retail borrowers who take personal, unsecured loans and are likely to face job losses. Finally, the microfinance institutions are also at risk. They mostly give small, unsecured loans to daily wage earners, many of whom do not currently have income due to the lockdown.

'Double whammy' for lenders

India's banking sector has been in crisis for several years. When the Reserve Bank of India told banks to clean up their balance sheets around three years ago, non-performing assets surged among state lenders. That was followed by a shadow banking crisis, which saw bad loans outside the formal banking sector balloon. More recently, a struggling private bank with exposure to shadow lenders received a massive bailout from the government, and is aiming to recover up to $1.35 billion of bad loans, Reuters reported. The economic fallout from the virus outbreak is expected to hit all lenders. RBI data showed private banks have been lending at a faster rate than their state rivals over the last several years, making them just as vulnerable to rising levels of defaults worsened by the long lockdown period. Small lenders are even more vulnerable and exposed due to their aggressive credit growth in recent quarters, according to RBI data.

"While not all the job losses will be permanent, a few months of lost income and the resulting rise in the retail delinquency rate could prove to be a potential double whammy for the banks on top of the expected surge in corporate defaults," Kunal Kundu, India economist at Societe Generale, wrote in a late-April note. He explained that the share of unsecured loans in the banks' overall retail portfolio has "jumped to more than a third, increasing their vulnerability." "With many banks giving out low-ticket loans without collateral and based on algorithmic lending without any direct connection with the borrowers, delinquencies could reach worrying levels," Kundu added. Some lenders use software to analyze other sources of information about borrowers who do not have established credit histories, in order to determine if they qualify for a loan. Still, non-bank financial companies are likely more exposed to rising defaults as they typically lend to small and medium businesses that are being hit by the lockdown, Nitin Aggarwal, senior vice president for research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services, told CNBC. Kotak's Prasad added that most shadow lenders may not even be able to raise enough funds from banks to grow their loan books. That could essentially freeze up India's credit cycle and people who need loans would not get them. "Which effectively means that a) recovery will be delayed, and b) the credit costs will also be high," Prasad said.

Policy response
Yaounde, Cameroon (PANA)  Cameroon has secured US$226 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to meet its balance of payments needs stemming from the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, according to a press release issued by the Fund on Tuesday
Help India!

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Srinagar: Three Associated Press photographers Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan, and Channi Anand from Jammu and Kashmir have won this years Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography.

The trio have been awarded for covering Kashmir under lockdown since the government of India read down Article 370 of the Indian constitution in August 2019.

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In the wake of abrogation of Article 370, Kashmir was put under a severe military lockdown and all lines of communications were snapped. The curfew lasted for weeks and Kashmir remained shut for the remainder of the year, with internet services remaining shut for the longest ever time any where in the world.

Commenting on his award, Dar Yasin told AP that, Its not the story of the people I am shooting, only, but its my story.

Its a great honor to be in the list of Pulitzer winners and to share my story with the world, he has said.

Yasin and Khan are based in Srinagar, while Anand is based in the neighboring Jammu district.

This honor continues APs great tradition of award-winning photography, said AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt. Thanks to the team inside Kashmir, the world was able to witness a dramatic escalation of the long struggle over the regions independence. Their work was important and superb.

All five of these photographers made remarkable, stunning images despite dangerous and challenging conditions, sometimes at great personal risk, said AP Director of Photography David Ake. Their dedication to getting up every morning and going out to tell the story is a testament to their tenacity. The result of their work is compelling photojournalism that grabbed the worlds attention.

The Pulitzer Award to three Jammu and Kashmir based journalists was widely celebrated on social media in Kashmir. Journalists from the Valley have called it a victory for the beleaguered profession, which has been severely restricted since August last year.
GREENWICH  Though it will have a different look this year due to the coronavirus, the Greenwich Farmers Market will soon be back in business.

The Greenwich Farmers Market is scheduled to open May 16 at the Arch Street/Horseneck Lane commuter parking lot. The markets hours will be 9:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Saturdays through December.

To keep everyone attending the Farmers Market safe during the COVID-19 crisis, several adjustments will be implemented.

Farming and food are an essential business, so we are trying to help our local farmers and the economy, said Judy Waldeyer, who is the market master in Greenwich. People are crying for the farmers market. Ive sent emails to over 650 customers and so people are very interested in preordering to make it contact-less.

This years Greenwich Farmers Market will include 14 vendors, most of whom are offering payment through credit card and/or Venmo, besides cash, Waldeyer said.

We really want to take it to contact-less, Waldeyer said. Our customers have asked for a safe outdoor place to shop  and we are striving to keep everyone safe.

Among the changes made due to the coronavirus outbreak, vendors will be asked to spread out to allow for plenty of social distancing for customers as they wait in line. Each booth will have designated entrance and exit areas, with customers staying at least six feet away from each other while shopping.

If possible, organizers suggest that only one shopper per family attend the market. Also, everyone visiting the farmers market is required to wear a mask.

The Greenwich Farmers Market is discussing the possibility of opening a half-hour earlier for seniors, but the details will not be finalized for opening day.

Preordering and contact-less payments will be offered by some of the vendors.

So far, here are the vendors that are offering such services:

The Herb Basket, with jams, preserves, pickles, relishes and more. Email to jamlady@sbcglobal.net for product list. The Herb Basket accepts major credit cards and Venmo: @Judith-Waldeyer

Farming 101, with heirloom tomatoes, seasonal produce and flowers, starting in late June. Online store is at farming101-gaskins.square.site/ or email at farming101jennifer@gmail.com. Also accepts Venmo payments: @farming101

Four Mile River Farm, with meat products. Email to Fmrfnic@aol.com, with preorder and shipping services available.

Riverbank Farm, with organic produce. Online ordering at www.riverbankfarm.com/order-online.

Two Guys from Woodbridge, with lettuce and microgreens. Online ordering at https://my-site-100091-103909.square.site/

Vendors will provide bags. Customers who bring their own bags will be asked to bag their own purchases.

Organizers of the Greenwich Farmers Market are setting a one-way traffic flow. Shoppers are asked to enter and exit the market at Horseneck Lane, and exit closest to I-95. The locations will be marked.

There will also be directional signs in each booth. Do not cross the caution tape.

I have spoken to some of the market masters who have already opened and they told me their sales are up 200 percent, Waldeyer said. People are ready to get out. We have a lot of rules and a lot of signage. We are going to mandate the 6-foot social distancing.

dfierro@greenwichtime.com
The Indian government has decided to repatriate its citizens in two special flights from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to India on May 7 as part of the country's largest overseas evacuation of stranded Indian nationals abroad since independence.

The Consulate General of India in Dubai, informed in a statement on Tuesday, that one flight will operate from Abu Dhabi to Kochi and the other from Dubai to Kozhikode. The passenger lists for both these flights will be finalised by the Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi and the Consulate General of India, Dubai on the basis of registrations in the Embassy/Consulate database for this purpose launched a few days back.

"Priority will be given to workers in distress, elderly people, urgent medical cases, pregnant women as well as to other people who are stranded in difficult situations. The Embassy/Consulate are contacting the people on the passenger lists directly through e-mail/telephone," the statement read.

The cost of the tickets and other conditions, for travel including quarantine requirements after reaching India and health requirements to board the flight will be conveyed in due course, and will have to be accepted by each passenger. Air tickets will only be issued to those on the passenger lists prepared by the Embassy/Consulate, it said.

The Consulate said it has received almost 200,000 registrations for travelling back home. It also requested the passengers to maintain social distancing norms.

The operation to bring back Indians stranded in various countries due to airspace closures because of the COVID-19 pandemic will commence in a phased manner, with the first phase to begin as early as this week.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has prepared a chart for the evacuation of over 14,000 Indian nationals stranded in 13 foreign countries by 64 flights in week one of the operation.

(ANI)

Also Read: Al-Qaeda asks Indian muslims, scholars to join hands and wage jihad against India
A blanket reopening of schools next month would risk a deadly second wave of coronavirus, Dominic Raab warned last night.

The Foreign Secretary dashed hopes of a widespread return after half-term, warning that it was too soon to even consider the move.

Speaking at the daily No 10 press briefing, Mr Raab said evidence from scientists indicated that opening all schools would lead to a very real risk of a steep rise in transmission rates.

Pictured: foreign secretary Dominic Raab arriving at last night's press conference where he warned the UK against opening schools

The warning came just hours after Nicola Sturgeon said schools north of the border were unlikely to reopen in the foreseeable future.

Scotlands First Minister said reopening now would most likely see hospitals north of the border overwhelmed with coronavirus cases within two months. She warned it might not be possible at all ahead of the summer holidays. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson told MPs there would be a phased approach to reopening.

Scotlands First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said schools north of the border were unlikely to reopen in the foreseeable future

Welsh schools could reopen at the start of June, First Minister says Schools in Wales could be allowed to reopen their doors next month in a phased approach, the first minister has said. Mark Drakeford said the earliest point schools could resume would be the beginning of June, with a minimum of three weeks needed to prepare from the time it was decided it is safe for pupils and teachers. Some groups could return earlier than others, he said, using examples of year-six children who are due to move up to secondary school, and Welsh medium pupils who may not have had opportunities to use the language at home during lockdown. Mr Drakeford also said work was under way to make sure social distancing guidance was followed and to persuade parents, teachers and pupils that the school environment was safe, saying 'you certainly can't have schools reopen as they did before'. Advertisement

He said: We will take a phased approach in terms of reopening schools and we will always aim to give schools, parents and, of course, critically importantly, children the maximum notice in terms of when this is going to happen.

Mr Raab said that it would not be a binary situation where schools were either fully open or fully shut.

He added: At least to date the evidence has been that we wouldnt be able to open up all schools without a very real risk that the R rate  the transmission rate  would rise at such a level that we would risk a second spike.

He said he had asked the Governments scientific advisers for the best options and would be guided by them.

Sources last night said ministers were still hopeful that some children could go back to school after half-term at the beginning of next month. However, they have ruled out making any return compulsory.

Sources told the Mail parents would not face fines if they refuse to send children back.

What are schools across Europe doing? In April, France revealed plans to begin easing its coronavirus lockdown and begin opening schools from May 11 France, education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said pupils would return gradually over a three-week period starting from that date Under the new plans, classroom will have a maximum of around 15 children per class Meanwhile children in the Netherlands will also start to return on a 'part-time' basis from May 11 In Germany, authorities have prioritised older children who are preparing for summer exams, with students seen returning to schools in Berlin and the eastern state of Saxony last month Other states in Germany will delay the resumption of teaching until May 4 Austria is planning to resume teaching for school leavers in early May and Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said other children would start returning to classrooms in a step-by-step process beginning on May 15 In Norway, the youngest children have started returning to pre-schools Meanwhile Spain has yet to authorise a return to schools Advertisement

Pictured: Key-workers' children social distancing at Drummond Community High School in Edinburgh on April 28

Road map for exiting coronavirus lockdown A leaked draft has revealed more details of the shape of the next phase of coronavirus curbs - due to be unveiled by Boris Johnson on Sunday. Key points include: Flexibility around the two metre 'social distancing' rule as long as firms are taking other steps to protect workers.

Installing screens, strict hygiene procedures, and ensuring people are not close together very long are touted as alternative safeguards.

Offices will be ordered to overhaul their rotas, staggering start, finish and break times.

Hot desking will need to end and sharing equipment kept to an absolute minimum.

Staff considered vulnerable who cannot work from home should be put in the 'safest possible roles'. Advertisement

Any return is likely to involve only some year groups going back to school at first to allow for greater social distancing in the classroom. Under normal circumstances schooling is compulsory, with parents facing 60 fines if they fail to send their children to school without good reason. Fines double to 120 if not paid within 21 days, and parents can face prosecution if they refuse to pay after 28 days.

Teaching unions have asked for guarantees that fines will be suspended during any back-to-school transition, when many children will still be told to stay at home.

Teachers yesterday warned they must not be used as an experiment, amid fears that resistance to returning to classrooms could render the reopening of schools impossible.

Yesterday, ten teaching unions in the UK and Republic of Ireland warned of a very real risk of creating a spike in the transmission of the virus by a premature opening of schools.

In a letter to education ministers, they urged significant caution in any consideration of reopening schools.

The unions also say that without established test trace and isolate capacity, schools restarting would be catastrophic to the rate of infection.
The global death toll from the coronavirus has risen above 250,000 with more than 3.6 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 COVID-19 developments in RFE/RL's broadcast regions.

Central Asia

The World Health Organization (WHO) has reportedly canceled its expected visit to Turkmenistan, the only country in Central Asia that officially has not reported coronavirus cases within its borders, after failing to receive an invitation.

The independent Gundogar news website cited a representative of the UN agency on May 5 as saying that the mission visit, currently in neighboring Tajikistan and scheduled to arrive in Ashgabat later this week, could not take place since the prerequisite for a mission is an invitation from the host government interested in WHO assistance.

Turkmenistan has not reported any registered COVID-19 cases yet, but experts are skeptical, given the lack of transparency and independent media in the country.

Doctors in the country are not allowed to talk about the coronavirus, face masks are banned, and citizens are punished for talking about the global pandemic.

Meanwhile, the authorities have set up three quarantine zones around the country in a bid to prevent the spread of what officials called "infectious diseases."

People with coronavirus symptoms are not being treated for the virus, and COVID-19 test results are unknown, even if they are performed.

In Tajikistan, where authorities confirmed for the first time coronavirus cases on April 30, the latest number of coronavirus cases in the country is 230, including three deaths.

In neighboring Uzbekistan, as of May 5 the number of coronavirus cases was reported at 2,189, including 10 deaths.

In Kyrgyzstan, the latest figures are 843 cases with 11 deaths.

The largest number of coronavirus cases in the region has been officially registered in Kazakhstan, where the latest figures on May 5 were 4,160 cases with 29 deaths

Tajikistan

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has replaced his health minister just five days after the Central Asian nation registered its first official coronavirus cases.

Rahmon said on May 5 that he had signed presidential decrees transferring Nasim Olimzoda "to another job" and appointing Jamoliddin Abdullozoda as the new health minister.

The decrees have been sent to lawmakers for approval, he added.

It was unclear why Olimzoda, who had been serving as health minister since January 2017, had been dismissed.

Abdullozoda is a 54-year-old career doctor who had been heading Dushanbes Istiqlol medical center since March 2017.

The Health Ministry said on May 5 that the number of coronavirus cases in the country is 293, including five deaths.

Those totals came on the eve of a visit by the World Health Organization and just six days after the country admitted its first 15 cases following months of reporting no cases of the virus in Tajikistan.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Tajik Service and Gundogar
3 1 of 3 Richard Drew/Associated Press Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Scott Olson/Getty Images Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Travel company Airbnb is laying off 1,900 employees, roughly 25% of its workforce, the company announced to employees Tuesday.

According to a memo sent by CEO Brian Chesky, the booking company expects its 2020 revenue will be less than half of what it made in 2019; the company reportedly made almost $5 billion last year. As the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe, travel, both domestic and international, has all but ground to a halt  with no clear picture of when leisure and business trips will resume.
Questions over whether the government should play a more active role in protecting Americans from global shocks like the coronavirus pandemic have exposed a widening divide in the Republican Party over whether the small-government, free-market brand of conservatism at the heart of its agenda  and a top priority of its biggest donors  is out of step with the times.

The debate traces some of the same ideological fault lines that run through the party over President Trumps economic and trade policies, which excite many of the voters who are drawn to his nationalist appeals but alarm the partys more traditional, pro-business wing.

In one of the most ambitious proposals from this group of new nationalists who are challenging a generation of Republican orthodoxy, Congress would mandate that certain products deemed essential to the national interest  like medicine, protective equipment including masks, and materials used to build telecommunications infrastructure  are manufactured in the United States.

The growing push is happening on Capitol Hill and in the pages of the rights most influential publications, and it is being led by prominent conservative lawmakers, writers and policy experts. This week they will begin a new phase of their campaign with help from Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Marco Rubio of Florida, who argue in essays in a new online journal that the coronavirus has exposed the nations need to be more aggressive and innovative with its laws so it can better protect itself from adversarial powers like China.
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Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 00:18:17|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Iran has exported its first cargo of fruits and vegetables to Kuwait after the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, Hamid Zadboum, the head of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, was quoted as saying by Eghtesadonline news website on Tuesday.

The goods have been shipped from Dayyer Port in Iran's Bushehr Province to Kuwait's Shuwaikh Port recently, said Zadboum.

The 500-ton shipment was exported using refrigerated containers, he said.

According to Dayyer Port Manager Fazlollah Ahmadi, the shipment was worth 100,000 U.S. dollars.

The Fodder and Vegetable Production Bureau with of the Iranian Ministry of Agriculture has announced that vegetables worth more than 1.4 billion U.S. dollars were exported from Iran during the last Iranian calendar year (ended March 19, 2020). Enditem
Actor Anshuman Jha believes he took the right decision to cancel the UK shoot of his film "Lord Curzon Ki Haveli" as he had a hunch that the situation may get worse due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Anshuman, best known for featuring in Dibakar Banerjee's "Love Sex Aur Dhoka", will be making his directorial debut with the black comedy-thriller, starring Arjun Mathur, Tannishtha Chatterjee and Rasika Dugal.

The 34-year-old actor said he was through with a technical recce in February and the team was scheduled to fly out to London for shoot on March 16.

"But on the March 7, I realised this is going to become something and pulled the plug on the shoot. At that time everyone was a little upset and thought I was overreacting but I'm glad I took the decision.

"It got really bad in the UK and we would have got stuck. Everything happens for a reason so I am not worried - the film will happen when it is meant to," Anshuman told PTI.

The UK is one of the worst-hit countries in the world by the COVID-19 pandemic. The novel virus, which originated in China in December, has claimed over 28,000 lives in the country.

The lockdown in India has put all of his work on hold, the actor added.

"I wrapped the dubbing of my show 'Mastram' from home, they had put a mini set-up mid March, so that kept me occupied. Everything else, new and old, is on hold and rightly so.

"We need to be home and follow the orders of the government and I think it will remain like this for a while," he said.

Anshuman currently stars in MX Player series "Mastram", where he essays the role of Rajaram who took the pen name 'Mastram' to write erotic novels in the 1980s.

The actor said he realised the popularity of the character while preparing for the role.

"I had never read 'Mastram' nor had I seen the film so the research phase allowed me to understand the simple, innocent person and why his literature is such an underbelly cult in India," he said.

"I understand it being hushed in the '80s and '90s but why stay hushed in this millennium when it is all about openness and communication with everything being a click away?" he asked.

For the 10-episode series, the makers got intimacy director Amanda Cutting on board to shoot intimate scenes with sensitivity and Anshuman said the process made the actors feel secure.

"My apprehensions were only with how the intimacy bits will be shot because in India we don't really have specialists doing intimacy. The producers addressed that by getting the very best intimacy directors from Canada and Los Angeles.

"So I was at peace about the process," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Private schools in Mizoram will



charge only 50 per cent fees from students for the lockdown period, an official said on Tuesday.

The decision was taken at a meeting attended by officials of the department, students' bodies, Mizoram Independent School Association (MISA), and other stakeholders, he said.

The decision follows several appeals by students' bodies for exemption from paying school fees during the lockdown.

All private and mission schools run by churches were also asked to exempt poor students from paying fees, the official said.

It was also decided that those schools which have already charged full fees for April would not charge for May, he said.

Minister Lalchhandama Ralte, who chaired the meeting, urged all private school owners to understand the problems faced by students and their guardians due to the unprecedented crisis caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

MISA, an umbrella body of all private schools in the state, earlier said it would charge full fees from the students during the lockdown, citing that they have to pay their employees.

It drew flak from the students' bodies such as Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) and Mizo Students Union (MSU), which said that many students especially those coming from the economically weaker section will be inconvenienced if full fees are charged.

The new academic session (2020-21) was scheduled to begin on April 1, as per the school calendar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Donald Trump lashed out a group of Republicans seeking to defeat him in November, including the husband of White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway.

Trump's outburst came in response to a new video released by the Lincoln Project, a super PAC launched by disaffected Republicans including George Conway. The video, titled "Mourning in America," bashes the President's coronavirus response efforts, saying he made the US "weaker and sicker and poorer".

Donald Trump said those behind the 'Mourning in America" ad were "losers from day one". Credit:AP

Trump told reporters that Kellyanne Conway, one of his longest-serving advisers, "must have done a big number on" George Conway, whom he called a "stone-cold loser." Trump also referred to George Conway as "moonface" in a three-tweet outburst early on Tuesday.

"George Conway, take a look at him, just take a look at that guy, the man's a stone-cold loser," Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews before departing for Arizona. "So they should not call it the Lincoln Project, it's not fair to Abraham Lincoln, a great president. They should call it the losers project."
President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov participated in the online Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement Contact Group on combating COVID-19.

The online forum discussed consolidation of efforts in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic that has become a new and extremely serious challenge facing the entire international community.

Speaking at the meeting, the President of Turkmenistan thanked the Chair of the Non-Aligned Movement, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev for the initiative to discuss combating the coronavirus.

In his speech, the head of state touched on some aspects of this problem. He noted that an effective response to the pandemic requires collective actions of the entire international community. In this regard, the President of Turkmenistan proposed to develop and adopt a program document within the framework of the Non-Aligned Movement that would provide for basic principles of joint work of NAM member states in the fight against epidemics, as well as a set of measures for their prevention and eradication.

In his speech, the Turkmen leader paid particular attention to relations between the Non-Aligned Movement and the World Health Organization (WHO). He noted the importance of ensuring the efficient ways of partnership between the Non-Aligned Movement and WHO in the current situation, primarily through the medical communities.

In conclusion, the Turkmen leader said that ensuring lasting peace and security remains a crucial prerequisite for achieving all the milestones and overcoming the current crisis. According to him, the Non-Aligned Movement member-states should declare their strong commitment to the peaceful resolution of all international disputes and conflicts.

 TURKMENISTAN.RU, 2022
In Canada, resource extraction is not only endangering the land  but the lives of Indigenous women.

Alberta, Canada  April Wiberg, 38, will always hate the smell of baby oil.

More than 20 years after a traumatising encounter with a man twice her age at a trick pad operating under the cover of a massage parlour in Edmonton, Alberta, she is still triggered by that smell.

I will never forget the first guy, she says, a distant expression momentarily settling upon her dark brown eyes.

April is visiting her good friend at her apartment near downtown Edmonton on a frigid winter afternoon. Sonya Purcells home represents comfort for April. The two have spent countless hours together, some of them organising events to advocate for the safety of Indigenous women and girls.

Sonya knows Aprils story well. She knows it is full of hardship and redemption.

April wrings her hands nervously. I will never forget the smell of baby oil, she says, then takes a deep breath and refocuses.

His hair: parted. Middle-aged. Blue-collar type.

He would not take his eyes off her, she explains.

That look in his eyes  He knew I was terrified, and he did it anyway.

April received a Woman of Vision award in 2019 for her advocacy work [Brandi Morin/Al Jazeera]

To numb my pain

April is Cree from Mikisew Cree First Nation in northern Alberta but grew up in southern Saskatchewan, a province directly east of Alberta. She came from what she describes as a broken, dysfunctional home and experienced sexual, physical, emotional and verbal abuse growing up.

Her mother was absent for most of her childhood, dealing with the trauma of her own childhood spent in Canadas residential school system, which ripped Indigenous children from their families and cultures and often subjected them to abuse and neglect.

Aprils father, who was not Indigenous, raised her and her sister in a small town to the best of his ability. But there was always chaos, she says.

April and her sister were the only Indigenous children in their school, and they were often singled out and bullied.

By the time she was 16, April had run away from home, hoping to establish a relationship with her mother. But her mother was struggling with addiction, and April found herself alone on the streets of Edmonton.

She couch-surfed in friends houses, found herself in abusive relationships, committed petty crimes and eventually started using drugs and alcohol.

I was learning how to numb my pain, she explains. And I was drifting further away from reality.

As a vulnerable Indigenous girl with no fixed address, April believes she was targeted for sexual exploitation.

A First Nations woman, not much older than April, groomed her, she says, luring her into the sex trade.

Like her, the woman came from a difficult background and had been coerced into selling her body to survive, before eventually working her way up to become a recruiter of other young women and girls.

Soon April was being pressured into having sex with men for money.

It was the start of years of sexual exploitation.

He liked to torture women

For weeks at a time, April would be sent to Albertas oil patch in Fort McMurray to sell sex to the men working there.

Albertas oil sands have the third-largest oil reserves in the world, after Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. It spans 142,000sq km (54,826sq miles) in northern Alberta, running through the traditional territories of the Cree, Chipewyan and Dene First Nations.

Thousands of workers from Canada and elsewhere work on the oil sands. To house these workers, man camps were built next to the processing plants. The man camps are precisely what their name implies: camps housing mainly male employees working on resource development projects.

For weeks or months at a time, these camps are their home. The overflow workers live in Fort McMurray, which was originally a fur trading post, established in 1870.

For April, being sent there was a terrifying.

Although she does not like to stereotype the oil industry because, she says, Theres fathers, mothers, working in that industry who lead good lives, she describes Fort McMurray as a lawless place.

I sensed there were more violent people there than normal, she explains.

April cradles sacred sage [Brandi Morin/Al Jazeera]

But it was known as a hotspot where more money could be made, so that was where she would be sent, stationed in a rented apartment with other women and girls to work 23-hour shifts for weeks on end.

For the First Nations and Metis (of mixed Indigenous and European heritage) women and girls among them, the feeling of danger was heightened by the racism they would encounter if their customers knew they were Indigenous.

[So] we identified as either Latina, Asian or exotic, because if we self-identified as Indigenous, we would be devalued and our safety would be at risk, April explains.

They believe we (Indigenous and Metis women and girls) are disposable and invisible.

She recalls a time she was sent to a high-rise apartment to meet a man.

But I came to the door and heard a room full of guys voices. I said to myself God, please no.'

I opened the door and saw a dozen pairs of work boots. I took off!

She managed to get away, but was fined by her madame.

Situations like that were common, she says.

Another time in Fort McMurray she was sent to an apartment where she met a man in his 50s who was strung out on crack cocaine.

He was describing to me how he liked to torture women by hanging them in his bedroom, she recalls.

She inched her way towards the door. It felt like an eternity. My mind was racing. A little voice inside said, get out of there!'

Seeking justice

April took more drugs to help her deal with situations like these. Then, one day, she woke up in New York City having seizures from a cocaine overdose.

I was very broken. I was drinking every day and addicted to cocaine, she says.

It was then she made the decision to fly back to Edmonton, to get off the drugs and to deal with the heartaches of her past.

It has been more than 15 years since she was liberated from sexual exploitation.

In those years, she has built a good life for herself. She has a career, is a mother of two and an outspoken advocate for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG). She founded the Stolen Brothers and Sisters Awareness Movement, a grassroots organisation with an annual walk that draws hundreds of participants. Then, in 2019, she received a Woman of Vision award for her advocacy work.

Because of my own pain and experience, it has given me the tools to be an advocate, she explains. I have compassion and empathy for those who are suffering. And theres so many families grieving, seeking answers, seeking justice.

Loss after loss after loss

Just over 1,000km (621 miles) west along the infamous Highway of Tears where dozens of women, mostly Indigenous, have gone missing or been found murdered since the 1970s, Delee Nikal is mourning several family members lost to the MMIWG crisis.

Delee is a member of the Witset Nation, a community belonging to the Wetsuweten band of five nations in northern British Columbia (BC).

She knows about loss.

Her 15-year-old cousin Cecilia Nikal went missing from Vancouver in 1989.

Then another cousin, Delphine Nikal, vanished along the Highway of Tears near Smithers, BC in 1990. She was also 15.

Four years later, Delees friend Romona Wilson disappeared from Smithers. Romona was a member of the Gitanmaxx band not far from Wetsuweten. Her body was later found in a wooded area west of the Smithers airport.

More heartache came in 2002 when Delees foster sister Danielle Larue, a member of Shuswap First Nation, disappeared from Vancouvers east side. Police believe she was murdered.

Delee Nikal is a member of the Witset Nation in northern BC [Photo courtesy of Delee Nikal]

As a First Nations woman in an area where so many have gone missing or been murdered, Delee has always known fear. But her fears have been elevated since man camps and pipeline construction came to the area.

Construction on TransCanadas $40bn Coastal GasLink (GCL), liquified natural gas (LNG) pipeline that will carry LNG from northwestern British Columbia to the north Pacific coast, began in late 2018.

Last June, Canadas National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls released its final report, in which it identified a link between boomtown and man camp environments that emerged around resource extraction projects and violence against Indigenous women and girls, as well as increased sex industry activities in those areas.

The land is our life-giver

Wetsuweten First Nations Hereditary Chiefs have opposed the construction of the pipeline on their traditional territories.

Earlier this year, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested and removed Wetsuweten land defenders and their supporters from camps along the route of the pipeline.

For Delee, who grew up on the Yintah (the Wetsuweten word for land), it was traumatic to watch.

I was born into Gidumten, she explains during a telephone interview with Al Jazeera from her home in Wiset, approximately 25 minutes east of Smithers.

Gidumten is a clan of the Wetsueweten peoples, whose territory part of the pipeline will run through.

There used to be a massive huckleberry patch where they built one of the man camps near the Unistoten healing camp. Its an area where I and my ancestors harvested our medicines. Its an amazing terrain, close to the water  now its just decimated. This is really hard for people who have grown up there, she explains.

Over the past few months, Delee has noticed an influx of pipeline workers not only filling up the man camps but overflowing the hotels in Houston, the nearest town to the CGL construction site. She says she feels intimidated by their presence and worries that she and other local Indigenous women are at risk.

Its scary because theyre transient workers who have no connection to us, but they have the backing of the police, she says, referring to how, since the Wetsuweten blockades, CGL workers now have police escorts to enter Wetsuweten territories.

Pipes for the CGL LNG pipeline project lay in rural BC near Wetsuweten traditional territories [Photo courtesy of Delee Nikal]

Even during the coronavirus pandemic, pipeline construction is continuing.

They (CGL) said theyre slowing down work because of COVID-19, but I saw a hotel packed with about 50 trucks. There were guys standing outside shirtless, drinking beer with each other with Alberta plates on their trucks, Delee explains.

James Anaya, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, told [PDF] the National Inquiry into MMIWG that his research revealed a connection between the influx of transient workers and violence against Indigenous women.

Over the last several years, I have carried out a study and reported on extractive industries affecting indigenous peoples. It has become evident through information received within the context of the study that extractive industries many times have different and often disproportionately adverse effects on indigenous peoples, and particularly on the health conditions of women, he said.

In addition, indigenous women have reported that the influx of workers into indigenous communities as a result of extractive projects also led to increased incidents of sexual harassment and violence, including rape and assault.

Delee is certain that there is a link between violence against Indigenous women and girls and such projects.

We (Wetsuweten) are taught the land is our life-giver, that water is like breast milk  we need it to survive. Its a continuation of our mothers  the remains and cells of our ancestors are in it. So, when our land is being ripped apart; its a huge threat to us. Theyre out there killing the land  theyre killing us.

Just two years ago, Delees cousin Frances Brown went missing while harvesting wild mushrooms in a forest area outside Smithers. Although the police have not treated her disappearance as suspicious, Delee does not believe that her cousin, who was experienced in the heavily wooded area, got lost. Friends and family searched for her for weeks after the official search was called off, but never found her.

Industrial man camp trailers stand in the traditional territories of Wetsuweten First Nations during the pre-construction phase of the CGL LNG pipeline in 2019 [Photo courtesy of Delee Nikal]

Women are still unsafe

In late February, an Alberta energy company came under scrutiny after an image it produced with the companys logo appeared to depict the rape of teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg.

The decal shows an image of a naked woman or girl, with two long braids (something often associated with Indigenous women and girls), from behind. The word Greta is written across her lower back.

The X-Site Energy Services company issued an apology following a public outcry over the image.

We recognise that it is not enough to apologise for the image associated with our company logo on the decals that circulated last week, a statement from X-Site Energy Services read.

This does not reflect the values of this company or our employees, and we deeply regret the pain we may have caused.

It is a pain that Melina Laboucan-Massimo of Lubicon Lake Cree Nation in northern Alberta felt deeply. Her younger sister Bella Laboucan-Mclean fell 31 storeys to her death from a downtown Toronto condo building where she was attending a party on July 20, 2013.

Bella had moved to Toronto to study fashion design at college. The police have called her death suspicious and the investigation into it is ongoing.

Melina Massimo-Laboucan and her sister Bella McLean-Laboucan before her death [Photo courtesy of Melina Massimo-Laboucan]

The decal brought back traumatic memories for Melina, who believes her sister may have been a victim of violence. When she saw the X-Site Energy Services decal circulating online, she felt disgusted.

It was triggering because it made it very clear that women are still unsafe. I have the same views as Greta, so it doesnt feel safe to speak that same message on Indigenous rights and climate justice issues, she says.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), an organisation representing companies involved in oil and gas development, denounced the decal image via a media release on February 28.

We find this action, whomever is to blame, completely unacceptable. This kind of behaviour is not representative of Canadas oil and natural gas industry, service companies who work in the industry, or the province of Alberta, said Stacey Hatcher, CAPPs vice-president of communications. The industry holds human rights and social integrity in high regard, and we must speak up when we see behaviour so contrary to our values.

But it was not the first time an Alberta company working in the oil and gas industry had received criticism for advertising violence against women.

In 2015, BeDevil Enterprises, located in Killam, Alberta, took out a billboard ad along highway 16 heading east. It featured a woman surrounded by flames, a track hoe with a screw pile over the woman along with the slogan Screw piles. We drill them to hell and back.

One of the owners of the company, Dan McRae, told the Edmonton Sun the ad was misinterpreted.

We do screw pilings and a lot of people, I guess, just dont understand it. The idea of the billboard is you can see the track hoe, the drivehead and the screwpile on it, and the woman lying on her back is a demon whos asleep in hell and what were doing is were just showing everybody that we will work like b******* to get the job done, said McRae.

When we say we screw them to hell and back, thats just an example were using. It has absolutely nothing to do with violence against women, misogynistic stuff. It has nothing to do with that. I have as much respect for women as they have for me. We dont abuse women. I have had women working for me, and I have had nothing but good luck with that.

McRae said the RCMP investigated the billboard and found no reason for it to be taken down.

A gender lens

In a statement to Al Jazeera, CAPP said it is committed to ensuring the safety of Indigenous women and girls. It also pointed out its long history of working with its Indigenous partners and in Indigenous communities.

The Canadian oil and natural gas industry recognises the significant concerns related to the health and welfare of Indigenous women and girls. Our industry prioritises the safety of the residents living in or near communities directly affected by operations, as well as our employees, it said.

In late 2018, some industry advocates were angered by a comment made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the G20 summit in Argentina.

During a panel discussion with members of the G20 Business Women Leaders Task Force, Trudeau said: Even big infrastructure projects, you know might now say, Well, what does a gender lens have to do with building this new highway or this new pipeline or something? Well, you know, there are gender impacts when you bring construction workers into a rural area. There are social impacts because theyre mostly male construction workers. How are you adjusting and adapting to those? Thats what the gender lens in GBA (gender-based analysis)-plus budgeting is all about.

Among those to criticise Trudeau was the leader of the official opposition, Andrew Scheer.

This is political correctness at its most ridiculous. The impacts of construction workers building things are prosperity and strong families. They should be celebrated, not demonized, Scheer wrote on his twitter account on December 1, 2018. I guess when you [Trudeau] inherit family wealth you have the luxury to make such idiotic statements.

But the Final Report of Canadas National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls was clear about the link between resource extraction and spikes in violence against Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people. Two-spirit refers to a person who identifies as having both a masculine and a feminine spirit, and is used by some Indigenous people to describe their sexual, gender and/or spiritual identity.

The report included the issue as part of its 231 Calls to Action to help stem the crisis.

To speak for my sisters

Former MMIWG National Inquiry Commissioner Michele Audette has personal experience with the industry. She worked in man camps in northern Quebec teaching cultural protocols when she was president of the Native Womens Association of Canada. During evening meals at the camp dining hall, Michele says she would often overhear derogatory conversations about Indigenous women.

Every night, they (the workers) were making fun of Indigenous women at the bar. Its a no respect, fly-in and fly-out culture, she explains.

Michele Audette, former MMIWG National Inquiry Commissioner [Photo courtesy of Michele Audette]

Along with the other inquiry commissioners, Michele travelled across Canada hearing the testimony of thousands of survivors and loved ones of MMIWG before preparing the final report.

In addition to hearing accounts of how Indigenous women and girls were directly harmed by people associated with resource extraction industries, it accepted evidence via a report by the Womens Earth Alliance and the Native Youth Sexual Health Network which argued that the rise in alcohol and drug consumption associated with extractive industries also contributed to domestic violence within Indigenous communities.

Michele says she knows at least three Indigenous women who have been raped in a man camp in Quebec over the past decade, but that the women were too traumatised and afraid to press charges.

There are attitudes in the industry that are still there since colonisation: that Indigenous women are considered Indians, savages and prostitutes. Its sad to see and unacceptable, she says.

Michele hopes Canada and industrial development companies will take the recommendations in the report seriously and address the issue of violence against Indigenous women and girls.

We cannot keep doing this the way it has been done. If Canadians, politicians and industry want to include us, speak to us, create a safe space where we can have our say, then we can bring back that balance.

Michele Audette is comforted by her elder during her tenure as MMIWG National Inquiry Commissioner [Photo courtesy of Michele Audette]

For Melina, there is a connection between abuse of the land and abuse of Indigenous women and girls. In 2011, a pipeline owned by Plains Midstream Canada ULC leaked 4.5 million litres of oil onto Cree traditional territories 30km (19 miles) from Lubicon Lake, where she is from. In 2013, the company was charged with three counts under Albertas Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act. The Lubicon Cree said fumes from the leaking oil made them sick with nausea, burning eyes and headaches.

The leak, Melina explains, was on a sacred area where the tribe harvested traditional medicines.

Theres colonial values embedded with patriarchy in resource development industries, she explains. We all come from the same source (the land); our healing is connected to the healing and the protection of our land.

Back in Edmonton, April remembers telling her story when the National Inquiry came there in 2017. She was scared; it was the first time she had shared her story in that type of setting. But it helped her to shed any lingering shame she felt and helped strengthen her to keep fighting for other women and girls.

She will keep going for as long as it takes, she says.

I dream that we, along with our daughters, granddaughters can walk safely, with dignity wherever we go and be respected. I ask the Creator why did I survive this? I believe, because as a survivor, I can speak for my sisters whose voices were silenced. They never had the opportunity to speak out.
Lucknow, May 5 : ) The Yogi Adityanath government said on Tuesday that the recovery rate of corona patients in Uttar Pradesh was now 33 per cent which is 6 per cent more than the national average.

Briefing reporters, Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Avanish Awasthi, said that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in a meeting, had directed officials to keep Covid hospitals fully equipped and increase the testing facilities.

He said that the training of doctors and paramedics should be expedited and the Corona helpline should be well publicised for medical consultation for other ailments as well.

Underlining the need for safe and proper disposal of bio-waste in the hospitals, the Chief Minister said it is very important to check medical infection. He said the new testing labs should be set up while ensuring the arrangement for bio-waste disposal.

He also directed that all preventive measures should be taken to protect police force and medical staff from infection.

The Chief Minister, during the meeting, also took stock of the latest status of supply of essential commodities, door step delivery and supply chain.

He also instructed officials to set up more quarantine centres and ensure adequate sanitation in the existing quarantine centres/shelter homes.

The Chief Minister said that all District Magistrates should send reports of quarantine centres and shelter homes in their districts.
The Congress Tuesday condemned the decision to raise taxes on diesel and petrol in Delhi and demanded their immediate rollback, saying higher fuel prices will adversely impact the supply chain, the agriculture sector and farmers.

"The Congress Party condemns this unprecedented hike in VAT on petrol and diesel to 30 pc from 27 pc on petrol and 16.5 pc in diesel in Delhi. We demand an immediate rollback of this hike," said spokesperson Ajay Maken.

He said that during the Congress regime, the VAT on Petrol was 20% and on Diesel 12.5%.

Maken said the VAT Act, 2004, passed during the Congress regime, capped the VAT at 20 pc for petrol and diesel, but soon after coming to power in 2015, the AAP government on June 30, amended the Act to increase the cap to 30 pc.

Despite a public display of being at loggerheads with the AAP government, the Lieutenant Governor and the union government, representing the BJP, gave a go-ahead to this bill within two weeks and notified it on July 14, he lamented.

"Citizens seeking relief in form of cash and tax cuts being meted out this kind of treatment is a shame. Nowhere in the world, any government would have inflicted such hardships on their citizens," he said.

Congress spokesperson Sudhmita Dev also said that the decision to hike diesel and petrol prices by way of increasing taxes by the Delhi government as well as by the Assam government were condemnable and the prices must be rolled back.

"Diesel and petrol are connected to the lifeline of the people. This will have a direct impact on the supply chain, on agriculture sector and farmers. It is a wrong decision and we strongly condemn it," she said.

On the raise in duty on liquor by the Delhi government, she said, while alcohol is essential for the economy it is not essential for life.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Major Anuj Sood

Chandigarh: Major Anuj Sood, who was killed in an anti-terror operation in north Kashmir, was cremated with full military honours here on Tuesday.

PhotoHe was among the five security forces personnel who died on Saturday night while fighting with militants in an encounter in Handwara area of frontier district Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir.

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Touching scenes were witnessed moments before his last rites when the body was taken from his Panchkula residence to the cremation ground in Mani Majra here.

His wife Akriti threw her arms around the coffin to bid adieu just before the body was put on a bedecked army vehicle.

Major Sood's sister Harshita, who is also an Army officer, was seen consoling her sister-in-law.

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File PhotoThe Army officer's mortal remains had arrived here from Srinagar on Monday afternoon.

Slogans like "Vande Mataram", "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" and "Major Anuj Amar Rahe" were raised as Major Sood's body, wrapped in tricolor, was taken to the cremation ground.

Anti-Terrorist Front of India President, Viresh Shandilya, while laying floral wreaths raised "Pakistan Murdabad" and "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" slogans.

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Later, when the cremation took place, only the family members were allowed inside the cremation ground to ensure social distancing norms were followed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

PhotoBesides Army officer's family members including his wife, his father and sister, senior Army officers were also present during the cremation.

A guard of honour was given to Major Sood by the Army and three volley gun shots were fired.

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The Army officer's funeral pyre was lit by his father. Major Sood's father, Brigadier Chandrakant Sood (retd), had earlier told the media that the news of the death left him shocked, but at the same time he was proud of the supreme sacrifice the officer had made for his motherland.

"He was a true son of the nation," he had said at his Panchkula home.

The 30-year-old Army officer who was from the Brigade of the Guards regiment, part of the 21 Rashtriya Rifles and an alumnus of Punjab Public School, Nabha, had joined the National Defence Academy in 2008. He had one dream, which was to join the Army, according to his family.

His family said he was scheduled to return home after a gap of six months and having finished his two-year stint in Jammu and Kashmir, he was to join the 12 Guards unit in Gurdaspur.
MOGADISHUA plane carrying aid supplies for use in the fight against the CCP virus crashed in Somalia on Monday, killing all six people on board, the Somali transport minister said.

He declined to speculate on the cause of the crash, but a former defence minister told Reuters he had spoken to a witness at the airfield who said it appeared to have been shot down.

Somalias al Qaedalinked insurgency al Shabaab has a presence in the area where the plane came down, although the town of Bardale, in the southern Bay region, and its airfield is secured by Somali forces and Ethiopian troops.

Six peoplethe pilot, copilot, flight engineer and a trainee pilot, as well as two people working for the airlinewere onboard, Transport Minister Mohamed Salad told Reuters. Five bodies have been recovered so far, he said.

Salad said he was sending a unit to investigate, who will arrive on Tuesday, and welcomed international assistance.

State-run Somalia News Agency said the plane belonged to African Express Airways and was ferrying supplies for use in the fight against the coronavirus.

An African (Express) Airways plane from Mogadishu flew to Baidoa and then continued its flight to Bardale town where it crashed, the agency said on its website. It is not clear why it crashed.

Abdirashid Abdullahi Mohamed, Somalias former minister of defence, told Reuters he had spoken to a witness at the airfield who said the plane had made an initial attempt to land, had to swing around again due to wildlife on the airfield, and then appeared to be shot on one wing on its second approach.

He provided pictures that showed the plane in flames, pieces of it scattered over a small area and its tail intact, and provided a passenger list with six names. Reuters was unable to immediately verify the images or confirm the names.

Ethiopia has troops in Baidoa and Bardale as part of an African Union peacekeeping mission. The spokesman for the Ethiopian army said he was unaware of the crash.

The al Shabaab insurgency was not immediately available for comment.

By Abdi Sheikh
SAN FRANCISCO, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The global curcumin market size is expected to reach USD 151.9 million by 2027, expanding at a CAGR of 12.7%, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Product demand is anticipated to be propelled by its increasing application in numerous industries including food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical. It possesses valuable anti-oxidation and anti-inflammatory properties, emerging as a go-to pain relief choice for patients suffering from arthritis and osteoarthritis.

Key suggestions from the report:

In Europe , the application of curcumin in the pharmaceuticals sector accounted for a share of 57.2% in terms of revenue in 2019 owing to increasing focus on marketing of capsules/tablets that offer aid to immune system, joint, and digestive health

In Europe , the market is anticipated to witness the fastest CAGR from 2020 to 2027 and is projected to reach USD 41.8 million in 2027 owing to its wide range of applications in pharmaceutical industry

In Asia Pacific , the curcumin market is anticipated to witness the second fastest growth rate from 2020 to 2027. The region is estimated to have more demand owing to high consumption of turmeric in food products

North America was the largest regional market in 2019, with a value of USD 73.8 million . Growing demand for processed food products and curcumin-based health supplements is expected to drive demand in this region

Health issues due to the incorporation of synthetic ingredients in medicines, food, and cosmetics are the major reasons for influencing manufacturers to adopt natural ingredients in product formulation, which is likely to drive the market.

Read 120 page research report with ToC on "Curcumin Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Application (Pharmaceutical, Food, Cosmetics), By Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Central & South America, Middle East & Africa), And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2027' at:https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/turmeric-extract-curcumin-market

Rising awareness among consumers, particularly in developed countries including U.S., Germany, and Denmark, is likely to further fuel the demand for curcumin over the next eight years. It is an active component of turmeric, which is extracted from the Curcuma longa plant. The trend of increasing demand for ayurvedic medicinal formulations in numerous countries is observed, and this trend is projected to significantly benefit the curcumin market over the forecast period.

Curcumin or turmeric is widely used in cosmetic products. In India, turmeric is a key ingredient in several Ayurveda medicines. It is used to treat acne and eczema, prevent and heal dry skin, and slow down the aging process. Natural cleansers, including milk, when blended with turmeric, serve as useful natural cosmetics. These cosmetics are used to achieve glowing skin, and control and reduce the formation of wrinkles and lines.

Curcumin finds applications in food, cosmetics, pharmaceutical, including dye-sensitized PV technology, and textiles. In 2019, pharmaceutical was the largest application segment in terms of both volume and revenue, accounting for over half of the share, owing to the rising requirement for curcumin-based OTC supplements. Product demand from the food industry has also increased in terms of volume owing to the growing demand for natural flavoring and coloring substances.

Key industry participants include SV Agrofood, Wacker Chemie AG, Arjuna Natural Extracts Ltd., and Synthite Industries Ltd. In March 2016, Arjuna Natural Extracts Ltd. invested around USD 1.5 million in the research and development of proactive curcumin. Turmeric is also used for dyeing numerous fabrics including cotton, silk, and wool for a yellowish shade, which is likely to create market opportunities.

Grand View Research has segmented the global curcumin market based on application, and region:

Curcumin Application Outlook (Volume, Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

Pharmaceutical



Food



Cosmetics



Others

Curcumin Regional Outlook (Volume, Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

North America



U.S.





Canada





Mexico .

.

Europe



Germany





U.K.





France





Italy





Spain





Poland





Denmark





Russia



Asia Pacific



China





India





Japan





South Korea





Malaysia





Thailand





Indonesia





Vietnam





Australia



Central & South America



Brazil





Argentina



Middle East & Africa

&

UAE





Saudi Arabia





South Africa

Find more research reports on Food Additives & Nutricosmetics Industry, by Grand View Research:

Passion Flower Extracts Market - The global passion flower extracts market size was estimated at USD 2.55 billion in 2018. The product is expected to gain popularity on account of being a source of antioxidant compounds including isovitexin, vitexin, quercetin, kaempferol, apigenin, rutin, and luteolin glycosides.

in 2018. The product is expected to gain popularity on account of being a source of antioxidant compounds including isovitexin, vitexin, quercetin, kaempferol, apigenin, rutin, and luteolin glycosides. Carmine Market - The global carmine market size was estimated at USD 16.7 million in 2017. It is anticipated to witness a 5.8% CAGR in terms of revenue over the forecast period.

- The global carmine market size was estimated at in 2017. It is anticipated to witness a 5.8% CAGR in terms of revenue over the forecast period. Food Colors Market - The global food colors market size was estimated at USD 1.79 billion in 2016, growing at a CAGR of 5.9% over the forecast period.

Gain access toGrand View Compass, our BI enabled intuitive market research database of 10,000+ reports

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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GLOBAL HEALTH ORGANIZATIONS ARE UNDER ATTACKS

NATIONAL BENEFITS WEBSITES HAVE BECOME TARGETS

E-LEARNING MAY PUT STUDENTS AT RISK

SUCCESSFUL RANSOMWARE INCIDENTS ARE DOWN, BUT NOT OUT

OTHER TYPES OF ATTACKS HAVE DECREASED

Even as government agencies around the world stretch themselves thin to battle the novel coronavirus, they have also had to defend themselves against an apparent surge in interest from hackers.With a large uptick in government telework, the fear and anxiety surrounding cyberattacks has risen, and reports from state and federal authorities consistently indicate hackers are trying to take advantage of the current chaos for their own gain.At the same time, in certain areas where experts had predicted catastrophic effects, recent reports have shown that those concerns may have been overblown. Here's a run down of the current trends and the ways hackers are targeting governments as the COVID-19 crisis continues to unfold.Health organizations have seen a lot of activity at the national and international level. Reports show that hackers are consistently targeting large health organizations, often in an apparent bid to disrupt their response to the virus outbreak. A recent attack leaked thousands of passwords from email accounts attached to some of the world's largest health organizations , including the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Researchers say the culprit behind the breach is a mysterious hacker with conspiracy theories about the origins of COVID-19.Of the 6,835 email addresses that were leaked, 2,712 were from WHO, of which 457 are valid and active addresses, a WHO representative toldA check on the active accounts found that none of them had been compromised, though their passwords have been changed anyway to ensure security, he said.The organization further commented that hackers have targeted WHO workers using a variety of techniques that exploit "the current Covid-19 situation via multiple impersonation approaches (vishing [voice phishing], email phishing, WhatsApp phishing, social media)."As joblessness has climbed at an alarming rate, unemployment benefit websites have apparently become major targets for hackers "Attackers, whether cybercriminals or nation-state adversaries, are always looking for stress points and cybervulnerabilities," said Marcus Fowler, director of strategic threat at Darktrace, whose company recently published research on this trend. "The current global disruption and implosion of what was once normal is exposing, and at times even creating, new stress points and attack opportunities."Fowler, a former CIA agent with a background in cybersecurity and data analysis, said that benefit websites have become one such stress point. Their increased political importance paired with a lack of cyber-readiness makes them appealing targets."Every government is suddenly having to manage massive unemployment spikes and an unprecedented number of benefits sign-ups as COVID-19 disrupts economies around the world. U.S. unemployment application numbers have reached over 26 million. Just this week, Reuters has reported that millions of Americans have been completely locked out of U.S. unemployment sites," said Fowler."Previously, these sites were not as critical to countries ability to move forward as they are today. This likely means they also were not resourced adequately from a cybersecurity standpoint. Much like the saying 'you dont start digging the well when you are thirsty,' you want to avoid trying to scale up security only after your site has become a target," he said.Some experts are warning that schools may become one of the biggest public-sector targets for hackers during the outbreak. Earlier this month, the FBI warned that remote education platforms were targets for hackers, and numerous schools have reported incidents in recent weeks, as the flood of "zoombombing" reports shows.Schools have traditionally been a target because of poor cybersecurity staffing and training. Some 350 K-12 breaches were reported during FY19 alone, a number that could grow given the circumstances, said James Yeager, CrowdStrike's public sector expert. Schools may be particularly susceptible to social engineering attacks, which have risen in prominence since COVID-19, he said."Ed tech is at risk of falling victim to these schemes, as students and/or parents may click on a link thinking its a virtual classroom or some other method of electronic curriculum when instead its a cybercriminal attempting to gain login credentials," said Yeager.Many schools will likely have to rely on families' personal devices, which are more insecure and aren't under the same rigorous compliance standards in terms of security patching, he said."While school systems may not have the IT infrastructure, tools and manpower that large enterprises do, they can still do their part to ensure teachers and students can safely keep class in session as we get through this crisis," said Yeager.Not all the cybernews is bad, however. As odd as it might seem, successful ransomware attacks on municipal entities have actually "taken a nosedive" since the coronavirus outbreak, said Brett Callow, threat analyst with Emsisoft.A precipitous drop in successful attacks on health care, education and other government entities marked the first quarter of 2020, Emsisoft research shows . Of those, schools are being hit the hardest, but overall numbers for entities are down across the board since this time last year."Despite COVID-19 and WFH [work-from-home], or, more accurately, because of them, the number of successful ransomware attacks on the U.S. public sector, including health care, has declined significantly. In fact, the number of incidents has reduced to a level that we have not seen for several years," Callow said, explaining that with entities reducing their organizational footprint they may be effectively reducing the attack surface.However, this doesn't mean that you can't still get hit, as is evident by recent events involving the city of Torrance, Calif. , which was struck by DoppelPaymer ransomware in January and is now having its stolen data leaked online.Also, the Emsisoft report notes, this relief is "only temporary," and successful attack levels are likely to revert to normal levels once society returns to normal. Callow warned against an "uptick" in successful attacks in the coming weeks.Several other indicators show a potential decline in successful activity since the shelter-in-place orders have taken effect, said Guy Propper, head of threat intelligence for Deep Instinct.Propper said that while media coverage of cyberattacks has risen since the virus outbreak, the attacks being carried out are not fundamentally different than before the crisis. Furthermore, several indicators of successful attacks have seen declines, according to his company's research. These include "droppers," which are programs that inject malware."Office droppers are regarded to be highly indicative of infection rates as they are the main initial infection vector, particularly in phishing email attempts," said Propper. "When compared to January, March saw a 66 percent decrease, and when compared to February the decline was 50 percent. At present, the numbers for April are dramatically reduced again, pacing at only 19 percent of January infection figures and 27 percent of those for February."The other trend that saw declines were malicious portable executables (PE), which are a particular file format and are also used to spread malware in computer systems."The number of malicious PE in March decreased by 38 percent compared to January and so far, April is pacing at only 76 percent compared to the same number of days into the month as January," Propper said.Why these attacks have declined isn't totally clear. Some of it may have to do with the shifting landscape of the attack surface, while it could also potentially be attributed to hacker altruism. Some hackers may legitimately be restraining themselves during this crisis as an odd gesture of good will, the researcher offered."It would be a mistake to generalize that all hackers behave the same, because there are many different groups and individuals acting (or not acting) for different reasons and who tend to have different targets," said Propper. "Many will adapt to generate profit no matter the circumstance, while others operate with a moral compass."Government TechnologyGoverning
It was announced that liquor shops could open in the third phase of the lockdown under certain conditions in certain zones, and all hell broke loose. A day before May 4, Internet was flooded with memes and on May 4, the streets were flooded with people.

Social distancing was nowhere to be found and all 40 days of lockdown and preaching of rules seemed useless and thousands and thousands of people queued outsider liquor shops in various states ready to sing, 'do ghunt pila de saathiya'.

AP

However, unhappiness regarding the opening of booze shops is being reflected among women in Andhra Pradesh.

Andhra Pradesh: Women in Visakhapatnam today held a protest against the liquor shops opened in the district by the state government amid #COVID19 lockdown. A protester says, "Vegetable markets stay open for only 3 hours but liquor shops are allowed to remain open for 7 hours". pic.twitter.com/KdQgMGldnX  ANI (@ANI) May 5, 2020

ANI reports, Women in Visakhapatnam today held a protest against the liquor shops opened in the district by the state government amid #COVID19 lockdown. A protester says, "Vegetable markets stay open for only 3 hours but liquor shops are allowed to remain open for 7 hours".

It is true, grocery shops and vegetable markets in a lot of places have been ordered to remain open only for a fixed time of the day - these are essentials. Alcohol shops, however, can remain open for almost one third of the day.

Not to mention that there are fears of rise in already increasing cases of domestic violence, as it is believed that alcohol consumption plays a part in the despicable act.

ANI

Many were disgruntled at the governments decision of opening liquor shops, but the fact that the state of Karnataka alone made Rs 45 crore on first day of liquor sale amid coronavirus lockdown, is an argument enough to defend the move.



However, various states are trying to come up with measures so that a fiasco like the first day is not repeated. In Delhi special corona tax of 70% has been levied on alcohol, in Chhattisgarh the state is planning to home-deliver booze.

The protest by women in Andhra Pradesh focuses more on the dire need to open essential markets for longer time so that it creates space for social distancing, while making sure everyone gets the required ration.

States need to come up with a proper exit strategy as the lockdown lifts, otherwise these very spaces that attract thousands of people will become breeding grounds of and for coronavirus.
Florida deputies arrested a man who had been living out his quarantine on a shuttered Disney World island, telling authorities it felt like a tropical paradise.

Orange County Sheriffs deputies found Richard McGuire on Disneys Discovery Island on Thursday. He said hed been there since Monday or Tuesday and had planned to camp there for a week, according to an arrest report.

The 42-year-old said he didnt hear numerous deputies searching the private island for him on foot, by boat and by air because he was asleep in a building. He told the deputy he didnt know it was a restricted area, despite there being numerous no trespassing signs.

Richard stated that he was unaware of that and that it looked like a tropical paradise, according to the arrest report.

Orange County Marine deputies on Bay Lake used a public address system to tell McGuire he was not allowed to be on the property, but he remained on the island, anyway, according to the arrest report.

A security representative for Disney said she saw McGuire using a company boat Thursday, noting that the area had several no trespassing signs and two closed gates. She asked the agency to press charges.

McGuire was arrested on a trespassing charge and taken to jail without incident. It was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney who could comment.

Previously called Treasure Island, Discovery Island had been the site of a zoological park before the island was closed to the public in 1999.

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Our appeal to feed the vulnerable surged past 3.5m today as new research showed that the hunger crisis blighting the UK has deepened.

Research in London shows more than one in 10 families reported that at least one person in their household has gone hungry during lockdown because they could not afford or get access to food, according to a YouGov poll for the Food Foundation charity. This equates to 130,000 families citywide.

These figures would in all likelihood have been much worse if not for the lifeline provided by our Help the Hungry appeal partner The Felix Project, whose efforts have been boosted by the help of Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

Felix has quadrupled its food supply to vulnerable Londoners. New data shows that in the five weeks from the beginning of lockdown to the end of April, Felix delivered 810 tons of surplus food, the equivalent of two million meals.

It amounts to just over half the 3.6 million meals supplied by the three members of the London Food Alliance  FareShare, City Harvest and Felix  and involves deliveries to 1,508 charities and schools and 53 giant community hubs run by local authorities.

Recommended How to support our campaign

Major new donations to our appeal include 100,000 from The Daylesford Foundation and a further 110,000 from Citi on top of the 50,000 it has already given.

Carole Bamford, founder of The Daylesford Foundation, said: At a time when some families are going for days without a proper meal, the critical work of The Felix Project is needed now more than ever.

The surplus food they obtain is being delivered direct to peoples doors  including those who have lost jobs, are on low incomes or are sick. They include struggling families, key workers, older people who are isolated, people who are homeless, survivors of domestic abuse and refugees.

We have worked with The Felix Project for four years and are delighted to provide further support at this time.

The Felix Project provides food for people at Haringey Play community centre in London (Lucy Young)

The additional Citi money includes funds donated by employees at the bank and 100,000 from their European rates business which gave 1 for every 1m (870,000) traded electronically in March and April. Matt Jerman, Citis head of European Linear rates, said: The continuing challenges posed by this pandemic have led to unprecedented pressure on food charities. We unite with many to support this vital cause and the essential work being done by The Felix Project.

Anna Taylor, executive director of the Food Foundation, said that society risked leaving children behind in conversations about emergency support and theyre falling through the cracks as a result.

Dr Rachel Loopstra, lecturer in nutrition at Kings College London, said: Its clear from the data, as well as trends in food bank use, that families with children are really struggling right now. Watching parents struggle to put food on the table and go without food themselves is devastating for children.

Last week The Independent pledged to raise 10m to help The Felix Project feed people who are unable to afford or access enough food over the next three years.

The Independent is encouraging readers to help groups that are trying to feed the hungry during the crisis  find out how you can help here. Follow this link to donate to our campaign in London, in partnership with the Evening Standard.
BOSTON, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Public Consulting Group, Inc. (PCG), a leading provider of solutions implementation and operations improvement services to the public sector, has hired Roxanne Burton to serve as Senior Solutions Strategist to work with education operations in Canada.

Roxanne Burton

Burton will lead PCG's business expansion and strategies for the adoption of the EdPlan Insight data analytics solution in Canada, working throughout Ontario and British Columbia. Burton brings her history of strong relationships with school districts and an exemplar record of work with K12 educators. Her proven experience in product implementation, customer support, and sales training emphasizes PCG's commitment to fostering relationships and trust with clients and building loyalty in customer relations.

Paul Mancini, Manager of PCG Canada Operations and Business Development, said: "Roxanne brings over 30 years of Canadian public education experience for solutions and implementations. She is deeply passionate about a school division's experience with anything she represents and wants to always ensure the best outcomes as a result. At PCG we feel fortunate to have Ms. Burton join our team and look forward to how we can help even more school divisions in Canada in the future."

Burton has nearly three decades of experience working for SRB Education Solutions, where she was the regional sales manager for the atrieveERP division in Western Canada. When SRB Education Solutions was acquired by PowerSchool Group in 2016, she continued her strong leadership in sales activities.

About Public Consulting Group

Public Consulting Group, Inc. (PCG) is a leading public sector solutions implementation and operations improvement firm that partners with health, education, and human services agencies to improve lives. Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, PCG has over 2,000 professionals in more than 50 offices across North America and in Europe. The firm has five designated practice areas with extensive experience in all 50 states, clients in six Canadian provinces, and a growing practice in Europe. Often combining resources from two or more practice areas, PCG offers clients a multidisciplinary approach to solve their challenges or pursue opportunities. To learn more, visit www.publicconsultinggroup.com.

Contact

Paul Mancini, Public Consulting Group

(804)-665-2150

[email protected]

SOURCE Public Consulting Group
The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that a report that COVID-19 had emerged in December in France, sooner than previously thought, was "not surprising", and urged countries to investigate any other early suspicious cases.

The disease later identified as COVID-19 was first reported by Chinese authorities to the WHO on 31 December and was not previously believed to have spread to Europe until January.

"This gives a whole new picture on everything," WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told a U.N. briefing in Geneva, referring to the French reports.

"The findings help to better understand the potential virus circulation of COVID-19," he added, saying other possible earlier cases could emerge after retesting samples.

A French hospital which has retested old samples from pneumonia patients discovered that it treated a man who had COVID-19 as early as Dec. 27, nearly a month before the French government confirmed its first cases.

Lindmeier encouraged other countries to check records for pneumonia cases of unspecified origin in late 2019, saying this would give the world a "new and clearer picture" of the outbreak.

Asked about the origins of the virus in China, Lindmeier stressed that it was "really, really important" to explore this.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo alleges his country has "evidence" that the new coronavirus emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, although scientists have advised the WHO that it is of animal origin.

"That may need further missions or a mission (to China) so we are looking forward to this," Lindmeier said.

WHO's top emergencies expert Dr. Mike Ryan said on Monday that the body's chief had raised the issue of the origins of the virus "at the highest level" during a WHO mission to China in January.

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GoldQuest Mining Corporation (TSXV:GQC, GoldQuest or the Company) The Dominican Republics Minister of Energy and Mines, Minister Isa Conde, emphasised the importance of gold mining for the Dominican economy in an interview on April 16, 2020 with a major Dominican newspaper, Diario Libre, in response to the Covid-19 crisis. Minister Isa Conde argued that gold producing countries (like Dominican Republic) have an important advantage. He also stated that gold mining is an ally which will contribute to the rebuilding of the economy after the passage of the pandemic.



Before the Covid-19 crisis, gold mining represented a large amount of the national exports, a contribution likely to rise in importance as virtually all other economic sectors are in decline. In response to the crisis, the Dominican Republic (DR) government has moved swiftly to protect its population, cancelling all European and most North American flights, and closing most hotels, effectively halting tourism in the country, a major plank of the nations economy as well as halting other economic sectors.

GoldQuest has been in the DR since 2002 and hopes to assist the DR in its economic efforts to re-ignite the nations economy, commented David Massola, CEO of GoldQuest. If developed, we expect that our flagship project at Romero would produce gold with copper and silver by-products, expected to be 100% exported, and create up to 1,000 direct jobs in the construction phase in the DRs interior.

The independently produced Pre-Feasibility Study for the Romero project (PFS) dated November 10, 2016 (see release of September 27, 2016) provides that at a gold price of $1,300 and copper price $2.50 the project returns a Net Present Value (NPV5%) of US$203 million after tax and an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 28%. The Company is well funded with $17.1 million at the end of Q3 2019.

GoldQuest has demonstrated to Minister Isa Conde and other government officials the positive economic impact the Romero Project would bring to both the local community and Federal Government. Using this study, the Company estimates tax payments to the Dominican Republic in excess of US$250 million.

Minister Isa Conde has approved the Romero project, and the Company has been awaiting the approval of the President of the Republic to allow the Company to move forward to environmental studies and full feasibility study, leading to the potential development of the Romero mine. The mine has been planned to global environmental standards. The project does not have an open pit and is fully underground. The mines product is a gold and copper rich concentrate which has been physically separated from the ore so deleterious chemicals like cyanide are not used. The project uses seasonal rainfall storage and will not extract water from, or discharge water into the San Juan River, a plan developed by Golder Associates, the worlds largest environmental consultancy. The Company expects that following receipt of all required approvals, the Company would make further exploration expenditures in the DR, including expenditures focused on the Companys 2017 Cachimbo discovery.

David Massola, CEO, concluded, We are pleased that the Minister of Energy and Mines continues to understand the economic impact of gold mining projects. We believe that our Romero project fits perfectly into the goals and objectives of Minister Isa Condes statement. With gold prices at their current level, the Company expects that the benefit to the Dominican economy identified in the Romero PFS would be significantly higher, in addition to potential exploration potential along the whole 50 km Tireo belt. GoldQuest is well positioned to re-activate its exploration activities with the recent purchase, with fellow explorer Precipitate Gold, of 5 Dominican domiciled drill rigs (see the Companys press release dated January 17, 2020).

About GoldQuest:

GoldQuest is a Canadian based mineral exploration and development company with projects in the Dominican Republic. GoldQuest is traded on the TSXV under the symbol GQC and in Frankfurt/Berlin with symbol M1W. The Company is well funded to carry out exploration programs and to advance the development of its Romero gold/copper discovery, also located in the Tireo Formation of the Dominican Republic.

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 release.

The information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by William Fisher, P. Geo., Chairman of GoldQuest and a Qualified Person for the technical information in this press release under NI 43101 standards.

Forwardlooking statements:

Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are forwardlooking information that involves known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Forwardlooking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to potential development and production from the Company Romero project, the economy of the Dominican Republic, the benefits of development and production from the Romero project on the economy of the Dominican Republic, the NPV and IRR included in the PFS, future tax payments and exploration expenditures by the Company in the Dominican Republic, the merits of the Company's mineral properties, future programs and studies, and the Company's plans and exploration programs for its mineral properties, including the timing of such plans and programs. In certain cases, forwardlooking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", looks forward, "has proven", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "potential", "likelihood", "appears", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "at least", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "should", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved".

Forwardlooking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which 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 forwardlooking statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others, risks related to economic conditions globally and in the Dominican Republic; the COVID-19 pandemic, including measures taken and that may be taked to attempt to reduce the spread of COVID-19, employee and contractor health, safety and availability, availability of materials and equipment, travel restrictions, and other risks and uncertainties related to the pandemic; uncertainties inherent in drill results and the estimation of mineral resources; commodity prices; changes in general economic conditions; market sentiment; currency exchange rates; the Company's ability to continue as a going concern; the Company's ability to raise funds through equity financings; risks inherent in mineral exploration; risks related to operations in foreign countries; future prices of metals; failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labor disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals; government regulation of mining operations; environmental risks; title disputes or claims; limitations on insurance coverage and the timing and possible outcome of litigation. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could affect the Company and may cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forwardlooking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forwardlooking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, do not place undue reliance on forwardlooking statements. All statements are made as of the date of this news release and the Company is under no obligation to update or alter any forwardlooking statements except as required under applicable securities laws. Forwardlooking statements are based on assumptions that the Company believes to be reasonable, including expectations regarding mineral exploration and development costs; expected trends in mineral prices and currency exchange rates; the accuracy of the Company's current mineral resource estimates; that the Company's activities will be in accordance with the Company's public statements and stated goals; that there will be no material adverse change affecting the Company or its properties; that all required approvals will be obtained and that there will be no significant disruptions affecting the Company or its properties.

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 release.

CONTACT INFORMATION

GoldQuest Corp

Dave Massola

Chief Executive Officer - Toronto

+1416-583-5606

dmassola@GoldQuestCorp.com
Suva, May 5 : A Singaporean man was rescued in Fiji after being stranded at sea for two months in his yacht when he was denied entry into several countries in the South Pacific amid measures against COVID-19.

The rescue was carried out April 30 by the Fijian Navy, after which Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan thanked the South Pacific country's authorities and tweeted that they were "doing their best in these trying circumstances", Efe news reported on Tuesday.

The 59-year-old Wong Tetchoong, a Singaporean citizen, set sail from the his country on February 2 with two of his Indonesian friends with plans to travel across the Pacific ocean.

He suffered a first setback on February 28 after his two friends went back.

"On February 28, my two friends had to go back because their borders were closing, I was alone and couldn't go into Indonesia because the currents were too strong.Ever since February 28, till I reached Fiji, I travelled alone on my yacht to different countries," Wong told "Fiji Sun" in an interview published on Tuesday.

The authorities of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu did not allow him entry due to the COVID-19 restrictions.

"I went to Tuvalu and they didn't let me in, but the Tuvalu people provided me with food," he added.

After being stranded in the waters of the Polynesian country, Wong decided to go to Fiji, and he completed the travel in six days and six nights.

Due to several damages suffered by his vessel, Wong was forced to discontinue his journey. The Singaporean arrived in Fiji on Apr. 28 but he was rescued by the Fijian Navy two days later, following which he was taken to the Vuda port in the western part of the main island of the country.

He underwent several medical examinations carried out by the Fijian health authorities and he Wong was discharged on May 2.

Wong is awaiting for a reopening of the borders to return home.
Some 200 more patient who have undergone treatment for Coronavirus (Covid-19) are awaiting their second tests results to be confirmed fully recovered from the infection.

The Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Patrick Kuma Aboagye, said this at a press briefing in Accra on May 5.

So far Ghana, has recorded 294 recoveries from Covid-19.

Should the results for the 200 return negative, the countrys number of recoveries will increase to almost 500.

So far Ghana has recorded 2719 positive cases with 18 deaths.

---Daily Guide
On 22 April, Iraqi outgoing Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi abruptly ordered four brigades of the Popular Mobilisation Force (PMF) to be detached from the organisation and placed under his control.



In a decree, Abdul-Mahdi, who also serves as commander-in-chief of the Iraqi armed forces, said the militia units would no longer have any administrative or logistical links with the PMF command.



Abdul-Mahdis memo was brief and sounded like a routine operational order, but it was actually a move that shook deeply the PMF which functions as an umbrella organisation for pro-Iran militias.



Moreover, the unexpected measure read like a slap in the face of the Islamic Republic, which nurtures most of these militias and uses them to boost its interests in Iraq and extend its reach in the region.



The four militia groups in question are the Abbas Combat Division, the Imam Ali Combat Division, the Ali Akbar Brigade and the Ansar Al-Marjaiya Brigade known to be loyal to the religious establishment affiliated to Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, Iraqs highest Shia authority.



As Iraq remains unstable, the crack within the ranks of the Iraqi militias is likely to have far-reaching implications on efforts to end the countrys political stalemate and raises concerns of a power struggle between the Shia militias.



The rift is also expected to reflect adversely on efforts to contain Islamic State (IS) group remnants that have been waging attacks in many parts of central and northern Iraq in recent months, exploiting security gaps and political turmoil.



A few days after Abdul-Mahdis decree, the leaders of the four units said they had formed their own command and called on other PMF militias to withdraw from the organisation and join them in setting up a new structure.



In a statement, they said the new body would be acting according to national criteria, legal structures and constitutional obligations. The conditions clearly aimed at discrediting the PMFs loyalty and status.



A spokesman for Abdul-Mahdi immediately dismissed the claim, however. Abdul-Karim Khalaf warned that attempts to create a new militia institution would be tantamount to circumventing Abdul-Mahdis order.



The PMF, also known as the Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi, was founded in 2014 as a state-sponsored umbrella organisation for dozens of Shia militias to fight the IS group alongside the Iraqi security forces after the terror group seized a large chunk of Iraqi territory.



Many of the militias had already existed, but new ones were formed after Al-Sistani put out an edict for able-bodied men to defend Iraq against IS. The PMF played a significant role in the fight against the militants and helped to push them out of cities they had occupied.



After IS was driven outside the main towns in Iraq, the PMF further expanded and assumed new security and political duties, exploiting the weaknesses of the central government and Irans increasing influence.



Increasingly, the line between the state security forces and the militias became blurred and marked by a diffusion of political and military roles and even by attempts by the militias to claim a monopoly of force.



The situation reached a boiling point after the 2018 elections in Iraq, when the pro-Iran militias succeeded in sending some of their members to the new parliament and began to wield enormous influence in the security forces, the government and the public sphere.



Though new Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi introduced directives to place the militias under state control, his government like its predecessor led by Haider Al-Abadi continued to pay lip service to the measures, apparently fearing a backlash.



A full record of the PMFs rise shows that its expansion was largely due to efforts by Iranian military commander Qassem Suleimani, who organised and championed the project to make it Irans armed and ideological arm in Iraq.



Suleimani was assisted by PMF Deputy Chief Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, a long-time Iranian ally and the architect of building the Islamic Republics influence in post-US invasion Iraq.



Both Suleimani and Al-Muhandis were killed by a US drone attack near Baghdad International Airport on 3 January this year in what appeared to be US retaliation for the militia bombardment of US troops in an Iraqi camp that killed an American contractor and wounded several American and Iraqi personnel.



It is not yet clear who or what is to blame for the present rupture inside the PMF that has achieved such public standing that it has been widely seen as a symbol of Iraqi Shia power.



But while the question remains to be conclusively answered, there are important signs that the split was on nationalistic lines against Irans hegemonic influence in Iraq.



The four breakaway paramilitary groups call themselves the Al-Marjaiya Units, or followers of the Shia religious authority in the holy city of Najaf led by Al-Sistani, and they are known to have an uneasy relationship with Iranian-backed militant groups in the country.



One of the main factors behind their resentment and separatism is the widespread feeling that the pro-Iran groups are allocated more resources and have imposed their control over the organisation as a whole.



Reports have suggested that Maitham Al-Zubaidi, the commander of the Al-Abbas Combat Division, was the driving force behind the dissent. Al-Zubaidi is considered to be one of the most respected militia commanders who have showed resilience against Irans influence in Iraq.



During the war against IS, his group proved to be one of Iraqs most effective volunteer forces, and later under Al-Zubaidi it was re-organised to include some 1,000 active-duty fighters and a reserve contingent of some 40,000 members.



Al-Zubaidi reportedly opposed the appointment of Abdul-Aziz al-Mohammedawi, a militia commander trained by Iran, to take over the empty office of al-Muhandis, which pro-Iran militiamen hoped to be the answer to the killing of the PMFs deputy chief.



According to various reports, Al-Zubaidi demanded that Al-Mohammedawi, also known as Abu Fadak, be dismissed and that pro-Al-Sistani groups be given senior posts in the PMF, allowed to be part of decision-making, and have veto power over the organisations operations.



The reports suggested that the commanders of the four groups have received strong backing from the two representatives of Al-Sistani in Kerbela, Abdul-Mahdi Al-Kerbalaei and Ahmed Al-Safi, who usually speak on behalf of the Ayatollah.



Iran has not commented directly, but a pro-Hizbullah Lebanese paper described the recent move as the first chapter in rendering the PMF defunct and diluted. Iran-aligned social media blasted the leaders of the four groups for being opportunists.



But the breakaway units remained defiant.



To the free Iraqi people, religion is the homeland, and prayers are meaningless if your loyalty is not to Iraq, wrote Hamid Al-Yassiri, commander of the Ansar Al-Marjaiya Brigade, on its website, alluding to pro-Iran groups.



The split, which has triggered the first major crisis inside the alliance, has once again raised the question of the future of the PMF and whether it is likely to be weakened by the rift.



Many Iraqs pundits have argued that expectations of a crack should be low, warning that the PMF has been growing stronger over time and that it is here to stay regardless of the opposition it has been facing.



Some of these experts also believe that rather than weakening the PMF, the split is more likely to have the opposite effect, further entrenching Irans hold on the Iraqi state.



This analysis is largely based on statements made by Iraqi Shia politicians to reassure Iran and pro-Iran militia leaders that they harbour no wish to undermine them and the assumption that the PMF could become a parallel military institution akin to Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).



Such an analysis is gravely misleading, for as long as rhetorical promises given by Iraqi Shia leaders remain utterly unsustainable, drawing on Irans IRGC as a model seems to be irrelevant.



Though the PMF has been officially recognised as being part of the state security forces in Iraq, it has remained a loose umbrella organisation for Shia militias with different affiliations and conflicting interests that were brought together only to fight a common enemy.



Given Shia internecine political, ideological, tribal and social differences and Iraqs communal sectarian and ethnic divisions, it was highly unlikely that Iran or its proxies would succeed in establishing an IRGC-like body answerable to a theological institution.



As was evident during the uprising that roared across southern and central Iraq last year, the vast majority of the population was against Irans intervention in their country and demanded disarming the unruly militias.



By leaving the PMF and calling on other militias to join in a new structure away from Iran, the pro-Al-Sistani groups have laid down an inescapable imperative for the disintegration of the organisation.



The militia leaders have always claimed that they assembled the PMF in response to Al-Sistanis fatwa, or edict, and now at the hour of truth his followers are breaking away from it.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 7 May, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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In a comprehensive ecological study, a team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena examined three different species of the genus Drosophila and their interactions with their natural food resources, in particular the yeasts associated with these substrates.

They found that vinegar flies do not necessarily prefer yeasts they know from their natural environments, but were also attracted by yeasts found in a foreign habitat. Female flies sometimes even decided to lay their eggs in presence of previously unknown yeast communities, although their offspring had less chance of survival there.

Such processes in nature could be a key factor that leads to the flies populating new habitats and, provided that the larvae also survive there, the formation of niches and, ultimately, the evolution of new species (OIKOS, doi: 10.1111/oik.07180).

Everyone knows the common vinegar fly (Drosophila melanogaster), which - often not quite correctly called a "fruit fly" - is naturally found in swarms on fruit during the hot season, especially when bananas, apples, pears and other fruits are overripe and fermentation processes start.

This is because the flies are attracted primarily by the odor of the yeasts involved in fermentation, rather than by the fruits themselves. Not only do the flies feed on these yeasts; the microorganisms also provide a first-class breeding substrate on which they lay their eggs and on which their larvae thrive.

More than 1500 different species of the genus Drosophila are known. Many of the fly species are specialized for specific habitats; they feed, for example, exclusively on certain fruits and lay their eggs there.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology wanted to know more about the role of the yeasts that grow on the respective hosts play in the host selection of the flies, and whether a partnership or mutual dependency between flies and these yeasts had developed in the process of co-evolution.

We asked ourselves: Would the fly species remain faithful to their yeasts, or would they also be attracted towards other yeasts, and would that influence the reproductive success of their species?" Sarah Koerte, Study First Author and Doctoral Researcher, Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology

In addition to Drosophila melanogaster, the team took a closer look at two other species of the genus Drosophila, their host substrates and the associated yeasts: Drosophila mojavensis, a species first described in the Mojave Desert in the southwest of the USA, which thrives on cacti, especially necrotic cactus tissue, and Drosophila putrida, a species found in the Midwestern USA, which reproduces exclusively on fungi.

Female flies make decisions with negative consequences for their offspring

In behavioral experiments, the scientists tested the preferences of adult flies of all three species for yeasts, which grow either on fruit (the baker's or brewer's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae), on cacti (Pichia cactophila) or on fungi (Vanrija humicola), and are thus part of the naturally associated microbial communities for each of the fly species.

In addition, the influence of different yeast species on the egg laying behavior of mated female flies was observed.

Surprisingly, the flies did not necessarily prefer yeasts from their familiar habitat, but were also attracted towards the other yeasts. Females of the vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster preferred to lay their eggs on a substrate with yeasts found on cacti, while female flies of the fungus specialist Drosophila putrida preferred fruit-specific yeasts for egg deposition.

A real surprise was that female flies laid their eggs in the presence of yeasts which even had a negative effect on the development of their offspring, as experiments with Drosophila larvae on different brood substrates showed: Larvae of the Drosophila species that had specialized in cacti or fungi actually thrived best on yeasts associated with the familiar habitat, while yeasts from unknown environments tended to cause poor larval development and high mortality.

In contrast to the two species with a limited host spectrum, Drosophila melanogaster larvae developed equally well on all tested yeasts, as this species is a generalist with a more flexible lifestyle.

The yeasts help the flies to decompose the plant or fungal substrate. The flies, on the other hand, excrete the yeasts undigested with their frass, and as a consequence the yeasts can spread further.

The researchers suspected that the yeasts might be involved to different degrees in the decomposition of the respective substrates. Analyses of the sugar contents and the degradation rates showed that flies and yeasts together accelerated the decomposition.

However, there was no evidence that the interaction of a specific fly species with its associated yeast was beneficial.

"Our results show that flies with a broad host spectrum were also more tolerant to different yeasts in food sources and at oviposition sites. Interestingly, the flies did not care much which yeasts were present when laying their eggs, while the hatching larvae were often only able to grow on the yeasts they would have encountered in nature," said Markus Knaden, head of the study.

However, if larvae survive on a new host and the host-specific yeasts, this might enable the flies to adapt to new environments, which might lead to the evolution of new species.

"The evolutionary success of Drosophila might be linked to the ability to adapt rapidly to new habitats. Insect-associated microbial communities could be the evolutionary keys to unlock new doors and pathways towards conquering unknown environments and establishing new ecological niches," says Sarah Koerte.
The UK's coronavirus death toll has overtaken Italy's to become the highest in Europe. With over 33,000 deaths involving Covid-19, only the US has a higher toll worldwide.

The UK government has faced criticism for its lack of testing compared to other countries, as well as a delayed response to introducing strict lockdown measures.

Even US President Donald Trump, whose own coronavirus policy has been heavily criticised, has called Prime Minister Boris Johnsons approach catastrophic. The US is by far the worst affected country in terms of coronavirus confirmed cases and deaths, with more infections recorded than Spain, Italy, France, Germany, China and the UK combined.

These figures are at least in part reflective of the larger population size of the US, and when this is taken into account it becomes clear that the UK is actually faring far worse in terms of Covid-19 deaths.

Of the worst hit countries, only Spain and Italy have a higher number of coronavirus deaths per capita, though both of these countries have significantly higher recovery rates.

When it comes to total ongoing cases, the UK is second only to the US.

Looking at the case-fatality ratio paints an even grimmer picture. The UK is second only to Belgium by this metric, which has a population six-times smaller than the UK.

One of the key areas for understanding and containing the pandemic is testing, and the UK has consistently lagged behind other nations.

The government set a target of 100,000 tests per day by the end of April but has only achieved it twice. After briefly hitting its target in early May, the UK has since dropped back below its goal.

The UK has been much slower in ramping up its testing for coronavirus compared to other countries, with Germany regularly testing 100,000 people or more at the start of April.

Less than 2 per cent of the UK population has so far been tested for coronavirus, ranking it 47th in the world by this metric.

Since containment measures were introduced, the daily number of coronavirus deaths has begun to fall in the UK and other countries.

But when it comes to "flattening the curve", figures show that the UK has been one of the slowest countries to achieve this.

Despite performing far worse than other countries on a variety of key measures, the UK government's handling of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak has actually had a positive impact on its public approval ratings.

The government's approval rating has coincided with a boost in popular support for nearly every government around the world, though this could be accounted for by the phenomenon of populations rallying around their leaders at times of crisis.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5

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The statements of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov on the Karabakh conflict recently became the most frequently discussed topic in the political circles of Armenia, Head of the Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, MP Tural Ganjaliyev said, Trend reports.

In this regard, the Armenian leadership and the representatives of the illegal regime created on the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, one after another, voice unfounded statements, Ganjaliyev noted.

Being the legally elected representative of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, Ganjaliyev emphasized that such statements do not mean anything and serve only as a cover for the fact of Karabakh's occupation by Armenia.

In any case, the conflict will be resolved in accordance with Article 11 of the Constitution of Azerbaijan, which states that the territory of Azerbaijan is one, inviolable and indivisible, he said.

Armenia and those in the occupied territories can say anything, but the opinion of the international community on the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict plays a key role, and the international community has taken a fair and tough stance against the aggressive policy of Armenia. This position is reflected both in resolutions of the UN Security Council, numerous international organizations, and in the sharp reaction of the world community in connection with the so-called "elections" recently organized by Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Because of the occupation of Azerbaijan's territories, Armenia was left alone on the international arena," said the MP.

Apparently, with such unfounded statements, Armenia and its servants in the occupied territories are trying to reassure the domestic audience. However, the internationally recognized territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied territories and the return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to their lands, will be the key points of any solution to the conflict, said Ganjaliyev.

The Armenian army is not and cannot be a "guarantor of security" of the Armenian community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. The Armenian community of Nagorno-Karabakh is well aware of this, and if they are interested in achieving peace in the region, then together with us they must demand the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, said the MP.

Azerbaijans efforts for resolving the conflict peacefully, contrary to all military and political capabilities, is an indicator of the high appreciation that the state gives to human life. Azerbaijans peaceful actions are also an indicator of respect for the peace-support mission of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ganjaliyev added.

We, the Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan are confident that the conflict will be resolved soon, and our violated rights will be restored. Together with the Armenian community of Nagorno-Karabakh, we will live in peace, enjoying the exceptional benefits of Azerbaijani citizenship," the MP emphasized.
With the U.S.s patience wearing thin on its dealings with neighbouring Iran, endemic corruption still prevalent in both the south of the country and in the northern semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, and enduring political chaos with frequently-changing prime ministers popping up whilst the real power remains with firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the last thing Iraq needed was Saudis oil price war. Even before Saudi Arabia embarked yet again on exactly the same oil price strategy that nearly bankrupted it and all of its neighbours the last time it tried and failed to destroy the U.S. shale oil industry in 2014 to 2016, Iraq was trying to minimise outgoing payments to the international oil companies (IOCs) that operate its fields and to come to some accommodation the government of Kurdistan (the KRG) on co-ordinating oil exports and sales revenues. All of this now hangs on a thread, and Russia and China are just waiting for it all to collapse so that they can continue to accelerate their drive to further dominate Iraqs oil (and gas) sectors.

At the beginning of this month, Iraqs economic parliamentary committee suggested that IOCs be paid with crude oil rather than cash or cash-equivalents as a means to reduce near-term state expenditure. It also proposed delaying payments of foreign debt (including reparations to Kuwait), introducing salary cuts of 60 per cent for various state sector employees, and reducing all non-essential spending. Despite pumping at least 4.65 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil in February - above its OPEC+ quota of 4.46 million bpd  and exporting around 3.4 million bpd of crude that month, and almost the same in March, Iraqs oil-related revenues had fallen by nearly 50 per cent at that point. This is in line with the collapse in oil prices and the fact that about 90 per cent of Iraqs government revenues still come from oil, hence the requests to the IOCs.

The problem with the idea of reducing output to reduce per barrel reimbursements to the IOCs is that in some cases Iraq is liable under the terms of the TSCs [technical service contracts] to pay out very large amounts in compensation to the same IOCs for lost production, and this includes such operations as those at Rumaila [run by BP and CNPC], West Qurna 1 [ExxonMobil] and West Qurna 2 [Lukoil], and Zubair [ENI], among others, a senior oil industry figure who works closely with Iraqs Oil Ministry told OilPrice.com last week. Some of the operators have already signalled or action some degree of cutting expenditure due to the demand effect of the coronavirus, such as BP [which announced a 25 per cent capital expenditure cut this year from the previous US$12 billion across its entire global portfolio] but this doesnt necessarily mean any extra cuts in Iraq and even if it does include Iraq in part, it doesnt meant that actual oil output will be significantly reduced, he added. Related: The Most Critical Oil Storage In The United States

With extremely limited scope for further manoeuvre in cutting payments to the IOCs, then, last week saw a last-ditch attempt at the least-likely option for success in improving its financial position: doing a deal with the KRG in Erbil. To this effect, a Kurdish delegation - led by the KRGs Finance Minister, Awat Sheikh Janab - arrived in Baghdad to discuss oil production and the federal budget, in a familiar dance of death that has been occurring on and off since 2014. In November of that year, faced with an equally ruinous economic scenario, this one almost entirely due to industrial-scale graft - according to the Oil Minister at the time, Adil Abdul Mahdi, Iraq lost US$14,448,146,000 from the beginning of 2011 up to the end of 2014 as cash compensation payments relating to these fields development  Baghdad and Erbil struck the first of its oil-for-budget payments deals.

This envisaged the KRG exporting up to 550,000 bpd of oil from its own fields and Kirkuk via Iraqs State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO). In return, Baghdad would send 17 per cent of the federal budget after sovereign expenses (around US$500 million at that time) per month in budget payments to the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in the north. From the start, both sides relentlessly cheated on the deal, with the KRG at various times stopping all oil shipments to SOMO and preferring instead to try to sell it to a range of other countries, including much of the energy-starved Former Soviet Union states, Turkey, and Israel, among others. Baghdad has sought to take the KRG to court repeatedly to stop such activity on the basis that it is illegal.

For its part, Baghdad has at various times withheld payments or underpaid, and at one point, shortly after the 2017 yes vote in the Kurdistan independence referendum, sought to change the entire parameters of the deal, completely to the detriment of Kurdistan. Specifically, Baghdad came up with a particularly tricky new tactic to base all payments to Kurdistan on its analysis of what percentage of Iraqs total population is made up of Kurds living in the KRG region. Although this figure is impossible to pinpoint  ranging from around 10 per cent to about 20 per cent  Baghdad managed to pinpoint it, at 12.67 per cent, in fact. At around that point, the KRG teamed up with Russia and suggested to Baghdad that the Kurdistan area receive 40 per cent of the revenues for the oil that it sends to the south as a starting point. On top of that, though, the KRG suggested an additional sliding scale of further payments to compensate it for the security for the fields that would be provided by the Kurdish Peshmerga in light of ongoing threats from Islamic State and similar outfits, which would have brought the total up to between 55 and 58 per cent for the KRG.

It was finally agreed between the KRG and the new Iraqi federal government formed in October 2018 (now gone, of course) - centred on the 2019 national budget bill - that Baghdad transfer sufficient funds from the federal budget to pay the salaries of KRG employees along with other financial compensation in exchange for the KRG handing over the export of at least 250,000 bpd of crude oil to SOMO. This deal also broke down a number of times  either because the KRG did not send the required oil in exchange for the payments received or because Baghdad did not send the required money for the oil received  but is nonetheless the same deal that is now back on the table. In the interim, following an order from Baghdads Council of Ministers on 16 April, the federal government did not send any budget transfer to the KRG in April. Related: Iraqi Kurdistan On The Brink Of Collapse As Oil Prices Crash

The tacit threat from the KRG is that it will increase the pace of its independent exports of all, which Baghdad maintains is illegal, although the Iraq Constitution is unclear on the issue, which does not help matters. According to a senior lawyer spoken to by OilPrice.com throughout the breakdown of the various KRG/Baghdad deals, the basic legal architecture that defines the Iraqi oil industry has been the battleground for bitter disputes between the two sides for years and will continue to be so. A test-case in May 2014 that prompted the November agreement, failed to finalise the dispute but acts as a neat example of why the disputes between the two sides continue.

At the time, Iraqs Oil Ministry, represented by SOMO, filed an arbitration claim with the International Chamber of Commerce claiming that: By transporting and storing crude oil from Kurdistan, and by loading that crude oil onto a tanker in Ceyhan, all without the authorisation of the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, Turkey and BOTAS [Turkeys state owned pipeline operator] have breached their obligations under the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline [ITP] Agreement. In this context, the Kurdistan government maintained, and still maintains, that it is entitled to export oil through the ITP, and that the Federal (Iraq) government does not have exclusive exporting authority under the 2005 Iraq Constitution that sought to delineate the legal boundaries within which the energy sector would operate.

According to the KRG, it has authority under Articles 112 and 115 of the Constitution to manage oil and gas in the Kurdistan Region extracted from fields that were not in production in 2005, the year that the Constitution was adopted by referendum. SOMO, however, argued, and still argues, that under Article 111 of the Iraq Constitution oil and gas are the ownership of all the people of Iraq in all the regions and governorates. In addition, the KRG maintains that Article 115 states: All powers not stipulated in the exclusive powers of the federal government belong to the authorities of the regions and governorates that are not organised in a region. As such, the argument runs, the KRG says that as relevant powers are not otherwise stipulated in the Constitution, it has the authority to sell and receive revenue from its oil and gas exports. Moreover, the Constitution provides that, should a dispute arise, priority shall be given to the law of the regions and governorates.

By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com

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HOMEWOOD, IL  While most of society remains primarily at home for what's coming on two months now, the owner of a beloved Chicago-area pizza chain has been out almost daily delivering meals to those working in hospitals, police stations and fire stations amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"Personally, I've gone out probably a little more than 20 times so far," Joe Aurelio said during the final week of April. Aurelio's has long been a favorite in Chicagoland, with their first and still premier location in south suburban Homewood. "I put on my mask and gloves every time and started by bringing full pizzas to hospitals and police stations. I've since switched to personal pizzas and salads."

Aurelio has lifted the spirits of the teams at police stations in Homewood, Flossmoor and Chicago Heights among others, as well as healthcare centers like the Advocate Children's Hospital in Oak Lawn.

"It's rewarding in itself, and then I got this note from a nurse saying I brightened her day," Aurelio said. "It's our chance to give them a little food, a little break before they go back into the war zone. We need to let them know we appreciate that."

Healthcare professionals have enjoyed the personal deliveries from Joe Aurelio of Aurelio's Pizza. Photo courtesy of Aurelio's

Giving back to the community is nothing new in the Aurelio family, which has been dishing out pizza since they opened their first location back in 1959 on Ridge Road in Homewood. Their primary location has since moved to Harwood Avenue in Homewood and when dine-in services return will continue to seat 650 people.



"We've been in this business for 60 years, all the while sponsoring Little League teams and donating gift certificates," Aurelio said. "Our franchises are embedded in their communities. We are about community, quality, kindness and good service. That's how we built our brand and stayed the test of time."

Aurelio's now has a number of locations across Illinois and in different pockets across the country.

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"We've have kind of a weird separation (of locations), but all franchise owners were customers and wanted one in their new towns," Aurelio said.

During the pandemic, Aurelio said at least a dozen pizzas are shipped to other parts of the country every day because people are "stuck in their houses and want to taste the memories of home," Aurelio said.

But they have not gone without challenges of their own. Like most other restaurants across the nation, Aurelio's has had to shut down dine-in services amid the pandemic and their Homewood location alone has been forced to cut their number of employees from 150 to 70.

"Overall, our chain is in good shape," Aurelio said. "It is a natural thing with pizza to have carryout and delivery so we didn't really have to reinvent anything. We are grateful and fortunate to be in the industry we are at this time."

The pandemic has brought about at least one change at Aurelio's, however. It's the addition of the "acts of kindness cards," which encourage customers to join their effort in feeding first responders and healthcare workers.

Customers who purchase a $50 gift card to give to first responders, healthcare workers or even a friend of family member who needs a pick-me-up gets rewarded with a $10 act of kindness card. Cards can be purchased online only, and Aurelio says more than $12,000 worth were sold in the first four weeks of the initiative.



"This not only supports our Aurelio's locations, but first responders and medical field professionals as well," Aurelio said.

This article originally appeared on the Homewood-Flossmoor Patch
Days after Jamia Millia Islamia student Safoora Zargar was arrested under the controversial Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, social media has been rife with sexism.

Arrested for inciting violence during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (2019), Zargar has been in judicial custody Tihar prison since April 10th following an FIR. She is reportedly 14-weeks pregnant and currently in quarantine within prison premises.

The scholar, who applied for bail and almost got it on grounds of her pregnancy and other medical conditions on April 13, was remanded with yet another FIR during her bail hearing and slapped once again with UAPA, keeping her further imprisoned. She is currently in prison in connection with her alleged involvement in the anti-CAA protests at Jaffrabad that preceded the sectarian violence that broke out in North East Delhi in February.

Zargars case has attracted both national and international attention with several human rights activists, and even politicians seeking her demand on humanitarian grounds. Many have criticised the witch-hunt" being conducted by investigating authorities to weed out anti-CAA protesters and students critical of the government by tagging them as threats to national security under the draconian UAPA Act.

Amid criticism, however, fake news and rumours, as well as sexist trolling of Zargar, have also gained ground. In wake of her arrest and consequent outrage against it on social media, sexist and bigoted trolls have been spreading rumours about Zargars pregnancy, raising questions on her dignity and the identity of the father, and even accusing the student of using the pregnancy as a ploy to evade legal proceedings.

One of the first such tweets came from Manoj Kumar Azad, who claimed to be a Bharatiya Janata Party worker from Uttar Pradesh. Azad said that Zargar was arrested and then found to be pregnant in jail. This, however, is not true, as several reports at the time of her arrest claimed she was pregnant, meaning authorities knew she was pregnant at the time of the arrest.

BJP leader Kapil Mishra, who was accused of inciting violence in February, also tweeted about her pregnancy.

Please dont connect her pregnancy with my speech It doesnt work that way https://t.co/WtKokksIqR  Kapil Mishra (@KapilMishra_IND) May 3, 2020

A barrage of sexist comments and tweets have since followed. Some insinuated the Zargar was unwed and pregnant with an illegitimate child. None of these allegations is true or of consequence to her arrest or the charges against her. In fact, Zargars husband and family spoke to The Print and clarified that she was indeed married, but that they did not want to name him in public or dignify the trolls with a response.

But trolls nevertheless used the rumours and fodder to troll the MPhil student. Some of the tweets were deeply regressive, sexist and sexually offensive in nature and attempted to raise questions on her character in order to malign the student and justify her arrest. President of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union Aishe Ghosh called the targeted trolling as nothing but slut-shaming".

Some trolls even made memes mocking Zargar and her pregnancy and linked her to Shaheen Bagh protests. The posts have been going viral everywhere from Twitter to Instagram to Facebook.

I am short of words to express my disgust. @TwitterSafety @DelhiPolice@DCP_CCC_Delhi if u cant take action against these shameful trends and people then you are complicit. Commenting on a womens modesty in a country where women are worshipped as Devis. SHAME. #_ pic.twitter.com/aqKsHpGMZt  Nabiya Khan |   (@NabiyaKhan11) May 4, 2020

Someone said it is #_ during CAA protest Apt if true  pic.twitter.com/KlhCMfefI2 Nitin Tripathi (@NitinTripathi99) May 4, 2020

Many on social media expressed outrage against the baseless rumour-mongering and misogynistic trolling. Even as the viral Instagram account Boys Locker Room brought back discourse about glorification of rape culture" in India, many on the internet felt that what was happening to Zargar was yet another example of rape culture and normalisation of violence against women.

Why are some useless Ppl asking if safoora is married or unmarried? How does it matter?Who the hell are they to question #SafooraZargar s dignity?It just shows the upbringing of these A******. I am disturbed by all the sick comments & posts everywhere on SM about her. Surbhi Dwivedi (@DwivediSurbhi) May 4, 2020

Looking at some of the sick stuff being shared about #SafooraZargar, it makes me wonder at what point in India we made it ok to encourage a rape culture. At what point did we normalise sleazy, obscene memes and comments about women as politics? This is no country for women.  Rohini Singh (@rohini_sgh) May 4, 2020

It doesnt matter if a woman is married or not. How she chooses to conceive is her choice. A mother is a mother. It is a shame that right-wing trolls cannot even show respect for an expectant mother. Such attacks prove that the Gov, does not have a case against her#SafooraZargar pic.twitter.com/qW0v3dQVkE   ~   (@Shilpa_Bhartiy) May 5, 2020

The comments on #SafooraZargar should tell you what kind of kids these people bring up. No locker room stories should surprise anyone. Just vile comments.  K() (@monteskw) May 4, 2020

Journalists and womens rights activists have also questioned the lax attitude shown by the Delhi Commission of Women, an otherwise vocal proponent when it comes to raising issues of abuse and violence against women, which has remained mum on the issue.

Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro talks to the media after a meeting for signing an agreement on guarantees for the vote at the National Electoral Council (CNE) headquarters in Caracas, Venezuela March 2, 2018.

A U.S. military veteran who has claimed responsibility for a failed armed incursion into Venezuela to oust President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday that two U.S. citizens working with him have been detained by Venezuelan authorities.

Venezuelan authorities said 10 people involved in a "mercenary incursion" were detained on Monday along the Caribbean coast, saying the 10 were part of the U.S.-backed plot.

Venezuelan state television said two U.S. citizens were among those detained but did not provide their identities.

But the American military veteran, Jordan Goudreau, who leads a Florida-based security company called Silvercorp USA, on Monday told Reuters that two Americans working with him, Aaron Berry and Luke Denman, had been captured.

"They're working with me. Those are my guys," he said by telephone.

The No. 2 official of Venezuela's Socialist Party, Diosdado Cabello, earlier on Monday tweeted a video showing one of the detained Venezuelans involved in the plot telling an unidentified official that two Americans were among those arrested.

The State Department did not provide any immediate comment on the alleged arrests. U.S. officials have strongly denied any U.S. government involvement in the incursions.

A person familiar with the matter said the two U.S. citizens were captured on Monday in a second-day roundup of accomplices and were believed to be in the custody of Venezuelan military intelligence. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the details came from contacts with Venezuelan security forces.

Opposition leader Juan Guaido cast doubt on the government's version of Sunday's events, insisting Maduro is seeking to distract from other problems in recent days including a deadly prison riot and a violent gang battle in Caracas.

Guaido's communications team on Monday denied media reports that Guaido had hired Silvercorp to remove Maduro by force, adding the opposition leader and his allies "have no relationship with or responsibility for the actions of the company Silvercorp."

In a statement on Monday evening, Guaido's team said: "We demand the human rights...of the people captured in recent hours be respected."

Washington has imposed tough economic sanctions against Venezuela in an effort to oust Maduro, whom it accuses of having rigged elections in 2018. Maduro's government says the United States wants to control Venezuela's massive oil reserves.
Despite the Bay Areas success in stemming its coronavirus outbreak through nation-leading distancing measures, local health officials have rightly set a high bar for relaxing the restrictions. The Chronicle reported Sunday that San Francisco and five surrounding counties remain far from their goals for testing and other preconditions for reopening the region.

Unfortunately, some arent waiting. A few California jurisdictions and businesses are defying state and local orders and abandoning efforts to slow the contagions spread, and Gov. Gavin Newsom appeared ready to accede to a degree. Raucous crowds of protesters have descended on Sacramento and other cities to call for an end to distancing orders while recklessly ignoring them in real time. And the federal government has joined several southern states in letting official guidance and mandates lapse  all with negligible attention to testing and other precautions preoccupying epidemiological experts and Bay Area officials.

Cell-phone-data analyses show Americans are broadly increasing their travels away from home, though to varying degrees and at different paces. The Northeast and, to a lesser extent, the West Coast continue to lead the nation in sheltering in place, especially in New York City and the Bay Area, but even those regions were seeing gradually more movement at the end of April, according to analysis by the University of Maryland and the U.S. Department of Transportation. A National Public Radio examination of data provided by SafeGraph found sharper increases in activity in parts of Virginia and Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott allowed retail, restaurants, movie theaters and other businesses to reopen Friday  even as new infections were still rising in some of the states cities.

Newsom on Monday previewed a more limited reopening that would allow lower-risk commercial activity such as retail for curbside pickup and some manufacturing to resume at the end of the week. The governor also said local jurisdictions, which led the way on sheltering, would be given more leeway to loosen orders or maintain greater restrictions. Despite mounting pressure from north and south, with three rural counties bucking his statewide shelter order and Orange County officials challenging closures of crowded beaches, Newsom insisted that his decisions were based on data.

That is certainly the right principle, but the numbers arent uniformly encouraging even in the Bay Area. While new infections have been steady or declining for the past two weeks, San Francisco is performing only half the testing called for and is ahead of the rest of the region. Statewide testing has yet to reach the goal set by Newsom, which is more modest than the Bay Areas target. The state and region are also still working to ramp up capacity to trace the contacts of infected people, another factor crucial to containing renewed outbreaks.

Despite the vocal few protesting the shelter orders and the many more suffering job losses and other hardships, the mandates retain broad support in California and across the country. Thats because most Americans understand that rushing blindly into a second wave of a deadly disease is not a viable alternative. In the absence of federal leadership, the governor and local officials bear a heavy responsibility to put long-term public safety ahead of ephemeral political considerations.

This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.
Iran Official Says Five Military Personnel Are In Jail Abroad, Blames The US

Radio Farda May 04, 2020

An Iranian lawmaker has quoted a deputy defense minister as saying that more than 30 Iranians "active in military affairs" have been in jail outside Iran, but currently there are five individuals in prison abroad on charges of "military activity."

Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, the spokesman for the Iranian Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, who made the remarks on Monday May 4 did not elaborate on the ranks or positions of the detainees and where they are detained.

However, Naqavi Hosseini said that the five individuals are in jail as a result of "the United States' hostile behavior."

U.S. forces are present in the Persian Gulf region, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan in the vicinity of Iran so the five Iranians linked to military activities, who might be military personnel, are possibly jailed in one of those countries.

Naqavi Hosseini refused to say in which country they were arrested, what are exactly the charges against them and how many of them have been freed. However, he said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been doing its best to help.

According to the lawmaker, the unidentified deputy defense minister has said that "Around five Iranians have been detained for military and defensive activities with ambiguous charges." However, the Persian term "Asir" he used to describe the five, means prisoner of war.

Last year Iran's Foreign Minister said in a couple of instances that Tehran has presented a list to the US government suggesting a prisoner swap. The Spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that "this suggestion is still on the table," which confirms there are US citizens in jail in Iran.

Iran is known for holding dual nationals and foreign citizens in jail as hostages and using them for political gain or prisoner swap.

Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iran-official-says -five-military-personnel-are-in-jail-abroad- blames-the-us/30592641.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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From House Beautiful

If there's one thing every home needs, it's an investment piece. Whether it's a KitchenAid or a vintage table, the staple should be timeless and last long enough to gain heirloom status. Those familiar with Pendleton's beloved wool blankets know what makes them worth the splurge. They're soft, durable, and classic enough to inspire entire rooms. For over 100 years, Pendleton has been making the must-haves for designers and vintage-hunters alike.

Pendleton Woolen Mills owes its name to the Oregon town that held its first factory, built in 1895. Unlike other centennial businesses, the blanket fabricatorwhich now also offers apparel, rugs, and tabletop accessorieshas kept its headquarters in its Oregon home, choosing to stay family-owned and operated long after its successes made it a household name. The company's longevity is largely thanks to its roster of local wool shepherds, some of whom have been suppling the company for generations.

The Krebs family has been providing wool for Pendleton for over 90 years. Their sheep moving process, documented for Pendleton's Youtube channel, takes their herds to places like the National Forest for stronger coats and better nutrition. "You can buy cheaper wool shirts, but you're not going buy a wool shirt that will last you 20 years," said Chad Kreb, retired Principal Operator of the family farm in an interview with Pendleton.

Once the wool is harvested and delivered to the woolen mills, workers clean it and turn it into fleece by a process called scouring, working the individual fibers into thread spools. Pendleton spins nearly 2 million pounds of yarn a year to create some its most iconic patterns. This is to give them a variety of colors in the dyeing process and the ability to weave hundreds of variations on 10 of its original Jacquard patterns.

This dyeing processalong with wool's unique propertiesis what makes these blankets family heirlooms. "Wool as a fiber itself has so many unique and positive attributes to it. It insulates against moisture, cold, and heat...its structure allows the dye to penetrate deeply into the core of the fiber. This creates a permanent and deeply rich color," says Amanda Coppa, Pendleton's senior merchandise manager.

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The dyed spools are then individually thread into eye of the heddle to form a warp in the mechanical looms, which are each capable of 4,000 separate yarns per warp. The looms create yards of mesmerizing fabric which are then cut, finished, and inspected. "Every square-inch is inspected by hand," says Coppa.

The brand started as a fabricator for trading posts, designing alongside Native American tribes to make ceremonial pieces, now still given in celebration of important milestones, like graduating school or the birth of a child. Pendleton has continued in that tradition offering blankets and merchandise designed by and benefiting Native Americans, including its series for the American Indian College Fund.

Some of the company's most loved pieces have been in collaboration with nonprofit organizations and charities like the National Park Foundation, the Fisher House Foundation for veterans, and NARA's work with American Indian women. The Glacier National Park blanket, with it's four-colored stripes, remains a best-seller and a collector's item for antique-hunters with an eye for original labels going back to early 1900s.

With a process as time-tested and rigorous as Pendleton's it only makes sense that these blankets last as long as the mill itself.

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UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The U.N. Security Council on Monday backed Lebanons efforts to end the countrys economic crisis and tackle other challenges including the impact of COVID-19 and called on the international community to help.

The U.N.s most powerful body took note in a statement after a closed meeting of the urgent need for the Lebanese authorities to respond to the aspirations of the Lebanese people by implementing meaningful economic reforms and addressing security, humanitarian and COVID-19 challenges.

Lebanon, one of the most indebted nations in the world, defaulted for the first time in March on its sovereign debt. Anti-government protests that erupted in October subsided during a nationwide lock-down since mid-March to blunt the spread of the coronavirus. Those restrictions are starting to ease.

Last Thursday, the prime minister said he will seek a rescue program from the International Monetary Fund, but protesters rallied again Friday, criticizing the governments handling of the unprecedented crisis that saw the local currency crash, people's savings devastated, and prices and inflation soar.

The Security Council was meeting to discuss implementation of a 2004 resolution that called for the Lebanese government to extend its authority throughout the country and all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias to disband.

In a report to the council circulated Monday on the resolutions implementation, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also addressed Lebanon's current economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the dire economic and financial situation in Lebanon is now compounded by the adverse impact of COVID-19 on the countrys economy, it is all the more urgent that the countrys leaders develop and implement the required reforms, he said.

The U.N. chief stressed that measures to prevent, limit and mitigate the impact of the pandemic have to be taken in parallel to the provision of financial and food support to the rapidly increasing numbers of the most vulnerable groups of the population facing dire poverty.

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Lebanon was engulfed in civil war from 1975-1990, and a U.N. peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL has been in Lebanon since 1978 after Israel invaded parts of southern Lebanon. Since then, there have been major wars in 1982 and in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah militants which claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people on both sides.

The Security Council statement recognized the additional challenges posed by the global COVID pandemic, also on the Lebanese economy, and commended the preventive measures taken by UNIFIL in that regard.

Guterres report said Lebanons government continued efforts to extend the authority of the state throughout the country but Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias continue to operate outside government control in violation of the 2004 resolution and the Taif Accords that ended the country's civil war.

Several groups across the political spectrum in Lebanon possess weapons outside government control, the U.N. chief said, and Hezbollah is the most heavily armed militia in the country.

Guterres said he continues to urge Lebanons government and armed forces to take all measures necessary to prohibit Hezbollah and other armed groups from acquiring weapons and building paramilitary capacity outside the authority of the state. He also urged countries with close times to Hezbollah to encourage the transformation of the group into a solely civilian political party, as well as its disarmament.

The secretary-general warned that Iranian-backed Hezbollah's continued involvement in Syria where it supports President Bashar Assad's government, carries the risk of entangling Lebanon in regional conflicts and undermining the stability of Lebanon and the region.

Guterres and the Security Council expressed concern at recent incidents across the U.N.-drawn Blue Line separating Lebanon and Israel.

Germanys deputy U.N. ambassador Jurgen Schulz told the council that Lebanon is facing an unprecedented challenge to its political leadership and the countrys stability, according to the text of his statement to the closed meeting.

He said it was very good" that the government has adopted a comprehensive economic reform plan and that the its response to the COVID-19 crisis has been a major achievement in the last two months.

At the same time, many challenges remain and we continue to remain very worried that there is a real risk that the country could drift towards economic and financial collapse and see a prolonged political crisis," Schulz said.
What emerges instead is a fascinating cross section of Guadeloupean society. Dieudonnes absentee father, a powerful African politician; the teenage Haitian refugee who tries to cleanse Dieudonne with Voodoo; Boris, the homeless communist poet turned important governmental figure; the white American tourist-gone-native who has given birth to Dieudonnes child. One minor character, the wife of a politician, catches a news item on Dieudonnes acquittal and reflects: He might have been one of her little brothers or, God forbid, one of her sons who had gone astray. At the same time, Loraine was a woman, and even though she was a bekee, this put her in the interminable list of victims of almighty male power. Women beaten, women raped, women deceived. The book is filled with these kinds of insights, at once everyday and prophetic.

The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana (2017), one of many works wryly rendered in English by Condes translator husband, was written in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris and takes on the feedback loop of global inequity and radicalization. The conceit is deceptively straightforward: Ivan and Ivana are twins born to a single Guadeloupean mother, and as they grow up they adore each other above all else in the world. In fact, their bond is so strong that it tips over into incestuous passions they must be vigilant not to consummate. Yet despite their closeness, they grow to be as different as night and day, or in their case, terrorist and police hero.

As teenagers, the pair must leave the island if they hope to find work and secure any kind of future, but rather than heading to Paris, the natural point of emigration for Guadeloupean youth, the twins are shipped to Mali, to live with their estranged father in his native land. There Ivan is secured a job in the national militia, and Ivana is put to work in an orphanage for the children of those killed in the recent war. Ivan converts to Islam, at first mostly just to fit in, but is quickly and forcibly recruited to engage in radical jihad. Both make it to Paris, where Ivana joins the police force and is celebrated for her wisdom, beauty and commitment. Ultimately, Ivan and Ivana find themselves as minor actors on opposing sides of ongoing global violence.

The book is a reflection on the dangers of binary thinking, and the Wilde line Each man kills the thing he loves serves as a kind of refrain for the mutually destructive passions between West and East, black and white, purist and pervert. The narrator continuously wonders when, exactly, Ivan became radicalized. The potential causes are perplexing and surprising, like the assassination, by antiterrorism forces, of a white Malian couple who offered Ivan shelter and formed a menage a trois with him.
The Nagpur Municipal Corporation



and District Collector on Tuesday refuted claims authorities have illegally detained 1,408 people from two coronavirus hotspots and informed the Bombay High Court that only high- risk contact persons have been sent to quarantine facilities.

Justice A S Kilor of the HC's Nagpur bench was hearing a petition filed by local resident Mohammad Nishat, alleging the city civic authorities illegally detained 1,408 people from Satranjipura and Mominpura areas on the ground they were high-risk contacts of those who tested positive for COVID-19.

According to the petitioners advocate, Tushar Mandlekar, the authorities randomly picked up 1,408 people and thus, violated the prescribed protocols and guidelines issued by the Union government and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Mandlekar argued that only persons found to be coronavirus positive or their high-risk contacts can be detained and quarantined for 14 days.

The 1,408 people detained by authorities do not fall under these categories and hence, detaining them amounts to infringement of their fundamental rights, he said.

The Nagpur civic body in its affidavit filed on Tuesday said it has followed all the guidelines issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research while quarantining people from Satranjipura and Mominpura areas of Nagpur city.

The civic body after following the guidelines had categorized these persons as being high-risk contacts and only after such identification, they were sent to quarantine facilities.

"All the persons detained from these areas are high- risk contacts and as such have been rightly sent to quarantine facilities, the affidavit said.

Many of the persons who have been quarantined have tested positive when tests were conducted, the corporation said.

Nagpur district collector Ravindra Thakare in his affidavit said all steps taken by the authorities are with the singular aim of reducing the spread of COVID-19 and for safeguarding the lives of citizens.

The cases of COVID-19 are increasing day by day in Nagpur district and the position is critical and dynamic in nature, the Collector said in his affidavit.

He added that the Nagpur corporation is making all necessary arrangements at quarantine facilities, including food and medicines.

The petition had also claimed that these people have been sent to quarantine facilities set up in the MLA Hostel and Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), which are located in crowded areas.

As per guidelines issued by ICMR and the Union government, a quarantine facility should preferably be on the outskirts of a city, Mandlekar argued.

To this, the corporation in its affidavit said that quarantine facilities are not located in crowded areas and are secured by police.

"The two quarantine facilities where the 1408 persons are presently kept is as per the guidelines issued by ICMR and union government which says the facility should be well protected and secure, should have ample parking space and should have easy access for delivery of food, medicines and so on, the affidavit said.

The court, after hearing brief arguments in the case, closed it for judgment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi: Once a top Bhojpuri actress and now a famous television star, Monalisa is making sure to up her Insta game with each post. In her recent social media post, the many moods of Monalisa have been captured. She moved to TV with a popular show 'Nazar' in which she played an evil force named Mohana.

Her caption reads: Am A Scorpio, I Have Different Mood Swings .... Yesss Its Meeeee.... #goodmorning #different #mood

She has a solid social media presence with 3.1 million followers on Instagram alone. Monalisa is seen on supernatural fiction show 'Nazar 2'. Monalisa sure knows how to keep her social media fam happy and smiling.

The stars are making sure to inspire people to stay indoors and maintain social distancing in this tough time.

The deadly novel coronavirus has claimed thousands of lives globally. And to curb the situation, the government has called for an extension in the lockdown which continues till May 17, 2020, as of now.
A French hospital has discovered that it treated a COVID-19 patient as early as December 27, almost a month before the government confirmed its first cases. Yves Cohen, head of resuscitation at the Avicenne and Jean Verdier hospitals in the northern suburbs of Paris, told a news channel that scientists retested samples of 24 flu patients and one of them tested positive for COVID-19.

France has reported nearly 170,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and over 25,000 deaths due to the infection so far. The European nation had officially reported its first three COVID-19 cases on January 24 which included two patients from Paris and one from the southwestern city of Bordeaux.

Cohen said that it is still too early to confirm whether the patient who tested positive for coronavirus was patient zero of France. He added that the patient was sick for 15 days and infected his two children, but not his wife who works at a supermarket. He speculated whether the patients wife, who worked close to colleagues of Chinese origin, was asymptomatic.

Read: France PM Edouard Philippe Urges May 11 Public Transport Opening

Similar case in the US

Finding the patient zero has proved to be an enormous challenge for authorities to understand the reason and pattern of the outbreak. Recently, a top US health official revealed that two people died from coronavirus three weeks before the country officially reported its first death from the infection.

Read: France PM Philippe Hints At Resuming Religious Services Earlier Than Planned

Dr Sara Cody, health director in Northern Californias Santa Clara County, reportedly said that the authorities failed to record the COVID-19 death due to lack of testing and clarity over who should be tested. Public Health Department of Santa Clara County said in a statement that the Medical Examiner-Coroner received confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on April 21 regarding the earliest-known deaths.

Today, Dr. Cody addressed the cases, confirming that community transmission of #COVID19 began far earlier than we knew. This sad news of additional, early losses of members of our community reinforces the critical importance of social distancing measures. #ApartTogetherSCC  Healthy SCC (@HealthySCC) April 23, 2020

Read: France To Be Divided In Red, Green Zones While Easing COVID-19 Restrictions: PM Philippe

Read: Ivory Coast PM Evacuated To France For Medical Checkup Amid COVID-19 Scare
WASHINGTON  Tied to the White House for weeks because of the coronavirus, President Donald Trump landed in Arizona on Tuesday, his most extensive trip since the start of the pandemic  and he indicated he may wear a mask during his visit.

Planning to tour a Honeywell aerospace facility in Phoenix that makes respirator masks, Trump said he would probably sample the plant's product.

"If it's a mask facility, I will, yeah," Trump said as he departed the White House. "I dont know if its a mask facility. Were going to see Honeywell."

Vice President Mike Pence was criticized last week for not wearing a mask during a tour of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

Trump arrived in Arizona amid reports that he plans to slow down the task force he created to fight the pandemic.

The New York Times reported that Trump officials are "telling members and staff of the coronavirus task force that the White House plans to wind down the operation in coming weeks despite growing evidence that the crisis is raging on."

White House officials did not comment on the report, which drew outrage from the administration's critics.

"We have weeks ahead of us of 1,000+ deaths/day but sure, let's shut down the task force," national security lawyer Bradley P. Moss tweeted.

Trump is expected to address the fate of his Coronavirus Task Force during his stop in Phoenix.

Trump said last week he was tired of being cooped up in the White House: "Were going to start to move around." The Phoenix visit is the first in what may be a series of trips designed to highlight efforts to fight the coronavirus.

Mike Pence: "I should have worn a mask" during Mayo Clinic visit

Trump said he wants to resume reelection campaign rallies as soon as possible.

Arizona figures to be an important part of Trump's campaign strategy. He carried the state in 2016, but polls show him in a close contest this year with presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

Story continues

Trump held a campaign rally in Phoenix on Feb. 19, just before the surge of coronavirus cases.

Plant tour: Trump to travel to Arizona Honeywell facility amid push to lift coronavirus restrictions

Before a tour of the Honeywell plant, Trump plans to participate in a roundtable on Native American issues. Presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway said Trump plans to make a federal commitment to help tribes address the problems of missing and murdered women.

As for why Trump is visiting an important political state, Conway said Trump "looks at the entire country as a battleground."

Trump travels to Arizona under tight security, including medical security.

President Donald Trump is traveling under tight medical security.

The White House announced Monday that medical personnel are administering coronavirus tests to anyone expected to come into proximity to the president.

Trump and aides plan another trip this week  to Ohio, also a politically consequential state.

Trump has largely stayed in DC during the pandemic

Since state officials across the country began locking down in early March to curb the spread of the coronavirus, Trump has ventured beyond Washington only twice.

In late March, the president journeyed to Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia as the USNS Comfort took off for New York with medical staff and hospital beds to help fight the pandemic.

This past weekend, Trump choppered to the Camp David presidential retreat in the mountains of Maryland.

Trump has been vocal about resuming campaign rallies but acknowledged they may have to wait until social distancing guidelines are removed. He said last week he couldn't imagine holding a rally at which "every sixth seat is empty."

"That wouldn't look too good," he said.

During a Fox News town hall Sunday, Trump said he hopes to do bigger campaign events closer to the election Nov. 3: "I would hope that within maybe the last couple of months, we'll be able to do rallies in various states."

Travelers tested: People who meet with Donald Trump in Phoenix will get coronavirus tests

Trump's trip to the battleground Arizona is a chance for him to get back into the field to talk to the American people instead of remaining confined in Washington, said Rick Gorka, a Republican National Committee spokesman.

The businesses there have been a key contributor to producing the resources necessary to combat COVID, Gorka said. A presidential visit is the ultimate way to show respect and thank individuals for what theyre doing in times of crisis.

What the political landscape looks like in Arizona

Republicans in Arizona have focused on expanding turnout among GOP voters and winning over independent suburban voters who are wary of Trump's bombastic tendencies and near-constant drama.

GOP operatives are worried about simply maintaining their core support among seniors, many of whom are concerned about the viruss impact on long-term care facilities. The state is home to large retirement communities, and seniors support is crucial to any candidate's statewide win.

If he loses older voters, that explains why were seeing Biden being very competitive in a state like Florida, which has a large retirement population, too, said Michael McDonald, a University of Florida political science professor who studies voting behavior. It makes sense he would pay special attention to Arizona because one of his core constituencies is at risk.

Contributing: The Arizona Republic

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump lands in Arizona to highlight fight against coronavirus
NOTE: This story has been edited to reflect that the final version of the bill didnt attempt to reduce the amount of time a governor could call for a state of emergency.

As promised, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has vetoed legislation that would have shortened the length of some of her executive orders.

Senate Bill 858 would have amended Michigans Emergency Management Act of 1976, laying out deadlines for when some of Whitmers executive orders would end. Notably, it would have allowed restaurants, bars, gyms and other public-facing businesses to open May 15 with social distancing measures in place.

The bill originally included a stipulation to shorten the amount of time a governor can call for a state of emergency without needing legislative approval, from 28 days to 14 days. That provision wasnt in the final version approved by the legislature.

In her veto letter, Whitmer said the bill goes against recommendations from public health officials, it doesnt allow governors to properly address disasters or emergencies and would be useless now anyway since the bill as passed wouldnt take effect until next year.

I will not sign any bills that constrain my ability to protect the people of Michigan from a deadly pandemic in a timely manner, Whitmer wrote.

Whitmer and the legislature are entangled in a debate about the governors emergency powers, since a 1945 law allows governors to call for a state of emergency for as long as necessary, while the 1976 law limits it to 28 days. Whitmer has said lawmakers in 1976 would have made the 1945 law inactive if thats what they intended.

Whitmer called for a 28-day state of emergency on March 10, the day the first COVID-19 cases were reported in the state. The legislature later approved an extension through April 30.

When the legislature declined to extend the emergency further, Whitmer extended it on her own through May 28  citing both the 1945 and 1976 laws. Both the house and senate voted to give leadership the go-ahead to sue Whitmer over this.

"The governor is choosing to consolidate all authority in state government for herself, setting in motion a constitutional crisis in Michigan," said State Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, in a news release. Barrett introduced the bill Whitmer vetoed.

The bill also would have required various social distancing measures and other precautions for businesses, as they reopen.

The state of emergency is not the same thing as the stay-at-home order. The emergency allows Whitmer to create executive orders  like the stay-at-home order  without legislative approval and deploy resources as she sees fit.

Keeping everything shut down because of the decisions of one person is not acceptable, Barrett said in the release. "Our severe health and economic crisis is not being best served by our governors irresponsible and reckless actions.

COVID-19 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 Michigan coronavirus coverage here

Tuesday, May 5: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

Whitmer issues orders extending state of emergency without support of legislature

From closing restaurants to requiring masks, Gov. Whitmer has issued 69 executive orders in 56 days

Six weeks into extreme social distancing, how are Michiganders still catching coronavirus?
File image: Abhijit Banerjee

Spending is the easiest way to revive the economy amid the COVID-19 crisis, Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee told Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, adding that a direct transfer to people to spend was a good way to ensure this.

The former Congress president was in conversation with Banerjee on May 5 about the economic fallout as a part of his series of deliberations with experts on economy and health.

Banerjee suggested giving money into the hands of the bottom 60 percent population to help revive demand.

To Gandhi's question as to whether some form of the Congress-proposed NYAY scheme or direct cash transfer to people was the need of the hour, Benerjee answered in the affirmative saying it should not be limited just to the poorest.

"I would say the bottom 60 percent of the population, we give them some money, nothing bad will happen in my view. If we gave them money, well some of them might not need it. Fine, they'll spend it. If they spend it, it would have a stimulus effect," 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

Banerjee further said it was important for India to announce a large enough stimulus package to deal with the crisis on the lines of what the US, Japan and Europe are doing.

"We really haven't decided on a large enough stimulus package. We are still talking about 1 percent of GDP. The United States has gone for 10 percent of GDP," the noted economist said.

Banerjee said, "we have done one thing that I think is wise, which is to kind of put a moratorium on debt payments. We could do more than that. We could even say that the debt payments for this quarter will be cancelled and will be taken care of by the government," he said.

Banerjee also suggested that the government should hand out temporary ration cards to people to deal with the problem of food distribution.

He said another concern looking ahead post-COVID-19 and is a chain of bankruptcies.

"Maybe writing off a lot of debt is the way to go," he suggested.

On May 4, the Congress party tweeted a 1.44-minute clip from their conversation which aired in full the next day.

The first such dialogue was held last week when Gandhi discussed the coronavirus pandemic and its economic implications with former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan.

During that dialogue, Rajan said that India should be "cleverer" in lifting the lockdown and open up its economy in a "measured way" soon to save jobs.

He also said that Rs 65,000 crore should be spent to support the poor hit hard by the crisis.
Across Texas, more than 40% of COVID-19 deaths have come from nursing homes or long-term elderly care facilities where large groups of people extremely vulnerable to this virus live under one roof. Deadly outbreaks have befallen nursing homes in San Antonio, Lubbock and Galveston County, among others.

But in Laredo, its not so.

In fact throughout the course of this pandemic there have been zero positive cases and zero deaths linked to any of Laredos nursing homes. Albeit very few of the residents have been tested, but there are also very few who have displayed symptoms of the virus, Laredo Health Authority Dr. Victor Trevino said.

Trevino, Laredo Health Director Dr. Hector Gonzalez and four of Laredos five nursing homes have all confirmed to LMT that none of their residents or staff have tested positive for COVID-19.

The City of Laredo, following guidelines set by the state in February, instructed local nursing homes to completely close their doors to visitors, which they implemented in early March, Gonzalez said. This was weeks before the citys first case was confirmed.

Weve had other issues with nursing homes with multi-drug resistant organism infections. This is not new to us. The lockdown is new ... but the infection control, the heightened hygiene, sanitation, thats always been, Gonzalez said.

But this was also the case at the Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in San Antonio, where at least 17 residents have been killed by the virus. Managers at the center said COVID-19 raced through the nursing home despite its adherence to public health protocols. The citys health district said it could not determine the source of the outbreak but suspected that the virus was brought in by a worker.

In his most recent executive order, Gov. Greg Abbott outlined a mitigation plan for nursing homes. In response, Trevino said Friday he is working with the city on a new mandate to test all nursing home staff and ancillary personnel who may come into these facilities.

This is not yet ordered, as he needs to make sure there is testing available for these health care workers, Trevino noted.

He also would like to make testing more available to residents of local nursing homes; very few have been tested for the virus.

At Retama Manor Nursing Center in west Laredo, where Trevino is the medical director, five suspected COVID-19 patients were hospitalized, but none tested positive for the virus.

At Laredo Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and Las Alturas Nursing & Transitional Care, only one resident at either facility has undergone testing.

At Retama Manor Nursing Center-Laredo South, no patients have been tested or shown COVID-19 symptoms.

Since residents have been tested so infrequently, Trevino said there is a possibility there could be unknown positive cases at these facilities.

There is always a possibility. But at this time we dont have anyone with symptoms. And the ones that have shown respiratory symptoms or any type of fever, they get transferred to the hospital and tested there. But ideally it would be good to test all of them, he said.

Price Miller, an admissions coordinator at Las Alturas, said they have an entire wing of the facility closed in case any of their residents are suspected to have COVID-19. They have not had to utilize it yet.

And even with about 70 patients living at the nursing home, they have enough space to keep everyone separated and monitored, Miller said.

The system we have is effective, he said.

Gonzalez and Trevino chalk up the success of Laredos nursing homes to early prevention, namely the ban on visitors and an order that kept personnel from working at more than one nursing home or medical facility at a time.

Weve been fortunate to not suffer a great amount of consequences like other cities. I think in part it was due to all the measures we instilled early, Trevino said. Even though we had basically no tools, very little testing and no medication, we acted upon observation and prevention. So at this point if we follow what we did, acting on prevention, we will help the situation tremendously.

The San Antonio Express-News contributed to this report.

Julia Wallace may be reached at 956-728-2543 or jwallace@lmtonline.com
Bluestone Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders to be Held Via Teleconference

Posted by Publisher Internet

Bluestone Resources Inc. (TSXV:BSR | OTCQB:BBSRF) (\Bluestone\ or the \Company\ -? https://www.commodity-tv.com/play/bluestone-resources-targeting-a-project-financing-package-in-q2-2020-for-cerro-blanco/ ) announces that due to the evolving concerns associated with the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, Bluestone has organized a conference call (details below) whereby shareholders and interested stakeholders can join its Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders (the ?Meeting?), scheduled on May 20, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. Vancouver time.?In order to mitigate risks to the health and safety of the community, shareholders, employees, and other stakeholders given the unprecedented impact of COVID-19, Bluestone will not hold the Meeting in person.?

Bluestone urges shareholders to vote their proxies in advance of the Meeting since voting will not take place as part of the conference call.

The deadline to vote your proxy in advance of the Meeting will be Friday, May 15, 2020 at 9:00 a.m.

Shareholders (registered and non-registered) are reminded that there are a number of voting methods available to them in advance of the meeting which are outlined in the \Voting Instructions\ section of Bluestone\-\-s management proxy circular which was mailed to shareholders on April 23, 2020.? All Meeting materials and voting instructions may also be found on the Company?s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com, and on the Company?s website: https://bluestoneresources.ca/investors/agm/.

Conference Call Details

Shareholders may use the following information to listen to the Annual Meeting via conference call. Callers will be asked for their name upon dialing into the conference call and to identify whether they are a shareholder.

Dial-In Numbers:

Toll-Free: 1-833-728-7677

Access Code: 307368707#

About Bluestone Resources

Bluestone Resources is a mineral exploration and development company that is focused on advancing its 100%-owned Cerro Blanco Gold and Mita Geothermal projects located in Guatemala. A Feasibility Study on Cerro Blanco returned robust economics with a quick pay back. The average annual production is projected to be 146,000 ounces per year over the first three years of production with all-in sustaining costs of $579/oz (as defined per World Gold Council guidelines, less corporate general and administration costs). The Company trades under the symbol ?BSR? on the TSX Venture Exchange and ?BBSRF? on the OTCQB.

On Behalf of Bluestone Resources Inc.

?Jack Lundin?

Jack Lundin | CEO & Director

For further information, please contact:

?

Bluestone Resources Inc.

Stephen Williams | VP Corporate Development & Investor Relations

Telefon: +1 604 646 4534

info@bluestoneresources.ca

www.bluestoneresources.ca

In Europa:

Swiss Resource Capital AG

Jochen Staiger

info@resource-capital.ch

www.resource-capital.ch?

?

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 press release contains ?forward-looking information? within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and ?forward-looking statements? within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, ?forward-looking statements?).? All statements, other than statements of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that Bluestone Resources Inc. (?Bluestone? or the ?Company?) believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future including, without limitation: to the market for Bluestone?s common shares, preferred shares, debt securities, subscription receipts, units, warrants and share purchase contracts; the conversion of the inferred mineral resources; increasing the amount of measured mineral and indicated mineral resources; the proposed timeline and benefits of further drilling; the proposed timeline and benefits of the Feasibility Study; statements about the Company?s plans for its mineral properties; Bluestone?s business strategy, plans and outlook; the future financial or operating performance of Bluestone; capital expenditures, corporate general and administration expenses and exploration and development expenses; expected working capital requirements; the future financial estimates of the Cerro Blanco Project economics, including estimates of capital costs of constructing mine facilities and bringing a mine into production and of sustaining capital costs, estimates of operating costs and total costs, net present value and economic returns; proposed production timelines and rates; funding availability; resource estimates; and future exploration and operating plans are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect the current expectations or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to Bluestone and often use words such as ?expects?, ?plans?, ?anticipates?, ?estimates?, ?intends?, ?may? or variations thereof or the negative of any of these terms.

All forward-looking statements are made based on Bluestone?s current beliefs as well as various assumptions made by Bluestone and information currently available to Bluestone.? Generally, these assumptions include, among others: the presence of and continuity of metals at the Cerro Blanco Project at estimated grades; the availability of personnel, machinery,?and equipment at estimated prices and within estimated delivery times; currency exchange rates; metals sales prices and exchange rates assumed; appropriate discount rates applied to the cash flows in economic analyses; tax rates and royalty rates applicable to the proposed mining operations; the availability of acceptable financing; the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19); anticipated mining losses and dilution; success in realizing proposed operations; and anticipated timelines for community consultations and the impact of those consultations on the regulatory approval process.

Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of Bluestone to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements and, even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, Bluestone. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things: risks and uncertainties related to expected production rates; timing and amount of production and total costs of production; risks and uncertainties related to the ability to obtain, amend, or maintain necessary licenses, permits, or surface rights; risks associated with technical difficulties in connection with mining development activities; risks and uncertainties related to the accuracy of mineral resource estimates and estimates of future production, future cash flow, total costs of production, and diminishing quantities or grades of mineral resources; risks associated with geopolitical uncertainty and political and economic instability in Guatemala; risks related to global epidemics or pandemics and other health crises, including the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19); risks and uncertainties related to interruptions in production; the possibility that future exploration, development, or mining results will not be consistent with Bluestone?s expectations; uncertain political and economic environments and relationships with local communities and governmental authorities; risks relating to variations in the mineral content within the mineral identified as mineral resources from that predicted; variations in rates of recovery and extraction; developments in world metals markets; and risks related to fluctuations in currency exchange rates. For a further discussion of risks relevant to Bluestone, see ?Risk Factors? in the Company?s annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2019, available on the Company?s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it was made, and except as may be required by applicable securities laws, Bluestone disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although Bluestone believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to their inherent uncertainty.? There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

Non-IFRS Financial Performance Measures

The Company has included certain non-International Financial Reporting Standards (?IFRS?) measures in this news release. The Company believes that these measures, in addition to measures prepared in accordance with IFRS, provide investors an improved ability to evaluate the underlying performance of the Company and to compare it to information reported by other companies. The non-IFRS measures are intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. These measures do not have any standardized meaning prescribed under IFRS, and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers.

All-in sustaining costs

The Company believes that all-in sustaining costs (?AISC?) more fully defines the total costs associated with producing gold.

The Company calculates AISC as the sum of refining costs, third party royalties, site operating costs, sustaining capital costs and closure capital costs all divided by the gold ounces sold to arrive at a per ounce amount. Other companies may calculate this measure differently as a result of differences in underlying principles and policies applied. Differences may also arise due to a different definition of sustaining versus non-sustaining capital.

AISC reconciliation

AISC and costs are calculated based on the definitions published by the World Gold Council (?WGC?) (a market development organization for the gold industry comprised of and funded by 18 gold mining companies from around the world). The WGC is not a regulatory organization.
A family of four came up with an innovative way of living; they built a tiny village for their family, complete with a house for each teenager, along with a pool room and a guest house. The family says theyre not only happy with the living arrangements, but it represents a more sustainable and environmentally friendly way of life.

It was 2015 when Keli and Ryan Brinks decided to move out of their Michigan home and purchased 21 acres of land in London, Kentucky. We didnt want to carry a mortgage, so we moved to Kentucky from Michigan, where it was cheaper, Keli explained the move, according to Yahoo News.

Instead of building a single home for everyone, including the parents, their son, Brodey, and older daughter Lennox, the couple created a small village for their family consisting of six tiny houses for which they paid approx $20,000 each. Initially, my husband wanted us all together in one cabin, but I argued on behalf of the kids for their own privacy, Kelly told Insider. The woman then said they chose the Kentucky location because of the lack of restrictions for housing and also due to the area being cost effective.

The little family village consists of six tiny houses, one where the parents live, one for each child, a small bathroom house, an office house, and a pool house where the family spend time together. The property also includes a chicken coup and even a goat! All to maintain a sustainable lifestyle.

Keli and Ryans tiny house is the only one in the bunch with a private bathroom along with other amenities. We asked for amendments including extra windows, an extra cutout area in back for an exit door, and real dormers up top to add more natural light, Keli shared.

While Brodeys and Lennoxs tiny homes dont have private bathrooms, the older sister insists she doesnt see it as too much of an inconvenience. When I tell people this, they think its worse than it is when in reality, it takes me like five seconds to run over there, she told Bored Panda.

Both teenagers got to choose the design of their tiny houses. According to Lennox, theyre happy with the arrangement, along with the privacy they each enjoy. I love having my own space and being able to customize my house to my liking. Not to mention, if I stay up late at night or have friends over, I dont have to worry about being quiet because my parents are across the yard, Lennox explained.

As for spending family time together, this unique living situation seems to have brought the family closer together. We always eat dinner together, and were constantly outside. In Michigan, I dont remember playing yard games, Lennox told Today.

For Keli and her husband, this way of life is also about protecting the environment. The family recycles as much as they can and aims to pass those values on to their kids.

We have taught them to value the Earth and to do their part to take care of it and encourage others to take care of it, Keli said. Family togetherness, fresh air, outdoor exercise, growing and cultivating food, and taking good care of animals so they can take good care of us is what we want them to live for and pass down to the next generations.
Diane Moreau was back at work selling women's clothing and accessories in Saint-Jerome, Que., on Monday after a lengthy staycation courtesy of the coronavirus.

Things have certainly changed at Boutique l'Avantage as the shop's owner strives to make it as safe as possible for both employees and customers.

"We have Plexiglass. We have soap. We have everything in place," Moreau said. "No mask? You don't come in, that's for sure. We have shields. We have masks too."

The store is among thousands across the province that reopened Monday after the Legault government ordered all non-essential businesses closed on March 25 in an effort to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Gyms, cinemas, restaurants, bars and shopping malls remain closed, but three types of businesses outside the Montreal area have been allowed to open: stores not including those in shopping malls; construction and civil engineering businesses; and manufacturing businesses.

Simon Nakonechny/CBC

Respecting sanitary rules

John Hamalian was forced to close his jewelry shop, Manufacture De Bijoux St-Georges, for the first time in 40 years.

In anticipation of reopening on Monday, Hamalian said he didn't get much sleep. He was about how well customers would respect the new sanitary rules.

"We don't allow more than two people at a time," he said, and there's a bottle of hand sanitizer at the entrance.

By Monday afternoon, he was pleasantly surprised by the way his longtime customers reacted to the new measures as they came into his shop in Saint-Jerome for battery replacements and minor repairs.

But he still has plenty to worry about.

"We don't know what is going to happen in a week, or in two weeks."

Simon Nakonechny/CBC

Jean Lafontaine has run his camera store, Photo CDM, in Saint-Jerome for 42 years and he saw a significant drop in customer traffic some six weeks before Quebec put the economy on pause.

"Now we'll see how we will adapt," he said.

On Monday he had about six in-store customers in the morning, several calls and his internet-based sales continued as they have throughout the economic shutdown, he said.

Story continues

Lafountain said his customers appear a bit anxious and willing to comply with the new public health guidelines, but it will take several weeks before everybody is adjusted to the new normal.

Montreal store owners face delay

It's a different story for people like Marc Mercier, president of M/2 Boutique  a men's fashion store with three locations on the South Shore and one in Montreal.

On Monday, Premier Francois Legault pushed back the reopening of retail stores in the greater Montreal area until the week of May 18 following widespread concerns the pandemic remains a pervasive threat in the province's largest city.

The week-long delay will be costly, Mercier said, as seasonal merchandise is backing up, bills are due and "our clients are calling us, wanting to come back."

M/2 Boutique is too big to qualify for government assistance, Mercier said, and the situation is stressful not just for him, but his suppliers and employees as well.

"We put 60 employees on unemployment and that is very hard too because M/2 is a big family," he said. "We were ready to open next week."

Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press

Then there are companies that were just getting off the ground when the pandemic struck.

Rodolf "Rudy" Rabanera is among them. He was so focused on getting his vintage clothing store, Theo's, open in the Plateau-Mont-Royal that he was hardly aware of the news about COVID-19.

Then he and his team found out their dreams were going to be put on hold. "That really shocked us," he said. "We were pretty lost. We didn't know what to do."

Without any sales on record, he was unable to qualify for government assistance and now the delay is adding to the weeks he's already been waiting to recoup all the expenses that come with starting a business.

"The bills just keep piling up," Rabanera said.

Mercier had everything ready for next Monday, including masks, gloves and markers on the floor for customers. He's hoping this is the last time the government pushes back the date for reopening.
Bihar has received the maximum number of migrant labourers through special trains so far and West Bengal the least, data accessed by the PTI shows, with officials indicating that the latter was "stalling" the movement of its workers stranded in other states.

TMC MP and leader of the party in Rajya Sabha, Derek O'Brien said the West Bengal government was doing "all it takes" and accused the Centre of playing politics.

The data shows that most migrant labourers have moved from Gujarat to their home states in 35 Shramik Special trains so far, followed by Kerala from where 13 such trains have left.

Each train has a maximum capacity of about 1,200 passengers.

So far, the Railways has run 67 such trains carrying 67,000 migrant labourers to their home states.

Among the receiving states, Bihar has accepted 13 trains, with 11 more currently on the journey and six in the pipeline, the data shows.

Neighbouring Uttar Pradesh has received 10 such trains and five more trains are on their way and 12 are in the pipeline, the data shows.

The West Bengal government has, however, given clearance to only two trains -- one each from Rajasthan and Kerala -- and they are on their journeys to the state, the data shows.

A senior official said, "While other states which have their migrant workers in other parts of the country are accepting their labourers, West Bengal is stalling. Two trains from Thane to Shalimar and another from Bangalore to Howrah which were supposed to run today did not get clearance from the state despite both the originating state governments trying to push for it.

"Rajasthan has also been slow in accepting migrants with just three trains ferrying its workers back to the state, which are currently on their way," the official said.

TMC MP and leader of the party in Rajya Sabha, Derek O'Brien accused the Centre of playing politics.

"The states, including Bengal, are going all out -- fighting corona. Unfortunately, the Central government is going all out -- fighting and badmouthing non-BJP states using its different ministries.

"States are the implementing authorities. We are all doing all it takes. This is not the time for politics. Or we too can ask: why was a 21-day lockdown announced with four hours notice?" he asked.

According to figures from 2011 census, West Bengal ranks fourth among states from where people migrate for work and employment.

Between 2001 and 2011, nearly 5.8 lakh people migrated from the state looking for work, which is fewer only than Uttar Pradesh (37.3 lakh), Bihar (22.6 lakh) and Rajasthan (6.6 lakh).

The railway data shows that Jharkhand accepted four trains, while five trains are on their way to the state. Two more Shramik Special trains are in the pipeline.

Odisha received seven trains and five are on their way to the state with one more in the pipeline, the data shows.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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(Kitco News) - Newmont Corp. (NYSE: NEM, TSX: NGT), the worlds largest gold producer, reported a rise in first-quarter earnings Tuesday as both output and the gold price rose from a year ago.

Adjusted net income was pegged at $326 million, or 40 cents per share, compared to $176 million, or 33 cents, in the same quarter of 2019. The consensus estimate of analysts was 42 cents, according to news reports.

Net income from continuing operations was $837 million, or $1.04 per share. The company said this increased by $724 million from a year ago mostly due to the gains on the sale of KCGM, Continental Gold and Red Lake, higher production from Goldcorp assets assets acquired last year, and higher average realized gold prices.

Revenue rose 43% year-on-year to $2.58 billion primarily due to new production from the former Goldcorp assets and higher gold prices, the company said. Newmont received an average of $1,591 per gold ounce, an increase of $291 over the prior-year quarter, although the average price for copper was $1.56 per pound, a year-on-year decrease of $1.33.

Gold production increased 20% year-on-year to 1.48 million ounces, the company said. Gold-equivalent production from other metals increased by 606% to 339,000 ounces. All-in sustaining costs per gold ounce increased 14% to $1,030 per ounce.

Our world-class diversified portfolio of assets and resilient team delivered solid first-quarter performance with $1.1 billion in adjusted EBITDA and $611 million in free cash flow, said Tom Palmer, president and chief executive officer. Our robust balance sheet provides us with significant financial flexibility to continue allocating capital where it is needed most during this time of [COVID-19] uncertainty, while maintaining our industry-leading returns to shareholders."

In response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, Newmont said two operations are temporarily in care and maintenance, but sites representing approximately 90% of its planned 2020 production are operating.

Due to government restrictions in Canada, Argentina and Peru, four Newmont operations were temporarily put on care and maintenance in March, including Musselwhite, Eleonore, Cerro Negro and Yanacocha. Then in April, operations at Penasquito were added to the list. However, the company said that it is in the process of ramping up operations at Cerro Negro, Yanacocha and Eleonore.

As of the time Newmont filed its quarterly earnings report, the company said it had no confirmed cases of COVID-19 at any of its sites. Like other producers, Newmont instituted a number of health and safety protocols due to the pandemic. The company also established the $20 million Newmont Global Community Support Fund to help local communities, governments and employees combat the pandemic.

Newmont said liquidity of $6.6 billion is sufficient to continue business operations during this volatile period. As of quarter-end, cash and cash equivalents were put at $3.7 billion, and the company said it had access to more cash under its borrowing facilities.

Newmont did not update 2020 production guidance. On March 23, Newmont withdrew full-year 2020 guidance in response to impacts from the pandemic, saying some production could be deferred into 2021. The company said the COVID-19 situation could impact costs in 2020 if some operations closed for an extended time.
As the country continues to face the consequences of job losses as a result of the novel Coronavirus pandemic, labour analyst, Austin Gamey is urging government, employers and organised labour to hold another national tripartite committee meeting to discuss such issues extensively.

According to him, though some meetings have been held in relation to job losses, more has to be done to prevent further disruption in the labour front.

It will be recalled that during the May Day observation, Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr. Yaw Baah said majority of the country's working-class have lost their jobs due to the crisis.

He further called for measures to be put in place to address the situation.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr Gamey said labour and government must initiate a joint meeting aimed at finding a workable solution to the problem.

The employers, government and organised labour touched base on some of the things they want to do but they can go a step further. As under section 113(C) of the Labour Act, in circumstances, as they may want to describe it, when economic situations demand that they should call an extended national tripartite committee meeting, maybe to be chaired by the Employment Minister or the Vice President to enable them to discuss those things extensively in real numbers as to what exactly they want to do. Because the thing is not going to stop neither today nor tomorrow. So, what do we do? Provision is made under the Labour Act to enable them to go and discuss in an expanded manner all the related matters, the health and safety matters.

Both the employers and workers must come together in a cooperative manner to discuss this disruptive situation because it is not the will of any worker or employer just to walk off the job. It is a disruption of economic activities of the business that has come upon them tragically. So, they must see it like that and work together cooperatively. They can't resolve it themselves and perhaps the effort and conditions that have been laid before us, he added.

He suggested that some of the issues to be discussed should include, the kind of stimulus package government has for employers to cushion workers for a short while and what specific role SSNIT should play in this matter.

We can amend SSNIT laws to cushion workers even if they can't get the money immediately. They can go to the banks and raise money to cushion workers a little bit, he added.

---citinewsroom
A DRUGS drought at Northern Ireland's only high-security jail has led to increased fears of violence against staff.

Maghaberry Prison banned visits to limit the spread of coronavirus, but the move has decimated the behind-bars drug trade because drugs are mainly smuggled in by visitors.

Dozens of inmates hooked on substances such as the synthetic zombie drug spice, have been unable to get their fix, leading to dangerous withdrawal symptoms.

Maghaberry staff, whose numbers have been depleted by over 100 because of sickness, say some inmates are growing increasingly erratic. On Thursday it was confirmed that five prison officers here have tested positive for Covid-19. So far there have been no confirmed cases of the virus among prisoners.

Their concerns coincide with Justice Minister Naomi Long revealing that 166 prison officers had been assaulted in Northern Ireland's three prisons over the past three years - a rate of more than one attack per week. The vast majority occurred at Maghaberry, which recorded 115 such incidents.

The assaults disclosure was provided to politicians after an Assembly question by DUP MLA Paul Givan and further questions from Ulster Unionist Assemblyman Doug Beattie.

Lagan Valley MLA Paul Givan (below) told Sunday Life staff must be protected.

"These are obviously very difficult times and particularly for our prison staff. They are vital frontline workers and must be protected from both physical assaults and any potential infection," he said.

"Measures have been taken, but concerns obviously still remain about potential infection of both staff and inmates. It is vital that the stocks of personal protective equipment which are available are properly distributed across our public services.

"If the cancellation of visits has cut off a supply of contraband, it again highlights the need for officers' safety to be protected. Any increased tension within a prison is worrying and must be closely monitored. However, if the supply chain for such substances has been disrupted, it does also provide an opportunity to work with prisoners who may have addiction problems and work to reduce such issues in the future."

Sources at Maghaberry told Sunday Life that the combination of dangerous prisoners suffering drug withdrawal symptoms and a visiting ban because of Covid-19 infection fears had created a "perfect storm" for violence. Online virtual visiting by relatives has now replaced visits in person.

"You could cut the tension with a knife," said one insider. "Everyone, both staff and prisoners, are paranoid about catching coronavirus. When you add this to a lot of drug addicts suffering withdrawal symptoms and being p****d off because they can't get visits, the opportunity for assaults increases.

"Then there are other prisoners who are furious that they weren't among the 200 picked for early release.."

In a bid to ease pressure on Northern Ireland's jails in the midst of the crisis, Justice Minister Naomi Long agreed to free 200 inmates early.

The criminals benefiting from the scheme only had three months of their sentences left to serve, with a ban on killers, paramilitaries and sex offenders being released.

However, tension remains high in Maghaberry, a prison which the authorities admit has a significant drug problem.

In a recent report by the Criminal Justice Inspectorate (CJI), 46% of inmates surveyed said "it was easy to get illicit drugs in the prison".

Another worrying figure is that 22% of the inmates spoken to at Maghaberry said they had only developed a drug problem after being locked up at the prison.

When the findings were published, CJI chief inspector Brendan McGuigan said he was "frustrated" more had not been done to improve prisoner safety and that their access to illegal and prescription drugs must be addressed.

There is also a direct link between drug use and assaults on staff at Maghaberry.

In 2018 inmate Thomas Mongan, a known drug user, had his jail sentence extended by 10 years after he pleaded guilty in court to slashing the throat of a female prison officer with a razor. The attack was described by Prison Service director general Ronnie Armour as "calculated and vicious".

As of April 24 there were 910 inmates at Maghaberry jail, a significant drop in prisoner numbers brought about by the Covid-19 early release scheme.

There are also 1,261 staff employed at Northern Ireland's three jails, although approximately 20% of this number are currently on sick leave.

Mr Armour has insisted his staff are doing everything possible to cope with the virus crisis and that decisions are being made to benefit both employees and inmates.




May 4 (Reuters) - Belgian postal operator Bpost said on Monday the coronavirus pandemic had caused it to cancel its full-year guidance and suspend its current dividend policy.

The company said it would decide a new one when the longer-term impact of the crisis became clear.

At the end of March, Bpost had said it expected its full-year group operating income to grow by a low single-digit percentage, with adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) between 240 and 270 million euros.

The group, which provides mail deliveries, parcel and e-commerce logistics, reported adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of 75.6 million euros for the first quarter, a 21% drop on the previous year, but beating company-provided consensus estimates of 74.2 million euros. (Reporting by Sarah Morland in Gdansk; editing by David Evans)
ANN ARBOR, MI - The city of Ann Arbor will contribute up to $250,000 toward sheltering the countys homeless population amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

City Council unanimously approved appropriating the funding from its Community Development budget to cover costs incurred by the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County in March and April.

Capacity constraints caused by the need to maintain safe social distancing inside Ann Arbors Delonis Center have necessitated the funding of hotel rooms and congregate sites for the countys homeless population.

A total of $125,000 of the funding will be prorated to the Shelter Association, with the assumption that the costs the county incurs during the COVID-19 pandemic will be covered by funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Another $125,000 in future funding beginning in May will support a required 25% local match for FEMA reimbursable expenses to support Shelter Association Expenses. Any funds not used will be returned to the city.

As everybody knows, the COVID-19 crisis is hitting the homeless members of our community particularly hard, Mayor Christopher Taylor said. This is a reasonable thing for us to do to provide support to help the neediest among us. I know it is something that will be very much appreciated by (the county).

Washtenaw County ramps up funding to support homeless amid COVID-19 pandemic

Washtenaw County spent an additional $1.8 million in the first month of its COVID-19 response, including $726,000 toward providing additional shelter for the countys homeless. The county has appropriated nearly $3.5 million from its general fund since mid-March in anticipation of needing emergency funding.

In addition to providing shelter for the homeless, the $726,000 figure accounts for food and laundry services at a local hotel and three congregate sites that are helping care for the homeless, as well as hotel rooms for some first-responders who required being isolated for quarantine.

Expenses are expected to increase in May as the county moves from using the congregate sites to more hotel rooms said Teresa Gillotti, Washtenaw Countys Office for Community and Economic Development director. That could, however, reduce costs for the Shelter Association by cutting back on staff by closing down some congregate sites.

The county is seeking additional options for sheltering in the county and has engaged in conversations with the University of Michigan about the possibility of using one of its facilities or dormitories, Gilloti said. She hopes to hear about availability at UM by the end of the week.

Its been an ongoing conversation, she said. Were at the point where hoping for decision from them. If not, will have to proceed anyway. If we dont use the dorm, we would be using more hotel space, taking over the entirety of the hotel (in use now). That would help a lot to consolidate services in one location.

After experiencing tremendous strain in the early weeks of the spread of COVID-19, the Delonis Center has benefited from more congregate sites being made available to those experiencing homelessness to bring its maximum capacity numbers down.

At one point last month, there were up to 180 at-risk individuals being cared for at the shelter, while staffing to care for those who thought they might have been exposed to COVID-19 had dwindled.

Capacity at the Delonis Center has since been limited to no more than 38 clients being served in the facility at any given time. The Washtenaw County Shelter Association has been able to get its staffing up, as well, with 20 to 25 new and temporary staff members overseeing between 140 and 150 individuals at five different sites.

Council members agreed they anticipate the funding needs for the countys homeless population will continue, but expressed a desire to continue to help.

I have a feeling this is just the beginning of the spending were going to have to do to help those in our community that are challenged by the impacts of the recession that is just beginning, said Jack Eaton, D-4th Ward.

Washtenaw County Commission Chair Jason Morgan said he was grateful for the citys support after working with Taylor and his fellow county commission members Andy LaBarre and Katie Scott to request the funding.

Our staff detailed the additional costs Washtenaw County would incur as a result of needed changes to sheltering services, and they are significant, but the public health protections make them entirely necessary," Morgan said.

READ MORE:

Hotel rooms for Washtenaw County homeless reduce strain on Delonis Center

Were just trying to live. Being homeless during the coronavirus pandemic

Washtenaw County ramps up funding to support homeless amid COVID-19 pandemic

Delonis Center confirms 2 cases of COVID-19 as shelters concerns continue to grow
Kurtis Whaley, 24, from Manly Vale from northern Sydney pretended to be a 16-year-old girl as he coerced boys

Disgusting text messages sent by a man who posed as a teenage girl to prey on boys as young as eight to force them into sending explicit photos and videos have been revealed.

Kurtis Whaley, 24, from Manly Vale in northern Sydney pretended to be a 16-year-old girl as he coerced boys from ages eight to 15 from June 2014 until his arrest in February last year.

As he catfished the young boys, Whaley would screenshot temporary Snapchat and Instagram photos and record Skype and Omegle livestreams of the naked children.

Whaley collected 700 videos and images of 49 victims, The Daily Telegraph reported.

He was arrested in February 2019 and was charged with 54 offences relating to blackmailing boys aged between eight and 15.

Whaley would go under the name of Beth and ignored the pleas from his victims to leave them alone.

He would threaten to expose their nude photos and videos if they didn't comply with his demands, Crown prosecutor Sophie Callan said.

Whaley would threaten to expose their nude photos and videos to their photos if they didn't comply with his demands

The friend of a 13-year-old victim messaged Whaley on Instagram after receiving a nude picture pointing out that he didn't appear 'concerned about becoming a sex offender or going to jail for, like, five years'

Whaley sent explicit images of a boy to the victim's mother and nine-year-old sister, court documents read.

In the texts revealed in court, Whaley would say if they didn't comply it 'will only make things worse'.

In another set of texts a victim's father tells Whaley to 'f*** off' and that he's notified police.

Whaley brushes off the threat and replies, 'that's what you said last time' and that they will 'soon see that I'm not joking'.

Some of the victims would also attempt to stand up for themselves pointing out that Whaley would be a sex offender if he didn't leave them alone.

The friend of a 13-year-old victim messaged Whaley on Instagram after receiving a nude picture pointing out that he didn't appear 'concerned about becoming a sex offender or going to jail for, like, five years'.

'Mate I've been doing this long enough haha. What can the police do? Honestly,' Whaley replied.

Another one of his victims asked Whaley, 'why are you doing this?' to which he responded, 'because I can'.

Whaley pleaded guilty in January.
Housing Development Finance Corp. Ltd (HDFC) plans to raise as much as Rs 8,000 crore to bolster its capital buffers and prepare for future uncertainties amid widespread economic disruptions from the Covid-19 outbreak, said four people familiar with the development.

Indias top mortgage lender has begun talks with investment banks to decide whether to raise the capital through a sale of shares to qualified institutional investors, sale of warrants or a rights issue, the people said on condition of anonymity.

Its better to be overcapitalised in these difficult times. Profits are not going to come fast and accretion to net worth will be slow, said a person close to HDFC, one of the four cited above.

The capital-raising plan is in the early stages and the lenders board will likely take a final decision after its subsidiaries declare their quarterly earnings, the person said.

The plan is to raise Rs 5,000- 8,000 crore, through a dual-tranche of QIP, warrant issuance and a rights issue subsequently. The money will be used mainly to prepare the housing finance company to deal with higher provisioning costs and also to expand inorganically since many businesses within the lending industry may be getting ready to sell majority stakes at cheap valuations in the wake of the crisis and the prolonged lockdown, said a second person cited above, who declined to be named.

A HDFC spokesman, however, denied the lender was looking to raise capital.

A stress test done by the groups banking subsidiary, HDFC Bank Ltd, recently found that the crisis may cause a spurt in bad assets for lenders. Mutual funds currently own 9.52% of HDFC; foreign portfolio investors own 70.88% and insurance companies hold 8.06% of the lender.

At the prevailing average market price of Rs 1,727 per share, a Rs 8,000-crore equity issuance translates into an around 2.7% stake in the mortgage lender.
Durex Reveals That Condom Sales Are Down Due to Coronavirus Lockdowns and Social Distancing

Durex Facing Hard Times As Condom Sales Decline Due to COVID

Is it any surprise at all that the sale of condoms has decreased since the world was told to stay home and stop touching each other? It shouldn't be, but Durex has officially confirmed it anyway.

RELATED: When You Need Protection, Reach for the Best Rubbers Out There

Laxman Narasimhan, chief executive of Reckitt Benckiser  the British parent company of Durex  revealed that the brand's condom sales aren't doing too hot these days (not unlike most of the things we used to cherish and take for granted on a regular basis). This is, of course, due to the fact that strict social  or more accurately, physical  distancing directives in the past couple of months have significantly reduced the amount of sex folks are having.

Casual hookups are obviously down because you can no longer just roll into a bar for a drink and find someone to roll around in bed with. Tinder and other dating apps have been rendered useless, too, since meeting up with anyone outside of one's household is against the very nature of lockdown orders. But, what may not be abundantly apparent is that the coronavirus crisis has even put a damper on the sex lives of established couples who live together. After all, it is kind of difficult to get it up when you're anxious about a global pandemic and the flood of ramifications that come along with it.

The collective fear of impending doom and gloom aside, Reckitt Benckiser does expect the demand for contraceptives to bounce back when the lockdown ends so they're making it clear that their condom factories will continue to crank out production as usual.

Regardless of demand, however, there has been some concern about a worldwide condom shortage coming down the pipeline specifically due to Malaysia's coronavirus lockdown. The country is one of the top rubber producers on the planet  and thus a major source for global condom production  but it has been difficult for their factories to operate amidst the pandemic. The brand Karex, in particular, is credited with producing 20 percent of the world's condoms, but has had to shut down three of their factories and take a massive hit to their production line. In just one months time, they made 200 million fewer condoms than usual.

"The world will definitely see a condom shortage," Karex chief executive Goh Miah Kiat told AFP in April. "It's challenging, but we are trying our best right now to do whatever we can. It is definitely a major concern  a condom is an essential medical device."

Unfortunately, a condom shortage would not only be detrimental to your own fun and safety once the world begins to get back to normal, but it could also lead to potentially devastating societal and health issues around the world, including surges in STDs and unintended pregnancies.

Just go ahead and add that to the ever-growing list of post-COVID concerns.

That said, feel free to support your favorite condom company in the time of corona and dream about the days when youll get to use them again. Just dont hoard them like toilet paper, okay? Youre horny, but youre not ruin-worldwide-sexual-health horny.

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To spread the awareness related to COVID-19, Dharavis gully boy rappers developed a music video featuringAkshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Suniel Shetty, Atul Kulkarni, Dia Mirza, and Rana Daggubati. The video was rapped in three languagesHindi, Marathi, and Tamil.

Rapper Joel DSouza helmed the video, MC Altaf performed in it, while, Tony Psyko and Bonz N Ribz of 7Bantaiz were also part of the video. The video is intriguing, creative yet informative as actors can also be seen singing one-liners in it.

Actor Suniel Shetty said, its an honour to be part of such initiative. Proud to see that people across the nation coming forward to spread a message of humanity and unity. The video has truly touched his heart and hoping that the video will touch others emotions too.

Watch the video here:

Dia Mirza said: The effort is encouraging in creating awareness among the people, feels grateful to work with such an amazing artists. Hoping the video will motivate people to stay home and safe.

Huge shout out to all of you, for your generosity 

Please lets continue supporting the war against #COVID19

Tap on the video to watch & donate NOW  https://t.co/BJzPjphhFN 100% of proceeds go to the India COVID Response Fund by @GiveIndia#IforIndia #SocialForGood  Dia Mirza (@deespeak) May 5, 2020

Rapper Divine, is also part of the video and appealed to people to help needy especially senior citizens and kindly co-operate with medical staff and police. Divine said: Hip-hop community of India is extending a small gesture of saluting COVID warriors with an aim to spread awareness amongst people living in densely populated areas like Dharavi, Mumbai.

The rap anthem has been promoted by the ATE Chandra Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation under the #StayHomeStaySafe campaign. Talking about the current scenario in India, the numbers are multiplying every hour which has now reached 46,433 with the death toll of 1,568, according to the Health Ministry of India.

Heres the image of total cases in India:

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New Delhi: A terrorist was arrested by security forces in Gundana tehsil in Jammu and Kashmir's Doda district. He has been identified as Tanveer Ahmad Malik. The security forces, however, are yet to ascertain the group affiliation of Tanveer.

According to ANI, the terrorist is an Overground Worker of Hizbul Mujahideen and was arrested in a joint operation by Jammu and Kashmir Police and Army. One Chinese pistol and 10 rounds of ammunition was recovered from him.

"In a joint operation by police and Army, one overground worker of Hizbul Mujahideen has been arrested. A Chinese pistol and 10 rounds have been recovered," SSP Doda Mumtaz Ahmad said.

The next one month for security forces in Jammu and Kashmir will be seen as a big challenge as this will the time when the maximum infiltration activities from across the Line of Control is expected to take place. The snow in Bandipora, Kupwara, Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir starts to melt during this period. In such a situation, it becomes easier for terrorists to infiltrate from across the border.

According to reports, a large number of terrorists are waiting across the Line of Control to invade into the country.

On May 4, three CRPF personnel were martyred in a terrorist attack in the Kupwara district. According to reports, terrorists opened fire on a CRPF patrol party near Qaziabad area of Handwara. The area was cordoned off following the attack on the forces and an additional reinforcement was rushed to the spot to track down the terrorists.

An unidentified body was been recovered from the spot.

According to CRPF officials, at around 5:30 pm today, terrorists opened fire on 92 Batallion CRPF at Wangam-Qaziabad in Kralgund area. While two CRPF jawans were killed on the spot, one succumbed to his injuries while he was being rushed to a hospital.

According to officials, paramilitary troopers retaliated immediately leading to an exchange of firing between two sides for several minutes.

On May 2, five Army personnel, including a decorated officer, laid down their lives and two terrorists were killed during a gunbattle in Handwara. According to an army official, a few terrorists had taken some civilians as hostage inside a house in Changimulla at Handwara of Kupwara district. Upon receiving a tip-off, a joint operation was launched by the Army and the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

However, during the process, the team came under a heavy volume of fire by the terrorists and in the ensuing firefight, two terrorists were eliminated and the five Army personnel and a policeman were killed in the line of duty, the army said.


C ruise company Carnival on Tuesday promised to follow social distancing measures on restarted cruises amid mounting questions over its handling of the coronavirus crisis.

The FTSE 100 company, which saw at least nine of its ships experience an outbreak of coronavirus including the Diamond Princess, clarified that a restart would only be done in co-operation with government officials and follow official health advice.

The firm is facing criticism over its handling of coronavirus after suggestions it was slow to act on outbreaks.

The company on Monday said it would restart some US cruises on August 1 but on Tuesday was forced to stress that resumption depended on co-operation from federal, state, local and international government officials. It said this because it felt some media reports had not fully conveyed the cooperation .

Carnival is currently under investigation by the US Congress and is facing demands to turn over all internal documents related to Covid-19.

Carnival said it is fully co-operating with the probe. It has previously said it acted on information in real-time.

Eight people died on the Diamond Princess, including a British victim who became the first UK death.
Tuesday, May 5th, 2020 (11:45 am) - Score 14,492

The business division of broadband ISP Virgin Media (Liberty Global) has this morning confirmed that theyve signed a new deal with mobile network operator Three UK, which will see VMBs fibre optic lines being harnessed to supply capacity (backhaul) to fuel over 3,000 of the mobile firms new ultrafast 5G sites.

At present Three UK already has a number of fibre optic capacity deals to help fuel their network, such as with SSE Enterprise Telecoms (SSEET), BT (Openreach) and  mostly recently  Cityfibre (here). All of this is helping to fuel their deployment of gigabit-capable 5G mobile (mobile broadband) technology, which only started properly in February 2020 (here).

Suffice to say that it makes perfect sense for Three UK to sign a capacity deal with Virgin Media too. The national cable giant has already got a similar arrangement in place with Vodafone, although todays announcement has taken on a new significance in light of the fact that both the parents of O2 and Virgin Media have confirmed theyre discussing the possibility of a UK merger (here).

Three UKs deal with Virgin Media Business seems to be focused on 5G sites, although Cityfibre informed us that they remain Threes preferred backhaul provider for its nationwide 5G rollout outside London. Sadly an official press release has not yet been issued, although both sides have confirmed the agreement and weve got a comment from VMB.

Peter Kelly, MD of Virgin Media Business, told ISPreview.co.uk: Were building the high capacity fibre backbone that will link mobile phone masts and cell sites across the country and power the UKs 5G future. With a powerful network and skilled engineers already in place, our infrastructure will help mobile operators to roll out their 5G network at scale. Virgin Media Business is fast becoming the backhaul bastion for 5G rollout.

Similarly Three UKs COO, Susan Buttsworth, said the deal would help to meet the growing demand for data. Just to be clear, under this deal VMB will provide dark fibre backhaul services to many of Three UKs existing and future 5G cell sites across the country. The agreement will also see them build full fibre connections to urban hotspot locations as part of Threes programme to densify its 5G network and enhance its 4G service.

Meanwhile any future merger between Virgin Media and O2 in the UK seems unlikely to have much of an initial impact on existing MVNO and backhaul fibre arrangements with third-parties (except for the merged parties of course  where big cost savings and convergence are expected), as to do so might raise regulatory concerns given the position of both operators in the market as key suppliers.

UPDATE 6th May 2020

Cityfibre has been in contact to confirm that they remain Threes preferred backhaul provider for the nationwide 5G rollout outside London.
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A fleet of World War II airplanes flown by members of the Geico Skytypers Air Show Team took to the skies on Tuesday to write messages of support to frontline workers in New York City.

The vintage airplanes flew over hospitals in Westchester, the five boroughs, Long Island and Connecticut with positive messages of appreciation.

'We salute our first responders,' one of the sky messages read as the group flew over Manhattan and the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn.

Video shows the Skytypers in the middle of writing out another message that read: 'We salute our healthcare professionals.'

A fleet of World War II airplanes flown by members of the Geico Skytypers Air Show Team took to the skies on Tuesday to write messages of support to frontline workers in New York City. The full message reads: 'We salute our first responders'

The group left the message in the sky over Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn

Video shows the Skytypers in the middle of writing out another message that read: 'We salute our healthcare professionals'

The Skytypers started their flyover around 11.30am Tuesday morning. The first message appeared around 11.30am over Manhattan

They then flew past the Statue of Liberty and up the Hudson River before sharing messages over parts of Westchester

According to a press statement from the Geico Skytypers, the pilots 'skytype' by creating messages in the sky with five airplanes flying in a formation to produce 1,000 foot-tall messages that can be seen for 15 miles

The Skytypers started their flyover around 11.30am Tuesday morning. The first message appeared around 11.30am over Manhattan.

They then flew past the Statue of Liberty and up the Hudson River before sharing messages over parts of Westchester.

According to a press statement from the Geico Skytypers, the pilots 'skytype' by creating messages in the sky with five airplanes flying in a formation to produce 1,000 foot-tall messages that can be seen for 15 miles.

Last month, the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds flew over New York City, as well as Newark and Trenton, New Jersey, and Philadelphia.

Over the weekend, military jets flew over multiple cities to salute frontline workers in the US which has the highest coronavirus caseload and death toll in the world.

Residents of the nation's capital Washington, as well as Baltimore and Atlanta were treated to sights of the Navy's Blue Angels and the Air Force's Thunderbirds arcing across the sky.

The US Navy Blue Angels and US Air Force Thunderbirds fly over the Washington area on May 2, 2020

The US Navy Blue Angels and US Air Force Thunderbirds fly over the Lincoln Memorial on May 2, 2020

The US Navy Blue Angels (R) and US Air Force Thunderbirds fly past the Washington Monument on May 2, 2020, in a tribute to frontline workers during the coronavirus pandemic

Crowds turned out on the National Mall to see the jets fly in formation past sites such as the US Capitol and the Washington Monument.

Most of those in attendance appeared to be following social distancing rules, and many wore face masks.

'Proud to see the #AmericaStrong salute to our healthcare & frontline workers with a spectacular flyover today in Washington, D.C. Thank you to the @AFThunderbirds and @BlueAngels for this beautiful display of solidarity,' first lady Melania Trump tweeted.

The Thunderbirds hailed health workers and first responders battling the novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 1.2 million in the US and killed more than 69,000.

'They are an inspiration for the entire country during these challenging times and it was an honor to fly for them today,' the group said on Twitter.
The general manager of the Nigerian Television Authority in Kastina, Ayinde Soaga, has tested positive for the coronavirus and has been quarantined.

Mr Soaga has also expressed confidence that he will recover from the virus.

Mr Soaga spoke with PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday shortly after news of his status became public knowledge. He said he was in high spirit.

On Thursday, a close relative of Mr Soaga told this reporter that the journalist was receiving adequate treatment at the Katsina isolation centre for coronavirus patients.

Yes, Ayinde has been moved to the isolation centre in Kastina. He is receiving good treatment, family and some friends in touch. He is quarantined already, the relative said asking not to be named.

Mr Soaga could not be reached by phone on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Nigeria Union of Journalists had earlier issued a statement signed by its chairman, Tukur Dan-Ali, stating that the council was of the belief that Mr Soaga contracted the virus as a result of his day-to-day service as a journalist.

The family of the NTA boss in a statement issued by Kehinde Soaga, affirmed that the journalist had called the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control officials to carry out the test on him.

The family of Alhaj Ayinde Soaga, GM, NTA Katsina appreciates the numerous phone calls and concern raised about the report as regards his testing positive to COVID 19. We wish to confirm that he is in high spirit not bedridden as he personally called in the NCDC officials to carry out the test on him, the statement said.

The family said it was aware that coronavirus is not a death sentence and believing in God for healing. We seek your prayers for a speedy and divine healing which Almighty Allah gives, the statement said.

We appreciate the National Secretariat of NUJ, the Katsina State & FCT Councils of the Union as well as many other individuals and groups too numerous to mention for their quick intervention and prayers, the family wrote.

The NUJ in Kastina State said it sympathised with Mr Ayinde, his family, the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA Chapel) of the union as well as the entire journalists in the state over the development.

This, of course, indicated the fact that journalists are exposed to danger in this hard period of rampage spread of Covid-19 pandemic everywhere in Nigeria particularly in most affected states including Katsina, the union said.

The union thanked the Katsina State government as well as its special task force on coronavirus for working round the clock to control the spread of the pandemic, and also called on people of the state to support governments policies and programmes especially on the current coronavirus pandemic.
Its been a little over a month since Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a nation-wide lockdown owing to the Coronavirus pandemic on March 25. Baring essential services, all else, including public transport, were closed. Having extended the lockdown twice before, Indians running low on liquor stocks began Google searching how to make alcohol at home. A Google Trends report pointed out this was a burgeoning search towards the end of March itself.

On May 4, as we entered the third phase of the lockdown (popularly being referred to as lockdown 3.0), India saw the reopening of liquor stores across states. And the majority of Indians were overjoyed - bursting crackers, performing puja and even dancing in the streets.

With all necessary pooja by drunken citizen people #LiquorShops are opened in #Bangalore #Bengaluru , just took this video and pics , don't know what to say  pic.twitter.com/nPKbXsdFIG  balaji pa (@balajitech1) May 4, 2020

Though the government had instructed stand-alone liquor shops to operate with necessary precaution, the norms of social distancing were long-forgotten in the pursuit of beer and other heady beverages. Soon after, a variety of memes flooded the Internet, some lauding the persevering spirit of Indians who stood in line around the block while others called out the alcoholics and others still pointed out the joyous commemoration of liquor mongers. The hashtag  Liquor Shops, became a popular trend by noon on Monday.

After standing for 4 hours in line and then asking for a Breezer.#LiquorShops pic.twitter.com/X6cvvwjIHS  Akkshay (@akkshayjain1995) May 4, 2020

#LiquorShops owners waiting for their customers be like:

(Aa aa aaa aa aaa sound plays in background) pic.twitter.com/rDzpsa1D8W  The Steno Boi (@Thestenoboi) May 4, 2020

Certain rites and rituals, although laughable, were hilariously unique to being Indian with the opening of booze stalls. In Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, liquor shop owners showered their customers with flower petals, while another journalist shared a video of a man dancing after procuring two bottles of country liquor in Andhra Pradesh.

Meanwhile in Mirzapur, liquor shop owners shower flower petals on customers queuing up outside their shops. 



 pic.twitter.com/MuocTljqxy  Prashant Kumar (@scribe_prashant) May 4, 2020

Just sharing some joy  This video is from #AndhraPradesh where liquor stores have opened today pic.twitter.com/Zemcd7qrvc  Nitin B (@NitinBGoode) May 4, 2020

In Bengaluru, Karnataka, queues outside liquor stores began a little earlier than 7am and some stores had separate queuing lines just for ladies. To commemorate the openings of wine shops in other parts of Karnataka, Kannadigas burst crackers as though it was a festive celebration, while others were seen breaking coconuts outside shops.

Separate lines for women to buy liquor in bangalore.

Women empowered... pic.twitter.com/Whbt1V01YE  Prakash (@Hereprak) May 4, 2020

Those who grew weary of standing in line in the hot sun were taking a break in the shade leaving their grocery bags, handkerchieves and slippers in the queue to reserve their place. A Twitterati shared a TV9 Marathi news clipping of a man in Nashik, Maharashtra, being interviewed outside a liquor shop who broke out in song, thanking the Maharashtra government for this decision. I will buy at least 12 to 13 quarters [of liquor] and drink at least seven or eight of them today itself, he said, adding, The restraint Ive showed for the past two months, I am going to drink enough for the time Ive lost, today.

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By Express News Service

ALAPPUZHA: The district administration has rejected the offer of Rs 10 lakh by the District Congress Committee (DCC) as the train ticket expenses for migrant labourers.

DCC president M Liju said Congress offered the amount after party leader Sonia Gandhi announced that the Congress DCCs would pay the ticket charge of migrant workers. She had also directed the DCCs to make arrangements to pay the amount.

On Tuesday, Alappuzha DCC offered the amount to the district administration as the charge of migrant labour charge for the travel of migrant labours from Alappuzha to Bettiah in Bihar. Around 1200 labourers are ready to set their journey by Tuesday evening.

The ticket charge of a traveller is Rs 930 which is being collected from the workers by the district administration.

However, an officer of the district administration said they have received no government order to receive the money as a train ticket charge from any political parties. We can receive the money only after specific order from the government, the officer said.

Liju has urged the government to allow the DCC to donate the money directly to the Railways. However, no such decision has yet been taken by the authorities concerned.
YEREVAN.  The neighbors believe that the mans throwing himself and his children out of the ninth floor of a building in Yerevan on Tuesday morning is not linked to any social problem.

One of these neighbors told NEWS.am that the man loved his children very much.

"He was a retired man, they were a well-mannered family, and he loved his children very much," she said, in particular. "They didn't have any social problems."

The neighbor added that the man was an officer of the border troops in Russia.

Another neighbor said she had noticed that the man had recently become reticent.

"I can't say whether they were divorced or not because they were coming and going," she added, in particular. "The children were here on Saturdays and Sundays.

Man who threw his kids and self from 9th floor in Yerevan was 40 years old
Illustrative image (Photo: khmertimeskh.com)



Agriculture exports via official channels surpassed 2 million tonnes while those through unofficial ones stood at 1 million tonnes.

The Khmer Times newspaper quoted Sakhon as saying that in April, Cambodia shipped 5,500 tonnes of tapioca and 4,500 tonnes of fresh cassava to Thailand and Vietnam; 800 tonnes of cashew nut to Vietnam; 1,982 tonnes of banana to China, Vietnam, and Japan; and 150 tonnes of mango to Thailand, Vietnam, France, Russia, the Republic of Korea, and Hong Kong (China).

During the four months, the country also exported more than 9,300 tonnes of tapioca, 33,200 tonnes of corn, 2,250 tonnes of pepper, 44 tonnes of vegetables, 420 tonnes of tobacco, 186,200 tonnes of cashew nut, more than 42 tonnes of mango, and other farm produce.

It produced a total of 31 million tonnes of food last year, earning of 10 billion USD, and shipped over 620,200 tonnes of rice overseas for around 500 million USD./.
LONDON, May 4 (Reuters) - British wholesale gas prices rose on Monday morning amid an undersupplied gas system caused by lower liquefied natural gas (LNG) send-out and higher UK exports to the continent.

* The day-ahead contract rose by 0.80 pence to 14.00 pence per therm by 0852 GMT.

* The within-day gas contract rose by 0.25 p to 14.25 p per therm.

* UK gas system was undersupplied by 17.9 million cubic metres (mcm), with demand forecast at 208.2 mcm and supply at 190.3 mcm, National Grid data showed.

* Exports from Britain to continental Europe were almost at full capacity, leaving less gas on the UK market.

* Flows via the Interconnector pipeline to Belgium were expected on Monday at 35 mcm out of 38 mcm booked capacity and flows through the BBL pipeline to the Netherlands at 13 mcm out of 15 mcm capacity.

* LNG send-out was expected to fall to 53 mcm on Monday from 68 mcm on Friday, also contributing to a short system.

* A total of six tankers are currently confirmed to unload in Britain by May 14, with five of those arriving from Qatar.

* UK gas storage is expected to be in an injection mode, compared to withdrawals in the previous day.

* "Switch to injection nominations today partly explains the undersupply on the opening this morning," Refinitiv analysts said in a morning note.

* Peak wind generation is forecast at 6.1 gigawatts (GW) on Monday and 6 GW on Tuesday, out of a total metered capacity of 15 GW, Elexon data shows.

* Britain's gas consumption was forecast to be lower on Monday due to warmer weather, limiting price rises on UK gas contracts.

* Residential gas consumption is forecast to increase on Tuesday compared to Monday, however, Refinitiv data showed.

* Gas-for-power demand is at around 10 GW, or 41% of UK power demand, said Wayne Bryan, director of European gas research at Refinitiv.

* The month-ahead contract rose by 0.45 p to 13.65 p/therm.

* On the Dutch gas market, the day-ahead price rose by 0.25 euro to 5.50 euros per megawatt hour (MWh).

* The benchmark Dec-20 EU carbon contract inched up by 0.12 euro to 19.09 euros a tonne. (Reporting by Ekaterina Kravtsova; editing by Nina Chestney)
I love a good hack  food hack, that is. Something that can easily transform the ordinary to something sublime. Lately, KassyKates line of dips, tapenades and olive mixes has been my go-to hack. They make short work of saucing a piece of grilled meat or fish, elevating a sandwich, sprucing up a cheese board or even making a Ritz cracker interesting.

Always on the lookout for innovative food purveyors, the Napa Farmers Market welcomed Katy Kyriacopoulos  owner of KassyKate  to the market family last fall.

Katy says her life has always been about new ideas and beginnings, and KassyKate is no exception. Born in South Africa to parents with Greek roots, she and her family came to the U.S. when she was 10. She returned years later to her familys homeland and got involved in the family olive business in a small fishing village on the southwestern coast of Greece.

In 2017, it was time for a new idea and beginning, so she returned to the U.S. and launched her KassyKate artisanal food brand. Katy brings her expertise in the olive business, her culinary creativity and her grandmothers recipes to bear on the regional flavors of Greece and the Mediterranean, creating unique and delectable offerings.

Her proprietary mixture of green and black olives includes caperberries and orange peel to capture the flavors of the island of Anthos. Her La Mancha mix combines Manchego cheese, dried figs, Castelvetrano olives and black sesame seeds  a kind of Mediterranean greatest hits. The KassyKate range of colorful vegetable-based dips offers a broad array of flavors and spices, combining the familiar with the unexpected in a wonderfully versatile form.

KassyKate products are preservative free, and include high-quality organic vegetables, tahini and extra virgin olive oil. She sells her products exclusively through farmers markets, as the high cost of her ingredients make grocery store sales unworkable. We know the average farmer keeps $8 to $9 of every $10 sale at a farmers market (compared to the $1.58 they get when selling to grocery stores). The same is true for specialty food purveyors such as KassyKate.

I wouldnt have a business if it werent for farmers markets, Katy says. And I wouldnt be able to offer the same quality of ingredients.

Here are just a few ideas on how to put KassyKates delicious products to work for you:

Beet Your Shrimp Cocktail  Reinvent shrimp cocktail using the bright pink KassyKate Beet Dip (which has a little horseradish kick) in lieu of traditional cocktail sauce.

Ahi alla Katy  Top a piece of grilled ahi tuna with a generous tablespoon of Katys (highly addictive) Arugula & Pistachio Pesto made with Castelvetrano olives. She recommends finishing the fish with chopped pistachios and preserved lemon and one last drizzle of olive oil.

Creamy Vegan Pasta  Toss your favorite pasta in a few tablespoons of KassyKates Portobello Mushroom dip (and some of the pasta cooking water) for a quick, healthy mushroom pasta with earthy flavor. Top with chopped parsley and grated lemon zest.

Hold the Mayo  Try KassyKates Curry Roasted Carrot or Beluga Lentil dips on your favorite deli sandwich or avocado toast. The richness of tahini ensures you wont miss the mayo.

Please donate now: The Napa Farmers Market needs your help in this challenging time. Our stall fees are down and expenses have climbed with the changes necessary to bring you a safe market every week. Our farmers rely on usand on youto stay in business. Please help us continue to provide this essential community service by making a tax-deductible donation now at napafarmersmarket.org/donate.

Kids activities at the Napa Farmers Market: Story Time has been suspended and the Education Station will be closed until further notice.

Harvest of the Month: Although food sampling at the Napa Farmers Market has been suspended, be sure to stock up on fruits and vegetables to enjoy at home.

Napa Farmers Market temporary location: Until further notice, find the market on Tuesdays and Saturdays in the north parking lot shared by CIA at Copia and Oxbow Public Market on First Street in Napa. Hours are 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. for seniors only (65 and older); then 9 a.m. to noon. As a California Certified Farmers Market, we are classified as an essential food business and will remain open during the Napa County shelter-at-home mandate. If the situation changes, we will post updates on our website and social media. Marilyn OConnell is president of the Napa Farmers Market board of directors.


Appendix 4C with ASX Direction Included

Melbourne, May 5, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - iSignthis Ltd ( ASX:ISX ) ( FRA:TA8 ) is pleased to announce its 4th consecutive positive quarterly operating cash flow contained in the Appendix 4C and our quarterly business activity report.This has been re-issued to accommodate the direction from the ASX (see end of this report).Financial Analysis 1Q20- 1Q20 is the Company's 4th quarter of positive operating cash flows, +$1.78m for the quarter.- Cash balance at end of quarter was $17.5m in consolidated Group Cash, broadly flat from $17.7m as at 31 December 2019.- 1Q20 receipts from customers were down 33% from 4Q19 to $10.5m due to the impacts from COVID-19, combined with seasonality in some merchants' volumes and other issues mentioned below.- Client funds held are now over $100m, up from $96m as at 31 December to $101m as at 31 March 2020.- The Company made a $4.2m investment in NSX Limited during the quarter for a 12.96% stake, per our announcement dated 20/2/2020.- In the Quarter the Company completed the acquisition of UAB Baltic Banking Service for a total cost of EUR75k cash and 1,394,533 ordinary ISX shares.- Administration and corporate costs were up circa $430k in the quarter, due mainly to the ASX related legal proceedings.- Cash flows in the quarter also include a $3.2m cash contribution from the joint venture partner, as previously announced.Business Activities 1Q20- Probanx executed a A$4.5m agreement to develop a Delivery versus Payment (DvP) Platform for the NSXA, to be delivered over 24 months (excluding any COVID Delays).- Probanx mobilised key personnel to meet its obligations under the ClearPay JV agreement.- Integrated UAB Baltic Banking Service team under "Probanx" banner.- UAB Baltic Banking Service's SEPA Core and SEPA Instant services now integrated with Probanx COREPlus system. Available as a service by ISXPay under our Bank Institution Code (BIC) of ISEMCY22XXX.- SEPA Instant also now available as a SaaS module to Probanx COREPlus third party financial institution customers.- Injunctive relief was sought against the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), with the Federal Court hearing the matter on the 16th April 2020. Judgment is scheduled for 30th April 2020.- Enquiries for Probanx CORE banking and network products increased, with several (individually non-material) agreements executed with EU regulated entities.- Flykk(R) app approved by Apple Inc, with release to worldwide app store expected during May/June 2020. Refer to www.flykk.it for details.- Focus on enhancing AML compliance, including:- Partnership agreement executed with Lexis Nexis, allowing the incorporation of Lexis Nexis data into our systems for resale to third parties consuming our Paydentity service or Probanx solutions.- Paydentity(TM) cascade extended to include BankID from Norway and Sweden, with Finland under integration, to complement the previously integrated 3rd party instant electronic verification sources, further expanding our 'instant' KYC(C) capability. The Company's patented Payment Instrument Verification (PIV) processes continue to be utilised where instant electronic verification methods are not available, reducing KYC(C) from a manual process that takes days, to a process that is online and takes minutes. PIV relies upon verification of bank accounts and regulated cards.- Integration completed to two key gaming platforms, extending our platform integrations beyond the exchange and trading platforms integrated during 2018.- Due to the COVID-19 lock down requirements of Federal and State governments in Australia, and Governments of Cyprus, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, ISX, similar to other companies, implemented work from home and other operational strategies, as part of its Pandemic Policy and Business Continuity Plans, to mitigate the effects on staff and operations of the spread of the virus in the wider community.- COVID-19 impacted March revenues indirectly, with almost 3 weeks of processing time being lost. The Company failed to process transactions across a number of card schemes as a consequence of either the scheme itself being technically or commercially un-responsive, arrangements with the schemes being subject to further commercial or due diligence requirements, or the Company itself changing its systems without taking into consideration the impact on the scheme. By way of example, our PCI DSS certification, despite having been successfully audited and submitted to the relevant scheme on time, was not updated by one of the card schemes, leading to suspension of some processing services.- Processing to merchants across the Visa network was also suspended for parts of March pending response to Visa re queries on ASX "investigation", concerns re "derogatory media" and the focus on high risk merchants. The Company is providing Visa with information regarding the ASX "investigation" and other matters. Visa has notified that their response times on this matter have been impacted by COVID-19.- Other COVID-19 impacted matters include :- Our Tier 1 Australian processing rollout being delayed and will not meet the May 2020 anticipated timetable, due to unavailability of test slots from the major card schemes.This is as yet to be rescheduled but is anticipated to be later in the year.- SWIFT rollout has also been deferred, until such time as test slots will become available. The Company does not at this stage have visibility on expected dates.- ASIC has advised that as a direct consequence of COVID-19, consideration of our application under Corporations Regulation 7.2.16 is taking longer than anticipated to assess.Update to Appendix 4CIn accordance with Listing Rules 18.8(a) and (b), ASX directs ISX to include in each quarterly activity report it gives to ASX under Listing Rule 4.7C, commencing with its quarterly activity report for the quarter ended 31 March 2020, a breakdown by sector of the revenue ISX has derived from customers during the applicable quarter, divided into the following sectors:- Options/CFDs/FX- Crypto/digital currency- Online gambling- Online video gaming- Credit providers- Travel services- Other1Q20 unaudited revenue was for the Group was $10.6m. The percentage of revenue derived from industry segments during the quarter is detailed below:- Options/CFDs/FX - 11%- Crypto/digital currency - 2%- Online gambling - 1%- Online video gaming - 60%- Credit providers - 0%- Travel services - 4%- Other - 22%To view full quarterly report with app. 4C, please visit:About iSignthis Ltd

iSignthis Ltd (ASX:ISX) (FRA:TA8) is a hybrid monetary financial institution and also a RegTech leader in remote identity verification, payment authentication with deposit taking, transactional banking and payment processing capability. iSignthis provides an end-to-end on-boarding service for merchants, with a unified payment, electronic money and identity service via our Paydentity(TM) and ISXPay(R) solutions.

By converging payments and identity, iSignthis delivers regulatory compliance to an enhanced customer due diligence standard, offering global reach to any of the world's 4.2Bn 'bank verified' card or account holders, that can be remotely on-boarded to meet the Customer Due Diligence requirements of AML regulated merchants in as little as 3 to 5 minutes. Paydentity(TM) has now onboarded and verified more than 1.5m persons to an AML KYC standard.

iSignthis Paydentity(TM) service is the trusted back office solution for regulated entities, allowing merchants to stay ahead of the regulatory curve, and focus on growing their core business. iSignthis' subsidiary, iSignthis eMoney Ltd, trades as ISXPay(R), and is an EEA authorised eMoney Monetary Financial Institution, offering card acquiring in the EEA, and Australia.

ISXPay(R) is a principal member of Mastercard Inc, Diners, Discover, (China) Union Pay International and JCB International, an American Express aggregator, and provides merchants with access to payments via alternative methods including SEPA, Poli Payments, Sofort, PRZ24 and others.

Probanx Solutions Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of iSignthis Ltd, provides API based access to CORE Banking solutions, SEPA Core, SEPA Instant and SEPA business scheme, for neobanks, banks, credit unions and emoney institutions, and provides a bridge to the Eurosystem's Central Bank of Lithuania's CENTROLink service.
Los Angeles Angels outfielder Justin Upton has purchased a luxurious new home in Newport Beach, CA, for $4,726,500. The All-Star closed on the luxe farmhouse-style home in March.

The five-bedroom home landed on the market last summer with a list price of $5,765,000. The price was reduced to $5,365,000 in December 2019, in hopes of enticing a buyer.

The reduced price coaxed Upton to make a winning offer on the 5,604-square-foot residence.

Located in the Dover Shores community, the property is just a couple of blocks from Newport Bay and close to plenty of walking and biking trails.

The exterior has a clean white-and-black palette, with a dark roof that provides a nice contrast to the cool white siding. As you enter the home, you're greeted by a three-level floating staircase with solid oak treads.

The open floor plan offers seamless access to outdoor spaces, through a massive sliding door system. It's a trademark of the indoor-outdoor lifestyle prized in Southern California.

Balconies off the back of the home also give the owners an opportunity to soak in the sun.

High-end materials were used in the home's construction, including solid oak hardwood floors that were milled from reclaimed imported wood from a 125-year-old barn.

High-end amenities include solid brass hardware, as well as Thermador kitchen appliances, handmade butcher block and lava stone counters, Lutron wireless lighting, and two Sonos systems. In carpeted areas of the home, you'll find wool carpet that was directly imported from Holland.

Exterior of home realtor.com

The backyard living area features Kayu Batu hardwood decks and a built-in barbecue and fire pit for entertaining family and friends.

Some of the most notable features are located on the lower level, an entertainer's delight. Highlights include a glass-enclosed wine cellar, a home theater with surround sound, a bar with beer froster, ice maker, refrigerator, and a popcorn maker.

Upton, 32, has been in the big leagues for 13 seasons and made four All-Star teams. The slugging outfielder has been with the Los Angeles Angels since 2017, and is closing in on 300 home runs for his career.

He recently sold his custom Paradise Valley, AZ, estate to the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher David Price for $9.5 million.

The home's listing agent was Art Heckman of Compass. Upton was represented by Celeste Gilles of Villa Real Estate.

The post Los Angeles Angels Outfielder Justin Upton Purchases $4.7M Home in Newport Beach appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.
After seeing crowds of people out last weekend, Austin Mayor Steve Adler fears Texas may have reopened "too quickly."

On Sunday, Adler said in a zoom interview with news station Fox 7 Austin that he is "concerned" that the city might go back to being temporarily shut down as many residents were not wearing face masks while out in public buildings.

READ MORE: The latest news and features about coronavirus in San Antonio

"It's important for us to try to figure out how to open up the economy, but I'm a little concerned we are starting too quickly," he said. "... As I look around and drive around, I think people may be going too far. I wish that everybody was still wearing masks, I wish that the gatherings were smaller."

Gov. Greg Abbott's "Open Texas" plan began its first phase last Friday, allowing retail malls, dine-in restaurants and movie theatres to reopen at 25 percent of its capacity until May 18. When Abbott made his announcement last week, he said face masks are not required but are recommended. Much like San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, Adler has kept it mandatory for people in the city of Austin to wear face masks. However, due to Abbott's order, officials can not enforce the measure through fines or citations.

"Every public health official that I talk to says people should wear masks so, in Austin, I'm going to keep it mandatory for now," he said. "The penalty for not wearing a mask is that more people are going to get infected and some people are going to die ... I'm hoping people take this penalty very seriously."

RELATED: 'There's just so much uncertainty': Mark Cuban says Texas is 'not yet' ready to reopen Friday

Adler said he will not go to any businesses that have recently reopened until he sees the number of cases that emerge from this past weekend, which may take up to two weeks.

"It takes that long for the virus to manifest and for tests to come back so we are going to be watching the numbers very closely, but it's going to be another 10 days before we know if there are infections that are passing right now," he said.

For the time being, Adler encourages residents in Austin to limit the number of people they are with and to practice social distancing.

Last week, Dallas Mavericks owner, entrepreneur and TV personality Mark Cuban also said he was concerned that Texas may be reopening too soon, saying in an interview that the state is "not yet" ready to return to business.

Click the video below for the full interview with Adler.

Priscilla Aguirre is a general assignment reporter for MySA.com | priscilla.aguirre@express-news.net | @CillaAguirre

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:
The state Supreme Courts conservative justices on Tuesday expressed deep skepticism about the authority of a cabinet secretary to extend Gov. Tony Evers safer at home order for controlling the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

The 90 minutes of argument, heard remotely by video conference, came after Evers, a Democrat, and leaders from both parties in the Legislature met for the first time to discuss a bipartisan response to the pandemic, which through Tuesday afternoon had killed 353 Wisconsin residents and sickened more than 8,500.

Chief Justice Patience Roggensack thanked participants and noted theres an awful lot of emotion tied to the case because we are in the middle of a pandemic that all sides agree on. She gave no indication of when the court would rule but said it was meeting in closed session Tuesday afternoon.

At one point during arguments that were at times testy and complicated by video technology, justices shouted over one another about who had the floor to ask the next question, with liberal Justice Rebecca Dallet complaining that conservative Justice Daniel Kelly was not giving state Assistant Attorney General Colin Roth the chance to answer the question Kelly had asked.

I would ask that he be able to answer the question because Justice Kelly keeps cutting him off, Dallet said before Roggensack restored order.

GOP legislators filed the lawsuit on April 21, seeking to suspend the state Department of Health Services April 16 extension of Evers original order to May 26. Among other actions, the original order, issued March 24, closed businesses designated as nonessential to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Opponents of the measure say it has wrecked the states economy. Unemployment claims have soared as many businesses, those open and closed, have laid off or furloughed workers. But proponents of the order counter that Wisconsins coronavirus infection rate would be much higher if nothing had been done.

Roth, arguing for Evers side, was interrupted almost immediately by Justice Rebecca Bradley as he began his remarks.

My question for you is, where in the Constitution did the people of Wisconsin confer authority on a single, unelected cabinet secretary to compel almost 6 million people to stay at home and close their businesses and face imprisonment if they dont comply, with no input from the Legislature, without the consent of the people? Bradley asked.

Isnt it the very definition of tyranny for one person to order people to be imprisoned for going to work, among other ordinarily lawful activities?

Roth responded that the state Constitution allows the Legislature to enact statutes to protect public health, and that is exactly what the Legislature has done. State law created by the Legislature, he said, gives the Department of Health Services the authority to do whatever is necessary to combat a novel, deadly, communicable disease like the one were facing today.

Bradley is part of the courts conservative 5-2 majority, which agreed Friday to hear the case directly, rather than require the Legislature to proceed through the lower courts. Dallet dissented in that ruling.

Bradley, along with Kelly, who was defeated in last months election, continued to hammer at Roth about the authority for creating the order, where the limits of authority exist for DHS and its secretary-designee, Andrea Palm, and how the agency derives the power to punish those who violate the order. Roth appeared flustered at moments but said the power is in statutes created by the Legislature, which the Legislature could amend if it felt the need to do so.

If you look at the statute, its in there, Roth told Bradley.

Two issues

The court will decide two issues: whether Palm violated state law governing the issuance of emergency rules by ordering the extension of safer at home, and whether the order exceeded the authority DHS has under state law by closing nonessential businesses, ordering state residents to stay at home and forbidding nonessential travel.

The Legislature is asking the court to suspend enforcement of the order past its original April 24 expiration, but suggesting that the court stay the enforcement of the suspension for six days to allow DHS enough time to create a new emergency rule with the participation of the Legislature.

But justices wondered why the court should suspend its ruling instead of simply invalidating the order, if it is an improperly created rule.

Ryan Walsh, arguing for the Legislature, said the thought behind the six-day wait is to give DHS an opportunity to create a rule following the procedure the Legislature believes would be proper, but said DHS has squandered the time it has had to begin the process.

Unfortunately, DHS has done nothing, he said. It hasnt issued a scope statement, despite our asking them to do so.

The court, in its order Friday, declined to take up a third issue sought by the Legislature: whether DHS acted arbitrarily and capriciously in issuing the April 16 extension. The Legislature had asserted that DHS was arbitrary and capricious in its freewheeling categorization of businesses as either essential or nonessential.

Other voices

The court allowed arguments only by Roth and Walsh. A number of other groups filed friend-of-the-court briefs favoring or opposing a ruling stopping enforcement of safer at home. The Legislatures position is supported by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the Wisconsin Dairy Alliance, hunting and fishing groups, and the Wisconsin Tavern League, among others.

Opposing the Legislatures request are the Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments and Boards; the Wisconsin Public Health Association; the Wisconsin Nurses Association; a coalition of state community, advocacy, labor and membership organizations; Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice; and several other groups.

On Monday, a new lawsuit was filed with the state Supreme Court by Waukesha County resident Jere Fabick, a GOP contributor and board member of the conservative Heartland Institute, and Larry Chapman, a resident of Walworth County and member of Pewaukees Lakewood Baptist Church. The lawsuit seeks to block items in the order pertaining to constitutional rights to freedom of speech and religious activities.

On Tuesday, the court gave Palm and others until May 8 to respond to the petition and gave Fabick and Chapman until May 11 to reply.
Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami has moved the Supreme Court seeking quashing of a fresh FIR lodged against him by Mumbai Police for allegedly hurting religious sentiments by making some remarks during his show.

According to a lawyer associated with the case, Goswami, in his fresh plea filed in the apex court, has sought a direction to restrain the authorities from continuing any probe initiated pursuant to filing of the FIR on May 2.

The plea has been filed days after the Maharashtra government had earlier moved the apex court alleging that Goswami, facing probe in a criminal case for his alleged comments in shows on Palghar lynching case, has been "browbeating" the police by "creating fear psychosis".

On April 24, the top court had granted 3-week protection to Goswami against any coercive steps in connection with some FIRs lodged against him in various states for alleged defamatory statements made during shows on Palghar mob-lynching of three persons, including two saints in Maharashtra.

The fresh FIR was lodged on May 2 in Mumbai against him and two others for allegedly hurting religious sentiments by making derogatory remark regarding a mosque located in suburban Bandra, a Mumbai Police officer had said.

Goswami, in his news show, had displayed picture of the mosque and questioned the gathering of a large number of people outside it on April 14, the officer had said while quoting the FIR.

Hundreds of migrant workers had gathered in Bandra on April 14 demanding transport arrangements to go back to their native places, hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced extension of the nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19 till May 3.

The FIR was lodged in Pydhonie police station in south Mumbai on May 2 by Irfan Abubakar Sheikh, secretary of Raza Education Welfare Society.

Recently, the state government had approached the apex court and the plea filed by a Deputy Commissioner of Mumbai Police has sought a direction to Goswami to insulate the investigating agency from any pressure, threat and coercion and to enable the investigating agency to carry out its lawful obligations in a fair and transparent manner.

The application by the state has also sought a direction to restrain the news anchor from abusing the interim protection.

On April 24, the top court had transferred a case lodged against Goswami from Nagpur to Mumbai and stayed the investigation in other similar criminal cases related to the alleged defamatory statements made during news shows on Palghar mob-lynching.

It had asked the Mumbai police to probe the separate FIR filed by Goswami against some youth Congress workers together.

Several FIRs and complaints were lodged against Goswami in many states for his alleged defamatory comments made in a news programme questioning the silence of Congress President Sonia Gandhi over Palghar lynching case.

Earlier, the senior journalist had moved the apex court seeking quashing of complaints and FIRs filed against him by Congress leaders in different states across the country.

In his plea, Goswami had also sought direction that no cognizance of any complaint would be taken by any court nor any fresh FIR registered by the police. He had also sought security for family members and colleagues of his channels.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Jeff Mason

PHOENIX (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Tuesday accused Democrats of hoping his coronavirus response fails "so they can win the election," as the Republican governor of Texas moved to further relax business shutdowns aimed at quelling the pandemic.

Trump's latest partisan commentary on the public health crisis and resulting economic meltdown engulfing his presidency came hours before he visited a face-mask factory in Arizona, where he defied infection-control guidelines by not wearing a mask himself.

At the plant, Trump said he planned to wind down the White House coronavirus task force led by Vice President Mike Pence as the country shifts into a new phase focusing on the aftermath of the outbreak.

"We can't keep our country closed for the next five years," Trump said, when asked why it was time to wind down the task force.

He said two leading medical experts who have played prominent roles on the task force - Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx - would stay on as advisers after the group was dismantled.

Fauci, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease director who has at times openly contradicted Trump's assertions about the pandemic, has become a lightning rod of scorn from the president's supporters on the far right.

Before departing the White House, Trump was asked by a reporter why he would allow Fauci to testify next week before a committee of the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate but not the Democratic-majority House of Representatives.

"Because the House is a setup. The House is a bunch of Trump haters," the Republican president answered. "They, frankly, want our situation to be unsuccessful, which means death, which means death, and our situation is going to be very successful."

Trump, who had staked his November re-election bid on a robust U.S. economy before the pandemic struck, said Democrats "want us to fail so they can win an election, which they're not going to win." He offered no evidence to support his assertions.

Story continues

Despite Trump's efforts to steer Fauci away from what the president sees as hostile territory on Capitol Hill, a House panel will likely be the next battleground in a separate controversy over the recent ouster of the physician who led a U.S. biomedical agency.

Dr. Rick Bright filed a whistleblower complaint on Tuesday accusing the Trump administration of removing him in retaliation for concerns he tried to raise about the coronavirus threat in January. A spokeswoman for Bright said he would testify before a House panel on May 14.

GRAPHIC: World-focused tracker with country-by-country interactive - https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/COUNTRIES/oakveqlyvrd/index.html?id=united-kingdom

PANDEMIC RESPONSE POLITICIZED

Debate over how and when to ease restrictions on commerce and social life have grown increasingly politicized, with Trump and his supporters agitating to loosen social-distancing measures more swiftly than medical experts deem prudent.

Democratic governors of states hardest hit by the outbreak have taken a more cautious stance, abiding by public health officials - and guidelines from the White House itself - warning that vastly expanded coronavirus testing and other safeguards be put in place first.

But dozens of U.S. states, many led by Republicans in the South, Midwest and mountain West, have begun in recent weeks ease stay-at-home orders that have paralyzed their economies.

Texas, one of the largest, allowed restaurants, retail stores and shopping malls to resume business on a limited basis last Friday. On Tuesday Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, announced he was expanding that partial reopening to hair salons, barber shops and nail parlors this Friday, to be followed by fitness clubs and office buildings on May 18, subject to occupancy restrictions and workplace social-distancing.

He also recommended individuals 65 and over, as well as people with chronic health conditions, largely remain at home.

Widespread relaxation of social-distancing measures was a key factor cited by an influential coronavirus mortality model on Monday in predicting nearly 135,000 Americans would die from COVID-19 by early August, almost double previous projections.

The research model from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has become a closely watched data point often cited by the White House and public health authorities in gauging the coronavirus crisis.

The highly contagious virus, which emerged in China late last year before spreading around the globe, already is known to have infected more than 1.2 million people in the United States. At least 70,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, according to a Reuters tally.

In Arizona, marking his first trip in weeks beyond the greater Washington area, Trump visited a Honeywell International Inc <HON.N> aerospace facility in Phoenix that is making protective N95 face masks for healthcare workers.

But the president, who has consistently declined to wear a mask in public despite White House guidelines urging people to do so, showed up at the facility without any face covering. Most of the workers were wearing masks.

Arizona, a battleground state that could decide the election outcome, has also joined the ranks of partial economic reopenings, after protesters rallied in the capital Phoenix demanding Republican Governor Doug Ducey loosen restrictions.

GRAPHIC: Tracking the novel coronavirus in the U.S. - https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-USA/0100B5K8423/index.html

(Reporting by Susan Heavey, Jeff Mason and Steve Holland in Washington, Nathan Layne in Connecticut, Brendan O'Brien in Chicago, Brad Brooks in Austin, Texas, Rich McKay in Atlanta and Rajesh Kumar Singh; writing by Grant McCool and Steve Gorman; editing by Frank McGurty, Howard Goller, Cynthia Osterman and Gerry Doyle)
DUBLIN  More than 170 years ago, the Choctaw Nation sent $170 to starving Irish families during the potato famine. A sculpture in County Cork commemorates the generosity of the tribe, itself poor. In recent decades, ties between Ireland and the Choctaws have grown.

Now hundreds of Irish people are repaying that old kindness, giving to a charity drive for two Native American tribes suffering in the Covid-19 pandemic. As of Tuesday, the fund-raiser has raised more than $1.8 million to help supply clean water, food and health supplies to people in the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Reservation, with hundreds of thousands of dollars coming from Irish donors, according to the organizers.

Many donors cited the generosity of the Choctaws, noting that the gift came not long after the United States government forcibly relocated the tribe and several other American Indian groups from the Southeastern United States, a march across thousands of miles known as the Trail of Tears that left thousands of people dead along the way.

Id already known what the Choctaw did in the famine, so short a time after theyd been through the Trail of Tears, Sean Callahan, 43, an Apple administrator in Cork City who made a donation, said on Tuesday. It always struck me for its kindness and generosity and I see that too in the Irish people. It seemed the right time to try and pay it back in kind.
The British government's chief scientific adviser has acknowledged that the country should have been testing more people for the new coronavirus early in the country's outbreak.

Patrick Vallance told Parliament's health committee that if we'd managed to ramp up testing capacity quicker it would have been beneficial, and for all sorts of reasons that didn't happen.

Critics say Britain's Conservative government responded too slowly when COVID-19 began to spread, and failed to contain the outbreak by widely testing people with symptoms, then tracing and isolating the contacts of infected people.

Countries that did that, including South Korea and Germany, have recorded lower death rates than those that did not.

The U.K. has recently expanded its testing capacity and is setting up a test, track and trace program as it looks to relax a nationwide lockdown.

Britain is one of the world's hardest-hit countries in the pandemic, and looks likely to overtake Italy for the largest number of COVID-19 deaths in Europe.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
: The sessions court on Tuesday granted pre-arrest bail to 10 Indonesian national and 10 persons from Kyrgyzstan booked for not coming forward after attending a religious gathering of Tablighi Jamat at Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi. The foreigner should be treated with dignity, the court observed while passing an order on Tuesday.

The accused have been booked by DN Nagar police on April 5 under two separate cases. Apprehending arrest after their period of quarantine the group through their lawyer Ashish Dubey and Sania Mirza moved Sessions court for pre-arrest bail.

The accused after they were traced by the police were kept under quarantine. Dubey said that the quarantine period ends on Wednesday, hence fearing arrest a pre-arrest bail was moved. The court after considering the case papers and defence plea granted protection to the accused from arrest.

The sessions judge AZ Khan while granting relief to the members of the group observed, It is unfortunate for the accused that they came to Delhi and Mumbai and came in contact with persons which were affected by Coronavirus.

The court further held that the accused had no intention to spread the virus. The accused are mostly foreigners and they should be treated with dignity as they have no intention to spread the Coronavirus amongst Indian Citizen, the court observed adding that there is no need for custodial interrogation of the accused.

The court has also granted anticipatory bail to four Indian nationals who were part of the gathering holding that there was no intention to spread the virus, Dubey said.

The accused are booked for various charges including the charge of attempt to murder and culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The Mumbai police had earlier issued an advisory and warning asking people who had attended the meet at Delhi to come forward failing which a criminal case would be registered against them.

The group failed to come forward but were traced them in the first week of April, followed by which a case was registered with DN Nagar police station. The accused have been kept under quarantine and were apprehending arrest after the end of the period.
New Delhi: A private chat group called Bois Locker Room sharing objectionable pictures of girls, objectifying them, and planning 'gang rapes' was busted online on Tuesday.

The group allegedly involves teenage boys from South Delhi who are accused of sharing photos of minor girls. They allegedly used to chat about planning gang rapes and indulged in porn talk.

A case has been file against the group under IT Act 66 and 67A and Delhi Police has already started investigating the matter.

The group was busted creating a storm on social media after a Delhi based girl leaked chats from the group, including obscene images of around 15-16 girls.

Taking notice of the incident, Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal issued notices to the Delhi Police as well as Instagram. The commission also asked Instagram to share important information such as user IDs and locations of each group member, and its administrators.

Maliwal said that all the culprits should be arrested to send out a tough message.

Swati Maliwal took to Instagram and wrote, "DCW has issued notice to Instagram and Delhi Police in the matter of a group named "boys locker room" being used by some miscreants to share objectionable pictures of minor girls and planning illegal acts such as gangrape of minor girls. All the people involved in this act should be immediately arrested and a strong message needs to be given out."

She also released a video message on Twitter to express her concern over such an incident.

DCW Chairperson @SwatiJaiHind's reaction on the shameful #boyslockeroom incident. pic.twitter.com/kcE9n26lKI  Delhi Commission for Women - DCW (@DCWDelhi) May 4, 2020

The group glorifying gang rape has yet again raised a question on women's safety in the national capital and has bought shock waves among netizens who are questioning the education system of the country.

As per the Indian law, Section 507 of IPC holds them punishable for 2 years threatening a woman by any kind of anonymous communication which is also intimidating.

Section 509 of IPC- 3 years of imprisonment with a fine for posting sexual pictures or remarks or videos including sexual insinuations on social media.

Section 503 of IPC- 2 years of imprisonment for threatening a woman by either alarming or malign her reputation and Section 499 of IPC- 2 years of imprisonment for defaming a woman online.
WASHINGTON  The Trump administration failed to prepare for the onslaught of the coronavirus, then sought a quick fix by trying to rush an unproven drug to patients, a senior government scientist alleged in a whistleblower complaint Tuesday.

Dr. Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, alleges he was reassigned to a lesser role because he resisted political pressure to allow widespread use of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug pushed by President Donald Trump. He said the Trump administration wanted to flood hot spots in New York and New Jersey with the drug.

I witnessed government leadership rushing blindly into a potentially dangerous situation by bringing in a non-FDA approved chloroquine from Pakistan and India, from facilities that had never been approved by the FDA, Bright said Tuesday on a call with reporters. Their eagerness to push blindly forward without sufficient data to put this drug into the hands of Americans was alarming to me and my fellow scientists.

Bright filed the complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, a government agency that investigates retaliation against federal employees who uncover problems. He wants his job back and a full investigation.

The Department of Health and Human Services issued a terse statement saying that Bright was transferred to the National Institutes of Health to work on coronavirus testing, a crucial assignment. We are deeply disappointed that he has not shown up to work on behalf of the American people and lead on this critical endeavor, HHS spokeswoman Caitlin Oakley said.

According HHS, Bright has not reported to his new post. But his spokeswoman said that Bright is on sick leave, following his doctors orders, and that HHS has provided him no details on his new role.

Brights complaint comes as the Trump administration faces criticism over its response to the pandemic, including testing and supplies of ventilators, masks and other equipment to stem the spread. There have been nearly 1.2 million confirmed cases in the United States and more than 70,000 deaths.

Bright said his superiors repeatedly rejected his warnings that the virus would spread in the U.S., missing an early opportunity to stock up on protective masks for first responders. He said he acted with urgency to address the growing spread of COVID-19  the disease the virus causes  after the World Health Organization issued a warning in January.

Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., chair of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health, said she plans to hold a hearing into his complaint next week, and Brights lawyers said he would testify. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, appearing on MSNBC, called the complaint very damaging.

In his complaint, Bright said he encountered resistance from HHS leadership, including Secretary (Alex) Azar, who appeared intent on downplaying this catastrophic event.

During a Feb. 23 meeting, Azar, as well as Brights boss, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Robert Kadlec, responded with surprise at (Brights) dire predictions and urgency, and asserted that the United States would be able to contain the virus and keep it out, the whistleblower complaint said.

Bright said White House trade adviser Peter Navarro was a rare exception among administration officials, extremely concerned about the potential consequences of an outbreak. He described working with Navarro to break a bureaucratic logjam and set up military transport from Italy for swabs needed in the U.S.

Navarro was the author of several urgent memos within the White House. Bright said Navarro asked for his help, saying the trade adviser told him the memos were needed to save lives.

Navarros memos to top officials raised alarms even as Trump was publicly assuring Americans that the outbreak was under control.

Brights allegation that he was removed over his resistance to widespread use of the malaria drug was already public, but his whistleblower complaint added details from emails and internal communications while bringing to light his early attempts to acquire N95 respirator masks, which he said were ignored by superiors.

In late January, Bright said he was contacted by an official of a leading mask manufacturer about ramping up production. It was estimated that as many as 3.5 billion would be needed, while the national stockpile had about 300 million.

The complaint said that when Bright tried to press the issue about masks with superiors at HHS, he was ignored or rebuffed. HHS publicly represented not only that COVID-19 was not an imminent threat, but also that HHS already had all the masks it would need, the complaint said.

As the epidemic spread in the U.S. and engulfed the New York metropolitan area, Bright alleges that political appointees at HHS tried to promote hydroxychloroquine as a panacea. The officials also demanded that New York and New Jersey be flooded with these drugs, which were imported from factories in Pakistan and India that had not been inspected by the FDA, the complaint says.

Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned doctors against prescribing the drug except in hospitals and research studies. In an alert, regulators flagged reports of sometimes fatal heart side effects among coronavirus patients taking hydroxychloroquine or the related drug chloroquine.

Bright felt officials had refused to listen or take appropriate action to accurately inform the public and spoke to a reporter about the drug. He said he had to tell the public about the lack of science backing up its use, despite the drug being pushed by the president at press briefings.

As the death toll mounted exponentially each day, Dr. Bright concluded that he had a moral obligation to the American public, including those vulnerable as a result of illness from COVID-19, to protect it from drugs which he believed constituted a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety, the complaint says.

On Jan. 20, according to the complaint, the WHO held an emergency call that was attended by many HHS officials, and WHO officials advised that the outbreak is a big problem.

Trump has accused the U.N. agency of mismanaging and covering up the spread of the virus after it emerged in China. He has also said he wants to cut the WHOs funding.

Brights agency works to guard against pandemics and emergent infectious diseases and is working to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus.

Top officials also pressured him to steer contracts to a client of a lobbyist, he reported.

Time after time I was pressured to ignore or dismiss expert scientific recommendations and instead to award lucrative contracts based on political connections, Bright said in the call with reporters. In other words, I was pressured to let politics and cronyism drive decisions over the opinions of the best scientists we have in government.

Zachary Kurz, a spokesman for the agency where Bright filed his complaint, said the office couldnt comment or confirm the status of open investigations.
The accused Claremont serial killer swore, expressed disbelief and proclaimed his innocence after heavily armed police stormed his home in an early morning raid and detectives put him under arrest.

Video of former Telstra technician Bradley Robert Edwards hearing the allegations against him for the first time, three days before Christmas in 2016, was played at his epic Supreme Court of Western Australia trial on Tuesday.

The 51-year-old exclaimed 'f***' as Detective Senior Sergeant Joseph Marrapodi told him he was suspected of murdering secretary Sarah Spiers, childcare worker Jane Rimmer and solicitor Ciara Glennon in 1996 and 1997.

Scroll down for video

Former Telstra technician and confessed rapist Bradley Robert Edwards, 51, is fighting allegations he killed three women

Edawrds is accused of murdering secretary Sarah Spiers (left), 18, childcare worker Jane Rimmer (centre), 23, and solicitor Ciara Glennon (right), 27, in 1996 and 1997.

He used the same expletive when told he was also going to be charged with abducting and raping a teenager in a cemetery in 1995 - which he admitted the month before his trial started in November.

Edwards asked 'who?' when he was further accused of attacking a woman in her Huntingdale home in 1988, which he also confessed to last year.

'You've got to be joking,' he told detectives when he was read his rights.

'I understand, I'm just trying to process what's going on.'

Edwards did not ask for a lawyer but said he wanted to call his parents, which was denied as inquiries were ongoing.

When prompted to ask questions, he said: 'Why me? I'm innocent.'

The raid occurred about 7.30am, his interview at cold case homicide squad headquarters started about two hours later and concluded about 11.30pm, but he was given multiple breaks.

The video has been edited to a much shorter length and marks the end of the prosecution case, which started with testimony from more than 100 civilian witnesses, including his two ex-wives, former work colleagues and friends.

The trial has this year been dominated by DNA and fibre evidence.

The state says fibres from Edwards' work trousers and Telstra-issued car were found on the rape victim, Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon.

The remains of Ms Spiers have never been found.

Prosecutors also allege Edwards' DNA was found on a kimono he left behind at the Huntingdale house and underneath Ms Glennon's fingernails, some of which broke off as she fought her attacker.

The defence team has argued the evidence could have been contaminated and is expected to call at least one expert witness.

It is not yet known if Edwards, 51, will take the stand himself.

There will be a five-week adjournment between the conclusion of the defence case and closing addresses.

Justice Stephen Hall is expected to take several months to hand down his verdict.
Agencies that serve adults with intellectual disabilities and autism are facing severe financial pressures in the pandemic and advocates say some may not survive the coronavirus crisis.

Some service providers are running out of money, advocates said. Theyre facing higher expenses with additional overtime and the need to buy personal protection equipment for staff. Some workers are quitting because they are wary of the risks of working during the pandemic, advocates said.

Across Pennsylvania, more than 50,000 workers known as direct support professionals serve individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism. Some offer assistance for adults with more independence, helping them with errands or trips to doctors. Some work in community homes and help those with very basic tasks such as meals and showers.

Mark Davis, president and CEO of Pennsylvania Advocacy and Resources for Autism and Intellectual Disability, said the situation is urgent and Gov. Tom Wolf and lawmakers need to act. Agencies serving adults with disabilities rely almost entirely on the state for funding.

We have members now who are saying were out of staff, were out of money, were out of PPE and were out of time, Davis said.

A survey of some non-profit groups in Pennsylvania serving those with disabilities found they had, on average, enough cash on hand to support operations for only about three days on their own.

The American Network of Community Options and Resources conducted a nationwide survey of agencies serving those with disabilities to gauge the financial toll of the pandemic. The report found two out of three providers have had to cut programs or services and more than half are paying more in overtime.

The outlook for some agencies in Pennsylvania is even more grim, advocates said.

Pennsylvania agencies aiding those with disabilities say expenses have increased, on average, by about 28 percent. With some staff quitting, agencies are paying other direct support professionals more overtime to care for residents in community homes.

Those directing agencies serving those with intellectual disabilities said they are used to operating on the edge. But they said the current crisis threatens the states ability to serve those individuals in the community.

Tim Sohosky, is the chief operating officer of the ReDCo Group and Raystown Developmental Services, which serve 500 individuals with disabilities in Pennsylvania. Even before the pandemic, about 20 percent of all direct support professional positions are typically vacant, he said. Now, the vacancy rate in the field is up to 40 percent, he said.

The system is fragile on a good day, Sohosky said.

He said his agency is tapping credit lines and doing everything possible to pay staff and keep them safe.

Advocates are pressing Wolf and lawmakers for more assistance. They said providers of services for intellectual disabilities and autism need $89 million a month in additional state aid to deal with the increased costs related to the coronavirus pandemic.

If the community-based support system cant be sustained, Sohosky and other advocates said they fear adults with disabilities could end up back in institutions or nursing homes. Advocates argue such a scenario would unravel decades of progress in enabling individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism to live full, rich lives.

I cant imagine going to some institutional system," he said.

Cheryl Dougan is the mother of an adult with disabilities who lives in a community home. She said the staff have helped her son, Renzo, enjoy a higher quality of life, caring for basic needs such as brushing his teeth (hes never had a cavity, she notes). Before the pandemic, they took Renzo to a job at Martin Guitar Factory for a few hours a week and to horse-riding therapy sessions. He became an active member of the community, she said.

Theyre protecting people from having to go to hospitals," Dougan said, even though they arent paid appropriately.

Im begging the Legislature and begging the governor to help these workers," she said.

Direct support professionals should be viewed as essential health care workers, advocates said.

Jackie Walck, a direct support professional, didnt mince words about the risks involved in the field. Caring for individuals with disabilities doesnt allow for social distancing.

We are right in the open putting ourselves in danger," she said.

As more people leave the field, those staying on are left to cover shifts to care for clients.

What we are facing is just beyond what we expected with the shortage of staffing," Walck said, adding, Some are picking up double-shifts which takes its toll on us as direct care workers.

Advocates point out that direct support professionals arent well-paid. In Pennsylvania, they make about $13 per hour, advocates said.

Diane Conway is CEO of the Max Association, which serves 40 human services organizations in the Philadelphia suburbs. Direct support professionals continue caring for clients in southeastern Pennsylvania, the area that has been hit hardest by the virus in the Keystone State.

They are the silent front line, Conway said.

They are putting themselves at risk, their families at risk, every day," she added.

If service providers and the community homes go under, Conway said, That will take this field back 50 years and it will take a lot of choice from individuals.

Sherry Landis, executive director of The Arc of PA, said providers are in a crisis. Were desperate.

If providers cant survive this crisis, she said, "We are failing individuals who rely on us and we cannot let that happen.

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New Delhi, May 5 : Indians stranded abroad will have to bear the cost of travel as well as a 14-day quarantine and they should be Covid-19 negative, the government announced on Tuesday.

Priority will be given to compelling cases in distress, including migrant workers and labourers who have been laid off, short-term visa holders faced with expiry of visas, persons with medical emergencies, pregnant women, elderly, those required to return to India due to death of family members, and students.

The Standard Operating Protocol (SOP), issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), on Tuesday also said that such persons should register themselves with the Indian mission in the country where they are stuck. The SOP was issued a day after the Ministry announced the return of stranded Indians abroad from May 7 in a phased manner.

"Such Indians will have to provide all necessary details as prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs," it said. The stranded Indians will travel to India by non-scheduled commercial flights to be arranged by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MOCA), and naval ships to be arranged by Department of Military Affairs (DMA).

As per the SOP, only those crew and staff, who test Covid-19 negative, will be allowed to operate these flights and ships.

"The cost of travel, as specified by MOCA and DMA will be borne by such travellers," it said.

Based on the registrations received, the MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) will prepare a flight and ship-wise database of all such travellers, including details such as name, age, gender, mobile phone numbers, place of residence, place of final destination; and information on RT-PCR test taken and its result, it said, adding that the data will be shared by MEA with the respective states and the Union Territories (UTs) in advance.

The MEA will designate state and the UT wise nodal officers, who will coordinate with the nodal officers designated for this purpose by the respective state and UTs. The Ministry will also display with at least two days notice of the incoming flight and ship on its online digital platform. Before boarding, all travellers shall give an undertaking that they would undergo mandatory institutional quarantine for a minimum of 14 days on arrival in India at their own cost.

The SOP also said that all travellers will also be required to give an undertaking that they are making the journey at their own risk. At the time of boarding of the flight and ship, MEA will facilitate thermal screening as per health protocol, it said, adding that only asymptomatic travellers would be allowed to board the flights and ships.

"Passengers arriving through the land borders will have to undergo the same protocol and only those who are asymptomatic will be enabled to cross the border into India.

"Self-declaration form (with health and personal details) duplicated will be filled in advance by all passengers coming from any point of entry like land, sea or airports, and a copy of the form will be given to health and immigration officials present at the airport, seaport and landport," it said.

While on board the flight and ship, the health protocol of MoCA and DMA will be strictly followed. This would include wearing masks, environmental hygiene, respiratory hygiene etc to be observed by airline or ship staff, crew and all passengers.On arrival, thermal screening would be carried out and the passengers found to be symptomatic during screening shall be immediately taken to a medical facility.

All passengers shall be asked to download Arogya Setu app on their mobile devices.

The remaining passengers shall be taken to suitable institutional quarantine facilities to be arranged by the respective state and the UT governments.

These facilities may be as far as possible in the district headquarters of the district to which the arriving passengers belong. If the passengers test negative after 14 days, they will be allowed to go home and will undertake self-monitoring of their health for 14 more days as per protocol. The remaining persons will be shifted to the medical facility by the state and UT governments.

Since the announcement of the lockdown from March 24 midnight, all international flights were stopped, leaving Indians in foreign lands stranded.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

As a master of fields like quantum information theory and quantum optics, professor Carlton Caves knows that its tough to explain what he does for a living.

Its very hard to explain what were up to, said the distinguished professor emeritus of physics and astronomy at the University of New Mexico. We know what to do, but in some sense even we cant understand it.

But his work in that complex field of matter and energy at an atomic and subatomic level generated plenty of attention over his career, and last week he was elected into the National Academy of Sciences, an elite group of a scholars committed to science and technology in America. He was one of 120 new members elected into the academy this year and is the fifth UNM faculty member to earn the honor, said Steve Carr, a UNM spokesman.

To salute the accomplishment, Caves and his wife, Karen Kahn, a partner at the Modrall Sperling Law Firm, had a champagne toast over Skype with their children  a son who is a climate scientist now in Germany and daughter who is a biologist in England.

Caves said the part of his work that likely caught the attention of the academy is his long-held theory that has changed the way the scientists can observe coalescing black holes.

Back in 1981, Caves had completed his Ph.D. and was doing a research fellowship at the California Institute of Technology, and he suggested using squeezed light to essentially improve an interferometers detection capability.

Fast-forward through nearly 40 years of scientific research, and Caves squeezed-light idea has in recent years been used to study colliding black holes and neutron stars at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. Thats a large-scale physics experiment in cosmic gravitational waves using massive instruments in Washington state and Louisiana.

And Caves pointed out the LIGO experiment has cost about $1 billion.

If you have an idea that makes a billion-dollar project work better, it gets a lot of attention, he said.

Caves has worked at UNM since 1992 after launching his career at Caltech and then the University of Southern California.

He recently retired as director of the Center for Quantum Information and Control and said he plans to spend the rest of his career writing papers and assisting young researchers doing postdoctoral work.

Thats what I like doing, and thats what I do well, he said.

UNM Provost James Holloway said Caves has made extraordinary contributions in his field.

His election to the National Academy of Sciences is a career-capping honor in a long list of honors and awards he has received for his work, Holloway said. For a U.S. scientist, this election is considered perhaps the most prominent national honor. Professor Caves is still actively working and publishing, and contributing to the frontiers of human knowledge.
Bornstein Seafoods has closed two processing plants in Astoria after 13 of its workers tested positive for the coronavirus. Its the latest outbreak to strike a food processing facility.

We are working hand in hand with county health officials to increase testing and implement contact tracing, Andrew Bornstein, vice president, wrote in an email Tuesday. We are advising all of our employees to self-isolate and quarantine as advised by public health until further notice and guidance is provided.

The company brought in Clatsop County health officials last month to advise staff on safe operations during the coronavirus outbreak, Bornstein wrote. He didnt specify what steps the company took in response to that guidance but said with county health department will test Bornsteins remaining employees Tuesday. The company employs more than 200 in Astoria.

The Daily Astorian reported the test results Monday.

Across the country, food processing facilities have become a hotbed of coronavirus infections. Many have continued operating during the outbreak to provide a steady supply of food, but employees often work in close quarters with poor ventilation.

National Frozen Foods in Albany had 18 positive tests for the coronavirus last week, according to the Albany Democrat-Herald. The Tri-City Herald reported Sunday that 144 workers at a Tyson Fresh Meats plant in Wallula, Washington, have tested positive for the coronavirus and two have died.

-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway |

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
MrWeb 21 YEARS FEATURE: Giles Palmer Interview

Continuing our focus on mobile insights, Brandwatch founder & CEO Giles Palmer talks sifting through 1.5 trillion pages of data; pulling apart the Model-T Ford; and why our industry could grow fivefold in 5 years. Excerpts from a podcast interview by Jamin Brazil of Happy Market Research.





Brandwatch is a social media intelligence company, helping clients to analyse and utililse conversations from across the social web - and employs 500 people. Prior to starting it in 2007, Giles co-founded a software company called Runtime Collective.



The full podcast of Giles' interview will be available in the next month. Please email mrt@mrweb.com if you want to be alerted when it's live





Generation Game



JB: tell us about how your parents influenced your career...



GP: I had kind of a traditional 'stay-at-home mum and working dad' family. My dad had a very high work ethic, came from a working class background, a smart guy that did OK at school and got into quantity surveying. He joined a firm when he was 27, retired from the same firm when he was 55 and a Senior Partner. That said, he didn't put too much pressure on my sister and me to work hard when we were kids, in fact I often asked him for advice and he was reluctant to give me advice: he said 'you've just gotta figure it out for yourself', kind of thing. I went to a private school and a good university where I read physics, came out pretty young with no idea about anything and went into accountancy just to get a general business grounding.



I wasn't very good at it - my heart wasn't in it - and then I joined a few other industries, didn't really get on with any of those. I was a geeky kid, into computer games etc.. and the Internet didn't really appear until I was in my late 20s, when me and some friends started a company which we called Runtime Collective, building web applications for people. I think if I picked one thing I got from parents it would be that work ethic - I was kind of a lazy kid but I can do things reasonably well when I try, especially the science stuff. Now I work really hard!



My mum was incredibly organised and ran the household, so together they set us up as kids really well, provided a safe and loving environment. I think because I come from a middle class, very safe environment I've always been attracted to risk more than other people - there was never any sense of jeopardy anywhere.



Now I have 4 children including one stepdaughter - aged 16 to 20. I think I've taken the work ethic thing too far with them, put more [academic] pressure on them than my parents put on me [laughs]. I'm very impatient, in particular with my son who is happy doing nothing but online gaming. When he wakes me up at 5am screaming down the headphones, I lose my cool! But habits you pick up from your parents are very strong. They'll probably do the same thing to their kids and so on down the generations - that's my own guilt coming through from when I was a kid - it's one of those tragic things that you repeat the mistakes of your parents!



However... we have a low drama household and we all muck in to a degree - hopefully that will give them a solid footing. Since the start of lockdown, I've been really impressed with the way they have stepped up regarding their granny. She is now on her own stuck at home, and I'm really proud of the fact they are now actually calling her twice a week - because they see her vulnerability, in her 80s and on her own.





In the Pipeline



JB: give us some context re Brandwatch - what's it doing today?



GP: Firstly, we are trying to bring together some of the innovations that we've been working on for last couple of years behind the scenes, around NLP, universal translation and some of the Open AI projects that have come to light. Using these to analyse the enormous volume of social data: we've received something like 700m posts a day for 12 years - maybe 1.5 trillion pages. In that archive there are interesting insights, it's just How the hell do you sift the signal from the noise?



It's an interesting challenge from an engineering point of view because it's such a huge dataset, and from an analysis point of view because it's natural language and the structure is different depending on the source - tweets vs forums vs news site content etc.. So how do you bring it all together to give users the ability to get insights from this vast data set? Small innovations and significant but incremental improvements are happening all the time, but there are then the longer-term engineering breakthroughs which - if they can really shift the ability to analyse things at scale and make it easier to wrestle with - are doing a massive service for users. So we're trying to productise some of the big engineering programmes we've been on - they may have involved only 3 or 4 people but they're big efforts that have gone on for multiple years.



Secondly our application has been a bit like a Model-T Ford, you can use it for lots of different things as above, but it's the same model, so we've been pulling that apart into a jobs-to-be-done or use case-based framework; to take what we've built and think of it more as a platform to create applications that are easy to use.



Thirdly, we're learning about scaling the company and doing so globally - my leadership team is ten people, I think 3 in Boston, 1 in New York, 4 or 5 in the UK, 1 in France, and teams for other functions are also distributed, and we need to structure them so it's efficient but not siloed. We're learning as we go. Covid-19 has actually helped us work more cross-functionally, which is interesting.



Fourthly and finally, there's something we announced about a year ago when we acquired Qriously - a mobile-based survey company - we're trying to bring together different data sets to give a bigger picture of consumer behaviour and we're calling it 'Digital Consumer Intelligence' - so we're trying to expand the way we think of ourselves from social media analysis to this - taking things from different sources and trying to mash them up and make sense of them. In addition to survey app data from Qriously this includes things like online transactions, search data. Some of those are at a very early stage but I'm trying to think long term.





JB: Companies can no longer just leverage primary data - they now have to lay other data on top of that. It's really difficult to do... but even more relevant now in the age of Covid.



GP: Yes, there's a fundamental split depending on how the data is used within big companies: whether it's in a 1, 2 or 3-year cycle, long-term strategic input, or whether they're asking 'What's happening today and what are our competitors doing' and it's more tactical - with other data informing that tactical feedback loop, such as sales data or performance or online marketing and search. So the boundaries around the timeline of decision-making are really important. [If you're combining sources / types...] Having the skills very close by is important - maybe a tight partnership with an agency that can run quantifiable analysis quickly on data that's been gathered, and say whether they've found anything and what - we're seeing that 'market research data' feedback loop shortened dramatically inside a lot of our customers as they look to be consumer fit and adaptable / fast-changing.



Many of our customers are getting their budgets reduced but their workload increased, and the research industry is evolving from qual to quant, from quarterly to daily, from reports to quant data - or quantifiable insights rather. 'We've seen x number of people do this, we think this is a trend'. All powered by this availability of big data and the need to work with it.



... so it's an extra-interesting time in the world of MR, and it would to be honest be great to change the name of the industry which has a bit of a stodgy old school ring to it. By contrast, what's happening with consumer insights in some of the world's best companies today is really quite groundbreaking and innovative, and very forward-looking, so I think we're seeing a sea change in the MR industry. It [the industry] will get bigger, but it will change the way it is.





Getting started and making money



JB: I want to dive into the story of Brandwatch. You started the business in 2007, Facebook did its IPO I believe in 2012 and Twitter the following year, so you were really ahead of the curve.

GP: yeah so we should have got a lot further than we have to be honest [laughter]

JB: yeah there is that [also chuckling]. No but... then we hit a recession, directly after you started the business - how did you navigate that?



GP: I had been running this tech services business with some friends and I didn't want to do that any more, I wanted to build a product company. I started with not much idea, but I wanted to build a product. We had been working on this small project around building a web crawler, which was never really finished - and I used that as an impetus to create Brandwatch, I said to my partner I want to take this and he said 'you can buy me out and off you go'. He went and joined Google and latterly DeepMind, so an amazing guy... but I wanted to build a product.



We took maybe a year to build out the web crawler and then work on some basic sentiment analysis on what we'd found; launched it in August 2007 as an SaaS product, and our focus was on special interest forums - a UK one called moneysavingexpert - bank accounts and financial decisions, mortgages and so on. So we were crawling that site and one of the big banks in the UK wanted to launch a new bank account for young people, so they wanted to use our system to know how that was resonating inside that community. That was our first subscriber in September 2007 - we didn't get our 2nd customer until Jan 2008, which was a challenging time, sure! Trying to raise money as well, to keep the lights on.



Then the agency world in London - creative and ad agencies are always very strong here - started to realise there was this new ability to tap into consumer insights and understand them, so they started subscribing to it, not paying a lot of money. A couple of thousand dollars a month - not a small amount but I mean you need quite a few of those to keep a team of ten going! - and we started to see some traction, so we built the product with their needs in mind, and they had all sorts of different needs so that's why the product ended up being this very flexible system. In terms of the recession, it didn't really impact us.



Well, who knows because I don't have a control group, non-recession!...



JB: [laughs] that's fair!



GP: ...but we did pretty well throughout the recession mainly because it wasn't a crazy expensive product compared to people-based MR - not that we were really thinking of ourselves as MR at that time - but also even during the recession, the world was going online - social media etc.. smartphones, Google, Twitter - online was still growing like crazy and that was our domain. The move of money from off-line to online is the trend of the last 20 years, or one of them, and that's our playground so we were insulated from the recession.



JB: With an SaaS business, you really appreciate having guaranteed revenue in a recession...



GP: right - it's not guaranteed though!



JB: well OK...



GP: ...but yeah, the predictability of Brandwatch has been pretty good - except for the last 18 months, we've merged with Crimson Hexagon, that's been a much more unpredictable time, but up until that transaction we would put out a number at the beginning of the year and we'd be there or thereabouts at the end of it - we were always a little bit optimistic, but we'd be within 5 or 10% of it every year, because it's reasonably easy to look at the waterfall of money, sign up a customer, have a certain % of them renew, some of them grow, some of them churn. It's not a complex model.





The 5x Future



JB: are you ready for some rapid fire questions? Good. How do you think the MR space will be different in the next 5 years?

GP: more quant, faster, easier to use, cheaper tools, 5x bigger as an industry.



JB: [laughing / resisting the urge to immediately probe that large multiplier] Er... biggest issue facing today's market researchers?

GP: complexity of data, the amount of data, the time it takes to do stuff and the cost.



JB: and the three characteristics of an all-star employee?

GP: they're all behavioural, all about attitude, so:

1. willingness to learn; 2. ability to collaborate; and 3. work ethic.



JB: [laughing] Really great speed there. I want to delve into the phrase '5x bigger'. The space overall has been relatively flat at an aggregate level, according to ESOMAR for example. Why so optimistic?



GP: it's a nomenclature issue - there are certain things that go on today that are not called MR and are not captured, so it's the way it needs to be measured going forwards, but I'm optimistic because I remember an Uber investor speaking at a conference saying that Uber '5x'd the New York taxi market', not because more people wanted to travel, but because they made it cheaper, faster to use: use the app, it comes to you, you don't have to tip and that annoying stuff; but they were also cheaper. He said that 5 or 7 years ago but that stuck with me. Usage will go up - that's what's going on with MR - it's no longer just 'Find a focus group... write a report, deliver it 3 months after it was commissioned' - that doesn't happen much any more, so where we are making it faster and cheaper I think you will see usage going up.



Where you will see that on the client side... the companies that are able to adapt more quickly to the changing consumer landscape are more successful. If you're a company and you're not baking consumer insight into everything you're doing as an organisation, then you're likely to be out-innovated by someone who is: you're not adapting as quickly as your competition. If we can make it faster, easier and cheaper then it [what we do as an industry] will happen more - so 5x could be a massive understatement. It's no longer MR - it's decision management, and if you're not baking consumer insights into your decision management you are probably not going to win.





Personal motto?



GP: I don't have one but I want to get one [laughs]... The cultural foundation upon which Brandwatch is built, from the very beginning - also Runtime Collective - is 'treat other people as you would like them to treat you'. So if I lived by that golden rule more than I probably do now, that would be good.





Other 21 YEARS / Mobile Age content now available (read and download the full supplement here):





Accuracy and Authenticity - How Smartphones Revolutionised Research, by Richard Preedy, Verve



Mobile Election Polling - Abraham Muller, CTO at Brandwatch Qriously, looks at how mobile methods can make election polling easier to implement and more accurate.



Delivering Great Mobile Qualitative: Four Keys to Success - by Ross McLean, Vice President, Mobile Qualitative at 20|20 Research



7 Steps to a Better Mobile Survey - QuenchTec Survey Designer Dennis Sewberath highlights seven ways to turn a survey into a 'beautiful conversation', for the sake of better feedback and higher completion rates.



You've Missed the Boat - RealityMine CEO Chris Havemann looks at the continuing opportunity for market researchers in a world of consumers and media changed almost out of recognition by the mobile revolution. Part 1 of 2.



...but there's another one along in a minute - in part 2, RealityMine CEO Chris Havemann looks at Why MR firms are 'fundamentally well-positioned', and where the immediate opportunities lie.



3 Mobile Marketing Myths - Andy Chandler, General Manager, UK & Ireland at mobile measurement and fraud prevention specialist Adjust, debunks three fashionable but misplaced ideas from this booming market.



Little Did He Know - Mario Paic, Global Head of Data Science, looks at the rise of the smartphone and discusses its central role today at Ipsos Audience Measurement.



Did You Get the Message? Reach3 Insights CEO & founder Matt Kleinschmit looks at the rise of the mobile messaging-based Survey - with case studies from work for Jagermeister, Hyundai and Kimberly-Clark.



An interview with Tugce Bulut, the inspirational founder and CEO of app-based feedback business Streetbees.




Nine out of the 13 undertrial



prisoners who had escaped on May 1 from a sub-jail in Gujarat's Dahod district were nabbed by different police teams during the last two days, said officials on Tuesday.

The nine undertrials, who were nabbed from their hideouts, included five murder accused, two accused of loot, one robbery accused and one facing rape charges, said a statement by Dahod Superintendent of Police Hitesh Joysar.

After escaping from the Devgadh-Baria sub-jail of Dahod district on May 1, these nine roamed in forests and then hid themselves in the premises of their relatives and acquaintances, from where they were nabbed by police teams during the last two days, said the SP.

He added that a search is still on to catch the remaining four inmates.

The undertrial prisoners, facing serious charges such as rape and murder, had escaped after breaking the locks of their rooms at around 3 am, officials had said.

They first broke the locks and then escaped by jumping over the wall of the sub-jail, they had said.

The incident happened despite the presence of four guards, who were deployed to a keep a watch on around 80 inmates lodged in the jail.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
On May 1, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation declaring this week to be this years Public Service Recognition Week, and calling upon Americans and all federal, state, tribal, and local government agencies to recognize the dedication of our nations public servants and to observe this week through appropriate programs and activities.

He declared that Americans are especially grateful to our devoted public servants, whose experience, expertise, and commitment to service will lift our nation up during these difficult times and help ensure a swift recovery, and to whom Americans will forever be indebted for their hard work, dedication, and courage.

Any president will sign countless documents of a similar nature over the course of a four-year term, designating various days, weeks, and months in honor of different groups, historical events, people, and other entities deemed worthy of recognition by the leader of the free world.

And for anyone who watched Trumps performances during the daily briefings which were until recently delivered in the name of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, such flowery language bears a strong resemblance to the prepared remarks hed read at the outset of each appearance.

But much like the way Trump would read his prepared platitudes in a passionless monotone then reveal his more familiar pugilistic, press-bashing form during the question-and-answer portion of those daily briefings, his administrations attitude towards the public servants who keep the government running can best be identified not in prepared remarks or proclamations, but through the actions it takes.

On the same day Trump signed an official document thanking civil servants nationwide, his own appointees at the federal governments human resources policy agency were making moves to consolidate their power and undermine the career officials who he has so often derides as the deep state and part of the opposition.

That agency  the Office of Personnel Management  is, among other things, responsible for making sure federal agencies follow civil service laws, some of which date back to 1883.

Most anti-corruption experts will wax eloquent about how a merit-based, nonpartisan civil service is necessary to ensure that government functions smoothly and unencumbered by corruption. But for the loyalty-obsessed Trump administration, having to hire the (actual) best people and protect them from being fired for political reasons has been a bridge too far since Day One.

As if to underscore this point, both of the people Trump nominated to run the agency were ousted after less than a year on the job. The first, a respected human resources expert named Jeff Pon, was asked to resign just seven months after the Senate confirmed him to the position because he resisted efforts to eliminate the agency and give the White House Office of Management and Budget control over all federal personnel policy  how civil servants get hired, and when, why and how they can be promoted, given raises, or fired.

Its a plan that experts say runs contrary to nearly a century and a half of efforts to keep personnel policy out of the presidents direct control, and  luckily for federal workers  one Congress rejected by including language in the National Defense Authorization Act making it illegal to move OPMs functions under OMBs roof.

But sources close to OPM leadership and personnel policy experts say that Trumpworld is still on a mission to give the president control of all federal hiring, and is instead simply trying to destroy the agency from within.

This latest effort began with the March 17 ousting of Trumps second Senate-confirmed OPM Director, Dale Cabaniss, who resigned after less than six months. According to sources, resignation came on the heels of bullying and demands by White House Presidential Personnel Director John McEntee and a White House-installed liason, Paul Dans.

According to OPM sources, Cabaniss quit rather than heed Dans and McEntees wish for her to fire her hand-picked chief of staff, an agency veteran and Navy reservist named John Blyth, whod been running OPMs Congressional Liason and Intergovernmental Affairs office.

Blyth, who is also a Commander in the US Navy Reserve, returned to his previous position but was fired without warning late last week, and Cabaniss role is now filled on acting basis by Michael Rigas, the agencys deputy director, who was also appointed to a position as Acting Deputy Director for Management at OMB, the agency forbidden by law from carrying out any of OPMs functions.

They're operating as if the abolition of OPM has already occurred, said one federal personnel insider, an expert with three decades of experience dealing with personnel policy. OPM has been made a kind of vassal of OMB and I think [the White House] just made that too clear to Cabaniss, who hadnt quite figured out that she was only window-dressing and that OMB was still running the organization.

Assisting him are Dans  a Trump loyalist who was installed there by McEntee to ensure the independent agency bends to the presidents will  and Trumps original pick to run the agency, George Nesterczuk.

Nesterczuk, a Reagan and George W Bush-era OPM veteran who helped establish a pay-for-performance system for federal workers in national security-related jobs, was nominated for the top OPM job in June 2017, but withdrew in August of that year because of what he called partisan attacks.

Nesterczuk is the Antichrist, said one person who has dealt with federal labor relations matters for years.

He has spent his entire career trying to do the kind of things that Trump has been pretty successful in, which is undermining the civil service, getting rid of their pay and classification systems, paid benefits, and union rights, they continued, adding that Nesterczuk is as right-wing a human being as exists.

 Trump claims the House is 'a setup' full of 'Trump haters'

But since last month, Rigas, Nesterczuk, and other recently installed Trump political appointees have moved swiftly to consolidate their power and remove career officials from many decision-making processes.

Theyre making our lives a living nightmare because they want to shift everything  they want total control, said one senior civil servant.

One of the things Trumps appointees are taking control of is the power to grant so-called direct hiring authority, which allows agencies to bypass the normal civil service hiring process and bring in new employees without the protections available to most career employees.

The dangerous thing is for OPM to exercise its authority to delegate direct hiring authority throughout government, another expert explained, because direct hire authority itself is the corrupting mechanism for two reasons: It allows political appointees to hire unqualified cronies, and because anyone hired that way will never have the due process rights afforded to civil servants, and in particular whistleblowers.

Its not just political corruption. That's part of the story, but its also creating this growing segment of the federal workforce who are at-will because they were hired directly, and then they can't protest an unfair firing or any kind of adverse action. They have nothing to hold anyone accountable.
Thousands of dairy farmers face ruin with a collapse in milk prices meaning they are getting just 15p a litre and cannot cover costs.

The figure is well below the 25p per litre cost of production and compares with more than 60p charged in supermarkets.

Details were laid bare by industry leaders in evidence to MPs on the Commons environment committee, which is investigating the effects of the virus on British farming.

Pictured: a dairy farmer forced to throw away litres of milk. Thousands of dairy farmers face ruin with a collapse in milk prices meaning they are getting just 15p a litre and cannot cover costs

The closure of thousands of coffee shops and food businesses has created a glut, meaning some farmers have been told to pour away huge quantities of milk.

President of the National Farmers Union, Minette Batters, said: A third of dairy farmers, thousands, are impacted. I am hoping and praying we will get an announcement of hardship payment for those most impacted dairy farmers this week. They are absolutely hanging on by the skin of their teeth.

Tom Hind, Chief Strategy Officer on the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, said: There are something like 2million litres of milk a day that would be going to the food service market which isnt now.

Something in the region of 7.4million was lost out of dairy farmers pockets in April on the basis of milk price cut alone.

When we look into May that increases to something in the region of 13million to 14million for the month.

Miss Batters said the problems also extend to potato, beef and sheep farmers as well as ornamental plant growers. She demanded the Government sets up a hardship fund with grants to ensure dairy farmers survive.
SAN ANTONIO

DALLAS

May 4, 2020

San Antonio

New Braunfels

Dallas

Thomas Spurgat

$18 billion

Bexar County

Bexar County

State of Texas

and/PRNewswire/ -- Little Spurs Pediatric Urgent Care, a pediatric urgent care provider with 13 clinics around, and, was notified this past week by Centene/Superior that it will no longer honor their contract after 90 days and will cut their payment rate by 50%."I have dedicated most of my medical career to caring for the medically underserved," said Dr., CEO of the company. "And I think it's sad that a multi-billion-dollar company would try to make our group take a lower rate when they know we are hurting just like all other pediatric practices in the area during this very trying time."Last year, Little Spurs had over 70,000 Medicaid visits. Over a period of 18 months prior to March they saw approximately 67,000 Superior patient visits. Most visits are because parents cannot get in to see their primary care doctor.Centene generated overof income in 2019 and is now forcing Little Spurs to take a lower rate during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the only accredited pediatric urgent care group in, they offer quality care to their patients with only one out of ten patients being referred to the emergency room, and a 14% antibiotic utilization rate. Little Spurs has multiple clinics located in low income areas that are in need of pediatric care.By losing the Superior contract, a large void is going to be left for many economically disadvantaged communities in thearea. It also leaves very few choices for the foster care population. The health care crisis that is going to come next is the flu/RSV season. The lack of physicians and providers that accept Superior is going to force many patients to go to the emergency room. Thehas one of the lowest immunization rates (ranked 49th) and a known history of providing poor care to children (ranked 47th), in part due to many pediatricians refusing to sign up to care for Medicaid patients due to poor reimbursement rates.The staff at Little Spurs will work closely with Superior enrollees to guide them on what their options are if they want to continue to receive quality medical care. Little Spurs is dedicated to helping those most in need of healthcare and will continue in their mission going forward.

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/superior-mco-demands-50-payment-cut-to-little-spurs-pediatric-urgent-care-301052353.html



SOURCE Little Spurs Pediatric Urgent Care




NATCHEZ, Miss.When Dan Gibson, a local pastor and bed-and-breakfast owner, kicked off his current mayoral campaign in Natchez, he ran as a community mansomeone with connections, someone who knows people. Natchez, a small town of 15,000 set on a bend of the Mississippi River, is the kind of place where news travels fast, and, in late March, Gibsons phone began ringing nonstop. Alarmed townspeople all had the same concern: In the midst of a pandemic, the federal government was bringing some 200 people from around the country into their otherwise relatively isolated community.

Adams County, where Natchez is the county seat, is best known for its Civil War-era mansions, but it also houses a massive, privately run Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center. Over the past three years, the Trump administration has drastically expanded the use of rural ICE detention centers, especially in the South. For the administration, remote locations are cheaper to staff and operate than facilities in big cities. The ICE contracts have aided local communities, too, bringing hundreds of jobs and millions in administrative fees and property tax revenue.

But now Adams residents were concerned the ICE detention center might be bringing something else into their town: the coronavirus.

On any given day, the Adams County Correctional Center houses more than 1,000 detained immigrants, and on March 26, multiple employees of CoreCivic, the private company that runs the facility, called Gibson to tell him 200 new detainees had been transferred in from jails or other detention centers, the first big transfer since the beginning of the pandemic. Gibson says they sounded genuinely scared: They were concerned that ICE had taken few precautions to ensure the detainees werent carrying the virus and wouldnt bring it to Natchez. At that point, detention center employees didnt have masks, and they feared that an outbreak of Covid-19 in the facility could become the epicenter of an outbreak in their county, should the staff spread it to their families when they came home from work.

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Natchez had been taking the Covid-19 threat seriously. On March 24, the towns current mayor, Darryl Grennell, a Democrat who is not running for reelection and did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this story, had issued a stay-at-home order. He had already created the states first local preparedness task force, and had declared a citywide state of emergency shortly after the governor of Mississippi and President Donald Trump had declared states of emergency on the state and national levels. William Thames, co-chairman of the task force and a retired oncology pharmacist, says the task force received many calls in its early days from citizens and CoreCivic employees scared of how the detention center could affect them. As essential personnel, ICE and CoreCivic staff were required to continue coming to work as long as they werent sick, even as nearly everything else around them shut down.

There was a whole lot of huff up, Thames says. Weve seen in the press about how prisons and detention centers are like petri dishes for the virus. And these detainees have been to three or four other places before winding up here. We were very worried that the detention center might be a vector, so the alarm was sounded.

In the following days, the task force and city government began emergency conversations with CoreCivic, and Gibson, the mayoral candidate, sent a formal letter to his state and congressional representatives requesting ICE halt the transport of new people into their town. In the letter, Gibson explained that CoreCivic employees were scared of coming to work, but they expressed their fears to him privately because they were scared of losing their jobs if they went public.

A common sentiment was: If were under a shelter-in-place order, Gibson, who is a Democrat, told us, referring both to the Mississippi governors directive since the beginning of April and Natchezs own, put in place 10 days earlier, that should apply for detained populations as well.

The letter raised another concern: Any new Covid cluster would almost instantly overwhelm the tiny local health system. As the virus spreads, Gibson wrote, with these numbers of exposed individuals, our hospital could be at maximum capacity in a matter of weeks and unable to meet the needs of citizens in Natchez [and] Adams County. Like much of rural America, where more than 170 hospitals have closed since 2005, Natchez has long endured severe shortages of hospitals and doctors. In 2015, Natchez lost one of its two hospitals (which had then served the community for over 40 years), cutting the number of available hospital beds by more than a third. Today, the entirety of Adams County, whose population is more than 30,000, has only 15 ICU beds.

A little over two weeks after ICEs major transfer, Mayor Grennell posted a grim update on Facebook:

[W]e now have 5 confirmed positive Coronavirus ICE detainees and one positive employee at the Adams County Detention center, identified yesterday, Monday April 13, 2020, Grennell wrote. We pray that this doesnt evolve into a significant in-house outbreak and spill out into the public at large. In Adams County, we now have 62 casesa 200% increase in the last week. God be with us.

ICE still has not halted transfers. More immigrants were brought in from all over the country in the ensuing weeks since Gibsons letter, and the outbreak has continued to grow: Now, at least 15 detainees at the Adams County facility have tested positive for Covid-19, according to ICEs official count as of May 4. A CoreCivic spokesperson confirmed last week that at least two employees at the facility have also contracted the virus.

The actual numbers are likely much higher. ICE only tests small numbers of people with serious symptoms, so by the time you have about 10 confirmed cases in a detention center, you already have an outbreak, says Mary-Katherine Smith McNatt, a professor of public health at A.T. Still University of Health Sciences who has studied outbreaks in ICE detention centers. As of May 4, ICE had tested only 1,285 of the roughly 30,000 detainees in its custody for Covid-19; about half were positive. Nationally, less than 20 percent of the more than 7 million Covid-19 tests conducted so far have come back positive.

When asked about the risk detention centers pose to rural communities, a spokesperson for ICE said that since the outbreak of Covid-19, [the agency has] been taking important steps to safeguard all detainees, staff and contractors and that detainees are being monitored and tested for Covid-19 in line with CDC guidance, and in conjunction with the recommendations of state and local health partners. The spokesperson added that one of ICEs highest priorities is the health and safety of those in our custody.

At this moment, Thames says its unclear to what degree the detention centers outbreak might have made its way into the surrounding community. Natchez is not too far from Covid hot spot New Orleans, and also has a high poverty rate. However, one thing is clear: Adams County is one of the hardest-hit regions not just in the state, but in the country. The county, as of May 4, has 148 confirmed cases, as many as every surrounding county combined, and nine deaths. The countys 474.5 cases per 100,000 people is more than 40 percent higher than the national cumulative incidence rate.

Adams is far from the only community at risk. ICE detention centers are disproportionally located in these sparsely populated areas, with minimal ability to handle exploding health problems, and ICEs practice of constantly moving people among crowded facilities is putting not only detainees but also one town after another at risk. As of late April, more than one in four of the immigrants in ICE custody who had tested positive for Covid-19 were detained in just a dozen facilities across the rural South. Two guards at ICEs Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana recently died of Covid-19, and their relatives, some of whom have also contracted the virus, believe they got it from the detention center.

These communities are extremely vulnerable to an outbreak, says David Line, a public health professor at Eastern Washington University. You have this incubatorthe detention centersand its just spilling out into the community.

If Natchez is a small town, Lumpkin, Georgia, is a village.

Its also home to ICEs Stewart Detention Center, which has more beds for detainees (1,900) than there are residents in the town outside (just over 1,000).

When the detention center opened in 2006, locals saw it as an economic lifeboat for their struggling town, which had been declining in population and draining jobs for years. Now, Stewart may be more of a threat than a benefit.

A pedestrian crosses a street around the town square last November in Lumpkin, Ga. There are no hotels and many businesses in the downtown area are shuttered.

Two CoreCivic employees working there tested positive for Covid-19 in late March. By April 28, that number had grown to 43, CoreCivic spokesperson Ryan Gustin said. Meanwhile, ICE reported that 11 detainees and two ICE employees at Stewart have also tested positive as of May 4and dozens more, if not hundreds, have likely been exposed according to public health experts. (Lumpkin Mayor James Babb, who also appears to be employed by CoreCivic as its branch manager, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)

Tonza Thomas, a former Lumpkin resident who now lives in nearby Columbus, said an outbreak at the detention center will have effects far beyond Lumpkin. Many workers at the facilityincluding friends and relatives of herslive in nearby towns, including Richland, Omaha and Louvale. For it to affect Lumpkin, youre taking out rural Georgia. Itll just be devastating. I dont think theyll be able to bounce back, Thomas says.

Smith McNatt, the public health professor, notes that many detention center staffers work multiple jobs and may feel pressured to downplay or even hide symptoms as they struggle to support their families. Plus, says public health professor Line, in rural areas, many detention center workers live in multiple generational homes with elderly relatives; and risk factors like high blood pressure and diabetes have a disproportionate incidence in these regions. Were talking about what will be a communitywide outbreak, he says.

Community members are worried about what happens as the numbers continue to growboth inside the facility and out. Smith McNatt, the professor at A.T. Still University, says that during something like a normal flu outbreak in a detention center, the primary stress on local health care systems will come from detention center staff and their sick families coming into hospitals. Coronavirus is worse than the flu, and Stewart is one of many ICE detention centers far from any hospital with the capacity to handle an outbreak among dozens of detainees let alone the broader community. (According to a Reuters report last month, about one-third of immigrants in ICE custody were held in parts of the country with severely limited access to health care.) Mac Moye, the county manager, said there isnt a single hospital in Stewart County. Were all under a heightened awareness, he says. This is something none of us have ever experienced before, so I would say yes, the fear factor is out there.

When asked directly, ICE said it does not keep track of how many detainees it has had to transfer to local hospitals due to Covid-19. [L]ike with any other medical issue, detainees are sent to hospitals whenever they require a higher level of care, a spokesperson for the agency told us. Local reporting from other parts of the country confirms that ICE detainees with Covid symptoms are being sent from ICE facilities to hospitals in the surrounding communities, though officials from several hospitals closest to facilities in rural Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia all did not respond to multiple requests to comment on whether theyve received patients from the nearby detention centers.

According to both Line and Smith McNatt, ICE facilities typically have an epidemic health plan in place that involves keeping detained people outside of local hospital systems as much as possible. If necessary, the federal government would mobilize field hospitals and similar resources to treat sick immigrants. However, during the current pandemic, with the federal government overstretched, ICE told Reuters it plans on sending detainees with serious symptoms to local hospitals with expertise in high risk care.

ICE said it is taking precautions to reduce the spread of coronavirus, including separating detainees with fever or respiratory symptoms from the rest of the detained population; giving detainees access to cleaning supplies, hand sanitizer and soap; and reducing the population of detention facilities to increase social distancing. Bryan Cox, the public affairs director for ICEs Southern region, said new detainees are screened upon arrival at ICE facilities. Those with fever and/or respiratory symptoms are medically isolated, and anyone identified as having had potential exposure is cohorted separately from persons without potential exposure and subject to medical monitoring for 14 days.

However, doctors have warned against cohortingthe practice of quarantining people who may have had contact with the virus togetheras it may just create an outbreak among that group; additionally, detainees in multiple facilities have told us that these in-detention quarantines have been routinely broken. For instance, one detainee in Georgia said sick people in quarantined dorms were still being brought into court on the same days as others from noncohorted dorms, potentially exposing other detainees as well as the public. (At press time, ICE had not responded to requests for comment on this claim.)

Even with precautions in place, the typically cramped and overcrowded conditions in detention facilitieswhether jails, prisons or ICE centersmake the risk of disease transmission extremely high, says Chris Beyrer, a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and former president of the International AIDS Society, when reached by phone in late March. He points to a collection of documented cases of disease outbreaks spreading from detention centers into the surrounding communitiesfor instance, tuberculosis in prisons in the U.S. and around the world have long put their surrounding communities at risk.

But what makes ICE detention facilities even more dangerous than prisons and jails is the seemingly constant revolving door of new people. Locked in the LaSalle ICE Processing Center in Jena, Louisianawhere there are 10 confirmed coronavirus cases among detainees, according to ICEs official count as of May 4Marlen Seo said that in March and April new arrivals would come into the facility from different cities and states every day. Theyve slowed down since then, but havent stopped.

People leave, and as soon as they leave more people come in, she told us in early April.

During a persons time in ICE detention, the agency will often transport them over vast distances, and multiple states. A typical trip for someone arrested, for instance, by ICE in Nashville, Tennessee, says immigration attorney R. Andrew Free, might include a three-day stay at the Davidson County Jail, then a transfer to a jail in Fort Payne, Alabamaall before ending up at an ICE detention center in, say, Louisianasuch as LaSalle in Jena. During that time period, as detainees are shuffled through different cramped jails, buses and flights, they come into contact with dozens, if not hundreds, of other people. By the time they enter the general population in LaSallethe communal areas of the facility where detainees sleep, eat and spend their days with more than 1,000 other immigrantstheyre carrying germs from countless different places and people.

Seo says shes spoken with guards who have told her theyre also scarednot only of catching the virus but of bringing it home to their families and neighbors. The county, LaSalle Parish, has a population of fewer than 4,000. According to a spokesperson for GEO Group, the private company contracted by ICE to run LaSalle, four employees had tested positive for the virus as of April 28.

ICE maintains it must continue transferring detainees. But some attorneys have said ICEs recent transfers seem superfluous. Sarah Owings, a Georgia-based immigration attorney, says she had a client fully booked in Folkston (a Georgia detention center) in March. Her client was then transferred, for no apparent reason, to a North Carolina jail, and then transferred back to Georgia, this time to Stewart. On the last leg of the trip, he began to develop a fever and cough, but he was still entered into Stewarts general population. (The American Civil Liberties Union has sued California to block ICE transfers within the state during the pandemic, and a local sheriff in Wisconsin refused to accept new detainees in late March out of fear of the coronavirus.)

Meanwhile, immigrant advocates across the country, including Amnesty International, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the ACLU, have recommended ICE release all its detainees during the pandemic, or at least those with medical conditions that make them particularly susceptible to the virus. While ICE has released around 700 people from custody since March because of coronavirus concernsincluding from Adams, Stewart and LaSalleand has been ordered to release dozens more by federal judges across the country, the agency has resisted mass releases, at times claiming doing so would endanger public safety. But Thames from Natchezs coronavirus taskforce and Tonza Thomas from rural Georgia, worry that keeping immigrants behind barsat allduring the pandemic is more dangerous to public safety.

A driver stops at the Main Street intersection up the road from the Stewart Detention Center.

Dan Gibson, Natchezs mayoral candidate, says he hopes that in deep red Mississippi, fewer of his more conservative neighbors will now be willing to turn a blind eye to the welfare of immigrants in the detention center in their backyard.

Our No. 1 concern is that workers are protected, that their families are protected, and that our community is protected, he says. But we have to make sure the detainees are protected as well.

I know that there are some people who will say, well, they dont really care about their protection. But anytime an outbreak takes place in a prison, it affects the entire community.
A squall over the contents of the Gove familys bookshelves sent me reeling back to two formative experiences about free speech and its near cousin, freedom of reading. They hail from contrasting ends of the ideological spectrum. The first was studying in the old East Germany, where taking a work by Orwell or Nietzsche out of the university library became a complicated ritual of applications to the Poison Cupboard, where writers deemed too dangerous for general consumption were kept. Such applications were grudgingly granted and permissions were recorded, ensuring that the state could form its judgement on undesirable reading habits.

A few years later, I wrote about the libel trial brought against the Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt by David Irving, a historian who had blossomed from provocative revisionist to into a fully fledged apologist for Hitler and excuse-maker for the mass killings of Jews during the Third Reich. Oddly for someone in this line of work, he objected to being called a Holocaust denier. The outcome, as The Times put it, was that history had its day in court and history was vindicated.

So where does an Irving book belong now that it resides on the scrapheap of historical veracity? Not on the shelf of a Cabinet minister, twitch the scolds. They have confected a case in which a snapshot of a bookshelf featuring Irving turned fast into a Jaccuse moment for those with an idle moment and a grudge. It is, in my book, perfectly fine to dislike a minister or his ideas as ardently as you like. It is a very bad idea to base that on his or her books. The bad faith bit is the implication that to own a book whose arguments are bad and wrong suggests affinity which the author of his ideas. In which case, my shelfload of books on Fifties Stalinism and the archives of an eventful Erfurt communist party congress (its all light relief at my place) will see me court marshalled too, though probably not by the same noisy voices.

The bookshelf police really mean that there must be something wrong with anyone who wants to read Irving  or any work they find distasteful or wrong. Yet the whole premise of Lipstadts takedown of his twisting of the truth was that she took the book very seriously indeed and enjoined others to do so (for which reason she remains opposed to censorship).

Anne McElvoy

Probably the worst argument in an admittedly generous bunch is that this dangerous book-owning political family is trying to say something dubious. But what? A coded clarion call to the shabby leagues of Holocaust deniers from a minister who is accused, more plausibly, of being a bit too uncritical of Israel? Coherence, begone.

For centuries weve fought for the idea that owning books is not the same as agreeing with their contents

No, I think its pretty simple, really: the notion that you can judge or condemn people by the books they have read is a shorthand for some other argument you cannot win by more forthright means. To understand the weft of ideas which make up study of history or politics, we need to read as widely as possible. So lets dispense too with the dim notion that there is nothing to learn for reading bad books like this one. The advocate of free reading should reply, Says who? and keep turning the pages.

Richard Evans, the former regius professor of history and key witness in the Irving case, has been a fierce foe of Goves in arguments about history on the school curriculum. They disagree on a lot on wider politics too. And here is his take on the bookshelf test: I was asked to take part in a campaign to remove Irvings works from university libraries. I refused. People, including students, should be free to make up their own minds.

Challenging the mystique of bad books requires knowledge of what they get wrong (I knew a lot more about Holocaust denial having read Irvings convoluted evasions).

In lockdown, the books in our Zoom backdrops might seem like idle distraction from watching our colleagues twitches and glazed expressions, a way of marketing our erudition or, in more entrepreneurial cases, the authors own writings. They do, however, say something essential about the blessings of pluralism and need to guide against its casual erosion. Having books on your shelves is not the same as agreeing with their contents. A wonderful idea this, hard fought for down the centuries and the best retort to the new battalions of armchair censors.

Anne McElvoy is senior editor at The Economist
ATHENS, Ga., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- moveBuddha.com, a moving company booking website, just released new data from their online Moving Cost Calculator. Out of roughly 1,200 moving searches involving the San Francisco-Bay Area, almost 90% have been for move requests of people looking to leave the region. Among Bay Area residents, Los Angeles and Austin were the two most popular destinations.

The top cities residents moving out of the Bay Area are moving to.

Ryan Carrigan, co-founder and CEO of moveBuddha.com, said, "To put this into perspective, during the same period last year, only 57% of relocation searches involving the San Francisco-Bay Area were outbound. This year, 90% are outbound. There is almost no one looking to move into the city and a lot of people looking to leave."

Carrigan continued, "the slow down in VC funding, as well as massive layoffs at startups and tech companies, are likely the primary factors driving this sharp shift in net migration patterns."

The report looked at search data for all relocation requests involving the San Francisco-Bay Area (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma, and San Francisco counties). The past 6 weeks of search data were compared to the same period of time last year. The data is based on website users' searches, not actual moves taking place at this time.

A full write up including data on the most popular outbound city destinations can be found at this link: https://www.movebuddha.com/blog/sf-outbound-surge-2020

About moveBuddha.com

moveBuddha.com is one of the largest moving company booking websites in the United States. The company was founded in 2015 and is best known for its Moving Cost Calculator online quoting tool and its Should I Move For Work? decision tool.

For any and all questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to Ryan Carrigan (full contact info below).

Media Contact:

Ryan Carrigan

co-founder/CEO

735 Nantahala Ave

Athens, GA 30601

https://www.movebuddha.com

706-309-1314

[email protected]

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Bay Area Residents Outbound Move Destinations

The top cities residents moving out of the Bay Area are moving to.

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Non-government organizations (NGOs) trying to stop child trafficking in north Bengal districts want the Centre to form an inter-ministerial team to trace missing children as the countrywide lockdown has made movement impossible.

Rate of child and woman trafficking is quite high in north Bengal districts that are close to Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), West Bengal registered the second highest number of missing children in 2016, 2017 and 2018 while Madhya Pradesh topped the list.

According to NCRB, 63,407, 63,349 and 67,134 children went missing in the country in 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively. In West Bengal, the figures were 8,335, 8,178 and 8,205 for the corresponding years.

Amit Sarkar, general secretary, Darjeeling District Legal Aid Forum (DDLAF) said, The Covid-19 outbreak has stopped rescue operations conducted by different agencies. We are especially concerned about the missing children from Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts.

Sarkar said, Though the number of missing children is much higher, around 100 missing diaries were lodged in different police stations after 2018. The effort to trace some of them were on when the lockdown was declared.

On April 27, DDLAF wrote to the National Legal Services Authority (NLSA) and demanded formation of a Special Combat Team.

Sarkar said, Though the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Children (WBCPC) has taken cognizance of a complaint lodged by DDLAF the state machinery moves slowly.

The lockdown has also affected the income of local people. Hence, families of most of the missing children are not being able to pursue these cases, said Sarkar.

Rangu Souriya, secretary of Kanchanjunga Uddhar Kendra (KUK), which has rescued more than a thousand girls and women, said, Preparing strategies to prevent trafficking and tracing the missing children during the lockdown is a must.

Raju Nepali, founder of Dooars Express Mail, an NGO that rescues trafficked children, said, There is not a single police station in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts where complaints have not been lodged. Most of the children come from poor families. Many cases are never reported.

Rabindranath Ghosh, senior Trinamool Congress leader and north Bengal affairs minister, said, The NGOs have given a good proposal. Efforts should be made to trace the missing children.

The NGOs also fear that the missing children may contract the infection as their abductors may not be exercising social distancing norms.

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Tamil Nadu governments decision to re-open TASMAC shops that sell liquor has come under all-round criticism with almost all major political parties, including the ruling AIADMKs allies, condemning the move and terming it as an insult to doctors and allied staff who have been working to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the state.

Principal Opposition DMK, Congress, Left parties, AMMK and AIADMK allies like the PMK and BJP have asked the state government to review the decision to ensure that progress made in the past few weeks in containing the spread of the virus is not reversed by the move, which they termed as a recipe for disaster.

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The government on Monday announced that TASMAC shops outside of containment zones would resume functioning from May 7 with reduced timings. The shops remain closed since March 24, when the Tamil Nadu government imposed Section 144 as part of its efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19. On Tuesday, it reversed the decision partly by announcing that shops in Chennai Police limits will not be opened on May 7.

Interestingly, the Tiruppur Exporters Association (TEA) also appealed the government not to open TASMAC shops as it would lead to many of their labourers getting back to drinking habit immediately after the factories resume operations on Wednesday.

We cannot ensure that labourers come to work without consuming alcohol at a time the spread of the virus has not been contained. This will put the manufacturers under more pressure when all of us need to be vigilant, the TEA said in a letter to Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami.

Opposition parties said the opening of TASMAC shops would lead to crowding outside these outlets which could further spread COVID-19. Also, activists felt the move would result in alcoholics spending all the money they have in buying liquor putting their families in peril.

The sharpest criticism came from BJP and PMK, both allies of the AIADMK. While PMK founder S Ramadoss, whose party has been at the forefront of demanding prohibition in the state, called the move as unfortunate, BJP state president L Murugan viewed the decision as one that would insult doctors and other frontline workers who have been working continuously for the past two months by risking their lives.

People have been living without liquor for the past 40 days and the government should have utilised this opportunity to make the state liquor-free. Instead of doing that, it is unfortunate that the government is reopening liquor shops even while the lockdown is underway, Ramadoss said in a statement.

DMK President M K Stalin took a dig at the government saying the people who were expecting some important announcement on COVID-19 prevention, received the news of the opening of TASMAC. Encouraging people to assemble at one place would only result in an increase in the spread of coronavirus. No government, which is concerned about the lives of its citizens, would announce such a move, he said.

Though the AIADMK government led by J Jayalalithaa had promised to implement staggered prohibition in the state, nothing much has moved in the direction in the past few years.

TASMAC shops, run by the state government, sell liquor for nearly Rs 90 crore a day generating a revenue of over Rs 30,000 crore to the state exchequer annually.
Economists forecast that the nationwide lockdown implemented to contain the spread of the coronavirus will have far-reaching economic implications.

Thami Moatshe is the Head of Mergers & Acquisitions at Servest

Are there processes that can be automated?



Can the business afford its current staff compliment?



How can the business use the current relief facilities that the government and the private sector have availed for its benefit?



What needs to be changed internally within the business to function better beyond this period?

A new normal

An article, Covid-19 Growth Revisions forecasts that the South African GDP will slow from 0.2% to -1.9% in 2020.South Africa remains vulnerable to both domestic and international ramifications of Covid-19. Tourism and the mining sector are amongst those that will be hugely impacted. Furthermore, this grim forecast of the future will be felt more acutely by small and medium-sized businesses (SMMEs), many of whom were already buckling under the pressure due to subdued consumer spending and economic growth.So, what can SMMEs do to offset the effects of this pandemic and the current nationwide lockdown?There is no magic wand, nor is there a one-size-fits-all solution that applies to all SMMEs. Each business is different, operating in different industries, each with its dynamics.Having said that, it would be incorrect to say that all SMMEs are facing the same fate. The nationwide lockdown presents an opportunity for SMMEs that are in the production and distribution of essential goods.In fact, the nationwide lockdown presents unique opportunities for these businesses to ramp up their production and contribute much-needed services to plug the gap of shortages resulting from unprecedented global demand.With the increased demand for medical supplies and non-food field services, the government has issued a request for proposals (RFPs) targeted at SMMEs to manufacture and supply these services: http://www.dsbd.gov.za Unfortunately, businesses in other sectors of the economy such as tourism will be hardest hit. With the travel ban, the tourism industry and the associated food industries are in distress.As President Cyril Ramaphosa correctly put it: This situation calls for an extraordinary response; there can be no half measures. The coronavirus outbreak is the litmus test that will test the sustainability of many enterprises. It is therefore important that SMMEs take decisive steps to failure-proof their businesses to ensure that they offset the impact of Covid-19.In order to mitigate the impact of the outbreak of Covid-19, SMMEs need to do a difficult and honest assessment of their businesses to ascertain the extent of the impact of this pandemic. In the short term, small and medium businesses should look at strategies that can ensure the survival of their enterprises. They need to identify what they can and cannot do during this time and pinpoint opportunities, if any, presented by this pandemic.Equally important, they should ask whether this period calls for the business to shut down, and if not, explore what adjustments in terms of profit, people and processes need to be put in place to ensure business continuity.Entrepreneurs should consider the following critical questions:Entrepreneurs need to scrutinize the cash flows of the business and assess to what extent it will be impacted by the current environment. Small businesses should seek expert advice from business support partners or incubators to assist with their strategic thinking.The pandemic is fundamentally changing the business landscape and ushering in an era of new normality that very few will be able to escape. It will no longer be business as usual. Small and medium-sized businesses are being called upon to re-examine their strategies and business plans. This pandemic presents an opportunity to restructure or expand their businesses for growth. For others, an opportunity to innovate exists as a means of survival.Pandemics amplify the importance of having a proper business plan that factors in all potential eventualities. It is therefore, important to have a plan that is supported by proper governance structures. Such a blueprint would ensure that challenges such as Covid-19 would have a minimal impact on the business as SMMEs would be taking a long-term view.Making use of business support partners in the public and private sector will assist SMMEs to solidify their plans and in addition, get the funding they will require.In the public sector, these include the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA), the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), National Empowerment Fund (NEF), National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), National Small Business Chamber (NSBC), Land Bank and provincial agencies.Private sector agencies include Raizcorp, Business Partners, Shanduka Black Umbrellas. This is not an exhaustive list of the support that is available for SMMEs.More information can be obtained from https://smetoolkit.businesspartners.co.za Financial institutions such as banks have also provided relief interventions in the form of payment holidays, restructuring of debt, bridging finance and other support mechanisms, as and when needed.Before tapping into any of these funding mechanisms, business owners must sit and quantify the impact of Covid-19 on their enterprises. Such an exercise would go beyond funding, even if funded the business needs to have a turnaround plan and that plan must indicate when that turnaround would be expected. The business owner should be able to identify areas where they would need support.
Serbias president Aleksandar Vucic has set 21 June as the date of parliamentary elections, after they were postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The vote was originally scheduled for 26 April but was put on hold after a nationwide state of emergency was proclaimed in mid-March.

Analysts believe Vucic is keen to have the vote as soon as possible because of his apparently declining popularity in the wake of the lockdown.

Most of Serbias democratic opposition parties plan to boycott the vote because of Vucics firm control of the media and the electoral process.

Serbia has officially recorded over 9,500 coronavirus cases and 197 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.
A Chinese journalist has been jailed for 15 years for reports posted on social media allegedly claiming corruption by Chinese party officials in Hunan province. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the sentence and questions the trial process which has been widely criticised.

According to court documents, Chen Jieran was convicted of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble, extortion, illegal business operations and bribery. Chen, who had previously worked for some of Chinas propaganda outlets including the Peoples Daily, was convicted on May 1 but has been held in detention by Chinas authorities since 2018.

The court statement said that Chen had published false information on blogs, WeChat public accounts, WeChat moments and other We-media to hype relevant cases. In another smear, the court also convicted him of illegal business activity and extortion.

The sentencing comes at a time when Chinas authorities are further clamping down on reporting around the Covid-19 pandemic.

The efforts of the Chinese government to control media in the online space has included the assumed detainment of independent Chinese journalists in February, who went missing after reporting on the initial outbreak of Covid-19 and the arrest of Beijing activists on April 19 for archiving reports on the outbreak.

The IFJ said: The IFJ and its affiliates express concern at the detainment of Chen Jieran since 2018 and his subsequent conviction and again call on Chinas authorities to respect the medias right to report in the public interest.
US forces transport imprisoned Daesh terrorists from Syria to Iraq: SANA

Iran Press TV

Monday, 04 May 2020 4:59 PM

US forces have reportedly transported an unspecified number of imprisoned members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the northeastern province of Hasaka to their occupied bases in Iraq.

Syria's official news agency SANA, citing local sources, said on Monday that six vehicles belonging to the US occupation forces came from Iraq and headed to a prison east of the Syrian town of Shadadi and then returned to the Arab country.

"It is believed that the vehicles were transporting Daesh terrorists" from the prison, which is controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeastern province.

On April 27, the occupation forces transported a number of Daesh terrorists from the same town in Hasaka to Iraq.

Speculations have been made about Washington's direct or indirect support through its regional allies for the terrorist group in the past years.

Numerous accounts have emerged alleging airlifts, weapon air drops and aerial support for the Takfiri outfit, especially as its strength diminished in Syria and Iraq.

Moreover, thousands of Daesh terrorists are likely to escape from Syrian jails, as Kurdish prison guards are focused on fighting back the Turkish military that has been engaged in an operation against Kurds in northeastern Syria.

The Turkish incursion officially started in October last year after US President Donald Trump gave his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan the green light to proceed with his long-planned move against Kurdish fighters.

Kurdish officials say nearly 800 Daesh prisoners have managed to escape from a prisoner camp after the Turkish offensive.

Daesh has already been driven out of all its urban bastions both in Iraq and Syria, but its remnants carry out sporadic terror attacks in both Arab countries.

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Jerusalem, May 5 : Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) has developed an antibody which can neutralise the virus responsible for COVID-19 within the bodies of those infected, the country's Defense Minister Naftali Bennett has said.

Recounting his visits to the labs of the institute, Bennett on Monday said that he witnessed a "significant breakthrough".

He was shown the "antibody that attacks the virus in a monoclonal way and can neutralise it within the bodies of those ill," according to a statement from his office, as reported The Times of Israel.

Located in Ness Ziona, the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) is a secretive unit that works under the country' Prime Minister's Office, said the report.

After completing the development phase of the antibody, the researchers are now in the process of patenting the find "and in the next stage, researchers will approach international companies to produce the antibody on a commercial scale." "I am proud of the institute staff for this terrific breakthrough," Bennett was quoted as saying in the statement.

The statement from the Defense Minister's office did not specify whether human trials were conducted.

Earlier on Monday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu committed $60 million at an international donors conference raising funds for the joint fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, over 16,000 people in Israel have tested positive for COVID-19 which has so far killed 237 people in the country.

Globally, more than 3.6 million people have tested positive for the disease which has so far killed over 252,000 people.
As of last week, more than half of the inmates and staff members tested at Trousdale Turner Correctional Center in Hartsville, Tenn., were positive for the virus, officials said.

Its been my worst nightmare since the beginning of this that this would happen, said Dwight Jewell, chairman of the Trousdale County Commission. Ive been expecting this. You put that many people in a contained environment and all it takes is one.

Everyone in town knows about the outbreak. But they are defiant: Businesses in the county are reopening this week. On Monday evening, county commissioners held an in-person meeting, with chairs spaced six feet apart. They have a budget to pass and other issues facing the county, Mr. Jewell said.

Weve got to get back to the business of the community, he said.

Infectious-disease experts are troubled by perceptions that the United States has seen the worst of the virus, and have sought to caution against misplaced optimism.

I dont see why we expect large declines in daily case counts over the next month, Trevor Bedford, a scientist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center who has studied the spread and evolution of the virus, wrote on Twitter. He added, There may well be cities / counties that achieve suppression locally, but nationally I expect things to be messy with flare-ups in various geographies followed by responses to these flare-ups.

The outbreak in the United States has already killed more than 70,000 people, and epidemiologists say the nation will not see fewer than 5,000 coronavirus-related deaths a week until after June 20, according to a survey conducted by researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. A federal projection, based on government modeling pulled together by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, forecasts a steady rise in deaths in the next several weeks, to a daily death toll of 3,000 on June 1.
WASHINGTON - Rep. John Ratcliffe, President Donald Trump's pick to be the nation's top intelligence official, is expected to face pointed questions Tuesday from Senate Democrats about his qualifications for the job and his willingness to provide candid intelligence free from political considerations.

Ratcliffe's original nomination last summer was withdrawn after five days in the wake of criticism that the Texas Republican overstated his resume and lacked the qualifications to serve as the nation's top intelligence official.

The hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee - the first to be held during the pandemic lockdown - comes as senior administration officials have been pressing spy agencies for evidence to back an unproven theory that a government lab in Wuhan, China, was the source of the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed the lives of almost 70,000 Americans.

That effort has produced no information to back up the claim, which is at odds with the view of many scientists, according to current and former U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic.

On Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, without citing examples, said "there's enormous evidence" that the virus originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a lab that has conducted extensive research on coronaviruses in bats and has partnered with American researchers.

The position of director of national intelligence, created in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to improve coordination among the nation's 17 intelligence agencies, is a politically fraught one in the Trump era. The intelligence workforce and senior leaders have been targets for the president, who has accused them of conspiring to undermine his presidential campaign and has cast doubt on their conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign in part to help Trump get elected.

Trump put Ratcliffe forward a second time in early March, and although he is expected to receive a grilling from the committee's Democratic minority, observers said he will probably be confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate.

The DNI post has been held by an acting official ever since Daniel Coats stepped down in August. Richard Grenell, the ambassador to Germany and an outspoken Trump loyalist, was named acting DNI after Trump removed retired Adm. Joseph Maguire, another acting official, in February. Maguire was fired after a subordinate, in a bipartisan briefing on election threats, informed Congress that Russia had developed "a preference" for Trump - an assessment that appeared to evoke for Trump uncomfortable echoes of 2016.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who had been seen as a key vote for confirmation, indicated last week that she is likely to support Ratcliffe's nomination.

"After questioning him in detail, I concluded that he does have the experience to meet the statutory standard to fill the position," Collins, who co-wrote the law that created the DNI, said in a statement. "His knowledge of cybersecurity is particularly important given the challenges our country faces."

Collins added that she "also pressed [Ratcliffe] for his commitment to deliver objective analysis, regardless of the president's views on an intelligence issue."

Ratcliffe, a congressman since 2015, serves on the House Intelligence, Judiciary and Ethics committees. He also served as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas from 2007 to 2008. He drew attention last year as one of the GOP's most dogged critics of perceived anti-Trump bias at the FBI and in the special counsel's investigation of potential Trump ties to Russia.

"Nowhere is the need for competent, apolitical leadership clearer than in the position of the director of national intelligence, who stands at the head of the nation's 17 intelligence agencies," Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a draft of his opening statement, portions of which were provided to The Washington Post.

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said his main concern is: "Will the individual deliver unvarnished, unbiased intelligence to the president and to the Congress and to the American people?"

King said that in his roughly 40-minute conversation with Ratcliffe, the congressman was "reassuring" about his commitment to present candid intelligence. But he wanted "more reassurance" that Ratcliffe would be able to "be objective and tell the president what he doesn't want to hear."

Democrats are expected to press Ratcliffe on his credentials. "While I am willing to give Mr. Ratcliffe the benefit of the doubt in the hearing," Warner said, "I don't see what has changed since last summer, when the president decided not to proceed with this nomination over concerns regarding his inexperience, partisanship and past statements that seemed to embellish his record."

Questions persist about whether Ratcliffe has hyped his record as U.S. attorney, including a claim that he played a central role in a terrorism financing prosecution involving the Holy Land Foundation. A spokeswoman for Ratcliffe acknowledged that he did not prosecute the case but rather investigated "issues related to" the case's ending in a mistrial.

Senators have seen material "affirming his national security experience," said a person familiar with Ratcliffe's confirmation process. Justice Department records reviewed by The Post show that Ratcliffe was assigned to 34 "matters" involving national security.

"Senators have had a chance to get to know him, both in person and through answers to extensive questionnaires," the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. "They've heard him talk about his experience in - and frankly preference for - nonpartisan, apolitical roles" at the Justice Department. "That's directly applicable to the role he'll be stepping into" at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Ratcliffe is likely to be questioned about how the ODNI handled a whistleblower complaint by an intelligence community employee that led to Trump's impeachment.

"The confirmation hearing is a much-needed opportunity to clarify some key questions that have hung over the intelligence community for several months," said Marc Polymeropoulos, a former senior CIA official, including whether Ratcliffe supports the law that protects whistleblowers from political reprisals.
To all Starbucks partners and customers,

Over these past months, as the entire world has responded to the global pandemic of COVID-19, I have been inspired by the strength of humanity united in common cause  the compassion shown by those working in service of others  as well as the courage, emotional resolve and attitude of optimism demonstrated as we overcome adversity.

At Starbucks, that inspiration has come from our partners, whose dedication and ability to adapt leaves me feeling proud every day. During this unprecedented challenge, Starbucks partners have risen to the occasion every step of the way and have shown up for their communities and front-line responders. Our partners make Starbucks resilient, and that gives me immense confidence that we can overcome any challenge we face.

As so many in our family of partners come back this week, responsibly re-opening stores across the United States, we are poised to adapt very rapidly, in meaningful ways that enhance the Starbucks Experience for our partners, customers, and the communities we serve. We are accelerating many forward-looking initiatives to address the realities of the current situation. We do this to provide a safe, familiar and convenient experience for our customers.

These adaptations will reinforce the concept of the third place a warm and welcoming place, outside of our homes and our workspaces, where we connect and build community. We think of the third place as a mindset  a feeling of comfort that uplifts customers everywhere, and in every way, they experience Starbucks. And the third place has never been more relevant than now, as communities seek to reconnect and heal.

Starbucks is proud to be an active participant in tens of thousands of communities battling this crisis and working toward a time of healing. After seven weeks of sheltering at home in the U.S., we have embraced an approach of monitoring, rapidly adapting to, and even shaping, the now normal.

Health officials tell us it could be many months until there are effective COVID-19 treatments and a vaccine. As we gradually come out of isolation, people will crave the connection and community that are fundamental to humanity. However, customers will want experiences that are safe, familiar and convenient. With health and safety prioritized, we are defining the future of Starbucks to meet evolving customer expectations and societal change.

Starbucks is committed to create a third place experience that is exactly tuned to that need  providing safe, familiar and convenient experiences.

By the end of this week, Starbucks partners will have responsibly reopened over 85 percent our company operated stores across the U.S., and we are expecting more than 90 percent of our stores to be open by early June, under modified operations and hours.The foundation of our approach comes from what we have learned in China, where more than 98 percent of our stores are now open and operating under revised protocols. We have adapted these protocols for the U.S. and our goal is to exceed the standards outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a safe experience, including heightened emphasis on cleaning and sanitizing protocols in our stores.

We have expanded service beyond drive-thru to include mobile ordering for contactless pick-up, delivery and, in some locations, curbside pickup and grab-and-go through the cafe.

We are putting immense emphasis on the safest and most convenient way for customers to order their favorites from Starbucks. Nearly 20 million customers are using the Starbucks App as part of their daily routines and as those routines evolve, well be finding ways to tailor the app to customers individual needs.

The third place experience created by Starbucks partners in our stores is extended and enhanced by the digital relationships we have with our customers. Our Starbucks App will enable new features, including optimizing for curbside pick-up, entryway handoff, improved drive-thru experiences, voice ordering through Siri and the ability for everyone to earn stars that can be redeemed for rewards. We will also shift toward more cashless experiences, knowing that the handling of cash creates consumer concerns about the spread of viruses. We predict the mobile app will become the dominant form of payment.

We continue to invest in our Deep Brew suite of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, and we will double down there as well. One immediate Deep Brew solution supports our operations and field leadership team as they make data-driven decisions related to store re-openings and operating protocols. And the Tryer Center, which we opened last year to innovate on store design and in other areas, has kicked into overdrive as well. These investments were made with an eye toward innovation and the future of Starbucks; theyre now poised to help us adapt as we accelerate a retail transformation.

Starbucks is well-positioned for this transformation. Pre-COVID-19, more than 80 percent of customer orders in the U.S. were for on the go  through the drive-thru, in a cafe at point-of-sale or through Mobile Order for pickup or delivery. That means the majority of Starbucks customers are already familiar with the safe, convenient experiences that are now called for by physical distancing recommendations.

As we adapt, we build on our heritage and remain focused on our mission: To inspire and nurture the human spirit  one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.

As this global pandemic has impacted the lives of everyone on the planet, I have been reflecting on how significant generational life experiences reshape humanity. I immediately thought about lessons I learned from my grandfather. When I was a young boy, he shared stories of his life growing up during the Great Depression and serving in WWII. Those life experiences taught him to appreciate the simple things in life, the things that are often taken for granted, like good health and loving relationships. This global pandemic will serve as a reminder that life is fragile and create a renewed appreciation for health, love and joy.

On the other side of this challenge, we will treasure human connections  from warm embraces with our loved ones to small everyday interactions with those in our communities  like we never have before. Human connections will not only be restored, but reinforced and re-invigorated. The third place will not just survive, but with adaptations and new routines, it will thrive.

And when that happens, as my grandfather did for me, I will share wonderful stories about my life experience with my grandchildren, knowing that Starbucks will be there for them and future generations to come.

With gratitude,

Kevin
Sales of $610 million, down 9% versus prior-year quarter

Net loss of $582 million, or -$9.61 per diluted share

Loss from continuing operations of $575 million, or -$9.48 per diluted share

Adjusted income from continuing operations of $52 million, or $0.84 per diluted share

Adjusted income from continuing operations excluding intangibles amortization expense of $69 million, or $1.12 per diluted share

Adjusted EBITDA of $142 million

WILMINGTON, Delaware, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ashland Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ASH) today announced preliminary1 financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2020 ended March 31, 2020. The global specialty materials company serves customers in a wide range of consumer and industrial markets.

As expected, the Ashland portfolio performed well during the quarter, despite the global macroeconomic uncertainty brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales were $610 million, down 9 percent versus the prior-year quarter, with the legacy Pharmachem business and previously communicated prior-year business losses in oral care representing approximately half of this decline. Unfavorable foreign currency contributed an additional one percent to the decline. Net loss was $582 million compared to net income of $76 million in the prior-year quarter, driven primarily by the previously-disclosed non-cash goodwill impairment charge following the business unit realignment that occurred during the quarter. Loss from continuing operations was $575 million compared to income of $45 million in the prior-year quarter, or -$9.48 per diluted share compared to income of $0.71 in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted income from continuing operations was $52 million, consistent with the prior-year quarter, or $0.84 per diluted share, up from $0.83 in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted income from continuing operations excluding intangibles amortization expense was $69 million, consistent with the prior-year quarter, or $1.12 per diluted share, up from $1.08 in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was $142 million, consistent with the prior-year quarter, as the impact of lower sales was offset by lower operating expense.

"Results in the second quarter were consistent with the update we issued on April 16," said Guillermo Novo, chairman and chief executive officer, Ashland. "I am pleased with the leadership demonstrated by our teams and the continued progress we have made transforming the company, particularly in light of the challenges that arose from the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the important end markets we serve are demonstrating their resilience despite the global-economic uncertainly."

"The majority of the portfolio continues to perform well. We expect Consumer Specialties and certain end markets within Industrial Specialties to demonstrate continued relative strength in the second half of the year as we are a critical technology and solutions provider to our customers in these key end markets," added Novo. "While increased global uncertainty is expected to impact demand in more industrial-focused businesses, we are confident that our continued self-help actions will offset many of these temporary demand dynamics. We are excited about the rapid progress we have made advancing our strategy and transforming the company. I want to thank everyone at Ashland for their dedication and leadership during these dynamic times. I look forward to sharing additional thoughts on our plans and the progress we have made during the conference call with securities analysts tomorrow morning."

Reportable Segment Performance

To aid in the understanding of Ashland's ongoing business performance, the results of Ashland's reportable segments are described below on an adjusted basis. In addition, EBITDA, or adjusted EBITDA, is reconciled to operating income in Table 4, free cash flow and adjusted operating income are reconciled in Table 6, and adjusted income from continuing operations adjusted diluted earnings per share and adjusted diluted earnings per share excluding intangible amortization expense are reconciled in Table 7 of this news release. These adjusted results are considered non-GAAP financial measures. For a full description of the non-GAAP financial measures used, see the "Use of Non-GAAP Measures" section that further describes these adjustments below.

Consumer Specialties

Sales were $343 million, down 9 percent from the prior-year quarter, with the legacy Pharmachem business and previously communicated prior-year business losses in oral care representing approximately 6 percentage points of the decline. Unfavorable foreign currency also reduced sales by an additional 1 percent. Excluding these items, the Life Sciences and Personal Care & Household business units performed well during the quarter, demonstrating the important market positions Ashland holds in end markets that are performing well in spite of the weak overall economy.

Operating loss was $300 million, compared to income of $58 million in the prior-year quarter, due primarily to the goodwill impairment charge within Personal Care & Household. Adjusted EBITDA was $91 million, down 1 percent from the prior-year quarter, as lower sales volumes and unfavorable foreign currency were nearly offset by favorable price/mix and lower operating costs.

Industrial Specialties

Sales were $240 million, down 7 percent from the prior-year quarter, due primarily to lower demand in certain industrial end markets and reduced pricing partially reflecting lower raw-material costs. Unfavorable foreign currency also reduced sales by 1 percent.

Operating loss was $145 million, compared to income of $15 million in the prior-year quarter, due primarily to the goodwill impairment charge within Specialty Additives. Adjusted EBITDA was $53 million, down 10 percent from the prior-year quarter, driven by lower volume and unfavorable fixed-cost absorption, partially offset by favorable price/mix in both Performance Adhesives and Specialty Additives.

Intermediates & Solvents

Sales were $37 million, down 16 percent from the prior-year quarter, due primarily to lower pricing and lower intercompany volume reflecting inventory-management initiatives within Consumer Specialties. Volumes of derivatives sold to third-party customers grew by approximately 1 percent compared to the prior year.

Operating loss was $2 million, down from income of $9 million in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was $5 million, down from $12 million in the prior-year quarter, due primarily to unfavorable price/mix and operating costs.

Unallocated & Other

Unallocated and Other expense was $21 million, compared to $38 million in the prior-year quarter, primarily due to lower restructuring-related expenses and the elimination of stranded costs. Adjusted Unallocated and Other expense was $7 million, compared to $21 million in the prior-year quarter, primarily due to the benefits of cost reductions achieved during the previous fiscal year.

Outlook

Chairman and CEO Guillermo Novo will provide commentary on the outlook for Ashland during the conference call with securities analysts on Wednesday, May 6, 2020.

Conference Call Webcast

Ashland will host a live webcast of its second-quarter conference call with securities analysts at 10:00 a.m. ET Wednesday, May 6, 2020. The webcast will be accessible through Ashland's website at http://investor.ashland.com (http://investor.ashland.com) and will include a slide presentation. Following the live event, an archived version of the webcast and supporting materials will be available for 12 months.

Use of Non-GAAP Measures

Ashland believes that by removing the impact of depreciation and amortization and excluding certain non-cash charges, amounts spent on interest and taxes and certain other charges that are highly variable from year to year, EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, EBITDA margin and adjusted EBITDA margin provide Ashland's investors with performance measures that reflect the impact to operations from trends in changes in sales, margin and operating expenses, providing a perspective not immediately apparent from net income, operating income, net income margin and operating income margin. The adjustments Ashland makes to derive the non-GAAP measures of EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, EBITDA margin and adjusted EBITDA margin exclude items which may cause short-term fluctuations in net income and operating income and which Ashland does not consider to be the fundamental attributes or primary drivers of its business. EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, EBITDA margin and adjusted EBITDA margin provide disclosure on the same basis as that used by Ashland's management to evaluate financial performance on a consolidated and reportable segment basis and provide consistency in our financial reporting, facilitate internal and external comparisons of Ashland's historical operating performance and its business units and provide continuity to investors for comparability purposes. EBITDA margin and adjusted EBITDA margin are defined as EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA divided by sales for the corresponding period.

Key items, which are set forth on Table 7 of this release, are defined as financial effects from significant transactions that, either by their nature or amount, have caused short-term fluctuations in net income and/or operating income which Ashland does not consider to most accurately reflect Ashland's underlying business performance and trends. Further, Ashland believes that providing supplemental information that excludes the financial effects of these items in the financial results will enhance the investor's ability to compare financial performance between reporting periods.

Tax-specific key items, which are set forth on Table 7 of this release, are defined as financial transactions, tax law changes or other matters that fall within the definition of key items as described above. These items relate solely to tax matters and would only be recorded within the income tax caption of the Statement of Consolidated Income. As with all key items, due to their nature, Ashland does not consider the financial effects of these tax-specific key items on net income to be the most accurate reflection of Ashland's underlying business performance and trends.

The free cash flow metric enables Ashland to provide a better indication of the ongoing cash being generated that is ultimately available for both debt and equity holders as well as other investment opportunities. Unlike cash flow provided by operating activities, free cash flow includes the impact of capital expenditures from continuing operations, providing a more complete picture of cash generation. Free cash flow has certain limitations, including that it does not reflect adjustment for certain non-discretionary cash flows such as mandatory debt repayments. The amount of mandatory versus discretionary expenditures can vary significantly between periods.

Adjusted diluted earnings per share is a performance measure used by Ashland and is defined by Ashland as earnings (loss) from continuing operations, adjusted for identified key items and divided by the number of outstanding diluted shares of common stock. Ashland believes this measure provides investors additional insights into operational performance by providing earnings and diluted earnings per share metrics that exclude the effect of the identified key items and tax specific key items.

Adjusted diluted earnings per share, excluding intangibles amortization expense metric enables Ashland to demonstrate the impact of non-cash intangibles amortization expense on earnings per share, in addition to key items previously mentioned. Ashland's management believe this presentation is helpful to illustrate how previous acquisitions impact applicable period results.

About Ashland

Ashland Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ASH) is a premier global specialty materials company serving customers in a wide range of consumer and industrial markets, including adhesives, architectural coatings, automotive, construction, energy, food and beverage, nutraceuticals, personal care and pharmaceutical. At Ashland, we are approximately 4,700 passionate, tenacious solvers - from renowned scientists and research chemists to talented engineers and plant operators - who thrive on developing practical, innovative and elegant solutions to complex problems for customers in more than 100 countries. Visit ashland.com (http://ashland.com/) to learn more.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains 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. Ashland has identified some of these forward-looking statements with words such as "anticipates," "believes," "expects," "estimates," "is likely," "predicts," "projects," "forecasts," "objectives," "may," "will," "should," "plans" and "intends" and the negative of these words or other comparable terminology. Ashland may from time to time make forward-looking statements in its annual reports, quarterly reports and other filings with the SEC, news releases and other written and oral communications. These forward-looking statements are based on Ashland's expectations and assumptions, as of the date such statements are made, regarding Ashland's future operating performance, financial condition, and expected effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Ashland's business, as well as the economy and other future events or circumstances. These statements include but may not be limited to Ashland's expectations regarding its ability to drive sales and earnings growth and realize further cost reductions.

Ashland's expectations and assumptions include, without limitation, internal forecasts and analyses of current and future market conditions and trends, management plans and strategies, operating efficiencies and economic conditions (such as prices, supply and demand, cost of raw materials, and the ability to recover raw-material cost increases through price increases), and risks and uncertainties associated with the following: the impact of acquisitions and/or divestitures Ashland has made or may make (including the possibility that Ashland may not realize the anticipated benefits from such transactions); Ashland's substantial indebtedness (including the possibility that such indebtedness and related restrictive covenants may adversely affect Ashland's future cash flows, results of operations, financial condition and its ability to repay debt); severe weather, natural disasters, public-health crises (including the current COVID-19 pandemic), cyber events and legal proceedings and claims (including product recalls, environmental and asbestos matters); the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the geographies in which we operate, the end markets we serve and on our supply chain and customers, and without limitation, risks and uncertainties affecting Ashland that are described in Ashland's most recent Form 10-K (including Item 1A Risk Factors) filed with the SEC, which is available on Ashland's website at http://investor.ashland.com or on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. Various risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from those stated, projected or implied by any forward-looking statements. The extent and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and operations is uncertain. Factors that will influence the impact on our business and operations include the duration and extent of the pandemic, the extent of imposed or recommended containment and mitigation measures, and the general economic consequences of the pandemic. Ashland believes its expectations and assumptions are reasonable, but there can be no assurance that the expectations reflected herein will be achieved. Unless legally required, Ashland undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this news release whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

1Financial results are preliminary until Ashland's Form 10-Q is filed with the SEC

Trademark, Ashland or its subsidiaries, registered in various countries.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

Investor Relations: Media Relations:

Seth A. Mrozek Carolmarie C. Brown

+1 (302) 594-5010 +1 (302) 995-3158

samrozek@ashland.com (mailto:samrozek@ashland.com) cbrown@ashland.com (mailto:cbrown@ashland.com)





Attachments


LA DEFENSE (dpa-AFX) - French energy giant Total SA (TTA.L, TTFNF.PK, TOT) reported that its first-quarter net income, group share, dropped to $34 million from $3.11 billion in the same quarter last year. On a per share basis, net loss was $0.01 compared to earnings per share of $1.16 in the prior year.



Quarterly adjusted net income, Group share, was $1.78 billion, a decrease of 35% year-on year, due to lower Brent prices, natural gas prices and refining margins as well as the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on demand. Adjusted earnings per share was $0.66 compared to $1.02 last year.



Sales for the quarter declined to $43.87 billion from $51.21 billion in the prior year.



The Group has decided to reduce net investments by 25% to $14 billion this year.



The 2020 cost savings program has been increased to at least $1 billion, in addition to saving on energy costs by more than $1 billion, notably in Refining & Chemicals.



In Upstream, the Group now anticipates 2020 production of between 2.95 and 3 Mboe/d, at least a 5% reduction compared to the previous 2020 forecasts, taking into account the voluntary reductions in Canada, the exceptional quotas announced by OPEC+, lower local demand for gas and the situation in Libya.



The company said its Chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanne proposed to reduce his fixed salary by 25% for the remainder of 2020, including the month of May. Pouyanne's total remuneration will decrease by more than 30% in 2020 compared to 2019. The members of the board also decided to give up 25% of their attendance fees starting from the Annual Shareholders' Meeting.



The members of the Executive Committee agreed to reduce their fixed salaries by 10% for the remainder of the 2020 year.



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Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 12:09:31|Editor: huaxia

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HANOI, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam earned nearly 16.2 billion U.S. dollars from exporting phones and components in the first four months of this year, posting a year-on-year increase of 1.1 percent, accounting for 19.5 percent of the country's total export revenue, its General Statistics Office said on Tuesday.

In April alone, Vietnam fetched 3.3 billion U.S. dollars from selling the products overseas, down 14.9 percent on-year.

Between January and April, Vietnam spent nearly 4.3 billion U.S. dollars importing phones and their components, seeing a year-on-year increase of 12 percent, said the office.

In 2019, the country reaped more than 51.8 billion U.S. dollars from exporting phones and components, posting a year-on-year increase of 5.3 percent, according to the office. Enditem
ANIMATION projects accounted for 372m of the total film production spend here last year, according to Screen Ireland.

The amount spent on the animation sector has jumped from 85m in 2014, when the spend was just 20pc of the total.

Screen Ireland bases its figures on the number of projects that have availed of Section 481 tax relief.

"Ireland is now a major global player when it comes to animation production, and this is something we should all be extremely proud of," said Animation Ireland chief executive Ronan McCabe.

"The creativity, talent and expertise we have on this island is extraordinary, We have been saying for years that the Irish animation sector has enormous potential and these figures back that up.''

Among the high-profile animation projects being undertaken in Ireland is Cartoon Saloon's 'Wolfwalkers'. The movie is set to make its debut on Apple TV+. It features the voice of Sean Bean and is due to be released this year.

The animation sector directly employs more than 2,000 people in Ireland, with the number having grown significantly in the past number of years. Animation Ireland now has 33 member studios, up from 25 in 2018 and just 14 in 2015.

Live action movie and TV production worldwide have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

Los Angeles went from 1,091 film shoots in February to none in March.

Additional reporting: Bloomberg
The Northern Regional Police has arrested seven persons in Tamale for failing to comply with the restrictions imposed on public gathering by operating and patronising a drinking spot.



They are Baba Sheriff Aloboba, 32; Adongo Ishmael, 19; Mark Derrick Azure, 19; Sunday Okeke, 43; Lambongang Paroka, 20, Lardi Adongo, 41 and Benjamin Ayeebo, 32.



The Northern Regional Crime Officer, Superintendent (Supt), Mr Kwabena Otuo Acheampong who made this known to the media in Tamale said the suspects were arrested at the Sarafina Bar near the police headquarters in Tamale last Saturday, May 2, 2020 at about 8.30pm.



He said all the suspects were put before the Tamale District Magistrate Court on Monday, May 4, 2020 and have since been granted bail pending further investigations.



All drinking bars in the Tamale metropolis have been closed following the ban imposed on social gathering.

Source: Daily Graphic









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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India needs a bigger stimulus package and money should be put in the hands of people in the form of cash grants to create demand even if some part of it is siphoned off, Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee said in a video interaction with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Banerjee said state governments should be co-opted along with NGOs to get this money to the people who really need it.

Banerjee said in the interaction that cash transfers must go beyond the poorest of the poor. Economist and former RBI Governor, Raghuram Rajan had a similar interaction with Gandhi last week. Gandhi noted ...
About The Waterloo Region Record

Peter Moyer published the first issue of the Berlin Daily News on Feb. 9, 1878. Berlin was Kitchener's name until 1916.

It is to the Daily News that todays Record sets its daily historical clock. Moyer anticipated his newspaper would run into "rough handling from its very birth." Sometimes he paid his staff in goods shopkeepers left behind to cover advertising bills.

German, English, daily, weekly - Berlin readers were swamped by newspapers in the late 1800s. For about six months in 1896, Berlin had three dailies - the Daily News, the Daily Record and the Daily Telegraph.

Ben Uttley, a teacher-turned-newspaperman, created the Berlin News-Record by merging his Daily Record with Moyer's Daily News in 1897.

There is another important branch to The Record's family tree. John Motz and Friedrich Rittinger published the first issue of a German weekly, The Berliner Journal, on Dec. 29, 1859. The Journal would continue for the next 65 years, outliving almost 20 local and area papers.

By 1919, it was owned by W.J. Motz, John Motz's son, and politician W.D. Euler. That year, they did an extraordinary thing for proprietors of a weekly paper - they bought a daily, Uttley's News Record.

They renamed it the Kitchener Daily Record and published out of 49 King St. W. The Daily Record took over the Daily Telegraph in 1922.

Some important dates in Record history:

 Jan. 7, 1929 -- the Record moved from 49 King St. W. to a new plant at 30 Queen St. N. (the Queen-and-Duke intersection.)

 By coincidence, The Record moved to its current home at 160 King St. E. on Friday - Jan. 7 in 2005.

 1929, 1948, 1962 and 1973 - the years The Record bought new presses. In 2000, the newspaper closed the presses at Fairway Road. Printing is done on presses in Hamilton, Guelph and Vaughan.

 Dec. 31, 1947 - The Kitchener Daily Record became the Kitchener-Waterloo Record to reflect Waterloo becoming a city. In 1994, the newspaper recognized its region-wide coverage by dropping the cities from its name, becoming simply The Record.

 Jan. 26, 1978 - A huge snowstorm hit southern Ontario and forced The Record to miss getting a paper out for the first time in its history. Delivery trucks couldn't budge. Some Record staffers bunked down at their desks.

 The 1990s - A flurry of ownership changes. Four generations under the Motz family came to an end in 1989 when Southam Inc. bought the paper for $90 million. Southam sold The Record to Sun Media Corp. in 1998. By March 1999, The Record belonged to Torstar Corp.

 Sept. 11, 2001 - The Record published its first extra in 56 years. The occasion was the terrorist attacks in New York City.

 June 3, 2002 - Readers woke up to a morning Record - on a Monday. The Record was the last Canadian paper of its size to make the switch from afternoon to morning publication.

 Aug. 14, 2003 - A blackout swept across southern Ontario. Record employees put together a newspaper using laptop computers and a smidgen of emergency power.

 Jan. 7, 2005 - Record staff bade farewell to 225 Fairway Rd. S., the newspaper's home for 32 years. They moved to King and Scott streets in downtown Kitchener

 March 21, 2008 - The Record becomes the Waterloo Region Record, to better reflect the entire coverage area of this regional newspaper.

 Torstar was acquired in 2020 by Nordstar Capital, an entity owned by Toronto businessmen Jordan Bitove and Paul Rivett.

The Waterloo Region Record welcomes the opportunity to develop strategic partnerships that will contribute to the betterment of our community and promote public engagement, charitable fundraising and social innovation. Our Community Partnerships Program strongly supports collaborative initiatives with engaged citizens and organizations that strive to enhance the vitality of the Waterloo region. We encourage you to browse through our program categories listed below and review our philanthropic practices and goals.

The Waterloo Region Record and Lyle S. Hallman Foundation Kids to Camp Fund enables children in need of financial assistance to attend a variety of day, overnight, recreational and educational camps, by partially or fully subsidizing camp costs.

We need your help!

Any individual or organization may make a gift to the Waterloo Region Record Kids to Camp Fund. A donation of just $100 can send a child to day camp for an entire week!

The Kids to Camp Fund is administered by our local Community Foundations. You can designate your gift to either the Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundations Kids to Camp Fund or to the Cambridge and North Dumfries Community Foundations Kids to Camp Fund.

You can make a donation by mail by sending a cheque to: Kids to Camp Fund c/o Kitchener Waterloo Community Foundation, 260 King Street West - Unit 206 Kitchener, ON N2G 1B6 or Cambridge & North Dumfries Community Foundation, 190 Turnbull Ct., Unit 1B, Cambridge, ON N1T 1J1. You can also donate online by visiting https://www.kwcf.ca/donate. Tax receipts will be issued for donations of $10 or more. Please ensure that cheques are made out to the Community Foundation of your choice, or note this in the "Special Instructions" box if you are donating online. If this is not noted, the funds will be directed to the Community Foundation that services your address.

If you are a family wishing to access funds for your child this summer, you must contact your camp of choice, who will then apply to the fund on behalf of your child. Camps can apply to the fund through the foundations websites.

For more information on the fund or learn how you can make a gift to the fund please contact Lesley Fitter, Advertising Solutions Manager, 519-895-5687.

Back to top The Record Masthead

Neil Oliver Executive Vice President & Chief Operations Officer, Torstar Donna Luelo Publisher, Waterloo Region Record

V.P. Sales, Torstar Regional Daily Brands Jim Poling Editor-in-Chief David Elliott Director of Distribution

Back to top Our Journalistic Standards

The Torstar Journalistic Standards Guide provides a comprehensive code of journalistic principles and conduct to guide Waterloo Region Record journalists in their mission to responsibly engage and connect our readers on all platforms with trusted news, information and content.

Here are the general editorial principles that provide the foundation for this guide:

RESPONSIBILITY

The Record has responsibilities to its customers, its clients, its shareholders and its employees. But the operation of a news organization is, above all, a public trust, no less binding because it is not formally conferred. Our overriding responsibility is to the democratic society.

Freedom of expression and of the press must be defended against encroachment from any quarter, public or private. Journalists must ensure that the publics business is conducted in public. They must be vigilant against all who would exploit the press for selfish purposes.

Journalists who abuse the power of their professional roles for selfish motives or unworthy purposes are faithless to that public trust.

ACCESS

The Record is a forum for the interchange of information and opinion. It should provide for the expression of disparate and conflicting views. It should give expression to the interests of minorities as well as majorities, of the powerless as well as the powerful.

ACCURACY AND TRUTH

Good faith with the reader is the foundation of ethical and excellent journalism. That good faith rests primarily on the readers confidence that what we print is correct. Every effort must be made to ensure that everything published in the Record is accurate, is presented in context, and that all significant sides are presented fairly.

Journalistic integrity demands that significant errors of fact, as well as errors of omission, should be corrected promptly and as prominently and transparently as warranted.

FAIRNESS

The Record should respect the rights of people involved in the news, be transparent and stand accountable to the public for the fairness and reliability of everything it publishes. Fair news reports provide relevant context, do not omit relevant facts and aim to be honest with readers about what we know and what we do not know. Our core fairness standard demands that any subject of potentially harmful allegations must be given opportunity to respond.

INDEPENDENCE

Independence from those we cover is a key principle of journalistic integrity. We avoid conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflicts. The Record believes in paying the costs incurred in gathering and publishing news. In circumstances where that may not be possible, we disclose information that could create the perception of a conflict of interest. Transparency with our readers and openness about the potential for conflicts should guide our considerations about real or perceived conflicts.

IMPARTIALITY

To be impartial does not require a news organization to be unquestioning or to refrain from editorial expression. Sound practice, however, demands a clear distinction for readers between news and opinion. All content that contains explicit opinion or personal interpretation should be clearly identified as opinion or analysis, as appropriate.

PRIVACY

Every person has a right to privacy. There are inevitable conflicts between the right to privacy, the public good and the public's right to be informed about the conduct of public affairs. Each case should be judged in the light of common sense and humanity.

Back to top Accuracy and Corrections Policy

Here are some of the core policies included in our Standards Guide:

There can be no compromise with accuracy. Accuracy is our most basic contract with readers and is the responsibility of everyone in our newsrooms. Accuracy is grounded in verification, the essence of journalism. We must check and double-check all the information we publish, including information from all other publications.

Mistakes will happen. When they do, we correct our errors. Corrections serve the reader and they serve the public record. They are essential to building and maintaining trust with our readers. Anyone who becomes aware of a possible error has responsibility for alerting those responsible for corrections in their newsrooms.

Our corrections are guided by the core principles of accountability and transparency. We are accountable to our readers for the accuracy of the information we publish in stories, headlines, photos, cutlines, social media, graphics, data, videos and any other content on all of our platforms. We correct errors of fact in a clear, transparent manner on the platform(s) in which the error was published, as promptly as possible. We make clear to readers the correct information and the context and magnitude of the mistake.

On all of our platforms, it should be clear to readers how to report a possible error. Readers can do so by emailing corrections@therecord.com or, on therecord.com, readers can report possible errors directly on an article page by selecting the "Report an Error" icon.

Back to top Diversity Policy

Inclusiveness is at the heart of thinking and acting as journalists. Torstar newsrooms aim to reflect the diversity of our communities and respect the human rights and equal dignity of all. We aim for a variety of voices as sources and contributors in our news and opinion.

We seek to foster greater community understanding about ethnicity, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, socio-economic status and physical/mental ability and do not perpetuate hurtful stereotypes.

Generally no reference, direct or indirect, should be made to a persons race, colour or religion unless it is pertinent to the story.

In the case of a missing person or a criminal suspect at large, there may be justification for identifying race or colour as part of a full description that provides as many details as possible. Avoid vague descriptions that serve no purpose. At times, a group may make race a public issue. In such cases, the persons race becomes relevant to the news.

Religion is important to the lives of many of our readers. We should not hold up one religion or set of beliefs as superior to another. Do not single out a religion or religious practice for ridicule or stereotyping or use profanities considered offensive to any religions.

We treat men and women equally and respect diverse gender identities, including people who identify as neither male nor female.

Torstar is committed to this same inclusivness and diversity reflective of our communities in its hiring, promotion, development and retention of its staff.

Back to top Anonymity and Confidential Sources

The public interest is best served when news sources are identified by their full names. Torstar journalists are aggressive in pressing sources to put information on the record and seek independently to corroborate off-the-record information.

We do not provide anonymity to those who attack individuals or organizations or engage in speculation  the unattributed cheap shot. People under attack in our publications have the right to know their accusers.

There are times when reporters need confidential sources to serve readers and democracy. Responsible journalism in the public interest often depends on these confidential sources who give journalists information that powerful people seek to keep secret. There are times also when some sources, such as underage or other vulnerable people, may require anonymity in telling their stories.

Torstar journalists must discuss using confidential sources with their department head, and in some cases the newsrooms most senior editor. They must always reveal the sources identity to editors, and provide a compelling argument for why the source will not be named in news reports. Senior editors have responsibility to work with reporters to assess the credibility of all sources including confidential sources.

Once any promise is made to grant anonymity, we protect our source, only revealing their identity with that persons permission.

Published articles must explain why sources have been granted anonymity and why we consider them authoritative and credible. Confidential sources should have first-hand knowledge of the information and this must be conveyed to the reader. We should publish as much information as possible about the source  including why they sought confidentiality  without revealing identity.

The definitions and ground rules for not naming a source must be discussed with sources. Any further promises made or deals brokered with any source must be discussed in advance with senior editors and are subject to the following:

 Composites, where several sources are compiled into one person, are not used. Pseudonyms are used only rarely, with a senior editors permission, and must be declared as such in stories.

 The source and the journalist must be clear on what has been agreed to and that agreement must be shared with the department manager. Torstar journalists keep their promises.

Back to top Conflict of Interest

Independence from those we cover is a key principle of journalistic integrity. We avoid conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflicts. In circumstances where that may not be possible, we disclose information that could create the perception of a conflict of interest. Transparency with our readers and openness about the potential for conflicts should guide our considerations about real or perceived conflicts.

These policies apply to all outside interests that could cause our audiences to question the fairness and independence of our journalism.

We seek primarily to ensure that our reporters reputations as fair-minded fact-finders are not compromised by public displays of political or partisan views on public issues, nor influenced by personal involvement or personal axe-grinding on issues we cover.

Opinion journalists have greater leeway on these matters, in line with the latitude to express their own views in their work.

All Torstar editorial staff should inform their immediate supervisors of any outside activity that could result in a conflict of interest, or reasonably perceived conflict of interest, that could cause our audiences to question the integrity of our work.

These policies are not intended to restrict the personal lives, interests or expressions of beliefs of Torstar journalists outside their work lives. Rather, as has been established through various arbitration processes across the company, they seek to ensure that any such personal activities and interests do not come into conflict with the public role of our news organizations in any way that could be seen to compromise our editorial independence and integrity.

Back to top News and Opinions

The Record clearly labels content on all platforms to draw a clear line between news and opinion. This glossary provides definitions for various types of news and opinion we publish.

NEWS

News content is verified information based on the impartial reporting of facts, either observed by the reporter or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. News reports do not include the opinion of the author.

News Terms

Analysis: A critical or contextual examination of an important and topical issue based on factual reporting. It provides an explanation of the impact or meaning of news events and draws on the authority and expertise of the writer. Analysis articles do not contain the authors opinions.

Investigation: In-depth reporting in the public interest that reveals wrongdoing and/or systemic problems, holds those in power accountable and promotes positive change.

OPINION

Opinion articles based are based on personal interpretation and judgment of facts. Opinion journalists have wide latitude to express their own views, subject to standards of taste and laws of libel including views directly contrary to the editorial views of the Record.

Opinion Terms

Editorial: An article that presents a point of view reflecting the news organization's position on an issue of public interest. Editorials are not meant to be a neutral presentation of the facts. They are written by journalists who are expressing the view of the news organization. As an editorial serves to present the companys voice, there is no individual byline.

Opinion: Articles based on the authors interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. Opinion articles include columns written by staff and commentary from non-staff contributors. Opinion journalists have wide latitude to express their own views including views directly contrary to the news organization's editorial views, as long as they fall within the boundaries of taste and laws of libel. Columnists should not engage in personal axe-grinding or internecine debates with other columnists who write for either their own or other publications.

Advice: An advice article reflects the opinion of the author, who provides guidance or direction on a topic based on their expertise as well as their personal interpretations and judgments of facts.

Blog: An online journal updated regularly by a journalist or editorial department that supplements news coverage. Blogs are usually informal or conversational in style and may reflect a writers opinions, subject to the rights and responsibilities of fair comment.

First person: Narratives exploring an authors insights, observations or thoughts based on that individuals personal experience and opinions.

Readers letters: A selection of letters by readers expressing a point of view, usually concerning a recently published article or current event.

Review: A critical assessment of the merits of a subject, such as art, film, music, television, food or literature. Reviews are based on the writers informed/expert opinion.

Back to top Contact Us

The Waterloo Region Records mailing address is: PO Box 25069, Kitchener, ON N2A 4A5

News, Events and Letters

News tips

Do you have a news tip? Or photos for us to consider for publication? Reach out to the news desk via email newsroom@therecord.com or phone 519-895-5602

Letters to the Editor

To submit a Letter to the Editor, please email: letters@therecord.com

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Photos of a man wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood while shopping Saturday prompted a harsh rebuke from local leaders in San Diego County, and police now say they're looking into the unsettling imagery.

The incident took place one day after health officials in the county ordered residents to wear face coverings in public to stymie the spread of covid-19. Tiam Tellez - one of several shoppers who captured photos of the hooded man at a Vons supermarket in Santee, California, and posted them on social media - wrote on Facebook that several store employees repeatedly told the man to take off the hood or leave.

Melissa Hill, a spokesperson for Vons, confirmed Tellez's account and called the incident "alarming." She said the unnamed customer ignored staff requests to remove the hood until he reached the checkout area. At that point, the man removed the hood and purchased his groceries before leaving, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The San Diego County Sheriff's Department said in a statement Monday that deputies were not called to the scene Saturday, but "are looking into the matter and will pursue any appropriate criminal charges."

The photos have garnered reaction from a slew of local authorities, including the regional Anti-Defamation League director as well as Santee's mayor, John Minto, who called the man's hood "a sad reminder of intolerance."

"Santee, its leaders, and I will not tolerate such behavior," Minto wrote in a statement. "Santee and its citizens are great, and this particular individual's actions are not representative of us as a people and a wonderful city."

County Supervisor Dianne Jacobs offered similar condemnation, writing that the man's actions were abhorrent and have "no place in Santee or any part of San Diego County."

"It is not who we are. It is not what we stand for and can't be tolerated," Jacobs said.

The incident comes as people of color in the United States grapple with the potential consequences of wearing face coverings like bandannas, especially black men, who fear being racially profiled as criminals or gang members. In March, two black men wearing protective masks recorded themselves being followed by a police officer as they exited a Walmart in Wood River, Illinois.

While the men felt they were being profiled, Wood River Police Chief Brad Wells told The Washington Post the officer approached the men because he "believed the two individuals to be acting suspiciously."

But images of Saturday's incident in Santee, which have circulated on social media, have invoked an entirely new sense of fear for minority residents. The Los Angeles Times notes that the city has a history of racially motivated attacks and is known by the nicknames "Klantee" and "Santucky."

On Monday, the president of NAACP San Diego branch, Francine Maxwell, lamented what she called a recent pattern of racial discrimination by local authorities while enforcing social distancing orders and called for an internal review of procedures.

"From biased enforcement in beaches and parks to KKK hoods in the grocery store, covid-19 hasn't changed racism and discrimination in our society," the chapter wrote.

- - -

The Washington Post's Tracy Jan contributed to this report.
OBERLIN, Ohio, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Since its inception more than 50 years ago, Green Circle Growers, parent company of the Just Add Ice orchid brand, has lived up to their mission of "making every day better with plants." In honor of this mission, and offering gratitude to the nation's frontline healthcare workers, the company is donating $1 million in orchids in seven markets hit hardest by the Coronavirus Pandemic: Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Tampa and its home base of Northeast Ohio. The orchid deliveries will take place from May 4th  May 9th, in time for Mother's Day.

Ohio-based Just Add Ice brand donates $1 million in orchids to nations frontline workers in time for Mothers Day

"In this extraordinary time, it was important to our organization to find ways we could contribute and the answer was clear - our orchids can brighten some of the darkest days," said Scott Giesbrecht, Co-CEO of Just Add Ice and Green Circle Growers. "And we realized our nation's healthcare workers have been experiencing some of the darkest days of our lifetimes. If our orchids can provide a bit of joy and color for these very deserving individuals, we felt it was the least we could do during this difficult time."

More than 50,000 orchids will be delivered to those on the frontline at hospitals, nursing homes, homeless shelters, food banks, and more.

"We're especially grateful that we can distribute these orchids in time for Mother's Day, as so many healthcare workers are standing in for family members who cannot visit their loved ones in person  many are acting as Mothers when a patient's own Mom can't be there," added Giesbrecht. "We hope they can bring these flowers home and they can serve as a thoughtful reminder of how much they are appreciated."

Just Add Ice transportation partners that have provided assistance in making these donations possible include Dutchmaid Logistics, Fresh 2U Transportation, MOLO and Services for All Seasons. In addition, International Paper donated a significant portion of the boxes for transporting the orchids to their final destinations.

For images, b-roll and to arrange video interviews with representatives from Just Add Ice and/or the healthcare recipients, please contact Jennifer Allanson or Megan Valentine at [email protected] or [email protected].

For more information on Green Circle Growers or Just Add Ice, visit www.greencirclegrowers.com or justaddiceorchids.com.

ABOUT JUST ADD ICE

Just Add Ice orchids are breathtaking decor for the home or workspace. The brand's orchids are available online and in grocery stores across the country. Just Add Ice orchids are grown right here in the United States in an environmentally friendly fashion, using highly efficient growing techniques, water conservation and a sustainable heat source.

ABOUT GREEN CIRCLE GROWERS



Green Circle Growers is one of the largest greenhouses in North America with over 100 acres of indoor growing space. With more than 50 years in business, Green Circle Growers is a family-owned business located in Oberlin, Ohio. The company has a continuously expanding portfolio of indoor plants, including seasonal crops, tropicals, foliage, and succulents, providing a scalable, reliable source of product for retail partners year-round.

SOURCE Just Add Ice

Related Links

http://www.justaddiceorchids.com


[May 05, 2020] DC BLOX Welcomes David Armistead as New Vice President of Sales

DC BLOX, a multi-tenant data center provider delivering the infrastructure and connectivity essential to power today's digital business, is proud to welcome David Armistead, a technology sales veteran, as its new Vice President of Sales. Effective May 1, 2020, Armistead is responsible for the leadership, management and daily direction of DC BLOX's retail, strategic, enterprise and channel sales. Armistead has spent the past 25 years in numerous leadership positions across sales, marketing, operations and consulting services while working for domestic and international organizations including BridgePoint Group, Congruent Solutions (News - Alert) and SunGard. Prior to joining DC BLOX, Armistead served as the Sales Vice President at C Spire, a diversified telecommunications and technology services company serving commercial and government clients across the southeastern U.S. In this role, he led the enterprise team for Value Added Resale (VAR), professional services and managed services sales and interfaced with the company's manufacturing partner ecosystem to garner customer wins and grow revenues. "David's career and accomplishments align well with DC BLOX's mission, and we're excited to bring him on board," said Jeff Uphues, CEO of DC BLOX. "His track record of strong leadership and consistency in exceeding quota targets while fostering strong relationships and reinvigorating sales strategies will surely contribute to the continued growth of DC BLOX. David is also located in Alabama with extensive relationships and knowledge of key DC BLOX markets. We look forward to David's contributions to the success of DC BLOX, our partners and our customers." "I'm thrilled to be a part of the DC BLOX team and to support their growth across the Southeast and beyond," comments Armistead. "I've been impressed with the DC BLOX team, the quality of their facilities and service offerings and their successful business model. I'm excited to play a key role in our future success." DC BLOX's infrastructure services, including colocation, connectivity and cloud storage, are designed to support reliable, high-scale, data-intensive applications at the edge. DC BLOX offers its services across the southeastern U.S. to enterprise, healthcare, life science, government and education customers and through its MSP and VAR partners. Its current data centers are located in Atlanta, Chattanooga, Huntsville and Birmingham. All of DC BLOX's data centers are SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, and its Huntsville and Birmingham facilities are built to Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) government standards. DC BLOX is dedicated to meeting the infrastructure needs of businesses and strives to be the most secure, reliable and trustworthy data center provider in the markets it serves.



To learn more about DC BLOX, please visit www.dcblox.com. About DC BLOX

DC BLOX is a multi-tenant data center provider delivering the infrastructure and connectivity essential to power today's digital business. DC BLOX's software-defined network services enable access to a wealth of providers, partners and platforms to businesses across the Southeast. DC BLOX's connected data centers are in Atlanta, GA; Huntsville, AL; Chattanooga, TN; and Birmingham, AL. For more information, please visit www.dcblox.com, call +1. 877.590.1684, and connect with DC BLOX on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005006/en/

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Republicans Request Answers From FBI Director on Flynn Case, Seek to Interview FBI Figures

Two top Republicans of the House Judiciary Committee on May 4 requested FBI Director Christopher Wray to immediately review his agencys actions in its investigation of President Donald Trumps former national security adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.

The two congressmen also sought to question two individuals, former FBI head of counterintelligence Bill Priestap and FBI agent Joe Pientka, about their actions related to the retired three-star U.S. Army general.

We write to request that you immediately review the actions of the FBI in targeting LTG Flynn, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote in a letter to Wray (pdf). The American people continue to learn troubling details about the politicization and misconduct at the highest levels of the FBI during the Obama-Biden administration.

(L) Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in Baltimore, Md., on Sept. 12, 2019. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) (R) Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 27, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Jordan, the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee, and Johnson, the ranking member of the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, gave Wray a deadline of May 18 to provide the information they requested and to facilitate the interviews with Priestap and Pientka.

They also asked Wray to explain when he personally first learned of the FBIs misconduct with respect to LTG Flynn, explain why the Committee and the American public are learning of the FBIs misconduct with respect to LTG Flynn from court filings rather than from [Wray], and explain whether [Wray] or any other member of the FBIs senior leadership prevented or delayed the disclosure of additional exculpatory information to LTG Flynn and his legal team.

FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before the House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 5, 2020. (Tom Brenner/File Photo/Reuters)

Perjury Trap

The Republican congressmen noted in their letter to Wray that FBI documents unsealed on April 29 showed that the FBI had apparently sought to set a perjury trap for LTG Flynn during an interview on Jan. 24, 2017.

Jordan and Johnson pointed out that part of the unsealed documents showed a handwritten note dated Jan. 24, 2017, and reportedly written by Bill Priestap, in which Priestap had asked whether the FBIs goal in interviewing Flynn was to seek the truth or to catch Flynn in a lie. Whats our goal? Truth/Admission or toget him [Flynn] to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired? the note read.

Bill Priestap, then-assistant director of the FBIs Counterintelligence Division, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Dec. 12, 2018. (Jennifer Zeng/The Epoch Times)

Flynn pleaded guilty on Dec. 1, 2017, to one count of lying to FBI agents during the interview on Jan. 24, 2017. The interview was conducted by Peter Strzok, who was at the time the FBI head of counterintelligence operations, and another FBI agent, whom The Epoch Times and other media have identified as Joe Pientka.

The interview had focused on Flynns phone calls with then-Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak in 2016. Flynn in his guilty plea said that he made false statements about a conversation he had with Kislyak. In late January, Flynn formally asked the judge overseeing the sentencing to allow him to withdraw his guilty plea.

The recently unsealed FBI documents also showed that on Jan. 4, 2017nearly three weeks prior to the Jan. 24, 2017, interview with Flynnthe FBIs Washington field office had concluded there were no more leads to follow and that the FBI should close the Flynn probe, Jordan and Johnson noted in their letter.

But Strzok urged the office to keep the Flynn probe open and noted that the FBIs senior leadership on the seventh floor was involved,' the congressmen wrote in their letter, citing internal FBI text messages as seen in documents filed in a federal court on April 30.

Read More Strzok Scrambled to Keep Flynn Investigation Open When FBI Moved to Close It Jan 2017

The congressmen wrote, citing handwritten notes, that the FBIs goal was either getting LTG Flynn to admit to violating the Logan Act or to lie about the conversation so that he could be prosecuted or fired.

FBI officials had developed a theory that Flynn broke the Logan Act by conveying to Kislyak the positions of the incoming administration on several diplomatic issuesincluding new sanctions that would see the expulsion of Russian diplomats and a United Nations vote on Israeli settlements.

The 1799 Logan Act prohibits private U.S. citizens from conducting diplomacy on their own with countries that the United States has a dispute with. Nobody has ever been successfully prosecuted for violating the law. It was Flynns job, as part of Trumps transition team, to establish relations with foreign officials.

The FBI ignored protocol to confront LTG Flynn about a potential violation of an obscure and rarely charged offense, with the real goal of forcing LTG Flynns resignation or prosecution, Jordan and Johnson wrote, referring to the Logan Act.

The FBI pursued LTG Flynn despite knowing that he was not a Russian agent and even after the FBI became aware that a central piece of evidence of alleged Russia collusionthe so-called Steele dossierwas based on Russian disinformation.

Declassified information in early April on the Steele dossier showed that a portion of the dossier likely was the product of a Russian disinformation campaign, and that the FBI was aware that such disinformation may have compromised the dossier.

Petr Svab contributed to this report.
"The King: Eternal Monarch" has once again unveiled some new behind-the-scenes photos of the ever handsome actor Lee Min Ho!

The fantasy-romance drama is about Emperor Lee Gon (Lee Min Ho) and detective Jung Tae Eul (Kim Go Eun), who live in two different worlds: one is a modern-day democratic Korea while the other world is an empire ruled by one Monarch. Emperor Lee Gon and detective Jung Tae Eul will work together to save the lives of the people they care about the most and close the entry point between the two universes.

In this ongoing drama, the lead actor Lee Min Ho is seen wearing multiple outfits, including his black imperial attire and also in his equestrian uniform. But one particular attire stood out - it's his white naval uniform!

In the recent episode, Emperor Lee Gon wore his naval uniform as he set foot on the warship to confront Japan after they invaded Corea's waters. Some deep thoughts about the line in the drama stated that in the most honorable moments, the imperial family wears their uniforms. Emperor Lee Gon's strong sense of responsibility is showcased by his change of attire.

The uniform that the actor wore is now gaining lots of sizzling responses from viewers, and we can't blame them! Lee Min Ho, indeed, looked dashing in the suit, a bonus to the fact that his acting prowess is stellar.

In the newly unveiled behind-the-scenes stills, Lee Min Ho appears mesmerizing and handsome in whatever outfit he is wearing. Wearing his white naval uniform, he displayed a sense of duty while he performs a military salute.

Lee Min Ho snatched the show with his striking looks and passionate acting, making the recent episode garner double-digit ratings.

In the year 1994, the Kingdom of Corea faced great betrayal when the king (Kwon Yool) was murdered by his own brother, Lee Lim (Lee Jung-Jin). Lee Lim aims to take hold of the "Manpasikjeok," which is known to be a legendary flute that holds supernatural powers. However, a mysterious figure that appeared with a gun helped Lee Gon while Lee Lim was trying to murder the young prince. Lee Lim slipped and was able to escape with having only half of the now broken flute. The following day Goon was appointed the next ruler of the Kingdom of Corea.

Then, 25 years passed in the autumn of 2019, King Lee Gon is now the benevolent leader of the Kingdom of Corea.

On the other hand, same year and season in a parallel universe, which is the Republic of Korea, there is Jung Tae Eul. She is a detective in the Violent Crimes Division at the Seoul Jongo Police Station. Tae Eul is currently working as an undercover assigned to take down the operator of an illegal online gambling operation.

Soon after, Emperor Lee Gon discovered the entry point of two universes and crossed over from the Kingdom of Corea into the world of the Republic of Korea. There, he finally meets Tae Eul.

"The King: Eternal Monarch" broadcasts every Friday and Saturday at 10 p.m. KST.
AMSTERDAM, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As of now Fiorito is launching in the Netherlands its pre-mixed cocktail Limoncello Tonic containing Fiorito Limoncello, tonic water, basil and natural lemon grass. The Dutch family firm is the first liqueur producer to bring to market this popular drink as an RTD (ready-to-drink) in a 250ml slimline can. Limoncello Tonic comes in a fresh, golden yellow, shining summerlike design and is immediately available immediately for EUR 1.99 at Albert Heijn, the biggest retailer in the Netherlands, and soon also at the supermarket chain Jumbo. In the coming months the sparkling summer cocktail will be launched in other countries like China and Australia. Leading global liqueur company De Kuyper Royal Distillers is in charge of distributing Limoncello Tonic as well as all other Fiorito products.

"We are extremely proud of our 2020 pre-mixed summer drink. In view of the current trend to low-alcohol, sparkling drinks it was clear that we must launch our signature drink as a ready-to-drink option," explains Franco Fiorito, founder and CEO of Fiorito Limoncello. "And after renewing the limoncello market in the Netherlands it's time to capture new markets. Our business aim is to strengthen our position in export markets with a suitable premium portfolio. To begin with we are launching this summer in China and Australia where ready-to-drink cocktails are very popular. Other markets will soon follow."

Limoncello Tonic was developed with top bartenders for a perfect taste. Thanks to the refreshing combination of lemons, lemongrass and basil combined with the sparkling, light bitterness of a high-quality tonic water, Limoncello Tonic is the perfect drink to enjoy on a hot summer day. The tasty drink grants ultimate freedom: It can be enjoyed everywhere right from the cooled can, but also served as a festive aperitif in a glass of ice cubes. The eye-catching design in iridescent golden yellow is clear and sophisticated and reflects the premium and fresh character of all the ingredients.

Using the traditional family recipe, Fiorito Limoncello is made with hand-peeled zest of organic Sicilian lemons, giving this limoncello its mild and soft taste. Best-selling Limoncello Superiore meets the highest international quality standards and is the only limoncello permitted to carry the 'Superiore' hallmark in the Netherlands. Fiorito Limoncello has won several gold medals in prestigious international competitions.

Editor's notes:

Size: 250ml slimline can

Liquid contents: Fiorito Limoncello, tonic water, basil and natural lemon grass

Price: EUR 1.99 (RSP)

ABV: 5%

Launch: May 2020

Outlets: Albert Heijn

Countries: The Netherlands, China, Australia & more countries to come

- Cross reference: Picture is available at AP Images (http://www.apimages.com) -

About Fiorito

Fiorito is a family-owned producer of artisanal quality spirits, founded in 2011 by the Dutch brothers Franco and Benno Fiorito. Fiorito Limoncello is a premium hand-made limoncello made according to the old Fiorito family recipe with organic lemons from Sicily. Fiorito Limoncello has been awarded double gold (2018) and several gold medals at the World Spirits Awards (WSA), a gold medal at the NY Spirits Competition (2018) and a silver medal at the prestigious IWSC several times. Fiorito further offers a Lemon Infused Rum, a limoncello with a lower alcohol content (Li) as well as various ready to drink variations.

Contact Fiorito Limoncello:

Franco Fiorito

[email protected]

SOURCE Fiorito Limoncello
The Lagos state police command has arrested a 30-year old former painter, Chinedu Obinma, after he was caught for armed robbery.

Speaking with newsmen, Chinedu confessed to embracing robbery because it pays better in Lagos.



Read Also: VIDEO: Robbery Gone Wrong, Man Grabs Gun From An Armed Robber



P.M.EXPRESS reports that the suspect was arrested by Police operatives after he robbed a trader of her phone in Ejigbo and used it to empty the N230, 000 in her bank account.

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Speaking with the Police, the suspect said he was a painter but when the business was not flourishing, he abandoned it and moved into robbery and there were changes in his life.

He went on to say he tricked the woman by giving her N1000 for a N100 worth of drink and when she went to look for change, he used the opportunity to steal her phone.
Youth representatives who were on a medical team dispatched to Hubei Province during the COVID-19 pandemic attend a poem recital event held to mark the Chinese Youth Day at Peking University in Beijing, capital of China, May 4, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Chenlin)

BEIJING, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping attaches great importance to the growth of young people. Over the years, he has talked with them, exchanged letters and participated in youth events. The following are some highlights of his quotes concerning Chinese youth:

-- Youth shines through hardships; life is elevated through hard work.

-- Young people, together with courageous frontline workers, are risking your lives to fight the COVID-19 epidemic at the forefront despite difficulties and dangers, demonstrating the youthful strength and vigor.

Nurses Liu Guangyao (R) and Qiao Bing take care of a patient at an ICU ward of the Third People's Hospital of Henan in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province, April 26, 2020. Liu Guangyao and Qiao Bing are both the hospital's ICU nurses, who are a pair of lovers born in 1990s. (Xinhua/Li An)

-- Chinese youth of the new era should carry on the spirit of the May Fourth Movement and shoulder their responsibility for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

-- The right direction for China's young people today is to work hard with the people and forge ahead with the nation, and to serve the people and contribute to the motherland.

-- The Chinese Dream is a dream of the nation and every Chinese citizen, including young people. Only by integrating individual dreams into the national cause can one finally make great achievements.

People take part in a tree planting activity marking the Chinese Youth Day in Haikou, south China's Hainan Province, May 4, 2020. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu)

-- Young people should study hard and absorb knowledge like a sponge.

-- As the most dynamic and creative group of our society, young people should stand at the forefront of innovation and creation.

-- Everybody is young once in their life. Now is the time for you to make the most of your youth; and the future is a time for you to look back on it.
Move the FBI Out of Washington to Save It

Commentary

Whatever happens with John Durhams report, however many people in or out of the Federal Bureau of Investigation are indicted, fired, chastised or not, what we have learned so far, including the latest revelations from the Flynn case, tell us that a large percentage of our citizens may never trust the FBI again.

They will be justified in regarding what was once considered the worlds greatest law enforcement agency as an organization of partisan hacks providing insurance policies to their political favorites, while surveilling, harassing, bankrupting, and ruining the lives of innocent people in what appears to be an attempt to take down an administration.

It doesnt, thankfully, go as far as the KGB or the Gestapoyet. No one is being carted off to Lubyanka never to be seen again. But its bad enough and an argument can be made for totally dismantling the FBI and starting over.

Thats unlikely to happen in our current situation, but something drastic must be done to save or reform the bureau. And its not too early to think about this because, if we dont, again no matter what emerges from Durham, we could easily, after the usual political uproar, amped up because it is a presidential year, return to the status quo ante.

At the very least, a public discussion about what to do should be initiated.

Moving the FBI out of Washington is a good place to start. In fact, its necessaryand as far away as practicable would be best, such as Utah or Wyoming.

This would put bureau agents and their leadership out of day-to day, face-to-face contact with, and possible coercion by, congressional and executive branch politicians, their staffs, the leaders of the political parties, the myriad K Street lobbyists, and the national media.

It wont be perfect, but some degree of separation would be established. This would define the FBI as an organization unto itself, far away from the Beltway swim and expected to be rigidly nonpartisan.

In this digital age, practically the only method in which influence can be peddled and damage done while remaining anonymous are secretive personal encounters. The humiliating revelations of Peter Strzoks and Lisa Pages emails underscore that; few will be that arrogant and careless again.

If youre up to mischief, the information or, more likely, the disinformation will be imparted in a clandestine meeting in the grand tradition of Deep Throat, not online where, eventually, assuming it hasnt been bleached, it can be retrieved and brought in evidence.

Also, and equally important, moving the agency would help keep the national media from playing such a biased interfering role in the justice system, as it has in recent years. The infamous Steele dossier was promulgated person-to-person by the press, headquartered, of course, in Washington, working in tandem with elements, rogue or not, in the FBI and other government agencies.

The move could then make a start at altering the culture of the bureau, a difficult task because it may have been more infected than currently realized. Sean Hannity frequently asserts on his cable show that the rank-and-file of the FBI is good and hard working. Its only a small cadre of corrupt leadership that is the problem.

Hannity may be too optimistic. Yes, the fish rots from the head, but, according to a leaked report (so take it for what you will), Durham was shocked upon reading recently revealed documents that no whistleblower had stepped forward to reveal the obvious malfeasances of the Flynn case.

If true, its easy to understand why the investigator felt that way. The FBI has its own version of omerta, which seems to go down through the ranks to some extent and is exacerbated by the current director who seems desperate to preserve the institution at the expense of the truth. Durham has his work cut out for him looking into the misdeeds of this hidebound bureaucracy.

Its time to shake things up by moving to the wide-open spaces. (Quantico can stay where it is.) In a world where statues of Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis are often taken down, we should be more than ready to lose a headquarters named for J. Edgar Hoover.

I understand the Spy Museum is the popular hit of Washington. Perhaps they could use more expansion space.

Roger L. Simon is The Epoch Times senior political columnist. He is also a prize-winning novelist, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter, and the co-founder of PJ Media. His most recent book 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.
The regime claims that a video broadcast on Venezuelan state television shows American soldiers being arrested - REUTERS

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday that authorities have captured 13 "terrorists", including two US citizens he described as mercenaries, over allegations that they were involved in a failed plot to invade the country and oust him.

In a state television address, Maduro showed what he said were the passports and other identification cards of Airan Berry and Luke Denman, who he described as employees of Silvercorp, a Florida-based company whose owner has claimed responsibility for the invasion attempt.

Venezuelan authorities said on Monday that they arrested another eight accused "mercenaries" in a coastal town and showed images on state TV of several unidentified men handcuffed and lying prone in a street. The Venezuelan government said that more than 25,000 troops have been mobilised to hunt for other rebels operating in the country.

Diosdado Cabello, the vice-president of the ruling party, posted on his Twitter account a video of a Venezuelan identified as Josnars Adolfo Baduel, who was also detained, and claimed that two US citizens were among those arrested. Mr Baduel is shown responding to a security official who asks him about the Americans captured.

Venezuelan state television broadcast the video but did not identify the Americans. But Jordan Goudreau, a Florida-based former Green Beret, said he was working with the two men in a mission launched early Sunday to "liberate" Venezuela.

Tarek William Saab, Venezuela's chief prosecutor, said the regime has arrested 114 people - REUTERS

Goudreau has claimed responsibility for Sunday's operation, which Venezuelan authorities say they foiled and left eight people dead at a beach near the port city of La Guaira.

He identified two former US veterans taken into Venezuelan custody who served in Iraq and Afghanistan with him, Goudreau said.

Goudreau said the men were part of an alleged mission called "Operation Gideon" launched before dawn on Sunday that entailed landing boats on the beach.

Story continues

Venezuela has been in a deepening political and economic crisis under Maduro's rule. Crumbling public services such as running water, electricity and medical care have driven nearly five million people to migrate. But Maduro still controls all levers of power despite a US-led campaign to oust him. It recently indicted Maduro as a drug trafficker and offered a $15 million reward for his arrest.

Venezuela and the US broke diplomatic ties last year amid heightened tensions, so there is no American embassy in Caracas.

The two US citizens are allegedly veterans from Iran and Afghanistan - REUTERS

"I've tried to engage everybody I know at every level," Goudreau said of the attempt to help his detained colleagues. "Nobody's returning my calls, It's a nightmare."

The mother of one of the Americans told the Associated Press that the last time she heard from her son was a few weeks when he texted her from an undisclosed location to ask how she was coping with the coronavirus pandemic.

She said she never heard her son discuss Venezuela and only learned of his possible capture there after his friends called when they saw the reports on social media.

"The first time I heard Jordan Goudreau's name was today," she said when reached at her home in Austin, Texas.

Goudreau has said he signed a contract with the US-backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido to overthrow Maduro, which Guaido has denied. The opposition leader said he had nothing to do with Sunday's raid.

The US says that Nicolas Maduro's regime is illegitimate - AP

Goudreau says Guaido never fulfilled the contract, but the former Green Beret pushed ahead with an underfunded operation with just 60 fighters, including the two U.S. veterans.

He said he last communicated with Denman and Berry when they were adrift in a boat "hugging" the Caribbean coast of Venezuela. They were still in their boat following an initial confrontation with the Venezuelan Navy early Sunday, he said.

"They were running dangerously low on fuel," Goudreau said. "If they had gone onto landfall, they would have gone to a safe house."

Goudreau said the two were waiting for a boat on the Caribbean island of Aruba with emergency fuel to help extract them.

Maduro ally and Attorney General Tarek William Saab said that the regime has arrested 114 people suspected in the attempted attack and they are on the hunt of 92 others.

Officials in Venezuela's government accuse Colombia and the United States of organising and carrying out the attack aiming to overthrow Maduro. Both US and Colombian officials have denied the Venezuelan allegations.
A "predatory" ethics lecturer will not be able to register as a psychologist for two years after threatening to fail a student if she turned down his advances.

Michael Montalto denied the allegations, including trying to recruit 18 and 19-year-old students to have a threesome with him and his girlfriend, but the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal upheld the allegations in October last year. The university involved cannot be named.

The tribunal barred him from registering as a psychologist for two years, in a December ruling published last week.

The Victorian Civil and Adminstrative Tribunal. Credit:Pat Scala

The Psychology Board of Australia also wanted him blocked from being a counsellor or providing "therapy-type services".
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar



on Tuesday expressed profound grief over death of CRPF jawan Santosh Kumar Mishra who was among three personnel of the force martyred in a terror attack in Kahsmir.

Mishra hailed from Devhara village in Goh block of Aurangabad district.

Three CRPF personnel were martyred and two others injured when terrorists opened fire on them at a checkpoint in Kupwara on Monday, a day after five security personnel lost their lives during an encounter in the district.

Paying tribute to the jawan, the CM said he was deeply pained at the incident.

"The country would always remember his martyrdom," he said in his condolence message.

Kumar prayed to the almighty to give strength and courage to the bereaved family members of the CRPF jawan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is holding his daily press conference on the Covid-19 outbreak, which has infected at least 128,269 people in the state, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

On Monday, Murphy announced that the state's schools will stay closed for the remainder of the academic year to continue to curb further spread of the coronavirus.

tweet

"As I have noted before, we are working with the principle that public health creates economic health, or in this case, public health creates educational health," Murphy said at a news briefing.

The governor directed all private and public school leaders to update their preparedness plans to continue remote learning. He said a decision on potential summer programs has not yet been made.

After declaring a state of emergency and a public health emergency on March 9, the New Jersey governor closed all public and private schools and colleges in the state on March 18 to mitigate the spread of the disease.

During the press conference, Murphy also announced that he's rescinding the executive order signed on June 30, 2019, which directed the state's treasury department to achieve a $1.28 billion surplus by the end of this fiscal year.

"This is no longer feasible" due to "plummeting state revenues" and "skyrocketing costs" of fighting the pandemic, he said.

"We're on the brink of having to make very tough, and quite frankly, very unpalatable decisions ... We need to have these funds as a safeguard should direct federal assistance to our state fail to surface," he added.

The coronavirus has infected more than 1.1 million people in the U.S. and has killed at least 68,934 people, according to Hopkins. Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 3.6 million people and has killed at least 251,898.

Read CNBC's live updates to see the latest news on the COVID-19 outbreak.
The number of Texans dying in nursing homes and assisted living facilities rose sharply Monday, with 92 more deaths related to COVID-19 reported for residents in such facilities over the past five days.

It was the largest five-day increase in long-term care facility deaths since the state began regularly reporting the data on April 13.

The overall number of coronavirus-related deaths also saw a significant increase statewide last week, with 33 percent more deaths reported last week than the week prior.

Officials worried early on about the spread of coronavirus among vulnerable people in the state-regulated facilities. People over 65 were considered at greater risk.

But added precautions that barred visitors and stopped group activities in March were not enough to prevent its spread.

Those dying in nursing homes and assisted living facilities have made up an increasing portion of the states overall deaths related to the illness.

NEVER GET OVER THE GUILT: Niece fears aging aunt might not be safe in care home

On April 13, nearly 30 percent of all coronavirus deaths were linked to nursing homes and assisted living centers. That rose last week to 42 percent of deaths.

As of Monday, nearly 44 percent of all coronavirus deaths in Texas were linked to nursing homes and assisted living centers, according to the data. In all, 395 people had died in the facilities.

From April 29 to May 4, deaths in nursing homes and assisted living centers made up more than 63 percent of the reported deaths in Texas during that time, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis of state data.

Nearly one-fifth of the 1,224 nursing homes in Texas had at least one resident or staff member who has tested positive for COVID-19.

Within the numbers, horror stories have abounded, with outbreaks of more than 80 sickened at a Texas City nursing home and at least 11 dying at a College Station assisted living facility.

The situation was so bleak that family members with relatives in care facilities were considering whether to move those relatives out of the facilities and into their homes.

The father of one woman who tried to do so died before she could.
Hyderabad, May 5 : Telangana Police have issued over 13,000 e-passes for stranded families and tourists in the state to travel to their respective states.

Director General of Police M. Mahender Reddy on Tuesday said the police received 23,785 applications and passes were issued for 13,799.

It was on May 2 that the police chief had announced that the citizens stranded in Telangana due to lockdown and want to return to their states can apply for e-pass by submitting required information at https://tsp.koopid.ai/epass The DGP had said e-passes will be issued after due verification.

Many who tried to apply raised various issues like not being able to register themselves or upload their documents. The police chief tweeted that the next day that there were some issues due to heavy load of hits and the teams were working to restore the services.

Many of those stranded were disappointed as four-wheeler details were made mandatory for getting e-pass. The DGP assured that those who don't have a four-wheeler need not worry as their problems will also be addressed.

Such people were advised by the police to have patience as they will also be helped in reaching their destinations.

The e-pass system is not for migrant workers as they have been asked to approach the nearest police stations to register their details. The police stations will inform them about the special trains or any other transport arrangements made for them.

The police decided to issue e-pass after the Union Ministry of Home Affairs issued guidelines allowing inter-state movement of stranded tourists, pilgrims, students, migrant workers and others.

The state government has already designated nodal officers for to and from movement of stranded persons.

Sandeep Kumar Sultania, Secretary, Panchayat Raj and Rural Development, was designated as the nodal officer for the movement of stranded persons. Jitender, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) was designated as police nodal officer.

These officers will coordinate the movement of stranded persons to and from other states/union territories, as per the standard protocols developed for the purpose.
A NSW Labor MP quickly deleted an anti-America post in which he proclaimed 'China is our future' amid an escalating diplomatic row between Beijing and Canberra.

A tweet posted by upper house MP Mark Buttigieg flashed on screen during the ABC's QandA program on Monday night.

'Australia can ill afford to maintain its historical and biased preference for the US. China is our future,' he posted.

Mr Buttigieg has since removed the tweet.

Mark Buttigieg quickly deleted an anti-America post in which he proclaimed 'China is our future'

Mr Buttigieg was grilled by 2GB's Ben Fordham (pictured) for suggesting Australia's international relations needed to be reviewed

Mr Buttigieg was grilled by 2GB's Ben Fordham on Tuesday for suggesting Australia's international relations needed to be reviewed.

Fordham told the MP that while China is a 'big part' of Australia's future, suggesting the country scaled back its relationship with the U.S. was out-of-step with the official Labor Party line.

Mr Buttigieg defended the tweet and explained why it was deleted.

'The tweet was simply to point out that we've obviously got to have an ongoing trade relationship with China,' he told 2GB.

'I subsequently deleted it because I decided it was inappropriate for a state MP to be weighing into federal issues.'

NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay defended the MP.

Mr Buttigieg's tweet as it appeared on ABC's Q and A on Monday night

AMBASSADOR'S ECONOMIC THREAT TO AUSTRALIA In an interview with the Australian Financial Review, Ambassador Cheng slammed Australia's push for a global inquiry as 'political' and warned Chinese consumers could boycott the country. Answering a question about whether China could boycott Australian iron ore or gas, Mr Cheng instead focused on China's contribution to Australia's agriculture, tourism and education sectors. Mr Cheng said: 'I think if the mood is going from bad to worse, people would think why we should go to such a country while it's not so friendly to China. 'The tourists may have second thoughts. Maybe the parents of the students would also think whether this place, which they find is not so friendly, even hostile, is the best place to send their kids to. 'So it's up to the public, the people to decide. And also, maybe the ordinary people will think why they should drink Australian wine or eat Australian beef.' Advertisement

'Mark is entitled to his own views,' she said in a statement. 'However I believe state MPs are better off focused on state issues.'

Mr Buttigieg's comment comes amid rising diplomatic tensions between Australia and China.

Former Australian ambassador to China Geoff Raby told Daily Mail Australia that diplomatic relations are 'at their lowest point since they began 46 years ago'.

Australia's call for the World Health Organisation to launch an inquiry into the initial handling of the outbreak angered China, which says it is conducting its own investigation through the Chinese Communist Party, which should be enough.

The move has prompted backlash from several Chinese advocates, condemning Australia's involvement.

Last week, Chinese ambassador, Cheng Jingye warned the inquiry could lead to a boycott of Australian products in China.

A day later, Hu Xijin, the editor of the state-run Global Times, called Australia 'gum on the sole of China's shoes'.

'After the epidemic, we need to have more risk awareness when doing business with Australia and also when we send our children to study there,' he wrote in a Weibo post on Tuesday.

Chinese ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye (pictured) warned Australia's push for an inquiry may lead to a boycott of Australian exports in China

Editor-in-chief of the Global Times Hu Xijin likened Australia to 'chewing gum stuck on the sole of China's shoes'

'Australia is always there, making trouble. It is a bit like chewing gum stuck on the sole of China's shoes. Sometimes you have to find a stone to rub it off.'

The bitter war of words continued this week, with Shanghai academic Professor Chen Hong telling 60 Minutes on Monday that Australia had stabbed China in the back.

'Australia is being and acting as a kind of divisive role, trying to point fingers, even stab at the back of China. This is actually not fair,' he said.

Australia director of Human Rights Watch Elaine Pearson told Q and A Australia made the right decision to stand up to China, which she described as a 'bully' that is not used to being challenged.

She said Australia's actions were in line with how any responsible global power should respond to the pandemic.

'The whole world is affected by this pandemic and I really think it's important that other countries come on board,' Ms Pearson said.

'I think China is showing it's a bully. The way you deal with bullies is you don't just roll over and lie down. You do have to stand up to them.'
Brazil, not the United States, may have the most coronavirus cases in the world, a University of Sao Paolo study suggests, per The Wall Street Journal.

The study concluded that, through May 3, the number of infections since the pandemic began in Brazil could be as high as 1.6 million, more than the U.S.'s officially world-leading 1.1 million-plus cases. "Brazil is already the global epicenter of the coronavirus," said Dr. Domingo Alves from Ribeirao Preto Medical School, who worked on the study.

The research points to minimal testing in the country as the reason the recorded figures aren't nearly that high  Johns Hopkins University has Brazil's official cases count just under 102,000. But the most populous country in the Southern hemisphere has tested only about 1,600 per million people. The U.S., which many experts believe is not testing nearly enough, administers 20,200 per million, while some European countries are conducting 30,000.

Of course, those countries are also likely missing cases, but the testing gap is significant, either way. Subsequently concerns are growing for the country, especially as its President Jair Bolsonaro remains a coronavirus skeptic. Read more at The Wall Street Journal.

More stories from theweek.com

Trump is pursuing a herd immunity strategy  whether intentionally or not

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Whistleblower complaint from doctor formerly leading U.S. coronavirus vaccine effort alleges HHS operated on 'cronyism'


In an April 30 video posted at the villages website, Pekau said the economy can be reopened in a measured, safe and responsible way, but noted that the village lacks the constitutional authority to implement on its own any broad-based return to normal business activity.
Myanmar & COVID-19 Myanmar Military COVID-19 Patients Contacts Test Negative

A soldier on duty at Naypyitaw Transit Center. / Thiha Lwin / The Irrawaddy

NAYPYITAWThe Myanmar military carried out COVID-19 tests for over 300 military personnel after a 33-year-old soldier tested positive for the disease in Naypyitaw. All of them tested negative for the virus, according to military spokesperson Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun.

We have tested over 300 military personnel who had contact with him, including those who work at the same office as him and his relatives. All of them tested negative, Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun told The Irrawaddy.

The soldier who tested positive suffered from a fever, sore throat and diarrhea on Thursday and was placed under isolation at the local military hospital on Friday before he tested positive for the coronavirus.

The soldier is not an officer and reportedly works primarily in an office. His work does not involve traveling, according to Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun.

This is the first case of COVID-19 in the Myanmar military inside the country, though five Myanmar military trainees in Russia tested positive for the disease in April.

Upper House lawmaker U Maung Maung Swe expressed concerns as the military said the soldier did not have a travel history nor did he have contact with any known COVID-19 patients.

We should trace from whom he was infected and if he has gone anywhere, said U Maung Maung Swe.

Naypyitaw Health Department Deputy Director General Dr. Myat Wunna Soe said there has been no exchange of information between his department and the military about the first military COVID-19 patient.

As the case happened in a cantonment area and not in a civilian area, we dont trace the contact history. Their [military] health care professionals and medical corps are handling it, he told The Irrawaddy.

As of Tuesday, Myanmar has reported 161 COVID-19 cases, including six fatalities and 49 patients who have recovered, according to the Ministry of Health and Sports.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 15:32:20|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

- - - -

WELLINGTON -- New Zealand reported no new COVID-19 case over the past 24 hours for two consecutive days, which was "very encouraging", Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said on Tuesday.

Bloomfield told a press conference that one probable case has been reclassified as not being the case, so the total case number dropped by one to 1,486.

The country's death toll remained unchanged at 20, Bloomfield said, adding four people are in hospital, with none in ICU.

- - - -

SEOUL -- South Korea reported three more cases of the COVID-19 compared to 24 hours ago as of 0:00 a.m. Tuesday local time, raising the total number of infections to 10,804.

It was the lowest daily increase in 77 days since Feb. 18. The daily caseload hovered below 20 for 18 straight days.

All the new cases were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 1,102. The domestic infection logged zero for the second consecutive day.

- - - -

CAPE TOWN -- Researchers in South Africa on Monday vaccinated hundreds of health workers with a 100-year-old tuberculosis (TB) in clinical trial in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

TASK, a clinical research organization in Cape Town, conducted the trial at Tygerberg Hospital, an officially-designated COVID-19 treatment center in South Africa.

- - - -

WUHAN -- No newly confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were reported in central China's Hubei Province for Monday, the provincial health commission said Tuesday.

This marks that Hubei has reported no new confirmed COVID-19 cases for 31 consecutive days since April 4.

- - - -

WELLINGTON -- New Zealand announced Tuesday that the State of National Emergency to support the COVID-19 response will be extended for a sixth time, for a further seven days.

The initial declaration was made on March 25, and the seven-day declaration can be extended as many times as necessary. It does not change the COVID-19 Alert Level.

"On the advice of the Director of Civil Defence Emergency Management and after consultation with the prime minister, I consider the State of National Emergency should remain in place to support the COVID-19 response," Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. Enditem
With vaccines of some firms already in animal trial phase, developers say that if all goes well, India could have a vaccine by next year.

IMAGE: Medics collect samples from a COVID-19 patient to test the status of his infection at Chaudhary Brahm Prakash Ayurved Charak Sansthan, in New Delhi. Photograph: PTI Photo

Not just bigwigs like Zydus and Serum but even mid-rung indigenous players across the country have joined the race for a coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine.

The move comes at a time when Chinese research firms are entering phase II of clinical trials in a global race to find a vaccine for COVID-19.

India, too, is gearing up to develop its indigenous variant soon.

With vaccines of some firms already in animal trial phase, developers say that if all goes well, India could have a vaccine by next year.

So far, Indian companies that are in the race to make a vaccine include big players like Cadila Healthcare (Zydus Cadila), Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech as well as a start-up Mynvax, among others.

Now, joining the race are indigenous but mid-rung players like Gurugram-based IIT Bombay alumnus-led Premas Biotech, Ahmedabad-based animal vaccine player Hester Biosciences and pathlab start-up Neuberg Supratech.

They have started or are in the initial stages of developing a vaccine for the novel coronavirus.

For instance, a team of researchers led by IIT Bombay alumnus Dr Prabuddha Kundu at Premas Biotech is developing a triple antigen vaccine.

It has successfully identified three major antigens as a recombinant coronavirus vaccine candidate.

According to Kundu, unlike single-protein vaccines currently under trials across the world, Premas Biotech has adopted a three-pronged approach to develop a multi subunit vaccine.

It is using recombinantly expressed antigens Spike (S), Envelope (E), and Membrane (M) proteins in multiple formats, which it hopes will provide a good chance of immunity against COVID-19.

The company is now moving forward with developing the scale up designs and applying for animal trials.

Similarly, Ahmedabad-based Hester Biosciences has collaborated with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati to develop a vaccine against COVID-19 based on the recombinant avian paramyxovirus-based vector platform.

It has also been explored as a vaccine vector for animal pathogens like infectious bursal disease virus, infectious laryngotracheitis virus, bovine herpes virus, and Nipah virus, among others.

On the other hand, the Gujarat governments arms have also joined their private counterparts in developing a vaccine.

Gujarat government arm Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre (GBRC) has signed an MoU with Neuberg Supratech Reference Laboratory, Ahmedabad, a unit of Neuberg Diagnostics Private Limited, for developing COVID-19 recombinant vaccine and diagnostics.

Neuberg is a start-up in the pathlab chain segment.

As part of the MoU, Neuberg Supratech will look for immune markers for the COVID-19 positive patients by using several in-house high throughput sequencing machines.

Our role is to take samples from asymptomatic and symptomatic COVID-19 positive patients and identify the peptide chain of protein molecule.

"This will be passed on to GBRC for developing a vaccine. Now that the MoU has been signed, we will apply for necessary regulatory approvals, said Sandip Shah, executive director, Neuberg Diagnostics Private Limited & director, Neuberg Supratech Reference Lab, Ahmedabad.

Kundu said that based on an exclusive D-Crypt technology, developed and improved upon by Premas Biotech over the past decade, a modified version of bakers yeast is being used to recombinantly produce the antigens.

Bakers yeast grows fast, is more cost-effective as compared to other modern technologies and has been viewed as a safe compound by regulatory agencies like the USFDA and DCGI in other drugs.

"Specifically, a yeast host platform has been successfully used to produce many drugs, including insulin and many blood products and hormones, Kundu added.

Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru, too, is trying to design and test variants of the spike glycoprotein as vaccine candidates, the latter are being tested in animal models by Mynvax, a start-up.

Meanwhile, Hester Biosciences managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) Rajiv Gandhi said the companys involvement would be from master seed development to release of the commercial vaccine.

Primarily an animal healthcare company and the second largest poultry vaccine manufacturer, this is the first time Hester is foraying into human vaccines.

We have plants in Tanzania, too, where we are in discussion with the government there for a human vaccine.

"Going forward, our human vaccine division could overtake our animal vaccine division, he said.
He has been honest with his followers about the struggles of welcoming a newborn away from family during the coronavirus lockdown.

And Ryan Thomas was every inch the doting father when he shared a sweet snap alongside his adorable son Roman Ravello on Tuesday.

The Coronation Street star, 35, wrote: 'That 3am night shift.... yep I'm tired too son!' to accompany the snap.

So sweet: Ryan Thomas was every inch the doting father when he shared a sweet snap alongside his adorable son Roman Ravello on Tuesday

Both Ryan and Roman were in bed in the sweet selfie that showed the newborn yawning while dressed in a white babygrow.

The actor also touched on the difficulty of parenting amid the pandemic and shared details of an Instagram Live where he will be discussing his experience.

No doubt Ryan was giving his fiancee Lucy Mecklenburgh a rest while he soothed their newborn in the night.

Lucy and Ryan revealed they had welcomed baby Roman in an Instagram post on March 12.

Honest: He has been honest with his followers about the struggles of welcoming a newborn away from family during the coronavirus lockdown

The fitness guru announced her pregnancy in August, after Ryan proposed during a trip to Italy's Amalfi Coast in June 2019.

The couple met on Celebrity Island With Bear Grylls in early 2017.

They brushed off split rumours in December 2018 after Lucy was pictured looking cosy with a man in a Dubai nightclub, believed to be her friend and business associate Adam Rossiter.

Family: He recently revealed his joy at finally seeing his daughter Scarlett, 11, meet his baby boy after they were kept apart amid the coronavirus outbreak

Ryan is already dad to Scarlett, 11, with his ex Tina O'Brien.

He recently revealed his joy at finally seeing his two children getting to meet in person for the first time after they were kept apart amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Last month, he shared a snap of Scarlett smiling at the camera as she cradled Roman who wore a grey T-shirt with 'Little Brother' written across it.

Ryan recently appeared on This Morning alongside his twin brothers Adam and Scott, both 31, to discuss their new show, Absolutely India: Mancs in Mumbai.

Travelling: Ryan recently appeared on This Morning alongside his twin brothers Adam and Scott, both 31, to discuss their new show, Absolutely India: Mancs in Mumbai

The show follows the brothers as they travel around India with their father to learn about their family history.

Scott - who starred on Love Island - said: 'I've always been in the shadows I just wanted my moment!

'Honestly we've been approached a few times to do a show, we wanted to do something with a bit of substance rather than at home with the Thomas'.

Ryan added: 'Everyone asked us did we get on on this trip, and for once this were wasn't any arguments.

'When you go away with someone for so long there's always a disagreement. It was such a family bonding time, we didn't have time to argue.'

Yet Adam was quick to chip in: We've not stopped arguing since though!'
The Nasarawa State Government says its response team is tracking 74 contacts of the House of Assembly member who died due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Governor Abdullahi Sule made the disclosure while speaking at the beginning of an extended security meeting on Tuesday in Lafia, the state capital.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Suleiman Adamu, the member representing Nasarawa-Central, died on Thursday of COVID-19.

Mr Sule explained that the 74 contacts being tracked were those who had contact with the deceased in Nasarawa Local Government Area alone.

The contacts included the immediate family members of the deceased and all those who participated in his burial rites, the governor said.

He added that the government was receiving serious collaboration from stakeholders in Nasarawa local councils as well as the Emir of Nasarawa, Jibrin Usman, in tracking the contacts.

The governor explained that the government was still making efforts to identify those who had contact with the deceased outside Nasarawa.

The Speaker of the assembly and the other 22 members are currently observing self-quarantine.

We would not relent until we get the contacts of all confirmed cases in the state to prevent them from infecting other members of the public if they have the virus.

Samples from all the identified contacts including the Speaker and members of the assembly had already been taken and we are awaiting their results, the governor said.

Mr Sule also said the House of Assembly Complex had been fumigated to disinfect it before being put to use.

The governor further said the government had opened more quarantine centres across all the local councils in order to strengthen the measures to contain the spread of the virus in the state.

NAN reports that as at the time of filing this report, Nasarawa State had recorded 12 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with one death.

(NAN).
Is the Indian lockdown being eased for smartphone sale and manufacturing along with tower installation? No one seems to be quite sure.

For example the Chinese smartphone manufacturer Realme has started taking online orders for its products and, it says, has started selling its smartphones and accessory products online, as well as resuming operations via its offline channels in compliance with the latest government directives  at least in government-defined green and orange zones.

Red, orange and green zones denote the three levels of strictness of the lockdown. The fewest restrictions are in green zones; the most restrictions are in red zones. The lockdown continues until 17 May but some restrictions have been eased in orange and green zones, making handset sales more likely.

This doesnt necessarily mean Realme India can restart production, however; recent news reports have suggested that the company is still awaiting permission to go ahead.

The production situation is still vague in much of the country; some phone makers are set to start manufacturing, with permission from local state authorities. Others, notably those in red zones, are less sure of their situation.

Clarity on construction and installation of new telecommunications towers is also in short supply. The Tower And Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) has written to the Indian Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to clarify the rules for a business that, inevitably, involves a lot of movement of people and parts.

There is no doubt an argument that tower building is needed to meet additional capacity needs and, even though the lockdown is continuing until 17 May, the government has been trying to ease restrictions slightly to allow some modest reopening of the economy. However, it is not clear when telecom tower-related work will move beyond necessary maintenance, repairs and upgrades.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 00:18:17|Editor: huaxia

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Botswanan President Mokgweetsi Masisi attends a parliament meeting in Gaborone, Botswana, May 5, 2020. Botswana has intentions to slowly open up the economy following a five weeks lockdown, ending on Thursday, to fight COVID-19 pandemic. The country's legislators will convene an emergency parliament meeting on Wednesday to discuss new regulations expected to usher in opening of businesses and schools, under strict supervision. According to proposed regulations, presented by President Mokgweetsi Masisi to parliament on Tuesday, the Southern Africa country wants to gradual allow businesses, traders or school to operate after satisfying Health Services Director or any authorized official that they will prevent the spread of COVID-19. (Photo by Tshekiso Tebalo/Xinhua)

GABORONE, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Botswana has intentions to slowly open up the economy following a five weeks lockdown, ending on Thursday, to fight COVID-19 pandemic.

The country's legislators will convene an emergency parliament meeting on Wednesday to discuss new regulations expected to usher in opening of businesses and schools, under strict supervision.

According to proposed regulations, presented by President Mokgweetsi Masisi to parliament on Tuesday, the Southern Africa country wants to gradual allow businesses, traders or school to operate after satisfying Health Services Director or any authorized official that they will prevent the spread of COVID-19.

"From 8th May, 2020 until 20th May, 2020 at midnight during this phase of the lockdown and for the remainder of the state of public emergency, a trade, business or school may operate where it has satisfied the Director of Health Services, or any person authorized by the Director for that purpose, of its ability to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including the following," said the planned regulation.

Some of the proposed interventions that institutions and entrepreneurs are expected to put in place include checking of body temperature of all persons accessing the trade business or school, and where a person's body temperature is 37.4 degrees Celsius.

The new regulations will demand any person with body temperature above the stipulated level shall not be allowed to access the trade, business or school premises and the person shall be referred to the Health Services Director.

In addition, government wants regular disinfecting of the trade, business or school premises, under the supervision of the Health Service Director.
A 19-year-old New Jersey man holding onto a window of a moving vehicle with his hands while on his bicycle Saturday night died after losing control of the bike and falling to the concrete, officials said.

Christopher Pina, of Spotswood, was pronounced dead at around 11:20 p.m. near Veterans Park in Monroe, the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office said in a statement Tuesday.

Minutes earlier, Pina left a home on Avenue J and went to the park, where he latched onto the open passenger window of an acquaintances car, officials said.

No one has been charged, though the investigation is ongoing, the prosecutors office said.

A spokeswoman for the prosecutors office declined to answer additional questions from NJ Advance Media about the incident.

Anyone with information is asked to call Monroe police officer Daniel Mosakowski at 732-521-0222 or Det. Mark Morris of the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office at 732-745-3927.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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[May 05, 2020] Codexis Expands and Strengthens its Leadership Team with Two Executive Hires

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Codexis, Inc., a leading protein engineering company and developer of novel biotherapeutics, announces the appointment of Stefan Lutz, Ph.D. as Senior Vice President, Research and Karl A. Schoene, Ph.D. as Senior Vice President, Development & Operations, effective immediately. Both positions are newly created and both report to Codexis President and CEO John Nicols.

We are fortunate to welcome two extraordinary professionals to lead functions that are critical to future growth in both our Performance Enzymes and our Novel Biotherapeutics business segments, stated Mr. Nicols. Stefan and Karl will serve as key members of our leadership team, and we look forward to their many contributions as we expand and grow our business. Stefan brings unprecedented knowledge in protein engineering and synthetic biology, which are at the core of our R&D activities. He and his accomplishments are well-known and highly regarded within our industry and by many of our scientists at Codexis. After years in academia and as a consultant, he has a keen interest in applying his knowledge full time in a commercial setting. His drive and expertise make him ideally qualified to lead our research team, which represents over half of our employees, and to advance the discovery of proteins that are the engine for our product growth and business expansion, he said. Karl has proven success in leading dynamic, multi-functional teams and growing numerous global specialty chemical platform businesses in a wide variety of settings over his substantial career, said Mr. Nicols. This broad-based experience will be highly valuable in developing, scaling and commercializing Codexis growing suite of products discovered in small scale under our CodeEvolver process. Karl also brings a wealth of commercial stage expertise beneficial to optimizing and leading the global manufacturing and supply chain operations that continue to build as the company grows. Dr. Lutz most recently was a Professor and Chair of the Chemistry Department at Emory University, having joined the university in 2002 and ascending to Chemistry Department Chair in 2014. In addition to his academic work, over the past six years, he has consulted with AgriMetis, a technology company focused on integrating biology, biochemistry and chemistry for the development of sustainable crop protection solutions. He previously served on the scienti?c advisory boards of ZuvaChem, an industrial biotechnology company, CODA Genomics Inc., a firm using biology and advanced computational algorithms to design and synthesize novel, high-diversity gene libraries for engineering proeins, and SynBioX Inc., an innovative synthetic biology company he co-founded. Dr. Lutz has co-authored more than 65 articles published in peer-reviewed journals and six technical books and journals. He holds six patents and is a frequent lecturer and speaker.



Dr. Lutz received a B.Sc. in chemistry/chemical engineering from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, an M.Sc. in Biotechnology from the University of Teesside and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Florida. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Schoene most recently served as President, CEO and Director of Elevance Renewable Sciences, positions he held for four years after first serving as Chief Technology Officer. During his tenure, he led the rapid development of high-performing, environmentally friendly specialty chemical products, managed international joint ventures and oversaw product manufacturing using the companys proprietary technology. Before that, he served for three years as President, CEO and Director of Accutest Holding Inc., a network of environmental testing laboratories. At Accutest he led a performance turnaround that resulted in the sale of the company to SGS Group. Earlier, Dr. Schoene served for four years as President, CEO and COO of the R&D-driven technology company InEnTec LLC and for eight years in positions of increasing responsibility at the multinational specialty chemical company AkzoNobel. Since 2013, Dr. Schoene has served as Chairman of Ionic Solutions LLC, a firm he founded to advise businesses in the medical, pharmaceutical, chemical, energy and adjacent industries.

Dr. Schoene holds a B.S. in chemistry and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Virginia, where he was also appointed to the faculty as an instructor of physical chemistry. About Codexis, Inc.

Codexis is a leading protein engineering company that applies its proprietary CodeEvolver protein engineering technology to develop proteins for a variety of applications, including enzymes as biotherapeutics, as biocatalysts for the commercial manufacture of pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals, industrial enzymes, and for use in molecular diagnostics. For its Biotherapeutics pipeline, Codexis technology enables improvements in protein efficacy, through enhancement of activity, affinity, stability, as well as uptake by target cells. For more information, see www.codexis.com. Forward-Looking Statements

To the extent that statements contained in this press release are not descriptions of historical facts regarding Codexis, they are forward-looking statements reflecting the current beliefs and expectations of management made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are, in some cases, beyond Codexis control and that could materially affect actual results. Factors that could materially affect actual results include, among others: Codexis dependence on its licensees and collaborators; Codexis dependence on a limited number of products and customers; and potential adverse effects to Codexis business if its customers products are not received well in the markets. Additional information about factors that could materially affect actual results can be found in Codexis Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 28, 2020, including under the caption Risk Factors and in Codexis other periodic reports filed with the SEC. Codexis expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Investor Contact:

LHA Investor Relations

Jody Cain, 310-691-7100

[email protected] Photos accompanying this announcement are available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0ca15bc5-3a9a-4f6e-b23b-06a58bc6d480 https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ff6ae2fd-6595-4787-b665-622a270882b2

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MIAMI, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- BNY Mellon Wealth Management has named Myriam Soto as Head of International Wealth Planning and Fiduciary Services. In this role, she will be responsible for the delivery of multi-jurisdictional wealth planning and fiduciary services, as part of our Active Wealth approach to serving global clients. Myriam will report directly to Head of International Wealth Management, Charles Long.

Myriam rejoins BNY Mellon, where she previously held a number of roles within International Wealth Management, including Head of Global Fiduciary Planning and Development, and President and Chairman of the Board of the BNY Mellon Cayman Trust Company. Prior to returning to BNY Mellon, she spent two years as a Senior Wealth Advisor for J.P. Morgan's Latin America Private Bank.

"We are pleased to welcome Myriam back to BNY Mellon and the International Wealth Management team," said Long. "With more than 20 years of experience providing wealth planning advice to global families, her understanding of the complexities of multi-jurisdictional wealth, and the cross-border issues that often arise, are unmatched. We look forward to her leadership in implementing sophisticated strategies that meet the evolving needs of our international clients."

In this capacity, Myriam will resume her role as a member of the Board of Directors of BNY Mellon Cayman Trust Company and senior member of the International Wealth Management team.

Myriam holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hofstra University, a J.D. from Pepperdine University School of Law, and a LL.M. in Taxation from New York University School of Law.

ABOUT BNY MELLON WEALTH MANAGEMENT

For more than two centuries, BNY Mellon Wealth Management has provided services to financially successful individuals and families, their family offices and business enterprises, planned giving programs, and endowments and foundations. It has $236 billion in total client assets, as of March 31, 2020, and an extensive network of offices in the U.S. and internationally. BNY Mellon Wealth Management, which delivers leading wealth advice across investments, banking, custody, and wealth and estate planning, conducts business through various operating subsidiaries of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation. For more information, visit bnymellonwealth.com or follow us on Twitter @BNYMellonWealth.

ABOUT BNY MELLON

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Sheep farmers in the UK are looking to the United States market as a 'valuable opportunity' to export more British lamb and mutton.

Exporting more sheepmeat to the US - a country which traditionally has very low lamb consumption - could help 'stimulate interest' amongst American consumers.

This is according to the National Sheep Association (NSA), which has welcomed news that trade discussions between the two countries are commencing following Covid-19 disruption.

The group believes there are opportunities for the UK sheep industry in getting access for lamb and mutton into the United States.

NSA chief executive Phil Stocker said: I am convinced that our genetics and British lamb and mutton, very different products to those produced by most US sheep farmers, could help stimulate real interest."

For British sheep producers, access into the US could create demand for those high-value cuts, particularly sheepmeat with provenance and a story.

Mr Stocker said both countries have close connections, particularly in culture and heritage  something which sheep farming in Britain is 'steeped in'.

And while developing market access to the EU is a priority for the UK sector, the NSA said sheep farmers are eager to expand stronger connections further afield.

We dont see this as an alternative to the EU market, but it would be a positive trade that would complement both our exports and our domestic market," Mr Stocker said.

"I could see future US demand for British lamb and mutton coming in alongside our own catering markets, all of which help to balance carcase demand and optimise value across the entire sheepmeat product range.

However, sheep farmers have previously expressed concerns about the quality of standards British producers expect importers to meet in any post-Brexit trade deal.

While these concerns do persist, the NSA said it has welcomed statements from government officials that in terms of reciprocal trade UK standards will be protected.

Mr Stocker said: "While as a general statement the government is enthusiastic about free and open trade it does recognise that agriculture and food, like the NHS, is an industry that requires a level of protection.

"I do expect the commitments not to undermine our unique approach to farming, food, and the environment to be upheld.
A Londonderry principal has called for more clarity on when schools in Northern Ireland might reopen after the Republic confirmed they would not resume there before the summer.

Schools here have been closed to all children, except those of key workers and those classified as vulnerable, since March 20 as part of national efforts to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

In the Republic, schools were closed by March 13.

On Friday night, the Irish Government outlined its road map for reopening society and businesses across the country in a slow and phased manner, beginning on May 18.

The plan sets out five stages for unlocking restrictions at three week intervals, but schools will remain closed until September.

As the Executive this week considers its approach to exiting the lockdown, First Minister Arlene Foster told yesterday's daily Stormont briefing that she could not say if there was a possibility of schools opening before September.

The DUP leader said schools cannot be reopened "in isolation from everything else" as it would have a knock on impact on people in work, childcare, transport and other areas.

"It is part of the whole plan that the Executive is working on," Mrs Foster said.

Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill added that schools would be affected by continued social distancing.

However, Michael Allen, principal of Lisneal College in the Waterside area of Londonderry, said more political direction is needed.

Mr Allen said: "We need some clarity from government, even just a proposal of whether it's going to be June or October - something needs to be spelt out for us to consult on.

"If the plan is to reopen prior to the end of the current academic year, then we would need some outline of what the science is around that.

"My major concern is that if the government get it wrong and there is a second wave, it could totally disrupt another academic year.

"We are trying to calculate grades for Years 11 to 14 at the moment and if we were to have another lockdown from September to Christmas, for example, that could prove even more challenging for a cohort of pupils who would have two years disrupted."

Justin McCamphill, NASUWT national official for Northern Ireland, also believes that the ongoing speculation around when schools here might reopen is unhelpful.

The NASUWT has already issued five conditions to the government to consider around the return of schools - including a demand that teachers have access to personal protective equipment (PPE), including face masks, gloves and aprons "where appropriate".

"The only valid decision can be made when the public health advice is that it is safe to do so," Mr McCamphill said.

"That is not the case at the minute and I don't see it being so in the foreseeable future.

"While the Republic of Ireland is looking towards the beginning of September, it's possible that the Executive may go for the same date.

"But it is not necessarily the case that everything will be back to normal by then and the government will have to factor in issues around social distancing and PPE provision for teachers."
As the prospect of mass furloughs and severe spending cuts looms over the citys next budget, Houston officials are sitting on a pile of coronavirus stimulus money that amounts to more than double the shortfall projected by Mayor Sylvester Turner.

The rub, at least for now, is that the strings attached to the $404 million Houston received from the so-called Coronavirus Relief Fund  a $150 billion trove sent to states and local governments as part of the roughly $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act  bar officials from spending the aid on expenses they already had budgeted.

Mayors, governors from both parties, congressional Democrats and even some Senate Republicans have pushed for looser restrictions that would allow sales tax-deprived governments to use the money to plug budget holes, instead of limiting them to expenses tied directly to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, as Congress weighs a second stimulus package for local and state governments that may earmark funds for lost revenue after all, Turner is under pressure to squeeze as much money as possible out of the initial round of CARES Act aid.

Prompting the tension was the Treasury Departments April 22 guidance that eligible spending includes payroll expenses for public safety, public health, health care and other employees whose services are substantially dedicated to mitigating or responding to the pandemic.

Last week, City Controller Chris Brown penned a letter to Finance Director Tantri Emo and Turner-appointed COVID-19 recovery czar Marvin Odum in which he urged the administration to craft a spending plan for the funds. He told city council members last week that officials in other Texas cities have begun determining how much of their public safety expenses are directly related to COVID-19.

The potential exists for these costs to be offset by CARES Act funds, which could help alleviate added pressure placed on the General Fund, Brown wrote, referring to the citys $2.5 billion tax-supported fund that pays for most day-to-day core operations, including public safety, trash pickup, parks and libraries.

Turner, who has asked federal lawmakers to allow more flexible use of the aid, said CARES Act funds may only cover public safety expenses stemming from overtime that is specifically related to COVID-19 and was not already budgeted.

The mayors interpretation is far narrower than that of Houston firefighters union president Marty Lancton. At a city council budget committee meeting last week, Lancton read from a letter sent by a top official from the International Association of Fire Fighters who argued that the CARES Act covers any operations performed by fire department personnel since March 1.

Lancton contended that COVID-19 has affected the fire departments operations across the board, even when firefighters are not responding to coronavirus-related calls, by upending protocols and forcing firefighters into quarantine even if they did not come into direct contact with an infected patient.

Turner spokeswoman Mary Benton acknowledged that the federal government left a very gray area in defining what is specifically related to COVID-19, though she reiterated the mayors stance on how the city can spend the money.

Thats why the city needs maximum flexibility, Benton said.  The US Conference of Mayors has been fiercely advocating for this flexibility, and as a member of the advisory board, Mayor Turner has been actively involved in both those discussions and follow-up advocacy.

Turner also has asked Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz to help loosen restrictions on the CARES Act funds. On Thursday, however, Cruz and four other Republican senators signed a letter to President Trump in which they wrote: We believe additional money sent to the states for lost revenue or without appropriate safeguards will be used to bail out unfunded pensions, reward decades of state mismanagement, and incentivize states to become more reliant on federal taxpayers.

Meanwhile, Cornyn balked last Thursday at a $1 trillion spending figure floated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for the next aid package. However, he said he is behind the idea of allowing governments to use the $150 billion to replace revenue lost during the pandemic.

I think thats related to the coronavirus, and I would favor giving them flexibility, Cornyn said, according to multiple reports.

The city must return whatever funds it fails to spend by the end of the year. Houston finance department officials did not respond to an inquiry about how much the city already has spent on personal protective equipment, drive-thru testing sites and other eligible expenses, though Benton said the mayor has instructed all department directors to track spending related to COVID-19. The federal funds also would back a proposed city rental assistance program.

Brown, in his letter to Emo and Odum, said those collective costs will not exceed the citys $404 million allotment. The controller is expected at Wednesdays city council meeting to report the citys March sales tax revenue, the first true picture of the pandemics impact on the city budget. Brown and Emo both have projected a $23 million loss in March sales tax revenue; April is expected to be far worse, as major restrictions on public gatherings began partway through March.

Turner has projected a dire image of the citys finances, warning that the budget for the fiscal year that begins in July will require thousands of furloughs and major deferred payments, and will be the worst budget that the city will deal with in its history. Lancton said the CARES Act already provides the city with a great opportunity to reinforce firefighters and paramedics on the front lines of the pandemic response  without the divisive politics and rancor we too often face at City Hall.

jasper.scherer@chron.com

twitter.com/jaspscherer
A new study by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory states suggests a new strain of the coronavirus is more contagious than the original that originated in Wuhan, China, according to Tuesday report on Yahoo.com.

The now-dominant strain also appears to spread faster and could make individuals who already recovered from the disease more vulnerable to a second infection, according to the report.

The 33-page report was first posted last week on BioRxiv, a website routinely used by researchers to share their findings before it is peer reviewed.

The intention is to help speed up collaborations with other scientists working on COVID-19 vaccines or treatments.

PennLives complete coronavirus coverage

The mutation identified in the Los Alamos report is said to affect the spikes on the exterior of the coronavirus, who allows it to enter human respiratory cells.

The new strain first appeared in Europe in February and migrated to the East Coast of the United States. Its been the dominant strain across the world since mid-March, the research said.

The report was the result of analysis of more than 6,000 coronavirus sequences from around the world. Researchers used data from the Global Initiative for Sharing All Influenza Data, according to the Yahoo account.

Follow Eric Epler on Twitter -- @threejacker

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 Hershey retirement community reported more than 60 coronavirus cases, 10 deaths

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Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti will remain detained under the stringent Public Safety Act after the authorities extended it by another three months, barely three hours before it was to expire.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration also extended the detention of senior National Conference leader Ali Mohammed Sagar and PDP's Sartaj Madani for three months under the Public Safety Act (PSA).

The order extending the PSA, issued by the home department of the UT, evoked sharp reactions from political parties.

"Stifling voices of reason has become the norm for the current dispensation esp post illegal scrapping of Article 370. Therefore, extension of my mother's detention doesn't surprise me. Wishful thinking to assume that by smothering any debate on Article 370, the issue will vanish," Iltija, daughter of Mufti, tweeted from the official handle of her mother.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah, who was released from the PSA in March, termed the extension of the PSA on Mufti and others "unbelievably cruel and retrograde decision".

In a tweet, he said "...nothing she has done or said in any way justifies the way the Indian state has treated her and the others detained."



On detention of Sagar, who is NC general secretary of the, Omar tweeted, "I'm struggling to get my head around the decision and the logic behind it because it smacks of vindictiveness and nothing else. New Delhi needed to make friends in JK but is doing the opposite."



While Mufti is at present lodged at her official residence 'Fair View', which has been converted into a subsidiary jail, Sagar and Madani are in a government accommodation at Gupkar road.

Mufti was initially detained on August 5 last year when the Centre abrogated the special status of the erstwhile state and divided it into two union territories -- Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir.

Later, her six-month preventive custody was extended by invoking the PSA on February 5, alongside her political rival and former chief minister Omar Abdullah.

Having spent over eight months in detention at two government facilities that were designated as sub-jails, Mufti was shifted to her home on April 7, a move seen as a partial relief to her.

Earlier, Mufti was lodged at a government guesthouse in Chashma Shahi and a bungalow on Maulana Azad Road near Lal Chowk. Mufti heads the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which was in power in Jammu and Kashmir in alliance with the BJP till June 2018.

Several political leaders including Omar, Mufti and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah were detained by the authorities on August 5 last year. The PSA of senior Abdullah and his son was revoked earlier in March this year.

Mufti's daughter, Iltija, 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 March 18. However, the petition was not taken up for hearing due to 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.)
As the COVID-19 pandemic takes its toll, the plight of Americans has dominated the news cycle with stories about rising death tolls, shortages of critical medical equipment and disruptions in essential supply chains. Almost as tragic have been the stories of massive job losses, both temporary and permanent. State governors, members of Congress and federal officials have been struggling to respond to the ravages of the pandemic. There is no denying this pandemic has impacted the U.S. worse than many other countries, but not all. As difficult as it may seem we must also realize there are countries facing worse than the U.S.

Prior to the pandemic Cubas economy was already in crisis. The people of Cuba were suffering due to shortages of food, medicine and fuel  in large part due to the embargo the U.S. has enforced on Cuba for nearly 60 years. Though there are supposed to be exceptions for humanitarian efforts, confusion over the sanctions and the threat of crippling fines make the acquisition of medical supplies unnecessarily difficult. Recently, the business providing Cuba with much needed ventilators was purchased by a U.S. company, placing it under the U.S. embargo and prohibiting its planned sale of ventilators to Cuba. Once a company is U.S. owned, they are banned from selling to Cuba. To make matters worse, U.S. content allowed in foreign sales to Cuba is restricted to less than 10%. U.S. sanctions are so pervasive that many foreign companies are unwilling to even run the risk associated with such a heavily sanctioned environment for fear of repercussions to themselves making Cubas situation even more dire. Imagine if we were facing the same barriers in the midst of the pandemic.

Considering the current crisis we must suspend U.S. sanctions on Cuba to ensure the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian and medical supplies to the Cuban people.

Some U.S. sanctions were lifted in 2015, but sadly put back in place with harsher restrictions in 2017. All politics aside, all blame aside, there is no legitimate argument for cutting off the entire supply chain to any country in the time of pandemic, especially to a country that has put forth their best in a time of crisis. Prior to the pandemic, despite enduring decades of hardship created by the U.S. embargo, Cuba was able to develop a vaccine for lung cancer currently undergoing testing in the U.S., eliminate amputations due to diabetes and make advances in the treatment of viral infections. Some of these medicines are playing a role in combating COVID-19 around the world. Incredibly, despite their own adversity, Cuba has sent over 1,400 doctors, nurses, epidemiologists and other medical personnel to 21 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America to aid in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now that Cubans are also incurring the ravages of COVID-19, maintaining the embargo just appears cruel and limits U.S. influence not only in Cuba but throughout the Americas. Having experienced tragic loss and hardship our sympathy and compassion for others should increase. We must acknowledge we are causing harm to the Cuban people and lift the ban in order to limit human suffering. We cannot allow our own adversity to harden us and make us selfish, especially to a country upon which we have caused and worsened hardship and that still manages to offer help to others despite their own, worse hardship. Our compassion for others is what makes us civilized. Our country will survive the pandemic, but it will not survive a loss of humanity. Let's do the right thing and lift U.S. sanctions on Cuba during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rep. Jessica Karjala, D-Billings, represents House District 48 in the Montana Legislature.
Elevators in the Capitol were limited to a single occupant as the Assembly returned to work on Monday. (John Myers / Los Angeles Times)

Separated from one another and wearing masks while speaking into microphones draped with protective coverings, some members of the California Legislature returned to the state Capitol on Monday, determined to begin addressing the myriad problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Seven weeks after public health concerns brought the work of the Legislature to a sudden halt, only members of the Assembly are returning to Sacramento this week, with the Senate choosing to do so on May 11. And even then, neither house is planning to reconvene for final votes on bills until June  in large part because of the challenges for adequate physical distancing posed by the tightly placed desks for legislators in the chambers of the Senate and Assembly.

"I know its going to be a very different way of doing business. But I think it was important for us to be here, to start thinking about the great challenges that we have ahead," Assemblywoman Blanca Rubio (D-Baldwin Park) said during the day's first event, an Assembly hearing on healthcare issues.

Access to the historic statehouse remained limited. Those who were not legislators or staff members had their temperatures checked at the building's entrance. Elevators were limited to a single occupant  an easy rule to follow on Monday, given the Capitol's emptiness, but impossible during most springtime workdays, when dozens of hearings and events are usually scheduled.

"The work of the Legislature is essential for democracy, but preserving people's health as we do that is of the highest importance, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) said in a statement. We have spent the past six weeks developing a way to continue government with maximum safety."

Assembly members were advised by Dr. Peter Beilenson, director of Sacramento's County Department of Health Services, to be screened for the novel coronavirus before returning Monday.

To protect both the legislators when they gather and the public who will be attending, I recommended that they get tested, he said in an interview.

Story continues

Because asymptomatic people can still transmit the virus, Beilenson said, all lawmakers and staff should contact their private physicians to arrange coronavirus tests, even if they are not showing symptoms.

Anyone testing positive should isolate themselves at home for 14 days, Beilenson wrote in a memo to the Assembly. Of course, any legislator or staff that falls in the high-risk groups (65-plus and/or chronic underlying health conditions) should follow the guidance of their healthcare provider in terms of their decision about whether or not they should attend the session.

Some lawmakers, including Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), have balked at getting a test when many other members of the public, including healthcare workers, have not yet been checked for the virus. Gonzalez said she asked for a clear directive from Beilensons office that she could give to her doctor, but she has not received one.

As such, I do not meet our countys criteria for testing and will not ask to be pushed to the front of the line, Gonzalez said. If I am required to get tested in Sacramento, exhibit any symptoms or am exposed to a COVID-19-positive individual, I will do so.

Age is one risk factor among the 120 members of the Legislature. Thirteen members of the Senate are 65 or older, while 10 in that age group serve in the Assembly.

California had more than 55,000 confirmed cases and more than 2,200 deaths tied to the virus as of Monday afternoon, according to data collected by The Times. A spokesman for Rendon said his office has not heard of any Assembly member testing positive for COVID-19.

Six Assembly members asked for, and were granted, an excused absence from traveling to Sacramento due to age or underlying health conditions. One of them, Assemblyman Bill Quirk (D-Hayward), sent a letter to Rendon asking for consideration to vote remotely on bills.

We see individuals, despite taking the best of precautions, getting infected, Quirk said on Friday. This is concerning."

But legislative lawyers think a 2016 constitutional amendment, approved by voters, makes that untenable. Article IV, Section 7 of the California Constitution says that the proceedings of each house and the committees thereof shall be open and public, written as part of Proposition 54's mandate that bills be available for public review for 72 hours before a final vote. The concern is that lawmakers voting remotely wont meet the standard for public access to their actions.

Assemblyman Kevin Mullin (D-San Mateo), who serves as speaker pro tem, says hes working on a constitutional amendment to help clarify the rules in hopes that it provides governing options in times like these and during natural disasters. The change would have to be approved by voters this November.

How much the Legislature can accomplish this year is limited by the calendar. Almost all of the Assemblys policy committees will meet only one more time this year to consider bills authored by its members. Only 14 bills were on the agenda for Monday's meeting of the Assembly Transportation Committee, even though legislative records show 84 bills were sent to the committee  meaning most of them will be held without further action.

The transportation panel offered one of the more unusual moments on Monday, its 15 members and assorted staff convening in the cavernous Assembly chamber, where they could safely spread out.

Two legislators wore gloves. One of them, Assemblyman Mike Gipson (D-Carson), sported a black protective mask with the phrase "California Safe" written in white letters.

"What a historic moment," said Assemblywoman Luz Rivas (D-North Hollywood) as she stood behind a stanchion to present her bill, Assembly Bill 3213, which seeks to force new project priorities for the California High-Speed Rail Authority. With no public witnesses in person or dialed in by phone, her bill was quickly approved and sent to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
'Dangerous' to bring back Indians without COVID-19 tests: Kerala CM

India

pti-PTI

Thiruvananthapuram, May 05: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday urged the Centre to ensure that the NRIs who are returning to the country undergo COVID-19 tests before emplaning for their respective states.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vijayan highlighted the state's concern on the matter. Speaking to reporters, the Chief Minister said it was"dangerous" to bring back the stranded Non-Resident Keralites (NRK)s in various countries to the state without conducting any tests for COVID-19.

The state was informed that the expatriates will not be medically examined before boarding the flight from other countries. In each flight at least 200 passengers are likely to come and in case there are one or two infected people among them, there are chances of other passengers getting infected, Vijayan said.

Kerala CM Vijayan denies allegation of COVID-19 data leakage

There should not be any lapse in following Internationally accepted health protocols least there should be setback in the state's efforts to prevent community spread of COVID-19, he said. India has already sent three naval ships to evacuate its citizens stranded in the Maldives and UAE due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The state has been making systematic preparation for the return of NRKs, Vijayan said in the letter, a copy of which was released to the media here. Though Kerala wanted the NRKs to return to their home state, there should not be any compromise with regard to observance of the "Internationally accepted health protocols".

"It is quite unfortunate that internationally accepted health protocols are not being followed while arrangements are being made for bringing back our people from countries where the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been severe," Vijayan said. People travelling by chartered aircraft should be subject to COVID-19 tests before boarding, he said.

"The consequence of not doing so will result in people who are carriers of infection travelling along with others. This will further lead to spread of the infection as and when these people come to their homes," Chief Minister said in the letter.

At least 4.27 lakh NRKs have registered in the NORKA portal, of which about 1.69 lakh people constitute the most vulnerable sections-- those who have lost their jobs, employment contract has not been renewed; those released from prisons and awaiting deportation, pregnant women, students who have completed courses and whose visa had expired.

"However, as per the list prepared by the Union government, only 80,000 NRKs are in the priority list for being brought back to the state. In the first five days, only 2,250 people are supposed to arrive at three airports in Kerala-- Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode," Vijayan said.

He also wanted passengers to be brought through the Kannur International airport as at least 69,179 people have expressed keen interest in flying there, he said.

Vijayan also said all passengers will have to spend at least seven days in quarantine after which a PCR test would be conducted and those tested negative would be allowed to go for home quarantine.

Antibody tests would also be done, he said, adding that the state has placed orders for two lakh test kits. Vijayan said that those who are coming from red zones and hotspots in other states must also undergo quarantine in the government facility for a period of seven days.

The centre has proposed to open the skies from May 7 for the expatriates who are stranded in other countries due to the lockdown.
A hospital worker described as a "true gentleman" by colleagues has died after contracting coronavirus.

Tributes have been paid to Eleuterio 'Boy' Gibela, 68, who had worked at Blackpool Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust for 20 years.

The married father-of-two, known as 'Boy', worked for the domestic services team and died after testing positive for Covid-19.

Colleagues said they have been left "devastated" by his death, describing him as a "highly valued and respected" member of the team.

Eleuterio was known as 'Boy' to his colleagues / Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Kevin McGee, chief executive at the trust, said: It is with deep regret and huge sadness that I share with you the devastating news that we have lost a friend and colleague to the terrible Covid-19 virus.

Eleuterio was a valued, well-respected member of the team who will be greatly missed by all of us and we send our heartfelt condolences to his wife Deborah and daughters Louella Anne and Kristiana.

This is a terrible and poignant reminder of the situation we are facing every day to help others and I want to thank every member our staff for their continued care for our patients and community.

"Their continued courage and commitment to duty is inspirational and a comfort to us all in these difficult times.

One minute silence to NHS heroes who lost lives to the Coronavirus 1 /25 One minute silence to NHS heroes who lost lives to the Coronavirus London Ambulance Staff observe the minute silence today at their HQ in Waterloo Road Jeremy Selwyn Staff stand outside Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester during a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Shoppers queue in the rain outside Costco in Thurrock during a minutes silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA A minute silence in honour of key workers who have lost their lives due to COVID-19 Sky News London Ambulance Staff observe the minute silence today at their HQ in Waterloo Road Jeremy Selwyn Staff react outside Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester during a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA A staff member reacts outside Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester during a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Members of the public, NHS staff, and Police offices, some wearing PPE (personal protective equipment) of a face mask as a precautionary measure against COVID-19, pause for a minute's silence to honour UK key workers AFP via Getty Images A police officer observes a minute silence in honour of key workers who have lost their lives due to COVID-19 outside 10 Downing Street, Reuters London Ambulance Staff observe the minute silence today at their HQ in Waterloo Road Jeremy Selwyn Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill, Prime minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak stand inside 10 Downing Street, London, to observe a minutes silence in tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA A minute silence in honour of key workers who have lost their lives due to COVID-19 Sky News London Ambulance Staff observe the minute silence today at their HQ in Waterloo Road Jeremy Selwyn Staff stand outside the Royal Derby Hospital, during a minutes silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Staff stand outside the Royal Derby Hospital, during a minutes silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Staff stand inside Camberwell bus depot in London, during a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA National Shop Stewards Network protesters outside St Thomas' Hospital in London, during a minute's silence which was to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak. PA Staff members applaud outside the Royal Derby Hospital, following a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak. PA First Minister Nicola Sturgeon stands outside St Andrew's House in Edinburgh to observe a minute's silence in tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA

The hospital's critical care team said it had been a privilege to care for "one of their own" during the final weeks of Mr Gibela's life.

Beverley Thistlethwaite, contracts manager for Medirest, and a colleague of Mr Gibela, added: The loss of Eleuterio has touched us all deeply, he will be sorely missed by all of his colleagues.

"He was a true gentleman, always smiling and happy and was dedicated to doing his duties.

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He often brought us in homemade snacks giving us a little taste of the Philippines cuisine and when he visited his home country, he brought little souvenirs back for the office team.

To lose one of our own team is incredibly hard but we all feel very privileged to of known him, heaven has certainly gained a very special angel.
Market regulator Sebi has decided to extend the reduced cut-off time for subscription and redemption of mutual funds, including liquid and overnight schemes, till further notice, amid the ongoing nationwide lockdown to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier, the revised timings were effective from April 7 to April 30.

The move follows the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) extending reduced trading hours for debt market.

"Sebi has decided to extend the reduced cut-off timing for both subscription and redemption of mutual fund schemes till further notice," according to a communication from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi).

For subscriptions to liquid and overnight schemes, the regulator has revised the time to 12.30 pm, while the same for other schemes is 1 pm.

With respect to redemption of liquid, overnight and other mutual funds, Sebi has revised the timing to 1 pm.

In separate statements, BSE and NSE also announced the revised timings.

Liquid funds invest in cash assets such as treasury bills, certificates of deposit and commercial paper for shorter horizon and overnight funds invest in securities with maturity of one day.

Industry body Amfi had advised investors to transact through various online modes such as mobile applications and websites among others.

On Thursday, the RBI extended the truncated trading hours of debt as well as currency markets till further notice.

"In view of persisting operational dislocations and elevated levels of health risks warranting continuing restrictions on movement, work from home arrangements and business continuity plans, it has been decided that the amended trading hours i e, from 10.00 am to 2.00 pm for RBI-regulated markets...shall be extended till further notice," it said.

The government on Friday announced that a "limited" lockdown, including suspension of inter-state travel, air and train services, will continue to remain in force for another two weeks throughout the country from May 4 but some activities would be allowed after classifying areas into Red, Orange and Green zones.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kashmiri Muslim devotees offer prayer outside the shrine of Sufi saint Sheikh Syed Abdul Qadir Jeelani in Srinagar in December 2019. The image was part of a series of photographs by photojournalists Mukhtar Khan, Dar Yasin and Channi Anand, three Associated Press photographers based in Srinagar and Jammu, who were awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography. (AP/Mukhtar Khan)

Srinagar: Three photojournalists from Jammu & Kashmir have been awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for their striking images of life in the valley. Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin of the Associated Press won the coveted prize in the feature photography category.

The announcement of the award gave cause for elation in the media fraternity in Jammu & Kashmir about two weeks after the polices seemingly gratuitous actions against three of its members.

Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand have been honoured for work reflecting life in Jammu and Kashmir during the crackdown and communication blackout that followed the central government contentious move of stripping the state of its special constitutional status and splitting it up into two union territories in August last year.

Dar Yasin, Mukhtan Khan and Channi Anand.

This recognition for our colleagues has come at a time when Kashmiri journalists are facing intimidation by the state. Also, there are road blocks in the day-to-day functioning of journalists. This award is that rare good news that provides Kashmiri journalists an opportunity to celebrate their own existence. It is sort of a reassurance that good work is eventually noticed, said senior journalist Muzamil Jaleel.

While the curfew restrictions and other official curbs pushed almost the entire population of the erstwhile state indoors, media persons were caught in a more complex situation. With all means of communication closed and curbs clamped on their own movement, journalists were handicapped in reaching out to their readers, listeners or viewers.

However, Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand found ways to let outsiders see what was happening in the territory. As has been reported by their employer Associated Press (AP), an American news agency headquartered in New York City, the trio after snaking around roadblocks, sometimes taking cover in strangers homes and hiding cameras in vegetable bags captured images of protests, police and paramilitary action and daily life  and then headed to the airport to persuade travellers to carry the photo files out with them and get them to the APs office in New Delhi.

The news agency said they have been awarded for their extraordinary photojournalism of the crisis and military lockdown in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

The highly acclaimed Pulitzer Prize was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer. It is administered by Columbia University. This is the first time that anyone in Jammu and Kashmir has bagged it.

The three photojournalists were barred from speaking to the outside media by AP. However, as quoted by the news agency, Yasin said about the work he did post-August: It was always cat-and-mouse. These things made us more determined than ever to never be silenced.

He later tweeted, Thank you, colleagues, friends, brothers. I would just like to say thank you for standing by us always. Its an honour and a privilege beyond any we could have ever imagined. Its overwhelming to receive this honour.

Mukthar Khan said he never imagined he would get a Pulitzer in his lifetime. It is a great honour, unimaginable though. I could never have imagined getting it in my lifetime. Since it has come, I must say it couldnt have been possible without the support I received all through my career from my family -- both at home and AP.

Channi Anand was quoted by the news agency as saying, I was shocked and could not believe it. AP president and CEO Gary Pruitt said, This honour continues APs great tradition of award-winning photography."

Congratulatory messages poured in for the three photojournalists with many people taking to social media platforms to express their warm pleasure over their winning this years Pulitzer.

Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi tweeted, Congratulations to Indian photojournalists Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand for winning a Pulitzer Prize for their powerful images of life in Jammu & Kashmir. You make us all proud.

Former J&K chief minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah wrote on the microblogging site It's been a difficult year for journalists in Kashmir & that's saying something considering the last 30 years haven't exactly been easy. Congratulations to @daryasin, @muukhtark_khan & @channiap on this prestigious award. More power to your cameras."

Iltija Mufti tweeted from her mother Mehbooba Muftis Twitter account Congratulations @daryasin @muukhtark_khan for your exemplary photography capturing the humanitarian crisis in Kashmir post illegal abrogation of Article 370. Bizarre that our journalists win accolades abroad but are punished under draconian laws on home turf.

Among those who rejoiced in the award were members of the media fraternity based in the twin capitals of J&K. Kashmiris are rejoicing today. A very good news coming after a very long time. Many congratulations, Mukhtar Khan, Dar Yasin and Channi Anand. Kashmir is proud of you, tweeted Vijdan Mohammad Kawoosa, a data Journalist at a national newspaper.

Indian Express deputy editor Muzamil Jaleel said, This is one of the biggest awards conferred on journalists in recognition of their exemplary professional work. Our entire Kashmiri journalist fraternity is delighted that our colleagues have received such an honour.

Speaking to this newspaper, he said, It is a rare feat that was achieved despite extremely difficult circumstances to function as a journalist. This international award to our colleagues is in a way a testament to the professional capability and commitment towards the highest standards of journalism of Kashmiri journalists.

However, the award also drew criticism from some sections. The Twitter handle @HinduAmericans, reacting to the Pulitzer Prize announcement, said, I respect the Pulitzer Prize Committee and AP, but you messed up on this one. These photos seem to promote violence, lies, and terrorism against civilians. These photographers may be not ethical and may be paid agents. Have you investigated their work and who helps them?
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

GUWAHATI: Domestic pigs continued to die in Assam as the government is battling the deadly pandemic of African swine fever (AFS) in the animal.

This is the first time India is dealing with an outbreak of AFS.

According to official sources, 2,904 pigs died till 5pm on Tuesday. The deaths were reported from six districts. According to a census carried out last year, the states pig population is 21 lakh.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal asked the Veterinary and Forest departments to work with the National Pig Research Centre of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and draw a broad roadmap to save the states pig population.

The Chief Minister asked doctors and other functionaries to ensure cleanliness and total sanitization of the pig habitable areas and use disinfectants, an official statement said.

Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Minister Atul Bora told this newspaper that the government had taken the pandemic seriously as the mortality rate in AFS is very high  from 90 to 100 per cent.

We are taking several measures to prevent the spread of the virus to other districts. We have formulated some plans, including the formation of a high-powered committee with officials and pig farmers, and are working according to those, Bora said.

Human beings do not get infected by the virus but they could be its carriers, he explained.

The Minister said as of now, the department did not have any plans to cull the animals. He said it was working on other alternative options, including containment.

We will collect samples within a radius of one kilometer of areas affected and test them. Similarly, containment zones will be created within a kilometer radius of infected areas. The surveillance zones will be within 10 km, he said.

Manoj Basumatary, who is a pig farmer and founding president of Northeast Progressive Pig Farmers Association, said the pig farmers had been severely affected, first by COVID-19 pandemic and now by AFS. The annual pork business of the Northeast is of around Rs. 8,000-10,000 crore with Assam being the largest supplier.

The AFS was first detected in 1921 in Kenya. No vaccines or medicines have been discovered so far.
NEW HAVEN  Nine dirt bike riders were arrested and 12 bikes were seized by New Haven and West Haven police Sunday following a plainclothes police operation.

Theyre terrorizing our neighborhoods, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said Monday in a press event outside the New Haven Police Department garage. The city of New Haven has no tolerance for this behavior.

Elicker said he intends to work collaboratively with the mayors of Hartford, Bridgeport, Waterbury and New London to figure out ways to end dirt biking on public roads.

They are looking for fun, they are looking to break the law and thats got to stop. New Haven is not a place where people are going to do this anymore, Elicker said.

Elicker has considered an ordinance to further control riding dirt bikes and ATVs in the city.

Although no officers were seriously injured during the operation, Assistant Chief Karl Jacobson said this type of operation is dangerous. One officer, he said, scraped his knee attempting to pull someone off a bike and was taken for a ride on the back of the moving dirt bike.

Jacobson said seven of the nine arrests were local, but the majority of bikers are believed to have been from Wethersfield and Hartford. However, most were able to get away in a U-Haul, he said.

New Haven officers arrested seven peopleand seized eight bikes, while West Haven officers arrested two people and seized four bikes, he said. Jacobson said officers will review surveillance footage from around the city and he expects more arrests will be coming.

Dont expect I wont be showing up at your door pretty soon, he said.

Charges include reckless endangerment, reckless driving and interfering with an officer, he said.

In a release Monday, Chief Otoniel Reyes thanked the West Haven Police Department for assisting with these efforts.

I also thank the West Haven officers who assisted New Haven in this initiative to enforce laws for all-terrain vehicles and dirt bikes, Reyes said in the release. The community needs to know the lawless riding of ATVs and dirt bikes on city streets will not be tolerated and as challenging as effective enforcement may be, we will continue to address this. Those who would endanger public safety and ruin our quality of life will be held accountable.

Because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Jacobson said those arrested were issued misdemeanor summonses, but in the future dirt bikers could expect felony charges.

New Haven police, in the release, said the following were arrested in the city:

Josue Colon, 20, of Amherst Street, Wethersfield, is charged with reckless endangerment and reckless driving.

Gordon Farrell III, 22, of Burwell Road, West Haven, is charged with reckless endangerment, reckless driving, interfering with an officer and an additional motor vehicle violation.

Christopher Montefusco-Bicklell, 20, of Fairview Avenue, East Haven, is charged with reckless endangerment, reckless driving and fifth-degree larceny.

Kennie Negron-Soler, 25, of Truman Street, New Haven, is charged with reckless endangerment, reckless driving, suspended operators license and additional motor vehicle violations.

Carmelo Piris, 42, of Kensington Street, New Haven, is charged with reckless driving, interfering with an officer and additional motor vehicle violations.

Jose Sanchez, 20, of Bonner Street, Hartford, is charged with reckless endangerment, interfering with an officer and engaging police in pursuit.

A fifteen-year-old New Haven juvenile was released to a parent and charges have yet to be filed.

Information on the arrests by West Haven police was not immediately available.

Jacobson said the city is considering several options on what to do with the seized bikes. Hartford recently destroyed several seized bikes, an option Jacobson said the city has not ruled out. One of the seized bikes was reported stolen, he said, and officers will be checking registration paperwork for all seized bikes.

brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

It's been almost three years since thousands of Australian sheep died during a voyage from Australia to the Middle East. My group's new research provides insight into the heat stress faced by sheep exported in recent years and casts further doubt on the industry's future.

We found sheep experienced heat stress on more than half of voyages to the hottest port in the Middle East, Doha, over three summers from 2016 to 2018.

This is the first time the extent of heat stress in live sheep exports from Australia has been quantified, and the findings do not bode well. A federal government ban on exports during the Northern Hemisphere summer is already hurting the industry. And COVID-19 looks likely to affect the annual Hajj pilgrimage and Eid al-Adha religious holiday, when our sheep meat is in high demand.

The future of Australia's live sheep export industry appears bleak. Sheep farmers would be wise to seriously explore alternatives.

Severe heat stress exposed

Australia to the Middle East is one of the world's longest sea transport routes of live sheep for slaughter, usually taking about 20 days.

The welfare risk to sheep from heat stress is highest on voyages departing Australia in our winter, and arriving in the Persian Gulf in the Northern Hemisphere summer.

In April 2018, whistleblowers released video footage filmed the previous year showing shocking live export conditions on the Awassi Express ship. More than 2,400 sheep died on the voyage from Fremantle to the Middle East.

The footage triggered public outrage. As part of its response, the federal agriculture department established a committee, of which I was a member, to assess the heat risk facing sheep exports to the Middle East.

The committee recommended measures to ensure sheep experienced heat stress on fewer than 2% of voyages. Subsequent research by my group would reveal just how far the industry is from that target.

Alarming findings

The federal government granted us access to temperature and mortality data from 14 voyages from Australia to the Middle East in May to December, between 2016 and 2018.

We wanted to know at what temperatures the welfare of the sheep began to be affected by heat stress.

To determine this, we analysed so-called "wet bulb temperatures" on the sheep decks. This measures not just air temperature but water vapour, which affects the levels of heat stress actually experienced at a particular temperature.

Wet bulb temperatures typically increased from 20 to 30 during the 14 voyages in the Northern Hemisphere summer. Ten out of 14 ships stopped at Doha in Qatar, the hottest of the four Gulf ports. There, daily maximum wet bulb temperatures from July to September exceed 27.5 half the time, at which point heat stress in sheep increases.

The wet bulb temperatures at Doha exceeded 32.2 2% of the time, at which point sheep deaths are more common.

Ships docking at Doha sit in the sun for about a day and a half while some sheep are unloaded, exposing those left on board to high temperatures.

The ban is not enough

The federal government recently banned sheep exports to the Middle East between June 1 and September 14 this year, due to heat stress risks. Shipments to Doha are banned from May 22 until September 22.

The government has argued that a longer ban would have too great an impact on the industry. But our results show mortality increases during voyages from September to November, compared with May. This suggests more sheep will die as a result of the shorter ban.

The government introduced other measures this year to try to improve sheep welfare on ships.

First, it will require temperature data to be recorded at two sheep pens per deck. However my group has shown this does not produce representative results.

Second, sheep can be unloaded at no more than two ports. But our results suggest that it is not the number of ports that influenced sheep deaths, but whether sheep were kept in hot conditions on board at Doha.

The COVID-19 pandemic has struck a further blow to sheep welfare. The federal government requires that animal welfare audits are conducted at holding facilities in the destination countries. But quarantine requirements have made these checks difficult.

It's also worth remembering that heat stress is not the only challenge sheep face en route to the Middle East. They usually have very little space and likely get stressed by ship motion.

A double whammy

The Australian live sheep export trade has declined from about 7 million per year in the late 1980s to about 1 million per year now.

Australia has recently been unable to meet the Middle East's demand for sheep meata problem the industry blames partly on the export ban. Middle East buyers are increasingly turning to the horn of Africa, Europe and Asia.

Compounding this, COVID-19 looks set to force the cancellation of the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia culminating in Eid al-Adhaa sheep-eating festival usually celebrated by millions of Muslims.

The double whammy will particularly hurt Western Australia, which in 2019 handled 97% of sheep leaving Australian ports.

If the festival is not cancelled, Australian sheep may be sent early to be stockpiled alive in the Middle East, to avoid the export ban. This would leave them exposed to the high temperatures the Australian government has sought to protect them from on ships.

Looking ahead

Some Western Australian sheep farmers have seen the writing on the wall. In the short term, some are turning to alternative livestock, such as prime lamb or beef cattle for domestic consumption or export as carcasses. This has the added benefit of keeping processing jobs in Australia.

In the long term, farmers would do well to look at the rising popularity of vegetarianism and veganism, and the threat to conventional meat production posed by "clean" meat grown in labs.

Some sheep grazing has already been replaced by cropping, and this is likely to increase in future.

There is no quick fix to the problems facing live sheep exports from Australia. The sooner we shift our economic reliance to more humane alternatives, the better.

Explore further Sleeping sheep may offer clues to human brain disease

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Everything from pizza to a long-simmered stracotto can satisfy the appetite for Italian specialties, and can be delivered from restaurants. Im not sure Id order a portion of spaghetti marinara to take away, since assembling it is no challenge, but there are other favorites that are more daunting. When was the last time you bought some veal? And pounded and breaded a rib chop or portion of boneless loin to flatten and crisp it for veal Parm or its more elite cousin, veal Milanese? Restaurants across the city can do it for you; just plan on gently reheating it in the oven before serving. And if the veal Milanese comes with a salad topping, request that it be packed separately. Heres a sampler:

Manhattan

Caravaggio

This elegant Upper East Side dining room offers excellent veal Milanese.

23 East 74th Street, 212-288-1004, caravaggioristorante.com.

Carbone

Though the Major Food Groups holdings include several casual places called Parm, they do not offer veal Parm, only chicken. For veal, you have to patronize their cheeky Greenwich Village throwback and dine at home, as you stream The Godfather.

181 Thompson Street (Bleecker Street), 212-254-3000, carbonenewyork.com.

Masseria dei Vini

This Hells Kitchen restaurant with a deep wine cellar offers cotoletta di vitello parmigiana instead of using the informal veal Parm tag; all the same.

887 Ninth Avenue (58th Street), 212-315-2888, masseriadeivini.com.

Parma

Heres the very definition of a venerable Upper East Side neighborhood restaurant. It serves a classic veal Parm and also breaded scaloppine.

1404 Third Avenue (80th Street), 212-535-3520, parmarestaurantnyc.com.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Ohio members of Congress want Ohioans who cant access the internet to be able to track the economic stimulus payments the federal government is issuing to help people pay their bills during the coronavirus pandemic.

A bipartisan group of 21 Congress members including Republicans Dave Joyce of Bainbridge Township, Troy Balderson of Zanesville, Bill Johnson of Marietta, Mike Turner of Dayton and Brad Wenstrup of Cincinnati sent a letter last week that asked the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service to find ways for individuals without broadband access to track their stimulus payments and update their delivery information.

There are many Ohioans who dont have internet access during the COVID-19 pandemic, including those in rural communities that lack broadband infrastructure as well as low-income families who dont have internet in their homes and can no longer access it in public places such as libraries or community centers," said a Tuesday statement from Joyce. These are the very people who cannot wait until next filing season for support.

According to statistics provided by BroadbandNow, 217,000 Ohioans live in areas with no wired internet availability. Last month, the IRS unveiled its Get My Payment website and app that allows those with internet access to check their payment status and provide bank account information.

The congressional letter says IRS has told Congress members that constituents who cant access its online system will have to wait until next years tax filing season to claim the child add-on payment, and that theres no clear system in place for those who cant access the system to update their banking or address information. The letter called it shameful theres no telephone option to help these individuals.

It asks the IRS to consider creating a telephone hotline for those who cant access the portal, or to let congressional offices work with IRS liaisons to update information for their constituents.

Congress created these direct-to-individuals stimulus payments as a way to support the most vulnerable Americans - often, rural and low-income Americans without other options for financial support, their letter said. These are the constituents most in desperate need of immediate relief - they cannot wait.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act adopted in March calls for the government to send $1,200 checks to individuals who make less than $75,000 and $2,400 for couples making less than $150,000. Families with children age 16 and under may be eligible for an additional $500 per child. The amount would be reduced by five cents for every dollar that a tax filers adjusted gross income exceeds $75,000, or that a married couple filing jointly exceeds $150,000.

According to the National Taxpayer Advocate, IRS had issued 122 million payments for a total of $207 billion as of last week.

However, some eligible individuals have not received the correct amounts, some deposits have been sent to discontinued or closed bank or financial accounts, and some mailing addresses will still need to be updated, said the statement from National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins.

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Gov. Ralph Northam, after flirting with opening Virginia regionally, has now decided against it. Instead he said Monday, well do that together.

The governors were all in this together approach may be heartwarming, but does it make sense? Mind you, were not saying Southwest Virginia is ready to reopen now were not health experts and wed rather those decisions be informed by science and not politics. But whatever the metrics for reopening, Southwest Virginia will surely hit them before other parts of the state. So why must we wait? Some numbers  we like numbers:

Infection rate: The highest infection rate in this part of the state as of Monday is in Salem, where 27 cases (with only two of those hospitalized), works out to a rate of 105 per 100,000. Second-highest is Botetourt County where 28 cases work out to a rate of 84 per 100,000. Roanoke is at 80 per 100,000, Buchanan County at 75 per 100,000; Washington County at 72 per 100,000, Roanoke County at 61 per 100,000, Montgomery County at 60 per 100,000. Four localities  Bath County, Bland County, Covington and Dickenson County  still show zero cases. Meanwhile, the rate in the urban crescent is sometimes 400 per 100,000; Prince William County is at 459 per 100,000. That means even our hardest-hit locality is not even a quarter of the infection rate were seeing in Northern Virginia.

Deaths: All of Virginia west of Augusta County has seen just 10 deaths due to the COVID-19 virus. Those 10 deaths west of Augusta County represent just 1.4% of the states 684 virus-related deaths. Those VDH counts dont include the ten recent deaths at the South Roanoke Nursing Home, which would put our numbers at 20, or 2.8% of the states total.

So we ask again: Why must Southwest Virginia be dependent on the rest of the state? Northam cited several reasons. Lets take a closer look at them.

1. His COVID-19 Business Task Force has recommended against a regional reopening. Of the 23 people on that panel, only two are from west of the Blue Ridge. Its not as if there were a lot of voices from this part of the state being heard. None of those 23 are from the Roanoke Valley, the largest metro area west of the urban crescent.

2. Wed be picking winners and losers, Northam said. Agreed: Government shouldnt be picking winner and losers. The virus has already done that. Those four localities with zero cases are certainly winners, yet delaying the reopening of Dickenson County until the virus is under control in, say, Prince William County, the state effectively makes Dickenson County a loser. Northam rightly says he doesnt want to create more divisions in society. However, would Northern Virginia stay shut down if the virus were concentrated in Southwest Virginia? We all know the answer to that.

3. Regional reopenings encourage the transmission of the virus into low-infection localities. This is the most science-based of the explanations Northam gave. However, by that logic the whole nation should reopen at once and that reopening should be predicated on the infection rates in New York City, the hardest-hit place of all. After all, people can drive from New York to Virginia just as easily as they can drive from Northern Virginia to Southwest Virginia. There are some real concerns about the virus moving around that we shouldnt ignore: What happens when colleges reopen later in the summer? Will we see students from high-infection areas bringing the virus to Virginia Tech and Radford and elsewhere? Thats a question well have to get to regardless. Its also not the immediate question here. Heres the question now: If every business in those zero-infection localities reopened today, would we really see a caravan of people from Northern Virginia driving down to a barbershop in Bland County or to a diner in Dickenson County? Who was speaking for them on the governors task force?

Too much of the pandemic has become unnecessarily politicized  and polarized. Yes, Republicans have been the loudest voices pushing for the economy to reopen and yes, most of Southwest Virginia votes Republican. However, we cant help but point out that some other Democratic governors  from Andrew Cuomo in New York to Tom Wolf in Pennsylvania to Jared Polis in Colorado  have approached things on a regional basis. Northams decision not to in a state with such geographical differences as Virginia  and such a wide disparity in infection rates  is curious, indeed.

While were asking questions, well ask some more:

1. Why wont Virginia say which nursing homes have outbreaks? State officials say state law prohibits this, but this appears to be an interpretation of state code, not the code itself. Other states have done so. Heres one of many reasons why thats important: It would help people get a better understanding of just how widespread the virus is  or isnt. Take this odd juxtaposition: Buchanan Countys infection rate is 75 per 100,000, while Dickenson County next door is zero. It would help to know whether Buchanans infections are concentrated in a nursing home  or spreading randomly through the community. Both are bad, but the latter makes the virus more of a threat, and thats something people are struggling to understand. How big is the risk here?

2. Why isnt Virginia testing residents and staff at all nursing homes? The VDH says that 382 of the states 684 deaths have been residents of long-term care facilities. Thats 56%. Lets put that another way: Virginia has had almost as many deaths in nursing homes as Florida  423  even though Florida has more than twice our population, and a distinctly older population at that. Why has Virginia had so many nursing home deaths? Is it just bad luck? If we have only a limited number of tests, why arent we using them here? Northam talked Monday about testing prisoners and poultry plant workers  but there was no mention of nursing home patients and staff. Why not?

3. Why is Virginias testing rate so low, anyway? The Kaiser Family Foundation says Virginia ranks 48th about the 50 states and the District of Columbia for testing. Only Kansas, South Carolina and Arizona rank lower. Yes, Virginias had trouble getting access to the supplies necessary for testing, but so has every state  and virtually all of them have done a better job. Why? The longer this goes on, the worse Virginias response looks  which makes those of us west of the Blue Ridge wonder even more why were waiting on what happens in nursing homes in Henrico County and poultry plants on the Eastern Shore.
Six people, five of whom had recently returned from Gujarat and West Bengal, tested positive for COVID-19 in Odisha on Tuesday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 175, an official said.

The number of active COVID-19 cases now stands at 114.

Of the six new cases, three hailed from Balasore and one each from Ganjam, Sundergarh and Cuttack districts, the official said.

The latest report came from Rourkela in Sundergarh district, where a 49-year-old man tested positive for the deadly virus after he returned from Kolkata.

The new cases in Cuttack and Ganjam districts are of two people who recently returned from Surat in Gujarat. Cuttack district had last reported a COVID-19 case on April 3 while Ganjam falls in the orange zone.

In Balasore district, the three new patients comprised two men aged 50 and 26 years and a 40-year-old woman. The two men had recently returned from West Bengal.

Contact tracing and follow-up actions are being undertaken in the three districts, the official said.

A total of 3,535 samples were tested for COVID-19 in Odisha on Monday, the highest in a day in the state, the official said. The Health Department has tested 44,663 samples so far.

Jajpur district has reported the maximum number of cases at 52, followed by Bhubaneswar 47, Balasore 24, Bhadrak 21 and Sundargarh 12.

Three positive cases have been reported from Ganjam district while two cases each have been reported in Cuttack, Jharsuguda, Kendrapara, Bolangir, Keonjhar and Kalahandi and one each in Puri, Dhenkanal, Deogarh and Koraput districts.

Sixty people have recovered from the disease. The state has reported only one coronavirus death - a 72-year-old man from Bhubaneswar who died on April 6.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has assured the country's Tamil leaders that he will discuss the release of political prisoners who are being held for up to 15 years with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

A delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Sri Lanka's main Tamil party, met the prime minister on Monday for a separate discussion on the prisoners issue after attending an all-party meeting convened by Mahinda Rajapaksa. The all-parliamentarians meeting was boycotted by the Opposition's United National Party after the government rejected their seven suggestions, which included resuming Parliament to discuss issues related to the COVID-19.

The TNA was the only major Opposition party to attend the meeting.TNA spokesman MA Sumanthiran on Tuesday said, "We took the opportunity to meet the prime minister. Our representatives from the north and east presented their problems region-wise." "We (also) raised the issue of political prisoners who are held for over 10 years to 15 years," Sumanthiran said.

The TNA leader said Mahinda promised to raise the issue with his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the country's president. Sumanthiran, who is a signatory to the seven Opposition parties letter, said the TNA was firm in their view that Parliament must be reconvened. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has dismissed the demands of the Opposition on March 2.

Meanwhile, the country's parliamentary election, originally scheduled on April 25, has been postponed by the Election Commission to June 20 in view of the COVID-19 outbreak. The new Parliament must convene at least once by June 2 or within 3 months of when the previous one was dissolved on March 2, to avoid constitutional irregularity. The coronavirus, which first surfaced in China's Wuhan city in November last, has claimed over 250,000 lives and infected 3.5 million people. The virus has killed eight people with 755 positive cases in Sri Lanka.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 01:10:31|Editor: huaxia

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ATHENS, May 5 (Xinhua) -- A day after the partial lifting of the lockdown measures in Greece, the country's Health Ministry reported on Tuesday 10 new COVID-19 cases and zero deaths within the past 24 hours.

The total number of COVID-19 infections in Greece now stands at 2,642 infections since Feb. 26 when the first case was registered.

Health Ministry's coronavirus spokesman Sotirios Tsiodras told a briefing in Athens that the death toll remains at 146.

Currently, 35 people are being treated in intensive care units (ICUs), while 81 have been discharged from ICUs.

So far, authorities have conducted a total of 83,750 diagnostic tests Greece since the start of the outbreak. Enditem
The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal on Tuesday said that the Central Board Of Secondary Education (CBSE) class 10 board exam, which was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will not be conducted now.

"No examination to be held for class X students nationwide, except for students from North-East Delhi," HRD minister said in a tweet.

He said that an adequate time of 10 days will be given to students, who will be appearing for the exams.

Attention class X students! No examination to be held for class X students nationwide, except for students from North-East Delhi. An adequate time of 10 days will be given to all students for the preparation of exams.#EducationMinisterGoesLive pic.twitter.com/x4QJAInvtT - Ministry of HRD (@HRDMinistry) May 5, 2020

Pokhriyal also clarified that those students of North East Delhi who had already appeared for the exam, need not to appear for the same. The students in Northeast Delhi were unable to appear for their exams due to the anti-CAA protest much before the coronavirus lockdown.

"These exams will be conducted again for those few students who could not appear in these exams on the scheduled date due to the impact of law and order issues on them," the Ministry of HRD said in a statement.

Last week, CBSE had hinted that it was not possible to conduct Class 10 board examinations amid the nationwide lockdown. CBSE Secretary Anurag Tripathi had said that the remaining exams were of 'small subjects', which could be evaluated on the basis of the candidate's performance in the internal assessment and other such parameters.

Delhi Deputy CM and Education Minister Manish Sisodia had asked the central government to promote Classes 10 and 12 students on the basis of their performance in internal assessments. This would be of great help for the CBSE, which was not able to conduct exams due to the pandemic, he had said.

Also Read: CBSE Exam Update: Remaining Class 10 exams to be cancelled; what about Class 12?

Also Read: CBSE class 10, 12 pending exams: Delhi govt asks Centre to promote students based on internal assessment
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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 5) - Vice President Leni Robredo said the National Telecommunication Commissions cease-and-desist order on the television giant ABS-CBN will cost lives amid the ongoing pandemic crisis.

This free flow of information literally saves lives. Closing down ABS-CBN costs lives, on top of unnecessarily burdening the thousands who will lose their jobs, said Robredo in a statement.

ABS-CBNs 25-year franchise expired on May 4 after its application for renewal remained pending in Congress.

President Rodrigo Duterte has targeted the network for its critical coverage.

Robredo questioned the move of NTC and cited the role of the media during a crisis.

Bakit ito ginagawa ngayon sa panahong humaharap tayo sa matinding krisis? Wala dapat puwang sa panggigipit at pansariling interes sa mga panahon kung kailan dapat nagtutulungan tayo, she said.

[Translation: Why is this being done while we are all facing a crisis? There should be no time for harassment and selfish interests during the time when we should be helping one another.]

All hands on deck dapat. All social institutions including media should be united under a single purpose: ang pagsiguro sa kaligtasan ng buhay ng bawat Pilipino (to make sure of every Filipinos safety).

She also underscored the recent decision of the government to partially resume the operations of Philippine offshore gaming operators in the midst of the pandemic.

Lalong nakabibigla na isasara ang ABS-CBN habang muling pinapayagang magbukas ang mga POGO. Hindi mahirap matukoy kung alin sa dalawang ito ang mas nakatutulong sa pagtugon sa krisis na kinakaharap natin ngayon, said Robredo.

[Translation: Its surprising that ABS-CBN will have to stop operating while the POGOs were allowed to resume their business. Its not difficult to distinguish which one of these policies is more beneficial in solving the crisis we are facing now.]

The vice president is hoping the Duterte administration will reconsider granting a fresh franchise to ABS-CBN.

Umaasa tayong mamumulat ang administrasyon sa panganib na dala ng pagsasara ng ABS-CBN, lalo na habang patuloy ang krisis pangkalusugang dala ng COVID-19, said Robredo.

[Translation: We are hoping that the administration will realize the danger of shutting down ABS-CBN as the health crisis due to COVID-19 is ongoing.]
I do not understand, and my administration will not treat, this provision as permitting the S.I.G.P.R. to issue reports to the Congress without the presidential supervision required by a clause of the Constitution that instructs the president to take care that the laws are faithfully executed, the statement said, using the acronym for the newly created position.

Mr. Miller insisted that he would follow the laws that govern inspectors general, including a requirement to report to Congress any wrongdoing that he uncovered. He said that direct interference in such matters by Mr. Trump would be a serious issue and that it would not deter him.

I will report any undue influence on me, from whatever source, Mr. Miller said.

Mr. Miller brings strong credentials to the job. A former federal prosecutor, he also served as the inspector general of the General Services Administration from 2005 to 2014, overseeing a sprawling agency in charge of the federal governments real estate. At the hearing, Mr. Miller said that in that role, he was unflinching in the face of political pressure or criticism.

In 2018, Mr. Miller joined the White House Counsels Office and worked on the team that defended Mr. Trump during his impeachment proceedings before Congress. On one occasion last year, he rejected an oversight request from the Government Accountability Office. He has also publicly warned that congressional oversight efforts are often politically motivated, casting doubts about his willingness to comply with requests for information if confirmed.

Asked whether he had stonewalled impeachment-related inquiries for Mr. Trump, Mr. Miller said that he was merely answering the mail. He declined to elaborate on his role, citing privacy concerns.

The confirmation hearing came at a time of high turnover for inspectors general, many of whom have been under fire from Mr. Trump.

In recent weeks, Mr. Trump fired the intelligence community inspector general whose insistence on telling lawmakers about a whistle-blower complaint about his dealings with Ukraine prompted impeachment proceedings last fall. He also ousted Glenn A. Fine, the acting inspector general for the Defense Department who was set to lead the new Pandemic Response Accountability Committee. And last week, Mr. Trump replaced Christi A. Grimm, the principal deputy inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services who angered him with a report last month highlighting supply shortages and testing delays at hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic.
Of all the pain, watching his children suffering was the worst.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 4/5/2020 (624 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

Of all the pain, watching his children suffering was the worst.

"I had to fight with bureaucrats just to get the simplest things," Zach Trout says. "I lost days I should have spent with Sanaye and Jacob. I cant express how painful that was."

SUPPLIED Sanaye's battle with Batten disease sparked a 13-year fight with federal authorities for basic health services.

Zach and his wife, Veronica, live with their four children on Cross Lake First Nation in northern Manitoba.

Their other two children, Sanaye (born in 1998) and Jacob (born in 2002), died from complications due to Batten disease, a rare and fatal neurological disorder that causes vision loss, seizures, and the loss of cognitive functions.

Both were diagnosed as babies, and died before their 10th birthday.

Both grappled with the relentless sickness alongside loving parents who gave up jobs, livelihoods, time and money fighting to ease their pain.

Perhaps worst of all, both endured chronic negligence, neglect, and racism by Canadian and Manitoban health authorities that led to increased suffering and anguish  and, almost undoubtedly, earlier deaths than expected.

"I would not wish for any family to go through this," Trout says. "And how unnecessary it was."

The family's extra suffering came from a long-standing "gap" in health services for First Nations.

For Manitobans, health care comes from a one-stop, insured benefit plan provided by the province  something all Canadians enjoy.

For First Nations, health care is a responsibility Canada must provide under treaty and the Indian Act. Since the feds usually dont run hospitals, provinces provide health services to First Nations and bill the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch of Health Canada. The provinces then have to wait for approval for a procedure or service, resulting in First Nations citizens waiting days  sometimes years  for adequate health care.

Problems also emerge when the feds and provinces cant agree on what care a First Nations person is entitled to. Federal officials often only approve cheaper treatments and drugs than those recommended by physicians.

On top of this, some doctors, optometrists, and therapists simply refuse to file the paperwork and wait for government to pay, forcing First Nations to pay for up-front and apply for reimbursement later.

This adds up to Indigenous people dying while waiting for basic, decent health care. Perhaps best known is Jordan River Anderson from Norway House Cree Nation, who died in a Manitoba hospital waiting for government officials to decide who would pay for care.

In 2007, a complaint was filed to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal by Gitsxan activist and child-welfare advocate Cindy Blackstock, her non-profit First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, and the Assembly of First Nations, demanding First Nations children immediate health care on par with any child in Canada.

While Canada adopted "Jordans Principle" in 2007, the federal government delayed the complaint for years on technicalities. Meanwhile, First Nations children continued to experience systemic discrimination, leading to demands for compensation.

In 2016, the tribunal found Canada guilty, ordered it to "cease its discriminatory conduct" and compensate those impacted.

Canada has been fighting the decision ever since; in court, in media, and even during the last federal election.

On Sept. 6, 2019, the tribunal ruled again the federal government "was wilful and reckless" in discriminating against First Nations children living on reserves by systematically and knowingly underfunding child-welfare services. It ordered Canada to pay $40,000 to each impacted First Nations child and parent since 2006 who experienced removal or a lack of medical services.

The Canadian government continues to fight the decision, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. On April 16, the tribunal published a ruling refusing Canadas request to exclude deceased children such as Sanaye and Jacob.

No amount of money though can bring back the 13 years the Trout family fought for adequate health care for their children.

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After fighting to have them diagnosed at the nursing station in Cross Lake, they travelled two weeks a month  often by medevac flight  to the Childrens Hospital of Winnipeg. While they received adequate treatment while in hospital, the moment they left to come home they had to fight for basic needs such as feeding tubes, diapers, and formula.

In Sanayes case, nurses gave the family just six syringes to use each month, though the little girl needed four shots a day. This meant the family had to reuse them, causing infections and more seizures.

In Jacobs case, federal officials refused for more than a year to provide an inclined bed, leading the little boy to sleep problems and more seizures.

"Health workers would come once, and we wouldnt see them for months," Trout says. "We gave up our jobs and spent thousands flying to and staying in hotels to Winnipeg."

What he wants now is simple: "I want compassion, and for governments to realize what is happening  and still happening  to First Nations children."

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca
A van driver who failed to overtake a taxi on a road in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang lost his temper and attacked the taxi driver with a knife.

A source told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that police officers in the outlying district of Cai Lay are investigating the incident, which occurred at around 10:45 am on Monday.

At the time, Nguyen Ngoc Quang, a 33-year-old man from Cay Lai District of Tien Giang Province, working for Vietnamese taxi operator Mai Linh, was driving his cab on a local section of National Highway 1.

As he made a U-turn near Phu Nhuan Bridge, located in Phu Nhuan Commune of Cai Lay District, a 16-seater van flashed its headlights, apparently a signal to overtake the car, but it failed to do so.

The van driver then made another attempt and managed to overtake Quangs car this time, before performing a brake check on the taxicab, forcing it to pull over.

A fistfight broke out between the two drivers, with the unidentified van driver drawing a knife from his vehicle to attack Quang multiple times.

The entire road rage incident was recorded on the dashcam of another vehicle.

A road rage incident in Cai Lay District, Tien Giang Province, Vietnam, May 4, 2020 is captured in this dashcam footage.

The clip of over-one-minute in length was then posted on social media and attracted a host of Internet users expressing their outrage over the van drivers aggressive behavior.

A Mai Linh leader in Tien Giang told Tuoi Tre over the phone that the firm had worked with the Cai Lay police to facilitate the investigation into the incident.

The taxi driver has visited a hospital and had more than ten stitches on his two serious wounds inflicted by the perpetrator.

We have provided money to cover his medical bill, said the company official.

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Businesses lost even more confidence in the current state of the Massachusetts economy last month but appear to hold out rosier hope for the future, according to survey results released Tuesday by Associated Industries of Massachusetts.

AIM's Business Confidence Index fell 1.8 points after suffering its largest monthly decline ever during March. The Index ended April at 38.4, nearly 22 points less than a year ago and five points above its all-time low set during the great recession of 2009.

AIM said its Massachusetts Index assessing business conditions within the commonwealth fell 1.8 points to 34.5, leaving it 28.7 points lower than in April 2019. The US Index measuring conditions nationally was flat month-to-month at 32.1 but fell 26.2 points during the year.

The Current Index, which assesses overall business conditions at the time of the survey, lost 5.4 points to 31.2 and is down 28 points for the year.

Employers were not all negative. The Future Index, measuring expectations for six months out, provided a lone bright spot as it rose 1.9 points to 45.6.

The Employment Index was down 2.5 points in April and 11.5 points for the year. The Sales Index, a leading indicator, lost 5.3 points to 38.2, AIM said Tuesday.

Non-manufacturers (38.4) were slightly more confident than manufacturing companies (36.9). Medium-sized companies (39.4) were more optimistic than both large companies (34.4) or small companies (38.4). Companies in western Massachusetts (39.0) were more optimistic than those in the east (37.3).

Associated Industries of Massachusetts, a statewide business advocacy group, compiles the index each month from a voluntary survey of its members.

On the Index's 100-point scale, a reading above 50 indicates that the state's employer community is predominantly optimistic, while a reading below 50 points to a negative assessment of business conditions.

Elmore Alexander, retired dean of the Ricciardi College of Business at Bridgewater State University, said in the news release that the economic convulsion caused by COVID-19 has fallen heavily on health care, higher education and other key drivers of growth in Massachusetts.

The COVID-19 outbreak has been particularly severe in Massachusetts as well so the re-opening of the economy may take longer than in other states and other countries. An important milestone will be whether college students return to campus in the fall, Alexander said.

Nationally, Consumer Confidence also took a hit.

The widely watched Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index now stands at 86.9, down from 118.8 in March.

The Massachusetts real gross domestic product declined 6.1% in the first quarter of 2020, according to MassBenchmarks.

And the state's labor market has taken a hit.

About 70,000 Massachusetts workers filed new claims for unemployment insurance in the week that ended April 25.

The state has now processed nearly 725,000 new unemployment claims since mid-March. Thats about one-fifth of the total state workforce eligible for the benefits.

AIM President and CEO John R. Regan said the business community has begun to work with Governor Charlie Bakers 17-member advisory committee to develop strategies to re-open the Massachusetts economy.

Any decision by government to lift of the prohibition on non-essential businesses will be just the beginning for Massachusetts employers, who will in many cases need to reconfigure workplaces for social distancing and determine how to implement other safety measures such as the wearing of protective equipment, continuing work-from-home policies and ensuring the health of workers and customers, Regan said.

Related Content:
A man was killed and eight others injured in a clash between two groups in Uttar Pradesh's Khejuri area, police said on Tuesday.

Hamza alias Fardeen Khan (16) was killed when the two groups clashed in Masoompur village on Monday.

Superintendent of Polic, Devendra Nath said the incident took place when Akhilesh Chaurasia had a heated argument with Wasim whose relative Suhail used to talk to his sister on phone.

This led to a clash between the two groups in which Hamza was killed, he said.

Both parties have lodged police complaints against each other and cases have been registered, police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Seasoned Journalist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr., wants the current administration to stop priding itself that it has been able to acquire 307 ambulances equipped with ventilators for the treatment of COVID-19 patients in severe conditions.



According to Mr. Pratt, the purpose of the mobile ventilators is to augment the work of the Ambulance Services in the country and not to be used as supplementary ventilators for COVID-19 patients in hospitals.



It could be recalled that Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare, Presidential Health Advisor in an interview on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' somewhere in April, indicated that the entire nation has 100 ventilators but due to the timely intervention of President Nana Akufo-Addo, the over 300 ambulances all have ventilators which could be used to supplement those at the hospitals.



Addressing the issue on Tuesday, May 5, 2020 edition of the same programme (KOKROKOO), Kwesi Pratt, who is the Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, told host Kwami Sefa Kayi that arguments about the availability of mobile ventilators are baseless because ambulance ventilators cannot be comparable to having ventilators in hospitals.



"It is not for the management of COVID-19. The ventilators in the ambulance are for treating patients when they are being rushed to the health facility but it is impossible to put the patient on that kind of ventilator any longer once he or she is transferred to a hospital or health facility. So, stop making such statements. It is good to have over 300 ambulances with ventilators but it's not the response to COVID-19," he emphasized.



He therefore called on government to look at local production of ventilators to equip the various hospitals in the country, further stating that "100 ventilators even under normal circumstances for a population of 30 million are woefully inadequate''.



Listen to Kwesi Pratt's submission in the video below





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
By Akbar Mammadov

Defence Minister Zakir Hasanov and Head of the Presidential Administrations Military Affairs Department Maharram Aliyev have visited military units on the frontline upon President Ilham Aliyevs instructions, the ministry reported in its official website on May 5.

After hearing the reports on the operational conditions on the line of contact, the officials observed the Armenian positions in the opposite side. The defence minister gave relevant instructions to maintain the constant combat readiness of the units.

Minister Hasanov also met with the servicemen serving in combat positions in the direction of the village of Talish and inquired about their service conditions.

During the meeting with the personnel, Colonel-General Aliyev said that increasing the combat capability of the army and improving the social conditions of servicemen are always in the focus of constant attention of the country's leadership.

Furthermore, the officials visited tank units, checked the combat readiness of the tank crew and inquired about their service.

Aliyev and Hasanov also checked the combat readiness of the weapons and military equipment of military units in the frontline zone and examined various types of weapons and military equipment that are in the armament of the military units.

Colonel General Aliyev and Colonel-General Hasanov visited the simulator building constructed on the territory of one of the military units and observed the training of crews on the training simulators of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.

By the defence ministrys order, military equipment was deployed to the area on training alert, and the task was successfully completed, the ministry said.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The two suspected murderers of the late Edward Quartey Papafio, 64, Biochemist Consultant at Maame Dede near Adeisu in the Eastern Region, have been remanded into Police custody.

The murder is believed to have been committed on January 16, 2020.

The two fetish priests namely Christian Gameli Larwae, alias Power and Famous Adorkunu, alias Scorpion, both 37, residents of Maame Dede and from Fekpe in the Volta Region were arrested on April 21 due to Police intelligence.

Commissioner of Police (COP) Isaac Ken Yeboah, who is the Director- General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) told the media that, on January 17, this year, Reverend Comfort Ruth Quartey Papafio, wife of the deceased reported that her husband left his house at Kasoa on January 15, at about 0300 hours and had still not returned.

He said Police intelligence gathered that the victim was last spotted at Adeisu near Nsawam in the Eastern Region.

COP Yeboah said on April 29, they arrested the suspects to assist the Police in their investigations and both admitted interacting with the deceased who was later shot and killed on January 15, 2020 at their shrine.

He said the suspects then led police to where the deceased was buried in their shrine.

He added that a Police search revealed two pump action guns, one single barrel gun, 11 packets of cartridges from Gameli 's room.

He said on April 30, a team of Pathologists, personnel of the Crime Scene Management Unit, Forensic Science Laboratory, Drone and CID Operations Unit exhumed the body of Papafio, after an exhumation permit was granted by a Court.

Mr Yeboah said the suspects also led police to another site which had no exit, where the pathologists retrieved a decomposed body from the grave, who has been identified as one Kwasi Zormelo, also from Kasoa.

He said the team retrieved human parts, head attachments, beads, suspected to be that of a woman, skeletons among other items within the same perimeter.

COP Yeboah said a decomposed human flesh wrapped together with bones and buried were also retrieved from another grave including human skull and idols.

He said from December 2019, the two suspects conspired to kill the deceased consultant and lured him to their shrine, took away his GH10,000.00 under the guise of fortifying him spiritually for his company to flourish.

Mr Yeboah said on January 15, they invited him on phone to come for the last purification rite where they shot him dead and then Larwae took his mobile phones being Itel and Nokia, together with a bunch of keys and kept them with his third wife-Charity Gakudji at Mensah Bar near Oyibi, where he later led the Police to retrieve them.

He said Famous confessed killing the deceased with the Pump Action Gun belonging to Larwae, and that he collected all the moneys on the deceased before killing him.

Mr Yeboah said Police investigations also suggest that Larwae also murdered one Kwesi Zormelo, a Togolese and mason, resident at Kasoa, whom he had hired to construct a hotel for him in February 2020, when the said Zormelo demanded for moneys owed him.

COP Yeboah said the decomposed bodies, among the remains collected, had been deposited at the Police Hospital Mortuary, awaiting post mortem, anthropological and DNA tests.

He said Police on May 3, this year, found a gallon of liquid substance suspected to be human blood at Gameli's backyard, which he told police he drained from Papafio and Zormelo.

COP Yeboah called on the media to help eliminate the so-called money doublers by preventing them from carrying on advertisements through their medium.

He asked members of the public to desist from falling prey to these miscreants as they had nothing to offer.

---GNA
TDT | Manama

Minister of Information Affairs Ali bin Muhammad Al Romaihi has praised the professional response of the national media in Bahrain to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its great role in raising awareness amongst various communities.

During an online media conference organised by the National Communication Centre, the minister said that Bahraini media is conscious and confident and reflects the nature of the local society and culture.

This confirms the great poise and self-assurance of the competent men and women who have largely contributed to the media playing an honourable national and patriotic role during the current exceptional conditions, he said.

In this regard, Al Romaihi highlighted the significance of the media in boosting community awareness about the implications of COVID-19 and ways to prevent it.

It was a great effort that was appreciated by all officials in the Kingdom, the minister said, and referred to how His Royal Highness the Crown Prince characterised the Bahraini society as a conscious society.

The transparency with which the local media deals with all the details related to the developments of the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly contributed to forming a conscious, cooperative and understanding public opinion, and easy acceptance of all the measures taken from the concerned authorities, he added.

Open cooperation and transparent dealing with the media on any issue contributes to denying the opportunity for those who want to publish incorrect information and depriving them of any room to spread their rumours, interpretation, or explanations that are not rooted in truth, he said.
Taliban Truck Bombing Kills At Least Five At Afghan Military Center

By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan May 04, 2020

A truck-bomb attack at a military center in Afghanistan's southern Helmand Province has killed at least five people and wounded several others.

The May 4 attack came as U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said attacks by the Taliban were increasing, despite the United States and the militant group having signed a peace deal in February.

The Taliban, claiming responsibility for the bombing in Helmand, said it attacked a center where at least 150 members of the Afghan army and intelligence wing were stationed.

"Five members of the Afghan security forces and intelligence services were killed and seven others were wounded in a truck-bomb explosion in Grishk district," Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the regional governor, told RFE/RL.

The Taliban claimed the toll was much higher, saying that "dozens" of Afghan soldiers had been killed and wounded in the attack, which occurred late on May 3.

"Dozens of members belonging to the enemy forces have been killed and wounded in the attack," Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmedi said in a statement.

The Afghan Defense Ministry had earlier said only one member of the army was wounded.

In a separate incident, at least 20 people were injured when suspected Taliban militants threw a hand grenade into a mosque in the Khayerkot district of the southeastern Paktika Province late on May 3, police said.

Afghan security forces have suffered heavy losses across the country over the past two months.

The violence threatens to unravel a February peace deal between the United States and the Taliban, as the Afghan army is forced to fight the militants with less U.S. backup.

Esper did not mention the bombing on May 4, but acknowledged an increase in violence by the Taliban, although he noted that the militant group had not attacked U.S. forces.

Speaking during an online question-and-answer session hosted by a Washington think tank, Esper said a tentative power-sharing agreement announced last week between Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and rival Abdullah Abdullah was encouraging.

The Afghan government needed to organize itself, and then the peace process needed to get back on track, he said.

He said the peace deal remained "the best path forward."

With reporting by Reuters and Tolo News

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/taliban-attacks -afghan-military-center-casualties- reported/30591429.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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Nguyen Thien Nhan, Secretary of Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee making a case for re-opening the economy

Secretary Nhan said that the government and citizens need to drastically focus on fighting and preventing the COVID-19 pandemic. Although Vietnam has made impressive achievements in the fight against the pandemic, people need to continue following the countermeasures to protect themselves. Foreigners who pose a high risk of transmitting the virus need to be strictly quarantined.

Next, it is reasonable time to recover domestic operations and revive the economy. He states in the early stage of re-opening the economy, the government needs to support firms, prevent them from going into bankruptcy by partly paying their workers for a few months. According to Nhan, the government needs to assist companies workers because without them it will be hard for companies to resume operations. To help company retain their workers, the Ho Chi Minh Citys People Committee is required to deploy the support packages of both the government and the city itself.

After long time having difficult with imported material and accesories from affected countries such as China, Nhan encouraged businesses to produce or shift to domestic supply chains instead of importing goods from abroad. He also highlighted the importance of local production such as equipment, tools, and materials.

Alongside travel companies, he urged the government and companies to co-operate with commercial partners in investing in and increasing tourism, helping to re-open the economy in proper time.

The pandemic has shed light for information and digital technology, as the result of market trend of digital change, the secrectary suggested accelerating digital transformation among businesses, digitalising all sectors of the economy and infrastructure belonging to the city, and building out intelligent management within government agencies and companies. With innovation programmes and start-up businesses, the government needs to support and accompany with them.

Additionally, Nhan also called on the city authority to enhance public investments in the city. It is planned that the city will disburse 80 per cent of the total value of projects until October this year. New industrial and high-tech zones which are at the second stage need to be pushed forward construction. Also, the government is urged to supports and promote the real estate market, inciting it to stronger development to overcome COVID-19.

Moreover, it is necessity to develop the workforce as well as take advantages of talented of the city, and the nation. These resouces will help build up plans and projects to upgrade the city's management, infrastructure, and culture.

Coutries around the world could get out of the impacts of the pandemic and switch focus for pushing their economy, however, every country has its own ways to get better. Therefore, it is essential for Vietnam to re-open its market and spur tourism to other countries in different periods.

The biggest challenge to the country now is how to discover and handle 6 million travellers who could come into Vietnam since May 2020.
Scientists have discovered a coronavirus mutation that is of 'urgent concern' because it makes the virus more contagious and has already become dominant in the places it's reached - including part of the US.

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico say that the mutant strain started spreading in early February in Europe.

It has since made its way to the US, where it became the most common - and aggressive - strain on the East Coast by March, and the scientists say its now the world-dominating strain.

In their report, which hasn't been peer-reviewed but was posted to BioRxiv, the researchers warn that the vaccines currently in development across the US may not be effective against this mutant strain and urge that their discovery needs to be considered in further work on coronavirus treatments and shots.

A graphic from Los Alamos National Laboratory shows how the mutated spike protein, D614G became the dominant strain in Europe (red) and, to a lesser extent, North America (blue)

Generally speaking, coronavirus is relatively stable for a virus, meaning it's not mutating at particularly high rates or speeds.

But that's not to say it isn't mutating at all, or that it's limited mutations might have disastrous effects.

Los Alamos researchers developed a method to track the mutations that fuel the coronavirus's mutation in 'real time.'

Their analysis pipeline downloads all the viral genome sequences uploaded to the largest international database (the Global Initiative for Sharing All Influenza Data, or GISAID) daily and interprets how and where the virus is changing.

As they followed its progression, the team discovered 14 mutations.

Some were likely isolated to communities and popped up in their tracking as byproduct of the way the virus's genome was being sampled.

The two strains that seemed to combine, G614 (blue) and D614 (orange) ramped up in late March across the globe, with G614 becoming particularly dominant

But others represent larger, more worrisome patterns, wrote the collaborating scientists from Los Alamos, Duke University and Sheffield University in the UK.

One in particular was cause for an 'early warning.'

A mutation has occurred in the all-important spike protein - a part of the virus that juts out from its surface, earning it a name that means crown, and allowing it to infiltrate human cells.

The researchers dubbed the mutated protein Spike D614G.

It's not clear if the mutated spike first emerge in China or Europe, but it certainly gathered its momentum in Europe, and then swept the globe.

When the scientists first reported Spike D614G in March, it had only appeared seven times in the sequences uploaded to GISAID (which lag about two weeks behind real time).

'However, an early April sampling of the data from GISAID showed that G614s frequency was increasing at an alarming pace throughout March, and it was clearly showing an ever-broadening geographic spread,' the researchers wrote in their report published online on April 30.

It would seem that at some point, the G614 mutation and another, D614 mutation, merged to become the D614G mutation.

Together they've become dominant, and more infectious through several modes.

The spike protein is more infective, can more easily bind to receptors on human lung cells, become more active, and may even be more able to dodge the antibodies the human body develops to the virus.

'Given Spikes vital importance both in terms of viral infectivity and as an antibody target, we felt an urgent need for an "early warning" pipeline to evaluate Spike pandemic evolution,' the study authors wrote.

'If the pandemic fails to wane, this could exacerbate the potential for antigenic drift and the accumulation of immunologically relevant mutations in the population during the year or more it will take to deliver the first vaccine.

'Such a scenario is plausible, and by attending to this risk now, we may be able avert missing important evolutionary transitions in the virus that if ignored could ultimately limit the effectiveness of the first vaccines to clinical use.'

The revelation of this mutation could put a wrench in the many clinical trials - including those from Moderna, Inovio, and Pfizer - that have recently kicked off i the US.
A pair of Houston-area youths have been honored for their volunteerism in the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards during a virtual awards ceremony held over the weekend of May 1-3.

Counted among the 102 honorees were Matthew Yekell, 18, of Houston, and Charlize Lopez, 14, of Sugar Land. This years awards marked the 25th annual  and first virtual  national recognition celebration.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Texas nursing home deaths see largest five-day spike

As part of the award announcement, Yekell and Lopez were given $2,500 to donate toward local COVID-19 response efforts. The awards will go to a nonprofit organization of their choosing. Yekell and Lopez were also awarded $1,000 scholarships and engraved silver medallions as Texas top youth volunteers of 2020.

According to a news release, the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program, sponsored by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), named Matthew and Charlize Texas top high school and middle level youth volunteers in February.

Over the past 25 years, this program has honored students spanning three generations, and the common thread between them has been the determination of young people to respond to the challenges of the moment, said Charles Lowrey, chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial. Who better than this group of young leaders from all over the country to help identify and direct resources to community needs arising from COVID-19?

MORE FROM ROY KENT: Missouri Citys Quail Valley Golf Course and Bluebonnet Grille opens as of Friday, May 1

Also an annual award for being honored are all-expense-paid trips to Washington, D.C., for the recognition events. Due to COVID-19, the trips were canceled and instead changed into three-day online celebrations.

Prudential reported that actress Kristen Bell provided remarks and congratulations.

Yekel is a senior at St. John's School. He organized collection drives involving 19 schools last year to gather donations for a drop-in center serving LGBTQ+ youth, spruces up donated apparel that is worn or damaged, and cooks a meal once a week for homeless young people at the center, according to the news release.

I grew up afraid of what could happen if my parents knew I was gay, Yekell said.

But after years of being afraid to be himself, Yekell came out to his parents, who supported him. Unfortunately, not all LGBTQ youth are so lucky, he reportedly said.

Many are kicked out of their homes by their families, he said

Tonys Place provides rejected youths with food, hot showers, laundry facilities, clothing, hygiene kits, computer access and other services. Its work was in jeopardy after Hurricane Harvey destroyed the warehouse where the facilitys donations were kept.

In October 2018, Prudential reports that Yekell reached out to gay rights activists in schools around Houston to host donation drives for Tonys Place. He was responsible for picking up all of the donations, cleaning and organizing them, and delivering them to Tonys.

Since some of the donated clothing was worn, stained or torn, Yekell began revitalizing those pieces, using donated fabrics and supplies and working with interested students to redesign them into stylish pieces. He also cooks a weekly dinner for Tonys Place every Saturday. Using a $3,000 prize he won to purchase food, he and his mother feed 40-50 hungry young people every weekend; last year, they served more than 1,000 meals.

Lopez is an eighth-grader at Quail Valley Middle School in Missouri City. She has collected nearly 1,000 coats and other cold-weather items over the past four years to donate to people in need in her community.

My project began as a wish, she said, explaining that every year her church invites congregants to fulfill the wishes of children in need in its area.

She chose to grant the wish of an 11-year-old girl, but her requested gift got Lopez thinking.

All she wanted was a fleece jacket for Christmas, she said, according to Prudential. I was touched because her choice of a gift was an everyday need and not a toy. It made me think of all the children struggling through each day, battling it out in the cold.

That was when she decided to launch her annual Warm Coats Warm Hearts drive.

To begin, she wrote letters to her school principal, her mothers workplace and her karate center, asking for permission to set up collection boxes at their locations. Lopezn made fliers and explained her project to her classmates. To spread the word further, she reportedly persuaded members of a broadcast club at a local middle school to film her talking about her mission. Every week during her drive, she emptied the donation boxes, and at the end of the project she handed out coats, blankets, scarves and food at a homeless shelter, with the help of her father and 16 other families.

Lopez donated the remaining items to a shelter for domestic violence victims and to a youth immigration detention center.

There are people out there who need help, she said, and it is the job of those who are more fortunate to help them.

For more information about The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards and this years honorees, visit http://spirit.prudential.com. For more information about the National Association of Secondary School Principals, visit www.nassp.org. For more information about Prudential Financial, visit www.news.prudential.com.

rkent@hcnonline.com
New York state will work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on a plan to reimagine education, developing new online learning strategies as it continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday.

The states schools are closed for the remainder of the school year to slow the spread of the virus and, like every other state, New York leaders are considering what schools should look like when they reopen. Some governors have raised concerns about maintaining social distancing in classrooms and planning for rapid, emergency transitions back to online learning if the virus resurges in their areas. Cuomo, a Democrat, seemed to suggest the work with the Gates Foundation would move beyond that, planning for larger changes.

So, its not about just reopening schools, Cuomo said at his daily coronavirus briefing. When we are reopening schools, lets open a better school, and lets open a smarter education system. ... Bill Gates is a visionary in many ways, and his ideas and thoughts on technology and education hes spoken about for years, but I think we now have a moment in history where we can actually incorporate and advance those ideas.



Learning from Crisis

Cuomo sandwiched his thoughts on education between broader remarks about learning from the states experience during the crisis in areas like transportation.

He said the education system did a great job transitioning to remote learning with very little advanced warning, but that some teachers needed more training in virtual instruction, and some students lacked technology and devices.

Weve all been talking about tele-education, virtual education, remote education, and theres a lot that can be done he said. The old model of everybody goes and sits in a classroom and the teacher is in front of that classroom and teaches that class, and you do that all across the city, all across the state, all these buildings, all these physical classrooms. Why, with all the technology you have?

Cuomo did not outline the scope and aim of the states work with the Gates Foundation. As he spoke, he showed a slide that showed questions like, Where can we use technology to provide more opportunity to students no matter where they are? and How can we use technology to meet educational needs of students with disabilities?

Criticism of Gates Plan

Cuomos announcement was met with concern from some educators, who believe it focused too heavily on technology, overlooking the value of in-person education and supporting students growing social and emotional needs as the state recovers.

Remote learning, in any form, will never replace the important personal connection between teachers and their students that is built in the classroom and is a critical part of the teaching and learning processwhich is why weve seen educators work so hard during this pandemic to maintain those connections through video chats, phone calls and socially distant in-person meetings, New York State United Teachers President Andy Pallott said in a statement. If we want to reimagine education, lets start with addressing the need for social workers, mental health counselors, school nurses, enriching arts courses, advanced courses and smaller class sizes in school districts across the state.

Cuomos remarks also were also panned educational activists who question the Gates Foundations support for initiatives like test-based teacher evaluations and common core standards and are critical of the foundations overall influence on the education sector.

In a tweet to Cuomo, parent activist Leonie Haimson cited the states 2014 decision to pull the plug on its relationship with inBloom, a controversial Gates-supported effort to store and sort student data for states and districts that faced concerns from student-privacy groups.

This would be disastrous @NYGovCuomo unless you want to re-charge #optout movement. @billgates @gatesfoundation pushed for one failed initiative after another incl #commoncore , #inBloom fiasco & doubling down on hi-stakes tests. Listen to parents & educators & do not go there! pic.twitter.com/Zrm3c1RtDN  leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) May 5, 2020

Gates Foundation Coronavirus Response

The Gates Foundation has responded to the pandemic by offering emerging aid to existing grantees to help them confront their most urgent needs, Bob Hughes, the foundations director of K-12 education, told Education Week opinion blogger Rick Hess last month.

Were working with partners such as the Council of Chief State School Officers to help state departments of education and school districts navigate the immediate programmatic and financial implications of this emergency, Hughes said. Were also supporting partners who are expanding online learning and coordinating meals and other supports for K-12 students, and helping lessen the financial shock felt disproportionately by low-income college students due to lost housing, food, and wages.

The Gates Foundation provided few details about the New York initiative Tuesday.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed to work with New York State on its efforts to ensure equitable access to education for its students in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the organizations press office said in a statement. We will provide further details as they become available.

A spokesman for the states education department referred questions to the governors office.

The Board of Regents and Department recently announced they will be creating a statewide task force on re-opening made up of education leaders, which has been widely supported by New Yorks education community, the agency said in a statement. By working with our partners across the state, we can ensure our guidance is grounded in the principles of practice and our childrens educational, developmental and overall wellbeing is considered during this important discussion

Education Week has reached out to Cuomos office for more information about the plan. We will update this post if they respond.

Photo: A still from C-SPAN video of Gov. Andrew Cuomos May 5 coronavirus briefing.

Follow us on Twitter @PoliticsK12 . And follow the Politics K-12 reporters @EvieBlad @Daarel and @AndrewUjifusa .
Students unable or unwilling to control themselves steal valuable class time, often preventing their classmates from being prepared for tests and assessments. I have taken tests that included entire topics we never mastered, either because we were not able to get through the lesson or we couldnt sufficiently focus.

I do not envy a middle-school teachers job. Its far from easy to oversee 26 teenagers. And in my three years of middle school, Ive encountered only a few teachers who had strong command of their classrooms  enforcing consistent rules, treating students fairly and earning their respect.

I go to a school that puts a big emphasis on collaborative learning; approximately 80 percent of our work is done in teacher-assigned groups of three to five students. This forces students who want to complete their assignments into the position of having to discipline peers who wont behave and coax reluctant group members into contributing.

Distance learning gives me more control of my studies. I can focus more time on subjects that require greater effort and study. I dont have to sit through a teacher fielding questions that have already been answered. I can still collaborate with other students, but much more effectively. I am really enjoying FaceTiming friends who bring different perspectives and strengths to the work; we challenge one another and its a richer learning experience.

Ive also found that I prefer some of the recorded lessons that my teachers post to Google Classroom over the lessons they taught in person. This year I have struggled with math. The teacher rarely had the patience for questions as he spent at least a third of class time trying to maintain order. Often, when I scheduled time to meet with him before school, there would be a pileup at his door of students who also had questions. He couldnt help us all in 20 minutes before first period. Other times he just wouldnt show up.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 06:22:31|Editor: huaxia

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ALGIERS, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Algerian health authorities on Tuesday reported 190 new infections with COVID-19, and the number of recovered cases increased to 2,067.

Head of COVID-19 Detection and Follow up Commission, Djamel Fourar, told a press conference that during the past 24 hours, 190 confirmed cases were reported, bringing the total infections to 4,838.

He pointed that five new death cases were registered, bringing the total death toll to 470 cases.

Fourar noted that healed cases are increasing day to day, as the total recoveries jumped to 2,067.

Earlier on Tuesday, Algerian Health Minister, Abderrahman Benbouzid, stated during a visit to the province of Chlef, 200 km northwest of the capital Algiers, that the non-respect of preventive measures by citizens forced the government to suspend again some business activities.

He further urged all citizens to wear face masks in order to limit the spread of the disease, saying that "if every citizen is committed to wear masks, the government will lift the lockdown."

The minister affirmed that when Algeria manages to overcome the pandemic, the government will start establishing "a new health system." Enditem
SALEM  Like all salons across Oregon, Glamour Salon in Salem has been closed for weeks. Owner Lindsey Graham misses her clients and stylists.

We have incredibly deep relationships where we share everything with each other and laugh with each other, Graham said.

As great as that is, Graham misses an income even more. She says providing for her three kids and husband has been difficult at best.

"It's been extremely tough," she said. "We're not sure where next month's funds will come from."

Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter

The situation is so dire that Graham is planning to defy Gov. Kate Browns orders and reopen Tuesday morning. She says the move is for her family and fellow business owners.

"People are looking up to me to be the leader in this," she said. "How's this going to go for you? Can you open your doors and provide for your family and if that goes well maybe I can open my doors and provide for my family."

This could be costly. Graham says somebody from Oregon Occupational Safety and Health paid a visit Monday. They warned of hefty fines should Graham re-open.

"That's an ending for us," Graham said tearfully. "That can't happen."

Graham says something has to be done. It may as well be her, regardless of the backlash that could follow.

"The government has backed us into a corner and driven fear into us so that we can't even take a stand and make our living," she said. "It's completely unconstitutional and devastating and immoral."

Graham says three or four stylists are slated to work Tuesday. They will wear masks and gloves. She says clients have appointments scheduled, as well. One client will be allowed in the salon at a time.

 Mike Benner, KGW-TV

This article was originally published by KGW-TV, one of more than a dozen news organizations throughout the state sharing their coverage of the novel coronavirus outbreak to help inform Oregonians about this evolving heath issue.

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About a year before COVID-19 turned several Canadian personal-care homes into pandemic death traps, a University of Manitoba study outlined a common-sense way to evaluate and improve such institutions.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 5/5/2020 (623 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

About a year before COVID-19 turned several Canadian personal-care homes into pandemic death traps, a University of Manitoba study outlined a common-sense way to evaluate and improve such institutions.

The study urged the province to develop an online report card that would give the public a window into personal-care homes, which are also known as nursing homes. Each home would be publicly assessed on 12 indicators, including how each facility is staffed, what daily life is like, medical criteria such as the prevalence of bed sores and untreated depression, the use of physical restraints and toileting plans, and the levels of satisfaction of both residents and their families.

The criteria were developed by researchers from the universitys Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, who interviewed care-home administrators and doctors and nurses who specialize in care-home patients. Variations of such report cards already exist in Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Ontario and in 23 U.S. states. But, in Manitoba, there is currently no reliable way for the public to compare the quality of care homes.

Entrusting a loved one to a care home, a decision that often rests with the adult children of the elderly person, is already a deeply emotional stage of family life. It only gets tougher when the families dont have trustworthy information about which home will give high-quality care to their vulnerable parent or grandparent.

The pandemic has exposed the fragility of care homes. Federal statistics show that, as of last week, 79 per cent of Canadas 2,700 COVID-19 deaths have been residents of seniors homes and long-term care facilities.

These are people who are particularly susceptible, housed in close quarters and often with higher rates of diabetes and respiratory problems. One would hope this vulnerability would prompt authorities to give the strongest possible protection to care-home residents, but that hasnt always happened.

At the Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver, at least 18 residents died of COVID-19 complications. When care aides got sick, replacement personnel were scared to come to the facility. Without adequate aides, residents were left in wet diapers, crying incessently for help, according to family members.

At the Pinecrest Home in Bobcaygeon, Ont., the virus killed 28 of the residents of the 65-bed facility. Some rooms housed four residents, curtains providing the only barriers between people who had the virus and those who didnt. There was no place to segregate people who got sick  although, after so many died, there was finally enough room to isolate some survivors.

At Residence Herron in Dorval, Que., the virus killed about 31 residents. Many staff deserted the facility, leaving residents lying in soiled beds, dehydrated and without having been fed.

"There were (two) patients who were dead in their beds," a source told the Montreal Gazette. "There were patients who had fallen on the floor. There were patients who hadnt had any basic care for a number of days, diapers that hadnt been changed for three or four days, excrement that was covering their skin and patients who hadnt been fed."

Manitoba has so far avoided the care-home clusters of COVID-19 that devasted some homes in other provinces. Thanks partly to geographical isolation, and partly to a later arrival of the virus that let us learn from the mistakes of other places, officials locked down Manitoba care homes at an early stage and minimized the risk.

Commendably, local officials took further preventive action last week, even though a large-scale tragedy hasnt happened here. Manitoba banned care-home staff from working at multiple facilities, so they wont transport viruses by moving between institutions.

This restriction on the employment of care staff may be necessary, but its also important for the province to address the underlying reasons why care aides were working at multiple homes. Many of them can only get part-time work, earning little more than minimum wage with few or no benefits.

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Another deficiency exposed in the Manitoba care-home industry was a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) for care staff. If we expect care staff to stay at their posts when a pandemic hits, instead of abandoning the residents when they are most needed, the employer is obliged to provide staff with PPE such as medical-quality masks and sterilizing equipment.

Even after the pandemic has subsided, Manitobas care-home industry will be tested more than ever as the oncoming bulge of baby-boomer seniors will need places to rest.

A welcome step would be to adopt the online evaluations recommended by the U of M team in its study, titled Strategies for Developing a Personal Care Home Report Card in Manitoba, which was presented to the provincial government in March 2019.

Its been 13 months since the report was delivered. I asked Manitoba Health for an update on whether it plans to begin the report card. A spokesman told me they are still reviewing the recommendations.

carl.degurse@freepress.mb.ca

Carl DeGurse is a member of the Free Press editorial board.
Sheridan and Washakie counties both received state approval this week to further reopen parts of their communities that had been shuttered as a part of statewide efforts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

In Sheridan County, where the first coronavirus patient in Wyoming was identified in mid-March, residents can now partake in outdoor dining at area restaurants with restrictions. They can also now attend religious services, with similar restrictions. In Washakie County, residents can now eat inside of their eateries, again with strictures.

Both counties have had complete recoveries of all confirmed and probable cases there. Sheridan County had the first and third cases in the state, both of which were connected. They have had 12 confirmed and four probable coronavirus patients, all of whom have recovered. Washakie County has had five confirmed and three probables; those patients have also completely recovered, according to state data.

The moves are the latest by Wyoming counties to begin moving toward returning to some semblance of normalcy as officials begin to cautiously indicate that the viruss spread has been slowed. Last week, Gov. Mark Gordon and state health officer Dr. Alexia Harrist announced that they would allowed limited reopenings of tattoo parlors, gyms and barbershops. They also indicated that counties can apply for their own tweaks to those orders, depending on the pandemics presence in those areas.

As of Tuesday afternoon, eight counties had availed themselves of that opportunity. Only Teton County, which has one of the highest case totals in Wyoming, has applied for an order thats more restrictive than the current state mandates  it will keep gyms, barbershops and tattoo parlors closed through mid-May.

Sheridan County Sheriffs Lt. Levi Dominguez said the county felt that it was safe to begin reopening given its recoveries and the fact that it hasnt had a new case in more than a month. But he stressed that the new orders can be walked back if necessary.

This week is opening up the outdoor dining with restrictions, and then possibly looking within the immediate future of doing limited indoor seating with restrictions, he said. He added that the third phase of the reopening would be to allow for all closed businesses to reopen with restrictions, but that each reopening phase would be separate from previous moves to ensure the virus didnt return.

The restrictions on Sheridan County dining and religious services are similar to those in other counties that have successfully opened them up. They include social distancing, careful sanitization, the use of masks by clerics and restaurant workers, and careful handling of wafers and wine in church and food and utensils in restaurants.

The northern Wyoming county joins Platte and Niobrara counties in allowing for religious services with limitations.

A message left for a Washakie County public health official was not returned Tuesday. The county becomes just the second in the state to have in-person dining reopened, although Natrona County announced Tuesday that it hopes to have the interior of its eateries open again by the end of this week.

Washakies restrictions are similar to Sheridan Countys restaurants strictures, as well as those elsewhere in the state.

(A)s of May 3, 2020, the state of Wyoming data show a total of 76 resulted COVID-19 tests from Washakie County, officials wrote in their request to the state, with an overall positive rate test rate of 8% and a positive test rate within the last two weeks of 0%.

The continuing reopening of services across Wyoming highlights the disparity in the viruss presence statewide. Three counties  Teton, Laramie and Fremont  account for 400 of the states 452 confirmed or suspected cases. None of those three have sought to loosen up their restrictions. On the other hand, nearly half of the states 23 counties have fewer than 10 confirmed or probable cases.

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Ballia : , May 5 (IANS) Three boys drowned in the Ghaghra river on Monday, while two others are reported missing in Athgawa area of Ballia district.

Station Officer Bairiya, Sanjay Kumar Tripathi, said that total five boys drowned while bathing in the river. The bodies of three had been recovered by the divers while search for two others continues.

Police said Lavkush Yadav,16, Vikas Yadav ,16, Pappu Yadav, 10, Vishal Yadav ,14, and Lalu Yadav ,8, of Fakhru Rai ka Dera village under Bairiya police station went to the river bank to play.

After some time, the boys waded into the river and started drowning in the deep waters.

On hearing their scream, the local people rushed to the spot and tried to rescue them but failed because of the strong current in the river.

Tripathi said that divers had succeeded in retrieving bodies of three boys. Due to the strong current of river stream, the divers were facing difficulties in continuing search operation.

He said that the search operations would be resumed on Tuesday.
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LANSING, MI -- Citing a need to protect both public health and the right to vote, state officials have implemented a handful of measures they hope will keep Tuesdays election running smoothly and safely across Michigan.

With about 50 communities scheduled to vote in local elections Tuesday, May 5, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said efforts have been made to expand options for voters amid the coronavirus outbreak. More than 740,000 voters in communities where elections will take place Tuesday were notified via mail that they could request an absentee ballot, Bensons office said. So far, Benson said more than 140,000 ballots have been returned.

Already we have seen signs of success. Voter turnout in this election is at 20% right now and will ultimately be more than twice the average turnout for our May local elections which is typically around 12%, Benson said. More than 140,000 citizens have returned to their ballots by mail, demonstrating that even in times of great uncertainty. People want to vote and they want to weigh in on important local issues.

Related story: How Michigans May 5 election will look amid the coronavirus pandemic

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order in March that temporarily suspended election laws to allow for fewer in-person polling stations, online voter registration and other measures to encourage more absentee voting.

Even though we are in the midst of fighting a global pandemic, Secretary Benson and I agreed we must do everything we can to ensure that all Michiganders, that their right to vote is pristine and respected and insured, and that we encourage people to exercise that right to do it in the safest manner they can, Whitmer said during a Monday briefing.

Each municipality is required to keep at least one polling location open for in-person voting Tuesday. The state has supplied masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, wipes and other personal protective equipment for workers to ensure their safety and to keep in-person voting open. Those voting in person are asked to wear a mask and stay at least six feet from other people. Your local clerk will have information on where your polling place is located.

Voters who have not registered ahead of the election can register Tuesday, request a ballot, take it home and return it in person. All ballots, including absentee and those taken home by a voter, must be received before 8 p.m. May 5.

Some municipalities chose to postpone elections to August, but others kept them as scheduled, at times because of immediate questions of school funding being presented to voters.

Heres whats on the ballot in Jackson County

On upcoming elections in August and November, Benson said the focus is on ensuring voters know that they can request ballots ahead of time, and that they know how to do so.

What we want to emphasize to every citizen, every voter out there is that you will have that right to vote from home, to mail in your ballot and you will be able to request it through your local clerk and through our office, going to our website, Benson said. Were going to be monitoring the health and safety situation as things unfold.

Asked if sending absentee ballots to all voters was an option, Benson said that would require approval of the legislature.

Again, our focus is on making sure that citizens know exactly how to request their ballot. If they do choose to vote from home, this August, this November, and well be working with clerks, certainly legislative leaders and everyone else with an interest in making sure the integrity and the accessibility of our elections is preserved in the months ahead, Benson said.

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

Complete coverage at mlive.com/coronavirus

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 5)  In an attempt to ramp up the countrys testing capacity, the government targets to accredit 58 more COVID-19 testing laboratories by the end of May.

To date, the Department of Health has certified a total of 22 laboratories nationwide to perform real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing for COVID-19, with UP-PGH Medical Research Laboratory and the Singapore Diagnostic recently joining the list of licensed facilities.

According to Bases Conversion and Development Authority president Vince Dizon, they are aiming to operate at least 78 laboratories by May 30, which would be "strategically located" across the country to address future surges in the communities.

A total of 58 laboratories are now currently on stages 3 to 5 of the accreditation process, based on a report released by the DOH on Sunday. Under stage 3, hospital personnel undergo training for coronavirus testing. Stage 4 is tagged as the proficiency stage, while stage 5 is the full scale implementation stage and the point in which a laboratory is considered certified.

We need to speed up the accreditation of these laboratories in order for them to begin operation within the month of May, Dizon said Monday in an aired Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases meeting presided by President Rodrigo Duterte.

The BCDA president, who is also deputy COVID-19 task force implementer, stressed the need for a more aggressive testing in the country so as to immediately identify and isolate those infected with the viral disease. This, he said, is the only way that the government can confidently start easing lockdown restrictions.

Dizon pointed to the swift response of the governments of New Zealand, Korea, Vietnam, and Germany which have tested broadly and have seen positive progress in their fight against the pandemic.

Germany is ahead, with 120,000 tests per day. Very, very aggressive at talagang gumastos sila nang todo-todo rito, he said, adding that while the RT-PCR tests kits are not cheap, they are absolutely necessary.

The Philippines may also draw from the experience of Vietnam, Dizon noted. From having only three laboratories in January, the said Southeast Asian neighbour now has 112 laboratories to test for the deadly virus.

We need to really invest in the testing capacity also because we know that a vaccine is not forthcoming soon, Dizon said.

On April 28, the DOH announced that the country can now conduct up to 6,320 COVID-19 tests daily. The department was not able to reach its target daily testing capacity of 8,000 by the end of April, citing problems in services, including the week-long stoppage of operations of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.

It earlier also said it is targeting a 30,000 daily testing capacity by May 30.

Nationwide, health officials have recorded 9,485 confirmed cases of the viral illness, with the country logging its highest single-day number of recoveries at 101 on Monday. The country has also so far recorded a total of 623 deaths and 1,315 recoveries.
Venezuela has arrested two Americans after an alleged failed armed invasion, according to the Venezuelan president.

Nicolas Maduro said 13 terrorists had been detained on Monday in connection with a foiled plot to enter the South American country from the Caribbean coast and ultimately topple him.

Eight people were killed and two arrested during the alleged attempted beach invasion near La Guaira, a northern port city, in the early hours of Sunday, Venezuelan authorities have said.

The group tried to land by speedboats, according to officials.

Mr Maduro, the Venezuelan president, showed what he claimed were the US passports of two American men in custody in a TV address on Monday.

In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival Show all 22 1 /22 In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival Yelitza Parra poses with her 7-year-old son Alyeiner Moises in Caracas, Venezuela. Alyeiner has been diagnosed with severe bone marrow aplasia and needs constant treatment and transplants, especially of platelets. Derived from his low defenses, he also suffers from Hepatitis C and Cushing's syndrome Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival Alyeiner was diagnosed at the age of four after routine exams at school. "I had to buy the needles to do the hematology for my son," Yelitza said. She wants the government to pay more attention to the precarious situation of children with terminal illnesses Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival Ines Zarza poses with her 7-year-old daughter Maria Elena. Maria Elena was diagnosed with severe sickle cell disease after a cerebrovascular accident in 2016 Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival Maria Elena has to take medicine, which Ines usually gets through donations. They need $2,600 for another test. "I don't even have money to eat, where I am going to find that amount?" Ines says Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival Rosa Colina poses with her 17-year-old daughter Cristina. Cristina has been diagnosed with major thalassemia, systemic lupus erythematosus and Hepatitis C Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival "It is not easy to stand the criticism of people on the street," Cristina says. "In December last year we were walking and a group of young people approached. I heard one say to the other: 'Look, she has AIDS'. That was devastating for me because I don't have AIDS and I'm not going to give it to anyone," Cristina said Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival Jacqueline Sulbarn poses with her 10-year-old son Carlos. Carlos is a survivor of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), but must complete two years of treatment to prevent relapse. ALL is a type of blood and bone marrow cancer that leaves the child unprotected from infections Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival Carlos' treatment has had to be interrupted due to his parent's economic problems. "Sometimes he asks me why he does not have hair, and I tell him it's because his dad wants to see him with the same haircut as him. My husband cut off all his hair too," Jaqueline says. According to the US National Library of Medicine, genetic disorders such as Down syndrome are a high risk factor which can lead to developing ALL. Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival Elsa Murillo poses with her 16-year-old son Miguel Alejandro. Miguel was diagnosed with beta thalassemia in 2007, a genetic severe anemia that forces the adolescent to undergo red blood cell transfusions every three weeks. His illness could be solved with a bone marrow transplant, for which he is on an emergency waiting list that's not going down Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival Despite the added difficulty of living two hours from the capital, the worst part for Elsa is to see her son lose hope: "I get sad when I see that he loses his temper. Sometimes he tells me that he does not want this anymore" Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival Evelline Fernandez poses with her 15-year-old daughter Edenny. Edenny was diagnosed with major thalassemia at the age of one. She hes been receiving blood transfusions since she was seven months old Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival For Eddeny, the most difficult thing is to miss class and her classmates calling her 'chameleon' or 'zombie' because of her skin color, which sometimes changes from her natural tone to yellow. "When she grows up she wants to be a lawyer," says her mother Evelline Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival Verioska Martinez poses with her 14-year-old son Jerson. Jerson has severe bone marrow aplasia, and he is one of the children on the list for an urgent transplant Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival "Here in Venezuela he does not have any chances, and his brother is not compatible [for a transplant]. The government told us that they cannot do anything because they owe so much money," says Martinez. She adds: "My children are my life. They know they are my everything. It's not only me, there are lots of mums who need help" Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival Norlisa Aparicio poses with her 16-year-old son Oscar, who has beta thalassemia. "My son's disease manifested at four months old. His bone marrow does not produce red blood cells," Norlisa says. "The illness is more or less manageable but he has been seeking a transplant for 14 years. It is hereditary. I took the risk to have another child in case they could be compatible, but they aren't. My 10-year-old daughter is also a carrier" Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival "The hardest part for me has been learning how the be a mother under this circumstances," says Norlisa. "We started bringing him to he hospital every 21 days thanks to much sacrifice. He has had severe dengue two times, at nine and at eleven years old. I feel helpless lots of times when I don't know what to do. There is no day that I don't speak about my son's need to get a transplant" Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival Zulema Gonzalez poses with her 9-year-old son Juan Manuel. Juan Manuel was diagnosed with anemia when he was six months old, but it turned severe in January 2017 when he suffered a cerebrovascular accident. He suffered another last February. Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival 'My son needs a transplant because he has blood transfusions every 21 days," Zulema says. "His blood is B+ and this is the only type he can receive. I have had to buy blood but sometimes I just can't get it and he spends a month without a transfusion. There's no congenital blood here because there are no reagents, and the government has not done anything to solve the problem for children with this condition. Untreated blood means they vomit and get diarrhea. I'd do anything for my child's life, I'd go anywhere. I'm not going to let him die; he is my son" Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival Adriana Avariano poses with her 6-year-old daughter Mariana. Mariana has been diagnosed with Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and is in the first phase of chemotherapy. The protocol, that should last two years, has been extended due to the suspension of chemotherapy sessions - meanwhile, her cancer cells are reproducing Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival "Thank God we do not need a bone marrow transplant," Adriana said. "The day they tell us that it is necessary we are going to have to leave the country, because it is a lie that they are going to help us here. Many children have already died waiting for that transplant" Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival Geraldine Labrador holds a photo of her late son Robert. Robert died at the age of seven of acute Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a few days before this picture was taken Miguel Gutierrez/EPA In crisis-hit Venezuela, terminally ill children struggle for survival '"Doctors told me he was very sick; one of them said that they had to put tubes in him because if he had respiratory failure they did not have the tools to help him. They stabilized his tension, but he went into a respiratory failure at 5am. For 40 minutes doctors were assisting him, until one came up to me and said: 'I do not want to be the last person to see the last breath of your son; you are the one who deserves to be there.' I went in there willing to give my son strength to resist, but in the midst of despair I told the doctors to leave him alone. I was with him, I kissed him a lot, and I decided to take all the tubes off. He did not deserve to suffer any longer" Miguel Gutierrez/EPA

The two arrested US citizens were identified as as Luke Denman and Airan Berry, both former US special forces soldiers.

The Venezuelan president said they had been working with Jordan Goudreau, an US military veteran who leads a security company called Silvercorp USA and who has claimed responsibility for the failed plot.

They were playing Rambo. They were playing hero, Mr Maduro said, adding that Venezuelan authorities learned about the plan beforehand.

He blamed the alleged attacks on the Trump administration and neighbouring Colombia  both of which have denied involvement.

The Venezuelan opposition leader has cast doubt on the governments version of Sundays foiled plot, claiming Mr Maduro was trying to distract from recent events, including a deadly prison riot and a violent gang battle in Caracas.

Mr Goudreau  the US veteran who said he had organised the plot in a video on Sunday  claimed he had reached an agreement with the US-backed Juan Guaido to overthrow Mr Maduro.

The opposition leader has denied this allegation and said he had nothing to do with Sundays raid.

Mr Goudreau claimed the opposition leader never fulfilled the alleged agreement, but the veteran pushed ahead anyway with an underfunded operation with just 60 fighters, including the two US veterans.

Kay Denman, the mother of one of the detained Americans, said she last heard from her son a few weeks ago to ask how she was during the coronavirus pandemic. She said she had never heard him speak about Venezuela.

The South American country has been in a deepening political and economic crisis under Mr Maduros rule.

Crumbling public services such as running water, electricity and medical care have driven nearly five million people to leave the country.

The South American country and the US  which recently charged Mr Maduro with drug trafficking  broke diplomatic ties last year amid heightened tensions.

The US offered a 15m reward in March for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelas president, who has also been charged with narcoterrorism and weapons offences.

Additional reporting by agencies
Cases of novel coronavirus soared in the central paramilitary forces with more than 300 personnel being infected and thousands others placed in quarantine, officials said on Tuesday.

Over 50 personnel of these forces, tasked with various internal security and border guarding duties, are now being treated at CAPFs' 200-bedded Referral Hospital located in Greater Noida.

"The Referral Hospital has been designated as a dedicated COVID-19 medical centre. An excellent team of specialist doctors is treating all admitted CAPF jawans 247 as per medical protocols at the hospital. They are well equipped with personal protection equipment," ITBP and BSF Director General S S Deswal told PTI.

"All jawans coming in contact with affected personnel are being put into quarantine facilities, he said.

A senior official said over 300 personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) have been found positive till now.

"Some have been cured. Thousands others are in quarantine after contact tracing of the infected personnel," he said.

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), primarily tasked to guard the Line of Actual Control with China, witnessed a steep increase in these numbers, from 21 to 45 positive cases in the last two days.

The force's maximum personnel, 43, are from its camp in south Delhi's Tigri, where the personnel are suspected to have been infected from a jawan working in the unit mess, who in turn might have contracted the virus from grocery sellers.

The other two personnel are from a unit that was deployed for law and order duties under the command of the Delhi Police.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has 158 COVID-19 positive personnel till now, with the maximum 137 from a battalion based in Delhi.

A 55-year-old CRPF official, who had comorbid conditions of hypertension and diabetes, was the first case of coronavirus death in these forces, last week.

The headquarters of CRPF, the country's largest paramilitary force, was sealed early this week after a personal staff of a Special Director General rank officer and another staffer were detected coronavirus positive.

The cases in border guarding force, BSF, has spiked to a total of 69 cases, with the maximum cases reported from a Delhi battalion deployed in the Jamia and Chandni Mahal areas for law and order duties and from the frontier state of Tripura.

"Two personnel have recovered and all these troops contracted the infection while rendering essential and operational duties," a BSF spokesperson said.

Two floors of the BSF headquarters in the CGOs complex on Lodhi Road here were sealed on Monday after a staff member was found COVID-19 infected and the headquarters was shut for sanitisation.

"The Office (headquarters) will start functioning normally from May 6," he added.

Active infections in the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) stand at about 15 cases, with six personnel serving at the Delhi Metro and three at the Indira Gandhi International Airport being tested positive.

The force is the national civil aviation security force with 63 airports under its security cover at present.

Eleven CISF personnel working at the Mumbai airport were infected last month and they have now recovered.

Thirteen personnel of the Sashastra Seema Bal, which guards the Nepal and Bhutan borders, are also COVID-19 positive.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congratulatory messages have been pouring in for three photojournalists from Jammu and Kashmir who have won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in feature photography for their work during the shutdown in the region following abrogation of Article 370 in August last year.

Mukhtar Khan, Yasin Dar and Channi Anand -- three photojournalists working with the Associated Press (AP) -- were among those who were awarded the Pulitzer last night.

"It's been a difficult year for journalists in Kashmir & that's saying something considering the last 30 years haven't exactly been easy. Congratulations to @daryasin, @muukhtark_khan & @channiap on this prestigious award. More power to your cameras," National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said in a tweet.

Iltija Mufti, daughter of PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, while congratulating the photojournalists, said the scribes from the union territory were winning accolades abroad but are punished back home.

"Congratulations @daryasin @muukhtark_khan for your exemplary photography capturing the humanitarian crisis in Kashmir post illegal abrogation of Article 370. Bizarre that our journalists win accolades abroad but are punished under draconian laws on home turf," she tweeted from her mother's Twitter account.

The journalist fraternity has also hailed the first Pulitzer winners from Jammu and Kashmir.

"A proud moment for all in our tribe across Jammu and Kashmir and beyond," veteran journalist Yusuf Jameel said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
We may know Elon Musk best for Tesla, SpaceX, and PayPal, but now, hes the center of attention for his family life. He and his famous musician girlfriend, Grimes, have been together since 2018  and they welcomed their first child together in May 2020. Now, Musk is going to be busy being a new dad for awhile.

While this is Grimes first child, it isnt Musks. He already has several children from his first marriage to Justine Wilson  and Wilson has talked extensively about what her relationship with Musk was like over the years. Heres how many children Musk has in total.

Elon Musk and Grimes welcomed their first baby together

Congratulations are in order to the happy couple. On May 4, Musk tweeted that his child with Grimes, aka Claire Boucher, was born. Mom & baby all good, he tweeted, and he then seemed to tell one curious Twitter fan that the gender of the baby is a boy. As for the name, he also gave that away, too. X  A-12 Musk, Musk replied  but were still not sure if Musk and Grimes are being serious. Finally, the happy father also added a photo of him holding the newborn.

Musk has only publicly acknowledged Grimes pregnancy more recently via Twitter. Prior to that, fans knew she was pregnant because of her Instagram, as thats where she shared updates. And it was clear that she was ready and excited to bring a little one into the world.

Its a pretty crazy sacrifice and only half of the population has to do it, Grimes told Rolling Stone regarding having children. It was really profound to me when I decided I was going to do it, to actually go through the act of  like, yknow, unprotected sex. Im just like, I have sacrificed my power in this moment.  I do actually just really love my boyfriend. So I was like, You know, sure.

Musk has 5 other children with Justine Wilson

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and founder of SpaceX | Paul Harris/Getty Images

Musk now officially has six children. Distractify explains the Tesla CEO has five kids with his first wife, Justine Wilson. The two were married from 2000 to 2008, and they utilized IVF to help Wilsons pregnancies. This resulted in the birth of twins, Griffin and Xavier, in 2004, and triplets, Saxon, Kai, and Damian, in 2006.

Wilson has since talked about her relationship with Musk, and shes referred to herself as his starter wife, as Musk has since had other high-profile relationships and another marriage. And she talked more about her decision to have kids in a story she wrote for Marie Claire.

One night, over dinner, he asked me how many kids I wanted to have. One or two, I said immediately, although if I could afford nannies, Id like to have four,' Wilson wrote. She then added that Musk said, Thats the difference between you and me. I just assume that there will be nannies.

Now, Wilson notes shes estranged from her ex-husband. Even when it comes to dealing with him and the children, she communicates with his assistant.

His first child, Nevada, died from SIDS

Elon Musk and Grimes attend the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala | Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Huffington Post

In Wilsons piece, she also talked about her first son with Musk, Nevada. Prior to the twins and the triplets, they had a son together in 2002. By the time eBay bought PayPal in 2002, we had moved to Los Angeles and had our first child, a boy named Nevada Alexander, she wrote. The same week, Nevada went down for a nap, placed on his back as always, and stopped breathing. He was 10 weeks old, the age when male infants are most susceptible to SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).

Sadly, after three days on life support, the baby couldnt be revived. And Wilson added that Musk never wanted to talk about the death of the baby even though she grieved openly.

I buried my feelings instead, coping with Nevadas death by making my first visit to an IVF clinic less than two months later, she continued. Elon and I planned to get pregnant again as swiftly as possible.

Were not sure if Wilson and Grimes will ever communicate  or if Grimes will ever have contact with Musks other kids. Well have to wait and see.

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The Jigawa State Government on Tuesday announced that coronavirus is rapidly infecting its people at the community level, thus endangering the lives of many.

It also said some of the deaths it has witnessed in recent days are inexplicable.

The 32 new cases in Jigawa are not from returned Almajiris. These are community transmissions from the cases recorded. Numbers will continue to rise as long as we dont complement government efforts with prayers, staying at home, observing social distancing and hand washing, an aide to the Jigawa governor, Zakari Kafin-Hausa, said.

READ ALSO:

As states continue to ease lockdowns, with citizens violating physical distance rules, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, late Monday, announced highest daily figure from coronavirus infections as 254 with Jigawa having 32.

With the 32 new reported cases, also the highest daily figure recorded in the state, Jigawa now has 41 confirmed cases.

The government also appears worried about unusual deaths it said were occurring in Hadejia LG, the most populated council area in the state.

The state governor, Muhammad Badaru, on Tuesday, lamented that some of the citizens see coronavirus as a fairy tale. He said this attitude may lead to more infections in the state.

Just five people were infected last week, now those five people have so far infected 32 other people. Those 32 newly infected persons, we earlier authorised them to remain isolated but some of them are proving stubborn.

Some of these people see coronavirus pandemic as something that is not true, if we dont take that seriously we are endangering the lives of many, especially the aged with underlying medical conditions, the governor said.

Mr Badaru said out of the 57 samples taken from contacts of the initial five infected persons in the state, 32 had returned positive.

In Dutse, contact tracing of only two patients resulted in 23 infected persons. With 32 new cases in the state, we are going to take samples of approximately 300 contacts, this may result in 100 more confirmed cases, the governor said.

He said among the new cases announced on Monday, 23 are from Dutse, the states capital, 2 in Gwaram, 3 in Birnin-Kudu, 1 in Kazaure, 2 in Taura and 1 in Miga. Contact tracing has commenced and efforts are ongoing to transfer the patients to isolation centre.

Strange deaths

The governor also acknowledged strange deaths from Hadejia local government area although he said residents believed they were COVID-19 related.

He said there are yet no scientific conclusions and accurate figure of the deaths recorded in the community.

The governor announced a five man committee, with the officials of the World Health Organisation (WHO) included who are already in the community to ascertain the facts about the usual deaths and report in three days.

Measures

Meanwhile, Mr Badaru said the state will impose stricter measures in the affected areas.

Lockdown would continue and sanctions will be imposed on anyone that breaks the orders. I have directed the security agents to act swiftly on violators of lockdown orders.

The governor also directed civil servants in the state to continue the stay at home for another two weeks beginning from tomorrow, Wednesday.
EasyJet has upped frequency on key routes to Great Britain from Belfast International Airport as it grabs market share after the collapse of Flybe, it has emerged.

While easyJet planes are currently grounded due to coronavirus, its winter 2020 schedule is showing an uplift in frequency on routes from Belfast.

It has upped the number of flights to Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow and Manchester - all routes which had been served by Flybe.

Earlier this year Northern Ireland lost a key element of connectivity to Great Britain when Flybe, which served 14 routes in Great Britain from Belfast City Airport, went into administration.

A spokeswoman for Belfast International Airport said: "The increase in flights by easyJet to key cities across Great Britain is a vote of confidence in the NI air travel market and also Belfast International Airport particularly at this very difficult time for aviation.

"Northern Ireland relies on high frequency air routes in order to maintain connectivity right across the UK and we are pleased that easyJet have moved quickly to add extra capacity to Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow and Edinburgh."

EasyJet said it was adding 257,000 routes annually on routes once served by Flybe.

Last week Stormont and the UK Department of Transport announced 5.7m in financial support to routes to London from City of Derry Airport and Belfast City - currently the only passenger flights serving Northern Ireland.

EasyJet's move to fill capacity on the routes from Belfast International may make it harder for Belfast City Airport to attract an operator to replace Flybe, which had accounted for about 80% of the airport's passenger movements.

But last week airport chief Brian Ambrose said it was speaking to potential airline partners about filling in the old Flybe routes "and expected to make some positive announcements as we emerge from the Covid-19 outbreak in the weeks and months ahead".

Andrew Charlton, the managing director of aviation consultancy Aviation Advocacy, said it was no surprise that easyJet was planning ahead despite the devastation wrought on the industry by Covid-29. Airlines around the world have grounded their planes as demand falls off a cliff in the coronavirus pandemic.

And large numbers have announced major redundancies, with 12,000 jobs to go at British Airways and 3,000 jobs likely to be lost at Ryanair.

Mr Charlton said airlines must plan ahead despite the present circumstances. "Airlines have to make clear that there is a possibility for economic recovery. The only other alternative is to go into into hibernation and wait for this to pass, and that's unacceptable.

"EasyJet like everyone else has a fleet which they have to use, and they can't make money while their fleet is sitting on the ground.

"Belfast is a good example as with Flybe coming out, there is a market opening up which hadn't been there. They've got employees and aircraft and they've got to use them. They have a good operation in Belfast and this is a good opportunity for them since Flybe fell over."

EasyJet accounts for around 56% of all air passengers travelling in and out of Northern Ireland. However, with the loss of Flybe that is likely to increase to around 80%.
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Shuttered restaurants and shelter-in-place orders have compelled many of us to cook at home moreafter all, we have to feed ourselves. But theres also been a surge in baking, and while most of us require a midday meal, the same cant be said of a midday slice of cake or from-scratch sourdough that takes days to incubate. But thats probably the point: Without the pressure of producing something edible by a particular time, baking feels more like play than work, with room to experiment. Whatever the reason for the baking boom, theres a world of advice and apparatus to help your experiments succeed. We talked to bakers, food writers, and other experts about some of their favorite tools for elevating their baked goods.

If theres one baking tool to add to your arsenal, make it a kitchen scale. Nik Sharma of award-winning blog A Brown Table, the New York Times Melissa Clark, and cookbook author Dorie Greenspan all sing its praises. Id never want to live without one, says Greenspan. Scales are important because measuring by volume often yields very different quantities, depending on how you scoop out the ingredient or how fine or coarse an ingredients granules are. These seemingly small quantitative differences can, in turn, have a big effect on your final baked product. Even a cheap kitchen scale is better than no scale, says Clark: Its not only more accurate, its more efficient because you dirty fewer measuring cups and spoons. You can get one for under $30 and its worth every penny.

Youve probably never considered bringing beakers into your kitchen, unless youre a chemist. But you should! Measuring beakers allow you to be precise with liquids (not to mention youll look cool, like youre conducting a science experiment). According to Sharma, who uses his beakers all the time, liquid should be measured in a cup and not a teaspoon. Liquids are better measured in something that can hold the volume. Sharma uses beakers to measure fats, like butter, that must be poured and melted, or for extracts, where even a minute difference can make a huge difference in the final texture.

Award-winning cookbook author and Serious Eats columnist Stella Parks writes often on her own site about her favorite baking tools. But she has some gadget advice for all the new bread bakers out there: invest in a digital thermometer. Parks says its a game-changer for bakers who struggle with bake time for their loaves, noting, Newbies can have a tough time judging whether or not a loaf has fully cooked, as most physical cues are a little subjective, like listening for a hollow thump. But with a digital thermometer, you can easily test the heart of the loaf to be sure its fully cooked (most breads will be done once theyve hit an internal temp around 205 F). Those who struggle with loaves that always turn out dense and damp in the middle can eliminate that problem once and for all. For those studiously avoiding bread baking, this super reliable trick works with thick pound or loaf cakes (like banana bread) too, although its trickier with thinner goods like layer cakes and brownies.

Thermometers are useful for ensuring that your breads have the right internal temperature, but to get your breads to that temperature in the first place, you need a proper baking surfaceone that gets sufficiently hot and heats evenly. For Edan Leshnick, pastry and viennoiserie manager at New York Citybased Breads Bakery (known for a babka thats frequently described as one of the citys best), that surface is a baking stone. Using one will help you to get a really nice crust and oven spring.

Not all pans are created equal. I prefer light-colored pans because dark pans especially nonstick ones with the black coating on themabsorb more heat, and faster  so the cakes tend to brown quicker and the cake burns easily, says Sharma, whose blog features many cake ideas, from a ghee and cardamom scented upside-down banana cake to an upside-down fig cake. Sharma likes the Oxo and Williams Sonoma lines of gold baking pans, as well as Nordic Wares aluminum cake pans.

When times are difficult, I make World Peace Cookies,  says self-described baking evangelist Greenspan, who features the recipe in her 2016 cookie bible Dories Cookies. Thats my recipe for a chocolate cookie thats kind of a cross between a shortbread and what we know as chocolate chip cookies. To ensure proper baking, Greenspan says nothing is better than parchment paper, which she uses to line pans and to roll cookie dough into logs before slicing, baking, or refrigerating.

I have a little wardrobe of scoops, says Greenspan, who describes her set as mama bear, papa bear and baby bear cookie scoops. She appreciates them for both practical and aesthetic reasons: Her cookies look prettier and rounder, and they bake more evenly because theyre the same size. Cookie scoops can also be used for ice cream, melons, and ground beef.

Maybe youre craving cake but you dont want to preheat the oven or you dont have an oven. Mikiko Yui of San Franciscobased Stonemill Matcha uses her donabe (Japanese for clay pot) steamer to produce a delectable steamed matcha cake on the stovetop. I use a regular commercial (industrial) steamer at work to keep up with production, so when I bake at home using donabe, I appreciate the details of those beautiful donabe that are truly one-of-a-kind works of art, says Yui, who uses this model from Toiro Kitchen. Quality donabe may not be cheap, but they can also be used for general cooking purposes, to make vegetables, rice, and more.

Mug

In keeping with the baking-outside-the-oven theme, Christina Tosi of Milk Bar suggests a microwave mug cake as a way to scratch the baking itch when you dont need enough to feed a crowdas is unfortunately the case for some of us in quarantine. Tosi similarly recommends that you freeze your doughs and batters, and bake them off when the snacking crave hits. Your future self will thank you.

The unassuming cheesecloth has many uses, but one is in butter-making, according to Tosi, who is full of inventive ways to get around empty grocery shelves or missing ingredients. Make your own butter by whipping heavy cream in a mixer on high for 7 minutes, and strain any remaining liquid out with a sheet of cheesecloth. Bonus points: You can add in your fave spices, seasonings, syrups, fruits, veggies, etc., for a flavored compound butter. Tosi also encourages more general creative experimentation. With the aforementioned homemade butter, for example, you could graduate to an easy pie crust. Have a pantry full of store-bought cookies or crackers? Crush them up and combine with butter, and youve got a killer pie crust, she says.

Greenspan has two general tips for novice bakers, and both have to do with prep. First, read a recipe all the way throughtwiceso youre not taken by surprise by things you should have done in advance, like getting eggs or butter to room temperature. The other? Ready your itemsin cooking its called mise en placeas if you were on a cooking competition show. Its a small thing, but its crucial for ensuring that the baking goes smoothly and enjoyably. As an added benefit, Greenspan says, I think the ingredients themselves look so beautiful. Its kind of a pleasure to see them on your counter ready to go. For this reason, one of Greenspans favorite kitchen tools is a set of small bowls.

Baking often necessitates frostings, caramels, and creams, which can be finicky if theyre not kept at a steady temperature. A frosting might not whip properly, for example, if ingredients are too warm. For this reason, Sharma says, if you ever want to venture into creme caramel, buttercream frosting, meringues, or flans, metal bowls are really, really helpful.  Metal is a better conductor of heat than glass. They absorb heat much better and more evenly.

Youre probably familiar with immersion blenders for their ability to puree soups and sauces directly on the stove. But Leshnick regularly turns to his for baking, noting that it can bind ingredients that normally tend not to bind well. The fine blade of the immersion blender and its speed help break down and bind in a way that can get us great emulsions such as smooth ganache or a very shiny glaze.

The sugar duster is a little extra, admits Greenspan. For years she used a strainer, which worked perfectly fine, but her sugar duster makes her feel like Tinkerbell  and it really does work well. What baked goods can benefit from this little bit of magic? I love loaf cakes, she says. I have a yogurt cake that Ive made for years.
TRENTON  Footage of Quasim Hallett brutally executing Quamierah Massey was seared into the minds of capital city residents.

Halletts haunting presence was also seared into the memories of two victims who were with Massey the day she was killed watching a street fight.

Hallett, the man depicted in the 43-second viral video wearing a black jumper and skull cap with the salt-and-pepper beard, pointed a gun at one of the women and told the other to keep her mouth shut moments after shooting Massey in the head after 7 p.m April 5 on the 100 block of Hoffman Avenue, where a crowd gathered to watch a street fight between one of the victims and a woman named Neek.

Then he casually walked off like nothing happened, according to probable cause affidavit obtained by The Trentonian.

The victims picked the suspected gunman out of a lineup with 100 percent certainty after witnessing the murder.

Thats who it was. Ill never forget his face, victim 3 told detectives Luis Vega and Jessica Senese.

The victim spoke to cops even though Hallett warned her not to snitch.

B**ch, you better not say nothing, Hallett said as he walked away from the scene of the grisly slaying.

Detectives later apprehended Hallett in Delaware, and he was extradited to New Jersey for a detention hearing, charged with murder for shooting the 24-year-old Massey during a bloody Palm Sunday in Trenton.

Hallett was also charged with aggravated assault for pointing a firearm at another victim and terroristic threats for threatening to kill the third victim, prosecutors said.

The Mercer County Homicide Task Force was investigating the death of Frederick Mason at the Martin Luther King Park when they were called out to the disturbing murder scene on Hoffman Avenue.

Massey became one of three people killed during an hours-long spate of shootings that also injured four others.

We lost our humanity, Mayor Reed Gusciora said, instituting an 8 p.m. curfew the next day to curb the nonstop gunplay playing out while the state waged war against the coronavirus.

Judge Robert Bingham ordered Hallett detained at a hearing Tuesday.

Masseys execution was one of five that have taken place since Gov. Phil Murphy put New Jersey on virtual lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Particularly heinous, the Trenton womans death was live-streamed on social media and uploaded to the WorldStar Hip Hop, a content aggregation site known for posting sensational videos of fights and social deviance.

The video went viral with more than 1.1 million views, something Gusciora condemned as barbaric.

In the video, Hallett is seen walking alongside two women while they ready to throw blows.

Police identified one of the participants in the fight as Neek, a black woman in a bonnet, gray shirt and dark pants, according to the affidavit.

The victims told detectives they were beefing with Neek and went with Massey to confront Neek on Hoffman Avenue.

A crowd was already gathered when they showed up.

Hallett allegedly instructed victim 3 and Neek to fight in a backyard, shouting that, Nobody was gonna jump nobody.

The video picked up with the women in the street and Hallett bearing down on them. The crowd egged on the women.

Lets go Neek, Lets go Neek, people screamed.

Its hard to tell if it was Hallett, but someone shouted, If you aint gonna do something, Ill do something, according to the video.

According to the affidavit, Hallett walked toward victim 3 with his hand in his pocket, then looked at victim 2 and pulled a black handgun from his left pocket and pointed it at her face.

The gun is hard to make out on the video, but victim 2 told cops Hallett stuck the piece right in her face because she told victim 3 not to go into the backyard.

Hallett pushed the victim 2 back toward the front porch of a home on the block.

Oh, snap. Oh sh*t, hell no, someone shouted as the crowd surrounded Hallett.

As victim 2 struggled to get away, another woman in a green hoodie appeared on the video and attempted to separate the two, according to the affidavit.

Victim 2 told cops she put her hands up and ran around a parked car.

Then Massey ran up on Hallett as he was being held back by the woman in the green hoodie. The video appears to capture what looks like the shooter raising his arm and letting off a single shot, sending the group scattering in all directions, according to the police records and the video.

The fatally felled Massey was left in a pool of blood. She was on life support until pronounced her dead the next day.
Less than 10% of Protestant churches held in-person worship in April: survey

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During the month of April, over 90% of Protestant churches in the United States did not hold in-person worship services due to coronavirus concerns and shutdowns, according to a recent survey by LifeWay Research.

In a report published last Friday, LifeWay found that only 7% of pastors reported holding in-person services on April 5 and April 12, the latter date being Easter Sunday. The number dropped to 4% on April 19 and slightly increased to 6% on April 26.

Although few of the surveyed churches held in-person worship, 97% had some type of digital alternative, a five percent increase from March.

By the end of March, the gravity of the pandemic had changed churches behavior across the nation, said LifeWay Research Executive Director Scott McConnell in a statement.

The need for precautions did not change throughout April and churches maintained their temporary avoidance of gathering physically.

LifeWay also found that most surveyed churches were in the process of planning out their in-person services, which were expected to return soon due to the lifting of restrictions.

The report found that nearly a third (30%) of surveyed churches were planning to hold small in-person services first, while 16% planned to resume normal activities immediately.

For their recent report, LifeWay drew their data from an online survey of 470 Protestant pastors conducted April 27-29, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5%.

In response to efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the vast majority of churches in the United States halted their in-person worship services, largely switching to online alternatives.

A small number of congregations continued to hold in-person services, often adding protective measures like having people sit farther apart from each other and avoiding handshakes.

As many states are looking to gradually ease restrictions on mass gatherings, many congregations are weighing how they will return to a normal worship schedule.

Last month, the conservative law firm the Liberty Counsel called upon churches to reopen on May 3, days before the annual National Day of Prayer observance.

The organization argued that churches were more essential than ever, but said that reopening must include appropriate measures of sanitization and social distancing between families.

We chose May 3 because it is part of that phase one of the Opening America Again [proposal] that the president (Donald Trump) issued as guidelines, said Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver in an earlier interview with The Christian Post.

That actually begins on May 1 and that is the first phase of the three-phase program and churches are included in that phase.

Some churches did reopen on Sunday, including Fellowship Church in Texas and Champion Church in Arizona.
General Dynamics Electric Boat Corp. (GDEB), Groton, Connecticut, is awarded $60,594,296 for a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide U.S. Trident II Strategic Weapon System (SWS) ship alterations and United Kingdom SWS ship alterations for Strategic Systems Program shipboard integration installations. Work is expected to be complete by April 2024.

General Dynamics Electric Boat Corp. (GDEB), Groton, Connecticut, is awarded $60,594,296 for a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide U.S. Trident II Strategic Weapon System (SWS) ship alterations and United Kingdom SWS ship alterations for Strategic Systems Program shipboard integration installations. Work is expected to be complete by April 2024.

United States Trident II (D-5) missile underwater launch (Picture source: U.S. Department of Defense)

The Trident missile is a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) equipped with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV). Originally developed by Lockheed Missiles and Space Corporation, the missile is armed with thermonuclear warheads and is launched from nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs). Trident missiles are carried by fourteen United States Navy Ohio-class submarines, with American warheads, as well as four Royal Navy Vanguard-class submarines, with British warheads. The missile is named after the mythological trident of Neptune.

The Trident II is a three-stage rocket, each stage containing a solid-fuel rocket motor. The first motor is made by Northrop Grumman. This first stage incorporates a solid propellant motor, parts to ensure the first-stage ignition, and a thrust vector control (TVC) system. The first-stage section, compared to the Trident C-4, is slightly larger, allowing increased range and a larger payload. In addition to a larger motor, the D-5 uses an advanced and lighter fuel binder (polyethylene glycol) than the C-4.[29] This fuel is more commonly known as NEPE-75 (NEPE stands for nitrate ester plasticized polyether).

The second variant of the Trident is more sophisticated and can carry a heavier payload. It is accurate enough to be a first strike, counterforce, or second strike weapon. All three stages of the Trident II are made of graphite epoxy, making the missile much lighter. The Trident II was the original missile on the British Vanguard-class and American Ohio-class SSBNs from Tennessee on. The D5 missile is currently carried by fourteen Ohio-class and four Vanguard-class SSBNs. There have been 172 successful test flights of the D5 missile since design completion in 1989, the most recent being from USS Rhode Island in May 2019. There have been fewer than 10 test flights that were failures, the most recent being from HMS Vengeance, one of Britain's four nuclear-armed submarines, off the coast of Florida in June 2016.

The Royal Navy operates their missiles from a shared pool, together with the Atlantic squadron of the U.S. Navy Ohio-class SSBNs at King's Bay, Georgia. The pool is 'co-mingled' and missiles are selected at random for loading on to either nation's submarines.
As Texas loosens restrictions on businesses and malls stir to life, several department stores are reopening locations in San Antonio starting this week.

Macys reopened six of its local stores Monday for shopping and both in-store and curbside pickup.

The retailer said it is installing sanitation stations, adding plexiglass at select registers, asking employees to wear face masks, implementing social-distancing guidelines and frequently cleaning high-traffic areas.

We are ready to welcome our customers back to Macys stores in the San Antonio community, said Marc Mastronardi, chief stores officer at Macys. Were introducing new precautions to keep your family and ours safe, and are now offering curbside pick-up to make getting what you want quick and easy.

JCPenneys store at Alamo Ranch Marketplace on West Loop 1604 North is open for shopping and curbside pickup. Reopening dates for other locations in San Antonio have yet to be announced.

Dillards is reopening its stores at North Star Mall and the Shops at La Cantera Tuesday, when both malls reopen to the public. Opening dates for other locations in the area have not been released.

Some retailers and shopping centers across Texas began opening their doors Friday at 25 percent capacity after Gov. Greg Abbott announced the first phase of his plan to reopen the state early last week.

Aside from restricting occupancy, malls must also keep play areas, food court dining spaces and interactive displays closed.

In San Antonio, Ingram Park Mall, South Park Mall and Wonderland of the Americas reopened Friday and Rolling Oaks Mall reopened Monday. The Shops at Rivercenter didnt immediately respond to an inquiry about reopening.

madison.iszler@express-news.net
Cafes and restaurants will be among the first businesses to re-open as coronavirus restrictions are relaxed, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said today.

Getting those businesses open is crucial to reducing unemployment and preventing food from being wasted, he said.

The national cabinet today agreed to establish a three-step framework to gradually remove baseline restrictions to have a 'COVID-safe' economy by July and more details will be released after another meeting on Friday.

Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said there is a case for 'gently promoting' domestic tourism and the opening up of state borders in the 'second tranche' of relaxations.

Before then, eateries, shops and schools will be among the first sections of society to restart.

'Opening our cafes and restaurants will mean that farmers will have a home for their produce,' the treasurer said.

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Cafes and restaurants will be among the first businesses to re-open, treasurer Josh Frydenberg said today. Pictured: Bucket List at Bondi Beach before lockdown

The treasurer (pictured today) did not set out a timeframe but the relaxation of national baseline restrictions will be discussed by the national cabinet on Friday

'We have actually now seen rains in recent weeks and months that is making a real difference to the capacity of the farmers to produce more from their land.

'So, we need to find a home for that produce and getting those cafes and restaurants and other activities open as quickly as possible will be a way of getting more people back to work and reducing that unemployment.'

Prime Minister Scott Morrison also said he wanted restaurants to re-open when he spoke to reporters this afternoon.

'When restaurants and cafes are closed, they are not buying from producers like they were before and so there is a compounding of the effect,' he said.

Mr Morrison said he did not want to have to reimpose restrictions once they are relaxed.

Job losses by sector Hospitality: 441,000 jobs Arts and recreation: 180,000 Retail: 146,000 jobs Construction: 120,000 Advertisement

'The last thing that business want is what is called the sore tooth which means you are open, you shut, you open, you shut. That is not good for business.

'There needs to be the certainty to keep moving forward all the time,' he said.

The other industries Mr Frydenberg said were crucial to recovery are childcare and education and logistics.

'There are some sectors of the economy that are not only significant contributors to employment and output in their own right, but are also important enablers for the broader economy,' he told reporters at the National Press Club.

'Early childhood and school education, because of their impact on the labour force, and transport and logistics, because of their impact on supply chains, are cases in point.'

Mr Morrison said around 300,000 jobs would be lost if schools remained closed for six months because parents would not be able to get to work.

A closed Donut King store in western Melbourne on Monday. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said Australians must get back to work to kick-start economic productivity

The SafeWork Australia website has been updated to tell business owners how they can be COVID-safe when they re-open.

Australia reported 24 new cases of the virus on Tuesday, taking the national total to 6,847 with 96 deaths.

Almost one million Australians have lost their jobs since the coronavirus crisis hit.

Mr Frydenberg revealed that lockdown is costing the economy $4billion a week and said: 'We must get people back into jobs and back into work.

'History shows the longer people are unemployed, the harder it is to get a job.'

'Hand sanitiser everywhere': What will a COVIDSafe workplace look like? Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy today revealed what a COVIDSafe workplace might look like. He said there will be staggered start times, reduced hot-desking, more video calls and hand sanitiser 'everywhere'. 'We don't want everybody crowding on public transport at the same time. We don't want everyone crowding in the lifts at the beginning of the day and the end of the day,' he said. 'If you are doing hot desks or sharing common spaces we want frequent cleaning, we want cleaning products everywhere. 'We want staff to have a responsibility for hygiene. Hand sanitiser everywhere. Every body sanitising their hands. 'People not shaking their hands. People not surrounding into a small room for a meeting. 'Using video meetings where it's possible to do it. Not travelling interstate for a meeting that you can do via video. 'There is a range of general measures that are all about reducing your close contact with fellow human beings.' Advertisement

Treasury estimates predict the country's GDP will fall by 10 to 12 per cent by the end of June - a fall which would represent a $50billion drop-off in economic activity in the space of a single quarter.

But Mr Frydenberg said that number would double if Australia's restrictions mirrored the strict eight-week lockdowns like the one introduced in Italy.

'This was the cliff we were standing on,' he said. 'This would have seen enormous stress on our financial system as a result of increased balance sheet impairments, widespread firm closures, higher unemployment and household debt.

'If these restrictions were increased even further, akin to the eight-week lockdown in Europe, then the adverse impact on GDP could double to 24 per cent, or $120 billion, in the June quarter.'

A deserted entrance to a David Jones store in Melbourne's western suburbs pictured on Monday. Australia is on track to enter its first recession since the early 1990s

In Tuesday's speech, the treasurer gave his backing to the National Cabinet's decision to bring forward its decision to relax its coronavirus restrictions by three days to this Friday.

'For every extra week the current restrictions remain in place, Treasury estimates that we will see close to a $4 billion reduction in economic activity from a combination of reduced workforce participation, productivity, and consumption,' Mr Frydenberg said.

He said total spending in the recreational, accommodation and food industries is down by as much as 70 per cent.

Overall consumption is also down 19.5 per cent since the beginning of the year according to data from the National Australia Bank.

Mr Frydenberg also suggested that company tax cuts will be considered to stimulate growth.

At 30 per cent, Australia has the second highest company tax rate to Portugal among developed countries, making it a less attractive place to do business.

'What we are doing is looking at how can we continue to compete for capital. Tax rates, flexible work places, infrastructure, deregulation, are all key factors,' he said.

The Prime Minister announced that the COVIDSafe app will reach 5million downloads today, which is one third of its target of 16million Australian adults.

Josh Frydenberg's 100-year-old constituent's heartwarming letter Mr Frydenberg concluded his speech by quoting a message of hope sent to him from an elderly constituent named Enid. He said: 'Three months shy of her 100th birthday, Enid recently wrote to me as follows "Here in Australia we have always found ways and means of growing and responding to life's difficulties. When this corona pandemic is under control, I believe we will be like a phoenix, rising from the ashes, and with our innate resilience become stronger, hopefully more caring, hopefully more integrated, hopefully more cooperative in achieving a better community and a better world. Just a dream? Yes. But don't just follow that dream, chase it." Thank you, Enid. That is all what we must do.' Advertisement

Domestic holidays could be coming soon as states are urged to open up their borders before a 'trans-Tasman bubble' with New Zealand is set up

Domestic holidays could soon be on the table as New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian urges other state leaders to open their borders.

Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said health experts will 'gently push' encouraging domestic tourism in the 'second tranche' of relaxations.

New South Wales and Victoria are the only states with open borders although restrictions still prevent leaving the home except for essential reasons.

But as rules are eased in the coming weeks, Ms Berejiklian wants other states to relax their border measures, paving the way for domestic travel and tourism to resume.

Domestic holidays could soon be on the table as New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian urges other state leaders to open their borders. Pictured: Rachael Finch and Elyse Knowles in the Whitsundays in Queensland

The premier said inter-state travel should be allowed before an international travel deal is made with New Zealand.

Kiwi Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today joined Australia's national cabinet meeting to discuss a so-called 'trans-Tasman' bubble that would allow movement between the two countries.

The Prime Minister said the trans-Tasman bubble will not be in place 'next week' but would come into play when domestic travel is allowed.

'It will sit alongside when we are seeing Australians travel from Melbourne to Cairns,' he said.

'A travel zone would assist both countries economic recovery, help kick-start our tourism and transport sectors, enhance existing sporting links, and reunite families and friends,' he added.

Ms Berejiklian backed the plan, saying: 'I think that would be a very positive move [that will] allow us to pool our resources, pool our trade opportunities and move together into the future.'

But she said Australia should open up internally first. 'I'm urging some of our state colleagues to consider their border issues as well,' she said.

New South Wales and Victoria are the only states with open borders although restrictions still prevent leaving the home except for essential reasons. Pictured: Wine-maker Elise Cook at the Fleurieu Peninsula near McLaren Vale, SA

'Any prospect of having New Zealand participle I think will involve consideration of what our state colleagues are doing.

'I'm hoping we will get to a stage where our state borders can be relaxed.'

Relaxing state borders would give the tourism industry a much-needed boost as international tourism is likely to remain banned for many months.

Gideon Rozner, Director of Policy at free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs said: 'Gladys Berejiklian is right to call for the reopening of state borders.

'Reopening domestic travel would give a critical lifeline to tourism businesses and hope for millions of Australians.'

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will join Australia's national cabinet meeting on Tuesday

New Zealand has had great success in tackling coronavirus - with no new cases on 4 May

Tasmania eyes New Zealand flights Tasmania Premier Peter Gutwein said he had raised the prospect of direct flights with Tourism Tasmania and Hobart Airport. 'I think this is something that may benefit this state,' he said. 'This isn't going to happen tomorrow, it's not going to happen next week. '(But) as we work our way through the course of the calendar year if the opportunity arises ... then that's an opportunity we will look at. 'It's one that I'm looking to pursue.' Mr Gutwein noted federal funding was promised last year to establish customs operations at Hobart Airport. 'The one thing that we can't do is have a situation where the virus moves between the two countries,' he said. Direct flights last operated between New Zealand and Tasmania in the 1990s. Advertisement

The trans-Tasman bubble was first flagged last month and is backed by the governments of both countries.

New Zealand and Australia have seen similar success in tackling coronavirus - even though New Zealand enforced harsher restrictions.

On March 25 the country went into a full lockdown which shut all restaurants and construction businesses and prevented online deliveries except for essential goods.

On April 27 that was eased to a level similar to Australia's eastern states.

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

New Zealand's COVID-19 death toll stands at 20, with 1,137 confirmed nationwide cases.

Just four Kiwis currently require hospital treatment for the virus, with none in intensive care.

On Sunday the country recorded zero new cases for the first time.

The New Zealand Warriors NRL team has already been granted permission to travel from Auckland to Tamworth, New South Wales where players and staff are in quarantine before the season resumes.

On 27 April, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton floated the idea of opening Australia's borders to New Zealand as the 'logical first step'.

But when it comes to opening the borders to other parts of the world such as the US or UK he warned 'that will be sometime off.

Mr Dutton credited Australia's success in containing coronavirus to closing the borders fast.

Infectious disease expert Professor Peter Collignon told Daily Mail Australia that a ban on international travel - with the exception of New Zealand - is likely to remain in place until after winter.
Young people who have just graduated from college and are heading into the professional world need to remember that they are traversing from one system to another, and they know "virtually nothing about what it's like" to be successful in the real world.

So said billionaire hedge fund financier Ray Dalio in a tweet on Monday

"You're about to enter the beginning of the second phase of your life, which is totally different than the first," Dalio said. "You need to learn what it's like and how to be great at it."

TWEET

Dalio himself was a poor student in high school.

"I did terribly in high school. I hated high school. I just wouldn't study," Dalio said in an interview with the Academy of Achievement in Washington D.C. "I barely got into a college."

But Dalio did better in college because he could pick classes that interested him. "Then it was exciting. I loved it," he told the Academy of Achievement, a non-profit organization that brings successful individuals into contact with young people. "So I did very well in college and then I went to Harvard Business School."

Dalio received a Bachelor of Arts from Long Island University and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard.

Dalio went on to start the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates out of his two-bedroom apartment in New York City in 1975 and is currently worth $18 billion, according to Forbes.

The transition from doing well in school to making a difference in the world outside of academics requires a shift in mindset, according to Dalio.

"For most people, you go to school, they tell you what class to go to, what classes to take. This goes on all the way through university. 'Do this, do this, do this' and then you go into the class and they say, 'Learn this,' and, 'This is the information,' and it's a largely memory-based and instructional-based process," Dalio told the Academy of Achievement.

But wildly successful people who "shape" the world outside of school have "a strong, strong desire to understand and make sense of reality," he said. "So they're all very independent-thinking and, and rebellious. They don't mind saying, 'Screw you. This is what makes sense and I've got to go down that path.'"

They also thrive in uncertainty.

"They're comfortable with ambiguity. They love ambiguity. Some people don't like ambiguity. Most people, they say, 'I'm nervous about ambiguity.' They love to go in the space of what's ambiguous, because that's where the discovery is."

Dalio also reminds grads that "failure is part of a learning process."

"What's the risk of failure? What, you'll be embarrassed? ... How do you distinguish failure from learning? ... If it's part of a 'You're failing and then you learn,' then that learning is part of the moving forward. So that is what the process is like. Fail, learn, move forward," Dalio told the Academy of Achievement.

TWEET

While achieving extreme success in the professional world requires different skills than achieving success in a classroom, according to Dalio, that is not to say that an education is not important.

Broadly speaking, more educational achievement is associated with making more money and lower levels of unemployment, according to federal government data. Those with a doctorate degree had an unemployment rate of 1.1% as of September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and a median weekly earnings of $1,883. Those who have not graduated from high school had an unemployment rate of 5.4% as of September and a median weekly earnings of $592, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And an April 2018 paper from the World Bank Group reviewed 1,120 estimates of the value of education in 139 countries and found "rate of return to one extra year of schooling is about 9 percent a year and very stable over decades," the paper said.

See also:

Stephen King: This is how I deal with painful criticism

Mark Cuban: Here's how to give your kids 'an edge'

Elon Musk is recruiting for SpaceX: work ethic, talent, common sense needed, 'the rest we can train'
Country's top drug regulator, Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), has received an application from Zydus Cadila, a leading global pharmaceutical company in India, to conduct clinical trial using antiviral drug 'Pegylated Interferon Alpha-2b' in adult COVID-19 patients. The Pegylated Interferon Alpha-2b medicine has been used for the treatment of Hepatitis B and C in India.

It is vital to note that the drug Pegylated Interferon Alpha-2b has been used in the treatment of COVID-19 cases in China and Cuba and is a part of the treatment guidelines of the Chinese government.

READ | Liquor in Delhi to cost 70% more from Tuesday as AAP govt imposes 'Special Corona Fee'

Zydus Cadila has also approached the Central government's Department of Biotechnology to investigate the role of Pegylated Interferon Alpha-2b for COVID-19.

A senior government official told ANI, "Talks are on. Our experts' committee is examining it. Further decisions are awaited. The research done in the US and a clinical study in China showed that the drug significantly improved the condition of COVID-19 patients".

READ | Time has come to re-open Delhi, says Kejriwal; shops set to open from Monday

Research shows direct anti-viral effect of Interferon Alpha on COVID

A research conducted by the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, showed evidence of a direct anti-viral effect of Interferon Alpha against novel Coronavirus in-vitro. The study demonstrated around 10,000 fold reduction in virus titre in cells that were pre-treated with Interferon Alpha 48 hours earlier.

The second research by a group of universities in China, Australia and Canada retrospectively analysed 77 moderate COVID-19 subjects in Wuhan and observed that those who received Interferon Alpha-2b showed a significant reduction in the duration of virus shedding period and even in levels of the inflammatory cytokine, IL-6.

The study suggested that if a long-acting molecule like the drug is given early on in the infection, the patient suffering from COVID-19 will have a significant benefit as the viral load is reduced, lesser IL-6 is produced and virus eliminating specific immune response is generated.

READ | Lockdown 3.0 begins tomorrow with 'considerable relaxations'; people should be ready to live with COVID-19:Kejriwal

Not yet licensed for COVID-19 treatment

Zydus Cadila has been commercially manufacturing Pegylated Interferon Alpha-2b under the brand name, PegiHep, since 2011 for the treatment of Hepatitis B and C. However, PegiHep is not yet licensed or approved for the treatment of COVID-19.



READ | Coronavirus cases in Delhi rise to nearly 4900; 349 fresh cases

(With inputs from agency)
People work out at a Golds Gym in Washington on March 16, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Golds Gym Files for Bankruptcy Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Golds Gym filed for bankruptcy this week, citing the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chapter 11 filing will facilitate a financial restructuring of the company, which said bankruptcy will enable us to emerge stronger and ready to grow.

Golds plans to be on the other side of the filing by Aug. 1, 2020, if not sooner.

The pandemic spurred Golds to take action, including permanently shuttering about 30 company-owned gyms. Most of those locations were in St. Louis, Alabama, and Colorado Springs.

COVID-19 is a disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

People work out at a Golds Gym in Washington on March 16, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Golds is trying to maintain the strength of its brand and make sure the company stays viable for decades to come, CEO Adam Zeitsiff said in a video statement.

I want to reassure everyone that is watching this video around the world that we are not going out of business, Zeitsiff said. We are absolutely not going anywhere.

The bankruptcy plan wont affect the companys licensing of locally-owned franchises.

Golds shut down its corporate-owned gyms in March as states began ordering the closure of so-called non-essential businesses. Other locations soon shut down under strict stay-at-home orders.

Some governors have allowed gyms to reopen in recent days but in many states they remain closed.

Golds has nearly 700 gyms in 29 countries.
MAY 5, 2020  Today you can participate in a global movement and make a big difference for UTSA students. There are several ways faculty, staff and the community can help.

President Taylor Eighmy announced last week a special fundraising campaign to raise at least $25,000 in just one week for the universitys Student Emergency Funds before #GivingTuesdayNow. This amount will double a generous allocation made by UT System Chancellor James Milliken with support from the Chancellors Council and its executive committee.

#GivingTuesdayNow is a global effort designed to encourage people to support nonprofits and educational institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At a time when we are all experiencing this pandemic, giving unites us and gives everyone the power to make a difference for others, specifically our students, said Karl Miller-Lugo, vice president for development and alumni relations. Giving is a fundamental value that almost anyone can act on. And our students who work so hard are certainly worthy of this support.

Giving is a fundamental value that almost anyone can act on. And our students who work so hard are certainly worthy of this support.

Student Emergency Funds provide grants and other assistance that help UTSA students immediately and directly. All the funds that are part of the Chancellors Challenge are made possible by donations from alumni, community friends, faculty, staff and students, and are separate from federal funds received by the university.

These funds provide flexibility to meet students needs for which other funding is restricted or possibly not available, said Miller-Lugo. For example, last week a student was granted the money needed to repair a hearing aid. That certainly is a big impact for that Roadrunner.

Here are some ways you can support the effort:

Share on social media. Visit us on Facebook or Twitter and share or retweet one of the posts about the Chancellors Challenge with #GivingTuesdayNow.

 Tip: Also use the hashtag #utsa so others will see your support. Your share helps raise awareness and shows UTSA students that they have faculty, staff and the community cheering them on.





Email your network. Share the link to the fundraising page on Launch UTSA with your friends and familytypically the most effective way to spread the word. People who know you care about a cause are likely to support it.





Share the link to the fundraising page on Launch UTSA with your friends and familytypically the most effective way to spread the word. People who know you care about a cause are likely to support it. Make your own gift. Visit Launch UTSA to learn about how these funds are helping students. Even $10 makes a difference, and 100% of your gift goes to students in need.

 Tip: Due to the pandemic, giving online is the fastest, most secure way to impact students.





Whether you give or share, your support makes a difference and will help complete the Chancellors Challenge for the benefit of our students on #GivingTuesdayNow.

There are a number of funds available where supporters can allocate donations:

Student Tech Fund provides computers so that students can continue their classes online. There are currently more than 130 students hoping to get a computer.





provides computers so that students can continue their classes online. There are currently more than 130 students hoping to get a computer. Roadrunner Pantry is open on Main Campus and providing food and personal care items, with more than 700 visits since late March.





is open on Main Campus and providing food and personal care items, with more than 700 visits since late March. Veteran and Military Affairs Emergency Fund provides for emergency needs for our students who are affiliated with the military.





provides for emergency needs for our students who are affiliated with the military. Fostering Educational Success Center assists students who are particularly vulnerable to this crisis because of a history of foster care.





assists students who are particularly vulnerable to this crisis because of a history of foster care. Student Emergency Fund provides grants to help students stay enrolled for needs that cannot be covered with other sources of support. More than 108 students have received grants since mid-March, with applications arriving daily.

Are you a current student in need? Check out the Financial Assistance Resources for UTSA Students page.

Send an email to UTSA Giving about the Chancellors Challenge or UTSA crowdfunding.

Gifts made on the Launch UTSA page through the end of today will count toward the $25,000 challenge. Gifts of all amounts count and make a difference.
On Friday, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) leadership agreed to allow Royal Mail to end Saturday mail delivery, threatening 20,000 job losses. The following day an email was sent to the Socialist Equality Party, which said:

I am a HGV driver at Royal Mail, and over the years I have noted that the union reps are far too friendly with management. Royal Mail are walking all over us and the union are letting them do it. Some of the shift patterns are unsafe, i.e., nights on a split week, Monday/Tuesday off, Wednesday in, Thursday/Friday/Saturday night till 4, 5, or 6. Then youre in Monday morning at 4/5 or 6 in the morning!!! Union allows that!!! Joke!!!

The email is just one indication of the widespread hostility among postal workers to the CWUs sellout. Thousands of Royal Mail workers viewed the CWUs live emergency statement to postal members video address, held last Friday evening by General Secretary Dave Ward and Deputy General Secretary Terry Pullinger seeking to justify the sellout.

Many of the around 3,500 comments posted denounced the deal and the CWU during the video conference and also on another thread in which the union published the correspondence with Royal Mail regarding the suspension of Saturday deliveries. Workers opposed the decision by the CWU to call off a threatened strike based on supposed assurances by Royal Mail Group that ending Saturday deliveries was only a temporary measure during the coronavirus lockdown. Some called for immediate strike action.

This is a selection of comments:

Royal Mail are changing things everyday. We need things done Now. Strike now.





There has been no shift from the company. They [Royal Mail] said it [the move to end Saturday mail delivery] was temporary, the union got everyones back up saying it wasnt, now the union has agreed. Total joke.





The union have let us down again!!! This so-called director [Royal Mail CEO Rico Back] and his pathetic minions are shafting us again!!!! We work so hard on delivery, we multi-task, we go out in all weathers we carry on through the greatest Crisis the world has ever seen since the Second World War and the bloody union roll over!!!! Our staff risk their lives and their families and still we have loyalty!!! Its not a one-way street bloody wake up union and staff and dont allow this to happen!!!





It now appears the Union have backtracked, relented, & are in cahoots with the employer.





Typical union ... smug and self-congratulatory yet achieved very little  suckers.





Ricos the cat and the union are the mice.





Played the union like fiddle once again.





What a joke. The union has lost the plot.





CWU rolling over again. Cancelling my membership the second this is over.

Many Royal Mail employees were clear that what the union and company claimed was a temporary agreementin place just during the pandemicwas the thin end of the wedge and that this would be enforced permanently.

Yet again Royal Mail prevails in what they want and the CWU agree to the deal because its a temporary deal and will be reviewed every 2 weeks  come on are you so naive to believe this wake up, it astonishes me how easily this union is manipulated and seems to be a constant thing every time there is a dispute. 2 years you say this has been going on and now since you have had communication from Rico Back to resolve the executive action they are trying to implement  they have told you they are going to sit down and come to some sort of agreement regarding this decision  behave guys they are stalling for WHATS TO COME...





You are not seriously going to believe this man [Rico Back] again are you, he has lied, gone back on agreements, refused to meet you and now you are rolling over and listening to him again. This union is starting to lose touch with its members, whilst climbing into bed with management ...





And so they dance together ... I mean the CWU and the CEO ...





What a load of rubbish, hes having our pants down as always. It is of no benefit to the company during Covid. Its all to push it through for the long term,

A worker cited the CWUs statement that The company has also confirmed that they are prepared to meet with us next week to discuss a framework for talks to resolve our current dispute, saying:

How many times we heard that over the last 2 years!!

Another worker added:

Far too many, and it always amounts to nothing!

Another said of the agreement and announced upcoming talks:

Reminds me a bit like Neville Chamberlain return from Germany in 1938, waving that piece of paper, saying Peace in our Time, we all know what happened in 1939.

Several workers stated that the Royal Mail/CWU deal would be instrumental in pushing up profits at their expense.

It is just a wolf in sheeps clothing  it [the agreement] has been put into place to prove how profitable it is for the major shareholders.

A co-worker agreed:

Exactly mate once the management knows its working then itll be in for good!





Others commented, This isnt a way to ease the burden on posties, its a well-hidden way of smashing more packets to maximize profits, the board must think we are idiots.





Not sure how this can [be] dressed up as some kind of victory, Rico went behind our backs and all he has to do is quote the corona and keep this rolling for as long as he can.





Not worth the paper its written on. RM [Royal Mail] have proved time and time again they are not to be trusted and will just do what they want and when they want. This is still just a way for them to push it through in the future, if its worked once already ...





So basically in a nut shell the CWU has bottled it once again. They dangle a little carrot and you all eat it  well I personally along with many others dont buy it  out the other side of this crisis they will walk all over you even more than they are now  you have your chance to call notice and you bottled it  watch this space see if Im wrong.

Many workers pointed out that not delivering letters on Saturday would mean a huge extra workload on top of the high volumes of mail and packets they are already expected to deliver.

CWU has been absolutely played for the fools that they are. Royal Mail has ended up with exactly what they wanted, and weve been shafted with no mail on Saturdays and double the workload on Mondays. But hey, at least we get to keep our fixed days off, which they had no intention of actually changing in the first place.

Another worker posted a photo of a Royal Mail van packed with parcels and filled mail bags. She commented:

So this is the plan that for our benefit???? My partner  took off our duty and put somewhere else on her own. I was expected to do both walks on my own in duty time. The amount shows its clearly not possible!!! My partner ended up doing her single walk then coming to help me. Absolute lunacy!

And this:

Today was worse than Christmas in my office. 5 drop bags full of parcels and 60 oversized parcels I had. Struggling to cope with that never mind the potential of 20,000 job cuts. The worker asked of Ward and Pullinger, What are you doing about this?





The fact remains that our workload is no lighter due to double mail on Mondays so whats the justification in the change.





Can anyone explain how not delivering letters on Saturdays helps us posties? Anyone?





All this means is that all drivers on delivery will be doing all the work on Saturday.

Many opposed Wards statement that duty changes on a temporary basis will be voluntary and negotiated on a local basis.

How is this voluntary when weve been told whos doing what and when.





Certainly not voluntary. Concerted campaign to prioritise packets over letters. Letters in our office left for days. No overtime available to clear them.

Another worker pointed to the health and social implications of not being able to deliver mail to the homes of millions of people during the pandemic:

If we cant deliver letters on Saturday  What about doctors and hospital letters customers may be waiting for  If they have an appointment Monday morning and dont get the letter till Monday afternoon  theyve missed it.

Another pointed out that the deal undermines the role of postal workers as key workers, stating:

How can we argue Royal Mail is a key worker job? Because of essential letters at the start of all this. Now nothing has changed but now we dont deliver mail on Saturdays.

To these postal workers and all those who agree with the sentiments expressed, the Socialist Equality Party makes the following appeal:

No trust whatsoever can be placed in the CWU. Sooner or later, Saturday deliveries will be cancelled permanently and 20,000 jobs will go.

The strike postal workers demanded must be organised now.

End all attacks on jobs and conditions, return pay and pensions lost in previous union sellouts and implement a safe working environment for those in work and financial security for those who self-isolate.

Form rank-and-file committees led by trusted workers, independent of the union bureaucracy.

Contact the SEP and we will do all we can to help wage such a struggle.
Sharing the spotlight among 16 restaurants coast to coast, San Antonios Jamaican walkup joint The Jerk Shack has earned a place on GQ magazines list of Best New Restaurants.

New might be a generous application here, but its an honor nonetheless for The Jerk Shack, which opened in 2018, earning praise from the Express-News for its jerk chicken, braised oxtails and off-the-charts chicken wings and securing a place in the Express-News Top 100 Dining & Drinks guide. The restaurant also made Esquire magazines list of best new restaurants in 2019.
ELKO  Two rural counties have seen significant increases in coronavirus over the past week, making them the top two counties in the state for the number of cases per capita.

Humboldt County added 13 cases, for a total of 15. The county reported its third death over the weekend.

Lander County, which is adjacent to both Humboldt and Elko County, has reported six new cases in the past week, for a total of 13.

Meanwhile, there have been no new cases over the past week in three other northeastern Nevada counties. Elko County remains at 15 with four active, White Pine County three, and Eureka County zero.

Sundays death in Humboldt County was a man in his 60s who was a previously confirmed case and was hospitalized at the time of his death.

Humboldt County Health Officer Dr. Charles Stringham said, I am very sorry to share that a third member of our community died from coronavirus this morning. I hope that as a community, we can feel the weight of this death, the sorrow of this familys loss, and the role we all play in helping to stop this viruss spread.

I ask that every single person in our community join with me in our aggressive fight against this virus, he continue. If you are not yet engaged in doing the right things, all of us desperately need your help.

Stringham asked that everyone stay at least six feet away from others, wash their hands frequently, and wear a mask in public at all times. He also asked that residents not visit family or friends who are sick or in respiratory isolation.

Its human nature to want to comfort those in distress, but those visits will only continue to spread this virus, he said. Please call, text, Facetime or send a card, but do not visit in person.

The county reported five additional cases on Saturday and one on Sunday.

The newest case is a man in his 20s who is a close contact of a previously reported case. He is self-isolating at home. Of the 49 previously reported cases, 10 have recovered, two are hospitalized, 34 are self-isolating at home, and three have died.

Stringham announced Sunday that he has assembled a Fast Team, a local group of professionals with experience in law enforcement, emergency response dispatch and community paramedicine, to streamline the process of receiving COVID-19 case data and quickly getting people into isolation.

During the first weeks of our campaign against this virus, we frequently found that by the time we learned of positive test results, those patients had already infected many other people, said Stringham. We came to realize that the process of receiving test results and making contact with infected patients needed to be hastened.

The team makes daily contact with those in isolation to ask about symptoms, status, compliance, and other related issues; the team also investigates cases where the origin of contact is unknown.

This teams job is to help diminish our overall public health threat, he said.

The number of deaths in Nevada climbed to 266 out of a total of 5,491 cases.
Today (May 5) is the 202nd birth anniversary of legendary philosopher and social thinker Karl Marx. The philosophy and socio-political theories of Marx have not only changed the shape of civilisations, but also gave them a new direction of life. Born on May 5, 1818, Marx belonged to Germany and he had played an important role in giving voice to the discriminated proletariat class, who were burdened with high taxes and were facing exploitation.

Marx theory of socialism -- which is popularly known as Marxism - explained what was right for the society, politics, economics and development of a nation. He asserted that capitalism was the root cause for all the exploitation faced by the peasants and the proletariat class across the world. Marx gave his popular theory which said that 'all private property should be abolished' and the 'means of production should be owned by the producers'.

On Marx's 202nd birth anniversary, let's look at some of this famous quotes:

1. Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains

2. Religion is the opium of the masses.

3. Revolutions are the locomotives of history.

4. History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.

5. The history of all previous societies has been the history of class struggles.

6. The theory of Communism may be summed up in one sentence: Abolish all private property.

7. Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness of necessity.

8. The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people.

9. Last words are for fools who haven't said enough.
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

A man who suffered critical wounds and later died in a shooting Saturday in San Francisco's Mission District reportedly said he was enjoying his day just minutes before the shooting.

According to police, at 8:22 p.m., officers responded to a report of a shooting near 14th and Guerrero streets.

There, they found a 22-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound. The victim was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, where he later died, police said.

A 17-year-old boy also arrived at the hospital with injuries from the shooting, which were not considered life-threatening, according to police.

Police initially described the suspects as two men in their 20s and said the two suspects got out of their vehicle and began firing at the victims. The suspects haven't been arrested and the shooting remains under investigation.

The victim has been tentatively identified by friends as Courtney Brousseau.

According to a profile on the California YMCA Youth and Government program, where Brousseau volunteered, Brousseau graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and was an employee at Twitter.

On Brousseau's Twitter account, his most recent tweet, which was sent just minutes before the shooting, said, "I just ate a delicious burrito in Dolores Park and for a brief moment everything felt okay."

As of Monday, well-wishers had left comments on his Twitter account, including state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who said, "We're praying for you, Courtney, and sending positive energy."

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.
New Delhi, May 5 : With 206 new cases reported in a day, the total count of Covid cases in Delhi reached 5, 104 on Tuesday, the Health Department said.

With no coronavirus death reported in the last 72 hours, the toll remained at 64, it said.

At least 37 patients recovered on Tuesday, according to the Delhi Health Bulletin.

"At least 1,468 patients have recovered from coronavirus so far in Delhi while 3,572 cases are active," the Health Department said.

Among the 64 who died, 55 had other serious diseases.

So far, 67,852 tests have been conducted in Delhi.


CHARLOTTE (dpa-AFX) - Banking major Bank of America Corp. said it received loan approvals worth $24.9 billion for small businesses under the U.S. government's Paycheck Protection Program or PPP. The bank will now provide the needed relief funding to more than 265,500 small businesses, which are struggling due to the lockdowns following the worsening spread of coronavirus or Covid-19 pandemic.



The PPP, overseen by the Small Business Administration or SBA, is part of the Government's $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, aiming to help small businesses, including restaurants, with fewer than 500 employees. However, the initial $349 billion emergency program ran out of funding soon before reaching many struggling small businesses.



Bank of America now said it is the top SBA lender in the second round of funding, which was reopened on April 27.



In the second phase, since the SBA reopened the PPP funding, more than 256,000 of these small businesses have received a loan number. Since that date, Bank of America has sent 213,000 promissory notes to small businesses indicating SBA loan approval.



Of the latest SBA applications, 98 percent are for companies with fewer than 100 employees and 76 percent are for companies with fewer than 10 employees. Further, 93 percent applications are for less than $350,000, while 78 percent are for less than $100,000. The bank also noted that 23 percent of the applications are from low-to-moderate income or LMI neighborhoods.



The bank noted that it hasn't received any fees related to the PPP from the SBA. However, the company announced that net proceeds related to PPP fees will be dedicated to support small businesses and the communities and nonprofits.



Apart from the PPP, the bank has given $2.4 billion loans to small businesses in the first quarter of 2020, up 11 percent year over year.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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Visitors keep their distance from each other using a floor marked with white lines as a precaution against COVID-19 infections at the entrance to Seoul Children's Grand Park on Children's day, Tuesday. / Yonhap



By Jun Ji-hye



The government will maintain its policies related to the COVID-19 outbreak, including the mask distribution system, even after the alert level against the contagious disease is lowered, the health authorities said Tuesday.



The administration raised its virus alert level to the "highest" in its four-tier system, Feb. 23, in response to the confirmation of hundreds of new cases at the time.



The government is now considering lowering the alert level amid clear signs of a slowdown in the number of new infections.



"We are collecting opinions from experts regarding the adjustment of the alert level," Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip said during a media briefing. "Even after the alert level is lowered to the third highest, the government's policies, which have been drawn up in response to the virus outbreak, will not be abolished as they depend on various conditions and situations."



The coronavirus-related polices include the mask distribution system that allows citizens to buy face masks on designated days of the week in accordance with the year of their birth. The system was introduced amid a mask supply crisis here.



Kim said whether to abolish the system will be decided after officials monitor the supply and demand situation comprehensively.



Kim noted that the government's emergency headquarters and quarantine headquarters under the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) will also be maintained even after the alert level is adjusted.



He added, however, that the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters led by the prime minister, which was set up when the government raised the alert level to the highest, could be disbanded following any alert adjustment.



"Even after the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters is disbanded, the prime minister will attend related meetings, if necessary," Kim said.




United Way of Kenosha County is an impact organization that fights for the health, education, and financial stability of every person in our community.

We accomplish this by developing relationships with partners like local school districts, universities, financial institutions, hospitals and our nonprofit partners to address our communitys most critical needs that are not being met. Then, we either provide direct programming or fund other nonprofit organizations to provide the programming that address these needs so everyone in our community has opportunities for success which lead them to live healthy productive lives.

United Way knows that Kenosha County residents cannot be productive members of the workforce if they are not connected to services they need. That is why we funded and brought the Impact 2-1-1 infrastructure to Kenosha County over 11 years ago. 2-1-1 is a central information & referral access point for callers that need to be connected to community organizations that can fulfill their needs. During times of a community disaster, like the COVID-19 pandemic, this free, confidential helpline and online resource directory makes it easy for residents to get connected to information and assistance.

2-1-1 is an information and referral service to nine counties in southeastern Wisconsin including Kenosha County. 2-1-1 addresses needs for a wide range of issues that address needs related to the social determinants of health including access to food, clothing and other basic needs; emergency housing; substance use and behavioral health concerns; health care for the uninsured; difficulty with paying utility bills; legal assistance; eviction issues and many more.

2-1-1 is available 24/7/365. The service is available by those in need of assistance by simply dialing 211. 2-1-1 is also available via text messaging and through online chat. Services are also provided to the deaf, hard of hearing, and speech impaired individuals through the Wisconsin Relay Service which can be accessed by dialing 711.

There are 12 staff who can speak directly with customers in Spanish. Over 200 other languages are available via telephone translation-often within one minute.

United Way has been in the Kenosha Community for over 96 years and we understand the valuable information 2-1-1 provides our community.

For the first quarter of 2020, 704 calls were received by 2-1-1 and 687 referrals were made to local organizations for assistance in Kenosha County. Anyone living in Kenosha County may be touched by the crisis brought on by COVID-19. The virus has disrupted incomes, and many will need help during this pandemic.

This can include caregivers -- family members, medical professionals, caseworkers, first-responders and many others trying to help someone in need. Given the uncertainly of what lies ahead from the dramatic effects of COVID-19, 2-1-1 is more vital than ever in directing people to the help they need.

Tara Panasewicz is chief executive officer of United Way of Kenosha County.

Tara Panasewicz is chief executive officer of United Way of Kenosha County.

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HAYWARD, Calif., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Thames Water Utilities Ltd. and Microvi Biotechnologies completed a collaborative 9-month trial demonstrating Microvi's novel wastewater treatment, Microvi MNE (MNE). The fully automated MNE demonstration plant was configured as a tertiary nitrification system for ammonia removal. Operating between 5-22 degrees Celsius, MNE consistently removed ammonia from wastewater during continuous operation outperforming the ammonia removal rates of the existing nitrifying sand filters.

Microvi MNE outperforms established tertiary ammonia removal process at Thames Water Wastewater Treatment Plant

MNE showed resilience in performance with temperature, variability in flow, process shutdowns and rates of load change. It intensified the treatment process and under all conditions comfortably met less than 1 mg/l effluent ammonia with the majority less than 0.2 mg/l. The process also did not increase suspended solids across the reactor.

"Microvi MNE continues to demonstrate superior capabilities and unique advantages across many facets of water and wastewater treatment," said Ajay Nair, Global Director of Commercial and Technical Strategy at Microvi. "We are fortunate to work with Thames Water who values innovation and is looking for ways to optimize for the future. By supporting the development of the technology, they are able to create a pipeline of solutions that can support the delivery of their objectives in AMP 7 and beyond."

"Microvi have taken an innovative approach to wastewater process intensification by engineering natural biological processes to enhance efficiency and effectiveness. The trial demonstrated that MNE outperformed the ammonia removal performance of our nitrifying sand filters, providing us with a viable solution to augment process performance to meet increasingly stringent consents," said Andrea Gysin, Head of Research, Development and Innovation at Thames Water.

In addition to MNE's ability to maintain performance in spite of seasonal variations in temperature and influent concentration, Microvi's wastewater technology has potential advantages over conventional treatment processes including smaller footprint and flexibility in process configuration. The simple and operator friendly MNE process can be used in existing infrastructure, has no complex process controls or maintenance requirements, and is stable and robust.

MNE has been successfully applied in applications across the water, wastewater and biochemicals sectors. Along with existing installations, the advantages of Microvi MNE for ammonia and BOD removal were demonstrated with Scottish Water. MNE was selected for the first full scale sidestream treatment project in the San Francisco Bay, and for drinking water projects at Hillview Water Company and Cucamonga Valley Water District.

About Thames Water Utilities Ltd.

Thames Water is the UK's biggest water and wastewater services provider. Our key workers provide essential services around the clock to 15 million customers across London, the Thames Valley and surrounding areas.

For an average of just over 1 a day for our households, we provide 2.7 billion litres of drinking water and safely remove 4.4 billion litres of wastewater every day.

We invested more than 1 billion again in 2019/20, leading to a total of 15 billion in the past 15 years, and we will continue to spend wisely on improving resilience, service and efficiency, as well as provide more support for customers in vulnerable circumstances.

We also have additional responsibilities to society and the natural environment. What we do and how we do it delivers significant public value, which is why we have ambitious plans to self-generate more of our own power, reduce our carbon emissions and increase biodiversity across our sites.

About Microvi

Microvi is an industrial biotechnology company based in the San Francisco Bay Area that delivers next-generation biotechnologies for the water, wastewater bio-based chemical industries. Microvi offers commercial technologies around the world to reduce waste, increase productivity and provide disruptive economics. Learn more at www.microvi.com.

CONTACTS:

Stuart White, Head of Media Relations, Thames Water

[email protected]

Karin Kidder, VP of Marketing, Microvi Biotechnologies

[email protected]

510-344-0668

SOURCE Microvi

Related Links

http://www.microvi.com


Your smartphone data could be used for apps that tech giants, including Alphabet's Google and Apple, are backing with supportive interfaces to track the spread of coronavirus, but should you or your family members agree to use the contact-tracing technology?

Tech experts think it could be dangerous.

"Would I recommend that my dad do it? I don't know," said Alexis Ohanian, technology entrepreneur and Reddit co-founder, on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Tuesday.

Tech companies and governments around the world are working together to build mobile apps that would harness location and movement data from smartphones to determine the efficacy of social distancing and pinpoint the origin of new positive cases.

Apple and Google are backing a way to trace and notify people who may have been infected with Covid-19 using Bluetooth signals from people's phones anonymously. Apple and Google's system  they are not building contact-tracing apps but rather application programming interfaces (APIs) into iOS and Android that enable apps from public health groups  is one of several competing systems that say they can trace anyone in contact with infected people without compromising privacy.

The Bluetooth data will be encrypted, and the phones' identifiers will change every 15 minutes or so.

Apple and Google on Monday released screenshots and sample code demonstrating what contact-tracing software might look like on an iOS and Android. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week released new guidance for contact-tracing apps, which will help companies build onto their joint project.

The system first took shape at Apple under a project code-named Bubble.

Ohanian said the technology could be useful, but unfortunately comes as public trust in large tech companies is "at an all-time low" after sinking over the last decade.

"I think we would need to see a really transparent and hopefully accountable ... company to give us the confidence to say like, 'All right, yeah, we'd be willing to do this,'" said Ohanian, who is a member of the CNBC Technology Executive Council Advisory Board. "It's quite unfortunate, because technology could really be helping us here in very meaningful ways, but the thing that has been eroded is that trust."
Vietnam will continue to offer support to overseas Vietnamese communities in a timely manner, an official has said.

Vu Viet Anh, director of the Consular Department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  Photo baochinhphu.vn

Vu Viet Anh, director of the Consular Department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told media on Monday that helping overseas Vietnamese aimed to ensure the work was always central to the lives of such communities.

Anh said that amid the complex COVID-19 pandemic, the department ensured smooth and constant contact with citizens through hotlines.

The department also regularly updated news on the pandemic to Vietnamese citizens in different countries and gave them advice on travel.

We have encouraged foreign sides to continue pay attention and create good conditions for citizens to access health care, ensure security and safety and complete procedures to return home, he said.

Due to the complexities of the pandemic, countries constantly had changed immigration policies, trapping hundreds of Vietnamese citizens at foreign airports and ports, he said.

Besides directing local Vietnamese representative missions to assist these people, the Consular Department has also worked with agencies to welcome the citizens to return to Vietnam.

So far, more than 2,200 Vietnamese citizens have been brought home from India, France, Germany, Russia, Japan and Singapore.

Over the past few years, Vietnamese citizen protection in foreign countries has improved despite challenges, said Anh.

Never before has it needed the manpower and resources as it has during the COVID-19 pandemic, he noted.

Although most Vietnamese citizens abroad follow the guidance of local authorities and Vietnamese representative missions, some still refused to obey the rules. For instance, when foreign countries tightened immigration to prevent COVID-19 from spreading, some citizens tried to return home without contacting representative agencies and not paying attention to travel advice.

This put citizens in precarious and dangerous situations at risk of infection, making it difficult to identify and protect them.

Moreover, funding for citizen protection abroad was lacking, posing difficulties for representative agencies in emergencies.

Anh said the Consular Department will continue to update data of Vietnamese citizens abroad, especially people who need to return home.

The department will work with local countries to support Vietnamese citizens. VNS

COVID-19: Vietnam prioritises citizen protection Vietnam is giving priority to citizen protection despite an array of difficulties caused by COVID-19, Deputy Foreign Minister and Chairman of the State Committee on Oversease Vietnamese Affairs Dang Minh Khoi affirmed in a recent interview to VNA.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 15:07:08|Editor: huaxia

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MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, May 5 (Xinhua) -- A Taliban key commander Mullah Yaqub along with 15 of his men were killed as military planes struck a gathering of militants in Kushindi district of northern Afghanistan's Balkh province on Tuesday, army spokesman in the northern region Mohammad Hanif Rezai said.

The air raid, according to the official, was conducted on tip-off at 01:00 a.m. local time, killing the insurgents including Mullah Yaqub, the commander of the Red Unit of Taliban outfit, on the spot.

Describing Mullah Yaqub as a notorious commander, Rezai said that Yaqub's physical elimination could be a major setback to the Taliban fighters in Balkh and neighboring Jawzjan and Faryab provinces.

Taliban militants have yet to make comment. Enditem
Childrens book publishers across Canada are rallying to provide reading material to educate, entertain, and support children during the Covid-19 crisis.

At Groundwood Books in Toronto, publicist Kirsten Brassard put out a call to all of Groundwoods spring 2020 authors and illustrators asking for help. In response, Brassard said, authors submitted everything from recorded readings to interactive lessons. Kyle Lukoff, author of Explosion at the Poem Factory, illustrated by Mark Hoffmann, hosted a childrens poetry contest in honor of National Poetry Month; Libby Martinez filmed herself baking the recipe for hummingbird cake from The Homesick Club, illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon; and Deborah Hodge and Robert Heidbreder, both retired teachers, created educational activity sheets to accompany West Coast Wild Babies and Our Corner Store.

Groundwood creators from all over the worldfrom Australia to Estonia, Montreal to Vancouverhope that the new content will bring readers to their books, and highlight the power of stories in these difficult times, Brassard said.

In Quebec, Montreal-based Papp International, which supplies dollar stores in the U.S., reports a huge surge in orders for its childrens activity books, including word search and puzzle books. I would typically expect an order of 40,000 copies for a new activity book from the U.S., but now Im seeing orders for 300,000 copies. And the same goes for Canada, where orders have quadrupled, said George Papp, president and CEO. The company has also seen a surge in orders for print and digital subscriptions for activity books. To help people who might not feel comfortable going out to shop or would rather stay at home, weve made daily digital versions of our word hunt and sudoku books free for people during the pandemic, said Papp, who added the puzzles are popular with families who have children, as it allows everyone to work together to solve them.

Nimbus Publishing, based in Halifax and Nova Scotia, is helping to promote literary engagement among young adults in the Atlantic provinces by sponsoring Digitally Lit, a program sponsored by the Canadian government that enlists young literary influencers to bring attention to books, reading, and writing online and to bridge the print and digital divide. On April 29, Digitally Lit announced a Digitally Lit Fan Fiction 2020 Creative Writing Contest which asks participants to write an alternate ending to a storyline from one of 10 Canadian YA books. One option is to imagine how the characters, settings, and circumstances might have been impacted by our present-day, real-world pandemic, said Robin Grant, project manager of Digitally Lit. The books being offered for alternate endings include titles from Nimbus, such as Wereduck by Dave Atkinson and Finding Grace by Daphne Greer, as well as books from Acorn Press, Breakwater Books, and Gooselane Editions.

Elsewhere in Nova Scotia, bestselling author Sheree Fitch, owner of Mabel Murples Book Shoppe & Dreamery in River John, launched a new podcast, called Mabel Murples Popping Purple Wordspinning World. The short-form podcast, which is usually 20 minutes or less, features Fitch reading selections from her tongue-twisting poems, sometimes at a breakneck pace, and explaining the background and motivation for each work. Now with 11 episodes completed, Fitch told the Canadian Broadasting Corporation that she was inspired to create the podcast to show children and families how words can create a safe space in uncertain times. Her new book, Summer Feet, illustrated by Carolyn Fisher, will be published by Nimbus Books in June.

On the opposite coast, Orca Book Publishing in British Columbia is helping conservationist and wildlife activist Mark Leiren-Young get the word out to middle grade-readers about the human relationship with whales. On May 1 at 3 p.m. ET, the publisher will be hosting a virtual book launch for a trio of recently published books by Leiren-Young, including Big Whales, Small World, Orcas Everywhere: The Mystery and History of Killer Whales, and Orcas of the Salish Sea. The event will be part of the National Art Center of Canadas #CanadaPerforms series, which is offering online concerts, performances, and author readings for homebound Canadians.

Vancouvers Greystone Books is promoting at-home activities based on several of its nature-oriented books. One activity, based on Peter Wohllebens Can You Hear the Trees Talking?, involves putting stones, decaying leaves, and moss inside a planter with holes on the bottom and then pouring dirty water on top to demonstrate how forests filter water. A second activity, based on Christina Valentinis Stay, Little Seed, asks children to draw trees that, instead of leaves, grow something remarkable ([the publisher suggests sandwiches or sushi). A full list of activities is online at Greystone Kids social media pages.
The Member of Parliament for the Bolgatanga Central Constituency, Isaac Adongo, has accused Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia of lacking the brains to understand the reality of the economy in the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak in Ghana.

He made the remark on Eyewitness News on the back of comments made by the Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia in response to a claim made by former President John Mahama with regards to the state of the economy in recent times.

Dr. Bawumia accused Mahama of being ill-informed about the true state of the Ghanaian economy.

John Mahama had claimed that the much-touted Ghanaian economy is in shambles few weeks after the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

But Dr. Bawumia who did not take kindly to the criticism asked Mahama who is also the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress to apprise himself with the right data on the state of the country's economy before making contrary statements that set him up for embarrassment.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr Isaac Adongo said the Vice President has no data on the impact of COVID-19 on the Ghanaian economy.

His Excellency John Dramani Mahama made a very basic statement. He said that the economy as a result of COVID-19 is in intensive care but you come back and you tell us to look at the data and that the data shows that the ex-president was churning out untruths but you are unable to point out a single point. Throughout his [Dr. Bawumia] statement, he kept saying the data shows, the data shows, and he is unable to point out one single data that shows [something]. But the reality is that; is the economy really in intensive care? The answer is yes.

I want to ask Dr Bawumia one thing; in saying that John Mahama should look at the data, do you have COVID-19 data? Because John Mahama is saying the economy as a result of COVID-19 is in ICU. If you are disapproving and saying he should look at the data, then show us the COVID-19 economy data but you don't have it and then you keep throwing English around that we have done better. I indicated to you people that you shouldn't even be listening to Dr Bawumia because he doesn't even understand the economy, the Bolgatanga Central MP added.

Mr Adongo also accused government of massaging the real figures of the economy to present a false hope that the economy is performing well.

According to him, the figures presented to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shows the reality of the economy and is in direct contrast with what government has been telling Ghanaians.

----citinewsroom
Syracuse, N.Y.  The owner of two assisted living centers has changed his mind and will allow Onondaga County to test residents for coronavirus, following a syracuse.com story about the countys inability to test elderly people at some facilities.

Mark Farchione, owner of Peregrine Senior Living facilities in Onondaga Hill and Skaneateles, said he was initially hesitant about testing because there are no residents with COVID-19 symptoms at the sites. He worried that testing might unnecessarily disturb his residents, many of whom are in memory care.

But Farchione said he has since learned from other operators that the testing is discrete and not scary. He said he wants to cooperate with County Executive Ryan McMahons agenda for fighting COVID-19, which includes blanket testing at facilities that house frail elderly patients.

Our concerns have been addressed, Farchione said. Weve seen how its being handled. And so were perfectly comfortable cooperating with the request.

The company operates Peregrine Senior Living at Onondaga Hill, a 68-person memory care facility; and Peregrine Senior Living at the Athenaeum of Skaneateles, a 16-person assisted living center. The company has other facilities across New York state, with a total of about 600 residents.

Sue McSweeney, the owner of a third facility that had rejected blanket testing, said she hopes to talk with McMahon about her position. For now, she has not changed her decision to decline testing at the Manlius Home for Adults, a 30-person facility.

McSweeney said she rejected the free county-sponsored testing because she has no residents with COVID-19 and did not want nurses who had come in contact with infected patients elsewhere to come into the facility. But she said she remains open to discussing it.

Were still not saying absolutely not, she said. Were just trying to keep our people safe.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

Is going to school in person obsolete? Cuomo wonders why old model persists

Onondaga County just became the only place in NY where dealers can sell cars in-person

Almost half of Onondaga Countys coronavirus deaths are from nursing homes

Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com

Tim Knauss is a public affairs reporter for syracuse.com/The Post-Standard. Contact him anytime: email | twitter | | 315-470-3023
Skeena Intersects 33.82 g/t AuEq over 22.50 metres at Eskay Creek

Posted by Publisher Internet

Skeena Resources Limited (TSX.V: SKE, OTCQX: SKREF) (?Skeena? or the ?Company?  https://www.rohstoffnacht-tv.de/mediathek/play/skeena-resources-neustart-von-eskay-creek-mine-in-kanada-laeuft-nach-plan/ ) is pleased to announce final gold-silver drill results for the 4,327 metres completed so far this year from the Company?s 2020 Phase I surface drilling program at the Eskay Creek Project (?Eskay Creek?) located in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia. Four surface drill rigs were utilized for the 2020 Phase I program in the 21A, 21B and 21C Zones to infill drill and enable upgrading areas of Inferred resources to the Indicated classification. Reference images are presented at the end of this release as well as on the Company?s website.

Phase I Eskay Creek Drilling Highlights

21 g/t Au, 121 g/t Ag (33.82 g/t AuEq) over 22.50 m (SK-20-270) ? 21B Zone

Including 753.00 g/t Au, 445 g/t Ag (758.93 g/t AuEq) over 0.83 m

90 g/t Au, 14 g/t Ag (6.09 g/t AuEq) over 24.55 m (SK-20-271) ? 21B Zone

Including 25.60 g/t Au, 56 g/t Ag (26.35 g/t AuEq) over 1.50 m

Gold Equivalent (AuEq) calculated via the formula: Au (g/t) + [Ag (g/t) / 75]. Reported core lengths represent 80-100% of true widths and are supported by well-defined mineralization geometries derived from historical drilling. Grade capping of individual assays has not been applied to the Au and Ag assays informing the length weighted AuEq composites. Processing recoveries have not been applied to the AuEq calculation and are disclosed at 100%. Samples below detection limit are nulled to a value of zero.

21B Zone Continues to Demonstrate High Tenor

Infill drilling within the 21B Zone has intersected substantial high-grade mineralization as predicted and demonstrated by adjacent intercepts of 32.21 g/t Au, 121 g/t Ag (33.82 g/t AuEq) over 22.50 m, including 753.00 g/t Au, 445 g/t Ag (758.93 g/t AuEq) over 0.83 m (SK-20-270). This mineralization is hosted within the contact mudstones as well as mudstone-rhyolite breccias and improves upon the grades from the surrounding historical drill holes, including 4.94 g/t AuEq over 19.75 m (6636) and 0.73 g/t AuEq over 3.32 m and 0.88 g/t AuEq over 6.13 m (CA90-537).

Increased gold-silver tenor in the 21B Zone was established by an intersection in Phase I drilling of 5.90 g/t Au, 14 g/t Ag (6.09 g/t AuEq) over 24.55 m (SK-20-271) which is proximal to another historical intercept from a 1997 surface drill hole which averaged 3.07 g/t AuEq over 18.26 m (C97853).

The Phase I infill drill program at Eskay Creek continues to predictably confirm the grades and spatial limits of the resource model that was derived largely from the historical drilling database.

About Skeena

Skeena Resources Limited is a junior Canadian mining exploration company focused on developing prospective precious metal properties in the Golden Triangle of northwest British Columbia, Canada. The Company?s primary activities are the exploration and development of the past-producing Eskay Creek gold-silver mine. The Company released a robust Preliminary Economic Assessment in late 2019 and is currently focused on infill and exploration drilling at Eskay Creek to advance the project to Pre-feasibility. Skeena is also exploring the past-producing Snip gold mine.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Skeena Resources Limited,

Walter Coles Jr.

President & CEO

In Europe:

Swiss Resource Capital AG

Jochen Staiger

info@resource-capital.ch

www.resource-capital.ch

Qualified Persons

Exploration activities at the Eskay Creek Project are administered on site by the Company?s Exploration Managers, Colin Russell, P.Geo. and Adrian Newton, P.Geo. In accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, Paul Geddes, P.Geo. Vice President Exploration and Resource Development, is the Qualified Person for the Company and has prepared, validated and approved the technical and scientific content of this news release. The Company strictly adheres to CIM Best Practices Guidelines in conducting, documenting, and reporting its exploration activities on its exploration projects.

Quality Assurance ? Quality Control

Once received from the drill and processed, all drill core samples are sawn in half, labelled and bagged. The remaining drill core is subsequently securely stored on site. Numbered security tags are applied to lab shipments for chain of custody requirements. The Company inserts quality control (QC) samples at regular intervals in the sample stream, including blanks and reference materials with all sample shipments to monitor laboratory performance. The QAQC program was designed and approved by Lynda Bloom, P.Geo. of Analytical Solutions Ltd., and is overseen by the Company?s Qualified Person, Paul Geddes, P.Geo, Vice President Exploration and Resource Development.

Drill core samples are submitted to ALS Geochemistry?s analytical facility in North Vancouver, British Columbia for preparation and analysis. The ALS facility is accredited to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard for gold assays and all analytical methods include quality control materials at set frequencies with established data acceptance criteria. The entire sample is crushed and 1kg is pulverized. Analysis for gold is by 50g fire assay fusion with atomic absorption (AAS) finish with a lower limit of 0.01 ppm and upper limit of 100 ppm. Samples with gold assays greater than 100ppm are re-analyzed using a 50g fire assay fusion with gravimetric finish. Analysis for silver is by 50g fire assay fusion with gravimetric finish with a lower limit of 5ppm and upper limit of 10,000ppm. Samples with silver assays greater than 10,000ppm are re-analyzed using a gravimetric silver concentrate method. A selected number of samples are also analyzed using a 48 multi-elemental geochemical package by a 4-acid digestion, followed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS) and also for mercury using an aqua regia digest with Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES) finish. Samples with sulfur reporting greater than 10% from the multi-element analysis are re-analyzed for total sulfur by Leco furnace and infrared spectroscopy.

Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements

Certain statements made and information contained herein may constitute ?forward looking information? and ?forward looking statements? within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. These statements and information are based on facts currently available to the Company and there is no assurance that actual results will meet management?s expectations.? Forward-looking statements and information may be identified by such terms as ?anticipates?, ?believes?, ?targets?, ?estimates?, ?plans?, ?expects?, ?may?, ?will?, ?could? or ?would?.? Forward-looking statements and information contained herein are based on certain factors and assumptions regarding, among other things, the estimation of mineral resources and reserves, the realization of resource and reserve estimates, metal prices, taxation, the estimation, timing and amount of future exploration and development, capital and operating costs, the availability of financing, the receipt of regulatory approvals, environmental risks, title disputes and other matters.? While the Company considers its assumptions to be reasonable as of the date hereof, forward-looking statements and information are not guarantees of future performance and readers should not place undue importance on such statements as actual events and results may differ materially from those described herein. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements or information except as may be required by applicable securities laws.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
After weeks of considering whether to implement statewide oil production cuts for the first time in 50 years, the Railroad Commission appears poised to vote no on the issue at Tuesday's public meeting.

Commission Chair Wayne Christian wrote last week in an op-ed that he would vote against plans to implement prorationing. And Monday, Commissioner Christi Craddick told the Reporter-Telegram in a phone interview she, too, will vote against those plans.

I believe prorationing isnt the thing we should do, she said.

It seems most of the time government agencies move slower than the market. The market seems to be correcting itself.

What the agency should do is provide regulatory certainty and, in such economic times, as much flexibility as possible to give companies time to comply with filings, or paying royalties or taxes, giving them more opportunity to stay in business. Craddick said.

That will be just one of two parts of Tuesdays docket, Craddick said. While the prorationing question will be first and foremost issue to be discussed, she said other items will address ways the agency can work with operators.

It was important that we have these hearings on prorationing, she said. There was lots of testimony, a lot of talk, a lot of conversations. We heard from over 1,000 companies giving comments.

She also appreciated receiving input from the Texas Attorney Generals Office, as well as guidance from the commissions general counsel on what could and couldnt be done in prorationing.

No one could have ever anticipated oil prices turning negative as they did on April 20, Craddick said.

Everyone who has a job in the industry is going to affected, as will those with jobs not directly tied to the industry, she said.

The challenging part is how we have a robust industry and jobs. (The commission) has good rules in place that offer guidance and certainty. I know innovation has kept the industry robust.
Community solidarity is a powerful force that often emerges from dire straits.

In Longford, Ireland and across the world we are witnessing the dynamic materialising on two fronts. One cannot but stand back in amazement to see the good that humanity can achieve when the collective back is against the wall.

The generosity and spirit of Longford folk in New York delivering meals to nurses on the frontline and the Do it for Dan campaign is nothing less than a phenomenon to behold.

How many of us don't know the story of little Dan Donoher at this stage? Son of Aisling and Niall, the Laois boy has a potentially fatal health condition.

After getting the devastating news that their son could die by the age of two, their hearts must have been lifted to find out there is a treatment. Their hearts must have sunk within moments when they found out it would cost $2.1 million dollars in the USA.

So they did like any other parents would do - they decided to fight for their little boy. They launched a fundraiser to raise the funds, then another blow hit, Covid-19. Devastation again.

But then, in steps humanity. Firstly it was the people of Laois who began to organise. Now the people of Ireland and beyond have gone to all sorts of lengths to fundraise to Do it for Dan.

Whatever happens, Dan will have left a legacy. This little boy has reinforced the goodness of people and how we fundamentally want to help each other even when faced with the most dire of circumstances.

The same human nature that has displayed itself in helping Dan has been to the fore in fighting the Covid-19 virus.

We will be forced to drill into our reserves of human kindness over the coming months and years as the impact of the coronavirus continues to be felt by people around the world.

Like Dan's illness, it is a common enemy that we can defeat if we look after each other.
Sales of U.S. pork and beef to China were especially elevated in April, but several U.S. slaughterhouses began to close last month due to outbreaks among employees of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus. Animal slaughter has sharply declined, and fresh meat appears on its way to joining toilet paper on the endangered list at U.S. grocery stores.

The U.S. meat shortage and the Phase 1 goals of increasing exports to China seem to be opposing forces, raising the question of whether sales and shipments will or should be limited. Some restrictions would not be surprising given President Donald Trumps more combative tone in his recent comments on trade with China.

Trump has touted the Phase 1 deal ever since it was signed in mid-January, but last week he said the trade deal is secondary to holding China accountable for its perceived mishandling of the virus outbreak.

Trump also last week ordered meat-processing plants to stay open to protect U.S. meat supply, but this has sparked some backlash from unions and lawmakers over the safety of workers, and it is not clear if the mandate will have the desired effect on production.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 15:47:32|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia on Tuesday launched a national campaign to promote hygiene as part of its efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Today marks World Hand Hygiene Day. Maintaining good hygiene and sanitation is a very important way to prevent many infectious diseases such as COVID-19," Dorj Narangerel, head of public relations and surveillance department of the country's health ministry, told a press conference.

"Our ministry is launching a national campaign to promote hygiene in cooperation with the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Health Organization and other organizations," said Narangerel.

Within the framework of the campaign, the organizers are expected to hold related activities such as promoting hand washing, cleaning surroundings and disinfecting traditional wooden toilets.

The campaign will last until the end of August.

As of Tuesday, Mongolia has confirmed 41 COVID-19 infections, including four foreigners. All the confirmed cases are imported ones. Enditem
Norfolk Island has become the first place in Australia to allow diners inside pubs, cafes and restaurants amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The island which sits around 1,600km north-east of Sydney in the Pacific Ocean went into strict lockdown at the height of the virus with residents threatened with jail for leaving their homes.

The Australian territory has recorded no cases of the killer virus but went into lockdown on March 13.

But as of Saturday restrictions were reduced from level three to level two meaning the 2,000 locals can gather outside in groups of more than 50 people and dine inside pubs and clubs.

Norfolk Island has become the first place in Australia to allow diners inside cafes and restaurants amid COVID-19

The Olive cafe (pictured) has welcome customers back after restrictions were lifted this week

People can also gather inside churches but must keep at least 1.5 metres apart.

Residents are also encouraged to avoid physical greetings, use card payments instead of cash and to practice good hygiene.

Naomi Thompson who owns The Olive cafe in Norfolk Island has welcomed customers since the rules were relaxed.

'It's been so nice to see our customers come back through the doors and have a sit-down,' she told the ABC.

'It's been pretty depressing thinking about how much income we've lost since March.'

But due to travel from the mainland still banned and businesses relying heavily on tourists, other restaurants are struggling to stay afloat.

Norfolk Island (pictured) went into a strict lockdown period at the height of coronavirus with residents threatened with jail for leaving their homes

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

Helen Bartholomew, who co-owns Dino's Restaurant said her business will remain closed until September, adding the island had become a 'ghost town'.

She said she would only be able to house 20 diners instead of 55.

'Further, locals are being very cautious about their spending because they don't know how far they're going to have to stretch their resources,' Ms Bartholomew said.

The island's travel ban is expected to continue to at least June 30.

Essential travellers are permitted but they must isolate for 14 days upon arrival.

The strict lockdown measures came into place after residents on the island started showing flu like symptoms and some were ignoring social distancing rules.

The island also has a high population of elderly people.

Last month, Detective Sergeant Glenn Elder said he would 'jail' anyone who breached coronavirus rules.

Police warned they would throw people in jail for flouting coronavirus rules

'I'll jail them,' he said.

'If they breach more than once they're in my 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

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.'

During the lockdown residents were only able to leave their homes for food or if they were an essential worker like a police officer or a health worker.

Exercise was to be done inside a person's home.

Supermarkets and whole-food stores, the island's chemist, stock feed suppliers, bakeries, butchers, fuel stations and the island's liquor store were and remain open.

The Northern Territory is also planning to reopen bars, pubs and restaurants from May 15.
Calls have been made for an investigation into a coronavirus-hit care home in Skye where two residents have died and 57 cases have been confirmed.

The company which runs the Home Farm independent care home in Portree said 30 residents contracted Covid-19  including two who later died  while 27 members of staff have also tested positive.

The GMB union said there would have to be an investigation into the facility, claiming underfunding in the care sector had left staff struggling to cope with such outbreaks.

Both the care home operator and the Scottish government insisted there is currently enough personal protective equipment (PPE) for workers at the home.

An Army mobile testing unit has also been deployed to the island off the west coast of Scotland following the spate of cases in the small town.

A spokeswoman for the care home operators HC One said: Our thoughts and sympathies are with the families who have lost a loved one from coronavirus and we are doing our utmost to support them during this difficult time.

We are working closely with our local health and care partners, and we have secured the medical equipment, PPE and supplies we need to protect residents and colleagues alike."

The spokeswoman said that while some employees were unwell or self-isolating, the home still has enough staff to cope, citing additional support being drawn from our other Scottish homes and the senior regional team.

Drew Duffy, senior GMB organiser for public services, told BBC Radio Scotland: Theres clearly going to have to be an investigation  the numbers involved in the Isle of Skye is just a tragedy, so we do need to immediately look at what was put in place for residents and staff, but clearly this has just highlighted years of underfunding within social care.

The private sector care homes having been running on minuscule budgets, cutting corners and the crisis has just highlighted the disease that has been austerity for years  they just cannot cope.

Home Farm independent care home in Portree (Google Maps)

Scotlands finance secretary Kate Forbes said she was assured there was enough personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect workers and residents at Home Farm.

Ms Forbes, who is the MSP for the island, BBC Radio Scotlands Good Morning Scotland: It was one of my first questions and I was informed resolutely that, yes, there was sufficient PPE there.

She also said contact tracing could be used on the island, due to its rural nature, to track the spread of the virus through residents.

Former Scottish Tory leader Baroness Goldie, speaking on Good Morning Scotland, said the testing strategy on the island should be designed to absolutely ensure the safety of residents within the care home and try to ensure that not only are they being kept safe, but the risk of transmission into the home or out is minimised.

Since the onset of the coronavirus outbreak, concerns have been raised over the supply of masks, gowns and other protective equipment at care homes across the UK.
A Portland winemaker has the best truck innovation since Bill Clinton lined the bed of his El Camino with Astroturf: the pickup wine store.

Corey Schuster makes his Jackalope Cellars wines at the urban winery facility located inside the Portland Wine Company. When the coronavirus crisis forced the winery to close its tasting room doors to the public, Schuster needed to find a new way to sell wine to the locals.

Schuster was mulling over offering curbside pick-up service when he thought, "why not just use the curb in front of my house to sell wine out of my pickup truck?" Amazingly, it turns out, that is legal in Oregon.

Two weeks ago, Schuster started selling bottles of wine from the back of his 1984 GMC Sierra 2500 pickup truck. The new Jackalope Cellars outlet store parked on Southeast Taylor Street features a lawn chair, signs and display bottles. It is without a doubt the city's first wine store with a 350-cubic-inch V8 engine.

When a customer places an order, Schuster fetches bottles of wine from his nearby house. This is allowed by the same day delivery permit issued to Schuster by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC).

Other than the occasional wash and wax job, Schuster operates his pickup truck like any traditional brick and mortar wine store. He does not, however, conduct al fresco wine tastings or sell wine by the glass. Schuster is also careful to wear a mask and gloves while conducting contact-free sales.

It's lawful for Corey to sell wine from his pickup truck, and it's a clever way of delivering wine to folks," says Judy Parker, a Portland-based wine law specialist who acts as Schusters attorney.

In addition to adhering to all relevant OLCC requirements, Schuster has two rules of his own: dont ask for a ride, and dont ask him to honk the stores horn because it doesnt work.

Even though Schuster, in his trucker hat and sunglasses, looks more like a chain gang supervisor than a winemaker, business has been excellent. Schuster says he's already sold 10-12 cases of wine in a few short sessions. "The foot traffic  literally  has been pretty steady," Schuster says.

Have any of Schusters neighbors complained about having a vehicular wine store on their street?

The neighbors love it, Schuster says. One lovely, self-described old-fashioned Southeast Portland hippy that lives across the street told me she was glad to see some of old Portlands grit and wackiness was still around.

Corey Schuster, owner/winemaker at Jackalope Cellars. (Photo by Michael Alberty)Michael Alberty, for The Oregonian/OregonLive

Getting to meet all his neighbors, some for the first time, hasnt been the only benefit to the wine truck.

I have a way better tan than I usually do this time year and the exposure for Jackalope Cellars has been just as good, Schuster says.

Schuster has been having so much fun he says he may keep the truck going a few days a week, even after Portland Wine Company re-opens its tasting room to the public.

If I do that I will definitely have to come up with a catchier name than The Wine Truck or Jackalope Wine Wagon, Schuster says.

If you would like to visit Schusters wine truck, it is parked on Southeast Taylor Street between 35th and 36th Avenues. Unless its raining or hailing, he is open for business most evenings from 5 to 7 p.m., with longer hours on the weekend.

Send a text to 971-533-8834 if you would like more information about pickup truck hours of operation or to place an order in advance. A list of available wines may be found on the Jackalope Cellars website, or listed on the dry erase board next to Schusters lawn chair.

Jackalope Cellars, jackalopewinecellars.com or corey@jackalopewinecellars.com.

 Michael Alberty writes about wine for The Oregonian/OregonLive. He can be reached at malberty0@gmail.com. To read more of his coverage, go to oregonlive.com/wine.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-24 18:53:53|Editor: zyl

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Photo taken on March 24, 2020 shows a road by the Independence Square amid curfew in Dakar, Senegal. Monday night, during his speech to the Nation, Senegalese President Macky Sall declared a state of emergency from midnight Monday across the national territory, along with a curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next day. Senegalese Ministry of Health and Social Action confirmed on Tuesday that seven new cases of COVID-19 infection have been detected across Senegal, bringing the total number to 86 cases. (Xinhua/Xing Jianqiao)

DAKAR, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Senegalese Ministry of Health and Social Action confirmed on Tuesday that seven new cases of COVID-19 infection have been detected across Senegal, bringing the total number to 86 cases.

In a press release issued on Tuesday morning, the ministry said the new cases included three imported cases and four cases infected by confirmed patients and were reported from Institut Pasteur in Dakar.

Monday night, during his speech to the Nation, Senegalese President Macky Sall declared a state of emergency from midnight Monday across the national territory, along with a curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next day.

Sall also banned all gatherings in public space, prohibited public or private meetings of any kind, and ordered temporary closure of public places and meeting places.

"Tonight, my dear compatriots, and I tell you with solemnity, the situation is critical. The speed of progression of the disease requires us to raise the level of the response," the Senegalese president stressed.

Towards midnight Friday, Senegal has suspended all international passenger flights till April 17.

From Monday midnight, Senegal and The Gambia closed their borders for 21 days in order to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. The same measure was taken on Saturday by Mauritania and Senegal, with their borders closed since Saturday till further notice.

So far, Senegal has reported 86 cases of COVID-19. Eight patients have been declared cured by local health authorities.

Among the 86 cases, 41 are imported cases.

Also on Tuesday, Moustapha Guirassy, member of the Senegalese National Assembly confirmed he has tested positive for COVID-19, which marked the first public figure to have announced his contamination since the outbreak of the pandemic on March 2 in the West African country.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 5) Several church leaders have appealed to the government to allow the resumption of religious activities in areas under general community quarantine, promising that social distancing protocols will still be observed.

Bishop Broderick Pabillo, apostolic administrator of Manila, urged officials to consider the reopening of churches, saying that religious activities can also been seen as "essential" services.

So when the decision makers consider the essential services to be allowed, they should also consider the opening of the churches and its services as important, Pabillo said in a statement released on the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines' website.

Pabillo said religion and related activities are important for many Filipinos who have been seeking strength and hope amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Allowing people to go back to Church to thank the Lord, to ask for his protection and implore his help, are deemed very important by the people, he said.

In line with the proposal, Pabillo said churches will make sure that necessary health precautions including physical distancing and sanitation practices will remain in place.

Meanwhile, Fr. Elias Ayuban, superior of the Claretian congregation in the Philippines, likewise called for the resumption of religious gatherings in areas classified as "low risk" for COVID-19 infection.

I see no prevailing reason why an organized Sunday gathering in a cathedral or spacious parish church, where physical separation can easily be executed, (is) not permitted," he said.

The Council of the Laity of the Philippines also appealed to the government to rethink its decision on the ban, saying it is willing to submit plans and guidelines for the "strict observance" of health measures.

We demand that our right to religious worship be not curtailed when the necessary safeguards are followed," it noted.

Church activities and essential work-related meetings have again been banned in cities and provinces under GCQ, according to the revised guidelines announced by Malacanang last week. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the rule stemmed from "protests" from several local officials.

The enhanced community quarantine has been extended until mid-May in the National Capital Region, Calabarzon, Central Luzon (except for Aurora), and other COVID high-risk areas. All other provinces and cities classified as lower risk areas meanwhile saw a gradual easing of measures under the GCQ.
By Express News Service

Hollywood star Chris Hemsworth has thanked everyone for the huge reception for his Netflix film Extraction, which is heading to become the biggest film of all time on the streaming platform.

In an Instagram video, Hemsworth thanked viewers. Hey, whats up guys, I hope youre doing well. I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone who checked out Extraction, youve made it the number one film on the planet right now, said the actor.

And it looks like its going to be Netflixs biggest feature film of all time, which is absolutely mind-blowing he added.The Thor star also addressed the rumors of a sequel to Extraction.

Theres been a lot of talk and questions about sequels and prequels and all sorts of things, and all I can say is who knows, said the actor, adding: But with this amount of support, its something I will be pretty stoked to jump back into.

The film also stars Indian actors Randeep Hooda, Pankaj Tripathi, Priyanshu Painyulli, and Rudraksh Jaiswal. It was shot extensively in India, along with other places around the world.
(Newser)  It's a stressful time to be a hospital workerand an anonymous donor is saying thank you in a big way. Employees at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz, Calif., will split a $1 million donation from an unnamed local resident expressing gratitude for their work during the coronavirus pandemic, CNN reports. Full-time workers who had been at the hospital at least a year as of March 1 will get $800 each while part-time workers will get $600; nurses, custodial staff, lab techs, medical records and other administrative workers, mailroom staff, and security guards will all be included.

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"To the heroes of Dominican Hospital: Thank you for standing up (and staying up!) to care for our community. This humankindness is what makes you heroic," wrote the donor, who dictated that the entire donation go toward bonuses for the staff, per the AP. Says the president of the hospital in response, "We cannot adequately express the depth of our gratitude. ... We are incredibly proud of the work our hospital family is doing." (Read more uplifting news stories.)
Alexander Sokolov, the owner of the chain of online restaurants Smilefood, regional representative of the SUP in the Odessa region

After many weeks of stagnation, after desperate attempts to redesign the business, after losses and reductions, the representatives of the foodservice sector are now sure of only one thing - the authorities will not help lift their business from its knees.

Based on forecasts for quitting quarantine, the full opening of restaurants and cafes will be one of the last stages. So ahead there are still some weeks of deep knockdown.

Delivery and takeaway work only partially helps to overcome the crisis, because, according to research, customers search in Google delivery from their favorite restaurants only 1.36 times more often than a year ago. Today it is just a chance to stay afloat. But, if you want to make a food delivery not temporarily, but a permanent part of the business, you should know the main features. We learned them for all 7 years of working in this sphere.

1. Package

One of the most important elements. A primitive plastic box can kill all the impressions of a dish. Such a box devalues the food that is in it. Any brand manager will confirm: packaging is a giant component of sales. Make sure that the food in it does not lose its aesthetic appearance along the way. For example, the burger will not decay into the ingredients, if it will be tightly compressed from all sides. For the delivery business exclude positions from your menus, that cannot be transported to the client without losing their appearance. It will be perfect if the packaging will be paper and memorable. For example, our pizza box is removed like with cakes - upward, not sideways. It is much more convenient, albeit more expensive on 12-14%.

2. Logistics

Even the most loyal customer can get angry if he will need to wait two hours for the order. Therefore, we never place our production facilities in the city center, because it is a problem to be fast in this case. If your restaurant is located in the center, then forget about cars. Your couriers should use bikes, scooters or public transport. But remember that two-wheeled vehicles are more prone to theft. If we are talking about a restaurant chain, it is more convenient to regulate and redistribute a load of each unit using CRM. We do the same in Odessa: when the system sees that some unit is 70% loaded, then even if this unit is not in the order-zone, the system will send the order to him, in order not to overload the one that is on 100% loaded. After all, an overloaded unit will take longer to prepare an order, and, as a result, this will affect the overall time.

3. Support of the orders

Even if the staff is not large, for the delivery you need a person who checks with the clients do they need regular or educational sticks? Maybe a double serving of sauce? Where exactly is the entrance to the courtyard of the clients house located - from the end or the backside? Payment by card or cash? Then he will put the order data into the system, mark special requests or the availability of a bonus card, and next time he will kindly offer a choice of a new item or a discounted position. People love attention. Another option is a chatbot. But it could be not convenient for all categories of consumers.

4. Couriers

Couriers are the face of our company since in our case these people are the only ones with whom the client contacts offline. They are always amiable, always in a good mood, smell good, and are cleanly dressed in branded equipment. And at the same time, each of them is able to ruin the work of hundreds of people in a company in two seconds, if he only somehow communicating with the client in an unfriendly way. The mission of the courier is similar to the mission of the waiter, but even more responsible. Keep this in mind when assigning people to this position.

5. Menu

The extra cost of dishes in the restaurant includes the atmosphere and service. Accordingly, take-away and delivery dishes should be cheaper. Leave only the most requested hits from the menu for delivery or use ABC analysis to determine the marginal positions. A virtual showcase - a website, or even better a website + application - should be colorful and convenient. Make it clear to the client that your kitchen is sterile. This will now become one of the most important factors.

Finally, I advise you not to forget that people use the delivery of ready-made food when they have money and no time. Now the situation is exactly the opposite - the majority have little money and a lot of time.
The Supreme Court Tuesday said the Centre and states are taking appropriate steps to provide relief to migrant workers and disposed of a plea seeking directions to the Railways as also states to provide free of cost travel to homebound migrants.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and B R Gavai, which took up the matter through video conferencing, said that it does not see any reason to keep the PIL pending and disposed it off.

The top court was hearing a PIL filed by Jagdeep S Chhokar, former director in-charge of IIM, Ahmedabad, and lawyer Gaurav Jain, who have sought direction to authorities to allow migrant workers across the country to return home on free travel after the coronavirus test.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioners, said all migrant workers are not being allowed to go to their villages and many of them have to walk on foot to return home.

The bench said the relief claimed by the petitioner has already been granted by the government and it cannot consider the prayer besides what has been made in the petition.

Bhushan said the central government has to provide the migrant workers the ways and means for the movement but a circular has been issued saying that the state where the workers are and their native state, have to agree for their travel.

It is only after both the states agree that migrant workers are sent to their native places, he said, adding that most of them are also being asked to produce medical certificates from hospitals and are facing problems in doing so.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said the government is following the rules and the protocol and providing all possible help to the migrant workers.

The bench said that trains and buses are being provided for their travel and some reports say that 85 per cent cost of their travel is borne by the Centre.

Bhushan said the Railways is saying that states must collect fare from the people and while the reports of 85 per cent subsidy by the Centre may be true, paying even 15 per cent is also too expensive for the migrant workers who have lost their financial means.

Mehta said that initially the grievance of the petitioners was that migrant workers were not allowed to go home, now they are allowed as the government is reviewing the situation on a daily basis.

He said the ground situation is being monitored on a daily basis and when a migrant worker goes back to his native place he or she has to be placed under quarantine for which a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has been finalised.

He said the Centre is taking proactive steps as far as migrant workers are concerned and urged the court should leave it to the government for micro-managing these things.

Chhokar and Jain filed a supplementary affidavit on Monday stating that the migrant workers who have been stranded for no fault of their own, with zero earnings and no financial support are being charged very high train fares for their journey to native places and railways and the States should not charge them.

That migrant are being required to pay around Rs. 800 as train fares and the same is highly unjustified It is submitted that migrants have been stranded for no fault of their own, with zero earnings and not financial support. Therefore, it must be made clear that the Railways and the states would not be charging the migrant workers for the train and bus travel being arranged for them, the supplementary affidavit had said.

It said that on May 3, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in a letter to Chief Secretaries and Administrators, clarified about the movement of distressed stranded persons, in which the ministry has given a very narrow definition of stranded migrants by including only those who had moved from their native places just before the lockdown period but could not return to their native places on account of restrictions placed on movement of persons and vehicles as part of lockdown measures.

On April 27, the apex court had said, This institution is not hostage of government, after advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioners alleged that the government's view is being blindly considered by the courts without verifying it, while fundamental rights of people especially migrant workers are not being enforced.

Chhokar and Jain in their plea had said that in wake of the extension of the nationwide lockdown, the migrant workers who are among the worst affected category of people must be allowed to go back to their homes after being tested for COVID-19.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Civil Aviation Ministry and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday launched GARUD portal for fast-track approval to COVID-19-related drone operations. The objective of the GARUD (Government Authorisation for Relief Using Drones) portal is to assist state-owned entities in seeking exemption from central government for coronavirus related drone operations.

This will also help in addressing the challenges posed by COVID-19 and will remain in force until further orders.

In a tweet, Civil Aviation Ministry said, any violation of provisions will make the conditional exemption null and void and will lead to penal action.

"Getting necessary approvals from the competent authority & launching the portal in less than two weeks is a testimony of the hard work & dedication of officials at MoCA, DGCA, AAI and NIC," the ministry added.

Also Read: Coronavirus Lockdown Live Updates: CBSE Class 10 Board exams suspended for 2020; India cases - 46,711

Recently, Garuda Aerospace, a drone start-up from Chennai, manufactured drone to spray disinfectants and sanitise public spaces to contain spread of COVID-19. Named as 'Corona-Killer', these drones can be used to spray disinfectants on buildings up to 450 feet. Drone operations are faster, longer and safer than manual spraying by workers who can become potential carriers of COVID-19. Also, drones can reach heights which are not possible through manual spraying.

Also Read: Coronavirus outbreak: Rs 1 lakh to return home! No free evacuation for stranded citizens

These drones have already been deployed for disinfecting areas in Chandigarh and Varanasi.

By Chitranjan Kumar
UPDATE: Earlier this month, reopening plans for "close contact" businesses were underway in all 50 states, with hair salons across the country slowly starting to reopen their doors. Now, with the spike of coronavirus cases in states like Florida, Texas, Alabama, and California, officials have been forced to reevaluate those reopening strategies.

Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom rolled back plans to reopen hair salons in several counties in California. While many other states' officials are considering following suit, as of now, California remains the only state to do so.

This story was originally published on May 15.

By mid April, many of us were left wondering if and when life would resume as normal. Nationwide, 42 states issued coronavirus-related stay-at-home orders, with severe restrictions barring nonessential business operations and social gatherings in all 50. Countless industries were profoundly impacted by the mandated limitations, but for beauty and personal-care services, like hair salons, the closures were especially restrictive. With no access to stylists, many have decided to test their DIY skills, cutting and coloring their own hair at home.

Fast forward several weeks, and things are starting to shift. As the number of new cases trends downward, some states have let their orders expire, exploring and implementing individual reopening plans that have in some cases prioritized hair salons. Others have extended their closures, cautiously keeping people home and away from their hairstylists through - as of now - early or late May.

No matter when salons open in your area, there's no telling what appointments will look like in a postcoronavirus world or when it will truly be safe to get back in the chair. But if you're wondering where your state currently stands, we've broken down the current status of hair-salon openings in all 50 of them.

Alabama

The stay-at-home order in this Southeastern state expired April 30. In its place, a "safer-at-home" plan began. Hair salons started reopening on May 15.

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Alaska

As of April 24, Alaska became one of the first states in the nation to ease its restrictions on select nonessential businesses. This included hair salons - however, strict social-distancing requirements are in place.

Arizona

Implemented March 31, Arizona's stay-at-home order expired May 15. Hair salons are now allowed to reopen with safety measures in place.

Arkansas

Arkansas never saw a statewide stay-at-home order, but several restrictions are in place. Cosmetology-related businesses, including nail salons, began reopening on May 6.

California

California's stay-home order has been in effect since March 19. Official dates for reopening any nonessential businesses have yet to be announced.

Colorado

One of a handful of partially reopened states, Colorado's stay-home order expired April 26. The state adopted a "safer-at-home" approach, allowing businesses to open in phases. Hair salons began reopening with precautions on May 1.

Connecticut

Connecticut's stay-at-home order was put in place March 23 and is set to expire May 20. As of this writing, no updates have been announced, and hair salons remain closed.

Delaware

A shelter-in-place order has shut down Delaware's nonessential businesses since March 24 and was recently extended to May 31. Hair salons remain closed until at least this date.

Florida

The stay-at-home order in Florida expired April 30. During phase one of its reopening plan, hair salons can operate at 25 percent capacity.

Georgia

Although Georgia's statewide shelter-in-place order expired April 30, hair salons were allowed to reopen and resume business on April 24.

Hawaii

In Hawaii, a stay-at-home order has been in effect since March 25. On April 25, it announced an extended order through May 31.

Idaho

Idaho's stay-at-home order expired on April 30, with a four-stage reopening plan in place. Hair salons may be allowed to reopen in late May, during phase two.

Illinois

The stay-at-home order in Illinois was put into effect on March 21 and was recently extended through May 31. Hair salons are currently closed.

Indiana

Beginning on March 24, the most recent update to Indiana's stay-at-home order expired May 1. Hair salons and barber shops are set to open May 11 (or May 18 in Indianapolis), with restrictions.

Iowa

Like Arkansas, Iowa never saw a statewide stay-at-home order. Partial reopenings have been announced in 77 of the state's 99 counties, and hair salons started to reopen with limitations on May 15.

Kansas

The stay-at-home order in Kansas expired on May 3. Hair salons will be allowed to open by appointment only starting May 18.

Kentucky

In Kentucky, a "healthy at home" order has kept people safe and indoors since March 26. This order is currently indefinite, but an outlined plan might see hair salons reopen in late May.

Louisiana

Louisiana's stay-at-home order expired on May 15. Going forward, hair salons will be allowed to reopen at 25 percent capacity.

Maine

After Maine's official stay-at-home order expired April 30, the state instituted a four-stage reopening plan. Hair salons were allowed to resume limited business May 1 (stage one), though safety precautions are being enforced.

Maryland

In effect since March 30, Maryland's stay-at-home order expired May 15. Nonessential businesses, including hair salons, are allowed to reopen with social-distancing requirements.

Massachusetts

On April 27, the stay-at-home order and nonessential-business restrictions in Massachusetts were extended to May 18. There is currently no date set for reopening.

Michigan

Michigan's stay-at-home order, in effect since March 24, has been extended to May 28. There are currently no plans for hair salons to reopen.

Minnesota

Minnesota's stay-at-home order is set to expire May 17, though select industries were allowed to welcome employees back on April 27. Bars, restaurants, and hair salons will remain closed until June.

Mississippi

The shelter-in-place order in Mississippi expired April 27. But while that meant some restrictions were lifted, hair salons are currently still closed.

Missouri

Missouri's stay-at-home order began April 6, and a gradual reopening plan began May 4. Hair salons were among the businesses allowed to resume business on this day.

Montana

The stay-at-home order in Montana expired April 26. Like other states, it'll reopen in phases, but many hair salons were able to reopen April 27.

Nebraska

A statewide stay-at-home order was never put in place in Nebraska, but like many states in a similar situation, nonessential businesses were restricted. On May 4, all hair salons were allowed to reopen.

Nevada

Nevada's stay-at-home order expired on May 9. Hair salons were able to reopen with guidelines in place.

New Hampshire

In New Hampshire, a stay-at-home order is currently in place until May 31, with a "state of emergency" declaration through at least May 15. Still, hair salons were allowed to begin reopening on May 11.

New Jersey

New Jersey's stay-at-home order has been in effect since March 21 and is set to expire June 5. Hair salons are currently closed.

New Mexico

New Mexico will extend its stay-at-home order through May 31 (originally set for May 1). It's currently unclear when salons will be allowed to reopen in the state.

New York

In New York, the stay-at-home order (also known as "NY PAUSE") expired May 15. However, in many parts of the state, where numbers are still relatively high, this will not include hair salons or other personal-care businesses.

North Carolina

North Carolina's stay-at-home order was recently extended through May 22. Nonessential and "close contact" businesses will remain closed for now, including hair salons.

North Dakota

Although North Dakota didn't have a statewide stay-at-home order, restrictions on certain industries were lifted across the board May 1. Hair salons are included in this reopening plan, though social-distancing and sanitary measures are clearly outlined.

Ohio

Ohio's stay-at-home order will expire May 29, but businesses will reopen in phases. While retail stores may open as soon as May 12, no date has been set for hair salons.

Oklahoma

A formal stay-at-home order was never issued in Oklahoma, but hair salons were allowed to reopen statewide on April 24.

Oregon

Oregon's stay-at-home order lifted on May 15. Hair salons are part of phase one of reopenings, but strict restrictions will be in place.

Pennsylvania

Similar to its original county-by-county restrictions (before a statewide stay-at-home order), Pennsylvania will reopen gradually. Some counties began reopening May 8, which would include hair salons.

Rhode Island

In Rhode Island, a statewide stay-at-home order expired on May 8, with a plan to reopen in phases. State Governor Gina Raimondo said hair-salon reopenings could be part of phase two, opening in late May.

South Carolina

South Carolina was one of the last states with a formal stay-at-home order. It was also one of the first to begin reopening select businesses and retail stores. Hair salons can begin reopening on May 18.

South Dakota

No stay-at-home order was issued in South Dakota, but hair salons are among businesses still closed for safety.

Tennessee

In Tennessee, the stay-at-home order expired April 30. Restaurants and retail stores have now begun reopening on a limited basis, and hair salons followed on May 6.

Texas

The stay-at-home order in Texas expired April 30. Hair salons began reopening with restrictions May 8.

Utah

Utah did not have a statewide stay-at-home order, but hair salons were shuttered. However, starting May 1, they were allowed to reopen following extreme restrictions and hygiene procedures.

Vermont

Vermont extended the state's emergency order to June 15, but the stay-at-home order expired on May 15. Currently, there are no specific plans for reopening hair salons.

Virginia

Effective since March 30, Virginia's stay-at-home order expired on May 15. Going forward, hair salons can open by appointment only and must abide by strict social-distancing measures.

Washington

In Washington, a stay-at-home order has been effective since March 23. Hair salons will be allowed to reopen at 50-percent capacity during phase two of reopening, but the exact date remains uncertain.

West Virginia

West Virginia, under a stay-at-home order since March 24, began reopening in phases starting April 30. Under this plan, hair salons will be allowed to reopen in phase two, although it's currently uncertain when that date will fall.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin's stay-at-home order was recently extended to May 26. Hair salons remain closed for now.

Wyoming

Wyoming is another state without a formal, statewide stay-at-home order. That said, all hair salons were allowed to reopen starting May 1, following specific conditions.

POPSUGAR aims to give you the most accurate and up-to-date information about the coronavirus, but details and recommendations about this pandemic may have changed since publication. For the latest information on COVID-19, please check out resources from the WHO, CDC, and local public health departments.
American couple denied access to their Yucatan home after returning from trip to the US

Merida, Yucatan  An American couple who have returned from a 15-day trip to the Unites States has been denied access to their home in the town of San Crisanto in Merida. Neighbors say they are denying the pair access fearing they may be carrying coronavirus.

The American couple, Ralph and Raeann who are permanent residents, were not granted town access via a sanitary filter on Friday upon their return from the US after attending a family matter. However, they reappeared again Saturday with a lawyer and an Amparo, after passing the filter to gain access to their home.

This time they left their vehicle at the sanitary filter, arriving to their property on foot where they were denied access by residents who say the couple have not been tested for coronavirus.

San Crisanto neighbors block passage with leaves after American couple arrive from US trip

Elements of the police and National Guard were called to intervene with residents saying we fear for our health, as they accuse the pair of arriving possibly infected. The couple agreed to leave and were taken back to town by police.

The mayor of the Sinanche, Felipe Rojas Escalante, appeared and said he would resolve the conflict. The couples lawyer pointed out that if he did not comply with the judges order, he would sue authorities including the mayor and the commissioner of San Crisanto.
China on Monday announced that any passengers boarding the China Airlines flights from Moscow to Beijing will be required to provide negative nucleic acid testing results within 120 hours before boarding. This would be put into effect from May 8, as per a statement released by the Chinese embassy in Moscow. Russia reported more than 10,000 new cases of coronavirus infections on Sunday with more than half of the 10,633 new cases in Moscow. The total number of cases in Russia has crossed 134,000 overall with 1,420 deaths.

China has also extended caution to all flights arriving to Beijing and other major cities in the country. "All inbound passengers arriving in Beijing are required to receive nucleic acid tests and undergo centralized quarantine. After the centralized quarantine, the passengers will be quarantined for further 7 days at home and need to have one contact person for health monitoring," read the instructions on China Airlines's official site.

Read: Pope Francis Says 'it's Important To Guarantee Universal Access To Healthcare' Amid Crisis

Starting from May 8, passengers taking #China Airlines flights from #Moscow to #Beijing will be required to provide negative nucleic acid testing results within 120 hours before boarding, according to a statement released by the Chinese embassy in Moscow. #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/OMincWypFU  CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) May 4, 2020

China which has slowly begun to revive its economy and lift its lockdown has been witnessing a massive spike in domestic travel. Between the period of May 1 to May 3, China recorded nearly 85 million domestic tourist trips with the tourism revenue reaching 35.06 billion yuan (4.97 billion U.S. dollars), as per the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The country has recorded 82,877 cases to date while over 4,630 people have succumbed to the deadly virus.

China saw nearly 85 million domestic tourist trips in the first three days of its five-day #MayDayHoliday, with the tourism revenue reaching 35.06 billion yuan (4.97 billion U.S. dollars) from May 1 to May 3, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Sunday. pic.twitter.com/gnNXsbU2SC  People's Daily, China (@PDChina) May 4, 2020

Read: Here's What Russia's President Vladimir Putin Said As PM Mishustin Tested Covid Positive
May 05, 2020 / 08:50 AM IST

Here are the stocks in the news today. (Image: Moneycontrol)

Lupin | Company announced positive topline results from Phase 3 study of Single-Dose Solosec for trichomoniasis treatment. (Image: Moneycontrol)

Marico Q4 | Profit fell 50.6% to Rs 199 cr versus Rs 403 cr, revenue down 7% to Rs 1,496 cr versus Rs 1,609 cr YoY. (Image: Moneycontrol)

Graphite India | Company starting manufacturing operations at various plants. (Image: Moneycontrol)

Orbit Exports | Company partially resumed operations at factory in Surat and office in Delhi. (Image: orbitexports.com)

Automotive Axles | Company resumed operations of factories and offices at Mysuru and Rudrapur. (Image: autoaxle.com)

Ceat | Company partially resumed functioning at plants in Nasik, Nagpur (Maharashtra) and Halol (Gujrat). (Image: ceat.com)

ICICI Bank: Board to meet on May 9 to consider raising funds via debt.

Colgate-Palmolive (India) | Company has been allowed to resume operations at reduced capacity at all of its manufacturing plants.

Ashok Leyland | Company has recorded zero production and sales for the month of April due to the nationwide lockdown

Manappuram Finance | Company will raise up to Rs 500 crore by issuing rated, secured, redeemable non-convertible debentures on private placement basis.

IDFC First Bank | Bank has raised Rs 2,000 crore via a preferential issue. Warburg Pincus, Bajaj Life and HDFC Life have invested in the issue, the bank said.

Container Corporation of India | Company has handed over certain terminals which are built on the land taken on lease from the Railways.

Praj Industries | Company has obtained permission from authorities for partial resumption of companys two units at Kandla with effect from April 21.
(Newser)  An Amazon vice president says he is quitting in solidarity with worried warehouse workers fired for seeking improved safety measures during the pandemic. In a blog post, Tim Bray described the company's actions as "chickenshit" and "designed to create a climate of fear." Bray, a prominent software engineer who had been at Amazon for more than five years, says he "snapped" after the company's April 16 firing of two workers who started a petition and organized a virtual event for employees to discuss their concerns. "VPs shouldnt go publicly rogue, so I escalated through the proper channels and by the book," he says. "That done, remaining an Amazon VP would have meant, in effect, signing off on actions I despised. So I resigned." More:

A "vein of toxicity." Bray says Amazon is excellent at spotting business opportunities, but has a " corresponding lack of vision about the human costs of the relentless growth and accumulation of wealth and power." The firings, he says, are " evidence of a vein of toxicity running through the company culture. I choose neither to serve nor drink that poison."

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Personal consequences . Bray, whose last day at the company was May 1, says the decision will cost him a lot, Business Insider reports. "What with big-tech salaries and share vestings, this will probably cost me over a million (pre-tax) dollars, not to mention the best job I've ever had, working with awfully good people. So I'm pretty blue."

. Bray, whose last day at the company was May 1, says the decision will cost him a lot, Business Insider reports. "What with big-tech salaries and share vestings, this will probably cost me over a million (pre-tax) dollars, not to mention the best job I've ever had, working with awfully good people. So I'm pretty blue." A history of speaking out . Motherboard notes that Bray is the highest-level Amazon employee to have condemned the company's treatment of workersand last year, he was the highest-level staff member to sign an open letter calling for climate action at the company.

. Motherboard notes that Bray is the highest-level Amazon employee to have condemned the company's treatment of workersand last year, he was the highest-level staff member to sign an open letter calling for climate action at the company. He says he didn't expect attention . Bray tells the New York Times that he didn't think the blog post would get so much attention and that he didn't write it with a specific goal in mind. "Im a blogger and I share the story of my life when I think it might interest or help others," he says.

. Bray tells the New York Times that he didn't think the blog post would get so much attention and that he didn't write it with a specific goal in mind. "Im a blogger and I share the story of my life when I think it might interest or help others," he says. Amazon's work on warehouse safety . Bray says he believes that Amazon is now working hard on improving safety, and he's aware you "dont turn a supertanker on a dime." But "at the end of the day, the big problem isnt the specifics of COVID-19 response, he says. Its that Amazon treats the humans in the warehouses as fungible units of pick-and-pack potential. Only thats not just Amazon, its how 21st-century capitalism is done."

. Bray says he believes that Amazon is now working hard on improving safety, and he's aware you "dont turn a supertanker on a dime." But "at the end of the day, the big problem isnt the specifics of COVID-19 response, he says. Its that Amazon treats the humans in the warehouses as fungible units of pick-and-pack potential. Only thats not just Amazon, its how 21st-century capitalism is done." No comment from Amazon. Amazon declined to comment on Bray's blog post but "said the other workers weren't fired for whistleblowing but rather for violating company policies," reports the Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos.

(Read more Amazon stories.)
A doctor looks at protein samples at Novavax labs, one of the labs developing a vaccine for the COVID-19, in Rockville, Md., on March 20, 2020. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

Next in Coronavirus Tyranny: Forced Vaccinations and Digital Certificates

Commentary

In my first week in the House of Representatives in 1976, I cast one of the two votes against legislation appropriating funds for a swine flu vaccination program. A swine flu outbreak was then dominating headlines, so most in D.C. were frantic to do something about the virus.

Unfortunately, the hastily developed and rushed-into-production swine flu vaccine was not only ineffective, it was dangerous. Approximately fifty people who received the vaccine subsequently contracted Guillain-Barre syndrome, a potentially fatal form of paralysis. According to an expert with the Centers for Disease Control, the incidence of Guillain-Barre was four times higher among those who received the swine flu vaccine than in the general population.

That sad history may soon repeat itself. Right now, governments and private industries are working to rapidly develop and deploy a coronavirus vaccine. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who is a major funder of these efforts, has suggested everyone who receives a vaccine be issued a digital certificate proving he has been vaccinated. Dr. Anthony Fauci, whose record of wrong predictions makes him the Bill Kristol of epidemiology, also wants individuals to carry some proof they have been vaccinated.

Another authoritarian proposal being floated to deal with coronavirus is to force everyone to download a phone app that will track their movements. This would allow government officials to identify those who may have been near anyone who may have had coronavirus. Such mandatory contact tracing is an assault on our privacy and liberty.

Vaccines can improve health. For example, vaccines helped reduce the incidence of diseases like polio. But not all vaccines are safe and effective for all people. Furthermore, certain modern practices, such as giving infants multiple vaccines at one time, may cause health problems. The fact that vaccines may benefit some people, or even most people, does not justify government forcing individuals to be vaccinated. It also does not justify vaccinating children against their parents wishes. And it certainly does not justify keeping individuals and families in involuntary quarantine because they do not have digital certificates proving they have had their shots.

If government can force individuals to receive medical treatment against their will, then there is no reason why government cannot force individuals to buy medical insurance, prohibit them from owning firearms, dictate their terms of employment, and prevent them from taking arguably harmful actions like smoking marijuana or drinking raw milk. Similarly, if government can override parents wishes regarding medical treatment for their children, then there is no reason why government cannot usurp parental authority in other areas, such as education.

Proponents of mandatory vaccines and enhanced surveillance are trying to blackmail the American people by arguing that the lockdown cannot end unless we create a healthcare surveillance state and make vaccination mandatory. The growing number of Americans who are tired of not being able to go to work, school, or church, or even to take their children to a park because of government mandates should reject this deal. Instead, they should demand an immediate end to the lockdowns and the restoration of individual responsibility for deciding how best to protect their health.

Dr. Ron Paul is a former member of Congress and Distinguished Counselor to the Mises Institute.

This article was originally published on LewRockwell.com. Republished with permission from Mises.org.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
A federal judge ordered the release of two more immigrant detainees Tuesday afternoon, bringing the total number of detainees released from Immigrant and Customs Enforcements custody during the coronavirus pandemic to 50.

U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young ordered the release of Angela De Jesus Concepcion and Karina Rojas Vargas from the Bristol County House of Correction. ICE is allowed to monitor them through ankle bracelets as a condition of bail, according to the order.

Concepcion had been detained in Bristol County Unit E-B since April 8, according to court records. She raised concerns about sharing the unit with four other women, using communal showers and toilets and sometimes running out of soap in the bathroom.

We are staying in a closed unit and I am afraid for my life. I dont want to die in here and Im sitting in fear every day, Concepcion told a law intern, according to an English-language declaration filed last month.

Some of the 50 detainees were released voluntarily by ICE, while others were released as the result of the class-action lawsuit filed in Boston federal court.

Attorneys at Lawyers for Civil Rights and Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School filed a complaint in March on behalf of several detainees calling for their release. According to the complaint, several detainees have pre-existing conditions and are at high risk of becoming severely ill if they contract the coronavirus, which can be difficult to avoid in a congregate setting such as a jail.

Court records show that detainees beds are two or three feet apart as opposed to the recommended six feet apart under guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil rights, said an ICE detainee tested positive for the coronavirus on Monday. The sheriffs office declined to comment and deferred to ICE for comment. ICE declined to comment.

ICE posts a list of COVID-19 cases among detainees across the country. Bristol County House of Correction was not on the list as of Tuesday afternoon.

Another prisoner was sent to St. Lukes Hospital for a pre-existing medical condition on Wednesday, nearly a week ago, according to a news release from the Bristol County Sheriffs Office. He later tested positive for the coronavirus.

The prisoner is not an ICE detainee, according to the sheriffs office.

Bristol County House of Correction made national headlines last week after three immigrant detainees were hospitalized after an incident involving correction officers and Sheriff Thomas Hodgson. The sheriff said the detainees refused COVID-19 testing after showing symptoms and that he and correction officers were violently rushed by detainees who then trashed the unit.

Advocates and lawyers representing detainees say they were attacked and pepper sprayed by the sheriff. Detainees sought COVID-19 testing but didnt want to leave their unit for fear of being exposed to the coronavirus and placed in solitary confinement, according to their version of events.

Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson was scheduled to be deposed for three hours Tuesday. Attorneys representing detainees in the class-action lawsuit filed a motion requesting that the sheriff be deposed for longer so he could testify about the incident. Young denied the request.

The present conditions under which any of the detainees are being held is properly discoverable. The circumstances of Fridays disruption is not, Young wrote.

Hodgson referenced the class-action lawsuit on Saturday during a news conference about the officer-involved incident. He said the incident, in which he accused detainees of trashing the unit, was encouraged by advocacy groups who are calling for the immigrants release.

What really troubles me more than anything is not just the fact that these advocates and these attorneys are pushing for these people to go back out into the community, but weve got judges that are encouraging these people to be released, said Hodgson, who opposes the releases.

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Paying to peep the recipe for Tartine Bakerys salted chocolate buckwheat cookies or Fiorellas meatballs could help save your favorite restaurant.

At least, thats the premise for Stay In Cook Out, a new e-cookbook and fundraiser for Bay Area restaurants as they try to survive the coronavirus pandemic.

The $30 book is scheduled to go live noon Thursday at stayincookout.com. It features whimsical illustrations and recipes from 24 restaurants  apart from Berkeleys Chez Panisse, all of the restaurants are in San Francisco. Some of the biggest names include Cockscomb, Michael Mina, Nopalito, Mister Jius and Nightbird.

At the end of every week, organizers will split the funds evenly between the participating restaurants  though a couple of spots opted to donate their portion to other COVID-19 relief organizations.

Stay In Cook Out

The effort comes from San Francisco sisters Mia and Lida van der Meer. Mia, a student at University of Pennsylvania, was taking some time off to study the culinary arts at Le Cordon Bleu Paris. On March 11, she learned she would have to leave her program early and fly home. The day she landed in San Francisco, officials announced the shelter-in-place order.

Not long after that, the abysmal statistics concerning the economic implications shelter in place was having on our local restaurants started coming out. My sister Lida and I started asking ourselves what we could do to help, she said via email.

The e-book idea appealed because it was completely contactless, accessible and affordable, Mia explained. Plus, if people cant eat at their favorite restaurants, maybe they can recreate some restaurant dishes at home.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Mia and Lida are particularly excited to try out the carnitas tacos from Traci des Jardins School Night, the Nagoya-style wings from Izakaya Sozai and the rhubarb galette with vanilla ice cream from Chez Panisse  and, of course, to eventually dine out at a local restaurant again.

Janelle Bitker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: janelle.bitker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @janellebitker
The coronavirus pandemic has people staying home due to increased social distancing, but that doesnt mean you cant still celebrate Cinco de Mayo.

Restaurants across Massachusetts are offering deals on food and drinks for the occasion. While you still cant eat in the restaurant dining rooms, you can bring it home for a delicious night in.

CINCO DE MAYO IS HERE AMIGOS! SPECIALS; To assist and be safer we will have DRIVE THRU on 5-5-2020, at our Chicopee location. We will be selling meals with drinks included, you can preorder for tomorrow OR ORDER FOR TODAY! (drive thru is tomorrow) -FAJITAS FOR 2 & A CORONA 6 PACK $48 -FAJITAS FOR 2 & A CORONA 12 PACK $66 -FAJITAS FOR 2 & 1 PITCHER OF VIRGIN MARG MIX $50 -FAJITAS FOR 2 & 2 PITCHERS OF VIRGIN MARG MIX $70 -ENCH TRAY & 6 PK OF CORONA $50 -ENCH TRAY & 12 PK OF CORONA $68 -ENCH TRAY & 1 PITCHERS MARG VIRGIN MIX $50 -ENCH TRAY & 2 PITCHER MARG VIRGIN MIX $70 -SINGLE CORONA $3.00 -CORONA 6 PACK $18.00 -CORONA 12 PACK $36 -FAJITAS WITH CHICKEN, STEAK OR STEAK & CHICKEN $30 NEXT 2 DAYS. *12 PK max per order per customer and must have valid ID to pick up orders that have beer. * Beer can only be sold when food is also ordered. VALID CHICOPEE LOCATION ONLY Posted by Frontera Grill on Monday, May 4, 2020

Chipotle: Customers can get free Queso Blanco on Tuesday. Its also extending its free delivery offer through May 10. Customers can order through the Chipotle app or Chipotle.com and use promo code QUESO55 at checkout to receive free their free queso.

Citrus & Salt: Takeout and delivery will be offered from this Boston restaurant on Tuesday. It will offer its Fiesta Box, which includes your choice of three types of tacos, plus chips, guacamole, and churros. The restaurant also offers margarita kits. The kits are offered with a house margarita mix, prickly pear-infused Beautiful Liar mix, and coconut and pomegranate Tequila Take the Wheel mix.

Frontera Grill: The Chicopee restaurant is offering a number of specials, including fajitas, enchilada trays, a six or twelve pack of Corona or margarita mix.

Loco Taqueria & Oyster Bar: This Boston restaurant is offering a Cinco Box for $150, which includes eight tacos, guacamole, chips and salsa, wings, sheet pan nachos, a margarita kit, and a six-pack of Mexican beer. The box also comes with a bottle of Locos hot sauce plus mini pinatas, Loco sunglasses, koozies, and more swag. Want to keep the party going? The restaurant is also live streaming DJ Ryan Brown.

Mi Ranchito Tex Mex: The Westfield restaurant is offering free burritos from 2 to 4 p.m. on Tuesday.

On The Border: On the Borders Cinco de Mayo family meals are $25, which includes: Taco Family Meal with seasoned ground beef, a bowl of queso, On the Border swag, and five themed cups. Customers can add alcohol, dessert or more food to their bag.

Taco Bell: DIY taco kits are being offered nationwide to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. The kits feed up to six people.

Yard House: Need a drink? Yard House is offering two types of margaritas available to-go for $6 each.

If youre just looking for a margarita kit, those are being offered at Mezcal Cantina in Worcester, Empire Asian Restaurant & Lounge, which includes an entire cantaloupe, The Butcher Shop, Bartaco, Alcove and Yellow Door Taqueria.

And now that youve got food and drinks covered, Boston.com reported that Cheeky Monkey Brewing Co. is hosting Zoom party on at 9 p.m. with Boston DJs Ryan Nichols, DJ Tao, and Danny Donuts. Attendees can even win prizes  including a trip to Tulum, Mexico.

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O2's mobile network has been suffering from an outage that left thousands of customers across the UK unable to make or receive calls for around two hours.

According to Down Detector, the issues started at around 12:09 BST, and were affecting O2 customers from across the country.

The independent outage monitor website's heat maps shows reports of outages coming from customers between London and Aberdeen.

A spokesperson for O2 told MailOnline that 'all networks seem to be struggling at this time'.

As of 3pm the issue has been resolved and service is returning to normal levels, the spokesperson said.

According to Down Detector, the issues started at around 12:09 BST, and are affecting O2 customers from across the country

'The incident which impacted some voice calls earlier today has now been resolved and we are seeing service levels return to normal,' O2 said.

'Our technical teams are continuing to monitor the situation. We apologise for any inconvenience.'

At 12:35pm on Tuesday, reports of problems with O2 peaked at 5,131, according to Down Detector, which gets network status updates from various sources including social media and reports submitted to its website.

Down Detector's outage heat map showed reports coming in from across the UK  predominantly London, but also Bristol, Milton Keynes, Manchester and Edinburgh.

Of those who reported issues, 91 per cent said they were having problems with their mobile phone, 7 per cent with the network and none with their mobile internet.

At the time, O2 said it was investigating the source of the outage in response to frustrated customers on Twitter.

'Were aware of an issue which might be affecting some customers making and receiving voice calls,' O2 posted in response to Twitter users.

'Our technical teams are investigating. Data and texts are not impacted. Sorry for any inconvenience. Updates will be shared here when they're available.'

Customers took to Twitter to vent their frustration at a time when home networks are vital.

@RebeccaW40 tweeted: '@O2 network is down yet again. This keep happening and is really not good. During a time like this People need to be able to speak to loved ones. This is becoming a regular thing now. Beyond a joke.'

Problems on the O2 network soared at around midday on Tuesday, data from independent outage monitor website Down Detector shows

@natatatlie tweeted: 'I have job interviews to attend. Lost my job because of coronavirus and cant get one now because of O2.'

An NHS employee working from home, @Thompson01Gemma, told O2 that she has had problems with the network for the last few days.

'I am an NHS staff member trying to work from home having problems calling out today especially, but for past few days calls cutting off half way through conversations,' she said. 'Working from home proving difficult!'

From a peak of more than 5,000 after midday, outage reports on Down Detector numbered 351 as of 2:50pm.

O2 owner Telefonica is currently in talks with Virgin Media owner Liberty Global about a potential merger of the two telcos

It was revealed on Monday that O2 is in talks to merge with Virgin Media in a move that could threaten rival telcos including BT and Sky.

Telefonica, O2's Spanish owner, confirmed it is in discussions with Virgin-owner Liberty Global over a deal between the two network operators.

The Spanish telco giant said it would keep markets informed if a 'satisfactory agreement' was reached, according to Reuters.
EDITORS NOTE: NJ Cannabis Insider is hosting a nation webinar, in collaboration with Advance 360, on May 13 from 1-3 p.m. EST. The webinar, Cannabis and COVID-19: Where Does America Go From Here? presented by Duane Morris, will feature heavyweights in the national arena. Heres how to sign up.

Three businessmen who allege they tried to obtain a percentage of a license to cultivate and sell medical cannabis have filed suit against a politically connected law firm and a multi-state cannabis operator over allegations they were unfairly cut out of the deal.

The law firm  DeCotiis, Fitzpatrick & Cole  shot back that the lawsuit was a baseless shakedown attempting to get $14 million out of the firm and medical cannabis licensee, Verano Holdings. DeCotiis also not so subtly noted two of the plaintiffs are embroiled in lawsuits themselves, one of whom is accused of operating a company that attempted to price gouge New York City weeks ago for $45 million over fraudulent N95 masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The DeCotiis firm does not tolerate false accusations and reputational attacks against the firm or its attorneys  especially when made for financial gain, said DeCotiis outside counsel Kerrie Campbell in a statement. That is why, two weeks ago, the firm flatly rejected plaintiffs outlandish demand to forward a check payable to Ansell Grimm & Aaron in the amount of $14 million, based on reckless and demonstrably false accusations wrongly impugning the professional integrity of the firm and its attorneys.

The lawsuit, filed by Josh Bauchner of Ansell Grimm & Aaron on behalf of Joseph Wolfe, Ronald Romano, Nicholas Campanella and their joint venture, Fresh Harvest Group, LLC, alleges the DeCotiis law firm, DeCotiis attorneys Joseph DeCotiis and Arlene Perez, and Verano and its principals Sam Dorf and George Archos reneged on a deal to obtain a medical cannabis license during the 2018 Request for Application round. The trio, which also accused the law firm of legal malpractice, is seeking damages, attorneys fees and costs of the suit.

Wolfe, of Wyckoff, is a longtime friend of DeCotiis. Romano is the president of Performance Supply, which was recently sued by manufacturer 3M in federal district court for an alleged scam to sell fake N95 masks to New York City at 500-600% mark up. Campanella, who is the CEO of Sun Pacific Holding Corp, is facing a shareholder lawsuit accusing him and Sun Pacifics CFO and general counsel of defrauding investors.

Verano, which hasnt yet responded to a request for comment, was one of the six multi-state operators to obtain provisional licensing in December 2018 to operate a vertically integrated medical cannabis cultivation and retail business in the state. This past February, the company received its operational cultivation license.

According to the lawsuit, Wolfe and Romano teamed up in early 2018 with the aim of obtaining a vertically integrated medical cannabis license and sought out DeCotiis, a managing partner at the firm, because of Wolfes friendship with DeCotiis. Campanella later joined the group and allegedly introduced Verano to DeCotiis.

Campbell, however, said the trio and Fresh Harvest Group were never clients of the firm. She pointed out that the lawsuit conspicuously fails to allege any documentation routinely generated to memorialize contracts, partnership agreements and/or attorney engagements, because, in fact, there was no contract, partnership agreement and/or attorney engagement as alleged by plaintiffs.

(The trios) nineteen scattershot causes of action are based solely upon purported implied verbal agreements and partnerships with a muddled cast of participants, Campbell said in her statement. Despite its extensive mishmash of convoluted, inaccurate, contradictory and irrelevant allegations, the complaint lacks basic specificity concerning locations, times, parties and terms required to adequately plead an implied oral contract, partnership or attorney/client relationship.

Bauchner told NJ Cannabis Insider his clients have emails, texts and a recording with DeCotiis and Perez demonstrating the existence of an attorney-client relationship.

The firm met with my clients on multiple occasions, had conference calls with my clients on multiple occasions over a period of months during which it provided legal advice with respect to securing an ATC license, he said. In New Jersey, thats sufficient to establish an attorney-client relationship and the fact that the firm failed to secure an engagement letter does not change that fact.

Campbell also said Verano and the DeCotiis law firm first had discussions back in December 2017, and that Fresh Harvest Group, which is owned by Campanellas wife, wasnt incorporated until weeks after the trios alleged interactions took place.

There is no logical reason why Verano, a well-established and highly qualified company, would partner with a competitor, let alone a less qualified one, to apply for an ATC license, she said.

Let us know if theres a topic in the in the cannabis space youd like us to explore.

NJ Cannabis Insider is a weekly subscriber-based newsletter produced by NJ Advance Media, which also publishes NJ.com, The Star-Ledger and other affiliated papers.

Justin Zaremba may be reached at jzaremba@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinZarembaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Social justice advocate Martha Wangari Karua has come out to strongly oppose the testing of the coronavirus vaccines on Kenyans.



On Saturday, the Kenyan politician, who is a former member of parliament for the Gichugu Constituency and an advocate of the high court of Kenya, said that if the Ministry of Health says Kenya is ready for the testing process, then the top government officials should be first in line.



Now that @MOH_Kenya says Kenya is open to testing of British vaccines in Kenya let them be tested on members of the cabinet and their families and thereafter all elected representatives and senior government officials, read a tweet from the former Minister of Justice who resigned in April 2009.



Coronavirus vaccines from the U.K



On Friday, reports emerged that scientists from Oxford University in the U.K were planning to test their vaccines in Kenya.



According to a report by the BBC, the scientists are considering trialling the vaccines in Kenya if at all they do not get the expected results in the United Kingdom.



Kenyans have since been questioning the decision to test the vaccines in their country seeing that the COVID-19 cases are still low as compared to other countries.



Ministry of Health



However, the Ministry of Health on Friday refuted claims that they had welcomed the testing on Kenyans, saying they are not aware of any trials.



Speaking during the daily COVID-19 briefing, Health CAS Rashid Aman noted that there are ethical procedures that must be followed before approving clinical trials on Kenyans.

















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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NEW YORK, N.Y. -- A week after Mayor Bill de Blasio said he would weigh adding data from more than 40 private hospitals to the citys daily ICU indicator count -- including the only two hospitals on Staten Island -- they are still not being factored into the projections.

For the past three weeks, de Blasios team has been keeping tabs on three daily indicators as a way to determine when the city can safely lift coronavirus-related restrictions: the number of New Yorkers being admitted into the citys hospitals, patients in its 11 public hospitals ICUs, and the rate of New Yorkers testing positive for coronavirus.

Last week, de Blasio said he would consider adding Staten Islands private hospitals and others across the city to the ICU portion of the count.

Asked again one week later why they had not been added, he said that, so far, no one has shown him evidence the ICU numbers needed to be broadened.

And although limiting ICU data to hospitals within the public Health + Hospitals system means leaving out the entire borough of Staten Island from the daily progress report, de Blasio says the projections still paint an accurate picture of how the coronavirus is impacting New York City.

The public hospital indicators are the most consistent and they tend to reflect what were seeing from all 56 hospitals, but theyre more readily available and consistent information, he said during a press conference with reporters Tuesday.

Ill double check with the team again, but to date, no one has shown me evidence that we need to broaden, he continued.

Youre seeing something in this indicator, I think isnt there, its not meant to be whats happening in each of the 56 hospitals, its meant to be a trend line for the whole city, and using the 11 public hospitals is a simple verifiable way to do it and appears to be consistent with what other hospitals are experiencing, he said.

Staten Island is the only borough without a public hospital and relies on two private hospitals, Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC) and Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH), which is part of Northwell Health system.

And though Staten Island has the lowest number of cases citywide, accounting for just 7% of the citys 171,723 total cases as of May 4, the borough has one of the highest numbers of cases per capita in the city after the Bronx.

CITYWIDE TRENDS HOPEFUL

Based on recent trends of the mayors daily indicators, New York City has been consistently having good days.

On Monday, the mayor said all three indicators had trended down and called it an excellent day.

On Tuesday he said that Monday had been a great day but Tuesday was a little less great, still some good news.

The mayor said Tuesday that number of people admitted into the hospitals across the city for coronavirus had dropped from 88 Saturday to 75 Sunday; the number of people in the citys ICUs in its 11 public hospitals dropped from 632 to 596; while the number of people testing positive for the virus had ticked up from 17% to 22%.

On Staten Island, RUMC said Tuesday that of the 85 coronavirus patients in its hospital, 35 of them were in the ICU.

Meanwhile, SIUH said that of its 172 coronavirus patients being treated at its north and south campuses as of Tuesday, there were about 70 patients in the ICU.

FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER.

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***
About 75 percent of the inmates at Bexar County Jail who have contracted the novel coronavirus showed no symptoms, partly explaining how the outbreak there has spread rapidly.

The latest figures come a day after an inmate in the jails custody died, the second death linked to the downtown lockup, where hundreds of inmates and deputies have tested positive for COVID-19.

I really think if we tested more people in the public, wed have more asymptomatic positives come up, just like what were seeing in the jail, Sheriff Javier Salazar said Tuesday. I think were an example of larger things.

On Monday, the family of inmate Clifford Childs, 66, chose to remove him from life support, three weeks after he was transferred from the jail to University Hospital to receive treatment for the virus.

He had to be intubated and needed the assistance of a ventilator to breathe

On Thursday, detention Deputy Timothy De La Fuente, a 27-year-veteran of the Sheriffs Office, died after contracting the highly contagious virus.

The outbreak started in late March and steadily increased among the 3,100 inmates and 1,000 deputies and staff. On April 25, the Sheriffs Office announced it would increase testing in an effort to deal with the virus spread.

As of Tuesday evening, about 300 inmates had tested positive for the coronavirus, officials say. Thats about 44 percent of the 685 tests on inmates that have been processed.

About three of four inmates who tested positive  215 show no symptoms. Experts and officials say that such a high proportion could be indicative of the virus prevalence beyond jail walls, underscoring the need for mass testing throughout the community.

I would assume anywhere across the United States, youve got a lot of people who have it, got over it and never even knew they had it, County Judge Nelson Wolff said Tuesday. So yeah, I think theres a lot. But we dont know how asymptomatic people pass it on.

Salazar said mass testing also has detected a large number of detention deputies who are asymptomatic, although he did not provide any specifics. At last count, 60 detention deputies have tested positive, 17 of whom have recovered.

One deputy who contracted the virus was hospitalized and in the intensive care unit in stable condition as of Tuesday, Salazar said.

As mass testing for the coronavirus is implemented in more prisons and jails across the United States, officials are finding many inmates without symptoms.

In four state prison systems  Arkansas, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia  96 percent of inmates who tested positive were asymptomatic, records reviewed by Reuters showed.

Epidemiologists say the figures suggest people who are not physically sick could be driving the spread of the virus, not only in correctional facilities, but throughout the U.S.

In California, health officials began recommending mass testing of asymptomatic people across the state in an effort to slow the virus spread.

The number of asymptomatic people that could be spreading the virus is a concern in San Antonio, too.

In the next few weeks, the Metropolitan Health District plans to begin testing some asymptomatic people in small groups to better determine how many people have the virus but dont know it.

Those plans should be finalized within a few days, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Salazar said such testing could have an important bearing on plans by state leaders to reopen the business sector  a sentiment expressed by health officials, too.

As much as I hope that Im wrong, I think that as the community starts to open and people go out and get more comfortable and become complacent, I think were going to see our number of positives start to climb up again, Salazar said. Until we have mass testing, were not going to have a true picture of what the community at large looks like.

Jail issues

Mass testing at the jail is the latest effort by officials to curb the virus spread.

Salazar, in coordination with other local officials, started reducing the number of inmates at the jail in early March, primarily by releasing nonviolent misdemeanor offenders and sending felons to state prison.

Then, two weeks ago, after inmates called on officials to address problems in the jail, Salazar implemented a number of changes. Masks now are handed out daily and soap is provided twice a week, officials say.

On Tuesday, Salazar said he didnt see foresee any additional changes. He said his staff is seeking advice from jail officials across the country.

Were looking at every possibility, he said. If I find out something that could save more lives, I absolutely will do it here.

Salazar said mitigating the outbreak inside the jail has been difficult, partly because so little is known about the virus.

Early on, we thought we were doing great by checking temperatures once a day, Salazar said. It turns out that wasnt enough. Then we began testing them twice a day. Now, we know that many people have the virus and dont have a fever.

Thats why he said mass testing is so important in stopping the virus spread.

As this thing is unfolding, we are learning more and more about it, Salazar said. II hope it will go away soon, but at this rate, I just dont think its going to.

Childs death

While Childs official cause of death has not yet been determined, Salazar said it appears his death was related to COVID-19.

Court records show Childs had a lengthy criminal history, dating to 1975, when he was 23 and arrested on a charge of murder. That case later was dismissed.

In 1992, he was charged with shooting and killing Stacy McNeely, 30, as the man played pool at the Players Club Lounge on East Commerce Street.

A jury sentenced him to life in prison after deliberating for less than 25 minutes.

He was released on parole in 2014, officials say, after serving 22 years.

Three years later, he was charged in the deaths of Annabelle Rojas, 33, and John Booth, 25.

Childs lawyer initially questioned whether his client was competent to stand trial, a process that can significantly delay court action as the defendant undergoes evaluations by a psychiatrist or doctor. Earlier this year, his attorney agreed his client was competent.

He was awaiting trial on both charges when, in early April, he was transferred to University Hospital for treatment of other underlying health conditions, Salazar said.

On ExpressNews.com: Veteran sheriffs deputy dies after contracting COVID-19

While there, he was tested for COVID-19 before he was returned to the jail and placed in a unit with other older inmates.

Soon afterward, officials were notified that Childs had tested positive. He was relocated to an isolation unit away from other inmates.

Salazar said all the inmates in Childs former unit were subsequently tested.

A lot of them have tested positive, he said. And a lot of them were asymptomatic. At this point, we dont know if he gave it to them or vice versa.

Since Childs death is considered an in-custody death, the Sheriffs Office Criminal Investigations Division, Internal Affairs, and the Public Integrity Unit are investigating.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards and Converse Police Department have been notified as well, as is required by law.

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
A Danish woman, fondly called a 'videshi bahu' or 'memsaab' in Gurdaspur in Punjab, has taken it upon herself to make the poor people in the district aware about the deadly virus menacing through the world and ways to keep it at bay.

Working among slum residents, Natasha Natalie Sommer is energetic and full of life and voluntarily assists the Punjab Red Cross Society in helping the underprivileged.

She said she was inspired by the work done by the Punjab unit of the Society after her husband, Malkit Singh, was successfully treated for drug addiction by it.

Sommer had fallen in love with Singh, from Sundal village, on a social networking site and came to India in January last year and solemnized marriage with him as per the Sikh tradition.

Singh then told her about his addiction and she took him to Siberia for treatment.

However on his return to Punjab, Singh again got into drug addiction, after which Sommer took him to the de-addiction centre of the Red Cross Society where he recovered.

Inspired by the Society's work, she started serving the weaker sections of the society.

And even during a pandemic, she is doing her bit in slums like Ram Nagar and Bhatha colony, keeping in mind the dreaded situation back home, though her country Denmark has tackled the coronavirus relatively better than the rest of Europe.

The Nordic country was among the first outside Asia to ease restrictions, in mid-April, and has not reported an increase in the rate of spread of the contagion.

From distribution of food packets, masks, sanitiser and other essential items to helping others prepare them, Sommer is contributing to the fight against the virus in all ways she can.

"We are serving in slum areas and spreading awareness. I know this pandemic is too hazardous as several people in Europe have been gripped by the disease. The situation is not good here too. We have to serve the poor to keep the pandemic under control," she said.

Romesh Mahajan, a well-known philanthropist in Gurdaspur, said people in the villages stand up to have a glimpse of the memsaab.

Though she hails from a well-to-do family, she is humble and always cheerful, Mahajan said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
LAKE DELTON  The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed another Wisconsin summer tradition: for the first time in nearly 70 years, the Tommy Bartlett Show has been canceled.

With Wisconsins stay home order in effect through May 26 and ongoing uncertainty about when large gatherings can safely resume, company president Tom Diehl said Tuesday that he would not open the water ski, sky and stage show as planned on May 22.

Diehl called the decision catastrophic for the family-owned business, which generates virtually all its revenue between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends.

The decision will leave some 115 seasonal performers and support staff without jobs and the cancellation of a multitude of vendor contracts, Diehl said.

However, the family is hopeful the show, which was started in 1952 and has been based at Lake Delton for the past 67 years, can resume next year.

While we know there are no guarantees, we are going into this with the forethought that this will not be the end, said general manager Jill Diehl. We will push forward with a plan to reopen the Show in 2021.

Diehl plans to reopen the companys other attraction, the Tommy Bartlett Exploratory, as the health crisis eases. He said the interactive science center adopted safe distancing measures and extra cleaning protocols before the complete shutdown.

We will do what we can to stay afloat during this trying time in hopes that a year from now our valued customers will return for a nostalgic presentation of live entertainment on Lake Delton, Tom Diehl said.
The UK has this week started testing a coronavirus contacts-tracing app which NHSX, a digital arm of the country's National Health Service, has been planning and developing since early March. The test is taking place in the Isle of Wight, a 380km2 island off the south coast of England, with a population of around 140,000.

The NHS COVID-19 app uses Bluetooth Low Energy handshakes to register proximity events (aka 'contacts') between smartphone users, with factors such as the duration of the 'contact event' and the distance between the devices feeding an NHS clinical algorithm that's being designed to estimate infection risk and trigger notifications if a user subsequently experiences COVID-19 symptoms.

The government is promoting the app as an essential component of its response to fighting the coronavirus -- the health minister's new mantra being: 'Protect the NHS, stay home, download the app' -- and the NHSX has said it expects the app to be "technically" ready to deploy two to three weeks after this week's trial.

However there are major questions over how effective the tool will prove to be, especially given the government's decision to 'go it alone' on the design of its digital contacts-tracing system -- which raises some specific technical challenges linked to how modern smartphone platforms operate, as well as around international interoperability with other national apps targeting the same purpose.

In addition, the UK app allows users to self report symptoms of COVID-19 -- which could lead to many false alerts being generated. That in turn might trigger notification fatigue and/or encourage users to ignore alerts if the ratio of false alarms exceeds genuine alerts.

Keep calm and download the app?

How users will generally respond to this technology is a major unknown. Yet mainstream adoption will be needed to maximize utility; not just one-time downloads. Dealing with the coronavirus will be a marathon not a sprint -- which means sustaining usage will be vital to the app functioning as intended. And that will require users to trust that the app is both useful for the claimed public health purpose, by being effective at shrinking infection risk, and also that using it will not create any kind of disadvantages for them personally or for their friends and family.

Story continues

The NHSX has said it will publish the code for the app, the DPIA (data protection impact assessment) and the privacy and security models -- all of which sounds great, though we're still waiting to see those key details. Publishing all that before the app launches would clearly be a boon to user trust.

A separate consideration is whether there should be a dedicated legislation wrapper put around the app to ensure clear and firm legal bounds on its use (and to prevent abuse and data misuse).

As it stands the NHS COVID-19 app is being accelerated towards release without this -- relying on existing legislative frameworks (with some potential conflicts); and with no specific oversight body to handle any complaints. That too could impact user trust. And legal experts have proposed a safeguards bill.

The overarching idea behind digital contacts tracing is to leverage uptake of smartphone technology to automate some contacts tracing, with the advantage that such a tool might be able to register fleeting contacts, such as between strangers on the street or public transport, that may more difficult for manual contacts-tracing methods to identify. Though whether these sorts of fleeting contacts create a significant risk of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus has not yet been quantified.

All experts are crystal clear on one thing: Digital contacts tracing is only going to be -- at very best -- a supplement to manual contact tracing. People who do not own or carry smartphones or who do not or cannot use the app obviously won't register in any captured data. Technical issues may also create barriers and data gaps. It's certainly not a magic bullet -- and may, in the end, turn out to be ill-suited for this use case (we've written a general primer on digital contacts tracing here).

One major component of the UK approach is that it's opted to create a so-called 'centralized' system for coronavirus contacts tracing -- which leads to a number of specific challenges.

While the NHS COVID-19 app stores contacts events on the user's device initially, at the point when (or if) a user chooses to report themselves having coronavirus symptoms then all their contacts events data is uploaded to a central server. This means it's not just a user's own identifier but a list of any identifiers they have encountered over the past 28 days -- so, essentially, a graph of their recent social interactions.

This data cannot be deleted after the fact, according to the NHSX, which has also said it may be used for "research" purposes related to public health -- raising further questions around privacy and trust.

The risk of government 'mission creep' is another particular concern.

Questions around the legal bases for this centralized approach also remain to be answered in detail by the government. UK and EU data protection law emphasize data minimization as a key principle; and while there's flexibility built into these frameworks for a public health emergency there is still a requirement on the government to detail and justify key data processing decisions.

The UK's decision to centralize contacts data has another obvious and immediate consequence: It means the NHS COVID-19 app will not be able to plug into an API that's being jointly developed by Apple and Google to provide technical support for Bluetooth-based national contacts-tracing apps -- and due to be release this month.

The tech giants have elected to support decentralized app architectures for these apps -- which, conversely, do not centralize social graph data. Instead, infection risk calculations are performed locally on the device.

By design, these approaches avoid providing a central authority with information on who infected whom.

In the decentralized scenario, an infected user consents to their ephemeral identifier being shared with other users so apps can do matching locally, on the end-user device -- meaning exposure notifications are generated without a central authority needing to be in the loop. (It's also worth noting there are ways for decentralized protocols to feed aggregated contact data back to a central authority for epidemiological research, though the design is intended to prevent users' social graph being exposed. A system of 'exposure notification', as Apple and Google are now branding it, has no need for such data, is their key argument. The NHSX counters that by suggesting social graph data could provide useful epidemiological insights -- such as around how the virus is being spread.)

At the point a user of the NHS COVID-19 app experiences symptoms or gets a formal coronavirus diagnosis -- and chooses to inform the authorities -- the app will upload their recent contacts to a central server where infection risk calculations are performed.

The system will then send exposure notifications to other devices -- in instances where the software deems there may be at risk of infection. Users might, for example, be asked to self isolate to see if they develop symptoms after coming into contact with an infected person, or told to seek a test to determine if they have COVID-19 or not.

A key detail here is that users of the NHS COVID-19 app are assigned a fixed identifier -- basically a large, random number -- which the government calls an "installation ID". It claims this identifier is 'anonymous'. However this is where political spin in service of encouraging public uptake of the app is being allowed to obscure a very different legal reality: A fixed identifier linked to a device is in fact pseudonymous data, which remains personal data under UK and EU law. Because, while the user's identity has been 'obscured', there's still a clear risk of re-identification.

Truly 'anonymous' data is a very high bar to achieve when you're dealing with large data-sets. In the NHS COVID-19 app case there's no reason beyond spin for the government to claim the data is "anonymous"; given the system design involves a device-linked fixed identifier that's uploaded to a central authority alongside at least some geographical data (a partial postcode: which the app also asks users to input -- so "the NHS can plan your local NHS response", per the official explainer).

The NHSX has also said future versions of the app may ask users to share even more personal data, including their location. (And location data-sets are notoriously difficult to defend against re-identification.)

Nonetheless the government has maintained that individual users of the app will not be identified. But under such a system architecture this assertion sums to 'trust us with your data'; the technology itself has not been designed to remove the need for individual users to trust a central authority, as is the case with bona fide decentralized protocols.

This is why Apple and Google are opting to support the latter approach -- it cuts the internationally thorny issue of 'government trust' out of their equation.

However it also means governments that do want to centralize data face a technical headache to get their apps to function smoothly on the only two smartphone platforms that matter.

Technical and geopolitical headaches

The specific technical issue here relates to how these mainstream platforms manage background access to Bluetooth.

Using Bluetooth as a proxy for measuring coronavirus infection risk is of course a very new and novel technology. Singapore was reported to be the first country to attempt this. Its TraceTogether app, which launched in March, reportedly gained only limited (<20%) uptake -- with technical issues on iOS being at least partly blamed for the low uptake.

The problem that the TraceTogether app faced initially is the software needed to be actively running and the iPhone open (not locked) for the tracing function to work. That obviously interferes with the normal multitasking of the average iPhone user -- discouraging usage of the app.

It's worth emphasizing that the UK is doing things a bit differently vs Singapore, though, in that it's using Bluetooth handshakes rather than a Bluetooth advertising channel to power the contacts logging.

The NHS COVID-19 app has been designed to listen passively for other Bluetooth devices and then wake up in order to perform the handshake. This is intended as a workaround for these platform limits on background Bluetooth access. However it is still a workaround -- and there are ongoing questions over how robustly it will perform in practice.

An analysis by The Register suggests the app will face a fresh set of issues in that iPhones specifically will fail to wake each other up to perform the handshakes -- unless there's also an Android device in the vicinity. If correct, it could result in big gaps in the tracing data (around 40% of UK smartphones run iOS vs 60% running Android).

Battery drain may also resurface as an issue with the UK system, though the NHSX has claimed its workaround solves this. (Though it's not clear if they've tested what happens if an iPhone user switches on a battery saving mode which limits background app activity, for example.)

Other Bluetooth-based contract-tracing apps that have tried to workaround platforms limits have also faced issues with interference related to other Bluetooth devices -- such as Australia's recently launched app. So there are a number of potential issues that could trouble performance.

Being outside the Apple-Google API also certainly means the UK app is at the mercy of future platform updates which could derail the specific workaround. Best laid plans that don't involve using an official interface as your plug are inevitably operating on shaky ground.

Finally, there's a huge and complex issue that's essentially being glossed over by government right now: Interoperability with other national apps.

How will the UK app work across borders? What happens when Brits start travelling again? With no obvious route for centralized vs decentralized systems to interface and play nice with each other there's a major question mark over what happens when UK citizens want to travel to countries with decentralized systems (or indeed vice versa). Mandatory quarantines because the government picked a less interoperable app architecture? Let's hope not.

Notably, the Republic of Ireland has opted for a decentralized approach for its national app, whereas Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK but shares a land border with the Republic, will -- baring any NHSX flip -- be saddled with a centralized and thus opposing choice. It's the Brexit schism all over again in app form.

Earlier this week the NHSX was asked about this cross-border issue by a UK parliamentary committee -- and admitted it creates a challenge "we'll have to work through", though it did not suggest how it proposes to do that.

And while that's a very pressing backyard challenge, the same interoperability gremlins arise across the English Channel -- where a number of European countries are opting for decentralized apps, including Estonia, Germany and Switzerland. While Apple and Google's choice at the platform level means future US apps may also be encouraged down a decentralized route. (The two US tech giants are demonstrably flexing their market power to press on and influence governments' app design choices internationally, and will -- additionally -- be offering decentralized system-level contacts tracing baked into their OSes after the API.)

So countries that fix on a 'DIY' approach for the digital component of their domestic pandemic response may find it leads to some unwelcome isolation for their citizens at the international level.
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OVER 12 million families have already received financial assistance under the governments social amelioration program (SAP), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said.

As of May 3, the DSWD said the recipients included 3,814,756 Pantawid Pamilya (4Ps) families and 8,235,507 non-4Ps families.

At least P16.7 billion has been distributed to 4Ps families while P48.6 billion has been disbursed to the local government units (LGUs) for distribution to other beneficiaries.

A total of P323.3 million has also been credited to 40,418 transport network vehicle services and public utility vehicle drivers, the DSWD added.

The national government has allotted P100 billion for the first wave of cash aid under SAP.

The SAP is provided in the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.

Under the SAP, low-income families all over the country shall receive a subsidy of P5,000 to P8,000 a month to provide for their basic needs during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

The entire Luzon was placed under ECQ in a bid to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, which causes the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

Local governments in the Visayas and Mindanao followed and imposed quarantine restrictions in their areas of jurisdiction.

Under an ECQ, public transport systems are suspended and the people, except the frontliners and essential workers, are required to stay home.

The DILG earlier said around two to four million families, particularly those who are not included in the first tranche and residents of areas still under ECQ are expected to benefit from the second tranche of the SAP cash aid. (SunStar Philippines)
The UK's coronavirus app differs from those of other countries in key ways  and those decisions have led to a host of privacy concerns.

The app is now in testing on the Isle of Wight, and senior government figures have urged people to download it to do what they can to stop the spread of the disease and help bring an end to lockdowns and other measures.

But critics continue to question the design of the app, which departs from many other countries' approach. Those decisions could compromise the privacy and security of its users, they warn, as well as undermining the reliability of the data.

The chief decision that has come in for criticism is the UK's decision to opt for a "centralised" approach, meaning that phones send data to the NHS, where it is analysed and used by its servers. Many other countries have opted for the opposite approach, where data is not collected on one central server but rather on specific people's phones.

Though the data is anonymised  and only includes limited information, such as the first half of a user's postcode  the fact that it is fed into a centralised server has led to fear that the data could be less secure than hoped.

Privacy campaigners argue that the centralised approach means that the government could access that data for intrusive analysis in the future. It has also been suggested by groups such as Amnesty International that the decision could open the door to further surveillance, with citizens finding it harder to opt out.

Security experts have also warned that the data being secured in one central server makes it more liable to attack. If a person broke into the server, they may be able to take the data, or manipulate it to create anomalous and false reports.

Many other countries have instead opted for a decentralised approach, which is also backed by Apple and Google, and remains the most popular way of storing the data. With that kind of approach, the intimate data collected by the app would be stored on the phone, and the analysis would be conducted on individual devices, meaning that their owners would be more in control of what is done with the information.

Some other countries including France and Norway have opted for a centralised approach. Proponents argue that it is better because health officials can analyse it for a better understanding of the disease and its spread.

Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Show all 18 1 /18 Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jack Dodsley, 79, with a carer in PPE at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jackie Wilson, a healthcare assistant, wearing PPE before going into rooms Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jack Dodsley, 79, speaks to a carer at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Carers working at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A care worker wearing PPE opens a drink carton Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jack Dodsley, 79, sits with a carer Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jack Dodsley, 79, with a carer in PPE Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A care staff member wearing PPE Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A staff member at Newfield Nursing Home looks after a resident SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A carer wearing PPE uses a speaker Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A carer helps Jack Dodsley, 79, from his chair Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A carer wearing PPE helps Jack Dodsley, 79 Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A staff member at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A carer brings food to a resident at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jack Dodsley, 79, with a carer in PPE Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A staff member puts on PPE at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jackie Wilson, a healthcare assistant, puts on PPE before she enters a room SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A bench at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS

The other key difference in the UK's app is that it relies on self-reporting, rather than testing. In practise, that means that you will tell the app if you find yourself with symptoms  potentially leading to false reports, and false alerts on other people's phones.

Potentially misleading alerts caused by people mistaking their symptoms for covid-19 is not the only danger of that decision. It also means that people could intentionally send in false reports without any obvious way of checking them, which could in turn lead to falsehoods in the app's data.
Vice President Mike Pence told reporters on Tuesday that the Trump administration is considering winding down the White House coronavirus task force.

The Wall Street Journal reported the vice president saying that responsibility for the administrations response would shift to government agencies and departments.

Discussions are preliminary and there is no set date as to when the shift will happen, but Mr Pence said that they are looking at the Memorial day window, early June window.

He also said that he is in talks with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) about formulating a transition plan.

Were having conversations about that and about what the proper time is for the task force to complete its work and for the ongoing efforts to take place on an agency-by-agency level, the vice president added.

Members of the task force, including Dr Deborah Birx and Dr Anthony Fauci will still be consulted and involved in conversations with state officials and industry leaders.

A formal end date may not be set. The task force is already meeting less frequently, and President Donald Trump is no longer linking his press briefings with the activities of the group.

Both the president and Mr Pence are also gradually ramping up their travel schedules and focussing more on opening up the country and getting people back to work, likely keeping in mind Novembers election and the current dire economic situation.

The New York Times reported a senior official saying that the administrations response will now focus more on therapeutics, vaccine development and testing. A separate group focussed on coronavirus led by Jared Kushner, Trumps advisor and son-in-law, will likely continue working and is also said to be focussed on therapeutics.

The announcement comes as there is growing evidence that while cases are levelling off in places initially hit hard by the virus, such as New York, cases continue to grow in many other parts of the country.

The model created by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington now projects a doubling of US coronavirus deaths by 4 August, putting the total at approximately 134,000.

A separate Trump administration model projects an increase in coronavirus deaths to approximately 3,000 per day by 1 June.

The projected increases in both models are linked to the relaxed stance on social distancing adopted by several states.
A man who twice escaped mandatory hotel quarantine because he doesn't drink tap water has been slugged with a $1,500 fine.

The 33-year-old arrived from Hawaii and was taken to Rydges South Bank Hotel in Brisbane for mandatory 14-day quarantine as part of the Federal Government's sweeping measures to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The traveller, who has Asperger's, fled the hotel claiming the sound of the air conditioning disturbed him and he felt claustrophobic in the hotel room, Brisbane Magistrates Court heard.

He had also requested bottled water to be delivered to his room, saying he can't drink tap water 'because of his belief system', his lawyer said.

The man arrived from Hawaii and was taken to Rydges South Bank Hotel (pictured) in Brisbane to undergo the mandatory 14-day quarantine to slow the spread of COVID-19

At 7am, the traveller was spotted on level two of the four-star hotel, four floors from his room and was trying to enter other rooms.

When police questioned him, he said he needed fresh air and sunlight to survive, Courier Mail reported.

He was given a formal warning and ordered back to his room to resume his quarantine.

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 few hours later at 11am, police once again spotted the 33-year-old going down the fire escape in only his underwear, the court heard.

He told police he won't be staying in his room before locking himself inside and not allowing officers in.

When he stopped responding to police, they forced their way into the room about 1pm.

Magistrate Robert Walker described the manbehaviour as 'reckless and irresponsible in the extreme', Courier Mail reported.

'We are all, as a community, dealing with a range of difficulties in these clearly extraordinary circumstances,' Mr Walker said.

'There are imperatives of community safety that ought to be apparent to all of us'.

Mr Walker fined the man $1,500 but didn't record a conviction.
A 36-year-old woman has credited the coronavirus with saving her life after Covid doctors discovered she had an undiagnosed heart condition.

Angela Schlegel, from West London, was taken to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on 22 March, after 11 days of coronavirus symptoms, where scans showed fluid around her lungs and heart.

She was transferred to intensive care at London's Royal Brompton Hospital. She was later diagnosed with the potentially fatal eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA).

Angela Schlegel with nurse Fomeh who's a phlebotomist (takes blood). She was diagnosed with the potentially fatal eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) while receiving treatment for coronavirus

Ms Schlegel, who is a Learning and Development Manager at The Natural History Museum, said she had been seeing her doctor for the past two years for asthma but had no idea she had a heart condition.

'They told me some news that I really wasnt expecting that I had a rare autoimmune disease, and that it had really badly affected my heart, she told BBC Breakfast yesterday.

'It just blew my mind as I was told my heart was not functioning the way it should be. If the EGPA was left undiagnosed I could have just dropped dead,' she said.

Angela Schlegel (in dark blue PPE) from West London leaving the Royal Brompton Hospital on 24 April

'It saved my life in the long term, but in the short term coronavirus did nearly kill me,' she added, as the virus put her heart under extra stress.

Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) is a condition that can damage various organ systems in the body including the heart, joints, lungs, and nerves.

Ms Schlegel ended up spending five weeks in hospital and paid tribute to the staff who treated her.

Dr Pujan Patel, a consultant who treated Ms Schlegel, told BBC Breakfast that watching her recover had a 'huge impact' on staff morale.

He added her autoimmune condition is quite a severe condition, especially when the heart is involved.

Usually a persons heart functions at around 50 or 60 per cent he added but when Miss Schlegel was transferred to hospital, hers was only working at around ten per cent.

Ms Schlegel (pictured) ended up spending five weeks in hospital and paid tribute to the staff who treated her

Ms Schlegel's recovery comes as an urgent review has been launched into whether obesity, ethnicity and gender raise the risk of death from coronavirus.

Matt Hancock has ordered health officials to trawl through the records of thousands of pandemic victims.

The Health Secretary said it was too early to confirm that weight was a factor but 'data from around the world' was suggesting a link.

Researchers at the University of Liverpool warned last week that obesity increased the risk of dying from the virus by 37 per cent.

Around three in ten adults in England are clinically obese  with a Body Mass Index above 30  a rate among the highest in the Western world.

And Britain's virus death toll, which rose yesterday to 28,734, is second only to Italy's among European nations. Scientists believe obese patients are more at risk of serious complications because their immune systems are worn out after repairing cells damaged by excess fat.

Mr Hancock said: 'Our knowledge about this virus grows daily and it appears some groups are more affected than others.

'Emerging data from around the world suggests there could possibly be a relationship between obesity and the impact of Covid-19 on individuals.

'It's too early to say if obesity in itself is a factor or conditions associated with it  or there is not enough data yet to rule it out  so we need to approach any assumptions with caution.

'Every death from this virus is a tragedy and behind each statistic is a name, a loss and a family that will never be the same again.'
At its Surface event last year, Microsoft said its next-generation of products, including two foldables - Surface Neo and Surface Duo, will exclusively run Windows 10X, a version of Windows 10 optimised for portable dual-screen devices. Microsoft is now opening Windows 10X for single-screen devices, which means PCs and laptops could soon be powered by the yet to be released operating system. In fact, the single-screen devices will get Windows 10X before the two foldables, Microsoft has announced.

In a blog post, Microsoft's chief product officer, Panos Panay confirmed Windows 10X will arrive on single-screen devices first. "These single-screen devices will be the first expression of Windows 10X that we deliver to our customers, and we will continue to look for the right moment, in conjunction with our OEM partners, to bring dual-screen devices to market," said Panay. While Microsoft is not projecting any timelines, it is prioritising Windows 10X for laptops and PCs over its foldable devices.

Introduced last year, Microsoft's foldables, Surface Neo and Surface Duo are yet to arrive into markets. Some reports have suggested both devices have been delayed. Microsoft is also not giving any timelines for its upcoming Surface products. Similarly, it is also not known when Windows 10X will debut for commercial use on Microsoft's products first and then on those from OEMs. However, since Microsoft is now shifting its focus to more popular single-screen devices, the development of Windows 10X could be fast-tracked.

Panay has stated the shift in focus was caused by how the world has changed, hinting at the global coronavirus pandemic. "The world is a very different place than it was last October when we shared our vision for a new category of dual-screen Windows devices," he wrote. As people grow to work remotely, the cloud networks of the company see a huge surge. "Our customers are leveraging the power of the cloud more than ever, and we believe the time is right to lean into this acceleration in a different way."

Microsoft's Windows 10 has seen a spike in usage to 75 per cent year-over-year, per the hardware chief. The increase in the time spent on Windows 10-powered devices is mainly seen on devices such as laptops and PCs instead of smartphones and tablets. Hence, Microsoft is reprioritising its Windows 10X without stating when it will be rolled out for devices.
Bidding a loved one goodbye is never easy, especially when your heart is not prepared for it. And how can we ever be ready?

COVID-19 infections have claimed the lives of many over the world, regardless of nationality or age. Just like how it claimed the life of Ms Salha Binte Mesbee on 30 Aprilthe youngest fatality in Singapore so far as of 5 May.

The death of the 58-year-old female Singaporean citizen came as a shock for the family for she was declared free from coronavirus by the doctor a week prior to her death, said her eldest child Ms Siti Noraisah Ali to Berita Mediacorp.

Declared Free from Coronavirus 1 Week Before Death

According to the news outlet, Salha (Case 703) was confirmed positive for COVID-19 on 26 March after visiting Turkey together with her husband. It was said to be their first honeymoon to celebrate their wedding anniversary after 38 years of marriage.

While Salha had no pre-medical conditions prior to the viral infection, according to 37-year-old Noraisah, she developed several complications from the COVID-19 infection.

This led to her becoming severely ill and had to be warded in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

Her lungs were weak and her blood pressure low. Then it started to spread to other organs such as her kidney and heart. The doctor said she was one of the more critical patients, said Noraisah.

Still, the after-effects from the virus took a toll on Salhas body, despite the doctors clearance, according to her.

Her Condition Deteriorated

We were told Mamas condition had deteriorated, the effects of the virus had reached her brain and hope was thin, said the housewife who operates a home-based business.

According to Noraisah, the doctor did a CT scan on her mother during her last night and found swelling in her brain.

While reliant on life support in the ICU thus far, Salha passed away the next morning on 30 April.

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The doctor confirmed she was brain dead and she was relying on the life support system. We had to make the decision to keep going or to let her go.

Thankful for Support

Still, Noraisah said that her family is grateful that they were allowed to see Salha for the final time. The family could also bring Salhas body home to conduct normal burial rites as she had been declared virus-free.

My parents were always together. Currently, we are giving our father the full support he needs to move forward, she said to Berita Mediacorp.

Salha Binte Mesbee and her husband. | Photo: Palat Toro / Facebook

Salhas son had also dedicated a Facebook post to his deceased mother and to thank those who have supported the family during this trying time.

The post read:

All praise to God, my beloved mother Salha Binte Mesbee has been safely buried and the burial went smoothly. I would like to thank everyone for their prayers, gifts and time. I would like to apologise if I speak harshly or if I was unable to respond to everyones messages. Once again, thank you everyone.

The deceased Salha Binte Mesbee who was declared free from coronavirus 1 week prior to her death. She fought against COVID-19 but succumbed to death from several complications. | Photo: Palat Toro / Facebook

Salha leaves behind her husband, their three children and five grandchildren aged between two and nine.

Salha, case 703 is a family member of Cases 682, 702 and 975 and a contact of Cases 760 and 798.

Apart from Salha who succumbed to the disease, Noraisah said that her father and two sons were also confirmed COVID-19 patients who have since recovered. The family underwent treatment at Ng Teng Fong General Hospital.

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The post COVID-19: Youngest Fatality in Singapore Was Declared Coronavirus-free A Week Before Death appeared first on theAsianparent - Your Guide to Pregnancy, Baby & Raising Kids.
In the midst of a food shortage, Sudan is having to contend with a second round of desert locusts, which are set to swarm the centre of the country as well as the central and western Darfur regions, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organizations Locust Watch.

Not only are scientists trying to protect crops from swarms that invade from other neighbouring countries, but they are trying to counter the homegrown locusts that are ready to hatch, according to Munir Gabra Butrous, a Khartoum-based UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) consultant with over 40 years of experience in combatting desert locusts.

Locust scientists are stationed primarily along the borders, with 15 crop duster airplanes to spray pesticides in order to stop the insects from spreading.

Their mission is to save the large fields that produced an abundance of wheat, that could help the Sudan combat a bread shortage they are currently facing. But the harvest could be thwarted by the locusts, who destroy crops in large swarms, eating their way through fields.

The situation in the Horn of Africa is very, very dramatic, says Butrous. We don't want to lose this to the locusts, that's why we are prepared to deal with any locust invasion or breeding internally, he says citing that Sudan holds a surplus of pesticide.

Biblical famine

According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) report Acute Food Security and Malnutrition Forecasts for 2020, Sudan will have up to nine million people facing food insecurity this year.

WFP chief David Beasley warned last month of the hunger pandemic that could occur as food insecurity worsens in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic. Famines of biblical proportion loom, he said.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reports that Sudan has 678 cases of coronavirus, with 41 deaths.

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The Covid-19 lockdown in Sudan has prevented locust experts from traveling and visiting sites across the country. There are teams posted in each state, with some equipment including sprayers, pesticides, so work can continue relatively until the lockdown is lifted, Butrous told RFI.

There is no doubt that coronavirus has impacted the locust operation  we could have been much more successful now, but at least Sudan can cope with the situation, taking all the precautionary measures for saving lives of the locust technicians, he says, referring to the locust specialists who are of vital importance in protecting food sources.

Locust destruction has a knock-on effect within Sudan, especially for smallholder farmers, says Butrous. If locusts destroy the farmers crops, he or she cannot eat. Farming communities in dire straits move into cities, where they look for jobs in a country that has over 50 percent unemployment.

They have no options; some begin a life of crime, he says.

Food price gouging

After the fall of the previous regime in April 2019, the country has not stabilised at all, even with a transitional government  the previous regime has its followers in the country and they are doing all the best to complicate things for people, says Butrous.

Prices in the market continue to escalate on a daily basis  a large bottle of water cost 80 Sudanese pounds (1.30 euros), but the price in less than a month has risen to 125 Sudanese pounds (over 2 euros), he adds.

The former regime followers want to make people suffer so they can go demonstrate against the government, says Butrous.

There are queues for bread, queues for cooking gas, queues for petrol, queues for diesel, queues everywhere. But people are resisting all these attempts from the previous regime. We shall see what will happen in the coming days, he adds.
In four to five days production in the Baddi hub would touch 60-70 per cent of its capacity. As of now around 243 units are operational there.

IMAGE: Pharmaceutical employees work at a manufacturing unit after authorities eased restrictions, during the ongoing COVID-19 nationwide lockdown, in Jammu. Photograph: PTI Photo

Baddi, an industrial town in Himachal Pradesh, accounting for 35-40 per cent of Indias domestic pharmaceutical output, is slowly coming back to life as its manufacturing plants emerge from the containment zones and production resumes.

Moreover, in a major move, one-time interstate movement too has been allowed to enable workers stuck in Chandigarh to reach Baddi, besides permitting inter-district movement within Himachal, to get the manufacturing hub back on its feet.

A senior government official in New Delhi confirmed this and said both the drug controller and the Department of Pharmaceuticals had been monitoring the situation.

Permission to cross the state border in Chandigarh has been given. These workers will be allowed to come and stay in Baddi, he said.

Navneet Marwaha, state drug controller of Himachal Pradesh, told Business Standard in four to five days production in the Baddi hub would touch 60-70 per cent of its capacity.

As of now around 243 units are operational there.

All the big pharmaceutical plants, including multinationals like Abbott, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Zydus Cadila, and Wockhardt, are operational.

"Around 50 plants had come in the containment zone. Last week around 38 came out of it, and so did another 11 plants on Saturday, Marwaha said.

In a recent notification the state has allowed three-shift operations at these sites, he said.

Baddi was sandwiched between two containment zones of Barotiwala and Nalagarh, which were sealed after some nine Covid cases came to light.

Industry sources say the owner of a helmet-making unit died, and areas with 3 km of Barotiwala and Nalagarh was sealed eventually in the industrial hub.

Chandigarh is an hours drive from Baddi and many of the managerial staff chooses to travel daily.

After states closed their borders, travelling became a problem.

We have been pleading with the government to allow these workers to reach Baddi, or else the normal functioning of the hub would be affected, said Sudarshan Jain, secretary general of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, an industry body that represents big pharmaceutical companies.

Around 45 hotels around the Baddi industrial zone have been taken up by pharmaceutical companies, said an industry insider.

We are housing some of our employees at the plant, while the others will stay in nearby hotels, said a senior official of one of the largest firms.

Marwaha pointed out industrial units in Baddi must hire 70 per cent of the staff on the floor locally.

This eases interstate travel requirements. However, many workers come from different districts of Himachal Pradesh.

"So the state government has allowed interdistrict travel now, he said.

Baddi getting back on its feet is important because it is a major supplier of medicines to the domestic market.

There are around 51 licensed units that make hydroxychloroquine, a drug that is being used as a prophylactic against Covid.

Of those, around 14 are operational, said Marwaha.

The Department of Pharmaceuticals is regularly hosting videoconferences with state drug controllers of Indias major pharma hubs.

Gujarat, for example, has asked most of its pharma firms to house the workers as much as possible in the plant or in nearby schools or hostels.

We are functioning at 70-75 per cent capacity and this will grow in the coming days. We have even issued curfew passes to food vendors who deliver food to workers staying at the sites, said H G Koshia, state drug controller, Gujarat.
A Miami federal judge has agreed to allow U.S. immigration officials to transfer detainees to other detention centers, rather than release them, in order to decrease the populations at three South Florida facilities.

The decision is a major defeat for national immigration advocates who had asked the judge last week to clarify her earlier order demanding that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement report how the agency plans to substantially cut populations. In her scathing order, U.S. District Judge Marcia G. Cooke noted that the agency had to relieve crowding that amounts to cruel and unusual punishment during the coronavirus pandemic.

Thats when lawyers on the case scrambled to try to close what they saw as a major loophole  that ICE, rather than releasing detainees, would simply move them to other detention centers to relieve crowding and allow for social distancing.

The judge agreed over the weekend that transfers are fine.

The Court further clarifies its April 30, 2020, order to permit ICE to transfer detainees from the three facilities at issue, Cooke said. However, ICE may only transfer detainees after first evaluating each detainee and making a determination as to the detainees eligibility for release.

As a result, at least 200 detainees have been taken from the Krome Processing Center in Miami-Dade, the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach and the Glades County detention center in Moore Haven and sent to the Baker County Detention Center in North Florida, the Folkston ICE Processing Center in Georgia, and Pine Prairie ICE Processing Centers in Louisiana, among others.

Though ICE admits in court records that transfers were accelerated over the weekend to bring populations down, similar transfers had already taken place in the weeks after the lawsuit was filed on April 13. The Miami Herald has reported on dozens of ICE transfers that bused detainees in large groups from the three South Florida facilities.

Story continues

Though the federal judge said ICE is required to evaluate each detainee for release before transferring the person elsewhere, the order does not specify how exactly ICE will document such considerations and whether it has to present it to the court. The agencys most recent court filings did not disclose how many people it has released compared to how many have been transferred, nor how many people it has granted or denied release and on what grounds.

The Department of Justice, which is representing ICE in the lawsuit, would not comment citing pending litigation.

What they are not saying is more important than what they are saying, said Rebecca Sharpless, director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Miami and a lead attorney on the case. The court is giving too much credit to ICE to do the right thing here. My fear is that they will not release people and just move them around  a fear that already appears to be well-founded.

Several detainees at Krome sent the Miami Herald a video of a joint statement they issued asking to be released amid the coronavirus pandemic.

According to ICE protocol, the agency considers release by looking at immigration history, criminal record, potential threat to public safety, flight risk, and national security concerns, as well as current health status and COVID-19 vulnerability in accordance with CDC guidelines.

CDC guidelines state that detention facilities should restrict transfers of incarcerated/detained persons to and from other jurisdictions and facilities unless necessary for medical evaluation, medical isolation/quarantine, clinical care, extenuating security concerns, or to prevent overcrowding.

But for Alejandro Mugaburu, who had underlying conditions and is one of the 58 named plaintiffs in the case, that wasnt enough to keep him from being sent away, records show.

For two months, the Miami Herald has interviewed and documented Mugaburus journey from the Monroe County detention center in Key West on March 7, to the Krome detention center in Southwest Miami-Dade on April 3, to the Glades detention center in Central Florida on April 21 and to the Baker County detention center in North Florida on May 1.

For every transfer, Mugaburu  a wheelchair-bound epileptic with a heart condition and injured leg  was carried on and off the packed bus by three security guards.

I cant walk and Im not a small guy. Im 6-foot, 2 inches and weigh about 250 pounds, he said. If you look at my arms and my sides, they are all bruised from having to be grasped and carried.

According to his lawyers at Americans for Immigrant Justice, one of the immigration organizations that filed the lawsuit, Mugaburu hasnt been able to walk since September 2019 after getting hurt while in ICE custody. The agency has yet to disclose why he was transferred to another detention center outside the courts jurisdiction.

Its still unclear whether ICE is allowed to transfer petitioners named in the case: The orders are silent on this, said Sharpless.

Jessica Schneider, director of AIJs detention program, said Mugaburu injured his leg after ICE housed him on a second floor despite being told he suffers from epilepsy.

Three days had passed without him receiving his epilepsy medication  a medication that he requires daily. As Mr. Mugaburu was about to descend the stairs, he had a seizure. Due to the seizure, he became unconscious and fell halfway down the flight of stairs. After his fall, Mr. Mugaburu remained unconscious for about three hours, Schneider said.

Since his fall, the 38-year-old Peruvian national, has been in a wheelchair.

When he finally saw the orthopedic doctor several months after his injury, he was told he needed physical therapy, Schneider said. However, about a month and a half later he was finally taken to see a physical therapist, the therapist told him he cant get physical therapy because he needs surgery or to be reevaluated by another orthopedic doctor, Schneider said. He has been repeatedly transferred to various facilities and still not getting the treatment he needs for his leg.

When Mugaburu arrived at Baker over the weekend he was assigned a top bunk, he said, noting that the detainee on the bottom bunk ultimately offered to trade.

The guard told me that my wheelchair isnt going to be much help,  Mugaburu said, as he and fellow detainees were handed a mop and bleach and told to scrub down their dormitories. Mugaburu was placed in a 12-foot-by-10 cell with three other men, despite having been housed in medical isolation at Glades for less than 14 days because he had COVID-19 symptoms.

Its transfers like these that show how ICE may actually be spreading the virus instead of doing what they say they are trying to do, which is contain it, Ashish Jha, director of Harvards Global Health Institute, has said.

According to a former U.S. Department of Homeland Security official, who asked the Herald not to be identified, the brazen transfer of people to other detention centers during litigation is a strategy.

There are times when ICE will have to transfer people for logistical and operational reasons, the former official said. However, there are times when ICE makes strategic decisions to hold or transfer detainees to facilities outside of certain jurisdictions in order to try to evade the implications of a court case.

But its up to the judge and what the judge will let them get away with.
A Mexican immigrant has been under custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the last 18 months even though a Chicago federal immigration judge approved his asylum request on several key grounds, including his sexual preference.

Legal representatives for Francisco Morales Torres are now asking a federal court in Wisconsin, arguing that keeping him behind bars violates the U.S. Constitution's due process law and stressing that his imprisonment could eventually expose him to the coronavirus.

'A lot of us in here already didn't know when we were going to see our families again, but now with the coronavirus, there's an added fear of dying,' Morales Torres said in a conference phone call from Dodge County Detention Facility in Juneau, Wisconsin, on Wednesday.

'We don't know what's going on. It's only a matter of time before something happens.'

ICE has been holding Francisco Morales Torres at a Wisconsin detention facility for 18 months after twice appealing a Chicago judge's decision that granted asylum to the 26-year-old gay Mexican in April 2019 and again in February

Attorneys for Francisco Morales Torres argue that he could be exposed to the coronavirus if he remains jailed by ICE at the Dodge County Detention Facility in Juneau, Wisconsin

Morales Torres said he is being held in a dorm room with 50 other detainees who have to share one bathroom.

He also added the prison officials did not provided them with any personal protective equipment such as gloves and face masks.

The 26-year-old arrived in the United States as a 13-year-old and settled in Chicago but was arrested in September 2018 after running afoul of the law on several occasions.

Morales Torres' criminal record includes a conviction for possessing a stole vehicle.

However, immigration Judge Kathryn De Angelis signed off Morales Torres' asylum petition in April 2019 after attorneys convinced the court deporting him to Mexico would place him at risk of being hunted down because of he is gay and because he suffers from mental illness.

ICE appealed the court's decision but Morales Torres' asylum request was once again approved by De Angelis in February.

'He will face a substantial risk of torture if he is removed to Mexico because of his severe mental health illnesses, his lack of familial support, and his sexual orientation,' De Angelis opined.

The federal immigration enforcement agency balked at the court's ruling and filed a second appeal, thus keeping Morales Torres in custody at Dodge County Detention Facility in Juneau, Wisconsin.

Lawyers for Francisco Morales Torres fear that the gay Mexican immigrant could contract the coronavirus if there is an outbreak of the deadly bug at Dodge County Detention Facility (pictured) in Juneau, Wisconsin

With appeals typically lasting a year to be sorted out, Morales Torres' legal team at the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago warn that its only a matter of time before there's a massive spread of the COVID-19 at the detention facility.

'His situation is serious and urgent with the pandemic,' said Keren Zwick, one of the three lawyers representing Morales Torres.

'Morales Torres should not have to wait for the pandemic to reach Dodge, or worse, to become one of the infected.'

ICE has almost 30,000 undocumented immigrants held at its detention centers across the United States.

At least 606 inmates and 39 guards have tested positive for the global pandemic.

The virus has killed four guards, including two from a Louisiana detention center.
By Laila Kearney NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil was up 3% on Monday as more countries announced they would begin easing coronavirus lockdowns and as crude supply cuts by the world's top producing nations and companies take hold.

By Laila Kearney

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil was up 3% on Monday as more countries announced they would begin easing coronavirus lockdowns and as crude supply cuts by the world's top producing nations and companies take hold.

Worldwide fuel demand fell by an estimated 30% in April largely due to stay-at-home orders, and weak consumption is expected to overhang the crude market for months, even as major world oil-producers reduce output as of May 1. However, analysts have said that swift action by those parties could help reduce the supply glut more quickly.

"The market continues to price in the idea that things are improving," Gene McGillian, vice president of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.

Brent crude settled at $27.20 a barrel, up 76 cents, or 2.9%, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained 61 cents, or 3.1%, to $20.39 a barrel.

"We're supposed to see the production cuts start to show up... the slow restart of not only some of the states here in the U.S. but some of the countries in Europe is beginning to partially alleviate some of the demand fears," McGillian said.

Italy, Finland and several U.S. states were among numerous governments moving to ease lockdown restrictions on Monday to resurrect their economies, but officials cautioned against acting too swiftly as coronavirus cases passed 3.5 million and deaths neared a quarter of a million globally.

In addition to fresh supply cuts that began this month by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, oil and gas output from some of the world's top oil companies is set to drop in the second quarter of 2020 to levels not seen in at least 17 years.

Goldman Sachs said it is growing more optimistic about the rise of oil prices next year due to lower crude production and a partial recovery in oil demand.

The Wall Street bank raised its 2021 forecast for global benchmark Brent to $55.63 per barrel from $52.50 earlier. The bank hiked its estimate for WTI to $51.38 a barrel from $48.50 previously.

The re-emergence of trade tensions between the United States and China limited the rise in prices.

"Demand growth in China is good for the energy market right now, it is pretty much the only game in town" said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho. "Even a verbal scrap with President Trump is not good for China demand growth, considering the fragile circumstances the market is currently operating under."

Adding to U.S. President Donald Trump's threat last week to impose tariffs on China, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday there was "a significant amount of evidence" that the new coronavirus emerged from a Chinese laboratory.

Oil prices recovered some of their losses after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he expected China to make good on its trade agreement with the United States. He also said he expected oil markets to rebound, and that the Trump administration was looking for more storage capacity.

(Additional reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin in London, Roslan Khasawneh in Singapore and Sonali Paul in Melbourne; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Kirsten Donovan)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
- The officers were ambushed by Rwandan rebel soldiers living in the DRC forest

- The 13 slain rangers were returning to the national park headquarters when attackers waylaid them

- One of four survivors remained in very critical condition even as doctors continued to monitor him at a local health facility

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A group of 13 rangers based in Vuruga National Park under elite anti-poaching and combat trackers unit have been killed in the Democratic Democratic of Congo.

Briefly.co.za learnt that the officers aged between 23 and 40 years old, were ambushed by rebel soldiers on their way to the park headquarters whereupon they encountered a civilian vehicle that had been attacked.

READ ALSO: Mzansi Magics KwaMamkhize totally obliterates viewer ratings

Funeral service for the slain officers was conducted on April 27. The motive behind the military ambush remained unclear. Photo: The Elite AntiPoaching Units And Combat Trackers.

Source: Facebook

According to the management, the attackers who were members of a group of armed Rwandan militants known as FDLR-FOCA, turned guns on the officers.

The militiamen live in the Congo forest.

"Today, 12 brave rangers and a civilian driver were killed when their convoy was ambushed in Rumangabo at Virunga National Park, as we learned from multiple direct communications. The attackers belong to the FDLR, a group of armed Rwandan militants living in the area. Another vehicle missed the ambush by five minutes," the anti-poaching unit said.

Ranger Mathieu Shamavu taking a pose with gorillas in the park. It was not confirmed whether he was among the injured. Photo: The Elite AntiPoaching Units And Combat Trackers.

Source: Facebook

During the military ambush, 13 died on the spot while four colleagues sustained injuries.

The authorities said one ranger remained in very critical condition even as doctors continued to monitor him at a local health facility.

The motive for the attack was not immediately established even though the forest is home to several militia groups making one of the most unstable countries.

Created in 1925, the magnificent eye-catching watershed, are the mountain gorillas which are listed as endangered. Photo: The Elite AntiPoaching Units And Combat Trackers.

Source: Facebook

The national park was created in 1925 and is among the first protected areas in Africa with over 600 rangers.

Inside this magnificent eye-catching watershed, are the mountain gorillas which are listed as endangered.

In 2019, two gorillas named Ndakasi and Ndeze struck an amazing woman-like pose with rangers capturing the incredible human side of the gigantic apes.

One stepped about a metre away from the ranger keen to pose for the camera while the other crouched right behind for a memorable selfie moment.

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Source: Briefly News
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Mayor Bill de Blasio ripped President Donald Trump for stabbing his hometown in the back for not supporting a bailout of blue states during the coronavirus pandemic.

This morning, I woke up to  President of the United States, a former New Yorker who seems to enjoy stabbing his hometown in the back, talking about no bailout for New York, what kind of human being sees the suffering here and decides that people in New York City dont deserve help? de Blasio told reporters during a press conference Tuesday.

What kind of person does that? de Blasio said.

Trump told the New York Post in an interview that states like New York should not rely on federal bailouts during the coronavirus pandemic.

The president said bailouts for "blue state governments were not fair to the Republicans because all the states that need help  theyre run by Democrats in every case.

He also said he did not think Congress should be inclined to do bailouts.

Every day President Trump resembles more and more Herbert Hoover, the president who ignored the Great Depression, who didnt care to put America back on its feet, who has now been remembered in history as someone who failed at the most basic responsibility, which is to protect the people he serves, de Blasio said.

President Trump wasnt there for us when we needed the testing to stop this horrible disease and now hes talking about not helping us in our hour of need, he continued.

The mayor also slammed the president for being a hypocrite for bailing out corporations over people during the pandemic.

He says hes not inclined to do bailouts but he gave a $58 billion bailout to the airline industry a few years ago, he gave a $1.5 trillion bailout to big corporations and the wealthy, so who is he kidding?" he said.

Hes not inclined to do bailouts, hes not inclined to do help firefighters, EMTs, paramedics, police officers doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, teachers, sanitation workers, all the people who are depending right now on the federal government stepping up and making New York City and New York State and so many other cities and states whole, he continued.

President Donald Trump was Staten Islands favored presidential candidate in 2016.

In a recent interview with Staten Islands three congressional candidates -- Democratic Rep. Max Rose, Republican Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis and former Brooklyn prosecutor Joseph Caldarera, a Republican -- they all refused to lay blame on the president for where the country is today in the pandemic, leading the world with the highest number of confirmed cases and deaths.

The mayor said last month that the city has lost between $5 billion to $10 billion during the coronavirus outbreak and wont be able to pay its bills if the federal government does not step in to help.

FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER.

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***
Rural areas of Maharashtra's Thane



district have witnessed a spike in coronavirus cases, with 16 persons testing positive from the region in the last two days, a health official said on Tuesday.

Earlier, the rural parts of the district would record only one or two cases a day, but 16 persons tested positive for the infection in the last two days, taking the tally to 47 in the region, district health officer Dr Manish Renge said.

The rise can be attributed to policemen and civic officials who work in Mumbai and return to their villages over the weekend, he said.

At least eight policemen had tested positive in Badlapur alone, he said, adding that high-risk contacts of such patients were under surveillance.

Meanwhile, 18 persons, including three policemen, tested positive for COVID-19 in Kalyan Dombivli municipal limits on Monday, KDMC's public relations officer Madhuri Phopale said.

At least three patients, including an 18-month-old baby girl, were discharged following recovery, she added.

According to reports, Thane district, comprising Navi Mumbai, Kalyan, Thane rural and city, has 1,278 coronavirus cases, of which 33 patients have died.

While the count of coronavirus cases in Palghar district has reached 179 and the toll stands at 10.

As per data, Thane city has recorded 412 cases, followed by Navi Mumbai with 348, Kalyan with 213, Mira Bhayander at 181 and Thane Rural at 47.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Do you remember 5G? Before the coronavirus consumed all of our attention, the fifth-generation mobile networks were supposed to be the panacea for lagging economies, telecoms firms, keeping pace with China, autonomous cars, smart factories and plenty more besides.

Overhyped? Maybe. But 5G will still be an economic boon. And perhaps inevitably, Covid-19 has collided with the rollout of the new technology, which ultimately depends on four ingredients: popular acceptance and adoption; the ability to install the equipment; access to capital; and the availability of spectrum  the radio frequencies used to transmit the signal that will allow vast gobs of data to be transmitted at lightning speeds.

For now, telecoms companies insist the pandemic will only delay the rollout by several months. That may be optimistic. Problems with any one of the four factors above could throw things off course, and the current environment has elevated that likelihood. Given their role in dividing up the spectrum and auctioning it, governments have a particular responsibility to ensure they dont hold up the process any more than is necessary.

Much has been made of the conspiracy theories falsely suggesting 5G contributed to, or even caused, the viruss spread. They prompted the gloriously terse response from the U.K.s telecommunications regulator Ofcom: This is wrong. There is no scientific basis or credible evidence for these claims.

The falsehoods may still permeate public opinion. Research suggests that even if people dont believe conspiracy theories per se, they can nonetheless influence their views. So an underlying fear, however unwarranted, could persist that 5G is somehow detrimental to ones health. That could perpetuate popular opposition to the necessary proliferation of new antennas.

The virus has already disrupted the global supply chain, making it harder to source gear from China in particular. Telecoms equipment maker Nokia Oyj said that such interruptions shaved 200 million euros ($218 million) from revenue in the first quarter, and they continue to be a risk. Lockdowns are also making it harder to install that equipment. Orange SA Chief Financial Officer Ramon Fernandez said last week that fiber deployment  whose wires connect not just homes but the antennas  will be delayed by the virus.

Story continues

Telecoms operators are changing how they spend their money, too. The surge in people working from home has put huge pressure on their existing setup. That means operators are having to reallocate capital in the short term toward making sure their fixed networks are reliable, rather than working to upgrade and install everything thats needed for the next generation of mobile services.

Even with all that, Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri told me that he expects the delay will probably only be a couple of months, echoing comments from his peer at rival Ericsson AB, Borje Ekholm. Perhaps the biggest risk to a fast rollout is the availability of spectrum, which is where governments come in. They dedicate a particular tranche of frequencies to 5G and then auction it off. A slew of those sales have been put on the back burner by the pandemic. While Germany and Italy have all but finished theirs, other countries, including France, the U.K. and Spain, are unlikely to auction frequencies until later this year.

With national budgets stretched by efforts to counter the impact of the virus, there will be a temptation to milk those auctions for all theyre worth. That could create a pinch on companies finances that makes rolling out the new networks even harder. Italy managed to squeeze 6.2 billion euros out of its telecoms firms back in 2018; Germany wrung 6.6 billion euros from Deutsche Telekom AG, Vodafone Group Plc, Telefonica Deutschland AG and 1&1 Drillisch AG.

Economists generally classify networks as productive government investments, because they contribute positively to long-term economic output. It would be better for states to foster their new 5G networks by not overcharging for them. Otherwise they risk ceding more ground to China in the race for adoption. In return for more generous auction terms, it would be fair for governments to request an accelerated rollout.

The virus is already reaping havoc on vast tracts of the economy. Best not to let it damage any more growth.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Alex Webb is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Europe's technology, media and communications industries. He previously covered Apple and other technology companies for Bloomberg News in San Francisco.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

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The federal Liberal-National government launched a revealing public attack on the Victorian state Labor government last Sunday for allegedly not moving fast enough to reopen public schools.

Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan told the Australian Broadcasting Corporations Insiders television program on Sunday morning that Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews had taken a sledgehammer to the states schools and was guilty of a failure of leadership on reopening schools.

Within hours, Tehan issued a statement retracting his accusations, claiming that personal frustration had led me to overstep the mark in questioning Premier Andrews leadership on this matter. Clearly, however, Tehan would not have made his original remarks unless they were part of a calculated operation by Prime Minister Scott Morrisons government.

Just days earlier, the Morrison government had ramped-up the pressure for a return to full classroom teaching by trying to bribe private schools with early payments of $3.3 billion in funding, but only if they got at least half their students physically back in class within a month.

Both the funding offer and the Tehan interview on Insiders represent an escalation of a drive on behalf of big business, which is demanding that students return to classrooms so that their parents can be returned to workplaces. This is an increasingly naked offensive, intent on restoring the generation of profits, regardless of the danger of a second COVID-19 wave of infection.

Andrews was the nominal victim of the vehement attackfor not yet setting a deadline for pushing teachers and students back into classrooms in Victoria. But the real target is the resistance of teachers and parents, and working-class people more broadly, to being pushed back into unsafe workplace conditions for the benefit of the corporate elite.

Confronted by widespread social media outrage over his comments, Tehan may have felt compelled to withdraw them for now, but the federal government is continuing to demand the full reopening of classrooms nationally.

Unnamed senior federal government sources yesterday told the Age and Sydney Morning Herald they had no problem with Tehans criticisms of the Victorian government but said his personal attack on Andrews went too far. They said the incident would not stop Morrison from continuing to encourage Victoria to reopen its schools.

In reality, the state Labor government is already trying to impose that outcome on teachers, with the support of the Australian Education Union. Andrews plans to end the state of emergency on May 11, paving the way for an expansion of classroom teaching.

An hour after Tehans remarks, the concerns of teachers and parents were vindicated. Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos revealed a Melbourne primary school had been closed after a teacher tested positive to COVID-19. She said Meadowglen Primary School in the northern suburb of Epping would be shut down for cleaning for three days.

Yesterday, the Liberal-National state government in neighbouring New South Wales (NSW) was likewise forced to temporarily close a primary school at Warragamba in Sydneys western suburbs after a seven-year-old boy had tested positive for the virus over the weekend.

This is likely to occur more as schools go back, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said. Nonetheless, she reiterated that students across the state would begin to return to school from next week.

These school outbreaks were part of a wider spike over the weekend, including another 19 cases linked to a Melbourne meat-processing plant, bringing that clusters total to 34, and a 15th death at a Sydney aged care facility, taking the national death toll to 97.

Despite these dangers, governments, both Liberal-National and Labor, are suppressing opposition by teachers and parents who rightly remained concerned that a premature return to classroom teaching could trigger new COVID-19 outbreaks.

Labor governments are helping lead the charge to reopen classrooms. Labor governments in Western Australia (WA) and the Northern Territory tried last week to get all students back into classrooms, together with South Australias Liberal government. Yesterday, Queenslands Labor government announced that students would be called back to classes from next week.

Purporting to act on medical advice, the national cabinet of federal, state and territory governments last week suddenly reversed its previous requirement for social distancing measures to be adhered inside schools.

But the claim that children are not high COVID-19 transmitters flies in the face of studies recently published in France and Germany. They show that children are just as likely as adults to contract the disease and that they can transmit the virus to others, making schools possible hotspots for further coronavirus clusters.

A Pasteur Institute study of a high school inside a large cluster in the Oise region of France involved 661 participants including pupils, teachers, cleaning staff, parents and siblings. It found an infection attack rate of 25.9 percent; 40.9 percent in pupils and teachers; and 10.9 percent for parents and siblings. This was far higher than the 3 percent positive antibody presence in the region.

The German study, which was published as a preprint that has not yet been peer reviewed, screened nearly 60,000 patients for COVID-19, of whom nearly 4,000 tested positive. When the team compared the viral load across age groups, they found similar levels throughout, ranging from one to 10 years to 91 to 100 years.

The authors concluded that because asymptomatic children are not coughing they would be less infectious, but that this may be offset by the close physical contact between school students. They stated: Based on these results, we have to caution against an unlimited re-opening of schools and kindergartens in the present situation. Children may be as infectious as adults.

To justify their push, Australias governments cited a much smaller NSW study, not peer-reviewed, that had obvious statistical deficiencies. It looked at just 19 COVID-19 cases across 15 schools, all occurring while students were advised to stay home and distancing was in place. It also covered part of the mid-term school holidays.

On the basis of misleading information, teachers, parents and students are being made guinea pigs for a potential disaster. They are being pressured back into classrooms, even without elementary protections such as social distancing, temperature checks, hand sanitizer and face masks.

In WA, where the state Labor government last week suspended a school principal for warning parents that her school was not safely prepared for an immediate return to classrooms, a State School Teachers Union survey of 2,000 teachers upon the return to school last week found 18 percent did not have adequate hand sanitiser in their classrooms.

Meanwhile, the risks were underscored when one of New Zealands worst outbreaks94 cases at Marist College, a Catholic girls school in Aucklandworsened. A new case was linked to the cluster last week, despite a near five-week lockdown, forcing the abandonment of a plan to reopen the school this week. Staff and students have now been offered vouchers for COVID-19 tests.

The Committee for Public Education (CFPE) has called for the formation of Action Committees at all schools, to coordinate an industrial and political struggle against the premature re-openings and in defence of the health, safety and social rights of all teachers.

We encourage educators and parents to contact the CFPE by email at cfpe.aus@gmail.com or on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/commforpubliceducation/. The CFPE Twitter account is https://twitter.com/CFPE_Australia.

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The domestic manufacturers have reached the capacity of producing nearly 2.5 lakh PPEs and 2 lakh N-95 masks per day which is sufficient to meet the requirement of the country in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in near future, the Group of Ministers (GoM) was informed on Tuesday.

The GoM, which held its 14th meeting under the chairmanship of Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, highlighted the need for ensuring stringent measures for quality control of personal protection equipment (PPEs), masks, ventilators among others.

Random batch sampling for ensuring compliance and adherence to the quality standards laid down was also stressed upon by the GoM, a statement by the health ministry said.

A detailed presentation on the present status of COVID-19 cases globally and within the country was made to the GoM, and states were asked to follow and further strengthen their contingency plans to combat the infection on the basis of classification of the districts.

Several other measures about strengthening capacity of states, including devoting adequate resources for creating dedicated COVID-19 hospitals, equipping medical institutions with adequate number of PPEs, ventilators and other essential equipment, were also discussed at the meeting.

The GoM was apprised that the death rate of COVID-19 patients is around 3.2 per cent, while the recovery rate is more than 25 per cent, which may be taken as a positive effect of the lockdown in the country along with the cluster management and containment strategy, the statement said.

The GoM was also informed that genome sequencing of strains of the novel coronavirus isolated from patients in different parts of the country has been initiated.

Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, chairman of Empowered Group -11 informed the GoM that they are monitoring and supervising the strategic issues arriving out of the measures taken so far in containing the pandemic.

He also apprised the GoM that at different stages during lockdown, decisions on graded liberalisation were taken after consultations with stakeholders, cutting across various ministries and other Empowered Groups, the statement said.

A presentation was made by Ajay Sawhney, Secretary, MeitY, and chairman of Empowered Group-9, dealing with technology solutions and data management for combating COVID-19, the statement stated.

Various aspects pertaining to the performance, impact and benefits of Arogya Setu application were discussed during the meeting.

It was informed that close to 9 crore users had downloaded the application as on May 4.

"People have informed about their health status on the application which has helped in tracing those suffering with any symptoms for COVID-19 containment. The GoM was also informed that a mechanism has been devised to reach out to the people who have landline or featured phones through Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) in local languages for better results," it said.

Vardhan stated that the use of technology is integral for the containment strategy and is helping the states to manage the deadly disease in a more effective manner.

The GoM was also told that under the Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) as on May 4, 29.38 lakh MT of foodgrain has been distributed to 58.77 crore beneficiaries by 36 states/UTs as first month (April) entitlement.

A total of 5.82 lakh MT foodgrain has been distributed to 11.63 crore beneficiaries by 20 states and UTs as second month (May) entitlement so far, the statement stated. In total, 66.08 lakh MT food grain has been lifted by 36 states and UTs from the Food Corporation of India so far, it added.

An amount of Rs 6,868.74 crore has been transferred to Ujjawala (PMUY) beneficiaries. Also, 4.98 crore PMUY cylinders have been booked and 4.72 crore have been delivered during April-May.

Financial sanction for 8.18 crore beneficiaries (farmers) at Rs 2,000 each has been generated during 2020-21 and Rs 16,364 crore have been released under DBT cash transfers to farmers during the same period, the statement added.

As support for senior citizens, widows and divyang', the first installment of funds at Rs 500 per beneficiary has been released to 2.812 crore accounts of eligible beneficiaries, amounting to Rs 1,405 crore. The next installment of Rs 500 will go in the second fortnight, the statement said.

As on date, 20.05 crore Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana accounts of women are being credited with Rs 500 per account as cash transfers under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyana Package ( PMGKP). Besides, 9.27 lakh members of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) had availed the facility of online withdrawal amounting to Rs 2,895 crore, it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 35-year-old man kept in a quarantine centre of western Odishas Jharsuguda district, for over a week, fled on Monday even before the results of his swab sample could be out. The mans escape had raised fears of possible Covid-19 infection in the area.

The mans escape came even as the number of Covid-19 positive cases zoomed to 170 with the detection of one more case from Ganjam district where around 150 migrant workers fled a quarantine centre on Sunday citing lack of water.

Police officials in Jharsuguda said Asid Khan of Kabaristanpada area of Jharsuguda district was kept in a quarantine centre since April 26 as he had visited a containment zone at Nala Road of Rourkela town in neighbouring Sundargarh district.

Police had registered a case against Khan under sections 188, 269, 270 and 271 of the IPC at Jharsuguda police station while seeking public help in tracing him out.

The man was caught in Badheimunda area of Jharsuguda on Tuesday morning by the police. He has been brought to the quarantine centre. Jharsuguda has reported two coronavirus cases so far.

The containment zone in minority-dominated Nala Road area of Rourkela, that Khan visited, has reported 7 positive cases of coronavirus so far including the latest case of a 29-year-old woman.

On Monday, an irate mob of the area pelted stones at police personnel and broke barricades around the containment zone causing injuries to four police personnel. Under barricade since April 26, when the first positive case in the area was detected, the residents of Nala Road have refused to cooperate with ASHA workers for health surveillance. The area has over 4,000 households and to assist the local healthcare personnel, additional doctors have been brought from Sambalpur.
India saw its biggest jump in coronavirus cases yet on Tuesday with 3,900 new cases and 195 deaths in 24 hours. As on May 5, 8am, India had 46,433 cases out of which 12,726 had been cured or discharged and 1,568 died. On May 4, 8am, India had 42,533 cases with 11,706 cured and 1,373 deaths.

The country currently has 32,138 active cases. Maharashtra tops the tally with the highest number of coronavirus cases in India at 14,541. Gujarat has 5,804 cases while Delhi has 4,898 cases. The national capital is one of the worst affected in the country but as lockdown restrictions were relaxed on Monday, people were found violating social distancing norms as they flocked to liquor shops to purchase alcohol. Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan expressed his concerns over such violations and said Delhi ideally should be following strict lockdown norms.

Also read: Coronavirus Lockdown Live Updates: 195 deaths, 3,900 cases in 1-day, biggest jump; COVID-19 count-46,433

Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu both have more than 3,000 cases each at 3,061 and 3,550, while Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have more than 2,000 cases each at 2,766 and 2,942. Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Telangana and West Bengal have more than 1,000 cases at 1,650, 1,233, 1,085 and 1,259.

Bihar, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala have more than 500 cases at 528, 517, 726, 651 and 500 respectively. Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Manipur, Mizoram and Puducherry have less than 10 cases.

Also read: Coronavirus Lockdown X: Why it can't be business as usual for India

The highest number of deaths in the country has been reported in Maharashtra at 583. Gujarat has reported 319 deaths while Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Rajasthan have reported 165, 133 and 77 deaths. Delhi that is the third-worst affected is sixth in line with 64 deaths. So far no deaths have been reported in Andaman and Nicobar, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Ladakh, Manipur, Mizoram, Puducherry, and Tripura.

Even as cases rise, India has relaxed lockdown restrictions across the country. All the districts have been demarcated red, orange or green zones as per the number of cases and relaxations eased accordingly. The government has also made arrangements for Shramik Special trains to ferry stranded migrant workers across the country to their hometowns. Additionally, the government has also said that it will bring back Indians stranded in other countries from May 7.

Also read: Coronavirus crisis: Why television industry is bleeding despite record consumption

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 Covid-19 crisis could hit Belfast's biggest annual Christmas pantomime.

But management at the Grand Opera House are determined to ensure that the show will go on.

Year-long work on a massive restoration and refurbishment of the historic theatre - the first for 40 years - has had to be curtailed for more than a month because of the virus shutdown.

GOH bosses admit they do not know whether the delay will impact on the planned opening date - marking the venue's 125th anniversary.

And they also added that it is too soon to say when they will know.

Scores have already booked seats for the city's longest-running panto - Goldilocks and the Three Bears this year - which once again is due to star the Guinness Book of World Records holder of the most Panto performances, comedian John Linehan aka May McFettridge.

John said recently: "I can only hope and pray the Opera House will be up and running for Christmas - 35,000 to 40,000 seats have been sold already.

"I think if the auditorium was ready it would be a great thing, but I'm sure they'll pull out all the stops and, please God, we go back to normality," he says.

But a GOH statement said: "The contractors have stopped work in line with the Government's guidance and it is too early to know the impact the delay will have."

And asked when the impact of the work stoppage would be known, a spokeswoman added:"It's too early to know that yet."

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Principal contractors Tracey Brothers Ltd have already been involved in restoration work at Parliament Buildings in Stormont, Crumlin Road Gaol and Russell Hall at Queen's University, among others.

After the 11-month closure the GOH plan was to reopen with the annual panto in time to mark the 125th year since the building was completed - and that remains the case.

But the spokeswoman also added: "We do not know how long the current situation will last and so at present we cannot fully assess the impact of the delay on our restoration plans or on our programme.

"We will continue to follow the Government's guidance and make any necessary changes to our plans as soon as the situation becomes clearer."

Nonetheless the theatre is continuing to take bookings despite the lockdown, even if it has to consider social distancing for future performances.

Meanwhile, the Waterfront Hall has announced its panto of Cinderella is to begin in late November.
A man is silhouetted as he fishes near Northport in Klang outside Kuala Lumpur

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's exports fell 4.7% from a year earlier in March amid a global slowdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, government data showed on Monday.

The decline, however, was smaller than the 8% fall forecast by analysts surveyed by Reuters. Exports in February had risen 11.8%, the strongest on-year growth in 16 months.

Shipments of manufactured goods, which accounted for 84.4% of March's total exports, fell 4.5% on-year due to lower demand for electrical and electronic goods, metal products, machinery as well as optical and scientific equipment, data from the International Trade and Industry Ministry showed.

Mining exports declined 4.4% amid lower shipments of crude petroleum and liquefied natural gas, while agricultural exports were down 5%.

Malaysia's exports to China and the United States fell 6.1% and 3.6% respectively, but shipments to Southeast Asia picked up, rising 3%.

Exports to Singapore, one of Malaysia's biggest trading partners, rose 8.6%, while those to Indonesia doubled amid higher volumes of transport equipment.

Imports fell 2.7% year-on-year, after surging 11.3% in February. Analysts had expected a 5.4% decline.

Malaysia reports trade data in ringgit <MYR=>.

The trade surplus in March narrowed slightly to 12.3 billion ringgit ($2.84 billion) from 12.6 billion ringgit in the previous month. Analysts had expected a 12 billion ringgit surplus.

Malaysia, which has reported nearly 6,300 coronavirus infections, partially lifted six-week-long curbs imposed to stem the outbreak on Monday, with most businesses allowed to resume operations.

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Subhranshu Sahu)
A 27-year-old woman who is serving time on unrelated counts in a Pennsylvania state prison is charged with providing the drug dose that killed a 24-year-old Monroe County man two years ago, authorities say.

Hillary James, who is currently housed in the State Correctional Institution in Cambridge Springs, was charged Monday with drug delivery resulting in death and related offenses, the county district attorneys office said in court papers.

A nearly two-year investigation into the death of Cody Heller, of Chestnuthill Township, shows James drove to Paterson, New Jersey, with a friend to buy 10 bricks of a heroin-fentanyl mix -- a brick normally contains 50 doses -- labeled UFC that was popular because it was very potent, the district attorneys office said. In an interview with authorities, James reported buying the drugs soon before Heller died on May 27, 2018, authorities said.

Cellphone records show James near Hellers home about 4:45 a.m. on May 27, which is consistent with James recollection that she and the friend returned about 3 or 4 in the morning after buying the drugs, police said. The friend arranged a deal with Heller by phone and handed Heller a few bags out of the passenger-side window, authorities say. Empty bags labeled UFC were found in Hellers room after he died in his familys basement, the district attorneys office said. James told a detective that she assumed the drugs sold to Heller were stamped that way because it was from the sleeve (10 bricks) that she had purchased, court papers say.

An autopsy after Heller was found unresponsive by his parents indicated Heller had fentanyl, norfentanyl, morphine, methamphetamine, amphetamine and THC in his blood, authorities said. The cause of death was mixed substance toxicity, court papers say. Heller had a history of drug abuse, his parents told authorities, court papers say.

At some point, James will be returned to Monroe County to be arraigned on the headline charge as well as counts of possession with intent to deliver drugs, criminal use of a cellphone and conspiracy, the district attorneys office said. All the charges are felonies.

Court papers did not list an attorney for James.

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Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com.
On 15 April, Vistara chief Leslie Thng announced that senior employees will be going on compulsory leave without pay for up to three days between 15-30 April as a measure to further conserve the airline's cash flow amid lockdown to combat the COVID-19 threat.

Air Vistara has asked senior employees to go on leave without pay for up to four days per month during May and June, according to a PTI report.

COVID-19 fallout: Vistara CEO says senior employees to go on leave without pay for up to 4 days per month in May and June  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 5, 2020

On being contacted, Air Vistara spokesperson told Firstpost the CEO's mail was leaked and the company will release a statement soon.

Vistara CEO Leslie Thng on Tuesday announced that senior employees will have to go on compulsory leave without pay (LWP) for up to four days per month in May and June as a measure to conserve the airline's cash flow to tide over the difficulties faced by the aviation sector due to lockdowns across the world.

With the latest lockdown extension until 17 May 2020, our operations continue to be suspended until the date, prolonging the period of no-revenues as well. Vistara is making every effort to save jobs of more than 4,000 of its people while conserving cash and pursuing to reduce operational expenditures, which includes staff costs," the spokesperson said to Firstpost.

Earlier, on 15 April, Thng had announced that senior employees will be going on compulsory leave without pay for up to three days between 15-30 April.

On 27 March, the airline had also introduced compulsory leave without pay for up to three days between 1-14 April for the same set of senior employees.

"For the month of May and June 2020, we will continue with compulsory no pay leave (CNPL) for all staff, except for pilots and staff in Level 1A and 1B, as follows: Staff in Level 4 and 5 to go on 4 days CNPL per month; Staff in Level 2 and 3 to go on 3 days CNPL per month; Staff in Level 1C to go on 1 day CNPL per month," Thng said, according to PTI.

The CEO also stated that for May and June, the monthly base flying allowance for pilots has been reduced to 20 hours per month.

.@airvistara says senior staff to take compulsory no-pay leave of 1-4 days in May & June; no impact on 70% of cos staff including cabin crew, other frontline & junior staff#coronavirus #lockdown pic.twitter.com/tNj2ER5eUl  CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) May 5, 2020

The compulsory no-pay leave will affect around 1,200 employees in senior grades. The remaining 2,800 employees of the airline such as members of cabin crew and ground handling services will be unaffected.

Earlier, the base flying allowance was given to pilots for 70 hours per month.

However, the reduction in base flying allowance won''t be applicable to trainee first officers.

The Vistara chief said in an email to employees, which has been accessed by PTI, that the airline is planning to restart flight operations in a phased manner whenever the government allows it to do so.

"With the announcement by the government of India on extending the lockdown, we continue to suspend all our domestic and international operations till May 3,2020 and this further impacted significantly on our cash flow with no revenue being generated over an extended period of time," Thng said in April.

He said the airline has made "some progress" with a few of its key partners and suppliers in "reducing and/or deferring" some of its immediate operating expenditures.

Thng added the airline continues to pursue similar measures "aggressively" with other partners and suppliers.

He mentioned the airline has to take a "tough and difficult decision" on reducing staff costs with the objective to preserve jobs.

"Therefore, for the period April 15 to April 30 we will continue with Compulsory No Pay Leave (CNPL) for all staff, except for staff in Level 1A and 1B, as follows: Staff in Level 4 and 5 to go on three days CNPL, Staff in Level 2 and 3 to go on two days CNPL, Staff in Level 1C to go on one day CNPL," he said.

The above CNPL is in addition to what Vistara had implemented for the period of 1-14 April, Thng noted.

"While the situation remains fluid, we are planning to resume flight operations in a phased manner whenever authorities allow us to do so," the CEO stated.

"For the initial period, we may not be able to fully restore our suspended network and therefore our financials will continue to be adversely impacted. We must continue our focus on cutting expenditures, including continuing some of the measures that we have implemented in April," he said.

Reacting on the decision, Vistara spokesperson said, "The extension of lockdown and suspension of our services till May 3, 2020 further impacts our cash flow significantly. As part of a number of steps we are taking to conserve cash and save costs, we had to make the difficult decision of further reducing our staff costs with the objective of preserving jobs.

"For the period between April 15-30, 2020, about 30 percent of Vistara''s workforce will take compulsory no-pay leave of one to three days, depending on employment grades (three days for senior-most employees). This decision does not impact the remainder 70 percent of Vistara staff," he added.
Syracuse, N.Y.  Firefighters rescued a 300-pound man Sunday after he fell 15 feet from a ladder onto the roof of the former Syracuse Developmental Center.

Syracuse police and firefighters, and American Medical Response (AMR) ambulance responded at 7:35 p.m. to a report of an injured man on the roof of 800 S. Wilbur Ave.

When they arrived, fire crews found the man on a roof of one of the buildings, about 20 feet off the ground.

Crews used a 30-foot extension ladder as a high point anchor, a 3:1 mechanical advantage rope system and a stokes basket to move the victim to the ground, said Syracuse fire Capt. David Ellis.

AMR ambulance crews helped firefighters during the rescue, starting advanced life support procedures on the roof, he said.

An ambulance brought the man to a Syracuse hospital. No other information about the mans injuries or condition were available Monday.

It was not immediately clear why the man was on the property or what he was doing when he fell from a ladder and landed on a lower roof, said Ellis, a spokesman for the fire department.

Syracuse police also did not immediately know why the man was at the former Syracuse Developmental Center, a long vacant complex.

Last year, the city of Syracuse seized the massive, dilapidated property on the Near West Side.

The complex, which sits next to Rosamond Gifford Zoo, opened in the early 1970s as a state home for children and adults with developmental disabilities. It closed in 1998 and has been abandoned since.

It was sold by the state in 2008 to a company that soon went bankrupt. In 2013, it was bought by the California-based Jewish Educational Trade School at auction for $1.2 million, though has continued to remain vacant.

In recent years, thieves have stripped away nearly every piece of metal, including pipes, plumbing and even parts of the roof from the 558,000-square-foot complex of buildings. In March 2019, part of the building was damaged in a fire intentionally set there, officials have said. And its a frequent site of illegal dumping  theres trash filling some sections of the loading docks.

50 File photos from when vandals trashed the former Syracuse Developmental Center

Have a tip or a story idea? Contact Catie OToole: cotoole@syracuse.com | text/call (315) 470-2134 | Twitter | Facebook
SANTA FE, N.M.  A New Mexico utility has started work on a major infrastructure project that will stretch from Bernalillo to Santa Fe.

New Mexico Gas Co. announced Monday that the new pipeline will boost capacity and reliability for natural gas customers in northern New Mexico, including those in Native American pueblos and communities as far north as Taos, Questa and Red River.

As part of the $60 million project, crews will be installing a larger diameter pipeline on an existing route that spans about 35 miles (56 kilometers) along Interstate 25. Officials say the work will not interfere with traffic along the highway, but motorists can expect construction signs and turning trucks on nearby roadways as sections of pipe are brought in.

The utility expects the work to be done by the winter.

Utility President Ryan Shell said the project also will help accommodate future growth. As the largest natural gas distribution utility in the state, New Mexico Gas Co. serves about 530,000 customers.
Stallone and Snipes in Demolition Man (Credit: Warner Bros)

It's been some 27 years since the Sylvester Stallone came out of suspended animation for 1993 action movie Demolition Man.

And now the Rocky icon is gearing up for a sequel.

Read more: Ryan Reynolds advises against watching Green Lantern

Speaking to fans during a Q&A session on Instagram, Stallone confirmed that discussions are currently going on with Warner Bros.

I think it is coming, he said. Were working on it right now with Warner Brothers and its looking fantastic, so that should come out.

Thats going to happen.

The original movie was something of a high-concept affair, strangely, directed by video artist Marco Brambilla and produced by Joel Silver.

It centred on Stallone's super cop John Spartan and Wesley Snipes' super villain Simon Phoenix, both of whom end up incarcerated in the 'California Cryo-Penitentiary', where criminals are cryogenically frozen.

Read more: Taika Waititi for new Star Wars movie

When Phoenix escapes, decades later, Spartan is thawed out too and sent to apprehend him.

American actors Sylvester Stallone and Sandra Bullock on the set of directed by Marco Brambilla. (Photo by Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)

Stallone wasn't the first choice for the role either, with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal both passing on it first.

Also starring Sandra Bullock, Denis Leary and the late British thespian Nigel Hawthorne, it was only a modest hit, making $160 million from its $97 million production and marketing budget.

Its soundtrack was pretty notable, however, featuring a sturdy theme tune from Grace Jones.
By David Lawder and Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Britain launched formal negotiations on a free trade agreement on Tuesday, vowing to work quickly to seal a deal that could counter the massive drag of the coronavirus pandemic on trade flows and the two allies' economies.

The talks, to be conducted virtually, will involve over 300 U.S. and UK staff and officials in nearly 30 negotiating groups, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and UK trade minister Liz Truss said in a joint statement.

"We will undertake negotiations at an accelerated pace and have committed the resources necessary to progress at a fast pace," they said.

"A Free Trade Agreement would contribute to the long-term health of our economies, which is vitally important as we recover from the challenges posed by COVID-19," the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

The first round of talks began as new U.S. data showed a record drop in U.S. exports and a contraction in the vast U.S. service sector for the first time in over a decade.

It is Washington's first major new trade negotiation in 2020. London has also been working out trade terms with the European Union following its exit from the bloc in January.

London's goal was to expeditiously complete both negotiations and there could be a positive dynamic between them, even though they are being headed by different lead negotiators, one UK official told journalists in a background briefing.

British Ambassador Karen Pierce told reporters it was "a very good sign of confidence in economic recovery" that the two countries were moving ahead with the talks.

Lighthizer, who has named the UK trade talks one of his top priorities for 2020, published objectives more than a year ago that sought full access for U.S. agricultural products and reduced tariffs for U.S. manufactured goods.

Stung by shortages of medical equipment and drugs during the pandemic, both countries are seeking to shift some supply chains away from China.

Story continues

Lighthizer said in remarks released later that the pandemic "has shown that depending purely on cheap imports for strategic products can make us vulnerable in times of crisis" and that the United States needs a healthy manufacturing base and thriving farmers.

But they are at odds over tariffs, including steel and aluminum duties imposed by Washington in 2018.

Asked about President Donald Trump's threat to impose more tariffs on China over its handling of the outbreak, Pierce said, "In general terms, tariffs are not particularly conducive to free trade, and we the Brits believe very much in free trade. Its in our history, its in our DNA. The dispute between the U.S. and China is for them to resolve.

Britain is also pushing the United States and the EU to resolve a dispute over aircraft subsidies that has resulted in tit-for-tat tariffs, including on Scotch whiskey.

Republican U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, another big critic of tariffs, said he hopes a strong agreement with the UK lays the groundwork for an improved trade deal with the EU, which has so far resisted U.S. demands for increased agriculture access.

"If we get a good deal with the UK on agriculture, it's going to embarrass Europe," Grassley told reporters on a conference call.

Agriculture is expected to be among the thorniest issues in the talks, given strong British opposition to U.S. genetically modified crops and antibacterial treatments for poultry. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to drive a "hard bargain" and Truss has said that Britain would not diminish its food safety standards.

Britain also will not change its approach to drug pricing or Britain's National Health Service, the UK official said.

Trade in goods between the United States and United Kingdom was valued at $127.1 billion (102.2 billion) in 2018, with the two sides roughly in balance, while the services trade topped $134.8 billion. Britain is the seventh-largest U.S. goods trading partner, after South Korea, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Ted Bromund, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, said one area ripe for tariff reduction was automotive trade, Britain's largest export sector to the United States. U.S. passenger car tariffs are 2.5%, with pickup truck tariffs at 25%, while Britain maintains a 10% car tariff.

Tuesday's opening plenary will be followed by virtual meetings from May 6 to 15. The UK official said while it was unusual to negotiate on all areas at once, the two sides were keen to move forward quickly.

Further rounds will take place approximately every six weeks and will be carried out remotely until it is safe to travel, the UK embassy said. There was no specific deadline for completing the talks, the official said.

Grassley said he thought the talks will be more difficult via videoconference.

"It seems to me it's not quite as good as sitting across the table from them," he said.

(Additional reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Cynthia Osterman and Sonya Hepinstall)
Koushik Sinha, assistant professor in the School of Computing at SIU, works on the Virus Contact Map, a new tool he and his team are developing to track COVID-19 and assist public health officials and the general public while protecting individual privacy. Once populated with the proper data and synced with common GPS information, the Virus Contact Map (VCM) would provide an important tool for avoiding exposure and tracking the virus spread. (Photo by Russell Bailey)

SIU researchers tool would improve tracking, avoidance of COVID-19 cases

by Tim Crosby

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- In todays information-heavy society, balancing the handy tools technology provides with the need for privacy is a constant concern. A health crisis such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic puts that tension in stark relief, as health authorities struggle with keeping the public informed while also protecting private health information.

A faculty member at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, however, believes he and his students have developed an application that will not only provide the public with the latest data on COVID-19 case locations locally, but also protect the identity of those diagnosed or exposed to the virus. Once populated with the proper data and synced with common GPS information, the Virus Contact Map (VCM) would provide an important tool for avoiding exposure and tracking the virus spread.

Koushik Sinha, assistant professor in the School of Computing, is working on an approach that uses Google timeline history to visualize whether individuals have come within dangerous proximity to the locations of known COVID-19 cases. The application, when fully operational, would give health officials and individuals the ability to see how the virus progresses over time locally and regionally. Health officials might further use it to identify areas as hot spots and issue warnings to the general public to avoid such areas, as well as designate them for decontamination.

An emerging crisis

Sinha and his team began working on the tool during spring break, just as the COVID-19 threat was becoming apparent. The idea emerged from Sinhas ongoing research interest in crisis computing and crowdsourcing, wherein large numbers of people are enlisted to help solve a problem with resources or information. One of his previous projects, a tool called Artificial Intelligence for Disaster Response, used machine learning-based analytics of tweets and texts in real-time during humanitarian crises. AIDR has been extensively used by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The main information needed to bring the VCM online now is data from local health departments on COVID-19 cases.

This is by far the most critical requirement as without it, the utility for general public will be greatly reduced, Sinha said. The tool will provide functionalities that we believe will be useful to both private individuals as well health officials.

Potentially potent weapon

The system relies on smartphone GPS history gathered by Google when that option is enabled. Plans call to include other data sources such locations identified by WiFi access points.

The ability of the tool to use GPS data to identify hazards is well established. But importantly, the tool also would accomplish the sometimes more elusive goal of protecting individual privacy, despite relying partly on data gathered from private smartphone accounts.

No names or other identifying information will be associated with the location and diagnosis data it relies on, for instance, while other features and functions will protect data sources. Through an easy-to-use interface, users also will have the option to delete certain information  such as a home or work address  from the data set they provide in order to use the tool.

There are multiple techniques that we will implement to ensure privacy, Sinha said. Our goal is to make the tool HIPAA-compliant.

Seeing is believing

The tool will offer three ways to visualize or see the interaction between the virus spread and individual locations and movement. First, it will allow a user to see the number of COVID-19 cases, including fatalities, over time using a slidebar to control the time frame. Doing so might give a county health official the ability to visualize how the virus has progressed over time not only in their own counties, but in neighboring ones, as well, Sinha said Such information also might lead individuals to make safer shopping choices, for example.

If I were to see my county has a considerable number of infections while neighboring counties do not, then I might feel safer doing my grocery shopping there rather than my home county, he said.

The second visualization option would provide a color-coded map of all locations visited by individuals known to have COVID-19 during the last 48 hours. The visualization would use a function that combines both the number of COVID-19 cases to visit the location, but also how recently they did so before color-coding it.

As the virus is known to remain viable for a certain number of hours, such a map might again allow individuals to minimize their risk, Sinha said.

For example, an individual might decide to avoid a store in a local county that has had a significant footfall of COVID-19 positive people in the recent past, and instead shop somewhere with a lighter footfall, he said. Another example could be, say in New York City, a person could use this information to determine if it would currently be safe to go for a walk or jog in Central Park as opposed to a Queens neighborhood.

Health officials might also find this visualization helpful in designating local hot spots and issuing warnings.

Individuals can opt in

The third visualization would allow individual users to upload their Google timeline history data to the website, where an analytics engine would general a list of locations where they might have been exposed to a COVID-19 case in the recent past. The information would be presented again in a color-coded map with each visited location colored by the tools computed risk of exposure shown as high, moderate or low.

Although the VCM might warn of risk if needed, it also would prevent panic when risk is low.

Providing a risk assessment of every contact and visited location would be a very useful feature to not only individuals who want to assess their chances of infection, but also to health officials in allocating resources for managing the COVID-19 crisis, Sinha said. As more users opt in and more data is available to the analytics engine for modeling risk, the accuracy of the risk assessment engine will improve.

The user would then be able to hover the mouse pointer over each point to get additional information, such as the exact address of the location, when the contact happened and how long it lasted.

Combining certain visualizations for further analysis would give both health officials and the general public further insight into not only understanding the virus reach but also how to better minimize the risk of exposure on a personal level.

For example, lets say I first use a visualization that determines a certain grocery store is a safer place to go shopping on a certain day. Unfortunately, I unknowingly happen to come in close proximity with an asymptomatic COVID-19 person who later tests positive. Then this feature would allow me to determine if I was exposed to any such individual, Sinha said. The visualization of this map also allows users to control how far back in time and what sort of proximity distance would she like to use for generating the contact tracing map.

Privacy is paramount

Using GPS information in this way opens many questions on privacy, as well. Sinha said his team kept privacy  especially medical information privacy required by law  in the forefront of their minds when designing the tool.

For starters, the tools database requires only two pieces of information about individuals infected with COVID-19: their GPS location history and the time at which the individual tested positive. No other identifying information is needed.

Second, all location data is stored and displayed completely anonymously, thereby making it difficult to tie one hot spot location to a specific patient. Also, in cases where an individual chooses to upload his or her Google timeline history to assess risk of exposure, the system only requires the last 48 hours of data, which is stored only temporarily.

We delete the uploaded file immediately after the results are displayed in order to maintain privacy of the users, Sinha said.

Other restrictions also are built into the system, and the team also is developing a new type of encryption that will allow patients to maintain complete control over their data, while the tools analytic engine does the computations directly on the encrypted data.

Addressing privacy concerns has been at the core of our innovation, Sinha said. So we have taken a very different approach than that being taken by most of the proposed contact tracing apps being developed around the world, some of which have already begun to raise a lot of concerns about privacy.

Joining the fight

Sinha said he hopes to gain support and feedback from health officials on what features they would find useful on the tool and how it might be improved or modified. His ultimate goal is to develop a mobile-friendly version of the VCM tool that will serve the needs of both health officials and general public.

We need support from the general public in contributing their data to this tool for the greater good, he said. As more people use it, the better will become our ability to provide accurate contact tracing and risk assessment results.
Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), President Trump's nominee for director of national intelligence, had his confirmation hearing Tuesday in the Senate Intelligence Committee. (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)

Last summer, President Trumps choice for national intelligence director, Rep. John Ratcliffe, appeared doomed in the Senate, where even Republicans worried that his lack of national security experience and his exaggerated resume made him unfit to oversee the nations 17 spy agencies.

Trump withdrew Ratcliffes name from consideration in less than a week.

But Trump backtracked and renominated Ratcliffe as director of national intelligence early this year, and the Texas Republican appears likely to win confirmation to one of the most important jobs in Washington. After a Tuesday morning hearing in the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Richard M. Burr (R-N.C.), the panels chair, said he hopes to hold a vote next week.

There were no questions that he sidestepped today, Burr said. He answered everything and I think he did a very successful job at, one, verifying that hes more than capable of this job, and two, will serve in an independent capacity.

Democrats did not share that assessment about Ratcliffe, who drew national attention as an outspoken defender of Trump during the Russia investigation and impeachment proceedings.

I dont see what has changed since last summer when the president decided not to proceed with your nomination over concerns about your inexperience, partisanship and past statements that seemed to embellish your record, said Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), the panels vice chair.

Warner suggested that his Republican colleagues were advancing Ratcliffes nomination only because they are eager to replace Richard Grenell, a fierce Trump partisan who has been acting director of national intelligence while still serving as U.S. ambassador to Germany. Warner told Ratcliffe that some senators believe his main qualification for this post is you are not Ambassador Grenell.

In his testimony, Ratcliffe pledged to remain independent and to share unwelcome assessments with Trump, who forced out the previous national intelligence director, Dan Coats, after a series of clashes.

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I will deliver the unvarnished truth, Ratcliffe said. It wont be shaded for anyone.

Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), left, and Chairman Richard M. Burr (R-N.C.) at Tuesday's confirmation hearing for Rep. John Ratcliffe. (Gabriella Demczuk / Pool Photo )

But he labored to avoid contradicting Trump at the hearing. Only after three senators pressed him did Ratcliffe say he disagreed with the presidents claim that U.S. intelligence agencies  which he would oversee if confirmed  had run amok.

Ratcliffe said he couldnt yet assess other high-profile threats and disputes that would fall under his purview.

He wouldnt say whether Iran had complied with the 2015 nuclear disarmament deal, which Trump abandoned, although U.S. agencies and United Nations monitors concluded that it had.

Nor would Ratcliffe say whether North Korea had made any progress toward giving up its nuclear weapons, the goal of Trumps diplomatic outreach to Pyongyang. U.S. agencies say the country continues to expand its nuclear capability, although it has suspended underground tests.

Ratcliffe dodged when asked if Russia sought to help Trump win the 2016 election, as U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed and the president has adamantly denied.

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee cast doubt on that assessment, which was released in the closing days of President Obamas administration, while the Senate Intelligence Committee supported the conclusion in a recent bipartisan report.

I respect both committees, Ratcliffe said.

Ratcliffe said he agreed that the Kremlin had meddled in the U.S. election, something Trump has sometimes questioned.

They have a goal of sowing discord and they have been successful in sowing discord, he said.

The hearing showed how the coronavirus crisis has reshaped Washington. Senators were asked to watch from their offices and only come to the committee room to directly question Ratcliffe, who sat on the opposite side of the room.

Several senators wore masks, lowering them to ask questions during the hearing. Ratcliffe did not wear a mask.

Burr said the next director of national intelligence faced special challenges protecting national security during the pandemic.

Countries around the world have locked down, he said. But those threats have not stopped.

The White House has asked intelligence agencies to help determine whether the coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory, a claim that could escalate fraught tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Trump recently said hes seen evidence supporting the theory, but neither he nor national security officials have revealed any evidence. U.S. scientists have largely discounted that claim.

Ratcliffe said only that he would continue to examine the issue if confirmed.

The intelligence community will be laser-focused on getting all of the answers that we can regarding how this happened, he said.

An Illinois native, Ratcliffe served eight years as mayor of Heath, Texas, a small town east of Dallas. In 2007, President George W. Bush named him acting U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Texas, a post he held for a year before returning to private practice.

Ratcliffe was elected to Congress in 2014 and joined the House Intelligence Committee in 2019. After Trump sought to name Ratcliffe as spy chief last summer, news reports highlighted discrepancies in his resume.

His campaign website said that as a federal prosecutor he personally managed dozens of international and domestic terrorism investigations involving some of the nations most sensitive security matters and put terrorists in prison.

Records did not support those claims, but neither Republicans nor Democrats questioned him about them Tuesday.




They wanted the campus experience, but their colleges sent them home to learn online during the coronavirus pandemic. Now, students at more than 25 U.S. universities are filing lawsuits against their schools demanding partial refunds on tuition and campus fees, saying theyre not getting the caliber of education they were promised.

The suits reflect students growing frustration with online classes that schools scrambled to create as the coronavirus forced campuses across the nation to close last month. The suits say students should pay lower rates for the portion of the term that was offered online, arguing that the quality of instruction is far below the classroom experience.

Colleges, though, reject the idea that refunds are in order. Students are learning from the same professors who teach on campus, officials have said, and theyre still earning credits toward their degrees. Schools insist that, after being forced to close by their states, theyre still offering students a quality education.

Grainger Rickenbaker, a freshman who filed a class-action lawsuit against Drexel University in Philadelphia, said the online classes hes been taking are poor substitutes for classroom learning. Theres little interaction with students or professors, he said, and some classes are being taught almost entirely through recorded videos, with no live lecture or discussion.

Drexel University, Philadelphia (peterspiro / Getty Images file)

You just feel a little bit diminished, said Rickenbaker, 21, of Charleston, South Carolina. Its just not the same experience I would be getting if I was at the campus.

Other students report similar experiences elsewhere. A complaint against the University of California, Berkeley, says some professors are simply uploading assignments, with no video instruction at all. A case against Vanderbilt University says class discussion has been stymied and the quality and academic rigor of courses has significantly decreased.

In a case against Purdue University, a senior engineering student said the closure has prevented him from finishing his senior project, building an airplane. No online course can simulate the applicable, real-world experience he hoped to gain from the project, the complaint says.

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Class-action lawsuits demanding tuition refunds have been filed against at least 26 colleges, targeting prestigious private universities, including Brown, Columbia and Cornell, along with big public schools, including Michigan State, Purdue and the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Some of the suits draw attention to schools large financial reserves, saying colleges are unfairly withholding refunds even while they rest on endowments that often surpass $1 billion.

Several colleges declined to comment on the lawsuits, but some said students have continued to get what they paid for.

Ken McConnellogue, a spokesman for the University of Colorado, said its disappointing that people have been so quick to file lawsuits only weeks into the pandemic. He said the suits appear to be driven by a small number of opportunistic law firms.

Our faculty have been working extremely hard to deliver an academic product thats got the same high standards, high-quality academic rigor as what they would deliver in the classroom, he said. Its different, no doubt. And its not ideal. We all would prefer to have students on our campuses, but at the same time, were in the middle of a global pandemic here.

Officials at Michigan State said students are still taking classes taught by qualified faculty, and the school is still offering tutoring services, academic advising, faculty office hours and library services.

We dont negate that this has been a difficult time for our university, especially for our students, Emily Guerrant, a Michigan State spokeswoman, said in a statement. The school has taken on new costs to move instruction online, she added, but we have maintained our commitment to providing meaningful and robust learning experiences at no additional cost to our Spartans.

Officials at Drexel University said the school has continued to provide a broad spectrum of academic offerings and support while students learn remotely.

Lawyers representing students, however, say the refunds are a matter of fairness.

You cannot keep money for services and access if you arent actually providing it, said Roy Willey, a lawyer for the Anastopoulo Law Firm in South Carolina, which is representing students in more than a dozen cases. If were truly going to be all in this together, the universities have to tighten their belts and refund the money back to students and families who really need it.

Willey said his office has received hundreds of inquiries from students looking to file suits, and his firm is looking into dozens of possible cases. Other firms taking on similar cases say theyre also seeing a wave of demand from students and parents who say they deserve refunds.

Along with tuition, the cases also seek refunds for fees that students paid to access gyms, libraries, labs and other buildings that are now closed. All told, the complaints seek refunds that could add up to several thousand dollars per student at some schools.

The lawsuits ask courts to answer a thorny question that has come to the fore as universities shift classes online: whether theres a difference in value between online instruction and the traditional classroom. Proponents of online education say it can be just as effective, and universities say theyve done everything they can to create rigorous online classes in a matter of weeks.

But some of the complaints maintain that the college experience is about more than course credits. They say theres value to the personal interaction students get with faculty and classmates, both in the classroom and out. Willey adds that colleges themselves often charge lower rates for online classes, which he says is a reflection of their value.

The tuition price speaks for itself, he said. These students decided to go to in-person, on-campus universities. They could have chosen to go to online colleges and earn their degree that way, but they didnt.

Even before the first lawsuits were filed, demands for tuition refunds had been spreading. Students at dozens of schools have started petitions calling for refunds as online classes left them underwhelmed. Scores of schools have returned portions of housing and dining fees, but few if any have agreed to return any share of tuition.

At the University of Chicago, hundreds of students signed a letter saying they will refuse to pay this terms tuition, which was due April 29, unless the school reduces tuition by 50% and keeps it at that level during the crisis.

Colleges counter that the coronavirus has put them under sharp financial strain, too. Some estimate that they could lose up to $1 billion this year as they brace for downturns in student enrollment, state funding and research grants. Some have already announced layoffs and furloughs as they work to offset losses.

But the lawsuits say its not fair to pass those losses on to students. Jennifer Kraus-Czeisler, a lawyer for the New York firm Milberg Phillips Grossman, which is representing several students, said colleges have a duty to return fees for services they arent providing.

Were not disparaging the schools for closing. They did what was appropriate, she said. But theyre profiting at the expense of students. It just seems unconscionable.
Healthy Roster's SAFER Workplace helps companies safely return to work Its never been more imperative for people to be aware of how they are feeling and the immediate impact their health has on those around them. With SAFER Workplace, were uniquely suited to help employers and employees work together to keep everyone healthy and safe

Occupational Healthcare communication company Healthy Roster announced the release of its SAFER Workplace platform. The solution is built for organizations, teams, and institutions that need the ability to log, track and communicate COVID-19 statuses across employees, locations and geographies easily.

The SAFER Workplace platform was built for Occupational Medicine, Safety and Human Resource leaders to save organizations from having to invent their own manual tracking systems which could take weeks to develop, train and deploy across the workforce. Instead, using Healthy Roster allows you to upload your employees and immediately begin to send text-based surveys to check of COVID-19 symptoms to your entire workforce. No downloads or passwords required, each employee can easily and regularly report how they feel, sending alerts to designated management when someone needs more attention.

Started in 2015, Healthy Rosters HIPAA-compliant platform serves over 200 health systems and hospital networks across the US. Built on the Amazon healthcare cloud, customer data is secure and protected, with major redundancies and backups to protect sensitive information.

SAFER Workplace is a secure, automated set of proactive communication protocols that provides the ability to:



Screen individuals for COVID-19 symptoms using simple text messages

Alert personnel automatically when an individual indicates at-risk symptoms

Facilitate immediate responses in line with established protocols

Engage the employee quickly via chat and video to conduct assess and advise

Reports identify trends and hotspots to prevent workplace spread

Given the unprecedented nature of establishing pandemic return to work COVID-19 protocols, the SAFER Workplace platform is easily updated and tailored to your organization as federal and state requirements continue to evolve.

CEO Nathan Heerdt states, Our goal has always been to help keep people healthy and on the job. Its never been more imperative for people to be aware of how they are feeling and the immediate impact their health has on those around them. With SAFER Workplace, were uniquely suited to help employers and employees work together to keep everyone healthy and safe from COVID-19.

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Powering secure healthcare communications with a mobile-first platform, Healthy Roster supports Occupational Health and Safety leaders across Industrial Employers, Healthcare Systems, and Educational Institutions. Healthy Roster delivers powerful mobile documentation and communication tools, which improves organizations ability to provide better care to their personnel. Built on a HIPAA compliant infrastructure, Healthy Roster also enables patients to easily communicate with administrators or medical providers, reducing misunderstandings and delays in care to reduce time to care. For more information, visit https://www.healthyroster.com/safer-workplace.
Virus Outbreak-Virtual Proms This photo shows high school seniors who attended a virtual prom via Zoom on April 16 hosted by the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition. With the Class of 2020 missing out on so many traditions due to the coronavirus pandemic, many have gone online to participate in virtual proms. (Baton Rouge Youth Coalition via AP)

NEW YORK (AP)  In party dresses or come as you are, with colored lights flashing in their bedrooms and teachers-turned-DJs spinning, high schoolers have turned to virtual proms to salvage at least one slice of fun and tradition for the Class of 2020.

And theyre getting help from familiar brands like Teen Vogue and Jack in the Box, with both serving as hosts to thousands of teens.

Celebrities, too, are taking on prom: The Get Out actress Allison Williams was a guest DJ for Zoom partygoers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Jack Ryan star John Krasinski was joined by Billie Eilish when he threw a prom live on YouTube.

It's terrible that it's happening to your class, but I hope you're having a good time anyway," Williams told about 100 teens, staff and guests April 16 at the prom hosted by the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition, an after-school program.

The theme was Royaltee, an acknowledgement that while some kids had already bought their dresses before lockdown, others never got the chance and were welcome in T-shirts.

On top, Williams sparkled in a strapless copper sequin dress, joking that she couldn't get up and dance because there are sweatpants happening.

Alauna Stults, 17, in Findlay, Ohio, will wear a blue bedazzled two-piece outfit when she attends an online prom May 9 thrown by the party apparel rental service Charlotte's Closet and an event planning site, My School Dance. Charlotte's Closet is donating dresses to teens in need, including Alauna.

"I was looking forward to prom, she said. I was pretty pumped up about it. I was planning on going with a group of my friends, but it's really cool we can still dress up and do everything we would do for a prom, like doing makeup."

High schools and cheer teams have thrown virtual proms of their own as social media has filled up with sweet moments among families. Dads have taken their dressed-up daughters for living room spins for a dance or two, and teens have organized home proms among parents and siblings.

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Prom is definitely one of those bigger life moments when you're growing up, even if you find it to be corny or not cool. It definitely still is something that's a moment you look back on and remember, said Teen Vogue Editor-in-Chief Lindsay Peoples Wagner.

The site expects about 5,000 teens to attend its virtual prom May 16 on Zoom. Organizers are working with high schools around the country to set up separate rooms so kids can be with their friends as celebrity co-hosts pop in and DJs get busy.

YouTuber Emma Chamberlain, H.E.R. and Euphoria star Storm Reid are expected.

It will be really interactive, and that's going to be the fun part of it, Peoples Wagner said.

As part of a social distancing campaign, #StayInTheBox, Jack in the Box is working with schools in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Houston to put on a prom in May, complete with free food and delivery codes.

Serenity Cadogan in Covington, Georgia, near Atlanta is only 12, but she hosted a high school prom live on Instagram on March 31, which was National Prom Day, for more than 600 teens around the world, from Texas to London.

We wanted to brighten their day, said the seventh-grader, who leads a chapter of Becca's Closet, a nonprofit that donates free prom dresses to high school girls. Everybody was really happy. It was really classy. I didn't expect that many people but it actually ran pretty smoothly."

Ironically enough, at least one online school, the public K-12 Washington Virtual Academies, hosts an offline prom each year for the students it serves across the state of Washington. Not this year. Prom will be online, just like school.

People have reached out to us saying, hey, how do we do a virtual prom? But that's not something we've previously done, so we're embarking on this adventure just like schools all over the U.S.," said Summer Shelton, the head of school.

Offline, the school hosts prom in Tacoma, its home base. Students travel from as far away as Spokane to attend, staying in hotels. The date for Shelton's virtual prom had not been finalized but will likely be in June. The school has about 500 juniors and seniors.

This is one of the most looked-forward-to nights of the year, Shelton said. Right now they're dealing with disappointment, understandably, but trying to move past disappointment and saying, OK, what do we do now to make this special?"

Donna Sheperis, an associate professor of counseling at Palo Alto University's Los Altos, California, campus, sees other ironies for a tech-savvy generation missing out on prom.

They also crave human connection, she said. They crave a chance to dress up and dance with their friends. They crave some time that's just for them. And this year, they can't get it.

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Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.
U rinary tract infections (UTIs) are one of the most common types of infections, affecting around 92 million people a year worldwide. Theyre difficult to deal with too: a Public Health England survey found that 95 per cent of women suffering from a UTI had to visit a doctor and 74 per cent have had to take antibiotics.

This can be stressful in normal life when booking a doctors appointment and taking time off work isnt always an option, let alone when youre self-isolating and unable to visit a GPs office.

Now your smartphone can help you diagnose a UTI and receive treatment for the infection. Health tech start-up Healthy.io is focused on turning your phones camera into a medical device and its new service, Velieve, does just that.

Theres no doubt that for many women being able to treat a UTI at home will be really very convenient, said London-based GP Dr Nisa Aslam. This is even more helpful during the Covid-19 pandemic when many women maybe self-isolating or cant or dont want to go see or phone their practice.

Only available in London at the moment, you can book a Velieve testing kit to your home and it should arrive within three hours via the Velieve.io website. Carry out the test and then use your phones camera to read the dipstick; the Velieve service uses an algorithm to read the test via its proprietary app.

This test is then submitted to a remote clinician for analysis, thanks to a partnership with Medicspot, who will review it alongside the patients symptoms. If a UTI is diagnosed, antibiotics can be ordered and delivered that same day.

Speaking about the launch of Velieves at-home service, Healthy.ios managing director and chief commercial officer Katherine Ward said: Now, more than ever, there is an urgent need for home testing. Thats why we are thrilled to offer this service to women suffering from UTIs in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis and beyond.

The Velieve app guides you through the testing process / Healthy.io Ltd

This is a private service so there's a cost involved. As part of the launch, Healthy.io is offering the service for 10 for the next 60 days, which includes the kit delivery and the online consultation. If antibiotics are needed, that will cost a further 15. After the 60-day period, the test will cost 29.

This isnt the first time Healthy.io has offered a UTI test service. The company launched a pharmacy service last year which is available at 1,600 pharmacies across the UK, including Boots. In the US, Healthy.ios smartphone test can also be used to diagnose chronic kidney disease. The Israeli-based company has raised 62 million in funding so far from the likes of Samsung NEXT, the innovation arm of the electronics giant.
(Photo : Pixabay) Flights Will No Longer Be The Same Once The Pandemic Is Over: Higher Fares, Longer Waits, And No Booze Will Be Waiting For Your Next Flight (Photo : Pixabay) Flights Will No Longer Be The Same Once The Pandemic Is Over: Higher Fares, Longer Waits, And No Booze Will Be Waiting For Your Next Flight

According to a report from NBC News, airline travel after the pandemic will look very different from the low-cost "gateway" trips of the past. Higher ticket fares, no inflight alcohol, and temperature checks before boarding will be waiting for the passengers.

Currently, airlines are concerned about the eventual return of passengers and the need to implement significant measures to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus.

According to the report, two carriers have already been forced into bankruptcy ever since the airline industry's traffic plummetted by 95%.

According to Alexandre de Juniac, head of the International Air Transport Association, the global air transportation authority, fares will increase by 50% since planes will attempt to enforce social distancing.

Delta and Easyjet said to have a safe distance between passengers and those who are not part of their travel party, the airlines will also remove the middle seats.

Flights will no longer be the same once the pandemic is over: Higher fares, longer waits, and no booze will be waiting for your next flight

According to NBC News, inflight meals will also look different once the pandemic is over. Inflight magazines and paper menus will be gone. Alcohol and meals will not be provided by American Airlines, except on flights with international routes as explained by the company.





While prepackaged and sealed drinks will be offered by United Airlines, Delta encourages its passengers to pack their own food in order to lessen the physical contact between them and the company's employees. First-class passengers will be given a packaged meal containing items such as a fruit plate and a sandwich.

According to the report, another good reason why passengers should bring their own food is because of the expected longer waits in airports. A four-hour wait is said to be the norm in most of the airports across the globe since airlines will be sanitizing and inspecting passengers' bags and tagging them once they are finished. This will, of course, take additional time.

"We have to reimagine and reshape our airline and create a new future for our people, our customers, and the destinations we serve," said Alex Cruz, CEO of British Airways in the report.

The International Civil Aviation Organization stated that 1.5 billion fewer passengers will be faced by global airlines this year. Meanwhile, $273 billion in revenue will be lost since the seating capacity of airlines could drop by almost three-quarters.

The pandemic has become even worse than what the airline industry experienced after the terror attack on September 11, 2001, as described by the airline executives and the US Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Fine Gael councillor Noel Cribbin has welcomed the Governments Coronavirus Exit Strategy unveiled by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar last week.

Cllr Cribbin has described the publication of the strategy as being "a light at the end of the tunnel and praised the people of the Midlands for their fantastic efforts to date, which have saved many lives. "

Commenting on the strategy, Cllr. Cribbin said: "Weve seen this country face extraordinarily difficult decisions over the last weeks and all of us have played a part in finally being able to see a light at the end of the tunnel for this challenging period. Our next task is for everyone to continue to abide by restrictions under each of the 5 stages of the strategy as it is rolled out. There can be no room for complacency now."

Cllr. Cribbin said: "The country faces unprecedented challenges on two fronts, both health-wise and economically.

"Following the advice of Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan and the commitment of our frontline health care workers we are flattening the curve and bringing down the death rate on a daily basis.

"The Government, under the leadership of Leo Varadakar, has made it possible for those who have lost their jobs and for all facing economic uncertainty, to avail of a wage to support them and their families.

"We are now in possession of a roadmap to exit the pandemic which will work in conjunction with the various financial supports provided by Government to workers and business owners. From May 18 to August, we will hopefully be in a position to begin the task of returning our economy to where it was prior to the pandemic.

"We have seen the importance of cool heads and a proven track record of leadership, over the last weeks. These attributes will be needed more than ever over the next months and years.

He concluded: "Government formation is a priority for Fine Gael. With a solid Government in place, and the ongoing commitment of communities across Ireland to abide by all restrictions until such a time as they can be fully lifted, we can look forward to getting our country up and running again. Weve all made massive sacrifices and if we continue to stay apart to work together, we will come out the other side of this."
In November 2018, Gov. Charlie Baker signed a law to improve civics education in Massachusetts requiring schools to offer older students the chance to participate in a student-led civics project. The bill also laid a foundation for new requirements for civics education. Schools were required to teach about state and U.S. constitutions, local history, the Bill of Rights, branches of government, digital media literacy and even etiquette regarding the flag.

Six months after the governor signed the law implementing the education requirement, the Massachusetts Senate voted 39-0 in favor of a budget amendment allocating $1.5 million to the Civics Project Trust Fund created under the new law to help districts implement courses and assignments. The funding was eventually incorporated into the 2020 budget. At the time, this space was a strong advocate of this funding. Now that civics was on its way to playing a more prominent role in our education system, it was time to celebrate.

April 2020 presents another milestone and yet another reason to celebrate.

Easthampton High Schools We the People team won first place in a prestigious national scholarly competition related to the U.S. Constitution, beating 30 other teams. A Massachusetts team has never broken into the top 10. The competition was held on the platform Zoom due to social distancing measures. At the national competition hearings, the 21-person Easthampton team was broken up into six smaller units, with three or four students with a specific focus. Areas of focus included the making of the Constitution, the Equal Rights Amendment, elections, privacy in the modern world and a unit focusing on the civil rights movement. Easthampton High School teacher and We the People instructor Kelley Brown said, They were a phenomenal team.And quite a few of them talked about learning about civil discourse and really learning to listen to multiple sides of things and to be respectful when listening to different opinions with an open mind.

Given the tenor of our recent political culture, this offers a refreshing and optimistic forecast of the future. Smart, comprehensive government educational policies may lead to a smart, conscientious academic programs. In the past two decades, focus on civics related subjects have been put on the back burner. The hard work and dedication of the Easthampton We the People team show there is a strong interest and pride in studying government, history and civics.

And that will be a benefit for the citizenry moving forward.
Mazda Dealers Nationwide Offer Free Standard Oil Changes and Enhanced Vehicle Cleaning for Most Makes and Models Through June 1











A MESSAGE FROMJEFF GUYTONPRESIDENT, MAZDA NORTH AMERICAN OPERATIONS

The past few weeks have been difficult, and we hope you and your loved ones are safe. Our hearts go out to all those impacted by COVID-19.

We are closely monitoring guidance from public health officials and will continue implementing measures to help deter the spread of the virus.

For many of you, your Mazda plays a critical role in the safety of your loved ones. Rest assured that most of our dealers remain open to serve service and repair needs with many also operating sales departments on adjusted hours, concierge basis, or by appointment during these trying times. Many of our dealers are also providing free drop-off/pick-up services and free loaner vehicles while your Mazda is being taken to a dealership for service or maintenance needs. As county/state regulations change daily, we recommend contacting your selling or servicing dealer for the most up-to-date business hours. Remember we are still here to service your needs via our MyMazda app.

As we move through this situation, please take care of yourself and your communities as were all in this together.

IRVINE, Calif. (May 4, 2020)  Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) announced today that its Essential Car Care program, which provides free standard oil changes and enhanced car cleaning services for eligible U.S. healthcare workers at dealers nationwide, will now run through June 1.

Our family of Mazda dealers and employees feel a deep sense of gratitude to the health care workers during these difficult times, and we are proud to be able to support them in communities across the country, MNAO President Jeff Guyton said. Weve seen the meaningful impact of this program first-hand, and we are excited to continue to give something back as a thank you for their heroic efforts.

The Essential Car Care program, which began on April 16, was developed in partnership with Mazdas U.S. dealer network. The company will invest a minimum of $5 million as part of the initiative. The program extension will allow healthcare heroes throughout the U.S., including those in some of the hardest hit parts of the country, more time to access this program.

In order to help ensure the safety of healthcare workers and service employees, dealers participating in the Essential Car Care initiative have committed to enhanced vehicle cleaning of high-touch interior and exterior surfaces using Mazda and EPA-approved cleansers. Mazda has also encouraged dealers to continue following the recommendations from the CDC and local public health and government officials, along with workplace personal hygiene practices to help ensure the safety of everyone in the service areas.

Details on the Essential Car Care initiative can be found on MazdaUSA.com.

Mazda North American Operations is headquartered in Irvine, California, and oversees the sales, marketing, parts and customer service support of Mazda vehicles in the United States and Mexico through approximately 620 dealers. Operations in Mexico are managed by Mazda Motor de Mexico in Mexico City.
Maharashtra on Tuesday crossed the 15,000 mark for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases with 984 infections, taking the tally to 15,525. Just like on Monday, 841 of the new cases were reported in the 24 hours before the announcement, while the remaining 143 were over the past few days, as per the Central governments directive to bring the data at par with the national figures on the website of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the state government said.

State capital Mumbai is nearing the 10,000-cases mark with a total of 9,945 cases, including the 635 new infections on Tuesday.

Maharashtra breached the 10,000 mark on April 30, 53 days since the first case on March 9. The state took five days to cross the next 5,000. Indias worst-hit state has been witnessing a rapid rise in cases over the past few days. In the past ten days, since April 26, 7,897 cases and 299 deaths have been recorded across the state. Mumbai has seen 4,455 cases and 196 deaths in the period.

The state also reported 34 Covid-19 deaths on Tuesday, taking the toll to 617. Mumbai saw 26 deaths on Tuesday. Of the other deaths, six were in Pune and one each in Aurangabad and Kolhapur. At least 14 of the patients who died on Tuesday were above 60 years of age, while 28 had high-risk comorbidities. The mortality rate in the state stood at 4.01%, down from 7.21% on April 12, but the number of deaths is increasing, with 299 deaths in the past ten days. The countrys mortality rate hovers around 3.23%.

On Tuesday, the state directed district collectors and municipal commissioners to concentrate on containment zones as their monitoring is expected to become more difficult. There are complaints of crowding in many places after liquor and other non-essential shops were allowed to operate. Restricting the spread from red and containment zones will become more important after the relaxations. The clampdown in containment zones, especially in MMR and PMR should not be relaxed at any cost, district authorities have been directed. Late on Tuesday, the Mumbai civic body issued a notification, saying liquor shops and non-essential shops will not be allowed in the city, a move to prevent crowding.

According to officials, although chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has directed district authorities to contain the virus by May-end, full containment by then is looking difficult. He has set a target and asked authorities to ensure strictest monitoring under the principle of 3 Ts (tracing, testing and treatment) in containment areas. He has also asked them to focus on shrinking containment zones to neutralise the areas. Though the cases are not expected to come to nil so soon, we expect the downward trend to begin by then, said an official.

The official said that though there are various projections about the graph of the cases, the government expects the downward trend to begin in the next two-three weeks.

Dr TP Lahane, director, Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), said, Almost all the contacts of the patients are traced and will be quarantined in the next ten days. During this period, the rate of the cases will move northward and once two weeks of quarantine is over, we expect a drastic fall by the end of this month.

Officials said the state government has set a target of May 31 to flatten the curve to ensure that the spread is contained and the lockdown in Mumbai, Pune and other cities is ended at the earliest.

Meanwhile, the state government issued a clarification on timings of shops and establishments, saying that there would be no restrictions on timings unless directed by the municipal commissioner and district collectors. All shops and markets, which are allowed to remain open as per the order, shall function according to their timings. However, municipal commissioners in MMR and PMR, Nagpur, Nashik and Aurangabad and district collectors in other areas will have rights to decide on the timings in case there is need of regulating these commercial activities.

There were too many authorities issuing orders without any uniformity on timing and days at the local level. This order brings clarity, said Bhushan Gagarani, principal secretary, Maharashra government.

The state government, in the wake of the partial relaxations for the shops and establishments given from Monday, had received complaints about too many restrictions. In some areas, police were regulating the shops without any reason and it was leading to crowding in the areas.

State health minister Rajesh Tope said that the recovery rate in Maharashtra has improved. As many as 354 patients were sent home after they fully recovered from the infection. This was the highest single-day number since the first patient was reported on March 9. We are conducting more than 7,000 tests in 45 laboratories daily and the number is highest in the country, he said.

In the past 24 hours, the state has carried out 6,561 coronavirus tests and 841 people have tested positive, which is 12.81% of the total people tested. The number of tests in the state touched 1,82,884 on Tuesday. 1,67,205 of them were negative. 1,99,182 people are currently under home quarantine, while 12,456 are under institutional quarantine. 11,629 teams of health workers have screened 50.81 lakh people for suspected infection, after they came in contact with patients. 2,819 patients have fully recovered from various hospitals, after testing positive in the past six weeks.

Meanwhile, some district and municipal authorities have been imposing restrictions on the movement of people from Mumbai, the worst-hit city, to its jurisdiction. Ulhasnagar and Kalyan- Dombivli municipal corporations have issued orders to the citizens working in Mumbai to arrange for accommodations near their workplaces.

According to the officials from the state government, collectors of many districts like Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg have refused to issue permissions for citizens from Mumbai to enter the districts.

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PepsiCo India on Tuesday said the first batch of test kits for coronavirus funded by it has started reaching testing sites across India.

These kits are being procured and distributed by Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) with funding from PepsiCo India and have been approved by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the company said in a statement.

PepsiCo India had volunteered to support the scale up of India's COVID-19 testing capacity through support provided to FIND.

Besides, it has taken other initiatives including providing over 7 million meals to families impacted by COVID-19 outbreak in partnership with non-government organisation (NGO) partners.

The test kits and reagents have been procured from manufacturers approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) and are run using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technology, which is currently the gold standard for detecting patients with COVID-19, the company said.

Commenting on the initiative, PepsiCo India President Ahmed ElSheikh said, "PepsiCo India stands committed to lending its full support to the GoI (Government of India) in its fight against the pandemic. Our partnership with FIND is all about scaling up access to diagnostics and testing kits across the country."



During these challenging times, he further said, "We have been working very closely with FIND to distribute testing kits to public and private healthcare laboratories in India. We believe lending assistance through such initiatives is also one of the best ways to support our real heroes the healthcare community who are battling on the front lines against COVID-19."



FIND India Head Sanjay Sarin said the sheer size of India and the density of urban populations increases the challenges and complexity of scaling up testing capacity quickly and efficiently.

"Testing is our first-line of defence against this pandemic and it is actionable today," he said, adding private sector partnerships such as the one with PepsiCo India are critical to make COVID-19 tests available to everyone who needs it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Zayed Sustainability Prize has announced the extension of its submissions deadline for the 2021 awards edition to June 11th, 2020, in efforts to accommodate its diverse international audience base throughout the ongoing global health crisis.

Small-to-medium sized enterprises, non-profit organisations and high schools around the world can still submit their entries, apply and compete through the Prizes online portal, for the UAEs pioneering global award rewarding impact, innovation, and inspiration across five sustainability categories  Health, Food, Water, Energy and Global High Schools.

Commenting on the announcement, H.E. Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and Director General of the Zayed Sustainability Prize, said: As the world continues to combat Covid19, identifying practical and effective solutions that strengthen sustainable development and empower others to do so through the Zayed Sustainability Prize remains an objective of paramount importance, in line with the humanitarian vision of our Founding Father Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Therefore, given the special circumstances that various communities and nations are facing, the decision was taken to extend this years submission deadline.

H.E. added: We have seen an encouraging volume of entries thus far, and we are confident that the expanded timeframe will enable the worlds sustainability pioneers to inspire us with their ideas to effect positive change.

The US$3 million prize fund is divided equally between the winners of the five categories, with each allocated US$600,000. In the Global High Schools category, the award recognises six winners, from six world regions, with each winning school eligible to claim up to US$100,000 in funding.

The 2019-2020 awards cycle witnessed a record-breaking number of submissions, with 2,373 entries received from 129 countries, a testament to the Prizes far-reaching global success and mass appeal within the international sustainability community for more than a decade.

To date, the Prize has recognised and rewarded a total of 86 winners whose solutions or school projects have, directly and indirectly, transformed the lives of 335 million people around the world.

Small-to-medium sized enterprises and non-profit organisations must enter an existing sustainability solution with demonstrable impact in one of the Health, Food, Energy, or Water categories. On the other hand, the Global High Schools category invites student-led projects or proposals, based on one or more of those four sustainability themes, and provides funding to help develop or enhance their school or local community project.

Notes to the Editor:

To apply to the 2021 Zayed Sustainability Prize cycle, applicants can simply visit zayedsustainability.com and select the Apply tab.

About Zayed Sustainability Prize

Established by the UAE leadership, in 2008, to honour the legacy of the UAEs founding father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the Zayed Sustainability Prize is the UAEs pioneering global award for recognising sustainability and humanitarian solutions, around the world.

With an annual awards ceremony, held each year during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, the Zayed Sustainability Prize acknowledges and rewards pioneers and innovators who are committed to developing and accelerating impactful solutions that serve disadvantaged communities and people  building a lasting legacy, today, for the future generations to come.

The Zayed Sustainability Prize categories are: Health, Food, Energy, Water and Global High Schools.

For more information, please visit www.ZayedSustainabilityPrize.com or go to our social media platforms on, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube.

*Source: AETOSWire

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200504005391/en/
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The NHS's new coronavirus track-and-trace app could be hijacked by trolls bent on 'sowing chaos for malicious pleasure' with people more likely to ignore warnings about self-isolating if 'false alerts' become widespread, experts warned today.

The UK app is currently the only one in the world that will allow an element of self reporting  letting users trigger alerts to other people by reporting they have symptoms.

In the early version of the app, if a member of the public becomes unwell with symptoms of Covid-19 they use the app to inform the NHS - and will trigger an anonymous 'yellow' alert to those other users with whom they came into significant contact over the previous few days.

A so-called red alert will follow up to a week later if a medical test confirms that the original user is infected and telling them they should self-isolate. The original user will have to enter a PIN provided by the NHS to trigger the red alert.

Several experts have warned that the user-triggered yellow alerts could lead to a collapse in the publics trust in the app if there is an outbreak of crying wolf.

Because the app does not identify users, there will be no way to punish people who trigger false alerts.

Professor Michael Veale, a lecturer in Digital Rights and Regulation at UCL in London told MailOnline: The UK is the only country I am aware of which is even considering allowing self-reporting in the app due to the risk of abuse. Small and medium-scale targeted attacks, say on your employer (to get the day off work), your parents (to get the day off school), a famous person or the like, are effectively impossible to stop through any method if you allow self-reporting.

You can't distinguish them from a real risk, and of course, you can't be too heavy-handed with your spam filter, else you'll miss real infection chains. The worry I have is that self-reporting will create a lot of Boy Who Cried Wolf abuse'.

How will the NHS app work? The NHS is rolling out its new coronavirus track-and-trace app today for testing across the Isle of Wight. This is how it will work STEP ONE: DOWNLOAD THE APP Britons will be able to download the app for free from the Department of Health website. It is also available vi the Apple and Android app stores or via a link sent by email to NHS and public sector workers. It is being tested on the Isle of Wight before a potential roll-out across the country, probably one region at a time. STEP TWO: PROVIDE A PARTIAL POSTCODE To register the person will be asked to provide the first half of their postcode, which shows the NHS the town or borough they live in - but not their name or their exact home address. The user will be asked to allow the app to use the phone's bluetooth to keep track of other phones it comes in to close to and for how long for. The NHS insists it will not be tracking location data - only phones But while the Government has said 'your postcode will not be used to track your location' - it is less clear if they also mean your location will not be tracked at all. STEP THREE: KEEP YOUR PHONE ON The user will be told to keep their phone and Bluetooth switched on at all times and the app will run in the background without them doing anything. The user will also be asked to allow 'push notifications' - which allows the NHS to send a person messages directly to their phones. When an individual goes out, the app will keep a log of every time it comes within Bluetooth range of another phone - but that person must also have the app. All IDs will be anonymous, with each app registered to a code rather than a person or address. STEP FOUR: REPORT YOUR SYMPTOMS IF YOU BECOME ILL If someone becomes ill they will be asked to log on to the app and input it. They will be asked if they have the common symptoms of coronavirus such as a high temperature and a continuous cough. If no, nothing will happen. If yes, they will be told to order a coronavirus test. STEP FIVE: APP SENDS YOUR DATA TO THE NHS SERVER FOR ANALYSIS BY EXPERTS If it is a suspected coronavirus case these symptoms and the anonymous IDs of all the phones the user has come into contact with are automatically sent to an NHS server. The NHS will analyse the data sent by the original sufferer using what it calls a 'complex algorithm'. Although it is believed to be largely based on distance of between one and two metres, and the amount of time, probably around ten to 15 minutes. STEP SIX: NHS SENDS A TAILORED YELLOW AND RED ALERTS TO CONTACTS It will then alert app users who have been in significant contact with the original person with symptoms. For those who have been in contact with someone who has self reported symptoms, the app will send a yellow alert. In early versions of the app, this warns the user that they have been in contact with someone who has reported symptoms. If the original sufferer tests positive, everyone they have been in contact with will receive a stronger 'red' alert telling them to go into quarantine. The origInal sufferer triggers the red alert by entering a PIN issued by the NHS after they test positive. The Department of Health has not revealed exactly what the alerts will say. The Department of Health says: 'The app will advise the public what action to take if a user has been close to someone who has become symptomatic. The advice on what people should do can be adapted as the context and approach evolves.' The app will calculate how at risk a contact is by measuring their exposure to the person with symptoms. It will measure exposure by time and proximity. The NHS analysts will set the risk parameters that trigger alerts. STEP SEVEN: ORIGINAL SUFFERER CONTACTED BY HUMAN NHS CONTACT TRACERS The app will issue the original person with symptoms instructions on how to get a test using the software. One of around 10,000 UK human contact tracers may also get in contact on the phone and ask the app user how many people are in their household, where they have been and who they have been close to, that they know of, to find people who may not have been picked up by the bluetooth. They will also try to contact these new contacts if required. STEP EIGHT: SUFFERER IS TESTED Once the Covid-19 test arrives at the person's home they will be expected to swab and then put it back in the post to an NHS testing centre. They may also be eligible for a home test by a health worker or visit one of the country's test centres. The result should be available within 48 hours. There are then two possible outcomes:  The person tests negative. In this case, your contacts are told via a message that it was a false notification.  The person tests positive. In this case, your contacts are asked to isolate for 14 days, and get them into the clinical testing path. STEP NINE: HUMAN CONTACT TRACERS CONTACT AT-RISK CONTACTS OF ORIGINAL SUFFERER AND PLOT HOTSPOTS The NHS' army of human contact tracers will contact app users who have been in 'significant contact' with the original person with symptoms will be alerted through the app. They will provided with 'health advice'  which may include self isolation  based on the NHS' assessment of their level of risk. Not everyone who has been in contact will be alerted based on the NHS algorithm. This advice will be constantly modified by doctors based on the current sutuation. If a hotspot of new cases emerges, the users will be advised to take more urgent action, such as staying at home or even seeking medical attention. The NHS team of contact tracers will then individually contact everyone who has been in contact with the sufferer, either through the app or by other means. Advertisement

Countries who have adopted the Apple-Google Covid-19 tracing app 'not compatible' with the NHS' own software Germany Italy Switzerland Austria Estonia Ireland - The United States of America is expected to use it - but no final decision has been made yet Advertisement

The Government claims it could easily spot 'anomalous patterns of activity' in the software being tested on the Isle of Wight today and says it will use sophisticated risk analysis to halt false alerts.

But in France ministers have just rejected this idea, deciding instead to send a single alert via their app only when a test result confirms the app user is ill with coronavirus.

Professor Veale said: 'Epidemiologists in the countries we work with ruled out self-reporting immediately, both because of the data quality in this asymptomatic disease, and the lack of trust in the instructions the false alerts would cause. The only way to make sure that people can be held to account for submitting false reports is to identify them, which takes you down a slippery slope.'

Health apps expert Dr Dimitra Petrakaki, from the University of Sussex Business School warned: Contact tracing apps rely on individual self-reporting. This means that there is no guarantee either that all individuals will systematically self-report or that the data reported will be true.

Experts have said that nations rolling out apps must weed out hoaxers or the system could be abused by the public, businesses, protest groups or even rogue states.

A paper published last month by the Brookings Institution in Washington written by three leading US academics in the fields of science, tech and law warned: 'The issue of malicious use is paramount. Trolls could sow chaos for the malicious pleasure of it. Protesters could trigger panic as a form of civil disobedience. A foreign intelligence operation could shut down an entire city by falsely reporting COVID-19 infections in every neighborhood. There are a great many vulnerabilities underlying this platform that have still yet to be explored'.

The British app has been developed by NHSX, whose boss Martin Gould has said that self-reporting is one of its greatest strengths, meaning people will be warned earlier that they could have been exposed to coronavirus. He said that this is possible in the UK because NHSX can spot 'anomalous patterns of activity' including hacking attempts and if people were making malicious reports.

The UK's National Cyber Security Centre, part of the UK's eavesdropping intelligence service GCHQ, admits that these apps can bring problems but said it would only work properly using self-reporting.

In a lengthy blog post yesterday, one of Britains most senior spies, Dr Ian Levy, said the app would bring 'interesting security challenges', adding: 'One of the obvious ones is that an attacker can (for example) sit outside a hospital with some custom kit, and create fake but realistic looking proximity events for everyone in the hospital and then report myself as sick. Without some smarts, everyone would be told to self isolate. In our model, the risk modelling can catch this sort of attack and mitigate it. We cant see how a similar mitigation can be done in some of the other decentralised models without removing self diagnosis'.

Australia's COVIDSafe app users have been warned to ignore a new email scam that demands users pay a fine for leaving their home. The bogus email has been circulating under the guise of a My Gov account and demands reparation from users for unnecessarily breaching the COVID-19 restriction.

Britain's new app will be tested on the Isle of Wight from today onwards - but there are growing concerns about its privacy settings and why the Government shunned a Google-Apple alternative adopted by other countries.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has decided the first public tests on their contact tracing software would begin on the self-contained island of 140,000 people, with NHS and council staff the first to be given access - and has insisted they would enjoy 'high privacy'.

But question marks have been raised after other nations, such as Germany, the Republic of Ireland and Switzerland have chosen to implement a decentralised system - where the data always remains on a person's phone.

Their model, seen as more secure and immune from hacking by some experts due to spreading the collected information, is also backed by tech giants Apple and Google.

The UK has instead developed its own centralised app with data sent to the Government's servers when someone registers coronavirus symptoms, allowing the NHS to send them a test in the post.

Critics have argued that by not using the same app or framework as the Europeans the two systems are not compatible, meaning Brits travelling to those countries could be unnecessarily placed in quarantine for 14 days upon arrival once the lockdown is eased. The US is also expected to plump for the Apple - Google model.

Lawyers have also suggested that it may also breach human rights and data protection laws - and the NHS is now facing questions about the decision to develop an app when other countries are plumping for the more privacy-centric approach.

Matthew Ryder, a QC at Matrix Chambers in London - who sits on the Guardian's Scott Trust - has warned the app could be illegal and suggested it is 'inevitable' the nationwide rollout of the app could be challenged in the High Court.

Tory MP Damian Collins has also published ten questions about how the government will protects app users' data.

He told the BBC: 'The government needs to justify why they are going for the system that has a greater interference than the one that should do the job with less interference.

'If Germany, the US and Italy can all do the job that we want to do with a decentralised system that Apple and Google have facilitated, which is the least interference of privacy, we need to understand why the UK thinks it can't do the job and needs a different system.

'What the Information Commissioner said that we agree with is that there needs to be a data impact assessment. So that the information commissioner and everyone else can understand what the data impact assessment is and why the NHS thinks they need these extra interferences with our privacy in order to be able to do the job. This is a really important thing and we need to protect rights'.

He added: 'It's almost inevitable that if the Government doesn't take the approach that the information commissioner and others are suggesting, hopefully they will, then are going to be legal implications including the possibility of a legal challenge. '

After today's tests all Isle of Wight residents will be able to download the software on to their smartphones from Thursday.

If the tests are successful it could be rolled out across the country within weeks as ministers seek to shape a strategy to allow some economic activity to resume, with the long-awaited 'roadmap' for easing lockdown being published on Sunday.

Users will input into the app when they have symptoms linked to Covid-19. Developed by NHSX, the health service's tech innovation arm, the software will then use Bluetooth to anonymously monitor and log when app users come into contact with each other.

The software will alert people if they have been in close contact with someone who later fell ill with coronavirus, which has killed 28,734 in the UK so far, so they can self-isolate and be tested if necessary.

Some MPs have raised concerns about privacy and the amount of data it will gather - but the NHS insists it is vital to stop further outbreaks of the virus and to prevent people from spreading the virus without realising they have it, as well as alerting authorities to local clusters of cases.

Google and Apple have managed to develop software which serves the same function but in a way that contains all the necessary data inside someone's phone and doesn't need a server. Other countries including Germany and Switzerland are using this approach.

Because no movement or tracking information is stored on a central server, it would be invisible to Google, Apple and the NHS and there would be nothing to hack.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said a user's phone will store anonymously the information about all the phones it has been within two metres of for more than 15 minutes in the previous few days.

He said one of the aspects being tested in the trial on the Isle of Wight is whether the best thing is for someone who gets a message saying they have been in contact with someone with symptoms should self-isolate 'in case you develop the symptoms'.

He told BBC Breakfast: 'This is one of the reasons that we want to test it to ensure that we get the rules right around what we advise people to do as soon as the contact tracing pings you.'

Mr Hancock said the app would allow the Government to have a picture of where there might be virus hotspots.

He said: 'The more people who have the app the better.'

He said human contact tracing is important alongside technology.

He said: 'Of course we use the technology but we're going to be using people too in this test, track and trace system.'

Mr Hancock said it was being used on the Isle of Wight because the fact that the population is small and cut off from the mainland meant the experiment could be carried out in 'proper scientifically-controlled conditions'.

Pressed on privacy and the use of data, Mr Hancock reiterated that information will be stored on a person's phone until the point they need to get in contact with the NHS to get a test.

He said: 'I think we can give very significant reassurances on the privacy aspect but what I can tell you is that if you download the app then you are doing your duty and you are helping to save lives, and you're helping to control the spread of the virus, and that's true as of this morning on the Isle of Wight amongst NHS staff, but it'll be true increasingly across the country as we roll it out.'

Mr Hancock said the app is 'a very, very positive step in terms of us all being able to get some of our liberty back'.

Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen has said the Government should look at decentralised app models - where contact-tracing data stays on a user's device.

The organisation's concerns that 'the Government may be planning to route private data through a central database, opening the door to pervasive state surveillance and privacy infringement, with potentially discriminatory effects' was put to the Health Secretary.

Mr Hancock responded: 'That's completely wrong.'

Asked why, he said: 'Firstly because the data is stored on your phone until you need to get in contact with the NHS in order to get a test and secondly because the purposes of this are purely and simply to control the spread of the virus, which is really important.

'Thirdly because we've all had to give up significant infringements on our liberty, for instance with the social distancing measures and the lockdown, and we want to release those, and this approach will help us to release them ... I can reassure you that it's completely untrue.'

If the island trial is successful the Government plans to roll out the app to everyone across the UK as a crucial element of its 'test, track and trace' plan for keeping the country out of lockdown in future as it adapts to life with the virus.

Deputy chief medical officer, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, said today: 'It's highly unlikely that the COVID-19 virus is going to go away... therefore, testing and contact tracing is going to have to become part of our daily lives for the future'.

People will be asked to give the first half of their postcode so the NHS can collect vague, anonymised data - at town or village level - about where outbreaks of the coronavirus are appearing (pictured left). If someone has been close to a person who is later believed to be ill with COVID-19 they will receive an anonymous yellow alert that they are at risk (right). If the original sufferer tests positive for coronavirus, they will receive a red alert.

People eligible for the app will be sent a download link when it is available for them to start using. It will rely on people accurately reporting whether they are ill or not, or have tested positive. Contacts will be advised to self-isolate while someone is tested

Experts say 60 per cent of the population or more will need to download the app for it to work well. Government figures have not put a target on uptake but will urge everybody who can to download the app when it becomes available, adopting the mantra 'download the app, protect the NHS, save lives'.

The app will rely on people being honest about when they feel ill - data must be put into the app by the user. It is not clear what will constitute close enough contact for someone to be alerted that they are at risk. The World Health Organization's rule is 15 minutes within six-and-a-half feet (2m), but the Department of Health said a 'complex risk algorithm' would dictate who would be warned.

The programme on the Isle of Wight will carry on for around two weeks to check whether the system works and whether people actually download and use it properly. If successful, the app will start to be used on mainland Britain from mid-May, the Department of Health said, while continuing on the Isle of Wight.

But there are concerns that the data the NHS app collects might be vulnerable because officials have elected to store it on a central database on NHS servers.

Some other countries including Switzerland and Germany are using technology which stores all data on someone's own phone and never submits it to authorities.

The CEO of NHSX, the digital arm of the health service, today said he could not confirm exactly who would have access to data collected by the NHS app, saying only that an organisation must have a valid public health reason to access it. He insisted that the app will never upload private, identifying information such as someone's name or address.

The app has also failed the tests it must pass to be officially listed on the NHS app store, including cyber-security measures, according to claims made by an NHS official in the Health Service Journal.

It is reported to be below the normal standards the NHS requires to officially publish an app for mobile users, and has not lived up to expectations set on cyber-security, performance and its 'clinical safety'. Exactly how it failed those measures is unclear.

The Department of Health disputed the reports and called them 'factually untrue', insisting the app is being fast-tracked, has not failed any tests and will go through normal approval channels after it is rolled out on the Isle of Wight.

Downloading and using the app will be voluntary but officials hope huge numbers of people will be persuaded to take part in the hope of lifting movement restrictions.

HOW IS THE NHS TRACING APP DIFFERENT TO ONE MADE BY APPLE AND GOOGLE? The app technologies developed by Google/Apple and the NHS are based on the same principle - they keep a log of who someone has come into close contact with - but the way they store data is the main difference. The NHS's keeps information in a centralised database, while the Google/Apple app is de-centralised. NHS app: Lists on NHS servers The NHSX app will create an alert every time two app users come within Bluetooth range of one another and log this in the user's phone. Each person will essentially build up a list of everyone they have been in 'contact' with. This will be anonymised so the lists will actually just be numbers or codes, not lists of names or addresses. If someone is diagnosed with the coronavirus or reports that they have symptoms, all the app users they got close to during the time that they were considered infectious - this will vary from person to person - will receive an alert telling them they have been put at risk of COVID-19 - but it won't name the person who was diagnosed. NHSX insists it will delete people's data when they get rid of the app. Apple/Google: Contained on phones In Apple and Google's de-centralised approach, meanwhile, the server and list element of this process is removed and the entire log is contained in someone's phone. That app works by exchanging a digital 'token' with every phone someone comes within Bluetooth range of over a fixed period. If one person develops symptoms of the coronavirus or tests positive, they will be able to enter this information into the app. The phone will then send out a notification to all the devices they have exchanged tokens with during the infection window, to make people aware they may have been exposed to COVID-19. The server database will not be necessary because each phone will keep an individual log of the bluetooth profiles someone has come close to. These will then be linked anonymously to people's NHS apps and alerts can be pushed through that even after the person is out of bluetooth range. It is understood that if someone later deletes the Google/Apple app and closes their account their data would be erased. Will NHS benefit from central data? If the NHS collects the data it may be able to use it as part of wider contact tracing efforts as well as being able to detect local outbreaks using location data. In future, if someone is diagnosed with COVID-19, members of an army of 18,000 'contact tracers' will be tasked with working out who else that patient has come into contact with and put at risk. It is not clear how much access the human contact tracers will have to data collected through the app. Advertisement

NHS and council staff on the Isle of Wight will be sent a download link by email today, and residents on the island will receive letters in the post with instructions on how to get the app on Thursday.

It is being trialled on the Isle of Wight because it is a small, self-contained community which is easier to control, Mr Hancock said. Initial testing was carried out on an even smaller self-contained community at RAF Leeming, an air base in North Yorkshire, and it is now being scaled up.

Mr Hancock claimed that on the Isle of Wight it could be tested in 'scientific' conditions because people cannot come and go freely - there is no bridge or tunnel between the Isle and mainland Britain.

It will be easier for officials to get a clear idea of what proportion of the population has downloaded the app, and to get tests for large parts of communities quickly.

But privacy concerns have been raised about the way the app works.

Dr Michael Veale, a lecturer in digital rights at University College London, said on BBC Radio 4 this morning: 'One thing people need to do is have deep trust that this data will not be misused or that the system will not turn slowly into something that starts to identify people more individually.'

The NHSX app focuses on a centralised approach in which any interactions between people are recorded by the phone and then, if someone is flagged as a coronavirus patient, sent back to a server run by the NHS.

NHSX is on an offensive to assuage people's concerns about privacy and insists that no personal information will be collected. People will be identified by codes which are not linked to their name or address.

Instead, the app will keep a log of Bluetooth connections between codes and, when one of the codes is upgraded to signify that the patient attached to it has tested positive or become ill (this will be done by the user via the app), other codes which had been in contact with that one will be alerted anonymously.

All the connections - which will look to the human eye like a series of pairs of numbers, with one number in common - will then be uploaded to a central NHS database and stored.

NHSX chief executive, Matthew Gould, confirmed the app will collect no specific personal data from users such as their name or address.

He said: 'The app is designed so you don't have to give it your personal details to use it  it does ask for the first half of your postcode but only that.

'You can use it without giving any other personal details at all  it doesn't know who you are, it doesn't know who you've been near, it doesn't know where you've been.'

But experts say this level of data collection - tracking the movements of one unchanging number and linking it to others - is fraught with hazards.

It is possible that if the data was hacked, one of the codes - each person's identifying code remains the same over time - could be linked to a person if the hacker could pinpoint the code and person in the same place. This could then be used to track them repeatedly as their Bluetooth checked in at other places.

The NHS is now facing questions as to why it needs to develop the app in this manner when other countries are plumping for the more privacy-centric approach.

Google and Apple have managed to develop software which serves the same function but in a way that contains all the necessary data inside someone's phone and doesn't need a server. Other countries including Germany and Switzerland are using this approach.

Because no movement or tracking information is stored on a central server, it would be invisible to Google, Apple and the NHS and there would be nothing to hack.

That technology works by exchanging a digital 'token' with every phone someone comes within Bluetooth range of over a fixed period.

If one person develops symptoms of the coronavirus or tests positive, they will be able to enter this information into the app.

The phone will then send out a notification to all the devices they have exchanged tokens with during the infection window, to make people aware they may have been exposed to COVID-19.

The process is confined to the individual's handset and the scope of the information sent to the NHS is strictly limited.

The UK now has more confirmed COVID-19 deaths - according to backdated statistics from the Office for National Statistics, National Records Scotland, and Northern Ireland's NISRA - than any other country in Europe

Experts fear that the system could be used to label people as infected or at-risk in a way that other people would be able to see, meaning they could face discrimination.

Dr Veale said: 'We've seen in China the traffic light system of red, yellow, green - 'are you suitable to come into this building or come into work' - and a centralised system is really just a few steps away from creating those kind of persistent identifiers that allow you to make that kind of approach.

'Whereas a decentralised system really does proximity tracing and does not do more than that. People can trust that technically.'

With the NHS's approach, people will have to trust the health service and therefore the Government with their personal information.

Human rights group Amnesty International raised alarm about the prospect.

Scientists have said they are worried about 'mission creep' in which people are told the data will be used for one thing but then the people controlling the data decide to use it for something else.

Amnesty International UK director, Kate Allen, said the Government should be looking at decentralised app models where contact-tracing data stays on a user's device.

ISLE OF WIGHT FACTFILE The Isle of Wight is an island off the south coast of England, linked by ferry to Portsmouth and Southampton. The island has a population of around 141,000 people. More than a quarter of all its residents (27.3 per cent) are older than 65, and the proportion is increasing. It is one of the most elderly communities in England & Wales. Its biggest town is Newport and has a population of just 18,700 people. Only three towns on the island have more than 10,000 residents. One in six houses are occupied by someone older than 65 living on their own. The Isle of Wight is off the coast of Portsmouth and Southampton The vast majority of people on the island are white and British - 94.8 per cent, compared to 85.9 per cent in England. Just under two per cent are 'other white', while just over one per cent are Asian. Bob Seely MBE is the MP for the island. He is a member of the Conservative Party and has held office since 2017. The Conservatives also hold a majority on the borough council.

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However, officials says they are maintaining strict privacy rules while also gathering anonymous data about the numbers of coronavirus cases in certain areas, which could help hospitals to plan for outbreaks, for example.

Ms Allen said: 'We're extremely concerned that the Government may be planning to route private data through a central database, opening the door to pervasive state surveillance and privacy infringement, with potentially discriminatory effects.

'Ministers should instead be examining decentralised, privacy-preserving models such as those many European governments are pursuing.

'In these extraordinary times, contact-tracing apps and other technology could potentially be useful tools in responding to COVID-19, but our privacy and rights must not become another casualty of the virus.'

Dr Veale also promoted the benefits of the de-centralised model, adding: 'In the Apple and Google approach... you don't need to trust Apple and Google with your data because it never leaves your device.

'It removes the need to have an identifiable central database of any sort whatsoever. This is being used in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Estonia and also in Ireland.'

The app will form a crucial part of the Government's three-point 'test, track and trace' plan for helping the country to recover from its current crisis.

This will work by officials closely watching where and when new cases and outbreaks of the virus appear and isolating people to stamp them out.

First, anyone who is suspected of having the virus will be tested - there are still currently limits on who can get a test, but these are expected to be lifted by the time the country moves out of lockdown.

If someone tests positive, they will be told to self-isolate as long as they are otherwise healthy and don't need hospital treatment.

Their households will have to isolate with them and then Government 'contact tracers' will work to establish a social network around the patient.

This will involve working out everyone who has come into close enough contact with the patient that they are at risk of having been infected with COVID-19.

All the people in that social network will then also be told to self-isolate until they can be sure they're virus free, or until they are diagnosed with a test. If they test positive, the same contact tracing procedure will begin for them.

The app will be a vital part of this contact tracing effort, because it will be able to alert people who the patient may have put at risk without them knowing - at a shop or doctor's surgery, for example.

Cybersecurity experts and human rights experts are also concerned about 'mission creep' in which the app starts off with one purpose but then officials decide to use its data for something else.

Professor Mark Ryan, a computer security lecturer at the University of Birmingham, said: 'Everyone agrees that proximity tracing is a vital part of combating COVID and ending the lockdown.

'However, we have to be sure that proximity tracing technology does not lead to unfettered surveillance of people's movements and activities.

'To this end, we call upon the government to publish open source code of the apps and server processes that will be used.

'Remember that, unlike the cases of surveillance to combat terrorism or other crime, there is no requirement of secrecy in what strategies and technologies are being used against COVID.'

Information collected by the app will also give the Government insight into where the virus is spreading.

As officials continue to track the virus in future, they will have to try to work out how many people who have had COVID-19 in the past and recovered.

The roll-out of 'immunity passports' is being considered by ministers as part of the government's attempts to get Britain back to work after the coronavirus lockdown is eased.

Ministers are believed to be in talks with tech firms about developing a form of digital identification which would verify who someone is and show whether they have been tested for the disease.

The passports could either be based on antigen testing which shows if someone currently has coronavirus or on antibody testing which shows if someone has had it.

The digital documents would show if someone has tested negative on an antigen test or if they have shown to have some resistance to coronavirus after an antibody test, demonstrating to an employer they are safe to re-enter the workplace.

Such a scheme could be a game-changer for ministers as they try to figure out how to kickstart the UK economy.

But the World Health Organization has warned against these immunity passports because scientists are not sure whether people actually become immune after illness.

In a statement the WHO said: 'There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection.'

Boris Johnson is expected to unveil his lockdown exit strategy in an address to the nation on Sunday, having delayed the announcement from Thursday as frantic work continues in Whitehall.

Today it emerged that reduced hot-desking, the closure of office lifts and canteens, and putting tape on the floor to mark where people should stand are all likely to be proposed by the government under plans to restore office working.

How does the NHS COVID-19 contact tracing app work? Will it track my every move? Will it drain your battery? And why has the government shunned Apple and Google's system?

The NHS is rolling out its new coronavirus track-and-trace app today for testing across the Isle of Wight.

Health and council workers will be asked to download the software on to smartphones to see if it works - and if phones can accurately trace personal contacts via bluetooth.

But critics have questioned why the Government has chosen to collect the data of millions of people in one central system, rather than spreading the risk using a decentralised model adopted in Germany, backed by tech giants Apple and Google.

This is how the NHS app works - and the key differences between the UK's software and the Google-Apple app.

1. DOWNLOAD THE APP

Britons will be able to download the app for free from the Department of Health website.

It is also available via the Apple and Android app stores or via a link sent by email to NHS and public sector workers.

It is being tested on the Isle of Wight before a potential roll-out across the country, probably one region at a time.

2. PROVIDE A PARTIAL POSTCODE

To register the person will be asked to provide the first half of their postcode, which shows the NHS the town or borough they live in - but not their name or their exact home address.

The user will be asked to allow the app to use the phone's bluetooth to keep track of other phones it comes close to and how long for.

The NHS insists it will not be tracking location data - only phones.

But while the Government has said 'your postcode will not be used to track your location' - it is less clear if they also mean your location will not be tracked at all.

3. KEEP YOUR PHONE ON

The user will be told to keep their phone and Bluetooth switched on at all times and the app will run in the background without them doing anything.

The user will also be asked to allow 'push notifications' - which allows the NHS to send a person messages directly to their phones.

When an individual goes out, the app will keep a log of every time it comes within Bluetooth range of another phone - but that person must also have the app.

All IDs will be anonymous, with each app registered to a code rather than a person or address.

4. REPORT YOUR SYMPTOMS IF YOU BECOME ILL

If someone becomes ill they will be asked to log on to the app and input it. They will be asked if they have the common symptoms of coronavirus such as a high temperature and a continuous cough.

If no, nothing will happen. If yes, they will be told to order a coronavirus test.

5 APP SENDS YOUR DATA TO THE NHS SERVER FOR ANALYSIS BY EXPERTS

If it is a suspected coronavirus case these symptoms and the anonymous IDs of all the phones the user has come into contact with are automatically sent to an NHS server.

The NHS will analyse the data sent by the original sufferer using what it calls a 'complex algorithm'. Although it is believed to be largely based on distance of between one and two metres, and the amount of time, probably around ten to 15 minutes.

6 NHS SENDS A TAILORED ALERT TO CONTACTS

It will then alert app users who have been in significant contact with the original person with symptoms. For those who have been in contact with someone who has self reported symptoms, the app will send a yellow alert.

In early versions of the app, This warns the user that they have been in contact with someone who has reported symptoms.

If the original sufferer tests positive, everyone they have been in contact with will receive a stronger 'red' alert telling them to go into quarantine.

The Department of Health has not revealed exactly what the alerts will say. The Department of Health says: 'The app will advise the public what action to take if a user has been close to someone who has become symptomatic. The advice on what people should do can be adapted as the context and approach evolves.'

The app will calculate how at risk a contact is by measuring their exposure to the person with symptoms. It will measure exposure by time and proximity. The NHS analysts will set the risk parameters that trigger alerts.

7. ORIGINAL SUFFERER CONTACTED BY HUMAN NHS CONTACT TRACERS

The app will issue the original person with symptoms instructions on how to get a test using the software.

One of around 10,000 UK human contact tracers may also get in contact on the phone and ask the app user how many people are in their household, where they have been and who they have been close to, that they know of, to find people who may not have been picked up by the bluetooth.

They will also try to contact these new contacts if required.

SUFFERER IS TESTED

Once the Covid-19 test arrives at the person's home they will be expected to swab and then put it back in the post to an NHS testing centre. They may also be eligible for a home test by a health worker or visit one of the country's test centres. The result should be available within 48 hours.

There are then two possible outcomes:

 The person tests negative. In this case, your contacts are told via a message that it was a false notification.

 The person tests positive. In this case, your contacts are asked to isolate for 14 days, and get them into the clinical testing path.

HUMAN CONTACT TRACERS CONTACT AT-RISK CONTACTS OF ORIGINAL SUFFERER AND PLOT HOTSPOTS

The NHS' army of human contact tracers will contact app users who have been in 'significant contact' with the original person with symptoms will be alerted through the app. They will provided with 'health advice'  which may include self isolation  based on the NHS' assessment of their level of risk. Not everyone who has been in contact will be alerted based on the NHS algorithm. This advice will be constantly modified by doctors based on the current sutuation.

If a hotspot of new cases emerges, the users will be advised to take more urgent action, such as staying at home or even seeking medical attention. The NHS team of contact tracers will then individually contact everyone who has been in contact with the sufferer, either through the app or by other means.

What are the differences between the NHS' 'centralised' app and the Apple-Google 'decentralised app'?

The app technologies developed by Google/Apple and the NHS are based on the same principle - they keep a log of who someone has come into close contact with.

But the way they store data is the main difference.

Britain has decided to develop an app with a 'centralised' system where smartphone data is sent to them - in Europe countries have gone for a less complex 'decentralised' system where the data is largely kept on their phones

THE NHS APP IS CENTRALISED

It keeps information of users who report symptoms and who they have been in contact with on centralised database on government servers. This lets NHS analysts access the data, analyse trends and contact people who are at risk. The data does not identify users, however privacy experts fear they could be unmasked by hackers.

THE GOOGLE/APPLE APP IS DE-CENTRALISED

It also keeps a log of the users contacts, but this information is always held within the app and is not uploaded to a government server. If a user reports symptoms, they report it to the app database. Other phones search the app database for users who have symptoms and they have been in contact with. The app alerts the government when users report symptoms but not who they have been in contact with. The alerts issued by the app or generic to all users and have no input from health officials.

What are the differences in the way each app handles data?

NHS app: Patient data and 'contacts' are sent to the Government's servers

The NHSX app will create an alert every time two app users come within Bluetooth range of one another and log this in the user's phone.

Each person will essentially build up a list of everyone they have been in 'contact' with. This will be anonymised so the lists will actually just be numbers or codes, not lists of names or addresses.

If someone is diagnosed with the coronavirus or reports that they have symptoms, all the app users they got close to during the time that they were considered infectious - this will vary from person to person - will receive an alert telling them they have been put at risk of COVID-19 - but it won't name the person who was diagnosed.

NHSX insists it will delete people's data when they get rid of the app and that data is deleted every 14 days.

If the NHS collects the data it may be able to use it as part of wider contact tracing efforts as well as being able to detect local outbreaks using location data, also also send out warnings to people in specific areas.

In future, if someone is diagnosed with COVID-19, members of an army of 18,000 'contact tracers' will be tasked with working out who else that patient has come into contact with and put at risk.

It is not clear how much access the human contact tracers will have to data collected through the app.

Apple/Google app: Most patient data is contained on phones

In Apple and Google's de-centralised approach, meanwhile, the server and list element of this process is removed and the entire log is contained in someone's phone.

That app works by exchanging a digital 'token' with every phone someone comes within Bluetooth range of over a fixed period.

If one person develops symptoms of the coronavirus or tests positive, they will be able to enter this information into the app.

The phone will then send out a notification to all the devices they have exchanged tokens with during the infection window, to make people aware they may have been exposed to COVID-19.

The server database will not be necessary because each phone will keep an individual log of the bluetooth profiles someone has come close to. These will then be linked anonymously to people's NHS apps and alerts can be pushed through that even after the person is out of bluetooth range.

It is understood that if someone later deletes the Google/Apple app and closes their account their data would be erased.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each app?

Advantages of the NHS centralised app:

An ill user reports gives all their anonymous contacts to the NHS

The NHS can use risk modelling to decide which contacts are most at risk, and then notify them

The health authority can issue individually tailored health advice to contacts based on the strength of the user's contact with someone with symptoms

The NHS has anonymous data to help it understand how coronavirus is spreading

Disadvantages of the NHS centralised app:

Privacy fears of the public will be greater than with decentralised system

Legal hurdles to clear data protection laws

NHS' app will not tie up with other countries' meaning travel for Britons could be hit and people forced to go into quarantine.

Advantages of Apple/Google de-centralised apps:

Fewer privacy fears among the public

No risk of legal challenge using data protection laws

Backing of tech giants makes international compatibility likely

Potentially higher take-up rate and simpler to use;

Disadvantages of Apple/Google decentralised apps:

People who contact a carrier get only a general warning and are not put in touch with NHS

The NHS would have no contact data to help them understand how the virus is spreading

The NHS cannot issue tailored alerts to people who are more or less at risk

The NHS cannot analyse the contact data to identify hotspots and trends

Could the NHS app be illegal?

Lawyers have also suggested that the NHS' new app may breach the The Human Rights Act 1998 and the Data Protection Act 2018 - therefore making it unlawful.

Leading barrister Matthew Ryder, a QC at Matrix Chambers in London, has warned it could be illegal and suggested it is 'inevitable' the nationwide rollout of the app could be challenged in the High Court.

Mr Ryder says the app needs a full Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) - a process to help identify and minimise the data protection risks of a project. A DPIA is only required for a project likely to result in a high risk to individuals. These are overseen by Britain's data watchdog - the Information Commissioner's Office.

He told the BBC: 'The government needs to justify why they are going for the system that has a greater interference than the one that should do the job with less interference.

'If Germany, the US and Italy can all do the job that we want to do with a decentralised system that Apple and Google have facilitated, which is the least interference of privacy, we need to understand why the UK thinks it can't do the job and needs a different system.

'What the Information Commissioner said that we agree with is that there needs to be a data impact assessment. So that the information commissioner and everyone else can understand what the data impact assessment is and why the NHS thinks they need these extra interferences with our privacy in order to be able to do the job. This is a really important thing and we need to protect rights'.

He added: 'It's almost inevitable that if the Government doesn't take the approach that the information commissioner and others are suggesting, hopefully they will, then are going to be legal implications including the possibility of a legal challenge. '

Will the app drain my battery?

Developers insist that shouldn't empty a phone's battery - and should only have the same impact as an Apple watch, which should only take a matter of minutes off the average battery life each day.

The app automatically searches for nearby phones that are using the same app by using Bluetooth Low Energy. This will only send information at around 200 kilobits per second.

Whereas normal bluetooth used around three megabits per second, more than ten times as much.

What happens if someone fakes coronavirus as a prank?

The system relies on honesty - but the NHS believes any foul play can be rooted out and set right.

The Government will be using thousands of human tracers who will contact people after they use the app to declare Covid-19 symptoms. If they continue the charade they will be asked to take a test - which will either be ignored or come back negative.

Health workers will have the means to send messages to potential contacts telling them it is a false alarm.The ploy will, however, waste time and money for the NHS as they try to identify genuine cases.
Imperial Valley News Center

Federal Appellate Court Upholds Enforcement of IRS Summons Seeking Information Concerning Law Firm Clients Involved in Foreign Transactions

Washington, DC - On April 24, 2020, a federal appellate court upheld an order enforcing an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) summons directed to the Taylor Lohmeyer Law Firm PLLC, the Department of Justice announced. The summons directed the law firm to provide information about clients who used the law firms services to create and maintain foreign bank accounts and entities.

On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the trial courts enforcement of the summons and rejected the law firms blanket claim that all responsive materials were protected by the attorney-client privilege. It explained that revealing the fact that the clients participated in specific types of transactions would not necessarily reveal any confidential communication of legal advice protected by the attorney-client privilege.

U.S. taxpayers seeking to hide their assets often utilize the services of professional service providers, who may be unaware of their clients true goals. This action is part of ongoing efforts by the United States to stop persons from using foreign financial accounts and entities to evade taxes. Courts have previously approved John Doe summonses allowing the IRS to identify individuals using offshore accounts to evade their U.S. obligations.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joshua Wu thanked Tax Division attorneys Michael Haungs and Douglas Rennie, who handled the case on appeal, as well as Curtis Smith who litigated the case in the district court.
LONDON (Reuters) - The COVID-19 smartphone app being developed by Britain will be able to give serious insights into the virus by virtue of using centralised matching, despite its offering less privacy than rival apps, the head of the programme said. Countries are rushing to develop apps which, along with a wider testing and tracking programme, are seen as key to easing social distancing rules that have all but shut global economies

LONDON (Reuters) - The COVID-19 smartphone app being developed by Britain will be able to give serious insights into the virus by virtue of using centralised matching, despite its offering less privacy than rival apps, the head of the programme said.

Countries are rushing to develop apps which, along with a wider testing and tracking programme, are seen as key to easing social distancing rules that have all but shut global economies.

Britain has opted for a centralised model, whereby a list of contacts made via bluetooth signals are stored on a users' device as anonymous tokens.

If the user has symptoms or tests positive for COVID-19, the list of contacts can be submitted to the app, which analyses the data and notifies devices matching the tokens it deems at risk, for example because of the time the devices were in proximity.

Rival systems, including one proposed by Apple and Google, match the lists of tokens on the devices themselves, removing the risk of sending data to a centralised server, even if it is anonymised.

"If privacy was the only thing we were optimising for here, then it may well be that a decentralised approach should be the default choice," Matthew Gould, chief executive of the National Health Service's technology group NHSX, told a parliamentary committee on Monday.

But privacy had to be balanced against public health, he said.

"It was our view that a centralised approach gave us the potential ... to collect some very important data that gives serious insight into the virus that will help us," he said.

The insights a centralised approach could bring include data on which symptoms develop into COVID-19, which contacts are more risky, and the difference, for example, between a contact three days ago and one yesterday, he said.

He added that Britain was talking to international partners and was also working "phenomenally closely" with Apple and Google.

"We are not in competition, we are all trying to get this right," he told the committee.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Stephen Addison)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Ireland's Green Party agreed to enter talks about forming a government with the center-right Fianna Fail and Fine Gael parties on Sunday, but said it would withdraw if it could not agree a policy program with climate action at its core.

Ireland has been in political deadlock since an inconclusive election in February, with the caretaker government of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar forced to implement costly and extensive fiscal and political policies by the coronavirus crisis.

Varadkar's Fine Gael and traditional rival Fianna Fail reached an initial broad agreement last month to govern together for the first time, but need more support to control parliament and cannot pass any laws until a new prime minister is elected.

If they can get the backing of the Green's 12 lawmakers they would have a majority, which would allow the them to pass laws including those needed to uphold a 6.5 billion euro package to support businesses shuttered by Ireland's lockdown.

Measures to allow affected firms to defer tax liabilities for 12 months and to use a 2 billion euro credit guarantee scheme will require legislation to be passed by June or early July, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said on Sunday.

"We are conscious of the huge challenges facing any government in the Covid-19 crisis," the Green Party said in a statement, after days of talks among its lawmakers.

"Any proposal must be transformative on climate action and commit to strong progress towards a more sustainable and fairer society. If this is not the case Green Party representatives will withdraw from negotiations," it added.

Some Green Party members are skeptical that the two larger parties will pursue ambitious enough environmental policies, with the main sticking point being a commitment to a 7% average annual cut in greenhouse gas emissions.

Even if its lawmakers agree to enter a coalition, any deal must be approved by 66% of the Green Party's grassroots members.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, which both draw support from parts of the agricultural sector opposed to the Greens' target, require the backing of a majority of their wider membership.

"We are absolutely committed to seeing are there ways in which we can significantly improve the ability of our country to reduce emissions," Donohoe told the Newstalk radio station.

"But we do need to understand how that is going to be done and how that will be funded, given all that we have going on in our country," he added. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Hong Kong on Tuesday announced plans to ease major social distancing measures, including reopening schools, cinemas, bars and beauty parlours after the Chinese territory largely halted local transmission of the deadly coronavirus.

The relaxation, which comes into effect Friday, will be a boost for a city mired in a deep recession following months of virus restrictions as well as anti-government protests that have battered the economy.

Authorities also unveiled plans to hand out reusable face masks to all 7.5 million city residents.

Hong Kong recorded some of the earliest confirmed COVID-19 cases outside of mainland China but despite its close proximity and links with the mainland it has managed to keep infections to around 1,000 with four deaths.

There have been no new confirmed infections in 10 of the last 16 days and the cases that have been recorded came from people arriving from overseas who are quickly quarantined.

"I hope these measures will be a silver lining for citizens," the city's leader Carrie Lam told reporters Tuesday as she spelt out the easing of curbs.

Older secondary students will start returning to classes from May 27 while younger children will resume school in the first half of June.

But a ban on more than four people gathering in public or eating together in restaurants will be stepped up to eight.

Many businesses that were ordered to close will be allowed to open once more, albeit with restrictions in place.

Bars and restaurants will be permitted to operate but must ensure a distance of 1.5 metres between tables. Live music performances and dancing will remain banned.

Cinemas can start showing films to reduced crowds while gyms, beauty, massage and mahjong parlours will re-open with hygiene protocols in place such as the use of masks, hand sanitiser and temperature checks.

Nightclubs and karaoke bars must stay closed.

Hong Kong's economy dropped an 8.9 percent on-year contraction in the first quarter of this yearthe worst decline since the government began compiling data in 1974.

Retail sales figures released Tuesday showed a 37 percent plunge over the same period, another record dip.

Even before the pandemic, tourism and retail had taken a hammering from the US-China trade war and months of political unrest last year.

At Tuesday's briefing Lam and other officials also sported a new type of mask made of fabric that they said would be distributed to all residents in the coming weeks.

When the virus first emerged, Hong Kongers started panic-buying masks as anger grew against the government for failing to stockpile enough supplies.

Since then local production has been ramped up and masks are plentiful in pharmacies and shops.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2020 AFP
Despite ongoing efforts to combat the pandemic to a standstill, Coronavirus has continued to take a severe toll on Nigerians and the economy of the country.

Like every category of workers and business owners in the country, the lull in commercial and economic activities has also gotten to commercial s.e.x workers in a hard way.

In Ondo State where government has since begun a crackdown on brothels and joints housing commercial s.e.x workers, SaharaReporters discovered that the ladies in this business have since devised new ways of servicing their clients and keep the cash rolling in no matter how little.



Last week, at least 18 commercial s.e.x workers were arrested in Ondo by the state government as part of moves to enforce the stay-at-home and social distancing rule meant to help curtail the spread of the virus.

Doyin Odebowale, leader of the task force team, disclosed that the arrested s.e.x workers had been placed on isolation pending when results of their samples will emerge.

But unmoved by the possibility of being arrested by the task force team and police for still marketing cheap and sometimes unprotected s.e.x, some of the ladies said that they now took the service to the home of willing clients for an agreed fee rather than wait for such customers to come to the brothels, which has become difficult in recent days due to the crackdown by government officials.

SaharaReporters also discovered that more than a few of the commercial s.e.x workers have signed up to some social networking platforms like InMessage to track down willing clients close to their areas of residence.

Many of the s.e.x workers, who said they had no other means of survival, said that they have had to adapt to the reality on ground to put food on their tables.

Identifying herself only as Amarachi, one s.e.x worker at a brothel on Araromi Street in Akure, the state capital, said that the dusk to dawn curfew put in place by the state government had affected her operations severely.

She said, We (s.e.x workers) are one of those most affected by this lockdown because some of us are no longer making money the way we used to.

They want us to stop our business due to this Coronavirus but they didnt provide food for us or show us where to get money to feed.

As a result of the situation, we have to find means to meet up with our customers wherever they want because we need the money to survive.

Another s.e.x worker named Rita said she, too, had managed to stay in business by offering home service to customers, who want good s.e.x.

She said, Before now, I used to make at least N5,000 at night in a day and even make some contribution the next day.

But now I cant make such money because of the curfew. Clients are now afraid to visit us here.

But as s.e.x workers, before the day is dark, you will have had some agreement with your client and you visit him in his house with the service by sleeping over.

Abigail, one s.e.x workers at a brothel around the Oluwatuyi area of Akure, groaned over the loss of revenue following a drop in customers as a result of the lockdown.

Like the others, she has switched to home delivery mode to stay in business and raise money for her upkeep.

She said, My madam used to settle some of these policemen before but since she travelled to her village, they have not allowed us to open.

Now, we talk to our clients on phone and we can easily go and sleep over in their houses but this is for those who are yet to marry or are still single among our clients.

Following the threat posed by policemen and other security agents enforcing the stay-at-home order in the city, some s.e.x workers however, prefer to remain in their brothels and wait for the right opportunity to hook a customer.

But a psychologist, Mrs Niniola Ashaolu, said the new strategy adopted by commercial s.e.x workers in the city to stay in business was dangerous because they could be exposed to Coronavirus in the homes of their clients.

She said, The issue is that since they are now on the social media to woo their clients and everyone is avoiding contact, will it not be a serious danger inviting such people into your homes.

Follow Us on Facebook  @LadunLiadi; Instagram  @LadunLiadi; Twitter  @LadunLiadi; Youtube  @LadunLiadiTV for updates
On April 29, 2020, Voice of America (VOA) reported; " China accused US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo on Monday of 'wantonly spewing of poison and spreading lies' about the origin of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.

VOA said; ''A day ago, the top US Diplomat said there was 'enormous evidence' that the pandemic originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and not a nearby market. "

But China's State Broadcaster CCTV attacked what it described as "Pompeo's 'insane and evasive remarks". It claimed the pandemic was natural in origin. China said: ''The so-called 'virus leaked from a Wuhan lab hype is a complete and utter lie'.

China said: ''American Politicians are rushing to shift the blame, cheat votes and suppress China when their own domestic anti-epidemic efforts are a mess."

According to VOA, Pompeo had said; "he has no reason to doubt the US Intelligence Community's consensus that the virus was "not man-made or genetically modified''. He blamed China for delays in informing the world of the emergency threat of Covid - 19.

TWEIDUAMPONG KWAME, the only one God of the universe, who made all things and sustains all things with His radiant energy has spoken. He said the Covid -19 is "Sodom and Gomorrah revisited. He explained that Covid-19 was sent on May 25, 2019 to tell Earthlings that Planet Earth has an Owner.

He made particular reference to a biblical text Leviticus 18:22 - "Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind. It is an abomination".

He directed this Writer to capture on his mobile phone the arrival of Covid-19 and the sun flare that preceded it when he attended the funeral of the wife of his big brother, Akwasi Boakye at Nnkansere in Ashanti Region of Ghana on the day stated above.

About The Writer

Boakye-Dankwa Boadi was the Acting General Manager and Supervising Chief Editor of Ghana News Agency when he retired in November 2011. He has written many articles. You may google Boakye-Dankwa Boadi to access them.
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau deflected questions Tuesday about why it took more than 12 hours for the Canadian Armed Forces to confirm a military helicopter had crashed and when he found out that horrified crew members on board a Halifax-class frigate had watched it go down.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 5/5/2020 (623 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lt. Melissa Kia, speaking on the behalf of the next of kin of Sub-Lt. Matthew Pyke, reads a statement at the navy dockyard in Halifax on Tuesday, May 5, 2020. Pyke perished in the crash of a CH-148 Cyclone helicopter. The helicopter was flying a mission from the Halifax-class frigate HMCS Fredericton and crashed off the coast of Greece while taking part in an exercise as part of a NATO operation in the Mediterranean. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau deflected questions Tuesday about why it took more than 12 hours for the Canadian Armed Forces to confirm a military helicopter had crashed and when he found out that horrified crew members on board a Halifax-class frigate had watched it go down.

"The military has very important protocols in place when there is a tragic incident like this around informing the next of kin, talking to the families as quickly as possible before sharing information with the general public," Trudeau said. "All those protocols were followed."

Canadian Armed Forces members (clockwise from top left) Sub-Lt. Abbigail Cowbrough, Capt. Brenden MacDonald, Capt. Kevin Hagen, Capt. Maxime Miron-Morin, Master Cpl. Matthew Cousins and Sub-Lt. Matthew Pyke are shown in a Department of National Defence handout photos. All were aboard a Cyclone helicopter which crashed into the Ionian Sea off the coast of Greece on April 29. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Department of National Defence MANDATORY CREDIT

The Cyclone helicopter carrying six Armed Forces members crashed into the Ionian Sea off the coast of Greece on April 29. Defence officials have said it was returning to HMCS Fredericton at the end of a NATO training mission.

The remains of Sub-Lt. Abbigail Cowbrough were subsequently recovered while the other five service members on board are missing and presumed dead. (The remains of one other person have been recovered but not yet identified.)

The military initially reported that the helicopter was missing after HMCS Fredericton lost contact with it. It did not confirm a crash until the next day, after the NATO military alliance had already reported the same thing.

Even then, the government and military continued to suggest that the first sign of trouble came when Fredericton lost contact with the Cyclone, suggesting it was operating at a distance from the warship. They also made no mention of service members on the warship having seen it crash.

"Around 6:52 p.m., the ship lost contact with the helicopter crew and a few minutes later flares were seen in the water," chief of the defence staff Gen. Jonathan Vance said during a briefing to Canadians on April 30 attended by Trudeau and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan.

Vance reported during the same briefing that the next of kin of all six members had already been notified about the crash.

The military has repeatedly declined to say how close the Cyclone was to Fredericton when it crashed into the sea. Rear-Admiral Craig Baines, the commander of the navy's maritime command, did estimate on Friday that the crash was "within two miles" of the frigate.

The Department of National Defence stood by its handling of the situation, saying in a statement Tuesday that it provided what information was known and confirmed on April 30 while focusing on the search and rescue of the missing members.

"As the situation evolved, additional information was provided, as appropriate," the department said.

"Respecting the initial notification of next of kin, the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces have been forthcoming with the release of confirmed information while also ensuring that it does not compromise the ongoing flight investigation."

A flight-investigation team that includes a representative from Sikorsky Aircraft, which builds the Cyclone, is currently investigating the circumstances around the crash. That includes interviewing those aboard Fredericton who saw the crash.

The helicopter's flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders were recovered and are back in Canada for analysis.

The Defence Department said it has deployed a team that includes social workers and military chaplains to Italy to provide mental health support to the crew, who have been allowed to communicate with loved ones back home.

"We appreciate this tragic accident has deeply affected our personnel on the ship, and we will continue to provide them with the support they need, which can extend to the return of a member back home if the need arises," the department said.

The Cyclone was deployed with the Halifax-based HMCS Fredericton to Europe in January, where they had been attached to a NATO maritime force tasked with patrolling the Mediterranean and Black seas.

Cyclones are primarily based on naval vessels and used for hunting submarines, surveillance and search and rescue. They entered operational service  replacing the military's ancient Sea Kings  in 2018 after more than a decade of developmental challenges.

The military is preparing to hold a special ramp ceremony Wednesday at Canadian Forces Base Trenton to repatriate Cowbrough's remains and honour all six who died in the crash. The family and friends of the service members are expected to be in attendance.

The family of one those, Sub-Lt. Matthew Pyke, remembered the 34-year-old sailor on Tuesday as a patriotic Canadian who died serving others. Pyke was also described in a statement from his family as a true Maritimer who wore his heart on his sleeve.

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"He fell in the line of duty for his nation, a finality that deeply aligned with his ethos of honour and helping others before self," Pyke's family said in a statement delivered in Halifax by a spokeswoman for the Navy as they continued to grieve his loss.

Pyke is one of five missing presumed dead. The others are Capt. Brenden Ian MacDonald of New Glasgow, N.S.; Capt. Kevin Hagen of Nanaimo, B.C.; Capt. Maxime Miron-Morin of Trois-Rivieres, Que.; and Master Cpl. Matthew Cousins of Guelph, Ont.

The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. eastern time and can be streamed from the Canadian Armed Forces Facebook page.

Those service members whose remains were not recovered will be represented by military headgear resting on pillows to be carried by fellow military members. Following the ceremony, a procession will proceed down the Highway of Heroes from Trenton to Toronto.

While such processions have traditionally been accompanied by crowds gathering along the highway to show their support and honour those who have died, the Ontario government is encouraging people to watch it from home because of COVID-19.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on May 5, 2020.
Students across Vietnam returned to their classrooms Monday. The classes had been closed for three months to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.

I am so excited to go back to school, to be with my teachers and my classmates after three months, said Chu Quang Anh, a sixth-grade student in the capital, Hanoi.

Students are required to wear masks that cover their nose and mouth. There are also other measures in place to lessen the spread of the virus.

We have hand sanitizers available in many places. The students are scanned for temperatures at the gate when they enter the school and when they are in the classrooms and their health is recorded, said teacher Dinh Bich Hien.

Vietnam, a country of 96 million people, has confirmed 271 cases of new coronavirus. No deaths have been reported. On Monday, health officials said the country had gone 18 days without any new cases of COVID-19.

Wealthy countries like the United States and some in Europe continue to struggle to control the spread of the disease. Vietnam is much more limited in resources. So, why has it been able to deal effectively with the health crisis?



Early action

Public health experts say Vietnam has been successful partly because it reacted fast. Early in the coronavirus spread, Vietnam restricted travel into the country and put tens of thousands of people into quarantine. Also, experts note, the country expanded testing and tracked people who might have been in contact with anyone reported infected.

Matthew Moore is a Hanoi-based official from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He said, The steps are easy to describe but difficult to implement, yet theyve been very successful at implementing them over and over again.

As early as Jan. 23, Vietnam suspended flights to and from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus first appeared. A week after that, Vietnam effectively closed its 1,400 kilometer border with China. Only the most critical trading was permitted.

Phan Quoc Viet, a businessman, was praying at a religious center when he received a telephone call from the government. The official said Vietnam needed to act quickly, said Viet. His company Viet A Corp makes test equipment.

In early January, Vietnam had only three laboratories that could test for COVID-19. By April, it had increased that number to 112 laboratories.



In addition to testing, the government started a contact-tracing program and locked down tens of thousands of people. Many of them were Vietnamese returning from Europe and the United States. By the middle of March, Vietnam had also begun to require face masks in public places nationwide.

Questions about the numbers

The Reuters news agency reported that the Vietnamese government did not answer questions about the countrys efforts against the virus. But the World Health Organizations representative in Vietnam said there was no sign of additional infections beyond what had been reported by the government.

Vietnam has been helped, experts said, by the combination of its one-party leadership and a cooperative population that remembers past epidemics.

It is organized, it can make country-wide policy decisions that get enacted quickly and efficiently, said Guy Thwaites, the director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City.

Thwaites laboratory has been helping to process tests for COVID-19. Thwaites said the number of positive tests processed by his lab was in agreement with government reports on the spread.



Reuters contacted operators of 13 funeral homes in Hanoi. All said they had not seen an increase in deaths. One said requests for funerals had gone down during the countrys lockdown because there had been fewer traffic accidents, a major cause of death in Vietnam.

Todd Pollack is a Hanoi-based infectious diseases specialist at Harvard Medical School. He said that less than 10 percent of the people who tested positive for the virus in Vietnam were over 60  the age group most likely to die from COVID-19. All patients, he added, were closely watched in health centers and given good medical care.

Tran Viet Hung, a ninth grader in Hanoi, spoke to the news site VN Express, "I was so excited to see my friends again, he said, adding, but we only dared to talk to each other from a distance, via the face masks."

Im Caty Weaver.

Hai Do adapted this story for Learning English based on reporting from Reuters and the Associated Press. Caty Weaver was the editor.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

sanitizer - n. substance used to thoroughly clean something from disease, infection, etc.

scan - v. to look a something using a special machine or device

quarantine - n. the situation of being kept away from others to prevent a disease from spreading

implement - v. to make something active or effective

contact-tracing - n. the action of monitoring infected people and notifying those who come in contact with them

epidemic - n. an occurrence in which a disease spreads very quickly and affects a large number of people

positive - adj. in medical, showing the presence of a particular germ, condition
French scientists say they may have identified a possible case of the new coronavirus dating back to December about a month before the first cases were officially confirmed in Europe.

In a study published in the International Journal of Microbial Agents, doctors at a hospital north of Paris reviewed retrospective samples of 14 patients treated for atypical pneumonia between early December and mid-January. Among those were the records of Amirouche Hammar, a 42-year-old fishmonger from Algeria who has lived in France for years and had no recent travel history.

Hammar told French broadcaster BFM-TV on Tuesday that he drove himself to a hospital emergency unit at 5 a.m. one morning in late December because he felt very sick, with chest pains and breathing difficulties.

They said, 'Perhaps you have an infection, a pulmonary infection, although it's not certain. But what you have is very serious, very serious, because you are coughing blood. It's not normal flu,' he said.

Hammar was admitted to the hospital with symptoms doctors say were consistent with COVID-19 patients in China and Italy. When doctors retested his old sample, they found it was positive for the coronavirus.

Identifying the first infected patient is of great epidemiological interest as it changes dramatically our knowledge regarding the spread of the coronavirus, wrote Dr. Yves Cohen, one of the French researchers.

An intensive care specialist, Cohen works in the northern suburbs of Paris where Hammar lives and which have been particularly hard-hit by COVID-19 infections and deaths.

There doesn't appear to have been any further transmission of the virus from Hammar, who later recovered. Cohen and colleagues suggested their results showed there could be many other unidentified coronavirus cases from before the disease was officially detected in Europe.

Still, the scientists acknowledged that because the study, which was published online Sunday, was done retrospectively, medical records were not exhaustive and some relevant information might have been missing. Other experts said the results were interesting, but hardly conclusive.

Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, said it was possible the results were due to lab contamination.

If he was infected (with COVID-19), then you would expect a more rapid and earlier spread of the virus in France than was seen, he said in a statement. Ball wasn't connected to the published study.

Sequencing any virus in the sample might give you insight into whether or not the virus truly was an early isolate or likely contamination, but it looks from the data that the amount of virus in the sample was low, so would be difficult to analyse further, he said.

Rowland Kao, an epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh, said that even if the case was confirmed as COVID-19, it wasn't confirmation that the virus started spreading in Europe earlier than was believed.

There are likely to be many instances where, around the world, infected individuals have moved to an uninfected location, but no transmission occurred, he said.

Doctors in Italy have also reported finding retrospective cases of the coronavirus in the country long before the disease was officially identified.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bored with your surroundings? Justin and Hailey Bieber are showing off their lives in their Toronto home in a new series, while Hulu this week is premiering a documentary looking back at an early 1990s isolation tale  Biosphere 2.

Even if you already know the answers, a re-airing of last year's epic "Jeopardy!" Greatest of All Time tournament offers a chance to relive Ken Jennings' greatness, while the Rolling Stones are revisiting six of their concert tours on YouTube.

Later in the week, Erykah Badu and Jill Scott will face off in the latest edition of the uber-popular "Verzuz" series, and just in time for Mother's Day, Comedy Central will debut a new documentary featuring Awkwafina, Jim Gaffigan, Tig Notaro and other comics and their moms.

Here's a collection curated by The Associated Press' entertainment journalists of what's arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week.

MOVIES

 "Spaceship Earth": Has a vision of life prospering under quarantine ever felt more foolhardy? Matt Wolf's documentary, on Hulu Friday, chronicles the experience of the Biosphere 2. In 1991, eight people moved into the self-contained replica of Earth's ecosystem in one very audacious closed experiment. Expect high levels of familiarity.

 "Becoming": Unknown until last week, this Netflix documentary trails Michelle Obama on her 2018-2019 34-city book tour as she embarks on a new life post-White House. The film, directed by Nadia Hallgren is both glossy and intimate, capturing the former first lady on and off stage. Starts streaming Wednesday. (Read the AP's review here.)

 "Rewind": Sasha Joseph Neulinger's film, one of the highlights of the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, is a work of searing autobiography. Neulinger uses home-video footage to investigate the sexual abuse he suffered as a child and uncover deeper layers of family trauma. The film, available for digital rental Friday and airing on PBS May 11, isn't always easy to watch. But "Rewind" is also about healing and halting inter-generational cycles of abuse. That makes Neulinger's film not just moving but heroic.

Saul Bass: To celebrate the centennial of the legendary graphic artist, the Criterion Channel on Sunday will line up 20 movies that featured Bass' groundbreaking title sequences, from his breakout film, Otto Preminger's "The Man With the Gold Arm," to Martin Scorsese's "The Age of Innocence." Even when the movies aren't great, the titles are dazzling.

 Film Writer Jake Coyle

MUSIC

 Erykah Badu vs. Jill Scott: The queens of the neo-soul movement will battle it out on Instagram Live  marking the first female showdown in Swizz Beatz and Timbaland's epic "Verzuz" series. The songstresses will follow the record-breaking Babyface-Teddy Riley faceoff that exploded on social media and had more than 500,000 viewers. With R&B hits for days and feverish fans for decades, Badu and Scott are sure to provide another viral moment in music. The Saturday battle technically starts at 7 p.m. EDT but that's only if Badu is on time.

 The Biebers: Following his reality series on YouTube, Justin Bieber and model-wife Hailey Bieber will debut a new series on Facebook Watch on Monday. The 12-episode "The Biebers on Watch" follows the famous couple's life in Toronto and will be filmed on go-pros positioned around their home. New episodes will be available Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

 Hayley Williams: The Paramore frontwoman is finally releasing her solo debut album on Friday. The 15-track "Petals for Armor" was preceded by two EPs  "Petals for Armor I" and "Petals for Armor II"  and the album was produced by her Paramore bandmate Taylor York. Williams and York won the best rock song Grammy in 2015 for writing the Paramore pop hit "Ain't It Fun." More Grammys might be in their future.

 The Rolling Stones: The veteran rockers launched a weekly series on Sunday called "Extra Licks" on YouTube. The six-part special features concert films from their illustrious career, including performances from the 1994 Voodoo Lounge Tour and the 2016 Latin America Ole! Tour. New episodes debut Sunday at 3 p.m. EDT.

 Music Editor Mesfin Fekadu

TELEVISION

 "Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time": The repeat airing unfolds in 10 daily half-hour episodes starting Monday (check local listings for time, station). The contest with superstars Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter and James Holzhauer will be book-ended by Jennings' first and last games from his 2004 record-setting 74-game streak. No spoilers, please.

 "Dead to Me": Netflix's dark comedy is back for its 10-episode second season Friday, with even wilder twists ahead for widow Jen (Christina Applegate) and Judy (Linda Cardellini), an unlikely, forged-in-fire pair. For those weighing whether to join the show's addicted fans, a season-one binge session should be all that's needed to get you on the bandwagon.

 "I Know This Much is True": Mark Ruffalo gives yet another worthy performance in HBO's limited series adapted from Wally Lamb's 1998 novel. Three-time Oscar nominee Ruffalo plays opposite himself as twins Thomas and Dominick, the former damaged in body and soul and the latter his long-time protector. The six-part series (9 p.m. EDT Sunday) also features Rosie O'Donnell, Archie Panjabi and Melissa Leo.

 "Call Your Mother": Like mother, like comedian, or so it seems on Comedy Central's documentary about comics and their moms. The film is by turns revealing, raucous (very) and charming, with the mothers emerging as clear sources of inspiration for their talented offspring. It airs 10 p.m. EDT Mother's Day, Sunday, at 10 p.m. EDT, with Awkwafina, Jim Gaffigan and Tig Notaro among those featured.

 Television Writer Lynn Elber

More entertainment news:

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At least a dozen different strains of coronavirus were spreading through the UK in March, a Government-funded study has found.

Leading genetic scientists analysed the genomes of the killer virus in 260 infected patients from all corners of the UK.

They say they have identified 12 unique lines of the virus, one of which has only ever been found in Britain  meaning it mutated on UK soil.

But the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK) said the number of strains is very likely substantially higher due to under-sampling in the UK.

The scientists say most of the strains were imported from Italy and Spain, the worst-hit countries in the world at the time the research was carried out.

There is no suggestion that any of the strains are any more potent or infectious than another, infectious disease experts say.

Professor Paul Hunter, at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline it is 'entirely plausible' this could happen to one of the strains if it continues to evolve.

The report, made public today, was given to the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) in March to help them map the outbreak's spread.

Other secret documents of scientific evidence that helped shape the Government's response to the crisis were released today. They revealed:

Ministers were warned lifting the coronavirus lockdown and then reimposing restrictions later would be seen by the public as a 'serious failure of policy';

A traffic light system could be used to explain to the public the new rules when lockdown is eased, according to behavioural experts;

Scientists urged the government to tell people to stop shaking hands the same day Boris Johnson was boasting about shaking hands with 'everybody';

Officials were told employers could shun workers who have not had COVID-19 after lockdown, prompting people to actively try to catch the disease.

There are at least a dozen different strains of coronavirus ravaging the UK. The most common is the B.12.1 strain (pink) and the B.11 strain (green). The researchers did not make clear which strains were imported from other countries, nor did it disclose which one is unique to Britain

There is no suggestion that any of the strains are more potent or infectious than another, experts say. Pictured: Illustration of the novel coronavirus by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

New mutation of COVID-19 suggests the disease is weakening Scientists have discovered a unique mutation to coronavirus in Arizona - and it's a pattern that they've seen before. One of the 382 samples they collected from coronavirus patients in the state was missing a sizeable segment of genetic material. In the middle and late stages of the SARS epidemic of 2003, this very same kind of deletion started cropping up in patients around the globe. It's not just any mutation - the change robs the closely related viruses of one of their weapons against the host's immune response, making the infection weaker. As that mutation became widespread, the SARS outbreak wound down. By July - five months after it emerged in Asia in February 23 - there were no new cases, and the outbreak was considered contained. Now, Arizona State University experts have only found one person who had a version of the virus with this mutation - but they say if genome sequencing for coronavirus become more common, we may find far more. They sequenced the genomes of the virus in 382 nasal swab samples. Like ours, viral genetic material is composed of chemical units known by their letters. The human genome consists of three billion DNA 'letters'. Viral genomes are far simpler than ours, and coronavirus consists of 30,000 letters of RNA. In one of the samples they collected, the ASU researchers discovered that a massive 81 letters were missing. And these were a particularly meaningful missing 81 pieces of RNA. 'This is something we've seen before in the 2003 SARS outbreak during the middle and late phase of the outbreak, the virus acquired large deletions in these SS3 proteins,' lead study author Dr Efrem Lim told DailyMail.com. 'These proteins are not just there to replicate - they are in there to help enhance virulence and suppress the immune system [of the host]. It evolved with a more attenuated from in the late phase of the epidemic.' In other words, the SARS virus changed to be weaker (attenuated viruses are less the less risky, modified versions researchers make in labs as the basis for vaccines) as time went on. And now, at least one sample of SARS-CoV-2 had done the same. Advertisement

The researchers did not make clear which strains were imported from other countries, nor did it disclose which one is unique to Britain.

All viruses mutate slightly as they spread through populations, which leads to small changes in their genetic material.

Scientists say the virus does this to overcome immune system resistance in different communities.

As part of the study, COG-UK researchers analysed patients in Belfast, Birmingham, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford and Sheffield.

They found 12 unique strains, most of which had been imported from Europe. The report did not specify which countries, but said the majority of cases came from Italy. It found that strains had also come from China, the US and Australia.

Professor Hunter told MailOnline: 'There are a number of issues with these strains - are they likely to cause different severity of disease? Are they likely to be more infectious? And are they capable of invalidating vaccines?

'The answer to all three of these is that we have no idea. There is no suggestion from this study - or any other that I have read - that show these strains are more virulent or infectious that one another.

'But it is plausible that one strain could mutate to the point where people with antibodies to an older strain are no longer immune to it.

'These are called escape mutants, because they escape from the control of immunity.

'It happens with influenza a lot. The current coronavirus does not seem to do this as fast, though, but it is plausible down the line.'

Professor Hunter said the main value of the report was that it helps scientists track the spread of the infection around the UK.

He said this would become crucial when easing out of lockdown.

Professor Hunter added: 'This enables researchers to continue to track where its going and help enforce new rules to stop another outbreak.

'Say you have a cluster in the north west of England, which is unexpected, and it is the same strain found predominantly in London, then you could see that is must've been spread by someone travelling from the capital.

'You could use this to tell if someone had broken lockdown rules by travelling there, or you could close down a possible transmission passage [a train line, for example].'

Britain now has Europe's highest coronavirus death toll: Official figures show 32,000 people in the UK had died from the infection by April 24 - and true count could now be closer to 45,000

Sir patrick Vallance told MPs: 'But a lot of the cases in the UK didnt come from China and didn't come from the places you might have expected'

People returning from other hotspots such as China and a cruise ship off Japan, were put into camps for 14 days at the end of February, including one at Arrowe Park in Wirral (pictured on February 22)

MINISTERS WERE WARNED THAT LIFTING LOCKDOWN AND RE-IMPOSING MEASURES WOULD BE SEEN AS A 'SERIOUS FAILURE' Ministers have been warned by their expert scientific advisers that lifting the coronavirus lockdown and then reimposing restrictions later would be seen by the public as a 'serious failure of policy'. Newly-released secret documents show the government's scientists have argued in favour of only a very slow easing of measures. They said if lockdown was 'abruptly' lifted people would expect the risk of infection to have 'ceased or significantly reduced'. If there was then a spike in cases and the government had to reimpose lockdown the nation would lose trust in expert advice and would be a lot less likely to stick to the rules. Advertisement

The COG-UK is an innovative partnership of NHS organisations, the four Public Health Agencies of the UK, the Wellcome Sanger Institute and more than 12 academic institutions, including Cambridge University.

It is supported by 20million funding from the UK Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Wellcome Trust.

It comes as damning new figures revealed today that Britain quarantined just 273 out of 18.1million people who arrived in the UK in the three months before the coronavirus lockdown.

The occupants of three flights from the outbreak ground zero in the Chinese city of Wuhan and another bringing home passengers from a cruise ship of Japan were the only ones taken to secure facilities in the UK.

But millions more entering the UK between the start of 2020 and March 22 were able to enter freely and only advised to self-isolate, according to figures obtained by the Guardian.

It came as it also emerged the UK suffered a 'big influx' of coronavirus from arrivals from Italy and Spain who were not quarantined.

MINISTERS URGED TO TELL PEOPLE TO STOP SHAKING HANDS ON THE SAME DAY BORIS JOHNSON BOASTED ABOUT DOING SO WITH 'EVERYBODY' Scientists were urging the government to tell people to stop shaking hands the same day Boris Johnson was boasting about shaking hands with 'everybody', it was revealed today. Newly-released records on the advice given to the government as the coronavirus crisis erupted show Mr Johnson seemingly flouted the recommendations from his own experts. A meeting of the behavioural group that feeds into SAGE on March 3 concluded that 'Government should advise against greetings such as shaking hands and hugging, given existing evidence about the importance of hand hygiene'. 'A public message against shaking hands has additional value as a signal about the importance of hand hygiene,' the Independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) said. 'Promoting a replacement greeting or encouraging others to politely decline a proffered hand-shake may have benefit.' Advertisement

Mapping of the Covid-19 genome shows that UK cases come from all over the world, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance told MPs.

But a large number of cases in early March were from Europe and 'seeded right the way across the country' because Brits arriving back in the UK were allowed to return home.

Giving evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee this morning, Sir Patrick said that experts on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) had advised ministers they would have to be 'extremely draconian' in blocking travel from whole countries otherwise 'it really was not worth trying to do it.'

'Whether that was people returning from half-term, whether it is business travellers or not, we dont know,' he told MPs.

'But a lot of the cases in the UK didnt come from China and didn't come from the places you might have expected.

'They actually came from European imports and the high level of travel into the UK around that time.'

At the weekend a senior minister finally confirmed visitors to the UK could face time in quarantine as the Government 'actively' considers stronger anti-coronavirus measures at the borders.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that new arrivals could also be forced to download a new contract app onto their smartphone as a condition of entry.

New restrictions would make the UK one of the last countries to introduce them, with the country very much an outlier in recent weeks by not halting inbound flights or insisting arrivals are checked.

EMPLOYERS COULD SHUN WORKERS WHO HAVE NOT HAD COVID-19, PROMPTING PEOPLE TO TRY TO CATCH THE DISEASE Employers could shun workers who have not had COVID-19 post lockdown, prompting people to actively try to catch the disease, the government's science experts warned ministers. Secret documents prepared by the independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) last month outlined the drawbacks of introducing antibody testing and so-called 'immunity certificates'. Such tests would show if someone has had the disease and if they have some degree of immunity with digital certificates then showing employers the health status of staff. Antibody tests are viewed as one of the key pieces in the puzzle when it comes to getting the UK back to work. SPI-B, part of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), said introducing the tests could result in people trying to 'game' the system. It said workers who do not have antibodies could be discriminated against, effectively creating two classes of employee, with those who have had the disease prized because of a belief they will not get ill again. Those with no antibodies could then turn to trying to obtain fake test results or even trying to get ill on purpose to return to work. The documents also warned positive tests could result in people wrongly thinking they no longer need to wash their hands, risking an increase in the transmission of the disease. Those who are antibody negative could also be too afraid to leave home and could refuse to return to work, the group said. Advertisement

People arriving are currently advised to self-isolate but there is no enforced testing.

Home Secretary Priti Patel is believed to be among those who have demanded tougher rules for foreign visitors and the remaining Brits still abroad who make it home.

But Sir Patrick suggested stopping travel was of limited use unless action was taken against a wide-range of countries.

'What was very clear, and I think you can see this now in retrospect, is that the idea that you can control this by stopping travel from one place doesnt work unless it is of course the only source of import,' he said this morning.

'We have now in the UK sequenced 13,6000 viral genomes, we got imports from all over the place.

'So quite early on the advice Sage gave was ''if you are going to do something on travel you either need to be extremely draconian - stop all travel from all sorts of countries - or it is really not worth trying to do it, trying to stop from one place because you wont make it happen''.

'So I think the answer is not, unless the country chose to do that, stopping travel anywhere and to  make sure that as people come back you have appropriate systems to isolate and make sure they are following the same rules as the rest of the country.'

Deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries, who was also giving evidence, added: 'There are pros and cons which are not necessarily always obvious I think, between managing influx and outflux of passengers but also goods.

'If you shut travel routes in, you are also shutting routes for various products which may be essential, not just for our population but all around the world.

'At the moment most people who are coming back are coming back into the UK back home and they will immediately fall under social distancing regulations anyway.'
A Flower Moon, Corn Planting Moon, Milk Moon and Vesak Festival Moon": These are all the names for a supermoon expected to grace the sky Thursday morning opposite the sun.

The lunar phenomenon is the last of four supermoons in 2020. The term, coined in 1979, refers to either a full or new moon that occurs within 90% of perigee, the closest approach to Earth in a given orbit, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said in a statement.

In a typical year, three or four supermoons can show up in a row. This year, the four full moons from February through May met the 90% threshold, according to NASAs statement. The moon this week will appear full from Tuesday evening through Friday morning.

The Maine Farmers Almanac first published Indian names for the full Moons in the 1930s, the statement said. As the full Moon in May and the second full Moon of spring, the Algonquin tribes of what is now the northeastern United States called this the Flower Moon, for the flowers that are abundant this time of year.

Thursdays supermoon falls on the same day as Vesak as well. The Buddhist holiday, also known as Buddha Purnima, is informally called Buddhas Birthday by some, as it commemorates the birth, enlightenment and death of Gautama Buddha.

The date of Vesak varies based on the calendar being used by a country or region, but this year, for many areas, the holiday is scheduled on or near the day of the supermoon.

The moon will enter its full phase at 10:45 Universal Time on Thursday. For Massachusetts residents, it can be watched at 6:45 a.m.

Related Content:
Wanted man: US is seeking to question Julian Assange over diplomatic leaks

The extradition hearing of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been rescheduled for September.

Mr Assange is wanted for questioning in the US over defence cables leaked a decade ago. He is currently being held in London's maximum-security Belmarsh Prison while the court system tries to reschedule his extradition hearing which was paused due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The hearing was originally due to begin on May 18.

A brief hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court yesterday determined the case should resume in September.

Journalists were unable to attend remotely after the conference call system - set up to help the press comply with social distancing rules - was not connected.

A spokeswoman from press freedom organisation Bridges for Media Freedom said the hearing was due to resume in September, although the exact date has yet to be set.

The case is expected to last three weeks and the courts service is still looking for a Crown Court with the capacity to take the case, which might take place outside of London, the spokeswoman said.

Mr Assange did not attend yesterday's hearing via video link due to being unwell.

His lawyers are calling for him to be released on bail, saying he is at heightened risk of contracting Covid-19 due to a pre-existing respiratory condition.

Mr Assange has been held in Belmarsh prison since he was dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy a year ago.

He had been sheltering in the embassy since 2012 after taking refuge there to avoid extradition to Sweden on allegations of sexual assault.
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / Compare-autoinsurance.org (https://compare-autoinsurance.org) is a top auto insurance brokerage website, providing car insurance quotes online from trustworthy agencies all over the United States. This website has recently launched a series of articles that explain how to coronavirus pandemic has changed the auto insurance industry and how can drivers save money.

Car insurance is a frustrating but necessary factor in car ownership. Obtaining the best policy possible is not that easy and many drivers are likely to run into some common issues and questions about the process. Luckily, there are many discounts offered across the car insurance industry to make insurance policies more affordable.

Drivers who are shopping around for a new car insurance company and policy should check if the following discounts are offered and if they meet the eligibility requirements:

Loyalty discount. To get a loyalty discount, drivers should ask their insurers whether a discount is offered, how long they will need to be a customer to be eligible, and any other terms that might apply. Insurance companies apply the discount after a predetermined period of time, and some companies will increase the discount the longer the drivers remain a customer.

Good student discounts. High school and college students are often eligible for discounts. Insurers offer this discount to students with good grades because they believe that a good student is likely to be a more responsible driver than a mediocre or poor student.

Bundling or multipolicy discounts . Most insurance providers offer a discount for customers who purchase two or more policies together. Policyholders can bundle their car insurance policies with other policies such as homeowner's insurance, boat insurance, or renter's insurance.

Good driving discounts . Generally, there are two types of good driving discounts: those offered to drivers who maintain a clean driving record free of crashes and moving violations, and those offered to drivers who opt-in to tracking programs. Drivers who keep a clean driving record can save about 5% on their policies, while drivers who opt-in for a tracking program are likely to save way more.

Defensive driving discounts . Drivers who successfully complete an approved driver training course are eligible for a defensive driving discount. However, drivers should check if their insurers offer this discount to them.

Employer/ affinity group discounts . Drivers who work for a company that has negotiated a bulk rate with a certain insurance company are eligible for this type of discount. A typical affinity group discount can be anywhere from 5% to 20%, though the actual savings depend on the terms the employer negotiated with the insurer.

Teacher discounts . Many major auto insurance companies offer special discounts, rates, or perks, especially for teachers and educators.

Military and veteran discounts. Most car insurance providers offer special rates or discounts to active military personnel, veterans, and their families. Insurance providers can offer perks like discounts on vehicles parked on a military base and discounts on vehicles stored during active deployment.

Safety gear discounts . Unfortunately, safety equipment discounts aren't that common anymore. Most new vehicles are equipped with technology that reduces or minimizes the risk and impact of a crash. Only a few insurers offer specific discounts for vehicles with such features. Insurers say that, in general, customers with such vehicles already pay lower rates for vehicles with safety features such as anti-lock brakes.

Low mileage discounts. Insurance providers are offering this discount to drivers who drive less than a certain amount of miles, usually less than 15,000 miles per year.

Story continues

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The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has donated One Million US dollars towards the construction of an infectious disease isolation and treatment facility at the Ga East Hospital.

The construction of the facility is being spearheaded by the Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund, which expects it to be ready for use by the end of May  six weeks after breaking ground for the project to start.

When completed, the facility will be the main treatment centre in Ghana for people who become critically ill after contracting Covid-19.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Kofi Koduah Sarpong, says it was very easy to convince his board to approve the donation of One Million US Dollars in support of the facility as part of its corporate social responsibility.

The project is estimated to cost about 4.5 million US dollars and Dr. Sarpong says the GNPC is very proud to have contributed almost a quarter of the project costs.

The donation of the one million was approved by our board of directors for us to contribute to the fight [against Covid-19]. Indeed, we came to a conclusion that if during the fight against Ebola steps had been taken to put in place an infectious diseases treatment centre in the country, maybe we wont be caught with the situation we have on hand where we dont have any dedicated facility for such diseases, Dr. Sarpong says.

So, we saw the initiative from the private sector as a good one for us to join so that at least some legacy can be left [from the Covid-19 pandemic].

After the completion of the project in Accra, the Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund is promising to construct similar infectious diseases centres in Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale. The president of the Republic, Nana Akufo-Addo, has lauded the initiatives of the fund as very important components of the national effort to contain and stop the spread of Covid-19.

Dr. Sarpong says the GNPC is open to supporting the construction of the facilities outside Accra as well.

Subject to the approval of my board of directors, which I dont think they will withhold, we will be joining [the Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund] in their bid to do similar constructions in Kumasi, Tamale and the western part of this country where the oil comes from. We are joining them in this regard to make sure that specifically our contribution will be towards the delivery of these treatment facilities. he said.

Dr. Sarpong also added: We need to encourage the [Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund]. We need to work with them. It is good that they are embracing the public sector like the GNPC. Im sure there are other organisations which can help them deliver. The good thing about the private sector is that they get things done as quickly as possible and that is one of the motivations why we joined them. I want to congratulate the Private Sector Fund Trustees for taking the initiative. People thought that the fight was that of government [alone] but they have demonstrated that together with the government a lot more can be done.

The managing trustee of the Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund, Mr. Senyo Hosi, commended the GNPC for contributing to make the vision of an isolation and treatment facility real in Ghana.

The nation wins when the public sector joins hands with the private sector and what the GNPC has done is a clear example that together we can achieve more and that together we can overcome Covid-19, Mr. Hosi said. We are very grateful to the GNPC for seeing the wisdom in this initiative and supporting us with the funds to help bring this vision to fruition. We will deliver this project in good to make us all proud.

The Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund is an initiative by private business people who set it up with a seed fund of One Million Ghana Cedis, while campaigning to raise at least One Hundred Million Ghana Cedis from local and international businesses as well as the general public to aid the fight against Covid-19 in Ghana. For more information on how to donate/contribute, please visit: www.ghanacovid19fund.com

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 00:58:33|Editor: huaxia

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MOGADISHU, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Somalia and the UN refugee agency said Tuesday they have airlifted vital humanitarian assistance to some 8,100 flood victims in three regional states in the past week.

The UNHCR said the emergency kits that include jerry cans, soap, blankets, sleeping mats, kitchen sets and plastic sheets were airlifted to Baidoa, Bardheere and Qardho areas.

Johann Siffointe, UNHCR's representative in Somalia, said they are witnessing multiple emergencies in Somalia, with a rise of COVID-19, Gu flash floods and riverine flooding.

"These emergencies must be understood as mutually compounding, requiring ongoing strong cooperation between the international community and governments at the national and sub-national levels," Siffointe said in a statement issued in Mogadishu.

According to the UN, the 2020 riverine flooding and flash floods caused by Gu season rains are giving every indication that they will adversely impact Somalia at similar levels to the Deyr rains of 2019 when more than 400,000 people were forcibly displaced.

The UN agency said the regions that have been hit hardest so far include Bari, Banadir, Hiraan, and Middle Shabelle.

"The current multiple emergencies are exacerbating the living conditions of Somalia's 2.6 million internally displaced persons who are among the country's most vulnerable groups," UNHCR said.

During the first phase of the airlift, the government provided a cargo plane to deliver essential items from the UNHCR warehouses in Mogadishu to Garowe (destined for Qardho) and Bardheere, while UNHCR airlifted the supplies to Baidoa.

The UNHCR said the second phase of the airlift will commence later this week and target 17,000 people in affected areas including Qardho, Bardheere, Beletweyn, and Berdale.

The UN response to the latest flooding came amid the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Somalia which reached 835 on Tuesday.

The UN refugee agency said it is mobilizing additional resources for non-food items and emergency shelter to respond to the ongoing needs. Enditem
Poverty in Rural America: The Story of Yates County Home and Farm from 1830 to 1950: a scholastic opus that delves into rural Americas poorhouses and identifies the effective steps by the Yates County Home and Farm that paved a path for improvement in the deplorable conditions in the community. Poverty in Rural America: The Story of Yates County Home and Farm from 1830 to 1950 is the creation of published author Christina Trombley, a first-time author and a retired registered nurse, licensed nursing home administrator, and management consultant.

Trombley shares, Poverty in Rural America: The Story of Yates County Home and Farm from 1830 to 1950 describes the development of poorhouses in New York State, providing an analysis of poverty and an impression of the societal attitudes toward those who were impoverished in the early nineteenth century. The reader is provided with an understanding of the workings and management of the Yates County Home and Farm as well as comparing it to the general issues of poverty and the solutions employed by the state. Throughout the book, the author has provided insights and discussion questions at the end of each chapter to prompt discussion and further analysis to provide insight into the impact upon the people involved. The book highlights the changes in philosophy of poverty and its solutions over the time of the operation of this poorhouse and the development of other social-service programs. This work would appeal to readers of history and of social change over time.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Christina Trombleys new book seeks to transform the society into an effective force that continually advances toward stability and without reprieve due to neglect in economic, political, and communal facets.

This book imparts potent ideas that revolutionize the philosophy of penury in hopes of uplifting the society from depravity through sound management and social relationship.

View the synopsis of Poverty in Rural America: The Story of Yates County Home and Farm from 1830 to 1950 on YouTube.

Consumers can purchase Poverty in Rural America: The Story of Yates County Home and Farm from 1830 to 1950 at traditional brick-and-mortar bookstores or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Poverty in Rural America: The Story of Yates County Home and Farm from 1830 to 1950, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.


Nurse Emily never intended to become a viral sensation.

Yet, when she posted a video on Facebook after a trip to the grocery store in March, people took notice.

Thirty million views later, shes got her own show on YouTube called Nurse Emily.

We need to laugh, Nurse Emily says. People are so stressed out right now. Whats bizarre about this situation is that this series doesnt fall into the realm of nursing. Its so completely foreign to me.

The video that started it all is called, Just Touch Your Face.

Nurse Emily has been in the medical field for 24 years.

Shes currently a psychiatric nurse, but has spent time in different areas.

I was even a corrections nurse for eight years, she says. But Ive never really worked with kids. Kids are a whole other ball game. Heart rates are different and they cant usually tell who whats wrong. Its all a guessing game.

Nurse Emily isnt only here for the laughs, shes taking time to educate as well.

The show  in partnership with Studio City  brings timely COVID-19 knowledge to the masses.

Episodes include her rant monologues, debunking social medias endless stream of coronavirus conspiracies; pandemic dos and donts; one-on-one video interviews with quarantined celebrities such as John Ross Bowie from The Big Band Theory, Kevin L. Johnson from Ozark, Troy Evans from Bosch and columnist Leonard Pitts Jr.

Because people seem to have gone to Google University and got their Ph.D, there are more experts than we know what to do with, she says with a laugh. Im here to help ease peoples minds about coronavirus. Its tough because the information is always changing. I think people dont know what to think anymore and as a nurse, it has been hard to keep up with.

Nurse Emily is also celebrating National Nurses Appreciation, which runs from May 6-12.

With the information changing so often, Nurse Emily says the basics of nursing skills remain the same, though there are new toys to work with.

Shes also showing appreciation for her fellow nurses working with the non-profit Nurses House, the only charity in the entire nation dedicated to aiding nurses who become ill, injured, or disabled on the job, and encourages viewers to donate and share their support.

You keep hearing that nurses are superheroes, she says. That is so sweet and were almost uncomfortable with the recognition. Its very odd to be thrust in the spotlight. We are humbled and appreciative how everyone is backing us up. People are fighting for the nurses. Nobody gets into this profession to be recognized.
Strong new powers promised to the environment watchdog have been delayed by more than a year, sparking fears cowboy companies will persist with unsafe management of toxic waste.

The new laws to beef up the Environment Protection Authoritys power to crackdown on environmental offenders and tough penalties for polluters were due to come into effect in July this year.

Firefighters on platforms battle the West Footscray factory fire of August 30, 2018. Credit:MFB

But the introduction has been delayed a further 12 months as part of the omnibus coronavirus legislation the state government passed in an emergency sitting of State Parliament last month.

In a letter to the state government obtained by The Age, the Anti-Toxic Waste Alliance expressed alarm about the delay in conferring additional powers on the EPA.
New Delhi, May 5 : The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Tuesday informed the Delhi High Court that its pharmacy is functioning in "limited manner".

"The pharmacy at AIIMS has been functioning in a limited way, and medicines for cancer and AIDS are being distributed from the pharmacy. A large workforce of AIIMS not being able to reach the pharmacy due to the lockdown, the functioning of the pharmacy has been affected," advocate Anand Varma appearing for the premier medical institution told the court.

The submissions came while a division bench of the Delhi High Court presided by Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rajneesh Bhatnagar was hearing a petition filed by Rachna Malik raising grievance of the out station patients who had come to AIIMS to receive treatment.

The plea states that the said patients are staying in 'Raen Baseras' and due to the COVID-19 pandemic these patients are not being provided medication that they were earlier receiving from the pharmacy at AIIMS.

The plea sought the court's direction that some arrangement be made so that these patients could be provided with medications till the time the lockdown continues, and the pharmacy at AIIMS remains non-functional.

Earlier this month, while dealing with a petition having similar prayers, the court had directed the Central and Delhi governments to submit a list of hospitals where outstation patients suffering from non Covid-19 ailments can be treated.

The petition sought urgent relief for about more than 350 severely ill patients and their family members/care givers currently occupying night shelters and tents in and around the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

"We direct the Union of India and the GNCTD to place on record the list of hospitals where these patients could receive treatment for ailments other than Covid-19, free-of-cost according to their eligibility. Respondent shall also state whether these patients could be provided treatment at AIIMS itself, as they were receiving earlier," said a division bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Yogesh Khanna earlier.

Now, the court has tagged both the matters and has fixed them for hearing on May 8. It has also ruled that the status report which the AIIMS would be filing in connection with the earlier petition, shall be shared with the present petitioner too.
The Trump administration is turbocharging an initiative to remove global industrial supply chains from China as it weighs new tariffs to punish Beijing for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, according to officials familiar with U.S. planning.

President Donald Trump, who has stepped up recent attacks on China ahead of the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election, has long pledged to bring manufacturing back from overseas.

Now, economic destruction and the U.S. coronavirus death toll are driving a government-wide push to move U.S. production and supply chain dependency away from China, even if it goes to other more friendly nations instead, current and former senior U.S. administration officials said.

Weve been working on (reducing the reliance of our supply chains in China) over the last few years but we are now turbo-charging that initiative, Keith Krach, undersecretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment at the State Department told Reuters.

I think it is essential to understand where the critical areas are and where critical bottlenecks exist, Krach said, adding that the matter was key to U.S. security and one the government could announce new action on soon.

The U.S. Commerce Department, State and other agencies are looking for ways to push companies to move both sourcing and manufacturing out of China. Tax incentives and potential re-shoring subsidies are among measures being considered to spur changes, the current and former officials told Reuters.

There is a whole of government push on this, said one. Agencies are probing which manufacturing should be deemed essential and how to produce these goods outside of China.

Trumps China policy has been defined by behind-the-scenes tussles between pro-trade advisers and China hawks; now the latter say their time has come.

This moment is a perfect storm; the pandemic has crystallized all the worries that people have had about doing business with China, said another senior U.S. official.

All the money that people think they made by making deals with China before, now theyve been eclipsed many fold by the economic damage from the coronavirus, the official said.

Economic prosperity network

Trump has said repeatedly that he could put new tariffs on top of the up to 25% tax on $370 billion in Chinese goods currently in place.

U.S. companies, which pay the tariffs, are already groaning under the existing ones, especially as sales plummet during coronavirus lockdowns.

But that does not mean Trump will balk at new ones, officials say. Other ways to punish China may include sanctions on officials or companies, and closer relations with Taiwan, the self-governing island China considers a province.

Commerce on Monday launched a national security probe that could lead to new U.S. tariffs on imports of key components of power transformers, saying it needed assured domestic access to such goods to be able to respond to power disruptions.

Discussions about moving supply chains are concrete, robust, and, unusually for the Trump administration, multi-lateral.

The United States is pushing to create an alliance of trusted partners dubbed the Economic Prosperity Network, one official said. It would include companies and civil society groups operating under the same set of standards on everything from digital business, energy and infrastructure to research, trade, education and commerce, he said.

The U.S. government is working with Australia, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Vietnam to move the global economy forward, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said April 29.

These discussions include how we restructure ... supply chains to prevent something like this from ever happening again, Pompeo said.

Latin America may play a role, too.

Colombian Ambassador Francisco Santos last month said he was in discussions with the White House, National Security Council, Treasury Department and U.S. Chamber of Commerce about a drive to encourage U.S. companies to move some supply chains out of China and bring them closer to home.

China overtook the United States as the worlds top manufacturing country in 2010, and was responsible for 28% of global output in 2018, according to United Nations data.

The pandemic has highlighted Chinas key role in the supply chain for generic drugs that account for the majority of prescriptions in the United States. It has also shown Chinas dominance in goods like the thermal cameras needed to test workers for fevers, and its importance in food supplies.

Hard sell for companies

Many U.S. companies have invested heavily in Chinese manufacturing and rely on Chinas 1.4 billion people for a big chunk of their sales.

Diversification and some redundancy in supply chains will make sense given the level of risk that the pandemic has uncovered, said Doug Barry, spokesman for the U.S.-China Business Council. But we dont see a wholesale rush for the exits by companies doing business in China.

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Monday said Trump had already signed an order that could allow limits on imports of components for the U.S. power grid from Russia and China, and would soon issue a separate order that would require federal agencies to purchase U.S.-made medical products.

John Murphy, senior vice president for international policy at the Chamber of Commerce, said that U.S. manufacturers already meet 70% of current pharmaceutical demand.

Building new facilities in the United States could take five to eight years, he said. Were concerned that officials need to get the right fact sets before they start looking at alternatives, Murphy said.

Trump White House pledges to punish China have not always been followed by action.

A move to block global exports of chips to blacklisted Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, for example, favored by hawks in the administration and under consideration since November, has not yet been finalized.
EUR/USD Current Price: 1.0906

Sentiment turned sour as US President Trump escalated tensions with China.

Data coming from the US and the US continued to reflect the effects of COVID-19 on the economy.

EUR/USD pressures the 1.0900 threshold and poised to extend its decline.

Risk-off took over the financial world at the beginning of the week, with the greenback edging higher against most major rivals. The EUR/USD pair traded as low as 1.0895, ending the day just above this last. The dismal market mood was triggered by mounting tensions between the US and China, as US President Trump said that he has strong evidence that the coronavirus originated in a Wuhan lab. He also said that the Asian giant is not complying with the trade deal quotas, and menaced to terminate the phase one.

Data coming from Europe was mixed, as the final version of the German April Markit Manufacturing PMI was upwardly revised to 34.5, although the one for the whole Union came down to 33.5. Also, the EU Sentix Investor Confidence index plunged to -41.8 in May, much worse than the -33.5 anticipated. As for US data, the ISM-NY Business Conditions Index for April resulted at 4.3 from 12.9 previously, while March Factory Orders fell by 10.3%. This Tuesday, the EU Commission will release its growth forecast, and against the usual, it may impact the shared currency. The US will publish the April ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI, previously at 50.

EUR/USD Short-Term Technical Outlook

The EUR/USD pair is at risk of extending its decline, as, in the 4-hour chart, it settled below its 20 SMA for the first time in over a week. In the mentioned time-frame the 100 and 200 SMA converge directionless at around 1.0880, providing support, while technical indicators have turned flat around their midlines. Further declines are to be expected on a break below 1.0880, the immediate support.

Support levels: 1.0880 1.0830 1.0795

Resistance levels: 1.0920 1.0950 1.0995

Image sourced from Pixabay

Story continues

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 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
A new trial will be giving 75 coronavirus patients an experimental drug this month after two critical patients treated with it recovered.

Leronlimab is a medication by Washington-based biotechnology company CytoDyn Inc that has been developed to treat cancer and HIV.

Researchers believe the drug can quell the 'cytokine storm' - a deluge of immune cells that can be as damaging as the infection itself - that triggers life-threatening lung inflammation in coronavirus patients.

The company says Phase II of its trial, which will test leronlimab against a placebo, will begin at the end of May.

It comes not long after two COVID-19 patients in New York City were treated with the drug and went from being on ventilators in the ICU to regular hospital in a matter of days.

A new clinical trial will test the efficacy of leronlimab, a medication in development for treating HIV and cancer, in coronavirus patients. Pictured: Health workers move a patient wearing a face mask at the at NYU Langone Hospital in New York City, May 3

In March, the drug was given to seven critically ill coronavirus patients in New York. Pictured: Vials with samples taken for coronavirus tests at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, April 2

Leronlimab is a medication that blocks CCR5, a cellular receptor that plays an important role in HIV infection, tumor growth and other diseases.

In HIV patients, leronlimab masks CCR5, which protects healthy immune system cells from being invades by the virus.

Among cancer patients, the drug blocking CCR5 reduced tumor growth in laboratory and animal models of breast and prostate cancer.

Based on the results of a small initial trial, CytoDyn believes its drug has potential for treating patients severely ill with coronavirus.

Leronlimab has only been tested in seven critically ill patients thus far, but two are now free from ventilators, and another two more show signs that the severe inflammation sending their lungs into organ failure are subsiding.

For their earlier COVID-19 trial, doctors at a New York hospital gave the drug to seven severely ill coronavirus patients.

The drug is given via two injections - one on each side of the abdomen.

Two of them were well enough to be taken off ventilators in a matter of days, and all but one are improving, according to CytoDyn president and CEO Dr Nader Pourhassan (pictured)

For the first patient, a person in their 70s, improvements came almost immediately, and were considerable, from what the doctor overseeing the trial told the company's president.

'One of [the patients] self-extubating,' meaning they removed their own ventilator tube, 'and was alert an hour or two after treatment,' CytoDyn president and CEO Dr Nader Pourhassan told DailyMail.com in an interview in March.

'The doctor said that this patient, in the last three days before treatment, was intubated and extubated and every time they intubated him, within four to six hours they immediately had to intubate him again.'

Since the patient pulled out their own breathing tube, they've been doing well and has been off the ventilator.

This patient as well as the second patient treated have both now been taken off a blood pressure drug that was being used to help them cope with the distress of COVID-19 too.

Three days after the first injections of leronlimab were given, bloodwork from these and two other patients showed that the cytokine storm was subsiding.

A second dose of leronlimab was given a week after the first. All but one of the patients have so far been steadily improving.

What's killing coronavirus patients is a complication of the virus: pneumonia.

The virus binds to lung cells, and the immune system kicks into high gear to fight the infection with every weapon it has, despite the fact that we do not have antibodies specific to COVID at the ready.

This flood of immune cells, including cytokines - the immune system's communication system.

Cytokines tell the immune system to send a deluge of chemicals from white blood cells to attack the infection, causing inflammation.

When inflammation gets out of control and fluid starts to fill the alveoli in the lungs, a patient develops pneumonia.

In the case of many of the sickest coronavirus patients, this leads to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a condition that requires ventilation, and even then can prove fatal.

Leronlimab interrupts this domino effect by calming the cytokine storm.

It's not entirely clear how the drug does this, but it's a phenomenon that CytoDyn has seen not only in its first small set of coronavirus patients but in 840 HIV patients who saw significant reductions in their levels of inflammation.

'We are very excited about the continuing positive responses from eIND patients following their treatment with leronlimab,' Pourhassan said in a statement.

'We are equally excited about the prospects for patients should the FDA grant access to leronlimab under the compassionate use program.

'Under the compassionate use program, we could avoid and quickly overcome...stress and turmoil which [is] very difficult for the patients, their families, the physicians, and CytoDyn.'

In the US, there are more than 1.1 million confirmed cases of the virus and more than 69,000 deaths.
Equities rallied Tuesday as investors cheered a further easing of lockdowns in some countries, which offset fears of a renewed trade war between China and the United States. Oil also rose as the economic outlook seemed to brighten with the markets' peak-to-trough fall now less than half what it was earlier in the crisis. With signs that the spread of coronavirus is easing, governments in Europe and parts of Asia-Pacific as well as some US states have begun to allow businesses to reopen. "Markets have reacted to the fact that it seems that there is a little light at the end of the tunnel," Scope Markets analyst James Hughes told AFP. "Lockdown easing in the likes of Spain and Italy has led to many looking at timelines for many aspects of life reopening," he said. Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst with ThinkMarkets, cautioned that while a gradual return to economic activity would bring optimism, the long-term view was still grim. "Incoming macro data continue to reveal that the damage from COVID-19 is worse than expected, reducing the likelihood we will see a V-shaped economic recovery when the lockdown measures are mostly lifted," Razaqzada said. Markets took an optimistic view with Frankfurt closing up 2.5 percent and London ending not far behind. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones index had added 1.7 percent some two hours into the session. With oil posting double-digit percentage gains, British energy giant BP rose six percent in its slipstream to 318.90 pence while Royal Dutch Shell B shares added 5.06 percent to close at 1,283.40 pence. - 'On the right path' - "Even if the full return to normal life is not yet on the cards, the recent moves at least give many the sense that we are on the right path," Hughes said. The gains helped markets claw back some of Monday's steep losses, though there remains a sense of fear of a second wave of infections, as traders also contemplate a long recovery from the economic destruction. Hong Kong closed higher on news that some restrictions would be lifted in the city, outweighing data showing its economy suffered its worst contraction on record in the first quarter. Dealers were keeping tabs on China-US relations after Donald Trump hit out at Beijing over its handling of the outbreak, saying it began in a Wuhan lab, but so far offering no evidence. The comments, and his warning he could hit China with fresh tariffs, have fanned fears of a repeat of the standoff between the economic superpowers that battered markets last year. In forex exchange markets the euro slipped against the dollar after Germany's top court cast doubt on the legality of the European Central Bank's massive bond buying programme. - Key figures around 1545 GMT - London - FTSE 100: UP 1.7 percent at 5,849.42 points (close) Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 2.5 percent at 10,729.46 (close) Paris - CAC 40: UP 2.4 percent at 4,483.13 (close) EURO STOXX 50: UP 2.0 percent at 2,872.75 New York - Dow: UP 1.6 percent at 24,139.40 Hong Kong - Hang Seng: UP 1.1 percent at 23,868.66 (close) Shanghai - Composite: Closed for a holiday Tokyo - Nikkei 225: Closed for a holiday Brent North Sea crude: UP 10.5 percent at $30.05 per barrel West Texas Intermediate: UP 16.6 percent at $23.78 Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0840 from $1.0907 at 2100 GMT Dollar/yen: DOWN at 106.56 yen from 106.74 Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2453 from $1.2443 Euro/pound: DOWN at 87.09 pence from 87.66 pence burs/cdw/jj
Kenyan private cargo plane crashes in unclear circumstances in Somalia, killing all six people on board.

Kenyas foreign ministry has called for a swift investigation after a humanitarian plane helping the fight against the coronavirus crashed in Somalia in unclear circumstances, killing all six people on board.

The Kenyan private cargo plane was undertaking a humanitarian mission related to pandemic when it crashed on Monday afternoon in Bardale district in southern Somalia, about 300km (180 miles) northwest of Somalias capital Mogadishu, the ministry said on Tuesday.

The aircraft was about to land at the Bardale airstrip when it crashed and burst into flames. All six people on board died, Abdulahi Isack, a local police official, told AFP news agency.

We dont know what exactly caused the aircraft carrying medical supplies to crash, but there is an investigation going on to establish the details.

Deep shock

Kenya urged Somalia to thoroughly and swiftly investigate the matter because it impacts humanitarian operations at a time of highest need.

The incident occurred under unclear circumstances, the foreign ministry said in a statement, expressing deep shock and regret and offering condolences to the families of the deceased.

Kenyan and other humanitarian aircraft operating in the region are also urged to enhance extra precaution in light of the unclear circumstances surrounding the incident, the ministry said.

The al-Shabab armed group is active in southern Somalia, but the area where the crash occurred is under the control of the government and Ethiopian troops.

Soldiers from Ethiopia and Kenya are among those deployed to Somalia as part of an African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission to fight armed rebellion.

A spokesman for the Ethiopian National Defence Force said he had no information about the crash and referred questions to armed force commanders in Somalia.

Shot down

In a statement, Somalias transport and civil aviation ministry expressed its deep regret over the crash and said the government was conducting a thorough investigation.

It said the Embraer 120 twin-turboprop was operated by African Express, which has its headquarters in Kenyas Nairobi.

A projectile fired from the ground hit the plane as it approached the airstrip, Ahmed Isaq, a South West State regional administration official, told The Associated Press news agency.

The crash comes amid strained ties between Kenya and Somalia.

Last month, Kenya accused Somali troops of an unwarranted attack over its border near Mandera, a northern outpost town, describing the incident as a provocation.

Somalia has meanwhile long accused its larger neighbour of meddling in its internal affairs, something Kenya has denied.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) will be culturing the novel Coronavirus in human lung epithelial cells, which will enable in-vitro tests of potential drugs and vaccines against Covid-19. For this, the CCMB has tied up with a Bengaluru-based company, Eyestem Research Private Limited.

In a media release on Monday, the CCMB said under this public-private collaboration against Covid-19, it will get to use Eyestems human lung epithelial cell culture system provided as part of its Anti-Covid Screening (ACS) platform. This will help understand the molecular and pathological characteristics of the novel Coronavirus and establish a rational basis for testing potential drugs in-vitro.

CCMB Director Dr Rakesh Mishra said, Culturing the virus outside the human host is a technological challenge that needs to be overcome. Eyestems cell culture system expresses the ACE2 receptor and other genes that are key determinants of viral entry and replication.

We hope that employing this system will allow the CCMB team led by Dr Krishnan Harshan to grow the virus predictably and thereby open up the potential for the drug screening and vaccine development strategies, he added.

Simply put, to conduct tests and understand the virus as well as to see if any drug or vaccine is effective against it, there must be enough virus available to conduct these tests. Till now, CCMB has been growing this virus on cells collected from the African Green Monkey but with this new collaboration, it can grow the virus in human cells. This will help in getting a clearer picture of the genetic make-up of the virus.

It will also give a more accurate analysis of the effect a particular drug or vaccine might have on the virus inside a human being. However, the culture of virus in the monkey cells will also simultaneously continue. The ACS platform at Eyestem has been developed by Dr Rajarshi Pal and his team.
Here is a selection of pieces from across Indian publications on Covid-19.

From the driving force behind economic policies in the coming future, to the problems faced by the elderly under lockdown, and whether or not you should switch on the air conditioner during this pandemic  read these and more in todays India dispatch. Expert Speak Condition of the poor an emergency, govt must open sluice gates: Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee, says in this interview that the two most urgent needs of migrant workers and the urban unemployed that the government must tackle ...
New Zealanders could be allowed to visit Western Australia before residents on the east coast, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has joked.

Mr Morrison revealed there was 'friendly banter' about the potential of a trans-Tasman travel bubble after New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern met with the National Cabinet on Tuesday.

The prime minister was asked how winding back coronavirus restrictions on intrastate travel could impact the economy in the coming weeks.

'Very positive. That is part of the road back that National Cabinet is considering,' he told the press conference.

Mr Morrison revealed there was 'friendly banter' about the potential of a trans-Tasman travel bubble after New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern met with the National Cabinet on Tuesday

'There are still hard borders with Western Australia.

'There was a bit of friendly banter about whether Kiwis would be welcome into Western Australia before those from the east coast were.'

Mr Morrison went on to say that domestic travel could provide a 'big benefit' to the Australian economy.

'If they are able to go and have a holiday on the Gold Coast or in South Australia or in - wherever it happens to be out of one's home state, let's hope that is possible because that will be great for those places in terms of the tourism impact,' he said.

'Already in NSW, which is what I have discovered here in the ACT, we are seeing those restrictions about people being able to move and travel a bit further, the same is true back in Queensland, that is good.'

'I welcome that. I think that is great. I think Australians are welcoming that too. That is all part of getting back to the COVID safe economy.'

Western Australia implemented strict border controls to control the coronavirus outbreak. Australians cannot pass through the state border unless an exemption has been granted.

The state recorded its sixth consecutive day of no new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, with only 14 active cases remaining.

Pictured: Mr Morrison speaks at a press conference following National Cabinet on Tuesday

Ms Ardern joined the meeting with Australia's federal and state leaders to discuss restarting travel.

'When we feel comfortable and confident that we both won't receive cases from Australia, but equally that we won't export them, then that will be the time to move,' she told reporters in Wellington.

Travellers should not expect to be forced into two-week quarantine periods when travel restarts.

'I think everyone would acknowledge it would be prohibitive,' Ms Ardern said.

The NZ prime minister said a travel bubble could be considered because of both countries' strong performance in stopping the spread of coronavirus.

'We should both be proud of the efforts that have been made and again the demonstration of the important Anzac bond between us,' she said.

Australia's coronavirus death toll is at 96, with under 1,000 active cases out of more than 6,830 detected since the pandemic erupted.
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Patients infected with coronavirus were allowed to 'move around freely' with other residents at the Western Sydney aged care home where 15 people have now died, reports claim.

The protocols at Anglicare's Newmarch House, in Caddens near Penrith, have been questioned even further after it was revealed that COVID-19-positive residents could have spent weeks common areas.

Elizabeth Lane said she saw her 84-year-old mother, Rose Davies, wheeled through an area that was designated for coronavirus-positive residents to exercise, The Australian reported.

Fifteen residents at Newmarch House in Caddens have died from coronavirus (tributes pictured) and families claim infected patients were allowed to move around common areas

Ann Fahey (pictured centre) died from coronavirus on Saturday and her family described the Newmarch House nursing home as 'a Ruby Princess on land'

Ms Lane said: 'I was outside with my mother and I saw a resident on the other side of the glass sliding door exercising.

'It only hit me later when I realised we had wheeled mum back through that same room after the visit.'

More than 60 residents and staff have tested positive for coronavirus and Newmarch House recorded its fifteenth death on Monday.

An emergency response effort to establish a 'clean wing' involving state, federal and private health agencies was ramped up as a result.

Multiple families reported that residents have not been removed from the Lawson wing but were instead confined to opposite ends of the building.

Anthony Bowe said his 76-year-old mother, Pat Shea, was diagnosed with coronavirus 19 days ago and was being treated in the Lawson wing.

'They fell like dominoes in that patch of Lawson Wing. I've no idea why negative patients are still under the same roof as residents like my mum,' Mr Bowe said.

Anthony Bowe said his mother, Pat Shea (pictured) was one of the first patients diagnosed with COVID-19 but that she had not been removed from coronavirus-free residents

The coronavirus outbreak began when a part-time carer who was suffering from minor symptoms worked six shifts at the nursing home.

One devastated granddaughter, Nicole Fahey, told 7News: 'This is a Ruby Princess on land. People are dying. It's not good enough.'

Her grandmother Ann Fahey, 76, died from coronavirus on Saturday despite testing negative for the virus twice.

The Sydney woman became the 14th Newmarch House resident to die from COVID-19.

Ms Fahey's son, Mark Fahey, said: 'I'm appalled. I'm angry. I'm upset.'

'If the test was correct in the first place she would've had a week's head start.'

At least three additional workers at the nursing home have been confirmed to have COVID-19.

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said on Tuesday two new aged care workers had at 8pm on Monday been diagnosed with COVID-19, while Anglicare on Tuesday morning confirmed another case.

The latter worker had operated solely in the facility's coronavirus-positive ward.

'Two new cases were from staff members at Newmarch House and detected as part of the screening process that has been put in place,' Dr Chant told reporters on Tuesday.

Federal Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck on Monday said discussions were under way with some Newmarch House residents' family members to remove them from the facility.

He said it could be eight weeks before the facility is coronavirus-free.

Newmarch House is being reviewed by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and the public health unit of the Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District.

Newmarch House (pictured) is establishing a 'clean wing' and is currently under review

The royal commission has also called for submissions from family members who were impacted by COVID-19 in aged care.

Anglicare Sydney released a statement describing coronavirus as 'devastating' for Australia's elderly community.

'The impact of COVID-19 on older people is increasingly evident in Australia and internationally and this is extremely distressing for other residents, their families and members of the wider community.'

'Anglicare appreciates the support of the Commonwealth Government in assisting us to source an infection control specialist who is currently on site this week, monitoring and reviewing all current contamination and infection control procedures,' the aged care facility said.
State health officials are still investigating a Milford nursing home where 80 residents have fallen ill after being exposed to coronavirus, while the governors office announced protective equipment from the national stockpile will be distributed to nursing homes.

Av Harris, a spokesman for the Department of Public Health, confirmed the states investigation into Golden Hill Rehab Pavilion is still pending in an email Monday.

The Bridgeport Avenue home became the subject of an investigation after the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner changed the death certificate of a 91-year-old from respiratory failure to acute respiratory infection, probable novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection.

Deaths at nursing homes make up about 55 percent of the total deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Connecticut, according to data released by the governors office last Thursday.

At least 17 residents of the nursing home have died after testing positive for the disease, and five other deaths are suspected to have been COVID-19-related, according to the data.

Statewide, at least 4,814 nursing home residents have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. There have been at least 958 deaths attributed to the illness, with 291 more suspected of being related to the disease.

The DPH is also investigating the home regarding family notification of condition and COVID status, Harris said previously.

Hearst Connecticut Media reached out to a spokeswoman for Golden Hill Rehab Pavilion, but did not receive a response.

The company has previously disputed claims raised by family members of residents who had gotten sick, including one family who said they learned their loved one had died from the disease when they received his death certificate.

Nursing homes are required to report all deaths confirmed or suspected to have involved COVID-19 to both the DPH and the chief medical examiner.

But that hasnt always happened, according to Chief Medical Examiner Dr. James Gill, who said his office has had to investigate deaths suspected of being COVID-19 related when they are not directly reported to his office.

In an email Monday, Gill said his office does not directly investigate nursing homes, which is handled by the DPH Facilities Licensing and Investigations Section, only deaths.

It is not clear how many other homes in the state, if any, are also under investigation.

Amid national headlines of high death tolls at nursing homes in Washington, New York and New Jersey, the Trump administration last month ordered homes to notify residents and their families within 12 hours of the first positive test for COVID-19 at their facility. The new rules also require the homes to update family members every time there is a new case, or if three or more people develop respiratory issues.

Seperately on Monday, Gov. Ned Lamont announced a shipment of protective equipment from the national stockpile will go to nursing homes.

Finally the PPE is beginning to flow, and its coming from the national stockpile, the governor said during his daily press conference Monday. Therell be a big shipment going out to all of our nursing homes, direct from the national stockpile of the course of the next week to two weeks.

He said states will also begin receiving supplies to conduct COVID-19 testing from the federal government to enable them to test two percent of their population on a regular basis.

So that is beginning to roll out and that were really thankful for, the governor said.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the media is full of pictures depicting block-long queues for groceries and food aid across the U.S., whereas newspapers in Vietnam show well-stocked supermarkets with stable prices.

Trinh Nguyen

I called my family in Ho Chi Minh City who reassured me local supermarkets are well stocked and that some even offer discounts. An expat working in Vietnam commented via LinkedIn on the plentiful produce and absence of panic buying; he praised the Vietnamese government for its robust crisis management. I agree with him on the excellent work of the Vietnamese government, but two additional factors contribute to the calm normalcy at Vietnams grocery stores.

First, the economic structure and farming practice between the U.S. and Vietnam are fundamentally different. These differences provide the Vietnamese with stability in times of crisis. American farming has long been industrialized. In 2015, large-scale farms accounted for 42 percent of total agricultural production,whereas small family farms only accounted for 25 percent of the national total, a sharp drop from 46 percent in 1991. Only 1.3 percent of workers in the U.S. are employed in farming; yet the country is the global food exporter thanks to high level automation.The economies of scale and efficiency-based supply chain model of the U.S. food industry, however, has a major drawback during crises.

Because an efficient supply chain model maximizes utilization and minimizes costs, any disruption to a node in this network disrupts the whole chain. For example, the indefinite closure of one of the U.S.s largest pork processing facilities raises concerns over shortages of pork. Ironically, despite the shortage of food at food banks and groceries, U.S. farms have destroyed vast amounts of food as it can no longer be sold to restaurants, hotels, and schools. Donation of this food is largely impeded by deficits in storage capacity, packaging, processing, and transport appropriate to alternative markets. Consequently, the gigantic, efficient, and economical agriculture model of the U.S. has failed to timely adapt to the changing needs of the U.S. consumer.

Compared to the U.S. agricultural industry, Vietnamese agriculture is a dwarf. A total 43 percent of the Vietnamese population works in agriculture, predominantly on small scale family farms averaging 0.4 hectares and with limited mechanization. This farming model, small and agile, has proven effective at distributing risks and adapting to sudden change.

This is exemplified by the burgeoning of mini businesses during current social distancing. For example, "groceries in apartment buildings" is a new trend. Residents in many apartment developments have quickly sourced homegrown produce to sell to neighbors. The quality of fresh produce and the convenience of the new service found a ready market among the apartment community. Among Facebook friends, many view the "stay at home" period as an opportunity to market the fish caught in their hometown, shrimp raised by an uncle in the neighboring province, pork and beef butchered by their mother, and vegetables and fruits from their relatives farms.

The dense network of motorbike delivery actualizes these new businesses. None of these vendors hold a lion share of the food market; yet each effectively supplies a handful of customers. Reciprocally, operations of these small farms remain relatively stable; they do not have thousands of tons of products inflexibly targeted at specific consumers. As a result, the small and flexible nature of Vietnamese agriculture has been resoundingly effective in responding to the new coronavirus crisis.

People wait to pay by carts full of eggs, instant noodles and other packed foods at a supermarket in Ho Chi Minh City's District 1, March 31, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Nguyen.

The second reason contributing to the calm in Vietnam is its social structure, which is disparate from the U.S.

According to a World Bank 2018 report, 36 percent of the Vietnamese population lives in an urban area, opposed to 82 percent in the U.S. Additionally, the U.S.population is typically individualistic: 35.7 million Americans live alone composing 28 percent of households compared to 13 percent in 1960. In contrast, family life remains pivotal in Vietnamese culture and is inclusive of extended families including uncles, aunts, grandparents, and other relatives. Consequently, nearly all urban Vietnamese have immediate or extended family members living in rural areas, and if a Vietnamese person, by chance, is not as connected, many friends are. This enables a "micro" food supply network. For example, our family's cleaning lady has a son farming in a Mekong Delta province, who has for years supplied us with vegetables, fish, ducks, chickens, and honey. Similarly, my uncle in Quang Ngai Province often sends over fruit and local produce. This social structure empowers people; they are not tortured by concerns of being alone or supermarket food shortages.

The connection between urban and rural environments and among family members has other advantages. It not only provides a safety net during crises but also reduces reliance on national welfare. A friend,who is a Grab driver in Ho Chi Minh City, had to put her business on indefinite hold because of the lockdown. Despite the economic loss, her well-being is assured as she temporarily moved back to her family in a rural town and enjoys home cooked meals and the camaraderie of her nieces and nephews. Of course, not all Vietnamese have her privilege, but she is the norm, not the exception.

Every country has its own approach to economics and social structuring with unique pros and cons. In an international health and economic crisis, Vietnam illustrates the power of small and agile agriculture in conjunction with a cohesive social fabric. It has outperformed economies of scale and individualism. The current pandemic has illustrated the weaknesses of economies focused on consumerism and efficiency and should stimulate policy makers to consider the strengths of the small family agriculture model for sustainability and social well being. For many countries, this long unfavored model deserves serious consideration as a national strategy.

Specifically, the current coronavirus pandemic has awakened the new perspective calling on Vietnam to invest in its own model of sustainable small-scale farming and support the web of connections between urban and rural areas rather than aspire to the poorly adaptable industrialized farming and urbanized consumerism of the U.S.

* Trinh Nguyen is Vietnamese woman studying in Canada. She holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Hawaii and Master of Education from the University of British Columbia. The opinions expressed are her own.
Agartala, May 5 : Even as the BSF is conducting a probe to trace the source of novel coronavirus infection among 24 personnel and three family members of a jawan in Tripura, authorities identified 331 persons who came in contact with infected persons, official sources said on Tuesday.

The swab samples of 179 of the identified contacts have been sent for testing.

"We are conducting an inquiry to know about the primary and secondary sources of infection in these BSF jawans and their family members," the top BSF officer of Tripura frontier told IANS on the condition of anonymity.

He said that the BSF authorities in cooperation with the Tripura government have taken all precautionary and other steps at the 138 Battalion headquarters at Ambassa, 82 km north of Agartala.

According to Tripura's health officials, 24 BSF personnel belonging to the 138 Battalion, wife of a jawan and their two children had tested corona positive on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Education and Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath said: "As many as 331 people, comprising 90 doctors and health workers and 241 BSF jawans, were identified for directly or indirectly coming in contact with infected BSF troopers. Of the 331 identified people, swab samples of 179 people are being tested," Nath told the media.

"Despite the BSF battalion headquarters situated in a locality on a vital National Highway, the disease is yet to spread in the community," the Minister said.

Nath said that the Health Ministry on Monday had declared Tripura's Dhalai district headquarters Ambassa as "Red Zone" after many BSF troopers tested positive.

He said that all the 27 infected persons are now admitted at the Govind Ballabh Pant Medical College and Hospital in Agartala, a dedicated Covid-19 hospital.

Six of the eight districts of Tripura, before Saturday, were categorised as green zones and two districts as orange zones.

Dhalai District Magistrate Brahmneet Kaur has declared three containment zones -- the BSF battalion headquarters, their administrative base camp at Gandachara and Karina Border Outpost (BoP).

As many as 29 positive cases have so far been reported in Tripura, with 27 active cases. A woman and a Tripura State Rifles (TSR) jawan were cured and discharged from hospitals.

A week after the state was declared novel coronavirus free on April 25, two BSF jawans -- including a Head Constable -- tested positive on Saturday at the 138 Battalion.

According to BSF officials, the Head Constable was the first to be infected. Belonging to Assam, he has been suffering from some ailments after he returned to Tripura from his hometown in Sivasagar district on March 11.

Tripura's first coronavirus patient, a 45-year-old woman, who tested positive on April 6 after her return from Assam by train, has already recovered and was discharged on April 15.
A screen capture of the Japan Patent Office's Status Report 2020



By Nam Hyun-woo





LG Chem's cylindrical battery / Courtesy of LG Chem
Like many of us under stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders, my professional and personal life now relies on Zoom. Clients and colleagues have quickly defaulted to video conferencing, virtual playdates have become a thing, and trying to read my friends bluff attempts on-screen while playing poker is the new normal.

In fact, I look forward to these bi-weekly poker nights with a rotating group of friends including a lawyer, failed bond trader, and former CFO. They all have stable jobs (at least for now) and enough pocket change for poker night. While we play, the conversation consistently turns to the current events and the markets  and the group often discusses the adage buy on the way down. Its worthwhile advice if youre fortunate enough to be in a position to act, but the stark reality is that most people in America are not.

The Vast Majority are Struggling

The COVID-19 crisis exacerbated the financial health needs of the majority. Before the pandemic, during a booming economic period, our organization found that only 29% of the U.S. population was financially healthy. While the data shows that income is correlated to overall financial health, nearly 50% of those making more than $100,000 per year were already struggling. With so many people trying to get by, how are individuals and families going to spend, save, borrow, and plan in ways that improve their chances of long-term financial success in the current environment?

Financial Health Providers

Credit unions have often found themselves at the forefront of financial health, but credit unions are now uniquely positioned to become more than a financial institution to their members. This includes being reactive to members needs today by waiving fees and being flexible. Some actions are being taken to help support credit unions and members during this time. The NCUA posted a helpful guide for supporting members during this crisis, and QCash Financial is offering a COVID-relief program for credit unions seeking a short-term credit option for members. However, with more than 25 million people in the U.S. filing for benefits since the pandemic started to batter the economy, the communities which credit unions serve need more.

Credit unions are poised to uniquely address the holistic needs of the community, both during this crisis and beyond. In order to do so, credit unions should consider partnering with high- quality fintechs in order to offer services that better serve customers where they need assistance today. Fintechs can offer customized expertise and tools, such as:

SpringFour directs members to best-in-class local government and nonprofit resources.

Steady helps members increase their income by providing tailored job opportunities.

SaverLife gamifies the savings experience so members can weather financial shocks.

Leading the Charge: People Need our Help

Credit unions like BCU, Coastal, IH Mississippi Valley, and ESL acted quickly to provide COVID-19 resources and relief to help members manage through this crisis. Additionally, they are actively measuring financial health so they meet members and employees where they are, and the Foundation continues to be a centralized hub for resources and thought leadership. The mantra of people helping people shines bright.

But beyond addressing the pains already felt through the pandemic, these leading institutions are showing us what is possible and giving us a glimpse into the future of the financial health movement.

Especially in a crisis, credit unions can be more than financial institutions. They can be financial health providers.
File Photo

New Delhi: The Pointer Institute's International Fact Investigation Network (IFCN) on Monday launched a WhatsApp Chatbot designed specifically to combat misleading information during the Covid-19 epidemic.

PhotoUsing the IFCN bot on WhatsApp, the network said in a statement that people around the world would be able to easily know if the information they received about the Covid-19 was accurate. The boat is available for free, IFCN said.

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Initially it will be available in English only but soon it will be available in other languages ??including Hindi, Spanish and Portuguese.

On this new WhatsApp Chatbot, people can send messages through professional factory checkers whether there is any news related to Covid-19 or not. IFCN's debunked fake news database will be available to the public at +1 (727) 2912606. Since January, more than 80 organizations in 74 countries have uncovered more than 4,000 rumors about the corona virus.

PhotoNow all this information has become a corona virus fact database. This database is updated daily by IFCN so that users can easily access its content. IFCN Director Beyarbars Orsak said users can search for debunked news with the help of chatbots.

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IFCN's chatbot is primarily for distributing fact checks to WhatsApp users and giving them access to research in a debunked fake news database from the Corona virus. In Chatbot, users can check 4000 debunked myths, search by word, find local fact-checkers in their country.

File photoToday the whole world is fighting with corona virus. Everyone is trying to control it in their own way. At present, corona has become a special subject. Scientists are pushing hard to develop a vaccine, but it is not yet known when it will be ready.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that overcoming the coronavirus pandemic will require the most massive public health effort in history since it is an interconnected world where "none of us is safe until all of us are safe".

His remarks came as the world leaders on Monday pledged 7.4 billion euros (approximately USD 8.2 billion) to support the research and development for medicines to fight the COVID-19 which has so far killed over 2.5 lakh people and infected more than 3.6 million globally.

Leaders from 40 countries came together to support the ACT Accelerator through the COVID-19 Global Response International Pledging Event, hosted by the European Commission.

About 7.4 billion euros was pledged for the research and development for vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics.

Guterres pointed to the last month's launch of the landmark effort initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and a range of leading countries to speed up the scientific breakthrough needed to get the coronavirus under control, known as the ACT Accelerator.

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

He welcomed the contribution and the launch of the ACT Accelerator  a landmark global collaboration to speed up the development, production and equitable access to new COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.

The UN chief said these new tools can help the world fully control the pandemic, and must be treated as global public goods available and affordable for all.

Comprehensive, coordinated public health measures are critical to slow transmission and to save lives. But even countries that have taken such steps remain in jeopardy. And the virus is still likely to strike many countries that are least able to cope. In an interconnected world, none of us is safe until all of us are safe, he said.

Addressing the European Union pledging conference in Brussels, Guterres said that the most massive public health effort in history is needed to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 has spread to every corner of the world, infecting more than three million people and claiming more than 220,000 lives, Guterres said in his comments which came following a warning in recent days about the lack of sufficient solidarity with the developing countries - both in equipping them to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, which risks spreading like wildfire - and to address its dramatic economic and social impacts.

We have a common vision. Let us now put people first everywhere, the UN chief added.

Apart from the European Commission which organised Monday's event on behalf of the EU, countries involved in the overall effort include South Africa, Rwanda, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Finland and Costa Rica.

Neither of the two largest economies, the US or China, have so far joined the ACT Accelerator drive.
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There are those moments of clarity that come from tempestuous thoughts: a eureka moment indifferent to time or space. Thoughts like the zephyr that fill the sails of a sloop on a once quiet lake.

Judgment interrogates our experience and knowledge in the same breath. What use is the theory of movements or ordained trajectories in flight with indifference to wind or a gathering storm? Judgment requires a spate of intuition boiled in a vat of reality. Intuition is immediate after the business of reason is finished.

In the world of aviation, a preflight is meant to prevent the potential of a catastrophe. The correct conduct prior to a flight: checking the free movements of the control surfaces, draining the fuel, or checking the oil before takeoff, flight charts, and checklists on hand, all stem from the collective experience of aviators.

As in aviation, so too in medicine, judgment is an important determinant of a physicians management of illness. True care of a patient is not a repetitive mantra of this for that. It is not the guideline metric of less is more, or choosing wisely, as envisioned by the wisdom of the ones who ordain the trajectories of their version of the medical discipline. It is a purposeful intuition as Rebecca Elson envisions:

And purpose is a momentary silhouette.

Backlit by a blue anthropic flash,

A storm on the horizon.

No rulebook contains the collective experiential reference based on human knowledge. In both aviation and medicine, there is a need for the instructive modicum of intuition.

Ask physicians in the throes of a busy emergency room, how they keep the questioning mob of the infirmed from inundating them. Most would reply: I focus on each individual patient. But, how do you prescribe which medicine or therapeutic option? I first listen to and examine them. Then my knowledge and experience come into play, they respond. Exasperated, with these equivocations, you ask, But how do you know what the right treatment is? Do you follow some guidelines? They stare back at you, shake their head, and walk away to the next patient seeking help.

Walt Whitman squares this argument thus,  impalpable sustenance of me from all things at all hours of the day. There is a flow of an ethereal transfer of information between humans, the kind that unifies us as humans. Intuition, judgment, knowledge, and experience convey that impalpable sustenance.

An example where such judgment comes to the forefront is in piloting an aircraft. The virtue of experience and knowledge is compacted into that tiny moment of decision-making when things go silent, and fear shakes the bones. When the engines shuddered, while ingesting geese and the aluminum behemoth becomes a glider, Sullenberger, the pilot using his impalpable sustenance was able to glide the US Airways Flight #1549 an Airbus 320 into the Hudson River, NY and saved all the lives on board. No second-guessing by armchair experts of his decision, could have achieved similar results.

Another such event occurred in 1989 on a United Flight 292 under the command of Captain Al Haynes. The DC-10 aircraft experienced a catastrophic rear engine failure, which triggered a loss of hydraulic fluid. That loss of hydraulic fluid caused all control surfaces (rudder, flaps, ailerons) to malfunction. The flight was diverted to Sioux City, IA, and after judiciously manipulating the two operating engines and using thrust vectoring for directional control, he crash-landed the aircraft and saved 189 lives. Fifty-five test pilots, given the same scenario in simulators failed to achieve similar results. You may call it experience or intuition or judgment in those critical moments, but surely it transcended all written words in some manual!

As recently as yesterday, a report from the COVID-19 frontlines brought forth another example of human ingenuity and good judgment in an attempt to save a life. A patient developed severe shortness of breath after being infected by COVID-19. Ventilatory support did not offer much help as the patients life continued to ooze away. The physician considered the possibility of multiple clots as the reason for the sudden shortness of breath and administered an anticoagulant. Although the therapy stabilized the patient for a short while, she succumbed. However, this physicians insight led to a new therapeutic option for other severely ill patients with similar complicating features of COVID-19.

One cannot relegate human intuition/judgment only to the written word from academic experts. There is in the minds of each physician-scientist who faces extraordinary charges  a genius. An inspiration that the nitpicking of retrospective legalism overlooks. Physicians use that kernel of impalpable sustenance when facing unparalleled adversity. To suppress such impalpable sustenance would lead us all into the waters of mediocrity and stagnation. Soon that sustenance will wilt and die, leaving us as nothing more than a non-thinking collective, what Star Trek called the Borg.

And I, being you, we all rush to the same shore but each with a different voice and understanding. As Walt Whitman wrote:

Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt,

Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd,

Just as you are refreshd by the gladness of the river and the bright flow, I was refreshd,

Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood yet was hurried.

It is fitting to end with Walt Whitmans When I Heard the Learnd Astronomer:

When I heard the learnd astronomer,

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,

When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,

When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,

Till rising and gliding out I wanderd off by myself,

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

Lookd up in perfect silence at the stars.

Parvez Dara is a hematology-oncology physician.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
Ukraine, Germany FMs discuss further implementation of agreements of 'Normandy format'

Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba in a telephone talk has discussed with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas further steps for taking the decisions taken at Normandy format summit in Paris, a press service of the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine reported.

Besides, preparations for Berlin summit were covered.

Kuleba and Maas said they were satisfied that consultations of Normandy format between the foreign affairs ministers resumed.
France's labour ministry has denied the US retail giant Amazon from accessing emergency funds to pay its staff due to the Covid-19 warehouse shutdown. The company is only allowed to sell essential items online.

Amazon had initially approached the French courts in order to force the hand of labour unions to allow employees to work.

The labour ministry said that Amazon France asked for funds to cover 84% net pay of some 10,000 workers who were temporarily laid off because of the drop in business.

Amazon France operates six distribution sites throughout the country.

Unions say staff at risk at Amazon France

French labour unions maintain that Amazon had not done enough to ensure social distancing of two metres for their staff. However, new orders were still being processed, while measures required to curtail the spread of Covid-19 were being neglected.

The pandemic has forced most bricks-and-mortar shops in France to close, in line with the government requirements, with only essential outlets such as grocery stores and bakeries being allowed to remain open.

In April, an appeals court upheld a ruling that drastically reduced Amazon's operations and called on its management to re-examine their safety measures. The court indicated that only digital products, office equipment, groceries, medical and personal care products could be delivered for the time being.

Amazon claimed it was unable to operate in that fashion, and consequently shut its six warehouses from mid-April until 5 May, while paying employees a full wage.

"The recent decision by the Court of Versailles has obviously had an impact on our French operations... As a result, we filed for the help that other companies in France have benefitted from," the company said in a statement.

"Our logistics operations are technically complex and the court's fine of 100,000 for any infraction means that even accidental shipping of non-authorised products, on the order of 0.1% of the total, could lead to over one billion euros of fines per week," it added.

But the Amazon parent company said last week that although it was dealing with a sharp uptake in orders despite Covid-19 lockdowns, its profits dropped 29% in the first quarter of 2020 because, in part, of measures it implemented for keeping employees safe.

In France, dozens of employees walked off the job before the ruling to demand improved workplace protection during the coronavirus pandemic.

Unions called Amazon France's request for employment aid "absolutely scandalous."

The unions claim that Amazon France is fulfilling French orders by using other warehouses in Europe.
If testing is not readily available, then the high positive test rate might just be an anomaly, he said. It might be that only those who are the sickest are getting tested. But if theres widespread testing, then that might not be true.
Wipro said it will provide the physical infrastructure, medical furniture and equipment besides appointing an administrator and skeletal support staff to help operationalise the hospital quickly.

New Delhi: IT major Wipro on Tuesday said it has inked a pact with the Maharashtra government to repurpose one of its campuses in Hinjewadi, Pune, to a 450-bed COVID-19 intermediary care hospital in four weeks.

The facility will be handed over to the state government by 30 May, and the hospital will be converted back to an IT facility after a year, according to a statement.

The 450-bed hospital, to be equipped to treat moderate cases, will include 12 beds to stabilise critical patients before shifting them to a tertiary care facility.

This is an independent, isolated COVID-19 dedicated complex that also includes 24 well-appointed rooms to accommodate doctors and medical staff," the company said.

Maharashtra is among the worst-affected states by the pandemic.

As on Tuesday morning, the highest number of confirmed coronavirus infections was from Maharashtra with 14,541 cases.

Wipro Ltd, Wipro Enterprises Ltd and Azim Premji Foundation have already committed Rs 1,125 crore towards tackling the COVID-19 crisis in the country.

In its statement, Wipro said it will provide the physical infrastructure, medical furniture and equipment besides appointing an administrator and skeletal support staff to help operationalise the hospital quickly with the required medical professionals.

"This humanitarian contribution by Wipro will further strengthen our medical infrastructure and benefit the medical fraternity who are at the forefront of our fight against the pandemic," Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray was quoted as saying.

Wipro chairman Rishad Premji said the company is committed to supporting the country's response to the pandemic and believes that everyone must work together to deal with this crisis and minimise its human impact.

Wipro and Azim Premji Foundation are carrying out COVID-19 related relief work in Maharashtra across Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad-Waluj, Amalner, Ahmednagar, Akola, Beed, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli.

The relief work has so far touched over 34 lakh beneficiaries across India, the company said.
Frances prime minister has warned shutting down schools and social life for months would be as toxic as coronavirus, as he defended his governments decision to ease lockdown restrictions.

The country is set to emerge from lockdown on 11 May, with primary schools reopening with fewer students in classes as part of a staggered return to some normality.

Covid-19 is toxic but staying out of school and social life is just as much, Edouard Philippe told the French parliament on Monday.

Five months out of school for thousands, tens of thousands of students is likely a time bomb.

However, the French government has faced opposition to its plans to reopen the country, with some officials warning it is too soon to ease restrictions.

On Sunday, more than 300 mayors from the greater Paris region penned an open letter to Emmanuel Macron, Frances president, urging him to delay the return of schools because there had not been enough time to prepare for the reopening.

Mr Philippe said the lockdown had saved tens of thousands of lives but insisted it was now time to end some of the strict restrictions.

This confinement was necessary to meet the emergency, but its social and economic cost is colossal, he told senators.

We're at a decisive moment, we cannot remain in confinement. Economic life must resume imperatively and quickly.

He added that face masks would be necessary in secondary schools, which are set to reopen later in May, if social distancing cannot be maintained.

Masks will also be mandatory for people travelling on public transport or in taxis.

Although schools and businesses will begin to reopen in May, restaurants, cafes and beaches will remain closed until at least June.

The prime minister also said France might allow religious services to resume before the end of May if the lockdown does not lead to a dangerous increase in the rate of coronavirus infections.

The government had previously indicated religious ceremonies would be banned until 2 June at the earliest.

Many faiths have made proposals to reconcile how their meetings are held with social distancing rules, Mr Philippe told the Senate.

I know the May 29 - June 1 period is for several faiths an important date on the religious calendar.

The Christian holy day of Pentecost falls on 31 May this year, while Muslims mark Eid, the end of the holy month of Ramadan, one week earlier.

Additional reporting by Reuters
AarogyaSetu Mitr aims to give users access to doctors for remote consultation. It will also help with home collection of samples for diagnostics if a person needs to get tested.

Aarogya Setu Mitr is an effort to bring healthcare services to the doorstep of all Indians in the time of the COVID-19 crisis. The initiative has been facilitated by the offices of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the PM and NITI Aayog, with voluntary participation from organizations, industry coalitions, and startups who have helped create a platform for citizens of India to connect with some key services at home. The key service of Aarogya Setu Mitr is to provide users with free Tele-Consults for patients who have symptoms like COVID-19. The service is also meant to provide ancillary services like home collection of samples for diagnostics and home delivery of medicines. Aarogya Setu Mitr will provide consumers with free COVID-19 related doctor consultations. The other services like home delivery of medicines are available at market rates.

As of now, Aarogya Setu Mitr provides services across 25 cities with home collection service. But since consultation with the doctors is online, it is available in more regions. On its website, Aarogya Setu Mitr claims that a minimum of 100 doctors will be available per day for consultation. The service has undertaken full responsibility of KYC for every doctor. As mentioned earlier, the consultation service is free. Moving to the ePharmacy service, it is available across 10,000 pin codes.

Aargoya Setu Mitr and Aarogya Setu are two different properties. AarogyaSetu is the mobile application developed by the Government of India for helping citizens leverage technology to fight COVID. Aarogya Setu Mitr is an initiative of private sector organizations working in partnership with the offices of Principal Scientific Advisor to the PM and NITI Aayog to provide connect with healthcare services to users of Aarogya Setu App.

For the online consultation, users have access to eSanjeevani OPD, Swasth, Step One, Tata Bridgital Health, and Tech Mahindras Connectsense Telehealth.

For home lab tests, the service is in partnership with 1mg, Dr Lal Path Labs, MetroPolis. SRL Diagnostics, and Thyrocare.

For online medicine delivery, Aargoya Setu Mitr has tied up with 1mg, Netmeds, Pharmeasy, and MedLife.

Source
Cairo: One of Libya's top anti-corruption officials has been abducted by a militia tied to the Interior Ministry in the capital, the Audit Bureau said, the latest twist in a long-running contest over the country's vast wealth.

The abduction of Reda Gergab, the bureau's administrative director, brought deep tensions in the Tripoli-based administration to the surface at a time of worsening economic crisis. The Audit Bureau is an independent body appointed by the Libyan Parliament in Tripoli and is a rare check on the misappropriation of funds in the oil-rich country.

Migrants wait for help in the Libyan Sahara near the border with Sudan. Authorities in southern Libya have accelerated expulsions of migrants to Sudan and Chad during the coronavirus pandemic. Credit:Tayeb Saleh

"It is regrettable that the body entrusted by the community to implement the law is violating it," the audit bureau said in a statement, accusing the Interior Ministry of "forcibly disappearing" Gergab to prevent him from uncovering financial irregularities and blocking the ministry's large and suspicious transactions.

Although the Tripoli-based government was set up by the UN and recognised by Western countries, many of its institutions, including the Interior Ministry, are in reality staffed and controlled by unruly militias.
The first two special flights that will operate from Thursday to evacuate Indians stranded in the UAE due to the coronavirus pandemic will begin with applicants from Kerala, who formed the majority of the expatriates who have registered to be repatriated from here, Indian Ambassador to the UAE Pavan Kapoor has said.

On Monday, the Indian government announced plans to begin a phased repatriation of its citizens stranded abroad from May 7.

"The missions have prioritised the list of passengers and have given it to Air India. We would call and email each passenger to contact Air India to get their tickets issued. The first two flights on Thursday would be to Kerala, considering the high number of applicants from the state, Kapoor was quoted as saying by the Gulf

He said the priority list includes blue collar workers in distress, people with medical emergencies, including the elderly and pregnant women, and those who have lost jobs, the report added.

The passenger list for the two flights -- Abu Dhabi to Kochi and Dubai to Kozhikode -- will be finalised by the Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi, and the Consulate General of India, Dubai, the Indian Consulate in Dubai announced on Monday.

The list will be made on the basis of registrations in the Embassy or Consulate database which was launched for this purpose a few days back, it added.

The envoy said that there would be flights almost on a daily basis to destinations mentioned by the applicants.

In Kochi, a defence ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday that a naval ship has been sent to Dubai. The INS Shardul was diverted to Dubai to evacuate the expatriates and it will return to Kochi, he said.

A total of 200,000 expatriates have registered so far to travel back to India.

Stranded visit/tourist visa holders and those with cancelled visas would also be given preference in returning home. Nearly 20 Indians who were stranded at Dubai Airport would also be given priority, Consul General of India in Dubai Vipul was quoted as saying by the report.

Meanwhile, air tickets for repatriation flights to India will not be exorbitantly priced, an official source was quoted as saying by the Khaleej Times on Tuesday.

The official pricing of tickets is yet to be revealed by the Indian ministries of Civil Aviation and External Affair. Also social distancing norms within the aircraft are yet to be notified, the report said.

"The ticket prices will be nominal, an amount everyone can afford. However, the final pricing of air tickets will be revealed by the Indian missions in the UAE shortly," said the source.

The Indian expatriate community of approximately 3.42 million is reportedly the largest ethnic community in the UAE constituting roughly about 30 per cent of the country's population, according to information available on the Indian Embassy website.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
We acknowledge the profound disappointment that our seniors have faced during this historic health challenge in our country and around the world, said the letter to students, signed by District 219 Superintendent Steven Isoye and school principals Karen Ritter and James Edwards. That being said, we are confident that we can honor their contributions to D219 in one, and hopefully two, dignified graduations.
TDT | Manama

His Royal Highness the Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa affirmed yesterday the governments determination to carry on its efforts to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) at various levels.

HRH the Premier tasked ministries and government departments, each in their own capacities, to submit a follow-up report on the implementation of initiatives, directives and orders issued in this regard.

HRH the Prime Minister said this as he chaired the weekly Cabinet session, attended by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier.

The session was held via video conferencing technology. The Cabinet lauded the orders issued by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, and the measures taken by the government, following directives from HRH the Premier and HRH the Crown Prince, to ensure the safety of the citizens and residents, support the segments that have been affected by the coronavirus and mitigate the financial, economic and social impacts resulting from it.

In this regard, the session reviewed the positive impacts of the 14 initiatives included in the BD4.3billion economic stimulus package, and other support programmes launched to address the current circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

HRH the Prime Minister congratulated the press and media personnel on Bahrain Press Day and commended their achievements and efforts to defend the interests of the nation and the gains of its people, as well as their contributions to enlightening the public and enhancing social awareness.

Meanwhile, in line with HRH the Premiers directives, the Interior Minister presented a report on the performance of the national ambulance system in its first phase extending from May 2019 to April 2020.

The report revealed that the national ambulance system had received nearly 23,000 notifications, or about 70 cases daily. It also showed that the average response time is 90 seconds, and the arrival time to cases was 11 minutes, which is consistent with international standards.

The Cabinet also decided to postpone the instalments due for Eskan Bank for six months, starting from April. The session also decided to stop the collection of rent from tenants and beneficiaries from the shops owned by Eskan Bank for a period of three months, starting April.

The Cabinet requested the same bank to re-prioritise the disbursement of its budget for the current year by giving priority to providing the budget necessary for funding 700 housing services, as outlined in the memorandum submitted by the Ministerial Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs and Fiscal Balance, and presented by the Deputy Premier and committee chairman.

The Cabinet endorsed a draft law on ratifying an air transport agreement between Bahrain and Italy and referred it to the legislative branch.

The agreement aims to enhance cooperation between the two countries in the field of air transport and facilitate the establishment and operation of air services between and beyond their regions.
* Lesotho's former first lady was shot dead in 2017

* She agreed to divorce prime minister on the day she died

* Change of heart has not previously been reported

* Police have charged her successor with murder

* Current first lady denies any involvement in killing

* Lawmakers are trying to force prime minister from office

By Tim Cocks

MASERU, May 5 (Reuters) - Hours before she was shot dead on the outskirts of the capital, Lesotho's former first lady, Lipolelo Thabane, made a surprising decision.

According to both a close friend and a well-connected businessman, she agreed to divorce her husband, Prime Minister Thomas Thabane, after years of refusing to make way for her rival.

With the blessing of that rival - Thabane's current wife and first lady - the entrepreneur, Teboho Mojapela, met with Lipolelo on the day of her death to mediate.

"She said: '...I am ready to free him'," Mojapela told Reuters. "'I just want to be looked after.'"

The exchange was confirmed by her friend and confidante Thato Sibolla, who was present at the meeting.

Lipolelo's change of heart, which has not previously been reported, adds a new twist to a scandal that has attracted rare international attention to Lesotho, the tiny kingdom of 2 million people tucked inside South Africa.

Gunmen ambushed Lipolelo, 58, in her car as she made her way home on the outskirts of the capital Maseru on June 14, 2017. Sibolla was with her in the vehicle.

Two days after the killing, Thabane, now 80, was sworn in for a second term. Two months later he married Lipolelo's successor and one-time rival Maesaiah Liabiloe Ramoholi, now Maesaiah Thabane.

Police charged Maesaiah with Lipolelo's murder in February and named Thabane as a suspect, although he has yet to be formally charged in court. They both deny any involvement.

In Thabane's case, the high court must first decide whether he can be prosecuted while in office. The case has been postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, although Lesotho remains one of a small number of nations yet to register a case.

Story continues

Thabane's own government is trying to force him from office before the end of July, when he said he was willing to step down. It is unclear if he will bow to their demands.

Thabane and his wife declined to be interviewed or respond to written questions while the case is pending, and their lawyers said they had been instructed not to speak to the press.

"He's waiting for the police to lodge a complaint to court so that he can clear his name," Thabane's private secretary, Thabo Thakalekoala, said by telephone.

First lady Maesaiah also "wants to present her side of the story," her adviser, Manama Letsie, told Reuters. "But she has already been found guilty in the public (opinion) court."

The high-profile murder case has destabilised a country already in turmoil.

Lesotho has seen four military coups since independence from Britain in 1966. South Africa, for whom this nation of jagged green mountains is an important source of tap water, is sometimes drawn in to help resolve upheavals, and it has stepped in as mediator in the latest crisis.

FATEFUL DAYS

Thabane was an up-and-coming politician in the All Basotho Convention (ABC) party when he divorced his first wife, Yayi, and married Lipolelo in 1987.

By the time he became prime minister in 2012, he had filed for another divorce so he could marry Maesaiah.

Maesaiah had gone to court in 2015 to claim the right to be first lady on the basis of a 2012 so-called customary marriage  a practice common in a number of African countries that entitles a man to more than one wife.

She lost the case in 2015, on the grounds that Lipolelo was still married to Thabane.

"There was this perpetual animosity between them," Lesotho's Deputy Police Commissioner Paseka Mokete, in charge of the murder investigation, told Reuters.

Three days before the killing, a Sunday, Lipolelo asked Sibolla to call Mojapela, a politically connected businessman who had funded the ruling party's election campaign.

Lipolelo seemed jumpy, was sleeping at friends' houses and said she feared her life was in danger, Sibolla and a neighbour recalled.

Mojapela, a wealthy money-lender known to friends as J.P., was a friend of Thabane and Maesaiah, Sibolla said, and Lipolelo hoped he could mediate a truce between them.

Before meeting with Lipolelo, Mojapela says he sought the blessing of Thabane and Maesaiah. Maesaiah told him "by all means" mediate, he said, but do not expect the two women to meet face-to-face.

On Wednesday, Sibolla and Lipolelo set off in Lipolelo's grey Chevrolet minivan to meet Mojapela at his lavish house, decked with Italian-style curtains and gilded furniture, in the South African border town of Ladybrand.

He told them Maesaiah wanted more than anything to be first lady. Lipolelo gave her assent.

After Lipolelo and Sibolla left, Mojapela headed back to Maseru, where he says he met Thabane and Maesaiah at the Fu Li Chinese restaurant at around 6 p.m. and relayed Lipolelo's message.

"Maesaiah asked me to be more specific about what she wants," Mojapela said.

Reuters could not confirm the meeting. When a reporter visited the restaurant, it was under new management.

Thabane's private secretary, Thakalekoala, said he was not aware of a mediation attempt. Neither was Maesaiah's close friend, Motlatsi Kompi. The first lady's aide, Letsie, declined to comment.

Shortly afterwards, Lipolelo was dead.

"I saw the blood running down," said Sibolla, who was shot twice in the side in the attack. "She was quite light in complexion, so you could really see it."

Police found 9mm pistol shells at the scene, Mokete, the deputy commissioner, said. He added that the assassination was carried out by one of several gangs of traditional musicians, who are engaged in a deadly turf war.

Three men linked to the gang received calls from the phones of Thabane and Maesaiah in the days leading up to the killing, he said. Police issued arrest warrants for them, but they remain at large.

Finishing up at the Chinese restaurant, Mojapela says he headed to a friend's house where, at around 8 p.m., his bodyguard delivered the news of Lipolelo's death.

"I was disgusted. I cried," he said. "There was absolutely no need for this woman to be assassinated." (Additional reporting by Marafaele Mohloboli in Maseru; Editing by Alexandra Zavis and Mike Collett-White)
New York, May 5 : With about half of the 50 US states beginning to relax the COVID-19 restrictions without fully meeting the criteria for it, new models of the pandemic's deadly force say a sharply higher death toll is possible.

A day after President Donald Trump acknowledged that 100,000 deaths, about double the prediction he made last month, was possible, a model that his administration has cited projected on Monday that 134,000 could die due to the pandemic.

Another controversial projection under preparation laid out the possibility that by June 1, there could be 200,000 new cases with 3,000 deaths every day.

Confirmed cases in the US has reached 1,180,634 with 68,934 deaths, according to the tally maintained by the Johns Hopkins University.

The social distancing guidelines issued by the Trump administration expired at the end of last month, although the White House Coronavirus Task Force urges people to continue taking the precautions.

Virtually all of the loosening of the social distancing restrictions, from allowing some non-essential retailers to open to permitting restaurants and hair salons to operate, are taking place without meeting the three-step criteria announced by the task force that includes a downward trajectory of confirmed cases and the adequate availability of testing and spare critical care facilities.

Trump, who has been saying that the economy should reopen and has sounded sympathetic to anti-restriction protesters, has himself criticised Georgia State for moving too far and too soon.

But states like New York and New Jersey are holding on to restrictions. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced on Monday that the state's schools will remain closed for the rest of the academic year.

The projections of higher rates of infections and deaths are based on outcomes of the rush by many states to reopen.

With the unemployment rate at 16 per cent and 30 million people without jobs, Governors and local leaders are caught between protests across the country demanding the reopening of the economy and the cautions from health officials against lifting restrictions and risking a COVID-19 flareups.

Speaking at a televised town hall meeting at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Trump acknowledged: "We're going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people.

"That's a horrible thing. We shouldn't lose one person over this." He said that without the steps taken by him, the deaths could have been as high as five million.

He also said that COVID-19 could flare up after it was doused and "we may have to put out a fire".

The number of new cases have plateaued between about 24,000 and 30,000 per day, while coming down in some hot spots like New York, the epicentre of the pandemic in the US.

Public health experts fear that the flareups due to the easing of restrictions could happen in places that have so far escaped the worst of it.

Christopher Murray, the director of University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IMHE), attributed the increase from the earlier projection of 72,000 death to 134,00 to the "premature relaxation of social distancing" in some states.

The Trump administration has relied on the IMHE projections.

Murray disputed the projections in another study underway that predict 3,000 deaths per day by June.

Those projections were in slide projections with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) logo that were leaked to The Washington Post and posted on its site.

The administration said that the report "is not a White House document nor has it been presented to the Coronavirus Task Force or gone through interagency vetting. This data is not reflective of any of the modelling done by the task force or data that the task force has analyzed".

A CDC spokesperson denied that the agency had issued the projections.

Murray said that the high projections in that report were based on the likelihood of outbreaks on the level of New York happening elsewhere.

He said: "We don't see that because we're building into the modelling the rising temperatures and rising testing and contact tracing. That will put the brakes on transmission." (Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)
Syracuse, N.Y.  Syracuse University student Jonathan Yin has sued the school and is seeking a refund for the spring semester due to the cancellation of in-person classes because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The class-action lawsuit, filed by Philip Fraietta of Bursor & Fisher in the Northern District Court of New York, argues that Yin and other Syracuse students did not receive educational services, facilities, access and/or opportunities contracted and paid for.

The lawsuit argues that Yin and other students deserve a pro-rated refund or at least a partial refund on tuition and fees.

It argues that the online learning options being offered to Syracuse students are subpar in practically every aspect, from the lack of facilities, materials, and access to faculty" and that students have been deprived of the opportunity for collaborative learning and in-person dialogue, feedback, and critique.

Syracuse declined to comment on the specific claims of the lawsuit, citing school policy not to comment on litigation. But in a statement, a school official noted some of the things the school has provided students during the pandemic.

Syracuse University has implemented several measures to limit the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our students and their families, faculty, and staff," Syracuses Senior Associate Vice President for Communications Sarah Scalese said in a written statement. "These actions include refunding room and board to students, continuing to pay student employees (despite limited opportunities to carry out job functions remotely), offering parking credits to students and employees, providing laptops and financial support for internet access to students who otherwise could not continue their studies, providing transportation support for students who couldnt afford to travel home once residential instruction was suspended, and maintaining full staffing levels.

According to the lawsuit, Yin is from Nevada and is majoring in Information Management and Technology at Syracuses School of Information Studies. The lawsuit claims that he paid approximately $24,390 in tuition and fees for the spring, including a $215.40 activity fee, a $220 SU communications fee, a $384 student health fee and a $200 program fee.

The lawsuit, which seeks refunds pro-rated to the date that in-person classes were canceled, claims that, as a class, students suffered damages of more than $5 million combined. The existence of the lawsuit was first reported by Syracuse student newspaper The Daily Orange.

Syracuse announced on March 10 that it would transition to online learning for the semester in response to the coronavirus. Students who left the campus for spring break were instructed to remain home and others have been encouraged to leave if possible. The school has kept campus housing available for those who chose to remain.

Syracuse University has indicated that it would provide credits or refunds for room and board and meal plans for the spring semester that were unable to be utilized but that it planned to maintain tuition and program fees to support the schools programming.

In a message to the campus, Syracuse Chancellor Kent Syverud said that the school had absorbed a $35 million financial blow through a combination of lost expected revenue and unanticipated expenses. The school responded to the financial situation through voluntary pay reductions from some of its highest-paid employees, pay freezes to faculty and staff, limiting new hires to essential positions and limiting new construction to essential projects.

The pandemic and governmental directives regarding social distancing have sent schools across the country scrambling to rapidly transition their in-person classes into online offerings.

Syracuse is one of more than 25 colleges that have been subject to class-action lawsuits from disappointed students. The suits have been filed by a variety of law firms with at least one of them, the Anastopoulo Law Firm in South Carolina, creating a website devoted to the effort at CollegeRefund2020.com.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

Coronavirus update: See which of Cuomos reopening requirements Central NY has met

What businesses might reopen this month amid coronavirus in NY? McMahon offers clues about restart

Syracuse family was poised for first graduate, a better neighborhood, a new career. Then coronavirus hit

Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com

Contact Chris Carlson anytime: E-mail | Twitter | 315-412-1639
Rotunda Rumblings

Food for thought: A plan for re-opening Ohios restaurants is nearly done and will be released in the next several days, Gov. Mike DeWine said Monday. As cleveland.coms Andrew Tobias reports, DeWine didnt share a target date, but he said it would be not too long after non-essential retailers are allowed to re-open on May 12. Bars and restaurants have been closed for dine-in service since March 16, early in the coronavirus crisis, leading to job losses in the hospitality industry.

Here in my car: Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said Monday the state is aiming for late May as a target date to reopen Bureau of Motor Vehicles offices, cleveland.coms Seth Richardson reports. Offices wont reopen until theyve transitioned to an online check-in system and can ensure they abide by health department guidelines.

Test control: Residents of nursing homes, psychiatric facilities and other congregate living facilities with coronavirus symptoms now have a higher priority status for COVID-19 testing, Tobias writes. In expanded state testing criteria released Monday, staff and residents at these facilities without symptoms also will count for this second tier of testing priority if theyre directly exposed to an outbreak. The new criteria grants priority status, albeit at a lower tier, for people undergoing certain medical procedures.

Do tell: The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services told employers to report workers who dont return to work as the state reopens its economy, with employees possibly losing their benefits as a result, cleveland.coms Laura Hancock reports. Employment attorneys warned that people shouldnt quit their jobs without first trying to rectify any issues with management as the burden is on them now to show just cause for refusing employment.

Placing the blame: Gov. Mike DeWine, during his Monday afternoon briefing, said that coronavirus protesters who obnoxiously accosted a television reported and showed up to Dr. Amy Actons house were blaming the wrong people, Hancock reports. Im the one who makes the policy decisions, he said.

Backin Acton: While Ohio House Republicans seem intent on challenging DeWines and Actons coronavirus orders, Senate President Larry Obhof said his chamber will instead focus on several economic measures this week, the Columbus Dispatchs Anna Staver reports. Obhof said he didnt like the idea of rescinding Actons orders or requiring her to get lawmaker approval.

The numbers: As of Monday, more than 20,000 Ohioans have had the coronavirus, Hancock reports, and 1,056 have died from it.

Space at the ICUs: Dr. Amy Acton, Ohios health director, voiced concerns early in the crisis that the states intensive care capacity would be overrun, noting on March 24 that just 1,300 of the states 3,600 ICU beds were vacant at the time. One of the good signs now is that ICU use by COVID-19 patients is declining, staying under 450 for any given day in the last week after hovering just over 500 in mid-April, reports cleveland.coms Rich Exner in his daily map and graphic analysis of coronavirus data.

Trending: A new feature on the Ohio Department of Healths website tracks key COVID-19 trends over 21 days - reported cases, deaths, hospitalizations and admissions to hospital intensive care units, Exner reports. All four graphs show things generally trending in a favorable direction over the last couple of weeks. Thats an important factor in the states phased-in approach to begin allowing businesses to reopen.

Legal action: Ohio law requires two witnesses to be physically present when executing a will. How can that happen in the age of social distancing? As cleveland.coms Jeremy Pelzer explains, some attorneys have gotten creative to help their clients.

Come together: Coronavirus has exposed the mishmash of local government structures in Ohio, which are now facing deepening financial woes as tax revenue has cratered. As cleveland.coms Peter Krouse reports, some advocates in Cuyahoga County are calling for consolidation of the scattered governments into a single, more streamlined entity.

Minority report: Although recent polls show DeWine with overwhelming support in Ohio for his coronavirus response, a scorecard from some national groups that want to see a fast reopening of the nations economy gave him a C. Cleveland.coms Sabrina Eaton has details.

Predictable: In the latest edition of things you definitely saw coming from Ohio lawmakers, state Rep. Candice Keller showed up to the Butler County Commissioners meeting on Monday, urging them to defy Gov. Mike DeWines state orders, the Cincinnati Enquirers Keith BieryGolick reports. Keller said she was worried about lawlessness, about looting and about violence if businesses didnt reopen immediately.

Tough restart: Even with some businesses opening back up Monday, the economy is still taking quite a hit in Ohio. GE Aviation, headquartered in Evendale, announced it was cutting a quarter of its workforce, the Cincinnati Enquirers Cameron Knight reports. The company has 10,000 employees in the Cincinnati and Dayton areas alone, though specific plans for cuts werent laid out by the CEO.

Steel yourself: The U.S. Commerce Department on Monday announced it will investigate whether imports of foreign electrical transformer parts threaten national security by circumventing tariffs meant to protect AK Steel, which is the only U.S. producer of grain-oriented steel of the type used in electrical transformers, Eaton reports.

Award tour: Site Selection magazine rated Ohio as fifth in its 2020 Prosperity Cup rankings, a measure of the best places to invest. Two local economic development wings  REDI Cincinnati and One Columbus  also received accolades as some of the best regional outfits in the country.

Kent State: Monday marked the 50th anniversary of the Kent State shooting, when 13 students were shot by national guardsmen on the universitys campus. It became a defining moment of both the Vietnam War Era and Ohios history. Cleveland.com recaptured that day with a package of stories and photos from the tragedy.

Full Disclosure

Five things we learned from the Feb. 18 financial disclosure form of state Rep. Erica Crawley, a Columbus Democrat.

1. Crawleys only reported source of income was her legislative salary and a state income tax refund of up to $999.

2. She listed two investments, a mutual fund through Ohio Deferred Compensation and a retirement fund through the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System.

3. At one point in 2019, Crawley owed at least $1,000 to FedLoan Servicing, NCP Finance Ohio and GM Financial.

4. Crawley received $1,000 in travel reimbursement from the Ohio House of Representatives. She also received $388.72 in travel from the National Institute for Civil Discourse, $340.08 from the Council on State Governments and $495 from the Ohio State University Public Leadership Academy.

5. Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce gave Crawley tickets worth $60 to the July 31, 2019 Columbus Clippers game, an 8-11 loss to the Louisville Bats.

On The Move

Ralph Mantica was elected as the 2021 Treasurer of the Ohio REALTORS. Mantica, the owner of Kinzeler Realty in Dayton, previously served as the groups president in 2015.

Birthdays

Matt McAuliffe, Ohio House Republicans deputy chief of staff for policy

Amanda Magoteaux, legislative aide for state Rep. Candice Keller

Straight From The Source

I love you.

-What state certified American Sign Language interpreter Marla Berkowitz is signing in her bobblehead from the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame, per cleveland.com. Berkowitz has become a popular daily fixture at Gov. Mike DeWines coronavirus briefings and has quickly become an Ohio pop culture icon.

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.
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DIY haircut kits market players must now concentrate on partnerships and M&A, aiming at enhanced R&D to tap remunerative opportunities post the crisis.DUBAI, UAE / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / Stay-at-home orders, and social distancing norms are contributing to the sales of DIY haircut kits amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. Rising predilection of consumers' towards style quotient, and fashion trends are favoring the growth of DIY haircut kits market. The market surpassed a US$ 6 Bn milestone in 2019 revenues, concludes a new Future Market Insights (FMI) report. DIY haircut kits are gaining widespread popularity amid increasing focus on men's self-care and personal grooming. Top players in personal care industry are exploring the lucrative possibilities in customization and DIY trends, according to the report. According to FMI's analysis, the global DIY haircut kits market is projected to exhibit just about 2% CAGR over the forecast period (2020-2030)."Improved battery life and new product launches by major manufacturers will support market growth through 2030," says the FMI analyst.Request report sample with 200+ pages to gain in-depth insights https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-11285 Key Takeaways of DIY Haircut Kits Market StudySales of clipper & trimmer kits will experience a boom on the back of soaring demand from consumers through 2030.Battery-driven and portable cordless clipper & trimmer kits are in greater demand compared to conventional kits driven by direct power source.Sales of scissors are gaining momentum in view of prolific demand from skilled professionals thereby generating substantial revenue.Salons/professionals remain prominent end users of DIY haircut kits.East Asia holds the majority share in the global DIY haircut kits market.DIY Haircut Kits Market - Key Growth FactorsEnhanced safety features, and convenient operation are key attributes boosting the sales of DIY haircut kits.Greater economic wealth of consumers will drive the market growth through the forecast period.Ecommerce trend is pushing the growth of DIY haircut kits market thereby boosting the online sales where lockdown restrictions are eased.Heightening demand for high/premium range DIY haircut kits will propel the market growth through 2030.DIY Haircut Kits Market - Key RestraintsOffline sales of DIY haircut kits will continue to suffer amid stringent lockdown protocols imposed by governments with supermarkets selling only essential goods. However, the market is projected to recover by 2020 end.Lack of skill on the part of consumers can lead to bad results which restricts the wider adoption of DIY haircut kits.Impact of COVID-19 on DIY Haircut Kits MarketWith most countries either in complete or partial lockdown due to COVID-19, multi-brand stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, and hair saloons have been shut down as well. Consequently, DIY haircut kits witnessed a downfall in offline and online sales during first half of 2020. On the other hand, China, the original epicenter of COVID-19, is on the recovery path. This has caused an upheaval in demand for DIY haircut kits as delivery of non-essential products have resumed. Hence, online sales in China continue to gain traction. However, in countries such as India where the delivery of non-essential items is still restricted, the sales of DIY haircut kits remain limited, both online and offline.Explore the full DIY haircut kits market report with 81 illustrative figures, 80 data tables and table of contents. Request ToC of the study at https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-11285 Competitive Landscape of DIY Haircut Kits MarketSome of the major companies profiled in this FMI report include, but are not limited to, Oster Professional, FLYCO, Sunbeam Products, Inc., Procter & Gamble (Braun GmbH), Havells India Ltd., Zed Lifestyle Pvt. Ltd., Panasonic Corporation, Wahl Clipper Corporation, Beardo, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Conair Corporation, Spectrum Brands, Inc., Andis Company, Xiaomi, and Riwa. Various partnership activities and innovation are being prioritized by players in DIY haircut kits market. For instance, Beardo and Flipkart partnered in 2019 where they reached a deal which allowed Beardo's electric trimmer and grooming kit to be sold on Flipkart. On the other hand, The Wahl Clipper Corporation introduces a new cordless detailer in the market equipped with T-fast blade in July, 2019.More about the ReportThis Future Market Insights study of 250 pages provides all-inclusive insights on the global DIY haircut kits market. The market analysis is based on product type (clipper & trimmer kit, scissors set), end user (salon/professional, personal/home-care), price range (high/premium, mid-range/economy), sales channel (modern trade, departmental stores, specialty stores, franchise outlet, online stores) across six regions (North America, Latin America, Europe, East Asia, South Asia & Pacific, Middle East & Africa).Explore Extensive Coverage of FMI's Retail and Consumer Products LandscapeProtective Clothing Market - Get latest insights on the global protective clothing market through FMI's study covering detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis for predefined projection period (2020-2030).Earphones Market - FMI's panoramic study on the global earphones market encompasses emerging trends, technological advancements, key players, and prominent strategies for the course of forecast period (2019-2029).Contraceptive Market - Obtain comprehensive analysis on the global contraceptive market through FMI's latest report covering key regions, competitive analysis along with segmental analysis for 2019-2029.About Future Market Insights (FMI)Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India. FMI's latest market research reports and industry analysis help businesses navigate challenges and take critical decisions with confidence and clarity amidst breakneck competition.Contact:Mr. Abhishek BudholiyaUnit No: AU-01-H Gold Tower (AU), Plot No: JLT-PH1-I3A,Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai,United
In the last fiscal the MSME disbursement target was Rs 74,000 crore.

Kolkata: The State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) has decided to raise the MSME disbursement target to Rs 90,000 crore this fiscal, officials said.

In the last fiscal the MSME disbursement target was Rs 74,000 crore.

This was decided at the SLBC meeting on Monday chaired by West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra and attended by CEO of Punjab National Bank Mallikarjuna Rao and representatives of state government and other bank officials.

The SLBC also urged the RBI to increase the credit extension limit over the existing line from 10 percent to 30 percent.

Regarding agriculture, the SLBC decided to increase the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) coverage to 46 lakh farmers and increase in kharif loan from Rs 4,400 crore to Rs 10,000 crore.

In the last financial year, nearly 5.17 lakh self-help groups (SHGs) were given loans amounting to Rs 8,400 crore.

In the current fiscal, it has been decided to increase the coverage to 10 lakh SHGs and increase the loan amount to Rs 15,000 crore.

It was also decided to disburse all sanctioned loans to SHGs by 30 June 2020.

The SLBC has also recommended that one lakh fisherman will be given KCC and a bank loan of Rs 500 crore this fiscal.

The SLBC meeting also decided to fix credit disbursement target for the food processing industry to tide over the crisis, the official added.

The main thrust of the meeting was to give special attention to those sectors affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.
City officials in Worcester are reminding residents to wear a mask as the surge continues amid the COVID-19 pandemic and following an outbreak of cases among Walmart employees.

We should all presume that when we are out in public places, stores or even in walking areas in parks or hiking areas, if youre going to come into any kind of close proximity you should be wearing a mask, and assume the people youre coming into close proximity with may be infected or you may be infected," said City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. at a daily press briefing.

Augustus signed an order requiring residents to wear face masks when visiting essential businesses about two weeks ago, before Gov. Charlie Baker signed an order last week making masks mandatory statewide.

Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty also encouraged residents to wear masks and avoid congregating in groups.

Gatherings of more than 10 people, banned per an order signed by Baker, have happened twice recently at the Adams Square Baptist Church. Pastor Kristopher Casey has indicated that in-person services will continue to be held at the church, despite the city already issuing a $300 fine and a previous warning.

The manager on Tuesday announced 44 new cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, bringing the citys total to 2,504. Worcester has averaged 68 cases per day since April 1.

Between Saint Vincent Hospital and the UMass Memorial Health Care system, the number of inpatients with coronavirus on Tuesday is 266, a decline of 11 since Monday, Augustus said. Of those patients, 109 are in the intensive care unit, four more than Monday.

The two systems have seen 137 patients die from illness related to the virus. A total of 206 employees from the systems combined have tested positive, Augustus said.

At the DCU Center, there are 27 patients on Tuesday, the same number as the day prior. The homeless shelter in the DCU Center has 14 positive individuals, a decrease of one, Augustus said.

The Beaumont Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center, which is treating coronavirus patients, currently has 71 inpatients, with three admissions and two discharges Tuesday.

In towns around Worcester, there are 210 cases in Shrewsbury, 62 in Holden, 57 in Grafton, 100 in Leicester and 173 in Millbury.

Walmart in Worcester reopened Tuesday after nearly all its employees were tested for coronavirus following an outbreak last week. The store is now operating with social distancing policies and other measures.

Augustus said about 12 remaining employees are scheduled for testing today or Wednesday and cannot return to work until their results are back.

Across Massachusetts, 4,212 residents have died from illness related to coronavirus and at least 70,271 have tested positive for the virus as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the state Department of Public Health.

Related Content:
Qantas has changed its credit policy after customers who had their flights cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic complained.

Customers will no longer be forced to use credit for cancelled flights towards an airfare of the same or greater value.

Instead, the national carrier will allow passengers to book multiple trips of lesser value, while customers who are booked to travel on Qantas and Jetstar flights will be able to split their travel credits from June across multiple future bookings.

Returning overseas travellers are pictured in Brisbane before they head to a mandatory 14-day quarantine period on March 30

Qantas has changed its credit policy after customers who had their flights cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic complained

'We have listened to feedback from customers and are making changes to our backend systems so these vouchers can be used multiple times,' a Qantas spokesperson said on Tuesday.

'If your original booking was made prior to 30 April 2020, and you were due to travel on a Qantas flight between January 31, 2020 - September 30, 2020, your flight credit can be used across multiple future bookings.'

'A customer could use the travel credit from a cancelled flight to London to instead go on several interstate holidays over the next 18 months or so.'

The flying kangaroo has also extended the expiry date on credits issued after January 1, 2019, which are now valid until December 31, 2021.

Jetstar customers will be given one year to book and a further one year to travel.

But customers who've made bookings through travel agents or third party websites such as Webjet and Booking.com will need to contact the company directly.

The back down comes one day after law firm Slater and Gordon announced a class action lawsuit against major airlines, travel agents and tour companies who have refused to issue monetary refunds and instead opted for travel vouchers and credits.

Customers who have cancelled international trips with Qantas will now be able to book multiple interstate flights under the airlines revamped credit policy. Pictured: Travellers in long lines are seen at Sydney International Airport on March 27

'We understand that everyone is doing it tough at present, including the major airlines and travel companies, but that doesn't give them an excuse to take advantage of their customers,' Slater and Gordon Practice Group Leader Andrew Paull said.

'Nor is it acceptable for Qantas shareholders to treat the money it owes to ordinary Australians like its own.'

The law firm believes major travel providers, including Qantas and Jetstar, may have breached their legal obligations by putting in place travel voucher schemes that significantly disadvantage their customers.

'We believe cash refunds should be returned to customers, who almost certainly need that money right now, rather than in bank accounts gathering interest for airline shareholders,' Mr Paull said

'We call on businesses like Qantas and Jetstar to do the right thing and honour their obligations to their customers.

'If they won't do so, then it's only reasonable for those customers to look at recovering their money through a class action.'

In one example, an Australian nurse who cut her seven-week holiday short due to the coronavirus crisis, was told her return flight home would only be redeemable if she returned to United States to claim it.

'They told me I had a $700 credit but I'd only get that if I flew a flight returning from the US,' the 36-year-old health worker told Gold Coast Bulletin.

'They want me to fly back to the United States and apply for a return flight.'

But according to Qantas, over '80 per cent of customers have opted for credit vouchers,' which are automated and processed within 24-48 hours.

With the aviation and travel industry facing a major backlash over the way they've handled the crisis, the tide appears to be turning for many industry players.

Travel agency Flight Centre were previously charging customers $300 to cancel international trips and retain a full refund.

Now the company has decided to waive the exuberant fee due to public pressure from furious customers.

The troubled airline Virgin Australia, who have now gone into voluntary administration due the COVID-19 outbreak, are also allowing passengers to change their booking or receive credits without additional fees.
The Supreme Court Tuesday refused to entertain a plea seeking direction to the Centre to ensure compliance with the MHA order directing landlords to neither ask students and labourers to vacate the premises nor to seek rent for a month during the COVID-19 lockdown.

A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan, which was hearing the matter through video-conferencing, dismissed the plea and said the apex court cannot implement the orders of the government.

The bench, also comprising Justices S K Kaul and B R Gavai, observed that there is already a helpline to monitor the situation and persons aggrieved can approach the authorities concerned through it.

The petitioners, advocate Pawan Prakash Pathak and A K Pandey, had sought action against the alleged "arbitrary and unlawful action" of landlords demanding rent from students and labourers during the COVID-19 lockdown despite a government order to the contrary.

The plea had sought compliance of the MHA's March 29 order which stops landlords from demanding rent from students, workers and migrant labourers for a month.

Those landlords who force people to vacate their houses will face action, the MHA statement had warned.

"Petition is being filled against the arbitrary and unlawful action of landlords in the state of Delhi amid COVID-19 where there is clear instruction issued by the Ministry of Home affairs that in order to maintain the lockdown situation and law and order during COVID-19, order dated March 29, 2020 'restraining all landlord to forcing labours and students to vacate their premises', in case they fail to pay rent during this period," the plea had said.

It had alleged that irrespective of the MHA order, various landlords were forcing tenant students to pay full rent, failing which they would be thrown out of premises.

"Many landlords are continuously putting pressure on students to pay their rent and the students are living in constant fear and depressions. They are feeling helpless in this situation as they cannot demand money from their parents because their parents are also suffering from financial crisis due to the lockdown....," the plea had said.

It had said that in a situation like this, the students who are staying in rented accommodations have limited resources at their disposal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Acting Police Commissioner McDonald Jacob has been given notice by leader of The First Wave Movement, Umar Abdullah, that there will be two more peaceful marches this month.

It comes on the heels of Abdullah being charged on Monday for leading a march around the Queens Park Savannah without permission from the acting police commissioner.
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Linkedin Mardika Parama (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, May 5, 2020 12:32 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd605a8b 1 Business Indonesia,air-transportation,Air-Asia,flights,surabaya,Kuala-Lumpur,Johor,resumption Free

Low-cost carrier AirAsia Indonesia will soon resume flights from Surabaya, East Java, to the Malaysian cities of Kuala Lumpur and Johor Baru after they were temporarily stopped on April 1 amid the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the two countries, an AirAsia official has said.

AirAsia Indonesia decided to reopen the flights from Surabaya to the Malaysian cities on May 18, following a decline in the number of new COVID-19 cases in the neighboring country, the airlines president director Veranita Yosephine said on Monday.

Kuala Lumpur has shown a positive trend regarding the spread of COVID-19, and therefore we decided to reopen our flights to Malaysia. However, well continue to review our decision and maintain our health standards, she said during a virtual press conference.

AirAsia Indonesia has suspended all scheduled flights since April 1 due to a lack of passengers as the government appealed to the public to stay at home and avoid travel. The government officially prohibited flights on April 24 to and from the countrys major cities as part of the emergency measures implemented to halt the spread of COVID-19.

To generate income, Indonesian airlines including AirAsia Indonesia have shifted to cargo and chartered flight services that are still permitted by the Transportation Ministry.

Currently, we are only utilizing 10 of our 28 airplanes. Were partnering with AirAsia Groups cargo business company Teleport to run the cargo operation, she said.

Although the airline has been able to shift its operation from passenger to cargo services, AirAsia, as with other airlines, is still struggling to maintain its cashflow.

Indonesian airlines are struggling to survive amid the COVID-19 pandemic, having booked combined revenue losses of Rp 207 billion (US$13.4 million) as of April 15, according to Finance Ministry data.

In order to keep the company afloat, Veranita said the company had taken a number of cost-cutting measures such as employee salary cuts and airplane lease renegotiations and was also seeking new sources of capital.

Were currently still looking at which sources of capital we could explore. To do so, we also need permission from the shareholders, she said.

Veranita said AirAsia would fully comply with the Transportation Ministrys regulation and the government-regulated health protocols for international flights, such as mandatory use of masks and a health document requirement.

We will implement the health protocols set by the government and will require health documents [for passengers], she said.

She added that the airline would continue monitoring developments in the COVID-19 pandemic in both countries, and could shut down the flight routes if there was a spike in new cases.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Indonesia has risen steadily with the latest Health Ministry data recording 395 new confirmed cases on Monday, an increase of 349 new cases from the previous day.

In neighboring Malaysia, the trend in new COVID-19 cases has shown signs of plateauing, with the countrys Health Ministry reporting 55 new confirmed cases and no deaths on Monday, down from 122 new cases and two deaths on Sunday, according to local media The Star.
LAUSANNE, Switzerland, April 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ADC Therapeutics SA, a late clinical-stage oncology-focused biotechnology company pioneering the development and commercialization of highly potent antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) for patients suffering from hematological malignancies and solid tumors, today announced the appointment of Victor Sandor, M.D., to its Board of Directors.



Victor is an accomplished biopharmaceutical leader and medical professional with extensive oncology product development experience that includes successfully obtaining several product approvals, said Ron Squarer, Chairman of ADC Therapeutics Board of Directors. I have had the pleasure of working with Victor and have no doubt that his strategic guidance will enhance our efforts to develop and, if approved, commercialize ADCs for the treatment of patients with hematological cancers and solid tumors.

Dr. Sandor was most recently Chief Medical Officer at Array BioPharma, Inc. prior to its acquisition by Pfizer Inc. At Array, Dr. Sandor was instrumental in obtaining the approval of Braftovi (encorafenib) and Mektovi (binimetinib). Prior to joining Array, he was Senior Vice President for Global Clinical Development at Incyte Corporation, where he played a critical role in the approval of Jakafi (ruxolitinib). Dr. Sandor was also Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Oncology at Biogen Idec and held positions of increasing responsibility in oncology product development at AstraZeneca, where he played an important role in the registration of Arimidex (anastrozole) for adjuvant use and the development of several early stage programs through proof of concept. Dr. Sandor received his M.D.C.M. from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and completed Fellowship in Medical Oncology at the National Institutes of Health.

Im thrilled to be joining ADC Therapeutics Board of Directors as the company prepares to submit a Biologics License Application for Lonca and continues to advance the development of its deep pipeline of novel ADCs. I look forward to working with the board and team as they work to make a meaningful difference in the lives of people with cancer by offering new treatment options, said Dr. Sandor.

About ADC Therapeutics

ADC Therapeutics SA is a late clinical-stage oncology-focused biotechnology company pioneering the development and commercialization of highly potent and targeted antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) for patients suffering from hematological malignancies and solid tumors. The Company develops ADCs by applying its decades of experience in this field and using next-generation pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD) technology to which ADC Therapeutics has proprietary rights for its targets. Strategic target selection for PBD-based ADCs and substantial investment in early clinical development have enabled ADC Therapeutics to build a deep clinical and research pipeline of therapies for the treatment of hematological and solid tumor cancers with significant unmet need. The Company has multiple PBD-based ADCs in ongoing clinical trials, ranging from first in human to pivotal Phase 2 clinical trials, in the USA and Europe, and numerous preclinical ADCs in development.

Loncastuximab tesirine (Lonca, formerly ADCT-402), the Companys lead product candidate, has been evaluated in a 145-patient pivotal Phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) that showed a 45.5% interim overall response rate (ORR), which exceeded the target primary endpoint. Camidanlumab tesirine (Cami, formerly ADCT-301), the Companys second lead product candidate, is being evaluated in a 100-patient pivotal Phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) after having shown an 86.5% ORR in HL patients in a Phase 1 clinical trial. The Company is also evaluating Cami as a novel immuno-oncology approach for the treatment of various advanced solid tumors.

ADC Therapeutics is based in Lausanne, Switzerland and has operations in London, the San Francisco Bay Area and New Jersey. For more information, please visit https://adctherapeutics.com/ .

Investors Contact

Amanda Hamilton

ADC Therapeutics

amanda.hamilton@adctherapeutics.com

Tel: +1 917-288-7023

EU Media Contact

Alexandre Muller

Dynamics Group

amu@dynamicsgroup.ch

Tel: +41 (0) 43 268 3231
Councillors ask MPs to lobby UK Government to not to tax 500 social care payment

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, May 5th, 2020

Local MPs have been urged to back the Welsh Governments calls to support care workers in Wrexham.

Some Wrexham councillors have written to Wrexham MP Sarah Atherton and Clwyd South MP Simon Baynes asking them to lobby their Conservative UK Government to ensure frontline care staff are not taxed on the recently announced 500 extra payment.

While the Welsh Government will fund the payment, the UK Government and HMRC decide whether carers have to pay tax on it, with the First Minister at the time saying, We are urging the UK Government and the HMRC to make an exception in these truly exceptional circumstances. At the time of the announcement it was also stated Welsh Government was also working with the Department for Work and Pensions to make sure the payment does not impact on peoples benefit entitlements.

The letter from Cllr Dana Davies, leader of the councils opposition Labour Group, said: You will both be aware that the Welsh Government recently announced it will fund a 500 extra payment for all social care workers in Wales in further recognition for an often under-valued and overlooked workforce.

The payment will be available to some 64,600 care home workers and domiciliary care workers throughout Wales, many of them living in your constituencies of Wrexham and Clwyd South.



The First Minister has called on the UK Government not to tax the extra payment, enabling social care workers to keep the full amount. The Welsh Government is also working with the Department for Work and Pensions to make sure it does not impact on peoples benefit entitlements.

Local carers are among our key workers on the frontline of the fight against coronavirus and I hope you will agree that their commitment and dedication to those they care for deserves to be rewarded.

We, the Wrexham Council Labour Group, ask you to make urgent representations to the UK Government and HMRC and call on them to ensure this 500 is not taxed so that this vital workforce receives the full payment in recognition of their monumental efforts in these truly exceptional circumstances.

We look forward to your response and confirmation of your full support of our local care workers.
Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis shared a new snap of the couple kissing, as they get ready for their at-home interview with The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Kutcher, 42, shared a snap of him and Kunis, 36, kissing in the middle of a large field, though it's unclear when the photo was actually taken.

The actors, who starred on That 70s Show together when they were teenagers, will celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary in July.

Kisses: Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis shared a new snap of the couple kissing, as they get ready for their at-home interview with The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

'Mila and I dropped in to chat with @jimmyfallon about #quarantinewine on #fallonathome. Check it out tonight at 11:35pm ET/PT,' he said.

The husband and wife launched their Quarantine Wine, wine that the couple will make themselves, with 100% of the proceeds donated to five COVID-19 relief charities.

The wine they're selling is a 100% Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley, Oregon, with each bottle affordably priced at $25 a bottle.

Quarantine wine: 'Mila and I dropped in to chat with @jimmyfallon about #quarantinewine on #fallonathome. Check it out tonight at 11:35pm ET/PT,' he said

'Mila and I are launching quarantine wine! 100% of profits got to covid-19 relief! @nockingpoint #quarantineWine #socialdistancing,' Kutcher said in his Instagram post announcing the wine.

'In the evenings we like to do virtual dates and virtual hangouts with friends, and one of the things that we like to do on those virtual dates is drink, eat, share a glass of wine, reconnect,' he added.

He added that the couple have been working hard to find appropriate charities that will benefit the sale of their wine.

Profits: 'Mila and I are launching quarantine wine! 100% of profits got to covid-19 relief! @nockingpoint #quarantineWine #socialdistancing,' Kutcher said in his Instagram post announcing the wine

'We've been finding charities that have been focusing on getting PPE (personal protective equipment) into the country, feeding kids, assisting families who've lost their jobs, businesses that are in distress, and Mila came up with the brilliant idea of combining the two things,' he added.

The wine will be produced by Nocking Point Wines, with 100% of the profits will be split evenly and donated to their four chosen charities: GiveDirectly, Direct Relief, Frontline Responders Fund and America's Food Fund.

The couple also came up with the idea to have a blank white label with 'Toasting To' at the top, so you can write who you're drinking to on the bottle.

Couple: The couple also came up with the idea to have a blank white label with 'Toasting To' at the top, so you can write who you're drinking to on the bottle

Kutcher and Kunis started dating in 2012, after Kutcher split from wife Demi Moore, several years after starring on That 70s Show together.

They were engaged in February 2014, with Kunis giving birth to their first child Wyatt Isabelle in October 2014.

The couple were married in July 2015, with Kunis giving birth to their second child Dimitri Portwood in November 2016.
[May 05, 2020] Judge Alan D. Lourie to Receive the 2020 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Federal Circuit

Judge Alan D. Lourie has been selected to receive the prestigious 2020 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Federal Circuit. Lourie celebrates his 30th anniversary on the bench this year, having been appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit by President George H.W. Bush in 1990. "Judge Lourie has shown each of us-a full generation of clerks-his enthusiasm for the law and his deep care for us not only during our clerkships but throughout our careers," write the more than four dozen former law clerks who nominated Lourie for the award. "His inquisitive nature and his thirst for learning have ifected us. He taught us the importance of handling matters with humility and humor and treating everyone with respect. He showed us his judicial style: to keep things simple and convey truth."



Lourie began his career not in law but in chemistry. After earning an undergraduate degree from Harvard in 1956, he went on to earn a master's degree in organic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin in 1958 and a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1965. He earned his law degree from Temple University in 1970. He worked as a chemist for Monsanto, then worked as a chemist, literature scientist, and patent agent at Wyeth Labs. Before being nominated to the Federal Circuit, he was combining his twin passions of law and chemistry as vice president for corporate patents and trademarks and associate general counsel for SmithKline Beecham Corporation. Lourie has long been active in the intellectual property community. Before his appointment as judge, he served as president of the Philadelphia Patent Law Association and served on the boards of directors of both the American Intellectual Property Law Association and the Intellectual Property Owners Association, for example. Since joining the court, he has also received awards from such organizations as the American Intellectual Property Law Association, Intellectual Property Owners Association, Boston Patent Law Association, Philadelphia Intellectual Property Law Association, New York Intellectual Property Law Association and New Jersey Intellectual Property Law Association. Lourie is an honorary member of the Giles S. Rich American Inn of Court in Washington, D.C.

The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, inspires the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring. The organization's membership includes nearly 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in nearly 370 chapters nationwide. More information is available at home.innsofcourt.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005101/en/

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Dublin, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "COVID-19 Impact on Food Safety Testing Market by Testing Technologies (DNA-based, Immunoassay-based, Chromatography- & Spectroscopy-based), Targets Tested (Pathogen, GMO, Allergen, and Mycotoxin), and Region - Global Forecast to 2021" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The realistic COVID-19 impact on the global food safety testing market is estimated to be valued at USD 10.5 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 12.3 billion by 2021, recording a CAGR of 16.6%.



Growing concerns among consumers for processed food due to the outbreak of COVID-19 across the globe will increase the security and safety of food products, thus driving the food safety testing industry growth.



By testing technologies, the DNA-based segment accounted for the larger share in 2019.



The DNA-based segment accounted for a majority share in the food safety testing market. DNA-based technology is used to manufacture multiple copies of genetic materials of microorganisms. This helps in testing the contamination of food products in less duration of time. Due to its ability to test multiple targets simultaneously, it is an effective technology resulting in the segment accounting for a significant share in the food safety testing industry.



By targets tested, the pathogen segment in the impact of COVID-19 on food safety testing market is estimated to account for the larger share.



Based on the targets tested, the market is segmented into pathogen, GMO, mycotoxin, and allergen. The pathogen segment is estimated to account for the larger share of the market, because of growing consumer concern towards pathogen outbreaks. The illness triggered by the prevalence of pathogens in food can be range from mild to severe. Hence, the demand for pathogen testing is expected to rise due to the COVID-19 pandemic.



North America accounted for the largest share of the food safety testing industry, due to the stringent regulations to control the outbreak of food-borne diseases.



The impact of COVID-19 on the food safety testing market in the North American region is driven primarily by growing consumer awareness toward the safety of food products. The region is also among the largest consumers of packaged and processed food. Strong investment in R&D and technological advancements for laboratories and test kits are expected to have a positive impact on the food safety testing industry in North America.



The COVID-19 impact on the food safety testing market is segmented region-wise, with a detailed analysis of each region. These regions include North America, Europe, AsiaPacific, and RoW (South America, the Middle East, and Africa).



Key Topics Covered:



1 Introduction

1.1 Covid-19 Health Assessment

1.2 Covid-19 Economic Assessment

1.2.1 Covid-19 Impact on the Economy-Scenario Assessment



2 Research Methodology

2.1 Research Data

2.2 Research Assumptions

2.3 Research Limitation

2.4 Scenario Based Modeling

2.5 Breakdown of Primary Interviews

2.6 Exclusion

2.7 Stakeholders



3 Executive Summary



4 Covid-19 Impact Food Safety Testing Ecosystem

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Impact on Value Chain

4.2.1 Testing Equipment & Consumables Suppliers

4.2.2 Laboratories

4.2.3 Food Manufacturers/Growers

4.2.4 Distributors/Retail Channels

4.3 Macroeconomic Indicators

4.3.1 Drivers

4.3.1.1 Growing Number of Foodborne Illnesses

4.3.1.2 Globalization of Food Trade

4.3.1.3 Stringent Food Safety Regulations

4.3.2 Restraints

4.3.2.1 Lack of Food Control Infrastructure & Resources in Developing Countries

4.3.2.2 Heavy-Duty on Test Kits



5 Customer Analysis

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Adoption of Testing Technologies

5.2.1 Demand for Rapid Test Kits

5.2.1.1 DNA-Based Test Kits for Pathogen Testing

5.2.2 Multi-Contaminant Analyzing Technology

5.2.2.1 New Market Opportunities/Growth Opportunities

5.3 Consumer Shift

5.3.1 Allergen Testing

5.3.2 Conformation on Food Authenticity

5.3.3 New Market Opportunities/Growth Opportunities



6 Impact on Related Markets

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Most Attractive Market - Impact & Opportunities

6.2.1 Free-From Food Testing

6.2.2 Nutritional Analysis

6.2.3 Real-Time Pcr Technology

6.3 Worst-Affected Market - Impact & Opportunities

6.3.1 Culture-Based Technologies

6.3.2 Meat & Seafood Testing



7 Customer Growth Opportunities in the Food Safety Testing Market

7.1 Impact on Food Safety Testing Companies Portfolio

7.1.1 Products & Services

7.1.2 Geographical

7.2 Winning Strategies To Gain Market Share

7.2.1 Short-Term Strategies

7.2.2 Mid-Term Strategies

7.2.3 Long-Term Strategies



8 Covid-19 Impact on Food Safety Testing System

8.1 Testing Technologies

8.1.1 DNA-Based

8.1.2 Immunoassay-Based

8.1.3 Chromatography- & Spectroscopy-Based

8.2 Targets Tested

8.2.1 Allergen

8.2.2 Mycotoxin

8.2.3 Pathogen

8.2.4 Gmos

8.3 Geography

8.3.1 Introduction

8.3.1.1 Author's Viewpoint

8.3.1.2 Forecast for 2020-2021

8.3.1.2.1 Pessimistic Scenario

8.3.1.2.2 Realistic Scenario

8.3.1.2.3 Optimistic Scenario

8.3.2 North America

8.3.2.1 Author's Viewpoint

8.3.2.2 Forecast for 2020-2021

8.3.2.2.1 Pessimistic Scenario

8.3.2.2.2 Realistic Scenario

8.3.2.2.3 Optimistic Scenario

8.3.3 Europe

8.3.3.1 Author's Viewpoint

8.3.3.2 Forecast for 2020-2021

8.3.3.2.1 Pessimistic Scenario

8.3.3.2.2 Realistic Scenario

8.3.3.2.3 Optimistic Scenario

8.3.4 Asia Pacific

8.3.4.1 Author's Viewpoint

8.3.4.2 Forecast for 2020-2021

8.3.4.2.1 Pessimistic Scenario

8.3.4.2.2 Realistic Scenario

8.3.4.2.3 Optimistic Scenario

8.3.5 Rest of the World

8.3.5.1 Author's Viewpoint

8.3.5.2 Forecast for 2020-2021

8.3.5.2.1 Pessimistic Scenario

8.3.5.2.2 Realistic Scenario

8.3.5.2.3 Optimistic Scenario



9 Covid-19 Focused Profiles of Key Vendors

9.1 Eurofins

9.2 SGS

9.3 Intertek

9.4 Bureau Veritas

9.5 Tv Sd



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/a4db4u

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.
If the political conversation around the pandemic seems to have acquired a harder edge these days, science may have an explanation  its something called the third-quarter phenomenon.

Studies of people who have experienced isolation in outer space and the Arctic have apparently found that humans get testy and emotional precisely when the end moves closer in sight  as it seems we may be here in Canada with the COVID-19 crisis.

We have begun the dreaded third quarter of isolation, when  yes  things get weird, read the headline on an Australian TV news website this week.

It summed up the first two quarters this way: An initial point where there was panic buying and confusion, and then a honeymoon period' when it felt novel and different to stay at home.

In the third quarter, though, panic and novelty give way to bleaker spirits. Or, as one space journal describes it, those undertaking deployments in challenging scenarios are likely to experience a reduction in mood, irritability, tension and decreased morale after the midpoint and into the third phase of a mission  the TQP.

While many Canadians may recognize TQP slipping into their own cooped-up personal or professional lives, the phenomenon may be creeping into politics too.

First we had the frenzied round of spending and shock. Then we settled into a routine of daily government briefings, virtual debate and rare, cross-party, intergovernmental co-operation. That was nice  for a while.

But that second-stage bubble was bound to burst, and its happening right around what B.C.s public health officer, Bonnie Henry, described on Monday as the end of the beginning of this pandemic.

In politics, it feels a little like everyone is sick of washing their hands  metaphorically speaking  and decided to get them a bit dirty again. Politicians are sniping at each other about gun laws, about COVID-19 relief and even about whose fault it is that the virus put us all in a lockdown.

The TQP, as it is starting to play out in Canada, could also be described as the naming, shaming and blaming game.

On the business of naming, some real debates are simmering about contact tracing and how much these efforts to constrain further spread of the virus will also intrude on Canadians privacy. Ontario Premier Doug Ford wants national standards, while Alberta has already rolled out a contact-tracing app for smartphones and several other provinces and municipalities may do the same soon.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that Canadians may be willing to cede a little more of their privacy in exchange for greater freedom from the grip of pandemic isolation. Well see.

Blaming, meanwhile, is the lifeblood of politics in normal times, and perhaps we should be reassured that it is struggling back into the conversation around the pandemic as we hit the third quarter. As usual, theres plenty to go around.

Trudeaus government is being blamed for doing too little in some areas  on Tuesday, it was not enough aid for farmers. It is also being blamed for doing too much: Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and several premiers are worried that its COVID-19 benefits are so generous that they create disincentives for Canadians to get back to work.

Blame is also starting to circle around China, thanks in part to Donald Trumps efforts to pin the virus on where it originated, but there are also Conservatives in Canada who argue that Trudeau isnt aggressively pursuing China and the World Health Organization enough for the spread of the virus. At his Monday briefing with reporters, Trudeau said the blame discussion is a topic for another day.

Its extremely important that we understand exactly what happened and ask really tough questions of all countries involved, including China, Trudeau said. But my priority right now and the priority for countries around the world needs to be doing everything we can to keep our people safe and make sure that we have the resources necessary to protect our citizens and get through this.

As for shame, Albertas public health officer, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, lamented this week how immigrant workers in the province were being singled out for discrimination because of COVID outbreaks at meat-packing plants. She didnt say who was doing the regrettable shaming, but we can assume its the same kind of people who have been staging tiny, angry protests against the lockdown nationwide  a bunch of yahoos, as Ford memorably described them.

Employees at these plants should not be blamed or shamed for spread of the virus. We are all in this together, Hinshaw said.

That may be the problem. Weve all been in this together for nearly two months and while the end is in sight, were not there yet. Its the third quarter, and as that Australian headline said, things could get weird.

Susan Delacourt is an Ottawa-based columnist covering national politics for the Star. Reach her via email: sdelacourt@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @susandelacourt

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By Renju Jose

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia will take a 10% hit to gross domestic product and the unemployment rate will likely double in the June quarter due to measures to limit the spread of the new coronavirus, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will say in a speech on Tuesday.

The world's 12th-biggest economy will lose about A$4 billion (2.09 billion) every week due to restrictions on movement and economic activity, according to excerpts of the treasurer's speech seen by Reuters.

But the impact would have been a lot worse if Australia - with more than 6,800 coronavirus infections and 96 deaths - had followed Europe's example and imposed stricter controls on all non-essential services, he is expected to say.

If these restrictions were increased even further, akin to the eight week lockdown in Europe, then the adverse impact on GDP could double to 24%, or A$120 billion, in the June quarter, the treasurer will say in his prepared remarks.

This would have seen enormous stress on our financial system as a result of increased balance sheet impairments, widespread firm closures, higher unemployment and household debt. This was the cliff we were standing on.

Still, the economic shock from COVID-19 would be "profound and long-lasting", with Treasury estimating the unemployment rate to double to 10% in the June quarter, Frydenberg will say in a speech to the National Press Club.

Australia's emergency coronavirus cabinet is due to meet later Tuesday with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also attending. New Zealand has reported 1,137 coronavirus cases and 20 fatalities.

The trans-Tasman neighbours are considering reopening their borders to allow air travel between the two countries, in a bid stimulate economic activity.

Australia has so far unveiled support measures worth about A$320 billion (165.25 billion) or about 16% of GDP, as restrictions on public movement push the country toward its first recession in nearly 30 years.

Story continues

The decline in cases and a COVID-19 mortality rate of just 1%, however, have led Australia to relax some curbs on non-essential movements.

Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus: open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.

(Reporting by Renju Jose; Editing by Stephen Coates)
As Covid-19 death tolls mount in Brazil, the country faces a growing political crisis that threatens the government of President Jair Bolsonaro while exacerbating the effects of the pandemic.

On Sunday, in the capital Brasilia, the far-right leader Bolsonaro met with hundreds of supporters outside the presidential palace, flouting social distancing norms, amid calls by protesters to close democratic institutions like congress and the Supreme Court.

The president has repeatedly sought to downplay the pandemic having previously dismissed the disease as fantasy and just a little flu.

You know that the people are with us, the armed forces - alongside law, order, democracy and freedom - are also on our side, and God above all, the president told his supporters.

Bolsonaro, a former army captain, is an outspoken supporter of Brazils 1964 -1985 military dictatorship and the reference to the armed forces was widely interpreted as a threat, which was later criticised by high ranking military officers.

The president is mistaken. He is interpreting things the way he wants, General Paulo Chagas told the UOL news portal.

During the rally, on World Press Freedom day, the presidents supporters physically attacked local reporters, which drew widespread disgust, even within the presidents own circle.

I am against any kind of cowardice and attacking those who are doing their work is not part of my culture, Bolsonaros vice, General Hamilton Mourao, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper.

The rally came just a day after popular former Justice Minister gave an eight hour statement to Brazils federal police about accusations he made that Bolsonaro tried to interfere with the agencys national directorate when he resigned from the government the week before.

Pandora's Box of investigations

Former judge Moro shot to fame - and controversy  presiding over Brazils mammoth corruption investigation Operation Car Wash and was regarded by many as a pillar of stability and moderation in Bolsonaros unruly government.

Story continues

Brazils Supreme Court has authorized an investigation into Moros allegations and last week blocked Bolsonaros chosen appointment as Federal Police director, family friend Alexandre Ramagem.

Its widely speculated by political opponents that the president wishes to appoint a confidant to head the agency to shield his family from looming investigations as all three of his politician sons are subject to inquiries.

Bolsonaro continues to maintain a loyal support base however. According to pollster Datafolha, a third of Brazilians consider his government excellent or good almost unchanged since the beginning of the crisis.

But analysts suspect that support could begin to tumble as death tolls are expected to peak in coming weeks.

The pros and cons of potential impeachment

Meanwhile, according to the same pollster 45% of Brazilians think that congress should open impeachment proceedings against the president.

However, most observers consider this an unlikely possibility, at least for now.

Impeachment is a long drawn out process that takes months, said Oliver Stuenkel, an assistant professor of International Relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Sao Paulo.

Rodrigo Maia, speaker of Brazils head of representatives, on Monday considered the presidents most powerful political opponent, is the only politician who can open impeachment proceedings against the president.

In Brazil, unfortunately, we fight against the coronavirus and the extremism virus, whose worst effect is to ignore science and deny reality. The road will be hard, but democracy and Brazilians who want peace will win, he Tweeted during the rally in Brasilia at the weekend.
By Andrew P. Schafer

As New Jersey makes cautious plans to reopen the state and relax restrictions, Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Newark continues to pay close attention to the guidance of state and federal health officials  even as we grapple with the far-reaching impact of this pandemic.

Our mission, to bury the dead respectfully, is a corporal work of mercy and a sacred duty that we treat with the utmost seriousness. We understand, too, our duty to provide peace and comfort to the living.

As Mothers Day approaches, we have heard the calls from many among the faithful to reopen our cemeteries. We know how important it is for our community to be able to attend burials, as well as to visit the final resting places of beloved friends and family members.

The decision to close cemeteries in mid-March, with burial attendance only by a funeral director, a funeral director driver, two witnesses, and a clergy member, was not an easy one. But state mandates dictated strict measures to slow the spread of coronavirus and to ensure that our hard-working healthcare workers and hospital facilities were not overwhelmed. And as one might expect, the sad toll taken by this pandemic has dramatically increased interments at our cemeteries.

Nowhere is this more true than at Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington, which serves countless Catholic families in Bergen and Essex counties, two of the most densely populated and hardest-hit communities in our state. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the staff at Holy Cross Cemetery has been interring an average of 25 people per day. This is more than double, or 112% higher than the number of burials during the same period last year. Since early March, there have been approximately 600 interments at Holy Cross Cemetery. This exceeds the number of burials most of our nations cemeteries accommodate in an entire year. Many funeral directors in northern New Jersey have been looking to South Jersey for help, as the need for burial space has increased.

And all of this must be accomplished while dealing with the challenges of spring rainfalls and cemetery grounds maintenance. Our cemeteries require constant upkeep to keep the ground level and to maintain a safe environment for cemetery staff as well as eventual visitors, which include senior citizens and those with disabilities.

For these reasons, we have been grateful for the support and patience of our entire community  as well as the tireless hard work of our cemetery staff and administrators, who are also experiencing the pain of losing loved ones and being isolated from their families during this pandemic. We recognize that as social distancing protocols continue and the weather turns warmer, everyones patience is wearing thin. We will continue to balance the important needs of our faithful with our responsibility to keep our staff, our visitors, and all within our community safe and healthy.

At this time, we announce the following changes to our cemetery visitation policies:

On Mothers Day, Sunday, May 10, all archdiocesan cemeteries will be open for visitation from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will be open for visitation every Sunday, thereafter.

Beginning on Monday, May 11, up to 10 family members will be permitted to attend a burial service. (Currently, two family members only are permitted.) Until further notice, all committal services are limited to immediate family only, and not to exceed recommendations/guidance of state health officials and government mandates.

On Monday, May 18, cemetery visitation will be permitted weekdays, Monday through Saturday, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., after all interments are completed.

Memorial Day Masses at our all archdiocesan cemeteries are postponed until further notice. Announcements are forthcoming regarding a live-stream or video of Memorial Day Mass at Holy Cross Cemetery.

All persons entering archdiocesan cemetery and mausoleum premises must wear a facemask and practice social distancing as per the states mandate. Signs will be posted in cemeteries.

We urge all to please work with us to adhere to these guidelines for the protection of all. It would be disappointing to all if prior restrictions were reinforced if state and local mandates are not followed.

We pray that each and every one of us will remain in the safe embrace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, during these difficult times. We continue to strengthen our faith and resolve in our ministry, the care of our families and staff, and in the promise of the resurrection. May God bless us all.

Please visit our website www.rcancem.org for the latest updates and announcements from Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Newark.

Andrew P. Schafer is the executive director of Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Newark.

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The good old Zomato and Swiggy, the two restaurant and food delivery apps that you probably used regularly all along, are changing. Chances are when you head back to office once the world is a better place and the COVID has been cleared away, Zomato and Swiggy will look very different to you. Contactless Dining, Contactless Deliveries, safety and hygiene tags for restaurants and more. But that is not all. Zomato and Swiggy are going well beyond simply delivering your food orders or even embedding themselves into the dining out experience at your favorite restaurants. A cursory glance through their apps right now give you a peek at what awaits you.

Open the Zomato app on your Android phone or Apple iPhone, and food@work gets prominent placement. What Zomato wants with food@work is try to and push a contactless dining experience in your office as well . This push into the corporate dining space includes upgrading your existing office cafeteria into something that the company calls Digitized Cafeteria. This means you open the Zomato app while you are at work and pick from a curated menu. You place the order while you are at your desk itself, which means you skip the queues and dont need to wait for the food to be prepared by your cafeteria kitchen. You make the payment for the food via the app itself. You will be notified when your order is ready, and you can collect your order from the cafeteria.

Zomato says that right now, they have 70 organizations on board across India, including the likes of Accenture and co-working space WeWork. They have more than 1,000 food partners, who prepare or deliver your Zomato food@work orders and they are preparing more than 150000 meals a day. Expect these numbers to go up as people return to work in the coming weeks and months, with social distancing and contactless dining keyworks ringing in their ears.

Have you Also Read?

Your Next Dinner Date is a Battleground For Dineout, Zomato & Paytms Contactless Dining Push

It was in September 2018 that Zomato had acquired TongueStun, which was then operating in the corporate catering space in 7 cities (Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Gurugram and Noida) with over 1500 service partners at the time.

It is not exactly clear what happens to your existing corporate catering partner, no matter how good or bad they may be, but that perhaps is more dependent on how an organization chooses to restructure their kitchen. For companies that do opt to get on-board the Zomato food@work platform, they will have the responsibility to ensure the requirements of hygiene and social distancing for their employees, particularly during the lunch hours which see the maximum footfalls in a cafeteria zone.

Open Swiggy, and apart from all the delicious food that you can order and the groceries that you can buy, there is one option that must catch your attention. It is called Swiggy Genie, and this can be your own personal concierge or butler , whatever appeals to you. Right now, Swiggy is positioning this as your go-to solution for having shopping delivered home or moving stuff about during the COVID lockdown. What they will not get you is alcohol, cigarettes or tobacco products, but right now, they will collect groceries from a store you choose to buy from within the app itself and deliver them to you. That means what you can buy and have delivered is limited to the stores that are on-board Swiggy Genie.

Have you also read?

Contactless Dining Will be Massive, And This is How Paytm Wants The New Reality to Look Like

But the help with grocery shopping isnt the only thing Swiggy Genie can do. You can choose to send a lunchboxselect a pick-up address, select a drop address and confirm the order. You can also send business deliveries, documents and pretty much anything else, as long as it is legal and not breaking any laws, anywhere within the city limits. This is a great idea if you want to have your lunch, delivered piping hot, to office. Right now, Swiggy says it will only accept the Genie orders for 10 items or less, since that is the limit they have set for safe delivery on motorcycles.
Vietnam is urging citizens to marry before 30 and bear children early to maintain an ideal replacement fertility rate.

A decision to this effect, issued April 28 by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, aims to maintain a replacement total fertility rate (TFR) between 2 and 2.2 children for each woman in her reproductive life, increasing it in areas where it is currently low and vice versa.

The decision calls for people to marry before they are 30 and bear children early. Women should have their second child before 35, it advises.

Localities where fertility rates are 2.2 or below need to educate people on the benefits of having two children and the disadvantages of marrying and bearing too few children, too late, as well as their impacts on socio-economic development.

Localities should also encourage and support couples in having two children, expand worker-friendly services like babysitting, milk banks and family medicine. The decision says construction of babysitting facilities and kindergartens, especially in urban and industrial areas, should be paid particular attention.

Couples who have two children would benefit from several incentives including support in renting or buying subsidized housing and priority admission for children in public schools.

Vietnam's population hit 96.2 million last year, which is third in Southeast Asia and 15th globally, according to the Central General Census and Housing Steering Committee.

The country however reached a turning point in 2015 when it started to become one of the countries with the fastest aging populations in the world, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs said in a 2016 report.

Several localities have seen birth rates fall way below the ideal replacement fertility rate of two children per woman. For example, women in Ho Chi Minh City are having around 1.36 children on average, while corresponding rates in the southern provinces of Dong Thap, Hau Giang and Ba Ria-Vung Tau are 1.34, 1.53 and 1.37.

Low fertility rates would result in a quickly aging population, straining social welfare systems, including pensions, health insurance and social security, experts have warned.
As governments around the world consider how to monitor new coronavirus outbreaks while reopening their societies, many are starting to bet on smartphone apps to help stanch the pandemic.

But their decisions on which technologies to use and how far those allow authorities to peer into private lives are highlighting some uncomfortable tradeoffs between protecting privacy and public health.

There are conflicting interests, said Tina White, a Stanford University researcher who first introduced a privacy-protecting approach in February.

Governments and public health (agencies) want to be able to track people to minimize the spread of COVID-19, but people are less likely to download a voluntary app if it is intrusive, she said.

Containing infectious disease outbreaks boils down to a simple mantra: test, trace and isolate. Today, that means identifying people who test positive for the novel coronavirus, tracking down others they might have infected, and preventing further spread by quarantining everyone who might be contagious.

That second step requires an army of healthcare workers to question coronavirus carriers about recent contacts so those people can be tested and potentially isolated.

Smartphone apps potentially speed up that process by collecting data about your movements and alerting you if you've spent time near a confirmed coronavirus carrier.

The more detailed that data, the more it could help regional governments identify and contain emerging disease hot spots. But data collected by governments can also be abused by governments or their private-sector partners.

Some countries and local governments are issuing voluntary government-designed apps that make information directly available to public health authorities.

In Australia, more than 3 million people have downloaded such an app touted by the prime minister, who compared it to the ease of applying sunscreen and said more app downloads would bring about a more liberated economy and society."



Utah is the first U.S. state to embrace a similar approach, one developed by a social media startup previously focused on helping young people hang out with nearby friends.

Both these apps record a digital trail of the strangers an individual encountered. Utah's goes even further, using a device's location to help track which restaurants or stores a user has visited.

The app is a tool to help jog the memory of the person who is positive so we can more readily identify where they've been, who they've been in contact with, if they choose to allow that, said Angela Dunn, Utah's state epidemiologist.

A competing approach under development by tech giants Apple and Google limits the information collected and anonymizes what it pulls in so that such personalized tracking isn't possible.

Apple and Google have pushed for public health agencies to adopt their privacy-oriented model, offering an app-building interface they say will work smoothly on billions of phones when the software rolls out sometime in May.

Germany and a growing number of European countries have aligned with that approach, while others, such as France and the UK, have argued for more government access to app data.

Most coronavirus-tracking apps rely on Bluetooth, a decades-old short-range wireless technology, to locate other phones nearby that are running the same app.

The Bluetooth apps keep a temporary record of the signals they encounter. If one person using the app is later confirmed to have COVID-19, public health authorities can use that stored data to identify and notify other people who may have been exposed.

Apple and Google say that apps built to their specifications will work across most iPhones and Android devices, eliminating compatibility problems. They have also forbidden governments to make their apps compulsory and are building in privacy protections to keep stored data out of government and corporate hands and ease concerns about surveillance.

For instance, these apps rely on encrypted peer to peer signals sent from phone to phone; these aren't stored in government databases and are designed to conceal individual identities and connections. Public-health officials aren't even in the loop; these apps would notify users directly of their possible exposure and urge them to get tested.

In the U.S., developers are pitching their apps directly to state and local governments. In Utah, the social media company Twenty sold state officials on an approach combining Bluetooth with satellite-based GPS signals. That would let trained health workers help connect the dots and discover previously hidden clusters of infection.

It's unlikely that automated alerts are going to be enough, said Jared Allgood, Twenty's chief strategy officer and a Utah resident, citing estimates that the peer-to-peer models would need most people participating to be effective.

In Singapore, for instance, a large migrant worker population lives in cramped dorms, makes about $15 a day, and powers the city's previously booming construction industry but smartphone usage in this group is low. When the Southeast Asian city-state launched its tracing app in March, total confirmed COVID-19 cases were well under 1,000.

Then in early April, a rash of new infections in worker dormitories pushed that number to more than 18,000, triggering new lockdown policies.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Classic Ladies Club has donated relief items to the Nasawam Female Prison as the nation battles the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Classic Ladies Club, is a philanthropic group made up of traders from the Okaishie Market in Accra. The items donated include sanitary pads, nose masks, cooking oil, toiletries, veronica buckets, hand sanitizers, and bags of rice, sugar, gari, drinks, corn dough.

Presenting the items, the President of the Club, Nana Konadu, accentuated candidly that our main objective in donating these items is to ensure that the inmates at the prison get enough food and items for their upkeep as we fight the deadly Coronavirus.

The Officer-in-Charge of Inmates Aftercare and Criminal Records at the Nsawam Female Prison, DSP Victoria Serwaa Kyere, who received the items on behalf of the officers in Charge and inmates, expressed her heartfelt admiration of the group for their benevolent gesture.

As I receive these items on behalf of the officers in Charge and inmates of the Nsawam Female Prison, i will say thank you for this kind gestureThis is beyond imaginationwe want to thank you because we are not in normal times; for you to show such benevolence, I say thank you, and may God bless every member of Classic Ladies Club, DSP Victoria Kyere said.

DSP Sophia Kyere used the opportunity to educate the ladies on the need to adhere to the safety measures in the fight against the dreaded coronavirus (covid-19) while encouraging the need to stay home to avoid contracting the virus.

According to her, measures have been put in place to help prevent inmates from contracting the disease by ensuring that inmates wear nose masks all the time and also observe all the protocols associated with it.

Ghana has now recorded 2,719 cases of COVID-19 and 65 additional recoveries making a total of 294, according to the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

The death toll, however, remains the same at 18.
How a Navy destroyer operating in the Pacific picked up coronavirus cases remains a mystery, but the top defense official said this week that a drug-smuggling vessel could be to blame.

The destroyer Kidd became the second deployed Navy warship to head back to port in about a month after dozens of cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, broke out among the crew.

More than 30 days passed between the Kidd's last port visit in Hawaii and the first crew member showing COVID-19 symptoms on April 22, USNI News reported, raising the possibility that asymptomatic sailors were unwittingly spreading it. But Defense Secretary Mark Esper said leaders are also considering another possibility behind the outbreak.

"A theory is that they could've picked it up on a counterdrug mission where they pulled over a vessel possibly carrying drugs and they boarded the vessel and may have come in contact with somebody carrying the virus there," Esper told reporters on Tuesday.

Related: Why the Navy Has Stopped Releasing Ships' COVID-19 Case Counts

The Kidd, which is based out of Washington state, first deployed with the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group in January, but was later tasked with heading to the eastern Pacific for counter-narcotic missions in U.S. Southern Command.

The Trump administration has ramped up those missions in the Western Hemisphere, even as the globe deals with the coronavirus pandemic. Esper said last month when President Donald Trump announced a buildup of military counterdrug operations that criminal organizations will leverage governments being distracted by the coronavirus to move more drugs.

The Kidd is now in San Diego where its crew members are being treated.

"All the proper protocols are being followed to make sure that we get her back to sea as soon as possible," Esper said.

The Navy's other vessel to see a big coronavirus outbreak, the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, has been sidelined in Guam for more than a month. Crew members are starting to move back out to the ship, but nearly all the roughly 4,800 members had to be evacuated and tested for COVID-19 while that ship was disinfected.

More than 1,100 members of the Roosevelt's crew tested positive for the virus. At least 78 members of the Kidd's much-smaller crew of about 300 tested positive. That's according to the last figures the Navy released on the outbreaks on April 30. The service has since stopped sharing updates.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Army Gen. Mark Milley said on Tuesday that he's confident the Navy's strict new protocols for keeping the novel coronavirus off its vessels will help prevent future outbreaks.

On Monday during a virtual event hosted by the Brookings Institution, Esper went as far as to say that deployed Navy ships are the "safest place to be" during the global pandemic.

"Of the 90 ships we have at sea, we've only had two that have been affected," Esper said. "... Two ships out of I think 94 is a pretty good record."

-- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins.

Read more: Navy Ships Transit Through Barents Sea Near Russia for 1st Time Since Cold War
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. Were all stuck at home at the moment, so here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.

Other Than That, Mr. Lincoln

On Sunday night, President Trump was interviewed by Fox News hosts at the Lincoln Memorial, where Seth Meyers said it kind of looked like Lincoln had been asked to join but was keeping his distance. Trump at one point compared himself to the 16th president, saying he got more hostile press coverage: They always said Lincoln, nobody got treated worse than Lincoln. I believe I am treated worse.
Saudi authorities have ordered the arrest of a citizen for abusing a non-Muslim Asian expatriate and asking him to embrace Islam, according to a media report on Tuesday.

A video went viral on social media showing the expat being insulted by an Arabic-speaking man, who does not appear in the clip, for having not embraced Islam and for not fasting, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

A monitoring centre affiliated with the public prosecution examined the video which shows the citizen's use of abusive words against the Asian resident on the pretext of inviting him to Islam, an official source at the Public Prosecution was quoted as saying.

"The public prosecution ordered the arrest of the abusive citizen," the source added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Published on 2020/05/04 | Source

Actors Go Doo-shim and Ji Hyun-woo are starring in the movie "Everglow".

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Myung Film announced the crank in of "Everglow" in the backdrop of Jeju Island starring Go Doo-shim and Ji Hyun-woo on the 4th. "Everglow", helmed by director So Joon-moon is about Jeju's greatest female diver, Jin-ok, and a documentary producer named Kyeong-hoon who comes from Seoul to film her.

Go Doo-shim plays Jin-ok and Ji Hyun-woo plays documentary producer Kyeong-hoon. Jin-ok is a character who's experienced the painful history of Jeju Island in person and Go Doo-shim is raising anticipation for the character as she is an actress true to her reputation and also known as 'the daughter of Jeju', her homeland.

In addition, Ji Hyun-woo, who has made impressive performances in several dramas such as "Old Miss Diary - Drama", "Merry Mary", "Queen In-hyun's Man" and more since his debut in 2003, as well as being involved in band activities, will be co-starring with Go Doo-shim.

Director So Joon-moon, who majored in directing, was recognized for his directing skills for "Old Lang Sign", which was invited to the international competition section of the 31st Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in 2007. Released in 2011, "REC" was acclaimed as a visual surprise and emotional newcomer. Expectations are high on whether the Jeju film will be completed as a well-made film.

Looking forward to the first take, Go Doo-shim said, "The people of Jeju have the minds of a diver and they are proud of it. So I am grateful to be in this movie and I want to make it as beautiful as I possibly can". Ji Hyun-woo said, "Like the line 'The important things are not visible' from "The Little Prince", I hope this movie can be good for the heart".

So Joon-moon stated his determination. "It's like a dream to be working with someone like Go Doo-shim and Ji Hyun-woo. I am going to make a beautiful movie in beautiful Jeju Island".

In addition to being selected as the production support for the Korean Film Council in 2019, "Everglow" won the grand prize in a scenario contest to revitalize Jeju's location in 2019. It is scheduled to finish filming by June.
Health units across Ontario are reporting some of the biggest spikes in deaths since the COVID-19 outbreak began.

Toronto reported 311 new cases and 51 more deaths for Sunday and Monday, the second-highest of any 48-hour period, after the 61 total deaths reported on Wednesday and Thursday last week. Ottawa also reported a jump in deaths Monday, with 35 new fatal cases.

The 161 deaths reported across Ontario for Sunday and Monday were by far the most the province has seen in any 48-hour period since the beginning of the pandemic.

Heres what the numbers tell us about whats happening right now with the spread of COVID-19:

The daily case count:

Premier Doug Ford announced on Monday that the province was exceeding its target of 16,000 tests a day. Meanwhile, Ontario reported an increase of 533 cases, a number thats down from a peak in April but pretty typical of the number of new cases reported in the last week.

Toronto epidemiologist Dr. Jeff Kwong, a family doctor at Toronto Western Hospital, as well as a professor at the University of Torontos Dalla Lana School of Public Health, believes the province will continue to see a number of new daily cases.

I think there is still a lot of COVID out there, said Kwong. Outside the GTA it could be slowing down, but I think within the GTA theres quite a lot of activity here...in Toronto, Peel, York, theres still a lot there.

Many new deaths:

There were 119 deaths from COVID-19 in the province Monday, the highest number reported to date, bringing the total to 1,427.

The majority of the deaths are occurring in the GTA, but Ottawa reported its highest number of victims to date  35.

Seventy per cent of the fatalities in Ontario are people 80 or older, according to an analysis of provincial data.

Most of the deaths are happening in the long-term-care setting, said Kwong.

Its unfortunate we didnt act sooner to prevent this from happening, he said. I think COVID exposes all the weak links in the system. Workers dont have all the PPE, the staff arent well compensated...its so tragic and preventable.

Kwong is optimistic the outbreaks will be controlled by the increase in testing that is now being done.

Hospital staff are going in and doing testing blitzes of residents and staff to identify outbreaks and provide PPE and teach (workers) how to use it properly.

As long as you have PPE you can reduce transmission, he said.

GTA vs. Ontario:

The GTA continues to be the hot spot for the virus, accounting for more than 11,000 cases out of a total of the nearly 18,000 in the province.

Toronto, which has seen the most cases and deaths, reported an increase of 311 cases and 51 deaths, on Monday.

Dr. Eileen de Villa, Torontos medical officer of health, said that although infection rates were slowing down, social distancing measures would have to continue because the city had yet to see a steady decrease in the number of new cases or new hospitalizations each day.

This means we have likely not completely passed the infection peak, said de Villa. The city has had a total of 6,278 cases. Peel Region has the second highest number of cases at 2,699.

Part of the reason the GTA has more cases could be due to household transmission within families who live in condos and apartments.

In those settings, if one person gets the virus, the whole family gets it because of the difficulty social distancing in tight quarters, said Kwong.

That why were seeing more cases in Toronto than in rural areas with big houses, said Kwong. I think thats one of the drivers.

Quebec case backlog, other provinces hold steady:

The number of cases in Quebec shot up on Sunday, two weeks before the province is set to reopen retail stores in Montreal and a week before schools and daycares outside the city are scheduled to reopen.

The increase was the result of more than a thousand missed cases from April, according to media reports, bringing the total number of cases in the province to 31,865.

More than 2,200 people there have died of the virus, but there has been only a slight increase in recent hospitalizations.

Other provinces, including Alberta and Saskatchewan, are also phasing in plans that will reopen businesses.
Unknown terrorists murder nine policemen in Syria's Dara'a

Iran Press TV

Monday, 04 May 2020 5:09 PM

At least nine Syrian policemen have been killed after a group of unidentified armed men launched an attack on a government building in southwestern province of Dara'a.

The Syrian Interior Ministry, in a statement carried by the official SANA news agency, said the Dara'a Police Command personnel were killed on Monday morning when terrorists attacked them as they were on duty in the town of Muzayrib, which lies on the SyriaJordan border.

The statement added that the bodies of the victims were later transported to Dara'a National Hospital.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attack.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also confirmed the attack.

"Unknown assailants attacked the municipality building... abducting nine members of the security forces before shooting them dead and abandoning their bodies in a square," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

He added that foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants "usually target checkpoints or patrols, not government buildings" in the area.

Syrian government forces retook Dara'a province from Takfiri terrorists in 2018.

They raised the national flag over some neighborhoods of the provincial capital, also called Dara'a, in July that year.

Earlier that month, the Syrian government had reached a deal with militants in Dara'a province.

The deal came hours after the Syrian army regained control of the strategic Nassib border crossing with Jordan after three years.

"An agreement has been reached between the Syrian government and the terrorist groups" which includes "the handover of heavy and medium weapons in all cities and towns," SANA reported at the time.

Under the agreement, government forces took over "all observation posts along the Syrian-Jordanian border," the report said.

The Takfiris, who opposed the deal, were evacuated with their families to the militant-held northwestern province of Idlib.

US troops block Russian soldiers in northeast Syria

Separately on Monday, US troops blocked Russian soldiers from reaching a town in Syria's northeastern province of al-Hasakah, the Observatory reported, citing unnamed local sources.

The US troops, deployed at the eastern entrance of Tal Tamr town, stopped a Russian military patrol en route to al-Alya town. US military helicopters were seen flying overhead during the standoff.

The development took place only two days after Russian military police units in the same Syrian province prevented a US convoy from entering the strategic Kurdish-inhabited city of Qamishli.

Since late October 2019, the US has been redeploying troops to the oil fields controlled by Kurdish forces in eastern Syria, in a reversal of President Donald Trump's earlier order to withdraw all troops from the Arab country.

The Pentagon claims the move aims to "protect" the fields and facilities from possible attacks by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group. That claim came although Trump had earlier suggested that Washington sought economic interests in controlling the oil fields.

Syria, which has not authorized American military presence in its territory, has condemned the US, saying it is "plundering" the country's oil.

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Step forward Bravado, the merchandise arm of Universal Music Group (UMG) that sells band T-shirts, which is now making face masks featuring the likes of Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande and Queen for $20 apiece, donating net proceeds to music charities. The Eilish version features her green Blohsh logo, a symbol that appears on her merchandise line, while a Rolling Stones version features its open mouth marque. UMG started off by distributing face masks to employees and will donate 50,000 masks to community workers.

And while larger businesses such as clothing company Eileen Fisher have been making face coverings for police and fire departments , a raft of other fashion labels are now making non-medical masks to sell to consumers.

As New York City distributes millions of cloth and non-medical face coverings and parts of Europe make masks mandatory in public, fashion designers are creating their own versions.

MaskClub, meanwhile, is selling Hello Kitty and Batman-branded masks, and was set up by licensed merchandise manufacturer Trevco last month. It claims to be "the first ever branded subscription face mask website," with the option to sign up and be sent a mask each month. The site will donate to the First Responders Children's Foundation for each mask bought.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo made an executive order for all New Yorkers to wear face coverings in public and on Monday the city started to distribute 5 million three-ply non-medical masks and 2.5 cloth face coverings. In Portugal, where hair salons, dry cleaners and other businesses are returning to work, masks are compulsory in public, while in Belgium people are required to wear them on public transport, opening up the market for this new item.

Smaller fashion designers, such as California-based Angela Frost who sells ribbons, velvet flowers and pillows via her Etsy shop, is now selling a shantung silk pink tie-died mask for $26, while Bulgaria-based label FloAtelier is selling a denim version for $15. Etsy CEO Josh Silverman noted some sellers are shifting from making items such as wedding dresses to creating face coverings after the company put out a call for them to make masks last month.

Etsy-listed items such as masks and hand sanitizers aren't medical grade, and sellers can't make medical or health claims, the site states.

@modsofdiversity Global fashion search platform Lyst has published its ranking of the world's hottest fashion brands and products for Q1 of 2020. And guess what: the Most Searched-For Fashion Item of 2020 So Far Is Virgil Abloh's F/W 2019 Off-White arrow-emblazoned black cotton men's face mask.

Model Karolina Kurkova is selling a range of masks via the Billie Blooms website in collaboration with founder Ashley Liemer, with a lip-print cotton design selling for $20. "We really wanted to study how do we make it more comfortable, so there's room to breathe, so the elastic doesn't dig behind the ears  if we were going to make it, we wanted to make it the best mask version possible," Kurkova stated in a video on the shop's website. For each mask someone buys, the company will donate one via the nonprofit Feeding America.

Meanwhile, hip New York brand Rag & Bone is making a $30 plaid "Stealth Mask," donating $5 for every purchase to food truck nonprofit City Harvest. But if you want a mask from label of the moment Off-White, you'll have to wait. It launched a mask featuring a crossed arrow design last summer, before the outbreak of Covid-19, and has inadvertently become a must-have accessory, being listed as the "hottest men's product" in the world by fashion data site Lyst last week. It is now sold out.
Nairobi, Kenya, 5 May 2020  Hundreds of thousands among the 70.8 million refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced persons worldwide are among those observing the holy month of Ramadan. However, the pandemic has made them particularly vulnerable due to their limited access to clean water and quality sanitation and hygiene. To help alleviate their plight, UNHCR has launched a global Ramadan campaign.

This year, the holy month of Ramadan greets us at a time of great global suffering, said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. But it is in the essence of Ramadan that many of us can find solace and hope. At a time where our collective humanity is being tested, let us remember in this holy month our brothers and sisters who need our help.

The appeal will also run for the month of Ramadan in Kenya, with the goal of receiving Sadaqah donations from private sector companies and foundations, as well as individuals. Kenya hosts almost half a million refugees and asylum-seekers, 84 per cent of whom live in the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps located in Garissa and Turkana counties respectively.

We have been steadfast in implementing COVID-19 preventive and response measures in the refugee camps, including enhanced hygiene, preparation of isolation facilities and procurement of medical and hygiene products. However, much more can be done, said Fathiaa Abdalla, UNHCR Representative in Kenya. Showing kindness and care for those in dire need is at the heart of the holy month of Ramadan. During this difficult period, any contribution to this Ramadan appeal, however small or big, will make a real difference in the lives of some of the most vulnerable among the people we serve, she added.

The funds raised by the Ramadan appeal in Kenya will help UNHCR to distribute essential hygiene materials to households, increase access to clean water, enhance hygiene in health facilities and support refugee soap makers in the Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps. Funding will also support UNHCRs hygiene promotion and mass communication campaigns on COVID-19 through radio, social media, bulk text messages, posters and leaflets targeting refugees in the country.

UNHCR Kenyas total funding needs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic currently totals USD 4.9 million and is part of the COVID-19 Emergency Appeal for Kenya, which was launched in April by the Government of Kenya, the United Nations and other humanitarian partners.

Donations can be made to UNHCRs Ramadan appeal via MPesa: Paybill No. 329378, Account: Ramadan or by visiting donate.unhcr.org/ramadan

-Ends-

For more information, please contact:

Dana Hughes, [email protected], +254 733 440 536

Amina Rai, [email protected], +254 792 339 766

Eujin Byun, [email protected], +254 798 487 988

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HK Asia Holdings (HKG:1723) has had a rough three months with its share price down 7.5%. However, stock prices are usually driven by a companys financials over the long term, which in this case look pretty respectable. In this article, we decided to focus on HK Asia Holdings' ROE.

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. In simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.

View our latest analysis for HK Asia Holdings

How Is ROE Calculated?

The formula for return on equity is:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations)  Shareholders' Equity

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for HK Asia Holdings is:

16% = HK$27m  HK$165m (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2019).

The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this is that for each HK$1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made HK$0.16 in profit.

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

Thus far, we have learnt that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. Depending on how much of these profits the company reinvests or "retains", and how effectively it does so, we are then able to assess a companys earnings growth potential. Generally speaking, other things being equal, firms with a high return on equity and profit retention, have a higher growth rate than firms that dont share these attributes.

HK Asia Holdings' Earnings Growth And 16% ROE

To begin with, HK Asia Holdings seems to have a respectable ROE. Further, the company's ROE compares quite favorably to the industry average of 9.4%. Needless to say, we are quite surprised to see that HK Asia Holdings' net income shrunk at a rate of 5.1% over the past five years. We reckon that there could be some other factors at play here that are preventing the company's growth. For example, it could be that the company has a high payout ratio or the business has allocated capital poorly, for instance.

Story continues

However, when we compared HK Asia Holdings' growth with the industry we found that while the company's earnings have been shrinking, the industry has seen an earnings growth of 8.5% in the same period. This is quite worrisome.

SEHK:1723 Past Earnings Growth May 4th 2020

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. Is HK Asia Holdings fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is HK Asia Holdings Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

HK Asia Holdings doesn't pay any dividend, meaning that the company is keeping all of its profits, which makes us wonder why it is retaining its earnings if it can't use them to grow its business. So there might be other factors at play here which could potentially be hampering growth. For example, the business has faced some headwinds.

Summary

On the whole, we do feel that HK Asia Holdings has some positive attributes. However, given the high ROE and high profit retention, we would expect the company to be delivering strong earnings growth, but that isn't the case here. This suggests that there might be some external threat to the business, that's hampering its growth. While we won't completely dismiss the company, what we would do, is try to ascertain how risky the business is to make a more informed decision around the company. You can see the 3 risks we have identified for HK Asia Holdings by visiting our risks dashboard for free on our platform 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.
Seven Armenian citizens in Abkhazia are unable to return home. These nationals told Armenian News-NEWS.am that they were not working there at the moment, and they simply had lost their livelihood.

"Three months ago, my friends and I came to the Republic of Abkhazia to work in construction," said one of them, Arshak Kochinyan. "At first it was good, then the construction became passive because of the coronavirus, the checkpoints were closed. Based on the situation, we applied to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs [of Armenia]. They replied that we should apply to the embassy in Sochi [Russia]. We applied, we told, no response; we waited. A month passed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded, I quote: Hello, we are working in that direction, we will inform you if there is a result. And the embassy responded, I quote: Russia's borders are still closed to foreigners! You are in a country with which the Republic of Armenia does not have diplomatic relations (you have gone [to Abkhazia] by knowing that). The embassy is accredited only in Russia. In this case, in Abkhazia you can expect help only from the [local] Armenian community.

Kochinyan added that they are in a dire situation at the moment, and they simply do not know how to return to Armenia.
WEST SPRINGFIELD  Police who were asked by a resident to remove an old collection of firearms from a home found far more than they expected Tuesday morning.

A resident of 30 Robinson Road asked police to help remove the weapons for safe-keeping, which is a service officers will provide at a residents request, police said.

Upon entering the basement, officers located a suspicious old military device and ammunition that they were not familiar with and not equipped to handle, police said.

The discovery was made at about 10 a.m. There was no threat to nearby residents, police said.

Massachusetts State Polices Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit were called for assistance and took over the scene, police said.

The device in question was brought to the Lane Construction quarry in Westfield and detonated in a controlled explosion early Wednesday.
SM, through SM Foundation Inc. (SMFI), recently constructed seven insulated emergency quarantine facilities (EQFs) in Pasay and Quezon City to house and treat patients affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Built by the SM Engineering Design and Development (SM EDD) team and WTA Architecture and Design Studio, these include four facilities in Camp Crame and two facilities at the AFP Health Service Command  V. Luna in Quezon City; as well as one at the Air Force General Hospital  Villamor Air Base in Pasay City.

Completed within a span of six to 10 days, these feature a total of 156 beds, air conditioning units, ceiling fans, exhaust fans, restrooms, shower areas and nurse lounges. The EQFs are set to accommodate Covid-19 patients who are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms.

In the Camp Crame EQFs, each bed has a built-in call system and patients will have an access to Wi-Fi connectivity. Philippine National Police chief Gen. Archie Gamboa thanked SM EDD president Hans Chico Sy Jr. and WTA Architecture and Designs for their contributions to the facility.

Apart from contributing to the ongoing fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, this social initiative also served as a platform for "volunteeriSM" for SM employees, especially those from SM EDD.

Through the EQF project, SM EDD employees were able to volunteer their time and expertise in constructing the insulated EQFs, an initiative that has received encouragement and strong support from the president of SM EDD, Hans Chico Sy Jr.

SMFIs Leadership Team expressed gratitude to SM EDD volunteers for carrying out its purpose and commitment to provide EQFs to its partners in the uniformed service.

The team said: We have courageous employee volunteers from SM EDD, sharing their expertise and time amid Covid-19. Were proud to support their contribution during this time of incredible need.

SM Foundation also thanked its partners, the Air Force General Hospital, AFP Health Service Command and the WTA Architecture and Design Studio, as saving lives is critical during this pandemic.

The building of insulated EQFs is one of SMs initiatives in line with its commitment to be of service to the Filipino public, its hospitals and government during the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier, SM, through SM Foundation, donated over P170 million worth of personal protective equipment, testing kits and intensive care unit-grade ventilators to over 100 hospitals and medical institutions. (SPONSORED CONTENT)
DETROIT, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Guardhat, a leader in the smart industrial safety industry, today announced that it has partnered with Atlanta-based startup FireHUD, Inc., a provider of biometric monitoring to prevent overexertion on the worksite.

"Guardhat's ultimate goal is to better protect the industrial workforce with advanced safety insight," said Rony RoyChoudhury, Executive Vice President of Growth at Guardhat. "FireHUD hit the ground running, and their technology brings real-time biometric monitoring to our KYRA platform. We want to align our mission and enter the market jointly, greatly expanding the number of ways in which we can monitor and protect individuals working the most demanding careers."

The FireHUD BioTrac Platform is a real-time monitoring system that tracks the physiology of individuals through an arm-worn device. The device measures biometrics such as heart rate, core body temperature, exertion, distance traveled and calories burned to provide a personalized profile for predicting exertion levels.

By integrating FireHUD monitoring with Guardhat's KYRA platform, users will now have a more holistic view of the worksite, including the ability to receive and send instant alerts in the event of a fall, exposure to toxic gases, lockout zones, proximity to moving equipment, and much more.

"We are incredibly excited to work with Guardhat," said Zack Braun, FireHUD's CEO. "Their KYRA platform allows us to easily integrate our real-time physiological monitoring solution into their system in on-premise or cloud scenarios. Ultimately, allowing our complementary solutions to usher in a new era of safety for workers in the most extreme environments."

Guardhat's agreement with FireHUD is the latest in a series of partnerships that demonstrate KYRA's ability to integrate with nearly any type wearable technology. It boasts a growing list of global solution providers including DuPont Sustainable Solutions, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM and Qualcomm Technologies.

"During development, we knew that we needed a platform that could easily enhance and integrate with newly developed wearable technology," Rony continued. "To see this come to life with companies like FireHUD has been extremely rewarding. We look forward to continuing the momentum and becoming the industrial and biotech platform of choice for all wearables."

Guardhat currently holds eight patents across the areas of Connect Worker, Real Time Location Systems and Wearable Solutions and was named the Frost & Sullivan 2019 North America Company of the Year for its Connected PPE Worker Safety Solutions.

The FireHUD platform has already been implemented in select Air Force bases and First Responder units across the US, allowing personnel to better monitor the real-time health of their team.

For more information visit: guardhat.com or firehud.co

About Guardhat

Detroit-based Guardhat is a leading industrial IoT technology company specialized in developing wearables, infrastructure and software platforms to provide a safer and more productive work environment for frontline industrial workers in heavy manufacturing industries. Founded in October 2014 by industry veterans and former steel & mining CEO Saikat Dey, Guardhat's mission is to modernize safety and enhance last mile connectivity in the industrial workplace. By combining a cutting-edge, wearable technology with advanced proprietary software, Guardhat is able to proactively monitor a user's location, health and work environment. The software platform collects and analyzes on-the-job data which is used to enhance industrial worker safety and productivity programs. Based out of its headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, Guardhat operates globally with offices in Boulder, Colorado; Chicago, Illinois; Bangalore, India; and Paris, France. Guardhat holds 8 patents across areas of Connected Worker, Real Time Location Systems and Wearable Solutions. For more information, visit: www.guardhat.com.

About FireHUD

FireHUD is a technology company that provides easy-to-use, group physiological monitoring to first responders, the military, and industrial workers. FireHUD aims to make jobs safer with new technology and improved situational awareness. Through the collection of critical biometric markers such as heart rate and core body temperature, FireHUD uses machine learning to create personalized profiles that predict exertion levels for all group members and provides real-time alerts in order to prevent injuries and deaths. FireHUD has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the US Air Force to accelerate development of its IoT platform. For more information, visit: firehud.co

SOURCE Guardhat

Related Links

https://www.guardhat.com


DENVER  Four police officers from three different Colorado departments will not be charged after firing their weapons during a fatal confrontation with a robbery suspect in December, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Westminster police said Hunter Lowry had committed several robberies while armed with a knife at multiple auto parts stores Dec. 6, KUSA-TV reported.

Lowry, 23, robbed an AutoZone in Federal Heights and cut an employee when confronted, authorities said, adding that during the altercation the employees phone ended up in Lowrys vehicle which was used to track him.

Lowry later crashed into two other vehicles while attempting to flee authorities and ran from the scene into an alley where two gunshots were heard, authorities said.

Police eventually caught up and used a Taser to force Lowry to the ground as he was attempting to climb over a fence. When he fell, a handgun also fell and Lowry reached for the weapon before officers opened fire.

Two Westminster officers, one Thornton officer and one Federal Heights officer shot Lowry more than two dozen times, a medical examiner said.

When the officers were interviewed, each of them said when they fired their weapons they were in fear for their lives and the lives of the other responding officers, according to the letter released by the 17th judicial district attorneys office on Tuesday.

The letter also said Lowry continued to ignore their (the officers) many commands and said the evidence does not support the filing of criminal charges and it would be unlikely to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that their actions were not justified.
May 5, 2020

McKenzie Dalley, ISU Pharmacy Career Path Intern

Crossing state lines to help fill Alaskas need for pharmacists

POCATELLO, Idaho  The year 2020 is a celebratory year for the Idaho State University College of Pharmacy. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the College, having been established by its first dean, Eugene Leonard in 1920. The program began with three students then, and now, a century later has prepared 79 students for graduation this year. Among them, a very special group of six students will receive their diplomas as the first graduates of the University of Alaska Anchorage/Idaho State University Doctor of Pharmacy program.

After years of discussion and planning, a partnership between UAA and ISU was solidified and the first pharmacy school in Alaska was established in 2016. Prior to this partnership, Alaska was the only state in the country without a pharmacy school. Not only that, the state had long experienced a high turnover of pharmacists as well as an overall shortage of health care providers in general. Pharmacists from outside of Alaska often did not remain and pre-pharmacy students leaving the state for pharmacy education often did not return. In 2009 nearly a quarter of pharmacist positions were unfilled and pharmacy employers reported vacancies taking as much as 15 months to fill, if ever. The shortage of pharmacists was alarming and the call for pharmacy education in Alaska echoed across the state.

In 2007, administrators at UAA responded to employers and the Alaska Pharmacist Associations call for action and began looking to establish a pharmacy school. Art Nelson, former ISU College of Pharmacy dean, and founding dean of Texas Tech School of Pharmacy, was enlisted to complete a feasibility study which ultimately recommended securing a partnership with another university. ISU responded to the call for proposals, and the collaboration process began.

The establishment of the UAA/ISU Doctor of Pharmacy program took years to plan and finalize, as the process presented many roadblocks. Rex Force, vice president for the ISU Kasiska Division of Health Sciences along with ISU College of Pharmacy leadership eventually developed a sustainable proposal funded by student tuition and housed by UAA. It gained traction, and in March of 2015 it was finally announced the collaborative Doctor of Pharmacy program would be opening on the campus of UAA.

It was an exciting time to get such a critically needed program in the state of Alaska, Force said. The governor at the time attended the opening celebration and residents and healthcare providers statewide were very aware of the impact that having a pharmacy school in Alaska would bring.

Tom Wadsworth, a faculty member at ISU, had previously lived and practiced in Alaska, and was deemed the perfect candidate for the inaugural assistant dean for the Alaska Programs.

I love Alaska, I love pharmacy, and I love ISU. So I moved my family of eight to Anchorage and we started building the program from scratch, said Wadsworth, who also credits ISUs Catherine Cashmore and Paul Cady in laying the foundation for the school in Anchorage.

The first step was securing a physical building, then preparing the curriculum. Since it would be a synchronous distance-learning program similar to existing models connecting Pocatello and Meridian campuses, the time zone was an issue that needed to be solved.

It wasn't easy to get all the pieces to come together, but it surely was rewarding, Wadsworth said. The school has become a magnet for all things pharmacy in Alaska. Health partnerships and contracts were created and we had more opportunities than we ever imagined.

With the collaboration in place, there were still many challenges to overcome. Alaskan pharmacy practice regulations had to be updated in order to license students and meet contemporary curriculum needs. Professional associations and employers required policy adjustments to accommodate the advantages of a continual presence of pharmacy students, as well as an academic center for the profession. Student organizations had to be formed, college bylaws changed, and staff and faculty hired. The road has been interesting and bumpy with Alaska state budget woes, leadership changes, freezing rain, moose collisions and earthquakes. The UAA/ISU team worked together, even across state lines and with thousands of miles between them, to overcome these challenges.

ISU and UAA have been resilient and responsive through it all, Wadsworth said.

Students and faculty there are now preparing to honor the first six graduating pharmacy students, who themselves have shown a resiliency and determination that mirrors that of the early College administration.

Pharmacy school is challenging as it is, and the Class of 2020 has persevered through additional hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Force said.

Wadsworth goes on to describe how, by being in Alaska, these six students have been uniquely prepared with distinct Alaska experience and research opportunities.

Students here had the opportunity to be the first at many things, Wadsworth said. The first student-led community outreach programs, the first IPPE interns, the first student leaders in associations and state programs.

There have been many unique leadership, service, and research opportunities such as the Prince William Sound Traveling Health fair, with students visiting remote Alaskan native communities in Prince William Sound while living on a tugboat with other health care professionals for a week.

These graduates have contributed to the absolute transformation of pharmacy in the state of Alaska, each of them already has multiple job or training offers, and theyre extremely passionate about pharmacy and about Alaska, Wadsworth said.

ISU administrators commend the faculty and staff at both ISUs College of Pharmacy and UAAs College of Health, and UAA administration for their commitment to educating all of the students in the UAA/ISU Doctor of Pharmacy Program. Our collaboration with UAA has allowed us to deliver on our commitment to provide Alaska with a well-trained and educated pharmacy workforce that was so badly needed, explains Force. Only together have we been able to achieve what we knew would be difficult, but essential, he adds.

UAA College of Health Dean Jeff Jessee agrees, stating Our graduating students brought a wide range of experiences to the Doctor of Pharmacy program, but what they have in common is a deep commitment to the pharmacy profession and to improving health outcomes in communities across Alaska. Theyve also shown a remarkable ability to adapt and thrive regardless of the challenges in front of them. I know this pioneering spirit will serve them well in their practice, especially in a state with communities as varied and unique as ours. This is a milestone for the UAA/ISU Doctor of Pharmacy program, and it reaffirms that pharmacy education has an essential place in Alaska.

To the first six graduating students, the ISU College of Pharmacy congratulates you on your tremendous, historical achievement. Dean Walter Fitzgerald states, Particularly during this unusual time, our students have shown the fortitude and capabilities necessary to not only complete their pharmacy education, but to go into the world and make substantial impact in the lives of patients. They are a critical part of the health care team and will continue to see success both for themselves and in the healthcare experience of their patients.

University of Alaska Anchorage/Idaho State University Doctor of Pharmacy Graduates

Alex Marinelli

Alex, born and raised in Anchorage, always knew he wanted to pursue health care. Once hes licensed, his goal is to practice as an inpatient pharmacist in Alaska, and already has interviewed with multiple companies. He credits Chris Jackson, Alaska Programs coordinator, for his decision to choose ISU.

She had taken time to call him to see if he would still be applying to the program after he showed interest. I knew almost immediately that this program would be a unique opportunity. This phone call set the tone and showed me what I continue to see to this day, that the faculty and staff truly care about their students and go above and beyond to foster an all-around excellent learning experience.

Corrie Black

Corrie, whose family operates a commercial fishing operation in Kodiak, Alaska, was drawn to the pharmacy program because of the appeal of location, as well as the new and rewarding opportunities for pharmacy students. When asked why she chose to pursue pharmacy, she stated, It will always challenge me, forcing me to learn and grow throughout my career in a position where I can make a meaningful impact in my community. After graduation, she plans to complete a year- long residency with an inpatient focus at Providence Medical Center Alaska.

Janelle Solbos

Born in Fairbanks, Alaska, and raised in a handful of remote Alaskan villages before moving to Anchorage, Janelle is passionate about serving the Alaskan communities. Working as an inpatient pharmacy technician solidified her desire to become a pharmacist due to her interest in the science of pharmacology, practical problem-solving skills and compassion for patients. The program was announced just 36 hours after Janelle completed her PCAT and she immediately knew she wanted to attend, as she did not want to leave the state for school. A few weeks after graduation, she and her husband are expecting the arrival of their first child. They will remain working in Anchorage for some time before moving to a small island community in Southeast Alaska.

Hannah Fjeld

Originally from Tehachapi, California, Hannah attended ISU in Pocatello for her undergraduate studies in microbiology. When she heard ISU was offering the pharmacy program in Anchorage, she was immediately drawn because of her love of the outdoors, and she has truly fallen in love with the people and lifestyle. She was interested in pharmacy from a young age, recalling playing with the blood pressure pumps and seeing the white coats behind the counter of pharmacies intrigued her. She also grew an appreciation for pharmacists availability to the public, explaining it is such an invaluable resource to the public to have a healthcare professional available to them any time. The more I looked into pharmacy, the more I saw all the different areas they serve, I knew I found my career and purpose. She chose the ISU College of Pharmacy because she recognized its long history of educating successful pharmacists and their dedication to continuously progress the practice of pharmacy. After she graduates, she will complete a post-graduate residency at the Reno Veterans Medical Center and then plans to return to Alaska to practice as an ambulatory care pharmacist

Tiffany Ma

Born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, she chose the UAA/ISU pharmacy program because it allowed her to stay in Anchorage for her PharmD education. She was drawn because "it is an impressive pharmacy school program with a long history of success." She recalls the baby shower her classmates organized for her as her favorite memory from the program. "The entire ISU program, from the administrators, peers, and professors, was extremely supportive and accommodating during my two pregnancies that occurred while in pharmacy school. ISU is a forward-thinking program that is accommodating to students in all stages of life." She knew pharmacy was the path for her, explaining, "I wanted a career where I could make a positive impact in people's lives and work in strong collaborative environments to improve the health of my community." After graduation, she plans on becoming a Commissioned Corps Officer within the United States Public Health Service. She starts her PGY1 residency with the Indian Health Service at Southcentral Foundation in Anchorage, and hopes to spend some time outdoors with her family.

Maddie Gonzalez Perez

Maddie is from Cuba, and she moved to Alaska with the intent to be a pharmacist there. After graduation she will be completing her residency, and go on to practice clinical pharmacy. She chose pharmacy because of her passion for helping people, which is inspired by her mother. She recognizes the UAA/ISU program for how understanding and helpful every professor was whenever I was struggling. It truly is a great program and I am beyond thankful for how the professors accommodated my situation, helped me, and encouraged me to succeed.
By PTI

LONDON: Vijay Mallya on Monday filed an application seeking leave to appeal in the UK Supreme Court, exactly two weeks after the embattled liquor baron lost his London High Court appeal against an extradition order to India on charges of fraud and money laundering related to unrecovered loans to his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

The 64-year-old businessman had 14 days to file this application to seek permission to move the higher court on the High Court judgment from April 20, which dismissed his appeal against a Westminster Magistrates' Court extradition order certified by the UK Home Secretary.

"The leave to appeal has been filed. We have until May 14 to respond, said a spokesperson for the UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which represents the Indian authorities in the legal process of the extradition.

The leave to appeal to the Supreme Court is on a point of law of general public importance, which according to experts is a very high threshold that is not often met.

"The High Court effectively ruled that even if the approach of the Chief Magistrate was wrong, her decision was not wrong. It is therefore clear that Mallya now faces a significant hurdle in getting it to the Supreme Court, notes Toby Cadman, co-founder of Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers and an extradition specialist.

As a further step, in principle, Mallya can also apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to prevent his extradition on the basis that he will not receive a fair trial and that he will be detained in conditions that breach Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which the UK is a signatory.

The threshold for an ECHR appeal is also extremely high, with very limited chance of success in Mallya's case because he would also have to demonstrate that his arguments on those grounds before the UK courts have been previously rejected.

Therefore, the dismissal of the High Court appeal last month marked a major turning point for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) case against the businessman, who has been on bail in the UK since his arrest on an extradition warrant in April 2017.

"We have held there is a prima facie case both of misrepresentation and of conspiracy, and thus there is also a prima facie case of money laundering," Lord Justice Stephen Irwin and Justice Elisabeth Laing, the two-member bench at the Royal Courts of Justice in London presiding over the appeal, had ruled last month.

Mallya had expressed his disappointment at the ruling and indicated plans for further "legal remedies" and also challenged the alleged Rs 9,000 crore figure of the unpaid loans to India's state-owned banks led by State Bank of India (CBI).

"I am disappointed with the media narrative which states that I must face trial in India for a fraud of Rs 9,000 crores. Please note that the allegations against me and others are specifically and only related to three tranches of borrowing from IDBI Bank for a total of Rs 900 crores in 2009," he said.

"I have repeatedly offered to repay the banks in full, but sadly to no avail," he said.

Mallya, declared a fugitive by India, has been based in the UK since March 2016 and remains on bail on an extradition warrant executed three years ago by Scotland Yard on April 18, 2017.

The High Court verdict upheld the 2018 ruling by Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot at the end of a year-long extradition trial in December 2018 that the "flashy" former Kingfisher Airlines boss had a "case to answer" in the Indian courts.

She found there was "clear evidence of dispersal and misapplication of the loan funds" and accepted a prima facie case of fraud and a conspiracy to launder money against Mallya, which has now also been accepted by the High Court.

The Chief Magistrate had also dismissed any bars to extradition on the grounds of the prison conditions under which the businessman would be held, as she accepted the Indian government's assurances that he would receive all necessary medical care behind bars at Barrack 12 in Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai.

India and the UK have an Extradition Treaty signed in 1992 and in force since November 1993.

Two major extraditions have taken place under this Treaty so far  Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, who was sent back to India in 2016 to face trial in connection with his involvement in the post-Godhra riots of 2002, and more recently alleged bookie Sanjeev Chawla, sent back in February this year to face match-fixing charges.
Scientists were urging the government to tell people to stop shaking hands the same day Boris Johnson was boasting about shaking hands with 'everybody', it was revealed today.

Newly-released records on the advice given to the government as the coronavirus crisis erupted show Mr Johnson seemingly flouted the recommendations from his own experts.

A meeting of the behavioural group that feeds into SAGE on March 3 concluded that 'Government should advise against greetings such as shaking hands and hugging, given existing evidence about the importance of hand hygiene'.

'A public message against shaking hands has additional value as a signal about the importance of hand hygiene,' the Independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) said.

'Promoting a replacement greeting or encouraging others to politely decline a proffered hand-shake may have benefit.'

A meeting of the Independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) that feeds into SAGE on March 3 concluded that 'Government should advise against greetings such as shaking hands and hugging, given existing evidence about the importance of hand hygiene'

Boris Johnson and his partner Carrie Symonds speak with heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshua at the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey on Commonwealth Day on March 9

However, that evening Mr Johnson told a press conference in Downing Street that he 'continued to shake hands' and the important thing was washing them.

He said: 'I was at a hospital the other night where I think there were a few coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody, you will be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands.

'People obviously can make up their own minds but I think the scientific evidence is our judgement is that washing your hands is the crucial thing.'

Over subsequent days Mr Johnson was seen shaking hands with celebrities and dignitaries.

Among other revelations in the huge SAGE document dump today:

Scientists warned on the day lockdown became official that the advice was not working and there had to be a 'hard-hitting emotional messaging' to convey 'personal threat'. They said talk of 'herd immunity', fueled by the government's own advisers, might be partly to blame;

There are serious concerns that 'immunity certificates' will be socially divisive if an effective test for coronanvirus antibodies is developed. Employers could shun those without immunity, and desperate people could try to get infected deliberately, according to a paper last month;

A 'traffic light' system could be used to tell the public what is allowed once lockdown eases, with 'red' activities barred, amber for do rarely, and low risk classed as green;

As late as March 26, experts were predicting the death toll might be just 10,000 - but it is now over 30,000;

On February 3, SAGE estimated that the number of cases in China was ten times that being officially confirmed.

Immunity certificates 'could cause social divisions' Employers could shun workers who have not had coronavirus after lockdown, prompting people to actively try to catch the disease, the government's science experts warned ministers. Secret documents prepared by the independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) last month outlined the potential drawbacks of introducing widespread antibody testing and so-called 'immunity certificates'. Such tests would show if someone has had the disease and if they have some degree of immunity with accompanying digital certificates then showing employers the health status of staff. Antibody tests are viewed as one of the key pieces in the puzzle when it comes to getting the UK back to work. But SPI-B, a sub-committee of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), said introducing the tests could result in people trying to 'game' the system. The documents suggest workers who do not have antibodies could be discriminated against, effectively creating two classes of employee, with those who have had the disease prized because of a belief that they will not get ill again. Those who are antibody negative could then turn to trying to obtain fake test results or even trying to get ill on purpose to boost their chances of returning to work. Meanwhile, the documents also warned positive tests could result in people wrongly thinking they no longer need to wash their hands, risking an increase in the transmission of the disease. Advertisement

At the press conference on March 3, Mr Johnson dismissed the trend for coronavirus 'elbow bumps', and insisted he was following scientific advice.

He asked Sir Patrick Vallance for confirmation, and the chief scientific adviser nodded and said: 'Wash your hands.'

Mr Johnson used the greeting with Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby as he appeared on This Morning on March 5.

On March 9 he shook hands with boxer Anthony Joshua at Westminster Abbey.

But he subsequently came down with coronavirus, needing hospital treatment.

There has been heavy criticism of the lack of social distancing in Downing Street and Whitehall, where a series of senior figures have been infected.

There are claims that meeting rooms were crowded well into the crisis, despite social distancing being crucial.

A Downing Street spokesman said 'the PM would not have seen that evidence' before press conference.

They added they were 'not able to say' if Mr Johnson ever saw the advice.

The spokesman added: 'I think the PM was very clear at the time he was taking a number of practical steps, including frequently washing his hands.

'Once the social distancing advice changed, his actions changed.'

The SAGE evidence published today shows that at a meeting shortly before the Prime Minister ordered the UK's coronavirus lockdown on March 23, scientists warned that previous guidance was not tough enough.

It said there had to be 'hard-hitting emotional messaging' and convey 'personal threat'.

The paper drawn up by behavioural science experts said: 'The perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging.

'To be effective this must also empower people by making clear the actions they can take to reduce the threat.'

The document suggested that 'communication strategies should provide social approval for desired behaviours and promote social approval within the community'.

It also noted that 'social disapproval from one's community can play an important role in preventing anti-social behaviour' but 'this needs to be carefully managed to avoid victimisation, scapegoating and misdirected criticism'.

Mr Johnson shakes hands with Holly Willoughby on ITV's This Morning on March 5

A paper drawn up by the Scientific Pandemic Influenza group on Behaviour (SPI-B), considered by Sage at its April 2 meeting, suggested the abrupt lifting of restrictions may lead to people believing the risk of infection has ceased or significantly reduced.

The paper states: 'If there is then an increase in infection rates that necessitates a reintroduction of restrictions this is likely to be seen as a serious failure of policy and trust in public health advice will be lost, leading to lower adherence to advice to restrict or to resume activity.

'A dozen strains of coronavirus in the UK' At least a dozen different strains of coronavirus were spreading through the UK in March, a Government-funded study has found. Leading genetic scientists analysed the genomes of the killer virus in 260 infected patients from all corners of the UK. They say they have identified 12 unique lines of the virus, one of which has only ever been found in Britain  meaning it mutated on UK soil. But the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK) said the number of strains is very likely substantially higher due to under-sampling in the UK. Advertisement

'To avoid these problems we would advocate trialling easing restrictions very gradually when epidemiologically indicated while clearly explaining why these particular activities are being resumed and how risks must be controlled if these activities are to be maintained.'

The note adds this method would allow an opportunity to gather epidemiological evidence about the impact of easing the restriction and provide evidence to the public about its impact.

It continues: 'To maintain public trust and support it will be important to have acceptable and equitable criteria for selecting which activities can be resumed.'

At a meeting shortly before the Prime Minister ordered the UK's coronavirus lockdown, scientists warned the previous guidance needed to be toughened up and combined with 'hard-hitting emotional messaging'.

At the Sage meeting on March 23, the day Mr Johnson announced the new policy, a paper drawn up by behavioural science experts said: 'The perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging.

'To be effective this must also empower people by making clear the actions they can take to reduce the threat.'

The lockdown decision was taken after Sage was presented with modelling evidence suggesting intensive care units across the country would be swamped.

At the March 23 meeting, experts considered a summary of the coronavirus modelling which warned 'it is very likely that we will see ICU capacity in London breached by the end of the month, even if additional measures are put in place today'.

The modelling suggested the rapid increase in intensive care admissions indicated the reproduction number - the R rate - was higher than the 2.4 previously estimated and could have been more than three. In earlier advice, some of the scientists suggested publicising the concept of herd immunity to explain why the UK was not imposing social distancing measures in early March.

A paper dated March 4, considered by Sage on March 5, said: 'SPI-B (scientific pandemic influenza group on behaviours) have divergent opinions on the impact of not applying widescale social isolation at the same time as recommending isolation to at-risk groups.

'One view is that explaining that members of the community are building some immunity will make this acceptable. 'Another view is that recommending isolation to only one section of society risks causing discontent.'

Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance talked about the concept of herd immunity in broadcast interviews on March 13, but the Government later said achieving herd immunity was never a policy.

Asked about his comments at a select committee today, Sir Patrick apologised if he was not clear in his explanation then.

He said: 'I should be clear about what I was trying to say, and if I didn't say this clearly enough then I apologise.

'What I was trying to say was that, in the absence of a therapeutic, the way in which you can stop a community becoming susceptible to this is through immunity, and immunity can be obtained by vaccination, or it can be obtained by people who have the infection.'

The documents also revealed that experts suggested workers who have developed Covid-19 antibodies could be given riskier frontline roles by unscrupulous employers.

A paper considered by Sage at its April 14 meeting indicated employers might 'actively discriminate' against workers who were not shown to have antibodies.

The note said: 'Some employers may discriminate on the basis of antibody status. This might include not permitting those testing antibody negative to return to work or only taking on new staff with antibody positive test results.'

The note also warned about the risk of people trying to 'game' the system by attempting to purchase a fake test result.
LENA  The pastor of a northern Illinois church that filed a federal lawsuit challenging Gov. J.B. Pritzkers stay-at-home order said he plans to take the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court even though a federal judge denied his request for a temporary restraining order over the weekend.

The Beloved Church in Lena sued Gov. J.B. Pritzker last week in federal court.

Pastor Steve Cassell said the case was about the free exercise of religion.

This was not my fight. This was not my intention, Cassell said. Im not some political activist.

We were kind of thrust into this [with the stay-at-home order], Cassell said. And because of that, there was a righteous requirement for me to push back. I did not intend to be the tip of the spear for the state of Illinois.

Pritzkers first stay-at-home order prohibited gatherings of more than 10 people and the administration urged church leaders to not hold in-person Easter services. Pritzkers modified stay-at-home order, which runs through May 30, allows for worship services with 10 or fewer people. People must follow social distancing guidelines.

The church met with dozens of members on Sunday in defiance of the governors order without incident.

Pritzker on Monday said a federal judge had denied the churchs request for a temporary restraining order over the weekend.

That suit failed and its because people do have the ability to worship, the governor said.

Cassell said the church sought the temporary restraining order to fight the case at its pace. He said the church will continue to push forward. He said the governors modified stay-at-home order that limits in-person worship services to 10 or fewer people was a joke.

Its an absolute joke, especially when I can leave my church on Sunday, I can go into the Menards thats got 300 people, Cassell said. I can go next door, literally next door, to the Walmart who has 500 people.

Pritzker said Monday he will rely on local officials to enforce his orders.

The best way to do that, of course, is a reminder to the pastors and to the parishioners that theyre putting themselves and others in danger by holding a service like this, the governor said.

Cassell said hes been told by local officials that they wont enforce the order.

I did not put anybodys safety at risk and just to assume it or to outright say it like the governor just shows downright animosity to all things church and all things God, he said.

Cassell said even though a judge denied the churchs request for a temporary restraining order, he plans to take the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court of Ukraine will continue hearing a cassation claim of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and PrivatBank (Kyiv) against the decision of lower courts made under a claim of the Surkis brothers seeking to annul the decisions of the NBU to declare them persons affiliated with PrivatBank and invalidating the agreements on the exchange of their funds over UAH 1 billion to the bank's shares (bail-in), later bought by the state for UAH 1, at 10:30 a.m. on May 18, the NBU said on Facebook on Monday.

"Last Monday, on April 27, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court took this case off the table. The judges appealed to the Office of the Prosecutor General and the High Council of Justice with a claim about pressure being posed on court," the regulator said.
President Trump said through a spokesman on Friday that private schools with "significant endowments" should consider returning any Paycheck Protection Program loans they have received. (Associated Press)

Brentwood School, the elite K-12 institution in West Los Angeles, has returned the federal coronavirus aid money it recently received after President Trump and others leveled criticism at private schools that had taken the funding.

The school said Monday that it had returned an undisclosed amount of funds "so they can be distributed to others who are in greater need of the assistance."

The move comes four days after The Times reported the school had gotten the loan through the Paycheck Protection Program  a disclosure that was quickly followed by criticism from the president. The loans, backed by the Small Business Administration, are designed to help pay for workers salaries and are forgivable if certain parameters are met.

The president has made clear that he does not believe private schools with significant endowments should be receiving [Paycheck Protection Program] money and those that have should consider returning it, White House spokesman Judd Deere said Friday.

Brentwood had an endowment of $17.4 million as of 2017, according to Internal Revenue Service data.

Trumps comments followed earlier statements on Friday by Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin, who said in a tweet that such private schools should return the loans.

At least two of Mnuchin's children are students at Brentwood, and one of Trump's children also goes to a tony private school that got federal aid.

Barron Trump attends St. Andrews Episcopal School in Potomac, Md., which said in a statement Friday it would keep the PPP money it received.

Brentwood, a K-12 facility with more than 1,100 students on two campuses, said in its Monday statement that it had applied for the PPP funding on April 3, but reevaluated that decision after the dynamics of the program changed.

On April 26, after an initial round of the $660-billion PPP was quickly exhausted, the Small Business Administration issued revised guidelines for the program that make clear big, public companies with other financing options shouldnt seek the money. It also cautioned entities receiving the loans that they might be asked to certify the funding was required for continued operation.

Story continues

"Throughout the last week, we carefully considered the added clarifications as well as the growing understanding that, unfortunately, not all who qualify will receive PPP funds," the school said.

Brentwood told The Times last week  after the SBA's revised guidance had been issued  that its PPP loan would help it navigate a future that could include a potential decline in enrollment and charitable giving, accompanied by increased demand for financial assistance and other escalating expenses.

At least a handful of Brentwood's alumni took to social media to voice their displeasure with the school's initial decision to accept the aid. One of those former Brentwood students was actor Patrick Schwarzenegger, the son of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver.

Schwarzenegger said in a tweet on Sunday that the Brentwood loan "pisses me off so much," adding that PPP funding is "meant for small businesses to keep their employees at work" and "not private schools with millions of dollars in their account."

Allocations of PPP funding, which is a component of the CARES Act, have come under intense scrutiny, with several other high-profile businesses and organizations, including Shake Shack Inc., saying they would give back their loan after facing public pressure. Mnuchin has threatened to hold participating companies criminally liable if they do not meet criteria for the program.

Founded in 1972, Brentwood boasts a board of trustees that includes actress Calista Flockhart and investor Lance Milken, son of billionaire Michael Milken, the former junk bond king. The school said in its statement that the board voted unanimously "to decline the loan."

Tuition at Brentwood ranges from $37,500 a year for kindergarten through fifth-grade students to $44,000 for sixth- through 12th-grade pupils.

Several other private schools in the L.A. area  including Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, Marlborough School in Hancock Park and Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences in Santa Monica  opted to not apply for PPP loans.
Gun-carrying protesters have been a common sight at some demonstrations calling for coronavirus-related restrictions to be lifted. But an armed militias involvement in an angry protest in the Michigan statehouse Thursday marked an escalation that drew condemnation and shone a spotlight on the practice of bringing weapons to protest.

The "American Patriot Rally" started on the statehouse steps, where members of the Michigan Liberty Militia stood guard with weapons and tactical gear, their faces partially covered. They later moved inside the Capitol along with several hundred protesters, who demanded to be let onto the House floor, which is prohibited. Some protesters with guns  which are allowed in the statehouse  went to the Senate gallery, where a senator said some armed men shouted at her, and some senators wore bulletproof vests.

For some observers, the images of armed men in tactical gear at a state Capitol were an unsettling symbol of rising tensions in a nation grappling with crisis. Others saw evidence of racial bias in the way the protesters were treated by police.

For some politicians, there was fresh evidence of the risk of aligning with a movement with clear ties to far-right groups.

Prominent Michigan Republicans on Friday criticized the showing, with the GOP leader of the state Senate referring to some protesters as "a bunch of jackasses" who "used intimidation and the threat of physical harm to stir up fear and feed rancor."

President Donald Trump, who has been criticized in the past for condoning extremist views, called the protesters "very good people" and urged Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to "make a deal."

Michigan has been the epicenter of the political showdown over how to contain the spread of the deadly virus without decimating the economy. About a quarter of the states workforce has filed for unemployment and nearly 4,000 people have died.

Rally organizer Ryan Kelley said the event was intended to pressure Republicans to reject Whitmers plan to continue restrictions on work and travel. He called the protest a huge win, noting the Republican-controlled Senate refused to extend Whitmers coronavirus emergency declaration  though she said Friday her stay-at-home order remains in effect.

Kelley, a 38-year-old real estate broker, said he and other organizers are not part of a formal group but represent people who have been harmed by the stay-at-home order. He said he invited the Michigan Liberty Militia, which is listed as an anti-government group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, to serve as security. He suggested anyone who had a problem with their presence should read the Constitution and live life without fear.

Gun-carrying protesters outside state capitols are a regular occurrence in many states, especially in Republican-leaning ones. But rarely do such protests converge at the same time around the country like they have during the coronavirus pandemic.

In Wisconsin, about a dozen men, several wearing camouflage, carried what appeared to be assault rifles and other long guns and stood around a makeshift guillotine at a protest attended by about 1,500 people. In Arizona, a group of men armed with rifles were among hundreds of protesters who demonstrated at the Capitol last month demanding Republican Gov. Doug Ducey lift his stay-home order. Many in the crowd also carried holstered pistols.

Gun groups have been involved in organizing several of these protests  which drew activists from a range of conservative causes. Gun rights advocates believe the restrictions on some businesses and closure of government offices are a threat to their right to own a gun, said Michael Hammond, legislative counsel for Gun Owners of America, a group that bills itself as the "no compromise" gun lobby.

Hammond said he routinely gets messages and emails from people around the country, complaining that authorities are making it impossible to exercise their Second Amendment rights. In some cases, that has meant orders closing gun shops or gun ranges or offices shutting down that process permits.

But Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, a gun-control group, considers these protests organized by the ultra-right and not necessarily reflective of most gun owners.

While it's legal to openly carry firearms inside some state capitols, Watts called it "dangerous to normalize this. Armed intimidation has no place in our political debate." She said those carrying guns at protests are almost always white men, and are "a vocal minority of the country" that opposes the stay-at-home orders.

An overwhelming majority of Americans support stay-at-home orders and other efforts to slow the spread of the virus, according to a recent survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The visual of heavily armed protesters, mostly white men, occupying a government building to a measured response by law enforcement is a particularly jarring one for many African Americans.

It draws a stark contrast to the images that emerged from Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, when crowds of unarmed, mostly black men, women and children took to the streets in protest after a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown. Police shot tear gas to disperse the crowds, further inflaming the tensions between the predominantly black community and law enforcement. It worsened when members of an armed militia group called the Oath Keepers arrived, some of them armed and sitting on rooftops. Jon Belmar, who was then St. Louis Countys police chief, said at the time that the presence of the group, whose members wore camouflage, bulletproof vests and openly carried rifles and pistols, was unnecessary and inflammatory.

"Systemically, blackness is treated like a more dangerous weapon than a white man's gun ever will, while whiteness is the greatest shield of safety," said Brittany Packnett, a prominent national activist who protested in Ferguson.

The Michigan demonstrators, she added, "are what happens when people of racial privilege confuse oppression with inconvenience. No one is treading on their rights. We're all just trying to live."

Trump, meanwhile, suggested it was Whitmer who should be moved to action.

"The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire," the president tweeted Friday. "These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely! See them, talk to them, make a deal."

Sara Burnett of The Associated Press wrote this story. AP reporters David Eggert and Mike Householder in Lansing, Michigan, Lisa Marie Pane in Boise, Idaho, Aaron Morrison in New York, Jim Salter in St. Louis, and Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines contributed to this report.
Romania's former top anti-corruption official has won a landmark victory at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which ruled that her dismissal in 2018 violated her human rights.

Laura Codruta Koevesi's removal from the DNA anti-corruption agency at the behest of the ruling leftist PSD party was widely seen as a blow to efforts to tackle corruption in Romania, and drew a warning from the European Commission.

The ECHR -- which is part of the Council of Europe, a human rights body -- said on May 5 that her sacking had violated her rights to a fair trial and to freedom of expression.

Her premature removal defeated the very purpose of maintaining judicial independence and must have had a chilling effect on her and other prosecutors and judges in taking part in public debate on legislative reforms affecting the judiciary and judicial independence, the ECHR said in a statement.

The court found that Koevesi had been fired primarily because of her public comments, including criticism of proposed legislation that she feared would undermine the anti-graft fight in one of the European Union's most corrupt countries.

This ruling defends magistrates from political interference, said Koevesi, adding, I hope that this decision will give all Romanian magistrates courage.

President Klaus Iohannis, who was forced by Romania's Constitutional Court to fire Koevesi in July 2018, said the ECHR decision shows us that this institution needs to be reformed at the constitutional level.

The credibility of the Constitutional Court, already affected by some controversial decisions over the past few years, is now even more seriously shaken, Iohannis said.

Romania's Constitutional Court forced President Klaus Iohannis to fire Koevesi in July 2018, dealing a severe blow to the fight against corruption in the country.

The center-right Iohannis initially refused to dismiss Koevesi as urged by the leftist Social Democratic-led government, which had accused her of undermining the ruling coalition and exceeding her authority by making unfounded claims in interviews given to foreign news media.

But the court, which critics say is under the control of the notoriously corrupt social democrats (PSD), ruled in favor of Koevesi's dismissal.

Koevesi in December 2018 filed a complaint with the ECHR, arguing that the decision had denied her access to a court to challenge her dismissal.

Koevesi also argued that she had been fired for publicly expressing her views in her professional capacity on legislative changes pushed by the PSD to exonerate its leader, Liviu Dragnea, who was being tried for corruption and is currently in prison.

In September, Koevesi was appointed to the newly created position of top European Union anti-fraud prosecutor.

With reporting by Digi24HD, g4media.ro, RFE/RL's Romanian Service, dpa, emerging-europe.com, and AP
Jqdemo.com scored 40 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team

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ABC News(GALLUP, New Mexico) -- BY: MATT GUTMAN, ROBERT ZEPEDA, TENZIN SHAKYA, and ALLIE YANG



COVID-19 is surging through the Navajo community, which is suffering one of the highest infection rates per capita in the country. And the peak is still weeks away.



Dr. Sriram Shamasunder, co-founder of the HEAL Initiative at the University of California San Francisco, has been practicing emergency medicine from the back of a car. Hes there with a team of UCSF nurses and doctors helping the Navajo COVID-19 response team on the ground. The care this team can provide is extremely limited.



[The] native population [is] similar to vulnerable patients all over the country, whether black or Latinx population They are more susceptible, Shamasunder told Nightline. New Mexico Native Americans only make up 5% of the population but they make up 20% of COVID-positive [patients].



Shamasunder has teamed up with locals like the COPE programs Nitumigaabow Champagne. Theyve been doing rounds at a motel in Gallup, New Mexico, where the unsheltered and the sick can go to get off the street and away from extended families.



Most of the burden of caring for the sick in their community falls on the fellow Navajo. Historically, the U.S. government hasnt helped much, breaking dozens of promises with Native American tribes for centuries, dating far past Johnson v. MIntosh in 1823.



Congress has approved $8 billion for tribal assistance for COVID-19 relief, but that money has to be split among 574 tribes. Tribal governments say the money still hasnt arrived yet.



Sometimes it goes through the federal agencies before it gets to the tribe, or through the states. We have been using the same process and wait. And you have to submit for the funding But the need is now, Navajo President Jonathan Nez told Nightline.



An estimated 30% of people who live on the Navajo reservations do not have access to running water, and turn to outdoor pumps to get their supply. It makes it that much more difficult to fulfill the constant handwashing necessary during the COVID-19 pandemic.



Nightline met with a man named Elmer at one of these pumps in Thoreau, New Mexico, who was there to get water.



For little children to wash up daily, to have them clean daily, is a problem They love to play outdoors and to keep them clean is hard, because they love the outdoors and play in the dirt, he said.



Former Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch launched a crowdfunding campaign to help distribute food and water to the most vulnerable in her community. Branch is part of a larger grassroots effort to provide essential needs to the community.



There are only 13 grocery stores available for my people, she said.



Klee Benally is one of the groups organizers. Hes been setting up the handwashing stations and distributing them around the reservation.



Its just one fix to address the hygiene issue, Benally said. [We] dont wait until people are sick because the conditions that are making people sick and more at risk are right on this street.



The Navajo Nation is larger than West Virginia, but its population of about 300,000 has access to only about 20 intensive care unit beds.



The Indian Health Service says its had to build additional temporary hospital beds to prepare for predictions of 200 additional patients a day and over 100 ICU-level patients across the area.



Dr. Michelle Tom grew up under the shadow of Chimney Butte, Arizona  also without running water.



Shes now the only Navajo emergency physician at her urgent care clinic in Winslow, Arizona.



At the urgent care facility, patients pull up and theyre intubated even though its not technically an ICU or hospital. If their condition is critical, the only way to save their lives is to get a helicopter. But after that, Tom says, she doesnt know what happens to the patients.



We don't know. We don't have access to them anymore. And that's where the disconnect is, Tom told Nightline. That's where the hard part of this for us, especially for me Everyone knows everyone We all know who's not doing so well. And as soon as they leave that chopper, they're no longer in our hands.



Tom says the closest ICU facility where she can send patients is at least one hour away by chopper or up to three hours in an ambulance.



Growing up, Tom says she never saw a medical professional like herself.



I never saw another Navajo as a nurse or a doctor, she said. You know, sometimes there's a disconnect when language and cultures are not meeting. And we know that just by studies and even by experience, you're not going to have the best health care.



Thats not from a lack of effort. Tom is handling an alarming number of presumptive cases.



I was doing car triage yesterday and I would say we had about 15 cars, you know, and  just me on my shift in the car triage, she said. That's not counting [the local] medical center, who is an E.R. That's not counting ones that bypassed me to go to urgent care. These are presumptive cases.



Multigenerational households are a factor in the spread, Tom said.



That's part of our origins studies. That's where we are as a people, that our community comes first These are our neighbors. These are our relatives; our brothers and sisters. So when we're telling them to go home and isolate, they're isolating with eight people. And that's even for myself.



Tom left her family and moved to an apartment an hour away to try to minimize the risk of infecting the group of people shes trying to save.



My job is immensely hard because I have such a connection to my people and to my land, she said. Our elders, our teachers  protectors. They hold all the key elements that we need to have a strong sense of identity.

Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
China on Tuesday successfully launched its largest carrier rocket, which was carrying a new-generation spacecraft, state broadcaster CCTV said.

The Long March-5B carrier rocket took off at 1800 local time (1000 GMT) at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in the southern island province of Hainan. It was the first mission carried out by the Long March-5B, CCTV reported, citing the China Manned Space Engineering Office.

The Long March-5B - with a length of about 53.7 meters and takeoff mass of about 849 tonnes - was also carrying an inflatable cargo return module.

China said in March it was aiming to launch an experimental spacecraft without a crew as part of a broader spaceflight programme to shuttle astronauts to its future space station and for future manned space exploration. The launch was earlier scheduled for mid- to late April.

China aims to complete a multi-module, inhabited space station around 2022. It became the third country to put a man in space with its own rocket in 2003 after the former Soviet Union and the United States.

China has since been racing to catch up with Russia and the United States to become a major space power by 2030.
Africa's biggest city, Lagos, returned to work on Monday at the end of a five-week coronavirus lockdown.

In the metropolis of 20 million, where exuberance and poverty live side by side, relief at being able to earn money once again was almost palpable, despite Nigeria's mounting COVID-19 toll.

All shops seemed to be open, car parks were full and street hawkers selling cool drinks, grilled meat and vegetables were pitching their wares on street corners as before, said AFP reporters.

Adewale Oluwa reopened his fruit and vegetable stall, carefully setting out a fine array of tomatoes. By 10 am, his customers were out in force and laughter was in the air as old acquaintances spotted each other.

"We were so impatient" for the confinement to end, Oluwa said.

"Today is wonderful."

Minibus stations were as busy as before the lockdown, although touts wore masks as they called out to passengers.

'Month of hunger'

Many people said they were glad to be back earning money -- 80 million out of Nigeria's nearly 200 million population live below the poverty threshold.

For those without savings or working in the informal sector, the lockdown was a cruel blow.

"It was really a big loss," Oluwa said.

"You know, we sell perishable (food), so we need to open every day. So to lock down for weeks was (a) big issue for us."

Bus driver Ganiyu Ayinla said: "It's been over one month of hunger and suffering.

"I can now make money to take care of my family," he said, smiling as he braked at a busy stop to pick up passengers.

From the Ajegunle Tollgate, an area bordering Ogun State, a long queue of passengers waited to board.

Security agents and transport union officials were on hand to ensure drivers complied with directives requiring social distance, face masks, hand washing and use of hand sanitisers before boarding.

"We will only allow passengers with a nose mask to enter. And only drivers that make provision for water, soap and hand sanitisers for their passengers can operate. Buses are also required to carry not more than 60 percent of their capacity," a police officer who gave his name as George, told AFP.

He said his team had prevented some 50 buses flouting the order on Monday morning.

Huge numbers of people rushed to the reopened banks to get money -- many did not have an ATM card to withdraw from a cash machine.

"Look at this mess, there's no social distancing," said a driver, Anderson Kiagbodo, observing hundreds of people milling outside a branch of GT Bank, with security guards standing impotently nearby.

"Don't be surprised if the spread of the virus explodes after this."

From lockdown to curfew

The stay-at-home order applied to Lagos, neighbouring Ogun state and the Nigerian national capital Abuja.

But in the face of mounting social distress and discontent, President Muhammadu Buhari last week ordered a "phased and gradual easing," replacing the lockdown with an overnight curfew.

The relaxation has triggered deep concern in some quarters, given how easily the coronavirus spread and the poor state of Nigeria's health system.

According to official figures, nearly 2,500 cases of coronavirus have been recorded in Nigeria, leading to 87 deaths.

But as elsewhere, the true scale of the epidemic could be much greater, given the paucity of testing.

In the northern state of Kano, investigators determined that a spate of fatalities -- previously described as "mysterious deaths" by the authorities -- was largely caused by COVID-19.

"Coronavirus is presently the major cause of the mass deaths in Kano," Nasiru Sani Gwarzo, whose team carried out door-to-door research, said on Sunday.

Gwarzo did not provide a figure for the fatalities, although gravediggers say they have been burying dozens of corpses per day.

Kano had seen a series of high-profile deaths including academics, bureaucrats, businessmen and traditional leaders.
The 19,492 cases include 18,640 confirmed cases and 852 probable cases. The agency also reported 24 new deaths on Monday, pushing the death toll of COVID-19 in Virginia to 684.

Phase one of the states reopening, which could last two to four weeks, or longer, according to the Northam administration, will still carry notable public restrictions.

Northam said the state will swap the current stay-at-home order for a more subdued message: safer at home.

At the same time, the state will limit social gatherings to 10 or fewer people. Social distancing will still be encouraged, as well as teleworking for nonessential employees. The state also will still recommend the use of masks in public.

Northam said businesses will be allowed to reopen, albeit with industry-specific restrictions that will be made public in the coming week.

Heres the bottom line: Youll be able to get your hair cut, but youll need an appointment. And youll see new safety measures in the salon, Northam said. It means you can go out to eat again. But restaurants will use less of their seating, so to spread people out. Employees will wear face coverings.
The Tennessee Department of Human Services is making new resources available to those with a financial need who were impacted by the April 12 tornado disaster.

Beginning Wednesday, individuals can apply for both Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and the Families First/Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Emergency Cash Assistance program.

Applications for both programs will be accepted until May 12 for impacted individuals who are living or working in an approved Bradley County zip code (37311, 37323, 37309, 37310, 37353, and 37312) or Hamilton County zip code (37302, 37363, 37379, 37412, 37416, and 37421).

D-SNAP provides one month of food assistance for families who may not normally be eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Benefits are loaded onto an EBT (electronic benefit transfer) card that can be used at any authorized SNAP retailer or grocery store.

The Emergency Cash Assistance program provides a one-time cash payment to families significantly impacted by the April 12 weather disaster. This money is funded by the Families First/TANF program and provides:

$500 for a household of 1 to 2 persons.

$750 for a household of 3 to 4 persons.

$1,000 for a household with 5 or more persons.

"These two programs provide Tennesseans with the temporary resources they need to focus on putting their lives back together, said TDHS Commissioner Danielle W. Barnes. The April 12 tornado arrived during a time when many families were still impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We are going to be there for them during this time of need providing assistance and helping rebuild a thriving Tennessee.

To be eligible for D-SNAP, applicants cant be receiving SNAP currently and they must meet income requirements and have experienced at least one of the following conditions as a direct result of the April 12 weather disaster:

Unreimbursed expenses or personal property loss because of the severe weather or a resulting power outage.

Damage to residence or place of employment

Loss, reduction, or inaccessibility of income due to disaster related problems or damage to a work location.

Disaster-related expenses that are not expected to be reimbursed during the disaster benefit period.

TDHS is encouraging applicants to start the pre-application process online and upload documents to the departments website here. Once those documents are submitted, applicants can complete the application process by calling (833) 990-2348 or 781-0808 from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

If requested, elderly and/or disabled households can apply for D-SNAP over the telephone by calling the number listed above. An eligibility counselor will assist them in completing an application and conduct an interview for eligibility over the telephone.

To be eligible for emergency cash assistance, families must include a child under the age of 18 or a pregnant woman, have a valid Social Security Number, and live in a house or apartment or

worked for a business that received significant damage during the April 12 storm.

All TDHS offices are currently operating on appointment only as a precaution for COVID-19. During this time, the department is asking applicants to complete the application process for emergency cash assistance online here. Applicants are required to upload their verification to the application prior to submitting to TDHS. Once the application and verifications have been submitted, no further action will be needed.

Learn more about the Tennessee Department of Human Services at www.tn.gov/humanservices.
Maximilian Charles Saunders-Stoner, 19, is pictured outside Westminster Magistrates' Court after his case in December 2018

A former pupil schoolboy has died from a drugs overdose about 18 months after he was caught with ecstasy outside a trendy nightclub in London.

Ex-Winchester College pupil Maximilian Charles Saunders-Stoner, 19, was found dead at home in West Meon, Hampshire.

Rachell Barnett, who runs the local shop in the South Downs village, said: 'I knew him very well. It is very sad.'

And Angie Trenchard, chair of West Meon Parish Council, added: 'This is sad for any young man. This is a very sad thing to hear about in the village.'

Police confirmed his death was not being treated as suspicious. The coroner's office said the cause of death was respiratory depression plus heroin, promethazine and alprazolam toxicity.

He died at home on February 14, but news of his death only emerged today after an inquest in Winchester was opened and adjourned until November.

He died just over a year after he walked free from court after being caught in possession of five drugs including ecstasy and ketamine at the trendy Notting Hill Arts Club after attending the carnival in London on August 27, 2018.

He made a full confession to police when they questioned him and admitted possession of cannabis, LSD, Ketamine, MDMA and Xanax, a class C tranquilliser.

Mr Saunders-Stoner was found dead at his home in the Hampshire village of West Meon

Mr Saunders-Stoner was searched when trying to enter the Notting Hill Arts Club (file image)

He had completed his A-levels at the 40,000-a-year school and moved to Vauxhall, South London, to take a foundation course in the arts before starting at university.

At court in December 2018, his defence barrister said he could not do his course because he had been 'signed off sick with quite serious mental health difficulties'.

She also said that his mother was 'extremely supportive and very, very worried, about him'. He had paid between 70 and 80 for the drugs.

Saunders-Stoner was handed a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay 105 in costs during the hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court.
India has so far been able to stave off community transmission of COVID-19, says Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, expressing the hope that behavioural changes" brought about by the infection could become the new normal for a healthy society after the pandemic abates.

The nation in a post-coronavirus future could well look back on the pandemic period as a blessing in disguise if Indians imbibe hand, respiratory and environmental hygiene and practise it in their everyday lives, the minister said.

Underlining the importance of the lockdown, which has been extended till May 17, the minister said health should be on the radar just as much as the economy.

The government has to do a balancing act, he said.

On Tuesday, the number of COVID-19 cases shot up to 46,433 from the 42,836 the day before, a sharp rise of 3,597 cases, according to Union Health Ministry data. The death toll has risen to 1,568 from 1,389.

"Once the havoc caused by the virus subsides and the crisis blows over, people may remember it as a blessing in disguise," Vardhan said.

He added that India has so far been able to keep itself from slipping into the stage of community transmission of the novel coronavirus.

"By now we know that fighting coronavirus is no rocket science. If behavioural changes such as hand, environmental and respiratory hygiene, which are being practiced more rigorously during this period, get imbibed in society it will become the new normal," Vardhan said.

Such practices will bring down the instances of communicable diseases and society will evolve for the better,he stressed.

Other than small pox and polio, no other viral infection has been completely eradicated from this country. Other diseases keep recurring, the minister said, indicating that COVID-19 might be here for the long haul.

But every cloud has a silver lining, he said.

The situation posed by the COVID-19 pandemic can be seen as an opportunity to shore up health infrastructureand indigenous production of medical equipment and protective gear under the 'Make in India' initiative, the minister explained.

"We have ramped up the production of COVID-19 protective gears likePPE (personal protection equipment) and N-95 masks. Testing facilities have been scaled up significantly, he said.

Efforts are also on to ramp up the production of APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients), the raw material for pharmaceuticals, Vardhan added.

"Thus, this pandemic can be seen as an opportunity to boost the indigenous production of such items, therebyreducing India's dependency on foreign countries for them which are in high demand globally due to the pandemic," he said.

The minister also discussed the chaos outside liquor vends across the country on Monday as several states relaxed the lockdown in accordance with guidelines from the Union Home Ministry and people in several places jostled and shoved to stock up on their alcohol without any thought to social distancing norms.

"We have to weigh every decision objectively and predict their consequences before implementing them to ensure there is no spike in cases."



He said the doublingrateof cases in the country has been showing regular improvement and stands at over 12 days now as against three days before March 25, when the nationwide lockdown began.

The recovery rate has also progressively improved, he said.

Around 27.40 per cent patients have recovered so far in the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Massachusetts dairy farms are seeing a decline in the commercial dairy market due to the coronavirus pandemic, leaving a surplus of milk.

The unsold milk, NBC10 Boston reports, is sometimes getting dumped into fields, wasting hard work and valuable food.

Farmers Feeding Families is now working with farms in Massachusetts to donate 8,600 gallons of milk to local families at an event on Thursday at Boston College High school, the news station reported.

Those families who are in need can receive two gallons of milk. They also must wear a face covering during the visit.

This partnership is good for both those receiving the milk and the farmers.

For a dairy farmer, throwing away milk is like an artist throwing away a painting, John Hanselman of Vanguard Renewables told NBC10 Boston.

The Dairy Farmers of America are also working to get milk to people in need, including to non-profits like the Greater Boston Food Bank, which, NBC reported, has seen demand nearly double during the pandemic.

Related Content:
Amid rising COVID-19 cases, the



Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday decided to withdraw the relaxations given from lockdown in Mumbai city, including the permission to reopen liquor shops, and declared only essential services will be available from Wednesday.

In an order issued in the night, the BMC said only groceries, medical stores and chemist shops will be allowed to remain open in the city from May 6.

The relaxations given by the Maharashtra government to run certain non-essential services and shops are withdrawn, it said.

In the order, the BMC expressed fear that allowing some non-essential services may lead to deterioration of the coronavirus situation in Mumbai.

Hence, the relaxations will have to be withdrawn for the city, the worst by COVID-19 in Maharashtra, it said.

Highlighting the reason, the BMC said it has been observed that the number of positive cases in Mumbai has been rising and the downward trend is yet to set in.

Gathering of crowds in large numbers without following social distancing norms will be detrimental to the control of spread of the virus, it said.

The BMC expressed fear that advantages of the lockdown will be lost due to gathering of people in large numbers.

From Monday, the Maharashtra government had allowed reopening of certain non-essential services, including wine shops, which pulled large crowds across the city.

Due to reopening of liquor shops, a large number of people had gathered outside such outlets without following social distancing norms, the civic body said.

The third phase of lockdown is in force till May 17.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Czech Republic will lift a ban on international bus and train travel from May 11 as the government rolled back more of its measures to combat the coronavirus outbreak and added aid to hard-hit companies.



The government largely sealed borders in mid-March, a move seen throughout Europe as the outbreak grew. The state has already allowed Czechs to travel abroad again although those returning must show negative coronavirus tests or quarantine, Reuters reported.



On Monday, it decided international bus and rail links can restart next week. However, operators said the renewal of routes will depend largely on neighbouring countries' restrictions.



Tourism into the Czech Republic is still largely prohibited except for European Union business travellers and students. The government on Monday it would also allow non-EU citizens in for seasonal work or healthcare work from May 11.



The government also approved extended aid payments to small companies and self employed. The cabinet suspended an online sales reporting system, easing businesses' costs.



The Industry Ministry will also prepare a plan to give rent relief to companies, agreeing to cover half the cost if landlords chip in 30%, minister Karel Havlicek said.



The government has pledged more than $40.24 billion mostly in loan guarantees and direct aid for affected workers and firms. It is planning a record budget deficit of 300 billion crowns in 2020, more than seven times its original plan.



But some business groups have criticised the help as too slow and have pushed for a quicker relaunch of businesses.



The government, saying it was confident the outbreak was under control, has started speeding up its phased reopening.



It said last week it would allow the opening of cultural and sport events with up to 100 people from May 11, including cinemas, theatres and religious services. All face new hygiene rules. Shopping malls and larger shops are also due to open next week after small stores reopened last Monday.



Restaurants, pubs and hotels are due open on May 25.



The Czech Republic, a country of 10.7 million, had reported 7,799 cases of the virus by late Monday afternoon. Almost half have recovered and 251 deaths have been recorded.
A week after President Donald Trump attempted to prop up the nation's meat supply chain through an executive order, the industry remains hobbled by plant closures and production losses, USA TODAY and the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting found.

At least seven coronavirus-affected meatpacking plants shut their doors since the April 28th executive order. Thats in line with the average of eight weekly plant closures in the month leading up to the order.

The meat slaughtering and processing industry is among the hardest hit by the pandemic. At least 167 plants have had outbreaks, sickening at least 9,400 people, primarily workers. At least 45 workers have died, according to the media outlets tracking.

In all, at least 38 meatpacking plants have ceased operations at some point since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. All closed for at least a day. Some have stayed closed for weeks. At least two of the seven plants that closed since the executive order have reopened.

Workers stand close together on a poultry processing line as shown in this photo from a U.S. Government Accountability Office report.

More such closures are anticipated. Tyson Foods, one of the largest U.S. meatpacking companies, announced Monday it expected to shut additional plants because of low staffing and choices we make to ensure operational safety, according to its quarterly earnings report.

Tyson also owns four of the seven plants that closed in the week since Trump signed the executive order. Theyre located in Nebraska, Kentucky and Maine.

The company said the closures were intended to keep workers safe.

As weve shown in recent days, we will not hesitate to idle any plant for deep cleaning and team member testing, Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson said in an email. Simply put, we will not ask anyone to work in our plants unless we are confident that it is safe.

The White House declined to comment on the continued closings.

Production figures released daily by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) show that the number of cattle, hogs, and sheep slaughtered nationwide on Tuesday was up 8% compared to the same day last week. However, production is still down more than 35% compared to the same time last year, leading to an increase in spot shortages of meat in the nations grocery stores and even restaurant chains.

Story continues

At least one restaurant chain, Wendys, has already altered its menu because of it, and Costco limited meat purchases to three items per customer.

Producers have seen little difference in their situation since the executive order was signed, said Colin Woodall, the CEO of the National Cattlemens Beef Association. Theyre still having a hard time getting their animals processed, he said.

We have not seen an appreciable change, he said.

Legal experts are split on just how much power the Trump administration wields to keep meatpacking facilities open. The executive order named such plants critical infrastructure, but did not include a specific order for them to remain open.

Instead, it delegated authority under the Defense Production Act  A Korean War-era power that has traditionally been used to move the federal government to the front of the line for supplies  to USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue, who has yet to use it.

Smithfield Foods, a major meatpacking company, released a statement saying it thought the order allowed it to access more protective gear for its employees.

That has been the case for Tyson, its spokesman said.

The executive order has already given us access to additional face coverings for our team members, Mickelson said. It also provides better clarity, uniformity and consistency of standards for protecting workers.

The USDA did not respond to a request for comment on the executive order. But Perdue told Bloomberg News last week that he expected plants to reopen in days, not weeks.

At least two plants that closed since the executive order have reopened. Other longer-closed plants also are reopening. Tyson announced a plant in Indiana that closed on April 21 would resume operations on Tuesday and one in Washington that closed on April 23 would reopen this week.

The USDA said companies would have to submit plans to keep operating during the pandemic. Mickelson said Tyson was developing that plan, which includes partnering with the clinical services company Matrix Medical Network so workers have access to health care at reopened plants.

At the Nebraska plant that Tyson closed this past week, nearly 700 employees tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the Sioux City Journal. The plant is located in Dakota County, which has the states third-highest case count, according to state data.

Cargill shuttered its plant in Schuyler, Nebraska, on Monday and expects it to reopen by May 18, according to a company statement. Its unknown whether any workers have tested positive, but the plant is in Colfax County, one of the hardest-hit with coronavirus in the state, according to state data.

Cargill declined to answer questions about whether its workers there contracted COVID-19 or if the executive order had any bearing on its decision to close its plant.

Closing the plant was a difficult decision for our team who are operating an essential service and are committed to delivering food for local families and access to markets for farmers and ranchers, Jon Nash, Cargills North American Lead, said in a statement.

Cargill said its workers would be paid 36 hours a week as part of its union agreement while the plant remained closed.

Specialty Foods Group, which closed a plant in Kentucky over the weekend, did not comment. Miller Poultry, which closed a plant in Indiana, did not return a request for comment.

Shot across the bow

While Trumps executive order has grabbed most of the headlines, recent guidance by the U.S. Department of Labor has caught the attention of lawyers.

The agency said in a statement last week that new workplace guidelines for meat processing companies take priority over any state or local order to close.

I think this is a shot across the bow to states, said Thomas McGarity, a law professor at the University of Texas. What its saying is, If you order one of these outfits to close, were going to invoke the Defense Production Act to keep it open.

Others are skeptical the federal government holds that power. Deborah Pearlstein, a professor at Yeshiva Universitys Cardozo Law School, said the Defense Production Act cannot by itself be used to compel a plant to remain open or undercut state labor regulations.

American federalism significantly limits how much the federal government can do here to compel states to take actions they dont want to take, Pearlstein said.

Also at stake is worker safety. Trumps executive order explicitly says the USDA must ensure meatpacking plants follow the recently released workplace guidelines. But the guidelines themselves say plants only have to make good faith efforts to keep workers safe.

"Modify the alignment of workstations, including along processing lines, if feasible, so that workers are at least six feet apart in all directions... when possible, the guidelines stipulate.

McGarity says that may be enough to give companies some cover if sued by employees who fall ill with coronavirus. But Nina Mendelson, a law professor at the University of Michigan, says it doesnt cover everything.

A company's compliance with the guidance alone would not insulate it from state law liability, but it would allow the company to argue, in defense to a tort claim, that it had acted with reasonable care to protect its workers, Mendelson said.

James Brudney, a professor at Fordham Law School and former chief counsel of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Labor, believes the Department of Labor should clear up the confusion by creating formal emergency standards for workers to ensure their safety is protected.

Not just tips, but requirements, Brudney said. On masks, on social distancing, on wage protection and sick leave on having hand sanitizer available everywhere.

This story is a collaboration between USA TODAY and the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. The Center is an independent, nonprofit newsroom based in Illinois offering investigative and enterprise coverage of agribusiness, Big Ag and related issues. Gannett is funding a fellowship at the center for expanded coverage of agribusiness and its impact on communities.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus closes meatpacking plants despite Trump executive order
New Delhi, May 5 : After much of the national capital region (NCR) descended on streets on Monday morning for their bottles of booze, forming serpentine queues and throwing all the social distancing caution to the wind, the demand for home delivery of liquor has started getting ground.

Similar was the scene in many other cities. In Kolkata, the queues stretched up to one km outside certain liquor shops.

The Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh has allowed the home delivery of booze in green zones through a portal, run by state-owned Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation (CSMCL). To make it more easier, an app has also been released.

What's required is to register with CSMCL through phone by providing Aaadhar number. On this, the aap sends an OTP (one time password). Once you authenticate through the OTP, your favourite drink will be delivered on your doorstep, just like a Dominos Pizza or a KFC burger.

Now the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmakers are also demanding similar facility.

Delhi BJP spokesperson Tajinder Bagga has asked that food delivery platforms, like Zomato and Swiggy, be deployed to deliver alcohol to drink-crazy Delhiites. Though Bagga insisted that all states should consider that option, he termed it as his personal opinion.

Food delivery apps were roped in for faster and smooth supply of essentials, like ration, to households during the nationwide lockdown.

The demand for doorstep delivery of booze has also got support of popular stand-up comedian Appurv Gupta. There has been a slew of suggestions by people over social media to the Chief Ministers and the District Magistrates.
Following their latest video conference meeting on Friday (1 May), the leaders of Irelands main Churches have released the following statement on the re-opening of churches and church buildings for collective worship and the possibility of their re-opening for private personal prayer. In a joint statement, the leaders of the Church of Ireland, Methodist Church in Ireland, Roman Catholic Church, Presbyterian Church in Ireland and the Irish Council of Churches, said:

As leaders of main Churches in Ireland, we recognise that Christians across our land long for the day when we can all gather again inside our church buildings for fellowship and collective worship.

We want to commend our ministers and clergy for their prayerful and creative use of various online platforms and other means that have brought encouragement, through Gods word and through prayer, to His scattered people. At the same time, we lament the fact that our congregations are unable to gather together in person for worship. We recognise, however, as we have said previously, that to be a community in the real sense of the word, means that as individuals we acknowledge our interdependence. In loving our neighbours, it is important that we all look out for one another and continue to adhere to government advice on social distancing and other measures. The current restrictions are challenging, but are for the common good and the protection of everyone across our island.

While we all look forward to the day when we can again gather together for collective worship in our churches, we accept that at this time it would not be appropriate to consider a full return to such gatherings, apart from the limited number of people who are able to meet for funeral services. At this time, we are not calling on the Northern Ireland Executive to remove the current general restrictions on gathering together for church services, but we are asking that the issue is kept under regular review, so that when it is safe to do so there can be an easing of these restrictions.

The issue of church buildings being permitted to open for individual visits and private prayer, where this is desired locally and can be done so safely with appropriate social distancing in place, is however a different and a separate matter. Where the medical and scientific advice indicates that this limited step is possible, we would urge the Executive to consider easing this particular restriction sooner rather than later.

Over the past number of weeks, we have seen the vast majority of the people embracing these challenging, but very necessary, restrictions - working together for the benefit and good of all. We give thanks for this demonstration of love and concern for all in our community. As we enter into the second full month of this emergency on our island, we urge everyone to remain resolute and vigilant, encouraging one another on, so that we can come through this together.

Rt Rev Dr William Henry, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland

Most Rev Eamon Martin, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Dromore & Primate of all Ireland

Most Rev John McDowell, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh & Primate of all Ireland

Rev Sam McGuffin, President of the Methodist Church in Ireland

Very Rev Dr Ivan Patterson, President of the Irish Council of Churches
This thoughtful and lucid reflection persuasively argues against the view that Americans are forced to choose between recognizing the evil of slavery and affirming the freedom principles of 1776. Professor S. Adam Seagrave, a specialist in early modern and American political thought, freely acknowledges truths and insights brought forward by the so-called 1619 Project. But he insists that there is no need to jettison 1776 in order to recognize the tragic realities associated with 1619. Thomas Jefferson was indeed a slaveholder torn between proclaiming the justice of American principles affirming natural human equality and the preservation of a certain Southern way of life dependent on the institution of slavery. But at its core, the Declaration of Independence, penned by Jefferson, was an expression of American common sense, the American mind, and the great books of natural and public right, ancient and modern, as Jefferson put it shortly before his death in 1826. In truth, those principles owe nothing to slavery and everything to an amalgam of ancient, medieval, and modern influences that did much to subvert the legitimacy of chattel slavery. The American revolutionaries put forward self-evident truths in 1776 that were wholly incompatible with race-based enslavement. As Professor Seagrave eloquently puts it at the conclusion of his essay, The United States was indeed started in slavery, but it was founded in freedom.

Now that everyone with a computer and an opinion has had his or her say on the merits and shortcomings of the 1619 Project, we are now in a position to step back and ask ourselves: What is really at stake here?

The most controversial aspect of the project has not been its contentapart from one important, mistaken historical claim in Nikole Hannah-Joness introductory essay, which has since been correctedbut its framing. No one is talking about the excellent and inspiring articles on Howard Law School graduates, black music, or the pecan pioneer (yes, its in there!). Even Hannah-Joness essay hasnt been subjected to comprehensive commentary and analysis in the manner that it deserves. Instead, the focus of critics has been concentrated on the title page of Hannah-Joness essayOur founding ideals of liberty and equality were false when they were writtenand Jake Silversteins editors note introducing the project. And then, of course, there is the title: 1619.

. . . as Bob Woodson and others have pointed out, subtracting 1776 from 1619 renders the American story depressing and perhaps irredeemable.

What do these parts of the project jointly convey? That American identitystated in terms of true birth date or originis an either/or and that 1776 must be rejected as a legitimate competitor to 1619 in this determination. The year 1619, in other words, preempts and nullifies 1776. Critics have, after all, complained not so much about the addition of 1619 as the explicit subtraction of 1776 in Silversteins (and, to a lesser extent, Hannah-Joness) framing. And as anyone with a calculator can work out, 1619 minus 1776 is a negative number; as Bob Woodson and others have pointed out, subtracting 1776 from 1619 renders the American story depressing and perhaps irredeemable. According to John McWhorter, this operation makes American civic education into an education in studied despair over events far in the past, and a sense that it is more enlightened to think of yourself as a victim than as an actor.

If we have to jettison 1776 to take 1619 on board, the question famously raised by Martin Luther King, Jr., and quoted by Clarence Page in a recent article for the 1776 Project, Where do we go from here? seems difficult to answer. It is certainly important to know where weve been in order to understand where we are now, and it is certainly important to understand where we are now in order to determine where we should go from here, but we cant chart a course for the future based only on where weve been in the past. We have to have a goal in mind, something to shoot for, a target at which to aim. We have to have somewhere we are going to, not just somewhere we are coming from.

The question is whether the undeniable historical fact of the preexistence of American slavery tainted or invalidated entirely the ideas and arguments about natural human rights that motivated and justified the American Revolution . . .

So whats really at stake in the 1619 vs. 1776 debate is whether the revolutionary principles of 1776 are capable of providing such a goal or target. The question is whether the undeniable historical fact of the preexistence of American slavery tainted or invalidated entirely the ideas and arguments about natural human rights that motivated and justified the American Revolutionand that, presumably, have continued to motivate and justify the American experiment in self-government from that time to ours. The question is not about what happened in 1619 but about what happened in 1776.

So what happened in 1776? In the main quad at the University of Missouri, just outside the building where Jeffersons tombstone is currently housed, there is a statue of Jefferson sitting at a writing desk, pen in hand, and the Declaration of Independence on the paper in front of him. This expresses much of the significance of 1776 in the popular imagination: not unlike Moses going up Mount Sinai and coming back with the Ten Commandments, Thomas Jefferson went into his study and emerged with the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson himself helps solidify this view by literally etching his authorship of the Declaration of Independence in a stone tablet (his tombstone). The man, the moment, and the document are forever conjoined.

If this is what really happened in 1776, Silversteins either/or sounds plausible. We know that Jefferson lived far downstream of 1619. His livelihood and self-image depended squarely on his status as a slaveholder. In his well-known 1820 letter to John Holmes, Jefferson almost makes Silversteins either/or argument for him, saying about the predicament of Southern slaveholders such as himself: Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other. Though many of us would like to think that 1776 weighs on the justice side of this scale, it is not clear whether Jefferson would agree. According to the author of the Declaration, 1776s promise of self-government and happiness for himself and those like him was under threat during the Missouri crisis by devotees of the abstract principle dictating the geographic restriction of slavery.

If 1776 is inextricably bound up with the historical Thomas Jefferson, and the historical Thomas Jefferson is hopelessly bound up with the consequences of 1619, Silversteins argument seems right. The year 1776 is not a true alternative to 1619 but a mere diversion from an acknowledgment of the latters unjust and harmful effects. The either/or falls away as the antislavery Jefferson of the Declaration collapses into the apparently pro-slavery Jefferson of the Missouri Compromise and 1776 collapses into 1619. American history, as Wilfred McClay put it in a recent article, becomes little more than the lengthened shadow of slavery.

The more one reads of the public documents, pamphlets, sermons, and letters of the decades preceding and the years immediately following the Declaration of Independence, the more one realizes that Jefferson was really more stenographer than author.

This is not, however, what happened in 1776. Contrary to Jeffersons proud claim on his tombstone, there were many joint authors of the Declaration of Independence. It was adopted (after alteration) by the entire Continental Congress and largely expressed what Thomas Paine had called the American common sense and what Jefferson would later call the American mind. The more one reads of the public documents, pamphlets, sermons, and letters of the decades preceding and the years immediately following the Declaration of Independence, the more one realizes that Jefferson was really more stenographer than author. Jefferson was an original thinker, but the later accusation that he had plagiarized the Declaration contained more than a grain of truth.

The candidacy of 1776 as a meaningful and valuable constituent of American identity cannot, then, be buried along with Jefferson himself. The ideas of 1776 that were expressed in the Declarationnatural human rights, limited government by consent, the right of revolutionwere shared equally by Jefferson and countless other individuals at his time, many of whom were not as clearly implicated by association with the evils really and symbolically unleashed in 1619. These ideas are something apart from any of the individuals at the time who espoused them.

But are the ideas of 1776 themselves vitiated by their embeddedness in a time and place affected so deeply by 1619? Can these ideas provide enlightenment despite being spoken under the shadow of the terrible injustice of slavery and by some of its most famous beneficiaries? And are the ideas of 1776 merely one of the multiple traditions out of which the tapestry of American identity has been woven since?

These are not easy questions to answer, but they are answerable. There is, first, the historical fact that ideas of natural human rights, limited government, and the right of revolution were not invented by American colonists. The scholarly consensus of at least the last thirty years has been that early American political ideas were outgrowths of much earlier political and religious ideas, forming a distinctive amalgam of these preexisting materials. The political thought of John Locke, Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, and others was combined with Protestant theology in Europe, as well as in the New England colonies, in order to form the basis of what would become the revolutionary ideas of 1776. According to eminent intellectual historians like Brian Tierney and Richard Tuck, the roots of these ideas extend all the way back to medieval times, some 500 years before 1619. These ideas may be mistaken or undesirable for other reasons, but it is safe to say that their origins are innocent of entanglement with the practice of enslavement.

There is also the fact that the core revolutionary idea that all men are created equal does not in any conceivable way support the interests of slaveholders, or even the interests of the non-slaveholding American revolutionaries at the time.

There is also the fact that the core revolutionary idea that all men are created equal does not in any conceivable way support the interests of slaveholders, or even the interests of the non-slaveholding American revolutionaries at the time. While it is true that the progress of equality among whites has long been supported by a parallel dynamic of inequality between whites and nonwhites, a clear declaration of human (or even of male) equality could only run counter to this dynamic of reinforcement. A declaration that all white men are created equal or, better yet, that white men are created superior to nonwhite men, would have fit the bill much better.

Then there is Lincolns point in his speech on the Dred Scott decision in 1857: The assertion that all men are created equal was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain. This idea of equality in natural human rights did not, in other words, even support the general interests of the American colonists in their argument for independence at the time. While the related ideas of government by consent and the right of revolution did clearly support the cause of American political independence, these could have been derived from narrower, more conservative, starting points than human equality. There was, for example, the long-standing rights of Englishmen argument that had been widely used by the American colonists throughout the 1760s and early 1770s. But this was not the argument that the colonists used in 1776. Just as the argument of 1776 could not conceivably support the interests of slaveholders, so it was not well tailored to the material interests of the American colonists in their conflict with Great Britain.

The United States of America was indeed started in slavery, but it was founded in freedom.

If the ideas of 1776 were neither a mere feature of the historical moment, nor supportive of the concrete, material interests of those who held them, why were they held to be self-evident at all? The shocking answer is that they were held simply because they were believed to be truths. And this distinguishes them in a crucial way from most of the other traditions that were held at the time, such as white supremacy, patriarchy, xenophobia, or class distinctions. Most, if not all, of these other traditions supported the status quo and those in positions of power in society. Though they were often buttressed by rational and religious arguments as well, these arguments were, in most cases, recognizable as weak rationalizations of material interestlike the positive good argument that would later be given in support of race-based enslavement. The ideas of 1776, by contrast, were justified by the force of a logic that defied the needs of the immediate moment and the concrete interests of those who enunciated them. As much as any human ideas could, they leaped off their page in history.

The men of 1776 should be considered founders not because of any personal greatness that they may have exhibited but because they embraced ideas worthy of serving as a foundation for political society. The personal reputations of the American founders are not whats at stake in the 1619 vs. 1776 debate; the reputations of these ideas are. American identity is not an either/or, as Silverstein would have us believe. It is a both/and, deeply troubling in its contradictions but equally illuminating in its promise to overcome them. The United States of America was indeed started in slavery, but it was founded in freedom.

S. Adam Seagrave writes about and teaches American political principles in the dual contexts of the history of political philosophy and American political history. He is a cofounder and codirector of the Race and the American Story Project and the associate director of the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University. He is the author of The Accessible Federalist and editor of Liberty and Equality: The American Conversation.

This essay may be republished for free with attribution. (These terms do not apply to outside articles linked on the site.) Images and photos that appear with this essay are not available for republishing.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 23:21:36|Editor: huaxia

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CAIRO, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian authorities stressed they will continue to repatriate all citizens stranded abroad by the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Minister of Immigration Nabeela Makram said on Tuesday.

The minister highlighted the priority would be given to the Gulf states, Kuwait in particular, in the coming days.

According to statement posted on the cabinet Facebook page, Makram explained the committee formed under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly has prioritized a number of segments in its plan, including humanitarian cases, expats with expired residency permits, and those whose contracts have terminated.

On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of Egypt and Kuwait expressed over the phone satisfaction with the level of ties between the two states and rejected all bids intended to strain historic bonds.

"I was glade to know I will soon return to my homeland," Hazem Anwar, 33-year-old teacher, told Xinhua over the phone.

Anwar, who lost his job in Kuwait over the coronavirus crisis, added that "my family was living in fears because my residence permit has been expired."

Egypt's prime minister said "the country has taken several measures to arrange isolation buildings for the citizens coming from abroad to prevent the spread of the virus," according to the cabinet statement.

Some universities' dormitories have been detected to serve the 14-day quarantine period, he added, noting all the expenses will be paid by the government.

On April 22,Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that around 3,500 Egyptians are stranded abroad over coronavirus, affirming that authorities are committed to bringing them back despite "hard circumstances."

An airplane carrying 327 Egyptians who were stranded in the United States, including 37 orphans, landed in Marsa Alam International Airport on Tuesday.

It is the fourth repatriation flight arrived in Egypt from Washington. Two flights arrived in early April and a third flight landed on May 2, repatriating 339 stranded Egyptians.

The airport will receive another two flights on Tuesday evening, one from Baghdad and another from Khartoum.

Egypt's Ministry of Aviation in cooperation with the Ministries of Immigration, Foreign Affairs and Tourism organized a total of 22 special flights between April 21 and May 5 to return Egyptians who were stranded abroad due to worldwide flight bans.

The maritime transport sector in Red Sea province would organize sea voyages as well, to return Egyptians from Saudi Arabia's coastal city Duba, according to the Health Ministry.

Egypt recorded on Monday 348 new coronavirus cases and seven deaths, which raises the total infected patients of COVID-19 to 6,813 and the total deaths to 436. Enditem
Unless swift action is taken, the COVID-19 pandemic could push an estimated 265 million people into acute food insecurity in 2020, according to World Food Programme projections. Millions and millions of these people will be women. And according to a new, globally applicable measure developed by the World Food Programme and Gallup, women are likely to be affected differently than men during the crisis.

By combining questions from the FAO's Food Insecurity Experience Scale with 25 questions across five dimensions of gender inequality, the new Gender Equality for Food Security (GE4FS) measure bridges the gender data gap in food security at an extremely critical time.

The GE4FS data, collected across 17 countries between 2018 and 2019, yield important insights into how the world needs to respond to the particular needs of women, who were already more likely to be food insecure than men before COVID-19 disrupted the world's food systems.

Financial Self-Sufficiency: Women Had Fewer Financial Resources Before COVID-19

Financial self-sufficiency is key to women's empowerment and provides a buffer against food insecurity. Women who have their own income and assets have greater financial autonomy and input in household decision making.

The study asked about four aspects of financial self-sufficiency: 1) having income to use without asking permission within the last 12 months, 2) having an account with a bank or another financial institution, 3) having money saved to use if needed and 4) having mobile phones.

In the majority of the GE4FS surveyed countries, women were less likely than men to have income they could use without permission, less likely to have money saved that they could use if they needed it, and less able to make their own decisions about what to do with that money.

In terms of countries surveyed, the largest gender gap when it comes to having income to use without seeking permission was in Egypt, followed by Venezuela. When it comes to bank accounts, the largest gender gap was in Kenya. Venezuela and Sri Lanka were the only countries with gender gaps reversed, where women are more likely than men to have bank accounts.

There were also important gender gaps in mobile phone ownership in most of the countries surveyed, the largest of which was in Tajikistan. There were also sizable gaps in Egypt, Mozambique and Liberia, with men more likely than women to report owning one.

Decision-Making: Women More Likely to Be Prevented From Making Healthcare Choices

The GE4FS measures people's ability to make decisions in five areas, 1) seeking medical or healthcare services, 2) spending time with relatives, 3) working for pay outside the home, 4) going to the market or shops on their own, and 5) owning property, such as land, home or other dwellings.

Ahead of the pandemic, but very crucial as the world responds and recovers from it, the GE4FS data indicate that women are less likely than men to be able to make their own decisions about seeking medical services.

Across the majority of the countries surveyed, women were less likely than men to make their own decisions about a range of issues. In Egypt, the gender gaps in terms of decision-making ability were the largest across all countries included in this study. In Venezuela, Nicaragua and Lesotho, the gender gaps were the smallest across all of these questions.

Labor: Unpaid Work Likely to Increase for Women

Women already spend a lot more time than men doing unpaid care and domestic work, and this time only increases in healthcare crises such as COVID-19, when women are taking on more because of discriminatory gender norms, job losses, school closures and people falling ill.

Three in four of the women surveyed for the GE4FS said that they are the person in their household who spends the most time doing housework, compared with about one in four men.

Women in all countries studied were far more likely than their male counterparts to say that they spend the most time doing housework, with at least two-thirds of women in every country saying so. Even in countries with relatively small gender gaps on most questions, such as Venezuela and Lesotho, or Cambodia where the gender gap on some questions was reversed, women were more than twice as likely as men to say they did most of the housework.

Reproductive Freedom: Women's Choices May Be More Limited

Control over sexual and reproductive health is an integral component of gender equality and contributes to food security around the globe. A key component of control over sexual and reproductive health is access to contraception. During health emergencies, women's access to sexual and reproductive health services is even more limited, which may lead to unwanted pregnancies and reduced pre- and post-natal care.

Women in the GE4FS study were less likely than men to be able to decide for themselves on the methods to prevent pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.

Women in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Kyrgyzstan, Kenya and Mozambique were much less likely than men to report that they could decide on their own whether to use any methods to prevent pregnancy or sexually transmitted illnesses. Cambodia was the only country in the study with a reversed gender gap on this question, with men less likely than women to respond affirmatively.

Implications

The GE4FS data are important because they help close the gender gap in what the world knows about food security, and they couldn't have arrived at a more critical time than now. The data make it clear that relevant responses to COVID-19 require collecting sex- and age-disaggregated data; tailoring, targeting and reaching women and men with information and assistance; involving women and men in all stages of a response and at all levels; monitoring response impacts on women and men; and addressing gender-based violence.

For more information about this study, read the full report.

Jacqueline Paul, the World Food Programme lead for Gender Equality for Food Security, collaborated on this article.
NORTH CHICAGO, Ill. and DUBLIN, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV), a research-based global biopharmaceutical company, and Allergan plc (NYSE: AGN), a leading global pharmaceutical company, today announced that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has accepted the proposed consent order in connection with AbbVie's pending acquisition of Allergan. The acceptance by the FTC satisfies all required antitrust clearances needed to be obtained for the acquisition of Allergan by AbbVie.

As part of the proposed consent, Allergan has agreed to divest brazikumab, an investigational IL-23 inhibitor in development for autoimmune diseases, to AstraZeneca and Zenpep, a treatment for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency due to cystic fibrosis and other conditions, to Nestle. Nestle also will be acquiring Viokace, another pancreatic enzyme preparation, as part of the same transaction.

Additionally, AbbVie and Allergan have amended their Transaction Agreement to provide that only one Allergan Director will join the AbbVie board following close. Allergan's current Chairman and CEO Brent Saunders has elected not to join the AbbVie Board to provide more flexibility to pursue other opportunities in the sector.

The closing of the acquisition remains subject to other customary closing conditions set forth in the transaction agreement and Irish High Court approval. A hearing is scheduled for May 6, 2020.

About AbbVie

AbbVie is a global, research-driven biopharmaceutical company committed to developing innovative advanced therapies for some of the world's most complex and critical conditions. The company's mission is to use its expertise, dedicated people and unique approach to innovation to markedly improve treatments across four primary therapeutic areas: immunology, oncology, virology and neuroscience. In more than 75 countries, AbbVie employees are working every day to advance health solutions for people around the world. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on Twitter or view careers on our Facebook or LinkedIn page.

About Allergan plc

Allergan plc (NYSE: AGN), headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is a global pharmaceutical leader focused on developing, manufacturing and commercializing branded pharmaceutical, device, biologic, surgical and regenerative medicine products for patients around the world. Allergan markets a portfolio of leading brands and best-in-class products primarily focused on four key therapeutic areas including medical aesthetics, eye care, central nervous system and gastroenterology. As part of its approach to delivering innovation for better patient care, Allergan has built one of the broadest pharmaceutical and device research and development pipelines in the industry.

With colleagues and commercial operations located in approximately 100 countries, Allergan is committed to working with physicians, healthcare providers, and patients to deliver innovative and meaningful treatments that help people around the world live longer, healthier lives every day.

For more information, visit Allergan's website at www.Allergan.com.

About Zenpep

ZENPEP (pancrelipase) is a prescription medication for people who cannot digest food normally because their pancreas does not make enough enzymes. ZENPEP may help your body use fats, proteins, and sugars from food. ZENPEP contains a mixture of digestive enzymes (lipases, proteases, and amylases) from pig pancreas. In clinical studies, individuals with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency associated with cystic fibrosis absorbed more fat from foods than those treated with a placebo.

About Brazikumab

Brazikumab is a monoclonal antibody that binds to the IL23 receptor and is in development for Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis with a companion biomarker. Brazikumab selectively blocks the IL23 immune signal, preventing intestinal inflammation. The Phase IIb/III INTREPID program is underway to assess brazikumab compared to placebo or adalimumab in Crohn's Disease. The Phase II EXPEDITION trial is underway to assess brazikumab compared to placebo or vedolizumab in Ulcerative Colitis.

Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements, including with respect to the pending acquisition involving AbbVie and Allergan and AbbVie's, Allergan's and/or the combined group's estimated or anticipated future business, performance and results of operations and financial condition, including estimates, forecasts, targets and plans for AbbVie and, following the acquisition, if completed, the combined group. The words "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "project" and similar expressions, among others, generally identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the possibility that the pending acquisition will not be pursued, failure to satisfy any of the conditions to the pending acquisition, adverse effects on the market price of AbbVie's shares of common stock or Allergan's ordinary shares and on AbbVie's or Allergan's operating results because of a failure to complete the pending acquisition, failure to realize the expected benefits of the pending acquisition, failure to promptly and effectively integrate Allergan's businesses, negative effects relating to the announcement of the pending acquisition or any further announcements relating to the pending acquisition or the consummation of the pending acquisition on the market price of AbbVie's shares of common stock or Allergan's ordinary shares, significant transaction costs and/or unknown or inestimable liabilities, potential litigation associated with the pending acquisition, general economic and business conditions that affect the combined companies following the consummation of the pending acquisition, changes in global, political, economic, business, competitive, market and regulatory forces, future exchange and interest rates, changes in tax laws, regulations, rates and policies, future business acquisitions or disposals, competitive developments and the impact of public health outbreaks, epidemics or pandemics, such as COVID-19. These forward-looking statements are based on numerous assumptions and assessments made in light of AbbVie's or, as the case may be, Allergan's experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, business strategies, operating environment, future developments and other factors it believes appropriate. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future. The factors described in the context of such forward-looking statements in this announcement could cause AbbVie's plans with respect to Allergan or AbbVie's or Allergan's actual results, performance or achievements, industry results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although it is believed that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, no assurance can be given that such expectations will prove to have been correct and persons reading this announcement are therefore cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date of this announcement. Additional information about economic, competitive, governmental, technological and other factors that may affect AbbVie or Allergan is set forth in AbbVie's or Allergan's periodic public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, AbbVie's and Allergan's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 and, from time to time, AbbVie's and Allergan's other investor communications, in each case, the contents of which are not incorporated by reference into, nor do they form part of, this announcement.

Any forward-looking statements in this announcement are based upon information available to AbbVie, Allergan and/or their respective board of directors, as the case may be, as of the date of this announcement and, while believed to be true when made, may ultimately prove to be incorrect. Subject to any obligations under applicable law, none of AbbVie, Allergan or any member of their respective board of directors undertakes any obligation to update any forward-looking statement whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, or to conform any forward-looking statement to actual results, future events, or to changes in expectations. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to AbbVie, Allergan or their respective board of directors or any person acting on behalf any of them are expressly qualified in their entirety by this paragraph.

Statement Required by Irish Takeover Rules

The directors of AbbVie Inc. accept responsibility for the information contained in this announcement other than that relating to Allergan plc and its subsidiaries and/or the directors of Allergan and members of their immediate families, related trusts, and persons connected with them. To the best of their knowledge and belief (having taken all reasonable care to ensure such is the case), the information contained in this announcement for which they accept responsibility is in accordance with the facts and does not omit anything likely to affect the import of such information.

The directors of Allergan accept responsibility for the information contained in this announcement relating to Allergan and its subsidiaries and/or the directors of Allergan and members of their immediate families, related trusts, and persons connected with them. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the Allergan directors (who have taken all reasonable care to ensure such is the case), the information contained in this announcement for which they accept responsibility is in accordance with the facts and does not omit anything likely to affect the import of such information.

Any holder of 1% or more of any class of relevant securities of Allergan plc or AbbVie Inc. may have disclosure obligations under Rule 8.3 of the Irish Takeover Panel Act, 1997, Takeover Rules 2013.

SOURCE AbbVie

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A special train carrying about 1,200 migrant workers left for Khagaria in Bihar from Ghatkesar near here on Tuesday.

"The Shramik Special Train left for Khagaria in Bihar this morning. All the passengers were screened before they were allowed to board," a senior south central railway official said.

This is the second train arranged for the workers in Telangana.

Similarly, another train from Rayannapadu near Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh left for Chandrapur in Maharashtra, the SCR official added.

The Rachakonda Police in a statement said the train left for Khagaria at 3.05 AM from Ghatkesar station.

Rachakonda Police Commissoner Mahesh Bhagwat, Medchal collector Venkateshwarlu and other senior officials including from SCR supervised the departure.

As many as 40 trains would be operated per day for one week beginning Tuesday to ferry stranded migrant labourers to their destinations from Telangana, an official release said on Monday night.

The trains would start from various stations in the city, Warangal, Khammam and Ramagundam among other places.

They are destined to various places in Odisha, Bihar Jharkhand and West Bengal.

On May 1, the first train carrying 1,225 migrant workers was run from the Lingampalli railway station here to Hatia in Jharkhand, after the Railway Ministry acceded to the request of the state government for facilitating their return.

It was the first special train to be run by the railways to ferry the stranded migrants since its services were suspended due to the coronavirus lockdown.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
While experts had been discussing the effect of prolonged lockdowns on mental health for some time, we now have a survey that seems to confirm their fears. Dr Jugal Kishore, who heads the Department of Community Medicine at the Vardhaman Mahavir Medical College & Safdarjung Hospital, conducted an online survey titled Depression and Corona, and its results were unsurprising. From the responses we have received so far, over 30 per cent show signs of depression.

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- The airplane was flying from Ethiopia to a Somalia town named Baidoa when it was shot down by a rocket propeller

- The Embraer 5Y-AXO plane was distributing medical supplies and other equipment to be used by humanitarian organisations

- Kenya said the incident happened under a very unclear circumstance that should call for thorough and conclusive investigations

A diplomatic row is looming after Kenya asked Somalia to probe circumstances under which its aircraft was brought down in Baidoa region.

The plane which belonged to African Express crashed with six passengers as it approached Bardale town from Baidoa in Somalia on Monday, May 4.

READ ALSO: Identities of Kenyan pilots killed after aircraft got shot down in Somalia released

The Embraer 5Y-AXO plane was distributing medical supplies. Kenya said the incident could hamper humanitarian operations in the region. Photo: African Express.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Coronavirus clinical trials to start in Kenya after govt obtains approval

The Embraer 5Y-AXO plane was distributing medical supplies and other equipment to be used by humanitarian organisations and agencies in the Horn of Africa when it came tumbling down.

Through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kenya said the incident came in a very unclear circumstance that should call for thorough and conclusive investigations.

READ ALSO: Mchezaji Hiannicl Kamba apatikana hai miaka 4 baada ya kudaiwa kuangamia katika ajali

READ ALSO: Senator Ledama warns ODM against ousting him from lucrative senate position: I'm wrong number"

Nairobi told Mogadishu that if nothing was done to establish cause of the crash, the incident had the potential to disrupt flow of humanitarian aid supplies to the beneficiaries.

"Kenyan and other humanitarian aircraft operating in the region are also urged to enhance extra precaution in light of the unclear circumstances surrounding the incident.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs working with other agencies shall keenly monitor the investigation of this tragic incident and will collaborate with all to bring closure and resolution,"Kenya said.

Southwestern Minister for Transport Hassan Hussein Mohamed who said bodies of the victims were recovered at Bardale crash site.

Th authorities identified the pilots as captain Mabruk Sherman and Omar Chiraghdin.

In 2014, a similar incident involving military plane was recorded in Somalia in what officials attributed to technical problems.

However, members of al-Shabaab militia took responsibility for the plane crash.

The warplane came down in the area of the southern port city of Kismayu, where Kenyan troops had been deployed as part of peacekeeping mission.

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.

come through for elderly couple kicked out by landlady over rent arrears | Tuko TV.

Source: TUKO.co.ke
A Queensland homeowner got the shock of his life when a deadly eastern brown snake slithered out of the drain in his kitchen sink.

Michael Hilliard spotted the highly-venomous reptile while doing the dishes at his home at Draper in Queensland's Moreton Bay Region.

Mr Hilliard said the snake emerged from inside the drain and was inches from his hands.

'It was just a bit of a surprise. I'd popped my hands in and it was like "woah what was that",' he told 9News.

Michael Hilliard found a deadly eastern brown snake (pictured) in his kitchen sink in Draper in Queensland while doing the dishes

Mr Hilliard said the venomous snake was inches away from his hands. Eastern browns are responsible for more deaths in Australia than any other snake

Mr Hilliard called Brisbane snake catcher Steven Brown, who confirmed the snake was a juvenile eastern brown.

Eastern brown snakes are responsible for more deaths in Australia than any other reptile.

They are known to be aggressive, with even juveniles packing enough venom to kill a person.

Unfortunately for Mr Hilliard, the snake slithered back down the drain and out of the sink before Mr Brown arrived to catch the snake.

'It was a bit of a shock because they're pretty lethal,' Mr Hilliard said.

'Thank God it didn't get me.'
The slump in calf exports this spring has the potential to create a long-term cattle glut and seriously hit beef prices in the coming years, farmers have been warned.

Bord Bia has predicted that the beef industry is facing a supply surge as 120,000 extra calves will be reared in 2020, with the majority being carried forward for beef production.

Dairy herd calf registrations to the end of April at 1.23 million head are up almost 50,000 (4pc) on 2019.

In addition, suckler herd calf registrations have increased by more than 15,000 head, while calf exports to date this year are down by a quarter or almost 33,000 head on 2019.

Bord Bia beef and livestock manager Joe Burke told the Farming Independent that "while calf exports reached 200,000 head last year, exporters in the trade expect this figure to contract by 50,000-60,000 this year".

"The situation is being further impacted by reduced demand for calves across key European markets," Mr Burke explained.

"For example, the Dutch market is suffering from a serious fall-off in its sales of veal as a result of Covid-19."

ICSA beef chairman Edmund Graham said increased calf births combined with reduced live export numbers for calves are "a recipe for disaster".

"Farmers really must heed the warning signs when they contemplate rearing calves," he told the Farming Independent.

"We cannot go on with a system where farmers rear livestock and then hope for the best in two years' time. Farmers should be asking meat factories now for a guaranteed price for beef in 2022.

"We cannot continue producing beef in the dark and then get screwed on price with the usual replies that markets are under pressure."

Mr Graham added that the Beef Taskforce needed to be reconvened to get answers from beef processors about the extent and viability of their markets for premium cattle.

But despite the slump in calf exports, Joe Burke said alternative options for live exports could open up later this year.

"Spanish feedlots often purchase well-reared calves later in the year, including Angus-crosses," he said.

"The Libyan market has also been a valuable one for dairy-bred bulls (both Friesians and beef-crosses).

"A large vessel departed Ireland for Libya this week, on top of 5,600 animals already exported there earlier this year.

"Turkey and Algeria represent possible markets for some of the better-quality beef-cross young bulls coming from the dairy herd.

"Both Egypt and Lebanon were previously important destinations for dairy-bred steers and young bulls from Ireland, when the European beef market experienced major difficulties in the 1990s and early 2000s."
Unemployed students will have to drop out of university to access coronavirus welfare payments if their partner earns more than the $48,000 annual median wage.

The Morrison government in March raised the amount an unemployed person's partner can earn to $79,000 before they lose access to the combined $1100-a-fortnight JobSeeker and coronavirus supplement.

University students with partners earning more than the median wage are ineligible for income support. Credit:Louise Kennerley

But it did not lift the so-called "partner income test" from $48,000 for those receiving Austudy or the Youth Allowance, leaving thousands of students who have lost jobs due to coronavirus shutdowns ineligible for either Centrelink payment or the coronavirus supplement.

As a result, households where one partner earns the median wage  including some front-line workers such as teachers or nurses  and the other is a student are living on about half the amount they would receive if the latter was just unemployed.
The only thing she really had was the truth, Duster said Monday, noting that Wells life was not easy and admirers should not minimize what she overcame. And she used journalism as a tool to not just report what was going on, but she used her skill as a journalist, to the best of her ability, to impact social change.
Briefing on Jewish American Heritage Month and U.S. Efforts To Respond to and Combat Anti-Semitic Attacks Globally

Special Briefing

Elan S. Carr, Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism

Via Teleconference

May 4, 2020



MR BROWN: Good afternoon, everyone. It's a pleasure to host this on-the-record briefing call with Elan Carr, our special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism. As you may know, in May, the United States celebrates Jewish American Heritage Month. As President Trump indicated in his April 29th proclamation, this month we reaffirm our commitment to never compromise our steadfast support for the Jewish community, our rejection of anti-Semitic bigotry, and our disdain for malicious attacks of hatred.

Special Envoy Carr will share a few thoughts on the importance of marking Jewish American Heritage Month and also address best efforts to respond to and combat recent anti-Semitic attacks globally. He'll deliver a few introductory remarks and then take your questions. A reminder that this briefing is embargoed until the end of the call.

With that, I will turn it over to Elan Carr. Go ahead.

MR CARR: Well, thank you, Cale, and thanks to you all for joining us on this call. A few days ago, President Trump proclaimed that May 2020 is Jewish American Heritage Month. In his proclamation, the President declared that, quote, "From the arts and sciences to business and public service, nearly every facet of our society has benefited from the talent, inspiration, vision, expertise, ingenuity, and sacrifice of Jewish Americans," end quote.

There are two reasons why this occasion merits attention. One reason is that it is appropriate to show appreciation for ethnic communities that have shaped the fabric of our country, and the Jewish American community is one that certainly has. From Albert Einstein to Jonas Salk in the sciences, to Louis Brandeis and Benjamin Cardozo in jurisprudence, to Irving Berlin and Leonard Bernstein in music, Jewish Americans have made an indelible imprint on U.S. history. But perhaps even more importantly, Jewish values  for example, that all human beings are created in the image of God and are endowed by our creator with inalienable rights  have undergirded the very founding of our country and have animated its mission throughout the centuries.

The second reason why Jewish American Heritage Month is so important is that it allows us to go on the offense in our fight against anti-Semitism. President Trump always refers to anti-Semitism as, quote, "a vile poison" because of the destructive power of this pernicious and indefatigable hatred. The opposite of ant-Semitism is not tolerant. The opposite of anti-Semitism is Philo-Semitism, the appreciation, respect, and affection for Jewish values and the Jewish community. Jewish American Heritage Month is an important vehicle for driving that critical Philo-Semitic narrative.

In our diplomatic work, we must and often do play defense against anti-Semitism. For example, we address the physical security of Jewish communities around the world, we work to promote training on hate crimes investigation and prosecution, we stress the importance of strongly and unequivocally condemning anti-Semitic speech, and we advocate for the adoption of the standard international definition of anti-Semitism; but in addition to all of those important defense measures, we are determined also to work with our allies in developing and driving Philo-Semitic narratives for their country, in the hope that we can reach the day when every society dedicates itself, as the United States has, to embrace and to treasure its Jewish community.

Thank you again for joining us, and I'm happy to take your questions.

MR BROWN: Okay. If you haven't already and you want to get into the queue to ask questions, please press 1 and 0, and I'll call you, call on you guys. Ruben, am I missing something?

MR HARUTANIAN: Matt Lee has the first question.

MR BROWN: Thank you.

QUESTION: Had to figure out how to get it off. Sorry.

I'm just curious, as we're entering this month, if your  what your concerns are and how deep they are about the rise of the conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and the Jewish community and for other religious communities, and if there's anything in particular you guys are doing to address that. Thanks.

MR CARR: Well, thank you. Yes, deeply concerned. And what we've seen in the past two months is really a wave  a tsunami, I might say  of anti-Semitism on the internet focused on the coronavirus. And this is really nothing more than the recycled blood libel of the Middle Ages. Jews were blamed for spreading the Bubonic Plague and the Black Plague in the Middle Ages. And so this is really a hallmark of anti-Semitism that it morphs to adopt whatever current events has and focuses its venom using the vehicle of the day.

We see this also with Israel hatred. Before there was a state of Israel there was hatred of other aspects of Jewish life, then after the founding of the state of Israel then the Jewish state becomes the target. So here, too, now we have a global pandemic, and so there's a wave of anti-Semitism that bears that flavor and uses that vehicle.

And so yes, it's concerning. And we've got to fight it. We've got to combat it. I'm proud to say that for the first time a special envoy on anti-Semitism has a staff member, a member of my team, an assistant special envoy, is specifically dedicated to combatting internet hate. It's the first time ever that there has been a member of the special envoy's team dedicated to it. So we're taking this very, very seriously and we're determined to fight it.

I want to also say, though, that the virus eventually  God willing soon  will be over and done with, but what might be longer lived is the economic dislocation that results from this pandemic. And when one looks at world history, whenever there have been periods of deep economic downturn and economic suffering, Jews have been targeted.

And so yes, we've got to focus on this coronavirus-type conspiracy anti-Semitism, but we also have to be very mindful  and my team is strategically focused on this  that over the long haul, even when the pandemic is over and the restrictions are lifted, that we really have to be very aware and very sensitive to this focus on the Jewish community as the source of blame for economic woes. That really is something very serious.

MR BROWN: Thanks. For the second question, let's go to the line of Jennifer Hansler.

OPERATOR: As a reminder, if you have a question please to press the 1 followed by the 0. Please, go ahead, Ms. Hansler.

QUESTION: Hi, thanks for doing this. I was wondering if any of your efforts are focused inward given that we've seen a number of these (inaudible) stay-at-home protestors espousing some anti-Semitic messages, and if there's any sort of whole-of-government approach to condemning these messages. Thank you.

MR CARR: Yes, by inwards you mean in the United States, I assume. Correct?

QUESTION: Yeah, mm-hmm.

MR CARR: Yeah. So yes, I mean, there is a whole-of-government approach. I'm  I was very proud to have participated in an extraordinary interagency forum addressing anti-Semitism globally. This was hosted by the attorney general at the Department of Justice. Attorney General Barr spoke, Secretary of Education DeVos spoke, the director of the FBI spoke, I was involved. There were  I mean, really, it was a whole-of-government approach to dealing with what is really a global problem, and that's the key here.

What's going on in the United States is no different than what's going on elsewhere. It is a global rise. There was a Yom Kippur attack on a synagogue in Halle, Germany, and I arrived to visit that synagogue specifically selecting the date October 27th to arrive in Halle, Germany, because that was the one-year anniversary of the massacre at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue and the six-month anniversary of the murder at Chabad of Poway, which, by the way, we just commemorated the one-year anniversary of the Chabad massacre.

And so I specifically arrived in Halle, Germany on that date to make the point in as clear a way as I can that this rise in anti-Semitism, which we're seeing on the far right, the ethnic supremacist far right, the radical anti-Zionist left, militant Islam  I mean, it's all of it, but this is not a German problem or a European problem or a Latin American problem or a U.S. problem. This is a global problem that requires a global coordinated, focused response. And so yes, there is a whole-of-government approach. I will tell you that President Trump, Vice President Pence, and the entire leadership team at the White House is deeply focused on this, as is Secretary Pompeo and the leadership team at the State Department. And so we are definitely bringing to bear the interagency on this.

MR BROWN: I'll give it a second for anyone else to jump in the queue.

OPERATOR: Once again, if you have a question please to press the 1 followed by the 0, 1-0, if you have a question.

MR BROWN: Okay.

OPERATOR: We have a question from the line of Abigail Williams. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Hi, thanks so much for doing the call. I just wondered, with some of the moves that have been recently made to designate those white supremacist groups which often run in parallel to anti-Semitic actions, there's been any change in the amount of anti-Semitism you've seen, if there's been any response to seeing groups designated.

MR CARR: Well, thank you. That's a great point, and it's early. I mean, that designation of the Russian Imperial Movement was recently made, but it's very important to point out  I was asked about  in my last question about a whole-of-government approach. This is really groundbreaking. First time ever that the United States has designated a far-right white supremacist group as a terrorist organization, and that's really a critical point. Also a first is President Trump's executive order that accords the Jewish community Title VI civil rights protection, especially on college campuses.

And so we are really sort of approaching this with a full-court press and using all the tools at our disposal to confine, contain, and pressure anti-Semitic hate groups, all the while, by the way, while maintaining the First Amendment. We're not  certainly we would not trespass on the First Amendment. It's sacrosanct. But when it comes to incitement to violence or harassment or discrimination, that's not protected speech, and this administration has shown that we will  we're very serious about taking action against these forms of hatred.

MR BROWN: Great. It looks like we have Jennifer Hansler back on for a follow-up.

QUESTION: Hi, thanks. Sorry, just wanted to follow up if you could say specifically how you're planning to address the latest COVID-related anti-Semitism here in the U.S. Will there be any sort of statement of condemnation from State at all? Thank you.

MR CARR: Well, there has been. I mean, there has been very clear condemnation of this kind of anti-Semitism from the administration. But that's step one. I mean, that doesn't end the process of addressing it.

We have been dealing, literally in the last three weeks specifically, with internet hate speech. We've actually brought together various authorities that work in this area, in governments, ours and others, and in the private sector or for-profit, but also NGOs that specifically address internet hate speech. And we're bringing together these authorities specifically for the purpose of producing a framework to address this.

Now, it's evolving, but what I will say is this. To give you a preview, what I will say is this, and this is no secret. I've actually testified to this very point on Capitol Hill. And so I'll state again: The moment that hate speech on the internet leaves the ambit of the First Amendment  for example, by venturing into the area of incitement to violence, which is not protected speech  the moment hate speech does that, we've got to be very, very aggressive in coming down on all instances of unprotected hate speech on the internet.

Then with regard to protected speech, the answer there isn't censorship, but the answer to protected hate speech is strong, unequivocal condemnation. And to have strong, unequivocal condemnation, there has to be coordination. It can't be piecemeal. And so a lot of our efforts are to focus on how we can coordinate condemnation so that people espousing despicable, vile, hateful speech that is protected face the kind of wave of condemnation that they deserve to face.

And it's got to be unequivocal and it's got to be strong. I will tell you in my work overseas, without going into diplomatic confidences, in many cases I've pressured countries to be more forceful in condemning anti-Semitic movements and anti-Semitic speech, or, for example, condemn it at a more senior level than they have. And so this is something we're deeply focused on and something that I think in the long run will be critical to winning this, especially when it comes to online hate.

By the way, a recent study, a European study, shows that the process, the time it takes to radicalize somebody online, is 25 percent of the time that it takes to radicalize someone offline, for example, in meetings and rallies. So you're talking about data now that shows that the  that online hate has deep, real impact. And you've got kids around the world  not only in the United States, all around the world  that are being seduced and lured into the most despicable, vile, hate-filled, venomous chat rooms where they feed off of this stuff for years. And so again, the moment speech becomes unprotected, we've got to come down on it. But once it's  but as long as it's still in the ambit of protected speech, the answer has to be coordinated condemnation, and that's what we're working on.

MR BROWN: Super. It looks like that's our last question. Thanks so much, Elan, for joining us today and for your remarks and for joining the call.

MR CARR: Well, thank you, Cale. And thanks to everyone for joining us.

MR BROWN: So this is the end of the call. The embargo is lifted. Everybody have a great day.

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Accra top high school, St. Thomas Aquinas returned from a hiatus last season to make the semifinals this season against two-time semifinalists Adisadel College.

The Aquinas side started the stronger side in the Right Corner round (questions on Ghana and Africa) and R cubed round (Reading, writing, and Arithmetic), but the Zebra boys from Cape-Coast came strong in the STEM Round. Only ten points separated the two sides as they went into the final One-on-One round. It was there that the Beeb3 side showed composure and, amassing 50 points from a possible 80 points. 130  90 it ended.

This sweet victory makes St. Thomas Aquinas the second side after Presec- Legon and Mawuli school to qualify for the semifinals in Season 3 of The Sharks Academic Competition

At the junior level, defending champions Ghana Christian International High showed why they are the school to beat after overpowering Wa-based Tender Care Junior High School. Both sides had been impressive in their earlier contests but experience came to play from the third round (STEM). The Christian High side scored 40 points against Tender Care's 10 points to set up them for victory. 140  95 it ended. Christian High qualifies for the semifinals at the juniors level for the second time in a row

The excitement still continues in The Sharks Academic Competition. Next week, it's an all Volta affair as first timers Sonrise Christian High meets with another Volta heavyweight Keta Senior High. The contests shows on TV3 (DSTV 279) every Saturday from 2.30pm and streams live on The Sharks facebook page. The Sharks Youtube page also has all the contests of the competition.

The Sharks all-round competition focuses on core competencies - Literacy, Numeracy, STEM and Social Literacy and is endorsed by the Ministry of Education, supported by Family Health Medical School, Academic City College, Ashesi University, Webster University, Indomie, B5 Plus, Frytol, Fortune Rice, Louisianna State University, University of St. Thomas, Givers Care, Coco Pops and Mcberry biscuits.
An incident in which a Billings church had its online worship service hijacked by images of child sexual abuse has been referred to the federal Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

The Department of Justice task force involves a network of federal, state and local law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies.

The May 3 incident at First Congregational Church in Billings is one of at least two local incidents reported to police this week involving what police termed inappropriate access into video conferences.

On April 26, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship had its online worship service interrupted by inappropriate behavior by an unidentified male who appeared during an online meeting. That was reported to BPD on May 4.

Police have "documented the incident" but it is being treated as informational and the investigation is inactive, according to a press release issued Tuesday by BPD Lt. Brandon Wooley. The press release does not specify what video conferencing program the Unitarian Universalist church was using, though the church's Facebook page does display videos recorded using Zoom.

Over the weekend, the Rev. Mike Mulberry with First Congregational Church in Billings confirmed that someone had taken over a Zoom church service to broadcast a criminal act against a child. The incident prompted calls to the FBI and local law enforcement, according to church leadership.

On Tuesday, Mulberry said the criminal imagery was broadcast for roughly 20 seconds toward the end of the church's Sunday service before he shut down the livestream. He said he initially tried to stop it using the program's screen sharing functions, but was unable to do so quickly enough.

"We're pretty certain that it's somebody unaffiliated with the church," Mulberry said, referring to whoever was behind the incident.

Going forward First Congregational Church will implement tighter controls on who can participate in its livestreams, and Mulberry said they will also begin pre-recording services.

"We just don't think this should exist for anyone, particularly for people who have been traumatized in real life in some way, shape, or form," Mulberry said. "Our heart is broken for you, and with you, and we hope that there is a love big enough and strong enough in your life that we can find a way to move through this."

The church initially addressed the incident in a Facebook post published Sunday afternoon and offered counseling to members who may have been exposed to the graphic display.

"We watched in horror as our Zoom worship service was overtaken this past week by someone with incredibly evil intent," the post begins in its note to members. "Our prayer is that somehow you had turned away, that no children were present to see these things, or that you were not present to see the terrible images that were being displayed."

Numerous incidents of so-called "Zoombombing," in which online meetings have been interrupted with vulgar material, including child abuse imagery, have been reported all over the country during a variety of settings, including online teaching. Critics have have questioned whether Zoom's safety features are adequate.

Last month, the Montana Public Service Commission had the public comment portion of a meeting overtaken by someone shouting expletives and posting pornographic images.

After a string of incidents in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampsire and Rhode Island, the FBI's Boston field office in late March issued a series of recommendations specifically for Zoom in response to video teleconference hijacking, which is the official term for "Zoombombing." The FBI referred The Gazette to those guidelines when asked about how local organizations could avoid incidents like the one that happened with First Congregational's service.

The FBI recommends people prevent teleconference hijacking in these ways:

Do not make meetings or classrooms public. In Zoom, there are two options to make a meeting private: require a meeting password or use the waiting room feature and control the admittance of guests.

Do not share a link to a teleconference or classroom on an unrestricted publicly available social media post. Provide the link directly to specific people.

Manage screen sharing options. In Zoom, change screen sharing to host only.

Ensure users are using the updated version of remote access/meeting applications. In January 2020, Zoom updated its software. In the security update, the teleconference software provider added passwords by default for meetings and disabled the ability to randomly scan for meetings to join.

Lastly, ensure that your organizations telework policy or guide addresses requirements for physical and information security.

In its Tuesday press release, BPD encouraged people to research the specific platform they use.

BPD also provided the following general recommendations for online video conference security practices:

Create a unique ID and password for each meeting.

Don't publicly publish meeting IDs and passwords.

Use invitation-only functions.

Enable waiting room functions.

Disable joining before the host, screen sharing, and other remote functions.

Lock the meeting once everyone has joined.
Canadian troops arrive at a U.N. base in Gao, Mali, on June 25, 2018. Deploying troops to conflict areas is part of Canadas foreign aid program. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Foreign Aid and the Price of Canadas Virtue Signalling

Commentary

Over the last decade, Canada has given away $50.8 billion in foreign aid. What does it have to show for all this generosity? Little at best. As is the case for foreign aid from other nations, the majority of it has failed to reach target communities.

The same fate will befall the Trudeau governments $850 million package to combat the COVID-19 pandemic abroad, announced May 4. The stated goal is improved medical care for refugees and the poorest in developing countries, but this is a fools errand.

Canadian officials spending of other peoples money rubs salt into the wound for 1 million Canadians who have lost their jobs and countless more struggling with debt. Not to mention that most past aid went to the pockets of officials, NGO staffers, charities, contractors, and mediocre local governments.

Of the aid package, $8 million will go to the World Health Organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the government said in March, when Canada had earmarked $50 million for the global fight against the pandemic. It does not end there. The Liberals are evaluating which other organizations and countries will receive funds.

The open secret about government aid programs is they are big on publicity and emotional appeal but lacking in outcomes and quantitative evaluations to weed out inefficiencies. It might sound cold-hearted to dissect numbers when there are pressing needs, but precious resources going to waste is pernicious to both givers and recipients. If we ignore reality, we are not really thinking about recipients; we are deluding ourselves.

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Besides the traditional delivery of cash and goods, Canada conducts or sponsors research on sustainable development, pays for or provides training, and deploys troops to conflict areas, among other activities.

In 2019 alone, Ottawa spent $6.4 billion in aid for 87 countries, several regional programs, refugees, and student scholarships. The largest recipients were Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Syria, and Mali.

Salaries account for a significant portion of all aid. Besides those doing the actual work, payrolls include a domestic and foreign army of diplomats, managers, accountants, consultants, and other administrative staff.

Recent research conducted by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) on the worlds leading donorthe United Statesidentified how bureaucrats as well as middle-class partners and local governments in target countries profit from it. Contrary to stated objectives, what trickles down to the target communities ends up fostering dependency and opening the door to corruption.

Canadas foreign-aid record doesnt fare much better. The market-oriented think tank Fraser Institute has concluded 1990s programs did little to spur economic growth, improve education, or ameliorate medical care in recipient countries. While additional foreign funds generate minor improvements on certain metrics, such as lower patient wait-times, they do not raise the overall quality of health care, the study pointed out.

A case in point is Ivory Coast in West Africa. The country received aid earmarked for medical care in the 1990s, but the money didnt benefit the vulnerable population. Only 11 percent of the budget went to rural areas, where half of the population lived without access to low-cost preventive care. The government spent most of the budget on sophisticated treatments in cities.

The U.N. Millennium Development Goalsa multilateral effort to which Canada contributeshas also fallen short of expectations. A January 2020 research paper published in the Atlantic Economic Journal revealed foreign aid improved few to no health outcomes in recipient countries from 2001 to 2015. Its effect on increasing life expectancy was negligible.

Behind the Feel-Good Curtain

Lofty goals aside, aid is a powerful tool for political centralization and influence. In his book The Development Frontier, British economist Peter Bauer explains how aid triggers corruption and deleterious economic policies, encourages protectionism, and even spurs vote-buying.

One might think political meddling with aid is an exclusive feature of developing countries with weak institutions. However, rich nations regardless of ruling ideologyincluding Canadahave historically leveraged aid to further foreign-policy goals. The governments Canadian International Development Platform website openly states it uses taxpayers money to advance its feminist agenda, for instance.

Both International Development Minister Karina Gould and Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne have acknowledged meaningful Canadian aid in the COVID-19 response is key for expanded influence in global affairs, particularly through a seat on the U.N. Security Council, which Canada is currently vying for.

Those who profit from the continued flow of money could not agree more. Nicolas Moyer, CEO at the Canadian Council for International Co-operation, has argued for even more aid as an investment in political capital.

Optimizing Aid for Good

Theres another approach that doesnt rely on middlemens goodwill and honesty. The evidence shows countries with economic freedom have better outcomes in medical care and education. Thats why experts from AEI recommend prioritizing programs that strengthen local institutions and remove barriers for individuals to help themselves and others around them.

Market-driven economies have more opportunities to obtain medical equipment, beds, and personnel. They also foster innovation tailored to local needs rather than wait for parachute charity.

Botswana, which has opened up its economy over the last two decades, has made big gains in fighting AIDS. Foreign aid remains present, but less poverty and more open market competition has paved the way for a constant downward trend in HIV infections.

Another example is Chile. Unlike its neighbours, Chile liberalized its economy decades ago and has reaped the benefits: the lowest poverty rates in the region, widened access to the worlds supplies, and robust competition in education and medical care. When the pandemic hit, Chile was prepared to roll out its own aid to citizens and control the spread.

It is time to admit that the billions doled out in foreign aid have failed to foster sustainable development.

Canada is too accustomed to throwing money at problems and expecting uncritical applause. We cannot expect government agencies, multilateral organizations, NGOs, contractors, and local officials to air the dirty laundry. Mandates that commit recipient nations to embrace economic freedom and strengthen institutions is the way to go to stop the wasteful cronyism and deliver help to those who really need it.

Fergus Hodgson is the founder and executive editor of Latin American intelligence publication Econ Americas. He is also the roving editor of Gold Newsletter and a research associate with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

Paz Gomez contributed to this article.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Alabamas Doug Kiker has launched a From Garbage to Greatness campaign to capitalize on his American Idol exposure with an album.

Kiker made the announcement late Tuesday in typically unpretentious fashion, via brief video recorded in front of a house that he took pains to make clear wasnt his. He thanked fans for the feedback theyd given him since his performance on the reality show earlier this year and said its made me want to do more with my life."

At the fundraising site Indiegogo.com, Kiker recaps his Idol experience and says he aims to record an album featuring both covers and original songs. I think by making this album it will prove that everyone has a gift and if you work hard and try to make the world a better place at the same time, anything is possible, he says on the site.

Money raised toward the goal of $25,000 will go to hire musicians, to finish the original songs, and then rent studio time so we can record and produce them in a professional setting, Kiker wrote. I also just had a new baby daughter and these diapers are expensive lol!!

Kiker, a Greensboro native who now resides in Grand Bay, auditioned unsuccessfully for American Idol in Mobile in 2019, then had better luck with a second try in Baton Rouge. His second-round audition in Savannah, Ga., was featured in the 2020 season premiere and made a splash: His raw talent wowed the shows celebrity judges and his story of being a garbage-truck worker who dreamed of making life better for his daughter helped make him a fan favorite.

He made it to the shows Hollywood Week, but his lack of vocal training stopped him there. Since then, he has regularly posted clips of himself singing on social media and updating fans on such developments as the dental work that corrected a prominent gap in his smile.

As is typical for such drives, Kikers Indiegogo campaign features recommended levels of giving, which come with various premiums. A $30 Working Man donation gets the donor a hat or a T-shirt, $50 gets both. At $112, a Hard Worker gift entitles the donor to have Kiker sing them or someone they love a song. Live performances come next, maxing out at $10,000 for a full Garbage Man Concert with band.

It takes something to do something, Kiker says in his video announcement. This is going to be a fun ride, guys.
Germany said Tuesday the European Union should do "much more than it has done so far" in providing coronavirus relief aid for countries outside its borders.

German Economic Cooperation and Development Minister Gerd Mueller said the EU needed "to add an African component to the rescue umbrella that is over Europe."

Mueller was speaking at the presentation of "BMZ 2030," a structural reform of Germany's development policy, where he announced the government has already reorganised one billion euros to help other countries fight the coronavirus pandemic.

"But this program defines needs for a further three billion. We are discussing this with the finance minister," he said.

According to the Development Ministry, the BMZ 2030 strategy calls on Germany's international partners to provide measurable evidence for progress made in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Nations receiving aid must demonstrate, for example, that human rights of citizens are observed and efforts are being made to fight corruption.

In light of the new criteria, Germany is ending support for 25 nations worldwide, either because a particular country no longer needs aid or because it is resisting reform.

Mueller specifically cited Myanmar and its treatment of the Rohingya people.

In August 2017, Myanmar's military launched what it called a clearance campaign in northern Rakhine state in response to an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group.

The campaign forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh and led to accusations that security forces committed mass rapes, killings and burned thousands of homes.

Mueller said that despite calling on the government of Myanmar to allow the Rohingyas to return safely, the country has refused to comply.

"That is why I do not see any chance of us continuing bilateral development cooperation with Myanmar at this point. These funds will be reallocated," he said.

(Representative Image)
The Nagpur Veterinary College (NVC) on Tuesday sent back swab samples of a three-month-old tiger cub suspected of having Covid-19, without testing them.

NVC asked the forest department to approach institutes approved by the Centre for animal testing in India. We realised that it is ethically incorrect to perform the Covid-19 test for the wild animal since we do not have the Centres approval. In such circumstances, the samples need to be sent to the closest approved institute, and this has been conveyed to the forest department, said Dr AP Somkuwar, associate dean, NVC.

The college is planning to get approval from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to be designated as an approved institute for further animal testing in Maharashtra.

HT reported on Monday that swab samples of the female cub, rescued from paddy fields in Mul taluka of Chandrapur district, were collected on April 28 by the forest department after concerns of improper protective equipment during the rescue and initial ill health of the cub. Samples were sent to NVC after it was suspected that the cub might be the first case of a wild animal in Maharashtra contracting the virus. The test results were expected on Tuesday.

The cub is currently being kept at a transit treatment centre in Chandrapur and is healthy, said officials.

NVCs last-minute decision left the forest department in a lurch. If this was the case, the college could have informed us much earlier. During the lockdown, it is difficult to get permissions and interstate transportation. However, the process will begin immediately, said AL Sonkusare, divisional forest officer (territorial), Chandrapur.

SV Ramarao, chief conservator of forest, Chandrapur said, The final decision will be taken by the chief wildlife warden as he is the nodal authority.

After the first confirmed case of a tiger testing positive for Covid-19 in New York was reported on April 5, three animal institutes were approved by the Centre for Covid-19 animal testing  National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal; National Research Centre on Equines in Hisar, Haryana, and Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh.

Nitin Kakodkar, principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife), Maharashtra said, Following NVCs decision. we have decided to send the swab samples to the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal. We are working on the permissions for inter state transport. Once all permissions are in place, the samples will be sent. In the meantime, the cub will remain in the transit treatment centre at Chandrapur, and efforts to runite her with her mother are put on hold till we get the results.

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Amid controversy over anomalies



in Public Distribution System in the state, the West Bengal government on Tuesday said ration items have reached around 10 crore people during the lockdown and action has been taken against over 400 dealers for being involved in irregularities.

West Bengal Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay announced this in the backdrop of a series of protests across the state over alleged corruption in the distribution of free food grains to poor people through PDS.

"We have delivered free ration to around 10 crore people. Apart from digital ration card holders, the system benefitted 61 lakh people whom we have given coupons. This data reveals smooth functioning of the PDS," Bandyopadhyay said.

He said 359 ration dealers have been showcaused and 65 have been suspended.

Bandyopadhyay said penalty has been imposed on 25 and more than 50 ration dealers have been arrested.

"In the past four days, we have showcaused 21 ration dealers," he said.

The statement by the state government came on a day when the opposition BJP is organising silent sit-in protest demonstrations across the state against alleged collapse of the public distribution system in during the lockdown.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 05:09:17|Editor: huaxia

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TRIPOLI, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Libyans will start returning home from abroad after the UN-backed Libyan government closed the borders in March to prevent COVID-19 spread, an official said Tuesday.

"The return of the Libyans stranded abroad will start with the first two flights of Libyan Airlines and African Airlines from Misurata International Airport, where 340 in Turkey will be returned," Hisham Boshkewat, undersecretary of the Ministry of Transportation, told Xinhua.

"The return of the stranded Libyans in Turkey will continue until early next week. After that, the Libyans stranded in Tunisia will start returning, and then from the Arab Republic of Egypt and the rest of the other countries," Bushkewat added.

The Libyan official confirmed that the return of thousands of Libyans from abroad via an air bridge will be done after carrying out COVID-19 tests and a-14-day quarantine abroad.

The UN-backed government announced later in April that 15,000 Libyans stranded abroad will be brought home after completion of COVID-19 tests.

Closing the borders is among a series of protective measures taken by the UN-backed Libyan government against COVID-19, which also include banning public gatherings, closing schools and mosques, and imposing a curfew.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Libya so far is 63, including 24 recoveries and three deaths, according to the National Center for Disease Control. Enditem
ROME  For months, it seemed Giuseppe Conte could do no wrong.

As the Italian prime minister waged battle against the coronavirus epidemic, political opponents heeded calls for unity, halted their attacks and reigned in their criticism.

In March, approval for Contes measures to combat the virus stood at 94 percent, and his personal ratings climbed to 71 percent.

But as Italys health emergency begins to recede and signs of the impending economic catastrophe move into sharp focus, Contes coronavirus honeymoon appears to be coming to a close.

Regional governments, industrial lobbies and the Catholic church are revolting against the governments plans to slowly lift Italys lockdown restrictions, accusing Conte of moving too slowly and standing in the way of the countrys recovery.

The opposition has occupied parliament in protest of the remaining lockdown restrictions. And even members of Contes coalition  an unstable alliance between the anti-establishment 5Star Movement, the center-left Democratic Party and the liberal Italia Viva party  have threatened to pull the plug on the government unless it steps up the pace.

Critics also blame Conte for failing to resolve delays in the arrival of financial assistance, off-loading key decisions to task forces and abusing his emergency powers.

The sheer scale of the potential economic disaster ahead has eroded faith in the prime ministers ability to steer the country through it, according to Lorenzo Pregliasco, a pollster at YouTrend.

The more that public opinion shifts from the health to the social and economic crisis, the more Conte risks losing consensus, said Pregliasco.

As Italians begin to emerge from the eye of the epidemics storm, they are increasingly worried about their economic future.

Last week, Fitch lowered Italys credit rating to BBB, just one notch above junk. First-quarter results showed that GDP contracted 4.7 percent, and the government revised down its economic forecasts to a GDP contraction that could be as bad as 10 percent.

Story continues

Although Conte claimed victory late April after negotiating with European leaders to grant Italy access funds from the European Stability Mechanism without conditions, the Italian media has continued to speculate that any assistance could come with strengthened oversight, recalling the specter of the Troika that imposed devastating cuts on Greece.

For those hoping for a quick return to normal to offset the worst of the economic impact, the limited easing of lockdown measures has been disappointing, especially in the south where there have been relatively few cases of the virus.

Families and stable partners can now visit each other. Parks have reopened, and takeaways from bars and restaurants are now allowed. But churches remain shut, earning Conte a harsh rebuke from the Catholic bishops association. Schools will stay closed until September, leaving working parents at a loss for childcare.

About 4 million people, mainly construction and manufacturing workers, are back at work, but the powerful federation of employers, Confindustria, has accused the government of lacking a return-to-work plan, citing its failure to begin immunity tests or app-based contact tracing. Meanwhile, Italys lifeblood, its small and medium-sized shops and businesses, mostly remain shuttered.

With discontent growing, regional authorities last week defied the central government to move ahead with their own ad hoc rules. In some areas, visiting second homes is now allowed.

The president of Calabria, Jole Santelli, went the furthest, with an order allowing restaurants and bars with outdoor seating to open.

Santelli, of the center-right Forza Italia party, points out what she sees as an injustice: Wealthier industrial states with many cases of the virus are getting back to work before the economically fragile regions with few cases.

Everyone knows about coronavirus and social distancing now. We have to trust people to act responsibly and begin learning to live alongside it, she told POLITICO.

Our territory doesnt have industry, she added. It is a service economy with small and medium sized businesses, for whom a few weeks can make all the difference between surviving or not.

Pushback against the lockdown has made it clear that Contes political opponents are tired of playing nice.

This government has avoided taking decisions and failed to get financial support to those that need it, said Guido Guidesi, a senior MP for the far-right League. This government has, in practice, put zero euros in the pockets of citizens and business. That is the truth, and that is the problem.

Guidesi was one of dozens of MPs from the party who occupied the parliament last week, vowing to stay there until the lockdown measures are lifted before calling it off in time for the bank holiday weekend.

The government is incapable of managing an economic emergency like the one we are witnessing, he added, predicting a larger shift in the Italian political landscape.

If the public grows increasingly impatient and worried about the economic impact, that groundswell could indeed provide the trigger for a government collapse in the months ahead, said Pregliasco, of YouTrend, who predicted catastrophic unemployment figures and a steep increase in businesses filing for bankruptcy.

Contes stratospheric popularity during the crisis has also attracted attacks from the coalition he depends on to stay in office.

Matteo Renzi, who leads the liberal Italia Viva party and is a long-term critic of Conte, threatened on Thursday to bring down the government and accused Conte of "populist paternalism" for keeping Italians "under virtual house arrest" for months rather than finding solutions to save jobs.

"There is a vast reconstruction that needs to happen that will require courageous choices and vision, not remaining stationary as we have done so far," he said.

Renzi also claimed Conte was more concerned with Facebook followers and polls than unemployment data, warning: "If you choose the road of populism, of saying what people want to hear, we will not be by your side."

For now, it is unlikely that Renzi or others would want to assume responsibility for opening up a power vacuum during an emergency.

To have a crisis at this time, would be unthinkable. The public would not understand it, said an adviser to former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

As Conte said in an interview with La Stampa on Sunday, instability [at a time of emergency and economic difficulty] would be a serious damage for the country that we cannot allow ourselves.

Constant speculation about a new government of technocrats or of national unity is part of the Italian political game, he said.

If Renzis MPs were to withdraw support for the government, wiping out its majority in the Senate, Berlusconis center-right Forza Italia party could prop up the government in the short term, according to the Berlusconi adviser. But this would be a short-term measure.

There will come a moment when the economic problem becomes unbearable, when we have to think of a government of unity, said the adviser.

Italy historically has relied on technocratic governments to take over and take tough decisions during crises. President Sergio Mattarella would almost certainly seek to find out if there was a majority for a government of national unity or a technocratic government, rather than call snap elections.

Members of the far-right League have pushed for Mario Draghi, the former president of the European Central Bank, to lead such an executive. We completely support his proposed measures to prevent the economic crisis from becoming a structural crisis that would leave workers and companies abandoned,said Guidesi, the League MP.

But it is by no means certain that Draghi would even want the role  one that is certain to be difficult and unpopular, as recollections of former Prime Minister Mario Montis drastic cuts to public services and pensions are still fresh in the memory of Italians.

Any government of national unity would find it hard to reach agreement on important issues such as accepting help from Europe, and would face crossfire from political forces outside the government.

For now, as the government limps on, Conte could still quell the critics if his slow-and-steady strategy proves successful in balancing pressure to re-open the economy with the need to curb infections.

Other countries, such as Germany and Singapore, have seen the number of new cases rise rapidly following the lifting of certain containment measures.

Their example may help justify Contes more cautious approach to his detractors. But as worries of economic disaster grow, that caution may not be enough to keep the political peace.
Of the 548 active coronavirus cases in Sri Lanka, 327 of them are Navy personnel, officials said on Tuesday.

The virus has killed eight people with 752 positive cases in the island nation.

Army chief General Shavendra Silva, who heads the island-nation's COVID-19 prevention mechanism, on Tuesday said, "There were 33 new positive cases found at midnight (Monday), 31 of them are our gallant sailors who are linked to the Welisara camp. The two others are their contacts."



The COVID-19 infection is suspected to have spread in the Welisara Camp near capital Colombo when officers came in contact with drug addicts infected by the virus during a raid. The sailors had gone home on leave, spreading the virus further.

Silva said 752 positive cases were reported in the country since its first positive case in mid-March, of which 194 patients had been discharged from hospitals after complete recovery.

The Army chief said 1,008 relatives of Navy sailors are presently in quarantine.

The virus death rose to eight on Monday after a 72-year-old woman in northwestern Kurunegala region died of the disease. The woman was related to one of the infected sailors.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday spoke at an online summit of the Non Aligned Movement (NAM), a forum of around 120 developing countries.

Gotabaya said of all the PCR test only 3 per cent gave positive results and that the virus' mortality rate in Sri Lanka was less than 1 per cent.

The president said he intends to ease restriction to revive economic activities, while enforcing health guidelines.

The coronavirus, which first surfaced in China's Wuhan city in November last, has claimed over 250,000 lives and infected 3.5 million people across the world.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NEW YORK, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Medical Devices Market In Japan 2020-2024 The analyst has been monitoring the medical devices market in japan 2020-2024 and it is poised to grow by USD 6.65 bn during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of 4% during the forecast period. Our reports on medical devices market in japan 2020-2024 provides a holistic analysis, market size and forecast, trends, growth drivers, and challenges, as well as vendor analysis covering around 25 vendors. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current japan market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. The market is driven by sophisticated healthcare infrastructure along with favorable government initiatives. In addition, advent of devops is anticipated to boost the growth of the medical devices market in japan 2020-2024 as well. Market Segmentation This medical devices market in japan 2020-2024 is segmented as below: Product:  Medical And Diagnostic Equipment  Consumables And Supplies  Implants Application:  Orthopedic  Cardiovascular  Oncology  Dental  Gynecology And Urology  Ophthalmology  Dermatology  Others End-user:  Hospitals  Diagnostic Laboratories  ASCs Geographic Segmentation:  Japan Key Trends for medical devices market in japan 2020-2024 growth This study identifies advent of devops as the prime reasons driving the medical devices market in japan 2020-2024 growth during the next few years. Prominent vendors in medical devices market in japan 2020-2024 We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the medical devices market in japan 2020-2024, including some of the vendors such as Baxter International Inc., Becton, Dickinson and Co., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., General Electric Co., Hitachi Ltd., Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic Plc, Nipro Corp., Siemens AG and Terumo Corp. . The study was conducted using an objective combination of primary and secondary information including inputs from key participants in the industry. The report contains a comprehensive market and vendor landscape in addition to an analysis of the key vendors.

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Mumbai on Tuesday reported 635 new



COVID-19 cases and 26 deaths, taking the total case count to 9,758 and the death toll to 387, a BMC official said.

Of the 635 new cases, 120 patients had tested positive for coronavirus at various private laboratories between May 1 and May 3, he said.

"Of the 26 deaths, 22 patients had comorbidities while six deaths occurred between May 1 and 2," the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said in a release.

A total of 406 new suspected cases were admitted in various hospitals in the city, while 220 patients were discharged after recovery, taking their total number to 2128, it stated.

Meanwhile, a Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking spokesperson said that their 49 staffers have tested positive to coronavirus so far while 11 of them recovered.

The Mumbai civic body has decided to provide mandatory fitness certificates to stranded labourers willing to travel back to their home states through all municipal dispensaries and peripheral hospitals between 2-4 pm every day.

"Medical Officers, based on history and clinical examination, will confirm about presence of flu-like symptoms, COVID-19 like symptoms and issue the certificates," it said.

The civic body also appealed to labourers to not crowd big hospitals.

"All private nursing homes, hospitals, private medical practitioners should re-open their clinics, hospitals and start providing medical assistance to patients taking precautions to contain the spread of COVID-19," it said.

Mumbai COVID-19 figures are as follows:Positive cases 9758, new cases 636,total deaths 387, discharged people 2128, active cases 7243 and patients admitted so far 12,306.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
[May 05, 2020] Simeio Enables Secure and Private Online COVID-19 Test Results to Citizens of New Brunswick, Canada TORONTO and ATLANTA, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Simeio Solutions is pleased to announce they are a key solution provider in delivering secure and private online COVID-19 test results to citizens of the Province of New Brunswick, Canada.

New Brunswick has launched a new web portal where citizens can access their COVID-19 test results using a Digital Identity  as soon as the tests have been processed, usually within 24 to 48 hours. Previously, they had to wait for a call from a public health official. Simeio Solutions Canada worked with MyHealthNB to provide citizens with secure access to personal healthcare information, protecting their privacy when accessing personal lab test results for COVID-19 from their computer or mobile device. With this new web portal, patients can access their test results faster from the safety of their home, said Dr. Jennifer Russell, chief medical officer of health. Quicker access to test results will relieve some of the stress associated with the testing process, and enable those with positive tests to take immediate actions to protect the health of their family and community. Combating COVID-19 requires rapid response Simeio Identity as a Service solution was quickly deployed in just 18 days from receiving the initial request. The solution provides user registration, validation, identity verification, and secure services in both French and English. Simeio was able to meet very tight deadlines by leveraging the Simeio Identity Orchestrator (IO) and the Ping Identity technologies. This rapidly deployed identity solution is a testament to the advantages that innovative, full-service Digital Identity solutions canbring to government agencies, enterprises of all sizes and to virtually every industry that has, or is developing, digital infrastructure, states Asif Savvas, SVP at Simeio Solutions. Simeio is powering a number of citizen identity initiatives in digital government and eCommerce across North America, with more than 150 million Digital Identities managed. Im proud of the teams efforts to develop such a comprehensive Citizen Identity solution that meets the requirements of the Province of New Brunswick at its time of need, said Shawn Keve, Chief Revenue Officer at Simeio Solutions. By integrating into the healthcare systems, it ensures registered users have valid access to Medicare services. It also verifies that the individuals accessing the health data are who they claim to be through a secure Digital Identity verification process. Technology solutions improve secure access to critical health information This pandemic has demonstrated the critical need for digital services. Secure and trusted identity solutions must become ubiquitous to ensure that interactions and transactions are as secure in the digital world as they are in the physical world. Digital is no longer the nice to have or back-up strategy, it's the future, and the future is now, states Andre Durand, CEO at Ping Identity. Having testing results online frees up health workers from calling each tested patient, while patients receive faster access to their lab results. This also builds the foundation for additional health services to be made available through this service. About Simeio Solutions Simeio Solutions provides the industrys most complete Identity and Access Management solution delivered as a service and interoperable with leading IAM tools. We protect over 150 million identities globally for enterprises, institutions, and government entities of all sizes. Our platform and services provide the following set of enterprise-grade security and identity capabilities: Access Management and Federation, Access Request, Directory Services, Identity Governance and Administration, Identity Management and Administration, Privileged Access Management, Security & Risk Intelligence, Data Security & Loss Prevention, and Cloud Security. Simeio IDaaSwhich consists of Simeio Identity Orchestrator (IO), Simeio Identity Intelligence Center (IIC), and managed identity servicesbrings together best-in-class processes, professionals, and technologies focused entirely on management and protection of identities and related access controls. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and with Security Operations Centers worldwide, Simeio provides services to Global 2000 companies across all industries, and government entities. For more information, please visit www.simeiosolutions.com. Contact Information: Simeio Solutions Media Contacts:

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WOOD RIVER  A five-phase plan to reopen society was unveiled by Gov. J.B. Pritzker at the same time officials announced the largest number of coronavirus-related deaths reported in a 24-hour period, and Macoupin County reported its first COVID-19 death.

In making his announcement, Pritzker noted that the option of returning to normalcy does not exist until there is a vaccine, more testing, treatment or widespread immunity to COVID-19.

Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike reported 176 deaths, for a total of 2,838 statewide. She also reported 2,122 new cases, for a total of 65,962.

The Macoupin County Health Department also reported its first COVID-19 death, identified as a woman in her 40s.

The Madison County Health Department announced a total of two new coronavirus cases, and one death, bringing the total to 371 and 27, respectively. The deceased was identified as a woman in her 80s.

The Madison County figures include 78 people hospitalized and 108 recovered, meaning they have completed isolation. A higher number of females have tested positive, a total of 227.

More Information COVID-19 by the numbers Illinois - 65,962 (2,838 deaths) Madison County - 371 (27 deaths) Jersey County - 14 (1 death) Macoupin County - 36 (1 death) Greene County - 3 Calhoun County - 1 Montgomery County - 30 (1 death) St. Clair County - 579 (41 deaths) Clinton County - 115 (7 deaths) Bond County - 7 (1 death) Monroe County - 74 (11 deaths) Washington County - 14 Cases by ZIP code 62002 (Alton) - 52 62010 (Bethalto) - 8 62035 (Godfrey) - 12 62052 (Jerseyville) - 11 62095 (Wood River) - 9 62024 (East Alton) - 7 62025 (Edwardsville) - 96 62034 (Glen Carbon) - 42 62062 (Maryville) - 7 62294 (Troy) - 15 62040 (Granite City/Pontoon Beach) - 59 62234 (Collinsville) - 30 62060 (Madison) - 12 62090 (Venice) - 7 62249 (Highland) - 10 62088 (Staunton) - 6 62069 (Mount Olive) - 7 62056 (Litchfield) - 11 Sources: Illinois Department of Public Health and Madison County Health Department. See More Collapse

Information by ZIP code shows additional cases in the Alton, Godfrey, Maryville, Granite City/Pontoon Beach, Litchfield and Madison areas.

The IDPH is releasing case numbers by ZIP code for areas with more than five cases. Numbers are not released in ZIP codes with fewer cases to protect the privacy of patients.

The information is available at the IDPH website www.dph.illinois.gov. Click on the coronavirus banner, then COVID-19 statistics in the drop-down menu on the left side.

Additional cases have also been reported in Jersey, Macoupin, Montgomery, St. Clair, Clinton, Bond, Monroe and Washington counties, according to the IDPH website. Additional deaths were also noted in St. Clair and Clinton counties.

Ezike also said that 346,286 tests had been performed, including 13,139 in the past 24 hours.

She also said that there were 4,780 hospitalized, 1,266 were in ICU beds and 780 on ventilators.

Pritzker announced a five-phase plan, called Restore Illinois, saying it was based on science and data and would allow a more regional approach to reopening the state.

Generally, the first phase was the rapid spread of the virus, which occurred from early March to April 30. The second phase, which Pritzker said the state is in now, includes the modified stay-at-home orders, with adjustment made to offer flexibility with the advice of public health experts.

Regions meeting specific thresholds can move to the third phase, which includes the reopening of barbershops and other businesses, and public gatherings of up to 10 people.

The fourth phase would require continued declines in infection and hospitalization. At that point restaurants, bars, gyms and other businesses could open with capacity limits; schools could reopen and gatherings would be limited to about 50 people.

The fifth, and final, phase would occur when other benchmarks are achieved, including either a vaccine or effective treatment.

It brings me no joy to say this, but based on what the experts tell us, large conventions, festivals and other events will be on hold until phase five, Pritzker said.

To view the entire five-phase plan, visit www.coronavirus.illinois.gov.

For the latest information on COVID-19 or coronavirus resources, visit the Madison County Health Department online at www.madisonchd.org or on Facebook @MadisonCHD. Also visit www.co.madison.il.us for more news and a daily update or on Facebook @MadisonCountyIL.
Credit: EPFL/J.Schmale

More than two months ago, EPFL researcher Julia Schmale joined the crew of the Polarstern, a German research icebreaker that has been drifting slowly through the frozen waters starting north of Siberia towards Svalbard since September last year. The vessel is carrying an international team of scientists on a year-long research expedition, working in unusual and often challenging conditions: changeable weather, temperatures plummeting as low as 40C, interminable darkness giving way to endless daylight, and ice as far as the eye can see.

The crew is carrying out research as part of a major expedition titled Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate, or MOSAiC for short, which aims to gain fundamental insights into conditions in the Arctic, the impact of climate change on the region and vice versa the region's influence on global climate change.

Schmale, an atmospheric scientist, is leading the observatory's atmospheric research team. She had planned a mid-April return to Switzerland, where she was recently appointed head of the brand-new Extreme Environments Research Laboratory at EPFL, but the COVID-19 crisis means she will remain on board until early June. Schmale is no stranger to polar environments, having taken part in the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE) in 2017. Her role in this latest expedition is to study how airborne molecules and particles influence cloud formations in the Arctic. In this interview, she talks to us from the front line about living and working in this extreme environment, what it's like to head out onto the ice floe, and the aims and methods of her research. The complete interview is soon to be read on the EPFL Out there website.

What's it like living and working on the ice?

"Unpredictable. The icescape changes frequently and new cracks, leads and ridges form overnight, often preventing us from reaching our research sites on the ice. Depending on how severe the changes are, we might need to go scouting for a new route or reschedule whatever activities we had planned. Sometimes the ice becomes dynamic during the day while we're out. When that happens, we either have to keep a close eye on our path back to the ship or we get called back by the bridge, where the on-board team coordinates and monitors activities out on the ice. Before we head out, we always complete a trip log detailing who's going where, what gear they're carrying andimportantlywho's acting as the polar bear guard. Most of us are qualified polar bear guards, a role that involves keeping a permanent lookout while our colleagues are working. We carry a flare gun to scare any bears away, as well as a rifle to use if an animal approaches us too quickly. On 23 April, we saw the first bear on our floe since we arrived in early March.

The environment is just beautiful. It was still dark when we arrived, with only a slither of daylight on the horizon. The research sites on the floe looked far away, but they were easy to reach across flat ice. Now, with the sun up 24 hours a day, everything seems much closer. But moving about is much harder because many leads and cracks have formed, especially between the ship and our team's main research site. With temperatures at around 20C, open leads freeze over relatively quicklyabout 6 cm in one day. Sometimes, ridges form when open leads close and we can end up surrounded by ice rising up to 6 meters high in just a couple of hours. On occasion, we can hear the ice moving and, if it happens fast, we can also see it. It's also fascinating to watch frost flowers grow. We sample them to learn about their biogeochemistry.

Credit: EPFL/J.Schmale

And what about the weather?

We've experienced the full range of Arctic weather conditions in our time here. We've had persistent low temperatures of 40C, which makes working outdoors very challenging and renders some of ship's equipment unusable. March was particularly stormy, with strong winds and a few complete whiteouts. Conditions have settled down recently, though. We have clear skies, sunshine and light windsvery much like winter in the Alps. Now that we've drifted below 84N, warm air mass intrusions from the Atlantic are pushing temperatures as high as 0C, bringing surface melt and rain.

What samples are you collecting and why?

I'm studying the extent to which natural and human emissions modify low-level Arctic clouds. These clouds play a vital role in maintaining the Arctic's energy and mass balances because they reflect and absorb radiation, and because they contribute to snow cover through precipitation. In general, clouds only form in the presence of cloud condensation nuclei or ice nucleating particles. These are a subset of aerosol particles that can originate from natural sources such as sea spray, phytoplankton emissions or blowing snow, but also from human activities such as fossil-fuel combustion, other industrial emissions and agriculture.

We can use our on-board instrumentation to characterize aerosol particles in terms of their microphysical and chemical properties. Variables such as number concentration, particle size distribution, hygroscopicity, chemical composition and fluorescence help us to understand their originnatural or humanand their potential effects on clouds. Our end goal is to understand how far natural versus human-made processes contribute to cloud formation and to the energy balance in the Arctic, and how this might change as the so-called "New Arctic" evolves and human emissions change in the future. Ultimately, this information can be used in Arctic climate change scenarios.

Credit: EPFL/J.Schmale

What have you learned about the Arctic air so far?

By looking at the data, I get an almost real-time picture of the composition of the atmosphere. When air masses come from the northfrom the High Arcticthe aerosol population is aged, meaning several days to weeks old, and consists mainly of sulfuric acid. This is a common winter phenomenon known as Arctic haze, when sulfur dioxide emissionsmostly from human activity in the mid and high latitudesaccumulate over the wintertime. The haze began forming back in November. Initially, the concentration was about 50 particles per cubic centimeter. Now it's risen to 200.

During stormy conditions, salty snow is lifted into the air where it forms aerosol particles. The number of particles depends on several factors, including the microstructure of the snow, how wind-pressed it was, and its surface roughness. Because these particles make up a significant share of the overall aerosol population, they likely play an important role in cloud formation.

When air masses arrive from the south, however, all these variables are different. The particles have been processed by clouds, and differ in origin, size and chemical composition. Mid-April is the time when phytoplankton blooms happen in the Atlantic. These blooms emit dimethyl sulfide, which is transformed to methanesulfonic acida tracer that we're now seeing in the aerosol particles. We've also found halogensiodic acid and brominein the aerosol population. These are more local in origin, and are connected to snow chemistry and UV radiation. And, of course, we also see exhaust particles from the ship, skidoos and helicopters. They carry a distinctive signature that sets them apart from other aerosol types.

Credit: EPFL/J.Schmale

Have you personally observed changes in the Arctic climate?

That's a difficult question. I don't have a reliable benchmark because this is the first time that I, like many other members of the team, have been this far north at this time of year. Generally speaking, we didn't anticipate observing so much mobile ice so early in the year. We expected to see a much more consolidated ice pack. But this might not necessarily be a sign of climate change. What was striking, however, was that precipitation fell as rain instead of snow when Atlantic air masses arrived in mid-April.

Is the COVID-19 crisis affecting life on an Arctic research vessel?

Yes, definitely. It's affecting us in two main ways. First, we're all hearing news from home about how the world has changed and what it means for our families, friends and colleagues. It's a real cause for concern and we talk about the pandemic a lot. Second, the outbreak has disrupted the crew changeover schedule. It's taken us several weeks to figure out our options, given the travel restrictions in force around the world. Despite the delays and uncertainty around when we'll return home, I'm happy to report that crew morale is high. We've grown together as a fantastic team of scientists who communicate openly and look out for each other. It's also made my job much easier, as one of the five science team leaders on board.

As someone who's used to spending long periods on boats, how are you coping with living under lockdown?

I'd hardly call this a lockdown. We have a lot more freedom than people back at home. We can still work, go out, hold social gatherings, exercise and eat together. Of course, we can't travel far from the ship and our activity options are limited. But you don't really notice those things when you're surrounded by such a fascinating environment, making friends and building new working relationships. All in all, it's been an immensely satisfying and rewarding experience."

Explore further Pandemic forces Arctic expedition to take 3-week break
New Delhi: Actress Priya Prakash Varrier got huge recognition in 2018 after her a clip of her wink in Malayalam film Oru Adaar Love went viral. She became an overnight sensation and the nation was crushing over her video. It was at that time when late actor Rishi Kapoor predicted huge stardom for Priya and was all praises for her. He also quipped why didnt she come during his time.

On Thursday (April 30), when he died in Mumbai, Priya Prakash Varrier remembered the actors words for her and on her Instagram page, she shared a screenshot of the same tweet and paid her tribute to him.

In his tweet on February 16, 2018, Rishi Kapoor had written, "I predict huge stardom for this girl. Priya Warrier. So expressive, coy coquettish yet innocent. My dear Priya, you going to give all others in your age group a run for their money. God Bless and the best to you! Mere time mein naheen ayeen aap! Kyon? Lol."

Check out his tweet here:

I predict huge Stardom for this girl. Priya Warrier. So expressive,coy coquettish yet innocent. My dear Priya, you going to give all others in your age group a run for their money. God Bless and the best to you! Mere time mein naheen ayeen aap! Kyon? Lol pic.twitter.com/laYL1YE3Me  Rishi Kapoor (@chintskap) February 16, 2018

Meanwhile, in her tribute remembering Rishi Kapoor, Priya wrote, I cant even begin to tell you how much these words mean to me. They motivate and help me have faith even when I refuse to believe in myself. It is one thing I shall cherish forever. I wish mein apke time mein hoti aur bas ek baar apse milti. May your soul rest in peace, sir.

Rishi Kapoor died at a hospital in Mumbai. He battled leukemia for two years. The veteran actor is survived by wife Neetu Kapoor, daughter Riddhima Kapoor Sahni and actor Ranbir Kapoor. Rishi Kapoors prayer meeting was held over the weekend and his ashes were immersed in Banganga in Mumbai.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 6)  The Commission on Human Rights denounced the order from the National Telecommunications Commission to shut down broadcast operations of media giant ABS-CBN Corporation.

CHR Spokesperson Jacqueline De Guia said that the NTC decision will have a negative impact on media and freedom of expression.

The Commission on Human Rights is deeply concerned with the decision knowing how this move sends a chilling effect on free media and impacts negatively on freedom of expression, said De Guia in a statement.

CHR also emphasized the importance of media in reporting the truth to the people and making officials accountable for good governance.

The information that media delivers to us every day allows every citizen to make critical decisions on their lives and enables them to demand better services, especially from the government, the commission said.

De Guia also cited that access to credible information is very crucial in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

With the station off the air, we lose another voice that people rely on for critical information on how to protect themselves and their loved ones from the ill-effects of the virus, she told.

The human rights body also lamented the unfortunate situation of the 11,000 workforce of the Lopez-owned broadcasting company, as they will struggle for a source of living aggravated by lockdowns and quarantines.

It is ironic that days after we commemorated Labor Day on May 1, workers of ABS-CBN now face the uncertainty of having no means to support themselves, their families, and even fellow Filipinos in this dire time, CHR added.

CHR appealed for vigilance in affording the equal protection of laws to ABS-CBN amid the shutdown of the companys five AM stations, 18 FM stations and 42 TV stations.

The NTC ordered ABS-CBN yesterday to stop its operations due to the expiration of its legislative franchise on May 4, 2020. It walked back from its promise to legislators last March to issue a provisional permit pending the network's franchise renewal.

President Rodrigo Duterte has been publicly ranting against ABS-CBN since assuming office, saying the network refused to carry his campaign commercials even if they had been already paid for.

In 2018, Duterte said he will block the renewal of the network's franchise. Last year, he told the Lopez family to just sell the company to a new owner to boost its chances of staying in business.

However, the President accepted the apology offered by ABS-CBN President Carlo Katigbak during a Senate hearing for airing an anti-Duterte ad during the 2016 campaign which was paid for by the opposition.

Several media organizations denounced the move by NTC to cease and desist the operations of ABS-CBN.

READ: Media organizations condemn NTC order to shut down ABS-CBN
Israel's Likud submits bill to Knesset to annex more Palestinian land

Iran Press TV

Monday, 04 May 2020 2:08 PM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party has submitted a bill to the Knesset that calls for occupying more Palestinian territories against the backdrop of a much-condemned peace scheme proposed by President Donald Trump of the United States emboldening Israel to usurp more Palestinian land.

Lawmaker May Golan from Likud handed the document to the parliament on Sunday.

The bill urges imposition of Israel's "sovereignty" over the Palestinian regions of the Jordan Valley, the northern Dead Sea area and the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Information Center reported on Monday.

"This is an area that is a political, security, and economic asset, and there are thousands of Zionist Israelis and true pioneers who are an integral part of" Israel there, Golan claimed.

Netanyahu, in several occasions, has stressed that he would start plans for annexing more areas in the West Bank on July 1, according to Trump's plan, commonly known as the "Deal of the Century."

Defying international outcry, Trump officially unveiled his the proposal for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in January at the White House with Netanyahu on his side, while Palestinian representatives were not invited.

Trump's Middle East scheme largely meets Israel's demands while creating a Palestinian state with limited control over its own security and borders, enshrining the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds as "Israel's undivided capital" and allowing the regime to annex settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley.

Officially known as the "Peace to Prosperity," the proposal, which further denies the right of return for Palestinian refugees to their homeland, is also in total disregard for UN Security Council resolutions and the opposition by the vast majority of the international community.

Elsewhere in her remarks, Golan said the document was "intended to rectify the existing situation and end all historical injustice. I have no doubt that there is a broad consensus in all parts of the Knesset that supports the proposal and it is time to implement it."

Citing Israel's Channel 7, the report said Economy Minister and Knesset Likud member Eli Cohen had also put some weight behind the initiative.

David Elhayani, the chairman of the Yesha Council, an umbrella organization of municipal councils of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, has applauded Golan, who received an exemption from the initial reading of the bill on Sunday.

"The proposed law would apply Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (the occupied West Bank) and the Jordan Valley without recognition of a 'Palestinian state' that endangers the future of" Israel, he said.

Furthermore, Elhayani urged all Knesset members to "stand behind the bill" and "to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, God forbid," claiming that the bill does not refer to Trump's peace scheme, as it claims to ensure the establishment of a "two-state" solution.

Palestinian leaders  who severed all ties with Washington in late 2017 after Trump's recognition of Jerusalem al-Quds as the "capital" of Israel proved controversial  immediately rejected the Trump 'deal,' with President Mahmoud Abbas saying it "belongs to the dustbin of history."

They view the deal as Washington's seal of approval for Israel's long-desired annexation of territories it has been illegally occupying for decades.

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Update: Authorities on Wednesday, May 6, 2020, said Sharp was back in custody. No additional details were immediately released.

Earlier: The search continues for an inmate who escaped Monday from the Butler County Jail.

Jerome Sharp, 32, made his getaway about 5 a.m. by disabling a fence gate locking system. The U.S. Marshals have now joined in on the search for him.

Sharp had been in custody with the Butler County Sheriffs Office for a domestic violence assault with a firearm charge. Authorities said that because of the new charge, his probation on a previous charge was revoked making Sharp an inmate of both the Alabama Department of Corrections and the Butler County Sheriffs Office.

Sharp was serving a 20-year prison sentence for a 2011 first-degree robbery conviction out of Montgomery County.

Sharp is 5-feet, 9-inches tall and weighs about 180 pounds. He has multiple tattoos on his arms.

Authorities are searching for Jerome Sharp who escaped from the Butler County Jail May 4, 2020. (Central Alabama Crime Stoppers)

Authorities said he may still have ties in the Montgomery area. He has previous arrests for robbery and burglary and should be considered armed and dangerous.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call police or Central Alabama Crime Stoppers at 334-215-STOP (7867) or contact investigators through the P3-tips app. Tipsters can also call the toll-free number at 1-833-AL1-STOP.
First in Nation Charged with Fraudulently Seeking Virus Relief Loans

Two businessmen were charged with fraudulently seeking loans from a federal loan program created to dole out money to businesses suffering during the COVID-19 pandemic, the first such charges leveled anywhere in the country relating to the program.

Federal prosecutors said Kurt Sanborn and David Butziger were charged with conspiring to make false statement and conspiracy to seek bank fraud.

The men allegedly filed applications claiming to have dozens of employees earning wages at four different businesses but actually have no employees working for them.

At issue is the Paycheck Protection Program, created by Congress through recent legislation to help struggling businesses pay workers because of harsh restrictions imposed across the nation.

Sanborn, 52, lives in Andover, Massachusetts.

Butziger, 51, lives in Warwick, Rhode Island.

Every dollar stolen from the Paycheck Protection Program comes at the expense of employees and small business owners who are working hard to make it through these difficult times, Brian Benczkowski, an assistant attorney general in the Department of Justices Criminal Division, said in a statement.

President Donald Trump signs the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on April 24, 2020. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

It is unconscionable that anyone would attempt to steal from a program intended to help hard working Americans continue to be paid so they can feed their families and pay some of their bills, added Aaron Weisman, a U.S. attorney for the District of Rhode Island.

Sanborn was also charged with aggravated identity theft and Butziger was also charged with bank fraud. They were seeking over $500,000 in loans, prosecutors said.

Federal officials said last month they would audit businesses that applied for the loans, which are forgivable if certain rules are followed. The auditing would focus on businesses that received more than $2 million, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

A probe found that two of the businesses Sanborn said employed dozens of workers werent open for business when the COVID-19 pandemic started and have not been open since. Sanborn didnt own or have a role in a third restaurant he listed in the application for more than $438,500.

Sanborns restaurant in Massachusetts was shut down on March 10 when the town of Berlin revoked its liquor license in part because he allegedly misrepresented that his brother owned the restaurant. Investigators obtained information Sanborn impersonated his brother during real estate transactions.

Butziger, meanwhile, applied for a $105,381 loan from the federal government, saying he owned a company named Dock Wireless. Butziger told an FBI undercover agent posing as a bank compliance officer that he had seven full-time employees, including himself.

According to information from the Rhode Island State Department of Revenue, neither Butziger nor the company paid employees this year. Several people who were listed as employees told agents they never worked for the man or Dock Wireless.
MONTREALThe major crimes unit of Quebecs provincial police is investigating after four cellphone towers north of Montreal were set on fire within the span of a few days.

Provincial police spokesman Marc Tessier says the latest fire occurred at a Rogers-owned tower in Laval on Tuesday morning. Its the second fire since Friday to hit one of the companys towers in that city.

Two other towers about 70 kilometres north of Montreal  one operated by Rogers and the other by Bell  were hit early Monday morning.

Tessier says the major crimes unit will investigate possible links between the four fires, including whether they can be traced back to people espousing conspiracy theories about 5G technology.

False narratives around COVID-19 and 5G  the fifth-generation technology standard for cellphone companies  have been shared hundreds of thousands of times on social media, leading to attacks on towers across Europe.

None of the Quebec towers targeted by suspected arson have 5G capabilities.

Mariepier Des Lauriers, spokeswoman for the town of Prevost, where a Rogers-operated tower was hit Monday morning, said that in recent weeks many residents brought up unfounded conspiracy theories linking 5G technology to COVID-19.

On Sunday, the small town wrote a message on its Facebook page specifying that its cellphone tower did not have 5G capability in response to numerous questions from concerned citizens.

A spokesperson for Rogers said the company is thankful no one was hurt, but cited concern that critical infrastructure appears to have been deliberately targeted.

The company said it was able to optimize tower equipment in the area to ensure service could continue.

Federal Industry Minister Navdeep Bains said on Twitter that he was troubled by the reports of vandalism of Canadian cell towers.

As many of us are staying home, were relying on wireless and internet services to connect to our work, school, and loved ones. These criminal acts are completely unacceptable and threaten emergency services, Bains wrote.

Some 50 fires targeting cell towers and other equipment have been recently reported in Britain, leading to three arrests. About 16 have been torched in the Netherlands, with attacks also reported in Ireland, Cyprus, and Belgium.

 With files from The Associated Press.

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The History department of the Lomonosov Moscow State University creates an online gallery in support of the immortal regiment - an international public civil-patriotic movement. The event is timed to the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.

The organizers report that an album with photographs and brief information about the history faculty members, their relatives and friends who participated in the Great Patriotic War will be posted on the facultys website in the public domain. "Students, graduate students, graduates and employees of our faculty are invited to participate in this wonderful project. We are waiting for photographs of your family members. Any photographs can be used, preferably from the1930s-early 1950s (but the later period is also appropriate). People on the photos may be in military uniform or not, both dead and still alive, children and adults, the press release states.

The letter with the photos must be sent to anntal@mail.ru with the subject of the letter - Immortal Regiment. "Photographic materials are attached to the letter in the form of files. Image file format can be .tif, .jpg or .png ( .jpg is the preferred format), "the message reads.

The information that should be sent with the photo is the following: name of the person depicted, date of life, how are you related to each other, several facts about his wartime if you have such information). The entire text should be written in the body of the letter, "the organizers inform.

The information should be sent by May 6, as "materials submitted later will appear in the album later."

In addition, everyone is invited to a traditional concert in the department, which will be held online on May 9 at 14:00.
Rebekah Vardy is reportedly demanding a public apology from Coleen Rooney for accusing her of selling stories to the press about her.

Hours after the WAGs were set to face off in their first virtual meeting since the feud was ignited seven months ago, Rebekah, 38, reportedly said she would settle for nothing less than a public apology.

A source told The Sun: 'Becky is adamant she's done nothing wrong and while she wants an end to this ongoing legal battle, she also wants to be vindicated. Becky has told her team she wants a public apology.

Apology: Rebekah Vardy, 38, is reportedly demanding a public apology from Coleen Rooney for accusing her of selling stories to the press about her (pictured in February 2020)

'She was really hurt that Coleen went straight on social media to lay blame at her door, rather than speaking to her privately.

'She has maintained her innocence throughout and doesnt want this to be brushed under the carpet without Coleen publicly apologising to her for the fallout which followed, including a huge amount of abuse on social media.

Rebekah, who is married to Jamie Vardy, 33, and Coleen, 34, who is married to Wayne Rooney, also 34, were previously good pals until Coleen accused Becky of selling fake stories to the press about her in an explosive social media statement.

MailOnline has contacted representatives for both Rebekah and Coleen for comment.

A source told The Sun : 'Becky is adamant she's done nothing wrong and while she wants an end to this ongoing legal battle, she also wants to be vindicated' (Coleen, 34, pictured)

It comes after the WAGS were said to be holding an arbitration hearing via Zoom in a bid to avoid an expensive court case after racking up legal costs in the 'five figures'.

Rebekah has allegedly 'threatened to sue for libel' while Coleen has warned she will hit back with a 'countersue for breach of privacy'. The two WAGs will reportedly appear at the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) with their lawyers.

A source told The Sun: 'This is a final roll of the dice to prevent a court case  but both Becky and Coleen are still as determined as ever to be proven right.

'They have both been strongly advised to reach an agreement but they're both totally determined to stick to their guns.

The source added: 'She was really hurt that Coleen went straight on social media to lay blame at her door, rather than speaking to her privately' (pictured in February 2020)

'Unless they can agree to walk away, the costs are only going to continue climbing.'

In October, Coleen publicly accused Rebekah in a statement of selling fake stories about her, sparking an angry denial from the then pregnant WAG.

The mother-of-four took to social media to reveal she had suspected someone close to her had been betraying her for years and admitted she had been planting false Instagram stories on her private page to catch Rebekah.

Avoiding court: The wife of Wayne Rooney and wife of Jamie Vardy are said to be holding an arbitration hearing via Zoom in a bid to avoid an expensive court case after racking up legal costs in the 'five figures' (pictured together in 2016)

Coleen admitted that stories about her basement flooding, returning to TV and gender selection were only viewed by Rebekah and these were subsequently followed by media outlets, including MailOnline.

Rebekah, who denies all allegations, cut her family holiday to Dubai short after Coleen's dramatic accusation, which captured Britain in the so-called 'war of the WAGs' and earned Coleen the nickname of 'Wagatha Christie' by fans.

At the time, sources close to Rebekah said leading law firm, Kingsley Napley, had sent Coleen a letter on her behalf demanding she provides them with the evidence she has against Becky so that she can complete her investigation.

Accusations: In October, Coleen (pictured in 2018) publicly accused Rebekah in an explosive statement of selling fake stories about her, sparking an angry denial from the then pregnant WAG

Becky is said to have called in a forensic team to analyse her Instagram account following the explosive claims. The aim is to identify the mole who sold fake stories to The Sun from Coleen's Instagram account.

Coleen wrote on October 9: 'For a few years now someone who I trusted to follow me on my personal Instagram account has been consistently informing The Sun newspaper of my private posts and stories.

'There has been so much information given to them about me, my friends and my family - all without my permission or knowledge.

'Libel': Rebekah (pictured in 2019) has allegedly 'threatened to sue for libel' while Coleen has warned she will hit back with a 'countersue for breach of privacy'. The two WAGs will reportedly appear at the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) with their lawyers

'After a long time of trying to figure out who it could be, for various reasons, I had a suspicion. To try and prove this, I came up with an idea, I blocked everyone from viewing Instagram except ONE account.'

She continued: '(Those on my private account must have been wondering why I haven't had stories on there for a while).

'Over the past five months I have posted a series of false stories to see if they made their way into the Sun newspaper.

'And you know what, they did! The story about gender selection in Mexico, the story about returning to TV and then the latest story about the basement flood in my new house.

The statement: Coleen made these claims on Instagram on October 9 after discovering she had been betrayed by someone close to her and she concluded that it was Rebekah's account

'It's been tough keeping it to myself and not making any comment at all, especially when the stories have been leaked, however I had to. Now I know for certain which account/individual it's come from.

'I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them. It's......... Rebekah Vardy's account.'

She also wrote: 'This has been a burden in my life for a few years now and finally I have got to the bottom of it......'

Cryptic: Coleen tweeted these words back in January, highlighting how she has been trying to get to the bottom of who was leaking stories on her life for some time

Rebekah hit back minutes later on social media and denied the accusations, she wrote: 'Can't believe I'm even having to write this. I'm pregnant & on holiday & am at a loss to why she would do this.

'I'm now having to take legal advice as I can't deal with this stress myself when I'm this pregnant. As I have just said to you on the phone, I wish you had called me if you thought this.

'I never speak to anyone about you as various journalists who have asked me to over the years can vouch for. If you thought this was happening you can could have told me & I could have changed my passwords to see if it stopped.'

'I don't need the money': Rebekah denied all accusations against her minutes after the post and said she had nothing to gain and had no financial motivation

She continued: 'Over the years various people have had access to my Insta & just this week I found I was following people I didn't know and have never followed myself.

'I'm not being funny but I don't need the money, what would I gain from selling stories on you? I liked you a lot Coleen & I'm so upset that you have chosen to do this especially when I'm heavily pregnant.

'I'm disgusted that I'm even having to deny this. You should have called me the first time this happened.'
Description

GIS - 05 May, 2020: The timely and effective implementation of this powerful measure as part of a comprehensive package of public health response and containment measures has contributed significantly to contain the spread of the new corona virus in the country. As a matter of fact, for the last eight consecutive days, there have been no new reported cases of Covid-19 and we have presently only three active cases. Government has adopted a consultative approach with stakeholders to implement the proposed phased resumption of economic activities.

The Prime Minister, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth made this statement this morning at the National Assembly in reply to the Private Notice Question pertaining to Governments strategy and plan as regard the easing of confinement restrictions as from the 15 May 2020.

The Prime Minister underlined that Government has been acting with much foresight in the management of Covid-19 crisis and had already taken a number of preventive measures as from 07 January 2020 and as soon as the first case was detected on 18 March 2020 in Mauritius, a sanitary confinement was imposed as from 20 March 2020.

He recalled that a curfew order was issued 22 March 2020 and subsequently extended on three occasions as it was considered necessary and expedient for the purposes of preventing the spread of the Corona virus and for the protection of the population.

The Prime Minister underlined that Governments strategy and plan have been carefully thought out and are based on scientific evidence and geared towards preventing a resurgence of Coovid-19. In fact, a National Steering Committee as well as four sub-committees will be set up to develop a post-curfew strategy and an action plan for a phased resumption of economic activities, he added.

Mr Jugnauth underpinned Governments strategy and action plan as essentially hinging around one central concern, which is the continued protection of public health which remains top priority.

He underscored that Government intends by all means to avoid risk of resurgence with a second wave of Covid-19 infections, hence the decision for a phased approach for resumption of activities.

As for the strengthening the health care preparedness and capabilities, Government has taken several measures in terms of procurement of essential supplies and equipment and implementation of a number of protocols and training of staffs, highlighted Prime Minister Jugnauth.

Furthermore, Government is envisaging the introduction of the following new legislations to enhance responses to infectious diseases, namely: a Covid-19 Bill, a new quarantine bill, a new public health act.

In addition, he indicated health service is increasing capacity of PCR tests as well as carrying out Rapid Antigen test to know the dynamic of the epidemic and maintaining contact tracing by well-trained personnel.

Pravind Jugnauth added that five centres to specially cater for Covid-19 patients are being set up in the regional hospitals with a total of 60 intensive care units and 300 beds.

The Prime Minister provided the House with various details on the financial support provided by the Government. In respect to The Self-Employed Assistance Scheme , the MRA has as at 04 may 2020, received 253 102 applications and has already approved 189 476 of them and regarding the period 16 March- 15 April 2020 made payments to 277 714 applicants, representing a sum of Rs 906 M. As for the period of 16- 30 April 2020, has allocated Rs 2 550 to some 138 670 self-employed , which amounts to Rs 354 m.

He recalled that a Wage Assistance Scheme has also been set up to provide financial support to private sector employees. Some 15 787 applications from enterprises have been received for the period of March 2020 out of which 14 271 have been approved and Rs 1.6 billion has been disbursed for 15 days in March for 246 374 employees working in 12 668 enterprises.

For April 2020, 13 286 applications were received of which 12 380 have been approved and representing an amount of Rs 2,8 billion, highlighted the Prime Minister .

He indicated that Business Mauritius will implement a protocol on post-curfew work arrangement that has been cleared with the Government. In regards of the public sector, a comprehensive circular has been issued to all ministries and departments.

Government Information Service, Prime Ministers Office, Level 6, New Government Centre, Port Louis, Mauritius. Email: gis@govmu.org Website: http://gis.govmu.org Mobile App: Search Gov
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Minneapolis, Minnesota - The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a precedential opinion on Friday, April 24, 2020, affirming a district court decision that a transaction designed to generate massive foreign tax credits (referred to as the STARS tax shelter) lacked economic substance and business purpose and was subject to the accuracy-related penalty for negligence, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joshua Wu of the Justice Departments Tax Division.

In Wells Fargo v. United States, No. 17-3578, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota and the position of the United States. Wells Fargo, like several other U.S. banks, had entered into the STARS shelter, a transaction promoted to them by Barclays PLC and KPMG as a method of generating foreign tax credits on U.S. income. The Eighth Circuit rejected the transaction as an economic sham subject to penalties, consistent with the decisions of three other courts of appeals. In rejecting Wells Fargos appeal, the court agreed with the government that STARS was an elaborate and unlawful tax avoidance scheme, designed to exploit the differences between the tax laws of the U.S. and the U.K. and generate U.S. tax credits for a foreign tax that Wells Fargo did not, in substance, pay.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman thanked Tax Division attorney Judith Hagley and former Tax Division attorneys Gilbert Rothenberg and Richard Farber, who handled the case on appeal for the government, as well as Chief Senior Litigation Counsel Dennis Donohue, Senior Litigation Counsel Kari Larson, trial attorneys William Farrior, Harris Phillips, Matthew Johnshoy, and former Tax Division attorney Viki Economides Farrior, who litigated the case in the district court.
The Azaan or the Muslim prayer call is given out from the mosques five times a day by a Muazzin. The call of the Muazzin is considered an art form, reflected in the melodious chanting of the adha and its conventionally a man who recites a prayer. Islamic tradition does not allow women to perform many religious roles, however, in this day and age many are breaking tradition.



Instagram/Urvah Khan

Like this Pakistan born Canadian woman whose rendition of Azaan kicked up a storm social media. In a viral Instagram post, a woman named Urvah Khan, dressed in jeans and top and her arms tattooed, seems to have broken multiple stereotypes. The brief clip is from her album Muhaajir (the Immigrant Songs).



Khan uploaded the video on April 24 and said, Ramadan Mubarak! As a Karachi born Canadian Pakistani, my memory of the Azaan is ingrained in early childhood experience. The crackling loud speakers, the daily rituals, all part of a youth gone, but not forgotten. It dawned on me this Ramadan that I had never heard the Azaan sung with a woman's voice, and likely never would.

The video soon went viral and also faced the wrath of hateful comments. Many of them condemned her act of saying the Azaan and some commented saying her attire, her tattoos and cropped hair was an insult to Islam.

Ur head is not covered.. and u r giving azan, as if it is no big deal.! Sorry but u dont know Islam, reads one comment.

Wth. Shut up ur caption and ur act doesn't make sense. Only male person can call "Azan" . U are a true fitna, read another distasteful comment.

After a barrage of online hate, Urvah Khan took to Instagram with another post which read, 'Me while reading the comments on my last post.'

'Religion is a horror movie. Should be Rated 19+,' she added in another post.

Instagram/Urvah Khan

After the follow-up post an Instagram user commented saying, 'We don't wnna spread hate but plzz try to understand that there are some guidelines for islam nd I won't object uh for what uh do but that thing about azzan is wrong plzz Don't do that it would only bring uh near jahnam I hope uh will undrstnd bcuz if uh follow a religion plzz try to respect it hope Allah gives uh hidayat soon.'

The Azaan rendered by a woman has been a controversial issue. According to News18, in November 2018, religious scholars in Kerala staged protests after a school enacted a play where a girl gave out the muslim call for prayer. It was dubbed as an insult to the religion.
Health workers take a break from screening migrant workers taking buses out of the state at the Majestic bus station in Bengaluru. (DC Photo by Satish B)o Bangalore international center tumkur road to take the migrants to their respective home at Kempegowda Bus station in Bengaluru on Tuesday.Photo Satish.B

Bengaluru: Forty days into the coronavirus lockdown, how you feel about the epidemic depends on what stats youre looking at. The Karnataka government, eager to open up the economy, is surely looking at two very rosy numbers: the low rate of COVID-19 cases and the high rate of recovery.

As of Tuesday, the total number of COVID-19 positives in Karnataka stood at 659. However, active cases are only 335. If you looked at those figures, youd say its justified to open up and go back to work.

However, other figures would tell you a different story. While the national Covid-19 mortality rate is 3.24 per cent, Karnatakas is 4.14, which is more comparable to the mortality rate of 4.22 per cent prevalent in neighbouring Maharashtra, a state thats being knackered by the virus.

More worrying for Karnataka, new areas are coming under the grip of COVID-19 by way of travel to Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, both hotspot states.

As a matter of fact, Karnataka has witnessed seven deaths since Friday, including that of a woman in Vijayapura who died on Tuesday. The woman reportedly had a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma.

With her death the total number of deaths has risen to 28.

Besides, eight fresh corona positive cases were reported on Tuesday: three from Bangalore, two from Bagalkot, one each from Bellary, Dakshin Kannada and Uttara Kannada.

Of the three cases reported from Bengaluru, health officials are flummoxed by one of them, a 30-year-old pregnant woman. They dont know where she got the virus from. She was indoors with her family at BTM Layout and had no external contacts. She tested positive when the Jayanagar private hospital she visited for a routine health check up conducted a Covid 19 test along with other routine tests and it came back positive.

Officials are planning to seal the private hospital at Jayanagar and are planning to quarantine all its doctors and staff who may have come in contact with the woman.

As the corona test was done at a private lab, officials have send the womans throat swabs of to National Institute of Virology at Pune for confirmation.

Another of the three fresh cases, this one from Ballari, is of a 43-year-old male who had travel history to Uttarakhand. With no source of public transport, this person travelled in trucks carrying essentials. He tested positive when he landed at Ballari.

The third case is from Gadag, another preganant woman. Two private hospitals in that town have been sealed after she tested positive. She had visited these two hospitals and had also visited her village in Ron Taluk at Gadag district. Officials have started to trace her contacts.

Just as Davanagere is on tenterhooks after 22 cases erupted there in one day, its neighboring town of Havari too has come up on the corona map of Karnataka. This too has a Mumbai connection just as Davanageres return to corona does. A 32-year-old man from Savanuru who had been working in Mumbai before the lockdown had managed to travel back to his village in a truck. Learning about his return two days later, health officials took his swab for testing. His test returned positive.

Mandya district has witnessed two more fresh positive cases from K R Pet taluk. It was a case where the body of a person who died of COVID-19 in Mumbai was brought to Mandya for cremation. Two women aged 19 and 20 years had traveled with the dead body and now, they have tested positive to COVID-19.

A man from Chincholi in Kalaburgi district who returned from Hyderabad some time ago has tested positive for COVID-19. So far, Chincholi taluk has been free from the coronavirus and the district administration has now turned its attention to Chincholi.
Girls and young women shouldn't spend a lot of time editing selfies for social media because it negatively influences their thoughts about their looks, according to a new Flinders University publication.

In a study published in Body Image, Flinders University psychology researchers asked 130 women aged 18 to 30 to view Instagram snaps of thin and average sized women, before analysing their selfie habits.

They found that the longer the women took to edit and post selfies, the worse their mood and dissatisfaction about their facial appearance.

The women in the study spent about 4 minutes editing up to five selfies, to smooth and change skin tone, remove dark eye circles, shape their faces and remove flaws.

Flinders University Professor Marika Tiggemann says investing time and effort into taking, selecting, and editing selfies are not harmless activities because they have detrimental effects on women motivated to present the best possible version of themselves.

"We found an increase in dissatisfaction following the selfie task was a based on the extent of editing being undertaken. This demonstrates that the editing of selfies is not a benign process but has negative consequences, even though participants reported being much happier with their edited selfie than their original photo."

"Many women and girls spend considerable time and effort in taking and selecting their selfies, for example, finding the best lighting and most flattering angle, which can then be further enhanced by filters or digital editing to maximise their appearance and appeal."

Prof Tiggemann says teenagers and young women should also be dissuaded from using software to edit selfies.

"Women appear to be motivated by the wish to present the best possible version of themselves and are correspondingly substantially happier with their edited selfie than the original photo. Yet, at the same time, these activities have detrimental effects in terms of poorer mood and facial dissatisfaction."

The results also indicate extensive selfie editing leads to feeling disingenuous online.

"These suggestions are respectively consistent with the two unique predictors of increased facial dissatisfaction, such as thinking about how others will judge you, and thinking about making yourself look better than you do in real life," says Professor Tiggemann.

"Our findings illustrate the difficulties women encounter in negotiating the contemporary social media world."

'Uploading your best self: Selfie editing and body dissatisfaction' (2020) by M Tiggemann, I Anderberg and Z Brown has been published in Body Image (Elsevier) DOI:10.1016/j.bodyim.2020.03.002

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In New York City, the daily onslaught of death from the coronavirus has dropped to half of what it was. In Chicago, a makeshift hospital in a lakefront convention center is closing, deemed no longer needed. And in New Orleans, new cases have dwindled to a handful each day.

Yet across America, those signs of progress obscure a darker reality.

The country is still in the firm grip of a pandemic with little hope of release. For every indication of improvement in controlling the virus, new outbreaks have emerged elsewhere, leaving the nation stuck in a steady, unrelenting march of deaths and infections.

As states continue to lift restrictions meant to stop the virus, impatient Americans are freely returning to shopping, lingering in restaurants and gathering in parks. Regular new flare-ups and super-spreader events are expected to be close behind.

Any notion that the coronavirus threat is fading away appears to be magical thinking, at odds with what the latest numbers show.

Coronavirus in America now looks like this: More than a month has passed since there was a day with fewer than 1,000 deaths from the virus. Almost every day, at least 25,000 new coronavirus cases are identified, meaning that the total in the United States  which has the highest number of known cases in the world with more than 1 million  is expanding by between 2% and 4% daily.

Rural towns that one month ago were unscathed are suddenly hot spots for the virus. It is rampaging through nursing homes, meatpacking plants and prisons, killing the medically vulnerable and the poor, and new outbreaks keep emerging in grocery stores, Walmarts or factories, an ominous harbinger of what a full reopening of the economy will bring.

While dozens of rural counties have no known coronavirus cases, a panoramic view of the country reveals a grim and distressing picture.

If you include New York, it looks like a plateau moving down, said Andrew Noymer, an associate professor of public health at the University of California, Irvine. If you exclude New York, its a plateau slowly moving up.

In early April, more than 5,000 new cases were regularly being added in New York City on a daily basis. Those numbers have dropped significantly over the last few weeks, but that progress has been largely offset by increases in other major cities.

Consider Chicago and Los Angeles, which have flattened their curves and avoided the explosive growth of New York City. Even so, coronavirus cases in their counties have more than doubled since April 18. Cook County, home to Chicago, is now sometimes adding more than 2,000 new cases in a day, and Los Angeles County has often been adding at least 1,000.

Dallas County in Texas has been adding about 100 more cases than it was a month ago, and the counties that include Boston and Indianapolis have also reported higher numbers.

It is not just the major cities. Smaller towns and rural counties in the Midwest and South have suddenly been hit hard, underscoring the capriciousness of the pandemic.

Dakota County, Nebraska, which has the third-most cases per capita in the country, had no known cases as recently as April 11. Now the county is a hot zone for the virus.

Dakota City is home to a major Tyson beef-processing plant, where cases have been reported. And the region, which spreads across the borders of both Iowa and South Dakota, is dotted with meat-processing plants that have been a major source of work for generations. The pattern has repeated all over: Federal authorities say that at least 4,900 meat and poultry processing workers have been infected across 19 states.

The Tyson plant in Dakota City has temporarily closed for deep cleaning. Now the workers wait, afraid to go back to work but fearful not to.

They need money and they want to go back of course, said Qudsia Hussein, whose husband is an imam in the area. With many businesses shuttered or suffering financially because of the pandemic, she said, Theres no other place they can work.

Trousdale County, Tennessee, another rural area, suddenly finds itself with the nations highest per capita infection rate by far. A prison appears responsible for a huge spike in cases; in 10 days, this county of about 11,000 residents saw its known cases skyrocket to 1,344 from 27.

As of last week, more than half of the inmates and staff members tested at Trousdale Turner Correctional Center in Hartsville, Tennessee, were positive for the virus, officials said.

Its been my worst nightmare since the beginning of this that this would happen, said Dwight Jewell, chairman of the Trousdale County Commission. Ive been expecting this. You put that many people in a contained environment and all it takes is one.

Everyone in town knows about the outbreak. But they are defiant: Businesses in the county are reopening this week. On Monday evening, county commissioners were scheduled to have an in-person meeting, with chairs spaced 6 feet apart. They have a budget to pass and other issues facing the county, Jewell said.

Weve got to get back to the business of the community, he said.

Infectious-disease experts are troubled by perceptions that the United States has seen the worst of the virus, and have sought to caution against misplaced optimism.

I dont see why we expect large declines in daily case counts over the next month, Trevor Bedford, a scientist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center who has studied the spread and evolution of the virus, wrote on Twitter. He added, There may well be cities / counties that achieve suppression locally, but nationally I expect things to be messy with flare-ups in various geographies followed by responses to these flare-ups.

The outbreak in the United States has already killed more than 68,000 people, and epidemiologists say the nation will not see fewer than 5,000 coronavirus-related deaths a week until after June 20, according to a survey conducted by researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. A federal projection, based on government modeling pulled together by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, forecasts a steady rise in deaths in the next several weeks, to a daily death toll of 3,000 on June 1.

Across the country, scientists tried to project the virus future course, and the results have been a range of shifting models. An aggregate of several models assembled by Nicholas Reich, a biostatistician at the university, predicts there will be an average of 10,000 deaths per week for the next few weeks. That is fewer than in previous weeks, but it does not mean a peak has been passed, Reich said. In the seven-day period that ended on Sunday, about 12,700 deaths tied to the virus occurred across the country.

Theres this idea that its going to go up and its going to come down in a symmetric curve, Reich said. It doesnt have to do that. It could go up and we could have several thousand deaths per week for many weeks.

The deaths have hit few places harder than Americas nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. More than a quarter of the deaths have been linked to those facilities, and more than 118,000 residents and staff members in at least 6,800 homes have contracted the virus.

There is no escaping some basic epidemic math.

In the absence of a vaccine, stopping the spread of the virus requires about two-thirds of the population to have been infected. And some experts have argued that before what is known as herd immunity kicks in, the number of people infected nationwide could reach a staggering 90% if social distancing is relaxed and transmission rates climb. (It is also not clear how long immunity will last among those who have been infected.)

As testing capacity has increased, so has the number of cases being counted. But many jurisdictions are still missing cases and undercounting deaths. Many epidemiologists assume that roughly 10 times as many people have been infected with the coronavirus than the number of known cases.

Because of the time it will take for infections to spread, incubate and cause people to die, the effects of reopening states may not be known until at six weeks after the fact. One model used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention includes an assumption that the infection rate will increase up to 20% in states that reopen.

Under that model, by early August, the most likely outcome is 3,000 more deaths in Georgia than the state has right now, 10,000 more each in New York and New Jersey, and around 7,000 more each in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Massachusetts. Under the models most likely forecast, the nation will see about 100,000 additional deaths by Aug. 4.

Even if were past the first peak, that doesnt mean the worst is behind us, said Youyang Gu, the data scientist who created the model. It goes up quickly but its a slow decline down.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
In this Aug. 28, 2019, file photo, a North Korean soldier looks toward the south as a South Korean soldier stands guard in the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, South Korea. Reuters



Several gunshots from North Korea hit a South Korean guard post inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on Sunday, prompting the South to fire back, but the North's firings do not appear to have been intentional, an official said.

South Korean soldiers on guard duty at the unit in the central border town of Cheorwon heard gunshots at around 7:41 a.m. and found four bullet marks on a wall of the guard post, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In accordance with the response manual, the military then fired a total of 20 shots in response -- 10 rounds each time -- and issued broadcast warnings, it added. No casualties or damage to South Korean facilities were reported.

It is not known if North Korea sustained any damage.

"We also sent a notice to the North Korean side via the inter-Korean communication line at around 9:35 a.m., and called for its explanation," a JCS officer said.












Two areas in Al Gharbiya have been placed under quarantine for two weeks after the detection a number of coronavirus cases, the governorate said in a statement on Tuesday.

The provincal heqalth directorate would put Al-Menshawy town in Baqloola village as well as a block of buildings in the Kafr El-Sheikh village in Gharbiya into quarantine for a 14-day peirod over the new cases.

The govenorate has not identified the exact number of confirmed cases in the two areas.

Al Gharbiya governor Tarek Rahmy said the provincal health directorate has taken a number of preventive measures over the new cases, including medical checkups for those who came in contact with positive cases and the disinfection of houses and streets.

Last month, the the governorate's Kafr Gaafar village in Basyoun city under quarantine after 12 coronavirus cases were detected among its residents.

The measures placed 800 families comprising a total population of 13,000 villagers under quarantine.

As a precautionary measure, Egypt recently sealed off several villages and families in different spots across the country where many coronavirus cases had been detected.

The step came among a set of strict measures imposed by the state to contain the spread of the deadly virus, including a night-time curfew, banning public gathering, suspending schools and universities and shuttering mosques and churches.

Egypt reported on Monday 348 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of infections to 6,813 with 436 deaths

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Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has assured the country's Tamil leaders that he will discuss the release of political prisoners who are being held for up to 15 years with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

A delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Sri Lanka's main Tamil party, met the prime minister on Monday for a separate discussion on the prisoners issue after attending an all-party meeting convened by Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The all-parliamentarians meeting was boycotted by the Opposition's United National Party after the government rejected their seven suggestions, which included resuming Parliament to discuss issues related to the COVID-19.

The TNA was the only major Opposition party to attend the meeting.

TNA spokesman MA Sumanthiran on Tuesday said, "We took the opportunity to meet the prime minister. Our representatives from the north and east presented their problems region-wise."



"We (also) raised the issue of political prisoners who are held for over 10 years to 15 years," Sumanthiran said.

The TNA leader said Mahinda promised to raise the issue with his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the country's president.

Sumanthiran, who is a signatory to the seven Opposition parties letter, said the TNA was firm in their view that Parliament must be reconvened.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has dismissed the demands of the Opposition on March 2.

Meanwhile, the country's parliamentary election, originally scheduled on April 25, has been postponed by the Election Commission to June 20 in view of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The new Parliament must convene at least once by June 2 or within 3 months of when the previous one was dissolved on March 2, to avoid constitutional irregularity.

The coronavirus, which first surfaced in China's Wuhan city in November last, has claimed over 250,000 lives and infected 3.5 million people.

The virus has killed eight people with 755 positive cases in Sri Lanka.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Linkedin Rizki Fachriansyah and Tri Indah Oktavianti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, May 11, 2020 13:29 617 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd62b5a4 1 National COVID-19-Indonesian-patients,COVID-19,coronavirus,virus-korona-indonesia,outbreak,victims,doctors Free

For many people in coronavirus-stricken Indonesia, tuning into the governments daily press conference detailing the latest data on confirmed cases and deaths linked to COVID-19 has become a mundane ritual  an exercise in news consumption amid great uncertainty.

For some others who have lost their loved ones to the disease, however, the constantly updated statistics signify a void left in their private lives.

Behind every number that illustrates the magnitude of the current health emergency is an intimate story of resilience and perseverance in the face of a crisis.

Relatives of several COVID-19 patients who succumbed to the disease have spoken with The Jakarta Post. Below are their faces and stories.

Bambang Sutrisna

Prof. Bambang Sutrisna (Courtesy of University of Indonesia's School of Public Health/-)

Leonita Triwachyuni felt that it was only a matter of when, not if, her father would be infected with the deadly virus.

This was because her father, University of Indonesia scholar and epidemiologist Bambang Sutrisna, had made it his mission to treat sick individuals at his clinic despite the inherent risk of infection.

Papa was a hard worker. He truly cared for others, particularly his patients and students, Leonita said, adding that her father had kept his clinic open to the public amid the outbreak.

The 29-year-old woman, who has been following in her fathers footsteps to become a doctor, said she had always harbored concerns for his well-being, especially as the outbreak escalated in mid-March.

Bambang received a visit from a patient suffering from symptoms typically associated with COVID-19 on March 12, and for some time after the encounter he still seemed healthy, Leonita said.

However, five days later, he began to complain about severe headaches, high fever and a dry cough  known symptoms of COVID-19. She began to wonder whether her worst fears were about to become a reality.

Papa never complained about anything. He was a tough soul, so him suddenly complaining about his illness was a real cause for concern, said Leonita, adding that she and her mother started to exhibit similar symptoms soon after.

Despite his deteriorating health, Bambang initially refused to be taken to the hospital, saying he couldnt miss his online teaching session, she recounted.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, Leonita asked her husband to drive her father to Persahabatan Hospital in East Jakarta, one of the COVID-19 referral centers in the capital, for immediate treatment on March 22.

Bambang succumbed to the disease the following day. He was 70 years old.

My father was a lifelong medical practitioner. He dedicated his life to ensuring the public's well-being, Leonita said.

She went on to say that she was lucky to have been able to witness her fathers funeral along with other family members, as the burial procedure for COVID-19 victims was not yet as strict as it is now.

Please, dont let my father die in vain. He had a much more difficult task: treating his patients. Surely the rest of us can help by complying with the PSBB [large-scale social restrictions]. Let the number [of casualties] serve as a real warning.

Read also: Doctors die as hospital crisis looms

Dr. Ketty Herawati Sultana

Dr. Ketty Herawati Sultana (courtesy of Instagram/@kathyhera)

As the number of cases and fatalities related to COVID-19 in the country continues to increase, concerns have been raised regarding the safety of health workers, including doctors and nurses, especially given the lack of protective equipment available at hospitals across the country.

As of last month, 25 doctors had died of COVID-19, according to data from the Indonesian Doctors Association.

Dr. Ketty Herawati Sultana, 60, was among the fallen ones. She was one of the medical personnel treating Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi at Medistra Hospital in South Jakarta after he tested positive for COVID-19 in March.

I was away on duty in East Nusa Tenggara when I got word that my mother was ill and had been taken to an emergency unit on March 27. I heard that she was experiencing shortness of breath and had diarrhea, Kettys daughter and medical trainee Meggy Oktaviani said.

Meggy, 29, immediately booked a flight to Jakarta upon learning about the unfortunate news. However, it was already too late by then, she said.

Kettys oxygen levels kept depleting, while her overall health condition continued deteriorating. Meggy braced herself for the worst-case scenario.

She most likely contracted the virus from patients at Medistra Hospital. She had told me that many patients with COVID-19 symptoms, such as diarrhea, had been admitted to the hospital, Meggy told the Post.

Ketty passed away on April 3. Unfortunately, health authorities had by then imposed a stricter burial protocol for COVID-19 victims, forcing Meggy and other family members to miss the physicians funeral.

We were only allowed to pray in front of her coffin. We watched her cremation via video call afterward, she recounted, calling it a difficult experience.

Meggy called on the government to ensure a steady supply of protective health gear since the lives of many doctors were at stake amid the outbreak.

Those working on the front line like my mother deserve protection. Theyve been working tirelessly to save lives. Its the least the government could do, she said.

Read also: Alone on their deathbed, how COVID-19 keeps families away from loved ones

Drs. Tenang Malem Tarigan

Tenang Malem Tarigan (Courtesy of /Christianto Tarigan)

Christianto Tarigan never thought he would not have the chance to say goodbye to his father in his last moments. Yet, he had no choice but to confront such a reality when his father, prominent Medan State Polytechnic scholar Tenang Malem Tarigan, died of the coronavirus disease.

My mother and father had contracted the disease. My mother had been hospitalized since April 18, whereas my father and younger brother only underwent rapid tests, Christianto said.

He added that the results of the rapid tests came back negative, but the subsequent results of swab tests revealed his mother and father to be COVID-19-positive.

Tenang was then promptly hospitalized at Bina Kasih Hospital in Medan, North Sumatra from April 18 to 22. He passed away at 62 years old on the evening of April 23, just as he was about to be transferred to Martha Friska Hospital.

My father experienced shortness of breath when he was being taken to Martha Friska Hospital. He couldnt be saved, Christianto said, adding that his father had diabetes and high blood pressure prior to the COVID-19 diagnosis.

He said his family was heartbroken they could not pay their last respects to Tenang due to the strict burial protocol.

He passed away at 8:15 p.m. and was laid to rest at around 1 a.m. My brother, who witnessed the burial, could only see our fathers face for one minute when he was already wrapped in a body bag. It was devastating, he said.

In the days that followed, Christianto tried to come to terms with the situation by upholding his fathers motto.

He used to tell me: Dont cry in the darkness, light up a candle. Its an embodiment of his spirit, he said.
Laucks resignation letter, dated Sunday, stated she was submitting her resignation effective midnight Tuesday and said little else, other than that it was conditional on the boards approval and that without their approval of the settlement agreement and release, its terms were null and void. No reason was given for her resignation.
Dark storm clouds formed over Oklahoma on May 4 as the state braced for possible tornadoes and severe storms.

This footage, posted to Twitter by Dennie Brison, shows heavy clouds overhead between Morris and Okmulgee, Oklahoma.

The National Weather Service also warned residents of Marshall County about large hail as a thunderstorm moved east. Credit: Dennie Brison via Storyful
The manager of one of the country's most famous music bars says a proposed ban on live music is "a kick in the teeth" for the sector.

Ray Blackwell of DeBarra's folk bar in Clonakilty was responding to new proposals from pub industry representatives to reopen bars in June subject to restrictions. Mr Blackwell said most of the steps, such as capacity limits and social distancing, make sense but that a proposed ban on live music and DJs has left many at a loss.

Many punters on social media said the moves would kill the Irish bar experience, while musicians and DJs would also see their livelihoods damaged. Vintner representatives, including Michael O'Donovan, chairman of the Cork City Branch of the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI), said the proposals are a starting point ahead of discussions with Government this week.

Mr Blackwell said safety is key for staff and customers. DeBarras has already drawn up plans to account for social distancing, such as a one-way traffic flow through the bar, with furniture removed. But, he added, these plans were progressing with the impression that bands would still be able to play:

To imagine our pub without music is very difficult. It came as a surprise. It's another kick in the teeth for musicians, tech crews, the PR people who support them; it's a big community of people and they have all been affected by this.

Like many venues, DeBarras is forced to think outside the box. It is streaming live music daily on its Facebook page, with the likes of John Spillane (Thurs, May 7), Junior Brother (Fri, May 8), and Elaine Malone (Thurs, May 21) among those lined up to perform at present. Performers are being paid for the shows.

Mr Blackwell said it is a small gesture to the musicians who have played in the venue over the years. He is optimistic that any music bans won't remain in place for long, if at all.

"My understanding is they are just part of the proposals to get pubs open earlier," he said.

"We will wait for further clarification from the government. We have to be optimistic  maybe foolhardy - about this."
Timeshare Board Members Association Resorts may decide to furlough workers as opposed to a permanent layoff, but COVID-19 is creating uncertainty as to when bringing back their employees may actually occur.

According to Shep Altshuler, President, Timeshare Board Members Association (TBMA), While, timeshare resorts plan their reopening procedures that include sanitizing the property and rooms, staff and guest safety, many had to implement staff cutbacks because of the COVID-19 crisis, forcing those workers to join the unemployment lines.

Resorts may decide to furlough workers as opposed to a permanent layoff, but COVID-19 is creating uncertainty as to when bringing back their employees may actually occur.

A furlough can be defined as a temporary leave of absence from work imposed by an employer. Furloughed workers typically are not paid but keep employment benefits such as health insurance, so technically they remain employees.

Layoffs are when an employer dismisses employees. Employers often decide to furlough, rather than lay off, workers because firing and hiring people is costly.

Furloughed employees may receive unemployment benefits for the time they spend without pay. If they later receive back pay for their time on furlough, they must repay the unemployment benefits.

During the current crisis, works who qualify for unemployment are receiving their states typical unemployment benefit plus a $600 per week Federal unemployment benefit that lasts for 39 weeks.

The timeshare wrinkle

When timeshare resorts that shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic begin to reopen, they will need housekeepers, many of whom work only one day a week to clean the units between occupants. However, the way this crisis unemployment program is structured, the mere offer of a part-time housekeeping job is more of a curse than a blessing for furloughed and laid-off workers alike.

If a resort furloughed its workers, and they receive unemployment benefits, they will lose those benefits when you end the furlough and bring them back for a fraction of what they received when not working. If they refuse to return, they may lose their unemployment benefits anyway.

If a resort laid off its workers at the onset of the shutdown, they will need to hire or rehire housekeepersif you can find people willing to take those part-time jobs at a wage you can afford to pay. Anyone who turns down a job under these circumstances also risks losing unemployment benefits.

Still another complication exists for resorts that need more housekeepers during their peak season than at other times of year due to a large seasonal fluctuation in occupancy. That makes the offer of a part-time housekeeping job even less desirable.

Says one resort general manager: I think it's great to have this safety net for people, but I think it will disincentivize the people I need to take part-time jobs. That's just human nature.

About TBMA: The Association, formed in 2011, is a non-profit corporation. Its purpose is to provide education to timeshares owners association Board Members and to On-site Resort Managers. During the COVID-19 crisis, its 2020 programs include webinars by industry professionals, blogs, eNewsletters and video conference among its members. For more information contact Shep Altshuler, TBMA president at staff@tbmassoc.com or 201-924-7435. Timeshare Board Members and Resort Managers can join for free at http://www.tbmassoc.org.


From helping a father to get back his child to providing medical assistance to a pregnant woman, a helpline in Delhi's Rajinder Nagar constituency is doing a lot more than just addressing coronavirus queries.

The helpline in Rajinder Nagar Vidhan Sabha, 9910944444, was started as a direct way to connect with the assembly's MLA Raghav Chadha, but it soon turned into a lifeline' for the residents of the area during the lockdown.

"In our grievance cell, each team performs a 24x7 shift. No distress calls go unanswered. Another team of dedicated professionals keeps tab on social media, monitors each distress call and coordinates with other teams for delivering the requirements," Chadha told PTI.

We are ensuring timely redressal of their issues. In the beginning, the grievance cell would receive a number of calls ranging from 25 to 70 calls per day. The COVID-19 precautionary lockdown has resulted in a stark rise of calls from 70 to 600 calls per day," he said.

Chadha said complaints and requests from people range from ration requirement, sewage issues, emergency services, ambulance, milk procurement among others. These have been addressed within a turnaround time of less than 24 hours.

The helpline team shared some of the cases dealt by them in the last few weeks.

In one such case, a man was travelling back to Delhi in a truck with his child, but he was stopped at the border. His child was taken away by police and shifted to a child shelter home.

He sought help through the number.

The helpline team contacted the magistrate office and tracked the child, and the man was issued an emergency pass through which he travelled to the citizen care home to get his child back.

In another case, a pregnant woman living in a red zone' marked colony needed immediate medical attention after she reported high fever. She contacted the helpline and an ambulance was immediately sent to her.

A man in Naraina village who recently had a surgery at AIIMS was not able to step out to get his medicines. He contacted the helpline team and sent his prescription via WhatsApp. The medicines were delivered at his doorstep by a volunteer.

Apart from the general sanitisation process carried out in the whole constituency, there were specific requests for the same in areas of active COVID-19 cases.

The requests of sanitisation drives were executed in an hour.

The number of coronavirus cases in the national capital mounted to 4,898 on Monday, with 349 fresh cases being reported in a day, the city government authorities said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The special May 19 election to fill the vacant senate seat for the 2nd Hampden and Hampshire is expected to go on in two weeks, but It will hardly be business as usual due to the coronavirus.

Voters in the 11 cities and towns in the district will be greeted by poll workers sitting at separate tables and wearing masks and there may be fewer of them than usual. Voting booths will be separated by at least six feet and there will be hand sanitizer and wipes everywhere to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

But voters dont have to go to polling places to cast ballots at all since lawmakers and Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin are permitting mail-in voting and multiple city clerks are promoting it to guarantee social distancing during the election.

State Rep. John Velis, D-Westfield, is competing against John Cain, a Republican from Southwick, for a chance to lead the district. Velis is a lawyer who has served in the House since 2014 and is a major in the U.S. Army Reserves. Cain has no political experience, but served in the U.S. Navy Reserves, leaving as a lieutenant after eight years, and worked as a civilian mariner and marine engineer before returning to Western Massachusetts. He now owns and operates the family business, Cain Mechanical LLC.

The special election was called for after long-term Sen. Donald Humason Jr. resigned in early January after being sworn in as mayor of Westfield. The original election date of March 31 was postponed to May 19 due to the pandemic.

The district covers the communities of Westfield, Holyoke, Agawam, Easthampton, Southampton, Southwick, Tolland, Granville, Russell, Montgomery and four precincts in Chicopee.

Both candidates suspended face-to-face campaigning, including door-to-door canvassing, the week of March 16 as Gov. Charlie Baker closed schools and called for a shut-down of non-essential services. The candidates have instead relied on a variety of methods to reach voters on social media, through phone calls and by mail.

The Secretary of States Election Division is assisting communities on the best way to hold elections while avoiding the spread of the coronavirus, said Debra OMalley, spokeswoman for the office.

Along with the 2nd Hampden Hampshire District, a special election is also scheduled on May 19 for the vacant senate seat in the Plymouth and Barnstable District and some towns are holding local elections as well.

We will have supplies of masks and gloves and hand sanitizer for towns, OMalley said. Some are getting plexiglass barriers for the polling places.

State rules require each polling place to be manned with six workers, but city and town clerks can request waivers if they cannot find enough workers or if they do not think they are needed due to the number of requests for mail-in ballots, she said.

Some polling places may also be moved. Clerks will notify residents by postcard if they are to vote in a different location, she said.

Some superintendents are reluctant to open schools if they have already been deep cleaned and if they are in senior centers many dont want to open them, she said.

Clerks will also move polling places if they are in locations that are too small to spread out workers and voters, she said.

In Holyoke, for example, has moved the polling place for Precinct 1B from the Prospect Heights, an elderly housing complex, to City Hall since officials did not want visitors in the building since many residents are the most vulnerable to the virus. The Precinct 3A location has been moved from the former Elmwood Fire Station to Metcalf School because Action Ambulance, which operates out of the facility, requested the change after two employees have tested positive for COVID-19.

People can vote by mail-in ballot, OMalley said. All they have to do is write a letter to their city clerk saying please send me a ballot.

An email message will not be sufficient because the letter must be signed. Voters can send a form that is available on websites for the Secretary of State and most cities towns to request an absentee ballot, but many people do not have access to printers, she said.

Candidates, including John Velis, have also sent forms to voters which people can fill in and mail, she said.

OMalley is recommending people mail requests for ballots as soon as possible since the town or city clerk must have the completed ballot by May 19. Most town and city halls are closed but many have drop boxes so people can drop them off there if there is not enough time to mail them, she said.

Even if people vote in person, for the most part communities have one race on the ballot so it will not take much time to vote and that will prevent people from having to line up to wait to vote or congregate, OMalley said.

Holyoke City Clerk Brenna McGee is promoting mail-in voting as a safe alternative but in an earlier interview said poll workers will have protective equipment and volunteers will wipe down each polling station after it is used. Voters will deposit pens into boxes after they finish marking the ballot.

Granville also postponed its town election scheduled for April 13 and will hold both the local and special senate elections on May 19. All voters cast ballots in Town Hall.

If we are letting possible germs in this building why not let them come in only once, said Donna Fillion, the Granville city clerk.

Everyone is running for town positions unopposed, but the elections still had to take place. Selectmen agreed with her and approved the change, she said.

There are 1,187 registered voters in town and Fillion said she has received requests for mail-in ballots from 55 people, or 4 percent of the voters and Fillion said she expects more to request ballots in the upcoming days.

In the upcoming weeks, Fillion said she has been figuring out the best way to follow social distancing rules and was even planning to have voters enter one door and leave from another to ensure one-way traffic but realized she cant follow that fully because the exit door is not accessible to the disabled.

While the state is willing to assist with masks and other equipment, Fillion said she knows they wont have enough supplies for every town and city in the commonwealth. Instead, the Police Department offered her 50 N95 masks, which will be plenty for workers. She also promised every voter will use a separate pencil and there will be constant sanitizing.

We will have a lean operation. It will be me, my warden, one person to check in (voters) and one person to check out, she said, which is allowed under the waiver. An additional poll worker will work in the morning just to give a little relief to the workers who will many the polls from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Due to the concerns about the coronavirus Fillion said she is not even following the long tradition of purchasing meals for the workers because she is concerned about food sharing. She told them they will have to bring their own lunch, she said.

With just voters in Precincts 7A and 7B, 8A and 9B casting ballots in the special election, City Clerk Keith Rattell said he has not received a surge of requests from people who want to vote by mail. While some people declined to work this election due to the virus, the city had plenty of other regular poll workers to ask because it isnt a city-wide election.

We will set up for social distancing and we will have masks and gloves and hand sanitizer, he said. We have 20 precincts usually so we will be fully-staffed.
Jorhat:

A senior Forest Department official said that a carcass of an adult male rhino, which had died due to the devastating Assam floods in Kaziranga National Park, was recovered today with its horn fallen off.

The rhino carcass was found near Bokpara Forest Camp in Kohora Range of the Park, Kaziranga Divisional Forest Officer Sivashish Das said. The horn had fallen off and a search was on to recover it, Das said.

The devastating floods in the World Heritage Site has in the last ten days claimed the lives of 311 animals,including22 one-horn rhinos and 221 hog deer, besides other animals, he said.

The rhinos include ten rhino calves in the age group of two to six months, Das said.The flood level this year was much higher compared to the 2012 level when animal mortality was the highest, he said.

Altogether 106 animals were rescued from the floods with the help from local residents, the DFO said adding, eight of the nine rhinos rescued were undergoing treatment at CWRC, Borjuri and one was released instantly.

The Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) is a joint wildlife welfare facility in rhino habitat Kaziranga run by the Assam Forest Department, InternationalFund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and Wildlife Trust of India.

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Headquartered in Irvine, California, Kia Motors America has been the highest ranked mass market brand in initial quality for five consecutive years according to J.D. Power1, and is recognized as one of the 100 Best Global Brands by Interbrand. Kia serves as the "Official Automotive Partner" of the NBA and offers a complete range of vehicles sold through a network of nearly 800 dealers in the U.S., including cars and SUVs proudly assembled in West Point, Georgia.*

For media information, including photography, visit www.kiamedia.com. To receive custom email notifications for press releases the moment they are published, subscribe at www.kiamedia.com/us/en/newsalert.

*The Telluride, Sorento and Optima (excluding Hybrid and Plug-In Hybrid) are assembled in the United States from U.S. and globally sourced parts.

1 Kia received the lowest rate of reported problems among mass market brands in the J.D. Power 2015-19 U.S. Initial Quality Studies of new vehicle owners' experiences with their own vehicle after 90 days of ownership. Visit jdpower.com/awards for more details.

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A group of leading, ethnic Indian physicians has petitioned Britain's National Health Service (NHS) to formally include ethnicity as a COVID-19 infection risk factor for healthcare workers in the UK.

The petition was a 'rapid response' to a report in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) article titled 'COVID-19: Two-thirds of healthcare workers who have died were from ethnic minorities' that was published on 23 April.

A summary of the petition published 1 May in the BMJ says that available NHS occupational risk assessment tools are "variable and inconsistent and do not incorporate ethnicity as a risk factor". It asks for existing tools to be "replaced by a centrally administered assessment, with ethnicity included as a risk factor and appropriately weighted".

Citing a Health Service Journal article published 22 April, the BMJ said 18 of the 19 doctors and dentists who died of COVID-19 were from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds. The same was true of 71 per cent of 35 nurses and midwives who died, and 56 per cent of 27 healthcare support workers felled by the virus.

Researchers for the Health Service Journal had not indicated causes for the excess mortality among BAME healthcare workers but suggested that it could be biological, medical or sociological and that there was a need for a concerted effort to seek explanations and solutions.

As we understand the disease better, we need to move from the initial response of isolating the majority to focusing on the potential of highly susceptible individuals to fall victims to COVID-19." Mohan Nair, a signatory to the petition and currently head of cardiology at the Holy Family Hospital, New Delhi, India.

Nair tells SciDev.Net that "it is well-established that people with BAME backgrounds are prone to metabolic, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, which can be partially explained by the higher incidence of hypertension and diabetes in the group which predispose a person to severe COVID-19 infection".

The petition emphasises that it is critical for NHS managers to be made aware and be instructed on the importance of dealing with the requirements and health concerns of this with BAME backgrounds in a sensitive and fair manner, including in the use of personal protective equipment (PPE).

"It will be fair to say that it is possible that BAME doctors are more hesitant in expressing themselves within the NHS. Or they may be less demanding of the facilities available to them at the workplace," the petition summary says. "Consequently, in an era of acute shortage of PPEs, they may not uniformly be supplied with essential PPE. These observations may well apply to non-medical staff in the NHS and social care sector."

A literature search by the petitioners  including Shiv Mohan Bhanot, consultant urological surgeon, King George and Queens Hospitals, and Rajat Bhushan, consultant endocrinologist at Total Healthcare, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, US  considered genetic susceptibility, socio-economic factors, lifestyle factors and the presence of co-morbidities like diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases.

Vaccination practices, including childhood vaccination coverage, and socio-cultural factors were also explored to provide background for the petition.

"Interestingly, factors that are now identified as markers of higher morbidity and mortality in COVID-19 have long been recognised as important risk factors for increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in South Asians in the US," the petition says.

The petitioners acknowledge that implementing measures to safeguard BAME doctors would inevitably reduce the workforce available on the frontline given that more than half of the workforce in some regions is from the BAME communities.

Nair suggests that younger, healthier staff with no risk factors such as for hypertension, diabetes and smoking be allowed to return to work.

Roy John, a cardiologist at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, US, tells SciDev.Net that all the petitioners are saying is that "there is a disproportionately higher number of black and ethnic minority physicians that have succumbed to the disease in the UK".

"Any viral infection that causes the flu tends to have more serious consequences in patients with heart and lung disease and, in the elderly and immunocompromised. [For instance] South Asians tend to have more diabetes and hypertensions and possibly more coronary disease," says John, who was not one of the signatories to the petition.
But have Gov. Pete Ricketts and the president acted to protect the health and lives of the people who work under that pressure, and by extension, the vulnerable people in the communities where they live, now widely described as hot spots of disease? The numbers of infections, deaths and the testimony of those people, now gaining attention worldwide, say no.

The mayor of Grand Island has pleaded publicly for assistance from the U.S. secretary of agriculture as his community burns with this virus.

The two of them, Trump and Ricketts, are well known for their proud contempt toward government. In Nebraska, that contempt has shown up in Ricketts ideological unwillingness to resolve the continuing disasters in corrections and human services, and in his obstruction of expanding Medicaid, another issue that afflicts every Nebraska hospital, large or small, urban or rural, now struggling to avoid insolvency.

To force thousands of people to continue to slaughter and process animals for the public good, poorly protected from a plague, ineligible for public benefits when they justifiably fear infection and barred from recourse to the courts if their employers are negligent, is a desecration of the law.
REGINAThe national chief of the Assembly of First Nations says an outbreak of COVID-19 in Saskatchewans far north is alarming.

Perry Bellegarde noted Tuesday that theres been a steady rise in cases mainly from in and around the Dene community of La Loche, 600 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.

He said the English River First Nations territory is also in the area and it, too, has reported cases of COVID-19.

Bellegarde said hes hearing that local leadership needs to be more involved in decision-making and that some northerners havent been allowed to travel south to buy food.

That was a very big issue for a lot of them, because they dont have access to grocery stores, he said.

Saskatchewan health officials say more staff have been sent to the area to help track the spread of the novel coronavirus by door-to-door testing and screening.

The provinces public safety agency said a plane was used to fly test samples to Regina.

Right now, most of Saskatchewans active cases are in the far north, where restrictions on non-essential travel are being enforced at checkpoints.

Weve said that from Day 1, when this first started hitting, that First Nations communities, First Nations territories, our people are going to be vulnerable because of the overcrowded conditions our people live in, Bellegarde said.

We dont have access to hospitals in the far north.

Bellegarde said he believes Saskatchewan is lifting COVID-19 restrictions too quickly in other parts of the province.

On Tuesday, the province said 18 of 20 new cases in the last 24 hours came from in and around La Loche.

Leonard Montgrand, regional contact for the Metis Nation-Saskatchewan, said he feels the provincial government has been providing a lot of support over the last three weeks.

I think we should have had a lot of support prior to that, said Montgrand, who added that more consultation with the community is required.

They dont understand the community dynamics and how our community is a very social-orientated community, he said.

Working with the province in terms of the resource officers  and the other programs that theyre bringing into the community, we do have to communicate more, I will say that.

Two residents from La Loches long-term care centre have died from COVID-19 complications.

Montgrand said most people understand the gravity of the situation, but some residents are tired of the isolation.
Representative image (Source: Reuters)

By Atul Kumar Agarwal

With the ensuing global pandemic, the world is poised for enormous changes in corporate functioning. Value to the businesses generates either through increase in top line or optimisation of costs.

During this economic crisis, while top lines may come under pressure and be largely uncontrollable, the low hanging fruit to a sustained bottomline could be control of expenses.

Typically, during a crisis, there is a sudden panic to move period costs to direct costs (costs that are variable to production or sales). Such transitions may not happen overnight. Hence, during normal times, the CFO needs to examine the merit in terms of nature (direct or fixed) of spends before signing expense contracts as a good practice. This, if done properly, would substantially mitigate risk of vulnerability during crisis or economic downturns.

Let us examine how a company can look at optimising costs and trends that are likely to emerge in the next few years as new normal.

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 scenario may differ based on type of company, industry, business segments and policies:

Higher productivity

I take example of how finance and accounting processes like procure to pay (P2P), order to cash (OtoC), record to report (RtoR) can efficiently be transacted from the employee's home should there be adequate investment in broadband, communication equipment, workflow tools and standard operating procedures (SOPs).

A payment invoice can be processed, a sale invoice can be generated, cash can be collected, payment sheets can be released and approved, recorded and reported, all from the comfort of home. Group meetings can be performed on digital platforms.

Besides, with artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic tools, I see that the number of job profiles would undergo a change and right skilling will become a necessity.Only those functions that would need physical presence would be done on site. For instance, in a manufacturing facility, the presence of the worker would physically be required to ensure production of goods. However, with technology that is creating intelligent tools, it is expected that re-engineering exercises emerge to optimise the volume and quality of manual effort required.

Full Time Equivalent (FTE) analysis -- mapping of human effort hours to activity required to be performed -- in alignment with the new norm would effectively increase product cost efficiencies that would generate large value to the organisation.

Lower commercial space requirement

Processes that transition to working from home will require less commercial space. If corporates are willing to bring about this change, there would be substantial value generation for their stakeholders. It is expected that there will be reduction in funds blocked in real estate. Those can have many alternate uses. Reduced rental expenses would lead to a better bottom line. Simultaneously, freed space could be used for higher value adding activities. There would be changes even for those employees whose mandatory attendance would be required in the post-COVID-19 world. Optimisation of seat utilisation could bring in higher productivity. The spacing of the shift of the employee wherever possible would be done in such a way that the smaller space utilisation can be maximised without all employees attending at the same time.

Performance appraisals, skill sets and resources

To understand the dynamics of working from home, one need not reinvent the wheel. India being the global hub for the financial outsourcing industry can share its learnings. One of the big contributors to the economics of working from home would be measurable control over processes remotely. The employee needs to formally agree with the employer on related service levels.For example, in an accounts payable process, the employee should process X number of invoices with a minimum period of time and with a minimum percentage of accuracy. Similar to these, multiple measurable key performance indicators (KPIs) can be agreed upon with the employee that finally gets translated to the employee's appraisal.

This will act as a better method of appraising an employee in lieu of the traditional subjective approach.With such changes, the company may need to train the existing employees to impart a better understanding of new processes. The company may also need to provide them adequate tools and technologies to enable employees to perform well. The mindset of punching attendance in and out would reduce substantially and appraisals would largely be based on measurable performance and results.

Conclusion

While the initial euphoria of working from home could seem exciting for employees, managing the change would be challenging as working from home over the longer run would require a huge emotional and cultural shift. Organisations would need to train the employees with new processes, impart SOPs and ensure availability of backup tools that may be required to keep the employee motivation levels high.

This is the right time for the companies and their management to revisit their strategies and come out of their comfort zones. There is huge value in the offing with this monumental shift.Value creation is an art and needs passion and consistent focus.

(The author is a consultant with Cosmos Global Ventures. Till 2018, he was CFO with the pharma retailer, MedPlus Health Services and before that, CFO at the world's largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev. He has over 30 years of experience in finance. Cosmos provides CFO services and decision support advisory on turnarounds, raising capital through institutional debt and equity and niche top-level recruitments)
New York  New York Citys mayor on Monday defended the use of police to enforce social distancing, rejecting calls from watchdogs to end the practice after an officer with a costly history of alleged misconduct was caught on video pulling a stun gun on a man and violently taking him to the ground.

Mayor Bill de Blasio called Saturdays confrontation in Manhattans East Village very troubling and absolutely unacceptable, but contended it was an outlier among tens of thousands of interactions between police officers and civilians over the last weeks that went very well.

READ MORE: Violent arrest raises concerns about NYPD social distancing patrols (video)

The officer, Francisco Garcia, was stripped of his gun and badge and placed on desk duty pending an internal investigation. Over the years, hes been named as a defendant in six lawsuits that the city settled for a total of $182,500, according to court records and a Legal Aid Society database.

In a similar case, Garcia and other officers allegedly threw a man to the ground and then punched and kicked him. In another, Garcia was accused of throwing a woman against a metal grate and onto a sidewalk and using a homophobic slur after she asked for his badge number.

The police department assigned 1,000 officers to social distancing patrols as New Yorkers ventured outside to enjoy the warmest weekend of a spring clouded by the coronavirus pandemic. Theyll also be part of a new effort to distribute 7.5 million protective face masks over the next few weeks.

You cant do effective enforcement without the NYPD and the NYPD is more than up to the job, de Blasio said.

Bystander video showed Garcia  in plainclothes but no mask  slapping 33-year-old Donni Wright in the face, punching him in the shoulder and dragging him to a sidewalk after leveling him in a crosswalk near a public housing complex.

Police spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Frances ODonnell said Wright took a fighting stance against the officer when he was ordered to disperse. Minutes before that, officers arrested two other people on the same block for allegedly failing to comply when asked to move along.

Officers recovered a stun gun that may have belonged to one of the people, a small amount of marijuana and close to $3,000 in cash, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said.

Exactly what was going on there is still somewhat under investigation, he said.

Joo-Hyun Kang, of the police watchdog Communities United for Police Reform, said the clash made clear: Public health professionals and community organizations, not the NYPD, should be responsible for educating New Yorkers about the importance of social distancing and creating new norms.

Tina Luongo, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society, said the city needs to seriously reconsider social distancing enforcement that leads to escalations involving the use of tasers and violent assaults.

The citys public advocate, Jumaane Williams, said hes been pressing the police department for weeks to provide day-by-day demographic data on social distancing summonses and arrests.

We want to see the NYPD not be overly used to enforce this, Williams said. This is about public health and public safety. That cannot be equated with overpolicing because we see what happened.

Even the head of the citys largest police union said officers should get out of the social distancing enforcement business altogether.

Pat Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, called the situation untenable and blamed city leaders for vague guidelines and mixed messages, leaving the cops on the street corners to fend for ourselves.

Nobody has a right to interfere with a police action. But now that the inevitable backlash has arrived, they are once again throwing us under the bus, Lynch said in a statement after de Blasio spoke Monday.

Wright was arrested on charges including assault on a police officer and resisting arrest, but the Manhattan district attorneys office said it would defer prosecution pending further investigation.

Despite the latest fiasco, de Blasio said the police department has made great strides overall in reducing its use of force in recent years by training all of its officers in de-escalation techniques and by building stronger relationships within communities.

What you saw there is more and more of a rarity, de Blasio said at a news conference Monday. We have work to do, unquestionably, but the progress is very clear to see.

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ROME (Reuters) - Russia and China are taking advantage of the coronavirus emergency to put their interests forward in Europe, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Monday, describing Chinese efforts to promote Huawei mobile phone network equipment as malign.

"(The United States) is aware that some (countries) will try to use the pandemic as a way to invest in critical industry and infrastructure, with effect on security in the long term," Esper told newspaper La Stampa, when asked whether China and Russia were trying to gain influence in Italy by sending aid.

"Potential opponents will almost certainly try to use their interest to put their interests forward and create divisions in NATO and Europe," he said. "Huawei and 5G are an important example of this malign activity by China."

Esper's comments come at a time when some U.S. officials have blamed China for the coronavirus outbreak. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday Washington had evidence the disease emerged from a Chinese lab, which Beijing strongly denies.

Both China and Russia have offered support to Italy, sending doctors, medical equipment and face masks to the country which was the first in Europe to be hit hard by the outbreak.

The United States has long advised countries to boycott Huawei, the world's biggest maker of telecoms equipment, in setting up new 5G mobile phone networks, and also to scrutinise gear from another Chinese firm, ZTE.

Washington says the equipment could be used by China to spy on communications. Huawei and ZTE deny their gear poses a security threat.

"Dependence on Chinese suppliers could make crucial systems vulnerable to interruption, manipulation and espionage. This would put at risk our capacity to communicate and to share intelligence," Esper said.

Russia's assistance, including army medical staff, drew attention to the limited support Italy received from the European Union, and EU and NATO diplomats and officials have seen it as a geopolitical move.

(Reporting by Giulia Segreti; Editing by Peter Graff)
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JEE Main, NEET 2020 exam dates announced, check here



The Union Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) Ramesh Pokhriyal announced the dates for Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) and the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test (NEET) on Tuesday. JEE (Mains) will be held from July 18 to July 23. JEE (Advanced) will subsequently be held in August. NEET is slated to be held on July 26.



For the next academic year, students will have to learn a reduced syllabus. The HRD minister informed that the syllabus will be reduced for the upcoming academic session as students have lost valuable academic time. Thus the JEE Main and NEET 2021 will be held on the reduced syllabus. This suggestion was first made by Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia.



Meanwhile, the last date to apply for the CSIR-UGC NET 2020 exams has been extended till May 15, by the NTA. Students who are willing to apply for the CSIR-UGC NET 2020, should visit the official website csirnet.nta.nic.in.



Read More...


FT. MYERS, FL / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / NeoGenomics, Inc. (NEO), a leading provider of cancer-focused genetic testing services, today announced a collaboration with Bayer (BAYN) to facilitate an RNA-based Neurotrophic Tropomyosin-Receptor Kinase (NTRK) testing for certain colorectal and thyroid cancer patients. All eligible patients who enroll and opt-in to a Sponsored Testing Program will receive testing at no cost to themselves or their insurance. Bayer will cover the total cost of this test regardless of the results and treatment decision.

The Sponsored Testing Program is for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients with high Microsatellite Instability (MSI-H) status or deficient DNA mismatch repair (MMR-), as well as patients with radioactive iodine refractory differentiated thyroid carcinoma (RAIR DTC). All eligible patients who enroll in the Sponsored Testing Program will receive an RNA-based next-generation sequencing (NGS) test (NTRK NGS Fusion Profile) from NeoGenomics and patients will also receive a NeoGenomics Pan-Tropomyosin receptor kinase (TrK) Immunohistochemistry (IHC) test. For more information onthe Sponsored Testing Program and its no-cost testing, or to download the Test Request Form, healthcare professionals should visit https://www.neogenomics.com/ntrk-sponsored-testing-program.

A higher prevalence of NTRK gene fusions are found among patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) with prior high microsatellite instability (MSI-H) status. Studies suggest NTRK gene fusions are greater than 3% among these patients. NTRK rearrangements are also found to occur in 2.4-12% of radioactive iodine refractory differentiated thyroid carcinoma (RAIR DTC) patients with less favorable disease outcomes. Genomic cancer tests that detect an NTRK gene fusion provide actionable information for patients that harbor the genomic alteration and may be appropriate for therapy.

"Our collaboration with Bayer to provide eligible colorectal and thyroid cancer patients with no-cost testing for NTRK gene fusions will help facilitate critical therapy for these patients," said Douglas M. VanOort, NeoGenomics' Chairman and CEO. "As a leading provider of oncology testing for clinical trials and patient care, NeoGenomics is in a unique position to provide access to genomic tests enabling patients to access important therapies without delay. This is one of several initiatives we expect to bring forward in our collaboration with Bayer that offer patients access to innovative testing approaches for approved cancer therapies."

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NeoGenomics has a national footprint and broad customer reach in cancer-related genetic testing services and one of the most comprehensive oncology-focused test menus. NeoGenomics is uniquely positioned to increase patient access to important diagnostic testing that can drive treatment decisions for better patient care.

About NeoGenomics, Inc.

NeoGenomics, Inc. specializes in cancer genetics testing and information services. The Company provides one of the most comprehensive oncology-focused testing menus in the world for physicians to help them diagnose and treat cancer. The Company's Pharma Services Division serves pharmaceutical clients in clinical trials and drug development.

Headquartered in Fort Myers, FL, NeoGenomics operates CAP accredited and CLIA certified laboratories in Ft. Myers and Tampa, Florida; Aliso Viejo, Carlsbad, Fresno and San Diego California; Houston, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Nashville, Tennessee; and CAP accredited laboratories in Rolle, Switzerland, and Singapore. NeoGenomics serves the needs of pathologists, oncologists, academic centers, hospital systems, pharmaceutical firms, integrated service delivery networks, and managed care organizations throughout the United States, and pharmaceutical firms in Europe and Asia. For additional information about NeoGenomics, visit http://www.neogenomics.com/.

About Oncology at Bayer

Bayer is committed to delivering science for a better life by advancing a portfolio of innovative treatments. The oncology franchise at Bayer now expands to six marketed products and several other assets in various stages of clinical development. Together, these products reflect the company's approach to research, which prioritizes targets and pathways with the potential to impact the way that cancer is treated.

About Bayer

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. Its products and services are designed to benefit people by supporting efforts to overcome the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population. At the same time, the Group aims to increase its earning power and create value through innovation and growth. Bayer is committed to the principles of sustainable development, and the Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2019, the Group employed around 104,000 people and had sales of 43.5 billion euros. Capital expenditures amounted to 2.9 billion euros, R&D expenses to 5.3 billion euros. For more information, go to www.bayer.us.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain information contained in this press release constitutes forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual future results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements as the result of the Company's ability to continue gaining new customers, offer new types of tests, integrate its acquisitions and otherwise implement its business plan, as well as additional factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 28, 2020. As a result, this press release should be read in conjunction with the Company's periodic filings with the SEC. In addition, it is the Company's practice to make information about the Company available by posting copies of its Company Overview Presentation from time to time on the Investor Relations section of its website at http://ir.neogenomics.com/ .

Forward-looking statements represent the Company's estimates only as of the date such statements are made (unless another date is indicated) and should not be relied upon as representing the Company's estimates as of any subsequent date. While the Company may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, it specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, even if its estimates change.

For further information, please contact:

NeoGenomics, Inc.

William Bonello

Director, Investor Relations

(239)690-4238 (w) (239)284-4314 (m)

bill.bonello@neogenomics.com

Bayer

Rose Talarico

Media Contact

(862)404-5302

rose.talarico@bayer.com

SOURCE: NeoGenomics, Inc.





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US senators pressed Donald Trumps nominee to be director of national intelligence on Tuesday on whether he would act independently of the president on issues like the origins of the coronavirus in China, as legislators held the first socially distanced hearing during the coronavirus pandemic.

Both Republicans and Democrats at the Senate Intelligence committees confirmation hearing wanted to know how Representative John Ratcliffe would manage pressure from Trump, a president who has often been at odds with the intelligence community.

The three-term House member, who fervently supported Trump during impeachment proceedings, repeatedly pledged to act independently.

The intelligence I deliver will not be subject to outside influence, he said.

Many of the questions for the Republican nominee to head 17 US intelligence agencies centred on coronavirus and China, which Trump has partly blamed for the devastating impact on the United States.

US Senator Tom Cotton speaks during a Senate Intelligence Committee nomination hearing for Ratcliffe on Capitol Hill [Gabriella DemczukReuters]

The cavernous hearing room was eerily empty, as the Senate observed strict protocols to protect against the spread of coronavirus. Ratcliffe said that, if confirmed, he would focus on the viruss impact, questions about its origins in China and US competition with Beijing.

If confirmed, the intelligence community will be laser-focused on getting all the answers that we can regarding how this happened, Ratcliffe said.

Trumps administration and the government in Beijing have been engaged in a bitter war of words about how the coronavirus spread, as the illness has killed more than 60,000 Americans and cratered the countrys economy, complicating Trumps run for re-election in November.

Ratcliffe said he views China as the greatest threat to the US, on many fronts. I wont say all roads lead to China, but a lot of them do, he said.

Trump nominated Ratcliffe, a member of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee since January 2019, to be director of national intelligence last year. The nomination was dropped amid questions about his lack of experience and partisan reputation, but the Republican president nominated him again this year.

Now, a few Republican committee members, including committee chair Richard Burr, promised they would back Ratcliffe, while stressing the need for the director to be politically independent. Democrats appeared unconvinced.

Democrats still have doubts

The committees top Democrat, Senator Mark Warner, said he was concerned about partisanship from Ratcliffe, a strongly outspoken supporter of Trump during impeachment hearings last year, especially regarding intelligence oversight and whistle-blowers.

I still have some of the same doubts now as I had back in August, Warner said.

There has been no Senate-confirmed Director of National Intelligence since August, when former Republican Senator Dan Coats retired. The current acting DNI, Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, is seen as a fierce Trump partisan.

Trump and aides have sharply criticised intelligence officials, accusing them without presenting evidence of working for a deep state seeking to undermine his presidency.

US Senator Dianne Feinstein speaks during a Senate Intelligence Committee nomination hearing for Ratcliffe [Andrew Harnik/Reuters]

Ratcliffe took pains to break with the president, saying he did not know what Trump meant last year when he said intelligence agencies had run amok. He refused to endorse Trumps assertion of a deep state inside the intelligence community and insisted that he would not shade intelligence findings to meet the desires of anyone, including the president.

Let me be very clear: Regardless of what anyone wants our intelligence to reflect, the intelligence I will provide, if confirmed, will not be impacted or altered as a result of outside influence, he told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Burr, who privately criticised Ratcliffe when his name was first floated last year, promised the Republican-majority panel would quickly recommend Ratcliffe to the full Senate.

His chances of securing the job appear better, but confirmation is not guaranteed. Trumps fellow Republicans hold a narrow 53 to 47-vote in the chamber, and he needs 51 votes for confirmation.

Trump infuriated Democrats and attracted criticism from some Republicans by firing Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who sent Congress a whistle-blower complaint alleging that Trump sought to persuade Ukraines president to collect potentially damaging information on former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading Trump political rival.

That report became central to Trumps impeachment.

Much about the hearing was unusual, or unprecedented. Ratcliffes family did not attend.

Some staff and senators wore masks into the room, but removed them to speak. Ratcliffe did not wear a mask. Members of the press were limited to a small number, who provided pool reports.

Burr closely questioned Ratcliffe about his view of Russian interference in US elections. The nominee said he agreed that Russia sought to sow discord in the US and interfere in the 2016 and 2018 campaigns.
By PTI

COLOMBO: Of the 548 active coronavirus cases in Sri Lanka, 327 of them were Navy personnel and authorities have also quarantined 1,008 of their relatives, officials said on Tuesday.

The virus has killed eight people with 752 positive cases in the island nation.

Army chief General Shavendra Silva, who heads Sri Lanks's COVID-19 prevention mechanism, on Tuesday said, "There were 33 new positive cases found at midnight (Monday), 31 of them are our gallant sailors who are linked to the Welisara camp. The two others are their contacts."

ALSO READ | Sri Lanka's June 20 election date left in balance after political parties discussion inconclusive

The COVID-19 infection is suspected to have spread in the Welisara Camp near capital Colombo when officers came in contact with drug addicts infected by the virus during a raid.

The sailors had gone home on leave, spreading the virus further.

Silva said 752 positive cases were reported in the country since its first positive case in mid-March, of which 194 patients had been discharged from hospitals after complete recovery.

The Army chief said 1,008 relatives of Navy sailors are presently in quarantine.

The virus death rose to eight on Monday after a 72-year-old woman in northwestern Kurunegala region died of the disease.

The woman was related to one of the infected sailors.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday spoke at an online summit of the Non Aligned Movement (NAM), a forum of around 120 developing countries.

Gotabaya said of all the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests only 3 per cent gave positive results and that the virus' mortality rate in Sri Lanka was less than 1 per cent.

The president said he intends to ease restriction to revive economic activities, while enforcing health guidelines.

The coronavirus, which first surfaced in China's Wuhan city in November last, has claimed over 250,000 lives and infected 3.5 million people across the world.
The Department of Government Support, as represented by the Abu Dhabi Digital Authority (ADDA), has launched a digital payment platform, Abu Dhabi Pay through the Abu Dhabi Government Services ecosystem, TAMM.

The launch of Abu Dhabi Pay is a new step towards accelerating the pace and impact of digital transformation and innovating more solutions and services aimed at facilitating the lives of Abu Dhabi residents and business communities.

In line with Abu Dhabi governments latest efforts to improve the quality of life of members of society in the emirate and enable them to benefit from modern digital technologies and solutions, "Abu Dhabi Pay" provides secure and standardised methods of digital payment for all government services across different channels, representing a further step toward digital sustainability.

The launch of Abu Dhabi Pay comes under the supervision of The Higher Committee of the Digital Government and is aligned with its efforts in activating a digital transformation governance framework in Abu Dhabi, providing new concepts of government services and moving towards a digital future.

Through Abu Dhabi Pay, customers will benefit from multiple safe payment options, one-time payments for multi-party services, and unified customer experiences on all government channels. Similarly, government entities will benefit from a unified platform for all channels and support, reducing errors while boosting career development for employees.

The initiative demonstrates the proactive approach to government services now in place, with TAMM providing convenience to customers and government entities alike.

The government entities adopting the platform at this stage are the Abu Dhabi Police, Department of Health, Department of Energy, Department of Economic Development, Department of Municipalities and Transport, Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority, and the General Administration of Customs.

Additionally, most of the government entities provide services to other parties that require the application of the single discount feature and multiple settlements.

Commenting on the launch of Abu Dhabi Pay, Ali Rashid Al Ketbi, Chairman of the Department of Government Support  Abu Dhabi, said: The launch of the new platform comes in line with Abu Dhabi government efforts to improve the quality of life for individuals and society in Abu Dhabi, and to facilitate a seamless and hassle-free access to all government services. Abu Dhabi Pay is an essential step forward in the efforts made by all parties to strengthen Abu Dhabi's position and leadership regionally and globally in the field of digital government.

Al Ketbi noted that the launch of Abu Dhabi Pay is the next stage of the emirates vision to achieve digital sustainability by streamlining data-driven systems and processes throughout government and that undoubtedly, the platform will ensure seamless service delivery for all users in Abu Dhabi, which in turn will contribute to promoting economic and social development in the emirate.

Engineer Mohamed Abdel Hameed Al Askar, Acting Director-General of the Abu Dhabi Digital Authority, said: "Looking ahead, we will integrate Abu Dhabi Pay with all of the digital channels of the remaining entities. This will include establishing the priorities and foundations required to complete the inclusion of digital channels for government agencies and communicating with them to study, prepare, and build the allocations required to complete the linking operations with their respective channels if necessary. Following this process, we will distribute and connect point of sale (POS) devices to complete preparations and meet the required allocations with the government entity's systems."

Major General Maktoum Ali Al Sharifi, Director-General of Abu Dhabi Police, highly praised the wise leaderships interest and the follow-up of Major General Faris Khalaf Al Mazrouei, Commander-in-Chief of Abu Dhabi Police, on development projects, the improvement of digital and smart services provided to customers, and the continuous efforts aiming at achieving their happiness and satisfaction.

Hisham Khalid Malak, Acting Undersecretary of the Department of Finance, said: The Abu Dhabi Pay platform is the result of cooperation between the financial and banking sector and government entities in Abu Dhabi, and it reflects the ability of all parties to harness technology with the power of innovation in providing smooth and easy government services, which contributes to meeting the expectations of customers and enhancing the emirate's position and its impact on the global economy.

Dr Jamal Al Kaabi, Acting Undersecretary of the Department of Health, commented: The platform reflects the importance of cooperation between government entities in Abu Dhabi to simplify and facilitate payments for government services.

Rashid Abdul Karim Al Balooshi, Acting Undersecretary of the Department of Economic Development, said: Our participation on this platform comes from our keenness to promote easy and competitive business practices through cooperation between government entities to support the digital transformation goals in the emirate.

Abdulla Al Sahi, Acting Undersecretary of the Department of Municipalities and Transport, said: Our participation on the platform is confirmation of our keenness to develop digital services according to the highest international standards that can contribute to enriching customer experiences and happiness, as they will be able to pay the various fees of the Department of Municipalities and Transport through one portal from anywhere and at any time."

Mohammed bin Jarsh Al Falasi, Undersecretary of the Department of Energy, said: We continue to support digital transformation strategies, the issuance of instant licenses and other smart services through both the TAMM platform and the Abu Dhabi Energy Services Platform. We support the unification of efforts between different entities to serve our goals in building a sustainable society and economy based on advanced digital infrastructure.

Saeed Al Bahri Salem Al Ameri, Director-General of Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority, said: Technology continues to reshape the future of the community in general and influence various areas of life, including the agricultural and food security safety sector. We are working in close cooperation with government entities and the private sector to provide innovative solutions that citizens and businesses alike need.

Rashed Lahej Al Mansoori, Director-General of the General Administration of Customs, said: This platform reflects the importance of technology in providing government financial services, especially electronic payment services. Today, customers expect fast and secure services to complete their transactions or obtain government services.

Andre Sayegh, Chief Executive Officer of the First Abu Dhabi Bank Group, said: The launch of Abu Dhabi Pay reflects our cooperation in efforts to unify all digital payments for government services. It is a new step towards accelerating the pace of digital transformation in all government entities in the emirate, achieving customer satisfaction and facilitating payment procedures for all residents.

The Abu Dhabi Pay platform offers many other features, such as payment processing, reconciliation and settlement, reports and audit, and one payment for several settlements. Payment channels include portals, mobile apps, POS, and cash deposit machines where payment methods include e-debit, e-wallet, credit cards, and cash. Currently, digital wallet and credit card payments are available while direct bank debit and other solutions for cash management will be added to the platform. -- Tradearabia News Service
The COVID-19 death toll at the Newmarch House in Sydney's west has risen to 16 amid revelations a worker at the aged care home was stood down over an alleged breach of infection control measures.

Operator Anglicare confirmed in a statement on Tuesday afternoon that another elderly resident who had tested positive for COVID-19 had died in the morning.

The death followed revelations that another three staff at the facility tested positive to coronavirus after being screened on Monday, while a contract worker from Aspen Medical was stood down over breaches of protocol regarding the use of personal protective equipment (PPE).

Newmarch House has become the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in NSW, with 37 cases among its residents, and now 29 among staff.
The wall in the school district office of Clark Burke was transformed into a war room with diagrams and flow charts covered with the so-called directional arrows and whiteboards illustrated with seemingly possible plans of attack.

The current schools' superintendent Manteca's San Joaquin County, also a career Army officer, is currently mapping out some strategies to reopen schools for the upcoming school year after five months of COVID-19 closure.

For school officials across California like Burke, getting the faculty and pupils back onto classroom with the pandemic still spreading in communities is undeniably a high-stakes challenge, not to mention "a logistical nightmare."

Strategizing to Keep 2,000 High School Students While Practicing Social Distance

The seeming war room has several options. One of which is the adoption of a hybrid model along with several classes online, and to some, in-person.

The said option would be applied with probably staggered schedules. By doing so, not all students would be on campus all at the same time, Burke said.

Another option may be the use of the school cafeterias and gyms as huge study halls with students going in and out of their classrooms in small groups with 10 to 12 members.

District Leaders Feel Skeptical

The unforeseen announcement that schools in California could resume as early as the latter part of July or the beginning of August was met with immediate pushback, not to mention more questions than answers for parents, teachers, and even school districts.

The suggestion of Gov. Gavin Newsom to reopen California schools, aimed at alleviating the learning lass as a consequence of school shutdowns that started in mid-March in response to the COVID-19 crisis, means some schools would begin the academic year earlier than expected.

Concerns have arisen that schools may not have sufficient funding and enough time to stagger schedules and develop social distancing measures and health-related programs to keep the staff and students safe if reopening of campuses pushes through.

Essentially, according to Newsom, the schools reopening would be part of the four phases of the Californians' return to everyday life. The initiative, in particular, is part of the second, and next to the four-phase initiative.

Meanwhile, organizations that represent school administrators and boards said "their members were caught off guard" by the announcement of Newsom, leaving them unprepared for the questions and complaints they get.

Worried Parent

According to Megan Dawkins, a parent with students who go to Ramona High School, as well as Mountain View Elementary School in Riverside Unified School District, she felt uncomfortable about reopening school earlier during this global health crisis.

She added that she does not see how the kids would be able to attend school safely, along with social distancing. Classes, she elaborated, "Are full, and I doubt" if the rook will be disinfected every after class.

More so, the worried parent said, even if lunch is delivered in the room, students would still need to go from one class to another, at least, in high school.

Dawkins also said she would consider homeschooling if California schools would reopen before the COVID-19 is under control, even if it would mean her children don't receive the same quality of learning.

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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)

Fauci Says Evidence Very Strongly Shows Virus Is Not Man-Made

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the countrys top infectious disease expert and member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, rejected the notion that the CCP virus, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, is man-made.

Fauci made the remarks to The National Geographic in an in-depth interview that ranged from virus origin theories to lighter topics prompted by questions like Wow, how do you unwind?

Asked whether he believed the virus was made inor accidentally released froma Chinese lab, Fauci said there was overwhelming evidence it came from the wild.

If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats, and whats out there now is very, very strongly leaning toward this [virus] could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated, he said, adding that the mutation pattern of the virus is highly suggestive of a natural origin.

A number of very qualified evolutionary biologists have said that everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that it evolved in nature and then jumped species, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said.

A widespread theory, reiterated by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday, is that the virus made the leap from animal to human at one of Wuhans wildlife wet markets.

Some claim the virus occurred naturally but was brought into the Wuhan lab for study, from where it escaped, a theory Fauci dismissed as a circular argument.

That means it was in the wild to begin with. Thats why I dont get what theyre talking about [and] why I dont spend a lot of time going in on this circular argument, he said.

The Trump administration is investigating whether negligence or wilful action on Chinas part fanned the flames of the pandemic.

Both President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have in recent weeks blamed Beijing for concealing early data about the spread of the virus in China, something they say wasted precious response time and hamstrung efforts to fight the pandemic.

Trump said on April 30 that he had seen convincing evidence that the deadly bug originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, while Pompeo told ABC News on Sunday there was enormous evidence the virus originated in the Wuhan lab. Pompeo did not disclose specifics, saying only that China has a history of infecting the world, and they have a history of running substandard laboratories.

A recent report by The Epoch Times concludes, based on expert interviews, that the CCP virus pandemic highlights a history of mismanagement, corruption, and lack of ethics in Chinas virology labs.

Meanwhile, Americas intelligence agencies said in a rare public statement that they agreed with the widespread scientific consensus that the virus was not manmade or genetically modified but are still looking into whether the Wuhan lab played any role in its transmission.

The IC [intelligence community] will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan, the Office of Director of National Intelligence said in an April 30 statement.

Besides accusing the Chinese Communist Party of hiding facts about the outbreak, Pompeo hinted at future steps to hold it accountable for the economic and social fallout of the pandemic.

Im still concerned that the Chinese Communist Party is not telling us about all of whats taking place in all of the labs, in fact each of the labs, all across China today, he said in an interview with Fox News.

What the Chinese Communist Party did here, in not preventing the spread of this around the world, they are responsible for. America needs to hold them accountable, Pompeo added.

Correction: The headline has been updated to more accurately reflect Faucis comments. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 23:24:59|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Mongolian government on Tuesday signed a loan pact worth 40 million U.S. dollars, and a Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR) grant worth 2 million U.S. dollars, to help modernize government-owned irrigation networks and vegetable production in Mongolia.

Pavit Ramachandran, ADB country director for Mongolia, and Mongolian Finance Minister Khurelbaatar Chimed signed the agreements at a ceremony in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator.

"Diversifying traditional low-value grain crops into high-value vegetables will promote income and jobs in rural areas," said Ramachandran.

Agriculture is the main source of livelihood in rural areas, but is not sufficiently diversified. Mongolia relies heavily on imports for vegetables and fodder. Meanwhile, the country's irrigation systems are recognized as having low water productivity and lacking resilience to severe droughts and floods.

The project aims to install efficient and climate-resilient irrigation infrastructure and management systems, improve sustainability of agriculture production systems, and strengthen technical, institutional, and management capacity and coordination, according to the ADB.

Specifically, the project will upgrade and modernize infrastructure to provide irrigation services for over 8,000 hectares of land, the bank said. A total of 3,458 households are expected to benefit, including 1,041 low-income households.

The ADB will administer the co-financing grant of 2 million U.S. dollars from the JFPR, which has supported projects in Mongolia in poverty alleviation, improving livelihoods, and safeguarding the environment over the past 20 years, the bank said. Enditem
Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown has made a 15,000 donation to NHS staff on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic.

The actress, 16, gave 5,000 each to Bournemouth Hospital Charity, Salisbury District Hospital Stars Appeal and Southampton Hospitals Charity.

The money will go towards supporting workers throughout the health crisis.

Generous: Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown, 16, has donated 15,000 to the NHS on the frontline against coronavirus

Millie, who has lived with her family in Bournemouth for four years, said: 'Britain's NHS workers - and all carers - are an inspiration to us all and are the nation's heroes.

'I am in awe of every one of them and just wanted to thank those risking their lives - particularly in hospitals on the South coast.

'The area is very dear to me and my family and I cannot wait to visit again soon. Keep up the brilliant work and stay safe. Thank you. You are all amazing.'

Much-appreciated: The actress gave 5,000 each to Bournemouth Hospital Charity, Salisbury District Hospital Stars Appeal and Southampton Hospitals Charity

Donations go towards items including personal care packages, non-perishable food and drink and access to psychologists.

Debbie Anderson, head of charity for Bournemouth Hospital Charity, said: 'We are committed to supporting the mental and physical wellbeing of our staff at this time, and thanks to the generous donations we have already received we have already purchased health and wellbeing books, toiletries, refreshments, and white boards to communicate with patients and other staff members when wearing PPE.'

Millie is best known for playing Eleven in Netflix sci-fi drama Stranger Things, and will next appear in the films Godzilla vs Kong and Enola Holmes.

New music: The teenager appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon last month via video link and discussed her current music making

The actress is self-isolating at her family's home in Georgia, US, and she recently revealed she is recording music during lockdown.

Last month, she appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon via video link and discussed her current music making.

Stranger Things season four filming is currently on hold due to current restrictions brought on by the virus meaning Millie has more time on her hands.

She told the host: 'Me and my brother are always in the studio recording stuff and writing stuff.'

She told the host: 'Me and my brother are always in the studio recording stuff and writing stuff' whilst sat at in her at home recording studio

She spoke to Jimmy from her at-home-recording-studio which was decorated with her and her brother, Charlie's, record collection.

The actress is often sharing snippets of her singing with her 32.7 million followers on Instagram.

Last October it was revealed that Millie aimed to take on the charts.

A source told The Sun at the time: 'Millie is brilliantly talented. She has millions of Stranger Things fans but also has a passion for singing,'

'She already has at least seven songs she loves but isn't planning to release anything until after she turns 16 in February, partly as her schedule is crazy.'
Nearly 70,000 stranded migrants have been ferriedto various parts of the country in 'Shramik Special' trains since May 1 at the estimated expense of over Rs 50 crore, railway officials said on Tuesday even as the issue of their travel cost remained a matter of political bickering with the Congress and BSP leaders attacking the railways for charging money from these migrants.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of migrants in many states anxiously awaited to return home, including in Goa, where nearly 80,000 labourers, mostly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, have registered themselves to return to their natives places even as chief ministers of Goa and Karnataka appealed to these workers stranded there due to COVID-19 lockdown not to leave the states and assured them work.

A day after opposition parties, including the Congress launched a scathing attack against the Union government and the railways for charging money from migrants for the travel, sources in the railways said thenational transporter is spending around Rs 80 lakh per service for the special trains, and it has run 67 such trains carrying around 67,000 stranded migrants since May 1--- incurring an expenditure of over Rs 50 crore.

While the Railways has not madeofficial how much it has spent on running these trains so far, the government has said thecost was shared on a 85:15 ratio with the states.

The railway officials also indicated that for the first 34 trains, the national transporter has spent Rs 24 crore, while the states have spent Rs 3.5 crore.

Bhujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati said it was "unfortunate" that the Centre and the state governments were charging money from stranded migrant workers.

"if governments hesitate in paying the fare of these migrants, the BSP will take help of its cadre and will contribute in making arrangements for these workers," she added.

After his party on Monday offered to pay for stranded migrants, senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel on Tuesday claimed that the railways collected Rs 3.5 crore running trains and the money came from the poor migrants.

"The railways collected Rs 3.5 crore by running trains last week. This money came from poor migrants who had no income since last 2 months yet some propaganda factories claimed this was untrue. The Congress is committed to support any individual-who can't afford to pay-to board these trains," Patel tweeted.

Meanwhile, the Gujarat chief minister's office said the state government does not keep any money collected from the sale of train tickets to migrant workers heading to their hometown and merely acts as a facilitator and transfers fares to Railways, officials said on Tuesday, rejecting the allegation of charging such travellers.

The assertion came in the wake of the Congress claim that the state government is not providing free of cost travel to the poor and unemployed migrant workers heading to their native places amid the COVID-19 lockdown.

Over two dozen trains carrying migrant workers have left from various railway stations of Gujarat to different states in the last few days.

Secretary in the Chief Minister's Office (CMO), Ashwani Kumar said,"the Gujarat government doesn't keep any money collected from the sale of train tickets. On the other hand, we are facilitating the travellers in registration, providing transportation till the train station and assisting in smooth boarding of passengers,"



Over 1,100 labourers and pilgrims, who reachedDankuni in West Bengal from Ajmer, were greeted with flowers,officials said, adding all1,186 passengers, including women and children, were subjected to medical examination for any COVID-19 symptom at a camp set up by the Health Department outside the station.

Another special train carrying about 1,200 migrant workers left for Khagaria in Bihar from Telangana's ghatkesar, a senior south central railway official said, adding that all the passengers were screened before they were allowed to board.

This is the second train arranged for the workers in Telangana.

Similarly, another train from Rayannapadu near Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh left for Chandrapur in Maharashtra, the SCR official added.

In Ahmedabad and Surat, scores of migrant workers, desperate to travel back to their native states, came out on streets, officials said. While more than 1,000 migrant workers carrying luggage gathered in Nikol area in Ahmedabad following a rumour that buses would be run for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, several others came on streets in Varachha area of Surat city.

It took almost two hours in Ahmedabad for local police to persuade the migrants to vacate the busy crossroad near Ajit Mill police chowky, they said.

Thousands of migrant workers who left for their native places have got stranded in western Madhya Pradesh after they were stopped from proceeding further. Majority of these stranded labourers are from Uttar Pradesh, a Madhya Pradesh administration official said.

Meanwhile, the railways issued detailed guidelines on security and sanitisation protocols to its various zones, running 'Shramik Special' trains, asking themto watch out for the possibility of sectarian feuds and troublemakers on board, and keep an eye on the behaviour of passengers.

The Railways, in its guidelines issued on Monday, has divided the protocols into three broad sections -- originating station, destination station and on board the trains. It has also spoken on security arrangements that need to be made at all entry and exit points at the stations as well as on the trains.

"Enhanced presence of security personnel. Hiring of ex-servicemen, home guards, private security etc. Close interaction with intelligence agencies will be maintained to ascertain any possibilities of a sectarian feud or group conflict among the passengers. In the event of information about any such possibility, suitable precautions may be taken like enhanced presence of security personnel at the origin, en route and destinations.

"Intensive watch on the behaviour of the passengers will be kept and any troublemakers identified and separated from the group. In the event of increased hostility, state police may be informed to intervene as soon as possible," the guidelines said.

The Railways also stated that sanitisation of trains has to be done both at the originating and the destination stations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Gadget accessories and consumer electronics maker U&I on Tuesday said it has distributed two lakh face masks in various parts of India as part of its contribution in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

The company locally produced these face shield masks and donated them to frontline corona fighters such as doctors, policemen and other security personnel, and banking staff, the company said in a statement.

These were distributed in 15 cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Jaipur, Kanpur, Agra, Jammu, Chandigarh, Rajkot, Hyderabad, Ludhiana, Ahmedabad, Raipur, Nagpur and Bhubaneswar.

Commenting on the initiative, U&I Founder and Director Paresh Vij said, "We acknowledge that our policemen and doctors are our first defenders against the pandemic and providing them with the necessary equipment to protect them from the pandemic is our top priority."



Donating and distributing face shield masks are the first step towards that, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Iowans, and all Americans it seems, feel their governors are doing a better job handling the new coronavirus pandemic than President Donald Trump.

And here at home, more than half of Iowans approve of the job Gov. Kim Reynolds is doing in guiding the states response to the global pandemic.

New polling published last past week showed 54 percent of Iowans approve of the way Reynolds is handling the coronavirus outbreak.

The same poll showed just 46 percent of Iowans had the same opinion of Trump.

The polling was conducted by researchers from Harvard Kennedy School, Northeastern University, and Rutgers University. The researchers surveyed almost 23,000 individuals across all 50 states and the District of Columbia between April 17 and April 26.

Iowans are not alone in showing more faith in their governor than the president. In fact, survey respondents in all 50 states gave their governor a better coronavirus response approval rating than the president.

However, Iowas approval gap is not nearly as protracted as it is in other states.

In New York, for example, 74 percent of people said they approve of the job Gov. Andrew Cuomo is doing in handling the pandemic, while just 40 percent said the same of Trump. New York has been one of the hardest-hit states by the virus.

In an effort to limit the coronavirus spread through the state, Reynolds in mid-March ordered Iowa schools closed and some businesses closed or partially shut down. Last week, she lifted some restrictions on some businesses in parts of the state that have not been as hard hit by the virus.

As of Saturday, 175 Iowans had died due to the coronavirus, and nearly 8,000 cases had been confirmed, according to state public health data.

The numbers continue to climb in Iowa: Three days last week set new single-day highs for virus-related deaths.

Just 25 percent of Iowans said they disapprove of how Reynolds has managed the pandemic; 20 percent offered no opinion.

Roughly 3 in 5 Iowans polled said state government is reacting about right to the pandemic; 32 percent said the state is not taking the outbreak seriously enough, and just 8 percent said the state is overreacting, according to the poll.

Trust in city government was even higher: nearly 4 in 5 Iowans said they have a lot or some trust in their city government to do the right thing in managing the virus, according to the poll.

Iowans also remain supportive of state-ordered mitigation efforts that required many businesses to close. Roughly 4 in 5 Iowans strongly or somewhat approve of business closures to prevent the virus spread, while just 1 in 5 strongly or somewhat disapprove, according to the poll results.

Those numbers are strong across the country and across political parties, the poll found.

People are highly supportive of the social distancing measures  theyre not ready to reopen the economy yet, David Lazer, a professor of political science and computer and information sciences at Northeastern University, said in a news release. And this is pretty much a bipartisan consensus.

Erin Murphy covers Iowa politics and government for Lee Enterprises. His email address is erin.murphy@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter at @ErinDMurphy.
Twenty-nine U.S. Army soldiers will be awarded the Purple Heart for their injuries in Iran's ballistic missile attack on Al Asad airbase in western Iraq in early January.

There were 110 U.S. service members suffering from concussion-like injuries following the attack, but U.S. Central Command said a traumatic brain injury (TBI) diagnosis did not automatically qualify a service member to receive the award that is given to those wounded in combat.

"The first six Purple Hearts approved for injuries sustained during a Jan. 8, 2020 Iranian ballistic missile attack on Al Assad Air Base in Iraq were awarded to U.S. Army soldiers in Iraq and Kuwait on May 3 and 4, respectively," Cmdr. Zachary Harrell, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, wrote in an email. "The awards were the first of 29 approved by Lt. Gen. Pat White, commander, Combined Joint Task Force- Operation Inherent Resolve, following a review in accordance with Army and Air Force regulations."

MORE: Pentagon now says 50 service members suffered brain injuries from Iran attack

The remainder of the medals will be awarded later this week.

PHOTO: First Lt. Abigail Holstein is presented with the Purple Heart medal by Col. Greg Fix, on May 3, 2020, for her injuries sustained during the ballistic missile attacks at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, on January 8. (Sgt. Sydney Mariette/U.S. Army)

"It is important to note that a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) diagnosis does not automatically qualify a Service Member for Purple Heart eligibility or awarding," Harrell explained. "The CJTF-OIR process was designed to be a fair and impartial proceeding that evaluated each case in accordance with applicable regulations."

Initially the Pentagon said that there had been no injuries as a result of the January ballistic missile attack on the sprawling Iraqi base in western Iraq that housed up to 2,000 U.S. military personnel.

MORE: President Trump minimizes concussion-like injuries in Iraq attack as merely 'headaches'

The blast waves from the missile strikes on the base resonated at some of the bunkers, particularly those that were close to impact areas, where U.S. forces had sheltered ahead of the attack. That ultimately led to some diagnoses of concussions that did not manifest themselves until a week later. In the weeks that followed up to 110 service members were diagnosed with concussion-like symptoms, which included headaches, dizziness, sensitivity to light, restlessness and nausea.

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PHOTO: A picture taken on Jan. 13, 2020, during a press tour organised by the US-led coalition shows a view of the damage at Ain al-Asad military airbase housing U.S. and other foreign troops in the western Iraqi province of Anbar. (Ayman Henna/AFP via Getty Images, FILE)

Those with serious symptoms were sent to U.S. military medical facilities in Germany and the United States for further treatment. The majority of the personnel eventually returned to their units in Iraq.

CJTF-OIR, the U.S. military command in Iraq, reviewed 80 recommendations for service members to receive the medal, but ultimately decided that only 29 met the criteria.

PHOTO: Spc. Robert Jones is presented the Purple Heart medal by 34th Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigade Commander, Col. Greg Fix, on May 3, 2020, for his injuries sustained during the ballistic missile attacks at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, on January 8. (Sgt. Sydney Mariette/U.S. Army)

The U.S. Air Force concurred with the command's decision not to award the medal to two airmen who had been among those being considered.

MORE: Defense secretary says Trump 'very concerned' about Iran attack brain injury victims

As the first reports emerged that service members were experiencing TBI symptoms President Donald Trump seemed to minimize the injuries as "headaches" and as being "not very serious." His initial comments were controversial at the time since traumatic brain injuries are considered to be the signature wound of the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper later said that Trump was "very concerned" and "understands the nature of these injuries."

PHOTO: Abigail Holstein salutes Col. Greg Fix on May 3, 2020, after being presented with the Purple Heart medal for her injuries sustained during the ballistic missile attacks at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, on Jan. 8, 2020. (Sgt. Sydney Mariette/U.S. Army)

The Iranian missile attack was in retaliation for the U.S. missile strike in Baghdad that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, then-head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

While Iran has stepped back from any additional direct military action, it has continued to support Iraqi Shiite militias that have carried out subsequent attacks on U.S. military facilities in Iraq, prompting retaliatory U.S. military strikes.

On Monday, Esper told the Center for Strategic and International Studies that the U.S. sees continued Iranian support for those groups as a threat and "we have consolidated and hardened our positions" inside Iraq.

29 soldiers receive Purple Hearts following Iran missile attack originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Here are a few of the best events happening on Tuesday and how to tune in (all times are Eastern).

A Cinco de Mayo Fiesta With Eva Longoria

1 p.m. on Facebook Live

Latin stars  including Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Luis Fonsi, J Balvin, Diane Guerrero, Ana Brenda Contreras, Becky G, Edward James Olmos, Juanes and more  are coming together for a virtual Cinco de Mayo celebration, the Altisimo Live! festival, hosted by Eva Longoria and Enrique Santos. The event will raise money for the farmworkers Covid-19 pandemic relief fund.

When: The benefit kicks off at 3 p.m. with entertainers, comedians, chefs, social media influencers and others. Musical performances and artist Q. and A. sessions begin at 7 p.m.

Where: The Altisimo Live! Facebook, YouTube, Twitch and Twitter pages, as well as iHeartLatinos radio stations and websites.

Another Cinco de Mayo Celebration

5 p.m. on Instagram Live

The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles is also holding a Cinco de Mayo event. The bilingual celebration  hosted by the American-born Chilean songwriter Francisca Valenzuela  will highlight several genres within Mexican music. Participants include Mireya Ramos, a founder of the Latin Grammy-winning group Flor De Toloache, considered New York Citys first and only female mariachi band; and the Latin Grammy-winning producer Aureo Baqueiro. The museum opened Los Angeless first permanent Latin Music Gallery in the fall. Since closing temporarily, it has posted virtual Latin exhibitions online including one dedicated to Jenni Rivera, and soon, one to Carlos Vives on May 15.

When: 5 p.m.

Where: The Grammy Museums Instagram page.
A new two-part episode of the PBS documentary series American Experience examines George W. Bush and his unlikely transition from college partier to president of the United States, including his pivotal decision to quit drinking after his 40th birthday.

"He woke up hungover," childhood friend Charlie Younger remembers in the documentary's first episode, which premiered Monday night on PBS and continued Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET. "He'd overdone it the night before and he didn't feel good. I think Laura [Bush] told him he could've behaved better. He just said, 'I don't need this in my life. It's robbing me of my energy. It's taking too much of my time.'"

So, he quit drinking cold turkey, starting an evolution that would lead to him becoming the 43rd U.S. president about 15 years later.

"I quit because at times I thought I like to drink too much," Bush explains in his own words, in an older interview shown in the documentary. "Somebody said, 'Can you think of any day you hadn't had a beer?' And I couldn't."

Bush's drinking days as a Texas bachelor are well-documented and thoroughly revisited in the opening American Experience episode about the two-term president.

"He was kind of drifting," Younger says. "I don't think he had focus on where he was heading."

Other childhood friends interviewed for the program didn't mince words.

"He'd drink too much and he could really be obnoxious when he drank too much," Bush's lifelong friend Robert McCleskey explains. "For lack of a better word, he could be a real a------ when he drank."

Journalist Wayne Slater says the younger version of Bush was more of a "good-time Charlie" who was a "wonderfully engaging friend and fraternity brother that you've met a thousand times."

"What he wasn't, at least to my mind," Slater says, "was someone who would emerge as governor of Texas or president of the United States."

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Bush's drinking got so bad that family and friends worried what he'd do with his life when he began approaching his 40th birthday, former speechwriter Michael Gerson explains in the episode.

"He drank too much and he had very little direction," Gerson says.

RELATED: George W. Bush Describes One of His Worst Drunken Moments

Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Sygma via Getty George W. Bush with his twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara, in 1981.

By the summer of 1985, Bush began to slowly change after discovering spirituality and religion.

Rev. Billy Graham "planted a seed in my heart and I began to change," Bush told the Washington Post in 1999.

The future president began attending weekly bible study sessions, the program explains, and New York Times political reporter Peter Baker says Bush began searching for meaning in those weekly sessions.

"He's looking for something, right? He's seeking out direction, meaning, understanding," Baker says. "Religion begins to give him that definition and that path forward."

He soon transitioned "from a church-goer to a Christ follower," Younger explains in the doc.

"[He] wanted to emulate the tenants and teachings of Jesus Christ," Younger says. "He made a definite transformation there."

By the morning after celebrating his 40th birthday, Bush was ready to give up alcohol for good.

The Post described Bush's birthday celebration as "a loud, liquid night at the venerable Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs." Former First Lady Laura Bush wrote in her 2010 memoir Spoken From the Heart that she, her husband and their friends had a "wild drunken weekend and it was no different from any other weekend."

Regardless, Bush had had enough and called it quits.

"He beat drinking and he did it just overnight," director Barak Goodman told NPR. "I mean, he really displayed a level of discipline and decisiveness that people don't often attribute to George W. Bush but was very much part of his character. He was able to marshal this, you know, quite a bit of inner strength. And this was an example. He just  he stopped cold."

RELATED: Where and How the Bushes, Obamas, McCains & More Are Spending Their Social Distancing During Coronavirus

PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP via Getty President George W. Bush stands with retired firefighter Bob Beckwith and addresses first responders at Ground Zero on September 14, 2001

Much of the remainder of the first half of the documentary chronicles the shock of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Bush's response.

At the time, Bush was nine months into a presidency that began with a controversial and disputed election  with the Supreme Court stepping in to settle the dispute whether Bush or the Democratic candidate Al Gore would be the next president.

"The nation rallied because we were attacked but I think the nation also had question marks about its nine-month-long president at that point," says Ari Fleischer, who served as Bush's press secretary from 2001-2003.

Fleischer says the American public had two lingering questions about President Bush, and they're the two questions American Experience begins to explore about the president in its first episode: "Who are you?" and "What will you do?"

Part two of the George W. Bush American Experience documentary airs Tuesday night on PBS at 9 p.m. ET.
The publication in the Western press about the results of the investigation of the Five Eyes alliance about Beijings suppression of data on the coronavirus is part of the politicized anti-Chinese campaign unleashed in the West,  said Leonid Slutsky, Chairman of Russian State Duma Committee on international Affairs on May 4.

On May 2, Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph published a report stating allegedly that China intentionally concealed and destroyed data on the outbreak of COVID-19.

The report consists of a 15-page dossier compiled by the so-called intelligence union The Five Eyes, which is composed of representatives of the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK. However, no evidence is given that such a document exists.

Repeatedly associating the origin of the virus with China, the newspaper added claims that China refused to provide other countries with virus samples needed to create a vaccine.

According to Slutsky, such stuffing is designed to distract the public attention from the inability of the US to cope with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

All statements about the laboratory origin of the virus are nothing more than speculation. All of Beijings accusations are aimed at removing responsibility for problems in the healthcare system of Western countries, in particular, in the USA. The search for an external enemy for a distracting maneuver is a very cynical and, unfortunately, traditional device for Washington and its satellites, said Slutsky.

He emphasized that China has openly cooperated and continues to work with the international community, providing not only information, but real medical care.

China is not an accomplice of the coronavirus, it was the first to suffer from COVID-19. All statements about the laboratory nature of the infection are nothing more than speculation, Slutsky added.

He said to defeat the pandemic is only together, without mutual reproaches and unnecessary escalation of tension.
The Tripura government has



decided to bring back the people of the state stranded in other parts of the country, Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath said on Tuesday.

He said people of other states who got stuck in Tripura due to the nationwide lockdown will also be sent back.

Altogether 8,208 persons who are stranded in different parts of the state have registered their names for returning home.

Of them, 1,221 persons have applied for vehicles passes. We have decided to give priority to patients and students, who would be given passes in the first lot and others would be issued passes in a phased manner. Issuance of passes has already started," he told reporters at the civil secretariat here.

Nath, who is also the cabinet spokesperson, said 1,130 persons have returned to Tripura since May 1 on their own through the Churaibari entry point on the Assam-Tripura border.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb announced a portal -- http://covid19.tripura.gov.in -- for the persons of Tripura who stranded in other states.

Those wanting to come back have to register on this website, he said.

Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar said there are more than 33,000 migrant workers and their family members in Tripura at present and they are largely from Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and West Bengal.

Six nodal officers have been engaged to look into the arrangements being made for their return.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ayala-backed automotive brand Kia Philippines is currently placing safety measures for its dealerships around the Philipines as everyone braces for the New Norm caused by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.

With one of its slogans as Promise to care, the guidelines, to be followed strictly, will ensure the health and safety of its employees, business partners, customers and the general public.

Kia Philippines Manny Aligada said that company "completely supports our national governments effort to stop the spread of the virus" and that they have also considered that adjustments needed to be undertaken.

"Kia Philippines completely supports our national governments effort to stop the spread of the virus with the extension of the Enhanced Community Quarantine at critical locations until May 15, and with other areas placed under General Community Quarantine after April 30. Some dealers may resume operations but taking into account the adjustments needed to adhere to the new normal of conducting business and person-to-person interaction," Aligada, said.

Aligada, who earlier assured that there would be more surprises this year, assured that their dealer network would stringent measures to safeguard both their employees and clients.

" Our dealer network must strictly follow the safety protocols, guidelines and regulations issued by the governments Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID). As we prepare for the resumption of dealer operations, we assure everyone that our showrooms and facilities are safe for both our employees and customers," Aligada noted.

Aligada Kia

The Kia Philippines Post-ECQ Dealer Preparation Guidelines involve a thorough checklist of what items and places should be cleaned, along with the type of cleaning agents and materials to be used. It covers procedures from the vehicles (display, test drive, and serviced) to the offices and customer and reception areas.

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A Nine-Step Guide to Facility Preparation was issued before allowing employees to report for work.

This involved disinfecting all areas and maintaining regular sanitation practices, posting proper markings for physical distancing (about 2 meters), installing sanitizing and handwashing solutions at strategic locations, ensuring that all areas were properly ventilated, among other guidelines.

Moreover, Kia Philippines also provided a Nine-Step Guide for Employee Preparation which included assigning a Dealer Health and Safety representative to check on employees' health with Covid-19 rapid test kits for administration to employees every two weeks, providing shuttle services or arrangement of car pools to avoid taking public transportation, subjecting each one to a thermal scan before entry and a no mask, no entry policy, encouraging them to avoid handing out business cards or any material that may be a source of virus, among other regulations.

The automaker will also be implementing flexible working hours, shifting or skeletal workforce and staggered break time schedules to keep the number of people in the office to a minimum.

Buying a Kia will still involve that personal touch, but, with a few preventive measures.

Customers who wish to view a unit of the vehicle they are considering are advised to set an appointment with their Sales Consultant beforehand so as to avoid a large number of people in showroom at a given time. Once they arrive at the showroom, clients must be wearing a face mask, observe sanitation measures and physical distancing of two meters. For those who would like to test drive, all vehicles will be fully sanitized inside and out after each use and are guaranteed to be safe.

Even after the sale has been made, Kia still Promises to Care with its new normal way of after-sales operations by setting service appointments, observing physical distancing, wearing of personal protective gears by Service Advisors and personnel, and disinfection of all tools used and the vehicles before and after being serviced.

Kia dealer

All serviced vehicles will undergo the same quality inspection and test drive as needed but customers may expect delays as the dealership prioritizes health and safety in its operations.

Six (6) Kia dealers in the Visayas and Mindanao have resumed its operations starting May 4, from Mondays to Saturdays:

Operating Hours (8:00 am to 5:00 pm)

Kia Dumaguete

Kia Leyte

Kia General Santos

Operating Hours (9:00 am to 4:00 pm)

Kia Cagayan De Oro

Kia Iligan

Operating Hours (9:00 am to 5:00 pm)

Kia Butuan

With all the guidelines and preventive measures in place, customers can be assured that they are safe whenever they step into a Kia dealership.

Also read:

Kia Motors Set to Release the Sorento via Facebook

Kia Motors Ramps up EVs by 2020
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(Photo : REUTERS/Andrew Kelly) The Pfizer logo is seen at their world headquarters in Manhattan, New York, U.S., August 1, 2016.

Pfizer's vaccine for the coronavirus is now beginning its clinical trial in the United States with hopes of creating millions of doses by October.

Read More: AI Scans COVID-19 Lungs in 10 secs, Confirms High-Risk Patients

Pfizer Seems Confident

The multinational pharmaceutical company has announced on Tuesday that human clinical trials together with immunotherapy company BioNTech have started. The test is to see if the potential vaccine for the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19 to be as effective as it should.

Pfizer said in a news release that the first cohort for the human trials was dosed just last week in Germany, a part of the BNT162 vaccine program. The willing participants will also be dosed at New York University's Grossman School of Medicine and also the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

To add, the University of Rochester Medical Center/Rochester Regional Health and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center will also begin their trial participants.

Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer and chairman, said in the statement, "With our unique and robust clinical study program underway, starting in Europe and now the U.S., we look forward to advancing quickly and collaboratively with our partners at BioNTech and regulatory authorities to bring a safe and efficacious vaccine to the patients who need it most,

Bourla also added, "The short, less than four-month timeframe in which we've been able to move from pre-clinical studies to human testing is extraordinary and further demonstrates our commitment to dedicating our best-in-class resources, from the lab to manufacturing and beyond, in the battle against COVID-19,"

CNBC's Squawk Box interviewed Dr. Mikael Dolsten, who his Pfizer's chief of the scientific office, said that the company is already planning to have millions of doses ready by October alone--hundreds of millions prepared by the year 2021.

"The plans involve ramping up to tens of millions laters this year and with the potential for hundreds of millions in '21... So, it's a very quick plan as we now are dosing participants, healthy participants in the U.S. and Germany."

Read More: COVID-19: DARPA Created New Test To Identify COVID-19 Within 24 Hours After Exposure And Is 95 Percent Accurate

What to Expect For The Meantime

Of course, as the trial is still underway, Pfizer and BioNTech are already working on setting up production capabilities in hopes of manufacturing large doses of the potential vaccine to meet the global demand for the coronavirus.

The production facilities will be centered around Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, and Belgium.

Ugur Sahin, the CEO, and co-founder of BioNTech reached out and said on a statement saying, "We are optimistic that advancing multiple vaccine candidates into human trials will allow us to identify the safest, most effective vaccination options against COVID-19,"

If both the companies are going to be successful in the clinical trials, they will begin distributing the life-saving vaccine by October, which some health experts have said that the vaccine would usually take for about 12 to 18 months.

As a comparison to the cure for the potential cure for the coronavirus, the fastest cure ever made was for the mumps, which took four years to develop and was released to the public in 1971.

Read More: 2 New Coronavirus Drugs Will Be Tested In Japan and UK this Month: Interferon Beta and Avigan

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Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said the airline is in talks with Airbus and Boeing about postponing plane deliveries as he set out plans for surviving the coronavirus storm.

Facing shareholders at the German company's annual general meeting -- held online because of the pandemic -- executives said they couldn't answer questions about negotiations for a government bailout, but that it's in no one's best interests to see a collapse.

"The future of Lufthansa is being decided in these days," Spohr told the meeting. "It is about avoiding an insolvency with the help of the governments of our four home markets."

Spohr is seeking to slash spending and rein in Lufthansa's operations to survive a travel collapse that's punctured a decades-long aviation boom. At the same time he's pursuing state support worth as much as 12 billion euros ($13 billion) from Germany and the three other countries where the group has units.

Lufthansa shares traded little-changed as of 12:46 p.m. in Frankfurt after earlier gaining 3.8%. The stock has lost 51% of its value this year, on a par with Air France-KLM, which is also seeking aid, but steeper than declines at discounters Ryanair and Wizz Air.

The crucial German bailout, which could total 10 billion euros, has been held up as Lufthansa resists ceding influence to the state, people with knowledge of the matter have said. Karl-Ludwig Kley, chairman of its supervisory board, told the AGM that questions regarding details of the talks wouldn't be discussed.

Spohr said negotiations with Airbus and Boeing over fleet plans are "intense."

Lufthansa has already announced plans to permanently reduce aircraft numbers and close discount arm Germanwings to resize for what it warns could be years of depressed demand.

The group has 123 outstanding orders for Airbus planes, comprising 96 A320neo-series single-aisle jets and 27 A350-900 wide-bodies, and 40 for Boeing models, split evenly between the 777X and 787 Dreamliner.

Supervisory board member Michael Niggemann said it's impossible to give a market outlook for the second half, while disclosing that Lufthansa is burning through 800 million euros a month despite having shut down almost all of its operations. A capital increase can't be ruled out at some point, he added.

Spohr said Lufthansa is focused purely on its own situation and that there are no plans for a takeover of Alitalia, the Italian airline that filed for bankruptcy protection long before covid-19 struck. Vanessa Golz of shareholder Deka Investment had said the issue was one that needed to be clarified.

Talks with the German government are coming down to how much the state will profit from the rescue in future years, according to the people, who asked not to be named discussing private negotiations.

Lufthansa has already secured aid from Switzerland for its unit there in the form of 1.28 billion Swiss francs ($1.4 billion) in credit guarantees and is negotiating packages in Belgium and Austria, where it's asking for 767 million euros in support from Vienna, mostly in repayable loans.
The self-declared mandate announced by Khalifa Haftar in a televised address last week may indicate growing tensions among his allies amid his failure to gain decisive advantage on the ground

Last week, the Libyan National Armys (LNA) Commander Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, accepted a popular mandate to rule Libya and declared an end to the Skhirat Agreement, a UN-brokered accord between Libyan factions signed in 2015. In a televised address on the Libyan Al-Hadath TV channel 27 April, he explained that the spurious accord has destroyed the country and steered it to precipitous slides.

He said that he would produce a new constitutional declaration containing a roadmap to the future and form a new government to replace the interim eastern-based government headed by Abdullah Al-Thani.

Haftars announcement conflicts with the political initiative announced several days earlier by his political ally Aguila Saleh, speaker of the Tobruk-based House of Representatives. Saleh had said that he would present the initiative, which calls for the creation of a new Presidential Council, to the UN soon.

Salehs and Haftars actions come at time when the LNAs campaign to take control of Tripoli has encountered setbacks as a result of Turkeys active military intervention on the side of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA). Advanced Turkish weapons, Turkish military advisers and thousands of Turkish-paid mercenaries have helped the UN-recognised GNA recover areas west of Tripoli and forced LNA affiliated forces away from the southern suburbs of Tripoli.

The GNA allied forces have also surrounded the LNA-held city of Tarhouna, located 60 kilometres southeast of the capital, and intensified strikes against Haftars forces at Watiya Airbase 140 kilometres southwest of the capital.

Two days after his televised address, Haftar surprised observers with a decision to suspend military activities and call for a humanitarian truce in response to the appeals of international and friendly powers. The GNA rejected the truce, claiming that it did not trust Haftar, and stressed that any genuine truce had to be backed by international guarantees. The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), for its part, called on both sides to seize this opportunity to immediately halt all military operations and resume the Joint Military Committee (5+5) talks  via video calling, if necessary.

The JMC (5+5) is one of the three tracks initiated by the Berlin Conference on Libya in January. The committee has convened twice in Geneva to discuss a proposed ceasefire agreement drafted by UNSMIL, but made no progress and has not met again since February.

Sources close to Haftar say that he plans to create a transitional government along the lines of the Sudanese model that was adopted in Khartoum following the overthrow of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir last year. He would select most of the members of a new ruling council and government, but he is waiting to arrange matters with his allies at home and abroad before proceeding with this plan, according to the sources who gave no indication of their sense of its feasibility.

The political initiative that Saleh outlined 23 April calls for the creation of a new three-member Presidential Council consisting of a chairman and two vice-chairmen representing Libyas three historic regions: Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan. They would be popularly elected in UN-supervised polls. Then a government, independent of the Presidency Council, would be appointed and headed by a prime minister from a region other than that of the Presidency Council chairman. The armed forces would be entitled to appoint the defence minister. The initiative also called for the creation of a new constituent body charged with drafting a new constitution, instead of the one that had been drafted by the previous constituent assembly in July 2017.

Immediately after Salehs announcement, Haftar implicitly rejected that initiative. In a statement broadcast live, he called on the people to give a mandate to an institution of their choice to lead the country in the forthcoming stage and issue a constitutional declaration outlining a roadmap for that stage. Four days later, he delivered the televised address stating that he had accepted the mandate and rejected the Skhirat Agreement. As this is the agreement on which the current political institutions base their legitimacy, Haftar effectively rejected the House of Representatives, which had long served as his political backing.

After an initial period of silence, Saleh convened a meeting of members of his tribe in his home in western Tobruk to announce that his opposition to the mandate that Haftar requested at a time when his military campaign in Tripoli is on the brink of collapse. He explained he feared the detrimental political repercussions that Haftars unilateral action could have on Cyrenaica, which had embraced the LNA since 2014.

This is not the first time that Saleh and Haftar have been at loggerheads, even if the former has denied differences between him and the LNA commander. This latest contretemps is a measure of the tensions between them at a time when both have been jockeying to secure prominent seats in the UN sponsored political process that is expected to resume soon. As international pressures mount towards this end, Haftars unilateral actions are a means to strengthen his political position at least in the east.

Both Washington and Moscow announced their dismay at Haftars unilateral declaration of a popular mandate. While the former stated that Haftar should nevertheless be included in any political settlement, Moscow claimed that it had been taken by surprise by his action. Russia, a strong backer of Haftar, had been accused of backing this step, especially since, as sources told Al-Ahram Weekly, a Russian diplomatic delegation had made an unannounced visit to Benghazi, Bayda and Tobruk last week. However, the Russian foreign minister stressed that Moscow had no prior knowledge of Haftars decision to claim a mandate and reject the Skhirat Agreement.

Although LNA Spokesman General Ahmed Al-Mismari, speaking on behalf of Haftar, dismissed speculation that the field marshal sought to dissolve the House of Representatives, Saleh clearly feared that Haftars action was precipitous and jeopardised the legitimacy the House of Representatives continues to enjoy in Cyrenaica, even if the LNA has been unable to succeed in its mission to gain control over Tripoli in the west. In his meeting with tribal members last week, Saleh appeared not so much opposed to the idea of Haftar monopolising political authority in principle as to his monopolising political authority in the east, where the two allies have butted heads over political powers and jurisdictions before, even as they continue to need each other.

In addition to exposing the tensions between Haftar and Saleh, the responses to Haftars actions in the east indicate that he is no longer as much of the eastern strongman as he once was. For several years, he had been able to do pretty much as he wanted in Cyrenaica without facing opposition and without having to ask for a second mandate. That he has asked for such a mandate reflects the extent to which his calculations have gone awry and, consequently, to which he has failed to turn political and military conditions to his advantage, which has aggravated the problems for members of his camp and strained his local, regional and international alliances.

As he comes under mounting military and political pressure, questions have also been raised concerning his ability to manage the intricate and sometimes conflicting network of local, regional and international alliances that he has built up over the past six years. Of particular importance to him, internationally, at this stage are France, which has supported him politically, and Russia, a strong backer of Haftar that has gradually increased its profile on the ground in Libya since 2016. Russia has been accused of working to protract the Libyan crisis in the hope of imposing conditions that will strengthen its hand against its international adversaries, much as it has done in Syria, Eastern Europe and elsewhere in Asia and Africa.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 7 May, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Panic buying may have subsided across Canada, but the way Canadians shop for groceries may never be the same again, according to a new study out of Dalhousie University.

Sylvain Charlebois, a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie, said most people arent panic buying or hoarding toilet paper anymore, according to a recent study conducted of 1,503 Canadians. However, they are still going on larger grocery runs, but with much less frequency.

I think people are starting to get more comfortable with their new reality, he said, adding that Canadians are starting to trust the supply chain again, resulting in less panicked hoarding.

Charlebois said people are returning to the more old-fashioned cycle of planning their meals ahead instead of stopping by the store multiple times a week.

Grocery shopping just isnt fun anymore, he said.

People are seeing grocery shopping as a duty.

This is also due to the fact that grocery stores have had to compromise the experiences and brands theyve worked hard to build, such as Longos, which has now made masks mandatory for shoppers.

I think were beyond saving the grocery store experience, he said.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, online grocery shopping has continued to rise throughout the pandemic. Before, less than two per cent of grocery sales were online, said Charlebois. Now, five per cent of the surveys respondents are only shopping online, while another eight per cent are shopping online and occasionally in stores.

My sense is that a lot of people will continue to follow new practices for a while until they feel safe.

While current safety practices might eventually fade, Charlebois thinks this is a change thats here to stay. In fact, he thinks it will only grow from here.

One interesting finding from the study was that younger people were less likely to trust the shoppers around them  that is, they were less likely to believe that other shoppers were following safety protocols correctly.

Charlebois has no idea why.

Maybe younger consumers feel that older consumers are the problem  arent necessarily following the rules.

He also found a paradox when it comes to Canadians plans after the pandemic: 17 per cent of them plan to go out to restaurants more than before, but 47 per cent plan to cook at home more. Young people expressed both these intentions even more, he said.

As well, Canadians plan to use food delivery services a lot more even after the pandemic is over, as well as meal delivery kits.

Overall, Charlebois said the pandemic seems to have accelerated trends that Canada was already slowly picking up.

Were catching up to the rest of the world, but COVID is actually speeding things up.
Senator Lamar Alexander on Tuesday said members of Congress should be tested for COVID-19 as President Trump offered.



With the increasing number of diagnostic tests available, I expect attitudes to change quickly about accepting the presidents offer to test members of Congress for COVID-19, especially as the House of Representatives comes back to work. From a public health point of view, this is not mostly about protecting members of Congress," Senator Alexander said. "It is about protecting the people members might infect. Bringing 100 or 535 members from across the country to Washington, D.C.a coronavirus hotspotand then sending them home each weekend creates a highly efficient virus spreading machine. You would have to hire an army of public health workers to track and test all of those people that members of Congress might infect, not to mention their staffs and other Capitol workers. The country will soon be able to test two million Americans each week. This is enough to test 535 members of Congress each week before they go home to make sure they dont spread the disease from a virus hotspot into every section of the country.



Senator Alexander serves as chairman of the Senates health committee.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a tweet that his agency working with actor Tom Cruise for a film on board the International Space Station.

Bridenstine tweet

Deadline first reported that Cruise was working with NASA. That report also said that SpaceX is involved, but NASA declined to comment when CNBC asked if Elon Musk's space company was working on the project as well.

SpaceX did not respond to CNBC's requests for comment.
The Federal government of Germany has decided to extend the warning against international travel, at least until June 14, the German Foreign Office announces.

The warning, particularly for tourism purposes, has been in force since March, in a bid to stop the spread of coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) and was supposed to last until May 3, but the German Foreign Office proposed to extend it until further notice, at least until June 14, SchengenVisaInfo.com reported.

On April 29, Germanys government accepted the proposal of the German Foreign Office during the cabinet meeting.

We have not yet reached the point where we can recommend carefree travel. Therefore it is necessary to extend the worldwide travel warning until mid-June, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas pointed out.

According to Maas, Europes biggest economy has brought home 240,000 stranded tourists in the last four weeks, and they are not going to undertake such an action again in the coming summer.

However, the Germans Foreign Office proposal does not clarify if the travel could be possible after June 14. On the report of the Foreign Office, the extension is justified by the fact that regular travel will be ineligible in the next weeks.

The preventive measures, taken by the German government, such as entry bans or mandatory quarantine, will remain in place.

Amid coronavirus outbreak, earlier this month Germany decided to extend internal lands and air borders with Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Denmark, Italy and Spain, sea border with Denmark to May 5.

The country also extended land border with Austria for an additional six months, until November 11.

Germany has adopted this measure following the example of other EU countries like Slovakia, Malta and the Czech Republic which on March 13 closed their borders to fellow EU member states in an effort to halt the spread of the deadly virus. - TradeArabia News Service
Update: K-12 school buildings in the state of Connecticut such as those in New Canaan, will remain closed for the rest of the academic year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, in-person classes at K-12 schools in Connecticut will remain canceled for the rest of the academic year. Given the circumstances, this is the best course of action for the safety of students, educators, and staff, the states Gov. Ned Lamont said in a tweet on his Twitter account Tuesday morning, May 5, 2020, and announcement on the states website.
"I remember thinking as a kid, 'Oh, this is really distancing. I don't know what I'm saying. What's the point?,'" Kaling said. "I always felt like, 'Well, that's an interesting thing to, like, fully kneel in front of a statue and pray and ask for good things for your family while someone is chanting something that you don't understand while incense is burning.' It was only later, when I got older, that I saw the beauty of it  the growth and comfort that you get from being part of something like that."
Police take journalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol to a court in Jessore district after he was found in Benapole area near the India border, May 03, 2020.

A Bangladeshi journalist reported missing in March as cases were being filed against him under the Digital Security Act is now in jail after officials said they found him near the border with India.

Border guards on Sunday arrested Shafiqul Islam Kajol, 51, as he walked into Bangladesh from India with no passport. Police brought him to a court in southwestern Jessore district, on the West Bengal border, and he was sent to jail, according to multiple accounts.

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, who oversees both police and the border guards, said Monday that he was flummoxed by the case.

Actually, I do not know where he had been for 54 days. But he was arrested from the Benapole border while coming to Bangladesh from India. We have to investigate, Khan told BenarNews.

I spoke with my father. I do not know where he had been for 54 days. Now, our main target is to get him out of jail, Kajols son, Monorom Polok, told BenarNews.

According to his lawyer, Kajol was initially granted bail on a charge of illegal entry, but was then rearrested under Section 54 of the Bangladeshi criminal code, which allows detention of a person based on reasonable suspicion.

The court granted him bail for the intrusion case. Later, police told the court they had again arrested Kajol ... as he faced three cases under the Digital Security Act in Dhaka, lawyer Debashish Das told BenarNews.

The judge asked police to submit an updated report on existing cases against Shafiqul by May 19, and then he will rule about it, Das said.

Missing since early March

Kajol, a photojournalist and editor of the fortnightly magazine Pokkhokal, had been missing since March 10, a day after a lawmaker with the ruling Awami League lawmaker Saifuzzaman Shikhor filed a criminal defamation suit against him and 31 others.

Awami League activists filed two more cases against Kajol on March 10 and 11. One of them accused Kajol of committing extortion by obtaining information illegally and publishing false, intimidating and defamatory material on Facebook and Messenger, according to Amnesty International.

The Digital Security Act, which went into effect in September 2018, includes harsh prison sentences for online defamation, insulting a persons religion and other offenses. Critics have complained that it impedes free speech.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a press freedom advocacy group, on Sunday urged police to release Kajol and drop all charges against him.

Bangladesh police must immediately put an end to the long ordeal of journalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol, missing for 53 days, and release him from custody, said Steven Butler, CPJs Asia program coordinator.

Kajol is a victim, not a criminal. Its an abuse of authority to subject Kajol to detention and interrogation.

Kajol resurfaced on World Press Freedom Day, Amnesty International noted in a separate statement. It said that while many governments were justified in combatting misinformation about COVID-19, some were using the moment as a pretext to crack down on critical voices.

In Bangladesh, at least 20 journalists have been recently intimidated, assaulted or harassed by members of the ruling party, and in some cases detained and accused of criminal offenses by the police for reporting pilferage, corruption and lack of accountability in the relief distribution meant for the poor during the lockdown, it said, citing the Forum for Freedom of Expression, Bangladesh.

Amnesty noted that BenarNews itself had been blocked since it reported on an internal U.N. memo leaked in late March estimating that Bangladesh could see as many as two million deaths as a result of the pandemic without interventions.

Kamran Reza Chowdhury in Dhaka has contributed to this report.
CHESTER  A 13-year-old boy died Monday afternoon at Alfred I. DuPont Hospital, Wilmington, after a Sunday shooting in an uptown residential area, city police reported.

Nyqueis Farlow (Davis) became the citys 17th homicide victim this year.

Police were dispatched to 20th and Potter streets about 2:22 p.m. Sunday for report of a shooting victim. Officers located the victim in the backyard of a residence in the 400 block of East 20th Street. The boy received numerous gunshot wounds to abdominal area and one to the head area, according to a release from Captain James Chubb.

Witnesses in the area stated the youth was running through yards and hopping fences to evade gunfire before falling to the ground.

The suspects returned to a vehicle and fled the area. This vehicle was described as a silver 2007 Acura RDX (SUV) with a Delaware registration, the release states.

Paramedics treated the victim at the scene before he was transported to Crozer-Chester Medical Center for further treatment. He was then transferred to Alfred I. DuPont Hospital.

Detectives are following up on several leads. If anyone has any information regarding this case, they are urged to contact city Detective Brian Pot at 610-447-8431 or bpot302@chesterpolice.org, or county CID Detective David Tyler at 610-891-4197 or tylerd@co.delaware.pa.us.
[May 05, 2020] DRFortress Strengthens Board of Directors with Appointment of Hawaii Telecommunications, Financial Industry Veteran

HONOLULU, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- DRFortress, the largest carrier-neutral data center and cloud marketplace operating in Hawaii, announces today that as it focuses on providing uninterrupted mission-critical technology to support the emergency communication infrastructure of Hawaii and the Pacific during this unprecedented time, the company has expanded its leadership with the appointment of Eric Yeaman to the DRFortress Board of Directors. Drawing upon more than 20 years of telecommunications and financial executive leadership experience, Yeaman will help further strengthen DRFortress' strategic growth and expansion of service offerings in Hawaii. DRFortress recently received a significant equity investment from GI Partners, a private equity firm with more than $20 billion in capital, to fuel the company's growth initiatives. "DRFortress provides truly essential infrastructure and related services to the State of Hawaii and I am excited to be able to join the team, together with GI Partners, to support the continued developmentand delivery of world-class technology solutions to local and global businesses serving Hawaii," comments Yeaman.



Yeaman is a prominent telecommunications and financial executive with a passion for developing business and community partnerships in Hawaii. He spent seven years as President & CEO of Hawaiian Telcom leading its successful turnaround, transformation and growth plans. In addition, Yeaman served as President and Chief Operating Officer of First Hawaiian Bank where he played an integral role in its initial public offering (IPO) to become a listed publicly traded company. Currently, he is the Founder and Managing Partner of Hoku Capital LLC, a successful strategic advisory and investment firm, and is on the boards of directors of Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. and Alaska Air Group, Inc., as well as an active advisor to local businesses. "DRFortress is proud to welcome Eric to our Board," states Fred Rodi, President and Founder of DRFortress. "His expertise and leadership will be invaluable as we grow our company and transform Hawaii into the largest digital hub for colocation, neutral telecommunication connectivity and cloud computing services in the Pacific."

To learn more about DRFortress go to www.drfortress.com. About DRFortress

DRFortress is the largest and the only carrier-neutral data center and cloud marketplace operating in Hawaii. For 14 years, our company has been meeting the data center needs of Hawaii's enterprises, content companies, system integrators, carriers, wireless service providers, cable companies and ISPs. DRFortress provides customers customized high-end, resilient, reliable, environmental-friendly, next-generation solutions to meet their data-intensive business requirements, enabling them to focus on their core business. As Hawaii's Digital Hub and largest business network, DRFortress houses the densest concentration of IP carriers and networks in Hawaii and is the only commercial Internet Exchange in the state to provide flexibility, cost-efficiency and scalability for customers. Our world-class data center facility is located well outside the island's extended flood and tsunami zones, ensuring your mission-critical data and systems are well-protected and your business' IT operations are uninterrupted during an emergency or natural disaster. For more information, please visit www.drfortress.com. Media Contact

Jaymie Scotto & Associates (JSA)

+1 866.695.3629 ext. 11

[email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/drfortress-strengthens-board-of-directors-with-appointment-of-hawaii-telecommunications-financial-industry-veteran-301051956.html SOURCE DRFortress

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Supermarkets must increase payments to dairy farmers now suffering through the coronavirus crisis after enduring recent devastating natural disasters, the federal government says.

Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud wants them to voluntarily extend and review the current 10 cents a litre temporary levy on fresh milk to other milk products like yoghurt.

'I have asked them to each individually consider extending and increasing the amount of the support they provide dairy farmers who faithfully supply products across the full dairy cabinet,' he said in a statement on Wednesday.

Supermarkets must increase payments to dairy farmers now suffering through the coronavirus crisis after enduring recent devastating natural disasters, the federal government says. A shopper is seen picking up milk in Aldi supermarket in Sydney

This would allow the financial benefits to be distributed evenly to dairy farmers, rather than only to those whose milk happens to end up in private label milk.

'It is only fair that retailers play their part in giving farmers a leg up during this difficult time,' the minister said.

'This is a way of making amends for damage to the industry during the years of $1 (per litre) milk prices.'

Dairy farmers are now dealing with increased uncertainty from the impact of COVID19, on the back of drought and bushfires events.

Mr Littleproud said supermarkets were prospering during the COVID-19 crisis, which means they have an opportunity 'to rebuild trust and ensure more money gets into dairy farmers' pockets'.

But milk processors are also to blame after a 2018 report by the consumer watchdog found the industry determined what farmers are paid regardless of what price supermarkets charged consumers for milk.

Dairy farmers are now dealing with increased uncertainty from the impact of COVID19, on the back of drought and bushfires events (file picture)

The performance of Australia's dairy industry and the profitability of dairy farmers since deregulation in 2000 was referred to a Senate committee in October.

Mr Littleproud said dairy farmers made clear to the inquiry that a milk price of $1.50 per litre would be sustainable for the industry.

The committee is due to report by June 25.

Some 500 dairy farmers left the industry last year and many did so because the cost of production was above the market price.
New York, May 5 : Awarding the prestigious Pulitzer Prize to three Indian photographers, the Pulitzer Board at Columbia University claimed that it was for their work in Kashmir as "India revoked its independence".

The award to Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin in the feature photography category for their pictures for the Associated Press was announced on Monday.

The prizes, considered the most prestigious for US journalism, are associated with the university's Graduate School of Journalism where the judging is done and is announced, although this year it was done remotely.

Besides a certificate, the prizes carry a cash award of $15,000, except the public service category for which a gold medal is awarded.

The public service prize went to The Anchorage Daily News for a series that dealt with policing in Alaska state.

In making the award to the three, the Board said on its website that it was "for striking images of life in the contested territory of Kashmir as India revoked its independence, executed through a communications blackout".

Besides making the false claim about "independence" of Kashmir being "revoked", the board that includes several leading journalists did not explain how their photographs could have reached the AP within hours of the incidents recorded "through a communication blackout".

India's Central government only revoked Article 370 of the Constitution that gave Jammu and Kashmir a special status and it was not independent.

Indian journalists were allowed to operate in Kashmir, while only non-Indian journalists were barred.

The wording of the award announcement calls into question the credibility of the Pulitzer Board that gives out what are considered prestigious journalism awards.

The portfolio of pictures by the three on the Pulitzer web site included one of a masked person attacking a police vehicle and another of masked people with variants of the Kashmir flag, besides photos of mourners and protesters.

One of the finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism was a reporter of Indian descent at The Los Angeles Times, Swetha Kannan, who was nominated for her work with two colleagues on the seas rising due to climate change.
NEW YORK - On May 6, 2012, Vice-President Joe Biden declared on NBCs Meet the Press that he supported the legalization of same-sex marriage  getting out ahead of his boss, Barack Obama, on one of the most volatile political issues of the day.

The largest national LGBTQ rights organization, the Human Rights Campaign, told The Associated Press that it will be formally endorsing Biden for president on Wednesday, the eighth anniversary of that event.

The endorsement itself is no surprise, given the antipathy that most LGBTQ activists have toward Bidens rival, President Donald Trump. But the timing is a way of highlighting Bidens bona fides among activists who gratefully remember his 2012 role.

Obama had taken office in 2009 as a self-described fierce advocate for gay rights, yet for much of his first term, he drew flak from activists who viewed him as too cautious and politically expedient. They were frustrated he wouldnt endorse same-sex marriage  Obama cagily said he was evolving on the issue.

That changed swiftly after Biden told Meet the Press that he was absolutely comfortable with same-sex marriage. Three days later, in a White House interview with ABC News, Obama followed suit.

Biden, a Democrat, subsequently has entrenched himself as a stalwart ally of the LGBTQ rights movement, including periodic appearances at Human Rights Campaign fundraising dinners.

Joe Biden is the leader we need in this moment  he will be a president who puts what is morally right ahead of what is politically expedient, said the campaigns president, Alphonso David. He is scheduled to participate in a livestreamed conversation with Biden on Wednesday evening.

Since Trump succeeded Obama in 2017, his Republican administration has taken multiple steps to slow or reverse gains by LGBTQ Americans. For example, it has restricted military service by transgender people and argued in a Supreme Court case that the federal civil rights law doesnt protect LGBTQ people from discrimination at work.

Along with its endorsement of Biden, the Human Rights Campaign is releasing new details about its 2020 election strategy  identifying voters who support LGBTQ rights, then working to maximize their turnout. Texas is a new addition to the list of targeted states, along with Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
In an effort to celebrate love in a time of crisis, DestinationWeddings.com, the leader in the romance travel industry and the Jamaica Tourist Board, the Caribbeans Leading Tourist Board, announce, Love is Not Cancelled. DestinationWeddings.com and Jamaica will host a virtual, symbolic wedding ceremony for up to 100 couples who have had to cancel or postpone either their domestic or international wedding as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our hearts break for those whove had to postpone or cancel their wedding due to the pandemic, says Jen Avey, Vice President of Marketing for DestinationWeddings.com. So, we wanted to do something special for these couples and give them an opportunity to experience a destination wedding, albeit virtual, at a time when they are unable to hold their own ceremony.

With an eye on the future, DestinationWeddings.com, alongside select Jamaica resort partners, are offering each couple who participates a complimentary wedding package, three free nights in an upgraded room category plus an additional exclusive amenity, complimentary arrival service (escort service through customs from the Jamaica Tourist Board with use of the ClubMoBay arrival lounge) and departure service through ClubMoBay when they book their celebration through DestinationWeddings.com. This exclusive offer will make it easy and affordable for couples to get married in Jamaica once it is safe to travel again says Avey.

Donnie Dawson, Deputy Director of Tourism, Sales, Jamaica Tourist Board, adds, Jamaica specializes in turning big dreams into romantic realities. This event is a new twist on this promise, and we are excited to be hosting this symbolic virtual wedding and look forward to welcoming these couples when they visit us for their bona fide celebrations, when the time is right.

The virtual celebration will take place on Sunday, May 17th with the beautiful shores of Jamaica as the backdrop. Couples will be able to join the celebration from the comfort and safety of their homes using Zoom.

Participating resorts include: Azul Beach Resorts, Breathless Resorts & Spas, Couples Resorts, Excellence Resorts, Grand Lido Negril, Grand Palladium Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Rose Hall Resort & Spa, Hyatt Ziva and Hyatt Zilara Resorts, Iberostar Hotels & Resorts, Jewel Resorts, Melia Hotels & Resorts, Ocean by H10 Hotels, Palace Resorts, Riu Hotels & Resorts, Royalton Luxury Resorts, Hideaway at Royalton Resorts and Secrets Resorts & Spas.

For further details on the exclusive offer and to take part in this special event, couples can visit http://www.DestinationWeddings.com/VirtualWedding between now and May 12, 2020.

DestinationWeddings.com

DestinationWeddings.com, part of Destination Weddings Travel Group, is the current leader in the romance travel industry, having worked with nearly 25,000 couples and 500,000 guests. Combining the personal service and expertise of more than 200 Certified Destination Wedding Specialists with resort partnerships in over 42 countries, DestinationWeddings.com allows for a premier, one-stop planning experience for customers seeking an exceptional experience abroad.

Jamaica Tourist Board

The Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), founded in 1955, is Jamaicas national tourism agency based in the capital city of Kingston. JTB offices are also located in Montego Bay, Miami, Toronto and London. Representative offices are located in Berlin, Barcelona, Rome, Amsterdam, Mumbai, Tokyo and Paris.

This year, the JTB was declared the Caribbeans Leading Tourist Board by the World Travel Awards (WTA) for the thirteenth consecutive year and Jamaica was declared the Caribbeans Leading Destination for the fifteenth consecutive year. Jamaica also earned the WTA award for the Worlds Leading Cruise Destination and Leading Meetings & Conference Centre for the Montego Bay Convention Centre. Most recently, Jamaica was named as one of the Best Places to Go in 2020 according to CNN, Bloomberg and Forbes. Jamaica was awarded three gold 2020 Travvy Awards including Best Culinary Destination, Caribbean/Bahamas; Best Tourism Board Overall and Best Tourism Board, Caribbean/Bahamas. In 2019, TripAdvisor ranked Jamaica as the #1 Caribbean Destination and #14 Best Destination in the World. In 2018, the International Council of the Pacific Area Travel Writers Association (PATWA) named Jamaica the Destination of the Year and TravAlliance Media named JTB Best Tourism Board, and Jamaica as Best Culinary Destination, Best Wedding Destination and Best Honeymoon Destination. Jamaica is home to some of the worlds best accommodations, attractions and service providers that continue to receive prominent global recognition.

For details on upcoming special events, attractions and accommodations in Jamaica go to the JTBs Website at http://www.visitjamaica.com or call the Jamaica Tourist Board at 1-800-JAMAICA (1-800-526-2422). Follow the JTB on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube. View the JTB blog at http://www.islandbuzzjamaica.com.
Zydus Cadila has sought permission from Indias drugs controller to conduct clinical trials to test the efficacy of its antiviral hepatitis medicine to treat adults affected by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

The medicine, called Pegylated Interferon allpha-2b, is used to treat viral hepatitis B and C, and other viral liver infections. Interferon has been used in the treatment of Covid-19 in China and Cuba, and is a part of the treatment guidelines of the Chinese government.

In a statement, the company contended that its biological therapy, Pegylated Interferon alpha-2b, sold under the trade name PegiHepTM, could emerge as one of the pathways to treat Covid-19 as it has shown to reduce viral load and generate virus eliminating specific immune response in past studies.

The central drugs control department has received an application from them, and it is being considered. However, there has not been any decision taken over it yet, said a senior official in the Union health ministry who asked not to be named.

We are working with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and have opened an investigational new drug (IND) filing for Pegylated Interferon alpha-2b for the treatment of Covid-19. We are also working with the Department of Biotechnology to investigate the role of Pegylated Interferon alpha-2b for COVID 19 and are planning to undertake clinical trials for this, Sharvil Patel, managing director, Cadila Healthcare Ltd added in the statement.

When the human body contracts an infection due to a viral attack, it produces a group of molecules called Type 1 interferons as a first line of defence.

Interferon alpha is one such Type 1 interferon molecule that not only slows down viral replication but also helps activate the two arms of the human immune system: innate, for immediate killing of the virus; and adaptive, for long-lasting immunity.

In some past studies in the US and China, the medicine has shown to improve the condition of Covid-19 patients.

The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, showed evidence of a direct anti-viral effect of interferon alpha against coronavirus in-vitro.

The second research by a group of universities in China, Australia and Canada retrospectively analysed 77 moderate Covid-19 subjects in Wuhan and observed that those who received Interferon alpha-2b showed a reduction in the duration of virus shedding period and even in levels of the inflammatory cytokine, IL-6.

The study suggested that if a long-acting molecule like the drug is given early on in the infection, the patient suffering from Covid-19 will show improvement.

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While many are starting the transition back to offices and whatnot, there are still those of us setting up shop at home. As we enter yet another week of this unusual arrangement, Im sure a great number have come to point of the vultures in Disneys The Jungle Book, where weve run out ideas about how to spend our time.

Now, maybe your life is busy enough as it is and you dont need any suggestions to fill the hours, but I think there are enough who are a little sick of all this freedom.

Perhaps youre a hobby sort of person, and this unexpected pause is just the time you need to take up whittling or to write the great American novel. Good for you! But, if youre like me, youre also rather keen to find something to watch. I dont mean candy-vision, the sort of movie or show that is little more than empty intellectual calories but leaves you no better off for the experience. I mean something of substance, something where you come out of your screen time improved from when you entered.

One that I can happily recommend is The Chosen, available through VidAngel. This is a life of Christ funded in a decidedly unorthodox way. Rather than seeking out financial support in the ordinary manner, The Chosen has become the biggest crowd funded media project in history. Now, Ive only seen the first eight episodes, but, since there are at present only eight, Im comfortable saying that its been worth my time thus far.

Making such a solid experience is apparently harder than it seems. Its sad to say but its more often true than not that movies about the life of Christ are pretty lousy. Either the production is substandard on artistic grounds or the creators are so intent on massaging the message for their own agendas than they miss the point.

All you have to do is watch 1965s The Greatest Story Ever Told. Despite being co-directed by my favorite director, David Lean, and having an outstanding mid-century cast, including the late, great Max von Sydow as Jesus, the movie is strangely bloodless. I dont mean that theres no blood, but the people in it are closer to ghosts than men. The Christ of that film, along with most of the characters, dont really seem real, dont seem quite human. It is all too otherworldly an impression of the carpenter from Nazareth who bled and died for you and me.

The other problem comes when we try to make it too much this-worldly, too much of this time, of this moment. You can see this in the delightful 1973 movie, Godspell. I say delightful because it really is a lot of fun, and sometimes they get at the pathos of a scene from the Gospels that stays with you. Nonetheless, such a presentation cannot but be a caricature of the true story. By removing it from its original context and placing it in ours, we strip away much of the significance of what was said and done in that day.

This is similar to the way The Chosen portrays Christs calling of His disciples. Jesus doesnt say that He will give Simon and John something specific. He doesnt offer them a way of life thats better than their present existence. He simply says, Follow me.

Happily, The Chosen is surprisingly strong on both aesthetic and theological grounds. Yes, as Megan Basham at World has noted in her approving review, occasionally the costumes seem, well, costumey, and the dialogue could be a lot clearer on certain points. For example, theres a moment where someone contrasts faith and reason. Mind you, theres a perfectly legitimate thing to mean when saying that, but theres also a misunderstanding of that supposed dichotomy thats far too common to be left unclarified.

Theologically, it is a profound work of art with a high view of Christ, His identity, and His mission. Jesus is God, demons are real, and the Bible is reliable. Bear in mind, this is a fictional account of the Gospels story. Its fiction in the sense that they elaborate on the lives of Nicodemus, Peter, Mary Magdalene, Matthew Levi, and others, but theres nothing really that couldnt have been true of these real characters.

This is no more important than the words of Jesus. Repeatedly, when confronted by questions from friends or foes, the Christ of The Chosen answers just as did the Christ of the Bible: Look to the Scriptures. The cast and crew did an admirable job of showing that Gods people in that day had missed something, that they had too narrow a view of the Divine plan, but they do this without devolving into some kind of God is still speaking nonsense that we hear so often today. When theres a gap between Gods peoples understanding and Gods will, it is they who were wrong; not the eternal Word of the Lord.

My favorite line comes from the Mary of Magdalene character. After being healed of the demons, the only point in the story that could be disturbing for some, she says, I was one way. Now I am completely different. And the thing that happened in between, was Him. That is, He isnt just a good teacher or proto-social worker. He isnt bringing something that we can have if we follow His plan. Nor is setting up a social revolution that is somehow merely inspired by Him. He is the change that He brings.

This is similar to the way The Chosen portrays Christs calling of His disciples. Jesus doesnt say that He will give Simon and John something specific. He doesnt offer them a way of life thats better than their present existence. He simply says, Follow me.

The creators of the show do a good job of demonstrating that there couldve been a context to this call, a background that made His appeal so very appealing, but they pull no punches about the simplicity of that call. They didnt follow Him because of any particular promise. They followed Him because He called. He didnt claim that they would gain fortune and glory or even enlightenment and purpose; He promised only Himself.

One of the most justly praised points of this series is its realism. As much as one can when filming in another time and another land, they do their best to retain the Middle Eastern nature of the story. Yes, there are a few folks who seem a bit too Western, and there are a few too many of African descent for first century Judean demographics, but the vast majority of the people at least look like they belong then and there.

Compare this to The Greatest Story Ever Told, where Mary, the mother of Christ, was played by a not-so-Semitic Dorothy McGuire and Judas by Ducky from NCIS. OK, so some of the actors may hail more from India than Israel, but this is acting and not being. The overall effect is that the audience is reminded by the simplest of things that this is an ancient story, a Middle Eastern story, and a Jewish story.

The best part of The Chosen is that they show us that our God became a man. Theres no question that theres more to this Christ than a mere man, but theres also a wonderful emphasis that this was indeed a real man.

Despite all of these wonderful qualities, my favorite part of the entire series is one of the most unassuming things on screen. While many of the episodes show the backstory of well-known events in the life of Christ, one of them centers on a complete fabrication. I dont mean that they lied, but that the episode in question doesnt interact with any real activity of the Bible. Its pure fiction, and thats okay.

This one part shows Jesus away from the crowds and even from His disciples. In fact, so far as I recall, the only people He interacts with is a small group of children. Its not His engagement with them that is so noteworthy, even if it is rather charming. No, its the fact that He sweats.

Hes working outside in the hot Levantine sun, and He sweats. Its that He bleeds. Hes working with wood for hours at a time, and He cuts Himself and has to bandage His arm. Its that He sleeps. The children come to wake Him one morning, and Hes tired and smilingly asks why they couldnt wait another half-hour.

The best part of The Chosen is that they show us that our God became a man. Theres no question that theres more to this Christ than a mere man, but theres also a wonderful emphasis that this was indeed a real man. Here was no appearance of a man who really lived in some otherworld, some ethereal world. Nor did He live merely as a cypher for our world, whatever world that may happen to be. This was a real man, living in a real time. He sweated and bled and slept just like me and just like you.

This is the glory of the incarnation. Its easy to imagine a distant God whom we are called to worship, but its mind-blowing consider a God who danced at a wedding, made jokes with His friends, and who felt our hurts and pains as though He were one of us.

He felt our pains and cried our tears, not as one who remained higher than His creation but as one who became part of it. The Christ of the Bible did not stay away from us but instead took up our flesh so that He might take up our sins. Without the reality of His human sweat, we could never claim the benefits of His human blood.

This piece was originally published at BreakPoint
Editors Note: This story has been corrected to reflect the date Frederick was found unresponsive at Lakeside Academy was Wednesday, April 29.

KALAMAZOO, MI -- As of Tuesday afternoon, 34 students have been rehoused from Lakeside Academy, according to the board chairperson of the nonprofit the operates the youth facility.

In less than a week, the facility has been the scene of a death, a fight and two investigations.

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services launched an investigation in response to a student dying after he was restrained by staff.

Following the death of the student, the boys on campus began to fight and run away, according to the board chairperson.

Police were dispatched Wednesday, April 29, to the facility on Oakland Drive on a report of a student who was unresponsive. Upon arrival, officers found the teenager in cardiac arrest.

The 16-year-old male had been restrained after throwing a sandwich, Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety Capt. Craig Habel confirmed.

The teen died at Bronson Methodist Hospital on Friday morning. The KDPS investigation into death is ongoing.

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is now investigating the facility to determine if licensing requirements were followed, said Bob Wheaton, public information officer for MDHHS.

Lakeside Academy contracts with Sequel Youth and Family Services to provide its onsite staff. MDHHS is not investigating Sequel, Wheaton said.

The academy was housing and educating 124 boys as of Friday, Lakeside Academy board chairperson Jeff Palmer said. Approximately half of those students are from Michigan. The other half, Palmer said, come from states as far away as California.

The states Childrens Services Agency is taking immediate action to locate new placements for the 47 students there who are temporary court wards or state wards, Wheaton said. MDHHS has directed other states with students placed at the facility to rehouse their students as well.

The safety and well-being of youth who are under MDHHS care and supervision is our top priority, Wheaton said. We will re-place each youth as soon as there is a safe transfer plan that provides a placement that will meet each youths needs.

The majority of the students housed at the male-only facility are juvenile offenders, and were sent to Lakeside as an alternative to a juvenile detention center, Palmer said. Others have been removed from their homes for their own safety or the safety of others, he said.

Some students may return home or be placed with relatives, if that is safe, Wheaton said. Others may be placed in foster homes or in a residential treatment program, he said.

Palmer invited MLive to tour the Lakeside campus Friday afternoon after the death was reported. At the end of the tour, MLive reporters witnessed multiple Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety vehicles arriving at the academy.

Palmer confirmed that on Friday, and into the weekend, some 25-28 students ran off the facilitys campus and into surrounding neighborhoods. Two bikes and one canoe were stolen, he said. Palmer said it is protocol for the academys staff to follow but not touch the students in any way if they leave the campus.

When a student refuses to follow staff back onto campus, it is protocol to call police to help get the students back onto campus, Palmer said.

Palmer confirmed two students were treated for issues tied to pepper spray exposure. KDPS could not be reached for comment about what police tactics were used in efforts to round up students.

Two students did not return to campus after police became involved, Palmer said. Their whereabouts are unknown.

It is standard practice that, if a student has left campus for 24 hours, then the academy will call local authorities from that students hometown, Palmer said. If the student has a guardian, then that person is contacted to let them know the student may be headed home.

Lisa Ackley said her grandson, a student at Lakeside Academy, has run off campus a handful of times, including on Saturday, but she has never been notified. Her 15-year-old grandson had only been at the academy for a few weeks, and told her he witnessed Wednesdays incident.

On Saturday, when the fights broke out, her grandson ran to a neighbor who he had run to in the past. That neighbor called Ackley and took care of the boy for almost two hours while Ackley and her husband drove to Kalamazoo from Laingsburg, Michigan.

Ackley took her grandson home without first going back to the academy, she said. They left behind his clothes, shoes and medicine, she said.

Since arriving at home, her grandson has had nightmares about the incident, she said.

That could have been my grandson, that little boy," Ackley said of the teen who died. And now he has no voice. I dont want this to die down, I want this to go viral. I want everyone to know whats happening to these poor kids.

The incident is not the first issue at Lakeside Academy documented by MDHHS, which provides oversight for the facility.

Previous investigations by MDHHS indicate a staff member was suspended after reports of slapping, choking and scratching a student in January, according to the report.

An investigation in November outlined allegations that a staff member pressed his elbow into a students thigh during a restraint and found those allegations credible, according to the report.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an added hurdle in staffing and in placing the students at other facilities, Palmer said.

Before the incident occurred, two members tested positive for the virus, and others were not coming into work because of pre-existing conditions, Palmer said.

There were also two students who tested positive for COVID-19, Wheaton confirmed. Not every student has been tested yet, but each is being treated as if they have been exposed to the virus, he said.

A students placement elsewhere is not contingent on a COVID-19 test, but Wheaton said test results can move the process along more quickly.

Many foster homes and residential providers have requested this information when determining whether they can meet the needs of youth as well as safeguard others in their home/facility, Wheaton said.

Palmer said staff at Lakeside Academy involved in the incident have not returned to campus since then. He said he could not comment on their employment status.

Sequel staff from other counties, including grief counselors for both staff and students, have arrived in Kalamazoo to help, Palmer said.

Ive personally spoken to a few staff members who are really crushed by whats happened," Palmer said. They love the kids, they love their work. And they just, theyre so concerned that people understand this doesnt reflect their beliefs, doesnt reflect who they are, doesnt reflect what Lakeside is all about.

Both the MDHHS and KDPS investigations into the student death are ongoing.

More on MLive:

Two men who stole lawn and fishing equipment caught hiding in lake, police say

Praise, inequity concerns about Kalamazoos remote learning plan shared with board

Police locate driver, vehicle in hit-and-run that killed Kalamazoo woman

Michigan-made coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer in clinical trials
With the Victoria Day long weekend, Ontarians turn their minds to cottages and summer fun. For Guelphites in years gone by, the unofficial arrival of summer meant that it was time to take to the water, often the Eramosa River. As Guelph became a prosperous town, many of its residents had time and money for leisure activities like boating. Since the Eramosa River is more languid than the Speed, it became the preferred place for boating fun. As they travelled up and down its course, Guelphites started to make its geography their own.

Boating gained popularity in Canada as Canadian rowers began to win international competitions. These included the "Paris Crew" of 1867 and Ned Hanlan of Toronto, who won the Canadian, American, British, and world titles in single sculls in 1877-1880.

These triumphs did not go unnoticed in Guelph. A Guelph Boating Club was formed in 1870 and set about to promote boating and to prepare the Eramosa River as a place for Guelphites to enjoy while afloat. The City Directory of 1873 takes the trouble to describe significant places on the Eramosa River. The first place mentioned is "Rice Island," a small piece of dry land near the foot of Bell Avenue where, it seems, wild rice was to be found growing.

The second place was called "Paradise." This spot was the flat ground found at the bend in the River that is today occupied by the Royal City Jaycees Park and the ponds constructed around 1930 by prisoners of the Ontario Reformatory. Paradise was equipped with seats, swings, and tables to attract boaters from town who wanted a pleasant place to go for a picnic. A shooting range was even provided for marksmen, although this arrangement occasioned some concern that rowers could be struck by errant bullets. The Mercury advised rowers to give some kind of alarm when near the range and then to pull hard for shore if the red flag went up.

Facilities at Paradise seem to have been provided by Bradley and Craig, owners of the Boat House near Gordon street. It seems these astute businessmen rented out boats downtown and also provided an agreeable destination for boaters to head for.

The third place was "The Rocks," a series of cliffs on the northern shore of the Eramosa close by Stone Road. These bituminous shales of "Guelph dolomite" are known as the Eramosa formation, in honour of the river, and appear in places from Hamilton to Wiarton. To boaters, The Rocks were known as a good place to gather berries, shoot ducks, or find fossils.

In 1886, another private park appeared in the form of Victoria Park, described in an earlier column by rych mills: Queen Victoria is widely honoured in many parks. It was built by another iteration of the Boating Club on the south shore of the Eramosa near Victoria Road. A sturdy dock sat by the riverbank, while paths and seats provided picturesque views to be enjoyed with that special someone. Stairs cut into the cliffs led up to an open area where chairs, swings, and camp sites could be had. Many Guelphites boated out to spend their summer weekends there; others camped there the whole season long, paddling downstream to work in the morning and returning each evening.

In 1888, the Guelph Junction Railway built a bridge over the Eramosa between Victoria Park and Paradise. Although it did not become a destination, it did provide another familiar landmark for Guelphites boating on the river.

Boating remained a popular leisure activity for citizens of the Royal City in the 19th century. With the adoption of cars in the 20th century, road trips became the focus of leisure time, so that old haunts on the Eramosa became forgotten or disused. However, these places and others remain to be rediscovered by those who take the time to do a little boating on the Speed River's quieter sibling.
Fasten your seatbelts, travelers. We are in for a bumpy ride. Travel as we know it is going to be a lot different over the next year or so as the world awaits a vaccine or some other breakthrough to rid us of the coronavirus and reopen our travel horizons.

Overall, the travel industry, which has ballooned in recent years as the world economy expanded, is going to become much, much smaller in the near term. Airline ticket prices will likely soar. Weekend jaunts to faraway places will fly away. Getting through the airport is going to take longer, and require much more patience than before. Hotel stays will become dull, utilitarian and depressing with guests and staff hiding smiles behind masks. Hotels will also become more expensive. Joyful meals in popular, crowded restaurants? Nope. International travel? As residents of the country with the largest COVID-19 outbreak in the world, Americans are going to have a tough time finding a warm welcome in other countries for a while. Big company events and boondoggles where you can schmooze with clients and colleagues? Off the table for at least a year.

While it's nice to dream of breaking free of stay-at-home orders with big, glossy trips far and wide, the reality is going to be more prosaic. I don't foresee anything close to what we experienced in 2019 for at least three years or longer. As a matter of fact, for the next couple years I think the travel experience is going to be more like what we saw in the 1970s.

First off, travel is going to become much more expensive. Airlines, hotels and rental car companies are not going to be able to discount their way out of this crisis.

In order to comply with social-distancing rules, which are here to stay as long as there is no vaccine to prevent COVID-19, airlines are reducing capacity on each flight by not booking middle seats. What happens when a third of a company's inventory is no longer available? Basic economics says that when you reduce supply, prices will increase. Demand for airline seats will come back slightly, but it's not going to pop back to pre-COVID-19 levels until there's a proven vaccine and fliers don't have to worry about sharing arm rests or cabin air any longer. In order to survive until then, airlines are going to have to raise prices significantly on the few flights left operating. Their mothballed fleets will stay mothballed until demand comes back. We are already starting to see this play out... tried booking a holiday 2020 trip yet? A quick scan shows that it's not cheap.

Significantly fewer travelers means that getting through the airport screening process should be faster, but it won't until there's a vaccine. In addition to screening for bombs or knives, we will soon face a whole new layer of health screening. Like we've already seen in Dubai, passengers could have to submit to rapid coronavirus tests at the airport. Or passengers will have to get screened beforehand and arrive at the airport with a "health passport." Temperature checks will become mandatory. Some airports are already talking about disinfecting passengers with chemical sprays or beams of UV light.

Who wants to put up with all that? These airport hassles mean that only travelers with serious business on the other end are going to put up with flying  this will be people going to visit sick or dying relatives, technicians needed to keep machinery humming, medical or scientific professionals and the like. Planeloads of kids headed to Europe for singing tours, or seniors jetting off to catch a cruise lined up at airport security? Frequent flyers taking "mileage runs?" We won't see any of that until there's a vaccine.

Moxy Hotels

Hotels have spent billions over the last decade turning lobbies into social spaces where travelers can eat, drink, work and interact with each other. Now they are going to have to spend millions to modify those spaces to protect guests. They will also have to discourage use of public spaces until there's a vaccine, which means guests sheltering in their "sanitized for your protection" -style rooms. And who wants to do that?

Big hotels will also have to reduce capacity  by booking only certain floors or every other room down a corridor. And imagine the problems high-rise hotels will have around social distancing on elevators? Ugh. Hotel pools are going to be another tough area for social distancing with fewer chairs spaced further apart, and rules such as allowing only one person in the pool at a time.

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As we all measure our personal risk tolerance for travel, I think vacations are going to look a lot like they did in the 1970s when I was a kid. Airline ticket prices were prohibitive for families eager for a summer vacation. And planes flew about 60 percent full. Instead of flying, back then we loaded up the station wagon and headed to the beach, the mountains or the lake for two weeks every summer.

That usually meant a day-long drive to somewhere in our state or a neighboring state. That's what I think we will seen this summer and next summer, too. Vacations by car close to home. And instead of heading off to big resorts or amusement parks or national parks, we will book Airbnbs or VRBOs with big yards and backyard pools or private beach or lake access. Family trips by RV, relatively sealed off from other vacationers, will be popular. And like the 1970s, cheap gasoline is going to fuel the resurgence of the road trip.

There is a bright side to this murky outlook, however. Most major tourist destinations have suffered massively from over-tourism in recent years, which has frustrated locals, degraded the experience for travelers, and ruined many cherished destinations. Think of the coral reefs ruined by suntan lotion, hillsides strewn with trash, plastic and sewage seeping into waterways from overtaxed systems or wildlife bothered into near extinction. For about two more years, the worldwide tourist economy, which has been pushed to its limits, will get a much-needed rest.

Read all recent TravelSkills posts here

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A 43-year-old Frenchman has revealed himself as the country's potential 'patient zero' who was infected with coronavirus last December.

Amirouche Hammar came forward after a hospital near Paris revealed it had re-tested old flu samples and found a positive test for coronavirus on December 27.

The Algerian-born fish market worker had not travelled to China, and the result suggests the virus was spreading in France well before January 24 when the country confirmed its first case.

Speaking to BFMTV, Hammar said he had suffered 'very serious' chest pains but said doctors had been mystified by his illness before eventually diagnosing a lung infection.

Amirouche Hammar (pictured) has revealed himself as the French patient who had coronavirus as early as December 27

Although experts have urged caution about the findings, the WHO said today it was 'not surprising' that a case had occurred in December and said that more such discoveries were possible.

'It's also possible there are more early cases to be found,' WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told a UN briefing in Geneva.

He encouraged other countries to check records for cases in late 2019, saying this would give the world a 'new and clearer picture' of the outbreak.

It is not clear how Hammar caught the virus, because he has no direct links to China where the outbreak began late last year.

Hammar's wife works at a supermarket near Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris where passengers are known to go shopping after they land.

The doctor who revealed the case said the patient's wife had worked at a fish market with colleagues of Chinese origin.

'We're wondering whether she was asymptomatic,' said Dr Yves Cohen of the Avicenne hospital where Hammar was treated.

Hammar, who lives in Bobigny, said Dr Cohen had contacted him in recent days and informed him he was '100 per cent positive' for the virus.

At the time, he had symptoms including a fever, cough and breathing problems which are now known to be symptoms of Covid-19.

He initially suspected flu, but was puzzled by the symptoms and went to hospital where he was given a breathing mask.

'At 5am I decided to take my car and I went straight to the hospital,' he said.

'I said we must call the doctor right away, something is wrong, I have chest pain,' he said, saying it was affecting his breathing.

Hammar was treated at the Avicenne hospital in the Paris suburbs (pictured) where medics have recently re-tested samples from December and found a coronavirus case

Medics struggled to identify what was wrong with the 43-year-old, but told him it may be a lung infection and warned that his illness was 'very serious'.

After several days in hospital he returned home and eventually recovered, not realising he had been infected with the new virus.

Sweden's virus chief says country had cases in November State epidermologist Anders Tegnell said: 'There wasn't any spread [of infection] outside Wuhan until we saw it in Europe later. 'But I think that you could find individual cases among Wuhan travellers who were there in November to December last year. 'That doesn't sound at all strange, but rather very natural.' Sweden currently has no plans to implement large-scale sample testing of patients who received care for respiratory symptoms or flu last year to see if they had coronavirus. Advertisement

China reported the new virus to the World Health Organisation on December 31, but there were no confirmed cases abroad until January 13 and France did not officially record its first until January 24.

Dr Cohen said scientists at two hospitals had re-tested samples from 24 patients, of which one came back positive.

The results, published in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, showed that Hammar was infected 'one month before the first reported cases in our country'.

The samples had all been collected to detect flu using PCR tests, the same screening process that can also be used to detect the presence of coronavirus.

Each sample was re-tested several times to ensure there were no errors, he added.

Dr Yves Cohen, head of resuscitation at several hospitals in Ile-de-France, Paris, said new patient sample testing has confirmed a patient in France had coronavirus on December 27

Dr Cohen said it was too early to say for sure whether Hammar was France's 'patient zero'.

'He may be the 'patient zero', but perhaps there are others in other regions,' he said.

'All the negative PCRs for pneumonia must be tested again. The virus was probably circulating.'

'He was amazed, he didn't understand how he had been infected. We put the puzzle together and he had not made any trips. The only contact that he had was with his wife,' he said.

Olivier Bouchaud, head of the hospital's infectious diseases department said the virus could have spread 'quietly in the population, without anyone detecting its presence'.

Evidence of earlier infections would confirm what many scientists had already suspected, he said.

Stephen Griffin, an expert at the University of Leeds' Institute of Medical Research, said it was 'a potentially important finding' and added: 'We must be cautious when interpreting these findings.'

Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, said it was 'not impossible that it was an early introduction, but the evidence isnt conclusive by any means'.
The Donald Trump administration refused to disclose significant details of its secretive talks to help Saudi Arabia establish a civil nuclear program, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released on Monday.

While the report found that the Saudi nuclear talks are currently stalled, it also notes that neither the White House, State Department nor Energy Department provided substantive information to the GAO on the negotiations  a source of bipartisan concern in Congress. The report also notes that the State Department did not respond to our repeated requests for assistance in facilitating travel to Saudi Arabia and interviews with relevant Saudi officials. (Saudi Arabias envoy to the United States, Princess Reema bint Bandar, also ignored the GAOs query.)

We requested this study because of concerns regarding how the United States has been engaging the Saudi government on nuclear cooperation, said Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in a joint statement. We remain, however, deeply concerned about the lack of interagency coordination and how it might lead to an agreement without proper safeguards to prevent nuclear proliferation.

Why it matters: Lawmakers and nonproliferation experts fear that the Trump administration may sign onto an agreement with Saudi Arabia that would allow it to enrich uranium and reprocess plutonium on its territory  precursors to a possible nuclear weapons program.

While the Atomic Energy Act requires the executive branch to brief Capitol Hill on all civil nuclear talks, Menendez and Rubio cited their concern over the lack of information shared with Congress and urged the Trump administration to adhere with the law and keep Congress fully informed of its negotiations.

The GAO report recommends that the Trump administration provide regularly scheduled, substantive briefings to Congress on the negotiations. (The State Department concurred with the recommendation, even though it didnt cooperate with the GAO on the report.) The report also suggests that Congress amend the Atomic Energy Act to specify its expectations for timeliness and information in the legally mandated briefings.

Whats next: The Atomic Energy Act gives Congress the opportunity to vote down any civil nuclear agreement the White House reaches. However, Rubio wants to take that even further with a bill that would require Congress to affirmatively approve any nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, further dimming the prospects for an agreement.

Know more: The House Oversight Committee is also looking into the issue and released a report last year detailing whistleblower accounts of White House officials potential conflicts of interests in their push to reach a Saudi nuclear deal. Check out Bryant Harris report on that story. And see Al-Monitor's Week in Review here on the UAEs civil nuclear program, which includes no enrichment and therefore no risk of weapons development.
Local human rights NGO Licadho released a report showing that migrant workers often had to migrate overseas to find work to pay off loans from microfinance institutions, and in some instances the lenders encouraged migration. The report, titled Driven Out: One Villages Experience with MFIs and Cross-Border Migration, was released on Tuesday and reports a link between the 1.2 million Cambodians working overseas and over indebtedness in these mostly rural families. The NGO used a village in Banteay Meanchey province with high rates of migration to illustrate its findings, asking open-ended questions in a confidential survey administered to 30 of nearly 60 households last September. All the money my children send me goes to debt. After I pay off my MFI debt, I will not let my children go to Thailand again, reads an unattributed quote in the report. The findings show that 23 of the 30 respondents said their microfinance debt was the primary cause of migration. The lack of economic opportunities in Cambodia, which was the second most common reason given for migration.

Most respondents reported feeling scared, often because they were worried about repaying the microfinance institutions (MFIs). Two of the families had sold land to repay their debts and many others were also planning on selling land to pay back their lenders, Licadho reported.

The report shows that credit officers pressured families by specifically referencing the sale of their land to repay loans, even encouraging family members to migrate in order to get a loan.

One respondent said a Prasac loan officer, a local MFI, had threatened to sell their land if the borrower could not repay, and in another case, a Sathapana credit officer, another local MFI, asked respondents to lie about why they needed the loan. They took the loan to pay another MFI loan from Amret, according to the report.

Naly Pilorge, Licadhos director, said in a statement that the report illustrated that far too many families had no option but to leave the country to repay their debt, an issue which was unfolding with the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, with tens of thousands of former migrant workers unable to work in Thailand due to COVID-19, the government and MFIs must help these borrowers by suspending repayments and returning land titles, she added.

Licadhos report called for a three-month freeze on all debt repayments and interest accruals due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a return of all land titles being held as collateral and establishment of debt relief programs, including debt forgiveness.



Thailand is home to around 1.2 million Cambodian migrant workers, according to Cambodian government estimates, a significant number of whom are undocumented. Government figures suggest there are around 1.3 million migrant workers in total, the remaining are mostly in South Korea and Malaysia.



A 2019 International Organization for Migration report showed that a third of migrant workers surveyed were unemployed before leaving Cambodia, nearly half had zero income and around two-thirds moved to Thailand due to a lack of job opportunities in the Kingdom and to earn a better income.

Licadho also pointed to how MFIs were given financing in Thai baht by their funders, many of which are European government agencies. A majority of respondents in the survey reported getting loans in baht, which Licadho said was compounding the link between migration and MFI debt.



The Cambodia Microfinance Association was quick to dismiss the report saying it only looked at the most critical issues of migration and in the most affected area, and to link it to MFI debt was an unfair judgment and paints a bad image of Cambodia MFIs.



Kaing Tongngy, spokesperson for the Cambodia Microfinance Association, said the report highlights issues in areas with the highest migration rates. He said MFIs had provided Cambodian borrowers with formal lending services, enabling their freedom to take up opportunities in other countries like Japan, Thailand and South Korea.



By providing formal financial services, Microfinance Institutions have been empowering Cambodians with freedom and choices to do what is/are best for them, he said.

Such services allow many Cambodian are able to take up the opportunities to work in other countries such as Japan, Korea, Thailand and other countries- not migrate to pay back MFIs.



He also distinguished MFIs from loan sharks and private lenders, saying they charged high rates of interest potentially pushing people in over indebtedness.

Chea Serey, director-general of the National Bank of Cambodia, could not be reached for comment on Monday and Tuesday. According to a National Bank of Cambodia report issued in late April, there are 83 MFIs in Cambodia.



VOA Khmer spoke to San Sokhan, a villager in Kampong Thom provinces Krayea commune, on Monday who said he used to work in Thailand as a fisherman but had returned on April 4 fearing the novel coronavirus pandemic.



He said it was hard to find work and was getting some irregular work on a cashew farm, earning at best $7.5 a day.



Here, the work is not regular. Sometimes, I have work to do, sometimes not, said San Sokhan. I am concerned that I have nothing to eat, said Sokhan, 34, the father of three children.



He had to repay a loan of around $1,500 from Vision Fund Microfinance, which he took to invest in a different cashew business last year but it was not successful. He then had to migrate to Thailand to pay the debt.



I still owe money so I have to go [Thailand] when the situation is better, he said.



On April 20, the National Bank of Cambodia has asked all financial institutions to cooperate with postponing loan repayments and interest reductions in light of the pandemic.



Last week, the 135 civil society organizations urged the Cambodian government to ensure that microfinance institutions immediately suspend all loan repayments and interests for at least three months. This, they said, was necessary to ensure that people can survive this crisis without risking their health or homes.

In response to that statement, the Cambodia Microfinance Association and Association of Banks in Cambodia said the statement does not reflect the real situation and is adversely affecting the banking and financial sector.
STAMFORD  City police have identified two men they say were involved in a chase through the city last week, adding the men and one other are suspected of being involved in serious crimes in Bridgeport and Stratford.

Just before the low-speed chase through downtown began Thursday afternoon, police received word that Devontae Somers, 19, and Daniel Vasquez, 19, along with a 17-year-old juvenile were coming to McDonalds on East Main Street in Stamford to sell marijuana and stolen items, said Capt. Richard Conklin.

And sure enough they did show up in this Dodge van, Conklin said. But when the three saw police closing in on them at McDonald's, the juvenile jumped behind the wheel of the van, crashed into an unmarked police car, and began driving west on East Main Street, police said.

Patrol officer Cesar Dias threw down a spikestrip on lower Summer Street and blew out several tires on the minivan, Conklin said.

The three abandoned the van in the Bell Street Parking Garage and ran south to a large construction site just east of Stamford Government Center, police said.

As officers raced to lock down the block, the juvenile, who for months has been the subject of a take-into-custody order by police, was found, police said.

Several minutes later Somers was found in an alleyway between the Basilica of Saint John the Evangelist and its rectory, police said. About an hour later Vasquez, who is out on bond while facing charges related to firearms and drug possession, police said, was taken into custody as he walked out of the rectory, which is under construction.

A number of officers doing extra work on construction jobs in the area aided in the captures, Conklin said.

I have to also give kudos to construction workers and civilians that helped point police officers in the right direction. It was a collaborative effort between law enforcement and many people in the community, Conklin said, adding that Dias work with the spikestrip was key to the incident turning out the way it did.

Conklin said three ounces of marijuana were found in the van along with $1,200 in cash as well as a number of cell phones.

The juvenile was charged with second-degree assault and assault on a police officer, engaging police in pursuit, reckless driving, possession of marijuana, possession with intent to sell and interfering with police. He was remanded to the juvenile corrections center in Bridgeport.

Vasquez was charged with possession of marijuana, possession with intent to sell and interfering with police, police said. He was held on a $25,000 court appearance bond and sent to Bridgeport for arraignment.

Somers, given identical charges as Vasquez, was ordered held in lieu of a $10,000 court appearance bond and sent to Bridgeport for arraignment, police said.

jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com
SARAJEVO -- State prosecutors in Bosnia-Herzegovina are investigating a multimillion-dollar deal to import dozens of Chinese ventilators to fight COVID-19 as questions swirl over how a local TV presenter's raspberry farm got picked for the job.



Chief state prosecutor Gordana Tadic announced her office's leading role after a meeting in Sarajevo on May 4 with prosecutors as Bosnia's State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) said it found credible indications of wrongdoing.



F.H. Srebrena Malina (Silver Raspberry), a fruit-and-vegetable grower and processor with no previous experience in medical equipment, was reportedly granted its import license for the machines weeks after signing a deal with the state and days after 80 of the expected 100 ventilators arrived in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, on April 25.



Srebrena Malina's owner, Fikret Hodzic -- who is a presenter on Hayat TV, a privately owned Bosnian television station -- has insisted he did nothing wrong.



"I'm proud of what Srebrena Malina did," Hodzic said last week on Instagram.



But critics say the 10.5 million convertible-mark ($5.8 million) price for 100 ventilators -- more than $50,000 each -- is far higher than it should be for the machines, even in the current global scramble for equipment to treat COVID-19 patients.

Moreover, the model of the 80 ventilators that arrived in late April is said to be designed for use in medical transport rather than the costlier variety normally used in hospitals, where the machines were supposed to be sent.



"I'm asking the question and I'm waiting for answers from institutions such as the federal government or the Federal Civil Protection Administration," Djanan Salcin, director of Bosnia's Public Procurement Agency, told RFE/RL's Balkan Service last week, "as to whether, when procuring respirators from domestic bidders, anyone was contacted who deals with this type of work, why someone who had to do it at all isn't doing that kind of work [and] doesn't have a license to import this kind of stuff, and those are all issues."



It is Bosnia's highest-profile procurement scandal so far in the months-old pandemic, and the accusations of profiteering from the coronavirus crisis emerged at a delicate moment in one of the Balkans' most fragile states.



Officials reported a flare-up in COVID-19 infections last week alongside an easing of restrictions in the ethnically divided Balkan country of around 3 million people, made up of a Bosniak and Croat federation along with a Serb-majority entity.



Bosnia had 1,946 officially confirmed COVID-19 cases as of May 5 resulting in 79 deaths.

Unconventional Paths



Like many governments around the world, Sarajevo has taken unconventional paths in the face of the coronavirus pandemic to procure essential medical materials, including masks, other personal protective equipment, and more sophisticated equipment.



Media reports about the April ventilator deal, including its unconventional middleman, prompted state and cantonal prosecutors to check whether Bosnian federal officials, civil-defense administrators, or Srebrena Malina broke the law.



Bosnia's division of powers and resources among the ethnically based entities that make up the country also complicates such questions.



Investigators have already asked Chinese officials to tell them who supplied Srebrena Malina with the machines, and prosecutors are likely to focus on who ultimately signed off on the deal for the state, along with its financial terms and other details.



The finger-pointing began soon after reports emerged questioning its specifics.



"It was the job of the Federal Civil Protection Administration Crisis Staff, and they had all the authority on behalf of the government of the Federation of [Bosnia-Herzegovina] to do so," the Bosnian government told RFE/RL's Balkan Service in a statement.

'Media Witch-Hunt'



The director of the Federal Civil Protection Administration, Fahrudin Solak, who was reportedly seriously injured in a motorcycle accident while en route to welcome the April 25 shipment of Chinese respirators at Sarajevo's airport, has suggested it is a media witch-hunt.



In a written statement last week addressed to Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor-General Sabina Sarajlija, Solak said that journalists have "misrepresented and conducted an inappropriate media chase against the [federal] government, the Federal Civil Protection Headquarters, and the government body managing the protection and rescue operations and the Federal Civil Protection Administration as a professional service related to the procurement of respirators for the needs of medical facilities due to the coronavirus pandemic."

A longtime representative within the medical-equipment sector consulted by RFE/RL's Balkan Service said the model of machine that Srebrena Malina imported is not a "serious ventilator" but rather an "emergency respirator designed primarily for transportation."



Sanita Alagic, assistant director of financial accounting and public procurement for the Federal Civil Protection Administration, did not respond after initially agreeing to answer RFE/RL's questions about the deal.



Alagic had previously stressed that Srebrena Malina was the only entity to offer to deliver the respirators by the end of April.



Numerous posts to Srebrena Malina's Facebook and other social-media pages last week accused Hodzic of corruption and urged a boycott of his food company.



Hodzic, who is the popular face of the Zvijezda Mozes Biti Ti (You, Too, Can Be A Star) musical talent show, has defended his actions and challenged others to deliver medical equipment as quickly in a crisis.

Via Instagram on April 29, he expressed his support for an investigation and claimed the adverse publicity is taking a toll on his business, which ordinarily sells packaged fruit, beverages, and other consumables.



"We may not be able to continue [doing business] in seven days, but it remains true that this company, from the village of Suceska, is the only one in the region that has managed to import 100 respirators in [10] days from the date of payment in [Bosnia]," he said.



Hodzic, who has touted the benefits of Srebrena Malina products for nutrition and immunity during Ramadan and in the face of the COVID-19 threat, suggested that unnamed forces behind the scandal "are determined to actually destroy what some started in '92," an apparent reference to the start of the 1992-95 Bosnian War that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Ethnic Rivalries



Bosnia's divided state institutions are still hobbled by many of the same ethnic rivalries that fueled that bloody war over national ambitions, weakening not only effective government but also the fight against corruption at virtually all levels.



In a statement to RFE/RL's Balkan Service, the executive director of the local branch of international anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, Ivana Korajlic, questioned a range of specifics about the Srebrena Malina deal, from "the fact that the procurement was entrusted to a company that had absolutely no references or experience in the procurement of medical equipment...and even at the time of choosing this company did not even have a license from the [Bosnian] Medicines Agency -- to the point that we were unable to obtain information on the basis of which procurement procedure was performed."



She said TI hoped the entity involved was not a "paravane for other, more serious transactions" that remain hidden.



The International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s leadership last month approved $361 million in emergency assistance to help Sarajevo meet an "urgent balance-of-payments need due to the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic." That is nearly twice as much as the IMF has cleared for any other Balkan state.



Bosnia has also received more than 80 million euros ($88 million) in emergency aid for social and health care from the European Commission to fight COVID-19, as well as shipments of medical supplies and disinfectants from the NATO alliance and the Turkish government.



Responding to an RFE/RL inquiry, the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo cited "numerous obstacles" to the anti-corruption fight in Bosnia.



In a written statement, it added: "As we have said so far, all reports of acts of corruption during the pandemic are of great concern to us. If such practices have meant the loss of public funds in the past, corruption can now lead directly to the loss of lives."

Written by Andy Heil in Prague based on reporting in Sarajevo by Aida Djugum and Edib Bajrovic of RFE/RL's Balkan Service
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 08:54:39|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

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NEW YORK -- Global COVID-19 deaths surpassed 250,000 on Monday afternoon, reaching 250,134 as of 4:40 p.m. (2040 GMT), according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

A total of 3,571,615 cases have been reported from over 180 countries and regions in the world, according to the CSSE.

- - - -

PARIS -- The COVID-19 death toll in France has increased to 25,201 after 306 deaths were registered on Monday, the health ministry said.

The pace of deaths caused by the disease speeded up in the last 24 hours compared with 135 on Sunday, the lowest daily toll in six weeks. However, on Sundays the data reporting from nursing homes is often delayed, leading to catch-up on weekdays.

- - - -

CAIRO -- Turkey's total confirmed cases of COVID-19 reached 127,659, while Iran's tally increased to 98,647 on Monday. As the hardest-hit countries in the Middle East, both witness continued slowdown in the pandemic.

Turkey's total confirmed cases of COVID-19 reached 127,659, with 1,614 new patients reported in the last 24 hours, Turkish Health Ministry said on Monday.

- - - -

BRASILIA -- Confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Brazil rose from 101,147 to 105,222, while the death toll rose from 7,025 to 7,288, with a fatality rate of 6.9 percent, the Ministry of Health reported on Monday.

According to the most recent government data, 4,075 new cases and 263 new deaths were registered over the last 24 hours.

- - - -

COLOMBO -- Chinese tech giant Huawei on Monday donated hi-tech equipment to the Sri Lankan government as part of its efforts to support Sri Lanka's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, a statement from Huawei Sri Lanka said.

The donation, handed over to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa here, included five sets of high definition video conference system and six high precision thermal cameras.

- - - -

BRUSSELS -- China will take further steps, including expanding the special fund on COVID-19 cooperation as necessary and considering donating to the United Nations Global Humanitarian Response Plan, to strengthen global cooperation and defeat the pandemic at an early date, a Chinese envoy said at the Coronavirus Global Response pledging event Monday. Enditem
Members of the Egyptian Chamber of Food Industries (CFI) have reported a 30 to 40 percent decrease in the sales of desserts during the holy month of Ramadan so far compared to the year before.

Fathi Diab, a member of the CFI and owner of a dessert factory in New Cairo, told Al-Ahram Arabic news website that dessert consumption has dropped 40 percent this Ramadan compared to the same month the previous year.

The Islamic fasting month and the following religious Eid El-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan are key seasons for desserts, which traditionally see a boom in demand at pastry shops.

Traditional Middle Eastern desserts like Kunafa, Qatayef, Baklava and Basbousah are widely popular in Egypt during Ramadan, while Kahk, traditional butter cookies covered with powdered sugar are eaten in Eid.

Diab attributed the slump in demand to coronavirus restrictions including a nighttime curfew beginning at 9 pm that have led to significantly fewer buyers. Shops in the capital Cairo typically remain open past-midnight in Ramadan.

Another CFI member, Mohamed El-Gamal, also estimated that demand on desserts this Ramadan have decreased between 30 and 40 percent. The average price per kilo of pastries start from EGP 60-90, he says.

During Ramadan, the ninth month on the Islamic calendar, Muslims abstain from drinking and eating from dawn until dusk, a practice that constitutes one of Islams five pillars.

The month is followed by Eid Al-Fitr, or (the feast of breaking the fast), the three-day religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide.

Egypt is seeing a Ramadan like never before this year, with restrictions to contain the coronavirus pandemic including an overnight curfew in place since March and a ban on all public gatherings.

All congregational religious activities, including regular communal prayers in mosques, have been suspended since 21 March.

Other traditional public activities that used to take place in Ramadan, such as charity iftar tables for the poor to break their fast, have also been suspended.

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Australian billionaire Kerry Stokes has put the 'lucky' Chinese numbers 888 on his new $97.6milllion private jet.

Stokes's Global Express 5000 private jet was photographed at Sydney Airport on Anzac Day with a new tail number of 887.

His existing registration number 888 - traditionally considered a sign of good fortune and prosperity in China - has been transferred to his new Bombardier Global Express 6000 jet, according to The Australian Financial Review.

The aircraft is undergoing test flying in the United States with the new model sporting an increase of about 2,000km in non-stop flying range.

Stokes was criticised for using the front page of the newspaper he controls, The West Australian, to call for the Australian government to back off from calls for a global inquiry into China's handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

Australian billionaire Kerry Stokes has put the 'lucky' Chinese numbers 888 on his new $97.6milllion private jet (pictured with his wife Christine Simpson Parker)

The Bombardier Global Express 6000 jet is currently being tested in the United States. Pictured is a similar model to the one purchased by Mr Stokes

The media mogul is chief of Seven West Media - formed when his West Australian newspaper business bought into the Seven Network - though he owes most of his billions to the success of his mining services company.

His West Australian based company WesTrac had business deals with about nine Chinese provinces to provide mining equipment and services.

Why is the number 888 lucky in China? The number eight in Chinese sounds similar to the word for 'prosper' or more specifically to make lots of money. Repeated 8s are considered especially lucky. For example, the Beijing Olympics began on August 8, 2008 (8.8.08) at 8.08pm. Advertisement

Mr Stokes, through a front page article in Seven West-owned The West Australian, advocated for Mr Morrison to dump his inquiry.

'China probably owes the world an explanation on the origins of COVID-19... (but) we need to stop making accusations,' he said.

'If we're going to go into the biggest debt we've had in our life and then simultaneously poke our biggest provider of income in the eye it's not necessarily the smartest thing you can do.'

Mr Stokes also warned if China cut off its trade the Australian dollar would plunge to US25c and make it even harder to pay off our debt.

The media mogul has been a consistent China booster, last September expressing concern about Australia-China relations 'and what it means for our trading position'.

'Australia's entire future is based on our ability to trade and China is our largest trading partner,' he told the Australian.

AMBASSADOR'S ECONOMIC THREAT TO AUSTRALIA In an interview with the Australian Financial Review, Ambassador Cheng slammed Australia's push for a global inquiry as 'political' and warned Chinese consumers could boycott the country. Answering a question about whether China could boycott Australian iron ore or gas, Mr Cheng instead focused on China's contribution to Australia's agriculture, tourism and education sectors. Mr Cheng said: 'I think if the mood is going from bad to worse, people would think why we should go to such a country while it's not so friendly to China. 'The tourists may have second thoughts. Maybe the parents of the students would also think whether this place, which they find is not so friendly, even hostile, is the best place to send their kids to. 'So it's up to the public, the people to decide. And also, maybe the ordinary people will think why they should drink Australian wine or eat Australian beef.' Advertisement

'Our whole standard of living is virtually determined by the exports we make to China.'

Mr Stokes cut down Seven West Media's interest in China in 2017 by selling off its WesTrac China operations to Lei Shing Hong Machinery for $540 million.

However, the rest of the WesTrac sells machinery to the same mining companies that earn billions from selling iron ore to China.

WesTrac was about $3 billion of Seven West's $4.1 billion revenue in the 2019 financial year.

Stokes's comments in The West Australian have been criticised by some including Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings who said private industry did not have the same information as the Morrison government about Chinese cyber interference, intelligence gathering and military activity.

'There is actually a difference between their business interest and the national interest. For business leaders to simply say, 'this is ridiculous, let's get back to an environment where we can make money', is just failing to take account of the national security responsibility that government has.' he told The Australian.

Liberal MP Andrew Hastie who is a former SAS captain and chairman of the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security also weighed in.

'No one is opposed to trade or Australian prosperity; that's a lazy straw man designed to silence us. The truth is that we aren't dealing with a true peer in the Chinese Communist Party. They don't play by the rules and we are mugs if we think they do.' Mr Hastie said.

Mr Hastie said he wanted business leaders to trade from a 'position of strength' rather than throwing our 'silence and freedom of action into the bargain.'

Stokes has not been alone in calling for Canberra to back down from criticising China after fellow WA rich-lister Andrew Forrest extraordinarily hijacked a joint press conference with Health Minister Greg Hunt.

Forrest also owes his fortune to mining interests including his Fortescue Metals Group.

Mr Hunt and Mr Forrest held a joint press conference on April 29 to announce the mining magnate's foundation had sourced 10 million COVID-19 testing kits.

But Mr Forrest also invited Victoria Consul General Long Zhou to address the media.

Mr Hunt reportedly had no idea until they were in front of the media.

Victorian Consul General Long Zhou was formerly a high level cyber surveillance official in China

Health Minister Greg Hunt (left) and mining magnate Andrew Forrest at the press conference

Forrest said the diplomat's attendance was 'a gesture of and friendship between our two great countries'.

Mr Long took the opportunity to talk up China's response to the pandemic.

'The virus has, knows no ideology, border or race... the testings of all countries are closely interlinked. We're all in this together,' Mr Long said.

Several conservative government backbenchers, including Matt Canavan and Andrew Hastie, have criticised Mr Forrest's action.

'This guy drops out of the sky in his private jet and enables the Chinese Communist Party to ambush a Commonwealth press conference. Yeah, we're not happy,' Mr Hastie said.

The Morrison government has called for strict regulations on Chinese wildlife 'wet markets' where exotic animals are sold for human consumption though Mr Stokes has argues the markets need to be respected.

COVID-19 is theorised to have originated in one of these markets in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

'People have got to respect that's the way they've conducted themselves and traded for years and generations ... if we want to interfere with what they trade, that's going to be a very difficult situation to convince people that we know what they should eat,' Mr Stokes said.

China is growing increasingly frustrated at Australia's outlawing of covert foreign interference in politics and institutions. China is particularly angry that Australia has banned Chinese communications giant Huawei from involvement in critical infrastructure on security grounds.

Former foreign minister Julie Bishop said by being on the United Nations security council China has an obligation to support an investigation into the virus, as the pandemic is a threat to international peace and security.

TIT FOR TAT: TIMELINE OF AUSTRALIA'S DEEPENING COVID-19 DISPUTE WITH CHINA February 1, 2020: Australia bans foreign nationals who have travelled in mainland China from entering the country for 14 days February 13: As the travel bans are extended, the Chinese embassy lashes out, labelling Australia's move as 'extreme' and an 'overreaction indeed' April 15: Treasurer Josh Frydenberg savages the World Health Organisation (WHO) for supporting the reopening of Chinese wet markets April 19: Foreign Minister Marise Payne calls for a global inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic and China's handling of it Senator Payne tells the ABC such an inquiry should be run independently of the WHO. April 26: China's ambassador, Cheng Jingye, warns the Morrison government its inquiry push could cause a Chinese consumer boycott. Mr Cheng warns tourists 'may have second thoughts' and students' parents would wonder if Australia is 'the best place to send their kids to', and that consumers may not want to buy Australian wine or beef The Australian government fires back, with Senator Payne saying the country rejects 'any suggestion that economic coercion is an appropriate response to a call for such an assessment, when what is needed is global co-operation'. April 28: Chinese embassy releases an unusual statement describing a call with the bureaucrat in charge of Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) In a statement, DFAT says it 'regrets' the release of 'purported details of official diplomatic exchanges'. The department will not respond by itself breaching the long standing diplomatic courtesies and professional practices to which it will continue to adhere,' DFAT said. Editor of state-run Global Times Hu Xijin, shares a post on Weibo saying ties between Australia and China would continue to deteriorate, describing Australia as 'gum stuck on the sole of China's shoes'. 'After the epidemic, we need to have more risk awareness when doing business with Australia and also when we send our children to study there,' he wrote. 'Australia is always there, making trouble. It is a bit like chewing gum stuck on the sole of China's shoes. Sometimes you have to find a stone to rub it off.' April 29: Hu Xijin writes a Twitter post admitting China would try to us economic coercion on Australia. 'Let me give a "coercion" to Australia,' he wrote. 'As its attitude toward China becomes worse and worse, Chinese companies will definitely reduce economic cooperation with Australia. 'And the number of Chinese students and visitors going to Australia will also decrease. Time will prove it all.' Victorian Consul-General Zhou Long hijacks a government press conference alongside billionaire mining boss Andrew Forrest to discuss his procurement of 10million testing kits from China to be used in Australia. Mr Zhou uses the opportunity to praise Beijing's handling of the pandemic. Liberal MP Andrew Hastie said Mr Forrest had allowed the Chinese Communist party to 'ambush the press conference'. 'Now is not the time for games. Australia must come first,' Mr Hastie said. 'This guy drops out of the sky in his private jet and enables the Chinese Communist Party to ambush a commonwealth press conference. Yeah, we're not happy.' After the event, former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull urges Australia not to anger China. 'An Australian prime minister who ends up in conflict with China cannot expect any support or solidarity from the Australian business community,' he wrote on Twitter on Wednesday night. 'Overwhelmingly, they're totally invested in the economic benefits of the relationship.' May 3: Shanghai academic Professor Chen Hong accuses Australia of 'stabbing China in the back' over its call for an inquiry in a 60minutes interview. 'This kind of investigation actually proposed by the Australia side is not an investigation. It's called an independent inquiry talking about the lack of transparency. That is actually what is about,' he said. 'That is actually the problem as there's no such thing as lack of transparency in the Chinese side. 'Australia is being and acting as a kind of divisive role, trying to point fingers, even stab at the back of China. This is actually not fair.' Advertisement
The plan that led to Ion light rail vehicles has been erased from the project's official history.

I remember it because I was in the room when the plan was unveiled 17 years ago. It took two years to fail.

Waterloo regional council did not give up. Faithful to its ambition, council kept its rail plan on life support by undertaking more study.

When the political winds shifted, council revived the plan, steered it past community backlash and furious politics, and got it approved and built  while making a $50-million blunder that added two more years.

No one in the room that night could have predicted the manoeuvres, twists and turns along the way.

Failure  2002 to 2004

In a surprise announcement April 10, 2002, regional council revealed a plan to put electric rail vehicles on streets in Kitchener and Waterloo.

It was billed as a way to draw development to struggling downtown areas.

There was a time when rail vehicles ran on city streets. They were abandoned as passengers embraced car ownership.

An idea to restore rail transit had languished since 1976 while the three local cities looked after public transit separately.

But when the cities handed Grand River Transit to regional council in 2000, bigger thinking followed.

The federal government dangled a pot of $2 billion that could help pay for light rail vehicles. Council felt it had to move quickly to secure funding. With luck and lobbying, council hoped to have a system running by 2007.

A regional government press release said: "Region on Right Track with LRT Proposal for Federal Funding."

The plan unveiled in 2002 closely resembles the Ion system.

 It called for light rail vehicles to run on streets with priority over traffic and high frequency in peak periods. This has not changed.

 It kept the vehicles out of Cambridge, proposing to launch first in Kitchener and Waterloo. This has not changed.

 It called for a new transit hub for buses and light rail vehicles at King and Victoria streets in Kitchener. This is still part of the LRT plan.

 It called for seven stations from downtown Kitchener to the St. Jacobs market. Within a year the route was revised to 10 stations between the Fairview Park mall in Kitchener and the Conestoga Mall in Waterloo  the same route that Ion will follow, with 19 stations.

 It called for a parking garage and convention centre at King and Victoria streets in Kitchener. This scheme was later abandoned. The University of Waterloo pharmacy school was built there instead.

Council priced its rail plan at $256 million, revised a year later to $260 million.

For two years, council lobbied provincial and federal governments for funding. The aim was to limit the local share of launch costs to $64 million, later revised to $87 million.

Senior levels of government said no to funding trains on May 15, 2004.

The plan-saving pivot  2004 to 2009

Advocates saved light rail by connecting it to growth plans unveiled by the new Liberal government elected at Queen's Park in 2003.

Senior levels of government helped by contributing just over $1 million toward a study, a concession made when they refused to fund the previous rail plan.

By 2005 the province was asking cities to put more people into less space, angling to save farmland, restrain suburbs, and draw people from their cars. Better transit can help achieve this.

Council revised its approval strategy. The aim was to make light rail look less like a funding pitch for an approved project and more like the outcome of evidence-based planning.

This pivot kept rail ambitions alive. But it had consequences.

 It put light rail vehicles on a slower track. While funding has deadlines, planning can go on forever.

 Reshaping it as a planning process meant council had to also consider faster buses.

 To make it seem like council had not already decided the outcome, planners erased the failed rail plan from the official history of the Ion project.

In 2005, a federal analysis showed that faster buses would provide a better return on public investment than light rail vehicles.

Rail advocates shrugged off the finding, pointing to the stronger redevelopment impacts of light rail.

Planners went on to finalize the transit route, choosing to split tracks and stations in downtowns, to limit traffic impacts and spread redevelopment impacts.

Rather than operate light rail vehicles along King Street North in Waterloo, planners chose to run them through the University of Waterloo and its adjacent technology business park, to serve commuters there.

Senior governments indicated a greater willingness to pay for better transit, but would not commit to dollar amounts.

Furious politics  2009 to 2011

As planning drew to a close, council again went looking for money to built the LRT.

To show senior governments it was serious, council committed $25 million in January 2009, pending approval of a transit project. This was meant to buy land and hire people to oversee an approved project.

A regional government analysis found faster buses would be the better way to carry more passengers.

"It's not primarily a people-mover. It's a way for us to attract redevelopment into the downtown areas," said Coun. Jim Wideman, then chair of the regional planning committee.

In May 2009 planners revived the rail plan previously approved by council. The cost was higher  $790 million for light rail vehicles to run 19 kilometres from mall to mall in Kitchener and Waterloo.

Council approved the revived plan in principle June 24, 2009. It had no money to launch but council hoped to see light rail vehicles running by 2014.

Lobbied for a year, senior governments committed their funding in the summer of 2010.

In contributing $300 million, the provincial government broke a pledge to pay two-thirds of costs for a transit project. The federal government committed $265 million.

Their contributions left local taxpayers facing a bill of $235 million or more, much higher than many hoped.

A backlash followed. Most regional council candidates opposed the LRT in a turbulent municipal election in October 2010. Even supporters wanted the plan made cheaper.

Heeding public outcry, council agreed in January 2011 to reconsider cheaper rapid buses as part of a quick review.

That review found that faster buses would achieve the smallest tax increase per passenger carried. Rail advocates shrugged off the finding, again.

Four councillors sidelined themselves, declaring conflicts of interest because they or their families owned properties near train stations that might gain value.

A public-opinion poll commissioned by The Record found a divided community, with 38 per cent supporting light rail, 32 per cent supporting rapid buses, and 30 per cent wanting better roads instead of better transit.

Council rejected calls for a referendum. On June 15, 2011, council voted 9-2 to build a funded rail transit system estimated to cost $818 million (excluding the long-term cost to finance borrowed money).

The local share of costs was pegged at $253 million, financed by incremental property tax increases across three cities but not four townships.

Since 2011, the owner of an average city home has paid $969 in taxes to help launch trains and expand buses to feed into them. This includes $597 dedicated to trains, according to regional government figures.

When incremental increases top out next year, it's estimated an average homeowner will be taxed $198 annually to pay for the launch of light rail and more buses, compared to 2010.

This cost assumes a total increase in regional taxes reaching almost 13 per cent on a home assessed at $344,000 this year.

The approved project  2011 to today

Council planned to begin construction by 2014 so that light rail vehicles would be running by 2017.

In 2013 it named the new system Ion. The second choice was the Wave.

Council sought a private partner to design, build, finance, operate and maintain rail transit. On March 4, 2014, it voted 11-4 to select a consortium called GrandLinq. The 30-year contract is worth almost $2 billion.

Partnering will cost taxpayers an estimated $48 million in extra financing costs, compared to what the government would have spent to finance the Ion project on its own.

Council deemed it an acceptable cost, to gain expertise and transfer project risks to private partners by giving them a financial stake in success.

Risk is cited 123 times in a 36-page report prepared for council on the need to find a partner on rail transit. Yet council removed the provision of light rail vehicles from its risk-sharing contract.

Seeking to save money, council piggybacked an order for 14 light rail vehicles onto a bigger order for 180 similar vehicles being built for an LRT system in Toronto by train supplier Bombardier.

Shut out from bidding, rival train supplier Siemens Canada warned council that it was courting risk. Council dismissed the warning.

Bombardier failed to deliver the trains on time, exposing taxpayers to delays and extra costs.

Tracks, stations and overhead wires were largely completed by 2017. LRT construction caused detours, stressed drivers and transit passengers, and pained merchants who struggled to draw customers to construction zones.

The delayed delivery of trains increased the price tag by $50 million to $868 million. This includes an extra $25 million owed by local taxpayers. The launch cost will exceed $1 billion when the costs to finance borrowed money are included.

The June 21 launch beats council's latest deadline for the start of service by mere minutes. Ion trains will carry their first passengers 17 years and 72 days after genesis.

jouthit@therecord.com

Twitter: @OuthitRecord
Too Risky to Come Home, Crew of Clean US Warship in CCP Virus Limbo
Shankill bomber Sean Kelly during the incident at the Flax Centre Eurospar

Shankill bomber Sean Kelly being restrained during a confrontation in shops in Ardoyne

First Minister Arlene Foster has raised concerns over a video of convicted IRA murderer Sean Kelly having to be physically restrained whilst holding an iron bar at a shopping centre with the Secretary of State.

It's also understood the matter will be addressed at the next meeting of the Policing Board, with questions being asked over whether Kelly, who was released as part of the Good Friday Agreement, had breached the conditions of his release.

The footage, which has now been seen thousands of times on social media, showed Kelly being restrained by passers-by outside the Eurospar at the Flax Centre in Ardoyne on Saturday.

Kelly was convicted of the IRA's 1993 bombing of a Shankill Road fish shop which killed nine people, including two children.

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More than 50 others were maimed in the no warning blast, for which Kelly received nine life sentences.

Another bomber, Thomas Begley, was also killed in the blast.

In the footage that emerged at the weekend, Kelly was pictured wielding a stick after a customer was asked to leave the Eurospar.

Several men and women restrained ex-IRA prisoner Kelly, who was in an agitated state.

Among those calling for his return to prison were families of victims of the Shankill bombing.

A statement, which was signed by the families, said: "It has been almost 27 years since Sean Kelly and the Provisional IRA murdered our loved ones on the Shankill Road in October 1993.

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"Twenty-seven years on, and we see Mr Kelly clearly intent on inflicting injury to another member of the public.

"We therefore call upon the Secretary of State to revoke Mr Kelly's licence and return him to prison."

Justice Minister Naomi Long said that she had reported the incident to police after seeing the footage, who said they are now investigating the incident.

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A PSNI spokesman said: "Police are aware of a video posted on a social media platform on Saturday, May 2.

"An investigation into the circumstances surrounding this incident has commenced. Enquiries are continuing."

North Belfast DUP MLA William Humphrey has asked the police to carry out a thorough investigation.

"I have spoken to my party colleague Mervyn Storey who will be raising this incident at the Policing Board and our party leader has also raised it with the Secretary of State," he said.

"Sean Kelly was convicted of murdering nine people in the IRA bombing at Frizzell's fish shop in 1993. His subsequent release from custody on licence imposed stringent conditions on him regarding his future conduct.

"This video shows him having to be forcefully restrained during an altercation at a shopping centre.

"This calls into question whether he has breached the conditions of his release.

"This incident has caused great distress to the families of his innocent victims.

"I join with those family members who have called on the Secretary of State to consider revoking Sean Kelly's licence and to return him to custody.

"After all, he was sentenced to nine life sentences in 1995 for an outrageous crime.

"He should have always been in jail."

In 2013, Kelly publicly apologised for the slaughter, although this was rejected by the families.

Sinn Fein used Kelly to canvass in North Belfast for John Finucane ahead of the General Election last December.

It was reported the convicted bomber had been seen erecting election posters and distributing leaflets.

Mr Finucane went on to oust long time DUP MP Nigel Dodds from the North Belfast seat.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald rejected DUP criticism at the time, insisting Kelly, who was convicted for his part in the 1993 bomb, was a supporter of the peace process and had expressed regret over the attack on the fish shop, which killed nine Protestants.
DUBLIN, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Solar Vehicle Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global solar vehicle market is currently witnessing robust growth. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to register a CAGR of more than 30% during 2020-2025.



Growing environmental consciousness across the globe is one of the primary factors driving the market growth. Governments of both developed and emerging economies are increasingly focusing on efforts and undertaking initiatives to minimize vehicular pollution. Consequently, automobile manufacturers are emphasizing on developing sustainable vehicles that reduce the overall dependence on fossil fuels and can operate on clean and renewable sources of energy.



Furthermore, the widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is also providing a boost to the market growth. Additionally, various technological advancements, including the development of automated solar sunroofs that can minimize the time required for charging the vehicle, are also creating a positive outlook for the market growth.



Other factors, including the rising demand for fuel-efficient automobiles and research and development (R&D) activities for developing innovative technologies to harness solar energy, are projected to drive the market further.



The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined with some of the key players being Cruise Car, Ford, General Motors, Hanergy Thin Film Power Group, Jinko Solar, Lightyear, Mahindra & Mahindra, Nissan, Solar Electric Vehicle Company, Sono Motors, Toyota, Trina Solar, Volkswagen Ltd., etc.



Key Questions Answered



How has the global solar vehicle 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 propulsion type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the vehicle type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the battery type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the solar panel type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the charging type?

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 solar vehicle market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the industry?

Key Topics Covered



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Solar Vehicle Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Propulsion Type

6.1 BEV

6.2 HEV

6.3 PHEV



7 Market Breakup by Vehicle Type

7.1 Passenger Cars

7.2 Industrial Utility Vehicles

7.3 Commercial Vehicles



8 Market Breakup by Battery Type

8.1 Lithium-ion

8.2 Lead-Acid

8.3 Lead carbon



9 Market Breakup by Solar Panel Type

9.1 Monocrystalline

9.2 Polycrystalline



10 Market Breakup by Charging Type

10.1 Slow Charging

10.2 Fast Charging



11 Market Breakup by Region

11.1 North America

11.2 Asia Pacific

11.3 Europe

11.4 Latin America

11.5 Middle East and Africa



12 SWOT Analysis

12.1 Overview

12.2 Strengths

12.3 Weaknesses

12.4 Opportunities

132.5 Threats



13 Value Chain Analysis

13.1 Overview

13.2 Inbound Logistics

13.3 Operations

13.4 Outbound Logistics

13.5 Marketing and Sales

13.6 Post Sales Services



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 Price Indicators

15.1 Key Price Indicators

15.2 Price Structure

15.3 Price Trends



16 Competitive Landscape

16.1 Market Structure

16.2 Key Players

16.3 Profiles of Key Players



Cruise Car

Ford

General Motors

Hanergy Thin Film Power Group

Jinko Solar

Lightyear

Mahindra & Mahindra

Nissan

Solar Electric Vehicle Company

Sono Motors

Toyota

Trina Solar

Volkswagen Ltd.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/lsxc9j

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: 646-607-1904

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


A Bethlehem police officer responding to a 5 a.m. noise complaint on Sunday due to a loud party at an apartment in a public housing development in the northeast section of the city was struck by a thrown glass bottle and slapped three times by an intoxicated 20-year-old Reading woman, according to court papers.

The incident happened in the 1300 block of Howard Street, police said.

The patrol officer was trying to disperse a large crowd when Leanny N. Lebron-Jimenez threw the bottle at the officers backside, police said. When the officer turned to arrest Lebron-Jimenez, she slapped him three times in the face, police said.

Lebron-Jimenezs eyes were bloodshot and her speech slurred, police said. A breathe test indicated the 20-year-old had been drinking alcohol, police said.

Lebron-Jimenez was arraigned later Sunday morning before District Judge Nicholas Englesson on charges of aggravated assault, simple assault, harassment, disorderly house and underage drinking, police said.

She was housed in Northampton County Prison in lieu of $100,000 bail, records show. Her preliminary hearing in Englessons court is tentatively scheduled 2 p.m. May 15.

Court records did not include an attorney for Lebron-Jimenez.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting lehighvalleylive.com with a voluntary subscription.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com.
BISHKEK -- Kyrgyz border authorities say they have prevented a renewed outbreak of clashes near an Uzbek exclave inside Kyrgyz territory.

Zamir Miizaev, the chief of the Border Guard Directorate in Kyrgyzstans southern Batken region, told RFE/RL on May 5 that tensions near the border have been rising due to a dispute around irrigation water usage.

Kyrgyz border guards fired warning gunshots on May 1 to prevent possible violence, he said.

Many border areas in Central Asian former Soviet republics have been disputed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the volatile Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan meet.

One such exclave is Sokh, an ethnic Tajik-populated Uzbek territory within Kyrgyzstan's Batken region, where shootings have been common for years.

In 2013, border crossings through Sokh were closed for several weeks after Sokh residents clashed with Kyrgyz border guards over the installation of electric power lines to a new Kyrgyz border post.

Five Sokh residents were reportedly wounded by Kyrgyz border guards and at least 30 Kyrgyz citizens were subsequently taken hostage then.

In July 2019, Tajik officials said one Tajik man was killed and seven more wounded after Kyrgyz villagers used hunting guns in violence that erupted over the move by Tajik residents to install Tajik national flags on the Isfara-Vorukh road near Tajikistan's Vorukh exclave inside Kyrgyzstan.

Officials in the Batken region temporarily moved more than 650 residents from the village of Ak-Sai from the area for safety and security reasons in the days following the clashes.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5

By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend:

President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has called for establishing a partnership between the Non-Alignment Movement and the World Health Organization (WHO), Trend reports with reference to Turkmenistans State News Agency.

The proposal was made at the Non-Alignment Movement Summit, held in the Contact Group format. Held via the videoconference, the Summit was dedicated to the fight against COVID-19.

According to the president of Turkmenistan, it is necessary to establish a partnership between the Non-Alignment Movement and WHO, first of all in the medical field.

"Joint work should be carried out under the coordinating role of The United Nations (UN) and in close cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO), which has a huge experience in the fight against virus diseases," said Turkmenistans president.

Berdimuhamedov expressed Turkmenistan's full support for the work of WHO, and also thanked its leaders for the work that they have done. President of Turkmenistan has also stressed that the country will continue to cooperate with WHO and is ready to provide its assistance to this organization.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @JeilaAliyeva
The first legal cannabis store on the Mountain opened over the weekend  but it won't be alone up there for long.

The family-run Ancaster Joint opened Saturday morning at Duff's Corners on Wilson St. W. It narrowly beat out a Tokyo Smoke franchise slated to open next week on Rymal Road East in Upper Stoney Creek.

Eleonora Plata, who fronted the family bid for a licence to sell cannabis, cheered alongside husband Dennis and kids Jessica and Robert when the first customers wandered into the former Mezza Cafe.

"This is our family project ... We've always talked about starting a family business together and now, this is it," she said.

Learning about the fledgling retail cannabis industry in Ontario presented a "big learning curve," she said, but noted her family brings helpful skills to the table  including backgrounds in accounting and supply management.

Plata admitted feeling nervous about throwing her name into a licence lottery process that attracted thousands of would-be store owners  especially given the well-publicized challenges with cannabis supply and delayed openings that confronted the first legal retail stores last year.

"But you know what? I won the (licence) lottery on my birthday," she said. "At that point, we thought, maybe this was just meant to be."

The family business almost didn't get the chance to even enter the lottery. City council hotly debated whether to allow any legal pot shops in Hamilton  with an 8-8 tie vote a year ago narrowly clearing the way for legal retail cannabis in town.

The two new Mountain stores will double the number of provincially licensed pot shops in the city that opened last year during the problem-plagued rollout of legal cannabis outlets.

Hello Cannabis and Canna Cabana have been selling pot since last April, but both missed the original April 1 opening deadline and suffered through a provincewide cannabis supply shortage last year.

Ancaster Joint is the start of a new wave of applicants that won the chance to sell cannabis legally in Ontario's most recent licence lottery Aug. 20.

If all of the stores listed by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario as seeking retail authorizations are successful, Hamilton will shortly host at least seven pot shops.

They'll compete for business with up to five cannabis stores in neighbouring Burlington, three of which already have permission to sell.

That's still a fraction of the estimated 80 illegal pot shops that were thriving in Hamilton before legalization, though. The popularity of the black market shops earned Hamilton the dubious moniker of "cannabis capital" of Ontario.

It also spurred Premier Doug Ford to take a pot shot at the city, calling on local officials and police to do more to crack down on his "biggest frustration."

mvandongen@thespec.com

905-526-3241 | @Mattatthespec
Press Release

May 5, 2020 Reso on blood-letting drive adopted in honor of the late Sen. Heherson Alvarez The Senate today adopted a resolution declaring October 26 and April 20 of every year a blood-letting drive in partnership with the Philippine Red Cross in honor of former Sen. Heherson Alvarez who passed away last month due to Covd-19. Sen. Richard Gordon, who introduced and sponsored Senate Resolution 390, said Alvarez's daughter Herxila had asked the Senate through him to conduct a blood donation drive in partnership with the Philippine Red Cross to commemorate her father's birth and death on October 26 and April 20 respectively. Gordon is currently the chairman of the Red Cross. Gordon read Herxila's letter during his sponsorship speech thanking the Red Cross for its swift response and assistance. She said because of her experience with Red Cross, she recruited her friends for a blood-letting drive once the lockdown is over. "I am sure there are many employees in the Senate who would be more than willing to share their blood to save lives. If my dad was still with us, I am sure he would have agreed and would have supported the Red Cross, especially in saving lives in a concrete and tangible ways," Herxila said. "This is not about the Senate, it's about volunteerism and it's about the fact that we are the only ones that can help each other, especially during tight situations," Gordon said. On Monday, May 4, 2020, the Senate adopted a resolution honoring Alvarez for his contributions as a legislator, statesman, human rights and environmental advocate. Gordon said the country had lost an "exceptional leader and visionary." Alvarez served his country for more than four decades as a Member of the House of Representatives, Minister of Agrarian Reform, Secretary of Agrarian Reform, Ambassador Extraordinary Plenipotentiary to the U. S.,Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, Delegate to the 1971 Constitutional Convention, Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Communities, Presidential Adviser on Global Warming and Climate Change, Commissioner of Climate Change Commission, Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Climate Institute, Presidential Adviser on Agrarian Reform, and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Philippine Mining Development Corporation. He received numerous awards and citations from various institutions including: International Public Policy Achievement Award by the Climate Institute in Washington, D.C., making him the first Asian recipient of said award, EDSA People Power Freedom Award by the People Power Commission, Most Outstanding Senate Lawmaker in Environmental Protection by the UP Institute for Strategic Development Studies, Outstanding Alumnus Award by the University of the Philippines, Gusi Peace Prize for Public Service by the Gusi Peace Prize Foundation, and the Outstanding Human Rights Award by the Fund for Free Expression in New York, among many others.
The Department of Homeland Security and FBI warned states earlier this year that Russia could look to interfere in the 2020 U.S. elections by covertly advising political candidates and campaigns, according to a law enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press.

The February 3 document details tactics US officials believe Russia could use to interfere in this year's elections, including secretly advising candidates and campaigns.

It says that though officials have not previously observed Russia attempt this action against the United States, political strategists working for a business mogul close to President Vladimir Putin have been involved in political campaigning in numerous African countries.

The memo underscores how Trump administration officials are continuing to sound alarms about the prospect of future Russian interference in American even as President Donald Trump has sought to downplay the Kremlin's involvement in his 2016 win over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Because it was prepared before the coronavirus outbreak, the memo does not reflect how the pandemic might affect the tactics Russia might use to interfere with the election.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security had no immediate comment Monday, and an FBI spokeswoman declined to comment.

The document, described as a reference aid and titled Possible Russian Tactics Ahead of 2020 US Election, does not identify particular candidates or campaigns that Russia might support through its actions.

US officials have said Russia supported Trump in 2016 and took steps to help his campaign and harm Clinton's candidacy.

Intelligence officials briefed lawmakers in February about Russian interests in this year's election.

Russia has denied the interference.

More generally, the memo warns of eight possible Russian tactics for this year's elections, dividing the concerns into what officials say are high" threats and moderate threats.

Among the high threats are the possibility Russia could hack and leak information like it did in the 2016 campaign, when emails stolen from the Clinton campaign by Russian military hackers were published by WikiLeaks.

Other high threats include that Russia could use state-controlled media arms to propagate election-themed narratives to target audiences," use economic and business levers to influence political objectives inside the US, and rely on fake social media personas to promote Russian interests and sway American opinion.

Lesser, or moderate, threats include targeting or manipulating election infrastructure, such as voter databases and vote-tallying systems, and providing financial support to American political candidates or campaigns.

The possibility the Kremlin could covertly advise candidates and campaigns is also described as a moderate threat, but it's noteworthy because this is not a concern US officials routinely highlight in public when they warn of Russian election interference.

The memo says Russia has sought to take advantage of countries that have perceived loopholes in laws preventing foreign campaign assistance.

That tactic has not yet been observed in the United States, the officials wrote, though the document notes that Russian strategists believed to be working for Yevgeny Prigozhin, a wealthy businessman known as Putin's chef because of his ties to Putin, were involved in political campaigning in approximately 20 African countries during 2019."



An October report from the Stanford Internet Observatory detailed a social media operation in multiple African countries, attributed to Prigozhin-linked entities, that supported certain candidates, created pages to resemble reliable coverage and published content and narratives consistent with Russia's foreign policy aims.

Prigozhin was among the Russians indicted in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation for his role in a furtive social media campaign aimed at sowing discord among Americans ahead of the 2016 U.S. election.

The document is unclassified but marked as For Official Use Only." It was prepared by cyber experts at the Department of the Homeland Security and FBI and coordinated with other federal agencies. The AP obtained it through a public records request.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Human rights groups say authorities in Turkmenistan's eastern region of Lebap have detained several local residents for filming damage to buildings and infrastructure inflicted by deadly wind and rain storms that hit the area last week.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a statement on May 4 cited the Prague-based Rights and Freedoms of Turkmen Citizens group as saying that it spoke with a woman in Lebap, who said security service held her for two days, together with 29 others, accusing them of sending videos abroad.

"The same group also received reports that security services held another 19 women for the same reason in [Turkmenabat], Lebaps capital, releasing them May 3," HRW said.

Another rights group, The Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, said police are watching for people in cars filming on their mobile phones the damage caused by the storms that hit the area on April 27.

"Turkmen authorities censorship and efforts to prevent information on the harms sustained from becoming public makes it difficult to accurately assess the damage and casualties," HRW statement said.

RFE/RL correspondents said they counted at least 30 people, including many children, killed by the storms in the Lebap region.

The Independent Turkmen News website quoted a medical official in Turkmenabat as saying that in the regional capital alone, the storms killed 300 people.

Videos that circulated on the Internet showed roofless buildings and private homes that had been destroyed inside.

Meanwhile, many residents of Lebap and the adjacent region, Mary, have said that the government has left them without assistance.

"Turkmenistans priorities should never include hunting down people filming news in their region, but particularly now in the wake of a disaster, the priority should be making effective and comprehensive efforts to bring aid to all who need it," HRW urged Turkmen authorities.
With almost every death in Bhopal among Covid-19 patients identified as that of Bhopal gas tragedy victims the state government has set up as many as 21 health centres for screening of the tragedy victims.

Bhopal Gas Tragedy survivors organisations had been demanding since the number of deaths in the state capital rose alarmingly that all the survivors be screened given their being prone to contracting coronavirus.

Bhopal has registered 571 Covid-19 patients so far out of whom 16 have died. As per organisations of the tragedy survivors at least 15 of the deceased were the gas tragedy victims.

Chief medical and health officer, Gas tragedy relief, Bhopals order dated May 4, 2020 said, Essential materials will be made available in these units for screening of gas tragedy patients. Nigam Nigam will make arrangements for tent and furniture in case of want of space and water tank for hand wash. A control room is being established at Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC).

Rachna Dhingra of Bhopal Group of Information and Action said, We welcome the decision of the state government. However, screening of the tragedy victims couldnt take place today as arrangements are being made at the centres. We will keep a watch how the state government responds to the need of the gas victims and takes care of their health.

Notably, the state government cancelled its decision sometime back whereby it had notified BMHRC as a dedicated Covid hospital. The government cancelled the decision after the gas tragedy survivors organisations moved the high court to seek a relief on the ground that many gas tragedy victims admitted to the hospital were shifted from there after the governments decision causing a lot of hardships to them.
For more coverage, visit our complete coronavirus section here.

In a major testing effort led by UC San Francisco in the Mission District, 2.1% of the 4,160 people tested for COVID-19 were positive. Of those who tested positive, 90% "reported being unable to work from home."

"Ninety percent of the people who were PCR positive had no capability of working from home during shelter in place. These were frontline workers, they had to work outside of the home, either that or they were furloughed or unemployed, Dr. Diane Havlir, chief of the UCSF Division of HIV, Infection, and Global Disease at San Francisco General, told KCBS.

Ninety-five percent of positive individuals were of Latinx heritage.

"The COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately affecting the Latinx community in San Francisco, both in terms of infection rates and economic hardship, and we have been partnering very closely with the Latino Task Force for COVID-19 to support this community by working to disrupt transmission of the disease, Dr. Carina Marquez, an assistant professor of medicine at UCSF, said in a statement.

From April 25 to 28, free, voluntary COVID-19 testing was offered to every resident in a 16-block area running from Cesar Chavez to 23rd Street and South Van Ness to Harrison Street (see a map in the gallery above). This is the second most dense area of the city and a little over half of the residents living here were tested.

While turnout for the study was considered a success, researchers said those people who didn't access testing feared being tracked by government agencies and the potential negative impact on local businesses if the neighborhood is branded a COVID-19 hotspot. Some also were afraid of the potential consequences of isolation if they tested positive.

Researchers conducted two types of tests to identify those individuals who are currently infected and those who previously had the virus. The diagnostic test for active COVID-19 was implemented by collecting samples with nasal swabs while the antibody test was done with a finger-prick to collect a blood sample. Results were available within 72 hours.

People who tested positive received immediate follow-up calls from UCSF infectious disease experts while those who test negative are expected to continue following the shelter-in-place order "because of the possibility of false negative test results and a general lack of information about the potential for reinfection with the disease," according to a statement from UCSF.

In a preliminary statement released on the study results, UCSF said, "The results so far suggest that those who are at highest risk for infection are those who cannot easily shelter in place due to job loss, furloughs, or because they are providing the essential services. Among those who tested positive, 90 percent reported being unable to work from home. In contrast, among those who tested negative, 53 percent reported no impact on their work or financial stability. Nearly 89 percent of those who tested positive earn less than $50,000 a year and most live in households of 3 to 5 people (59.6 percent) or larger (28.8 percent). Notably, people who lived outside the census tract but who go there for work were much more likely to test positive (6.1 percent) than residents (1.4 percent)."

The study is meant to reveal the invisible spread of the virus and help inform future testing efforts in other communities.

All our public health decisions, including when it will be possible to relax regional and statewide shelter-in-place orders, are driven by rough assumptions about how this virus behaves based on very limited data, said Dr. Bryan Greenhouse, an associate professor of medicine at UCSF, in a statement.

Greenhouse said studying the spread in detail will give researchers "crucial data points that we can extrapolate to better predict how to control the virus in similar communities nationwide.

UCSF conducted a similar effort in the coastal town of Bolinas. Of the nearly 1,800 people tested, nobody was positive.

Read more about the study results at UCSF.edu.

This story was updated at noon on May 6, 2020.

Amy Graff is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com.
Less than a week before Mothers Day, the Baker administration lifted restrictions for some non-essential businesses in Massachusetts, allowing them to fulfill online and phone orders as long as they follow a series of guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The state quietly updated its guidance to allow flower shops, book stores, car dealers and other retailers to remain open only for remote fulfillment" as long as they limit the number of employees and engage in no-contact deliveries, among other rules.

The guidance was updated after the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, which represents close to 4,000 retailers, pitched the state advisory board on a phased reopening of the retail industry. Bill Rennie, vice president of the RAM, said the association delivered its presentation on Wednesday and was the first group to do so.

We were very pleased with the update to the essential services guidance that the administration made yesterday. We do think it was a step in the right direction, Rennie told MassLive.

Retail leaders have pushed for weeks to ease restrictions for retailers are losing business to big box stores and online competitors who were deemed essential but still sell non-essential items.

The coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 4,000 people in Massachusetts, prompted the governor to close businesses to the public in March. Rennie said the timing dealt a harsh blow to florists.

This has been a very difficult time of the year for this to hit. With the importance of Easter, Passover, the importance of these holidays and then mothers day right after, this is their busy season, Rennie said.

The updates come five days before Mothers Day, a top holiday for florists.

Theyre going to do their best to safely fulfill all the orders they take, and they feel they can do that with the time that they are allowed, Rennie said.

Gov. Charlie Baker hinted at looser restrictions for florists last week when asked about the holiday.

Well have more to say about that one...in plenty of time for Mothers Day, he said Thursday during his daily briefing at the Massachusetts State House.

Baker has extended the non-essential business closures until at least May 18. Most businesses likely wont reopen on that date, either. That date is also the deadline for the state recovery advisory board to release its report outlining a phased reopening, including which businesses should resume operations and under what rules.

Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito has since said that any phased reopening will likely take weeks, if not months, to roll out safely.

It doesnt mean that the economy across the commonwealth will just reopen," Polito said of May 18. Its just not possible, as everybody knows. Safety is first.

Does this mean these businesses are reopening?

The updated guidance allows flower shops, car dealers and other businesses fulfill remote orders. These businesses cannot open their facilities to the public, and employers can only allow a small number of workers in at a time to package and deliver the orders. They are not allowed into the building to manufacture products.

What employee restrictions remain in place?

A business can allow three, five or seven employees, depending on the size of the building. They must stay 6 feet apart.

Before employees start their shift, they must take their own temperature. Anyone with COVID-19 symptoms, including a temperature over 100 degrees, must not go to work and instead self-isolate.

Inside the facility, employees must wear masks, and their workplaces must be cleaned frequently, according to the guidance. These workers must also have access to hand sanitizer and a place to wash their hands.

These businesses must also allow enough time for sanitization and cleaning.

The guidance advises employers to stagger shifts, including breaks, within a facility to make sure workers dont get too close to each other.

The employers are required to follow other requirements of the states workplace guidelines.

What if an employee is exposed to COVID-19?

Like essential workers, these employees will be required to quarantine for 14 days if they are exposed to a known coronavirus case or someone who presents symptoms.

Employees who are sick must self-isolate and contact their doctors.

How will deliveries work?

These businesses are required to make no-contact deliveries. The employees may leave the items in mailboxes, mailrooms, garages, lobbies or at a clients front doorstep.

What if a business violates these rules?

Any business that is found violating the order must be closed immediately, according to the state guidance. The guidance also urges businesses that are unable to fully follow these rules not to resume operations.

Is curbside pickup allowed?

No. RAM asked the state to allow these retailers taking remote orders to allow curbside pickup, but the updated guidance does not allow it.

Maybe thatll be the next step that we can take, but we do kind of see this gradual, phase-in approach and recognize that thats necessary, Rennie said.

Can I test drive a car?

No. Car dealerships can reopen to fulfill orders only by phone or online. The paperwork should be processed electronically as much as possible, and any paperwork handled in-person should be done while 6 feet apart.

Car transfers, deliveries and returns may be conducted in person by appointment, either at the dealership or at a customers home.

The dealerships mechanics or service department can continue to work as an essential service, under the original guidance.

What about other retailers?

The guidance states that retailers selling furniture, most clothing, jewelry and other specialty items are not essential, but they can fulfill remote orders if they abide by the restrictions.

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The U.S. Treasury Department building in Washington on Oct. 18, 2018. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump Administration Releases Virus Relief Funds to Native American Tribes

The Trump administration has begun to release some of the CCP virus relief funding promised to Native American tribes and approved by Congress last month.

The initial payout will involve 60 percent of the $8 billion allocated to tribes. The remaining money will be distributed based on the total number of people employed by the Indian tribe and any entity owned by tribes, as well as how much further data to be collected related to the amount of higher expenses faced by the tribe in the fight against COVID-19, according to the government.

The payments will be based on population data from U.S. Census figures.

The figures are already used in the distribution of the Indian Housing Block Grant, according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who reached an agreement on how to disperse the money.

Initial payments wont include corporations in Alaska because of pending litigation.

We are pleased to begin making $4.8 billion in critical funds available to Tribal governments in all states, Mnuchin said in a statement. Our approach is based on the fair balancing of tribal needs.

A woman walks before dawn in Toksook Bay, Alaska, on Jan. 20, 2020. (Gregory Bull, File/AP Photo)

Six tribes filed a lawsuit (pdf) last month to halt funds going to Alaska Native Corporations. The regional and village corporations were formed after Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971.

The regional corporations own some subsidiaries operating in other states and foreign countries, according to the complaint. Plaintiffs argued the corporations shouldnt receive federal funds approved for relief during the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill Congress passed allocated $8 billion for making payments to tribal governments.

Some tribes have taken aim at Tara Sweeney, an assistant secretary in the Interior Department, who had been an executive of the Arctic Slope Regional Corp.

Charged with a large public trust, she unfairly sought to divert emergency Tribal Government resources to state-chartered, for-profit corporations owned by Alaska Native shareholders, including her and her family, Harold Frazier, chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, wrote in a letter (pdf) to Mnuchin and Bernhardt arguing for Sweeneys removal.

President Donald Trump speaks as he departs the White House en route to Arizona on May 5, 2020. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

Chuck Hoskin Jr., chief of Cherokee Nation, called efforts to disperse funds to the Alaska Native Corporations a corporate cash grab of funds meant for Indian tribal governments.

The announcement from Mnuchin and Bernhardt came as President Donald Trump traveled to Arizona to meet with Native Americans.

White House adviser Kellyanne Conway told reporters in Washington that Trump planned on signing an executive order addressing the issue of missing and killed indigenous women.

[Were] redoubling our commitment and adding money to allow us to trace and investigate and find these missing and murdered women, Conway said. I think theyve been under-counted for a very long time, and every one of them counts to us.

Trump would also speak about the $8 billion allocation, she said.
Over time they had managed to communicate. Jean-Claude had painted an alphabet on the bathroom floor, and Titina glided over it with grace. It was a dance that looked lovely when she did it, but that, when it was Cheng Shi-Xus turn, he performed awkwardly. She wrote in French, he wrote in English. They understood each other perfectly.

my-name-is-kong-taolin, wrote Titina. i-live-in-da-an-in-taipei.

Cheng Shi-Xu also told her his name and home. Then he spelled out:

letters-on-belly . . . ?!

emmanuel-bought-1-kentuki-for-each-child-to-receive-after-he-died.

Titina told him more family stories. When Cecile and Jean-Claude were little, their father used to buy them guinea pigs, but the animals barely lasted a year living in their cages. Emmanuel knew that his children were grown and soon he wouldnt be with them anymore. He wanted to give them, at the end, a pet that would last them their whole lives.

The echo of the kentukis little motors dancing over the tiles were still resonating in Cheng Shi-Xus head hours later when he fell asleep in his Beijing apartment, thinking over the things theyd said. The next day he googled Kong Taolin. The first character was the same as in Confucius, and although Cheng Shi-Xu didnt really know what that augured, he was sure it could only be a good sign. There were dozens of Kong Taolins in Taipei, but only one of them seemed to live in the Daan neighborhood. She was chubby and had a beautiful smile. He printed the photo and taped it up beside his screen.

Soon Titina gave him her e-mail address. She spelled out the first part of her address on the keyboard of the bathroom, and spent a good while going around in circles, struggling with the obvious fact that there was no @ sign she could point to. Finally she continued her phrase with an at, though it wasnt until she added the .com that Cheng Shi-Xu realized what it was all about. He jotted it down in Beijing, and in Lyon he danced awhile on the alphabet until he managed to write his own. As soon as teatime was over and he and Cecile went back to her apartment, he opened his e-mail and wrote to Kong Taolin. He signed off with a confession: I hate that you have to scratch his feet. She answered: I hate it, too, but in exchange hes teaching me French, two hours every day. Im learning fast. Im going to take a test, and once I have my certificate, Ill move to France to work and leave my husband. So she was married. The news was a blow for Cheng Shi-Xu, though he was grateful for her honesty. She wrote him again: I love it when you visit. Thats what I do all day long: wait for you to ring the bell.

He thought that he could help her with her French, too, since he understood Cecile perfectly, but he didnt mention that. She told him she sang for commercials, and she sent a video of a gum advertisement. There was no image of her, but her voice trilled at the beginning and end, and he thought it was sweet and brilliant, a voice even softer than the one hed imagined for her.

[ Return to the review of Little Eyes. ]

Cheng Shi-Xu searched for Ceciles building on the map. It was easy because he remembered the reference to the plaza and the first black flag, and the place where the familys old silk goods shop had been. It didnt take long to add things up, and he jotted down the address on a piece of paper. He wanted to send Taolin a bouquet of flowers. He thought he would need the siblings last name, and that it shouldnt be difficult to find, although a second later he imagined Jean-Claudes astonishment when he received the flowers. He could add a card that said For Titina, but why send flowers to a kentuki who couldnt hold or smell them? And Jean-Claude wasnt like his Cecile; he wouldnt bother to put them in a vase and leave them on the floor where she could see them. He had to come up with some other kind of gift. What if he kept his plan for flowers, but sent them to her in Daan? The idea made him sit up straighter in his chair; he googled her again to try to find her exact address. No luck. He woke up his kentuki in Lyonin the afternoon he usually had it sleep for a while on the sofas armresttook the ramp down to the floor, and looked for Cecile. He purred softly a couple of times, and she knelt down and patted his head.
A day after a 32-year-old caretaker of a shelter in central Delhis Jhandewalan area tested positive for Covid-19, occupants of four such homes run by an NGO in the area said on Tuesday that all of them should be screened for the infection. According to officials, there are 56 inmates at the shelter whose caretaker tested positive and 206 in the entire cluster.

The NGO working for the homeless wrote to the central Delhi district magistrate and other authorities, urging them to test all caretakers and occupants of all shelters in the city as they share community toilets and other facilities.

Besides the 223 regular shelter homes for the homeless115 of them are portacabins, 11 are buildings and 19 are tentsthe government has converted 256 school buildings into shelters for migrant workers stranded in the city due to the lockdown. According to officials, there are a total 3,725 inmates at all the shelters across the city.

The caretaker was responsible for shelter number 14 and was working day and night to provide food and other forms of assistance to occupants, Sunil Kumar Aledia, a social activist working for the homeless and founder of Centre for Holistic Development, wrote in a letter to the DM.

Aledia said any delay in providing medical care to these homeless persons would put their lives at risk as well as others who may come in contact with them at community toilets, ration shops, pharmacies and other such places.

According to district health officials, on April 27, the caretaker had complained of body ache and was taken to Lady Hardinge Hospital where his sample was sent for testing. On May 1, his test report confirmed him positive but he could go to collect the report only on May 4. He has been transferred to a quarantine facility in AIIMS Jhajjar.

Nidhi Srivastava, DM (central) said, We got to know about the caretaker testing positive late Monday night. We have started screening occupants with symptoms at the cluster of shelters at Jhandewalan. We had been carrying out selective screening earlier also, and will extend the exercise to other shelters in the district.

Several homeless persons at these shelters, including the elderly, are already suffering from ailments such as TB, HIV, as well as withdrawal symptoms from lack of substance abuse amid the lockdown.

The inmates have, on several occasions, complained of fever, sore throat and dehydration besides their long-standing ailments but their Covid tests have not been conducted. Even if one of them has the infection, it can spread to so many others who are housed with them or the staff working in the shelters. The government must understand the seriousness of the issue and test all these people, Aledia said.

Bipin Rai, member, Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), the nodal agency for making arrangements of stay for the homeless in the city, said he is aware of the case and plans to prioritise batches of people for treatment based on where symptoms are being reported. We will start with the areas where the need for testing is higher. The district health teams have been already put on the task, Rai said.

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[May 05, 2020] FOX News Media Announces Partnership With Spotify for Podcast Distribution

FOX News Media has partnered with Spotify (News - Alert), the world's leading audio subscription streaming platform, in a new deal that will distribute FOX News Podcasts on the global audio streaming platform, announced John Sylvester, vice president of FOX News Radio (FNR). Beginning today, FNR's catalogue featuring more than 20 original series, including three new programs slated to debut in May - The Trey Gowdy Podcast, The Proud American Podcast Series and FOX Top 5 - will be made available globally on Spotify, reaching over 286 million monthly users. In making the announcement, Sylvester said, "Throughout these unprecedented times, FOX News Audio has become a destination for listeners to get up to the minute information, whether it's the latest on the current coronavirus pandemic, insights from the 2020 presidential campaign or in-depth interviews with leading newsmakers. We are pleased to partner with Spotify, offering their millions of subscribers worldwide access to our best in class content." Through this new venture, all of FOX News Podcasts' original programs, as well as FNR's three nationally syndicated talk shows, The Brian Kilmeade Show, FOX Across America with Jimmy Failla and The Guy Benson Show, will be available to stream and download on the Spotify app. The podcast lineup includes FOX News Radio's Five Minute Newscast; I'll Tell You What, hosted by The Daily Briefig and The Five's Dana Perino and FOX News politics editor Chris Stirewalt; and The Campaign, hosted by chief political anchor and Special Report's Bret Baier. The FOX News Rundown Podcast: Global Pandemic, a newly launched weekday-evening podcast dedicated to the latest updates surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak anchored by FOX News foreign correspondent Trey Yingst, will also be featured in Spotify's COVID-19 Podcast Guide.



On Tuesday, May 5th, FNR will debut two new podcast programs, The Proud American Podcast Series hosted by combat veteran Johnny Joey Jones and The Trey Gowdy Podcast with former four-term congressman Trey Gowdy. The following week on Tuesday, May 12th, FNR will premiere the FOX Top 5 podcast, bringing together different pairs of FOX News personalities as co-hosts each week to discuss their favorite things, from family traditions to movies. Both The Trey Gowdy Podcast and FOX Top 5 will offer new episodes every Tuesday, while season one of The Proud American Podcast will release new episodes each Monday throughout the month of May. A rapidly growing division of FOX News Media, FOX News Podcasts rank among the top 20 podcast networks in the United States based on average monthly downloads, according to Podtrac. As of March 2020, the platform, which is also available via FoxNewsPodcasts.com, saw a 27% increase in downloads from the prior month and 56% growth year over year.

FOX News Media operates the FOX News Channel (FNC), FOX Business Network (FBN), FOX News Digital, FOX News Audio and the direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service FOX Nation. A top five-cable network, FNC has been the most watched television news channel for more than 18 consecutive years, while FBN currently ranks among the top business channels on cable. Owned by FOX Corporation, FOX News Media reaches 200 million people each month. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005889/en/

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Jaish-e-Mohammed, the UN designated terror group that targets Jammu and Kashmir, has readied 400 terrorists at its training camps in Afghanistan who have been deployed with Taliban units before they are sent to Kashmir valley, people familiar with the development told Hindustan Times.

As first reported by Hindustan Times, Afghan forces had discovered one of Jaishs terror camps quite by chance last month when they were out on a counter-terrorist mission on April 12. Initial interrogation of the terrorists arrested in this operation, however, have led Indian security agencies to conclude that there were half-a-dozen more camps.

Counter-terror officials in Delhi and Kabul said the Jaish-e-Mohammed had already readied 400 fighters at these camps set up after the Taliban signed the 29 February pact with the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad.

The pact, which requires the Afghan forces and the Taliban to release prisoners from the other side, paves the way for the US and other foreign forces to quit Afghanistan.

Jaish cadres have been deployed with Taliban units in areas between Khost to Jalalabad in east Afghanistan and also in areas close to the Pakistan border in Kandahar province, a counter terror official in Kabul confirmed.

Officials said the synergy between the Taliban and the Jaish-e-Mohammed - some intel reports say the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba have also sent its cadres for training to the Jaish camps - is being anchored by Pakistans Inter Services Intelligence.

Zerar, one of the Jaish operatives arrested by the Afghan forces in follow-up action, has told interrogators that the training base busted by the forces were being trained, equipped and supported by Pakistan military personnel. Many of them, he said, had escaped in the fire cover provided by Pakistan military personnel to help them escape. Zerar, identified as a resident of Pakistan capital Islamabad, was among them. He was arrested three days later, on April 15.

The terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar is being run by his younger brother Mufti Abdul Rauf Asghar since Masood Azhar, who was designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations last year, has been terminally ill.

Diplomats in Kabul say Masood Azhars elder brother, Ibrahim Azhar, has been spotted in Ghazni city in central Afghanistan, possibly in context of the effort to deepen ties with the Taliban.

The training camps remain under overall charge of Mufti Asghar Kashmiri, commander of Jaishs Kashmir operations who has been spotted around terrorist launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The Afghan war veteran Mufti Asghar Kashmiri, who was once with the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, oversees the operational aspects of the infiltration from Leepa valley that leads to Kupwara in north Kashmir and has been the favoured route for terrorists over the last few weeks.

In the two-day operation that gave security officials an insight into the extent of Jaish presence in Afghanistan, Afghan security officials had targeted a Jaish-e-Mohammed base set up in coordination with Taliban in the Ghorak-e-Mohmand area of Momand Dara, a district in the east of Nangarhar Province near the Durand Line across Torkham was demolished. At least 14 Jaish cadres were killed and a weapons depot destroyed.

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The Midland City Council nominations deadline was extended to May 8, as part of a court order that went into effect April 20. The previous deadline was April 21.

The court order, handed down by Judge Terrence Berg of with U.S. District Court for Eastern Michigan, also made it so that just half of the required number of signatures is acceptable at this time. So, while council nominations typically require at least 20 signatures, now, only 10 are needed.

This applies to those who have already filed a statement of organization under the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, or established a candidate committee under the Michigan Campaign Finance Law, prior to March 10.

The reasons for the change, as stated in the court order, are due to the hardships placed on candidates by the coronavirus pandemic and the shelter orders. The case was raised when Republican U.S. House candidate Eric Esshaki filed a lawsuit against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and the director of Michigans elections bureau, claiming the stay-at-home order was making it difficult to collect signatures without being able to canvas neighborhoods and go door-to-door.

The reality on the ground for plaintiff and other candidates is that state action has pulled the rug out from under their ability to collect signatures, Berg stated in the order. Since March 23, 2020, traditional door-to-door signature collecting has become a misdemeanor offense; malls, churches and schools and other public venues where signatures might be gathered have been shuttered, and even the ability to rely on the mail to gather signatures is uncertain  if not prohibitively expensive.

However, a few nominations for Midland City Council have already been submitted. The current list is as follows:

Ward 1: Pam Hall (incumbent) and Jeremy Rodgers

Ward 2: Maureen Donker

Ward 3: Steven Arnosky (incumbent) and Mathew Rapanos

Ward 4: Diane Brown Wilhelm

Ward 5: Marty A. Wazbinski

Rodgers is currently a member of the Midland Planning Commission and ran for the Ward 1 council position last term against Hall, who currently holds the position.

Matthew Rapanos is a realtor with Century 21 and is challenging incumbent Steve Arnosky for the Ward 3 council position.

Midland is divided into five districts, called wards, which elect a city council member every two years. To qualify as a council candidate, those running must be a registered voter in the City of Midland, a resident of the City of Midland for at least one year immediately prior to the date of the election, and a resident of the ward from which the candidate seeks to be elected prior to the date of election.

Candidates typically must file a nominating petition containing at least 20, but not more than 40, valid signatures of registered voters from the ward theyre in. They must also complete an Affidavit of Identity and Receipt of Filing. Completed nominating petitions and Affidavit of Identity must be returned to the City Clerk's Office by 5 p.m. on May 8, according to the court order.

City Clerk Erica Armstrong said she is available by appointment for those who wish to file nomination paperwork, as City Hall is currently closed.

In addition, a Statement of Organization form must also be completed at the Midland County Clerk's Office, located at 220 W. Ellsworth St.

If three or more nominating petitions are received for any one ward, those candidates' names will appear on the primary election ballot on Tuesday, Aug. 4, for that ward only. The two persons receiving the highest number of votes cast in the August Primary Election will be placed on the Nov. 3 ballot for their ward. The person receiving the highest number of votes in the November election will be declared council member for that ward.

Members of the 2020-22 Midland City Council will be sworn into office on Monday, Nov. 9, for a two-year term.
As it shifts its e-commerce operations to warehouses in New Jersey and California, Pitney Bowes is closing a facility in York County

The company filed a WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) notice with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.

Pitney Bowes will lay off 59 employees at its facility at 305 Butterfly Commons Drive in Springettsbury Township when the facility closes.

The planned closure, which will likely take place in June, is not related to COVID-19 as the plans were in place long before the pandemic, according to Brett Cody, director of communications, commerce services at Pitney Bowes.

As Pitney Bowes grows our Global Ecommerce business, we constantly look for ways to optimize our logistics and transportation network to better serve our clients and position the company for long-term growth," Cody said in an e-mail. In 2019, we signed leases on large warehouses in Monroe, New Jersey and Bloomington, California with the intention of making them our Flagship Ecommerce Operating Centers in those regions. Over the coming weeks and months, we are consolidating client volumes from other locations, including York, into these new facilities, which are designed to help speed deliveries, create operational efficiencies and strategically anchor future expansion. We are providing all employees with time and support to help them find their next job and, wherever possible, offering employment with Pitney Bowes at a nearby facility.

READ MORE:

The company provides e-commerce, financing, shipping and mailing services.

The WARN Act is federal legislation that offers protection to workers, their families and communities by requiring employers to provide notice 60 days in advance of a covered-business closing and covered-business mass layoff. The company filed the notice with the state on March 25.

Pitney Bowes is based in Connecticut. The company will continue to have a presence in Pennsylvania. Pitney Bowes is the largest workshare partner of the United States Postal Service, according to Cody and he says that the company will continue to process first class mail on behalf of its clients in operating centers in the Levittown and Reading areas.

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Shafiqul Islam Kajol, a photojournalist who had been missing for nearly two months, was arrested on World Press Freedom Day, May 3, by Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) who claim that he was found illegally trespassing the border from India. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the arrest and urges authorities to release him immediately.

Kajol, a photographer and editor of Pakkhakal Shafiqul magazine, had reportedly gone missing on March 10, a day after he was charged under the Digital Security Act (DSA), along with 31 other journalists, for allegedly publishing false information.

The journalists were charged under the DSA after being sued by a ruling party lawmaker in connection with an article published on March 2, as previously reported by the IFJ.

According to Dhaka Tribune, Kajol was granted bail by a court in Jessore City, for trespassing charges. But he remained in detention under the Criminal Procedure Code that enables police to interrogate Kajol and keep him in custody without a warrant. Police had allegedly cited his former charges under the DSA. Kajol was taken to Jessore central jail, where he has been kept in a separate ward.

The South Asia Press Freedom Report 2019-20 published by the IFJ, refers to the DSA as a draconian law, stating that nearly 1,000 cases have been filed under the DSA, since its enactment in 2018. The report further states that Odhikar, a human rights organisation had documented nearly 34 incidents of suspected enforced disappearances in the year. Presently, the circumstances around Kajols disappearance remains unclear.

IFJ said: The authorities should immediately release Shafiqul Islam Kajol from detention and the IFJ urges authorities to drop all charges against him. The draconian DSA has created an atmosphere of fear among journalists in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh government seeks to criminalise journalism which is a grave violation of basic journalists rights."
A Singapore minister sent a video message in Tamil and Bengali to the migrant workers from India to assuage their concerns over the ongoing health crisis. Minister for Communications and Information S. Iswaran explained them, in Tamil, the need for testing the work permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories.

Iswaran reportedly said in the video message, sent to workers via WhatsApp, that the government has undertaken numerous efforts to enhance the quality of food and facilities within their dormitories. The message was also dubbed in Bengali and was sent on May 5, the first day of extended lockdown measures.

Singapore has reported nearly 20,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus with 18 deaths due to the infection. Ministry of Health announced that an additional 632 cases of COVID-19 have been detected in Singapore out of which vast majority are Work Permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories. The ministry added that only nine cases are related to Singaporeans and permanent residents.

According to media reports, Iswaran promised the workers that the government will provide them and their friends all the necessary quality medical care that too fully paid. He also told the workers that the government had approached Indian celebrities including Rajnikanth and Sachin Tendulkar to encourage the workers with their message.

Read: Singapore Reports 573 New Coronavirus Cases, Total Infections Reaches 18,778: Health Ministry

More cases in dorms

The ministry had said in a statement that they continue to detect many more cases amongst Work Permit holders residing in dormitories, including in factory-converted dormitories, because of extensive testing in these premises. As of May 4, more than 5 per cent of the migrant workers living in dormitories have tested positive for the coronavirus, among whom many are Indian nationals.

Read: Nearly 4,800 Indians Are COVID-19 Positive But With Mild Conditions In Singapore: Envoy

Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had talked to Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong and exchanged views on the evolving situation of coronavirus pandemic. Taking to Twitter, PM Modi said that he thanked Hsien Loong for the support extended by Singapore to Indian citizens during the health crisis.

Read: Singapore Reports 657 New Cases Of Coronavirus; Total Number Rises To 18,205

Read: Penguins Roam Around Freely At Singapore Zoo Amid Coronavirus Lockdown; Watch

(Image: AP)
State education leaders are fond of saying they represent strong local control states where school board members and other district officials have significant power. But the phrase has an especially timely meaning for Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen, a Republican who was elected in 2016.

Thats because Montana districts shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic can decide to resume in-person classes and other activities on May 7, under an order last month from Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, which made Montana the first state under a shutdown to give schools a specific calendar day for an optional reopening.

In one case a decision to reopen is on an even smaller scale that the district: A small elementary school in the Willow Creek, Mont., district has said it will reopen for in-person classes on May 7; the school will be among the first in the U.S. to reopen after shutting down , the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

So how is Arntzen, a former teacher and Montana state lawmaker, thinking about that reopening day, and what is she talking to school districts about?

In an interview with Education Week, the state superintendent said shes trying to give school district officials relevant advice: Get to know county health department officials you may not have relationships with yet. Think about how you can adapt all aspects of your operations to what you and your parents want. Link arms with the important education groups, from unions to state superintendents groups. And make sure core messages about what resources are available and whats important remain consistent.

Its so important that there is a unified voice in a pandemic, Arntzen said. She also is putting together a Montana Learn task force designed to help schools think through when and how to reopen.

But Arntzen said she is not issuing any blanket recommendations or leaning on districts to make any particular decision, and she doesnt believe a pandemic can be regulated by federal or state officials. She doesnt plan to send state observers to monitor or check in on schools that may reopen on May 7.



How they open schools and how learning takes place is up to them, she said.

Its Not Make-Up Learning

There hasnt been a rush of Montana districts looking to reopen May 7. And a recent, very unscientific online poll posted by her office found the vast majority of respondents were against the reopening of school buildings, even though the impact of the virus on the state has been relatively small in terms of confirmed cases and deaths.

The state has issued guidance on how to conduct activities like graduation , as well as considerations for schools when they reopen on issues such as social distancing, limits on class sizes, and hygiene.



Arntzen didnt directly criticize Bullocks initial order to close schools, but did say her office needed clarification from the governor about what it meant exacly. Otherwise, one general message Arntzen has is that while learning conditions are challenging across Montana districts, many of which are small and rural, Learning is still going to continue. And its not make-up learning. ... You dont have to have a student sitting in a chair.

In that vein, shes also keen to hold up individual instances of where districts are being creative on several fronts. For example, one district, she said, held a virtual track meet. Another will hold a graduation ceremony outside for 16 graduating seniors. Shes also interested to see what districts give individual parents the option of continuing remote learning or sending their children to school buildings

And she says shes been getting ideas from neighboring states like Wyoming and Idahowhere a private school just reopened about how, over the long term, the state should rethink things like its accountability system. Like all states, Montana received a waiver from giving federally mandated exams this spring, but Arntzen wouldnt be unhappy if those tests never had to come back.

Acountability for local schools should not be governed by Congress, nor should it be mandated through an assessment, she told me; thats a job for local school boards. But she does think federal lawmakers should help out states like hers by providing, for example, more resources to help students connect to the internet through the E-Rate program.

One of the major longer-term concerns that the pandemic has underscored is the teaching workforce in Montana. Arntzen was preoccupied with having enough teachers, and she is thinking that a not-insignificant number of teachers might decide to move on from the profession in the next several months.

And with recent federal coronavirus aid money for schools, which Arntzen said is larger for Montana than the states typical allotment of Title I money in a given year, shes thinking about how it could be put to use for a variety of needs, from special education to student nutrition.

But again and again, Arntzen returned to the idea that shes there to help districts, not tell them what to do, even during the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus.

We dont put the state first. We put local control first, she said.

Photo: Elsie Arntzen, who was elected Montana superintendent for public instruction 2016, speaks at a public forum in 2014 in Kalispell, Mont. (Patrick Cote/Daily Inter Lake)

Follow us on Twitter @PoliticsK12 . And follow the Politics K-12 reporters @EvieBlad @Daarel and @AndrewUjifusa .
Aer Lingus are to put on additional flights on the busy Belfast-London Heathrow service after pictures emerged of an almost full flight yesterday.

Photos were shared from inside the cabin of an Aer Lingus flight travelling from Belfast where no apparent evidence of social distancing measures could be seen.

Aer Lingus has since conducted a review in consultation with Belfast City Airport and have taken the decision to implement several measures.

This was the @AerLingus flight from @BELFASTCITY_AIR to @londonheathrow this morning at 8:45. No social distancing taking place - one passenger told me they werent given any advice on how to keep themselves safe. More on @BBCevex next @taramillstv @NewsDeclan pic.twitter.com/eeAfcGf23O  Kelly Bonner (@KellyBonner) May 4, 2020

The airline said that all customers due to travel on the Belfast-London Heathrow service have been contacted and have been advised to allow additional time at the airport before their flight.

"The check-in process will take longer as an increased number of bags will be checked into the hold of the aircraft," a statement from the airline said.

"In addition there will be changes to the boarding procedure and there will be no inflight service provided on board."

Due to the high demand on the route, additional flight frequency on each day of operation has been introduced.

The two services will depart at 8.45am and 9.45am on each day of operation.

It is hoped that additional flights will see a reduction in the "unexpectedly high loads" on the flight.

"The Belfast  London Heathrow service is provided to maintain a vital air link between Belfast and London and to allow critical workers to travel where required," Aer Lingus said.

"The safety and security of Aer Lingus customers and crew is our number one priority, and these process changes are being implemented as a matter of urgency.

This afternoon, Stormonts health minister Robin Swann said he was shocked to see the images of the busy flight.

"It was as if they were living in a time before Covid-19, completely oblivious of the regulations and social distancing and guidance that have been enunciated and published by our executive here and the government in Westminster," Mr Swann said.
Kathmandu, May 5

Seventeen Nepali workers based in Sharjah of the United Arab Emirates gathered at the Nepali Embassy in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday demanding they be repatriated to Nepal at the earliest.

The workers said their employer, Emirates Cab, did not give 30 Nepali workers a promised salary since last year. After their complaint was not addressed for six months, the workers had begun procedures to come back to the country. Whereas 10 of the 30 made to come back, 20 are still stranded without any work or pay after Nepal suspended international flights to control the coronavirus outbreak last month.

Of the 20, 17 went to the embassy with their luggage demanding they be repatriated as soon as possible.

They told the embassy officials that some Nepalis in the UAE had been giving them shelter for the past month, but the agreed period was over now.

Meanwhile, the embassy says it has arranged a temporary shelter for them in coordination with the Non-resident Nepalis Association, assuring they would be taken back home as soon as the lockdown in Nepal was over.
[May 05, 2020] First Responder Technologies Appoints Philip Murphy as Vice-President of Government Affairs /NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES/ VANCOUVER, May 5, 2020 /CNW/ - First Responder Technologies Inc. ("First Responder" or the "Company") (CSE: WPN | FWB: 3WK) a developer of WiFi-based technologies to detect and deter mass shooting and terror attacks involving concealed weapons, is pleased to announce the appointment of Philip Murphy to the position of Vice-President of Government Affairs. Mr. Murphy will work in-house to supplement the work of McMillan Vantage, the Company's outsourced governmental affairs team. Mr. Murphy brings three decades of experience in Canadian government and politics, including most notably his time spent as Chief of Staff to the Rt. Hon Stephen Harper, PC, during the period Mr. Harper served as Canada's leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. Following his time in politics, Mr. Murphy spent almost a decade as an executive at MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd., engaging government and the private sector in a joint government affairs and business development role. Mr. Murphy brings this experience to a similar role at First Responder, where his focus will be spent engaging the Canadian security, defence and intelligence communities on behalf of the Company. "In addition to the excellent work that Mark Resnick and the team at McMillan Vantage are undertaking on behalf of the Company, Mr. Murphy brings to the team a deep understanding of government operations and procurement. With the recovery phase of Canada's response to the Covid-19 pandemic close at hand, Mr. Murphy's added expertise will help prepare the Company to assist Canadian governments as hey move to continue to mitigate the worst effects of the pandemic, while ensuring public safety and security," said Robert Delamar, the Company's CEO. Mr. Murphy joins a talented advisory team, assisting the Company's outreach to the Canadian public safety sector. No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release. The securities of the Company have not been, nor will they be, registered under the 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 or for the account or benefit of any person in the United States, absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any common shares in the United States, or in any other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. On behalf of the Board of Directors, "Robert F. Delamar" Robert F. Delamar, CEO First Responder Technologies Inc.

915 - 700 West Pender Street

Vancouver, BC. V6C 1G8

info@firstrespondertech.com

+1-604-227-9821 About First Responder Technologies Inc. First Responder Technologies Inc. (the "Company") is a technology development company that commercializes academic and internally developed intellectual property for use in the public safety market. The Company is developing a WiFi-based technology, based in part, on academic research licensed from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey ("Rutgers") that can be used to detect concealed weapons. The Company's threat detection technology line of business was created to capture a significant portion of the global weapons detection systems market, and in particular, the global perimeter security detection market. In the Company's view, WiFi-based threat detection technology may be utilized by a wide range of facilities, including schools, places of worship, shopping centres and theatres, to not only make their premises secure, but also reduce their cost of security, from the interior of a facility to the perimeter. For more information visit: www.firstrespondertech.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "intend", "should", and similar expressions. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in this forward-looking information as a result of regulatory decisions, competitive factors in the industries in which the Company operates, prevailing economic conditions, changes to the Company's strategic growth plans, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking information should not be unduly relied upon. Any forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the Company's expectations as of the date hereof, and is subject to change after such date. 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, except as required by applicable securities legislation. 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. SOURCE First Responder Technologies Inc.

[ Back To www.mobilitytechzone.com\LTE's Homepage ]
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After more than six weeks of ordering Californians to stay at home, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the state is partially reopening for business. 'Based off our progress, we'll begin to gradually move into Stage 2 this Friday,' Newsom said at his daily news conference. 'Some sectors where there's a lower risk of transmission will be able to adapt and re-open with modifications,' he added. This will include some businesses in retail and manufacturing/logistics sectors. Book, clothing, toy and sporting goods stores, as well as music shops and florists will be allowed to open. Lock down of malls, offices or sit-down service in restaurants will continue. On Monday, Governor Newsom and California Public Health Director Dr. Sonia Y. Angell issued the states Reopening Roadmap Report Card that shows key metrics are on-schedule. 'Based on this, we will begin to gradually move into Stage 2. Lower Risk Workplaces starting this Friday,' the Governor said on Twitter. Confirmed cases of COVID19 in California have risen to 56135. In a note of caution, Newsom said, 'CA is flattening the curve--but we must continue to take this seriously and allow our reopening to be guided by data and science'. Meanwhile, possible Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden demanded that essential workers on the front lines of the cornoavirus crisis deserve premium pay, emergency paid sick leave, and protections that keep them safe. 'Make no mistake: We can emerge from this crisis a stronger, better, and fairer nation. It's within our power - we just need a president and an administration who are up for the task,' the former vice president said on Twitter. 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.
WASHINGTON - A massive wave of coronavirus infections is blasting through the world's largest prison population in the United States, even as officials begin opening up their economies, saying the disease has plateaued.

One prison in Marion, Ohio, has become the most intensely infected institution across the country, with more than 80 percent of its nearly 2,500 inmates, and 175 staff on top of that, testing positive for COVID-19.

Coronavirus deaths are on the increase in jails and penitentiaries across the country, with officials having few options -- they are unable to enforce adequate distancing in crowded cells, and they are facing shortages of medical personnel and personal protective gear everywhere.

The threat to the 2.3 million-strong US prison population was seen last week in the death of Andrea Circle Bear, a 30-year-old Native American woman from South Dakota.

Pregnant when she was placed in a Texas federal prison in March on drug charges, she soon became sick with the disease and was placed on a ventilator and gave birth by C-section.

She remained on the ventilator and died weeks later.

'Ticking time bomb'

Riots over inadequate protection and slow responses by prison authorities have already taken place in prisons in Washington state and Kansas.

COVID-19 outbreaks among prison officers, meanwhile, have made the institutions even harder to manage.

At the understaffed, undersupplied Lansing Correctional Facility in Kansas on Thursday, 15-year prison guard David Carter resigned, saying it was better to go without pay than risk his health and that of his family.

"I can no longer be associated with a facility that is a ticking time bomb," he said in a resignation letter.

Low priority

The Marion prison outbreak is believed only the tip of the iceberg.

Because of the hodge-podge of prison management -- federal, state, and local authorities have their own, and many are run by for-profit private companies -- testing and reporting has been haphazard.

Covid Prison Data, a group of university criminal justice and data experts, says that based on public reports, 13,436 inmates and 5,312 corrections staff nationwide have tested positive for the coronavirus.

But many states, and the federal penitentiary system, have done only a small amount of testing. Five of the 50 states don't even report data.

Prisons occupied eight spaces on The New York Times' compilation of the top 10 infected institutions, with the Marion Correctional Institution at the top.

The reasons are clear: Prison populations are more dense and harder to separate than nursing homes and cruise ships, two institutions hit hardest by the disease.

They also operate at lower levels of hygiene, and a large number of inmates have preexisting conditions.

And, until now, they have been a low priority for officials battling the pandemic.

'No option to close prisons'

Numbers released this past week show the depth of the problem.

The federal Bureau of Prisons, which has 152,000 inmates and 36,000 staff, found outbreaks in more than half of its 122 facilities.

Fewer than 3,000 tests have been administered, however, with 1,842 prisoners and 343 staff testing positive, and 36 inmate deaths.

On Thursday alone the bureau reported three deaths at the low-security Terminal Island prison near Los Angeles, where some 60 percent of the roughly 1,050 inmate population has registered positive.

Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal complained of a shortage of testing supplies and said that quarantining remains difficult.

"We don't have the option to close our doors or pick who or when someone is sent to our custody," he said on Wednesday.

'It's hell'

The situation is even less clear in state prisons, which have the bulk of the country's inmate population.

Some states like Ohio are now moving quickly with testing and are releasing data. Others are doing little.

One indicator of the potential extent of the problem: CoreCivic, a private company which operates dozens of prisons nationwide, tested all the 2,725 inmates and staff at its Trousdale Turner facility in Tennessee, and found 1,299 inmates and 50 staff positive, nearly all without symptoms.

Prison advocacy groups say that little has been done at the state and federal level to release prisoners who are nonviolent or whose terms were near completion, which could lessen their danger of infection and create more space in the facilities.

Out of more than 10,000 in Kansas prisons, "Only six inmates have been released. Six," said public defender Heather Cessna.

Brian Miller, an officer at the Marion prison, warned that the situation would only worsen.

Miller -- struggling to speak as he recovers from his own coronavirus bout -- told a conference call that, with so many out sick, they do not have enough staff to clean the facility and manage the inmates.

The prisons are only offering hazard pay of an extra $1.85 an hour -- "less than Starbucks," he noted.

"Things are beyond breaking point at this facility," he said. "Right now it's hell."
When Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his New Zealand counterpart, Jacinda Ardern, joined each other in Tuesday's meeting of our national cabinet, they would have been entitled to exchange cautious congratulations.

Few of us could have imagined weeks ago that the progress of COVID-19 through the two countries' populations would have been so effectively arrested, and many countries around the world would have paid handsomely to find themselves in the position we occupy now.

As optimism has grown, earlier comments by Ms Ardern's deputy, Winston Peters, about the possibility of a trans-Tasman "bubble" for holidaymakers have attracted wide attention.

Australians and New Zealanders have always been significant contributors to each other's visitor numbers; at a time of severe economic privation for the tourism industry and the airlines that serve it, they could become a lifeline.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern joined the national cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Credit:Getty

On Tuesday, Mr Morrison cautioned that the "safe travel zone" was still some time away and that it would not precede the easing of curbs on interstate travel.

As he put it, once Australians are able to travel from Melbourne to Cairns, it will be possible to consider them travelling to Auckland or Christchurch.

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But while the Prime Minister is not alone in wanting to come out from "under the doona", any decision to visit our "family" across the ditch needs to come with the same restrictions attached that have made our response to the pandemic such a success so far.

Ms Ardern is right to say that 14-day quarantine at both ends of the trip would kill the proposal, but testing and movement protocols at airports will be essential. New Zealand is reportedly only days away from introducing its own COVID-19 contact-tracing app, which means any tourism in either direction could and perhaps should be made conditional on download.

Read the rest of the editorial here.
Hillary Clinton is setting out on the virtual campaign trail for former Vice President Joe Biden, and will host her first fundraiser as an official surrogate for the presumed Democratic nominee later this month.

Clinton and Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez are hosting an hour-long 'virtual conversation' on Zoom May 19, where the top tickets go for $100,000.

'Biden for President and the Democratic National Committee cordially invite you to a a (sic) virtual conversation with Hillary Rodham Clinton and DNC Chair Tom Perez,' the invite reads, with a typo.

The pricey event's cheapest tickets go for $2,800, but the invite indicates there is a 'limited availability' for this option. Other contribution levels are 'guest' for $5,600-per-head, 'friends' give $15,600, 'supporter' tickets go for $41,100, 'champions' for $50,000 and 'hosts' are at the top and contribute $100,000.

Hillary Clinton will host a 'virtual conversation' over Zoom to raise money for Joe Biden's campaign  and top tickets for the event are going for $100,000 per person. Last month, Clinton endorsed the presumed Democratic nominee

'Biden for President and the Democratic National Committee cordially invite you to a a (sic) virtual conversation with Hillary Rodham Clinton and DNC Chair Tom Perez,' the invite reads, with a typo

Many times during presidential campaigns, prices like this for in-person events include different levels of accessibility to the candidate or surrogate at the event  but it's unclear by the invitation how the prices differentiate with a virtual conversation over Zoom.

Zoom is being used by several companies and individuals to host multi-person events since stay-at-home orders were implemented.

Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee, threw her support behind Biden last month, when the two appeared in a split-screen live-streamed endorsement video.

Perez will also appear at the Zoom dinner.

Biden became the presumed Democratic nominee in early April, when his remaining primary competition, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, suspended his campaign.

Sanders subsequently joined Biden on a live-streamed video call where he endorsed the candidate  despite their glaring differences considering Biden is an establishment Democrat and Sanders a progressive who touted Democratic socialist ideas during both his 2016 and 2020 campaigns.

Clinton has not yet publicly addressed the allegation that Biden sexually assaulted one of his congressional staffers in 1993  an accusation that the candidate finally responded to more than a month after it was made public.

The virtual event will include an appearance from Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez

Tara Reade went public last month in a podcast interview, claiming Biden pushed her up against his Capitol Hill office wall and penetrated her with his fingers while she was a staffer in his Delaware Senate office.

Reade responded Tuesday to Clinton supporting Biden, even after she publicly shared that he sexually assaulted her.

'I voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. I voted for her in the primary. I'm a lifelong Democrat,' Reade told FoxNews.com. 'But yet, what I see now is someone enabling a sexual predator and it was my former boss, Joe Biden, who raped me.'

Perez responded on Sunday, comparing the accusations to the Clinton email scandal  dismissing it as just another move to try to derail the Democratic nominee.

'This is like the Hillary emails, because there was nothing there,' Perez told ABC News' This Week.

He was referring to criticism of the former secretary of state's use of a private email server during her time at the State Department under President Barack Obama.
Glamour Salon in downtown Salem reopened for business Tuesday morning  one client at a time  in defiance of Gov. Kate Brown's order that such businesses must remain closed to avoid making the COVID-19 pandemic worse.

About 40 protesters waiving signs and American flags showed up at 195 Liberty St. SE to show their support for owner Lindsey Graham, who could face significant fines from the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division.

More than a thousand Reopen Oregon protesters held a rally at the state Capitol on Saturday.

Brown said a week ago that some parts of Oregon, primarily rural, could start opening up as early as May 15.

Yet a strong majority of Oregonians support stay-at-home measures to quell the spread of the new coronavirus.

In a statewide survey of 900 Oregonians conducted April 17-21, the public opinion firm DHM Research, partnering with the Oregon Values and Beliefs Center  both nonpartisan  found that 82 percent of Oregonians either strongly or somewhat supported the stay at home order.

Those who opposed it made up 16 percent of respondents, while another 2 percent said they didnt know if they supported it.

Forty percent of Oregon households have a member who has lost a job or had their hours cut due to COVID-19, the survey found. More than 360,000 Oregonians have filed initial claims for unemployment benefits since mid-March, according to the states employment agency.

As of Monday, the Oregon Health Authority had confirmed 109 deaths around the state from the new coronavirus with 2,759 confirmed or presumptive cases.
Thousands of travellers left out of pocket due to the coronavirus pandemic have been encouraged to join a class action against airlines and travel agents refusing to offer full refunds.

The Australian Government banned all non-essential overseas travel to curb the spread of COVID-19 in March and customers were forced to cancel their bookings.

But travellers have been left disappointed by the customer service of some agents and airlines, who have refused to offer refunds despite the government advice against holidays.

An investigation by legal firm Slater and Gordon found that tens of thousands of Australians are being 'shortchanged' by major airlines, travel agents and tour companies due to the health crisis disrupting travel plans.

Thousands of travellers left out of pocket due to the coronavirus pandemic have been encouraged to join a class action against airlines and travel agents refusing to offer full refunds. Pictured: Passengers from a South African Airways flight are seen arriving at Perth International airport in April

The class action law firm believes that travel providers, like Qantas and Jetstar, may have breached legal obligations by putting in place travel voucher schemes.

Practice Group Leader Andrew Paull said impacted travellers may be able to participate in a class action against their travel providers.

'We understand that everyone is doing it tough at present, including the major airlines and travel companies, but that doesn't give them an excuse to take advantage of their customers,' he said.

'Nor is it acceptable for Qantas shareholders to treat the money it owes to ordinary Australians like its own.'

Mr Paull said they have heard from holidaymakers who have lost thousands of dollars due to the pandemic and they have been given travel vouchers which they may not be able to use.

Other customers who cancelled flights before the airline were hit by heavy cancellation fees.

An investigation by legal firm Slater and Gordon found that tens of thousands of Australians are being 'shortchanged' by major airlines, travel agents and tour companies due to the health crisis disrupting travel plans. Pictured: Qantas terminal at Adelaide Airport

'We believe cash refunds should be returned to customers, who almost certainly need that money right now, rather than in bank accounts gathering interest for airline shareholders,' he said.

'We call on businesses like Qantas and Jetstar to do the right thing and honour their obligations to their customers.

'If they won't do so, then it's only reasonable for those customers to look at recovering their money through a class action.'

In a Qantas market update on Tuesday, the airline said travel credit conditions are being 'further improved' following feedback.

'Customers booked on Qantas and Jetstar flights disrupted by the coronavirus crisis will be able to split travel credits across multiple future bookings,' the update said.

'This is on top of an extended period of time to use the credit. Full details are available on Qantas.com and Jetstar.com.

The class action law firm believes that travel providers, like Qantas and Jetstar, may have breached legal obligations by putting in place travel voucher schemes. Pictured: Travellers return from Cambodia for two-week isolation in Australia

'Customers with bookings made through travel agents or third party websites (e.g. Webjet, Booking.com) will need to contact them directly.'

When contacted by Daily Mail Australia, Qantas said they are automatically giving travellers impacted by the disruptions credit vouchers, as well as providing refunds.

'Qantas is automatically providing credit vouchers to customers who have had their flights cancelled but if customers would prefer a full cash refund we are providing it,' the spokesperson said.

'We have extended the length of time that vouchers can be used which is now until the end of 2021.'

Brian Doyle, 76, and wife Carol, 68, were supposed to depart for a 21-day tour to Spain, Portugal and Morocco on March 21, The Herald Sun reported.

The couple, who booked through Inspiring Vacations, paid $10,400 for their holiday but were forced to stay home during the pandemic.

Pictured: Social distancing guidelines at Perth Airport during the coronavirus pandemic

The holidaymakers are asking for a full refund but have been offered 20 per cent back or a travel credit valid until December 31, 2021.

'I'm 76 now, by the time the end of next year comes around I'll be 78 and my health possibly won't be in the best condition to enable me to just fly around the world,' Mr Doyle said.

'It's out last hurrah to go overseas given our age, it's pure and simple we want a full refund.'

Managing director of Inspiring Vacations Paul Ryan said the travel company is treating 'valued customers consistently and fairly in line with the ACCC's COVID-19 guidance.'

The ACCC said they are experiencing a high volume of enquiries about travel and event cancellations due to COVID-19.

They have a section on their website dedicated to coronavirus information for consumers.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5

By Nargiz Ismayilova - Trend:

Azerbaijans State Oil Company (SOCAR) has proposed the creation of a regional organization Caspian Environmental Protection Initiative (CEPI) as part of the Environmental Protection Initiative in the Caspian region, Trend reports citing SOCAR.

The main objectives of this initiative are to create a joint research platform for international oil companies operating in the region in order to protect the environment and join forces to achieve this goal, the company said.

The organization shall aim to prevent the emission of harmful substances into the environment by developing and implementing joint preventive measures to combat climate change that threaten the environmental sustainability of the Caspian region. The global oil and gas companies operating in Azerbaijan such as BP Azerbaijan, Equinor Absheron AS and Total E & P Absheron B.V., praised the initiative and joined the call for a new organization.

In order to present CEPI and discuss upcoming issues, an online meeting with the participation of Vice President on Ecology at SOCAR Rafiga Huseynzadeh, Vice President for Communications, External Affairs, Strategy & AGT Region at BP Azerbaijan Bakhtiyar Aslanbeyli, Equinor manager for Azerbaijan Fawad Guraishi and Executive Director of Total E&P Absheron B.V. Regis Agut, was held on May 4, the report said.

At the meeting, Rafiga Huseynzadeh informed the participants about the goals and objectives of the CEPI organization, noting that the organizations mission is to mobilize oil and gas companies operating in the Caspian region in the fight against environmental and economic threats associated with climate change, and aims to take advanced measures in this direction.

The main objective is to prevent actions that threaten environmental sustainability in the Caspian region. The companies will share their knowledge and experience in the field of environmental protection, conduct joint research and coordinate environmental activities. In the future, the participation of other international companies and organizations in the activities of CEPI is expected, the report said.

The participants emphasized the importance of the initiative in the field of environmental protection, expressed confidence that CEPI will make a valuable contribution to the implementation of large-scale state programs in this direction in Azerbaijan and discussed the steps that need to be taken within the organization.

During the meeting, it was decided to create a joint working group and sign a memorandum of understanding to ensure the successful functioning of the newly created organization. At the end of the meeting, participants unanimously elected SOCAR's Vice President for Ecology Rafiga Huseynzadeh as the chairman of the newly created organization, said the report.

In order to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), SOCAR is implementing sustainable environmental measures to protect the environment, ensure efficient use of resources, reduce carbon emissions and promote the development of the region.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @IsmailovaNargis
A Filipina activist raises a placard during a demonstration in front of the ABS-CBN headquarters in Quezon City, near the Philippine capital Manila, May 5, 2020.

The Philippines leading television network went off the air Tuesday, following an order from telecoms regulators for the media giant to cease operations after its license expired the previous day, in a move described by critics as a blow to press freedom.

ABS-CBN, which has angered President Rodrigo Duterte because of its unrelenting reporting of his administrations much-maligned drug war, signed off before 8 p.m. after broadcasting its popular primetime newscast, TV Patrol.

Weve done all the requirements needed for the renewal of our license and we did not violate any law, Carlo Katigbak, ABS-CBNs president and CEO, said in a short televised speech before the television and radio network shut down its broadcasts.

The franchise for ABS-CBN officially lapsed on Monday after Congress, the branch of government with the authority to grant it a new one, delayed action for more than three years on an application to renew the networks license.

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said it issued a cease and desist order on Tuesday against ABS-CBN.

The NTC directed ABS-CBN to stop operating its various TV and radio broadcasting stations nationwide absent a valid Congressional Franchise as required by law, the commission said in a statement.

The network was also given 10 days to respond as to why the frequencies assigned to it should not be recalled, the NTC added.

The shutdown order came two days after Solicitor General Jose Calida warned the commission against granting ABS-CBN a temporary permit to operate beyond May 4, when its 25-year franchise ended.

Calida petitioned the Supreme Court in February to rule against issuing the new franchise for ABS-CBN and its subsidiary, ABS-CBN Convergence. He accused the network of abusing the terms of its original license by operating a pay-per-view channel illegally.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the network was free to exhaust all legal remedies available to it.

But in the absence of a legislative franchise, as we have earlier said, ABS-CBNs continued operation is entirely with the NTCs decision, Roque said in a statement Tuesday.

The Philippine Constitution requires a franchise from Congress before a broadcast firm can operate, and without one, it can no longer continue its operations as a public utility, Calida said on Sunday.

Before going off the air, ABS-CBN issued a statement saying it would stop operations Tuesday evening to comply with the NTC order, as it also urged legislators in the lower house of parliament to renew its franchise.

We trust that the government will decide on our franchise with the best interest of the Filipino people in mind, recognizing ABS-CBNs role and efforts in providing the latest news and information during these challenging times, the statement said.

While the shutdown of the Philippine broadcasting giant was criticized by rights and press groups here and abroad, ABS-CBN said it had no choice but to follow the law.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said ABS-CBNs closure was a big blow to press freedom in the Philippines, where at least 6,000 people have died in Dutertes anti-narcotics crackdown.

Human Rights Watch views this turn of events with deep concern, coming as it did on the heels of efforts by the Duterte administration to intimidate and muzzle the Philippine press, said Phil Robertson, HRWs deputy Asia director.

The NTC should rescind this order. The Solicitor General should stop attacking like Dutertes attack dog, Robertson said, as he urged Congress, which is dominated by Dutertes supporters, to assert its authority.

The Filipino people should reject this despotic move to harass and silence a media organization known not only for its reach but also for its competence and dedication to deliver the news, he said.

The ABS-CBN franchise was issued in 1995. In November 2016, Congresswoman Micaela Violago filed an application for a fresh 25-year-franchise for the network, according to an ABS-CBN timeline.

The Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP), which groups journalists working for foreign media agencies, and the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) condemned the decision to shut down the TV network and accused Duterte of trampling on press freedom.

The order threatens press freedom at a time when the public needs an unfettered press the most, FOCAP said. The move is clearly a case of political harassment against a pillar of Philippine democracy that employs thousands of Filipinos whose livelihoods are now at risk with the order.

The network has more than 11,000 employees, ABS-CBN officials said.

NUJP, meanwhile, branded the NTC order as a dastardly move and a personal vendetta of Duterte.

It sends a clear message: What Duterte wants, Duterte gets, it said, adding that it was designed to shut down the critical media and force everyone into submission.
SAGINAW, MI  Saginaw Valley State University chemistry professor Tami Sivy and her two student lab assistants testing wastewater in the Saginaw Bay region for early signs of the coronavirus.

SVSU students Marc Dean and Caleb Whittaker joined Sivys lab expecting to test local beach water to determine if the water was safe for swimming on a day-to-day basis. After the campus closed amid a global pandemic, though, the lab assistants and Sivy waited to reopen and start testing wastewater for early detection signs of COVID-19.

Sivy said SVSU first partnered with The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy seven to eight years ago to develop a faster water testing method for beaches, as traditional methods required overnight waiting periods.

By the time we got the results, we could only really tell you that you shouldnt have been swimming yesterday rather than being able to tell you beforehand, Sivy said.

Last year, Sivy and her students worked on validating an EPA method to extract DNA from bacteria that they captured from water samples. The test looked for markers of unsafe bacteria so that within a few hours of testing, they knew whether it was safe for beaches to be open for the day.

Using a grant from EGLE, SVSUs lab was able to buy digital polymerase chain reaction technology, which can determine sources of contamination. Previously, only Michigan State University had this technology in Michigan.

This equipment put SVSU in the running to help test locally for COVID-19 in wastewater samples, as SVSU is the only university in the region capable of performing such tests.

Were shifting gears, Sivy said. Well continue to do the beach testing this summer, but we can use our techniques and expertise in order to test for coronavirus RNA in waste samples.

Over the last three weeks, Dean and Whittaker have driven to six wastewater sites to collect samples in Bay City, Midland, Saginaw Township, Bad Axe, Tawas and Frankenmuth. Starting next week, SVSU will also test water from the Saganing Eagles Landing Casino and Hotel in Standish.

Dean got involved with summer beach sampling last summer. He has been working on measuring DNA and RNA levels precisely while testing for positive COVID-19 water samples.

The wastewater treatment plants organize collecting the water samples themselves, he said. Im sure theres a lot of safety measures procedures for that.

Sivy said the students only work with the water samples under a biosafety hood, which helps protect them for any potential exposure. Furthermore, since the virus is presumed to be dead by the time it shows up in human waste, it is much less scary to work with the wastewater samples.

To test the wastewater for the coronavirus, Sivys team has to convert the RNA-based virus to DNA, RNAs sister, Sivy said. They then amplify DNA that are specific markers for COVID-19. The markers they search for are the same ones the CDC recommends, and they are also the same markers used for human testing.

By monitoring and detecting those markers, the lab is able to tell how much of the virus was found in the wastewater. From there, Sivy and her team use the number of people contributing to that waste plant and the average amount of waste per human to determine a range of infection rate for a region.

As of now, Sivys team is running control tests to make sure their method is working. They hope to begin testing their water samples within the next few weeks.

Those tests will give us a baseline for what the level of infection is right now, she said. Our area hasnt been hit very hard, so the numbers should be pretty low.

As the SVSU lab starts testing wastewater, they will be able detect if there is an increase in coronavirus found in the samples. This can help the detect early on if there is a second wave coming to the region, Sivy said. In fact, she said they can detect the virus in RNA several days before people can even feel symptoms, so, by continuously monitoring wastewater, they can detect the virus early.

I could never anticipate being involved in a pandemic, Dean said. But its been interesting to see the variety of applications these techniques can be used for. Its cool to be useful in that way.

Sivy is also excited to use the labs beach testing methods in the context of a pandemic, she said. She believes the methods application for human health is so amazing.

We thought we were playing such an important role in the region just protecting people from getting into contaminated beaches, she said. Were not excited it happened, but were happy we can use our instruments and our expertise to in order to do that.

Read More

From closing restaurants to requiring masks, Gov. Whitmer has issued 69 executive orders in 56 days

SVSU president recommends tuition freeze for 2020-2021, takes pay cut

New beach water-testing method in Bay County promises quicker results

Hand sanitizer production begins at SVSU to combat coronavirus
In unwitting homage to Congressman Barney Franks line that government is simply the name we give to the things we choose to do together, Senator Pat Toomey recently defined the market as just the name that we assign to the sum total of all the voluntary exchanges that occur every day. These equal and opposite platitudes share more than a formulation and a woeful inadequacy. Each represents, for the ideologues who adopt it, a comfortably absolute view of the world that either validates or invalidates whatever policymakers might attempt. If government is nothing more than voluntary collaboration, who could object? If the market is nothing more than the sum of voluntary exchanges, why should the government ever get involved?

Toomeys market reductivism is widely embraced on the right-of-center, imposing blinders that limit the economic-policy menu to the task of avoiding interference  so, tax cuts, perhaps served with a side of occupational licensing reform. This abdication scorns the American tradition. It lacks support in economic theory. And it deprives policymakers of the tools for sustaining a well-functioning market economy and widespread prosperity.

Earlier generations understood this. In 1832, Henry Clay rose on the Senate floor to defend the bold national economic agenda he called a genuine American System: the Second Bank of the United States, protective tariffs for burgeoning industries, and public infrastructure investment to connect commercial centers to the expansive frontier. This long established system, he argued, patiently and carefully built up, and sanctioned . . . by the nation and its highest and most revered authorities, was delivering unparalleled prosperity. To his opponents, he was unsparing:

When gentlemen have succeeded in their design of an immediate or gradual destruction of the American System, what is their substitute? Free trade! Free trade! The call for free trade, is as unavailing as the cry of a spoiled child. . . . It never has existed; it never will exist.

Story continues

Clay was not the first great American statesman to champion a robust role for public policy in shaping the national economy, nor would he be the last. The efforts of that coalition, from Hamilton to Lincoln to Eisenhower, kept alive the tradition of the American System from the nations founding to the middle of the 20th century, delivering the unparalleled prosperity of which Clay once spoke.

President Abraham Lincoln, for instance, proclaimed, I have always been an old-line Henry Clay Whig and pursued an aggressive expansion of the American System even as the Civil War raged. He raised tariffs twice. He signed the Homestead Act, offering settlers 160 acres of public land to encourage westward migration, and the Morrill Land-Grant Act, which funded the creation of more than 60 colleges, including Cornell University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Over the next century, the federal government insulated domestic industries from foreign competition and pursued an aggressive sectoral strategy to support agriculture. It created antitrust law, a collective-bargaining system, and a social safety net; funded ambitious research and development projects through dedicated agencies; and both fostered and regulated a burgeoning financial system. It made unprecedented investments in the internal improvements of each era, building postal, telegraph, radio, electricity, and highway networks that enabled the spread of the population and its economic dynamism across the continent.

And then it stopped. Modernizing the air-traffic-control system now rests beyond the outer reaches of ambition. The Cold War established a stark dichotomy between the Wests free-market capitalism and Communisms economic planning. By the time the Berlin Wall fell, the anti-planning orthodoxy had hardened into rejection of not only Soviet-style efforts to ration resources and micromanage firms by centralized diktat, but also the traditional efforts of liberal democracies to ensure investment in long-term economic and social priorities  that is, to pursue economic policy at all. As we are dealing with changes in our economy, says former ambassador Nikki Haley, tax cuts are always a good idea. Efforts to influence the economys trajectory, by contrast, represent a watered-down or hyphenated capitalism, which is the slow path to socialism.

The critics of planning so broadly defined do not understand their own critique. The theoretical basis for their objections is Friedrich Hayeks knowledge problem, but that problem is not generically applicable to all forms of economic policy. The essence of Hayeks argument is that no central planner could possibly aggregate, process, or act upon information as efficiently as decentralized participants respond to the information and incentives conveyed by the price system. The fact that government planners are not omniscient is obvious, but it does not automatically follow that planning is always ineffective. Perfect information is not a precondition of successful planning in either the private or the public sector.

If anything, government intervention  and thus planning  becomes more necessary when less market and industry knowledge is available. If a projects commercial prospects are easily known, then risk is low and investor capital is cheaper and easier to raise. But if a projects commercial prospects are only dimly perceivable, then it may be impossible to raise capital from economically motivated investors, no matter how important the effort. Thus governments typically must take a leading role in critical areas such as basic research and the development of infant industries, among many others.

Likewise, planning plays a vital role when knowledge, even if available, is of no interest to the private sector. Nations have a wide range of goals beyond the maximization of profit that the most perfectly free and efficient market will make no effort to achieve. In such situations, it is absurd to reject the policymakers imperfect efforts for lack of knowledge and opt instead to rely upon private actors behaving like perfect imbeciles.

Hayeks notion of knowledge discovery and market competition fundamentally confuses rationing and investing. Price competition often works well, and the knowledge problem is most acute, when it comes to rationing  deciding who gets what in the present, which need not require a view of the future. The same is not true of investing capital, which simply cannot be prudently allocated by price signals alone. Hayeks spontaneous order, in more than one sense, has no future.

A richer conception of the markets functioning, and the role for public policy, begins with the recognition that voluntary exchanges are contingent on the conditions in which they occur. Each exchange occurs against the substantive backdrop of law, institutions, accumulated capital, culture, and technology. Each exchange may be freely chosen, but none is inevitable, because under different conditions the parties might choose differently  or be different parties entirely. No true result exists against which all others can be measured for distortion, because no one set of free market conditions exists to provide a baseline. This expands dramatically the scope for economic policy and renders arbitrary an unwavering preference for non-intervention.

Policymakers most directly write the law, but their decisions also shape institutions, alter the flow of investments in both physical and human capital, and influence the directions in which culture and technology evolve. In all these ways, they affect the markets exchanges and thus its outcomes and its benefits to the nation. Committing such acts of economic policy is not a crime against capitalism. It was a prerequisite to the emergence of capitalist systems; it is unavoidable to the task of governing them; and it will be vital to their continued success.

Conservatives must remove the blinders that prevent their attention from wandering beyond tax cuts. The future of American economic policy lies in the creation of a modern American System, establishing the market conditions for an economy that supports our shared national goals. That system will require economic policy operating through four channels:

(1) Shaping the institutions, from public education to organized labor, the military to the safety net, that provide a foundation atop which the markets individual transactions occur;

(2) Facilitating investments through direct spending in areas such as infrastructure, public health, and basic research, and through partnerships with and incentives for the private sector;

(3) Establishing the rules within which market transactions occur, on issues ranging from intellectual property and monopoly to trade and immigration to employment and the environment; and

(4) Using public finance for countercyclical stimulus and to allocate equitably the burden of raising revenue.

As the old joke goes, ask a roomful of modern economists how to expand access to books, and they will develop all manner of means-tested book-buying subsidies. None would suggest a public library. Just as Grover Norquists infamous Taxpayer Protection Pledge asks candidates to promise they will oppose all efforts to raise taxes, perhaps the first step toward effective economic policy should be a new, simpler pledge: I will not talk about taxes until 2030.

What would we talk about, if forced to think about the levers of public power available to shape economic outcomes? Once upon a time, American statesmen had those conversations, as well as the confidence to set national goals, make demands of the nations economy, and establish public policies that led to their fulfillment. The American System and its progeny were the happy result. If we allow ourselves to set goals, and to orient our institutions, investments, and rules toward meeting them, we can carry the tradition forward.

Wells King is the research director of American Compass. Julius Krein is the editor of American Affairs. Oren Cass is the executive director of American Compass. This article is adapted from Rebooting the American System, a series of essays published by American Compass.

More from National Review
Colorado Springs-area home sales fell in April as the COVID-19 pandemic and state restrictions on home buying and selling led to a predictable slowdown in the single-family housing market.

"It had to be a drop. Why? Because we could not show inventory," said Harry Salzman of ERA Shields Real Estate and Salzman Real Estate Services.

For most of April, Gov. Jared Polis' stay-at-home order  issued March 25 and intended to slow the spread of the highly infectious coronavirus  required state residents to remain inside their homes except to visit groceries, auto repair shops and other essential businesses. Exceptions also included working in critical industries and engaging in some outdoor activities.

A subsequent Polis administration directive prohibited home sellers and their real estate agents from conducting in-person showings of properties for sale. Buyers could not walk through a home to open drawers and cabinets, turn on faucets and otherwise inspect a property; instead, they were limited to watching videos to determine if they liked a house.

Those restrictions, along with anxious sellers pulling properties off the market in large part for fear of buyers spreading the coronavirus through their homes, triggered fewer sales, agents said.

Last month, sales of Springs-area single-family and patio homes totaled 1,219, a 7.7% decline from April of last year, according to a report by the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors. That figure excludes townhomes and condominiums.

"We all expected that," said Joe Clement, broker/owner of Re/Max Properties in Colorado Springs. "I personally thought it would be worse."

The decline wasn't out of the ordinary, statistically speaking; in recent years, monthly home sales occasionally have fallen on a year-over-year basis even as Colorado Springs' housing market has been ranked by national publications as one of the hottest in the country.

Still, the more than 1,200 homes sold in April suggested the demand for housing remains strong, Salzman and Clement agreed. And that demand helped drive prices to another record high.

The median price, or midpoint, of homes sold in April rose to $360,000, a 9.8% year-over-year increase and eclipsing the record of $352,400 set in March, according to the Realtors Association report.

A tight supply of homes on the market, which has been a problem for years in Colorado Springs and several other cities nationwide, also contributed to the increase in prices.

In April, 1,589 homes were listed for sale, a 1.1% increase over the same month last year, yet still only a 1.3-month supply, based on inventory and recent sales activity, the Realtors Association report showed.

Polis relaxed his stay-at-home order April 27, which was modified into a safer-at-home phase that allowed sellers and their agents to resume in-person showings  with face masks for agents and buyers, plus rubber gloves, booties and other safeguards.

The effect on the market was immediate, and nearly 1,000 showings took place that day, Clement said, citing local Multiple Listing Service figures from around the Pikes Peak region. Last Saturday, 1,121 home showings took place around the area, he said; on the same day a year ago, there were 733 showings.

"That's a hopeful part of this," Clement said.

On the plus side for the market, long-term mortgage rates remain at historic lows, and fell last week to an average 3.23% nationwide for a 30-year loan, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. That's the lowest rate since 1971, when Freddie Mac started compiling mortgage rate data from around the country.

For buyers who qualify for a mortgage and can afford a home, real estate remains a great long-term investment, Salzman said. Even as real estate prices nosedived during and after the Great Recession, they came back, he said.

"The appreciation is still there," Salzman said of home values.

On the down side, job losses as a result of the pandemic, with industries such as restaurants hit hard, could lead to more declines in home sales, Clement said. And while Polis has ordered a halt to foreclosures and evictions through May, a prolonged downturn could lead to an uptick in foreclosures that could depress prices, Clement said.

Still, a strong economy heading into the pandemic  bolstered by cybersecurity, tech and other industries  puts Colorado Springs in a better position than some cities to withstand a housing slowdown, Clement said.

"We still have a pretty darn decent demand," he said. "We could have a pretty good summer if we keep going.But there's so many factors when you're dealing with a health crisis and I don't really know the whole story because I've never been through one before."
Oil rigs are seen at Vaca Muerta shale oil and gas drilling, in the Patagonian province of Neuquen

By Eliana Raszewski

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina plans to issue a decree setting a higher local oil barrel price to protect the domestic industry from being further decimated by a collapse in global prices and slumping fuel demand due to the coronavirus pandemic, two industry sources told Reuters on Thursday.

The locally-set oil price, known as the "criollo barrel" and used before to offset global price swings, would come as oil demand has collapsed around the world and domestically in Argentina due to a nationwide lockdown imposed in mid-March.

In Argentina as in other countries during the pandemic, a slower economy has slashed fuel demand. Refiners are not purchasing all the crude that is being produced, and storage space is growing scarce pressuring prices even more.

One of the people, a senior industry official with knowledge of government plans, said an announcement around the "criollo" barrel would likely be released next week, to help "put a floor under the steep fall." He added the official decree was not yet completed.

Both sources declined to be named because the plans were still private and under discussion.

Argentina is home to the huge Vaca Muerta shale deposit, the size of Belgium. It is thought to hold one of the world's largest reserves of unconventional hydrocarbons.

Argentina has typically produced around 500,000 barrels of oil per day, and with a fast ramp-up at Vaca Muerta has reduced reliance on imports. The country had been targeting an energy surplus in 2020.

Global oil prices have crashed to two-decade lows. On Monday, U.S. crude oil futures actually plunged into negative territory. Low prices are squeezing producers, especially those developing costlier shale reserves.

"A criollo barrel is vital and to maintain the price at the pump. Otherwise (refiners) buy crude at $20 and sell it at a pump at $50, which is what it is today," said the second source, an oil industry executive in Argentina.

Argentina's production ministry, which oversees the energy secretariat, did not respond to requests for comment. The South American country fixed oil prices previously until around 2016 to shield local firms from fluctuating prices.

Story continues

THE 'DEAD COW'

The pandemic has hammered producers in Vaca Muerta - Spanish for "dead cow" - which Argentina had hoped would produce major export income to help the country claw its way out of recession as it looks to restructure billions of dollars in debt.

"Companies around the world are slashing budgets. Vaca Muerta wasn't cost competitive with the Permian Basin or anywhere else in the United States before the market fell apart," said an executive at a U.S. energy firm in Argentina.

"So why would anyone spend a dime in Vaca Muerta now?"

Guillermo Pereyra, secretary general of the Rio Negro, Neuquen and La Pampa Oil and Gas Union around Vaca Muerta, told Reuters most workers have been sent home and production has fallen steeply in April.

His union, which has 25,000 workers, reached an agreement with oil companies on Thursday to guarantee that the 20,500 workers at home would receive at least 60% of their wages in April and May, he said.

"The pandemic led us to paralyze the economy, planes and vehicles stopped working, factories closed and demand fell," he said. "Refineries began to stock their products. Pipelines cannot pump more because there is nowhere to put oil."

"Vaca Muerta is more dead than ever," he said.

(Reporting by Eliana Raszewski; Additional reporting by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Adam Jourdan, David Gregorio, Marguerita Choy and Daniel Wallis)
U.S. Repatriates over $311.7 Million in Assets to the Nigerian People that were Stolen by Former Nigerian Dictator and His Associates

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, May 4, 2020



The Department of Justice announced today that it has transferred $311,797,876.11 to the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Nigeria) in accordance with a Feb. 3, 2020, trilateral agreement among the governments of the United States, Nigeria and the Bailiwick of Jersey (Jersey) to repatriate assets the United States forfeited that were traceable to the kleptocracy of former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha and his co-conspirators.

In 2014, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates for the District of Columbia entered judgment forfeiting approximately $500 million located in accounts around the world, as the result of a civil forfeiture complaint the Department of Justice filed against more than $625 million traceable to money laundering involving the proceeds of Abacha's corruption. After appeals in the United States were exhausted in 2018, the government of Jersey enforced the U.S. judgment against the funds located in that jurisdiction.

The forfeited assets represent corrupt monies laundered during and after the military regime of General Abacha, who assumed the office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria through a military coup on Nov. 17, 1993, and held that position until his death on June 8, 1998. The complaint alleges that General Abacha, his son Mohammed Sani Abacha, their associate Abubakar Atiku Bagudu and others embezzled, misappropriated and extorted billions from the government of Nigeria and others, then laundered their criminal proceeds through U.S. financial institutions and the purchase of bonds backed by the United States. Jersey's cooperation in the investigation, restraint and enforcement of the U.S. judgment, along with the valuable contributions of Nigeria and other law enforcement partners around the world, have been instrumental to the recovery of these funds.

Under the trilateral agreement signed in February, the United States and Jersey agreed to transfer 100 percent of the net forfeited assets to the Federal Republic of Nigeria to support three critical infrastructure projects previously authorized by the Nigerian government. Specifically, under this agreement, the recovered funds will help finance the construction of critical infrastructure in key economic zones to include the Second Niger Bridge, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and the Abuja-Kano road. These investments will benefit all of the Nigerian people.

The agreement includes key measures to ensure transparency and accountability, including administration of the funds and projects by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), financial review by an independent auditor, and monitoring by an independent civil society organization with expertise in engineering and other areas. The agreement also precludes the expenditure of funds to benefit alleged perpetrators of the corruption or to pay contingency fees for lawyers. The agreement reflects the sound principles for ensuring transparency and accountability in the return and disposition of recovered assets adopted at the Global Forum on Asset Recovery (GFAR) in December 2017 in Washington, D.C., which the United States and the United Kingdom (UK) hosted with support from the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative of the World Bank and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

In addition to the more than $311.7 million forfeited in Jersey, the Department of Justice is seeking to enforce its forfeiture judgment against approximately $30 million located in the UK and over $144 million in France. The United States continues to seek forfeiture of over $177 million in additional laundered funds held in trusts that name Abacha associate Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, the current governor of Kebbi State, and his relatives as beneficiaries.

The United States entered into the trilateral agreement to repatriate the Jersey assets because of its longstanding commitment to recover asset for the benefit of the people of countries harmed by corruption and the important safeguards embodied in the agreement. The transfer announced today demonstrates the U.S. commitment to asset recovery and responsible repatriation, consistent with its obligations under the trilateral agreement.

This case was brought under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative by a team of dedicated prosecutors in the Criminal Division's Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section working in partnership with the FBI. Through the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, the Department of Justice and federal law enforcement agencies seek to safeguard the U.S. financial system from criminal money laundering and to recover the proceeds of foreign official corruption. Where appropriate and possible, the department endeavors to use recovered corruption proceeds to benefit the people harmed by acts of corruption and abuse of public trust.

Individuals with information about possible proceeds of foreign corruption located in or laundered through the United States should contact federal law enforcement or send an email to kleptocracy@usdoj.gov. The Criminal Division's Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance. The department appreciates the extensive assistance provided by the governments of Jersey, Nigeria and the UK in this investigation.

The year 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of the Department of Justice. Learn more about the history of our agency at www.Justice.gov/Celebrating150Years.

Attachment(s): Download Nigeria, Jersey, U.S. Asset Sharing Agreement

Topic(s): Asset Forfeiture

Component(s):

Criminal Division

Criminal - Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section

Criminal - Office of International Affairs

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

Press Release Number: 20-428

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Former Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt should resign for his "selfish and arrogant" breach of lockdown rules to visit a female friend, a former party councillor has said.

Veteran UUP member Chris McGimpsey told the Belfast Telegraph that Mr Nesbitt should "do the decent thing" and step down as an MLA.

A senior party source said there was anger in the party that Mr Nesbitt had flouted the rules to travel to the north coast at a time when UUP Health Minister Robin Swann and NHS staff were working "night and day" and urging the public to rigorously obey the restrictions.

Mr Nesbitt (62) apologised for his actions which were revealed in Sunday World.

He stood down as Deputy Chair of the Committee for the Executive Office at Stormont but is continuing as Strangford MLA.

Mr McGimpsey said: "Many grassroots Ulster Unionist members think that Mike should resign his seat immediately.

"Steve Aiken has described his actions as totally unacceptable. This was a stupid, selfish and arrogant breach of lockdown rules which calls Mike's political judgment into question. None of us like lockdown. I have seven grandchildren and they live five miles down the road from me but I don't see them because following the rules helps save lives in the fight against coronavirus."

Mr McGimpsey said that Mr Nesbitt had "seriously embarrassed the party" and he questioned whether he would be re-selected if he chose to run for the Assembly again.

Mr Nesbitt could not be contacted for comment yesterday.

The Sunday World reported that the former UUP leader had visited a female friend in Portballintrae.

Mr Nesbitt admitted making some "very poor decisions" and confirmed that he has been living apart from his wife, Lynda Bryans, for four months.

"Since late January, well before lockdown, I have been living alone in a rented room in accommodation far north of Belfast.

"Recently I have stayed occasionally in a three-bedroom property occupied full-time by a female friend."

He said it had been a challenging time and apologised for making the trips to stay at his friend's home.

"This has been a stressful and difficult period for me and unfortunately I have made some very poor decisions," he said. "I am remorseful and apologise. I shall not return during lockdown." The PSNI said it had not received any complaints about a 62-year-old visiting Portballintrae in breach of lockdown rules.

DUP First Minister Arlene Foster said that Mr Nesbitt had done "the right thing" by resigning from the Committee of the Executive Office.

Speaking at yesterday's Executive press briefing, Mrs Foster she said: "I think it is important to say that everybody has to stick by the regulations that were made in the Assembly. Mike has recognised that he didn't. He has stepped aside from that role and I think that is the right thing to do".

Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill, said that Mr Nesbitt had acknowledged that what he did "wasn't appropriate".

She added: "We are in difficult times but none of us are exempt from these regulations.

UUP leader Steve Aiken has criticised his Strangford MLA.

"Breaking the lockdown regulations is totally unacceptable, no matter who you are," he said.

"Mike has made a huge mistake and he has accepted what he did was wrong.

"The lockdown rules are there to help save lives and the message remains the same. Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives."

In March, the former UUP leader spoke movingly of the death of his 93-year old mother, Brenda Nesbitt, known as Paddy.

When Robin Swann announced he was resigning as UUP leader last October, Mr Nesbitt considered standing for the leadership again but ruled himself out due to a heart problem.
The device comprises a soft and thin sensor that monitors bladder volume continuously as well as an actuator equipped with high voiding efficiency to clear the bladder completely. Credit: National University of Singapore

Individuals with an underactive bladder, for example following a spinal cord injury, often cannot sense bladder fullness or are unable to empty the bladder completely. This distressing symptom can seriously affect one's quality of life. A dysfunctional bladder may also lead to medical complications such as urinary tract infection, as well as physical discomfort and potential for personal embarrassment.

Dr. Faezeh Arab Hassani, a researcher from the National University of Singapore (NUS), has recently invented a device that can monitor bladder volume in real time and effectively empty the bladder. This innovation may open up a new treatment option for patients with underactive bladders in the near future.

Dr. Arab Hassani worked closely with researchers from the NUS Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering, the NUS Department of Biomedical Engineering, as well as lead collaborator Professor Takao Someya and his research team at the University of Tokyo, and took more than a year to develop the novel bladder system. This breakthrough was first reported in the journal Science Advances on 1 May 2020.

Soft solution for a weak bladder

Among patients who have some form of spinal cord injury, about 80 percent of them suffer from some degree of bladder dysfunction. There is currently no cure for the underactive bladder condition, and while some implantable treatment options are available, they can only sense the fullness of the bladder and only empty it up to 43 percent.

"To help these patients, what clinicians need is an integrated bladder system that achieves both volume sensing capability and high voiding efficiency. Given that the urinary bladder is unique among human organs as it undergoes large volume changes during the storage and urination phases, the device requires careful compatibility considerations to avoid interference with the extreme volume changes of the bladder," said Professor Nitish Thakor, who supervised the research.

Dr. Arab Hassani's novel system comprises a sensor integrated with an actuator. The soft and thin sensor monitors the bladder volume continuously while the actuator is equipped with strong emptying force to clear the bladder. The actuator contains a shape memory alloy (SMA) spring, which keeps the sensor in contact with the surface of the bladder at all times for precise volume detection.

Experiments by the team showed that in addition to the real-time volume sensing capability, the device can also effectively empty between 70 to 100 percent of the bladder. "This is a significant achievement as its performance is comparable to the efficiency of intermittent catheterisation treatment currently being used, which has many shortcomings," shared Dr. Arab Hassani, the first author of this study. "We need a soft but efficient device to help a weak bladder."

Improvements and potential applications

Moving forward, the NUS research team is working to improve the functionality of the device, and looking into making the system wireless for ease of use and movement.

"The bladder system can be adjusted to the user's bladder size to ensure optimal operation," suggested Dr. Arab Hassani. "The ideal scenario would be to integrate the device with a mobile application, which can retrieve and process the sensor data to allow the user to trigger voiding at will."

The team's advances in soft materials and their fabrication techniques also hold other potential applications in the medical field.

"Our soft system demonstrated on a bladder can serve as a model for augmenting other organs as well," elaborated Prof Thakor. "I believe this novel design can pave the way for the development of sensors and actuators that are compatible with other soft and distensible organs like blood vessels, the heart, and the gastrointestinal system, as these organs require both sensing and actuation to achieve functions like pumping and peristalsis under soft actuation and control."

Explore further New strategies for managing bowel and bladder dysfunction after spinal cord injury

More information: F. Arab Hassani et al. Soft sensors for a sensing-actuation system with high bladder voiding efficiency, Science Advances (2020). Journal information: Science Advances F. Arab Hassani et al. Soft sensors for a sensing-actuation system with high bladder voiding efficiency,(2020). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba0412
Indian Navy in an official statement on Tuesday said that three Naval warships have sailed out to bring back Indian citizens from Maldives and United Arab Emirates (UAE) who are stranded due to Coronavirus pandemic. These warships include INS Jalashwa, INS Magar and INS Shardul and these will return to Kochi.

'Total 14 warships have been readied'

Defence Spokesperson Commander Sridhar Warrier informed that INS Jalashwa sailed from Visakhapatnam a few days ago from the east coast to the west coast. "Total 14 warships have been readied for evacuating Indian citizens from the Gulf and other countries," he added. The 16,900-tonne INS Jalashwa, the countrys second-largest warship after aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, apart from its crew can carry around 8,00 to 1,000 people.

INS Jalashwa deployed off Mumbai coast, along with INS Magar, diverted for the Maldives on Monday night, the Spokesman said. While INS Shardul diverted to Dubai to evacuate the expatriates, he added. INS Magar and INS Shardul are Southern Naval Command ships, while INS Jalashwa is from Eastern Naval Command.

On Sunday, INS Jalashwa, in the Bay of Bengal paid a tribute to the Coronavirus warriors that include doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, and all the frontline workers who are fighting against the pandemic.

INS Jalashwa in the Bay of Bengal saluting the #CoronaWarriors including doctors, nurses, other health workers, sanitation staff and police personnel fighting against the COVID19 pandemic. pic.twitter.com/OslZSCuATS  ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2020

Govt to facilitate the return of Indians

In a major relief for Indians stranded abroad, the Centre on Monday announced that their travel will be arranged via aircraft and naval ships in a phased manner. It added that the Indian High Commissions and embassies are preparing a list of distressed Indian citizens. However, it clarified that this facility is available on payment-basis and will begin in a phased manner on May 7.

READ | Delhi Police starts probe against 'Bois Locker Room' group for allegedly 'glorifying' rape

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The Centre added that only asymptomatic people will be allowed to travel after medical scrutiny. It also mandated the installation of Aarogya Setu app and 14-day institutional quarantine on payment basis. The Ministry of External Affairs and the Civil aviation ministry will soon share details while state governments have been advised to make arrangements for testing, quarantine and their journey onwards.

READ | Rahul Gandhi to discuss economy, Covid with Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee; 'trailer' out

READ | Mamata govt announces lockdown relaxations, liquor shops to reopen in West Bengal

(With agency inputs)
A coronavirus outbreak at a Victorian abattoir continues to expand after the state recorded more than a dozen new cases overnight.

Treasurer Tim Pallas on Tuesday confirmed 17 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the state's tally to 1,423.

Of those new cases, 11 are connected to a cluster of infected workers at the Cedar Meats factory in Brooklyn.

A total of 45 people have contracted coronavirus at the facility, which is in Melbourne's west.

Both the company and the state's chief health officer have assured the public meat from the factory is safe to eat.

The Cedar Meats facility (pictured) in Brooklyn, Melbourne is linked with 45 cases of the deadly disease

So far, there have been 96 deaths related to COVID-19 in Australia, and a total of 6,847 confirmed cases

Food from the Cedar Meats factory (pictured) has been declared safe, despite the site being shut down due to a coronavirus outbreak

All 350 staff were tested for COVID-19 by May 1 and the site has since been shutdown.

The first case was recorded in early April and a second worker tested positive on April 23.

One of the workers at the plant had an operation at Melbourne's Sunshine Hospital after a workplace accident on Thursday.

He tested positive for the virus over the weekend, prompting around 20 hospital workers to self-isolate.

Meat processing plants globally are proving to be hotbeds for the disease because they have largely remained open despite employees working in close quarters.

Medical staff take down details after performing tests for COVID-19 on people who used a drive-through testing site in a Melbourne car park on May 1 (pictured)

In the US, meat factories have recorded 4,900 cases and at least 20 deaths.

Cedar Meats General Manager Tony Kairouz said: 'All workers are self-quarantining and we are working closely with the Victorian health authorities.

'All meat processed at our facilities is processed in accordance with Australian Standards for food safety and our customers can be confident that the meat processed at our facilities is safe to eat.'

Of the remaining new cases in the state, two people were diagnosed after being tested in a drive-through clinic, while three cases remain under investigation.

In Victoria, 11 people remain in hospital with the virus, including six people in intensive care.

So far, 152,000 people have been tested across Victoria.

A nurse is seen taking a sample from a man during a drive-through COVID-19 test in Victoria at the Highpoint Shopping Centre (pictured) on May 4

Cedar Meats statement in full A number of our employees have tested positive for coronavirus in one of our facilities in West Melbourne. The welfare and safety of our staff, visitors, suppliers and customers is our highest priority. All workers are self-quarantining and we are working closely with the Victorian health authorities. All meat processed at our facilities is processed in accordance with Australian Standards for food safety and our customers can be confident that the meat processed at our facilities is safe to eat. Advertisement

Meanwhile, Mr Pallas announced $490 million in additional tax relief for Victorians.

'About $225 million of that is payroll tax relief and about $200 million of that is foregone premiums under WorkCover,' he said, noting anyone entitled to WorkCover protection will still be covered.

'The state will effectively pick up those shortfalls to the extent that, of course, the (WorkCover) fund itself can continue to operate in the way where they can make those payments, that will continue to be the case.'

Victoria has ramped up its number of COVID-19 tests, including at facilities such as this drive-through testing centre at Victoria's Highpoint Shopping Centre (pictured on May 4)

Meanwhile, a school teacher who tested positive to coronavirus leading to the shutdown of Meadow Glen primary school in Epping says he was rejected for testing three times.

Keith Campbell believes he had the virus back in March but his attempts to get tested were repeatedly denied because he did not meet the box-ticking criteria.

'I wasn't severe enough to obviously warrant a test, basically that was it,' he told Nine's Today program on Tuesday.

'I tried three times, twice through the hospital and then the (Department of Health and Human Services).'

Mr Campbell said he doesn't blame health staff who denied him a test because they were just doing their job with the tools available to them.

A health worker is seen using the COVID-19 testing kits at a facility in NSW, with new rapid tests able to deliver results in just 60 minutes

He believes he caught the deadly virus back in mid-March at a bar he was at along with other members of his family, including his nine-year-old granddaughter, who also tested positive.

By the time he was tested, the coronavirus cells in his nasal passage were dead, but it was enough for authorities to shut down the school where he worked.

He was not in contact with children for two days prior and was only at the school to record video lessons.

The state government named the school on Sunday soon after federal education minister Dan Tehan launched an attack on Premier Daniel Andrews over his refusal to open schools.

Mr Tehan withdrew his comments later that same day.
X-Rite's popular Color Theory class is free for a limited time. By making our eLearning course available for no charge, professionals in the plastics, textiles, paints & coatings, and print and packaging industries can learn tips and best practices for color management and keep production workflows moving forward during these challenging times.

X-Rite Incorporated and Pantone LLC, global leaders in color science and technology, today announced that its Color Theory eLearning Course is available free for a limited time. In an effort to support the growing number of remote workers who must review and approve color, the on-demand training explains the basics of color theory, color tolerances, and sharing digital color standards. In addition, X-Rite is hosting a series of color management webinars designed to help attendees optimize their use of color measurement hardware and software.

Due to COVID-19, many workers are now trying to design, specify, communicate, and ultimately achieve accurate color from remote locations or with less staff and fewer resources, said Ondrej Kruk, President, X-Rite. To do this, you need to understand color theory, communication, and measurement. By making our eLearning course available for no charge, professionals in the plastics, textiles, paints & coatings, and print and packaging industries can learn tips and best practices for color management and keep production workflows moving forward during these challenging times.

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Free Webinars in May

Led by X-Rite Color Management Experts, these webinars range in length from 10 to 60 minutes and highlight how manufacturers and remote workers can maximize color management technology. Topics include:

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Dominant Texture Measurements  a demonstration on how quality control software used in conjunction with a multi-angle instrument can measure and digitally communicate color, sparkle, and coarseness.

An Introduction to the ColorCert Suite  a four-part series where attendees learn how to simplifies color communication between brands and print suppliers in order to manage precise color and print specifications.

The complete list of webinars and registration information is available at https://www.xrite.com/learning-color-education/webinars

About X-Rite

Founded in 1958, X-Rite Incorporated is a global leader in the science and technology of color and appearance. With Pantone, X-Rite employs more than 800 people in 11 countries. The companys corporate headquarters are located in Grand Rapids, Mich., with regional headquarters in Europe and Asia and service centers across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas. X-Rite offers a full range of solutions used by manufacturers, retailers, printers, photographers and graphic design houses to achieve precise management and communication of color and appearance throughout their processes. X-Rite products and services are recognized standards in the printing, packaging, photography, graphic design, video, automotive, paints, plastics, textiles and medical industries. For further information, please visit http://www.xrite.com

About Pantone

Pantone provides the universal language of color that enables color-critical decisions through every stage of the workflow for brands and manufacturers. More than 10 million designers and producers around the world rely on Pantone products and services to help define, communicate and control color from inspiration to realization  leveraging advanced X-Rite technology to achieve color consistency across various materials and finishes for graphics, fashion and product design. Pantone Standards feature digital and physical color specification and workflow tools. The Pantone Color Institute provides customized color standards, brand identity and product color consulting as well as trend forecasting inclusive of Pantone Color of the Year, Fashion Runway Color Trend Reports, color psychology and more. Pantone B2B Licensing incorporates the Pantone Color System into different products and services, enabling licensees to communicate and reproduce certified Pantone values and improve efficiencies for their users. Pantone Lifestyle brings color and design together across apparel, home, and accessories. Learn more at http://www.pantone.com

2020 X-Rite, Inc. All rights reserved. X-Rite is a registered trademark of X-Rite, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. PANTONE and other Pantone trademarks are the property of Pantone LLC.
Moya wins Best Student Film at SAFTAs

A group of Wits Film and TV students scooped the Best Student Film Award for their film, Moya.

The winners of the 14th South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTAs), which took place virtually due to the national lockdown, were announced on 29 April 2020.

These awards, established in 2005 honour and celebrate the excellence of talented creatives in the South African Film and Television industry. The SAFTAs also encourage entrepreneurship and the development of new talent within the industry.

The production crew of the film, Moya from the Wits Film and TV Division is one of the many new talents recognised at the SAFTAs this year.

The 15-minute film interrogates culture and religion and how these two institutions influence each other and in turn influence the psyche of an individual, says Siyabonga Mbele, writer and Director of the film.

In the film, the main protagonist, Nosipho finds herself in a spiritually conflicting position where she is confronted with ideologies of worship from two belief systems  the cultural and religious.

Mbele says when he wrote the character, he wanted her to question her spiritual identity and how these then cause an inner conflict within her that needed solving.

In a quest to solve her spiritual dilemma and find her identity, she seeks guidance from her pastor and her traditional healer mother.

Through this journey of finding her spirit she encounters barriers which she has to overcome. These obstacles push her deeper and deeper into her quest to find her spirit and eventually she gets a revelation during the final climax of the film, says Mbele.

The Moya (vernacular for spirit) crew consisted of final year Film and TV students Stuart Young, Producer; Nombuso Madela, Producer and Art Director; Boitumelo Molalugi, Sound Designer and Recordist as well as Mbele.

Scenes from the film, which was shot over seven days, move across various locations in Johannesburg, which include Kliprivier Nature Reserve, Soweto, Trinity Church, Crown Mines, PRASA and Bryanston.

The crew said they were thrilled that their talents were recognised at the biggest film and television awards in the country. This award encourages them to reimagine African storytelling said Mbele.

Receiving a SAFTA award for the film tells us that our concepts are heading in the right direction and that our efforts are recognised. It is motivating and gives us hope that innovating African cinema can be rewarded.

WATCH Moya via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBm-QQ-xbPA
Alex Brandon/AP

The White House told House Democrats on Monday that their requests for testimony from two key members of the administrations COVID-19 task force would be denied, a move that adds to the list of officials who have been blocked from speaking under oath about the federal response to the pandemic.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee had asked the administration for testimony from Alex Azar, the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, and Seema Verma, the director of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Two sources, including a Democratic spokesperson for the committee, confirmed to The Daily Beast that their requests were rejected Monday.

Last week, the White House blocked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the administrations foremost infectious disease expert, from testifying before House Democrats, though Fauci still is set to appear before a Senate panel run by Republicans. Trump spokespeople defended the decision by saying it would be counterproductive to have officials involved in the COVID-19 response to appear at congressional hearings because they are too lengthy.

A senior administration official told The Daily Beast that the task force has been working non-stop since the beginning of the outbreak and has conducted numerous public briefings. I dont think anyone can reasonably say we arent being transparent, the official said.

President Donald Trump himself had a different explanation. The House is a set up, he told reporters on Tuesday morning from the White House lawn en route to Arizona. The House is a bunch of Trump haters.

That outlook was formalized in a new White House policy that began circulating among officials on Monday. It instructed members of the coronavirus task force that they would not be permitted to testify in Congress without the approval of White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Though the White House has said that Fauci and other key officials will be able to testify freely in the future, the rationale for blocking their appearancesand the opportunity for candid exchange with lawmakers under oathduring a critical moment in the COVID-19 response has struck Democrats as another example of stonewalling from an administration accustomed to brushing off their oversight requests. The blocking of testimony from Azar, a cabinet official, seems likely to inflame tensions even further.

Story continues

On Monday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that the White Houses move was business as usual from the Trump administration and said that lawmakers needed the latest information from task force officials to inform their legislative response to the virus.

The fact is that we need to allocate resources for this, said Pelosi. In order to do that, any appropriations bill must begin in the House. And we have to have the information to act upon.

Azar, the embattled chief of HHS, has faced criticism over missteps in the agencys COVID response, particularly the lack of testing availability early on in the outbreak. He has not testified publicly since March 12. Verma, who oversees the governments two biggest and most expensive health care programs, has not testified publicly since the COVID-19 outbreak began.

-- with reporting by Sam Stein

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If there was any doubt that Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn was Target Zero in the Russia Collision conspiracy or that President Barack Obama was an active co-conspirator, presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway put those doubts to bed last week.

I would remind everybody that President Obama told President-elect Trump he had two things to worry about: North Korea and Michael Flynn, Conway said last Thursday on Foxs America Newsroom.

Folks, thats just weird on its face, Conway continued, as if folks needed to be told. You gotta worry about a nuclear-capable dictator in North Korea, and you gotta worry about a general of 37 years who served in the Obama administration.

Conways comments came in the wake of the unnerving revelation that FBI higher-ups actively plotted to drive Flynn, the designated national security adviser, from the Trump White House.

Whats our goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired? wrote an FBI official, believed to be former FBI counterintelligence director Bill Priestap. If we get him to admit to breaking the Logan Act, give facts to DOJ & have them decide. Or, if he initially lies, then we present him [redacted] & he admits it, document for DOJ, & let them decide how to address it.

This revelation shocked even Bush confidantes into outrage. On what planet is it ever acceptable for FBI agents to discuss how or if they can get someone fired? tweeted Ari Fleischer, former Bush White House spokesman. Comey and his top officials were out of control.

Lost in the hubbub was the question of why it was Flynn who so concerned Barack Obama. The more general answer is that Flynn was the one Obama appointee not afraid to speak his mind. Appointed to head the Defense Intelligence Agency in April 2012 by Obama, Flynn was forced out two years later for, well, speaking his mind.

Although news reports at the time were circumspect about the reasons for Flynns departure, a leaked email from retired Gen. Colin Powell in September 2016 spoke to the sentiments of Obama insiders: I asked why Flynn got fired. Abusive with staff, didnt listen, worked against policy, bad management, etc. He has been and was right-wing nutty every [sic] since.

Flynn, of course, did not get to be a lieutenant general by being a bad and abusive manager. He abruptly became bad and abusive by not being an Obama sycophant, especially on Islamic issues. Nor did Flynn become a target of the Russia collusion conspirators for his presumed right-wing nuttiness.

Flynn almost assuredly became Target Zero for his willingness to expose and undo what Obama considered his signature foreign policy achievement, the Iran nuclear deal. Obama may have suspected that the deal was fatally flawed, but there was one thing he knew, namely that the deal was built on a framework of lies and deceptions.

The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns, the oddly incautious Obama foreign policy adviser Ben Rhodes boasted of the Iran con job. We created an echo chamber. They were saying things that validated what we had given them to say.

Flynn, by contrast, was saying things that invalidated the Rhodes talking points. In March 2015, while Obamas people were selling a swooning media the deals imagined virtues, Flynn was sharing some inconvenient truths.

"Iran is also a country with ballistic missiles, cyber capabilities. They are also still a state-sponsor of terrorism, Flynn told Chris Wallace on Fox News. And here we are dealing with them as though were going to give them a carte blanche -- I know it will be some number of years to have a nuclear capability. Give me a break!"

Had Flynn remained a nutty outlier restricted to the conservative news ghetto, the Obama crowd could have ignored him. When Flynn moved into Trumps inner circle, he morphed from nuisance to threat.

On February 26, 2016, the conspirators began their sabotage campaign against Flynn with an article in Yahoo News. The article led the with the seemingly shocking revelation that Trump was receiving foreign policy advice from a former U.S. military intelligence chief who wants the United States to work more closely with Russia.

T he co-author of that article was one Mark Hosenball. As I detailed in a December 2019 article in American Thinker, Hosenball, wittingly or otherwise, served as the CIAs chief propagandist in the investigation into the 1996 destruction of TWA Flight 800. I told Hosenball as much in 2003 when I met him at the Newsweek office where he was then working. As the reader might suspect, it was an unpleasant encounter.

In 2016, Hosenball was still apparently carrying water for the intelligence community. Three sources, allegedly former foreign policy officials in past administrations, tipped him off to this seemingly ominous news of Flynns softness on Russia.

In retrospect, what makes the article suspect is that Russia had not yet become the medias public enemy number one, let alone the White Houses. In July 2015, for instance, Obama called Russian President Vladimir Putin to thank him for his help securing the Iran nuclear pact.

Obama had reason to be grateful. No foreign leader had more influence over the mullahs than Putin. As Obama told Tom Friedman of the New York Times, We would have not achieved this agreement had it not been for Russias willingness to stick with us and the other P5-Plus members in insisting on a strong deal.

In July 2015, it was still respectable for an American president to collaborate with Putin. If fact, as even Hosenball acknowledged, other Republican candidates had been criticizing Obama for being weak in standing up to the Russian leader. Indeed, Obama had famously mocked Mitt Romney in a 2012 debate for taking the Russian threat seriously.

Weird as it may seem, the conspirators at the White House chose to frame Russia in order to frame Flynn. To pull this off, they had to validate Romneys claim in 2012 that Russia was our No. 1 geopolitical foe.

When Romney made this claim during the 2012 foreign policy debate, Obama countered with a scripted zinger: The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold Wars been over for twenty years. As Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler noted at the time, the Obama jab spawned approving headlines.

For eight years, the headlines went wherever Obama directed them. Seeing how willing the media were to validate what we had given them to say about Russia and Flynn, the conspirators subsequently played the Russia card on Trump. I am sure even Obama was shocked at how well the whole damn thing played out -- at least until it didnt.

Jack Cashills forthcoming book, Unmasking Obama, is available for pre-order at Amazon.
Actor-creator Mindy Kaling has all the reasons to happy. Her latest show Never Have I Ever is number one on Netflix.

Mindy Kaling/Agencies

The show gave her a chance to reflect on her own Indian-ness while putting fellow nerds from minority communities, the typical side characters in American shows, in front and center.

netflix

The Netflix show revolves around an academically competitive but hot-headed teenager Devi, played by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, trying to catch the eye of the school heartthrob while secretly grieving the sudden death of her father.

netflix

As someone who has always balanced two cultures, Kaling said the coming-of-age story helped her further explore her roots and religion.

Never Have I ever

My coming to terms with my Indian-ness is a big part of the show. I was born in the US, raised in a pretty white area, without speaking any Indian languages, so culturally I always felt I straddled the lines of two cultures, Kaling told PTI in an email interview.

Never Have I Ever

The writer, who co-created the show with Lang Fisher, said a lot of Devis conflict and insecurities about her Indian roots are inspired by her growing up experience as a first-generation Indian-American.

netflix

"So much of Devi's relationship with her faith is inspired by my relationship with Hinduism. I consider myself Hindu, but I also feel insecure about my understanding of my own religion," she said, adding that the birth of her daughter made her "look at my faith and culture in a new way". "... because I really want her to identify as Indian, and that's kind of up to me, Kaling said about showing the cultural and generational conflict in the show through a gentle gaze.

Some of the best scenes in the show, that people are loving as well are the ones between Devi and her dermatologist mother Nalini, (Poorna Jagannathan) a strong-headed, no-nonsense woman who struggles to connect with her teenage daughter.

Netflix

Kaling, 40 confessed that she had the most fun writing the mother-daughter scenes.


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When Malaysian journalist Wan Noor Hayati Wan Alias criticized a government decision to allow a cruise ship with Chinese tourists to dock and disembark at the coastal city of Penang in late January, a time when China was at the epicenter of the COVID-19 global pandemic, she was criminally charged with causing a public panic.

Hayati now faces a possible six years in prison for three posts she made to her personal Facebook account which she says meant to critically question whether the decision was influenced by the governments reliance on Chinese investment and if authorities were prioritizing tourism revenues over public health concerns.

Since the charges were filed, Hayati, an award-winning investigative journalist and single mother, has lost her job due to retrenchment at the local newspaper where she worked and says she is struggling to survive as a freelance journalist in a restrictive lockdown reporting environment.

In an email interview, Hayati explained why the criminal charges threaten Malaysian press freedom and have damaged her reputation. This interview has been edited for clarity.

Why in your opinion did authorities file criminal charges against you for your COVID-19 related posts?

In my opinion, authorities acted on behalf of their superiors in fulfilling their wishes to have journalists and others framed for fake news for going against them. They dismissed early concerns and warnings about the coronavirus as fake news.

Later my Facebook posts warning about the virus threat came to fruition and now our country, Malaysia, has been in a COVID-19 lockdown ever since March 18.

How have the pending charges impacted your ability to report COVID-19 related news?

The longer it takes for the case to be resolved, the more challenging it is for me to write articles on COVID-19 because of the stigma of the previous government labeling me and my articles as fake news. My reputation is now no longer a clean slate.

Have you had to practice more self-censorship with the charges still pending in court?

Yes, choosing the right words is a must since anything said or written could have both positive and negative impacts [on my case], depending on the judges interpretation.

Is there any indication the government will back down considering the subsequent spread of COVID-19, precisely what your January posts warned could happen?

After all that has happened, it seems so. My lawyer is convinced that the case has too many weak points and that the charges could be dropped.

Do you stand by your posts and the COVID-19 warnings they sounded? In one case, you shared another users video claiming that 90,000 people could have died in China.

Yes, I do. I stand by my words that COVID-19 is not a political issue but rather a public safety one. As our Prime Minister [Muhyiddin Yassin] has said, he is responsible for every single life of the masses at this moment. That is a heavy commitment.

I reposted the YouTube clip in recognition of a Chinese nurse who cautioned that China would give wrong information [about their COVID-19 outbreak.]

Apparently, the truth was revealed a month after my posting  China admitted hiding information prior to the pandemic COVID-19 at the early stages when they had discovered the virus. Even the total number of deaths could be more than what had been reported.

Do you think authorities aimed to send a message to all journalists that they could face similar charges for reporting critically on the governments COVID-19 response?

I believe so and most of my media colleagues have the same view. Most journalists have been avoiding the topic and now only wait for responses and information from the authorities. None dare to think or search outside of the box, nor do they question anything the government says  even on social media. It has not been good for press freedom.

Do you think Malaysian journalists are free to report on COVID-19 related news?

Based on my personal experience, journalists must now obtain authorization from the Ministry of Health before interviewing any of the doctors or medical personnel [dealing with COVID-19]. Crucial details on [infected people] and infected areas are not properly given and that has arguably caused an increase in the number of patients.

While their reason for avoiding contacts is understandable, to prevent the virus from spreading, there are also some out there who have voiced dissatisfaction with the governments response.

I recently interviewed one of the officers who dealt with one of the COVID-19 victims. The hospital where he worked called me soon after the article was published because apparently I didnt have clearance from the public relations officer in charge to interview him/her.

They said procedures must be followed before anybody can interview any of the case-related individuals, even though the interview was about his/her personal experience and not about the hospitals policies. They also said that it was unfair for me to get an exclusive while other [reporters] are still waiting for the official statements.

How has the governments lockdown impacted journalists ability to report?

The word hard would totally understate the situation at hand. All reporters and journalists now require an official letter from their management for each of their interview requests.

Even without that, many sources flat out refuse to meet personally. As a result, most interviews are done through WhatsApp or email, which really limits the interaction and on-scene visuals.

Is the government using fake news allegations to curb independent reporting on Malaysias COVID-19 situation?

I believe so. They said they are fighting against fake news, but the reality remains that they are trying to cover for the mistakes of the previous [Mahathir Mohamad] government as they took slow action against the impending virus at that time.

How have the criminal charges impacted you personally?

It has been a hard pill to swallow. After losing my place at one of the most prominent news agencies here, I have now taken to writing for an online news portal which pays based on articles, not a regular monthly salary. As there is no freedom to report, the topics Im able to publish are severely limited. If none of my articles passes through, then I dont get paid and I cant put bread on the table.

What will happen to your family if you are convicted and sentenced to prison?

It would be devastating, that is no exaggeration. I am a single mother with my one and only beloved child under my care. I do not have any close relatives that would truly care for his well-being as much as I do.

Its a blessing that I could spend time with him right now under lockdown and it has made me realize that losing him would mean that Ive lost my whole world. It saddens me every time the thought crosses my mind.
The one-hour show was part of a series of events held by TAITRA to highlight Taiwan's strengths and to boost economic activities amid the global standstill

Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) has announced the creation of ecosystem of pandemic prevention products and related industries in Taiwan, aimed at offering assistance in the fight against the raging COVID-19 outbreak.

Experienced in Epidemic Prevention, Taiwan Can Help

Taiwan has shown the world its resilience, integration capacity and advanced medical practices. A well-organized deployment and pandemic prevention product ecosystem will definitely broaden the horizon and scope of the supply chain for Taiwan's medical industry, said Walter Yeh, President and CEO of TAITRA, at an online product launch campaign.

The one-hour show was part of a series of events held by TAITRA to highlight Taiwan's strengths and to boost economic activities amid the global standstill, according to the trade promotion body.

Webinars jointly organized with National Cheng Kung University Hospital attracted 14,000 Indian medical staff. A virtual healthcare pavilion which consists of 42 medical, assistive devices or smart medical products from 33 Taiwan Excellence Awards winners was in place, Yeh said.

Such measures sever the boundaries of time and space, and even the rules of social distancing, he noted, adding that international buyers and interested individuals can engage their desired products or Taiwan Excellence Awards winning companies within a few taps or swipes.

Chern-chyi Chen, Director General of "Taiwan's Bureau of Foreign Trade", also spoke at the event, noting that Taiwan has implemented various measures to assist industries to respond to the impact.

Chen's agency vowed to expand advertising and promotion in international markets and to help enterprises win business opportunities during the toughest times, he said.

Rapid Testing of the New Coronavirus, Taiwan is Presenting Results

The product launch included Mediland's disinfection robot, Great Group Medical's respiratory device, APEX Medical's healthcare solution, Taiwan Stanch's surgical face masks, ONYX's telehealth and smart hospital product from ONYX, vaccine and test kit from Medigen Vaccine Biologics and BluSense Diagnostics, all of which are pandemic prevention products.

Due to the explosive demand of COVID-19 testing kits, Medigen Vaccine Biologics and BluSense Diagnostics have presented their high-anticipated rapid test kits in today's press conference, drawing the public's eye.

Leo Lee, Executive VP of Medigen Vaccine Biologics pointed out that its nucleic acid testing (RT-qPCR) can be completed within 80 minutes. It has also proven to be effective in two well-known universities, Chang Gung University, Taiwan and Temple University, US. The test kit has attained the EU CE certification on April 23, and is currently pending approval from the authorities in accordance with the "Emergency Use Authorization, EUA".

As for BluSense Diagnostics, a COVID-19 antibody detection system is utilized

Jessie Sun, Executive VP of BluSense Diagnostics noted that its serologic testing can be completed within 15 minutes and has been verified in Denmark. Its sensitivity and specificity are as high as 90%. The company will further complete a larger amount of clinical studies in Italy and they are currently applying for EU CE certification.

Other brands present at the product launch including Radiant Innovation, Tex Year, Asiatic Fiber, Advantech, IEI Integration, Rice Ear, QS Control and Kimforest, also showcased their innovative pandemic-prevention products to the world at the online press conference, which attracted over 200 participants from Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, India, the Philippines, Korea, South Africa, Egypt, Australia, etc.
Two Shramik Special trains carrying more than 2,100 migrant workers left on Tuesday night from Kalyan junction in neighbouring Thane district, the Central Railway (CR) said.

One of them, carrying nearly 1,200 migrants, left for Darbhanga in Bihar, a CR release said.

The end-to-end service departed at 8.37 pm carrying only the registered and nominated passengers cleared by the Maharashtra government, the release said.

The second end-to-end Shramik special train left for Guntakal (Andhra Pradesh) around 11 pm, carrying nearly 930 migrants, according to Railway officials.

On Monday, the Central Railway had operated two Shramik special trains between Akola-Lucknow and Bhiwandi- Jaipur.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After asking Crown corporations, universities and certain provincial departments last month to develop plans to reduce staff costs by 10 to 30 per cent, the Pallister government has settled on a figure that's far below that  2.2 per cent.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 4/5/2020 (624 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After asking Crown corporations, universities and certain provincial departments last month to develop plans to reduce staff costs by 10 to 30 per cent, the Pallister government has settled on a figure that's far below that  2.2 per cent.

Finance Minister Scott Fielding said Monday the government has identified $860 million (3.8 per cent) in overall spending reductions as it battles the COVID-19 pandemic and struggles to cope with an estimated budget deficit of $5 billion for the current fiscal year.

Government department spending will be reduced by 3.4 per cent ($509 million). Of that, $9.5 million (0.8 per cent) will be in the form of workforce spending reductions.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Premier Brian Pallister appears to have settled on a level of cuts lower than he first suggested. Instead of a 10 to 30 per cent reduction in staff, the province announced cuts would be 2.2 per cent.

There were no temporary public service layoff numbers announced Monday. The government said it was still negotiating various options with unions to minimize actual layoffs, including a possible work-share plan that would involve workers receiving EI payments.

"The cost of personal protective equipment alone could reach a billion dollars for Manitoba taxpayers."  Manitoba Finance Minister Scott Fielding

Government business enterprises, including Crown corporations, are expected to slash their budgets by a total of 3.8 per cent, or $177 million in total. That includes an 11.2 per cent cut in workforce expenses  or $95 million in total.

Meanwhile, other government reporting entities, such as post-secondary institutions and school divisions, are expected to trim total spending by one per cent or $177 million, including $89 million in workforce expenditures.

JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Finance Minister Scott Fielding has identified $860 million in cost savings.

"Our No. 1 goal here was to find non-essential spending that we could pull and direct towards the front-line health-care providers," Fielding said in a teleconference call with reporters.

"The fact that we came in at a reduction of 2.2 per cent (in workforce costs) as opposed to 30 per cent, we think, is obviously a good news story because there isn't the reductions that initially we put forth as information."

Fielding said the government expects its 2020-2021 revenues to drop by $3 billion and its costs to rise by $2 billion.

"The cost of personal protective equipment alone could reach a billion dollars for Manitoba taxpayers," he said.

JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES NDP Leader Wab Kinew said the province's cuts would be the largest single-day cut in Manitoba history.

Within core government departments, the government has found $500 million in discretionary spending savings, including conference and travel costs, to redirect to the fight against COVID-19, the finance minister said.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew called the $860-million spending reduction the largest single-day budget cut in Manitoba's history. He said the effect on services is "going to be felt right across the province."

Kinew accused the government of "hiding behind percentages and ratios" and not being forthcoming on the impact the cuts are going to have on jobs. He said within specific areas, staff cuts could still reach 30 per cent, although the government isn't telling.

"Why not just come out and tell us: here's how many people are going to get hit with layoffs; here's how many people are going to be hit with a salary reduction because of reduced workweeks. The fact that they're not telling us that suggests that this $860-million cut is bad news," he said.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Michelle Gawronsky, president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees Union, said her members are panicking with no information forthcoming about who might be laid off.

Michelle Gawronsky, president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees Union, said she still doesn't know which civil servants will be affected by temporary or permanent layoffs three weeks after Premier Brian Pallister said cuts were coming.

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"People are just panicking that theyre going to be out of work," she said.

Gawronsky said the MGEU has been able to work out arrangements with other public sector employers.

At Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries, some casino workers have been able to find jobs at liquor stores, she said.

A number of employees at Manitoba Public Insurance have been temporarily laid off and are collecting federal benefits, Gawronsky said. Other MPI workers have been redeployed in other public sector roles, including the procurement and distribution of personal protective equipment, she added.

But so far, civil servants don't know where they stand, the union leader said.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca
By Trend





Railway transport, in particular when using containers, is currently the safest and most stable way for goods transportation between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, a representative of Kazakhstans Ministry of Trade and Integration told Trend.

The ministry official said that normally cargo transportation between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan is carried out by all types of transport on the following routes:

- by railways via transit through Russia;

- mixed railway/road transport and maritime transport through Kazakhstans Caspian Sea ports of Aktau and Kuryk;

- by road transport from Kazakhstan through Russia;

- by direct air flights of Kazakh companies from Almaty, Nur-Sultan and Aktau cities to Baku.

"At the same time, seven regular cargo flights per week are performed by the Azerbaijani Silkway Airlines cargo airline company on the Baku-Almaty-Hong Kong/Shenzhen, Baku-Aktau-Baku and Baku-Atyrau-Baku routes," the official said.

The official also added that Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia are actively working together to develop the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route.

"The formed alliance of railway, maritime and logistics transport operators of the route have provided a unified transportation technology and tariff policy in both transit and export-import routes to increase the efficiency of the route. By launching a new automobile ferry complex in the Kuryk port, the traffic of cargo in both directions increased significantly. Even now there is a high demand for the route through the Kuryk port," the official said.

At the same time, the official said passenger air flights were closed due to coronavirus outbreak, which affected cargo transportation via air as the majority of it was transported via passenger flights. Currently air cargo transportation is only available by ordering a charter flight or if there is space left on regular cargo flights.

The ministry also said that due to the need to comply with sanitary and epidemiological procedures during road transport, transport companies are faced with certain restrictions, which may affect the timing and cost of transportation.

Thus, railway transportation currently is the safest and most stable way of transporting goods, in particular when using containers.

Commenting on the issue whether the closure of air traffic between the countries affected the volume of cargo transportation, the ministry official said that only a small amount of goods used to be transported by air between countries due to well-established road and railway routes, as well as a relatively short distance.

"Thus, only expensive goods used to be transported by air, as well as goods requiring urgent delivery, which only allows for 2-3 percent of the total volume of cargo transportation. As a result, even the complete suspension of air cargo transportation would not have a significant impact on the overall cargo transportation tonnage," the official said.

At the same time, official said, market conditions, the restrictions imposed by the countries on export and import of goods during the pandemic have had greatest influence on the traffic volume than the transportation restrcitions.




Congresswoman and sexual assault survivor Ayanna Pressley on Tuesday published an open letter calling on Joe Biden to address rape allegations with "empathy".

Former aide Tara Reade recently filed an official police complaint alleging Mr Biden in 1993 pinned her against the wall, reached under her skirt and forced his fingers inside her.

While high-profile Democrats like Hilary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren ignored the allegations when endorsing the presumptive presidential nominee, Ms Pressley said she's "here for an uncomfortable conversation".

In her 600+ word appeal on Medium, Ms Pressley opened up about her own sexual assault while asking Mr Biden and his campaign to "give a response that models the empathy, diligence and acknowledgement of broken systems that this conversation demands".

"I am not new to watching survivors bare their souls, and I am not new to being offered false choices in politics," she wrote in the piece.

"I reject the false choice that my party and our nominee can't address the allegations at hand and defeat the occupant of the White House."

Mr Biden responded directly to Ms Reade's allegations on an episode of MSNBC's Morning Joe program, saying that "believing a woman means taking the woman's claim seriously when she steps forward. And then vet it".

"I don't know what is motivating her. I don't know what is behind any of it, but it is irrelevant. It never happened. It never happened, period," he said.

When asked why he doesn't allow a search for Ms Reade's name among documents at the University of Delaware that could prove whether records of a complaint exist, Mr Biden said information in there could be taken out of context and "be fodder in a campaign at this time".

"There is nothing. They are not there. And I don't understand the point you are trying to make. There are no personnel records by definition," he said.

Ms Pressley, who was elected in 2018 as Massachusetts' first Black congresswoman, said "assumptions and our starting points" for conversations about sexual violence have to change and "the allegations against Joe Biden are no exception".

"Listening to the stories of those who step forward is the baseline. We say 'believe survivors' because, for nearly all of history, the experiences of survivors have been dismissed and derided by a society steeped in misogyny and hatred. We advocate that we begin with assumptions of credibility and move to due process and reconciliation," she said.

"We are in the throes of an election of the greatest consequence -- one that will determine if core rights and tenets of democracy survive in this nation. The stakes cannot be overstated. But I have no patience for any person who tells me that is a reason to lower my voice.

The blog post was backed by her fellow 'Squad' members Rashida Talib and llhan Omar, who said it was a "must read" and that they were "here for it!"
For students in grades 9 through PG

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NEW YORK, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Aerospace Titanium Fasteners Market 2020-2024

The analyst has been monitoring the aerospace titanium fasteners market and it is poised to grow by $ 777.21 mn during 2020-2024 progressing at a CAGR of 6% during the forecast period. Our reports on aerospace titanium fasteners market provides a holistic analysis, market size and forecast, trends, growth drivers, and challenges, as well as vendor analysis covering around 25 vendors.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p04921196/?utm_source=PRN



The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current global market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. The market is driven by the rising demand for titanium fasteners, development of next-generation engines and increasing demand in emerging economies. In addition, rising demand for titanium fasteners is anticipated to boost the growth of the market as well.

The aerospace titanium fasteners market analysis includes application segment and geographic landscapes



The aerospace titanium fasteners market is segmented as below:

By Application

 Commercial

 Military aerospace



By Geographic Landscape

 North America

 Europe

 APAC

 South America

 MEA



This study identifies the emergence of ASRP5 software as one of the prime reasons driving the aerospace titanium fasteners market growth during the next few years. Also, introduction of 3D printing, adoption of centreless grinding technology and exploring cost-effective derivatives of titanium compounds will lead to sizable demand in the market.

The analyst presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources by an analysis of key parameters. Our aerospace titanium fasteners market covers the following areas:

 Aerospace titanium fasteners market sizing

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Rome: For the past several days, the havoc of Corona has become an enemy of innocent people, thousands of deaths are happening every day due to this virus. The number of infected people is constantly increasing, not only that, now the coronavirus has also taken the form of an epidemic, after which the food shortage in the homes of people is increasing, not knowing that due to this virus many innocent lives that have come to the brink of destruction. The death toll has crossed 2 lakh 17 thousand worldwide and still no break of this virus has been found.

World Asthma Day: Do you also have trouble breathing?

This behavior of people is increasing difficulties: 174 more people died of infection in a single day on the eve of relaxation from sanctions in Italy. According to the report of the news agency AP, there was a huge crowd of people on the beaches of Southern California. There were also dangerous signs from Afghanistan's capital Kabul where one third of 500 people investigated without prior notice have been found infected. State parks were opened in New Jersey, USA, after which 50% of the parking lot was filled. As a result, the administration had to send people back.

Corona: Sikh doctors campaign against forced beard shaving

US and UK in dilemma: Coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birks of the White House said that demonstrations demanding hundreds of people to withdraw the sanctions and fully activate the economy have created worrisome conditions. In Britain, there is increasing pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to explain how he will remove the bandh in the country. While hundreds of people are still dying from Corona daily in the country even in the midst of sanctions. The big question is how the UK will implement the relaxation of the restrictions.

Coronavirus increased discomfort in China, getting untreated corona infected
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 02:03:05|Editor: huaxia

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LONDON, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Struggling in crucial talks with the European Union (EU) after its departure from the bloc on Jan. 31, Britain on Tuesday started the negotiation of a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States by videoconference amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

According to the British Department for International Trade (DIT), the first round of negotiations will last for approximately two weeks and will involve around 100 negotiators on each side. Further rounds will take place approximately every six weeks and will be carried out remotely until it is safe to travel.

Saying that transatlantic trade can help the British economy bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic, International Trade Secretary Liz Truss reiterated that London will drive "a hard bargain" to secure a deal that benefits the whole country.

While Downing Street sees new opportunities in the deal for the country's businesses, opposition party and some farm leaders warn of high risks a new deal may bring to the British market.

The opposition Labour Party said the National Health Service (NHS), food standards and workers' rights should not be sacrificed in the deal with the world's largest economic power.

There are rising concerns in Britain that the trade deal would lower barriers to controversial U.S. exports such as chlorine-washed chicken and hormone treated beef. Farm leaders have called on the government to make a clear statement of food imports to the country in post-Brexit trade deals.

"Allowing food produced to low animal welfare and environmental standards to undercut UK farmers is unacceptable," said Mark Bridgeman, president of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), an organization for owners of land, property and businesses in rural England and Wales.

He noted that if the U.S. wants greater access to Britain's food market, they must conform to British high standards and the British government must legislate to protect their farmers in all future trade deals.

Experts also argue a trade deal with the United States could not compensate for a distant relationship with the EU.

Thomas Sampson, associate professor of the Department of Economics at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), considered it "a mistake" for Britain to start negotiating with the United States at this stage.

"Potential gains from U.S. deal are much smaller than costs of leaving the EU," he said, citing the government's own analysis suggesting an ambitious U.S. deal would raise Britain's GDP by around 0.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the two countries are still struggling to combat the COVID-19 outbreak. As of Tuesday, Britain has overtaken Italy as the worst-hit country in Europe by the coronavirus outbreak.

Last month, the second round of talks on a trade deal between Britain and the EU ended with limited progress as vast differences remained.

"The government has limited resources -- expertise, money, attention. Right now, talks with the U.S. are a distraction from dealing with COVID-19 and from UK-EU negotiations," said Sampson. Enditem
Without much fanfare, news reports on vaccines against the coronavirus have been focusing on ways to expedite vaccine development through human challenge trials. In a nutshell, such trials would deliberately infect healthy volunteers with the coronavirus after they received the experimental vaccine, to determine its efficacy.

Democratic Representative Bill Foster of Illinois, leading the effort with 34 other members of the House of Representatives, sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration, stating, A more risk-tolerant development process is likely appropriate in the case of COVID-19 vaccine. The enormous human cost of the COVID-19 epidemic alters the optimization of the risk/benefit analysis.

Josh Morrison, a member of a supposed grass-roots effort, 1 Day Sooner, told Nature magazine, We want to recruit as many people as possible who want to do this, and pre-qualify them as likely to be able to participate in challenge trials would they occur. At the same time, we feel that the public policy decisions around challenge trials will be better informed if they highlight the voice of people interested in participating in such trials. According to the group, thousands from over 50 countries have volunteered.

Vaccine trials are notoriously lengthy, with optimistic estimates of 12 to 18 months to vaccine rollout. Much of the time in vaccine trials is spent in testing the safety and efficacy of a vaccine. These placebo-controlled phase-three trials, in which one group receives the vaccine and another a placebo, typically involve several thousands of participants who are followed long enough to assess differences in disease incidence.

Human challenge trials have been conducted over hundreds of years but are trials of last resort and conducted under special circumstances and much oversight. In the case of COVID-19, they were first raised in late March in a proposal published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases by authors Nir Eyal, Marc Lipstich, and Peter G. Smith. They wrote in their abstract, By replacing conventional phase-three testing of vaccine candidates [with human challenge trials], such trials may subtract months from the licensure process, making efficacious vaccines available more quickly.

The role of vaccines in global health cannot be understated. Smallpox was eradicated in 1977, the last case occurring in Somalia. Polio was eliminated in the United States in 1979. After a global campaign launched in 1994 by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, rinderpest, a viral infection of cattle and domestic buffalo with near 100 percent lethality to livestock, was last confirmed in 2001 and declared eradicated in June 2011.

Measles, a virus for which only humans act as a host, killed 7 million to 8 million children annually until a decade of work led eventually to the development of a vaccine in 1963. Still, and despite an effective vaccine being available, measles infects more than half a million people across the globe, killing more than 140,000 people annually, mostly children under five years of age. Countries with the highest incidence include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Madagascar, Somalia, and Ukrainethese five account for almost half of all cases worldwide.

The vaccination program in the United States, according to the CDC, has prevented more than 21 million hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths among children born in the last 20 years. Besides the morbidity and mortality associated with vaccinations, the economic benefits translate to $295 billion in direct costs and $1.38 trillion in total societal costs.

Efforts have been underway to develop a vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Many see a vaccine as the only solution to the pandemic. With no pharmaceutical treatments that have shown clear mortality benefits, the present public health measures and supportive medical care remain essentially the only means by which to address the coronavirus and its impact on human populations.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are currently six human trials in the race to develop a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. Moderna, working in association with the NIAID, and INOVIO Pharmaceuticals are US-based trials, both in phase I. Moderna was the first to begin testing on humans in mid-March, building on its previous work on other coronaviruses. The University of Oxford, in Britain, is in phase I/II trial using a nonreplicating viral vector. The study is being led by Dr. Sarah Gilbert, who previously led work on Disease X, a hypothetical pathogen with pandemic potential adopted by the WHO on their shortlist of blueprint priority diseases. The other three trials are from ChinaCANSINO Biological, SINOVAC, and Beijing Institute of Biological Products. Seventy-seven other trials are in the preclinical evaluation stage.

In October 2016, the World Health Organization issued a statement on regulatory considerations for vaccine trials that pursue human challenge trials to expedite the development of these critical preventative treatments. They write, It is essential that challenge studies be conducted within an ethical framework in which truly informed consent is given. When conducted, human challenge studies should be undertaken with abundant forethought, caution, and oversight. The information to be gained should clearly justify the risks to human subjects.

The WHO notes that if a pathogen has a high case fatality rate and there are no existing therapies to prevent or diminish the impact of the disease and preclude death, then it would not be appropriate to consider such trials. Based on reports, they are planning to publish a response to proposed COVID-19 human challenge trials soon.

Authors Eyal et al., in regard to concerns about a human challenge trial for COVID-19, admit that it could be possible that any protection demonstrated from a vaccine in a human challenge study may not be replicated when the vaccine is used in the population at large.

Additionally, there is no attenuated SARS-CoV-2 virus that can help participants avoid the hazards associated with COVID-19, as was indicated in the WHOs guidance, nor is there a therapeutic that could safely reduce the mortality risk after the participants are infected. More concerning, they write, is that some vaccine constructs against coronavirus may induce more severe disease following infection, as has been reported in animal models of both SARS and MERS vaccine candidates. For this reason, they recommend challenging small groups sequentially to address this issue.

In support of the proposal, they state that these volunteers will have voluntarily consented to take these risks. They write, In the present case, the study would involve multiple tests of comprehension of all risks so that the decision is deeply informed and voluntary. These participants would be isolated in treatment facilities and given the best care possible.

They also justified the conduct of the trial on the grounds that 1) the study will only recruit healthy participants, 2) the vaccine likely will benefit some of those in the trial, 3) in the absence of a vaccine they are likely to be infected anyway, 4) only people with a high baseline risk of getting exposed should be recruited, 5) participants would be afforded the best available care, and 6) potentially some therapeutics may be available to ameliorate morbidity or mortality.

Dr. Beth Kirkpatrick, professor and chair of the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Vermont, who runs a human challenge trial unit, explained to STAT that human challenge models for COVID-19 do not exist. She said it would take upwards of two years to design and approve one, given all the ethical and regulatory constraints that they entail.

One of the primary considerations with such a human challenge trial is to establish appropriate endpoints for symptomsflu-like illness or pneumoniaand their implications for the efficacy of the vaccine. As yet, scientists are still puzzled over why some people become ill while others do not, and why symptomatic patients have a constellation of symptoms as compared to others. Additional concerns raised include if the data from such a study will translate to efficacy in all age categories, since the population being tested is young and healthy. Information about vaccine safety would also be compromised in these smaller trials.

The working class must treat with a great deal of skepticism the claimed benefits of such treatments and how such studies are being conducted, especially in the face of a pandemic with a novel coronavirus that at every turn has surprised and baffled scientists and researchers. Given the despair and upheavals caused by this pandemic, volunteers for these trials will likely come from among workers who are at the highest risk for contracting the infection because of the essential nature of their work.

That these human challenge trials are being vigorously supported by the political establishment is deeply concerning. The normal sentiments of mistrust, caution, and vigilance to protect the individuals involved seem absent. Ultimately, the race for vaccine development is rooted in capitalist relations which provide a tremendous profit incentive to the corporations that manufacture them, in addition to the general concern in ruling circles about promoting a back-to-work policy. The human challenge trials become a facilitator for both purposes.

The attempt to cut corners and expedite trials have already led to abject failures, which in the long run only delay the need to determine which therapeutics and vaccines will work and are inherently safe and which present adverse profiles. In the face of the frenzy and despair that is igniting social tensions, it becomes even more necessary to adhere rigorously to scientific principles. Even in desperate times, these principles will save time, life, and resources.
Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal on Tuesday said those who were part of an Instagram group where objectionable things were being discussed about minor girls should not be spared.

The commission had issued notices to police and the photo and video sharing social media app over the online group ''Bois Locker Room'' being used by some persons to share objectionable pictures of minor girls and discuss illegal acts, including rape.

After the DCW issued the notices, a case was registered and a minor was apprehended, she said, adding that police are investigating about the other members of the group.

"These were the same people who were making plans to gang rape girls and were making objectionable comments about them.

"Such persons, irrespective of where they are and whether the lockdown is in place or not, should not be spared," the DCW chief said.

She also appealed to people that they should exit such groups if they are a part of them and report about them to the panel.

Maliwal also appreciated those girls who had reported about the group on social media and called them ''brave''.

"If they are facing any issues, they can approach the DCW and we will help them. I appeal to society to support such girls," she added.

A minor has been apprehended by police in connection with the matter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Evacuation of Nigerians stranded in the U.S. due to the novel coronavirus pandemic is to begin on May 10, according to the Consulate-General of Nigeria in New York.

The consulate-general disclosed this in a notice signed by the Consul-General, Mr Benaoyagha Okoyen, on behalf of the Nigerian Missions in the U.S.

According to the notice, no fewer than 700 Nigerians have registered with the missions in the U.S. for evacuation, which will be done in batches.

It said that the first batch of 270 evacuees would be transported to Abuja through an Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 509. The plane is expected to depart the Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey at 9.15p.m., and fly directly to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.



As earlier announced by the Federal Government, the flight is at the expense of the evacuees, who will all fly economy class, according to the notice.

Follow Us on Facebook  @LadunLiadi; Instagram  @LadunLiadi; Twitter  @LadunLiadi; Youtube  @LadunLiadiTV for updates
Former first lady Michelle Obama has admitted that it felt almost like a slap in the face that Democratic voters did not turn out to defeat Donald Trump at the 2016 US election.

In comments made during her documentary, Becoming, which is released on Wednesday, Ms Obama added that the pain of Hillary Clintons loss to Mr Trump was made worse because black Americans had not voted.

It takes some energy to go high, and we were exhausted from it. Because when you are the first black anything, she says in the film, whilst referencing anecdotes from her 2018 best selling book, also named Becoming.

Describing the pain of being on stage during the Trump inauguration, the former first lady admits: A lot of our folks didnt vote. It was almost like a slap in the face.

I understand the people who voted for Trump, she continued. The people who didnt vote at all, the young people, the women, thats when you think, man, people think this is a game.

Michelle Obama's most empowering quotes Show all 10 1 /10 Michelle Obama's most empowering quotes Michelle Obama's most empowering quotes On the key to a successful marriage In our house we dont take ourselves too seriously, and laughter is the best form of unity, I think, in a marriage. On Live with Regis and Kelly in February 2011. Getty Images Michelle Obama's most empowering quotes On not underestimating yourself "You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world's problems at once but don't ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own." In a speech to schoolgirls at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School in North London in April 2009. Getty Images Michelle Obama's most empowering quotes On inspiring young people I want our young people to know that they matter, that they belong, so dont be afraid. You hear me? Young people, dont be afraid. Be focused, be determined, be hopeful, be empowered Lead by example with hope, never fear, and know that I will be with you, rooting for you and working to support you for the rest of my life. In her final White House address in January 2017. Getty Images Michelle Obama's most empowering quotes On double standards regarding parenting When a father puts in long hours at work, hes praised for being dedicated and ambitious. But when a mother stays late at the office, shes sometimes accused of being selfish, neglecting her kids. At the "Let Girls Learn Event" in Madrid, Spain in June 2016. Getty Images Michelle Obama's most empowering quotes On the importance of diversity in film and TV For so many people, television and movies may be the only way they understand people who arent like them I come across many little black girls who come up to me over the course of this 7 years with tears in their eyes, and they say: Thank you for being a role model for me. I dont see educated black women on TV, and the fact that youre first lady validates who I am.' In an interview with Variety in August 2016. AFP/Getty Images Michelle Obama's most empowering quotes On maintaining hopeful following the election of Donald Trump See, now we are feeling what not having hope feels like, you know. Hope is necessary. It is a necessary concept. What do you give your kids if you cant give them hope? In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in December 2016. Getty Images Michelle Obama's most empowering quotes On motherhood "My most important title is 'mom-in-chief'. My daughters are still the heart of my heart and the centre of my world." At the Democratic National Convention in September 2012. AFP/Getty Images Michelle Obama's most empowering quotes On championing women's education Men in every country need to look into their hearts and souls and ask themselves whether they truly view and treat women as their equals. And then when you all encounter men in your lives who answer no to that question, then you need to take them to task. You need to tell them that any man who uses his strength to oppress women is a coward, and he is holding back the progress of his family and his country. In a speech at the summit of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, July 2014. Getty Images Michelle Obama's most empowering quotes On dealing with bullies When someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you dont stoop to their level. No, our motto is, when they go low, we go high. At the Democratic convention, July 2016. Getty Images Michelle Obama's most empowering quotes On the meaning of success "Success isnt about how your life looks to others. Its about how it feels to you. We realised that being successful isnt about being impressive, its about being inspired." In a speech at the Oregon State University commencement, June 2012. Getty Images

Ms Obama, commenting on the legacy of her husband, Barack Obama, also says in the film that she was frustrated every time traditional Democratic voters did not turn up to vote.

Every midterm. Every time Barack didnt get the Congress he needed, that was because our folks didnt show up. After all that work, they just couldnt be bothered to vote at all. Thats my trauma, she added.

Ms Obama does not provide much direct criticism of her husbands successor as US president, or the Republican party, during the 90-minute film.

The Obamas have maintained some distance when it comes to discussing Mr Trumps presidency, and have previously refrained from making direct attacks against the White House incumbent.

In September 2018, President Obama said he had been silent since leaving office because he wanted to dedicate more time to his family, but also because there was a wise American tradition of ex-presidents gracefully exiting the political stage.

Ms Obama, meanwhile, has been more candid in her public appearances since leaving the White House.

Becoming will show the former first lady on her 2018 world book tour, whilst providing anecdotes about the 56-year-olds upbringing in Chicago and life inside the White House.

So little of who I am happened in those eight years. So much more of who I was happened before, she explains in the film. I am from the South Side of Chicago. That tells you as much about me as you need to know.

Becoming was made by Higher Ground, the Obama-owned production company that won an Oscar earlier this year with its first film, American Factory.

Netflix announced the release of the documentary last Monday, describing the film as an intimate look into the life of the former first lady.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - China Eastern Airlines Corp. has overtaken Southwest Airlines Co. to become the world's biggest airline by number of seats. The Chinese airline was able to become number one after the U.S. carrier grounded a large number of its flights, according to OAG Aviation Worldwide. Southwest Airlines dropped over one million seats in the last week, which moved the airline into second position in terms of global rankings. This for the first time in history that a Chinese airline has become the largest airline in the world by seat availability. The number of seats available globally dropped to 26.6 million this week from 109 million last year. 'Dramatic cuts are outstripping those small shoots of optimism,' OAG analyst John Grant wrote in his weekly blog. 'Some 270 airlines added capacity back to the tune of approximately 3.9 million seats; unfortunately, 303 airlines reduced capacity by some 5.6 million including over 1 million fewer seats from Southwest Airlines.' 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.
Members of the Hamilton County Sheriffs Office arrested Donald Scott Trivett, 39, on Monday for aggravated assault and resisting arrest at the Hamilton County Courthouse at 625 Georgia Ave.

Trivett began creating a disturbance shortly after entering the Hamilton County Courthouse around noon. A Hamilton County Sheriffs Office court deputy and a Walden security officer instructed Trivett to leave the building. He refused and then assaulted the deputy and officer.

Trivett then took the Walden security officers issued pistol from his holster.

The weapon was taken from Trivett with the help of a court bailiff.

Multiple Hamilton County Sheriffs Office deputies and Chattanooga Police Department officers responded to the scene to assist.

Donald Scott Trivett was arrested and charged with the following:

 Two counts of aggravated assault

 Carrying a weapon during a judicial proceeding

 Unlawful carrying of a weapon

 Reckless endangerment

 Resisting arrest

 Disorderly conduct

The court deputy and Walden Security officer only suffered minor injuries.
This article by David Roza originally appeared on Task & Purpose, a digital news and culture publication dedicated to military and veterans issues.

An airman who went missing outside Dyess Air Force Base last month allegedly refused to surrender his personal firearms after he was confronted about a threatening email sent to his chain of command, according to a criminal complaint filed on April 24.

Erland Injerd, 37, has been charged with assaulting a federal agent after a fight broke out between him and three members of Dyess security forces when they visited his home on April 22. According to a complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Injerd refused a lawful order when he declined to turn over his weapons.

Injerd refused to comply and began cursing at security forces officers' Senior Master Sgt. Klexton Q. Jett, Master Sgt. Derek L. Krahn and Officer John F. Breed, wrote FBI Special Agent Sean E. Means in an affidavit supporting the criminal complaint.

The airman also refused to turn around and put his hands behind his back when he was told, according to the complaint. Instead, Injerd struck Breed in the face, and all four of them ended up on the ground as the security forces tried to detain him.

Injerd intentionally poked his finger in Officer Breeds right eye and struck SMSgt Jett in the knee, Means wrote. SMSgt. Jett recently had knee surgery and Injerd was aware of this.

Injerds wife then opened the front door to their home, and the airman retreated into the house, shut the door, broke a back window, crawled out, scaled the base perimeter face and escaped into the woods, Means wrote.

Local police and Air Force defenders with 7th Security Forces squadron searched for Injerd, but the airman evaded capture in the difficult and wooded terrain, police said at the time. Police said at the time that Injerd was considered armed and dangerous.

A Dyess spokeswoman told Task & Purpose that the FBI is now leading the investigation alongside the U.S. Marshals Service and Air Force Office of Special Investigations. A warrant is out for his arrest.

The search will continue, regardless of time elapsed, until he is located, said Capt. Meredith Mulvihill, chief of public affairs for the 7th Bomb Wing. Dyess Security Forces will also continue to have an increased presence in base housing and across the installation until the situation is resolved.

According to Stars & Stripes, Injerd is a senior airman and weather forecaster at Dyess. Col. Ed Sumangil, commander of the 7th Bomb Wing, said on April 24 that he did not believe Injerd posed a specific threat to the Dyess community.

But just in case, we have increased our security forces presence throughout the base, he said on Facebook. "We will especially remain active in base housing.

Airmen and their families were advised to continue their normal outdoor activities, but to remain observant and to keep a close eye on their kids.

Dyess last described Injerd as a white male with short/shaved brown hair, approximately 5'8, last seen wearing a long sleeve black shirt with blue jeans. Sumangil advised the community to contact the Dyess law enforcement desk, (325-696-2131), or the Dyess command post (325-696-1921) if they spotted Injerd on base, or the Abilene police department (325-673-8311 or 911) if they spotted him off base.

More articles from Task & Purpose:
A month and a half ago, the Tunisian authorities decided to close all the countrys courts, including the 13 judicial chambers specializing in transitional justice, as part of preventive measures against the spread of Covid19. This pause will soon be interrupted to begin a phase of gradual de-confinement starting this week, which is not without concerns for victims in the Tunisian Transitional Justice Network, a coalition of victims NGOs.

Will the reconciliation that is again being talked about in recent days, especially by head of parliament Rached Ghannouchi, as a miracle solution to all the countrys ills and perils, put an end to the specialized chambers? asks Houcine Bouchiba, coordinator of the Network. He fears that the new government of Elyes Fakhfakh, which has made transitional justice one of the priorities of its roadmap since its appointment at the end of February, will turn away from it after the end of the health crisis, because of new economic priorities in a country that is on its knees.

No judgments yet

But not everyone shares his concern. For Judge Raoudha Karafi, Honorary President of the Association of Tunisian Magistrates (AMT) and a fervent activist for transitional justice, this forced leave of absence for the specialized chambers embodies an opportunity to rethink their functioning, their needs and the stakes they represent in order to find solutions to their obstacles.

The trials of the specialized chambers, inaugurated in May 2018 to try serious human rights violations committed between July 1955 and December 2013, cover the abuses suffered by all political opponents in Tunisia from the eve of its independence to the first post-revolutionary years of 2011. They have had great difficulty in bringing suspects to court, particularly given the refusal of security forces unions to secure the courts if colleagues suspected of torture are called to the stand. No judgments have been handed down so far.

The delays can be attributed to both the political and judicial authorities, according to Karafi, the executive, since the judicial police attached to the Ministry of the Interior never respond to the summons issued to police officers. This is a political decision of the former government to drag out or kill the process. And it should not be forgotten that the judges of these chambers operate under threat from influential political parties and media figures hostile to transitional justice, in addition to intimidation from police unions. Their physical and moral integrity is in danger, says the magistrate.

Recommended reading Tunisias specialized courts at a standstill

Organized instability?

Karafi also points to the responsibilities of the Supreme Judicial Council (CSM), created in 2017, an independent structure that is supposed to guarantee the separation of powers and support the proper functioning of the judiciary. The Council is responsible for the stability of the magistrates of the specialized chambers, a good part of whom are transferred with each annual judicial rotation. This leads to instability in these structures, delays in the processing of cases and incomplete chambers that are not allowed to sit until the new magistrates have been trained in transitional justice. This is why, for example, the Tunis chamber has this year suspended its hearings for several months, explains Karafi.

This expert in the workings of the judiciary thinks the solutions are in the hands of the CSM, which she says needs to have a strategy concerning the specialized chambers. Enough judges need to be trained so that in cases of transfer, former magistrates can be easily and quickly replaced. In any case, this training based on human rights, international treaties, freedoms and the fight against corruption are beneficial for the entire penal chain.

The magistrates are overburdened with work as they combine transitional justice and ordinary justice cases. Avocats Sans Frontieres and other NGOs involved in supporting transitional justice therefore recommend that the heads of courts relieve the judges of the specialized chambers so that they can move forward on cases of serious human rights violations.

No summary justice!

This is what has just been decided at the specialized chamber in Tunis, where President Ridha Yacoub and his team are now dealing only with transitional justice.

This measure should be extended to other courts in the country, especially those where the specialized chambers have received many cases, says Emna Sammari, a doctoral student at the Faculty of Legal, Political and Social Sciences in Tunis and co-author of Justice and Reconciliation in the post-Arab Spring Maghreb. For Sammari, another threat hangs over the specialized chambers. According to her, their judgments risk being overturned for failing to respect fundamental constitutional rights, including the right to a fair trial since according to the Tunisian Constitution, citizens are entitled to two levels of jurisdiction, but the Transitional Justice Act does not provide for a transitional justice appeals court.

Karafi expresses confidence in the future of the trials after de-confinement. For her, a solution exists to address the issue raised by Sammari. She proposes a government decree providing for courts of appeal for the specialized chambers.

Above all, lets not resort to summary justice that can turn the accused into victims! says the honorary president of the Tunisian Magistrates Association. The most important thing is to pursue a process that is in accordance with the rules and that represents a real therapy for the whole country, a process that shows the judicial system to be an institution that can guarantee the rights and freedoms of Tunisians!
My Fathers Love Language

The first time my father told me I love you, he was in a hospital bed, hooked up to IV fluids and beeping machines. Cancer had transformed him into a fragile man who might take flight with the slightest wind. Standing by him as evening descended over New York City, I recognized little of the man who shoveled our entire driveway and hoisted me onto his shoulders. When he uttered those words, I was angry; it felt like a resignation. Yet, even at 17, I understood: He spoke his love because he could no longer love through action.  Jessalyn Li
Every visit to Ireland by every American president was a melodrama in mutually-agreed exploitation.

That view may offend romantic interpretations of the motivations behind those grand visitations, but it is nonetheless true.

Some  especially Bill Clintons, given his proactive role in the North  were much more, but most had objectives of a different, more personal kind.

Ronald Reagans visit to Ballyporeen, in June 1984, epitomised that opportunism. He was beginning his campaign that won him a second White House term, so he was happy to highlight his newly-found Irish ancestry so he might make common cause with Irish-American voters.

For our part in those dramas  contemporary versions of the Delhi Durbar  we hope to attract American investment and visitors.

This process, with EU membership, corporate-friendly tax arrangements and an English-speaking workforce, has paid huge dividends for Ireland and for American investors.

Ireland is a significant exporter of pharmaceuticals and medical products to America. Last year, we exported 48.2bn, almost 1bn a week, and 31% of all Irish exports. Most of this went to America, and was produced by US companies with facilities in Ireland.

To put that figure in context, food and drink exports hit a record 13bn  just over 1bn a month in 2019, little more than a quarter of the value of pharma exports.

Such figures inevitably attract attention, not all of of it well-intentioned.

If that attention can distract from an unfolding public policy disaster 70,000 Covid-19 deaths in America  and an economic crisis, then so much the better.

That seems a reasonable way to frame President Donald Trumps declaration on Sunday night that he intended, within two years, to repatriate American drug production.

Should he succeed, our economy would be decimated. It might be comforting to dismiss that renewed declaration as braggadocio, especially as he may not be president for long more.

But at a moment when Irish exchequer figures expected today may suggest a 30bn budget deficit this year, that might be hasty. The prospect that he might be re-elected cannot be dismissed either.

On a different level, the declaration shows how Irish America has waned.

It is impossible to imagine that any modern American president could, just six months from an election, invite the chagrin of a well-organised diaspora once numbered close to 40m. But Trump has.

Whether that is due to indifference, or another example of his anti-politics politics is hardly material.

Just as changing demographics may, in time, be influential in establishing a new political reality on this island, they are changing the depth our relationship with todays America and maybe not for the better.

We may not be the only country feeling this chill wind. Italy had, through its emigrants and their children, a strong relationship with America but it has weakened and, just a year ago, Italy became the first G7 Group-of-Seven nation to join Chinas One Belt, One Road project. Increasingly disillusioned with the EU, Italy has made a decision that underlines how well-prepared China is to fill the gap left by a retreating America.

Ironically, the greatest losers in this tectonic shift may be those who elected Trump.
Coronavirus, or more exactly SARS-CoV-2, has the world in its grip. How does the virus manage to bind to cells in the human body? How does it gain entry to the cell? How does it hijack the cell's machinery to make it help to replicate the viral genome?

Scientists around the world are working hard to answer these questions. They hope to discover the 'Achilles heel' of the virus as a target for new drugs to block the replication cycle of SARS-CoV-2. Although scientists already know a lot about the virus they still lack detailed knowledge in many areas.

Andrea Thorn and her team aim to provide these missing details. Together they form the "Coronavirus Structural Task Force" - an international network of experts in the field of structural biology.

Their goal is to validate our existing knowledge of the molecular structures of coronavirus and to fill knowledge gaps - or as she puts it: "To get the as much as possible out of the data".

Dr. Thorn, how large are the gaps in our knowledge about the coronavirus that is causing the current pandemic? "Unfortunately, much is still unknown. We are still in the dark about many things that happen at the atomic level.

However, we do know, for example, that the viral genome encodes 28 proteins that fulfill different tasks when attacking the host cell. They suppress the immune system or reprogram the cell to replicate the virus.

But we only know the structures of about half of these 28 proteins - and molecular structures are crucial in identifying and developing potential drug targets. In addition, the virus interacts with around 150 other proteins from the host cell, but we know very little about these interactions."

The art of creating an exact image from experimental data

As their name suggests, structural biologists work to decipher and visualise the exact structure of large biological molecules, such as proteins, at the atomic level.

The synchrotron measurements they use do not produce images in the traditional sense. Instead they deliver huge amounts of data, and it is the job of the structural biologists to create three-dimensional molecular models from these data.

Bioinformaticians and computational chemists can then use computers to virtually screen these structures against thousands of substances to look for potential active agents that could bind to the respective molecules and block them. In addition, scientists use the structures to draw conclusions about the function of the proteins, for example, how they infect host cells.

SARS research stopped too soon

Research in this field is gaining momentum as the novel coronavirus continues to spread. Each week, Andrea Thorn and her team are supplied with information about new structures which they computationally. At the same time, they sift through existing data, check their validity or improve existing structural solutions.

Coronaviruses, and the SARS virus in particular, are not new discoveries. In 2002/2003, a SARS virus triggered a pandemic that killed almost 800 people worldwide. After the number of new infections had decreased significantly in the summer of 2003, the WHO declared the pandemic over on 19 May 2004.

Dr. Thorn, the coronavirus we are dealing with today is not entirely new. Is this advantageous for your work?

"The two SARS coronaviruses are actually very similar in their genome and molecular structures. The fact that the progression of the disease and spread are so fundamentally different is due to their subtle differences. So, we are working hard to identify those differences at the structural level. Unfortunately, SARS virus research was cut back again after the pandemic ended 15 years ago. If the research activities had been continued, we might already have an effective drug for treatment available today."

Looking for a suitable drug

Andrea Thorn wants to research such a drug in the near future. Together with colleagues from Lubeck and Berlin, she has applied to the Federal Ministry of Education and Research for funding.

The team has its focus on one particular protease - an enzyme from the coronavirus that enables replication in the host cell. The scientists hope that drug screening will help them identify a substance that inhibits this protease. This would prevent the virus from making more copies of itself.

Andrea Thorn cannot say when the coronavirus pandemic will be over. But she has a clear picture of what the future after the coronavirus crisis will look like from a scientific point of view:

"Already in the few weeks since the task force was established, we have seen the different working groups band together. Structural biologists and modelling experts have come together to build a new knowledge base and to improved their methods. These experiences can be transferred to future projects."

Vita

Andrea Thorn studied Molecular Science at the University of Erlangen and subsequently earned her doctorate at the University of Gottingen.

Her academic career has taken her to Cambridge, Oxford and the University of Hamburg. Since 2019, she has been an associate group leader at the Rudolf Virchow Center of the University of Wurzburg as part of Professor Hermann Schindelin's research group. Her group develops methods and software to extract structures from experimental data.

Andrea Thorn launched the Coronavirus Structural Task Force shortly after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the new coronavirus a pandemic. Using the combined knowledge and skills of structural biology, she wants to help stop the virus.
At least 20 boys studying in at least four prominent schools in Delhi-NCR were part of an Instagram group in which members discussed raping their classmates and made lurid remarks while sharing their photos, police officials said on Tuesday, as more details of what went on in the closed social media chatroom reignited concerns about sexual violence involving minors.

Investigators said the group, Bois Locker Room, had 22 members in all, and two of them were adults studying in colleges, after they took into custody a 15-year-old boy who was identified as the administrator.

We have apprehended the 15-year-old boy and are questioning the adult members of the group, said Anyesh Roy, the deputy commissioner of police of the Cyber Crime cell.

While we are questioning the adults, we are also interviewing some minors. We know the names of most of them, but are still ascertaining their other details, said an investigator involved in the case, asking not to be named. On Tuesday, 10 members had been questioned over phone, while the 15-year-old was sent to a remand home meant for juvenile suspects.

The content on the group included a remark by one member who suggested collecting a group of boys to gang rape a classmate, and several photos of schoolgirls that were accompanied with texts objectifying them. There were also copies of photos posted by girls on Instagram that were then appended with lewd and violent remarks.

The conversations were exposed after one of the boys in the group took screenshots and passed it on to someone else, said the officer, before it was posted on social media by one of the girls who was targeted.

Some of the other teenagers we have interviewed claimed that they did not involve themselves in such conversations. One other student has said he saw these conversations as harmless. The student did not see the criminality in such conversations, said the officer. The police said that they have seized some of their mobile phones to check if they were having similar discussions on other social media platforms as well.

On Monday, multiple such screenshots were shared on social media before the police took suo motu cognisance and registered a case invoking sections of the Information Technology Act and the Indian Penal Code dealing with the distribution of pornographic content and making objectionable remarks about women.

According to the investigator quoted above, the minor members will be booked under the juvenile justice act.

On Monday, authorities of one of the schools  where the whistleblower student studied -- filed a complaint with the Delhi Police. Once the screenshots emerged in the public domain, the group was deleted and another one created. Some girls were added in the new group to mislead police, said the investigator.

The original group was created in early April, the investigator quoted above said, adding that it was yet to be verified if all screenshots being shared on social media were actually part of the actual conversations or if some were morphed or picked up from elsewhere.

Swati Maliwal, the Delhi Commission for Women chief, called out to other people who could possibly be members of such similar groups on other social media platforms, to exit such groups and report them to her. Lockdown or not, such boys wont be spared, she said. On Monday, the DCW had issued notices to the Delhi Police and Instagram to respond to the allegations.

On Tuesday, the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) too took notice of news reports on the incident and issued a notice to the Delhi Police to take action in the case.

From a broader perspective, try to understand how such things come to pass. Our society faces three different sets of stark realities. One, we are a discriminatory society; second, we are a society where there is normalisation of violence, especially in close relationships; and third, sexuality and violence are intricately enmeshed. If one triangulates these three realities then one recognises that such instances are not one-off... A substantive response has to be thought of. To begin with, each one of us must communicate with our children about respect, equality and empathy: between genders, between castes, between ethnicities, between identities, between people. It is when we recognise people as people first that we stop violence and humiliation, saaid Achal Bhagat, senior psychiatrist, Apollo Hospital.
Stanford Health Care is resuming elective surgeries and other non-emergency procedures this week  and is encouraging patients to seek out that care  after finding that less than 1% of its health care staff tested positive for the coronavirus and very few had markers of previous infection.

More than 11,000 workers, out of about 14,000 total, have undergone testing for active infection and antibodies, Stanford Health officials said. Only a few dozen, or about 0.33%, tested positive and none had symptoms of illness. Fewer than 3% tested positive for antibodies, which indicate they had been infected at some point.

Those were startlingly low rates, Stanford Health administrators said. And the revelation should help reassure patients that its safe to seek out health care services that they have put off for the past couple of months.

The first step was making sure our staff was safe, said David Entwistle, president and CEO of Stanford Health Care. Were testing all the patients. Weve now tested the staff. Were creating that trust so that patients are safe coming in.

Hospitals and other health care facilities postponed non-emergency procedures across the state in mid-March under California and local shelter-in-place orders. The purpose was twofold: to prevent spread of infection in health care settings and to free up beds and other resources in case of an anticipated surge in COVID-19 patients.

But that surge never arrived; as of last week, Stanford only had nine patients hospitalized with the coronavirus, and across the Bay Area hospitalization numbers have been falling.

In the meantime, many medical centers have been losing money from canceled or postponed procedures while patients suffered with non-urgent conditions that left them in pain or discomfort. Even emergency room visits dropped off  in many places by more than half  and doctors worried that patients were delaying care for serious issues such as heart attacks and strokes.

Two weeks ago. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that hospitals could begin to provide non-emergency care again as long as they had procedures in place to protect patients and their staffs. Among the criteria for reopening are the ability to do large-scale testing of patients and employees, having enough personal protective equipment such as masks and gowns for health care providers, and being able to keep patients with COVID-19  or those suspected of being infected  separate from others.

UCSF began offering that care last month, and slowly some other providers have reopened too. Sutter Health started phasing in non-emergency care this week, said Dr. Bill Isenberg, the health systems vice president for patient safety. Kaiser Permanente is resuming high priority elective procedures, including surgeries that had been delayed but cant be put off any longer without risking patient health, said Dr. Smita Rouillard, associate executive director.

Stanford Health, which operates seven hospitals and outpatient clinics across the Bay Area, began calling patients last week to reschedule elective surgeries, such as joint replacements, back procedures and even cancer operations that werent urgent.

In a typical week, Stanford Health does about 1,200 to 1,400 procedures a week. During the past seven weeks, surgeons had been doing about 200 elective procedures a week that they had decided needed to be addressed immediately. Roughly 700 procedures were scheduled for this week.

Its been a big pivot one way and then very cautiously pivoting back to more routine care, said Dr. Mary Hawn, chairwoman of the surgery department at Stanford. We are very excited. As physicians and nurses, its been hard to sit on the sidelines waiting for the surge, and then gratefully and fortunately that did not happen.

There have been so many patients whose care we had delayed, and now we can reach back out to them and ensure them that the health care environment is safe for patients, she said.

Stanford administrators said that about 85% of patients they contacted were eager to reschedule procedures. The rest were hesitant, often because they did not yet feel comfortable visiting the hospital due to the outbreak. Some patients said that because of shelter-in-place restrictions that are keeping them apart from family and friends, they dont have anyone to care for them after surgery.

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.

John Swartzberg, a UC Berkeley infectious disease expert, said that the very low rates of infection and antibody-positive tests among health care workers at Stanford suggest that hospital procedures to control the virus are working and that patients should feel reassured by those results.

Thats telling us that our infection control procedures are working and that theyre being robustly used, Swartzberg said. People talk about being so frightened to go to the hospital right now, but I think its probably a pretty good time to go. It may not be a bad time at all, because the hospital census is quite low.

Indeed, as hospitals prepared to be overrun with COVID-19 patients they kept many beds empty, and many facilities in the Bay Area are now well below their usual occupancy levels. As a result, some health care systems have announced pay cuts or staffing reductions. Last week, Stanford Health said in an internal letter that workers would need to take pay cuts or use paid time off, or else accept unpaid leave.

Even emergency departments that werent closed or forced to scale back services reported significant drops in patient visits. And those patients who did show up were sicker than usual, suggesting many people were delaying care, physicians said. At Stanford Health, emergency doctors said they saw more people with advanced appendicitis, for example, and a higher-than-usual percentage of their patients needing to be hospitalized.

Maybe people let their disease process go further than they should have, said Dr. Andra Blomkalns, chairwoman of the emergency department at Stanford. What were trying to figure out is how to convince people that its safe to come back. Im hoping people will stop trying to avoid coming to the emergency department when they need it.

Erin Allday is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com
Israel's prime minister urged the country's Supreme Court on Monday not to interfere in his efforts to build a coalition government, threatening that a decision against him could drag the country toward an unprecedented fourth straight election in just over a year.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his comments shortly after the court heard a second day of arguments in a series of legal challenges to the coalition deal.

The court's rulings, expected by the end of the week, will dictate whether Israel breaks out of its prolonged political paralysis with Netanyahu and his former political rival Benny Gantz joining forces in government, or whether the country is plunged into another election.

The court is looking into two key questions: whether a politician facing criminal corruption charges, such as Netanyahu, can form a new government; and whether his coalition deal with Gantz violated the law.

Speaking to reporters following a briefing on coronavirus developments, Netanyahu pressed the court not to get involved in the country's political affairs lest it risk forcing new elections.

We hope the court doesn't interfere. It doesn't need to interfere. There is the will of the people, the clear expression of the will of the people, Netanyahu said.

If a court ruling picks apart the coalition deal, it increases the chances that we will be dragged to fourth elections, something that will be a catastrophe, he said.

An unusually large panel of 11 justices, all wearing face masks and separated by plastic barriers, heard the case against the emerging coalition. Reflecting the case's importance, the court took the rare step of streaming the proceedings on its website and on national TV.

Since Netanyahu was indicted on corruption charges last year, he has stepped up his attacks on the country's legal establishment and sought to portray himself as a victim.

Netanyahu and his allies have long considered the high court a liberal bastion that overreached its boundaries to meddle in political affairs, accusing it of undermining the will of the people as expressed in national elections.

His opponents regard the court as the final safeguard of Israeli democracy that has been under dangerous assault from demagogic populists.

After deadlocking in three closely contested election campaigns, Netanyahu and former military chief Gantz reached a deal last month in which they would be sworn in together for an emergency government ostensibly to battle the coronavirus and its economic fallout.

The deal calls for Netanyahu to serve first as prime minister and Gantz as the designated premier, with the two swapping posts after 18 months. The new position will enjoy all the trappings of the prime minister, including an official residence and key for Netanyahu an exemption from a law that requires all public officials, except the prime minister, to resign if charged with a crime.

The court will be asked to rule on this arrangement and there is a sense of urgency as Thursday marks the deadline for presenting a new government before new elections are called.

Zeev Elkin, a Cabinet minister from Netanyahu's Likud party, warned that any court intervention could trigger a highly unpopular election.

The coalition agreement is very complex. Moving a single brick could bring the entire structure down and force fourth elections, Elkin told Israel's Army Radio.

Attorney Dafna Holtz-Lechner, who represents one of the petitioners, countered that oversight was required precisely because "someone charged with criminal offenses is also the person who concocted the coalition agreement with all its repercussions for himself.

Netanyahu has been charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in a series of scandals in which he is accused of offering favors to media moguls in exchange for favourable press coverage.

He denies the accusations and says he is the victim of a media-orchestrated witch hunt. His trial was postponed in March due to restrictions his hand-picked interim justice minister placed on the courts after the coronavirus crisis erupted. It is now scheduled to start later this month.

Netanyahu is eager to remain in office throughout his trial, using his position to lash out at the judicial system and rally support among his base.

The coalition deal also gives him influence over key judicial appointments, creating a potential conflict of interest during an appeals process if he is convicted.

Netanyahu's attorneys, though, say he will refrain from getting involved in anything pertaining to his own case.

Israel's attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, said in an opinion to the court that while Netanyahu's indictments raise significant problems, there was no legal basis for barring him from serving while facing criminal charges.

But good governance groups have appealed against this, citing the precedent of forcing Cabinet ministers and mayors to resign if indicted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 22:21:47|Editor: huaxia

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WINDHOEK, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's Finance Ministry Tuesday said a total of 576,104 people out of 970,720 applicants were approved for payment under the Emergency Income Grant which ended midnight on April 30, an official said.

Namibia Finance Ministry Chief Public Relations Officer Tonateni Shidhudhu on Tuesday confirmed that the payments to over half a million Namibians have been made and the remaining payments for approved applicants are in the process of disbursement.

A large number of applicants were rejected for various reasons that included ID number belonging to the deceased persons, mismatch of names and ID numbers with official records, he said.

According to Shidhudhu, the ministry managed to disburse about 432 million Namibia dollars (about 24 million U.S. dollars), since the commencement of the disbursement of funds on April 14.

Meanwhile, Shidhudhu said the Ministry of Finance has set May 8 as the due date for verification for those who have not received the grants. Enditem
Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC) marked the one-year anniversary of its acquisition of Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) by reporting consolidated revenue in the first quarter of $4.7 billion, a 14% increase over the same quarter in 2019.

Operating income was $1.1 billion compared with $938 million in the prior year.

Net income came in at $754 million, or $1.48 per diluted share, in the first quarter. This compares with $716 million, or $1.40 per diluted share, in the prior year.

The firm reported no impact from the coronavirus crisis in the first quarter but anticipates future effects.

The company acquired JLT on April 1, 2019 and JLTs results are included in the consolidated results of operations from that date. The three month period ended March 31, 2019 does not include JLTs results.

Risk & Insurance Services revenue was $2.9 billion in the first quarter of 2020, an increase of 20% compared with the first quarter 2019. Operating income of $854 million increased 17% from the prior year.

Insurance broker Marshs revenue in the first quarter was $2.1 billion, an increase of 5% on an underlying basis. In U.S./Canada. International operations produced underlying revenue growth of 4%, reflecting growth of 6% in Asia Pacific, 4% in EMEA and 3% in Latin America.

Reinsurance broker Guy Carpenters revenue in the first quarter was $827 million, an increase of 7% on an underlying basis.

Revenue from consulting  Mercer and Oliver Wyman in the first quarter was $1.8 billion, an increase of 5%. Operating income increased 1% to $282 million compared with $279 million in the prior year.

Marsh & McLennan had an excellent first quarter. We marked the one-year anniversary of our acquisition of JLT and are realizing the benefits of the combination, Dan Glaser, president and CEO, said.

In January, Marsh & McLennan Agency (MMA) closed two acquisitions: Ironwood Insurance Services and Momentous Insurance Brokerage. On April 1, 2020, MMA announced the acquisition of Assurance Holding,

Topics Profit Loss
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday lauded the three photojournalists from Jammu and Kashmir who won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for their "striking images of life" in the valley.

"Congratulations to Indian photojournalists Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand for winning a Pulitzer Prize for their powerful images of life in Jammu & Kashmir. You make us all proud," he tweeted.

Citing a report, Gandhi said the photojournalists won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for their feature photography during the lockdown in the region, following abrogation of Article 370 in August last year.

The Pulitzer Prize is considered the most prestigious award in journalism.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Closed virtual session confirmed

Participation and voting modalities

Regulatory News:

SpineGuard (FR0011464452 ALSGD) (Paris:ALSGD), an innovative company that deploys its DSG (Dynamic Surgical Guidance) sensing technology to secure and streamline the placement of bone implants, confirms that its Annual Shareholders meeting will be held on Thursday 14 May, 2020 at 08:45 CEST in a closed virtual session.

In compliance with recent French legislation1 and per the recommendations of the French SEC (Autorite des Marches Financiers or AMF), SpineGuard confirms that its Annual Ordinary and Extraordinary Shareholders Meeting will take place on May 14, 2020 at 8:45 am (CEST) in a closed virtual session. It is hereby reminded that AMF strongly encourages the shareholders to vote, such right being a fundamental prerogative of each shareholder.

Such right shall be exclusively exercised through a vote by proxy and, except for particular cases, prior to the shareholders meeting taking place.

Documents including the shareholders brochure ('brochure de convocation' in French only) and the voting form are available at the following links:

Shareholders Brochure

Voting Form

In order to be taken into account a shareholding certificate issued by the shareholders broker shall be sent with the voting form. The voting form and the holding certificate shall be either mailed to Societe Generale, Services Assemblee Generale, 32 rue du Champ de Tir CS 30812, 44308 Nantes Cedex 3 or e-mailed to investors@spineguard.com

Deadline for reception is 11 May 2020

The Shareholders Meeting will be webcasted at https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/630832325

The shareholders presentation will be released on the company's web site at 8:45 am (CEST) on the day of the meeting at https://www.spineguard.com/fr/investisseurs/documentation/

Questions will be possible using the available chat during the conference or be sent in advance at either of investors@spineguard.com or spineguard@newcap.eu

About SpineGuard

Founded in 2009 in France and the USA by Pierre Jerome and Stephane Bette, SpineGuard is an innovative company deploying its proprietary radiation-free real time sensing technology DSG (Dynamic Surgical Guidance) to secure and streamline the placement of implants in the skeleton. SpineGuard designs, develops and markets medical devices that have been used in over 75,000 surgical procedures worldwide. Fifteen studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals have demonstrated the multiple benefits DSG offers to patients, surgeons, surgical staff and hospitals. Building on these solid fundamentals and several strategic partnerships, SpineGuard has expanded its technology platform in a disruptive innovation: the smart pedicle screw launched late 2017 and is broadening the scope of applications in dental implantology and surgical robotics. DSG was co-invented by Maurice Bourlion, Ph.D., Ciaran Bolger, M.D., Ph.D., and Alain Vanquaethem, Biomedical Engineer.

For further information, visit www.spineguard.com

Disclaimer

The SpineGuard securities may not be offered or sold in the United States as they have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act or any United States state securities laws, and SpineGuard does not intend to make a public offer of its securities in the United States. This is an announcement and not a prospectus, and the information contained herein does and shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of the securities referred to herein in the United States in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or exemption from registration.

1 bill of 23 March 2020 to respond to COVID-19 and decree dated 25 March

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005486/en/

Contacts:

SpineGuard

Pierre Jerome

CEO Chairman

Tel.: +33 1 45 18 45 19

p.jerome@spineguard.com

SpineGuard

Manuel Lanfossi

CFO

Tel.: +33 1 45 18 45 19

m.lanfossi@spineguard.com

NewCap

Investor Relations Financial Communication

Mathilde Bohin Pierre Laurent

Tel.: +33 1 44 71 94 94

spineguard@newcap.eu
A Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel sustained minor splinter injuries below knee after unidentified terrorists hurled a grenade on the troops of 181 Battalion of the CRPF at Pakherpora in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday (May 5). CRPF sources said four civilians were also injured in the incident.

The attack took place hours after a terrorist was arrested by security forces in Gundana tehsil in Doda district. He has been identified as Tanveer Ahmad Malik. The security forces, however, are yet to ascertain the group affiliation of Tanveer.

On May 2, five security personnel, including a decorated Army officer, laid down their lives and two terrorists were killed during a gunbattle in Handwara. According to an army official, a few terrorists had taken some civilians as hostage inside a house in Changimulla at Handwara of Kupwara district. Upon receiving a tip-off, a joint operation was launched by the Army and the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

On May 4, three CRPF personnel were martyred in a terrorist attack in the Kupwara district. According to reports, terrorists opened fire on a CRPF patrol party near Qaziabad area of Handwara. The area was cordoned off following the attack on the forces and an additional reinforcement was rushed to the spot to track down the terrorists.

The next one month for security forces in Jammu and Kashmir will be seen as a big challenge as this will the time when the maximum infiltration activities from across the Line of Control takes palce. The snow in Bandipora, Kupwara, Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir starts to melt during this period, making it easier for the terrorists to cross the border.

According to reports, a large number of terrorists are waiting across the Line of Control to infiltrate in Kashmir and unleash mayhem in the valley.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5

By Ilkin Seyfaddini  Trend:

President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a meeting on the situation in the country's energy sector,Trend reports citing the Uzbek media.

"The main systematic problem is a high share of fuel imports - 44 percent of the country's needs. To change this, the government is working on some plans, in particular to convert agricultural machinery and trucks to run on natural gas," the report said.

Three units of propane-butane mixture and a plant for the production of synthetic fuel (GTL) will be put into operation by the end of 2020. As a result, imports of jet fuel, diesel fuel and LNG will be completely replaced.

The meeting also discussed energy efficiency issues of enterprises and residential buildings. The relevant structures have been instructed to develop new projects of houses, taking into account best international practices to reduce losses in heating and electricity supply.

In addition, assistance will be provided to entrepreneurs and enterprises that have organized work in three shifts during the coronavirus quarantine period. For them, energy tariffs will be reduced by one and a half times during the night.

Earlier, the Government of Uzbekistan approved the Concept of Electric Power Supply to Uzbekistan for 2020-2030.

According to the Concept, by 2030 it is planned to increase electricity production from 5,900 MW to 29,200 MW.

---

Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini
As Alabama has seen more than 200 new cases of coronavirus each day this month, State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris on Monday said the state still lacked sufficient tests to identify and isolate enough carriers to slow the spread.

He said, ideally, people need to be able to get tested and get the results while visiting their doctor or an urgent care clinic.

We're not very close, Harris said. Point-of-care testing is available in some places, but the point-of-care devices have only been available in this country for less than a month.

Harris said Alabama did receive a limited number of rapid test machines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services but is still struggling to get test kits that go with the machines.

The machines themselves are not really the issue, it's the test kits that go with those machines. And those are just not widely available yet.

Alabama has seen its number of new coronavirus cases increase each day in May, even as calls to reopen businesses around the state grow louder. But Harris said the state only has two methods for slowing the spread, testing and social distancing.

Harris, speaking at the states Unified Command for COVID response in the RSA Tower in Montgomery on Monday, said that while the state can test many more people per day than it could a month ago, it still has still a long way to go.

Until we have a vaccine or until we have some kind of effective treatment, theres really only two tools in our toolbox in public health, Harris told AL.com. We can test people and isolate them if we find them, and we can encourage people to social distance.

We really don't have any other effective strategies. Now, those can be really effective strategies if you can implement them, but there's certainly, you know, a call for things to get opened back up, to reduce these social distancing limitations that we've had, and so we've got to really be certain that our testing and contact tracing capacity is up to speed.

Harris said that in order to properly assess and reduce the spread of the virus, testing needs to be available in many more places.

What we really need for it to be is routine testing available at the place where people go to get care, that's when we'll really have a handle on testing, Harris said. Once we have point-of-care testing available in clinics in emergency departments and urgent cares and community health centers, that's when people can just go to their regular health care provider that provider says you need the test, we'll do it here, it will be done in 15 minutes. That's when we will really be at the level we want to be at.

Hospitals holding up for now

Eight weeks after the first confirmed COVID case in Alabama, Harris said the states goals in containing the virus remain the same.

Our goals all along have been, number one, reduce the number of new cases, and by extension reduce the number of deaths we see, Harris said. And also, flatten the curve so that the cases we do see don't overwhelm the capacity of our healthcare system.

We feel that weve managed the second one pretty well at this point. Hospitals have been able to take care of all the cases they've had, but we still continue to see lots of new cases.

New hotspots emerge

Mobile County has surpassed Jefferson County for most total positive cases in Alabama, despite having a smaller population, and running far fewer tests.

In Mobile, we really have concerns about the rate at which cases are doubling there, Harris said. I think we feel like we're going to be seeing cases there for some time and as they ramp up testing we're certainly going to pick up more cases.

Their hospitals are doing okay and handling the cases that they see within the four walls of the hospitals, but they have really, the highest numbers at the moment there in that county.

As of Monday night, Mobile County had detected 1,222 cases of coronavirus out of 8,912 people tested. Jefferson County had detected 992 cases while running 16,960 tests. Mobile Countys population is about 413,000, while Jefferson Countys is roughly 659,000. Mobile County has also seen 66 deaths from COVID-19, the most in the state.

They were a little bit later [in Mobile] than some parts of the state in getting testing up and going, Harris said. And so now that we're looking there, we're finding quite a bit.

In addition, Harris said a poultry plant Marshall County and nursing homes around the state had sparked outbreaks.

In the case of the poultry plant, Harris said the ADPH had collaborated with the business owners to test the employees and develop procedures to minimize the risk of transmission. He said the infections among plant workers may have been spread on the commute rather than inside the building.

The business actually had a good plan in place and was doing a good job, Harris said. But they had a number of people who were traveling from the same area together to work and somebody got infected and so it was very easy for others to get infected and just because of the nature of traveling.

When you have people in close proximity working together in a plant like that even with your best precautions, it's easy for disease to get transmitted.

Harris said the nursing home outbreaks have continued to pop up around the state.

People in skilled nursing facilities are the most vulnerable group of people there are, he said. And so when you see one, you oftentimes expect you're going to see more. We've had a number of outbreaks associated with those facilities, and even involving the staff of those facilities and even if your staff are younger and healthier and do okay, they have the potential to infect other people they're caring for, but also then they're out of work for a while.

Some of our nursing facilities have had trouble just having adequate numbers of staff to work because they have enough people sidelined with the illness.
DUBLIN, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Antibacterial Glass Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global antibacterial glass market is currently witnessing a healthy growth. Looking forward, the market is expected to register a CAGR of around 5% during 2020-2025.



The rising instances of nosocomial or Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) across the globe is one of the key factors driving the growth of the market. Consequently, these glasses are extensively utilized in the healthcare sector, especially in the burn, maternity, and geriatric oncology units.



Furthermore, antibacterial glass provides protection against antibiotic-resistant pathogens and aids in preventing various fatal ailments, including pneumonia and infections in the bloodstream and urinary tract. This, coupled with the growing awareness regarding the importance of maintaining hygiene and sanitation in healthcare centers and clinics, is significantly driving the market growth.



Additionally, the growing demand for antibacterial glass to sanitize machines and equipment used in the food and beverage (F&B) industry is acting as another growth-inducing factor. Manufacturers in the F&B industry are emphasizing on using antibacterial glass on food contact surfaces to minimize spoilage from microbial contamination and extending the shelf-life of the food products.



Other factors, including the increasing adoption of antibacterial glass in the production of consumer electronics, such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, coupled with the 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 AGC Glass Europe, Beijing JiYan-Tech Co. Ltd, BFA Glas GmbH & Co. KG, Corning Inc., Essex Safety Glass Ltd., Innovative Glass, Ishizuka Glass Co. Ltd., Joh. Sprinz GmbH Co. KG, Morley Glass & Glazing Ltd., Sumita Optical Glass Ltd., Saint Gobain SA, etc.



Key Questions Answered

How has the global antibacterial glass 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 active ingredient type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the glass type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the application?

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 antibacterial glass market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the industry?

Key Topics Covered



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Antibacterial Glass Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Active Ingredient Type

6.1 Silver

6.2 Copper

6.3 Others



7 Market Breakup by Glass Type

7.1 Soluble

7.2 Porous

7.3 Coated

7.4 Others



8 Market Breakup by Application

8.1 Hospital Wards

8.2 Food & Beverage Products

8.3 Military Equipments

8.4 Household Products

8.5 Others



9 Market Breakup by Region

9.1 North America

9.2 Asia-Pacific

9.3 Europe

9.4 Latin America

9.5 Middle East & Africa



10 SWOT Analysis

10.1 Overview

10.2 Strengths

10.3 Weaknesses

10.4 Opportunities

10.5 Threats



11 Value Chain Analysis



12 Porters Five Forces Analysis

12.1 Overview

12.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers

12.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

12.4 Degree of Competition

12.5 Threat of New Entrants

12.6 Threat of Substitutes



13 Price Indicators



14 Competitive Landscape

14.1 Market Structure

14.2 Key Players

14.3 Profiles of Key Players



AGC Glass Europe

Beijing JiYan-Tech Co. Ltd.

BFA Glas GmbH & Co. KG

Corning Inc.

Essex Safety Glass Ltd.

Innovative Glass

Ishizuka Glass Co. Ltd.

Joh. Sprinz GmbH Co. KG

Morley Glass & Glazing Ltd.

& Glazing Ltd. Sumita Optical Glass Ltd.

Saint Gobain S.A.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/h0w6ky

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

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SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


Cinco de Mayo is a cultural phenomenon in the United States. Its a time to celebrate Mexican culture and, for some, an opportunity to indulge in margaritas and a few cervezas.

But it is also a frequently misunderstood holiday. Here is what Cinco de Mayo, coming up on Wednesday, 5 May, is all about.

What is Cinco de Mayo?

People often mistake Cinco de Mayo for a celebration of Mexican independence. But theyre wrong.

The holiday celebrates a failed French invasion after a fledgling Mexican state defaulted on debt payments to European governments.

In 1861 Mexico was suffering from financial ruin following years of internal strife. This was exploited by the French President Napoleon III, who thought it would be a fantastic time to try and build an empire there. Mexico had defaulted on debts with Britain and Spain as well, but those two countries negotiated with the country and withdrew their navy.

The French invaded Mexico in late 1861 with well-armed forces and stormed Veracruz, forcing the Mexican government and its forces to retreat into northern Mexico.

Confident of further victories, French forces focused their attention on the city Puebla de Los Angeles. Anticipating the attack, Mexican President Benito Juarez brought together a group of 2,000 men to fight back, many of whom were indigenous Mexicans or of mixed ancestry.

When the French finally attacked, on May 5, 1862, the battle lasted from daybreak to early evening. The French ended up retreating after losing almost 500 soldiers. The Mexicans lost fewer than 100.

Was the battle significant?

Strategically, not really. The battle represented more of a symbolic victory for the Mexican forces and added to the resistance. French forces didnt leave until 1867 after years of fighting.

Mexicans were helped in part by the end of the Civil War, when the US was able to send their own troops to help out their besieged neighbour.

'Dia de los Muertos' - Day of the dead festival in Mexico Show all 17 1 /17 'Dia de los Muertos' - Day of the dead festival in Mexico 'Dia de los Muertos' - Day of the dead festival in Mexico Dia de los Muertos is a festival to remember friends and family members who have died and is celebrated throughout Mexico and by people of Mexican heritage living in the United States AP 'Dia de los Muertos' - Day of the dead festival in Mexico AP 'Dia de los Muertos' - Day of the dead festival in Mexico Reuters 'Dia de los Muertos' - Day of the dead festival in Mexico Reuters 'Dia de los Muertos' - Day of the dead festival in Mexico AP 'Dia de los Muertos' - Day of the dead festival in Mexico AP 'Dia de los Muertos' - Day of the dead festival in Mexico Reuters 'Dia de los Muertos' - Day of the dead festival in Mexico Getty 'Dia de los Muertos' - Day of the dead festival in Mexico EPA 'Dia de los Muertos' - Day of the dead festival in Mexico Getty 'Dia de los Muertos' - Day of the dead festival in Mexico Getty 'Dia de los Muertos' - Day of the dead festival in Mexico EPA 'Dia de los Muertos' - Day of the dead festival in Mexico AP 'Dia de los Muertos' - Day of the dead festival in Mexico EPA 'Dia de los Muertos' - Day of the dead festival in Mexico Reuters 'Dia de los Muertos' - Day of the dead festival in Mexico Reuters 'Dia de los Muertos' - Day of the dead festival in Mexico Famers harvest cempasuchilt and velvet flowers to celebrate the Day of the Dead in Atlixco, Puebla, Mexico. The flowers will be sold at the 'Market of the flower EPA

Does all of Mexico celebrate Cinco de Mayo?

People in Puebla celebrate, as thats where the unlikely victory occurred, but the festivities arent nationwide. Cinco de Mayo isnt a federal holiday so the day is just like any other day for most people in Mexico.

When does Mexico celebrate its independence?

Mexico celebrates its independence on September 16. On that day in 1810, Mexican revolutionary priest Miguel Hidalgo y Castilla made a famous call to arms for his fellow men and women to resist Spanish colonial government.

Why is it celebrated in the United States?

The holiday is widely seen as a celebration of Mexican cultural heritage for Americas growing Hispanic population.

Latino activists raised awareness for the holiday in the 1960s. In large part, those early holidays in the US were a forum to celebrate the fact that a group of indigenous people were able to successfully hold back French forces.

The holiday has really taken off in the US since then and people today celebrate with parades, parties, mariachi music, and traditional Mexican foods.

Has Cinco de Mayo become particularly significant in recent years?

Donald Trumps election had bred some uncertainty and fear amongst some people of Mexican heritage in the United States. Mr Trump favoured anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric, including a promise to deport all undocumented immigrants in the country and build a wall on the border with Mexico to keep people out.

In 2017, Mr Trump tweeted out a photo of him eating a taco bowl (which is not a traditional Mexican dish) on Cinco de Mayo with the statement I love Hispanics. But Mexican-Americans arent necessarily encouraged by that tweet or the presidents actual positions since, and some have said they are fearful of celebrating Cinco de Mayo during this administration because Mr Trump has stepped up immigration enforcement since taking office.

Since that 2017 photo, Mr Trumps administration has overseen a particularly brutal crackdown on immigrants  and has received plenty of attention for its separation of migrant families arriving at the US-Mexico border seeking asylum. Mr Trump has in turn used the issue to drum up political support, and has demanded billions to build a border wall as a result of the immigration crisis he says is threatening the US.
By Loretta Weinberg

The ongoing fight against COVID-19 has strained our healthcare system, shuttered many businesses, and put the lives and livelihoods of working people and their families at risk. As I am thinking about what we can do as elected officials to make people safer and our society more resilient so that we are prepared for future crises, I am deeply struck by how fragile access to healthcare is for many of the workers now considered essential. There are some simple, common-sense proposals that our state Legislature could enact now that would go a long way to make more New Jersey families safer and healthier in good times and bad.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, I worked with partners in the labor movement to guarantee access to healthcare for 10,000 passenger service workers at Newark Liberty International Airport through the Healthy Terminals Act (S.989). While this historic pandemic continues to grow, thousands of airport service workers cannot go to the doctor without setting off a personal financial crisis. Allowing airport employers to skimp on healthcare for the people who handle our bags, push your wheelchairs and clean our airplanes is clearly against the public interest. Its not fair to ask any essential employees to work without the protections and safeguards that come with access to health insurance.

Right now, many workers are unjustly forced to choose between protecting their health and protecting their job. New Jerseys paid sick leave law provides a minimum of five sick days for almost all full-time workers. For a worker attempting to self-quarantine for two weeks, five days is far from enough. And these workers cannot afford unpaid leave, or to risk their jobs if they skip work. While the federal government is providing 10 additional paid sick days for many workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic through the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Act passed on March 18th, the new law excludes large employers, including many of those who employ contracted workers at Newark Liberty.

New Jersey should be better prepared to ensure adequate paid sick leave if and when the next health emergency arrives. The Legislature should consider legislation that would automatically increase the number of paid sick days during statewide health emergencies to 15 days. Sick workers should be able to stay home to care for themselves or family members and prevent contagion during a health emergency.

At the start of this emergency, New Jersey passed A3848, a law that protects the jobs of people who contract COVID-19. In concert with this idea, we should also pass legislation to protect the jobs of people who use New Jerseys robust Family Leave Insurance program to care for family members with COVID-19. With the uncertainty that comes with caring for those who contract this little-known disease, people need to be able to focus on caring for their loved ones without worrying they are putting a needed family paycheck at risk.

In a similar vein, when the state shuts down all schools, Family Leave should be extended to parents who must stay at home with their children. Social distancing measures mean that many families cannot use the child care options normally available to them. Essential workers need childcare support, through Family Leave Insurance or other means.

With some simple adjustments to existing programs, New Jersey could be well-prepared for the emergency of tomorrow. We cannot always count on the federal government to do what is right, we should work together as fellow New Jerseyans to strengthen ourselves and our state.

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg represents the 37th Legislative District, which includes parts of Bergen County. She is currently the Senate Majority Leader.

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Rishi Kapoors Demise: Neetu Kapoor Pens A Heartfelt Post Thanking Ambanis For Their Love And Support
BJP workers protested outside



block and sub-divisional offices across West Bengal on Tuesday, alleging anomalies in the state's public distribution system.

The BJP workers also alleged that they are being harassed by police who are filing cases against party members for social media posts against the state's response to the COVID-19 crisis.

State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh alleged false cases were being filed against party activists for "bringing out the truth about the real COVID-19 situation in the state, the hiding of death figures and real condition of hospitals".

"Our protests are against the state government's failure in all spheres -- from the PDS to collapsing healthcare facilities to illegal arrests of our activists," he said.

"Police were attacked for asking people to follow the lockdown rules and later they walked along with the same set of people in a peace march," Ghosh said, referring to the incident at Tikiapara in Howrah.

The main accused's family was provided rice and other essentials items before he being arrested, he claimed, questioning whether anyone would listen to the police after this incident.

Ghosh alleged BJP workers were not being allowed to protest in the state.

"On Monday, a BJP leader in Jalpaiguri was taken to the police station when he was going to submit a deputation to the district magistrate regarding the PDS and other issues," he said.

Meanwhile, five BJP leaders, including Hooghly district president Shyamal Bose and general secretary Amanish Aia were detained as they went to the Sreerampore SDO's office.

Police sources said the detentions were made for defying the lockdown.

The agitators also demanded the waiver of electricity charges for three months due to the COVID-19 crisis.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The number of coronavirus deaths in the US will jump to over 3,000 and new cases to about 200,000 per day by June 1, an internal draft report has said, even as more than two dozen American states announced to open up their economy amid the health crisis.

The US is the worst-hit country from the pandemic. By Monday, more than 1.2 million Americans tested positive for the COVID-19 and the total number of fatalities increased to more than 69,000.

The country's economy has come to a standstill and over 30 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits.

Multiple media reports on Monday quoted the draft report projecting the horrifying figures of about 200,000 confirmed cases per day accompanied with 3,000 daily deaths by June 1.

The numbers underscore a sobering reality: while the United States has been hunkered down for the past seven weeks, not much has changed. And the reopening to the economy will make matters worse, The New York Times reported.

There remains a large number of counties whose burden continues to grow, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned according to the daily.

However, both the White House and the CDC disavowed the report. The slides carry the CDC's logo, The Washington Post reported.

According to the report, the projection was prepared by Justin Lessler, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

I had no role in the process by which that was presented and shown. This data was presented as an FYI to CDC it was not in any way intended to be a forecast, Lessler told The Washington Post.

Lessler said he didn't know how the update was turned into a slide deck by government officials and shared with the organisations.

There are reopening scenarios where it could get out of control very quickly, he said.

Judd Deere, a White House Spokesperson said, This is not a White House document nor has it been presented to the Coronavirus Task Force or gone through interagency vetting.

This data is not reflective of any of the modelling done by the task force or data that the task force has analyzed, he said.

The President's phased guidelines to open up America again are a scientific driven approach that the top health and infectious disease experts in the federal government agreed with. The health of the American people remains President Trump's top priority and that will continue as we monitor the efforts by states to ease restrictions, Deere said.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen US states eased COVID-19 restrictions and another over a dozen have announced their plans to do so in the coming days.

States like Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas and Illinois, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, Vermont, and West Virginia have lifted restrictions.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Only language can free us of language, in other words. Fresh vocabularies are required, oddly angled adjectives and surprising sentence arrangements to startle us out of complacency. Ditch your inner chaperone, he implores. Breach the cordon sanitaire in your mind. Filth, he writes, is one possible passport, but so is openness to the unexpected encounter. Toward what goal do I aspire, ever, but collision? he writes, and he goes on to document flirtations with beautiful strangers, the purchase of a new pair of glasses, delving into the work of Herve Guilbert, swimming alongside Nicole Kidman at a local pool, watching a cloud of white butterflies. Being spellbindable is my fate, he writes.

Image Wayne Koestenbaum, whose new book of essays is Figure It Out. Credit... Tim Schutsky

The chief charges against Koestenbaum are frivolity, prurience and self-indulgence (masturbatory is the word that comes up repeatedly). To which hed respond, Id hazard, with a cheery: Guilty! Pervert is his signal noun and verb. His great and singular appeal is this fealty to his own desire and imagination. If his excesses irk, it might be useful to wonder where and how you acquired your limits in the first place  figure it out, as the title enjoins.

As with a previous collection, My 1980s, the new book features smitten elegies to his influences, which he wears proudly, a row of medals. From Elfriede Jelinek, he learned to embrace abjection; from Adrienne Rich, how to politicize it. From Sontag, he learned how style can confer authority; from Barthes, how to shrug it off. From Montaigne: randomness and decisiveness.

Such is his characteristic, persevering receptiveness that he embraces the opposite, the nightside, of every quality and thinker he enshrines. He quotes Manet approvingly: In art, you must constantly remain the master and do as you please. No tasks! No, no tasks! But he admits that the great appeal of playing piano is that I am doing nothing, but I am also working  a treadmill, a task never completed, like writing in a diary whose pages I burn after finishing them. He valorizes the intellectual seriousness of Sontag, and of the poet and translator Richard Howard, but also confesses his attraction to idleness and lassitude. Books are fine and good, but have you tried sex, or doughnuts?

Koestenbaum has long been fascinated with people who rarely speak or who speak awkwardly  the breathy banalities of Andy Warhol and Jacqueline Kennedy, for example. He crushes on evasion and ambiguity, but his own prose has always been distinguished by its tautness and agility. The new book is a more relaxed performance, however. The pieces feel rawer, some almost deliberately jagged, even unfinished; they trail off, or end in sudden dissolve. The polish has been sacrificed for a kind of intimacy, of interrupting the writer at his desk, midsentence.
Early spring is the time of year when bear activity increases, and understanding that the vast majority of state residents are spending considerable amounts of time at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the DEEP reminds residents that its staff continues to be available to respond to situations involving black bears, and to take steps to reduce encounters and potential conflicts with bears.

These steps are increasingly important because Connecticuts bear population continues to grow and expand. In 2019, approximately 7,300 bear sightings from 150 of Connecticuts 169 towns were reported to the DEEP Wildlife Division. Residents of towns in western Connecticut should expect regular encounters with bears as they are now part of the environment.

If you genuinely care about bears, you should never feed them - either intentionally or unintentionally, said Jenny Dickson, DEEP Wildlife Division Director. Bears become habituated, losing their fear of humans, when attracted to homes by easily-accessible food sources. Such bears spend more time in neighborhoods and near people, increasing public safety concerns, the likelihood of property damage, and the possibility that the bears may be hit and killed by vehicles or meet with some other misfortune.

Connecticut residents should take the following simple steps to avoid problems with black bears:

1. Never feed bears.

2. Take down, clean, and put away birdfeeders by late March, or even earlier during mild weather. Store the feeders until late fall. Clean up spilled seed from the ground.

3. Store garbage in secure, airtight containers inside a garage or storage area. Adding ammonia to cans and bags will reduce odors that attract bears. Periodically clean garbage cans with ammonia to reduce residual odor. Garbage for pickup should be put outside the morning of collection and not the night before.

4. Bears will damage backyard chicken coops and kill chickens. Therefore, make sure coops and pens are sturdy and consider protecting them with electric fencing. Beehives, berry bushes, and other livestock can also be protected from bears with electric fencing.

5. Supervise dogs at all times when outside. Keep dogs on a leash when walking and hiking. A roaming dog might be perceived as a threat to a bear or its cubs.

6. Do not leave pet food outdoors.

7. Keep barbecue grills clean. Store grills inside a garage or shed.

8. Avoid placing meat scraps or sweet foods, such as fruit and fruit peels, in compost piles.

If you encounter a bear while hiking, make your presence known by yelling or making other loud noises. Never attempt to get closer to a bear to take a photo or video. If a bear does not retreat, slowly leave the area and find an alternate hiking route. If the bear persistently approaches, be offensive towards the bear - make loud noises, wave your arms, and throw sticks or rocks. Never run. While camping, keep a clean campsite, and make sure food and garbage are inaccessible (for example, keep food in a cooler stored in the trunk of a car and never have food in your tent).

In the rare instance when a bear appears to be aggressive toward people, residents should immediately contact the DEEPs 24-hour dispatch line at 860-424-3333.

Bear sightings reported by the public provide valuable information to assist the DEEP Wildlife Division in monitoring the black bear population. Anyone who observes a black bear in Connecticut is encouraged to report the sighting at https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP/Wildlife/Nuisance-Wildlife/Living-with-Black-Bears or call the Wildlife Division at 860-424-3011.

Information on the presence or absence of ear tags, including tag color and numbers, is particularly valuable. A common misconception is that a tagged bear is a problem bear, and a bear with two ear tags was caught on two different occasions because it was causing problems. Actually, every bear receives two ear tags (one in each ear) the first time it is handled by DEEP. Most tagged bears have not been caught as problem bears, but rather as part of a project researching the states population.

To obtain fact sheets and other information about black bears, visit https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP/Wildlife/Nuisance-Wildlife/Living-with-Black-Bears or contact the Wildlife Division.

More at: www.ct.gov/DEEP | Follow on Facebook at CTDEEP, CTFishAndWildlife | Follow on Twitter @CTDEEPNews, @CTFishWildlife | connect and crowdsource social tags #CTTrailsLessTraveled #StaySafeOutdoors
Eighteen Bishops in Australia propose a four-stage plan to reopen churches to Gladys Berejiklian, the countrys Premier.

By Fr. Benedict Mayaki, SJ

In a proposal to Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, several Catholic Bishops in Australia have detailed a four-stage plan for the reopening of churches. 18 Bishops, including Sydneys Archbishop Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP signed the proposal.

The Bishops note that social distancing and other restrictions have taken a significant psychological and spiritual toll on people. For this reason, re-opening churches, at first only for private prayer and confessions and with strict protocols in place, would be a significant benefit to many in the community, offering solace to the faithful and hope to the anxious, the proposal reads.

The Australian prelates also appealed to the Premier to allow baptisms and weddings to take place with ministers and up to ten people in attendance. They also requested that a larger number of people be allowed to attend funerals and graveside services.

Four stages

In the first stage, monitors will oversee the use of hand sanitizers and physical distancing.

During the second, they suggest that Masses and services be held in outdoor spaces like car parks with a limited number of persons in attendance. There would be no collection plates or hymn books passed around, no shaking of hands or holding hands. Holy Communion would be given and received safely.

Stage three would see Masses and services moved indoors.

The final stage will be a return to the new normal with learnings from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Coronavirus

In January this year, Australia recorded its first confirmed coronavirus case. In March, it closed its borders to non-residents and imposed social distancing rules. Recently, however, with the cases of Covid-19 falling in many states, the country has started to loosen some of its tightest restrictions.

Australia currently has 6,825 confirmed cases of coronavirus infections, 95 dead and 5, 859 recovered patients.
Carrie Symonds has today praised the midwives who delivered baby Wilfred, hours after a Hermes driver was spotted delivering two boxes of organic nappies and baby products to 10 Downing Street this morning.

She retweeted a video from UCLH, the hospital in London where she gave birth last week, thanking its midwives on International Day of the Midwife, captioning: 'A big thank you from me too! You guys are incredible.'

It follows Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds naming their newborn son Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson, after their grandfathers and the hospital doctors who treated the Prime Minister for coronavirus.

Meanwhile, a courier was seen carrying two boxes to the Prime Minister's official residence, with the eco-friendly range Kit & Kin labelled across one of the deliveries.

The Hermes delivery driver seen wearing a face mask and carrying two boxes, with the eco-friendly range Kit & Kin labelled across one of the deliveries

He delivered the boxes to the front door of 10 Downing Street earlier today. The organic range was created in 2017 and co-founded by Spice Girl Emma Bunton

Carrie Symonds retweeted a video from UCLH, the hospital in London where she gave birth last week, thanking its midwives on International Day of the Midwife

Kit & Kin sells non-irritable baby skincare products, including nappies, wipes and cotton clothing.

The range was created in 2017 and co-founded by Spice Girl Emma Bunton and Christopher Money.

In a statement on the company's website, Bunton says: 'We want to take away the stress and worry parents often experience when trying to choose the best products for their family.

'Thats why weve developed an amazing range you can trust to care and protect for your family as they grow.'

Mr Johnson has previously admitted that he will help change the baby's nappies, during an appearance on This Morning before the baby's arrival in March.

Presenter Philip Schofield asked: 'How good are you at changing nappies? Will you change nappies?' The Prime Minister appeared flustered before replying: 'I expect so.'

Ms Symonds gave birth in London last week on Wednesday morning with the Prime Minister at her side, days after he himself had been released from medical care following a lengthy battle with coronavirus.

In a heart-warming Instagram post revealing the boy's name on Saturday, Ms Symonds revealed that the middle name Nicholas was a tribute to two NHS doctors, Dr Nick Price and Dr Nick Hart, who 'saved Boris' life last month' following his battle with coronavirus.

Carrie Symonds revealed the name of her and Boris Johnson's son as Wilfred, as the beaming parent shared her first photograph of the baby boy on Instagram last weekend

The website for Kit & Kin, which sells non-irritable baby skincare products, including reusable cloth-nappies made with 'reclaimed fishing nets', wipes and cotton clothing

The first name is a tribute to Mr Johnson's paternal grandfather, Osman Wilfred Kemal, and Lawrie a reference to Ms Symonds' grandfather.

Accompanying the caption was a photograph in which the first-time mother was seen tightly cradling her son, who sported an extraordinary full head of hair not dissimilar to that of his father.

The 32-year-old fiancee of Mr Johnson, who said 'my heart is full' in the caption, also revealed for the first time that Wilfred had been born at the maternity wing of the NHS's University College Hospital in central London.

Osman Wilfred Kemal: Boris's half-Turkish grandfather who gave his family the name Johnson The baby's first name is a tribute to Mr Johnson's paternal grandfather, Osman Wilfred Kemal. Mr Kemal was the father of Stanley Johnson, whose former wife Charlotte gave birth to Boris in 1964. It is through Wilfred Kemal, who changed the family name to Johnson, that Boris gets his Turkish heritage. Johnson had been his maternal grandmother's maiden name. Mr Kemal's own father, Ali Kemal, was an interior minister of the Ottoman Empire. He was lynched and stoned to death by a mob during the 1922 Turkish War of Independence. Both his son and daughter moved to southern England, where Osman would drop his first name in favour of his second name, Wilfred. Wilfred Johnson later married Irene Williams, who according to an episode of BBC's Who Do You Think You Are? was the constant subject of jokes from the family due to her grandiose claims of an aristocratic French background. On the show, it was revealed through Wilfred's birth certificate that his mother had died during childbirth. Advertisement

The caption read: 'Introducing Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas born on 29.04.20 at 9am. Wilfred after Boris' grandfather Lawrie after my grandfather Nicholas after Dr Nick Price and Dr Nick Hart - the two doctors that saved Boris' life last month.

'Thank you so, so much to the incredible NHS maternity team at UCLH that looked after us so well. I couldn't be happier. My heart is full.'

It was also revealed that Boris Johnson received a congratulatory phone call from the Duke of Cambridge on Friday afternoon, with a record of their conversation recorded as an official event in the Court Circular.

Among the first to send their well-wishes following the announcement were Dr Nick Price and Prof Nick Hart, who said they were 'honoured and humbled' to serve as the inspiration for the newborn's middle name Nicholas.

They said in a statement: 'Our warm congratulations go to the Prime Minister and Carrie Symonds on the happy arrival of their beautiful son Wilfred.

'We are honoured and humbled to have been recognised in this way, and we give our thanks to the incredible team of professionals who we work with at Guy's at St Thomas' and who ensure every patient receives the best care.

'We wish the new family every health and happiness.'

There was also a message of congratulations from the University College Hospital, where Wilfred was born.

UCLH chief executive Professor Marcel Levi said: 'Congratulations to Carrie Symonds and Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the birth of their son. We wish them every happiness at this special time.

'I would like to thank the teams who cared for Carrie and her baby.

'They are an incredibly skilled, dedicated and compassionate group of professionals who put patients at the heart of everything they do.

The couple revealed the boy's full name as Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson, with the first name a tribute to Mr Johnson's paternal grandfather, Osman Wilfred Kemal (pictured)

Boris Johnson's grandfather, Wilfred, is pictured standing with his wife Irene, his eldest son Peter (left), daughters Hilary (right) and Gillian (kneeling) and his son Stanley (Boris' father)

'I am very proud of them and all our staff at UCLH who are working extremely hard in very difficult circumstances at the moment.'

Downing Street said the Prime Minister, who is back leading the country in its fight against the Covid-19 crisis, would plough on with his duties and take a 'short period' of paternity leave later in the year.

The new family are planning to live in their Downing Street flat along with their dog Dilyn, the Number 10 spokesman confirmed last week.

The birth came after an extraordinary month for the couple, who were self-isolating separately, first because of Carrie's pregnancy and then when Boris fell ill.

Mr Johnson then spent a week in hospital, including three days in intensive care, and Ms Symonds was also briefly bedridden with symptoms of Covid-19, but made a full recovery.
First, do no harm. Its the most elementary rule of medicine and the veepstakes, and its why Joe Biden would be foolish to tap Senator Elizabeth Warren as his running mate. Warren, who held off from endorsing Bernie Sanders  her ideological ally and Bidens last remaining rival in the Democratic presidential primary  predictably indicated last month that she would accept a spot on the ticket were Biden to offer it to her. Such a decision would please a certain segment of the Democratic Party. In both a CBS news poll and a Data for Progress poll of Democratic voters, Warren recently finished well ahead of other prospective running mates such as Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar. However, despite her apparent popularity as a potential VP, picking her would harm Biden in the general-election campaign.

Bidens campaign has always been about returning to normalcy. His thesis has been that most Americans are eager to win a battle for the soul of the nation and that Democrats yearn for the return of what they see as the benign presentation and pragmatic progressivism of Barack Obama. Warren and Sanders disagreed with that approach, insisting that the country needed a starker contrast and more fundamental change. Warren claimed that Biden would not meet this moment.

As the past few months have made clear, Biden has won this argument in the minds of most Democratic voters. Despite his weak performances in the first three primary contests, he cruised to victory after victory, beginning in South Carolina, leaving both Warren and Sanders in the dust. In Warrens home state of Massachusetts, Biden won with 33.6 percent of the vote. Warren took home the bronze trophy and 21.6 percent. Presidential-primary campaigns always include sniping between candidates, and often those candidates end up on a ticket together anyway. But why would Joe Biden  a 78-year-old man with significant health questions who won the Democratic nomination handily  select a former rival with a dearth of electoral accomplishments and a radically divergent outlook to serve as his vice president?

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Warrens base, wine-track female voters, are already going to come out to support Biden in droves. Despite her progressive politics, Warrens supporters in the primary tended to be less ideologically motivated than Sanderss and were attracted to her campaign because of her gender, her perceived wonkishness, and the obvious contrasts of her Harvard Lawprofessor status and personality with President Trump. Her voters showed up at the polls in 2018 to rebuke the president, and they are going to do so again in 2020 regardless of whom the Democratic Party chooses as its nominee.

Furthermore, Sanders voters and true believers in the socialist agenda he espouses would not see Warrens being on the ticket as a sign that Biden respects them and that he will seek to integrate part of that agenda into his policies. Rather, choosing Warren would be apt to look like a transparent attempt to appease them  and an unconvincing one at that, considering that she essentially accused Sanders of sexism, alleging that he told her, in a private meeting, that a woman could not win the presidency.

Its also obvious that Warren would not be an appealing pick for a campaign that needs to shore up its strength with swing voters in states such as Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Head-to-head polling matchups with Trump during the primary perpetually pegged Warren as the worst performer. Independents tended to prefer both Biden and Sanders to Trump, but they stuck with the incumbent when Warren was posed as the alternative.

Finally, Warren would make for a poor contrast with Vice President Pence. On a debate stage with the even-keeled Pence, Warren would not appear as the enthusiastic, teacherly progressive portrayed by Saturday Night Lives Kate McKinnon. The vice president would likely bring out the angry, indignant, and haughty Harvard Law professor, solidifying a negative image that conservative and moderate voters already have of Warren. Americans have largely embraced same-sex marriage, and Pences religious views are considered anathema among Warrens base, but the accusations of homophobia and bigotry that Warren would probably level against Pence would not come across well on television. The politically astute Pence would be ready to parry Warrens attacks in a way that Mike Bloomberg wasnt, leaving Warren looking petty and small.

One can see how offering Elizabeth Warren a spot on the ticket could be superficially attractive to Biden: It would balance the ticket with both a woman and a progressive. Ultimately, though, selecting Warren would be a huge mistake for Biden. She would fail to bring in any constituencies currently eluding his campaigns reach, shed undermine his campaigns ethos, and shed be a substandard foil for Vice President Pence.

More from National Review
Donald Trump speaks as he departs the White House, on May 5, 2020, in Washington, DC en route to Arizona, where he will tour a mask factory and hold a roundtable on Native American issues.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration blocked Dr. Anthony Fauci from testifying in the House because the chamber is full of "Trump haters," contradicting the White House claim that the key health official is too busy to appear at a hearing on the U.S. coronavirus response.

On Friday, the Trump administration said it barred Fauci from testifying at a Wednesday hearing in the Democratic-held House. At the time, White House spokesman Judd Deere said it would be "counter-productive" for the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to attend because he continues to work on the government pandemic response.

The White House then allowed Fauci to testify at a coronavirus response hearing set for next week in the GOP-controlled Senate. Asked Tuesday why the administration barred him from speaking to the House, Trump responded, "Because the House is a set up."

"The House is a bunch of Trump haters. They put every Trump hater on the committee, the same old stuff," the president told reporters before he left Washington to tour a medical mask factory in Arizona.
In a recent act of kindness, the Wanted actor along with Iulia Vantur, Jacqueline Fernandez, and others donated ration to those in need

The tales of Salman Khans generosity are known far and wide. In a recent act of kindness, the Wanted actor along with Iulia Vantur, Jacqueline Fernandez, and other friends and family donated ration to those in need. The actor, who with the aforementioned people has been observing the lockdown at his Panvel farmhouse, uploaded the video to share with netizens.

In the video, Salman, Iulia, and Jacqueline and others are seen loading heaps of ration onto the truck. The actor expressed his gratitude to his colleagues by captioning the video, Thanks for the contribution... thank you all This act of generosity followed an appeal to people made by the actor last Tuesday to participate in Anna Daan.

Earlier, the Sultan actor had also donated for the daily wage workers from the film industry.
The Wage Assistance Scheme has already been implemented by Government, through the Mauritius Revenue Authority to assist employers with their wage bill for the duration of the lockdown, given the pressure that SMEs are facing with their cash flow and the uncertainty surrounding restart of business. This measure also aims at avoiding undue panic and laying off of workers.

The Wage Assistance Scheme has already been implemented by Government, through the Mauritius Revenue Authority to assist employers with their wage bill for the duration of the lockdown, given the pressure that SMEs are facing with their cash flow and the uncertainty surrounding restart of business. This measure also aims at avoiding undue panic and laying off of workers.

The Wage Assistance Scheme has already been implemented by Government, through the Mauritius Revenue Authority to assist employers with their wage bill for the duration of the lockdown, given the pressure that SMEs are facing with their cash flow and the uncertainty surrounding restart of business. This measure also aims at avoiding undue panic and laying off of workers.

This statement was made by the Minister of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives, Mr Soomilduth Bholah, at the National Assembly today, in a reply to a Parliamentary Question pertaining to the immediate measures taken and schemes set up at the level of his Ministry to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which are on the verge of insolvency amid the Covid-19 lockdown.

Minister Bholah highlighted that the exceptional circumstances created by Covid-19 and resulting business uncertainties are impacting heavily on the survival of SMEs. Given the vital importance of SMEs which represent 40% of value and wealth creation and 55% of the workforce of the Mauritian economy, Government has urgently put in place a series of measures to ensure survival of industries, especially SMEs.

A Covid-19 Plan de soutien to provide support to eligible enterprises, underscored the Minister, has been set up at the level of the Development Bank of Mauritius and comprises the State Investment Corporation Ltd, Investment Support Programme Ltd, SME Equity Fund Ltd and SME Mauritius. Six financial schemes are being offered to SMEs, namely: the Leasing Equipment Modernisation Scheme; the SME Factoring Scheme; Corporate Guarantees to Banks; Equity Financing queasy equity; the Revolving Credit Fund; and the Enterprise Modernisation Scheme.

Moreover, stated Minister Bholah, SME Mauritius has announced five schemes in March 2020 in order to ensure the sustainability of SMEs. They are: the Internal Capability Development Scheme; the Technology and Innovation Scheme; the SME Marketing Support Scheme; the Inclusiveness and Integration Scheme; and the SME Utility Connection Assistance Scheme.

He further expressed confidence that all these measures will help in alleviating the harsh financial situation that SMEs and businesses in general are currently facing. Government will leave no stone unturned during these challenging times and will further introduce measures deemed appropriate to share the burden of SMEs and other businesses, he added.

Government Information Service, Prime Ministers Office, Level 6, New Government Centre, Port Louis, Mauritius. Email: gis@govmu.org Website: http://gis.govmu.org Mobile App: Search Gov
MBABANE  Prince Simelane has suggested that government should continue to pay the salaries of police officers who die while in the line of duty until their age of retirement.



The Minister of Housing and Urban Development made this suggestion at his offices during a press conference, where he was addressing the issue of whether Mangwaneni was under the jurisdiction of the Municipal Council of Mbabane or not.

He said he was touched by the tragic accident which claimed the lives of 11 police officers and that of a truck driver along Mhlaleni-Nhlangano Yithabantu Highway last Thursday.



He said he would forward a request to Members of Parliament to put in place an Act for officers who died while in the line of duty, to be continuously paid and their families to receive their salaries until they reached their age of retirement. Secondly, Prince Simelane said it was his wish for parliamentarians to also enact a law which would allow for the children of the deceased officers to be recruited into the police service.



The minister said his wish was for those children who dropped out due to various reasons and did not manage to complete high school or those who did not get good results to qualify for university. He said there was a lot these children could do for the police service.



Condolences



Prince Simelane expressed his condolences to His Majesty King Mswati III, Indlovukazi, government, REPS and the nation on what had befallen the police service.



When sought for comment on the possibilities of police being compensated, the Attorney General (AG), Sifiso Khumalo, said the previous administration had taken a position that there should be insurance for police officers. Khumalo said this was due to the fact that police did not form part of the civil service. He said the process to formulate the legislation had started and was stuck at the regulations stage.



Meanwhile, regarding the issue of Mangwaneni, he said after COVID-19 had subsided, they would make an announcement on developing the area in terms of allocating plots for the residents. He mentioned that it was the councils responsibility to allocate plots as the area was under its jurisdiction.



The minister said if ever there were any questions regarding the matter they would gladly respond as a city, adding that council would also address any questions as well.



Prince Simelane said they noted with concern what was currently taking place at Mangwaneni, where residents were doing as they pleased without consulting with council.
Over 190 Pakistanis who were stranded in India for over two months due the coronavirus-induced lockdown on Tuesday returned to Pakistan through the Wagah Border.

The Border Security Force (BSF) handed over 193 people, including women and children, to the Pakistan Rangers at the Wagah Border.

These Pakistanis had been stranded in different parts of India for about two months because of the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, a Pakistani Rangers official said.

Most of them had gone to India to visit their relatives, seek medical treatment or to attend religious ceremonies.

On their return to Pakistan, they were screened and transferred to quarantine centres in Lahore where they will stay for 72 hours.

If their coronavirus test comes in negative they will be allowed to go home after 72 hours otherwise they will be quarantined for 14 days, he said.

Those who returned were reportedly also quarantined in various cities in India. Before their entry into Pakistan, they were screened at Attari, the Indian side of the border.

They were handed over to the Pakistani authorities after none of them was symptomatic. The relatives of those repatriated from India were not allowed to enter the Wagah Border to meet them.

Around 49 of them arrived here from Nagpur, 33 from Madhya Pradesh, 12 from Ahmedabad, nine each from Mumbai, Delhi, Raipur and Jaipur, six each from Bijnor and Anand, five each from Lucknow and Bhopal, four from Gurugram, three each from Agra, Raebareli, Rampur, Kaushambi, Kohlapur, Kota and Ferozepur, two from Kolkata, and one each from Burhanpur, Jodhpur and Ludhiana.

The first batch of 41 Pakistanis who were stranded in India since the start of the lockdown arrived here via the Wagah Border in mid of April.

The Indian government, on the request of the Pakistan High Commission, extended visas of all Pakistanis who were told to apply for extension online.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The BP Portrait Award has been won by self-taught artist Jiab Prachakul for a painting of her friends in a bar in Berlin.

Born in Thailand, Prachakul relocated to London around 2007, where she was inspired to become an artist after seeing a David Hockney retrospective.

Night Talk was selected to win first prize out of 1,981 entries from 69 countries, and is on display in the National Portrait Gallerys online exhibition, while the London gallery remains closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Prachakul, 40, was chosen as winner by a judging panel which included Dr Nicholas Cullinan, director of the National Portrait Gallery, and artist Benjamin Sullivan.

Portrait Of Denis: Actor, Juggler And Fashion Model (Sergey Svetlakov/BP Portrait Award/PA)

Her piece portrays Jeonga Choi, a designer from Korea, and Makoto Sakamoto, a composer from Japan, in a Berlin bar on an autumn evening.

The portrait explores notions of individual identity and how perceptions of selfhood can change over time.

Prachakul said: Our identity is dictated to us from the moment we are born, but as we grow up, identity is what we actually choose to be.

I do believe that our circle of friends is what makes us who we are.

Prachakul wins a 35,000 prize and a commission, at the National Portrait Gallery Trustees discretion, worth 7,000.

Labour Of Love (Michael Youds/BP Portrait Award/PA)

Dr Cullinan said: Congratulations to all the prize-winning artists and those selected for the exhibition.

Many people are turning to art and, in particular, portraiture during these challenging times and I am delighted that we are able to share some of the very best examples of contemporary portrait practise from artists across the world with audiences at home through our online exhibition.

It is a privilege to chair the judging process and I would like to thank all the artists who entered the 2020 competition.

Des Violaris, director of UK arts and culture and Paralympics at BP, said: The announcement of the winner of the BP Portrait Award is always an exciting moment and this year is no exception, with an even bigger audience able to view Jiabs fabulous portrait in the virtual exhibition online.

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Congratulations to all of this years category winners, and indeed all of the artists selected to be shown in the 2020 exhibition.

Restless (Egbert Modderman/BP Portrait Award/PA)

The second prize of 12,000 went to Russian artist Sergey Svetlakov for Portrait Of Denis: Actor, Juggler And Fashion Model.

The third prize of 10,000 went to Michael Youds, a gallery attendant at the National Galleries of Scotland, for his portrait Labour Of Love.

The BP Young Artist Award of 9,000 was won by Dutch artist Egbert Modderman for Restless, which depicts the Old Testament figure of Eli.
Shaggy and his two dogs have been ordered to leave their temporary tent home in Jackie Washington Rotary Park just days after being cleared out of a homeless encampment downtown at a closed school.

The 30-year-old  he says everyone calls him Shaggy  is one of about six homeless people who set up camp in the hilly, city-owned park near the General hospital after a tent city at the former Sir John A. Macdonald school was shut down by police on Monday.

A city parks employee gave him the bad news before Shaggy could even erect a proper tarp over the leaky blue tent that serves as home for himself and his shepherd mixes, Hachi and Chevy.

They just said you cant be here, said Shaggy, who has bounced around Hamilton for nine months since moving from Windsor. Shaggy said he was first told to vacate by Friday, but later learned he can stay until the middle of next week. I guess were not very popular around here. We keep on being pushed out.

Street outreach groups like Keeping Six and the Hamilton Social Medicine Response Team are outraged by the deadline and threatened eviction.

They argue cities like Edmonton have announced a pandemic pause on clearing tent encampments from public land to avoid forcing vulnerable people to move around during the COVID-19 crisis  or off-the-grid, away from services.

Thy also point to pandemic guidance offered by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Unless individual housing units are available, do not clear encampments during community spread of COVID-19, the website states, citing the risk of dispersing vulnerable resident and spreading the disease.

The bottom line is you cant just tell them to move on again and again, said outreach doctor Jill Wiwcharuk, who spent Friday lobbying city councillors.

In an email to councillors, advocacy group Keeping Six also said city officials previously suggested it would be easier to support people were they to set up on city property after being forced out of the downtown school. We supported people in moving to Jackie Washington in good faith and our reputations and relationships will be undermined if people are again moved on, reads the email.

Paul Johnson, Hamiltons pandemic emergency operations director, said the citys goal is to find shelter space or hotel rooms for people who are sleeping rough  including those in the park. So far, 71 hotel rooms in the downtown and east city have been used by homeless residents during the COVID-19 crisis.

Johnson said the city will not rush to clear encampments off municipal land  but it is not sanctioning tent cities, either. We do set some deadlines, but thats so everybody is working toward solutions, he said.

But why not just leave the tents alone until the pandemic crisis is over?

Johnson said encampments that get too big can become dangerous, pointing to a recent fire at a tent city in Toronto. (That city is trying to clear tent encampments by moving residents into temporary apartments.)

Ward councillor Jason Farr said fire and drug paraphernalia are the main worries he has heard from residents living near the park who have complained about the tents. We do need to maintain that park for everyone else who uses it, too.

For his part, Shaggy said he tries to clean up trash and debris in the park. He has not built a campfire, but uses a candle stove for heat.

The city calls the tent encampment shutdown at Sir John A. Macdonald a success story, arguing a team of outreach workers spent a week hooking up outdoor campers with shelter beds or hotel rooms before police cleared the site.

The Spectator has so far spoken with five people who moved from the school into downtown area shelters or an east Hamilton hotel booked by the city. Shaggy, his sister and friend Mike said Friday they moved directly to the park from the school.

Shaggy said an outreach worker did indeed talk to him about the idea of moving into a hotel. But I couldnt go. They wouldnt let me take my dogs, he said. Theyre my babies, my family. Im not leaving them in some foster home.

Pets are a unique challenge for the citys pandemic housing effort, said housing director Edward John. Some pets are deemed safe to take into hotel settings  but not all.

John reiterated the city does not want to clear encampments without first arranging access to shelter and services  and he has quiet confidence outreach teams will be able to do so for people living in Jackie Washington park.

He said the city still has more than 30 hotel rooms available if needed. Work also continues to hook up homeless residents with permanent housing options  for example, using new government funding for portable rent subsidies.

Shaggy said hes hoping for an actual roof over his head  so long as his canine family can join him.

I love the outdoors, the trees  people call me Mowgli or Tarzan  but I would like to be in a house, he said, gazing at Chevy peaking out of their leaky tent. I want a sanctuary, you know? Somewhere where I can sleep without one eye open.
Insurer American International Group Inc. on Monday posted a 93% drop in quarterly adjusted profit, as it set aside money to cover claims related to the COVID-19 outbreak, which it called the single largest catastrophe loss the industry has ever seen. AIG, one of the largest U.S. insurers, posted an underwriting loss of $87 million in its general insurance business in the first quarter, compared with a profit of $179 million a year earlier, mainly due to losses related to the outbreak.

AIG set aside $419 million in catastrophe losses in the unit, which included $272 million of estimated COVID-19-related losses such as on travel, trade credit, and workers compensation. The remainder was mainly weather-related, the company said.

Global insurers are waking up to the prospect of a double whammy  a sharp rise in payouts at a time of big investment losses as insurers investments come under pressure and the investments they rely on to pay the claims unravel.

As recession threatens the global economy along with rising insolvencies, all sorts of companies with trade credit insurance, from airlines to retailers, are coming under strain.

Adding to the pressure, U.S. commercial insurers are facing mounting political pressure to cover claims from businesses that are losing revenue because of coronavirus-led shutdowns ordered by state and local governments.

We believe COVID-19 will be the single largest CAT (catastrophe) loss the industry has ever seen, AIG Chief Executive Officer Brian Duperreault said in a statement. AIGs total net investment income, on an adjusted basis, fell by $1 billion, to $2.7 billion, from a year ago.

The insurers general insurance accident year combined ratio  which excludes changes from losses incurred in past years  was 95.5 for the quarter, compared with 96.1 a year ago.

A ratio below 100 means the insurer earns more in premiums than it pays out in claims.

AIG also said it decided to place Blackboard U.S. Holdings Inc, the companys technology-driven subsidiary, into run-off. AIG recognized a pretax loss of $210 million, mainly consisting of asset impairment charges. This charge did not impact adjusted pretax income, the company said.

Adjusted net income attributable to AIG common shareholders fell to $99 million, or 11 cents per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, from $1.39 billion, or $1.58 per share, a year earlier.

(Reporting by Bharath Manjesh and Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru, and Suzanne Barlyn in Washington Crossing, Penn. Editing by Matthew Lewis)

Topics Carriers COVID-19 USA Profit Loss
A man was shot and killed during a brawl in downtown Houston late Monday night.

The man was with a group on Jefferson and Travis streets when a car pulled up around 11:45 p.m., according to Houston police detective Sean Overstreet. People inside the vehicle started fighting with the group standing on the corner, when someone pulled a gun and opened fire.

MORE FROM JAY R. JORDAN: Car splits in half in 'horrific' deadly wreck in southwest Houston

The victim was struck and rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Overstreet said. Nearby surveillance cameras captured the violence. It will play a key role in identifying the shooter, he said.

The victims identity was not immediately released.

Anyone with information is urged to call Houston Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477).

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
Diamond production in Gabon, which has been a member of the Kimberley Diamond Certification Process since 2018, is currently dominated by artisanal miners.

The artisanal miners are producing about 300 carats per month, according to Gabons director of the Centre Permanent du Processus de Kimberley, Meboua Essoukou.

She told Rough & Polisheds Mathew Nyaungwa through an interpreter that they now want the situation to change by attracting foreign investments.

Essoukou said that De Beers, SouthernEra of Canada and Motapa Diamond of South Africa had previously done some exploration work.

She said the foreign investors will be expected to continue with exploration work and possible commence mining ventures.

Below are excerpts from the interview:

What is the state of diamond mining in Gabon?

There is no industrial diamond mining taking place in Gabon at the moment and the exploitation that is taking place is done by artisanal miners.

Do you have any known deposits of diamonds in Gabon?

There are three areas that are known to have diamonds and these are Makongonio, Mitzic and Okondja. Diamond exploration was done in these areas and we are now looking for investment to conduct further work in these areas.

Was the exploration done on industrial scale?

This was done on industrial scale. Exploration was done by companies such as De Beers, SouthernEra and Motapa.

When did De Beers conduct diamond exploration in Gabon?

The last exploration work was conducted in 2003 and 2004. So since then there hasnt been any exploration work done in the country.

Is there any company currently holding an exploration licence in Gabon?

No, not at the moment.

What are you doing to attract companies interested in diamond exploration in your country?

First of all, Gabon recently joined the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme and we are now looking for investors.

How many companies are you looking at?

Two or three for a start.

Are you monitoring the activities of artisanal miners in Gabon, for example output levels and where they sell their rough diamonds?

Artisanal mining had been in place for a long time, but the majority did so clandestinely. The majority of them therefore didnt declare their output to the government, but since Gabon joined the KP, most of them started declaring their operations to the government. Currently there is no platform to export the diamonds mined by the artisanal miners.

What is the Gabonese government doing to regularize the operations of artisanal miners to avoid illegal mining?

Since Gabon joined KP we have been teaching all the artisanal miners on how to comply with the law. We are simply teaching them the legal route to do business from the diggers to the people who buy the stones from them. Gabon has just joined KP, we are still learning the procedures and it will take time for us to master that.

Was there any study by government to establish the diamond resource in the country?

As I said earlier, the studies conducted in the country were done by private companies.

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished




Normal People has driven BBC Three to its best week for programme requests on the iPlayer, doubling a record set following the release of Killing Eve series one.

BBC Three earned more than 21.8million requests in the seven-day period after the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney's novel became available on Sunday April 26.

Dubbed 'the first great millennial love story', the 12-part BBC series stars Cold Feet actress Daisy Edgar-Jones as Marianne and Paul Mescal in his first television role as Connell.

Set in Ireland, it charts the couple's on-off relationship through university - with the programme being hailed as perfect by viewers and critics alike and raising temperatures with its steamy scenes.

Normal People has driven BBC Three to its best week for programme requests on the iPlayer, doubling a record set following the release of Killing Eve series one. Pictured: Daisy Edgar-Jones as Marianne and Paul Mescal as Connell

The programme received 16.2million requests in its first week, with nearly five million from 16 to 34-year-olds.

Of all the requests for BBC Three programmes on iPlayer, Normal People makes up more than 70 per cent of the total, according to the BBC.

The previous record for BBC Three was 10.8million total requests in a week, following the release of the first series of Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Killing Eve in 2018.

Fiona Campbell, controller of BBC Three, said: 'We're delighted that Normal People has been such a success and so many people have come to iPlayer to watch it.

BBC Three earned more than 21.8million requests in the seven-day period after the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney's novel became available on Sunday April 26. Pictured: Paul Mescal as main character Connell

Dubbed 'the first great millennial love story', the 12-part BBC series stars Cold Feet actress Daisy Edgar-Jones as Marianne and Paul Mescal in his first television role as Connell (pictured together)

'From the initial read-through, the phenomenal thought and preparation the directors put into everything from the aesthetics, locations through to the costumes, we felt this piece would always be incredibly unique and it's clear the audience thinks so too.

'It's a modern masterpiece which has helped in catapulting the careers of two brilliant young actors and we're looking forward to bringing more drama to BBC Three in the future.'

The series was co-written by Rooney and Alice Birch and directed by Lenny Abrahamson, who was nominated for an Oscar in 2015 for Room, and Hettie Macdonald, who directed the mini-series Howards End.

Set in Ireland, it charts the couple's on-off relationship through university - with the programme (pictured) being hailed as perfect by viewers and critics alike and raising temperatures with its steamy scenes

Normal People tells the story of Marianne Sheridan (played by Daisy Edgar-Jones), a loner who has never kissed a boy.

The action starts in 2011 when she falls for Connell Waldron (Paul Mescal), a popular athlete at their secondary school in a small town in the west of Ireland.

Sparks soon fly when Connell comes to pick up his mother Lorraine, who has a cleaning job at Mariannes impressive mansion, and they begin to meet to have sex.

But despite falling in love with her, Connell gives in to peer pressure when he invites the most popular girl to the school dance  a betrayal which devastates Marianne.

The programme (pictured) received 16.2million requests in its first week, with nearly five million from 16 to 34-year-olds

Yet the pair end up at the same university, Trinity College Dublin, where the tables turn as Marianne reinvents herself to become the popular one, while Connell is the outsider.

The series, which is full of close-ups and lingering silences, has been praised for its intimacy and 'realistic', 'consensual' and 'communicative' sex scenes between Connell and Marianne.

Piers Wenger, controller of BBC drama, and Rose Garnett, director of BBC films, said: 'BBC audiences have been bewitched by the story of Connell and Marianne, just as we were after reading the transcript of Sally's extraordinary novel.

'Taking Normal People from script to screen has been an incredible experience and we're overwhelmed by the response.

'Lead writers Sally and Alice, directors Lenny and Hettie, all the team at Element Pictures and of course Daisy and Paul should all be so proud of what has been achieved.'

Watch Normal People on BBC Three, or on Stan in Australia.
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Authorities are taking various measures to boost trade ties with overseas markets to help local firms get out of difficulties, due to the devastating impacts of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on their imports and exports.

In a report on Vietnams industrial production and trade between January and April this year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade provided insights into the adverse effects of the virus crisis on the countrys manufacturing industries.

The ministry cited the General Statistics Office as saying the countrys index of industrial production in April dropped by around 13.3 percent from a month earlier and fell by 10.55 percent from a year ago.

Overall, the headline index in the first four months of 2020 was up a mere 1.8 percent year-on-year, the slowest pace over the past five years.

The ministry pointed out the slowdown in industrial production has led to a shortage of raw materials and difficulties in goods consumption and exports.

The industrial and processing sector rose by three percent while many other sectors saw slight increases, or even suffered sharp declines, said the ministry.

The pandemic is having impacts on imports and exports between Vietnam and its major trading markets, such as China, Japan, the European Union, and the United States.

The rapidly falling demand for goods and subdued trading activities have resulted in steep declines in both imports and exports in April, according to the ministry.

Exports in the industrial and processing sector suffered the largest contraction of 20 percent compared with other industries while the import of raw materials slumped by about eight percent.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai was quoted by the Vietnam News Agency as saying that the ministry aims to restructure the chains of industrial production, especially in textile and garment, footwear, electronics, and wood-processing sectors.

The move is to promote sustainable cooperation with partners from South Korea, Japan, and India, thus reducing the reliance on a few partners and markets.

The ministry is planning to review the situation and demand for input materials so that production plans and solutions will be put forward, and sources of raw materials diversified.

For the first time, the ministrys trade promotion department has collaborated with the Department of Commerce of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in showcasing goods online in an event that gathered hundreds of Chinese and Vietnamese firms.

The ministry predicted the global demand for consumption will make a recovery once the pandemic runs its course.

Early this month, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc gave the go-ahead for the export of medical face masks without any cap on their export volume so that Vietnam would grab the opportunity to become the worlds face mask manufacturing hub amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Customs data show the Southeast Asian nation exported more than 415 million face masks worth US$63.19 million between January 1 and April 19, mainly to Japan, South Korea, Germany, and the United States.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
(CNN)  All of the defining images of the coronavirus pandemic seem to feature one thing: plastic.

Surgical masks, gloves, protective equipment, body bags -- the Covid-19 crisis has spurred a rapid expansion in the production of desperately-needed plastic products, with governments racing to boost their stockpiles and regular citizens clamoring for their share of supplies.

Such production is necessary. But all that plastic ends up somewhere  and environmental campaigners fear it is just the tip of a looming iceberg, with the pandemic causing a number of serious challenges to their efforts to reduce plastic pollution.

From people discarding plastic gloves and masks in cities across the world to important regulations on the use of plastic being scrapped, rolled back or delayed, the problem has taken a back seat during one of the most significant public health crises of modern times.

The implications of those trends could spell years of trouble for our already polluted oceans.

"We know that plastic pollution is a global problem  it existed before the pandemic," Nick Mallos of US-based NGO Ocean Conservancy tells CNN. "(But) we've seen a lot of industry efforts to roll back some of the great progress that's been made.

"We need to be quite cautious about where we go, post-pandemic," Mallos adds.

PPE adding to oceans' plastic burden

The coronavirus crisis has sparked a personal protective equipment (PPE) arms race around the world as governments rush to stockpile masks, gloves, visors and gowns. The battle has proven so intense that some have resorted to international mudslinging.

It comes as a growing number of countries encourage or order their citizens to wear face coverings in public  once seen as a personal preference with minimal benefit, but now the preferred guidance in the US and much of Europe.

And while the moves are important from a public health perspective, one immediate impact is clear on streets around the world.

"Right outside my house there are discarded gloves and masks all over the neighborhood," says John Hocevar, oceans campaign director at Greenpeace USA.

"It's been raining here for two days, so these are very quickly washed down into the sewer. Here in Washington DC, they end up in the Anacostia River, out in the Chesapeake Bay, and then the Atlantic Ocean."

PPE has become an additional threat to the world's oceans, which have been choking under the weight of plastic at a rapidly increasing rate.

Global plastic production has quadrupled over the past four decades, a 2019 study found, with its authors warning that if that trend continues, the making of plastics will make up 15% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. By comparison, all of the world's forms of transportation now account for 15% of emissions.

Other studies have estimated that some 8 million tons of plastic trash leak into the ocean annually, with the rate getting worse every year.

But PPE presents very unique problems. "The structure of PPE will make it particularly hazardous for marine life," says Hocevar. "Gloves, like plastic bags, can appear to be jellyfish or other types of foods for sea turtles, for example. The straps on masks can present entangling hazards."

Over time, those products break down and add to the vast collections of microplastics in our seas, air and food. And the irony is that, while we produce and discard plastic to fight one public health crisis, we may be slowly contributing to another.

The risks of microplastics to human health are still being studied. One stems from the fact that microplastics passing through wastewater plants can pick up harmful bacteria, which they can carry with them. If we ingest the plastics, we may ingest the bacteria.

Another is that plastics have a number of chemicals added at the manufacturing stage, and it's possible that these are released in the body.

"First and foremost, this is a time of public health and safety being the main priority," says Mallos. "But we also have to realize that the broader waste issue that is being highlighted by this pandemic really matters."

"We know many places around the world don't have this capacity to manage this waste," he adds. "This is harmful to human health, and to the oceans and the environment."

There's little that can be done, given the timespan of this crisis, to reduce the amount of plastic involved in countering coronavirus. But campaigners hope changes will come.

"We are seeing some people experimenting with disinfecting PPE now, but that's largely out of necessity  we just don't have enough," says Hocevar.

"Longer term, we'll want to be a little bit more intentional about that, and develop reusable, disinfectable PPE."

Legislative setbacks

While PPE production causes a plastics problem visible in the streets and gutters of nearly every major city, another is playing out more quietly.

A number of restrictions on single-use plastics have been paused or rolled back as authorities scramble to fight the crisis.

In the UK, a much heralded charge on plastic bags has been suspended. A ban on such items has been put on hold in US states such as Maine, while retailers including Starbucks have banned reusable products to protect against the spread of Covid-19.

The pattern has prompted concern from organizations including the World Bank. "These measures have all been announced as temporary, but how long will they stick, fed by anxiety around health concerns?" Grzegorz Peszko, a lead economist at the organization, asked in a blog post last month.

"As Covid-19 hits, it seems to be shifting the tide toward single-use plastics," Peszko concluded.

Driving that concern is a feeling among conservationists that the plastics industry is seizing its moment to capitalize on public health concerns by promoting the use of its products.

"Parts of the plastic industry have worked really hard to exploit fears around Covid," Hocevar says.

"It's disappointing that lobbying groups are taking advantage of this climate of fear and uncertainty," Mallos adds. "Using this opportunity to sell disposable plastics as the safe option is one of our challenges."

In March, the Plastics Industry Association wrote to the US Department of Health, asking it to "make a public statement on the health and safety benefits seen in single-use plastics."

The pandemic is "forcing many Americans, businesses and government officials to realize that single-use plastics are often the safest choice," the group said.

Conservation groups criticized studies cited by the body, and have talked up others which suggest that Covid-19 lives for longer on plastic than on most other surfaces. CNN has contacted the Plastics Industry Association for comment.

Hocevar remains confident that rollbacks will be temporary, and notes that some progress in his organization's cause has been made even during the pandemic  citing new restrictions against single-use plastic in Orange County unveiled in April.

But Mallos fears the daily onslaught of coronavirus developments means important setbacks are going under the radar.

"We are oversaturated daily with news around the pandemic ... there is so much information streaming to us daily that many of these types of messages can be missed," he says. "It may not seem like a significant action at the moment, but it will manifest in very dangerous ways down the road."

This story was first published on CNN.com "Coronavirus is causing a flurry of plastic waste. Campaigners fear it may be permanent"
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - Overland Park is mourning the loss of a beloved police officer, killed on his way to work. Officer Mike Mosher spotted a hit-and-run crash and tried to stop the driver. A nearly 3-mile chase followed and ended with both the 37-year-old officer and 38-year-old suspect killed.
The Taliban has called on the Afghan government to speed up the release of prisoners in order to pave the way for negotiations with the militant movement.

A landmark deal signed by the United States and the Taliban on February 29 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 agreement also provides for the militants to release 1,000 Afghan security force members.

"In the last 3 days, our 300 prisoners were released from the Kbl Adm. (Kabul administration) prisons which we welcome," Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen tweeted late on May 4.

"However, it is not enough -- the process should be expedited so the prisoners be saved from the Coronavirus and the way be paved for an earliest inception of intra-Afghan negotiations," Shaheen wrote.

The Afghan government so far has released about 750 Taliban inmates from jails, according to the Office of National Security Council (ONSC).

The Taliban has released 112 members of Afghan security forces, the ONSC says.

Kabul has been wary of releasing large groups of prisoners, especially with Afghan forces suffering heavy casualties in recent weeks from Taliban attacks across the country.

The violence poses an immediate threat to a fragile peace deal between the United States and the Taliban, as the Afghan military is forced to fight an emboldened Taliban with less U.S. support.

Adding to concerns over the situation was a recent report from the U.S. Special Inspector-General for Afghanistan Reconstruction that warned the spread of COVID-19 could derail the stalled peace efforts.

Afghanistan has registered 2,704 coronavirus infections and 85 fatalities.

But there is widespread concern that the number of cases in the conflict- and poverty-ridden nation of nearly 37 million could be much higher as only about 12,000 tests have been performed to date.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and TOLOnews.com


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A Taliban key commander Mullah Yaqub along with 15 of his men were killed as military planes struck a gathering of militants in Kushindi district of northern Afghanistan's Balkh province on Tuesday, army spokesman in the northern region Mohammad Hanif Rezai said.

The air raid, according to the official, was conducted on tip-off at 01:00 a.m. local time, killing the insurgents including Mullah Yaqub, the commander of the Red Unit of Taliban outfit, on the spot.

Describing Mullah Yaqub as a notorious commander, Rezai said that Yaqub's physical elimination could be a major setback to the Taliban fighters in Balkh and neighboring Jawzjan and Faryab provinces.

Taliban militants have yet to make comment.
India is planning to operate over 64 special flights in a week to evacuate thousands of citizens stranded across the world due to Covid-19 pandemic, inlcuding from the Gulf states.

The evacuation operations are expected to begin on May 7 and over one week about 15,000 people will be brought back to India.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Covid Cell has published a list of countries from where citizens will be brought home in the first week of the operation. The countries include the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Malaysia, the UK, Singapore, Bangladesh, the Philippines and the US.

Kerala will receive 15 flights for its residents; Delhi-NCR and Tamil Nadu 11 each; Maharashtra and Telangana 7 each, five from Gujarat, three each from Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka and one each from Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

There will be 10 flights from the UAE, two each from Bahrain, Qatar and Oman and five each from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in the first week, according to the schedule given by the cell. - TradeArabia News Service
Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez dismissed calls to search Joe Bidens archives for Tara Reades sexual-assault accusation, telling ABCs Martha Raddatz that this is like the Hillary emails, because there was nothing there.

Appearing on ABCs This Week, Perez defended Bidens innocence and his handling of the accusation, saying that Biden had already been thoroughly vetted by Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential race.

They looked at the entire history of Joe Biden, his entire career. And Ill tell you, if Barack Obama had any indication that there was an issue, Barack Obama would not have had him as his vice-president, Perez argued. Barack Obama trusted Joe Biden. I trust Joe Biden. And those investigations have been done.

They looked at the entire history of Joe Biden  Barack Obama trusted Joe Biden, I trust Joe Biden, DNC Chairman Tom Perez tells @MarthaRaddatz when asked why the DNC wont convene an independent panel. Joe Biden denied the sexual assault allegation. https://t.co/s1sgImQ3cv pic.twitter.com/Q1bBgRmJEi  ABC News (@ABC) May 4, 2020

Biden publicly denied Reades allegations for the first time last week, after the former Senate staffer said in March that Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993, and that she filed a complaint after the fact. The former vice president also denied that his Senate archive at the University of Delaware, which is closed to the public, would contain Reades document.

There is only one place a complaint of this kind could be: the National Archives, Biden said. If there was ever any such complaint, the record will be there. But the National Archives has said it does not have personal records, and directed the search back to the Senate. Reade told the Associated Press last week that the report she filed with a congressional personnel office after the incident did not explicitly mention that Biden had sexual assaulted her.

Story continues

In March, a federal judge ordered Hillary Clinton to appear in a sworn deposition regarding her use of a private email account while serving as secretary of state, especially regarding the to the 2012 attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Clinton has defended her reading of classified government emails on an unsecured private server as a matter of convenience, and in July 2016 the FBI recommended charging Clinton with a crime, only to announce in October of that same year that it would reopen the probe.

To argue that the Court now has enough information to determine whether State conducted an adequate search is preposterous, U.S. District Court judge Royce Lamberth wrote in his ruling. Even years after the FBI investigation, the slow trickle of new emails has yet to be explained . . . Why did she think that using a private server to conduct State Department business was permissible under the law in the first place?

More from National Review
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5

By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:

Tamara Duisenova has been appointed an aide to Kazakhstans president, Trend reports with reference to the press office of the president.

By a decree of Kazakhstans President Kassym Jomart Tokayev, Duisenova was appointed Aide to the President of Kazakhstan  Head of the Department for control over consideration of references of the Presidential Executive Office of Kazakhstan.

The decree was published today, May 5, 2020.

Earlier this month, Tokayev appointed Aida Balayeva Kazakhstans Minister of Information and Social Development. Thus, she was relieved of her duty as Kazakhstans Aide to the President  Head of the Department for control over consideration of references of the Presidential Executive Office.

---

Follow the author on twitter: @nargiz_sadikh
London: Even a small "return to normal" in Italy could unleash a second wave of deaths that far exceeds what some cities have already experienced, according to new modelling that highlights the difficulties in reviving economies while controlling the coronavirus pandemic.

Italy implemented the world's first nationwide lockdown two months ago, but is now gently easing the restrictions as the number of deaths, hospital admissions and confirmed cases fall.

Italy is taking its first cautious steps out of a nationwide lockdown it introduced two months ago. Credit:Bloomberg

New modelling by a highly influential team of researchers from the Imperial College London has warned that a 20 per cent increase in "mobility" over the next eight weeks could trigger a second wave of the pandemic that might claim more lives in certain provinces than the first phase, which has so far killed 30,000 people.

"The impact of COVID-19 on Italy has been tragic but the response taken to limit the impact of the disease has been successful and disease control has been substantively achieved," said the report's lead author, Dr Samir Bhatt.
The Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has urged stakeholders in the political space not to only call out politicization of COVID-19 when government actors respond to their political opponents.



He was responding a question on fresh calls by some interest groups to de-escalate politicization of the covid 19 pandemic in Ghana.



Some key government actors including the Vice President have hit back at the NDC flagbearer John Mahama over his politicization of the COVID 19 situation.



Addressing Journalists at Tuesdays Press Briefing in Accra, Mr. Nkrumah said government appreciates the call but stressed the appeal could have come earlier.



These calls are in line with calls we started making from this podium as far back as a month ago. It is unfortunate that the persons making these calls had to wait for Government actors to start responding to the politicization before now stepping forward to join the calls, he said.



The Minister said the nation stands a real risk of losing focus and degenerating into partisan political banter while the real key issue of managing the pandemic is relegated to the background.



Dont be silent when your candidate is politicizing the matter only to speak when the other side responds. Other stakeholders in the ecosystem, traditional leaders, religious leaders, CSOs. dont sit down for it to degenerate into partisanship before you speak up. Speak up early when one side starts politicizing it so the other does not have to respond. But if you sit unconcerned for one side to politicize it, dont act surprised when the other responds politically, he added.



Mr. Nkrumah said government and its stakeholders have an opportunity to keep a collective focus to cut out partisanship in winning the battle again the pandemic.

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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We're definitely into long term investing, but some companies are simply bad investments over any time frame. We really hate to see fellow investors lose their hard-earned money. Spare a thought for those who held Beijing Enterprises Medical and Health Industry Group Limited (HKG:2389) for five whole years - as the share price tanked 84%. We also note that the stock has performed poorly over the last year, with the share price down 41%. The falls have accelerated recently, with the share price down 10% in the last three months. This could be related to the recent financial results - you can catch up on the most recent data by reading our company report.

While a drop like that is definitely a body blow, money isn't as important as health and happiness.

Check out our latest analysis for Beijing Enterprises Medical and Health Industry Group

Beijing Enterprises Medical and Health Industry Group 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. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.

You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

SEHK:2389 Income Statement May 5th 2020

It's probably worth noting that the CEO is paid less than the median at similar sized companies. But while CEO remuneration is always worth checking, the really important question is whether the company can grow earnings going forward. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on Beijing Enterprises Medical and Health Industry Group's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

A Different Perspective

We regret to report that Beijing Enterprises Medical and Health Industry Group shareholders are down 41% for the year. Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 13%. 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. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 31% over the last half decade. Generally speaking long term share price weakness can be a bad sign, though contrarian investors might want to research the stock in hope of a turnaround. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Beijing Enterprises Medical and Health Industry Group better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 1 warning sign with Beijing Enterprises Medical and Health Industry Group , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

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Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.

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 well-known market intelligence company, Infiniti Research, has announced the completion of its latest article how to successfully navigate through the transition to smart manufacturing

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005902/en/

This blog provides insights into:

Smart manufacturing

How companies in the manufacturing sector can go about smartly implementing smart manufacturing in their organizations

The global push for smart manufacturing is underway, creating a pool of growth opportunities for manufacturers. Smart manufacturing techniques offer several opportunities for companies in the manufacturing industry to improve their operations by providing greater connectivity across the manufacturing facility and the ability to act on production intelligence. However, while some agile manufacturers have embraced smart manufacturing fully and are reaping the benefits already, most still have much work ahead of them. According to experts at Infiniti, less than 15% of manufacturing companies around the globe have successfully implemented a strategy to apply Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to their production processes.

During the COVID-19 crisis, it is critical for companies in the manufacturing market to take calculative and well-executed measures to ensure business continuity in the long run. Request a free proposal to know how industry experts at Infiniti Research can help you plan and create comprehensive action plans to navigate the crisis.

Experts at Infiniti explain how companies in the manufacturing sector can go about smartly implementing smart manufacturing in their organizations:

Improve quality and productivity: Quality management and kaizen techniques can only provide limited outcomes when the information relied on are limited and not available in real-time. Manufacturers are leveraging embedded equipment intelligence to monitor most product specifications in real-time, either from a customer or regulatory perspective. Apart from this, they're using this intelligence to address product defects and variations, verify whether quality goals are met, and improve customer satisfaction. Embedded intelligence, when used to improve control and transparency of manufacturing processes creates new opportunities to improve productivity. For instance, operators on the plant floor are analyzing real-time production data to uncover hidden inefficiencies and ensure faster implementation of changes. Managers and logistics professionals are leveraging smart manufacturing technologies to deliver critical data including forecasts and schedules to suppliers, while also monitoring delivery performances at the supply chain level.

Enhancing decision-making process: Manufacturers must consider upgrading their existing technologies in order to attain next-gen productivity. This involves reconciling dissimilar data sources with the current IT systems, extracting the data from smart manufacturing technologies, and then converting that data into actionable insights. Manufacturers that have adhered to these steps and armed themselves with better information are using it to optimize their assets, improve their responsiveness to changing customer demands, refine workflows, and reduce inventory holding.

Ensuring business continuity a challenge due to COVID-19? Request more info to learn how Infiniti is helping companies around the globe assess the business impact of the coronavirus outbreak and plan for business revival post-COVID-19.

About Infiniti Research

Established in 2003, Infiniti Research is a leading market intelligence company providing smart solutions to address your business challenges. Infiniti Research studies markets in more than 100 countries to help analyze competitive activity, see beyond market disruptions, and develop intelligent business strategies. To know more, visit:https://www.infinitiresearch.com/about-us

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005902/en/

Contacts:

Infiniti Research

Anirban Choudhury

Marketing Manager

US: +1 844 778 0600

UK: +44 203 893 3400

https://www.infinitiresearch.com/contact-us
A person using the NHS app on a mobile phone. (PA)

A contact tracing app is currently being trialled on the Isle of Wight ahead of a proposed nationwide roll-out in the next few weeks.

It is hoped the new NHS app, which tracks the spread of the virus via Bluetooth technology in peoples phones, will allow the government to ease the lockdown restrictions faster.

Health secretary Matt Hancock has described the app as central to the governments test, track and trace strategy for lifting the social distancing measures.

But how does it work and when will it be released in the rest of the UK?

Health secretary Matt Hancock has described the app's development as a very, very positive step. (Getty)

What is the coronavirus contact tracing app?

The app uses Bluetooth to keep an anonymous log of everyone you come into close contact with.

Users who present symptoms of COVID-19 alert the app, stating whether they are experiencing a high temperature and a continuous cough, and when these symptoms started.

If it appears they might have the virus, the person will be told to book a test.

Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice

Anyone who has been in close proximity with the infected person will be notified if they are deemed to be at risk, and they will be told to isolate for 14 days.

Once installed and set up, the app will run in the background, keeping a log of everyone you pass.

How does the app help stop coronavirus?

The app is voluntary, so its effectiveness will rely on the amount of people actually using it, but health figures are hopeful it will allow the government to stem the spread of the disease.

Something that is automated, that can work alongside traditional epidemiological contact tracing is potentially going to be of very great use to us, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, deputy chief medical officer for England said.

As the government continues to ramp up testing for the virus, the app will allow health officials to predict who is most at risk from coronavirus and deliver care where needed.

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Matthew Gould, CEO of NHSX, the part of the health service that developed the app, said: The app is exciting, but its also not a silver bullet or a standalone solution, its part of this wider strategy.

It has to be seen as part of this strategy alongside the expansion of testing and human contact tracing, he said.

Hancock said the more people who sign up to the app, the more effective it will be, as he hailed its development as a very, very positive step.

How do you download the app?

The app is not currently available to download in most parts of the UK as it is still in the trial stage.

It launched on the Isle of Wight on 5 May and NHS CEO Gould has said the launch of the app will be two to three weeks away for the rest of the country.

Hancock said that people on the Isle of Wight would be written to with details on how to download the app from the government.

He also said a new slogan for the NHS would be: Stay at home, instal the app, protect the NHS, and save lives.

Is the contact tracing app safe?

There have been concerns raised by some figures about the sharing of millions of citizens mobile phone data.

Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen has called on ministers to explain why, unlike other European countries, Britain is establishing a central database to store information.

But officials insist the app has been designed with privacy and security front of mind, with the data stored on an individuals phone until the point they contact the NHS to report symptoms and request a test.

The health secretary told BBC Breakfast on Tuesday: The purposes of this are purely and simply to control the spread of the virus, which is really important.

Weve all had to give up significant infringements on our liberty  for instance, with the social distancing measures and the lockdown  and we want to release those, and this approach will help us to release them.

Coronavirus: what happened today?

Click here to sign up to the latest news, advice and information with our daily Catch-up newsletter
Agra, May 5 : The citizens groups in Agra have expressed concern and fears over the state government's decision to allow the sale of liquor in the district, even as the number of COVID-19 positive cases climbed to 621 early Tuesday. Agra now ranks number one in Uttar Pradesh, with the highest number of quarantine centres and 43 red hot spots.

Adding to the worries is the latest wave of infections among the health workers, policemen and delivery boys/vendors of fruit and vegetables, though a significantly large number are being screened daily.

District Magistrate P.N. Singh said 203 patients have been discharged after recovery, 57 on Monday alone. The number of active Covid-19 patients is now 415. So far 15 deaths have been reported.

Health department officials said the increase in numbers is largely due to more samples being tested each day, 450 daily. In addition to the KGMU, Lucknow, samples were being tested in the Agra Medical College and the JALMA Centre of leprosy.

In neighbouring Mathura, two foreign nationals were found positive on Monday, increasing the tally to 32. Vrindavan, which was safe hitherto, opened its account with two. The foreign devotees are now said to be panic-stricken.

Firozabad too, continues to remain an area of concern with the number steadily rising to 157. District Magistrate Chandra Vijay Singh told media persons that there had been three deaths. Of the 15 new cases, 12 were policemen.

The doctors providing health cover, have expressed fears that the liquor sale in the districts could compound the problem, as social distancing had gone for a toss. The liquor sale in the rural areas began Tuesday morning.

Agra has around 800 outlets, with almost half in rural areas. Social activists feared there could be a spurt in crime which during the lockdown period had remained under control.

Meanwhile, special trains and buses bringing migrant labourers has pressured the district administration with additional work and responsibilities.

Though senior administrative officials continue to express confidence claiming the situation was under control, private medical practitioners and health activists were apprehensive and pointed to a series of lapses and holes in the strategy now being pursued.
[May 05, 2020] Essence SmartCare's Technology Deployed to Keep Australia's Seniors Safe

State of the art senior care facility in development will deploy an advanced integrated solution for senior care centred around Essence's [email protected] platform GOLD COAST, Australia, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Essence Group, the leading provider of Internet of Things (IoT) based telecare solutions, have announced that their advanced technology is being deployed at a new senior care facility in Australia, in partnership with strategic partner Homestay. The project provides a robust response to the challenges posed by COVID-19 by harnessing Essence SmartCare's advanced senior monitoring technology in conjunction with thermal cameras to detect virus symptoms. The partnership, to be delivered to Odyssey Aged Care for their facilities on the Gold Coast, will protect and support Australia's seniors during the COVID-19 outbreak and beyond. The IoT-based solution will help the caregivers to maintain safety and unique channels of communication both during the pandemic and after lockdown. The senior activity monitoring technology, based on Cloud, AI and Audio will be part of an integrated system that includes nurse call functionality, integrating a cutting-edge thermal camera, which is able to detect individuals with high temperature, helping to add a critical element of safety in the care home environment in response to COVID-19 by adding advancedlayers of protection.



The [email protected] platform, a key company within the Essence Group, is currently deployed in over 20 countries worldwide. It uses a variety of advanced technologies to ensure the safety of seniors, providing them with an integrated suite of services that monitors their daily activity, detects emergencies such as falls, and provides immediate communication with their caregivers. The platform offers a unique solution for the COVID-19 pandemic challenges by reducing the need for physical contact. By allowing family members and professional senior care providers to remotely monitor the elderly 24/7, the platform keeps them safe, reduces the risk of infection, and takes pressure off essential services. With the integrated thermal camera, the solution adapts to provide holistic care and safety for seniors.

This follows a recent announcement that Essence's technology will also be deployed in "Corona Hotels" that have been set up to take the strain off ICU beds. As Essence have looked to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic, the advanced remote-monitoring technology has been deployed in numerous care spaces to provide support for those most in need. Dr Haim Amir, CEO of Essence Group, said: "We are delighted to be involved in this ground-breaking project that uses our technologies to ensure the highest level of safety to seniors. This is yet another example of our vision of a "better life made possible" through technology. Recent events have taught us that we can and must utilize technologies for the greater good. From the outset of Essence SmartCare's journey, the safety and wellbeing of the senior community has been our focus. It is paramount that we support them in whatever way we can during this incredibly challenging time." Graham Russell, GM of Homestay said: "Odyssey selected Essence's solutions following an extensive search for proactive care technologies that provided an advanced Ageing in Place solution for its residences. The system needed to be discreet and deliver privacy while providing a level of transparency to the care teams onsite, in addition to connecting family members remotely giving peace of that their loved ones were being proactively cared for. We have full confidence that the selection of the [email protected] platform will deliver optimal results." About Essence Essence is a global provider of IoT connected-living and cybersecurity solutions for communication, security and healthcare service providers, serving households and small-medium businesses. Leveraging 25 years of experience and innovation with a global presence and 50 million devices deployed worldwide, Essence is committed to developing and supporting solutions that enhance partners' businesses and enable people to live fuller, better lives.

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Highlights (first quarter 2020 versus first quarter 2019, unless otherwise noted):

Reported bookings up 5 percent; organic bookings* up 6 percent led by strength in the Americas

Reported revenues down 6 percent; organic revenues* down 5 percent; driven by COVID-19 impacts, particularly in Asia Pacific

GAAP continuing EPS of $0.21; adjusted continuing EPS* of $0.43

Suspending 2020 guidance given market uncertainty related to COVID-19 and intend to reevaluate guidance for second quarter earnings call

*This news release contains non-GAAP financial measures. Definitions of the non-GAAP financial measures can be found in the footnotes of this news release. See attached tables for additional details and reconciliations.

Trane Technologies plc (NYSE:TT), a global climate innovator, today reported diluted earnings per share (EPS) from continuing operations of $0.21 for the first quarter of 2020. Adjusted continuing EPS was $0.43, which excludes planned restructuring and transformation costs of $36.5 million, non-cash legacy legal liability adjustment of $17.4 million and non-cash separation-related tax adjustments of $40.3 million.

First-Quarter 2020 Results

Financial Comparisons First-Quarter Continuing Operations

$, millions except EPS Q1 2020 Q1 2019** Y-O-Y Change Organic

Y-O-Y Change Bookings $3,074 $2,921 5% 6% Net Revenues $2,641 $2,804 (6)% (5)% GAAP Operating Income $154 $237 (35)% GAAP Operating Margin 5.8% 8.4% (260 bps) Adjusted Operating Income* $191 $243 (21)% Adjusted Operating Margin* 7.2% 8.7% (150 bps) Adjusted EBITDA* $261 $296 (12)% Adjusted EBITDA Margin* 9.9% 10.5% (60 bps) GAAP Continuing EPS $0.21 $0.59 (64)% Adjusted Continuing EPS $0.43 $0.61 (30)% Restructuring and Transformation Costs ($36.5) ($6.1) ($30.4) **Restated to reflect Ingersoll Rand Industrial segment in discontinued operations.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has presented the world with unprecedented challenges, affecting economies, businesses, communities, families and our way of life. In these uncertain times, companies like Trane Technologies are called to lead authentically, steadily and with an unwavering sense of purpose," said Mike Lamach, chairman and chief executive officer.

"We remain true to our strategy maintaining world-class safety for our employees, acting with uncompromising ethics and integrity, and doubling down on our commitments to support the communities in which we live and work and to build a more sustainable world. These are the fundamental building blocks that drive differentiated financial performance for us, now and into the future."

Lamach continued, "Our experienced leadership team is decisively executing our purpose-driven strategy through this crisis, with agility and care for our people and customers. We are prioritizing the urgent needs of essential customers in industries such as hospitals and healthcare, food supply and distribution, technology and data centers. I want to thank our people around the world who are working hard to meet those needs under challenging circumstances.

We are in an exceptionally strong financial and liquidity position heading into this downturn, with stranded cost reduction and business transformation activities well underway. We are executing focused cost-reduction programs to maintain our financial strength, and will continue to implement additional programs as business conditions dictate.

Finally, we remain confident in our sustainability strategy, aligned to powerful secular megatrends that underpin long-term growth and profitability across our end markets. We will play offense through the downturn by investing heavily in our people and in accretive investment opportunities that further strengthen Trane Technologies and our ability to thrive as business conditions improve or new market opportunities arise."

Highlights from the First Quarter of 2020 (all comparisons against the first quarter of 2019 unless otherwise noted)

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted global bookings and revenue growth in the quarter with the greatest impact in the Asia Pacific segment.

Prior to the pandemic, Americas HVAC demand was strong in the quarter driving Enterprise reported bookings up 5 percent and organic bookings up 6 percent.

Reported revenues were down 6 percent and organic revenues were down 5 percent, impacted by COVID-19.

GAAP operating margin was down 260 basis points, adjusted operating margin was down 150 basis points, and adjusted EBITDA margin was down 60 basis points. Enterprise deleverage approximated gross margin rates.

First-Quarter Business Review (all comparisons against the first quarter of 2019 unless otherwise noted)

Americas Segment: innovates for customers in the North America and Latin America regions. The Americas segment encompasses commercial heating and cooling systems, building controls, and energy services and solutions; residential heating and cooling; and transport refrigeration systems and solutions.

$, millions Q1 2020 Q1 2019 Y-O-Y Change Organic Y-O-Y

Change Bookings $2,368 $2,138 11% 11% Net Revenues $2,098 $2,144 (2)% (2)% GAAP Operating Income $184.8 $250.3 (26)% GAAP Operating Margin 8.8% 11.7% (290 bps) Adjusted Operating Income $205.6 $253.7 (19)% Adjusted Operating Margin 9.8% 11.8% (200 bps) Adjusted EBITDA $262.1 $297.8 (12)% Adjusted EBITDA Margin 12.5% 13.9% (140 bps)

Americas reported and organic bookings were both up 11 percent on strong demand for HVAC products and services.

Reported and organic revenue were both down 2 percent. Strong, broad-based, mid-single digit revenue growth in Commercial HVAC was more than offset by Transport revenue declines of approximately 30 percent and low-single digit Residential HVAC revenue declines, both impacted by softness related to COVID-19 in the second half of March. COVID-19 related building lockdowns also weakened demand for HVAC services and parts.

Additionally, employee safety is paramount and the Company invested heavily in proactive safety measures at its facilities in the quarter.

GAAP operating margin declined 290 basis points, adjusted operating margin declined 200 basis points and adjusted EBITDA margin declined 140 basis points. Margins were impacted by the significant revenue declines in Transport and revenue mix shift from Transport to Commercial.

Europe, Middle East and Africa ("EMEA") Segment: innovates for customers in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. The EMEA segment encompasses heating and cooling systems, services and solutions for commercial buildings, and transport refrigeration systems and solutions.

$, millions Q1 2020 Q1 2019 Y-O-Y Change Organic Y-O-Y

Change Bookings $443 $462 (4)% (2)% Net Revenues $364 $384 (5)% (3)% GAAP Operating Income $36.4 $39.2 (7)% GAAP Operating Margin 10.0% 10.2% (20 bps) Adjusted Operating Income $37.0 $39.7 (7)% Adjusted Operating Margin 10.2% 10.3% (10 bps) Adjusted EBITDA $43.2 $44.7 (3)% Adjusted EBITDA Margin 11.9% 11.6% 30 bps

EMEA was heavily impacted by COVID-19 in the first quarter, primarily in March.

EMEA reported bookings were down 4 percent and organic bookings were down 2 percent.

Reported revenue was down 5 percent and organic revenue was down 3 percent. Solid revenue growth in Commercial HVAC was offset by Transport revenue declines. COVID-19 related building lockdowns weakened demand for HVAC services and parts.

GAAP operating margin declined 20 basis points, adjusted operating margin declined 10 basis points and adjusted EBITDA margin improved 30 basis points. Strong execution and cost reductions offset COVID-19 inefficiencies to minimize deleverage impact on lower revenues.

Asia Pacific Segment: innovates for customers throughout the Asia Pacific region and India. The Asia Pacific segment encompasses heating and cooling systems, services and solutions for commercial buildings and transport refrigeration systems and solutions.

$, millions Q1 2020 Q1 2019 Y-O-Y Change Organic

Y-O-Y Change Bookings $263 $320 (18)% (17)% Net Revenues $179 $276 (35)% (34)% GAAP Operating Income $6.5 $23.6 (72)% GAAP Operating Margin 3.6% 8.6% (500 bps) Adjusted Operating Income $7.6 $24.9 (69)% Adjusted Operating Margin 4.2% 9.0% (480 bps) Adjusted EBITDA $10.6 $27.5 (61)% Adjusted EBITDA Margin 5.9% 10.0% (410 bps)

Asia Pacific was the first segment to experience the COVID-19 pandemic, heavily impacting demand for equipment and services in the region.

Asia Pacific reported bookings were down 18 percent and organic bookings were down 17 percent.

Reported revenue was down 35 percent and organic revenue was down 34 percent. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic limited bookings and revenue growth for both Commercial HVAC and Transport. Pandemic impacts began in China early in the quarter and were compounded by further impacts in the rest of Asia as the quarter progressed.

GAAP operating margin declined 500 basis points, adjusted operating margin declined 480 basis points and adjusted EBITDA margin declined 410 basis points. Swift action and strong execution of cost reduction programs limited the deleverage impact from significantly lower revenues.

Balance Sheet and Cash Flow

$, millions Q1 2020 Q1 2019** Y-O-Y Change Cash From Continuing Operating Activities Y-T-D ($129) $12 ($141) Free Cash Flow Y-T-D* ($122) ($11) ($111) Working Capital/Revenue* 5.1% 6.1% 100 bps decrease Cash Balance 31 March $2,648 $1,882 $766 Debt Balance 31 March $5,575 $5,601 ($26) **Restated to reflect Ingersoll Rand Industrial segment in discontinued operations.

During the quarter, the Company received $1.9 billion at the close of the Industrial spin RMT transaction.

As of March 31, 2020, the Company had cash and borrowing capacity in excess of $4.5 billion, inclusive of $2 billion from undrawn revolving credit facilities.

The Company continues to expect 2020 free cash flow to be equal to or greater than 100 percent of adjusted net earnings*.

Capital Deployment

The Company continues to reinvest in employee safety, innovation and technology projects and capital expenditures to support its core sustainability strategy.

Year to date, the Company has paid approximately $126 million in dividends. The company expects to maintain its quarterly dividend of $0.53 per share, or $2.12 per share annualized in 2020.

The Company does not plan to repurchase shares in the first half of 2020. The Company will retain optionality for share repurchases as visibility improves.

The Company continues to evaluate strategic, value accretive mergers and acquisitions.

The Company expects to continue to deploy 100 percent of excess cash to shareholders over time.

Full-year 2020 Guidance

Given the current uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the Company's end markets, the Company is suspending previously communicated financial guidance for 2020. The Company intends to reevaluate guidance on its second quarter earnings call.

This news release includes "forward-looking statements," which are statements that are not historical facts, including statements regarding capital deployment including the amount and timing of our dividends, our share repurchase program including the amount of shares to be repurchased and the timing of such repurchases and our capital allocation strategy including projected acquisitions; our projected free cash flow and usage of such cash; our available liquidity; performance of the markets in which we operate; restructuring activity; our projected financial performance and targets including assumptions regarding our effective tax rate. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. Such factors include, but are not limited to, the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on our business, our suppliers and our customers, global economic conditions taking into account the global COVID-19 pandemic, disruption and volatility in the financial markets due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the outcome of any litigation, demand for our products and services, and tax law changes and interpretations. Additional factors that could cause such differences can be found in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, as well as our subsequent reports on Form 10-Q and other SEC filings. We assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

This news release also includes non-GAAP financial information, which should be considered supplemental to, not a substitute for, or superior to, the financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP. The definitions of our non-GAAP financial information and reconciliation to GAAP are attached to this news release.

All amounts reported within the earnings release above related to net earnings (loss), earnings (loss) from continuing operations, earnings (loss) from discontinued operations, adjusted EBITDA and per share amounts are attributed to Trane Technologies' ordinary shareholders.

Trane Technologies (NYSE:TT) is a global climate innovator. Through our strategic brands Trane and Thermo King, and our portfolio of environmentally responsible products and services, we bring efficient and sustainable climate solutions to buildings, homes and transportation. For more information, visit tranetechnologies.com.

05/05/20

(See Accompanying Tables)

Table 1: Condensed Consolidated Income Statement

Tables 2 5: Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP

Table 6: Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets

Table 7: Condensed Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows

Table 8: Balance Sheet Metrics and Free Cash Flow

*Q1 Non-GAAP measures definitions

Organic revenue is defined as GAAP net revenues adjusted for the impact of currency and acquisitions. Organic bookings is defined as reported orders in the current period adjusted for the impact of currency and acquisitions.

Currency impacts on net revenues and bookings are measured by applying the prior year's foreign currency exchange rates to the current period's net revenues and bookings reported in local currency. This measure allows for a direct comparison of operating results excluding the year-over-year impact of foreign currency translation.

Adjusted operating income in 2020 is defined as GAAP operating income plus restructuring costs and transformation costs. Adjusted operating income in 2019 is defined as GAAP operating income plus restructuring costs. Please refer to the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures on tables 2, 3 and 4 of the news release.

Adjusted operating margin is defined as the ratio of adjusted operating income divided by net revenues.

Operating leverage is defined as the ratio of the change in adjusted operating income for the current period (e.g. Q1 2020) less the prior period (e.g. Q1 2019), divided by the change in net revenues for the current period less the prior period.

Adjusted earnings from continuing operations attributable to Trane Technologies plc (Adjusted net earnings) in 2020 is defined as GAAP earnings from continuing operations attributable to Trane Technologies plc plus restructuring costs and transformation costs less the legacy legal liability adjustment, net of tax impacts plus separation-related tax adjustments. Adjusted net earnings in 2019 is defined as GAAP earnings from continuing operations attributable to Trane Technologies plc plus restructuring costs, net of tax impacts. Please refer to the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures on tables 2 and 3 of the news release.

Adjusted continuing EPS in 2020 is defined as GAAP continuing EPS plus restructuring costs and transformation costs less the legacy legal liability adjustment, net of tax impacts plus separation-related tax adjustments. Adjusted continuing EPS in 2019 is defined as GAAP continuing EPS plus restructuring costs, net of tax impacts. Please refer to the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures on tables 2 and 3 of the news release.

Adjusted EBITDA in 2020 is defined as adjusted operating income plus depreciation and amortization expense plus or minus other income (expense), net less the legacy legal liability adjustment. Adjusted EBITDA in 2019 is defined as adjusted operating income plus depreciation and amortization expense plus or minus other income (expense), net. Please refer to the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures on tables 4 and 5 of the news release.

Adjusted EBITDA margin is defined as the ratio of adjusted EBITDA divided by net revenues.

Free cash flow in 2020 is defined as net cash provided by (used in) continuing operating activities, less capital expenditures, plus cash payments for restructuring costs and transformation costs. Free cash flow in 2019 is defined as net cash provided by (used in) continuing operating activities, less capital expenditures plus cash payments for restructuring. Please refer to the free cash flow reconciliation on table 8 of the news release.

Working capital measures a firm's operating liquidity position and its overall effectiveness in managing the enterprises' current accounts.

Working capital is calculated by adding net accounts and notes receivables and inventories and subtracting total current liabilities that exclude short term debt, dividend payables and income tax payables.

is calculated by adding net accounts and notes receivables and inventories and subtracting total current liabilities that exclude short term debt, dividend payables and income tax payables. Working capital as a percent of revenue is calculated by dividing the working capital balance (e.g. as of March 30) by the annualized revenue for the period (e.g. reported revenues for the three months ended March 30 multiplied by 4 to annualize for a full year).

Adjusted effective tax rate for 2020 is defined as the ratio of income tax expense less the net tax effect of adjustments for restructuring costs, transformation costs and the legacy legal liability adjustment divided by earnings from continuing operations before income taxes plus restructuring costs and transformation costs less the legacy legal liability adjustment. Adjusted effective tax rate for 2019 is defined as the ratio of income tax provision plus the tax effect of restructuring costs divided by earnings from continuing operations before income taxes plus restructuring costs. This measure allows for a direct comparison of the effective tax rate between periods.

The Company reports its financial results in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (GAAP). The following schedules provide non-GAAP financial information and a quantitative reconciliation of the difference between the non-GAAP financial measures and the financial measures calculated and reported in accordance with GAAP.

The non-GAAP financial measures should be considered supplemental to, not a substitute for or superior to, financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. They have limitations in that they do not reflect all of the costs associated with the operations of our businesses as determined in accordance with GAAP. In addition, these measures may not be comparable to non-GAAP financial measures reported by other companies.

We believe the non-GAAP financial information provides important supplemental information to both management and investors regarding financial and business trends used in assessing our financial condition and results of operations.

Non-GAAP financial measures assist investors with analyzing our business results as well as with predicting future performance. In addition, these non-GAAP financial measures are also reviewed by management in order to evaluate the financial performance of each segment. Presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures helps investors and management to assess the operating performance of the Company.

As a result, one should not consider these measures in isolation or as a substitute for our results reported under GAAP. We compensate for these limitations by analyzing results on a GAAP basis as well as a non-GAAP basis, prominently disclosing GAAP results and providing reconciliations from GAAP results to non-GAAP results.

Table 1 TRANE TECHNOLOGIES PLC Condensed Consolidated Income (Loss) Statement (In millions, except per share amounts) UNAUDITED For the quarter ended March 31, 2020 2019** Net revenues 2,641.3 2,803.7 Cost of goods sold (1,898.8 (1,989.2 Selling and administrative expenses (588.1 (578.0 Operating income 154.4 236.5 Interest expense (63.1 (51.0 Other income/(expense), net 12.5 (18.0 Earnings before income taxes 103.8 167.5 Benefit (provision) for income taxes (51.0 (20.2 Earnings from continuing operations 52.8 147.3 Discontinued operations, net of tax (78.7 56.4 Net earnings (loss) (25.9 203.7 Less: Net earnings from continuing operations attributable to noncontrolling interests (2.8 (3.1 Less: Net earnings from discontinued operations attributable to noncontrolling interests (0.5 (0.7 Net earnings (loss) attributable to Trane Technologies plc (29.2 199.9 Amounts attributable to Trane Technologies plc ordinary shareholders: Continuing operations 50.0 144.2 Discontinued operations (79.2 55.7 Net earnings (loss) (29.2 199.9 Diluted earnings (loss) per share attributable to Trane Technologies plc ordinary shareholders: Continuing operations 0.21 0.59 Discontinued operations (0.33 0.23 Net earnings (loss) (0.12 0.82 Weighted-average number of common shares outstanding: Diluted 242.3 245.2 **Restated to reflect Ingersoll Rand Industrial segment in discontinued operations

Table 2 TRANE TECHNOLOGIES PLC Reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP (In millions, except per share amounts) UNAUDITED For the quarter ended March 31, 2020 As As Reported Adjustments Adjusted Net revenues 2,641.3 2,641.3 Operating income 154.4 36.5 (a,b) 190.9 Operating margin 5.8 7.2 Earnings from continuing operations before income taxes 103.8 19.1 (a,b,c) 122.9 Benefit (provision) for income taxes (51.0 35.9 (d,e) (15.1 Tax rate 49.1 12.3 Earnings from continuing operations attributable to Trane Technologies plc 50.0 55.0 (f) 105.0 Diluted earnings per common share Continuing operations 0.21 0.22 0.43 Weighted-average number of common shares outstanding: Diluted 242.3 242.3 Detail of Adjustments: (a) Restructuring costs (COGS SG&A) 25.6 (b) Transformation Costs (SG&A) 10.9 (c) Legacy Legal Liability Adjustment (17.4 (d) Tax impact of adjustments (a,b,c) (4.4 (e) Separation-related tax adjustments 40.3 (f) Impact of adjustments on earnings from continuing operations attributable to Trane Technologies plc 55.0 Total impact of adjustments on cost of goods sold 10.3 Total impact of adjustments on selling administrative expenses 26.2 Total impact of adjustments on operating income 36.5

Table 3 TRANE TECHNOLOGIES PLC Reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP (In millions, except per share amounts) UNAUDITED For the quarter ended March 31, 2019** As As Reported Adjustments Adjusted Net revenues 2,803.7 2,803.7 Operating income 236.5 6.1 (a) 242.6 Operating margin 8.4 8.7 Earnings from continuing operations before income taxes 167.5 6.1 (a) 173.6 Provision for income taxes (20.2 (1.1 (b) (21.3 Tax rate 12.1 12.3 Earnings from continuing operations attributable to Trane Technologies plc 144.2 5.0 (c) 149.2 Diluted earnings per common share Continuing operations 0.59 0.02 0.61 Weighted-average number of common shares outstanding: Diluted 245.2 245.2 Detail of Adjustments: (a) Restructuring costs (COGS SG&A) 6.1 (b) Tax impact of adjustments (1.1 (c) Impact of adjustments on earnings from continuing operations attributable to Trane Technologies plc 5.0 Total impact of adjustments on cost of goods sold 3.4 Total impact of adjustments on selling administrative expenses 2.7 Total impact of adjustments on operating income 6.1 **Restated to reflect Ingersoll Rand Industrial segment in discontinued operations

Table 4 TRANE TECHNOLOGIES PLC Reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP (In millions) UNAUDITED For the quarter ended

March 31, 2020 For the quarter ended

March 31, 2019** As Reported Margin As Reported Margin Americas Net revenues 2,097.8 2,144.3 Segment operating income 184.8 8.8 250.3 11.7 Restructuring 20.8 1.0 3.4 0.1 Adjusted operating income 205.6 9.8 253.7 11.8 Depreciation and amortization 55.9 2.7 52.1 2.4 Other income/(expense), net 0.6 0.0 (8.0 (0.3 Adjusted EBITDA * 262.1 12.5 297.8 13.9 Europe, Middle East Africa Net revenues 364.3 383.8 Segment operating income 36.4 10.0 39.2 10.2 Restructuring 0.6 0.2 0.5 0.1 Adjusted operating income 37.0 10.2 39.7 10.3 Depreciation and amortization 7.7 2.1 7.7 2.0 Other income/(expense), net (1.5 (0.4 (2.7 (0.7 Adjusted EBITDA 43.2 11.9 44.7 11.6 Asia Pacific Net revenues 179.2 275.6 Segment operating income 6.5 3.6 23.6 8.6 Restructuring 1.1 0.6 1.3 0.4 Adjusted operating income 7.6 4.2 24.9 9.0 Depreciation and amortization 3.3 1.8 3.3 1.2 Other income/(expense), net (0.3 (0.1 (0.7 (0.2 Adjusted EBITDA 10.6 5.9 27.5 10.0 Corporate Unallocated corporate expense (73.3 (76.6 Restructuring/Other (a) 14.0 0.9 Adjusted corporate expense (59.3 (75.7 Depreciation and amortization 8.1 7.8 Other income/(expense), net (b) (3.7 (6.6 Adjusted EBITDA (54.9 (74.5 Total Company Net revenues 2,641.3 2,803.7 Operating income 154.4 5.8 236.5 8.4 Restructuring/Other (a) 36.5 1.4 6.1 0.3 Adjusted operating income 190.9 7.2 242.6 8.7 Depreciation and amortization 75.0 2.8 70.9 2.5 Other income/(expense), net (b) (4.9 (0.1 (18.0 (0.7 Adjusted EBITDA 261.0 9.9 295.5 10.5 *Represents a non-GAAP measure, refer to pages 6-7 in the Earnings Release for definitions. **Restated to reflect Ingersoll Rand Industrial segment in discontinued operations (a) Other within 2020 Corporate includes Transformation costs of $10.9M (b) Other income/(expense), net within 2020 Corporate excludes $17.4M legacy legal liability adjustment Segment adjusted EBITDA is the measure of profit and loss that the Company uses to evaluate the financial performance of the business and is a key component for performance reviews, compensation and resource allocation. For these reasons, the Company believes that Segment adjusted EBITDA represents the most relevant measure of segment profit and loss. Segment adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly-titled measures used by other companies and should not be considered a substitute for net earnings or other results reported in accordance with GAAP.

Table 5 TRANE TECHNOLOGIES PLC Reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP (In millions) UNAUDITED For the quarter ended March 31, 2020 2019** Total Company Adjusted EBITDA 261.0 295.5 Less: items to reconcile adjusted EBITDA to net earnings attributable to Trane Technologies plc Depreciation and amortization (75.0 (70.9 Interest expense (63.1 (51.0 Benefit (provision) for income taxes (51.0 (20.2 Restructuring (25.6 (6.1 Transformation Costs (10.9 Legacy Legal Liability Adjustment 17.4 Discontinued operations, net of tax (78.7 56.4 Net earnings from continuing operations attributable to noncontrolling interests (2.8 (3.1 Net earnings from discontinued operations attributable to noncontrolling interests (0.5 (0.7 Net earnings (loss) attributable to Trane Technologies plc (29.2 199.9 *Represents a non-GAAP measure, refer to pages 6-7 in the Earnings Release for definitions. **Restated to reflect Ingersoll Rand Industrial segment in discontinued operations

Table 6 TRANE TECHNOLOGIES PLC Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (In millions) UNAUDITED March 31, December 31, 2020 2019** ASSETS Cash and cash equivalents 2,647.7 1,278.6 Accounts and notes receivable, net 2,091.8 2,184.6 Inventories 1,463.7 1,278.6 Other current assets 356.6 344.8 Assets held-for-sale 4,207.2 Total current assets 6,559.8 9,293.8 Property, plant and equipment, net 1,326.2 1,352.0 Goodwill 5,082.3 5,125.7 Intangible assets, net 3,289.0 3,323.6 Other noncurrent assets 1,378.3 1,397.2 Total assets 17,635.6 20,492.3 LIABILITIES AND EQUITY Accounts payable 1,446.7 1,381.3 Accrued expenses and other current liabilities 1,844.4 2,006.6 Short-term borrowings and current maturities of long-term debt 949.7 650.3 Liabilities held for sale 1,200.4 Total current liabilities 4,240.8 5,238.6 Long-term debt 4,624.8 4,922.9 Other noncurrent liabilities 2,980.2 3,018.4 Shareholders' equity 5,789.8 7,312.4 Total liabilities and equity 17,635.6 20,492.3 **Restated to reflect Ingersoll Rand Industrial segment in discontinued operations

Table 7 TRANE TECHNOLOGIES PLC Condensed Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows (In millions) UNAUDITED For three months ended March 31, 2020 2019** Operating Activities Earnings from continuing operations 52.8 147.3 Depreciation and amortization 75.0 70.9 Changes in assets and liabilities and other non-cash items (257.1 (205.8 Net cash provided by (used in) continuing operating activities (129.3 12.4 Net cash provided by (used in) discontinued operating activities (198.3 (65.0 Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities (327.6 (52.6 Investing Activities Capital expenditures (34.7 (49.0 Acquisition and equity method investments, net of cash acquired, and other 1.0 (20.7 Net cash provided by (used in) continuing investing activities (33.7 (69.7 Net cash provided by (used in) discontinued investing activities (6.8 (6.7 Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities (40.5 (76.4 Financing Activities Short-term borrowings, net 23.9 Long-term borrowings, net of payments 1,497.9 Dividends paid to ordinary shareholders (125.9 (127.7 Repurchase of ordinary shares (250.0 Receipt of a special cash payment 1,900.0 Other financing activities, net (4.7 (13.6 Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities of continuing operations 1,769.4 1,130.5 Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities of discontinued operations (0.4 Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities 1,769.4 1,130.1 Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents (32.2 2.9 Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents 1,369.1 1,004.0 Cash and cash equivalents beginning of period 1,278.6 878.4 Cash and cash equivalents end of period 2,647.7 1,882.4 **Restated to reflect Ingersoll Rand Industrial segment in discontinued operations

Table 8 TRANE TECHNOLOGIES PLC Balance Sheet Metrics and Free Cash Flow ($ in millions) UNAUDITED March 31, March 31, December 31, 2020 2019** 2019** Net Receivables 2,092 2,122 2,185 Days Sales Outstanding 72.3 69.1 62.6 Net Inventory 1,464 1,551 1,279 Inventory Turns 5.2 5.1 7.1 Accounts Payable 1,447 1,421 1,381 Days Payable Outstanding 69.5 65.2 55.6 Three months ended Three months ended March 31, 2020 March 31, 2019** Cash flow provided by (used in) continuing operating activities (129.3 12.4 Capital expenditures (34.7 (49.0 Cash payments for restructuring 38.2 25.3 Transformation costs paid 3.7 Free cash flow (122.1 (11.3 *Represents a non-GAAP measure, refer to pages 6-7 in the Earnings Release for definitions. **Restated to reflect Ingersoll Rand Industrial segment in discontinued operations

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005289/en/

Contacts:

Media:

Jennifer Regina

630-390-8011, jennifer.regina@tranetechnologies.com

Investors:

Zac Nagle

704-990-3913, InvestorRelations@tranetechnologies.com
Nigel Farage today said he is the victim of 'lockdown lunacy' after two 'sheepish' police officers turned up on his doorstep to chide him over his trip to Dover to highlight the huge numbers of migrants arriving in Britain by boat.

The law enforcers 'advised' the ex-MEP about lockdown rules and essential travel after a complaint was reportedly made following his trip to the Port of Dover in Kent to report on the UK's 'illegal migrant scandal'.

Mr Farage previously claimed police had been 'bombarded' with complaints he flouted stay-at-home rules last week over a separate journey to the East Sussex coast.

He told MailOnline he was 'incredulous' when two officers arrived at his home yesterday, adding he was 'polite' but told them he 'wouldn't be lectured to'.

Pictured: Nigel Farage at the Port of Dover in Kent reporting on the UK's 'illegal migrant scandal'

The former Brexit Party leader has visited Dover and a beach in East Sussex to highlight that more than 1,000 migrants have arrived in Britain so far this year.

He said: 'They said they were visiting following a complaint  and were talking about essential travel without much conviction. They looked a bit sheepish.

'My visits were to help a large audience to understand the scale of the illegal crossings'.

He added: 'I told them I had seven million social media views last week and would go on broadcasting about the scandal of our border being a taxi service for illegal immigration. They said they would report back'.

And last night, after the visit, he tweeted: 'Lockdown lunacy. Two police officers just knocked on my door to advise me on essential travel.

'They had received a complaint that I had been to Dover to report on the illegal migrant scandal taking place. What a total waste of time and money.'

Mr Farage dubbed it 'lockdown lunacy' after he was visited by two police officers following his trip to Dover

Mr Farage uploaded a video from the Port of Dover on Monday, reporting on the more than 1,000 migrants who have crossed the Channel by boat so far this year

Mr Farage uploaded a video from the Port of Dover on Monday, reporting on the more than 1,000 migrants who have crossed the Channel by boat so far this year.

Coastguards recovered 100 men, women and children in 24 hours as they attempted to make the treacherous journey in dinghies on Sunday and Monday alone.

'The illegal migrant scandal is bigger than anybody realises,' Mr Farage wrote when he posted the clip to Twitter. 'Our government should stop the boats from coming, not help them to shore.'

The footage followed an earlier 100-mile trip to Pett Level, a beach in East Sussex, which he claimed was the 'favoured location' for migrants to land in the UK.

He later travelled further down the coastline to Hastings where he interviewed members of the public.

The footage followed an earlier 100-mile trip to Pett Level, a beach in east Sussex, which he claimed was the 'favoured location' for migrants to land in the UK

He later travelled further down the coastline to Hastings where he interviewed members of the public

Last week, Mr Farage was criticised for seemingly flouting the lockdown rules to produce his video from Pett Level - which he shared on both his Twitter page and that of the Brexit Party.

But a spokesman for the Brexit Party leader insisted Mr Farage was acting in his role as a broadcaster - who have key worker status as they provide public service information.

Journalists and broadcasters are indeed considered to be key workers, according to government guidance. But Downing Street later clarified the rules to say it only applied to those 'informing and communicating with the public on the coronavirus crisis'.

Under the lockdown rules, which were imposed on March 23, the government states Britons should only leave the house for very limited purposes.

This includes shopping for basic necessities, one form of exercise a day, any medical need - and travelling for work purposes, but only where you cannot work from home.

Kent Police declined to comment on the visit when contacted by MailOnline.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Acesion Pharma, a Danish pharmaceutical company developing novel treatments for atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common cardiac arrhythmia, today announced that it has recruited Anders Gaarsdal Holst as its Chief Medical Officer (CMO) to succeed Nils Edvardsson, who will continue to support the company as Medical Adviser. In addition, Acesion Pharma has further strengthened the clinical team by recruiting Birgitte Vestbjerg as Director Clinical Operations.

As CMO, Anders will lead the development efforts of the company's entire product portfolio. Anders joins Acesion from Novo Nordisk A/S, where, as Senior International Medical Director he contributed to Novo Nordisk's cardiovascular clinical development. He held key roles in several project management governance teams and gained broad clinical development experience also in areas including Safety, Regulatory Affairs and CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control). Anders has a prolific scientific track-record with over one hundred research publications on cardiac arrhythmias, particularly atrial fibrillation. Anders completed his PhD at the department of Cardiology at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen.

Birgitte Vestbjerg has led and run international clinical studies and operations for both small and large companies for over 20 years. Birgitte has a background in nursing in Intensive and Cardiovascular care and has been Clinical Research Coordinator for several cardiovascular trials in Denmark and the United States.

Frans Wuite, Chief Executive Officer of Acesion Pharma, commented: "We are delighted to have Anders and Birgitte onboard at an important time for the company, as our lead product is being studied in a Phase II Proof-of-Concept trial validating our therapy platform based on a novel mechanism of action. Anders has a profound understanding of the underlying science and extensive experience from developing and running a corporate cardiovascular program with several international trials.

"We are also very pleased to have an experienced professional like Birgitte to lead our clinical operations, as our iv-cardioversion product is already in Phase II and our oral products are rapidly progressing towards the clinic."

Acesion's novel approach is based on inhibition of SK channels - ion channels present in the atria that play a role in regulating the cardiac rhythm. Blocking these ion channels with a functionally atrial selective drug helps avoid deleterious effects on the ventricles. Targeting the SK channels thereby constitutes a novel and promising approach for an effective treatment for AF with an expected higher safety and tolerability profile.

Following a successful Phase I study in healthy volunteers in 2018, Acesion is currently conducting a Phase II study to obtain clinical proof-of-concept for an IV-formulation of its cardioversion drug AP30663 to convert AF into normal sinus rhythm in hospitals. An oral formulation of this drug for cardioversion outside hospitals will start clinical trials next year, followed by an SK-inhibitor for oral maintenance therapy in 2022.

About Acesion Pharma

Acesion's novel platform is based on inhibition of SK-channels, a target that is predominantly expressed in the atria. This allows for selective treatment of atrial fibrillation aiming at improved efficacy and safety. Acesion's first product AP30663 is a short acting cardioversion therapy with an iv-formulation for hospitals followed by an oral formulation for treatment in open care. It is currently in Phase II trials. In addition, Acesion has selected AP31742 as its development candidate for prevention of atrial fibrillation (maintenance therapy). AP31742 will enter safety and toxicity studies early next year.

Acesion Pharma is backed by Novo A/S, Wellcome Trust, Broadview Ventures and FC Capital.

www.acesionpharma.com

About atrial fibrillation (AF)

AF is the most common type of cardiac arrhythmia and is characterized by an irregular and abnormally high frequency in the upper chambers of the heart, the atria. AF is associated with impaired quality of life, increased rate of hospitalization, and a 4-5 fold increased risk of stroke and death. Increasing evidence suggests that patients with AF also face a higher risk of cognitive dysfunction and dementia. 40 % of patients with AF without a history of stroke, have been shown to have brain damage of unknown origin. AF mainly affects the elderly population, and it is estimated that up to 6 million people in the US and over 10 million people in the EU suffer from AF. Lifetime risk for development of AF is estimated at 1 in 4 at age 40 years and older.

Due to increasing age of the population and an increase of lifestyle related diseases, the number of AF patients is expected to rapidly increase.

Atrial Fibrillation is often treated by electrical shock to bring the heart back to its normal rhythm (cardioversion). This requires general anesthesia in a hospital setting. Existing drug therapies for cardioversion or prevention of atrial fibrillation have limited efficacy and/or are often associated with risk of serious cardiac or other adverse effects. Therefore, there is a great need for safer drugs to treat this condition.

For additional information please contact:

Frans Wuite, MD MBA, Chief Executive Officer

Phone: +41 79 3408 218

[email protected]

Optimum Strategic Communications

Mary Clark, Supriya Mathur, Manel Mateus

Phone: +44 (0) 203 922 0889

[email protected]

SOURCE Acesion Pharma

Related Links

http://www.acesionpharma.com/


J. Crew Group Inc. filed for bankruptcy with plans to hand control to its lenders, unable to revive its preppy clothing line amid the pandemic and crushed by debt rooted in a long-ago leveraged buyout.

While J. Crews struggles predated the coronavirus outbreak, its the first major retailer to go bankrupt during the ensuing economic shutdown, which has pushed dozens of chains to the brink of failure. Neiman Marcus Group Inc. and J.C. Penney Co. are among merchants that could be days away from default.

J. Crews Chapter 11 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Virginia, allows the company to stay in business while cutting its borrowings. Normally that would include keeping the doors open for its J. Crew and Madewell stores, but sales at those outlets vanished when the coronavirus forced shoppers to stay home and non-essential businesses to shut.

Anchorage Capital Group, Blackstone Group Inc.s GSO Capital Partners and Davidson Kempner Capital Management will be among J. Crews new owners and will shape the board of directors once it exits bankruptcy, according to court papers. Those firms are leading a $400 million (U.S.) bankruptcy loan to keep J. Crew operating, according to a statement Monday.

Debt swap

About two billion of debt will be converted into equity, according to court papers, wiping out existing stakes held by TPG and Leonard Green & Partners, the private equity firms that acquired J. Crew in a 2011 leveraged buyout.

The company has about 181 J. Crew-branded stores worldwide, with 140 Madewell stores and 170 factory stores, court papers show. It employed about 13,000 people, with 11,000 furloughed during the shutdown. J. Crew said its hopeful that jobs will be minimally impacted when stores reopen.

Suppliers may be hard-hit by the bankruptcy deal, which calls for a 50 per cent cap on their claims and a total pot of $50 million, and thats if they sign a new trade agreement within 30 days. Other low-ranking creditors will share a disbursement as low as one million depending on how stakeholders vote, according to court papers.

Revenue for 2020 is expected to be down about 32 per cent, according to a regulatory filing, with a measure of adjusted earnings down 53 per cent.

Even before the virus spread, the company was struggling because shoppers were defecting to online merchants and consumer tastes were changing. J. Crew had been trying to rebound from some fashion misses and complaints of poor-quality clothing.

Asset shuffle

The company managed to sidestep default once before in 2017, with a financial overhaul that included shuffling assets in a way that moved fast-growing Madewell out of reach of creditors.

The change did little to reverse the companys fortunes, but it irked creditors and turned J. Crews name into a synonym on Wall Street for lopsided debt deals that leave lenders with weaker claims on company assets. The deal resulted in two lawsuits, court papers show, and J. Crew has appointed someone to review whether it could result in any more lawsuits during the bankruptcy.

J. Crew was relying on an initial public offering of Madewell to raise capital and ease its heavy debt load, a legacy of the 2011 buyout. The turmoil in financial markets put an end to that option.

Madewell will remain part of J. Crew under the bankruptcy agreement reached with its lenders, according to the statement. About 71 per cent of the companys term loan lenders and 78 per cent of its so-called IPCo notes agreed to the deal, the company said.

The case is Chinos Holdings Inc., 20-32181, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of Virginia (Richmond).
The total number of Covid positive cases in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday crossed 3,000 with 107 new cases reported, government data showed. On the positive note, around 1,000 patients were discharged from the government hospitals, official said. The tally was 3,049.

Among the states which have had more than 100 deaths Madhya Pradeshs death rate is the second worst in the country after West Bengal. While MPs death rate with 176 deaths stands at 5.77% West Bengals death rate is 10.56%. Maharastra and Gujarats death rate stands at 4% and 5.49%.

Of the total Covid positive cases in Madhya Pradesh Indore which saw 43 new cases in the past 24 hours to take its tally to 1654 accounts for 54% of the total cases. Indore with 79 deaths accounts for 44.84% deaths of the total 176 deaths in the state.

Ujjains situation continues to remain grim. It has had 184 positive cases, the third in the states chart after Indore and Bhopal but its death rate is the worst in the state with 40 deaths and 21.73% death rate. In the past two days Ujjain has witnessed 10 deaths including a ruling party corporator.

Notably, the central government decided on Sunday to send one team each to Indore and Bhopal to control the situation while the health minister in Madhya Pradesh requested the union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Monday to send a team of AIIMS, Bhopal to Ujjain to control the situation over there.

On Monday night, the state government also shifted Ujjain collector Shashank Mishra to state secretariat at Bhopal and appointed Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) commissioner Ashish Singh as the new collector of Ujjain.

During a review meeting over Covid situation in the state on Tuesday chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, There should be no gap in treatment. Doctors and para medical staff are expected to work with their full capability. All essential facilities be provided to patients in dedicated Covid hospitals. There should be a constant watch on patients in Ujjain. If required help of doctors from Indore and Bhopal be sought for those patients who are on ventilators or in ICU. The death rate should not go up.
WHO Says It Received No Data from US Proving Artificial Origin of COVID-19

Sputnik News

17:19 GMT 04.05.2020(updated 18:12 GMT 04.05.2020)

The international health watchdog has also called for a 'scientific-based' rather than a political inquiry into the origin of the coronavirus.

The World Health Organisation has not received any data from the US proving that the COVID-19 virus was not of natural origin, Michael Ryan, the organisation's executive director of Health Emergencies Programme, said.

"We haven't yet received any data or specific evidence from the US government relating to the purported origin of virus. From our perspective, this remains speculative, and like any evidence-based organization, we will be very willing to receive any information that purports to the origin of the virus ... So if that data and evidence is available, then it will be for the US government to decide whether and when it can be shared, but it is for WHO to operate in an information backup in that specific regard," Ryan said.

"So we focus on what we know, we focus on the evidence we have, and the evidence we have from the sequencing and from all that we have been advised is that the virus itself is of natural origin, and we need to understand more about that natural origin and particularly about intermediary host," the official argued.

He added that there should be a "scientific-based" rather than a political investigation into the origin of the virus.

US-China Row Over Virus

This comes following an article published in the Chinese state-owned Global Times newspaper on Sunday which accused US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of "bluffing" over his claims about the artificial origin of the new coronavirus.

Last week, Pompeo claimed that the US had "significant evidence" that COVID-19 had been released on purpose from a laboratory in China's Wuhan.

Beijing rejected the allegations, blaming Washington for an attempt to divert attention from its own failures in fighting the coronavirus outbreak effectively.

 Sputnik

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The lockdown restrictions and sealing of Delhi-Haryana border in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic came in the way of a lawyer, who could not make it to the Delhi High Court to avail the video conferencing facility to argue a bail matter.

The advocate telephonically informed the high court official that he was not permitted to cross the border and also he did not have a wifi facility at home to enable him to attend the video conference hearing from there.

The lawyer was to appear for the accused, who has sought a month's bail on the ground that his mother is unwell and has to undergo cataract surgery, though the date of surgery has not been fixed yet.

His request for adjourning the hearing was accepted by Justice Mukta Gupta who listed the plea for hearing on May 8.

The high court has made available two court rooms in its building to use them for video conferencing by the advocates or litigants whosematters have been permitted to be listed.

The facility is for lawyers who are not in position to handle video conferencing from their homes or offices.

Delhi's interstate borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are almost sealed since last week due to COVID-19 pandemic and entry of only those engaged in essential services, carrying valid passes, is allowed by the authorities.

It is pertinent to mention that the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) has also urged the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court to direct police to allow advocates, who reside within the NCR, to cross Delhi border during the lockdown.

DHCBA, in a letter addressed to Chief Justice D N Patel, said that a large number of advocates practicing in the high court and district courts here reside in Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Faridabad and they are unable to travel to their Delhi offices where files and records are kept.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued an emergency order to speed up the delivery of an antiviral drug called remdesivir thats being tested for the treatment of patients severely ill with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Within the next few days, the federal government will start to dole out vials of the drug to hospitals.

But the drug wont be easy for doctors to get their hands on  even in San Antonio where the drugs efficacy is being tested at two federally funded clinical trial sites.

The FDAs order came on Friday, just two days after the drug produced by Gilead Sciences was reported to have shown to shorten COVID-19 patients recovery time by 31 percent in a randomized, controlled trial that began on Feb. 21.

They saw that significantly more recoveries happened in the patients who took remdesivir than the placebo, and so much so that it was statistically and clinically significant, said Dr. Thomas Patterson, chief of UT Health San Antonio's infectious disease division and leader of the portion of the trial at University Hospital.

Preliminary results showed remdesivir shortened recovery time to 11 days compared with 15 days with a placebo.

The results also suggested fewer patients died after receiving the drug, with a mortality rate of 8 percent for the group receiving remdesivir versus 11.6 percent for the placebo group, Patterson said.

He began enrolling patients diagnosed with the coronavirus in the clinical trial in late March.

His team of investigators are responsible for 20 of the 1,063 patients enrolled in the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial, sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of National Institutes of Health.

Patients have also been treated with the drug at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, but the number of patients enrolled at that site wasnt available Monday.

The drug must be administered intravenously and the optimal dosing is still unknown.

Gilead Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company based in Foster City, Calif., donated its entire supply last week  1.5 million vials, or enough for about 140,000 patients. It also set a goal of producing at least 500,000 treatment courses by October.

Monday afternoon, the World Health Organization said it would discuss with the U.S. government and Gilead how to make the drug widely available to other countries fighting the pandemic.

Remdesivir had been previously tested in humans for Ebola and had also shown promise in animal studies for treating MERS and SARS, which, like COVID-19, are also caused by coronavirus strains.

The FDAs emergency use authorization is not a formal approval, Patterson says, but it will allow health care providers to start to use the drug to shorten the recovery time for patients and could save lives.

But he worries about whether there will be enough of the drug to get to the patients who really need it.

There just is not enough to support everyones needs, said Elliott Mandell, senior vice president and chief pharmacy officer for University Health System.

He expects a surge in demand as the U.S. government distributes the drug to hospitals in cities most heavily impacted by COVID-19, which so far hasnt been San Antonio.

Everyone is expecting a second wave once the warmer season is over, akin to the flu, Mandell said. Still unknown is the impact that continued lifting of restrictions to open the economy will have on spread.

The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in more than 1.1 million confirmed cases and killed 68,326 people in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University, which tracks cases based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and public health departments.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio coronavirus patients enrolled in trial of promising antiviral drug

UT Healths Patterson said the clinical trial is ongoing. In the next phase, investigators will add another drug, called baricitinib, to be taken in combination with remdesivir.

Baricitinib is a rheumatoid arthritis drug made by Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co.

Laura Garcia covers the health care industry in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Laura, become a subscriber. laura.garcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @Reporter_Laura
The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Mitchell Kukulka.

Saturday, May 2

10:56 p.m.  A deputy was dispatched to the area of North Sturgeon Road and East Shearer Road in reference to a two-vehicle crash.

9:32 p.m.  A 62-year-old man had his mailbox damaged by an unknown motorist. The total value of the mailbox is about $125.

8:20 p.m.  Officers responded to a vehicle crash in the 900 block of South Saginaw Road.

7:57 p.m.  Deputies assisted the Michigan State Police with a natural death investigation at a Jasper Township location.

7:33 p.m.  A deputy made telephone contact with a Ingersoll Township woman who said the neighbor's dog was in her yard and approached her dog in an aggressive manner. There was a scuffle between the dogs  neither were injured. The loose/aggressive dog in is an ongoing problem, and the woman asked that Animal Control be notified.

7:33 p.m.  A 23-year-old woman said her 31-year-old boyfriend from Southern Michigan received a text message from an unknown number that included her grandparents address. It was unknown who sent the text and she is asking for increased patrol in the area.

4:59 p.m.  A deputy responded to a Village of Sanford residence for a destruction of property complaint. The 63-year-old homeowner wanted to document the incident, but did not wish to pursue charges for damage done to her window. The damage to the window is estimated at $500.

4:53 p.m.  An anonymous person called Midland Central Dispatch and reported they observed a private gathering of possibly 20 people. A deputy was dispatched, who identified the gathering to include about 10 individuals and made contact with the homeowner, who said the people who are having close contact are members of the same household. There were a few that were not part of the household, but the deputy was told they are remaining at least six feet apart. There was possibly a violation of the order because the gathering was a birthday party for twin children. The deputy provided the homeowner a copy of the governor's order and requested it be adhered to. As the deputy was clearing the area, two adults left the gathering.

1:33 p.m.  Officers performed a warrant arrest in the 5000 block of Whisper Ridge.

12:34 p.m.  Deputies responded to a location after a receiving an anonymous third-party report that a woman needed help. The woman was allegedly texting the male complainant regarding a possible assault between her and another man. Deputies arrived on-scene and briefly observed the woman and man outside in a fenced/gated area on the property. The woman did not appear to be injured or in harms way. The woman saw the deputy and then walked away on her own accord. Once deputies were able to enter the gated area, the couple was not located. Deputies then began to follow shoes impressions in the sand and eventually lost the tracks in the woods. Deputies continued to search for the woman and according to the complainant, she continued to send text messages to him all while making no known attempts to return texts and calls to 9-1-1. Deputies were unable to make contact with the woman or man alleged to be involved.

11:54 a.m.  A deputy was dispatched to a Greendale Township address where a complainant reported that unknown suspect(s) stole a tool trailer. This complaint is being investigated.

11:50 a.m.  Officers responded to a vehicle crash in the area of Abbott Road and Judith Court.

11:23 a.m.  A deputy was dispatched to a Jerome Township gas station in reference to a failure to pay of fuel. A store employee reported a woman forgot to pay for $13.68 in fuel. The deputy contacted the woman, who promptly returned to the station and paid for the fuel. The whole incident is believed to be a mistake and not intentional.

9:46 a.m.  Officers responded to a suicide in the 1100 block of Airfield Lane.

1:22 a.m.  A deputy was dispatched to the area of North Stark Road and East Shaffer Road in reference to a report of vehicles revving their engines and racing up and down the road. The deputy checked the area and did not locate either.

Friday, May 1

11:37 p.m.  Officers responded to a vehicle crash in the 1300 block of Eastlawn Drive.

10:40 p.m.  Deputies responded to a car-deer crash in Larkin Township.

10:35 p.m.  A 38-year-old woman reported $100 missing from her residence. The woman suspected her ex-boyfriend was responsible. She was asked a series of question about his access to the house and started to refuse to cooperate. The woman became upset after being asked basic questions and hung up on the deputy.

9:54 p.m.  Deputies responded to a car-deer crash in Lincoln Township.

9:12 p.m.  Deputies were dispatched to a Homer Township school for a report of loud music and suspicious vehicles. Deputies arrived and found no music or vehicles. Contact was made with a representative from the school, who said there was a couple of trucks with loud music and squealing tires. The representative spoke with the drivers, who voluntarily left without incident.

8:32 p.m.  A 61-year-old man reported several subjects illegally entered his residence. Upon arrival, deputies determined no one entered the residence. Deputies spoke to the neighbor, who confirmed no one had entered or left the residence. Deputies spoke to the man again, who later admitted to having mental health issues.

7:07 p.m.  Officers responded to a vehicle crash in the 5000 block of Universal Drive.

6:51 p.m.  A deputy spoke with a 77-year-old Larkin Township man who reported a missing vehicle magnetic sign. The man was unsure where the sign went missing. The sign read "Larkin Township Zoning."

6:36 p.m.  Officers responded to a report of domestic assault in the 4600 block of South Saginaw Road.

6:31 p.m.  Officers responded to a report of disorderly conduct in the 900 block of Joe Mann Boulevard.

5:14 p.m.  Deputies, Michigan State Police troopers, MidMichigan EMS, Jerome Township Fire and Edenville Township Fire responded to Lincoln Township intersection for a two-vehicle injury accident. Three patients were transported to MidMichigan ER for evaluation and treatment of minor injuries. The at-fault driver was cited for failure to stop in an assured distance.

1:10 p.m.  A deputy responded to a complaint of damage to a mailbox. It appears a vehicle drove too close to the side of the roadway and struck the mailbox, knocking it from the post. The driver/vehicle left the scene and did not leave a note. Information and pictures were taken.

12:33 p.m.  A deputy was dispatched to an Edenville Township residence for a report that a man was observed urinating in a lightly-wooded area on another neighbor's property. The female complainant reported the man had seen her prior to this incident and should have known she could see him as well. The report will be forwarded to the Midland County Prosecuting Attorney's Office for review at the request of the complainant.

11:23 a.m.  A 42-year-old Lee Township woman reported a fraud complaint to the sheriff's office. An unknown suspect attempted to utilize the woman's credit card to make an out-of-state transaction of $530. The transaction was not processed and was cancelled by the company as well as the credit card.

11:23 a.m.  A 52-year-old Porter Township woman reported someone charged $136.72 to her husband's debit card. The woman is working with the financial institution and store where the item was purchased to be reimbursed. The debit card has been cancelled.

10:44 a.m.  Officers responded to a subject in possession of methamphetamine in the 4000 block of Wellness Drive.

9:12 a.m.  A deputy responded to a single-vehicle crash in Jasper Township. The driver was not injured.

9:11 a.m.  Officers responded to a larceny in the 1400 block of Clover Court.

6:30 a.m.  A deputy was dispatched to a Jasper Township residence in reference to a complainant reporting they had struck a deer on West Redstone Road near South Lewis Road.

2:53 a.m.  Officers responded to a hit-and-run motor vehicle accident in the 5300 block of Dublin Avenue.

Thursday, April 30

10:37 p.m.  Deputies spoke with a 72-year-old Ingersoll Township man in reference to a loose dog complaint. Through investigation, deputies learned the man shot a handgun round into the ground to scare the dog away. The weapon's violation report will be sent to the prosecutor's office for review.

9:07 p.m.  A deputy and officer from the Michigan DNR were out on state land in Edenville Township searching for a lost ATV. While looking for the ATV, they were notified of a 16-year-old boy who was lost in the woods. Midland County Search and Rescue was activated, along with DNR from surrounding counties. The two agencies worked jointly and executed a plan to find the missing boy. The boy was found and returned home.

6:03 p.m.  Officers responded to a vehicle crash in the area of East Haley Street and Washington Street.

12:29 p.m.  Officers responded to a vehicle crash in the 900 block of Joe Mann Boulevard.

9:54 a.m.  Officers responded to an assault in the 4000 block of Orchard Drive.

2:29 a.m.  Deputies were dispatched to a Larkin Township location in reference to an 82-year-old man reporting two unknown male teenagers ringing his door bell before running away. Dispatch received a second 9-1-1 call in reference to knocking on a front door at a nearby residence. The deputies checked the area for an extended period of time and were unable to locate the subjects.
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Linkedin Ivan Couronne (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States  Tue, May 5, 2020 10:05 624 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd5f6fa2 2 World US,coronavirus,COVID-19,virus-corona,COVID-19-death-toll,COVID-19-lockdown,COVID-19-quarantine,pandemic,health Free

US President Donald Trump now says his worst-case coronavirus scenario would be 100,000 deaths, but the country will probably reach that grim milestone by next month, according to several scientific models -- none of which predict a summertime halt to the virus's spread.

"We're going to lose anywhere from 75,000, 80,000 to 100,000 people. That's a horrible thing," Trump said Sunday evening at a virtual town hall meeting on Fox News.

The Republican incumbent, who is vying for re-election in November, argued that without lockdown measures that have crippled the world's biggest economy, the toll would have been far greater -- more than 1.2 million "at a minimum."

But Trump's end-game figure is likely far lower than the reality -- his own White House says 100,000 to 240,000 Americans will die from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

The country has already seen 68,000 confirmed deaths, and has confirmed about 30,000 new cases a day since early April. The nature of the epidemic is such that more bleak figures are inevitable.

"My personal best guess is that we are going to reach 100,000 deaths around the beginning of June," Nicholas Reich, an associate professor of biostatistics at the University of Massachusetts, told AFP.

Reich's lab has looked at several major epidemiological models created by other institutions to come up with an average trajectory for the epidemic's development.

That average curve indicates the United States can expect to hit 90,000 deaths by May 23. An upcoming update should extend the predictions through the end of May.

"We're seeing pretty consistently somewhere between 5,000 to 10,000 deaths a week -- there are not a lot of reasons to expect it's going to drop quickly," Reich said.

Of nine models cited on May 1 by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least three of them predicted that 100,000 fatalities would be recorded in four weeks' time.

Few current models go beyond a four-week window, given the uncertainty of the situation.

Some are more optimistic: the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington predicts a total of 72,000 deaths by June 1, but its authors have said they plan to revise their methodology.

Others -- including two put together by Columbia University in New York -- say the 100,000 mark will be long past by June 1.

One from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology bets on 113,000 deaths by June 1.

Of course, all of these forecasts come with the usual margin of error -- sometimes totaling tens of thousands of deaths.

Big country

Epidemiologists consistently caution that no model should be taken on its own, as all of them are built on the basis of different hypotheses.

The most difficult element to factor in is how people will behave over the coming months.

Will they wear masks in public? How many will keep working from home? How many "non-essential" trips will people make to stores or restaurants? When will the country return to pre-pandemic standards of going out, or will it ever?

"We're at an inflection point right now, where some states are opening up, and some aren't," Reich said.

"There's an added layer of uncertainty. [...] It is a complex system with a lot of human behavior that is changing daily."

In the United States, the initial hotspots like New York and New Jersey have been replaced by new ones. In Texas, Illinois and the US capital, the number of new cases is growing.

In California and Florida, that number is starting to level off. The vastness of the country makes the situation more complicated.

"The US is not a single epidemic. It's happening differently in very many different places," William Hanage, an associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard University, told AFP.

To show the behavioral differences in urban and rural zones, or northern and southern zones, researchers in Philadelphia created models for 211 different US counties.

"The epicenters of today may not be the epicenters of tomorrow," said David Rubin, a physician at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia who also teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.

His team identified heat as a moderating factor. That could help keep the death toll down, but he warned: "Temperature alone is not going to save you."

Even in warmer parts of the country like Miami and Texas, "we see evidence that the risk remains," Rubin said.
Me Agbor Nkongho M L Simo

Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor alias Agbor Balla, Instructor at the English Law Department, Faculty of Laws and Political Science of the University of Buea has been summoned by authorities to justify why he set an examination question on the Anglophone Crisis.

The Disciplinary Hearing opens at 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, May 6, 2020 at the Board Room of the Central Administrative Block, said Prof. Atangcho Nji Akonumbo, Dean of the Faculty of Laws and Political Science.

The rights activist is said to have breached professional obligations when he set an exam question on the Anglophone Crisis in a first semester level one course titled Political and Constitutional History of Cameroon. The question read: The Anglophone crisis since 2016 was caused by lawyers and teachers strikes. Assess the validity of this statement. (40 marks).

An Invitation Letter to a Disciplinary Hearing dated April 29, 2020 was only delivered to Agbor Ballas office at the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA) at 12:08 p.m. Tuesday, May 5, 2020, Cameroon-Info.Net has learnt. Although Agbor Balla was not on seat, the invite was received on his behalf by one of his collaborators at CHRDA where he is founder/president.

In the invitation letter, Prof. Atangcho writes: On the instruction of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buea, and in keeping with article 16 of decree No. 93/036 of 29th January 1993, you are being invited to appear before a constituted Disciplinary Panel of the University to hear allegations against you for non-compliance of professional obligations for a question you set on LAW243: Political and Constitutional History of Cameroon, during the 2019/2020 first semester examination.

The Minister of State for Higher Education and Chancellor of Academic Orders, Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo had on April 20 instructed the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buea ,Professor Horace Ngomo Manga to put a definite end to all on-campus activities of Agbor Balla which breach the ethics and deontology of the University.

Cameroon-Info.Net recalls that when the crisis in the North West and South West regions started in October 2016 with the Lawyers and later Teachers strike, Agbor Balla was President of the Fako Lawyers Association (FAKLA) as well as President of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, CACSC.

When pressure came to bear on government, the CACSC was banned on January 17, 2017 and Agbor Balla arrested same day along with Dr. Fontem Neba who served as Secretary General of the Consortium.

Brought before the Yaounde military court for promoting terrorism among other charges that carry the maximum sentence, Agbor Balla was freed when President Biya ordered the discontinuance of proceedings against him and others on August 30, 2017.

Human Rights Lawyer Agbor Ballas trouble at the University of Buea may not be unconnected to his indictment of government for the February 14, 2020 killings in Ngarbuh.
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WASHINGTON  Aboard the carrier Theodore Roosevelt, recent history is repeating itself.

As sailors and other crew members who were quarantined on Guam return to the ship and begin preparations to return to sea, tensions have flared again between the ships medical personnel and Navy leadership over whether the Roosevelt is ready to go back to work in the Pacific Ocean.

Medical personnel and crew members on the Roosevelt say that several returning sailors have displayed symptoms that they associate with the coronavirus. But Navy officials counter that all sailors must have tested negative at least twice before going back on the ship, and that they will be tested again on board if they have even the mildest flulike symptoms.

In one instance last week, according to a crew member on the ship, several sailors with what turned out to be symptoms associated with the coronavirus were accidentally placed on a bus bound for the Roosevelt. All the sailors were taken off the bus, retested and placed in quarantine pending the results, Navy officials said.

If the results come back negative, the sailors will return to the ship  if they are positive, then the sailors will remain in quarantine and will be retested after a four-day wait period, the Navy said in an emailed response to The New York Times.
TVA President Jeff Lyash on Tuesday outlined how TVA has responded to COVID-19 and said the companys fiscal state remains healthy.

Among other things, those efforts include establishing enterprise-wide teams to coordinate TVAs response with local power companies and other responding agencies, said President Lyash. Theyre moving all administrative and support personnel to telework to assist with physical distancing.

He said the company is working on plans that would allow the company to slowly go back to normal operating procedure, albeit in a slow and measured way.

He said the company will prioritize worker safety during this process. In addition to this, Mr. Lyash spoke about the large amount of money available in support for power companies.

TVA is making up to $1 billion of credit support an option available to local power companies through the deferral of wholesale power payments, said the company president. TVA is also partnering with local companies and providing $2 million in matching funds for local initiatives to address hardships made by the pandemic.

He said TVA is in sound financial position and has reduced debt by almost $5 billion in recent years.He said the debt level is at the lowest level it has been in almost 30 years.

Strengthening partnerships with our customers was already one of our primary goals for this year, said President Lyash. Im pleased to report that 139 of our 154 local power companies have entered into 20-year agreements with TVA, which strengthens our collective ability to serve.

The president also emphasized TVAs focus on investing in renewable energies, which include water, wind, and especially nuclear power. He said coal usage has been slashed in recent years, as the company focuses on what he called a greener future.

On this, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, I am pleased to say TVA is on track to reduce its carbon emissions by 60 percent below peak 2005 levels in 2020, said the president, and that we will see a 70 percent reduction by 2030.

President Lyash also spoke about TVAs planned further investment in solar energy, reminding listeners that TVA launched the Green Invest Program in 2019 to meet the renewable goals of other private companies.



This will be achieved by building new solar facilities in the Tennessee Valley, said the president. TVA expects to publish a corporate responsibility report this summer which will speak more about these important clean energy achievements and our goals.

Chief Financial Officer John Thomas said the company ended the first six months with net income of $467 million. Meanwhile, because of mild weather during much of the winter, overall power sales have been down by three percent.

He said the base rate and fuel rate has been lower for customers, and is four percent lower compared to last years. He said that because of the prevalence of nuclear power, 60 percent of power comes from carbon-free sources. However, operating revenues are down $376 million from last year. In terms of net cash, that is down $850 million from last year as well.

In regards to how COVID-19 has affected TVA, the pandemic has made TVA work to make sure we have sufficient financial liquidity should there be any issues over the short turn. Mr. Thomas said TVA was able to fully fund bond maturity in March in regards to short-term debt.

Theres an outlier in terms of where were seeing the impact on large industrial, and thats on the transportation, said Mr. Thomas. Thats where were seeing most of the impact.

Lower effective rates is our goal for our customers, said Mr. Thomas when recapping the presentation. Were closely monitoring what is going on at the micro-industry level to best predict what will happen from an economic and energy sales aspect for TVA.
A discrepancy has been brought to the fore in the number of COVID-19 cases reported by the state in its medical bulletins and its communication with the Union government. (Photo Credit: News Nation Photo)

Kolkata:

West Bengal has the highest mortality rate in the country at 12.8 per cent, Inter Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) leader Apoorva Chandra wrote in his final observations to state Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha, before leaving for Delhi on Monday. "This extremely high mortality rate is a clear indication of low testing, weak surveillance and tracking," Chandra said in the letter.

A discrepancy has been brought to the fore in the number of COVID-19 cases reported by the state in its medical bulletins and its communication with the Union government, Chandra noted in the letter. The team, led by Chandra, returned to the national capital after having completed two weeks of stay in the city.

In between Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government is yet to release any fresh orders on the extension of the coronavirus lockdown till May 17. The state government will decide the next course of action after a cabinet meet on Monday. Till now the flower markets, sweet shops with restricted timing, fruit and vegetable markets have been opening.

Even offices and factories were allowed to open after special permission from Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha. The government said it was concerned about the crops and agriculture sector, and hence, the supply chain of the same was being given special focus. On the issue of migrant labourers stranded in different states, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Baerjee said over 2,500 people from the state stranded in Rajasthan and Kerala will begin their journey back home on Monday in two special trains.
Toyota has admitted to selling 'junk' insurance through its dealerships, it has been reported.In a letter, Supplementary Product Disclosure Statement (SPDS) for Toyotas novated lease insurance issued on 1 July, the automaker has in effect directly admitted to selling customers junk, News.com.au reported.In a new section titled Risks, Toyota Insurance warned customers of the risks they need to consider when purchasing insurance policies in conjunction with financing agreements through motor dealers.It said insurance purchased this way is often more expensive than similar cover purchased through other methods, and the types and levels of insurance provided may not be appropriate for you, especially if you have no dependants or already have insurance cover sufficient to meet your liabilities through other policies.It also acknowledged that including the premium for insurance as part of the financed amount increases the real cost of the insurance due to the interest payable on the financed amount.Gerard Brody, Consumer Action chief executive, told News.com.au the letter was admitting that its junk.We have raised concerns that the sales of this sort of insurance misleads people or takes advantage of them through the sales process, he said.I think Toyota are trying to protect themselves by saying this is clearly disclosed at the outset. But in practice we know consumers rarely read complex and lengthy disclosure documents.The securities regulator issued two damning reports into the industry earlier this year, titled Buying add-on insurance in car yards: why it can be hard to say no, and The sale of life insurance through car dealers: Taking consumers for a ride, which exposed major issues with the practice of selling add-on insurance, News.com.au reported.The practice, which has been described as a get rich quick scheme for car dealers and finance providers has incurred Australians an estimated $70 million in losses, with some unaware they availed of the junk insurance in the first place, said Consumer Action Law Centre.The advocacy group has been campaigning for consumers who have been sold junk insurance and warranties to complain and seek a refund, said the report. To date, there are more than $230,000 in refunds requested through the DemandARefund website.The group is also lobbying for tougher laws. Brody said: Were hoping governments will intervene and change the law to prevent insurance being bundled with personal loans or other products in a way that people are unable to assess the value of the product.In a statement, a spokesperson for Toyota Finance Australia said: We are aware of an article that has appeared today in relation to insurance add on products.Toyota Finance Australia is committed to and ensures at all times that there is full transparency with regards to costs across all of its products, including its insurance product range.Our customers are always and will continue to be our priority.
Worker seen counting money with protective gloves at Warehouse 4 Coffee Shop in Vandalia, Ohio, on March 15, 2020. (Brad Lee/AFP via Getty Images)

Ohio Advises Employers to Report Staff Who Dont Return to Work

Data will help track COVID-19 unemployment benefits

Ohio state has advised companies to report employees who fail to show up to work as the state begins to reopen amid the CCP virus pandemic, officials said Friday.

A new website has been set up by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) which allows employers to report staff who either choose not to return to work, or have resigned amid the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, commonly known as the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The ODJFS policy states that if jobs are available and employees fail to return to work, they will not be eligible to receive unemployment benefits.

Ohio law prohibits individuals from receiving unemployment benefits if they refuse to accept offers of suitable work, or quit work, without good cause, the department said in a email obtained by Cleveland.com, which was circulated to companies on May 1.

If you have employees who refuse to return to work or quit work, its important that you let the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) know so we can make accurate eligibility determinations, it said in the email.

The department director, Kimberly Hall, told a press briefing Monday that companies will also be asked to communicate what efforts have been made to protect employee jobs.

Weve always had an administrative review process, the director told reporters. It basically hinges on whether theres a good-cause reason for that refusal to return to work.

An online form made available on the website asks a number of questions, including the name of the employee and an explanation for why the individual is no longer working.

We will review the necessary files and records in light of the information you have provided to determine the most appropriate action, the ODJFS states on the website.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) extended the states stay-at-home order late Thursday to May 29. It had been set to expire on May 1, and requires all Ohio residents to stay home, while public or private gatherings outside of a single household are prohibited.

However, the governor said many businesses would be able to reopen as part of measures to reopen the states economy.

These are first steps, DeWine said last week. Weve got to get moving. Weve got to get people back to work. Weve got to open things up.

On Friday, DeWine said non-essential surgeries that do not require an overnight hospital stay, would be permitted, while dentists and veterinarians would be allowed to reopen.

The manufacturing, distribution and construction sectors, and general offices were permitted to reopen on Monday, DeWine said. However, he encouraged companies to keep employees telecommuting when possible.

He added that retail and other consumer services will reopen on May 12.

Ohio will require all companies to have employees practice social distancing and where that is not possible, barriers will need to be installed. Employees must perform daily health assessments, and companies will stagger or limit arrivals of employees as well as implement shift changes, DeWine said.

The coronavirus is still here. Its just as dangerous as its ever been, the governor said.

He added that the opening of restaurants, hair salons, and gyms would come later, and that mass gatherings, like concerts and sporting events, would likely be the last to return.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Demonstrators were forced to use exercise as a means of protest amid the COVID-19 pandemic on May 4, when New South Wales South Coast residents campaigned against the clearing of forest that had been spared from the catastrophic 2019-2020 bushfires.

Developer Ozy Homes planned to develop a 20-hectare area at Manyana after receiving approval for the project in 2008, according to reports.

However, locals were concerned that the development land had become a last refuge for local wildlife that had lost its habitat during the bushfires.

Social distancing regulations in place across New South Wales to stem the spread of coronavirus had effectively banned mass protests, forcing the demonstrators to use exercise  such as yoga and walking  as a reason to attend the site.

An estimated 312 homes were destroyed and 500,000 hectares were burnt in the surrounding area by the 74-day Currowan fire in late 2019 and early 2020. The blaze threatened homes and forced resident to evacuate to beaches in the area on New Years Eve.

Record bushfires gripped much of New South Wales in late 2019 and early 2020, with over 11,400 bush and grass fires burning 5.5 million hectares, the equivalent of 6.2 percent of the state of New South Wales. Fires burned across the state for 240 consecutive days between July 2019 and March 2020. Credit: Manyana Matters via Storyful
AUSTIN, Texas, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- VolitionRx Limited (NYSE AMERICAN: VNRX) ("Volition") today announced it will host a conference call on Friday, May 8, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time to discuss its financial and operating results for the first quarter 2020, in addition to providing a business update.

Event: VolitionRx Limited First Quarter 2020 Earnings and Business Update Conference Call

Date: Friday, May 8, 2020

Time: 8:30 a.m. Eastern time

U.S. & Canada Dial-in: 1-877-407-9716 (toll free)

U.K. Dial-in: 0 800 756 3429 (toll free)

Toll/International: 1-201-493-6779

Conference ID: 13703451

Cameron Reynolds, President and Chief Executive Officer of Volition, will host the call along with David Vanston, Chief Financial Officer and Scott Powell, Executive Vice President, Investor Relations. The call will provide an update on recent developments and Volition's activities, including details of new and ongoing clinical trials, important events which have taken place in the first quarter of 2020, and milestones for 2020 and beyond.

A live audio webcast of the conference call will also be available on the investor relations page of Volition's corporate website at http://ir.volition.com. In addition, a telephone replay of the call will be available until May 22, 2020. The replay dial-in numbers are 1-844-512-2921 (toll-free) in the U.S. and Canada and 1-412-317-6671 (toll) internationally. Please use replay pin number 13703451.

About Volition

Volition is a multi-national epigenetics company developing simple, easy to use, cost effective blood tests to help diagnose a range of cancers and other diseases. Early diagnosis has the potential to not only prolong the life of patients, but also to improve their quality of life. The tests are based on the science of NucleosomicsTM, which is the practice of identifying and measuring nucleosomes in the bloodstream or other bodily fluid - an indication that disease is present. Volition is primarily focused on human diagnostics but also has a subsidiary focused on animal diagnostics.

Volition's research and development activities are centered in Belgium, with additional offices in Texas, London and Singapore, as the company focuses on bringing its diagnostic products to market.

NucleosomicsTM is a trademark of Volition and its subsidiaries.

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By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: India on Monday lodged a strong protest with Pakistan over an order by that countrys supreme court allowing the conduct of general elections in Gilgit-Baltistan, with New Delhi saying that the region is an integral part of India and has been illegally occupied by Islamabad.

According to sources, a senior Pakistani diplomat was served a demarche over the phone.

It was clearly conveyed that the entire Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including the areas of Gilgit and Baltistan, are an integral part of India by virtue of its fully legal and irrevocable accession, the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

It added that the government of Pakistan or its judiciary did not have any locus standi on territories illegally and forcibly occupied by it.

Last month, the Pakistan Supreme Court allowed the amendment to the Government of Gilgit-Baltistan Order of 2018 to conduct the general elections in the region.

The order was issued in response to a petition filed by the Pakistan government.

The term of the current government in Gilgit-Baltistan will end on June 24 with polls mandated to be held within 60 days.

Indias position is reflected in the resolution passed by the Parliament in 1994 by consensus, the statement said.
California may lose $1.3 billion in gas tax revenue during the coronavirus shelter-in-place period, a side effect of the decline in driving, according to a scientist at UC Davis.

The numbers appear in a new report from the universitys Road Ecology Center, which shows that drivers consumed 85.8 million gallons of gas during the second week of April, a steep drop from the 349 million gallons pumped in the first week of March.

The dip in fuel consumption has tremendous benefits for the environment, said Fraser Shilling, co-director of the Road Ecology Center and author of the report. But on the flip side, it means less tax money flowing into state coffers. At the estimated tax rate of 61 cents a gallon, revenue may have plunged by $161 million a week, the report said.

The economic impacts are harsh, Shilling said. He calculated the losses by dividing the reduction in vehicle miles traveled by the number of miles per gallon of fuel in an average car. Shilling then applied the 61 cent tax rate, based on past reports from the American Petroleum Institute that combine state excise taxes and local sales taxes.

His figures are rough, and open for debate, though they illustrate a trend that most transportation experts acknowledge: Less travel means fewer people buying gas, which has repercussions for the economy.

The slide comes at a time when state lawmakers expected a gas tax windfall, owing to SB1 a 17.6 cent-per-gallon increase approved in 2017. Legislators anticipated the bill would generate $53 billion over 10 years, money they hoped would fill a gaping backlog in highway and bridge repairs while also beefing up public transportation.

Officials at the state Finance Department said that California collects 47.3 cents in excise taxes from every gallon of gas sold, and on top of that, cities reap a 2.25% local sales tax. Sales tax losses could be exacerbated by the collapse in California gas prices, which tumbled from $3.43 in March to $2.74 today for a gallon of regular gas, a price chart from the American Automobile Association shows.

Finance Department spokesman H.D. Palmer expects to get an official estimate of how much gas tax revenue the state has lost by next week, when Gov. Gavin Newsom submits his May budget revision. It will examine the impact of COVID-19 on all aspects of the states economy.

At this point, the state hasnt announced cuts for any specific transportation projects. However, the slump in sales taxes could hurt transit agencies, many of which are already seeking government bailouts.

Last week, the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission released its own report, projecting that Bay Area nonfederal transportation revenue  a mix of fuel taxes, sales taxes, bridge and road tolls, transit fares and parking fees  could plummet by 47%  or $3.5 billion  through December. By next summer, losses could grow to $4.6 billion, the report said, at which point they would likely settle at recession levels.

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 funding shortfall threatens the nearly 250,000 people employed in the surface transportation sector and threatens the Bay Areas ability to operate and maintain our transportation network, the report said. The shortfall could halt everything from routine bridge, road and transit maintenance to major capital projects.

Despite the projected losses, the stay-at-home orders have also yielded positive results, Shilling concluded. Traffic is light, roads and freeways are quieter, crashes are down and fewer animals are getting hit by cars. And, most notably, greenhouse gas emissions are falling.

The 75% decline in road travel and fuel use set California on track to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40% if the trend were to stick for a year, according to the report. Thats halfway toward the states ambitious target of a 80% greenhouse gas reduction by 2050.

Shilling acknowledged, however, that all the gains from the stay-at-home rules could evaporate after scientists release a vaccine or treatment for the coronavirus. Some transportation experts predict, further, that once the economy reopens, people will get back in their cars.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan
A criminal defence solicitor is to stand trial accused of theft and perverting the course of justice.

Cahir OHiggins, 45, had been charged last month and was given bail with his case listed today for the first time before Dublin District Court.

Mr OHiggins, who denies the charges, did not have to come to court. Due to the Covid-19 crisis most defendants have been excused from attending their cases.

The Dublin solicitor is accused of theft of 400 belonging to a Spanish man who was a defendant in district court proceedings, on July 30, 2016. The theft allegedly happened at a Londis shop, on Parkgate Street, close to the Criminal Courts of Justice building.

This offence is contrary to section four of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001.

Mr OHiggins was also accused of four counts of perverting the course of public justice contrary to common law, on December 8 and December 17, within the State and at the Bridewell Garda station in Dublin.

These charges allege intent to pervert the course of public justice, by producing to investigating Detective Garda Colm Kelly a copy of notes purportedly made by him on July 30, 2016 which contained information that he knew to be untrue and that he knew the notes were not made on this date. These offence are in the context of a criminal investigation into the theft allegation.

Evidence of arrest, charge and caution was given by Detective Garda Colm Kelly today.

He told district court president Judge Colin Daly that on April 7 last, he arrested Mr O'Higgins at 2.28pm at the Bridewell Garda station. He was then charged with the five offences.

He was cautioned and his reply to all charges was: I am surprised at this allegation, I am not guilty, I will answer it at the appropriate time in court.

Judge Daly heard that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has directed trial on indictment on all matters. This means the solicitor will face trial before a judge and jury in the circuit criminal court.

Defence counsel Karl Monahan told Judge Daly, "There is an issue of prosecutorial delay in this case."

The judge told him that was a matter for the trial but the barrister replied that he was required to put it on record at this point.

The case was adjourned for a book of evidence to be completed by the DPP and served on the accused at the next hearing on June 16 in the district court.

Mr OHiggins, whose practice is based at Dublins Parkgate Street, has repeatedly featured among the top legal aid earners, and has represented defendants at every level of the criminal justice system.

His firm Cahir O'Higgins & Company Solicitors provides a full range of legal services including criminal defence, ligation, civil, and human rights law.

In 2017, he was highest paid legal aid solicitor in the country and had received 486,997.
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Linkedin Apriza Pinandita (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, May 5, 2020 14:42 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd6129cb 1 World COVID-19,Non-Aligned-Movement,Indonesia,Jokowi,global-cooperation,multilateralism Free

Indonesia called for leaders of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) member countries to strengthen political solidarity amid the global fight against COVID-19 during the grouping's summit on Monday.

During the virtual forum, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo recalled the purpose of the establishment of the forum  the second-largest grouping of states after the United Nations  which was to fight mutual enemy imperialism and neocolonialism.

Currently, our mutual enemy is the COVID-19 pandemic, Jokowi said as quoted in a statement released by the State Secretariat.

In his address, Jokowi acknowledged that the pandemic was far from over and therefore he invited NAM member countries to act in a prompt, careful and strategic manner.

He also delivered three key points that countries should prioritize during the handling of the crisis caused by the novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 3 million people and killed more than 200,000 in 210 countries and territories.

First, we need to strengthen political solidarity among us because only by working together can we win this war, Jokowi said.

Read also: Indonesia rallies to keep COVID-19 vaccines, drugs affordable

This year marks the 65th anniversary of the agreement of Dasasila Bandung (Bandung Principles), a 10-point statute resulting from the 1955 Asian-African Conference held in Bandung, West Java.

Coinciding with the occasion, as well the upcoming 60th commemoration of NAMs establishment -- the manifestation of the principles -- next year, Jokowi also asked countries in the grouping to channel their time and energy to fully focus on addressing challenges brought about by the pandemic.

NAM comprises 120 members, mostly developing countries. The grouping was established in Belgrade in 1961 with only 25 members.

Let us translate [the idea of] political solidarity into concrete collaboration. We need to work hard to get fair and timely access to COVID-19 vaccines and medicine at an affordable price, he said as he asserted the importance of strengthening cooperation to maintain the global supply chain of medical and food supplies.

Jokowi went on to remind of the significance of partnerships among the developing countries, including to encourage the provision of debt relief, as well as humanitarian and development assistance.

He also mentioned that the commitment from G-20 countries to provide suspension on debt payment to low-income countries needed to be implemented.

Read also: COVID-19: Learning from other countries

At the end of his address, Jokowi called for international communities to uphold multilateralism as the cornerstone of international cooperation.

This year's NAM Summit was hosted by Azerbaijan, with the main theme of Unite to Fight COVID-19 and attended by leaders of member countries, including Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev as the chair of the forum, Afghanistans Ashraf Gani, Cubas President Miguel Diaz Canel, Egypts Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Irans Hassan Rouhani, Nigerias Muhammadu Buhari, Pakistans President Arif Alvi, Palestines Mahmoud Abbas, South Africas Cyril Ramaphosa, Venezuelas Nicolas Maduro,

Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Malaysias Muhyiddin Yassin also attended the forum, as well as representatives from international and regional organizations.
In news that will do little to calm the nerves of antsy mortgage professionals, data released by Point2 Homes on Monday finds sentiment among real estate agents around COVID-19s impact on their businesses to be one of pessimism and extreme concern.

The survey, which follows the far more optimistic polling of homebuyer sentiment Point2 Homes released on April 9, collected responses from 369 agents between April 7 and 14. Theres little potential for shock in some of the data, such as 86% of respondents noticing at least quite a significant drop in homebuyer interest. But the feelings realtors expressed around what business will look like once COVID-19 passes may take some by surprise.

When asked about their level of concern over the impact of the outbreak on their business, 97% of realtors said they are at least somewhat worried, but the vast majority are either very worried and concerned (41%) or extremely anxious (34%). Only 1% of realtors said they are not concerned by COVID-19s impact at all.
With Apples recruitment of a number of positions in Vietnams two biggest cities, rumor has it that the U.S. tech giant wants to open a plant in the Southeast Asian country.

On its official website, Apple is announcing 12 vacancies for hardware engineers, engineers and managers in operations and supply chain, managers in sales and business development, and managers in corporate functions in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Under the job description for operations managers, Apple says it looks for those to help the company foster growth in the market, leading a team of engineers in support of new product development as well as sustaining operations in ensuring the contract manufacturer readiness for very high volume production.

The series of job openings has been posted over the past few months, fueling the rumor that the iPhone producer is fleshing out a plan to launch a production site in Vietnam.

Noticeably, the recruitments also include the position of a senior manager responsible for government affairs, prompting people to think that this could be a sign Apple is poised to establish a representative office in Hanoi.

Sharing with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper his opinion on the conjecture, Dr. Le Hoai Quoc, former head of the Saigon Hi-Tech Park, said that it is totally possible.

According to Quoc, it is understandable for U.S. companies to want to shift production from China amid the two countries trade tension, adding that a number of Apples manufacturing partners already have plants in Vietnam.

For instance, Foxconn, a key supplier for the Cupertino-headquartered company, has a facility in the northern province of Bac Ninh to manufacture for the tech giant.

GoerTek, one of Apples important manufacturing partners in China, has two assembly plants in Que Vo Industrial Park in Bac Ninh.

Meanwhile, Apples main assembly partner for AirPods, Inventec, on March 24 revealed it was preparing to establish a unit in Vietnam, Bloomberg reported.

In a recent move, Taipei-listed Wistron Corporation, another manufacturing partner, also chose Vietnam as part of its US$1 billlion expansion plan for this year and the next, according to Bloomberg.

Quoc said Vietnam has opened the door to investment from world-class companies, with South Koreas Samsung being a prominent example.

However, several industry experts have begged to disagree.

In conversations with Tuoi Tre, the experts said that Apple has been posting job vacancies in Vietnam for years, not only in late 2019 and early 2020.

The opening of a production plant for a technology giant like Tim Cook's firm will require recruitments at a far terribly larger level than just the over ten positions that the U.S.-based company is posting, one expert said.

Another pundit, who refused to go by their name, emphasized that even if Apple really wants to move its production out of China, the movement will not happen soon as China is offering many preferential policies on land and costs, aside from being the worlds leading consumer market.

The experts agreed that Apples Vietnam recruitments are more likely to serve the opening of a small research center for distribution, sales, customer care or the participation in partners' production and testing.

In another opinion, Nguyen Van Toan, deputy chairman of Vietnams Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises (VAFIE), said that even if Apple has not yet set up its manufacturing plant in Vietnam, the increase in its recruitments and outsourcing to manufacturing sites here is a positive signal in itself.

Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services.

It is considered one of the Big Four technology companies, alongside Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.

Its worldwide annual revenue exceeded $260 billion for the 2019 fiscal year, according to the companys statements.

Apples market share was estimated to slip to 12.6 percent in 2020s first quarter from 13.5 percent in the last, according to Reuters.

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This years James Beard Foundation awards nominations are, in some ways, a salute to a golden age of restaurants thats in danger of no longer existing. Just a few months ago, Cristina Martinez, Nicholas Elmi, Rich Landau, Chutatip Nok Suntaranon, and Marc Vetri were cooking with such passion in their respective kitchens, that a jury of their peers and food journalists nominated them as among the best in the business.

Then came the coronavirus. And by the time the Beard Foundation announced its 2020 finalists on Monday afternoon  with coveted nominations for all five  the worlds dining landscape had been brought to its knees by a nationwide shutdown in response to the pandemic. Nearly two-thirds of the nations restaurant workforce is now unemployed  including more than 300,000 people in Pennsylvania  and forecasts for the industrys revival are grim, with comebacks expected to be slow, partial and, in some cases, unsustainable.

And yet, amid all the fears and genuine concerns, many of Philadelphias talented restaurateurs have refused to quit cooking, including several of its James Beard finalists. If theyre not already doing takeout specials, meal kits, family-sized feasts, or pop-up specials to go, plans to do so are in the works.

"Weve turned ourselves into the Best Takeout of the Year! joked Suntaranon in a live interview on the Beards national awards show webcast, shortly before being named one of Americas 10 best new restaurants.

But shes not kidding. I had the lucky timing to order a delivery meal from Kalaya (764 S. 9th St.) this past weekend, and while I missed the bustle and energy of the Italian Market BYOB, Suntaranons food reaffirmed why I named her my 2019 Chef of the Year. From the fiery duck laab salad laced with chiles and tangy herbs to a bountiful fried rice jeweled with huge lumps of crab, the essence of this beautiful Southern Thai food survived its transit across town  in Suntaranons own car, no less.

Cristina Martinez, a finalist for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic, has not paused since the pandemic, either, in continuing with husband Benjamin Miller to produce her weekend feasts of extraordinary Capulhuec-style lamb tacos at Barbacoa South Philly (1140 S. 9th St.). I ate one of my most memorable takeout meals of the past couple months from Martinezs kitchen, highlighted by soulful lamb consomme, pancita offal tacos, and the best tortillas in Philly. A visit next door to her new Casa Mexico (1134 S. 9th St.) for daily-changing list of homey guisados remains high on my next-to-eat list.

Marc Vetri, a multiyear finalist for the nations outstanding chef award, who made it to the finals in this category also in 2019, has also embraced the new takeout normal with his signature alta cucina flair, creating deluxe eight-course meal kits for $95 from Vetri Cucina (1312 Spruce St.) with instructions for plating that goat ragu, sweet onion crepe, and rhubarb crostata at home. For more modest budgets, the fresh pasta kits and sauces to go from Vetris casual new outlet in the Italian Market, Fiorella, are absolutely worthwhile. Dont miss the cacio e pepe or sausage ragu homage to the butcher shop by the same name that occupied the space previously for over a century.

Phillys two other nominees for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic, Rich Landau of Vedge (1221 Locust St.) and V Street (124-126 S. 19th St.), and Nicholas Elmi of Laurel (1617 E. Passyunk Ave.), ITV (1615 E. Passyunk Ave.), and Royal Boucherie (52 S. 2nd St.), are among the many restaurateurs who decided to initially close their restaurants temporarily as soon as the citys dining room shutdown was instated in mid-March. But there has been some movement.

No, Laurels vodka whipped cream caviar, frozen foie gras, and ethereal truffled gnocchi dont have much of a chance of going the delivery route anytime soon. But the possibility of inventive cocktails to go from ITV, taking advantage of possible changes to the Pennsylvania state liquor laws, are likely soon, says Elmi, along with some tasty mocktails. Landau, meanwhile, has had a change of heart on takeout. With Phillys dining room shutdown likely to last for several more weeks, and then reopen at only partial capacity, he conceded in a recent Instagram post that, its time for us to get into the takeout game so we can cook for you again.

Thats good news, especially for vegetable-loving moms. Vedges first foray into the takeout game will be a package for Mothers Day this weekend, a plant-based twist on a French picnic theme" with saffron cauliflower soup, smoked tofu Nicoise salad, a roasted maitake among other temptations. Landau and his partner and wife, Kate Jacoby, plan to offer a new menu menu weekly (see Vedges Instagram profile for details), with pick-up windows Friday and Saturday, plus wine and bubbles options.

Now that sounds like a celebration. And during this trying time of an uncertainty for the future of Phillys restaurant scene, some nominations from James Beard for several of its best chefs  and stellar takeout meals for the people, plus bubbles!  are just the taste of optimism we need.
An Argor-Heraeus SA branded two hundred and fifty gram gold bar, center, sits in this arranged photograph at Solar Capital Gold Zrt. in Budapest, Hungary.

Gold steadied above $1,700 an ounce on Tuesday, as massive global stimulus measures to ease the economic blow from the coronavirus pandemic offset improved risk sentiment on the back of easing restrictions and lockdowns.

Meanwhile, auto catalyst metal palladium shed as much as 5% to its lowest since March 24 at $1,747.31 per ounce.

Spot gold was up 0.2% at $1,705.57 per ounce. U.S. gold futures settled down 0.2% at $1,710.60.

"There's a lot of stimulus sloshing around the system, central banks are going to be very easy, rates will be zero for perhaps years on end and stock market is very volatile. So all of that's a tailwind for gold, big declines are being bought into," said Edward Meir, analyst at ED&F Man Capital Markets.

However, general optimism with some global economies opening up, which could mean interest rates will move a little bit higher, should strengthen the dollar and pressure gold, he added.

The pandemic, which has battered growth worldwide and prompted governments to unleash fiscal and monetary measures to limit economic damage, has infected about 3.6 million people globally and killed more than 250,000.

Gold tends to benefit from widespread stimulus measures from central banks because it is widely viewed as a hedge against inflation and currency debasement.

"Gold continues to toy with the $1,700/oz level... Quantitative easing and unprecedented fiscal stimulus has provided a positive backdrop for gold, but the physical market is very weak," Standard Chartered analysts said in a note.

Stock markets, meanwhile, snapped a three-day losing streak and oil was on its longest run of gains in nine months as moves to ease major economies out of lockdowns lifted sentiment.

Italy and the United States were among several countries to tentatively ease lockdowns on Monday.

Also limiting gold's appeal was a robust dollar.

Market participants also kept an eye on rising China-U.S. tensions, with President Donald Trump urging China to be transparent about the origins of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Elsewhere, palladium dropped 3% to $1,792.08 per ounce.

"With COVID-19 wreaking havoc on the auto industries, it turns out the demand side of the equation is briefly at pause," said Daniel Ghali, commodity strategist at TD Securities.

"We're actually expecting the deficit to narrow by a very significant extent."

Palladium, primarily used by automakers for catalytic-converter manufacturing to clean vehicle-exhaust fumes, scaled a record peak of $2,875.50 in late February, bolstered by a chronic shortage of the metal.

Platinum rose 0.3% to $768.08 and silver rose 0.8% to $14.96.
A Hong Kong court on Tuesday slapped a travel ban on pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who is awaiting trial on charges of taking part in an "illegal assembly" during last year's protests, as well as allegations of "intimidation."



Lai appeared in court alongside veteran democrats Lee Cheuk-yan and Yeung Sum, and was ordered not to leave Hong Kong.



Lai, Lee, and Yeung were among 15 prominent pro-democracy figures to be arrested last month for taking part in protests last year. They will stand trial for the "illegal assembly" charges as a group on May 18, while Lai will face trial for "intimidation" on Aug. 19, magistrate Peter Law ruled on Tuesday.



Lai was released on bail, ordered not to leave Hong Kong, and told to report to a police station once a week.



The group were arrested in a coordinated raid on April 18, just days after Beijing dismissed a clause in the city's Basic Law proscribing Chinese government departments from interfering in the city's daily life.



The ruling Chinese Communist Party's liaison office in Hong Kong has since made a series of criticisms of "foreign interference" in the city's political life, including hitting out at a recent report from the U.S.-based NGO the National Democratic Institute (NDI).



Supporting autonomy, rule of law



In an April 23 report, the NDI called on Beijing to refrain from further undermining the "high degree of autonomy" promised to Hong Kong, and on the Hong Kong government to "resist Beijings interference into Hong Kongs autonomy and rule of law, and restart the process of democratic reform."



It said leaders in Beijing and Hong Kong should "acknowledge the legitimate concerns of the Hong Kong people about the erosion of their rights and the lack of progress on political reform."



It also called on the Hong Kong government to set up an independent statutory commission to investigate widespread allegations of excessive use of force by police during the protest movement.



Beijing's Central Liaison Office hit out at the NDI for "interfering in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs."



"Such remarks are ridiculous and arrogant," a spokesman said in a statement on the office's official website. "No other country has the right to interfere."



"The erroneous remarks of these politicians seriously violates international law and the basic norms of international relations, and are another example of the brutal interference by foreign forces in Hong Kong's affairs and China's internal affairs," the spokesman said.



Yeung, also out on bail along with Lee, told journalists outside the court that people should keep on fighting to protect the rights and freedoms that Beijing promised to preserve under the terms of the 1997 handover agreement.



"I call upon the Hong Kong people to stand firm, and to stand [up] for their civil rights, political rights, and legal rights," Yeung said in comments reported by government broadcaster RTHK.



Reported by Man Hoi-tsan for RFA's Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
A half-hearted return to business. Employers groups cant agree on the percentage of retailers that opened for business on Monday, but their preliminary data suggests that only 10 to 50 per cent of shops did open.

Alex Goni, the chairman of Pimecs retail division [an employers group], claims that between 40 and 50 per cent of shops opened their doors on Monday after nearly two months in lockdown. In contrast, Barcelona Comerc, the organisation that represents 24 shopping centres in Barcelona city, revealed that 10 per cent of the shops in our centres that remained shuttered since the state of emergency was declared have opened for business again.

On Monday morning a short stroll around Barcelonas Gracia and Sarria-Sant Gervasi districts confirmed that the retail sector shows little enthusiasm to go back to work. Even though hair salons had long queues outside of people looking to get an appointment, photocopy, shoe and furniture shops remained shut. Some beauty salons and physiotherapy centres were open, but several dry cleaners remained closed.

According to Pimec, the number of retail businesses that opened was very consistent across Catalonia, with small differences from one county or municipality to the next. As for specific sectors, Goni pointed out that 80 of hair salons were open for business, whereas restaurants remained closed except for those offering a takeaway service. In other sectors, like dry cleaners, about 30 per cent of businesses opened their doors. Pimecs figures were only preliminary and were collected at noon, so they might have been different by the end of the day.

Goni also pointed out that the need to work by appointment only meant that shopkeepers who arent used to it were having some issues. In fact, the large number of hair salons that went back to work is due to the fact that hairdressers are typically used to working by appointment. Goni also mentioned the problems caused by the need to ensure that retail spaces meet the required safety standards, which meant that some were unable to open at the usual time and others will even need to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday. Despite his complaints, the Pimec representative noted that the retail sector was really looking forward to getting back to work after being in the freezer for two months.

This was confirmed by Barcelona Comerc in a press release stating that the restrictions that remain in place today and the new safety measures made many shops reluctant to open on Monday by appointment only and they will be going back to business later this week. Barcelona Comerc believes that 20 per cent of all shops will be open by the end of the week, on top of those that never shut during the lockdown. The bulk of retail operations intend to open their doors on May 11, they said.

On this point, the retail industry regrets that the exact measures ordered by the Spanish government were not announced until Sunday evening. Many of our members have protested that the BOE [Spains official gazette] outlining the exact steps to be taken was not published till Sunday afternoon, Goni said, and he went on to complain that there is no cash to help the retail industry: we have endured two full months [of lockdown] and all of a sudden we are being rushed back into business.

The added costs incurred by the new health and safety measures are the main hurdle for many shopkeepers. Goni says its yet another expense. Chiefly among the measures is the need to clean shops twice a day, maintaining social distancing between staff and shoppers and the added expense of having to purchase additional items, such as gloves, protective screens, masks and sanitiser gel. In the case of clothes shops, jewellers and shoe shops, whenever a customer tries on an item, this must be either sanitised immediately or locked away and not for sale for ten days.

Despite the complaints from employers groups, trade union Comisiones Obreras insisted that safety measures must be fully enforced and the protocol of good practices published on Sunday by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce must be adhered to. In a press release, the union remarked that it is essential to ensure that employees in the retail sector and their customers are kept safe.

20 per cent of shops open across Spain

According to ATA, Spains Association of Self-employed Workers, on the whole fewer retailers opened in Spain: specifically, only 20 per cent of local shops, 50 per cent of hair salons and 3 per cent of bars and restaurants did. However, ATA believes the percentage will gradually rise to 40 per cent during the week in the case of retail businesses and 70 per cent for hair salons. As usual, the problem is that the rules were announced late on Sunday, complained Lorenzo Amor, the chairman of ATA.

Many self-employed workers are currently adapting their business premises so they can open in the coming days. Others have told us they will wait until May 11 and many have said that, given that business has been very slow in the last few weeks, they are not going to purchase the sanitary material right away because the cost would far exceed their sales for this week, he explained.
Photo: The Canadian Press

As provinces start to tiptoe toward normalcy by gently lifting restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19, a new poll suggests Canadians are largely happy with the pace.

People in most provinces taking steps to reopen were between 60 and 70 per cent supportive of those moves, while 16 to 30 per cent would like to see their government slow down a little.

Some provinces have already begun loosening physical distancing measures put in place as the growth in the number of COVID-19 cases started picking up steam in March.

In Quebec, which has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Canada, the province is allowing some retail stores to reopen outside of Montreal with an eye to reopen the manufacturing and construction sectors next week. On Monday it pushed back the reopening of non-essential stores in the Montreal area at least another week.

Ontario, with the second-highest number of confirmed cases in the country, is allowing the partial reopening of some seasonal businesses. Manitoba has gone even further, allowing slightly restricted access to libraries, museums, and restaurant patios.

But in Alberta, which plans to allow certain retail stores, restaurants and daycare centres to reopen as early as May 14, people seem less comfortable with how quickly things are moving.

There, 50 per cent of respondents would like the province to slow down.

"Alberta is a bit different," said Christian Bourque, vice-president of Leger.

"Everywhere else people seem to be in tune with what their governments have announced."

Bourque was surprised by the latest results, considering similar polls in the last weeks indicated Canadians wanted to see major milestones hit before physical distancing measures were lifted, such as the development of a vaccine or a two-week period without new cases.

"I expected people to be even more cautious than they are," he said.

In the latest poll, 28 per cent said they would be comfortable lifting restrictions if there are only sporadic cases and no pressure on the health-care system.

In general, the poll suggests Canadians' fear of themselves or a loved one contracting the virus is lower than it was at the end of March. And while 27 per cent of Canadians said they did not comply with at least one of the public health measures two weeks ago, that number grew to 35 per cent in the latest poll.
Flint, Mich.  Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton has charged three individuals in the killing of a security guard at a Family Dollar store just north of downtown Flint during an argument over a state order for shoppers to wear face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A 23-year-old man, 44-year-old man, and 45-year-old woman, all of Flint, have been charged with first-degree murder and weapons charges in the May 1 shooting death of 43-year-old guard Calvin James Munerlyn.

The shooting took place around 1:45 p.m. Saturday, May 1 at the store off East Fifth Avenue, north of downtown Flint.

READ MORE: Police investigate shooting at Family Dollar in Flint

Its alleged the 45-year-old woman and Munerlyn, who was working as a security guard at the time, got into a verbal dispute after he told the womans daughter she needed to wear a face mask while inside the store.

The womans daughter then left the store, but her mother began to yell at Munerlyn. He told the mother to leave the store and instructed a cashier not to serve her, according to investigative reports of the incident turned over to Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton.

During a Monday, May 4 press conference, Leyton said there is video surveillance of the altercation between the woman and Munerlyn.

A short time later, the mother returned to the store with her 44-year-old husband and her 23-year-old son and confronted Munerlyn.

Leyton pointed out the wife called the husband between leaving in a red GMC Envoy to River Village Apartments and coming back to the store 20 minutes later with two men who came inside the store.

READ MORE: Police investigating if security guard at Flint store was killed for requiring mask

The 44-year-old man yelled at Munerlyn about disrespecting his wife, with the 23-year-old man accused of pulling out a gun and shooting Munerlyn in the back of the head, Leyton said.

Munerlyn was transported to Hurley Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

The death of Calvin Munerlyn is senseless and tragic and those responsible will be held accountable to the fullest extent under the law, Leyton said. From all indications, Mr. Munerlyn was simply doing his job in upholding the Governors Executive Order related to the COVID-19 pandemic for the safety of store employees and customers.

The order calls for people to wear masks while inside an enclosed building. The 44-year-old man also has been charged with violation of the order, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail and/or a $500 fine.

It really broke my heart because I know the kind of person he was, said Bryant Nolden, District 1 County Commissioner Bryant Nolden, who also serves as director of Berston Field House, of Munerlyn. This (death) was extremely senseless, over a mask.

Munerly worked out three to four days a week in the weight room at Berston, offering free training sessions or taking the time to line dance with seniors.

We need to stop the senseless violence in this community .. he didnt bother a soul," Nolden said. "All he wanted to do was take care of his family and he always had his kids with him. This is a real loss for the community.

READ MORE: Security guard dies after shooting at Family Dollar in Flint

Leyton said its important the governors order be respected and adhered to, and for someone to lose their life over it is beyond comprehension.

We really need to make a commitment as a community that we are committed to doing the things necessary to allow us to stay healthy and turn the page on this crisis altogether, he commented. If not for ourselves, we should do this for Calvin Munerlyn, who has lost his life needlessly and senselessly.

Leyton also took some time to address the hostile tone in recent days on television and social media which he argued can permeate our society in ways we sometimes dont fully realize or anticipate.

Decisions like staying home when we can, wearing a mask when going to the store, and staying a safe distance from those around us, these should not be political arguments, said Leyton. They dont necessitate acts of defiance and we simply cannot devolve into an us versus them mentality.

The 45-year-old woman is in custody and awaiting arraignment on the felony charges.

Her son and husband are still being sought by the Michigan State Police fugitive team, with Leyton warning anyone helping the pair in evading law enforcement may also be charged with a crime.

They must know that theyre being sought. They are armed and dangerous, he said. We will bring them to justice.

Anyone with information on their whereabouts is asked to call 911 or report a tip anonymously to Crime Stoppers of Flint & Genesee County at at 1-800-422-5245, use the P3TIPS mobile app, or visit CrimeStoppersofFlint.com.

Videos, photos, and audio can be submitted via the Crime Stoppers app or website.

READ MORE: Slain Family Dollar security guard mourned at candlelight vigil
India reports dip in Covid infections with 2,38,018 new cases, positivity rate at 14.43%

Failure to vaccinate everyone will give rise to new variants, says UN chief

Faith vs safety in burials: COVID-19 remains in dead bodies for 9 days says Centre

How cases in New Zealand came down to zero on May 4

India

oi-Briti Roy Barman

New Delhi, May 05: New Zealand recorded no new cases of the COVID-19 on May 4 for the first time since March 16 and less than a week after the Pacific nation ended a strict lockdown.

New Zealand had 1,487 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 20 deaths till date, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

On April 28 the nation where the population of 4.8 million ended a strict lockdown that shut offices, schools, malls, restaurants, playgrounds and all other public areas for over a month.

From 'COVID Toes' to Hives: 5 signs on your skin that could mean you have Coronavirus

However, some social restrictions still be there with millions of New Zealanders still working and studying from home while a minimal economic activity was allowed to resume.

The country entered a level 3 lockdown on March 23, meaning non-essential businesses were closed, discretionary domestic air travel was banned, and all events and gatherings cancelled.

NEWS AT 3 PM, MAY 5th, 2020

The nation then progressed into a level 4 lockdown after 48 hours which is a stricter approach, named as "eliminate" policy. People were urged to only maintain contact with those they lived with under this policy.

So how the country made it right It closed its borders New Zealand played some of the toughest restrictions compared to other countries on travel and activity on 19 March which was early in the global pandemic.

It helped stop cases being brought in from overseas as 33 per cent of cases were imported here.

As Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at that time, "We only have 102 cases, but so did Italy once."

It had a quick and clear lockdown On 21 March, New Zealand introduced a new public alert system with four levels - the highest is a total national lockdown and the lowest would indicate that the virus was contained but people should be prepared.

The nation went in at level two, which meant there was a growing risk of community transmission. Days later, it moved into a level four alert.

It traced and tested 80 per cent of close contacts of someone confirmed with the virus are now being alerted within 48 hours of the diagnosis, according to the ministry of health of New Zealand.

Which means those people can self-isolate until the incubation period has passed, and they can get tested. 8,000 people are being tested each day in New Zealand, says its officials.

The country is encouraging its citizens to keep a diary of people they interact with.

Also, it is working on a contact tracing app.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Tuesday, May 5, 2020, 14:06 [IST]
Philippines largest television network has been ordered to cease operations after President Dutertes allies in Congress refused to renew stations 25-year licence.

ABS-CBN, the Philippiness largest television network, has been ordered to cease operations after President Rodrigo Dutertes allies in Congress refused to renew the stations 25-year licence.

In an order issued on Tuesday, the government agency tasked with awarding broadcasting licences said absent a valid Congressional Franchise, as required by law, the network should stop its various television and radio operations.

Al Jazeeras Jamela Alindogan reports.
A diabetic Qantas passenger is suing the airline for at least $200,000, alleging staff failed to stow his insulin on a flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne, leading to a diabetic episode and heart attack.

Eighty-year-old Perth man Robert Rowan, who had been living in the US for decades, was flying to Australia to visit his brother and sister in May 2018.

Set to board a flight at Los Angeles airport, the type 2 diabetic had his insulin with him in a cooler box on his lap while he was in a wheelchair, his lawyer Barrie Woollacott said.

Diabetic Robert Rowan couldnt find his medication on board during the 16-hour flight. Credit:Jason South

Mr Woollacott, Slater and Gordons principal lawyer, alleged a Qantas staff member told the then 78-year-old they would take his medication and ensure it went on the plane.
Acts of charity have come from all across the Lehigh Valley during the COVID-19 pandemic.

One particular effort to assist St. Luke's University Health Network, however, had overseas roots.

More than 100 international students from China, who study at Lehigh University, joined with their families to donate thousands of masks to the hospital network, according to a news release from St. Luke's.

The campaign was initially a small fundraising effort led by the Zhengnan Chen and Yicheng Gao families, but snowballed into something larger. The group coordinated the purchase of 4,000 masks, before the Liwen Fu family came on board and pushed the total to 6,000, the release says.

The personal protective equipment, which included N95 and three-ply face masks, was then shipped to the Lehigh Valley.

The first cases of the coronavirus originated in China and as the country continues to deal with the pandemic's effects, the Lehigh students were compelled to assist medical professionals abroad.

The students felt passionate about doing all they could to help, said Jing (Tiffany) Li, a professor in Lehighs Electrical and Computer Engineering department who helped coordinate the gift. Their wish was to donate the personal protective equipment to St. Lukes to help those on the front lines, who are doing all they can to keep our community safe.

More than 2,000 coronavirus deaths have been reported in Pennsylvania, with more than 64,000 reported nationwide.

It is an inspiring display of support, said Ben Guerin, manager of occupational medicine sales at St. Lukes. For these students and their families to step up in such a significant way, despite fighting their own COVID-19 battle back at home in China, shows true selflessness. We are experiencing a global pandemic, but we are also witnessing communities coming together from  quite literally  across the world."

Click here for information on how to assist St. Lukes during the COVID-19 pandemic, by donating money, blood, PPE, etc., or by simply delivering a message of thanks.

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.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com.

Kyle Craig may be reached at kcraig@lehighvalleylive.com.
Photo credit: Fincantieri

From Popular Mechanics

The U.S. Navy has selected a Franco-Italian frigate design as the basis for its next generation guided missile frigate, FFG(X).

The ship will be European in basic design but with U.S. made weapons and sensors.

The Navy will buy an initial 10 ships with up to 40 or more purchased over the next two decades.

The U.S. Navy officially selected Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri to produce the services first guided-missile frigates in more than 30 years. The service awarded the company $795 million to begin construction on the first of at least ten frigates, with the lead ship entering service in 2026. The new, unnamed ship will fill a hole in the U.S. Navys fleet structure for an armed, small surface combatant capable of tackling both low- and high-end missions.

Fincantieri beat out three other companies, including Austal USA, a partnership of General Dynamics Bath Iron Works and Spains Navantia, and Huntington Ingalls Industries, to win the FFG(X) (fast frigate, guided, experimental) contract. The winning ship design is based on the FREMM class of European missile frigates, with variants of the design already in service with the Italian, French, Moroccan, and Egyptian navies.

Photo credit: Time Life Pictures

FFG(X) is meant to fill a void in the U.S. Navy left with the decommissioning of the 80s-era Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigates . The U.S. Navy operated 51 Perry-class frigates, capable little ships that displaced 4,000 tons and were equipped with a 76-millimeter rapid fire gun, anti-aircraft, anti-ship, and anti-submarine missile launcher, and up to two helicopters. The Perry-class frigates could operate as part of a carrier task force, act as a bodyguard for merchant convoys in dangerous waters, interdict drug shipments at sea, or show the flag during regional crises. They were ideal ships for situations that didnt require more expensive cruisers or destroyers.

The U.S. Navy began to demobilize the frigates in the 2000s, and by 2017, they had all been mothballed or sold to foreign navies. This left a gap in the Navys low-end capabilities that was supposed to be addressed by the services new Littoral Combat Ships. The LCS class of ships have since proven a failure, hamstrung and largely toothless by the lack of usable, swappable mission modules designed to provide them with all the equipment that would make them useful at sea. The Pentagon has since decided to trim the overall LCS purchase and start buying a real guided-missile frigate.

Story continues

Photo credit: U.S. Navy - Getty Images

Fincantieris frigate is based on the FREMM Fregata europea multi-missione design operated by France and Italy, with exports to Egypt and Morocco. FREMM weighs 50 percent more than the Perry-class frigates, tipping the scales at 6,000 tons. The ships use a hybrid electric drive system that gives them a top speed of 30+ knots and a range of 6,800 miles. As multi-mission ships, the FREMM ships carry anti-air, anti-ship, and anti-submarine weapons, though some are optimized for anti-submarine missions. French FREMM frigates carry MdCN land attack cruise missiles and launched them against Syrias chemical weapons stockpiles in April 2018.

Although a foreign design, the American FREMM will be thoroughly Americanized, with U.S.-made sensors and weapons installed throughout the hull. The new Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR), developed by Raytheon for the new USS Enterprise aircraft carrier, will be the primary air sensor. The EASR will be coupled with the Aegis Combat System, a computer system that allows surface ships to detect, track, and engage a variety of surface and air threats, from high-flying ballistic missiles to low-flying cruise missiles.

Heres a video produced by Naval News of a Fincanteri rep explaining the features behind his companys FFG(X) candidate:

FFG(X) breaks from Littoral Combat Ships in being fully equipped and armed out the door. The ship is armed with a 57-millimeter M110 rapid fire deck gun. While deck guns have been less relevant in recent decades DARPAs new Multi-Azimuth DefenseFast Intercept Round Engagement System ( MAD-FIRES ) promises to turn the M110 into a potent last-ditch missile killer. The ship will also carry up to 16 Naval Strike Missiles, a new anti-ship missile developed by Norways Kongsberg and currently deployed with the Littoral Combat Ships at sea.

The FFG(X) will be capable of defending both itself or contributing to the defense of a larger task force or flotilla. On the bow, between the deck gun and the bridge will be a field of 32 Mark 41 vertical launch systems, armored missile silos capable of a broad arsenal of missiles. Each silo can carry a single SM-6 long range air defense missile, a SM-2 air defense missile, VL-ASROC anti-submarine guided torpedo, or Tomahawk land attack cruise missile.

Alternatively, a silo can carry four smaller Evolved Sea Sparrow short-range air defense missiles. Defense armament will be rounded out with a Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) point defense missile system, capable of engaging aircraft, missiles, helicopters, drones, and even small boats.

Finally, the new frigate will carry two SH-60 Seahawk helicopters, each of which can act as a reconnaissance platform, submarine hunter, or anti-surface asset armed with Hellfire anti-tank missiles. Helicopters can extend the range and capabilities of surface ships, giving them the means to conducted limited missions without exposing the entire ship to enemy action. The ship could also accommodate the RQ-8A Fire Scout unmanned aircraft as well as future vertical takeoff and landing drones.

Photo credit: U.S. Navy photo by John F. Williams/DVIDS

The hybrid electric drive gives the ship the ability to crank out 12 megawatts of power. Thats enough electricity to field a small railgun or heavier laser weapon system in a future update. The Navys railgun program is uncertain at this point but the service is pushing hard into ship-based lasers, including the ODIN missile dazzler and heavier weapons designed to take down drones and burn small ships.

The $795 million contract is for the first frigate, with later contracts expected to add up to $5.5 billion for ten ships. According to U.S. Naval Institute News , the first 20 ships should average $781 million, a relatively inexpensive sum compared to an $1.9 billion Arleigh Burke-class destroyer (though the cost does not factor in the equipment, mostly sensors and weapons, the Navy is buying for Fincantieri to install). The Navy plans to reopen the competition after the first ten ships are built, perhaps buying a competing design.

The U.S. Navy expects to buy about 40 new frigates, though if the money is available it is easy to see the order expanding to 50 ships or more. The ships will be built at Fincantieris shipyards in Wisconsin, with the first ship launching in 2026. After launching, the ships sail across the Great Lakes and through the St. Lawrence Seaway to the open ocean.

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FIRE IN PARADISE

An American Tragedy

By Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano

For people living in Paradise and other towns in the foothills of Californias Sierra Nevada mountains, the morning of Nov. 8, 2018, was full of portents. The sun was a red blur in an eerie, yellow-brown sky, and roadside pines were coated in ash. One man woke to find his lawn covered with burned leaves. A high school student looked up to see a stream of birds flocking en masse out of town. The winds were strong and strange  not gusts, but a sustained, jet-engine roar, Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano write in Fire in Paradise: An American Tragedy, their gripping account of the massive blaze that became known as the Camp Fire and which killed 85 people and destroyed 90 percent of residents homes.

Fire in Paradise grew out of Gee and Anguianos reporting on the Camp Fire for The Guardian. Anguiano also had a personal connection to the story; she once lived 20 minutes from Paradise, and her cousins house burned down on Nov. 8.

The authors begin their book with a brief history of the region, from its Indigenous communities to its Gold Rush boom to its current role as a refuge for middle- and lower-income people priced out of the rest of California. Gee and Anguiano have a clear affection for the areas sun-speckled, dirt-road lifestyle and its idiosyncratic inhabitants.

The heart of the book, though, is the individual stories of bravery and tragedy that played out in Paradise and its neighboring communities as the Camp Fire raged: Adult children try to persuade stubborn parents to leave town before its too late; first responders attempt to make sense of a blaze that seemed to be coming at them from all directions; doctors and nurses scramble to evacuate 67 patients from the Feather River hospital, including a woman who had given birth only hours before. (She and her infant evacuate with the hospitals maintenance engineer, her IV fluids hanging from his rearview mirror and her catheter bag resting at her feet.)
India is in touch with Pakistan in ensuring implementation of the verdict by the International Court of Justice in the case relating to Indian death-row convict Kulbhushan Jadhav, official sources said on Tuesday.

Jadhav, a retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism in April 2017. Weeks later, India approached the ICJ against Pakistan for denial of consular access to Jadhav and challenging the death sentence.

In its verdict in the case on July 17 last year, the ICJ ordered Pakistan to undertake an "effective" review of the conviction and sentence of Jadhav and asked it to grant consular access to him without further delay.

We are in touch with Pakistan through diplomatic channels on implementation of the ICJ decision, the sources said.

On Pakistan raising the Kashmir issue at an online summit of the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) on Monday, sources said Pakistan has been carrying out a propaganda against India on the issue and the international community is aware of it.

"It was part of a well-thought-out propaganda and we do not want to dignify it by commenting on it," said a source.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in the online summit of NAM, a grouping of 120 developing countries.

It was attended over 30 other Heads of States and governments and other leaders, including from member states in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Joe Russo has closed a deal to write the script for Extraction 2, the sequel to the Chris Hemsworth action film that debuted on Netflix on April 24.

No other deals have closed, but Russos production company that he runs alongside his brother Anthony Russo, AGBO, is hopeful that Hemsworth will return alongside director Sam Hargrave. Russo also wrote the screenplay for the first film.

Hemsworth stars as Rake, a black ops mercenary who is tasked to rescue an Indian drug lords kidnapped son in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Russo, Anthony Russo, Mike Larocca, Eric Gitter, Peter Schwern and Hemsworth produced the action thriller.

Also Read: How 'Extraction' Filmmakers Pulled Off That Sick 11-Minute Shot

On Friday, Netflix announced on Twitter that Extraction is on its way to becoming the biggest ever film premiere on the platform, with a projected 90 millions households tuning in in the first four weeks.

For fans whove watched the film, Extraction ends in such a way that would make it possible for Rake to return in a sequel. Rudhraksh Jaiswal, Randeep Hooda, Golshifteh Farahani and David Harbour also starred.

A spokesperson for Russo has not yet responded to TheWraps request for comment.

Also Read: 'Extraction' Film Review: Wanna See Chris Hemsworth Beat the Hell Out of Everybody?

Russos other recent credits include directing both Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, as well as Captain America: Civil War and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He also served as a producer on Relic, 21 Bridges and Mosul. He is currently in post-production for Cherry, which stars Tom Holland, Kelli Berglund, Jack Reynor and Thomas Lennon.

He is represented by WME, Rogers & Cowen/PMK, and Greenberg Glusker.

Deadline first reported the news.

Read original story Joe Russo to Write Extraction 2 for Netflix At TheWrap
DW Director General Peter Limbourg: The Freedom of Speech Award 2020 is dedicated to all courageous journalists worldwide who are suffering repression because of their reporting on the pandemic

"We honor all our colleagues who are being prevented by force from doing their job in these difficult times, DW Director General Peter Limbourg said in Berlin. Deutsche Welle is demanding that all journalists worldwide, who have been arrested because of their coverage of the COVID-19 crisis, are released immediately.

Since 2015, DW has presented the prize annually to a person or initiative for showing outstanding commitment to human rights and freedom of expression in the media. In 2020, in the midst of the Corona crisis, DW has decided to honor 17 journalists from 14 countries, representing all journalists worldwide who have disappeared, were arrested or threatened because of their reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic.These are the laureates: https://p.dw.com/p/3bfKj

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former President of Chile Michelle Bachelet is this years laudatory speaker. Now, more than ever, we need information to flow, and people to have access to it, Bachelet said in a video message. Governments need information to make accurate decisions that respond to the realities on the ground. The general public  all of us  need full and accurate information about the pandemic, and to be involved in the decisions that are being made on our behalf. Participating in those decisions increases people's understanding of, and compliance with, measures that are being taken.

Bachelet added: It is shocking, in such a context, that journalists are being attacked, threatened, arrested, accused of spurious crimes and even disappeared because of their reporting about the pandemic. These are attacks on media freedom, and attacks on the public's right to be informed.

One reaction of many governments around the world to the COVID-19 pandemic has been the violation of human rights, especially the freedom of expression and media freedom. Politicians manipulate data, withhold facts and launch personal attacks on journalists. Detained journalists remain in prison despite the spread of the virus.

According to international organizations like RSF, IPI and CPJ, journalists reporting on the Corona crisis have disappeared, been arrested or threatened over the last few months. Reports of incidents come from a growing list of countries including China, Iran and several African and Latin American countries. DW honors all these journalists for their stance on the freedom of the media in the light of the threats posed to them by governments and security forces.

UN High Commissioner Bachelet: I am here to honor the courage of the journalists who, despite such attacks, speak up and continue to investigate and report critically without fear. I pay tribute to the courage of those who have been disappeared, arrested or threatened for their work. My office and the United Nations will continue to stand up for their rights.

At a moment of a global health emergency, journalism serves a crucial function and each journalist bears great responsibility. Citizens of any country have the right of access to fact-based information and critical findings, Limbourg said. Any form of censorship may result in casualties and any attempts to criminalize coverage of the current situation clearly violate the freedom of expression.

Former laureates of the DW Freedom of Speech Award

The laureates of the DW Freedom of Speech Award so far are blogger Raif Badawi (2015), who continues to be imprisoned in Saudi Arabia, Sedat Ergin (2016), former editor-in-chief of the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, the U.S. White House Correspondents' Association (2017), Iranian political scientist Sadegh Zibakalam (2018) and Mexican investigative journalist and author Anabel Hernandez (2019).

The Freedom of Speech Award ceremony is usually one of the highlights of the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum in Bonn, Germany, which this year was canceled due to COVID-19. However, the award will still receive broad coverage on DWs TV channels, news websites and social media in 30 languages.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Bahama Breeze in Orange Village has closed.

The Caribbean-themed restaurant had been open for takeout since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and just recently reached out to cleveland.com to promote its Cinco de Mayo offerings. But the decision to shutter operations at its only Ohio location came down Monday from Orlando-based owner Darden Restaurants.

Closing this restaurant is a difficult business decision, and its one we made very carefully and thoughtfully, said a spokesperson for the chain in a statement to cleveland.com. While this decision is not a reflection of the quality of our team members work, we could no longer justify continuing to operate this location given historical sales trends. We continually evaluate the performance of all of our restaurant locations, and this decision was made as part of that process. Unfortunately, from time-to-time we have to close restaurants.

The restaurant was known mostly for its chill atmosphere, live music and tropical fare such as coconut shrimp, jerk chicken and margaritas. But the Orange location also made news twice for charges of racism.

In 2019, members of the Greater Cleveland Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, a black sorority, settled their discrimination lawsuit against the restaurant for an unspecified amount. The diners said restaurant managers called police and falsely accused them of threatening to leave without paying their checks at a dinner the previous summer.

In 2009, the restaurant agreed to pay $1.26 million and institute new policies across the chain to settle racial harassment claims pursued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of 37 black workers at the Orange location.

The restaurant, located near Harvard Rd. and I-271, opened in 2003. The closest Bahama Breeze to Cleveland is in suburban Pittsburgh.
Birgunj, May 5

Locals of Balirampur in Bishrampur rural municipality-4 of Bara district of southern Nepal have claimed that some personnel of the Indian border-guarding force, Sashashtra Seema Bal (SSB), entered Nepal and beat up some of the locals on Tuesday morning.

Some of the locals, namely Ashok Kumar Sah, Kamalesh Sharma, Hira Lal Sharma, Deepak Sharma, Chhotelal Sah, and Madan Sah have sustained injuries. Ashok has an injury on his head, but the rest are out of any danger, according to the ward chair, Madan Prasad Yadav.

Tension ran high after the SSB beat up the locals working on a farm, he says, adding some Nepali security personnel also went there to take stock of the situation. Later, security officials of both sides convinced the locals to end the clash, according to him.
President Trump said that Washington, D.C., will never become a state because Republicans wouldn't agree to giving Democrats more seats in Congress, in an exclusive interview with the New York Post on Monday.

The big picture: The issue of statehood has been a talking point in D.C. for years, with Republicans generally opposed to the idea. The District currently has a non-voting delegate in the House and no representation in the Senate. If the capital city became a state, it would have one House member and two senators.

Where it stands: The House Oversight Committee voted to pass legislation to grant statehood to D.C. in February. But that has yet to reach the full House for a vote.

What he's saying:

They want to do that so they pick up two automatic Democrat  you know its a 100 percent Democrat, basically  so why would the Republicans ever do that? Thatll never happen unless we have some very, very stupid Republicans around that I dont think you do. You understand that, right?

"Why dont you just take two senators and put them in there? No, its not gonna happen. And it how many House seats is it? Like four, three or four? Whatever it is. Youd have three or four more congressmen and two more senators, every single day of every single year. And it would never change. No, the Republicans would never do that.

 Trump to the New York Post

Worth noting: The nation's capital has voted overwhelmingly Democratic in recent years, with Trump picking up around 4% of the vote in 2016. Nearly 86% of D.C. residents supported statehood in the same election.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review a ruling that critics say would give the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service a sweeping shield from challenges to their regulations.

The justices said Monday they will hear arguments over a reporting requirement used by the IRS to police what it says are tax-avoidance schemes involving tiny insurance companies. The requirement includes a $50,000 penalty for noncompliance.

At issue is whether taxpayers and their advisers can challenge the reporting requirement, and others like it, without paying the penalty or waiting for the IRS to start enforcement proceedings.

A divided Cincinnati-based federal appeals court said the compliance penalty made the reporting requirement a tax, and insulated it from a preemptive legal attack. Under a law known as the Anti-Injunction Act, taxes generally can be challenged only after they are paid or the IRS has begun enforcement.

The justices will hear an appeal from CIC Services LLC, a Tennessee-based business that advises taxpayers on so-called micro-captive transactions, which use small insurance companies to reduce taxable income. The IRS says some of those transactions arent genuine insurance contracts.

CIC says it would also risk criminal liability if didnt comply with the reporting requirement.

Under the lower court ruling, even patently unlawful IRS regulations can be insulated from review unless an individual is willing to risk the imposition of enormous fines and  in this case  prison time, CIC argued in its appeal.

The companys supporters at the Supreme Court include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Americans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group backed by businessman Charles Koch.

The Trump administration and the IRS urged the Supreme Court not to intervene. They said that when someone doesnt report a micro-captive transaction, its fair to presume that the suspicious transaction is in fact an instance of tax avoidance or evasion, and some tax liability should be imposed.

The administration says taxpayers and advisers can decline to submit the report, pay the penalty and then sue for a refund.

The case, which the court will hear in the nine-month term that starts in October, is CIC Services v. Internal Revenue Service, 19-930.

Topics Carriers Legislation
NEW DELHI: At least 45 Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel have tested positive for deadly coronavirus, the organisation said on Tuesday.

Out of them, 43 have been deployed for internal security duty in Delhi and two others deployed for law and order duty with Delhi Police, the ITBP said in a release.

The ITBP Referral Hospital in Greater Noida has received 58 jawans from various para-military forces who have tested COVID-19 positive, DG ITBP SS Deswal informed on Tuesday.

ITBP has also started treating Himveers in the hospital in Noida. Referral Hospital in Greater Noida is a 200-bed hospital dedicated to COVID-19 treatment.

"Referral hospital in Greater Noida, dedicated to COVID-19 patients has received patients from all Central armed police forces. Currently, 58 jawans from ITBP, BSF and CISF are admitted at the hospital. Teams of specialist doctors are treating our jawans 24x7," DG ITBP SS Deswal said.

The ITBP DG also said that doctors are well equipped with PPEs and other necessary equipment required to treat COVID-19 patients.

"All other jawans coming into contact of affected personnel are being put into quarantine facilities," he said.

So far, CRPF has the maximum 150 coronavirus affected patients followed by BSF whose 67 personnel have been tested positive for the infection. CISF, ITBP, SSB have fewer numbers of jawans infected with the coronavirus.

On Tuesday, the number of COVID-19 cases shot up to 46,433 from the 42,836 the day before, a sharp rise of 3,597 cases, according to Union Health Ministry data. The death toll has risen to 1,568 from 1,389.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday said that India has so far been able to stave off community transmission of COVID-19, expressing the hope that behavioural changes" brought about by the infection could become the new normal for a healthy society after the pandemic abates.
The Civil Rights Advocacy group Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), says Nigerians must hold the International Monetary Fund responsible if the $3.4bn loan recently approved for Nigeria is squandered.

The group made this known in an essay by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko in which he expressed the fears of the group, saying government officials may siphon and squander the loan.

The group also called for vigilance amongst the civil populace to monitor the uses to which these humongous repayable loan would be deployed in the coming days by the Federal and state governments in Nigeria given that these top officials have in the last five years failed to render proper accounts of how public finances were utilized.

First I must confess that there is absolutely nothing wrong or untoward with borrowing from responsible creditor(s) with transparent repayment terms provided that the borrowed sum of money would be reinvested into profitable ventures and projects that will yield back the borrowed sum and yield greater profit for the debtor and the citizens.

Comrade Onwubiko said Nigeria maintained a healthy record as a Country that was somehow prosperous and not encumbered by foreign loans up until the emergence of the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration in 2015.

The cruel truth is that the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has done badly in the area of building up of national wealth and prosperity but has concentrated on borrowings from all sorts of places to be used in servicing the huge salaries of the multiple officials and politicians parading about as members of the Federal Government.

Worst still is that the rubber-stamped National Assembly headed by Ahmed Lawan a political boy of President Muhammadu Buhari has already rushed up the approval of the plan by the government to borrow as much as $27 billion from all kinds of creditors.

He stated that the countrys national oil corporation, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) recorded N267.14b loss in 2015, and another N197b in 2016, while it recorded N82b in operational losses, and a deficit of N5.46b was posted for January and August in 2018.

While the country is struggling to declare profits, Saudi Arabias Arambo posted a net income of $33.8b in the first six months of 2017 alone. Angolas Sonangol posted a profit of $68m in 2016. Despite the payment of $853m in damages in the third quarter, Brazils Petrobras made $7b in 2018, he added.
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Cinco de Mayo celebrates Mexicos victory over France in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Five years later, Mexican troops drove France from the country.

Now that we know what this day is, lets discuss what it is not.

It is not Mexicos Independence Day, which falls on Sept. 16 and commemorates the Grito de Dolores, a priests ringing of a church bell in 1810 that triggered Mexicos War for Independence from Spain. Nor is it the Day of the Dead, a three-day holiday in which families gather to remember deceased friends and family members.

CNN has an article today on actual questions people asked Google about this day: When is Cinco de Mayo? What is Cinco de Mayo in Spanish? When is Cinco de Mayo celebrated in Mexico? When is Cinco de Mayo celebrated in the US? When is Cinco de Mayo in Portland, Oregon?

For each, the name itself is the answer, of course.

The power of the name of Jesus

Lets consider that fact in light of this statement from an angel of the Lord to Joseph: Do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:2021).

Many people think Jesus Christ was our Saviors first and last name in the same way James Denison is mine. But Christ is the English version of Christos, the Greek word for Messiah. And Jesus is the English version of Iesous, the Greek word for Yeshua, which means the Lord saves.

The Father named his Son Jesus for the reason that He will save His people from their sins. Just as Mexico needed her troops to liberate her from France, so we need our Savior to liberate us from sin and death.

This fact is made even more apparent during the coronavirus pandemic.

Americans dont like to speak of death as death. We refer to those who die has having departed or gone to a better place. We seldom hold memorial services in the presence of the body, having conducted the burial beforehand.

But as deaths from COVID-19 continue to climb, we are forced to face the fact of our mortality. The death rate has not changed from a year ago, but it has become much more personal. And our need of a Savior has become much more obvious.

Have you asked Jesus to forgive your sins and become your Savior? If not, trust in him today since tomorrow is promised to no one. If you have, are you praying by name for those you know who may not know him? Are you asking God to use your witness to draw them to himself?

We are all hoping for a vaccine that protects us from death due to coronavirus. But the only vaccine that protects us from eternal death is faith in Jesus.

How is that fact relevant to you and those you know today?

This piece was originally published at the Denison Forum
Warren Buffett lives for financial turmoil. The so-called Oracle of Omaha famously took large positions in Goldman Sachs and General Electric during the 2008 financial crisis, and went on a buying spree during the turbulent recovery. A climate of fear is our best friend, he explained in his 2010 investor letter, because market turmoil can lead to the undervaluation of strong companies. When everyone is selling, even the best stocks fall precipitously. Investors should capitalize on these rare opportunities, Buffett believes: When its raining gold, reach for a bucket, not a thimble.

But during the massive sell-off in March, Buffett sat on the sideline. While investors waited for the familiar headline announcing a blockbuster Berkshire Hathaway deal, the investment firm sold more stock than it purchased, building up $137 billion in cash. Berkshires inactivity is a result of the Federal Reserves emergency-lending programs, which propped up asset markets and precluded the kind of undervaluation that Buffett seeks out. There was a period right before the Fed acted when companies asked Buffett for capital, he said, but after the Fed acted, a number of them were able to get money in the public market frankly at terms we wouldnt have given.

The Feds programs staved off a severe collapse, and turned the shortest bear market in history into a rally. Buffett praised Fed chair Jay Powell on Saturday for his forceful action, ranking him alongside Paul Volcker as one of the best central-bank helmsmen in modern history.

But Powells actions come with downside. Lending to corporations could lead to the emergence of zombie firms  inefficient companies relying on cheap credit as life support. The Feds lending facilities allow some risky firms to fund their operations even if theyre losing money. Thats bad news for the economy, because zombies eat up capital and workers that should go to better businesses.

The zombie phenomenon emerged after the 1992 Japanese financial crisis. In the 1980s, Japan appeared poised to overtake the U.S. as the worlds largest economy. So rapid was the rise of its high-tech manufacturing sector that economists called it the Japanese miracle. Thinking the countrys sky-high growth rates would last forever, investors piled in Japanese assets, prodded by Japans state-managed banking system. In the early 90s, the house of cards came crashing down: Stocks fell by 60 percent, with real estate suffering similar losses.

Story continues

This financial collapse impaired the collateral held by Japanese banks, corporations, and households, threatening the foundation of the countrys economy. Though the bursting of the bubble represented a return to reasonable valuations, Japanese authorities had their hands tied: If they didnt intervene to bolster the financial system, economic catastrophe would follow. They thus pushed banks to roll-over nonperforming loans in order to fend off public criticism that banks were worsening the recession by denying credit to needy corporations, as Takeo Hoshi and Anil Kashyap explained in a 2006 paper. Regulators encouraged the banks to increase their lending to small and medium sized firms to ease the apparent credit crunch. These policy decisions led to the ensuing lost decades of near-zero economic growth in Japan.

Now, in response to the coronavirus, the Fed has followed Japans lead. By backing corporate-credit markets, the Fed incentivized investors to capitalize companies suffering from the global economic collapse. Boeing, which had negotiated a $60 billion congressional rescue package in March, ended up raising $25 billion from the private markets and withdrawing its request for government assistance. Seeing that they could simply unload bonds to the Fed if the economic outlook soured, investors lined up to provide capital to Boeing and other companies that were facing default just weeks ago.

In a functioning market, Boeing would pay a hefty premium for loans. A global halt in travel, coupled with the costly 737 Max debacle, has severely weakened its operations. If enough Boeings obtain capital at below-market rates, we could see a zombie apocalypse in the U.S. corporate sector. In such a scenario, inefficient businesses surviving on life support would put a drag on GDP growth for years to come. As Hoshi and Kashyap outline, zombies raise the cost of capital for productive firms, decreasing innovation and reducing economic growth. They also depress prices by fueling overproduction, and drive up wages as central-bank largesse subsidizes labor costs.

Fears of a zombie apocalypse may not come to fruition. If the coronavirus shock ends in the next few months, the Fed might succeed in quickly unwinding its balance sheet, and the Feds corporate-lending facilities remain limited in scope and scale; the riskiest businesses will still have to tap private markets to stay alive. But a protracted economic shock could put more capital in the hands of weak businesses, especially if Powell expands the new lending facilities to include more junk-rated companies. Policymakers must strike a balance between staving off a deep recession and permanently hindering economic competition.

More from National Review
The Oregon Health Authority has started reporting presumptive coronavirus cases in response to new federal guidance.

State public health officials disclosed 14 such presumptive cases on Monday, plus 65 more confirmed cases.

More than 60,000 Oregonians have been tested for the coronavirus, and 2,745 of those people have tested positive.

The states latest report did offer one bright spot. For the second consecutive day, no new deaths were reported.

Here are more developments to know Tuesday:

HELP: Oregon lawmakers approved $12 million in housing support. Most of the money is set aside for people who have lost their income due to COVID-19 and cant pay their rent.

BUSINESS: Several Oregon restaurants and bars have closed permanently during the coronavirus crisis. Another Oregon brand has decided to close its Hood River headquarters. To address the business downturn, a winery in The Dalles converted its parking lot to a drive-in theater.

SCHOOLS: Portland Public Schools has state approval for a plan to furlough workers one day a week for the rest of the school year to save 20% on employee pay and save the money to help fund teaching positions and instructional days next school year.

CARE: Oregon will decontaminate and reuse masks worn by medical workers, with the help of a federally-funded decontamination machine stored on the University of Oregon campus.

CANCELED: Two of Portlands signature events will hit pause this year. The World Naked Bike Ride wont go on as planned in June. The Oregon Brewers Festival, which usually attracts about 50,000 attendees, will has been called off for July.

#TEAMOREGON:

Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter

-- The Oregonian/OregonLive

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Additional reporting by Juno McEnroe

The TD son of former Taoiseach Charlie Haughey has said his father was totally wronged by then Taoiseach Jack Lynch who sacked him over the Arms crisis, 50 years ago this week.

The current Fianna Fail TD is adamant his father and Neil Blaney acted on the authority of the wider cabinet to import arms into Ireland to protect northern nationalists from unionist attacks in Derry.

Mr Blaneys nephew, Fianna Fail Senator Niall Blaney says Mr Lynch had full knowledge of the plan and his uncle and Mr Haughey were sacrificed.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner as part of a special report on the Arms Crisis published today, Mr Haughey says the two ministers, sacked by Mr Lynch on May 5 1970, were scapegoated, that the events were authorised by the highest levels of Government and it was not an illegal plot to import arms.

Mr Haughey said he is very surprised his current party leader, Micheal Martin, named Mr Lynch as his political idol: I suppose that is a Cork thing."

He makes clear his father felt totally betrayed by Mr Lynch and his supporters at Cabinet and reveals in the years afterwards, he and his siblings were forbidden from mentioning the Cork Taoiseachs name in their mansion home of Abbeyville, Kinsealy.

Mr Haughey reveals that on the day detectives arrived at the sprawling mansion, a then leading member of the judiciary had to hide upstairs as his father was arrested and led away for questioning.

High Court Judge Brian Walsh was there to offer advice to his friend who obviously had been given notice something was about to happen, Mr Haughey revealed.

Mr Blaney is also adamant Mr Lynch knew well what was going on: I believe that Jack Lynch was fully aware of it. He played things to his own advantage. And Neil and Haughey were told where to get to.

He defended his uncles actions which he said were driven by a desire to aid a community under attack from unionist mobs since the summer of 1969. Mr Blaney said his uncle, Lynch and Haughey all chose not to ever speak to protect Fianna Fail.

They never came out to tell the truth of what happened. The intention was to get over the border to create a United Nations situation, that was the thinking behind that. There was an effort to bring in arms, that is my belief, he said.
Scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory published a study on Thursday that indicates the now-prevalent strain of coronavirus is a more contagious version of the pathogen first reported in Wuhan, China.

The study, which is not yet peer-reviewed, was published on BioRxiv, a website used by medical researchers to speed up collaboration on studies and potential treatments of coronavirus. Scientists at the Los Alamos lab, run by the U.S. Department of Energy, collaborated with researchers at Duke University and the University of Sheffield in England.

The researchers concluded that a mutation of coronavirus that occurred sometime in early February in Europe made the pathogen more contagious, such that the mutated strain rapidly migrated to the East Coast of the U.S. and has been the dominant strain of coronavirus worldwide since March.

Most worldwide research on a vaccine has focused on earlier versions of coronavirus that lack the new mutation, the Los Angeles Times noted. The authors of the Los Alamos study wrote that they felt an urgent need for an early warning that the now-dominant strain of coronavirus had mutated, which would compel vaccine developers to study that strain in order to produce effective treatments.

The story is worrying, as we see a mutated form of the virus very rapidly emerging, and over the month of March becoming the dominant pandemic form, study leader Bette Korber, a computational biologist at Los Alamos, wrote in a Facebook post. When viruses with this mutation enter a population, they rapidly begin to take over the local epidemic, thus they are more transmissible.

Researchers in the U.S. and around the world are racing to find a vaccine for the pathogen, which has infected over 3,600,000 and killed over 250,000 worldwide. The pandemic has caused many of the worlds nations to close businesses and schools, with several, including the U.S., imposing travel restrictions on the entry of foreign citizens.

More from National Review
Lender attitudes shift on coal-fired ventures, illustration photo

A few days ago, the multinational lender HSBC confirmed that it would cease lending to new coal power stations anywhere globally  a bold shift moving towards decarbonisation.

HSBC said that it had amended its policy specialising in phasing out coal support, removing the previous exemption of Vietnam, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. Experts stated that the banks move would affect its involvement in funding Long Phu 1, a planned coal project with estimated investment capital of about $1.87 billion in Vietnam, where it acted as global co-ordinator. The plant begun construction in 2011 in the southern province of Soc Trang.

Earlier this year, VIR also reported that the financial group went cold on continuing its activities at Vinh Tan 3 Thermal Power Plant after being appointed as financial advisor to this $2 billion project in 2014.

Vinh Tan 3 thermal power plant, which has three turbines with a total installed capacity of 1,980MW, is the largest coal-fired thermal power facility at the Vinh Tan thermal power centre in the south-central province of Binh Thuan.

HSBCs cancellation marks the latest move by a major international lender to ease off on bankrolling fossil fuel in Asia as many banks are under pressure from environmentalists and investors to move their financing away from fossil fuels.

The Royal Bank of Scotland stated it would end financing coal by 2030 and place stricter rules on oil and gas, while in December, Standard Chartered has pulled financing for three coal-fired power plants in Southeast Asia. The bank did not name the projects but industry sources said it referred to the Vung Ang 2 and Vinh Tan 3 plants in Vietnam, and Java 9 and 10 in Indonesia, as cited by Reuters.

CLP Holdings, one of the largest investor-owned power businesses in Asia Pacific, also halted its investment in new coal-fired power plants. The group is one of the developers of domestic Vung Ang 2 and Vinh Tan 3.

Credit Suisse, the ex-lender and shareholder of Vincommerce and Novaland, said it would stop financing new coal-fired power plants as well. Last November, the Danish Energy Agency, together with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, cautioned Vietnam against building new coal-fired power plants. It believed the country needs prompt action to slash future coal demand, which could include taxation on the use of coal or limits on new coal-based power generation.

In mid-April, two Japanese megabanks, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) and Mizuho Financial Group, signalled their cancellations in lending and investing to new coal-fired power plants from May 1.

SMFG  a foreign shareholder of Vietnamese private lender Eximbank  said in a statement that the globe has been moving towards decarbonisation since the Paris climate accord and that it would not provide financial support in principle to new coal-fired power plants, according to The Japan Times.

The companys move is part of its efforts to address climate change and support the global movement towards decarbonisation, including the Japanese governments call for an 80 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Mizuho, on the other hand, planned to half its $2.8 billion loans to coal power projects by 2030 and then to reduce them to zero by 2050. The move illustrates a global rise in momentum towards new measures against climate change. Notwithstanding, Mizuho said it may consider offering loans to projects designed to upgrade existing coal-fired plants with higher efficiency, including with lower carbon dioxide emissions.

Previously, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group confirmed it would cut ties with new investments and debts to coal power plants, in principle.

Vietnam now has 14 new coal power projects which are located in eight provinces with a total capacity of 17,390MW. Seven have already faced a considerable public backlash, while one project has been delayed for eight years and the investors of two others are undetermined.

In January, 12 health and environment organisations, including the Green Innovation and Development Center, the World Wildlife Fund, and the Vietnam Sustainable Energy Alliance have called on Vietnam to scrap plans for 14 new coal plants. Vietnamese authorities are contemplating a switch from coal to gas or green energy in the next four projects.
Chinese telecom company Huawei on Tuesday brought Indian navigation firm MapMyIndia on its app gallery as an alternative to Google maps.

Huawei has developed its own app store as the US government is in the process to bar American companies from selling softwares and hardwares to the Chinese telecom major.

As a result, there are also restrictions on supplying of Google Mobile Services, including Gmail, Google Play store, Google Maps and YouTube, to Huawei and Honor smartphones.

"We are proud to announce our liaison with India's dedicated and leading digital map provider MapmyIndia. With flagship mobility app Move, we aim to take our AppGallery users' experience beyond navigation to an enhanced mapping ecosystem," Charles Peng, president (consumer business group), Honor and Huawei India, said in a statement.

The 25-year-old navigation firm MapmyIndia has developed its own digital map service in the country.

Under this collaboration, MapmyIndia's Move app will come preloaded onto all the upcoming Honor and Huawei range of devices in India.

"Our users can now access hyperlocal real-time updates, accurate locations, live traffic and estimated time of arrival from a truly Made in India application," Peng said.

MapmyIndia has tie-up with several automobile companies and government departments for providing navigation services.

"MapmyIndia is pleased to partner with Huawei. This will benefit millions of Huawei and Honor users as they will now have access to MapmyIndia Move app -- India's app for maps, navigation, safety and more," Rohan Verma, CEO and executive director, MapmyIndia, said.

Huawei AppGallery claims to have established a network of more than 1.3 million world's top app developers and 400 million monthly active users present across 170 countries.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
UNHCR Condemns Attacks Against Malian Refugees by Burkina Faso Security Forces

By Lisa Schlein May 04, 2020

The United Nations refugee agency is calling for an investigation into a violent attack against Malian refugees on May 2 by Burkina Faso security forces, which left dozens injured, many seriously.

Security forces reportedly burst into the Mentao refugee camp a day after Burkina Faso soldiers came under fire by one of the many armed groups operating in the region. One soldier reportedly was killed, and another has gone missing.

U.N. refugee agency spokesman Babar Baloch tells VOA security forces barged into the camp looking for so-called armed elements whom they blamed for the attack, which occurred on a nearby highway.

"So, they went into this refugee camp asking men and boys to come out and beating them, mistreating them," he said. "We have more than 32 refugees in the hospital right now being taken care of. So, this is what we are condemning, this violence. And, we are asking the authorities, one to investigate and the other to protect the refugees."

There has been no response from the Burkina Faso government.

Mentao camp is close to Burkina Faso's border with Mali in the volatile Sahel region. It houses some 6,500 refugees, most of them women and children.

Witnesses have told UNHCR staff that refugees accused of complicity with the unidentified gunmen were given an ultimatum to leave the camp within 72 hours or face death.

Baloch says the refugees are living in fear of their lives. He says the UNHCR is reiterating its appeal to the government of Burkina Faso to let its staff move the refugees to a safer location.

"UNHCR was forced by insecurity to relocate our staff in November 2019 and since then our access to the location has been really sporadic. That is one reason we are urging the authorities to help us relocate, to move these refugees to a safer place where we can help them better," he said.

Baloch says the situation in the camp is untenable. He says the refugees are living in dire conditions. He also notes that insecurity has forced schools, the health center and security post in the camp to close.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 20:31:46|Editor: huaxia

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TOKYO, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The confirmed COVID-19 cases in Japan increased by 121 to reach 15,374, according to the latest figures from the health ministry and local authorities on Tuesday.

The number excludes the 712 cases from the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined in Yokohama near Tokyo.

The nationwide death toll from the virus has now reached a total of 579, including 13 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

In Tokyo, the epicenter of Japan's outbreak, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased by 58 to reach 4,712, followed by Osaka Prefecture with 1,686 infections.

Kanagawa Prefecture, meanwhile, has recorded 1,121 infections, Saitama 909, Hokkaido 891 cases, Chiba 858, while Hyogo Prefecture has recorded 674 cases of COVID-19, according to the latest figures on Tuesday.

The health ministry said there are currently a total of 313 patients considered severely ill and are on ventilators or in intensive care units.

The ministry also said that in total, 5,238 people, including 651 from the cruise ship, have been discharged from hospitals after their symptoms improved. Enditem
The delegation was led by Deputy Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Bui Thanh Ha.

Vietnams central province donated 50,000 medical masks, 800 protective suits, and 250 litres of disinfectant solution to each locality of Laos.

On the occasion, leaders from the provinces of Thua Thien Hue and Savannakhet exchanged information on the epidemics situation as well as experience in Covid-19 prevention and control.

Deputy Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Bui Thanh Ha said that with the spirit of good neighbourliness and traditional friendship, Thua Thien  Hue will support the Lao localities in the fight against the pandemic.

For his part, Deputy Secretary of the Savannakhet Provincial Party Committee cum Deputy Governor of the province Phoxay Xaynhasone expressed his sincere thanks for the support of the Thua Thien  Hue Party committee, authorities and people.

He also noted that Savannakhet Province will closely coordinate with Thua Thien  Hue to effectively prevent and control the Covid-19 epidemic.
The quirks of an annual meeting in the time of quarantine gave Berkshire Hathaway Inc. investors their most extensive look at a man who could succeed Warren Buffett.

Spaced apart from Buffett on stage, deputy Greg Abel spent more time than usual fielding shareholder questions on topics ranging from how Berkshire's businesses are handling the pandemic to opportunities for lending deals. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Buffett still dominated the online meeting Saturday and made no indication he would step down soon, but Abel's presence gave investors a better view of an executive who normally stays behind the scenes.

"He demonstrated very broad knowledge across the company. He's clearly very intelligent," said David Kass, a professor of finance at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. Buffett and Abel showed they're "on the same wavelength, they think the same."

The succession question is ever-present at Berkshire given that Buffett is 89 and his longtime business partner Charlie Munger is 96. For decades, Berkshire investors have flocked to Omaha, Nebraska, to hear the pair impart advice and observations as they turned an ailing textile business into a conglomerate now valued at more than $443 billion. But Buffett said in his annual letter released this year that he and Munger "long ago entered the urgent zone" and that Berkshire was "100% prepared" for their departure.

Abel, a vice chairman for non-insurance operations, and Ajit Jain, a 68-year-old vice chairman overseeing the insurers, have long been seen as the top candidates to replace Buffett one day, with the billionaire investor calling them "outstanding individuals" in his most recent letter. Both Jain and Munger were absent from this year's annual meeting because they live farther away from Omaha than Abel. Munger was in fine health, Buffett noted Saturday.

Berkshire watchers have focused most on Abel, 57, in recent years. An accountant by training, he helped build the company's energy empire, playing an active role in hashing out deals. That's a key skill for any Berkshire leader hunting for ways to supercharge growth.

He's long served as a deputy for Buffett, holding a role on Kraft Heinz Co.'s board. Now, he oversees all of Berkshire's non-insurance businesses, a mandate that includes railroad BNSF, Dairy Queen and even a collection of retailers.

"In order to be a vice chairman at Berkshire, you both have to be highly talented but also believe in the principles of Berkshire," said Richard Cook, a partner and portfolio manager at Cook & Bynum Capital Management. "That matters a lot to Buffett."

During Saturday's annual meeting, held online this year, Abel gave investors a sense of how those operations were adjusting to the coronavirus pandemic and economic landscape. He also fielded broader questions about Berkshire's prospects, such as financing deals. He defended Berkshire's ability to land lucrative opportunities once Buffett's gone and the benefits of a conglomerate, a structure that could face an attack by an activist investor.

"Without Warren and Charlie at the helm, I don't see the culture of Berkshire changing," Abel said. "A large part of that is having the business acumen to understand the transaction, the economic prospects and then the ability to act quickly."

The scene, including Buffett's description of Abel as a good capital allocator alongside investing deputies Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, "strongly" signaled that Abel is the most likely candidate, Meyer Shields, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, said Sunday in a note to clients.

"Mr. Abel's expressed preference for Berkshire's 'unique structure' (i.e., its ability to invest cash flows from any of its diverse operations) makes any sort of near-term post-Buffett breakup extremely unlikely," Shields said.

Still, nothing is set in stone. Buffett has yet to publicly name a successor and has a handful of executives who could take over. The legendary investor demonstrated yet again at this year's meeting that he's still mentally sharp, according to Kass.

"Listen, there's no one better than Warren and Charlie," Abel said. "But equally, we've got a talented team in Berkshire, both at the Berkshire level and within our managers that can obviously look at opportunities too, very quickly."
By Davide Barbuscia

DUBAI, April 27 (Reuters) - Sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East should be used to boost growth, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) official said on Monday, as regional economies struggle with the coronavirus pandemic and the crippling impact of lower oil prices.

Oil exporters in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are expected to see a yearly decline in oil export receipts this year of $226 billion, according to the IMF.

This is likely to weigh on their budgets, widening fiscal deficits and potentially limiting governments' firepower to boost economic growth.

For Gulf oil exporters this is problematic as government spending has been a key engine of economic transformation plans launched over the past few years to diversify their economies away from oil revenues.

Jihad Azour, director of the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Department, said oil exporters needed to find new areas of growth amid the current downturn caused by plunging oil prices and the new coronavirus outbreak.

"Sovereign wealth funds can play a role, regional institutions can play a role," he said during an online conference.

Oil prices have slumped this year as lockdowns across the world aimed at containing the pandemic have hammered demand.

The sovereign wealth funds of oil-rich governments such as Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar are among the world's largest, but they could see their assets decline by $296 billion by the end of this year, the Institute of International Finance has estimated.

MENA oil exporters are likely to see a 4.2% real GDP contraction this year, Azour said, down from a previous projection of 2.1% growth.

He called for can acceleration of reforms aimed at diversifying the regional economies.

"There are a certain numbers of taboos that lived with us for some time, that oil exporting economies for example have to be pro-cyclical, this is something that we could break ... Or that instruments cannot be redirected, that sovereign wealth funds cannot be redirected to help the economy grow," he said.

Twelve countries in the region - Bahrain, Iran, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Tunisia, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Sudan, and Iraq - have provided $64 billion in combined fiscal support in response to the pandemic, corresponding to an average of 2.7% of GDP, the IMF said.

Central banks in Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Morocco, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia, have provided $47 billion in combined additional liquidity support. (Reporting by Davide Barbuscia; Editing by Mark Potter)
File Photo

New Delhi: In the country, 3,900 people were found infected with corona in 24 hours and 195 people died. This is the highest number of cases and deaths in a single day. The health ministry said the sudden rise in corona cases was due to some states failing to provide timely figures on the number of cases and deaths.

CoronavirusGiving an update on Corona, the Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Health said that the total number of Covid-19 cases in the country has now risen to 46,433 and 1568 people have died.

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So far, 12,726 corona patients have recovered, accounting for 27.41 per cent of the total cases. In the last 24 hours, 1,020 people have recovered. Answering a question, Lav Agarwal said, "We are fighting an infectious disease. Therefore, it is very important to report and manage cases in a timely manner.

CoronavirusThere is a gap in some states. We have persuaded them for this and that is why the cases have suddenly increased. It may be recalled that the central team had questioned the statistics of corona cases in West Bengal. However, the health ministry did not name any state.
If youre like many Americans, then you probably get a thrill out of watching majestic sunsets or sunrises, hearing the soothing sound of the ocean and feeling the sand between your toes. So, why not live by the ocean? The primary problem is simple: Beachfront property is often too expensive. Or is it? It turns out, the U.S. is full of cities that can make your dream of living near water come true.

GOBankingRates looked at 110 of the top ocean and lakefront cities in the U.S. and the median annual household income, home values, property tax rates and mortgage costs in each. You wont find high-dollar celebrity enclaves like Malibu on the list, but you will find a wide range of waterfront cities that are still affordable.

Last updated: Oct. 19, 2020

25. Devils Lake, North Dakota

Median annual income: $43,750

Typical home value: $170,206

State median property tax rate: 1.42%

Monthly mortgage payment: $767

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 21%

Located just 80 miles from the Canadian border, Devils Lake is a year-round fishing mecca and home of North Dakotas oldest continuous waterfowl hunting business. Residents have easy access to U.S. Highway 2 and an Amtrak train with daily service. If youre not the outdoorsy type, no problem  a waterfront resort-style casino, museums and a variety of shops and restaurants provide plenty of opportunities for indoor recreation.

24. East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania

Median annual income: $49,625

Typical home value: $185,411

State median property tax rate: 1.35%

Monthly mortgage payment: $824

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 20%

East Stroudsburg, home of East Stroudsburg University, is located in the Pocono Mountains region of Pennsylvania. Its location along the Interstate 80 corridor, within commuting distance of New York City, makes it a popular destination for New York and New Jersey residents looking for a quieter, less expensive place to call home. Water-based recreation centers around the Delaware River. Smithfield Beach, located on the outskirts of East Stroudsburg, is one of several developed park areas within the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Brodhead Creek, a tributary of the Delaware River, is popular for fly fishing.

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23. Port Clinton, Ohio

Median annual income: $44,040

Typical home value: $170,928

State median property tax rate: 1.36%

Monthly mortgage payment: $761

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 21%

Port Clintons location along the shoreline of Lake Erie makes it a perfect location for anyone who dreams of living on or near the water. A public beach, plus parks and picnic areas, give residents lots of ways to enjoy the outdoors on and off the lake. If the lake itself isnt reason enough to make a move, residents also enjoy affordable housing, a highly regarded school district and easy access Erie Ottawa International Airport.

22. Rochester, New York

Median annual income: $33,399

Typical home value: $132,747

State median property tax rate: 1.23%

Monthly mortgage payment: $577

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 21%

Rochester is located at the confluence of the the Genesee River and Lake Ontario, making water activities a major draw. So is the fact that its an affordable city where homeowners pay barely a fifth of their income toward their mortgages. As a larger city  Americas 79th biggest, according to Visit Rochester  it offers a wealth of employment, transportation, educational and recreational resources. Referred to as the Flour City or Flower City, Rochester has one more thing going for it: the shortest commute in America, according to the Visit Rochester website.

21. Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Median annual income: $40,036

Typical home value: $137,336

State median property tax rate: 1.76%

Monthly mortgage payment: $658

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 20%

Brewing giants such as Pabst Blue Ribbon have called Milwaukee home for 180 years, earning it the nickname Brew City. But Milwaukee has a lot more to offer than brew pubs and brewery tours. With more 1,400 acres of third coast Lake Michigan beachfront plus three rivers to enjoy, Milwaukee residents get an affordable coastal lifestyle without sacrificing the convenience of city living.

20. Green Bay, Wisconsin

Median annual income: $47,797

Typical home value: $154,811

State median property tax rate: 1.76%

Monthly mortgage payment: $741

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 19%

Lake Michigans Green Bay has (obviously) played an integral role in the city of Green Bays history. Since its first European settlement in the 1600s, Green Bay has grown into a major shipping center. Its also home to the iconic Green Bay Packers, making it the smallest city to host an NFL team and the only one still owned by a public rather than private entity. In addition to the business and recreational benefits of living in a waterfront city, affordability makes Green Bay a desirable place to live.

19. Jacksonville, North Carolina

Median annual income: $41,936

Typical home value: $154,957

State median property tax rate: 0.78%

Monthly mortgage payment: $615

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 18%

Although Jacksonville, N.C. is perhaps best known as the home of Marine Corp base Camp Lejeune, theres no forgetting the fact that this is a waterfront city, with all the recreational opportunities that implies. The New River and smaller waterways make fishing and paddling popular activities here, and you can get out in large vessels as well. Youll also find sporting events such as USAA Grand Prix Series races as well as music, arts and a full schedule of festivals.

18. Hampton, Virginia

Median annual income: $54,550

Typical home value: $183,951

State median property tax rate: 0.74%

Monthly mortgage payment: $724

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 16%

Hampton is a city of more than 130,000 residents located by the Chesapeake Bay in southeastern Virginia, near the confluence of the James and Elizabeth rivers, which means theres plenty of water to enjoy. That Hampton is truly an affordable city is perhaps surprising considering its proximity to pricier East Coast resorts such as Williamsburg and Virginia Beach. Although Hamptons home values are near the highest in these rankings, its earnings are also among the highest  and its taxes are among the lowest.

17. Corpus Christi, Texas

Median annual income: $55,709

Typical home value: $161,794

State median property tax rate: 1.81%

Monthly mortgage payment: $781

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 17%

If you thought you had to move to California or the Deep South to live among palm trees, consider Corpus Christi. The city is tucked into the southern edge of Corpus Christi Bay, which is separated by the Gulf of Mexico by a string of barrier islands. In addition to offering the recreational and lifestyle benefits of a Gulf Coast city  and an affordable one at that  Corpus Christi has an impressive list of attractions. The Texas State Aquarium, USS Lexington and the South Texas Botanical Gardens are all located here.

16. Pensacola, Florida

Median annual income: $48,686

Typical home value: $160,389

State median property tax rate: 0.97%

Monthly mortgage payment: $662

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 16%

Affordable housing leaves Pensacola residents with 84% of their income even after they make mortgage payments. A low property tax rate stretches that income even further, which means theres plenty left over to enjoy shops, restaurants, attractions  and the waterfront. Although this is a small city population-wise at around 53,000 residents, Pensacola has diverse neighborhoods ranging from a vibrant downtown to historic and retail districts, plus coastal woodlands and beautiful beaches on Pensacola Bay.

15. Erie, Pennsylvania

Median annual income: $36,882

Typical home value: $122,256

State median property tax rate: 1.35%

Monthly mortgage payment: $544

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 18%

A comparatively high tax rate and low income helped push Erie to 15th place in the rankings despite low home costs, but its still one of the most affordable waterfront cities in the country. Eries 9,910-square-mile namesake Great Lake is home to Presque Isle State Park, which is a National Natural Landmark. Tributaries, streams and ponds provide additional recreational opportunities and add to the areas natural beauty. Erie is also a terrific city for history buffs, with sites like the U.S. Brig Niagara and the Erie African-American Heritage Trail.

14. Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Median annual income: $38,618

Typical home value: $141,009

State median property tax rate: 0.52%

Monthly mortgage payment: $529

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 16%

Bay St. Louis has something for everyone, all wrapped up in an affordable package. Because this is Coastal Mississippi, life here is all about the water  swimming, fishing and boating in the Mississippi Sound. But Bay St. Louis is also prized for its livability  even after the damage it suffered during Hurricane Katrina. Mississippi Magazine named it Best Place To Live in Mississippi in 2020, and it was also voted one of the Coolest Small Towns in America by Budget Travel Bay St. Louis ties a handful of other Southern cities for lowest property tax rate, and it has one of the lowest monthly mortgage payments in the GOBankingRates ranking.

13. Biloxi, Mississippi

Median annual income: $44,972

Typical home value: $152,893

State median property tax rate: 0.52%

Monthly mortgage payment: $574

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 15%

Biloxi is one of the nations oldest communities, having been founded in 1699, and sits on a shoreline that shares 62 miles of Secret Coast with other coastal Mississippi cities. It largely has recovered from major damage suffered during Hurricane Katrina, though some reconstruction projects are still underway. This is one waterfront city where people can live on a modest budget, with only 15% of residents annual income going toward mortgage payments. The Gulf Islands National Seashore, casinos and arts and history venues are all within easy reach.

12. Mountain Home, Arkansas

Median annual income: $39,130

Typical home value: $138,008

State median property tax rate: 0.52%

Monthly mortgage payment: $518

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 16%

Mountain Home has the best of both worlds for outdoors enthusiasts. Theres plenty of water around  including the White River, North Fork River, Norfolk Lake and Bull Shoals Lake  and its also tucked into the beautiful Ozark Mountains. This is a small town of just over 12,500 people, but between Mountain Home and surrounding towns, theres no shortage of culture, dining options, shopping and special events. And, of course, nearly endless opportunities to enjoy the great outdoors.

11. Ocean Springs, Mississippi

Median annual income: $56,599

Typical home value: $171,343

State median property tax rate: 0.52%

Monthly mortgage payment: $643

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 14%

Ocean Springs is the third of four Mississippi waterfront cities in this ranking. It has one of higher median incomes and home values on this list, but it also ties for lowest property tax rate and is near the bottom for percentage of salary paid toward mortgage. Those factors make this Gulf Coast cottage community a real bargain. On top of that, Ocean Springs boasts an easily accessible downtown, thriving arts community and plenty of shopping and dining.

10. Gulfport, Mississippi

Median annual income: $37,811

Typical home value: $130,014

State median property tax rate: 0.52%

Monthly mortgage payment: $488

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 15%

Gulfport is the final Mississippi waterfront city on this list, and that ranking is well deserved. It has one of the smallest mortgage payments on the list, and the low home value  coupled with a rock-bottom property tax rate means homeownership is a realistic option for just about anyone. Thats impressive (and unusual) for a small city surrounded by all the amenities of a major beach resort  plus big-city perks like an international airport.

9. Brownsville, Texas

Median annual income: $36,499

Typical home value: $105,546

State median property tax rate: 1.81%

Monthly mortgage payment: $510

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 17%

Brownsville is less than 30 minutes from Gulf of Mexico beaches, including Texas last undeveloped beach. Whereas other Texas cities on this list are essentially resort cities, Brownsville has a different vibe. Its Mexican sister city, Matamoros, is just a couple of miles away, and the friendship between the two is celebrated throughout the year with festivals and other events. Brownsville also has a cultural district anchored by a zoo, plus historical sites, a fine art museum  and some of the most affordable housing youll find in these rankings.

8. Paris, Tennessee

Median annual income: $33,743

Typical home value: $114,331

State median property tax rate: 0.68%

Monthly mortgage payment: $445

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 16%

Paris, France might be out of reach, but Paris, Tenn. has recreated one of its most famous attractions  the Eiffel Tower  with a scaled-down version modeled after the original. This community is home to Paris Landing State Park on the western shore of Kentucky Lake, where you can get back to nature and maybe even spot a eagle. A large antique mall, historical sites and winery are some of the other perks of living is this very affordable waterfront city.

7. Buffalo, New York

Median annual income: $35,893

Typical home value: $110,106

State median property tax rate: 1.23%

Monthly mortgage payment: $479

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 16%

Buffalo is the second-largest city in New York and the biggest in the western part of the state. Although Buffalo experienced a decline with the exodus of manufacturing jobs, recent revitalization efforts have paid off. The city now has a thriving cultural scene and, of course, its No. 1 attraction: Niagara Falls. The Erie Canal and Niagara River offer four seasons of waterfront activities and events. Best of all, its a very affordable city.

6. Toccoa, Georgia

Median annual income: $35,465

Typical home value: $110,563

State median property tax rate: 0.83%

Monthly mortgage payment: $444

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 15%

Toccoa is the only Georgia city to make the rankings, and its one of only a handful located in the mountains  in this case, the Blue Ridge Mountains. Although you wont find any huge bodies of water in Toccoa, it is home to the highest waterfall east of the Mississippi River  the 186-foot Toccoa Falls. Toccoa is the most affordable of all the Southern cities included in this ranking and the sixth-most affordable city overall. But it has a lot to offer, with an award-winning downtown, plenty of local color and access to the Tugaloo Corridor, where you can go canoeing, kayaking and hiking.

5. Storm Lake, Iowa

Median annual income: $49,044

Typical home value: $121,177

State median property tax rate: 1.29%

Monthly mortgage payment: $533

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 13%

Storm Lake is one of a handful of Midwest cities on this list. It combines a fairly high median income with low home prices and mortgage payments to give residents get a lot of bang for their bucks. In addition to enjoying lake recreation such as boating, skiing and fishing, residents here have plenty of cultural and historical activities to choose from both in the town itself and at Buena Vista University.

4. Oswego, New York

Median annual income: $39,585

Typical home value: $91,142

State median property tax rate: 1.23%

Monthly mortgage payment: $396

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 12%

If you love to be outdoors during the winter as much as you do during the summer, Oswego could be the perfect waterfront city for you. Located on Lake Ontarios eastern shore, Oswego boasts a small-town, nautical vibe and a wealth of historical, cultural and outdoor attractions. Its also one of the most affordable waterfront cities in the U.S., tying Toledo, Ohio and Jamestown, N.Y. for lowest percentage of income paid toward mortgage.

3. Cleveland, Ohio

Median annual income: $29,008

Typical home value: $69,924

State median property tax rate: 1.36%

Monthly mortgage payment: $311

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 13%

Cleveland has taken its share of hits over the years  including passing Detroit as the countrys poorest big city, according to the U.S. Census Bureaus 2019 American Community Survey  but it also stands as one of the Midwests most important cultural and economic hubs. Cleveland has a lot to offer anyone willing to overlook some of its bumps and bruises in favor of affordable living on or near Lake Erie. Restoration projects are revitalizing downtown, and youll have access to numerous events, outdoor activities, arts and music venues, a growing restaurant scene  and the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. Travel + Leisure magazine even named Cleveland The Coolest Place You Never Thought To Visit.

2. Jamestown, New York

Median annual income: $31,595

Typical home value: $74,700

State median property tax rate: 1.23%

Monthly mortgage payment: $325

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 12%

Of the four New York cities that made the GOBankingRates affordable waterfront cities rankings, Jamestown tops the list. This is a city that doesnt take itself too seriously  how could it, when one of its claims to fame is being the birthplace of beloved TV character Lucy Ricardo (not to mention Lucille Ball herself)? Its location on the Chadakoin River near Chautauqua Lake means outdoor recreational activities abound. Other points of interest include the National Comedy Center, Reg Lenna Center for the Arts and the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History.

1. Toledo, Ohio

Median annual income: $37,100

Typical home value: $79,874

State median property tax rate: 1.36%

Monthly mortgage payment: $356

Percentage of annual income paid toward mortgage: 12%

Toledo has earned the distinction of being the most affordable waterfront city ranked by GOBankingRates. Mortgage payments are among the lowest of any city listed, and Toledo ties for lowest percentage of income paid toward mortgage. What sets this Maumee River city apart from its two closest competitors is that its median income is significantly higher. With booming riverfront development, a strong arts scene and many other urban amenities, Toledo has a lot to offer for a very affordable price.

More From GOBankingRates

John Csiszar contributed to the reporting for this article.

Methodology: In order to find 25 waterfront cities where houses are a total steal, GOBankingRates first referenced multiple sources to compile a list of 110 popular waterfront cities. Then, GOBankingRates found the (1) median annual household income in each city according to the U.S. Census Bureaus 2018 American Community Survey 5-year estimates and (2) 2020 average home value in each city according to Zillows housing data through August 2020. Then, using Zillows mortgage calculator and assuming a 20% down payment, 2.88% 30-year fixed rate mortgage (the national average rate as of Oct. 10, 2020 according to Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) and the median property tax rate in the appropriate state according to Tax-rates.org, GOBankingRates found (3) the estimated monthly mortgage payment made on a typical home in each city. This allowed GOBankingRates to calculate (4) the annual total of mortgage payments for a typical house as a percent of the citys median annual household income. All cities were then scored on factors (2) and (4) and ranked against each other on their combined score. All data was collected on and is up to date as of Oct. 5, 2020.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Homes in These 25 Waterfront Cities Are a Total Steal
Even as India completed 1 million coronavirus tests on 4 May and the average tests per million rose to 818, West Bengal lagged behind Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, which conducted 429 and 642 tests per million

The Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) sent to West Bengal observed weak testing and surveillance in the state, which reported 1,259 coronavirus cases as of Monday. As per a state bulletin, the state conducted 25,116 tests across 16 labs so far, amounting to 279 tests per million people.

Even as India completed 1 million tests on 4 May and the average tests per million rose to 818, West Bengal lagged behind Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, which conducted 429 and 642 tests per million, according to The Economic Times. Madhya Pradesh, which is among the states with the highest number of cases (2,942), tested only 602 samples per million, according to Indian Express. Meanwhile, among those states reporting a high number of tests per million are Delhi (3,486), Andhra Pradesh (2,313), Jammu and Kashmir (2,083), Tamil Nadu (1,932), Rajasthan (1,668), Maharashtra (1,423), Haryana (1,504), Gujarat (1,227), Karnataka (1,226) and Odisha (923).

On Tuesday, the number of coronavirus cases in India stood at 46,433 and the toll was 1,568. While India conducts an average of 75,000 tests per day, West Bengal conducted only 2,201 tests on Monday. On the other hand, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, which have reported only one confirmed case each, conducted 869 and 815 tests in a day earlier this week, as per figures reported by NewsMinute and daily medical bulletins.

The total number of tests conducted crossed the 1,00,000-mark in Rajasthan (1,29,258), Andhra Pradesh (1,14,937), Maharashtra (1,70,139), Tamil Nadu (1,15,107) and 50,000-mark in Karnataka (74,898) and Mizoram (76,587) earlier this week. Odisha has tested 44,663 samples till Sunday, while the numbers for Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Chhattisgarh stood at 38,138, 26,439 and 19,902 respectively. Kerala, where 462 of 500 cases have recovered so far, tested 33,010 samples till Monday.

In April, only 5 percent of the tested samples gave back a positive result. Additionally, according to the Union health ministry and ICMR data, India reported 39,980 cases on the day it completed 1 million tests. At this milestone, Spain had over 200,194 cases, while the USA had 164,620 cases, a Times of India report said.

The Union health ministry said that the doubling rate of coronavirus cases stood at 11 days, as against the 3.4 days before the lockdown was announced in March. Delhi, with the second-highest cases in the country, reported a doubling rate of 11 to 20 days. Other states and Union Territories reporting this doubling rate included Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Punjab, according to The Hindu. Karnataka, Ladakh, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Kerala have a doubling rate of 20 to 40 days. Those in the category of doubling rate exceeding 40 days are Assam, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, and Himachal Pradesh.

The doubling rate in Maharashtra, which has the highest cases in India, still stands below the national average at 9.3 days as of Monday, Times of India reported.

In an attempt to meet the testing requirements, the government asked 14 mentor institutions, including AIIMS, PGI Chandigarh, CMC Vellore, JIPMER Puducherry, SGPIMS Lucknow and AIIMS Bhubaneshwar, to assist and train healthcare workers in conducting tests.

The ICMR too modified its testing guidelines to include all those with influenza-like illness to be tested in hotspots and large migration gatherings or evacuee centres. The earlier guidelines mandated that those with travel or contact history or exhibiting symptoms and healthcare workers be tested. It has also allowed authorities in hotspots to test residents using rapid antibody kits. Tests per million indicate a better reach and sampling than absolute numbers, as they represent the extent of the infection, an ICMR scientist told The Economic Times.
Section 1 of Maya Train project begins

Mexico City, Mexico  Construction for Section 1 of the Maya Train, which will run from from Palenque, Chiapas to Escarcega, Campeche, began over the weekend, however, with a reduced number of workers due to the current epidemic.

The start of construction was confirmed by the director general of the National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur), Rogelio Jimenez Pons who said they did start but slowly and with few workers.

Jimenez Pons says that over the weekend, numerous pieces of heavy machinery arrived and were were mobilized about 8 kilometers from Palenque, Chiapas. The machines operated on the sides of the old railways of the then Chiapas-Mayab Train.

Construction workers are using the old train station facilities as camps, he said, adding that there were meetings between the technical directors of Mota Engil Mexico Sapi, part of the company that won the international tender for that section, with the project supervision teams in a bid to get started.

The general director of Fondo Nacional de Fomento al Turismo (Fonatur) explained that the first section of track will consist of 227 kilometers. When complete, the Maya Train will cross the states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo and offer passenger, tourist and cargo transportation.
"They're posting record profits, while ranchers are suffering significant market price losses," Watne said. "The situation definitely smells rotten, and it not only hurts ranchers, but consumers, too."

The state officials criticized the disparity in the price of live cattle and the retail cost of boxed beef that is sold to consumers, arguing that it shows the market lacks fair competition. Live cattle futures recently hit 18-year lows, while both the price of boxed beef and consumer demand remain healthy as consumers stockpile meat in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The letter was signed by attorneys general in North Dakota, Missouri, Colorado, South Dakota, Montana, Arizona, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wyoming.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The state attorneys general said they are eager to work with Barr on an examination of the competitive dynamics of the industry.

"Antitrust concerns about the cattle market are nothing new. Competition issues arising from agricultural markets existed long before the COVID-19 pandemic and will persist long after we defeat our current crisis," they wrote.
DUBLIN, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Cancer Monoclonal Antibodies Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global cancer monoclonal antibodies market is currently witnessing strong growth. Looking forward, the market is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 10% during 2020-2025.



The increasing prevalence of cancer across the globe is one of the key factors driving the growth of the market. In comparison to traditionally used non-targeted therapies, such as chemotherapy, monoclonal antibodies have reduced side-effects on the patient's body and can also be used for the treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Furthermore, widespread adoption of cost-efficient biosimilar monoclonal antibodies by medical practitioners and oncologists is also providing a boost to the market growth.



With technological advancements in gene sequencing and target gene selection, these antibodies can be modified to have similar properties to that of a pharmaceutical drug. They have the same efficiency but are available at reduced prices than the original medicine, which aids in enhancing the cost-efficiency of the treatment, thereby contributing to the increasing demand for the product across the globe.



Other factors, including rising preference for personalized medicines, extensive research and development (R&D) activities and significant improvements in the healthcare infrastructure, are projected to drive the market further.



The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined with some of the key players being AbbVie Inc., Amgen Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Eli Lilly and Company, Genmab A/S, GlaxoSmithKline Plc., Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co. Inc., Novartis AG, Pfizer Inc., Roche Holding AG, Seattle Genetics Inc., Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc., etc.



Key Questions Answered

How has the global cancer monoclonal antibodies 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 antibody type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the medication 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 industry?

What is the structure of the global cancer monoclonal antibodies market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the industry?

Key Topics Covered



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Cancer Monoclonal Antibodies Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Antibody Type

6.1 Murine Antibodies

6.2 Chimeric Antibodies

6.3 Humanized Antibodies

6.4 Others



7 Market Breakup by Medication Type

7.1 Bevacizumab (Avastin)

7.2 Rituximab (Rituxan)

7.3 Trastuzumab (Herceptin)

7.4 Cetuximab (Erbitux)

7.5 Panitumumab (Vectibix)

7.6 Others



8 Market Breakup by Application

8.1 Breast Cancer

8.2 Blood Cancer

8.3 Liver Cancer

8.4 Brain Cancer

8.5 Colorectal Cancer

8.6 Others



9 Market Breakup by End-user

9.1 Hospitals and Clinics

9.2 Pharmacies

9.3 Research Laboratories

9.4 Others



10 Market Breakup by Region

10.1 North America

10.2 Asia Pacific

10.3 Europe

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 Competitive Landscape

14.1 Market Structure

14.2 Key Players

14.3 Profiles of Key Players



AbbVie Inc.

Amgen Inc.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company

Eli Lilly and Company

Genmab A/S

GlaxoSmithKline Plc.

Johnson & Johnson

Merck & Co. Inc.

Novartis AG

Pfizer Inc.

Roche Holding AG

Seattle Genetics Inc.

Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/z0nyqc

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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Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackerays party Shiv Sena on Tuesday called for a surgical strike to avenge the killing of five security personnel in an encounter with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmirs Handwara two days ago. In an editorial in its mouthpiece 'Saamana', the party said that it is not a good sign that five brave men were killed in one go on Indias own land.

The Sena editorial further stated that all this happened when a strong and quite patriotic government is in power at the Centre. The country has forgotten "Kashmir war" due to the war situation triggered by COVID-19, but Pakistan has not, the former NDA constituent said in its mouthpiece.

Noting that the armed forces recently saluted the efforts of frontline workers in the battle against COVID-19 by conducting fly-pasts and showering flower petals on hospitals, the Shiv Sena said the fight against coronavirus and the appreciation of policemen, doctors and nurses will continue, but Kashmir cannot be ignored".

"Let there be a surgical strike to avenge the martyrdom of the five jawans. It is not a good sign that five of our jawans are killed in one go, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said.

It may be recalled that the Indian armed forces had carried out retaliatory surgical strikes on seven terror launch pads across the LoC, with the Army targeting terrorists preparing to infiltrate from PoK after the Uri terror attack in September 2016. Opposition parties like the Congress had later accused the BJP of using the surgical strike for political gains.

The attacks by terrorists have gone up along the Kashmir border while India is battling coronavirus crisis, it said, and alleged "India has forgotten the Kashmir war due to the situation triggered by COVID-19, but Pakistan has not."

Without naming any party or government, the Sena said somebody should also shower petals on the kin of the five security personnel killed in the Handwara encounter. It said the security personnel who made supreme sacrifices for the country included a Muslim, and asked those who are into Hindu-Muslim politics not to forget this.

An Army Colonel and a Major were among five security personnel killed in an encounter with terrorists at a village in north Kashmir's Handwara area two days back. The deceased included Colonel Ashutosh Sharma - Commanding Officer of the 21 Rashtriya Rifles, Major Anuj Sood, Naik Rajesh and Lance Naik Dinesh and JKP sub-inspector Shakeel Qazi.

The Sena said Colonel Sharmas daughter marked her birthday on May 1 and he died protecting the country on May 3. There was lockdown in Kashmir ever since Article 370 was scrapped (last year) and the infiltrators carried out attacks during the lockdown, the Marathi daily said.

It has to be admitted that the Article could be scrapped because of the strong intentions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. But, the killings of Indian soldiers still continued there, the Shiv Sena said.
HOLON, Israel, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hamza Ali Mohammed was born with life-threatening congenital heart disease and had his first surgery as an infant. The Save a Child's Heart (SACH) medical team decided a few months ago that he needed a second surgery to survive.

On February 24, 2020, Hamza underwent open heart surgery at Wolfson Medical Center (WMC) in Holon, Israel, by the SACH volunteer medical team.

Palestinian child, Hamza, and one of the nurses taking care of him.

His recovery from this surgery was very complicated. "We tried to extubate Hamza a few times after his surgery, but he had a hard time breathing by himself. We had to connect him to an ECMO machine, and it kept him alive for a few weeks," said Dr Racheli Sion Sarid, a senior physician at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Wolfson.

In addition to the huge challenge of keeping Hamza alive through this period, the medical team had to face another major difficulty: Hamza's parents, who went home to the West Bank city of Ramallah for a short visit to see Hamza's siblings, could not return to Israel due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

"The whole medical team in the Pediatric Cardiology unit became his parents," said Dr Ahmed Amer, a Pediatric Resident at WMC. Dr Amer, an Israeli Arab physician who is part of the SACH medical team, became the main contact person for Hamza's parents since he speaks Arabic. "We all became his family. The nurses did shifts to hold him in their arms and play with him. We did not keep him alone for a minute. A child his age and in his condition needs to be hugged and loved in order to recover and get stronger, and that's exactly what we did."

Dr Amer spoke with Hamza's parents every day, sent them pictures and videos and updated them on his recovery.

As Hamza's condition improved, he was able to communicate with his parents through video calls. "The first few times he saw them on video he began crying and it took us a long time to calm him down," said Dr Amer, "But he got used to it and we even celebrated his birthday a couple of weeks ago together with his parents on video."

Hamza is now walking, laughing, and playing, and soon he will be ready to return home to his family in Ramallah. The medical team at the hospital are preparing to say goodbye, knowing they will never forget him and his story.

"His story is amazing," says Dr. Sarid. "It is a story about a medical team who fought tirelessly for the life of a critically ill child, a story of a brave little boy who survived against all odds, and a story of people, of human beings, helping each other regardless of their origin and religion. This is the story of Save a Child's Heart."

About Save a Child's Heart

SACH is an Israeli-based international non-profit organization that has provided care to more than 5,400 children from 62 countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and South America and trained more than 120 medical professionals from these countries.

SACH is committed to the health and welfare of all children, regardless nationality, religion, color, gender, or financial situation.

Media Contact:

David Litwac

301.785.0720

[email protected]

SOURCE Save a Child's Heart Foundation
Sudan's Foreign Ministry announced that it appointed the country's first envoy to the US in more than a quarter century, a step toward normalising relations after the overthrow of former president Omar al-Bashir last year.

The ministry said late Monday the U.S. administration approved the appointment of veteran diplomat Noureldin Sati to serve as Sudan's ambassador to Washington.

The two countries had for more than 25 years appointed only charges d'affaires, a diplomatic rank lower than ambassador, to run their missions in Washington and Khartoum, it said.

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. State Department.

The US named Sudan a state sponsor of terrorism in 1993 and the designation stuck throughout al-Bashir's rule.

The US began a formal process to de-list Sudan in January 2017, but this was put on hold when Sudan's mass protests erupted late in 2018. The uprising toppled al-Bashir and eventually forced the military into a power-sharing agreement with civilians.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said in December the two countries would exchange ambassadors without putting a time frame on the nominations. The U.S. ambassador to Sudan would be nominated by President Donald Trump and needs to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
WASHINGTON  Rep. Jackie Speier says its time to ban members of Congress from sleeping in their offices, saying buildings on Capitol Hill are not designed to be homeless shelters for lawmakers.

Although the San Mateo Democrat has long opposed the practice, she said in a letter to the architect of the Capitol and attending physician of Congress released Monday that the coronavirus heightens the need to end it for good.

Speier has been a leader in the effort to enact sexual harassment protections in Congress, and notes that lawmakers living in their offices can cause problems if staffers come to work early and stumble upon the member in pajamas or getting dressed. Such allegations were partly behind the resignation in 2017 of the late Michigan Rep. John Conyers, who faced several sexual harassment accusations.

Speier said her letter was especially motivated by reports that 17 construction workers in a House office building and 12 Capitol Police officers have tested positive for the coronavirus. Lawmakers were not informed of the positive tests before being brought back to Washington last month for a vote on coronavirus-relief money, Speier said.

If Members slept in their offices during this time, they likely had a greater chance of exposure and exacerbated the public health risk of coronavirus, Speier wrote. This is reason enough for the (architect of the Capitol) to review its existing health and safety policies.

Theres no formal count of how many lawmakers essentially live in their offices, but Speier estimated the total is 50 to 100.

The cost of living in Washington, D.C., is higher than in many American cities, and some members who spend weekdays in Washington room together or live in their offices while using the House gym for showers as a way to save money. Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., did so, as has House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield. A member of Congress makes $174,000 per year.

McCarthys office did not immediately respond to an inquiry about his current living arrangements. But in an interview with Politico on Monday, McCarthy discussed possible precautions that could accommodate members sleeping in their offices during the pandemic, without touching on his own situation.

When youre dealing with living in offices, if theyre going to be in the office themselves, I think you probably have to change the aspect of the number of staff that can come in, McCarthy said. Youre going to have to deal with much fewer staff, or Im not sure youre going to have that many at all.

Calling office living unprofessional, unhygienic, and even unethical, Speier said the additional public health threat from the coronavirus means its time to end it permanently.

House offices were never intended to become homeless shelters for Members, and it is high time we stop tolerating the practice, Speier wrote.

Tal Kopan is The San Francisco Chronicles Washington correspondent. Email: tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @talkopan
A China-Europe freight train on Monday left the eastern Chinese city of Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, heading for Vilnius, capital of Lithuania.

The postal service train will travel a total of 10,146 km and pass by Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus before arriving at the terminal. It marks that a new cargo transport line has linked China and the Baltic Sea of Europe.

The train carrying 100 TEUs loaded with 353.77 tonnes of international mail from Shanghai and four provinces will leave China via the Horgos Port in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

After arrival, the international mail will be distributed to 36 European countries, including Spain, Denmark, Switzerland and France.

The opening of this China-Europe freight train service line has provided a new channel for the transportation of international mail amid the pandemic. In the future, it is expected to be operated at the frequency of one train per week.

The China-Europe freight train service has expanded rapidly since it was launched in the city of Yiwu, well-known for its trade of small commodities, in 2014. The service now has 12 routes linking Yiwu with 37 countries and regions across Eurasia.

Statistics show that as of Monday, a total of 133 China-Europe freight trains departed from Yiwu this year. The trains carried 11,220 TEUs, up 44.1 percent year on year.
Howell Michigan Podiatrist Foot Doctor Tomasz Biernacki For any patients who still have any foot ankle or leg wounds, ingrown toenails, or infections, you are still able to come in and see us. The goal is to keep as many people out of the hospital where the risk for infection can be much higher.

The podiatrists and foot doctors of Advanced Foot & Ankle Specialists are helping flatten the Covid-19 curve and Howell Michigan, Brighton Michigan, and Ann Arbor Michigan. Dr. Tomasz Biernacki states that Podiatrists can help support the hospital system by seeing all high-risk patients within the clinic and at the hospital.

Dr. Tomasz Biernacki states we are still seeing all wound and foot infection patients in the hospital, while at the same time trying to keep them from coming into the hospital in the first place. We are still continuing to see patients in the clinic.

Dr. Biernacki further says For any patients who still have any foot ankle or leg wounds, ingrown toenails or infections, you are still able to come in and see us. The goal is to keep as many people out of the hospital where the risk for infection can be much higher.

Dr. Tomasz Biernacki is a practicing podiatric foot and ankle surgeon at Advanced Foot and Ankle specialists of Howell Michigan and Brighton Michigan.

Advanced foot and ankle specialists of Howell Michigan and Brighton Michigan pride themselves on providing comprehensive the care and working as a multispecialty team. The four doctors at this practice are on staff at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital Livingston, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital Brighton, and St. Joseph Mercy Hospital Ann Arbor. Working as part of this large multidisciplined team, they can work with internal medicine doctors, primary care doctors, endocrinologists and vascular surgery specialist to provide comprehensive care.

Advanced foot and ankle specialists have four different doctors within their practice:Dr. Tom Biernacki, Dr. John Stevelinck, Dr. Marc Bonanni and Dr. Danielle Meyka-Blanchard. All podiatrists foot doctors are on staff at St. Joseph Mercy hospitals in Ann Arbor, Howell and Brighton Michigan. They pride themselves on serving Livingston County and Washtenaw County.
If you are from New Jersey but attend college in another state, theres a host of university presidents who would like to talk to you.

On Tuesday, 10 public universities and colleges issued a call for out-of-state students to come home by transferring into their institutions, saying those students could play a vital role in helping the state recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

New Jersey needs your energy, your intelligence and your commitment, the presidents said in a joint statement that likened their plea to such community service efforts as the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps. This is an unprecedented period in our history, a time that calls for everyday heroes to show up and give back.

Across the country, coronavirus has devastated the bottom lines of higher education institutions, which have been forced to temporarily shutter campuses and refund millions of dollars in housing and dining revenue. In New Jersey, the outbreaks increasingly dire financial picture has buffeted public education, with Gov. Phil Murphy freezing $71 million in aid to the states colleges and universities given the uncertainty.

The institutions dub their effort the New Jersey Scholar Corps Program and say it would provide students with opportunities to volunteer in their local communities. The program seeks to entice the roughly 120,000 state residents who attend college in another state by promising a streamlined application process, easy transfer of their credits and available on-campus housing.

The campaign comes complete with a website, njcomehome.org and a hashtag, #njcomehome.

At this difficult time, New Jersey absolutely needs the energy, intelligence and commitment of our college-aged population, Montclair State University President Susan Cole said in a statement. "Montclair State University and our sister public colleges and universities are prepared to make transfer back to New Jersey easy and seamless and to provide our students with opportunities to contribute their talents to the revitalization of the state they call home.

Last month, Montclair State projected that coronavirus has put it about $30 million in the red.

The other institutions are Kean University, New Jersey City University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rowan University, Stockton University, Thomas Edison State University, William Paterson University, Ramapo College and The College of New Jersey.

Rutgers University, the states flagship institution, is not among the signatories. It has projected a $200 million shortfall and recently announced cost-cutting measures that included pay cuts to all of its senior leaders.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.

Riley Yates may be reached at ryates@njadvancemedia.com.
He is the youngest of Arnold Schwarzenegger's four children with ex Maria Shriver and prefers to remain out of the spotlight.

But on Monday, Arnold shared a photo of Christopher, 22, to his Instagram to congratulate him on graduating with a Bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan.

Alongside a photo of Christopher in cap and gown mocked up to show him holding his degree and an 'I did it' trophy, the Hollywood star, 72, wrote: 'Christopher, you are a champion and I love you.'

'You are a champion': Arnold Schwarzenegger took to Instagram Monday to congratulate son Christopher, 22, on receiving his Bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan

Arnie continued: 'I know your graduation from Michigan wasnt the big celebration you dreamed about for years, but walking across a stage isnt what makes me so proud of you: its your compassion, your hard work, your vision, your critical thinking, and your selflessness that make me burst with pride.'

'I cant wait to watch you keep climbing and succeeding,' the proud father added.

It's not known what Christopher's degree is in.

Last September, his older sister Katherine, 30, traveled to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to spend Christopher's 22nd birthday with him and posted photos of the celebrations on her Instagram.

Tribute: 'Walking across a stage isnt what makes me so proud of you: its your compassion, your hard work, your vision, your critical thinking, and your selflessness that make me burst with pride,' Arnie, 72, told his son (pictured in August 2019)

Big sis: Last September, Christopher's older sister Katherine traveled to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to spend his birthday with him and posted photos on her Instagram

Family: Christopher, pictured with his dad on his 72nd birthday last July 30, is the youngest of the Terminator star's four children with ex Maria Shriver. Also shown are Christopher's siblings Katherine, 30, Christina, 28 and Patrick, 26

Christopher's other siblings are Christina, 28, and Patrick, 26.

He also has a half-brother Joseph Baena who was born five days after him in 1997.

Joseph is Arnold's son with the family's former housekeeper Mildrid Baena, 59.

The illicit relationship and secret son was revealed in a bombshell article by the LA Times just four months after the end of Arnold's term as Governor of California.

As a result of the scandal, Maria moved out of the family home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, and the couple confirmed their 25-year marriage was over.

Exercise: Meanwhile, Arnie was seen out on a bicycle ride on Monday as he maintains a workout schedule during the COVID-19 lockdown in Los Angeles

Had company: He was joined on the outing by daughter Christina and his actor and bodybuilder pal Ralf Moeller

Meanwhile, Arnie was seen out on a bicycle ride on Monday with his actor and bodybuilder pal Ralf Moeller and his daughter Christina.

The Terminator star has made sure to continue his workout regimen during the COVID-19 lockdown in Los Angeles.

He has also been out and about regularly either by bicycle, motorbike or SUV while continuing to social distance.
The UK has recorded the highest death toll as a result of the Covid-19 coronavirus in Europe, with 29,427 having passed away after testing positive, Dominic Raab has said.

The figure is a 693 rise from Mondays figure of 28,734, the first minister and foreign secretary added - leaving the UKs recorded total higher than that of Italy, once the epicentre of the virus in Europe, for the first time.

However Mr Raab said the severity of the figure reflected the abilities of the nation to effectively record deaths in all settings  including in the community and in care homes  adding that the UK only appeared to be the worst effected country in Europe because it is a world leader in collecting statistics.

I dont think well get a real verdict on how well countries have done until the pandemic is over and particularly until weve got comprehensive international data on all cause of mortality, he added.

Mr Raab went on to note that as of 9am on Tuesday, there have been 1,383,842 tests in total after another 84,806 tests in the past 24 hours  once again falling below the governments target to be conducting 100,000 tests for the virus on a daily basis.

It comes as the government begins to move towards easing lockdown measures across the country  with the prime minister due to outline his plans for the removal of social distancing measures later this week.

The foreign secretary said the next phase of the response to coronavirus would be to create a sustainable new normal which would protect the NHS but also safeguard the economy.

He told the Downing Street briefing: As we consider the decisions that we will take next to protect life but also to protect our way of life, its now clear that the second phase will be different.

We will need to adjust to a new normal where we as a society adapt to safe new ways to work, to travel, to interact and to go about our daily lives.

We have never experienced anything like this first stage of Covid-19 in terms of the scale of the lives lost but also the lockdown it has required.

As we go forward we want to make sure that the next phase is more comfortable, is more sustainable and prevents lasting damage to jobs and livelihoods.

Labour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: Todays confirmation we have the highest official death rate in Europe is a tragic reminder of the severity of this horrific disease. The public will rightly ask why our death rate is so high.

We should take all action necessary to suppress the virus, save lives and minimise harm. We have set out the principles for what should happen next and urge ministers to work constructively with us to take these forward.

And Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Munira Wilson said: "It is extremely sad that the UK now has the most deaths from coronavirus in Europe. Each death is a tragedy, and heartbreaking for the family and friends who are grieving.

"It is also deeply concerning that the numbers of deaths in care homes continue to grow, and still weeks into the crisis many care home workers still do not have the PPE they need.

There will undoubtedly be questions about why the government abandoned testing and tracing in March, and how ministers will scale up to the level we need in the coming weeks. The government must ensure as a priority that we do not leave lockdown until it is safe. We must have an at-scale system for Test, Trace and Isolate to keep people safe.
Before the first use of the electric chair in 1890 at Auburn Prison, hanging was the preferred method in Onondaga County for killing a person sentenced to death.

In the 19th century, four condemned men were put to death this way.

The last was a convicted murderer from Orwell in Oswego County, Nathan Orlando Greenfield. His hanging on August 5, 1881 was witnessed by hundreds and the story was breathlessly told by local newspapers, in some cases, in ways that had never happened before in the area.

**

The stabbing death of young housewife Alice Bloodgood Greenfield by her husband, Nathan, on Oct. 21, 1875 shocked the small Oswego County of Orwell, as well as the rest of the country.

Word of the appalling crime spread through the country upon every breath of air, Syracuses Daily Standard said, and having reached the lines of telegraph at Pulaski, was quickly heralded throughout the whole Union.

Nathan was the son of a well-to-do farmer, whose family had always been looked upon as good and honest people. His wife, just 15 when she married, five years her husbands junior, was a favorite at a local singing school and in the towns sewing circles.

An image of young bride and mother Alice Greenfield, who was killed by her husband in 1875 in a jealous rage after she said she was going to leave him. Clipping is from the March 18, 1962 Post-Standard. Heritage MicrofilmHeritage Microfilm

After five years of happy marriage, which included the births of three children, their relationship began to unravel. Village gossips began telling stories of alleged domestic violence by Nathan and possible infidelity by Alice.

Her husbands cruelties became too much, and Alice decided to leave her husband, informing him that on the night she was murdered.

She was found dead with her skull crushed, as if by a heavy cudgel, and her throat was cut from ear to ear.

The murder cast a deep gloom over the whole community, the Daily Standard said.

Nathan was arrested and charged with his wifes death. He proclaimed his innocence and accused George Hinds, believed to have been one of his wifes admirers, of committing the crime.

It would take three trials, two venues, three stays of executions and almost six years before Nathan Orlando Greenfield finally faced the hangmans noose at the Onondaga County Penitentiary, where the old North High School once stood.

(Syracuse was chosen as the host after a third trial was needed. The first trial had ended with a hung jury. In the second, a jury found Greenfield guilty but after new evidence was discovered, it was thought best that a new trial in a city, far away from Orwell, would be most fair.)

The hanging was one of the most famous days in Onondaga County history and was written almost yearly in local newspapers on its anniversary.

A pen-and-ink drawing depicting the Onondaga County Penitentiary, on Pond Street, Syracuse, drawing circa 1901.

In an editorial on the day of the Greenfield hanging, the Standard, which called the death penalty in New York State an anachronism, hoped people would stay away:

The morbid curiosity which gathers about an execution, the strange but thoroughly human pleasure which so many feel in the misfortunes their fellow beings and that lingering fondness for the dire and terrible  when it happens to other folks  which men inherit from barbarous ancestry, these too are sensibly diminished every time a sheriff approaches a criminal with a black cap and rope. We trust the number of Syracuse people who desire to look on the horrid spectacle to be presented today is not large.

The paper would have been disappointed.

As the hour of 11 a.m. approached that morning, a crowd of 300 people gathered in front of the gallows and other large groups gathered to the north of the prison grounds for a good spot to watch the proceedings.

A reporter walked among the motley company, which was made up of politicians, sporting characters and commonplace looking individuals whom nobody seemed to know, but who, by hook or by crook, had gained admission within the walls.

They were in good order and wasted time before the spectacle by discussing the Greenfield case, retelling stories of other hangings they had witnessed and estimating the degree of pluck which the criminal would be likely to display.

Many admired the black-painted, twelve-foot-high, gallows, on loan from Chenango County, especially the 315-pound weight which was attached to the rope and noose. When a cord was pulled, this weight would crash into a box of sawdust below while sending Greenfields body up, then down, snapping his neck.

Some in the crowd guessed how many had met their end on the apparatus.

A drawing of the gallows used in the execution of Nathan Orlando Greenfield. A 315-pound weight, on the left, was used to throw a condemned person up and fall back towards the ground would, supposedly, break the person's neck. Clipping is from the March 18, 1962 Post-Standard. Heritage MicrofilmHeritage Microfilm

Nearly every moment of Nathan Orlando Greenfields final moments that day were documented by newspapers.

He awoke at a quarter to five in the morning and began preparing for his ordeal.

He had asked for a new, crisp, white collared shirt and carefully dressed himself, being sure to fasten every button.

He washed his face in the sink in his cell and asked for a bottle of hair oil. He drank a cup of coffee and then asked to be left alone for some silent prayer.

He read the morning papers, including articles on how he had spent his final whole day. Then he ate a big breakfast, with evident relish, which was sent from the table of the penitentiarys superintendent.

He paced and cast nervous glances towards the door of the superintendent, possibly hoping that some late news would spare him.

He met with a chaplain and various family members until about 9:50, when he surrendered himself to the orders of Undersheriff Bennett.

He put on a black suit.

The Daily Standard found Greenfield at first thoroughly self-possessed, but found he was growing more nervous as the time approached. His pulse was measured at 132 as his final hour living began.

At 10:42, Onondaga County Sheriff Hiram Edwards read the death warrant, then joined Greenfield, Bennett and two clergymen in a small procession to the scaffolding.

As Christ is good, I am not guilty, the condemned said as he left his cell.

The prisoner walked with downcast eye, his arms pinioned close behind him, and as he came in view, breathless silence reigned, and all eyes were closely riveted upon him, wrote a reporter.

Greenfield knelt when he arrived at the gallows as a psalm was read and a prayer was made. Then he stood.

Greenfield, have you anything to say? Sheriff Edwards asked.

I have nothing more to say. That is all. Was the response.

The Standard said he was nerved, but not tranquil.

His actions indicated that to the very last instant he expected that from some source and in some way, relief was yet to come. The speed with which the sands of his life were running out seemed to overwhelm him.

He seemed not afraid of death, but anxious to prolong the moments of his existence.

At 10:57, just as his final words left his mouth, the noose was pulled over his neck and a black cap was placed over his head.

In an interview with the Post-Standard in 1953, Ernest Edwards said it was his father, Sheriff Hiram Edwards, who reluctantly pulled the cord and sent the weight crashing down.

My father and his deputies drew lots to see who would do the hanging. It fell to a certain deputy, but when the time arrived, he got cold feet and my father had to spring the trap.

Afterwards, Edwards would vow that he would never hang another man. He kept his word; he would never seek another term as sheriff.

(There are some accounts which said that Edwards grabbed the rope after the hanging and hung it secretly in his barn at home and told his family to never use it or even mention it.)

The body of Greenfield leapt into the air and then dropped and began violently trembling.

Some newspapers said that the death of Greenfield was speedy but there is other evidence that said it was not, and he endured a slow, agonizing death.

The jerk of the rope upon falling back did not break his neck and a physician on the scaffold measured, and announced, his pulse every 15 seconds until almost 11:10.

At 11:08 the pulse was lost, the Standard wrote, and soon felt again beating 10, 6, 8 going and gone, and at 11:10 Greenfield was declared dead.

His body was left suspended until 11:17, when it was finally lowered.

It was put into a stained casket and taken by wagon to, through crowds of gaping men, women and children, to the Northern railroad depot, where it was put into a baggage car for the trip north.

The headlines and opening paragraph to the Aug. 6, 1881 Syracuse Daily Standard describes the hanging of Nathan Orlando Greenfield. New York State Digital LibraryNew York State Digital Library

Accompanying the casket was thousands of editions of the Syracuse Herald, the citys evening newspaper.

The execution of Greenfield was a day of firsts for Syracuse journalism.

For the first time, an Extra edition was produced, and an image of the execution was the first picture ever printed in this city in the news of the day.

Horses had been used to get the last lines of copy to the Herald building from the penitentiary and the last line of type was in the composing room as Greenfield was being cut down.

Soon, 25,000 copies of the newspaper were in circulation, including 2,500 papers for the North Country which were tucked into the same car that carried Greenfields body.

Also looking to capitalize on the execution was a future Syracuse Journal editor.

Harvey Burrill, while just a boy, barefoot and with a handkerchief covering an eye with a sty, was challenged by his father.

The boys dad gave him a dollar to purchase 100 copies of the newspaper and then sell them around Geddes where he lived for 2 cents apiece.

There was great interest in the story of the hanging of Greenfield, Burrill remembered in 1939, and I had no trouble selling the 100 papers. That is how I made my first dollar.

The Condemned: Coming in June to syracuse.com, a new podcast series which combines local history with the macabre fascination of true crime stories. The series tells the stories of the five men from Onondaga County who paid the price for their crimes in the electric chair.

If youre interested in checking out The Condemned, you can find it on our Acast page. Our podcasts are also available on all the popular platforms including iTunes, Spotify, Google, and Stitcher.

The first episodes will be released on June 1. Want to be one of the first to listen? Make sure to subscribe on your preferred platform to get new episodes as they become available.

READ MORE

1970: How 2 Baltimore kids, age 7 and age, started walking to school and ended up in Solvay

1905: No one knows who killed a Cayuga County miser and hermit with an axe

Cedar Chest Killer: The murder which left Syracuse breathless in 1938

This feature is a part of CNY Nostalgia, a section on syracuse.com. Send your ideas and curiosities to Johnathan Croyle at jcroyle@syracuse.com or call 315-427-3958.

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El presidente @MartinVizcarraC informa sobre la situacion del Estado de Emergencia en el #Dia51 y las acciones que realiza el Gobierno para contener la propagacion del COVID-19. En vivo: https://t.co/e695JTqi5b https://t.co/94uMo538CX
Identity and access management in 2022 - what will the future look like?

As we enter into 2022, there is still a level of uncertainty in place. Its unclear what the future holds, as companies around the world still contend with the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote working has been encouraged by most organisations and the move to a hybrid working system has become business as usual, for the majority of businesses. Some have reduced their office space or done away with their locations altogether. Following best security practices With all this change in place, there are problems to deal with. According to research, 32.7% of IT admins say they are concerned about employees using unsecured networks to carry out that work. Alongside this, 74% of IT admins thought that remote work makes it harder for employees to follow best security practices. This need to manage security around remote work is no longer temporary. Instead, companies have to build permanent strategies around remote work and security. The coming year will also create a different landscape for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Here are some key predictions for next year and what to start preparing for in 2022: The reality of SMB spending around security will hit home SMBs had to undertake significant investments to adapt to remote working SMBs had to undertake significant investments to adapt to remote working, especially in comparison to their size. They had to undertake significant digital transformation projects that made it possible to deliver services remotely, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Weve seen a shift in mindset for these companies, which are now more tech-focused in their approach to problem solving. According to our research, 45% of SMBs plan to increase their spending towards IT services in 2022. Around half of all organisations think their IT budgets are adequate for their needs, while 14.5% of those surveyed believe they will need more, to cover all that needs to be done. Identity management spending to support remote work For others, the COVID-19 pandemic led to over-spending, just to get ahead of things and they will spend in 2022, looking at what they should keep and what they can reduce their spending on. Areas like identity management will stay in place, as companies struggle to support remote work and security, without this in place. However, on-premise IT spending will be reduced or cut, as those solutions are not relevant for the new work model. Services that rely on on-premise IT will be cut or replaced. The device will lead the way for security We rely on our phones to work and to communicate. In 2022, they will become central to how we manage access, to all our assets and locations, IT and physical. When employees can use company devices and their own phones for work, security is more difficult. IT teams have to ensure that theyre prepared for this, by making sure that these devices can be trusted. Wide use of digital certificates and strong MFA factors Rather than requiring a separate smart card or fingerprint reader, devices can be used for access using push authentication There are multiple ways that companies can achieve this, for example - By using digital certificates to identify company devices as trusted, an agent, or strong MFA factors, like a FIDO security key or mobile push authentication. Whichever approach you choose, this can prevent unauthorised access to IT assets and applications, and these same devices can be used for authentication into physical locations too. Rather than requiring a separate smart card or fingerprint reader, devices can be used for access using push authentication. Understanding human behaviour Alongside this, it is important to understand human behaviour. Anything that introduces an extra step for authentication can lead to employees taking workarounds. To stop this, it is important to put an employee education process in place, in order to emphasize on the importance of security. The next step is to think about adopting passwordless security, to further reduce friction and increase adoption. Lastly, as devices become the starting point for security and trust, remote device management will be needed too. More companies will need to manage devices remotely, from wiping an asset remotely if it gets lost or stolen, through to de-provisioning users easily and removing their access rights, when they leave the company. Identity will be a layer cake Zero Trust approaches to security Identity management relies on being able to trust that someone is who they say they are. Zero Trust approaches to security can support this effectively, particularly when aligned with least privilege access models. In order to turn theory into practical easy-to-deploy steps, companies need to use contextual access, as part of their identity management strategy. This involves looking at the context that employees will work in and putting together the right management approach for those circumstances. For typical employee behaviour, using two factor authentication might be enough to help them work, without security getting in the way. How enterprises manage, access and store identity data There will also be a shift in how enterprises manage, access, and store that identity data over time For areas where security is more important, additional security policies can be put over the top, to ensure that only the right people have access. A step-up in authentication can be added, based on the sensitivity of resources or risk-based adaptive authentication policies might be needed. There will also be a shift in how enterprises manage, access, and store that identity data over time, so that it aligns more closely with those use cases. Identity management critical to secure assets in 2022 There are bigger conversations taking place around digital identity for citizenship, as more services move online as well. Any moves that take place in this arena will affect how businesses think about their identity management processes too, encouraging them to look at their requirements in more detail. Overall, 2022 will be the year when identity will be critical to how companies keep their assets secure and their employees productive. With employees working remotely and businesses becoming decentralised, identity strategies will have to take the same approach. This will put the emphasis on strong identity management as the starting point for all security planning.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 6)  Community radio reporter Cornelio Pepino, popularly known as Rex Cornelio, was shot dead on Tuesday night in Dumaguete City.

Authorities said the 48-year old radio reporter of DYMD Energy 93.7 FM was gunned down by two unidentified men aboard a motorcycle at around 8:45 in the evening yesterday at Barangay Daro.

Cornelio was rushed to the Siliman University Medical Center, but was pronounced dead on arrival.

In a statement Wednesday, the Palace condemned Cornelio's killing, calling it a "cowardly" act and directed the Negros Oriental Police Provincial Office and the Dumaguete City Police Office to "leave no stone unturned" in finding out who did the act,

Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary and Presidential Task Force on Media Security Co-Chair Martin Andanar said, We are deeply saddened by his untimely death and extend our sincerest condolences to his family. Believe me when I say that our president has absolutely zero-tolerance in this kind of barbarism. The government will extend all the necessary assistance and support to serve justice for the Pepino family. I have directed PTFoMS Executive Director Undersecretary Joel Sy Egco to personally handle this matter and to give regular updates on the same."

Egco, meanwhile, said they were looking at all angles to determine the motive behind the killing.

This cowardly killing in the midst of a pandemic is unforgivable. We will get to the bottom of this and will stop at nothing in identifying and hunting down the people behind this despicable crime. It will be just a matter of time before these murderers will be brought to justice," he said.

Cornelio is the third radio media personality who has been murdered in Dumaguete within the past two years.

Radio anchor Edmund Sestoso, former chairman of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines chapter in Dumaguete City, was shot on April 30, 2018 and died the next day.

Last November 7, Dindo Generoso of DYEM Bai Radio was shot dead on his way to work. Three suspects, two of them policemen, were arrested and charged with his murder.

If Cornelio's killing is proven to be work-related, he would be the 16th journalist slain under President Rodrigo Duterte and the 188th since 1986.

Last April 22, the Philippines fell two places in the World Press Freedom Index by international media organization Reporters Without Borders.

READ: Philippines falls two places in press freedom index

The country slipped into the 136th place out of 180 countries in the yearly tally.

In its report, the group cited the Philippines for having state troll armies [that] use the weapon of disinformation on social media, like Russia, India and Vietnam.

It also noted that Filipino journalists have been attacked by pro-government activists, with the group citing similar incidents in Bangladesh and India.
Donald Trump said he might wear a protective mask later Tuesday when he tours a plant in Arizona that has been producing the anti-coronavirus face gear, adding a government report predicting thousands more coronavirus deaths than projected previously is based on "no mitigation."

"I think it's a mask facility. If it's a mask facility, I will," he said of the Honeywell factory he will fly to on Air Force One.

And about that Centres for Disease Control and Prevention report that sees the number of Covid-19 deaths per day doubling by 1 June, the president said he is not concerned about states reopening their economies too quickly "because that assumes no mitigation. We're doing mitigation."

But that report includes a model that has been used by his own White House, and predicts the number of new cases per day could climb as high as 200,000.

"I've seen models that are very inaccurate. ... If we did this a different way, we would have lost more than 2m people," Mr Trump said, again claiming "we did everything right" even as Democrats and some public health officials continue to criticise what they see as a slow and uneven federal response  and, now, the president pushing states to reopen even as his own health advisers state clearly that the deadly virus is still spreading in both urban and rural areas.

The president, who spoke to reporters both as he left the White House and before he boarded Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, made clear he is willing to put the recovery of the economy over tens of thousands of Americans getting sick or dying.

"If they held people any longer with the shutdowns, you'll lose people, too," he said of drug overdoses and other means of death. One reason the president said the economy can open back up is "they're washing their hands a lot."

There's no great win one way or the other. We're going to build a country. I did it once. ... We're going to do it again. And that's what we're starting.

Meantime, the president announced his top infectious disease official, Anthony Fauci, will not testify before a House oversight panel because, he claims, that committee's planned hearing is "a setup."

"They want our situation to be unsuccessful, and that means death," Mr Trump said, suggesting House Democrats want him to fail via Americans dying from Covid-19. "It's a bunch of Trump haters."

But, he said, Mr Fauci will appear before a Republican-majority Senate committee to testify about the federal Covid-19 response.
"There'll be more death, that the virus will pass, with or without a vaccine. And I think we're doing very well on the vaccines but, with or without a vaccine, it's going to pass, and we're going to be back to normal," Trump said.

"It's possible there will be some [deaths] because you won't be locked into an apartment or house or whatever it is," Trump told ABC's David Muir in a rare network news interview . "But at the same time, we're going to practice social distancing, we're going to be washing hands, we're going to be doing a lot of the things that we've learned to do over the last period of time."

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump on Tuesday acknowledged that reopening parts of the nation's economy now, against the advice of many health experts, would inevitably cost some Americans their lives. But he argued that the benefits outweighed the costs.

There is no evidence so far that, in the absence of a vaccine, the virus "will pass" in a way that allows the country to return to a pre-coronavirus "normal." In fact, it's the opposite. Trump's own top scientists say they believe the virus will come back in the fall and may even prove to come back every season like the flu.

But the president argued that not reopening businesses also costs people their lives, in the form of drug overdoses and suicides.

"People are dying the other way, too." said Trump. "When you look at what's happened with drugs, it goes up. When you look at suicides, I mean, take a look at what's going on. People are losing their jobs. We have to bring it back and that's what we're doing."

There is currently no documented epidemic of suicide, although experts say it's likely that a mental health crisis is looming.

Trump made the remarks Tuesday during a visit to a Honeywell factory in Arizona, which is producing N95 respirator masks. It was the president's first trip outside of the Washington area since the pandemic took hold nearly two months ago.

"The people of our country are warriors," Trump said during a roundtable earlier in the day. "I'm not saying anything is perfect. Yes, will some people be affected? Yes. Will some people be affected badly? Yes. But we have to get our country opened and we have to get it open soon."

Trump also said his own expectations for the mortality rate were rising. "I always felt 60, 65, 70, as horrible as that is. I mean, you're talking about filling up Yankee Stadium with death! So I thought it was horrible. But it's probably going to be somewhat higher than that," he said to Muir.

Trump's acknowledgement that reopening the country would likely cost lives represents a shifting White House calculus about risk and reward, given the economic hardship that the closure of most businesses in most states has caused over the past month.

Since mid-March, more than 30 million Americans have filed claims for unemployment. Meanwhile, the $1,200 temporary relief checks that Congress approved for more than 100 million Americans were not designed to provide long-term solutions, just a short-term bridge until the country reopened.

Now, after a month during which the country has been in virtual lockdown, new coronavirus cases appear to have leveled off in some areas, but they haven't plummeted the same way they have in countries like New Zealand.

"While mitigation didn't fail, I think it's fair to say that it didn't work as well as we expected," former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a televised interview last Sunday. "We expected that we would start seeing more significant declines in new cases and deaths around the nation at this point, and we're just not seeing that."

"We may be facing the prospect that 20,000, 30,000 new cases a day diagnosed becomes a new normal and a thousand or more deaths becomes a new normal as well," Gottlieb said. He also noted that the numbers of new cases are still rising in more than a dozen states, even as other states begin reopening.

--- CNBC's Dawn Kopecki contributed reporting
New Delhi, May 5 : Taking a cue from the interaction between Rahul Gandhi and noted economist Abhijeet Banerjee, the Congress has attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a "one man show " during the pandemic and not heeding the advice of the opposition and experts.

"We look for help of the federal government, a one man show is absolutely not a model that can be followed" said party spokesperson Sushmita Dev.

The Congress party tore into the ruling dispensation and said more food has to be made available, there has to be more money that has to be made available to the common man, there has to be a stimulus package like America is giving, we have to shed the syndrome of "I am the strongest" and I can do this alone and take everybody on board.

"One man cannot charge into the virus" she said while targeting the government for not taking the chief ministers' advice, who have to work on the ground.

The Congress has maintained that the government must prioritise a few things and that is the only way forward to defeat the virus.

The first and the most crucial problem is that of food and wherever you are you should have access to food, whether you are inside the PDS system or outside the PDS system and that is something that has been consistently raised by Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi and the party.

The party suggested "One way of doing it is the direct transfer scheme something called NYAY which the UPA had proposed in its manifesto. Unless you create liquidity in the hands of the people it is not possible to fix the demand side."
Mr. Cuomo listed seven requirements that each of the states 10 regions must meet before restrictions meant to slow the viruss spread could be eased in those areas.

A 14-day decline in hospitalizations, or fewer than 15 a day.

A 14-day decline in virus-related hospital deaths, or fewer than five a day.

A steady rate of new hospitalizations below two per 100,000 residents a day.

A hospital-bed vacancy rate of at least 30 percent.

An availability rate for intensive care unit beds of at least 30 percent.

At least 30 virus tests per 1,000 residents conducted a month.

At least 30 working contact tracers per 100,000 residents.

Some parts of New York will probably meet the thresholds much sooner than others, the governor said.

[Get the latest news and updates on the coronavirus in the New York region.]

N.J. schools will stay closed until the end of the academic year.

All public and private schools in New Jersey will remain closed for the rest of the academic year, Gov. Philip D. Murphy said on Twitter on Monday, a week after saying there was a chance that they would reopen.

I had hoped that we could get back to a sense of normal by allowing our children to get back to the schools they love and to be with their friends and classmates, the governor said at his daily briefing after making the announcement. But the reality is that we cannot safely reopen our schools.

Students will continue online-only instruction through the end of the school year, Mr. Murphy said.

Guided by safety and science, this is the best course of action, he said on Twitter.
Airline stocks tumbled yesterday after Warren Buffett said that he had sold Berkshire Hathaways stakes in major carriers. Are the airlines doomed?

It depends on whether the companies are insolvent  or illiquid.

In a traditional financial crisis, like 2008, the issue is uncertainty. Banks fail during a panic when all they might have needed to ride it out was liquidity. In this scenario, the central bank serves as a liquidity provider of last resort, bridging the bad times for solvent institutions.

This has been the Feds approach. By pumping liquidity into the market  far more than during the 2008 crisis  the Fed has ensured that even airlines and cruise lines can secure ample funding in private markets. In addition, the carriers are getting $50 billion in federal grants and loans.

But that federal aid is not a bailout; it is an employment program. With the airlines flying at 10 percent capacity, the funds will keep some 750,000 workers employed through October, when the restrictions on layoffs expire. Essentially, the package is structured to sustain a pre-pandemic level of service.

But the aid does not take into account longer-lasting changes that threaten the industrys solvency. That was Mr. Buffetts point: The world changed for airlines, he said. But who knows? I suspect that many people are planning trips for the fall. Tickets over Thanksgiving are still expensive (I checked). An uptick in flights within China provides some hope.

If air travel does not return to something approaching normal by October, then Mr. Buffetts decision to sell will have saved him more losses. It will also mean that the government merely postponed airlines day of reckoning  at a price of $50 billion. In other words, what people now see as a liquidity problem would in fact be a solvency crisis. At that point, carrier valuations may fall far enough that Mr. Buffett decides to pick up the phone again.

A remarkable indication of Econ 101s demise

Peter Orszag, the head of Lazards financial advisory practice and a former Obama administration budget chief, has written a punchy op-ed for Bloomberg about how the pandemic will upend long-held businesses practices. It is worth your time.
Virus deaths top 250,000 as billions raised for vaccine push

WORLD: Global deaths from the coronavirus pandemic topped a quarter-million yesterday (May 4), mostly in the US and Europe even as both regions slowly moved away from lockdown and world leaders raised billions towards a vaccine.

CoronavirusCOVID-19deathhealthChinese

By AFP

Tuesday 5 May 2020, 09:24AM

A Los Angeles cyclist in a face mask rides past the Million Dollar Theater, closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, with words on the marqee calling for togetherness. Photo: AFP

An AFP tally of official figures showed that Europe is the hardest-hit continent with around 145,000 fatalities, and the United States recorded close to 68,700, together accounting for more than 85% of global fatalities.

An internal government estimate in Washington forecast an even worsening number of fatalities for the country. It said the daily COVID-19 death toll could double by the end of May.

In Europe, though, governments believe they have passed the peak of the disease with deaths in the continents worst affected countries having dropped as a result of nearly two months of confinement.

Restaurants in Italy partially reopened and Germans queued for haircuts in a Europe edging gingerly out of lockdown.

Half of the planet has been under orders to shelter in place, and much of the world remained cautious even as countries from India to Nigeria sought to ease restrictions so that businesses can remain afloat and workers earn a wage after the pandemic-induced economic crash.

Today is wonderful, Lagos fruit and vegetable vendor Adewale Oluwa said, opening his stall in Africas largest city after a five-week lockdown.

Russia infections surge

Still, confirmed cases since the disease surfaced in China late last year rose to almost 3.6 million across 195 countries and territories.

Infections continued to surge in Russia, now adding more than 10,000 a day.

The threat is apparently on the rise, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin told citizens.

But the United States remains far more severely affected than any other nation, although 1,015 deaths in the past 24 hours was the lowest figure increase in a month.

An internal study by the US governments Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted that new coronavirus cases will surge more than eight-fold to 200,000 per day by June 1, and the toll could rise to 3,000 a day, up from the current 1,000-2,000.

That could more than double the number of US coronavirus deaths, now at about 69,000, over the next few months, according to the study first reported by The New York Times and The Washington Post.

It underscored the tough, politically-tinged debate over reopening that pits Trump and his allies against many governors and community leaders worried that social distancing and quarantines need to remain in place longer.

The study suggested that the surge in infections could come from mid-May in states and localities that had not implemented tough distancing measures or were loosening up too early.

On Sunday Trump acknowledged that deaths would go beyond his earlier prediction of 60,000, saying were going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people.

The White House downplayed the CDC forecast as an internal document which had not been vetted by the task force, which is led by Vice President Mike Pence.

Joy and fear

In Europe there was still caution as countries allowed people to return to the streets and some businesses to open.

We are feeling a mix of joy and fear, 40-year-old Stefano Milano said in Rome as Italian restaurants reopened for takeaway orders, though bars and ice cream parlours will remain shut.

Spain and Portugal made face masks mandatory on public transport starting yesterday as they further eased their lockdowns.

Slovenia, Poland and Hungary also allowed public spaces and businesses to partially reopen.

I looked like Robinson Crusoe, joked 87-year-old Helmut Wichter, emerging clean shaven from a barber in Berlin.

Vaccine telethon

A special telethon backed by the World Health Organization (WHO) but snubbed by Washington pulled in US$8.1 billion (B262 billion) to support international efforts to develop and manufacture a vaccine to slow the coronavirus spread.

Leaders of major European powers, Japan and Canada made the biggest pledges, along with philanthropists including Bill and Melinda Gates, at the videoconference hosted by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.

This was a powerful and inspiring demonstration of global solidarity, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said of the donations.

Seeming to defend its non-participation, the US State Department issued a statement declaring that the United States is leading the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and said it has spent more than $1 billion together with US drug companies to work on a vaccine.

Trump claimed Sunday that the United States will have a coronavirus vaccine ready by the end of the year.

The war of words between the United States and China over responsibility for the pandemic continued, with Chinas state broadcaster attacking US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for insane remarks in which he said the virus originated at a laboratory in Wuhan, the city where the pandemic first emerged.

The WHO said it had received no evidence on the speculative Wuhan lab claims.
LONDON, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Unit4, a leader in enterprise cloud software for people-centered organizations, today announced results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2020.

First Quarter Results for Fiscal 2020

Significant cloud growth and customer wins to kick-off the first quarter of fiscal year 2020.

Cloud bookings grew significantly YoY reaching 87%, with total bookings showing 55% YoY growth.

Cloud subscription revenue grew 14% in Q1 compared to the previous year.

Net Revenue Retention remains positive at 101%.

Unit4 Customer Highlights

With high growth expectations for 2020 and a focus on accelerating its transition to the cloud, Unit4 continues to address people productivity holistically in every organization with which it partners. In Q1, the company secured new contracts with notable success in the Nordics, UKI, Central Europe and APAC, including:

Forsvarets Materielverk (Nordics)  Unit4 supports FMV in their financial control and process development with FP&A.

The Norwegian Post  Unit4 will deliver a new payroll solution this year.

Swedish municipality Alvesta  purchased Unit4 ERP to deliver better visibility and control over finances and operations.

Titania in Sweden  will move to Unit4 ERP in the cloud for improved quality in financial reporting and project management.

 will move to Unit4 ERP in the cloud for improved quality in financial reporting and project management. AXA Investment Managers - Unit4 Financials is central to a configurable P2P platform for rolling out P2P processes to a range of countries.

North Lincolnshire Council  delivering a finance solution to support a shared service for two councils.

"We were looking for a provider that is at the forefront of innovation, who is investing in digitalization and automation and who can also deliver a cloud solution we can grow with. Thanks to Unit4 ERP and its modern user interface and mobile application, we can ensure seamless processes in our daily work," - Anders Soderlund, CFO of Titania. one of Stockholm's fastest growing real estate developers.

Business Continuity in times of Change

Amid continued disruption across the globe, Unit4's systems are business critical for customers to remain agile as they respond to market changes, while taking care of their people and their customers. Unit4 operations continue as usual and projects continue to execute successfully with the full suite and people capability of services being delivered globally. Projects are initiating, continuing and going live with no impact on timelines and quality delivered, with more than 100 go-lives completed in Q1.

"We recently undertook a successful project with Unit4 to move to the latest version of its ERP, our finance operational backbone. The project team was very professional, and everything ran very smoothly and on-budget. At this difficult time for the education sector, institutional continuity is essential so we can continue to support staff and students effectively."  Lara Doris, Director of Finance, Mary Immaculate College

Company Highlights

Unit4 Commentary

Mike Ettling, Unit4 CEO said:

"Last year was a milestone for us. We renewed our leadership, invested in our people, refreshed our brand, and focused on how we could accelerate our transition to the cloud. The current crisis has proven our ability to adapt and remain resilient. We are committed to sustaining this momentum by maintaining the strong support and guidance we're able to give our customers and doing this remotely, delivering planned go-lives, and supporting those looking to carry out new change projects. I'm incredibly proud of the work our customers are doing from public sector organizations supporting essential workers; Universities creating essential PPE; nonprofits like CGIAR who are raising awareness around the impacts of COVID-19 on the most vulnerable communities around the world; and charities supporting children and caregivers in isolation."

Gordon Stuart, Unit4 CFO said:

"We are well positioned to navigate smoothly through this period of uncertainty thanks to our focus on driving customer success, our resilient technology platform, business infrastructure and strong cash position. Our finance team members are playing an integral role in helping their business partners explore offensive and defensive options so we can remain flexible and drive the best results in the short, medium and long term."

About Unit4

Unit4's next-generation enterprise software supports our customers in delivering an exceptional People Experience to their customers  from students and professionals to the public servants and non-profits doing good in the world. Unit4 transforms work to be more meaningful and inspiring through software that's self-driving, adaptive and intuitive, intelligently automating administrative tasks and providing easy access to the answers people need. Unit4 works with people the way people work.

For more information please visit https://www.unit4.com/thepeopleexperience, follow us on Twitter @Unit4global, or visit our LinkedIn page

MEDIA CONTACT:

Nicole Paleologus

SSPR

267-758-2638

[email protected]

SOURCE Unit4

Related Links

http://www.unit4.com


Africa's biggest city, Lagos, got back to work on Monday at the end of a five-week coronavirus lockdown. In the metropolis of 20 million, where exuberance and poverty live side by side, relief at being able to earn money once again was almost palpable, despite Nigeria's mounting COVID-19 toll. All shops seemed to be open, car parks were full and hawkers selling cool drinks, grilled meat and vegetables were pitching their wares on street corners as before, AFP reporters said. Adewale Oluwa reopened his fruit and vegetable stall, carefully setting out a fine array of tomatoes. By 10 am, his customers were out in force and laughter was in the air as old acquaintances spotted each other. "We were so impatient" for the confinement to end, Oluwa said. "Today is wonderful." Minibus stations were as busy as before the lockdown, although touts wore masks as they called out to passengers. Nigeria follows South Africa, the continent's other economic giant, which returned to work on Friday. Rwanda, a fast-expanding economy in East Africa, partially ended a strict six-week-long lockdown on Monday. - 'Month of hunger' - Many people said they were glad to be back earning money -- upwards of 83 million of Nigeria's nearly 200 million population live on the equivalent of less than $1 per day, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a report on Monday. For those without savings or working in the informal sector, the lockdown was a cruel blow. "It was really a big loss," Oluwa said. "You know, we sell perishable (food), so we need to open every day. So to lock down for weeks was (a) big issue for us." Bus driver Ganiyu Ayinla said: "It's been over one month of hunger and suffering. "I can now make money to take care of my family," he said, smiling as he braked at a busy stop to pick up passengers. From the Ajegunle Tollgate, an area bordering Ogun State, a long queue of passengers waited to board. Security agents and transport union officials were on hand to ensure drivers complied with directives requiring social distance, face masks, hand washing and use of hand sanitisers before boarding. "We will only allow passengers with a nose mask to enter. And only drivers that make provision for water, soap and hand sanitisers for their passengers can operate. Buses are also required to carry not more than 60 percent of their capacity," a police officer who gave his name as George, told AFP. He said his team had prevented some 50 buses flouting the order on Monday morning. Huge numbers of people rushed to the reopened banks to get money -- many did not have an ATM card to withdraw from a cash machine. "Look at this mess, there's no social distancing," said a driver, Anderson Kiagbodo, observing hundreds of people milling outside a branch of GT Bank, with security guards standing impotently nearby. "Don't be surprised if the spread of the virus explodes after this." - From lockdown to curfew - The stay-at-home order applied to Lagos, neighbouring Ogun state and the Nigerian national capital Abuja. But in the face of mounting social distress and discontent, President Muhammadu Buhari last week ordered a "phased and gradual easing," replacing the lockdown with an overnight curfew. The relaxation has triggered deep concern in some quarters, given how easily the coronavirus spread and the poor state of Nigeria's health system. According to official figures, nearly 2,500 cases of coronavirus have been recorded in Nigeria, leading to 87 deaths. But as elsewhere, the true scale of the epidemic could be much greater, given the paucity of testing. In the northern state of Kano, investigators determined that a spate of fatalities -- previously described as "mysterious deaths" by the authorities -- was largely caused by COVID-19. "Coronavirus is presently the major cause of the mass deaths in Kano," Nasiru Sani Gwarzo, whose team carried out door-to-door research, said on Sunday. Gwarzo did not provide a figure for the fatalities, although gravediggers say they have been burying dozens of corpses per day. Kano had seen a series of high-profile deaths including academics, bureaucrats, businessmen and traditional leaders.
This has been a busy old crisis for Sir David King, the former chief scientific adviser to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, who has rolled back the years to turn himself once more into a staple of the nation's TV and radio news schedules.

The sprightly 80-year-old, who gained fame as the face of the Labour government's response to the 2001 foot-and-mouth epidemic, is suddenly back as an expert 'talking head' willing to share his boundless wisdom with the great British public.

Barely a day goes by without Sir David explaining, in a clipped South African accent, exactly what he thinks Boris Johnson  and by extension the scientists on the Sage panel who advise him on public health policy  have been getting so very wrong.

Without exception, his take has been critical of the Government, sometimes highly so. And inevitably, his remarks have been amplified endlessly by its political opponents.

Sir David has claimed his hand-picked group of scientists intended to offer provide 'robust, unbiased advice' says Guy Adams

Yesterday, this Left-leaning knight of the realm was at it again, hitting the airwaves to promote his latest wheeze  a body which he has perhaps misleadingly decided to call the 'independent Sage committee'.

Conceived as an alternative to the official panel of experts, which meets behind closed doors to advise the Government on Covid-19 policy, Sir David claimed his hand-picked group of scientists intended to offer provide 'robust, unbiased advice'.

Its meetings, the first of which went on for two and a half hours yesterday afternoon, are to be broadcast live on YouTube. It will then make formal submissions to Parliament's Health and Social Care Select Committee.

'If you are giving scientific advice, then your advice should be free of any political bias,' he declared, during a round of promotional TV and radio interviews yesterday morning, carping that the official Sage committee is 'dominated by people whose income is determined by the fact they are working for the Government'.

All of which would be just as well, were it not for a couple of inconvenient facts. First, as you can see from the panel on the right of this page, the majority of Sir David's panel of 12 scientists turns out to be very biased indeed.

Of the ten whose political persuasion can be identified, every one is a long-standing critic of either Mr Johnson, the Conservative Party or Brexit. Their number includes two Labour donors, two communists (one former, one practising), eight who endorsed Jeremy Corbyn at the last election and a Momentum activist who last year described the Government as 'a coalition built on inequalities, prejudice and fear'.

The committee does not, on the face of things, appear to contain a single member who was among the 43.6 per cent who voted for Mr Johnson in December. Neither does it seem to contain anyone who was in the 52 per cent of voters who chose to leave the EU in 2016.

One member, Elias Mossialos, has shared tweets comparing Jacob Rees-Mogg to a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Another, Anthony Costello, called Mr Johnson a 'narcissistic psychopath', suggesting during the last election that he 'lies, cheats on women, and only cares for the rich'.

Sir David hit on the idea of encouraging motorists to drive diesel cars because they produced roughly 15 per cent less carbon than petrol ones a policy linked to deaths says Guy Adams

A third, Remain activist Martin McKee, has written a book attacking Conservative health policy and some time ago dubbed the Prime Minister a liar who has been 'taking scientists for fools'. And so on.

So much for being 'unbiased'  although it must be stressed that these and other remarks indicating the panel's political leanings were made long before the coronavirus crisis.

Then there's the question of whether Sir David's supposedly 'independent' panel  the issue of who is funding it is not addressed on its slick website  is likely to deliver 'robust' advice.

Here, history has another lesson for us which seems to have gone unmentioned in the various soft-soaping interviews Sir David has enjoyed. Namely, his involvement in perhaps one of the most egregious public health calamity of modern times  the decision by Tony Blair's government to dramatically cut fuel duty for diesel cars.

The appallingly misguided policy was implemented at Sir David's behest in the early 2000s as part of the effort to reduce the nation's carbon emissions. Obsessed by climate change, Sir David hit on the idea of encouraging motorists to drive diesel cars because they produced roughly 15 per cent less carbon than petrol ones.

As the government slashed fuel duty and other taxes for diesel drivers, millions dutifully bought the vehicles. At which point, it became apparent the nitrous oxide and other pollutants they belched out were causing severe and often fatal respiratory problems to members of the public.

Sir David ought to have been well aware of this, since the European Respiratory Journal had in 2001 published a review linking diesel cars to lung problems, and showing that they produced 100 times as many particulates as their petrol counterparts.

However, he appears to have been persuaded of the case for diesel by car manufacturers who, as we now know, were cheating on their emissions tests. As a result of this widespread adoption of the filthy fuel, tens of thousands of Britons have lost their lives.

By 2017, nitrous oxide was contributing to the premature deaths of 12,000 people a year in the UK. At which point Sir David gave an interview admitting: 'It turns out we were wrong.'

That nonchalant remark provided little comfort to motorists he'd cajoled into investing tens of thousands in diesel cars  cars which have now plummeted in value as duties on them have been increased dramatically to discourage their use.

Neither was it much comfort to the family of Ella Kissi-Debrah, a nine-yearold who in 2013 died from a serious asthma attack which they believe was brought about by appalling pollution near her home next to the trafficjammed South Circular road in Lewisham, south-east London.

An inquest this summer will establish whether government policy contributed to her death. Elsewhere during his tenure as chief scientific adviser, which ended in 2007, Sir David presided over the Blair government's response to the foot-and-mouth epidemic which saw a highly controversial mass cull of livestock, he annoyed environmentalists by endorsing GM foods  and he upset the animal rights lobby by supporting a cull of badgers to control TB.

The latter policy has, coincidentally, been recently opposed by the Johnson administration, possibly at the behest of his fiancee Carrie Symonds.

Further bad blood between Sir David and the Prime Minister appears to revolve around his spell as Special Representative on Climate Change to the Foreign Secretary between 2013 and 2017.

The duo had fallen out in 2009, in an obscure dispute over Mr Johnson's enthusiasm, as Mayor of London, for a project to build an airport in the Thames estuary. They then had to work together again when Boris took the helm at the Foreign Office in 2016.

In an interview during last year's Tory leadership race, Sir David claimed Mr Johnson had during this period overseen 'severely damaging' cuts to Britain's efforts to fight climate change, and expressed alarm at the prospect of him becoming PM.

Around the same time, he campaigned for a second Brexit referendum, using Twitter to circulate a comment by trade unionist Manuel Cortes saying 'Brexit is an alt-right project which the Labour movement must defeat'.

By the standards of fellow members of his panel, that's run-of the-mill stuff. But it does suggest that Sir David might have an agenda. Little wonder his claim to offer 'robust, unbiased advice' is making ministers fume.
Laura Whitmore transformed into Princess Leia for her 35th birthday on Monday.

Styling her hair in Leia's signature bun braids, the Love Island host looked incredible in a shiny tight-fitting gown, which came complete with a racy thigh-high slit.

Laura's fiance Iain Stirling pulled out all the stops as he hosted a Zoom watch-a-long Star Wars for Laura's virtual birthday party.

May the fourth be with you! Laura Whitmore transformed into Princess Leia for her 35th birthday on Monday

Laura cuddled her dog as she posed on the sofa in yellow fluffy slippers with a Happy Birthday banner and disco lights behind her.

She captioned the snap: 'Princess Leia had the option shed be wearing these slippers too. May the fourth be with you!

'Had such a great birthday yesterday. From zoom lunches with the family to balcony drinks with friends and then of course a watch a long Star Wars!

Wow factor: Styling her hair in Leia's signature bun braids, the Love Island host looked incredible in a shiny tight-fitting gown, which came complete with a racy thigh-high slit

Amazing: Laura's fiance Iain Stirling pulled out all the stops as he hosted a Zoom watch-a-long Star Wars for Laura's virtual birthday party

Lockdown birthday: Laura said: 'Had such a great birthday yesterday. From zoom lunches with the family to balcony drinks with friends and then of course a watch a long Star Wars!'

'Thanks @iaindoesjokes for organising, baking, your technological genius and for getting me these slippers! "I love you, I know." #maythefourthbewithyou'.

Laura appeared to have a great 35th birthday as she brushed off ITV's announcement that they had pulled the plug on the summer series of Love Island due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Irish beauty promised Love Island will return next year better than ever after ITV pulled the plug on the summer series.

Bosses revealed it was a logistical impossibility to safeguard 'the wellbeing of everyone involved'.

B-day treats! Laura appeared to have a great 35th birthday as she brushed off ITV's announcement that they had pulled the plug on the summer series of Love Island

But Laura didn't let the axing get her down as she celebrated her 35th birthday at home with fiance Iain Stirling.

Laura tweeted: 'Like with a lot of things because of restrictions with travel, social distancing and unable to plan ahead, Love Island is postponed until 2021.

'Great news is that there have been more applications then any other series! Next year is going to be BIG. Stay safe.'

Laura also posted a make-up free selfie in front of her hoards of presents, with a cup of tea in hand.
In July 2005, floods in Mumbai forced the shutdown of a factory at Taloja that manufactured fibre optic cables. These cables are made by superheating silica and other raw materials until the molten glass is pushed through channels and strained past microscopic holes to create the fibres. Since the power and fuel supplies were disrupted, the factorys operations had to be stopped, causing the molten glass to solidify in the system. Though power was restored within a few days, it took several months and millions of dollars to remove the hardened glass from the intricate machinery before the factory could resume operations. Restarting a stalled economy is a bit like that. While the economy can be stopped abruptly with a lockdown, restarting it takes months and loss of billions of dollars until it resumes normalcy.

The Indian economy has many moving parts, of which migrant workers constitute a significant component. Their removal from the manufacturing and services value chain will stall the revival process because nearly all of them would have gone back to their villages as restrictions ease, a process that has begun. They will understandably not return for several weeks, if not for months. This will incapacitate the economy, diminishing at least a quarter worth of annual GDP.

Economic activities are intricately interlinked. The output of one industry is essential to another, and ancillary industries are needed to support mainline industries. For example, the road transport industry needs the roadside dhabas; telecom networks need the service engineers who, in turn, require the restaurants and hostels which support them. All of them need to be daisy-chained in precise proportions for the economy to restart optimally. Expecting them to settle down organically will be time-consuming and expensive.

Heres an example that illustrates the phenomenon. When the Army is called out after an episode of internal disturbance, the administration needs to begin the normalisation process after the situation is brought under control. The first set of people who are encouraged to come back to work are bus drivers. When buses begin to ply, it gives a semblance of normalcy, and transports other workers to their places of work. The complex ecosystem of the town is jump-started by mobilising the bus drivers who form the first layer of the recovery foundation workforce. Therefore, it is crucial to identify the recovery foundation workforce among the migrant workers and get them back into the economic structure in a layered manner by joining four key data sets.

The Indian labour force has a strong association between demography, skill sets, and preferred locations of work. For instance, the farm labourers who work in Punjab come from specific location clusters. Similarly, factory workers with specific skill sets migrate from particular districts. This coupling of skill specialisation and geographical location is the first key whose data set exists with the employers.

The second key is to determine the exact location of these migrant workers who can be divided into four categories. They would either be stranded in their work locations, in transit, in their villages or within quarantine holding camps. This data set of each individuals location is available with all the mobile phone operators.

The third parameter is to develop a workforce return timetable, starting with the foundational industries. While all industries and sectors should begin working simultaneously, that is not optimal. For example, it will be more critical to move the farmworkers into their work locations to capture the harvesting and sowing window, than say for real estate construction workers to return to their unfinished projects. The former is time-sensitive while the latter can wait. The broad contours of this timetable can be developed by war-gaming and establishing the minimum inescapable requirement for every value chain. Taking the agriculture example, the steps involved would be to determine the harvest and sowing windows across the country, establish the minimum quantum and locations of the labour force required to accomplish that, ascertain the transport routes and the ancillary support required and activate that on priority. The data needed to develop this timetable is available in various ministries and can be fused by an entity like the Niti Aayog by creating a task force with representatives from each ministry.

The last key would be to implement return incentivisation packages to get the migrant workers to their places of work in the shortest possible time based on the timetable. This could be in the form of advanced salaries credited directly into their accounts so that cash flow reaches the bottom of the pyramid instead of subsidies given to industries which will trickle down slowly  if at all.

All the data required for modelling this restart is available in various databases even if their fidelity is suspect. And of course, this model is fraught with challenges and conflicts. However, even in its most imperfect form, it would still be better than hoping for an organic rebooting of the economy which will not only be expensive from a time and resources perspective  but will also cause untold misery as each piece of the economy tries to get back into place unaided by any macro-planning.

Raghu Raman is the founding CEO, Natgrid and former president, Reliance Industries

The views are expressed are personal
South Africas African National Congress (ANC) government announced a partial return to work as of May 1, along with an easing of the national lockdown measures put in place on March 27 to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, taking his lead from the Trump administration, cynically employed the plight of workers to justify reopening the country even as the virus continues to run rampant, saying, Our people need to eat. They need to earn a living.

There would be a phased approach to the easing of lockdown measures with the country moving from a Level 5 to a Level 4 after five weeks of strict measures to halt the spread of the coronavirus. Although South Africa has 6,783 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of May 4the highest number on the African continentsome 131 people have died, far fewer than in Algeria and Egypt. Of those who died, at least 23 people, or 18 percent, were below the age of 50, while 19 or 15 percent were between 40 and 49 years of age. The hardest hit region is the Western Cape, which has reported more than half of South Africas confirmed cases.

On March 15, 10 days after the first case was confirmed, the government declared a national state of disaster, shortly afterwards banning travel, closing schools, shuttering businesses and restricting the sale of non-essential items, including alcohol and cigarettes. Since then, it has used the police and army to ruthlessly enforce the restrictions. There were multiple reports of police beating people and preventing others from filming police abuses.

At least 12 people had been killed by the security forces by April 12, while nurses were shot with rubber bullets after they protested about working conditions amid the pandemic. Soldiers and military police with stun guns and rubber bullets attacked taxi drivers on wildcat strike in Port Elizabeth after they blocked roads and stopped informal taxis operating, demanding the government compensate them for loss of earnings due to the lockdown.

The lockdown has caused grave hardship for millions of South Africas 60 million people. Film of people waiting in kilometres-long queues for charity food aid went viral. Riots broke out in some of the most deprived areas of Cape Town, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth, where millions have been confined in their homes in crammed townships, as hungry people built barricades of burning tyres, looted the stores and fought running battles with the police.

South Africa, even before the pandemic, was facing a recession, mounting debts, falling commodity prices on the world markets and electricity shortages. At the end of February, the government announced plans to slash public-sector wages by more than US$10 billion over the next three years in a bid to avoid a junk credit rating, signalling open war on the working class.

Now, the shutdown has threatened to send already rampant unemployment soaring, with experts predicting that the unemployment rate could rise to 50 percent. The Treasury has predicted that 2.5 million jobs could be lost and wages could fall by as much as 30 percent. South Africas economy could contract by as much as 16.1 percent this year. More than 7 million jobs could be lost from the unfolding crisis.

Under the new rules, mining, steel production and some clothing retail stores will be allowed to reopen with 50 percent of their workforce. But this is not enough for the bosses who say that this will not make it worth their while to open. Car manufacturers want a full return to work.

Restaurants will be allowed to deliver food and families to leave home to exercise. At the same time, more troops will be deployed on the streets, with an overnight curfew and the sale of alcohol and cigarettes still banned.

Although the ANC government had planned that students would return to school on June 1 after a phased return to work by staff in May, it was forced to change its plan after serious opposition from teachers who will now also only be required to return to schools on June 1.

The delay is being forced on the government because of the terrible crisis facing students, about which it has said nothing. At least 1,000 schools have been vandalised and burned since the lockdown began, despite the heavy military and police presence, leaving many students without classrooms or any physical infrastructure. KwaZulu-Natal is the worst affected province with at least 225 schools vandalised. There is as yet no indication that funds will be forthcoming from either the provincial or national government to repair and rebuild the schools, resulting in a further slashing of the budget and weakening of the curriculum.

Most of the schools that have been attacked have been looted of ICT (information and communication technology) equipment and food for the school meals programme that provides the one nutritious meal to all learners in poorer primary and secondary schools. The hand of armed gangs seeking to force the government to hire private security firms to guard government property is suspected.

The ShopRite group was forced to shut down 17 of its 200 supermarkets for cleaning and disinfection following protests by workers after two of its employees died of COVID-19, with another 20 ShopRite checkers workers testing positive following the companys failure to provide protective equipment and adequate testing.

One worker told Independent Online (IOL) that it was not safe to work there, saying, They have blood on their hands because they chose to put business above our lives and that of customers. They lied to the media and everyone else, claiming when they reopened all employees were screened. Most of us were screened, while others carried on working without being screened. New staff members were brought in to replace those quarantined, but some were also not tested. So we dont know each others status. We want justice and an investigation. They are continuing with lies, because after closing on Thursday they reopened today.

At least 100 illegal gold miners in Gauteng province were forced to stay underground in the sweltering heat when the lockdown began, as they feared what would happen to them as police and military personnel conducted ominous patrols above them. Johannesburg gold miner Zach said, They are struggling to get to the surface (to buy food) as police are blocking the entrances and they fear arrest.

Often wrongfully blamed for fomenting violence and gang rivalries in the underground mines, the tens of thousands of illegal miners, many of them migrant workers from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Lesotho, have been forced in the face of high unemployment to live in slave-like conditions, now compounded by the pandemic.

At the same time, South Africas 450,000 mineworkers in the corporate mines worry measures are not in place to protect them from infection. The government had exempted 129 mines from lockdown, allowing the companies to carry out care and maintenance of the pits, despite putting miners lives at risk as they travel down the mine in cages squeezed together or work in teams at the pit face. The mining companies were allowed to resume production after promising to give workers access to masks, gloves and safety glasses, as well as infrared monitors to check workers temperatures.
By Steve Holland and Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Tuesday denied any involvement by the U.S. government in what Venezuelan officials have called a failed armed incursion into the South American country that led to the capture of two American "mercenaries."

Trump made the comment to reporters at the White House after socialist Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday that authorities there had detained a pair of U.S. citizens working with a U.S. military veteran who has claimed responsibility for the foiled operation.

"We'll find out. We just heard about it," Trump said when asked about the incident and the Americans' arrests. "But it has nothing to do with our government."

In a state television address, Maduro said authorities arrested 13 "terrorists" on Monday involved in what he described as a plot coordinated with Washington to enter the country via the Caribbean coast and oust him. Eight people were killed during the incursion attempt on Sunday, Venezuelan authorities said.

While echoing Trump's denial, the State Department accused the Maduro government of a "highly questionable representation of the details," saying it did not accept the account at face value and was seeking more information. It did not specify, however, what it believed had been distorted.

Maduro on Monday night showed what he said were the U.S. passports and other identification belonging to Airan Berry, 41, and Luke Denman, 34. He said they were in custody and had been working with Jordan Goudreau, an American military veteran who leads a Florida-based security company called Silvercorp USA.

The two detained Americans, former special operations forces members who had served with Goudreau, were believed to be in the custody of Venezuelan military intelligence, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Venezuelan Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said on Tuesday the alleged plot was hindered by rivalries among the participants and logistical problems, including a shortage of fuel for their boats.

Story continues

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told a Pentagon briefing: "The United States government had nothing to do with what's happened in Venezuela in the last few days."

Although the incident has reverberated through the Venezuelan news media and social media, it has done little to change the situation either for Maduro - who oversees a collapsing economy - or for the opposition, which has been unable to remove him despite heavy U.S. sanctions and broad international support.

Washington has waged a campaign of economic and diplomatic measures against Venezuela in an effort to oust Maduro, accusing him of having rigged elections in 2018.

But while Trump has repeatedly said all options are on the table, his administration has shown no apparent interest in military action. Maduro's government says the United States wants to control the OPEC member nation's massive oil reserves.

GUAIDO: MADURO SEEKS TO DISTRACT

Since early 2019, the United States and dozens of other countries have recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate interim president.

But Maduro remains in power, backed by the military as well as Russia, Cuba and China, which some U.S. officials say privately is a source of frustration for Trump.

Guaido - often derided by Maduro as a U.S. puppet - has cast doubt on the government's version of Sunday's events.

"They're trying to create a state of apparent confusion, an effort to hide what's happening in Venezuela," Guaido said in a virtual session of congress on Tuesday, citing gasoline shortages, a deadly prison riot and a violent gang battle in Caracas. The Venezuelan government is also struggling to cope with the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.

In Washington, a source familiar with U.S. intelligence assessments described the incursion as a private enterprise and said it was not believed to have been carried out with Guaido's knowledge or approval.

Accusing Maduro's government of using the incident "to justify an increased level of repression," the State Department spokesman said: "We will also be looking closely into the role of the Maduro regime in this melodrama and especially of the very large Cuban intelligence apparatus in Venezuela."

There was no immediate sign, however, that the U.S. and Venezuelan governments were communicating about the matter. Since the two countries broke off relations last year, the U.S. Embassy has ceased to operate in Caracas, making it harder for the governments to deal with such issues.

Monday's arrests come after Maduro's government said on Sunday it had thwarted a "mercenary incursion."

Goudreau released a video identifying himself as an organizer of the operation, alongside dissident Venezuelan military officer Javier Nieto.

Silvercorp's website describes Goudreau as a "highly decorated Special Forces Iraq and Afghanistan veteran."

(Reporting by Steve Holland, Matt Spetalnick, Mark Hosenball, Tim Ahmann, Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in Washington and Sarah Kinosian in Caracas; Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Peter Cooney)
NEW YORK CITY (dpa-AFX) - BioNTech (BNTX) and its partner Pfizer (PFE) have started a phase I/II clinical trial in the U.S. for their BNT162 vaccine program to prevent COVID-19. The phase I/II study is designed to determine the safety, immunogenicity and optimal dose level of four mRNA vaccine candidates evaluated in a single, continuous study. The dose level escalation portion of the Phase 1/2 trial in the U.S. will enroll up to 360 healthy subjects into two age cohorts; 18-55 and 65-85 years of age. The companies had begun the phase I/II trial for BNT162 vaccine program in Germany last week. In anticipation of clinical development program, the companies are working to scale up production of the vaccine for global supply. BioNTech and Pfizer will work jointly to commercialize the vaccine worldwide upon regulatory approval, excluding China where BioNTech has a partnership with Fosun Pharma for BNT162 for both clinical development and commercialization. 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.
A Dutch semiconductor company has become the focus of international attention after the United States put pressure on The Hague to halt exports of machines to China. Like many European countries, the Netherlands is struggling to find a balance between commercial commitments and ideological distance from Beijing.

Some politicians and the media are holding magnifying glasses all day searching China's blemish, fabricate and spread different kinds of lies, attack the political system of China, and incite hatred and discrimination against the Chinese people, writes Chinese ambassador to the Netherlands Xu Hong in an Open Letter to the Dutch Friends on the embassy's website.

The letter is an apparent reaction to racism the Chinese community in the Netherlands say they have been suffering, while addressing complaints that Beijing had been covering up information on the Covid-19 outbreak and repeating: It is unclear whether the virus originates in China.

Taiwan issue fans the flames

The letter coincides with a nasty diplomatic exchange between The Hague and Beijing over what looks like a minor incident when the Dutch Trade and Investment Office in Taiwan indicated it would change its name to Netherlands Office Taipei. China's Foreign Ministry took offence, saying that China firmly opposes any official ties between the Taiwan region and countries that have diplomatic ties with China, not to mention the establishment of any official agencies in Taiwan.

Anti-Dutch propaganda in the Chinese press then went into overdrive. The hard-line, Communist Party controlled Global Times cited Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of the China Foreign Affairs University, saying that The Netherlands aims to lift its political relations with Taiwan island and strengthen its interference in China's internal affairs, which is extremely destructive to regional stability and has seriously disturbed international efforts to combat Covid-19.

Some Netizens even demanded a boycott of all Dutch products, and called on Chinese companies to immediately stop exporting medical supplies to the country, according to the newspaper.

But the real reason behind Beijing's mounting irritation with the Dutch lies deeper.

Superchips

China relies on imported chip manufacturing equipment in its efforts to create an independent semiconductor industry, which supplies the building blocks for a wide spectrum of electronics from smartphones to satellites and its expanding 5G communications network.

The only company in the world currently capable of satisfying China's hunger for superchips is the Netherlands' ASML, whose Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography scanners are able to produce up to 2000 ultra-thin silicon wafers per day.

In 2018, the Chinese Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation unsuccessfully sought to buy one of the scanners.

Wassenaar Arrangement

Initially the Dutch government had given an export license for the sale of the equipment to China.

But, according to Reuters news agency, the US started an aggressive campaign to block the transfer, culminating with Deputy National Security Advisor Charles Kupperman providing Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte with an intelligence report on the potential repercussions of China acquiring ASML's technology.

One argument was that the scanners are listed under the 1995 Wassenaar Arrangement on export controls for conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies which can serve both civilian and military purposes.

Huawei

The US grew increasingly suspicious, alleging that the Beijing government uses technologies provided by Chinese companies such as Huawei to spy on US government agencies and citizens. An improved Chinese 5G network, based on Dutch-made chips, could, Washington fears, improve China's spying capabilities.

The pressure worked and, at the beginning of January, the Dutch government decided not to renew ASML's export licence, and the scanner, worth US$150 million never went to China.

Xu Hong, China's ambassador, complained in an interview with the Dutch Financieele Dagblad, that the Netherlands yielded to US pressure, while stressing that the blockade (of the ASML scanner) attracted a lot of attention in China, it is a typical example of politicising a trade relationship, warning that if ASML loses access to the Chinese market, they're losing an important platform for innovation and flatly rejecting US accusations that Chinese import of the ASML technology involved huge security risks.
The 10 Indonesian nationals booked for failure to disclose details about their participation at Tablighi Jamaat gathering at Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi have approached the sessions court for bail on Tuesday.

The group, arrested in April, was denied bail by the metropolitan magistrate court on Monday. After the rejection, they have now approached the sessions court for bail. The hearing of the bail plea is scheduled on May 8.

As per the case registered with Bandra police, a total of 12 people, including the arrested accused (six men and six women) from Indonesia had visited Delhi in March for the religious meet. After attending the meet they came to Mumbai on March 7 and were staying at an apartment in Bandra. Two of them are currently still under quarantine.

The accused were booked for attempt to murder and culpable homicide not amounting to murder, under the Indian Penal Code, along with other charges. They were arrested by the Bandra police on April 23.

Their defence lawyer Ishrat Khan, while seeking bail for the 10 accused, had pleaded that charges of attempt to murder and culpable homicide not amounting to murder, do not apply to the case. The defence has pleaded that the accused are falsely implicated and should be released on bail.
[May 05, 2020] Wave Broadband Extends COVID-19 Response Policies to June 30

Wave Broadband, a leading provider of fiber and broadband services, announced it will extend its commitments through June 30 to ensure business and residential customers remain connected to the internet during the COVID-19 crisis. Originally announced on April 6, the company made the following commitments that will now be extended through June 30, 2020: Wave Broadband is offering free internet and WiFi (News - Alert) for 60 days to all qualifying low-income households, especially students in low income households who do not already subscribe to the company's internet service and who enroll in the Internet First program. The Internet First program is affordable internet designed to help families and students in low-income households to have reliable access to the internet. It will enable them to home school, do homework, and access educational resources and more. Wave Broadband is partnering with school districts to ensure local communities are aware of the program's extension and the tools to help students learn remotely. The Internet First program includes 25Mbps high-speed internet service at $9.95 per month and is available to all eligible new residential customers who do not currently have Wave Broadband service. Installation fees will be waived for eligible students and new customers. More information on Internet First is available at gowave.com/internet-first.

is offering free internet and WiFi (News - Alert) for 60 days to all qualifying low-income households, especially students in low income households who do not already subscribe to the company's internet service and who enroll in the Internet First program. Wave Broadband will not terminate service to any residential or business customer because of their inability to pay their bills due to disruptionscaused by COVID-19. Customers can reach out to make special arrangements to keep services active.

will not terminate service to any residential or business customer because of their inability to pay their bills due to disruptionscaused by COVID-19. Customers can reach out to make special arrangements to keep services active. Wave Broadband will waive any late fees that any residential or small business customer might normally incur because of their economic circumstance related to COVID-19.

will waive any late fees that any residential or small business customer might normally incur because of their economic circumstance related to COVID-19. While many Wave customers already have unlimited home internet access, Wave Broadband will waive internet data overage fees for March, April, May and June. Customers that incur data overages during these months will see charges and corresponding credit on their bills during April, May, June, and July.



"Now, more than ever, keeping people connected is a critical priority," said Chris Fenger, Chief Operating Officer of Wave Broadband. "In extending these measures, Wave will continue to help ensure that customers are able to continue to work, learn, and stay informed from the safety of their own homes. We are committed and ready to do our part in supporting our employees and our customers during this time."

In addition, Wave is supporting the broader communities it services with its newly launched Everyday Hero program. Residents are invited to nominate a local hero in their community via the website here. In the coming weeks, the company will launch its partnership with Feeding America to donate 10% of installation fees for 30 days. For details on all Wave programs and additional updates on the company's response to COVID-19, please visit wavebroadband.com/we-care. About RCN, Grande Communications (News - Alert) and Wave Broadband RCN Telecom Services, LLC (www.rcn.com), Grande Communications (www.mygrande.com) and Wave Broadband (www.wavebroadband.com) form the sixth largest US cable operator and provide industry-leading high-speed internet, broadband communications solutions, digital TV, phone services and fiber optic solutions for residential and business customers across the United States. Together, RCN (News - Alert), Grande and Wave serves areas of Massachusetts, Chicago, Pennsylvania, New York City, and Washington, DC. (RCN); Texas (Grande Communications) and Washington, Oregon and California (Wave Broadband). View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005402/en/

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The Deputy National Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Chief Biney has asserted that the NPP s One District, One Factory (1D1F) flagship program is a deception to the country.



In an exclusive interview with Kwame Afrifa Mensah on the Epa Hoa Daben show aired on Happy 98.9 FM, he divulged that the incumbent Government is only presenting existing factories as projects under the 1D1F.



One district one factory is a scam. They only visit existing factories and claim they have built factories, he said.



He believed that the number of factories built as propounded by the Government was false.



In his submission, he admitted that his district, Ekumfi had benefited from the One District, One Factory project.



However, he declared that just one project could not account for the factories in every district in the country.







Source: happyghana.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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The current clique of the royal families in both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates considers Turkey a threat, or rather an enemy. The reason is that Ankara doesnt give them the chance to accomplish their plans in various parts of the Middle East, Daily Sabah reports in its article Why is Saudi Arabia and the UAEs antagonism of Turkey on the rise? According to the media portal, the Saudi-Emirati bloc, which includes Bahrain and Egypt, have plans to cozy up to Israel and ostracize Turkey. They want to maintain the status quo of the countries in the region. In other words, they want the nations to accept dictators and relinquish any aspirations of freedom, political transformation, democratization or constitutional change.

Turkey, on the other hand, has backed the Arab Spring uprisings and sided with the peoples' demands, and that has infuriated monarchies in the Gulf region who believe that the Arab Spring is a contagious revolution that would be an inevitable, imminent threat to their own domestic stability.

Thus, their campaigns against Turkey havent stopped, the Saudi and Emirati media outlets never stop calling for Arab tourists to stop visiting Turkey, citing fictional or exaggerated reports of crime, kidnapping and harassment of Saudi women in Turkey. Most recently, Turkey has been accused by their media commentators of spreading the coronavirus in Saudi Arabia and Arab countries. Previously, they labeled the Ottoman caliphate as an occupation in the new curriculum. They are even manipulating drama to defame Ottoman history. In an Emirati-produced soup opera, Kingdom of Fire, the producers focus on the history of the Ottoman Empire, not as the zenith of Muslim unity, but as a dark time for the Arabs. Also, Saudi authorities blocked two Turkish online news portals, TRT Arabi and Anadolu Agency (AA). Interestingly, the move comes after Turkish prosecutors indicted 20 Saudis over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, a murder that has soured the contentious relations between Ankara and Riyadh.

Ankara has also accused the UAE of backing the 2016 coup attempt against Turkey. After the demise of Daesh and the fall of its self-proclaimed caliphate in the Syrian city of Raqqa, Saudi Gulf Affairs Minister Thamer Al-Sabhan visited the area and met the Raqqa Civil Council, controlled by the Syrian offshoot of the PKK terrorist organization, the YPG, that has been fighting Turkey for more than 40 years. Most significantly, Turkey played a major role in implicating Saudi Arabia in the murder of Khashoggi and holding Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) accountable.

Turkeys responses to the reckless policies of the Emirati and Saudi princes have consistently and rationally matched their provoking and unreceptive actions. Since the murder was committed in 2017, Turkey has succeeded in rallying a prolonged media campaign to mobilize the international community to reveal the true face of MBS and his backers in Western democracies. Because Turkey believes that the current ruling clique in those countries doesnt represent the true image of their nations and the historic relations with a brotherly country, its strategy doesnt include a retaliatory nature. It prefers to capitalize on the interests of the nations of this region and minimize the gains of the regional rulers and sloppy adventurers, who are merely interested in demonizing Turkey and generating hatred of it among their nations. Turkey allows such denigration campaigns and fallacious accusations to pass without retaliation. Its bizarre and childish that a Saudi media outlet has accused Turkey of intentionally spreading the coronavirus, while the kingdom concealed its own numbers among pilgrims.

Turkey does not hesitate to take proactive measures to protect its interests. When Qatar needed support to face a Saudi-led blockade and intention to invade it, Turkey decided to deploy its military forces and strike a bilateral agreement of defense and military cooperation.

In Libya, for instance, Turkey is openly supporting the internationally recognized government, not only logistically, but also by deploying military hardware and dispatching troops to partake in the ongoing fight against the Saudi-Emirati bloc led by putschist Gen. Khalifa Haftar.

The conflict between Turkey and this bloc is expected to intensify in various parts of the Middle East and North Africa. Allegedly, Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ), the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, is investing vigorous and obstinate effort to get the Syrian regime to break a cease-fire with Turkish-backed forces in Idlib province and escalate the conflict with Turkey.

For the Saudi-led front, its not only a matter of pursuing leadership of the Muslim world, but its also an ideology that is based on barring different viewpoints or attitudes. It mirrors the mentality of former U.S. President George W. Bush, "Youre either with us or against us." Turkey doesnt buy into this rhetoric and doesnt seem to back down on its quest of protecting its interests and supporting the aspirations of people under dictatorships.
New Delhi, May 5 : Three Navy ships set sail on Tuesday to bring back Indian citizens stranded in Maldives and UAE because of lockdown imposed to contain spread of the coronavirus. These are part of the total 14 ships kept ready to bring back those stranded in the Gulf nations.

Two left for Maldives and one for Dubai. These three ships can bring around 2,000 people while maintaining social distancing. Amphibious transport dock INS Jalaswa and warfare vessel INS Magar set sails for the Maldives and INS Shardul attached to Southern Naval Command sailed for Dubai.

INS Shardul is expected to dock at Dubai on Thursday and the details of evacuation will be decided by the Indian mission over there. Thereafter it will take another two days for the vessel to return to Kochi.

These ships have made arrangements as per the standard protocol laid out to deal with suspected Covid people like social distancing and sanitization. The Indian Navy has removed non-essential equipment in order to accommodate the evacuees.

Other 11 ships are on standby so far and as the central government issues directions, they would start sailing, said as senior Indian Navy official.

Earlier, Navy had carried out evacuation efforts in war-torn areas like Lebanon (2006) and Yemen (2015).A Before that, evacuation was carried in 1990 during the first Gulf war between Iraq and Kuwait where around 1.5 lakh people were evacuated.

Meanwhile, the Ministry for Civil Aviation has unveiled a detailed schedule for the evacuation of stranded citizens from various countries. As per schedule 64 flights will be operated aiming to bring 15,000 Indians from May 7 to May 14.

In addition to that, 30 Air Force aircraft has been put on standby to carry out evacuation operations the moment there is a go ahead from central government.

Air Force has already evacuated citizens from countries affected by Covid frequently since January, which includes flights to China, Japan, Iran, Kuwait and Italy.

The force has stated that they have kept C-17 Globemaster and C-130s on standby and can be used whenever is required.
The Charger Blog

An introductory course for first-year students, the Digital Humanities Lab endeavors to bring together students and faculty members from a variety of disciplines to create research opportunities and a sense of community. By Renee Chmiel, Office of Marketing and Communications

Faculty members gave a presentation about the Digital Humanities Lab at the Connecticut Digital Humanities Conference.

At the beginning of the academic year, Skylar Seabert 23 enrolled in the University of New Havens Digital Humanities Lab, a course that, she says, was unlike any other class shed ever taken. She enjoyed the variety of topics the course covered  everything from Twitterbots to presenting statistical data through instrumental music.

Designed to introduce students to the possibilities for undergraduate research in the digital humanities, the course brings together a diverse group of students and faculty members from all disciplines, majors, and fields of study.

I thoroughly enjoyed learning a new topic and skill every week that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to learn about outside of this class, said Seabert, a criminal justice and legal studies double major. I also loved the enthusiasm and passion of each professor as they shared their unique knowledge with us and each other.

Thats what Mary Isbell, Ph.D., an assistant professor of English, envisioned when she and her colleagues first began discussing ways to bring additional attention to the opportunities available through faculty-mentored research. She served as the lead faculty member when the course was first offered last fall.

I think it's important for students to understand that the world is an interdisciplinary place, said Dr. Isbell, a scholar of nineteenth century literature who uses the digital humanities to recover and study little-known artifacts. Familiarity with a range of methodologies makes students nimble when entering the job market. I want to help students pursue projects that they find meaningful and important.

Mary Isbell, Ph.D. presents at the Connecticut Digital Humanities Conference.

I hope one day students can add the lab to any course

During the first half of the one-credit introductory course, faculty members discuss their expertise, how it intersects with the digital humanities, and how it can impact students research. This past fall, students had the option of participating in-person or virtually for the first half of the course, and they could then meet individually with the faculty member of their choice to work on their project for the second half of the semester.

Matthew Wranovix, Ph.D., director of the Universitys Honors Program, has been using digital tools such as Omeka and Neatline as part of his courses, and he has been impressed by how they have inspired students creativity and curiosity. He hopes the course will further students awareness of and interest in digital technologies.

The Digital Humanities Lab provides students a space to not only develop skills in digital technologies, but, more importantly, to work on projects that have sparked their curiosity and do not fit easily into traditional coursework, he said. I hope one day students can add the lab to any course in order to work on digital humanities projects related to the content of any course they are taking.

Bruce Barber, general manager of WNHU, the Universitys award-winning radio station, says the demand for digital skills in the workplaces is continuing to increase. He believes the lab will enable students to learn to communicate their academic findings using digital tools, and he is looking forward to continuing to share his expertise with them.

My chief area of interest in the field of audio production is podcasting, as well as the democratization of the tools used to produce, distribute and promote audio content, he said. I look forward to sharing my passion for these advances and to creating engaging opportunities for our amazing students.

Simon Hutchinson, Ph.D. was among the faculty members who presented at the conference.

I would highly recommend this class to other students

At the end of February, faculty members gave a presentation about the course at the Connecticut Digital Humanities Conference, sparking interest and discussion among faculty members from universities in Connecticut who are interested in building a statewide community to support the digital humanities.

Simon Hutchinson, Ph.D., an assistant professor of music technology, was among the faculty members who presented, and he said it enabled them to share what they have learned while also learning from other faculty members.

It was great to share what were doing, especially the unique interdisciplinary nature of the Digital Humanities Lab, he said. We had the opportunity to see what kinds of approaches are taken at different universities, and we got a lot of ideas that we can integrate into our program moving forward.

This fall, the course is scheduled to meet every Friday, alternating between faculty presentations and workshops that enable students to explore what they learned and brainstorm project ideas. By the end of the course, students will propose a project they will pursue, either as an independent study, a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship project, Honors thesis, or capstone project.

As faculty members create a community to facilitate faculty-mentored research, theyre hoping to include students  such as Seabert  from the beginning of their time as Chargers.

I would highly recommend this class to other students because of the wide variety of topics we covered, said Seabert. I was able to apply skills that I developed and apply them to both of my majors, and research them more in depth for a possible thesis that I can continue throughout my time at the University.
The Chinese commentary contended, "These flawed and unreasonable remarks by American politicians make it clear to more and more people that no 'evidence' exists." "The so-called 'virus leaked from a Wuhan lab' hype is a complete and utter lie," China said. "American politicians are rushing to shift the blame, cheat votes and suppress China when their own domestic anti-epidemic efforts are a mess."

Pompeo told ABC News's "This Week" show, "Remember, China has a history of infecting the world, and they have a history of running substandard laboratories. These are not the first times that we've had a world exposed to viruses as the result of failures in a Chinese lab."

But China's state broadcaster CCTV attacked what it described as Pompeo's "insane and evasive remarks." It claimed the pandemic was natural in origin.

China accused U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday of "wantonly spewing poison and spreading lies" about the origin of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. A day ago, the top U.S. diplomat said there was "enormous evidence" that the pandemic originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, not a nearby market.

In the last week, CCTV has often called Pompeo the "common enemy of mankind" and accused him of "spreading a political virus" over claims that the pandemic originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. China in March had advanced the conspiracy theory that the U.S. military may have brought the virus to China.

U.S. intelligence officials said last week that the U.S. is investigating whether the initial COVID-19 outbreak was the result of exposure to wild animals or an accident at the Wuhan laboratory.

Pompeo said there is a "high degree of confidence" that the virus came from the Wuhan lab, which was studying the presence of the virus in bats. "There's enormous evidence that that's where this began," Pompeo said.

Pompeo said he has no reason to doubt the U.S. intelligence community's consensus that the virus was "not manmade or genetically modified." But he blamed China for delays in informing the world of the emerging threat of COVID-19. He said the worldwide number of cases -- now more than 3.5 million, with a death toll of more than 248,000 -- would not have been so extensive had China not "attempted to conceal and hide and confuse."

"We can confirm that the Chinese communist party did all that it could to make sure the world didn't learn in a timely fashion about was taking place," he said. "There's lots of evidence of that."

Pompeo said Sunday that U.S. and international scientists have not been allowed to visit the Wuhan laboratory and that China has not provided a sample of the original virus. "We have said from the beginning, that this was a virus that originated in Wuhan, China," Pompeo said. "We took a lot of grief for that from the outset."

Now, he said, China has embarked on a campaign to keep the world from further investigating its role in the pandemic's origin. "We've seen the fact they've kicked journalists out," Pompeo said. "We saw the fact that those who were trying to report on this, medical professionals inside of China, were silenced."

"This is a classic communist disinformation effort that created enormous risk," he said. "And now you can see hundreds of thousands of people around the world and tens of thousands in the U.S." who have contracted the virus. He said U.S. President Donald Trump is "very clear: we're going to hold those responsible, accountable. We'll do so on a timeline that is ours."
Mumbai A day after the state government relaxed restrictions to allow non-essential shops, including liquor outlets, to open, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) overruled the order for the city, owing to the huge gathering of crowds outside wine shops, blatantly disregarding social distancing norms.

Civic commissioner Praveen Pardeshi issued a circular on Tuesday stating only groceries and medical stores will be allowed to stay open.

There are multiple reports, news in social media and inputs received from the police and the ward officials that due to the relaxation there has been huge crowds gathering near these shops where it has been impossible to maintain social distancing and there were few instances of law and order situation arising out of such crowds gathering at one place, the circular stated.

It has been observed that number of positive cases in the city of Mumbai have been rising and the downward trend to set in a gathering of crowds in large numbers without following social distancing will be detrimental to the control of spread of virus and the advantages of the lockdown will be lost due to gathering of people in large numbers, the circular issued by Pardeshi further read.

The state on Sunday had issued an order allowing non- essential shops, including liquor outlets, to be opened in all zones provided every lane had only five shops in red zones.

But with Mumbais coronavirus cases reaching the 10,000-figure, Pardeshi in the circular pointed out the relaxations were likely to deteriorate the conditions further in the city and hence withdrew them.

Hence, I issue orders to the assistant municipal commissioner of wards that no such permissions for opening of the five shops which are non-essential be given and the police within each ward jurisdictions will ensure compliance of these orders . Only the groceries and medical shops will be allowed to be opened, added the circular.

Pardeshis order overrules state notification issued on Sunday, allowing functioning of non-essential shops (limited to five per lane) as well as the Mumbai collectors order on Monday that allowed wholesale and retail liquor shops to be opened.

Pardeshi being the civic commissioner, is an empowered officer nominated by the state to overrule orders of the state within the purview of the city.

The corporation was earlier contemplating to draft a policy to the regulate functioning of non-essential shops by limiting certain kinds of shops and introducing odd-even opening slots for them. However, Pardeshi ruled out the policy in favour of a complete ban.

Traders have criticised the move.

Viren Shah, president of Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association ( FRTWA), said, Shopkeepers across Mumbai are shocked and confused with the governments change in stand every other day.There was no issue with opening of non- essential product stores in Mumbai. Queues were noticed outside wine shops and not outside other non-essential stores. So why have other non-essential shops been asked to shut? 

As of now most of the products in the non-essential category have also become essential commodities. For instance, as most people are at home, they feel the need to buy garments, kitchenware, baby products, toys and indoor games, apart from groceries, Shah further added.
[May 05, 2020] UTI Under Lockdown: Same-day Home Test-and-treat Service Launched by Healthy.io

LONDON, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In a matter of hours and without leaving the house, women can receive a clinical urine test, a GP diagnosis, and antibiotics if needed for urinary tract infections (UTIs) using their smartphone with the Velieve test-and-treat service

Velieve uses the smartphone camera and advanced algorithms to read the dipstick and provide a clinical-grade result

To meet the urgent need of women during COVID-19 lockdown, Healthy.io is significantly subsidising the service for the next 60 days Women with a suspected urinary tract infection (UTI) now have access to a clinical-grade test-and-treat service, developed by smartphone urine test pioneers, Healthy.io  all without leaving their home. The newly launched Velieve service uses a smartphone camera to help diagnose UTIs in just minutes, with antibiotics - if needed - delivered to the door within hours, in a UK first. Traditionally, women suffering from a UTI need to secure a GP appointment for treatment and if they are prescribed antibiotics, they need to pick the medication up from a pharmacist. Now, women suffering from the painful condition no longer need to leave their homes and risk exposure to COVID-19 for diagnosis and treatment. With up to 10 million GP appointments a year in the UK, UTIs are one of the most common types of infection. A recent Public Health England survey found that 95% of women who have had a UTI said they needed to see a doctor and 74% had to take antibiotics to treat the painful condition. In its initial London roll-out, the new Velieve testing kit can be ordered and delivered to any address across the capital within three hours, with courier services offered by Gophr. In partnership with Medicspot, an online clinician will review the dipstick results alongside the patient's symptoms and if a UTI is diagnosed, antibiotic treatment can also be ordered and delivered within another three hours or collected from a pharmacy. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the need among women for a safe, clinically appropriate way to test and treat UTIs from home, Healthy.io has developed this end to end solution and is offering the service at a significantly subsidised cost of 10.00 for the next 60 days. This includes the kit, delivery of the kit to the woman's home within 3 hours, and the online GP consultation. If needed, the cost of antibiotics and delivery of the medication within 3 hours is an additional 15.00. According to television presenter Cherry Healey: "We all know that feeling when you're about to get a UTI and the symptoms that snea up on you. I'm so pleased that the Velieve kit and service is available to women who can get the treatment they need as soon as they need it."



"Not only is the test-and-treat kit helping to speed up the time it takes for women with a UTI to get treatment but it's also helping us keep safe during these challenging times." London-based GP, Dr Nisa Aslam said: "There's no doubt that for many women being able to test and treat a UTI at home will be really very convenient."

"This is even more helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic when many women may be self-isolating, or can't or don't want to go to see or phone their GP practice. They can carry out this test in the comfort of their own homes and get both the test and if needed, the antibiotic treatment delivered to them in a matter of hours." Katherine Ward, Chief Commercial Officer and Healthy.io's UK Managing Director said: "Now, more than ever, there is an urgent need for home testing. That's why we are thrilled to offer this service to women suffering from UTIs in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis and beyond." "Healthy.io has a strong history of providing women UTI test-and-treat services and working with retail and NHS partners to bring these products to as many women as possible. Now, Velieve can help women test and treat UTIs without leaving their homes and helps reduce the burden on an already-stretched NHS dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Velieve is effective and safe as well as simple and easy to use, with results analysed by a remote clinician and a virtual nurse guiding women throughout the process." Velieve is the second UTI test-and-treat service offered by Healthy.io. The company launched its pharmacy first test-and-treat service in 2019, which is available at 1,600 retail pharmacies across the UK. Symptoms of a UTI include pain or a burning sensation when urinating, needing to urinate more often or suddenly, smelly or cloudy urine, blood in urine, lower stomach pain, feeling tired and unwell. If left untreated, a UTI can lead to long-term kidney damage. Notes to Editors Velieve can be currently be purchased online at www.velieve.io for residents of London (inside the A406 and A205), with plans to expand to the Greater London area (inside M25) in the coming weeks. Velieve is the second UTI test-and-treat service offered by Healthy.io. The company launched its pharmacy first test-and-treat service in 2019, which is available at 1,600 retail pharmacies across the UK. The pharmacy first test-and-treat service was also piloted by the NHS in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. Results of this pilot are currently being assessed and optimistically could be rolled out nationally. About Velieve Velieve is a test-and-treat smartphone-based urine test service for urinary tract infections (UTIs). The home urine screening kit, which is ordered online and delivered to a chosen location within 3 hours, includes a small plastic cup and a single wrapped, three parameter dipstick identical to the one used by clinicians. When the dipstick is submerged in urine, changes in colour indicate the presence or varying levels of indicators needed to test for UTIs. The test is conducted with guidance from Emily, an in-app nurse who facilitates the test step-by-step. The test is then submitted to a remote clinician for analysis and a result provided to the registered mobile phone user within minutes. Results can also be shared with the patient's clinician. If a test result is positive, antibiotics can be prescribed by the remote clinician and ordered for delivery to the user's chosen location within 3 hours. For the next 60 days, Velieve retails at 10.00 including delivery of the kit within 3 hours, the remote medical evaluation and the kit itself. Women can choose to have medication delivered to their homes within 3 hours for an additional 15.00 (which includes the cost of medication and home delivery) or to pick up the medication from a pharmacy. About Healthy.io Healthy.io, which has pioneered the transformation of the smartphone camera into a medical device, has already partnered with more than 1,600 retail pharmacies across the UK to provide women with a new clinical pathway to test and treat urinary tract infections. In addition, Healthy.io has also partnered with Modality Partnerships - an NHS GP partnership - to provide high-risk populations with a chronic kidney disease early detection service in Yorkshire and Humber. NHS clinicians can also use Healthy.io's dedicated smartphone app and web portal to digitise wound measurement and documentation - two of the most significant challenges in the current process. Healthy.io was established in 2013 by Yonatan Adiri, the former Chief Technology Officer for the president of Israel, Shimon Peres. Katherine Ward, Healthy.io's Chief Commercial Officer and Managing Director for the UK and Europe, has over 28 years' experience of working in both the public and private healthcare sectors in the UK. Healthy.io has more than 100 employees and is headquartered in Tel Aviv, with offices in the UK and US. For further information, images or to request an interview please contact: Imaan Petra

[email protected]

+44 7551 007 644 Helen Mooney

[email protected]

+44 7849 089 456

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A Melbourne busker who groomed and abused teen girls in 'grotesque and vile' ways after meeting them on social media has been jailed.

Jan Winterbottom was already a registered sex offender when he was raided in January 2019 over claims of child pornography and grooming.

More than 970 videos and images of child pornography, bestiality and other abhorrent material were found during the police raid.

The busker was also in contact with three teen girls who contacted him on Instagram and SnapChat in mid-2018.

Two of his victims were aged 15 when they contacted the then 26-year-old and the messages turned sexual shortly after meeting. He also sent the girls naked images of his torso.

Jan Winterbottom was already a registered sex offender when he was raided in January 2019 over claims of child pornography and grooming (stock image)

One girl labelled his behaviour 'creepy' and told police he became obsessive in a short period.

He also sent his third victim images of children being abused, told her of his sexual desire towards children and how he wanted to sexually assault them.

Winterbottom's behaviour towards the teen girl was 'grotesque and vile', Victorian County Court Judge Claire Quin said on Tuesday.

He told her to take images of her performing sex acts and send them to him, then passed them around on social media and claimed she was his 'slave'.

'You were depicting her to others in a cruel and demeaning fashion,' Judge Quin said.

He had previously been granted a community corrections order for similar offending in 2015 but had breached court orders to tell police about changes in his address.

Winterbottom pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to groom a child under 16, failing to comply with reporting obligations, transmitting child pornography, soliciting child pornography using a carriage service, knowingly possessing child abuse material and possessing cannabis.

The judge took into account his deprived childhood, restricted situation in custody and limited program availability.

However, Judge Quin said he had shown an inability to comply with court orders, there was a lack of remorse and a high risk of reoffending.

The 29-year-old was jailed for four years and six months and was registered as a serious sexual offender for life.

He must serve at least two years and nine months behind bars before he is eligible for parole and has already served 482 days.
The worst of the deadly COVID-19 outbreak at Anson Place Care Centre could be over, but families and staff are worried about the emotional trauma left behind.

I think in some ways they are turning the corner, Dr. Shanker Nesathurai, Haldimand-Norfolks chief medical officer of health, said on Monday. But he warned it would be quite some time before the outbreak was declared over.

It has been 10 days since a resident of the Hagersville long-term care facility tested positive for COVID-19, and the most recent deaths the health unit can definitively link to the disease were reported on April 22, when the death toll rose from 25 to 27.

In total, 72 residents at the 101-bed facility contracted the disease, with 45 still in recovery.

Four more residents died in recent days, including one announced Monday evening, but the health unit says COVID-19 was not the cause.

Thats a judgment call, and we rely on the doctor who treated the patient to make their best determination, Nesathurai said. The recent deaths, even if they had a positive lab test, we would arbitrate them as not related to COVID-19.

Anson Place executive director Lisa Roth said they remain vigilant to prevent further spread. She said there have been no changes to the procedures put in place to stem the spread of the virus. These include having staff wear full personal protective equipment with interacting with residents, isolating residents in their rooms where possible, and frequently screening staff and residents for symptoms.

We remain cautiously optimistic that our active case numbers will decrease as we continue to retest all residents in our care centre and await the second round of test results from our retirement residence, Roth said.

The health unit could not confirm the total number of Anson Place residents who have died since late March. Roth did not respond to a request for that information.

Mike McCarroll worries about the mental health of residents who have seen dozens of their neighbours die in less than a month. His mother, Ruby, called Anson Place home until her death from COVID-19 on March 30.

I feel bad for the residents. Theyre like a family, McCarroll said. To have one death, that affects them all. Now to have 27 of their own pass away in three, four weeks, thats got to be emotionally hard for them.

The deaths also take a toll on staff, says Rebecca Piironen, a personal support worker at Anson Place.

We have our own connections with these people, said Piironen, who has been off work since March 22 with a non-COVID respiratory illness.

Theres this one man whos positive. Hes seen all three of his roommates pass away from this virus. I cant imagine whats going through his mind. I cant imagine the pain that theyre going through mentally.

Staffing has been a major challenge at Anson Place, as upwards of 30 employees have been forced off work and into quarantine after contracting COVID-19.

After initially appearing to turn down provincial help, Roth approached the health ministry to get an eight-person SWAT team of hospital workers for the long-term care floor. A call to the community through local churches brought in more volunteers.

From everything I know, theyre sufficiently staffed, Nesathurai said. The people there are working very hard to provide care to patients.

The health unit has lifted a requirement that had employees only travelling to and from work to limit potential transmission of the virus.

Some infected employees are living in isolation at a local motel at the companys expense. All new hires are tested for the virus before starting their jobs.

Nesathurai added that some COVID-positive staff have since had two negative tests, which is the prerequisite for returning to work. But Piironen said just because some employees are healthy enough to go back doesnt mean they feel safe doing so.

Right now, some of the girls are getting their two negatives and want to go back in and help (the residents), but we dont trust whats going on in there, said Piironen, who said she is in regular contact with her colleagues.

Their worries are underscored by recent court rulings against Anson Places parent company, Responsive Group Inc. The Ontario Nurses Association and SEIU Healthcare allege that management has not followed proper infection control protocols or provided staff with adequate protective equipment.

Responsive Group denies the allegations, and the Ontario Labour Relations Board ordered weekly inspections.

Nesathurai credited management and staffs hard work to get one of the provinces worst outbreaks under control. But he warned that there could still be more deaths among residents who contracted the disease weeks ago and are now showing symptoms.

I think theyre doing everything that they can, but we also recognize that these are frail, elderly people who were infected, Nesathurai said.

Im hopeful that theyve turned the corner, but I think we have to wait and see. Itll be some time before we call the outbreak over.
A 31-year-old drunk man allegedly rammed his car into a wall near Qutub Minar in south Delhi, police said on Tuesday.

The accused has been identified as Arun Chauhan, a resident of Mahipalpur. He deals in sale and purchase of old cars in Dwarka's Sector-23 area, they said.

On Monday at 3.47 am, police received information regarding fire in a car and rushed there.

A senior police officer said Chauhan was driving his car in a drunken state and hit the wall, following which the vehicle caught fire.

He also received burn injuries in his legs, hands and on the face. He was rushed to the Safdarjung Hospital here in a PCR van, the officer said.

A case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against him, police added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Flinders University child sleep expert Dr. Michelle Short fits monitors to a participant in a previous sleep study. Credit: Flinders University

Sleep patterns around the world have been disrupted as screen time increases and sleep routines change with COVID-19 self-isolation requirements.

Negative mood is not unusual in adolescence, but lack of sleep can affect mental health, causing anhedonia (or loss of pleasure), anxiety, anger and significantly increasing the risk of depression, a global study of more than 350,000 teens shows.

The results just published in Sleep Medicine Reviews connects less sleep with a 55% increased chance of mood deficits and double the risk of reduced positive mood.

From Asia, to Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America, sleep clearly was a modifiable risk factor that can improve or depress mood in adolescents, says Flinders University sleep researcher Dr. Michelle Short.

"Sleep duration significantly predicts mood deficits on all mood states, including increased depression, anxiety, anger, negative affect and reduced positive affect," she says, with less sleep linked to an 83% higher chance or anger, 62% increased risk of depressed mood, and 41% higher risk of anxiety.

"Fortunately, there are many interventions individuals, family, the community and even public policy can encourage to maintain regular sleep in this at-risk population to reduce the likelihood of these problems spilling over into mental health issues needing clinical treatment," she says.

The researchers also recommend increased parental / guardian regulation of sleep and technology use, delayed school starting times, and monitoring academic and other pressures such as out-of-hours tutoring does not impede sleep routine.

Dr. Short says that "while positive mood doesn't get much attention, it is still clinically relevant as one of the key symptoms of depression in anhedonia (loss of pleasure)."

"It is imperative that greater focus is given to sleep as for prevention and early intervention for mood deficits," the study concludes.

Explore further Bad sleep habits can depress teens

More information: Michelle A. Short et al, The relationship between sleep duration and mood in adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis, Sleep Medicine Reviews (2020). Michelle A. Short et al, The relationship between sleep duration and mood in adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis,(2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.smrv.2020.101311
Shares in Alaska Air Inc (NYQ:ALK) are currently trading at 28.77 but a key question for investors is how the economic uncertainty caused by Covid-19 will affect the price.

The answer comes down to judging whether Alaska Air Inc is well placed to withstand economic shocks and ride out market volatility. To do that, it's essential to look at the profile of the stock to see where its strengths are.

Alaska Air Inc is a player in the Passenger Transportation Services sector. The good news is that it scores well against some important financial and technical measures. It's a large-cap share with strong exposure to two very influential drivers of investment returns: high quality and a relatively cheap valuation.



To understand where that shows up, here's a closer look:



GET MORE DATA-DRIVEN INSIGHTS INTO NYQ:ALK 

Buying quality at a fair price

Good quality stocks are loved by the market because they're more likely to be solid, dependable businesses. Profitability is important, but so is the firm's financial strength. A track record of improving finances is essential.

One of the stand out quality metrics for Alaska Air Inc is that it passes 8 of the 9 financial tests in the Piotroski F-Score. The F-Score is a world-class accounting-based checklist for finding stocks with an improving financial health trend. A good F-Score suggests that the company has strong signs of quality.



While quality is important, no-one wants to overpay for a stock, so an appealing valuation is vital too. With a weaker economy, earnings forecasts are unclear right across the market. But there are some valuation measures that can help, and one of them is the Earnings Yield.

Earnings Yield compares a company's profit with its market valuation (worked out by dividing its operating profit by its enterprise value). It gives you a total value of the stock (including its cash and debt), which makes it easier to compare different stocks. As a percentage, the higher the Earnings Yield, the better value the share.

Story continues

A rule of thumb for a reasonable Earnings Yield might be 5%, and the Earnings Yield for Alaska Air Inc is currently 29.0%.



In summary, good quality and relatively cheap valuations are pointers to those stocks that are some of the most appealing to contrarian value investors. It's among these shares that genuine mis-pricing can be found. Once the market recognises that these quality firms are on sale, those prices often rebound.

Find the strongest shares in the stock market

Finding good quality stocks at attractive prices is a strategy used by some of the world's most successful investors. If you want to find more shares that meet these rules, you can see a comprehensive list on Stockopedia's StockRanks page.
REUTERS

A conference organised by international leaders to pledge billions of dollars in funding for a vaccine and treatment for coronavirus has started with the US marked by its absence, and facing criticism over Donald Trumps cutting of contributions to the World Health Organisation.

The virtual conference began with an offer of $1bn from Norway towards the initial goal of raising $8.2bn. It also began amid recriminations with the countrys prime minister Erna Solberg speaking out against the decision by the US president to suspend payment to the WHO after accusing it of colluding with China to hide the spread of the virus.

Norway announced that it will give $4.8m to the WHO, in addition to its normal annual funding of the organisation. Ms Solberg said it is a pity the U.S. is not a part of it. When you are in a crisis, you manage it and you do it jointly with others. Everyone will certainly evaluate their work at some point and see what could have been done differently.

But you do this afterwards, not when you are in the middle of it. This is a global problem that needs common solutions between countries, not least with distribution, so that everyone gets access to the vaccine.

No US administration officials are expected to address at the conference, according to an official list issued of the speakers. Those due to speak include Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang and WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has been a particular target for blame by Mr Trump and his Republican supporters in Congress

The European Commission pledged $1.09bn with Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission saying I believe the fourth of May will mark a turning point in our fight against coronavirus because today the world is coming together.

Among other contributor Japan has pledged more than $800m, Germany $ 572m. France $ 546m, the Netherlands $209, Italy and Spain $110m each and Israel $60m. Saudi Arabia has pledged $ 500m at an earlier stage.

Story continues

Britain has pledged $482m. Boris Johnson is due to say that the race to discover the vaccine to defeat this virus is not a competition between countries, but the most urgent shared endeavour of our lifetimes. Its humanity against the virus.

As the conference began there was warning of the long road ahead in tackling the pandemic in Europe because Britain, along with three other countries, continue to experience a large infection rate in the population contradicting Boris Johnsons claim it is  past the peak in this country.

Andrea Ammon, the director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control told a European parliamentary committee that despite  substantial decrease in other European states  there are four countries where we see no substantial change in the last 14 days : Poland, Romania, Sweden and the UK. As a result, she said  this is not going to end anytime soon.

Heads of states and senior officials of the European Union, writing in The Independent, unveiled the plan to work with scientists and international welfare organisations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust, to counter the contagion.

The urgent need for international unity in the crisis, and the warning that no country can go it alone, was stressed in the article signed by German chancellor Angela Merkel; French president Emmanuel Macron; Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte; Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg; European Council president Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.

Read more

UK would have suffered food shortages without single market, EU says

UK agreed last year EU could set up office in Belfast but backtracked

EU pledges to raise money in search of coronavirus vaccine

As EU leaders, we want to unite the world against coronavirus
How has lockdown gone for you? Have you found time to write your novel, bake Instagram-worthy sourdough bread, train for a marathon and learn to crochet? Nope? Me neither.

Im in the large camp of people who are busier than ever.

Most people working from home don't have time to bake bread during a working day that's busier than ever. Credit:Wayne Taylor

We are the lucky ones, of course. My heart breaks for everyone doing it tough in this economy  the youngsters couch-surfing, the small business owners hitting the wall, the breadwinners suddenly unemployed, the artists and performers left out of JobKeeper, the migrant workers and international students relying on charity and going hungry. The list goes on.

Im immensely grateful to have a job but Im mystified why anyone could think I have more time on my hands. There is more work than ever.
While birthdays, anniversaries, and other special occasions look a little different right now, theres still plenty of ways  and plenty of reasons  to celebrate. For starters: treats. (Wed argue theyre also a good option if you just need a moment of comfort.)

Heres where to get custom cakes, ganache-stuffed cupcakes, vegan donuts, and more.

For cookies, cupcakes, cannolis, and cakes

For classic Jewish treats like chocolate babka and rugelach, alongside other comforting eats (raise your hands for cinnamon buns and homemade pop tarts), Essen Bakery has you covered. Order from the South Philly bakery for next day pick up or delivery in their delivery zone, which includes South Philly, Center City, West Philly, Fairmount and Northern Liberties. Or, if youre further afield, you can order for nationwide shipping through Goldbelly.

1437 E. Passyunk Ave.,  essenbakery.com,  @essenbakery,  Wed.-Sun. 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m.,  through website, Goldbelly

Find an assortment of treats from this longstanding Philly staple. All pastries  like the flourless chocolate cake, carrot bundt cake, and sour cherry, sea salt, and dark chocolate cookies  are available for to be shipped by FedEx or picked up. For local fans, a variety of cookies and breads are also available for delivery through Caviar and Grubhub from Metropolitans Center City and University City locations.

262 S. 19th St., and 4013 Walnut St.,  Rittenhouse: 215-545-6655, University City: 215-222-1492,  metropolitanbakery.com,  @metropolitanbakery,  Rittenhouse: Tue-Sun. 8 a.m.-4 p.m., Univ. City: daily 8 a.m.-3 p.m.,  through website, Caviar, Grubhub

Always a colorful and classy treat, macarons are available by the box (8, 14, and 21) through Old Citys ICI Macarons & Cafe,for pickup and delivery.

230 Arch St.,  215-608-8938,  icimacarons.square.site,  @icimacarons,  Fri.-Sun. 9 a.m.-5 p.m.,  Caviar and Uber Eats

Want to stuff your own cannolis? Ice your own cupcakes? Or enjoy warm Isgro cookies straight from your own oven? Opt for one of Isgros new DIY pastry kits, which let you put the finishing touches on dessert. Of course, ready-made treats are available, too, including whole chocolate strawberry banana mousse cakes and multilayered tiramisu cakes.

1009 Christian St.,  215-923-3092,  bestcannoli.com,  @isgropastries,  Tues-Wed. 8 a.m.-4 p.m., Thu.-Sat. 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Sun.8 a.m.-4 p.m.  Caviar, Uber Eats, and Mercato

For cupcakes piled high with swirls of pillowy icing, check out Sweet Box, which is posting a new menu each morning to Instagram and Facebook. Treat yourself to a single cupcake, or place an order for four, six, or 12. All boxes can be customized to contain the flavors of your choice (think chocolate peanut butter and strawberries and champagne). Other sweet treats, like cookies and brownies, are available, too. Order pickup or delivery.

339 S. 13th St.,  shopsweetbox.com,  @sweetboxphilly,  Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m.-7 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.,  Caviar, Doordash

Bars, brownies, pies, cookies, and more: This Rittenhouse bakeshop has it all. Find most of it available for delivery through delivery apps. For the full menu, call to arrange an order for pickup.

269 S 20th St.,  215-644-9714,  bakeshopon20th.com,  @bakeshopon_20th,  Mon.-Wed. 8 a.m.3 p.m., Thu.-Sat. 8 a.m.4 p.m., Sun. 8 a.m.-3 p.m.,  Ritual, Uber Eats, Caviar, Postmates

Order custom cakes, cupcakes, and cookies from this Fishtown bakeshop, delivering Wednesday through Saturday for orders $40 and over. This shop is appointment only, so you have to order in advance.

636 Belgrade St.,  215-598-5449,  whippedbakeshop.com,  @whippedbakeshop,  Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-3 p.m.,  through website

Get whoopie pies, cookies, butter cakes, and brownies from this Reading Terminal Market stand delivered straight to your door through Mercato. To order a whole cake, like the popular Elvis (banana-chocolate-chip cake with peanut butter buttercream), check out the menu online and call to place an order for pickup.

1136 Arch St.,  215-928-0340,  flyingmonkeyphilly.com,  @flyingmonkeyphilly,  Mon.-Sun. 8-6 p.m.,  Mercato

This West Philly bakery continues to churn out its popular tortas, dulce de leche-filled alfajores, and other Argentinian treats daily. Call or order online for in-store pickup, or opt for delivery.

206-208 S. 45th St.,  215-554-7380,  jezabelscafe.com,  @jezabels.phl,  Thu.-Mon. 9 a.m.-4 p.m.,  Caviar

Go for an assorted pastry boxes or choose among a menu of single delights, like chai cinnamon buns and cookie sandwiches. Attached to Porcos on Washington Avenue, the cafe is offering pickup (order online) and delivery.

Shop:

2204 Washington Ave.,  smallovencafe.com,  @porcosphilly,  Tue.-Sun. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. (or till sell out)  through the website and Caviar

Churning out cookies for over 40 years, Famous 4th Street has flavors of all kinds, as well as gift boxes and customizable cookie cakes to make cookie delivery extra special. Order online to have a treat shipped by mail, or go through delivery apps.

multiple locations including 51 N. 12th St., 4177 Ridge Ave., and 350 Mall Blvd., King of Prussia,  famouscookies.com,  @famous4thstreetcookies,  hours vary by location,  Doordash, Mercato, Uber Eats, GrubHub

Live in northeast Philly and in the market for a cake or fresh-baked fruit pie? Check out this family-operated German bakeshop, which makes a variety of pastries and cakes. And, to make sure what youre getting is hot out of the oven, the shop publishes its baking schedule online.

4164 Barnett St.,  215-624-0117,  haegelesbakery.com,  Tue.-Fri. 7 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat. 7am-4pm

For classic Italian treats like cannolis and pizzelles, Philadelphia staple Termini Brothers delivers locally as well as shipping a variety of items across the East Coast by FedEx, including cookie tins and gift boxes.

multiple locations including 1538 Packer Ave., 1523 S. Eighth St., and 51 N. 12th St.,  215-334-1816  termini.com,  @termini_bros,  vary by location  Mercato

A neighborhood staple for more than 70 years, this South Philly bakery is open Tuesday through Saturday. Order a cake, go for a dozen cookies, or opt for the signature franoli, a doughnut shell filled with cannoli cream and chocolate chips.

847 W. Ritner St.,  215-271-7878,  frangellis.com,  @frangellis_bakery,  Tue.-Fri. 6 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat. 7 a.m.-5 p.m.

For donuts

Known for drawing lines that wrap around the Reading Terminal Market, Beilers is now offering delivery through Mercato, Grubhub, and Uber Eats. Opt for a single donut or half or full dozen of maple bacon, Nutella creme, and other options.

multiple locations including 51 N. 12th St. and 3900 Chestnut St.,   beilersdoughnuts.com,  @beilersdoughnuts,  12th St.: Mon.Sat. 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Chestnut: Mon.Sat. 7 a.m.-5 p.m.,  Mercato, Grubhub, Uber Eats

Federal Donuts offers doughnut delivery through delivery apps, or you can ship nationwide. Order a box of six fancy doughnuts ($15), which includes such flavors as blueberry mascarpone, cookies and cream, and chocolate salted caramel, or go for a half-dozen hot fresh doughnuts for $9.

multiple locations; find the complete list here.   federaldonuts.com,  @federaldonuts,  hours vary by location,  Caviar, Doordash, Goldbelly

For chocolates

Aurora Graces signature bonbons turn dessert into a work of art. The hand-painted, dark-chocolate-encased bites are available by the box, alongside other chocolaty treats, including hand-rolled truffles, black lava sea salt cashew chocolate bars, and ganache-filled chocolate hearts. Order through the website for pickup or shipping nationwide.

 517 S. Fifth St.,  auroragracechocolates.com,  @auroragracechocolates,  Wed.-Sun 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

For vegan and gluten-free goods

Order custom cakes (like a Gritty or a Pizza Groundhog edition) through Batter & Crumbs online request form, but plan ahead if its for a special occasion. The bakery is currently booked up for custom cakes through the end of May.

1401 Reed St.,  267-319-8852,  batterandcrumbs.com,  @batterandcrumbs,  Wed., Thu., Sun. 8 a.m.-2 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 8 a.m.-4 p.m.

Another vegan donut destination, The Tasty always sells out of its crispy fried cake doughnuts. All orders are pickup only, so call early if you want to snag one. Looking for vegan doughnuts for a special occasion? The diner invites you to email them and will try to work with you on a custom order.

1401 S. 12th St.,  267-457-5670,  thetastyphilly.com,  @thetastyphilly,  Wed.-Sun. Call ahead for pickup 8 a.m.-2 p.m.

 READ MORE: Where to get vegan doughnuts in Philly

Take home a half or full dozen, available for curbside pickup at the West Philly Dotties location. Boxes include a rotating mix of flavors, ranging from blueberry lemon to Dunkaroo. Place orders the day before for a pickup, or order delivery through Caviar.

4531 Springfield Ave. and 509 S. Sixth St.  Springfield: 215-662-0379, Sixth St.: 267-761-9447,  dotties.com,  @dottiesdonuts,  Springfield: daily 8 a.m.-3 p.m., Sixth St.: daily 9 a.m.-3 p.m.,  Caviar

For gluten-free treats, Taffets is shipping its cookies, muffins, brownies, and biscotti through FedEx. If you choose the mail option, treats are shipped out on Tuesday and Wednesday, and must be ordered the day before by 6 p.m. For freshness, Taffets is sticking to a maximum two-day delivery window.

Shop: taffets.com/catalog

1024 S. 9th St.,  215-551-5511,  taffets.com,  @taffetsbakery,  Tue., Wed., Fri., Sat. 10 a.m.-3 p.m.  Grubhub

This article has been updated since it first published

 READ MORE: Our best Philly tips: Read our most useful stories
Two Republican Texas lawmakers on Tuesday defied Governor Greg Abbott's order by getting haircuts in Montgomery County.

County Judge Mark Keough last week walked back previous comments in which he said the governors order  which restricts businesses to reduce the spread of COVID-19  is too vague and that he wouldn't prosecute after the Attorney General published a clarification. Keough declined to comment.

But that clearly hasn't fazed businesses like the barbershop Tune Up: The Manly Salon in Magnolia where Texas State Reps. Steve Toth and Briscoe Cain sat down for a trim, neither wearing face masks, as TV cameras rolled.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Montgomery County judge says nonessential businesses still closed per AG

Cain, of Deer Park, did not respond to a request for comment but said on camera that he believes businesses should be open and that customers should not be afraid to visit them.

I wanted to take a stand and lead and be in front to encourage other customers to go out and go to businesses that are being deemed essential or nonessential and help them stay open, Cain said.

Cain didnt seem to fear any kind of backlash, tweeting: Its just fear mongering. No one is being arrested.

Stylist Hailey Lankford said law enforcement had been to the location and spoken with owners, but to date there had been no arrests or other enforcement taken against the salon.

Sheriff Rand Henderson has said his office would not make mass arrests at hair salons.

Our plan during this whole thing was notice and compliance, Henderson said last week. We have put some people in jail for curfew, but it was ancillary to other crimes they committed. We arent going to go in and make a mass arrest at a barbershop, but for public health purposes, I would discourage it. I certainly dont want to fill the jail with people getting haircuts.

Later Tuesday, Abbott announced a new order that will allow hair salons and barbershops, among other businesses, to reopen Friday.

SALON PROTEST: Those defying Gov. Abbotts order draw citations, warnings  and a few cheers

The Woodlands Republican Toth said he believes the shutdown will contribute to millions of small businesses dying out.

Very often, these small business owners, they put everything in hock in order to get the capital necessary to open up a business, Toth told Fox. And the thought that we can just close them down for months at a time and not reopen them immediately puts everyone at risk.

Toth told Hearst Newspapers that Texans were told the stay-at-home orders for the state were meant to help slow the spread of the new coronavirus.

We were told back in early March this was all about flattening the curve, Toth said. This was never about being able to stop it, it was only to flatten it. We flattened it and we can continue to flatten the curve by instituting responsible social distancing.

Conroe Courier reporter Catherine Dominguez contributed to this report.
SAFEGUARDS | Consumer ProductsNO. 054/20

On April 23, 2020, the World Trade Organization (WTO) circulated a proposal from the European Union (EU) announcing its intention to revise Annex XVII of REACH 'Restrictions on the manufacturing, placing on the market and use of certain dangerous substances, mixtures and articles'. The draft regulation and Annex, attached to WTO document number 20-3204, contain several important changes:

Deleting three entries: Entries 22 (pentachlorophenol, PCP) and 67 (decabromodiphenyl ether, DecaBDE) as these are now regulated under Regulation (EU) 2019/2021 on persistent organic pollutants (POP Recast) (SafeGuardS 95/19) Entry 68 (perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and its salts, and PFOA-related substances) as this will be regulated under POP Recast by amendment

Editorial changes in language to align with Regulation (EC) 1272/2008 on Classification, Labeling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures (CLP Regulation), including hazard statements

Exempting devices falling under Regulation (EU) 2017/745 (medical devices) from entries 28 to 30 on carcinogenic, mutagenic or reproductive category 1A and 1B substances (CMR category 1A and 1B substances)

Adding CMR category 1A and/or 1B substances to entries 28 to 30 to align with the CLP Regulation, including cobalt, two polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and diisohexyl phthalate (DIHP)

Deleting CAS and EC numbers for entry 46 (nonylphenol, NP) as the intention was to cover all isomers of NP

Replacing the list of harmonized standards in Appendix 10 for demonstrating compliance with azo colorants

According to the WTO document, there are two important proposed dates:

Q4 of 2020 for date of adoption

20 days from publication in the Official Journal of the EU for date of entry into force. The provisions will be implemented in phases

Highlights of the list of standards for presumption of conformity with azo colorants under Appendix 10 to Annex XVII of REACH are summarized in Table 1.

WTO Document Number 20-3204, APRIL 23, 2020

Appendix 10 to Annex XVII of Regulation (EC) 1907/2006 'REACH' Entry Harmonized Standard Superseded Standard

1 EN ISO 17234-1:2015

Leather - Chemical tests for the determination of certain azo colorants in dyed leathers - Part 1: Determination of certain aromatic amines derived from azo colorants

EN ISO 17234-1:2010

2 EN ISO 17234-2:2011

Leather - Chemical tests for the determination of certain azo colorants in dyed leathers - Part 2: Determination of 4-aminoazobenzene CEN ISO/TS 17234:2003

3 EN ISO 14362-1:2017

Textiles - Methods for determination of certain aromatic amines derived from azo colorants - Part 1: Detection of the use of certain azo colorants accessible with and without extracting the fibers

EN 14362-1:2012

4 EN ISO 14362-3:2017

Textiles - Methods for determination of certain aromatic amines derived from azo colorants - Part 3: Detection of the use of certain azo colorants, which may release 4-aminoazobenzene

EN 14362-3:2012



Table 1

SGS is committed to providing information about development in regulations for consumer products as complimentary services. Through a global network of laboratories, SGS provides a wide range of services including physical/mechanical testing, analytical testing and consultancy work for technical and non-technical parameters applicable to a comprehensive range of consumer products. Please do not hesitate to contact us for further information.

For enquiries, please contact:

Hingwo Tsang

Global Information and Innovation Manager

t: (+852) 2774 7420

Stay on top of regulatory changes within your industry: subscribe to SafeGuardS!

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Daniel Sasulu Nuumaalii (pictured), 20, has been charged with allegedly videoing himself sexually assaulting young children

A high school drop out who allegedly videoed himself sexually abusing children and disabled adults has left his former friends 'shocked'.

Daniel Sasulu Nuumaalii, 20, was arrested on Friday and charged with 16 offences in relation to alleged attacks on vulnerable adults and children at a Sydney care home.

Nuumaalii allegedly used his mobile phone to film 'intimate' videos of five adults he was supposed to be caring for.

He also allegedly filmed himself abusing two children, one aged just four.

Nuumallii's alleged crimes were uncovered by NSW Police as part of an investigation into drug crimes, for which he will be sentenced in the NSW Local Court later in May.

An old friend of Nuumaalii's told Daily Mail Australia 'he could not believe it' when he was told about the charges against him and said he came from a 'beautiful' family.

The man - who did not want to be named - revealed he and most of his schoolmates at Patrician Brothers' College in Blacktown had lost touch with Nuumallii after he left prematurely in 2017.

'Being shocked by the news is truly an understatement,' the man said.

'We went through high school together and then he dropped out at the start of Year 12 in 2017, which came as quite a shock to be honest.

'After that he just went M.I.A (missing in action) and haven't really heard from him.

'I can solemnly say that his family are all just beautiful and lovely people.'

Police attended a business in Parramatta on Friday afternoon and arrested Nuumaalii before taking him in for questioning.

His mobile phone was seized and on it police allegedly found 11 videos showing him recording disabled adults without their consent and sexually assaulting two children.

The incidents allegedly occurred between June 2019 and April this year.

Nuumallii's alleged crimes were uncovered by NSW Police as part of an investigation into drug crimes, for which he will be sentenced in the NSW Local Court later in May. He was arrested on Friday (right)

NSW Police detective chief inspector Adam Johnson (pictured) said the allegations against the young care worker were 'disgusting'

He was charged with 11 counts of intentionally recording intimate images without consent, producing child abuse material, possessing child abuse material, intentionally sexually touching a child under 10 years and two counts of common assault.

Nuumaalii was instantly stood down from his role at the disability and nursing home.

He faced Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday where he was remanded in custody until his next court appearance on May 14.

Nuumaalii is due to be sentenced in relation to a number of other matters including possessing a weapon, drug supply and dealing with proceeds of crime on May 21.

It was during the police investigation into those offences that police allegedly found evidence of abuse.

NSW Police detective chief inspector Adam Johnson said the allegations against the young care worker were 'disgusting'.

NSW Police are now in the process of attempting to identify all of Nuumaalii's alleged victims

But he also praised detectives who had uncovered the videos - including the alleged child abuse material - during their separate investigation.

'This is a significant breach of trust,' Det Chief Insp Johnson told Nine News.

'Very vulnerable members of the community who really rely on people who are put in a position to care for them.

'It is disgusting behaviour... (but) it is good police work in a really bad situation.'

NSW Police are now in the process of attempting to identify all of Nuumaalii's alleged victims.
As the first day of government formation talks kicks off between the leaders of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Green Party, the Greens membership are in a quandary.

Reports of a split within the parliamentary party reflect the split in opinion within the wider membership of whether a coalition with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael would spell a bright new beginning or a bitter end for a party who have been enjoying an upward trajectory.

The split isn't, as many have assumed, a generational one, this doesn't appear to be young new members against the older generation of Greens, but a difference in opinion over whether Fianna Fail and Fine Gael can be trusted.

Members of the party who are in favour of coalition say that the recent agreement to a 7% emissions reduction in government represents a "huge shift", and should be seen as one of many possible victories the Green Party could garner in this critical time for the climate.

Those opposed say the two larger parties have shown repeatedly through Ireland's poor performance in emissions targets, that they are not interested in being ambitious, are playing to a rural voter base, and point to the Green's "less than effective" time in government with Fianna Fail in 2007.

Some believe the split, which is becoming increasingly divisive, can be attributed to the party's growth in the last four decades.

Back in the 1980s, when the Green Party first emerged on the island, "we were considered a sandal-wearing, granola-eating eclectic bunch", as one long time member recalled.

The group, although small, were united on its major concern of climate breakdown, however, had a number of small cliques within, some dedicated to animal rights or justice and nationalist principles.

The party has grown exponentially ever since, now holding 12 Dail seats, two Seanad seats, two in Brussels at the European Parliament and tripling their membership in the last number of years.

Sadhbh O'Neill, a lecturer in environmental politics in DCU, and Policy Officer for Stop Climate Chaos Ireland, says this coalition offers a chance to have the Green agenda pushed to the forefront of Irish politics.

"The Green Party always tried to get past the left or right spectrum, it wasn't just about state or private-led action, but when you get a bigger membership, fragmentation begins," Ms O'Neill said.

Things are now not so clear where the Green Party stand as a collective.

"Environment used to be a narrow concern, but now up to 30% of people vote with climate in mind, and people gave the Green Party their votes because they know they will take it seriously.

"The idea of walking away now is crazy.

"The difference between now and 2007 is the Green Party is a bigger party, with more resources, and climate is front and centre of the conversation.

"Fianna Fail and Fine Gael will have to implement these policies anyway, and if the Greens were to walk away they would get no credit for it.

"Individuals who have an ideological approach to government formation and refuse to countenance going into coalition, have to ask themselves whether they're in the right party - because there has always been a spectrum of opinion within the party, but the Green Party has been pragmatic."

The most vocal contingent is clearly those against coalition, the likes of the Young Greens Convener Gavin Nugent, former MEP candidate Saorise McHugh, and local Councillors like Lorna Bogue of Cork City South East, which one senior party source says is to be expected, as "it's easier to be out and openly against something, than being pragmatic about it".

Members say that coronavirus lockdown has had the unexpected side effect of more debate between members, rather than less, due to everyone's continual availability to talk.

Robin Cafolla, a member of the party's Dublin central branch, and activist group Extinction Rebellion, says he would vote against any deal, even if Fianna Fail and Fine Gael were willing to make more commitments, because he doe not believe they will ever be seen through.

"I can't see us radically changing their world view with 12 TDs," he said.

"They've have 10 years in which they could've made changes and they haven't.

"What's likely to happen is they'll stall any climate bill for years, frustrate us at every turn, knowing we won't walk away from government without it.

"We've heard how they refused to be moved in 2007, and I believe that's how they will behave this time too.

People who say that we're being too ideological need to be realistic about how decisions are made.

"The party is pragmatic, but realistically there aren't many right-wing parties fighting for climate justice.

"The party has grown in opposition, and in the last Dail the opposition passed more bills than the government.

"At the minute, there's a deep sense of disappointment that this was not what we ever envisioned during the election campaign, and I can't see the wider membership being radically different than the activists in that view."

The party would need a two-thirds majority membership vote to enter government, due to social distancing guidelines, it is understood the party are discussing online and postal votes as options for such a ballot.
Producers Guild of India on Tuesday said they are in the process of coming up with a document highlighting the guidelines for resumption of shooting activities once the coronavirus pandemic settles down.

Film productions have come to a halt due to the nation wide lockdown. There were reports that cine bodies were planning to put in protocols for film shootings when things return to normalcy.

It was reported that the Producers Guild of India the Producers' Guild has drawn up a list of preventive measures to be followed by the cast and crew on set.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Producers Guild of India clarified they are working on a document, which is in an early stage.

"A work-in-progress document prepared by the Guild of draft guidelines for resumption of shooting activities has recently been circulating widely in the media and the industry," the statement read.

As per the document, some of the new rules reportedly include actors will be requested to do their makeup and styling at home and report to set with only one staff member ideally and producers will be requested to allocate masks for crew members.

The Producers Guild of India said they will consult government officials and medical professionals while preparing the guidelines, before a final draft is made.

This is to clarify that this document is only an early internal draft prepared by the Guild in preparedness for the future resumption of shooting activities. Any final safety protocols and guidelines will be formalised only after comprehensive consultation with government officials, medical professionals and relevant industry bodies, the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
STUNTS: Large crowds congregate n Poleglass as cars do doughnuts as a mark of respect to Bo Monaghan

STUNTS: Large crowds congregate n Poleglass as cars do doughnuts as a mark of respect to Bo Monaghan

POLICE issued six fines and notices for breaches of coronavirus regulations after a large crowd gathered for a tribute by boy racers to their dead pal.

More than 100 people came out to watch loops and burnouts in cars owned by mates of Sean 'Bo' Monaghan in west Belfast last week.

The popular young man from Poleglass passed away on Thursday, with messages of condolences and tributes pouring in from friends on social media.

Graffiti also went up on walls around the estate saying "RIP Big Bo" and "Forever young Bo".

Some pals then turned up near to where he lived and attracted dozens of onlookers as they screeched up and down the road in high-powered saloons.

Police said they were tipped off about the gathering in advance, and mounted checkpoints and brought in recording equipment to gather evidence of potential criminal behaviour.

Videos of the stunts and images of the police in the area were shared on Facebook, with Bo's brother John Monaghan saying: "F*** bro I bet you're doing some laughing you would have loved that. Fly high son."

Chief Inspector Gary Reid told Sunday Life: "We were made aware on Thursday afternoon of plans to hold a memorial gathering in west Belfast on Thursday night which was to involve a number of vehicles.

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"Our officers attended the Poleglass and Twinbrook areas on Thursday evening where we conducted a number of vehicle checkpoints. Officers spoke with a number of people, and three fines and three community resolution notices were issued to individuals for breach of Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) Regulations NI 2020.

"As a result of these checkpoints, we also arrested a 28-year-old man in the Summerhill Road area of Dunmurry on suspicion of driving while unfit through drink or drugs. He has since been released on bail pending further inquiries.

"An evidence-gathering operation was also in place on Thursday night, and we will now review all evidence gathered and, if any offences are detected, a police investigation will be carried out."

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Chief Inspector Reid added: "We know that when a loved one or someone close to you dies it is a very sad time, and that what occurred on Thursday night was designed to act as a tribute and as a mark of respect.

"However, we are all living in unprecedented times and the emergency regulations introduced by the Government are there for a reason - to save lives.

"I want to take this opportunity to urge everyone to play their part to keep people safe during this global health emergency crisis. The aim at this time is the protection of life and the regulations have a vital role to play in saving lives."

Bo's funeral will take place on Tuesday ahead of burial in Milltown Cemetery, with a request that mourners adhere to social distancing rules.

In a touching tribute to her brother, Laura Monaghan posted on her Facebook profile: "Well big bro nothing much I can say apart from I'm actually broken into a million pieces. We all love and miss you so much big bro sleep tight my angel and look over mummy and daddy and the rest of us."

The PSNI has issued 377 fines and 639 community notices against people flouting lockdown restrictions in Northern Ireland since March 30. Out of those, 88 notices were issued in the past week.

Antrim and Newtownabbey has had the largest number of community resolution notices (17) of all the districts in the last week.
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A yoga teacher has claimed coronavirus is to blame for his driving offences after he was left with just 'hours' to prepare for lockdown.

James 'Mantra' Schultz was caught driving on a demerit point suspended licence at Mansfield, in Brisbane's south, on March 24, Sunshine Coast Daily reported.

The 36-year-old, who owns Flex Hot Yoga at Norman Park, was busted in the wake of the Federal Government's decision to ban businesses like gyms and pubs from March 23 to enforce social distancing.

James 'Mantra' Schultz (pictured) was caught driving on a suspended license at Mansfield, in Brisbane's south, on March 24

He told Holland Park Magistrates Court he was driving to 'get my business online in a matter of hours'.

Schultz said there were no employees who could assist him picking up stock and he was unable to wait 'three or four days' for delivery.

'I had no choice but to get it myself,' Schultz said.

The yoga teacher argued he helped curb the spread of coronavirus by avoiding taking a taxi or rideshare service like Uber and driving himself.

Magistrate Simon Young said the argument was not compelling and Schultz was fined $400.

He was also disqualified from driving for six months.
The province of Malaga has now gone three days with no confirmed deaths from coronavirus, according to official data provided on Tuesday by the regional Ministry of Health and Families. As a result, the Covid-19 death toll remains at 261.

The report also indicated that there have been 10 new infections (half of the 20 reported on Monday), bringing the total number of cases in the province of Malaga since the start of the pandemic to 3,462.

The number of patients being given the all-clear continues to rise, albeit by just one in the past 24 hours (total 1,637), as the number of coronavirus patients admitted to Malaga's hospitals continues to fall. Currently there are 109 (two less than the previous day) in hospital, of which 21 are in intensive care.

Across Andalucia, there have been 45 new Covid-19 cases confirmed in the last day, bringing the total number to 14,394. As for deaths, another four have been reported (total 1,267). In the region, 7,230 people have been given the all-clear.

Spain

A further 185 coronavirus-related deaths were confirmed in Spain on Tuesday, 21 more than on Monday, bringing the total number of fatalities to 25,613. This is the fourth consecutive day in which the 200 barrier of daily deaths has not been exceeded.

The number of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 now stands at 219,329 after 867 new infections were counted on Tuesday, a significant increase from Monday when 356 were recorded - the best figure since 7 March.
The city of Hangzhou in China has donated 10,000 facemasks to the people of Co Limerick.

Both cities have strong links since 2018 and collaborate on trade, tourism, education and culture.
The rate of COVID-19 infections in the United States continues to remain relatively flat, with approximately 25,000 to 30,000 cases per day. The number of daily fatalities has also remained steady at around 2,000 per day. These coronavirus cases continue to take a considerable toll on the health infrastructure.

As the Eastern Seaboard is seeing declining cases from the lockdown and restrictions placed into effect more than six weeks ago, the pandemic is moving westward into states like Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, where the number of daily cases continues to climb just as these states are moving to lift some restrictions. Canada, with over 60,000 cases and over 1,000 deaths, has seen the number of new cases triple over the last three weeks.

Additionally, rural communities in the US, which were initially spared, are facing the ravages of the pandemic. According to the New York Times, As food processing facilities and prisons have emerged as some of the countrys largest case clusters, the counties that include Logansport, Indiana, South Sioux City, Nebraska, and Marion, Ohio, have surpassed New York City in cases per capita.

Spain and Italy have made substantial efforts to decrease their daily cases, which are down by 60 percent from their peak, which occurred nearly six weeks ago. The daily cases of fatalities for these two countries have also seen a similar reduction. The United Kingdom has only managed to halt the acceleration of infections, with a current rate of about 5,000 cases per day. Daily fatalities in the UK are slowly turning downward. France and Germany have suppressed new cases and deaths by 80 percent. Portugal, Greece and Turkey have seen similar declines.

Just as in the US, there are indications that the virus is moving out of the European continent into Russia, where there are over 145,000 cases including 10,581 new cases in the last 24 hours. India, too, is seeing an acceleration of cases after a brutal five-week lockdown that caused tremendous hardship for the poorest. Despite this rise, on Monday India moved to relax restrictions, a tentative return to normal with the caveats of social distancing and stringent hygiene standards that will be impossible to implement.

Mexico City hospitals are expecting to see the surge peak in mid-May with an estimate of 1,800 patients in intensive care units (ICUs). In Lima, Peru, a city of 10 million people, where more than two million lack access to water and sewage services, the city is the epicenter for COVID-19, with nearly 30,000 of the 47,372 cases in the country. The metropolitan city of Chile, Santiago, has seen over 10,000 cases, accounting for 60 percent of the countrys cases.

Brazil, now with over 100,000 total cases, has seen a spike in daily cases of more than 6,000 per day. Daily reported deaths have surpassed 400 per day, a gross underestimation of the real figure. The number of fatalities in Manaus, a city near the countrys rainforest, has forced cemeteries to bury five coffins at a time in collective graves. The city has run out of ICUs for patients. The cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo are facing similar catastrophes despite the fascistic President Jair Bolsonaros proclamation that the virus is just a little cold.

A mass grave in Manaus, Brazil

According to every epidemiologist, too little is known about the nature of this virus to predict its behavior. But the mitigation efforts have made a difference. The African continent, with few resources and underfunded health infrastructure, but years of experience with malaria, HIV, Tuberculosis and Ebola, was much quicker to implement containment measures employing the basic ABCs of public health measures. With 47,554 total cases and 1,838 total deaths, it is the least impacted continent, though it remains still too early in the course of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that an internal White House memo projected that the daily death toll would climb back up to 3,000 by June 1 as states move to relax social distancing efforts and restrictions on businesses. Even the highly criticized University of Washingtons low estimates, often quoted by the White House Coronavirus Task Force, have been revised again to nearly 135,000 deaths in the US by the beginning of August.

On CBS News on Sunday, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, President Trumps former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, said, While mitigation didnt fail, I think its fair to say that it didnt work as well as we expected. We expected that we would start seeing more significant declines in new cases and deaths around the nation at this point. And were just not seeing that. Such disingenuous statements are aimed at downplaying the effects of mitigation and boosting efforts to lift restrictions.

The tremendous discipline, effort and sacrifice made by the working class of many countries to stem and turn the course of the pandemic matter little to the financial markets and their political stooges, who are eager to see restrictions lifted sooner and workers sent back to work regardless of the destructive potential of a second wave. Yet, it is the working class that should be genuinely credited for any measure of success that brought the pandemic under a modicum of control.

At every turnfrom failure to provide protective gear and testing kits, delays in imposing restrictions, lack of workplace safety, the collapse of essential public health infrastructure, fraudulent claims of therapeutics for COVID-19the ruling class has thwarted any real effort to stem and curtail the pandemic. Now the markets are clamoring, Its been long enough!

On Monday, Reuters announced that world leaders had pledged nearly $8 billion to research, manufacturing and equitable distribution of any possible vaccine and therapeutics for COVID-19. The joint venture between the World Health Organization and the European Investment Bank is a new initiative and a suspect one.

According to WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Combining the public health experience of the World Health Organization and the financial expertise of the European Investment Bank will contribute to a more effective response to COVID-19 and other pressing health challenges.

This initiative is supposedly aimed at developing more effective malarial treatments and addressing the pressing concerns over growing antimicrobial resistance. Much is being made of the Trump administration abstaining from pledging any help to these efforts as the US aims to direct blame against the WHO and China to cover for their malignant negligence in face of the pandemic.

During a meeting at the end of April, European Union leaders agreed to build a trillion-euro emergency fund, a bailout, while also committing the EU to fast-tracking return-to-work policies. According to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the EU had so far already provided state aid worth 1.8 trillion to blunt the economic hit of the coronavirus. These measures are the European counterpart of the US governments multitrillion-dollar bailout of the markets and big business.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 05:18:14|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on March 5, 2020, shows Anthony Fauci (front), director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), speaking during a press conference on the coronavirus at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

"A number of very qualified evolutionary biologists have said that everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that it evolved in nature and then jumped species."



WASHINGTON, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated.

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), made the comments Monday in an interview with National Geographic.

While answering a question regarding evidence that the virus was made in or accidentally released from a lab in China, Fauci said, "If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats, and what's out there now is very, very strongly leaning toward this (virus) could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated -- the way the mutations have naturally evolved."

"A number of very qualified evolutionary biologists have said that everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that it evolved in nature and then jumped species," he said.

Asked about the possibility that the virus was found outside the lab, then brought back and escaped, Fauci said, "That means it (virus) was in the wild to begin with."

"That's why I don't get what they're talking about (and) why I don't spend a lot of time going in on this circular argument," he said.

Photo taken on May 3, 2016, shows Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), speaking during a Zika briefing in Washington D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Bao Dandan)

According to the National Geographic report, Fauci is most concerned that the United States will be put to the test this fall and winter by a second wave of COVID-19 if the country does not blunt the infection rate by the summer.

The United States needs to have not only an adequate supply of tests available before a second wave hits, but also a system for getting those tests to the people who most need them, Fauci said.

"I don't think there's a chance that this virus is just going to disappear," Fauci said. "It's going to be around, and if given the opportunity, it will resurge."

The United States should also focus this summer on properly reinforcing the nation's health care system, ensuring the availability of hospital beds, ventilators, and personal protective equipment for health care workers, Fauci was quoted by National Geographic as saying.

He also stressed the importance of continuing social distancing everywhere until the case counts start to fall in cities and states.

Photo taken on Oct. 24, 2014, shows Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), speaking during a news conference in Maryland, the United States. (Xinhua/Bao Dandan)

As countries around the globe are stepping up efforts for a vaccine to treat COVID-19, Fauci said there is better chance of quickly getting a vaccine for the novel coronavirus than for HIV based on his years of experience, because for some reason human bodies make more adequate immune response to coronavirus than HIV.

The experimental vaccines are inducing, at least in animal models, really rather substantial immune responses, particularly the mRNA vaccine, according to Fauci.

He said the NIAID is developing and supporting multiple vaccine candidates.

"You want a lot of shots on goal. We want four or five candidates that we put out there all within a reasonable time," Fauci said. 
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night, May 4, thanked the corporate sector for their efforts to help address the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) epidemic in the country and apologized for the hurting words he uttered prior to the crisis.

He said he was ready to talk and resolve legal issues as the crisis arising from Covid-19 has humbled him and made him realize that government also needs the corporate sector.

I can promise you that Ill be nice and if you want to see me, we can talk. Naubos na ho yung pagka-suplado ko kasi..the Covid humbled me. With the kind of response that you gave, showed to the public, its a humbling experience also for me that, you know, baka kailangan mo rin sila balang araw, he said.

Maybe, there would be a lot of legal issues, but we can talk. Im ready to talk. And Id be reasonable, he added.

Duterte apologized specifically to the Ayala Group and to Manuel Manny Pangilinan, head of the Metro Pacific Group, for the hurting words he uttered against them in December 2019.

Yung mga masakit kong salita to the Ayalas and to, si Pangilinan, I apologize for the hurting words. If you can find in your heart to forgive me, because if you do not, then I will ask.. if you do not want to forgive me, I will undercut you. I will go direct to God, he said, eliciting laughter from members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Pangilinan, who is also the chairman of the countrys largest telecommunications company PLDT, responded through a Twitter post: I would like to thank the President for his remarks tonight, most especially for his sincerity and kindness.

The Zobel brothers at the helm of the Ayala Group also accepted the Presidents apology.

We are grateful for President Dutertes statement at the briefing last night. We have always believed in building a strong partnership between the private and public sectors in addressing our countrys problems and in investing in the country to create jobs and improve the lives of Filipinos. We appreciate the recognition of the Ayala Groups efforts in supporting the administration as it faces the challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic, they said in a joint statement.

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We are committed to help the President tackle the many challenges he has to deal with and are confident that by working together, our country can overcome each challenge, save lives and gradually put the country back on a path of growth, they added.

The statement was issued by Ayala Corporation chairman and CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala and Ayala Corp. president and COO Fernando Zobel de Ayala.

In December 2019, the President ordered the filing of economic sabotage charges against these conglomerates, two of the biggest in the country, over legal issues affecting the government water supply contracts.

READ: Duterte orders econ sabotage charges vs Manila Water, Maynilad

The charges were to be filed against Manila Water Company Inc. and Maynilad Water Services Inc., water concessionaires in Metro Manila.

Manila Water is a subsidiary of Ayala Corporation while Maynilad is owned and managed by DMCI-MPIC Water Company Inc., a joint venture between the Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC) and DMCI Holdings Inc.

The Ayala and Pangilinan groups were among the first conglomerates to heed Dutertes call for help in March, as cases of coronavirus infection started to increase in the Philippines and an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) was imposed in the entire Luzon.

READ: Ayala, MVP groups heed Dutertes call for help

Both conglomerates were also part of Project Ugnayan, which distributed grocery vouchers to urban poor residents in Metro Manila.

In his speech Monday night, Duterte said the conflict with the Ayala and Pangilinan groups was part of governance.

Meron tayong mga problema noon, which is really part of governance and which I hope youd understand that it was really part of my sworn duty as an employee of the government, he said.

If we can just forget it for the moment, Id like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping us..provide the necessities of the moment, he added. (MVI/SunStar Philippines)
The Government is considering testing sewage to track the size of the coronavirus outbreak in Britain, it has been revealed.

Defra confirmed it is conferring with scientists about whether wastewater can help trace the spread of the deadly infection.

It could become part of the government's next phase of the COVID-19 battle plan to test, track and trace the virus as Britain eases lockdown.

Researchers in other European countries have already resorted to looking at sewage to monitor the spread of the virus, called SARS-CoV-2.

Findings from studies in Switzerland, France and the Netherlands suggest fragments of the virus are shed by infected people in their faeces and urine.

Wastewater 'reflects what is excreted by the public within a few hours', according to Swiss scientists who looked for viral fragments in sewage.

It could potentially offer health officials an early warning system for future COVID-19 waves before individuals even show symptoms.

Even if someone is infected with the virus, it can take between five and 11 days for the characteristic symptoms of fever and a persistent cough to show.

Newcastle University researchers revealed they have begun gathering data about coronavirus from sewage in England on April 23.

The Government is considering testing sewage for the presence of the coronavirus. The method could offers a potential early warning system for waves of infections before individuals even show symptoms. Pictured: Sewer technician in London in 2016

It follows Newcastle University revealing it has begun gathering data about coronavirus from sewage in England on April 23

Sewage epidemiology has already been started up around the world to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers from Brazil's National Institute of Science and Technology and Minas Gerais sanitation employees have collected sewage samples to try to detect the coronavirus

Monitoring the virus through sewage is known as wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), and is already known to provide vital clues about the population's health.

The virus doesn't readily spread through waste water systems so scientists cannot catch it from samples.

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed to POLITICO that the Government is looking into the science behind it.

A statement given to MailOnline said: 'We are actively engaging with the research community and government scientific advisers to investigate whether monitoring waste water could be used as a way of tracking the prevalence of the virus.

'The WHO is clear there is currently no evidence coronavirus has been transmitted via sewerage systems.'

With the UK now past the peak of the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak, attention is increasingly focused on how to prevent multiple waves.

The Government's 'test, track and trace' strategy will his will help to isolate anyone possibly infected by the virus, and stop the spread.

But sewage water could act as a complementary early-warning system for new outbreaks.

It could be particularly useful as countries cautiously emerge from lockdowns knowing a resurge of infections is possible.

A similar approach is being considered in the US - a spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control told POLITICO last week the agency is 'exploring the potential for waste water testing to inform the response.'

Sewage epidemiology has already been started up around the world to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

Researchers in Switzerland have been able to detect the new coronavirus at very low concentrations in wastewater as early as February, when the first cases of infection were recorded in the country.

'We didn't expect that we'd already be able to measure a signal in wastewater from Lugano, with only one, and from Zurich, with only six known cases,' Tamar Kohn from the research institute EPFL, in Lausanne, said in a news release.

'Wastewater doesn't lie, and it reflects what is excreted by the public within a few hours,' team leader Christoph Ort from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology said in a statement.

The Government's 'test, track and trace' strategy will his will help to isolate anyone possibly infected by the virus. But sewage water could act as a complementary early-warning system for new outbreaks. Pictured: Sewer technicians at the Northern Outfall Sewer at Wick Lane depot on May 25, 2016

WHERE HAS SEWAGE BEEN TESTED FOR THE CORONAVIRUS? Switzerland Researchers in Switzerland have been able to detect the new coronavirus at very low concentrations in wastewater. Scientists from the Federal Institutes of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and Lausanne (EPFL) analysed wastewater samples from Lausanne, Zurich and Lugano and revealed their early findings in a news release. The researchers managed to detect the novel coronavirus in all samples, with concentrations in more recent samples so high that analysis appeared relatively easy. They even confirmed the virus, at very low levels, in samples dated back to February, when the first cases of infection were recorded in Switzerland. Netherlands Researchers from the Netherlands studied sewage samples from seven cities to look for evidence of COVID-19 in waste water, publishing their findings on medRxiv at the end of March. They found that even when there were few people with reported cases of the deadly coronavirus in the country, traces of it were still present in the sewers. In their non-peer reviewed paper, the KWR Water Research Institute team said sewage could provide an early warning or tracking system as remnants of the virus are passed into the system from human waste. 'The detection of the virus in sewage, even when the Covid-19 prevalence is low, indicates that sewage surveillance could be a sensitive tool to monitor the circulation of the virus in the population,' they wrote. France Researchers from the Sorbonne University and Eau de Paris analysed 23 raw and eight treated samples collected from three major wastewater treatment plant of the Parisian area - covering three to four million people. All raw wastewater samples scored positive for SARS-CoV2 and six of eight samples from treated wastewater. The team compared the average level of SARS-CoV2 genomes in wastewater with the number of COVID-19 deaths in Paris area and in France. 'As expected, we confirmed that the increase of genome units in raw wastewaters accurately followed the increase in the number of fatal cases observed at the regional and national level,' the scientists wrote in the non-peer reviewed study, published on medRxiv. 'Therefore, our study demonstrates that the contamination of wastewater and the detection of viral genome occurred before the beginning of the exponential growth of the epidemic.' Advertisement

Researchers from the Netherlands also alerted that sewage could provide an early warning or tracking system of SARS-CoV-2, as remnants of the virus are passed into the system from human waste.

The KWR Water Research Institute team studied sewage samples from seven cities to look for evidence of COVID-19 in waste water.

They found that even when there were few people with reported cases of the deadly coronavirus in the country, traces of it were still present in the sewers.

'The detection of the virus in sewage, even when the Covid-19 prevalence is low, indicates that sewage surveillance could be a sensitive tool to monitor the circulation of the virus in the population,' researchers wrote at the end of March in a non-reviewed paper.

Researchers from the Sorbonne University and Eau de Paris also concluded that monitoring of waste water 'may provide an alternative and possibly early tool to detect pathogens in populations when investigations in humans is difficult for logistic, ethical or economic reasons'.

Should the system work, sewage samples could let public health officials see a resurgence of COVID-19 infections earlier than with diagnostic tests - perhaps by around a week, the Swiss team believe.

But the surveillance method would need improvements before it can be used to map where outbreaks of the virus are.

Australian researchers said in April they are working on a new sewage test that could soon help identify coronavirus hotspots.

Researchers from The University of Queensland and the CSIRO are developing the test, which finds genetic traces of the illness in raw sewage.

The scientists successfully detected SARS-CoV2 - the virus that leads to the disease COVID-19 - in untreated sewage from two plants in southeast Queensland.

Paul Bertsch, of the national science agency CSIRO, said the project would help governments ease nationwide curbs on public movement by highlighting problem areas.

'I see it as an important surveillance tool for easing restrictions,' Mr Bertsch told Reuters. 'As governments ease up, they will need to keep monitoring and respond to outbreaks.'

It emerged in April that early sewage work was being conducted in parts of England to try track the spread of the virus.

Scientists from Newcastle University are working with Spanish academics in Santiago de Compostela who will also monitor sewage in their local networks.

The work, supported by Northumbrian Water and Labaqua in Spain, will allow the team to estimate the prevalence of COVID-19 in different areas.

Professor of ecosystems engineering, David Graham, who is co-leader of the project, said: 'Without the capacity to test each person individually, particularly people without symptoms, we have limited information about how widespread the virus is or whether it is affecting some communities more than others.'

Researchers from Brazil's National Institute of Science and Technology and Minas Gerais sanitation employees have also collected sewage samples to try to detect the coronavirus.

Cases of the virus have topped 3.5million while deaths are nearing 252,000.
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has said the country has reached its peak and expected to see a decline in terms of COVID-19 infections.

According to the Director of Public Health at the Service, Dr. Badu-Sarkodie, the number of cases will start declining depending on how well citizens abide by the prevention protocols.

At a press briefing in Accra on Tuesday, Dr. Badu Sarkodie said officials are keenly monitoring the numbers regarding the case count.

We realize that with a sharp rise and the cases that we have, we see that as a country we seem to be on top of the peak. We are at the stage to decline. That is the observation now. The declination will depend on how we adhere to the various preventive steps that have been enumerated. We are not out of the woods yet. We are at the peak of the curve, but yet to come down, and we urge Ghanaians to adhere to the preventive measures put in place so that we can see an early decline in infections, he said.

On Monday, May 5, 2020, 550 new cases were announced which took the national case count of confirmed cases to 2,719.

There are also 294 recoveries and 18 deaths.

Out of the 2,407 active cases in Ghana, 88 percent are in very healthy conditions. About five of them are however moderately ill.

So far, Ghana has tested 130,502 suspected cases. The positivity rate is said to be 2.01 percent while the mortality rate has been calculated as 0.66 percent.

At the same briefing, the Presidents advisor on health, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare attributed the countrys low COVID-19 mortality rate to what he termed as governments pragmatic strategies in dealing with the coronavirus scarce.

Our strategy has been to chase the virus through tracing, testing, isolation, and treatment. Through isolation, we take the positive case out of the system, thereby ending its potential of transmission to other people.

The Greater Accra Region is still leading the chart with 2,332 cases, followed by the Ashanti and Eastern Regions with 124 and 94 cases respectively.

---citinewsroom
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5

By Eldar Janashvili  Trend:

Azerbaijan has launched a new mechanism for refunding a certain part of the value added tax (VAT), Elchin Mammadov, Head of Taxpayer service Department in the Ministry of Taxes said, Trend reports.

Besides the setting of the mechanism, in accordance with the relevant government agencies, the service identified an authorized bank that will be involved in the process - Kapital Bank. Also, work on the preparation of a special website where consumers can request refunding part of the VAT paid for bought goods, has been completed," said Mammadov.

According to the rules, when refunding a certain part of VAT, certain factors are taken into account. The consumer must be an individual, and the seller or service party must be VAT payers, using new generation cash registers. The refund of the part of VAT is possible only at facilities, which use the new cash registers, he noted.

In order to return part of the VAT, citizens must register on the mentioned website, after which they will be able to use an electronic account, Mammadov emphasized.

The consumer can pay for the goods by cash or non-cash. In the first case, the seller must present to the consumer an online check of the cash register. When paying by bank transfer without integration with the POS-terminal cash register, the consumer must also provide an extract from the POS-terminal, he added.

Within 90 days from the time of receipt of the check, the 12-digit identifier of the receipt should be entered by the user on the website. The users of the Kapital Banks 'BirBank' application can easily return VAT by just scanning through this application the QR code located at the end of the check. The phone number registered in the BirBank app must be the same as registered on the website. In this case, a request for the refund of the VAT will be automatically reflected in the electronic account, Mammadov said.

Immediately after this, information about the check is checked for compliance in the database of the State Tax Service. After 30 days from the time of receipt of the check, 15 percent of the amount of VAT on non-cash payments, and 10 percent on cash payments are put in a virtual wallet, which is available in the online user cabinet of the website. That money can be used to pay for utilities, mobile, internet, TV, insurance payments, or be transferred to bank cards," said Mammadov.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @eldarjanashvili




Haiti - FLASH : 100 confirmed cases and an 11th death





The Ministry of Public Health informs that 12 new cases have been confirmed (+13.6%) or a total of 100 cases (35% women and 65% men) since the start of the epidemic (March 19, 2020) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30319-haiti-health-origin-of-the-first-2-cases-of-covid-19-in-haiti.html . An 11th death has been recorded.



The number of active cases in Haiti (excluding death and recovery) now stands at 79 cases (+ 14.49%) or +11 since the last report from the Ministry https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30675-haiti-covid-19-daily-bulletin-may-2-2020.html



245 people (unchanged) are in solitary confinement in the hospital and 581 (+ 1.4%) or +8 in quarantine at home.



Number of suspected cases followed : 1,026 (+ 9.38%) or +88 cases since the last Ministry report.



More details in the 11am daily bulletin



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30691-haiti-covid-19-daily-bulletin-may-4-2020.html



HL/ HaitiLibre


















President Donald Trump and the White House on Tuesday rejected a report suggesting the daily US death toll due to the coronavirus could reach 3,000 in June.

The US death toll from the coronavirus was nearing 70,000 on Tuesday, and there were more than 1.2 million confirmed cases.

However, several states have started reporting flattening of the curve decline in new cases and death rates. As a result, several states have announced plans to open up their economy in a phased manner.

In its report, Johns Hopkins University projected new coronavirus cases in the US reaching 200,000 daily by June 1 and fatalities around 3,000.

Those projections are with no mitigation. We are doing mitigation, Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews on his way to Arizona.

In a statement, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that the Johns Hopkins' study being pushed around by the media as factual is based on faulty assumptions and is in no way representative of any federal government projections.

John Hopkins University in a separate statement said that the research conducted by it for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was to assist in planning for various scenarios and was not to be used for the official forecast.

The New York Times was the first newspaper to report about it on Monday.

As Johns Hopkins stated, should not be taken as a forecast, McEnany said.

This study considered zero mitigation, meaning it was conducted as though no federal guidelines were in place, no contract tracing, no expansion of testing, while removing all shelter in place protocols laid out in the phased approach of the Opening Up America Again guidelines for individuals with co-morbidities, she said.

The media should be more responsible in its reporting and give the full set of information to the American public, McEnany said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Plans to save a much-used online archive about the Northern Ireland 'Troubles' have received a major blow.

The Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN) contains information and source material on the Troubles and politics in Northern Ireland from 1968 to the present.

The CAIN is regarded as the 'go-to' resource on the Troubles by academics, researchers and journalists from throughout the world.

The archive and its staff are based at the Magee campus of the Ulster University.

However, the university said last year that it was reviewing the future of the archive due to a lack of funding.

It is understood that it costs around 170,000 annually to run and update the archive.

However, Ulster University has now said that no funding was 'committed at a level that would enable the archive to be sustainable in its current curated form, or support its future expansion'.

As a result, the university said that over a six-month month, beginning this month, CAIN will 'now begin the transition to become a static archive'.

However, a spokesperson for those who run the CAIN archive said they had not yet given up the fight to save the archive.

"The university decided that the CAIN archive would move into a transition phase (1 May to 30 October 2020) during which time the archive and website would become an unstaffed, static resource.

"CAIN, and the wider ARK team, are actively pursuing additional funding and applications are currently under consideration.

"If additional funding is secured we hope that this decision will be reversed."

The Ulster University decision to 'freeze' the CAIN resource has been criticised by Bonnie Weir, a lecturer of Political Science at Yale University in the US.

Writing on Twitter, Ms Weir stated: "As an academic & interested observer of the NW, I find it very discouraging that on the same day that the NI Exec announces fund-matching for City Deals, @UlsterUni announces that the invaluable resource @CAINWebService will lose its staff & become an archive itself."
(Photo : Netlfix Facebook Page)

Netflix's Extraction has become a massive hit with millions of households watching it on the weekend it was released. With intense combat scenes and an impressive one-shot action sequence, fans wanted more. And it seems like their wish has been granted by Netflix.





Joe Russo confirms 'Extraction 2' is coming; But will Tyler Rake return?

According to a report by Deadline, Joe Russo, the Avengers and Extraction writer, is working on the script for another installment of the film, and the deal will be made with the streaming service once the script is finished.

AGBO, the company owned by Joe and Anthony Russo, is already working on the second Extraction film. And the brothers are confident that fellow Avengers alum, Sam Hargrave, will return and direct the movie.

They are also hopeful that Chris Hemsworth will return and reprise his role as Tyler Rake, a soldier-turned-mercenary who accepts high-stakes jobs.

With that in mind, will the second Extraction movie be a sequel or a prequel?

Read Also: Disney+ The Mandalorian Gets a Documentary, Here's What You Need to Know About All Episodes





Will Tyler Rake return?

As fans know, Hemsworth's character, Tyler Rake, was shot in the neck near the end of the movie. But he falls into a river, and his fate wasn't exactly clear--especially with the ominous scene at the end of the movie.

If Hargrave and Russo are to be asked, they preferred Rake dead as that was what they initially intended. Nevertheless, they left the ending open, so it's possible that Rake managed to survive his wound and will be back. And it's also possible that the second installment will a sequel, taking place after events in Dhaka.

However, Russo isn't sure where the story will go yet. "The deal is closed for me to write Extraction 2, and we are in the formative stages of what the story can be," he said. "We're not committing yet to whether that story goes forward or backward in time. We left a big loose ending that leaves question marks for the audience."

Until Russo finishes the script, no one is sure where the story will go and of Chris Hemsworth will be back for his now-iconic role. No deal has been signed with Hemsworth yet, but he appears to be keen to reprise the role.

Hemsworth's reaction to Rake's death

The Thor actor himself weighed in on the ambiguous ending with IGN, saying that it's "weird" seeing himself die on screen.

Also, he likes Russo's take on Extraction's ending, explaining that he loves the ambiguity, and fans can choose the ending they want. Plus, he also likes Russo's explanation of how the ending meant that Ovi was going to be okay, regardless of whether it was his imagination or if Rake was really alive.

Nevertheless, the Avengers star admitted that he didn't know whether his character was really dead or alive.

Fans won't know until the story is set and Russo and his team are ready to share some details about the installment. For now, anything is possible--especially with a prequel as they could easily bring back Rake's past and how he turned into a mercenary for hire.

Extraction is the most-watched original Netflix feature film to date, streamed by 90 million households, according to the platform.

Read Also: [VIDEO] Tiger King's Carole Baskin Reaction on Being Zoom Pranked: It's a 'Good Laugh'

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gold Lion Resources Inc. (Gold Lion or the Company) (CSE: GL) (GLIOF) (2BC.F) is pleased to announce that it has submitted drill permit applications for its South Orogrande and Erikson Ridge gold projects located near Elk City, Idaho, to the local United States National Forest Service division. The proposed permit applications would allow Gold Lion to establish up to 50 drill sites at South Orogrande, and up to 62 drill sites at Erikson Ridge. Both permit applications fall under the categorical exclusion provision available with the United States National Forest Service. The categorical exclusion provision is the most expedited permitting process available and the Company anticipates receiving full permits by fall 2020.



South Orogrande Drill Plan

The South Orogrande Property is centered around the Monday and X-Zones, two undrilled 1.5 x 3 km and 5 x 1.5 km gold-in-soil anomalies with coincident aeromagnetic, induced polarization, and DIGHEM geophysical anomalies in areas of minimal outcrop and widespread placer gold occurrences. Drill holes included in the permit application are located mostly along existing roads and focus on the highest tenor gold-in-soil anomalies within the X-Zone. Additionally, two holes located at the northeast extent of the Monday Zone were included in the application that target the north-south oriented Monday Fault Zone which straddles the property boundary with Endomines Friday Mine, where a historic drill hole intercepted 20.1m of 2.1g/t Au (incl. 6.4m of 5.5g/t Au)1.

Erikson Ridge Drill Plan

The target at Erikson Ridge is shear-hosted (mesothermal) gold mineralization located within the productive Orogrande Shear Zone which cuts northeast-southwest through the center of the Property for a combined length of over 6 km. The Property is centered on a 1980s era near surface oxide-gold resource which was discovered due to a small erosional window through thin post-mineral cover where mineralization is exposed at surface. Drill holes included in the permit application are focused on confirmation and expansion drilling within the historic resource, as well as targeting extensions along strike within the Orogrande Shear Zone where no modern systematic exploration has been completed. An IP survey will be completed over several kilometers of strike length along the Orogrande Shear Zone which will firm up drill targets prior to the Companys inaugural drill program on the Property.

Story continues

Drill permit maps for the Projects can be found on the Companys website at the following URL:

https://goldlionresources.com/projects/2020-drill-permitting/

Qualified Person

Agnes Koffyberg, P.Geo., is the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 who has reviewed and approved the technical data in this news release.

About Gold Lion Resources Inc.

Gold Lion Resources Inc. is a mineral exploration company actively involved in the exploration of its precious metal focused portfolio including the South Orogrande, Erikson Ridge, Robber Gulch, Cuteye and the Fairview Properties located in Idaho and British Columbia. For more information please visit: https://goldlionresources.com/ .

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Oliver Friesen

CEO

T: +1 (778) 772-1751

The CSE and Information Service Provider have not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this release.

Forward-looking Information Cautionary Statement

Except for statements of historic fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "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 and estimates at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements including, but not limited to delays or uncertainties with regulatory approvals, including that of the CSE. There are uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information, including factors beyond the Companys control. There are no assurances that the business plans for Gold Lion Resources described in this news release will come into effect on the terms or time frame described herein. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties that could affect financial results is contained in the Companys filings with Canadian securities regulators, which are available at www.sedar.com .

1 Premium Exploration Press Release, 9/10/2012.
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TAIPEIOnly Taiwans democratically-elected government can represent its people on the world stage, not China, its foreign ministry said on May 5, calling on the World Health Organization (WHO) to cast off Chinas control during the CCP virus pandemic.

Taiwans exclusion from WHO, due to Chinas objections which considers the island one of its provinces, has infuriated Taipei, which says this has created a dangerous gap in the global fight against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as the novel coronavirus.

Taiwan has been lobbying to attend, as an observer, this months meeting of the WHOs decision-making body, the World Health Assembly (WHA), although government and diplomatic sources say China will block the move.

Steven Solomon, the WHOs principal legal officer, said on Monday that the WHO recognized the Peoples Republic of China as the one legitimate representative of China, in keeping with U.N. policy since 1971, and that the question of Taiwans attendance was one for the WHOs 194 member states.

Speaking in Taipei, Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou said the 1971 decision, under which Beijing assumed the U.N. China seat from Taipei, only resolved the issue of who represented China, not the issue of Taiwan, and did not grant China the power to represent Taiwan internationally.

Only the democratically-elected Taiwanese government can represent Taiwans 23 million people in the international community, she told reporters.

The WHO should cast off the Chinese governments control, and let Taiwan fully participate in fighting the CCP virus, Ou said.

Do not let Chinas improper political interference become an obstacle to impeding the worlds united fight against the virus.

Taiwan attended the World Health Assembly as an observer from 2009-2016 when Taipei-Beijing relations warmed.

But China blocked further participation after the election of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who China views as a separatist, charges she rejects.

The United States has strongly supported Taiwans participation at the WHA as an observer, another fault line in Washington-Beijing ties that have been already overshadowed by the Trump administrations criticism of how China and the WHO have handled the outbreak.

China says Taiwan is adequately represented by Beijing and that Taiwan can only take part in the WHO under Beijings one China policy, in which Taiwan would have to accept that it is part of China, something Tsais government will not do.

Taiwan has reported far fewer cases of the new CCP virus than many of its neighbors, due to early and effective detection and prevention work.

By Ben Blanchard

NTD staff contributed to this report.
Revilla to CSC: Issue interim guidelines on safety, prevention and control of COVID-19 in gov't offices, workplace

Senator Ramon Bong Revilla, Jr. on Monday urged the Civil Service Commission to issue interim guidelines on safety, prevention and control of the spread of COVID-19 in government offices and workplaces located in areas under the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) and General Community Quarantine (GCQ).

The veteran legislator pointed out the urgent need to provide such measures to ensure continuous delivery of public service sans putting at risk the health and safety of government employees and their clientele.

He further added that the creation of interim guidelines from CSC will intensify the safety measures being adopted by various local government units, following the implementation of Executive Order No. 112 which allows all agencies and instrumentalities of the government to implement a skeletal workforce during the duration of ECQ and GCQ.

As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Civil Service, Government Reorganization and Professional Regulation, Bong Revilla expressed his willingness to work with CSC in crafting similar guidelines to protect the public sector.

"Napakalaking hamon po ang kinakaharap ng ating mga kawani ng pamahalaan sa panahong ito. Kahit po apektado tayo ng ECQ o GCQ, hindi puwedeng maputol ang pagseserbisyo natin sa taong bayan. Habang ginagampanan ng mga kawani ng gobyerno ang kanilang tungkulin, kailangan tiyakin din natin ang kaligtasan at kapakanan nila. So we are urging the Civil Service Commission to work hand-in-hand with the Senate Committee on Civil Service, Government Reorganization and Professional Regulation to create the necessary guidelines which will ensure that our government workers are protected from COVID-19 while performing their duties," Revilla said.

Revilla earlier commended the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Labor and Employment for coming up with guidelines for companies which will re-open amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has outlined a phased plan for re-opening the economy of the state which is America's COVID-19 epicenter, saying closing down everything forever is not sustainable.

He said that reopening the state, which has 318,953 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 25,000 deaths, is more difficult than the closedown.

People are all talking about reopening, which we should be talking about. This is not a sustainable situation. Close down everything, close down the economy, lock yourself in the home. You can do it for a short period of time but you can't do it forever, Cuomo said on Monday at his daily coronavirus briefing.

The governor said that factors such as new infections, healthcare and testing capacity will determine which regions and sectors are allowed to reopen.

The closedown was relatively simple, right? You go into the basement, you throw the big power switch and everything just goes down. Close the businesses. Stay at home. It was a blunt operation and when that was done all across the country, just stop everything now.

When you go to restart, the reopening, now knowing what we know, it's more nuanced. You have to be more careful. And again, no one has done this before, and no one has been here before. So, first, start by learning the lessons that we did learn through this experience, he said.

Cuomo said the state will measure whether a region can re-open based on four factors - the number of new infections, healthcare capacity, diagnostic testing and contact tracing - and will continue to monitor these factors throughout the re-opening process to prevent a second wave of the virus and protect the health and safety of New Yorkers.

Cuomo's New York Pause order, which required people to stay-at-home and all non-essential businesses closed, will expire on May 15 but New York City and its suburbs, which still have a high number of coronavirus cases, may be among the last places to start re-opening, he said.

"While we continue to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus, we can begin to focus on re-opening, but we have to be careful and use the information we've learned so we don't erase the strides we've already made.

"Re-opening is not going to happen statewide all at once - New York has diverse regions and those regions have different circumstances, so rather than wait for the whole state to be ready to re-open we are going to analyse the situation on a regional basis, the governor said.

Cuomo also outlined which industries and businesses can open in each phase of the state's re-opening plan across the 10 regions of New York.

Businesses considered "more essential" with inherent low risks of infection in the workplace and to customers will be prioritised, followed by other businesses considered "less essential" or those that present a higher risk of infection spread.

Regions must not open attractions or businesses that would draw a large number of visitors from outside the local area.

Under the phased re-opening plan, construction and manufacturing will open first as well as some retail stores will reopen for curbside pickup.

The state will evaluate the effect of phase one after two weeks to ensure cases are not rising.

The second phase of reopening would include professional services, more retailers and real estate firms as soon as the end of May.

Restaurants, bars and hotels would be allowed to re-open in the third phase followed by a final phase that would include re-opening cinemas and theaters.

On the factor of new infections, he said based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), regions must have at least 14 days of decline in total net hospitalisations and deaths on a three-day rolling average.

In regions with few COVID-19 cases, the region cannot exceed 15 net new total hospitalisations or five new deaths on a three-day rolling average.

Every region must have the healthcare capacity to handle a potential surge in cases.

Regions must have at least 30 per cent of the total hospital and ICU beds available. This is coupled with the new requirement that hospitals have at least 90 days of personal protective equipment stockpiled.

Each region must also have the capacity to conduct 30 diagnostic tests for every 1,000 residents per month. The state is rapidly expanding capacity statewide to help all regions meet this threshold.

Regions must have a baseline of 30 contact tracers for every 100,000 residents, and additional tracers based on the projected number of cases in the region.

The state is currently building an army of contact tracers with former Mayor Micheal Bloomberg to meet the needs of each region statewide.

More than one million New Yorkers have already been tested for COVID-19 so far.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
U.S. Rep. Ken Buck accepts the nomination for Colorado Republican Party chairman at the GOP's annual reorganizational meeting on Saturday, March 30, 2019, at Englewood High School. Buck won the office over three opponents after four rounds of balloting.
In the late march Nigerian industrialist, Abdulsamad Rabiu donates N1 billion in cash toward supporting fighting COVID-19 pandemic in the country. This is as part of his cooperate responsibilities in strengthening national response to COVID-19 in Nigeria. Since the out break of pandemic in the country Abdulsamad Rabiu become Covid 19 ambassador in the country. He urged other well-meaning Nigerians  individuals and corporates alike, to join hands in supporting the efforts to put the virus in check in Nigeria, financially and otherwise. Our country needs us now more than ever. This is the time to come together and support.

In addition to donating the foundation ordered medical supplies and equipment to the two most populated states in Kano and Lagos states and each will receive about 100,000 protective facemasks, 1000 high grade medical protection and isolation gear, 2000 protective goggles, 1000 gloves and 1000 testing kits amongst other things, Rabiu added.

Some time in 2018 BUA Group has announced plans to construct a N7.5billion Naira ultra-modern specialist hospital in Kano through its foundation, Foundation. According to Him the proposed N7.5 billion, 220-bed specialist hospital, will cover a built up area of 15,000sqm and will have the most modern imaging and diagnostic equipment that will go a long way in alleviating the suffering of Nigerians who need medical attention and reduce our dependence on foreign medical tourism.

Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabius worried by the declining standard of health and education in Nigeria and his state Kano, in particular,Abdulsamad isiyaka Rabiu prove to be a humanitarian with a deep passion for education, human capacity development and community service.

Unknown to many Kanawa the president of BUA Group establishment BUA Foundation for his philanthropic activities, in response to the need for private sector involvement in enhancement health and education sector through partnership. One of the Foundation efforts in enhancement health and education sector in Kano.

The Foundation has been leveraged to advance the construction of a 7,000-square-meter paediatric ward at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital and the construction of the Centre for Islamic Studies at Bayero University Kano, supporting the venurable in the society and amongst several others. BUA had supported countless of students to pay their school fees. job seekers to prograss their carrier in his various industries across the country.

How BUA COVID-19 ambassador In Kano as indigene of the state demonstrated his determination to save millions of Nigerians from the cusp of calamity as the coronavirus pandemic ravages state halting everything in its tracks. He is among the first responder to the plight of kano state government in fighting the Covid 19 in the state by donating a 3-storey building to serve as befitting Covid-19 isolation centre.

Considering the the effect outbreak of Covid 19 toward stem the spread of COVID-19 that has posed a serious challenge to the state through BUA Foundation made another amazing donations the sum of N2 billion, five ambulances and 20 Hilux vehicles to Kano State government. The important of these vehicles will facilitate our work for contact tracing and evacuation of patients, and other follow ups really Abdulsamad help Kano overcome this trying times occassioned by COVID-19 pandemic. Amazingly BUA Group also donated food items to residents of Kano State in the bid to cushion the effect of the lockdown occasioned by the spread of Coronavirus Disease to the state.

Placed an order for an additional of equipment and medical supplies including testing kits and medical protective gear to the revage affected states in Nigeria through the BUA Foundation .

To millions of kanawa Abdulsamads demonstrated his determination to save millions of kanawa from the cusp of calamity as the coronavirus pandemic ravages Nigeria halting everything in its tracks. Abdulsamad Rabiu prove to be highly committed in using cooperate responsibilities to bring scour to venerable peoples. He represents hard work, integrity and discipline. He is not boastful or proud. He is a selfless, prudent and God-fearing man. He is also a team player, building consensus with ease and great manager of resources with unquenchable passion.

Can be reach at abbahydukawa@gmail.com
A garbage truck driver who hit and killed a Sydney grandmother was 'just hoping for the best' when he reversed around a blind spot and struck the pram-pushing pedestrian, a Sydney judge has been told.

Teremoana 'Tere' Tekii, 29, told police on the day of the fatal crash in February 2018 that 58-year-old Hane Mathieson was 'nowhere to be seen' around a tight corner on a Dee Why service road.

Crown prosecutor Roger Kimbell said the dangerous driving occasioning death charge to which Tekii had pleaded not guilty had been proven, in part through Tekii's utterance to police he reversed up the street 'just hoping there's nothing there'.

Teremoana 'Tere' Tekii, 29, told police on the day of the fatal crash in February 2018 that 58-year-old Hane Mathieson was 'nowhere to be seen' around a tight corner on a Dee Why service road

'Knowing that area and that other people were using it, by using the word hoping, he was just hoping for the best,' Mr Kimbell said in closing submissions on Tuesday.

'That's not what a driver of a heavy vehicle should be doing when reversing down a narrow laneway.'

He said there was no dispute the truck was reversing at 11.9 km/h when it hit Ms Mathieson and pinned her under the rear middle left-hand wheel.

Despite Tekii moving the truck off her seconds later, the woman suffered extensive leg and arm injuries and died at the scene.

Her grandson was found unharmed in his pram in a nearby driveway.

At least of one of the two bin loaders in Tekii's vehicle could have got out and directed him up the street safely, Mr Kimbell said.

Despite Tekii moving the truck off her seconds later, Ms Mathieson suffered extensive leg and arm injuries and died at the scene

'If he'd gone less than 11.9 km/h, if he'd gone at walking speed, it would have been safe for the loader. It would have been safe for the public,' he told NSW District Court Judge John North.

But in her closing address, Tekii's barrister pointed to evidence Ms Mathieson had an eye condition affecting the centre of her vision and read using her peripheral vision.

With 'no axe to grind', a woman came forward after the crash to say she'd seen the grandmother around Dee Why hitting the pram into steps and requiring assistance to overcome obstacles, barrister Corrie Goodhand said.

Ms Goodhand contested Mr Kimbell's assertion that eyewitness Lynette Holten was 'impressive' and pointed to several uncertainties including whether a horn was sounded, the truck speed and how much of the crash she saw.

The court heard opposing evidence which placed Ms Holten both on the nature strip metres from the crash site and also standing near her house, several metres back from the street.

When a loader ran into her front yard to vomit after seeing Ms Mathieson under the truck, Ms Holten asked if everything was okay, Ms Goodhand said.

'That tends to suggest she didn't see the accident, which she ultimately accepts. She didn't see the impact,' the barrister told Judge North.

Tekii told police the day of the incident he had beeped his rear horn and 'lived his life out of' his mirrors and rear camera.

He'd not seen Ms Mathieson, a statement echoed by the two bin loaders who told the court they too saw nothing while looking in the passenger-side mirror and rear camera display.

The trial continues.
Liberty Unites Compassion To Heal Hearts Broken By Coronavirus We serve our neighbor by separating from them, we cannot allow physical separation to become emotional isolation. This requires us to not only be compassionate but creative in our outreach. - George W. Bush Jr

Globally, more than a quarter million people have died from coronavirus. As the death-toll from COVID-19 approaches 70,000 in the USA, a hidden gem of compassion online hosting over nine thousand tributes to the victims of war and terror founded on September 21st 2001  LibertyUnites has opened its virtual doors with new features for vigils to victims of coronavirus and saluting the selfless heroes risking their lives to save us.

LibertyUnites.us is an advertising free website without any cost to members that host a vigil for friends or loved ones. LU offers a very user-friendly submission form to add a tribute profile including images with only email registration required. Guest visitors are not required to create an account to light a candle, post prayers, condolences or salute our front-line heroes.

According to John Coates, the websites creator, Its been LUs goal for over 18 yrs to make it easy to put peoples names behind a staggering number of preventable deaths, put faces behind those names, than unite compassion and love from around the world under those faces

Now that churches are closed, mass burials happen without funerals, grief without loving hugs and no gatherings of friends or family. LU offers a lasting dedicated place for online remembrance of loved ones lost to COVID along side the thousands of 911 victims, and those killed in the war on terror  whose loved-ones also never got to say goodbye.

LU was rebuilt with all these new features after, Coates had to self-isolate from family due to a slight fever and a very inflammatory rash which developed on his chest and shoulders. Unsure if the rash was from yard work, or a trip to the grocery store days before- protecting his family, Coates self-isolated.

Coates stressed, It was heartbreaking for my 2 year old daughter to cry for me on the other side of a door that I couldnt open. She couldnt understand why daddy couldnt come out. This virus is ruthless in so many ways. One of the biggest is how it keeps those closest to ones heart away as it robs them of their loved ones and air at the same time.

Coates felt there was more that could be done to remember, and pray for the victims that were kept away from their families through it all.

The websites creator got to work on LUs database conversion to support populating all the front-line hospitals in the USA and UK, over 8 thousand of them.

Coates said, I pushed myself to get LibertyUnites done as fast as I could because I couldnt help that it would cross my mind if I was going to be the first coronavirus vigil on the site or not. Thank God, the swelling under the rash near both shoulders went down a few days later, and the little bumps about 7 days after that.

Coates feels really lucky and thanks God to have just had a scare.

Now its time for LU live out its purpose. For liberty to unite love, compassion, prayers and condolences from around the world.

We ask for your help at Liberty Unites to light a candle for every COVID 19 victim and salute every front-line hero!

LET US PRAY FOR THE STRENGTH AND KNOWLEDGE TO DEFEAT THE VIRUS!

... just praying that you pray for me, Ill pray for you, and we have to reach out to support each other during this time because we are going to get through this and we are going to shine brighter than ever, much love, from my heart to yours.  Marla Maples on Instagram

LibertyUnites.us gives a special thank you to our sponsors LightSaver and RF Safe for server resources and scripts needed to make the new LU a reality!
State Security Police Raid House Church Meeting in Chinese Port City of Xiamen

2020-05-04 -- Authorities in the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen are holding nine people after hundreds of police raided a Protestant church gathering at the weekend, RFA has learned.

An estimated nine people were detained after state security police and officials from Xiamen's religious affairs bureau raided a meeting of the unofficial Xingguang Church on Sunday morning, local time.

Chaotic scenes ensued as dozens of law enforcers struggled to grab and take away church members, some of whom fought back hard not to be removed from the meeting, according to cell phone footage of the raid seen by RFA.

Pastor Yang Xibo told RFA that the members were meeting in a private residence at the time of the raid, and that police had burst in without a warrant or any form of ID or documentation.

"The state security police came banging at the door, then they kicked it down and dragged those in the way outside the doorway, dragging them to the ground," Yang said in an interview on Monday.

"One person's ribs were cracked, and they are now in a lot of pain, and a lot of the [female church members] have bruises on their arms and legs," he said. "We went to the hospital with them, so we could record the evidence."

Yang said the raid was likely due to the church's refusal to join the Three-Self Patriotic Association, a state-approved body in charge of Protestant Christians.

An eyewitness said the church members had no warning.

"They didn't say anything, nor show any documentation, but they just broke in," he said. "They pinned a man and a woman to the floor, pinning them down by chest and legs using their knees."

He said police then took personal details and ID numbers from everyone present.

"They told us that it is illegal for us not to resister [with the government], but we don't think that private residential gatherings are illegal," he said.

"This kind of gathering of mostly friends and relatives is just like any family gathering," he said.

A second church member from Xiamen who declined to be named said it should be illegal for the authorities to break into private residential property and detain people.

"We would like the whole of society to pay attention to this violent behavior," the church member said. "They are lawless and indiscriminate."

Repeated calls to the Xiamen municipal bureau of religious affairs and to the local government offices in Xinglin district rang unanswered during office hours on Monday.

The raid came amid a nationwide crackdown on religious worship by the administration of President Xi Jinping, which regards Christianity as a dangerous foreign import, with ruling Chinese Communist Party documents warning against the "infiltration of Western hostile forces" in the form of religion.

The ruling party embraces atheism, yet exercises tight controls over any form of religious practice among its citizens.

China is home to an estimated 68 million Protestants, of whom 23 million worship in state-affiliated churches, and some nine million Catholics, 5.7 million of whom are in state-sponsored organizations.

Reported by Gao Feng for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Wong Lok-to for 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 May 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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A Birmingham man has been arrested in connection with a deadly interstate crash that killed a young woman the day before her 21st birthday.

Alabama Law Enforcement Agency State Troopers on Monday arrested Kevin Lamar King, 27, on a charge of manslaughter. He is charged in the March 9 death of 20-year-old Octavia Nicole Johnson.

The deadly crash happened at 1:11 a.m. that Monday on Interstate 59/20 southbound near Fairfield Authorities at the time said Johnson was the passenger in a southbound vehicle that collided with another vehicle on the interstate.

The vehicle Johnson was riding in left the roadway, went airborne and landed on a surface street below. Johnson was ejected from the vehicle and found by first responders about 50 feet away. She was taken to UAB Hospital where she was pronounced dead at 2:31 a.m.

Troopers on Tuesday said Johnson was the passenger in a 2017 Chevrolet Camaro driven by Keanjra Lashai Maddox, 22, also of Birmingham. Authorities said the investigation showed that Maddox and King, who was driving a 1998 Chevy Camaro, were racing along I-59 South, near mile marker 119, when Kings vehicle struck Maddoxs vehicle from behind as both drivers attempted to negotiate a curve.

Both vehicles left the roadway and traveled down a ravine. Maddox and King also were injured and transported to the hospital for treatment.

Upon completion of their investigation, troopers made contact with King on Monday evening and arrested him without incident. He was transported to Jefferson County Jail in Bessemer where he was released Tuesday morning after posting $30,000 bond.

Troopers are asking for help in locating Maddox, who is still at large and also faces a manslaughter charge. If anyone has information leading to the arrest of Maddox, please call 256-435-3521.
The arrest of a few drivers for not being able to pay the newly-enforced traffic fines has resulted in verbal spats between police officers and motorists and even the arrest of a few drivers in Svay Rieng province.



The National Police have started implementing new fines for almost all traffic and road safety violations since May 1, including higher fines for driving without a license or registration, drunk driving and not having rear view mirrors or license plates.



Social media posts show verbal spats between motorists and police officers across the country, in some cases vehicles have been confiscated and in more extreme instances people were arrested for not being able to pay these higher fines.



This was the case in Svay Rieng where Suor Thy, deputy police chief of Chantrea district, asked his officers to handcuff three remorque drivers for being unable to pay fines for not having a driving license. The fine for not having a driving license was increased from $4 to $15.



A video posted online shows one man being handcuffed, and his wife being held back by officers for protesting the arrest. The man who is also resisting the arrest is put in the back of a white car and driven off.



If we look at the photos captured, its cruel. Its like they committed crimes such as killing people, said Nouth Bopin Naroath, Svay Rieng provincial coordinator for local rights group Licadho.



The rights groups staffer added that villagers protested the three arrests after which the motorists were released, and the deputy police chief Sour Thy was suspended from work.



Chhay Kim Khoeun, spokesperson for the National Police, told VOA Khmer that Suor Thy was suspended for a period of time in order to be educated and get his morality strengthened.



Regarding morality, its very important. Thus, firstly, we asked him to make a public apology. Secondly, we take him for re-education, keeping him at one place, he said.

Other posts on Facebook, showed motorcycle riders complaining about being fined for not having a license or rearview mirrors, adding that they did not have the money to pay the hefty fines.



The hefty fines are being enforced amidst potentially the worst economic crisis to hit the globe, with a number of reports suggesting Cambodias economy to suffer its worst growth in decades.



They also come months after Interior Minister Sar Kheng lamented the inability of the government to prevent the steady increase of road accidents and deaths last year. He appeared helpless and asked stakeholders to provide a solution for the problem.



Chhay Kim Khoeun added that National Police chief Neth Savoeun had asked officers to only issue the violations but not collect the fine immediately, to prevent these spats.



Now, the police stop taking money from the people. If they are found committing wrongdoing, we advise them and write them a receipt, so they can pay cash at the police posts set up in specific locations, he said.



National Police statistics showed that around 8,0000 vehicles had been fined by the police officers in the last five days. Of this number, 6,000 were motorists on motorcycles and nearly 2,000 were cars owners



The most common offenses committed by motorbike riders was driving without helmets, whereas car owners were caught not wearing seat belts, talking on their phones, driving over the speed limit, and for being overloaded in the case of transportation vehicles.



Kong Rotanak, director of Institute for Road Safety, told VOA Khmer that even though there were arguments between police officers and motorists, he encouraged the continued implementation of the law to deter drivers from breaking the traffic law.

I encourage that we continue to do this and both the authorities and citizens must take part and listen to each other about the reasons because the objective of implementing the law is to improve traffic conditions for all, he said.
The Congress in Madhya Pradesh on



Tuesday heaped scorn on the BJP government for allowing reopening of liquor shops in the state amidst the nationwide coronavirus lockdown that has caused financial distress.

The Opposition party suggested that the government also allow reopening of jewellery shops so that people lacking resources can pawn ornaments of their wives for purchasing booze.

The state government had on Monday issued an order allowing reopening of liquor and hemp (bhang) shops from Tuesday, excluding those in Bhopal, Indore and Ujjain falling under Red zone, as per the relaxations permitted under the extended lockdown.

"Along with liquor outlets, goldsmith's shops should also be opened. Else, where would a man sell his wife's ornaments for drinking..(sic)?" the state Congress committee (MPCC) tweeted.

MPCC spokesman Durgesh Sharma said the government has failed to provide any relief to people during the ongoing lockdown.

"The condition in the state is very bad. From where will people bring money to purchase liquor, as crores of people have lost their jobs and are reeling under financial distress. Instead of empowering them financially, the government is reopening liquor shops," Sharma said.

He said the MPCC's tweet only underscores the plight of the people.

He said the state government should seek financial assistance from the Centre and help out people.

However, the ruling BJP accused the Congress of adopting "double standards" on the issue.

"The Congress has adopted double standards. States ruled by the Congress have already opened liquor shops, but the same party is opposing this step in MP," state BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal told PTI.

Agrawal said the state government had taken several measures to help people.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Paris Jackson showed off her clear skin Monday in a makeup-free selfie posted to her Instagram.

The 22-year-old actress and model is no stranger to dramatically changing up her style, but she instead opted for for total simplicity.

Monday also marked the original date for the now-postponed Met Gala, which she previously attended, so Paris posted some throwback photos of her eye-catching looks to her Instagram Stories.

Fresh faced: Paris Jackson, 22, looked comfortable in her skin in a refreshing makeup-free selfie posted to her Instagram Stories on Monday

Paris' displayed a soft smile in the close-up selfie, which showcased her flawless skin.

The daughter of Michael Jackson's face was framed by her dirty blonde hair's wild curls, and she had some beaded strands woven throughout.

It may have been an older selfie, as she wore a septum piercing that she hasn't been photographed with in recent months.

The Scream guest actress is clearly a fan of an au naturel look, as she's often spotted with natural body hair, though she's no stranger to more extensive makeup.

Changing it up: The Scream actress is clearly a fan of an au naturel look, as she's often spotted with natural body hair, though she's no stranger to more extensive makeup; shown in February

Elegant: She showed off one of those more elaborate looks earlier in the day with photos from the 2018 Met Gala that she shared in her Instagram Stories

Fit figure: Paris stunned in a lacy burnt sienna Stella McCartney dress with a plunging neckline that highlighted her cleavage and showed off her toned arms; pictured in 2018

Minimalist style: The Gringo actress was a guest at the 2017 edition of the event, when she wore a more reserved black sleeveless dress with a cut-out just below her bust; shown in 2017

On pause: The Met Gala, which takes place within the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, was postponed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic; shown in 2017

She showed off one of those more elaborate looks earlier in the day with photos from the 2018 Met Gala that she shared in her Instagram Stories.

Paris stunned in a lacy burnt sienna Stella McCartney dress with a plunging neckline that highlighted her cleavage and showed off her toned arms.

She also drew attention to her face by swiping her straight blonde locks back and wearing a jeweled tiara.

The Gringo actress was a guest at the 2017 edition of the event, when she wore a more reserved black sleeveless dress with a cut-out just below her bust.

The Met Gala, which takes place within the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, was postponed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

This year's theme was intended to explore the connection between fashion and time and was inspired by Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando and the 1992 Sally Potter adaptation of the same name.

Happy B-day! Monday also marked the 90th birthday of Paris' grandmother Katherine Jackson. She posted a photo of herself leaning in to kiss the matriarch on the cheek. 'To the queen #90,' she wrote

Monday also marked the 90th birthday of Paris' grandmother Katherine Jackson.

She posted a photo of herself in a tube top as she leaned in to kiss the matriarch on the cheek.

'To the queen #90,' she wrote, adding champagne and heart emojis.
Santwana Bhattacharya By

BENGALURU: Forget the host of attendant issues, both global and local, that well be trying to understand for years. At its core, COVID-19 threw two bouncers at us  without giving any of us any time to put on the helmet. One, the way it crashed the economy. We find ourselves rendered into a state of petrification akin to what a Harry Potter sequence may have featured. Except, this was no fiction. The other is the virus itself: what stalks us is still a mystery. No continent or human cluster is left untouched  from New York to Nanjangud. Only the degrees varied.

We, in the news business, may be guilty of overusing the word mystery but Nanjangud sits right up there. It single-handedly threatened to bring infamy to Mysuru, though we finally saw a turnaround that gave us one of Indias model districts. Not before cops and civil servants went sniffing around the premises of Jubilant Pharma  where lurked Mysurus own patient zero, most likely as foreign as COVID-19 itself. The mystery was never quite solved. Harsh Gupta, the crack IAS man put on the job, thankfully steered things in a pragmatic direction, advising the government to focus on containment rather than forensic thrills. It clearly paid off.

This would become one of several quick course corrections Karnataka did on the way, as it helped itself out of what could have been a hellhole. Despite accounting for Indias first COVID-19 death, it has managed to cushion its population to some extent. Yes, cases are getting registered every day, and stand at 651 now. But the numbers are doubling at a slower pace, and the recovery rate (49.30%) is far higher than the mortality rate of 4.14%  which, however, is higher than any other southern state and the national average. (Kalburgi in the north remains an area of concern, the bells tolling slowly but regularly.)

Then those embarrassing incidentsan MLA throwing a mega birthday party, a former PMs grandson getting a lavish wedding, some ministers and MLAs playing philanthropist too enthusiastically, entourages in tow. But overall, Karnataka and its citizenry proved a pleasant surprise at every level  disciplined, willingly locking themselves up or queuing up six feet apart in front of a few provision or medical stores that were open across the state, in rural, urban and peri-urban pockets. The BBMP surprised perhaps even itself with its stellar performance: its high-tech war-room chased the path of the virus and plotted the battle, putting up a 360-degree surveillance in tandem with the police and health professionals. The latter, of course, fought a blind battle, living a dire existence, shunning family and friends.

But no one surprised the state as much as BSY. The CM, all too aware of critics inside and outside, steered the battle from the front. Firefighting as well as planning on the go, he displayed a kind of administrative maturity only a blend of old-style politics and years of grassroots experience brings about. First, he defanged the Opposition by calling them over for an all-party meet, taking their suggestions on board. The newly minted Congress state chief D K Shiva Kumar initially tried an aggressive tack, only to be thwarted by a more circumspect Siddaramaiah, who knew this was a time to play constructive opposition. Deve Gowda too chose to engage PM Modi than meddle in state politics, leaving BSY enough room to craft his battle strategy.

The economy is the Achilles heel. With little or no revenue and nothing coming by way of Central aid, BSY has his hands tied. Little wonder his first misstep came as he levied exorbitant bus fares on those citizens, including migrant labourers, who desperately wanted to escape to the dignity of their villages than be treated as extras on a film set in a paranoid metropolis. It took a lot of chaos before it was grudgingly reversed. But as is his wont, BSY made quick amends, making bus travel for intra-state migrants free, even if DKS had rushed with a `1 crore cheque to the cash-strapped KSRTC. And then coordinated the exodus with his counterparts. What happens when the migrants travel, the liquor shops open and the industry is persuaded to get back to business? Will the Deccan remain on its plateau?

Santwana Bhattacharya

Resident Editor, Karnataka santwana@newindianexpress.com
Jammu, May 5 : Pakistan army again resorted to unprovoked firing and shelling on Tuesday on the Line of Control (LoC) in J&K's Rajouri district, an army official said.

"At about 8.30 p.m. today, Pakistan initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with small arms and intense shelling with mortars along the LoC in Manjakote sector of Rajouri district," Defence Ministry spokesman, Col. Devender Anand told IANS.

"Indian army is retaliating befittingly," he added.

Pakistan has been breaching the bilateral ceasefire on the LoC with impunity this year.

Since January, Pakistan has violated ceasefire 1,550 times so far.
Detective Marrapodi then went on to tell Mr Edwards he was also under arrest on suspicion he abducted and raped a teenager in Claremont in 1995 and attacked an 18-year-old as she lay in her bed inside her Huntingdale home in 1988. The f---? What the f---s going on? ... Youve got to be joking, Mr Edwards replied. "Why me? Why are you picking me, why are you choosing me? What's going on?" Mr Edwards was sitting in what appeared to be a messy hallway in his home as the offences and his rights were read to him. He was surrounded by boxes which he would later explain were from his second wife moving out.

Bradley Edwards has denied murdering Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon. Credit:Stephen Kiprillis The arrest video was played on day 84 of Mr Edwards triple-murder trial in the Supreme Court of Western Australia. Prosecutors allege the footage showed the accused was a blatant liar and initially denied any involvement in the rape and sex attack offences he would three years later go on to confess to amid overwhelming DNA evidence against him. Following his arrest, Mr Edwards was taken to police headquarters to be formally interviewed by Detective Marrapodi and Detective Senior Sergeant Aaron Capes over the course of more than six hours. In the early stages of the interview, which was shown to a packed courtroom on Tuesday, he appeared to be in shock as Detective Marrapodi repeatedly asked him if he was ok, and whether he understood his rights or wanted a lawyer.

Yeah I'm all right, I'm just trying to process it all, Mr Edwards said. I just want to go to sleep and wake up and this will all be a bad dream. All the stuff youve accused me of, Im not involved in any of it. A sketch of Bradley Edwards during his police interview. The Telstra technician appeared calmer as Detective Marrapodi moved to questions about his family and work life, however his demeanour changed when it became clear police wanted a DNA sample from him.

Detective Capes asked if Mr Edwards knew why his DNA might be recovered from the three murder victims, the Karrakatta rape victim or the Huntingdale victim. No ... I really cant believe what youre saying, he replied. Detective Marrapodi then said they wanted to take a DNA sample to be "raced to Pathwest" for analysis. Mr Edwards placed his head in his hands upon hearing the request and began mumbling barely audible replies to the detectives. The detectives then left the room and two police officers entered with a DNA swab kit and paper work.

As one of the officers was reading him his rights, Mr Edwards stared blankly at the table with his hands pressed on his cheeks. Loading He voluntarily supplied the sample after being told a court order could be arranged to retrieve it against his will if necessary. When the Macro detectives returned to the room two hours later, Mr Edwards was lying on the floor on his side. After he returned to the table, he distanced himself from any association with Claremont, saying he did not have a reason to be in the area prior to 2009.

He was shown maps of the locations where Ciara Glennon and Jane Rimmers bodies were found and denied any knowledge of the areas, but said he was aware of their murders, and of Sarah Spiers' murder. I think everyones aware of that ... Im 110 per cent, 120 per cent positive [Im not involved in the murders], he said. Family members of the three murder victims and Mr Edwards two living victims were in court to watch his denials. Interview questions then turned to his personal life as he opened up to detectives about his two marriages, his first wifes affair and his childhood. He said the divorce from his first wife in 1997 was inevitable after she had an affair and became pregnant by a man who was boarding at their Huntingdale home in early 1996.

He told the detectives he still loved her, revealing she was his first love after they met at age 20. He said he also still loved his second wife, who he met in April 1997 and from whom he was estranged. Bradley Edwards on the day of his arrest being escorted out of his Kewdale home by Macro Detectives Joseph Marrapodi and Aaron Capes. Credit:Nine News Perth The pair bought their Kewdale home in 2000, the same year they were married. "We struggled when we first moved into the house because we didn't have any money. Her mum and dad used to drop us food off so we could have something to eat," he said.

"We had my step-daughter there, she was only five at the time so we were doing our best to put her into school, maybe not the best private school, but something she could build upon." He hinted at trouble in the relationship when asked about his computer habits, revealing his second wife used to get in there and search through my emails and get paranoid about me having an affair with someone [on Facebook]. He also told detectives he had a number of Facebook accounts, referencing some with the usernames Boogie Man, Boogie Man 1, Boogie Man 2, and Boogie Man 3. He said the accounts were so he could play Farmville. The remainder of Mr Edwards police interview will be played on Wednesday, including his response to his DNA swab results allegedly matching the DNA found underneath Ms Glennons fingernails. He has pleaded not guilty to the murders of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon.
Though I knew that theres a Pulitzer Prize, I never dreamt that one day I would be honoured with it. I am speechless, reacted Channi Anand, one of the ace photographers of Jammu and Kashmir who, along with Mukhtar Khan and Yasin Dar from Kashmir, was conferred the prestigious award on Monday.

They work for Associated Press and won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for their striking images of life in Jammu and Kashmir after the Centre abrogated the territorys special status under Article 370 of the Constitution in August last year.

Anand participated in World Press competitions during initial years of his career but then stopped participating because he felt that Indian lensmen were not recognized for their work at that forum.

However, it is for the first time that photographers from South Asia got this prestigious award, he said.

The 50-year-old remained a stringer with the AP for 16 years before taken on board as a staffer four years ago.

A go-getter, Anand has covered many terror attacks, Pakistani shelling on the Indo-Pak borders and life in the conflict zone.

I joined AP as a stringer in 1999 and four years back was made staff photo journalist. I started my career from State Times and then moved to Amar Ujala, contributed for The Week and India Today before switching over to AP, he said.

It is indeed a moment of pride for me, my family, the people of J&K and especially the media fraternity. I think this award is in recognition of my long struggle of 23 years, he said.

Anand said the award left him speechless. I was shocked and could not believe it, he added.

Anand informed that he, along with two other colleagues of the AP from Kashmir, had worked on a photo feature on life post- revocation of Article 370 in August last year.

The soft-spoken lensman has done his schooling from Shastri Memorial Public School and Ranbir Higher Secondary School before taking online classes in photography.

The Pulitzer Prize is considered the most prestigious award in journalism.
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has joined the Dubai Unified Business Registry, an initiative by Dubai Economy to achieve inclusiveness and transparency in business activities in the emirate.

Dewa is one of the first government organisations to join the blockchain-based network to use data on institutions registered with the Dubai Economy and free zones in the emirate.

This will make doing business even easier, as the network digitally unifies the data of commercial licencing authorities and benefits the overall economic development of Dubai, said a statement from Dewa.

"We are pleased to one of the pioneers in achieving the Emirates Blockchain Strategy 2021 launched by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, VP, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, to enhance government efficiency by transforming 50 percent of federal government transactions to blockchain by 2021," said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Managing Director and CEO of Dewa.

Sami Al Qamzi, the director-general of Dubai Economy, said: "We welcome Dewa to the Unified Business Registry, an achievement we are proud of as it is a unique and global storehouse of commercial licences and is instrumental in retrieving real-time business licence registration data to make Dubai the first government fully powered by blockchain in 2020."

Dewas integration into the network provides it with instant access to the commercial licences database, in addition to real-time information on business registration at the Dubai Economy and free zones in Dubai.

It will also support Dewa in strengthening and automating its internal operations relating to bills, contracts, and local supply, as well as in expediting operations, increasing customer happiness and providing a paperless environment, thus enhancing Dubais efforts to become a green economy and a global hub of sustainable development, it added.-TradeArabia News Service
Northern Ireland has been in lockdown since March

Health Minister Robin Swann has said he is becoming increasingly concerned that the debate on the future of the lockdown is getting ahead of itself.

Speaking at the daily NI Executive Covid-19 conference, Mr Swann also said he was shocked at the images of an Aer Lingus flight packed with people without social distancing.

It was as if they were living in a time before Covid-19 completely oblivious of any of the regulations and the guidance, the Health Minister said.

How can they think that what the practice they were actually carrying out was in any way in keeping with the guidance that we have been issuing? I think was a short, sharp shock to them. That they should be behaving still in that manner.

I will ask them publicly to revise that very quickly."

On the issue of relaxing social distancing and coming out of lockdown he said he feared Northern Ireland was getting ahead of the reality we are still facing.

It would pile tragedy, upon tragedy if Northern Ireland lost its way at this stage, said Mr Swann.

The Health Minister urged the public to stick to the guidelines to keep saving lives and protect the NHS.

He said it was right to plan for easing the lockdown but this didnt mean we are near the finishing line.

We have a long way to go yet. This is no time for bailing out or doing your own thing, We must stick to social distancing.

Any changes will be gradual. There will be no big break-out.

The NI Executive is hoping to announce its plans for the gradual move out of lockdown on Thursday.

We cant lose our way, said Mr Swann. We dont want to look back in the future with regret.

Mr Swann said that the front line in the pandemic has moved to care homes.

Whilst the number of Covid-related patients being admitted to hospital are falling, I remain acutely aware that the front-line fight has moved to our care homes, he said.

From March 16 there have been 125 acute respiratory outbreaks in care homes reported to the PHA - 72 of these have been confirmed as Covid-19 with the remainder primarily the more common flu.

He also issued a May Day alert and said lives will depend on us continuing to do the right thing.

No matter how good the weather is, no matter how strong the temptation might be, dont give in and dont give up, Mr Swann said.

Chief Medical officer Dr Michael McBride also warned he was very reluctant indeed to see the Executive put in place any artificial timeframe prematurely at this stage of the outbreak.

We must very carefully map out step by step any changes, he said.

We have a number of weeks to go before we are in a position to be safe to step back from any measures, he warned.

I know that the stay at home message is difficult  its extremely stressful.

I know also that the action we are taking is causing harm in terms of health and the economy and wider society but those measures and steps are absolutely essential to ensure we keep the virus suppressed, that we keep the reproductive number below one."

The Health Minister said he would also be launching an apps library to help the public deal with the mental health issues caused as a result of the lockdown.
Two men charged in 2016 fatal shooting at Plaza area parking garage KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Two Kansas City men are facing charges in connection with a fatal 2016 shooting in a parking garage near the Plaza. Marquis Henderson and Travon Cross are both charged with second-degree murder. On Dec. 29, 2016, Kansas City police responded to a shooting call at a parking garage at 48th and [...]

Thankfully, community tips brought these suspects to justice and that parking lot is now mostly empty during the lockdown . . . Read more:
Whenever we've asked for your help, you've shown a magnanimous spirit.

But this time we are truly staggered by the generosity of Mail readers.

For only a week after the call went out to help alleviate the PPE crisis, your big-hearted donations have reached an astonishing 1 million.

Moved by the challenges facing our over-worked health workers, more than 25,000 of you have pledged money to Mail Force.

The charity  backed by the Daily Mail  is leading a campaign to make sure NHS and care staff have enough personal protective equipment on the coronavirus frontline.

Pictured: Daily Mail reporter Claire Duffin with the first batch of more than 10,000 readers' letters and contributions

Sackfuls of letters from readers turned up yesterday, containing more than 10,000 cheques, along with heartfelt letters of support.

Among them were colourful greetings cards, postcards and beautifully handwritten notes  each expressing their gratitude to the NHS and care workers.

HERE'S HOW TO DONATE Mail Force Charity has been launched with one aim to help support NHS staff, volunteers and care workers fight back against Covid-1 in the UK. Mail Force is a separate charity established and supported by the Daily Mail and General Trust. The money raised will fund essential equipment required by the NHS and care workers. This equipment is vital in protecting the heroic staff whilst they perform their fantastic work in helping the UK overcome this pandemic. If we raise more money than is needed for vital Covid-1 equipment, we will apply all funds to support the work of the NHS in other ways. Click the button below to make a donation: DONATE NOW If the button is not visible, click here Advertisement

In one heart-warming letter, Geoffrey King, of Surrey, wrote: 'My wife and I were war babies and... experienced the horror of the bombings inflicted by Hitler. Ever since, we have to be eternally thankful that there are those who are prepared to enter the world of medicine and nursing, tending to our needs and offering solace and comfort when it is so sorely needed, particularly at times like these.'

Celia Perkins, from Bristol, wrote: 'Thank you all for your great newspaper. You and your loyal readers always rise to the call. You get things done.' Another donor added: 'My grandson is an A&E doctor, thank you for protecting him.'

James Morgan, from Rochdale, said: 'I am a 78-year-old pensioner who because of lockdown has a few bob to spare from my pension. So use it quickly to save lives.'

The cheques came from every corner of the UK, pledging donations from 5 to 2,000. Some gave generous portions of their pension, while others donated hundreds of pounds from their salaries and savings. Such was the overwhelming response, a team from the charity was still opening letters late into the night.

The mountain of cheques is still being counted, but is expected to reach at least 400,000. Online donations reached 625,000 last night, meaning the total from readers will exceed 1 million.

Your astonishing offerings, combined with contributions from philanthropists and corporate partners, has helped the fund to soar to more than 5.6 million. Thanks to gift aid, where charities reclaim tax to increase the value of donations, 150,000 can be added.

Pictured: Staff and residents of Croft House Care home in Eastburn, Keighley. 'The charity  backed by the Daily Mail  is leading a campaign to make sure NHS and care staff have enough personal protective equipment on the coronavirus frontline'

NHS medical director Professor Stephen Powis said: 'I know the importance to colleagues in the NHS  and social care  of feeling properly equipped so it is great that the Daily Mail and Mail Force have launched this campaign. To raise 1 million in just a few days is incredible. On behalf of myself and colleagues I would like to thank all those who have dug deep.'

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: 'The response from Mail readers has been truly magnificent.'

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer added: 'This is a fantastic achievement and I want to congratulate everyone involved in this inspirational campaign.'

Mail Force's campaign began in earnest a week ago, when it flew an airliner packed with 20 tons of PPE from Shanghai to London. Thanks to the speed and scale of public support, plans are under way to bring in further airlifts of PPE.
Chinese Officials Tell Peasants to Take Political Responsibility, Be Prepared to Sell Their Harvest to the State

Many countries have announced bans on grain exports leading to concerns about a crisis in Chinas food supply. An online video shows that officials in Anhui province went to a wheat field for publicity.

Male official:

Under the correct leadership of the municipal government, with the strong support of relevant local departments and the cooperation of all staff 

The female official says in Anhui dialect:

The market price will definitely be higher than this. The first point I want to make is that (main grain producers) have not only job responsibilities, but also political responsibilities. They should improve  

Netizens are worried that any grain is grown this year could be forcibly purchased by authorities, and peasants wont be able to save grains for their families.

An insider netizen says, Now my village head has informed each family that the wheat must be sold when it is ripe. The price has not yet been decided, but it is definitely lower rather than higher.

The government came to investigate while the wheat was still green. They said that major grain growers have political responsibilities. Those who are hoarding rice must keep it secret!

Many netizens criticized the Chinese authorities. Peasants are requested to shoulder political responsibility this time. Have they ever been given any political power?

I have a hunch that this years grain purchase will probably be mandatory.

They used to shovel the wheat seedlings when forced demolition (demo-lei-tion) was going on. Now they came to watch them. Are they insane?
In mid-March, as the Seattle region grappled with a coronavirus outbreak, a community health center caring for the area's Native American population made an urgent request to county, state and federal health agencies: Please send medical supplies.

What it received almost three weeks later left staff members stunned.

"My team turned ghost white," said Esther Lucero, chief executive officer of the Seattle Indian Health Board. "We asked for tests, and they sent us a box of body bags."

The health board's center  serving about 6,000 people a year in Seattle and King County  still has the package, which is filled with zippered white bags and beige tags that read "attach to toe."

Image: A box of body bags received by the Seattle Indian Health Board. (Seattle Indian Health Board)

Lucero said the body bags were a mistaken  yet nonetheless macabre  delivery from a distributor via King County's Public Health Department.

Abigail Echo-Hawk, the health board's chief research officer, said she believes that the message it sends, even unintentionally, is resonating in Native American communities across the United States during the pandemic: There is a pressing lack of adequate resources and funding as promised.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

"The Navajo Nation is in a crisis with cases, and there are tribes and other Indian organizations across the country that are in similar crises and can use medical supplies and help instead of watching people die," Echo-Hawk said. "This is a metaphor for what's happening."

Her concern comes as the federal government announced Tuesday that it will begin distributing billions of dollars in desperately needed pandemic-relief funds to Native American tribal governments, money that was delayed for more than a month in a related legal dispute.

While Seattle and Washington as a whole have managed to slow the spread of the coronavirus after being the nation's earliest hot spot at the beginning of March, Echo-Hawk said she's worried about whether the center will be able to perform the necessary coronavirus testing or secure enough personal protective equipment, or PPE, as businesses reopen and if a second wave of the virus crops up later this year, as health officials have warned.

Story continues

"My questions is: Are we going to keep getting body bags or are we going to get what we actually need?" Echo-Hawk said.

Research shared this month from Public Health  Seattle & King County suggests that social distancing efforts in the region have been effective, with the county's infection rate falling since early March, although the rate of infection among people of color is still four times that of whites.

The Seattle Indian Health Board is one of 41 urban health programs under the federal Indian Health Service, which provides health care access to about 2.5 million American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Lucero said receiving PPE or COVID-19 tests, and not body bags, back in March was critical while they were working to curb the spread of the virus. At the time, the Seattle Indian Health Board did not have the capacity to test, and although the Federal Emergency Management Agency did offer to provide testing for the center, the logistics involved didn't make the process feasible, Lucero said.

After turning down FEMA's offer, the box of body bags inexplicably arrived, Lucero added. The health board did not have a contact at the county health department to ask about the shipment. Meanwhile, Lucero said, the county did help deliver about 200 COVID-19 test kits through FEMA.

She welcomed those tests because unlike the earlier ones, the health board was permitted to use their own lab to process the tests and communicate the results to patients directly.

Public Health  Seattle & King County on Tuesday said it was looking into the health board's claims, but the county did not appear to receive or process any requests for COVID-19 test kits from the board, and referred inquiries to Washington's Emergency Management Division. The state could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.

Image: Abigail Echo-Hawk, a Pawnee tribal member, is chief research officer for the Seattle Indian Health Board. (Seattle Indian Health Board)

While the Seattle Indian Health Board has the PPE and supplies it needs as of now, Echo-Hawk and Lucero said, they were disappointed in the lack of aid in those crucial, earlier weeks and have since relied on Native-owned business such as the retail brand Eighth Generation in Seattle for donations to adequately fill the void.

"We need to have the correct resources and be included at the state and federal level," Echo-Hawk said. "Until then, Native organizations like mine are going to push forward to create the resources needed for us and by us."

The Seattle Indian Health Board has previously received some federal funding, which has helped to set up an additional testing site and keep the center operating, Echo-Hawk said. But she added that the program could benefit further from funding set aside for tribes and federal Indian programs in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, a $2 trillion stimulus package passed in March.

The U.S. government has an obligation to provide health care to all Native Americans as stipulated in longstanding treaties with Indian tribes.

Download the NBC News app for latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak

The Treasury and Interior departments announced the distribution Tuesday of $4.8 billion to tribal governments, divvied up based on their census figures. However, urban Indian programs are not part of this phase.

The stimulus money was expected to be released before the end of April, as mandated by the law, but a legal feud erupted when tribal governments denounced the idea that Alaska Native corporations, which are for-profit businesses that serve tribal villages, would be allocated some of the funding.

Tara Sweeney, the assistant secretary for Indian affairs in the Department of Interior and an Alaska Native, has been accused by some tribes of having a conflict of interest and trying to divert some of the funding for Alaska Native corporations.

The Interior Department said in a statement that Sweeney has acted ethically and that some are "seeking to sow division during a time of crisis with unfounded allegations of favoritism."

Some Native American tribes have filed lawsuits challenging the aid for Alaska Native corporations, and the Treasury Department said Tuesday that such funding will be "held back" until the litigation is resolved.

Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., the vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, said the funds should have been out the door to help Native communities on the outset of the pandemic.

"Treasury's announcement is the definition of 'too little, too late,'" Udall said in a statement. "It comes weeks after the deadline and billions of dollars short."
The Melbourne Storm have been barred from using council facilities in Albury.

Albury City Council held an extraordinary general meeting on Tuesday night to discuss the club using the border town as a training base in preparation for the May 28 NRL season restart.

A motion was immediately moved by two councillors to bar the club from using council facilities.

After some heated debate, and a recommendation from mayor Kevin Mack to vote against the motion, the vote passed by five to four.
A Uyghur-Australian father has accused China of keeping his family hostage in China in retribution for Australia's calls for a global inquiry into the origins of COVID-19.

Sadam Abdusalam's wife and Australian citizen son have been trapped in China's Xinjiang province for three years as part of the communist regime's systemic persecution of its Uyghur population, a minority Muslim ethnic group.

Appearing on ABC's Q+A from Adelaide on Monday night, Mr Abdusalam said he was concerned they were being used as pawns in the spat between Canberra and Beijing over coronavirus.

'Last week she was taken to a Chinese police station and questioned for six hours. This is hostage diplomacy isn't it? What can the Australian government do save my wife and Australian wife and baby? I haven't seen them for three years,' he said.

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Sadam Abdusalam (pictured) said Chinese police questioned his wife for six hours in what he believes was an act of 'hostage diplomacy' in response to Australia's push for an inquiry into COVID-19

Tensions between the two nations, stirred further by the coronavirus crisis, became a central focus of discussion for Monday's panellists.

Those seated along the bench included Liberal MP for Wentworth Dave Sharma, Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong, Lowy Institute executive director Michael Fullilove and Australia director of Human Rights Watch, Elaine Pearson.

Ms Pearson called on the Australian Government to do more to help the family.

'Has the Australian Government actually sent someone to Xinjiang to try and bring back his son and his wife? I think that really has to happen,' she said.

'It's completely unacceptable for the Chinese Government to be using an Australian child effectively as a hostage in this sort of political negotiation.'

Host Hamish Macdonald asked Ms Pearson if she thought the questioning was connected to Australia's support for an investigation.

Ms Pearson said that appeared to be the case and that she hoped the Australian Foreign Minister will conduct a probe into the incident.

Australia's call for the World Health Organisation to launch an inquiry into the initial handling of the outbreak angered China, which says it is conducting its own investigation through the Chinese Communist Party, which should be enough.

The move has prompted backlash from several Chinese advocates, condemning Australia's involvement.

Mr Abdusalam has been torn apart from his wife Nadila (right) he has not met his three-year-old son Lufty (left) who remain in the Xinjiang region of China

Last week, Chinese ambassador, Cheng Jingye warned the inquiry could lead to a boycott of Australian products in China.

A day later, Hu Xijin, the editor of the state-run Global Times, called Australia 'gum on the sole of China's shoes'.

'After the epidemic, we need to have more risk awareness when doing business with Australia and also when we send our children to study there,' he wrote in a Weibo post on Tuesday.

'Australia is always there, making trouble. It is a bit like chewing gum stuck on the sole of China's shoes. Sometimes you have to find a stone to rub it off.'

The bitter war of words continued this week, with Shanghai academic Professor Chen Hong telling 60 Minutes on Monday that Australia had stabbed China in the back.

'Australia is being and acting as a kind of divisive role, trying to point fingers, even stab at the back of China. This is actually not fair,' he told reporter Tara Brown.

However, Mr Fullilove said on Monday the Chinese diplomats were conducting 'wolf warrior diplomacy', that is, looking only to impress Beijing.

Chinese ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye (pictured) warned Australia's push for an inquiry may lead to a boycott of Australian exports in China

He said, despite the view Australia is more reliant on the nations' trade arrangements, it is also in China's interests to restore the relationship as Australia supplies many of the resources that fuel China's economic growth.

'The world is watching how China behaves towards Australia here,' he said.

In discussions on the 'post COVID-19 world order', Q+A viewer Subhash Bhagava asked if Australia should redefine its priorities, reliance, and dependence on the countries considered 'friends' when the pandemic ends.

But Senator Wong claimed Australia has no choice but to keep trading with China even if it disagrees with its values.

Despite the resulting strain, Ms Pearson said Australia made the right decision to stand up to China, which she described as a 'bully' that is not used to being challenged.

She said Australia's actions were in line with how any responsible global power should respond to the pandemic.

'The whole world is affected by this pandemic and I really think it's important that other countries come on board,' Ms Pearson said.

'I think China is showing it's a bully. The way you deal with bullies is you don't just roll over and lie down. You do have to stand up to them.'
David Morales, director and owner of UC Global. UC Global

David Morales, the owner of the Spanish security firm that spied on Julian Assange while he was living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, testified in court on Friday that Ecuadors former ambassador to the United Kingdom, the recently deceased Carlos Abad, asked him to record the cyberactivists conversations during his stay in the embassy. The former marine and director of UC Global S. L. testified last week before Judge Jose de la Mata of Spains High Court, the Audiencia Nacional. Despite overwhelming evidence of the espionage gathered during the legal investigation and already published by EL PAIS, Morales denied before the judge that the spying was ever carried out.

Ambassador Abad was always uncomfortable with UC Global Fidel Narvaez, former secretary at Ecuadorian embassy in London

In his second court statement, this time made on his own request, Morales went from denying that the WikiLeaks founder was ever spied on, to admitting that he was asked to make the secret recordings. But he hid behind the former Ecuadorian ambassador, who died in November, and said it was Ecuadors secret service, Senain, that hired his services during the presidency of Rafael Correa, who governed Ecuador from 2007 to 2017.

According to sources from Assanges defense team, Morales claimed in court that his employees wrote reports on the cyberactivists visits and made records of their cellphones and computers following orders from Senain  not the US Central Intelligence Agency, as three protected witnesses have claimed in court testimony.

Although the security cameras at the embassy were recording audio from December 2017 onward, Morales presented an alleged email from Abad to the judge suggesting otherwise. In the message, which is dated January 27, 2018, the then-ambassador asks for a microphone to be installed in the embassys meeting room. The owner of UC Global said that he put the microphone in place as a test and later removed it. In 2018, as part of a labor-related lawsuit, Abad accused Morales and his lawyer of having forged his emails and signature.

Abad was removed from his post by the government of Ecuadors incumbent president, Lenin Moreno, and died from lung cancer in November, Ecuadors former ambassador to the European Union, Pablo Villagomez, confirmed to EL PAIS.

Former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa claims that he was also spied on by UC Global.

According to Fidel Narvaez, who was then the first secretary of the Ecuadorian embassy and had a close relationship with Abad, the ambassador was always uncomfortable with UC Global. I never saw him have the least bit of a relationship with Morales. I always suspected that the company was crossing a professional line, he said.

Assanges defense team, led by lawyer Aitor Martinez, questioned Morales version of events, asking how it was possible for Abad to have ordered the spying operation if he himself was recorded on one of the microphones, as heard in the audio recordings. The team also read out an email in which Morales asks for microphones to be placed throughout the Ecuadorian embassy, including in the ambassadors office.

Recordings of secret services chief

How do you explain that Senain ordered the spying operation in the embassy, when the audio of a meeting between Senains chief himself, Rommy Vallejo, and Assange was recorded? Assanges legal team asked Morales. The head of UC Global replied that Senain was divided before the change of government in Ecuador, when Lenin Moreno was elected president. On the numerous emails in which Morales told his workers that he was working for an American client and playing in first division, the former marine said that he wanted to motivate his staff and that Ecuadors secret service had people in the United States.

Emails sent by Morales to workers also indicated that Ecuadorian diplomats were to be targeted in the spying operation. In these emails, he asked for the embassys phone directory, Wi-Fi password and even the thickness of the walls of Assanges room  information which, according to Assanges lawyers, the ambassador and the Ecuadorian secret service should have had.

Morales presented Judge De la Mata with a list of his trips to the United States, but according to Assanges lawyers, left out his stays in Alexandria, a city in the US state of Virginia, close to Washington DC, where the US federal court is demanding Assanges extradition to the United States.

Assanges defense team asked Morales if Trojan horse malware was installed in phones belonging to one of the daughters of former Ecuadorian president, Rafael Correa. Morales replied that this was done at the request of the Ecuadorian presidencys protection service. During Correas presidency, UC Global S.L. provided security services to the former leaders daughters, who were studying in Europe at the time. When EL PAIS revealed the evidence of the spying operation against Assange last June, Correa claimed that he too had been spied on by UC Global.

English version by Melissa Kitson.
Hearst Connecticut Media file

NEW HAVEN  The Connecticut Health Foundation has awarded $585,000 in grants to organizations across the state to help residents in need of financial support and health care during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a release.

The effort includes a $150,000 donation to the Connecticut United Ways COVID-19 Response Fund, which provides direct financial assistance to individuals who are struggling because of the pandemic, and $165,000 to the Cheshire-based Community Health Center Association of Connecticut to help health centers expand their capacity to deliver telehealth services and to meet immediate needs of patients.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 05:58:13|Editor: huaxia

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WARSAW, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The Polish Senate has rejected a bill that would enable the country's presidential elections, originally scheduled for May 10, to go ahead through exclusive mail voting this month despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fifty senators voted against the bill, with 35 in favor and one abstention.

The rejection means the proposal returns to the lower house of parliament, the Sejm, for a new round in a bitter political conflict.

The controversial mail voting bill was accepted by the Sejm on April 6. It would allow the presidential elections to go ahead as voting by mail.

The plan is heavily criticized by the opposition, as well as national and international organizations as "undemocratic" and a risk to public health. Enditem
The swirls are visible from space. (NASA)

Melting snow in the Himalayas has led to enormous growth of a green slime in the Arabian sea, swirls of which are now visible from space.

Research published in Natures Scientific Reports used NASA satellite imagery to track the growth of the planktonic organism Noctiluca scintillans in the Arabian sea.

It was unheard of 20 years ago, but the huge blooms have grown to such an extent that it has disrupted the food chain and could threaten fisheries which sustain 150 million people.

The millimeter-size planktonic organism has forced out the photosynthesising plankton that used to support life in the area.

Read more: A 1988 warning about climate change was mostly right

Joaquim Goes, from Columbia Universitys Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said: This is probably one of the most dramatic changes that we have seen thats related to climate change.

We are seeing Noctiluca in Southeast Asia, off the coasts of Thailand and Vietnam, and as far south as the Seychelles, and everywhere it blooms it is becoming a problem. It also harms water quality and causes a lot of fish mortality.

Normally, cold winter monsoon winds blowing from the Himalayas cool the surface of the oceans.

But with the shrinking of glaciers and snow cover in the Himalayas, the monsoon winds blowing offshore from land are warmer and more moist, meaning that Noctiluca blooms have flourished.

Read more: Why economists worry that reversing climate change is hopeless

Noctiluca (also known as sea sparkle) doesnt rely only on sunlight and nutrients; it can also survive by eating other microorganisms.

This dual mode of energy acquisition gives it a tremendous advantage to flourish and disrupt the classic food chain of the Arabian Sea.

Noctiluca blooms first appeared in the late 1990s.

The slush started to appear in the 90s. (NASA)

In Oman, desalination plants, oil refineries and natural gas plants are now forced to scale down operations because they are choked by Noctiluca blooms and the jellyfish that swarm to feed on them.

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The resulting pressure on the marine food supply and economic security may also have fuelled the rise in piracy in countries like Yemen and Somalia.

The study provides compelling new evidence of the cascading impacts of global warming on the Indian monsoons, with socio-economic implications for large populations of the Indian sub-continent and the Middle East.

Most studies related to climate change and ocean biology are focused on the polar and temperate waters, and changes in the tropics are going largely unnoticed, said Goes.
According to various reports, a Saudi-backed military overthrow might be taking place in Qatar. The reports are unconfirmed as social media has been reportedly shut down. According to the report, former Qatari PM and FM Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, tried to overthrow Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the current Emir of Qatar because he ordered an investigation into Hamads corporations for corruption, Breaking Israel New reports in its article Rumors Circulating of a Military Coup in Qatar Against Hamas-Supporting Government.

It should be noted that Qatar is the main donor state to the Hamas terror regime in Gaza. In late March, Al Thani, has ordered $150 million in aid to be delivered to the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip. And although Doha claimed that the funds were meant to help the coastal enclave battle coronavirus, the agreement didnt specify how much of the $150 would be allocated to preventing the spread of the pandemic in Gaza.

Urdu Point reports in its article Reports On Coup Attempt In Qatar False - Foreign Ministry Source that a source in the Qatari Foreign Ministry told Sputnik on Monday that social media reports alleging an attempted coup in the country are false. Earlier in the say, a video, allegedly made in early hours on Monday and showing unusual activity in Al Wakrah area in Doha with clearly heard gunshots, appeared on social networks.

A comment to the video suggested that a coup was being launched in Qatar by former Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, whose company, according to anonymous sources on social networks, has recently been subjected to checks. "These are fake news," the source said.

According to a Sputnik correspondent, the situation in Doha and particularly in Al Wakrah area is calm, and no signs of the alleged coup can be observed.
Ahmed remembers when his stepfather, Ashraf, almost lost his finger while working at the JBS meat plant in the small Alberta city of Brooks.

Two days later, he was back on the job.

Ahmed, whose name has been changed to protect his stepfathers identity, recalls visiting his dad in the hospital and seeing him in a state of distress. But after his first shift back at work, he came home relieved he was still employed. Ahmed was shocked.

I was like, Are you serious? Like, youre worried about losing your job when you almost lost your finger? 

Ahmeds story speaks to what some immigrants say is the work ethic required to gain a foothold in a new country. For decades, meat plants have been a landing place for people new to Canada. The job has always meant long hours and hard labour, but, crucially, without the need for language skills or specialized training.

Between half and 75 per cent of the workers at the plant are immigrants or temporary foreign workers, according to numerous workers and union representatives who spoke to the Star.

But now, a job at a meat plant also means the potential of being exposed to COVID-19.

The Star spoke with three employees at the meat plant in Brooks on the condition of anonymity. They asked that their real names not be used as they feared they could lose their jobs if they spoke to the media.

Meat-processing plants have been thrust into the spotlight in connection to significant outbreaks of coronavirus in North America. Employees say they spend long hours cutting and packaging meat in conditions that one worker described as side by side, making physical distancing challenging.

Taken together, the JBS meat plant in Brooks and the Cargill meat plant in High River are linked to more than 1,400 cases of COVID-19, accounting for nearly 30 per cent of all Alberta cases.

The Cargill plant was closed on April 20 after Bui Thi Hiep, an employee of Vietnamese descent who worked at the plant for more than two decades, died of COVID-19, according to a Facebook post detailing memorial arrangements. The plant closed two days after government officials told workers the site was safe during a tele-townhall. The plant reopened Monday, despite United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401, the union that represents the workers, attempting to secure a stop-work order to prevent the reopening.

In a statement on the opening of the High River plant Monday, Cargill said employees returning to work must be healthy and not have had any contact with anyone with COVID-19 for 14 days.

We are poignantly aware that being an essential worker is not easy. The health and safety of our employees continues to be our top priority, the statement said.

The outbreak at Cargill in High River, a town of about 13,000 just south of Calgary, is the biggest outbreak linked to a single workplace in Canada, with more than 1,100 cases linked to the plant. Meanwhile the city of Brooks, two hours directly east of High River, has seen almost 1,000 cases, many of them linked to the plant in town.

Both small towns have more cases than Edmonton, a city of a million people.

The two meat plants are some of the largest in Canada. Along with another Cargill plant in Guelph, Ont., they process 95 per cent of Canadas meat, according to the National Farmers Union.

The spectre of the virus hanging over the plants has created tension within some families. Workers are adamant that even with the threat of the virus looming, they need to show up to support their loved ones.

Their children, meanwhile, just want their parents to be safe.

All the immigrants here are committed to that job because they cant get any other job. They cant speak English, they dont know how to write, they dont know how to read, Ahmed said.

It makes me feel really angry. I dont even know at that point what to do. Even though I told them to stay home, they dont want to, they cant, they have no choice.

Ahmeds stepfather moved here from Guinea almost two decades ago, and has spent more than 10 years at the plant.

Since the outbreak, Ashraf said, the company had implemented screening protocols at the entrance where they check every employee for COVID-19 symptoms and have distributed masks and gloves to workers. JBS did not confirm what protective measures are in place. Cargill outlined their screening protocols in an April 29 news release.

Ashraf is still worried about getting infected, but says the bigger concern is losing his job. He says the company requires a doctors note saying theyre sick in order for workers to stay home on paid leave.

It makes me mad. It makes everybody mad. Nobody wants to work. But nobody wants to lose their job, Ashraf said.

If Im not going to work, how I get my pay? If they fire me, what can I do after?

Cameron Bruett, head of corporate affairs for JBS USA, the parent company of the Brooks plant, did not answer a question about whether workers need sick notes to stay home, but said in an email that no one is forced to come to work and no one is punished for missing work due to being sick.

Benyat Zeki, another Brooks resident with a relative who works at the meat plant, started a petition calling for the JBS plant to close for two weeks and for an in-person third-party inspection of the site to ensure its safe. UFCW Local 401 is also calling for a two-week closure.

Zeki said she is alarmed that JBS has not voluntarily closed the facility after two deaths were linked to the outbreak there.

Whats so sad is that that wasnt enough to change the narrative or to give greater support. Theyre just kind of numbers, Zeki said.

My family member is still working there. Theyre at the plant right now, so when they come back, thats putting my house at risk.

Bashir Mohamed, an Edmonton writer and activist whose own father once worked at the Brooks meat plant, wrote an article for Progress Alberta criticizing Albertas chief medical officer, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, for using language he feels unfairly blames racialized immigrant workers for community transmission.

In April, Hinshaw said overcrowded housing and carpooling to work were factors for the high rate of transmission in High River. Mohamed said the reason workers find themselves in those situations is because of external economic factors, such as how much they get paid.

Shes essentially suggesting the reason why they put themselves in that situation is because of some cultural thing, Mohamed said. When in reality theyre in very precarious positions  if they dont show up to work theyre going to face consequences. And I know this for a fact because my dad worked in one of these plants.

In a statement to the Star, Hinshaw said while work site conditions, carpooling and living arrangements all play a role in the spread of COVID-19, there are many factors that lead to community transmission, which is true in every outbreak and is in no way unique to Cargill.

As Chief Medical Officer of Health, I want to be clear: the workers at this plant should not be blamed for this outbreak, she said in a statement.

It is essential that we not stigmatize anyone infected with this virus. These are difficult times and we all need to work together  everyone in communities across the province  to get through this.

Abdulkadir, a worker at the Brooks plant who moved to Canada from Somalia about seven years ago, was in isolation for two weeks after getting sick, but tested negative for COVID-19. He says he and his family were showing symptoms but did not ultimately get infected.

Now I have no choice but to go back to work Monday, he said last week.

Still, Im worried. ... If somebodys not going outside, and then you bring the disease to them and youre going to infect the whole family, really its tough.

But he said despite the risk working at the factory poses, he has no choice but to continue working because the $2,000 a month he would get from the Canada Emergency Response Benefit wouldnt be enough to support his large family.

If Im not working, how am I going to feed myself and my family? Just tell me, he said with frustration.

In a poll conducted by the union representing employees at the Cargill and JBS meat plants, 75 per cent of workers said their employers and the government are not doing enough to keep them safe.

Thomas Hesse, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401, said the high rates of infection in Brooks and High River shouldnt be blamed on workers, the majority of whom are immigrants, racialized or temporary foreign workers.

He its impossible to practise social distancing on the processing floor.

Instead of acknowledging that these packing houses have a systemic problem  theyre old, its elbow to elbow  what theyre trying to do is reframe the issue around too many people driving to work in a car, or too many people living together, he said.

Antonio, a JBS plant worker who tested positive for COVID-19 and has been in isolation for nearly two weeks described conditions at the facility as people working side by side.

How could they say there is a social distancing inside the floor? You work two or three feet (apart), there is no six feet or two metres away, Antonio, who immigrated to Canada from the Philippines, told the Star.

Workers now in the plant, like me, are fearing to go back to work because we have a lot of cases now.

Hesse said hundreds of employees havent been showing up to work at the JBS plant because they dont feel safe. He said the company has merged two shifts into one to fill in the labour gaps, leading to even more crowded conditions. A worker confirmed that the shifts have been merged.

JBS did not answer a question about the merged shifts and whether that has led to additional challenges with physical distancing.

Hesse said JBS has offered numerous incentives to employees so they will continue coming to work. They added an additional $4 an hour for workers and Hesse said theres also a $600 bonus in May for workers in good standing who continue to attend work.

So of course, for people who are economically disadvantaged or desperate for that matter, you wake up and you dont feel well, youre (still) going to work because you want that 600 bucks, He said.

Mohamed believes the Cargill plant would have been closed sooner if the majority of its workers werent immigrants, racialized or temporary foreign workers.

If anywhere else in this province accounted for 26 per cent of the total (COVID-19) cases, there would be outrage, people would be fired, people would have to resign, he said.

He argues, for example, there would be a very different outcome if the outbreak exploded on the University of Alberta campus.

I guarantee you in one day the campus would be shut down and people would be held accountable, Mohamed said.

To me its not one small mistake, he added. Its a tragedy.

Mohamed said he wanted to use his voice to bring attention to what immigrant workers are facing because he feels their struggles are being ignored. But most importantly for him, its personal.

He remembers standing at the door of their Edmonton home as a child and saying goodbye to his father, who would go to Brooks and work at the meat plant for months. It took a toll on him and his family, but it was the only way to make ends meet.

He applied to so many places and one place that would accept him was a meat packing plant, Mohamed said. It was precarious work. It was dangerous work. It was difficult for the family, because he was gone for months.

I think a lot of people would wonder why you would put yourself in such a precarious position. For him, it was so I could have a future.

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New Delhi, May 5 : After the West Bengal government released fresh data about the COVID-19 situation in the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party launched a scathing attack on it on Tuesday.

State BJP in-charge and party General Secretary Kailash Vijayavargiya demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Vijayavargiya, speaking to IANS, said that Banerjee should speak in a serious manner and take responsibility. She has no right to continue in office, she should resign immediately. He said that Mamata is only doing politics, she has nothing to do with the lives of people.

He alleged that instead of focusing on COVID-19 the Mamata government is fighting with the Centre and the Governor. In such a situation the people of West Bengal are sitting on a keg of gunpowder.

After pressure from the central team on Monday, the state government released new figures about the coronavirus situation in the state on Tuesday. According to the data, 296 new cases have been detected in West Bengal in the last two days and 98 people have died.

According to the data released by the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday morning, there were 1,259 coronavirus-infected people in Bengal, out of which 218 were discharged from hospital, while the death toll has seen a tremendous increase. As of Tuesday morning, 133 people have died.

The Central government team that went to West Bengal to investigate the situation returned on Monday after a two-week long tour. In its letter to the Chief Secretary of the state, the team said that despite every effort the state government did not cooperate.

The committee said that the mortality rate due to coronavirus is the highest in West Bengal. During its two-week long tour the team wrote 11 letters to the Chief Secretary and various state departments to obtain information.
Representative image

The National Hawker Foundation, in a letter dated May 4 to Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri, stated that the condition of street vendors and hawkers was worsening by the day.

The letter says the legally mandated street vendor survey has not been done everywhere in India and that only 10 percent of the vendors have been surveyed, thereby not capturing the actual size of the business. Except for the small percentage of vegetable and fruit sellers, all are out of business with absolutely no liquidity.

Street vendors are part of India's enormous informal sector, that has found itself denied a livelihood because of the nationwide lockdown imposed to tackle the COVID-19 outbreak.

After the further extension of lockdown till May 17 was announced on May 3, most factory owners and industries were left guessing, as the Noida administration had not issued any specific instruction on how manufacturing units are supposed to function.

"There is no clarity as to how the passes for the workers and promoters will be available, whether they will be available online or offline. Things are not very clear," said Mukesh Mohan Gupta, President, Chamber of Indian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

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

According to Gupta, Noida Entrepreneurs Association was assured that the passes would be available online, but there is still no clarity over it.

Apart from a lack of clarity on how to resume work, a more pressing concern for business owners is the lack of availability of labour force in Indian cities and towns.

On April 29, the Union Home Ministry allowed state governments to transport migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students, patients and others stranded due to the lockdown to their respective states from different parts of the country.

"Since most of the labourers believe that lockdown may get extended to an indefinite period, there is shortage of labour," Gupta said.

Though the government is now gradually allowing resumption of economic activities, it comes with riders. Factories that have remained shut can now restart work, only if they follow the requirements of maintaining social distancing and having less workforce.

Construction activities that were ordered shut overnight because areas with large gatherings were to be emptied out, can now resume work under certain conditions.

Most migrant labourers who have left for their villages have to depend on makeshift rural jobs till the next sowing season begins. But those workers who have stayed back in the cities, expecting some relaxation in lockdown, would be keen on taking up the jobs that would now be made available.

"So in a sense, there would be two types of economic forces that would be working. The MSMEs would be looking for a low-wage supply of labour and at the same time, migrant workers, who would have otherwise been working in informal spaces like in trading or large companies as contract workers, would find an opportunity to get jobs in the MSME sector. So in that sense, there would be a supply-demand match," said KR Shyam Sundar, professor at Xavier School of Management in Jamshedpur.

The Census 2011 pegs the total number of internal migrants in the country (accounting for inter- and intra-state movement) at a staggering 139 million.

Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are the biggest source states, followed closely by Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, and West Bengal; the major destination states are Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

With the majority of this workforce having departed from sites of production, resumption of work may not be as smooth as it seems.

"Most of those who worked in my factory used to live in nearby slums. But they were mostly from other states. Now even if I am able to begin operations, I don't know how the workforce logistics would work out," said the owner of a garments business, who has a factory in Ghaziabad.

Several MSMEs require skilled labour and most of these businesses are driven by promoters.

"The promoter is involved in marketing and payments, but it is the skilled labour which is aware of the workings of material and machinery, stock and supply orders. To retrieve the skilled and semi-skilled workforce is a challenge," said Gupta.

(With inputs from Pramiti Lonkar)
South Africa is entering a period in which different industries will resume operation in a staggered manner as the coronavirus lockdown is gradually lifted.

Companies are encouraged to be extra vigilant of the effects troublesome incidents may have on their performance and survival in uncertain times like these.

The Allianz Risk Barometer identified three risks which South African businesses are especially susceptible to  namely cyber incidents, business interruption and changes in legislation or regulation.

With the COVID-19 outbreak and its consequences still weighing heavily on businesses, the threat of these risks has been exacerbated.

Occupational health and safety directives

The pandemic has complicated existing Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) legislation in South Africa even further.

Government has directed that businesses that are allowed to resume operations under level 4 must abide by an extensive set of strict measures to protect their employees from contracting the coronavirus.

Failure to do so could increase the risk of staff falling ill, which may put their lives in danger, in addition to harming productivity and having costly legal ramifications.

The directives include the following:

Performing a risk assessment that needs to be sent to the government.

Screening workers when they report for work.

Preventing workers from reporting for duty if they show symptoms.

Providing appropriate protective equipment such as cloth masks.

Ensuring workspaces are sanitised regularly.

These are just a few of the additional legislative requirements companies will be burdened with and have to adjust to in the coming months.

Punishments for not adhering to the directives include fines and jail time.

Cyber incidents in remote working

Where employees are unable to return to their places of work, but are able to perform their duties from home, another threat lurks.

In an attempt to gain access to sensitive company information and systems, malicious attackers have shifted their attention from corporate to home networks.

This is because certain employees may be working on personal computers without the necessary company-approved security policies or using insecure connections to access their companys systems.

Unauthorised access to work-from-home infrastructure can have devastating consequences for a company and its employees.

Managing incidents

There are a number of initiatives a company can undertake to ensure it is capable of minimising OHS and cyber-related incidents and prevent them from re-occurring.

Having incident management systems connected to IoT devices can enable connectivity from anywhere to increase the rate at which incidents are logged, investigated and resolved.

This also provides companies with valuable streams of data to prevent and proactively identify incidents across systems and locations.

Furthermore, it is essential to proactively log and report incidents to enable your company to adapt policies that will help prevent future incidents of a similar nature.

This is especially important for managing constrained resources.

Lastly, centralising your incident system will allow the company to use lessons learnt from different departments or business units and apply them throughout operations.

Curas Incident Management software

As a leading provider of Governance, Risk, Compliance and Risk-based Audit Software solutions, Cura is capable of assisting your company in managing both OHS and Cyber-related incidents.

With Curas Incident Management product, many global companies are able to monitor and manage incidents such as:

Workplace hazards or accidents

Employee injuries

Legal incidents

Environmental incidents

Reputational issues

Financial loss issues

Regulatory compliance issues

Client service interruptions

Near-misses

Cura Incident Management software boasts the following features

Interactive dashboards and reports  Real time visibility into incident management activities.

 Real time visibility into incident management activities. Unparalleled flexibility  Business users can configure the system to perfectly match existing incident management processes and best practices.

Business users can configure the system to perfectly match existing incident management processes and best practices. Tasks, notifications and escalations  Alerts users and managers when tasks need to be performed or when incidents occur.

 Alerts users and managers when tasks need to be performed or when incidents occur. Roles-based security and audit trails  Ensures the integrity of incident management information and tracks all changes to records in the system.

Ensures the integrity of incident management information and tracks all changes to records in the system. Flexible deployment options  Allows organisations to host compliance information on-premise or deploy in the cloud as a hosted solution.

Enhance your incident management today

During times of uncertainty, it is important that businesses employ good incident management practices in order to effectively address threats and return to optimal productivity.

With Curas Incident Management software, your business will be able to deal with inevitable incidents to weather the continued storm of business-unusual times.

Click here to learn more about Curas Incident Management software solution.
BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje on Tuesday alleged that she received threatening calls from the Middle East and Gulf countries for writing to Union Home Minister Amit Shah about the "ill-treatment" meted out to an Indian in Kuwait for hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In a video message, Karandlaje said she recently came to know that the Indian, a driver from Kerala, was beaten up in that country.

"After I wrote to Amit Shah about it, I received hundreds of threat calls from the Middle East and Gulf countries in a vulgar language," Karandlaje alleged in the message.

In her letter to Shah dated May 3, she said the driver was slapped and forced to apologise for praising Modi.

Karandlaje shared the video of the purported incident on her Twitter handle.

"We must mount pressure on the authorities of Kuwait to extradite him (perpetrator) and be brought to India for trial," Karandlaje stated in her letter and described the incident as "outrageous and unacceptable."
Los Angeles, May 5 : "Avengers: Endgame" co-director Joe Russo has confirmed that he will be working on a sequel to the recent digital film "Extraction". Actor Chris Hemsworth and director Sam Hargrave are expected to return in the new action adventure.

"The deal is closed for me to write 'Extraction 2' and we are in the formative stages of what the story can be," Joe told deadline.com." "We're not committing yet to whether that story goes forward or backward in time. We left a big loose ending that leaves question marks for the audience," he added.

With "Extraction", Hemsworth made his digital debut as an actor, and Hargrave graduated from being Chris Evans' stunt double in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" for fight scenes and stunt coordinator in "Captain America: Civil War" to a feature director. Hargrave was an additional second unit director in "Avengers: Infinity War".

For his first "Extraction" film, Hargrave reunited with his "Avengers" family. He had "Thor" star Hemsworth to lead the film, screenplay of which is done by Joe. The film is produced by Russo Brothers (Joe and Anthony Russo), Mike Larocca, Hemsworth, Eric Gitter, and Peter Schwerin, and is on its way to becoming Netflix's most watched feature film ever.

Although Hargrave and Hemsworth are expected to be back, the deals will be made by Netflix once the script is ready.

Joe said that the focus will be to work out the story and then write the script and show it to Hemsworth.

The film revolves around Tyler Rake (essayed by Hemsworth), a fearless, black market mercenary, who embarks on the most deadly extraction of his career when he is enlisted to rescue the kidnapped son of an imprisoned international crime lord. It has been shot extensively in India, along with other places around the world.

The movie ended with an opportunity for Rake to return, and there's potential in the backstories of the characters as well, setting base for a prequel.

"There was always a simple drive to the story, a balletic execution of action where you take a damaged character who made an egregious mistake in the past and has a shot at redemption which might be fatal," Joe said, adding: "What was key is that we needed a muscular action director like Sam to be the main creative force in the execution of the action." Originally titled "Dhaka", the film also stars Indian actors Randeep Hooda, Pankaj Tripathi, Priyanshu Painyulli, and Rudraksh Jaiswal.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
For those readying their homes for sale, tracking down information on past renovations, home services and other features can put them at an advantage. Preparing video tours and offering virtual walk-throughs can also lessen the number of prospective buyers who will want to see the home in person. And once a home is listed, you could find yourself packing up sooner than expected.
The real hotel is far eerier than Ryan Murphy's menage-a-plots could ever manage to be, having housed serial killer Richard Ramirez during his murder spree in the 1980s. During the summer of 1985 while the rest of the country was enjoying a trip to the 1950s with Marty McFly, Ramirez, a snaggle-toothed Satan worshipper, spread a swath of terror across the city of Los Angeles. Ramirez, worse than a dozen Biff Tannens, broke into homes, raping, beating, and killing whomever happened to be home at the time, which put the police on his trail. During this time, he called the Cecil home and used it as a changing spot in between human hunts.

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Skid Row, which had always been the spot in LA for the down-and-out crowd, had its status made permanent when the city, in a move for "containment" centralized all the shelters and needle drops in the area. Once crack hit the scene, Skid Row, with the Cecil Hotel in the heart of it, made a perfect stomping ground for a monster like Ramirez. It was the type of place where a crazy, dirty guy splattered with blood wouldn't stand out that much. Ramirez would strip off behind the hotel, dump his bloody rags in the dumpster, and plod to his room naked, hopscotching his way around the junkies.

But the seedy Cecil wasn't just home to one serial killer. In 1991, an Austrian named Jack Unterweger made it his home base as well. He'd gotten a life sentence in his home country for the murder of a prostitute in 1976, but after learning to read and write in prison, he became a cultural darling for his writing in the Austrian literary community. He was released as a model of rehabilitation, but it turns out that old murderous habits die hard, and the guy killed nine more prostitutes before U.S. authorities got him for good. (After he got sentenced here, he used the string from his prison pants to hang himself.)

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You'd think being the home to two serial killers within less than a decade of each other would be enough for any place, but the Cecil made headlines again when it became the final resting place of a woman named Elisa Lam. Lam was a 21-year-old woman who was seen in security footage seemingly yelling and running from someone, until finally ending up in the hotel's water tank. Guests bathed in and drank that water for over two weeks before her body was finally discovered.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday made his first major foray out of the White House since the coronavirus lockdown began, pushing for the US economy to reopen as Britain became the country with the second most deaths. The growing US death toll is already more than 70,000 -- by far the highest globally -- while Britain's rose to 32,000, putting it above Italy in the grim ranking of national fatalities. Elsewhere in Europe, hard-hit Italy, Spain and France have reported a levelling off of figures, offering hope that life could slowly start returning to normal. With experts warning of a severe global recession, many governments have been easing stay-at-home measures in a bid to revive badly hammered economies. Financial markets hinted at some light at the end of the tunnel, with stocks and oil prices rallying Tuesday. "We can't keep our country closed for the next five years," Trump said on a trip to a mask-making factory in Arizona, conceding that some people would be "badly affected." He urged US states to ease restrictions as he attempts to fire up the world's biggest economy before the November presidential election, when the high death toll and millions of lost jobs could cost him dearly. The US registered 2,333 more deaths over the 24-hours to Tuesday evening, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, with some scientific models suggesting the figure will rise to 3,000 a day by June. Countries are balancing the need to revive stalled economies against the risk of a new wave of deadly infections. In Germany, regional leaders pushed back against Chancellor Angela Merkel's pleas for caution, with the biggest state Bavaria saying it would reopen restaurants and hotels this month. Hong Kong announced plans to reopen schools, cinemas, bars and beauty parlours from Friday, while Californian bookshops, florists and clothing stores will also be allowed to reopen at the end of the week. Authorities also unveiled plans to hand out reusable face masks to all 7.5 million city residents. - 'I'm used to working' - "It's better now that I'm waking up and doing something," South African mechanic Milton Nkosi, 40, told AFP as he checked a new set of tyres at a garage in Johannesburg. "I'm used to working," he added. "It's the first time in my life to stay home so many days." But the garage only called back four of its eight employees after being closed for five weeks and is only partially open -- underlining the huge challenge to rebuild the global economy. At least 254,532 people have died of the novel coronavirus since the epidemic surfaced in China late last year, according to an AFP tally at 1900 GMT Tuesday based on official sources. Russia cemented its place as the European country reporting the highest number of new infections as its total cases soared past 155,000. Despite the increases, the Russian government has indicated it could gradually lift confinement measures from May 12. The economic casualties have also piled up from the impact of the pandemic. Spain added 280,000 people to its jobless ranks, while the Virgin Atlantic airline said it would have to fire one in three staff as the virus grounds planes worldwide. Walt Disney said it expected an impact of some $1.4 billion in the current fiscal quarter as a result of a massive hit to its theme parks and other operations. And home-sharing platform Airbnb announced it would slash one fourth of its workforce due to the collapse of the travel industry. In India, police used batons to beat back crowds jostling to buy alcohol for the first time in 40 days as the world's biggest lockdown eased. The government in New Delhi credits its strict shutdown with keeping the official tally of COVID-19 deaths to 1,400 in a country with a population of 1.3 billion. But the policy has resulted in misery for millions of workers in India's vast informal sector left suddenly jobless. India said Tuesday it had embarked on a "massive" operation calling up passenger jets and naval ships to bring back some of the hundreds of thousands of its nationals stuck abroad. Evacuees will have to pay for their passage and spend 14 days in quarantine on arrival. - Baseball, without fans - Polish voters were still in the dark on Tuesday as to whether their presidential election will go ahead as scheduled this weekend. The right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) government is seeking parliamentary approval to conduct the election by postal ballot -- despite widespread concern that it would not be fair, legal or safe. In a ray of hope for the sports world, South Korea's baseball players returned to action, albeit to empty stadiums. Banners with photos of masked fans stretched across the bleachers at the Incheon-based SK Wyverns club's Munhak Baseball Stadium. Players have been asked not to shake hands or exchange high-fives, while spitting is prohibited. Friday will also see the delayed start of the country's football K-League. Juventus players returned to individual training at the team's sports centre in Turin on Tuesday, though star player Cristiano Ronaldo began two weeks' quarantine after returning to Italy following two months of confinement on his native island of Madeira. But in Britain, sports leaders warned of the "catastrophic" impact of the virus, with football, cricket and rugby counting the cost of delayed or cancelled tournaments and leagues. burs-bgs/bfm Clinical staff test a key worker for the novel coronavirus at the Royal Papworth Hospital in Britain, which has suffered a rising coronavirus death toll World map showing official number of coronavirus deaths per country, as of May 5 at 1900 GMT US President Donald Trump tours a Honeywell International plant that manufactures personal protective equipment in Phoenix, Arizona An employee of a cleaning company disinfects a bus on the outskirts of Paris Banners depict spectators in the stands prior to South Korea's new baseball season opening game between SK Wyverns and Hanwha Eagles in Incheon
Once again, the Imo State government has placed its local government councils into the hands of unelected chairmen. It was like a volte face, having announced earlier that it was beginning a process that would lead to the conduct of local government elections in the state. The governments earlier stand was indeed cheering to those who had followed the turbulent times in the grassroots government for more than a decade.

Its the same scenario playing out in almost all the 774 local government areas in the federation. The local government palaver is an age-old problem that has caused a huge setback in most states of the federation since the return of democracy in the nations governance. Experience has shown that the state governors enjoy the status of lords over the local government chairmen in their states. The governments are emboldened by the clause in the local government reforms that gives them an oversight function on the local governments as well as provides a joint accounting system between the states and local governments.

In as much as this clause had been provided to check recklessness among chairmen in the local governments, writers of the constitution apparently did not take cognizance of the checks and balances that also exist in the third tier government that also runs in three arms, namely the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.

Moves are being made to grant full autonomy to the local governments and it is expected that every stakeholder without ulterior motives should back the legislation which is still pending before the National Assembly. Localities, as a matter of fact, should be allowed to take their destiny in their hands and chart a course for themselves on issues of development and security. And, to a large extent, the emergence of elected officials to run our local governments has the potentials to address the instability besetting these councils.

During the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency, which incidentally kicked off the present unbroken streak of democratically elected administrations in Nigeria, the squabble between states and local governments led to delayed payment of primary school teachers, both serving and retired.

Obviously, funds allocated for this purpose, which was usually subjected to the control of the states, were brazenly misappropriated by the state governments.

As a measure against the unhealthy development, the Federal Government then undertook the direct payment of these teachers and pensioners as well as the direct funding of primary schools, thereby bypassing the states.

Things shaped up within the period of implementation of this measure until a gang-up of governors took the Federal Government to court. Life in the local governments was to take another plunge with the victory of the governors in court as salaries and pensions gradually returned to the state of mirage.

In Imo State, the worst happened when the Rochas Okorocha administration decided to pool state and local government allocations together for use on somewhat nebulous projects, leaving barely enough for salaries of staff in the councils.

The major distraction in that administration, which apparently ended as soon as its tenure elapsed, was the introduction of an ill-conceived Community Government Councils (CGCs) on the basis of autonomous communities. Because they were poorly arranged, the CGCs made no significant impact. They rather left the local government councils shattered and impotent as they were bereft of funds. This brazen violation of the nations constitution went under the carpet without consequences.

Elections held at the twilight of that administration were highly controversial as they suffered apathy and were practically boycotted by every political party but the All Progressives Congress (APC). Besides, they were held just as litigations had gone in favour of the sacked Ikedi Ohakim group of local government officials who also came into power in controversial circumstances. The Ihedioha administration, perhaps, fell into the same pit when it sacked the Rochas gang and did not immediately organize elections to legitimize the governments in the grassroots.

Gov. Uzodinma would have struck the right cord had he decided to hold elections instead of using interim management committees that are susceptible to the manipulation of governors who appointed them. Only when elections are held and are seen to have been democratically conducted, and the peoples choices are allowed to prevail, will the good times in our local government areas be seen to have run a full circle.

At this moment though, we must admit that COVID-19 is yet occupying our minds, our airwaves and the pages of our tabloids. A post-COVID-19 war era should see the states preparing earnestly for this all important election which has the capacity to calm frayed nerves as well as obviate impending legal fireworks in many of our states.

One more thing, the presiding governor in the affected states must rise above the petty, domineering spirit of past governors and hold sincerely free and fair local government elections devoid of manipulations and impositions in the name of building political structures. If this happens, then Imo should be ready to smile.

Dr. Odu writes from Owerri, Imo State. Email: [email protected]
It wasnt exactly the wedding they planned, but they made do.

Elizabeth Keeran and Jonathan Culbertson said I do Saturday evening at 1106 W. College Ave.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they had to postpone their original wedding date  March 21  and their plan to have it in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

When people started talking about (the virus), I wasnt too worried because we didnt have a huge wedding planned, Keeran said of the period leading up to their original wedding date and the pandemic. But as it got more serious we had to start thinking about our parents being older and traveling back and forth. We were just going to have a small ceremony and then a larger reception.

Keeran, a teacher at Washington Elementary School in Jacksonville, was out for a walk on College Avenue two weeks ago when she struck up a conversation with one of her students parents; her postponed wedding was mentioned. From that point, one thing led to another and planning was back in full force.

She got in contact with Reverend (Jonathan) Warren, Keeran said of Skylar McGee, owner of the College Avenue home where the wedding was held.

Warren, of First Presbyterian Church on College Avenue, agreed to perform a simple outdoor ceremony for the young couple.

Keeran and Culbertson were able to obtain their marriage license and pick a date.

We went to the courthouse, set up an appointment and decided on Saturday, Keeran said.

Keeran wore the dress she had picked out for the planned wedding in Tennessee. A handful of guests practiced social distancing.

Itll be us, Reverend Warren, the McGees and four or five of our close friends, she said Friday. They have a big, iron gate outside of their yard, so people will just scatter outside of the gate at a safe distance, and theyre going to Facetime some of our family members.

While happy that they finally were able to marry and that the event proved to be unique, Keeran did have a few regrets.

Were really excited, she said Friday. But it is kinda sad that we wont have our family there and my dad wont be able to walk me down the aisle.

Their original plan to honeymoon in Tennessee also has been delayed, but they intend to have a larger reception when restrictions finally are fully lifted.

Right now, well just wait it out, she said.
Babagana Zulum, governor of Borno, has appointed Shehu Umar as the new traditional ruler of Bama. His appointment follows the deat...





Babagana Zulum, governor of Borno, has appointed Shehu Umar as the new traditional ruler of Bama.





His appointment follows the death of his father, Kyari Umar El-Kanemi, the former shehu who died at the age of 63.





Usman Shuwa, the secretary to Borno state government, who presented the appointment letter to the new shehu on Monday, on behalf of the governor, said the monarch is directed to rule from Bama.

your role as a leader is very crucial and principal to the establishment of civil authorities in Bama, he said. I am directed by his excellency to direct you to remain in Bama, so that you can give sense of belonging to the people,your role as a leader is very crucial and principal to the establishment of civil authorities in Bama, he said.





Your appointment was based on your proven integrity impeccable record of service to the people of Bama Local Government, and in particular service to humanity in general.

Your royal highness sir, this appointment is conferred on you by the executive Governor of Borno State, you are hereby expected to exhibit high sense of justice, equity, fairness to all people of Bama.

Shuwa said the appointment was based on the recommendations of the kingmakers of Bama emirate council.





The new shehu, until his appointment, was a businessman.





Responding on behalf of Bama emirate council, Babakura Kaigama, Kaigama of Bama, expressed his appreciation to the governor for choosing Umar as new emir.
Gov. Phil Murphy will hold another briefing Tuesday to provide an update on the ongoing coronavirus pandemic a day after announcing that all public and private schools would remain closed through the academic year.

The 1 p.m. press conference at the Trenton War Memorial will be streamed on the governors YouTube channel.

Murphy will be joined by state Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli as well as the states communicable disease service medical director, Edward Lifshitz, and State Police Superintendent Col. Pat Callahan.

On Tuesday evening Murphy will participate in two televised interviews on cable news stations. At 7 p.m. the governor will appear on MSNBC Live: Decision 2020 hosted by Steve Kornacki. Then at 9 p.m., Murphy will chat with Chris Cuomo on CNNs Cuomo Prime Time.

At least 7,910 have died of COVID-19 related causes in New Jersey since the first death was announced March 10.

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Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Jacqueline Fincher, a practicing internist and president of the American College of Physicians, said that if patients with preexisting conditions have developed new, worsening symptoms, she often needs to see them in her office. These would be patients who have medical issues such as hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease or kidney disease, along with a change in health status, such as swelling in the legs, shortness of breath, chest pain or a temperature. With an acute illness on top of chronic, its really hard to evaluate in an appropriate manner through telehealth, Fincher said. She prefers that such patients call the office instead of emailing or using a patient portal, so she can triage over the phone and probably have them come in.
Speaking about Q1 market dynamics, Research Director Jeff Fieldhack said, "In Q1 we began seeing impacts on smartphone supply in February and early March due to Chinese factory closures due to COVID-19. Manufacturers with factories located in Wuhan were affected the most. A late tax season bump saw a sales increase for prepaid devices in late February, but supply shortages limited this growth. In mid-March, demand plummeted due to COVID-19. States began to issue stay-at-home orders and both carriers and national retailers closed stores, restricted foot traffic and offered curb-side pick-up in only a few cases. Around 70% of postpaid stores closed in March leading to a steep decline in smartphone sales for the last month of the quarter."

Commenting on manufacturer trends for the quarter, Research Analyst Maurice Klaehne noted, "Apple's physical stores also closed in March and demand shifted to online channels. Apple only declined 13% YoY; much less than almost all other manufacturers. Samsung on the other hand declined 23% YoY. The Galaxy A-series continued to be a sales driver for Samsung as the Galaxy S20 series had a weak start due to COVID-19 shutdowns taking effect right as the new models hit the stores. Samsung offered a $200 online promotion to drive sales in March and even initially launched the devices through its online channel, similar to how Apple uses the Apple Stores during launch months. Samsung is offering both the S20 Plus and S20 Ultra with both sub-6 and mmWave 5G, while the S20 only has sub-6 5G. This means that the lowest cost Galaxy S20 model is currently not being offered at Verizon, although Verizon says it soon will be. Other manufacturers saw steeper declines as they were hit more strongly by early supply shortages or had weaker sales due to store closures. OnePlus did see growth in the quarter, thanks to its small year ago base. OnePlus continues to make inroads into US carrier markets, especially through competitively-priced 5G smartphone offerings."

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Contractors in the Republic are calling on the Minister for Agriculture to close down the cross-border movement of Northern Ireland-based farm contractors and their operators.

In a letter to Minister Michael Creed, the Association of Farm and Forestry Contractors of Ireland (FCI) said a large number of Northern-based contractors and workers are "continuing to enter the Republic unrestricted on a daily basis and working on Irish farms, putting the health of Irish farmers and their families at significant risk and undermining the huge national Covid-19 effort".

However, one contractor based in Fermanagh, who operates on both sides of the border, said the claim was "fairly foolish".

"Any of the agricultural work is non-contact this time of year - fertilising, reseeding and cutting silage," said Jamie Gormley, of Gormley Contracts in Belleek.

"There is still the older generation of farmers who want to jump in the cab, and you have to make clear to keep a distance."

Mr Gormley said there was "a lot of rivalry" among contractors on either side of the border. Those on the Northern side are around 10pc cheaper, possibly due to differences in insurance and machinery costs, he said.

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A Government source said: "Maintaining our agri-food system has been central to the all of the Government effort in addressing the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Continuing the cross-border element of this sector is key. Baseless suggestions regarding any element of the sector are unhelpful at this time."

Dr Tony Holohan, the Republic's chief medical officer, said the rise in Covid-19 infections in border counties is not likely to have been caused by a "spillover" from Northern Ireland.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre reported that the number of cases in the Republic's north east rose by 82pc in three weeks. Cavan has overtaken Dublin as the county with the most cases per head of population.

Minister for Business Heather Humphreys, a TD for Cavan-Monaghan (pictured), also dismissed claims the high rate in those counties is linked to cross-border travel.
[May 05, 2020] Spurgeon's College: World Exclusive Global Event: Previously Unpublished Material From Historic Preacher, Charles Spurgeon, to Be Read at First Ever 24-hour Event

Christian leaders from around the world will come together virtually for 24-hours on Friday 8th May to read from Charles. H. Spurgeon's work and draw spiritual insights from his words for Christians today. The virtual event will be streamed online with thousands of Christians from around the world expected to join, listen and pray. Letters and sermons from Spurgeon - including 'galley proofs' from the Spurgeon archives in London and from Saddleback Church Founder, Pastor Rick Warren's own family collection - will be read for the first time. Charles Spurgeon - the most popular preacher in the Victorian world - founded Spurgeon's College, London, England in 1856 who are playing host to the event. The gifted preacher, founded the College to train others to help spread the 'good news' to the needy world - with a focus on enabling disadvantaged young men to gain ministerial training. The sponsored event aims to raise funds to continue his legacy. Charles Spurgeon is celebrated by millions around he world for his spiritual insights and literary grace that remain as relevant to Christians' today.



Principal of Spurgeon's College, England, Revd Professor Philip McCormack MBE said: "Charles Spurgeon spoke to Victorian London during the cholera outbreak. His teaching ministry had a profound impact upon the people of London, the United Kingdom and in many countries around the world. Previously unpublished words will be shared during our 24-hour sermon. I hope that Spurgeon's spiritual insights will bring comfort and hope to Christians' around the world during this time of global pandemic." The 24-hour sermon will be live streamed around the world and will be available to view here: http://www.spurgeons.ac.uk/24-hours-with-charles-spurgeon and a full programme can be viewed here: http://www.spurgeons.ac.uk/24-hours-with-charles-spurgeon

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Saudi-led militants start takeover of Yemen's Socotra after fierce infighting

Iran Press TV

Monday, 04 May 2020 9:52 AM

Saudi Arabian-backed militants loyal to Yemen's former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi have started to take control of Socotra Island's provincial capital of Hadibo after fierce fighting with UAE-supported mercenaries.

Socotra governor's information secretary Muhammad Abdullah al-Socotri told Anadolu Agency that the takeover process began on Saturday, adding that it came as part of an agreement reached on Friday to end infighting on the island.

According to the report, the process began simultaneously with the withdrawal of armed units of the so-called Southern Transitional Council (STC), which is backed by the UAE, from positions they seized after intense clashes.

Last week, the STC declared a state of emergency and announced "self-administration rule" in Yemen's southern regions, including the port city of Aden  which has served as the seat of Hadi's former regime during the Saudi military aggression, sparking the tensions.

In August 2018, the UAE deployed more than a hundred troops with artillery and armored vehicles to Socotra. A few months later, a UAE official visiting Socotra said the island would become part of the UAE and its residents would be given Emirati citizenship.

In 2019, the UAE announced a surprise plan to withdraw part of its troops from Yemen in a major blow to its coalition allies.

Both the UAE-sponsored separatists and Saudi-backed Hadi loyalists serve a Riyadh-led military coalition which has been waging a bloody war on Yemeni people since 2015.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in order to bring former president 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.

More than half of Yemen's hospitals and clinics have been destroyed or closed during the war by the Saudi-led coalition, which is supported militarily by the UK, US and other Western nations.

At least 80% of the 28 million-strong population is also reliant on aid to survive in what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

According to the UN's top aid official, Mark Lowcock, civilian casualties have risen every month since January.

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A significant amount of Facebooks recent anti-misinformation efforts have focused on Iran, the social media giant said in a release today.

Facebook said the activity coming out of Iran had links to Irans state broadcaster.

Our investigation linked this activity to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Corporation, Facebook said in a press release. We found this network as part of our internal investigations into suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior.

Facebook today released its monthly Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Report for April. The report shows Facebooks efforts to stop coordinated campaigns that seek to manipulate public debate. This includes information that is fake, spam and artificially amplified from both state and nonstate actors, according to Facebook.

The April 2020 report highlighted significant page and account closures done by Facebook from Iran, Russia, the United States, Mauritania, Myanmar and Georgia. Of this group, only Iran and Russia were found to have activity focusing internationally  as opposed to domestically, according to the release.

Iran had the most accounts removed by Facebook with 389 and the second-most pages removed after Georgia with 118. Facebook also removed 27 groups and six Instagram accounts from Iran, the release said.

Irans activity focused on a range of Asian, African, and Middle Eastern countries  plus the United States and UK. The countries included Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia and Tunisia, according to the release.

A mix of original and fake accounts were responsible for the behavior from Iran. The accounts and pages would take Iranian media content and translate it into Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian and English. This content focused on the Syrian civil war, Turkey-Libya relations and Saudi involvement in the Middle East, among other topics, according to the report.

Iran has a restrictive press environment where only government-approved outlets can operate safely.

Use of Facebook is restricted in Iran, but people circumvent this by using virtual private networks and other servers to access it.

The report did not specify how Facebook determined some of the activity came from Irans state broadcaster. Facebook representatives did not immediately respond to Al-Monitors request for comment.

Facebooks cybersecurity policy head Nathaniel Gleicher told Reuters that the information had links to Irans state broadcaster, but that Facebook could not yet determine whether the government was directly responsible for the content.

In general, these were narratives that are aligned with Iranian geopolitical interests, Gleicher told Reuters.

Some of the activity was old, including material on the Occupy Wall Street movement and on Ron Paul, an anti-war former politician from the United States, according to the report.

The examples of coordinated behavior Facebook cited from Iran may have been from the Iranian government, but they do not necessarily constitute misinformation. One Arabic-language example the report included was a post on men below the age of 50 not being allowed by Israeli authorities to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Israel has prevented men under 50 from going there when it expected clashes in the past.

Iran is an active source of outward-facing propaganda. A 2018 Reuters investigation found that dozens of websites from Iran spread information in line with Irans strategic interests. One Egyptian-focused website with a fake telephone number, for example, aimed to deliver true news about the United States at a time when pro-government Egyptian media was praising the countrys improved relations with America, the investigation found.

The findings constitute a large increase in Facebooks efforts against perceived Iranian state activity. Facebooks report for March did not list any account or page closures from Iran. In February, Facebook said it only removed six accounts from Iran that were focused on the United States.
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The global market size of A-butyl ammonium hydroxide is $ XX million in 2018 with XX CAGR from 2014 to 2018, and it is expected to reach $ XX million by the end of 2024 with a CAGR of XX% from 2019 to 2024.



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KALAMAZOO, MI -- The first participants have been dosed with the coronavirus vaccine, Pfizer announced.

On Tuesday, the global pharmaceutical manufacturing company announced the first clinical trials began. The first cohort of participants was in Germany, according to a Pfizer press release.

The initial manufacturing of the vaccine will happen in three of Pfizers U.S. sites, including the Portage facility.

In partnership with German company BioNTech, known for its cancer treatments, the companies are working towards supplying millions of doses of a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year, according to the release.

The two health tech giants expect to scale up to hundreds of millions in 2021, according to the release.

Related: Pfizer testing potential coronavirus treatments

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer celebrated the news coming from a Michigan manufacturer Tuesday, two days after a CNN interview in which the governor expressed that the global supply chain was slowing Michigans progress against the virus .

This is great news for our families, our neighbors, and those serving on the front lines during this crisis, Whitmer said. COVID-19 has shown how vulnerable our country is when it comes to supply chain and much of the lifesaving materials we need are manufactured out of the country. Thats why we are so proud that one of the largest pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in the world is the Pfizer site right here in Kalamazoo, Michigan. In fact, Michigan has a strong history of vaccine development with the polio and anthrax vaccines. Pfizer is a great partner and the State of Michigan and our strong manufacturing roots stand ready to serve.

State Sen. Sean McCann, D-Kalamazoo, reiterated the same point in a statement celebrating the news Tuesday

Kalamazoo County has a long, proud tradition of innovation in life sciences dating back to W.E. Upjohn and Homer Stryker, and it is only fitting that we should lead the way today in the fight against COVID-19, said McCann, who represents Kalamazoo County.

This is potentially great news for our world and our community," he said.

U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, said in a statement Tuesday he was delighted to learn Kalamazoos Pfizer workers will play a role in developing and producing a COVID-19 vaccine.

The entire industry is working together and committed to develop and produce a vaccine as quickly as possible, Upton said. We know that a vaccine is the only true way for us to get back to normal and begin on our road to recovery.

Stage one of the clinical trial in the U.S. will enroll up to 360 healthy subjects into two age cohorts: 18-55 and 65-85, according to the release.

The first subjects immunized will be healthy adults 18-55 years of age. Older adults will only be immunized once testing of that candidate and dose level in younger adults has provided initial evidence of safety and immunogenicity, according to the release.

Sites currently dosing participants include NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the University of Maryland School of Medicine, with the University of Rochester Medical Center/Rochester Regional Health and Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center to begin enrollment shortly.

More coronavirus coverage on MLive:

Less than 10% of Michigan coronavirus tests coming back positive; 86 new deaths reported

Stryker announces limited-release medical bed for coronavirus response

Kalamazoo businesses partner to produce face shields for healthcare workers
Myanmar & COVID-19 Myanmar Migrant Workers Await Thai Green Light to Return Home

Migrant returnees wait at the second Thailand-Myanmar Friendship Bridge border checkpoint on Tuesday, before being allowed to cross the border early in the evening. / Thant Zin Aung / Facebook

More than 26,000 Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand have registered with the embassy to return home and are awaiting approval from the Thai government to head for the border amid restrictions on inter-provincial travel in the country aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19.

U Myo Myint Naing, labor attache at the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the embassy had asked Thailands COVID-19 response committee to allow the migrant workers to travel to land border checkpoints.

He said the embassy is still waiting for a reply to the request, which was submitted via Thai foreign affairs officials.

Before Thailand imposed the curfew, many migrants caught night buses in order to reach border checkpoints in the morning. Most migrants head for the Thai border checkpoints at Mae Sot, across from Myawaddy in Karen State; Mae Sai, across from Tachileik in Shan State; or Ranong, across from Kaw Thaung in Tanintharyi Region in southern Myanmar.

Thailands 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew and restrictions on movement between provinces, which are in place until the end of this month in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus, have had a serious impact on the migrants, many of whom have been left without jobs and income.

For those migrants waiting to return to Myanmar, the labor attache said the embassy will relay the message as soon as we can, as everyone is asking when they can travel back to Myanmar.

The border checkpoints were closed for the whole month of April as both the Myanmar and Thai governments sought to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

In late March, nearly 80,000 migrants returned to Myanmar through the second Mae Sot-Myawaddy Friendship Bridge border checkpoint, according to Karen State Chief Minister Daw Nang Khin Htwe Myint.

The Myanmar government has prepared quarantine centers in Myawaddy, as well as in Paan, the capital of Karen State, and other towns as all returnees will be required to undergo mandatory quarantine at designated facilities in their respective communities for 21 days. They will receive health screening and temperature checks at the border and will need to self-quarantine at home for an additional seven days after the initial three-week period.

Despite the Thai restrictions, between May 1 and Tuesday 180 people passed through the Mae Sot-Myawaddy border control checkpoint, according to U Thant Zin Aung, a Karen State lawmaker representing Myawaddy constituency.

On Tuesday, 22 returnees crossed the border at Myawaddy in the early evening about 20 minutes before the border closed, the lawmaker said. The border gate is open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

A migrant returnee among the 22 said on Tuesday morning they were told by the Thai authorities that the border gate was closed, but they waited and were allowed to cross after officials from both countries held talks.

Karen State has made preparations to place about 5,000 people in quarantine centers when the returnees arrive, the Karen State chief minister said during a teleconference with State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday.

Many others will have to travel to their hometowns in Bago and Magwe regions and Mon State, she added.

The coronavirus pandemic, which originated in Chinas Wuhan city, had infected 3,489,053 people and claimed 241,559 lives worldwide as of Tuesday, according to the World Health Organization.

Thailand has around 3,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 54 fatalities.

As of Monday, Myanmar had 161 confirmed COVID-19 cases with six deaths.

You may also like these stories:

Myanmar Govt Lists Essential Businesses Prioritized for Reopening Amid COVID-19

Myanmar Migrants Stranded Without Cash in Thailand by COVID-19

Myanmar Military COVID-19 Patients Contacts Test Negative
Technavio has been monitoring the powerships market and it is poised to grow by 5.3 GW during 2019-2023, progressing at a CAGR of almost 24% 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/20200505005604/en/

Technavio has announced the latest market research report titled Global Powerships Market 2019-2023 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact

The market is concentrated, and the degree of concentration will accelerate during the forecast period. ABB, GAS Entec Co. Ltd., General Electric Co., Karpower International BV, and Volkswagen AG, are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

Rising global energy demand has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market.

Powerships Market 2019-2023: Segmentation

Powerships Market is segmented as below:

Type Oil-fired Gas-fired

Geographic Landscape MEA ROW



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=IRTNTR31506

Powerships Market 2019-2023: Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our powerships market report covers the following areas:

Powerships Market Size

Powerships Market Trends

Powerships Market Industry Analysis

This study identifies the rising popularity of plug-and-play concept as one of the prime reasons driving the powerships market growth during the next few years.

Powerships Market 2019-2023: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the powerships market, including some of the vendors such as ABB, GAS Entec Co. Ltd., General Electric Co., Karpower International BV, and Volkswagen AG. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the powerships market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Powerships Market 2019-2023: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2019-2023

Detailed information on factors that will assist powerships market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the powerships market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the powerships market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of powerships 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 TYPE

Market segmentation by type

Comparison by type

Oil-fired Market size and forecast 2018-2023

Gas-fired Market size and forecast 2018-2023

Market opportunity by type

PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

MEA Market size and forecast 2018-2023

ROW Market size and forecast 2018-2023

Key leading countries

Market opportunity

PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK

PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES

Market drivers

Market challenges

PART 11: MARKET TRENDS

Rising natural gas production

Development of LNG-to-powership market

Rising popularity of plug-and-play concept

PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

ABB

GAS Entec Co. Ltd.

General Electric Co.

Karpower International BV

Volkswagen AG

PART 14: APPENDIX

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

Definition of market positioning of vendors

PART 15: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO

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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Scottish firm Logan Energy has been selected to transport hydrogen gas to Belfast's Translink bus depot to power a new fleet of buses.

The company will become part of an 8m green hydrogen project here as it supplies hydrogen tube trailers to carry compressed hydrogen from a wind farm in Co Antrim owned by Energia Group.

The hydrogen will power a fleet of Translink double decker fuel-cell buses, using a refuelling station which will also be supplied and maintained by Logan Energy.

It was selected by Irish gas and electricity supplier Energia, which is a lead partner organisation in the 7.9m EU-funded 'GenCOMM' project, aimed at developing hydrogen-based energy and commercial models to improve sustainability.

Logan Energy said it had proposed "the most innovative and cost-effective tube trailer solution".

Bill Ireland, chief executive of Logan Energy, said: "This contract is significant for us because it shows that our extensive technical track record of hydrogen systems, and proven ability to deliver, is valued by key players such as Energia, but it also demonstrates a viable renewable hydrogen supply and demand scenario that we can replicate in towns and cities throughout the UK, Europe and further afield."

The contract follows on from news that Jo Bamford, the owner of manufacturer Wrightbus, is pushing for a Government subsidy to fund the building of more than 3,000 hydrogen-fuelled buses in Ballymena, which he has said could create 1,500 more jobs in the town.

He told the Belfast Telegraph last month: "We'd like to get an agreement on it as quickly as possible then build the infrastructure and roll it out over a number of years.

"My plan is to decarbonise all buses and all trains, though to fill them up with hydrogen, you need to put money down to build infrastructure."
New Delhi, May 5 : An advocacy group for migrants has urged the Centre to immediately allocate Rs three lakh crore budget towards the physical and economic rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandits in the current financial year with special provisions.

Satish Mahaldar, Chairman, Reconciliation, Return and Rehabilitations of Migrants has asked the Central government to immediately notify the land towards the physical rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits across 10 districts of the Kashmir Valley.

The Kashmiri Pandit Migrants should be rehabilitated as per their parliamentary constituency specified on their migrant cards, he said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The first victim of terrorism in Kashmir, the miniscule minority of Kashmiri Pandits has been suffering for the past 30 years in exile. Many promises have been made to us in all these 30 years. Our case has become a part of the electoral strategy for some and we are also the highlighted victim case of Pakistan's terror strategy on the international fronts. But the community till date has not seen a concrete policy that talks about our economic upliftment, educational and constitutional guarantees and our return to the valley," the letter said.

It was highlighted that even this year's budget -- J&K Budget, 2020 -- does not have anything for Kashmiri Pandits for their physical and economic rehabilitation, relief and welfare. "We feel that we have been betrayed. Our constitutional and fundamental rights have not been ensured and protected," the letter said.

In the budget, during the current financial year, Rs 1705 crore has been disbursed through DBT to 45 lakh beneficiaries. 60,000 new pension cases shall be covered through Direct Benefit Transfer. "But, till date not a single Kashmiri Pandit has got any benefit under this Scheme", Mahaldar said.

J&K has a rich source of cultural heritage sites and Rs 100 crore has been earmarked in 2020 budget for preservation of cultural heritages. Union Minister of State Kishen Reddy had earlier said that Rs 5,000 crore would be spent towards the restoration of temples. In Kashmir, there are more than 1,387 temples and heritage sites which are more than 3,000 years old.

"But, there is no mention of any temple being restored. Most of the temples are appoximately 5,000 years old and as referred in the Rajtrangani, the oldest recorded history book on Kashmir. Till date no list of the temples has been published which are going to be restored as per the priority in the current financial year", he added.

The Union Finance Minister has proposed the introduction of following three religious circuits, Shankaracharya, Mata Khir Bhawani and Martand (Mattan).

"Why not Hari Parbat? Mata Chakreshwari is the creator of the Kashmir land, which is more than 5,200 years old and has a reference in the Rajtrangani .

"Why not the Shiv temple of Baramulla, which also has a mention in the Rajtrangani, Sharda temple of Kupwara and Jawala ji temple in Khrew. These four temple sites should also be inducted in the current tourism circuit with immediate effect", he added.

It is proposed the Central government to generate 350 lakh days of wage employment under MGNREGA. "But, under this scheme not a single Kashmiri Pandit has been enrolled and none benefitted till date. They should be included under this scheme immediately", Mahaldar claimed.

"Almost six years have passed for the Modi-led government, but no proposal has been made by the Government of India to return and rehabilitate the Kashmiri Pandits in the valley", he added.

A volunteer group of 419 Kashmiri Pandit families had been promised land and house in Kashmir as part of the return and rehabilitation process, but nothing has been done in this regard. Around 100 Kashmiri Pandit non migrant families are living in Kashmir. They are living in rented accommodation. They should also be included in this package, he added.
The head of Vue cinemas, one of the UKs biggest cinema chains, has said he is hopeful that cinemas will reopen in mid-July.

Cinemas across the UK have been closed during the coronavirus pandemic, with several high-profile films suffering delays as a result, including Disneys live-action Mulan and the new James Bond film No Time to Die.

Tim Richards, Vues chief executive, told the BBC that he was discussing social distancing measures with UK authorities.

We can control how many people come into our cinemas, he said.

Warner Bros recently announced they were postponing the releases of several of their biggest projects, with the except of the Christopher Nolan-directed Tenet, which is still scheduled to come out on 17 July. This is apparently in accordance with the wishes of the director, rather than the studio.

In order for cinemas to reopen, the government would need to officially relax the current lockdown measures. Boris Johnson is expected to provide an update this Sunday on the plans to ease restrictions.

We are seeing our markets in Europe opening before ours, said Richards. We are trying to work with the government to demonstrate we are not like sporting fixtures and pop concerts.

We can control how many people come into our cinemas at any one time  we have the ability to control the exit and entrance.
NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE D uring this entire epidemic, and the response to it, there is a growing tension between front-line doctors and scientific researchers, between people who must use and master numbers in their jobs and university statisticians and modelers, and between the public in general and its credentialed experts.

Fact and Theory

In a nutshell, the divide reflects the ancient opposition between empiricism and abstraction  or more charitably common sense and practical application versus scientific knowledge.

When the two are combined and balanced, then knowledge advances. When they are not, both are deprived of the wisdom of the other.

Unfortunately, in the present crisis, we have listened more to the university modeler than to a numbers-crunching accountant. The latter may not understand Banach manifolds, but he at least knows you cannot rely on basic equations and formulas if your denominator is inaccurate and your numerator is sometimes equally unreliable.

It seems a simple matter that the small number of those testing positive for the virus simply could not represent all those who are infected with the contagion. Yet such obviousness did not stop modelers, experts, and political advisers from authoritatively lecturing America on the lethality and spread of COVID-19.

Internet coronavirus-meters feign scientific accuracy with their hourly streams of precise data. But those without degrees wondered why such metrics even listed China, whose data is fanciful, or why the number of cases is listed when it hinges entirely on the hit-and-miss and idiosyncratic testing of various states and nations.

Throughout this crisis, there has been a litany of arrogance and ignorance. The FDA early on made a hubristic and disastrous decision to monopolize testing. Neither the WHO nor the CDC could get their stories straight on the wisdom or folly of wearing masks.

There were so many expert lectures on how the virus was transmitted that many listeners shrugged and decided that researchers knew far less than those who cleaned and scrubbed for a living. It required neither a CIA analyst nor geneticist to conclude that China lied about the virus and kept lying about its lying.

Story continues

So the public found little initial expertise from experts.

Sorta, Kinda

Our experts weekly bickered over allowing patients to try off-label pharmaceuticals. Vaccinations would be impossible for 18 months, for one year, for six months, for 18 months. . . . They apparently did not object to the sending of the infected into nursing homes. They could never decide whether to demonize or canonize the Swedish model, and so they modulated their analysis on its daily death tally from the virus.

Was infection taking place outside? Rarely, but apparently frequently enough to require masks. Were 2 million of us going to die? Or 300,000? Or 200,000? Or 100,000  yes or no? Or maybe when we hit 60,000 deaths, the eventual total would be 63,000? And when we hit 63,000, it would be 67,000? And so on?

Was the virus most infectious on surfaces, as droplets, or as aerosols? All or none? Were ventilators the key to preventing deaths, or did they often ensure them?

Did warmer weather retard viral transmission? We were told both yes and no  and maybe sorta. Dont dare take Advil  or use either Advil or Tylenol? Were deaths to the virus over- or under-counted? We were told both.

Do not compare any aspect of this virus to annual influenza strains  unless experts do that all the time. But nothing really is known about the coronavirus, or for that matter the flu either, given that how we count its cases and its deaths seems even hazier even than how we game the coronavirus  at least if the point now is to drive annual flu deaths down, and COVID-19 lethality up.

Could you be reinfected by the virus? Again yes, and then again no. Did antibodies provide immunity? Of course  but dont count on it.

Were kids immune, or asymptomatic carriers, or vulnerable, or not carriers at all? Smoking was bad during the pandemic, but nicotine was good, or both bad or both good?

Just as often, the public was told nothing about what they felt was most curious. Why exactly did our three largest states  California, Texas, and Florida  have so few virus deaths per 1 million population? Was the cause state policy, earlier infection, poor statistical reporting, population density, weather  or just luck? Why did the coronavirus take off in a fashion that MERS, SARS, and West Nile Fever never had? What are the respective relationships, if any, of the Wuhan wet market or its Level 4 virology lab to the outbreak? Were the culprits snakes, bats, pangolins, lab technicians, or . . . ? And why exactly did the CDC partially fund a Chinese Level 4 virology lab?

Soon a reliable antidote, a vaccination, and the exact genesis of the virus will be discovered by university and corporate-related scientists. But how their discoveries should be used most effectively among the population will be determined by others  most likely far more pragmatic doctors, nurses, and hospital staff members in the field who treat terribly sick and infectious patients. To the degree that governors listened solely to academics and experts, they usually erred; to the degree they collated advice from those in all walks of life, they did not.

Science without humility and without the constant audit of experience, pragmatism, and common sense remains a parlor game. We should have known that from experience. We should have had experts who expressed modesty about what they did not know, while leaving the snark, the sneering, and the haughtiness to those who might have had some reason to express it. Competence can sometimes excuse the egotism of experts. But the combination of arrogance and ignorance is fatal to them.

Us vs. Him

Engineers and scientists did much to ensure the success of the D-Day operation, by inventing artificial Mulberry harbors, running a novel fuel pipeline under the English Channel (PLUTO), and creating an array of specially engineered and adapted armored vehicles to deal with German defenses (Hobarts funnies).

That said, the chief innovation that allowed the Americans to break out of the hedgerows behind Omaha Beach was the ad hoc welding of metal spikes (many scavenged from German hedgehog steel beach defenses) to the fronts of Sherman M4 tanks by adaptive front-line soldiers.

The subsequent rhinos, or modified Shermans  adaptations that no D-Day planners and engineers had envisioned  then plowed through the mounds and overgrowth of the bocage. Fighter pilots cannot design planes, but engineers cannot either without the practical input of pilots.

Much of the advance of classical scholarship came from the systematization of learning and credentialing. In the 19th century, Ph.D. programs in classical philology, peer-reviewed scholarship, and a scientific method of assessing manuscripts, compiling lexica, and establishing authoritative texts of major authors allowed the creation of entirely new disciplines, such as papyrology, numismatics, epigraphy, and prosopography.

All that said, perhaps the three greatest breakthroughs in classical scholarship of the 19th and 20th centuries were the result of either amateurs or eccentrics. Some were without formal classical educations. Others were idiosyncratic philologists working in fields outside their formal disciplines or indeed in areas they mostly created ex nihilo.

The wealthy dilettante and retired German banker Heinrich Schliemann was many things, not all of them reputable. But for all his misconceptions and sometimes destructive restorations and misguided archaeological approaches, he was a pragmatist and the first to ground the Homeric epics within the physical landscapes of a real Troy and Mycenae.

Milman Parry was a brilliant young linguist, but he is now known for his freelancing research with Serbo-Croatian oral bards in the badlands of the Balkans. His landmark contribution was showing how it was imminently possible and indeed likely that the monumental Homeric epics were not written but composed orally  by a mostly illiterate poets use of formulas, modular phrases, and longer, repeating type scenes.

Parry more or less invented the entire field of Homeric oral poetry. And he did so in a unique and largely eccentric fashion.

It was conventional academic wisdom up until the early 1950s that whatever Linear B was  the strange, undeciphered syllabic script found on clay tablets excavated from the Mycenean palaces  it could not be Greek. After all, the familiar Greek alphabet first appeared nearly 400 years later through borrowing and adapting Phoenician scripts in the late ninth century b.c.

Moreover, the monumental Mycenean palaces, infrastructure, social organization, and art were so different from later Greek civilization of the emerging city-state of the late ninth century b.c. that it seemed impossible that the earlier Myceneans could have resembled Greek-speakers. To believe that heresy was to imagine an earlier, but lost, Greek script  and an alien, more Near Easternlike prior vanished civilization that was nonetheless still Greek, one that might have been the kernel for orally transmitted Greek mythological tales set during the Dark Ages of long-ago supernatural heroes and gods.

Such views were considered heterodox, at least until architect and former cryptologist Michael Ventris deciphered Linear B. With some help from others, he proved that it was an early form of the Greek language. Then, with the eclipse of Mycenean civilization in the cataclysms of the 13th and twelfth centuries b.c., Linear B had perished and thus was apparently unknown by later Greeks emerging from the Dark Ages.

Early Greeks, it turned out, had all along created monumental Mycenean palaces and then scattered after their destruction. They gradually forgot about them during the long centuries of the impoverished Dark Age. And yet finally Greeks reemerged in recorded history, as the same Greek-speakers but with a different script and a different social and political organization, the polis, at the beginning of Western civilization.

The mavericks Schliemann, Parry, and Ventris were sometimes written off as dilettantes or strange academic birds. Often, they were snubbed; all died either tragically young or painfully.

Many of their theories are still constantly questioned and have been rightly modified. Nonetheless, they all approached scientific questions largely through their own prior practical expertise  banking and business, living among bards and transcribing oral song-making in remote southern Europe, and cryptology.

Most contemporary credentialed philologists either lacked the experience or imagination of the three, who nonetheless were often wise enough to enlist academic experts to hone their discoveries. They had more regard for the experts they refuted than the refuted did for them.

Credentialed Incredibility

One of the most depressing aspects of the coronavirus epidemic has been the failure of the credentialed class  the alphabetic transnational and federal health organizations, the university modelers, the professional associations, and their media enablers. Their collective lapse was largely due to hubris and the assumption that titles and credentials meant they had no need to accept input and criticism from those far more engaged in the physical world  they saw no need to say, At this time, I confess we are as confused as you are.

In sum, the ER doctors, the nurses, and the public in general all eagerly welcomed the research of the experts. But the reverse  in which experts would listen to those with firsthand experience  was not true. The asymmetrical result is that we all have paid a terrible price in misjudging the perfidy of China; the rot within the World Health Organization; the origins, transmission, infectiousness, and lethality of the virus; and the most effective, cost-to-benefit response to the epidemic in terms of saving lives lost to the infection versus the likely even more lives lost through the response.

The problem was not just that we were supposed to accept expert, scientific, loud gospel on Monday, which grew muted and doubtful on Tuesday, and in near silence became impossible on Wednesday.

In addition, our experts learned nothing and forgot nothing, and so repeated their entire cycle of credentialed haughtiness on Thursday.

More from National Review
US Warns China Faces Populist Backlash

By Nike Ching May 04, 2020

A top U.S. official behind the Trump administration's China policies is reaching out directly to the Chinese people in pressing U.S. concerns over China's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Matt Pottinger, speaking in Mandarin Chinese on Monday, said China's communist ruling party is risking a popular backlash if Beijing does not ease controls on free speech.

"When small acts of bravery are stamped out by governments, big acts of bravery follow," Pottinger said during a webinar hosted by University of Virginia's Miller Center.

The warning came on a day when China marked the 101st anniversary of the May Fourth Movement, a cultural and political protest movement that propelled China toward modernity.

Since the coronavirus outbreak in China, authorities have clamped down on critics who pointed out shortcomings in the government's response. Chinese doctors, including the coronavirus whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang who sounded early alarms before succumbing to the virus, were punished. Others, including citizen journalists such as Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li Zehua who spoke out against authorities' mishandling of the crisis, went missing.

"When a privileged few grow too remote and self-interested, populism is what pulls them back or pitches them overboard. It has a kinetic energy. It fueled the Brexit vote of 2015 and President Trump's election in 2016," Pottinger added.

Pottinger, a former Marine officer and reporter with the Wall Street Journal who reported from China for several years, is among the top U.S. officials who have been publicly drawing distinctions between China's ruling communist party and the Chinese people.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a regular critic of the Beijing government, has complimented the Chinese people as "smart" and "hard-working," while disparaging Beijing's treatment of its citizens.

The message from the White House came soon after a news report from Beijing said an internal communist party document is warning of rising global hostility over the coronavirus outbreak.

Reuters, which reported the warning recently presented to top Chinese leaders, concluded that global anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and could tip Beijing's relations with Washington into confrontation.

Relations between the U.S. and China have significantly deteriorated since the coronavirus outbreak that has killed about 250,000 people worldwide.

In recent weeks, the two countries have sharpened their accusations over the handling of the pandemic. The U.S. said China hid the severity of the outbreak and did not allow in American investigators to study the virus early on. China insists it has been transparent and worked with the World Health Organization to prepare countries for the coming health disaster.

Mistrust between the world's two leading economies also grows from what Washington said Beijing's unfair trade and technology practices to disputes over Hong Kong, Taiwan and contested territories in the South China Sea.

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In this article TRI-CA

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: More than 3.5 million

Global deaths: More than 251,000

Most cases reported: United States (over 1.18 million), Spain (over 218,000), Italy (over 211,900), United Kingdom (over 191,800), France (over 169,500) The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University as of 12:32 p.m. Beijing time. All times below are in Beijing time.

5:50 pm: Iran's coronavirus death toll rises to 6,340

The number of deaths due to coronavirus reported in Iran has risen by 63 in the past 24 hours to reach 6,340, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said in a statement on state TV on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Iran has reached 99,970, he said.  Holly Ellyatt

5:20 pm: Spain reports 185 new deaths

The number of daily deaths caused by coronavirus in Spain has risen by 185 on Tuesday, the health ministry said, marking the third consecutive day that the number of deaths has remained below 200. The country's health ministry said the total number of fatalities has risen to 25,613. The overall number of confirmed cases has risen to 219,329, up from 218,011 the day before.  Holly Ellyatt

5:04 pm: Russia reports more than 10,000 new cases for third day in a row

Russia has reported 10,102 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases to 155,370. It's the third day in a row that Russia has reported more than 10,000 new cases. The country's crisis response center said 1,451 people have now died from the virus. It said 4.4 million tests have been carried out.  Holly Ellyatt

MOSCOW, RUSSIA MAY 5, 2020: Traffic police officers in face masks and gloves carry out ID checks in Volgogradsky Prospekt Street during the pandemic of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Traffic police have set up checkpoints around the city to stop vehicles and see if drivers have permission to travel during the lockdown. The Moscow government has introduced a digital permit system aimed at further restricting movement. Under the scheme, which became mandatory on 15 April, people need to apply for permits to travel on a vehicle or public transport around the city. Earlier, on 11 April, the Moscow government restricted vehicles registered outside Moscow Region from entering the Russian capital. Since 30 March 2020, Moscow has been on lockdown. As of 5 May 2020, Russia has reported more than 155,500 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection, with more than 80,100 confirmed cases in Moscow. Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS (Photo by Stanislav Krasilnikov\TASS via Getty Images) Stanislav Krasilnikov

4:50 pm: Indonesia reports biggest daily rise in coronavirus infections

Indonesia has reported its biggest daily rise in coronavirus infections Tuesday with 484 new cases. That takes the country's total number of cases to 12,071, Reuters reported citing health ministry official Achmad Yurianto. The death toll rose by eight in the last 24 hours, to reach a total of 872 fatalities.  Holly Ellyatt

4:15 pm: Germany's coronavirus reproduction rate stands at 0.71

The reproduction rate for the coronavirus pandemic in Germany is currently estimated at 0.71, said the head of public health authority, the Robert Koch Institute on Tuesday, Reuters reported. That number indicates that 100 infected people infect on average 71 others, meaning the number of new infections would decrease over time.  Holly Ellyatt

4:00 pm: Coronavirus provides a 'golden opportunity' for economic reform in the Middle East, CEO says

Middle Eastern countries should not "waste" the ongoing coronavirus crisis, but should make changes to build up the resilience of their economies, the chief executive officer of a UAE-based retail giant told CNBC this week. That could include addressing systemic issues and providing more support to businesses, said Alain Bejjani, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim.  Abigail Ng

3:40 pm: Cases in Singapore cross 19,000

Singapore's health ministry has preliminarily confirmed 632 new cases of the coronavirus disease, bringing its tally to 19,410 since the outbreak. Over the past few weeks, the number of new cases in Singapore surged after infections were found among migrant workers staying in packed dormitories. The country now has one of the highest number of cumulative cases in Asia.  Yen Nee Lee

3:02 pm: What life might look like after lockdown

Some countries have started to reopen parts of their economies that were locked down to stem the spread of the coronavirus. CNBC's Uptin Saiidi is in Hong Kong to look at what a new normal would look like.

2:57 pm: Hugo Boss says sales could fall by at least 50% in the second quarter

German fashion Hugo Boss said its overall sales in the second quarter could fall by at least 50% due to uncertainties brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. That warning came after the company reported first-quarter sales of 555 million euros ($605.6 million)  a 17% decline from the same period a year ago after currency adjustments. That led to Hugo Boss registering a 14 million euros ($15.3 million) loss in operating profit in the first three months of 2020. "HUGO BOSS expects both sales and earnings declines in the second quarter of 2020 to be more pronounced than those recorded in the first quarter," the company said in a statement accompanying its first-quarter earnings release. "This will mainly be a result of the continuing closures of the Group's own stores as well as points-of sale at important partners in Europe and the Americas. Overall, these two regions combined usually contribute around 85% to Group sales," it added.  Yen Nee Lee

2:12 pm: Indonesia's economy grew at the weakest space since 2001

Indonesia's economy grew 2.97% year over year in the first quarter  the weakest growth rate since the first three months of 2001, reported Reuters, citing data by the country's statistics bureau. A Reuters poll of analysts had a median forecast of 4.04% growth, according to the report. Various segments of the Indonesian economy were hit by the coronavirus pandemic, including consumption, investment, tourism and commodity exports, the report said.

A man walks past a mural depicting the COVID-19 coronavirus in Bangkalan, east Java on April 6, 2020. Juni Kriswanto | AFP | Getty Images

But the largest economy in Southeast Asia held up better than many others in the first quarter, partly because it locked down later than most, Gareth Leather, senior Asia economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a note. "In most of Asia lockdowns ... happened in late March. In Indonesia it wasn't until April," he wrote. "Of course, this means that the economy will experience a bigger hit in the second quarter." Indonesia did not report its first case of the coronavirus disease until March  a development that surprised many given the country's extensive air links with China and the city of Wuhan, where the virus first emerged. As of Monday, the country has reported 11,587 cases and 864 deaths.  Yen Nee Lee

12:24 pm: Hong Kong shares shrug off steep first quarter contraction

Hong Kong's main Hang Seng index traded up 0.54% on Tuesday, a day after the city revealed that its economy contracted 8.9% compared to a year ago, marking its largest decline on record since 1974. It comes as Hong Kong faces economic challenges posed by both the coronavirus outbreak, as well as months of widespread protests. The virus has infected more than 1,000 people in Hong Kong and killed four. Saheli Roy Choudhury

12:10 pm: Millions of Italians return to work starting this week

Millions of people in Italy were allowed to return to work starting Monday as the country took the first steps to lift the lockdown, the Associated Press reported. Construction and manufacturing activities re-opened while retail businesses will still have to wait for a few more days. Bars and restaurants are re-opening for takeout services while people can now visit relatives in small numbers. Italy reported more than 211,900 cases of infection and more than 29,000 people have died. It's not just Italy that's begun to ease restrictions, other European countries are also doing the same.  Saheli Roy Choudhury, Silvia Amaro

11:02 am: Five tips to consider if you're planning a career switch right now

Changing jobs in the middle of a global pandemic can be a bold move. Herminia Ibarra, a London Business School professor and author of "Act like a leader, think like a leader," outlined five considerations for those thinking about career moves, which includes reconnecting with old contacts.  Karen Gilchrist

10:49 am: Germany reports 685 new cases and 139 additional deaths

Germany reported 685 new cases and 139 more deaths, according to the latest numbers from the Robert Koch Institute, the federal government agency responsible for disease control and prevention. There have been 163,860 confirmed cases and 6,831 deaths in total. But, a new study claims the actual number of cases could be ten times higher, to the tune of 1.8 million infections.  Saheli Roy Choudhury

9:53 am: Apple will re-open stores in Australia this week

Apple confirmed that it will re-open its stores in Australia on Thursday. Stores will operate from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time and service at the Genius Bar  Apple's tech support station  will be prioritized. Appointments can be booked online starting Tuesday. Because of social distancing measures, Apple will limit the number of people inside the stores at one time and there could be delays for walk-in visitors. There will also be temperature screenings prior to entry. The Sydney store will remain closed for an upgrade. "We're excited to begin welcoming visitors back to our Australia stores later this week. We've missed our customers and look forward to offering our support," an Apple spokesperson said in a statement.  Saheli Roy Choudhury

9:05 am: Containment efforts cost Australia's economy $2.6 billion per week

Australia's efforts to contain the coronavirus are expected to cost the economy 4 billion Australian dollars ($2.6 billion) a week, according to excerpts of Treasurer Josh Frydenberg's prepared remarks reported by Reuters. Frydenberg is scheduled to speak at the National Press Club of Australia later Tuesday. Like many other countries, Australia has implemented movement restrictions and distancing measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus. But those protocols have dampened economic activity. Australia has reported 6,825 confirmed cases and 95 deaths from Covid-19, as of Monday.  Christine Wang

8:46 am: Officials weigh potential human toll of reopening economies

7:52 am: China reports a single new confirmed case, 15 asymptomatic cases

China's National Health Commission said there was one new confirmed case of infection and attributed it to a traveler from overseas. No new deaths were reported but there were 15 asymptomatic cases. Cumulatively, China has reported 82,881 confirmed cases and 4,633 deaths.

Travelers walk to the exit of the Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province Wednesday, April 08, 2020, after 76 days of lockdown of the city due to Covid-19. Barcroft Media | Getty Images

There is growing international pressure on Beijing to answer queries about the information it gave the world about the virus outbreak.  Saheli Roy Choudhury

7:48 am: Global death toll exceeds 251,000

More than 251,000 people around the world have died from Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The virus was first reported in China's Hubei province late last year and has rapidly spread around the world since then, infecting more than 3.5 million people. The United States has the highest number of cases  over 1.17 million people have been affected and more than 68,000 have died. Countries like Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, France and Germany are also among some of the worst-affected nations.  Saheli Roy Choudhury

All times below are in Eastern time.

7:02 pm: New projection shows about 135,000 US deaths from Covid-19 by August with lockdown measures being lifted

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) estimates nearly 135,000 coronavirus deaths in the US through the beginning of August, citing the easing of lockdown orders as the main driver of the new number, Reuters reports. The forecast from the IHME puts the U.S. death toll through early August at 134,475, the midrange between 95,092 and 242,890.

People receive protective masks and bandannas as they are handed out in Prospect Park as face coverings become mandatory in many establishments on May 03, 2020 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Spencer Platt | Getty Images

The new projections reflect reopening measures underway across the country and the increase of social contact between people that will increase transmission, the IHME said, according to Reuters. "This new model is the basis for the sobering new estimate of U.S. deaths," IHME Director Christopher Murray said about the reopening measures, Reuters reported.  Chris Eudaily

5:12 pm: Economists say the way out of the recession depends on the level of consumer fear
Amid a pandemic thats made emergency service personnel more important than ever, two high school technology departments in Southeast Texas are helping those workers stay safe on the job.

A joint effort from Kirbyville and Sabine Pass school districts has provided Beaumont Emergency Management with 45 new Personal Protective Equipment masks designed to best-fit the needs of hospital workers and other emergency responders taking part in advanced procedures.

Students and faculty at the schools designed the protective headgear in conjunction with Beaumont EMS, then used 3D printers to create the equipment that represents a significant upgrade from they previously used. With students forced to stay home amid coronavirus restrictions, Kirbyville Director of Technology Jimmy Gaspard said it was a win-win for both the schools and Beaumont EMS.

Its nice to be able to create things that can help other people, Gaspard said. We have the 3D printers and the filament only lasts so long once you open it, so this seems like the perfect way to use it.

The idea for the new headgear first started during a separate project by members of the Kirbyville technology department. They were using the 3D printers to create earsavers for nurses who were suffering irritation from constantly wearing cloth masks.

Gaspard shared the finished product in his Facebook page  a post that soon went viral, he said. Before he knew it, Gaspard had more than 300 requests for the earsavers from workers across the country.

It caught the eye of Sgt. Mike Custer, who thought the 3D printers could be useful to Beaumont EMS as well. The department was looking for new PPE headgear, and Custer was intrigued by what the Kirbyville department could create.

After some back-and-forth regarding designs, Kirbyville began the process of creating the new, more-protective masks.

Problem was, Kirbyville only had one 3D printer. So Gaspard enlisted some help from a friend at the Sabine Pass technology department, Mark Simmons.

At Sabine Pass, Simmons had 20 such printers, making him capable of quickly churning out projects.

After Jimmy called me up, we pretty much started printing the headgear right away and never stopped, Simmons said.

The finished product was a more efficient and effective mask than Beaumont EMS had used before. Previous headgear covered less area and included foam strips, making them harder to clean and reuse.

The new 3D-printed masks had a strong plastic frame that allowed the shield to be easily removed.

The big deal about these is they deconstruct, which greatly extends the life of the gear, said Trista Peevey, a spokesperson for Beaumont EMS.

Both districts technology departments continue to make other useful items using the 3D printers.

At Sabine Pass, students have previously worked with Early Childhood Intervention Services to create toys safe for kids with certain developmental disabilities. Theyve also created prosthetic limbs and made headstones for local cemeteries.

We want to work on real-world projects that make a difference, Simmons said. Weve taken a more engineering approach to this and designed an entire curriculum around it.

As for the PPE headgear, Gaspard said even though the 45 masks have been delivered to Beaumont emergency officials, hes more than willing to keep production going.

Well keep printing as many as they need, he said. I think we all get excited when we see something we designed get put to good use in the community.

mfaye@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/mattGfaye
Maharashtra's COVID-19 relief efforts received a shot in the arm on Tuesday, with IT major Wipro committing to convert one of its campuses at Pune into a 450-bed hospital.

Maharashtra has the highest number of COVID-19 cases, accounting for a third of the country's total. Pune district has reported 2,200 confirmed cases and 119 deaths and is the second most concentrated region within the state in terms of number of infections after capital Mumbai.

Wipro will be "repurposing" one of its campuses in Hinjewadi area, which hosts a slew of IT companies, to act as an intermediary care hospital, according to an official statement.

It will take four weeks to refurbish the campus and the handover to the Maharashtra government will happen by May 30, it said, adding that the hospital will be converted back into an IT facility after a year.

Typically, IT campuses have multi-floor buildings with each floor having long open halls which serve as sitting desks or cubicles for associates who deliver work on their computers for overseas clients.

Wipro's Azim Premji is one of the biggest givers in corporate India for the COVID-19 efforts and had committed Rs 1,125 crore to fight the pandemic.

In the statement, Wipro said the facility will have 450 beds for patients, including 12 beds to stabilise critical patients before shifting them to a tertiary care facility, and 24 rooms to accommodate doctors and medical staff.

Wipro will be providing physical infrastructure, medical furniture and equipment besides appointing an administrator and skeletal support staff, it said.

Wipro and the Maharashtra government on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding for the facility.

"This humanitarian contribution by Wipro will further strengthen our medical infrastructure and benefit the medical fraternity who are at the forefront of our fight against the pandemic, state Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said.

Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji said the company is committed to support the country's response to the pandemic and believes everybody should work together to minimise the crisis' human impact.

The statement said Wipro and Azim Premji Foundation are carrying out COVID-19 related humanitarian and healthcare relief works in Maharashtra across Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad-Waluj, Amalner, Ahmednagar, Akola, Beed, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli.

Its relief works have so far touched over 34 lakh beneficiaries across India, the company said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An alleged shoplifter and public order offender has been granted bail after a court heard he was a wheelchair user and would be a "burden on the State" if put in prison.

Daniel McDermott (35) was told by a judge he had "dodged a bullet" by not being remanded in custody, but if he failed to turn up in court and was arrested he should bring his "pyjamas and toothbrush" for jail.

Mr McDermott, of Markievicz House, Dublin 2, is accused of shoplifting, damaging property and threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour at Dealz on Thomas Street last September 10.

He is also charged with another breach of the peace and begging at Johnson Court, Dublin 2, last November 5.

The prosecuting garda told Dublin District Court that after he stopped the accused in Dublin city centre he found six bench warrants issued for his arrest last year and another three this year.

Menacing

The latest three were in one case alone, he told Judge Alan Mitchell.

Applying for bail, defence solicitor Tony Collier said the accused had health problems that resulted in difficulties with his legs.

"Given the situation we find ourselves in, it might be a burden on the State to manage his medical needs if he is in Cloverhill Prison," Mr Collier said.

He said there was nothing "particularly menacing" alleged against his client.

"I don't think the prison authorities will thank me for sending someone so immobile into custody," the judge said.

He granted bail and adjourned the case.

The judge warned Mr McDermott that if he did not turn up again, "be prepared to bring your pyjamas and toothbrush" as he would be going to prison.
Hyderabad, May 5 : The Telangana government, here on Tuesday, promoted students of classes I to IX in all schools, including aided and private unaided, to the higher classes for academic year 2020-21.

The School Education Department issued the order, as the state cabinet had decided to do so last month.

No examinations could be conducted for these classes due to the lockdown that began on March 22.

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao had earlier announced since there was no detention system for classes I-IX in the state, there was no need to conduct examinations and all the students be promoted to the next classes.

As the Summative Assessment (SA-2) examinations during the academic year 2019-20 could not be conducted due to the lockdown, the Commissioner of School Education had requested the government to issue necessary orders.

The government is yet to take a decision on the annual examination of 10th standard, known as the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination. The SSC examonations began on March 19. After two papers, the Telangana High Court asked the government to defer examinations till March 30 due to Covid-19 concerns.
Australian workers at foreign-owned companies will miss out on the federal government's JobKeeper wage subsidy after a last minute change to eligibility requirements.

The government changed the definition of 'sovereign entity' in the JobKeeper rules on May 1 to exclude companies owned 100 per cent by foreign governments.

This change is affecting 5,500 workers in Australia employed by Dnata, which supplies frozen meals to airlines like Qantas.

The firm will, under the new rules, no longer be eligible for the $1,500 fortnightly wage subsidy because its parent company, Emirates Group, is a corporation owned by the United Arab Emirates government.

It told staff the new by email on Monday, sparking calls from unions for Treasurer Josh Frydenberg to reconsider.

Australia is home to 10,000 businesses that are at least 50 per cent foreign-owned, with Chinese state-owned firms comprising most of the overseas, government-owned companies operating in Australia.

5,500 workers at Dnata, which supplies frozen meals to businesses like Qantas received the news they were no longer eligible for the $1,500 fortnightly payment in an email from management on Monday

Dnata stood down 4,000 employees on March 30 when the COVID-19 pandemic caused the shutdown of the commercial aviation industry, with the Adelaide workers retrenched first on March 26, the Australian Services Union told members in a staff bulletin.

Australia's JobKeeper program Treasurer Josh Frydenberg unveiled the $130billion JobKeeper package on March 30 to provide $1,500 fortnightly, wage subsidies to six million Australian workers - or almost half the 13million people in the labour force Australian workers are set to receive their first payments by Friday, May 8, with money to arrive in bank accounts from today To be eligible, workers had to have been employed on a regular basis for at least 12 months as of March 1, 2020 They could not be a permanent staff member of another employer Businesses, with annual turnover of less than $1billion, had to demonstrate their turnover in early 2020 was 30 per cent weaker compared with the same month in 2019 Advertisement

Workers were originally told JobKeeper payments would cover them but the retroactive change to legislation has left workers scrambling to find ways to supplement their income.

As part of the loophole, Dnata will be barred from receiving JobKeeper because it is wholly foreign-government owned.

Emirates Group bought out Australian logistics company Toll Group's shareholding in January 2015, with approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board.

But Daily Mail Australia understands Swissport, an airport ground and baggage handling company, has told unions it may be eligible for the taxpayer-funded wage subsidies for its 2,500 Australian staff despite being owned entirely by HNA, a Chinese aviation and financial services conglomerate.

A Swissport Australia spokesman told Daily Mail Australia it would qualify for JobKeeper, as its parent company HNA is not wholly-owned by the Chinese government.

'Swissport Australia is not affected by the restrictions on JobKeeper because it is not wholly owned by any foreign state or government entity,' he said.

Dnata said they had kept their employees on the books under advice from the Australian Taxation Office that workers would be eligible.

'Dnata enrolled for the scheme and implemented plans for the retention and payment of our Australian employees on this basis,' a company spokeswoman said.

Workers were told via email on Monday they would not be receiving payments though the government's JobKeeper program

The company believes the changes are unreasonable because it employs a large number of local workers and is an Australian resident company for income tax purposes.

The business has also invested $300million over the past 13 years on job creation, infrastructure and technologies, including the $150million takeover of Qantas's catering business.

Meanwhile, struggling workers have described the move as a 'kick in the guts'.

Treasury said government employers were better positioned to support their staff during the COVID-19 shutdowns.

The company has also invested $300 million over the past 13 years on job creation, infrastructure and technologies including the $150 million takeover of Qantas's catering business (PICTURED: Qantas jets are grounded at the Sydney airport due to COVID-19)

'Government employers are considered to have a greater capacity to support their employees through this period than private businesses,' the spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday morning.

The JobKeeper changes explained Under the changes to the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Act 2020, a 'sovereign entity' won't qualify for the JobKeeper payment. The term 'sovereign entity' takes its meaning from the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 and, generally, includes a body politic of a foreign country, a foreign government agency, and an entity wholly-owned by a body politic of a foreign country or foreign government agency Source: Treasury spokeswoman Advertisement

The Australian Services Union said it was fighting to overturn the changes to protect the wages of the customer service, cargo and ramp employees of Dnata.

'This announcement will come as a complete shock and no doubt will be extremely concerning and upsetting for you,' the ASU said in a statement.

'Please rest assured that the ASU will do everything within its power to attempt to get this outrageous narrow minded decision changed so that you get the support that you deserve.'

It said Prime Minister Scott Morrison had taken JobKeeper away from workers 'with the stroke of a pen and we will be demanding that he fix the problem that he has created'.

The ASU has written to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg urging him to fix the 'loophole' and provide support for workers in the commercial aviation industry.

In a joint letter with the Transport Workers' Union, which also represents airline workers, the ASU's assistant secretary Linda White on May 4 said the banning of foreign government-owned companies from receiving JobKeeper would be 'a serious threat to jobs at the airports'.

'The unintended consequences of this loophole will devastate aviation workers in Australia and their families who were much-relieved when the Government announced the Jobkeeper Payment in March,' it said.

The airline workers union has written to Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg (pictured) urging him to fix the 'loophole' and provide support for workers in the commercial aviation industry

'We believe there will be serious consequences for the economy if vital companies at the airport like Dnata collapse and leave Australia.

'It will mean airlines will not be able to return to full capacity in the short to medium term.'

Labor's transport frontbencher Catherine King has also written to Mr Frydenberg asking for him to make an exception to Dnata's 5,500 Australian workers so they are eligible for JobKeeper.

'Providing these 5,500 workers with access to JobKeeper will be a lifeline for them and their families and keep the connection to the employer,' she said in a joint statement with other Opposition frontbenchers Jim Chalmers, Brendan O'Connor and Tony Burke.

'This would leave the aviation sector in a stronger position to recover after the Covid crisis abates.'

The $130billion wage subsidy scheme was unveiled on March 30 to enable businesses to keep their employees on the books during the economic downturn resulting from COVID-19 shutdown.

It also meant staff could keep being paid, without having to apply for the JobSeeker unemployment benefit.

Australia is home to 9,946 foreign-owned businesses that are at least 50 per cent foreign-owned, data from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Austrade showed.

Chinese-state owned firms are the biggest source of wholly, foreign government-owned entities in Australia.
Britain quarantined just 273 out of 18.1million people who arrived in the UK in the three months before the coronavirus lockdown, damning new figures reveal today.

The occupants of three flights from the outbreak ground zero in the Chinese city of Wuhan and another bringing home passengers from a cruise ship of Japan were the only ones taken to secure facilities in the UK.

But millions more entering the UK between the start of 2020 and March 22 were able to enter freely and only advised to self-isolate, according to data provided to Labour MP Stephen Doughty and first published by the Guardian.

It came as it also emerged the UK suffered a 'big influx' of coronavirus from arrivals from Italy and Spain who were not quarantined.

Mapping of the Covid-19 genome shows that UK cases come from all over the world, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance told MPs.

But a large number of cases in early March were from Europe and 'seeded right the way across the country' because Brits arriving back in the UK were allowed to return home.

Giving evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee this morning, Sir Patrick said that experts on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) had advised ministers they would have to be 'extremely draconian' in blocking travel from whole countries otherwise 'it really was not worth trying to do it.'

'Whether that was people returning from half-term, whether it is business travellers or not, we don't know,' he told MPs.

'But a lot of the cases in the UK didn't come from China and didn't come from the places you might have expected.

'They actually came from European imports and the high level of travel into the UK around that time.'

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said: 'The scale of our outbreak is down to the government not acting on flights. Thank you to Patrick Vallance for his honesty.'

Sir patrick Vallance told MPs: 'But a lot of the cases in the UK didn't come from China and didn't come from the places you might have expected'

People returning from other hotspots such as China and a cruise ship off Japan, were put into camps for 14 days at the end of February, including one at Arrowe Park in Wirral (pictured on February 22)

Mr Doughty submitted a parliamentary written question to find out how many people arriving at the UK border from Spain, China, Italy, USA, Iran, Turkey and France were taken to government-supported Covid-19 quarantine centres in each week from January 1 to March 23.

The breakdown was:

83 passengers who arrived on an evacuation flight from Wuhan on January 31;

11 passengers on a French-led evacuation flight, again from Wuhan, on Feb 2;

147 people on a final evacuation flight from Wuhan on February 9;

32 passengers who had been on board the Diamond Princess Cruise ship and were flown to the UK from Tokyo.

The figures were released amid questions over the Government's decision not to screen or quarantine more passengers coming from abroad.

A Government spokesman said: 'Our approach to tackling coronavirus is, and has always been, driven by the latest scientific and medical advice, and procedures at the border have been strictly following the latest Government guidance throughout.

'The scientific advice showed that placing restrictions at the border would not have had a significant impact on the spread of the virus in the UK.

'Passenger numbers arriving in the UK are currently down by 99% but we continue to keep this under review.'

At the weekend a senior minister finally confirmed visitors to the UK could face time in quarantine as the Government 'actively' considers stronger anti-coronavirus measures at the borders.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that new arrivals could also be forced to download a new contract app onto their smartphone as a condition of entry.

New restrictions would make the UK one of the last countries to introduce them, with the country very much an outlier in recent weeks by not halting inbound flights or insisting arrivals are checked.

People arriving are currently advised to self-isolate but there is no enforced testing.

Home Secretary Priti Patel is believed to be among those who have demanded tougher rules for foreign visitors and the remaining Brits still abroad who make it home.

But Sir Patrick suggested stopping travel was of limited use unless action was taken against a wide-range of countries.

'What was very clear, and I think you can see this now in retrospect, is that the idea that you can control this by stopping travel from one place doesn't work unless it is of course the only source of import,' he said this morning.

'We have now in the UK sequenced 13,6000 viral genomes, we got imports from all over the place.

'So quite early on the advice Sage gave was ''if you are going to do something on travel you either need to be extremely draconian - stop all travel from all sorts of countries - or it is really not worth trying to do it, trying to stop from one place because you won't make it happen''.

'So I think the answer is not, unless the country chose to do that, stopping travel anywhere and to  make sure that as people come back you have appropriate systems to isolate and make sure they are following the same rules as the rest of the country.'

Deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries, who was also giving evidence, added: 'There are pros and cons which are not necessarily always obvious I think, between managing influx and outflux of passengers but also goods.

'If you shut travel routes in, you are also shutting routes for various products which may be essential, not just for our population but all around the world.

'At the moment most people who are coming back are coming back into the UK back home and they will immediately fall under social distancing regulations anyway.'
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 11:55:48|Editor: huaxia

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CARACAS, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the Venezuelan armed forces have thwarted an attempt to unload mercenary groups onto the country's central coast on Sunday, blaming the United States for the "provocations and attacks" in recent weeks.

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said in a statement that several people were captured in the operation, including one individual who confessed to "being a veteran agent of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency."

The release said that "Venezuelan military deserters and a former member of the United States Army Special Forces have taken responsibility for this failed operation."

Venezuelan Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said on Sunday that "Colombian terrorist mercenaries" were also involved in the maritime invasion. Colombia denied any part in the event later on Sunday.

The Venezuelan foreign ministry also noted that the operation "took place in the midst of a global pandemic, disregarding the call of the (UN) secretary-general for a cessation of hostilities in the world." Enditem
Tripoli forces reportedly seize control of parts of al-Watiya, captured in 2014 by renegade commander Khalifa Haftar.

Soldiers from Libyas internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) attacked an airbase controlled by the forces of renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar.

The operation was launched early on Tuesday by troops loyal to the Tripoli-based GNA, which managed to seize control of major parts of the al-Watiya airbase, southwest of the capital, sources said.

Al Jazeeras Mahmoud Abdelwahed, reporting from Tripoli, said Haftars Libyan National Army (LNA) was forced back to the southern part of the key airbase.

He added the two sides were exchanging heavy fire.

This battle for al-Watiya has been prepared for by government forces over the past few weeks, by air strikes from government drones targeting Haftars forces and locations in and around al-Watiya airbase, he said.

The airbase has been used to launch air raids on forces loyal to the GNA. It is regarded as a key facility in the country and was captured in August 2014 by Haftar  who used it as his headquarters for launching operations in Libyas west.

A GNA source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said heavy artillery paved the way for troops to launch the ground offensive. Clashes are raging on near the base, the source told Anadolu news agency.

Libyas Al-Ahrar TV cited an unnamed government military official as saying the head of Haftars forces at the airbase was killed in the operation.

The commander of the Al-Watiya protection force of the Haftar terrorist militia, Osama Meseik, was killed in an attack by government forces on the base, he said. It was not possible to immediately confirm the claim.





Oil-rich Libya has been engulfed in chaos since 2011 when longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi was killed in a NATO-backed uprising.

It is now split between two rival administrations: The GNA and the eastern-based House of Representatives allied to Haftar.

Haftars fighters have suffered a series of setbacks in recent weeks in their year-long campaign to seize Tripoli, with pro-GNA forces expelling them from two key coastal cities west of the capital.

The LNAs military defeats have coincided with Turkeys entrance into the conflict, and its use of weaponised drones targetting Haftars troops and supply lines.

Next phase

Jason Pack, from the Libya Analysis think-tank, highlighted the shift in air superiority with Turkish drones now dominating the skies, and said the GNA would further strengthen its hand if it regains control of the airbase.

But he told Al Jazeera the LNA still would be a powerful force to be reckoned with.

Haftars ability to rule eastern Libya and the power he has over many tribes in the centre of the country will not be changed. Rather, the next phase of the civil war would start, said Pack.

Haftars made some mistakes, some of these even comical, but unfortunately hes going to be where hes going to be until his health or the international geopolitics changes.

Turkey on Tuesday called on all powers supporting Haftar to rethink their position and invest in the Libyan government.

Thanks to Turkeys support for the legitimate government of Libya, the destabilising and illegitimate Haftar forces are losing ground in Libya. All those powers supporting Haftar must rethink their position and invest in the legitimate government for peace and stability,Fahrettin Altun, Turkeys communications director, said on Twitter.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday good new news from Libya will be returned to us soon, God willing.





Libyas security, safety and prosperity of its people is the key to stability in the entire North African and Mediterranean region, he said.

Peace talks?

In a statement, Fayez al-Serraj, the head of the GNA, called on all Libyan parties to swiftly resume political dialogue brokered by the United Nations.

He called for a comprehensive roadmap and political process, either through amending a 2015 political agreement and forming a presidential council with a separate prime minister, or conducting a general election in the near future.

The GNA rejected Haftars unilateral call for a ceasefire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan for fear he would use the truce as an opportunity to regroup.

Last month, the United Nations, the European Union and several countries called on Libyas warring sides to lay down their arms during Ramadan.

Haftar launched a war to capture Tripoli a year ago, advancing into the southern suburbs before his offensive stalled, and his forces, backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Russia, have continually bombarded the capital.

The pro-GNA forces have pushed the LNA back from some areas in the northwest and repeatedly attacked its supply lines with the help of Turkish-supplied drones.
While the world grapples with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, search for a vaccine in on. There have been many discussions and debates on a potential cure, however, almost all stakeholders seem to agree that the coronavirus vaccine could take at least around 6-9 months. Efforts are being made globally for ways to overcome the disease.

Top American immunologist and physician Dr Anthony Fauci also said that it could take a year to 18 months for a vaccine to develop. England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said that the chances of creating a highly effective vaccine or treatment for corona within the next year is "incredibly small".

To begin with, world leaders, organisations and banks pledged $8 billion towards research for a vaccine against coronavirus. However, the donors still feel that this is only the start of an effort that needs to be sustained over time. The funds were pledged during a video-conference summit hosted by European Union. The United States decided not to be part of the event. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the fund would help in looking for a vaccine, new treatments and better tests for COVID-19.

Also read: Infographic: Does India have enough hydroxychloroquine to fight coronavirus?

GLOBAL RESEARCH

There are multiple research and development works happening at breakneck speed across the globe.

The Israel Defence Ministry said in a statement that the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) completed the development phase of coronavirus antibody or passive vaccine. The antibody attacks the virus and neutralises it in the body, reported The Jerusalem Post. They are looking to get a patent for the antibody to further develop it for commercial purposes.

Another Israeli research team, MigVax said that it is completing the first phase for a COVID-19 vaccine. MigVax, additionally, secured a $12 million investment to accelerate the clinical trials.

Meanwhile, researchers at two Harvard-affiliated hospitals are adapting a proven form of gene therapy to develop a corona vaccine. They expect to test this by the end of the year. The tests allow a harmless virus to act as a carrier to bring DNA into the patient's cells. The DNA would then instruct the cells to make a coronavirus protein that would stimulate the immune system to ward off future infections.

Also read: Hydroxychloroquine makers Zydus, Ipca, others plan 6 times capacity to meet demand

Australian scientists have started injecting ferrets with potential vaccine candidates. They expect to start human trials soon. In Seattle, however, the first human trial for a vaccine has been announced. In Oxford too the first human trial in Europe started with 800 recruits.

China, where the disease originated, has approved its third vaccine candidate for clinical trials. One of the vaccine candidates is developed by Chinese military, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) for clinical trials. An "inactivated" vaccine developed by Wuhan Institute of Biological Products under the China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) and the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) started its clinical trials, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Billionaire Bill Gates' foundation is focussing its resources on fighting COVID-19."Humankind has never had a more urgent task than creating broad immunity for coronavirus. We need to make billions of doses, we need to get them out to every part of the world, and we need all of this to happen as quickly as possible," he said in a blog post. He said that the world needs around 14 billion doses and it could take anything between nine months to two years for a vaccine to develop.

Also read: Is remdesivir effective in coronavirus treatment? China study says No, US says Yes

Closer home, the government has set up a Vaccine Task Force for research on a cure for coronavirus. The task force has asked ICMR-approved research institutions to use samples for R&D and to inform the task force.

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO DEVELOP CORONA VACCINE?

Usually, a vaccine takes years to develop. However, researchers are optimistic that a vaccine for corona can be developed in only a few months.

An oft-quoted time frame is about 12-18 months, while some researchers have said it could take as less as six months too. Some researchers are aiming to find a vaccine by the end of 2020. However, mid-2021 is when a vaccine seems most likely to materialise.

It must be kept in mind that there are other coronaviruses in the human body already.They cause common cold symptoms but there is no vaccine for them as yet.

Also read: Setback for Zydus, IPCA; US, Europe warn against using Hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus
The Delhi police on Monday took suo motu cognisance of social media posts, sharing screenshots of an online group -- bois locker room -- wherein some school students had allegedly shared messages about gang-raping their classmates and morphing their photographs. Police have also questioned a 15-year-old in the matter on Monday.

Deputy commissioner of police, cyber crime, Anyesh Roy said the department has come to know about the group through social media monitoring. No one has come forward with a complaint so far. We have taken suo motu cognisance of the social media posts. We are registering a case under the Information Technology (IT) Act and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, he said.

A senior police officer, who wished not to be named, said they have received a complaint on behalf of a South Delhi private school. The officer said one of the boys has been picked up for questioning. As of now, it seems all the members of the group belonged to one school, said the officer.

The screenshots of chats on this Instagram group -- bois locker room-- were made public by some girls on social media platforms, including Twitter and Instagram, on Saturday. The incident has created a havoc on social media with questions being raised over the safety of women.

In the shared screenshots, the group members can be seen discussing female anatomy and rating their female classmates on appearance.The group members also talked of taking revenge on girls who had posted about them on social media by circulating the girls nude pictures

The group was later deleted from Instagram.

Another senior police officer said the initial investigation suggests that there were around 30 members in the group. Some of them were involved in such conversations, others werent. In the chats, the students had shared morphed images of female classmates and could be seen talking about gang-raping them, said another officer, adding that some of the group members had taken a screen shot of the conversation and these had made it to the social media.

Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has also issued notices to the Delhi police and the Instagram seeking a report in connection with the incident. Its reported that the group was used for sharing objectionable pictures of minor girls and young women many a time with their personal information. The members of the group have been reported to have discussed techniques of raping women and gang-raping minors. The commission is in receipt of many screenshots of the group wherein the handle names and usernames are clearly visible, DCW chief Swati Malliwal said in the orders issued to both the police and the Instagram.

The DCW has sought details from them about the group and its members and an investigation into the matter by Friday.

Several school and college-going girls on Monday said they have been shaken by the incident. According a tweet, the boys in the group are school-going teenagers. Some girls have even identified them. Its so scary. They have shared nude pictures of girls and posted rape threats. My friends and I are in shock after reading all those messages. My mother even asked me to quit Instagram, said Sneha Agarwal, a class 11 student at a South Delhi private school.

Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) president Aishe Ghosh in a statement said that steps need to be taken to improve cyber laws to create a safe cyber space for women.
This degree of notoriety and potential power is Becomings central theme, as both its subject and the world around her consider the ramifications of taking lifes next step. Oddly absent is any scene in which Obama is hunkered down with the messy business of actually writing her memoir (also titled Becoming), a process that has been known to bring authors low. Instead of typing and editing and discussions about what to put in and what to leave out, we start at the book tour itself and all that it entails  sitting for makeup and hair, entering and exiting through kitchens and long hallways, getting into the SUV and then getting out of it.
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Linkedin Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, May 6, 2020 09:13 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd63130e 1 Editorial Tokopedia,data-breach,data-base,e-commerce,online-shopping Free

The data breach involving 91 million users of Indonesian unicorn Tokopedia is extremely disturbing and should prompt the government and digital platforms to do more to protect citizens personal data. The alleged online sale of users names, e-mail addresses and phone numbers has further exposed the vulnerability of our data and digital transactions.



The shocking revelation comes as citizens are increasingly relying on digital platforms as they are forced to stay home to help curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. New sellers on Tokopedia, for example, have surged by 2.5 times to over 7.8 million during the pandemic.



As demand for online shopping increases, users are well aware of the risks in the digital sphere when they agree to the terms and conditions, but this does not mean digital platforms and the government can evade responsibility.



The digital platform boom, especially of e-commerce sites, calls for stricter security monitoring and enforcement measures both by platforms and the government. Unfortunately, Indonesia has yet to join countries around the world that have issued stringent regulations on personal data protection. A data protection bill, modeled on the European Unions General Data Protection Regulation, has been in process for years.

Read also: Tokopedia data breach exposes vulnerability of personal data The surge of digital platforms has given rise to cybercrimes. Hacking of platforms exposes the weaknesses of their systems. In this case Tokopedia and digital platforms facing data breach issues should immediately improve their security systems, notify their users about the state of their data and announce publicly measures to protect user data and accounts. Despite such measures being able to restore public confidence, there has been no official notification by Tokopedia to its customers on its platform regarding the data breach.



The government needs to enforce the rules and conduct an investigation separately from Tokopedias internal efforts. Communications and Information Minister Johnny G. Plate did the right thing by immediately summoning Tokopedia to ask about the platforms response to the data breach.



However, to emerge out of the meeting saying financial-related data is safe based on Tokopedias claims does not sound right by any means. Government Regulation No. 71/2019, Communications and Information Ministerial Regulation No. 20/2016 and the 2006 Population Administration Law protect peoples rights to their personal data.



The government and law enforcement agencies need to conduct a thorough investigation into data breaches in digital platforms and punish those responsible. The government also needs to push digital platforms to notify all users whose data have been breached and to double their efforts to improve the security of their platforms.



Learning from a series of data breaches, it is high time that Indonesia enacted a personal data protection law that protects citizens data and privacy, acknowledges the right to be forgotten and punishes individuals and institutions that commit data misuse and theft. In the absence of stronger and more comprehensive data-protection legislation, the government and digital platforms must do more against data breaches.



Resuming deliberations of the data protection bill is one way but for the time being, digital platforms have to constantly develop and improve their security systems. The government must enforce existing rules and take stern action against those who breach, leak or mishandle citizens personal data.
The applications are pouring in and if the governments emergency Bounce Back Loan Scheme lives up to the hype, the money will be pouring out very soon. If.

Up to 50,000 is being made available to businesses that were trading prior to 1 March via banks, with the stipulation that they werent in financial difficulty at the time. This is not intended as a bailout, and while the application process is supposed to be simple, checks will still have to be made.

The pre-existing Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, which offers up to 45m and is 80 per cent underwritten by the taxpayer, has faced criticism for getting money out too slowly.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 14:36:11|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese tourists traveled and took 100 million domestic trips in four days of the five-day Labor Day holiday, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The domestic tourism generated 43.23 billion yuan (about 6.13 billion U.S. dollars) in revenue from May 1 to 4, with 104 million tourists, said a source of the ministry.

Labor Day holiday season runs from on May 1 to 5 this year. Enditem
DALLAS, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- RateGain, a leading SaaS company for travel and hospitality, today announced the release of the second edition of the report on assessing the global impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality industry in collaboration with IDeaS and HSMAI Europe. The report tracks week-wise room reservations & cancellation trends from over 20+ countries across the globe, giving a comprehensive view of the current state of the industry and strategies that hospitality professionals can leverage to cope with the crisis.

The second edition of the report compares data from February 1st to April 19th 2020, with the previous year to determine if the overall health of the industry was improving compared to the first edition that was released in March, which confirmed a 16% decline in reservations.

In the latest edition, 18 destination countries out of 20 show considerable improvement with Argentina (60%), Brazil (45%), Czech Republic (65%), Japan (28%), Mexico (33%), Oman (67%) leading those trends in 'week over week' reservations observed till week ending April 19th.

Commenting on the report, Harmeet Singh, CEO-RateGain, said, "While the outbreak of COVID-19 is affecting hotels' forward reservations, there are recovery efforts being made by industry associations, governments, hotel chains, technology organizations and tourism boards. With all of us working together, we believe that the markets will recover faster," said Harmeet Singh, CEO, RateGain. "However, what's most important between now and the post-corona era is the continuous preparation for the recovery. The second edition of the study COVID-19 & The Hospitality Industry Worldwide is, therefore, an effort to help the industry learn from the country-wise hotel reservation and cancellation trends, to understand the market pulse, respond to critical developments, revisit the short-term revenue management strategies, and prepare for the recovery."

The report findings also suggest that as a region, except the Asia Pacific, Europe, Americas, and the Middle East are not only seeing a recovery in reservations but also seeing a higher number of reservations as compared to 2019 levels, however, this growth is offset by an increase in cancellations as well, with lockdown measures being extended in some markets.

"During this difficult time, we understand and sympathize with the challenges our clients face today and in the coming months. Our strategic collaboration with RateGain is focused on bringing added value to our common clients to ensure they can integrate rate shopping data seamlessly with our revenue science. We continue to work with our partners and our customers to provide the industry with tangible advice to help all involved come out of these challenging times together while helping revenue managers make informed decisions based on these combined insights. Stay strong, and we will weather this storm together," said Ravi Mehrotra, President, Founder & Chief Scientist, IDeaS Revenue Solutions.

In addition to providing free analysis and coping strategies, RateGain is also committed to 1000+ hours of free consulting sessions to help travel and hospitality professionals with coping strategies and steps towards a better tomorrow.

About RateGain: RateGain is a leading provider of SaaS products, which help travel and hospitality companies with cognitive revenue management, smart e-distribution, and brand engagement to make more revenue every day. For more information, visit www.rategain.com

About IDeaS: IDeaS, a SAS company, is the world's leading provider of revenue management software and services. With over 30 years of expertise, IDeaS delivers revenue science to more than 13,000 clients in 129 countries.

Discover greater profitability at ideas.com

Media contact:

Ankit Chaturvedi

AVP-Marketing

[email protected]

+91-9654502760

SOURCE RateGain
By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 05, 2020 | 02:19 PM | KEVIL





On Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman announced that 25-year-old Jeremiah Wooley will be charged for possession of an unregistered firearm.







According to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday, Kentucky State Police charged Wooley on April 29 for reportedly making threats against Governor Andy Beshear and State Police on social media under a false name.







Troopers claim that Wooley was in possession of two handguns on his person during the arrest. A search of his home reportedly revealed 12 firearms.







A State Police Hazardous Device investigator also reportedly discovered 50 MKII pineapple-style hand grenades in a bucket in Wooley's bedroom. Officers say all but one of the grenades had been rendered unusable, but all of the necessary components to complete and assemble a grenade were found in the search.





"Albeit unusual times and despite elevated risk to their own safety, Kentucky law enforcement continues to show up to protect our Commonwealth," said U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman. "I could not be prouder of the mission-driven collaboration between the FBI, ATF, KSP and United States Attorneys Office in the Purchase Region and across Kentucky. "







If he is convicted, the maximum sentence for the possession of an unregistered firearm is ten years of imprisonment, a $10,000 fine, or both.

A Kevil man who had allegedly threatened Governor Andy Beshear and State Troopers now faces federal charges.
A thermal camera monitor shows the body temperature of passengers as they wait in line before boarding airplanes at the domestic flight terminal of Gimpo airport in Seoul, April 29. AP-Yonhap



By Kim Yoo-chul



In the midst of an economic lockdown unprecedented in modern times, the question facing governments across the globe is how to effectively restart their engines.



Several policy papers from public health experts provide a roadmap, and countries around the world have begun to announce their own paths, largely based on these policy recommendations.



It's fair to say the key to keeping new COVID-19 infections down as demonstrated in Asia will be identifying new cases quickly before they spread the virus to others. This is a feat made difficult by both the long incubation period and the asymptomatic nature of the novel coronavirus in many patents. This is a labor-intensive process as it requires widespread diagnostic testing.



Simply put, technology can help. The little devices that nearly everyone carries around all day such as mobile phones can do a remarkably thorough job of "contact tracing."



South Korea is leading the way as the government has been able to use data from mobile phones and also credit cards to track down the contacts of virus carriers, according to recent analysis by Bernstein Research, an independent researcher affiliated with AllianceBernstein, a global asset management company.



Lisa Bedell Clive, the lead writer of the 41-page analysis co-authored by nine others, appreciated South Korea's efforts to move forward with "integrated and shared data" and "aggressive testing" initiatives in terms of controlling the virus spread. She is a Wall Street analyst at Bernstein who specializes in the healthcare sector.



"South Korea has maintained some semblance of an economy, but it's been hard work. They've rapidly rolled out broad testing infrastructure and set up significant abilities to trace contacts and share information," the analysis noted. "They've had to impose things that Western populations may not be fully keen on (e.g. fairly invasive monitoring through cell phone location tracking, credit card usage and other technologies."



South Korea, the world's most-wired society, is one of the first few countries to slow the spread of COVID-19. The current death toll from the virus is 254 as of May 5. Confirmed cases in the country peaked in February and have since diminished gradually. The country is actually expanding testing as well as relying on other technology-driven solutions.



More precisely, Seoul announced plans to introduce location-tracking bracelets for people who are self-quarantining but break the quarantine. This comes following reports of people circumventing a government-mandated app downloaded to their phone by leaving the device at home when going out, government officials said. The bracelets would instantly alert health authorities if people tried to cut them off, they added.



The analysis also mentioned China's efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 through collaboration with tech companies such as Tencent and Alibaba. "The Chinese people could apply for a health code from WeChat, Alipay, or from a standalone app on their mobile phones," the report said.



In China, once initial personal data is collected, the apps work in the background to update information and reflect the latest health status of the individual, with three levels  green, yellow and red. "The QR health code has been very effective for contact tracing purposes."



Double-edged privacy debate



Can contact tracing be done in the United States and Europe based on various successful cases in Asia? The key question is that unlike Asia with highly centralized governments and more civic-oriented societies, the U.S. and Europe put more emphasis on individual liberties and privacy concerns.



On a related note, Apple and Google recently co-announced a rare partnership to build a COVID-19 contact tracing app for mobile phones. The two-phase exposure notification uses Bluetooth technology on mobile devices to aid in contact tracing efforts. The apps will be developed by the relevant health officials and authorities, who will define the way in which the app determines if someone has been exposed to the virus.



But the report said unlike South Korea's experience tackling virus-related issues, a unique wrinkle is Apple and Google's privacy policies are more stringent than what most governments are looking for.



"Recently, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley wrote in a letter to the CEOs of Apple and Google that they should hold themselves responsible for protecting the data collected through their efforts to trace the spread of COVID-19. While regulators seem more accepting of contact tracing apps, communication will be the key to increasing adoption," the analysis stressed.



In the United States, for example, the situation, therefore, is a bit more complicated. Starting with the legal aspect  the laws governing privacy of medical information (HIPPA) have exceptions when information can be shared without a patient's consent. The analysis said the use of tracking without individual consent has been adopted in smaller countries including South Korea, Taiwan and Israel.



"The powers that the federal and state governments have to collect data and compel individuals who are (likely) infected to obey orders to quarantine strongly suggest that they can use electronic means to do so. The Supreme Court has clearly stated that it is suspicious of the use of big data for contact tracing, but it will balance the privacy cost and public benefit of using such system," the analysis said.




OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian Air (NWC.OL) will sell new shares at a 79% discount to the latest traded price on the Oslo Bourse, the budget carrier said on Tuesday as it seeks to boost its equity in order to qualify for Norways government aid package.

Shareholders on Monday approved a plan to convert nearly $1 billion of debt into equity and raise up to 400 million crowns ($39 million) from the sale of new shares to help the airline survive the coronavirus pandemic.

Norwegian aims to sell new shares at 1.0 crown each, it said, far less than Tuesdays closing price of 4.80 crowns as it seeks to attract investors even while the debt conversion leads to a massive dilution of ownership stakes.

The company plans to raise between 300 million and 400 million crowns, and has so far secured commitments from investors planning to buy shares for more than 100 million crowns, it added.

The debt conversion and share sale will allow Norwegian Air to tap government guarantees of up to 2.7 billion crowns, which hinge on a reduction in leverage, on top of 300 million crowns it has already received.

If the process fails however, Norwegian Air is at risk of running out of money by mid-May even though it only pays invoices vital to maintaining minimum operations, it said on April 27.

The debt conversion will hand majority ownership to the airlines creditors and could leave current shareholders with just 5.2%, and with further dilution for owners who do not take part in the share issue.

The airline that brought Europes low-cost business model to the transatlantic market, flying more people to New York than any other non-U.S. carrier, has now grounded 95% of its fleet and furloughed or laid off most staff.

For the next 12 months, Norwegian plans to fly only seven aircraft, all on domestic routes in Norway, targeting a gradual expansion next year and a return to normal operations in 2022, albeit with a reduced short-haul and long-haul network.

Even with the ongoing financial restructuring, Norwegian will need additional cash to finance its eventual return to international markets, it said last month.

Airlines around the world have been hit hard by the pandemics impact on travel, with many forced to turn to governments for state aid to avoid bankruptcy.

U.S. billionaire investor Warren Buffett last week said Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N) had sold its stakes in U.S. carriers in April, adding to the sense of crisis around the industry.
rishi sunak

Coronavirus Article Bar with counter .

More than half of Britains adult population is now being bankrolled by the state amid warnings from the Chancellor that the furlough scheme could soon cost as much as the NHS.

Analysis of official figures shows that 27 million people are now being funded by the Government amid growing concern over the devastating toll to the economy wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.

The figure includes people being paid through the furlough scheme and those now claiming benefits after being made unemployed because of the virus. The remainder are public sector workers and pensioners.

On Monday night Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, said that the cost was clearly not a sustainable situation as he said that Britain must get back to work.

Amid growing signs of Cabinet friction over the ongoing length of the lockdown and the mounting cost, Mr Sunak said: To anyone who is anxious about this, I want to give them reassurance today that there will be no cliff-edge to the furlough scheme. Im working, as we speak, to figure out the most effective way to wind down the [furlough] scheme and to ease people back into work in a measured way.

As some scenarios have suggested, we are potentially spending as much on the furlough scheme as we do on the NHS, for example. Clearly that is not a sustainable situation.

Official figures released on Monday showed 6.3 million people in the UK  almost a quarter of all PAYE employees  have now been put on furlough by their employers at a cost of 8 billion in the first month. The NHS budget is approximately 11 billion a month.

Therese Coffey, the Work and Pensions Secretary, disclosed to Parliament that a further 1.8 million people had made new claims for Universal Credit since the Covid-19 outbreak gripped the UK, with another 250,000 claims for Jobseekers Allowance, costing an extra 6.5 billion. Adding in figures for the numbers unemployed before the crisis (1.2 million), public sector workers (5.4 million) and 12.6 million receiving a state pension, there are now more than 27 million people who are benefiting from state funding, out of an adult population of just over 52 million  equivalent to about 53 per cent.

Story continues

Senior Conservatives said the strain of the lockdown on the nations finances and rising unemployment was becoming unsustainable and called on Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, urgently to lift the lockdown. Lord Lamont of Lerwick, the Tory former chancellor, told The Telegraph: It is not practical and not affordable for the state to pay people not to work  ultimately the Government only has the money it gets from taxation from people who create the wealth. It is not a sustainable position except in the short term. It illustrates the danger and precariousness of our situation.

Leading businesses are now working with the Government on a strategy to help ease workers back into work while adhering to social distancing. Mr Johnson is expected to set out further plans in an address to the nation on Sunday.

Many European nations including Spain, Italy and Germany have begun easing their lockdowns amid growing concerns over the economic impact.

In total, just over a third of the adult population, including pensioners, received substantial state funding prior to the pandemic. If pensioners are removed from the calculations, then almost 36 per cent of the working population is now receiving major state support, more than double the proportion  at 16 per cent  before coronavirus struck.

The calculations do not include a further 5 million self-employed workers who may now be eligible to apply for a separate coronavirus bailout. The latest figures will put the Prime Minister under increased pressure to take the country out of lockdown while at the same time trying to avoid a devastating second coronavirus peak.

On Monday night Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader and former work and pensions secretary, said: This proves that we have to now be looking to unlock the lockdown urgently because this is unsustainable for much longer.

Sir John Redwood, a Cabinet minister in John Majors administration, said: In a short-term crisis the state needs to pay people who cannot work.[But] furlough has to be a temporary measure. It cant conceivably become the new normal; we cant afford it.

Mark Littlewood, director general of the Institute of Economic Affairs think tank, added: We need to swiftly move away from such colossal state involvement in employment. If numbers like these persist, it will be a recipe for serious long term stagnation and decline.

The Telegraph on Monday obtained draft documents setting out Government guidelines on how to get Britain back to work, including plans for safely opening up offices, shopping centres, hotels, factories and construction sites.

Britain recorded 288 new deaths on Monday, the lowest number since March 30. The UK death toll is now 28,734, compared to Italys 29,079.
Tanzania has suspended the head of its national health laboratory in charge of coronavirus testing, a day after President John Magufuli questioned the accuracy of the tests.

Magufuli, who has consistently downplayed the effect of the virus, said on Sunday he had secretly had animals, fruits and vehicle oil tested at the laboratory. A papaya, a quail and a goat had been found to be positive, according to the president.

He cast doubt on the credibility of laboratory equipment and technicians and questioned official data on the pandemic.

The president called for an investigation in what he suspected is a dirty game in the laboratory, but did not say where the kits had been imported from.

The equipment or people may be compromised and sometimes it can be sabotage, Magufuli said in a speech broadcast live through state-run Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC).

Opposition legislator Zitto Kabwe, head of the Alliance for Change and Transparency, defended Nyambura Moremi, the laboratory director.

Dont get heartbroken by the way politics is interfering in technical issues, he wrote on Twitter. I trust you did your job professionally and you will remain one of the best scientists in Tanzania.

Catherine Sungura, acting head of communications at the ministry of health, said in a statement on Monday the director of the laboratory and its quality assurance manager had been immediately suspended to pave way for the investigation.

Sungura said a 10-person committee had been formed to investigate the laboratorys operations, including its process of collecting and testing samples.

On Sunday, Magufuli also fired the head of the government Medical Stores Department, which is in charge of distributing medical supplies and equipment to government hospitals, but gave no reason.

The East African country, which announced its first case on March 16, had recorded 480 cases of the virus and 16 deaths at its last update on Wednesday.

The opposition has accused the government of hiding information and failing to take the disease seriously.

Schools and universities have been shut but markets, bus stops and shops bustle as usual, with Magufuli urging citizens to continue working hard and not stop going to church or mosques.

COVID-19 infections and deaths reported across Africa have been relatively low compared with the United States, parts of Asia and Europe. But Africa also has extremely low levels of testing, with rates of only about 500 per a million people.

Herbal tonic

In neighbouring Kenya, a Senate body sought an explanation from the health ministry over the circumstances leading to the demotion of the head of the rapid response and team director in charge of the centre for virus research at the state-run Kenya Medical Research Institute.

200504081212753

In relation to the above, the committee observes that the timing of the dismissal is wrong as it is likely to have a significant effect on the morale and motivation of the various staff that were working under him, the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on the COVID-19 situation in Kenya said in a report on April 28.

Meanwhile, several African countries have ordered a herbal tonic from Madagascar touted as a cure for COVID-19, even though the World Health Organization (WHO) has dismissed such claims and warned its effects have not been proven or even tested by scientists.

Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea have already received shipments of the tonic, which is produced from the artemisia plant used in malaria treatment, while Tanzania and the Republic of Congo have promised to import it.
LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / Boutique investment firm MPN Management has successfully navigated global investment trends during COVID-19 by leveraging market opportunities in various industries of expertise including gold and precious mineral mining. Following its lucrative success in assisting clients to penetrate and purchase stakes in Russian mining, the London-based investment firm is approaching newer unhinged markets in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Successful Gold Investments during COVID

Market volatility has created a surge in demand for gold as precious metals are likely to become an essential part of stabilizing currencies following the outpour of cash by government treasuries into local economies. Gold investments made by MPN were highly lucrative during COVID, as the London-based investment firm, also involved in precious metals and minerals investing, capitalized on market trends to the benefit of their clients.

The most significant investments are in mine sites across Russia such as the Kiyzassky and Gorlovsky mines. Their market expertise on the ground is what makes them a good contender for precious metal investment advice.

The COVID effect on the Gold Market

Managing partner at MPN, Edgar Jansons mentions that "a holdings of bullion ETF's is hardly capable of minimizing the volatility of the stock market, as such volatility is pushing investors to more solid investments. Bullion ETF's, therefore, do not act as actual holding of precious metals or as a means of currency. In order to achieve the benefits of gold, a physical holding shall be obtained".

Jansons proceeded to explain that major revenues from investing in gold will be from stakes in the mining industry, as the demand for gold is increasing and the mines are finding it hard to supply the amount demanded. Investing in the gold mines will provide higher revenues than a simple "buy and hold" strategy with gold.

Expansion into more golden opportunities

Story continues

Expanding into Sub-Saharan Africa is the next logical step for the flourishing investment firm as MPN Management is pursuing mining opportunities in countries like Ghana, Nigeria, Mali and Angola.

MPN believes that emerging markets across the region are key to discover unexplored mining areas to the benefit of client portfolio diversification. The lower labour costs and the proximity to major European and UEA markets can decrease transportation costs. Governments also tend to positively regard foreign investments in gold mining, as it creates more employment in rural areas, provides more sustainable environmental solutions that combat small scale mining and smuggling of gold. For instance, the Angolan government, has created favourable investment conditions for investors to inject funds into the gold mining industry.

MPN management is a financial advisory firm serving clients in different industries, with expertise in capital advisory, M&A, valuations and joint ventures. The firm assists investors to obtain private equity and invest in mining companies and as an opportunity to allocate holdings to the mining industry, where the demand for precious metals is extremely likely to increase.

The future of gold and precious metal investment will be largely determined by the global economic fallout and the need for hedging instruments in every portfolio. Most importantly, investors need to side with asset managers that understand the right opportunities that maintain upward gains and portfolio balancing.

Contact

Company: MPN Management

Name: Edgar Maksim Jansons

Email: edgar@mpnmanagement.com

Website: www.mpnmanagement.com

SOURCE: MPN Management





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/588525/Successful-Gold-Investments-Lead-to-Regional-Expansion-for-MPN-Management




Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money.

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.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 22:17:53|Editor: huaxia

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COPENHAGEN, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Danish Finance Minister Nicolai Wammen flanked by representatives from the Parliament presented a major new agreement on municipal equalization allowing a total of 19.3 billion Danish kroner (2.76 billion U.S. dollars) to be moved annually across municipalities, during a press conference here on Tuesday.

For instance, 1.4 billion Danish kroner (200 million U.S. dollars) will be transferred to 30 regional municipalities from richer municipalities, in particular, Gentofte and Rudersdal in the Greater Copenhagen area.

According to the agreement, 6.5 billion Danish kroner (945 million U.S. dollars) will be provided by the state to the equalization system in 2021 with 5.5 billion Danish kroner (800 million U.S. dollars) a year permanently thereafter.

"With the agreement, we are presenting today, we are laying the foundation for a better balance in Denmark. The widest shoulders must bear the heaviest burdens," said the minister.

In addition, the government is making available a special subsidy for vulnerable regional municipalities and island municipalities of 1.5 billion Danish kroner (218 million U.S. dollars)and a subsidy for vulnerable capital municipalities of 600 million Danish Kroner (87 million U.S. dollars).

The redistribution means more money will be available for municipalities with socially vulnerable citizens like the unemployed and elderly.

"Denmark is too small for big differences. Wherever you live in Denmark, you can expect that there is a proper welfare society for yourself and your family," said Wammen.

However, not all the socially vulnerable groups will benefit from the equalization.

In particular, the immigration equalization program, which financially benefited municipalities with a high concentration of immigrants will see money halved as demanded from opposition party Venstre when reaching the agreement with the government.

The reallocation of money also comes with an agreement that municipal income tax must not rise.

Meantime, the Social Democratic government and Venstre also made a supplementary agreement that prevents either party from making a fundamental change to the new equalization system in the future without the other party's consent. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 03:12:04|Editor: huaxia

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JERUSALEM, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Iran has begun reducing its forces in Syria and pulling out of some bases in the country, the Israeli media reported on Tuesday.

"For the first time since Iran started to entrench itself in Syria, it is reducing its forces there and clearing bases," Israeli security officials were quoted as saying by the Hebrew-language news site of Ynet.

"Syria is paying a growing price because of the Iranian presence in its territory," the officials said, adding that "Iran has turned from an asset to Syria into a burden."

Israel's military was not immediately available to comment for Xinhua.

Also on Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett warned that Israel will increase the pressure on Iran to withdraw its forces from Syria.

"Iranian troops who go to Syria and take actions there are risking their own lives," he said, warning that Israel considers them as legitimate targets for strikes.

"We will not enable establishing Iranian bases in Syria," he vowed.

The remarks came some 12 hours after 14 Iranian and Iraqi militiamen were killed in Israeli airstrikes on positions held by Iranian forces and their allies in eastern Syria, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Israeli air force has carried out "hundreds" of strikes in Syria, claiming the attacks aimed at Iranian sites and weapons convoys to the Iran-backed Lebanese militia of Hezbollah.

Israeli officials have repeatedly warned that Israel will not allow Iran, considered as Israel's arch foe, to establish a permanent military presence in Syria. Enditem
The Huntington Beach Pier in Huntington Beach, Calif., on May 3, 2020. Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered all beaches in Orange County to close on May 1 to help slow the spread of CCP virus. (Michael Heiman/Getty Images)

Newsom Approves Reopening of 2 Orange County Beaches for Active Recreation

California Gov. Gavin Newsoms administration on May 4 approved the reopening of beaches in two cities in Orange County, after local officials submitted plans to adhere to social distancing measures in an effort to prevent the spread of the CCP virus.

Beaches in Laguna Beach and San Clemente will be reopened to the public after receiving approval from the Governors Office of Emergency Services, state officials confirmed.

The plans for reopening beaches in both cities will adhere to Newsoms stay-at-home order, the California Natural Resources Agency said in a statement.

The approval comes after Newsom on April 30 issued an order to close all beaches in Orange County after tens of thousands of people flocked to some beaches the previous weekend during a heat wave, raising concerns that physical distancing rules werent being followed.

The beachgoers in Orange and Ventura counties, Newsom said last week, were an example of what not to do if California wants to continue its progress fighting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

Laguna Beach will now reopen weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., and will only allow active recreationwhich means jogging, surfing, and swimming are fine, but lying in the sun and bringing a cooler isnt OK, according to a copy of the citys plan.

Those who violate the closure orders, and visit the beach on weekends or past 10 a.m., can be cited with a misdemeanor, fined up to $1,000, or arrested, Fox LA reported, citing Laguna Beach officials.

San Clemente has also reopened its beaches for active recreation only, such as walking or surfing, the city said in a statement, noting that while its pier was to reopen May 5, fishing wont yet be allowed. Beaches in the city will be open seven days a week.

Newsom thanked law enforcement and local officials for constructing an outstanding plan to safely reopen beaches in both cities.

We worked with them on guidelines and procedures to basically enforce a reopening that is phased and appropriate to local needs, local conditions, Newsom said. And so with deference to their plans and proposals, which are unique and distinctive in both cases, we signed off on those and we immediately lifted [restrictions].

Laguna Beach Mayor Bob Whalen said in a statement that the city appreciates Newsoms willingness to work with us to provide a responsible, gradual approach to reopening all beaches for active recreation.

This will allow people the opportunity to walk, jog, swim, and surf, and get some fresh air and exercise on a limited basis, but not congregate or gather in large groups, Whalen said.

Orange County Executive Officer Frank Kim said the state is in discussion with other cities to devise plans to reopen more beaches.

California has reported more than 54,000 cases of the CCP virus, with at least 2,254 deaths, according to government data.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Vietnam announced 11 COVID-19 recoveries, including the country's oldest patient, on Tuesday morning, taking the number of recovered cases to 232.

The 11 patients include two relapses having retested negative for four times in a row and a person once in a critical condition, according to Suc Khoe & Doi Song (Health & Life), which is the mouthpiece of the Ministry of Health.

Relapse cases usually have the virus' genetic materials in their body, said Nguyen Van Kinh, a senior expert at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi.

That explains why they retest positive, Kinh said, adding it does not mean the virus is active.

The critical case is a 88-year-old woman, considered Vietnam's oldest COVID-19 patient, who was put on a ventilator in an intensive care unit of the hospital.

She has a history of high blood pressure and brain bleeding, leading to the paralysis of half of her body.

The patient was admitted to the hospital on March 25.

She has tested negative for the novel coronavirus for five times.

She is conscious, has stable vital signs, can eat, and will be transferred to Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi for treatment for her underlying conditions, according to the health ministry.

All the 11 recovered patients will be monitored for 14 more days, as per the health ministry's regulations.

Vietnam has confirmed 271 cases so far, with 39 now active and no documented death.

The country's national committee on COVID-19 prevention and control said on Monday night that a recovered patient had died of end-stage live fibrosis last week.

The case, 64-year-old N.V.D., was hospitalized in Ha Nam Province, located in northern Vietnam, on March 20.

He first tested positive for the novel coronavirus on April 7.

The patient was at high risk as he had many pre-existing conditions, including liver fibrosis, gout, and alcoholism, doctors said.

Health workers could not trace back the source of his infection then.

He was transferred to the National Hospital for Tropical Disease in Hanoi after his initial treatment in Ha Nam.

The mans tests returned negative for four times at the hospital in the capital before he was sent back to his hometown for liver fibrosis treatment on April 17.

He died of cirrhosis on Friday last week, the committee said.

The patient retested negative for the virus at a general hospital in Ha Nam upon his death.

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As many as 193 Pakistani nationals, stuck in various states of India after the country announced nationwide lockdown on March 24, returned to their country through Attari-Wagah border on Tuesday.

All Pakistani nationals were screened by a team of health officials at the Integrated Check Post (ICP). They were allowed to return after their customs and immigration formalities were completed, said a senior official of Land Port Authority of India (LPAI) posted at the ICP.

The Pakistani nationals thanked the Indian government for facilitating their repatriation. I along with my family had come to Mumbai to meet our relatives around 2 months ago. As the lockdown was announced, we were stuck here. We are thankful to the Indian government for facilitating our return, said 25-year-old Anju Mhanlal from Karachi in Pakistan.

Ashok Kumar, a resident of Sindh providence in Pakistan, said he had come to India with a 41-member Hindu jatha and was scheduled to return to his country on March 20 but as the borders were sealed in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak, they were stuck too. The Indian government was very supportive and helped us during this outbreak. We are thankful to the government, he said.

Another Pakistani national Ameena Kumari said even the Indians stranded in Pakistan should be allowed to return their homes.
Lucknow: Samajwadi Party supremo and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday took a potshot at the state governments decision to open liquor shops in all the three zones amid the coronavirus crisis.

Yadav tweeted a photograph that showed people standing in long queues outside a liquor shop. Do we have to stand in the same line to achieve the 5 trillion economy? he wrote. The Samajwadi Party chief also said that be it demonetization or the purchase of liquor, Indians are made to stand in queues. He further asked if this is how the target of 5 trillion dollar economy would be met.

As per the figures released by the excise department, on the very first day of the opening of shops, people bought liquor worth about 225 crore, setting a new state record. On Monday, the average sale of liquor in most districts remained between five to six crores. On a normal day, the sale of English liquor is between 1.25 crore to 1.50 crore in each district.

Sensing the possibility of bulk buying, the UP excise department placed a cap on the individual purchase on liquor for the next few days. Police personnel were also deployed at shops to ensure that law and order is maintained and social distancing is practised. Huge crowds were spotted in several liquor shops across the state with people queuing as early as 8 am at some places.

For the next three to four days, there will be a cap on the purchase of liquor in the state. At once, a person will be allowed to buy one full bottle, two half bottles, three quarters, two beer bottles and three cans, Principal Secretary Excise, Sanjay R Bhoosreddy said.

He also conducted an inspection of some liquor shops in the state capital to monitor the implementation of social distancing norms. The state government allowed liquor shops to open in all the three zones from 10 am to 7 pm but alcohol shops in Agra and Meerut remained shut.

The Agra district has been worst-hit by the coronavirus outbreak and has recorded the maximum cases so far. Close to 600 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Agra and 14 have died. Meanwhile, Meerut has reported 114 Covid-19 positive cases, including six deaths.
This company article has been removed.
DETROIT - Major U.S. automakers are planning to reopen North American factories within two weeks, potentially putting thousands of workers back on the assembly line as part of a gradual return to normality.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 5/5/2020 (623 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FILE - In this Feb. 26, 2019 file photo, Jeep vehicles are parked outside the Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit. Major U.S. automakers are planning to reopen North American factories within two weeks, potentially putting thousands of workers back on the assembly line, as part of a gradual return to normality. Fiat Chrysler CEO Mike Manley said Tuesday, May 5, 2020, his company plans to start reopening factories May 18 depending on easing of government restrictions. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

DETROIT - Major U.S. automakers are planning to reopen North American factories within two weeks, potentially putting thousands of workers back on the assembly line as part of a gradual return to normality.

Fiat Chrysler CEO Mike Manley said on an earnings conference call Tuesday his company plans to start reopening factories May 18, though that depends on an easing of government restrictions.

Right now, Michigans shelter-at-home order is in effect until May 15.

Detroit automakers will likely be on the same timetable because their workers are represented by the same union.

The United Auto Workers union on Tuesday appeared to be onboard.

Detroit automakers employ about 150,000 factory workers in the United States alone. Auto plants have been shut since mid-March because of the outbreak. At least 25 employees at auto facilities represented by the UAW have died as a result of COVID-19, although it's not known if they were infected at work.

Manley said a lot depends on whether Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer allows factories to reopen.

Last week, Whitmer hinted that auto plants may soon reopen as the curve of cases continues to flatten. She said the reopening could take place as long as the UAW can ensure employees feel safe.

The UAW said in a prepared statement that workers will return to auto plants starting May 18, and it has agreed on safety procedures to protect them. Under its contracts with Fiat Chrysler, General Motors and Ford, the companies have authority to pick restart dates. But the union can file grievances and seek closures if the virus spreads at factories.

We all knew this day would come, union President Rory Gamble said Tuesday. We continue to advocate for as much testing as possible at the current time and eventually full-testing when available.

Gamble said his family will be among those returning to work, and the union will make sure safety guidelines will be followed.

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 UAW will fulfil its role to continue to actively monitor and aggressively respond regarding all issues impacting the health and safety of UAW members in whatever manner may be necessary as we return to the worksite, Gamble said in a prepared statement.

Divisions over when to start to reopen economies on the state level spilled over in Michigan last week when armed protesters entered Michigan's Capitol building last week. The Republican-led state legislature refused to extend Michigan's coronavirus emergency declaration. They authorized a lawsuit challenging Whitmers authority and actions to combat the pandemic.

Whitmer faces pressure from the White House to relax restrictions as well.

Auto manufacturing is a major economic driver in Michigan, of course, and the state is facing a crippling cutoff in revenue with the plants closed.

____

Barry reported from Soave, Italy.
Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang-Manu has warned Ghanaians to be disciplined in adhering to the safety protocols.

He said the coronavirus pandemic will be with linger with us for a very long time.

He has, therefore, urged Ghanaians to stick to the measures outlined by the WHO and local health authorities which include the washing of hands regularly under running water with soap, the use of hand alcohol-based hand sanitisers, the wearing of facemasks and staying home if need be.

The virus will be with us for a very long time, the minister said at a press briefing on Tuesday, 5 May 2020, adding: We need to observe the protective measures.

So far, Ghana has recorded 2,719, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) said in its latest update on Monday, 4 May 2020.

A total of 294 have recovered with 18 deaths.

---classfmonline
ALBANY, N.Y., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Mechanical Technology, Incorporated (" MTI " or the "Company"), a publicly traded company (OTC Pink: MKTY) headquartered in Albany, New York, announced today that EcoChain, Inc. (" EcoChain "), a wholly-owned subsidiary of MTI, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the intellectual property of Giga Watt, Inc. (" GigaWatt "), and certain other property and rights of GigaWatt associated with GigaWatt's operation of a crypto-mining operation located in Washington State. GigaWatt was a leading player in the bitcoin economy of Central Washington State before declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Washington during November 2018. The acquired assets will form the cornerstone of EcoChain's new pilot cryptocurrency mining operation. EcoChain is purchasing the assets for cash consideration of $200,000 and EcoChain will be assuming certain contractual obligations of GigaWatt related to existing leases and utility power supply. Following completion of the acquisition, EcoChain intends to sell acquired equipment that is determined to be excess in nature so as to reduce EcoChain's overall transaction costs.

The transaction has been approved by EcoChain's Board of Directors and is subject to customary closing conditions, including satisfaction of bankruptcy bidding procedures and receipt of approval by the Bankruptcy Court. In the event bankruptcy bidding procedures result in a person that is not EcoChain acquiring the applicable assets, EcoChain will be paid a break-up fee of at least $40,000. The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of 2020.

Please visit https://www.mechtech.com under News & Events.

About EcoChain

EcoChain, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of MTI, is developing a pilot cryptocurrency mining facility powered by renewable energy to integrate with the bitcoin blockchain network.

About MTI

MTI is engaged in the design, manufacture, and sale of test and measurement instruments and systems through its subsidiary MTI Instruments, Inc. MTI Instrument's products use a comprehensive array of technologies to solve complex, real world applications in numerous industries including manufacturing, electronics, semiconductor, solar, commercial and military aviation, automotive and data storage.

For more information about the Company, please visit https://www.mechtech.com.

Contact Information:

Lisa Brennan

518-218-2592

[email protected]

SOURCE Mechanical Technology, Incorporated

Related Links

https://www.mechtech.com


Castro, Duboce Triangle

The Castro's five Bigbelly trash cans will be removed this week. | Photo: Steven Bracco/Hoodline

It's time to take out the trash  trash cans, that is.

After a two-year stint in the Castro, five Bigbelly trash cans are set to be removed from the neighborhood this week. The "smart waste" receptacles will be replaced with standard city trash cans.

Andrea Aiello, executive director of the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District (Castro CBD), tells Hoodline the cans didn't prove to be as successful as predicted.

"We have not noticed any real difference in the cleanliness of the sidewalks on those blocks with Bigbelly trash cans," Aiello said.

Bigbelly trash can outside Twin Peaks (2018). | Photo: Steven Bracco/Hoodline

The Castro's experience runs counter to that of many other San Francisco neighborhoods, which have embraced the cans in the past two years.

In 2019 alone, Hayes Valley, North Beach, Japantown, Excelsior, Lower Polk and the East Cut have all paid to install the pricey cans, which must be leased from Bigbelly instead of being purchased outright.

They say the cost is worth it: the cans hold more trash than the city's standard cans, and can't be rifled through, allowing debris to pile up on city streets.

In December, Mayor London Breed and District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney announced that the city would be putting up a $410,000 round of funding to deploy 90 more Bigbelly cans this year, with half of them going to the Tenderloin and SoMa.

The five Castro cans  two at Castro and Market streets, two at Church and Market streets, and one at Market and Noe streets  do appear to have been moderately successful at cutting down on street trash.

In the two years prior to the Bigbelly trash cans' installation (May 2016 - April 2018), Castro CBD cleaning reports show that street-cleaning teams picked 197,625 pounds of trash and responded to 522 reports of illegal dumping.

In the period since the Bigbelly cans' installation (May 2018 - March 2020), street-cleaning teams picked up 158,730 pounds of trash  a 19% decrease. There were 316 reports of illegal dumping in that time period, a 39% decrease.

Story continues

However, the comparison isn't apples-to-apples, since data from April 2020 isn't yet available. (We'll update this story once it comes in.)

Garbage illegally dumped at a Bigbelly can. | Photo: Steven Bracco/Hoodline

Aiello, who applied for and received a two-year city-funded grant for the Castro's Bigbelly cans, said their benefits ultimately didn't justify the $1,110 monthly cost.

A major issue with the cans has been vandalism, with one can damaged so badly that it cost $2,500 to repair. Bigbelly picked up the tab, but if it were to happen again, Aiello said, the CBD would be on the hook.

On top of vandalism, Aiello said, "our experience is that [the cans] have tended to attract illegal dumping."

And while many neighbors have told Aiello they like the look of the cans, quite a few have said that they don't like how the cans operate. "They have to get too close to put trash in the opening," Aiello not.

Vandalism atop one of the Bigbelly trash cans. | Photo: Steven Bracco/Hoodline

One much-touted benefit of the cans was a built-in sensor, meant to alert trash collectors when they needed to be emptied. But Aiello says that feature wasn't fully taken advantage of by the city.

"The Bigbelly trash cans have been on the same emptying schedule as all the rest of the trash cans," she said.

The Castro CBD, like all San Francisco's CBDs, is funded through assessment dollars on property owners to fund quality-of-life improvements, like sidewalk cleaning, graffiti removal, streetscape improvements, business development, community events and safety services.

Aiello said she couldn't justify spending that money on a service the city already provides.

"The Castro CBD was created to fund supplemental services, not city baseline services," she explained. "We thank the city for the two-year grant, but in the end, sidewalk trash cans are part of the basic services the city provides to neighborhoods."

A Bigbelly trash can at Church & Market streets in 2018. | Photo: Steven Bracco/Hoodline

However, Aiello has some concerns about reinstalling the standard city trash cans, which have long been set for a design overhaul.

SF Public Works is in charge of coming up with a new can design, but the project has languished for years. Some have alleged that now-disgraced SFPW director Mohammed Nuru opposed the Bigbelly cans because he had a contract to purchase new cans from Walter Wong, the permit expediter involved in the 555 Fulton project for which Nuru allegedly took bribes from a Chinese developer.

"The city trash can doors often break, making them very easy to vandalize," Aiello said. "We will be on top of this by calling broken city trash cans into 311 as soon as we are aware of the issue."

Bigbelly trash cans will be replaced with standard trash cans, like this one outside The Cafe. | Photo: Steven Bracco/Hoodline

While the Bigbelly cans haven't been a success for the Castro, Aiello says she's had no complaints.

"The company is great, no complaints with their service, and the city's Fix-It Team is also great," said Aiello.

If there ends up being overwhelming support for the Bigbelly cans, Aiello says, "we can always reconsider at a later date."

The Fix-It Team's Ian Schneider says that all other Bigbelly cans will remain in the city for the time being.

"Some of the neighborhoods are slated for expansion of their footprints," he added.

To receive attention for a trash issue within the Castro CBD's footprint, call the CBD's cleaning dispatch team at (415) 471-7536.
HOUSTON, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- iOFFICE, the industry leader in next-generation workplace experience and asset management solutions, today announced the launch of a powerful new space-planning feature that enables companies to effectively implement safe distancing in their workspaces: Space-Right.

With the COVID-19 pandemic causing drastic changes to the norms of global workplace occupancy, businesses must make rapid decisions to scale their spaces and assets.

iOFFICE VP of Product Strategy Chad Smith shared, "We've heard concerns from customers and the industry at large about their ability to create a safe environment that employees are comfortable returning to when the time comes."

In response to these challenges, iOFFICE tapped engineers, product managers and user experience designers from its Workspace Division - which includes recently acquired workplace experience company Teem - to identify new ways to support workplace leaders in their return-to-work and post-pandemic operational strategies.

The result is a new dynamic tool to help space planners visualize the impacts of implementing physical distancing measures.

Using a simple slider, workplace leaders can adjust the separation between workspaces, instantly watch the corresponding changes appear on their floor plan and see the planned capacity reduction percentage. They can also toggle between viewing by space and by person to see the impacts on individuals for move planning purposes.

A smart algorithm allows them to automatically run multiple scenarios including several factors - such as bringing the workforce back in phases or shifts based on job function, converting small collaborative spaces to offices or increasing remote work allowances - to identify the optimal outcome before finalizing new floor plans and moving people.

With Space-Right, workplace leaders can pivot to quickly adjust plans as needs change, reduce risk and increase employee confidence in returning to the workspace.

"At iOFFICE, we believe in always doing the right thing. During this time, that means being there to support businesses as they tackle strategies for the inevitable return to the workplace," said CEO Mark Peterson. "That's why we felt it was imperative to offer three months of free access to our current customers to kickstart their return-to-office planning."

Initial feedback from the iOFFICE Workspace Division Customer Advisory Board indicates strong market demand for this functionality, with those polled citing quick and easy implementation, time savings and employee reassurance as its top benefits.

Space-Right is available this May and existing iOFFICE customers receive 90 days free.

Founded in 2002, iOFFICE is the industry leader in next-generation workplace experience and asset management solutions. iOFFICE empowers executives and managers to optimize their workplaces to create agile and connected experiences while streamlining their technology stack. Through integrated and intuitive management solutions, iOFFICE provides organizations with the flexibility, mobility and customization needed to unite and elevate the workforces of today and tomorrow. To discover why leading global organizations of all sizes trust iOFFICE to improve their employee experience and drive enhanced business outcomes, visit www.iOFFICECORP.com.

CONTACT: Erin Sevitz, esevitz@iofficecorp.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/950926/iOFFICE_Logo.jpg
Despite the Derby Day assault by the Baffert Brigade, he holds on to the No. 1 spot as we head into the makeshift spring schedule beginning with the Matt Winn Stakes (G3) May 23. Whenever stakes are carded, such as this years version of the Belmont Stakes (G1), he will be ready, having remained in steady training, breezing five furlongs in 1:01 2/5. I love the way he cut the corner and hugged the rail down the stretch, doing everything on his own. This colt simply has no flaws. He remains the most complete package, although the domination by California shippers at Oaklawn May 2 is something to consider when assessing these 3-year-olds. Right now he looks like the only Easterner who has a big chance to repel the California challenge when you consider that Authentic and Honor A P are still waiting in the wings. In short, he is the one horse who has no question marks and is the most likely to stand in the way of another Baffert bonanza.

He gets the nod over Charlatan because he was a bit more professional in the split Arkansas Derby (G1), beat a more talented and deeper field, did it from off the pace, and has a much stronger pedigree for 1 1/4 miles. What was most impressive was the acceleration he showed inside the eighth pole when hit right-handed after King Guillermo began to close in on him. Bafferts workout regimen of breaking him far behind his workmates and not asking him until well into the stretch apparently paid off and he was able to settle beautifully off the pace for the first time in his career and merely cruised by the TwinSpires.com Louisiana Derby (G2) winner Wells Bayou nearing the head of the stretch. This was a dramatic turnaround, as we saw him morph into a Derby horse. His previous running style was a complete contradiction to his pedigree. It did take him about eight strides to change leads, but other than that this was a flawless performance. I needed to see what I saw and am now a believer.

His Arkansas Derby romp was a thing of beauty and stamped him as an extraordinary talent with a limitless future. The reason he is behind Nadal is that he had everything go his way, from barely getting in the race, drawing into the weaker division, breaking from the rail, having the only other speed horse scratch, and totally controlling the race with no one putting any pressure on him. He also came home his final eighth two-fifths of a second slower than Nadal off fairly similar fractions and was being ridden aggressively through the stretch, getting hit five times left-handed even after opening a big lead. He doesnt have great extension, but is extremely light on his feet and just glides over the ground. His pedigree is a bit enigmatic. His sire was a pure sprinter but has sired several major stakes winners at 1 1/4 miles and his broodmare sire was basically a miler, but did sire a horse who came within a nose of sweeping the Triple Crown and is closely inbred (2x3) to the great Dr. Fager. He certainly looks like another who will carry his speed longer distances.

Not only he did work five furlongs in a bullet 1:00, it was the fastest of 75 works at the distance. He picked up unscheduled company from another horse working a half with jockey Kenny Black aboard who got his head in front. Black told Shirreffs he was on a very fast horse. That forced Honor A.P. to keep to the task at hand, and as Shirreffs said, put him in a competitive mode. Shirreffs better hope Santa Anita opens soon and there is a race for him fairly quickly. Right now, this is a bulldozer of a horse, but by September he should be finely tuned; more streamlined and with quicker pickup. He does everything professionally, runs straight, and has no apparent quirks. He just needs to race and likely will take on Authentic again, this time hoping for some competition up front.

He still may very well be the best of the Bafferts, but right now you have to give the edge to the now horses who both took a huge step forward and who have traveled cross country to win. Like Charlatan, he still has to show what he can do under pressure and if he can rate off the lead. But also like Charlatan he has such an easy-going stride he is anything but speed-crazy. And he and Charlatan still have to overcome a pedigree more geared toward speed and middle distances. But as mentioned earlier, they both look and move like stayers, and there is no reason to think they cant continue to stretch out that speed even farther. With Santa Anita possibly opening soon, Baffert is cranking him back up, working him five furlongs in 1:00 2/5. Right now, Baffert has three extremely gifted colts, but in the same race they could easily compromise each others chances, so for the next four months the catchword in the Baffert barn is versatility. Get these three as far away from each other as possible or Baffert could have too much of a good thing.

Despite his inactivity and his best races being at Tampa Bay Downs, I am still very high on him. I just love what Ive seen from him visually. With the Derby still four months away, Biancone feels there is no point in rushing him. He hasnt worked since March 15, but has been galloping every day at Palm Meadows and Biancone said he has had an excellent month of training. He is waiting for the upcoming stakes books to come out, mainly at Santa Anita and Churchill Downs, and then will plan a schedule to have him at the top of his game in September. For now he is just being patient. With so much early speed dominating the big races, he is the one closer who looks to have the early move to get in striking position and the powerful stretch kick to run horses down. He has a quick-footed stride that can put him in contention in a flash. And I love his pedigree. Right now he still would be my main future book bet.

Although he wasnt as sharp as he was at Tampa Bay Downs and was under pressure early, he did show that he was capable of running a big race away from Tampa and I really liked the way he was striding out in the final furlong of the Arkansas Derby behind Nadal, who did open up on him in the final furlong. In this race he had to do a lot more chasing and had to run harder to keep up with some talented horses. He did look for an instant like he was gaining on Nadal, but the winner found another gear, while he ran steady to the wire. But he wasnt tiring and likely should keep improving. While I would have liked to seen a little more acceleration on the turn, his grinding style combined with his stamina-oriented pedigree should serve him well going a mile and a quarter.

I cant remember having a horse jump around the Top 12 so much, but that is what happens when youre dealing with a horse that hasnt run yet and were already in May. And he hasnt run in eight months after undergoing surgery and has had only two lifetime starts. So frankly no one can know for sure what to expect when he returns. I did love his six-furlong work in 1:13 1/5 at Keeneland, indicating he is sitting on a big race for his return, which is likely to come in the May 23 Matt Winn Stakes (G3). As I have been saying, if he can return and demonstrate that same explosive turn of foot that won him the Claiborne Breeders Futurity (G1), and do it against top-class stakes horses, then we know this is the weapon he will employ when he takes on the Big Bad Blazing Bafferts on Sept. 5.

Its time to bring him back into the mix. His third-place finish in the Curlin Florida Derby (G1) was disappointing in that he went head and head and got outrun for second by a horse that had been sprinting. But you cant ignore his three consecutive triple-digit Brisnet speed figures before that and his 8 1/2-length romp in the Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) and second to Tiz the Law in the Holy Bull Stakes (G3). But there is way too much speed on the Derby trail this year to consider him a major threat unless Biancone can get him to settle off the pace and wait to strike like Nadal did at Oaklawn Park.

10

Gouverneur Morris Todd Pletcher

ConstitutionAddison Run, by Unbridled's Song

The only chance he had to be competitive against Charlatan was to sit right off him and use his grinding style to keep plugging away. But once again he was back in fifth stuck between horses, and he just doesnt have the turn of foot to get into contention once hes clear, especially if there is a fast, classy horse loose on the lead. He was under a hard ride on the far turn and wasnt going anywhere, but he did keep coming and just missed second by a neck. Hes probably not quite as talented as I thought he was last year, but I cant give up on him until he gets the kind of trip I believe he wants. He doesnt have the stretch kick to catch top horses or pull away from top horses, so he needs to be right there at the top of the stretch and have a clear outside trip to put him in position to grind horses down.

11 Major Fed Greg Foley GhostzapperBobby's Babe, by Smart Strike Ive been on his bandwagon for so long, since he broke his maiden, I have to keep him in the final Derby Dozen. He is improving, hes versatile and adaptable, and he has as strong a pedigree as you will find. I thought he ran a remarkable race in the Louisiana Derby, dropping far back to last in the 14-horse field and then putting in a powerful wide run, getting bumped twice in the stretch, and still rallying to finish fourth, just missing catching Modernist for third. Considering that was only his fourth career start and he usually runs about three lengths off the lead, this was a very impressive performance. With his pedigree, he is going to relish a mile and a quarter. He is scheduled to work this week, then ship to Churchill Downs and run in the Matt Winn Stakes, where he could face Maxfield among others needing a race.

12 Modernist Bill Mott Uncle MoSymbolic Gesture, by Bernardini As well as hes run this year he is one horse who should be much improved come September, He broke his maiden at a mile and an eighth over a dead Aqueduct strip before pulling off a 12-1 upset of a division of the Risen Star Stakes Presented by Lamarque Ford (G2). He was five-wide breaking from the 14-post in the Louisiana Derby and was wide turning for home, but still ran a respectable third. He is a big bruiser of colt who will be much more polished later in the year, especially with his stamina-laden pedigree top and bottom. And wouldnt Mott love to win the Derby on the track instead of the stewards office.

KNOCKING ON THE DOOR

We had a couple of interesting races on the Arkansas Derby undercard. The California, and especially the Charlatan, form was boosted again when RUSHIE, coming off a 10 1/4-length drubbing at the hands of the Bob Baffert colt, captured a 1 1/16-mile allowance optional claimer by 1 1/4 lengths over Fountain of Youth Stakes runner-up CANDY TYCOON, who rebounded after getting beat 21 3/4 lengths in the Florida Derby following a rough trip.

Also, in a 1 1/8-mile maiden race, the Nick Zito-trained HUNT THE FRONT, who we wrote about extensively a couple of weeks ago, put in another explosive move from far back to finally break his maiden over 6-5 favorite FRIARS ROAD following three powerful second-place finishes. Now that he has broken his maiden, keep an eye on him in stakes company. This son of Revolutionary has a spectacular turn of foot and makes up a lot of ground quickly. With his running style, he could be an exciting horse to watch throughout the spring and summer.

Hunt the Front is one of several new faces to watch come September, along with PNEUMATIC, DR POST, MYSTIC GUIDE, SONNEMAN, and MONEY MOVES. Dont think because youre not familiar with these late bloomers, all of whom have been written about in great detail the past few weeks, they wont be major players by the time the Derby rolls around on Labor Day weekend.

Pneumatic worked five furlongs in 1:01 2/5 at Fair Grounds, Dr Post just scored an impressive allowance victory, Mystic Guide breezed a half in :48 3/5 at Fair Hill, Sonneman had an easy half-mile breeze in :50 2/5 at Gulfstream Park, and Money Moves has not worked since April 18. Keep a close eye on all these horses.

Another race of interest over the weekend was the three-length wire-to-wire victory of SUPERFECTO, a well-bred son of Constitution, out of a Ghostzapper mare, trained by Ralph Nix. Superfecto and runner-up HARD LIGHTING were coming out of well-beaten sixth- and fifth-places finishes, respectively, behind the aforementioned Dr Post in his maiden victory.

A couple of names you might have forgotten due to inactivity are MAX PLAYER, who hasnt run since winning the Withers Stakes (G3) way back on Feb. 1. The son of Honor Code has been working six and seven furlongs steadily and most recently worked seven furlongs in a sharp 1:26 1/5 at Belmont Park, as he and trainer Linda Rice wait patiently for Belmont Park to open and possible date for the Wood Memorial (G2) or even a revamped Belmont Stakes (G1). With speed and more speed dominating the Derby trail, he would be a welcome addition with his big closing kick.

If youre looking for competition for Authentic and Honor A.P. in the Santa Anita Derby, when and if that is ever run, dont overlook the Richard Mandella-trained TIZAMAGICIAN, who was second to Honor A.P. in a maiden race, broke his maiden impressively going a mile, and most recently was beaten 1 3/4 lengths in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes (G2). He was scheduled to run in the UAE Derby (G2), but that race was canceled. He has been working sharply, and in his last work turned in a bullet six-furlong drill in 1:12 3/5, fastest of 17 works at the distance. Perhaps by September this will be the horse to help Mandella forget the disappointment of Omaha Beach last year. He certainly is bred to relish the mile and a quarter with Tiznow on top and Dixie Union and Pleasant Colony on bottom. Ill bet you can get monster future book odds on him.

With all the Baffert 3-year-olds scurrying about all over the country, the one who has been living in complete anonymity is the El Camino Real Derby winner AZUL COAST, who was second to stablemate Authentic in the Sham Stakes (G3) and has been working his little tail off. Since his designated target, the Sunland Derby (G3), was canceled he has been all revved up with no place to go. The son of Super Saver has turned in six-furlong works of 1:12 3/5 and 1:13 3/5 and five-furlong works in 1:00 flat and 1:00 3/5.

One horse I wouldnt give up on is the LeComte Stakes (G3) winner ENFORCEABLE, who closed well in defeat in the Risen Star Stakes (G2) and Louisiana Derby (G2). A veteran of nine lifetime starts, seven of them two-turn races, he can afford to take it easy for a while before re-embarking on the Derby trail. He is still active, breezing a half in: 49 1/5 at trainer Mark Casses training center in Florida.

Todd Pletcher has had his ups and downs on the Derby trail this year, mostly downs. One of those downs was the horrendous 14th-place finish by PORTOS in the Louisiana Derby. But for the Withers third-place finisher that race was way too bad to be true. This is a horse that has already had four 1 1/8-mile races and broke his maiden by 10 3/4 lengths going nine furlongs. If you are looking to throw that last race out, be aware that he has trained brilliantly since his debacle at Fair Grounds, in which he merely ran around the track after having to steady early. You rarely see Pletcher horses working fast times, but his last two half-mile works were in :47 4/5 and :47 3/5, so it will be interesting to see how he fares next time out.

Another horse looking to bounce back from a dismal performance is AMERICAN THEOREM, who has turned in some of the best works weve seen all year. The runner-up of the American Pharoah Stakes (G1) last fall stopped to walk after chasing Nadal in the Rebel Stakes, beaten over 27 lengths, But hes been tearing up the track in the mornings at Santa Anita since then, including a brilliant five-furlong work in :58 3/5 on April 17. But he hasnt worked since then, so with a move that fast, keep an eye on the worktab to see if he shows up.

Remember GREEN LIGHT GO? Well, hes still around, breezing five furlongs in 1:01 3/5. He is a talented horse who hasnt had the best of trips, but there is a question whether or not he is geared for a race like the Derby. Well see in which direction Jimmy Jerkens goes with him.

I am aware there are many horses I didnt mention, but space is limited and I wanted to catch up on horses I havent talked about much all year who have worked this week.

To conclude, I can only quote the one and only Porky Pig: Thats all folks. Enjoy the rest of this crazy Derby trail with lots of big prep races still to come, and good luck sorting through all these horses leading up to Sept. 5. Its been a wild ride and I thank everyone for your participation.
A medical staff member is collecting a sample at a middle school as students receive nucleic acid testing for CCP virus in Guangzhou, China, on April 21, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

FDA Boosts Scrutiny of Virus Antibody Tests as Fakes Flood Market

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has imposed more stringent oversight of CCP virus antibody tests after previously allowing hundreds of tests to hit the market without adequate evidence that they meet quality and accuracy standards.

Under the updated guidelines, companies that sell the tests are now required to send the FDA an application for emergency-use authorization (EUA), along with data showing the tests accuracy within 10 business days, the agency said in a statement. Tests will need to be found 90 percent sensitive, or able to detect CCP virus antibodies, and 95 percent specific, or able to avoid false-positive results.

Previously, the FDA faced criticism for only requiring companies selling virus antibody tests to attest their product is valid and label them as unapproved, attracting 170 companies to the antibody test market, including unscrupulous vendors making false claims, Reuters reported last week. At the time the policy was issued on March 16, the FDA had been under pressure to move quickly following a slow ramp-up of COVID-19 diagnostic tests that hindered public health efforts.

Flexibility never meant we would allow fraud, FDA officials Anand Shah and Jeff Shuren wrote in a statement this week. We unfortunately see unscrupulous actors marketing fraudulent test kits and using the pandemic as an opportunity to take advantage of Americans anxiety.

Some test developers have falsely claimed their serological tests are FDA approved or authorized. Others have falsely claimed that their tests can diagnose COVID-19 or that they are for at-home testing, which would fall outside of the policies outlined in our March 16 guidance, as well as the updated guidance.

The headquarters of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seen in Silver Spring, Md., on Nov. 4, 2009. (Jason Reed/AP-File)

The FDA said that to date, 12 antibody tests have been authorized under an individual EUA, most within just the past few days, and more than 200 antibody tests are currently the subject of a pre-EUA or EUA review.

Serology tests, or blood tests for antibodies, are used to determine who has been previously been infected with the virus. Since the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, can be easily spread by people with no symptoms, widespread antibody testing is seen as a critical piece toward getting Americans back to work safely, as the presence of antibodies to the virus may indicate possible immunity to future infection.

The FDA said its taken action against firms for unlawfully marketing tests by detaining and refusing illegitimate test kits at the border and will publicly share information regarding those commercial manufacturers that are currently marketing tests under its March 16 policy who fail to submit an EUA within 10 business days.

We will keep up our work to stop illicit tests from entering the U.S., and we encourage states, hospitals, and consumers to be on high alert and to make informed purchasing decisions regarding these tests, the agency stated.

While antibody tests have been rolled out across the United States, researchers have questioned their accuracy and reliability, as some have provided high rates of false positives. The World Health Organization also cautioned in April that theres no proof yet that a patient who has recovered is immune from becoming reinfected.

In its statement this week, the FDA said the public needs to understand the limitations of antibody tests and noted that all tests can provide at least some false results, even those deemed high-performing.

That is why antibody tests should only be used as part of a well-conceived testing plan and why the results should always be interpreted by appropriate experts, it stated.

Reuters contributed to this report.
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GIS  05 May, 2020: Mauritius can fight and break the cycle if citizens come together. Together the country will win, and will successfully adapt to the New World Order, from the economic and other related angles, that will emerge post-Covid-19.

This statement was made by the Prime Minister, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, today, at the National Assembly, in Port Louis. His speech revolved around the containment of Covid-19 and the progressive re-opening of the Mauritian economy.

For him, no risks can be taken when it comes to ensuring the safety and security of the population. Government, he reassured, will stop at nothing to save lives. It is the reason for privileging a cautious approach and extending the curfew period with the progressive reopening of economic and other activities, he said.

Mr Jugnauth expressed conviction that the Mauritian patriotic spirit will prevail in this battle and appealed to all citizens to remain on high alert and to continue to strictly observe social distancing and sanitary guidelines. This is not solely the responsibility of the Government, every single one of us has a role to play, he emphasised.

Speaking about the reopening strategy and action plan, Mr Jugnauth highlighted that this hinges around one central concern of Government and that is, the continued protection of public health, which remains a top-most priority. It is imperative to avoid the risk of any set back with a resurgence of the disease that would squander the gains achieved through the confinement as well as to avoid heavy strain on the countrys health services and the economy in general, he indicated.



Moreover, he pointed out that Government has all along been managing the crisis in a very transparent manner by keeping the population informed daily on the evolution of the Covid-19 situation. Proactive and bold decisions were taken and implemented to address the emerging and serious threat posed by the spread of the virus since early January, he recalled. Some of these are:

 Timely implementation of quarantine measures and designation of new quarantine facilities

 Extending all the necessary resources to the healthcare personnel

 Extending the total ban on travellers to enter the territory of Mauritius

 Suspension of all flights to Rodrigues to keep the island free from Covid-19

 Issuing the first Curfew Order on 23 March 2020 to break the circuit of transmission of the virus and extending of the Curfew Order on three occasions

 Urgent procurement of medical supplies, protective equipment such as ventilators, test kits, swabs, PCR reagents

 Airlifting more than 340 tonnes of medical supplies and materials from China

 Launching of sample community screening campaign for Covid-19 using Rapid Antigen Tests, directed towards frontliners

 Establishing protocol for treatment of Covid-19 patients using chloroquine and other drugs and plasmapheresis in severe cases using blood donated by cured patients

The Prime Minister Jugnauthenumerated some socio-economic measures introduced to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the population and to reduce their hardships, namely:

 Setting up of the Covid-19 Solida

rity Fund

 Distribution of basic food items to shelters, homes, charitable institutions and to families who are on the Social Register of Mauritius

 Introduction of Covid-19 Wage Support Scheme and Self-employed Assistance Scheme

 Allowing people to go out during the curfew to avail themselves of urgent medical treatment and essential supplies

 Opening of supermarkets, hypermarkets and retail shops, with shopping allowed in alphabetical order and subject to strict sanitary conditions

As regards the repatriation of Mauritians stranded abroad, the Prime Minister reassured that Government is committed to ensure the orderly and phased return of those citizens. Efforts are being pursued in the face of numerous challenges arising in the context of the escalating crisis situation and the international and internal flight restrictions and lockdown measures prevailing in those countries, he pointed out.

The Prime Minister further lauded the commitment, courage and professionalism of all frontliners in fighting Covid-19 and all those who have been helping to keep Mauritius going in these testing and trying times. In addition, he expressed appreciation for the cooperation, understanding and discipline of the population during the curfew period.

#ResOuLakaz #BeSafeMoris

Government Information Service, Prime Ministers Office, Level 6, New Government Centre, Port Louis, Mauritius. Email: gis@govmu.org Website: http://gis.govmu.org Mobile App: Search Gov
The commerce ministry has recommended continuation of anti-dumping duty on a chemical from China used in food and pharma industry with a view to guard domestic players from cheap imports.

In a notification, the ministry's investigation arm Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has said there is a "positive" evidence of likelihood of dumping of Sodium Citrate and injury to the domestic industry if the existing anti-dumping duty is removed.

"The designated authority considers it appropriate to recommend continuation of definitive anti-dumping duty" on the chemical, it has said.

The directorate has recommended two duties $96.05 per tonne and $152.78 per tonne. The finance ministry takes the final decision to impose this duty.

In its probe, the directorate has concluded there is a continued dumping of the product from China and "the imports are likely to enter the Indian market at dumped prices in the event of expiry of duty".

The revenue department had imposed the duty in May 2015 for five years. It ends on May 19 this year.

"Before the expiry of the said duty, Posy Pharmachem Pvt Ltd, constituting the domestic industry has filed a duly substantiated application before the authority...for initiation of sunset review investigation concerning imports of Sodium Citrate originating in or exported from China, alleging likelihood of continuation or recurrence of dumping and consequent injury to the domestic industry in case of cessation of existing anti-dumping duties," it added.

In international trade parlance, dumping happens when a country or a firm exports an item at a price lower than the price of that product in its domestic market.

Dumping impacts price of that product in the importing country, hitting margins and profits of manufacturing firms.

According to global trade norms, a country is allowed to impose tariffs on such dumped products to provide a level-playing field to domestic manufacturers. The duty is imposed only after a thorough investigation by a quasi-judicial body, such as DGTR, in India.

In its probe, the directorate has to conclude whether the imported products are impacting domestic industries.

Imposition of anti-dumping duty is permissible under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime. India and China are members of this Geneva-based organisation, which deals with global trade norms. China is a key trading partner of India.

The duty is aimed at ensuring fair trading practices and creating a level-playing field for domestic producers vis-a-vis foreign producers and exporters.
This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others here.

Liu Shouxiang, a teacher and painter of watercolor in China who spent decades championing the form, which is often overshadowed by oil painting and traditional Chinese ink painting, died on Feb. 13 at Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan. He was 61.

The Hubei Institute of Fine Arts in Wuhan, where Mr. Liu had taught for years before retiring in 2018, announced the death. It said the cause was the new coronavirus.

At Chinas top art schools, four disciplines traditionally dominate: oil painting, Chinese painting, printmaking and sculpture. As in the West, watercolor is more associated with hobbyist painters and scientific illustrations than with high art.
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Matt Hancock has been accused of sexism for telling a female Labour MP to 'watch her tone' after she grilled him on the government's coronavirus testing strategy in the House of Commons today.

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, a former Labour deputy leader candidate who also works as an A&E doctor in the fight against the pandemic, said the government's policy had 'cost lives' and called on Hancock to commit to a minimum of 100,000 tests per day going forward.

In response, an indignant Health Secretary told the Labour MP that she should 'take a leaf out of the shadow secretary of state's book in terms of tone'.

Dr Allin-Khan, who attends shadow cabinet meetings, shared the exchange on social media and later tweeted she would not 'watch her tone' when challenging the government.

The Health Secretary's comment sparked uproar among MPs, with former acting Labour Party leader Harriet Harman branding it 'creepy'.

The row came after the total number of coronavirus tests dipped below the 100,000 target again today, for the third day in a row.

Hancock set the target at the beginning of April and the government announced on Friday and Saturday that it had exceeded it.

However, the number of tests have fallen short of the target for three days in row since, with 84,806 completed in the 24 hours up to 9am today.

It comes as Britain recorded 693 more coronavirus deaths today, to take the official death toll past 29,000. However, data from the ONS suggests the true number of victims could be at least 40,000 - giving the UK the highest death toll in Europe.

In other developments in the UK's coronavirus battle today:

Dominic Raab issued a thinly-veiled warning to Russia and China tonight as he lashed out at 'predatory' hackers targeting organisations involved in the fight against coronavirus;

At least 12 different strains of coronavirus were circulating in the UK in March - including one that has only ever been found in Britain, Government-funded study finds;

Rishi Sunak could reduce government furlough wage support from 80 per cent to 60 per cent in the months ahead as part of a plan to ease Britain back to work, it was claimed today;

Experts warned the NHS's new coronavirus track-and-trace app could be hijacked by trolls;

Nicola Sturgeon unveiled her own lockdown 'exit strategy' and suggested she will not let schools open until August;

Cities and rural areas could be treated differently when coronavirus lockdown measures are eased, the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser hinted today.

The Health Secretary (right) disagreed when Dr Rosena Allin-Khan (left) said the policy had 'cost lives' and told her she should 'take a leaf out of the shadow secretary of state's book in terms of tone'

Dr Allin-Khan tweeted 'I will not "watch my tone" when dozens of NHS staff are dying unnecessarily'

Dr Allin-Khan, who attends shadow cabinet meetings and works as an A&E doctor, later tweeted she would not 'watch her tone' when challenging the Government

Mr Hancock said: 'I think she might do well to take a leaf out of the shadow secretary of state's book in terms of tone'

The UK now has more confirmed COVID-19 deaths - according to backdated statistics from the Office for National Statistics, National Records Scotland, and Northern Ireland's NISRA - than any other country in Europe

Speaking in the Commons, Dr Allin-Khan said: 'Frontline workers like me have had to watch families break into pieces as we deliver the very worst of news to them, that the ones they love most in this world have died.

'The testing strategy has been non-existent. Community testing was scrapped, mass testing was slow to roll out, and testing figures are now being manipulated.

'Does the Secretary of State commit to a minimum of 100,000 tests each day going forward?

'And does the Secretary of State acknowledge that many frontline workers feel that the Government's lack of testing has cost lives and is responsible for many families being unnecessarily torn apart in grief?'

Mr Hancock replied: 'I welcome the honourable lady to her post as part of the shadow health team.

'I think she might do well to take a leaf out of the shadow secretary of state's book in terms of tone.

'I'm afraid what she said is not true. There's been a rapid acceleration in testing over the last few months, including getting to 100,000 tests a day.'

His comments sparked uproar among MPs, with former acting Labour Party leader Harriet Harman branding it 'creepy'.

She tweeted: 'Something creepy about a man telling a woman to watch her tone! Worse that he recommends she adopts the tone of another man. I suggest @MattHancock changes his.'

Former Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott told Dr Allin-Khan: 'I was watching Health Questions. Absolutely nothing wrong with your tone.

'It reflects and reverberates with the reality of what yourself and other NHS workers are experiencing. Hancock very unwise to be so dismissive.'

Shadow culture minister Alison McGovern wrote: 'I think the words he was looking for are, ''thank you for your service''.'

Shadow Justice Secretary David Lammy said Mr Hancock 'should apologise' for his reply to a 'perfectly factual question'.

He tweeted: 'This is no way for the Health Secretary to speak to a serving A&E doctor.'

Shadow Home Office minister Jess Phillips put: 'Her tone was fine, respectful, and might I dare say her view is more knowledgeable about the front line than the Health Secretary.

'Can't imagine why he doesn't like her ''tone''. (obviously I can well imagine).'

Acting Lib Dem leader Ed Davey added: 'Totally agree with @DrRosena. @MattHancock's tone should change not Rosena's. Looks like the truth hurt the Secretary of State.'

Politicians came out in force to defend Dr Allin-Khan and criticise the health secretary for his comment

Even some celebrities weighed into the fallout and savaged Mr Hancock on social media.

Chef Nigella Lawson, whose father Nigel was Chancellor of the Exchequer under Margaret Thatcher, added: 'There was absolutely nothing wrong with your tone.'

Douglas Mackinnon, who directed the BBC's Sherlock and Line Of Duty, put: 'Nasty and bullying from Matt Hancock.'

Film producer Jemima Goldsmith, who was married to Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan, said online: 'Your tone @DrRosena was entirely reasonable and measured.

'@MattHancock just clearly didn't like being asked a perfectly legitimate question about the lack of testing & the manipulation of information.'

Even some celebrities weighed into the fallout and savaged Mr Hancock on social media

Coronavirus testing numbers have been running below 100,000 a day again despite a massive expansion of capacity, it was revealed last night.

Mr Hancock said there were 85,186 tests in the 24 hours to 9am on Monday - up slightly from the 76,000 recorded on Sunday - but well short of the goal.

Mr Hancock claimed victory in the race to hit the target on Friday, saying there had been 122,000 on the last day of April.

But it later emerged around 40,000 of those had been counted when they were posted out, rather than when they were actually processed.

The number of people dying each week during the UK's coronavirus crisis has been significantly higher - more than double in recent weeks - than the average number of deaths for this time of year

The government furiously denied fixing the numbers to avoid embarrassing failure, pointing out the tests do not feature in the figures when they are returned.

Earlier today Mr Hancock said testing of asymptomatic NHS staff will be rolled out further across the country.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: 'I wonder if he's (Mr Hancock) considered the study from Imperial (College London) that suggests weekly screening of healthcare workers, testing them every week whether symptomatic or not, reduces their contribution to transmission by around 25 per cent to 33 per cent?

CORONAVIRUS IN CARE HOMES PEAKED ON APRIL 17 - A WEEK AFTER CRISIS IN HOSPITALS The COVID-19 death toll in care homes peaked more than a week after it did in hospitals, according to official figures released this morning. ONS statisticians trawled through all the coronavirus deaths in England and Wales to analyse when they actually occurred. April 8 (1,318 deaths) was found to be the darkest day of the outbreak - which officially began to spread on British soil back in February. Data showed this coincided with the peak in hospital deaths (983), which have since plummeted (402 on April 24). However, the daily care home death toll did not peak until nine days later - April 17 (415), according to the ONS analysis. DATE 01-Apr 02-Apr 03-Apr 04-Apr 05-Apr 06-Apr 07-Apr 08-Apr 09-Apr 10-Apr 11-Apr 12-Apr 13-Apr 14-Apr 15-Apr 16-Apr 17-Apr 18-Apr 19-Apr 20-Apr 21-Apr 22-Apr 23-Apr 24-Apr CARE 76 99 135 139 171 187 224 252 269 281 310 363 289 329 338 399 415 358 337 330 325 345 302 285 HOSPITAL 683 743 730 823 815 772 867 983 841 806 829 790 748 705 714 702 637 598 570 596 522 520 463 402 Advertisement

'Will he look at testing all healthcare staff, whether they've got symptoms or not?'

Mr Hancock replied: 'Yes, (Mr Ashworth) has asked questions in a responsible and reasonable way and I welcome his support for the test, track and trace pilot in the Isle of Wight that we announced yesterday.

'We have piloted the testing of asymptomatic NHS staff now in 16 trusts across the country and those pilots have been successful, and we'll be rolling it out further.'

Mr Hancock said privacy is 'there by design' as part of the new NHS test, track and trace app.

Conservative MP Laura Trott (Sevenoaks) asked how he plans to alleviate privacy concerns.

Mr Hancock responded: 'People need to know that the app has privacy in its design, the data that it holds is held on your phone, it doesn't go to the Government, until of course you need to get a test, in which case of course you've got to get in contact with the NHS.

'So, privacy is there by design, there's cross-party support, there's, according to a very early poll, 80 per cent of people on the Isle of Wight want to download it.

'These are good early signs and we'll have a big communications campaign to explain to people the benefits of the test, track and trace programme as we roll it out across the country.'

Another 693 people were today confirmed to have died of COVID-19 in Britain, taking the number of victims to 29,427 and making Britain the worst-hit nation in Europe.

And separate backdated figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the figure appears to have already been higher than 32,000 by April 24 - 10 days ago.

That number is 42 per cent higher than the count announced by the Department of Health at the time, suggesting the current total could be higher than 40,000 - this would mean COVID-19 has killed more Britons in eight weeks than died over seven months during the Blitz bombings in World War Two.

Today's data confirms that more people have died of the coronavirus in the UK than in Italy, still considered to be the worst-hit country in Europe and had suffered 29,079 fatalities by this morning. Only the US has had more deaths than Britain - almost 70,000 - while there have been 25,600 in Spain and 25,200 in France.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab today also announced 4,406 more cases of the life-threatening virus had been confirmed, taking the official size of the outbreak to 194,990 - but the true size of the UK's crisis is a mystery due to the controversial decision to abandon widespread testing early on.

In Downing Street's press conference, Mr Raab also lashed out at 'predatory' hackers targeting organisations involved in the fight against coronavirus, saying criminals and 'hostile states' were trying to take advantage of the crisis for their own 'malicious ends'.

Discussing the death toll, he added that the scale of the disaster in Britain was a 'massive tragedy' on a scale the country has never seen before. He refused to speculate on international comparisons.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 23:42:58|Editor: huaxia

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MALE, May 5 (Xinhua) -- A second death related to COVID-19 was reported in Maldives on Tuesday as the country's case count rose to 557, according to state media.

A Bangladeshi national who was diagnosed with COVID-19 suffered a tonic-clonic seizure and died at Maldives' main Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH), state-owned Public Service media reported.

Dr. Mohamed Faisham at the IGMH said that the patient was on a ventilator and died during treatment for a ruptured aneurysm. The cause of death is suspected to be high blood pressure.

This is the second COVID-19 related death after an 80-year old patient died last month.

President Ibrahim Solih was quoted in local media saying that the government was working to repatriate 1,500 undocumented migrant workers as many are vulnerable to infection due to poor housing conditions in capital Male.

More than half of Maldives' 557 COVID-19 cases are of migrant workers, and the government has moved to transfer some migrants to state-run facilities while repatriating others in the coming weeks. Enditem
BLOOMINGTON  A second LaSalle County resident has died of COVID-19, and two more McLean County residents have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

The LaSalle County resident was a woman in her 80s who had tested positive for COVID-19 earlier, that county's health department said Tuesday.

The McLean County Health Department reported Tuesday that the addition of two more county residents testing positive for coronavirus brought to 104 the number of people from McLean County who have had confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus since March 19.

The two new cases were two women  one in her 50s and one in her 20s  both isolating at home, said Dion McNeal, McLean County communications specialist.

Of the 104, three are hospitalized, 13 are at home in isolation and 85 have recovered, the health department reported. Three McLean County residents died earlier this spring.

The LaSalle County Health Department confirmed that two more people had tested positive for COVID-19 in that county, bringing the total number of cases there to 71. The two new cases involve a man in his 60s and a woman in her 70s who are in isolation.

Forty-one of the 71 people diagnosed in LaSalle County have recovered.

Regarding the death, LaSalle County Health Department Administrator Julie Kerestes said: "We are deeply saddened to hear of the additional loss of one of our LaSalle County residents to this illness. Our hearts go out to the family and friends who are mourning the loss of their loved one and we send our sincerest condolences."

Macon County's Joint Crisis Communication Team reported that county's 14th COVID-19 fatality, a woman in her 70s who was a resident of Fair Havens long-term care facility in Decatur. Macon County has had 127 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Statewide, the Illinois Department of Public Health announced 2,122 new cases of coronavirus and 176 additional deaths on Tuesday, including three deaths in Sangamon County: women in their 70s, 80s and 90s.

Since COVID hit Illinois, there have been 65,962 confirmed cases and 2,838 people have died.

Meanwhile, at the COVID-19 drive-through testing site at the McLean County Fairgrounds, 1106 Interstate Drive, Bloomington, 98 more people were tested on Monday, Illinois Department of Public Health told The Pantagraph on Tuesday.

That brings to 3,804 the number of Illinois residents who have been tested since that site opened on March 28.

Eligible for testing at the site, which is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, is anyone with COVID-19 symptoms (fever, cough and shortness of breath), providing the person can complete the nasal self-swab test. Also eligible is anyone with a risk factor, such as having contact with someone who tested positive or anyone with a compromised immune system or serious chronic medical condition.

Also eligible are people with or without symptoms who work in a health care or correctional facility, are first responders, or are critical infrastructure workers in grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants, gas stations, public utilities, factories, child care and sanitation.

Tuesday update: Coronavirus and Central Illinois

Contact Paul Swiech at 309-820-3275. Follow him on Twitter: @pg_swiech.

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.
Official White House Photo by Shealah CraigheadBy BEN GITTLESON and JORDYN PHELPS, ABC News



(WASHINGTON) -- President Donald Trump on Tuesday planned to travel to Arizona to visit a facility producing masks, his first major trip in nearly two months as he pushes states to roll back social distancing restrictions amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.



Trump's visit to Phoenix will bring him to a battleground state to highlight the U.S. response to the COVID-19 outbreak as he fights for re-election in the face of weak ratings for his handling of the crisis.



The day-trip mirrors recent travel by Vice President Mike Pence, who has tested the waters of what types of official excursions are possible in a time of social distancing and as the Trump administration had for a month and a half encouraged Americans to avoid unnecessary travel.



Pence found himself in hot water last week for not wearing a mask during a stop at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, despite the clinic's policy requiring visitors to don face coverings. Later in the week, he donned one for a trip to a Wisconsin factory producing ventilators, and on Sunday, he said he had made a mistake in Minnesota.



Trump's trip will take him to a facility run by the industrial conglomerate Honeywell, which said in March it would start producing high-quality N95 masks, in high demand nationwide. Asked last week if he would wear a mask during his visit, Trump said he was open to the idea but did not commit to it.



"I would have to look at the climate," Trump told reporters Thursday. "Id have no problem wearing a mask. I dont know, I'm supposed to make a speech. I just dont know -- Can I speak in a mask? Youre going to have to tell me if thats politically correct."



Even though the federal government recommends Americans wear face masks or coverings to blunt the spread of the coronavirus, Trump has so far has yet to don one in public. In some places, doing so has become somewhat of a political statement; an ABC News/Ipsos poll last month found more Democrats than Republicans wore them when they left their home.



Ohio's governor recently pulled back a statewide order mandating masks be worn in stores after facing opposition, and in Michigan, a security guard was reportedly killed for not letting a person enter a store without a mask.



Trump's Arizona trip will be his first outside the mid-Atlantic region in nearly two months.



"I've been at the White House now for many months, and I'd like to get out," Trump said Wednesday.



Trump planned to tour the Honeywell facility, deliver remarks and hold a roundtable discussion on supporting Native Americans, whose communities have been hit hard by the pandemic, according to the White House.



Honeywell announced in late March it would start producing N95 masks at its facility in Phoenix, creating more than 500 jobs, and last month said it would do the same in Smithfield, Rhode Island.



A senior administration official said the president intended to take more trips in the coming weeks to highlight stories of American resilience in the face of the pandemic and Americans who have benefited from government assistance.



But the travel could also have the adverse effect of shining a spotlight on deficiencies in Trump's response to the outbreak as the virus continues to spread, such as continued pleas from across the country for more testing supplies and a continued reliance on foreign manufacturing for critical medical equipment.



The president left the White House for the first time in over a month on Friday evening, spending the weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland before traveling to the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington, for a "virtual town hall" with Fox News.



In the last two months, his only other sojourns had been a quick hop to Norfolk, Virginia, in late February, to send off a U.S. Navy hospital ship, and a short drive a week earlier to the Washington headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.



As with Trump's Tuesday travel to Arizona, most of Pence's recent trips have taken him to battleground states key to his and the president's re-election.



The president has repeatedly expressed hope that he can soon restart his massive campaign rallies -- packing tens of thousands of people into an event site, without the constraints of social distancing measures.



On Sunday, Trump said during the Fox News "town hall" that he did not know when his next rally would take place. He did not answer when asked if he would wear a mask to it.



Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
New Delhi, May 5 : As the national capital battles the spread of deadly COVID-19 virus, Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Anil Baijal on Tuesday advised the civic bodies to intensify information, education and communication (IEC) activities to tackle the vector borne diseases.

In a meeting conducted through video conferencing and attended by Union Health and Family Welfare minister Dr Harsh Vardhan with Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain along with MCD Commissioners, Chairman of NDMC & hospital in-charges, Baijal reviewed preparedness for prevention of vector borne diseases in Delhi.

"Vector borne diseases are outbreak-prone and prevention is the best strategy, therefore coordinated efforts by all agencies are mandated. There should be a focus on case-based surveillance, tracing source of transmission, identification of vulnerable areas & source reduction of vectors," Baijal said.

Baijal advised civic bodies in the national capital to intensify IEC activities involving RWAs.

"Preventive measures such as active surveillance, early detection, proper treatment should be ensured," Baijal added.
A new study shows that the Microsporidia MB microbe blocks malaria parasites from spreading in mosquitoes.

Scientists have discovered a new microbe that protects mosquitoes from being infected by malaria, a finding that could be a significant breakthrough in the fight against the spread of the disease, which is spread to humans through mosquito bites.

Research published on Monday by the nature communications journal revealed that none of the examined mosquitoes around Lake Victoria in Kenya, which were found to be carrying a microbe called Microsporidia MB, had the malaria parasite.

The finding of the microbe, which lives in guts and genitals of mosquitoes, could be a major discovery as preventing mosquitoes from getting infected means protecting humans as well.

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Scientists are still trying to understand how Microsporidia actually blocks the malaria parasite.

The study suggests the microbe could be boosting mosquitoes immune systems to fight the parasite. Another possibility could be that the microbe impacts the insects metabolism to the point of making it inhospitable to the parasite.

There are a few characteristics that we found in this microbe that gives us some clues of what we could use to get it out there, research scientist Jeremy Herren of the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology and the University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, told Al Jazeera.

That is the vertical transmission, meaning a mother mosquito infects all her offsprings by inserting the microbe in her eggs.

While the large-scale distribution of mosquito nets treated with insecticides to people in sub-Saharan Africa over the past 15 years has contributed to a 40-percent reduction in the number of malaria cases, the study points to a recent plateau in cases to indicate that current control measures are insufficient and new strategies are needed to further stem the disease.

Malaria kills more than 400,000 people annually, most of them children under the age of five, according to the World Health Organization.

Two weeks ago, it warned that if the focus on slowing the spread of the new coronavirus leads to a 75-percent reduction in access to anti-malaria medicines, deaths could reach 769,000.
They have been spending their lockdown perfecting their daily workout routine.

And Tuesday was no different for Goldie Hawn, 74, and Kurt Russell, 69, as the couple took to the streets of Los Angeles while riding their bikes.

The couple, who have been together for 37 years, are complying with California's coronavirus Shelter At Home regulations but have managed to keep much of their usual routine in tact.

Keeping fit: Goldie Hawn, 74, and Kurt Russell, 69, were spotted on a socially distanced bike ride in Los Angeles on Tuesday amid coronavirus quarantine

Goldie wore a casual black tank top and neon patterned leggings while Kurt kept it simple in a white T-shirt and khaki shorts.

The actress accessorised with a pair of turquoise necklaces and went barefaced for the occasion.

Goldie and Kurt looked every inch the loved-up couple as they looked into each other's eyes and smiled while they roamed the streets on their bikes.

Kurt even waved as his picture was taken and the pair looked in high spirits.

The pair are no stranger to exercising amid the coronavirus crisis and they were spotted braving the heat on Sunday to take a walk together.

Quarantine workout: The couple, who have been together for 37 years, are complying with California's coronavirus Shelter At Home regulations but have managed to keep much of their usual routine in tact

Goldie won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 1969 for one of her first-ever roles in a film called Cactus Flower, which was later remade into a 2011 Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler movie called Just Go With It.

After that early accolade, Goldie remained a busy and enterprising film actress throughout the '70s, '80s and '90s, but her appearances on the silver screen have dwindled since.

However, she is gearing up to team once again with her inimitable First Wives Club co-stars Bette Midler and Diane Keaton for a new movie, the Christmas-themed Family Jewels, about three women who must contend with their children  and each other  when their ex-husband unexpectedly drops dead right before the holidays.

Sunny bike ride: Goldie wore a casual black tank top and neon patterned leggings and accessorised with a pair of turquoise necklaces

In pre-production, the film is expected to begin filming after controls aimed at easing the coronavirus epidemic are relaxed. Goldie also stars alongside Kurt in the upcoming The Christmas Chronicles 2, with the couple playing Santa and Mrs Claus.

It won't be the first time the longtime couple have acted together.

The pair first got together on the set of their 1983 movie Swing State, and then appeared on screen in Netflix's 2018 movie The Christmas Chronicles.

The two, who have neighboring stars on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, raised four children together - son Wyatt, Kurt's son Boston and Goldie's two childre, Kate and Oliver.

Goldie and her daughter, actress Kate Hudson, recently graced the cover of People's Beautiful issue, along with Hudson's little girl Rani Rose.

Kate, whose biological father is musician Bill Hudson, is famously close with her mother, and their love for one another is evident in the sweet trigenerational picture.

The photo also marks the first time the magazine has featured three generations on the cover of its Beautiful Issue.

In the timeless image, all three women are clothed in radiant white garments, with Goldie in a lace, frilly off-the-shoulder number.

Mom Goldie  who is also mother to Kate's brother Oliver, as well as son Wyatt with her longtime partner Kurt Russell  made her love for her daughter known once again last week on Instagram with a heartfelt birthday message in which she told Kate 'I love you deeply'.
About a week ago, a relative sent me an Instagram post that was going viral: an image of a man holding a cardboard sign that reads, "Stop Posting Old Travel Pics." The man could have been holding the sign for me, someone who's been passing time during the coronavirus pandemic by posting old travel photos.

I knew the practice bothered people before I saw the writing on the cardboard. A friend had recently replied to one of my posts of a trip abroad last year with the message, "stop living in the past."

But I knew I wasn't alone. My social media feeds lately have been full of people sharing fond memories of trips, cookouts, concerts and other currently-impossible pastimes.

What does taking a trip down memory lane mean during a global crisis? And why are we so drawn to do so?

I talked to experts about the pros and cons of "Posting Old Travel Pics" to find out.

- Looking through your old travel photos may make you happier.

This morning, I scrolled through my phone to find pictures from a trip I took with my mom in 2016. Alone in my apartment, I realized I was smiling at my phone screen while I looked for the photos I wanted to post on Instagram.

"By focusing on those positive memories, your body releases dopamine, and dopamine is kind of the reward center of the brain," says A.J. Marsden, an assistant professor of human services and psychology at Beacon College and a former U.S. Army surgical nurse. Dopamine "makes us feel really good. It gives us a lot of good, positive energy."

Marsden says you can get even more out of your old travel memories than a dopamine release by focusing on experiences where you felt accomplished. Maybe it was a time you made it through a tough hike or broke through language barriers on vacation.

"When we think about those past accomplishments on our trips, then we release more serotonin," Marsden says. "Serotonin increases our well-being and our general happiness and general satisfaction."

- Appreciating your travel experiences can be a mood-booster, too.

If you're feeling low, try going back through travel photos you appreciate most.

ALSO What travel will look like for the next year or two

"If we approach [looking at old travel photos] with gratitude, glass-half-full, then it could be a nice experience and could be a fun distraction from sitting at home," says Thomas Plante, a psychologist and professor at Santa Clara and Stanford universities.

You can take that sentiment a step further by creating a gratitude journal. "Gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness," according to research about positive psychology.

"Even when things are hard, we want to ask ourselves, what am I grateful for?" says Plante, who recommends listing everything you're grateful for, from your travel experiences to basics or simple things, like your health or Netflix.

Taking time to appreciate your travel experiences in a gratitude journal, or thoughtfully reviewing travel photos to post on social media, can give you the opportunity to savor those happy memories.

"The psychological concept of savoring is very powerful," says Suzie Pileggi Pawelski, a positive-psychology expert and co-author with her husband of "Happy Together: Using the Science of Positive Psychology to Build Love That Lasts." Savoring travel memories "could be a really good way to kind of relive those positive emotions," she adds.

But don't expect reviewing old travel photos to rescue you.

"Like any kind of distraction, like binge eating or having some alcohol, in the moment, it's distracting. But if you're just trying to do that to escape from reality, you're going to come back with problems," says Pawelski's husband, James, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Positive Psychology Center.

- Ignore people who criticize your social media posts.

Stacey Leasca, a journalist and adjunct journalism professor at the University of Southern California, has received a different reaction to posting her old travel photos than I have.

"What's so funny is, one of my throwback pictures is actually my most-liked picture of all time," says Leasca, who was formerly the social media editor for the Los Angeles Times.

Leasca says she loves posting her travel experiences on social media and likes inspiring others to travel again after the pandemic.

"I find a lot of joy in being able to both look back on my previous experiences to celebrate what they were, and also think about what my future in travel could look like again," she says.
Workers struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic are urging the government to not revert unemployment payments to their pre-coronavirus levels.

Since the outbreak began, JobSeeker payments have been doubled from $550-a-fortnight to $1,100.

But the government has signalled the payments will revert back to $550 at the end of September, when it predicts the worst of COVID-19 will be over.

Anti-poverty charities called the previous payment, which left unemployed people with $40-a-day, 'cruel and brutal'.

A fortnightly survey, the Essential Poll, found that 57 per cent of Australians wanted the inflated JobSeeker payments to stay.

Of the 1,093 people surveyed, 15 per cent were unsure about the payment.

Scroll down for video

A shut down cafe for sale in Mollymook on the NSW south coast (pictured on April 7). The accommodation and food services industries have been hardest hit by strict social distancing

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has said the payments are intended to help people find work, not leave them on welfare long-term.

'We have been very clear that the measures we have announced are temporary,' he said.

Australian Council of Social Service chief Cassandra Goldie says the JobSeeker payment, formerly known as Newstart, must be enough for people to survive.

'Its clear we need a permanent fix to our social safety net. Our income support system was cruel before this crisis began,' Ms Goldie said.

'We can never go back to the brutality of trying to survive on $40 a day. We need a secure safety net that protects us all from poverty.'

The new supplement to JobSeeker payments began on April 27, alongside the $130 billion JobKeeper package.

People line up outside of a Centrelink office in Melbourne on April 20, after the coronavirus pandemic left thousands out of work

Those $1,500-a-fortnight payments started to be sent to employees on Wednesday.

Labor also supports an increase in the JobSeeker payments, while Ms Goldie warned that reducing the rate after the pandemic would stall economic recovery.

'We need a decent social security safety net in place that works at all times,' she said.

Last week, it was revealed that more than 1.34 million people were on the JobSeeker allowance.

The number of people who are currently not working may be even higher as those on the JobKeeker allowance are not included in the figures.

Although they are not working, JobKeeker recipients are still technically employed as they are payed by their employers while the government subsidies their wages.

The government has budgeted the $1,500-a-fortnight JobKeeper allowance based on the prediction that 6.6 million people will apply for the benefit in the next six months.

People are seen queuing outside a Centrelink office in Adelaide on April 16, with many more workers needing helping during the coronavirus crisis

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg (pictured at the National Press Club in Canberra on May 5) said the payments would return to their pre-coronavirus level of $550-a-fortnight

Business owners, independent contractors and other self-employed people who work off-payroll are not counted, which further inflates the figure.

The poll also found most Australians think its too soon to ease restrictions.

On schools, 45 per cent think they should reopen for all children, 23 per cent think learning should remain online and 32 per cent believe schools should reopen for kids of essential workers.

Shock figures on Tuesday showed almost one million Australians had lost their jobs due to strict social distancing measures forcing businesses to close.

The number of jobs dropped by 7.5 per cent between March 14 and April 18, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

People are seen lining up at Centrelink in Flemington, Melbourne on March 23 (pictured) after nearly one million Australians lost their jobs due to COVID-19

Since just over 13 million people were employed at the start of March, this means roughly 975,000 people have lost their jobs in little over a month.

The accommodation and food services industries have been hardest hit by strict social distancing laws that came into effect last month.

More than a third of workers lost employment in the accommodation and food services industries. Meanwhile, 27 per cent of workers became unemployed in arts and recreation services.

'The industries which lost the most jobs continued to be Accommodation and food services and Arts and recreation services,' Head of Labour Statistics at the ABS Bjorn Jarvis said.

Queues are seen at the east Sydney Centrelink offices on April 14, after more than 1.34 million people claimed the JobSeeker allowance.

'Job losses in Accommodation and food services were greatest in South Australia (-39.7%) and Victoria (-35.6%).'

Victoria was the hardest hit state overall with 8.6 per cent of workers losing their jobs, closely followed by Tasmania with 8 per cent.

In New South Wales, 7.4 per cent of workers lost their jobs while 7.8 per cent became unemployed in South Australia.

These states also had the largest COVID-19 outbreaks and the toughest social-distancing restrictions. States with more relaxed laws, had lower job losses.

The Northern Territory had the lowest level of job losses with 5.7 per cent while Queensland had 6.5 per cent and WA had 6.6 per cent.
This year marks 100 years since the start of an era which was to define 1920s America, help usher in the Jazz Age and even unexpectedly boost organized crime: Prohibition. Described by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson as "a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose," Prohibition ushered in laws banning the manufacture, sale and transport of alcoholic beverages. Others had decidedly different views, one of them being the legendary humorist W.C. Fields who admitted: "Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water."

With bars and restaurants closed around the globe, amateur bartenders are making their own cocktails at home. webphotographeer

Started in January 1920, Prohibition was repealed nearly 14 years later in December 1933. To mark the milestone in the most appropriate way  with a drink  we've chosen six classic cocktails with recipes from around the globe, each with a story of its own. And while most bars may be in lockdown mode today, at least you can make these at home.

Bloody mary  The St. Regis, New York

As with many iconic cocktails, stories abound about the provenance of this simple but delicious classic, the bloody mary. George Jessel was an actor, comedian and film producer who claimed to have invented the bloody mary as a hangover cure following a particularly heavy night of drinking in Palm Beach, Florida in the 1950s. Given that he was a natural showman and teller of tales, many doubted his claim, preferring the word of Fernand "Pete" Petiot instead. Petiot was head bartender at the King Cole Bar in The St. Regis New York  a bar that still exists today. He started serving the mix of vodka and tomato juice there in the 1940s  calling them "Red Snappers"  but claimed to have invented the cocktail some 20 years earlier.

A bloody mary at the The St. Regis New York's King Cole Bar. Courtesy of The St. Regis New York

What is indisputable is that Petiot was responsible for adding Worcestershire sauce, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper, thereby crafting the recipe known and loved today. St. Regis hotels continue to honor his creation with regional variations on the classic served across their global properties, but this is the original recipe as provided by Andrea Minarelli, head mixologist at St. Regis Hong Kong. This recipe makes about four 12-ounce cocktails. Ingredients:

1 ounce premium vodka

11 ounces bloody mary mix (below)

Lemon wedge, celery stick or tomato (fresh or dry), for garnish St. Regis' signature bloody mary mix:

Juice of 1.5 lemons

1.25 liters/42 ounces tomato juice

2.5 ounces Worcestershire sauce

5 dashes Tabasco sauce

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon ground cayenne pepper

0.5 tablespoon ground celery salt

1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns Preparation:

Combine all of the "bloody mary mix" ingredients together in a large container. Strain the peppercorns from the mix. Fill tall, 12-ounce glasses with ice. Add the vodka, then fill the remainder of the glass with the bloody mary mix and stir. Top with your choice of garnish. Store any remaining mix in the refrigerator and use within one week.

Old Fashioned  The Diplomat, Hong Kong

A concoction which is now among the most popular cocktails in the U.S., the Old Fashioned partly has Don Draper to thank for its modern resurgence. But its origins go further back than 1960s New York, certainly long before Prohibition called a temporary halt to its beguiling combination of just four main ingredients. The Pendennis Club in Louisville, Kentucky, was where a bartender allegedly first crafted the drink, and to this day the city hosts an "Old Fashioned Fortnight" to celebrate it.

Orange and sugar are integral ingredients in a classic Old Fashioned cocktail. Victor Sindean / 500px

Like all great drinks, it quickly found global fame with discerning drinkers, and a speakeasy-style bar called The Diplomat in Hong Kong is where Seattle native John Nugent crafts this faithful version. Just remember that in "Mad Men," Draper made his with rye whiskey. Ingredients:

2.5 ounces over-proof bourbon

0.5 ounces sugar syrup (2:1 sugar to water ratio)

3 dashes angostura bitters

2 dashes Regan's Orange Bitters

Orange and lemon peel, for garnish Preparation:

Start by freezing a half glass of water in a small plastic cup. Remove the plastic cup from the freezer and break the ice into large cubes. Place the cubes in a chilled rocks glass and add all ingredients. Stir for 30 seconds and toss the orange and lemon peels directly into the glass to finish.

Margarita  The Ritz-Carlton, Tokyo

Ahhhh, the margarita. There seem to be as many tales of its origin as there are versions of this drink around the world. It could have been an homage to a young barman's lover  called Margarita  who was tragically shot in a hunting accident. Perhaps it originated in 1940s Galveston, Texas, where jazz great Peggy Lee asked for "a tequila drink without a lot of mess in it." Or maybe a 1948 Christmas party in Acapulco was where it all began.

Salt on the rim enhances the interplay of sweet and sour flavors in a classic margarita. Merethe Svarstad Eeg / EyeEm

Whichever story you prefer, the margarita is a righteous classic that is enjoyed the world over thanks to its mix of tequila, lime juice, Cointreau and that delicious salt rim. Kentaro Wada is head bartender at The Ritz-Carlton Tokyo, and his recipe ticks all the right boxes. He suggests serving this recipe with salt-flecked edamame beans as the perfect accompanying snack. Note that measurements below are for a one-liter premix, not per drink. Ingredients:

13.5 ounces tequila

7 ounces Cointreau

7 ounces lime juice

27.5 ounces soda water (about 3.5 cups)

Sudachi or lime wedges Preparation:

Mix the tequila, Cointreau and lime juice in a one-liter bottle and shake well. Serve in a highball glass over ice, mixed gently with equal parts soda water. Finish with a squeeze of sudachi (a Japanese lime variety) or regular lime on top.

Pisco sour  Belmond Palacio Nazarenas, Cusco, Peru

Although Pisco may not be a drinks cabinet staple, it's worth ordering some of the brandy to craft delicious South American cocktails. Dating to the 16th century, Pisco is produced and hugely popular across Chile and Peru, with both countries claiming it as their own and even holding their own annual days dedicated to the drink. The Pisco sour as we know it today dates to the 1920s, where it is said to have been created in Lima and sampled by Orson Welles, Ava Gardner and, of course, Ernest Hemingway.

Pisco sour cocktails at Belmond Palacio Nazarenas. Courtesy of Belmond Palacio Nazarenas

Today it's available all over Peru, but one of the finest versions comes not in the small Peruvian city of Pisco, but in the ancient Incan capital of Cusco. It's there in the Belmond Palacio Nazarenas, a palace and convent turned hotel, where the drink can be crafted in guestrooms during a Pisco sour masterclass. "The variety of Pisco and the beauty of its flavor makes the Pisco sour our emblematic drink," said General Manager Arturo Schwarz. "It's a traditional cocktail which invites you to keep celebrating our national roots!" Ingredients:

3 ounces Pisco

2 ounces simple syrup (2:1 sugar to water ratio)

1 ounce lime juice

1 egg white

3 dashes angostura bitters Preparation:

Put the pisco, simple syrup, lime juice and egg white into a cocktail shaker and shake for 15 seconds. Fill the shaker with ice, then shake for 10 more seconds. Pour into an old-fashioned glass or short tumbler and sprinkle the angostura bitters on top of the foam. Serve immediately.

Vesper martini  Four Seasons Hotel, Seoul

The Vesper martini is inextricably linked with the most famous martini drinker of them all: Bond, James Bond. Ian Fleming's first novel featuring the British agent was "Casino Royale" published in 1953 and in it, he couldn't be clearer in instructing the barman to craft a drink he subsequently names after the beautiful Vesper Lynd: "Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?"

A Vesper martini at the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul. Courtesy of the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul

However, the Vesper is not the classic martini Bond so famously orders "shaken, not stirred." Those are vodka martinis, while here he requests gin, specifically Gordon's London Dry Gin. Keith Motsi is the head bartender at the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul and a huge fan of the drink. "It's a very easy, yet very versatile cocktail," he said. "Not only is it suitable to entertain with one or two people, but it's also easy to prepare for a group." Ingredients:

1.5 ounces gin

0.7 ounce vodka

0.3 ounce Lillet Blanc (Lillet's replacement for Kina Lillet since 1986)

3 dashes orange bitters

A pinch of lemon zest Preparation:

Put all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake well. This drink must be shaken, not stirred. Place the cocktail shaker in the freezer; when you want to drink it, remove it and shake well again. Place a small filter over the shaker, pour into a martini glass and top with lemon zest.

Secret Negroni  Mr. Chew's Chino Latino Bar, Kuala Lumpur

Finally to the Negroni, the history of which is as close as you can get to indisputable in the cocktail world. In 1919, just a year before the onset of Prohibition in the U.S., an Italian count named Camillo Negroni walked into Caffe Casoni in Florence, Italy. Uninspired by the American  a popular cocktail at the time  he wanted something with more of a hit so he asked the barman to add gin instead of soda water to his Campari and vermouth. With an orange garnish instead of lemon, the Negroni was born and the count's name immortalized in cocktail history.

A "secret Negroni" at Mr. Chew's Chino Latino Bar in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Courtesy of Mr. Chew's Chino Latino Bar
DUBLIN, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Vegetable Wax Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Get an in-depth analysis of COVID-19 impact on the global vegetable wax market.





This study considers the present scenario of the vegetable wax 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.



The global vegetable wax market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 5% during the period 2019-2025.



The shift from synthetic to natural products across the globe has increased the utility of vegetable wax significantly. Changes in consumer behaviors and the shift toward organic products have augured well for the vegetable wax market. APAC is expected to witness steady traction for vegetable wax products during the forecast period. The castor wax segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 6% during the period 2019-2025 due to its increasing usage in several cosmetic products such as lipsticks, lotions, and creams.



Market Segmentation by distribution, product, application, and geography.



The growing health awareness, along with the specific shift toward the adoption of organic wax products, has pushed the candelilla wax segment. Companies catering in this segment have extremely focused on R&D to produce several organic products. This, in turn, push them to formulate several combinations of paraffin and other waxes. It is the most dominantly used in the food glazing market. It is expected that the increase in demand for processed meat, fish & poultry, and functional foods would drive the demand. In the near future, the growing application of food glazing agents in bakery and confectionery products due to the increasing preference for personalized food items is expected to affect the demand.



Europe is an interesting candle market, where consumption and imports are constantly increasing. Cosmetics has been one of the key application sectors where the use of vegetable wax has been witnessing high demand. This demand is mostly attributed due to the shift in the consumer preference for adopting natural products rather than going for synthetic products. The growth of natural and organic personal care products has also driven the market. Factors such as the expansion of distribution channels, increased customer reach online, and the shift of modern retailers to offering premium personal care products on the shelves are other factors fueling the growth of vegetable wax in the cosmetic industry. Moreover, new product development, advertising, and increased consumer spending capacity on premium products are primary factors driving the overall growth of the global natural and organic personal care market.



Distributors, retailers, and manufacturers are the major vegetable wax suppliers. Manufacturers such as Cargill have promoted the sale through the wholesale network via design models. Vendors, for example, in Europe, primarily sell finished products either through dealers or distributors or the internet. The growth in online sales is set to increase by over 5% during the forecast period. The primary reason for this is online stores offer a variety of options to choose from than retail stores. Besides, prices offered on the internet are lower than retail stores because of the discount offered by vendors to promote their products.



Market Segmentation by:



Product

Carnauba Wax

Candelilla Wax

Castor Wax

Others

Distribution

Wholesale

Online

Application

Candles

Cosmetic

Food

Industry Applications

Others

Insights by Geography



The vegetable wax market in North America has vast potential with regard to consumption. Several application areas such as cosmetics, candles, and food among others have largely adopted the utilization of vegetable wax due to the growing awareness in consumers against the use of synthetic products. Therefore, customers turn to natural and organic products due to concerns about synthetic chemicals in cosmetics & toiletries.



In APAC, wax has wide applications, ranging from paints to textile, ink & coatings for packaging, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals to food, and electrical & electronics to rubber. Hence, their increased application in these end-user industries is generating a large-scale demand for natural wax. China remains one of the dominant players offering a variety of vegetable waxes. The market is fragmented with numerous local and global payers. The cosmetic industry has accounted for decent growth in the last years.



Market Segmentation by Geography



Europe

APAC

North America

Latin America

MEA

Insights by Vendors



The vegetable wax market is highly fragmented with many local and international players in the market. The competition is intense. The rapidly changing technological environment could adversely affect vendors as customers expect continual innovations and upgrades in the manufacturing of natural cosmetics products, pharma, among other application segments. The present scenario is forcing vendors to alter and refine their unique value proposition to achieve a strong presence.



Cargill and Koster Keunen are the key leading vendors in the market. The market concentration in developed countries such as the US and other Western European countries is high, while the market is in its growing stage in developing economies such as China and India because of the entry of global brands in these countries. The competition between vendors exists based on offerings and pricing. Vendors are using new business models and focusing on developing the portfolio of their establishments to drive growth. The focus in cosmetics is heavily shifting toward natural products, which is likely to provide vast opportunities to the vendors.



Key Vendors

Cargill

Huzhou Shentgtao Biotech

Koster Keunen

Other Vendors

Croda Industrial Chemicals

Brenntag (EPChem)

Marcus Oil

Argan Co.

FAITH Industries

BASF

CALWAX

PJ Group India

Falcon

Foncepi

Carnaba do Brasil

Brasil Ceras

KAVYA IMPEX

Shri Ram Sons Wax Private Ltd.

Key Market Insights



Offers sizing and growth prospects of the market for the forecast period 2020-2025.

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.

Market Dynamics



Opportunities & Trends

Rising Demand for Cleaner Raw Materials

Opportunity in Cosmetic Industry

Expected Rise in Demand from Candle & Food Sectors

Growth Enablers

Increase in Environmental Concerns

Emphasis on Human Health

Shifting Consumer Focus on Organic Products

Restraints

Fluctuation in Material Price

Political Problems Hampering Market Growth

Change in Climatic Conditions

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ewegtf

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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Dr. Anthony Fauci of the White House COVID-19 task force says theres no scientific evidence that the virus was created in a Chinese lab, a take that stands in contrast to recent comments by President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and whats out there now, (the scientific evidence) is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated," Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told National Geographic in an interview posted Monday. "Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that (this virus) evolved in nature and then jumped species.

Fauci added that the theory that someone may have discovered the virus in an animal and brought it to a lab from which it accidentally spread doesnt hold up to scientific scrutiny, either.

The comments from the nations top expert on infectious diseases came just days after Pompeo said that, like Trump, he has seen unspecified evidence linking the pandemic to a lab in Wuhan.

Chinas state-owned Global Times responded that Pompeos comments had stunned the world, arguing he had no evidence and that he was bluffing, CNN reported.

While Trump in January praised China for its response to the virus, the president, Pompeo and others in the administration have recently hammered Chinese officials for not sharing more information about the outbreak earlier.

Pompeo also said, however, that he had no reason to doubt the intelligence communitys conclusion which is in synch with many scientists', linking the viruss origins to a wet market in Wuhan, where it reportedly spread from animals to humans.

U.S. intelligence agencies concur "with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified, the office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement last week.

Fauci has publicly disagreed with the president multiple times this year. Last month, he urged caution on hydroxychloroquine and other drugs previously in clinical trials for COVID-19 treatment while the president touted their potential effectiveness.

Recently, as Trump and several governors move to reopen the American economy, Fauci has pressed the U.S. to ramp up testing capacity and ensure testing materials are readily available across the country to get a better handle on the disease ahead of a possible resurgence in the coming months.

But Trump has touted the millions of tests already conducted, noting the country has performed more tests than anywhere in the world. The Trump administration also recently shared with governors detailed maps including testing locations that were not being used to capacity in every state.

Shame on us if we dont have enough tests by the time this so-called return might occur in the fall and winter, Fauci told National Geographic, adding that the country also needs to continue bulking up supplies of ventilators, personal protective equipment and hospital beds. I dont think theres a chance that this virus is just going to disappear. Its going to be around, and if given the opportunity, it will resurge.

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New South Wales deputy premier John Barilaro has unloaded on Nationals leader Michael McCormack in a leaked text message tirade.

In fuming messages published by Sky News on Tuesday, Mr Barilaro vowed he will never acknowledge Mr McCormack as his party's Federal leader.

The outspoken state MP alleged that Mr McCormack feels 'threatened' by him and claims that means he has 'failed' in his role.

'You will never be acknowledged by me as our leader. You aren't. You never will be,' Mr Barilaro is quoted saying.

In fuming messages published by Sky News on Tuesday, New South Wales deputy premier John Barilaro (above) vowed he will never acknowledge Michael McCormack as his party's leader

A digital recreation of the text message rant John Barilaro allegedly sent Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack claiming he was blocked from putting his hand up for the seat of Eden Monaro

The leaked texts were sent to Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack (above, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison)

According to Sky, the screed continued: 'The Nats had a chance to create history, to change momentum, and you had a candidate that was prepared to risk everything to make it happen.

'What did you risk? Nothing. Hope you are proud of yourself.'

The rant emerged one day after Mr Barilaro ruled himself out of a tilt for the seat for the marginal federal seat of Eden Monaro at a tearful press conference.

Mr Barilaro said he had decided not to run as he could 'do more' as deputy premier of Australia's biggest state and tweeted the decision was made for 'his family'.

State transport minister Andrew Constance announced on Tuesday that he will quit NSW Cabinet and run against Labor candidate Kristy McBain.

Mr Constance said he wanted to put 'a number of issues squarely on the national agenda' - from the summer's bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The race is on: State transport minister Andrew Constance is seeking pre-selection for the seat of Eden Monaro and will likely face Labor candidate Kristy McBain

The bellweather seat is being vacated by Labor MP Mike Kelly, who has resigned due to health problems.

The byelection will be the first electoral test for Prime Minister Scott Morrison's government since the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Mr Barilaro is no stranger to bomb-throwing, causing a storm when he called for then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull to resign in 2017 - well before he was rolled.

In a statement, Mr McCormack said he respected Mr Barilaro's decision not to run 'due to family reasons.

'My support of Mr Barilaro has been long standing and I respect his position as Deputy Premier and New South Wales Nationals Leader.

'Those suffering from drought, recovering from bushfires and dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic are the people I am focused on.'
WASHINGTON - In eerily quiet hallways, with masks and disinfectant wipes aplenty, the Senate started to forge its new normal Monday - assembling en masse in Washington for the first time in five weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The adaptations made by what is perhaps Washington's most hidebound institution were unmistakable, if uneven.

Most staff members kept masks on as they worked on the Senate dais and ringed the ornate chamber. Meanwhile, senators did not always follow health experts' guidance to reduce the risk of spreading the deadly disease.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., quickly set the tone for the Republican majority, announcing on the floor that, after weeks of telework, "the time has come for us to continue conducting our nation's business in ways that are only possible with senators here, in the Capitol." He pointed to the need to process national-security-related nominations and reauthorize key foreign surveillance authorities.

"The Senate is going to be as smart and safe as we possibly can, and we are going to show up for work like the essential workers that we are," McConnell said. "Our bosses are the American people, and they're counting on us to keep on serving."

But Democrats expressed clear discomfort with being summoned back to the Capitol - for what they said were reasons that had more to do with politics than with addressing the mounting health-care crisis in the country.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the No. 3 Democratic leader, stayed out of the Capitol entirely. Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., spoke on the Senate floor through a surgical mask. And a somber Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., the No. 2 leader, quietly noted in a lengthy speech that the covid-19 death toll - now officially more than 68,000 - included "my friends and people I know, members of my family."

"There can be no doubt that this will be one of the strangest sessions of the United States Senate in modern history," said Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., noting that many Senate offices would remain deserted, with staffers working from home, while senators speaking on the floor would wipe down their desks and refrain from passing copies of their speeches to the young pages as they would typically do.

"And we will not do what comes naturally to every public official - shake hands," he added. "But the American people are watching us right now. They expect us to do our jobs. They expect us to come together to address the issues that really matter."

That, Democrats maintained, did not include the business that McConnell had thus far scheduled. The initial floor business Monday was to confirm a new inspector general for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The nominee, federal prosecutor Robert Feitel, was confirmed on an 87-to-0 vote.

McConnell defended Feitel's nomination as a "nuclear watchdog" whose confirmation, he said, had been unfairly blocked by Democrats for months. He said numerous Senate committees would undertake coronavirus-related hearings this week.

But Democrats pointed to the hearings that were not happening - featuring Trump administration officials with direct responsibility for the coronavirus response. In a memo Monday, the White House informed lawmakers that no member of the coronavirus task force could accept invitations to testify before congressional committees without the permission of chief of staff Mark Meadows.

"All other departments, agencies, and witnesses may accept hearing invitations, however, agency resources should still be prioritized toward the covid-19 response," said the memo from the White House legislative affairs office.

The memo came a few days after the White House blocked Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, from testifying before a House panel this week, though Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., confirmed Monday that Fauci will appear next week before the committee he chairs, alongside the heads of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, and the White House covid-19 testing czar.

This past weekend, Deborah Birx, the physician coordinating the White House coronavirus response, appeared on "Fox News Sunday" and answered questions on "Justice With Judge Jeanine" Pirro.

Democrats highlighted one hearing this week, a Wednesday proceeding featuring Trump's nominee to the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The nominee, U.S. District Judge Justin Walker of Kentucky, is one of the youngest judges in the federal judiciary, at age 38, and earned a "not qualified" rating from the American Bar Association ahead of his confirmation as a district judge last October; the ABA cited his lack of trial experience.

Durbin slammed the Walker hearing in particular, suggesting on the Senate floor that the nominee was unqualified for the post and was being pushed through by McConnell as a political favor.

"It's certainly hard to argue that this is part of a response to a national health emergency in America. It has nothing to do with it," Durbin said. "When the majority leader comes to us and says, 'We have important nominations that deal with national security,' I'm sorry, but Judge Walker is not one of them."

Multiple Republican senators said non-coronavirus business - including judicial nominations - had to continue.

"We know how to social distance; we know how to wash our hands, not touch our face. Those are the responsibilities each of us bear to one another not to spread this virus," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. "But make no mistake, self-government is essential under any construction, any definition of that word. Our system was not made to run on autopilot. So it's appropriate that we show up and we do our job."

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, 86, who gaveled the Senate into session Monday, did not wear a mask in the chamber, though he did in the hallways.

As she left after voting Monday, the Senate's oldest member, 86-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., cut through a group of three senators chatting on the floor - touching Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on the arm.

"See you in committee," Feinstein, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said to Graham, its chairman.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., the No. 4 House GOP leader, was the only senator to leave an evening leadership meeting without a mask. Blunt is also chairman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, which oversees Capitol operations.

Meanwhile, the House appeared to sink further into a partisan split over how to restart its own physical operations, with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., dismissing some of the more ambitious proposals for remote work - including virtual committee meetings to advance legislation.

In a lengthy "Plan for the People's House," McCarthy said that the traditional nature of the House as a "physical meeting of people and ideas . . . should be dutifully guarded" and that technology should be deployed only sparingly. Access to virtual hearings, for instance, should be "reserved for members in at-risk categories or who are otherwise unable to travel to D.C."

"Before we rush to discard over 200 years of precedent, we should require that rigorous testing standards be met, ample feedback be provided, and bipartisan rules of the road be agreed upon and made public to truly safeguard minority rights," he wrote.

McCarthy also broke with Pelosi - as well as McConnell - in criticizing the two leaders' joint decision to reject the Trump administration's offer of special rapid-testing machines for use at the Capitol. The machines, built by Abbott Laboratories and offered by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, are similar to ones now in routine use at the White House, where Trump and those in close contact with him can obtain test results in less than an hour.

Pelosi and McConnell said in a joint statement Saturday that they would not accept special testing equipment so long as medical personnel and first responders did not have access to the same technology. The congressional attending physician is instead using more widely available tests whose results take two days or more, and that are being rationed for use on symptomatic patients only.

Most senators on Monday agreed with the decision. "I think, for now, we want to make sure the limited amount of tests that are out there get . . . to people who really need them," said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.

But in a live-streamed Politico interview, McCarthy said the two leaders should have accepted the special equipment.

"It is your Capitol. It is your government. You want to make sure the government doesn't collapse or not be able to meet," he said. "You want to make sure it's functioning. . . . Especially if there was some type of outbreak, you can quarantine those individuals, you can test the others, and you can have government keep working."

Trump also weighed in. "Interesting? By Congress not wanting the special 5 minute testing apparatus, they are saying that they are not 'essential,' " he wrote on Twitter, adding a defense of his administration's record on overall testing.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., meanwhile, gave no firm date for the House's return on a conference call with lawmakers Monday, according to three people on the call, but said committees would start assembling a vast new rescue bill early this week. He said lawmakers would be given sufficient notice to return to Washington to vote on that legislation.

The three people spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly.

- - -

The Washington Post's Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.
A man was fined by police enforcing coronavirus restrictions after being caught with a prostitute he had hired online.

Police carrying out random spot checks in Box Hill in Melbourne's east on Monday found the man with the escort in his home.

He was slapped with a $1,652 fine for breaching lockdown laws.

A Victorian man was fined by police during a 24 hour spot checking blitz after he was found with a prostitute in his home during self-isolation (Victoria Police pictured on social distancing patrol)

In the past 24 hours Victoria Police completed 888 spot checks at a series of homes, businesses and non-essential services as part of the state wide Operation Sentinel.

Out of those 888 spot checks police issued 26 fines for social distancing breaches and other offences.

A number of fines were issued to people who were warned by police after being caught breaching social distancing before being caught a second time.

Some of the 26 fines were also issued to people who were allegedly found with stolen goods, drugs and weapons.

In the weeks since March 21 Victoria Police have conducted a total of 36,812 spot checks as part of Operational Sentinel.
Panic As NCDC Driver Tests Positive For COVID-19 In Nasarawa

A driver with the Nigeria Center for Disease Control NCDC has tested positive for the novel Coronavirus in Nasarawa state.

The state governor, Abdullahi Sule, disclosed this during an expanded state security meeting in Lafia, the state capital today May 5th.

According to the governor, the driver who resides in Ado in Karu Local Government Area of the state, transports test samples for the agency in Abuja and got infected in the process.

He was declared positive this morning and has been moved to the isolation centre at the Federal Medical Centre, Keffi for treatment.
The Reserve Bank of India on Monday met with representatives of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) to discuss various issues concerning the sector, as reported by CNBC-TV18 earlier

The self-regulated umbrella body for the NBFCs, Finance Industry Development Council (FIDC), has released a note on the key highlights of the meeting with the RBI.

Here's a summary of those, as stated by FIDC.

Moratorium On Loans:

A very large proportion of our customers being small road transport operators, contractors, MSMEs and agriculturists faced significant economic disruption. We have offered moratorium to most of our customers pursuant to the RBI notification dated March 27, 2020, to help ameliorate their situation. However, NBFCs have not been able to avail of matching moratorium on their liabilities, giving rise to a risk especially to the smaller NBFCs. We request that NBFCs be given moratorium on their liabilities as well to ensure financial and liquidity stability to the sector.

Allowing A One-time Restructuring Window: Feedback from our customer segments suggests that the disruption of cash flow cycles would last for a large part of the current financial year and in fact would last longer amongst Earn & Pay segment viz. transport operators, contractors and MSMEs. While the three months moratorium has provided some relief to them, they may not be in a position to commence loan servicing from the fourth month as a result of the disruption. We request you to allow a one-time restructuring window till March 2021 for amending the loan repayment schedules and/or extending loan tenures or restructuring the EMIs, without affecting the asset classification, in line with the revised expectation of cash flows of our customers. This window exists today till December 2020 in respect of MSME loans (vide RBI Circular RBI/2019-20/160 DOR.No.BP.BC.34/21.04.048/2019-20 dt. 11th Feb. 2020). We submit that this window be extended to all other borrowers as well. We also request that as a special dispensation, the 5% provision requirement be done away with in view of the abnormal situation.

Funding Issues: NBFCs have been facing a negative perception since the IL&FS event and this has resulted in banks becoming extremely risk averse on the issue of extending loans to NBFCs, especially to the small and medium ones. The experience of TLTRO 2.0 so far clearly emphasises this risk aversion on the part of banks. We request the RBI to consider providing funds to a refinance mechanism through SIDBI, NABARD and/or their associate institutions which can provide long term loans to NBFCs for their on-lending operations. We further request you to kindly consider allocating the unsubscribed part of TLTRO 2.0 to these institutions as well.

Provisioning Requirement On Moratorium Loans: The RBI notification dated April 17, 2020 requires a provision of up to 10% (or as per the Board approved policy under Indian Accounting Standard) in respect of all loans which are at least 1 day past due and where a moratorium has been granted. Given the nature of our borrowers and their businesses, it is routine for them to pay the EMIs a few days later. This usually happens due to various local factors (e.g., a truck operators prolonged absence from home while driving the truck) and is not to be seen as a sign of credit risk. A very substantial number of such customers service the loans before they become 30 days past due. We request you to kindly consider this factor and permit provisioning to be made where moratorium has been given only on loans that are 30 or more days past due.
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the small and medium size enterprise (SME) community, Elevision Media has launched an initiative to provide AED 4,000,000 ($1.89 million) in free advertising to help market and promote small local businesses.

The Support your Local Community initiative is coordinated with Elevisions community partners across Dubai and Abu Dhabi, where Elevision operates over 1200 Digital-out-of-Home advertising screens in commercial and residential communities such as the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Jumeirah Beach Residences (JBR) and in Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) through Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC).

With the pandemic impacting businesses of all sizes, and SMEs playing a significant role in the economy, targeted measures to support sales and cash flow are vital. In light of this, Elevision is offering support to small businesses to help them navigate these difficult times by leveraging Elevisions media assets. Marketing budgets, especially in advertising, are inevitably under the spotlight  and in many cases have been capped or even scrapped by businesses to stay afloat. However, studies of previous downturns have shown that maintaining marketing expenditure during a crisis typically has short and long-term benefits for the sales and market share of brands  both during a recession and beyond, the company said in a statement.

Niall Sallam, CEO Elevision Media, said: Remaining top of mind and maintaining share of voice is extremely important so that when the situation does begin to normalise, local businesses will be in a good position, with solid footing to ramp up traction quickly and efficiently. That said, in a situation where a small business owner is faced with a choice to either pay salaries or allocate budget to advertising the decision is easy; advertising spend does not take priority. With this in mind, we are hoping that our initiative can help struggling businesses bridge the gap and maintain some share of voice now and going forward as the market begins to strengthen again.

Elevision is a Digital-Out-of-Home (DOOH) company that owns and operates a network of over 1200 digital advertising screens across the UAE. TradeArabia News Service
Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. (HCPI), Hondas automobile unit in the Philippines, has started re-opening dealership at selected Honda Cars Dealerships.

Since May 4, dealerships located in General Community Quarantine (GCQ) areas has restarted it sales and after-sales operations.

However, they would not do such move without being prepared with the "new norm scenario".

The opening of certain dealerships would be the first few days of business for newly-hailed HCPI chief Masahiko Nakamura.

Nakamura has replaced Noriyuki Takakura, who is now heading Honda Thailand.

Nakamura

In a statement, HCPI said that aside from disinfecting its dealership facilities, they will implement safety protocols across all 38 dealerships to ensure the health and safety of valued customers and dealer associates.

Safety measures include all customers and dealer associates to undergo thermal scanning before entering the dealership premises. Those with a body temperature of 38 degrees Celsius and above will not be allowed to enter.

A no-facemask, no entry policy shall be followed and customers must wear it while inside the dealership and must sanitize their hands before entering and while inside the dealership premises.

Hand sanitizers will be available at strategic locations. Dealer associates will be required to wear prescribed PPEs.

Social distancing of at least one-meter distance shall be observed throughout the dealership premises (showroom, service reception, customer lounges, cashiers, etc.).

All common areas will have demarcation lines to ensure this is strictly followed.

Customers who plan to have their vehicles undergo Periodic Maintenance Service or avail of other after-sales services should contact their respective dealerships and schedule an appointment.

Scheduling will not only help limit the number of people within dealership premises but will also help Honda dealers to efficiently address the needs of customers during these uncertain times.

All Honda dealerships have been closed since late March, in line with the government's earlier announcement of a lockdown to curb the spread of the deadly virus.

Story continues

Part of their efforts to help fight the disease is the lendout of vehicles to hospitals and frontliners in Laguna.

For more information regarding Hondas Covid-19 prevention guidelines, visit the Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. official website at www.hondaphil.com., or contact the nearest authorized Honda Car dealerships.

Also read:

Big Auto Makers Toyota, Honda, Ford Extend Factory Closures

Honda, FCA Resume Productions Starting May; Ford, GM Set No Date Yet
EDMONTONAlberta politicians are to return to the legislature Wednesday to debate bills tied to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Government house leader Jason Nixon says he will introduce legislation underpinning an earlier announcement to allow people to delay paying their utility bills.

The program is intended for Albertans who are experiencing financial hardship as a direct result of COVID-19, Nixon said Tuesday.

For example, those who have lost their employment or have had to leave work to take care of an ill family member.

The bill would allow residential, farm and small business customers to delay electricity and natural gas payments until June 18.

Nixon said in coming days the government also expect to pass the Emergency Management Amendment Act, which clarifies roles and responsibilities between the province and municipalities during crises.

Also expected to pass is a bill giving mobile home tenants and landlords the same dispute resolution options as those in houses and apartments.

Later this spring, Nixon said the United Conservative government is also to introduce changes to rules surrounding ministerial powers during public health emergencies.

Critics have said recent rules passed by the province under Bill 10 are an unreasonable overreach of ministerial power.

Nixon said passing the bill has put a spotlight on broader concerns with emergency powers granted to the government under the Public Health Act.

The original Public Health Act allows cabinet ministers to suspend or modify laws during a public health emergency. Critics, including the Opposition NDP and the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, say Bill 10 took that power even further and opened the door for ministers to unilaterally make laws.

We want to have a look at the entire act and have a legitimate conversation about the powers that it gives to ministers, and whether or not there is enough oversight to that process, said Nixon.

We want to make sure that, ultimately, ministers and decisions that are made during an emergency receive as much oversight from the Alberta legislature as possible.

COVID-19 outbreaks at meat-packing plants in the province are also expected to be discussed Wednesday.

NDP house leader Heather Sweet said her party will call for an emergency debate on this reopening of the Cargill beef processing plant, along with the status of other large workplace outbreaks.

The Cargill plant in High River, south of Calgary, reopened Monday after a two-week shutdown due to its outbreak. It has seen 949 of its 2,000 workers test positive for the novel coronavirus.

There are also outbreaks at the JBS beef-processing plant in Brooks and at Harmony Beef just north of Calgary.

Companies have put in safety measures, including the use of masks and installation of barriers to ensure social distancing.

Sweet said the NDP wants a halt to operations at Cargill until an out-of-province investigator does an independent probe.

If the UCP has any compassion, they will agree to debate this matter in the legislature, said Sweet.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Albertas chief medical officer of health, announced 57 new COVID cases on Tuesday, bringing the provinces total to 5,893. More than half of those people have recovered.

She also said there have been two more deaths, bringing that total to 106.

Health Minister Tyler Shandro said he has signed an order allowing COVID-19 test results to be released to police, if a person deliberately puts officers at risk by spitting, spitting, or sneezing on them.

This is something first responders in the province are encountering in the course of their duties, said Shandro.

We will not tolerate our front-line workers being put at risk in this way.

Read more about:
After opening mosques and religious sites in a number of cities with low coronavirus infection rates this week, Irans President Hassan Rouhani announced yesterday May 3 that they will open schools beginning May 16.

Mohsen Haji Mirzaei, Irans Education Minister, said today that at the National Headquarters for Combatting Coronavirus made the decision to open schools in cities that are in what they refer to as low risk or white regions. Iran has adopted a color system to identify cities with high (red) and low (white) infection rates of the virus. According to Mirzaei, at the moment there are 130 cities that are labeled low risk and would allow schools to reopen given that the health guidelines designated by the health ministry are followed. He did not elaborate on what the health guidelines would be.

Deputy Education Minister Razvan Hakimzadeh said that the reopening of schools will give teachers a months time to catch students up and administer tests. She said that due to discrepancies in access to technology and other materials for some students, the Education Ministry wants to ensure that all students are caught up by the end of the school year.

Starting this week, Iran has also opened mosques and religious sites in cities with low infection rates. A statement released by the health ministry asked mosques that reopen to maintain social distancing, conduct daily monitoring, require all attendees to wear masks and gloves, use single-use plastic bags to hold shoes when inside the mosque, refrain from serving tea or food and provide hand sanitizers at the entrance. The statement also said that mosques which open will only be permitted to hold Friday prayers and cannot be used for other services, such as funerals or religious mourning ceremonies.

According to Nasrallah Lotfi, deputy of Coordination Council of Islamic Propaganda, this years Quds Day marches will take place in cities with low infection rates. Quds Day  from the word for Jerusalem in Arabic  is held on the last Friday of Ramadan in support of Palestinians. Lotfi said that this years Quds Day marches are important given what he described as the role of Israel in the assassination of former Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani and the so-called "Deal of the Century" proposed by the White House. The march is scheduled to take place May 22 but will likely be a much smaller affair than previous years given that Tehran likely not will participate due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Irans Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said today that in the last 24 hours there have been 1,223 new corona cases, bringing their total confirmed cases to 98,647. There have also been 76 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total deaths to 6,277. Jahanpour said that 79,379 have recovered fully. He added that they have conducted over 500,000 tests.

Despite the labeling of areas as white or low risk and statements about opening up schools and mosques, Jahanpour warned, Were still in the phase of managing this virus and under no conditions at any point in the country are we witnessing normal conditions. He added, Our recommendation is to follow health standards, social distancing and using masks in crowded or high traffic areas.
Brothers Chris and Jeff Abbott went back to work last Saturday, when they opened their two DIY shops for the first time in four weeks.

Only three customers are allowed in at a time and chip-and-pin machines are cleaned frequently with antibacterial wipes. Acrylic screens shield staff from customers at the tills.

But the coronavirus has prompted another change to the 41-year-old family business.

Abbott's DIY is no longer accepting cash payments at either of its shops, in Ottery St Mary and Seaton, East Devon.

Endangered: Experts fear there may be only months to save the UK's cash system from collapsing

It's a decision many other businesses are expected to make as they emerge from lockdown. Research conducted for Money Mail by Amaiz suggests 50 per cent of small businesses have gone cashless or plan to do so due to the virus.

Only 21 per cent of the 500 respondents the small business banking app surveyed had no plans to abandon cash payments.

Experts fear there may be only months to save the UK's cash system from collapsing.

Last month, under lockdown, cash withdrawals fell by 60 per cent compared with April 2019, according to ATM operator Link, whose chief executive John Howells says the pandemic is 'speeding up' the decline of cash, and that a fall in cash use expected to take place over five years will happen within five months.

He says: 'If we do nothing, we could be in a virtually cashless society in two years' time.'

Last week, B&Q opened all 288 of its stores, with customers allowed to pay only by card or using contactless, to reduce contact between customers and staff.

Can you really be infected by cash? Cash, coins and cards  just like other surfaces  have the potential to carry the Covid-19 virus. But the Government has yet to issue any official guidance on whether people should avoid using cash. This is because it is understood to pose no further risk than handling other everyday items  assuming shoppers follow advice about washing their hands frequently and avoiding touching their faces. However, draft guidance seen by the Mail suggests that shops may be encouraged to abandon cash when lockdown restrictions are lifted. Scientific evidence suggests that the virus can live on various surfaces for different lengths of time. The World Health Organisation (WHO) cites an experimental study which found the virus can survive for up to 72 hours on plastic and stainless steel and up to four hours on copper. But a WHO spokesman says further experiments and analysis are needed in order to understand more about how the virus is transmitted.

Britain's biggest supermarkets, including Sainsbury's and Tesco, have been urging their customers to pay without cash since March.

The contactless payment limit has been increased from 30 to 45 in the pandemic, allowing customers to make more payments without having to touch a chipand-pin machine.

About three-quarters of adults in Britain have used less cash since the start of the pandemic, and a similar number believe they will continue to do so over the next six months, according to a YouGov poll conducted on behalf of Link.

And as more than 3,500 bank and building society branches have shut their doors or been earmarked for closure since 2015, according to Which?, many business owners are having to travel further to deposit cash takings.

A third of the UK's bank branches were closed in the four-and-a-half years to August last year, the consumer magazine found.

Experts fear the virus could lead to even more branches being shut down because they are used less  and there could be even fewer ATMs, as most machines not attached to branches are run by private companies.

If cash withdrawals keep declining, the companies won't be able to afford to keep all the machines open. Already, about 17 per cent of free-to-use cash machines have disappeared in the past two years, according to Which?.

Chris Abbott, 41, had never considered banning cash before. While it costs him 2.50 to deposit 100 of cash in his account, and less than 1 to deposit the same amount in cashless purchases, he would rather give his customers the choice.

But he won't accept cash until there is a significant drop in the coronavirus infection rate or there is an effective vaccine.

Chris says: 'I would rather not sell a single item than put a member of staff's health at risk.'

The Government has not yet issued specific guidance on using cash, as it should pose no greater risk than touching other everyday items such as shopping trolleys.

Yesterday, this newspaper reported that shops would be encouraged to scrap cash payments entirely once lockdown was eased.

Draft Government guidance to business states that retailers should accept only cards or contactless payments while the coronavirus is still a threat.

Age UK boss fears vulnerable are suffering Age UK has warned the financial watchdog that the UK's 'headlong rush towards a cashless society' will be catastrophic for the most vulnerable. The charity reports a surge in the number of older customers who say they have exhausted their cash supplies in the pandemic and fear they could soon run out of food and other essentials. It asks the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to consider forcing building societies and banks to bolster their support for the elderly during the current crisis. Banks have launched a range of initiatives to help their vulnerable customers through outreach drives, helplines, postal services and making it easier for other people to get cash on their behalf. Age UK says that while it welcomes these steps, many of the most at-risk customers are unable to use the new schemes. It also warns that pushing customers to contact their bank online will isolate the 2.3 million over-70s who don't have internet access. The charity says telephone banking must be readily available, amid reports that older people are facing long waits, and then not being able to access the services they need. Age UK director Caroline Abrahams says: 'It is crucial that every bank does all it reasonably can to help these vulnerable customers, including going beyond the new services they have already established.' The FCA says it has worked to keep branches and call centres open and has developed cash delivery services for vulnerable customers.

Professor Sally Bloomfield, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says contactless payment is probably the least risky option  yet she says touching a chip-and-pin machine could potentially be riskier than using cash, as more people touch them each day.

'These are all very small risks, but every small risk adds up,' she adds.

Cafe owner Charles Snoxell stopped taking cash payments shortly before lockdown began.

'I had already been considering going cashless. By the time lockdown ends, people will feel more comfortable with using their cards and phones to pay.' Cafe owner Charles Snoxell

He made the decision to protect staff in his cafes: Pantry, in High Wycombe, and Sycamore on the Hill, in Amersham, Bucks.

But he plans to make the change permanent when he reopens.

Since lockdown began he has been running a cashless delivery system, where customers can order coffee and cakes directly to their doors.

He uses the app iZettle Pro to send invoices to customers' phones, so they can pay via text message or email.

Charles, 35, says: 'I had already been considering going cashless. By the time lockdown ends, people will feel more comfortable with using their cards and phones to pay.'

But convenience store manager Manju Karavadra has found it more difficult without cash.

Marshchapel Stores and the Post Office inside it are a lifeline for the coastal village of Marshchapel in Lincolnshire. It has a population of just over 700 and the nearest supermarket is almost five miles away.

Cash ban: Last week, B&Q opened all 288 of its stores but is only allowing customers to pay by card or using contactless, over concerns that coins and notes could carry the virus

But when Manju began putting up signs asking customers not to pay with cash last month, some of her older customers don't feel comfortable using their cards for small purchases, such as a newspaper.

And younger customers have jogged to the shop from nearby villages bringing only cash because they didn't know about the change. Last year's Access To Cash Review found that the UK could become 'virtually cashless' by 2035.

More recent figures released before the lockdown suggested this would happen by 2030, but the pandemic may have pushed this forward.

In his Budget, Chancellor Rishi Sunak promised to introduce new laws to protect access to cash, but a consultation is yet to take place to decide what these laws will be.

Natalie Ceeney, author of the Access to Cash Review, warns: 'About 20 per cent of the population still need cash. A large proportion are vulnerable, including the elderly, disabled or those on low incomes.'

Last year, the Financial Conduct Authority research suggested some 1.3 million adults in the UK have no bank account at all  and even if someone has a debit or credit card, they may not be happy to hand it to a neighbour or volunteer to do their shopping.

'We can't go cashless until the infrastructure is in place and everyone in society is ready,' says Ms Ceeney.

During the pandemic, banks and building societies have been encouraging customers to visit branches only when necessary.

A UK Finance spokesman says: 'We have worked hard to ensure all customers are still able to make cash withdrawals, despite the constraints of lockdown, isolation and shielding.'

Some shoppers worry that carrying a card could put them at greater risk of fraud. Losses from fraud on UK-issued cards fell by 8 per cent between 2018 and 2019, but still totalled 620.6 million last year.

f.parker@dailymail.co.uk
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 20:39:13|Editor: huaxia

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PHNOM PENH, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Eighty-four prisoners in Cambodia are eligible to receive royal pardons or reduced sentences for the Visak Bochea, or Buddha Day, which this year falls on Wednesday (May 6), a spokesman said on Tuesday.

Justice Ministry spokesman Kim Santhepheap said prisons across the country had proposed 273 prisoners for royal pardons or jail-term reduction on the occasion, but after a recent meeting, Justice Minister Koeut Rith decided to request King Norodom Sihamoni through the government to grant royal pardons or reduce jail terms for 84 inmates only, including eight women.

"Ten prisoners, including two women, will receive royal pardons, and 74 others will see their jail terms reduced between six months and one year," he told reporters.

According to the kingdom's law, a prisoner is qualified for a royal amnesty provided he or she has served at least two-thirds of the jail term and behaved well while serving time in prison.

For a jail-term cut, a well-behaved inmate, who has served one-thirds of the prison term, will see his or her jail term reduced between six months and one year.

The Southeast Asian nation usually pardons or cuts jail terms for prisoners on the occasions of Khmer New Year in April, the Visak Bochea Day in May, and the Water Festival in November. Enditem
[May 05, 2020] Lightbend Wins Red Hat North American Partner Award

SAN FRANCISCO, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lightbend , the leader in Reactive Architecture and creator of the popular cloud-native application platform Akka, is proud to announce it has been named Collaboration Technology Partner of the Year by Red Hat, Inc., the world's leading provider of open source solutions. This award is part of the annual Red Hat North American Partner Awards, which aim to honor partners for continued efforts to support customers on the path to IT modernization.

Lightbend was honored for its dedication to providing innovative open source solutions to customers in the commercial sector. Specifically, Lightbend was recognized as Collaboration Technology Partner Of The Year honoring Red Hat partners whose collaborative efforts for jointly engineered solutions through combined valuecomponents has enabled insightful and innovative opportunities across industries.



This award is a testament to the power of open source solutions as customer needs and industries continue to evolve, said Mark Brewer, CEO of Lightbend. We are honored to be recognized by Red Hat as Collaboration Technology Partner Of The Year and look forward to our continued partnership. Red Hat's 2019 North American Partner Awards honor both commercial and public sector partners for their dedication to successfully delivering innovative open source solutions to customers. Honorees were recognized for outstanding performance in 2019 across several categories that span Red Hats open source portfolio and their dedication to delivering customer success.

Lightbend is a valued channel partner to Red Hat, and we are pleased to honor them with this well-deserved award, said Ernest Jones, vice president, North American Partner Sales, Red Hat. We look forward to our continued relationship with Lightbend and helping them provide the best in open source solutions to their clients. About Lightbend

Lightbend (@Lightbend) is leading the enterprise transformation toward real-time, cloud-native applications. Lightbend provides scalable, high-performance microservices frameworks and streaming engines for building data-centric systems that are optimized to run on cloud-native infrastructure like Red Hat OpenShift. The most admired brands around the globe are transforming their businesses with Lightbend, engaging billions of users every day through software that is changing the world. For more information, visit www.lightbend.com . Red Hat is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Media Contact:

Lonn Johnston

[email protected]

+1.650.219.7764

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The twin districts of the Ghana National Association of Teachers in the Asunafo North Municipality and Asunafo South District have donated to the Goaso Government Hospital and the Asunafo South District Education Office.

GNAT said the move is part of effort to combat the spread of the novel Coronavirus in the areas.

In all, the association donated packs of Tissue papers, Liquid soaps, hand washing gel, carbolic soaps, gallons of detergent, gallons of Dettol as well as locally prepared hand sanitizers.

The hand sanitizers particularly were prepared by the women wing of Asunafo GNAT (GNATLAS-GNAT Ladies).

In handing over the items, the District GNAT Secretary, Mr. Samuel Sarfo Antwi noted that the Ahafo region is lucky to be among the four regions without a case of the novel Coronavirus.

He said it is therefore imperative for all individuals, agencies and organisations to assist in preventing the spread of the deadly virus.

As the largest teacher union in the district, GNAT therefore deem it necessary to contribute its quota to the fight against the pandemic in the district and region at large.

He was hopeful the items donated would go a long way to augment the effort by various stakeholders at the hospital and beyond to combat the spread of the virus and other infectious diseases.

The District Chairman of the GNAT, Mr. Edwin Sarpong-Boakye, said as the only referral centre in the district, the Goaso Government hospital need to be supported in this difficult times.

"When we get sick, we run to the hospital, we can therefore not afford to allow our health workers get infected, else when we go there, we would get infected" quoting from the District Chairman of Asunafo GNAT. We believe donating to the hospital means donating to our members their family members and the general public as well," he noted.

In receiving the items on behalf of the Medical Superintendent, Dr. Serbeh expressed appreciation to GNAT for the kind gesture.

He disclosed that GNAT was the first organisation to donate to the hospital in the wake of the pandemic, with all other donations coming from individuals and families.

He therefore, used the opportunity to call on other well-meaning organisations, institutions, churches and philanthropists in Ahafo and beyond to come to their aid.

Similar donations were made to Asunafo South District Education Directorate which is the home of all teachers in the district.

The District Director of Education, Mrs. Agnes Amihere was grateful to Asunafo GNAT for their concern and care for teachers.

The association pledged not to relent on its effort to educate the general public.

The Asunafo GNAT has committed its usual radio program "TIME WITH GNAT" which is aired on Success Fm (90.9) every Wednesday 7:30 pm to educate people on the COVID- 19 pandemic.

As part of its Social responsibilities, Asunafo GNAT intends to donate similar items to the Asunafo North Municipal Education Directorate and support the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) with fuel to assist them in the education of the general public against COVID- 19.

The donations were made on behalf of the District Council by the District Chairman, Mr. Edwin Sarpong-Boakye, District Treasurer, Madam Cynthia Amamoo, District Vice-chair, Mr. Francis Warmann, the District Youth Coordinate, Mr. Mawuli George, local secretary, Mr. Iddris Zakaria and Mr. Samuel Sarfo Antwi District, GNAT Secretary.
Shia LaBeouf cut a casual figure as he headed out for a run during lockdown on Monday.

The Transformers actor, 33, looked focused as he jogged through the streets of Pasadena, California, while clad in a sporty ensemble.

The hunk wore a white, red, black and purple graphic print tee paired with dove grey shorts for his sunkissed run.

Off we go: Shia LaBeouf cut a casual figure as he headed out for a run during lockdown on Monday

The star slipped on black and silver trainers and socks, while displaying his multiple leg tattoos on the run.

The Peanut Butter Falcon star wore a pair of mirrored shades and some earphone as he ran along.

Shia also displayed his wedding ring, after confirming he had reunited with wife Mia Goth following their split in 2018.

Shia and Mia have been keeping safe in quarantine together, only previously seen out for exercise.

Jog: The Transformers actor, 33, looked focused as he jogged through the streets of Pasadena, California, while clad in a sporty ensemble

The couple all but confirmed their reunion when they were seen kissing late last month. Both were also witnessed with their wedding rings back on.

Their PDA-packed sighting came after the Holes actor was first spotted sporting his wedding band at the Academy Awards last month.

Shia and Mia met on the set of Nymphomaniac in 2012 and have had a volatile relationship.

The American actor and the British actress got married on October 10, 2016 during a Las Vegas ceremony.

He confirmed the marriage during an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show a few weeks later, but Clark County of Nevada claimed the duo had a commitment ceremony and were not legally wed.
- Microsoft Azure customers worldwide now gain access to FIA Smart Driving Challenge provided by Greater Than, to take advantage of the scalability, reliability and agility of Azure to drive application development and shape business strategies.

STOCKHOLM, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Greater Than, today announced the availability of the global initiative FIA Smart Driving Challenge in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, online store providing applications and services for use on Azure. Customers interested in participating in the FIA Smart Driving Challenge can now take advantage of the productive and trusted Azure cloud platform, with streamlined deployment and management.

The global road safety and smart driving initiative FIA Smart Driving Challenge is an excellent activity to engage employees and customers to improve their smart driving while using their cars. Through driving in teams, they get individual advice on how to adjust their driving to drive safer and reduce CO2 emissions. Joining this historical road safety initiative is an easy and entertaining way to contribute to making roads safer. Based upon Greater Than's platform Enerfy, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, The FIA Smart Driving Challenge evaluates driving patterns in real-time and is open to all motorists and types of cars to join.

"We're pleased to welcome Greater Than's FIA Smart Driving Challenge to the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, which gives our partners great exposure to cloud customers around the globe. Azure Marketplace offers world-class quality experiences from global trusted partners with solutions tested to work seamlessly with Azure." - said Sajan Parihar, Senior Director, Microsoft Azure Platform at Microsoft Corp said.

The Azure Marketplace is an online market for buying and selling cloud solutions certified to run on Azure. The Azure Marketplace helps connect companies seeking innovative, cloud-based solutions with partners who have developed solutions that are ready to use.

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Ahmedabad municipal commissioner Vijay Nehra on Tuesday announced he was self isolating after coming in contact with two positive patients during field visits. The development comes a day after Ahmedabad recorded the highest number of positive cases and deaths in a single day and coincided with a worried state government deciding to rope in the services of private health experts to bring down the mortality rate in the city, which is much higher than the national average.

I came into contact with two persons during my field visits, who tested positive subsequently As per existing guidelines, I have been advised self-isolation at home for 14 days. Looking forward to rejoining the FightAgainst Coved 19 very soon, tweeted Vijay Nehra.

A record 26 people succumbed to the Covid-19 disease in hotspot Ahmedabad on Monday and 259 new coronavirus positive cases were recorded in Gujarats biggest city. Ahmedabad had reported 23 Covid-19 casualties on Sunday and 20 fatalities on Saturday.

Ahmedabad has so far reported 4,076 coronavirus cases and 234 deaths, said news agency PTI. The citys Covid-19 death rate stands at 5.8 per cent as on Tuesday, against the national average of around 3.2 per cent.

A worried Gujarat government on Tuesday decided to rope in private intensive care specialists to advise the government doctors in Ahmedabad civil hospital for containment of Covid-19 death rate in the city.

We have decided to rope in private critical care specialists, who have agreed to give their special service in the wake of the pandemic. On Monday, we had a meeting of our Ahmedabad civil hospital team with some of these specialists, said state principal secretary (health) Jayanti Ravi said.

Ahmedabad has reported a staggering 73.3 per cent of the total 319 deaths in Gujarat so far.

Vijay Nehra had said last week that the high death rate in Ahmedabad was because people were reporting late for admission in hospitals and more lives could be saved if people visited hospitals immediately after showing symptoms for the disease.

He said that the corporation had focusing on potential super spreaders and people like vegetable vendors and shopkeepers, who he said were more likely to spread the disease at a faster clip.

For Coronavirus Live Updates

Nehra had pointed out the silver lining among the dark clouds and said that the doubling rate of the disease in the city had increased to eight days by April 27-28 from 3-4 days between April 15-20.

We would be getting 2,000 cases per day with a four-day doubling rate and 1000 cases a day with a eight-day doubling rate. It is, however, getting stabilised. Our health system is ready to handle the cases we are getting now, and a large number of people are also getting discharged, Nehra was quoted as saying by PTI.

The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19
DECATUR  City officials havent decided when to revisit a proposed city ordinance requiring the use of face masks, and Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe said Monday that the measure might not be needed if people follow the rules on their own.

The council had been set to consider the amendment to city code at its regular meeting, but Moore Wolfe pulled the item from the agenda Friday after heavy public objection to the proposal. Language in the ordinance mirrored that of Gov. J.B. Pritzkers state requirement to wear masks in public where social distancing is not possible, a step aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Violations of the city ordinance could have led to a fine of $250 or more. The mayor and City Manager Scot Wrighton had stressed that the goal was to give police authority to enforce the rules, rather than to generate money.

"You dont know if youre a carrier, and you dont know who youre infecting. Its not about you. Its about others," she said, speaking on NowDecatur's Byers & Co. morning show Monday.

The total number of cases of COVID-19 in Macon County reached 125 on Monday, as officials reported three new confirmed cases. There are 79 residents recovering in isolation at home, 11 are hospitalized and 22 have been released from isolation. Thirteen residents have died after testing positive for the virus.

After the proposed mask amendment became public last week, council members were inundated by residents negative feedback, Moore Wolfe said. It became clear that there were not enough votes to pass the amendment, she said.

Asked after the meeting when the council might consider the ordinance, Moore Wolfe said no plans have been made yet, and they might not need to go further if residents comply.

The state mask guidelines are one component of Pritzker's extended stay-at-home order, in effect until May 30, that also imposes limits on how nonessential businesses can operate and requires some to remain closed altogether. Gatherings of more than 10 people also are prohibited. Hundreds of protesters demonstrated last week in Springfield and Chicago to show their displeasure with the order as a whole, and many were not wearing masks.

In Decatur, police say a dispute about face coverings led to a violent incident and arrest Friday. The incident began after a gas station employee told a 56-year-old customer that he needed to wear a face mask inside the business, then escalated as other disagreements arose, according to Sgt. Brian Earles. The customer ultimately was arrested on a charge of battery and given a notice to appear in court, police said.

Among those who expressed concerns with the proposed ordinance was NAACP Decatur Branch President Jeanelle Norman, who wrote a letter to council members that Moore Wolfe read during Mondays meeting. Moore Wolfe, Wrighton and some city staff members were present in council chambers while the rest of the council and additional staff members participated over Zoom, a video conference application. The meeting was streamed live on the city's website.

Norman said the NAACP is in favor of masks being worn, but expressed concerns with the implementation of the ordinance.

"It is no secret that African-Americans are disproportionately arrested for various crimes. Much work has been done to improve race relations with the police," Norman wrote. "This ordinance, when implemented, will help deteriorate race relations with the community."

She added that citizens should be provided with free face masks or at least a place where they can be purchased, as it is difficult to find masks for purchase in Decatur.

The council on Monday also briefly discussed the effect of COVID-19 on the city's budget. Councilman David Horn asked about the status of Decatur's emergency funds. The city has $60 million of cash on hand, with $9 million of that in its general fund, Wrighton said.

There are restrictions on how some federal and state money can be spent, Wrighton said, and those rules cannot be lifted even during a global pandemic. For example, proceeds from state motor fuel tax must go toward road work and maintenance.

City funds, such as the Water Fund, have their own restrictions set through city ordinance and ultimately controlled by the council, he said.

Council members and city staff will continue the discussion of city finances and COVID-19 during a study session on May 11.

In other business, council members accepted a state grant for $470,000 to assist with the rehabilitation of owner-occupied houses. The city applied for the Illinois Housing Development Authority grant in February to assist primarily with roof repair.

The city is also moving forward with the extensive Brush College Road improvement project, which has been in the works for several years. Public Works Director Matt Newell said Monday the city has an agreement with the state to use part of $25 million from the Illinois Competitive Freight Program for the work. The long-planned overpass would carry Brush College Road over Faries Parkway and adjacent Norfolk Southern Railway tracks.

"As funding becomes available and as we reach certain milestones in the project we add amendments to that agreement with the state," Newell said. The amendment approved by council members Monday authorizes protection funds which were approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission to use on this project, Newell said.

The Illinois Commerce Commission has granted $12 million toward the project and authorized $1.3 million of that money to cover utility relocation and utility work. "This will offset city motor fuel tax funds for the project," Newell said.

Council members tabled a resolution for accepting bids from Jandi Services to perform mowing services on 529 acres of city-owned property in Oakley Township, 83 acres of non-farmland near the basin where sediment from the Lake Decatur dredging project is stored.

City staff was not required to mow the 83 acres of non-farmland near the basic during a six-year dredging project. After the project's completion, the city is responsible for mowing the land. The agenda item was tabled for a future meeting so that the city could consider additional options for caring for the land.

PHOTOS: Signs of encouragement during COVID-19 in Central Illinois

Contact Analisa Trofimuk at (217) 421-7985. Follow her on Twitter: @AnalisaTro
EQS Group-News: Bellevue Asset Management AG / Key word(s): Market Report



Press release of May 4, 2020 Defensive stocks for stormy weather The Asian healthcare market is entering another period of fast growth. Japan continues to demonstrate technology leadership in healthcare, while China is emerging as a new laboratory of healthcare system innovation in the wake of concerted action to modernize and reform its national health system. Chinese healthcare companies are particularly likely to become stronger in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. Portfolio Managers Oliver Kubli and Remo Krauer from Bellevue Asset Management are focused on the most promising investment opportunities in the Asian healthcare universe. Asia was the starting point of the global coronavirus outbreak. The Covid-19 pandemic is accelerating the adoption of digital technologies across the region's healthcare industry. During the lockdown in China, for example, Ping An Healthcare, Alibaba Health and other Chinese online healthcare providers reported a surge in virtual doctor consultations and this has given the trend towards digitization in healthcare more momentum. Defensive qualities in times of market turmoil BB Adamant Asia Pacific Healthcare and BB Adamant Emerging Markets Healthcare (80% Asia exposure), two of our regional strategy funds, have performed very well year to date (as of April 30), both in absolute terms and relative to the broader market. Measured in USD, the two funds have gained 11.9% and 9.7%, respectively, whereas the broad Asia-Pacific stock market has retreated by 14.4% and the broader emerging market index is down 17.1% year to date. Healthcare's outperformance of the broader market has been particularly evident since mid-March when stocks began to recover from the steep market sell-off. A major reason for this is the increasing visibility of the generally solidly financed healthcare companies in the eyes of the investment community as well as the broader public. Meanwhile the pandemic has demonstrated quite clearly just how important a well-functioning healthcare system is. Drug developers and providers of medical technology are being viewed as solution-makers who will get us through the crisis. Asian companies with treatments for Covid-19 Innovent Biologics is a Chinese company that is developing a monoclonal antibody drug as a vaccine for COVID-19. Takeda Pharma, a Japanese firm, and its Australian partner CSL are using a well-established technology to develop a hyperimmune immunoglobulin medicine that would boost the ability of a body's immune system to fight Covid-19. Wuxi Biologics and Samsung Biologics have state-of-the-art pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities. Dr Reddy's, a company in India, produces an old anti-malarial drug that is currently being investigated as a potential treatment for Coronavirus disease. The Japanese drug maker Chugai has initiated a clinical trial of Actemra, a drug already approved for patients with autoimmune disease, as a last line of defense against severe immune overreactions that have often led to the death of Covid-19 patients. The Asian healthcare sector is also attracting attention as a global supplier of medtech and diagnostic products, ranging from personal protective equipment to respirators and test kits. Mindray, for example, is a Chinese manufacturer of ventilators that also sells its products to customers in the US. The Malaysian company Top Glove manufactures 73 billion rubber gloves a year and is now expanding its annual capacity to 90 billion. China - a laboratory of innovation Chinese healthcare companies are likely to emerge from the corona crisis stronger than before. Recent developments confirm that the Chinese government is pushing in the right direction with its efforts to improve the efficiency, quality and integrative approach of the country's healthcare industry. The biomedical and medical device industries are among the 10 industries that have been prioritized in the government's "Made in China 2025" plan. Some of the policies and measures the Chinese government laid out to promote structural growth in these industries were borrowed from the German government's Industry 4.0 development plan. A basic objective of this 10-year plan is to move the country higher up the value chain. Beijing wants to increase the domestic content of core materials or processes in the designated industries to 70% by 2025. Strategically and financially, the government is calling all the shots. It successfully introduced nationwide drug tenders and centralized drug procurement processes that have lowered the prices for generics. The resulting savings are being channeled into research and development. These investments will pay off during the coming years: In 2018, domestically developed drugs protected by patents accounted for 40% of all drugs in the Chinese market; this share is projected to stand at 65% in 2023. Innovent, one of the stocks in our investment portfolio, is a prime example of a Chinese biotech success story. Innovent has built up a pipeline of candidates for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune, cardiovascular and other diseases. Its oncology drug Sintilimab approved in December 2018 by China's regulatory authority was the country's second domestically developed immunotherapy for patients with classic Hodgkin's lymphoma. Sintilimab also showed positive efficacy data as a combination therapy for patients with lung cancer. Wuxi Biologics, another stock in the portfolios of both funds, has become an internationally leading contract manufacturer for multinational companies and it has developed a proprietary technology platform. Japan - the demographic laboratory No other country has a higher percentage of citizens aged 65 or older than Japan, and that is a boon to the country's healthcare sector. Eisai, a pharmaceuticals company, boasts the world's deepest pool of research data on Alzheimer's disease. If the US FDA gives the green light sometime this year, Eisai and its US partner Biogen could begin to market the very first drug that actually slows the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Other Japanese companies such as Astellas Pharma, Chugai Pharma and Daiichi Sankyo are active in oncology, gene therapy or rare hereditary diseases. Medical technology is another field in which Japanese companies are leaders, with products ranging from stents and catheters to medical imaging systems. Olympus, one of the largest positions in our Asia Pacific Healthcare Fund, has undergone a strategic and financial transformation over the past several years. The company is a global technology leader in endoscopy with a world market share of 70%. Thanks to its latest generation of endoscopy solutions, Olympus will generate high growth in the coming years. This will be fueled by innovations such as a platform for 3D gastrointestinal endoscopes that will leverage technology for enhanced visualization of blood vessels and lesions as well as AI-assisted detection and characterization applications. Current fund positioning In the current market environment, the valuations of our fund investments are at historical lows. This is particularly the case for the Chinese stocks in the portfolios. The average sales growth for the companies in our BB Adamant Asia Pacific Healthcare Fund (LU1587984847) over the next three years is an estimated 20.8%. The fund's average PEG ratio, which is obtained by dividing the P/E ratio by estimated earnings growth, is 1.3. China, the country with the largest weighting in the fund, has a PEG ratio of 0.9 and estimated average sales growth of 37%. The stocks in the portfolio of the BB Adamant Emerging Markets Healthcare Fund (LU1585228452) are also very attractively valued. The Chinese stocks in this fund's portfolio have an average estimated sales growth of 36% and a PEG ratio of 0.9, while the total portfolio has a PEG ratio of 1.1 with estimated average sales growth of 29.3%. Chinese stocks account for an even higher 59% share of this fund's total investments.

For further information:

Bellevue Asset Management AG, Seestrasse 16 / P.O. Box, CH-8700 Kusnacht/Zurich

Tanja Chicherio, Tel. +41 44 267 67 09, tch@bellevue.ch www.bellevue.ch Bellevue Asset Management

Bellevue Asset Management and its sister company StarCapital based in Oberursel outside Frankfurt, Germany are part of Bellevue Group, an independent, Swiss financial group registered in Zurich and listed on the Swiss Exchange SIX. Bellevue was established in 1993 and is a leading investment boutique specialized in healthcare equities and traditional as well as alternative investment strategies with assets under management of CHF 10.6 billion. Disclaimer: This document is neither directed to, nor intended for distribution or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of any locality, state, country or jurisdiction where such distribution, publication, availability or use would be contrary to law or regulation. It is particularly not intended for US persons, as defined under Regulation S of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended. The information and data presented in this document are not to be considered as an offer to buy, sell or subscribe to any securities or financial instruments. The information, opinions and estimates contained in this document reflect a judgment at the original date of release and are subject to change without notice. This information pays no regard to the specific or future investment objectives, financial or tax situation or particular needs of any specific recipient and in particular tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and may be subject to change. This document is not to be relied upon in substitution for the exercise of independent judgment. Before making any investment decision, investors are recommended to ascertain if this investment is suitable for them in the light of their financial knowledge and experience, investment goals and financial situation, or to obtain specific advice from an industry professional. The details and opinions contained in this document are not to be considered as recommendation or investment advice. Every investment involves risk, especially with regard to fluctuations in value and return, and investors' capital may be at risk. If the currency of a financial product is different from your reference currency, the return can increase or decrease as a result of currency fluctuations. Past performance is no indicator for the current or future performance. The performance data are calculated without taking account of commissions and costs that result from subscriptions and redemptions. Commissions and costs have a negative impact on performance. For more information about the associated costs, please refer to the related costs and fees section of the prospectus. Any benchmarks/indices cited herein are provided for information purposes only. No benchmark/index is directly comparable to the investment objectives, strategy or universe of the subfund. The performance of a benchmark shall not be indicative of past or future performance of the subfund. Financial transactions should only be undertaken after having carefully studied the current valid prospectus and are only valid on the basis of the latest version of the prospectus and available annual and halfyearly reports. Please take note of the risk factors. Countries of distribution and local representatives The Bellevue Funds (Lux) is registered and admitted for public distribution in Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Switzerland. Austria Paying and information agent: ERSTE BANK der oesterreichischen Sparkassen AG, Am Belvedere 1, A-1100 Vienna Germany Information agent: ACOLIN Europe GmbH, Reichenaustrasse 11a-c, D-78467 Konstanz Spain Representative: atl Capital, Calle de Montalban 9, ES-28014 Madrid - CNMV under the number 938 Switzerland The Bellevue Funds (Lux) SICAV is registered for public offering and distribution in Switzerland with the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. Representative agent in Switzerland: ACOLIN Fund Services AG, Leutschenbachstrasse 50, CH-8050 Zurich Paying agent in Switzerland: Bank am Bellevue AG, Seestrasse 16, P.O.Box, CH-8700 Kusnacht You can obtain the sales prospectus, Key Investor Information Document ("KIID"), statutes and the current annual and half-yearly reports, the current share prices and further information about the fund free of charge in German from the management company Bellevue Asset Management AG, Seestrasse 16, CH-8700 Kusnacht, the representative agent in Switzerland or online at www.bellevue.ch. In respect of the units distributed in or from Switzerland, the place of performance and jurisdiction is at the registered office of the representative agent.

End of Corporate News


A Colorado man faces federal charges after authorities said they found him in possession of pipe bombs, which he is alleged to have said he planned to use against home intruders.

Bradley Bunn, 53, was charged with possession of illegal destructive devices over the weekend after two search warrants were executed at his home Friday, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado.

FBI agents said in a criminal complaint that when they searched Bunn's home in Loveland, they found four pipe bombs and two 1-pound containers of .308 caliber cartridge reloading gunpowder, which can be used as a pipe bomb component, in Bunn's vehicle.

Image: Pipe bomb (U.S. Justice Department)

The complaint said Bunn waived his Miranda rights and agreed to speak with FBI agents. Bunn told agents that he wasn't exactly sure what he used to make the bombs and couldn't detail his technique, according to the complaint.

"Because I don't know much about this stuff, I don't exactly know what went into the device that I built," Bunn said, according to the complaint. "That's the best that I can tell you."

Bunn told agents that he planned to use the bombs if he were the victim of a "hard entry," or a home invasion, in the middle of the night, the complaint said. Bunn said intruders would "clump" together instead of spread out because of fear.

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Agents found more pipe bomb components in the house after Bunn acknowledged having a box of items he used to make the explosives, according to the complaint. The agents found galvanized steel pipes, end caps, shotgun primers, fuses and several bottles of smokeless powder, it said.

Bunn faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine if convicted. He had a virtual hearing Monday in which he was advised of his rights and the charges.

It was unclear whether Bunn has retained an attorney.

CORRECTION (May 4, 2020, 9:55 p.m. ET): An earlier version of this article misstated when authorities executed two search warrants at Bradley Bunn's residence. According to the U.S. attorney's office and a criminal complaint, the search warrants were executed on Friday, not Saturday.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 05:19:25|Editor: huaxia

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MEXICO CITY, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday that he hoped to gradually reopen productive and social activities on May 17 in light of the evidence of a slowdown in the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

The president said that activities could be generally resumed at the end of the month, provided that the health situation in the country does not worsen.

"If we are allowed by doctors, specialists, scientists, we want to start reopening activities, little by little, and not throughout the country, but by region and taking care of all sanitary measures," said Lopez Obrador at a press conference.

The undersecretary of prevention and health promotion, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, stated that Mexico is below the United States, Spain, Germany, France and Switzerland in terms of the evolution of the disease, adding that contagion in Mexico has been reduced between 60 and 75 percent thanks to social distancing and other measures.

"Mexico had an initial doubling (of cases) every two days. Only in the first four or five days did we reach the first 100 cases and later we had a very drastic inclination of the curve," said the official, who is the head of the government's strategy for facing the pandemic.

"We started to have cases doubling every five days and when we reached day 40, we had a change, also again, and we are seeing cases double every six days; that is, the epidemic is slowing down," he said.

As of Monday night, Mexico reported a total of 24,905 cases, with 2,271 deaths. Enditem
Both deceased dogs were sent to the University of Illinois Veterinary School for a necropsy where it was determined the German Shepherd found in Naperville died from canine parvovirus, starvation and rat poisoning, according to the release. The corgi, weighing 4 pounds, died of severe starvation, officials said.
The ongoing war-of-words between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US intensified on Monday (May 4) with the WHO claiming that no evidence had been provided by Washington to support "speculative" claims by US President Donald Trump that the coronavirus COVID-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan, China.

"We have not received any data or specific evidence from the United States government relating to the purported origin of the virus, so from our perspective this remains speculative," WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told a virtual briefing.

Notably, US President Trump has repearedly maintained that the coronavirus has originated in Chinese city of Wuhan and Beijing has failed to properly handle the outbreak of the highly contagoious disease after it first emerged in Wuhan in December 2019.

On Sunday (May 3), US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said that there is enormous evidence to suggest that coronavirus originated from the virology laboratory in Wuhan.

"We took a lot of grief for that from the outset. But I think the whole world can see now. Remember, China has a history of infecting the world, and they have a history of running substandard laboratories," Pompeo added.

Meanwhile, a spy dossier with inputs from the Five Eyes intelligence agencies of the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, has stated that China's secrecy surrounding the coronavirus led to an "assault on international transparency".

The coronavirus by Monday (May 4, 2020) evening infected more than 36 lakh people across the world with over 2.5 lakh dying after contracting the deadly virus. As of 10:30 PM IST on Monday, approximately 36,09,990 people have been tested COVID-19 positive and over 2,50,090 people have lost their lives due to the coronavirus, according to the COVID-19 data provided by Worldometers website.
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Proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and internet connectivity propel the demand for automotive electronics.ROCKVILLE, MD / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / The global automotive electronics market will grow at a robust 8.5% CAGR during the forecast period (2019-2029). Automotive manufacturers are adopting enhanced features such as GPS, electric windows, and seat recliners to differentiate their products. These features are based on high-performance electrical circuits which drives the demand for electronic components. Surge in demand for electric vehicles among industries and consumers both contribute significantly to the demand for automotive electronics. Advancements in automotive technology warrants employing automotive electronics to successfully deliver innovative features."Penetration of electric vehicles in developing regions such as East Asia and South Asia & Oceania offers financially rewarding opportunities to market players." opines a Fact.MR study.Request PDF sample of the 170-page report on the Automotive Electronics Market-Automotive Electronics Market- Key TakeawaysNorth America is the highest growing region with a stupendous 9% CAGR through 2029.Current carrying devices will grow twice its current value between 2019 and 2029.Safety systems will continue to generate revenues and grow 2X during the forecast period.Aftermarket sales of automotive electronics will register 3X sales by the end of 2029.East Asia and South Asia & Oceania, collectively hold a lion's share of 43% of the total market value.Automotive Electronics Market- Key Driving FactorsConsumerization of IoT, AI, and ML in lightweight vehicles drives a significant portion of total demand.Increasing safety and carbon emission standards are propelling the adoption of electrical alternatives to conventional automotive mechanics.Tech-driven advancements in automotive design and driving experience further the demand for automotive electronics.Miniaturization of electrical circuits increases the application of automotive electronics in different parts of an automobile.Explore 137 tables and 242 figures of the study. Request ToC of the report at-Automotive Electronics Market- Key RestraintsDisrupted supply chain due to ubiquitous lockdowns as a measure to contain the spread of COVID-19 is a major constraint for the market.COVID-19 and Automotive Electronics MarketThe automotive electronics market, like every other market, is going through a tough time currently. Lack of raw material import and finished product export pushes manufacturers to sustain their organizations on accumulated cash reserves. Consumer trends such as social distancing will impact the sales for automotive electronics, as the automotive market will witness a drop in buyers for lightweight vehicles. Market players stand a chance to quicken their financial recovery by closely following the recovery rate of important countries such as China, the US, India, Australia, Japan, and South Korea. Governments may come to the aid of manufacturers as seen in the case of airline companies and airports. However, exemptions will only favor growth if manufacturers are well prepared with a recovery strategy. Developing such a plan includes mapping financial recovery on the basis of raw material procurement, country recovery from COVID-19, and possible government aid.Competitive LandscapeFavorable anti-pollution and enhanced passenger safety laws drives the competition. Major players eye automotive production trends to develop competitive business strategies. Key places in the market that shape the competitive landscape are, but not limited to, Altera (Intel Corporation), Broadcom Ltd., Continental AG, DENSO CORPORATION, Hella Gmbh & Co. Kgaa (Hella), Hitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd., Infineon Technologies AG, Microchip Technology, Inc., NXP Semiconductors N.V., Panasonic Corporation, Robert Bosch GmbH, Texas Instruments Incorporated, Valeo Inc., Visteon Corporation, Xilinx, Inc., and ZF Friedrichshafen AG.About the ReportThis 170-page study offers in-depth commentary on the automotive electronics market. The study provides compelling insights on the automotive electronics market on the basis of component (electronic control unit, sensors, current carrying devices, and others), applications (ADAS, infotainment, body electronics, safety systems, and powertrain electronics), sales channel (OEM, and aftermarket), across six regions (North America, Latin America, Europe, East Asia, South Asia & Oceania, Middle East & Africa).Explore Fact.MR's Comprehensive Coverage on Automotive LandscapeAutomotive Actuators Market - Get Fact.MR's latest analysis on the global automotive actuators market covering key dynamics, major influencing factors, and prominent companies for predefined projection period (2020-2030).Automated Guided Vehicles Market - Obtain comprehensive study on the global automated guided vehicles market through Fact.MR's in-depth study covering macro-economic factors, and value chain analysis over the forecast period (2020-2030).Automotive Lead Acid Battery Market- Know more about the key drivers, opportunities, and challenges of the global automotive lead acid battery market through Fact.MR's panoramic report for the duration of projection period (2019-2029).About Fact.MR Expert analysis, actionable insights, and strategic recommendations of the veteran research team at Fact.MR helps clients from across the globe with their unique business intelligence requirements. With a repository of over thousand reports and 1 million+ data points, the team has scrutinized the Retail & Consumer Goods industry across 50+ countries for over a decade. The team provides unmatched end-to-end research and consulting services. Fact.MR's latest automotive market research reports and industry analysis help businesses navigate challenges and take critical decisions with confidence and clarity amidst breakneck competition.Contact:11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@ factmr.co
The National Media Commission (NMC) has cautioned journalists to be professionals and do their work in the way that they were trained to.

Mr Ayeboafoah gave the caution during the flag-raising ceremony to mark the World Press Freedom Day in Accra.

The event, which was organised by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), in collaboration with the UNESCO, was on the theme: Journalism without Fear or Favour.

The annual celebration, which fell on Sunday, May 3, serves as an occasion to inform citizens of the violations of press freedom.

In 1993 the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed May 3 as the World Press Freedom Day following a recommendation adopted at the 26th Session of UNESCO's General Conference in 1991.

Mr Ayeboafoah said the theme for the celebration meant that journalists should be as objective as they could and as fearless as possible.

We must watch out against the circulation of information that has not been confirmed. Indeed, it is one of the greatest threats to our profession in the midst of the pandemic.,'' he said.

We are not just social media commentators. We are the professionals who are discharging the responsibility of providing information that is necessary for the education of our people. What it means, therefore, is that it is not every information that we see on social media that we must replicate.

Mr Ayeboafoh noted that journalists were not under any obligation to publish anything that came their way, adding: If we do that then there is no difference between us and those who have no profession whatsoever. But our claim to freedom is the fact that we serve the interest of our people.

We do not owe an obligation to anybody, our primary obligation is to ourselves, to ensure that we live our profession and practice it the way that it is supposed to be practiced so that we continuously remain relevant to the development of our society.

He said though no one knew the scientific perspective of the genesis of the COVID-19 that should not make journalists buy into any information that came their way without seeking factual clarification of that piece of information before passing it on.

We ourselves (the NMC) was recently at the end of being bashed with fake information. What was it? That we had banned some mallams and fetish priests from operating on radio and television, Mr Ayeboafoh said.

And we had not done any such thing. What bothered us was not about the subtlety of that information. Our problem was the airing of that information on mainstream media who have some means of checking, at least, we know about sourcing, he added.

He noted that it was the basic requirement in journalism, that journalists must confirm the sources of information.

He said what some of the mainstream media did in that instance was the opposite of the professionalism they had been trained for.

Mr Ayeboafoh cautioned the media to avoid creating mistrust among the public through the dissemination of fake news adding that that was dangerous to the profession.

He said journalists must remain relevant to society at all times.

---GNA
gettyimagesbank



Unions, civic groups protest against buyout funds



By Park Jae-hyuk



Domestic private equity firms (PEFs) are still suffering from the prejudice that they are "greedy vultures," although it has been 15 years since Korea allowed their operation and they have become key players in the local M&A market.



Their investment strategies are still considered negative by the public, who remember when Lone Star Funds raked in huge profits from its investment in the Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) just after the 1998 Asian financial crisis.



The American PEF, which bought a 51 percent stake in KEB for 1.3 trillion won ($1 billion) in 2003, resold the bank to Hana Financial Group for 4 trillion won in 2012, after it failed to resell KEB to HSBC due to the opposition of financial authorities here.



Since then, PEFs have been regarded as speculators focusing only on short-term gains.



During the recent bidding for Prudential Life Insurance Company of Korea, consumer groups opposed the life insurer being sold to PEFs  MBK Partners, Hahn & Company and IMM Private Equity.



"Benefits that are supposed to be paid to beneficiaries are coming from insurance companies' assets, and the assets are necessary for at-risk policyholders to continue with their lives," said Bae Hong in charge of monitoring the insurance industry at the Korea Finance Consumer Federation. "PEFs that pursue short-term profits should be banned from acquiring insurance companies."



Protests from unions have been much more intense than those from consumers.



Whenever PEFs take over businesses, their unions have held rallies.



Until Prudential sold its Korean operation to KB Financial Group in April, the union of Homeplus owned by MBK had held rallies in front of the headquarters building of the U.S. life insurer's local subsidiary.



When VIG Partners said April 10 it had acquired Preedlife, the leading funeral service provider here, the union of funeral service workers released a statement to protest the decision.



"A PEF's acquisition of a large funeral service provider could cause massive damage to consumers," union leader Lee Sang-jae said in the statement. "PEFs aim to buy undervalued companies and resell them after raising their enterprise value, but they are not interested in improving the long-term value of companies they acquire."



The union called for thorough supervision by the government to restore trust in the funeral service industry and sound management.



KL & Partners is also facing difficulties in stabilizing Haimarrow Food Service, the operator of Mom's Touch fast food franchise, after acquiring it recently.



On April 21, the Haimarrow union referred managers from the PEF to the Seoul Regional Employment and Labor Administration, alleging they violated the Labor Law.



According to the union, the management attempted to incapacitate it by monitoring union leaders through CCTVs and laying off employees who complained about the management. The union also claimed the management deprived one union leader of his employee ID card.



The management denied the union's claim.





Homeplus union members hold a rally in front of the Prudential Life Insurance Company of Korea headquarters in Seoul, March 13, to protest an attempt by MBK Partners, the Homeplus owner, to take over the U.S. life insurer's Korean unit. / Courtesy of Homeplus union
Officials from Hudson County school districts, both large and small, are already preparing for the potential reopening of schools in September.

Officials are no longer tasked with planning for a May or June reopening after Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday that schools would remain closed for the rest of the year. That means students and teachers wont see the inside of a classroom until at least September.

Eric Crespo, the Weehawken superintendent of schools, said he is thankful that Murphy considered the health and safety of students, families, and staff. While still in its early phases, planning has begun to reopen the roughly 1,300-student district by September and ensure the safety of students and teachers in what will be a new normal for education.

Theres a possibility of checking temperatures before somebody entering buses or entering a school, adding extra bus routes to limit how many students ride a bus at one time  you could stagger the flow of traffic when it comes to the hallways, Crespo said. We are definitely going to maximize the use of every square footage in the building to try to create social distancing possibilities especially when it comes to lunch time.

Everythings on the table, he added.

Jersey City Superintendent Franklin Walker, who runs one of the states largest school districts with approximately 30,000 students, had previously disagreed with Murphy when the governor only extended to the statewide school closure to May 15. Walker said with the schools now closed until September, he will have enough time to prepare and keep students safe going forward.

Just going into a supermarket today and seeing the changes stores have made to maintain social distancing proves that schools cant proceed as normal when they return in the fall, he said.

All those things indicate that in order for us to be able to be in compliance with trying to reduce the spread of this disease we are going to need to make physical changes, Walker said.

Right now, we have buildings that we have to make adjustments on a daily basis just based some of the basic functions, so now to refit those buildings in preparation for 30,000 students, that is a massive undertaking.
WATERTOWN, Conn., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Siemon, a leading global network infrastructure specialist, today announced that it has expanded its mobile-friendly website with a new global eCatalog that provides live access to updated product information through an advanced consumer-style interface with feature selection filters, document downloads, and easy project bill of material (BOM) generation and sharing.

From the new best-in-class eCatalog, customers can drill down into Siemon's main product categories, including copper and fiber cable and connectivity, work area solutions, racks and cable management, MapIT automated infrastructure management (AIM), ruggedized connectivity, high-speed cable assemblies, tools and testers, and connecting blocks. Within each product family, users can choose from a variety of attributes to further narrow down their product selection through a hierarchical user-friendly graphical interface.

Within each product window, users can access product images and related documentation like detailed spec sheets and installation instructions, as well as links to additional product information and marketing resources. Detailed attributes specific to each product can be selected to further filter results and view and select from available part numbers. Because the new eCatalog is linked with Siemon's internal databases, filtered results are updated with the very latest product information. Selected part numbers and quantities can be added to a cart to create a specific project BOM that may be emailed or exported into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet-without the need to create an account or login.

"To remain competitive in today's marketplace, our customers need to easily obtain specific product information and quickly generate bills of material for distributor pricing and project bids," says Tony Veatch, Director of Product Management for Siemon. "With tens of thousands of available product numbers in our arsenal based on specific attributes like performance, construction, color, size, length and a variety of other features, linking the new Siemon eCatalog to our existing internal system ensures real-time product information for our customers-as new products are launched and added to our system, they will be immediately accessible to our customers through the eCatalog."

To further ease the ability to locate specific Siemon product information, the search function on the www.siemon.com website has also been expanded to search the new eCatalog by keyword and specific part number.

To access the new Siemon eCatalog, visit: ecatalog.siemon.com from any device.

About Siemon

Established in 1903, Siemon is an industry leader specializing in the design and manufacture of high quality, high performance IT infrastructure solutions and services for Data Centers, LANs and Intelligent Buildings. Headquartered in Connecticut, USA, with global sales, technical and logistics expertise spanning 100 countries, Siemon offers the most comprehensive suites of copper and optical fiber cabling systems, cabinets, racks, cable management, data center power and cooling systems and Intelligent Infrastructure Management solutions. With more than 400 patents specific to structured cabling, Siemon Labs invests heavily in R&D and the development of Industry Standards, underlining the company's long-standing commitment to its customers and the industry. Through an ongoing commitment to waste and energy reduction, Siemon's environmental sustainability benchmarks are unparalleled in the industry, including 179% global carbon negativity and zero-landfill status.

Siemon Interconnect Solutions (SIS) is a Siemon business unit comprised of a team of dedicated technical sales professionals supported by Siemon Labs, mechanical, electrical and signal integrity engineers committed to solving industry and customer driven interconnect challenges. We provide custom network infrastructure solutions to: OEM's, Leading Manufacturers, Value-Added Resellers and System Integrators.
Paramedic Lucy Fitton, 22, has just returned to work after suffering from 'severe' coronavirus

A paramedic who spent weeks recovering from a 'severe' bout of coronavirus has bravely returned to work on the frontline in the fight against the killer bug.

Lucy Fitton, 22, from Birmingham, said she is 'lucky to be alive' after contracting Covid-19 and then pneumonia, which left her bed-bound.

The brave medic fell ill last month, just a day after becoming a fully-registered paramedic for West Midlands Ambulance Service.

She was sent home just hours after arriving for her shift because she had developed a cough, a sore throat and a temperature.

She told the Mail Online that her time with the killer flu was the 'worst experience' of her life.

'After falling ill at work, I was sent home after developing a cough, sore throat, and a temperature,' the medic recalled.

'I couldn't breathe, completely lost my sense of smell and taste, had the most horrific muscle and joint aches, and sharp pains in my head and chest.

'I couldn't get out of bed and didn't have the energy to do anything and woke up almost every half hour absolutely soaked in sweat.

'I'm very rarely unwell, but the virus completely knocked me off my feet and I can hand on heart say that I have never felt so poorly in my entire life.'

But after spending two weeks in self-isolation with her paramedic partner, Alex O'Connor  who also tested positive for Covid-19  the selfless pair 'couldn't wait' to get back to work.

The brave medic fell ill last month, just a day after becoming a fully-registered paramedic for West Midlands Ambulance Service. Pictured: Ms Fitton with her partner Alex O'Connor, who is also a paramedic

Posting a picture of herself in uniform as she went back to work on Friday, she wrote: 'I beat Covid-19 and pneumonia and I'm back to work!'

Ms Fitton's tweet has since been liked more than 50,000 times, as Brits hailed her for being so selfless and helping hundreds during the outbreak.

People have called for all NHS workers to get a raise, with countless social media users thanking Ms Fitton for the job she's doing.

The paramedic was flooded with messages from well-wishers, with one person saying: 'Stay healthy and thank you so much for the work you and the rest of the gang are doing.'

Another wrote: 'You are incredible and don't you ever forget that  thank you for everything you are doing on the frontline.'

But Ms Fitton is urging people to stay at home to protect the NHS.

She added: 'I couldn't get back to my colleagues on the frontline quick enough to carry on tackling this virus.

'But as we enter yet another week of lockdown, I can't beg people enough to comply with the government guidelines.

'This virus is serious, it is scary and is claiming the lives of so many young, healthy and fit people.

'Please do not be complacent and think you won't catch it because you will.'

The risks taken daily by the British doctors, nurses and healthcare workers treating coronavirus patients have been starkly illustrated by a growing number of deaths.

And on Thursday, it was announced that two paramedics at the Yorkshire Ambulance Service have died after contracting Covid-19.

She was sent home just hours after arriving for her shift because she had developed a cough, a sore throat and a temperature. Ms Fitton told the Mail Online that her time with the killer flu was the 'worst experience' of her life

More than 90 frontline NHS workers are confirmed to have already lost their lives after contracting the disease and that number is likely to soar.

It comes as another 693 people were on Tuesday confirmed to have died of COVID-19 in England, Scotland and Wales, taking the number of victims to 29,427 and making Britain the worst-hit nation in Europe.

And separate backdated figures from the Office for the National Statistics show the figure appears to have already been higher than 32,000 by April 24 - 10 days ago.

That number is 42 per cent higher than the count announced by the Department of Health at the time, suggesting the current total could be higher than 40,000.

If correct, this would mean COVID-19 has killed more Britons in eight weeks than those who died over the course of seven months during the Blitz bombings in World War Two.

Tuesday's data confirms that more people have died of the coronavirus in the UK than in Italy, which is still considered to be the worst-hit country in the world and had suffered 29,079 fatalities by this morning.

Only the US has now announced more deaths than Britain - almost 70,000 - while there have been 25,600 in Spain and 25,200 in France.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab this afternoon said the scale of disaster in Britain was a 'massive tragedy' on a scale the country has never seen before.

But he refused to speculate on international comparisons after experts cautioned that countries are recording deaths differently.

However, experts added that even raw data can show that the UK has been hit harder than, for example, Germany.

Fewer than 7,000 people have died in the country, despite a comparable number of positive tests (166,000 in Germany, 190,000 in UK).
Troubled e-cigarette maker Juul plans to move its headquarters from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., becoming the latest in a wave of corporate departures.

The news, first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Monday, was confirmed to The Chronicle by a source familiar with the companys plans, who wasnt authorized to speak publicly. The person was granted anonymity in accordance with The Chronicles anonymous source policy.

Juul, which has around 3,000 global employees, plans to retain a presence in San Francisco, but could close some offices, the Journal reported. Juul is contemplating layoffs of up to 950 workers as it faces multiple federal investigations and falling sales amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Juuls valuation has crashed from $38 billion in a partial ownership sale to tobacco company Altria in 2018 down to $12 billion in January  before the pandemic struck.

The vaping company is headquartered in a historic, city-owned building at Pier 70 next to San Franciscos Dogpatch neighborhood. It also bought a downtown tower at 123 Mission St. for nearly $400 million last year. But after its fortunes plunged, the company has sought to sell the building. A Juul spokesman said last week that there was no progress to announce on the sale efforts.

San Francisco lawmakers have been incensed by Juuls presence at a city-owned building and allegations that the company helped introduce numerous underage users to nicotine. The Board of Supervisors banned e-cigarette sales last summer until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reviews the products. Juul unsuccessfully tried to repeal the ban in a ballot measure last fall, though it backed away from the ballot measure before the vote.

San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton, a frequent critic of Juul and whose district includes the company's current headquarters, said by text: It's nice to see people win over profit, even if it's a small victory. We never wanted Juul in San Francisco.

The Journal reported that Juuls move was fueled in part by its inhospitable home.

Juul declined to comment on Monday.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Other major companies shifting headquarters out of San Francisco include Charles Schwab, which is merging with TD Ameritrade and moving to a combined headquarters in Texas. The financial payments company Stripe, one of the most valuable private startup in the world, is moving to South San Francisco. Stripe cited the citys high cost and scarcity of office space, and it also opposed Proposition C in 2018, which raised the citys gross receipts tax.

Chronicle assistant business editor Kate Galbraith contributed to this report.

Roland Li is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rolandlisf
Israel did not assume responsibility for the air raid carried out at an unusual location near Aleppo on a strategic Syrian target on the night between May 4 and 5. The Syrians blamed the Israel Air Force for the attack, which, according to foreign media reports, targeted the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center in Aleppo, believed to be involved in an Iranian-backed precision missile project. Israel has been accused of other similar strikes in recent years. Unlike this weeks raid, which made headlines in the region, there appear to have been a growing number of airstrikes by unidentified planes against Syrian targets in recent months. Analysts attribute them to a significant acceleration of Israeli activity against the entrenchment of Iranian Shiite forces in the land of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Senior Israeli security sources say that for the first time since the start of Syrias civil war in 2011 and the parallel Iranian effort to turn Syria into a launch pad for its terrorist activity and a transshipment point for sophisticated military hardware, there are indications that Iran is beginning to pull back from Syrian territory. Activity on the smuggling front has stopped, a senior Israeli security source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. There is also a significant decline in the military presence of Iranian forces and allied Shiite militias.

According to Israeli assessments, Iran has begun giving up on its tremendous investment in Syria of recent years. According to Western assessments, Israel has taken advantage of the novel coronavirus crisis to intensify its activity against Iranian interests in Syria and its pressure on Tehran. Unlike past attacks, most of the recent raids have been barely reported by the news media, which is wholly focused on the pandemic. The virus has provided Israel with unprecedented room to maneuver. Led by Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, Israel has stepped up its activity, which has begun bearing fruit for the first time since the epidemic broke out.

The stepped-up infrastructure attacks in Syria come as the Iranians recover from the shock of the January killing of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Israeli intelligence sources have described the assassination in Iraq as one of if not the most significant event of the past decade. Soleimani, according to Israeli and foreign defense experts, was irreplaceable. The man was extraordinarily charismatic and an uncompromising religious zealot, a former senior intelligence official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. He would stand on a hill in his keffiyeh, a physical presence commanding the militias, giving out orders, personally overseeing the activity, and that is why things happened.

Soleimanis responsibilities have been divided among a host of senior officials and the outcome is becoming felt. Initial signs point to a decline in Irans determined and uncompromising posture that fueled its push through Syria toward Lebanon in defiance of Western sanctions and its crippled economy and oblivious to all background noise. They are now more calculated, hesitant, realizing that the price they are paying is too high, another security source said on condition of anonymity.

More specifically, according to some assessments, Soleimanis key responsibilities have apparently been divided between four people: One is Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah himself, whose involvement on the Dahieh-Tehran axis (the partnership between Hezbollahs headquarters in Beiruts Dahieh neighborhood and Iran) has been upgraded significantly. The others, three top Iranian officials, are Brig. Gen. Mohammad Hejazi, the new Quds Force deputy commander who has been tasked with liaison with Hezbollah and with the precision missile project; Ali Shamkhani, head of Irans national security council; and Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC's air force. Western security agencies consider Hajizadeh a ticking time bomb and the man responsible for the accidental downing of the Ukrainian passenger jet over Iran this past January and for other challenges directed at the United States and the West.

The division of Soleimanis responsibilities has not eased the real threat to Irans future: its economic decline. The COVID-19 crisis and dramatic plunge of world oil prices have dragged Iran into an abyss from which it will be hard pressed to emerge. Western intelligence sources say Irans annual budget is at a decade low, having been based on the faulty forecast of $60 billion in oil exports.

In reality, last year Iran exported only $20 billion worth of oil, a Western analyst told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. The amount will not increase this year and that will force them to use their remaining foreign currency reserves to survive the year. According to various assessments in Jerusalem, the Iranians will be praying for US President Donald Trumps defeat in November. Though they cannot be sure his successor will immediately lift US economic sanctions, right now it is their only hope.

They are trying to survive November, a senior Israeli intelligence official said on condition of anonymity. Their policy was to land a blow against what they described as a regional campaign against the Middle Easts oil infrastructure, but the opposite happened and the price of oil collapsed.

The Iranians are hoping for a shift in the American "maximum pressure" campaign against them. For now, that hope is baseless. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and other top officials are in constant touch with leaders in Washington, among them Trump himself and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who are assuring them that the United States does not intend to make life easier for Iran.

This is the backdrop for the significant uptick of attacks on Iranian targets in Syria, which along with the toll it is exacting on Assad, is beginning to turn the tide. Israel is near to concluding that the Iranians are starting to turn inward.

The octopus is starting to fold its tentacles, another senior Israeli security source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. It is evident on the ground. Assad also appears fed up with the heavy price he is paying for the continued Iranian presence. Almost every time his anti-aircraft batteries target planes, he ends up losing them. At the same time, Russia is upping its pressure on Damascus. Russian President Vladimir Putin has long considered the Iranians a burden, rather than an asset, according to intelligence sources.

Israel is adopting cautious optimism in light of these developments. It is not over, but they are starting to tire, said a senior official in Jerusalem on condition of anonymity. When asked about the reasons, Israeli security officials simply say, We try harder. According to this theory, the Iranian incursion into Syria has become a luxury for Tehran, initially made possible under different circumstances, whereas for Israel, it has always been a matter of survival. Also, for Israel, the Syrian arena is an easy kill zone of Iranian targets. Israel enjoys a significant qualitative advantage in terms of intelligence and total air superiority in this region.

The Iranians are kilometers away from home, completely exposed, a security source explained on condition of anonymity. They are beginning to understand it is not really worth their while.
Jammu and Kashmir DGP Dilbag Singh on Tuesday stated that with the coordinated efforts of the forces the terrorist activities have been restricted and action against them intensified. Singh added that the police will have to continue the coordinated efforts against the terrorists and their associates to ensure a peaceful atmosphere for the people of the union territory who have been victims of Pakistan-sponsored violence since decades.

The DGP visited Budgam district and reviewed security arrangements in the wake of the terror attacks in the valley. In his address to the police force, he referred to the terror incident on May 4, adding that the terrorists took undue advantage of the civilian movement in the adjoining orchard and fired at the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel.

He asserted that the terrorists didn't care about the civilians behind whom they were taking shelter leading to the loss of life of an innocent local. Singh said that there are instances of recent terrorist infiltration by Pakistan and one such group of five terrorists who infiltrated from Keran sector of Kupwara district were eliminated in the first week of April. He added more such attempts are being made by Pakistan from various launch pads operating in Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC).

The DGP stressed upon the officers that proper briefing is given to the personnel deployed on the ground as terrorists are attempting to take advantage of the present situation to disrupt peace and order in parts of Jammu and Kashmir and targeting deployments of security forces. He advised the officers to remain alert and extra cautious in their respective jurisdictions and ensure that elements inimical to peace are not given any chance.

Pakistan over the years has continuously attempted to foment trouble in Jammu and Kashmir by pushing terrorists, repeatedly committing ceasefire violations and instigating and promoting violence by various means but like in the past, all its evil designs are doomed to fail.

The DGP appreciated the role of police for maintaining pressure on the elements inimical to peace in Jammu and Kashmir. He also paid tributes to the martyr police Sub Inspector Sageer Ahmad Pathan also known as Qazi and other security personnel martyred in Handwara during two separate encounters.

It is painful to lose the brave personnel but we all are proud of these brave hearts who sacrificed their lives for safeguarding the interests of people and the nation, the DGP said.

The DGP while interacting with the officers appreciated the work of Jammu and Kashmir Police force in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic and stressed that security and health protocols issued from time to time be followed strictly.

Accompanied by IGP Kashmir, Vijay Kumar, the DGP first inaugurated two prefabricated structures, one as a 60 bedded barrack and another housing a library, a gym, a TT room, a salon and a welfare centre for jawans followed by a GO's Lodge at Police Lines Budgam. He also inaugurated a newly set up CCTV surveillance centre to keep a watch on sensitive areas around the city on a 24x7 basis.
Researchers at Northwestern University have developed the world's first wearable piece of technology that can monitor COVID-19 symptoms. The wearable device, in this case, is essentially a small, wearable patch that sticks on one's throat 24/7.

It is just a stamp-sized wearable that measures vitals including coughing and breathing patterns, heart rate, and body temperature. Here's what it looks like -

 Northwestern University

The data collected by the sensor is delivered to the cloud server and it's analyzed using an algorithm. The researchers say that the algorithm is constantly being updated to better allow doctors to track the progression of the disease.



Obviously, wearing a stamp-sized tech isn't necessary for everyone just yet. In fact, this product isn't even available for commercial use yet.

However, the team behind the patch explains that many patients with Coronavirus see their symptoms fully disappear before it begins to get worse. They say continuous monitoring may help physicians intervene in the early stages and help curb the virus from spreading.

We see frontline workers also wearing such a patch in the future if the situation seizes to get better over time. A device like this would be of great help to them since they are at the risk of exposure daily. According to the researchers, the patch can also be sterilized and reused, so it's also very cost-effective.

 Northwestern University

As of now, over 25 people have been using the patch for about two weeks and the sensors have managed to collect over one terabyte of data. People who have been using the patch says it's very small and they don't even notice it.



It'll be interesting to see this product make its way to the market where, at least, health officials and medical agencies will have access to it once it's fully ready to be deployed.

Source: Northwestern University
New Delhi, May 5 : Lockdown relaxations for certain economic activities issued by the Centre came into effect starting Monday, but the hospitality and food and beverage (F&B) industries continue to be indefinitely shut and are awaiting relief from the government.

Operations of restaurants and hotels are nearly halted for around two months now and industry representatives say that in the wake of no revenues, it is high time the government provides support in terms of employee salaries and deferment or waiver of levies.

The Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH) has pegged the value at risk (VaR) to Indian tourism at Rs 10 lakh crore, double than its previous estimate. VaR is a statistic that measures and quantifies the level of financial risk within a firm, portfolio or position over a specific time frame.

"FAITH believes this value at risk could go as high as Rs 10 lakh crore, given the way tourism supply chains are breaking down in India across all its key inbound, domestic & outbound markets," a statement from the federation said.

FAITH has also requested the Empowered Group-6 headed by NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant for a COVID-19 Tourism fund with a corpus of minimum Rs 50,000 crore, which can be used by tourism enterprises in India as a 10-year interest-free loan for taking care of their employees.

It has also sought a 12-month full waiver of all banking loans and central and state statutory liabilities, including provident fund (PF), employees' state insurance (ESI), income taxes, GST, fixed power and utilities tariffs, property tax, excise, inter-state tourist transportation taxes and licence fees, without any accumulated or penal interest.

Speaking to IANS, Hotel Association of India's (HAI) Vice President K.B. Kachru said that in the meeting with the NITI Aayog on Monday, discussions were held regarding both the survival and revival of the sector.

"One thing categorically mentioned during the meeting was that at this stage we need to look immediately at the survival process with focus on increasing the moratorium and addressing the issue of statutory liabilities and suspending licences and other related fees," Kachru said.

He said that the association is separately in talks with state governments regarding electricity and power charges and some states are considering the proposal.

Earlier, Kachru, who is also the Chairman Emeritus and Principal Adviser of South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group, had said that the industry is staring at job loss of about 4 crore employees in the absence of immediate support.

Similarly, just like the hospitality sector, the foods and beverage (F&B) industry also has been waiting for government support as no revenue is forthcoming for the last two months, except for the home-delivery orders.

Speaking to IANS, the President of National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), Anurag Katriar said that the sector is losing the capacity with each passing day to get back on its feet once the lockdown is lifted as no government support is coming.

"If we don't get some relief right now, we will not be in a position to survive. We are not talking about how many businesses may have shut down since we will know that only when we are allowed to reopen," he said.

Stressing that the sector is staring at job loss of 30 per cent of over 20 lakh employees, the industry body chief said that the government should support them in terms of salaries for employees apart from working capital loans at lower rates.

Talking of the home-delivery activity, he said that revenue from this accounts for only around 10 per cent of the total earnings of restaurants and it is not enough for the businesses to survive.

Last month, in a letter to NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, the NRAI had said that the sector is staring at a 'complete decimation'.

The industry body has sought unemployment pay cover for every employee or at least those covered under the ESIC Act, with immediate effect and till such time that the lockdown is in place.

It has also sought government support to the extent of 50 per cent salary for the employees for the entire financial year 2021, but so far no help has come their way.

"We are almost, in medical parlance, on ventilator support," Katriar said.
Most electrical activity in vertebrates and invertebrates occurs at extremely low frequencies, and the origin -- and medical potential -- of these frequencies have eluded scientists. Now a Tel Aviv University study provides evidence for a direct link between electrical fields in the atmosphere and those found in living organisms, including humans.

The study's findings may change established notions about electrical activity in living organisms, paving the way for revolutionary, new medical treatments. Illnesses such as epilepsy and Parkinson's are related to abnormalities in the electrical activity of the body.

"We show that the electrical activity in many living organisms -- from zooplankton in the oceans, to sharks and even in our brains -- is very similar to the electrical fields we measure and study in the atmosphere from global lightning activity," explains Prof. Colin Price of TAU's Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, who led the research for the study, published in the International Journal of Biometeorology on February 8.

Colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Alaska also contributed to the study.

"We hypothesize that over evolutionary timescales living organisms adapted and evolved to actually use the electricity in the environment -- global lightning," Prof. Price continues. "This has likely not changed over billions of years and is similar to the evolution of our eyes, which evolved using the sunlight nature gave us."

As living organisms evolved over billions of years, the natural electromagnetic resonant frequencies in the atmosphere, continuously generated by global lightning activity, provided the background electric fields for the development of cellular electrical activity. Prof. Price's research found that, in some animals, the electrical spectrum is difficult to differentiate from the background atmospheric electric field produced by lightning.

"Neither biologists nor doctors can explain why the frequencies in living organisms (0-50 Hz) are similar to those in the atmosphere caused by lightning," adds Prof. Price. "Most of them are not even aware of the similarity we presented in our paper."

"Our review of previous studies revealed that lightning-related fields may have positive medical applications related to our biological clock (circadian rhythms), spinal cord injuries and maybe other bodily functions related to electrical activity in our bodies," says Prof. Price. "The connection between the ever-present electromagnetic fields, between lightning in the atmosphere and human health, may have huge implications in the future for various treatments related to electrical abnormalities in our bodies."

The study comprised a retrospective review of previous studies on the link between lightning-related fields in the atmosphere and human and animal health. "We collected many different studies over the years to build a clear picture of this link," concludes Prof. Price. "Going forward, we need to design new experiments to see how these extremely low frequency fields from lightning may impact living organisms, and to investigate how these fields can be used to benefit us. One new experiment we are now planning is to see how these fields may impact the rate of photosynthesis in plants."

###

American Friends of Tel Aviv University supports Israel's most influential, comprehensive and sought-after center of higher learning, Tel Aviv University (TAU). TAU is recognized and celebrated internationally for creating an innovative, entrepreneurial culture on campus that generates inventions, startups and economic development in Israel. TAU is ranked ninth in the world, and first in Israel, for producing start-up founders of billion-dollar companies, an achievement that surpassed several Ivy League universities. To date, 2,500 US patents have been filed by Tel Aviv University researchers -- ranking TAU #1 in Israel, #10 outside of the US and #66 in the world.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that an Emirates Airlines is scheduled to evacuate 265 Nigerians from Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The press statement was issued by the ministrys spokesperson, Ferdinand Nwonye, on Tuesday, May 5.

Evacuees are expected to arrive at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, May 6 at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja Lagos.

Accommodations, according to the statement, for hotel accommodation in Lagos and Abuja have been put in place.

The hotels have been inspected by the following: Port Health Services, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, office of the National Security Adviser, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and IPC, the statement read.

It added that the Ministry wishes to further inform that adequate arrangements for hotel accommodation in Lagos and Abuja have been made for the evacuation exercise.

The statement further stated that discussions with the British Airways through the British High Commission to evacuate 300 Nigerians from London on Friday, March 8, are still ongoing.

The flight (BA 9155) is expected to depart London Heathrow Airport, Terminal 5, at 07:10 AM and arrive Lagos at 1:10 PM on the same day.

READ ALSO:

Arrangements with Ethiopian Airways to evacuate Nigerians from New York to Abuja are also ongoing as evacuees are expected on Monday, May 11.

The evacuation is as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic which has affected nearly 4 million people globally and caused over 200,000 deaths.

Earlier in April the federal government registered Nigerians abroad who were willing to return to Nigeria.

Nigerians in Diaspora Commissions (NIDCOM) chairperson Abike Dabiri-Erewa, also noted that financial implications will be handled by the concerned nationals.

Most individuals who have indicated interest are those who were on short-term visits to affected countries and became stranded as the affected countries shut their borders.
The Health Ministry has reminded the Kenyan public to observe recommended measures regarding buying and wearing face masks.

Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi on Monday noted that most Kenyans are not wearing masks the proper way. She said there are those who are wearing their masks below the chin until they meet a law enforcement officer.

Those doing so have not understood the importance of having the face masks on. Masks act as a protective barrier to the virus, thereby reducing the possibility of infection, said Mwangangi.

At the same time, the CAS warned masked vendors against allowing more than one person to fit several face masks without buying.

This is a dangerous practice which can lead to mass infection. Vendors are advised to package masks according to sizes to limit the possibility of contamination, she said.

Kenya recorded 25 more coronavirus cases on Monday, bringing the countrys total to 490.

Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi confirmed 6 more recoveries, totaling to 173.
Rice Jones

Carlson

Fisher

Merage

Additional information

Hey guys,Hope everyone is safe, healthy and doing well.Need your help and guidance once again as I step forward towards my MBA journey.I have been lucky to be accepted in the below schools for their full time programs. I am a bit confused about which one to attend. I would really appreciate any input, advice, or information at all.I am an international student with a pretty average profile. Been working in the IT industry for 6 years now. Post MBA, I plan to get into strategy consulting (could be an internal strategy role or as an entry level associate in an external strategy consulting company such as the Big 4). As a backup plan I will be targeting a Product/Brand Management role in the Tech industry. Based on my research I was able to gather the below information.Best brand recognition among all the schools that I am considering.Students (specifically internationals) are usually able to land a PM role in the Tech industry. Consulting opportunities are average. I probably have a better chance to make my backup plan a reality than my primary one.Houston is a great location to live in as well as network with potential employers.Received scholarship of $92k.Seems like a big fish in a small pond. Although a regional school but Minnesota has a lot of opportunities and Carlson has good relations with the local companies there.Known for it's Consulting and Marketing program. So I might be able consider both my post MBA plans. Although this year, most consulting internships for international students were for an internal strategy role and not in an external strategy consulting company.MBB recruits on campus.Academics and curriculum seems to be more suitable for my primary plan.Received scholarship of $60k.Known for Operations specialization. Limited opportunities in Tech and some in consulting. Amazon is the major recruiter of international students here but recently students were hired for the Pathway program in the same.Living cost seems to be the least among all the schools.Pretty regional school.Received scholarship of $90k (including GA).Little to no opportunities in consulting for international students.Great location for someone targeting the Tech industry and probably the best in that sense among all the schools.Great curriculum majorly focused in the current tech and digital products/technologies.Huge percentage of international students. That's not good I suppose.Received scholarship of $95k.I have requested for additional funding from Carlson and Fisher.I am also waiting to hear from Owen and Mendoza.All the Big 4 companies has stopped sponsoring international students this year in what I have heard.Apologies for such a long post, but I wanted to share as much information as possible.Please share your thoughts. Any opinion, any insight will be highly appreciated!!Most importantly, stay safe and healthy. Take care of yourself and your loved ones.Update:I wanted to add information related to STEM corresponding to these programs.Jones - No STEM. Per my research, they are in the process of getting one.Carlson, Mendoza and Fisher- MBA/MSBA program is STEM certified. I am not looking to get into a dual degree program.Owen - Finance and Operations & Data Analytics has STEM designations.I am not sure if I will be able to make use of the STEM thing for additional OPT years if I land a strategy role post MBA. I am not sure if that function/role comes under STEM but I believe employers will probably assist here. For the PM role in Tech, STEM definitely helps. Any thoughts on this?Best,Kabir
Former First Lady Michelle Obama in her new Netflix documentary 'Becoming' expresses anger the lack of voter turnout in support of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election.

Obama says the absence of Democratic voters who sat out the election was 'almost like a slap in the face,' in the film which premiers on Wednesday.

She adds that that it was 'painful' sitting on the inauguration stage when President Donald Trump was sworn in.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama in her new Netflix documentary 'Becoming' expresses anger that American voters supporting Hillary Clinton did not show up in full force to vote during the 2016 presidential election. President Donald Trump is pictured being sworn in

Michelle Obama in her new Netflix documentary 'Becoming' said it was 'painful' sitting on the inauguration stage when President Donald Trump was sworn in. Obama (right) is pictured with her husband Barack, Trump and his wife Melania, at the inauguration

Obama says the absence of voters who sat out the election was 'almost like a slap in the face,' in the film which premieres on Wednesday. Voters are pictured casting their ballots during the 2012 presidential election when Barack Obama defeated his opponent Sen. Mitt Romney

Obama also goes so far as to say that the voters 'think this is a game' and that the problem goes beyond the presidential election, reports the Daily Beast.

Taking place about two years after she and her family left the White House, the new documentary centers around Obama's book tour and conversation series in support of her bestselling memoir, also titled 'Becoming'.

The program follows the former first lady on a 34-city book tour as she reflects on her past and how it shaped her. It was directed by Nadia Hallgren.

While there are casual references to President Donald Trump in the first minutes of the program, it's not until about two-thirds of the way in that she mentions her upset over his 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton.

She doesn't put the blame or criticism on Trump or his supporters who voted for him.

Instead, Obama twice points out how voters didn't turn out to vote for Clinton.

While there are casual references to President Donald Trump (left) in the first minutes of Michelle Obama's new documentary 'Becoming', it's not until about two-thirds of the way in that she mentions her upset over his 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton (right)

'It takes some energy to go high, and we were exhausted from it. Because when you are the first black anything' she said, referring to anecdotes from her book.

'So the day I left the White House and I write about how painful it was to sit on that [inauguration] stage. A lot of our folks didn't vote. It was almost like a slap in the face.'

'I understand the people who voted for Trump,' she says.

Michelle Obama says it was 'painful to sit on that inauguration stage' the day she and her family left the White House (pictured)

'The people who didn't vote at all, the young people, the women, that's when you think, man, people think this is a game, Obama explains.

'It wasn't just in this election,' she adds.

'Every midterm. Every time Barack didn't get the Congress he needed, that was because our folks didn't show up. After all that work, they just couldn't be bothered to vote at all. That's my trauma.'

Michelle Obama in the documentary says 'Every midterm. Every time Barack didn't get the Congress he needed, that was because our folks didn't show up.' She and her husband Barack are pictured with their daughter Sasha voting in the 2008 presidential elections

Obama has been speaking more candidly since leaving the White House, even though it goes against her usual way.

'I am from the South Side of Chicago. That tells you as much about me as you need to know,' Obama, 56, says at the start of a trailer for the documentary.

Set to Alicia Keys' 'Girl on Fire,' the video features old photos of Obama as a child in the neighborhood, including pictures of her with her parents, Fraser and Marian Robinson.

Candid: Michelle Obama opens up about her working-class upbringing in the South Side of Chicago in the new trailer for her upcoming Netflix documentary 'Becoming'

'It was a typical working-class community: some good music, some good barbecue, some good times,' she recalls of her formative years.

The trailer cuts to Michelle looking back on her time as first lady while speaking at a community engagement.

'So little of who I am happened in those eight years. So much more of who I was happened before,' she explains.

Hallgren weaved together Obama's commentary on her life with behind-the-scenes footage of her tour and her on-stage interviews.

The promotional tour, managed by the concert promoter Live Nation, had the scale of a rock tour, with a string of dates at sold-out arenas.

Many of the moderators were A-list celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Tracee Ellis Ross and Stephen Colbert.

The trailer highlights the struggles Obama has faced as a black woman. During one interview with journalist Michelle Norris, she recalls how her high school guidance counselor thought she was 'reaching too high.'

Hit: Obama's memoir, 'Becoming,' has sold more than 11 million copies and been translated into more than 20 languages

'We can't afford to wait for the world to be equal to start feeling seen,' she says after being asked how she persevered as a black woman. 'I feel like I got to share with you all that the energy that's out there is much better than what we see.'

Obama also opens up about becoming a media target when she was candid and vulnerable on the campaign trail.

'The only thing I can share is that it hurts. That changes the shape of a person's soul,' she says in the documentary, according to the Associate Press.

In the trailer, she quotes her mother as she claims that she and her husband, former President Barack Obama, are not extraordinary people.

'As my mother would say, Michelle and Barack Obama aren't special. There are millions of Michelle and Barack Obamas all over the world,' she says as footage shows her husband giving her a sweet kiss on the cheek.

'If we can open up a little bit more to each other and share our stories, that's what breaks down barriers,' she adds.

The trailer ends with a crowd cheering for Obama at one of her sell-out book tour events.

Focus: The documentary takes place roughly two years after the former first lady and her family left the White House and chronicles her 34-city tour for her best-selling memoir

'This is totally me, unplugged for the first time,' she says.

Netflix made the surprise announcement about the release of the documentary last Monday, describing the film as 'an intimate look into the life' of the former first lady.

In a statement, Obama said the experience of the tour 'drove home the idea that what we share in common is deep and real and can't be messed with.'
Staff at the University of Edinburgh are to be told they will face furlough or salary freezes amid a 150million funding shortfall due to the coronavirus crisis.

In an email to 15,000 members of staff, University Principal Peter Mathieson said the institution will need to undergo an aggressive cost-cutting programme amid the pandemic.

He warned the university faces a 'very real financial challenge' but said it is 'confident' it will be able to meet 'immediate financial obligations' over the next few months.

It comes as the University of Oxford moved to furlough hundreds of academics last month, with the University of Sheffield also furloughing fixed-term staff who are unable to work from home.

The University of Manchester also warned in April that 'job losses may be required' due to an estimated 270 million of losses amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Manchester Evening News reported.

Staff at the University of Edinburgh (pictured) are to be told they will face furlough or salary freezes amid a 150million funding shortfall due to the coronavirus crisis

In the email, Mr Mathieson warned university modelling predicts a loss of income of between 70million and 150million next year alone, with losses to continue for at least the next four to five years.

He said there is a predicted loss of income from international students' fees and university accommodation, catering and events.

These two primary sources of funding for the university have been significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, which spread rapidly in Britain throughout March and April.

Mr Mathieson wrote: 'In August we start our next academic and financial year where we will face a significant financial challenge.

'We expect this to remain very real for the next four to five years.'

The email comes days after the umbrella organisation representing higher education in Scotland, Universities Scotland, warned of a 500million hole in finances.

It was also announced on Monday that universities will be provided with a 2.6billion financial support package to stabilise admissions and safeguard undergraduates.

This will give the Government temporary controls over student numbers, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said.

In an email, Peter Mathieson (pictured) warned university modelling predicts a loss of income of between 70million and 150million next year alone

Oxford University (picured) moved to furlough hundreds of its academics last month

To mitigate costs, Mr Mathieson has today signaled he will be furloughing an unspecified number of staff who are unable to work remotely due to the nature of their job or because they have caring responsibilities.

He will also be ending all pay increments due August this year for staff currently on salaries of 100,000 and above, with promotions to continue in title only.

Internally funded new staff recruitment will be limited to mission-critical posts only, and all construction projects due to begin will be suspended, amounting to 92million in savings.

The university is also set to create an 'Adaption and Renewal team' tasked with finding savings and steering the institution through its challenging years ahead.

In an email seen by the Edinburgh Evening News, Mr Mathieson added: 'The loss of international undergraduate students in one year would of course also impact over multiple years so we expect the financial shock to be sustained, possibly with cumulative losses if intakes in future years are similarly affected.

'An obvious question we have asked ourselves is whether we can use our cash reserves to help cushion this blow.

'The answer is that it might help us in smoothing some of the immediate effects, but it does not provide a long-term sustainable solution.

'In addition to the 90million per month required to run University operations referred to earlier, we are also required to hold a further 90million in cash (30 days' operating costs) to meet requirements for proper financial governance given our scale and charitable purpose.'

The University of Edinburgh has been approached for comment.
The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Carlos Ahenkorah has described as reckless the statement made by the Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo, attributing the complications at the Tema Port on Tuesday, 28th April, 2020 to the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo.



According to Isaac Adongo, the Senior Minister should be blamed for the complications at the Tema Port following the roll out of the New Customs Management System, the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS).



He added that the Senior Minister eyes the UNIPASS for his pension.



Reacting to the assertion made by the Bolgatanga Central lawmaker through a rejoinder copied to Peacefmonline.com, the member of the Joint Inter-Ministerial Committee said the comment of the MP is unfortunate, demanding withdrawal and an apology to be rendered to the Senior Minister.



The Tema West Member of Parliament said that holding Yaw Osafo Maafo responsible for what happened at the Tema Port last Tuesday would be unfortunate and a calculated attempt to malign an honest politician who is respected by both sides of the House.



He, however, explained that the newly signed trade facilitation agreement between the Ministry of Trade and Industry and South Korea Customs UNIPASS International Agency (CUPIA)/Ghana Link was a government decision.



He reiterated that the Cabinet set up a Joint Inter-Ministerial Oversight Committee (JIMOC) chaired by the Senior Minister to oversee the implementation of the ICUMS, adding that the Senior Minister has diligently discharged his duties as the Chairman of the Joint Inter Ministerial Oversight Committee to oversee successful deployment of an end-to-end Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS).



"But for the Senior Minister we would not be where we are today with the reinstatement of calm in our clearance processes. What happened in the port last Tuesday was reminiscent of a typical system deployment which had done well in other collections like the various entry points and the port of Takoradi during piloting but challenged at the final full implementation for various reasons, he explained.



The Deputy Trade Minister indicated that every Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system newly deployed experiences difficulties and show significant "left outs that only needs fixing.



You never get a newly introduced system from the start without any operational hitches. It happened at the onset of GCNet in 2002 and West Blue in 2015 but these problems were surmounted with time to make the system near seamless, he justified the hitches at the Tema Port.



He however hinted that the few problems identified during the piloting have been successfully corrected and ready to roll out at the Tema Port; stressing that the challenge encountered was not a system challenge but rather an operational challenge.



To suggest that the Senior Minister eyes the UNIPASS for his pension exposes the mindset of a befuddled ignoramus. The Senior Ministers intervention rather calmed nerves and brokered peace and understanding amongst all stakeholders with a resultant resumption of operations at the port, he slammed Isaac Adongo.



He made mention of the fact that UNIPASS did some work with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) in 2015 where it undertook feasibility studies on a single window operation with regards to international best practices as compared to having multiple vendors for the clearing of goods at the ports which hitherto had created a lot of congestion including goods going into demurrage.



He therefore assured that the new system will rather enhance fast processing and quick reconciliation of documents unlike the multiple systems which used to be there.



He again assured Ghanaians that the UNIPASS system once fully deployed would ensure a considerable increase in revenue mobilization and security as it has become undoubtedly clear to the stakeholders.



The Tema West MP further charged his colleague Member of Parliament Hon. Adongo to perhaps do a little research in such matters before spewing irresponsible statements on the economist, banker, engineer, and politician, who has diligently served in many capacities in public and private sectors.



I, therefore, call on the Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo, to withdraw his reckless statement and render an apology to the revered Senior Minister, he demanded.

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
The UK governments failure to respond swiftly and effectively to the pandemic can and should be considered evil.

Nira Yuval Davis is Honorary Director of the Centre for research on Migration, Refugees and Belonging at the UEL.

From the very start, a narrow-minded nationalistic agenda has shaped the way the government of the United Kingdom has handled the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only has the UK refused to cooperate with the rest of the European Union in coordinating the acquisition of necessary medical equipment, but it has consistently refused to take the global nature of the pandemic seriously. These decisions have resulted in an ad hoc and completely inadequate response to the calamity, leaving more than 30,000 Brits dead so far.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his ilk have failed to do much of anything efficiently during this unprecedented crisis: From the unfulfilled promise and continued failure to carry out mass public testing through the bungling of the importation of necessary protective gear for front-line workers, to misleading the public about the number of deaths by omitting, until recently, those who have not died in hospital.

The banality of evil

Going back to Hannah Arendts notion of the banality of evil may help us make sense of what is going on, only, one would have to introduce an important twist to her claims.

Arendt first coined the phrase when covering Adolf Eichmanns trial in Jerusalem for The New Yorker magazine. She invoked the term to describe how Eichmann, a key bureaucratic functionary of the Nazi party, carried out his technocratic duties without questioning their purpose.

The term was meant to capture the specific way in which Nazi crimes against humanity had been committed in a quotidian, systematic, and efficient way, without these crimes being named or opposed.

What we can learn from the pandemic-stricken UK is that the banality of evil can take form not just through the efficient execution of ones bureaucratic and technocratic tasks. Rather, it can also take form through the carrying out of bureaucratic tasks in an incompetent and negligent way.

Incompetence and negligence as evil

When certain national objectives are ostensibly prioritised but the mechanisms and actions to achieve these goals are repeatedly carried out incompetently  leading to human misery and death on a large scale  this, too, can and should be called the banality of evil.

Indeed, at least some members of the UK government who came to power to carry out Brexit, and who are currently hiding behind nationalist discourse and diverting all responsibility for their failures to science rather than to their own ineptness, can be said to fit this bill. Their actions  or lack thereof  have to be called evil given their horrific human cost.

We know that many of these deaths could have been prevented, as the low death rate in other countries that were better prepared, have robust public health services, and took swift and decisive action proves.



Moreover, the fact that those dying are disproportionately vulnerable and racialised segments of the population suggests that many front-line workers  from health and care workers to bus drivers, grocery store staff and cleaning workers  many of whom are BAME (Black and minority ethnic), have been left unconscionably exposed to COVID-19. This, to put it simply, is criminal, if not murderous, negligence.

Incompetence and negligence, however, have characterised the UK political landscape for quite some time, and this ineptness is inextricably linked to years of neoliberal austerity policies in which large sections of the public sector have been ruthlessly cut, privatised, and outsourced.

Today, we know that experts had warned government officials that a dangerous pandemic was likely and that the NHS would not be able to cope without a dramatic increase in public funding. But the Conservative government simply ignored the warnings, while continuing to underfund and outsource health services.

And even though the acute shortage of private protective equipment (PPE) is the result of this inaction and privatisation, the Johnson administration has yet to intervene and ensure efficient procurement and distribution of equipment, leaving it, once again, to market actors, some of whom have gouged prices and profiteered from the shortage.

Expendable lives

Such incompetence and negligence should also be considered a banal form of evil, since they, too, are intimately related to nefarious ideological and political priorities of governments, and are informed by the gruesome idea that some lives are expendable.

Just as in the case of Arendts efficient banality of evil, the Johnson governments repeated failures to act swiftly and effectively can and should be considered evil.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
05.05.2020 LISTEN

We just had another World Press Freedom Day.

It is stunning how time and circumstance change one's perception of the media and its place in society.

Thomas Jefferson once asserted that the press without government was preferable to government without the Press. Some years later, chastened by experience and a little angry, he fumed that "nothing can be believed which is seen in a newspaper !".

It would seem that he was then, the Donald Trump of his era.

In establishing the World Press Freedom Day, the UN hoped it would serve as a "reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to Press freedom ". Consistent with this spirit, the UN Secretary General just thanked journalists for "speaking truth to power". He went on to state that "reporters regularly bring to light major cases of corruption and nepotism, human rights violations, ethnic cleansing and gender-based violence. These reports are crucial in the pursuit of justice, laying the foundation for more detailed investigations that may lead to prosecutions."

Echoing the theme of this year's celebration, "Journalism without fear or favour", the President of the Ghana Journalist Association , Dr. Affail Monney, has lauded the role of courage in the practice of journalism. Indeed, there is underway a futile debate about the Press freedom rating of this governor versus its predecessor.

When the UN set up the World Press Freedom Day as a reminder to governments to respect press freedom, they left a lot unsaid.

And in the enthusiasm of youth, I like many, believed that governments were the only evil to be feared by advocates of press freedom.

Governments do not always use force or its threat to coerce or bully the press into silence.Often, instead of BULLYING the press, governments BUY the press!

Governments buy, not just the silence of the Press but more often, its false support, for bad policies, corruption and nepotism.

These lead to silence of the Press in the face of evil or the support of evil by the press. Examples of these are the silence of the New York Times on the holocaust and the support of Radio for the Rwandan massacre! And the silence of the Ghanaian media on the continued imprisonment of Gregory Afoko in flagrant violation of his rights and our constitution.

To be fair, governments are not the only powers that seeks to obtain the silence of the media or its unprincipled support for bad things-- wealthy organizations/institutions, ideologies, religious sects, powerful chiefs etc do too and are very successful in attaining these ends.

The media-'even respected media bury stories or knowingly publish false stories all the time.

Last year, the venerated New York Times published a story about US Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh exposing himself to a female student while at Yale. It turned out that the lady at the centre and all seven witnesses could NOT recall the incident. And yet the Times, reputed to be perhaps the best newspaper in the world published the story while omitting the lack of corroboration.

The New York Times later called that "an editorial mistake"!

Ghana too had had its share of media silence or misreporting.

To appreciate this, one needs only to recall two incidents.

First, despite the saliency of corruption in our governance , it required a foreign journalist to pointedly pierce the vapid generizations and ask President Mahama some pointed, personal questions on the subject, including the obvious, "Have you ever been offered a bribe?"

The same thing happened with Free SHS. Despite his passionate advocacy of the program for years, it took a foreign journalist to expose the then candidate Akufo-Addo's tenous grasp of the costs of the program.

Why did the nation that had produced journalists like P.A.V. Ansah, Tommy Thompson, Kweku Sakyi Addo and Elizabeth Ohene, as well as Newspapers like the Pioneer , Legon Observer and Free Press need foreign journalists to expose these truths in our body politic?

Where are those stand on the shoulders of these giants?

The democratization of access to the airways have made the media more and not less important. Presidents and potentates, as well as snake oil salesmen, are taking to the airways to give unverified information in unprecedented amounts.

This need for credible, bold and honest journalists has been accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Whether it is Donald Trump promoting new cures or Kojo Oppong Nkrumah trying to explain the nuances of public health, there is a need for objective truth-tellers.

And none of these are more important than well-trained journalists, beholden to none but the truth in the service of mankind.

May God protect journalists and all of us--- from lies, from bullying by governments or thugs, from those who will buy our consciences, from journalists who would mislead us for ideological or pecuniary reasons and from COVID-19.

Happy World Press Freedom Day.

Arthur Kobina Kennedy (5th May, 2020)
Scientists work at Pfizer's Vaccine Research and Development Hub in Pearl River, New York, in an undated photograph. (Pfizer via The Epoch Times)

Pfizer Starts Human Trials of Potential CCP Virus Vaccines

Human trials on potential CCP virus vaccines produced by Pfizer started in recent days, the company announced on May 5.

Researchers around the world are racing to develop a vaccine for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, but few are in human trials.

Pfizer developed the candidate vaccines in partnership with BioNTech, a German company.

The first subjects received doses in Germany last week. Participants at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the University of Maryland School of Medicine received doses this week.

With our unique and robust clinical study program underway, starting in Europe and now the U.S., we look forward to advancing quickly and collaboratively with our partners at BioNTech and regulatory authorities to bring a safe and efficacious vaccine to the patients who need it most, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement.

The phase 1 and 2 clinical trials are aimed at determining the safety, effectiveness, and optimal dose level of the four candidates, which are all based on a genetic platform called mRNA, or messenger RNA.

The four candidates each have a different combination of the mRNA format and target antigen, a substance that provokes an immune response.

Small bottles labeled with a Vaccine COVID-19 sticker and a medical syringe on April 10, 2020. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters)

We are optimistic that advancing multiple vaccine candidates into human trials will allow us to identify the safest, most effective vaccination options against COVID-19, Ugur Sahin, CEO of BioNTech, said in a statement.

The portion of the trial in the United States will enroll up to 360 healthy volunteers in two age groups, one of adults 18 to 55 and the other adults 65 to 85. The older group will only be injected after the vaccine proves safe in the younger group.

The University of Rochester Medical Center/Rochester Regional Health and Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center are beginning to enroll soon.

While testing takes place on the candidates, the companies are working on scaling up production in the event one proves to be safe and effective; they project having millions of doses available this year, with hundreds of millions next year.

While early projections had the first vaccines available no earlier than early 2021, President Donald Trump said May 3 that U.S. officials are confident a vaccine will be ready by the end of this year.

Now, the doctors would say, Well, you shouldnt say that. Ill say what I think. Ive met with the heads of the big companies, these are great companies, he said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a key member of the administrations CCP virus task force, said in a televised interview last week that having hundreds of millions of doses ready by January 2021 is doable if things fall in the right place.
DES MOINES  The Iowa Attorney General has joined AGs from 10 other states to call for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into suspected price fixing in the beef industry.

In addition to Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, attorneys general from Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming signed a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr expressing concern over the likelihood of manipulation of the market for processed beef.

We are specifically asking the Department of Justice to lead a thorough examination of the competitive dynamics of this industry, the letter says. Now, more than ever, we need to dedicate our collective resources to promote competition and protect consumers.

The four largest meatpacking companies control more than 80% of beef processing in the United States. The shelf price of beef is exceptionally high, while cattle prices are low and continue to dive, according to the state AGs.

The concern over market manipulation has increased with beef prices reaching record levels as consumers stockpile meat in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but cattle prices remain low and are decreasing, according to the letter.

The attorneys general say the pricing margins are a sign that meat packers are using their ability to control the market and take advantage of the situation in a manner that could violate the federal antitrust law. In addition to harming cattle producers, this potentially illegal practice hurts consumers nationwide, many of whom are themselves struggling because of loss of employment and reduced incomes, according to the attorneys general.

The attorneys general believe the situation warrants a full federal investigation.

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Salman Khan is one Bollywood actor who enjoys a massive fan following and theres not one but two reasons behind this. First and the most obvious is his commercial brand of cinema which makes him a favourite for the audience. Second is his giving nature. Yes, he might have been involved in scandals but one cannot forget that hes also done a lot to give back to the society.And now during the coronavirus pandemic, the actor has stepped up for those in need yet again. A leading daily revealed that Bollywoods Bhaijaan has taken the initiative to supply food. A source stated, He has supplied rice, lentils, vegetables, eggs and foodgrains to over 1000 families in the villages around Panvel, some of the essentials are grown in his own farm. He has also procured and distributed hundreds of sanitisers and soaps to the locals so they can maintain basic hygiene. The villagers have also been encouraged to reach out to the actor in case of an emergency. Not only that, Salman is also providing the Malegaon village, a hotspot in Maharashtra, with the essentials. The source said, Around 500-600 families in Malegaon, which is one of the hotspots in Maharashtra, also got grains and vegetables recently from him, as also hundreds of impoverished families in Madh Island.Salman Khan is a true hero on and off the screen.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 01:37:29|Editor: huaxia

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SWEIDA, SYRIA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- After leaving education for 20 years, Ola al-Taher, a 37-year-old Syrian woman, has finally achieved her dream of becoming a university student despite the challenges she faced all these years.

The mother of two got married when she was only 17 as this was the tradition of the people in her village near Syria's southern province of Sweida. Her early marriage, and the circumstances of her family, have pushed her to put her dreams on hold for a very long time.

Remembering her life like a cinema film, the woman speaks with confidence and determination on how she managed to achieve her dream in spite of all the difficulties, such as raising her children and later dealing with her husband's injury after he had a car accident four years ago, which left him with a disability.

After the disability of her husband, al-Taher got two jobs in an attempt to make ends meet and provide for her children and husband.

"I worked as a secretary at a law office in the morning and for a doctor in the evening and this was tough for me as I used to see my children only for two hours per day," she said.

Al-Taher said she was criticized by her relatives for leaving the kids at home as they were still young, but she had to continue to work because she had no other choice.

Also, her village was close to areas controlled by the Islamic State (IS), which added to her fears as she had to spend long hours out of home.

"My family used to fear for me because I would come back late and the presence of IS nearby was giving all of us a hard time," she said.

All of these challenges and agony have pushed her to continue her education in the hope of getting a better life and to fulfill her dreams of becoming a university student.

She said she studied the ninth grade with her son in 2018 and got a high school degree the year after and succeeded to enter the History College.

Al-Taher said entering the university was her "life's achievement."

"I used to feel sorry for myself when I hear people talking about university, especially with the tough economic situation I experienced and the lack of encouragement by my family," she said.

The woman said that "the dream of my life was to hold a university book in my hand."

Now, the woman stays at home as a result of the COVID-19 curfew and she took advantage of the time to prepare for her test.

"I've just decided to make a change in my life, from a married woman to an educated woman that has a role to play in the society," she told Xinhua.

"My colleagues were surprised when they saw an older woman sitting with them, but later they got to know me and they respected me for my determination," she said.

The woman's ambition knows no limit as her next goal now is to become a university lecturer.

"Even when I become 50, I will not stop... I will continue to learn and have new dreams," she said.

Her husband, Samer Masoud, 45, said he now encourages his wife after seeing her determination and success.

"I wish her more success and I encourage men to support their wives and their dreams no matter how big it is," he said. Enditem
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has commissioned all officials who deal with healthcare and medical reform in Ukraine, to promptly put forward ways to improve a medical reform so that they not become "a sabotage" and lead to the negative consequences.

"Today COVID-19 topic occupied the whole space, but at the same time we can't forget about the global situation in our medical industry. Because today our doctors are under attack. Facebook, Instagram and my desktop are filled with the requests from the medical teams from all over the country. They all relate to the second stage of the medical reform," he said in a video address to Ukrainians on Monday.

The head of state noted that since the first days of the presidency he had received contradictory information about medical reform in Ukraine. For an unbiased and objective assessment, a working group was created with the participation of academics, professors and distinguished doctors of Ukraine. They analyzed the state of affairs in medicine and came to the conclusion that medical reform has both big advantages and obvious disadvantages.

"Our mission is to keep all the positive moments and to fix the mistakes immediately," the president emphasized.

In particular, he said, the new funding mechanism could lead to the dismissal of about 50,000 doctors and closure of 332 hospitals across Ukraine. Almost 1,000 hospitals will receive significantly less funding than last year.

"Emergency medical care, multidisciplinary hospitals, cancer centers, veterans' hospitals, most children's hospitals, psychiatric and tuberculosis services are in danger. All of this raises a number of questions. Why are physicians forced to think about their own survival instead of saving other people's lives?" Zelensky noted.

The President said that he was constantly receiving appeals from medical teams from all over Ukraine with concerns about the second stage of medical reform.

"I cannot allow the reduction of ambulance crews. I cannot allow qualified pediatricians to go abroad leading to a catastrophic increase in infant mortality. Or the incidence of tuberculosis increased by a third in the next two years. That is why I call on the Minister of Health, the Chairman of the profile committee of the Verkhovna Rada and the Chief medical officer of Ukraine to urgently put forward solutions to these issues. We do not need to curtail reform, we need to improve it. We need recognition of mistakes and their correction," the president emphasized.

Zelensky has set the task to work out appropriate changes so that both patients and health workers at all levels are satisfied with the reform.

"From the beginning of coronavirus, I see like no other that our medical industry is not just vulnerable, but is actually a step away from a coma. And the only thing that keeps it still alive is our Ukrainian doctors. I cannot allow 50,000 of them to end up on the street. During the war, no one reduces his own army. Our doctors today are the same army that protects the health of Ukrainians. Therefore, I am waiting for the relevant decisions from all authorized persons," he said.
The national economy will be left struggling unless Sydney can quickly bounce back from a forecast double-digit decline in activity in the CBD once coronavirus restrictions are eased.

Analysis by SGS Economics & Planning shows the extent of the economic damage wrought by the pandemic, with city and outer suburbs around the south and south-west that rely on retail and manufacturing hurt most by the shutdowns.

The virus has left city streets, like George Street in Sydney, empty. Credit:Louise Kennerley

Retail and hospitality-driven city centres across the nation have been ravaged by restrictions introduced in March, with economic activity in Sydney's CBD and the Bayside Council area, which includes the Mascot airport and Botany industrial park, forecast to fall by 10 to 12.5 per cent in 2019-20. This compares to a forecast 6.5 per cent decline nationally.

The City of Sydney generated about $130 billion in economic activity in 2018-19, council data shows, and contributes more than a third of the Greater Sydney economy and 20 per cent of the state's GDP. This represents more than 7 per cent of the Australian economy.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, restaurants have generally streamlined their menus to increase efficiency during challenging times. McDonalds is bucking that trend to start 2021 by adding three new chicken sandwiches to its lineup.

Since Popeyes created a social media sensation in 2019 with its chicken sandwich, chicken increasingly appears to be what draws customers to fast-food restaurants. Though the pandemic is still raging, McDonalds appears to be preparing for its end while offering up more comfort food to help customers get through it.

Linda VanGosen, McDonalds vice president of menu innovation, said the new menu items are a response to customer feedback.

Were confident all chicken fans  from traditionalists to spice enthusiasts  will discover a new menu favorite theyll come back for time and time again, she said.

While its basically one chicken sandwich, McDonalds says it will be available in three versions at participating locations starting Feb. 24. The three sandwiches are:

Crispy chicken sandwich

Spicy chicken sandwich, with spicy pepper sauce

Deluxe chicken sandwich, with lettuce, tomato, and mayo

Better chicken sandwich part of the strategy

McDonalds has actually regained some lost ground during the pandemic, thanks to its existing drive-thru operation and quick pivot to delivery. In 2019, the company told shareholders that it needed a better chicken sandwich to win back customers.

Indeed, the entire industry appears to be in hot pursuit of chicken leader Chick-Fil-A and 2019s sensation Popeyes. In October, Wendys got a head start on McDonalds with the rollout of its Classic Chicken Sandwich, with what it said was an improved chicken fillet.

In fact, Wendys announced that chicken upgrade would go into its complete line of chicken menu items. Meanwhile, KFC is said to be test marketing a new, premium chicken sandwich.
(Natural News) Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is a complication caused by diabetes. Too much sugar in the blood can damage nerves throughout the body, especially in the legs and feet of diabetics. Depending on the affected nerves, DPN can cause minor symptoms, such as numbness, or excruciating pain. DPN can also cause heart problems and may even be disabling.

In a recent study, Chinese researchers looked at the effects of gua sha therapy  an ancient healing technique that involves scraping the skin with a massage tool  and its potential as a treatment for DPN. They reported that this alternative therapy can significantly improve the symptoms of DPN and help control blood sugar levels. The researchers discussed their findings in an article published in the journal Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice.

Gua sha therapy is a non-invasive natural treatment for diabetes-induced nerve damage

For their open-label, randomized controlled study, the researchers recruited a total of 119 participants with DPN. They randomly assigned these participants to either one of two groups: 60 ended up in the gua sha group, while 59 were assigned to the control group and received usual care. Treatment for the gua sha group involved 12 consecutive sessions that occurred once a week.

The researchers considered scores for Toronto Clinical Scoring System (TCSS), Vibration Perception Threshold (VPT) and Ankle Brachial Index (ABI), as well as fasting plasma glucose (FPG) as outcome measures.

The researchers reported that after the first cycle of gua sha treatment, they found statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of sensory function (measured with VPT) and improvements in symptoms of peripheral artery disease (measured using ABI). Peripheral artery disease is caused by atherosclerosis and is characterized by a narrowing of the arteries that serve the legs, stomach, arms and head.

On the other hand, the researchers noted that total TCSS scores and FPG levels for both groups were not significantly different. At the eighth and 12th week of their post-intervention assessment, the researchers observed that gua sha therapy significantly reduced the severity of DPN symptoms, improved sensory function, reduced peripheral artery disease and regulated the plasma glucose levels of the participants.

In addition, the researchers noticed significant changes in the mean scores for TCSS, VPT and ABI, as well as the plasma glucose levels, of the gua sha group when they compared baseline measurements with post-intervention measurements. These changes suggest that gua sha therapy caused progressive improvements in DPN symptoms, sensory function, peripheral artery disease and blood glucose levels without causing serious adverse events.

Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that gua sha therapy is a safe, effective and well-tolerated treatment that reduces DPN symptoms.

Other health benefits of gua sha therapy

Gua sha is a technique developed by the Ancient Chinese to increase blood flow. It relies on either short or long scraping strokes made on the surface of the skin using a smooth-edged instrument or massage tool. This tool is used repeatedly to massage the skin with downward strokes. Ancient Chinese healers believed that doing so would help release stagnant energy, which is considered the root cause of inflammation, pain and other health problems. Besides dispersing this energy, the Ancient Chinese also believed that gua sha promotes natural healing.

Gua sha is effective at reducing inflammation; hence it is often used to relieve the symptoms of inflammatory conditions, such as:

Gua sha is a good alternative or complementary therapy for ailments that cause pain and inflammation. However, due to the repeated scraping involved, gua sha can cause skin bruising or minor bleeding. If you want to try gua sha therapy, make sure it is performed by a licensed or trained therapist. People who are taking certain medications, such as blood thinners, are discouraged from trying gua sha.

Sources include:

Science.news

MayoClinic.org

ScienceDirect.com

Heart.org

Healthline.com
SDLP candidate John Dallat waiting for the final results with wife Anne and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood during the NI Assembly Election count for East Derry during March 2017. Picture Margaret McLaughlin 3-3-17

Political leaders from across Northern Ireland have paid tributes to SDLP MLA John Dallat following his death at the age of 73.

Party leader, Colum Eastwood MP said East Londonderry MLA Mr Dallat was a "fierce and forensic" champion of people and the public interest as well as a good and loyal man.

Mr Eastwood said that John will be remembered for his defence of the public purse and his famous good humour.

John Dallat lived and breathed to serve others," he said.

For over 45 years he was the most loyal servant to the people of East Derry and a fierce friend to everyone in the SDLP. I know I speak for everyone in the party when I say his good humour and wise advice will be sorely missed.

John entered public life at a time and in a place when it was difficult to be an SDLP representative. I know that, despite his tough exterior, he was often hurt when the hand of friendship he extended across the sectarian divide in the late 70s and early 80s on Coleraine Council wasn't always accepted.

"But it never stopped him trying and only strengthened his lifelong resolve to oppose violence and its supporters."

John struck fear into the heart of anyone who dared misspend a penny of public money. Colum Eastwood

Mr Dallat was a teacher before entering public life as a councillor. He was elected to the Assembly for the first time in 1998.

He served as deputy speaker between 2007 and 2016 before taking a brief retirement before again standing for re-election.

We came from very different political outlooks but he was always to the fore in speaking up for his constituents. Arlene Foster

He had been diagnosed with cancer last year and had undergone treatment while working as an Assembly member.

First Minister Arlene Foster added: "We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of John Dallat. We came from very different political outlooks but he was always to the fore in speaking up for his constituents.

"We send our sympathies to his family and colleagues in the SDLP at this very sad time.

I am very sorry to learn of the passing of @SDLPlive MLA John Dallat.



I always found John a pleasant and witty man.



My thoughts are with his wife Anne, their children, wider family circle and colleagues in the SDLP at this very difficult time.



Ar dheis De go raibh a anam  Michelle ONeill (@moneillsf) May 5, 2020

Assembly Speaker Alex Maskey described former Deputy Speaker Mr Dallat as a "fearless elected representative".

The Sinn Fein MLA said: "Johns determination, passion and his sense of humour were evident through all his roles in the Assembly, including as a Deputy Speaker and a longstanding Member of the Public Accounts Committee. Our thoughts today are with Johns wife Anne, his children Helena, Ronan, Diarmuid and his grandchildren.

"I will be making arrangements for the formal expression of condolences to John at next weeks sitting of the Assembly."

Ulster Unionist leader Steve Aiken said Mr Dallat's length of service in Coleraine Borough Council and in the Assembly was a remarkable tribute.

"On behalf of the Ulster Unionist Party I would like to send my condolences to his wife and family, and to all his friends and colleagues, both in the SDLP and in other political parties," he said.

He was always on the side of the underdog. Pat Hume

Mr Dallat was described as a "loyal and faithful servant" to the SDLP in a statement from John and Pat Hume.

Pat Hume said: I am deeply saddened to learn of the death of John Dallat.

John Dallat was a loyal friend to John and I for many years. In addition, he was a loyal and faithful servant to the SDLP and the ideals for which the party stood for. He was SDLP to the core.

During a distinguished political career, he was always on the side of the underdog, defending those who were disadvantaged and standing strong against violence, sectarianism and unfairness in society.

In difficult times, John never flinched in doing what was right for his community and his country. He was a first-class public representative.

Above all, John was a loving family man  devoted to his wife Anne, their children and grandchildren to whom I send my sincere condolences.

He is survived by his wife Anne, his three children and eight grandchildren.
A man who was on bail for robbery when he knocked an 89-year-old woman to the ground and stole her handbag has been jailed for six years.

Nina MacAuley (89) had just left a hairdressers in Dublin city centre when she was bashed into by David Allen (35) who knocked her to the ground.

Ms MacAuley banged her head and suffered cuts to her head and arm. She found herself lying on the ground with tears running down her face when she realised her handbag was gone.

Allen of no fixed abode and formerly of Rathangan Road, Monasterevin, Co Kildare pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbery at Aungier Street, Dublin, on July 1, 2019.

He also pleaded guilty to the armed robbery of a 73-year-old taxi driver at James Street, Dublin on February 5, 2019. His 25 previous convictions include attempted robbery, burglary and theft.

Passing sentence today Judge Melanie Greally said the offences were serious incidents and involved injured parties of advanced age. She noted that Allen suffered from severe addiction issues and was someone who had a very difficult early life.

Judge Greally sentenced Allen to three years imprisonment for the earlier robbery and sentenced him to five years imprisonment for the robbery of Ms MacAuley.

She ordered that both sentences run consecutive to each other for an effective sentence of eight years imprisonment. She then suspended the final two years of the sentence on strict conditions including that he follow all directions of the Probation Service for 12 months post release.

In her victim impact statement, which was read out in court at a previous sentencing hearing, Ms MacAuley said her nieces bring her to the hairdresser now when in the past she was happy to walk. She said she had trouble sleeping after the incident.

Why should the likes of him do that to the likes of me? He wouldn't do it to a strong man.

I am proud to reach this age but I am sad to say it makes me an easier target, she said.

Garda Mark Melbourne told Katherine McGillicuddy BL, prosecuting, that on the date in February 2019, Allen got into a taxi being driven by Noel McDonald.

Gda Melbourne said that when they arrived at James Street, Allen took out a knife and demanded that Mr McDonald give him money. He gave Allen all of the money he had with him and the accused ran from the car.

In interview with gardai, Allen admitted to the robbery and said he was strung out on heroin at the time. He was released from custody and was on bail for this offence when he robbed Ms MacAuley of her handbag.

Gda Melbourne agreed with Olan Callanan BL, defending, that his client claimed he had used a pen during the robbery and that he had wanted the taxi driver to think it was a knife.

Mr Callanan said his client accepted that the offences were despicable, cowardly and low. He said his client apologised to both injured parties and was ashamed of his actions.
A leading bishop has said those who claim God is punishing the world through the Covid-19 virus are guilty of "blasphemy".

Speaking to the Irish Independent, Bishop Brendan Leahy, of Limerick, said this stemmed from people who feel the world is in a bad state "projecting their way of thinking about things onto God".

He also spoke of concern that Mass attendance might drop after the crisis is over as people fall out of routine. But he insisted that the "virtual" experience of worship at home is nowhere near the same as physically attending church.

Dr Leahy also cited Pope Francis's "strong words" on the worldwide pandemic on March 27, when he gave his blessing to an empty St Peter's Square. The pontiff said the coronavirus was not God's judgment on humanity, but a call to people to judge what is most important to them.

"I am saying this is not God punishing us. To say that God is punishing us through the virus is a form of blasphemy."

But he underlined that this didn't mean "we can't learn something from the crisis".

"God can draw good out of everything - even out of evil, and so maybe we can learn lessons at this time," he added.

He said people had said that the lockdown had given them more time to think and reflect and more time with their families. "There is something happening in people's lives and I would say that is a sign to us that God is not missing in this experience," said Dr Leahy.

The Diocese of Limerick has "a fair number" of priests cocooning and he is grateful that no priest in his diocese has contracted Covid-19 so far.

Priests who are not cocooning have been looking after funerals, anointing the sick and celebrating Mass online.

"There is no doubt the shape of ministry has changed completely. Priests would say that the big thing they miss is the day-to-day contact with people. Priests are very much people people," he said.

"Most of their day is spent out and about with people. That context is gone and that has been pretty dramatic for a lot of priests."

Asked if he believed the pandemic and the loss of public Masses had been a blow to people's faith, and might cause the faithful to fall out of the routine of church-going, the 60-year-old told the Irish Independent: "There is no doubt the coronavirus was like a slamming on the brakes for us all. We suddenly found ourselves in a completely new situation which obviously caused huge upheaval."

He said he was amazed by how many people have creatively kept their regular faith practices alive.

But he added: "Clearly there is a risk... of reducing Mass to some kind of a virtual pietistic personal moment at home watching television - that is not really the church. It is great to have the virtual means, but you can't beat being together with people."

He expressed the hope that first communions and confirmations, which had to be postponed, would now take place in the early autumn if the guidelines permit.

The bishop paid tribute to people in Ireland's social solidarity in the face of the pandemic and the lockdown.

"While I don't want to underestimate the numbers that have died, thank God we didn't have the surge. There has been great social cohesion with people wanting to help each other - we managed to pull together at a time of crisis," he added.
All eyes were on Prince Charles when his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, ascended the throne after the unexpected death of his grandfather King George VI at the age of 52.

While the 94-year-old head of the state was dubbed as the longest-reigning monarch, the Prince of Wales has famously been the longest-serving heir in British history.

Although he had been molded and trained to be the future king at an early age, royal experts claimed that the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh had doubts over his expected role in the royal family.

The Outspoken And Eccentric Prince

In the documentary "The Queen and Prince Charles: Mother and Son," royal biographer Angela Levin believed that Charles' parents "could not trust" the heir to the throne due to his tendency to become straightforward and opinionated on public issues.

The Prince of Wales had been under fire for being outspoken in issues involving genetic modification, social deprivation, architecture, and global warming. As a result, this provoked the "annoyance" of the Queen and his father Prince Philip.

"He annoyed his parents, actually," Levin claimed. "They felt he was weak, they felt they couldn't trust him to be king, that he had all these funny ideas about spiritualism and plastic in the sea."

Traditionally, members of the royal family are expected to be politically neutral on most matters.

Royal historian Dr. Kate Williams also revealed how the heir to the throne was perceived by his fellow Britons.

"Increasingly, people started talking about Prince Charles as a bit eccentric. There are cartoons of him talking to his plants, and thinking too much about his plants," Dr. Williams explained.

The "Black Spider" Memos -- Exposed!

In a separate report, The Crown creator Peter Morgan dubbed the future king as "not ideal for the monarchy."

The British screenwriter and playwright claimed that Prince Charles' outspoken personality is not always a desirable trait in the royal family.

"[Charles] hasn't had the platform in which to push through with his thoughts and that's a tough thing to live with. It's hard to remain silent when you have opinions, and he has a lot of opinions about everything. His memos are legendary," Morgan claimed.

Morgan's "memos" claim was in reference to the infamous "black spider" memos of the Prince of Wales that were exposed to the public back in 2015.

The "black spider" memos are the secret letters and notes written by Prince Charles to British government ministers and politicians over the years.

Morgan added that although it is not typical for a royal to speak his mind eagerly, it made the 71-year-old Prince appear more "interesting" in the public.

"He expresses his opinions to just about everybody and anyone that will listen.it's not necessarily ideal for the monarchy, but it does make him a more interesting person," Morgan furthered.

The Netflix hit series creator also described the father-of-two as an independent thinker and even compared him to the previous head of the monarch. He claimed that Prince Charles is more "imaginative" than the rest of them.

READ MORE: Royal Hatred: Meghan Markle 'JEALOUS' Of Kate Middleton Because Of THIS!
Pandemic May Last Two Years; China Destroyed Evidence On Virus Outbreak

An alleged intelligence report says that China deliberately suppressed or destroyed evidence of the virus outbreak, in an assault on international transparency. The report from Five Eyes was obtained by The Saturday Telegraph.

The claims were corroborated by Fox News, which cited an unnamed senior US official stating the document aligns with US intelligence that China knew the virus could spread between humans earlier than it claims, and that the virus spread more widely than it claimed in the first two weeks of the outbreak.

And a report from the University of Minnesotas Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy says the new coronavirus outbreak will likely last 18 to 24 months.

These stories and more in this episode of Crossroads.

Crossroads is an Epoch Times show available on Facebook and YouTube.
The E120 was flying at 2,294 ft when hit by an object, about 3 minutes away from landing at Bardale airstrip, according to a source. Two pilots, a flight engineer and three others were killed in the incident. pic.twitter.com/eCrvTkcZkP  Harun Maruf (@HarunMaruf) May 4, 2020 Embraer E120 in Somalia,  TSL

 aero.de | 05.05.2020 07:58

BARDALE - In Somalia ist ein Frachtflugzeug abgesturzt. Augenzeugen berichten von einem gezielten Abschuss der Embraer E120.Der Absturz hat sechs Menschenleben gefordert: eine Embraer E120 von African Express Airways ist in Somalia mutmalich abgeschossen worden. Die von einer NGO gecharterte 5Y-AXO hatte Hilfsguter aus Mogadishu fur den Kampf gegen die Ausbreitung des Coronavirus geladen.Laut Augenzeugen brachen die Piloten einen ersten Anflug auf den Bardale Airport in Sudwestsomalia wegen Tieren auf der Landebahn ab. Beim zweiten Anflug geriet das Flugzeug dann unter Beschuss und sturzte ab, berichtet "Reuters". Die Region gilt als politisches Krisengebiet.An Bord befanden sich zwei Piloten, ein Flugingenieur, ein Trainingspilot und zwei weitere Insassen.
The owner of a business in Perth's eastern suburbs has been tied up and assaulted by a gang of four offenders which included three teenagers.

The incident happened overnight in Midvale after the group smashed the window of a vehicle parked outside the Hooley Road business premises about 11.25pm.

The business owner, a man in his 30s, was forced back into his shop after coming outside to investigate.

He was then allegedly tied up with electrical cord, assaulted, and threatened with a machete and a tomahawk while various items were stolen from the store.

Police were called and the offenders were arrested, with two still in the shop when officers arrived, and another two found in the roof space.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen met with opposition leader Kem Sokha on Tuesday after the former head of the banned party, now on trial for treason, sent condolences over the death of Hun Sens mother-in-law and attended her funeral, media sources said.



Reports in the government-aligned online Fresh News service did not say whether political issues were raised during the 50-minute meeting, however, and RFA attempts to reach Kem Sokha for comment were unsuccessful Tuesday.



My wife and I are saddened by the death on May 4 of Samdechs mother-in-law Bun Seangly, and we would like to offer our condolences, Kem Sokha, the former head of the outlawed Cambodia National Rescue Party, wrote on his Facebook page on Monday, using an honorific form of address for the long-ruling Cambodian prime minister.



Acting CNRP president Sam Rainsy, now living in exile in Paris following a string of convictions widely believed to be politically motivated, also sent condolences in a Facebook posting, saying Even though we have different political views, sadness over the death of loved ones happens to everyone.



When Sam Rainsys own mother-in-law died in 2016, Hun Sen sent his son to attend the funeral, the exiled opposition chief noted, adding, Even though I could not attend the funeral myself, I can never forget the actions of Samdech and his family toward my family and me.



This is not about politics. We simply expressed our condolences, Sam Rainsy said, reached by RFA for comment. Political changes, including the reinstatement of the now-banned CNRP and dismissal of the charges against Kem Sokha, may follow from the meeting, though, he said.



Crackdown on political opposition



Kem Sokha, 66, was arrested in September 2017 and charged with treason over what prosecutors have called a U.S.-supported plot to overthrow Hun Sens rule, and two months after his arrest, Cambodias Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP for its role in the alleged plot and banned 118 of its officials from political activities.



The move to dissolve the CNRP was part of a wider crackdown by Prime Minister Hun Sen on the political opposition, NGOs, and the independent media that paved the way for his CPP to win all 125 seats in parliament in the countrys July 2018 general election.



Hun Sen has since maintained a relentless crackdown on CNRP activists and former local representatives. Human Rights Watch said it had documented the arbitrary arrests of a dozen people with ties to the party between late January and April, as the country fought the coronavirus.



Cambodian politicians can sometimes take advantage of unforeseen circumstances to come to agreements that benefit the country, Cambodian political analyst Meas Nee said, speaking to RFA on Tuesday.



Sometimes, national reconciliation can start from this point where politicians find they can come to a shared understanding, Meas Nee said. This is showing a good attitude. It shows they are mature, he added.



It is not hard to think that we may find now there are political solutions, but this is only a starting point. Still, we have hope, he said.



It is a part of Cambodian culture to share condolences, said government spokesman Phay Siphan, adding though that Tuesdays personal expressions of good will may not lead Cambodias courts to dismiss the charges against Kem Sokha and Sam Rainsy.



This is a positive step, but it will be difficult for the courts, he said.



Call for targeted sanctions



Meanwhile, Cambodians living in Australia have called on their government to pass legislation, modeled on the U.S. Global Magnitsky Act, targeting sanctions against Cambodian officials accused of corruption and human rights violations.



In an April 30 statement, the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) said similar laws have already been passed in the U.S., Canada, and the UK.



Adopting Magnitsky-style legislation would bring Australia into alignment with these jurisdictions and would improve Cambodias civil society organizations access to sanctioning mechanisms for human rights violations and acts of corruption, FIDH said.



For the sake of freedom in Cambodia, we must have a law that lets Cambodian officials know that if they breach the law, they cannot set foot on Cambodian soil," said Chea Youhorn, outgoing mayor of the Melbourne suburb Dandenong.



This is a positive step forward, added Cambodia-born MP for Victoria Tak Meng Heang, saying he hopes that Australias parliament will discuss the measure when its current recess ends.



Sok Ey San, spokesman for Cambodias ruling CPP, said that though Australia is free to make its own decisions, he does not believe Australia will take any action against Cambodia. Similar requests have been made against Cambodias government in the past, and no action was taken, he said.



This is not a new request. However, Cambodias situation is not like what they have described, he said.



Meanwhile, Cambodians living in Cambodia also voiced support for a new law aimed at punishing government officials for abusing their power to persecute the poor.



We all want to be free, but right now if you speak out they will put you in prison, a woman giving her name as Sophaon told RFA. We are afraid to speak out. We are frustrated over many issues, but we cant say anything about them.



Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Richard Finney.
By Trend

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and its Member States have since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic shown solidarity to fellow countries of the Global South by exchanging best practices, donating medical equipment and supplies, as well as providing food and other humanitarian assistance, Tijjani Muhammad Bande, President of the 74th Session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly said, Trend reports with reference to the press office of UN.

Bande made the statement during a high-level contact group meeting of the heads of state and government of the NAM.

Chairman of the NAM, heads of state and government, ministers, ladies and gentlemen, I thank the Chairman of the NAM Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan, for convening this important meeting. My sincere condolences to those who have lost loved ones, and I wish those suffering from the disease a quick recovery. I thank healthcare workers and those on the frontlines combatting this disease, thereby keeping our communities safe and healthy. In the face of mounting challenges, we are reminded of the indispensability of the multilateral alliances, which have from the outset of this global challenge coordinated the global response. We must continue to support the WHO and one another to overcome this challenge and prevent future pandemics. I also call on all those that have the capacity to financially support the UNs COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response plan to do so. COVID-19 has disrupted billions of lives with far-reaching effects on the health and livelihoods of people. The International Labor Organization estimates that workers will lose as much as $3.4 trillion in income by the end of 2020, Bande said.

Bande said that currently, global health systems are under enormous stress and global travel has been severely impacted.

While no country is spared from the scourge of this pandemic or its socio-economic impact, developing nations are bearing the heaviest brunt of it  even if they do not experience an outbreak of COVID-19. This pandemic is deepening pre-existing inequalities between and among nations, putting immense strain on tenuous systems and plunging those in the most precarious situations into deeper poverty and hunger. Compounding this, is that amid the ongoing crisis, there are too many countries experiencing protracted armed conflicts. I call on all countries, and parties to conflict, to support the United Nations Secretary-Generals call for a global ceasefire. We must strengthen international cooperation to create conditions for dialogue and ensure access to food and essential health supplies to those in need during this period of uncertainty, he said.

Bande also noted that this crisis comes as counties embark on the Decade of Action and Delivery to implement the Sustainable Development Goals, and the risk losing the gains that were made arise.

We pledged that we would leave no one behind by adopting Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. We must remain steadfast in our commitment to implement the Agenda and the Addis-Ababa Action Agenda on financing for development by demonstrating greater resolve and urgently galvanizing needed multilateral action. Much like the United Nations, the Non-aligned Movement was founded in response to a period of distrust. It was a different era, but the situation was remarkably similar to today. Countries realized that the challenges facing them required much more than national efforts. I call on you to work in the same manner today to find solutions to our newest common challenge. To effectively fight COVID-19 and mitigate its wide-ranging effects, our recovery efforts and actions to achieve the SDGs must be aligned, Bande said.

He noted that given the importance of education in achieving the 2030 Agenda, parties must ensure that they urgently tackle the disruptions the pandemic has already caused to education around the world.

With over 90 percent of the worlds students affected by school closures, we must coordinate effectively and support each other, to ensure that students around the world have access to quality education through remote learning. We cannot allow this pandemic to widen the educational gap that already exist, and I call on you all to make cooperation in key education sector a priority in your response to this pandemic. In addition, as many people around the world depend on agriculture  for food and income, we must do our best to ensure that agricultural workers are able to function with minimal disruption. I urge Your Excellencies, to ensure increased investment in inclusive and resilient food systems that reflects our new reality, and position us to better tackle the challenges they present. As we contend with the COVID-19 pandemic we must re-commit to ending hunger and poverty, Bande said.

Bande said that while swift action is also needed to enable vulnerable countries scale up health responses and provide social protection, we must remember that effective public revenue generation will be key to financing resilient systems, now and in the future.

Accordingly, we must continue to take concrete action to fight illicit financial flows, in other to mobilize funds for essential public expenditures. We must defeat this menace and build finance systems that can withstand the effects of COVID-19 and future shocks. Excellencies, I commend the leadership of NAM and its Member States, who have since the onset of this pandemic shown solidarity to fellow countries of the Global South by exchanging best practices, donating medical equipment and supplies, as well as providing food and other humanitarian assistance. I urge the Movement to continue to advocate for a mutually beneficial international economic space through the creation, development and diffusion of new technologies and innovations, within the framework of South-South Cooperation. I am grateful to NAM for the many ways it reinforces the principles of the Charter of the United Nation. I trust that the Movement will continue to be a voice of reason and moderation and continue to work, within the framework of the UN Charter and the Bandung Principles, for international peace and security, the rule of law, justice and sustainable development. I will continue to work with you to promote partnerships and galvanize the needed engagement to defeat COVID-19 and reduce its impact on all of us. Just as we have overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges in the past, we will also overcome this together. Thank you, Bande said.

---

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Over 2,000 migrant workers arrived Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday in two special trains from Maharashtra and Gujarat where they were stranded due to the coronavirus lockdown.

While the train from Maharashtra's Akola brought 1,195 labourers to Lucknow in the morning, 1,115 workers arrived at Gorakhpur around 4 pm from Gujarat's Nadiad.

On Monday, over 3,000 labourers stuck in Maharashtra were brought to Uttar Pradesh in three special trains.

Uttar Pradesh State Roadways Transport Corporation MD Raj Shekhar said 54 buses were deployed to take the Akola workers to districts of Jalaun, Kannauj, Allahabad, Farrukhabad, Kanpur, Gorakhpur and Jaunpur on Tuesday.

Gorakhpur (Sadar) SDM Gaurav Singh Sogarwal said the workers were sent to 29 districts after thermal scanning and verification of documents.

A senior official of the roadways corporation in Gorakhpur said 57 UPSRTC buses took them to their destinations.

The workers also seemed relieved after returning to their home state.

Ravi (38), who returned from Nadiad, said he worked at a brick kiln there and belonged to Noorpur village of Hathras district.

After the lockdown, I had no work. I was living on my little savings and it was difficult for me to feed my family. I was depressed. Thankfully, I was left with some money and I was able to return, he said.

"We were served food twice in the train," he added.

Zahir Alam (55) of Kasganj district said he was only bread winner for his family and was worried about them.

I am still not able to believe that I have reached my state. I am very thankful to the government for this train."



Earlier briefing reporters here, Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Information) Awanish Awasthi had said so far, nearly 65,000 labourers and students have been brought to the state or sent to other places.

"Over 10 trains have brought labourers from other states to UP," he said.

Awasthi said UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has told them that in coming days, Indians stranded abroad are likely to return, for which screening and quarantine facilities should be ensured.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
[May 05, 2020] HEICO Corporation Announces Regular Quarterly Conference Call

On May 26, 2020, after the NYSE closing, HEICO Corporation (NYSE: HEI (News - Alert).A) (NYSE: HEI) will release its financial results for the second quarter ended April 30, 2020. The earnings release will be available through the Internet on the Company's website at www.heico.com. In order to assist interested parties in scheduling their participation in HEICO teleconferences, the Company issues advance notices of conference calls. HEICO will hold a conference call on Wednesday, May 27, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time to discuss its second quarter results. Individuals wishing to participate in the conference call should dial: US and Canada (877) 586-4323, International (706) 679-0934, wait for the conference operator and provide the operator with the Conference ID 538666. A digital replay will be available two hours after the completion of the conference for 14 days. To access, dial: (404) 537-3406, and enter the Conference ID 5381666.



The Company has two classes of common stock traded on the NYSE. Both classes, the Class A Common Stock (HEI.A) and the Common Stock (HEI), are virtually identical in all economic respects. The only difference between the share classes is the voting rights. The Class A Common Stock (HEI.A) carries 1/10 vote per share and the Common Stock (HEI) carries one vote per share. The stock symbols for HEICO's two classes of common stock on most websites are HEI.A and HEI. However, some websites change HEICO's Class A Common Stock symbol (HEI.A) to HEI/A or HEIa. HEICO Corporation is engaged primarily in the design, production, servicing and distribution of products and services to certain niche segments of the aviation, defense, space, medical, telecommunications and electronics industries through its Hollywood, Florida-based Flight Support Group and its Miami, Florida-based Electronic Technologies Group. HEICO's customers include a majority of the world's airlines and overhaul shops, as well as numerous defense and space contractors and military agencies worldwide, in addition to medical, telecommunications and electronics equipment manufacturers. For more information about HEICO, please visit our website at www.heico.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005923/en/

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The Petrapole land port authorities are trying to hold talks with local people and the state government in order to resume Indo-Bangladesh trade, which was stopped on May 2 after two days of operation following protests by local people, officials said on Tuesday. Villagers are afraid that truck drivers and labourers might spread coronavirus infection when they return from Benapole, located on the other side of the border and has been affected by the disease, they said.

Trade between the two neighbours via this land port in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district has been in deadlock over various issues including quarantine norms after India imposed the nationwide lockdown from March 25. According to rules, truckers have to go on a 14-day quarantine once they return from another country. The trade had resumed on April 30, after a solution was worked out that no truck from either country would cross the border, and goods would be unloaded at the no mans land.

If a truck does not enter another country, there is no question of quarantine for the drivers and helpers. "However, local people demand that as long as the lockdown is in place, trucks should not enter even the no man's land. They are afraid that resumption of trade might spread the infection," an official of the land port said. Only 15 trucks from the Indian side could unload goods at the no man's land from April 30 to May 1, and the trade came to a halt on May 2, they said.

"The customs department has sent a report to the Centre. Till now there is no information of any proposed meeting with the local administration and the villagers. Efforts are on to sit for talks with the state administration and locals to chalk out an amicable solution," the official said. Local people have put up road blockades on Sunday and Monday on a road linking to the Petrapole border demanding immediate suspension of export activities.

The blockade was withdrawn after police assured the protesters that the matter would be taken up with the administration. Around 2,100 trucks are stranded in and around Petrapole border with essential and non-essentials cargo for Bangladesh. Most of these trucks are ferrying consignments of onions as it is in huge demand in Bangladesh during the period of Ramzan.

The local panchayat run by the Trinamool Congress is of opinion that Benapole, the corresponding place in Bangladesh, has been seriously affected by Covid-19 and export activities could lead to spread of the contagion to this side of the border. "Anyone could be a carrier. How do you know who is COVID positive or not? It is better that trade remain suspended till this pandemic is over," a local TMC leader said.

Petrapole is about 80 kilometres from Kolkata. On a normal day, 500-550 trucks cross the border there from India and about 100-150 come from Bangladesh.
CARACAS, Venezuela - President Nicolas Maduro said his government had captured two American "mercenaries" Monday in a murky operation allegedly intended to infiltrate Venezuela, incite rebellion and apprehend its leaders, adding a fresh complication to escalating tensions between Washington and Caracas. The socialist leader said the plan was to kill him.

In a lengthy speech Monday night, Maduro decried an ongoing "terrorist" assault on Venezuela that he said had led him to dispatch 25,000 reservists to the coasts. He displayed images that apparently depicted the two apprehended Americans in a lineup, one of them forced to physically lower his head by a captor.

U.S. officials and the mainstream Venezuelan opposition headed by Juan Guaido have strongly denied any connection with the operation, which allegedly involved several dozen men, most of them defectors from the Venezuelan military who had been living hand-to-mouth in camps in Colombia. Former Venezuelan National Guard officer Javier Nieto Quintero and former U.S. Green Beret Jordan Goudreau, head of a Florida company that says it offers paid strategic security services, released a video on Sunday announcing the start of "Operation Gideon" and calling on Venezuelan soldiers to join them.

Goudreau, in an interview with The Washington Post, confirmed that two Americans in what he says was a force of about 60 men were captured on Monday along with six Venezuelans. He identified the Americans as Aaron Barry and Luke Denman. Also captured was one of the operation's leaders, former Capt. Antonio Sequea.

The Americans, he said, were fellow former Special Forces members he had known for years who had joined the operation as "supervisors." He said he has engaged a lawyer in Venezuela and was reaching out to the State Department to try to secure their release.

Goudreau, who went public with the operation on Sunday, said he provided false information to try to protect operatives still in harm's way. He said Sunday that his forces had already entered Venezuela by land and sea.

But on Monday, he said Barry and Denman were in a boat off Venezuela's Caribbean coast on Sunday when Maduro's government intercepted another of the operation's vessels. He confirmed the Maduro government's claim Sunday that eight people were killed and two captured by Venezuelan forces, which apparently had been tipped off to their arrival.

Goudreau said the Americans, along with six former Venezuelan military men, spent Sunday night at sea. They were running out of gas, and Goudreau was trying to secure a vessel out of Aruba to "extract" them, he said. He said he last spoke to the crew about noon Monday before learning of the capture.

The U.S. government "should engage and try to get these guys back," Goudreau said. "They are Americans. They are ex-Green Berets. Come on."

U.S. officials, who have indicted Maduro on narcoterrorism charges, offered a $15 million bounty for information leading to his capture or conviction and imposed severe sanctions on his government - would not comment on the alleged arrests. U.S. officials have distanced themselves from Sunday's operation and questioned both its veracity and legality.

Colombian authorities and the mainstream opposition headed by Guaido - the National Assembly president recognized as Venezuela's rightful leader by the United States and more than 50 other nations - have said they believe the operation was infiltrated by Maduro loyalists. Maduro's senior officials have spoken of the planned operation for weeks before it was sprung Sunday.

"I don't think all the people involved in this were working for the dictatorship," said one senior opposition official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. "I think most were trying to do something for the right reasons, but at an important level, this was leaked."

Maduro suggested as much on Monday.

"We knew everything," he said. "What they ate, what they didn't eat. What they drank. Who financed them. We know that the U.S. government delegated this as a [U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration] operation."

The DEA on Monday denied involvement in the operation.

The senior opposition official said he had "high certainty" that the two Americans had been captured. Guaido released a statement Monday demanding that Maduro "respect" the human rights of individuals "captured in the last hours." He did not specifically mention the arrest of Americans.

Goudreau deployed to Iraq with Berry and Denman in 2010, according to an active duty soldier who served with all three of them in 10th Special Forces Group, but did not deploy with them. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

While the 10th Group is headquartered in Colorado, the men served in its selective company, Charlie, within the Germany-based 1st Battalion, the soldier said. The company is responsible for direct-action counterterror missions with responsibility throughout Europe but has deployed many times to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Goudreau's and Berry's apparent involvement in the failed operation did not shock many Green Berets who knew them, the soldier said, but it was surprising that Denman, an easygoing type, took part.

The biggest surprise in the Green Beret community, the soldier said, was that anyone could be so confident in the mission.

"He clearly had it in his mind that, 'Yeah, I can do this,' " the soldier said of Goudreau.

Maduro offered a folksy account of the capture, claiming patriotic fisherman aided in operation against the "terrorists." Maduro called Goudreau a "liar" and called out the U.S. government for its silence: "The U.S. government still has not said a word about the terrorist incursion."

One person familiar with events supplied The Post with photos allegedly taken by Maduro's forces that appeared to show one of the captured Americans shirtless and lying on pavement, his arms tied behind his back.

Diosdado Cabello, a senior Maduro government official, tweeted a video that allegedly shows one of the Venezuelan men arrested on Monday in Chuao, on the Caribbean coast. The man, identified as Adolfo Baduel, the son of a jailed military officer, responds to a uniformed interrogator in the back of a van. His hands are tied behind his back.

"They say that they work with advisers of the president of the United States," Baudel says.

"Who is the president of the United States?" the interrogator asks.

"Donald Trump," Baduel answers.

- - -

Faiola reported from Miami. Horton reported from Washington.
Wendy's restaurant has taken burgers off the menu in some locations and grocery stores Costco and Kroger have announced limited stocks of beef as Americans start to feel the impact of the pandemic-triggered meat shortage.

On Monday angry customers realized the Wendy's hallmark item was no longer available for order and only chicken items were available for takeout and delivery at select locations across the country.

'Where's the beef?' some outraged social media users asked, invoking Wendys catchphrase from 1980s.

It's a shocking decision for Wendy's, which established itself as the first fast-food chain to offer fresh 'never frozen' beef, and it's an eerie foreshadowing for what's to come at restaurants across the country.

Outbreaks of the virus at meat packing plants across the country have led slaughterhouses to shutter, farms to kill off animals they can no longer feed, store shelves to empty, and now restaurants to alter their menus.

Some Wendy's fast food chain locations have taken beef off their menu due to meat shortages triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. Some stores only offered chicken items on their menus citing production challenges at beef plants

Grocery warehouse Costco said on Monday it would limit customers to just three packages of meat per shopper. A look at emptying meat shelves pictured above at a Costco in North Miami

Kroger supermarkets posted an alert on its website saying there is limited inventory 'due to high demand'. Empty meat shelves pictured at an Atlanta Kroger on Friday

Meat is flying off grocery shelves across the country due to shortages and increased demand by families riding out the quarantine at home. Empty meat shelves at a Walmart Supercenter in Dallas, Texas pictured April 30

Beef shortages were reported at Wendy's locations in California, South Carolina and Kentucky on Monday. In Chicago Wendy's 'Baconator' bacon cheeseburger was still available for order.

'As youve likely heard, beef suppliers across North America are currently facing production challenges,' a Wendys statement.

'Because of this, some of our menu items may be in short supply from time to time at some restaurants in this current environment. We expect this to be temporary, and were working diligently to minimize the impact to our customers and restaurants.'

McDonald's Canada said in a statement it will start sourcing beef from outside the country to make ends meet due to meat shortages.

'Due to unprecedented COVID-19 impacts on the Canadian beef supply chain, we are temporarily adjusting our supply to incorporate beef from outside Canada  from pre-approved McDonalds suppliers and facilities globally  in order to meet the current demand, effective immediately,' McDonald's Canada branch said in a statement.

Both McDonald's USA and Restaurant Brands International, which owns Burger King, said they don't expect shortages at this time.

Grocery warehouse Costco said on Monday it would limit customers to just three packages of meat per shopper.

Kroger supermarkets posted an alert on its website saying there is limited inventory due to high demand.

The shortages of meat were reported at Wendy's locations in South Carolina, Kentucky and California

'Where's the beef?' some outraged social media users asked, invoking Wendys catchphrase from 1980s

Over 20 meat packing plants have shuttered following COVID-19 outbreaks among employees, at least 20 workers have died and at least 5,000 workers have tested positive for the virus.

As of April 27, 4,913 meat and poultry plant workers in 115 plants in 19 states had been diagnosed with COVID-19, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.

Three of the country's biggest pork processing plants  Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, JBS pork processing in Worthington, Minnesota and Tyson Fresh Foods in Waterloo, Iowa have shut down. Together they account for 15 percent of pork production.

Last week President Donald Trump invoked an executive order to keep plants open and prevent a further meat shortage.

Protesters pictured rallying outside a Smithfield Foods meat packing plant in Crete, Nebraska, demanding for better working conditions on Saturday with a sign that said: 'You need meat for two weeks? I need my parents ALIVE!'

Protesters in Crete, Nebraska held posters that said 'Out parents are Essential not Dispensable' and #PPE for ALL' on Saturday

A worker wearing protective equipment are at the entrance of the Cudahy Smithfield meatpacking plant in Cudahy, Wisconsin on Monday April 27 after Smithfield Foods announced a partial shutdown of the facility following an outbreak of COVID-19 among employees

Last week, President Donald Trump invoked an executive order to keep plants open and prevent a further meat shortage. A Tyson Fresh Meats plan pictured in Emporia, Kansas

Tyson Foods said Monday: 'Operationally, we have and expect to continue to face slowdowns and temporary idling of production facilities from team member shortages or choices we make to ensure operational safety.'

Protesters have emerged at meat packing plants across the country, rallying for safer working conditions and protective medical equipment for workers following outbreaks, especially as Trump is beckoning them back.

On Saturday a small group demonstrated outside a Smithfield Foods meat packing plant in Crete, Nebraska, demanding for better working conditions.

One group was seen carrying signs that said You need meat for two weeks? I need my parents ALIVE!
- Donald Trump has reacted to Mike Tyson's training session that went viral on social media

- The United States president encouraged the former heavyweight champion in a tweet

- Tyson is preparing for an exhibition fight to help raise money for charity

Donal Trump is the latest personality to comment on Mike Tyson's incredible training skills after the video clip surfaced on social media.

The Baddest Man on the Planet showed tremendous speed and frightening punch power as he prepares for an exhibition bout to help raise funds for charity.

And the United States president wasted no time in reacting to the video of the former undisputed heavyweight king.

"Keep punching Mike!," Trump said on his official Twitter handle.

Tyson 44 recorded 44 knockouts in his 56 career fights, with 20 of his KO's coming right from the first round.

He became the youngest ever heavyweight champions following his knockout victory over Trevor Berbick in 1985.

He claims he is in the best shape of his life after undergoing training sessions to keep him fit for the exhibition bout.

"I've been hitting the mitts for the last week," he said on Instagram Live with rapper T.I.

"That's been tough, my body is really jacked up and really sore from hitting the mitts. "I've been working out, I've been trying to get in the ring, I think I'm going to box some exhibitions and get in shape.

"I want to go to the gym and get in shape to be able to box three or four-round exhibitions for some charities and stuff."

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh had earlier reported that Oscar De La Hoya has claimed that veteran boxer Mike Tyson is still relevant in the heavyweight division after a video of his training went viral.

The Baddest man on the Planet during his prime recorded 44 knockouts out of his 56 fights which saw him dominate the heavyweight division.

Despite the troubles faced by the 53-year-old, he has risen to make a name for himself with movie appearances, podcasts and owns a cannabis company.

Tyson is currently preparing for an exhibition fight aimed to raise money for charity and a video clip of his frightening speed and punch power went viral.

Ghanaians are not taking the COVID-19 serious because they don't see "dead bodies" on TV | #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
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The Enforcement Directorate may submit its first charge sheet against Yes Banks founder Rana Kapoor and his family on May 6 in a special court hearing cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Mumbai. The charge sheet will mainly focus on Rana Kapoor and his family members.

Sources told Moneycontrol that the ED may serve the charge sheet to his three daughters, wife and their companies, which have allegedly received benefits.

On March 8, the investigation agency had arrested Rana Kapoor after more than 30 hours of interrogation. It had initiated a money laundering investigation against him and others, based on a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case for alleged suspicious transactions with Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) in 2018.

The ED learnt that Yes Bank had subscribed to debentures worth Rs 3,700 crore during April-June 2018 and simultaneously DHFL sanctioned a loan worth Rs 600 crore to Doit Urban Ventures (India), a family enterprise of the Kapoors. Kapoors three daughters -- Roshini, Radha and Raakhee -- are 100 percent shareholders of Doit Urban Ventures via another firm, Morgan Credits Pvt. DHFL is yet to pay back the Rs 3,700 crore invested by Yes Bank in its debentures.

ED said the loan was allegedly provided on a collateral of five properties, which have a meagre value, and by taking into account their future conversion from agricultural to residential land. The statements of several witnesses were recorded as part of the probe and according to which it appears that DHFL granted a loan of Rs 600 crore to Doit Urban Ventures on mortgage of the properties, whose acquisition cost was only Rs 39.66 crore, by showing their inflated value as Rs 735 crore, a source said.

There has been no change in the status quo of the said plots: 7.79 acres in Alibaug and 91.63 acres in Raigad. Their collective worth was assessed at Rs 485 crore by DHFL, which that would have been realised only after converting their land-use and on development, the source added.

A second source said Kapoor is accused of extending financial assistance to DHFL and others in lieu of substantial undue benefit to his family members and himself.

Kapoor is also in the EDs cross-hairs about a Rs 750 crore loan to a firm allegedly controlled by the DHFL group for a redevelopment project in Bandra Reclamation. The ED, the second source said, is of the view that a portion of the loan was transferred to a DHFL-controlled company, which is yet to make an investment in the project.

As part of its investigation, the ED scanned records of around a 104 shell firms controlled by Kapoor and his family for irregularities. On April 26, the CBI arrested DHFLs promoter director Kapil Wadhawan and his brother, the firm's former Non-Executive Director, Dheeraj.

Kapoor is also under its scanner for alleged irregularities linked to the grant of loan worth Rs 202.1 crore to a joint venture -- Mack Star Marketing Pvt -- of Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL) and De Shaw group between 2014 and 2016, ostensibly for the renovation/refurbishment of a barely two year-old office premises in Andheri, a third source said. The whole loan amount was allegedly siphoned off to HDIL group companies and were utilised to pay off its loans from Yes Bank, the source added.

The probe revealed that parts (around Rs 9.6 crore) of the total loan amount had been sanctioned by Yes Bank despite having received objections from De Shaw group, which holds 83.36 percent stake in the joint venture, a source said. The investors letter, dated March 18, 2016, notified Yes Bank that the loans extended to Mack Star were "ultra vires to the JVs articles since the investor hadnt approved these loans."

Out of the total loan amount, around Rs 160 crore was sanctioned for refurbishment, modification and renovation of a two-year old office premises constructed at a cost of around Rs 100 crore, the source said.
One of three victims killed in an apparent murder-suicide has been identified by the Bexar County Medical Examiners Office.

Galina Tenzeyevna Taypina, 68, was found dead near her daughter and two grandchildren at about 7:30 a.m. on April 27 at the Sedona Ranch apartments, 17655 Henderson Pass, San Antonio police said.
Canadas telecom watchdog should provide guidance and rules on the use of contact tracing technology and underline the requirement for consumer consent before personal data is harvested to help contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, a consumer advocacy group says.

Under privacy requirements of the Telecommunications Act, cellphone and internet service providers would have to have obtained prior, verifiable, explicit consent  to permit any disclosure of confidential customer information to any nonaffiliated third party and prohibit (providers) from using prior consumer consent to location track mobile devices, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre said in an application with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on Monday.

The application calls on the CRTC to oversee and regulate digital contact-tracing that tracks the spread of infection from person to person through electronic devices to safeguard privacy while not in any way impeding appropriate public health measures. It says the commission should appoint an inquiry officer to gather information and report on all service providers plans for COVID-19-tracing apps and network usage including location-tracking functions.

A CRTC spokesperson said commission staff have not been in contact with telephone service providers on the issue and as it is an active file, we cannot comment on the application.

John Lawford, PIAC executive director, said the CRTC needs to monitor and disclose the use of the apps and network services that require users to voluntarily disclose their health data.

The CRTC could also establish a COVID-19 task force to provide leadership on telecom industry practices during the pandemic lockdowns with, for example, national guidance on data overage billing. He said in an interview that the CRTC has left it to companies to set the rules for consumer relief during the pandemic.

Lawford added that the CRTC is required under the Telecommunications Act to contribute to privacy protections, along with other agencies, and it should do that by actively monitoring and disclosing how the countrys communications services are involved with contact tracing efforts.

In its 15-page filing, Ottawa-based PIAC asks the CRTC to disclose contact-tracing partnerships with communications providers and offer guidelines about how they should protect privacy rights.

It appears that the federal government and several provincial governments and apparently at least one municipal government have been in talks or consultations with private companies to design smartphone-based contact-tracing in an effort to deal with the present COVID-19 epidemic, the filing says.

It noted that Apple and Google have jointly created a privacy preserving contact tracing program for smartphones using their iOS and Android systems while citing reports that federal and provincial governments might have contacted major telecom providers to assist health authorities in contact tracing development.

Alberta last week launched Canadas first mobile contact tracing app that uses Bluetooth technology and requires iOS users to leave the app running in the foreground of their device, meaning it has to be visibly open on their screen. That means iOS users will have to keep their phone unlocked and set to the app.

If you switch apps, it stops working, and thats a pretty major flaw, because just from a practical sense, who is actually going to be able to use that app? Peter McCaffrey, president of the Alberta Institute, a think tank told The Calgary Herald.

The non mandatory, opt-in app detects when two phones using the app are within two metres of each other, particularly targeting close contact for more than 15 minutes over a 24-hour period. Alberta says users are asked to voluntarily provide their phone number with no other personal or health information required.

If a user tests positive for COVID-19, Alberta Health Services asks for permission to use the data recorded on the app to accelerate contact-tracing measures which typically rely on interviews with infected patients.

Heather Sweet, NDP critic for democracy and ethics, said the opposition party supports the intent of the app but has questions about privacy and usability.

We know this was rolled out very quickly and the privacy commissioner has not come back with her final recommendations, Sweet said.

When youre keeping your device open at all times when youre using it, the question becomes, how is that data being stored if youre collected it from somebody else and how is it being used?

Provinces including New Brunswick, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador and Saskatchewan are also looking at contact tracing apps and Ontario Premier Doug Ford has said he will call for a national plan for contact tracing.

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By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has called a meeting of top government officials on Tuesday to take stock of the preparations for the arrival of expatriates from Thursday. The meeting will be held at 10 am and will see ministers including Minister for Minority Welfare and Haj K T Jaleel, NORKA officials and DGP Loknath Behera attending it. Pinarayi Vijayan called the meeting after the Central government informed the state that it would be facilitating the return of Indian nationals stranded abroad in a phased manner from May 7.

The Indian Embassies and High Commissions are preparing a list of distressed Indian citizens. Accordingly, the Centre has urged all state governments to make arrangements including for Covid-19 testing, quarantine and onward movement of the returning Indians.

We will be initially taking stock of the situation on the number of expatriates who will be returning to Kerala. Accordingly, we will make the arrangements on their quarantine facilities and also on testing for the coronavirus. We also need to know the categories of Malayalis who will be making an initial beeline for the state, a CMO official told TNIE. All expatriates who return to Kerala would have to follow the various protocols including health protocols issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Ministry of Civil Aviation. The airfare has to be met by the expatriates.

May 7

Date from which Centre will facilitate return of Indians stuck abroad in a phased manner
State-owned banks' non-performing loans are likely to rise by 2-4 percentage points, which will put up to $15 billion recapitalisation pressure on the government in FY21, a foreign brokerage firm said on Tuesday

Mumbai: State-owned banks' non-performing loans are likely to rise by 2-4 percentage points, which will put up to $15 billion recapitalisation pressure on the government in FY21, a foreign brokerage firm said on Tuesday.

The consolidated fiscal deficit target is likely to overrun by 2 percentage points due to stimulus spends, lower tax receipts and dip in divestments, and will have to look for different ways of raising resources for recapitalisation, analysts at Bank of America said.

The government can issue recapitalisation bonds, or the RBI's huge reserves of over $127 billion can also be dipped into to help the state-owned bank's recapitalisation needs, it said.

There is a near-unanimity among analysts that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will lead to an increase in bank's gross non-performing assets with some reports pegging the stock to double as well.

Click here to follow LIVE news and updates on stock markets

The brokerage said the increase in non-performing assets by 2-4 percentage points will need a government recapitalisation requirement by $7-15 billion.

It said the recap bonds is a tried and tested instrument which has helped the banks in the past.

"The government will infuse capital into PSU banks and fund it by issuing recapitalisation bonds to them. PSU banks will invest the capital received in recapitalisation bonds," Bank of America said.

Asserting that such a move does not entail a moral hazard, it elaborated saying PSU banks can heal their broken balance sheets and meet adequate capital requirements through the bonds and once growth recovers, the government can gradually convert these recap bonds into normal G-secs and sell them to the market.

The interest cost on the bonds will impact the Center's fiscal deficit, although that will also be partly moderated by profit transfers from PSU banks holding recap bonds, it said.

Recapitalisation bonds enter the fiscal deficit in the year of their maturity and it is because of this that the bonds were issued without any fixed maturity in the past instances, it added.

Apart from the bonds, the RBI's revaluation reserves of $127 billion can also be deployed, it suggested, adding that such a move will be neutral from a fiscal deficit perspective.
NETANYA, Israel, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE: CEL) (TASE: CEL) (hereinafter: the "Company"), announced today that it will be releasing its financial results for the first quarter of 2020 on Thursday, May 21, 2020.

The Company will be hosting a conference call at 10:00am Eastern Time (7:00am Pacific Time, 3:00pm UK time, 5:00pm Israel time). On the call, management will review and discuss the results and will be available to answer questions.

To participate, please call one of the following teleconferencing numbers. Please begin placing your calls a few minutes before the conference call commences. If you are unable to connect using the toll-free numbers, please try the international dial-in number.

US Dial-in Number: 1-888-668-9141

Israel Dial-in Number: 03- 918-0685

International Dial-in Number: +972-3-918-0685

at:

10:00 am Eastern Time; 7:00 am Pacific Time;

3:00 pm UK Time; 5:00 pm Israel Time

The conference will also be broadcast live from a link on the investor relations section of the Company's website: http://investors.cellcom.co.il. After the call, a replay of the call will be available under the same investor relations section.

About Cellcom Israel

Cellcom Israel Ltd., established in 1994, is a leading Israeli communications group, providing a wide range of communications services. Cellcom Israel is the largest Israeli cellular provider, providing its approximately 2.744 million cellular subscribers (as at December 31, 2019) with a broad range of services including cellular telephony, roaming services for tourists in Israel and for its subscribers abroad, text and multimedia messaging, advanced cellular content and data services and other value-added services in the areas of music, video, mobile office etc., based on Cellcom Israel's technologically advanced infrastructure. The Company operates an LTE 4 generation network and an HSPA 3.5 Generation network enabling advanced high speed broadband multimedia services, in addition to GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks. Cellcom Israel offers Israel's broadest and largest customer service infrastructure including telephone customer service centers, retail stores, and service and sale centers, distributed nationwide. Cellcom Israel further provides OTT TV services, internet infrastructure and connectivity services and international calling services, as well as landline telephone services in Israel. Cellcom Israel's shares are traded both on the New York Stock Exchange (CEL) and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (CEL). For additional information please visit the Company's website http://investors.cellcom.co.il.

Company Contact Shlomi Fruhling

Chief Financial Officer

[email protected]

Tel: +972-52-998-9755 Investor Relations Contact Ehud Helft GK Investor & Public Relations [email protected] Tel: +1 646 201 9246

SOURCE Cellcom Israel Ltd.

Related Links

http://investors.cellcom.co.il


For Immediate Release

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT AND THE INFORMATION IN IT, IS RESTRICTED, AND IS NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, JAPAN, SWITZERLAND OR SOUTH AFRICA OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION WHERE IT IS UNLAWFUL TO DISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT

FURTHER, THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND SHALL NOT CONSTITUTE, OR FORM THE BASIS OF AN OFFER TO SELL OR ISSUE OR THE SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY, SUBSCRIBE FOR OR OTHERWISE ACQUIRE ANY NEW OR EXISTING ORDINARY SHARES OF PROVIDENCE RESOURCES PLC IN ANY JURISDICTION IN WHICH ANY SUCH OFFER OR SOLICITATION WOULD BE UNLAWFUL

Terms and conditions used in this announcement have the meaning ascribed to them in the announcement of 6 April, 2020 unless the context requires otherwise.

Providence Resources P.l.c.

Result of Extraordinary General Meeting

Dublin and London  May 5, 2020 - On April 6, 2020, Providence Resources P.l.c., ("Providence" or the Company) the Irish Energy Company, whose shares are quoted in London (AIM) and Dublin (Euronext Growth Market), announced a conditional fundraising of 157,973,004 Placing Securities and 20,000,000 Subscription Securities (each of which shall comprise one New Ordinary Share, one 3p Warrant and one 9p warrant) at a price of 0.015 (equivalent to approximately US$0.018) each.

The Company is pleased to announce that, at its Extraordinary General Meeting held earlier today, the Resolutions set out in the Circular dated April 6, 2020 were duly passed. The results of the Poll of the meeting are set out below.

Ordinary Resolution 1  To authorise the Directors to allot relevant securities

Vote Type Voted Voted % % of Issued Share Capital Voted For 358,390,158 99.996% 54.52% Against 13,519 0.004% 54.52% Total Voted 358,403,677 100% 54.52% Votes Withheld 33,904

Special Resolution 2 - To disapply statutory pre-emption restrictions in respect of the allotment of shares in connection with the Fundraising

Story continues

Vote Type Voted Voted % % of Issued Share Capital Voted For 358,381,534 99.995% 54.52% Against 16,737 0.005% 54.52% Total Voted 358,381,534 100% 54.52% Votes Withheld 39,310

Ordinary Resolution 3 - To increase the authorised capital of the Company

Vote Type Voted Voted % % of Issued Share Capital Voted For 358,394,330 99.997% 54.52% Against 9,440 0.003% 54.52% Total Voted 358,403,770 100% 54.52% Votes Withheld 33,811

Special Resolution 4 - To authorise the Directors to adopt and implement the 2020 Share Option Scheme

Vote Type Voted Voted % % of Issued Share Capital Voted For 285,600,251 79.687% 54.52% Against 72,801,128 20.313% 54.52% Total Voted 358,401,379 100% 54.52% Votes Withheld 36,202

Accordingly, and subject to Admission becoming effective, the Company has therefore raised aggregate gross proceeds of approximately 2.7 million (equivalent to approximately US$3.3 million) through the Placing and the Subscription.

Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange and Euronext Dublin for the New Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM and Euronext Growth and this is expected that Admission will occur at 8.00 a.m. on May 6, 2020. Following Admission, the New Ordinary Shares will rank pari passu in all respects with the existing Ordinary Shares in issue including the right to receive all dividends or other distributions declared, made or paid after the date of their issue.

Following Admission, the Company's total issued and voting share capital will comprise 835,397,852 Ordinary Shares of 0.001 each. This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, securities of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.





INVESTOR ENQUIRIES Providence Resources P.l.c. Tel: +353 1 219 4074 Alan Linn, Chief Executive Officer Cenkos Securities plc Tel: +44 131 220 9771 Neil McDonald/Derrick Lee J&E Davy Tel: +353 1 679 6363 Anthony Farrell Mirabaud Securities Limited Tel: + 44 20 3167 7221 Peter Krens MEDIA ENQUIRIES Murray Consultants Tel: +353 1 498 0300 / +353 87 255 8300 Pauline McAlester

ANNOUNCEMENT & FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those projected or implied in such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking information involves risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect expected results. No representation is made that any of those statements or forecasts will come to pass or that any forecast results will be achieved. You are cautioned not to place any reliance on such statements or forecasts. Those forward-looking and other statements speak only as at the date of this announcement. Providence Resources P.l.c undertakes no obligation to update any forward- looking statements.

ABOUT PROVIDENCE RESOURCES PLC
Hundreds of workers at the giant Cargill meatpacking plant in High River, Alberta fearfully returned to their jobs Monday morning after attempts to keep the company from re-opening in the wake of a massive coronavirus outbreak were rejected by provincial officials.

In the largest single localized outbreak in North America, 935 of the plants 2,000 workers have already been infected by the highly contagious and potentially lethal COVID-19 virus. Six hundred close contacts of the meatpackers have also tested positive. To date, one worker, Vietnamese immigrant Hiep Bui, has died from the illness, as well as one close contact. Seven workers have been hospitalized with 5 in intensive care.

Nonetheless, over the weekend, Cargill issued a statement instructing all healthy and eligible workers to report for work in the two-shift operation.

In a survey of its membership, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) reported that 85 percent were afraid to return to the plant. About eighty percent of Cargill production employees are low-wage immigrant workers from the Philippines, Vietnam and China, many of whom are on Temporary Foreign Worker visas. The workers not only fear possible infection, they also worry that refusing company directives could endanger their work status in the country.

Despite these fears, the UFCW has refused to organize any job action to stop Cargills return to work order. Local union president Thomas Hesse has been outspoken on the companys refusal to incorporate the unions safety proposals into its back-to-work protocols. "It's ridiculous that hundreds of workers can be required to pour into the plant to kill 4,000 to 5,000 cattle a day, while if you climb on the monkey bars in your local park you're going to get a ticket," he said.

Although Cargill has installed plexiglass separations for line workers, the packers work elbow to elbow and face to face with their colleagues. Noise on the shop floor requires close communication with supervisors and fellow workers. Face masks quickly become useless in the wet, humid environment. With so many meatpackers off work, close-quarter training in the midst of the fast-paced environment has fostered unsafe practices.

But with the unions attempts to convince provincial officials to keep the plant closed until further safety measures are put in place falling on deaf ears, Hesse was keen to tell reporters that no work stoppages would be organized. We are looking at legal options. We are not asking for a work stoppage. A work stoppage would not be legal, he said.

Left to fend for themselves, at least some workers, judging from traffic into the plant Monday morning, chose absenteeism in response to the threat of infection.

The UFCWs reliance on the labour and health and safety boards of Albertaoverseen by the pro-big business, hard-right United Conservative Party government of Jason Kenneyis a flagrant abdication of its responsibility to protect the well-being of the vulnerable Cargill workers. The union bureaucrats are more concerned with reassuring employers and the government that they are responsible partners, who will enforce capitalist laws and contracts, than in fighting for the very lives of the workers they purport to represent.

The Alberta authorities role in forcing the Cargill workers back on the job, to follow the dictates of the same managers who ignored their earlier complaints about the lack of anti-COVID-19 safety measures, is scandalous. But it is far from exceptional.

A recent report from Ontario showed that of 200 COVID-19 related work-refusals protesting unsafe conditions, not one resulted in a stop work-order being issued by provincial inspectors. When work was stopped at Fiat-Chryslers Windsor Assembly plant in early March, it was the result of spontaneous work-refusal walk-offs by rank-and-file autoworkers.

The events that have transpired at the Cargill facility are a case study in the drive by corporations across the globe, backed by governments of all political stripes, to place profit over human lives.

The High River plant packs 40 percent of all Canadian beef products each day. Cargill is the largest privately owned company in the United States with $115 billion in annual revenues as reported in 2018 filings. The Cargill family is listed as the fourth wealthiest family in the United States.

After the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in March, no preventative inspection of the Cargill plant was undertaken by health or labour authorities even after workers began to fall sick. When an inspection was finally done on April 15, the assigned official did not even enter the main part of the shop floor, scandalously preferring instead to stay outside the facility and inspect it via a FaceTime app. The facility was given a clean bill of health.

However, with more workers falling ill and Hiep Bui succumbing to COVID-19 on April 19, three days after she had last worked at the plant, the facility was idled for two weeks on April 20.

COVID-19 has quickly re-emerged in several US meatpacking plants that have had re-openings similar to that now occurring at Cargills High River plant, because the work process is designed to squeeze the last ounce of productivity out of workers at the expense of their health, their safety and now, their very existence.
Two other teams of researchers, one in Buenos Aires and the other in San Francisco, are also working to devise new tests to detect the virus using gene-editing technology.

Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, a professor of health policy at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Health, said that it was important that scientists search for new kinds of tests for the coronavirus. But he cautioned that the research so far offers only a proof of concept, and that it remains to be seen how well the test would perform in real-world conditions compared to the standard tests now in use, known as polymerase chain reaction, or PCR.

Theres a long way to go from that to a scalable technology that works, he said.

PCR is a venerable technology, invented about 35 years ago by the biochemist Kary Mullis. It allowed scientists to find pieces of DNA that contained a particular sequence, even if that sequence was extremely rare.

The researchers began by creating special tags that could grab onto the particular piece of genetic material they wanted to find. Once a piece was tagged, they could duplicate it. Repeating this procedure over and over again, PCR could create billions of new copies of the original piece.

On its own, a single piece of DNA was too small to detect, but billions of copies were easy to spot. But if a sample did not contain the desired sequence, PCR would yield nothing.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 5)  The Philippine National Police (PNP) has been tasked to look into allegations of anomalies regarding the distribution of emergency cash aid.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) gave the instructions to the PNP following the arrest and detention of Kagawad Danilo Flores of Barangay San Agustin in Hagonoy, Bulacan on May 2.

I am directing PNP units all over the country and also requesting the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to prioritize the investigation of graft and corruption cases against local officials on SAP distribution," said DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Ano in a statement on Tuesday.

"Greedy and corrupt officials should have no place in the government," he said firmly. "They are carriers of a malignant virus that destroys the trust the people gave to them.

Ano condemned the acts of Flores as "disgraceful and downright shameful" saying public officials should be the ones helping the needy especially during a crisis.

Flores, 63, was caught on video telling recipients of the social amelioration program they would only receive P3,000 cash aid, while P3,500 would be given to the mayor for distribution to non-SAP beneficiaries. He was arrested for violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and for violation of the Bayanihan Act. Hagonoy Mayor Raulito Manlapaz flatly denied Flores' claim.

Ano warned that similar incidents will not be tolerated. He, nonetheless, assured due process to those who will be caught but emphasized that the law will be imposed especially especially during crisis.

DILG regional directors were also told to form provincial teams to investigate and "pursue administrative cases against these corrupt local officials that may lead to their suspension and dismissal from public office."

In a separate statement, the PNP said it would appoint investigators to gather evidence to build "a strong case" against local executives "for alleged graft and corruption in the distribution of government cash aid for the poor."

The statement said the PNP would work with the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group to conduct the operations.

In his Tuesday briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the government would make sure whistleblowers' indentities would be kept confidential, and should cases be pursused against officials, witnesses could be allowed to enter the witness protecton program.

"Pag-iingatan po natin 'yan, alam po namin na politics is always local, at dahil po diyan bibigyan po ng careful attention yung inyong identity," Roque said.

[Translation: We will be very conscious of that because we know politics is always local and because of that we will give careful attention to your identity.]

In a speech on Monday, President Rodrigo Duterte said he would offer a P30,000 reward to anyone who would give information on local government officials pocketing cash aid for poor families and other beneficiaries.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development previously warned local government officials involved in anomalies in cash aid distribution that they may be suspended if proven guilty.

DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista said the agency has set up a grievance redress system, where Filipinos may file complaints against erring local government officials.

Bautista urged the public to raise complaints when they see erring local officials, so that the national government may respond accordingly.
New Delhi, May 5 : India will commence one of the world's largest air rescue operations from May 7, when Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express will start the first phase of the mission.

Accordingly, these two airlines will operate 64-flights in 7 days to bring back 14,800 stranded Indians from 12 countries.

Overall, more than 190,000 Indian nationals, who would have to pay a one-way ferry service charge, are expected to be brought back in an airlift operation that might last couple of weeks or even more.

In comparison, three decades ago, Air India led a group of airlines which included Indian Airlines and Aeroflot as well as IAF to rescue an estimated 111,711 Indians from the Gulf, after Iraq invaded Kuwait in the year 1990.

The 59-day operation involved 488 flights and was conducted before the first Gulf war. This time, the exercise will encompass flights to the US in the West to Philippines in the East.

As per the plan, 10 flights will be operated to the UAE to bring Indians from May 7-13, while 7 will be sent to the US, 7 to Malaysia and 5 to Saudi Arabia, amongst others.

Subsequently, the passengers availing these flights will be charged for the one-way ferry service, as the national carrier is already in a financial turmoil.

After the initial week, private players might also be allowed to participate in the operation.

However, only after proper medical screening at the departing airport will the passengers be allowed to board the aircraft.

After arriving in India, passengers would be subjected to a 14-day quarantine period for which they will be charged before being retested for the dreaded Covid-19 virus.

The magnitude of the operation can be gauged from the fact that massive quarantine infrastructure will have to be prepared well in advance by the state governments. In the first week, flights will bring back Indians to 10 states. Similar services to more states could be started in the coming weeks, depending upon the pace at which quarantine facilities are prepared to host these returnees.

Addressing the media on the upcoming rescue operation, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri via video conferencing on Tuesday pointed out that passengers would be required to pay a fixed amount for the ferry service. For instance, the one-way all-inclusive fare between Chicago to New Delhi will be charged at Rs 100,000, while that for Dhaka-Delhi at Rs 12,000 and Manila-Delhi at Rs 30,000.

He said the limited cost component made the operations viable. The minister said that during the first week of the mammoth air rescue operation, 14,800 Indian nationals will be brought back, while the total number of people to be repatriated back to India in the entire operation could be more than 190,000.

In terms of operational aspects, Air India will operate 40 flights, while Air India Express will fly 24 services to countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Bangladesh, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the US, and UK.

Puri said not only the role of the airline but that of airports and state governments is vital since these authorities have to manage the returning passengers. He said the financial position of Air India is precarious and that the airline requires injection of Rs 500-Rs 600 crore per month for it to stay afloat. Therefore, fares are being charged to make these operations viable.

Besides, the minister said that participation of private airlines in the air rescue plans will be taken after the first week of operations. Puri added that he is aware of the financial constraints being faced by the industry. However, he did not disclose any timeline for the resumption of domestic operations, but said that these will be opened only after seeing the "behaviour of the virus" and the ground level preparations to handle any situation.

Lately, despite its precarious financial position, the national passenger carrier has emerged as one of the few airlines in the world that have evacuated more than 9,000 passengers during the Covid-19 crisis.

The airline to date has carried out massive flight operations to China, Japan and Europe to bring back stranded Indians, mostly students and pilgrims. Additionally, the airline has been instrumental in repatriating foreigners to Israel, UK and Germany.

Moreover, Air India and its subsidiary Alliance Air has reached every corner of the country to supply essential medical equipment.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5

By Ilkin Seyfaddini  Trend:

The level of socio-economic development of the regions in Uzbekistan will be assessed by the new rating system, Trend reports citing Uzbek media.

The relevant resolution of the president of Uzbekistan came into force on 2 May 2020.

The document introduces an annual system of rating assessment of socio-economic development of Uzbek regions, districts and cities, in which each territory will be studied and assessed in two stages.

The first stage will consider statistical indicators on eight priorities - economic development and efficiency (7.5 points); labor market efficiency (6.25 points); accessibility and quality of services in social sphere (11.25 points); development and accessibility of infrastructure (5 points); competitiveness and diversification of economy (3.75 points); quality of business environment and entrepreneurship development (7.5 points); financial independence, development of banking and financial sector (5 points); efficiency of local government bodies (5 points). The total maximum score at this stage is 50.

The next stage involves conducting separate surveys to determine the social well-being and quality of life of the population, the state of the business environment for business and investors, the level of public trust in the reforms and the quality of institutions of government and local authorities.

Heads of government agencies and other organizations will ensure reliable and timely input of relevant data into the information system for the reporting year.

The results of the rating assessment for the past year will be annually submitted to the Presidential Administration, Cabinet of Ministers and representative bodies of state power, and discussed at government meetings.

---

Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini
A man who claimed to be a member of the notorious Westies gang told a terrified family he would get the mob to riddle their home with bullets and then petrol-bomb them.

Stephen Darby broke into the home of the family in Stranorlar, Co Donegal, days before last Christmas.

He was accompanied by another man and they went upstairs to the couple's bedroom and terrorised them.

At one stage Darby, who had 83 previous convictions, picked up two small children under his arms and continued to make threats.

He told the couple he was a member of the Clondalkin gang and he would also have them shot in the back of the knees if they did not do what he said.

The male victim began to scuffle with Darby and the accused tripped and fell down the stairs and was knocked unconscious.

Gardai arrived at the house and he was taken to Letterkenny Garda Station before being taken to Letterkenny University Hospital.

The other man with Darby, who claimed he had relatives in the house at Admiran Park, was also arrested.

Darby, originally from Dublin but who has been living in Donegal on and off, appeared before Letterkenny Circuit Court where he pleaded guilty to burglary.

Barrister for Darby, Peter Nolan, said his client had downed a bottle of whiskey and merely thought the other man was calling to the house to change his clothing.

However, when he arrived, the other man kicked the door in and began to shout at the terrified couple and their family.

Mr Nolan claimed his client was trying to calm matters down when he was pushed down the stairs and had little recollection of the events.

However, the couple's victim impact statement revealed their fear.

Scared

The woman said: "It has changed my entire outlook on life, the way someone can make you feel so scared for your life and your loved ones. I was petrified.

"How an uninvited stranger with a knock on the door can come in and put myself and my family through this terrifying ordeal.

"The most hurtful part was when he reached for my boys. If the gardai had been any later I dread to think what would have happened.

"I was always a very strong person but now I suffer with anxiety and pains in my chest. It just broke me."

Darby, whose previous convictions include firearms offences, burglary, robbery, escaping from lawful custody, assault, trespass and larceny, apologised to the family in court.

"I let myself go and it was never my intention to do that. When I have drink, I don't think," he said.

His mother, Maureen Crowe, said her son had a terrible life and was beaten as a child by his father.

He was also put into St Joseph's Christian Brothers School in Clonmel where she alleges he was sexually abused.

Mr Nolan added his suggestions that he was part of the Westies were just "fantasy".

He had been in prison in some form for 35 of his 47 years.

Judge John Aylmer agreed to adjourn the case until July and ordered psychiatric and probation reports on Darby.
There was a time when internet access was a luxury, but that time has long since past. Now, with COVID-19, internet access is an essential lifeline to health appointments, school, work, food and medicine deliveries, banking, government emergency funding  and more.

Every household needs internet access.

With the novel coronavirus, not having internet access can mean the difference between life and death. Having to leave the household for essential goods and services, instead of accessing them online from the safety of your home, can mean risking your safety and that of your loved ones.

Yet internet access remains unaffordable for many Canadians.

Almost nine per cent of children and adults  thats 3.2 million Canadians  currently live in poverty. In some rural, remote and northern regions of the country where access is prohibitively expensive, internet access remains unaffordable even for middle-income families.

As part of their COVID-19 emergency policies, all levels of government need to make internet access a priority for all Canadians  right now.

As community and health service providers, we listened when one little girl, waiting with her mom for a food hamper, asked for a computer so she could talk to her teachers and do her assigned work. A senior told us how she couldnt join her churchs Easter services without internet access, and how shes missing her grandchildren and feels lost without her weekly social group. A new immigrant family to Canada wonders how they will research the necessary programs they are entitled to.

These daily stories speak of the essential need for universal internet access.

ACORN, a national organization of low- and moderate-income families, conducted a survey of its membership before the pandemic and learned that 20 per cent of low-income households (below $30,000 annually) had no home internet, with the majority identifying cost as the main reason. For those with home internet, 65 per cent said they had to sacrifice food or medication to afford it.

This is why we are endorsing ACORNs call for the federal government to offer all low income Canadians and fixed-income seniors free retail internet access services and to work with telecom companies to ensure there is no extra cost for data, overage charges, price increases for customers and disconnections for nonpayments or other reasons during the pandemic.

We further call on all levels of government to work together with telecom businesses to provide hardware, software and IT support to all those facing income inequality.

Governments should also make internet access freely available during the pandemic to all subsidized housing buildings and complexes and to shelters of all kinds (to be maintained after the pandemic by expanding the existing federal Connecting Families program).

In order for our country to pull through this crisis together, united, and with no person or community left behind, we must stay connected.
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Linkedin Maria Cellina Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Surabaya, East Java  Tue, May 5, 2020 15:39 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd6177b5 3 Health COVID-19,pandemic,fasting,fasting-month,ramadan,ramadan-in-indonesia,puasa,apakah-boleh-berpuasa-saat-covid-19-pandemi Free

Ramadan is a holy month for Muslims all over the world. During this period, Muslims abstain from eating or drinking from dawn to sunset.

However, this year Muslims face a new challenge: the COVID-19 pandemic. Fasting during a pandemic might be a new thing for some of us. The usual practices and habits that we have, such as tarawih (Ramadan night prayers) and iftar (breaking-of-the-fast) events are suddenly outlawed by the government due to physical-distancing rules. The customary tradition of going back to our hometowns, known as mudik, has also been prohibited.

Not only that, there are also some considerations for fasting during this pandemic. Most importantly, Muslims worldwide might think of the same question: Is it safe to fast when our immune system is at risk?

The clinical manifestation of COVID-19 infection is highly correlated with our immunity levels, according to Ari Baskoro, immunologist from Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java. In short, the higher our immunity level is, the milder the clinical manifestation will be when someone gets infected with the coronavirus. Nonetheless, what if fasting has been known to lower immunity?

There have been a lot of research and studies conducted on the effect of fasting on our immunity. Results from a study show that 30-day long intermittent fasting, just like the kind of fasting done by Muslims during the month of Ramadan, is associated with better glucose and lipid metabolism, DNA repair, cognitive functions and protective properties against cancer. Fasting has been equated with flipping a metabolic switchthat is, fasting leads to lower blood sugar levels, and consequently forces our body to use fat as a source of energy, as explained by Kathy McManus, director of the Department of Nutrition at Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, the United States. Research at Harvard University shows that fasting is also associated with lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol levels and less inflammation.

However, other studies show contradictory results. In three studies published in the scientific journal Cell, fasting in mice has shown differing impacts on the immune system depending on the type and length of fast. Longer fasting has shown detrimental effects on the immune system: with reduced levels of white blood cells, which are necessary to fight off infections. Fasting has also been shown to exacerbate metabolic dysfunction and cause significant immune response impairments in these studies. Fasting has many side effects as well, including dizziness, low blood sugar, weakness and fatigue. Prolonged fasting may lead to low red blood cell levels (anemia), a weakened immune system and various vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

Amid the differing results from studies on fasting and immunity, Muslims might be unsure whether or not to go through with the Ramadan fast this year. To answer this question, Muslim authorities have issued fatwas regarding Ramadan fasting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Al-Azhar University in Cairo issued a statement restating that fasting is an obligation for all Muslims, even during this pandemic. The grand mufti of Dubais Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department, Ali Ahmad Mashael, said that fasting may only be forgone by those who are ill. Citing the Quran, he further said that the only exceptions for fasting are for those who are sick or traveling. Not only Muslim authorities, the World Health Organization has released an interim guide on Ramadan fasting during the COVID-19 pandemic, with emphasis on taking care of our health and maintaining physical distancing at all times.

Recent literature on COVID-19 has shown that certain people are at higher risk of coronavirus infection. These are people with low immunity, those who already suffer from chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension or cardiovascular problems. These people are exempt from fasting during Ramadan, including those who suffer from COVID-19. The British Islamic Medical Association has published a guide stating that people who suffer from COVID-19 symptoms (such as fever or persistent cough) should abstain from fasting to ensure adequate hydration.

As a medical doctor who continues to work even during this pandemic, my family is worried about my safety. Being one of the people who are fasting during Ramadan, I am worried that practicing the fast might weaken my immune system, therefore exposing me to a higher risk of coronavirus infection.

I believe I am not the only one. Many workers out there, medical or non-medical, must worry about their state of immunity during fasting. But I personally believe, from the knowledge I have as a physician, and fatwas issued by corresponding authorities, that it is safe for me to continue fasting during this pandemic.

Of course, when choosing to fast, we also need to know how to maintain our immunity during this pandemic. The WHO has recommended a few instructions on maintaining well-being during fasting, including staying physically active by exercising indoors or at home, eating fresh and unprocessed food every day, drinking plenty of water during sahur (predawn meal) and iftar, reducing tobacco use during the non-fasting period, and maintaining mental health by staying in contact with loved ones through digital platforms.

Other common practices during Ramadan should also be avoided. The Religious Affairs and Health Ministries have agreed that people should not perform tarawih prayers in mosques this year, and avoid having iftar together with friends in public places. President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has also forbidden the practice of going back to hometowns to visit relatives during Idul Fitri.

The newly implemented laws and prohibitions have made Ramadan this year anything but normal, and may impact our mental health as well. However, we should all maintain hope and strength during these difficult times, and dont forget to keep practicing physical distancing during fasting. (kes)

***

Maria Cellina Wijaya is a medical doctor from Airlangga University and a researcher at the COVID-19 Research Team in the clinical research unit of Dr. Soetomo Regional General Hospital, Surabaya, East Java.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
Vietnams oldest Covid-19 patient to date, an 88-year-old woman, has recovered and been discharged along with 10 others.

This has brought down the number of active cases to 39.

All 11 were discharged from the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi.

"Patient 161," who is from Van Lam District in the northern province of Hung Yen, suffered a stroke on March 17 and was paralyzed in the left side of the body. She was rushed to the local Pho Noi Hospital where she was diagnosed with a brain hemorrhage.

She was then taken to Hanois Bach Mai Hospital, where she was in the same room as "patient 133" from March 17 to 22.

After nine days of treatment her condition improved. But on March 24 the hospital, which had become the countrys biggest Covid-19 hotspot with 45 cases, tested and diagnosed her with Covid-19.

At her age and with the underlying condition, she became one of the five most critical coronavirus patients in Vietnam, suffering lung damage. She was treated at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi, where she was put on a ventilator and received intensive care.

"Patient 161," a 88-year-old woman, is being treated for Covid-19 at the intensive care unit of the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Chi Le.

Now, after testing negative five times and being discharged, she has returned to Bach Mai Hospital to resume physical therapy for the stroke.

Among the other patients discharged, "Patient 163" is her 43-year-old granddaughter who became infected while taking care of her at Bach Mai.

Patients 74 and 137 relapsed.

All 11 patients will be monitored for 14 more days during which they will be tested at least twice more.

The nations tally of infections has remained unchanged at 271 since Sunday evening, when a British oil expert arriving in HCMC tested positive.
Researchers testing old samples found COVID-19 in a man treated a month before France confirmed its first cases.

A male patient treated in a French hospital on December 27 had contracted COVID-19, researchers going back through old samples have discovered.

It means that coronavirus was already in France a month before the French government confirmed its first cases.

Scientists at the Avicenne and Jean Verdier hospitals in the northern suburbs of Paris have been retesting samples from patients treated for pneumonia in December and January.

Of the 24, we had one who was positive for COVID-19 on December 27, Yves Cohen, head of resuscitation, told BFM TV.

The samples had all initially been collected to detect flu using PCR tests, the same genetic screening process that can also be used to detect the presence of the novel coronavirus in patients.

Each sample was retested several times to ensure there were no errors, Cohen added.

France, which on Monday became the fifth country to exceed 25,000 deaths from the virus, confirmed its first three COVID-19 cases on January 24, including two patients in Paris and another in the southwestern city of Bordeaux.

Cohen said it was too early to know if the patient whose December 27 test was COVID-19 positive was Frances patient zero.





Identifying the first patent with a virus is critical to understanding how it is spread. Cohen said the patient had survived and that a preliminary investigation to trace the first contamination had been carried out.

He was sick for 15 days and infected his two children, but not his wife, who works in a supermarket.

He was amazed; he didnt understand how he had been infected. We put the puzzle together and he had not made any trips. The only contact that he had was with his wife.

The mans wife worked alongside a sushi stand, close to colleagues of Chinese origin, Cohen said. It was not clear whether those colleagues had travelled to China, and the local health authority should investigate, he said. Were wondering whether she was asymptomatic, he said.

He may be the patient zero, but perhaps there are others in other regions.

All the negative PCRs for pneumonia must be tested again. The virus was probably circulating [then], he said.
By Mathieu Rosemain and Gwenaelle Barzic PARIS (Reuters) - France has rejected a request from e-commerce giant Amazon to tap a state-funded scheme to subsidise furloughed employees at its six closed warehouses in the country. Amazon's French warehouses, which employ about 10,000 people on permanent and interim contracts, have been shut since April 16 after court rulings ordered the company to limit deliveries to a list of essential goods during the coronavirus pandemic or face fines. The Seattle-based group said it would keep paying its French employees their full salary during the temporary warehouse closures, but it also filed a formal request last week to benefit from the state scheme under which the government pledges to pay 70% of the gross salary of workers placed on furlough during the pandemic.

By Mathieu Rosemain and Gwenaelle Barzic

PARIS (Reuters) - France has rejected a request from e-commerce giant Amazon to tap a state-funded scheme to subsidise furloughed employees at its six closed warehouses in the country.

Amazon's French warehouses, which employ about 10,000 people on permanent and interim contracts, have been shut since April 16 after court rulings ordered the company to limit deliveries to a list of essential goods during the coronavirus pandemic or face fines.

The Seattle-based group said it would keep paying its French employees their full salary during the temporary warehouse closures, but it also filed a formal request last week to benefit from the state scheme under which the government pledges to pay 70% of the gross salary of workers placed on furlough during the pandemic.

"The request... has been rejected because the closure of the sites is the consequence of a court ruling and not of a drop in activity," the French labour ministry said on Monday.

The company has said the latest French court ruling, which restricts deliveries to IT products, health items, food and pet food could lead to multimillion-dollar fines if it unintentionally ships items that are not included on the list.

"The potential court penalty means that even a rate of 0.1% of handling or shipping items that are not included in the judgment could lead to a fine of more than a billion euros ($1.1 billion) per week," Amazon said.

French unions have brushed off Amazon's arguments, saying the company was playing hardball with them by taking an all-or-nothing approach that impedes the start of proper negotiations.

Amazon said that some unions were seeking to exploit "complex" procedures with staff representatives, who have to be consulted and informed under French law.

The company said it would inform unions at a works council on Wednesday of its intent to keep warehouses shut up to and including May 8 as it seeks the best way to operate under the terms of the ruling.

The legal stand-off followed a complaint filed by hardline union SUD, which said Amazon did not do enough to protect employees from COVID-19 contagion.

"We're in contact with the authorities to keep them informed of the situation at our sites (following the ruling)," Amazon said in a statement earlier on Monday.

(Reporting by Gwenaelle Barzic and Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and David Goodman)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
A Colorado man arrested by federal authorities after four pipe bombs were found in his home told investigators he planned to use them to defend himself in a home invasion, according to a court document.

Bradley Bunn, 53, was arrested on Friday after agents from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies searched his home in Loveland.

Technicians also found two one-pound containers of .308 caliber cartridge reloading gunpowder, a potential pipe bomb component, in Bunn's vehicle, according to the affidavit explaining the reasons he was arrested.

Bradley Bunn, 53, (pictured) was arrested on Friday after agents from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies searched his home in Loveland

Bunn told investigators he planned to use the pipe bombs (pictured) to defend himself in a home invasion, according to a court document

When asked why he built the devices, Bunn allegedly told an FBI agent he said he would use them to defend himself from a 'hard entry, at 3am' into his home.

The document did not explain why authorities decided to investigate him.

Bunn appeared in court briefly Monday represented by federal public defender Natalie Stricklin.

He said he had not seen the allegations against him and the magistrate instructed officials to make sure he was given the court documents.

He was scheduled to be back in court Wednesday to determine whether he will be detained as the case against him continues.

Attorneys from the federal public defenders' office do not comment on cases.
Government scientists said ministers should discourage the public from shaking hands on the same day that Boris Johnson said he had shaken hands with everybody on a visit to a hospital with coronavirus patients, newly released documents have revealed.

Members of a scientific advisory committee agreed on 3 March that official advice should warn against handshaking for hygiene reasons, and ministers should instead promote an alternative greeting.

But later that day, Mr Johnson told a Downing Street press conference that he had not ditched the traditional form of greeting.

I can tell you that Im shaking hands continuously, he said.

I was at a hospital the other night where I think there were actually a few coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody, youll be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands.

Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Show all 30 1 /30 Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Staff react outside Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester during a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Staff inside Camberwell bus depot in London, during a minute's silence PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus NHS staff at the Mater hospital in Belfast, during a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak. PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Shoppers observe a minute's silence in Tescos in Shoreham Getty Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Firefighters outside Godstone fire station PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Salford Royal Hospital Getty Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Salford Royal Hospital PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Hospital workers take part in a protest calling on the British government to provide PPE across Britain for all workers in care, the NHS and other vital public services after a nationwide minute's silence at University College Hospital in London AP Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus A school children's poster hanging outside Glenfield Hospital during a minute's silence Getty Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus A man holds a placard that reads "People's health before profit" outside St Thomas hospital Getty Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Staff members applaud outside the Royal Derby Hospital, following a minute's silence PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill, Prime minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, stand inside 10 Downing Street, London, to observe a minutes silence in tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus University College Hospital, London Hospital workers hold placards with the names of their colleagues who have died from coronavirus as they take part in a protest calling on the British government to provide PPE AP Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Staff at Waterloo Station in London, stand to observe a minute's silence, to pay tribute to NHS and key workers who have died with coronavirus AP Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Medical staff at the Louisa Jordan hospital stand during a UK wide minutes silence to commemorate the key workers who have died with coronavirus in Glasgow Getty Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus London An NHS worker observes a minute's silence at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Reuters Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London AFP via Getty Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Belfast, Northern Ireland NHS staff observe a minutes silence at Mater Infirmorum Hospital Reuters Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Plymouth NHS workers hold a minute's silence outside the main entrance of Derriford Hospital Getty Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus NHS Frimley Park Hospital staff at the A&E department observe a minute's silence Getty Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Mater Infirmorum Hospital People applaud after a minutes silence in honour of key workers Reuters Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Waterloo Station, London AP Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Wreaths laid outside Sheffield town hall PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus A group of trade unionists and supporters standing outside Sheffield town hall PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus First Minister Nicola Sturgeon stands outside St Andrew's House in Edinburgh to observe a minute's silence in tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Staff stand outside the Royal Derby Hospital, during a minutes silence PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus London Police officers observe a minutes silence at Guy's Hospital Reuters Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus A woman standing outside Sheffield town hall PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Royal Derby Hospital PA Silence for key workers who lost lives to coronavirus Leicester, NHS workers during a minute's silence outside Glenfield Hospital Getty

Two days later the prime minister made a point of shaking hands with Phillip Schofield, even though the presenter kept his hands to his sides when he interviewed him on ITVs This Morning.

He was then photographed on 9 March shaking hands with the boxer Anthony Joshua at the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey.

Records released by the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) have revealed that its Independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) had discussed the issue earlier that day.

And it came to a clear conclusion: There was agreement that government should advise against greetings such as shaking hands and hugging, given existing evidence about the importance of hand hygiene.

Promoting a replacement greeting or encouraging others to politely decline a proffered handshake may have benefit.

Boris Johnson shakes hands with Anthony Joshua on 9 March (Getty)

Mr Johnson later made clear he had given up handshaking, but he has since been criticised for encouraging public complacency about the need to change behaviour in response to the Covid-19 outbreak.

His comments came at a time when the elbow-nudge or Wuhan handshake  touching shoes  were becoming popular as a means to avoid the skin-to-skin contact which can spread coronavirus.

Mr Johnsons official spokesperson today said the PM would not have seen the SPI-B paper by the time he made his comments, which referred to a hospital visit a few days before.

The PM was very clear at the time that he was taking a number of precautionary steps, including frequently washing his hands, said the spokesperson.

Once the social distancing advice was changed, the prime ministers approach changed.

The Sage papers are papers which have been considered by Sage and inform the advice that Sage has given to ministers, they are not Sages final advice to ministers.

In terms of the prime minister, I wouldnt be able to say if he would ever have seen that document.
The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in Lauwin-Planque, northern France, on Feb. 20, 2017. (Pascal Rossignol/Reuters)

France Deals Blow to Amazon As Warehouses Remain Shut

PARISFrance has rejected a request from e-commerce giant Amazon to tap a state-funded scheme to subsidize furloughed employees at its six closed warehouses in the country.

Amazons French warehouses, which employ about 10,000 people on permanent and interim contracts, have been shut since April 16 after court rulings ordered the company to limit deliveries to a list of essential goods during the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, pandemic or face fines.

The Seattle-based group said it would keep paying its French employees their full salary during the temporary warehouse closures, but it also filed a formal request last week to benefit from the state scheme under which the government pledges to pay 70 percent of the gross salary of workers placed on furlough during the pandemic.

The request has been rejected because the closure of the sites is the consequence of a court ruling and not of a drop in activity, the French labour ministry said on Monday.

Amazons logistic center in Lauwin-Planque, northern France, on April 11, 2015. (Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images)

The company has said the latest French court ruling, which restricts deliveries to IT products, health items, food, and pet food could lead to multimillion-dollar fines if it unintentionally ships items that are not included on the list.

The potential court penalty means that even a rate of 0.1 percent of handling or shipping items that are not included in the judgment could lead to a fine of more than a billion euros ($1.1 billion) per week, Amazon said.

French unions have brushed off Amazons arguments, saying the company was playing hardball with them by taking an all-or-nothing approach that impedes the start of proper negotiations.

Amazon said that some unions were seeking to exploit complex procedures with staff representatives, who have to be consulted and informed under French law.

The company said it would inform unions at a works council on Wednesday of its intent to keep warehouses shut up to and including May 8 as it seeks the best way to operate under the terms of the ruling.

The legal stand-off followed a complaint filed by hardline union SUD, which said Amazon did not do enough to protect employees from COVID-19 contagion.

Were in contact with the authorities to keep them informed of the situation at our sites (following the ruling), Amazon said in a statement earlier on Monday.

By Mathieu Rosemain and Gwenaelle Barzic

Epoch Times staff contributed to this report.
Anger over the case has been building among civil rights activists and others, with the Rev. Al Sharpton calling for an investigation, and state and local N.A.A.C.P. leaders calling for the arrest of the McMichaels.

[Read more about the third person charged in Ahmaud Arberys death.]

This is very grave and very serious judicial malpractice, James Woodall, the president of the Georgia N.A.A.C.P., said on Tuesday afternoon.

In a statement, Andrea Young, executive director of the A.C.L.U. of Georgia, said the vigilante behavior that we saw in Brunswick is unacceptable in a civilized society.

A spokesman for the Glynn County Police Department could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Mr. Durden said in a statement that the case should go before a Glynn County grand jury once the state judicial system allows such bodies to be empaneled again. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Georgia Supreme Court has prohibited grand juries from meeting through June 12.

Mr. Durden said he made his decision after careful review of the evidence, and after consulting with the Glynn County Police Department, the F.B.I., the United States attorney for the Southern District of Georgia and the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia.

Mr. Durden is the third prosecutor to be assigned to the case after the first two recused themselves because of professional ties to Gregory McMichael.

Mr. McMichael had recently retired after a long career as an investigator in the Brunswick district attorneys office. He had also worked for seven years as an officer in the Glynn County Police Department.
NEW YORK  Before the coronavirus outbreak, furniture deliveries at Sunnyland Outdoor Living meant two employees sitting side-by-side in a truck. Now, one will be driving the truck while the second follows in a car.

And when Sunnylands workers reach a customers home, well deliver outside _ we wont go inside peoples houses, says Brad Schweig, the retailers vice president for operations.

Employee safety is a priority as small and midsize businesses rehire laid-off employees and get back to work and many owners realize that supplying masks and gloves wont be enough.

Many staffers are anxious about increased contact with others that could make them more vulnerable to catching the virus  feelings owners understand they need to consider. Theyre staggering work hours and shifts to cut the number of people onsite. Theyre also redoing floor plans and operations to minimize contact  a step that also helps keep customers safe.

Georgia has already allowed businesses like hair and nail salons, restaurants and gyms to open with social distancing restrictions. Alabama has allowed some limited openings, and Texas and Colorado permitted many companies to reopen on Friday. Around the country owners are recalling laid-off workers although they cant resume full operations yet; with government loan money arriving, companies can pay their workers again.

The steps businesses are taking are in line with recent guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some of it is common sense that we should have been doing long before this, says Louise McCullough, who hopes to soon reopen her dog care company, Paws Chateau in Huntington Beach, California.

Before the virus struck, clients would walk their dogs into Paws Chateau and hand the leashes over to staffers. Now McCullough is creating a safe space where dogs will be unleashed by owners outside the building, and then staffers will wipe the dogs down with pet-safe antiseptic soap and take them inside.

Wolfs Ridge Brewing, a restaurant and bar in Columbus, Ohio, is a large establishment, with three kitchens. Co-owner Bob Szuter is using all three even though his business right now is limited to takeout and delivery. On a busy Friday or Saturday night, this allows for just four to five staffers in each kitchen instead of the usual 15 or 20.

Szuter recalled about 25 staffers after the company received government loan money, bringing the work force to about 50. As he plans for how Wolfs Ridge will operate safely when the state allows restaurants to resume table service, Szuter is including staffers in the process.

Its going to be a negotiation with them. Were asking them, `hey, what do you guys feel comfortable doing? Szuter says.

Atrend, an audio equipment manufacturer thats now producing protective gear for health workers, has spread its 22 employees across its 50,000-foot warehouse in Chicago _ theyre no longer working side by side. And while they used to take coffee and lunch breaks together, those traditions are on hold.

Theyre in the break room by themselves _ their breaks are all staggered, CEO Kevin Hundal says.

Staffers are also now getting more than a good morning as they arrive. Hundal is taking staffers temperatures, and if someone has a reading of 100.4 degrees or higher, hell send them home.

Monitoring employees symptoms, which can include taking temperatures, is something the CDC is encouraging employers to do. But as owners take on that new routine, they may find themselves dealing with confidentiality issues, says Hagood Tighe, a labor law attorney with Fisher Phillips in Columbia, South Carolina.

If employers are doing that, they need to be doing it in such a way that an employees privacy is protected, Tighe said. That means testing in a private area, something that may be difficult in a business with close quarters.

Staffers anxiety is as important a concern for owners as their physical safety. As Front Burner Groups 20 Texas restaurants serve sit-down diners again, in addition to the masks and gloves employees will wear, one staffer will be sanitizing surfaces throughout the establishments _ and wearing a white coat so everyone can see the disinfecting process.

CEO Randy DeWitt and his managers learned how anxious staffers are when they started recalling laid-off workers. Some dont want to come back, including one with a child with respiratory problems.

When we contacted people, I would say one out of 10 said, Im too nervous, DeWitt says.

Schweig, the Sunnyland Outdoor vice president, was himself nervous about one staffer who wanted to come back to work; shes in her late 70s, the age group believed to be most vulnerable to the virus. Schweig told her he will pay her to stay home.

Its not worth risking her health to come back now, he says.

About the photo: In this April 22, 2020 file photo, Brad Schweig looks over paperwork after unloading products as he prepare his family owned retail store Sunnyland Outdoor Living for a limited re-opening in Dallas. As small and midsize businesses rehire laid-off employees and get back to work, owners are making substantial changes to their operations to protect staffers from the coronavirus. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 10:16:28|Editor: huaxia

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HARBIN, May 5 (Xinhua) -- No newly confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province for Monday, the provincial health commission said Tuesday.

By Monday, the province had reported a total of 558 locally-transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases and 386 imported cases.

Also by Monday, 492 locally-transmitted COVID-19 patients as well as 227 imported cases had been discharged from hospital after recovery.

By Monday, the province had a total of 19 domestically-transmitted and four imported asymptomatic cases, according to the commission. Enditem
AND THEN THEY STOPPED TALKING TO ME

Making Sense of Middle School

By Judith Warner

Its just like junior high all over again. I spoke those words not long ago when I was trapped in a toxic professional setting.

Apparently Im not the only adult who remembers too well the pangs of those years. Judith Warner interviews scores of fellow middle school survivors in her accomplished and highly readable new book, And Then They Stopped Talking to Me. These barely recovered adults share the horror stories you might expect: memories of bullying, cliques and lost friendships. Perhaps more alarming is the bad behavior on the part of parents who push their children to be top of the heap using adult-size mean girl tactics.

Warner knows of what she speaks. Not only is the book well researched, but she also gets personal with her tales of middle school woe  both as a former student and as a parent. It is the caregivers of current middle schoolers who might gain the most solace and insight from this book, those who find that shepherding children through what was once called junior high brings back their own trauma in unexpectedly painful ways.
The Interior secretary gave special permission for President Trump to use the inside portion of the Lincoln Memorial for Sunday night's virtual town hall with Fox News Channel.

'Given the extraordinary crisis that the American people have endured, and the need for the president to exercise a core governmental function to address the nation about an ongoing public-health crisis, I am exercising my authority to facilitate the opportunity for the president to conduct this address within the Lincoln Memorial,' Interior Secretary David Bernhardt wrote in a notice that allowed for certain security closures to be made around the monument.

Generally, 'demonstrations and special events' are not allowed on the main level of the Lincoln Memorial, where the Daniel Chester French statue resides, with the exception of the celebration of the 16th president's birthday.

The Interior secretary gave special permission for President Trump (left) to use the inside of the Lincoln Memorial for Sunday night's virtual town hall with Fox News Channel

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt allowed security closures to take place around the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday in order for the president to 'address the nation about an ongoing public-health crisis'

The main level of the Lincoln Memorial around the Daniel Chester French is barred from being used for 'demonstrations and special events' with the exception of a celebration marking the 16th president's birthday

Fox News Channel anchors Marha MacCallum (left) and Bret Baier (right) brought up during the program how using the Lincoln Memorial was President Trump's idea (center), but Trump replied, 'I thought it was your choice, not ours'

But Bernhardt, in his directive, called the Lincoln Memorial a 'uniquely appropriate place' where the president 'will illuminate and reflect the values of our nation' amid the coronavirus pandemic.

'Such an action will allow the president and the nation to use Lincoln's powerful presence and the solemnity of the memorial to reflect on and draw from our nation's better angels, and to remind all of us that we can knit our often-divided nation together in a time of trial,' Bernhardt said.

On Sunday, in the hours leading up to the town hall event, there was a fenced security perimeter around the Lincoln, which joggers and bikers were not allowed to pass.

The New York Times reported Monday on some of the details of how the town hall came together.

The White House said using the Lincoln Memorial for the Q&A was a 'joint decision' with Fox News.

However, three people involved in the planning told The Times that the White House made the decision.

A Fox News spokesperson pointed to a back-and-forth between Fox News anchors, Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, and Trump.

The Fox News hosts mentioned how the venue choice had been Trump's - and had created controversy.

'And I did say this would be nice, but I thought it was your choice, not ours,' Trump said. 'And I had not heard, what can you criticize? I don't think it's ever been done, what we're doing tonight, here, and I think it's great for the American people to see, this is a great work of art, aside from the fact that that was a great man, this is a great work of art,' Trump said, referencing French's statue of Lincoln.

Trump did strike some partisan and anti-press tones during the two-hour Fox News program.

He suggested that Democrats didn't want to see the anti-Malaria drug he's been touting - hydroxychloroquine - work in fighting COVID-19.

'Here's what we've been reduced to in this country,' Trump said. 'The Democrats, the radical left, whatever you - would rather have people, I'm going to be very nice, I'm not going to say die - would rather see people not get well because they think I'm going to get credit, if hydroxychloroquine works.'

When a Trump supporter pleaded with him to modify his behavior and asked why he didn't directly answer questions from the press, the president compared himself to Abraham Lincoln.

'Look, I am greeted with a hostile press the likes of which no president has ever seen,' Trump said. 'The closest would be that gentleman right up there. They always said Lincoln - nobody got treated worse than Lincoln.'

'I believe I am treated worse,' Trump said.
L ow staff numbers and a lack of PPE are among the challenges facing schools as they draw together plans to reopen.

Headteachers are calling on the Government to improve its guidance on social distancing, as part of a number of prerequisites for getting kids back into the classroom.

Parents wont have the confidence to send their children back if schools arent given enough time to prepare, the leader of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) has warned.

More than a quarter of (29 per cent) heads think social distancing in primary schools will be almost impossible to achieve, according to a new poll by NAHT.

Fewer than one in 10 (nine per cent) think it will be achievable with children aged seven and under, their research suggests.

The survey, of more than 7,300 school leaders, comes amid speculation that schools could be asked to reopen their doors to more pupils before the summer holidays.

Boris Johnson promised to deliver a comprehensive plan this week on how the UK lockdown may be eased and suggested that he would set out efforts to get children back to school.

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

On Sunday, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford said schools in Wales could be allowed to reopen their doors from the start of June in a phased approach.

The survey found that 82 per cent of school leaders said they could prepare for a reopening within three weeks, but 11 per cent said they would need longer.

One in four headteachers, questioned last week, said that fewer than half of their staff were currently available to attend school as they were at risk, shielding or had caring responsibilities.

Schools, colleges and nurseries closed more than six weeks ago due to the coronavirus outbreak, remaining open only for vulnerable youngsters and the children of key workers.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has said schools across England are set to reopen to children in a phased manner after the lockdown but he has yet to set a date.

Asked what issues would prevent schools from reopening to more pupils by a date set by the Government, the top answers among heads were an inability to implement appropriate social distancing measures (83 per cent), a lack of available staff (63 per cent), and a lack of PPE (57 per cent).

Quizzed on what actions they could take to achieve social distancing, school leaders said they were largely in favour of using rotas to limit the number of pupils (72 per cent), staggering lunchtimes and breaks (66 per cent), and rearranging furniture and seating in classrooms (60 per cent).

Schools will reopen in phased manner after lockdown, says Education Secretary

But some parents are still worried about sending their children back to school. Heads have been fielding calls in recent days from families who are concerned about their childs safety.

Simon Kidwell, head of Hartford Manor Primary School in Cheshire, has been contacted by families who are not ready to send children back.

He said: If parents feel their children are safer at home, I certainly dont want to be enforcing school attendance with the usual levers that I have.

NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman said: If school leaders are not given sufficient time to prepare then we are going to have a very difficult return to schools.

Parents and the public will not have confidence in schools ability to keep children safe if they havent been able to do the proper preparations to keep children apart and to make sure they have got all the right equipment there for children to wash their hands.

He added: The endless speculation as to an exact date for schools reopening misses the point. Its not about when we return, its about how we return.

There are huge practical difficulties to solve, from a reduced workforce, to the impossibility of social distancing at school, to the lack of public confidence in the safety of their children returning.

A Department for Education spokesman said: Schools will remain closed, except for children of critical workers and vulnerable children, until the scientific advice indicates it is the right time to reopen and the five tests set out by Government to beat this virus have been met.

We are also working closely with the sector as we consider how to reopen schools, nurseries and colleges, and will ensure everyone has sufficient notice to plan and prepare.
ROSTOCK (dpa-AFX) - Nordex SE (NRDXF.PK) has decided to withdraw the guidance for the current financial year 2020, due to the worldwide impacts of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic on its business Nordex said its performance improved substantially in line with expectations in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period of the previous year on the back of its high order backlog amounting to 8.4 billion euros. The company reported preliminary sales for the first-quarter increased to 964.6 million euros from 398.9 million euros last year, due to a substantially greater number of installations in the Projects segment. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization or EBITDA for the first-quarter increased to 13.1 million euros from 3.3 million euros last year. However, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic will affect the results of Nordex from the second quarter of 2020, which effects are not yet quantifiable. 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.
Six people, including two pilots, were killed when a plane carrying medical supplies crashed in south-western Somalia on Monday.

The cause of the accident is not yet known, government spokesman Ismael Mukhtar Omar told the Germanys news agency dpa.

The plane, which was carrying medical supplies needed in the fight against the coronavirus, took off from Baidoa airport in the Bay region.

It crashed shortly after, near the town of Bardaale where it was meant to land, Omar said.



Gilbert Kibe, director general of the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, confirmed to dpa that the plane belonged to Kenyas African Express Airways.

But he said there was no official reports about the casualties or cause of the accident.

Some reports later said the son of Muse Bulhan, the owner of the African Express Airways was one of the pilots, who died.

Speculation in local media also was that the crash was caused by a missile from Ethiopian troops stationed in the area.

Ethiopian authorities were not available for comment.

Ethiopian, Somalian, and African Union forces operate in the area because of the threat posed by the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab.

The group, which is affiliated with the international al-Qaeda terrorist network, wants to establish an Islamist state in Somalia.

It repeatedly attacks security forces and civilians.

Although based in Somalia, it also regularly carries out attacks in neighbouring Kenya.

Islamic State has also gained an increasing foothold in the Horn of Africa

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Math education can be difficultfor students and teachers.

Those difficulties are often magnified when students have learning disabilities such as dyscalculia that can make it difficult to learn math facts or dyslexia that can make it hard to read word problems. Or maybe they are learning English and struggling to grasp math concepts in a new language.

In interviews with Education Week, expertspractitioners and researchersoffered perspectives on how to make mathematics instruction best serve those student populations. Their advice clustered around three themes:

Resist the temptation to de-emphasize language in math class, especially for English-learners and those who have language-related disabilities. De-emphasis is probably a disservice.

Consider how broad student labels can conceal mathematical skill. English-learners, depending on their prior schooling, and students with disabilities, depending on their specific disability, can have widely varying math abilities and knowledge.

Focus on what students can do rather than fixating on what they cannot.

Emilia Frias, who has taught English-learners and students with disabilities in special education and general education classrooms, has long understood the struggles her students face.

A former English-language learner who was also identified with learning disabilities as a child, the Magnolia, Calif., school system special education teacher did not learn to read until 6th gradeand her difficulty with reading often carried over to math class, where word problems left her frustrated and puzzled.

Now that shes on the other side of the equation, Frias uses carefully constructed lessons to meet the disparate needs of her 3rd and 4th grade students with moderate to severe learning disabilities. She is always looking for the individual strengths that will carry them further, and she doesnt shy away from making words central to her lessons.

During a recent live-video session, Frias used trays filled with home-baked cookies to deliver lessons on multiplication for some, addition and subtraction for others, and counting for those who are still working on one-to-one correspondencethe early math skill of counting each object in a set.

Language Counts

I had questions for each of those levels: How many were in tray 1? How many were in tray 2? How many were altogether?  Frias explained. Then I had questions like, Which one had more; which one had less? And these are questions that Im typing out for parents to be asking their kids.

Just like their peers, her students need to know how to use math in life, and that includes mastering math words and phrases, Frias said.

I want to give them all the vocabulary and terminology, and I would do the same thing with my English-learners, Frias added. If we dont, theyre missing out on a lot of opportunity that their peers have exposure to.

Cathery Yeh, an assistant professor of teacher education at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., works alongside Frias and other teachers in the Magnolia schools, helping them develop lesson plans and strategies for teaching math to English-learners and students with disabilities.

To reach all their students, math instructors at all levels of K-12 education must shed the belief they only teach math, Yeh said.

Math teacherswe often see ourselves as content-area teachers. Like our job is to be knowledgeable about math and not necessarily responsible for promoting language development, Yeh said. But we have to support learning math through language and learning language through math.

Labels Can Limit

Part of the challenge in supporting learning lies in being cautious about the overly broad labels attached to students who receive special education or English-learner services. The labels often fail to focus on the strengths or particular needs of students, experts say.

These kids show up, they have labels given to them by schools, said Judit Moschkovich, a professor in mathematics education at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Then we make all kinds of assumptions.

U.S.-born English-learners could excel or struggle with math. Immigrant students sometimes come to U.S. schools with more math knowledge than their U.S. peers. Some refugee students have missed years of formal schooling.

But however much educators need to pay attention to such differences, they should drop the misconception that English-learner students need to be proficient in the language to learn math, Moschkovich said.

It takes a long time to learn a second language, and we cant wait, she said. Even as theyre learning English, they are able to learn mathematics and even communicate mathematically.

Unwarranted assumptions are also made about students with disabilities. Brad Witzel, an education professor and special education program coordinator at Winthrop University in South Carolina, said educators who teach math should define expectations for students based on their skills, not their labels.

We dont fully understand the cognitive power of children with disabilities, Witzel said. Were so stuck on deficit skills we end up focusing on what they cant remember rather than what the concept to be learned is.

A problem that can compound such deficit thinking is that assessments and individualized education programs for students with disabilities often fail to provide a clear picture of whether students have difficulty with reading comprehension or number senseor both, Witzel said.

A student identified with a learning disability in math could be a struggling reader or a fluent one. If the difficulty is with both math and reading, text-heavy math books make the problem worse, and explicit vocabulary in math class becomes even more critical, Witzel said.

I worry about how we can tease [math and reading disabilities] apart, he said. We need to be much more precise.

Focusing on Strengths

Melissa Brennan, the 2020 teacher of the year in Orange County, Calif., strives not to oversimplify lessons, she said, because her studentsmany of whom have autism spectrum disorderdeserve and can handle more.

Now that schools are shut, shes delivering distance-learning lessons on counting, place value, and estimation that parents can replicate with items they can find lying around the house.

With the help of Yeh, Brennan, who teaches in the Magnolia schools, began to shift her thinking about a decade ago from what her students could not do to how math could help sharpen the focus on what strengths they have.

Society has to change our notions around who can and cannot do math, Yeh explained. The goal isnt for our children to memorize procedures, but to develop ways of knowing and thinking mathematically that can help support them in problem solving and reasoning for life.

While visiting Brennans class when school was still in session, Yeh watched her teach a lesson to her students, who have mild to moderate learning disabilities, on evenly dividing a group of items like pretzels or toys. Educators call this a fair share lesson, and it introduced her nonverbal students to the mathematical concepts of division and fractions.

The everyday activity of sharing familiar objects put those concepts within reach for students with IEPs that mandate their math instruction focus on counting, Yeh said. Students can often do more, but to make that happen, educators must be sure the learning connects to their daily lives.

With her strengths perspective, Brennan has even discovered a bright side to the school closures that have forced her and her students into distance learning. As she works with parents at home, she finds many begin to really understand what their children are capable of.

They could be good at pattern recognition or really understand the principles of the lesson even if they havent memorized math facts yet, the teacher said.

Frias, Brennans colleague, learned long ago what she was capable of, and sometimes that understanding is her most valuable lesson to students. In her first special education teaching job, Frias taught in a juvenile-justice facility, where many of her students had learning disabilities. When she explained to them that she also has visual- and auditory- processing disorders, many of them dismissed her claims.

Frias had her mother dig through boxes with her school papers to find a copy of an old IEP. She brought it to class as proof and to deliver a message to her students with disabilities.

Yes, it is harder for us, Frias said, but it doesnt mean we cant do it.
New Delhi, May 5 : Three Navy ships set sail on Tuesday to bring back Indian citizens stranded in the Maldives and UAE because of lockdown imposed to contain spread of coronavirus. These are part of the total 14 ships kept ready to bring back those stranded in the Gulf nations.

Two left for Maldives and one for Dubai. These three ships can bring around 2,000 people while maintaining social distancing. Amphibious transport dock INS Jalaswa and warfare vessel INS Magar set sails for the Maldives and INS Shardul attached to Southern Naval Command sailed for Dubai.

INS Shardul is expected to dock at Dubai on Thursday and the details of evacuation will be decided by the Indian mission there. Thereafter it will take another two days for the vessel to return to Kochi.

The force said that they have launched Operation 'Samudra Setu' (Sea Bridge), as a part of national effort to evacuate Indian citizens from overseas.

Indian Naval Ships Jalashwa and Magar are currently en route to the port of Male, Republic of Maldives, to commence evacuation operations from May 8 as part of Phase-1.

"The government has been closely monitoring the situation with respect to effect of COVID-19 pandemic on our citizens abroad. The Indian Navy has been directed to make suitable preparations for their evacuation by sea," said Commander Vivek Madhwa.

The Indian Mission in Republic of Maldives is preparing a list of Indian nationals to be evacuated by Naval ships and will facilitate their embarkation after requisite medical screening. A total of 1,000 persons are planned to be evacuated during the first trip.

These ships have made arrangements as per the standard protocol laid out to deal with suspected Covid people like social distancing and sanitization. The Indian Navy has removed non-essential equipment in order to accommodate the evacuees.

Other 11 ships are on standby so far and as the Central government issues directions, they would start sailing, said as senior Indian Navy official.

Earlier, the Navy had carried out evacuation efforts in war-torn areas such as Lebanon (2006) and Yemen (2015). Before that, evacuation was carried out in 1990 during the first Gulf war between Iraq and Kuwait where around 1.5 lakh people were evacuated.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has unveiled a detailed schedule for the evacuation of stranded citizens from various countries. As per schedule, 64 flights will be operated aiming to bring 15,000 Indians from May 7 to May 14.

In addition, 30 Air Force aircraft have been put on standby to carry out evacuation operations the moment the go-ahead is given.

The Air Force has already evacuated citizens from countries affected by Covid-19 frequently since January, which includes flights to China, Japan, Iran, Kuwait and Italy.

The force has stated that they have kept C-17 Globemaster and C-130s on standby and can be used whenever required.
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The new Queen Vic pub has finally been revealed as the 87million EastEnders set continued.

The extensive project, which has been built next door to the original set, appeared to be almost ready in new images revealed on Tuesday, as work on the project carries on amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The iconic pub had previously been shrouded in plastic sheeting and scaffolding as work on the building got underway, but the brand new pale brick exterior of the Queen Vic is now visible.

Wow! The new Queen Vic pub has finally been revealed as the 87million EastEnders set in Borehamwood continued on Tuesday

The old pub featured a deep red paneling around the building with gold detailing and lettering, it is currently unclear whether the watering hole will be exactly the same or undergo a revamp.

The Queen Vic appears to be having its new windows fitted at the moment, while the roof terrace on the building looks ready to be used when filming resumes in the future.

Earlier this month, images showed the set buzzing with activity as work continued amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

Working hard: The extensive project, which has been built next door to the original set, appeared to be almost ready in new images revealed on Tuesday, as work on the project carries on amid the coronavirus pandemic

Before and after: The left image shows the current pub while the right image shows the new Queen Vic under construction

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 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.

Lone site workers were spotted in protective gear as they busily went about their tasks, keeping a fair distance from one another.

After: The old pub featured a deep red paneling around the building with gold detailing and lettering, it is currently unclear whether the watering hole will be exactly the same or undergo a revamp

Now and then! The left image shows the current Albert Square being used for filming while the right reveals the new one

Under construction: Earlier this month, images showed the set buzzing with activity as work continued amid the COVID-19 outbreak

Old: The old railway station has also been reconstructed for the new set (pictured in 2015)

The BBC was accused of 'complacency' over the astonishing 87 million bill for its new EastEnders set in March.

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.

Characters: Current characters including Phil Mitchell and Linda Carter aren't expected to use the set until 2023

Safety first: 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 hygiene

Matter of opinion: 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

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'.

Action packed: Ben Mitchell and Peter Beale will no doubt film explosive storylines on the new set

Keeping safe: Lone site workers were spotted in protective gear as they busily went about their tasks, keeping a fair distance from one another

Under fire: The BBC was accused of 'complacency' over the astonishing 87 million bill for its new EastEnders set in March

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.

Running late: 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

Criticism: 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

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.

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.

Claims: The public accounts committee said they secured a contract poorly, drastically increasing costs
Israels Defence Minister Naftali Bennett on Monday said that the scientist of the country made a significant breakthrough in spotting the antibody for coronavirus as the researchers have completed the development phase and have moved to mass-produce and patent phase. Reports reveal that Bennett visited the Institute for Biological Research (IIBR), which is supervised by the Prime Ministers Office on Monday, where the scientists informed him that the development phase of making the vaccine is complete. He was shown the antibody that can attack the virus in a monoclonal way and can easily neutralize it in the bodies.

IIBR Director Shmuel Shapira said that the formula is being patented, post to which the researchers will approach an international manufacturer for mass-produce on a commercial scale. Bennett is his statement said that he is proud of the staff of the institution and said that it is the combined effort of their creativity and the Jewish mind which has brought positive results.

In March, there was a report stating that the scientists and the researchers in the institute first understood the biological mechanism and the qualities of the virus and also studied about the capability and the production of antibodies from those suffering from the virus.

Also Read: PM Narendra Modi to participate in NAM virtual summit to discuss Indias COVID-19 strategy today

Israel's Biological Institute completes development phase of COVID-19 antibody Read @ANI Story | https://t.co/qjAmVJrYYI pic.twitter.com/Z2Cp7gLQwg  ANI Digital (@ani_digital) May 5, 2020

Moreover, there is no update or confirmation of whether the formula has been tried on human beings. Overall, Israel was among the first countries which closed their borders and imposed a strict lockdown on the movement of the people. Total it has reported 16,246 cases with 135 deaths.

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A 43-year journalism career ended Tuesday when Jack Kramer died after a year-long battle with cancer. He was 65.

Kramer worked for nearly two decades at the New Haven Register, leaving as the executive editor when it was owned by the Journal Register Co. before going to the New Britain Herald. He spent the last five years reporting for CTNewsJunkie.com and Patch.com.

Mheegan Rollins Bachinski, who was assistant news editor with Kramer at the New Haven Register, said he was the kind of boss who saw your potential even if you didnt.

I didnt believe in myself but Jack Kramer did, Rollins Bachinski said.

She said he had an office on the second floor of the building, but he chose to work in the newsroom next to us. She said he never shut his office door and was ever-present in the newsroom.

Al Santangelo, who has been at the paper for more than 20 years and was promoted to run the copy desk by Kramer, said Jack was someone who was involved in the community.

The police chief knew him, the mayor knew him, and the fire chief knew him, said Santangelo, who is now assistant managing editor at the New Haven Register. When you thought about the Register you thought about Jack Kramer.

Kramer, who started out delivering the New Haven Register, would even field calls from disgruntled readers, Rollins Bachinski said. She said the most calls he ever got from readers was when the national syndicate ran the same Batman comic twice.

The day Jack left the Register was the day that paper changed forever, she said. No one can stand in his shadow or fill his shoes.

Lisa Backus, who worked for Kramer in New Britain, said he understood a good story and was supportive of his reporters.

She said he was always calm when there was breaking news about a hospital shooting or the Sandy Hook school shooting.

Santangelo said the same was true on 9/11. He called everyone to the newsroom and they got to work putting out the paper the next day in addition to a special edition.

What a loss for journalism, Backus said. He was a tremendous editor and truly a reporters editor.

Backus said she did some of her best work under Kramer because he supported her and let her go out and do the reporting.

Whatever windmill I was chasing, he would 100 percent say go for it, Backus said.

At the same time, he was this incredible person who was really modest about it.

He made such a mark on the careers of all the reporters and editors he worked with throughout his career.

He was also proud of the topics he got to cover.

In a goodbye column that never ran because there was hope that his cancer prognosis would improve, Kramer reflected on some of those stories.

He joked that CTNewsJunkie had pulled an old reporter off the scrap heap, but Kramer was never rusty.

He was still reporting from his hospital bed. His final story for CTNewsJunkie was posted April 22.

His family joked that he would do anything for a story, including going to the hospital during a pandemic to see what was happening.

In his final week, he emailed Backus to let her know what a good job she was doing.

Tamara Leigh Kramer, his daughter, said her father didnt know how to stop reporting.

Its just his passion, Leigh Kramer said.

She said he knew everything that was happening in town and if he saw something out of the ordinary he would immediately start thinking that it might be a story.

She said he was willing to do things that made him uncomfortable, like tackling technology, because he didnt want to stop telling the story.

But Kramer was more than just a great editor and reporter. He was a great father and husband.

Leigh Kramer said she was a swimmer when she was young, and even though she wasnt very good, her father was always there in the bleachers watching her swim meets.

He was always there for me, Leigh Kramer said. And he always thought I was smarter, capable, and more talented than I believed.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations to made in honor of Kramer to the Sarcoma Foundation of American.
Protesters wave signs out of their car windows while Philadelphia Police ticket them outside of the Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice in Philadelphia in April. The protesters were there to demand the release of more inmates in city jails due to coronavirus fears. Read more

As the coronavirus pandemic has forced us to self-isolate to avoid spreading the disease, some have wondered how any social distance is possible in group-living facilities, particularly jails and prisons. Last month, protesters took to the streets of Philadelphia to demand more inmates be released. However, law enforcement officials argue that doing so would cause problems for public safety, as well as add health risks to those who would be released. The Inquirer turned to an activist and a law enforcement official to debate: Should there be a large-scale release of prisoners during the coronavirus pandemic?

No: Inmates currently in Philadelphias jails are there for a good reason.

By William McSwain

Those calling for the mass release of prisoners want to leverage the pandemic into advancing their political agenda.

These Philadelphia activists  and the activist-in-chief, District Attorney Larry Krasner  want to spread as much misinformation as possible in order to advance their radical criminal justice reform agenda. They smell an opportunity.

If you dont believe me, consider this: Many of the prisoners who have already been released (and those who might soon be released) will have time remaining on their original sentences once the danger from the pandemic is gone. How many of the activists  those who flock to City Hall holding banners saying Free Them All and Free Our People  will then be leading the charge for these individuals to be reincarcerated? Ill tell you how many: zero. That fact exposes the lie of everything that the activists are pushing. Nobody should believe a word they say.

Here are a few other things the activists dont want you to think about. Inmates currently in Philadelphias jails are there for a good reason. They are not victims or political prisoners or folk heroes. The large-scale release of prisoners would have an obvious, and possibly devastating, effect on public safety. In Florida, for example, an inmate recently released in response to coronavirus concerns has been charged for murdering someone the very next day. In California, it took a man only 40 minutes after his coronavirus-inspired release to commit a carjacking.

During the pandemic, many [inmates] are simply better off in prison, where they have food, shelter, and access to health care, including addiction treatment and mental health services. William McSwain

The large-scale release of prisoners would also unfairly burden the Philadelphia Police Department, which is already struggling to deal with a rise in serious violent crime during the pandemic. Officers are at risk of being exposed to the virus; some are already infected, and others are in quarantine. With the department under pressure, the last thing our city needs is more criminals on the loose.

Additionally, the large-scale release of prisoners would, in many cases, put the prisoners themselves more at risk. Many do not have stable housing options, and almost none have employment prospects during the pandemic. And the idea that released individuals  who have already shown themselves unwilling or unable to follow the law  will abide by social distancing orders is fanciful. During the pandemic, many are better off in prison, where they have food, shelter, and access to health care, including addiction treatment and mental health services.

Most importantly, the large-scale release of prisoners would be an affront to the rule of law. There is no pandemic exception to the rule of law. No prisoner should be released without the courts (and prison officials) going through a careful, deliberative, and individualized assessment  one that requires the prosecution to be an honest broker and not an activist tool. Sadly, those in favor of throwing open Philadelphias prison gates dont care about the rule of law, but the rest of us do and for good reason. It is the foundation upon which our entire society rests. We should be extremely vigilant in protecting it, especially when times are tough.

William McSwain is the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, covering Philadelphia and its eight surrounding counties.

Yes: Leaving people in prison who are vulnerable to COVID-19 is a death sentence.

By Kris Henderson

In this time of isolation, many people dont have the option of sheltering in their homes. Among these are over 44,000 people in Pennsylvanias correctional institutions.

Infectious diseases run rampant through the close quarters of prisons and jails during normal times and are potential hotbeds for COVID-19 infection. Rikers Island in New York City has had hundreds of incarcerated people and staff contract COVID-19. Here in Pennsylvania, one man who was fighting to exonerate himself died from the virus.

The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections houses about 12,000 people medically vulnerable to COVID-19  each of these someones child, friend, parent, spouse, or beloved family member.

On April 10, Gov. Tom Wolf issued an executive order making 1,800 people in Pennsylvania state prison convicted of certain nonviolent crimes eligible for reprieve if they can figure out home and reentry plans. Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel has said that of those 1,800 eligible, anywhere from 40% to 80% will likely get out. This is not enough.

The governors order excludes more groups than it includes: It leaves out people convicted of drug trafficking  a troubling point given the racial disparities of the war on drugs  people convicted of violent crimes, even if they have long been misconduct-free and pose no threat to public safety, and those who have more than a year left before reaching their minimum sentence.

Many of the oldest people in DOC custody are serving life or other lengthy sentences, usually for a violent crime that happened years ago. Decades of research have found that as people age, their propensity for violence decreases. While a number of factors go into that reality, it is largely because many people committed the crimes for which they are incarcerated when they were young. Research shows that folks over age 60, including those who have committed violent crimes in the past, are unlikely to commit violent crimes if released.

Leaving thousands of people in prison who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19 means potentially sentencing them to death. As of April 1, Pennsylvania had 131 people on death row. Gov. Wolf has rightly and bravely issued a moratorium on the death penalty. He should not allow that sentence to be carried out by a viral disease on countless people who were never sentenced to it in the first place.

The DOC should review everyone who is medically vulnerable or elderly and grant reprieve to anyone who can safely shelter at home regardless of offense. Kris Henderson

Gov. Wolf ought to expand reprieve to those most vulnerable  saving the lives of incarcerated people, Department of Corrections staff, and vulnerable members of staffers communities. The DOC should review everyone who is medically vulnerable or elderly and grant reprieve to anyone who can safely shelter at home regardless of offense.

Additionally, the governor should expand the current reprieve to include people convicted of drug trafficking and farther than 12 months away from their minimum. Incarcerated people temporarily being allowed to serve their sentence in home confinement should be a matter of public health and safety, not a relitigation of their original crimes. If the Department of Corrections believes a person will not threaten public safety while temporarily sheltering with family, the governor ought to grant reprieve.

Many futures are in the hands of Gov. Wolf and Secretary Wetzel. We must compel these two leaders to act now to create the best future possible and save lives.

Kris Henderson is the executive director of Amistad Law Project, a West Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to people in prison and advocates for just legal policies.

Read more Inquirer Pro/Cons
New Delhi, May 5 : The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel have donated their one-day salary worth Rs 16.23 crore to the PM-CARES Fund as their financial contribution towards fight against the coronaviurs pandemic.

CISF Director General Rajesh Ranjan handed over a cheque of Rs 162,382,357 to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, here on Monday.

The paramilitary force extended its hand following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's clarion call to countrymen to contribute to the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES Fund) to help strengthen the fight against coronavirus that has claimed 1,568 lives and infected over 46,000 across the country.

Showing their responsibility, more than 1.62 lakh CISF personnel donated their one-day salary to the PM-CARES Fund.

The CISF is mandated to provide security to major critical infrastructure in diverse areas.

It's providing security to nuclear installations, space establishments, airports, seaports, power plants, sensitive government buildings and heritage monuments. Among the important responsibilities entrusted to the CISF are the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, VIP security, disaster management and establishment of a Formed Police Unit (FPU) of the UN at Haiti.
Imperial Valley News Center

Testing Laboratory Agrees to Pay Up to $43 Million to Resolve Allegations of Medically Unnecessary Tests

Charlotte, North Carolina - Genova Diagnostics Inc., a clinical laboratory services company based in Asheville, North Carolina, has agreed to pay up to approximately $43 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act, including claims that it billed for medically unnecessary lab tests, the Department of Justice announced last week.

Government healthcare programs are designed to provide beneficiaries with care that is medically reasonable and necessary, said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of the Department of Justices Civil Division. Providers of taxpayer-funded federal healthcare services will be held accountable when they knowingly cause false claims to be submitted for services that do not meet this standard of care.

The False Claims Act is an important legal tool in our rigorous fight to protect the integrity of our healthcare system from providers like Genova Diagnostics, that bill government programs for non-covered testing to boost profits at the expense of taxpayer dollars, said Andrew Murray, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. This office is dedicated to ensuring that healthcare providers in the Western District make medical decisions that benefit their patients, not the providers bottom line.

The settlement resolves allegations that Genova: (a) improperly submitted claims to Medicare, TRICARE, and the federal employee health program for its IgG allergen, NutrEval and GI Effects lab test profiles because the tests were not medically necessary, (b) engaged in improper billing techniques, and (c) paid compensation to three phlebotomy vendors that violated the physician self-referral prohibition commonly known as the Stark Law. The Stark Law is intended to ensure that physician referrals are determined by the medical needs of patients and not the financial interests of physicians.

Under the settlement, Genova has agreed to pay approximately $17 million, through the surrender of claim funds held in suspension by Medicare and TRICARE, plus up to an additional $26 million if certain financial contingencies occur within the next five years, for a total potential payment of up to $43 million.

Contemporaneous with the civil settlement, Genova entered into a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement (CIA) with the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. The CIA requires, among other things, that Genova establish and maintain a compliance program with specific requirements and that it engage an independent review organization.

Labs are expected to bill taxpayer-supported federal health programs for medically necessary services, not pad their bottom lines as alleged by the government in this case, said Derrick L. Jackson, Special Agent in Charge for the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. We will continue working with our law enforcement partners to safeguard these vital programs.

The results of this investigation highlight another step forward by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) and its law enforcement partners to root out fraud and corruption involving medical professionals who undermine the integrity of the Department of Defense, said Special Agent in Charge Robert E. Craig Jr., DCIS Mid-Atlantic Field Office. DCIS will continue to target fraud, waste, and abuse to preserve and recover precious taxpayer dollars for our most vulnerable programs, such as TRICARE."

The OPM OIG is committed to ensuring the integrity of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, which depends upon fair and honest accountings by providers, said Thomas W. South, Deputy Assistant Inspector General for Investigations, Office of Personnel Management, Office of the Inspector General.

The agreement resolves allegations brought by Darryl Landis under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act. The False Claims Act permits private citizens to bring a lawsuit on behalf of the United States for fraud and to share in any recovery. The settlement provides for a payment of up to approximately $6 million to Dr. Landis.

This settlement was the result of a coordinated effort by the departments Civil Division; the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of North Carolina; the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Counsel to the Inspector General and Office of Investigations; the DCIS; the Defense Health Agency Office of General Counsel, and; the OPM OIG, with assistance from the North Carolina Department of Justice.

The lawsuit resolved by this settlement is captioned United States ex rel. Darryl Landis, M.D. v. Genova Diagnostics, Inc., et al., No. 1:17-cv-341 (W.D.N.C.). The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.
Editors note: This story has been updated with comment from Gurules attorney.

Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

He was believed to be the first suspect arrested in New Mexico using a commercial genealogy service.

The case held up in court.

On Monday, Angel Gurule, 23, pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal sexual penetration in the second degree and will be sentenced to at least a decade in prison.

Gurule was arrested in January for the rape of a woman who was tackled and assaulted while jogging in the bosque on Christmas Eve afternoon in 2015.

The case went unsolved until investigators with the District Attorneys Office uploaded the suspects DNA profile into a commercial database similar to ancestry.com, which allows members of the public to investigate their own heritage.

Gurules second cousin, twice removed, a man in his 60s who lives in California, had uploaded his DNA to GEDmatch.com. Comparing that sample to their suspects DNA ultimately led investigators to Gurule.

Although it was believed to be the first-of-its-kind investigation in New Mexico, the tactic has been used elsewhere.

Northern California authorities used a genealogy service to find and arrest the man referred to as the Golden State Killer, former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo, who is charged with 13 counts of murder and other crimes in connection with a series of rapes and murders in the 1970s and 80s. DeAngelo has agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life in prison, according to news reports.

Gurule pleaded guilty to the rape charges during a virtual hearing before 2nd Judicial District Judge Daniel Gallegos. Gurule, who is in custody, and attorneys in the case appeared by video monitor in a nearly empty courtroom.

Gurule had been facing seven counts, according to a state court website, ranging from criminal sexual penetration in the first degree to false imprisonment.

Each of the two charges he pleaded guilty to carries a maximum penalty of nine years in prison. The plea agreement calls for him to serve between 10 and 12 years in prison, followed by probation and parole.

District Attorney Raul Torrez said he was proud his office was the first in the state to use forensic genealogy to get a conviction. And he credited the victim with her perseverance and for holding out hope as the investigative team pioneered a new tactic.

The strength of our case made this early plea possible without subjecting the victim to the secondary trauma of recounting the assault at pre-trial witness interviews and trial, he said in a statement. Todays conviction demonstrates that forensic genealogy is an important new tool in law enforcement and sends a powerful message to victims that we will use every means at our disposal to fight for them.

Gallegos accepted Gurules plea during the hearing and said there will be a sentencing hearing in one to two months.

Prosecutor Lelia Hood briefly described the crime, saying the victim was jogging when she was tackled from behind by Gurule. She was overpowered before being assaulted twice during the attack. The rape happened along a trail near the Rio Grande south of Rio Bravo SW.

Does that sound like what youre pleading guilty to? Gallegos asked Gurule, who acknowledged he was guilty.

Raymond Maestas, Gurules attorney, said he will present evidence of mitigating factors during the sentencing hearing  including testimony by two psychologists who have examined Gurule.

Angel took responsibility and we look forward to explaining to the judge a more complete, human side of Angel, Maestas said. We can never truly understand the impact of childhood trauma on anyone who sadly experiences it.

When Gurule was 2 months old, his father killed his 2-year-old brother in Artesia. He was put into the foster care system and adopted by a family who lived in the South Valley, according to authorities.
[May 04, 2020] CyCraft Accelerates Growth in Japan by Allying with SecureBrain (a Hitachi Systems subsidiary) and Launching AI Security Services

TAIPEI, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On Cycraft Japan's first anniversary, it announces SecureBrain (Headquarters: Chiyoda, Tokyo, President and CEO: Kenichi Aoyama) has become an authorized CyCraft Japan partner, and will now offer CyCraft AIR in Japan to achieve a new height in AI-driven cyber protection. Hackers have grown far stealthier and potent than ever before, making it virtually impossible to completely prevent intrusions. Organizations, now adopting an "assumed breach" mindset, deploy security tools accordingly. Among them, Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) is used to strengthen the depth of endpoint defense, and AI is used to increase the speed of information security analysis and operations. CyCraft AIR combines these two technologies to make the most effective solution to combat modern cyber threats. Before the advent of CyCraft AIR, EDR required professional-level security experts, took a lot of time to conduct large-scale investigations and analysis, and was difficult to integrate successfully into an organization's daily defense. CyCraft AIR solves those issues with its automated AI engine that supports the MITRE ATT&CK information security framework. In minutes it can analyze every threat an organization is facing, no matter the scale, and produce an actionable, easily understood report, in addition to regularly issuing security notifications, clearly visualized analyses, and remediation recommendations. For the first time ever, the problem of information security can now be solved without expert interpretation or combing through voluminous security data. "CyCraft's artificial intelligence and SecureBrain's talented experts together bring a new security service level to Japanese customers in defending modern hackers: full-scale monitoring, deep analytics, and the fastest esponse yet," said James Cheng, CyCraft Japan COO.



CyCraft AIR can simultaneously achieve lightweight deployment, clear visualization of attacks, and rapid reporting of cases. The software that scans the endpoints can be run once (installation-free), scheduled, or continuously to fit customer needs. Horizontal correlation analysis of attacks and hidden devices are marked with topological maps and threat severity is easily understood by color. The complex intrusion routes of hackers pass through AI processing, creating simple and easy-to-understand Japanese reports for decision makers to quickly ascertain and act on their situation. As such, CyCraft AIR can conduct security investigations in minutes without the need for installation. In Japan, it has already successfully helped many organizations respond quickly, thoroughly, and accurately to cybersecurity emergencies. Through AI, companies can quickly take countermeasures early in a cyber attack, and vastly reduce time-consuming evidence collection at the risk of further harm. "SecureBrain is excited to partner with CyCraft to deliver an AI-driven SecOps platform to help Japanese enterprises respond faster to new cyber attacks and stay one step ahead," said Motoaki Yamamura, SecureBrain COO.

About SecureBrain SecureBrain is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi Systems focused on network security services. With the mission of "protecting everyone from cybercrime," SecureBrain provides the most advanced technology and highest-quality security products and services to customers in Japan. About CyCraft CyCraft secures government agencies, Fortune Global 500 firms, top banks and financial institutions in Asia, critical infrastructure, airlines, telecommunications, hi-tech firms, and SMEs in several APAC markets, including Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Vietnam, and Thailand. CyCraft powers SOCs (security operations centers) with our proprietary and award-winning AI-driven MDR (managed detection and response), SOC operations software, TI (threat intelligence), Health Check, automated forensics, and IR (incident response) services. CyCraft was one of only two cybersecurity vendors from Asia selected to join the second round of the MITRE ATT&CK Evaluations, and has won multiple Gold awards in the Cybersecurity Excellence awards, including "Asia's Best Cybersecurity Company", "Best Forensics", and "Best Artificial Intelligence Services". Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200423/2784629-1-a

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200423/2784629-1-b SOURCE CyCraft

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Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath targeted the opposition parties on Tuesday, saying some people are trying to weaken the country's fight against COVID-19 for their own political interests.

"When the country is moving ahead in its fight against the coronavirus, there are many who are playing politics in this situation also," he added.

"It is saddening that some people are attempting to weaken India's strong fight against the virus due to their own political interests," the chief minister said.

Adityanath said a 'PM Garib Kalyan' package has been announced for the poor for the first time during the pandemic and "frustration is palpable among those people who used to usurp the money of welfare packages meant for the poor in their regimes".

He said while the government was standing by all without any discrimination, some parties were doing "unnecessary politics".

"This is indecent behaviour against political decency. People know everything. They will themselves reply to the attitude of negative people. I appeal to the people of the state to support the government with patience and sensitivity," Adityanath said.

He said the government was working in the interests of 23 crore people of the state and migrant labourers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Towns Shift Election, Town Meetings This Spring

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in municipalities across the Berkshires altering their town meeting and local election schedules.

For elections, town officials are encouraging voters to apply to receive mail-in ballots in order to protect the health of voters and ballot workers on election day.

Although the concept of absentee ballots is not new, in the past they have been limited to voters who "must be prevented from voting at their polling place on Election Day, due to: absence from the voter's city or town on Election Day; or physical disability; or religious belief."

This year, an act of the Legislature opened up mail-in balloting for all voters. A standard application, which can be returned by mail, fax or email (as long your signature is legible), can be obtained at the secretary of state's website here.

Some towns have links to an application on their town websites. If so, they have been included below. You can also register to vote on the secretary of state's website.

Here is the latest rundown of new election and town meeting dates that have been determined:

Adams

The town election is rescheduled to Monday, June 1. The new voter registration deadline is Friday, May 22.

All applications for an absentee ballot must be received by the Town Clerk before 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 28, the last business day before the election. Any person may apply for an absentee ballot by sending a signed request to the Town Clerks office or filling out the absentee ballot application available here.

Early voting ballots must be received by the town clerk before the polls close at 8 p.m. on June 1.

Candidates on the ballot are: Christine Hoyt for Board of Selectmen; Erin Milne and Regina Hill for one seat on the Hoosac Valley Regional School Committee; Robert Harris, Linda Rhoads and Brian Bishop for two seats on the Board of Library Trustees; Bruce Dale Shepley and Daniel Maloney for two seats on the McCann School Committee; David Rhoads and Laura Grandchamp for two seats on the Board of Health; George Haddad for assessor; David Krzeminski for Planning Board; Fred Hobart for Cemetery Commission; Jacob Schutz for Parks Commission and Myra Wilk for town moderator.

There is an vacant seat for Parks Commission, two for the Redevelopment Authority seats and one for Housing Authority seat. There are also 10 open town meeting seats for Precinct 1; 11 in Precincts 2 and 5; and 12 in Precincts 3 and 4.

The annual town meeting is scheduled for Monday, June 22; officials are still working on how it will operated. Citizens' petition must be returned to the town clerk's office by May 20 with the signatures of 10 registered voters to be included on the warrant.

Becket

The annual town meeting will be Saturday, June 6, at 3 p.m. The annual town election will be Saturday, June 13, from noon to 4 p.m. The absentee ballot application must be returned by noon on Friday, June 12.

Cheshire

The annual town election will be held on Monday, June 1. Absentee and early voting applications can be found here. Applications must be received by the town clerk before 3 p.m. on Thursday, May 28. For more information, call 413-743-1690.

All seats are unopposed with the exception of a three-year seat on the Board of Health, for which incumbent Jeffrey Warner is being challenged by Michael Kruszyna.

Clarksburg

The annual town election will be held Thursday, June 11. Voter registration deadline is 8 p.m. Monday, June 1. Voters are encouraged to vote by mail. Voters must submit a signed ballot application with signature to the town clerk to be mailed a ballot. Applications and ballots may be returned via mail, by email to townclerk@clarksburgma.gov, or in the drop box at Town Hall. Send mailed request to: Attn: Town Election Official, Clarksburg Town Hall, 111 River Road, Clarksburg, MA 01247. Applications are available online here.

On the ballot will be Karin V. Robert for Select Board; Laura D. Wood for School Committee; Linda J. Hurlbut for library trustee; and Joseph Bushika III for War Memorial trustee. Write-ins can be made for a five-year seat on the Planning Board and for Board of Health, moderator and tree warden.

The town meeting will be held Wednesday, June 24, at 6:30 p.m. at a location to be announced. The deadline to register to vote in the election is June 4.

Updated May 6 with new dates.

Dalton

The annual town meeting will be held Monday, June 22. The annual town election will be held Monday, June 29. The application for an early ballot can be found here.

Egremont

The annual town election has been rescheduled to Friday, June 26, from noon to 5 p.m. An absentee ballot application is available here. Ballots should be returned to the Egremont Town Clerk, P.O. Box 368, South Egremont, MA 01258.

Florida

The town of Florida has postponed its local annual elections until Tuesday, June 23, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Absentee/early voting ballots are available now and encouraged. Those interested can send a request for ballots to Town of Florida, 379 Mohawk Trail, Drury, MA 01343 Attn: Town Clerk to have one mailed out. The last day to register to vote is June 3. Town meeting is set for 7 p.m. Friday, June 19.

Great Barrington

The annual town meeting will be held Monday, June 22, and Thursday, June 25, at 6 p.m. both nights. The annual town election will be held Tuesday, June 30, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The absentee ballot application can be found here.

Hancock

The annual town meeting and town elections have been postponed. No rescheduling date has been announced.

Lanesborough

The town has not had to reschedule. The annual town meeting is set for 6 p.m. June 9 and the annual town election is scheduled for June 16 from noon to 8 p.m. The deadline to apply for an absentee ballot is June 15 at noon. The deadlines to register to vote in town meeting and town election are May 20 and 27, respectively.

Lee

The annual town meeting will be held Thursday, June 18. The annual town election will be held Monday, June 22. Absentee ballot applications are due no later than noon on Friday, June 19.

The Lee Republican Town Committee caucus on Friday, May 15, from 5 to 5:30 p.m. outside Town Hall. Any registered Republican or unenrolled voter in Lee may be listed for nomination and anyone with 20 percent of the vote will be listed on the town's election ballot. Offices include moderator, selectman, School Committee, Planning Board, and Housing Authority. Information: Thom Swift at 413-243-6737 or thomswift@hotmail.com.

Lenox

The annual town meeting will be held Thursday, June 25. The annual town election will be held Monday, June 29. An absentee ballot application can be found here.

Monterey

The annual town meeting will be held Saturday, June 27, at 9:30 a.m. The annual town election will be held Tuesday, June 30, from noon to 7 p.m. An absentee ballot application can be found here.

Mount Washington

The annual town meeting will be held Tuesday, June 2, at 7:30 p.m. The annual town election will be held Tuesday, June 9 from noon to 8 p.m.

New Ashford

Town meeting will be held June 23 and elections will be held June 30.

New Marlborough

The annual town election is June 29.

Otis

The annual town meeting scheduled for May 19 has been postponed to June 16 at 7 p.m. The new voter registration deadline is May 27 from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 8 p.m.

Richmond

The baby town meeting has been scheduled for Saturday, June 13, (time to be announced), and the annual town meeting for Wednesday, June 17, at 7:30 p.m. at Richmond Consolidated School. The annual town election will be held on Saturday, June 20, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Town Hall.

Williamstown

Williamstowns annual town election has been rescheduled to Tuesday, June 23. Applications to early vote by mail can be found online here. Additional forms are available outside the town hall and Harper Center (on Church Street). The completed and signed application must be received by Monday, June 22, at noon. This application may only be used for the annual town election. Ballots may be returned via mail or put in the drop box next to the front door at Town Hall.

The annual town meeting, which was scheduled for Tuesday, May 19, will not be held then but has not been rescheduled yet.

Any additions or corrections can be sent to info@iberkshires.cominfo@iberkshires.com.
External Article

5 May 2020

No industry has been as badly impacted by the current pandemic as the hospitality industry. Sales at restaurants in the US are expected to decline by over  207 billion during the next three months according to the National Restaurant Association. Venues in London are already reporting a 47 per cent drop in year-on-year footfall. If the situation persists into the summer, the World Travel and Tourism Council projects a global loss of 75 million jobs and over 1.9 trillion in revenue. The question now is, what comes next - what can be done to convince consumers to book again and how to better prepare brands for similar events in the future.

'When the global lockdown starts to be lifted and we begin to find what many are calling "The New Normal" for the hospitality and travel industry, there won't be a "business as usual" bounce back, but instead a rethink and collective adaption of what hospitality means,' Philippa Wagner , head of Ennismore's insight division, tells Frame. In the first instalment of this two-part series we look at why hospitality brands should embrace their forced conversion into media-come-delivery providers.
San Antonios Frost Bank faces a patent infringement lawsuit over its mobile banking app, but the company suing the bank is a mystery.

The suit was brought by Lupercal LLC Friday in Waco federal court and marks at least the fifth time the company has filed a patent infringement action against a bank there in the last 14 months.

Lupercal says in the complaints its principal place of business is Dallas, but no entity by that name is registered with the Texas Secretary of State to do business in the state. (A Lupercal LLC is registered in Delaware and gives a business address there.) A telephone number for Lupercal doesnt appear to exist.

Raymond W. Mort III, an Austin attorney representing Lupercal, didnt respond to a request for comment Monday.

On ExpressNews.com: Frost Banks 1Q profit sinks 59% on coronavirus woes

The Frost complaint, like the others, centers on the banks mobile banking app that allows customers to deposit checks electronically by taking a photo of the front and back of the check.

Or, as the suit states in wonky language, the Frost Mobile App is a computer implemented method performed by an image submission tool on a user device.

That language is at heart of the claim in U.S. Patent 9,386,094  assigned to Lupercal in 2016  that the company says it owns and that Frost allegedly infringed. The tool enables a user to submitone or more pre-processed images, the suit says, reciting a claim in the patent.

The suit doesnt specify how much in financial damages Lupercal seeks from Frost.

Frost, the largest regional bank in based in San Antonio, has not filed a response to lawsuit. Frost spokesman Bill Day said it doesnt comment on pending litigation.

Lupercal has a pending suit, filed in February, against JPMorgan Chase. Lupercals lawsuits against Citibank, Comerica Bank and PlainsCapital Bank, all filed last year, have been resolved and dismissed  but not before the banks counter-sued.

In its response, Dallas-based PlainsCapital said Lupercal lacks standing to enforce the patent because no certificate of formation for Lupercal was filed with the Texas Secretary of State.

Texas Inc.: Get the best of business news sent directly to your inbox

The bank also said the purported assignment of the patent to Lupercal is void or ineffective because it either does not exist or is not a properly formed limited liability company under the laws of the State of Texas.

In its counterclaims, PlainsCapital noted that Lupercal does not manufacture, advertise, make, sell or import any produce that embodies any claim of the patent.

PlainsCapital said it didnt directly infringe on the patent, but added that the patents claims are invalid. It said it believed that its likely there is evidence to show that the technology already existed prior to the filing of the patent application.

A PlainsCapital lawyer didnt respond to a request for comment.

Michael C. Smith, a Marshall attorney for Comerica, said Lupercals case against the bank was resolved fairly quickly, but he couldnt share any details.

Unrelated to Lupercals cases, East Texas juries federal juries in November and January awarded a total of more than $300 million to San Antonios USAA in patent infringement cases it brought against Wells Fargo Bank.

On ExpressNews.com: USAA wins another big verdict against Wells Fargo

The juries found Wells Fargo willfully infringed on two USAA patents relating to technology that allows users to deposit checks using mobile devices. USAA has said it created mobile deposit capture technology. Wells Fargo seeks a new trial in both cases.

The trials were held in the U.S. District Court in Marshall, which has a reputation for its friendliness to plaintiffs filing patent lawsuits, according to a 2017 New York Times article.

Waco is emerging as a popular venue for patent litigation. Lawyers with Texas law firm Gray Reed, in an article last year for the website IPwatchdog.com, attributed Wacos increasing popularity to case law and the arrival of Judge Alan D. Albright, who took the bench in 2018. He is described in the article as a patent-saavy judge who is positioning his city to be a new hot spot for patent litigation.

Patrick Danner is a San Antonio-based staff writer covering banking and civil courts. To read more from Patrick, become a subscriber. pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPD
Home buyers struggling to afford a house may have some luck in Australia's biggest cities as the economy slips into a recession.

New data from property market website Domain shows the number of sellers lowering their asking prices has tripled in six months because of coronavirus.

In October last year, just 2.8 per cent of Melbourne homes were being offered at a discount but this surged to 10.7 per cent last month, the figures provided to the ABC's 7.30 program revealed.

During the same time frame, the proportion of dwellings in Sydney marketed at a reduced price more than doubled from 5.7 per cent to 13.1 per cent.

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New data from property market website Domain shows the proportion of homes selling at a discount has tripled in six months because of coronavirus. In October last year, just 2.8 per cent of Melbourne homes (Moonee Valley pictured) were being offered at a discount but this surged to 10.7 per cent last month

During the past three months, sellers who listed with Domain have reduced house prices by an average of 5.37 per cent, compared with 5.81 per cent for units.

In Sydney, that means a house advertised on Domain typically sold for $62,765 less than its earlier asking price of $1,168,806 in March.

Sydney's median house price stood at $1.026million in April, CoreLogic data showed, which means a typical home with a backyard still incurs $41,400 upfront in stamp duty if someone isn't a first-home buyer.

New South Wales Liberal treasurer Dominic Perrottet and his Victorian Labor counterpart Tim Pallas have both flagged scrapping stamp duty and replacing it with a broad-based land tax - with financial help from the federal government.

Mr Perrottet argued the COVID-19 crisis was the time to engage in tax reform.

'If there is a bright point amidst the many challenges of COVID-19 it is that in this moment of crisis, Australians are trying things that have never been tried before,' he said in an opinion piece for The Australian Financial Review.

'It is the time to find ways to take the handbrake off our economy, and reforming stamp duty is near the top of that list  a rare issue where it seems most people are in furious agreement.'

SQM Research chief executive Louis Christopher said coronavirus had caused a surge in the number of properties that had been on the market for 30 to 60 days.

'This tells me that sellers struggled to sell their properties over April and new sellers deferred listing,' he said on Tuesday.

'The housing market has clearly been weakened by coronavirus and the restrictions placed on the economy to limit the outbreak.'

During the same time frame, the proportion of dwellings in Sydney marketed at a reduced price more than doubled from 5.7 per cent to 13.1 per cent. Pictured is Bondi Beach

His research also showed sellers were worried about getting a bad price, with the number of Sydney listings plunging by 19.4 per cent in April 2020 compared with a year earlier.

Home listings plunge in every capital city SYDNEY: Down 19.4 per cent MELBOURNE: Down 10 per cent BRISBANE: Down 10.1 per cent PERTH: Down 17.4 per cent ADELAIDE: Down 7.8 per cent CANBERRA: Down 6.8 per cent DARWIN: Down 17.7 per cent HOBART: Down 16.3 per cent Source: SQM Research comparing April 2020 listings with April 2019 Advertisement

Hobart, which a year ago was still Australia's strongest housing market, saw a 16.3 per cent annual plunge in homes listed for sale, as Melbourne and Brisbane posted 10 per cent falls.

Since March 25, open homes and public auctions have been banned but NSW is allowing them to resume this weekend.

Nonetheless, Mr Christopher feared border closures would hurt Australia's economy and demand for real estate.

'With the lifting some restrictions over the course of May, we could see a lift in buyer activity for housing; however many issues persist such as the spike in unemployment and the ongoing closure of the international border,' he said.

SQM Research is forecasting a 30 per cent plunge in Sydney and Melbourne house prices during the next year while National Australia Bank chief economist Alan Oster is expecting a 15 per cent plummet by mid-2021.

New South Wales Liberal treasurer Dominic Perrottet (pictured) and his Victorian Labor counterpart Tim Pallas have both flagged scrapping stamp duty and replacing it with a broad-based land tax - with financial help from the federal government

Westpac chief executive Peter King told the Australian Securities Exchange on Monday he feared a 20 per cent plunge in house prices in Australia's biggest cities - reversing a dramatic recovery that began less than a year ago.

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

'House prices are expected to fall through the remainder of 2020, reversing the recent recoveries, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne,' he told the Australian Securities Exchange on Monday.

'Unfortunately, ongoing international travel restrictions will continue to flatten inbound tourism and impact foreign student arrivals.'

Since bottoming out in July 2019, Sydney's median house price has surged by 19 per cent from $864,993 to $1,026,418 last month, CoreLogic data showed.

This followed a record 17.6 per cent fall, after the market had peaked in mid-2017, in response to an Australian Prudential Regulation Authority crackdown on investor and interest-only loans.

By comparison, Melbourne's median house price has grown by 16 per cent since bottoming out at $708,523 in May 2019.

Mid-point values for a detached home reached $819,611 in March 2020.

Prices in the Victorian capital fell 0.4 per cent in April, with Melbourne so far the worst-affected capital city housing market, the CoreLogic figures showed.

Like Sydney, Melbourne also suffered from a sharp downturn between late 2017 and mid-2019, with its median price falling by 15 per cent.
Microsoft and Apple have both opened their annual developer conferences to all and will not charge admission for the virtual events.

Microsoft will host its Build confab May 19-21 and Apple will start its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 22. Apple did not say how long WWDC will run, but historically the conference has gone from Monday to Friday. June 22 is the second-to-last Monday of the month.

Previously, the companies had announced the cancellations of their usual physical events and replacement by all-digital versions. Both firms cited the ongoing pandemic as the reasons for their moves.

"In light of global health concerns due to COVID-19 and related government actions in Washington State, we will deliver our annual Microsoft Build for developers as a digital experience, in lieu of an in-person event," Microsoft said in March.

Apple said something similar a few weeks later, blaming the "current health situation" without using either "COVID-19" or "coronavirus" in its statement.

Free Build

Build registration, which last year cost $2,395, will be free for 2020. "It's not the Build we thought it would be, but it's gonna be special," wrote Scott Hanselman, principal program manager, in an April 20 post to a company blog. The two-day conference will start Tuesday, May 19, at 8 a.m. PT/ 11 a.m. ET, with the keynote address preceded by a message from CEO Satya Nadella.

All sessions will be recorded for later on-demand viewing; those done live will be scheduled three times each 24-hour period - 8 hours apart - to account for the conference's global audience, and will include live Q&A. Longer, pre-recorded videos will also be available, Microsoft said.

Registration requires a Microsoft Account, or one associated with work or school; the latter is typically linked to an Office 365 subscription and/or a Windows log-in. To register, users should start here. The conference will be held on the Build website.

WWDC free for all devs

Apple's WWDC will also be free this year - at least "free for all developers" - rather than costing the $1,599 charged in 2019. Unlike past years, when a lottery system was needed to decide who got tickets, everyone will get in.

WWDC details were scarce, typical of an Apple announcement weeks before an event. "We look forward to sharing more details about WWDC20 with everyone as we get closer to this exciting event," said Phil Schiller, the company's head of marketing, in a May 5 statement.

It wasn't clear, for instance, whether the sessions would be available to all free of charge, or whether some might be limited to members of Apple's registered developer program who have paid $99 for an individual membership or $299 for an organization's membership. (For example, only registered developers are able to download the earliest private betas of iOS, macOS and other code Apple issues throughout the year.)

Apple will host the virtual WWDC on the conference's website and via the Apple Developer app on iOS, iPadOS and tvOS.

Other technology firms that had planned large conferences have cancelled their events altogether. Google called off its I/O conference, for example. "We sadly will not be holding I/O in any capacity this year," the company said.
After talking it over with family members, Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz drove to the Bristol County House of Correction Saturday morning for an unannounced visit.

An incident involving immigrant detainees and correction officers - including the sheriff - made national headlines the night prior. She wanted to speak directly with detainees and officers about what happened.

Chang-Diaz never entered the facility. The Boston Democrat presented her state ID and referenced the statute that allows her to make such visits but was told that the visitations were suspended to non-essential people due to the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, reporters were allowed in for a news conference during which they were shown damage that Hodgson said was caused by the detainees.

Chang-Diazs denied entry raised questions for lawmakers about whether emergency policies implemented during a public health crisis should override state statute that is designed to allow independent oversight of state and county correctional facilities.

I was very surprised, honestly. The individual that I was interfacing with, Im sure he was following orders, but he made it clear that he had spoken to the general counsel, Chang-Diaz said. I was very surprised that they were choosing not to acknowledge or heed the law in this case.

Visitors must typically submit a request form stating their name, residence and other personal details before being admitted to a jail or prison in Massachusetts. Under state law, a number of state officials are allowed to make unannounced visits, bypassing the approval process. Those include the governor, a member of the governors counsel, the attorney general, a district attorney, a member of the parole board and state legislators, among others.

The Bristol County Sheriffs Office, like county jails and state prisons across Massachusetts, suspended visitations in March around the same time Gov. Charlie Baker issued a series of executive orders sending people home to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The executive orders and the correctional policies do not elaborate on what the state of emergency means for unannounced visits allowed under state law.

The Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight Committee is looking into the May 1 incident and Chang-Diazs denied access, according to a joint statement from Senate President Karen Spilka and Sen. John F. Keenan, chair of the committee.

The Massachusetts State Senate is extremely concerned about a recent situation at the Bristol County House of Correction involving federal detainees," the statement reads.

Other lawmakers who perform unannounced visits at correctional facilities said they believe the state statute remains in effect even during a pandemic.

I just think thats a pretty well-grounded statute that even sheriffs or prison superintendents that Ive had disagreements with have always honored, said Sen. Jamie Eldridge, an Acton Democrat. I just think its a real shock.

The incident Chang-Diaz sought to ask detainees and correction officers about made headlines Friday night with conflicting stories circulating. Hodgson said he and his officers were violently rushed and that the detainees caused $25,000 worth of damage to the unit. Detainees said they were attacked by Hodgson and pepper sprayed.

Hodgson said the detainees refused to be tested for COVID-19 and said one detainee who was on the phone as the incident unfolded lied about being attacked, calling him a con man. The Rev. Annie Gonzalez Milliken said detainees wanted to be tested within their unit because they feared being transferred to be tested elsewhere would expose them to COVID-19 and land them in solitary confinement.

Jonathan Darling, the sheriffs spokesman, said Monday that the policy suspending visitations is working. He said the facility tested 15 prisoners and found no positive cases.

When visitation resumes, hopefully in the coming weeks but dependent on guidance from Gov. Bakers office and the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Department of Public Health], non-essential people will once again be allowed in the facility, spokesman Jonathan Darling wrote in an email.

On Monday afternoon, Lawyers for Civil Rights attorney Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal said an immigrant detainee tested positive for COVID-19. When asked about the positive case, Darling referred a reporter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment.

An agency spokesman declined to comment, instead sharing a list of confirmed cases that was last updated in late April. Bristol County was not on the list of facilities with COVID-19 cases.

The Bristol County Sheriffs Office is the subject of a class-action lawsuit, filed by detainees represented by Espinoza-Madrigal, calling for the release of detainees who have pre-existing medical conditions, as well as those who pose little danger to the community.

Lawyers for Civil Rights filed a motion on Monday requesting that the sheriff testify about what happened Friday night, in addition to testimony he was already scheduled to deliver. U.S. District Court Judge William Young denied the motion, saying Hodgson could be deposed for up to three hours to discuss testing, quarantine and other details about the conditions detainees face.

The present conditions under which any of the detainees are being held is properly discoverable. The circumstances of Fridays disruption is not, Young wrote.

Chang-Diaz is the only lawmaker who tried to visit the Bristol County facility, but other state legislators have requested formal inquiries into the May 1 incident and the conditions at the jail.

Sen. Jo Comerford and Rep. Mindy Domb sent a letter to Baker, Attorney General Maura Healy and Security Secretary Thomas Turco requesting surveillance footage and an investigation into the treatment of detainees at the Bristol County facility. Several congressional members have also called for an investigation.

Chang-Diaz stressed that she wanted to hear from both detainees and correction officers about the Friday night incident. She said her primary concern is the wellbeing of everyone in the facility, but that her inability to visit on Saturday raises questions for her and her colleagues.

We need to make sure that the law is respected and carried out, she said. There have been a lot of conversations that need to transpire. Ive already heard a lot of concerns from colleagues, their concerns of the flouting of this law. These are conversations that are going to continue over the next several days.

Related Content:
Salesforce (CRM) has debuted Work.com, a suite of new products and apps to help large and small organizations prepare their employees to reopen safely as establishments transition to life after coronavirus lockdowns.

The cloud-based customer relationship company will use the new site to offer a range of tools that include emergency response management, teaching workers new skills, and wellness assessments. Work.com also incorporates advice from top medical, health, government, and business experts on best practices.

In a recent Yahoo Finance interview, CEO Marc Benioff explained how he never imagined that Salesforce would be building products to help companies and communities navigate the reopening process during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has sickened more than 3.6 million and killed over 250,000.

We can see that were getting ready to get back to work, Benioff said, pointing out that employees in South Korea will return to the office on May 11.

With more states and businesses gradually reopening, all of us need to be ready to get back into the office and deal with the new work environment. We need to realize when we get back to work, the virus will still be there and need to be doing things to mitigate that environment, Benioff added.

Marc Benioff, founder, chairman and co-CEO of Salesforce, speaks at an Economic Club of Washington luncheon in Washington, DC, on October 18, 2019. (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP) (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)

Salesforce will also use Work.coms technology to make sure its own employees are safe in the new normal. According to Benioff, the companys return-to-work strategy includes personal protective equipment for employees and temperature checks before they come to the office.

The cloud-based software giant will also adhere to social distancing protocols in the workplace  including the possibility of having people sit in certain parts of the office, Benioff explained.

Social distancing will not go away, the CEO said, adding that the virus is still going to be out there when we get back to work until were vaccinated. So, we need to set up a work environment that makes it as safe as possible for our employees.

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For Salesforce, whose namesake tower is the tallest in San Francisco and another skyscraper adjacent to Bryant Park in New York City, a big challenge will be potentially crowded elevators.

We all have to get in them  you have ten people jam in the elevator, the elevator door closes, not great in the pandemic situation, he explained. So, maybe theres only so many people that can be allowed in the elevator at one point.

Benioff also expects there might be rotating shifts of employees, which is one of the features offered on Work.com. The idea has gained increasing traction  most notably from Gary Cohn, the ex-Goldman Sachs exec and former Director of the National Economic Council.

The CEO explained that shift-scheduling is a staple of Work.com, because you probably will have teams of employees  Team One, Two, Three. Maybe Team One is in the office on Monday. Team Two is in the office on Tuesday, Team Three on Wednesday. Salesforce has already deployed this scheduling strategy in Singapore, he added.

Shift scheduling is useful because if someone on Team One gets the virus, you dont want to lose Team Two and Team Three. You want to keep their productivity going.



Julia La Roche is a Correspondent at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
The Indian government has said that its contact-tracing app Aarogya Setu "by design" fetches the location data of its 90 million users and allows them to view the concentration of people who have tested positive for the coronavirus in their vicinity.

New Delhi issued the statement after France-based security researcher Baptiste Robert found what he argues are design flaws and privacy issues.

The government said it has always disclosed that it fetches users location data, a feature that critics say falls short of the privacy protections offered by similar technologies, including the joint project run by Apple and Google.

Aarogya Setu's privacy policy says the app  in addition to collecting location data of a user at the time of registration  also "continuously collects your location data and stores securely on your mobile device a record of all the places you have been at 15-minute intervals." The app uploads this data to its server along with the user's digital ID if they test positive for COVID-19, or self-declare seeing symptoms that indicate that they might be infected with the infectious disease, it says.

Collecting location data is a complicated subject, regardless of the good intention of its developers and operators. On Monday, Google and Apple banned the use of location tracking on their coronavirus-tracing technology.

While some developers have argued that they need access to location data to track how outbreaks move and identify hotspots, privacy advocates have cautioned that if this data ever gets exposed, it could ostracize those who are affected.

Robert's other concern is that Aarogya Setu, which was launched early last month, allows anyone to view the concentration of people in 500 meters to up to 10 kilometers who are either suspicious they have coronavirus, or are certain that they have the disease. He told TechCrunch that he was able to develop a script and view similar data for any nook and cranny of the world's second most populous nation.

He said the government, which introduced a nationwide lockdown in late March, could have kept the radius limited to 500 meters.

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In response, New Delhi said that its system is designed in a way that would prevent any script from making bulk requests. Additionally, it said, "getting data for multiple latitude and longitude this way is no different from asking several people of their locations COVID-19 statistics."

"All this information is already public for all locations and hence does not compromise on any personal or sensitive data," the response said.

Some people argued today that at a crisis like this, when thousands of people are dying, these "flaws" were the least of their concerns and that the app served a much greater purpose. But Aarogya Setu, which has amassed 90 million monthly active people in less than 35 days, has also ruffled some feathers for the way it is being scaled up. New Delhi said earlier this month that all government and private sector employees need to have this app installed on their smartphones.

On Tuesday, local authority in Noida city, home to more than 640,000 people, on the outskirts of Delhi, said those who did not have the Aarogya Setu app installed on their phone would be fined or sent to prison.
The Trinamool Congress on Tuesday alleged that the "callous approach" of the BJP-led central government in allowing international flights to operate till the last week of March resulted in the spike in COVID-19 cases in West Bengal.

The BJP hit back accusing the TMC of "trying to pass the buck" on others for its own shortcomings.

The ruling party's castigating remarks came a day after the Centre's inter-ministerial team had pointed out that the COVID-19 mortality rate in West Bengal is highest in the country at 12.8 per cent which reflects "low testing and weak surveillance" in tackling the pandemic.

According to latest updates, West Bengal has reported over 1300 confirmed cases of coronavirus. There have been 68 deaths while 264 have recovered.

Accusing the BJP of trying to politicise the COVID-19 crisis in Bengal, TMC secretary-general and the state's Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee said the two central teams were sent by the union government "with the intention to malign the state government".

"Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had asked for suspension of international and domestic flights and trains but the Centre didn't pay any attention to it at that time. This callous approach is one of the main reasons behind the spike in the number of cases in the state," Chatterjee said while addressing a virtual press conference.

The TMC had been asking to suspend Parliament but the central government didn't take the threat seriously then. Despite World Health Organisation (WHO) declaring COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, the Centre was late to react to it, he said.

"The state was given faulty kits. Despite the state government seeking clarifications regarding the lockdown, the Centre is yet to give clarifications," he said.

"In February, when COVID-19 had started spreading around the world, our Prime Minister spent Rs 80 crore for Donald Trump's three-hour visit to Ahmedabad, Gujarat, where there were people from around the world attending the Namaste Trump event with over 1 lakh people packed in a stadium.

"Can the central government guarantee that there was no transmission of infection in that event and there weren't attendees from Bengal who possibly carried the virus back to the state," another senior TMC leader and minister Rajib Banerjee asked.

Noting that the chief minister has been leading from the front and accusing the BJP of trying to politicise this by maligning Bengal, Chatterjee claimed that when WHO declared COVID-19 as a pandemic, the saffron party was busy horse-trading in Madhya Pradesh.

Accusing the central team of being biased against the state government, Chatterjee said the team was sent with the intention to malign the state government and its efforts in tackling the pandemic.

In a strong riposte, West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said the state government and TMC is now trying to pass the buck by blaming others.

"Initially, they tried to hide the figures, when the failed to do so, they started blaming the centre. The TMC has a bad habit of blaming us for every wrongdoing it committed," Ghosh added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc held phone talks with his Japanese counterpart Abe Shinzo on May 4, during which they exchanged views on the prevention and control of COVID-19 in their respective countries.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc holds phone talks with Japanese counterpart Abe Shinzo

PM Phuc said with a high determination, strong policies and the people'support, Vietnam has basically controlled the COVID-19 and gradually normalised socio-economic activities.

He thanked the Japanese Government for providing Vietnam with more than 1.8 million USD through international organisations to combat the pandemic. He also announced that Vietnam decided to support Japans anti-coronavirus fight with 140,000 medical masks.

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo spoke highly of Vietnam's effective COVID-19 response measures and impressive achievements gained in the fight. He expressed his thanks to the Government and people of Vietnam for providing medical supplies and masks for Japan.

The two sides affirmed to continue to care for and ensure the safety of each other's citizens during the COVID-19 outbreak. PM Abe Shinzo announced that the Japanese Government has decided to provide 100,000 JPY (935 USD) per person for not only Japanese but also Vietnamese citizens living and working in Japan.

The two leaders agreed to increase exchanges and cooperation in all areas as well as encourage and support Japanese enterprises to increase investment in Vietnam. Prime Minister Abe Shinzo affirmed that Japan will deliver the second aid package to help Vietnam deal with the epidemic and promote economic growth.

The two leaders agreed on continued close cooperation at regional and international forums.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc appreciated Japan's initiatives launched at the Special ASEAN Plus Three Summit held on April 14 on the establishment of the ASEAN Center for Infectious Diseases and concessional loans for small- and medium-sized enterprises in the region. He asked Japan to assist the ASEAN COVID-19 Response Fund and the regional reserves of medical supplies.

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo highly valued Vietnam's important role as the ASEAN Chair 2020 and a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2020-2021 term. He affirmed that Japan will continue to work closely with Vietnam on regional and international issues of mutual interest, and together accelerate the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in 2020 and effectively implement the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)./.VNA
Hector Ramirez outside his home in Chatsworth. Ramirez is autistic, and the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted his daily routine. (Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times)

When the coronavirus hit Southern California, Hector Ramirez tried to hang on to some of the guideposts in his usual routine: Waking up at 6 a.m. each day. Making his bed. Showering. Heading out to walk his service dog in his Chatsworth neighborhood.

Ramirez, who is autistic, used to try to greet at least 30 people before he returned home, a ritual that grounded him and connected him to the world. Now his walks are quiet; his routine, disrupted.

But Ramirez has had to cope with such stresses before. Like many people with disabilities, Ive dealt with social isolation whether I wanted it or not, said Ramirez, 45, who spent part of his youth in an institution in Camarillo, separated from his family. I have years of experience being separate from society.

Autistic people have diverse experiences that resist easy generalization. But in recent interviews, a number of autistic adults say that although the pandemic can be especially stressful for people on the spectrum, many are practiced in dealing with the challenges  social isolation, disrupted routines, economic strain  that are now affecting the general population. And they hope that those experiences might help people who aren't autistic to better understand them.

Uncertainty, unexpected events and a lack of control are the major stressors for people on the spectrum, said Barry M. Prizant, an adjunct professor at Brown University and author of "Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism." Now that the coronavirus has hit, thats so much of what we're talking about, as they are now major stress factors for neurotypical people  the rest of us.

Maxfield Sparrow, writing in reaction to an article about people feeling drained as they try to read faces on video calls, points out that "we Autists live with these discomforts all our lives."

And Sparrow adds: "If you are socially disoriented by Zoom and desperate for the pandemic to be over so you can return to comfortable, easy socializing, please lean into that feeling and remember it later."

Story continues

Hector Ramirez has been using coping mechanisms to help him deal with his isolation. (Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times)

A wide spectrum

Autism is a developmental disability that can affect how people think, communicate, move, interact socially and process sensory information. It can shape how people live in a wide range of ways: Some autistic people need support with day-to-day living skills, while others live independently.

Some people on the spectrum are extremely verbal, while others may have limited or no speech and instead communicate in other ways. Some are keenly interested in specific topics. And many people with autism also have other disabilities that affect their day-to-day lives.

To make sense of a world that can be stressful and unpredictable, many autistic people have found comfort in routines or other coping mechanisms that address their unique needs. Routines, Prizant said, provide a road map for making the world more predictable.

All human beings benefit from predictability in their lives, Prizant added. People on the spectrum crave it because there are so many more stressors in their lives.

Many of those stresses have been exacerbated by the coronavirus. Julia Bascom, executive director of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, said her group is deeply concerned that some autistic people might not be able to receive needed assistance with day-to-day tasks such as getting dressed, preparing meals or managing medication  services usually provided at home or in the community.

Children and teens on the autism spectrum may not be getting the added support they usually have in school, or they may be having trouble processing their online lessons.

And college students who are autistic have had to cope with campus closures as well. Mandy Wall, a Sarah Lawrence College senior who is about to graduate and who uses the pronoun "they," said that when they first left campus and rejoined their parents in Connecticut, they could barely function. Sleep was impossible without a Xanax.

My boyfriend had to remind me to brush my teeth and take a shower, Wall said.

During the pandemic, autistic advocates have been especially alarmed that some states have set out guidelines for rationing ventilators and prioritizing healthcare, which, Bascom says, are very clearly a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act."

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration was blasted by advocates for people with disabilities for initially advising hospitals to prioritize younger patients with longer life expectancy  guidelines that were then quietly removed and replaced.

And if all of those worries aren't enough to process during the pandemic, adults with autism  who already tend to be economically marginalized  are also dealing with the stress of the economic collapse.

Ray Borene, an autistic 32-year-old who lives in Pennsylvania, recently had to stop working at the only job I was ever able to succeed at.

Borene, who was not diagnosed until adulthood, said that sensory issues led them to drop out of college and quit a string of jobs where they felt taxed by noise and bright lights. It wasnt until Borene found work teaching pottery at a community studio that they thrived.

I could really control my schedule. Its very tactile. And instead of talking to people all day, it was hands on, Borene said. I really connected to the students.

Then the coronavirus hit and the studio had to shut down, since theres no way of sterilizing everything. Borene, who cannot drive, is now back at home at a completely new level of isolation.





Coping with stress

The pandemic has also highlighted the ways in which some autistic people have learned to cope with the kinds of stresses that now preoccupy the broader population.

Being autistic, over the course of my life Ive had to become very adept at creating coping mechanisms for things, said Kris Guin, an autistic transgender man who lives in Washington, D.C. The first couple of weeks were the hardest. But then I sort of learned to shift gears.

Some people on the spectrum quip that theyre already pros at social distancing  either because social interaction can be stressful or because they have had to cope with unwanted isolation.

Carly Fulgham, president of Autism Society Ventura County, says that being able to step away from face-to-face interaction is a bit of a relief.

"Not having in-person interactions actually makes things easier," said Fulgham, who was diagnosed with autism as an adult. Whenever she is talking to someone and they cross their arms, Fulgham said she becomes distracted trying to parse their behavior, wondering, Does that mean theyre cold, or do they not want to talk to me anymore?

And for autistic people who were bullied as children, Fulgham added, "social isolation can be a coping mechanism to keep themselves from being hurt again."

Ido Kedar, author of "Ido in Autismland," pictured in 2013. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Ido Kedar, a 23-year-old autistic author and student who lives in West Hills, had no way to communicate until he was 7 and started using a letter board. Kedar said in an email that "I laugh thinking that finally my autism is an advantage in life."

"Yes, my many years being cut off from others makes me used to it, though I can't say I like it," Kedar wrote, explaining that those experiences had made him introverted.

As an introvert, "we need fewer people in our day," he said, "but we still need people."

In Phoenix, 46-year-old Carrie Serlin said she misses the people who used to be part of her routine: The bus drivers from Dial-a-Ride who shuttled her to her job at Social Spin Laundromat, which employs adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities; her supervisors; the people behind the counter where she gets an iced coffee.

At home, she continues to work during the day, braiding laundry baskets out of plastic bags for the laundromat to sell. When she does leave the house, "everyone is so worried about catching something that no one says, 'Hi,'" she lamented.

Dena L. Gassner, an adjunct professor of autism studies at Towson University in Maryland, said she has seen a divide in how autistic people are faring, from some who say, "I'm living my best life" to others mired in anxiety.

"I worry a great deal about autistic people who don't have the wherewithal to reach out for resources," said Gassner, who is autistic and is currently a PhD candidate at Adelphi University on Long Island. "People who catastrophize, whose anxiety is not well-managed, and think in black and white  they're at great risk right now."

Ramirez still tries to connect with his neighbors, waving at people beyond his window. When he is out on his walks, sometimes people hold up written messages to him, such as Nice to see you again or Can you help me get some eggs this week?

He's stepped up his volunteering at a food pantry that delivers meals, a new routine to restore his sense of purpose.

People with disabilities are the experts in coping with social isolation, said Ramirez, who is also a board member with Disability Rights California. Not because we want to, but because we've had to.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 05/04/2020



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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.

: Before the 90 Days star Lisa Hamme has responded to Usman Umar 's recent comments that he would like to have more than one wife -- and her reaction may shock viewers!Lisa, who often argues with Usman "Sojaboy" and boasts about being an independent American woman on Season 4 of : Before the 90 Days, would apparently approve of Usman having multiple wives, In Touch Weekly reported During the April 21 episode of Angela Lee's Lip Service podcast, Usman revealed he doesn't want to stop at just one wife, admitting, "[Lisa] is not okay with it, but she cannot stop me. Yeah, that is the truth."Although Lisa, 52, struggled with jealousy issues early on in her relationship with the 30-year-old Nigerian rapper, she told In Touch that she'd be open to the idea of having sister wives."In the Islamic religion, it is acceptable for him to take four wives, BUT and I mean BUT, he must be able to provide for all four wives," Lisa said through her representative, Rocco Straz, in a recent interview."[This includes] financially, housing, utilities, vehicles, car insurance and medical insurance. At that point, if he is able to do all of that, he may take another wife."Rocco added on Lisa's behalf, "The wives do not have to contribute their personal finances with him.": Before the 90 Days' Sunday night episode just showed Lisa and Usman learning they may not be able to get married in Nigeria without a printed copy of Lisa's divorce decree, which she did not bring with her from the United States.Lisa was running out of time in Nigeria, so she feared a courthouse wedding may not even be possible.However, Lisa and Usman's relationship apparently never fell apart because Rocco confirmed to In Touch the couple is "still together."When Usman appeared on the Lip Service podcast late last month, he explained why having Lisa as his only wife simply wouldn't be enough to make him happy."See, in as much as she cannot give [me a] child, even if we are going to stay together, I must get [a] child," Usman reportedly disclosed."And that is to say, I have to get married to another woman. It's definitely not only Lisa, whoever I am going to stay with in my life, if you cannot give me a child, honestly I have to get another wife. That is [a] must."Usman also insisted on the podcast Lisa had previously threatened to commit suicide towards the beginning of their relationship because he wasn't really in love with her, but Lisa subsequently denied the allegation "At no given time did Lisa state she would kill herself, for him or any other man. She is a very independent woman," Rocco told the magazine."Lisa doesn't need Sojaboy. She wants Sojaboy! Suicide is something that should not be thrown around lightly. Lisa has a beautiful family and would never do such a thing!"Usman and Lisa, a hospice caregiver from York, PA, met on Facebook two years before filming : Before the 90 Days' fourth season began, and they videochatted immediately so Usman could prove he wasn't a catfish.Based on posts Lisa has made on Facebook, she and Usman reportedly began dating in June 2018.Lisa didn't understand why a Nigerian celebrity would be interested in her, but a love song he had allegedly written for Lisa confirmed his feelings for her, at least in Lisa's mind. Lisa then flew to Nigeria -- her first trip out of the United States -- to meet him face to face.As shown on : Before the 90 Days, Usman has had trouble dealing with Lisa's insecurities in regards to his booming social media accounts and adoring female fans. Usman has also complained Lisa bosses him around too much and is too controlling.Usman, as a Muslim man, said he wants to be respected and honored in their relationship, and in a recent episode, he asked Lisa to essentially let him be in charge of her and their relationship.Although Lisa and Usman finally received a blessing from Fatimatu, Usman's mother, to marry, Lisa flipped Usman the middle finger and wasn't sure she wanted to wed a man so fixated on being head of the household.Lisa said Usman had another thing coming if he thought an American woman would simply obey a man like that.However, the latest episode featured Lisa and Usman reconciling and hoping to tie the knot before she must return to the United States. Lisa came to the conclusion she'd be willing to blend "somewhat" into Usman's culture, but she wasn't about to be submissive to her fiance."I'm not going to be an Armenian wife," Lisa told the cameras, adding that she'd never resemble the typical Nigerian woman. "If I'm going to marry Usman... I'm going to walk right beside him, not behind him. Usman needs to understand that before we're married."Despite their stark differences, they both claimed to be in love and want a future together. Usman therefore suggested to Lisa they could have a 60-40 partnership in which he'd have more power -- and she just laughed it off.Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage!
I recently interviewed several CSOs and CISOs from the financial services, tech, healthcare, media and other industries to see how they were managing through these turbulent times. Below are the questions I asked them and a summary of their collective wisdom and best practices. While I would love to give these experts all the credit they deserve, all of them spoke on the condition that neither they nor their organizations be identified publicly.

What is your greatest security concern right now?

The collective response to this question is that security executives are most worried about the increase in phishing campaigns and fraud, especially with distracted employees who arent as diligent with security hygiene while working from home. As one executive stated, My greatest concern right now is social engineering resulting from cyberattacks on people wherever they are. High stress means reduced cognitive functions, so attackers may find it easier to do social engineering, which opens the door to everything else.

Other major concerns include mitigating the impact of an increased attack surface and the need to enhance remote access controls to make certain organizational security levels are met despite a large majority of employees working remotely. For example, one executive further explained that she was most focused on mitigating the impact of this increased attack surface, particularly enhancing remote access controls such that the organization would be secure even if 100% of the employees were now remote. Enhancements to firewall, NAC, DLP and other solutions were required. Vendor risk also was a much greater concern for this executive, with third parties potentially now more vulnerable.

What have you done differently since the outbreak began?

One CISO summed it up best, Weve been in execution mode. Crisis management and resiliency execution versus planning.

It is clear that for these executives, the first necessary step in this tactical mode has been communication; in fact, many CISOs and security teams have communicated to their constituents more in the past one and a half months than they have perhaps ever done previously. One executive stated, We have communicated best practices for securing EVERYTHING from corporate collaboration apps to Zoom for the kids schoolwork to securing home networks. My communications to help executives and Board members maintain confidence and employees adapt to new conditions has exceeded all my communications plans from last year. There is still much more to come.

Beyond the ongoing critical communication process, enabling and securing a 100 percent remote workforce has been job one for these executives. This is a big difference from the way that most organizations were operating on March 1st. Now VPNs and remote desktops are required, along with a workflow change for employees more familiar with on-prem work at desktop workstations.

If you have furloughed employees, how are you managing their security access?

While most of the executives have not had to deal with furloughs yet, there was recognition that when confronted with these unfortunate situations, the employees would have to have both their physical and logical access terminated. A furloughed employee would be treated exactly like a terminated employee, until they returned to work.

As one CISO mentioned, The patchwork approach to onboarding and offboarding employees across our company puts us at risk of lingering access for terminated employees or contractors. Were actively at work on an automated solution. This is a concern that predates COVID.

Are you coordinating with other security leaders in the industry?

Most of the executives had discussed the current situation with their peers, other executives, strategic vendors, government interfaces and other experts. However, a small number had only spoken to others in their own organization, without leveraging the insights of their external peers. Frankly, Im surprised that less than one hundred percent of CISOs and CSOs have leveraged the insights of their external peers.

How will the pandemic change what you do moving forward?

Most organizations have realized that WFH can maintain an acceptable level of productivity and expect it will become more commonplace as we navigate past the initial COVID-19 crisis. However, there was disagreement on the level of productivity. While many claimed there was little to no impact, one executive stated, the pandemic requires me to assume that people can do less because they are stressed, distracted or delivering unplanned work. We will not plan for resources to operate at 100 percent utilization as we all have families, personal health and other things to manage through during these times.

Post-pandemic, there will be a continued focus on providing secure remote access to a large percentage of workers. One CISO commented that remote workers could be their largest employee population even after the virus threat is over. As part of this longer-term trend, executives will need to invest in new access and security platforms to allow their employees to be as productive and secure at home as in the office.

Once some employees do begin returning to the office, CSOs believe that there will need to be new technology-based solutions to monitor and manage social distancing, disinfection processes and elevator access. There may be opportunities for new companies to take advantage of this evolving market dynamic.

Do you have any advice or lessons learned that may not be obvious to your peer group at this time?

A couple of interesting bits of wisdom that were shared:

No company should have their critical data stored in their own facility  it should not house the finance system, the email server, the corporate file system or the HR platform.

Workers should be able to choose their work environment, whether the office or remote

The office should be simply thought of as a place with Internet access where people can gather in person. And while many workers may choose the office as their work environment, going forward it should not be out of necessity.

Find ways to take care of yourself so you can be a better help to others. This is more important than ever. As one executive elegantly stated, Managing your energy to serve others has always been key, but now it is more important than ever. These are words to live by.

Is there any product or service that given the new normal you wish you had bought or are in the process of purchasing?

Most of the CISOs felt that while they have the right tools in place, there is a need for enhanced or expanded secure edge products or solutions. As one CISOs stated, Large numbers of our employees spend their day on tower machines in the office. Of the many options available for facilitating WFH for that crowd  working from their personal machines is not viable. It represents too much risk in terms of data loss and potential lateral attacks. Company-purchased, imaged, secured, configured, workstations (laptops) are vastly preferable. Having a ready supply and a reliable supplier is essential in a world where the supply chain is crumbling.

Another consideration is MDM (mobile device management) needs, as well as better remote-control capabilities for on-prem solutions that have yet to migrate to the cloud. The executives who are already leveraging more cloud-based solutions felt they had less work to do going forward than their peers.

Confidence abounds

The world has changed considerably in the past two months, and the security landscape has shifted accordingly. CISOs recognize that many new solutions and processes need to be adopted to securely operate in this new environment. Fortunately, the conversations I had with these industry leaders makes me feel much more confident that our financial systems, tech industry, healthcare providers and other industries can meet the current challenges and adapt to those that are yet to come.
Editor's note: This story was originally published on Sept. 30, 2015. We are reposting it on the 50th anniversary of the protests.

CARBONDALE  On the evening of May 4, 1970  the day four Kent State University students died after members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators  some 400 students gathered on the campus of Southern Illinois University and voted unanimously to join hundreds of other campuses in a class boycott.

Protests and demonstrations continued to build for three days leading up to one of the most destructive nights in Carbondales history. On May 6, students staged protests at Wheeler Hall, the bottom floor of which housed the Air Force ROTC, and Woody Hall, which housed the universitys new Center for Vietnamese Studies and Programs, a university-government partnership that was a lightning rod of controversy during this era.

The next day, classes were officially called off to mourn the loss of students at Kent State.

Confusion, anger and angst were in full force that day, May 7, 1970, when about 1,500 people, with a permit to assemble, gathered near Main Street and Illinois Avenue on The Strip and blocked traffic to protest.

Police and members of the Illinois National Guard who had been called to campus to attempt to maintain order had agreed to reroute traffic on nearby streets, so long as demonstrators agreed to stay off the Illinois Central railroad tracks.

According to archived reports in The Southern Illinoisan from that day, demonstrators began blocking the tracks, and what began as a peaceful protest quickly turned violent. Law enforcement from the city, university, state and National Guard met and decided to use tear gas to disperse the crowd, hoping to move them south toward campus.

Violence broke out as 40 state police officers pumped tear gas into the crowd. As demonstrators were dispersed, they vandalized businesses, throwing rocks at their windows, and set fire to a vacant building on Mill Street. Then a vibrant commercial district, some 78 businesses were seriously damaged that night and dozens of people were injured, though most injuries were reported as minor. Then-Mayor David Keene responded by implementing a 7:30 p.m. curfew, forbidding gatherings of more than 25 people, and banning alcohol sales, according to newspaper reports.

Returning from the weekend, then-SIU Chancellor Robert MacVicar issued a special bulletin that Monday, which read: This morning we start the task of reconstruction of a university, and a university community. The tragedy of last week is not merely the injuries suffered by participants and by the officers of law enforcement  not merely the loss of property on campus in the community. The real tragedy is that a small group has been able to so influence a segment of our students that they provided the screen behind which the acts of violence could be hidden.

Protest at President Morris's Home

But run-ins between protesters and law enforcement continued. On May 12, 1970, a large crowd of students gathered at Morris Library before many of them began a march through Carbondale, and to the home of then-SIUC President Delyte D. Morris.

The Daily Egyptian, SIUs student newspaper, estimated the crowd at Morriss house at 3,500 students. The newspaper described the demonstration as mostly peaceful, but quoted Morriss wife as saying students caused three fires in the home, one on a mattress, in the kitchen, and in the living room where a cherry bomb landed. She also reported all the food was taken from the fridge.

After this, Chancellor MacVicar called for the indefinite closure of campus. The next day, Morris spoke to a crowd of about 3,000 to discuss closing of campus, and announced that polling places would be established for students, faculty and staff to vote on whether the university should remain closed, or be reopened. Confusion and chaos reigned, say those who were there.

The following day, May 14, 1970, two students were killed at Jackson State College in Jackson, Mississippi, by police officers, and many others injured, further agitating protesters at SIU and nationally. As tensions escalated, the SIU Board of Trustees, in consultation with then-Gov. Richard Ogilvie, voted 4-1 on May 15, 1970, to shut down campus for the spring semester three weeks early, and to issue students pass/fail grades for the semester. As the board deliberated, reports came in that three black SIU students believed to have ties to the Black Panthers were injured, one critically, when an explosive device inside a suitcase detonated inside a home in northeast Carbondale.

Ogilvie is quoted as saying that day, I do not think we can keep universities open with bayonets. The decision made SIU the only university in Illinois to close from protests in the 1970s.

Destruction on campus

In May 1968, there was the bombing of the Agriculture Building.

Though the incident remains a cold case, SIU notes on its website the series of demonstrations, marches, and a student strike in the weeks prior, mostly focused on opposition to the war. Those demonstrations included the destruction of an off-campus building by fire, and 49 gas jets in a lab opened wide in what appeared to be an attempt to burn down or blow up the Chemistry Department, and an effort to ignite gas tanks of three university vehicles at the Physical Plant.

The following year, in what also remains an unsolved mystery, huge smoke clouds billowed from Old Main as the historic centerpiece of SIUCs campus was destroyed by fire believed to be set intentionally.

Tensions were boiling here and elsewhere as young people grew increasingly angry about the war and draft, requiring they serve in an unpopular war even while they were denied the right to vote until age 21.

College as parent

This time period was the last of the in loco parentis doctrine on university campuses. A Latin term that means in place of parent, universities had wide latitude to institute strict rules. In Carbondale, that included such regulations that no one under 25 could drive a car, and a curfew for all female students of 10 p.m. Students began to rally against the environment as overly restrictive.

'Very explosive time'

In closing the school, facing years of campus strife that cumulated in May 1970, the boards resolution stated it was seriously concerned with the imminent danger to the life and property at that location. It continued that the board deplores violence, wars and racism not only on our campus, but across the nation and world. It is concerned with doing all it can to restore an atmosphere of peace in the university and nation.

SIU graduate and former employee Tom Busch, now of Maryland, recalls being a student on campus during this era. Of Champaign, Illinois, Busch started as a freshman in 1963, but he joined the Navy reserves in high school and was called into activity duty a few years later before finishing his schooling. Busch said, after he was discharged due to injury, he returned in 1968. Busch recalled that as a Vietnam-era veteran, he was treated most harshly in town by other veterans of other wars, and said he was once kicked out of a VFW.

But on campus, Busch said he didnt advertise his military service, and joined the majority of students in opposing the war. He described that era as a very, very explosive time."

It wasnt just unique to SIU," he said. "The whole bloody nation was really struggling with things that were happening.

Preserving history

As a senior, Busch said then-Lt. Gov. Paul Simon appointed him to a commission to study issues surrounding the campus closure, and ways to heal university-city relations. It was in that role that Busch collected photographs, mostly from the Daily Egyptian, as well as newspaper articles, leaflets, letters and other information, as part of fact-finding mission. Upon graduation, Busch accepted an administrative job at SIU, where he remained until he left for the University of Maryland in 1988.

As he was packing, he realized he had all of these files on student activism during the war, and didnt want to haul them out east, but also thought they shouldnt be discarded. Thats how the Thomas C. Busch files (from which most of this report) ended up in special collections at Morris Library. Busch donated the collection with a requirement that it be kept sealed for 20 years. They were opened up for public viewing in 1999.

It was a tough time and I was afraid that would be lost, because its truly a part of the institution, Busch said, adding hes extremely pleased by the extensiveness of the collection and how it has been cared for. If you dont know where you came from youre condemned to keep committing it.

Preserving order

John Jackson, a visiting professor at the SIU Paul Simon Public Policy Institute and a former chancellor, had just accepted his first teaching job in 1969 after earning a doctoral degree in political science from Vanderbilt University.

A former Army intelligence officer, Jackson said he had already seen a lot of things in his young life by that time, but seeing the mayhem on campus when he arrived was surreal. Old Main burned between the time he interviewed for the job and he moved to Carbondale to start.

Jackson said his opposition to the war was growing by that point, but his focus was on protecting order on campus. During the run-up to the campus shutting down, Jackson said he was one of several faculty members charged with protecting buildings from destruction.

Here I am, this brand new professor, walking guard duty at the Business School building and my job was to keep students from burning the building down at night, literally, Jackson recalled.

Hard to look back

Jackson, who taught political science, recalls having Busch as a student, as well as Tom Britton, who attended as an undergraduate from 1966 to 1970. Britton said he, as with many students, became more and more cynical about the war during that time. Though his brother at the time was an Air Force pilot, Britton said the two always understood that they were doing what they felt was necessary at the time, and never exchanged harsh words.

Britton recalled it being a difficult time for the nation, and for young people particularly. He served his senior year in the spring of 1970 as a resident fellow, and said that year he learned something he never expected to as part of his pursuit of higher learning: how to use a cheese cloth and water to get tear gas out of peoples eyes.

Walking around campus, Britton, who today works for the SIU Foundation as director of development for the SIU School of Law, leading fundraising activities for the school from which he graduated in the inaugural class, said he still sometimes thinks back to those tumultuous years.

It was just an extraordinary time, and to try to make sense of it today is very difficult because you look back and it was the product of deep and strongly held feelings and beliefs on the side of students, who were being drafted and sent to an unpopular war, and people who wanted to maintain order, Britton said. Conflict was bound to happen, and I think we learned some lessons from it.

Photos: SIU student activism during the Vietnam War

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Linkedin Sri Lestari Wahyuningroem (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, May 5, 2020 10:21 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd5f93ac 3 Opinion charity,solidarity,COVID-19,pandemic,social-aid,bansos,bantuan-sosial Free

At this time of the global pandemic, solidarity, many argue, will strengthen and find ways for a better transformation of society. The writer Yuval Noah Harari; also shared this view: In Indonesia, we have also seen flourishing signs of citizens solidarity for the needy, indicated by much volunteerism and charity.



Is it true that solidarity will strengthen and that societies will be transformed for the better? Is that also the case in Indonesia? I will reflect on several contexts in Asia and especially Indonesia, following a webinar on the roles of government and society in handling the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia held on April 22 by the Veteran National Development University Jakarta (UPNVJ).



First and foremost, we need to be clear on what we mean by solidarity. It is a concept that has long been discussed academically, mainly as theory, and became particularly relevant amid the mushrooming of studies on social movements.



Solidarity is essentially the feeling of reciprocal sympathy and responsibility among members of a group which promotes mutual support. Such feeling emerges as a reaction to oppression or marginalization against the group or its certain members and works best if they share common goals against common enemies.



Solidarity is different from benevolence or charity. Benevolence does not require shared political goals, struggles for the oppressed or the marginalized, or forms of social awareness that aim to change for a better society. Benevolence involves hierarchy, from top to bottom, or from the rich to the poor. It is interpersonal rather than social. Those who join and those who help do not intend to join the struggle or fight together for a common cause but only to help the weak.



In Indonesia, the boundaries between solidarity and benevolence is practically blurred. Several civil society organizations and grassroots communities are raising social assistance to help the groups most affected by the pandemic, such as informal workers, laborers, urban poor and so on. Several individuals, especially public figures, have also flocked to provide food, money, masks, and so on for the poor. One thing in common from all these efforts is that each runs independently without any monitoring or process of evaluation.



In other countries in Asia, solidarity is closely related to the level of public confidence in the government and/or the governments ability to manage the pandemic. In countries where the government has successfully handled the pandemic, solidarity arises for the global motivation of helping people in other countries. In Taiwan, the rapid response to the pandemic makes people feel safe and protected, including with the governments strategies and use of technology and information, says Deasy Simandjuntak of Academia Sinica.



In South Korea, effective bureaucracy and well-managed public services has led to an increase in public trust in its leaders for the past few months, as Alvin Qabulsyah observes.



In Singapore, transparent, consistent and data based communication coupled with a multiracial approach have appeared to stabilize peoples confidence and support in their leader, according to Aninda Dewayanti of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies-Yusof Ishak Singapore.



Japans government was initially slow in responding to the pandemic because of its insistence for the Olympics to be held this year. However, with mounting confirmed cases, local governments and civil society urged the government to fight the pandemic more effectively, as noted by Iqra Anugrah of Kyoto Universitys Center for Southeast Asian Studies.



In these countries, the needs of citizens are relatively already addressed by the government, so that while domestic solidarity is not very visible, calls for global solidarity strengthened.



Calls and initiatives for solidarity at the domestic level are effectively regulated and managed by their respective governments, such as in Malaysia where local governments provide guidance and regulations for aid distribution, according to M. Riza Nurdin of Universiti Malaya.



In Singapore, the dominance of the governments role in dealing with a crisis has led to the dependency of citizens on government policy, and only limited advocacy initiatives have been carried out in the community-based informal social sector. Similarly, Musa Maliki in Brunei Darussalam notes how the sultanate dominates all sectors in dealing with the pandemic.



In Indonesia, the level of confidence in the governments response to the pandemic tends to be low, as a recent survey shows. The formulation of appropriate policies has seen a stuttering beginning; incompetence as well as inconsistency, coupled with communication patterns that are not transparent and tend to be defensive, which have confused people, add to the sense of insecurity.



The government seems more concerned with preserving power, for example by initially dismissing the severity of the pandemic on the grounds of avoiding panicking and tightening control of public expression with narratives of anarchism and arbitrary arrests.



Solidarity is not included in the vocabulary, let alone the governments strategic policies, because for the administration of President Joko Jokowi Widodo, the enemy seems to be the citizens themselves who potentially can destabilize the government power. Indications of solidarity within government measures would include, for instance, much more protection of the most vulnerable groups from COVID-19 transmission or promoting national solidarity behind efforts to fight the virus, like what Taiwan's government did.



What we hear every day on television by the spokesperson for the COVID-19 government team is that the number of cases continues to increase because people do not wear masks and still leave the house. The impression is that the government is ignoring widespread expressions among the poor that they have little choice to survive amid limited provision of safety nets.



Global solidarity? It is still far from where we are now. Citizens must deal with the pandemic by relying on themselves. Benevolence or charity can be the initial stage because solidarity has not yet become a shared awareness.



However, as long as solidarity has not been established, relying solely on benevolence can lead to dependency and reaffirm the social class hierarchy between the rich and poor. Benevolence will gradually become a new competition to do good for others.



Solidarity challenges this because solidarity has the capacity to strengthen the resilience of citizens. Solidarity also challenges the practice of bad governance and drives public pressure for accountability.

______

Lecturer, School of Social and Political Sciences, Veteran National Development University Jakarta (UPNVJ), specially appointed associate professor at Osaka University, Japan.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
The Economist listed Viet Nam as the 12th strongest economy among 66 economies in its report on the financial strength in the wake of the COVID-19...

Vietnam ranks 12th among 66 economies.  Photo zingnews.vn

The Economist listed Viet Nam as the 12th strongest economy among 66 economies in its report on financial strength in the wake of the COVID-19 fallout.

The ranking is based on four measures of financial strength, which are public debt, foreign debt and cost of borrowing and reserve cover.

Viet Nam is in the safe group thanks to stable and strong financial indicators.

Accordingly, more than 30 emerging economies are facing great pressure, the worst being Lebanon and Venezuela.

Botswana tops the list with safe economies, followed by Taiwan and South Korea.

The Economist said that most of the economies were strong enough to overcome the pandemic. The 30 weakest economies was relatively small, accounting for only 11 per cent of the total gross domestic product (GDP) of the 66 economies.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that to overcome the COVID-19 crisis, emerging economies need at least US$2.5 trillion from foreign sources or domestic reserves.  VNS
SAN DIEGO and LEUVEN, Belgium, May 5, 2020 -- Roswell Biotechnologies, Inc., the leader in molecular electronics sensor chips, and imec, a world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies, announced today a partnership to develop the first commercially available molecular electronics biosensor chips. These chips are the brains behind Roswell Technologies' powerful new platform for DNA sequencing, to support precision medicine, molecular diagnostics, rapid infectious disease testing, and DNA data storage.

"The urgent need for a new generation of rapid, low-cost, consumer surveillance and diagnostics tools has been made extremely clear in the current COVID-19 pandemic," said Roswell President & CEO Paul Mola. "In that area, the Roswell molecular electronic platform will transform the way infectious diseases are detected, with powerful new capabilities that enable, rapid screening of many infectious diseases at once, or many viral strains, with portable or handheld devices."

The Roswell platform is the first to deliver the power of molecular electronic sensing, to support a full spectrum of DNA sequencing and biosensing applications. This includes the spectrum of tests necessary for the detection and containment of infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, including sequencing, nucleic acid detection, antigen detection and antibody detection. The platform was also designed with the scalability to provide the solution for rapid, low-cost whole genome sequencing in precision medicine, for treating cancer and other diseases, as well as for reading massive amounts of digital data stored in DNA, which is envisioned as the future of archiving data at the global scale.

Molecular electronic sensor chips integrate single molecules as electrical sensor elements on standard semiconductor chips, making electronic biosensor devices massively scalable. While electronic biosensors have seen gradual adoption in DNA sequencing and other areas of testing, there have been no major innovations in the basic sensor technology. The Roswell molecular electronics sensors represent an entirely new class of sensors, specifically designed to be maximally compatible with modern CMOS chip technology, delivering a technological breakthrough that significantly increases performance and lowers costs. This advance allows low-cost, high speed biomedical tests, including DNA sequencing and other forms of biomarkers sensing essential to modern medical diagnostics, to be deployed on simple portable or handheld devices.

"Although molecular electronics has long been hailed as a scientific breakthrough, its commercial viability required the technology to be put on a standard semiconductor chip," said Roswell Chief Science Officer Dr. Barry Merriman. "One of the significant hurdles to commercializing molecular electronics is the need for costly customized solutions for large scale manufacturing. Imec has overcome those challenges by utilizing state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing technology coupled with its deep experience in biosensor technology to commercialize molecular electronics using standard tools. We are excited to be partnering with imec on this effort."

Imec and Roswell have successfully completed key proof-of-concept work and are now focused on final process development. The initial products are expected to be commercially available in 2021.

"Building on its leadership in advanced process development for the semiconductor industry, imec has pushed the limits of what is possible. This next-generation sensor, poised to disrupt bio-sensing, benefits from our broad expertise to solve the manufacturing hurdles," said Dr. Ashesh Ray Chaudhuri, team leader of life science technologies at imec.

Dr. Simone Severi, program director for life science technologies at imec, added, "Our partnership with Roswell is a great example of how imec is leveraging its leadership in state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing technology to make next-generation life-science instrumentation possible. We are very excited to collaborate with Roswell on the integration of their molecular electronics sensor and developing the fastest route to achieving large scale commercial manufacturing of their sensor chips. It is especially motivating to use our skills to make a direct impact in important areas of medicine, such as genome sequencing and infectious disease monitoring, as well as to open up new sectors such as DNA storage of Exabyte scale DNA."

About Roswell Biotechnologies

Roswell Biotechnologies, Inc. is the leading developer of molecular electronics for chip-based DNA sequencing and biosensing. The company's platform technology reduces the cost and complexity of DNA sequencing to address large markets in infectious disease surveillance and containment, precision medicine, molecular diagnostics, and DNA digital data storage. Roswell Biotechnologies' patented molecular electronics biosensor chip is the first to integrate molecular elements into semiconductor chips, by combining the latest advances in sensors and nanotechnology, to fundamentally advance the application of DNA sequencing and biosensing. Founded in 2014, the privately held company is headquartered in San Diego, California.

About imec

Imec is a world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies. The combination of our widely acclaimed leadership in microchip technology and profound software and ICT expertise is what makes us unique. By leveraging our world-class infrastructure and local and global ecosystem of partners across a multitude of industries, we create groundbreaking innovation in application domains such as healthcare, smart cities and mobility, logistics and manufacturing, energy and education.

As a trusted partner for companies, start-ups and universities we bring together more than 4,500 brilliant minds from over 95 nationalities. Imec is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium and has distributed R&D groups at a number of Flemish universities, in the Netherlands, Taiwan, USA, and offices in China, India and Japan. In 2019, imec's revenue (P&L) totaled 640 million euro. Further information on imec can be found at www.imec-int.com.

Imec is a registered trademark for the activities of IMEC International (a legal entity set up under Belgian law as a "stichting van openbaar nut"), imec Belgium (IMEC vzw supported by the Flemish Government), imec the Netherlands (Stichting IMEC Nederland, part of Holst Centre which is supported by the Dutch Government), imec Taiwan (IMEC Taiwan Co.) and imec China (IMEC Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.) and imec India (Imec India Private Limited), imec Florida (IMEC USA nanoelectronics design center).

SOURCE Roswell Biotechnologies, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.roswellbiotech.com/


CAA: Paramilitary forces, drones beef up security in UP to prevent clashes after Friday prayers

Explained: Is it time to use military force to fight COVID-19?

Army, paramilitary staff to be quarantined on return to Chhattisgarh

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Raipur, May 05: The Chhattisgarh health department has asked personnel of the paramilitary forces and Army to remain quarantined for 14 days after their return to the state on completion of training or duties in other parts of the country.

State health secretary Niharika Barik Singh wrote letters on Sunday to senior officials of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), the Indian Army and Service Selection Board (SSB), to ensure compliance of the quarantine protocols.

13, including 11 BSF jawans test positive for coronavirus in Tripura

In the letter, Singh said it has come to the notice of the health department that security personnel of the units concerned are out of the state for various reasons like training, leave, duty, and others.

NEWS AT 3 PM, MAY 5th, 2020

It has been directed that whenever the personnel return to the state, the departments concerned must ensure they compulsorily follow 14-day quarantine, the official said.

On their arrival from other states, information should be given to collectors and chief medical and health officers of the respective districts and their health test must be conducted.

The armed units and paramilitary forces should make arrangements of separate rooms with attached toilet facilities for the stay of the personnel during the 14-day quarantine and their health check-up should be done daily, the letter said.

In case of detection of any symptoms related to COVID-19, it should be brought to the notice of the health department immediately, Singh said in the letter.

In case of non-availability of their respective unit doctors, they can take services of the state health department staff for daily screening, the official added.

A large number of paramilitary forces are deployed in Chhattisgarh, particularly in Bastar region, for carrying out anti-Naxal operations.

The headquarters of the Army's Chhattisgarh and Odisha Sub Area (COSA) is located in Raipur.
BOSTON, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Alignable's Coronavirus Impact Poll of 13,600 small business owners from May 1-4, 2020, shows only 28% have received federal money so far, after more than a month trying to stay afloat with cash reserves dwindling. That leaves a whopping 66% of small business owners who applied for federal relief under the CARES Act Payroll Protection Program wondering if or when it will actually arrive.

Here's a rundown of the poll results:

28% of small business owners were approved and received funding

16% were approved, but don't have funds yet

32% applied, but await bank approval

18% tried, but were unsuccessful in getting a bank to submit their application

6% were denied

44% reported their businesses have closed

47% reported having only one month of cash reserves left

Most poll respondents working with larger banks, including JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, noted they were still in limbo, even after applying the first day they possibly could.

Some larger banks told them they were not able to process their applications yet, or that there were other delays. Later, many learned that larger businesses were favored and received the CARES Act money first.

However, small business owners who have applied at their local, community-based institutions reported far less hassle and expedited results.

"Many small business owners tell us they gave up on larger banks and reapplied for loans with a local lender," said Eric Groves, Alignable's Co-Founder and CEO. "In a recent discussion about Chase Bank, hundreds of small business owners shared their stories of frustration with major money center banks, as well as high praise for local and regional banks who came to their aid."

Given that 47% of small businesses now have only one month of cash reserves before they might need to close, expediting those CARES Act loans is paramount.

"The silver lining amid all of this CARES Act confusion is local banks have emerged as heroes," said Venkat Krishnamurthy, Alignable's Co-Founder and President. "Just two weeks ago, only 8% of small businesses had federal funds in their bank accounts, but now that number is up to 28%, because local banks stepped in to fill the void created by larger banks. Hopefully soon, that figure will be much higher and more small businesses will receive the financial support they need and deserve."

Small business owners recommend if you're still trying to get your CARES Act loan, reapply at your local bank or with an online provider.

Survey Methodology

Alignable is the largest online small business referral network with 5 million+ small businesses across North America.

Surveys in this release include results from May 1-4, 2020 with 13,600 responses, and another poll conducted April 25-28, 2020 with 12,400 responses. In both cases, U.S.-based small business owners were polled.

Alignable's Coronavirus Impact Polls are the most immediate and comprehensive polls available reflecting the sentiments of small business owners.

For more information, contact Chuck Casto at [email protected].

SOURCE Alignable

Related Links

alignable.com


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Dr. Peter Grech

Attorney General

Office of the Attorney General

The Palace

Republic Street

Valletta, VLT 2000

CC:

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission

Vera Jourova, Vice-President for Values and Transparency

Catherine De Bolle, Executive Director of Europol

Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Justice

May 5, 2020

Sent via email

Dear Attorney General,

We the undersigned press freedom organizations are writing to request that you invite the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) to provide further support to legal proceedings in relation to the October 2017 murder of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

We remain deeply concerned that legal proceedings around the murder have not yet delivered full justice for Caruana Galizia or her family.

Europols involvement could provide valuable support and help secure a successful result in the case. In Slovakia, Europol assistance was praised for its contribution to the legal proceedings in the case of murdered journalist Jan Kuciak.

The call to invite Europol was made, along with other recommendations, by the European Parliaments Rule of Law Monitoring Group. New leadership in Malta has led to expectations that both the recommendations in the December 2019 European Parliament Resolution, as well as the 2018 Venice Commission Report, will be delivered. Europols strengthened support can also contribute to addressing these. We also hope that Europol could help facilitate legal proceedings, including improving the cooperation of the Maltese authorities with all foreign jurisdictions and enabling better access to information.

The Maltese authorities have a new opportunity to demonstrate that justice will be delivered for Caruana Galizia and her family by requesting that Europol immediately establish a Joint Investigation Team. By delivering justice in this important case, the Maltese authorities will demonstrate that no one in Malta is above the law and that journalists will be protected.

Sincerely,

Article 19

Association of European Journalists

Committee to Protect Journalists

European Centre for Press and Media Freedom

Free Press Unlimited

IFEX

Index on Censorship

International Press Institute

PEN International

Reporters without Borders

Scottish Pen
The capitalisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), rose by N375 billion in six hours of trading, amid price appreciation recorded by some blue chips.

Specifically, the market capitalisation which opened at N12.033 trillion, rose by N375 billion or 3.12 per cent to close at N12.408 trillion.

Similarly, the All-Share Index increased by 719.45 points or 3.12 per cent to close at 23,809.31 in contrast with 23,089.86 on Monday.

Accordingly, the Month-to-Date gain increased to 3.4 per cent as Year-to-Date losses moderated to -11.3 per cent.

The Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Limited, Ambrose Omordion, attributed the development to a spike in crude oil prices as lockdowns were being relaxed in different countries.

Mr Omordion said the relaxation triggered demand for oil, as movement and manufacturing activities resumed.

He added that the month of May, being dividend qualification dates for many blue chip stocks that had suffered losses recently, was attracting funds and buying interest on high yields.

These stocks are Dangote cement, Nestle, Okomu, Julius Berger and others.

Investors should not be carried away with this trend but should have a good exit strategy and play with caution, Omordion said.

Nestle led the gainers table during the day, gaining N54.80 to close at N975 per share.

Dangote Cement trailed with N13 to close at N143, while MTN Nigeria Communications, added N4 to close at N120per share.

Zenith Bank appreciated by 50k to close at N14.85, while Lafarge Africa increased by 40k to close at N10.70 per share.

On the other hand, Flour Mills recorded the highest price loss to lead the laggards table, dropping by N1.25 to close at N19.75 per share.

BUA Cement came second with a loss of 80k to close at N31.80, while May and Baker declined by 27k to close at N2.43 per share.

NPF MicroFinance Bank was down by 12k to close at N1.13, while Linkage Insurance dropped by 5k to close at 48k per share.

Guaranty Trust Bank was the most active stock during the day, exchanging 54.29 million shares valued N1.14 billion.

Mutual Benefit followed with an account of 41.79 million shares worth N9.02 million, while Zenith Bank traded 40.31 million shares cost N591.01 million.

Sterling Bank sold 30.79 million shares valued N37.64 million, while Access Bank traded 28.78 million shares valued N177.92 million.

In all, the volume of shares traded rose by 38.15 per cent as investors bought and sold 345.18 million shares valued N4.252 billion in 4,689 deals.

This was in contrast with 249.86 million shares worth N2.39 billion achieved in 6,538 deals on Monday.

(NAN)
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said the decision to extend the detention of PDP president Mehbooba Mufti was "unbelievably cruel" and "retrograde".

"Unbelievably cruel & retrograde decision to extend @MehboobaMufti's detention. Nothing she has done or said in any way justifies the way the Indian state has treated her & the others detained," Omar tweeted.

He was reacting to the Jammu and Kashmir authorities' decision to extend the detention of the former chief minister by another three months.

"For a government that is making tall claims about normality in J&K the last few days coupled with the extension of Ms Mufti's detention is proof enough that Modi ji has single handedly pushed J&K back decades," Omar added.

Most of the top mainstream leaders, including Mehbooba, Omar and sitting Lok Sabha member from Srinagar Farooq Abdullah, and separatist leaders were detained a day ahead of the Centre's announcement of abrogation of article 370 of the Constitution thereby repealing the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in August last year.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / Skeena Resources Limited (TSX.V:SKE)(OTCQX:SKREF) ("Skeena" or the "Company") is pleased to announce final gold-silver drill results for the 4,327 metres completed so far this year from the Company's 2020 Phase I surface drilling program at the Eskay Creek Project ("Eskay Creek") located in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia. Four surface drill rigs were utilized for the 2020 Phase I program in the 21A, 21B and 21C Zones to infill drill and enable upgrading areas of Inferred resources to the Indicated classification. Reference images are presented at the end of this release as well as on the Company's website.

Phase I Eskay Creek Drilling Highlights

32.21 g/t Au, 121 g/t Ag (33.82 g/t AuEq) over 22.50 m (SK-20-270) - 21B Zone

Including 753.00 g/t Au, 445 g/t Ag (758.93 g/t AuEq) over 0.83 m

5.90 g/t Au, 14 g/t Ag (6.09 g/t AuEq) over 24.55 m (SK-20-271) - 21B Zone

Including 25.60 g/t Au, 56 g/t Ag (26.35 g/t AuEq) over 1.50 m

Gold Equivalent (AuEq) calculated via the formula: Au (g/t) + [Ag (g/t) / 75]. Reported core lengths represent 80-100% of true widths and are supported by well-defined mineralization geometries derived from historical drilling. Grade capping of individual assays has not been applied to the Au and Ag assays informing the length weighted AuEq composites. Processing recoveries have not been applied to the AuEq calculation and are disclosed at 100%. Samples below detection limit are nulled to a value of zero.

21B Zone Continues to Demonstrate High Tenor

Infill drilling within the 21B Zone has intersected substantial high-grade mineralization as predicted and demonstrated by adjacent intercepts of 32.21 g/t Au, 121 g/t Ag (33.82 g/t AuEq) over 22.50 m, including 753.00 g/t Au, 445 g/t Ag (758.93 g/t AuEq) over 0.83 m (SK-20-270). This mineralization is hosted within the contact mudstones as well as mudstone-rhyolite breccias and improves upon the grades from the surrounding historical drill holes, including 4.94 g/t AuEq over 19.75 m (6636) and 0.73 g/t AuEq over 3.32 m and 0.88 g/t AuEq over 6.13 m (CA90-537).

Increased gold-silver tenor in the 21B Zone was established by an intersection in Phase I drilling of 5.90 g/t Au, 14 g/t Ag (6.09 g/t AuEq) over 24.55 m (SK-20-271) which is proximal to another historical intercept from a 1997 surface drill hole which averaged 3.07 g/t AuEq over 18.26 m (C97853).

The Phase I infill drill program at Eskay Creek continues to predictably confirm the grades and spatial limits of the resource model that was derived largely from the historical drilling database.

About Skeena

Skeena Resources Limited is a junior Canadian mining exploration company focused on developing prospective precious metal properties in the Golden Triangle of northwest British Columbia, Canada. The Company's primary activities are the exploration and development of the past-producing Eskay Creek gold-silver mine. The Company released a robust Preliminary Economic Assessment in late 2019 and is currently focused on infill and exploration drilling at Eskay Creek to advance the project to Pre-feasibility. Skeena is also exploring the past-producing Snip gold mine.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Skeena Resources Limited,

Walter Coles Jr.

President & CEO

Qualified Persons

Exploration activities at the Eskay Creek Project are administered on site by the Company's Exploration Managers, Colin Russell, P.Geo. and Adrian Newton, P.Geo. In accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, Paul Geddes, P.Geo. Vice President Exploration and Resource Development, is the Qualified Person for the Company and has prepared, validated and approved the technical and scientific content of this news release. The Company strictly adheres to CIM Best Practices Guidelines in conducting, documenting, and reporting its exploration activities on its exploration projects.

Quality Assurance - Quality Control

Once received from the drill and processed, all drill core samples are sawn in half, labelled and bagged. The remaining drill core is subsequently securely stored on site. Numbered security tags are applied to lab shipments for chain of custody requirements. The Company inserts quality control (QC) samples at regular intervals in the sample stream, including blanks and reference materials with all sample shipments to monitor laboratory performance. The QAQC program was designed and approved by Lynda Bloom, P.Geo. of Analytical Solutions Ltd., and is overseen by the Company's Qualified Person, Paul Geddes, P.Geo, Vice President Exploration and Resource Development.

Drill core samples are submitted to ALS Geochemistry's analytical facility in North Vancouver, British Columbia for preparation and analysis. The ALS facility is accredited to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard for gold assays and all analytical methods include quality control materials at set frequencies with established data acceptance criteria. The entire sample is crushed and 1kg is pulverized. Analysis for gold is by 50g fire assay fusion with atomic absorption (AAS) finish with a lower limit of 0.01 ppm and upper limit of 100 ppm. Samples with gold assays greater than 100ppm are re-analyzed using a 50g fire assay fusion with gravimetric finish. Analysis for silver is by 50g fire assay fusion with gravimetric finish with a lower limit of 5ppm and upper limit of 10,000ppm. Samples with silver assays greater than 10,000ppm are re-analyzed using a gravimetric silver concentrate method. A selected number of samples are also analyzed using a 48 multi-elemental geochemical package by a 4-acid digestion, followed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS) and also for mercury using an aqua regia digest with Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES) finish. Samples with sulfur reporting greater than 10% from the multi-element analysis are re-analyzed for total sulfur by Leco furnace and infrared spectroscopy.

Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements

Certain statements made and information contained herein may constitute "forward looking information" and "forward looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. These statements and information are based on facts currently available to the Company and there is no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Forward-looking statements and information may be identified by such terms as "anticipates", "believes", "targets", "estimates", "plans", "expects", "may", "will", "could" or "would". Forward-looking statements and information contained herein are based on certain factors and assumptions regarding, among other things, the estimation of mineral resources and reserves, the realization of resource and reserve estimates, metal prices, taxation, the estimation, timing and amount of future exploration and development, capital and operating costs, the availability of financing, the receipt of regulatory approvals, environmental risks, title disputes and other matters. While the Company considers its assumptions to be reasonable as of the date hereof, forward-looking statements and information are not guarantees of future performance and readers should not place undue importance on such statements as actual events and results may differ materially from those described herein. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements or information except as may be required by applicable securities laws.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Table 1: Eskay Creek Project 2020 Phase I length weighted drill hole gold and silver composites:

HOLE-ID FROM (M) TO (M) CORE LENGTH (M) AU (G/T) AG (G/T) AUEQ (G/T) ZONE SK-20-265 149.62 169.00 19.38 2.68 27 3.05 21B INCLUDING 158.42 159.19 0.77 19.15 550 26.48 21B SK-20-266 141.92 169.85 27.93 1.67 5 1.74 21B SK-20-267 ABANDONED 21B SK-20-268 166.00 180.00 14.00 2.01 5 2.08 21B SK-20-269 135.00 147.96 12.96 1.12 14 1.31 21B SK-20-269 155.00 162.50 7.50 1.55 7 1.65 21B SK-20-270 137.00 159.50 22.50 32.21 121 33.82 21B INCLUDING 138.00 139.00 1.00 12.35 167 14.58 21B AND 139.00 139.50 0.50 14.35 957 27.11 21B AND 139.50 140.50 1.00 2.64 1,375 20.97 21B AND 150.50 151.00 0.50 13.25 8 13.36 21B AND 151.00 152.00 1.00 18.60 31 19.01 21B AND 153.00 154.00 1.00 24.20 58 24.97 21B AND 154.00 154.83 0.83 753.00 445 758.93 21B SK-20-271 147.45 172.00 24.55 5.90 14 6.09 21B INCLUDING 159.50 160.00 0.50 11.80 17 12.03 21B AND 160.00 161.50 1.50 10.50 8 10.61 21B AND 163.00 164.50 1.50 20.90 95 22.17 21B AND 164.50 166.00 1.50 25.60 56 26.35 21B AND 169.60 170.10 0.50 11.00 <5 11.00 21B AND 170.10 171.00 0.90 18.95 6 19.03 21B SK-20-272 ABANDONED 21A SK-20-273 125.16 142.50 17.34 0.64 29 1.02 21A SK-20-274 NOT YET DRILLED SK-20-275 NOT YET DRILLED SK-20-276 NOT YET DRILLED SK-20-277 NOT YET DRILLED SK-20-278 NOT YET DRILLED SK-20-279 NOT YET DRILLED SK-20-280 NOT YET DRILLED SK-20-281 NOT YET DRILLED SK-20-282 NOT YET DRILLED SK-20-283 NOT YET DRILLED SK-20-284 NOT YET DRILLED SK-20-285 138.00 148.00 10.00 2.67 11 2.82 21B SK-20-286 149.85 157.50 7.65 3.13 6 3.20 21B SK-20-287 ABANDONED SK-20-288 140.50 148.40 7.90 1.32 122 2.95 21A

Gold Equivalent (AuEq) calculated via the formula: Au (g/t) + [Ag (g/t) / 75]. Reported core lengths represent 80-100% of true widths and are supported by well-defined mineralization geometries derived from historical drilling. Length weighted AuEq composites were constrained by geological considerations. Grade capping of individual assays has not been applied to the Au and Ag assays informing the length weighted AuEq composites. Processing recoveries have not been applied to the AuEq calculation and are disclosed at 100%. Samples below detection limit were nulled to a value of zero.

Table 2: Mine grid Phase I drill hole locations and orientations:

HOLE-ID EASTING NORTHING ELEVATION LENGTH (M) AZIMUTH DIP SK-20-265 9813.4 10632.5 937.9 179.0 109.9 -60.0 SK-20-266 9813.4 10632.5 937.9 184.0 115.1 -66.0 SK-20-268 9788.9 10641.4 929.1 186.0 84.5 -59.2 SK-20-269 9789.0 10640.2 929.1 164.0 120.6 -74.1 SK-20-270 9788.4 10640.5 929.1 165.0 136.6 -73.4 SK-20-271 9828.7 10639.8 940.3 172.0 108.2 -76.7 SK-20-272 9756.4 10252.4 1010.5 5.0 151.8 -61.8 SK-20-273 9752.4 10253.9 1010.1 154.0 149.7 -74.1 SK-20-285 9842.7 10601.0 946.1 168.0 115.8 -69.2 SK-20-286 9828.3 10641.4 939.5 182.0 97.3 -68.2 SK-20-287 9753.2 10252.1 1010.2 13.6 150.2 -62.0 SK-20-288 9752.4 10253.9 1010.1 154.0 150.2 -62.0

For higher resolution image, please click here

For higher resolution image, please click here

CONTACT:

Walt Coles Jr.,

President & CEO

Kelly Earle, Vice President Communications

Email: kearle@skeenaresources.com

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Beware of these fake rescue forms for Indians stranded abroad

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, May 05: The Indian government on Tuesday warned against a WhatsApp message that is circulating with links to Google Forms titled 'RESCUE FLIGHTS FROM INDIA', for stranded Indians.

The fake application form went viral hours after India unveiled its biggest evacuation plan to bring back Indians stranded abroad due to the coronavirus outbreak.

It is to be noted that the Indian government has not issued any such forms. It is advised that not to click on these links and register only through the official Embassy website.

Claim:A whatsapp message is circulating with links to Google Forms titled 'RESCUE FLIGHTS FROM INDIA', for stranded Indians.#PIBFactCheck: Indian Govt has not issued any such forms. It's advised not to click on these links & to register only through the official Embassy website pic.twitter.com/ZEjtxhzqMq  PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) May 5, 2020

The Central government is likely to operate 64 flights from May 7 to 13 to bring home around 14,800 Indian nationals stranded abroad because of the coronavirus lockdown.

These special flights would be operated by Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express to repatriate Indians from 12 countries -- the UAE, the UK, the US, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman, said the officials.

Fake: Do not click on this link for online processing of GST refund

India has been under lockdown since March 25 to curb the spread of the coronavirus and it will continue till May 17.
File picture

The Ministry of Railways has said that up until now, 67 Shramik Special trains have been run by various zonal railways, news agency ANI has reported.

Fifty-five such trains had been operated until May 4, while some have been operated from Bengaluru, Surat, Sabarmati, Jalandhar, Kota and Ernakulam among other places, the ministry said. In addition, 21 more trains are expected to leave on May 5.

Track this blog for LIVE updates on the COVID-19 pandemic

The Ministry of Home Affairs on May 1 issued a notification allowing inter-state movement of stranded migrant workers, tourists, students, pilgrims and other such people. Following this, the Ministry of Railways announced its decision to operate "Shramik Special" trains to enable migrant workers to reach their home states.

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

Detailed guidelines were issued to this effect, keeping in mind necessary social distancing norms for the safety of passengers. People are to be screened before boarding the trains, and also once they arrive at their destinations, with authorities ensuring quarantine arrangements, if necessary.

Meanwhile, the cancellation of all regular passenger trains, including suburban trains, was extended by the ministry until May 17, 2020, in line with the date of the extended nationwide lockdown.

The central and state governments have also been arranging for buses to ferry stranded migrant workers. However, even after the Home Ministry's May 1 order, protests have erupted across the country with migrant workers having taken to the streets to demand that they be returned home.
GENEVA  The World Health Organizations emergencies chief said Monday that it has received no evidence from the U.S. government to back up allegations by President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the coronavirus could have originated at a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

From our perspective, this remains speculative, Dr. Michael Ryan told reporters in Geneva. We have not received any data or specific evidence from the U.S. government relating to the purported origin of the virus.

He said WHO would be very willing to receive any such information the U.S. has.

The comments come as the Trump administration has denounced both China and the U.N. health agency for alleged missteps in handling the outbreak that first emerged in the city of Wuhan and has now infected millions and killed at least 239,000 people. Trump on Friday said WHO was like the public relations agency for China.

Ryan reiterated that the evidence and advice that the U.N. health agency has received suggest that the novel coronavirus is of natural origin, even if Pompeo and Trump have alleged evidence they have seen suggests it could be from the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab.

If that data and evidence is available, then it will be for the United States government to decide whether and when it can be shared, Ryan said. But its difficult for WHO to operate in an information vacuum in that specific regard.

On Sunday, Pompeo told ABCs This Week program that there was a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan.

Ryan and Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead on the WHO emergencies program, put their focus on the hunt for the animal host that is believed to have relayed the coronavirus from bats. Such a determination could help drive public health policies, like advising people to keep away from some types of wildlife or livestock.

They said Chinese scientists continued to work with the world against the pandemic, and suggested such collaboration remained crucial  and that efforts to investigate possible wrongdoing by Chinese officials could derail such scientific cooperation.

We need to understand that we can learn from Chinese scientists, we can learn from each other, we can exchange knowledge and we can find the answers together, Ryan said. If this is projected as aggressive investigation of wrongdoing, then I believe thats much more difficult to deal with. Thats a political issue. That is not a science issue.

Science will find the answers, he added. The implications of those answers can be dealt with from a policy and political perspective.

WHO heaped praise on China from early on in the outbreak.

On Jan. 30, moments before announcing that the coronavirus was a global health emergency, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said China was setting a new standard for outbreak response. He praised the speed with which China detected the outbreak, sequenced the genome and shared that information with WHO. He said its commitment to transparency was beyond words.

The joint team said at the time that it was not probing any allegations that China may have mishandled the outbreak.

___ AP Medical Writer Maria Cheng contributed from London.

___

Follow AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
IDEA Travis Academy has announced the addition of another kindergarten class to its Midland campus to meet high community demand.

Beginning with the 2020-21 school year, IDEA Public Schools will partner with Midland Independent School District to transform Travis Elementary into IDEA Travis.

The move is required as the Travis campus has one of the longest failing streaks in the state and the districts other choices were to close the campus or turn it over to the Texas Education Agency. However, local philanthropy and business worked to bring IDEA Public Schools to Midland. Travis will be the first of at least five schools in Midland. The others are not scheduled to be partnerships with the district.

Initially, IDEA Travis planned to serve 744 children in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade; however, demand to attend the school has outpaced the number of spots available. The waitlist for the school has now surpassed 300 children.

After IDEA Permian Basin and IDEA Travis leadership team looked at the wait list, they decided to open an additional section for Kindergarten.

I am thrilled that so many parents want their children to be part of IDEA Travis. We are here to serve our community  and they are telling us that we need to open more spots, says Hailey McCarthy, executive principal of IDEA Travis. We cant wait to meet our future families and students! We have spent so much time preparing for them. This next year is going to be great!

The additional class will serve another 28 children. Parents that are interested can visit www.ideapublicschools.org/apply to submit their application.
Qantas has pushed back its flight cancellations to the end of July but has warned its fleet could be grounded for much longer.

Holidaymakers may have to put their travel plans on hold for another year as the airline prepares for the coronavirus shutdown to potentially continue until December 2021.

The airline has secured $550million in debt to help the business survive the pandemic if it lasts as long as the worst estimates. It is preparing to lose $40million a week until the travel industry recovers.

Qantas (pictured: grounded plants in Sydney) has secured A$550 million in debt to help the business survive the pandemic

Since the pandemic escalated, Qantas has been operating at 5 per cent for its domestic capacity and 5 per cent of its international capacity (pictured: Returning travellers in Adelaide)

The money has been secured against three of its Boeing 787-9 aircraft. The airline said it could raise another $2.7billion from other aircraft assets if needed.

The funding comes on top of the $1billion it raised in March, giving the company enough liquidity to stay afloat until December 2021.

In an announcement to the ASX, the airline said it has 'sufficient liquidity to respond to a range of recovery scenarios, including one where the current trading conditions persist until at least December 2021'.

Since the pandemic escalated, Qantas has been operating at five per cent of its domestic capacity and five per cent of its international capacity.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce told the Sydney Morning Herald they were optimistic domestic travel will start returning earlier than first thought.

However, he said international travel, with the possible exception of New Zealand, could take years to return to normal.

'We don't know how long domestic and international travel restrictions will last or what demand will look like as they're gradually lifted,' he said.

About 25,000 of the company's 30,000 staff will remain stood-down until at least until the end of June.

Rival Virgin Australia went into voluntary administration two weeks ago, owing almost $7billion.
Kano Governor Abdullahi Ganduje has declared the state is in trouble with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kano has the second highest number of COVID-19 cases with 342 patients in Nigeria.

His administration has been widely criticised for not being proactive with containing the virus.

Ganduje, who spoke at the presentation of a mobile testing centre donated by the Dangote Foundation, the state faced challenges in testing right from the beginning.

Ganduje said challenges in testing led to the escalation of the number of cases in the state.

There is no doubt that Kano is in trouble. And there is no doubt that we started on a shaky foundation, he said.

When samples were taken to Abuja for seven hours and came back again in seven hours that was the shaky foundation I am talking about.

We then lodged complaints to President Muhammadu Buhari, who ordered for the establishment of a Testing Centre at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, which after take-off was shut down for some days if not weeks. That was what escalated the transmission of the disease up to community transmission.

With the coming back of the AKTH Testing Centre and the addition of Bayero University, Kano that has the capacity of testing about 200 samples per day now, with the coming of Dangote Mobile Testing Centre of 400 samples capacity, we are making headway in facing the crisis squarely.
| By Charles Schelle

A University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) employees basement has turned into a small-scale manufacturing operation that is helping front-line health care workers one ear saver at a time.

These ear savers and a molded mask are some of the personal protective equipment components that UMB emerging technologies librarian Brian Zelip has 3D-printed from his basement during the pandemic.

Brian Zelip, MSLIS, MA, emerging technologies librarian at the University of Maryland Health Sciences and Human Services Librarys (HS/HSL) Innovation Space, answered the call to arms for 3D printers to help with personal protective equipment (PPE) manufacturing during the COVID-19 outbreak.

This is Baltimore, where making is a tradition, Zelip said.

Zelip lugged the 138-pound Raise3D N2 printer from HS/HSL to his Baltimore home during the lockdown as institutions like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and others released files to print PPE components. His wifes handbag-making studio is now a miniature PPE plant.

When the University Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) asked for help from the community with PPE components, Zelip got to work making ear savers for surgical masks. The first batch of 100 was an S-shaped tool.

Theyre wearing these masks for 24 hours a day or more and getting a lot of irritation, he said. These things come in handy to help save the day.

That first order of 100 turned into a request for 500 more. In all, Zelip has printed about 700 parts so far that are delivered to the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) and to the home of Susan Dorsey, PhD 01, MS 98, RN, FAAN, professor and chair of the Department of Pain and Translational Symptom Science at UMSON. Everything Dorsey receives goes to University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) and is parsed out among system staff from there. Out of the thousands of ear savers received at UMSON, Zelip has been the most prolific 3D-printed producer, Dorsey said, with the Archdiocese of Baltimore close behind.

Not just the volunteers in the community, but for those who are on staff or faculty at UMB, they are doing this work in addition to their regular jobs, which have been much more complicated and difficult in light of this pandemic, Dorsey said.

UMSON assistant professor Laura Koo, MS, RN, CRNP, FNP-BC, also donated 58 ear savers to UMMC direct patient care workers and about 16 ear savers to co-workers at the UMMC call center, where she is working once a week. She enlisted her 12-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son to monitor the at-home 3D printer. Each ear saver has COVID-19 Heroes printed on it.

Zelip has now turned his attention to an adjustable ear saver model made available by the NIH 3D Print Exchange after hearing from University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) faculty about needs at UMMC.

It allows for various head sizes with these little tab inserts, Zelip said.

That adjustable model has provided relief for the nurses who received them, said Paul Thurman, PhD 18, MS 07, ACNPC, CCNS, CCRN, a clinical nurse specialist who is coordinating PPE donations at UMMC.

We have been overwhelmed with the amount of support thats been coming from Brian as well as others in the community to pull together and make sure everyone is protected while theyre taking care of these patients, Thurman said.

Nurses will wear their masks all day long other than to eat. Masks with elastic ear loops can cause irritation over the day, Thurman explained.

Over time, the pressure the elastic places on the ear becomes either painful or some staff have developed breakdown behind their ear because the skin behind the ear is real thin and is right on top of cartilage, he said. The device that was 3D printed fits behind the head, and so the pressure is no longer on the ear. Its distributed over the back of the head.

About 7,000 employees at UMMC are wearing some type of mask or respiratory protection, Thurman added. Needless to say, the pieces go quick, but can be reused and sanitized. Some pieces have a tendency to break, creating the continued need for more ear savers.

The plastic piece gets caught on something or they put it on their bag and something is put on top of it and it breaks, and thats when it needs to be replaced, Thurman said.

Zelips first PPE contributions were headbands and chin pieces for face shields sent to Baltimore makerspace Open Works, where the shields are assembled for health care workers in the area. He printed 28 sets for Open Works that were attached to face shields and sold and distributed to various hospitals.

The high-end, consumer-grade printer works every day on about six hours of sleep. Zelip compared 3D printing to using a hot glue gun, where solid material is inserted that melts and builds layer by layer. Zelips model can print layers as small as 0.1 mm tall at a time. Three ear savers take about 90 minutes to print.

Zelip will have to find a way to nurse his printer, as the need for new and replacement ear savers does not appear to be slowing down anytime soon.

Im trying to give back to the printer a little bit and coddle it because its one of our main hopes right now without doing anything more drastic, Zelip said.
We dont know when this nightmare will end, says son of veteran opposition leader kidnapped in late March.

The family of a leading Malian opposition figure who was kidnapped days before the countrys parliamentary elections in late March says the government is moving too slow in securing his release.

Soumaila Cisse, the runner-up in a 2018 presidential election, was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen on March 25 in Malis restive Timbuktu region.

The 70-year-olds son, Bocar Cisse, said it was more than five weeks after the kidnapping when the family was contacted by the committee set up to negotiate the politicians release.

They say they are negotiating, but when we ask them for more information they dont tell us anything, Bocar Cisse said. We dont know anything, we dont know if he is dead or alive, added the 40-year-old, speaking on behalf of his mother and three brothers.

Everyone misses him; we are all lost.

Cisse has been missing since his abduction in late March [File: Annie Risemberg/Reuters]

Two people kidnapped alongside Cisse  who were later released  said they had also not heard from the committee, which was appointed weeks after the abduction, according to documents seen by Al Jazeera.

Speaking from Ivory Coast, Bocar Cisse said his family last heard from this father on the afternoon of March 25 as his two car-convoy left the city of Niafunke, a stronghold for his Union for the Republic and Democracy party (URD), and which lies on the cusp of northern and central Mali.

He was on the campaign trail before the March 29 legislative elections but was venturing into an area which is largely out of bounds to state authorities and where armed groups are known to roam.

As the cars passed through a small forest, masked attackers opened fire, dragged the passengers out, blindfolded them and placed them under a tree. Cisse sustained a hand injury from the shattered car windows, while his bodyguard received a gunshot wound and later died. Six others injured in the shooting were released immediately, while nine people, including Cisse, were abducted.

Over the following days, the kidnapped men were moved between hideouts and slept out in the open. At times, they heard the sound of gunfire but insisted they were not mistreated, according to the two released men whose names have been changed to protect their identities.

We cannot say where it was exactly because we dont know that area and our eyes were covered, Mamadou* told Al Jazeera.

On the morning of March 29, Cisse was led away from the other eight kidnapped men, who were later released. Two days later, the Malian government appointed former Prime Minister Ousmane Maiga to head a crisis unit and said in a statement that it was prepared to make every effort to secure his release.

Nothing has happened

However, Cisses whereabouts are unknown to this day.

Theyve given us very little news, and were not sure that they are in contact with the kidnappers, Bocar Cisse said.

We have been expecting him to be free a long time ago. Nothing has happened; the government is moving too slow, he added.

Kidnap survivors have also been left in the dark. I have not met this commission, I have never seen them, I have not talked to them, Mamadou said.

Samba*, who was also abducted, said: Since weve been freed, nobody has contacted us or called to see if everything is OK.

Nothing is happening, the government is moving too slow, says Bocar Cisse after more than a month since his fathers kidnapping [File: Courtesy Soumaila Cisses family]

According to a government document signed by Prime Minister Boubou Cisse and seen by Al Jazeera, it took until April 21 for the government to appoint staff to the crisis committee, who were mainly bureaucrats and security personnel.

On April 8, the United Nations Security Council called for Cisses swift liberation, while in an April 22 letter, 42 African intellectuals and politicians said the abduction of such a high-profile figure was unprecedented and unique and called for stronger involvement from Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita to secure his release.

Malis government did not reply to requests for comment. Last week, during a meeting between the G5-Sahel  a regional counterterrorism force  and the European Union, Keita said: Everything is being done to bring him [Cisse] back home safe and sound.

Despite the kidnapping, threats of violence and fears over the spread of the coronavirus, Malis legislative vote went ahead as planned on March 29, with Cisse winning his seat comfortably in the first round.

Days later, Amadou Oumar Kalossi, the URD mayor of Koumaira  the city Cisse was heading to when he was kidnapped  was abducted while trying to negotiate his release. He is still missing.

Bocar Cisse is left in little doubt that his father and his party have become targets but does not know why. He said his father has no known enemies.

Cisse is a stalwart of Malian politics, having finished as runner-up in three presidential contests, and has received plaudits for peacefully conceding defeat each time.





In recent years, Mali has been facing a worsening security situation. What began as a localised revolt in the countrys north in 2012 soon spread to the centre of the country and then to neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.

The conflict has exacerbated ethnic tensions and local grievances over poverty and the absence of the state, giving rise to ethnic militias and bolstering support for armed groups, some of which are linked to al-Qaeda and the ISIL (ISIS) group.

A French military intervention, military campaigns by national armies and one of the UNs largest peacekeeping forces have failed to stem the violence, which killed 4,000 people in the three countries last year and displaced hundreds of thousands, according to UN figures.

Ibrahim Maiga, a Bamako-based researcher for the Institute for Security Studies, said Cisses assailants might have ties to Katiba Macina, a local group linked to al-Qaeda and that the politician would be considered a valuable pawn amid continuing negotiations between the government and senior fighters aimed at finding a settlement to years of conflict.

Without an official claim of responsibility, however, Bocar Cisse was less sure. They didnt ask for money, or for prisoners; they didnt even make a statement saying that it was them.

Maiga said the silence from the government and captors might be down to strategy. In this kind of situation, it is maybe wiser to make less noise, to negotiate in discretion. When it becomes publicised, it becomes more difficult to solve, he told Al Jazeera.

Bocar Cisse said his fathers absence has been made all the more difficult by the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. When my father is at home, he breaks fast with his family and spends time with them, he said.

Its a different feeling now. We dont know when this nightmare will end.

* Name has been changed to protect the persons identity
Ghana's mortality rate of COVID-19 is lowest as compared to data from foreign countries, Presidential Health Advisor, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare seeks to allay fears of Ghanaians.



Ghana has currently recorded 2,719 positive cases with 294 recoveries and 18 deaths.



The Regional breakdown of the cases indicates that Greater Accra Region has 2,332 cases, Ashanti Region - 124, Eastern Region - 94, Central Region - 38, Volta Region - 30, Oti Region - 23, Western Region - 21, Upper West Region - 19, Upper East Region - 19, Northern Region - 13, Western North Region - 4 and the North East Region has two cases.



Speaking at a press briefing organized by the Ministry of Information on Tuesday, May 5, 2020, Dr. Nsiah-Asare noted that though Ghana has recorded 18 deaths in connection with the Coronavirus, the country's mortality rate is at 0.66 percent.



Breaking down figures from the data on the infection rates, positivity and death ratios of countries like the United Kingdom, the United States of America among others; Dr. Nsiah-Asare asked Ghanaians not to be alarmed over the figures given in Ghana.



He however advised the citizens to keep adhering to the preventive etiquette of COVID-19 and mandatorily wear their nose masks to avoid contact-to-contact transmissions.







Source: 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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Abu Dhabi, May 5 : An Indian fisherman was seriously injured when a fishing boat exploded at a port in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), it was reported.

The accident occurred at the port in Shaam, about 30 km north of Ras Al Khaimah on Monday evening, reports the Gulf News.

The 35-year-old fisherman suffered serious injuries and was transferred to a hospital in Ras Al Khaimah.

The flames quickly spread in the boat that was docked at the port.

An official with the National ambulance crew told Gulf News that the centre received a call about the fire at 5.38 p.m.

The boat was refuelling on the dock when the boat caught fire, the official added.

Upon arrival, the official said, the teams found the fisherman in a critical condition and suffering from first degree burns.

Authorities are investigating the incident for further details.
A criminal linked to the murder of teenager Keane Mulready-Woods has returned to the feud-hit town of Drogheda, sparking fears he will be targeted by rival criminals.

The Irish Independent has learned that a man connected to the so-called anti-Maguire faction has moved back to the town in recent weeks, despite previously being informed of a threat to his life.

Within days of the murder of 17-year-old Mulready-Woods last January, the criminal was informed by gardai there was credible intelligence that he could be targeted by the rival gang.

In the wake of the killing which shocked the nation, more than 40 people with ties to both gangs went to ground due to increased Garda pressure.

One man who has been linked to the teen's killing, but is not suspected of direct involvement in his murder and dismemberment, is now back living in the town and gardai fear he could be targeted.

A source told the Irish Independent: "In January, he was told of a credible threat to his life after the Mulready-Woods murder and that hasn't gone away.

"There are grave concerns that he will get a bullet from those feuding with him."

The suspect is linked to a gang of younger criminals feuding with associates of criminal Owen Maguire (36), which has led to dozens of shootings and petrol bomb attacks in the Louth town over the past two years.

Four murders have been linked to the feud, including the killing of Mulready-Woods who was abducted and dismembered before his remains were dumped across Dublin.

Gardai have been dealing with sporadic incidents in Drogheda in recent weeks relating to the feud, but there has been a general decrease in gang activity.

However, sources said associates of Maguire and gang boss Cornelius Price (38) are believed to have been on a drugs debt collection drive in recent weeks.

Late last month, a home was vandalised and a car believed to be involved was later found burnt-out near a property linked to the Price gang.

A source said: "There haven't been any major incidents but business goes on and that includes debt collecting and the intimidation that comes with it."

The murder of Mulready-Woods came after an escalation in violence in a feud that has been linked to as many as four murders.

On August 27, 2019, Keith Branigan (29), who was friendly with the anti-Maguire gang, was shot dead outside a caravan park in Clogherhead.

He was not suspected of being centrally involved in the feud and his killing may have been opportunistic after he was spotted carrying out work on the holiday home.

On November 4 last, Richie Carberry (39) was gunned down outside his home in Bettystown, Co Meath, in a killing that was linked to the feud.

He was seen as the Dublin link to the anti-Maguire faction and was considered to be directing the gang.

And last month gangland hitman Robbie Lawlor (35), a suspect in the Mulready-Woods murder, was shot dead in Belfast.

It is being investigated if he was shot dead by associates of the Maguire gang or on the orders of a north Dublin gang boss.
The paper, called tengujo, is made by a company called Hidaka Washi, at a factory in the Kochi prefecture of Japan. The ingredients are simple, and the process is not a very secret, special kind of thing, Hiroyoshi Chinzei, the owner and operator of Hidaka Washi, told me recently over the phone. But the product that emerges is almost magical. The fibers knit together into gossamer lattice that is as much empty space as substance; what starts as a wet, white sheet becomes, on drying, almost completely transparent.

Hidaka Washi has specialized in the papers production since Mr. Chinzeis great-grandfather first opened the company in 1949.

Inside the factory, the air is steamy from warm baths of alkaline water in which bushels of kozo  the stems of mulberry trees  are soaked. Workers remove dirt from the kozo and pound it into strands of pulpy fiber, which they lay in a tub containing water and neri, a thick viscous liquid that is derived from the tororo-aoi plant, also known as sunset hibiscus. Reacting with the neri, the kozo fibers gain a sticky, gummy quality, which allows them to be broken down even further and pulled apart into long white ropes, which are removed from the tub and spread out evenly over a screen. The ropes are massaged together and flattened to the width of a couple of spiderweb-like fibers. As the liquid dries away, these fibers are left woven together, clinging to each other in a delicate sheet of paper.

Tengujo can help reinforce and repair damages from many sources. Ms. Choi calls it the bread and butter in paper conservation and probably the most gentle way of reinforcing anything. Sometimes tengujo is used for spot-treatment, other times to completely line a manuscript. Its long fibers provide structure and support while remaining almost completely unnoticeable.
Evacuation of Nigerians stranded in the United States due to the novel coronavirus pandemic will begin on May 10, the Consulate of Nigeria...

Evacuation of Nigerians stranded in the United States due to the novel coronavirus pandemic will begin on May 10, the Consulate of Nigeria in New York, has announced.It said 700 Nigerians had registered with the missions in the US for the evacuation, which would be done in batches.The Consul-General, Mr Benaoyagha Okoyen, disclosed this in a notice on Sunday.Over 2,000 Nigerians in China, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Turkey and others had also indicated interest in returning home on account of the coronavirus pandemic.The consulate said the first batch of 270 evacuees would be transported to Abuja through an Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 509.The plane is expected to depart the Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey at 9:15p.m., and fly directly to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.The Federal Government had earlier said the returning citizens would pay for their flight and also be put in compulsory quarantine on arrival in Nigeria.The notice stated, The projected cost for the one-way economy ticket is between 1,300 dollars (N488,800) and 1,700 dollars (N639,200) per adult.Please note that over 700 Nigerian nationals have registered with our missions in the USA to be evacuated.However, only 270 passengers shall be accommodated in this batch of evacuation.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The world's oceans play a critical role in climate regulation, mitigation and adaptation and should be integrated into comprehensive "green new deal" proposals being promoted by elected officials and agency policymakers, a group of ocean scientists suggests in a new paper.

"The 'green new deal' has been the headline, but very few have been talking about the oceans in those conversations," said Steven Dundas, an environmental and resource economist in Oregon State University's College of Agricultural Sciences and the Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station in Newport, Oregon.

"We think it's important to add a touch of ocean blue to this conversation because the oceans play an important role in efforts to mitigate effects of climate change," he said. "Our proposed 'teal deal' is an integrated approach that is more likely to generate cost-effective and equitable solutions to this global threat."

Dundas is one of three senior authors of the paper, which was published recently by the journal Conservation Letters. The other senior authors are Arielle Levine and Rebecca Lewison of San Diego State University. Additional authors include OSU's Angee Doerr, Ana Spalding and Will White.

The scientists highlight four areas of investment commonly touted in "green new deal" proposals that also apply to the world's oceans: energy, transportation, food security and habitat restoration.

"Adding the oceans to climate policy doesn't mean you're ignoring the terrestrial approaches to climate change mitigation," Dundas said. "It means adopting a portfolio approach that includes both. We hope this paper and our recommendations broaden the policy options needed to meet the grand challenge of climate change."

The concept of a green new deal emerged last year as a way to address climate change. International environmental leaders are now suggesting that coronavirus recovery plans present an opportunity to address climate change.

In the renewable energy sector, the ocean's winds, waves and currents represent a significant source of clean energy that could reduce emissions, meet demand for electricity and spur economic growth through new industry. But many hurdles remain, since offshore energy projects are subject to a range of regulatory policies from the local to the national level, the researchers said.

In the transportation sector, 80% of merchandise around the globe is transported by sea, contributing about 3% of human-made emissions. Growth in world trade is predicted to increase emissions by 150 to 250% by 2050. But measures to address and improve maritime emissions reductions are largely absent from international efforts. Modifying hull designs, relying more on biofuels or wind power and other steps could reduce shipping emissions, the researchers suggested.

In the area of food security, marine fisheries remain one of the most sustainable sources of protein for human consumption, with a lower total carbon footprint than many land-based food sources.

As climate change impacts the size and distribution of marine resources, fishing communities are faced with a few options: following the fish, which could increase costs and emissions; finding an alternative livelihood, which is often not feasible; and switching to a new species, which also could come with increased costs and requires careful fisheries management, the researchers said.

Aquaculturethe term for commercially raising fish or growing seafood productsalso holds potential for growth at a relatively low emissions cost, researchers said. For example, seaweed aquaculture could mitigate hundreds of tons of emissions each year.

"Properly executed aquaculture, paired with sustainable fisheries, has the potential to enhance the food supply, decrease the carbon footprint of protein sources and sequester carbon at the same time," said Lewison.

In the area of habitat restoration, investment in projects that restore coastal habitats such as mangroves, tidal wetlands, kelp forests and seagrasses should be a key component of climate policy, the researchers suggest. These habitats currently store up to 25 billion metric tons of carbon, and further restoration could increase that storage capability.

Coastal habitat restoration also can increase flood and erosion protection and mitigate storm impacts, reducing the vulnerability of coastal populations to extreme weather impacts and reducing costs of disaster aid.

"Investing in these four sectors can benefit communities across the United States," said Levine. "The impacts and the benefits go far beyond coastal communities."

The researchers hope to use the paper and their argument to encourage policymakers to consider the oceans in "green new deal" proposals moving forward.

Explore further Concrete solutions that lower both emissions and air pollution

More information: Steven J. Dundas et al, Integrating oceans into climate policy: Any green new deal needs a splash of blue, Conservation Letters (2020). Journal information: Conservation Letters Steven J. Dundas et al, Integrating oceans into climate policy: Any green new deal needs a splash of blue,(2020). DOI: 10.1111/conl.12716
Amazon Pay Later gives customers the option to avail instant zero-interest credit on any of the products listed on Amazon India. Customers can make payments the next month or in EMIs over 3 to 12 months. The service, according to Amazon, is a rebranded version of the earlier Amazon Pay EMI.

To start using the e-commerce giants latest offering, customers need to complete a one-time setup process which takes a few minutes. There are also a few eligibility conditions for one to be able to use this service.

Read More | Amazon Pay Later launches in India, offers zero-interest credit, EMI payments on product purchases

One needs to have an Amazon.in account with a verified mobile number, a valid permanent account number (PAN) card, a bank account with one of the selected banks, and valid address proof (driving license, voter ID card, aadhaar card, utility bills (not older than 60 days), passport). Also, only those who are 23 years of age or above can make use of the Pay Later option.

In case you cannot spot the option to register on your app, that may be because the service has been made available only to a limited set of customers at present.

Here's how you can register:

>> Go to the Amazon Pay Later registration page on your Amazon.in mobile app and follow simple on-screen instructions.

>> Choose your preferred KYC mode. Two modes of KYC completion available: 1. Existing KYC (shown only in case you have completed KYC for Amazon Pay Balance), and 2. OTP-based eKYC.

If you choose option 1, i.e. existing KYC option, follow these steps:

Verify Identity: Enter the missing 4 digits of the PAN Card you used for completing the KYC for Amazon Pay Balance. After submission of details, your profile will be evaluated, and Amazon Pay Later limit will be determined which will be displayed to you on the next screen.

Accept Terms: Your approved Amazon Pay Later limit will be displayed on this screen along with the loan agreement. Please read and accept the agreement to complete Amazon Pay Later registration. This sanctioned limit will become active within a few minutes of completing the registration.

If you choose option 2, i.e. OTP-based KYC, follow these steps:

Enter your complete PAN card number and click continue.

Enter your complete Aadhaar number and click continue. You will receive a one-time password (OTP) on your mobile number registered to your Aadhaar number. Enter the OTP and click continue. After submission of details, your profile will be evaluated, and Amazon Pay Later limit will be determined which will be displayed to you on the next screen.

Your approved Amazon Pay Later limit will be displayed on this screen along with the loan agreement. Please read and accept the agreement to complete Amazon Pay Later registration. This sanctioned limit will become active within a few minutes of completing the registration.
TV actor and anchor Mahhi Vij has shared a heartfelt note for her daughter Tara, adding that she has the most fun with her and young Tara has the least of demands. Mahhi and husband and actor Jay Bhanushali welcomed Tara in August 2019. Mahhi and Jay are also foster parents to their domestic help Manojs children, Khushi and Rajveer.

Sharing the picture, she wrote on Instagram, You have added colour to all my blacks and whites! There are times when I just cant think of how life was before you because its become so beautiful after you have entered our lives. Truly you are my heart beating outside my body and the best quarantine partner I could have asked for. The least amount of demands, the most amount of fun, what else could a Mommy ask for!

Mahhi posted an elaborate response last week to people who often take to body-shaming celebs, especially mothers. She shared a picture of herself with her daughter and wrote, Lets get one thing straight, Body-shaming someone is never OK, even if the target is a public figure. However, despite the fact that this should be a universal rule of decorum, people are still prone to criticizing the appearances of others, including those of new moms. Even after my delivery people used to come to me and say things like youd look gorgeous if you put down some weight!

Also read: Remembering Naushad: From devotional to playfully romantic, a playlist of his popular songs

She added,  All I would say, dont let these comments take a toll on you.. just eat right and let your body heal because you have just delivered a human out of your body! Love your body just the way it is.. I know it might bother you.. but its ok..you are beautiful just the way you are, with or without stretch marks or pregnancy scars.. I have a c-section scar in my body and Im proud of it. All we need is for someone to tell us we are doing great and we look okay. After all growing a baby, carrying them for nine months and then giving birth is the biggest change in a womens life and she needs all the kindness, power and positivity around her she can get.

About spending time at home during the lockdown, Mahhi recently told Hindustan Times in an interview, My routine has been the same, all thanks to my daughter Tara. I am glad she was born before the lockdown happened, and she keeps me on my toes. When she sleeps, I sleep, I have to be in sync with her. Rajveer and Khushi love her too, and play with her, entertaining her. Earlier, they both used to go to school, and be here only for half of the day. But now theyre home, doing different things.

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Three more cases of COVID-19 were confirmed over the weekend in Hale County including the countys first confirmed case in an individual 20 years old or younger.

That individual is a female and the other two newly confirmed cases are men between the ages of 21 and 40 years old. All three are currently in isolation at home and the location of transmission is undetermined. These cases bring the countys case count up to 29 since the first case of coronavirus was reported in Hale County on March 24.

The email from city spokesperson Melinda Brown, which includes the daily updates, notes that the Texas Military Department, Texas Division of Emergency Management and the Texas Department of State Health Services spent time in Plainview over the weekend running a mobile testing site. Forty-one people were tested for COVID-19.

The results from the testing will be reported to the Plainview-Hale County Health Department in five to seven days, if not sooner, the email reads.

According to the daily snapshot report, all three cases are Plainview residents. The total number of confirmed cases in Plainview as of 5 p.m. Friday was 19 with 12 reported recoveries.

Hale Center also had seven confirmed cases, two recoveries and two deaths. Edmonson had one confirmed case and one recovery. Petersburg had two confirmed cases and two deaths. No cases have been reported in Cotton Center and Abernathy.

The snapshot report released Monday shows the number of those tested for the virus continues to grow. According to the report, which reflects the latest data reported to the Plainview/Hale County Health Department from across the county, 297 tests had been conducted within the county by Sunday afternoon with 261 of those tests returning negative results. Nineteen test results were still pending.

According to the report, 32 people are under monitoring. A city official said that statistic encompasses people who have traveled to a virus hot spot and people who have come in close contact with an individual who has tested positive. The people being monitored number does not reflect the positive confirmed cases.

Of the 29 confirmed cases, 10 cases have been detected in the 21-40 age group and the 41-60 age group, eight in the 61 years or older age group and one in the 20 years old or younger age group. Fifteen of these cases have been a result of local transmission, nine were transmitted outside the county and the location of transmission for five of the cases is undetermined. Investigations are underway to try to determine where those five individuals contracted the virus.

The latest numbers also show 16 of the confirmed cases have been in men and 13 in women.

Of the 10 cases that remain active, eight are in isolation at home and two are in a medical facility.

The two individuals in a medical facility include a man between the ages of 41 and 60 years old and a woman who is 61 years old or older.

Recovered individuals include: three men and four women between 21 and 40 years old; two women and four men between 41 to 60 years old; two men 60 years or older.

As businesses slowly start the process of reopening, local government and health officials continue to encourage citizens to take precautions. Wash your hands and practice social distancing. Those experiencing what they believe are COVID-19 symptoms  shortness of breath, fever and coughing  are encouraged to call a doctor.

Residents are also encouraged to stay home and wear facial coverings when out in public. During an address to Hale Center residents earlier this week, Jack McCasland, environmental health inspector for the Health Department, mentioned the masks dont necessarily prevent you from catching the virus. They prevent you from spreading it. He noted that several people are asymptomatic and may not be aware they even have the virus.

Those interested in learning additional information can call the McCasland at the Health Department at (806)293-1359 or visit www.plainviewtx.org/COVID19. The citys COVID-19 resource page has links to the latest virus information, links to directions for how to make facial covers and other information.
The Asthma Society of Ireland today launched their new Beating Breathlessness WhatsApp messaging support service which is available to patients with asthma and COPD, and their family and carers.

The current Covid-19 pandemic is a time of particular worry for people with asthma and their families. While people with asthma are not more likely to contract coronavirus, they may experience more severe symptoms if they do so - managing your asthma well has never been more important.

6,203 people have asthma in Laois, while 9,316 people have COPD.

The Asthma Societys new Beating Breathless WhatsApp messaging service, Slaintecare funded, allows patients to message a respiratory specialist nurse about all aspects of their asthma management. Users can simply save the WhatsApp nurse support service number 086 0590132 to their phones, send their message or support query and one of the Asthma Societys respiratory specialist nurses will respond as soon as possible. This service complements the existing Asthma Societys existing Asthma and COPD Adviceline 1800 44 54 64.

The survey, conducted in April 2020 amongst 2,462 patients living with asthma and COPD in Ireland, asked patients about their concerns amid the Covid-19 pandemic and found that:

9 out of 10 (92%) people with a long-term respiratory illness surveyed are very concerned or concerned about becoming infected with the coronavirus due to asthma or COPD.

4 out of 10 (41%) feel that there is not enough information readily available on coronavirus and its effect on people with respiratory illnesses.

8 out of 10 (82%) were concerned they would not be tested quickly enough if they do contract coronavirus.

7 out of 10 (71%) were very concerned they will require a ventilator treatment for coronavirus.

6 out of 10 (63%) concerned about contracting a severe form of coronavirus (due to their asthma).

In terms of access to medications, 3 in 10 (34%) people are concerned over high demand, but not supply.

1 in 5 (22%) people stated that they were not confident in their medication use at this time and 3 out of 10 (31%) of people with asthma/COPD have avoided support or healthcare services because they were concerned about the health impact of coronavirus.

The Asthma Societys Medical Advisory Group members have expressed a concern about seeing fewer patients present at GP and hospital level. The Asthma Society of Ireland encourages asthma and COPD patients to reach out to their GP / Consultant and leave a message. Patients need to be reassured that all healthcare professionals are doing their utmost to look after everyone in this difficult environment and that healthcare professionals will get back regarding your medication / healthcare concerns.

Sarah OConnor, CEO of the Asthma Society of Ireland, said: The results of our survey indicate that people with asthma are extremely anxious about coronavirus. People with asthma and COPD are considered to be a higher risk if they do contract coronavirus and therefore they do require additional support in these uncertain times.

Asked for their greatest concern for the weeks ahead patients responded: I fear me or my asthmatic child getting the virus and the terror of being separated from him if he had to go to hospital, and, Im worried about not being considered for an in-demand ventilator due to asthma, and, that I would not be considered worth saving (due to asthma).

We believe that the new Slaintecare funded, Beating Breathlessness WhatsApp messaging service can help users ease some of their concerns right now during the coronavirus pandemic and we believe it will continue to support and assist patients.

Minister for Health, Simon Harris, said: Beating Breathlessness empowers people affected by Asthma or COPD to manage their condition, with the guidance of a nurse over WhatsApps messaging service. One of the aims of the Slaintecare Integration Fund is for people to become more engaged and empowered in their own healthcare, and this service allows people to do that, with medical support.

Beating Breathlessness is innovative in how it provides information and support to people who need it, making it easier for people to access these supports anytime and anywhere. It shows how care can be provided even while social distancing, and that there are numerous ways people can access the supports they need during the Covid-19 pandemic, including those offered by the Asthma Society whose services have been even more acutely needed by patients in recent months."

The survey also showed that people with asthma and COPD are quite knowledgeable on Covid-19 and how to protect themselves. Almost all (98%) knew to phone their GP was the first step towards getting tested for Covid-19. Three out of four people (77%) confident in listing how to protect against Covid-19 and confident in listing the symptoms of Covid-19. This is hugely positive as education is key in protecting against Covid-19, especially if a patient is considered vulnerable.

Visit www.asthma.ie for more information about the new Beating Breathlessness WhatsApp service, as well as activities taking place during Asthma Awareness Week, or visit https://www.asthma.ie/10-million-steps-for-asthma for details of the 10 Million Steps for Asthma fundraising campaign.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 02:25:12|Editor: huaxia

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NICOSIA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Energy companies ENI and Total have informed Cyprus' Energy Ministry that they put off for at least a year their scheduled gas drilling operations in the Cypriot exclusive economic zone, Government Spokesman Kyriakos Kousios said on Tuesday.

He told State Television that the companies notified the ministry about their decision to delay their drilling operations until March or April 2021.

Kousios said the positive aspect is that ENI and Total are not canceling the capital expenditures allocated to the drills.

ENI and Total had planned to carry out a total of six drillings this year.

Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, work had been due to start in early February, but was delayed because of technical problems with their drillship.

ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum consortium also informed the Cypriot government about three weeks ago that they are postponing their scheduled drillings because of the coronavirus pandemic and the need to cut back on expenditure as a result of the fall in energy prices.

ExxonMobil said they postponed to September 2021 an appraisal drilling in the Glafcos site in block 10, which was originally estimated to contain an estimated 5 to 8 trillion cubic feet of gas, the largest gas discovery in the Cypriot exclusive economic zone.

The appraisal drilling, which was initially scheduled for this summer, would be the first step for a decision to commercialize the gas deposit. Enditem
Instead of complying with international law and ending its occupation of Ukrainian sovereign territory, Russia is actively instilling anti-Ukrainian propaganda and trying to destroy the younger generation's identification with Ukraine.

Six years after Russian soldiers seized control of Crimea and the world had to resurrect the term annexation, last used about Adolf Hitler, in response, Crimean children are learning quite a different version of history.

It is one in which Crimeans were the key players, not Russia, and in which Ukraine was the bad guy, along with those western countries who took its side, Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group reports.

While Russia's aggressive militarization of Crimea and glorification of war among very young children are rightly eliciting enormous concern, distortion of history that Russia is instilling from an early age creates a false reality in which such indoctrination becomes dangerously absolute.

Read alsoZelensky's chief of staff: EU, U.S. sanctions against Russia over Ukraine should continue (Video)

Russian school textbooks, when telling kids about the events of 2014, have no mention of Russian soldiers or of armed paramilitaries whose abductions, torture and at very least one horrific murder were very widely reported by the world media.

Instead, children are being told that "based on the results of a referendum (96% "for"), the peninsula on March 21, 2014, joined the Russian Federation. Crimea, whose territory had, without any grounds, been handed to Ukraine in 1954 by Nikita Khrushchev, returned to the Russian Federation". The 11th graders do learn also that "governing circles in the USA, who supported the coup in Ukraine, assessed the situation that arose as Russian aggression against it [Ukraine] and introduced economic sanctions against our country", with this reinstating Cold War American-Russian relations.

No mention is being made of the call by the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people to boycott the referendum, which is believed to have been widely heeded.

A methodological guide for teachers claims that "the referendum took place in full accordance with the norms and principles of electoral law, in open, democratic circumstances." People are alleged to have gone to vote as though to a festival, without any mention of the fact that Russian soldiers with machine guns and armed paramilitaries had been deployed.

Read alsoJournalists in Russian-occupied areas must be protected, MFA Ukraine says on World Press Freedom Day

Instead of complying with international law and ending its occupation of Ukrainian sovereign territory, Russia is actively instilling anti-Ukrainian propaganda and trying to destroy the younger generation's identification with Ukraine, KHPG writes.

History textbooks in Crimea present the post-Maidan government as "unwilling to consider the economic and cultural values of the Russian-speaking east of Ukraine" and claim (in History of Russia. 10th Grade) that Ukraine was planning to ban the use of the Russian language.

In August 2019, a new Russian textbook in verse for children claimed that Ukraine "has stirred up war and vengeance" and that people have been prohibited from speaking Russian.

This and similar narratives were used in 2014 to justify Russia's aggression against Ukraine.
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The death toll from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the African continent reached 1,801 as the number of confirmed cases hit 44,483 as of Monday, the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The Africa CDC in its latest situation update issued on Monday also revealed the number of confirmed COVID-19 positive cases across the continent rose from 42,713 on Sunday to 44,483 as of Monday afternoon, eventually registering about 1,770 new cases during the past 24-hours period.

The continental disease control and prevention agency, which noted that the virus has so far spread into 53 African countries, also disclosed that some 14,921 people who have been infected with the COVID-19 have recovered across the continent as of Monday, marking about 769 new recoveries from the center's previous report on Sunday afternoon.

The death toll due to the COVID-19 pandemic across the African continent also surged from 1,754 on Sunday afternoon to 1,801 on Monday afternoon, according to the Africa CDC.

Figures from the Africa CDC also showed that amid the rapid spread of the virus across the continent, the highly COVID-19 affected African countries include South Africa with 6,783 confirmed cases, Egypt with 6,465 confirmed cases, Morocco with 4,903 confirmed cases as well as Algeria with 4,474 confirmed cases.

The Africa CDC also disclosed that the Northern African region is the most affected area across the continent both in terms of positive COVID-19 cases, as well as the number of deaths.

The Africa CDC has already received the third round of medical equipment and supplies donated by the Jack Ma and Alibaba foundations in support of the African continent's fight against the spread of COVID-19.

The third batch of the donation from the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation that arrived in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Tuesday through an Ethiopian Airlines cargo flight mainly includes 4.6 million masks, 500,000 swabs and test kits, 300 ventilators, 200,000 sets of protective clothing, 200,000 face shields, 2,000 temperature guns, 100 body temperature scanners, and 500,000 pairs of gloves.
Peruvian opposition politician Keiko Fujimori was released from prison Monday after her defence argued she might become infected with COVID-19 if she was kept inside.

Her lawyer claimed she suffers from hypertensive and arrhythmia.

She had been imprisoned since January while being investigated for her alleged ties with a corruption scandal involving the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.

Fujimori - the daughter of jailed former president Alberto Fujimori - was allowed home after paying a US$20,000 bond.

Judges have ordered her to visit the biometric control office every month to register her fingerprint.

Prosecutors, who are investigating her for alleged money laundering, appealed against her release.

The new coronavirus has killed 30 prisoners and infected 645 in Peru's prisons.

In recent days, several prisoners have rioted in various jails, demanding better health conditions.

On Monday, nine inmates were shot dead during a prison riot in Lima.

Peru has reported 42,534 coronavirus infections and 1,286 deaths, making it the second hardest-hit country in Latin America.
John Dallat, an SDLP stalwart and unflinching opponent of violence and sectarianism, has died at the age of 73. He was the MLA for East Londonderry.

During more than 40 years of service in politics, beginning with his winning a seat on Coleraine Borough Council in 1977, he was outspoken about divisions in Northern Ireland society  a stance that led to many serious threats against him.

His home was surrounded by high security fences and bulletproof glass was installed in his windows. In an interview with this newspaper in 2018 he told how he had slept with a loaded revolver beside his bed.

Notorious loyalist gunman Torrens Knight, who took part in the trick or treat attack on the Rising Sun pub in Greysteel, in which eight people were killed and 19 injured in 1993, had earlier lived only three miles from the home of Mr Dallat, who was critical of the decision to release him from jail on two occasions.

Knight was released initially under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement but later returned to jail following an incident involving two sisters.

On his subsequent release Mr Dallat argued that he should have had to serve his full life term for breaching the terms of his initial release.

Given the number of threats against him, police guarded his home for 14 months and even stayed overnight at the house.

However, it was an incident at a loyalist band parade in 2017 which left him most afraid for his life. His car was surrounded by a large crowd and, trapped inside, he wondered what would happen. He made a 999 call and police were able to free him.

In a tribute to Mr Dallat, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said: John entered public life at a time and in a place when it was difficult to be an SDLP representative.

I know that, despite his tough exterior, he was often hurt when the hand of friendship he extended across the sectarian divide in the late 70s and early 80s on Coleraine council wasnt always accepted. But it never stopped him trying and only strengthened his lifelong resolve to oppose violence and its supporters.

Mr Dallats stand against violence won him friends across the political divide and in 2001-02 he became the first nationalist mayor of Coleraine council.

He was later to hold the post of Deputy Speaker of the Stormont Assembly and served as an MLA from 1998 until his death, apart from a short period of retirement.

Mr Dallat fought a long campaign to bring the killer of German teenage backpacker Inge Maria Hauser to justice.

She was killed shortly after arriving in Northern Ireland in 1988 while hitchhiking around the UK and in spite of repeated publicity campaigns her killer has never been prosecuted.

Her body was found in Ballypatrick Forest near Ballycastle in Co Antrim.

Her parents both died without receiving justice.

Expand Close John Dallat with wife Anne / Facebook

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Away from politics he was a devoted family man. He met his wife Ann in a Protestant Hall in Carndonagh in Co Donegal where he was teaching  she was from the area  and the pair were married on August 16, 1975, when he was 28 and she was 21. They had three children.

Mr Dallat was born in Rasharkin, one of six sons, in a house which had neither running water nor electricity, he was educated at Coleraine Technical College, the North West College of Further and Higher Education, the University of Ulster and University College Galway before becoming a business studies teacher.

Once asked what his greatest achievement was he replied it was gaining his gold blood donors badge for reaching a target of 50 pints.

Mr Dallat, who had been ill for some time, is survived by his wife Ann, daughter Helena and sons Ronan and Diarmuid and eight grandchildren.

In his tribute, Mr Eastwood added: As a public representative, John struck fear into the heart of anyone who dared misspend a penny of public money.

His forensic skill as a member of the Public Accounts Committee may not have won him many friends in the higher levels of the public sector, but it won him respect across political lines.

It was a respect he maintained with a fair hand as Deputy Speaker of the Assembly.

DUP leader and First Minister Arlene Foster said: We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of John Dallat.

We came from very different political outlooks, but he was always to the fore in speaking up for his constituents.

We send our sympathies to his family and colleagues in the SDLP at this very sad time.

East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell said: John and I fought many elections as rivals. Our two approaches to constitutional politics were different, but today I pay tribute to his work as an advocate for his electorate in East Londonderry.

At a time when being in the political spotlight placed not only our lives but also our families lives in danger, John didnt step back.

Pat and John Hume also paid tribute to Mr Dallat, saying: During a distinguished political career, he was always on the side of the underdog, defending those who were disadvantaged and standing strong against violence, sectarianism and unfairness in society.

Deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill said: John was held in high regard as a political representative, but he will also be remembered for being a teacher and friend to many.

Ulster Unionist leader Steve Aiken said: John Dallat diligently represented the people of East Londonderry both in the Assembly and on the old Coleraine Borough Council  to which he was first elected in 1977.

This length of public service is itself a remarkable tribute.
R eopening all schools in the UK at once would lead to a "very real risk" of the coronavirus infection rate rising and could cause a second peak, the Foreign Secretary has said.

Dominic Raab said that the Government has asked advisory group Sage to consider the different options available in reopening schools and said ministers will be guided by scientific advice.

He told the Downing Street press conference: The crucial bit for us is the five tests and the risk of a second spike in relation to any new changes that we would make and that must of course included schools, he said.

We have asked Sage to look at different options, I dont think its binary.

At least to date the evidence has been that we wouldnt be able to open up all schools without a very real risk that the R rate  the transmission rate  would rise at such a level that we would risk a second spike.

We have asked Sage for the options on this and we will, as ever, continue to be guided by the scientific advice we get.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab / PA

Mr Raab's comments were supported by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson in parliament, who said the Government would reopen schools "at the right time".

He told fellow MPs that the UK would take "a phased approach" to getting children back to school.

Mr Williamson added: "We will always aim to give schools, parents and, of course, critically importantly, children the maximum notice in terms of when this is going to happen."

But Labour's Shadow Education Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey challenged Mr Williamson over school reopenings, saying parents were "anxious" about the risk of infection.

Ms Long-Bailey said: Constant speculation on when schools will reopen and whether it is safe to do so is leaving many parents, pupils and staff anxious, in her first turn at the despatch box in her new position.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson / AFP via Getty Images

The Conservative chairman of the Education Select Committee Robert Halfon said the Government should offer to help students catch up with missed classes and provide mentoring.

Mr Williamson welcomed the idea and said that his department is "working at very closely" helping all children catch up on missed education.

The ministers' comments come after it was reported primary schools could reopen as soon as June 1 as part of Boris Johnson's coronavirus lockdown exit strategy.

Based on the current infection rate, the Prime Minister is hoping to put teachers on three weeks' notice to reopen primary schools to all pupils by June 1, Whitehall sources told the Sunday Telegraph.

The Prime Minister is set to unveil the Governments roadmap to get Britain back to work this week.

Mr Raab's comments after the coronavirus-linked death toll in the UK rose by 693 on Monday.

Coronavirus in numbers: UK death toll rises to 29,427

Commenting on the figures, the Foreign Secretary said that that despite "evidence of a flattening of this virus", the coronavirus situation in the UK continues to be serious.

Coronavirus-linked deaths in care homes continue to rise - with nearly 6,000 up to April 24, according to the Office for National Statistics - despite falling hospital admissions for the virus.

The UK "needs to get to grips" with the outbreak in care homes, deputy chief scientific officer Angela Mclean told the press conference.

Meanwhile the Government fell short of its target of 100,000 tests a day for the third day running, with slightly fewer than 85,000 tests completed on Monday.

Deputy Chief Scientific Officer Angela Mclean (PA ) / PA

The UK has been criticised for a slow rate of testing compared with other countries, including Germany.

But Mr Raab dismissed international comparisons at this stage.

He told the press conference: "All I would just say is first of all 29,427 lives lost is a massive tragedy, something in this country, on this scale, in this way, weve never seen before.

In terms of the comparison youre suggesting I dont think well get a real verdict on how well countries have done until the pandemic is over and particularly until weve got comprehensive international data on all cause of mortality.

A coronavirus testing worker / Getty Images

The Government has set five conditions that it says have to be met before it will lift the lockdown.

These are: ensuring the NHS has enough room for new coronavirus patients, achieving a "sustained and consistent" drop in deaths, keeping a "manageable" level of infections, being able to supply enough protective equipment and avoiding a second peak of cases.
Here's what Walsh learned after 2 months of COVID jobsite rules



Journal Construction Editor By BENJAMIN MINNICK Journal Construction Editor

Photos from Walsh Construction [enlarge] Walsh workers keep their distance during foundation and shoring work at HAL Real Estates Colina residential project on Beacon Hill.





[enlarge] All workers and visitors must be screened by a Walsh gate monitor like this one at the Belmont affordable housing project on Capitol Hill for Pioneer Human Services.





Life is starting to get back to normal  rather a new normal  on some construction sites across Washington following Gov. Jay Inslee's recent lifting of a moratorium on projects where workers can maintain 6 feet of social distance.

Contractors restarting construction must follow a 30-step plan put together by an industry roundtable that focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on jobsites. They also might want to study how Walsh Construction has fared over the past two months. Northwest-based Walsh was an early adapter of coronavirus procedures as it continued to work on several essential projects in Washington and Oregon.

Elizabeth Rinehart, vice president and general manager of Walsh's Washington operations, said her company has six local affordable housing projects deemed essential that continued during the moratorium and three that were shut down. Those three projects restarted last week and two of the ongoing projects were finished, including an affordable housing building and an emergency seismic repair to an old garage.

Rinehart said Walsh developed its original COVID-19 response on March 11, and updated it in April and again last week in response to the 30-step plan.

Our COVID response plan has had to evolve quickly as information comes out, she said.

Walsh basically follows COVID-19 requirements set by King County, the state and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rinehart said they didn't create their own base rules because the government regulations were changing so quickly.

Walsh also made some updates to its plan after reviewing response plans later produced by the Associated General Contractors of Washington, Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington, and the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties.

Additionally, the company formed COVID-19 response teams, one in Washington and one in Oregon, that meet every morning to discuss concerns and the latest information on the disease.

Here are a few details of Walsh's COVID-19 site management plan:

 Everyone works together to create a safe work environment.

 Sick workers must stay home.

 Employees and dependents can have their symptoms evaluated using telehealth.

 Each employee has a choice to work on-site.

 Social distancing must be followed, including suppliers, visitors and subcontractors.

 Frequent hand washing and cleaning of high-touch locations, both at home and on the job.

 A limited number of people in a trailer at any time.

 Only two people can ride in an elevator/lift at any time.

 Hold critical meetings outside or have multiple sessions with fewer people in each session.

 Use Webex for some meetings.

 Each site has a separate outbuilding for check-in and check-out of all personnel.

Rinehart said all workers must wear face masks, eye protection and gloves, and starting last week must have their temperatures taken as they enter the jobsite. For larger jobsites, Walsh hired temporary medical labor company Medix to conduct temperature checks. On smaller jobs, Walsh is handling that in-house with no-touch thermometers.

Rinehart said constant coronavirus rule changes have been the most difficult thing to deal with on jobsites. She said they have been following CDC guidelines since the beginning, but have had to deal with different regulations between Oregon and Washington and the various cities Walsh builds in. She said there have been no conflicts, just a lot of requirements to track.

Some social distancing has been easy to control, such as not allowing workers to eat lunch together. Other social distancing has been more difficult, such as certain jobsite tasks that require more than one worker.

Do you make hallways one-way or stairways one-way up and down? Rinehart asked.

To increase social distancing, Walsh has reduced the number of people on jobsites and is working in staggered shifts. Rinehart said some workers come in at 6 a.m. while others come in at 8 a.m. Architects needing to visit sites have been showing up late in the afternoon, after construction crews have left.

All this social distancing has affected productivity: Rinehart said schedules could be pushed by 10% to 20%, depending on how long restrictive regulations last.

Walsh has recorded only one case of COVID-19 infection, a worker at the Providence Delores House renovation project in Seattle's Crown Hill neighborhood. This project was shut down for 14 days and a company was hired to disinfect the jobsite. No one else on the site was infected.

Rinehart said a handful of employees have stayed off jobsites in fear of COVID-19 and the company is encouraging those that don't need to be on jobsites to work from home. She said no one has been sent home for violating the new rules, which give supervisors the power to do that or write warnings.

The outbreak has also led to concerns about getting supplies. Rinehart said they haven't had any supply issues that have stopped a project yet, but have found it difficult to get personal protective equipment.

In March, one of Walsh's affordable housing projects was in the middle of framing operations when a joist supplier in Oregon shut down its production line to comply with early coronavirus rules. Rinehart said they talked with the supplier, which then enlisted some of its office staff to work in the factory to finish the joist order.

Walsh finished four affordable housing projects in the last three months to create 380 housing units. Rinehart said projects like the recently opened 105-unit Bob and Marcia Almquist Place that Walsh built in Seattle's Chinatown-International District help get people off the streets, where it is harder to control the spread of COVID-19.

Walsh is gearing up to start additional affordable housing: the 250-unit Cedar Crossing project will start May 18 next to the Roosevelt light rail station; and the 105-unit Othello Park project will start June 3 near the Othello light rail station. Cedar Crossing is being developed by Bellwether Housing and Mercy Housing, and includes ground floor retail and a day care. Othello Park is being developed by the Low Income Housing Institute.

Rinehart said the construction industry is well-tooled to handle the fallout from coronavirus. Construction is inherently about problem solving ... that's what happens on jobsites every day, she said.





Benjamin Minnick can be reached by email or by phone at (206) 622-8272.




The Exchequer has recorded a deficit of 7,473m up to the end of April 2020.

This is a 4,281m year-on-year deterioration in the Exchequer balance when compared with a deficit of 3,192m in the same period last year.

Tax receipts for last month showed a decrease of 8% on April 2019. This decline is primarily attributed to a decline in the Excise and Income Tax receipts.

Cumulative tax receipts at the end of April 2020 came to 15,485, down 0.6%.

Strong returns in the first two months of the year compensated somewhat for the serious decline in receipts in March and April.

An increase in expenditure to end-April to 20,043m was ahead of profile by 2,379m (13.5%). This was up 3,820m (23.5%) year-on-year.

This rise in expenditure reflects the increased drawdown - particularly in relation to the Department of Health and the Department of Employment and Social Affairs - due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said that the latest Government report outlines a "sharp deterioration" in public finances as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.

"Todays figures bear that out, with a fall in tax revenues and increase in expenditure," said Minister Donohoe.

"As I have said before, it is entirely appropriate that the Government uses fiscal policy to cushion the effect of the crisis in this way.

"It is a vital tool in helping to support individuals, businesses and communities through this difficult period.

We began this crisis with the public finances in good health - a budget surplus, cash balances and reduced debt  all grounded in an economy that was growing strongly.

"The Government is committed to continuing to provide support to ensure our economy recovers as quickly as possible from this crisis."
05.05.2020 LISTEN

Our attention has been drawn to a recent press engagement that saw Dr. Mahamud Bawumia, Vice president of Ghana) making all kinds of unnecessary comparison as a rebuttal to President Mahama's unprecedented achievements.

Dr. Bawumia at a media engagement on Monday said the government has ensured a resilient and buoyant economy despite the harsh conditions presented by the coronavirus pandemic. He also said the NDC government during the power crisis could not effectively manage the economy.

How on Earth could a whole vice President of the Republic of Ghana deduce himself into such needless political gymnastics in this period the country is battling with a deadly pandemic. Does this comment underpin the fact that Dr Bawumia is only interested in perpetuating falsehood against his workaholic Northern brother(John Mahama)? Dr Bawumia has no shame comparing Dumsor to COVID-19 pandemic which has claimed 18 innocent souls through no fault of theirs but was as a result of the reckless and mishandling of his incompetent government.

For the records, president Mahama in September 2016 said

If you look at the energy sector, people keep talking about dumsor but I will not blame anyone. I am the one who was voted as President of Ghana so I will confront it and fix it, https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/I-won-t-blame-anyone-for-dumsor-I-ll-fix-it-Mahama-468780?channel=D2. This statement was made after his huge investment in the Energy sector which would be reflecting in 2017.

President Mahama in his effort of ending power outages (Dumsor) procured the AMERI Power plant which added additional 250MW of power to the national grid, two Powerships which generated a total of 450 MW into Ghanas electrical grid. https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/business/Karpower-starts-producing-power-401951?channel=D2. These were some of the prudent measures put together by the visionary and caring John Dramani Mahama to ameliorate the power outages started over decades ago.

We were all in this country when pastors gathered at the Akosombo dam to pray and increase the water level as a way of alleviating the power crisis the country was facing under the leadership of President Kufuor. https://www.modernghana.com/news/140023/pastors-pray-for-akosombo-dam.html.

Dr. Bawumia should be reminded that, his much sonorous and herculean promises are still hanging in the air waiting to be landed for more than 3 years in office.

(1)Every constituency is still waiting for their 1 million dollar.

(2)The villages are still waiting for their dam, which he promised 570 will be available in 2017.

(3)Ghanaians are still waiting for the 2 billion dollars Sinohydro loan and the 19 billion dollars Chinese loan.https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/The-19-billion-Ghana-China-deal-does-not-serve-Ghana-s-interest-review-it-682368?channel=D2

(4)And above all, he should arrest the cedi absconded from Nsawam Prison because the exchange rate is galloping within one month of COVID-19.

I will, therefore, state emphatically without fear or favour that, Dr. Bawumia should credit himself with some level of intelligence for the seat of the Vice president is meant for serious people and not for people who engage in baseless political gymnastics. He should stop being used as a machinery for conveying needless and unproductive government information that is of no benefit to the generality of the citizenry.

Issued:

Bismark Tettey

(Youth Wing P.R.O)

Adentan Constituency

Signed:

Eric Lomoh

(NDC Youth Organizer)

Adentan Constituency
Josie Gibson took part in a segment on This Morning on Tuesday, in which she gave Holly Willougby and Phillip Schofield a virtual tour of her home, getting it critiqued by celebrity interior designer Kelly Hoppen.

And Josie left viewers in hysterics as she admitted her shame at the choice of wallpaper.

The stripped wallpaper in the Big Brother star's home, which ran in beige and brown streaks, was deemed questionable, with Josie admitting she'd 'made a booby' with that.

Questionable? Josie Gibson took part in a segment on This Morning on Tuesday, in which she gave Holly Willougby and Phillip Schofield a virtual tour of her home, getting it critiqued by celebrity interior designer Kelly Hoppen

'I don't know whether I've made a bit of a booby wallpapering the two walls, I don't know whether I've gone a bit crazy with that,' she said.

Kelly, however, said it was 'fine'.

'The best thing is to keep the feature wallpaper above your fireplace, and keep the wallpaper, it's fine. But create an area for the TV, put it on the wall, it's technology it's part of our lives. Bung it up there ... and move the sofas in, create space,' came her expert tip.

Kelly also critiqued Alison Hammond's home, telling her it was 'all wrong' and asked she move the dining room table into a new position - which she did there and then.

Advice: Josie left viewers in hysterics as she admitted her shame at the choice of wallpaper

Iffy: The stripped wallpaper in the Big Brother star's home, which ran in beige and brown streaks, was deemed questionable, with Josie admitting she'd 'made a booby' with that

'I didn't expect you to actually do it. That makes the table look better already, put a nice bunch of flowers on,' Kelly exclaimed. 'Move the mirror because it's the wrong size.

'You want a bigger picture over there. So move that over there and put some pictures either side.'

Of the kitchen, Kelly advised Alison: 'Where your work top is, maybe put something there. Because when you sit on the sofa you want to look at something. So maybe put some vases, some fruit or something.'

Tips: Kelly also critiqued Alison Hammond's home, telling her it was 'all wrong' and asked she move the dining room table into a new position - which she did there and then

Help from afar: 'I didn't expect you to actually do it. That makes the table look better already, put a nice bunch of flowers on,' Kelly exclaimed

Alison did as she was told and placed a large wicker Fortnum & Mason basket on the countertop.

Two weeks ago, Alesha Dixon took to Instagram Live with Kelly so that the interior designer could critique the Britain's Got Talent judge's living room.

Alesha and her partner Azuka Ononye joined Kelly to take her on a walk-through of the regal-looking room, which is currently plushly-decorated.

But Alesha and Azuka insisted it was 'far from finished' and that they 'avoid it' because they're not happy with it.

Come on in: Two weeks ago, Alesha Dixon took to Instagram Live with Kelly so that the interior designer could critique the Britain's Got Talent judge's living room

Yet the room was hardly anything to sniff at.

The palatial lounge features a high ceiling with a crystal chandelier hanging from the centre of it.

Alesha has placed an L-shaped pink velvet sofa in the centre, dotted with cushions, which wraps around a small glass coffee table.

In the centre of the table sits a vase of cream roses.

Guided tour: Alesha and her partner Azuka Ononye joined Kelly to take her on a walk-through of the regal-looking room, which is currently plushly-decorated. But Alesha and Azuka insisted it was 'far from finished' and that they 'avoid it' because they're not happy with it

Regal: The palatial lounge features a high ceiling with a crystal chandelier hanging from the centre of it

Hi-ya! Turning their attention to the sofa, Kelly asked Alesha why she had 'karate chopped' her cushions, remarking that it made them look like they were on a yacht. Alesha was sure to swiftly fix this, admitting she thought to 'karate' a cushion was in vogue

On one wall is a plasma screen, another features two tall bright sash windows.

Across from this is a statement fireplace, which had flames flickering in the grate, with a mirror above it and two grey lacquer sideboards either side.

Opposite this is a double-entrance to the room, pillars on either side of it, peeking through to the hallway.

A pot plant completed the room in the corner.

Cosy: There's a statement fireplace, which had flames flickering in the grate, with a mirror above it and two grey lacquer sideboards either side. Alesha has placed an L-shaped pink velvet sofa in the centre, dotted with cushions, which wraps around a small glass coffee table

Addressing the TV wall, Kelly said: 'What you need is a cabinet. But not something on the whole wall, that would be a disaster!'

Despite the far-from-unattractive decor, Kelly - who was speaking from her study - had some ideas on how to shake it up, Hoppen-style.

'This room is grand - there's no getting away from that!' Kelly observed, after Alesha explained they'd like it to be cosier, and somewhere to relax after the children - Azura, six, and Anaya, eight months - go to bed.

Addressing the TV wall - bare apart from just the plasma screen - Kelly said: 'What you need is a cabinet. But not something on the whole wall, that would be a disaster!

'It needs to be modern, in lacquer, in a neutral colour. If it's modern it will look like it floats. With cupboards underneath it and shelves over it with books on and accessories.

Kelly said: 'You can then put books, candle, flowers on it. That will bring the whole room together. It's a spectacular high room, but you need to bring it in. A new coffee table and lamp will change it overnight. It needs to be a controlled mess - it's lacking stuff'

Family: Alesha lives in the house with Azuka and their two children, daughters Azura, six, and Anaya, eight months

Kelly added: 'This room is missing the dressing. Thats what I love to do'

'Then have art either side. Something new and less grand. This will bring the ceiling down so it doesn't seem too high. You could have lighting behind it - to create a shadow of light.'

Turning their attention to the sofa, Kelly asked Alesha why she had 'karate chopped' her cushions, remarking that it made them look like they were on a yacht.

Alesha was sure to swiftly fix this, admitting she thought to 'karate' a cushion was in vogue.

Kelly told them that the coffee table should be moved to the corner of the room and replaced with a bigger one, which would make things cosier.

For example: Kelly is an advocate of dressing a room with accents, as seen in her designs [pictured]

Accents: 'When you put on a dress you then think "I need jewelry, shoes, a handbag",' Kelly said, referring to accessories, as shown in her interior style [pictured]

Style queen: Kelly had plenty of ideas on how to shake up Alesha's house, Hoppen-style [pictured: a bathroom designed by Kelly]

An advocate of dressing a room with accents, she said: 'You can then put books, candle, flowers on it. That will bring the whole room together.

'It's a spectacular high room, but you need to bring it in. A new coffee table and lamp will change it overnight. It needs to be a controlled mess - it's lacking stuff.

'When you put on a dress you then think "I need jewelry, shoes, a handbag". This room is missing the dressing. Thats what I love to do. The sideboards need to be haphazard.'

Kelly lamented not being able to give the couple this advice in person, due to the UK's current state of lockdown.

'I'd be over there in a flash if I could!' she said.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

GALLUP  Around 3 p.m. Monday, the mayor of Gallup received a call from a bank manager saying an armored truck delivering money to the branch was stopped at the checkpoint outside of town and couldnt get in.

Another call had come in that morning from a woman who wanted to check on her 80-year-old father and was hysterical at being told she couldnt cross the city limits.

And another woman was moving and had been directed to pick up her U-Haul in Gallup, which, of course, now she could not do.

Since the Governors Office ordered a lockdown of Gallup on Friday, Mayor Louis Bonaguidi said his office phone has been ringing off the hook with questions from residents and logistics as they determine what vehicles are essential and should be allowed in.

But for the most part, he said, the calls and emails he and his staff have received have been from people who approve of the drastic measure to stem the spread of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.

Its a start, said Bonaguidi in an interview Monday afternoon.  We just want to see if we can make a difference.

As of Monday, McKinley County had 1,233 reported cases of COVID-19. Thats 289 more cases than in Bernalillo County, which has nine times its population, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

Bonaguidi said the purpose of the lockdown is twofold  to protect the citys residents from outsiders bringing the virus in as they do their shopping or stop off to gas up or eat on their travels and to protect outsiders from contracting the disease in Gallup and spreading it further.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams office has extended the order through Thursday at noon, although Bonaguidi says its possible it will have to continue.

Were watching the numbers as closely as possible but theyre not changing too much at this point, Bonaguidi said. Im hoping the numbers will start changing drastically here soon.

186 new cases, 5 more deaths

On Monday, state officials announced 136 of New Mexicos 186 additional coronavirus cases were from McKinley and San Juan counties.

Combined, the two counties now have 2,014 cases, nearly half of New Mexicos total of 4,031.

New Mexico officials also announced five more deaths from the disease, bringing the death toll to 156. The deaths included a female in her 70s from Bernalillo County, a female in her 50s from McKinley County, a male in his 60s from McKinley County, a male in his 60s from Sandoval County and a male in his 60s from San Juan County. Four of the deceased had been hospitalized, and all had underlying medical conditions.

Twenty-one people in McKinley County have died from COVID-19, and neighboring San Juan County has reported 57 deaths. The 78 COVID-19 deaths in the two counties account for half of New Mexicos 156 deaths from the disease.

Both San Juan and McKinley counties encompass parts of the Navajo Nation. Although Native Americans represent 11% of the states population they make up about 55% of the states coronavirus cases.

The first of the month

Bonaguidi, who was sworn into office as mayor on Thursday, said even before he began his post on Friday he had been having conversations with his predecessor and the Governors Office about the high number of COVID cases in McKinley County.

On everyones mind was the first of the month, when residents from the five nearby Native reservations come into the city to do their shopping after getting paid. Bonaguidi said there are estimates that between 30,000 and 65,000 people come into the hub city to do their shopping the first weekend of the month.

My God, were going to have 50,000 people coming into town, it can only get worse, theyre going to be taking it home to their families if anything, so thats

when we decided we need to do something, he said.

He said he and the previous mayor called the Governors Office and talked to her staff and health officials, and they determined it would be best to put the city on lockdown under the states rarely used Riot Control Act.

They also had to figure out ways to get water and other supplies to those who rely on trips to the city.

Many Navajo Nation residents normally visit water loading stations in Gallup to fill containers with water for hand-washing, cooking and drinking, so the New Mexico Department of Transportation set up water stations at two locations outside Gallup city limits.

In the small community of Thoreau, east of Gallup, Leland Barger and his family filled up several water tanks to haul to his father-in-law who lives near Bluewater Lake about 30 minutes away and doesnt have running water. He said he and his family normally go to Gallup for their big shopping trips, and have instead had to go to Grants or convenience stores in smaller towns.

Its pretty scary, its real scary really, Barger said, about the number of cases in the county.

And Navajo Nation employees and volunteers distributed food and supplies at the Red Rock Chapter House about 10 minutes south of Gallup, and at the Tsayatoh and Manuelito Chapters, each about 20 minutes west of the city.

The Navajo Nation had already limited unnecessary travel on and off tribal land and issued a stay-at-home order, a nightly curfew and a 57-hour curfew each weekend.

For his part, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said he supports the Gallup lockdown. He and other Navajo leaders encouraged residents to shop at reservation grocery stores instead of leaving to buy supplies.

We have many members of the Navajo Nation that reside in Gallup and many that travel in the area and their health and safety is always our top priority, Nez stated in a May 1 news release from Lujan Grishams office.

People adapt to lockdown

Monday afternoon, phones across McKinley County blared with an emergency alert about the lockdown. Highway signs along the interstate instructed drivers that roads closed to stop the virus.

New Mexico State Police, New Mexico National Guard, and Gallup Police Department officers check IDs and credentials at highway exits. The McKinley County sheriffs department and the New Mexico Department of Transportation also assisted with carrying out the emergency order.

In town, there is a lot less traffic. And most stores are closed or closed earlier than the 8 p.m. cutoff mandated in the order.

At an apartment complex outside of the main drag, Candace Begay took a video of her father, wearing a mask and hugging his grandchildren as they said hi and we love you to the camera.

She said she was going to send it to her mother, who lives outside of town and cant come in to see the kids. Her father, on the other hand, works at the hospital and has been allowed into the city each day.

My mom cant come in here, Begay said. They miss their grandparents. We took the video for them to show and update her because she misses them too.

She said she has noticed a lot less traffic on the street in front of her building over the past couple of days.

I honestly thought it was a good idea, Begay said. I thought they should have done it a lot earlier. I think this is whats needed to happen to get control of it and I was really glad they are enforcing it.

Journal staff writer Dan Boyd contributed to this report.

This story has been supported by the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rigorous and compelling reporting about responses to social problems.
Mike Alewitz was already a seasoned anti-Vietnam War protest organizer 50 years ago when he witnessed four fellow students shot dead at Kent State University.

The demonstration by 1,500 students at noon on a sunny Monday was pretty much over. Students were throwing rocks  pebbles, Alewitz calls them  at three Ohio National Guard units. The guardemen assumed a shooting position, aimed their M1 rifles at the students, and used grenade-launchers to fire tear gas into the dispersing crowd.

Alewitz was gassed, washed his eyes out in a nearby building and returned. As a 19-year-old sophomore, he was chairman of one of the campus anti-war groups but had not organized this event. It was spontaneous, a few days after President Richard Nixon ordered bombing in Cambodia, following a weekend of rioting in which students burned down the ROTC building.

On Monday, the 50th anniversary of the Kent State shootings, Alewitz  a retired Central Connecticut State University art professor and noted political muralist, living in New London  didnt travel to the campus. But he hasnt left the movement.

Alewitz has spent a lifetime as a self-described Marxist and socialist, fighting a class system, a labor system, a capitalist system, a race system that he says must be overturned  all the more urgently now that we see the effects of the coronavirus crisis.

I believe we need a revolution in the United States and I think thats clearer today than ever before, Alewitz said Monday afternoon as he prepared for an online slide show to commemorate the Kent State massacre. The ruling class of the U.S. is sending us back to die and work in a pandemic...The species is faced with extinction and meanwhile for the super rich, this is just another chance to make money.

As a Jewish kid from the suburbs of Cleveland, steeped in anti-war activism with a record of organizing early protests in high school  we wore black armbands and we get beat up, he recalls  young Mike Alewitz had missed the weekend uprisings to attend a socialist conference at Ohio State in Columbus.

Now, he was in a large parking lot as the guardsmen marched past, up Blanket Hill to a wooden pagoda, not far from the Victory Bell where the days events had started.

When they got to the top of the hill, they turned and fired on the students, Alewitz said Monday. We were, most of the students, hundreds of feet away from them...You could barely see them, the distance was so great.

He ran for cover. When the screaming ended, four students lay dead including Alewitzs friend Sandra Lee Scheuer  a sometime protester who, that day, was just walking to class in that same parking lot. She was studying to be a speech therapist and she was shot in the throat, he said.

I was just trying to absorb it, Alewitz said Monday when I asked what he was feeling at the time, and how he felt now, at age 69, looking to a younger generation to take up the cause.

Theyve suppressed the history

A photograph from that day shows Alewitz standing with his hands on his hips, a white armband around his jacket, watching as a student, wielding a black flag, jumps up and down in the blood of Jeffrey Glenn Miller, whose body had been removed.

A few weeks later the report of the Presidents Commission on Campus Unrest cited that scene and other facts exactly as Alewitz tells them  and concluded, The 61 shots by 28 guardsmen certainly cannot be justified. Apparently, no order to fire was given...The Kent State tragedy must mark the last time that, as a matter of course, loaded rifles are issued to guardsmen confronting student demonstrators.

Alewitz believes the guardsmen were ordered to fire on the students as a way to quell protests nationwide. Theyve suppressed the history at Kent and theyve covered it up including government involvement in the shootings.

He set out to leave campus for Cleveland, where he would start telling the story of what happened and step up the pace of protests that would sweep hundreds of campuses.

As I was leaving...we got stopped by vigilantes, he said. They had an M2 pressed against my forehead...Then a police car happened to show up and I was arrested but it saved my life, probably. He spent that night in jail after violating the campus lockdown.

When the shootings took place at Kent, that really was like throwing gas on the fire in terms of the strike, he said. He never returned to college life at Kent, instead transferring to the University of Texas at Austin.

The movement was called the antiwar university.

We went to the Army bases and distributed literature, he said. Back then, Fort Hood and Fort Sam Houston were openWe would drive on and we would just throw leaflets out the window.

I was surprised to hear it was very well received. There was a big antiwar movement in the Army, he said, citing activism by G.I.s.

Four of many millions

Today, Alewitz calls himself the most censored artist in the world, saying most of his murals have been destroyed and some exhibits have been blocked. Hes spent the better part of the last year preparing his archives to go to the Tamiment Library at New York University, a center of radical left history.

Hes still angry about the massacre of course, but he said, I view Kent as part of what has happened to working people internationally. Its four of many millions who have been killed.

With people abusing the commemoration, as he sees it, the sweep of politics drives him more than memories of that day. Mostly I feel anger at people who make war.

And the picture remains mixed.

We beat the most powerful ruling class that ever existed, he said at the start of the video that aired Monday night. To this day, he told me, the American people remain antiwar, and thats a triumph that prevents the United States from occupying foreign countries.

But he said, from his house where he can see the submarine base at Groton, the U.S. military remains massively too large and U.S. imperialist oppression remains intact. When I pointed out that base and nearby Electric Boat account for 25,000 jobs, he agreed and said he once worked as a machinist making armaments.

Those workers would rather make medical equipment, he insists.

Fighting to overturn the system is easier in 2020, with so many movements having happened since 1970, and with so much technology. But he added, The stakes are a lot higher today.

Even if we get through this pandemic, were still headed toward this carbon-based abyss.

Fifty years on, its in other peoples hands. Ive been an activist my whole life. Movements are led by young people and I believe they should be led by young people.

dhaar@hearstmediact.com
A new study from the Amazon predicts the mysterious 'ghost dogs' of the Amazon rain forest may face new environmental threat, as deforestation is expected to reduce their natural habitat by 30 percent in 2027.

The study, published in the Royal Society of Open Science, was based on footage captured by an extensive series of cameras set up across 27,000 square miles of Amazonian rainforest to track the behavior of the short-eared dogs.

The researchers compiled information from the surveillance cameras with topographic data from the region tracking the region's recent deforestation, in the hopes of better understanding how it affected animals living in the region.

The short-eared dogs of the Amazon, sometimes described as 'ghost dogs,' could lose as much as 30 percent of their natural habitat due to deforestation, according to a new study

They found that in some of the hardest hit areas, the short-eared dogs' natural habitat--mainly the Amazonian rainforests in Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador--could decline by as much as 60 percent.

'Beyond shedding light on the ecology of the short-eared dog and refining its distribution range, our results stress that forest loss poses a serious threat to the conservation of the species in a short time frame,' the team reports, according to a story in Inverse.

According to the team, short-eared dogs are 'one of the least studied canids in the world,' and are currently listed as a threatened species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List.

The creatures were first documented in travelers notes dating to 1883, but little direct observation occurred until scientists were able to track and study the creatures in the early 2000s.

The team noted markedly different behavior from the short-eared dogs in regions where there was less dense forrest cover, which hinted at a wider disruptions to the entire ecosystem.

The team used a network of video cameras covering 27,000 square miles of Amazonian rain forest to track the behavior of the short-eared dogs, finding that their behavior changed substantially in regions with less forrest cover

The mysterious animals are 'one of the least studied canids in the world,' according to the team. They were first described in travelers notes in 1883, but weren't formally studied until the early 2000s

Though short-eared dogs' main food source are small river fish, insects, and other small animals, they eat a substantial amount of fruit and help propagate the forest by distributing seeds in their scat.

With inhibited movement in areas with less forest cover, the effects of deforestation could be even more severe, with less new growth to fill in the deforested terrain.

Short-eyed dogs are also a common prey for other animals in the rainforest, including boa constrictors and jaguars, which could face difficulty finding food as deforestation makes their prey more sparsely populated.

In all the team, estimates the effects of deforestation in the region won't just affect the short-eared dogs but around one quarter of all mammal species in the Amazon.
A local councillor is proposing that National Health Service (NHS) staff be given the 'freedom' award for the Derry City and Strabane District Council area.

The rarely-given award has only ever previously been handed out to individuals.

However, Alliance councillor Philip McKinney wants to see the special honour given to NHS staff in recognition of how they have managed the coronavirus pandemic.

Cllr McKinney will bring a motion in support of his proposal before the council's next full council meeting at the end of the month.

"We all have seen how healthcare workers have stepped up to protect us all during the last couple of months," he said.

"It is important that we recognise the work that they have done and continue to do."

Belfast Mayor Daniel Baker this week also proposed a similar award for NHS staff.

The last person to receive the Freedom of the City award locally was former Derry City manager Jim McLaughlin in 2019.

The local council, whether as Derry City and Strabane District Council or previously as Derry City Council, has also given the award to former SDLP leader John Hume, Foyle Hospice founder Tom McGinley and former Derry bishops, Edward Daly and James Mehaffey.
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan says he is confident that Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have committed to a 7% reduction in carbon emissions ahead of government formation talks.

Mr Ryan will meet with Leo Varadkar and Micheal Martin later on Tuesday to outline the negotiations process on a programme for government.

The Green Party agreed to enter government formation talks with the two parties over the weekend.

In a statement on Sunday, the Greens said they will work to develop a deal that respects our mandate.

Members of the Green Party want firm commitments from Fianna Fail and Fine Gael on a number of ambitious climate change targets.

They've done a lot of work and came back said, yes we are committed to a set of ambitions Eamon Ryan

The Green Party has said a 7% annual reduction in carbon emissions is a red-line issue for them entering into a coalition government.

Mr Ryan told RTEs Morning Ireland that his party sought clarification from both parties over the weekend.

Theyve done a lot of work and came back said, yes we are committed to a set of ambitions, Mr Ryan added.

It comes after Green Party deputy leader Catherine Martin voted against entering coalition after Fine Gael deputy leader Simon Coveney said the 7% yearly reduction in emissions would not be signed up to if it decimates rural Ireland.

Mr Ryan said it was perfectly normal and appropriate to have different political views within a party.

He said the Irish public is frustrated that talks are still ongoing after Februarys inconclusive election.

One thing Id say in that regard is I think in the three months the Dail has actually pulled together behind the political approach in terms of managing the (coronavirus) crisis, he added.

Theres been mistakes and people would do things differently, but I think it served the Irish public in the sense that we came together to agree the immediate health crisis management.

He said the coalition talks process will take a few weeks as all parties involved need to agree to an economic recovery in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He added: I think thats whats important, thats what has changed in the last few months, is that we see those parties actually committing and saying, yes we will actually be ambitious and be willing to deliver the measures that would reduce 7% emissions each year, which is what the scientists say we need to do.

This issue of biodiversity loss and climate change is the real scientific challenge we face and Im hoping, the same way that we showed solidarity impacting the Covid-19 crisis, we can actually learn from that and gain from that and show the same solidarity both within our party and with other parties and as people mapping our way out of this.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 23:15:40|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese Ambassador to Singapore Hong Xiaoyong (R) and Singapore's Senior Minister of State of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Transport Lam Pin Min attend the donation handover ceremony in Singapore, May 5, 2020. China has donated a total of 620,000 face masks to Singapore to help the country in its fight against the COVID-19. (Singapore's Ministry of Health/Handout via Xinhua)

SINGAPORE, May 5 (Xinhua) -- China has donated a total of 620,000 face masks to Singapore to help the country in its fight against the COVID-19.

Chinese Ambassador to Singapore Hong Xiaoyong handed over the donation to Singapore's Senior Minister of State of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Transport Lam Pin Min at a ceremony here Tuesday.

The Chinese government and the Red Cross Society of China have contributed 500,000 surgical masks, 100,000 KN95 masks and 20,000 N95 masks to Singapore's national stockpile to assist in the Singapore government's efforts to manage the deadly virus.

Hong Xiaoyong said the Singaporean government, Red Cross Society, business communities and people from all walks of life have provided their valuable support to China in China's fight against the virus, which shows the sincere friendship the Singaporean people have with the Chinese people.

"We are deeply moved and keep it in mind," he said.

China will continue to work together with Singapore to bring an end to the epidemic and better safeguard people's health, Hong said.

Lam expressed appreciation for China's donation, and highlighted the importance of continued mutual assistance and collaboration between Singapore and China amidst the COVID-19 outbreak.

"I am heartened that Singapore and China have been working closely together at all levels to stem the spread of the virus," he said, adding that the cooperation spans many sectors, including the health, economic, and people-to-people spheres.

Singapore and China mark the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations this year. Such robust collaboration during this difficult time is testament to the strong friendship between our countries. Singapore looks forward to working closely with China to further bilateral relations, Lam added.

On the same day, the Chinese embassy has also provided the Singapore Migrant Workers' Center with supplies including food and soaps, to aid the foreign workers in Singapore who have been isolated as part of the government's efforts to contain the virus outbreak.
Washington: Global deaths from the coronavirus pandemic topped a quarter-million on Monday, mostly in the US and Europe even as both regions slowly moved away from lockdown and world leaders raised billions towards a vaccine.

An AFP tally of official figures showed that Europe is the hardest-hit continent with around 145,000 fatalities, and the United States recorded close to 68,700  together accounting for more than 85 percent of global fatalities.

An internal government estimate in Washington forecast an even worsening number of fatalities for the country. It said the daily COVID-19 death toll could double by the end of May.

In Europe, though, governments believe they have passed the peak of the disease with deaths in the continent's worst affected countries having dropped as a result of nearly two months of confinement.

Restaurants in Italy partially reopened and Germans queued for haircuts in a Europe edging gingerly out of lockdown.

In India, police swung batons to beat back thirsty citizens jostling to buy alcohol for the first time in 40 days as the government eased further the world's biggest coronavirus lockdown.

Half of the planet has been under orders to shelter in place, and much of the world remained cautious even as countries from India to Nigeria sought to ease restrictions so that businesses can remain afloat and workers earn a wage after the pandemic-induced economic crash.

"Today is wonderful," Lagos fruit and vegetable vendor Adewale Oluwa said, opening his stall in Africa's largest city after a five-week lockdown.

Russia infections surge

Still, confirmed cases since the disease surfaced in China late last year rose to almost 3.6 million across 195 countries and territories.

Infections continued to surge in Russia, now adding more than 10,000 a day.

"The threat is apparently on the rise," Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin told citizens.

But the United States remains far more severely affected than any other nation, although deaths in the past 24 hours rose by the lowest figure in a month -- 1,015.

An internal study by the US government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted that new coronavirus cases will surge more than eight-fold to 200,000 per day by June 1, and the toll could rise to 3,000 a day, up from the current 1,000-2,000.

That could more than double the number of US coronavirus deaths, now at about 69,000, over the next few months, according to the study first reported by The New York Times and The Washington Post.

It underscored the tough, politically-tinged debate over reopening that pits Trump and his allies against many governors and community leaders worried that social distancing and quarantines need to remain in place longer.

The study suggested that the surge in infections could come from mid-May in states and localities that had not implemented tough distancing measures or were loosening up too early.

On Sunday Trump acknowledged that deaths would go beyond his earlier prediction of 60,000, saying "we're going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people."

The White House downplayed the CDC forecast as an "internal" document which had not been vetted by the task force, which is led by Vice President Mike Pence.

'Joy and fear'

In Europe there was still caution as countries allowed people to return to the streets and some businesses to open.

"We are feeling a mix of joy and fear," 40-year-old Stefano Milano said in Rome as Italian restaurants reopened for takeaway orders -- though bars and ice cream parlours will remain shut.

Spain and Portugal made face masks mandatory on public transport starting Monday as they further eased their lockdowns.

Slovenia, Poland and Hungary also allowed public spaces and businesses to partially reopen.

"I looked like Robinson Crusoe," joked 87-year-old Helmut Wichter, emerging clean shaven from a barber in Berlin.

Vaccine Telethon

A special telethon backed by the World Health Organization but snubbed by Washington pulled in 7.4 billion euros ($8.1 billion) to support international efforts to develop and manufacture a vaccine to slow the coronavirus spread.

Leaders of major European powers, Japan and Canada made the biggest pledges, along with philanthropists including Bill and Melinda Gates, at the videoconference hosted by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.

"This was a powerful and inspiring demonstration of global solidarity," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said of the donations.

Seeming to defend its non-participation, the US State Department issued a statement declaring that the United States is "leading" the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and said it has spent more than $1 billion together with US drug companies to work on a vaccine.

Trump claimed Sunday that the United States will have a coronavirus vaccine ready by the end of the year.

The war of words between the United States and China over responsibility for the pandemic continued, with China's state broadcaster attacking US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for "insane" remarks in which he said the virus originated at a laboratory in Wuhan, the city where the pandemic first emerged.

The WHO said it had received no evidence on the "speculative" Wuhan lab claims.
Rumble

Flossey is living a wonderful life on a beautiful farm in Millbrook, Ontario. It's what is knows an "ethical farm" where cows have space to roam and graze instead of being kept indoors for most of their lives. Flossey's farm has vast expanses of lush, green grass, rolling hills, ponds full of fresh water, and forested areas for shade. This is life as it should be for these gentle creatures. Dave is a farm hand who often helps out with some of the chores and animal care. He decided to take a break on this warm, summer day and he took a seat on the hill overlooking the pasture.
Congress has a lot of work piling up. In addition to further responses to the COVID-19 crisis, by the end of September Congress must pass annual legislation to fund the government, a bill to authorize the operations of the Defense Department and legislation to continue funding for roads and public transportation. Two months already have been wasted during which remote participation could have been implemented and Congress could have been working on this legislation. But even when members return to Washington, remote operations will still be necessary since continuing social distancing restriction will make a return to normal impossible for some time. Absent changes, all this legislation  and much more  could once again be written by the same small group of leaders.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is going to the White House later this week as President Donald Trump invites Republican governors to Washington to tout the administrations response to the coronavirus.

The visit, first reported by Politico and confirmed by Abbotts office, comes just a week after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was invited to the White House where he and the president praised each other for their response to the virus.

Abbotts trip on Thursday comes less than a week after he began re-opening parts of the Texas economy in phases. Abbott has allowed restaurants, retail stores, theaters and malls to re-open at 25 percent of maximum capacity, and overridden local government orders that had closed most of those businesses since March.

SPIKE IN COVID-19 DEATHS: Last week was the worst yet for Texas deaths and infections

Abbott has said as he monitors data about the outbreak, if Texas is doing well, hell push to let those businesses reopen to 50 percent of capacity.

For the White House, Texas offers an example of a large state that has had much fewer deaths than other states. Texas has had over 900 deaths. But New York has had over 19,000 and California has reported over 2,200 deaths. But Texas also has struggled to ramp up testing. Texas has had one of the lowest per capita testing rates in the nation. Abbott has said those numbers are improving fast. On Saturday, the state reported more than 28,000 tests in a single day  the states best testing day yet.

Some of Trumps poll numbers have been sliding due to the coronavirus. In a Gallup poll of 1,016 adults nationwide released last week, 50 percent approved of Trumps handling of the coronavirus  a 10 percentage point drop from a month earlier. But his overall approval ratings have increased slightly. About 49 percent of people said they approved of Trumps overall work as president. At the end of February, 47 percent of respondents said they approved of the presidents overall job performance.

Benjamin Wermund contributed to this report.
EDWARDSVILLE  Mayor Hal Patton will give his annual State of the City Address Tuesday at 7 p.m. During the pandemic, he encourages residents and other interested parties to view his presentation on the citys Facebook page, via the citys website or on ECTV, Spectrum Channel 993.

Residents are strongly urged to participate remotely and address the council by either sending emails to publiccomment@cityofedwardsville.com, or calling the public comment voicemail line at (618) 307-1715 and leaving messages. Comments submitted via these ways will be read into the record by the city clerk or committee staff liaison at the beginning of the meeting.
With migrants set to leave for the home states in special trains started by the government, the Ludhiana municipal corporation (MC) has constituted 100 teams to ferry them to the railway station from their houses.

As many as 100 buses are expected to run in a day, ferrying 1,200-1,500 migrants. To ensure social distancing, only 30 labourers would be in a bus at a time.

As per the MC officials, six trains are expected run from Ludhiana junction and every train would ferry 1,200-1,500 passengers.

Each MC team would have a leader and would constitute two health workers/volunteers and two police personnel.

The teams would be working in two shifts with 50 buses in each shift and each bus would be sanitised after every round. Thermal scanner would be provided to health workers/volunteers for conducting screening of labourers before they catch the bus and a certificate would be issued to the labourer.

MC Commissioner Kanwalpreet Kaur Brar conducted a meeting with the staff on Monday and as per the orders issued in this regard, police station wise list of workers who have registered themselves for going back home. The list would further be bifurcated and every team would have a list of 30 workers living in the same area/location and same destination (state).

Teams would also be deputed for alerting the labourers over phone so that they are ready before the bus arrives. It would be mandatory for the labourer to keep the pass in their mobile phones.

TICKETS TO BE ISSUED IN BUSES

The teams would issue railway tickets to the labourers in the bus so that they dont need to gather at the ticket counter. The MC teams would receive the tickets a day before arrival of the train.

The money collected and remaining tickets would be handed over to the nodal officer deputed at the railway station. The teams would be apprised about the fair before commencing the operation.
Many countries, including South Africa and Nigeria in Africa, are moving to make it mandatory to wear non-medical cloth masks when people are outside their homes. The move is seen as a vital additional measure to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19.

Wearing cloth masks is being introduced in conjunction with maintaining a physical distance of at least 1.5 metres and strictly following hygiene measures such as hand washing, good cough etiquette, and decontamination of regularly used surfaces.

Medical face masks have been a vital part of COVID-19 prevention efforts in East Asian countries such as China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea.

In countries where medical face masks are preserved for healthcare workers or are scarce, fabric face masks provide a cost-effective alternative. These can be homemade and are reusable.

There has been a growing movement of homemade mask production. Factories have also repurposed to produce fabric face masks to support commercial and free distribution.

In South Africa wearing a cloth mask in public places is now mandatory. In our view, there is sufficient evidence to suggest if everyone wears a mask, droplet transmission from each person will reduce and minimise exposure.

Transmission

The early phases of the COVID-19 epidemic included an evolving understanding of the routes of transmission of the coronavirus. It is now well established that droplet transmission is of vital concern. In the case of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus in 2002, viral shedding via the respiratory tract happened mostly after people developed symptoms . But COVID-19 includes a pre-symptomatic phase where people can be infectious and still feel healthy and be unaware that they are infected. Mildly symptomatic and asymptomatic cases also occur.

Mandatory masking ensures that viral transmission by any potential carrier is markedly reduced. It emphasises the concept of source control, in other words controlling the amount of a pathogen that is present in the environment. This is well expressed through the slogan: I protect you, you protect me. This was popularised by the #masks4all initiative, started by a group of researchers and scientists to promote the scientific evidence showing that cloth masks limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

An additional benefit of the ubiquitous wearing of face masks is the reduced possibility that respiratory droplets will be released to settle on surfaces  or for smaller aerosolised particles to float in the air.

For those still in doubt, we have answered some key questions to address the biggest areas of controversy:

Why should I wear a cloth mask? To prevent potential transmission of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 via respiratory droplets and particles released when you talk, laugh, sing, shout, cough or sneeze, or to prevent the potential inhalation virus laden particles. A cloth face mask also serves as barrier that prevents touch transfer from surfaces to your mouth and nose and a reminder not to touch other parts of your face  especially your eyes. In addition, a face mask reduces the extent to which droplets and particles end up on surfaces or float in the air.

To prevent potential transmission of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 via respiratory droplets and particles released when you talk, laugh, sing, shout, cough or sneeze, or to prevent the potential inhalation virus laden particles. A cloth face mask also serves as barrier that prevents touch transfer from surfaces to your mouth and nose and a reminder not to touch other parts of your face  especially your eyes. In addition, a face mask reduces the extent to which droplets and particles end up on surfaces or float in the air. When should I wear a cloth mask? As a general rule, any time that you are outside your home, and especially in close contact situations such as when using public transport, shopping, working, or in any crowded setting. If a person in your household is possibly infected with coronavirus, face masks must be used when in close proximity, in conjunction with separating living quarters. Helplines and healthcare providers are good places to go for additional steps to follow.

As a general rule, any time that you are outside your home, and especially in close contact situations such as when using public transport, shopping, working, or in any crowded setting. If a person in your household is possibly infected with coronavirus, face masks must be used when in close proximity, in conjunction with separating living quarters. Helplines and healthcare providers are good places to go for additional steps to follow. Can I make my cloth mask out of anything? The most effective approach is to use a thicker weave material such as cotton for the outer layer, and then to include at least two layers of softer material for comfort and additional barrier protection. Test the materials combined for breathability before sewing. There should be some resistance to airflow, but you should be able to breathe freely when using the completed mask. Fit is important to minimise air bypassing the cloth barrier via the sides. Materials used should be easily washable and heat tolerant for cleaning. Stretchy material should be avoided.

The most effective approach is to use a thicker weave material such as cotton for the outer layer, and then to include at least two layers of softer material for comfort and additional barrier protection. Test the materials combined for breathability before sewing. There should be some resistance to airflow, but you should be able to breathe freely when using the completed mask. Fit is important to minimise air bypassing the cloth barrier via the sides. Materials used should be easily washable and heat tolerant for cleaning. Stretchy material should be avoided. How do I wear the mask? Never share a mask with anyone and always use a mask that is freshly cleaned. Wash or sanitise your hands before putting on the mask and when removing. Ensure that it covers the area from the top of your nose to below your chin. When you remove the mask, move your hands forward so you can fold the front over itself. Hold on the sides and place in a safe area for cleaning.

Never share a mask with anyone and always use a mask that is freshly cleaned. Wash or sanitise your hands before putting on the mask and when removing. Ensure that it covers the area from the top of your nose to below your chin. When you remove the mask, move your hands forward so you can fold the front over itself. Hold on the sides and place in a safe area for cleaning. How do I reuse a mask? A cloth mask can be washed in hot water with soap or washed in a washing machine. Iron or sun dry. You can also drop the mask into boiled water and leave to cool to a temperature that allows you to wash the mask with soap or washing detergent. Avoid harsh chemicals such as bleach as this will be toxic when wearing the mask. By having two masks available, you can wear one, and have one to wash.

Dr Warren Parker a public health communications specialist, and Dr Beth Engelbrecht from the Western Cape Department of Health contributed to this article.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

By Shaheen Mehtar, Infection Prevention and Control specialist, Stellenbosch University And

Lucille Blumberg, Deputy Director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases and a member of the joint staff, University of the Witwatersrand And

Marc Mendelson, Professor of Infectious Diseases, University of Cape Town
The two bikers were stopped by police near Whitby. (North Yorkshire Police)

North Yorkshire Police have fined a pair of bikers who broke coronavirus lockdown rules by making a 200-mile round trip to the seaside town of Whitby purely to eat fish and chips.

Officers from Whitby Neighbourhood Policing Team said the two motorcyclists revealed they had travelled to the seaside resort from Rochdale in Lancashire after being pulled over on Sunday.

They were sent home and issued fines following the incident, with the force warning others their excuse does not constitute reasonable travel.

Whilst Whitby would usually welcome visitors to sample our finest fish and chips, due to the current climate this does not constitute reasonable travel, Whitby Town Police posted on Facebook.

Today Whitby Neighbourhood Policing Team were patrolling the A169 and stopped two motorcyclists who had travelled from Rochdale purely for fish and chips.

Both were sent home and issued fines for breaching COVID19 guidelines. Unfortunately for those motorcyclists we were in the right plaice at the right time.

Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice

We will continue to strive to keep our community safe.

According to North Yorkshire Police, a total of 61 fines were issued to members of the public flouting lockdown rules over the weekend.

Twelve of the 61 fines were issued in the town of Malham, which police said appeared to be a hot spot.

Under current social-distancing rules the government has granted police the power to fine people who are caught engaging in non-essential travel.

On Sunday this week, Boris Johnson is expected to make an address to the nation detailing a "menu of options" on how the nation will exit lockdown restrictions and re-energise the economy while still suppressing the spread of the virus.

But chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove has warned that people would have to live with "some degree of constraint" until they can be immunised against the deadly disease  suggesting Britons would have to accept a "new normal" until then.

Story continues

Some social distancing measures, including travel restrictions, are expected to persist long after lockdown measures have eased.

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Carl Lentz urges NY officials to provide clearer guidance as some restrictions lift

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Hillsong Church NYC Pastor Carl Lentz called for clearer guidelines from city officials in navigating the novel coronavirus, noting that the city is "all over the place right now."

These are confusing times, my friends! Lets pray this week for our government, people in leadership, anybody who has a voice to help lead us through this pandemic...NYC is all over the place right now with whats allowed, not allowed, mask/no mask.. in all this disagreement, we can all agree WISDOM IS NEEDED! Lentz captioned a video complaint he made on Instagram. @nygovcuomo@nycmayor big week ahead, praying for you.

The pastors video featured Lentz and his wife, Laura, so baffled at the division in the city concerning restrictions that they jokingly made a plea to the officials of New York and the government.

We're gonna need some details about what exactly the quarantine rules are right now because they seem to be different from block to block, the Hillsong leader said.

His wife noted, "Brooklyn was raging."

Pastor Lentz said, I've seen stuff on the news, people are raging and there's other people that are still completely judgmental, with their eyes from behind the mask. How is anybody supposed to know what the deal is?

Huge shout out to the government for giving us such opaque directions right now. We're praying for our government in New York City Mayor, and beyond, if you give us some details. We appreciate this. It's not a political Insta-story.

He added that he doesn't judge those who are out and about with others considering how obscure the rules are.

As temperatures rose on the east coast, hundreds of New Yorkers decided to disregard stay-at-home orders and go outside.

Photos online showed groups gathered over the weekend in Downtown Manhattan in the West Village parks and sat on blankets, picnicking without masks and gloves. Uptown, in the historic black community of Harlem, parks remained locked and social gatherings were prohibited and monitored by authorities.

On Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo provided additional details on the process to reopen the city as the shutdown orders are looking to lift in some regions starting May 15. However, he maintained that the stay-at-home orders are still in place.

Lentz contracted the novel coronavirus in March, which he revealed during an Instagram Live chat with pastor Judah Smith of Churchome in Los Angeles, California. He said he first contracted the coronavirus the Sunday after Hillsong NYC closed its doors at United Palace due to the citys restrictions on public gatherings. Lentz told Smith that his "team got hit pretty hard."

In April, the popular pastor posted an update about his health on Instagram.

I tested positive, now negative. I am very very grateful for that.. but the impact of this virus is real and the more of us that play our part, the quicker we can get to the other side of this, Lentz wrote.

At the time, he said social distancing is inconvenient but its worth it, even if it helps just one person. Lentz also said he believes its wise to wear a face mask whether they are effective or not. Surgeon General Jerome Michael Adams said on Wednesday that 25% of people have the virus and are nonsymptomatic, so he recommends everyone wear a mask.

Lentz encouraged his congregants and 646,000 followers on Instagram to do their part in stopping the spread of COVID-19.
Entries are still open for Insurance Businesss Young Guns report  a showcase of talented young professionals who are full of promise as the future leaders of the industry.

To be eligible for a place on the report, individuals must be aged 35 or under, working in a role that relates to the general insurance industry and have never previously been named on the Insurance Business Young Guns list.
Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Some California retailers will be allowed to reopen their businesses starting on Friday, the states governor said on Monday.

More than six weeks after Gavin Newsom issued a statewide stay-at-home order, shops selling books, clothing, sporting goods, flowers or anything else that a customer can purchase through curbside pickup will be able to open again, if they implement certain modifications.

We are entering into the next phase this week, Newsom said. End of the week, with modifications, we will allow retail to start operating across the spectrum.

This is a very positive sign and it has only happened for one reason: the data says it can happen, he added.

The easing in restrictions came after groups of protesters had gathered across the state in defiance of the lockdown last week. Demonstrations took place from the capital, Sacramento, to San Francisco and San Diego. Large crowds turned out in Orange countys Huntington Beach, a recent flashpoint after the governor had ordered beaches there to close over the weekend.

Related: California governor promises changes to lockdown as protests sweep state

Newsom acknowledged that some California regions would still require stricter guidelines than the state guidelines in the weeks to come.

The six Bay Area counties that were the first in the country to issue a stay-at-home order, for example, have experienced a much higher rate of infection than more rural areas of the state, with more than 8,100 cases. Los Angeles, meanwhile, has seen more than 26,000 cases.

Last week, rural Yuba and Sutter counties, located north of Sacramento, issued a measure that defied the states order and reopened businesses starting Monday. Modoc county, located on the Nevada border, was the first to begin pushing for a reopening.



Our rural lifestyle and the fact that many of our residents have been abiding by the guidelines has kept us at zero, said Tex Dowdy, the Modoc county sheriff, in a statement. We are the perfect choice to pilot a reopening in the state.

Story continues

As of Monday, California was reporting 53,616 positive cases and 2,215 deaths. Newsom has been adamant that any modification to the stay-at-home order be based on science and the state meeting certain criteria such as having capacity to meet a surge in healthcare needs, having enough personal protective equipment and having testing and trace-contacting capacity.

Nearly 3,000 protested at Huntington Beach in southern California after Newsom closed the beaches in Orange county following a weekend heatwave that packed the coastline.

Officials say the number of people at Newport Beach over the weekend was far fewer than usual. Photograph: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

Thousands more still flocked to the beaches this past weekend, some in protest and some for fun. In Carlsbad in San Diego county, where a red tide algae bloom is creating its annual blue bioluminescence at night, more than 1,000 people crowded along the coastline  even though the beaches were closed, said Bryan Hargett, a Carlsbad police lieutenant. Police stopped and reminded the nighttime beachgoers of the rules, and issued parking citations for those who didnt listen  around 20 to 30 total, Hargett said.

We get it, we understand people probably want to get outside and enjoy the beaches and see this, but were all trying to follow the rules and do the right thing to get us back to normal, he said.

In Newport Beach, where seven miles of beaches are closed by state order, about 8,500 people still took to the shore on Saturday, and 4,500 on Sunday, said John Pope, a city spokesman. It sounds like a big number, but its a small fraction of what we would typically see on weekends when the beaches were still open, he said.

The beachgoers came even as officials worked to abide by the governors order, conducting sweeps during the busiest parts of the days and clearing people off the beaches, using announcements from a police helicopter and bullhorns as well as talking directly to individuals.

Some of them said they hadnt heard [about the beach closures] and in some cases, they were being deliberately defiant, Pope said. Some said they were coming down to the beach to stage a protest.

Pope said the city was cautiously optimistic that Newsoms announcement on businesses meant there may soon be movement on beaches. The city has filed a plan with the state on how to reopen the beaches safely, Pope said, and were confident we can manage the beaches effectively, maintain social distancing and minimize the public health risks.

Newsom acknowledged the Orange county beach plan in his briefing on Monday, which he called an outstanding plan that he enthusiastically embraced. Those beaches will be reopened, he said.

Thats the spirit of the moment, the spirit of the time, Newsom said. A sense of cooperation, recognizing the frustration that we all have and recognizing that we are all in this together and go a lot further together in that collaborative spirit.
Exclusive Melbourne restaurant Enter via Laundry's website crashed after it featured on Tuesday night's episode of MasterChef: Back to Win.

The 'secret' restaurant, which has an intimate 10-person dining experience, gained over 1000 followers in 10 minutes after owner Helly Raichura appeared on the show.

After the episode aired, thousands of viewers flocked to Enter via Laundry's website to enquire about booking a table at the unique venue.

Popular: Exclusive Melbourne restaurant Enter via Laundry's website crashed after it featured on MasterChef: Back to Win on Tuesday. Pictured owner Helly Raichura

'I want to go to Enter via Laundry,' one viewer tweeted. 'Excuse me I love the concept of Enter Via Laundry,' another person wrote.

'I'm taking one of those $19 flights and getting me to Enter via Laundry,' commented another.

On Tuesday night's episode, Helly made a guest appearance on the cooking show as part of MasterChef's suburban week.

Indian cuisine: On Tuesday night's episode, Helly made a guest appearance on the cooking show as part of MasterChef's suburban week

Experience: After the episode aired, thousands flocked to Enter via Laundry's website to enquire about booking a table at the unique venue

She offers foodies a unique experience in her own home and revealed 'some people have been waiting 18 months now to get in'.

Helly explained to the contestants: 'We do a little degustation for 10 people at a time focusing on ethnic Indian cuisines and use a lot of beautiful Australian produce, a lot of natives, a little secret dining experience.'

Meanwhile, Rose Adam was eliminated from the show on Tuesday night after a tough pressure challenge.

Home: Rose Adam (pictured) was eliminated from the show on Tuesday after a tough pressure challenge

She was tasked with re-creating the 'pasta not pasta' dish from Enter Via Laundry but was undone by her pasta, which was deemed too thin.

'I've watched every single one of these guys in every one of their seasons. So, it's been amazing to actually make friends with them and connect with them, see you guys take the reins, which has been phenomenal,' Rose said after being eliminated.

She continued: 'Life is so good outside of MasterChef. I'm going back to my beautiful cafe. I'm happy.'

MasterChef continues Wednesday at 7.30pm on Channel Ten
An Army colonel, a major and a lance naik killed in a firefight in Kashmir were cremated Tuesday at moving funeral ceremonies, after their bodies were brought home in coffins wrapped in the tricolour.

The body of Colonel Ashutosh Sharma, the commanding officer of 21 Rashtriya Rifles who was killed Saturday night, was consigned to the flames in Jaipur. Major Anuj Sood was cremated will full military honours in Chandigarh.

Lance Naik Dinesh Singh's last rites were held at Rameshwar ghat in Uttarakhand's Almora, attended by family members including ex-Army man Godhan Singh Gainra.

The three soldiers were among the five security personnel killed during an anti-terror operation in Handwara in north Kashmir.

Col Sharma was the second commanding officer of 21 RR to have been killed fighting terrorists.

At the Purani Chungi cremation ground on Jaipur's Ajmer Road, his wife Pallavi Sharma kept a brave face as she lit the funeral pyre along with his brother Piush Sharma.

She had earlier held tightly to the folded tricolour, removed from Col Sharma's coffin and handed over to her for a while, as the ceremony progressed. When the body was placed on the pyre she fanned it gently with her dupatta.

Soldiers fired three volleys in a gun salute as the pyre was lit.

Earlier, at the 61 Cavalry grounds, where wreaths were laid on Col Sharma's coffin, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and South Western Army commander Lt Gen Alok Kler paid their respects.

Pallavi Sharma and the couple's daughter Tamanna also stood in salute.

"The entire nation will remember the sacrifice of Colonel Ashutosh Sharma. The country is proud of him," Gehlot told reporters at the wreath-laying ceremony.

When he met Col Sharma's mother, the chief minister bowed to touch her feet.

Similar scenes were witnessed at the Mani Majra cremation ground in Chandigarh, where Major Anuj Sood's body was brought from the family home in Panchkula.

His wife Akriti Sood threw her arms around the coffin in farewell as the body was put on a bedecked Army vehicle.

The major's sister Harshita, who is also an Army officer, consoled her sister-in-law.

Slogans like Vande Mataram, Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Major Anuj Amar Rahe, were raised as the body, wrapped in the tricolour, was taken to the cremation ground.

Before the cremation, serving and retired Army officers laid wreaths.

As he placed a wreath, Anti Terrorist Front of India president Viresh Shandilya raised Pakistan Murdabad and Bharat Mata Ki Jai slogans.

Apart from Army personnel, only the family members were allowed inside the cremation ground to ensure social distancing norms in force because of the coronavirus pandemic.

A guard of honour was given to Major Sood by the Army and soldiers fired three volleys in gun salute.

Major Sood's father Brigadier Chandrakant Sood (retd) lit the pyre.

He had told the media the day before that he was proud of his son's sacrifice. He was a true son of the nation," he said at his Panchkula home.

The 30-year-old officer was from the Brigade of the Guards regiment, currently part of the 21 Rashtriya Rifles.

He joined the National Defence Academy in 2008. He had one dream, which was to join the Army, according to his family.

His family said he was scheduled to return home after a gap of six months. Having finished his two-year stint in Jammu and Kashmir, he was to join the 12 Guards unit in Gurdaspur.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Trump has laid into former vice president Joe Biden's denial of a 1993 sexual assault allegation by a former Senate staffer.

'I mean, his choice of words weren't very good when he, you know, dismissed the allegation,' Trump said of Biden during an interview with The New York Post in the Oval Office.

'But he's got to fight his own battles, and we'll see how he does.'

President Trump said during an interview with the New York Post that Joe Biden's 'choice of words' were not good during his televised denial of an assault allegation by a former Senate staffer

During an interview on Friday, Biden, who is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, flatly denied former aide Tara Reade's claim stating the alleged assault 'never happened'

During a televised interview on Friday, Biden, who is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, flatly denied former aide Tara Reade's claim stating the alleged assault 'never happened'.

It was Biden's first public statement on the issue, coming after pressure from Democrats to address it directly.

The former vice president released a lengthy public statement and spent 20 minutes of a live interview on 'Morning Joe' repeatedly denying Reade's charge that he sexually assaulted her in a Senate hallway in the 1990s.

'They aren't true. This never happened,' Biden said in a statement made shortly before he was scheduled to appear on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe.'

Tara Reade accused Biden of putting his hand up her skirt in a Congressional hallway in 1993 and penetrated her

Biden faced an intense series of questions from MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski about why Tara Reade shouldn't be believed while other women should be during Friday's broadcast

But he faced an intense series of questions from co-host Mika Brzezinski about why Reade shouldn't be believed while other women should be. She also questioned Biden repeatedly about why he won't open up his Senate papers.

Brzezinski brought up Biden's support for Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were in high school.

'Why is it real for Dr. Ford but not for Tara Reade?,' she asked.

Biden fumbled a bit as he answered, bringing up his long support for women's rights, the right for women to be heard but arguing 'ultimately the truth matters.'

'They should come forward. They should be heard, and then it should be investigated,' the former vice president said. 'She makes the case or the case is made, then it should be believed, but ultimately the truth matters. The truth matters. It's period.'

'I don't know what else I can say to you,' he added.

'Look, women are to be believed and given the benefit of the doubt if they come forward and say something that is -- that they said happened to them, they should start off with the presumption they're telling the truth,' Biden said.

'Then you have to look at the circumstances and the facts. And the facts in this case do not exist. They never happened, and there's so many inconsistencies in what has been said in this case. So yes, look at the facts and I assure you it did not happen, period. Period,' Biden said.

During Trump's interview with the Post on Monday, the president did not state what specific part of Biden's denial he did not approve of but said that Republicans face harsher scrutiny when accused of sexual misconduct.

'Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was treated more unfairly than any human being I've ever seen. I've never seen anything like,' Trump said.

'He's a fine man with a fine family,' Trump continued 'And there's never been a human being in the history of Congress that was treated worse than him.'

During his confirmation hearings in 2018, Kavanaugh faced misconduct allegations regarding his teen and college years from Stanford University psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford, and other women, some who later recanted.

Trump pointed out that Democrats treated Joe Biden differently to how they treated Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court nomination hearing in 2018

Joe Biden was asked why Christine Blasey Ford should be believed in her allegation against Brett Kavanaugh and Tara Reade should not be

'And now in the meantime three of the women have recanted,' Trump said.

'And the other one I don't believe her for a moment, which is Blasey Ford. Because the story doesn't check out. Even her friends and her family didn't check out. Everything didn't check out including the door. You know, the double door, right? You know what I mean.'

'Nothing checked out. And there's ever been a human being who has been treated more unfairly than a very fine man named Justice Kavanaugh.'

During the Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearings in September 2018, Biden said he believed Ford was telling the truth.

Joe Biden said Tara Reade's charge against him should be investigated but also pointed out her story has inconsistencies

'For a woman to come forward in the glaring lights of focus, nationally, you've got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she's talking about is real, whether or not she forgets facts, whether or not it's been made worse or better over time,' he told reporters.

Brzezinski asked Biden: 'Why is it different now? Do you regret what you said during the Kavanaugh hearings?'

'What I said during the Kavanaugh hearings was that she had a right to be heard, and the fact that she came forward, the presumption would be she's telling the truth unless it's proved she wasn't telling the truth,' he said.
A stroll in Liberty State Park in Jersey City on Saturday, when all state parks, golf courses and county parks reopened in New Jersey.

If the party conventions are called off, will they be missed?

Political conventions, with all the attendant hoopla of nominating a candidate for the White House, have been a part of American campaign life for nearly 200 years. Politicians love them. Pundits love them. Reporters love them. And whats not to like? Four days of talking and living politics in a hall filled with some of the biggest stars of politics and journalism. Did we mention the open bars and free food?

Not surprisingly, the idea of a convention  packing thousands of people into a crowded arena  seems a little less alluring these days. The Democrats are considering scrapping the event this year, and the Republicans might follow suit.
A police force was blasted for a issuing a Covid-19 alert seemingly criticising a pedestrian for exercising in jeans.

South Yorkshire Police (SYP) issued an alert on April 30 written by sergeant Michael Miles in Doncaster.

It appeared to mock someone for having an 'essential saunter' in the casual legwear - and many social media users responded to the alert in disbelief, wondering if the post was a hoax.

The now deleted post titled 'Coronly Excersising (sic)' said: 'Tonight has seen us checking people's reasons for being on the streets.

'Between essential saunter in jeans as exercise, an essential trip to the shops for egg custards and essential trip to the cash machine for 20 to use in the morning, we've offered a lot of advice.'

The post concluded by saying the police were 'doing their best' to keep people safe.

In early April, shortly after lockdown kicked in, a survey suggested a third of Britons thought the police had gone too far in their lockdown crackdown across the UK (pictured: Pedestrians at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London on April 24)

South Yorkshire Police (SYP) issued an alert on April 30 that seemed to mock someone for having an 'essential saunter in jeans as exercise'

In early April, shortly after lockdown kicked in, a survey suggested a third of Britons thought the police had gone too far in their lockdown crackdown across the UK.

A YouGov poll commissioned by crime and justice consultancy Crest Advisory asked 1,646 adults for their thoughts on how they view the police handling of the new laws and Government guidance to keep people indoors and protect against the spread of Covid-19.

While 74 per cent of the public said they supported the force's approach to implementing restrictions like social distancing measures, a third said their handling has been too strict.

The Network for Police Monitoring, which describes itself as a coalition resisting excessive policing, posted a tweet in response to the SYP message, saying: 'The wrong kind of jeans for exercise. Honestly, it's becoming embarrassing now.'

One Twitter user posted: 'I don't have any exercise clothes at all. Yesterday I went for my walk in what I was wearing that day as I do everyday. I'm not very fit so I also walk slowly. Didn't realise either of these things were illegal.'

Social media users criticised the police force. The Network for Police Monitoring, which describes itself as a coalition resisting excessive policing, posted: 'The wrong kind of jeans for exercise. Honestly, it's becoming embarrassing now'

Cara Townsend added: 'Right now South Yorkshire Police have pretty flagrant lockdown violations actually occurring, and would be wise to get them in order before stopping me doing my daily walk in denim.'

In response to the harsh criticism the police force apologised for 'any confusion' caused by the alert.

Chief Superintendent Shaun Morley said: 'A message has been issued on SYP Alerts which is not in keeping with our approach.

'We have been very clear in our expectations that officers should engage and encourage residents on the new restrictions.

'Further training will be provided to the officer to ensure they are clear on our position.

'We apologise for any confusion caused by this alert.'
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 20:29:03|Editor: huaxia

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SHANGHAI, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai received a total of 7.07 million tourists during the May Day holiday, according to the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism.

From May 1 to Tuesday afternoon, the tourists contributed a total of 9.5 billion yuan (about 1.35 billion U.S. dollars) in consumption, said the administration.

Over 130 tourist attractions in the city received 2.85 million visits during the holiday.

The tourism rebound came after a relaxation of travel restrictions amid dwindling COVID-19 cases in the country.

The city requires reservations for tours of all tourist attractions to prevent crowding while tourist sites should not exceed 30 percent of their daily or real-time visitor capacity.

Tourists are also required to wear face masks, show their health QR codes and have their body temperatures taken for their safety. Enditem
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said all registered expatriates from Kerala in the Gulf region who want to return should be brought back and poor blue collar workers must not be charged by the government for the journey.

The Thiruvananthapuram MP's remarks come a day after the Home Ministry said plans to bring back Indians stranded abroad due the coronavirus pandemic have been chalked out by the government and the process will begin from May 7 in a phased manner. The Home Ministry also said it will be a paid service.

Tharoor, who held an interactive session with some NRIs in the Gulf on Monday, said one major wish is that Kerala must bring back all registered 'Pravasis' as soon as possible so that before the rains start in early June and viruses spread, Kerala can be back to normal.

"Otherwise we will face a health and economic disaster," he said in a tweet.

He urged Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to speak with the central government and get Air India, local airlines and naval ships to offer many services daily to finish repatriation in the next 20 days.

"They should not charge poor blue collar workers, many of whom have not been paid for a month, for this either," Tharoor said.

"It was bad enough that poor migrant workers within India were charged to return home when they didn't even have money to eat. Doing the same to poor pravasis whose remittances kept our economy afloat in hard times would add insult to injury. Yet that's what the government intends to do," he said.

Tharoor also said it was wrong to restrict repatriation only to essential or emergency cases.

"Let everyone who needs to come back for whatever reason do so. Returning home is a human right for any Indian citizen. Other democracies have accepted this principle in evacuating their nationals," the former minister of state for external affairs said.

If in initial flights, priorities have to be observed, pravasi representatives have asked for people with mental and physical disabilities to be included in high priority lists, Tharoor said.

Also, insisting on COVID-free certification is neither practical nor necessary since arrivals must be isolated anyway, he said.

"For the indigent, if the state government can pay 50 per cent of the fare, there are Non Resident Keralite volunteer organizations like OICC/INCAS & KMCC who can cover the remaining 50 per cent. If Centre refuses to waive charges, state government should use this method of covering 50 per cent of the ticket fare + seek donations," he tweeted.

Tharoor, in his tweets, also raised the issue of pregnant women with tickets to travel home in March for delivery in May/June are disallowed on commercial flights with late-stage pregnancy.

NRIs have appealed to the central government to arrange a special "medical flight" for pregnant women who cannot afford to deliver abroad, he said.

The Home Ministry has said only people showing no symptoms of COVID-19 will be allowed to travel. After arrival in India, their medical examination will be conducted and they will be subsequently put under quarantine for 14 days, either in a hospital or in an institutional facility, also on payment basis, it has said in a statement.

According to an estimate, the number of Indian nationals stranded abroad could be in lakhs.

Their travel would be arranged by the government by aircraft and naval ships.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
IT Tech Packaging Announces Plans for a Third Tissue Paper Production Line in North China May 5, 2020 - IT Tech Packaging, Inc. today announced plans for the commercial launch of a new tissue paper production line, PM10 in North China. The company said on April 13 it signed a purchase agreement with a machine supplier for the delivery of PM10. No further details were provided about the machine capacity or start-up date. IT Tech Packaging expects to launch commercial production of the PM10 following successful trial runs. "As the tissue paper market represents significant opportunities for us with its strong growth prospects, especially outbreak of COVID-19 stimulates consumption surge of life necessaries such as tissue paper, we plan to launch the third tissue paper production line in addition to the existing PM8 and PM9," said Zhenyong Liu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IT Tech Packaging. "With the feature of energy conservation of the PM10, the company will continuously launch new tissue paper production lines, which we believe will provide significant profits for the company in the future, he added. About IT Tech Packaging Founded in 1996, IT Tech Packaging, Inc. (NYSE MKT: ITP) is a leading manufacturer and distributor of diversified paper products in North China. Using recycled paper as its primary raw material (with the exception of its tissue paper products), ITP produces and distributes three categories of paper products: corrugating medium paper, offset printing paper, and tissue paper products. With production based in Baoding and Xingtai in North China's Hebei Province, ITP is located strategically close to the Beijing and Tianjin region, home to a growing base of industrial and manufacturing activities and one of the largest markets for paper products consumption in the country. For further information, visit: www.itpackaging.cn SOURCE: IT Tech Packaging, Inc.
Oregon restaurants and bars will be required to separate customers by at least six feet, close by 10 p.m. and have staff wear masks, according to the latest draft plan for reopening obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

The new document, which is expected to be released to the public Wednesday, removes language from a previous draft document suggesting that businesses consider tracking customer names, contact information and dates of visits.

The latest draft document offers a new look at the way some Oregon businesses could reopen after being closed since Gov. Kate Browns stay-home order in March. State officials continue to weigh the economic hardships for businesses that remain closed against the public health risk of reopening.

Last month, Brown rolled out details of her Reopening Oregon framework, forming subcommittees to focus on details for various businesses, including restaurants, retail, personal services, child care, transit and outdoor recreation.

Generally speaking, the goal is to develop guidance for restaurants that will keep employees and patrons safe from COVID-19 as we work to gradually and safely reopen Oregon, said Charles Boyle, a spokesman for Brown.

According to the latest draft document, restaurants would be required to provide employees with cloth face coverings, but customers would be allowed to go without. Individual Oregon businesses including grocery stores and some restaurants are already requiring customers to wear masks. In the latest draft, employees are also asked to disinfect seats, tables and menus between each customer; to minimize bare-hand contact with food through the use of utensils; and to wear gloves while cleaning. Gloves will not be required for preparing food.

Self-service operations such as buffets, salad bars or soda fountains would be prohibited. Some counter seating would now be allowed, as long as the counter faces a window or wall.

For Le Pigeon co-owner Andy Fortgang, spacing tables six feet apart is a workable solution, even though it means blocking off customers from the celebrated restaurants signature chefs counter. Fortgang thinks some customers would get a kick from eating in a more intimate environment, with meals cooked exclusively by two-time James Beard Award winning chef Gabriel Rucker, and served by wine expert Fortgang himself.

But he does hope Oregon starts taking a more tailored approach to food businesses, especially as the state enters its second phase of reopening, whenever that might be. Under the current rules outlined in this draft, staff would have to ask customers sitting down for a special occasion meal at Le Pigeon at 8:30 p.m. to leave by 10 p.m.

This phase one guidance is meant to encompass restaurants, bars, winery tasting rooms, brew pubs and more, Fortgang said. But there can be better efforts to differentiate between different kinds of businesses. What makes sense for a winery in Dundee doesnt make sense for a bar on Sandy Boulevard or a restaurant on Northwest 23rd Avenue.

Fortgang, who said he relayed some of his concern on a call with Brown staffer Leah Horner on Monday, said he hopes the restaurant industry can collectively come up with its own guidelines for preserving the health and safety of their staff and customers long-term. In the meantime, Fortgang has been selling curated six packs of wine for curbside pickup, and Le Pigeon hopes to roll out takeout family meals next month.

"It behooves restaurants to come together and create our own standard that well all agree to, Fortgang said. "I think a lot of that needs to come from within the industry, not all from the top down, not all Salem. Because ultimately, we all know our industries best."

Oregon Governor Kate Brown held a press conference Friday laying out her COVID-19 containment strategy for the state and plans for reopening. May 1, 2020 Beth Nakamura/Staff

Tyler Brown, owner-brewmaster at Barley Browns brewing in rural Baker City, hopes the restaurant industry doesnt end up saddled with more restrictions than other businesses. He points to his local grocery store, where directional arrows in aisles are largely ignored. I can still go through and touch every avocado in the place, Brown said.

Brown, who sat in on a Zoom call along with other members of the governors restaurant subcommittee on Monday, said counties with no reported cases such as Baker could be allowed to reopen as soon as May 15, so long as they meet certain benchmarks related to testing and contact tracing. Even so, hes not sure he would immediately reopen his brewpub and taproom, which sit across the street from each other in Baker City.

Were brewers, Brown said. We multiply microorganisms for a living. We know how fast you can destroy things by being lax on what you do, so were definitely going to be tentative. And to be honest with you, I dont want to get sick. My wife has a compromised immune system, so thats something that I dont want to bring back to her, either.

-- Michael Russell, mrussell@oregonian.com, @tdmrussell

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
The Union government is going to bring back all Indians, stranded in various countries, including in Nepal, through special chartered flights, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul, and B R Gavai disposed of a PIL by Ganga Giri Goswami for the evacuation of stranded Indians in Nepal after recording Solicitor General Tushar Mehta's statement that May 7 onwards Indians from various countries would be brought back.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves submitted that as many as 1,000 Nepali workers had to go back to Nepal. A large number have been sent back. There were however still big numbers left in Champawat Loharghat and other places.

He said the government must know that in these places workers were still stranded. It may look into this.

Gonsalves also said about 1,000 Indians were stranded in Nepal in precarious situations.

On this, Mehta said there are a few Indians stranded in Nepal. I have got the instructions from the Ministry of External Affairs that Indians stranded in other countries would be brought back, he said.
London  William F. Buckley famously said that he would rather be governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University.

Myself and other populist-curious conservatives rightly appeal to this thinking, recognizing the grave idiocy often found in minds commonly described as expert.

But it now appears that the decline of our politicians and intellectuals has been so colossal that I think I would sooner be governed by a lottery of random schoolchildren than the legions of great thinkers that coalesce in government, media, and the law.

The reason for my newfound faith in the political instincts of the youth comes from the courts, where a 14-year-old schoolgirl has successfully defeated Britains Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) after it introduced hate-crime guidance to schools in January and threatened to sue them if they did not allow transgender children to use their preferred changing rooms or toilets.

The CPS, hijacked by activists, has gone above and beyond the already-absurd law in Britain on LGBT issues to introduce measures that would erode girls rights. And now, thanks to a brave schoolgirl, their near-ceaseless march has been momentarily halted.

Children are brilliantly insightful precisely because they do not complicate matters. They have a natural grasp over right and wrong, good and bad. Which is why, unlike their overseers  who have performed the extraordinary mental gymnastics and endured the political conditioning required to serve in the British state  they know immediately that biological boys and girls should not be using the same bathroom.

Many are by now aware of the political power that children hold, especially on Twitter, where the latest leading light of the liberal left will gushingly share with us that their six-year-old daughter interrupted a news bulletin from MSNBC to announce that the symbiotic relationship between the market and state power has brainwashed millions into supporting the remorseless scythe of Capital. It will receive thousands of retweets. It will always be a lie.

Story continues

But this latest case is no lie at all. The instinct for justice and decency found in this brave, anonymous girl  known only as Miss A  has had a profound effect on British policy and the ever-extending reach of the state.

This instance reflects a broader and most welcome trend: a slowdown in the incessant, unwearying march of gender activism.

This anonymous schoolgirls defeat of the CPS has come soon after another example of the trans parade being forced to pause: Last month, the government announced that it would introduce new curbs on gender-reassignment surgery to protect children from irreversible decisions.

Liz Truss, who juggles the ministerial duties of trade and women and equalities, said: Grown adults should be able to make decisions, to have agency to live life as they see fit. But before the age of 18, when people are still developing their decision-making capabilities, they should be protected from making decisions that are irreversible about their bodies that they could possibly regret in the future. (The average age at which children start such treatment is 14, but some start at twelve.)

This intervention is welcome news. Many lives will benefit from it; instances of deep regret and lifelong suffering will be prevented.

But many conservatives in Britain were shocked to discover that  after over a decade of feverishly doing precisely the opposite  the Tories had decided to implement this socially conservative measure. Since David Camerons surprise coronation in 2005, the partys focus on winning the economic war has been met with a total surrender on the social, cultural flank. The losses have been great. Support from its own members and parliamentarians has been limited. And, in news that surprises precisely nobody, the left-wingers Cameron and Co. sought to appease still find them detestable.

The decision of Truss is especially surprising, as the minister has often been connected with the Whiggish wing of the party. In a speech to one of the countrys most influential think tanks in 2018, she said : In the merits of capitalism, Beyonce said it best: All the honeys, who making money, throw your hands up at me. Earlier that year, she described Britains young people as Uber-riding, Airbnb-ing, deliveroo-eating freedom fighters. This libertarian language is not typically associated with conservatives fighting the culture war.

But if even Truss is on our side, then perhaps the as-yet overwhelming tide of baffling gender policy might finally fail to sweep away every last conservative concern in its path. A schoolgirl has stood up to the state, the gender activists, and their boundless cultural support and won. Conservatives must take heed from this. With the right arsenal, the little guy, or girl, can defeat even the most powerful foe.

More from National Review
New Delhi, May 5 : A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court to take up the controversial 'Boys Locker Room' Instagram chat group scandal, in which rapes were glorified and photos of underage girls were shared by the participants.

Leaked screenshots of the private Instagram chat group have stirred up a storm over rape culture in India after numerous boys were allegedly seen sharing photos of underage girls, objectifying them, and even planning "gang rapes".

The petition has been moved by advocate-on-record Anand Varma and advocates Kaustubh Prakash and Shubhangi Jain. It contends that while social media platforms have bridged the gap of communication, this scandal has proved that "it has become a platform of public harassment of women in particular." The Instagram chat group by the name of 'Boys Locker Room' was allegedly run by teenage boys from reputed Delhi schools. The group allegedly shared nude and morphed pictures of girls, and also threatened to release them online.

"Anonymity of the accounts has become an easy medium to threaten whoever you want to and indulge in cyber bullying. It is also an easy platform to be conspicuous and share objectionable, obscene and private pictures, chats and other messages," said the plea.

The petitioners have urged the top court to take up the matter on judicial side, as there may be some crucial challenging during its adjudication.

"We request that this horrific incident be taken up by the Supreme Court on the judicial side to address the multifarious issues arising therefrom. This incident raises the issue of not only privacy, safety and well-being of women, but also of sensitisation and counselling of juveniles who are engaging in such conduct," said the plea.

After registering a case under various sections of the IPC and the Information Technology (IT) Act, the cyber cell of Delhi Police on Tuesday detained a student of a prominent South Delhi school while 22 others identified in connection with the case have gone underground.
- A plane which was under the stewardship of two Kenyan pilots was brought down near Baidoa in Somalia on Monday, May 4

- The aircraft was ferrying medical equipment to Baidoa and had four passengers on board who died on the spot

- Farmajo conveyed a message of condolences for the loss of life and property following the tragic incident

- He also invited Kenya Aviation Authority to help their Somalia counterparts investigating the cause of the tragic incident

Somalia's President Mohamed Farmajo has called his Kenya counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta to express regret following an attack on a plane that killed six people including two Kenyan pilots.

The plane which was being operated by East African Express Airways was brought down by a rocket propeller unleashed by unknown people at Bardale Town, Somalia on Monday, May 4, evening.

READ ALSO: Woman reportedly behind Willis Raburu's marriage break-up denies allegations: "I don't know him"

Somalia President Mohamed Farmajo calls has expressed regret for downing of plane a Kenyan aircraft that killed six people including two Kenyan pilots. Photo: Mohamed Farnmajo.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Kusoma bila ya kumuona mwalimu balaa, wanafunzi wetu hawajazoea

In a statement released on Tuesday, May 5, Farmajo conveyed a message of condolences for the loss of life and property following the tragic incident.

The Somalia leader asked for the cooperation of aviation agencies in the two countries to team up in conducting speedy investigations into the crash to establish the cause of the accident.

"In this regard, President Farmajo invited civil aviation authorities to team with their counterparts in Somalia with a view to completing investigations expeditiously," read the letter in part.

President Mohamed Farmajo shakes hands with President Uhuru Kenyatta in a past meeting in Nairobi. Photo: State House.

Source: Facebook

Uhuru welcomed Farmajo's message and promised to convey it to the families of the two pilots who perished in the crash.

Uhuru also assured his counterpart of cooperation in conducting joint investigations into the crash.

The plane which had arrived from Ethiopia crashed after leaving Mogadishu for Baidoa to distribute medical supplies and other equipment.

Authorities have established the African Express aircraft was being flown by captain Mabruk Sherman and Omar Chiraghdin both of whom hail from Mombasa.

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Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido on Monday denied having anything to do with an ex-Green Beret who claimed responsibility for a deadly beach invasion aimed at arresting socialist leader Nicolas Maduro. The government, meanwhile, said it has mobilized more than 25,000 troops to hunt for other rebel cells.

Guaido said in a statement that he has no relationship nor responsibility for any actions taken by the U.S. war veteran, Jordan Goudreau, who repeated assertions that Guaido had a contract with his security company, though he said he was paid only a tiny share of the amount agreed upon. That claim could pose a danger for Guaido, who has been harassed but not arrested in the year since he declared himself Venezuela's legitimate leader, a role recognized by the U.S. and some 60 other nations.

The three-time Bronze Star U.S. combat veteran claims to have helped organize a seaborne raid from Colombia early Sunday on the Venezuelan coast, which the government said it foiled, killing eight insurgents and arresting two others. He said the operation had received no aid from Guaido or the U.S. or Colombian governments.

Goudreau said by telephone Monday that 52 other fighters  including two U.S. veterans  had infiltrated Venezuelan territory and were in the first stage of a mission to recruit members of the security forces to join their cause.

Thats going to take time, Goudreau told The Associated Press in a phone interview. The ultimate goal has never changed  its to liberate Venezuela.

The government's chief of strategic operations, Adm. Remigio Ceballos, announced that more than 25,000 soldiers were mounting search operations to ensure the country is free of "mercenaries and paramilitaries.

Venezuelan authorities said Monday they arrested another eight accused mercenaries in a coastal town and showed images of security forces handling the shirtless men without identifying them.

Venezuela holds the governments of Donald Trump and Colombia's Ivan Duque responsible for the unknown and dangerous consequences of this provocative mercenary aggression," Maduro's government said in a letter to the international community.

The AP was unable to verify either the governments or Goudreaus version of events. Opposition politicians and U.S. authorities issued statements suggesting Maduro's allies had fabricated the assault. Officials have not released the full identities of those they say were killed or detained, though they identified one of the fallen as a man involved with Goudreau's training camp in Colombia.

An AP investigation published Friday found that Goudreau had been working with a retired Venezuelan army general  who now faces U.S. narcotics charges  to train dozens of deserters from Venezuelas security forces at secret camps inside neighboring Colombia. The goal was to mount a cross-border raid that would end in Maduros arrest.

But the ragtag group lacked funding and U.S. government support. It also appears to have been penetrated by Maduros extensive Cuban-backed intelligence network.

Goudreau and retired Venezuelan Capt. Javier Nieto, who both live in Florida, issued a video late Sunday claiming they had organized the mission to detain Maduro that they call Operation Gideon. Goudreau, wearing a New York Yankees cap, spoke in English.

Goudreau said Monday hes talking with wealthy donors around the world to raise money for the second phase of the mission and hopes to raise a force of up to 5,000, he said.

I dont care about politics. I dont care about peoples careers, he said. I care about my men on the ground right now who are in the most dangerous phase of the operation. Im trying to get financial support in order to save their lives and to help them be successful.

Goudreau, 43, said 52 of his men were still on the ground and calls were being activated inside Venezuela, some of them fighting under the command of Venezuelan National Guardsman Capt. Antonio Sequea, who participated in a barracks revolt against Maduro a year ago. He said he hoped to join the rebels soon.

There was no outward sign of fighting in the capital or elsewhere on Monday.

In an interview late Sunday, Goudreau gave Miami-based journalist Patricia Poleo what he said was an eight-page contract signed by Guaido and two political advisers in Miami in October for $213 million. The alleged general services contract doesnt specify what work his company, Silvercorp USA, was to undertake.

He also released via Poleo a four-minute audio recording, made on a hidden cellphone, of the moment when he purportedly signed the contract as Guaido participated by videoconference. In the recording, a person he claims is Guaido can be heard giving vague encouragement in broken English but not discussing any military plans.

Lets get to work!, said the man who is purportedly Guaido.

The AP was unable to confirm the veracity of the recording.

Goudreau said Monday he received no more than an initial $50,000 payment from the Guaido team and instead the Venezuelan soldiers he was advising had to scrounge for donations from Venezuelan migrants driving for car share service Uber in Colombia.

Colombian officials, for their part, denied any involvement in Goudreau's operation and in March announced their had seized weapons that had been destined for Venezuela.

Venezuelan officials insisted that both Colombia and the U.S. were backing the operation and on Sunday, socialist party chief Diosdado Cabello said that one of the captured insurgents claimed to be an agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration  an agency that has accused many members of the government of involvement in drug trafficking.

Both U.S. and Colombian officials dismissed the Venezuelan allegations.

Venezuela has been in a deepening political and economic crisis under Maduros rule. Crumbling public services such as running water, electricity and medical care have driven nearly 5 million to migrate. But Maduro still controls all levers of power despite a U.S.-led campaign to oust him. It recently indicted Maduro as a drug trafficker and offered a $15 million reward for his arrest.

Guaido accused Maduros government of seizing on the reported invasion to draw attention away from the countrys problems.

Of course, there are patriotic members of the military willing to fight for Venezuela, Guaido said. But its clear that what happened in Vargas is another distraction ploy.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 20:27:22|Editor: huaxia

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People enjoy their leisure time in Beirut, Lebanon, May 5, 2020. Lebanon has gradually reduced the general mobilization measures that were adopted to curb the spread of COVID-19. (Photo by Bilal Jawich/Xinhua)

BEIRUT, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon recorded on Tuesday one imported COVID-19 case, raising the total number of infections in the country to 741, the National News Agency (NNA) reported.

The new case is an expatriate who arrived in Lebanon two days ago, NNA said, adding the health ministry did not witness any new infections among Lebanese residents.

The death toll from the virus has remained at 25, it noted.

Meanwhile, the cabinet decided to extend the general mobilization measures by another two weeks until May 24 despite its approval of the gradual reopening of businesses.

Earlier in the day, Firas Abiad, director general of the Rafic Hariri University Hospital, tweeted that the virus remains under control in Lebanon but it is still early to draw any conclusions.

"The number of new cases is within capacity. Daily tests, done in various locations, keep increasing," Abiad said, warning that any complacency can undo all the hard work to contain the virus.

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab has urged security forces to strictly implement anti-coronavirus decisions and measures, warning against a second wave of the outbreak that may be more serious than the current one.
DUBAI, UAE / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / Active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) industry is witnessing a sharp decline in supply and demand during the COVID-19 outbreak. Ibuprofen API will witness a downfall in demand, owing to halted productions by major manufacturers, as suggested by a new Future Market Insights (FMI) report. Continuous demand for low-cost non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and scale of manufacturing facilities remain the key drivers for global Ibuprofen market that has been projected to witness around 1.3X expansion in revenues during 2020-2029.

Emergence of cost-effective drug manufacturers in Asia, coupled with increasing API drug shortages, are further driving ibuprofen API market growth. Moreover, with China being the global manufacturing hub, is severely affected by the pandemic induced travel restrictions and lockdowns, eventually resulting in supply chain disruptions. The effects of COVID-19 are collectively resulting in a decline in sales. The downtrend is expected to prevail till the pandemic subsides.

Download a Sample Report with Table of Contents and Figures: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-11260

Segmental Highlights:

Contract Manufacturing Organizations (CMOs) will remain the primary end-use segment, owing to high reliance from prominent pharmaceutical companies for manufacturing APIs as well as final formulations. Furthermore, the integration of CMOs into the supply chain of pharmaceutical companies is gradually gaining traction, propelling the demand.

North America is currently the leading regional market for Ibuprofen API. The dominance is attributed to the strong presence of leading manufacturers, coupled with high adoption of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID). However, the region will end up shrinking its global market share owing to Asia's proliferation.

Asian market is forecasted to grow at a promising rate and bestow lucrative opportunities for players in the ibuprofen API market. The growth is primarily attributed to the availability of cheap labor adequate raw materials. Moreover, with conducive regulatory environments being set up across manufacturing facilities, coupled with reduced taxation policies are fueling growth. China and India being leading regions, contribute to 80% of total anti-inflammatory APIs manufactured. This facet is further spurring market players to leverage the demand in the region. However, the pandemic is likely to hinder the swift growth of the market.

For information on the research approach used in the report, request methodology@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-11260

Report coverage:

End-use Industries: Contract Manufacturing Organizations and Pharmaceutical Companies

Regions: North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, APEJ, Japan, and MEA

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Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India. FMI's latest market research reports and industry analysis help businesses navigate challenges and take critical decisions with confidence and clarity amidst breakneck competition.

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The detention of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti under the stringent Public Safety Act was extended by three months, hours before it was due to expire.

In a similar move, the detention of former minister and senior National Conference leader Ali Mohammed Sagar, and senior PDP leader and uncle of Mufti, Sartaj Madani, was also extended by another three months, officials said.

In a brief order by the Home Department of the Jammu and Kashmir administration, the extension of PSA was made under the public order provisions of the act.

While Mufti is at present lodged at her official residence 'Fair View', which has been converted into a subsidiary jail, Sagar and Madani are in a government accommodation at Gupkar road.

Mufti was initially detained on August 5 last year when the Centre abrogated special status of the erstwhile state and bifurcated it into two union territories -- Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir.

Later, her six-month preventive custody was extended by invoking PSA on February 5 this year along with her political rival and former chief minister Omar Abdullah.

Having spent over eight months in detention at two government facilities that were designated as sub-jails, Mufti was shifted to her home on April 7, a move seen as a partial relief to her.

Earlier, Mufti was lodged a government guesthouse in Chashma Shahi and a bunglow on Maulana Azad Road near Lal Chowk. Mufti heads the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which was in power in Jammu and Kashmir in alliance with the BJP till June 2018.

Several political leaders inlcuding Omar, Mufti and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah were detained by the authorities on August 5. The PSA of senior Abdullah and his son was revoked earlier in March this year.

Mufti's daughter, Iltija, has 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 March 18. However, the petition was not taken up for hearing due to 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.)
China is the greatest threat that the US faces, President Donald Trump's pick to be the director of national intelligence said on Tuesday, as he accused Beijing of trying to supplant free marketplace standards with authoritarian values.

John Ratcliffe during his confirmation hearing for the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) said that if confirmed he would look to shift resources in the office to ensure his team was doing enough to combat Beijing's rising power and the threats that it poses to the US national security.

I view China as the greatest threat actor right now, Ratcliffe said.

If confirmed by the Senate, Ratcliff would head America's 17 spy agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

I mean look at where we are with respect to COVID-19 and the role that China plays, the race to 5G, cybersecurity issues all roads lead to China," he said.

When you look at the initiatives that they have, the Belt and Road, the Made in China 2025, all of the military-civil fusion initiative where they literally want, by law, Chinese companies to collect intelligence, these are all spokes of the same initiative, he said.

We very clearly don't want an authoritarian regime like the Chinese Communist Party's setting standards in the world market place, he added.

Whereas, with belt in road, they want to dominate all of the hubs for trade routes and telecommunications. All of these things are China trying to essentially supplant free marketplace standards and values like liberty and free speech and all the things that we have with authoritarian values that are reflected in some of the things that are happening in this COVID-19 pandemic, Ratcliffe said.

The Trump administration has for weeks blasted China for its role in the spread of the virus, saying officials in Beijing withheld essential information that could have helped other countries prepare for an outbreak.

President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo continue to push the theory that the virus originated in a lab in Wuhan.

Responding to a question, Ratcliffe expressed concerned over China's investment in quantum computing.

If China gets to quantum first, we are in trouble. When we look at investments and looking forward in the challenges that we face in the fact that China is investing more towards those technologies than the United States presently, we need to rebalance, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The arrests came a day after the government said it foiled an "invasion" from the sea.

CARACAS: Two Americans were detained in Venezuela on Monday on suspicion of plotting to topple President Nicolas Maduro's government, which has accused US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido of bankrolling the scheme.

The arrests came a day after the government said it foiled an "invasion" from the sea, killing eight assailants and capturing two others.

Maduro appeared on state television to show the passports of Luke Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, and told the Venezuelan military high command that the pair were members of the US security forces.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab earlier told reporters that "hired mercenaries" had signed a $212 million dollar contract with Guaido using funds "stolen" from state oil company PDVSA.

The United States -- one of more than 50 countries backing Guaido as Venezuela's acting president as he challenges Maduro for power -- has slapped sanctions on PDVSA and allowed Guaido to use funds from frozen accounts belonging to the firm's Houston-based subsidiary Citgo.

Saab said Guaido had signed a contract with former US special forces soldier Jordan Goudreau, linked in several press reports last week to an allegedly bungled attempt to topple Maduro.

The Canadian-born Goudreau, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran, is accused of training a mercenary force to invade Venezuela that disbanded after Colombian authorities seized a weapons shipment meant for the group.

Saab also shared on social media a video of Goudreau, who now runs a private security firm called Silvercorp USA, in which the former soldier claims an operation against Maduro's regime is ongoing.

Guaido's press team released a statement on Monday denying the accusations and insisting it had no agreements with private security firms.

US, Colombia blamed

On Sunday, Venezuela claimed a group traveling on speedboats and embarking from Colombia tried to land before dawn in the northern coastal state of La Guaira but were intercepted by the military and special police units.

Diosdado Cabello, deputy leader of the ruling Socialist Party, claimed the operation was "orchestrated" by the United States and its Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), with Colombian support.

Colombia denied any involvement, while Maduro claimed on Monday that the mission's aim was to assassinate him.

Venezuela frequently accuses Colombia of fomenting plots to overthrow the Maduro government and of allowing mercenaries to train in its territory.

Saab said authorities had detained 114 people and issued warrants for the arrest of 92 others accused of involvement in plots against Maduro and his regime since an alleged assassination attempt using explosives-laden drones in 2018.

He added that Venezuela had seized arms during the apparent invasion that were stolen from parliament during a failed military uprising led by Guaido last year.

The public prosecutor has launched a number of investigations against Guaido but has never ordered his arrest.
Small business representatives are appealing to people to accept vouchers instead of cash refunds where possible to help keep businesses afloat.

Paying out huge volumes of cash refunds for events cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak could undermine the stability of businesses all over the country, the Irish SME (ISME) Association warns.

But consumer rights advocates say that customers should not be left out of pocket when it comes to bearing the burden for the pandemic outbreak.

Neil McDonnell, ISME CEO, said many small businesses simply cannot afford to refund huge swathes of cash to customers. He said restaurants and hotels have been badly hit by closures and cancellations. He told Pat Kenny on Newstalk: "Even the largest businesses can be challenged by this."

"It could undermine the longevity of the business. We would completely sympathise with someone who has gotten a voucher in those circumstances but, at the moment, restaurants are not taking cash in the door, they have laid off staff, and if they are forced to give cash for those vouchers, that will undermine the viability of that restaurant. I appreciate people want their money back but I would ask for patience and understanding."

The Consumer Association of Ireland (CAI) warns that the entitlement for refunds "cannot be in any way diminished or made open to negotiation". It is also calling for alternatives, such as vouchers, to be guaranteed their value through bonding or Government underwriting.

Dermott Jewell of CAI said many customers face a situation where they borrowed money to buy big-ticket items, like airline tickets, and they will not be afforded the luxury of time when it comes to repaying these loans: "There is an opportunity to offer a choice, perhaps, but there is a situation being created where that choice is being taken away and we have to be careful we don't take that choice away entirely."

In recent weeks, the row over airline refunds has blown up, with customers furious as they face the prospect of being issued vouchers instead of cash refunds to cover cancelled flights. The mood worsened further last week when it emerged that the government has petitioned the European Commission to temporarily suspend the law which guarantees the right of refund for cancelled flights.

The Irish Examiner has seen a legal letter issued to Ryanair noting that despite these efforts, customers "remain entitled to a reimbursement to the full sum" paid for flights. The failure to do so could trigger a legal challenge in the small claims court, the firm notes in the letter, sent on behalf of a customer left out of pocket.

The customer accepted a refund when offered, only to later be offered a voucher, it claims.
On May 4, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged husband and wife Zhuobin ("Ben") Hong and Caixia Jiang in a multi-million dollar insider trading scheme involving the securities of Sagent Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

According to the SEC's complaint, filed in federal district court in California, Hong and Jiang generated profits of approximately $8.5 million by trading in the securities of Sagent in advance of a July 11, 2016 announcement about the company's acquisition. The complaint alleges that the couple obtained confidential information about the acquisition directly or indirectly from a friend and neighbor whose company competed in the bidding process to acquire Sagent. According to the complaint, Hong and Jiang, who resided in California at the time of the trading but are now in China, attempted to evade detection by trading through accounts held in the names of relatives living in China. Between November 2015 and June 2016, these newly opened trading accounts amassed more than 1 million shares of Sagent stock. On multiple occasions, the defendants' purchases made up greater than 20% of the total trading volume in Sagent stock on that trading day, which they sold immediately following the acquisition announcement.

The case originated from the SEC Market Abuse Unit's Analysis and Detection Center, which uses data analysis tools to detect suspicious patterns. Enhanced detection capabilities enabled SEC Enforcement staff to spot and uncover the unusual trading activity alleged in the SEC's complaint.

The SEC's complaint charges Hong and Jiang with violating the antifraud provisions of Sections 10(b) and 14(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 10b-5 and 14e-3 thereunder, and seeks disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus interest, penalties, and injunctive relief. The complaint also names Hong's and Jiang's China-based relatives, Zhuoyan Hong and Haotao Jiang, as relief defendants and seeks to have them disgorge illicit gains generated by trading in their brokerage accounts.

The SEC's investigation was conducted by Megan Bergstrom, John Rymas, and Diana Tani of the SEC's Market Abuse Unit and Joseph Sansone, Chief of the Market Abuse Unit, supervised the case. The litigation will be led by Donald Searles and supervised by Amy Jane Longo of the SEC's Los Angeles Regional Office. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission.
Ideally, your overall portfolio should beat the market average. But the main game is to find enough winners to more than offset the losers So we wouldn't blame long term Concord New Energy Group Limited (HKG:182) shareholders for doubting their decision to hold, with the stock down 48% over a half decade. Shareholders have had an even rougher run lately, with the share price down 14% in the last 90 days. This could be related to the recent financial results - you can catch up on the most recent data by reading our company report.

View our latest analysis for Concord New Energy Group

To quote Buffett, 'Ships will sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish. There will continue to be wide discrepancies between price and value in the marketplace...' 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).

While the share price declined over five years, Concord New Energy Group actually managed to increase EPS by an average of 20% per year. Given the share price reaction, one might suspect that EPS is not a good guide to the business performance during the period (perhaps due to a one-off loss or gain). Alternatively, growth expectations may have been unreasonable in the past.

Due to the lack of correlation between the EPS growth and the falling share price, it's worth taking a look at other metrics to try to understand the share price movement.

We note that the dividend has remained healthy, so that wouldn't really explain the share price drop. It could be that the revenue decline of 22% per year is viewed as evidence that Concord New Energy Group is shrinking. With revenue weak, and increased payouts of cash, the market might be taking the view that its best days are behind it.

The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

Story continues

SEHK:182 Income Statement May 4th 2020

We know that Concord New Energy Group has improved its bottom line lately, but what does the future have in store? If you are thinking of buying or selling Concord New Energy Group stock, you should check out this free report showing analyst profit forecasts.

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, Concord New Energy Group's TSR for the last 5 years was -40%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

A Different Perspective

We regret to report that Concord New Energy Group shareholders are down 15% for the year (even including dividends) . Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 13%. 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. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 9.7% over the last half decade. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Even so, be aware that Concord New Energy Group is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those can't be ignored...

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 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.
Returning home after a year,



garments factory worker Alam never thought it would be in this manner as he travelled by bus to his native village after alighting from a special train that brought hundreds of people like him back from Rajasthan amid the COVID-19 lockdown.

A resident of Meherani village under Bagda police station area in North 24 Parganas district, the 40-year old migrant worker from Bengal said that he has been working at the factory in Pushkar for the last 17 years.

"Without work since the lockdown came into effect from March 25, we were running out of resources and were desperate to return home," Alam said.

He claimed that more than 400 people like him from Bagda and nearby places worked at garments stitching factories in Pushkar, said.

A total of 1,186 workers and pilgrims were brought back from Ajmer to West Bengal by a special train that reached Dankuni railway station on Tuesday morning.

Alam said that the officers of Rajasthan government, within which Pushkar lies, got in touch with them and made arrangements for their return.

The Rajasthan government coordinated with the West Bengal government for bringing them back home, he said.

Tanmoy Ghosh of NGO Bangla Sanskriti Mancha said that there are around 700 more migrant workers from Bengal who are waiting in Pushkar to be brought back home.

He claimed that his organisation worked to bring to the notice of both the Rajasthan and West Bengal government the plight of migrant workers from the state in Rajasthan, along with lakhs of others in various other states.

"We had no problem during the train journey and were provided with food and water on the way," Alam told PTI over the phone as his bus sped towards Bagda.

He said that while Ajmer Sharif Darga authorities gave them food before they boarded the train there, dinner was served to them at Kanpur on Monday night and breakfast was given at Gaya in the morning of Tuesday by the Railway authorities.

Alam said that they were subjected to medical test before being allowed to board the train at Ajmer and they went through another check-up after reaching the destination station.

"I am keen to meet my parents, wife and daughter, who is just six years of age," he said, while lamenting that he could not buy any gift for them owing to the extraordinary situation.

It will, however, depend on the local authorities to decide whether the returnees will be kept in institutional quarantine or in home isolation for a specified period of time, since they have come from another state.

The West Bengal government took over their charge from Dankuni railway station and they were provided food and water before boarding buses for their native towns and villages in various districts of the state, an official source said.

The state government arranged several buses and other vehicles to reach these people to their localities, the source said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Massachusetts State Police said on Monday they have increased the number of troopers to help shore up enforcement efforts during the coronavirus pandemic as authorities have seen an alarming amount of fatal crashes recently.

A state police spokesman said on Monday that the additional troopers have written 271 citations for speeding and issued 111 warnings to drivers since April 25, when the agency implemented a speed reduction initiative to respond to increased incidents of speeding during the outbreak.

Those numbers do not include the tickets and warnings issued by the regular patrols for the barracks across the state. The statistics released Monday only apply to the added patrols put in place by state police as fatal crashes and reports of distracted drivers increased.

We have indeed seen an uptick in higher speeds and have undertaken action to interdict it, spokesman David Procopio said. We began a speed reduction initiative across all five of our geographic patrol troops.

Procopio said troopers have clocked some drivers at speeds over 100 mph.

The extra patrols have also cited 13 people in violation of the hands-free law, 12 in violation of the Move Over law, and 11 for seat belt violations since April 25.

The additional patrols have issued 73 other citations and warnings for other miscellaneous traffic offenses, Procopio said.

Transportation officials said earlier on Monday that the number of fatalities on Massachusetts roads doubled in April, despite a reduction in traffic of up to 50% due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The driving conditions across the board has changed, Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver said on Monday.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation recorded 23 traffic-related fatalities on roads last month, according to Gulliver. Gulliver said that transportation officials are seeing a disturbing trend in the way people have been driving during the health crisis.

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The shelter-in-place orders meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus can have negative impacts on victims of domestic violence, but clinics in Athens are still helping people experiencing interpersonal violence.
The Shiv Sena on Tuesday pitched for a surgical strike without tom tomming about it to avenge the killing of five security personnel in an encounter with terrorists in Kashmirs Handwara area two days ago.

IMAGE: Wife of Col Ashutosh Sharma reacts as she holds the tricolour during the funeral ceremony of the martyr, who was among five security personnel killed in an encounter with terrorists in Handwara, in Jaipur, on Tuesday. Photograph: PTI Photo

It is not a good sign that the brave men were killed in one go on India's own land, an editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamana said, adding that this happened when a strong and quite patriotic government is in power at the Centre.

The country has forgotten 'Kashmir war' due to the war situation triggered by COVID-19, but Pakistan has not, the former National Democratic Alliance constituent said.

Noting that the armed forces recently saluted the efforts of frontline workers in the battle against COVID-19 by conducting fly-pasts and showering flower petals on hospitals, the Shiv Sena said the fight against coronavirus and the appreciation of policemen, doctors and nurses will continue, 'but Kashmir cannot be ignored'.

'Let there be a surgical strike without tom-toming about it to avenge the martyrdom of the five jawans. It is not a good sign that five of our jawans are killed in one go,' the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said.

India had carried out retaliatory surgical strikes on seven terror launch pads across the Line of Control, with the Army targeting terrorists preparing to infiltrate from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir after the Uri terror attack in September 2016.

Opposition parties like the Congress had later accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of using the surgical strike for political gains.

'Our jawans are getting killed on our own land. It is happening at a time when a strong and quite patriotic government is in place in Delhi (Centre),' the Shiv Sena said.

The attacks by terrorists have gone up along the Kashmir border while India is battling coronavirus crisis, it said, and alleged 'India has forgotten the Kashmir war due to the situation triggered by COVID-19, but Pakistan has not'.

Without naming any party or government, the Sena said somebody should also shower petals on the kin of the five security personnel killed in the Handwara encounter.

It said the security personnel who made supreme sacrifices for the country included a Muslim, and asked those who are into Hindu-Muslim politics not to forget this.

An Army Colonel and a Major were among five security personnel killed in an encounter with terrorists at a village in north Kashmir's Handwara area two days back.

The deceased included Colonel Ashutosh Sharma -- Commanding Officer of the 21 Rashtriya Rifles, Major Anuj Sood, Naik Rajesh and Lance Naik Dinesh and J-K Police sub-inspector Shakeel Qazi.

The Sena said Colonel Sharma's daughter marked her birthday on May 1 and he died protecting the country on May 3.

Observing that the incident happened around the same time when the armed forces saluted the efforts of policemen, doctors and nurses fighting the COVID-19, it said, 'Somebody should shower petals on the relatives of these martyrs also. Play bands, light up lamps, candles to salute them too.'

There was lockdown in Kashmir ever since Article 370 was scrapped (last year) and the infiltrators carried out attacks during lockdown, the Marathi daily said.

It has to be admitted that the Article could be scrapped because of the strong intentions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. But, the killings of Indian soldiers still continued there, the Shiv Sena said.

What is the use of only paying tributes to soldiers who achieve martyrdom in Kashmir? it asked.

The bodies of the five personnel were kept wrapped in the tricolour at the Handwara military camp and the picture of it gave pain to people of the country, the Shiv Sena said.

'The picture stifles the slogan of Jai Hind in the throat itself. The land of Kashmir is soaked with the blood of Colonel Sharma and other brave soldiers at a time when the Indian Army showered flowers on COVID-19 warriors. This is not a good picture, is what we can say,' it added.
So-called superatoms, composed of individual atoms of the specified metals, could replace expensive noble metal catalyst particles as catalysts. As part of a Reinhard Koselleck project, funded by the DFG, a team headed by Prof. Fischer wants to investigate how the reaction networks of formation, growth and degradation reactions can be controlled.

Precious metals like platinum are good catalysts  but they are expensive. While the chemical industry is trying to solve this cost issue by developing ever-smaller catalyst particles, a team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) is taking an entirely new approach: the targeted development of catalyst particles from individual atoms. The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) is providing 1.2 million Euros in funding for this innovative work under the auspices of the Reinhard Koselleck Projects program.

Catalysts ensure both energy and cost efficiency for more than 60 percent of all chemical reactions in the chemical industry. For example: without the precious metals of the platinum group, the catalytic converters used in todays automotive exhaust systems wouldnt work. Fuel cell drives, too, also still currently rely on expensive platinum catalyzers to function.

Because only the surface atoms of these platinum particles are active during catalytic reactions, the chemical industry is looking for ways to replace this precious metal with cheaper metals or by developing ever-smaller catalyst particles. A platinum particle with a one-nanometer diameter is comprised of only 40 atoms.

A Reinhard Koselleck Project led by TUM Professor Roland Fischer is approaching the issue from a new angle: he and his team have succeeded in building a particle that is comprised of 43 copper and 12 aluminum atoms. The research project, which will be supported with 1.2 million Euros in funding from the DFG, aims to determine how these kinds of particles  known as superatoms  can be manufactured in a systematic fashion.

Living libraries

Our previous research has already shown that the formation of these superatoms involves a large number of more or less stable intermediates, says Roland Fischer, Professor for Inorganic and Metal-Organic Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich. Within the framework of our new project, we want to research how we can precisely control the reaction networks of formation, growth and degradation reactions."

One of the more unique aspects of the research being done by Prof. Fischer and his team at the TUM Garching campus: their efforts to develop entire superatom libraries. The team will employ state-of-the-art mass spectrometry, which, together with theoretical modelling, will allow them to examine these superatoms in parallel.

These particles, which are called clusters because of their shape analogy to a cluster of grapes, can even be constructed using vastly different metals, as demonstrated by the creation of the heterometallic, 55-atom copper-aluminum cluster.

With our research, were opening new paths to the targeted construction of catalysts that were previously unimaginable, says Fischer. Heterometallic catalysts comprised of both platinum and other metals could, for example, drive important progress in the advancement of fuel cell technologies  because every single platinum atom could be actively utilized.

Local and global networks

The Reinhard Koselleck Project team is based at the TUM Catalysis Research Center (CRC), where Prof. Fischer serves as director. Furthermore, the project is promoting fundamental research work being conducted by the Cluster of Excellence, e-conversion, and hosted by TUM.

In addition, this project is an integral part of the TUM Global Strategy: Funding from the TUM Global Incentive Fund has allowed Fischer and his team to collaborate with the theory working group being led by Prof. Juarez L. F. Da Silva at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil.
Technology such as social media,



messaging and video-calling apps helped authorities rescue 23 deaf and mute persons from Madhya Pradesh, who were stranded in Gurgaon and Delhi ever since the COVID-19 lockdown was imposed in March.

Deaf and mute persons employed with private firms and hotels in Delhi and Gurgaon were stuck because of the lockdown and were finding it difficult to survive, Gyanendra Purohit, director of Indore-based NGO Anand Survey Society told PTI on Tuesday.

"Our initial attempts to convince officials to rescue them failed. However, when it was announced that the lockdown would enter the third phase, people became restless and just wanted to come home," he said.

The NGO had been highlighting the plight of these people on social media and residents of Haryana like Dr Hemant Atri arranged to provide essentials to them, Purohit said.

The organisation subsequently approached additional chief secretary ICP Keshari who set the ball rolling for the rescue, he said.

Communicating with deaf and mute persons was a major challenge, he said, adding that text messages and video calls with sign language were the only means to stay in touch.

With the help of Prakash Unhele, additional resident commissioner of MP in Delhi, 23 deaf and mute persons were transported to one place in Haryana and after several video calls, they were rescued and reached Gwalior on Monday.

"Majority of them are employed with Amazon and other private companies," he said, adding that the organisation was getting several calls from disabled persons from the state who are stuck in other parts of the country.

Meanwhile, when asked if similar efforts would be taken for other stranded migrants, Keshari said, "We are not against bringing people back, but their numbers should be at least enough to arrange buses for them. Our priority right now is to rescue migrants who were stranded on roads without any means to survive.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A brief holiday visiting friends in London resulted in Casey Edmonds spending four weeks in self-isolation upon her return to Perth, feeling more sick than she had ever been before.

The 26-year-old had no idea how bad coronavirus was becoming when she travelled to the UK on March 12, but days later the prime minister urged people to return home and flights were cancelled.

Ms Edmonds arrived back in Perth on March 19, before developing serious symptoms 12 days into her self-isolation period.

Ms Edmonds said she 'felt a little bit off' and had the sweats, so she did an online test but still thought 'she'll be right'.

Casey Edmonds, 26, poses for a photograph after speaking at a press conference in Perth, Tuesday, May 5, 2020

The 26-year-old had no idea how bad coronavirus was when she travelled to the UK on March 12, but days later the prime minister urged people to return home and flights were cancelled

Then she did a test over the phone and was urged to seek further medical help, so she drove herself to Royal Perth Hospital to get tested.

'I went home and I got really, really sick that day,' she told reporters on Tuesday.

'I was on the phone to my mum, as any 26-year-old would be, telling her I'd never felt so sick in my life.'

The next day, her COVID-19 diagnosis was confirmed and she had to restart her 14-day isolation period.

Ms Edmonds said she was most upset about having to spend four weeks in a tiny flat alone.

'The fever was probably the worst for me,' she said.

Ms Edmonds struggled to sleep for about five days, suffered chest pains, and her lingering symptoms included no sense of smell or taste.

But her condition improved when her appetite returned and said she had been 'super lucky' overall.

Mr Edmonds, who has recovered, she did a test over the phone and was urged to seek further medical help, so she drove herself to Royal Perth Hospital to get tested

Ms Edmonds said she had checked the Smart Traveller website before leaving Australia and there was no warning at the time saying she should not go

Ms Edmonds said after she tested positive, she began getting regular checks.

She recalled the first time was intimidating because there were four policeman wearing gas masks.

Ms Edmonds also said she had been scared during her illness because she was not sure which medicine to take, so she only took Panadol at night as well as vitamins.

'I'm so glad that I came home to WA because it's definitely the best place to be in the world,' she said.

Ms Edmonds said she had checked the Smart Traveller website before leaving Australia and there was no warning at the time saying she should not go.

'I didn't think that I would get it,' she said.

'I maybe should have been a little bit more cautious but I just didn't know at the time.'

Health Minister Roger Cook said Ms Edmonds' experience showed the importance of following social distancing and personal hygiene warnings.

'This virus can take a heavy toll, even on young and fit West Australians,' Mr Cook said.
In the midst of a sudden and deep recession that has paralyzed much of the real estate market, Gordon Sondland wants to make a deal.

Portlands most famous hotelier wants to sell 1.6 acres across the street from the Portland Convention Center.

At first blush, it seems like just another real estate deal.

Except for the seller. And the parcel of land. And the timing. And the history.

Sondland is the former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union who became the star witness in last years impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. Sondland was appointed ambassador by Trump after Sondland donated $1 million to his inauguration.

He then was fired by Trump in early February after he offered damaging testimony during the impeachment hearings.

Sondland returned to Portland just in time to see the American economy and his hotel empire ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. Sondlands Provenance owns 13 hotels across the country, six of them in Portland. He owns a large portfolio of other properties includes the 1.6 acres, which he obtained from Metro in 2016 by sheer force of will.

The timing of the sale has local real estate executives scratching their heads.

Everything is completely shut down right now, said Todd Gooding, president of ScanlanKemperBard, a Portland real estate merchant banking firm. Theres no demand for hotels, theres no demand for anything.

The sales attempt has fueled talk that Sondland needs cash. Provenance Hotels, Sondlands company, has suffered steep occupancy declines, as has just about every hotel in the country.

On average, hotel occupancy in Portland has gone from 61.9% in early March to just 22.6% in late April, according to STR, a firm that closely tracks the hospitality industry. Revenue per available room in Portland, another key metric for the industry, has plunged from $74.98 in the first week of March to just $18.74 in the week ended April 25.

There are other changes afoot at Provenance. Bashar Wali, Sondlands long-time top lieutenant who had ascended to the presidency, left the company last month.

Jim McDermott, Sondlands attorney, said the notion that financial problems are forcing Sondland to liquidate assets is just flat wrong.

There really is no story here, McDermott said. The plan all along was to realize cash from this parking lot asset and deploy that cash elsewhere. The current marketing effort that is underway is simply to make a broader spectrum of buyers aware that the property is for sale.

And, McDermott said, this is not the first time Sondland has attempted to sell the land. He provided a copy of a purchase and sales agreement dated Oct. 2, 2018 between Sondlands company and an unidentified purchaser from Colorado.

The sale fell through. This time around, Sondland has hired well-known local brokers George Diamond and Nicholas Diamond of the Real Estate Investment Group to help him sell the parcel.

Rare close-in opportunity. Multiple uses per zoning across from Oregon Convention Center, close to I-5 & I-84, a new sales brochure proclaims. At $10.5 million, the price equates to $142 per square foot. Thats a fraction of the price close-in raw land was fetching in pre-COVID days. Given the tremendous decline in prices since then, $142-per square foot seems about right.

Given the current market, Gooding said, its no bargain.

Theres obviously no guarantee Sondland will get the $10.5 million asking price. But he can afford to come down quite a bit and still make money.

Metro, the regional government and former owner of the land, essentially gave the property to Sondlands company, Aspen Lodging Group.

Sondland and a coalition of other hotel operations had gone to war with Metro over its plan to subsidize construction of a large, 600-room hotel just north of the convention center. The struggle went on for years. Sondland was a tough negotiator. He argued passionately that it was unfair for his company to have to compete against a taxpayer subsidized competitor.

As part of a 2016 settlement, Sondland agreed to accept the public land offered by Metro.
Nigerian indigenous rapper Ill Bliss has reacted to the detention of Clarence Peters over the death of dancer, Kodak.

Taking to social media, the rapper pointed out that Clarence and his team did their best to control the matter as he shared that they willingly went to the police.

Bliss went further to ask the police why they are still detaining him.

READ ALSO  Kodaks Death: Crew Member Exonerates Clarence Peters, Gives Details

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In conclusion, the rapper asked the police to charge their energy to somewhere else.

See His Post Here:
Whats Cookin Italian Style Cuisine

Staples in Mexico

Tulum Ruins

Spice and Foods

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The staples of Mexican cuisine are typically corn and beans.Corn, traditionally Mexico's staple grain, is eaten fresh, on the cob, and as a component of a number of dishes.Most corn, however, is used to make masa, a dough for tamales, tortillas, and many other corn-based foods.Squash and peppers also play important roles in Mexican cuisine.We have cruised to Mexico a few times and even flew there on vacation to see the beautiful country, ruins, and history.It's very beautiful in some tourist areas, then run down and poor in others.The history and artifacts are fabulous.The first time I visited Tulum was just a few years ago when the area was very touristy and crowded.Your best chance at exploring the site without having to fight your way through the masses is to be there right before opening time.The Tulum ruins are accessible to visitors from 8 am - 5 pm every day, and even before 8 am you can usually expect a huge amount of tourists waiting for the site to open.If you get there earlier you should have a good hour before the caravan of tour buses arrive.The most important and frequently used spices in Mexican cuisine are chili powder, cumin, oregano, cilantro, epazote, cinnamon, and cocoa. Chipotle, a smoke-dried jalapeno chili, is also common in Mexican cuisine.Many Mexican dishes also contain garlic and onions.Next, to corn, rice is the most common grain in Mexican cuisine.The initial introduction of rice to Spain was from North Africa in the 4th Century led to the Spanish introduction of rice into Mexico at the port of Veracruz in the 1520s.This created one of the earliest instances of the world's greatest fusion cuisines.
A federal lawsuit filed Monday by a Michigan congressman accuses Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of violating the U.S. Constitution with her lockdown orders" issued in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

U.S. Rep Paul Mitchell III, R-Dryden, filed the lawsuit Monday, May 4 in Grand Rapids federal court against Whitmer and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon, who has also issued emergency orders amid the outbreak.

Shortly after Whitmer signed a State of Emergency declaration on March 10, following the first two confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the state, the governor began issuing orders that required Michiganders to remain at home and closed most businesses with limited exceptions, under pain of criminal penalties, the lawsuit says. The governor stated that the initial orders were premised on the perceived emergency need to 'flatten the curve so as to avoid overwhelming the states hospitals and healthcare centers, not to eradicate the virus.

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The lawsuit then claims that "objective data and reporting shows that the curve was flattened during the first week of April.

The federal complaint argues that blanket orders impacting residents and commerce across the state arent justified and provide no clear criteria for when they will be lifted.

With confirmed infections affecting only 0.42% of the state as of the date of this complaint, no epidemic actually exists throughout all of Michigan, the lawsuit filed by the Butzel Long law firm says. While a regional epidemic likely exists in a few densely populated areas, one does not exist in all 83 counties in Michigan, as demonstrated by persistently low numbers of infections and deaths in the majority of Michigans counties.

Citing data from Lapeer County, where Mitchells lives, the lawsuit said there were 171 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 25 deaths since the Governor declared an emergency.

In other words, confirmed cases represent 0.195% of the population in Lapeer County, the complaint said. The death toll represents 0.028% of Lapeer Countys population. These small numbers of cases and deaths did not and do not qualify as an epidemic in Lapeer County.

The lawsuit claims violations of due process rights and asks the federal court to deem Whitmers orders unconstitutional, even if they are lifted before the lawsuit is resolved.

It says the issues at the center of the lawsuit will remain unresolved, even if the orders are lifted.

Indeed, the governor has described her emergency powers as a dial that can be turned up or down at will, the lawsuit said. Thus, the issues presented are capable of repetition and are of such importance that they cannot evade judicial review.

A spokeswoman for Whitmer declined comment on the pending litigation.

Judge rules Michigan stay-at-home order doesnt infringe on constitutional rights

U.S. Rep. Paul Mitchell (Tanya Moutzalias | MLive Detroit)MLive.com Detroit

The lawsuit comes days after protesters from across the state converged on the lawn of the Michigan Capitol in Lansing on Thursday to express outrage over Whitmers stay-home order.

Later the same day, Whitmer signed an executive order to extend the temporary ban on dine-in services and the closure of places of public accommodation like bars, coffeehouses, theaters, indoor and outdoor performance venues, libraries, museums, fitness centers, casinos and salons through May 28.

Whitmer defended her legal right to continue Michigans state of emergency Friday, calling a decision by the legislature not to vote to extend it a political maneuver, and the protests that erupted in the Capitol over the issue disturbing.

Whitmer said the protests - during which participants stood shoulder-to-shoulder both inside and outside the Capitol, disregarding social distancing guidelines - dont represent the majority of Michigan residents.

Both the state House and Senate gave their leadership the go-ahead to sue Whitmer over the stay-home order extensions last week.

In a previous lawsuit, Steve Martinko, owner of an Oakland County landscaping business, and four other Michigan residents filed a lawsuit against the governor and other state officials claiming the stay-at-home order infringed on their constitutional rights.

A Michigan Court of Claims judge last week found that while Whitmers stay-at-home order does temporary harm to the constitutional rights of Michigan residents, the harm doesnt outweigh the public health risk posed by the coronavirus outbreak.

The stay-at-home order was first issued March 24, suspending activities not necessary to sustain or protect life. Its been extended through May 15  with fewer restrictions.

Since the coronavirus pandemic hit Michigan, Whitmer has issued 69 executive orders.

As of Monday, May 4, Michigan had 43,950 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 4,135 deaths, the third most in the nation.

Read the full lawsuit:

Read more Michigan coronavirus coverage here

COVID-19 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 Michigan coronavirus coverage here

Monday, May 4: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

Gretchen Whitmer is a national figure now. What you need to know about The woman in Michigan'

From closing restaurants to requiring masks, Gov. Whitmer has issued 69 executive orders in 56 days

Michigan districts are meeting students where they are as schools adapt to remote learning

Gov. Whitmer says protest 'depicted some of the worst racism and doesnt represent Michigan
It was a sigh of relief for persons with disabilities in the Tafo Municipality of the Ashanti region when they begun taking delivery of their share of the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF).

Increment of the Disability component of the DACF was increased from 2% to 3% by the President Nana Akufo Addo in fulfilment of the 2016 manifesto of the governing New Patriotic Party.

The donations which totalled some forty thousand cedis (GHc40, 000) were in such categories as financial support, medical support, education support, some requested items and income generation.

The disbursement is in line with the guidelines of the municipal Assemblies Common Fund in which a percentage of the total amount transferred to the Assemblies is allocated to persons with disabilities.

Speaking to the media, the municipal chief executive of the Tafo Municipal Assembly Hon. Fred obeng Owusu indicated that the mandatory gesture grounded in law, was evident of an avowed response by the NPP Government to solve the problems and the needs of people with disabilities in Ghana.

He gave assurances, the government and for that matter, the Assembly had the desire to alleviate the plight of the physically challenged to make life bearable for them.

He used the opportunity to remind them that there would be intensive monitoring exercises to see how they were faring with the support received.

He warned that a team from the Assembly will be visiting the beneficiaries to ensure that Applicants who used their share of the fund different from what they applied for will not be spared as a team will be deployed to evaluate the use of the funds."

He advised the Persons with Disabilities not to regard themselves as social misfits.

Mr Fred obeng Owusu also took it hard at people in the society who stigmatize and discriminate against PWDs cautioning them to desist from the trend.

By: Abdul Basit Yakub Ouedraogo

A/R: NPP NASARA COORDINATOR LIKENS NDCS THREAT TO CORONAVIRUS

By : Abdul Basit Yakub Ouedraogo

The Ashanti Regional Nasara Coordinator of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Alhaji Saalim Bamba, has stated that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is as dangerous as the novel coronavirus pandemic is, to Ghanaians.

His comments come on the back of the COVID-19 versus Dumso Banta between the former president John Dramani Mahama and the Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia over which administration managed crisis better.

He said the posture of the NDC in the fight against the pandemic is a clear indication of how they could endanger the lives of Ghanaians if they were in government.

He pointed out that the President had amply demonstrated that the decision to lift the lockdown was based on science and data.

The NDC is as dangerous as the coronavirus to the extent that it is comfortable in exerting avoidable hardship and discomfort on the ordinary citizen, he stated.

Alhaji Saalim Bamba cited how the NDC increased electricity bill by 166 per cent amid dumsor for many years under the leadership of former President John Dramani Mahama, to buttress his point.

He insisted that the NDCs abysmal economic growth record of 3% in 2016 would have left Ghana in a very vulnerable situation but for the 7% growth achieved in 2019 under the able leadership of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo.

Under the NDC, the gap between the rich and the poor continued to widen without any special policy to address the plight of the poor. The negative impact of the coronavirus includes rendering the vulnerable and poor worse off, Alhaji Bamba pointed out.

He called on the NDC to immediately disband its covid-19 team, stressing that the fight against the virus required collective efforts.
I cant tell you how many people have reached out to me about cocktails to go. Its staggering how many people want to make these purchases, she said. A lot of my regulars (are still working), and they come in after work to pick up. Theyre tired, and theyre exhausted, and they dont want to mess with making something themselves.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 16:44:33|Editor: huaxia

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KIEV, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The Ukrainian government has extended quarantine measures over the COVID-19 epidemic until May 22, but agreed to partially ease its lockdown from May 11, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said in his official Telegram channel on Monday.

"Easing quarantine does not mean a complete lifting. The quarantine will be extended until May 22, and we will continue observing how the pandemic evolves in the world and the number of cases in Ukraine," Shmyhal said.

At the same time, Ukrainians are allowed to visit parks, beauty shops, non-food retail, outdoor restaurants and cafe terraces, museums and libraries. Public transport, as well as train and airplane connections, will not start operation in the first stage of eased restrictions. Enditem
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 5)  The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration on Tuesday said it is anticipating the return of at least 45,000 overseas Filipino workers in the country within May up until June due to the coronavirus pandemic.

OWWA Administrator Hans Cacdac said that of this number, around 20,000 are land-based while some 25,000 are sea-based OFWs.

Cacdac added that around 100,000 more will likely return to the country in the coming months as they brace for the long-term impact of the COVID-19 crisis on their jobs abroad.

"'Yung long-term impact ng COVID-19 crisis, ito na'yung mga posibleng mawalan ng trabaho gawa ng epekto ng COVID-19 crisis sa ekonomiya sa host country. Kaya't ito po 'yung sinasabi nga na daang libong inaabangan na posibleng umuwi," Cacdad told CNN Philippines' Balitaan.

[Translation: With the long-term impact of the COVID-19 crisis, there are those who may possibly lose their jobs due to the effect of the COVID-19 crisis to the economy of their host country. So these are the 100,000 we expecting to come home.]

"Pero sa ngayon, hindi pa natin talaga masisiguro kung sila talaga ay uuwi kaya nananalig tayo na OFWs get to keep their jobs at ito na lang immediate returnees ang ating inaasahan," Cacdac added.

[Translation: For now, we still can't tell whether these OFWs will really come home but we are hoping that our OFWs get to keep their jobs, and we are expecting only these immediate returnees.]

The Bureau of Immigration said on Tuesday that it is expecting 4,559 Filipinos working on cruise ships to come home to their families by May 17.

Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said their seaport operations section and immigration regulation division have monitored the scheduled disembarkation from 14 cruise ships anchored at the Port of Manila undergoing quarantine.

These ships were from Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Japan.

Morente added that eight other cruise ships and three maritime vessels are expected to arrive within the week. He clarified that disembarking seafarers from cargo ships and other types of vessels also need to undergo a 14-day quarantine.

In his taped address aired late Monday night, President Rodrigo Duterte appealed to local government units to facilitate the return of the OFWs to their respective areas.

Rather just leave them there stranded, they have money for their pockets intended as savings for their family. Their money will run out and they would go home with their pockets empty. We do not want that to happen, the President said.
BUDAPEST, Hungary, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As the Coronavirus pandemic continues to progress, many non-profit organizations are finding it increasingly hard to keep their operations running. VCC Live joins the movement of companies offering to help these organizations cope with the situation and announces the launch of its "Love to Help" initiative, which aims to offer the company's cloud-based contact center software for free to any non-profit organization relying on telephony to support the general public during this pandemic.

"One of our company's most important principles is to provide assistance, so extending this action to the general population in these difficult times wasn't a question for us," says Peter Malhai, Chief Revenue Officer at VCC Live.

Already two organizations, the University of Pecs and the Buda Health Center , both of whom are dedicated to supporting the population during the pandemic, are using the software for free. Buda Health Center's call center team is using the solution to contact the families of those infected, while at the University of Pecs, volunteer students are providing healthcare consultation to citizens over 60 years old.

"We are proud to support the work of these organizations, whose teams' efforts are fundamental for the population at these times," reinforces Peter Malhai. "As international service and cloud technology providers, it is important for us to be able to help as many organizations as possible during this difficult situation."

Due to the flexibility of VCC Live's technology and the company's many years of experience in telephony, interested organizations can start using the software in a few days. If your organization is a non-profit entity striving to support and keep your country's population up to date during this time, allow us to help you. Get in touch at [email protected].

About VCC Live

Founded by Szabolcs Toth and Tamas Jalsovszky, VCC Live has consolidated its presence in the European market as a reliable business solution for companies dealing with wide-ranging customer communications through a variety of channels, including phone, email, chat, and social media. The company is based in Budapest-Hungary, has clients in more than 50 countries, and serves over 10,000 operators globally. It also works with 20 international telecommunication partners.

Learn more: https://vcc.live/

* The Love to Help initiative is ruled by Terms and Conditions. Consult it here: https://vcc.live/love-to-help/

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A report by the Brazilian health ministry said on Sunday that there had been 4,588 cases in the country and 275 deaths in the last 24 hours. The total confirmed cases in Brazil has reached 100,000.

Meanwhile, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has once again joined another demonstration in protest to the national health ministry's mitigation measures to prevent the transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic.

President Joins Hally Against Health Ministry

This Sunday, Bolsonaro faced a crowd of a thousand of his supporters outside the palace in Brasilia. Yellow and green flags were raised in midair as he addressed all of them in defiance of the lockdown.

Bolsonaro said he was certain of one thing.

"We have the people on our side," he said, "And the armed forces are on the side of the people."

He went down and shook hands with Brazilians as the people in the crowd shouted their cheers for his far-right administration. Bolsonaro supporters assaulted a photographer working for the national press while he was documenting the mass protest.

Even people from the right-wing are lodging criticisms at Bolsonaro for the bold display of projecting strength at a time of economic and health crisis.

Diogo Mainardi, a conservative commentator, called the mob of Bolsonaro supporters the "death squad."

In an interview earlier this week, Bolsonaro told reporters that the coronavirus might infect 70% of Brazil's population. He said, "Nobody ever denied that there would be deaths."

Check these out!

Mass Graves in Manaus

This Sunday, gravediggers buried 140 bodies in Manaus. They were diseased with COVID-19, deep in the isolated rainforest metropolis in the Amazon. The day prior, 98 bodies were buried. Residents fear for their lives.

Local maintenance man Gilson de Freitas was enraged as he watched them bury his mother alongside over 130 others last Tuesday. He said, "They were just dumped there like dogs."

Authorities report that they are preparing to lay the ground up to 4,500 people in the following month. Morticians tell the public that they cannot guarantee to provide any more wooden coffins this week.

Hospitals bring in more than 100 patients each day, overwhelming the local government. The officials have started performing burials at night, people in cemeteries have begun carving out mass graves where the dead were stacked on top of each other, and patients in hospitals are wrapped in body bags right in the hallways.

Experts in the city explain the factors that have contributed to the death count and fatality rate of Manaus, the biggest city in the Amazon. Firstly, the rainy season has only started to peter out, and so health centers were already packed with patients.

Secondly, the pandemic has only magnified pre-existing issues in the healthcare facilities in Manaus, which are chronically underfunded and understaffed, resulting in insufficient supplies and equipment. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, they cited the government's failure to implement mitigation and prevention measures during the pandemic.

Only time will be able to tell how Manaus can manage to survive the pandemic. Freitas explained they could barely figure out how to survive the week.
The three State-owned airports have called on the Government to scale back funding for regional airports amid claims that such financial supports are not delivering value for money.

DAA and Shannon Group, which operate Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports, claim the State subvention provided to four regional airports needs to be reduced under a new Regional Airports Programme (RAP) 2020-2024 in order to comply with the objective of the Governments National Aviation Policy to phase out funding operational expenditure at unviable airports by 2024.

A total of 23.9m was provided to Kerry, Donegal, Ireland West Airport Knock and Waterford between 2015 and 2018 under different funding schemes, while a further 30m was provided to airlines for operating essential services to Kerry and Donegal under a Public Service Obligation (PSO) scheme.

However, the four regional airports have all called for the retention of the current level of supports under a new RAP as vital for ensuring their sustainability and supporting rural connectivity.

In a submission the Shannon Group said there has been no analysis carried out to date on displacement arising from the existing programme.

It claimed there was little information available to assess what steps regional airports were taking to reduce their dependence on State supports.

The Shannon Group has called for the new RAP to include all airports which have less than 3 million passengers annually which would extend eligibility to Cork and Shannon.

The three State-owned airports handled a combined 36.9 million passengers last year compared to 1.2 million at the four regional airports. Shannon claims its catchment area overlaps with Knock around the key urban market of Galway city, while the catchment area of Kerry overlaps with both Shannon and Cork.

DAA said its data indicated less than 20% of passengers on PSO routes were tourists and just over 10% were business travellers.

The DAA said it believed the PSO subvention of 212 per passenger on a return flight between Dublin and Donegal did not represent value for money, given the majority of passengers were using the service for visiting friends and families.

Separately Cork Airport said it did not believe there was a viable case for a proposed increase in the subvention to Waterford Airport given it had not operated any commercial flight for several years.

Cork Airport said there should be a defined, limited number of strong, sustainable, financially viable and geographically dispersed airports on the island of Ireland.

Choices will have to be made in terms of which airports can ever be sustainable and which are not viable, it added.

However, Ireland West Airport Knock said it should be given the opportunity to grow to a viable, self-sustaining position particularly considering the contribution that it makes to the regional and local economy.

It pointed out its expenditure of 35m in 2018 had generated 217m for the economy including 34m in revenue for the Exchequer.

Kerry Airport said it required funding for a major upgrade of its terminal building to allow it to expand to ensure its future, while Donegal Airport said its relative remoteness and poor road network justified the retention of its PSO route.

Waterford Airport said funding of regional airports was a modest enough cost given the wider economic benefits they delivered.

A spokesperson for Transport Minister Shane Ross said the new RAP, which was due to be published earlier this year, had been held back as it was awaiting the approval of the new Government.
Chloe Sevigny has given birth to her first child with boyfriend Sinisa Mackovic.

A representative for the actor confirmed that she had the baby over the weekend and that both mother and child are doing well.

Chloe had her baby on Saturday and all are happy and healthy, the spokesperson said.

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No further details, including the baby's name and sex, have been revealed.

News of the American Horror Story: Hotel stars pregnancy first broke in January when Sevigny was spotted walking through New York alongside Mackovic with her growing baby bump on show.

The 45-year-old went on to confirm the reports herself with a series of artistic, black-and-white, portraits photographed by director Jim Jarmusch.

Since then, the former model has been documenting her pregnancy on social media, and expressed her concerns about giving birth during the coronavirus pandemic.

In March, hospitals in New York announced that partners would not be allowed to be present at births during lockdown as a precaution.

Speaking about the news on Instagram, Sevigny wrote: I hope all expecting families are finding some calm. Todays news in NY was very distressing for all.

In April, the actor said that she and Mackovic still had not decided on a name for their baby.

Our baby's due in 8 days and we don't have a name yet, Sevigny told Homme Girls, before joking that her idea of fun at the moment would be pushing this bebe out.

Sevigny has been dating art gallery director Mackovic for more than a year.
Dystopian fiction issues warnings and predicts outcomes. It forces us to acknowledge that the evils of the world it depicts are systemic, that something new, something better rests upon the complete annihilation of the old world

Read part 2 of this examination of the value of dystopian fiction here.

The solar disc was no longer a well-defined sphere, but a wide-expanding ellipse that fanned out the eastern horizon like a colossal fire-ball." Thus unfolds JG Ballards masterful 1962 novel The Drowned World, which is about a planet beset by solar instability and extreme climate change. The Earths ice-caps and permafrost have long melted, turning the Northern hemisphere into a series of giant, interconnecting lagoons. The great metropolitan cities of the world lay submerged under water, pristine and preserved in a lost moment of time. In the span of a few decades, the world has regressed at a frightening pace. The leaps and bounds of the millennium are a distant dream, and the return of the Triassic Age is incumbent. In the midst of all these changes, the last human inhabitants (numbering a measly five million) carry on with their lives at the sunny North Pole.

Reading Ballard at this moment is an encounter with the uncanny. As the COVID-19 pandemic imprisons global populations, the prescience of dystopian fiction like Ballards rings doubly true. The pandemic has snatched away the last veneer of modern civilisation. When we look outside our windows now, the city resembles a massive toy set. With its citizens gone, the eeriness intensifies.

It is exactly at this time that I find myself flipping feverishly through the dystopian novels of Margaret Atwood and William Golding. It can seem counter-intuitive to turn to reams of literary I-told-you-sos in a pandemic that is the result of several unheeded warnings. Logically, we should be turning to all forms of escapist art now. Unexpectedly, the opposite seems to be true. Dystopian fiction and apocalyptic movies are gaining a surprising momentum as people try to find meaning in an uncertain world. Why, exactly, is it so comforting to dig into these end-of-the-world scenarios?

Where am I? What is this place? What am I going to do now?  These are questions familiar to readers of dystopian fiction. They signal to us to a protagonists early confusion at the nightmarish state of the world they inhabit. At present, we too grapple with these questions as we confront the omniscient phantom of the coronavirus. It is an immensely alienating situation, sure, but as any reader of this genre of fiction would tell you, the discovery of what should be done is also in sight.

Dystopian fiction soothes the anxiety that were all beginning to articulate: the world might never be the same again. Reading helps us acknowledge this and imagine alternate futures.

COVID-19 has laid bare the cruelties of our society. It has exposed the precarity of our systems, built as they are on everyday exploitation, that now turn on the very people who built them. The pandemic makes visible the stark contrast between the privileges of the elite and the dreary existence of the working class. In a normal world, we cloak these glaring inequalities with half-truths and aphorisms. We march to the invisible beat of capitalism and quote ditties justifying meritocracy and hierarchy. Theres no hiding what happens now.

Picture this. In Bihar, a woman walks door to door with her dead child in her arms. Nobody will lend a helping hand due to fear of contagion. In a scene that appears straight out of a Cormac McCarthy novel, migrant laborers walk hundreds of kilometers to go home.

COVID-19 is not the great equaliser. On the contrary, it exacerbates existing inequalities to the point of extreme misery. In our informal economy, many workers rely on a daily wage to eke out an uncertain existence. In face of the virus, they are denied wages and forced to starve. The pandemic forces us to confront the truth: the normal world was abnormal  something dystopias have been telling us all along.

The utopian genre came first, introduced to the general public in Thomas Mores 1516 text Utopia, a pun on the Greek words ou-topos (no place) and eu-topos (good place). Subsequent utopian novels explored ideal spaces and faultless societies. It would take another 400 years before dystopia, its dark twin, dominated the literary scene with tales of destruction, famine, war and unfathomable misery.

Dystopias are the antithesis of utopias. They usually take place in a society that has lost all semblance of functioning. If utopias act as promises for the future, dystopias issue warnings. Here are some of the warnings they have issued in the past: irrepressible climate change, the rise of authoritarianism, the emergence of the surveillance State, the danger of celebrity, loss of reproductive control.

Both utopias and dystopias act as histories of the present in that they reveal hidden truths that society has seen fit to shove under the carpet. Conditions of class oppression, loss of human dignity, gender prejudice are exaggerated and explored in dystopian worlds. The line between the two genres often blurs; the perfection of some utopias contains simmering oppression, whereas certain dystopian writing is underpinned by utopian longings. Often, a synthesis of these two forms exists, such as in Ursula K Le Guins The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia where two such societies exist side by side, transformed by contact with one another.

Dystopian fiction is often perceived as being unremittingly bleak. Indeed, not all texts are radical. Some leave you with an unchanging sense of despair. There is no alternative, they seem to say, just accept it. This is a conservative streak within the genre that has produced formulaic novels. In contrast, progressively inclined texts refuse to settle for the status quo. In Ray Bradburys Fahrenheit 451, the protagonist goes from burning outlawed books to realising their importance, to finally fighting the State in order to keep the legacy of reading alive.

The bleakness of dystopian texts often invites accusations of escapism. Naysayers scream about hope, failing to understand that this form of escape from reality can actually lead to a very different way of thinking about the world. Readers leave these books with a clearer perception of what ails our present. For instance, readers of Le Guins The Dispossessed have repeatedly evoked her novel to make the case for anarcho-socialist modes of living.

Good dystopian fiction is often identified by how prescient it is. It gains a cultural relevance for predicting outcomes. Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale foresaw Americas cruel negation of reproductive freedom. The titular Handmaid is a symbol for pro-choice activists. They dress in her garb, protesting against legislation that snatches away womens reproductive freedoms. Similarly, JG Ballards first four novels were lauded for forecasting the ravages of man-made climate change. The writer of such fiction performs a Cassandra function: Like the mythological Greek priestess, they may go hoarse yelling out warnings to general disbelief and ridicule, only to be feted for it when it is too late. However, it is worth noting that we do not turn to fiction to be warned. We turn to it to help us understand a moment in time.

Our current condition was predicted in the pages of a dystopian novel long ago. It took a pandemic for us to truly think of a break with the status quo. Now what? We cannot long for a nostalgic return to the way things were. It is a conservative outlook that justifies unjust and unequal societies. I continue to read agitatedly, hoping my dystopian novels will have an answer. Here is what I found: these novels plant the germ of imagination in our mind. This is the great gift that they present to us  the radical possibility of creating something new. Dystopias, for the most part, are an inherently progressive form of literature. This is because they force us to acknowledge that the evil of the world they depict is systemic. Theres no escaping or fixing Big Brother, theres only ending it. Theres no single aberration that can be picked out and changed. The critical reading provided to us is that something new, something better rests upon the complete annihilation of the old world.

The investigative quality of dystopian fiction reminds us of the impermanence of reality. Nothing is as secure as we think it is. Reality is just a stage set, was JG Ballards response to a question about the predictive power of his fiction. He concluded that it could be dismantled overnight. Even Atwoods Gilead does eventually fall. We must interest ourselves with the story of the fall. Dystopias, with their unrelenting sense of interrogation, familiarise us with the process of the fall. We do not think that it will end one day. Rather, we interest ourselves in how it might end. I know two things: that the pandemic will end, and that nothing will stop us from creating a new reality; a better, equal world. What a marvelous freedom there is in knowing that.

Shivani Bhasin is a writer based in Mumbai

Read part 2 of this examination of the value of dystopian fiction here.
The state of California ranks eighth in fatality rate, according to data by John Hopkins University, with 2,217 deaths as of Monday. California had a total of 54, 924 confirmed cases of COVID-19 patients.

Beginning last month, the Dominican Hospital stopped accepting patients, excluding pregnant women admitted one at a time, as a mitigation measure to limit the transmission of the coronavirus.

The nameless donor left a note to the hospital, thanking the staff for standing up to care for the community. It concluded, "This human kindness is what makes you heroic."



Team Thanks Donor

The staff at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz, California, are expected to receive bonuses for one year, with the full-time employees receiving $800, and the part-time employees receiving $600. This is not exclusive to medical staff, because it includes even the technicians and the janitors and security guards.

Dr. Nanette Mickiewicz, President of the Dominican Hospital, attributed the donation to their employees' excellence and dedication to their clinical work.

The hospital's nursing supervisor was of a like mind, hardly believing that a stranger's generosity could be a gift to share among everyone in the staff, including the people who did the cleaning, delivering, and fixing.

Amy Loudon acknowledged that there were so many people who were keeping the hospital running its operations. She called it a team effort, and that she was glad that the whole team "is getting a thank you."

On April 7, the Dominican Hospital's last update was that they had ample supplies and equipment for the management of COVID-19 patients and that they were continuously looking into the supplies at the facility. They added that the safety of the patients and the medical staff remained their highest priority.



Check these out!



Hospitals in Dire Need of Financial Aid

Hospitals in California have lost as much as $14 billion for the suspension of discretionary procedures to prioritize COVID-19 patients. The hospital association asked state legislators to approve the $1 billion for financial support.

Member of the Legislative Analyst's Office Ben Johnson believed that the federal government and private sector have already begun to "alleviate some of the financial hardship." The federal budget has allocated almost $3 billion for California healthcare providers.

California Hospital Association President Carmela Coyle said in an interview that they emptied the state's hospitals in anticipation of a healthcare crisis.

The average losses that California hospitals suffered are between 20 percent to 30 percent, with an even higher percentage for rural hospitals, Coyle said.

She also acknowledged that postponing some procedures was the right thing to do at the time of the pandemic. She added, "But as we begin to access the damage, the toll is enormous. ...Hospitals are desperate for cash."

Even the $3 billion is not enough to compensate for the losses. The best they can do is wait until the regular operations resume, which might be a year or two from now. From the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci would put it once "things fall in the right place."

Coyle said that they would do what they can to keep the hospitals running, while at the same time plugging in the expenses. For that, "We will need the state's help."
The Ukrainian parliament plans to return to normal operation as soon as there is easing of the lockdown

Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament 24 Channel

The next extraordinary session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine will most likely take place on May 12. Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament Dmytro Razumkov declared it on the air of Ukraine 24 TV channel.

"Now we say that, most likely, the next session of the Verkhovna Rada will be convened by 150 MPS and, probably, it will take place on Tuesday. Previously, it was thought that it would be on Friday, but some regulations do not allow us to address a number of issues which we consider necessary to be envisaged," he told.

According to him, as soon as there is easing of the lockdown, the Verkhovna Rada plans to return to normal operation.

As we reported earlier, according to Vasyl Mokan, a representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada, it will be possible to speak about the complete end of the lockdown and return to the normal functioning of Ukraine at the end of June-July or even in August or September.

"First I want to clarify the terms of lockdown - the official end of quarantine restrictive measures is the last, the fifth stage of a gradual withdrawal. Therefore, the full completion of lockdown and return to the normal functioning of the state may be discussed in late June-July or even in August or September. Everything will depend on the epidemiological situation and the statistics on the level incidence/morbidity from coronavirus," he said.
The Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED) of COCOBOD has embarked on a nationwide campaign to strengthen farmers education on the coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic.



The aim is to encourage and motivate cocoa farmers to strictly adhere to the preventive protocols and restrictive measures outlined by the government to contain the further spread of the virus in the country.



It is also to help reduce panic and fear the pandemic seems to be causing in cocoa growing communities, and give assurance to the farmers that, farming activities could go on despite the outbreak of the virus in the country.



Dr. Emmanuel Nii Tackie-Otoo, National Director of CHED speaking at one of the farmers mini durbar at Nkyirepoasu, a farming community in the Juaben Municipality, said the exercise was to further strengthen the capacities of cocoa farmers to help ensure continuity and sustainability of the cocoa value chain in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.



He said it was necessary for the top management of COCOBOD to directly engage farmers in rural communities where cocoa farmlands were located to help overcome all kinds of fear, panic and false information being churned out due to the outbreak of the pandemic.



The exercise, he said, was to also to help the top management to monitor and evaluate the ongoing pruning exercise of over five million hectares of cocoa farms across all the cocoa growing regions in the country.



Dr. Tackie-Otoo said as part of the education campaign exercise, COCOBOD had distributed over 1.2 million pieces of carbolic soaps to cocoa farmers in all cocoa growing districts in the country.



This was to encourage the farmers to wash their hands regularly and observe all the other preventive protocols to protect themselves and their families from catching and spreading the virus in their communities.



Touching on the new Cocoa Management System (CMS) which had been rolled out by COCOBOD, he said, all cocoa farmers would be enumerated, registered and issued with an identification card, while their farm sizes would also be measured to facilitate the smooth monitoring and transaction of their cocoa businesses.



Mr. Kwadwo Danso, Ashanti Regional Manager of CHED, urged the farmers to promptly report all pest and disease cases to nearby CHED offices for immediate attention.



Mr. Samuel Kofi Buah, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at the Ashanti Regional CHED Office, said his outfit was strengthening its field activities, especially in this era of coronavirus, to ensure that farmers continued with modern farming practices to improve on their yields.



Nana Nicholas Boampong, a farmer in the community, praised CHED for the education campaign and urged all the farmers to observe all the preventive protocols to stay healthy.

Source: GNA









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The Pentagon on Tuesday released the identity of a 25th Infantry Division soldier who died this week while serving in Iraq.

Sgt. Christopher Wesley Curry died in a non-combat incident Monday in Erbil, Iraq, while supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, according to a U.S. Army Alaska news release.

Curry, a 23-year-old native of Terre Haute, Indiana, was assigned to the 25th Infantry's 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, according to the release.

Related: Service Member Supporting ISIS Fight Dies in Non-Combat Incident

The death remains under investigation, but officials maintain that the novel coronavirus is not suspected.

Curry joined 3rd Battalion's Charlie Company in April 2019, and his technical expertise was an asset to the unit, Lt. Col. Jimmy Howell, 3-21 Infantry commander, said in the release.

"Sgt. Curry's incessant optimism was the hallmark of his personality, and often provided respite for others during times of stress," Howell said. "His honesty, light heartedness, and wit will always be remembered by his brothers in arms. His loss is being felt immensely by Charlie Company, 3-21 Infantry, and the 1/25th SBCT. It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to one of our own."

Curry's awards and other accomplishments were not immediately available since Wainwright officials did not have access to his personnel file, U.S. Army Alaska spokesman John Pennell told Military.com.

Another 25th ID soldier died in a non-combat incident in October while serving at Camp Taji, Iraq.

Sgt. Nathaneil Irish, 23 of Billings, Montana, was assigned to the 25th Brigade Support Battalion at Wainwright.

Four U.S. service members have died in 2020 as a result of hostile actions while deployed supporting operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria; three more have died in non-combat incidents.

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.

Military.com's Hope Hodge Seck contributed to this report.

Read More: Pentagon Identifies Alaska Soldier Killed in Iraq
The top cybersecurity agencies in the U.S. and UK have issued a joint alert warning that foreign state-backed hackers are targeting healthcare organizations involved in the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Hackers are actively targeting healthcare bodies, pharmaceutical companies, medical research organizations and local governments, said Britain's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in an alert on Tuesday.

The state-backed hacking groups are seeking bulk personal information, intelligence on national healthcare policy, and sensitive data on COVID-19-related research, the agencies said.

The NCSC and CISA did not say which countries were responsible for the attacks. But one U.S. official and one UK official said the warning was in response to intrusion attempts by suspected Chinese hackers, as well as some Iranian and Russian-linked activity.

A healthcare worker is seen using a computer in a file photo. Foreign hackers are actively targeting healthcare bodies, pharmaceutical companies and medical research organizations

The state-backed hacking groups are seeking bulk personal information, intelligence on national healthcare policy, and sensitive data on COVID-19-related research (stock image)

The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss non-public details of the alert. Tehran, Beijing and Moscow have all repeatedly denied conducting offensive cyber operations and say they are the victims of such attacks themselves.

The agencies said hackers had been seen trying to identify and exploit security weaknesses caused by staff working from home as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

In other incidents, the attackers repeatedly tried to compromise accounts with a series of common and frequently-used passwords - a technique known as 'password spraying.'

The agencies recommend that healthcare and medical workers all change their passwords to a string of three random words, and implement two-factor authentication, which requires a pass code sent to a cell phone, for instance.

The officials said the alert was not triggered by any specific incident or compromise, but rather intended as a warning - both to the attackers and the targeted organizations that need to better defend themselves.

'These are organization that wouldn't normally see themselves as nation state targets, and they need to understand that now they are,' said one of the officials.

One U.S. official and one UK official said the warning was in response to intrusion attempts by suspected Chinese hackers (stock image)

The warning follows efforts by a host of state-backed hackers to compromise governments, businesses and health agencies in search of information about the new disease and attempts to combat it.

Reuters has reported in recent weeks that Vietnam-linked hackers targeted the Chinese government over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, and that multiple groups, some with ties to Iran, tried to break into the World Health Organization.

This latest report follows a joint advisory published by the NCSC and CISA on 8 April about cyber criminals exploiting the coronavirus outbreak for their own personal gain.

It is expected that the frequency of coronavirus-related cyber attacks will increase over the coming weeks and months.

Last month, the NCSC created the Suspicious Email Reporting Service after seeing an increase in coronavirus-related email scams. In its first week, the service received more than 25,000 reports  resulting in 395 phishing sites being taken down.
SANTA FE  The next stage of New Mexicos battle to curb the COVID-19 outbreak will be waged with masks and expanded testing, as Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Tuesday implored state residents to stay vigilant to avoid new spikes of confirmed cases.

Specifically, the governor said face masks will be required for some essential workers  including grocery store and restaurant employees  starting Wednesday.

And coronavirus testing for corrections officers and inmates will be ramped up over the next week after the states low testing rates in prison drew recent criticism, the governors health secretary said.

With New Mexico starting to gradually relax business restrictions imposed to slow the spread of the virus, Lujan Grisham said too many New Mexicans are failing to stay 6 feet apart from one another and wear masks when out in public.

Social distancing does not mean going about your regular life with your friends and family with a little or no distance between you, the governor said during a Tuesday news conference that was broadcast online and watched by more than 7,000.

The actions you take today determine our ability to safely and effectively reopen the states economy, she added.

New Mexicos death toll from the coronavirus outbreak has reached 162 since the states first case was announced March 11, with six additional deaths announced Tuesday.

In recent weeks, infection rates have skyrocketed in two northwestern New Mexico counties  McKinley and San Juan  with large Native American populations, and 68 of the states 107 newly confirmed cases on Tuesday were in those two counties.

In an effort to slow the spread of the virus, Lujan Grisham on Monday extended a lockdown order for Gallup, which is in McKinley County, for an additional three days, after the citys mayor asked her to do so. Under the new order, the lockdown will remain in place until noon Thursday.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 outbreak has also hit nursing homes and other group-living facilities hard. As of Tuesday, there were 24 such facilities statewide that had confirmed cases among residents or staff, according to the Department of Health.

Statewide, 4,138 people have tested positive for the virus, though 964 cases are now designated as having recovered by the state Department of Health. Thats a recovery rate of 23.3%.

Face coverings

With the coronavirus still active, New Mexico will phase in requirements for workers at some businesses to wear face coverings.

Under a revised public health order issued by Health Secretary Kathy Kunkel, face coverings or medical-grade masks  they can be homemade or purchased  will be mandatory starting Wednesday for all employees at restaurants and large retail stores deemed essential.

The order, which does not require that employers provide the masks, will extend to smaller retail stores Monday.

It also stipulates that all businesses allowed to stay open in McKinley, San Juan and Cibola counties require their employees to wear masks.

Avoiding an increase in transmission of the new coronavirus, which causes the respiratory disease COVID-19, is necessary, Lujan Grisham said, to reopen more businesses later this month, as state officials hope.

People can spread the virus even if they have no symptoms and dont realize theyre infected, she said.

You have to treat everything you do every day as if you have the virus, Lujan Grisham said.

Health officials, she said, will be guided by data on disease transmission as they weigh whether its safe to reopen more businesses.

The governor last week relaxed some business restrictions, allowing golf courses, gun shops and state parks to reopen in a limited capacity.

But she also urged New Mexicans to stay home as much as possible and keep following social distancing guidelines, while extending a state emergency public health order through May 15.

No downward trend

While coronavirus infection rates have dropped in many New Mexico counties, Human Services Secretary David Scrase said the latest data on disease transmission isnt what state officials had hoped for.

Even outside the hot spots of northwestern New Mexico, the number of new cases isnt falling off in the rest of the state as it had been.

We are not actually seeing that downward trend, Scrase said. That is a problem for us in terms of containing the spread of the disease.

The spread rate of the disease is still 1.24, meaning each infected person will infect 1.24 others. The goal before moving into the next phase of reopening, Scrase said, is to get the rate down to 1.15.

At the current rate, he said, the state would have 3,976 more fatalities over the course of the year. Shaving that transmission rate down just a bit would make a tremendous difference, he said.

Remember, the mask is not to protect you  its to protect other people from you, Scrase said.

We have to learn to live in a COVID-positive world, Scrase added. We cant keep doing what were doing for another year.

Goal is 5,000 tests a day

New Mexicos coronavirus testing capacity has increased in recent weeks, and state officials have set a goal of running 5,000 tests per day statewide.

Some of those tests will be conducted behind bars, as Kunkel said Tuesday that New Mexico will step up its testing of correctional guards and inmates.

The move comes after state public defenders and others asked the Supreme Court to order the release of more inmates from state prisons as a matter of public health. The justices rejected the petition, however, finding that the Lujan Grisham administration hadnt been deliberately indifferent to the health and safety of the inmates.

Kunkel said Tuesday that by next week, the goal is to test 100% of guards and 25% of inmates. Incoming inmates will also be tested and face a 14-day isolation period.

Kunkel also said all employees of a Santa Teresa meatpacking plant were tested after a recent outbreak that led to five confirmed COVID-19 cases.

The plant is operating in a limited capacity, and state officials are working with its owners to determine a reopening plan, Kunkel said.

In response to a question, Lujan Grisham also expressed concern about a U.S. Department of Defense policy to test only military base personnel who show coronavirus symptoms.

She said she has asked the White House and other federal officials to allow officials at New Mexicos three military bases  Kirtland Air Force Base, Holloman Air Force Base and Cannon Air Force Base  to expand testing but has not received an answer.

They could do 20,000 (tests) in two weeks-plus, but they have to have permission to do it, Lujan Grisham said. It would make a big difference for us to know whats going on in the state.
The nation's largest e-cigarette maker Juul Labs is saying goodbye to San Francisco.

The company is moving its city headquarters across the country to Washington, D.C., according to the Wall Street Journal.

E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices heating a liquid substance (called "e-liquid" or "e-juice") that contains nicotine, flavorings, and other additives and deliver the nicotine and flavoring to the user in the form of an aerosol ("smoke"). Juul products use cartridges containing only nicotine salts.

The company has come under scrutiny for targeting teens with its marketing and has faced a string of lawsuits. San Francisco banned all e-cigarettes on Jan. 1, and California's attorney general filed a suit against the company for failing to warn teens about the harms of vaping in its advertising.

ALSO: Meet the woman who knows which drugs Bay Area teenagers are doing

The Journal reports that with the move, Juul, "seeks to repair its relationship with regulators and distance itself from Silicon Valleys growth-at-all-costs culture, according to people familiar with the matter."

While Juul will keep a presence in San Francisco, the company is shuttering other offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia and will be cutting its workforce by one, third, according to the Journal.

Amy Graff is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com.
Tata Steel Ltd has withdrawn its membership from the Indian Steel Association (ISA), an apex steel industry body.

Subsequent to it, the company's CEO and Managing Director (MD) T V Narendran has also stepped down from the Presidentship of the Association, tenure of which was scheduled to end in August.

An ISA President is elected for a period of two years.

Confirming the development, a Tata Steel spokesperson said, "Tata Steel has withdrawn its membership from the Indian Steel Association (ISA) owing to various considerations.

"Accordingly, T V Narendran, CEO & MD, Tata Steel, has stepped down from his position as the incumbent President, ISA."



An ISA official also confirmed Narendran's resignation but said the reason for his sudden resignation is not known yet.

Leading steelmakers such as JSW Steel Ltd, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), Jindal Steel And Power Ltd (JSPL) and ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel Ltd are members of the ISA.

Narendran is also a member of the Executive Committee of the global body World Steel Association (worldsteel).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
No matter how isolated we may feel, if depression, anxiety or overusing drugs or alcohol are becoming a problem, there is help available, said a panel of mental health experts Tuesday.

The help may be by phone, Zoom video or other online forums, but its available to anyone, they said.

The online roundtable was convened by U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, who said the $2 trillion CARES Act, signed March 27, provided $425 million for certified community behavioral health clinics, to assist with suicide-prevention programs, to do emergency response and provide other mental health services.

The panel was composed of Lisa Winjum, director of the Connecticut chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Margaret Watt and Giovanna Mozzo, co-directors of The Hub, which coordinates mental health and addiction services in Fairfield County, Allen Levy, a psychotherapist in Westport, and Commissioner Miriam Delphin-Rittmon of the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.

As people are feeling stressed, anxious and isolated, NAMI is here for you, even if youve never heard of us before today, Winjum said. And even if youve never attended one of our live support groups, we have an online support group that can meet your needs.

Winjum said the Young Adult Connection Community, for ages 18 to 29, is really leading the way with NAMIs online programming for people, because theyre used to doing all this online work.  Every day they have a coping skill, and were going A to Z.

The first and most important, she said, is ask for help. You arent alone. There is help out there. She said the young adult group is working on providing connection for young adults during this time of social isolation with virtual tea parties, movie nights and a statewide online graduation party. The group also is focusing on dealing with grief.

Other support groups at namict.org are available for family members, individuals, veterans, people recovering from opioid addiction and for their family members. On May 28, a conversation about grief will be based on Broken Hallelujahs: Learning to Grieve the Big and Small Losses of Life by Beth Allen Slevcove. NAMI has a warm line, 860-882-0236, and Winjum said the calls have increased dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Watt said May is Mental Health Awareness Month and that the issue is more real to everyone in the state and the country right now than it ever has been.  There are some people who are extra vulnerable and thats people who have a pre-existing behavioral health condition, if youve already got depression and now youre further isolated, people who live alone in general and also people who live in congregate settings and cant spread out and cant get away from that either. Resources are listed at thehubct.org.

This is really unprecedented.  Its not a natural disaster, its not an act of violence. Its this kind of an invisible enemy that makes some of us scared to go outside or to hug someone when we need a hug, Watt said. A conversation May 15 will focus on the long-term impacts, including the mental health implications of economic hardship, she said.

Watt said warm lines are available for those who are not in crisis but who need to talk to a peer who gets it, whos been there, done that. Other services are available for those in recovery. When were all stressed, we have to cope in some way, so what are our coping skills? Some of them are negative, right? Some of them involve substance use, she said.

Watt said anyone who needs therapy should reach out and that many therapists are seeing their clients online.

Mozzo said, Were finding that people are struggling with social distancing and the uncertainty of, When is this going to end? Whats happening is their anxiety is increasing.  Just like me, you and everybody else, were all struggling with our mental health. It doesnt mean that we have a mental illness, but we are struggling with mental health because were human. Our human instinct is to be able to socialize and touch people, appropriately of course, but be able to be ourselves and were not seeing that right now.

She said while we talk about social distancing, were not talking about social isolation, and some people are becoming isolated.

Levy called on the strength of the human spirit. We are a community. Were all in this together, he said. We have realized through this that we are not just a local community or even a state community, but we are a global community. And, if one lesson can be learned from everything that were going through, is we are in this together and everyone on the planet is united in this effort to overcome this disorder, this virus and its effect on all of us. Every one of us, regardless of where we started in this, has had a problem mentally coping with this.

He said increased anxiety, depression, hopelessness and helplessness are all common human feelings. And none of them are forever. All of them are like passing clouds in the sky.  This, too, shall pass.

Levy also assured people that they should not let finances stop them from seeking help. Do not let your insurance companies dictate to you the mental health needs that you need to have met, he said.

Delphin-Rittmon said many of DMHASs local mental health authorities are still in operation but largely through telehealth. Virtual groups, such as Join Rise Be, run by Advocacy Unlimited, focus on young people. She also advocated calling 211, through which someone can be connected to a mobile crisis team, made up of social workers or other mental health workers who will come out to talk to the person and discuss what resources are available.

People also can call 800-563-4086 to receive an assessment by phone or even arrange a ride to a detoxification center.

edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382
Circuits are fighting behind the scenes to be part of F1's new 'corona calendar' for 2020, according to Dutch GP boss Jan Lammers.

On the face of it, Liberty Media will simply help the promoters like Austria and Silverstone to organise races whilst spectators are unable to cover the costs by buying tickets.

But Lammers, sporting boss at the Dutch GP, says it's not quite that simple.

He said Austria, Silverstone, Hungary "and possibly the Netherlands and Belgium" are among the initial candidates lined up by Liberty for 'ghost races'.

"But then they would have to pay for those five races without an audience. These are, of course, considerable sums that they cannot just cough up," said the former F1 driver.

And so, Lammers said market forces are also in play.

"Everything is being negotiated," he said. "Other circuits say 'You can race here for free, as long as we can be back on the calendar at a reduced rate in the future'.

"And those offers are used a bit by FOM with the other circuits. For us, it is not something very tempting to incur unnecessary costs," Lammers told BNR Newsradio.

As for whether Zandvoort will ultimately be among the 'ghost races', Lammers said that is initially up to RIVM, which is the Dutch public health institute.

"Unfortunately, we are also completely dependent on how FOM is progressing with the possibilities. Then maybe we can come back," he said.

"If FOM has the budget, and the Netherlands is open to the spectators, it will happen. But for the time being it seems that Zandvoort will not return after 35 years, but after 36."

(GMM)
The judges of the German constitutional court arrive on 5 May, 2020 at the Constitutional court in Karlsruhe, to give out their ruling on a key European Central Bank bond-buying scheme. (Sebastian Gollnow/dpa/AFP via Getty Images)

Germanys Constitutional Court on Tuesday ruled that a part of the European Central Banks (ECB) quantitive easing program went against German law, as the German government did not get to approve the bond purchases.

The court in Karlsruhe upheld a complaint that the Public Sector Purchase Program (PSPP) part of the ECBs asset-purchase program could influence governmental economic policy, whereas the central banks role should be just to set monetary policy.

The German government and parliament have a duty to take active steps against the PSPP in its current form, the court said in a statement.

The PSPP accounted for some 2.1tn ($2.3tn, 1.8tn) in purchases between 2015 and 2018.

The court then gave the ECB three months to take steps to amend the scheme, otherwise the German central bank, the Bundesbank, could be barred from participating in the PSPP programme.

The Bundesbank may thus no longer participate in the implementation and execution of the ECB decisions at issue, unless the ECB Governing Council adopts a new decision that demonstrates...the PSPP are not disproportionate to the economic and fiscal policy effects, the court said.

READ MORE: Coronavirus: US government to borrow record $3tn in three months to tackle crisis

This criticism is likely to prompt enhanced scrutiny of current and future programs going forward, with all of the problems that might entail in terms of fast effective delivery of monetary policy, said Michael Hewson, Chief Market Analyst at CMC Markets UK.

While the time frame being allotted is a tight one for the ECB to ensure they are compliant, the bigger concern is the scope of the new Pandemic Emergency Program, which has a much wider remit than the one just ruled on by the court, Hewson added.

Our gut tells us that this will blow over, eventually, though we sympathise deeply with the ECBs legal experts at this point in time, Claus Vistesen, chief Eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said. Theyll need to muster all their creativity to come up with a response to satisfy the German Constitutional Court, and they need to work fast.

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The court case, which began in 2015, was brought by a group of politicians and economists, including Bernd Lucke, the former leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany party.

READ MORE: Coronavirus: UK economic shock to be 'deeper than anything in living memory'

The decision published today does not concern any financial assistance measures taken by the European Union or the ECB in the context of the current coronavirus crisis, the court said.
Troy Wragg has suffered 13 seizures since April 8.

But what makes him at high risk for COVID-19 are his other health conditions, including hypertension, a heart condition and a chronic autoimmune disorder, according to his attorneys.

What makes Wraggs situation even more critical is that he incarcerated at the Fort Dox federal correctional institution where the number of positive cases continues to increase and the warden has admitted social distancing is not possible."

Wragg, who just started serving a 22-year sentence for operating a Ponzi scheme, is a chronic care inmate incarcerated at the low security federal prison in South Jersey and is part of a class action petition filed in federal court in New Jersey Monday calling for the immediate, temporary release for all medically vulnerable people from the prison. The petition does not cite a number.

I experience the feeling here to be one of tension, helplessness, and hopelessness, Wragg, 38, wrote in a declaration to the court. People have opened up to me. They feel like the end is here, like we are going to die.

Criminal justice advocates and attorneys have been calling for the release of vulnerable inmates across the country, as the health crisis is impacting correctional facilities, which have become hotspots for the virus.

Inmates at county jails and state prisons across New Jersey have begun to be released amid the coronavirus outbreak, even though the federal prisons in the state have done less to limit their populations to prevent the spread of the virus, the petition argues.

The ACLU of New Jersey and attorneys Jim Davy and Matthew Stiegler filed the petition on behalf those who are most at-risk to the virus. So far, 40 inmates and three employees at the prison have tested positive for coronavirus, according to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP). The petition names Warden David E. Ortiz and the BOP. The BOP declined to comment on the petition.

The petition urges the release of medically vulnerable inmates to limit the prisons population, but also for the prison to adopt the Centers for Disease Control guidance regarding testing, medical isolation, quarantine, and social distancing for those who remain, to ensure constitutionally-compliant custody.

If the prison does not do that, FCI Fort Dix is speeding toward a public health catastrophe, ACLU-NJ Legal Director Jeanne LoCicero said in a statement.

The 56-page petition highlights how incarcerated individuals are vulnerable to the virus, especially at Fort Dix where inmates live in groups and do not have the ability to social distance, a key safety measure health experts have identified in stopping the spread of the virus.

When the prison provided inmates masks to wear in early April, Warden Ortiz encouraged them to wear them because masks will help keep you and others from spreading virus since social distancing is not possible in this environment, according to the petition.

The majority of the nearly 3,000 inmates live at the main facility, which has a number of buildings that are three stories high and consist of 12-person rooms typically. The 12-person rooms can be as small as 430 square feet and have six two-person bunk beds, 12 lockers and a card table, according to the petition.

Wragg said there is one bathroom shared by about 50 men in his building. In the declaration, he described the bathroom as filthy, with urine all over the floor and said it typically runs out of soap daily, even as health officials continue to urge people to wash their hands to avoid getting the virus. He said inmates are given virtually no cleaning supplies.

Fort Dixs handling of the infection here, especially given my medical vulnerabilities, has left me panicked, afraid, and at times depressed, Wragg wrote.

Around 230 inmates, who are nearing the end of their sentence or are a low security risk, live in the satellite prison camps dormitory housing at the prison. Last month, video from inside the prison camp at Fort Dix showed the crammed living space and how the beds were just a few feet apart from each other. (The video has since been removed from YouTube). An inmate at the camp told NJ Advance Media that inmates were scared of the impact the virus was beginning to have on the prison.

In the prison camp on April 20, a man collapsed and spit up blood and green phlegm into his mask during the daily temperature checks, according to the petition. As the man lay on the floor, according to the petition, an officer allegedly sprayed the mans body and his pillow and bed with disinfectant.

The fundamental structure of the low- and minimum-security Fort Dix facility makes it a COVID-19 deathtrap, the petition says.

While no inmates have died at the prison as of Monday, according to the BOP, the petition says "as a result of Fort Dixs failures, COVID-19 has begun to spread through the facility like wildfire. The petition says the prison cant be sure of the exact numbers of inmates who have the virus because of the lack of testing.

The petition argues that a first step to limit the impact of the virus on the inmates and the prisons employees would be to release medically vulnerable inmates, like Wragg. In an April 3 memo, U.S. Attorney General William Barr directed the BOP to immediately maximize appropriate transfers to home confinement.

However, according to the petition, Fort Dix has not released a single inmate into home confinement under their discretion. Wragg has petitioned for compassionate release three times. Ortiz denied them on April 24, according to the petition.

Every day brings increasing panic and increasing risk of serious illness or death, the petition says. This petition may be their last chance before a COVID-19 catastrophe overwhelms the prison.

Wragg wrote to the court that he has a place to stay on temporary release with his wife in Maryland, where he has a cardiologist, neurologists and a psychiatrist who are equipped to treat him. Without that option, he wrote that he fears he will contract the virus now that it is inside the prisons walls.

I often cry when I call my wife now," Wragg wrote. "We worry that contracting COVID-19 would be a death sentence for me.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com.
Christina Segundo-Hernandez lives in Fort Worth, Texas, with her husband and four children. She was born in the United States and is an American citizen, as are her four children. Yet she won't be getting her $1,200 stimulus check, nor will she be getting the additional $2,000 -- that's $500 apiece for her children -- all because her husband is not an American citizen.

PHOTO: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif. walks with Rep. Joaquin Castro, Feb. 16, 2017, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP, FILE)

Segundo-Hernandez is part of a federal class action lawsuit filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense fund in Maryland this week. MALDEF estimates there are 2 million American citizens who won't receive the checks because their spouses are not American citizens, while the Migration Policy Institute estimates the number to be 1.2 million.

The lawsuit has gained the attention of Congressional Democratic leaders  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Joaquin Castro.

MORE: Who will get what and when from the $2 trillion relief package

The predicament Segundo-Hernandez faces is thanks to a provision in the CARES Act, the law that provides one-time $1,200 coronavirus emergency relief payments to Americans who makes less than $75,000 per year, as well as $500 additional for each dependent child under 17. The CARES Act stipulates that any taxpayers who file with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), rather than a Social Security Number (SSN), are ineligible for stimulus payments -- including ITIN holders who file jointly with U.S. citizens who do have SSNs, as in the case of married couples.

ITINs are assigned by the IRS to collect taxes from workers who are ineligible to receive SSNs. Many ITIN holders are undocumented workers in the U.S., while others are people living outside the U.S. in the midst of applying for citizenship or a green card.

Segundo-Hernandez does have a Social Security number, since she is an American citizen. But she and her husband, who has an ITIN, filed jointly last year, rendering their whole family ineligible for the emergency payments.

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Anastasia Campos is another U.S. citizen affected by the same issue. "We have individuals who are waiting for their papers to go through. They have not ever entered illegally. They were included on the taxes because we are told this is something Immigration wants to see. They want to see documentation, continuity," Campos said. Campos has not received her stimulus check because she filed her taxes jointly with her husband, who has an ITIN number.

"I am at home with my four children and we have nothing. We have nothing. We are lost. And feeling like Ive been slapped in the face by my government is wrong. I have always contributed, as has my husband," Campos said.

The Mexican American Legal Defense fund filed the class action lawsuit on behalf of the American citizens who were denied payments because they're married to ITIN holders.

Another federal lawsuit filed against President Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was filed in Chicago last week. Lawyers say the plaintiff in that case, who remains anonymous, is not being treated "as equal to his fellow United States citizens based solely on whom he chose to marry."

PHOTO: Bilingual COVID-19 signage hangs at the employee entrance of a pork processing plant in Minnesota, April 18, 2020. (Star Tribune via AP, FILE)

"Plaintiff has lawfully filed taxes in the United States, yet he is being denied the rights and privileges under the CARES Act," the lawsuit says.

On Friday, Pelosi, Schumer and Castro gathered on a conference call, which included Segundo-Hernandez and Campos, to raise awareness of the issue.

"I would say this is a monumental injustice. Right now there are millions of Americans being denied because they are part of a mixed status family," Pelosi said. Schumer called the situation "a form of discrimination."

MORE: Trump pushes payroll tax suspension unlikely to help unemployed, experts say

But neither Pelosi nor Schumer offered specific guidance on the conference call as to how they would approach fixing the problem. Pelosi did say it should be "one of the easiest things we can do." Senate Republicans have not indicated willingness to join them.

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.

Castro noted the House version of CARES does include a fix for this issue, but the final version passed by the Senate did not. The CARES Act includes an exception for couples in which one member served in the Armed Forces in the past year, even if one is a citizen and the other is not.

Castro laid out the Congressional Hispanic Caucus's stance on the issue, which is that all taxpayers regardless of immigration status should receive payments, since they pay into the system. Castro also highlighted the fact that so many ITIN holders are essential workers on the frontlines, like meatpacking plant workers, or those working in fields to ensure the supply chain of produce continues uninterrupted.

Some Congressional Democrats introduced a bill that would ensure all taxpayers, including non-citizen ITIN holders, would be eligible for the $1,200 payment. The Leave No Taxpayer Behind Act was introduced in early April by Congressman Lou Correa, who was joined by Congresswoman Judy Chu and Congressman Raul Grijalva, but with the House out of session for most of April, the effort hasn't gone anywhere.

This piece has been updated to correct information about Anastasia Campos's husband and to clarify that she is not a plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by MALDEF.

ABC News's Lauren Lantry and Jim Hill contributed to this report.

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





Some 1.2 million Americans won't get stimulus checks because they're married to immigrants originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, New Zealand institutions, the Government and communities are supporting the 51,000 international students currently studying at New Zealand institutions. New Zealand values international students and their health and well-being are top priority, and the government has implemented student care and support, accommodation, and healthcare initiatives, as well as visa and part-time work extensions. In such unprecedented times, a New Zealand government student support factsheet outlines support for international students:

Visa support

Addressing visa concerns, students with a temporary visa due to expire between 1 April and 9 July 2020 will have their visas extended to 25 September. Adjustments are also being made for tertiary students who are unable to leave and are no longer enrolled.

Relaxed work rights and wage subsidies

New Zealand has also relaxed work rights for international students. As per the revised rights, international students in healthcare roles including aged residential care may work more than 20 hours per week for a period of three months. To help students cope with financial hardship, the Government is offering wage subsidies to those whose employment has been affected by COVID-19. Universities and student associations are offering budgeting or finance services, emergency payments from a hardship fund, or a food parcel. Students have been guided to their local Civil Defense Emergency Management (CDEM) Group for basic food, medicine and cleaning supplies. Free public healthcare is provided to international students if they think they have contracted COVID-19.

Hotline set-up and accommodation arrangements

Students have additional support by the Tertiary Education Commission on a hotline number dedicated to them. If students are feeling anxious or lonely, there are several free counselling services they can use and have been provided with the necessary contact details.

The hotline is a one-stop solution for international students with all kinds of queries. Students living in a hostel have been advised to check with their place of study to confirm accommodation arrangements that they have in place. Student hostels are strictly enforcing personal distancing and hygiene requirements, in accordance with Ministry of Health guidelines.

These measures continue New Zealands focus on international student support. In 2017, New Zealand launched the International Student Wellbeing Strategy that further elevates the standard of pastoral care for international students. New Zealand was the first country in the world to implement a Code of Practice for Pastoral Care of International Students, which by law requires education providers to provide certain standards of care for students  such as providing accommodation advice and airport transport options for students.
Iceland have offered Jason Manford a job after his application to work as a driver for Tesco was rejected.

The comedian, 38, joked he was 'livid' that his local Tesco store had declined his application and admitted that he was 'only trying to do his bit' amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Iceland replied to his tweet offering him work for a day and promising to make a donation to the NHS in his name.

That's why comedians go to Iceland! Jason Manford revealed his application to work as a driver at his local Tesco supermarket rejected, but Iceland were quick to offer him work

In response to Tesco's rejection, Jason had posted: 'Absolutely livid Tesco. I was only trying to do my bit.

He went on to joke that he'll be keeping an eye on the new employee, and said: 'I hope the better person got and enjoys the job, I'll be watching.'

But Iceland stepped in, saying: 'Our door is always open for you. Help us out for the day and well make a donation to the NHS in your name.'

Job offer: Iceland Foods replied to Jason's tweet, saying he can work with them for a day and the supermarket will make a donation to the NHS

Thanks, but no thanks! The star's post, which appeared to be in jest, also included a screenshot of the email he received informing him they wouldn't be pursuing his application

Jason's original post had included a screenshot of Tesco's rejection email informing him they wouldn't be pursuing his application.

The email read: 'Hello Jason, we appreciate your interest to work for Tesco during these unprecedented times and thank you for your application for the Customer Assistant - Convenience.

'Regrettably we are unable to progress your application forward this time as the vacancy is now closed. Unfortunately, due to such a high volume of applications we are unable to provide any detailed feedback.

Declined: The comedian said he was 'livid' that the store had declined his application and admitted that he was 'only trying to do his bit' amid the coronavirus pandemic

'If you are interest in other opportunities at Tesco, or would like to be kept in the loop about future jobs that may be right for you, keep your Tesco Career Centre up to date.'

Jason had applied for a role at the Alderley Road Express in Wilmslow, which is local to his Cheshire home where he lives with wife Lucy Dyke and their children.

Tesco responded to Jason following his posts on social media and claimed that he was rejected because he didn't meet the deadline for the application.

Fuming: In response to the rejection, he posted on Instagram: ' Absolutely livid Tesco. I was only trying to do my bit'

Wanting to help: Jason later defended his post after people accused him of 'taking the p**s' by applying for a job at his local supermarket

A Tesco spokesman said: 'We've recruited around 50,000 temporary workers during the Coronavirus pandemic and they have played a huge part in helping us to serve customers safely during these unprecedented times.

'Jason's skills would have no doubt brought a lot of joy to our customers and colleagues, so it's a shame he didn't make the deadline for this vacancy. But should he ever want to join the Tesco family in the future, we'd be happy to receive an application from him.'

Jason later defended his post after people accused him of 'taking the p**s' by applying for a job at his local supermarket.

He said: 'A few people thought I was taking the p**s, being insensitive or making it up about my previous message about being turned down for a job as a Tesco driver.

Struggle: Last month, Jason admitted he broke down in tears at the thought of having to learn to be a 'full-time dad' again in lockdown, speaking during an appearance on The Steph Show

'I applied 7 weeks ago when I thought, like everyone, it was basically wartime and it would require all hands on deck.

'Curtains got cancelled on the 16th & I applied on the 21st fo quite a few jobs). I have since managed to fill my 'spare time' doing some volunteer driving (this is not 'virtue signalling', just defending myself!) and homeschooling 6 kids (and doing our little quizzes and kids' comedy clubs!) and being made to clean my own house by my wife.

'At the same time I also don't believe "we're all this together". I'm more aware than ever the differences in society & chatting to some of the people I've driven the last few weeks has only highlighted how hard the lockdown has been for people with less money and space.

'I feel extremely fortunate. Hope you're all keeping safe and being kind to yourself and to others.
- Proxymity welcomes eight investors, including BNY Mellon, Citi, Clearstream, Computershare, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, and State Street.

- Proxymity, developed by Citi, to become an independent entity based in London.

- Proxymity to leverage new capital to scale the platform and team, build out its investor communications platform, and expand its services to a wider client base and geography.

LONDON, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ProxymitySM, the digital investor communications platform developed within Citi's Institutional Clients Group, announced today that it has raised $20.5 million in a strategic round of investment and will form its own entity via a global, industry-led consortium. The consortium brings together the leading global and direct custodians and the leading issuer agents ensuring unparalleled, instant access to the world's leading investors and companies. BNY Mellon, Citi, Clearstream, Computershare, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, and State Street comprise the newly formed Proxymity consortium.

These global institutions are committed to delivering Proxymity's vision of enhancing the investor communications ecosystem and providing significant benefits to the global market. Proxymity's pioneering services include a real-time and fully transparent electronic proxy voting platform, which is especially valuable amid current remote working arrangements. The platform provides post-meeting vote confirmation and gives investors up to nine more days per meeting to research and vote. Proxymity also offers a shareholder disclosure platform, which automates shareholder ID requests in industry compliant formats without the need for any manual intervention. Given upcoming regulatory changes, these features position Proxymity as an ideal solution to aid financial institutions and compliance teams around the world.

With this investment and commitment from the consortium, Proxymity will significantly scale its platform offerings so that it can deliver its services to a wider client base and across a broad range of geographic markets. The Proxymity team will be based in London. Co-founders Dean Little and Jonathan Smalley, who have over 30 years of combined industry experience in custody product development, have been appointed Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer, respectively.

"We're extremely proud of what Proxymity has achieved so far within Citi since we developed the platform in 2017. To date, Proxymity has supported over 3,000 shareholder meetings and, after successful pilots, we've fully launched the platform in the UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, and Australia, as well as a pilot in Spain," said Dean Little, CEO and Co-Founder of Proxymity. "The establishment of this strong consortium is a vote of confidence in Proxymity's future and overall vision and we look forward to growing the team and suite of products to deliver Proxymity to more institutions around the world."

Little and Smalley formulated the idea for Proxymity while working in Citi's Equities and Securities Services (ESS) Custody Product group through an ESS-sponsored innovation program. As the idea for the platform evolved, Citi's Innovation Lab network and D10XSM program, an internal strategic growth process that nurtures the development and launch of business solutions across Citi's businesses, helped Proxymity iterate and evaluate its vision to improve the proxy voting system. The platform was first launched in the UK in 2018.

"Proxymity exemplifies the power of innovation that comes from within a global institution like Citi and the pace at which we can drive change at scale," shared Emily Turner, Head of Innovation & Business Development, Citi Institutional Clients Group. "Because of Dean and Jon's deep expertise and understanding of the problems issuers and investors face, Citi immediately saw the potential for Proxymity and we were excited to support the development of this platform."

"In order to truly improve the proxy voting process, it was always our intention to expand Proxymity so that it meets the needs of the industry," explained Jonathan Smalley, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Proxymity. "We are thrilled to welcome an exceptional group of partners who understand Proxymity's opportunity to meaningfully improve investor communications. Taking the platform into consortium ownership means we will have unparalleled ability to scale and leverage each of our partner's unique role in the industry."

With this new capital and support from the consortium, Proxymity will scale and grow rapidly across the globe. Its immediate focus will be the EU markets ahead of the forthcoming SRDII implementation. Given regulatory changes and new challenges presented to companies because of the COVID-19 crisis, Proxymity's ability to connect stakeholders directly and digitally in real-time will help issuers, intermediaries, and investors who are looking for a seamless solution to achieve compliance. Proxymity will also work globally to help companies effectively and efficiently provide a solution to their shareholder identification process.

In addition to a commercial team based in London, Proxymity will maintain a technology and R & D team in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Comments from Consortium Members:

James Slater, Global Head of Business Solutions, BNY Mellon Asset Servicing

"As an industry-led platform, Proxymity will increase transparency and create efficiencies in the proxy voting and shareholder disclosure process. We are very supportive of complementary digital solutions that can be integrated through our open-architecture platform, and look forward to not only helping to shape Proxymity's future, but that of the industry as a whole."

Chris Cox, Managing Director, EMEA Equity & Security Services Head, Citi



"Proxymity is a genuinely innovative and unique platform with capabilities that fundamentally redesign anachronistic processes to deliver an enterprise-ready technology that offers investors and corporates genuine transparency and value for their money. It's been a privilege to work with Dean and Jon over the last three years to bring Proxymity to life and I'm delighted at the breadth and strength of the partners that have chosen to co-invest to support Proxymity's next evolution. The Consortium's shared enthusiasm says a lot about what Proxymity can achieve, both in terms of new market coverage and new product development like SRDII services."

Thilo Derenbach, Head of European Custody Product, Clearstream



"Proxymity represents an important step towards eliminating manual tasks in the investor communications industry and as a result removing inefficiencies and errors from services, such as proxy voting. Clearstream supports this market initiative together with leading market participants to increase efficiency and transparency in the custody chain, improving market development and client experience for European investors and beyond."

Paul Conn, President, Global Capital Markets, Computershare

"Having collaborated effectively with Citi and the Proxymity team from the very early stages of the idea, through the initial MVP and market testing, we're equally excited by the broad and deep interest in this 'spin-out' transaction. Through a shared vision, trust and effective collaboration, it has already been possible to launch the platform in Australia and the U.K. markets and foresee the global potential for this market-wide innovation. We're proud to be a founding partner in the consortium. Proxymity will bring benefits to not just our corporate clients around the world, but to many of their investors globally, and to the industry as a whole."

Michaela Ludbrook, Head of Securities Services, Deutsche Bank

"We are very excited to be partnering on this initiative. Since custodians are the natural conduit of real-time information between issuers and investors, Deutsche Bank welcomes initiatives that are designed to foster more efficient capital markets and supports tools such as Proxymity. By providing services such as a fully transparent proxy voting platform, Proxymity is one way of bringing STP to the important area of voters' rights and the long-term stability of the companies in which these voters invest."

Jane Karczewski, Head of Global Custody, HSBC Securities Services

"Proxymity is perfectly aligned with HSBC's data and digital innovation strategy. The platform and architecture reduces operational inefficiencies and will enhance the service we can offer clients through real-time digital data transfers. The real-time speed to market of voting and shareholder information across the full Custody network complements our One Custody Programme, bringing our clients closer to market."

Chris Rowland, Global Head of Custody, J.P. Morgan

"Proxymity has an opportunity to re-engineer the way investor communications works by automating proxy voting and eliminating the manual processes of old. Together, we will leverage the speed and efficiency of its underlying technology and ensure it achieves scale through industry partnership."

Akbar Sheriff, Head of Global Custody, State Street

"State Street is excited to conclude this investment and we look forward to working with the broader Proxymity team to unlock many exciting use cases on behalf of our clients. Being a member of this consortium will not only benefit our firm's custody offering but may also yield advantages for our Charles River clients through well-defined integration to our front-to-back platform, State Street AlphaSM."

For any media enquiries:

Proxymity

[email protected]

About ProxymitySM

ProxymitySM is an award winning, pioneering, end-to-end digital investor communications platform that directly connects issuers, investors, and their intermediaries to provide accurate, transparent and more immediate data to improve business relations. Proxymity is an enterprise-ready solution that provides real-time transparency, allowing instant amendment of instructions and much sought after confirmation that votes have been recorded at shareholder meetings. Eliminating manual input and interpretation of data, Proxymity helps remove potential data corruption and reduces risk for all participants. Proxymity was founded by Dean Little and Jonathan Smalley through Citi's D10XSM program, and named "Best Innovation in Service Provision" by Global Custodian.

For more information, visit www.proxymity.io

SOURCE Proxymity

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50 Cent has hit back at an Australian street artist who has been painting massive murals around Australia of the rapper depicted as controversial figures.

Melbourne-based graffitist Lushsux has been producing giant paintings of 50 Cent almost every day for the last two weeks as part of his project, '50 Month'.

The elusive artist, who has been described as 'Australia's Banksy', has shared photos of his street art portraying Curtis Jackson as Taylor Swift, Donald Trump, Post Malone and Chinese Chairman Mao - much to the annoyance of the rapper.

In his latest attack, Lushsux unveiled a new painting on Monday of 50 Cent as US Vice President Mike Pence, followed by another one of him as Tekashi 6ix 9ine.

Melbourne-based street artist Lushsux unveiled a new painting on Monday of 50 Cent as US Vice President Mike Pence, followed by another one of him as Tekashi 6ix 9ine.

50 Cent (pictured in 2019) was not impressed with the painting and threatened to bash the artist

'Here is the face I imagine fiddy makes each morning when he sees I've done another wall,' the artist quipped on Instagram.

A fed-up 50 Cent reacted to the painting on Tuesday threatening to hunt the artist down in Australia and bash him.

'I'm sick of this s**t, he think I can't find his ass in Australia. I'm a have a knot put right on his f***ing head,' he said.

The rapper has been reacting to the paintings as they've emerged over the last week, sharing them on his own Instagram account expressing his frustration.

But 50 Cent has also given credit where credit is due, complimenting the artist's talent and commitment to the campaign.

'Look at this s**t head. Talented nut case,' he said about the mural of him as Mike Pence.

Melbourne street artist Lushsuh took aim at 50 Cent again on Thursday after unveiling a massive mural of the rapper's face on Taylor Swift's head, called 'Swifty Cent'

The American rapper reacted to the painting on Friday threatening to bash the artist

A fed up 50 Cent complained about the mystery artist's painting

Lushsux on Sunday had declared this week, '50 week' , producing a painting of the rapper as different people every day. Pictured above are murals of 50 as Donald Trump and Chinese Chariman Mao f

Reacting to a painting of him without teeth, he said: 'This is some bulls**t man, but how the hell is he doing it so fast. Alright he's talented,but why the f*** he pick me.'

The rapper's beef with the artist goes back to 2018 - when a mural of 50 Cent as controversial rapper Tekashi 6ix 9ine first emerged.

Lushsux reignited their feud last week with a painting of 50 Cent's face on Taylor Swift's head dubbed, 'Swifty Cent'.

The post drew comments from other celebrities including fellow rapper Fat Joe who wrote: 'They gotta stop lol'.

American actress Nia Long chimed in: 'Ok but his one is kinda funny. You gotta laugh at this one. SMH'.

Fans have since speculated that two are in cahoots and the rapper may actually be in on the joke.

Lushsux had earlier unveiled his mural of 50 Cent as fellow rapper Post Malone, further incensing the rapper

Lushsux first trolled the rapper in 2018, by painting a giant mural of 50 with rainbow dreadlocks and teeth to resemble controversial rapper Tekashi 6ix 9nine, leaving 50 unimpressed.

'50cent way too smart. Yall are in-cahoots as s**t. And nobody can tell me different', US rapper Wesperiod commented.

'He paying you big to do these!? Ill match it to spread my message,' another said.

Lushsux had initially announced his '50 week' campaign last Sunday producing a painting of the rapper nearly every day as different people.

He revealed his first masterpiece of the week painting 50 as Chinese Chairman Mao, followed by a more flattering mural of the rapper in his trademark Yankees cap.

Earlier, he also painted him as US President Donald Trump and as fellow rapper Post Malone, further incensing 50 Cent.

'Who the f**k keep painting these murals of me all over the place,' he said. 'This is f**ked up man. That's 3 now 69, Trump & Post Malone.'

Lushsux first rose to infamy in 2016 when he painted then-US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton dressed in an American flag swimsuit.

He also ruffled some feathers when he painted a mural of US President Donald Trump locking lips with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
T he House of Commons echoed with peals of laughter today as Matt Hancock complimented a fellow Tory MP on his lockdown hairdo.

Julian Lewis, the MP for New Forest East, appeared via video link during a virtual sitting of Parliament.

Mr Lewis was discussing shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) when the Health Secretary noticed his smart locks.

The backbencher asked Mr Hancock if he would get in touch with a firm in his constituency with access to a network of manufacturers in southern China that could supply PPE to the UK.

Mr Hancock said he would be happy to get in touch with the firm once he had received the details, adding: Id also be very happy to know where (Mr Lewis) got his haircut because its extraordinary.

Nobody else has got such smart hair, everybody else is looking rather increasingly bushy.

Mr Lewis beamed at the comments, which were met with delight by the scant gathering of MPs in the chamber.

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle had to stifle his guffaws as he turned to the next questioner, Labour MP Alex Sobel.
WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann sued SoftBank , its biggest investor, over the Japanese company's decision to scuttle a $US3 billion ($4.7 billion) deal to buy stock from employees and other shareholders, that was part of an effort to bail out the struggling workplace provider.

Neumann, who was set to reap the biggest windfall from the transaction, claims SoftBank and its Vision Fund relied on legally faulty pretexts to renege on an agreement to purchase the shares as the conglomerate's financial position weakened, according to a copy of the complaint reviewed by Bloomberg. The lawsuit, filed in the Delaware Chancery Court, couldn't immediately be verified on the docket.

WeWork founder Adam Neumann claims SoftBank and its Vision Fund relied on legally faulty pretexts to renege on an agreement to purchase the shares as the conglomerate's financial position weakened. Credit:AP

Rob Townsend, the chief legal officer at SoftBank, described the claims as "meritless" in an emailed statement. "Under the terms of our agreement, which Adam Neumann signed, SoftBank had no obligation to complete the tender offer," Townsend said.

The stock deal was part of a bailout package from SoftBank after WeWork's initial public offering failed last year. Neumann, the controversial face of the business, agreed to leave the board and, in return, would be able to sell as much as $US970 million in stock to SoftBank.
When President Trump brought up hydroxychloroquine as a promising potential treatment for COVID-19, a huge upsurge of negative political publicity followed from it. It was strange stuff, because up until then, the treatment, which had been safely used to treat malaria, lupus, and arthritis, had been seeing promising results for COVID-19, too. Yet the condemnations from all sides poured for weeks. It wasn't just the political establishment blasting it; it seemed to be the medical establishment, too. That raises questions as to whether financial interests might be involved here.

It started with the press engaging in its customary contrarianism against Trump when he called the treatment "promising." The logic was simple: If Trump liked it, then it had to be bad.

How's this for a slanted headline and report from NPR, which ran on April 10?

COVID-19 Patients Given Unproven Drug In Texas Nursing Home In 'Disconcerting' Move

Last night, the real story was obtained by Fox News host Laura Ingraham, and it's quite a different picture. It isn't out on YouTube yet, so I will describe it:

A Galveston-area doctor, Dr. Robin Armstrong, who was in charge of a nursing home, found himself in the middle of the worst health care nightmare anyone can imagine: a COVID-19 outbreak, on a home full of elderly people, and he was in charge. Odds were big they were going to die. We already know what the coronavirus did to a nursing home in Washington State, and we have subsequently learned what inserting COVID-19 patients into unwilling nursing homes in New York City did to those populations. Coronavirus + Nursing Home = Death Sentence. That was what he was looking at. In desperation, the Texas doctor decided to treat his threatened patients with hydroxychloroquine in a last-ditch effort to save them...and he called it right. Unlike those other places, his patients got well. His informed judgment saved the lives of a building full of nursing home patients, and he reported no bad side-effects such as heart problems brought on by the treatment. He would have been justified to take such risks because his treatment was triage, and the alternative was the death sentence. But there wasn't even that. His patients lived, they regained their fragile health, and there were no stacked bodies or chaotic medical scenes in his part of Texas on his watch.

That's frankly a story of heroism, and the brilliant medical man should be celebrated for the huge number of lives he saved.

Instead, all he got were trashy stories with scare headlines like NPR's, painting him as some kind of evildoer. Bad medicine, unproven treatment, everybody get scared.

No good deed goes unpunished.

The anti-HCQ hysteria spread much farther than the reflexively anti-Trump press  it went deep into the Trump-hating Democratic Party, which also condemned Trump's favorable mention of HCQ. A young black Democratic state legislator from Michigan, who said the treatment most certainly helped save her life, was vilified by her own party for giving President Trump credit for mentioning it. She said thanks, and they threatened to expel her from their party. This, despite the ugly fact that the black community was getting hit harder by the coronavirus than others and therefore stood to gain the most from the cheap and plentiful HCQ and HCQ-antibiotic treatments. For Democrats, hating Trump was a bigger priority, so if Trump liked the treatment, then it would be important to not just scream about it but keep it away from patients  even if they had to intimidate them.

The political picture was strange as hell. Who the heck should care if Trump likes a treatment or not? If you're sick, what matters is whether a treatment is going to work and whether it's going to be safe. That's all a COVID-19 patient, struggling to breathe on a ventilator, cares about, and while there were no big extended conclusive studies proving hydroxychroquine a panacea for treating the illness, there were many smaller studies out there and experiences that pointed to the drug's safety and effectiveness, with one showing a 91% effectiveness rate.

After all, how could a drug that had been on the market for years for the treatment of lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and malaria suddenly be bad stuff, particularly since it had been used so successfully to treat COVID-19 abroad?

Yet the negative waves kept coming  at one point the New York Times argued that Trump had a stake through a mutual fund portfolio in a company that manufactured the drug  worth all of $1,300 at best, which for him is money he tips the waiters. Even Snopes called that "mostly false." It's also worth noting that many pharmaceuticals make the drug  Teva, Sanolfi, and Novartis are the ones that turned up in a quick Google search  and there are many generic versions, so it's a pretty cheap thing with less money to be made.

They might have been barking up the wrong tree.

ZeroHedge wondered if Gilead, which had been developing a rival treatment, Remdesivir, might have had a hand in this negative campaign against HCQ, following a reading of an extensive report from the respected climate-skeptic blog WattsUpWithThat, which featured this post by Leo Goldstein:

I reviewed the scientific literature on hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), azithromycin (AZ), and their use for COVID-19. My conclusions: HCQ-based treatments are effective in treating COVID-19, unless started too late.

Studies, cited in opposition, have been misinterpreted, invalid, or worse.

HCQ and AZ are some of the most tested and safest prescription drugs.

Severe COVID-19 frequently causes cardiac effects, including heart arrhythmia. QTc prolonging drugs might amplify this tendency. Millions of people regularly take drugs having strong QTc prolongation effect, and neither FDA nor CDC bother to warn them. HCQ+AZ combination, probably has a mild QTc prolongation effect. Concerns over its negative effects, however minor, can be addressed by respecting contra-indications.

Effectiveness of HCQ-based treatment for COVID-19 is hampered by conditions that are presented as precautions, delaying the onset of treatment. For examples, some states require that COVID-19 patients be treated with HCQ exclusively in hospital settings.

The COVID-19 Treatment Panel of NIH evaded disclosure of the massive financial links of its members to Gilead Sciences , the manufacturer of a competing drug remdesivir. Among those who failed to disclose such links are 2 out of 3 of its co-chairs.

Despite all the attempts by certain authorities to prevent COVID-19 treatment with HCQ and HCQ+AZ, both components are approved by FDA, and doctors can prescribe them for COVID-19.

By the time the National Institutes of Health issued its non-recommendation of HCQ, questions were being raised as to whether this was really about just hating Trump. I wrote about that here.

Because along with the NIH's non-recommendation for HCQ (which wasn't as bad as the press touted, but enough for a round of negative media stories), there also was an enthusiastic NIH recommendation in late April for Gilead's Remdesivir, same company the NIH directors had a lot of conflicts of interest in.

Take that, Trump! Except that Trump issued high praise for that drug too, and that didn't set off a barrage of negative press stories the way HCQ did.

Maybe there was something to the NIH conflicts of interest which just happened to coincide with NIH praise for Gilead:

For one thing, NPR reported that Gilead had ramped up its big lobbying operations to "hit a new high" to promote that drug.

Gilead Sciences, the drugmaker behind the experimental COVID-19 treatment remdesivir, spent more on lobbying Congress and the administration in the first quarter of 2020 than it ever has before, according to federal filings. The pharmaceutical company spent $2.45 million on lobbying in the first three months of the year, a 32% increase over the $1.86 million it spent in the first quarter of 2019.

Meanwhile, one Harvard medical professor, Dr. William Haseltine, wrote in a column in Forbes that he found reason for skepticism about that effusive praise for Gilead's newly developed treatment.

Enthusiasm for remsdesivir as a treatment for COVID-19 has escalated since the NIH announcement of results. But as I wrote yesterday, the data for the NIH study has not been publicly released or peer reviewed, meaning that we should continue to exercise extreme caution when considering its use against COVID-19.

Which if he's right, would make NIH look pretty conflicted of interest indeed.

Does that stuff go on? One company strives to badmouth one medically developed treatment so that its own expensively developed own treatment might be used instead?

I know that when I wrote a story about vaping in 2016 which ran in the New York Observer, I was surprised to learn that Big Pharma more than anyone was seeking to put small kitchen-table vaping operations, which helped smokers quit smoking, out of business, calling them irresponsible and dangerous. The preponderance of evidence, though, suggested their real reason was to promote their own smoking cessation drugs, and petty vaping companies needed to be stomped out because they were cutting into market share. Significantly, these lobbies worked with Democrats who know how to politicize a cause.

There's no smoking gun at this point, but there are a lot of circumstantials that might just point to a big campaign to stomp out an inexpensive and de-centralized rival. If so, it's another manifestation of the swamp going against the interests of the little guy. It's why Trump is always a lightning rod for establishment fury and if that's not an endorsement for the little guy's voting choice, what is?
Kit Williamson is the future of LGBTQ storytelling.

You might recognize him from his stint on Mad Men, but over the past seven years Williamson has amassed a cult fan base thanks to Eastsiders, the queer dark comedy he created, wrote and starred in.

Williamson created Eastsiders as a bare-bones web series in 2012. At first, his costars were mostly friends  including his now-husband John Halbach and Crazy Rich Asians star Constance Wu  and the production took a look at the queer relationships between characters in Los Angeles' Silver Lake and West Hollywood neighborhoods.

Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic Constance Wu & Kit Williamson

Before she went on to star in Fresh Off the Boat and Hustlers, Wu joined the Eastsiders cast to be "able to work with friends," she says. "Kit is a good friend. I made Eastsiders because it began with heart. It taught me that I'm happiest when I choose heartfelt projects over flashy, lucrative, spectacular ones. So I've let my heart guide my career [and] character choices ever since, and that's been key to shaping it."

Over the years, the show's following grew, and Netflix eventually acquired the series, which welcomed everyone from Drag Race alumni Willam and Katya to Queer Eye for the Straight Guy's Jai Rodriguez. Eastsiders came to an end with season 4 back in December, but its impact on queer representation in the media lives on.

Here, Williamson opens up about Eastsiders, LGBTQ storytelling and what's next.

How did you know it was time for Eastsiders to end after four seasons?

I feel like good stories have endings, and it really felt like the right place to leave the characters. I may not be done with the characters forever, but I'm definitely done with this format in terms of a large ensemble, six half-hours produced independently. It's all-consuming; it takes so much of my time and energy. I'm ready to move on to some other depths.

Eastsiders started as a web series and made its way to Netflix. What were the defining moments along the way?

Story continues

We didn't have any expectations going into this when we put it on YouTube back in 2012. We launched the first two episodes and they went viral, which is something we just weren't prepared for. We really set out to make something cool and have that be the point, to finish something and make something that we want to watch.

So from really, really humble beginnings, it just kind of kept growing and snowballing and then finally landing on Netflix. And having the languages doubled in our third season to more than 30 languages really unlocked this global fan base that we hadn't experienced before. That first month when season 3 was released, we got messages every five minutes from around the world for over a month.

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty John Halbach & Kit Williamson

And on top of that, your own star has risen along the way as well. When did you start to get recognized out in public?

I would definitely say season 3, which is interesting because we definitely had this cult following before that. My husband and I were on our honeymoon in Europe and we were getting stopped on the street all the time in France, in Amsterdam, in Berlin.

How has your life changed since the show began?

It's created a lot of opportunities for me professionally, particularly as a writer, and it's really helped me narrow my focus in on what I really want to do in this industry. I've always kind of done a little bit of everything, and while I would love to continue doing a little bit of everything, the ultimate end goal for me is to be a showrunner.

I'm really inspired by Lena Dunham and Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy  showrunners who have a lot of different stories being told at once and people who combine their skillsets, too. I want to do it all. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is especially inspiring to me; I would love to be the gay male Phoebe Waller-Bridge someday, to have a show that I write and star in  like Fleabag going at the same time as the show, like Killing Eve, that she created. That's just such an amazing double-edged sword that she's wielding, that she can do both of those things.

Santiago Felipe/Getty Kit Williamson

What shows or books made an impact on you growing up as a gay person?

The theater was always my first love. Tennessee Williams  I just feel such an affinity for and a connection to both of us coming from same beat, and I feel like I've just been chasing his ghost all over this country from Key West, to New Orleans, to Los Angeles, to New York. I'm obsessed with is his story and the stories that he told. There's so much to learn about the queer experience today from his writing. The same is true with Edward Albee, who is a huge inspiration to me. My cat is named after Edward Albee [laughs].

As far as like filmmakers, John Cameron Mitchell. I love how unabashedly queer he is and his work is. Hedwig and the Angry Inch was really formative for me. That was the first time I really saw drag represented in an era before RuPaul's Drag Race. Growing up as a little gay boy and seeing something as radically queer as that was really mind-blowing to me. I couldn't believe what I was watching.

Your show has really become a staple in queer culture, too. Aside from [HBOs] Looking, there really havent been any other big gay shows in maybe the last 10 years or so.

When we started the show in 2012, which was two years before Looking, according to GLAAD's Where We Are On Television report, 2.9% of characters in network television were LGBTQ. Now that number is above 10% and the most recent report.

There was very little representation  and the representation that we got was really flimsy; characters weren't really allowed flaws and complexities and an inner life. You usually it didn't go home with them. They sort of disappeared into their perfect lives and never really got to participate fully in the story. They never got to change and grow as characters. By and large, it was very, very rare that an LGBTQ character was a fully fleshed-out human being.

We're seeing that change. We're being invited to the table of mainstream storytelling and that's so exciting. But I still think we need to carve out space to tell our own stories, to tell stories about our community. It's kind of like, what's the queer version of the Bechdel test? It's not just enough to have a woman in an ensemble: To pass the Bechdel test you need to have two female characters with names talking to each other about something other than a man.

That's a gap in our media and our representation that a show like Eastsiders is trying to fill. What's it mean for queer people to be in communication with each other? To not just tell stories about relationships, but stories about friendships and communities. Almost every actor in Eastsiders identifies as LGBTQ, and as the ensemble has grown, we've tried to represent as many different kinds of queer people in relationships as we can. That's something that's been really important to me.

Why is it important to you to represent queer stories?

Growing up in Mississippi, I didn't know any openly gay people. I was, for a time, certain that I was the only person in the world who was like me. And when you feel that way, it's very easy to believe the lie that you will never be happy because that's all you see. That's all you hear about. Growing up in a conservative Christian community, all I heard was propaganda as a kid that the gay lifestyle was a miserable one that ended in loneliness, heartbreak and disease. That was the only option available to me. Gay people were painted as kind of miserable pariahs without a tribe, without the community.

I have found the fing opposite to be true. I was deceived as a little kid, and it nearly killed me. And I think that's not an uncommon story. But then seeing queer characters on television opened up my world beyond my small conservative Christian community, and it really saved my life. So if I can give back in any small way, if I can do that for other people, if I can reach people in countries where it's illegal or dangerous the way that the show has been doing, then I'm incredibly grateful for that opportunity. I take it really seriously.
Two days ago, a shocking incident involving a group of under-age boys casually planning a gang rape was uncovered in Delhi.

The revelation began with how an Instagram group chat of boys aged around 16-19, named Bois locker room, was exposed on Instagram and Twitter for making obscene comments and exchanging private photos of girls. Once these chats went public, it created a massive storm on social media, initiating discussions about the rape culture prevalent in our society.

Niska Nagpal / Instagram

Celebrities Swara Bhasker and Richa Chadha are the first ones to raise their voice and speak out on this issue. This is what they had to say.

Swara Bhasker tweeted, #boyslockerroom a telling tale of how toxic masculinity starts young! Underage boys gleefully planning how to rape & gangrape minor girls. Parents & teachers must address this with those Kids. Not enough to hang rapists .. we must attack the mentality that creates rapists!

#boyslockerroom a telling tale of how toxic masculinity starts young! Underage boys gleefully planning how to rape & gangrape minor girls. Parents & teachers must address this with those Kids.. Not enough to hang rapists .. we must attack the mentality that creates rapists! https://t.co/Jw4cFQ9gXM  Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) May 5, 2020

Not just this, Swara Bhasker also applauded Mumbai Police for slamming the Boys Locker Room chats.

Richa Chadha took to Twitter, and replying to the shocking news of schoolboys talking about raping girls, she wrote, This a multi-faceted problem. Because everyone is still squeamish about sex education in our populous/moralistic country, teenagers are confusing porn for sex education! And now data is free. How dangerous! This will explode in our faces in the next five years sadly, I reckon.

This a multi-faceted problem. Because everyone is still squeamish about sex education in our populous/moralistic country, teenagers are confusing porn for sex education! And now data is free. How dangerous! This will explode in our faces in the next five years sadly,I reckon. https://t.co/mPVaXPOe6d  TheRichaChadha (@RichaChadha) May 5, 2020

The public is now demanding immediate action against these boys as a strict example needs to be set. We can't wait for the day these discussions turn into physical action and harm.
Beaumont Hospital is marking World Hand Hygiene Day by projecting staff messages onto the hospital building.

Over 500 messages of support from staff to thank their colleagues, the public and those who have supported frontline workers, including local shops and restaurants, can be seen on a 60-foot wall at the hospital.

The uplifting messages are written on images of hands as a way of highlighting the importance of hand hygiene, which is vital in the fight against Covid-19.

The projection will be livestreamed on the Beaumont Hospital Facebook and Twitter pages between 9pm tonight and 2am tomorrow.

Dr Fidelma Fitzpatrick, Consultant Microbiologist at the hospital says they are grateful for the support they have received.

"We wanted to encourage each other, boost each other's morale and keep each other going," said Dr Fitzpatrick.

"We also wanted to say a big thank you to our local community and local businesses because they have been just fantastic.

"They have been sending us lots of cards and good wishes and food and flowers.

"Sometimes in the middle of a busy day it's really nice to get a card or something like that.

"We just wanted to take the opportunity to keep each other going and to say a big thanks to everybody."
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The shift to remote learning during the coronavirus outbreak has been difficult for many community college students -- and now hundreds of thousands are being told that online classes will continue in the fall semester.



The nine campuses in the Los Angeles Community College District, as well as Santa Monica College, have already decided to extend online learning into the fall semester, with possible exceptions for classes that are difficult to teach remotely.

"It was easy from the standpoint of knowing that health and safety would prevail," said Chancellor Francisco Rodriguez of the L.A. Community College District, which includes East L.A., L.A. City, L.A. Harbor, L.A. Mission, Pierce, Southwest, L.A. Trade-Tech, L.A. Valley and West L.A. colleges. Together, they enroll about 150,000 students.

Rodriguez and his administrators talked to faculty, staff, and student leaders. They weighed state and national health directives and considered scientific data on factors including when a vaccine may be available, a possible resurgence of the virus in the fall, and the COVID case and death toll in Los Angeles.

Santa Monica College had similar discussions.

One of the college's scenarios for going back to in-person instruction considered social distancing protocols that would limit classes to 6-to-12 students per room.

"It would take up more space than what we have right now," said Santa Monica College President Kathryn Jeffery

So Santa Monica College announced last week that its fall classes would be online.

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The authority and guidance to make the decision came from California Community College Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley, but individual community colleges -- or districts with multiple campuses -- make the decisions on their own.

For hundreds of thousands of other community college students in the region, it's still unclear whether they'll be learning in-person or online.

Cypress College is one of the many campuses that haven't announced a decision.

"We've been talking very seriously about it," said Cypress College President JoAnna Schilling.

She said she and her team met on video conferencing "a lot" last week to talk about the different scenarios. Like the other campuses, hers doesn't have the human or financial capacity to carry out socially distanced classes, provide employees with personal protective equipment, and sanitize spaces after each use.

"It just became super-complicated the more we talked about this and we realized even if the state allows people to go back to work, we can't do this in any responsible way," Schilling said.

When the state relaxes stay-at-home rules, she said, the campus will likely allow more employees on campus and install protective plexiglass while allowing limited student access to campus buildings and offices.

The impending decisions by campuses to go online for the fall semester has some counselors worried about students' academics.

"Many of them have expressed how difficult the remote learning aspect is," said Santa Monica College Counselor Sherri Bradford.

With fall semester enrollment opening soon, the challenges posed by remote learning -- like access to wi-fi and equipment, finding quiet places to study, and the disconnect some students feel -- are likely to factor heavily in where or whether students continue their stuides.

Bradford's college and others say they're leaning on counselors to help students and they're raising money to help students with laptops and basic needs such as food and grants.

The L.A. Community College District said it's been able to raise nearly $2 million in the last seven weeks to help students with laptops, emergency grants, and food.

"I'm really pleased that the philanthropic community has come through during this time," Chancellor Rodriguez said.
President Donald Trumps controversial pick as the special inspector general to supervise the pandemic recovery effort at the Treasury Department faces a confirmation hearing Tuesday before the Senate Banking Committee, nearly one month after his nomination.

If confirmed, Brian Miller will serve as the key watchdog in overseeing elements of the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package, tasked with rooting out fraud and abuse in the Treasury Department's $500 billion relief program for distressed businesses.

Miller, a former lawyer in the White House counsels office, will need to be confirmed by the full Senate.

The hearing could get feisty. The decision to nominate Miller infuriated some Democrats who were quick to condemn the nomination of a former White House lawyer for a role that is typically nonpartisan and independent.

PHOTO: General Services Administration, Inspector General Brian Miller testifies during a hearing before Senate Environment and Public Works Committee April 18, 2012 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images, FILE)

While in the White House counsels office, Miller played a role on Trumps impeachment defense team, rebuffing investigations into the military aid withheld from Ukraine that led to Trumps impeachment. Miller does have extensive watchdog experience. He served as inspector general for the General Services Administration for 10 years and prior to that worked at the Department of Justice for 15 years.

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.

In a prepared statement to the committee ahead of his hearing, Miller pledged to remain impartial, writing that he will seek the truth in all matters that come before him.

If confirmed, I will conduct every audit and investigation with fairness and impartiality. I will be vigilant to protect the integrity and independence of the Office of Special Inspector General, Millers prepared statement reads. I pledge to seek the truth in all matters that come before me and to use my authority and resources to uncover fraud, waste, and abuse.

Story continues

The presidents usual attitude towards inspectors general has been to immediately assume political bias and Millers appointment came the same day the president fired the Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson. It was Atkinson who first alerted Congress to the whistleblower complaint that triggered Trumps impeachment over military aid to Ukraine.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren detailed a laundry list of questions she wants addressed in an 11-page letter sent to to Miller on Monday -- ranging from if he provided legal advice to the president regarding Atkinsons removal to whether he would commit to resign if the president directed him to take action related to the CARES Act that conflicted with its intent.

In a 2018 article penned in The Hill, Miller emphasized the need for IGs to be independent, including being independent of Congress.

But the greatest danger may be to the IGs themselves, specifically to their independence, Miller wrote. IGs must be independent -- this includes being independent of Congress. Saying no to Congress is sometimes the hardest thing an IG has to do. When I was an IG, I said no to members of Congress.

But in a signing document accompanied by the CARES Act, the president indicated he would attempt to control what Miller reports to Congress.

I do not understand, and my Administration will not treat, this provision as permitting the [special inspector general for pandemic recovery] to issue reports to the Congress without presidential supervision, Trump wrote in the document.

The hearing will be held in a larger room than usual to comply with social distancing guidelines.

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 US and Worldwide: coronavirus map

Ahead of confirmation hearing, former White House lawyer picked to oversee pandemic relief vows 'independence' originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
A government scientist says he was ousted from his position after raising concerns that the Trump administration wanted to flood coronavirus hot spots like New York and New Jersey with a malaria drug that President Donald Trump was pushing despite scant scientific evidence it helped.

Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, filed the complaint Tuesday with the Office of Special Counsel, a government agency responsible for whistleblower complaints.

He alleges he was reassigned to a lesser role because he resisted political pressure to allow widespread use of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug favored by Trump.

Bright also said the Trump administration rejected his warnings on COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. Bright said he acted with urgency to address the growing spread of COVID-19 after the World Health Organization issued a warning in January.

He said he encountered resistance from HHS leadership, including Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who appeared intent on downplaying this catastrophic event.

Bright alleges in the complaint that political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services had tried to promote hydroxychloroquine as a panacea.

The officials also demanded that New York and New Jersey be 'flooded' with these drugs, which were imported from factories in Pakistan and India that had not been inspected by the FDA, the complaint says.

But Bright opposed broad use of the drug, arguing the scientific evidence wasn't there to back up its use in coronavirus patients. He felt an urgent need to tell the public that there wasn't enough scientific evidence to support using the drugs for COVID-19 patients, the complaint states.

Last month, the US Food and Drug Administration warned doctors against prescribing the drug except in hospitals and research studies.

In an alert, regulators flagged reports of sometimes fatal heart side effects among coronavirus patients taking hydroxychloroquine or the related drug chloroquine.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Paatal Lok

The trailer starts with an introduction to the three existing worlds, the heaven, with the rich people, the earth, with common aka middle-class people and the hell with insects (criminals).

Jaideep Ahlawat

We are then introduced to Hathi Ram Chaudhary (played by Jaideep Ahlawat), a washed-out Delhi cop, who is put on a high-profile case. He does everything in his power to solve the case and reclaim his family's reputation. Chaudhary arrests four suspects in the assassination attempt of a well-known journalist. He will also give you a very strong David Harbour vibe from Netflix's Stranger Things series. David was also seen as a washed-out cop who discovers the unimaginable. The two shows are genres apart, but David and Jaideep's strong personality and the uncanny resemblance is chilling.

Abhishek Banerjee

The trailer then takes us to the four suspects and we get to see a woman among them. The villains in the show are played by Abhishek Banerjee, Mairembam Ronaldo Singh, Jagjeet Sandhu and Aasif Khan. They truly are ruthless, but the trailer clearly hints that there is more to their story. Abhishek Banerjee is all set to surprise you with his act in Paatal Lok. His strong impression in the trailer has me excited, to see what more his character has to offer.

The Road To Heaven, Goes Through Hell

As Chaudhary chases the four criminals, he is convinced that they have a connection with the journalist, Sanjeev Mehra, played by Neeraj Kabi. The case then transforms into a devious maze and takes him down a treacherous path that leads him straight to the netherworld, also known as hell or Paatal Lok. The trailer also read, "The road to heaven, goes through hell", hinting that the only way to the truth is through hell, or the only way people get rich in this world is by dealing in the netherworld.
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / Interactio, remote interpretation platform, has partnered with European Commission to connect political leaders and philanthropists in the international pledging conference "Coronavirus Global Response." In the midst of the global crisis, Interactio assisted European initiative in the joint effort to raise 7.5 billion EUR in donations to Gali, the vaccine alliance fighting the COVID-19.

As strict quarantine regulations divided the states geographically, the common cause to find timely and affordable treatment brought the five continents together in a multilingual hybrid meeting. To ensure the precision and quality of simultaneous interpretation, Interactio connected onsite interpreters from European Commission premises with the world leaders joining the event remotely.

Through the integration of the audio and video stream in partnership with Televic Conference equipment, the message was successfully shared in English, German, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese languages in real time.

The Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, the Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, and leaders of more than 40 other nations from Europe, Australia, Asia, North, and South America united against Coronavirus digitally on the Interactio remote participation panel.

During the remote conference, Melinda Gates shared an important message for humanity, followed by a generous donation of 100 million American dollars from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

"COVID-19 has reminded us that viruses don't obey borders or custom laws. They don't care what nationality you are," said Gates.

"Interactio became the platform of choice for this event. The Heads of State and Government as well as other major donors and research institutions connected to the smooth, user-friendly and performant platform and pledged substantial amounts for the common fight against the pandemic.This successful high-level event was a milestone for everybody involved, and we would like to sincerely thank Interactio for their tireless preparation work, dedication, availability and unrelenting support throughout the event. We are very much looking forward to further cooperation." - states Frederic Pirotte, Head of the Technical Compliance Team, DG Interpretation, European Commission.

Overall, a total of 7.4 billion EUR was fundraised during the pledging conference, leaving high hopes for the speedy development of the treatment. As the world unites in a humanitarian effort to protect the disadvantaged in an unexpected outbreak of the Coronavirus disease, Interactio remains loyal to its ongoing mission of transmitting powerful ideas despite the geographical barriers.

About Interactio

Interactio (https://interactio.io) is a Lithuanian-based remote interpretation platform which provides remote participation for multilingual online and onsite meetings. Connected on an interactive panel via desktop or mobile device, attendees can exchange ideas in a live-chat, cast votes, and show essential information through a screen sharing function.

For further media queries, please contact:

Simona Andrijauskaite

+441644717778

s@interactio.io

https://interactio.io/

SOURCE: Interactio

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/588524/Remote-Participation-Technology-Interactio-Connects-World-Leaders-to-Support-Gali-in-the-Fight-Against-Coronavirus
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 00:21:50|Editor: huaxia

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by Xinhua writers Yu Fei, Quan Xiaoshu, Li Guoli

WENCHANG, Hainan, May 5 (Xinhua) -- China's new large carrier rocket Long March-5B made its maiden flight on Tuesday, sending the trial version of China's new-generation manned spaceship and a cargo return capsule for test into space.

The successful flight inaugurated the "third step" of China's manned space program, which is to construct a space station, said the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

The white large rocket blasted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the coast of southern China's island province of Hainan at 6 p.m. (Beijing Time).

About 488 seconds later, the experimental manned spacecraft with no crew, together with the test version of the cargo return capsule, separated with the rocket and entered the planned orbit, according to CMSA.

Specially developed for China's manned space program, Long March-5B will be mainly used to launch the modules of the space station.

The Long March-5B carrier rocket will help expand China's aerospace activities, said Wang Xiaojun, head of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).

Modified on the basis of Long March-5, the new large rocket has a total length of about 53.7 meters, which is as tall as an 18-floor building, and has a 5-meter-diameter core stage and four 3.35-meter-diameter boosters, as well as a 20.5-meter-long and 5.2-meter-diameter fairing.

The rocket uses environment-friendly propellants, including liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen and kerosene. It has a takeoff mass of about 849 tonnes and is able to send over 22 tonnes of payloads, equivalent to the weight of more than 10 cars, to low-Earth orbit, which is currently the largest low-Earth orbit carrying capacity among China's rockets.

The successful maiden flight verified the design of the rocket. A series of technological breakthroughs have been achieved such as the separation of the large fairing and the payloads in space and the precise control of the rocket to enter orbit directly with high thrust, laying the foundation for constructing China's space station, CMSA said.

"We are excited to witness the liftoff of the Long March-5B carrier rocket 50 years after the launch of China's first satellite Dongfanghong-1. The success of the mission is another major breakthrough of China's aerospace development," Ji Qiming, an assistant to the CMSA director, said at a press conference Tuesday evening.

A congratulatory message sent by the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the State Council and the Central Military Commission hailed Tuesday's launch as "a good beginning for the country's space station program."

The new manned spacecraft is designed to adapt to multiple tasks including low-Earth orbit missions and deep-space explorations. The spacecraft comprises a service capsule and a return capsule.

The mission will test the key technologies of the new spaceship such as the control of its re-entry into the atmosphere, heat shielding and recovery technology, according to the China Academy of Space Technology under CASC.

The new manned spaceship can be used in the operation of China's space station and future manned lunar exploration, Ji said.

Some space science experiments, including space 3D printing, will be conducted on the experimental spacecraft.

The test version of the cargo return capsule, developed by the Second Academy of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, is flexible and inflatable.

The mission will test key technologies of the cargo return capsule, which is expected to become a new kind of space transport vehicle, Ji said.

The two experimental spacecraft are scheduled to return to the Dongfeng landing site in the desert in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Wednesday and Friday respectively, according to Ji.

Before the launch, joint drills of the Long March-5B rocket and the prototype core capsule of the space station had been conducted at the Wenchang Space Launch Center.

All personnel participating in the mission had overcome tremendous difficulties caused by the novel coronavirus epidemic, and the challenges and pressure brought by the recent failures of the Long March-7A and Long March-3B rockets.

In 1992, China started its manned space program with a three-step strategy.

Yang Liwei carried out the first step -- sending an astronaut into space and return safely -- in the Shenzhou-5 mission in 2003.

The second step was developing advanced space flight techniques and technologies including extra-vehicular activity and orbital docking. This phase included the launch of Tiangong-1, a transitional platform to test the docking technology, and the Tiangong-2 space lab.

So far, a total of 16 major missions of China's manned space program have been accomplished, with a success rate of 100 percent.

China has launched 11 manned spacecraft, one cargo spacecraft, Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2, sending 11 astronauts into space, completing the first two steps of the manned space program.

The next step is to assemble and operate a permanent manned space station.

China aims to complete the construction of the space station around 2022. A total of 12 missions have been planned. After the maiden flight of the Long March-5B, the core module of the space station, named Tianhe, and two experiment capsules, named Wentian and Mengtian, will be sent into space.

During the construction of the space station, China plans to launch four Shenzhou manned spaceships and four Tianzhou cargo spacecraft to transport astronauts and supplement materials, Ji said.

The assembly of the station's core module has been completed, and the two experiment capsules and the scientific payloads are under development, according to Ji.

The crewmembers to participate in the construction of the space station have been selected and are trained for the missions. China's third batch of reserve astronauts will be selected around July, Ji said.

Tuesday's launch was the 331st mission of the Long March rocket series. Enditem

(Xinhua reporters Li Mi and Zhou Huimin also contributed to the story.)
On the initiative of President of Azerbaijan, chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement Ilham Aliyev, a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in the format of a Contact Group was held under the motto "United against COVID-19" through videoconference. Given that the Non-Aligned Movement consists of 120 states, the summit was held in the format of a Contact Group with the participation of countries of Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America based on the principle of geographical representation.

The videoconference, which was joined by heads of state and government from more than 40 member states, was attended by the UN Secretary General, the President of the UN General Assembly, the Chairperson of the African Union and WHO Director General, the highest representative of the European Union.

In his opening speech, Ilham Aliyev said that the COVID-19 global pandemic had a negative impact on all countries, but it can be overcome with mutual support and joint efforts. He also spoke about measures taken in Azerbaijan to prevent the spread of coronavirus, stressing that the priority for Baku has been to protect human health and ensure their social protection. As a result of all the measures taken in the country, it has been possible to prevent mass infections. Over the past three weeks, there has been a positive trend between the number of people infected and those recovering. The President of Azerbaijan also also highlighted the work done to ensure economic stability in Azerbaijan during the pandemic, solve employment problems and maintain macroeconomic and financial stability, noting that a socioeconomic support package worth 3.5 billion manats had been adopted for the purpose. Ilham Aliyev proposed to hold a special video conference of the UN General Assembly at the level of heads of state and government dedicated to the COVID-19 pandemic.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres thanked Ilham Aliyev for this initiative, saying that the scale and complexity of the crisis demand a coordinated global response. The President of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly Tijjani Muhammad-Bande supported Ilham Aliyev's view that no country could overcome this difficulty on its own: "As the United Nations, we are very pleased to support such initiatives and want to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. We would also like to see inequality among all states and nations eliminated."

Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised the support provided by Azerbaijan to the organization in the amount of $5 million. Emphasizing the importance of global solidarity and international cooperation in the fight against the pandemic, Ghebreyesus said that efforts should focus on long-term multilateral action covering various areas at the level of society as a whole.

Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat noted that they must put aside any political boundaries and any ideology and achieve the goals by working together.

EU High Representative and European Commission Vice-President Josep Borrell noted that defeating the pandemic required a global approach and coordinated response.

The 18th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Non-Aligned Movement member countries was held under the chairmanship of President Ilham Aliyev in Azerbaijan on October 25-26, 2019, when Baku took over the NAM chairmanship for 2019-2022. The promotion of multilateral diplomacy, strengthening cooperation and solidarity between the NAM member states was identified by Ilham Aliyev as one of the key priorities of Azerbaijan's chairmanship of the organization. The extraordinary Summit of the Turkic Council was held on April 10 this year through videoconference on the initiative of President of Azerbaijan, chairman of the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States Ilham Aliyev. The Turkic Council was the first international organization across the globe to hold a summit on the coronavirus pandemic at the level of heads of state.



According to experts, by doing this Azerbaijan is not only taking effective measures to combat COVID-19 at the national level, but is also making a significant contribution to the strengthening of solidarity and cooperation against coronavirus at the regional and global levels.
[May 04, 2020]

SHAREHOLDER ALERT: CLAIMSFILER REMINDS GRPN, INO, NCLH INVESTORS of Lead Plaintiff Deadline in Class Action Lawsuits

NEW ORLEANS, May 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ClaimsFiler, a FREE shareholder information service, reminds investors of pending deadlines in the following securities class action lawsuits:



Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NCLH)

Class Period: 2/20/2020 - 3/12/2020

Lead Plaintiff Motion Deadline: May 11, 2020

SECURITIES FRAUD

To learn more, visit https://www.claimsfiler.com/cases/view-norwegian-cruise-lines-securities-litigation

Inovio Pharmaceuticals (INO)

Class Period: 2/14/2020 - 3/9/2020

Lead Plaintiff Motion Deadline: May 12, 2020

SECURITIES FRAUD

To learn more, visit https://www.claimsfiler.com/cases/view-inovio-pharmaceuticals-inc-securities-litigation







Groupon, Inc. (GRPN)

Class Period: 11/4/2019 - 2/18/2020

Lead Plaintiff Motion Deadline: June 29, 2020

SECURITIES FRAUD

To learn more, visit https://www.claimsfiler.com/cases/view-groupon-inc-securities-litigation-3

If you purchased shares of the above companies and would like to discuss your legal rights and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact us toll-free (844) 367-9658 or visit the case links above.

If you wish to serve as a Lead Plaintiff in the class action, you must petition the Court on or before the Lead Plaintiff Motion deadline.

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ClaimsFiler has a single mission: to serve as the information source to help retail investors recover their share of billions of dollars from securities class action settlements. At ClaimsFiler.com, investors can: (1) register for free to gain access to information and settlement websites for various securities class action cases so they can timely submit their own claims; (2) upload their portfolio transactional data to be notified about relevant securities cases in which they may have a financial interest; and (3) submit inquiries to the Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC law firm for free case evaluations.

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A Philippine government agency has ordered the country's leading broadcast network, which the president has targeted for its critical coverage, to halt operations.

The National Telecommunications Commission ordered ABS-CBN Corp. to stop operations after its 25-year congressional franchise ended Monday.

The network's application for a renewal has been pending in Congress.

Congressional leaders have asked the commission to grant it a temporary license to continue operations while its renewal request is pending, but the government's solicitor general has said it cannot operate without an approved franchise.

Media watchdogs have accused President Rodrigo Duterte of trying to muzzle critical independent media, but government officials said the network must comply with the law.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 32-year-old man was stabbed by another man and his juvenile friend in outer Delhis Nangloi on Monday evening after he tried to intervene in a drunken brawl between two men. The police have arrested the man and the juvenile.

According to the police, they received a call on Monday at the Nangloi police station from one Pankaj Kishore who reported that his brother has been stabbed by two men. A police team that reached the spot found that the man had been rushed to Maharaja Agrasen hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The deceased man was identified as Ashish Kishore; he ran a dairy business in Nangloi.

A preliminary enquiry revealed that on Monday evening, one Gauri Shankar, who was drunk, got into a verbal quarrel with another man, identified as one Nathu. At the same time, Ashish Kishore, who was in the vicinity, saw the two men fighting and intervened, trying to pacify them. In the meantime, another man, later identified as one Jatin, 22, arrived there with a juvenile friend and started threatening Ashish Kishore against interfering, a senior police officer, who did not wish to be named, said.

The police said that despite threats, Kishore did not leave the place and continued trying to pacify the men. Jatin and Kishore had a verbal spat. Jatin then caught Kishore and overpowered him and the juvenile stabbed Kishore in the chest, leaving him dead, the officer said.

Deputy commissioner of police (outer) A Koan said they registered a case of murder at the Nangloi police station and have arrested Jatin. They also apprehended the juvenile who stabbed Kishore. Both of them are unemployed and their criminal background is being checked. The crime is being investigated further, the DCP said.
The Trump administration failed to prepare for the onslaught of the coronavirus, then sought a quick fix by trying to rush an unproven drug to patients, a senior government scientist alleged in a whistleblower complaint Tuesday.

Dr. Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, alleges he was reassigned to a lesser role because he resisted political pressure to allow widespread use of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug pushed by President Donald Trump. He said the Trump administration wanted to 'flood' hot spots in New York and New Jersey with the drug.

'I witnessed government leadership rushing blindly into a potentially dangerous situation by bringing in a non-FDA approved chloroquine from Pakistan and India, from facilities that had never been approved by the FDA,' Bright said Tuesday on a call with reporters.

'Their eagerness to push blindly forward without sufficient data to put this drug into the hands of Americans was alarming to me and my fellow scientists.'

Whistleblower complaint: Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar faces claims he downplayed the seriousness of coronavirus from Rick Bright, recently ousted director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority

Forced out: Dr. Rick Bright says he was moved out when he clashed with his immediate boss Robert Kadlec, the DHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response and had his warnings ignored

Bright filed the complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, a government agency that investigates retaliation against federal employees who uncover problems. He wants his job back and a full investigation.

The Department of Health and Human Services had no immediate comment. Zachary Kurz, a spokesman for the Office of Special Counsel, said the office couldn't comment or confirm the status of open investigations.

Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., chair of the House energy and commerce subcommittee on health, said a hearing over the complaint would be held next week. Bright's lawyers said he would testify.

His complaint comes as the Trump administration faces criticism over its response to the pandemic, including testing and supplies of ventilators, masks and other equipment to stem the spread.

There have been nearly 1.2 million confirmed cases in the United States and more than 70,000 deaths.

Bright said his superiors repeatedly rejected his warnings that the virus would spread in the U.S., missing an early opportunity to stock up on protective masks for first responders.

He said he 'acted with urgency' to address the growing spread of COVID-19 - the disease the virus causes - after the World Health Organization issued a warning in January.

Bright said he 'encountered resistance from HHS leadership, including Health and Human Services Secretary (Alex) Azar, who appeared intent on downplaying this catastrophic event.'

During a Feb. 23 meeting, Azar, as well as Bright's boss, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Robert Kadlec, 'responded with surprise at (Bright's) dire predictions and urgency, and asserted that the United States would be able to contain the virus and keep it out,' the whistleblower complaint said.

Bright said White House trade adviser Peter Navarro was a rare exception among administration officials, extremely concerned about the potential consequences of an outbreak. He described working with Navarro to break a bureaucratic logjam and set up military transport from Italy for swabs needed in the U.S.

Drug touted by Trump: The president repeatedly pushed hydroxychloroquine

Navarro was the author of several urgent memos within the White House. Bright said Navarro asked for his help, saying the trade adviser told him the memos were needed to 'save lives.'

Navarro's memos to top officials raised alarms even as Trump was publicly assuring Americans that the outbreak was under control.

Bright's allegation that he was removed over his resistance to widespread use of the malaria drug was already public, but his whistleblower complaint added details from emails and internal communications while bringing to light his attempts to acquire N95 respirator masks early on, which he said were ignored by superiors.

In late January, Bright said he was contacted by an official of a leading mask manufacturer about ramping up production. It was estimated that as many as 3.5 billion would be needed, while the national stockpile had about 300 million.

The complaint said that when Bright tried to press the issue about masks with superiors at HHS, he was ignored or rebuffed.

'HHS publicly represented not only that COVID-19 was not an imminent threat, but also that HHS already had all the masks it would need,' the complaint said.

As the epidemic spread in the U.S. and engulfed the New York metropolitan area, Bright alleges that political appointees at HHS tried to promote hydroxychloroquine 'as a panacea.'

The officials also 'demanded that New York and New Jersey be "flooded" with these drugs, which were imported from factories in Pakistan and India that had not been inspected by the FDA,' the complaint says.

Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned doctors against prescribing the drug except in hospitals and research studies.

In an alert, regulators flagged reports of sometimes fatal heart side effects among coronavirus patients taking hydroxychloroquine or the related drug chloroquine.

Bright felt officials had 'refused to listen or take appropriate action to accurately inform the public' and spoke to a reporter about the drug.

He said he had to tell the public about the lack of science backing up its use, despite the drug being pushed by the president at press briefings.

'As the death toll mounted exponentially each day, Dr. Bright concluded that he had a moral obligation to the American public, including those vulnerable as a result of illness from COVID-19, to protect it from drugs which he believed constituted a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety,' the complaint says.

On Jan. 20, according to the complaint, the WHO held an emergency call that was attended by many HHS officials, and WHO officials advised that 'the outbreak is a big problem.'

Trump has accused the U.N. agency of mismanaging and covering up the spread of the virus after it emerged in China. He has also said he wants to cut the WHO's funding.

Brights agency works to guard against pandemics and emergent infectious diseases and is working to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus.

Top officials also pressured him to steer contracts to a client of a lobbyist, he reported.

'Time after time I was pressured to ignore or dismiss expert scientific recommendations and instead to award lucrative contracts based on political connections,' Bright said in the call with reporters. 'In other words, I was pressured to let politics and cronyism drive decisions over the opinions of the best scientists we have in government.'
Chinese state media labelled US secretary of state Mike Pompeo as insane for his claims that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab, even as the World Health Organization (WHO) dismissed the theory as speculative as Washington hasnt provided any proof yet.

Pompeo on Sunday said enormous evidence showed the virus originated in a lab in Wuhan, doubling down on previous claims rejected by the WHO and experts. The lab theory has been pushed by the Trump administration, which has been critical of Chinas handling of the outbreak.

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said, We have not received specific evidence from the US government relating to the purported origin of the virus. So from our perspective, this remains speculative.

Titled Evil Pompeo is wantonly spewing poison and spreading lies, a commentary by Chinese broadcaster CCTV cited the WHOs Ryan and Columbia University virologist Ian Lipkin, who claimed that the virus is natural in origin. These flawed and unreasonable remarks by American politicians make it clear to more and more people that no evidence exists, it said. The so-called virus leaked from a Wuhan lab hype is a complete and utter lie.

Commentaries in Peoples Daily called Pompeo and ex-White House strategist Steve Bannon lying clowns.
Wizz Air ready to focus on expansion in Ukraine, not going to operate internal flights

Wizz Air, the Hungarian low cost airline, invested more than $100 million in a new base at Lviv International Airport, which it is planning to open on July 1, 2020, Wizz Air Chief Commercial Officer George Michalopoulos said.

"When we usually open a new base, this is mainly a large investment. More than $100 million is a very significant investment and long-term ones. Thus, opening the base is a good investment for the local economy. It will take several years to get them back," he told Interfax-Ukraine.

Michalopoulos said that at present the company is not going to launch internal flights in Ukraine.

"Now we are ready to focus on expansion in Ukraine, but we focus only on international flights," he said.

Concerning the aircraft that will be placed in Lviv, the chief commercial officer said that so far there will be just one aircraft (Airbus A320), but gradually the number will increase.

"We have one of the largest Airbus aircraft depots and we continue to supply them. A plane in Lviv is our new plane. I cannot say when it will be next, but it will certainly happen in the next few years," he said.

He also said that the company still has many opportunities for expansion with Wizz Air Hungary and the renewal of the division of Wizz Air Ukraine is not yet necessary.

"The base in Lviv is already the second base after the one in Kyiv that we opened in Ukraine. We will continue to invest in Ukraine and continue to launch new services. The situation with coronavirus [COVID-19] will affect the short term, but the long-term investment will be continued," Michalopoulos said.

Wizz Air is the largest low cost carrier in Central and Eastern Europe, which operates flights on more than 710 routes from 25 bases, connecting 154 destinations in 45 countries.
Buying local has taken on a new meaning, as locked down consumers favour their neighbourhood suburban shopping strip over large car-focused retail centres.

Social distancing restrictions appear to be having less impact on Melbournes local shopping strips, where queues are common at stores, takeaway food venues and cafes that have stayed open.

336 Clarendon fetched $310,000 more than when it sold 18 months ago. Credit:

The shop local focus is also playing out with commercial property investors, agents say.

The top end of the market is going through a very lean period due to concerns in the REIT and institutional sectors, CBREs Josh Rutman said.
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has said he still has confidence in his deputy Catherine Martin despite her objection to entering into government talks with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.

Mr Ryan also said Ms Martins opposition to government formation talks will not prevent her from being on the partys negotiating team.

Thats healthy in politics that you have different views and youre allowed to articulate them so I dont see that being a factor one way or the other, Mr Ryan said.

Asked directly if he has confidence in his deputy, he said: I do.

The Green party leader was speaking after his first meeting with Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, the Fine Gael leader.

He said his party will meet to decide the make up of their negotiating team in the coming days.

He said also the Greens parliamentary party will feed into the negotiations.

The talks officially begin on Thursday. Mr Ryan said he hoped to have an agreement on the programme for government by the end of the month.

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He said the final deal will be put to a vote of Green Party members in the North and South of Ireland before it is ratified.

We probably will have to have postal vote so thats going to take a bit of time but I think the Irish public would expect this to be done in a matter of weeks, rather than longer and I share that view, he said.

Mr Ryan also revealed the commitments he received from Mr Martin and Mr Varadkar on reducing emissions by 7pc per year on average over the next ten years.

The clarification from the two leaders said: We are happy to confirm that a new government comprising our three parties will commit to developing measures to achieve an average 7pc per annum reduction in annual emissions for the next decade.

They said they fully accept that reducing emission will provide better air quality and better quality of life. It will create jobs and allow for economic opportunities to develop across Ireland as a result of deep retrofitting, renewable energy, peat lands management and green technology, they added.

They said it is important that they work with the agriculture sector and rural communities to achieve this goal and ensure there is a just transition built into the process.

We will of course seek to improve farmer incomes and protect the family farm mode as part of the European Green Deal and a revised Common Agriculture Policy, they added.
WASHINGTON - A new government report projects covid-19 cases will surge to about 200,000 per day by June 1, a staggering jump that would be accompanied by more than 3,000 deaths each day.

The document predicts a sharp increase in both cases and deaths beginning about May 14, according to a copy shared with The Washington Post.

The forecast stops at June 1, but it shows daily cases and deaths on an upward trajectory at that point.

The White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quickly disavowed the report, though the slides carry the CDC's logo. The creator of the model said the numbers are unfinished projections shown to the CDC as a work in progress. The work contained a wide range of possibilities, and modeling was not complete, according to Justin Lessler, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who created the model.

He said he didn't know how the update was turned into a slidedeck by government officials and shared with news organizations. The data was first reported by The New York Times.

"I had no role in the process by which that was presented and shown. This data was presented as an FYI to CDC . . . it was not in any way intended to be a forecast," Lessler said.

Lessler insisted, however, that the numbers show how moving to reopen the country could spiral out of control. He said 100,000 cases per day by the end of the month is within the realm of possibility. Much depends on political decisions being made today.

"There are reopening scenarios where it could get out of control very quickly," Lessler said.

It was not immediately clear whether the projections, which also carry logos of the Departments of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security, are based on increases in testing, the attempt to reopen some states, the time lag between a rise in cases and deaths or some combination of those factors.

The White House issued a statement Monday that "this is not a White House document, nor has it been presented to the Coronavirus Task Force or gone through interagency vetting. This data is not reflective of any of the modeling done by the task force, or data that the task force has analyzed.

"The President's phased guidelines to open up America again are a scientific driven approach that the top health and infectious disease experts in the federal government agreed with. The health of the American people remains President Trump's top priority, and that will continue as we monitor the efforts by states to ease restrictions."

A spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency did not issue the projections.

The forecast is at odds with remarks made Sunday evening by President Donald Trump, who said the United States could eventually suffer as many as 100,000 deaths. At 3,000 deaths per day and rising, the national total would quickly outstrip that number if the new report is correct. The projections were first reported by The New York Times.

A senior White House official said the document will not change the White House planning on reopening.

White House officials have been relying on other models to make decisions on reopening, including the IHME model and a "cubic model" prepared by the Council of Economic Advisers, led by Trump adviser Kevin Hassett.

People with knowledge of the "cubic model" say it currently shows deaths dropping precipitously in May - and essentially going to zero by May 15.

In recent days, experts following the course of the pandemic in the United States have begun to predict that the country would be living with a sizable covid-19 case load for some time.

Researchers at the Center for Infectious Disesease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota issued a report Thursday that suggested the pandemic would last 18 to 24 months, reappearing in waves of varying intensity.

On Sunday, Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said efforts to mitigate spread of the virus had helped but not succeeded in quelling its spread. He said on CBS's Face the Nation that the United States faces the possibility of "persistent spread" of the virus that could spark a significant outbreak at any time if schools and workplaces "let down their guard."

"While mitigation didn't fail, I think it's fair to say that it didn't work as well as we expected. We expected that we would start seeing more significant declines in new cases and deaths around the nation at this point, and we're just not seeing that," Gottlieb said.

The largest number of deaths in the United States in a single day since the pandemic began occurred on April 21, when 2,874 people died. (A total of 6,147 deaths were reported on April 14, but they included New York City adding more than 3,000 probable deaths to the daily total.)

To date, 1.16 million people have been infected by the coronavirus and more than 67,000 have died. Both figures are widely believed to undercount the actual totals.
Coronavirus India update, Total Coronavirus cases in India, Coronavirus India Death Toll: The total number of coronavirus cases in India has reached 46,433 including 32,138 active cases, 12, 726 discharged and the toll at 1,568.

Coronavirus India update, Total Coronavirus cases in India, Coronavirus India Death Toll: The total number of COVID-19 cases in India has reached 46,433 with the toll at 1,568. A total of 3,900 fresh coronavirus cases are registered in the last 24 hours with 195 deaths. 32,138 active coronavirus cases are recorded in India with 12, 726 discharged after suffering from the virus as per the latest data shared by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Maharastra has recorded a total 700 new cases on Monday with 35 patients who lost their lives taking the total count to 583.

Maharashtra has recorded a total of 14,541 including 9000 cases from Mumbai. Tamil Nadu has become the second state after Maharashtra to record more than 500 cases in a single day, taking its total tally to 3550. Further, Gujarat has recorded a total of 5,804 cases with 319 deaths and Delhi is at number three with 4,898 cases.

Health Ministry said in a press briefing that the COVID-19 curve in India is flat and there are chances that the peak might never come if the work is done collectively. Joint secretary Lav Agarwal of the health ministry said that India was able to control the spread due to lockdown. Further, Maharashtra has extended Section 144 in Mumbai till May 17 to control the spread of the virus in the city.

Also Read: Maharashtra extends Section 144 in Mumbai till May 17, violators to face six-month jail

3900 #COVID19 cases & 195 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, the largest spike till now in both: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare https://t.co/Wi2KQBflAr  ANI (@ANI) May 5, 2020

According to the global count, 3.5 million cases were recorded worldwide while the death toll is at 251,000 as per the reports. The United States alone recorded 68,000 deaths and as per the predictions made by the White House, a total of 134,000 people might lose their life in fighting against COVID-19.

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- Additional reporting by Digital Desk

Venezuelan security forces have arrested eight people  including two alleged US citizens, following a beach invasion allegedly aimed at capturing socialist president Nicolas Maduro.

Authorities in the country mobilised more than 25,000 troops to hunt for other rebels operating in the country.

Socialist party leader Diosdado Cabello posted on his Twitter account a video of a Venezuelan identified as Josnars Adolfo Baduel, who was also detained, saying two US citizens were among those being held.

Mr Baduel is shown responding to a security official who asks him about the Americans captured.

Venezuelan state television broadcast the video but did not identify the Americans.

Footage has also emerged of one unidentified suspect being taken from a helicopter by security forces.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said authorities foiled an armed incursion and detained two American citizens working with a U.S. military veteran in an alleged plot to oust him https://t.co/0ngHr7dQV6 pic.twitter.com/PpmeP9FRkm  Reuters (@Reuters) May 5, 2020

Following an Associated Press investigation Florida-based ex-Green Beret Jordan Goudreau claimed responsibility for Sundays operation - which Venezuelan authorities said left eight people dead - and said he was working with the two men in a mission launched early Sunday to liberate Venezuela.

He identified two former US veterans and said they served with him in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr Goudreau said the men were part of an alleged mission called Operation Gideon launched before dawn on Sunday that entailed landing boats on the beach.

He has said he signed a contract with the US-backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido to overthrow Mr Maduro, which Mr Guaido has denied.

Mr Goudreau added Mr Guaido never fulfilled the contract, but the former Green Beret pushed ahead with an underfunded operation with just 60 fighters, including the two US veterans.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said forces have arrested 114 people suspected in the attempted attack and they are on the hunt of 92 others.

Officials in Venezuelas government accuse Colombia and the United States of organising and carrying out the attack aiming to overthrow Mr Maduro, but both US and Colombian officials have denied the Venezuelan allegations.

The Venezuelan opposition leader, Juan Guaido, has denied anything to do with the former US special forces fighter.

Mr Guaido said he has no relationship nor responsibility for any actions taken by Jordan Goudreau.
Jaipur, May 5 : The funeral of Colonel Ashutosh Sharma of 21 Rashtriya Rifles, who recently attained martyrdom while battling terrorists in Jammu & Kashmirs Handwara on May 2, was performed with full military honours here on Tuesday, said Col Sombit Ghosh, PRO Defence, Rajasthan.

Wreaths were laid on the mortal remains by Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Army Commander, Sapta Shakti Command, Lt Gen Alok Kler.

Also present on the occasion were Member of Parliament Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, state minister Pratap Singh Khachariya and many other dignitaries, Col Ghosh said.

Speaking on the occasion, Gen Kler saluted the bravery and ultimate sacrifice made by Col Sharma, as also by his other four comrades, including Maj Anuj Sood, who were all martyred in the bloody encounter.

He highlighted that Col Sharma represented every gallant soldier in operations and assured that the Indian Army will always remember the martyr and his family in the years to come. He also interacted with the family members of Col Sharma and expressed his condolences to them.

Col Sharma was commissioned on September 1, 2001 into the 19th Batallion, Brigade of The GUARDS. He was the Commanding Officer of the 21 Rashtriya Rifles, deployed in the sensitive north Kashmir region. He was a recipient of two Sena medals.

The officer, along with his comrades, Maj Anuj Sood, Naik Rajesh Kumar, Lance Naik Dinesh Singh and Sub-Inspector Shakeel Qazi of J&K Police, were martyred during a fierce encounter with Pak-sponsored terrorists in Handwara. Two terrorists were also eliminated in the gunfight.

Col Sharma is survived by his wife Pallavi Sharma and their 12-year old daughter Tamanna, who are residents of the Vaishali Nagar area in Jaipur. The martyr's mother, Sudha Sharma, and brother, Piyush Sharma, also stay in Jaipur.
A mother duck and her eleven ducklings had a very lucky escape after they were run over by a motorist while crossing a highway.

Footage shows the shocked parent bird flap into the air as the vehicle mows over her brood in Fort Worth, Texas, before gathering up her unhurt ducklings and continuing with the perilous crossing.

A bystander can be heard shouting moments before the car hits: 'Mother duck, where's your yellow safety vest?'

A white Muscovy duck and her family of 11 ducklings were run over by a black 4x4 as they tried to cross a six-lane road in Fort Knox, Texas

The video, filmed on May 3, shows the white Muscovy duck calmly leading her chicks into an empty six-lane highway.

She leisurely waddles forwards, the youngsters following in a line, before leaping up in shock as a black 4x4 zooms over the family group in the second lane.

A woman screams in the background as she spots the possible tragedy unfold.

A shocked bystander said: 'Oh my gosh. I can't believe none of them got...'

A witness said: 'Mama duck and her ducklings serve us a double reminder that sometimes we need to pause and slow down for a moment to take in our surroundings.'

Miraculously, all the ducklings survived the terrifying incident. In the video, a woman can be heard screaming in the background

A bystander is heard shouting to the mother duck as she crosses the road: 'Where's your yellow safety vest?'

James Clairmont, 56, was charged with animal cruelty last year after witnesses saw him running over ducklings in Florida

Drivers can face animal cruelty charges for running over ducklings, which can carry a penalty of up to five years in jail.

James Clairmont, 56, was held by police after he was accused of intentionally running over a family of ducklings playing in a puddle in the road in Largo, Florida.

Heartbroken witnesses said Clairmont initially slowed down before accelerating at the group of 11 youngsters and their mother in August last year.

Two of the ducklings reportedly died at the scene and one was rushed to a nearby animal hospital to be treated for broken bones.

Clairmont paid a $5,000 bond before he was released from Pinellas County Jail.

A UK bus driver was slammed after they ran over a mother and her nine chicks walking across the road in Newquay, Cornwall, in 2010.

Mother-of-two Anne-Marie Bradshaw said at least two of the ducklings were killed in the collision.

Western Greyhound, which ran the bus, said the driver could not have avoided striking the young family.
A man from Kungutu area on the outskirts of Isiolo town on Sunday night allegedly beheaded his wife following a domestic row.

David Karingori, 25, reportedly decapitated his wife with a panga at around 11 pm. He then surrendered to Kulamawe Police Post while carrying his two-year-old son.

According to neighbours, the man had always been violent towards his wife, and that she had on several occasions fled fearing for her life.

We were used to their fights and when we heard the wife scream, we did not think it had gotten this far. It is so hurting that the young boy will grow without motherly love, one of the residents told Nation.

Isiolo Sub-County Police Commander George Kariuki said the suspect was immediately detained while his wifes body was moved to Isiolo Referral Hospital mortuary.

Investigations have since been launched to establish what transpired before the brutal attack.

The police boss said the suspect will be charged with murder once investigations are complete.
For years, some businesses have posted signs on their front doors warning No shirt, no shoes, no service.

We recommend all businesses post similar signs reading, No shirt, no shoes, no face mask, no service.

Until we have control of COVID-19, and either a vaccine or proven treatment is available, this is something we can do to protect others. Wearing a mask is about respecting the well-being of others.

There are no state or federal mandates requiring people to wear masks while in public, although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended everyone wear cloth face coverings when they leave the house.

Some Texas cities and counties had required residents to wear masks or become subject to a fine under local emergency orders. However, in an executive order issued last week, Gov. Greg Abbott overrode these local officials.

While the governor encouraged Texans to wear face coverings, he prohibited local governments from imposing fines or jailing people for failing to do so.

I think that the worst decision that he (Abbott) made was to not require the mandatory use of face masks, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff told the Express-News.

Social distancing, limitations on public gatherings and wearing of masks are saving lives, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said. He strongly recommended people stick with what has worked as the state reopens for business.

We are not through with the virus, and the virus is not through with us, he warned.

We hope most people will continue to take precautionary measures to safeguard their health and those of others around them when out in public. But we have seen and heard of more and more people without face masks in recent days. We urge business owners to help stem the tide on this troubling trend.

The 1964 Federal Civil Rights Act prohibits private businesses such as restaurants, hotels and stores from refusing to provide service based on race, color, religion or national origin. The Americans With Disabilities Act extends the anti-discrimination coverage to people with disabilities.

Dress codes are an entirely different matter. Allowing customers to enter only if they are wearing masks is within a private business owners authority. A businesses has the right to impose its own dress code as long its not discriminatory and is applied across the board. And this is a requirement that could keep help keep employees and customers safe.

As Texas reopens, we encourage businesses to put up the sign: No shirt, no shoes, no mask, no service.
FILE PHOTO: Repsol flags are seen at a conference hall during the company's annual shareholders meeting in Madrid

By Isla Binnie

(Reuters) - Sagging oil prices pulled Repsol's <REP.MC> first-quarter profit down 28% but that beat expectations, making shares in the Spanish energy company top gainers in Madrid on Tuesday.

Oil prices fell 65% in the quarter as the coronavirus pandemic curbed demand and producers Saudi Arabia and Russia failed to renegotiate fresh output cuts.

Repsol's adjusted net profit fell 28% to 447 million euros ($488 million), but that was well above the 330 million euros expected by analysts in data compiled by the company.

It maintained a dividend of one euro per share, but scrapped a plan to reduce its number of shares by 5%. A plan to cut carbon emissions to net-zero remained intact, the company said.

Repsol shares were up 7.6% at 0838 GMT to lead Madrid's main bourse which was up 1.2%.

The numbers were "overall positive for the stock as adjusted net profit came above consensus estimates", Madrid-based CM Capital Markets said in a note to clients.

Analysts at brokerage Renta4Banco also said the numbers were better than the expected. A bond sale in April and sufficient cash flow from operating activities to cover investments, interest payments and dividends all reinforced its positive view of the stock in the medium term, they said.

DIFFICULT TO PREDICT

Repsol warned it was difficult to forecast how the pandemic would affect the company in the coming months. It has already slashed 2020 spending plans.

"The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are having a significant effect on demand, resulting in an excess of supply not seen in decades that is weighing on oil prices," Repsol said in a statement.

"It is difficult to predict to what extent and for how long the impact of the pandemic will affect Repsol's businesses in the future," it added, noting there may be a negative impact on prices and production and sales volumes as well as the cost of capital and the solvency of its clients and partners.

Story continues

In the first quarter its upstream division, which explores and drills new wells, suffered due to the tumble in crude prices and a 35.5% fall in Henry Hub natural gas prices.

Its downstream activities, including refining and selling products, fared better, with higher refining margins in Peru, a boost from wholesale and gas trading and smaller losses on intra-group oil sales.

Larger French peer Total <TOTF.PA> reported a 35% fall in net profit on Tuesday.

Repsol shares are down 41% this year versus the STOXX Europe 600 Oil & Gas Index <.SXEP> which is down 35%.

(Reporting by Isla Binnie, editing by Louise Heavens and Jason Neely)
OCEAN CITY, Md. - Marylands most popular beach destination is set to reopen its shore this weekend, and a city official has said day-trippers wont be turned away, even though out-of-town visitors would be violating the states stay-at-home order.

Ocean Citys mayor and city council decided Monday to allow beaches and the boardwalk to open Saturday after being closed for more than a month to protect against the spread of the coronavirus, news outlets reported.

City Council Secretary Mary Knight said the reopening would give people more opportunities to get outside, and suggested visitors from out-of-town could visit the resort towns beaches, in addition to local residents.

If they want to come down and spend the day at the beach and walk the boardwalk, theres no problem with that, The Baltimore Sun quoted Knight as saying. Its Mothers Day this weekend, it might be nice to take your mom somewhere.

But Mike Ricci, a spokesman for Gov. Larry Hogan, confirmed it would go against the governors stay-at-home order to drive into the city from outside the vicinity for a visit.

This is a way to give nearby residents more opportunities to get outside and enjoy fresh air, while still adhering to social distancing guidelines and gathering limits, Ricci said in a joint statement with Ocean Citys Communications Manager. The governors stay-at-home order remains in effect.

Visitors must adhere to social distancing guidelines, though masks will not be required, according to Knight. Some restaurants will be open for carry-out only, but hotels and most boardwalk shops will remain closed, she added.

The state reported Monday that there have been 26,408 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Maryland, up 946 cases from the day before, and 1,216 confirmed deaths from the virus.

___

Follow AP coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki (pictured) said if Australians want life to go back to the way it was before the deadly virus hit, a vaccine for COVID-19 must be prioritised by government

A popular science commentator has blasted the Australian Government's lack of funding for coronavirus research, calling the $2million grant on offer for scientists 'an insult'.

Dr Karl Kruszelnicki said if Australians want life to go back to the way it was before the deadly virus hit, a vaccine for COVID-19 must be prioritised.

He said, although Australians have done a good job reducing the rate of infection through social distancing, the battle is far from over and the worst may be yet to come.

'We really need some science going on in Australia. We could be spending money to try and develop the vaccine, but we're only spending peanuts,' he told 2GB Radio on Tuesday.

'On Anzac Parade there's a pedestrian walkway that goes over the road, and it cost $38million.'

Dr Mike Catton (left) and Dr Julian Druce (right) from The Doherty Institute at The University of Melbourne are pictured in the infectious diseases lab

Although the federal government made a $2million grant available to research institutes back in February, the beloved television personality said the amount is 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

'How much are we giving to chase up a vaccine? $2 million,' he said. 'It's an insult. We are not trying.'

Dr Karl believes Scott Morrison's government should be encouraging as many labs as possible to try and find a coronavirus vaccine because trials don't always go to plan.

'A good example is the vaccine for AIDS that they started developing three years ago,' he said.

'After one and half years they came up with a vaccine. They then tested it for another one and a half years to make sure it didn't kill anyone. It didn't kill anybody but it didn't work.'

'After three years of work they got nothing, that's how it goes with vaccines. You have to develop them and try them and part of the reason because of the human immune system.

'So what we need is a whole bunch of people trying different pathways to get this vaccine.'

On Tuesday however, Morrison announced he would be pledging $352million as part of an international initiative led by the European Commission to find a vaccine.

Although the United States excluded themselves from the virtual summit which raised a total of $12.5 billion for coronavirus treatment research, President Donald Trump has said leading American and Australian scientists are working on a vaccine together.

A scientist is pictured working at highly specialised Doherty Institute at The University of Melbourne on February 18

Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is fast-tracking the testing of two candidate vaccines, one from the US and one from the UK.

The CSIRO was the first research organisation outside of China to generate sufficient stocks of the virus to enable research.

Thanks to rapid work, CSIRO is now at the stage of pre-clinical trials - a position that typically takes up to two years to reach.

If scientists are able to reach a vaccine within 15 months it would be a record.

Typically, the development of a long and complex vaccine can take up to 15 years.

In ordinary times, a vaccine must pass through the pre-clinical stage, animal testing, then two phases of human trials to study the safety, immunogenicity, proposed doses and method of delivery.

If the vaccine passes these hurdles it then moves to Phase III trials involving tens of thousands of people to catch any rare side-effects.

Only then is it submitted for approval.

But because of the extraordinary urgency of the coronavirus pandemic, the CSIRO is fast-tracking vaccine testing as much as possible.

As well as the CSIRO, The Doherty Institute and The University of Queensland have been at the forefront of coronavirus vaccine research in Australia.
In the past year, there has been a surge in Franchise opportunities available to E-2 investors

In an April 28, 2020 report, Bloomberg reported that over 200,000 H-1B employees in the United State may lose their lawful status by June of this year as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Darren Silver of Darren Silver & Associates, LLP a boutique Business Immigration Law Firm in Los Angeles believes that the Bloomberg numbers may be conservative and that the actual number of H1b employees impacted by the Pandemic could be far worse.

Even with a staged re-opening of the economy, most if not all businesses will be impacted by the Coronavirus. The impact may be either directly in terms of challenges to opening up a business that is safe for their customers or indirectly from the impact of customers that are not in a place to spend money on products or services. The result, unfortunately, will be layoffs in many cases. It will not be surprising if employers become unable to support the myriad of requirements of the H1b, including the pre-Covid-19 prevailing wage salary requirements.

A short-term option that we will generally discuss with these impacted foreign nationals is that of the B visa. The B visa is a short term (6 month) visa that is geared towards either a Tourist or a Business visitor to the United States. The advantage may be to allow the applicant time to pursue other visa or status options in the United States while maintaining status.

E-2 Visa, longer term solution: Investment in the United States

In response to the impending crisis, our firm has developed long-term solutions for H-1B employees. On April 14, 2020, USCIS provided guidance on extending and changing status during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because many countries have travel restrictions in place, it is likely that laid-off employees cannot return to their home countries during the 60-day grace period. During those 60 days, laid-off H-1B employees can apply for a change of status or an extension of status.

The Change of status option allows an H1b employee to change his or her status from H1b to a new visa category. While most of the employment-based categories require sponsorship, there is an option to find sponsorship through the investors own business. The E-2 visa allows an applicant to own, run and manage a business. The E-2 provides continued immigration status to the applicant, his or her spouse and children.

The E-2 visa requires an investment into a business in the United States; the visa has traditionally been popular amongst startup founders and small business owners. The visa requires the investor to invest a substantial amount of capital and the business operations must produce more than a marginal income; this means that the E-2 enterprise must create jobs for U.S. workers. Unlike the EB-5 visa, there is not a minimum number of jobs that must be created for each investment nor is there a statutory minimum investment amount. However, the E-2 applicant must be a national of an E-2 eligible country.

The E-2 visa provides many advantages to the applicant. First, it allows for the continuation of status. Unlike the H1B visa, which has a limit to the time allowed before the H1b employee must return home, the E-2 may be extended in perpetuity, as long as the business continues as an ongoing concern. Further, the spouse of the E-2 investor will be eligible for a work permit allowing for an open, non-restricted employment opportunity.

Traditionally, an E-2 investor would either start up or purchase an existing business. In the past year, there has been a surge in Franchise opportunities available to E-2 investors. While some of our E-2 clients will have a business already earmarked, many require assistance from Franchise brokers that can assist the investor with locating a Franchise that is E-2 friendly.

Darren Silver & Associates has specialized in business immigration for over 20 years. The firm has successfully filed over 4,000 investment immigration applications over the years.

If you are concerned about your current status in the United States and/or are looking for options for your continued status, Mr. Silver can be reached at dsilver@darrensilver.com

Darren Silver & Associates is an award-winning boutique immigration firm based in Los Angeles that has successfully represented both multi-national companies and high-net-worth individuals for over 23 years.
The strategic task is to restore Ukraine's control of the peninsula, top diplomat explains.

Ukraine is developing a concept of restoring control over the Russian-occupied Crimea, intending to implement a number of tasks in this regard, says Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba.

"I'm in a dialogue on the issue with our president's envoy for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Anton Korinevych, and we are just developing a strategy, a concept, and a vision," Kuleba told Novoye Vremya.

The minister believes Ukraine must solve several tactical tasks, as well as a strategic one.

Read alsoMinister Kuleba announces Ukraine's Chair at OSCE FSC, outlines priorities

"Tactical Tasks: first, it's how we keep the occupied Crimea on a strategic agenda so that this issue is not forgotten. Second: it's how we ensure the effectiveness of the sanctions regime on Crimea. Third: it's what additional international instruments we can use to put pressure on Russia. Also, there are a few other ones. The strategic task is how Crimea will be returned to Ukraine. I'm absolutely convinced that this will happen. This is not a diplomatic fantasy, but a completely pragmatic calculation," said Kuleba.

He also assured that the Foreign Ministry team and other departments are constantly working toward this goal.

Earlier, Kuleba said that Ukraine was ready to talk with Ukrainians from the occupied Donbas but not with militants.
OKLAHOMA CITY, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- GreenShift Corporation (the "Company"), today announced that its chairman and chief executive officer, Kevin Kreisler, issued the following letter to GreenShift's stakeholders:

On March 2, 2020, the Federal Circuit upheld the District Court's rulings that five of our patents were invalid, and that our inventors and former attorneys, Cantor Colburn LLP, withheld information from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO"). In doing so, the Federal Circuit ignored our arguments and its own prior rulings, further depriving us of our rights to due process and a jury trial on these issues.

About a week earlier, on February 21, 2020, the USPTO issued a notice of allowance on our twelfth corn oil extraction patent. It did so after taking pains to evaluate the same District Court rulings and underlying evidence that were just reviewed by the Federal Circuit, along with facts that we never had a chance to present to a jury. In allowing this new patent, the USPTO concluded that the information the District Court determined to have been "withheld" from the USPTO was immaterial to patentability, and that our patents-in-suit should have been held valid and enforceable.

Tragically, on the same day  February 21, 2020, David Cantrell, a co-inventor of the patents-in-suit, passed away, succumbing to illnesses that he had fought for many years. He was a great man. A loving husband to his amazing wife of 52 years, an incredible father and grandfather, and a pillar in his community. He was the founder and spiritual leader of a pioneering team that disrupted the U.S. Corn Ethanol Industry. If he were still here, he would just smile and nod at the Federal Circuit opinion and say "that dog don't hunt."

I am writing this letter to provide a full update for our shareholders in view of our long history of litigation-induced silence. A summary of our intentions and next steps is also provided for all parties it may concern.

Summary

Two separate branches of the United States government reviewed the same District Court ruling and record at the same time, and made two simultaneous conflicting determinations. One had the facts. The other had a narrative.

We are here today because of a single disputed premise. The District Court erroneously concluded that any reasonable jury would find that the inventive process which gave rise to our patents-in-suit was "ready for patenting" in July 2003; and that, therefore, an invalidating "offer for sale" occurred in July 2003, when the inventors sent an experimental offer letter to supply equipment for confidential full scale testing in an operating ethanol plant. The District Court then relied on its erroneous 2014 determinations to find that our inventors and former attorneys "deliberately withheld" information regarding the invention's alleged "readiness for patenting" and "offer for sale" from the USPTO. However, if the invention was not "ready for patenting" in July 2003 (it was not), then the "offer for sale" analysis would not even apply, and any information regarding the invention's alleged "readiness for patenting" and "offer for sale" would be immaterial to patentability. In reality, the invention could not possibly have been ready for patenting in July 2003, no offer for sale of the inventive process occurred in July 2003, and no material information was withheld from the USPTO. The subject matter experts at the USPTO have consistently agreed.

So what happened? The core issues all come down to failed bench testing in 2003, and whether or not it was sufficient to "ready the invention for patenting," when taken with the rest of the contemporaneous evidence. The District Court made incomplete and improper factual determinations when it erroneously issued summary judgment in 2014, without conducting a jury trial on the merits of the 2003 testing and related issues. Because the District Court ruled on these issues at summary judgment, due process required the Federal Circuit to perform a de novo review of the District Court's rulings, which would have brought the facts into full and fair view. Unfortunately, that review did not occur on appeal. If it had, only one result would have been proper as a matter of law: reversal and remand for trial.

Additional Testing Was Obviously Required

If the 2003 bench testing involved a cold fusion process that flared for a beat before fizzling out, then we wouldn't be here today. It would be clear that the invention was not "ready for patenting." Yet, that is exactly what happened here. A few milliliters of oil separated on the bench before the bench-top centrifuge plugged and fizzled out. The defendants called that success. We called it failure.

The inventors weren't aware of the prospects for extraction until corn oil gummed up their dryer in another application. Standard ethanol industry practices had completely ignored the oil, and preliminary research showed that nobody had developed a viable process to remove it at scale. The 2003 bench testing was devised to learn more about what was going on. It was the first testing that we ever performed  the very beginning of development, not the end. And it raised questions, not answers; including counter-intuitive indications that the inventors had never seen before. For example, the few milliliters of bench oil came from a concentrated downstream sample (syrup) while nothing came from a dilute upstream sample. That result was contrary to conventional wisdom. The inventors guessed as to a possible cause, but the sample sat, settled, and cooled before testing, thereby introducing time, temperature, and prior gravimetric separation as variables that did not occur in real life at scale. The inventors had no way of knowing if the sampling protocol itself was responsible for the result, or if it was something inherent in the chemistry or the ethanol production process. The trace yield from the concentrated downstream sample could have been a false positive, or the absence of yield from the dilute upstream sample could have been a false negative, or both. Further testing was obviously required.

Hopes and Guesses are Not Patentable

The inventors had nothing more to go on at that point than their imagination, entrepreneurial instincts, and adjacent experience. They envisioned how they might design a process to extract the oil. They dreamt up and sketched a generic process flow. They used examples with different chemistries for conceptual descriptions. They spoke openly of the potential, making aspirational predictions of success and value creation. They excitedly wrote that they "knew" that they could do a thing that had never been done before. However, in reality  and as the facts clearly show, nothing was proven or known in July 2003. The inventors had merely hoped that they could extract the oil, and they guessed as to how they might get it done.

The USPTO doesn't issue patents for hopes and guesses . Every extraction process is specific to the physiochemical fingerprint of the target stream, the conditions under which it is generated, the ongoing interactions with the host process, and myriad other application-specific variables. The inventors had to experiment in real time at full scale in a living, breathing, continuously-operating ethanol plant to assess viability and confirm the conditions necessary to enable the specification for a patent application. The invention could not possibly be "ready for patenting" until that occurred. No investor or producer would risk their capital or install anything into their facility without proof of concept after seeing the failed 2003 bench testing results. Why would the inventors? Or the USPTO? Or the law?

The inventors sought the assistance of Agri-Energy LLC for that very purpose in July 2003, when they issued an experimental offer to supply a centrifuge and related components to Agri-Energy, in order to complete confidential full scale experiments in Agri-Energy's ethanol plant. Those experiments were completed in May 2004, and they provided the inventors with the proof of concept and information they needed to "ready" the invention for patenting. Our first patent application was filed shortly thereafter, in August 2004.

Genuine Disputes of Material Fact

None of the facts surrounding the testing were ever introduced to a jury. We are confident that a reasonable jury would have followed the evidence to conclude that the invention was not "ready for patenting" in July 2003. But the District Court improperly deprived us of that chance, erroneously concluding that the inventors' early hopes and guesses comprised conclusive evidence of patentability in July 2003 because they closely aligned with the May 2004 experimental results. For example, a conceptual diagram that the inventors prepared in 2003 was found by the District Court to be "proof" that the inventive process was "ready for patenting" in 2003 because it was very similar to the process the inventors used in May 2004. Stated differently, the District Court used the May 2004 proof of concept to conclude that the inventors knew that their initial concept would work in July 2003. That conclusion defied common sense, and it was clearly the result of improper hindsight.

Inventions can't be ready for patenting upon conception simply because the inventors subsequently invent what they previously envisioned and sketched. If that were true, then every invention would be ready for patenting upon conception, and enablement would be irrelevant. Anyone could get a patent for curing cancer without providing experimental evidence of a cure. The entire patent system would descend into chaos. We were accordingly stunned when Judge McKinney ruled in 2014 that all reasonable juries would have to conclude that the invention was "ready for patenting" and "on sale" in July 2003; despite the mountains of evidence we introduced to the contrary  including testimony from the inventors, contemporaneous documents, and multiple expert declarations; and despite the incontrovertible existence of genuine disputes of material fact.

We could not appeal the summary judgment ruling until after all other pre-trial proceedings were completed in 2018, due to the rules against "interlocutory" (intermediate) appeals. The flawed 2014 ruling thus established the law of the case, and Judge McKinney used it as the foundation upon which everything else followed.

Valid and Enforceable

Judge McKinney held a "bench trial" in 2016 to decide the limited issue of whether or not our inventors and attorneys "intended" to withhold "material information" from the USPTO. It was a farce. The District Court barred us from fighting back with the simple truth that the information cited by the defendants was immaterial to patentability, because the invention was not "ready for patenting" or "on sale" in July 2003. Instead, the District Court relied on its own improper factual determinations from 2014 to erroneously decide that our directly contrary denials could not be true, and that our inventors and prior attorneys must have intentionally deceived the USPTO.

The USPTO subsequently disagreed that deception of any kind occurred when, on February 21, 2020, it issued another patent to us after reviewing the very evidence that was allegedly "withheld," along with everything the defendants ever submitted and claimed, as well as the District Court's 2014 and 2016 rulings  all in light of the facts that were never presented to a jury. Significantly, the new patent was allowed by the same examiner that the District Court said was deceived. In other words, the same patent examiner that was allegedly deceived looked at the purported evidence and claims of deception, and disagreed that she had ever been deceived . Thus, in issuing that patent, the examiner concluded that the inventive process was not "ready for patenting" in July 2003, that an invalidating "offer for sale" did not occur in July 2003, and that the "ready for patenting" and "offer for sale" information that the District Court determined to have been "deliberately withheld" from the USPTO was immaterial to patentability. We see that result as nothing short of total vindication, and proof that our patents-in-suit should have been held valid and enforceable .

Next Steps

No corn oil was recovered from dry mill corn ethanol plants in 2003. 17 years later, more than 90% of the industry is producing about 5.2 billion pounds of corn oil annually with processes covered by the patents that David Cantrell conceived and co-invented. At current prices, that output works out to about $1.2 billion in additional annualized income after applicable costs and offsets. In total, the industry has received more than about $8 billion in additional income in the 11 years since our first patent was issued; and, it is expected to generate more than an additional $12 billion before the last claim of our last patent expires.

That's upwards of $20 billion in lifetime value-add to the industry and its communities, and yet the defendants continue to defame and speak of us as common criminals, as if we are holding the industry hostage. We cannot tolerate any reality in which the defendants continue their slanderous charade, with open and unresolved claims of fraud and other wrongs that never occurred  without the slightest thought of a child's pride in the departed, or the careers and lives that they are destroying. That dog will never hunt. There will be no outcome here in which I will both draw breath and let that stand. The record must and will be corrected.

The Federal Circuit erroneously failed to conduct a de novo review of the 2014 summary judgment ruling, thereby depriving us yet again of due process. If we had received that review, the District Court's "ready for patenting" and "on sale" rulings would have been reversed as a matter of law, because there were clearly genuine disputed issues of fact before the District Court when it granted summary judgment. The case would have been remanded for trial. We filed a petition on April 15, 2020, in part on that basis for an en banc review by the Federal Circuit. We are also evaluating additional alternatives to finally obtain a trial on the merits of our case.

We survived the 2008 financial crisis and avoided bankruptcy to preserve our intellectual properties at the expense of irreparable dilution. We did so in pursuit of justice and a small fraction of the value that we brought to the ethanol industry, and our shareholders have nothing to show for it. I intend to remedy that deficiency regardless of what happens with our corn oil saga. We are reviewing several compelling options in that regard. Additional updates on that front will be provided in the coming weeks and months. Suffice it to say, we're beyond done holding back, innovating in silence while the litigation runs its course.

That said, the world is in crisis again. Our communities are at urgent financial risk. The industry is reeling from wide-spread shut downs in the wake of sudden drops in demand and pricing. And an unthinkable pestilence is washing over humanity, putting all of our loved ones at risk. Today is a time for unity, not division. For peace, not war. We will continue to preserve our rights, but anything we do in the immediate term will be with that perspective and our shared global circumstances in mind. Please distance yourselves and stay safe.

Regards,

Kevin Kreisler

Chief Executive Officer

GreenShift Corporation

About GreenShift Corporation

GreenShift Corporation develops and commercializes technologies that facilitate the more efficient use of natural resources. GreenShift is focused on doing so today in the U.S. ethanol industry and emerging agricultural industries, where GreenShift innovates and offers technologies that improve the profitability of its licensees. Additional information on GreenShift and its technologies is available online at www.greenshift.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains statements that may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Those statements include statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of GreenShift Corporation and members of its management as well as the assumptions on which such statements are based. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Important factors currently known to management that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-statements include fluctuation of commodity prices and operating results, the ability to compete successfully, and the ability to complete before-mentioned transactions. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes to future operating results.

Contact Information

Kevin Kreisler, Chief Executive Officer

GreenShift Corporation

888.435.6124

SOURCE GreenShift Corporation

Related Links

https://greenshift.com


PR-Inside.com: 2020-05-05 22:37:03

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Gold Resource Corporation (NYSE American: GORO) (the Company or GRC) reported consolidated production results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020 of 10,142 ounces of gold and 407,625 ounces of silver. In addition to precious metals, the Company produced base metals resulting in net revenue of $28 million and $5 million operating cash flow for the quarter. At the end of the quarter the Mexican government declared a country-wide health emergency and mandatory non-essential business suspension due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic. The Company was required by the Mexican government to suspend its Mexico operations and the Company subsequently withdrew its 2020 production outlook. Gold Resource Corporation is a gold and silver producer, developer and explorer with operations in Oaxaca, Mexico and Nevada, USA. The Company has returned $114 million to its shareholders in consecutive monthly dividends since July 2010 and offers its shareholders the option to convert their cash dividends into physical gold and silver and take delivery.

Q1 2020 HIGHLIGHTS

Strong balance sheet with $18.4 million cash and cash equivalents;

$28.0 million net sales;

Operating cash flow of $5 million;

Precious metal quarterly production on target with 10,142 gold ounces and 407,625 silver ounces produced;

$4.1 million gold and silver bullion inventory; and

$0.01 per share dividend distribution for quarter.

Overview of Q1 2020 Results

Production from both mining units were within targeted ranges prior to the Company withdrawing its 2020 production outlook due to the pandemic. First quarter Oaxaca Mining Unit (OMU) production totaled 6,450 ounces of gold, 402,542 ounces of silver, 488 tonnes of copper, 2,514 tonnes of lead and 5,844 tonnes of zinc. First quarter production from the Companys Nevada Mining Unit (NMU) totaled 3,692 ounces of gold.

The Company sold 8,614 precious metal gold equivalent ounces at a total cash cost of $918 per ounce (after by-product credits) at its OMU. Falling base metal markets and record high treatment charges negatively impacted revenues and costs during the quarter. OMU average realized metal prices during the quarter included $1,670 per ounce gold and $17.03 per ounce silver*. The Company sold 3,755 gold ounces from its Isabella Pearl mine at a total cash cost of $1,327 per ounce (after by-product credits) at an average realized price of $1,575 per gold ounce*. The Company recorded a net loss of $3.1 million, or $0.05 per share because of lower revenues and higher non-cash depreciation and amortization. The Company generated $5 million in operating cash flow, and paid $0.7 million to its shareholders in dividends, or $0.01 per share during the quarter. Cash and cash equivalents at quarter end totaled $18.4 million.

Oaxaca Mining Unit operations were suspended on April 1, 2020 when the Mexican government declared a national emergency due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. At that time, the Company put its OMU operations into care and maintenance and withdrew its 2020 production outlook. The national emergency declaration is currently set to expire on May 30, 2020. Based on government signaling of potential early business restarts for less COVID-19 impacted zones, the Company has recently submitted its early-start proposal to the Mexican federal government due to Oaxaca being one of zones least impacted by the virus.

*Average realized metal prices include final settlement adjustments for previously unsettled provisional sales. Provisional sales may remain unsettled from one quarter into the next. Realized prices will therefore vary from average spot metal market prices upon final settlement.

COVID-19

With the NMU continuing to operate, and in preparation for restarting our OMU, the Company strives to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and protect the health and safety of our employees, contractors, and communities in which we operate. The Company has taken precautionary measures including specialized training, social distancing, a work-from-home mandate where possible, and close monitoring of national and regional COVID-19 impacts and governmental guidelines. To date, the Company is not aware of any cases of COVID-19 at its operations. With the ever changing and fluid nature of the pandemic impact, Company management analyzed various scenarios whereby a forced and/or prolonged suspension of one or both mining units were sustained.

First quarter production at both our mining units were within expected production ranges, stated Mr. Jason Reid, President and CEO of Gold Resource Corporation. While the mandated business suspension at the end of the quarter isnt ideal for business, I was pleased to see Mexico join in global efforts to combat the COVID-19 virus. During these unprecedented times, we have taken the precautionary measure of raising additional capital just shy of $12 million in part to put the Company in a much stronger financial position to weather an extended suspension of one or both of our operations, if need be. Like much of the rest of the world, we look forward to getting back to work in Mexico in the safest manner and as soon as possible.

Mr. Reid continued, We continue to revise, where possible, our Oaxaca mine plan in an effort to target zones with higher precious metal values in the Arista mine to help offset lower base metal market prices experienced thus far in 2020. We are also contemplating additional cost cutting measures.

Our Isabella Pearl operations in Nevada continued to make good progress during the quarter removing overburden at the high-grade Pearl zone in the deposit, stated Mr. Reid. We are pleased to report that we have recently exposed the top portion of this high grade Pearl zone and have had several days mining grades up to 2.7 grams per tonne gold where the block model indicated 1.5 grams per tonne gold. While there is still significant overburden to remove at Pearl before getting into larger tonnages of this high grade zone, we remain on schedule to access significant portions of this material by mid-year 2020. We continue to be on track for our targeted gold production ramp up by the end of Q3 and more so in Q4. Eighty percent of the ore in the Isabella Pearl deposit is located in the Pearl zone and its great to have mined down to bench levels where the top of the Pearl zone is now exposed.

The following Production Statistics tables summarize certain information about our Oaxaca and Nevada Mining Unit operations for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019:

Oaxaca Mining Unit

Three months ended March 31, 2020 2019 Arista Mine Milled Tonnes Milled 158,036 150,061 Grade Average Gold Grade (g/t) 1.54 1.51 Average Silver Grade (g/t) 82 74 Average Copper Grade (%) 0.39 0.36 Average Lead Grade (%) 1.99 1.87 Average Zinc Grade (%) 4.67 4.67 Aguila Open Pit Mine Milled Tonnes Milled 14,248 11,464 Grade Average Gold Grade (g/t) 1.26 2.11 Average Silver Grade (g/t) 38 43 Mirador Mine Milled Tonnes Milled 2,204 4,113 Grade Average Gold Grade (g/t) 1.86 1.26 Average Silver Grade (g/t) 198 226 Combined Tonnes milled 174,488 165,638 Tonnes Milled per Day (1) 1,994 1,917 Metal production (before payable metal deductions) (2) Gold (ozs.) 6,450 6,538 Silver (ozs.) 402,542 364,653 Copper (tonnes) 488 433 Lead (tonnes) 2,514 2,153 Zinc (tonnes) 5,844 5,838

Based on actual days the mill operated during the period. The difference between what we report as "ounces/tonnes produced" and "payable ounces/tonnes sold" is attributable to the difference between the quantities of metals contained in the concentrates we produce versus the portion of those metals actually paid for according to the terms of our sales contracts. Differences can also arise from inventory changes incidental to shipping schedules, or variances in ore grades and recoveries which impact the amount of metals contained in concentrates produced and sold.

Nevada Mining Unit

Three months ended

March 31, 2020 2019 Ore mined Ore (tonnes) 158,754 - Gold grade (g/t) 1.15 - Low-grade stockpile (tonnes) Ore (tonnes) 18,490 - Gold grade (g/t) 0.57 - Waste (tonnes) 1,791,048 - Metal production (before payable metal deductions) (1) Gold (ozs.) 3,692 - Silver (ozs.) 5,083 -

Average metal prices realized vary from the market metal prices due to final settlement adjustments from our provisional invoices when they are settled. Our average metal prices realized will therefore differ from the market average metal prices in most cases.

The following Sales Statistics tables summarize certain information about our Oaxaca and Nevada Mining Unit operations for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019:

Oaxaca Mining Unit

Three months ended March 31, 2020 2019 Metal sold Gold (ozs.) 4,992 4,758 Silver (ozs.) 355,228 268,189 Copper (tonnes) 428 338 Lead (tonnes) 1,964 1,653 Zinc (tonnes) 4,356 4,506 Average metal prices realized (1) Gold ($ per oz.) 1,670 1,339 Silver ($ per oz.) 17.03 15.74 Copper ($ per tonne) 5,530 6,291 Lead ($ per tonne) 1,691 2,063 Zinc ($ per tonne) 1,888 2,856 Precious metal gold equivalent ounces sold Gold Ounces 4,992 4,758 Gold Equivalent Ounces from Silver 3,622 3,153 Total Precious Metal Gold Equivalent Ounces 8,614 7,911 Total cash cost before by-product credits per precious metal gold equivalent ounce sold $ 2,534 $ 2,641 Total cash cost after by-product credits per precious metal gold equivalent ounce sold (2) $ 918 $ 314 Total all-in sustaining cost per precious metal gold equivalent ounce sold $ 1,229 $ 808

Average metal prices realized vary from the market metal prices due to final settlement adjustments from our provisional invoices when they are settled. Our average metal prices realized will therefore differ from the market average metal prices in most cases. Total cash cost after by-product credits are significantly affected by base metals sales during the periods presented.

Nevada Mining Unit

Three months ended

March 31, 2020 2019 Metal sold Gold (ozs.) 3,755 - Silver (ozs.) 5,579 - Average metal prices realized (1) Gold ($ per oz.) 1,575 - Silver ($ per oz.) 16.63 - Total cash cost before by-product credits per gold ounce sold $ 1,352 $ - Total cash cost after by-product credits per gold ounce sold $ 1,327 $ - Total all-in sustaining cost per gold ounce sold $ 1,330 $ -

Average metal prices realized vary from the market metal prices due to final settlement adjustments from our provisional invoices when they are settled. Our average metal prices realized will therefore differ from the market average metal prices in most cases.

See Accompanying Tables

The following information summarizes the results of operations for Gold Resource Corporation for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, its financial condition at March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, and its cash flows for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019. The summary data as of March 31, 2020 and for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019 is unaudited; the summary data as of December 31, 2019 is derived from our audited financial statements contained in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, but do not include the footnotes and other information that is included in the complete financial statements. Readers are urged to review the Companys Form 10-K in its entirety, which can be found on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.

The calculation of our cash cost per precious metal gold equivalent per ounce, total all-in sustaining cost per precious metal gold equivalent per ounce and total all-in cost per precious metal gold equivalent per ounce contained in this press release are non-GAAP financial measures. Please see "Management's Discussion and Analysis and Results of Operations" contained in the Companys most recent Form 10-K for a complete discussion and reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures.

GOLD RESOURCE CORPORATION

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(U.S. dollars in thousands, except share and per share amounts)
Abu Dhabi Exports Office (Adex) has launched a national campaign to help business leaders use financial products and services to rebuild global export business and help the economy recover from the Covid-19 crisis.

Adex, formed in 2019 by Abu Dhabi Fund for Development to help drive expansion of UAE export businesses and advance national economic diversification, is working to establish partnerships with Departments of Economic Development and Chambers of Commerce across all emirates. Together they will co-host a series of forums educating UAE export business leaders on how to use the Adex suite of export credit facilities, a statement said.

The move will help the UAEs export community to be more competitive in the global marketplace while safely and securely expanding into international markets, where overseas buyers have limited access to traditional commercial financing in the current Covid-19 economic environment.

Mohammed Saif Al Suwaidi, Director General of ADFD and Chairman of the Adex Export Executive Committee, said: This is not only a difficult time for UAE exporters, but its also a challenging time for their overseas buyers. Both are dealing with liquidity and cash flow issues, delayed supplier payments and limited access to financing. Adex provides a solution to these challenges that enables both the exporter and foreign importer to quickly and easily fund mutually beneficial transactions.

Adex has allocated AED 550 million ($150 million) in funding for qualifying export transactions of national companies that is immediately available to support Covid-19 economic recovery.

Knowing how to smartly engage Adex financing and support services provides UAE companies with a highly valuable and differentiating strategic tool they can use in international marketing and sales, while helping overcome current liquidity and cash flow challenges. As soon as a qualified overseas buyer certifies the successful completion of an Adex-funded transaction, Adex will make payment directly to the UAE national company.

Al Suwaidi added: We need all companies in the UAE to know how to access the full range of Adex financial products and services available today to advance their business development efforts. We want them to know Adex is here to support them not only through the Covid-19 economic recovery period but to expand their businesses and drive our national economic diversification strategy well into the future.

After a successful education workshop with the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Adex will kick off the national business education campaign by partnering with the Fujairah and Sharjah Chambers of Commerce and Industry to host exclusive online education forums for their member companies especially the national manufacturing companies. In these webinars, Chamber members will interact directly with Adex management to discuss how to best access and use Adex export facilities to rebuild their export business. Specific dates and details on how to participate in these exclusive forums will be provided to members directly through their respective Chambers.

Saeed Al Dhaheri, Acting Director General of Adex, said: We all share a responsibility to support the financial health and development of our national companies. While today we are talking about economic recovery in the post Covid-19 period, we are all looking ahead to the Next 50. Working directly with Chambers of Commerce and the government entities that make up our national export community, we can ensure our national companies are fully aware of how to access and use the services available to them to build their business during this challenging time and beyond.

Adex is currently working with other Chambers of Commerce and government partners across the emirates to schedule additional education forums to ensure all UAE companies know how to access its financial products and services. Details of those forums will be shared as soon as events are scheduled.---TradeArabia News Service
A community development project in Cork is distributing gift packs for older people and children to bring fun into peoples homes during isolation.

"We dont stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing", thats what George Bernard Shaw said and its what we say here," explained Viv Sadd, manager at the Mahon Community Development Project.

The CDPs talented staff created original pieces for the gift packs, drawing artwork, composing poetry and quizzes, baking cookies and making play dough which was all packed alongside bubbles, a HSE physical exercise programme and wildflower seeds.

Although the CDPs youth centre, creche and resource centre have been closed by the pandemic, staff are going out into the community to support their clients and lift spirits. Theyve replaced broken fridges and washing machines, established a Meals-on Wheels and make daily calls to those cocooning.

And their 150 gift packs were distributed throughout Mahon and Blackrock, in both wealthier and more disadvantaged areas. Mr Sadd said: Just because youre rich doesnt mean youre not lonely. And loneliness is really exacerbated in a time like this."

Lynda Wakefield, community development worker for older people with the CDP, is now so busy that she is responding to need in the community seven days a week: Weve had to respond so quickly and in very new ways. There is isolation and loneliness out there. People were brave at the start, they were willing to do their part, but theyre starting to flag and wane now."

We set up a Meals on Wheels as an emergency response because other services were at capacity. People who were usually independent cant nip out to the local shop or pharmacy anymore. Someone contacted us about one man who was keeping his Meals on Wheels and his diabetes medicine in the porch because his fridge broke six years ago. He also has cancer. He was delighted when we brought him a new fridge. Hes been really independent and never asked anyone for help but now hes afraid to go out with his health status."

[timgcapimported=Some of the staff of Mahon CDP]9af48c60-9607-4fa3-86a5-71b92360ac6d__4e4f5d8a-6346-4020-9b97-c70bb46bc14f.jpg[/timgimportedcap]

She said that they usually see their clients face-to-face  so now, along with calling people on the phone, she sometimes stops by their house so they can see her through the window: "I went and spoke to someone through their window this week just to maintain that connection."

Theres a huge range of needs in the community, some people want to socialise, some people need mental health support, some people have been living in Magdalene laundries like Bessborough for many years. Were there for people from creche age right up to older people. Everyone has that human need to feel cared-for and valued."

Pat Horgan is resident and caretaker at Ringmahon Court sheltered housing in Blackrock. He said that the communitys support has made cocooning easy: When you get older you become invisible to many people. But the CDP and their gift packs show that were still valuable and have a place in the community."

Pat and Anne Boyd from Mahon have not lost their sense of fun throughout the crisis. Were lucky we have a cemetery right next to our house so we walk there to make sure everyone is behaving themselves," Mr Boyd said with a chuckle.

Married for 52 years, the pair met in a London dance club where Cork showband, The Dixies, were playing and they have been together ever since. Annes father was killed by TB when she was a child so this is the second public health crisis shes had to endure: We cant praise Lynda and Viv enough. Everyones been so kind. You dont realise how important these groups really are in the community until something like this happens."

You can feel a bit isolated but we really have brilliant people around us," Mr Boyd said.
Results from a recent workshop study by Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry undergraduate students focusing on addressing mental health and wellness among medical students was recently published in the journal Medical Education. Credit: Paul Mayne // Western News file photo

A group of Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry students are emphasizing the value of peer support in promoting mental health and wellness among their ranks with an initiative they hope will change the way medical students help each other.

"Medical students, like other health-care professionals, face a disproportionate rate of mental illness relative to the general population," said Alysha Ahmed, Medicine Class of 2020, noting as many as one-third of medical students experience some form of depression. "This led to the idea that we should try to improve this situation. One way we could do this was to better equip our peers to help each other."

Ahmed knew there was interest among students in having more practical training on how to support peers experiencing mental illness or extreme stress. She had helped facilitate a suicide intervention workshop for medical students in 2017.

Along with fellow Medicine Class of 2020 students Trystan Nault, Julian Rizos and Karishma Taneja, and Medicine Class of 2021 students Jordan Berry and Rosie Javinsky, Ahmed partnered with local Canadian Mental Health Association experts to develop and deliver a peer-support workshop to 27 medical students.

The one-day workshop focused on the ability to recognize peers in need of support, initiate a conversation, support them in creating a mental-health plan of action, practise self-care and set personal boundaries.

"Like many, I've grown up with family members and friends managing mental illness," Rizos said. "Throughout medical school, I found a surprising amount of my peers also dealing with similar challenges. This piqued my interest and concerned me; I wanted to be a part of the solution."

The students conducted three surveys as part of the initiativea pre-workshop survey and two post-workshop surveys (immediately after and at six months).

The results showed that students grew in awareness of peers who may need support and were more likely to approach them with confidence in an educational or health-care settings. Participants also left the workshop with a greater knowledge of mental-health resources both on campus and in the local community.

Their findings, Peer support: A medical studentdriven mental health workshop, were recently published in the academic journal Medical Education.

The Western students presented their findings at the Ontario Student Medical Education Research Conference in 2019. They were awarded the Canadian Federation of Medical Students National Impact Award for the "translatable and scalable nature of this initiative and its potential for implementation in other schools going forward."

The group was also invited to present at the Canadian Conference on Physician Health in Newfoundland.

Ahmed plans to continue to run workshop on an annual basis and ultimately expand it to include students at other medical schools across the country.

"Ultimately, our goal would be to have enough med students trained so there is a positive 'spill-over' effect in our tight-knit community and most people feel they have a supportive peer in their life to turn to," Ahmed said.

Explore further Mental health program helps teens recognise and support peers at risk

More information: AlyshaKarima Ahmed et al. Peer support: A medical studentdriven mental health workshop, Medical Education (2020). AlyshaKarima Ahmed et al. Peer support: A medical studentdriven mental health workshop,(2020). DOI: 10.1111/medu.14125
Attorney General Bill Barr told top administration officials in a meeting on Monday that they should drop their plot to have the Supreme Court strike down Obamacare in full.

CNN reported that Barr met with Vice President Mike Pence, White House counsel Pat Cipollone, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, members of the Domestic Policy Council and several other administation officials and told them they should reconsider before Wednesday, the deadline for alterations to the government's argument.

Barr's pitch was political, CNN said, as he believes that the administration's stance on killing Obamacare could have repercussions on the ability for the president to be re-elected in the fall.

Attorney General Bill Barr encouraged top White House aides to drop their plot to push the Supreme Court to kill Obamacare in full, according to CNN's reporting

Bill Barr said in meeting Monday that the White House should revise its argument to the Supreme Court to allow parts of the Affordable Care Act to be preserved. He suggested it could hurt President Trump's re-election chances in the fall

Instead, Barr suggested that the administration modify its stance to allow some parts of the Affordable Care Act to be preserved.

A group of Republican states are trying to get the entire law invalidated.

They argue that the individual insurance requirement is unconstitutional, thus making the entire Affordable Care Act unconstitutional.

Currently, the Trump administration supports that position as well.

No decision was made at the time of the meeting, CNN reported.

The coronavirus pandemic could make healthcare a top-tier issue in the general election.

While Democrats were split on whether they wanted to improve upon Obamacare - a stance backed by presumptive nominee Joe Biden - or move toward a Medicare-for-all plan - backed by Bernie Sanders and other, more progressive candidates - the party was in lock step on wanting to get more Americans insured.

Republicans, on the other hand, have long wanted to repeal Obamacare - but neither Trump nor his Capitol Hill allies have produced a definitive plan for what would come next.

Democrats are aware of this.

Party members were licking their lips at the idea of 'using the virus as a bat to bludgeon Republicans on healthcare,' Politico Playbook said, after Trump announced on April 1 that he would not be reopening the Obamacare markets.

On April 1, President Trump (left) and Vice President Mike Pence (right) announced that they wouldn't be reopening the Obamacare markets, instead floating a plan to directly pay hospitals to treat uninsured Americans with COVID-19. Democrats saw this move as a political opportunity

Trump and Pence instead pitched paying hospitals directly for uninsured Americans' COVID-19 treatments.

'You have a perfectly good answer in front of you, and instead you're going to make another one up,' one Republican told Politico, responding to the quickly hatched plan. 'It's purely ideological.'

An administration official also told Politico 'it's a bad decision opticswise.'

'It politicizes people's access to health services during a serious national health emergency,' the official said.

A Trump donor, oil executive Dan Eberhart, told NBC News several days later, 'Not having a plan for the rising uninsured yet seems to be a blind spot.'

'The Democrats took the House in the 2018 midterms largely by having better answers on healthcare, so I think this could be a massive political liability in the fall,' Eberhart said.

'Trump has provided sober and strong leadership, but this could prove to be his Achilles' heel in November,' the Trump donor added.

While the result of the Supreme Court's Obamacare case wouldn't be expected until after the November election, the court would likely hear the case in the fall - giving Democrats the chance to wield a big bat when highlighting the administration's position.
Hard-hit Australians will start receiving the first round of the $1,500 JobKeeper payments from today.

Almost 730,000 businesses and 4.7million employees will benefit from the Federal Government's wage subsidy scheme designed to keep employees on the books during the COVID-19 economic downturn.

The Australian Tax Office will start rolling out the first round of payments on Wednesday so business owners can pay their staff.

Eligible businesses will receive $1,500 every fortnight for each eligible employee - which equates to about 70 per cent of the national median wage.

All full-time and part-time employees, and with casual workers who have been in the job for a year, are eligible for the scheme.

Almost 730,000 businesses and 4.7million employees will benefit from the Federal Government's wage subsidy scheme which was rolled out on Wednesday

Fewer businesses than expected have signed onto the wage subsidy scheme, but Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has ruled out extending the program to more ineligible workers

All full-time and part-time employees, and with casual workers who have been in the job for a year, are eligible for the JobKeeper scheme

Sole traders and Kiwis on 444 working visas are also entitled to the highly-anticipated package

Almost 730,000 organisations - including over 250,000 in New South Wales, 197,000 in Victoria and 141,000 in Queensland - have applied.

The ATO will slowly roll out the payments from this week, but due to the high volume of applications, not all businesses and organisations will be paid out on Wednesday.

'We anticipate that in the vast majority of JobKeeper applications the payments will be made in days of the ATO receiving the completed application,' an ATO spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia.

Eligible applicants are also advised to be patient and allow time for the money to go into their account depending on what bank they're with.

What employees are eligible for JobKeeper You are currently employed (including those stood down or re-hired) by an eligible employer You were employed by the employer at March 1, 2020 You are full-time, part-time, or long-term casuals (a casual employed on a regular basis for longer than 12 months as at March 1, 2020) You are at least 16 years old You are an Australian citizen, the holder of a permanent visa, a Protected Special Category Visa holder, a non-protected Special Category Visa holder who has been residing continually in Australia for 10 years or more, or a Special Category (Subclass 444) Visa holder You are not in receipt of a JobKeeper Payment from another employer Advertisement

Fewer businesses than expected have signed onto the wage subsidy scheme, but the treasurer has ruled out extending the program to more ineligible workers.

'There will be some who actually say, it's too generous. It's too large,' Josh Frydenberg told ABC radio.

'I believe that Australia has a fair and decent welfare safety net,' he said.

One in three hospitality workers have lost their job during the economic fallout from the virus, new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows.

The arts and entertainment sector is close behind, shedding more than a quarter of workers.

Overall, the economy lost 7.5 per cent of jobs and wages shrank by eight per cent over the month to mid-April.

Treasury has estimated the economy will take a $50 billion hit in the June quarter, equivalent to about 10 or 12 per cent of GDP.

The roll out comes as it's revealed Australian workers at foreign-owned companies will miss out on the Jobkeeper allowance after a last minute change to eligibility requirements.

The government changed the definition of 'sovereign entity' in the JobKeeper rules on May 1 to exclude companies owned 100 per cent by foreign governments.

Australia is home to 10,000 businesses that are at least 50 per cent foreign-owned, but very few are overseas, state-owned firms.

Dnata, which supplies frozen meals to businesses like Qantas, received the news they were no longer eligible for the $1,500 fortnightly payment in an email from management on Monday.

The company, which has 5,500 workers across Australia, falls into this category as it is owned by the government of Dubai.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the $4 billion-a-week cost is a very strong incentive for leaders looking at easing restrictions.

'That certainly puts enormous pressure, as it should, on the timetable as we seek to move Australia back to ... a COVID-safe economy,' he said on Tuesday.

'We now need to get a million Australians back to work. That is the curve that we need to address.'
Press Release

May 5, 2020 Hontiveros urges immediate passage of Expanded Solo Parents Welfare Act amidst pandemic "The pandemic shines a light on what solo parents - like myself - already intimately know: that raising a child as a solo parent is infinitely harder in every conceivable aspect than raising a child as a two-parent household." This was the sentiment of Senator Risa Hontiveros, Chair of the Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, today during her sponsorship speech urging the immediate passage of the Expanded Solo Parents Welfare Act. "Financial hardships are common among two-income families. The challenge is even more difficult for a solo parent who is forced to rely on one income stream, especially now," she said. "Considering that there are approximately 3 million solo parent households, this means that there are almost 3 million families that are in danger of not being able to fulfill their daily needs." According to the Senator, the Expanded Solo Parents Welfare Act of 2020, or SB 1411, will include a 20% discount on medical needs of the child, the child's basic necessities, diapers until age 3, hospital bills of both the solo parent and the child, and the child's tuition fees from kindergarten until college. Hontiveros' bill will also entitle solo parents to an additional 7 day parental leave, on top of leave privileges under existing laws. It also mandates government and private companies with more than 300 employees to create daycare facilities. The Expanded Solo Parents' Welfare Bill also seeks to expand the definition of solo parents to include spouses of low-income overseas Filipino workers who are away from the Philippines for an unbroken period of twelve (12) months. The Senator said the Expanded Solo Parents Welfare Act or SB1411 is even more relevant now, given the amplification of unique hardships experienced by solo parents during the pandemic. She said balancing livelihood and childcare for solo parents is now "exponentially harder." "Bukod sa pag-aalala kung saan sila kukuha ng pangtustos sa pang-araw araw nilang pangangailangan, kailangan din nilang isipin kung sino ang pwedeng takbuhan ng kanilang mga anak kung sakaling sila ay magkasakit o di kaya ay magpositibo sa COVID. Saan sila kukuha ng pangbili ng pagkain? Sino na ang mag-aalaga sa kanilang mga anak?" Hontiveros said. "We will be facing a lot of changes as we transition out of this quarantine. Our solo parents need a 'new normal' that includes them. No one should get left behind," she concluded.
Are land values immune from impact of the Covid-19 emergency? It may seem like a silly question as the virus wreaks mayhem across the globe. However, land is a precious commodity and prices have traditionally held up in the face of volatility.

Clive Kavanagh (pictured) of Jordan Auctioneers believes that in the medium to longer term, values will remain firm.

He recalls that it is only weeks since people were reviewing the land market of 2019 and making projections for 2020, and while all those analyses and projections may now appear to be irrelevant Mr Kavanagh is not convinced that they are.

He claims that while the land market and the economy generally are taking a hit, the land market has a track record of remaining relatively stable, especially over the last decade.

"When you actually chart the value of land we can see that, while there are some peaks and troughs, the movement is nowhere as volatile as other investment mediums," he said.

Mr Kavanagh points out that even though agriculture has been through troubling times (he lists Brexit, the abolition of milk quotas and the evolving climate change pressures) the rate of variance in the price of land between 2010 to 2019 is just 1,266 per acre.

According to Mr Kavanagh, while the general economic climate has an undoubted impact on land prices and sales, his experience and that of Jordan Auctioneers shows that the impact of external factors is minimal in comparison to the impact on other segments of the property market.

"There are factors beyond value and return that hold the baseline value of land steady," he said, pointing to the fact that the amount of land sold on the market represents a tiny 0.5pc of the total land area.

"The opportunity for many farmers to buy land comes only once a lifetime, and therefore the question is not what the land is worth but what they can afford to pay," he said.

Like all auctioneers, Mr Kavanagh is aware of the emotional attachment Irish people have to land.

"In many situations it is seen as an heirloom, not an asset to be sold," he said, while purchase of land may be undertaken with no particular focus on return but rather a traditional family desire to complete the natural boundaries of a farm.

Forestry

Looking at the price drivers in the farm property market Mr Kavanagh says that forestry land at 3,000 to 4,000/ac has in effect created a floor on land values while farm consolidation and farm expansion will always drive prices.

"Due to the fragmented nature of many holdings in Ireland, when good-quality land is offered for sale adjacent to a farmer who has ambitions to expand, they will generally try everything within their powers to buy it," he said. "This is particularity true for those in the dairy business where additional land adjacent to the main yard or milking platform has added value. In some instances, dairy farmers may dispose of an out-farm to facilitate the purchase of land closer to the milking operation."

The based auctioneer believes land will continue to be a safe place for money: "Land is a finite resource and unlike other investment products cannot be wiped out by external factors such as those we have suddenly experienced," he said.

"This will mean that it will continue to be perceived as a safe haven for money even if the return is minimal."

Looking to the immediate future he believes there is a steady supply of land waiting to be sold.

"We have a good supply of land coming to the market in 2020, as have many of our colleagues in the business.

"Some vendors will hold off selling due to lack of market confidence and that will further reduce supply [resulting] in good prices for those that are offered for sale. A key issue will be access to finance and the various lending institutions remaining active," he said

"In our opinion by the end of May, if business activity is up and running, plans can be made for a sale this year."
A Shanghai doctor assisting Wuhan to fight the COVID-19 epidemic cried his heart out after failing to rescue a severe patient who had a sudden cytokine storm when receiving intubation. The scene was filmed by one of the doctors colleagues and soon went viral online, touching the hearts of all the Chinese.

Efforts must be made 100 percent to save lives even though theres only 1 percent of a chance. That is what the doctor above has practiced, and moral principle infused in the blood of the Chinese nation, as well as the priority of medical treatment in China.

Life is invaluable and saving the people comes before everything. However, some U.S. politicians just cant see this. Instead, they ignored it and stubbornly made provocations.

Lately, a joint letter framing up China was sent to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres by seven Republican senators, saying the country has committed the most severe crime on human rights in pandemic response. However, such practice only became a butt of a joke after being reported by global media. Just like former director John Ross of Economic and Business Policy for the Mayor of London said, China has defended the key human right in the lethal epidemic  helping people stay alive.

The right to life is the most fundamental human rights, which is confirmed and guaranteed by the UNs Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Bill of Human Rights. The sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic is like a mirror that reflects the importance laid by countries on human right protection, as well as their capability to protect the people.

Those who hype the so-called human rights to make troubles for China are desecrating Chinese peoples efforts to fight the pandemic. The Chinese government has always taken peoples lives and health as its first priority, and is treating the patients and saving the people at all cost. The country is going all-out to save every COVID-19 patient, and has launched blanket search to ensure that no one is left behind. Besides, it also launched differentiated treatment plans and cares for individual patients in critical and severe conditions.

Chinas anti-pandemic efforts fully demonstrated the countrys moral principle of placing people and lives in the first place, as well as the power of the Chinese ethic.

Besides, China also participated in global anti-pandemic cooperation with concrete actions and offered assistance as much as possible for countries and regions in need, making important contribution to the global cause of human right protection.

Eduardo Klinger, academician of the Dominican Republic Academy of Sciences noted that the Chinese government has adopted measures that are decisive and responsible for the people around the world to curb the spread of the virus, and the theory of the so-called human right violation is total nonsense.

Those who hype the so-called human rights to make troubles for China are trying to cover their own incapability in pandemic response, as the so-called human rights are always a club they hold. Even at the critical moment when the COVID-19 is taking the lives of many, they are still rubbing salt into the wound.

China has informed the WHO, the U.S. and other relevant countries about the epidemic on a regular basis since Jan. 3, and the heads of the two countries disease control centers exchanged information on the following day. However, it was half a month later that the chief of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported the situation to senior American officials, and the latter turned a deaf ear and wasted two months regarding epidemic response. Why did that happen?

When millions of Chinese people were demonstrating their strength to the virus and quarantining themselves at home in a way to contribute to the world, some U.S. politicians just sat back and watch, badmouthing that China violated human rights. When cases are surging drastically in the U.S. and leading to spiking deaths, U.S. politicians, health organs and budget department are making a mess asking for more anti-pandemic allocation. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared to suspend the tally of COVID-19 testing on March 3 for system upgrading, and the Food and Drug Administration stopped its approval for COVID-19 testing reagents, which allowed more than 90 such products to enter the market without any regulation. What the results would be? No wonder American media described the response of the U.S. government as disastrous.

Those who hype the so-called human rights to make troubles for China are disturbing international cooperation. Touting itself as a guardian of global human rights, the U.S. has an ugly record of human right protection. It has long withdrawn from the UN Human Rights Council, but is arbitrarily interfering in the making of the organizations election rules, and pointing fingers at the organizations affairs and the human right conditions in other countries. When the international society was facing severe challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, White House decided to stop funding the WHO, and even threatened to withdraw from the UN health body. Is that some sort of human right protection? Besides, the U.S. sanction for Iran, Cuba and Venezuela seriously damaged these countries efforts to fight the pandemic. Is the U.S. still calling itself the guardian of global human rights?

A crime against humanity  thats what authoritative medical journal The Lancet commented about the defunding of the White House.

Life is the most precious thing in this world, and human rights are just an empty term without life and health. In the fierce pandemic, human rights never come before saving lives.

The U.S. politicians had better care for the lives and health of the American citizens, or they will only be condemned by international justice and human civilization for their indifference to peoples lives.

(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by Peoples Daily to express its views on foreign policy.)
IT major Wipro on Tuesday said it has inked a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Maharashtra under which it will repurpose one of its campuses in Hinjewadi, Pune to a 450-bed intermediary care COVID-19 hospital in four weeks. The hospital will be converted back to an IT facility after a year.

Wipro said it would hand over the facility to the Maharashtra government by May 30.

"The 450-bed hospital, to be equipped to treat moderate cases, will include 12 beds to stabilise critical patients before shifting them to a tertiary care facility. This is an independent, isolated COVID-19 dedicated complex that also includes 24 well-appointed rooms to accommodate doctors and medical staff," Wipro said in a press release.

The Bengaluru-based IT firm will provide the physical infrastructure, medical furniture and equipment besides appointing an administrator and skeletal support staff to help operationalise the hospital quickly with the required medical professionals.

Also Read: Wipro, Azim Premji Foundation contribute Rs 1,125 cr to tackle coronavirus crisis

"We are completely committed to supporting the country's response to the pandemic and believe that we must all work together to deal with this crisis and minimise its human impact. We stand firmly with the Government of Maharashtra in its battle against COVID-19," said Rishad Premji, Chairman, Wipro Limited.

Commenting on the development, Uddhav Thackeray, Chief Minister, Maharashtra said, "This humanitarian contribution by Wipro will further strengthen our medical infrastructure and benefit the medical fraternity who are at the forefront of our fight against the pandemic."

Also Read: Wipro defers promotions, salary hikes amid coronavirus pandemic

Earlier in April, Wipro Ltd, Wipro Enterprises Ltd and Azim Premji Foundation, together committed Rs 1,125 crore towards tackling the unprecedented health and humanitarian crisis arising from the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. These resources will help enable the dedicated medical and service fraternity in the frontline of the battle against the pandemic and in mitigating its wide-ranging human impact, particularly on the most disadvantaged of our society, the company said.

Besides, Wipro and Azim Premji Foundation are carrying out COVID-19 related humanitarian and healthcare relief work in Maharashtra across Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad-Waluj, Amalner, Ahmednagar, Akola, Beed, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli. The relief work has so far touched over 34 lakh beneficiaries across India, the company said.

By Chitranjan Kumar
YEREVAN, MAY 5, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan today chaired a consultation on the 2020 capital expenditure programs in the healthcare sector, the PMs Office told Armenpress.

Minister of Healthcare Arsen Torosyan reported the process of ongoing works aimed at constructing the medical centers in Martuni and Yeghegnadzor towns. Programs on renovating, building and reconstructing 12 more medical centers are also implemented in different cities and communities of the Republic. The total cost of construction of these facilities is estimated 18,5 billion drams. Additional 3,8 billion drams will be provided for acquiring necessary equipment and property.

PM Pashinyan highlighted conducting these works in high quality and within the set timeframes. He said the capital expenditure programs must ensure capital outcome and create new jobs, especially in the construction sector.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
When the call went out from New York for volunteers to travel to the epicenter of the pandemic in the fight against covid-19, from 1,800 miles away, Paul Cary raised his hand.

On March 28, the veteran paramedic got in an ambulance and drove for 27 hours straight from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to New York City, trading shifts at the wheel with his colleague. They were part of a fleet of 29 private ambulances and 72 medics from across the country, from the company Ambulnz, headed there to ease the burden on the city's overwhelmed EMS services.

And from the moment Cary arrived, before they had even gotten settled, "Paul just kept asking, when are we going out in the field?" said Ambulnz CEO Stan Vashovsky.

Cary would spend his final days in the field on the streets of New York, tending to coronavirus patients in the back of his ambulance as it raced from hospital to hospital.

He worked for nearly three weeks until he fell ill with the virus himself.

Cary, a 66-year-old father of two and grandfather of four, died of covid-19 on April 30 after spending several days on a ventilator at a New York hospital.

On Sunday, a procession of ambulances and firetrucks carried him home to his family in Colorado. After a long journey from New York, he arrived at a Denver funeral home in the back of an ambulance, his casket draped in an American flag. New York EMS workers and a state health official came to pay their respects to Cary's family in person.

His family said in a statement that they were devastated by his loss, but that they knew Cary "risked his own heath and safety to protect others and left this world a better place."

"We are at peace knowing that Paul did what he loved and what he believed in, right up until the very end," the family said.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, speaking at a news conference in New York on Friday, vowed to erect a special memorial to honor Cary's sacrifice, saying he and the city would be forever grateful that Cary answered the call of duty from so far away.

He is among countless first responders and healthcare workers who have traveled to New York in one of its darkest hours, de Blasio said, but while "so many people came to help ... Paul gave his life for us, and we're going to honor him in a particular way."

"There's something particularly painful when someone does the right thing, when a fellow American comes from across the country to try and help the people in New York City, and while working to save lives here, gives his own life," the mayor said. "It's very painful, it's heroic, it's something we honor, but it's very, very painful that we've lost this good man."

Paul Cary, son of a Denver firefighter, was born on May 15, 1953 and spent his life in Colorado, his daughter-in-law, Gina Yeater-Cary, told The Washington Post. Inspired by his father's lifelong public service, Cary followed in his footsteps and served with the Aurora Fire Rescue for 32 years. He always "epitomized what it means to be a firefighter," serving the people of Aurora with empathy in their most dire moments until his retirement in 2010, his former captain, Ray Barnes, said during a ceremony Sunday night.

But Cary didn't really "retire," Yeater-Cary said. He just cut down his hours, trading the double duty of a firefighter-medic for ambulance work alone at private companies, she said.

"He never really took a break," she said. "I used to joke that he just went from working full time to part time. It's one of those things when you have the drive and you have the heart for it, you can't not answer it. It's just something you have to do."

That's why everyone in the family understood why he had to go to New York. He made the decision with little hesitation, undeterred by the risks, Yeater-Cary said, and his family fully supported him.

At the time he and his Ambulnz colleagues left Colorado for New York, the city was experiencing 911 call volume that rivaled or eclipsed that of 9/11 - "the highest number of 9-1-1 calls in the history of New York City," de Blasio said Friday. "We needed every hand on deck."

Ambulnz was part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency relief program for New York EMS workers and hospitals, transferring covid-19 patients from hospitals that were at capacity to other hospitals with more room. In between, they also answered 911 calls across the city; Cary and his crew from Colorado were based in the Bronx, his colleague, Royce Davis, told The Post.

Davis, 50, said that Cary was the elder and mentor figure of the group, with more experience than most of the paramedics who came out to New York. They shared dinners together after long hours in the throes of the crisis, preferring to talk about kids and grandchildren rather than the horrors of what they saw each day, Davis said. Cary was quiet compared to the younger crowd, he said, but his devotion radiated widely.

Just before he fell ill, on April 19 or 20, Cary signed up for a second deployment in New York with Ambulnz. "His love for this job, and his love for serving people, kept reminding me of why I'm doing it," Davis said.

On Sunday, Davis served as a pallbearer in Cary's procession - an astounding miles-long send-off organized by Cary's colleagues at Ambulnz and the New York City Fire Department, which treated the Coloradan as one of their own.

It started at a Staten Island funeral home, and as the procession of dozens of ambulances advanced through New York, people cheered from the sidewalks, while some stood at attention at the end of their driveways, Davis said.

Cary's ambulance pulled onto the tarmac at Newark International Airport, where at least three dozen EMS workers stood saluting. The bag pipes blared "Amazing Grace," while Davis and the other pallbearers carefully lifted Cary off the ambulance and toward his last flight, which would arrive by nightfall in Denver, where still dozens more EMS vehicles awaited him.

Around 10 p.m., the long procession finally arrived at its destination. Cary's family and dearest colleagues and friends stood outside the Denver funeral home silently, watching Cary's arrival.

On behalf of the state of New York, a state health department official, Steve Dziura, took the podium and said, "We could all be a little more like Paul."

"Paul raised his hand. At a time when the nation was in crisis, and the world was unknown, Paul raised his hand," he said, before presenting the state flag to Cary's son, Christopher Cary, who broke down in tears in a long embrace with the New Yorker.

The brief ceremony came to a close as a Colorado EMS worker held up a dispatch radio, paging all Colorado fire and EMS first responders.

"This is a last call for Paramedic Paul Cary," he said. "Dispatch will now show Paramedic Cary out of service but not out of our hearts and memories. He wished Cary godspeed on his final journey before promising, "We have the watch from here."
With coronavirus lockdown measures firmly in place across the world, many people suddenly find themselves working remotely. Among all the challenges that this entails - setting up a home office, getting the tech working, dealing with other responsibilities like kids, not to mention the general wide-reaching effects of the pandemic - one aspect is often neglected: Security.

This can be a fateful mistake.

With the corona-induced shift of (business) life online, hackers are seeing a golden opportunity. Consequently, the number of cyberattacks is surging, increasing by 37% in March alone.

If your business is indeed targeted and breached, the effects could be devastating. In 2019, the average cost of a successful cyberattack was $3.92 million.

So what can you do to secure the online operations of your (suddenly) remote team? Here are the 5 top tools and strategies to protect yourself from cyberattacks.

1 - Train Your Team to Recognize and Respond to Cyberattacks

Cybersecurity is everyone's job. Especially now that most people are working in isolation.

It's essential that every single person on your team learns what to watch out for. This starts at being able to recognize the signs of phishing mails, as well as suspicious WhatsApp and text messages, and extends as far as being able to tell when a computer has likely become infected.

Make sure to circulate information material, and get the word out if someone has received suspicious messages because chances are so will others in your organization.

2 - Figure Out Your Vulnerable Points

You got your remote working infrastructure up and running more or less smoothly? Congrats!

Now it's time to check for weak points in your system, which might be exploited by hackers. The most common vulnerable spots include:

Home Wi-Fi, running on older equipment

Legacy hardware virtual private networks (VPNs)

Insecure passwords

Personal hardware used by team members

Your company website

Some of these weak spots are easier to fortify than others. In any case, upgrading your password requirements, asking your remote team members to set their Wi-Fi up securely (by changing their network name, activating WPA2 encryption, and changing the router password), and doing an in-depth safety audit of your website, can go a long way to securing your online business life.

3 - Use E-mail Encryption

E-mail is one of the most vulnerable digital communication methods out there. It can be intercepted on the sender side, the recipient side and anywhere in between. That's why encrypting your e-mail - contact data, content, and archived mails - is a must for cybersecurity.

Some e-mail clients automatically encrypt messages, others will if you enable the settings, for some you might have to install additional plugins or separate software. It is definitely worth taking the time to figure out what the case is for you.

4 - Use AI to fight AI

Bad news first: Hackers are now widely using artificial intelligence to sniff out vulnerabilities of businesses they are targeting. Often successfully.

But here's the good news: AI can also be used to protect yourself from threats. AI can be used for the automated detection of attempted breaches, error analysis, secure authentication, and quicker response times in cybersecurity. A case in point is IBM, which employed AI in the company's cybersecurity efforts early on.

You don't have to be a programmer to deploy AI to keep your online life secure. There is a wide range of companies integrating the newest AI features in their security packages.

5 - Choose the Right Platforms and Activate Security Protocols

Finally, one of the most effective ways to ensure your online security is by enabling the security protocols of each of the platforms you are using, as well as choosing platforms that are more secure in the first place.

In many cases, programs and platforms - such as the Google suite including Gmail, or Microsoft's suites - offer additional security settings that are not activated by default. Enabling two-factor authentication, for instance, can go a long way to preventing security breaches.

Of course, you can save yourself a lot of headaches by taking a look at security features when you choose the tools for setting up your remote team. The video-conferencing giant Zoom, for example, has been criticized extensively for a lack of security features, which has led to a wave of 'Zoom-bombing'.

Switching to more professional and secure cloud-based business phone services can solve this issue.

The Bottom Line

It's worth the time and effort of upgrading the cybersecurity precautions for your remote team. Not only has the risk of breaches increased with the corona-driven expansion online life, but the potential costs of being hacked are also considerable.

By getting your team up to speed, figuring out your vulnerable points, choosing the right platforms, activating security protocols, and using tools like email encryption and AI, you can fortify your remote against cyberattacks.

So that you can be productive and focus on what you do best, rather than worry about hackers breathing down your neck.
IT major Wipro on Tuesday said it has inked a pact with the Maharashtra government to repurpose one of its campuses in Hinjewadi, Pune, to a 450-bed COVID-19 intermediary care hospital in four weeks.

The facility will be handed over to the state government by May 30, and the hospital will be converted back to an IT facility after a year, according to a statement.

The 450-bed hospital, to be equipped to treat moderate cases, will include 12 beds to stabilise critical patients before shifting them to a tertiary care facility.

This is an independent, isolated COVID-19 dedicated complex that also includes 24 well-appointed rooms to accommodate doctors and medical staff," the company said.

Maharashtra is among the worst-affected states by the pandemic.

As on Tuesday morning, the highest number of confirmed coronavirus infections was from Maharashtra with 14,541 cases.

Wipro Ltd, Wipro Enterprises Ltd and Azim Premji Foundation have already committed Rs 1,125 crore towards tackling the COVID-19 crisis in the country.

In its statement, Wipro said it will provide the physical infrastructure, medical furniture and equipment besides appointing an administrator and skeletal support staff to help operationalise the hospital quickly with the required medical professionals.

"This humanitarian contribution by Wipro will further strengthen our medical infrastructure and benefit the medical fraternity who are at the forefront of our fight against the pandemic," Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was quoted as saying.

Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji said the company is committed to supporting the country's response to the pandemic and believes that everyone must work together to deal with this crisis and minimise its human impact.

Wipro and Azim Premji Foundation are carrying out COVID-19 related relief work in Maharashtra across Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad-Waluj, Amalner, Ahmednagar, Akola, Beed, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli.

The relief work has so far touched over 34 lakh beneficiaries across India, the company said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India and Portugal on Tuesday noted that proactive national measures were helpful in containing the spread of coronavirus and offered all possible help to each other in dealing with the unfolding situation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday spoke with Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa and these topics came up for discussion.

The two leaders offered all possible help to each other in coping with the situation, and agreedto collaborate on research and innovation aimed at fighting COVID-19.

The leaders noted that proactive national measures were helpful in containing the spread of the virus, an official statement said.

Modi took to Twitter later, sharing details.

"Our nations will continue working together and support each other in these times, especially in ensuring supplies of medical products, sharing research and best practices," he said.

Modi was responding to a tweet by PM Costa who said he congratulated the Indian leader "on the good results achieved in containing the pandemic in a country as large and populous as #India".

"We shared information on the management of the pandemic and reflected on the post-#COVID19 world," the Portuguese leader said.

The statement said Prime Minister Modi thanked PM Costa for extending the validity of visas of Indian travellers to Portugal who could not return because of the lockdown.

Prime Minister Costa expressed his appreciation for the facilitaiton provided by Indian authorities to Portuguese citizens in India.

In the course of their conversation, Modi commended PM Costa for his effective handling of the health crisis.

It is widely believed that Portugal performed well in tackling the pandemic.

The leaders agreed to remain in touch and consult each other on the evolving dimensions of the crisis as well as the post-Covid context.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Shortly after Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broached the idea of annexing the Jordan Valley and the area north of the Dead Sea, Jordans Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi called for a briefing of local journalists and columnists. The weekend meeting on Sept. 14, 2019, which lasted nearly two hours, was hurriedly called to make sure everyone understood where Jordan stood on the controversial annexation plan. Safadi's most memorable statement was when he talked about Jordanian and Israeli borders. He told those invited to the briefing that whenever borders are drawn, they are set for a long time. Safadi went on to explain that Jordan was very forthcoming when it agreed to the borders with Israel north and south of the Jordan River and Dead Sea with the clear understanding that the Jordan River will be the border with the state of Palestine. Therefore, any change in this arrangement that will alter the borders will put the entire Israeli-Jordanian agreement in jeopardy, he concluded.

At the time, Jordanian officials including the king argued that the idea of annexation  or as Israel calls it, extending sovereignty  was mere electioneering. The agreement with Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, however, has shown otherwise and has once again put Jordan in the position of having to decide whether the strong opposition to the annexation will result in the abrogation or the suspension of its peace treaty with Israel.

The Israeli coalition agreement signed April 20 stipulated the need for approval by the Donald Trump administration and that the annexation not affect regional peace or result in the cancellation of Israel's peace treaties with its neighbors.

Adnan Abu Odeh, a veteran Jordanian analyst and former adviser to King Hussein and King Abdullah, told Al-Monitor that in order to send a clear message, the Jordanian, Egyptian and Palestinian leaders should meet soon. There has to be a public meeting that includes the king, President [Abdel Fattah] al-Sisi and President [Mahmoud] Abbas. People, especially in Israel, need to see that the opposition to annexation is not lip service.

Abu Odeh thinks that these leaders should also talk to the US president. They need to contact Washington and speak directly to President Trump. This should also include President Abbas, who needs to put aside his boycott of the US administration.

Oraib Rantawi, director of the Amman-based Al Quds Center for Political Studies, told Al-Monitor that the treaty with Israel is a very sensitive issue for Jordan, saying, It is one of the hardest questions that they will have to answer. Rantawi agrees that for Jordan, the issue of annexing the Jordan Valley is existential to the idea of a Palestinian state. The problem is that this question is coming up at a very difficult time for Jordan economically because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, he added. Jordan was swift to lock down the country, a move that saved lives but has left the economy in tatters.

As Jordan emerges from this crisis, it will need financial help, so Jordanians will be very concerned about doing anything that would jeopardize existing grants and support. The United States signed a five-year agreement with Jordan in 2018 that guarantees at least $1.25 billion in aid annually. Jordan would be stronger if it were assured of Arab and international support if it takes courageous steps in this regard, but there is no doubt that Jordan will take serious measures, Rantawi concluded.

Ofer Zalzberg, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, believes that Jordan can make a strong argument. The coalition agreement determines Israel will act with respect to President Trump's declaration while protecting existing peace agreements. The palace should not assume Benny Gantz has full knowledge of the severe short- and medium-term consequences that annexation would have on Israeli-Jordanian relations and of such bilateral deterioration on regional dynamics. It should prioritize communicating discreetly and directly with Gantz  perhaps face-to-face in Amman  to ensure he has a full understanding of Jordan's interests, needs and views. Such direct engagement could strengthen Gantz' hand vis-a-vis annexationists within the emerging government, Zalzberg told Al-Monitor.

Zalzberg believes that if a formal invitation is sent, Netanyahu might try his best to dissuade Gantz from coming to Jordan.

Since the 1994 peace treaty, Jordan has withdrawn its ambassador to Israel three times and relations have been strained in the past few years, said Hamadeh Faraneh, a columnist with the Jordanian daily Ad-dustour. Since the agreement, Jordan has recalled its ambassador to Tel Aviv three times and relations are now at their lowest level, as described by His Majesty the King, Faraneh wrote for Ad-Dustour May 2. On Oct. 30, 2019, Jordan recalled its ambassador to protest Israels administrative detention of two Jordanians without charge or trial. They were later released and allowed to return to Jordan.

Jordanian opposition parties are already calling for the cancellation of the peace treaty with Israel. On May 1, the pro-Islamic al-Islah bloc in the Jordanian parliament called on the government to state clearly that the Israel-Jordan peace treaty and the gas deal will be canceled if Israel changes its borders with Jordan from the Green Line to the Jordan Valley.

The $10 billion gas deal is expected to provide 45 billion cubic meters of Israeli gas to Jordan over the next 15 years. The gas comes from the newly discovered gas in the Eastern Mediterranean. It has been a source of regular protests by Jordanians.

The United Nations has also added its voice, with the UNs special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, Michel Lynk, saying that annexation would lead to a cascade of bad human rights consequences.

Israeli farmers who were allowed to make their last visit to collect their crops in the Ghamra enclave that was rented to Israel for 25 years walked out of Jordanian territory on April 30 for the last time. Jordan has reclaimed all its territory as stipulated in the 1994 peace treaty.

While the pressure will be on Jordans king to regulate the response to the expected Israeli actions, there is no doubt that if annexation is carried out, the relations between the two countries will grow even tenser.
Associates fill orders for Ralphs and Food 4 Less grocery stores at the Ralphs Distribution Center in Riverside. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Near downtown Los Angeles, a meat processing plant ramped up production even as it worked to keep frontline employees separated from one another. In Salinas, Calif., a lettuce grower hustled to redirect supply after being forced to plow under unused crops.

In the Bay Area, a food distributor that previously served restaurants started selling produce boxes directly to consumers. Near the Mexico border, a food bank expanded distribution to meet an explosion of need. And in Hollywood, a nonprofit that has served sit-down meals to homeless people for 33 years shifted to takeout.

"We've completely had to change what we're doing," said Sherry Bonanno, executive director of the Hollywood Food Coalition. "We just keep adapting and adjusting."

In less time than it takes a farmer to plant and harvest a head of lettuce, the nations entire food industry has been flipped on its head by the COVID-19 pandemic. An intricate system for matching supply with demand, established over decades, has been thrown out of whack just as unemployment and food insecurity are skyrocketing among families.

The fallout has been particularly severe in California, where more than a third of the countrys vegetables and two-thirds of its fruits and nuts are grown  and where hunger and homelessness were already deeply entrenched.

In response, a vast network of food producers, distributors, retailers and advocates have been scrambling to find a new equilibrium, to shore up the nations food supply and their own bottom lines while reducing waste and want.

In dozens of interviews, farmers, truckers, grocery executives, restaurateurs, food service providers and food bank administrators from Northern California to the Imperial Valley said the effort has been exhausting, but worth it.

The farmers

Cruz Carranza, left; his sister-in-law Elvia Ramirez; and his father, Javier Carranza, plant sunflowers at McGrath Family Farm in Camarillo. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

It all went haywire March 16, when Gov. Gavin Newsom asked restaurants to close their doors. The food service industry, which supplies restaurants and bars, as well as schools, hotels, production studios and catering services, immediately tanked. As nervous shoppers flocked to grocery stores to stockpile food, retail demand shot up, but not enough to make up for all the lost demand from restaurants.

Story continues

It was just a crazy swing, said Scott Grabau, president and chief executive of Tanimura & Antle, a Salinas-based lettuce producer.

Crops planted months before based on pre-pandemic demand spoiled without buyers. Billions of dollars' worth of produce went to waste, much of it tilled back into the soil, said Cathy Burns, CEO of the Produce Marketing Assn., which represents produce companies.

Grabaus company, which grows year-round in California and Arizona, stopped harvesting entire fields. Hes thinking about planting more iceberg and romaine, which grocery shoppers buy, and less of the boutique leaves used by chefs.

Grabau's team has had to be more agile than ever, packaging produce to fit orders that customers keep changing on the fly. He's constantly in communication with his employees in the field.

Its a walkie-talkie call that says, Hey, stop doing this. This order increased, so start doing this instead, Grabau said.





The meat processors

The Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, S.D., has one of the country's largest known coronavirus clusters. (Kerem Yucel / AFP / Getty Images)

Few parts of the supply chain have been hit as hard as meat processing. Dozens of plants have been shuttered due to coronavirus outbreaks, prompting President Trump last week to order facilities to stay open as a matter of national security. Unions and others have objected, pointing to thousands of infections among meat workers.

Zack Levenson is chief operating officer for Golden West Food Group, based in Vernon, which produces beef, pork and chicken products.

The company, which has not had a known coronavirus infection in any of its facilities, slowed production for a couple of weeks to protect employees but has since maneuvered to expand capacity by millions of pounds of meat per week, Levenson said.

By good fortune, the company just weeks before the pandemic had commissioned the conversion of old dry-packing space in its main facility into more raw-meat processing space. That proved crucial for ramping up production at a time when employees had to be spaced farther apart, Levenson said.

For worker safety, the company began instituting special protocols early on, Levenson said. Masks were introduced, "hand sanitizer is everywhere," new plastic dividers have been installed, and teams have been isolated, he said.

That way, if a line member gets ill, the company is able to quarantine his or her 10-member team without halting the entire operation.





The truckers

Truckers park for the night at the Sinclair gas station in Alamo, Nev. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Zach England, chief operating officer of C.R. England, a Utah-based company that hauls produce and meat in refrigerated trucks across California and other states, said the pandemic has created a seesaw effect.

About 4,000 of his companys 6,000 or so drivers regularly haul food. Demand for their services shot up in the early weeks of the pandemic as grocers struggled to stock shelves, but that has since leveled off.

Overall, there are more haulers on the hunt for work and less freight. Smaller trucking outfits are hurting; owner-operators are being paid less. The logistics involved in keeping truckers working, England said, have been intense.

Greg Dubuque, president of the California Trucking Assn. and owner of Liberty Linehaul West in Montebello, said trucking companies are "just trying to keep our wheels rolling to get to a better day."





The distributors







The industry walked off the cliff when restaurants and other businesses closed in the middle of March, with most distributors losing 60% to 90% of their volume, Allen said.

Ed Maybrun, owner of Cotati Food Service in Sonoma County, lost about 80% of his business overnight and has been hustling to stay afloat since.

He started storing more food for big customers in his freezers and looking for new inventory to sell. He took on deliveries for a local food bank and started breaking apart industrial-size packages of bread, paper products and other staples to sell directly to consumers.

Ive never worked so much for such a small piece of business in my life, Maybrun said.





The restaurants

Chef Curtis Stone at his Beverly Hills restaurant Maude. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

When the restaurants shuttered, a shock wave rippled out from owners and managers to servers, bartenders, dishwashers and cooks. It wasn't pretty.

"We went straight into panic mode," said Curtis Stone, the Australian chef who has cooked for the likes of Oprah Winfrey and has two high-end restaurants in the Los Angeles area: Maude and Gwen.

"We were like, 'Oh my God, how do we just stay in business and make sure everyone gets their next paycheck?'" Stone said.

At first, there was no way. He simply couldn't afford to keep on more than a dozen or so staff.

But that has since changed.

At Gwen, which always functioned in part as a butchery, Stone and his managers turned the restaurant into a sort of neighborhood market. They started doing a modest trade on eggs and milk, boxes of produce and prime cuts of meat.

They joined food delivery apps to connect with more customers. They created a new menu of comfort food for takeout. And they started replicating the process at Maude, which previously had been an exclusive 24-seat, three-course dining experience.

As the new model began to catch hold, Stone found he was able to start bringing staffers back.

"We made a decision early on as a team to not stand around and talk about how bad it is," he said. "We just don't have the time to be unproductive."

The grocers

Associates fill orders for Ralphs and Food 4 Less grocery stores at the Ralphs Distribution Center in Riverside. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

In the first weeks of the shutdown, customers cleared grocery shelves faster than they could be restocked, even though inventory was streaming in from suppliers. Shoppers were buying four to eight weeks worth of food at once.

There werent enough trucks to handle the demand, said Nancy Lebold, vice president of merchandising for Food 4 Less, a value grocer with a large customer base in the Latino community. At times, big orders just wouldnt show up.

Normally, fruit accounts for 60% of produce sales, and vegetables the remainder. The first week of the shutdown, they flip-flopped, Lebold said, and have stayed that way ever since.

Other patterns of food consumption also were upended as people became reacquainted with their kitchens, and some automated supply processes were slow to respond, said Manny Vivanco, regional logistics director for the Kroger Co., which owns Ralphs and Food 4 Less.

Food 4 Less operates three inventory warehouses in the Los Angeles region: one in Paramount that is 98% automated, one in Compton that is about half-automated and one in Riverside that is not automated, relying instead on frontline associates.

As demand surged, the automated warehouses couldnt keep up, Vivanco said. Meanwhile, workers in Riverside were cranking out increased orders.

In recent weeks, Kroger and other grocers have been trying to keep stores stocked even as dozens of workers have become ill, and unions have protested what they say are management failures to protect them.





The food banks

Workers pack boxes of food at Second Harvest Food Bank at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The COVID-19 chaos severely diminished the supply of free food to food banks, just as need surged.

Millions of Californians have lost work due to the pandemic. Many have been left hungry.

In the first three weeks of April, nearly 265,000 people applied for government food assistance under the CalFresh program  more than double the number who applied during the same period last year  according to the California Department of Social Services, which administers the program.

The number of people arriving at the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano has doubled, said Cassidie Bates, the organizations policy and advocacy manager.

We have seen a completely new population emerge, Bates said.

Meanwhile, grocery stores are selling more of their stock and passing on less food. Restaurants and other businesses that closed had lots of inventory to hand off to food banks in the first days of the shutdown, but that supply has run dry. And what was pulled in at the start of the pandemic has largely gone out the door already.

Food banks normally stockpile at this time of year, but demand is too high to hold back anything, Bates said.

The Imperial Valley Food Bank near the southern border, which normally serves 20,000 people each month, served more than 26,000 in the first three weeks of April, said Sara Griffen, the executive director.

Many of the food banks clients are farmworkers who have lost hours, a particularly cruel irony.

Griffen said local farmers have provided produce, but she still worries about protein, having recently received word that "quite a few" of her expected meat shipments had been canceled, likely due to closures of meat processing plants, she said.





The advocates

Volunteers prep meals for homeless people and other clients of the Hollywood Food Coalition. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

On a recent afternoon, Bonanno of the Hollywood Food Coalition was moving a mile a minute. Shes always busy, but more so with the move to a new model where clients no longer stream inside for warm meals but get handed their food outside.

Everything is in a to-go bag, she said.

On top of that, Bonanno said, her normal supply chains have collapsed.

Her group has long received food from the movie studios. A single day of production on a film or television set could yield enough leftover meals for hundreds of people on any given night. Now, all the studios have closed. Caterers, restaurants and groceries are providing less, too.

Normally theres tons of overproduction of food, and lots of different organizations will try to scramble to take that, she said. Whats been disrupted is the regular restaurant, caterers and grocery-store distribution system.

Rick Nahmias, executive director of Food Forward, a nonprofit that collects food for redistribution, said his organization has been ramping up efforts in the face of huge need.

He started the group a decade ago, harvesting unused fruit from a single tree in his backyard. It grew to handling 2 million pounds of food per month. Amid the pandemic, its handling 800,000 pounds a week, scrambling to redirect excess farm produce to places like the Hollywood Food Coalition.

At distribution points where food is given directly to hungry Californians, food that would last for three hours just a few months ago is now gone in five, 10, 15 minutes," Nahmias said.





The future

Across the nation's food web, people are nervous and frustrated. There is great need, but there is also hope for a future with less waste and more humanity.

"The whole world is trying to figure out how to rebalance the supply and demand," said Chris Tang, a supply chain expert and professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. "We have so much food being wasted. The question is, how do you reduce the food waste so that the food will actually get to the people in need?"

Already, new lines of communication are opening between producers and those on the front lines of poverty and hunger. Tang hopes that government and the private sector will do even more to link the two. California, with its tech hubs and massive farms, could take the lead.

He sees a new, nationwide online platform where those with food can immediately be paired up with those who need it.

"Given that we are facing some of our darkest hours," Tang said, "this is one bright spot."
Caracas: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says authorities have captured 13 "terrorists", including two US citizens he described as mercenaries, on allegations they were involved in a failed plot to invade the country and oust him.

In a state television address on Monday local time, Maduro showed what he said were the passports and other identification cards of Airan Berry and Luke Denman, who he described as employees of Silvercorp, a Florida-based company whose owner, Jordan Goudreau, has claimed responsibility for the invasion attempt.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says the coup attempt was organised with help from Washington. Credit:AP

Maduro said the plot was coordinated with Washington to enter the South American country via the Caribbean coast and capture him.

Eight people were killed during the foiled attempt on Sunday, Venezuelan authorities said.




The Emir of Daura Palace, Umar Farouk, Katsina State has been sealed off following the confirmation of a case of COVID-19 in the palace.

According to Mustapha Inuwa, secretary to the state government, the closure was a normal routine put in place once a positive case has been recorded.

He said samples had been taken from the palace which has been placed under lock.

Gambo, a police spokesperson in the state, also said: Daura is under lockdown and so it shall be in every nook and cranny in the town without exception to anybodys house, the police are just ensuring the lockdown order of the state government.

The Katsina state governor, Bello Masari, had in April ordered a lockdown in Daura local government area of the state, after three fresh cases of COVID-19 were recorded

His directive had followed that death of Aliyu Yakubu, a medical doctor based in Katsina state, who died from the complications of COVID-19.

Following the outbreak of the virus in the place, the emir had also suspended the wedding of his daughter.

President Muhammadu Buhari is from Daura.

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With work-from-home in full swing due to the current global pandemic, the UAEs office sector will be driven by greater emphasis on improving collaboration, productivity and employee wellbeing, according to JLLs Q1 2020 UAE Real Estate Market Performance report.

The office market in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai is in the late downturn stage of the cycle, as leasing activity remained sluggish in the first quarter of the year, it stated.

However, in line with trends witnessed up until the end of 2019, corporate demand is expected to be active for fitted spaces with leases that offer tenants maximum flexibility, it added.

As expected, corporates in this current environment are focused on implementing business continuity measures and developing long-term operational resilience, remarked Dana Salbak, the Head of Research Mena at JLL.

"Most companies will look to modify the design and layout of office spaces to address mid-term company strategies and employee needs. In the long-term, we expect demand to centre on office spaces that offer more of a collaborative and social experience rather than just a place to work," remarked Sablak.

"There will also likely be widespread adoption of Health & Wellness Standards to ensure employee wellbeing," she noted.

That said, in the coming months, market performance will heavily depend on the extent to which normal activity is resumed, as well as the government initiatives undertaken to promote the countrys property market, she added.

According to JLL, performance of the residential market remained soft in the first quarter of the year, despite resilience in demand.

This comes on the back of a large supply pipeline, with almost 12,400 units delivered in the first quarter; the largest number of deliveries in any quarter.

In Dubai, the Central Banks initiative to ease restrictions on loan-to-value (LTV) ratios for first time home buyers is a sign the government remains committed to the sector, however we are also likely to continue seeing private developers launch favourable payment plans to entice demand further, it stated.

In Abu Dhabi, the market remained relatively stable over the first quarter, on the back of limited quality supply of residential units.

The retail sector remained challenged by the growth of e-commerce, change in consumer preferences and a significant supply pipeline, particularly in Dubai. This continues to place downward pressure on rental rates across retail centres in the UAE, said the property expert.

The drop in domestic and international consumer spending, on the back of temporary mall closures and travel restrictions, is expected to have a strong impact on both tourist and household spending, stated JLL in the report.

With the growth in online shopping, the short-to-mid term is likely to see more retailers adopt omnichannel retailing as a tool to mitigate costs. This is expected to boost demand and the overall performance of the logistics and warehousing sector, as requirements for these expand, it added.-TradeArabia News Service
Dr. Ferguson, whose research also influenced thinking in the White House, said in a statement to the Daily Telegraph, which first reported the story, I accept I made an error of judgment and took the wrong course of action.

I deeply regret any undermining of the clear messages around the continued need for social distancing, said Dr. Ferguson, who has become a household name in Britain over the last two months, preaching the virtues of staying apart.

Leading a respected team of scientists at Imperial College London, Dr. Ferguson has long been an influential voice on infectious diseases. But he achieved a new level of notoriety in mid-March, with a report warning that without steps to control it, the virus could kill 250,000 to 510,000 Britons.

That prompted Prime Minister Boris Johnson to impose a lockdown, putting Britain in line with other European countries.

During this period of confinement, the Telegraph reported that Dr. Ferguson, 51, allowed a woman with whom he had a relationship to visit him at home. He had just come out of his own self-isolation after suffering from Covid-19.
The October deadline for the signing of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) between the European Union (EU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which would improve the Sub-region's exports to the European market, is likely to be missed.



Dr Cheikh Tidiane Dieye, Trade Programme Co-ordinator for Civil Society Organizations in West Africa, who made this known at Sali in Senegal on Wednesday, was however, sure that negotiations would probably continue till January 2010 since both the EU and ECOWAS had not agreed on the percentage of the market they intend to be liberalized.



Dr Dieye was speaking at the opening of a regional workshop organized by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, a German based nongovernmental organization.



The workshop, which was on the theme: "Negotiations between EU and ECOWAS: "Where does the West African Press Stand," brought together economic journalists from Ghana, Benin, Mali, Senegal and Nigeria. The Economic Partnership Agreement is a proposed trade agreement by the EU to Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) countries seeking reciprocal trade arrangement with non-tariff barriers, to encourage the liberalization of the various markets. The proposed agreement, which should have been signed by December 2007 was opposed by West African countries with the exception of Ghana and Cote d' Ivoire. Ghana and Cote d' Ivoire pledged commitment to sign the agreement once negotiations are fully completed. The EU proposed June 30 this year as deadline to sign the full EPA; however, ECOWAS did not conform to the agreement, hence the shift to the October deadline.



Dr Dieye said the contending issues between ECOWAS and EU was that West Africa is proposing 60 percent liberalization while Europe recommended 80 percent. "There are still a lot of issues to deal with. I do not see ECOWAS signing the EPA in October," he stressed. Mr Amadou Niang, Senegalese Minister of Commerce, however, expressed optimism that ECOWAS could sign the agreement in October. He admitted that the negotiation process was difficult because there were crucial development issues that West African countries had to deal. Mr Niang said Senegal was committed to ensure that West Africa would benefit if the agreement was signed.

Source: GNA









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Russia recorded more than 10,000 new coronavirus cases for the third day running today, confirming the country's place as the new virus hotbed in Europe as infections slow elsewhere.

The latest rise of 10,102 cases brings the total from 145,268 to 155,370, while 95 more deaths took the toll from 1,356 to 1,451.

The majority of Russia's cases are in the European portion of the country, with more than 80,000 in Moscow alone.

Today's figures come as Russia's human rights commissioner revealed that domestic abuse cases had more than doubled during the lockdown.

Russia's daily number of new coronavirus cases has now been above 10,000 for three days running, as shown on this graph

This chart shows the daily number of deaths. Today's figure of 95 was close to the record of 105 deaths recorded on April 29

The commissioner, Tatiana Moskalkova, said reported incidents of domestic violence had risen from 6,000 in March to 13,000 in April.

Many Russian women were unable to seek help from the authorities, she said, urging them to be allowed out to get support if needed.

'It is very important to give women the opportunity to visit rescue centres for victims of violence and not consider it a violation of self-isolation if they are forced to leave their home in this situation without special permission,' she said.

Groups helping victims of domestic violence have said that the number of reported attacks has grown significantly.

Rights campaigners have called on the government to take emergency measures to protect victims during lockdown.

In April, lawmaker Oksana Pushkina and other proponents of a domestic violence bill urged deputy PM Tatiana Golikova to approve protections for those at risk.

Vladimir Putin backed a controversial move to decriminalise some forms of domestic violence, saying that 'unceremonious intrusion into the family' was 'unacceptable'.

Putin's prime minister Mikhail Mishustin is now feeling 'normal' after contracting the virus, spokesman Boris Belyakov said today.

He said Mishustin was continuing treatment under health ministry guidance, adding the prime minister is 'actively talking with colleagues by phone.'

Funeral workers wearing white protective suits and face masks carry the coffin of a coronavirus victim at a graveyard on the outskirts of St Petersburg today

Grave diggers at work in a specially designated section of the St Petersburg cemetery today, in a city which has seen more than 5,000 virus cases

The chief designer at Russia's top spacecraft producer Energia has become one of the highest-profile patients to die of the virus in Russia.

Yevgeny Mikrin died aged 64 after doctors 'fought for his life over the last few weeks', the director of Russia's space agency Roskosmos said.

Authorities say they have carried out more than four million coronavirus tests, and Russia's fatality rate has remained low compared to other countries.

The country ranks 18th overall in terms of coronavirus deaths, despite being seventh in the world in overall coronavirus cases.

Infections have been registered in all 85 regions of Russia, which span 11 time zones from Eastern Europe to the Pacific.

However, Moscow accounts for 80,115 of the total 155,370 cases while the region around the capital has another 15,761.

Moscow's sprawling metro system has begun selling masks, and a metro representative said it may soon become compulsory to wear them underground.

Vending machines at around 15 stations are expected to start carrying the protective gear in the coming days.

Doctors work at an intensive care unit at a hospital in Moscow, which accounts for more than half of Russia's total number of coronavirus cases

Masks and gloves will also be available for purchase at ticket booths at some stations, the transport authority said.

'The metro is continuing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus,' said deputy head Yulia Temnikova, urging passengers to also use sanitiser dispensers which are also being installed.

St Petersburg is responsible for 5,572 cases, while the Nizhny Novgorod province has 3,026 and the Arctic region of Murmansk has 2,101.

In Siberia, the Krasnoyarsk region has piled up 1,437 cases.

Moscow has Russia's best medical facilities, but some regional governors have told Putin that they do not have enough ventilators.

Putin last week extended Russia's lockdown or 'non-working period' until May 11, beyond a holiday period when people would normally travel.

One of those holidays is the May 9 Victory Day which commemorates the Soviet defeat of the Nazis in World War II.

Putin had planned a major celebration involving thousands of troops parading through Red Square for this year's 75th anniversary.

The pandemic has forced him to cancel the parade, and the day will now be marked with military aircraft flying over major cities.
Head of the Lebanese powerful Shia movement Hezbollah Monday criticized Germany for blacklisting the movement, arguing that the Iran-backed group does not operate in the European country.

Hassan Nasrallah in a televised speech said Germanys last week decision was made to please the US and Israel, The New Arab reports.

When we say we are not active in Germany, we are being 100 percent honest, he added.

Germany last week said the interior ministry put the movement on a terror list several years after blacklisting its armed wing. Berlin had resisted pressure from the US and Israel to ban the entire movement.

The Shia leader said he expects other European countries to follow suit even though his movement had ceased activities across the world, and in Europe especially several years ago, the London-based media reports.

He also slammed German authorities for raiding mosques and associations linked to the group and called on the Lebanese state to protect its citizens abroad.
Transgender birth mother can't be recognized as baby's father: appeals court Court says the best interests of children should be taken into account

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A trans-identified female in England can not be listed as the father of a child to whom she gave birth, an appeals court ruled.

A three-judge panel from the Court of Appeal of England and Wales headed by Lord Chief Justice Ian Burnett last week upheld an earlier high court ruling against 34-year-old journalist Freddy McConnell.

At common law a person whose egg is inseminated in their womb and who then becomes pregnant and gives birth to a child is that childs mother, the appeals court decision reads. The status of being a mother arises from the role that a person has undertaken in the biological process of conception, pregnancy and birth.

According to court documents, McConnell has identified as a male since age 22. McConnell underwent a double mastectomy as well as hormone treatment. But after stopping the hormone treatment in 2016 and undergoing intrauterine insemination fertility treatment, McConnell became pregnant and gave birth in January 2018.

The courts ruling supports the earlier decision in which the High Court of Justice, Family Division ruled that motherhood is defined as a status afforded to a person who undergoes the physical and biological process of carrying a pregnancy and giving birth no matter what gender the mother is recognized as under the Gender Recognition Act of 2004.

The earlier high court decision had also laid emphasis on the right of a child of a trans person to know its origins.

The appeals court stated in its ruling that the legislative scheme of the Gender Recognition Act required McConnell to be registered as the mother of the child rather than listed as the father, parent or gestational parent.

That requirement did not violate his or YYs Article 8 [of the European Convention on Human Rights] rights, the rulings read. There is no incompatibility between the GRA and the Convention. In the result we dismiss these appeals.

The ruling asserts that the law is clear that a child only ever has one mother, although there may be more than one parent.

According to the Court of Appeal, being a mother or father with respect to the conception, pregnancy and birth of a child is not necessarily gender-specific, although until recent decades it invariably was so.

It is now possible, and recognized by the law, for a mother to have an acquired gender of male, and for a father to have an acquired gender of female, the court said. By virtue of that section the status of a person as the father or mother of a child is not affected by the acquisition of gender under the [Gender Recognition Act], even where the relevant birth has taken place after the issue of a GRC.

The court stressed that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child requires that the best interests of children generally should be taken into account as a primary consideration when striking a balance in legislation.

In our judgement, that is precisely what Parliament has done in enacting a carefully crafted set of provisions which balance the rights of transgender people and others, including their children, the rulings contends. The view that Parliament has taken is that every child should have a mother and should be able to discover who their mother was, because that is in the childs best interests.

Others may take a different view and in time may be able to persuade Parliament to take a different view. What cannot be doubted is that Parliament has taken into account the best interests of children as a primary consideration.

The appeals court also opined that the grounds of appeal before this Court did not raise Article 14 of the Convention, which confers the right to equality in the enjoyment of the other Convention rights.

We consider that Article 14 raises no separate issue in the circumstances of this case, the ruling reads. Any difference of treatment which is contained in the relevant legislation is objectively justified for the reasons we have already set out in relation to Article 8.

In a statement, McConnells legal team at Laytons LLP chastised the ruling as a narrow interpretation of the Gender Recognition Act that will force all transgender people to choose between being a parent and having full recognition of their gender.

The judgment asserts the term mother and father are not gender bound while simultaneously forcing registration according to the transgender individuals birth gender, the statement reads. This is not only an unjustifiable interference in his rights to a family and private life, but even domestic legislation in the UK birth allows other individuals on birth certificates to be identified simply as parents.

McConnell wrote on Twitter that it was a [d]isappointing, conservative decision.

[W]e knew this would be a long fight, she told LGBT supporters online. Dont lose hope. We are applying to the Supreme Court. Trans parents will get legal recognition.

The ruling was also criticized by the U.K.-based LGBT rights group Stonewall. Stonewall Director of Campaigns, Policy & Research Laura Russell said in a statement that the courts missed a vital opportunity to send a positive message that recognizes all parents for who they are.
Trump nominated Ratcliffe, a member of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, to be director of national intelligence last summer. The nomination was dropped amid questions about his lack of experience and partisan reputation but the Republican president nominated him again this year.

The committee's top Democrat, Senator Mark Warner, said he was concerned about partisanship from Ratcliffe, a strongly outspoken supporter of Trump during impeachment hearings last year, especially regarding intelligence oversight and whistleblowers.

"I still have some of the same doubts now as I had back in August," Warner said.

Trump infuriated Democrats and attracted criticism from some Republicans by firing Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who sent Congress a whistleblower complaint alleging that Trump sought to persuade Ukraine's president to collect potentially damaging information on former Vice President Joe Biden, a rival to Trump as he seeks re-election in November.

That report became central to Trump's impeachment.

Ratcliffe repeatedly pledged to act independently. "The intelligence I deliver will not be subject to outside influence," he said.

The large Senate hearing room was far emptier than usual. Ratcliffe's family did not attend. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft supported his candidacy in written remarks. Some staff and senators wore masks into the room, but removed them to speak. Ratcliffe did not wear a mask. Members of the press were limited to a small number, who provided pool reports.
In Hollywood the TV show, characters like Henry Willson (Jim Parsons) and Rock Hudson (Jake Picking) are more open about their sexuality than their famously closeted real-life counterparts. Photo: Netflix

Ryan Murphy has returned to the Old Hollywood well yet again with his latest Netflix show, but this time, theres a twist. Although Hollywood features several real-life celebrities, directors, and agents, their biographies are intentionally pumped full of lies to suit the limited seriess alternative history, which imagines how life mightve been different for queer, black, and brown entertainers if racism and homophobia were not barriers to their success.

The show follows a group of young, fictional creatives all trying to land their big break in postwar L.A. Theres Camille Washington (Laura Harrier), a black actress sick of being pigeonholed into roles as maids, and her half-Filipino director boyfriend Raymond Ainsley (Darren Criss), who desperately wants to resurrect the career of his screen idol. Then there are the boys at Ernies gas station, which is really a mobile brothel for the rich and famous. Wannabe actor Jack Castello (David Corenswet) reluctantly works there with black screenwriter Archie Coleman (Jeremy Pope), who begins seriously dating one of his clients, another would-be star named Rock Hudson (Jake Picking).

The changes Hollywood makes for its alternate history are mostly big and obvious  actresses who didnt win Oscars do, closeted actors are public about their sexuality  but individual depictions do differ in other, less narratively necessary ways. Here, how Hollywood sticks to the script, and veers completely off it. (Historical spoilers ahead.)

Rock Hudson (Played by Jake Picking)

Photo-Illustration: Vulture, Netflix and Getty Images

Rock Hudson is the only principal cast member based on a real person, but in this reimagined Hollywood, he bears little resemblance to the actual celebrity. The basic biographical pieces are still there. Born Roy Scherer, Jr., Hudson fled an abusive household in Winnetka, Illinois, where his stepfather beat him for any perceived effeminate behavior, including asking for drama lessons. In his first meeting with career-making agent Henry Willson (well get to him in a bit), the future star admitted he had no acting experience, and his honesty won Willson over. Hudson was also gay, though unlike his Netflix counterpart, he couldnt exactly walk the red carpet with his boyfriend.

As biographer Mark Griffin writes in All That Heaven Allows, Hudson had a number of short-term boyfriends, but Willson pushed him to present as straight in public. In 1949, the agent fixed Hudson up on a date with the more famous Vera-Ellen at the Flashbulbers Ball, a fundraiser where plenty of paparazzi would be standing by to snap photos. (The couple went as Mr. and Mrs. Oscar, and wedding rumors swirled.) Things took a more drastic turn in 1955, however, when Hudson married Willsons secretary Phyllis Gates, shortly after the tabloid Confidential nearly outed him. The couple divorced three years later. In a 1987 tell-all, Gates claimed she didnt know about Hudsons sexuality and had been tricked by her boss and ex-husband into the marriage, a claim various historians have disputed. Hudsons sexuality would not become widespread public knowledge until 1985, when his publicist confirmed his AIDS diagnosis. He died from the disease that same year.

Biographers also paint the real Hudson as more ambitious than the fictionalized Rock, who mostly seems to stumble into parts through sheer luck. Oh, and that party scene where he doesnt know who Scarlett OHara is? Considering how much he loved movies, yes, Rock Hudson definitely wouldve recognized Ms. Vivien Leigh.

Henry Willson (Played by Jim Parsons

Photo-Illustration: Vulture, Netflix and Shutterstock

According to one of his former clients, Henry Willson was known about town as a lecherous gay Svengali  and that was one of the nicer things people said about him. The agent specialized in plucking wholesome, all-American beefcakes out of obscurity and turning them into stars, but not before he pressured them for sexual favors in exchange for his help.

Hollywood contains multiples scenes of Willson manipulating his clients into solo dinner dates, group sex in his office, or watching as he performs a demented dance of the seven veils. Though Willson certainly preyed on his clients, its unlikely he behaved quite so cartoonishly: Willson biographer Robert Hofler does not reference any interest in drag in his book The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson, and he includes a much tamer account of Willsons first meeting with Hudson than the one we see on the show. (The latter ends with Willson telling Hudson, There is just one thing that we gotta get out of the way: I need to suck your cock.)

As ex-client Tab Hunter writes in his 2005 memoir, Willson believed that young women craved a male equivalent of the pinup stars whod boosted the troops morale during the war and considered acting skill secondary to chiseled features and a fine physique. Willson prowled nightclubs, skating rinks, and gas stations for new talent, branding his hires with snappy new stage names once theyd signed. (Rock Hudson was a combination of the Rock of Gibraltar and the Hudson River.) To protect his clients, several of whom were closeted, Willson carefully managed their star personas, often managing their social lives to convince the public they were straight.

But Willson could also use his PR savvy for spite. According to an infamous bit of Hollywood lore, Willson squashed an expose of Hudsons personal life by feeding the tabloids career-ending stories on two of his other clients: Rory Calhoun and Hunter, who had just fired him. Hudson biographer Mark Griffin couches this story with some caveats, noting that some believe Universal publicity chief Jack Diamond was the one who intervened on Hudsons behalf, but he concedes that the story is very credible based on how we know that Henry Willson operated within the industry. This tabloid manipulation appears in the back half of Hollywood as well, when Willson kills a damaging story on fictional studio boss Avis Amberg (Patti LuPone).

Anna May Wong (Played by Michelle Krusiec)

Photo-Illustration: Vulture, Netflix and Getty Images

Much of Anna May Wongs story is revised in Hollywood to give her a happier biography, one that, like Rock Hudson, she might have claimed in a less bigoted industry. The Chinese-American actress was known for playing dragon ladies and other exoticized characters in both silent- and sound-era films. When MGM announced production on The Good Earth, however, Wong thought her chance to play a substantial role had finally arrived. The Pearl S. Buck novel centered on Wang Lung and O-Lan, married Chinese villagers trying to grow a farm and family. Wong wanted the role of O-Lan and wasnt shy about it. When gossip columnist Louella Parsons asked her if she would be doing any more screen tests for the part, she joked, I know I look Chinese and so does everyone else. But after Paul Muni, a white actor, was cast as Wang Lung, Wong lost any consideration for the role, since the Production Code banned on-screen interracial relationships. The German-American actress Luise Rainer won the role of O-Lan instead, and went on to win an Oscar for it. Wong was offered a smaller role as yet another exoticized dancer named Lotus as a consolation, but she refused. If you let me play O-Lan, I will be very glad, she told MGM executive Irving Thalberg. But you are asking me  with my Chinese blood  to do the only unsympathetic role in the picture, featuring an all-American cast, portraying Chinese characters. In Hollywood, Wong wins an Oscar for her role in the fictional movie Meg, but in reality, this was the closest she ever came to an Academy Award.

Scotty Bowers (Played by Dylan McDermott)

Photo-Illustration: Vulture, Netflix and Greenwich Entertainment

Though he goes by Ernie West on the show, the silver-haired gas-station pimp who takes clients to dreamland is an homage to Scotty Bowers, the L.A. legend who passed away last year at the age of 96. His salacious memoir Full Service describes a prostitution ring catered to the closeted stars of Hollywoods Golden Age, which Bowers ran out of a gas station on Hollywood Boulevard. Cary Grant and Bette Davis were supposedly clients, as well as the Duke of Windsor and his monarchy-busting wife Wallis Simpson. Straight, gay, or bi; male or female; young or old, Bowers writes. Whatever folks wanted, I had it.

While many doubt Bowerss wild stories, director Matt Tyrnauer boosted his tales in the acclaimed 2017 documentary Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood. On-screen, Bowers is loud, lewd, and impish  a self-appointed historian who delights in torching sanitized perceptions of Old Hollywood. In other words, a perfect Ryan Murphy character.

George Cukor (Played by Daniel London)

Photo-Illustration: Vulture, Netflix and Getty Images

George Cukor the character doesnt make much of an impression in Hollywood, but the real-life director is weirdly crucial to the plot, since his legendary soirees figure prominently in the show. The filmmaker behind Gaslight, The Philadelphia Story, and many other so-called womens pictures, Cukor spent his Sundays hosting afternoon pool parties that were unabashedly all-boy affairs. His home  decorated by Billy Haines  became a haven for queer creatives like himself, who were whispered about in Hollywood but stayed in the closet publicly to remain in business.

Tallulah Bankhead (Played by Paget Brewster)

Photo-Illustration: Vulture, Netflix and Getty Images

On Hollywood, no one has more fun than Tallulah Bankhead. In one scene, shes snorting cocaine  and laughing hysterically  in the hallway of a friends mansion. In another, shes teasing two men in robes, as they sit on either side of her and rub her bare legs. By midnight, most of the ladies have gone home, Ernie says, describing Cukors parties. But Tallulah usually sticks around.

The real Tallulah Bankhead was well aware of her debaucherous reputation. Despite what all you may have heard to the contrary, I never had to ride in a patrol wagon, she writes in the first line of her 1952 autobiography, before listing out all the things she has done. (Milked a mammoth, climbed an elephant, and done an Indian rope trick while drunk on daiquiris, to name a few.) She was unusually candid about her personal life, which likely contributed to her decline in work in the mid-1930s, as morality clauses and censorship overtook the industry. An actress of the stage and screen as well as a member of the Algonquin Round Table, Bankhead liked to joke that she was pure as the driven slush  a line repeated by her Netflix avatar in episode three.

Hattie McDaniel (Played by Queen Latifah)

Photo-Illustration: Vulture, Netflix and Getty Images

When Hattie McDaniel first appears in Hollywood, shes enjoying a home-cooked breakfast, prepared by the buff, shirtless gas-station attendant standing in her kitchen. He leaves, but not before Tallulah Bankhead saunters in to give Hattie a quick peck on the lips. This scene nods to McDaniels rumored bisexuality, as well as age-old gossip about what exactly Tallulah Bankhead meant when she called McDaniel her best friend. But the show spends more time on the moment that defined McDaniels career and indeed her entire life: her 1940 Oscar for Gone With the Wind.

McDaniels performance as Mammy made her the first black Academy Award winner in history, but she was still sidelined even in victory. Seated at a separate table away from her co-stars, McDaniel accepted her statuette in a segregated hotel, and received almost nothing but offers to play more maids and mammies after her historic achievement. Hollywood imagines a fictional black actress busting down the doors on her own Oscar night  and leaving them open for her mentor McDaniel to finally walk through.

Vivien Leigh (Played by Katie McGuinness)

Photo-Illustration: Vulture, Netflix and Shutterstock

McDaniels Gone With the Wind costar Vivien Leigh also makes a cameo at Cukors party, wearing a deep-green dress stolen straight out of Scarlett OHaras closet. The show recreates a story about the actress from Full Service almost word-for-word, wherein Bowers (here, Ernie) and Leigh have an intimate encounter at Cukors house. Bowers details  that Leigh was about to start work on A Streetcar Named Desire, that Larry (her husband, Laurence Olivier) was away, that he had noticed her mood swings at dinner parties  are all folded in through quick bits of dialogue.

The mood swings, emphasized more dramatically on the show, refer to Leighs struggles with bipolar disorder, or what wouldve been called manic depression in her day. Friends and colleagues were concerned about Leighs mental state as early as 1937, according to biographer Kendra Bean, though few knew what they could do to help. I never saw any cruelty or coldness in Vivien  even her ambitions and her needs were dealt with charmingly and sweetly, insofar as my witness can bear, Alec Guinness recalled. It was very sad. She appeared, at a very young age, to turn into a lovely stalk of chalk, and the chipping away had begun, and you were there to see the flaking off.

Noel Coward (Played by Billy Boyd)

Photo-Illustration: Vulture, Netflix and Shutterstock

Dont get the wrong idea, Im not a heavy drinker. Sometimes I can go for hours without touching a drop. Thats the opening line Noel Coward uses on Archie at Cukors party in Hollywood, and its an apt distillation of the famously droll writer-actor-composer. Coward was an astonishingly prolific playwright and performer on the London stage. Over the course of his life, he wrote nearly three dozen plays and musicals, usually satires of high society that made for perfectly frothy films. Producers in Britain and Hollywood began buying up his comedies in the silent era, but Coward wasnt content to merely sign his rights away. He worked as a producer, screenwriter, and actor on both sides of the pond. In Full Service, Bowers claims Coward was a frequent customer; he was also a noted guest at Cukors pool parties.

Peg Entwistle

Photo: Rko/Kobal/Shutterstock

On September 16, 1932, Peg Entwistle climbed a ladder to the top of the Hollywoodland sign, stood atop the 50-foot-tall H, and leapt to her death. The shocking true story became the default allegory for the destructive nature of Tinseltown, and on Hollywood, its the basis of Archies industry-changing blockbuster Meg.

Entwistle began acting as a teenager, booking consistent work on Broadway before she moved to Los Angeles to star in The Mad Hopes with Billie Burke and Humphrey Bogart. She got great notices for that stage production, and the buzz soon reached legendary producer David O. Selznick. As recounted in Peg Entwistle and the Hollywood Sign Suicide, Selznick urged Cukor to consider her for the comedy A Bill of Divorcement. She didnt get the part (it went to Katharine Hepburn), but she signed a one-picture deal with RKO to make her first movie, Thirteen Women. Entwistles screen time was slashed from 16 minutes to 4, a setback that Hollywood includes in Archies fake script, but unlike the Peg in that story, she didnt have a concerned boyfriend chasing after her. Her marriage to the alcoholic and abusive Robert Keith ended in 1929, and news of his remarriage  along with her professional disappointments  devastated the young actress. She died before Thirteen Women was released.
ALBANY, Ga.  For Elaine Williams, the coronavirus couldnt be more personal.

She watched her son take his last breath April 3 over a cellphone screen, two days after he tested positive at a hospital two hours away from home. Five days later, she buried 38-year-old Kenya Williams at a memorial service with only six chairs allowed  one for herself and five for immediate family.

Every day her phone rings with news of another friend, another neighbor, another community pillar dying from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. And late last month, Williams learned she too tested positive, though she had no major symptoms.

It is all so disturbing to me," said Williams, 61. Every time I look on TV and see those numbers, I'm like, 'My baby is in that number.'"

Williams' grief is mirrored by many in this small, mostly black rural town in southwest Georgia about three hours from Atlanta. Albany became a virus epicenter in April, ranking along with New York City and New Orleans for most deaths per capita from the coronavirus.

'I'm paying bills, and there's no income': As Georgia businesses remain divided over reopening, there's buzz at some hair salons, barbers

Dougherty County, where Albany is the sole incorporated city, has consistently led the state in deaths, reporting 125 as of Monday night and 1,543 confirmed cases, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health. The county has recorded a staggering 1,716 cases per 100,000 people, compared with 278 cases per 100,000 in Fulton, the state's most populated county.

Gov. Brian Kemp should have 'carved out an exception' for hard-hit Albany

With so much loss, the idea of resuming normal life in Albany and risking a deadly second spike in cases is unthinkable. Town officials, business owners and church pastors are collectively rejecting Gov. Brian Kemps decision to allow certain businesses to reopen and lift a shelter-in-place order..

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The people here say they will decide when their community can go out to dinner again, get a haircut at a local barbershop and worship together at church on Sunday.

And they are not ready yet.

"We are not going to listen to the federal and state people," said Glenn Singfield Sr., who owns two restaurants in Albany. "We are going to listen to our local health community, because thats where our trust is.

Glenn Singfield Sr. says his restaurant The Flint in downtown Albany will remain closed until local health officials say it's safe to reopen.

Singfield said at least a dozen restaurant owners from Albany met recently to discuss reopening and how to do it safely. The group, he said, agreed they needed the green light from medical experts and a 14-day decline in new cases as recommended by the federal government.

More than 30 local church pastors also united, releasing a joint statement that they would not yet resume in-person church services. And the Albany City Commission signed a resolution urging citizens to continue to shelter in place.

WATCH: President Trump disagrees with Georgia Gov. Kemp's decision to reopen parts of the state

Pastor Daniel Simmons of Mt. Zion Baptist Church said it's important for the community to be of one accord.

For a lot of people, they feel pressure to reopen, financial pressure, peer pressure," said Simmons, who leads a congregation of 3,000. You may have members who feel like we need to reopen, but then they look around and see pastors standing in unity  then you have some ground to stand on.

Albany Mayor Bo Dorough said he is concerned about the lack of sufficient testing in his community and the threat of a second wave of cases for states that reopen too soon. He won't feel fully comfortable with reopening the city until there is an "extended period" without positive cases.

I understand the governor is having to make a difficult decision, I just think he made the wrong one," Dorough said. "The governor should have carved out an exception for places like Albany.

A 'perfect storm' pummels Albany, a poorer, mostly black community

Late last week, downtown Albany showed few signs of life.

On Thursday, six days after Kemp's easing of restrictions for salons, the inside of every beauty and barbershop was dark, styling chairs empty. A steel gate guarded the front of a shuttered pawn shop, and a man sat alone on a nearby corner bench eating a sandwich, his white N95 mask resting on his forehead.

But there were signs of hope, too.

One hanging from the outdoor patio in front of Singfield's restaurant The Flint said in white, black and red lettering, "WE WILL OVERCOME. Albany Strong."

This local pawn shop was among the businesses that remained closed on a recent Thursday in downtown Albany.

Next door at Pretoria Fields Collective Brewery, large blue letters spelling out "EVERY-THING WILL BE OK" covered the front windows as two employees sold bottles of hand sanitizer and six-packs of beer at a table outside the building.

Owner Tom Vess said he partnered with a sister company to make FDA-approved hand sanitizer that's helped him keep his staff employed while the brewery is closed. Vess said he needs to see a downward trend in coronavirus cases before he reopens. Kemp loosened restrictions on restaurant dining April 27.

"The safety of our employees and the community come first," he said.

The town of about 70,000 people is so close-knit, Singfield said, that "when somebody dies here, everybody knows that person." In Albany, the dead have included a probate court judge, a prominent art gallery owner and a pastor.

Many believe a funeral in February at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Chapel sparked the outbreak in Albany. City Commissioner Demetrius Young said a man from Atlanta who attended died a few days later from COVID-19..

Letters reading "Every-thing will be OK" hang from a shuttered brewery in downtown Albany.

The demographics of the community also make it vulnerable to the virus. At least 32% of residents live below the poverty level, and there are high rates of cancer, obesity and high blood pressure. Albany is also 73% black, and black Americans are dying at significantly higher rates. A study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week showed more than 80% of hospitalized coronavirus patients in Georgia were black.

We were a perfect storm for this to happen in," said Democratic state Rep. Winfred Dukes, who represents Albany.

Still, Dukes said the question of reopening has left many residents torn. They want to go back to work because they need the money but don't have access to health care if they get sick. He blamed the state for not adopting Medicaid expansion that would have provided coverage for many poor families in Albany.

"If you have to pay your bills and you're not getting unemployment, those people are put in a bad situation," Dukes said. "But what we are encouraging people to do is to take the choice of health, because you can get some additional money, but you dont have but one life.

She lost a son: 'If you cant sit still to save your own life, save somebody else's'

If a second wave does come, local officials say Albany is in a better position to the combat the coronavirus than in March and early April.

Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, which has treated many of Albany's victims, is seeing a downward trend in the number of COVID-19 cases. The number of patients peaked at 155 on April 9, according to hospital data. On May 1, the hospital was down to 74 patients.

Phoebe CEO Scott Steiner said in late March the hospital was understaffed and went through six months worth of personal protection equipment in seven days. Since then, the hospital has been able to stock up on supplies and critical care staff has arrived from other parts of the state to help.

Last week, the National Guard set up a free COVID-19 testing site in town.

Kenya Williams, 38, of Albany, died April 3 from complications with coronavirus.

While Steiner was reluctant to weigh in on reopening, he said Phoebe will be prepared.

"Part of me is saying we shouldn't be doing anything until we know this thing is gone," Steiner said. "But this is going to be around for quite some time. Were still going to have positive cases for months to come."

Williams, meanwhile, is urging her neighbors to stay home so others are spared the pain she has endured losing her son.

Williams still doesn't know how Kenya, who was born with Down syndrome, contracted the coronavirus. The only public place they visited in Albany was Sam's Club on March 12.

She misses his forehead kisses, his gentle voice calling her "my dear" and the sound of him singing in his bedroom while blaring Frankie Beverly & Maze songs.

Just because you havent lost anybody doesnt mean that you won't, Williams warned. "If you cant sit still to save your own life, save somebody else's."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: Albany, Georgia, will reopen on its terms. Here's why
As many as 14 fresh Covid-19 cases were reported on Tuesday, taking the district count to 124.

The health department received results of 704 samples, of which 14 were positive.

Civil surgeon Dr Rajesh Bagga said among the 14 patients, nine were pilgrims who had returned from Nanded in Maharashtra and four contacts of positive patients.

An 18-year-old boy, nabbed in an abetment to suicide case after his female classmate ended her life by hanging, was the 14th person to test positive.

26 CONTACTS OF POSITIVE YOUTH QUARANTINED

After the results of the youth came out, five cops, including two ASIs and three constables of Mundian police post and Jamalpur police station, were quarantined.

Besides, four members of the youths family, four family members of the deceased girls family and five panchayat members, who came in his contact to resolve the matter out of court, were also quarantined at home.

Eight inmates, who had shared the Brostal Jail barrack with the teen for two days, were also isolated.

According to the youths father, he did not leave the house during the lockdown period and had no travel history.

His classmate had committed suicide on April 9, while the case of abetment to suicide was registered on April 30 when he was also arrested.

Announcements were made in Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar of Mundian,where the youth lives, for residents to stay indoors after the area was sealed.

Health department officials said those under quarantine will be observed for a few days, following which their samples will be collected.
State-owned banks' non-performing loans are likely to rise by 2-4 percentage points, which will put up to $15 billion recapitalisation pressure on the government in FY21, a foreign brokerage firm said on Tuesday.

The consolidated fiscal deficit target is likely to overrun by 2 percentage points due to stimulus spends, lower tax receipts and dip in divestments, and will have to look for different ways of raising resources for recapitalisation, analysts at Bank of America said.

The government can issue recapitalisation bonds, or the RBI's huge reserves of over $127 can also be dipped into to help the state-owned bank's recapitalisation needs, it said.

There is a near-unanimity among analysts that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will lead to an increase in bank's gross non performing assets with some reports pegging the stock to double as well.

The brokerage said the increase in non-performing assets by 2-4 percentage points will need a government recapitalisation requirement by $7-15 billion.

It said the recap bonds is a tried and tested instrument which has helped the banks in the past.

"The government will infuse capital into PSU banks and fund it by issuing recapitalisation bonds to them. PSU banks will invest the capital received in recapitalisation bonds," Bank of America said.

Asserting that such a move does not entail a moral hazard, it elaborated saying PSU banks can heal their broken balance sheets and meet adequate capital requirements through the bonds and once growth recovers, the government can gradually convert these recap bonds into normal G-secs and sell them to the market.

The interest cost on the bonds will impact the Center's fiscal deficit, although that will also be partly moderated by profit transfers from PSU banks holding recap bonds, it said.

Recapitalisation bonds enter the fiscal deficit in the year of their maturity and it is because of this this that the bonds were issued without any fixed maturity in the past instances, it added.

Apart from the bonds, the RBI's revaluation reserves of $127 billion can also be deployed, it suggested, adding that such a move will be neutral from a fiscal deficit perspective.
Los Angeles, May 5 : With his next movie, Tom Cruise is going out of the world, literally! The Hollywood star is reportedly in talks with NASA and Elon Musk's space company SpaceX for an action adventure movie, which will be shot in space.

According to deadline.com, Cruise and Musk's aviation company Space X are working on a project with NASA that would be the "first narrative feature film" to be shot in outer space.

Being described as an action adventure, the film will be shot aboard a real SpaceX vessel. The report states that the project is in its "early stage", and no studio is attached yet.

The Hollywood star, 57, has carved a reputation for taking extreme risks to pull off jaw dropping stunt sequences, mostly in the "Mission: Impossible" franchise.

During "Mission: Impossible Fallout", he broke his ankle while jumping from one rooftop to another. He also hung from a helicopter in the film. He hung from the side of a jet plane during takeoff in "Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation", and for "Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol", he climbed up the Burj Khalifa.

Meanwhile, Cruise's "Top Gun: Maverick", the much-anticipated sequel of the 1986 hit "Top Gun", has been delayed amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The film will now release on December 23 instead of original release date June 24.
By Express News Service

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has slammed the opposition for indulging in politics on the issue of migrant workers.

"It is unfortunate that some people are playing politics in the time of crisis even when the Modi government is helping the poor through the 'Garib Kalyan' package. When these people were in power, the benefits of welfare schemes never reached the poor. The same people are now playing politics on the issue of migrant workers," he said in a video message.

Yogi said that for the first time, Modi government has announced Rs 1.7 lakh crore for the poor, labourers, women and destitute as part of PM Gareeb Kalyan package to beat the disaster.

In a veiled response to the series of twitter posts by Opposition leaders including Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav over the issue of migrants, the CM said those who used to grab the funds meant for the welfare of the people during their tenure are now upset over the money reaching the accounts of the poor.

The CM said that in the last 3 days, more than 50,000 labourers and other citizens have returned to the state. All those who have returned had had their medical checks were done. Food and lodging arrangements of many were done by the government. The government is helping every citizen and is ensuring that food is provided to all," he said.

Yogi Adityanath further said that a sum of Rs 3.2 crores had been deposited in the Jan Dhan accounts and Rs 2.34 crores had been given to farmers. The country was unitedly fighting against the corona pandemic and some vested interest were trying to derail this battle, he added.
Tanzania's president has previously dismissed the virus, with life going on much as normal - but there are fears the outbreak is spreading undocumented - Eric Boniphace /AFP

Fears are mounting that the Tanzanian government is covering up the countrys true Covid-19 death count.

Six videos seen by The Telegraph show dead bodies on Tanzanian streets, although their content has not been verified.

Other videos have also emerged on social media showing nighttime burials with tight security and men wearing full protective gear.

Hospitals are reportedly overflowing with coronavirus patients and three members of parliament have died in the space of 11 days. At least one MP had tested positive for coronavirus before their death.

Opposition politicians and activists have accused the government of a coverup and said it is not taking the pandemic seriously enough.

"I don't want to feel like the government is hiding something...Right now, we are witnessing a lot of mourning, burials and dead bodies everywhere," said opposition leader Zitto Kabwe.

The government has recorded 480 cases of coronavirus and 16 deaths as of Wednesday. However, it is not releasing regular updates on confirmed cases.

President Magufuli is one of the few global leaders still downplaying the seriousness of the virus. Despite international warnings, Tanzania is one of the few countries in Africa that has not taken strong lockdown measures to stop the virus spreading. Schools and universities have been shut but everything else carries on largely as normal.

Yesterday is a bizarre live address president Magufuli questioned his country's coronavirus numbers, and called on the authorities to investigate "sabotage" at the national laboratory.

The president said he had secretly tested a variety of animals and fruits  including swabs from a goat and papaya fruit  and they had come back positive.

According to the president: "That means there is [a] possibility for technical errors or these imported reagents have issues. Probably, the technicians are also bought to mislead.

Story continues

Magufuli announced that Tanzania would send a plane to pick up shipments of Covid-Organics", an unproven herbal drink which is being touted by Madagascar's government as a cure for Covid-19.

The opposition has told its MPs to stop going to parliament in case they get infected. However, Magufuli has dismissed concerns, saying they are being used by imperialists.

Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security
There is no split between the government and the country's health experts, nor is there any pressure being exerted by politicians to ease restrictions, the Chief Medical Officer has said.

Dr Tony Holohan was speaking as the number of deaths from Covid-19 in Ireland hit 1,339 as another 23 deaths were reported.

A further 211 new cases were reported, making a total of 21,983 cases of the virus in Ireland.

Dr Holohan said reports that the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) had advised the government that over-70s should cocoon until August, but had been overruled by cabinet, were "inaccurate".

"That's an inaccurate reading of the meeting," he said.

"There might be some misinterpretation that cocooning might stay in place until phase five (of the roadmap to reopening the economy - due on August 10), but that's certainly not our view."

Dr Holohan echoed the

Read More:

He said that the idea that discussions between NPHET and the government were "openly hostile" was confusing.

"Dr Ronan Glynn (Deputy CMO) and I went and gave a briefing to cabinet on the disease, we were asked reasonable, sensible questions and the meeting ended.

"Then I saw characterisations of the meeting - and I know why they happen - but as far as I'm concerned, I haven't come across any tension between us and a group of ministers.

"I haven't experienced any of what's being reported or any of the pressure being applied to us which has allegedly informed our decisions."

Dr Holohan said that the plan did not "constitute the whole set of decisions" and that it reflected a framework, from which decisions will be made.

He said that as time goes on and further decisions need to be made on easing or increasing restrictions, he is confident in the relationship between the NPHET and government.

It's worked well so far - we've given advice to the minister who brings the advice to government and we've seen government respond to that advice.

"We will continue to do that as we move through that next phase, there are more considerations, and we give public health advice government based on that range of considerations.

"It is not our role, in spite of how it has been characterised elsewhere in media, to make decisions that are societal decisions, that are decisions for government to make.

"Government is there to make decisions based on advice, and from a range of different considerations.

"So the public health advice that we give will be framed as being on public health grounds, with public health assessments that relate to our expertise and our areas of responsibility. Government at that point in time will have other considerations at play in any given decision that it has to make. And, and that's a normal part of decision making."

Dr Holohan also said that he anticipates advising that non-surgical facemasks be recommended from May 18, but urged against the public "rushing" to buy them.

"It was one of the things we signalled on Friday. We do in principle see a role for masks in the community - which are not surgical grade, not healthcare masks and not the kind to be used by healthcare workers or on health advice.

"But we do see a role for them in certain settings and we're doing some work as a part of easing of certain restrictions.

"Our message is don't rush out now and wear face coverings, but we do think they will have a role and will set that out on May 18."
After looking at Xiamen International Port Co., Ltd's (SEHK:3378) latest earnings announcement (31 March 2020), I found it useful to revisit the company's performance in the past couple of years and assess this against the most recent figures. As a long term investor, I pay close attention to earnings trend, rather than the figures published at one point in time. I also compare against an industry benchmark to check whether Xiamen International Port's performance has been impacted by industry movements. In this article I briefly touch on my key findings.

View our latest analysis for Xiamen International Port

How Well Did 3378 Perform?

3378's trailing twelve-month earnings (from 31 March 2020) of CN256m has increased by 3.9% compared to the previous year.

Furthermore, this one-year growth rate has exceeded its 5-year annual growth average of -6.9%, indicating the rate at which 3378 is growing has accelerated. How has it been able to do this? Let's see if it is merely a result of industry tailwinds, or if Xiamen International Port has experienced some company-specific growth.

SEHK:3378 Income Statement May 5th 2020

In terms of returns from investment, Xiamen International Port has fallen short of achieving a 20% return on equity (ROE), recording 4.9% instead. Furthermore, its return on assets (ROA) of 2.1% is below the HK Infrastructure industry of 4.8%, indicating Xiamen International Port's are utilized less efficiently. However, its return on capital (ROC), which also accounts for Xiamen International Ports debt level, has increased over the past 3 years from 6.3% to 6.5%.

What does this mean?

While past data is useful, it doesnt tell the whole story. Recent positive growth isn't always indicative of a continued optimistic outlook. There could be factors that are impacting the entire industry thus the high industry growth rate over the same period of time. I recommend you continue to research Xiamen International Port to get a better picture of the stock by looking at:

Story continues

Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for 3378s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for 3378s outlook. Financial Health: Are 3378s 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 March 2020. 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.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Jerusalem  Wed, May 6, 2020 06:10 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd631bf7 2 World Israel,Syria,Iran,Syria-war,militia Free

Israel will keep up its operations in Syria until its arch enemy Iran leaves, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said Tuesday after strikes on Iranian-backed militias and their allies killed 14 fighters.

Israel has launched hundreds of attacks in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011, targeting government troops, allied Iranian forces and fighters from Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The Jewish state rarely confirms details of its operations in Syria but says Iran's presence in support of President Bashar al-Assad is a threat and that it will continue its attacks.

Bennett, speaking to the state-owned Kan 11 television news channel, did not claim Israeli responsibility for the latest overnight strikes on Syria.

But he said: "Iran has nothing to do in Syria... [and] we won't stop before they leave Syria".

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the strikes came minutes after Syrian air defenses intercepted Israeli air raids over the north of the country.

A spokesman for the US-led coalition battling the Islamic State (IS) group said it was not responsible for the raids in the desert near the eastern Syrian town of Mayadin.

Bennett said Iran was "trying to establish itself on the border with Israel to threaten Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa".

His allegation is not new and has often been made by Israeli officials.

"They have to leave Syria," Bennett said.

"This is our life we are talking about, the life of our children, and if we allowed them to settle in Syria... in a year we will wake up with 10,000 missiles, 20,000 missiles, that would put us in danger.

"For them it's an adventure, they are 1,000 kilometers away... it's their Vietnam in a way," Bennett said.

'Problems at home'

The Israeli defense minister said Iran should be more concerned with its own citizens and mounting domestic problems.

"They have enough problems at home with the coronavirus [and] the collapsing economy," he said.

Iran on Tuesday announced that confirmed coronavirus infections had reached almost 100,000 in the Islamic republic while the overall death toll from COVID-19 topped 6,000.

Iran is facing economic hardship that worsened after US President Donald Trump withdrew from a landmark nuclear clear and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran in 2018, targeting key oil and banking sectors.

Bennett said Iran had become a "burden" for the Assad regime.

"It used to be an asset for the Syrians, it helped Assad deal with Daesh, but now it's a burden," he said, referring to IS.

The overnight attacks in Syria were the latest in a spate of strikes on Israel's neighbor.

On Friday, the Observatory said Israeli raids hit a missile depot in eastern Syria that belonged to Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese movement that fought a war with Israel in 2006.

That strike came a day after Germany designated Hezbollah a "Shiite terrorist organization," winning applause from the Israeli government.

Israel and the United States have long designated Hezbollah as a terrorist group.

And last week, Israel was accused of hitting pro-regime positions in Syria at least three times.

Commenting on the apparent intensification of Israeli raids, Yoram Schweitzer of Israel's Institute for National Security Studies told AFP the Jewish state might be reacting to increased hostile action from Iran and Hezbollah.

It is also possible that Israel is trying to apply added pressure as its rivals endure the fallout of the coronavirus crisis, he said.

"I don't know which one of the two it is, but it might be a combination of the two," Schweitzer said.
The chairman of the German constitutional court Andreas Vosskuhle speaks on May 5, 2020 at the Constitutional court in Karlsruhe, to give out the court's ruling that the European Central Bank must clarify a key bond-buying scheme to support the eurozone economy is "proportionate" or else Germany's Bundesbank central bank may no longer participate.

"The ECB fails to conduct the necessary balancing of the monetary policy objective against the economic policy effects arising from the program. Therefore, the decisions at issue...exceed the monetary policy mandate of the ECB," the court said Tuesday in a statement.

However, a new ruling said the German government failed to take steps to challenge the ECB in its decision to purchase government bonds.

German judges assessed the ECB's quantitative easing (QE) program, or PSPP , which was introduced in 2015 until 2018 and then restarted in late 2019. The idea behind the initiative was to prop up the euro zone economy by keeping borrowing costs low across the euro zone.

A top German court ruled Tuesday that the European Central Bank 's bond buying did not respect the "principle of proportionality," suggesting the euro zone's central bank went too far with its mandate.

Crucially, however, the German court said: "The decision published today does not concern any financial assistance measures taken by the European Union or the ECB in the context of the current coronavirus crisis."

The ECB stepped up government bond purchases in March in the context of the coronavirus crisis, in a stimulus packaged dubbed Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme or PEPP. Analysts feared that the court decision on quantitative easing could raise problems to the pandemic program as well due to their similarity in nature.

Nonetheless, there are still concerns that the German constitutional court will look at the virus stimulus program in the future.

"It will take some time to fully understand the implications of the German Constitutional court's ruling on the ECB's quantitative easing program today ... But this could certainly become a real problem for the ECB in the recovery phase of the crisis," Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING Germany said in a note.

Claus Vistesen, chief euro zone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said that "these are fighting words from the German court, and it ends with an ultimatum and a threat to the ECB, not to mention German politicians."

The German court asked the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, to stop buying government bonds under the ECB's stimulus program in the next three months.

The only way to avoid this is if the ECB proves that these Bundesbank's purchases are needed, according to the court's ruling.

The euro dropped 0.7% against the U.S. dollar on the back of the decision. Nomura said in a note that Tuesday's ruling "causes uncertainty and with it we'll likely see this move in (the) euro continue."
All the classes Lauren Baucom was assigned to cover during her first year as a high school math teacher were freshman-levelthe department leaders choice, not hers. When she started asking why, the answer was a little dismaying.

They told me it was probably going to be several years of teaching freshmen classes, said Baucom, who taught at Forest Hills High School in Marshville, N.C., and is now a graduate research assistant and doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboros School of Education. They didnt know if they could trust my teaching. I remember that conversation really well.

That was Baucoms first brush with the phenomenon known as math-teacher tracking, likely familiar to many of her colleagues nationwide.

Heres how it works: Older, more-experienced teachers often get first pick for which courses they want to teach, a kind of informal seniority privilege. Many tend to select higher-level and Advanced Placement courses, because theyre perceived as the most prestigious and because theyre typically associated with academically gifted students who behave well.

That leads to a status quo of younger and less-experienced teachers working with lower-level classes, which tend to enroll students with lower grade point averages, as well as more students of color and English-language learners. Critics of math-teacher tracking say those students might benefit most from teachers with at least several years of classroom experience, but they have the least access to them.

Math-teacher tracking isnt a new phenomenon, but its been more openly discussed among educators in recent years. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics called for reform of math-teacher tracking in its 2018 Catalyzing Change report. Detracking efforts are already underway in some school districts, with teachers rotating through classes in their department and reaching students at all levels over several years. Advocates are trying to spread the word about the value of making such changes.

Detracking isnt easy, though. Many teachers resist upending their routines or challenging an informal hierarchy. Some teachers lack formal certifications from organizations like the College Board that are necessary to teach upper-level math courses.

Whats more, shortages of math teachers and the subsequent turnover in staff mean schools have little time to devote to professional development for new initiatives like detracking. And when schools or programs downsize, provisions of some teachers union contracts allow senior teachers to replace junior ones in the same school or a different one, creating even more faculty churn.

Traditions of seniority and typical notions of prestige seem particularly ripe for undercutting during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced educators to abandon preconceived notions of how education is supposed to work. Its unclear at this point how different classrooms will look when the virus threat has passed and students can safely return to school. But the experimentation thats playing out in remote classrooms all across the country could foreshadow further re-consideration of conventions.

How Detracking Could Help

Proponents of detracking math teachers point to the value of educators who have a birds-eye view of their entire departments curriculum. If teachers know what students will be learning in the math course that follows theirs, they can avoid duplicating lessons or skipping over crucial material that wont be covered elsewhere, and they can better prepare students for what to expect in future classes.

Spreading the responsibilities can also prevent teachers in the lower-level classes, which are often larger and have students who require more attention, from getting burned out. Just as important, it helps ensure that students who need catch-up in math get experienced teachers no less often than students prepared to forge ahead.

Finally, rotating courses can bring fresh approaches. A teacher who has been teaching the same course for decades might be unwilling to try new types of assignments or refresh the curriculum, said Angela Torres, a high school math-content specialist for the San Francisco Unified school district.

Torres has been suggesting that her districts math-department leaders rethink teacher assignments and shift more-experienced teachers through classes with 9th and 10th graders as part of a long-term rotation schedule. But change doesnt happen overnight. At first, she said, some departments simply shifted more-experienced teachers to lower-level classes on a permanent basis. That can put more pressure on less-experienced teachers to get up to speed on the most complicated parts of the curriculum, she said.

The norms of teacher tracking can also fall along racial lines. Travis Bristol, currently an assistant professor of education at the University of California, Berkeley, previously taught high school English in New York City. He was never asked to teach AP English, which was taught exclusively by one of his white colleagues, he said.

Bristol says he believes administrators kept him in a lower-level course because those classes had a higher proportion of students of color, some of whom lived in neighborhoods Bristol was familiar with. It was true, he said, that in some cases, he was able to help those students succeed using his experience as a guide.

But that also meant visitors to the school rarely came to his classroom and that he seldom received praise for the merits of his teaching. Similar patterns have emerged in Bristols research on the experiences of black male teachers across the country.

The success that these teachers were having in their schools, their white colleagues believed it was solely based on their ability to connect to [those struggling students] and not that these teachers were teachers who knew how to create scaffolds to allow students to access high-quality content, Bristol said.

Educators who dont get to teach AP courses also lack access to AP training and other professional-development opportunities that could help strengthen their teaching, Bristol said.

Barriers on Multiple Fronts

The advantages of detracking dont automatically remove barriers to it, of course, and the barriers range from labor-market issues to attitudinal ones. Math-teacher shortages remain a challenge nationwide, said Robert Q. Berry, the immediate past president of NCTM.

Teacher turnover is a related issue that both prevents detracking from taking place and provides a reason it might be necessary. If math positions at a school are constantly filled by new people, its harder for a department to be nimble and prepare for assigning teachers to a variety of courses, according to Berry. But teachers who get locked into a particular track, like only teaching Algebra 1, experience isolation that might make them more likely to leave their positions, he said.

The perception among some upper-level teachers that students in lower-level classes tend to be less well-behaved is also a problem, and the notion needs to be interrogated, said Torres of the San Francisco schools. Oftentimes, low self-confidence in math will look like behavior problems, Torres said. Usually, thats avoiding actually trying to do the work.

Struggling students need teachers who can productively manage their anxietiesand those skills come with experience.

Baucom, the North Carolina teacher, sympathizes with people who dont want to move away from the parts of math they most like teaching. She wasnt necessarily keen on teaching AP Calculus or Statistics, and she loves teaching freshmen. But any teacher who covers the same material year after year will be stuck in ways that could harm students, she said.

You get into these ruts, where you really created something you were proud of and you want to keep teaching that thing. I dont think thats a wrong feeling, she said. I think the problem is when we become identified with just that one course.

Valuable for Students

Individual teachers might need help from administrators to see how tracking is affecting their work, said Kelsey Anselmi, whos taught math at schools in Texas and North Carolina. If leaders arent having that conversation, those conversations dont happen.

Advocates of detracking underscore that student success is at issue. Less-than-accomplished teaching can set 9th gradersparticularly those in the most vulnerable demographic groupson a challenging path for the rest of their academic careers, Torres said. Indeed, a 2008 literature review by the Education Trust concludes that 9th gradersactually the most vulnerable of studentsare more likely to be taught by out-of-field and inexperienced teachers than are 12th graders, and the gap is even more pronounced for low-achieving 9th graders.

It takes a tremendous amount of experience to set up that environment for students to make sense of math together with rich discourse, Torres said. And it is that kind of environment, she added, that will give students a great 9th grade year in math, with rigor and high expectations.

Baucom has seen tangible evidence that detracking can happen. She and her colleagues undertook rigorous self-evaluations and had meetings over several years to get to a point where teachers now regularly cycle through Algebra 1, geometry, and Algebra 2 sections over the course of a couple school years.

For some teachers that was really intimidating, Baucom admits. But theyve gotten more comfortable over time, and shes hopeful that the new paradigm will prove to be valuable for students.

We moved from being content-area specialists to having pedagogy knowledge that can be applied across several different math-class levels, she said. Thats still evolving.
Our string of four 2020 supermoons is coming to an end. It will finish with this weeks Full Flower Moon, which will also be positioned to be bigger and brighter than a regular full moon, thus earning its super moniker.

The Flower Moon will officially become full at 6:45 a.m. Thursday, but it will appear full during a span that stretches from tonight through Friday.

In our area, Wednesday will probably be the best night to see it, since skies are forecast to range from clear to party cloudy across the state.

Other names for the May full moon, according to Native American tradition, are the Corn Planting Moon and the Milk Moon.

In a recent blog, NASAs Gordon Johnson explained the science behind the supermoon term, and why the Full Flower Moon qualifies.

This is the last in a series of four supermoons. The term supermoon was coined by the astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979 and refers to either a new or full Moon that occurs within 90% of perigee, its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit. Under this definition, in a typical year there can be three or four full supermoons in a row ... . For 2020, the four full Moons from February through May meet this 90% threshold.

Skywatching in May

If you are keeping your eye to the sky, here are some other events Johnson suggests we watch for this month:

On the evening of the full Moon on Thursday, May 7, as evening twilight ends, Venus, the brightest of the planets, will appear as the Evening Star about 19 degrees above the horizon in the west-northwest.

After Friday, May 8, the planet Mercury will begin emerging from the glow of dusk on the west-northwestern horizon (depending upon viewing conditions) about 30 minutes after sunset. Mercury will begin appearing above the horizon at the time evening twilight ends around Saturday, May 16. Venus and Mercury will appear nearest to each other on Thursday evening, May 21, with Venus about 5 degrees above the horizon in the west-northwest and Mercury below Venus at about 4 degrees above the horizon.

On the morning of the full Moon on Thursday, May 7, at the time morning twilight begins, the three planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars will appear in the southeastern sky. The brightest of the three, Jupiter, will appear in the south-southeast at about 28 degrees above the horizon. The dimmest of the three, Saturn, will appear about 5 degrees to the left of Jupiter. Mars, slightly brighter than Saturn, will appear in the southeast at about 22 degrees above the horizon. The bright star appearing nearly directly overhead will be Vega, one of the three stars in the Summer Triangle. As the lunar cycle progresses, Jupiter, Saturn and the background of stars will appear to shift toward the west, while Mars will appear to shift more slowly.
Bird-watching takes flight amid coronavirus outbreak as Americans head back outdoors Los Angeles Times. And as long as youre watching:

If you find a stunned bird with no visible injuries, it might just need a couple of hours in a quiet, dark place (a paper bag) to recover. Avoid flushing it back into the glass. Once it revives and starts to flutter, you can take it to a safe place and let it go.

German court calls on ECB to justify bond-buying programme FT

Global Oil Demand Starts a Long, Painful and Uncertain Recovery Bloomberg. Thats a damn shame.

Forget pork. Heres why you cant buy flour CNN

The COVID-19 response for vulnerable people in places affected by conflict and humanitarian crises The Lancet

Who pays the bill? The coming deluge of pandemic litigation FT

Five Steps to Eradicate COVID-19 Outbreak.Asia. A dash of cold water.

#COVID19

The science:

A human monoclonal antibody blocking SARS-CoV-2 infection Nature. Here we report a human monoclonal antibody that neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 (and SARS-CoV) in cell culture. Only in vitro, before animal testing and human trials.

Effectiveness of isolation, testing, contact tracing and physical distancing on reducing transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in different settings medaRxiv. Consistent with previous modelling studies and country-specific COVID-19 responses to date, our analysis estimates that a high proportion of cases would need to self-isolate and a high proportion of their contacts to be successfully traced to ensure an effective reproduction number that is below one in the absence of other measures. If combined with moderate physical distancing measures, self-isolation and contact tracing would be more likely to achieve control.

Virus-afflicted 2020 looks like 1918 despite sciences march AP

* * *

Spread:

15 Children Are Hospitalized With Mysterious Illness Possibly Tied to Covid-19 NYT. Kawasaki syndrome.

Virus Mutations Reveal How COVID-19 Really Spread Scientific American. NextStrain data, annotated:

(Larger version here.) Say what you will about the Reopen protesters, they didnt bring the virus here. And, for some reason, nobody who is anybody is asking who did.

Coronavirus spread in different countries is related to speed of response. Six charts tell the story ABC Australia

The Covid-19 Riddle: Why Does the Virus Wallop Some Places and Spare Others? NYT

* * *

Masks:

Face masks: What the Spanish flu can teach us about making them compulsory World Economic Forum

Understanding Changing Guidance on Mask Use Johns Hopkins University. From last week, still germane.

How Profit and Incompetence Delayed N95 Masks While People Died at the VA Pro Publica

A City Walked Back Its Face Mask Rule After Store And Restaurant Employees Received Threats Buzzfeed

* * *

Vaccine:

Cost of vaccinating billions against Covid-19 put at more than $20bn FT. So, pocket change? And three bucks a pop?

* * *

Treatment:

Convalescent serum lines up as first-choice treatment for coronavirus Nature

Fair price for Gileads COVID-19 med remdesivir? $4,460, cost watchdog says FiercePharma. For some definition of fair.

* * *

Testing:

Dogs are being trained to sniff out COVID-19 in humans Live Science. A second project, the first being in the UK. Trained dogs could be ready to start sniffing out COVID-19 in humans by July, according to the Penn Vet statement. I find this a lot more believable than any timeline from Big Pharma.

* * *

Corporate response:

FDA to rein in flood of coronavirus blood tests after lax oversight Los Angeles Times. The magic of post facto regulation.

* * *

Political response:

Small Firms Still in Dark on Loan Forgiveness as Clock Ticks Bloomberg. Reminds me of HAMP

Key U.S. Allies Skeptical of Trumps Coronavirus Lab Leak Claims Foreign Policy

Australian intelligence knocks back US governments Wuhan lab virus claim Sydney Morning Herald

Remember when people were naming their dogs after Mueller?

Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom wear matching Fauci Gang sweatshirts https://t.co/7mlR4fQLlF pic.twitter.com/oXcvkmvA43  Page Six (@PageSix) May 4, 2020

* * *

Reopening:

Reopening Narratives Bond Economics

Trump cheers on governors even as they ignore White House coronavirus guidelines in race to reopen WaPo. Federalist 45:

We have seen, in all the examples of ancient and modern confederacies, the strongest tendency continually betraying itself in the members, to despoil the general government of its authorities, with a very ineffectual capacity in the latter to defend itself against the encroachments. Although, in most of these examples, the system has been so dissimilar from that under consideration as greatly to weaken any inference concerning the latter from the fate of the former, yet, as the States will retain, under the proposed Constitution, a very extensive portion of active sovereignty, the inference ought not to be wholly disregarded. In the Achaean league it is probable that the federal head had a degree and species of power, which gave it a considerable likeness to the government framed by the convention. The Lycian Confederacy, as far as its principles and form are transmitted, must have borne a still greater analogy to it. Yet history does not inform us that either of them ever degenerated, or tended to degenerate, into one consolidated government. On the contrary, we know that the ruin of one of them proceeded from the incapacity of the federal authority to prevent the dissensions, and finally the disunion, of the subordinate authorities . These cases are the more worthy of our attention, as the external causes by which the component parts were pressed together were much more numerous and powerful than in our case; and consequently less powerful ligaments within would be sufficient to bind the members to the head, and to each other.

Auto dealerships in your local Chamber of Commerce are, as it were, over-ruling the pencil necks at the CDC and the NIH. Local oligarchs are filling the power vacuum left at the Federal level, and our globalist oligarchs are indifferent (denial) or favorable (eugenics). This outcome is consistent with declining life expectancy never having become a political issue, along with deaths of despair and the opioid epidemic. Benign or malign neglect, it comes to the same thing.

Lebensunwertes Leben:

I suspect that the US is deeply split right now between people who think that a persistent plateau of 2,000 deaths per day is prima facie unacceptable, and those who think that its just another risk that Americans will learn to live with. https://t.co/VMJPO3gTQ4  Felix Salmon (@felixsalmon) May 3, 2020

What are the reopen protesters really saying? The Conversation. (Compendium of tight shots of the protesters; no wide angle or aerial shots at all.) Perhaps not totally organic:

i have been searching term "oregon+[disease]" every day since early march just to see other people's stories that get missed by the news. until about three days ago it was chat and anecdotes and suddenly its 1000s and 1000s of identical posts about "tyranny" and rumors about CPS  semper bufo (@spindlypete) May 4, 2020

Antivaccination Activists Are Growing Force at Virus Protests NYT

Texans Brace for a COVID-19 Explosion Just Days After Reopening Daily Beast. Should be two weeks, no?

Business Is Far From Usual as Large Swaths of the U.S. Reopen Bloomberg

The great re-opening debate takes Capitol Hill USA Today. What debate? The Democrats have articulated no alternatives  because There Is No Alternative  and havent provided the means for workers to stay safe by sheltering in place (vile, horrid phrase). The only bright side is that we have clear proof that the political class are not essential workers.
DUBLIN, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Online Clothing Rental Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global online clothing rental market reached a value of US$ 1.26 Billion in 2019. Looking forward, the market is expected to reach a value of US$ 2.08 Billion by 2025, exhibiting a CAGR of 8.7% during 2020-2025.



The thriving online retail industry is one of the key factors driving the growth of the market across the globe. Furthermore, rising urban population with higher fashion consciousness is also contributing to the increasing service demand. There is an emerging trend of wearing designer apparel without actually owning them, especially among millennials, to keep up with the ever-changing fashion trends.

Additionally, increasing awareness regarding sustainable clothing and positive environmental effects of sharing and reusing apparels is another factor favoring the market growth. Sustainability approaches, such as reusing pre-owned apparel, utilizing minimal plastic packaging, efficiently using recyclable, renewable and production resources such as, power, water and other materials are increasingly being preferred, which in turn, is contributing to the market growth.

Moreover, with an increasing emphasis on sharing instead of owning, online clothing rental services enable the brand- and price-conscious consumers to try a wide variety of outfits without purchasing them.



Other factors, including increasing adoption of subscription-based models, rising internet penetration rates and inflating disposable income levels, are projected to drive the market further.



The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined with some of the key players being Clothing Rental, Dress & Go, Rent it Bae, Glam Corner Pty Ltd, Gwynnie Bee, Le Tote, Rent The Runway Inc., StyleLend, etc.



Key Questions Answered

How has the global online clothing rental 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 clothing styles?

What is the breakup of the market based on the end user?

What is the breakup of the market based on the price range?

What is the breakup of the market based on the end use sector?

What is the breakup of the market based on the business model?

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 online clothing rental market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the industry?

Key Topics Covered



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Online Clothing Rental Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Clothing Styles

6.1 Western Wear

6.2 Ethnic Wear

6.3 Others



7 Market Breakup by End-user

7.1 Women

7.2 Men

7.3 Kids



8 Market Breakup by Price Range

8.1 Low

8.2 Mid

8.3 Premium



9 Market Breakup by End-use Sector

9.1 Business to Consumer (B2C)

9.2 Business to Business (B2B)



10 Market Breakup by Business Model

10.1 Peer-to-Peer Model

10.2 Standalone Model

10.3 Hybrid Model



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 Price Indicators



16 Competitive Landscape

16.1 Market Structure

16.2 Key Players

16.3 Profiles of Key Players

16.3.1 Clothing Rental

16.3.2 Dress & Go

16.3.3 Rent It Bae

16.3.4 Glam Corner Pty. Ltd.

16.3.5 Gwynnie Bee

16.3.6 Le Tote

16.3.7 Rent the Runway Inc.

16.3.8 StyleLend



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/4a53fe

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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Do thinking and walking go hand in hand in determining the health course of senior adults? A study published by UT Health San Antonio researchers found that, indeed, the two functions often parallel each other in determining a person's health trajectory.

The researchers analyzed data from 370 participants in the San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging (SALSA) and found that they grouped into three distinct trajectories. These classifications were based on the participants' changes on a cognitive measure and a gait speed task over an average of 9 years:

Stable cognition and gait class (65.4% of the participants).

Cognitive and physical vulnerability class (22.2%).

Physical vulnerability class (12.4%).

"In our community-based sample of Mexican American and European American older adults aged 65 to 74 years old at baseline, the majority of individuals began the study with higher scores in both domains, cognition and gait speed. During follow-up, this group demonstrated resilience to age-related declines and continued to be functionally independent," said study senior author Helen Hazuda, Ph.D., professor in UT Health San Antonio's Long School of Medicine and the principal investigator of SALSA.

"In contrast, one-fifth of individuals began the study with lower scores in cognition and gait speed. They experienced deterioration in each domain during the follow-up period," Dr. Hazuda said.

The third group of individuals, termed the physical vulnerability class, demonstrated stable cognition throughout the study, but their gait speed slowed over time.

2 effects, 1 root?

Cognition was assessed using English or Spanish versions of the Folstein Mini-Mental State Examination, a 30-item tool that assesses orientation to time and place, attention, recall, language and other aspects. Gait speed was measured with a timed 10-foot walk.

"For most of the population we studied, changes in cognition and gait speed were parallel, which suggests shared mechanisms," said Mitzi M. Gonzales, Ph.D., lead author of the study and a neuropsychologist with the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Diseases, which is part of UT Health San Antonio.

Cognition and gait speed may be altered by blood vessel disease, brain tissue insults, hormone regulation, and abnormal deposits of amyloid beta and tau proteins in the brain, Dr. Gonzales said. Amyloid beta and tau deposits are well-known indicators of Alzheimer's disease but may impact gait, too.

"Abnormal protein deposition promotes neurodegeneration and synaptic loss, which may induce dysfunction in brain regions governing cognition and gait," said study coauthor Sudha Seshadri, M.D., professor of neurology in the Long School of Medicine and director of the Biggs Institute. "Another possibility is damage to white matter in regions integral to both cognition and gait coordination."

Groundbreaking San Antonio research

SALSA investigators led by Dr. Hazuda launched the study in 1992 and completed the baseline examination in 1996. Follow-up examinations were conducted at 18-month intervals between 2000 and 2005.

Among the 370 participants in this new analysis, 182 were Mexican American and 188 were European American. The Mexican American participants were almost four times more likely than European Americans to be in the cognitive and physical vulnerability class, even after statistical adjustment for educational attainment, income and chronic medical conditions, Dr. Gonzales said.

Prevalence of a key risk factor in this group, diabetes, was significantly higher in Mexican Americans (23%) than in European Americans (7%). Diabetes was associated with a 4 times higher likelihood of being part of the cognitive and physical vulnerability class.

Poor start, poor course

Individuals who entered the study with poorer cognition and slower gait speed went on to decline in both domains at an accelerated pace through the years of follow-up, Dr. Hazuda said.

"In this at-risk group, we observed steeper rates of decline over and above the low starting point," Dr. Hazuda said. "This suggests that preventive efforts should ideally target young and middle-aged adults in which there is still time to intervene to alter the trajectories."

Overall, individuals in the cognitive and physical vulnerability class and the physical vulnerability class had a five- to sevenfold increased risk of mortality in comparison to the stable cognition and gait class.

###

The International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry published the study in April.

Acknowledgments

Funding is from the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and the National Center for Research Resources (USA).

Joint trajectories of cognition and gait speed in Mexican American and European American older adults: The San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging

Mitzi M. Gonzales, Chen-Pin Wang, Myla Quiben, Daniel MacCarthy, Sudha Seshadri, Mini Jacob, Helen Hazuda

First published: 12 April 2020

https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5310

About us

The Long School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is named for Texas philanthropists Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long. The school is the largest educator of physicians in South Texas, many of whom remain in San Antonio and the region to practice medicine. The school teaches more than 900 students and trains 800 residents each year. As a beacon of multicultural sensitivity, the school annually exceeds the national medical school average of Hispanic students enrolled. The school's clinical practice is the largest multidisciplinary medical group in South Texas with 850 physicians in more than 100 specialties. The school has a highly productive research enterprise where world leaders in Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, cancer, aging, heart disease, kidney disease and many other fields are translating molecular discoveries into new therapies. The Long School of Medicine is home to a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center known for prolific clinical trials and drug development programs, as well as a world-renowned center for aging and related diseases.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, also referred to as UT Health San Antonio, is one of the country's leading health sciences universities and is designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education. With missions of teaching, research, patient care and community engagement, its schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have graduated more than 37,000 alumni who are leading change, advancing their fields, and renewing hope for patients and their families throughout South Texas and the world. To learn about the many ways "We make lives better," visit http://www.uthscsa.edu.

Stay connected with The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.
Yet another indication that China knew it was about to release a deadly and destructive pandemic on the world is seen in its last minute insertion into the Phase 1 trade deal of a clause releasing it from its obligations under the deal in the event of a natural disaster. It is another reason why China pushes the wet markets story about the origin of the Wuhan virus and dismisses a leak from or accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology as some tinfoil-hat conspiracy theory. If the lab origin for the Wuhan virus is officially confirmed, Chinas economy is fatally screwed.

In an episode of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giulianis Common Sense on YouTube , Giuliani interviewed K.T. McFarland, who served as Deputy National Security Advisor under Michael Flynn for the first four months of the Trump administration. In the video interview, McFarland provided a key reason China is pushing the wet markets alibi and simultaneously blaming the U.S. for the Wuhan virus pandemic:

One of the reasons that they keep insisting, despite mounting evidence that it came from a lab in Wuhan, they keep insisting, no, no, it came from a wet market, or maybe it was America who did it. They cannot admit culpability for the following reason, if they do, then theres a clause that they put into the Phase 1 US-China Trade Deal, where in essence in this trade deal it said we would lift sanctions, we would lift the tariffs on them and then they would buy a lot of agriculture and other goods from us. But theres a clause thats in there, a get out of jail free clause, which says, however, if there is a natural occurring disaster, the two parties will renegotiate. In other words, China doesnt necessarily want to keep the terms of the deal. And so its very important for everybody, for them, to say, well, its a naturally occurring disaster coming out of the wet lab. It wasnt China who did that. So not only do they give themselves an out for the trade deal, that they were pressured into signing, but they also will give themselves an out if companies and countries and individuals, all come to the International Courts and try to sue China.

Boom. One economist goes as far as calling Chinas hiding of the percolating virus pandemic and its suspension of travel to and from Wuhan while deliberately allowing international flights out of Wuhan an act of war:

Economist Danielle DiMartino Booth says what China has done is no less than an "act of war" by failing to report the coronavirus outbreak while adding a pandemic clause to their $200 billion trade deal agreement with the United States. Booth, who is the CEO & Chief Strategist of intelligence research firm Quill Intelligence, pointed out in an interview that China announced its first coronavirus case "within days" of putting pen to paper on the Phase One agreement on Jan. 15. She reveals that because of the "unfettered travel" that took place because of China's misinformation of COVID-19, the pandemic reached a point where it was "impossible to contain, and the Xi Jinping-led nation should be held accountable for the global pandemic along with the World Health Organization (WHO) for its deference to China According to Booth, by late November word had already gotten out that a deadly virus was spreading in Wuhan and the Chinese government were fully aware of the coronavirus outbreak when they signed the trade deal with the U.S She added that in order to safeguard its interests, China added in a pandemic "force majeure" clause, which essentially relieves the party from any obligation should there be an unforseeable event that is beyond its control such as an act of god like an earthquake or epidemic. "Such "force majeure" language, while common in commercial contracts, is rare in trade agreements, particularly between two countries with economies so large that they are essentially immune to localized floods and droughts," notes Huffington Post. "In late November word had already gotten out that there was a virus in Wuhan," she said. "Six weeks later on January 15, the U.S. trade deal was signed with an out-clause that the Chinese made sure was in there. That said if there was any act of God, a pandemic, then they didn't have to make good on what they'd committed to buy from the U.S.

China knew in advance of the deal that it had created, or at least unleashed, a monster in its labs. It foresaw its deadly effects and hoped to withstand it internally while deliberately allowing it to spread without warning to an unsuspecting and largely unprepared West. That is why it vacuumed up and hoarded beforehand all the protective equipment it could find leading to shortages abroad. That is why it allowed international flights allow those infected in China to seed the virus outside China. China seeks world domination, and Beijing considered this one way to achieve it, even if accidently. After all, a global pandemic is a terrible thing to waste.

China was also mad at a United States that, under President Trump, was fighting back on trade, ending decades of hundreds of billions annually in intellectual property theft and unfair trade practices that destroyed U.S. companies and decimated entire U.S. industries. Let the West suffer. Let their economies collapse. And to minimize Beijings own inevitable economic damage, insert this pandemic clause into the trade agreement. Why buy $250 billion in U.S. goods and help out the weakened U.S. economy if it didnt have to?

To invoke the natural disaster clause, China must maintain its innocence, either through perpetuating the wet markets myth or blaming the U.S. while shipping useless protective equipment including ventilators that kill their patients to the West and then charging for their generosity.

President Trump is not fooled by this latest Chinese gambit and has threatened retaliation should they dare such a move:

US President Donald Trump has threatened to terminate the trade deal with China if Beijing did not honour its provisions in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic that originated in the country The deal, which calls on China to buy USD 200 billion worth of US products, is set to move ahead as planned. However, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission in a report said China could invoke a clause in the agreement that allows for fresh trade consultations between the two countries "in the event of a natural disaster or other unforeseeable events". "If that happens, we'll do a termination and we'll do what I can do better than anybody," Trump told reporters on Tuesday during his daily White House press conference on coronavirus.

Regardless, we should impose a great wall of tariffs including a Wuhan surcharge until its damages are paid in full. Our debt to China must be cancelled and in the meantime interest payments on that debt be held in escrow along with confiscated Chinese assets in this country. All Chinese nationals currently spying in our universities and universities must be expelled. We must close the Confucius Institutes operating in Americas educational institutions that spread Chinese propaganda promoting Beijing as benign and benevolent.

China must pay, and pay dearly, for what it has deliberately done to us.

Daniel John Sobieski is a former editorial writer for Investors Business Daily and freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.
Imagine if every time you turned away for a few seconds, your child picked up a stone and swallowed it.

That's the reality for families caring for youngsters with pica  an eating disorder that causes a compulsion to eat non-food items.

Speaking to FEMAIL, three families from around the UK, have revealed how they cope with the daily battle of keeping their children with pica safe - including a toddler, four, who tugged out and ate her own hair, before taking a liking to electrical wires.

Elsewhere, a ten-year-old boy ended up in hospital and almost died after eating a large pile of stones, which caused such damage to his intestines that doctors have warned he may need a colostomy bag.

And a concerned mother told how her youngster, 10, not only strips the walls of paint and plaster, but also eats chunks of skin he has gauged out of his feet.

Dawn Lee, 56, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, told how her grandson Jude Lee-Ridsdale, 10, was taken to hospital one evening when doctors discovered his stomach was full of stones. Pictured, in hospital

Leanne Parker, 41, from Bracknall, Berkshire, says her son Ronny (pictured), 10, eats his own feet

Joanna Price, 45, from Coleville, Leicestershire, says daughter Paige Perry, almost four, has taken a liking to electrical wires. Pictured, Paige eating through a wire in her home

'MY SON EATS HIS OWN FEET!'

Leanne Parker, 41, from Bracknall, Berkshire, never knows quite what she's going to find when her son Ronny Parker, 10, pulls off his socks.

The youngster has had pica all his life, and his current compulsion involves chewing the skin off the soles of his own feet.

'He literally gauges out chunks of skin and puts them in his mouth,' explained Leanne. 'I've told him repeatedly to stop doing it but he can't help himself, it's like an addiction.

'He claims it doesn't hurt but sometimes they look so sore  as if he's been rubbing them with a cheese grater.'

Leanne explains that her son Ronny (pictured together) gauges out chunks of skin from his feet and puts them in his mouth

Ronny has had pica all his life, and his current craving is chewing the skin off the soles of his own feet (pictured)

It was pre-school staff at Ronny's nursery who first alerted his mum to his unusual appetite eight years ago.

WHAT IS PICA? Pica is an eating disorder that is characterised by the desire to eat items with little or no nutritional value. These can include anything from stones, sand, paint and dirt to talcum powder. It is most common in people with learning disabilities and during pregnancy. It can cause a range of serious complications if the person is eating something that is poisonous or indigestible. These include being poisoned by toxic ingredients and having a part of the body obstructed (which is often seen in people who eat hair). It can also lead to excessive calorie intake, but also nutritional deprivation if the person eats a substance with no nutritional value instead of nutritious foods. The person can also damage their teeth and be infected with parasites. Advertisement

'He was always putting things in his mouth, but a lot of toddlers do that,' said the mum-of-four. 'But the difference with Ronny was that he was actually swallowing things rather than just mouthing them.

'The nursery staff would tell me not to worry if Ronny's poo was blue, green, or red. He had a thing for eating crayons and sucking on paint brushes.

'It was them who first suggested to me that he might have Pica. I'd never heard of it so I went home and Googled.'

Now, Ronny's schoolmates say things have 'been Ronny-ed' when they find a chewed pen or a book with pages missing.

'Ronny will eat all sorts of strange things,' explained Leanne. 'Dog food, cat food and cigarette butts. If we go out for a pub lunch he'll pick off chewing gum stuck under tables.

'He's chewed all the paint off his bedroom walls; everywhere around our house you can see bite marks and pieces of paint and plaster missing. He goes through phases  his current favourites are toilet rolls and the wax from oil burners.

'Pica can be dangerous, yet so many people don't even know about it. It's very misunderstood and there's very little support out there for families.'

Ronny goes through phases when it comes to his compulsions, with his current favourites being toilet rolls and the wax from oil burners. Pictured, his feet following a craving

The ten-year-old has even chewed all the paint off his bedroom walls (pictured), and put bite marks around walls of the house

Leanne (pictured with Ronny) has spoken out to warn others about the dangers of pica and to raise awareness because it's 'very misunderstood'

'MY GRANDSON'S LOVE OF STONES NEARLY KILLED HIM'

Grandmothers are used to dishing out child-rearing advice, but Dawn Lee, 56, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, had no idea what to say when her daughter called her worried about her grandson Jude Lee-Ridsdale, 10, one evening.

'She told me they'd been lying in bed together, when she'd felt a hard lump around Jude's stomach,' explained Dawn. 'She said she could feel it moving under his skin.

'I told her to take him to A&E and I'd meet her there.'

Jude has severe autism and Dawn is usually his full-time carer to enable his parents to work.

In 2016, aged six, Jude (pictured in hospital) underwent surgery at Sheffield Children's Hospital to remove a large pile of stones from his gut

Jude's compulsions have caused such damage to his intestines that doctors have warned he may need a colostomy bag. Pictured, some of the stones that were found in Judes stomach

When they got to hospital x-rays showed something shocking. Jude's stomach was full of stones.

'We knew he liked to put stones in his mouth,' said Dawn. 'We also knew he swallowed the odd one because they turned up later in his nappy. But we had no idea just how many he had been eating  they'd all got blocked in his insides.

'The doctors were absolutely astounded.'

Jude underwent surgery aged six, in 2016, at Sheffield Children's Hospital to remove a large pile of stones from his gut.

'He was diagnosed with pica,' said Dawn. 'When they did his surgery they even found a piece of the doctor's stethoscope that he'd obviously eaten in hospital while no-one was looking.'

Dawn says that she now knows when her grandson Jude (pictured together) has eaten too many stones as he will tell her he needs a doctor

Dawn says that while she and the family watch Jude like a hawk, it's 'almost impossible' to stop someone who is so determined to eat something. Pictured, together over the park

Jude has since undergone three further procedures to remove blockages from his abdomen. He has caused such damage to his intestines that doctors have warned he may need a colostomy bag.

'We watch him like a hawk, but he's so quick,' said Dawn. 'Trying to stop someone eating something when they're really determined is almost impossible. He can pop a stone into his mouth in the blink of an eye.

'I actually know when he's eaten too many of them now  he'll come to me and say "I need a doctor". We're terrified his habit might kill him if he takes it into adulthood.

'Pica is a condition that most people don't know anything about. Even some of the doctors we've seen haven't come across it.

'For Jude and our family pica has been life-changing. Even something simple, like a children's party, can be difficult. He pops and swallows balloons if he can. It affects every part of our lives.'

DAUGHTER'S LOVE OF ELECTRICAL WIRES COULD STOP HER GOING TO SCHOOL

Joanna Price, 45, from Coleville, Leicestershire, and her daughter Paige Perry, almost four, were sitting watching Paw Patrol two years ago when Joanna first realised something was wrong.

'She was putting strands of hair in her mouth,' said Joanna. 'I thought she was just sucking it; I've seen lots of toddlers sucking their hair. But then she violently tugged at a chuck, chewed it and swallowed it.

Joanna Price says daughter Paige (pictured) started off by tugging out her own hair and eating it, before turning to electrical wires. Pictured, eating through a wire in her home

Paige's worried mother has had to cover every wire in the house with plastic casing - including the likes of phone chargers (pictured) and television cables

'I tried to stop her so she jumped off the cushions and ran round to hide behind the back of the sofa. I crawled in after her and found her viciously yanking out chunks of hair and wolfing them down. The following day she had bald patches and her nappy was full of hair.'

Joanna had to fight to her get daughter diagnosed with pica.

'She chews wallpaper off the walls, eats fluff, paper, toothbrush bristles but nobody would believe me,' she explained. 'In the end I actually made a video of her eating her own hair and showed it to the doctors.

'I have to be so careful with things like clothes shopping. If there's anything attached to her clothes externally, like zippers or buttons, Paige will swallow them.'

And now, Joanna has a new worry  electrical wires.

Paige's parents are worried that her pica could stop her from attending a mainstream school as her wire-eating makes her a 'health and safety risk.' Pictured, one of the electrical wires Paige has eaten

Paige chews wallpaper off the walls, eats fluff, paper and even toothbrush bristles. Pictured, eating paint off the walls in her house

'Pica seems to come in phases,' she explained. 'She gets a taste for something and then eventually it passes. Her new favourite thing is an absolute nightmare; she's taken to chewing electrical wires.

'Phone chargers television cables anything like that. We've had to cover every wire in our house in plastic casing. She chewed through a phone charger that was plugged in  all the way through the wire  and gave herself a small electric shock, but that still didn't stop her.'

Now, Paige's parents are worried that her pica could stop her from attending a mainstream school.

'She was being assessed because they say her wire-eating makes her a health and safety risk,' said Joanna. 'Doctors don't take pica seriously, but in our case it could affect Paige's education.

'I really want to raise awareness  people don't understand the severity of conditions like pica.

They see funny stories of people eating strange things and don't realise how serious it can be for that family. It has such a huge impact on the whole household.'
YEREVAN, MAY 5, ARMENPRESS. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, who has contracted the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), is feeling normal in general and is receiving treatment as scheduled, his spokesman Boris Belyakov said on Tuesday.

Mikhail Vladimirovich is staying in one of state medical facilities under doctors supervision. He is feeling normal in general. The treatment is going on as scheduled, using the drugs recommended by the Health Ministry for patients to cure this disease. The prime minister is actively contacting with his colleagues by phone, the spokesman said.

On April 30, Mishustin said during a video conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin that he had tested positive for the coronavirus and had to self-isolate. Putin wished him a speedy recovery and signed a decree appointing First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov to serve as Acting Prime Minister.
Imperial Valley News Center

Guaranteed Rate to Pay $15 Million to Resolve Allegations It Knowingly Caused False Claims to Government Mortgage Loan Programs

New York - Guaranteed Rate Inc. has agreed to pay the United States $15.06 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) by knowingly violating material program requirements when it originated and underwrote mortgages insured by the Department of Housing and Urban Developments (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) or guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Justice announced. Guaranteed Rate is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, with branches across the United States.

The department works with our partners at HUD and the VA to protect vital federal lending programs, said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of the Department of Justices Civil Division. We will continue to protect American taxpayers and homebuyers by holding accountable FHA and VA lenders that knowingly and materially violate program requirements.

Lenders participating in mortgage programs backed by taxpayers must follow rules designed to protect both program integrity and homeowners, said U.S. Attorney Grant C. Jaquith for the Northern District of New York. Todays settlement holds Guaranteed Rate accountable for its past violations and reflects that it has strengthened its internal controls to ensure future compliance with Federal Housing Administration and Department of Veterans Affairs requirements.

Participants in FHA insurance and VA guarantee programs, like Guaranteed Rate, have the authority to originate and underwrite mortgage loans without first having the government review the loans for compliance with the agencys underwriting and origination requirements. If an FHA insured or VA guaranteed loan defaults, the holder of the loan may submit a claim to the United States for certain losses. Lenders are therefore required to follow FHA and VA rules designed to ensure that only mortgages that meet key credit and underwriting criteria are insured or guaranteed by the government.

The settlement announced today resolves allegations that Guaranteed Rate knowingly failed to comply with material program rules that require lenders to maintain quality control programs to prevent and correct underwriting deficiencies, self-report any materially deficient loans that they identify, and ensure that the underwriting process is free from conflicts of interest.

As part of the settlement, Guaranteed Rate admitted that it failed to adhere to the applicable self-reporting requirements, that its FHA underwriters received commissions and gifts in violation of program rules, and that there were instances in which its government underwriters were instructed not to review documents that were relevant to the underwriting decision. Guaranteed Rate further acknowledged that it certified and the government insured and guaranteed loans approved by Guaranteed Rate that were not eligible for FHA mortgage insurance or VA loan guarantees and that HUD and VA would not have insured or guaranteed the loans but for its actions.

While the covered conduct stretched back as far as January 2008, Guaranteed Rate took significant measures to stop the practices, both before and after being notified of the United States investigation. It received credit for doing so in connection with the settlement.

This case involved a pattern of serious, systemic and widespread violations under the False Claims Act, said Rae Oliver Davis, Inspector General, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. This recovery on behalf of FHA and the American taxpayer should serve as a stark reminder of the potential consequences of not adhering to HUD program rules and to the value of whistleblowers, in pursuing lenders that violate these rules.

It is vital that the VA and other federal lending programs are protected and those who violate or circumvent program rules and regulations are held accountable, said Chris Algieri, Special Agent in Charge, VA Office of Inspector General. Todays civil settlement reinforces VA OIGs commitment to enforcing the VAs requirements for mortgage underwriting and originations to protect taxpayers and veteran homebuyers.

The agreement resolves allegations brought by former Guaranteed Rate employee Anthonitte Carranza under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act, which permit private parties to sue on behalf of the government for false claims and to receive a share of any recovery. The qui tam case is captioned United States ex rel. Anthonitte Carranza v. Guaranteed Rate, Inc., et al., No. 17-cv-637 (N.D.N.Y.). As part of this settlement, Carranza will receive $2,443,000 as her share of the governments recovery.

The investigation and settlement were the result of a coordinated effort among the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Department of Justices Civil Division, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of New York, HUD-OIG, HUD, and VA-OIG.
NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE I n mid-April, as the coronavirus gripped New York City, Brian Lehrer of WNYC hosted a call-in segment for listeners who had struggled with addiction. Simone, from Brooklyn, who attended Narcotics Anonymous, told Lehrer that she was initially skeptical of Zoom meetings but that they were working well for her. Vilma, of the Bronx, said working from home gave her a sense of control over eating that she never had before. Three other callers were managing well, including Stuart, who was now getting extra methadone take-home bottles, because of COVID-19 accommodations, but felt no urge to drink more than one per day, as prescribed.

Judging from the shows tagline, For those of you struggling with addiction, mandated social isolation is particularly cruel, the producers clearly expected something other than these upbeat testimonials. Some of my colleagues have a similarly grim, and similarly misplaced, view, predicting that a pandemic of mental illness will follow the coronavirus pandemic. A former surgeon general, Dr. David Satcher, has called for a government taskforce on coronavirus-based trauma. And a consortium of mental-health groups has requested a whopping $10 billion from Congress to address the impending mental health and addiction crisis, an amount almost twice the 2020 budget request of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

As a psychiatrist, I am skeptical that a national crisis of mental illness is looming. Researchers have long known that most people are resilient in the face of crisis and do not succumb to psychopathology. Vulnerable individuals are likely to be those who suffer a relapse of a preexisting mental-health disorder or who experience an exacerbation of current symptoms of depression or anxiety. The stimulus bill enacted at the end of March included $425 million for emergency mental-health and substance-abuse problems, suicide prevention, and community mental-health centers. In view of the chronic underfunding of our public mental-health-care system, the increased expenditure is welcome.

Story continues

In an interesting historical footnote, psychiatrists have recorded cases of temporary psychosis among a subset of patients infected with the influenza virus. (President Woodrow Wilson suffered cognitive deterioration due to viral encephalitis from the Spanish flu.) In addition, researchers have observed a correlation between season of birth and the development of psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar illness later in life. These developments, of course, are biological in nature and unrelated to fear surrounding infectious outbreaks.

Still, there is  and will continue to be  a vast amount of psychic pain. A heavy pall of uncertainty is upon us. When will we feel safe from this brazen virus, when will a vaccine or treatments arrive, and will we see a resurgence of the virus after it has receded? Polls reveal that between 40 percent and more than half of Americans feel that corona-related stress is hurting their mental health. The Washington Post recently reported that, compared with last April, texts to federal government mental health hotline [are] up roughly 1,000 percent. Sales of alcohol and cannabis have spiked.

We need to think clearly about whose needs are best met by mental-health professionals and whose suffering should be treated in other ways.

Under lockdown, basic mental hygiene will suffice for most: Get out of your pajamas each morning, keep a routine, and get ample sleep and exercise. Also connect, connect, and (virtually) connect with family and friends, and help others do the same. A bracing dose of Stoic philosophy is also in order, to remind us that life is what our thoughts make of it, as Marcus Aurelius understood.

Some need more than good advice to endure the pandemic, however. Mandated isolation can be an anxiety-provoking trial. To soften or avert a social recession, as former surgeon general Vivek Murthy recently called it in The Atlantic, neighbors must engage with isolated elderly or disabled people and assure them that they matter and belong and that they wont go without material reserves.

Also, workers and businesspeople are reeling from the economic devastation. More than 30 million people have filed for unemployment since the third week in March. A Pew poll conducted March 1924 found, unsurprisingly, that people with lower incomes and those whose jobs or incomes have been cut are experiencing the highest levels of psychological distress. In a variety of contexts, economic crises, including the Great Depression of the 1930s and recessions, have been linked with an increase in suicide and depression.

The solution for the alienated and the financially unstable isnt mental-health experts. It is neighbors, community, and money. When embattled, most people are sustained by their families and communities, and those need to remain upright. Careful and gradual commercial awakening is essential, but until desperate people can work, both they and the economy must be given money, along the lines of the stimulus package: payments to individuals, unemployment benefits, small-business support, and paycheck-protection aid.

This is a terrible time for many Americans. But the extent and depth of despair  and the power to contain it  depend less on the ministrations of therapists and psychiatrists and more on the rest of us. It depends on governments to keep the financial lifeblood circulating and on neighbors and communities to keep the civic fabric strong. The more we medicalize normal and temporary reactions to a crisis and outsource its management to professionals, the more we risk diluting the felt obligations of those sheltering institutions.

Individuals, too, have a responsibility. Hard as it may be, it helps when we shape our perception of adversity as a challenge to surmount and then make it a personal mission to do so.

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Sanjay Dutt Reveals The One Thing Rishi Kapoor Taught Him With A Heartfelt Remembrance
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Abbott has said it will make its new, European-made laboratory-based antibody blood tests available in India by end of this month.

Abbott received CE mark approval this week for its laboratory-based serology blood (antibody) test for the detection of the antibody, IgG, that identifies if a person has had COVID-19.

The antibody tests will run Abbott's ARCHITECT i1000SR and i2000SR laboratory instruments and will expand to its Alinity I system. These instruments are in use in laboratories throughout India and can run up to 100-200 tests per hour.

Abbott said it will begin shipping to India by the end of May and will scale up to meet the demand subsequently.

The lab-based antibody test while not hugely scalable is still important to increase the pace of testing as India plans to ease lockdown. India's attempts to increase testing by importing rapid antibody test kits from China has hit a roadblock due to issues of accuracy.

India has reported about 46,476 COVID-19 confirmed cases and 1,571 deaths. The numbers have been steadily increasing even as its testing remained low at 864 tests per million population.

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

While molecular testing or RT-PCR detects whether someone has the virus, antibody tests determine if someone was infected. Abbott's SARS-CoV-2 IgG test identifies the IgG antibody, which is a protein that the body produces in the late stages of infection and may remain up to months and possibly years after a person has recovered.

The test demonstrated specificity and sensitivity to detect IgG antibodies of greater than 99 percent 14 days or more after symptoms started.

"Abbott has been singularly focused on bringing COVID-19 tests to market as quickly as possible to help address this pandemic," said Narendra Varde, General Manager and Country Head at Abbotts diagnostics business in India. "We are proud to be providing our antibody tests in the coming weeks as they will help understand who has had the virus, leading to greater confidence as we get to living life.

Abbott said it is significantly scaling up European manufacturing for antibody testing and will expand testing to its Alinity I system. The company added that it will also be expanding its laboratory antibody testing to the detection of the antibody, IgM, in the near future.

Abbott last month announced that it had received USFDA's Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for its 5-minute point-of-care molecular test for the detection of COVID-19.

The company said it has plans to make them available across the world including India, but declined to give a timeframe.
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Linkedin Apriza Pinandita (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, May 6 2020

Migrant Care called on the Indonesian government on Monday to avoid a heavy-handed approach to health security toward repatriating Indonesian migrant workers (TKI), and instead to maintain protection of the workers rights upon their arrival.

The labor rights advocacy group raised its call shortly after President Joko Jokowi Widodo urged authorities to tighten monitoring over several COVID-19 clusters in the country, including migrant workers who were returning to the archipelago ahead of Idul Fitri.

Migrant Care executive director Wahyu Susilo said he appreciated the Presidents concern for migrant workers amid the nations concerted efforts to mitigate the epidemic and its impacts.

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The Centre announced a day-wise evacuation plan to bring back around 14,800 Indians stranded due to the coronavirus lockdown in countries such as Oman, Bahrain, Malaysia, Singapore, UK and USA in 64 flights from 7 to 13 May.

The Centre announced a day-wise evacuation plan to bring back around 14,800 Indians stranded due to the coronavirus lockdown in countries such as Oman, Bahrain, Malaysia, Singapore, UK and USA in 64 flights from 7 to 13 May.

Fourty of these special flights will be operated by Air India while its subsidiary Air India Express will operate 24 flights to repatriate Indians from 12 countries  the UAE, the UK, the US, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman, officials told PTI.

Here are the evacuation plans for Days 5,6 and 7 by @airindiain and #airindia Express pic.twitter.com/67fOypp1h7  PIB India #StayHome #StaySafe (@PIB_India) May 5, 2020

India has been under lockdown since 25 March to curb the spread of the coronavirus and it will continue till 17 May. All commercial passenger flights have been suspended for this period.

Therefore, the Ministry of Home Affairs announced on Monday it will facilitate the return of asymptomatic Indian nationals stranded abroad from 7 May onwards, in a phased manner, through aircraft and naval ships on a payment basis.

According to details released by the Press Information Bureau, India will conduct 10 flights to the UAE, seven flights each to the US and the UK, five to Saudi Arabia, five to Singapore, and two flights to Qatar between 7 and 13 May.

Seven flights will also be operated to Malaysia and Bangladesh, five each to Kuwait and Philippines, two each to Oman and Bahrain.

Out of the 64 repatriation flights, 15 will be to Kerala, 11 each would be to Delhi and Tamil Nadu, seven each would be to Maharashtra and Telangana, and remaining flights would be to five other states and Union Territories, including Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.

Ten flights carrying 2,300 passengers will be operated on the first day, while 2,050 passengers will return on nine flights on days two and three and 1,850 persons are scheduled to return on day four. On day five, 2,200 passengers will arrive on nine flights, 2,500 on eleven flights the next day and 1,850 on eight flights on day seven.

"Approximately 14,800 Indian nationals are likely to return to the country through these 64 flights during the seven-day period. The government will run more repatriation flights after 13 May," one of the officials told PTI.

On Tuesday, Punya Salila Srivastava, Joint secretary in the home ministry also said that that the passengers who land in the country on board the special flights will have to follow all the government-issued health guidelines, and they will be screened and kept at paid quarantine facilities for 14 days. They will also have to download the Aarogya Setu mobile app, said the home ministry.

The coronavirus has infected more than 46,700 people and killed around 1,580 people in India till now.

With inputs from PTI
Chipmaker Intel Corp has bought Israeli public transit app maker Moovit for about $900 million to help it develop self-driving "robotaxis" that could take to the streets in early 2022, the company said on Monday. Moovit will remain independent while its technology and the data it collects from more than 800 million users in 102 countries will be integrated into Intel's Israel-based autonomous car unit Mobileye. The price paid was nearly twice the $500 million valuation when Moovit last raised money in 2018. Intel owned about 7% of Moovit through a previous equity ...
Cedarville U. puts president on leave after hiring prof. accused of sexual misconduct, launches probe

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Cedarville University has put its president on leave and plans to investigate his hiring and the actions of a former faculty member dismissed over sexual misconduct allegations.

The Ohio-based independent Baptist schools board of trustees put President Thomas White on administrative leave last Friday in response to Whites hiring and firing of theology professor Anthony Moore.

In a statement released last Friday, the trustees said that they were going to have an independent firm investigate the matter to ensure nothing inappropriate involving Dr. Moore took place on our campus or with any of our students elsewhere.

This firm will report to the board, and the board will then report the findings to the Cedarville University community at-large, they stated.

We are retaining an independent firm to conduct an audit of the entire process surrounding the hiring of Dr. Moore. This will include a thorough review of all relevant communication involving Dr. White and Dr. Moore, the trustees, The Village Church, employment references, etc.

The trustees appointed retired Lt. Gen. Loren Reno, who was already working at the office of the president at Cedarville as a senior adviser to serve as acting president.

Dr. White has pledged his full support of both internal reviews being conducted and will make himself available to respond to either inquiry as requested, continued the board.

As our Cedarville University community processes this situation, we pray we would do so with humility, grace, mercy, integrity, civility, and respect. Above all, we pray God would be honored by our deliberations and actions.

Last month, White fired Moore after revelations surfaced that Moore had engaged in a pattern of abuse, which included while served as a pastor at The Village Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

Moore had previously been dismissed by Village Church in January 2017 when it was discovered that he had secretly videotaped a male youth pastor showering in Moores home. Cedarville hired Moore months later.

Julie Roys, an investigative journalist, reported an interview with White in April wherein the Cedarville president said that he was unaware of the extent of Moores abusive behavior.

My understanding of what happened was it was not a habitual issue, White told Roys. It was a struggle that arose from previous abuse and curiosity and then it was repented for.

White added that once he spoke with the victim of Moore, he opted to fire the professor, saying that we took the action we needed to take.

In a video released last month, White apologized for hiring Moore and expressed his support for an investigation into whether Moore engaged in similar behavior on campus.

I did not know all the information at first. When we learned the new information, we took the action needed. Dr. Moore violated our agreement, stated White at the time.

Even though no incidents were reported by students, Im recommending to the board of trustees that we hire an outside, independent agency to confirm that nothing inappropriate occurred on our campus, with that report to go directly back to the board of trustees.
Due to the COVID-19 crisis Community groups in Leitrim find themselves in an unprecedented situation, community involvement is about bringing communities physically together and organising events and social interaction.

In the absence of this Leitrim Development Company is establishing an online community platform to support groups during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.

The Platform will be facilitated by Liam Scollan and will host a series of meetings which will discuss the following and more:

- What are the basic needs in your community in relation to the COVID-19 Community Call  food, medication, social isolation?

- What practical needs does your group have in relation to applications, insurance, deadlines, tax clearance etc.?

- What ways can your group adapt to a COVID-19 Society  e.g. using existing resources, revisiting your groups vision and aims?

The County Platform will also facilitate a series of presentations from specialists in response to frequently asked questions by community groups.

The County Online Platform for Community Groups in Leitrim will have its first meeting on Wednesday 6th May at 2.30pm using zoom.

If your community group is interested in joining the Platform please send you name, phone number and email address to or Bernie@ldco.ie and we will be in contact with you prior to the meeting or contact Bernie at 083-0752339. We will provide phone support to you if it is your first time using zoom.

This project is funded by the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) 2018-2022, funded by the Irish Government and co-funded by the European Social Fund.
Brandon Marugg, Chief Technology and Privacy Officer at ALOM

ALOM, a global leader in supply chain management, has achieved Service Organization Control (SOC2) Type I certification for its cloud information security and data privacy protection measures.

SOC2 is one of the most coveted and rigorous information-security certifications, enabling ALOM to even more fully deliver premier data privacy, integrity and trusted client relationships that are integral to its supply chain services for Fortune 500 corporations and global innovators. In particular, its customer-facing eCommerce sites ensure rigorous security protocols in the collection of private data needed for fulfillment, payment services and traceability.

Being a global supply chain leader, we are committed to ensuring world-class IT system and data security. ALOM systems are built to manage complex global supply chain networks processing large volumes of transactions. With SOC2 certification, ALOM adds yet another layer of expertise and assurance to our clients as they do business in a world with increasing uncertainty and risk factors, said ALOM President and CEO Hannah Kain.

As a SOC-certified company, ALOM establishes and adheres to strict information security policies and procedures, encompassing the security, availability, processing, integrity, and confidentiality of client data. SOC2 certification verifies that an expertly trained independent accounting and auditing firm has examined an organizations non-financial reporting control objectives and activities.

Keeping our clients data secure is our highest priority, added Brandon Marugg, Chief Technology and Privacy Officer at ALOM. In this unprecedented time we are all extremely reliant on technology and must remain especially vigilant in keeping our systems secure so that our customers can focus on making their businesses successful.

To optimize its global supply chain operations, ALOM is an award-winning technology leader recognized for industry innovation and environmental sustainability practices. The company utilizes proprietary order management systems and operational processes with built-in data security and privacy protections, including disaster recovery protocols and redundant system data backups.

Throughout its 23-year trajectory it has expanded its presence to 19 locations including Europe, Asia and North America, providing state-of-the-art technology solutions, data-driven business intelligence and capacity growth initiatives to enhance supply chain visibility and mitigate the challenges of global trade uncertainty.

Additionally, ALOM is certified and complies with the EU-US and UK-US Privacy Shield framework, each of which require ALOM to maintain certain safeguards for personal data transferred to the United States.

SOC2 is an auditing procedure that ensures that a companys information security measures are in line with the unique parameters of todays cloud requirements. SOC2 requires companies to establish and follow strict information security policies and procedures, encompassing the security, availability, storage and confidentiality of customer data.

Kain concluded, We respect the rights of the end-users and consumers to have their data safeguarded and kept private. Supply chain breaches are considered one of the biggest IT security risks, and we are committed to facing this threat head-on.

About ALOM

ALOM is a global supply chain management services and solutions provider serving as a partner to its Fortune 500 clients in the technology, automotive, government, medical, telecommunications, and utility/energy sectors. Headquartered in Fremont, CA, its expert team of strategists, technology engineers, and supply chain specialists operate globally from 19 locations. ALOM supply chain service offerings include procurement, eCommerce, inventory, assembly, digital media duplication, print management, fulfillment, IT and visibility tools, logistics management, and operations. ALOM is proud to deliver its clients products and services impeccably, enrich the end-user experience, and uphold their brand reputations. http://www.alom.com


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The UK government suffered a defeat as it attempted to pass a policing bill that would have restricted protests outside parliament. Home Secretary Priti Patel's policing bill would crack down on protests in central London outside the Houses of Parliament, Downing Street and Whitehall. The bill deems any demonstration that makes "the passage of a vehicle more difficult" illegal, severely restricting the size of protests in these areas. Protesters would have been at risk of lengthy prison sentences by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill as actions such as making loud noise could be deemed as "serious annoyance." However, an amendment protecting ways to organise protests around parliament was passed in the House of Lords on Monday (January 17). Footage from January 17 shows protesters supporting the Kill the Bill movement gathering in Parliament Square, central London. The Kill the Bill movement has been strongly opposed to the policing bill and have organised a long series of protests across the UK.
By Fergal Smith

TORONTO, May 4 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar was little changed against its broadly stronger U.S. counterpart on Monday, with the loonie rebounding from an earlier 11-day low as oil rallied.

The U.S. dollar was bolstered by safe-haven flows as risk appetite waned amid fears that last year's U.S.-China dispute will be reignited, this time over the novel coronavirus. "Despite a stronger U.S. dollar today versus most major currencies, the Canadian dollar stands out as the exception," said Michael Goshko, corporate risk manager at Western Union Business Solutions. "The currency is being helped by oil's recent strength."

U.S. crude oil futures gained 7.7% to $21.30 a barrel as more countries announced they would begin easing coronavirus lockdowns and as crude supply cuts by the world's top producing nations and companies take hold.

The major Canadian province of Quebec, worst hit by the coronavirus, gradually began reopening its economy on Monday but pushed back plans for a restart in the city of Montreal, citing health concerns. The Canadian dollar was trading nearly unchanged at 1.4087 to the greenback, or 70.99 U.S. cents. The currency touched its weakest intraday level since April 23 at 1.4151.

Canada's central bank will do its part to help bridge the economy through the coronavirus outbreak while standing ready to adjust its asset purchases to support a lasting recovery, Bank of Canada Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Wilkins said. Wilkins was widely seen as the front-runner to become the next governor of the central bank but lost out to Tiff Macklem, a former senior deputy governor, when the appointment was announced on Friday. Canadian government bond yields were mixed across a steeper yield curve on Monday, with the 10-year up 4.9 basis points at 0.574%.

Canada's trade report for March is due on Tuesday, while the April employment report is due on Friday.

(Reporting by Fergal Smith Editing by Nick Zieminski and Jonathan Oatis)
After a liquor shop owner showered flower petals on customers in Mirzapur, another viral video surfaced from Delhi's Chander Nagar area showed a similar occurrence.

As the Indian government allowed reopening of liquor stores after six weeks in all zones (barring containment zones), pictures and videos of people thronging and queuing up for hours across outside liquor stores in different states started doing rounds on social media.

Amidst this, a liquor shop owner in Delhi expressed his gratitude towards his customers and showered flower petals on them standing at a distance from each other. He said, "You are the economy of our country, government does not have any money".

While the public had their faces covered, few were seen folding their hands while being on the receiving end of the unique gesture.

The video of the incident was uploaded by news agency ANI on Twitter.

#WATCH Delhi: A man showers flower petals on people standing in queue outside liquor shops in Chander Nagar area of Delhi. The man says, "You are the economy of our country, government does not have any money". #CoronaLockdown pic.twitter.com/CISdu2V86V ANI (@ANI) May 5, 2020

The viral post went on to draw hilarious reactions, while some even agreed what an emotional scene it was.

 Neha Joshi (@The_NehaJoshi) May 5, 2020

Lol  Amrita Dhawan (@AmritaDhawan1) May 5, 2020

Economy warriors are rising! pic.twitter.com/NWwAqsAmph Piyu Nair  (@Piyu_Nair) May 5, 2020

Emotional scene h kafi ok (@sleepy_moni05) May 5, 2020

As per government guidelines, these shops (which fall under the non-essential category) will be allowed to stay open until 7 p.m and if the liquor store nearest to your place falls inside a containment zone, it will remain closed. Only five people are allowed at a time to be present inside a store with Section 144 being imposed in majority of the states.
An American schoolteacher imprisoned in Egypt for nearly a year without trial has been freed by Egyptian authorities and returned home to the United States, the State Department said Monday.

Reem Desouky, 47, a dual Egyptian-American citizen and single mother from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was arrested on arrival at the Cairo Airport with her teenage son in July 2019 and hauled off to Qanatir Prison outside the capital. She faced charges of running a Facebook page critical of the Egyptian government. Security officials had confiscated her phone and interrogated her about her political opinions and social medias posts, according to her lawyers. Human rights groups denounced her detention as arbitrary and politically-motivated.

"The Department of State has no higher priority than the safety and welfare of U.S. citizens overseas,'' said spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus, welcoming the news of Desouky's release.

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A man accused of rape was arrested and charged on Monday evening after a nurse working on the coronavirus front line was followed into an apartment building and attacked on Friday night.

Jason Roberts, 35, from the Bronx, was charged with attempted rape, robbery and burglary after he allegedly punched the woman, 32, and tried to tear off her pants in a Manhattan apartment on 149th street.

She fought him off and he is said to have fled with her cellphone before being found by police three days later, according to NYPD and police sources.

The nurse was bruised but refused medical attention and it is not known if she stayed in New York after the attack.

Jason Roberts, 35, from the Bronx, was charged with attempted rape, robbery and burglary after he allegedly punched the woman, 32, and tried to tear off her pants in a Manhattan apartment on 149th street

More than 12,000 people have died from Covid-19 in New York City, with another 4,300 dying in other parts of the Empire State, which is a far larger number than any other state in the country.

Some 90,000 healthcare workers signed up to volunteer in the Empire State, with at least 21,000 coming from outside of New York.

It comes after a nurse, speaking anonymously through her friend, revealed some nurses who have been brought to New York are sitting in hotels never being called.

'Yet they're still understaffed and there are hundreds of people, hundreds of nurses in the hotels waiting to be called on to a shift,' her friend, Sara, said.

'So there is manpower enough if the goal were to actually save people, but resources are not being utilized properly or to full capacity in a way that maximizes the patient benefit or improves the outcomes.'

According to multiple reports, more than 90 per cent of them were still sitting on the sidelines waiting to be called up.

Articles published last month by The Washington Post and The New York Times quoted frustrated doctors and nurses as saying that they have been waiting in vain for someone to reach out to them and give them an assignment, even though they were willing and able to help with the pandemic response.

Government officials explained that a state database created to recruit volunteers compiles and vets candidates, but individual hospitals are then responsible for calling them up, training them and giving them specific assignments.

Hospitals often prioritize certain medical specialties over others, such as ICU doctors, respiratory therapists and nurse practitioners.

The city and state's slow-moving bureaucracies slow down the process even further, along with a tangled web of regulations and a general sense of confusion.

The governor's office said there is a staff of lawyers vetting the volunteers' licenses and looking into their disciplinary histories before allowing them to set foot inside a hospital

Meanwhile a disturbing video emerged of workers burying coffins containing the bodies of COVID-19 victims in a mass grave on Hart Island.

The Post interviewed Dr George Weinhouse, a 67-year-old retired anesthesiologist, who said that he has approached multiple hospitals over the past two weeks offering to help in any capacity, but to no avail.

'I dont know whats going on here,' Weinhouse said. 'Im waiting and I want to help, and I mean, its really frustrating.'

This March 27 photo shows health care workers from Atlanta-area hospitals flying to New York to help with the coronavirus outbreak

Bevin Strickland, a former pediatric ICU nurse form North Carolina, offered a similar account to The Times, describing her efforts to sign up as an unpaid volunteer online and via email, but getting no response from anyone.

She ultimately got assigned to Mount Sinai Queens, but only after contacting the hospital directly and being instructed to go through a private recruiting agency handling temporary hires.

Strickland was given a salary of $3,800 a week for three 12-hour shifts, even though she said her plan was to do the work for free.

'I dont feel like I should be walking out of this scenario with any money,' she told The Times. 'It feels wrong.'

Hospitals across the city only accept volunteers that had their licenses and disciplinary histories vetted, and they prioritize certain specialties over others

Some 90,000 medics have signed up to volunteer at New York hospitals overflowing with coronavirus patients, but more than 90 per cent of them were still waiting to be called up

During her first two days on the job, she said two other nurses from out-of-state quit after becoming overwhelmed by the enormity of the task.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has waived some regulatory restrictions to expedite the process of putting volunteers to work where they are needed most, including allowing medics with out-of-state licenses to practice medicine in New York without a local license.

Health care workers who have hit the ground already, many brought in by staffing agencies, discovered a hospital system in danger of being overwhelmed.

'I have never seen so many human beings in an ER at one time in my entire life,' said Liz Schaffer, a nurse from St. Paul, Minnesota, who had her first shift Tuesday at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. 'Shoulder to shoulder. It is a sight I never thought I would see. Patients are dying every day. Every single day.'
Sony announced the Xperia 10 II in February, and today Taiwan becomes market number one to see the device in flesh. Initially announced in Black and White, Sony has also introduced the phone in Mint Green and Berry Blue in the Asian country. The price is NT$11,490 or about $385/355.

The Xperia 10 II comes with a tall 6 screen with 21:9 ratio for ultimate social media browsing or movie experience, depending which way youre holding the phone. It runs on Snapdragon 665 and has only one memory configuration - 4GB RAM and 128GB storage, which is expandable.

The Mark Two version of the Xperia midranger comes with three cameras - a 12MP main unit, an 8MP telephoto snapper with 2x optical zoom and an 8MP ultrawide cam.

To enhance on the fact that the Xperia 10 II is waterproof, the Taiwanese division of Sony premiered the phone at an open pool, stating that fans will celebrate the arrival of the hot summer with a purchase of a smartphone.

The phone was expected to arrive in the United Kingdom for 320, but Clove has retracted the price in the past month - right now the listing only has the Black or White colors and no additional info.

Source (in Chinese)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has approved the composition of the Ukrainian delegation to participate in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on the peaceful settlement of the situation in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The head of state signed the corresponding decree on May 5, 2020, the presidential press service said on Tuesday.

"The Ukrainian delegation to the TCG is headed by President of Ukraine of 1994-2005 Leonid Kuchma, who ensures continuity and inviolability of the Ukrainian position," the message says.

The delegation also includes: Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov (First Deputy Head of the Delegation), Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Foreign Policy and Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation, deputy of Ukraine from the Servant of the People faction Oleksandr Merezhko (deputy head of the delegation).

Deputy Minister for Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine Yulia Svyrydenko will represent Ukraine in the working group of the TCG on social and economic issues, head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy, MP from the Servant of the People faction Andriy Kostin will represent Ukraine in the working group on political issues; Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksandr Polishchuk will represent Ukraine in the working group of the TCG on security issues, and head of the Verkhovna Rada committee on social policy and protection of veterans' rights, MP from the Servant of the People faction Halyna Tretyakova will represent Ukraine in the working subgroup on humanitarian issues.

According to the document, the head of the Ukrainian delegation and his first deputy are authorized to determine deputy representatives of Ukraine in the working subgroups and involve deputies, representatives of state authorities, advisers, experts and technical workers in the delegation's work.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is entrusted with organizational, informational, advisory and other support for the activities of the Ukrainian delegation in the TCG.

Head of the President's Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak, who, on behalf of the head of state, moderates the activities of the Ukrainian delegation in the TCG, noted that this decree of the president additionally regulates the composition of the Ukrainian delegation, as well as defines the segment of responsibility of each member.

"The process of resolving the situation in Donbas is complicated, and therefore must continue in an ongoing way. Ukraine wants to take a tougher and more proactive position, because we need significant shifts in a number of problems. We need more clear definitions of controversial and conflict issues and a more prominent designation of our own positions," said Yermak.

He noted that Zelensky closely monitors the activities of the TCG and is interested in intensifying the work of the group in order to get more significant results.
By PTI

JAMMU: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Tuesday asked decision makers, including the Centre, to look into the necessity of the 148-year-old biannual Darbar move, keeping in mind the financial implication of more than Rs 200 crore incurred by the "hopelessly fiscally deprived Union Territory".

In its 93-page judgement, a division bench of the court headed by Chief Justice Geeta Mittal also listed the suggestion made by senior advocate Monika Kohli, who had highlighted the digitisation of officials records.

Hearing a self-adopted public interest litigation, the division bench gave the historical perspective of biannual darbar move whereby the capital of Jammu and Kashmir is shifted every six months from Jammu (winter capital) to Srinagar (summer capital).

The court said that from the facts placed regarding the Darbar move, the disregard of public interest in its origins and implementation, its adverse effects, the huge fiscal, social and economic costs, amply manifest that its propriety, feasibility and efficacy of the arrangement is one such matter "overlooked and forgotten".

"The material placed before us manifests that there has been no application of mind to the changed circumstances because of technological and scientific advances. Our judicial conscience compels us to ring the bell else we would fail in discharging our judicial duty or to perform our constitutional function as demanded in the interest of the Nation and the people of Jammu and Kashmir, especially its common woman and man, the poor and the weak.

"We hasten to add that conscious of the limitations of our jurisdiction, we shall confine ourselves to 'ringing the bell' without anything more."

"We have recorded our reasons and judgment on the several aspects which arise on account of the implementation of the Darbar move in the UT....we have also noted the several steps on which we have no information at all, say, for instance, the cost incurred on the security forces and the police utilised for ensuring" the move.

"We are sure that these costs will be equal to, if not more than the expenditure which has been disclosed to us," Justice Mittal and Justice Rajnesh Oswal said in the judgement.

However, the court expressed its inability to pass an order saying it had listed its "limitations on the extent of our jurisdiction whereby we stand precluded from making a declaration on the permissibility or the continuation of the practice of the Darbar move.

Deferring this task to the "best wisdom of those on whom the Constitution of India bestows this solemn duty", the division bench asked that the judgement be served on Union home secretary and chief secretary of the UT "with the direction to place the same before competent authorities for examining the issues raised and taking a considered decision thereon."

The judgement began with a question raised by the division bench asking "whether any government can afford the annual expenditure of at least Rs 200 crores (as disclosed and many more hundreds of crores of rupees of undisclosed costs) for shifting of its capital two times a year, a practice which started in 1872 from the discomfort of the then ruler of Jammu and Kashmir with the harshness of the winter in Kashmir?"

"More so, is this acceptable in a hopelessly fiscally deprived UT with severe underdevelopment and people deprived of bare basics which are essential part of their fundamental right of life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India," the court asked.

Kohli drew attention of the court to a report that the Centre had already released around Rs 24 crore for purchase of hardware and software for the Civil Secretariat and also released funds for digitisation of official records.

She had submitted before the court that government records ought not be taken out of its safe holdings and it should be properly secured and preserved at a proper place.

Calling for urgent revisit of old paradigms Kohli gave a historical perspective of the biannual shifting and said the then Maharja Ranbir Singh made the arrangement of shifting the Darbar from Srinagar to Jammu to escape severe winter in the Valley and Jammu heat in the summer.

"The discomfort on account of change of weather in either city, is, today compensated by efficient and modern environment control mechanism as air conditioning, heaters etc in both Jammu as well as Srinagar," she said.

She argued before the court that both the cities were well connected by air and road and said, "It is clearly logical that the consideration of extreme weather in support of the Darbar move does not hold weight today."

The court, in its judgement said, "It is necessary to bear in mind that the Darbar move requires moving government records out of the safe spaces of offices where they are maintained, packing in fragile trunks, loaded into vulnerable hired transportation and exposed to the risk of theft, pilferage, destruction and damage, as they are ferried on the public roads and the National Highway for over 300 kms in all kinds of weather conditions.

"These records would be including sensitive documents and old archives which cannot tolerate exposure of any kind...Such documents may be on matters of security of the country as well as of the Union Territory. This security ought not be compromised for any reason whatsoever," it said.
The first Shramik Express train from Punjab with 1,188 migrants workers on board left Jalandhar railway station for Daltonganj in Jharkhand on Tuesday afternoon, Jalandhar police commissioner, Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said.

At Jalandhar railway station, the migrants were emotional and excited as they were returning to their native places amid the coronavirus pandemic. The migrants had registered themselves on a Punjab government portal to facilitate their travel. The train will make a non-stop journey.

Police commissioner Bhullar said that the medical teams began screening the travellers since morning at three different places including Khalsa School, Nakodar Road and Guru Nanak Dev University regional campus. The passengers were then brought to the railway station in the 20 buses and boarded on the train while maintaining social distancing.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage.

Migrant Manoj Kumar, 25 who travelled along with wife and two kids, said that he came from Jharkhand to Jalandhar in February to work in a factory and run out of money as the factory shut operations due to the lockdown the check the spread of Covid-19. A relieved Kumar said that they had been eagerly waiting for this day to go home and meet their parents.

The factory owners had paid my dues but I have no money left. I was surviving on rations given by the government and NGOs, Kumar said.

Many migrants have a similar story of empty pockets and unemployment forcing them to their native villages. Some of the workers also said that they would return to Punjab once the situation becomes normal.

Vikas Kumar, 18 said that he was harassed by his landlord for room rent even though he told them that he had no money. He later shifted to stay with some of his friends. I am happy that I am going back to my home, Kumar said.

Dina Nath, 40, said that he had been living in Jalandhar from the last five years and was forced to return home after the factory where he was working has remained shut since the lockdown began.

Kailash Kumar and three of his friends had come to Punjab in January this year but are now jobless. They are going back home where they say they will seek alternate livelihoods.

Meanwhile, the Punjab government has written to divisional railway manager of Ferozepur division to run two special trains  one to Varanasi and one to Lucknow on Tuesday evening.
Princess Leia is probably one of the first names that pop into your head when the Star Wars franchise comes up. She is strong and has some of the best lines in A New Hope alone. She grew into one of the essential characters in the original trilogy and went on to make a massive mark in the sequels, as well. Played by the late Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia is also one of the most recognizable characters, especially thanks to her iconic space buns that only appeared in Episode IV. But where did the inspiration for Leias hairstyle come from?

Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford on the set of Star Wars: Episode IV  A New Hope | Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images

George Lucas said Mexican revolutionaries inspired Princess Leias hair

According to the BBC in 2016, George Lucas told Time in 2002 that the inspiration for Princess Leias buns came from Mexican revolutionaries.

I went with a kind of south-western Pancho Villa woman revolutionary look, which is what that is. The buns are basically from turn-of-the-century Mexico, Lucas said.

Fisher had told the BBC in 1977 when the first movie came out that George didnt want a damsel in distress. This was why she had such an odd, out-of-this-world hairstyle.

[He] didnt want your stereotypical princess  he wanted a fighter, he wanted someone who was independent, Fisher said.

However, Tabea Linhard, who wrote Fearless Women in the Mexican Revolution and the Spanish Civil War, told the BBC that Leias hair wasnt historically accurate.

As much as I would like to say that Princess Leias hairstyle was based on the soldaderas from the Mexican Revolution, this was probably not the case, she said. If you take a look at photos from the period, you see women with long braids, some wear hats, on occasion, they cover their hair with a shawl.

Leias hairstyle still might have indigenous roots

So Princess Leias hair isnt innately Mexican. But its possible Lucas got the area mixed up. Indigenous women in Arizona did have similar hairdos to Leia.

Kendra Van Cleave of Frock Flicks, a website that reviews costume accuracy, told the BBC that the squash blossom style was something women of the Hopi tribe in Arizona wore. This consists of two side arrangements which arent actually buns  theyre more loops of hair, Van Cleave said.

The hair is parted in the centre, then wrapped around a U-shaped hair bow made of wood, she said. The hair is wrapped in a figure of eight pattern, then tied at the middle and spread out to create the two semi-circles.

CNN also reported that the Japanese Shimada hairstyle might have influenced Leias look, too. So while its not entirely clear where Princess Leia got her hairstyle, its safe to say it came from a mixture of cultures and styles.

Carrie Fishers legacy lives on through Princess Leia and her big hair buns

A Princess Leia sign at a 2018 womens march in Los Angeles | Sarah Morris/Getty Images

Regardless of where her hair came from, the impact Leia and her buns have had on pop culture is immense. She only wore her hair like that in one film, but its what everyone wears to recreate her look. There is a reason we call two hair buns space buns now.

As Fishers daughter and actress Billie Lourd wrote in an essay for Time in 2019, Fisher didnt like the buns. But she also couldnt wait for her daughter to don them in the sequel trilogy.

Even though she complained for years about how the iconic Leia buns further widened my already wide face, she desperately wanted me to carry on the face-widening family tradition, Lourd wrote. Some people carry on their family name; some people carry on holiday traditions  I was going to carry on the family hairstyle.

Lourd played Lieutenant Connix in Episodes VII-IX. When Fisher died in 2016, Lourd wrote that she gained a new responsibility when it came to Star Wars and Princess Leias legacy.

And I inherited this weird, intimidating thing called her legacy, she said. Suddenly I was in charge of what would come of her books, her movies, and a bunch of other overwhelming things. I was now the keeper of Leia.

That legacy is far-reaching, with a significant impact on womens rights and female empowerment. Fisher would undoubtedly be proud of where her face-widening space buns reached.
Its getting a lot harder to put meat on the table.

When shoppers began hoarding everything from toilet paper to meat at the start of the coronavirus outbreak, some grocery stores in New Jersey set limits on how much beef, poultry and pork customers could buy.

Now other supermarkets are onboard and setting those same limits  in some cases allowing purchases of just one or two packages of meat per person.

The move comes as thousands of workers at meatpacking plants in the United States have contracted COVID-19, forcing some plants to operate with skeleton crews and concerns that the food supply chain is breaking down.

Tyson Foods recently ran a full-page advertisement in the New York Times and other newspapers that described the difficulty of churning out meat products while trying to keep 100,000 workers safe.

This means one thing  the food supply chain is vulnerable, Tyson said in the ad. As pork, beef and chicken plants are being forced to close, even for short periods of time, millions of pounds of meat will disappear from the supply chain.

To avoid a shortage, President Trump last week signed an executive order declaring that meat was a scarce and critical material essential to the national defense under the Defense Production Act.

In the meantime, grocery stores in New Jersey and across the country have come up with their own limits.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

Here is a list of the larger supermarkets in New Jersey that have placed purchase limits on meat:

Though Acme Markets shoppers on Tuesday were not asked to limit their purchases of meats, thats about to change, the company said in an email to NJ Advance Media.

We expect to begin limiting customers to three packages of any kind or 10 pounds no later than Thursday, May 7, said Acme spokeswoman Dana Ward.

The membership-only warehouse company has temporarily limited purchases of beef, pork and poultry products to three items per person.

The move is to help ensure more members are able to purchase merchandise they want and need, the company said in a statement.

Our buyers and suppliers are working hard to provide essential, high demand merchandise as well as everyday favorites, the company said.

The Walmart-owned, membership-only retailer has limited purchases of beef, poultry, lamb and pork to one per item, both in its stores and on its website.

The move is to ensure access to desired products to as many members as possible, Sams Club spokeswoman Amy Wyatt told the Dallas Morning News. This is effective in all clubs.

The grocery store chain has limits of two purchases of fresh meat and chicken to two per customer.

Our teams are working tirelessly to replenish shelves as quickly as possible, the chain said in a Facebook post back in March. To help everyone get what they need, we have placed limits.

The Norwalk, Connecticut-based Stew Leonards has temporarily stopped selling sliced chicken breast so the stores can prioritize selling whole breast parts it gets from farmers in Pennsylvania, Chief Executive Stew Leonard Jr. told the Wall Street Journal.

Chicken-breast sales are up about 60%, Leonard said, adding: What were trying to do is make sure the shelves are filled with the basics.

The Rochester, New York-based Wegmans in March limited the purchases of beef, poultry and pork to two per family.

To help ensure we can serve the immediate needs of our customers, and minimize out-of-stock items, we currently have purchase limits on certain products, the company said on its website.

**UPDATE: 3/16 we are also limiting Paper Products (toilet paper, paper towels, tissues)** Our teams are working... Posted by ShopRite on Sunday, March 15, 2020

The meat aisle at The Stop & Shop grocery store during the Coronavirus pandemic. Friday, March 13, 2020. Kinnelon, N.J. USA (Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media) Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Nevro Corp. (NYSE: NVRO), a global medical device company that is providing innovative, evidence-based solutions for the treatment of chronic pain, today announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020.

Worldwide revenue for the first quarter of 2020 was $87.5 million, a 6% increase compared to $82.1 million in the prior year period, which was slightly higher than the Company's preannounced preliminary unaudited revenue range as of April 1, 2020. First quarter 2020 revenue was negatively impacted by a rapid deceleration in March 2020 due to COVID-19 shelter-in-place policies and restrictions on elective surgical procedures around the world. Worldwide cases totaling approximately $20 million were cancelled due to COVID-19 during the first quarter of 2020, of which approximately $17 million were in the U.S. and approximately $3 million were international.

U.S. revenue was $75.3 million, a 14% increase compared to $65.8 million in the prior year period. Year-over-year U.S. trial growth was 7% and permanent implant growth was 12% during the first quarter of 2020.

International revenue was $12.2 million, a 26% decrease as-reported, or a 23% decrease on a constant currency basis, compared to $16.3 million in the prior year period. The decrease in international revenue was primarily due to the impact of COVID-19 related government restrictions on elective procedures implemented in Europe and Australia during the latter half of the first quarter.

"Through February, Nevro's performance was trending above our expectations with U.S. trials and permanent implants growing at 20% and 29%, respectively, over the prior year. We experienced a significant decline in both trials and permanent implants of our products in March with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic," said D. Keith Grossman, Chairman, CEO and President of Nevro. "Our highest priority now is to support the health and safety of our customers, patients and employees. We continue to support our customers as they prepare for the return of procedural volumes, in accordance with public health and safety guidelines, to help the growing number of patients who suffer from chronic debilitating pain."

Gross profit for the first quarter of 2020 was $60.5 million, a 14% increase compared to $53.2 million in the prior year period. Gross margin was 69.2% in the first quarter compared to 64.8% in the prior year period.

Operating expenses for the first quarter of 2020 were $83.6 million, a 12% decrease compared to $95.5 million in the prior year period. The year-over-year decrease in operating expenses was primarily related to higher costs associated with shareholder activism and the management change in the prior year period. Legal expenses associated with patent litigation were $2.1 million for the first quarter of 2020, compared to $1.3 million in the prior year period.

Net loss from operations for the first quarter of 2020 was $23.1 million, a 45% improvement compared to a loss of $42.3 million in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2020 was negative $11.0 million, a 62% improvement compared to negative $28.7 million in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA excludes certain litigation expenses, interest, taxes and non-cash items such as stock-based compensation and depreciation and amortization. Please see financial tables for GAAP to Non-GAAP reconciliations.

Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaled $247.5 million as of March 31, 2020. Net cash increased during the first quarter of 2020 by $9.7 million. On April 1, 2020, the Company issued convertible senior notes and concurrently completed an underwritten public offering of its common stock, resulting in total cash proceeds of $313.5 million, net of underwriting fees and expenses.

Intellectual Property Litigation Update

During the first quarter of 2020, the Company announced positive developments with respect to its intellectual property litigations. On February 28, 2020, the Company announced the settlement of its patent infringement lawsuit against Stimwave Technologies, Inc. As a result, Stimwave has agreed to cease commercialization of all high frequency spinal cord stimulation systems worldwide.

On April 9, 2020, Nevro announced that it had prevailed in its appeal of the district court's July 2018 ruling in Nevro's offensive litigation against Boston Scientific in the Northern District of California, wherein the Federal Circuit reversed the district court's indefiniteness rulings, reinstating Nevro's asserted system patents, and also upheld the Company's method patents for delivering SCS therapy at high frequencies.

Both of these developments represent the strength of our intellectual property portfolio and our commitment to protect our investment in and mission to support high frequency SCS therapy.

2020 Financial Guidance

Due to the rapidly evolving environment and continued uncertainties resulting from the impact of COVID-19, Nevro withdrew its previously announced annual guidance for 2020 on April 1, 2020. Due to the uncertain scope and duration of the pandemic, and the timing of global economic recovery, the Company cannot, at this time, reliably estimate the future impact on its operations and financial results.

Webcast and Conference Call Information

Management will host a conference call today beginning at 1:30 p.m. PT / 4:30 p.m. ET. Investors interested in listening to the conference call may do so by dialing (833) 968-2321 in the U.S. or (778) 560-2840 internationally, using Conference ID: 8129245. In addition, a live webcast, as well as an archived recording, will be available on the "Investors" section of the Company's website at: www.nevro.com.

About Nevro

Headquartered in Redwood City, California, Nevro is a global medical device company focused on providing innovative products that improve the quality of life of patients suffering from debilitating chronic pain. Nevro has developed and commercialized the Senza spinal cord stimulation (SCS) system, an evidence-based, non-pharmacologic neuromodulation platform for the treatment of chronic pain. HF10 therapy has demonstrated the ability to reduce or eliminate opioids in 65% of patients across six peer-reviewed clinical studies. The Senza System, Senza II System, and the Senza Omnia System are the only SCS systems that deliver Nevro's proprietary HF10 therapy. Senza, Senza II, Senza Omnia, HF10, Nevro and the Nevro logo are trademarks of Nevro Corp.

To learn more about Nevro, connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Forward-Looking Statements

In addition to historical information, this press release contains forward-looking statements reflecting the current beliefs and expectations of management made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including the Company's expectations for the return of SCS procedural volumes. These forward-looking statements are based upon information that is currently available to us or our current expectations, speak only as of the date hereof, and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including our ability to successfully commercialize our products; our ability to manufacture our products to meet demand; the level and availability of third-party payor reimbursement for our products; our ability to effectively manage our anticipated growth and the costs and expenses of operating our business; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights and proprietary technologies; our ability to operate our business without infringing the intellectual property rights and proprietary technology of third parties; competition in our industry; additional capital and credit availability; our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel; and product liability claims. These factors, together with those that are described in greater detail in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q that we expect to file on May 5, 2020, as well as any reports that we may file with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the future, may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied by our forward-looking statements. We expressly disclaim any obligation, except as required by law, or undertaking to update or revise any such forward-looking statements. Nevro's operating results for the first quarter of 2020 are not necessarily indicative of our operating results for any future periods.

Investor Relations:

Juliet Cunningham

Vice President, Investor Relations

+1 650-433-3247

[email protected]

Nevro Corp. Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss (in thousands, except share and per share data)





Three Months Ended





March 31,





2020

2019





(unaudited)

Revenue

$ 87,467

$ 82,148

Cost of revenue



26,920



28,939

Gross profit



60,547



53,209

Operating expenses:













Research and development



12,212



14,135

Sales, general and administrative



71,402



81,328

Total operating expenses



83,614



95,463

Loss from operations



(23,067)



(42,254)

Other income (expense):













Interest income (expense), net



(1,562)



(1,139)

Other income (expense), net



47



(343)

Loss before income taxes



(24,582)



(43,736)

Provision for income taxes



306



340

Net loss



(24,888)



(44,076)

Changes in foreign currency translation adjustment



(829)



276

Changes in unrealized gains (losses) on short-term investments



(215)



245

Net change in other comprehensive loss



(1,044)



521

Comprehensive Loss

$ (25,932)

$ (43,555)

Net loss per share, basic and diluted

$ (0.78)

$ (1.45)

Weighted average shares used to compute net loss per share, basic and diluted



31,839,812



30,363,623



Nevro Corp. Consolidated Balance Sheets (in thousands, except share and per share data)





March 31,

December 31,





2020

2019





(unaudited)







Assets













Current assets













Cash and cash equivalents

$ 136,296

$ 65,373

Short-term investments



111,207



172,429

Accounts receivable, net



64,682



82,833

Inventories, net



92,983



91,579

Prepaid expenses and other current assets



8,392



9,838

Total current assets



413,560



422,052

Property and equipment, net



11,161



11,766

Operating lease assets



20,707



21,533

Other assets



13,577



13,338

Restricted cash



956



956

Total assets

$ 459,961

$ 469,645

Liabilities and stockholders' equity













Current liabilities













Accounts payable

$ 19,883

$ 16,048

Accrued liabilities and other



41,026



54,563

Total current liabilities



60,909



70,611

Long-term debt



162,371



160,300

Long-term operating lease liabilities



19,551



20,445

Other long-term liabilities



2,050



1,937

Total liabilities



244,881



253,293

Stockholders' equity













Common stock, $0.001 par value, 290,000,000 shares authorized, 32,023,572 and 31,544,361 shares issued and outstanding at March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively



32



32

Additional paid-in capital



651,061



626,401

Accumulated other comprehensive loss



(1,357)



(313)

Accumulated deficit



(434,656)



(409,768)

Total stockholders' equity



215,080



216,352

Total liabilities and stockholders' equity

$ 459,961

$ 469,645



Nevro Corp. GAAP to Adjusted EBITDA Reconciliation (unaudited) (in thousands) The following table presents a reconciliation of GAAP net loss, as prepared in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ("GAAP"), to Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure.

Reconciliation of actual results:





Three Months Ended





March 31,





2020

2019





(unaudited)

GAAP Net loss

$ (24,888)

$ (44,076)

Non-GAAP Adjustments:













Interest (income) expense, net



1,562



1,139

Provision for income taxes



306



340

Depreciation and amortization



1,337



1,126

Stock-based compensation expense



8,489



10,402

Litigation related expenses



2,163



2,347

Adjusted EBITDA

$ (11,031)

$ (28,722)



Management uses certain non-GAAP financial measures, most specifically Adjusted EBITDA, as a supplement to GAAP financial measures to further evaluate the Company's operating performance period over period, analyze the underlying business trends, assess performance relative to competitors and establish operational objectives.

Management believes it is important to provide investors with the same non-GAAP metrics it uses to evaluate the performance and underlying trends of the Company's business operations to facilitate comparisons to its historical operating results and evaluate the effectiveness of its operating strategies. Disclosure of these non-GAAP financial measures also facilitates comparisons of the Company's underlying operating performance with other companies in the industry that also supplement their GAAP results with non-GAAP financial measures.

EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure, which is calculated by adding interest income and expense, net; provision for income taxes; and depreciation and amortization to net income. In calculating Adjusted EBITDA, the Company further adjusts for the following items:

Stock-based compensation expense  The Company excludes non-cash costs related to the Company's stock-based plans, which include stock options, restricted stock units and performance-based restricted stock units as these expenses do not require cash settlement from the Company.

Litigation related expenses  The Company excludes legal and professional fees associated with certain legal matters which management considers not related to the underlying operating performance of the business.

Full year guidance excludes the impact of foreign currency fluctuations.

The non-GAAP financial measure should not be considered in isolation from, or as a replacement for, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, as it is not prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

SOURCE Nevro Corp.

Related Links

http://www.nevro.com


PR-Inside.com: 2020-05-05 23:03:02

Sales of $610 million, down 9% versus prior-year quarter

Net loss of $582 million, or -$9.61 per diluted share

Loss from continuing operations of $575 million, or -$9.48 per diluted share

Adjusted income from continuing operations of $52 million, or $0.84 per diluted share

Adjusted income from continuing operations excluding intangibles amortization expense of $69 million, or $1.12 per diluted share

Adjusted EBITDA of $142 million

WILMINGTON, Delaware, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ashland Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ASH) today announced preliminary1 financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2020 ended March 31, 2020. The global specialty materials company serves customers in a wide range of consumer and industrial markets.

As expected, the Ashland portfolio performed well during the quarter, despite the global macroeconomic uncertainty brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales were $610 million, down 9 percent versus the prior-year quarter, with the legacy Pharmachem business and previously communicated prior-year business losses in oral care representing approximately half of this decline. Unfavorable foreign currency contributed an additional one percent to the decline. Net loss was $582 million compared to net income of $76 million in the prior-year quarter, driven primarily by the previously-disclosed non-cash goodwill impairment charge following the business unit realignment that occurred during the quarter. Loss from continuing operations was $575 million compared to income of $45 million in the prior-year quarter, or -$9.48 per diluted share compared to income of $0.71 in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted income from continuing operations was $52 million, consistent with the prior-year quarter, or $0.84 per diluted share, up from $0.83 in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted income from continuing operations excluding intangibles amortization expense was $69 million, consistent with the prior-year quarter, or $1.12 per diluted share, up from $1.08 in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was $142 million, consistent with the prior-year quarter, as the impact of lower sales was offset by lower operating expense.

Results in the second quarter were consistent with the update we issued on April 16, said Guillermo Novo, chairman and chief executive officer, Ashland. I am pleased with the leadership demonstrated by our teams and the continued progress we have made transforming the company, particularly in light of the challenges that arose from the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the important end markets we serve are demonstrating their resilience despite the global-economic uncertainly.

The majority of the portfolio continues to perform well. We expect Consumer Specialties and certain end markets within Industrial Specialties to demonstrate continued relative strength in the second half of the year as we are a critical technology and solutions provider to our customers in these key end markets, added Novo. While increased global uncertainty is expected to impact demand in more industrial-focused businesses, we are confident that our continued self-help actions will offset many of these temporary demand dynamics. We are excited about the rapid progress we have made advancing our strategy and transforming the company. I want to thank everyone at Ashland for their dedication and leadership during these dynamic times. I look forward to sharing additional thoughts on our plans and the progress we have made during the conference call with securities analysts tomorrow morning.

Reportable Segment Performance

To aid in the understanding of Ashlands ongoing business performance, the results of Ashlands reportable segments are described below on an adjusted basis. In addition, EBITDA, or adjusted EBITDA, is reconciled to operating income in Table 4, free cash flow and adjusted operating income are reconciled in Table 6, and adjusted income from continuing operations adjusted diluted earnings per share and adjusted diluted earnings per share excluding intangible amortization expense are reconciled in Table 7 of this news release. These adjusted results are considered non-GAAP financial measures. For a full description of the non-GAAP financial measures used, see the Use of Non-GAAP Measures section that further describes these adjustments below.

Consumer Specialties

Sales were $343 million, down 9 percent from the prior-year quarter, with the legacy Pharmachem business and previously communicated prior-year business losses in oral care representing approximately 6 percentage points of the decline. Unfavorable foreign currency also reduced sales by an additional 1 percent. Excluding these items, the Life Sciences and Personal Care & Household business units performed well during the quarter, demonstrating the important market positions Ashland holds in end markets that are performing well in spite of the weak overall economy.

Operating loss was $300 million, compared to income of $58 million in the prior-year quarter, due primarily to the goodwill impairment charge within Personal Care & Household. Adjusted EBITDA was $91 million, down 1 percent from the prior-year quarter, as lower sales volumes and unfavorable foreign currency were nearly offset by favorable price/mix and lower operating costs.

Industrial Specialties

Sales were $240 million, down 7 percent from the prior-year quarter, due primarily to lower demand in certain industrial end markets and reduced pricing partially reflecting lower raw-material costs. Unfavorable foreign currency also reduced sales by 1 percent.

Operating loss was $145 million, compared to income of $15 million in the prior-year quarter, due primarily to the goodwill impairment charge within Specialty Additives. Adjusted EBITDA was $53 million, down 10 percent from the prior-year quarter, driven by lower volume and unfavorable fixed-cost absorption, partially offset by favorable price/mix in both Performance Adhesives and Specialty Additives.

Intermediates & Solvents

Sales were $37 million, down 16 percent from the prior-year quarter, due primarily to lower pricing and lower intercompany volume reflecting inventory-management initiatives within Consumer Specialties. Volumes of derivatives sold to third-party customers grew by approximately 1 percent compared to the prior year.

Operating loss was $2 million, down from income of $9 million in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was $5 million, down from $12 million in the prior-year quarter, due primarily to unfavorable price/mix and operating costs.

Unallocated & Other

Unallocated and Other expense was $21 million, compared to $38 million in the prior-year quarter, primarily due to lower restructuring-related expenses and the elimination of stranded costs. Adjusted Unallocated and Other expense was $7 million, compared to $21 million in the prior-year quarter, primarily due to the benefits of cost reductions achieved during the previous fiscal year.

Outlook

Chairman and CEO Guillermo Novo will provide commentary on the outlook for Ashland during the conference call with securities analysts on Wednesday, May 6, 2020.

Conference Call Webcast

Ashland will host a live webcast of its second-quarter conference call with securities analysts at 10:00 a.m. ET Wednesday, May 6, 2020. The webcast will be accessible through Ashlands website at http://investor.ashland.com and will include a slide presentation. Following the live event, an archived version of the webcast and supporting materials will be available for 12 months.

Use of Non-GAAP Measures

Ashland believes that by removing the impact of depreciation and amortization and excluding certain non-cash charges, amounts spent on interest and taxes and certain other charges that are highly variable from year to year, EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, EBITDA margin and adjusted EBITDA margin provide Ashlands investors with performance measures that reflect the impact to operations from trends in changes in sales, margin and operating expenses, providing a perspective not immediately apparent from net income, operating income, net income margin and operating income margin. The adjustments Ashland makes to derive the non-GAAP measures of EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, EBITDA margin and adjusted EBITDA margin exclude items which may cause short-term fluctuations in net income and operating income and which Ashland does not consider to be the fundamental attributes or primary drivers of its business. EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, EBITDA margin and adjusted EBITDA margin provide disclosure on the same basis as that used by Ashlands management to evaluate financial performance on a consolidated and reportable segment basis and provide consistency in our financial reporting, facilitate internal and external comparisons of Ashlands historical operating performance and its business units and provide continuity to investors for comparability purposes. EBITDA margin and adjusted EBITDA margin are defined as EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA divided by sales for the corresponding period.

Key items, which are set forth on Table 7 of this release, are defined as financial effects from significant transactions that, either by their nature or amount, have caused short-term fluctuations in net income and/or operating income which Ashland does not consider to most accurately reflect Ashlands underlying business performance and trends. Further, Ashland believes that providing supplemental information that excludes the financial effects of these items in the financial results will enhance the investors ability to compare financial performance between reporting periods.

Tax-specific key items, which are set forth on Table 7 of this release, are defined as financial transactions, tax law changes or other matters that fall within the definition of key items as described above. These items relate solely to tax matters and would only be recorded within the income tax caption of the Statement of Consolidated Income. As with all key items, due to their nature, Ashland does not consider the financial effects of these tax-specific key items on net income to be the most accurate reflection of Ashlands underlying business performance and trends.

The free cash flow metric enables Ashland to provide a better indication of the ongoing cash being generated that is ultimately available for both debt and equity holders as well as other investment opportunities. Unlike cash flow provided by operating activities, free cash flow includes the impact of capital expenditures from continuing operations, providing a more complete picture of cash generation. Free cash flow has certain limitations, including that it does not reflect adjustment for certain non-discretionary cash flows such as mandatory debt repayments. The amount of mandatory versus discretionary expenditures can vary significantly between periods.

Adjusted diluted earnings per share is a performance measure used by Ashland and is defined by Ashland as earnings (loss) from continuing operations, adjusted for identified key items and divided by the number of outstanding diluted shares of common stock. Ashland believes this measure provides investors additional insights into operational performance by providing earnings and diluted earnings per share metrics that exclude the effect of the identified key items and tax specific key items.

Adjusted diluted earnings per share, excluding intangibles amortization expense metric enables Ashland to demonstrate the impact of non-cash intangibles amortization expense on earnings per share, in addition to key items previously mentioned. Ashlands management believe this presentation is helpful to illustrate how previous acquisitions impact applicable period results.

About Ashland

Ashland Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ASH) is a premier global specialty materials company serving customers in a wide range of consumer and industrial markets, including adhesives, architectural coatings, automotive, construction, energy, food and beverage, nutraceuticals, personal care and pharmaceutical. At Ashland, we are approximately 4,700 passionate, tenacious solvers  from renowned scientists and research chemists to talented engineers and plant operators  who thrive on developing practical, innovative and elegant solutions to complex problems for customers in more than 100 countries. Visit ashland.com to learn more.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains 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. Ashland has identified some of these forward-looking statements with words such as anticipates, believes, expects, estimates, is likely, predicts, projects, forecasts, objectives, may, will, should, plans and intends and the negative of these words or other comparable terminology. Ashland may from time to time make forward-looking statements in its annual reports, quarterly reports and other filings with the SEC, news releases and other written and oral communications. These forward-looking statements are based on Ashlands expectations and assumptions, as of the date such statements are made, regarding Ashlands future operating performance, financial condition, and expected effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Ashlands business, as well as the economy and other future events or circumstances. These statements include but may not be limited to Ashlands expectations regarding its ability to drive sales and earnings growth and realize further cost reductions.

Ashlands expectations and assumptions include, without limitation, internal forecasts and analyses of current and future market conditions and trends, management plans and strategies, operating efficiencies and economic conditions (such as prices, supply and demand, cost of raw materials, and the ability to recover raw-material cost increases through price increases), and risks and uncertainties associated with the following: the impact of acquisitions and/or divestitures Ashland has made or may make (including the possibility that Ashland may not realize the anticipated benefits from such transactions); Ashlands substantial indebtedness (including the possibility that such indebtedness and related restrictive covenants may adversely affect Ashlands future cash flows, results of operations, financial condition and its ability to repay debt); severe weather, natural disasters, public-health crises (including the current COVID-19 pandemic), cyber events and legal proceedings and claims (including product recalls, environmental and asbestos matters); the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the geographies in which we operate, the end markets we serve and on our supply chain and customers, and without limitation, risks and uncertainties affecting Ashland that are described in Ashlands most recent Form 10-K (including Item 1A Risk Factors) filed with the SEC, which is available on Ashlands website at http://investor.ashland.com or on the SECs website at http://www.sec.gov. Various risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from those stated, projected or implied by any forward-looking statements. The extent and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and operations is uncertain. Factors that will influence the impact on our business and operations include the duration and extent of the pandemic, the extent of imposed or recommended containment and mitigation measures, and the general economic consequences of the pandemic. Ashland believes its expectations and assumptions are reasonable, but there can be no assurance that the expectations reflected herein will be achieved. Unless legally required, Ashland undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this news release whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

1Financial results are preliminary until Ashlands Form 10-Q is filed with the SEC

 Trademark, Ashland or its subsidiaries, registered in various countries.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

Investor Relations: Media Relations:

Seth A. Mrozek Carolmarie C. Brown

+1 (302) 594-5010 +1 (302) 995-3158

samrozek@ashland.com cbrown@ashland.com





Attachments
Republican Senator Rand Paul said he was not wearing a face mask Tuesday because he already had the coronavirus and that immunity meant he couldn't transmit it to anyone else.

'I have immunity. I've already had the virus, so I can't get it again and I can't give it to anybody,' he told reporters on Capitol Hill.

The attending physician of the Capitol recommended - but did not require - senators to wear face masks when they returned to work on Monday. The coverings were made available to any senators who needed one.

Most lawmakers complied with the recommendation but Paul, although sporting a beard, did not wear a mask.

'I can't get it again. I can't transmit it so of all the people you'll meet here, I'm about the only safe person in Washington you'll meet,' Paul, a medical doctor, said.

Republican Senator Rand Paul said he was not wearing a face mask because he already had the coronavirus and that immunity meant he couldn't transmit it to anyone else

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky (right) with Republican Senators Roy Blunt of Missouri (center) and John Thune of South Dakota (left) all wore masks

Paul was asked if he was worried about the possibility of mutations in the virus that might make him vulnerable to another strain.

'It's not true yet. There's no evidence of it,' Paul, 57, replied.

Several senators are at in an older age bracket that puts them at higher risk if they contact the coronavirus. Safety procedures have been put in place, including hand sanitizer around the Capitol building, which remains closed to the public, and limiting the number of senators in the Senate chamber during votes.

Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky, tested positive for the coronavirus near the end of March.

He faced criticism for working in the Senate - including lunch with his colleagues and going to the Senate gym - after being tested for the disease instead of self-isolating while awaiting his result.

Senators returned to work this week while making social distancing adjustments required to mitigate the spread of the virus, which as infected over a million people in the United States and cause more than 69,000 deaths.

Republican senators did meet for their weekly lunch Tuesday but the capitol physician's office limited them to three senators to a table.

Paul's positive test result in March sent shock waves through Capitol Hill and resulted in two other senators - Republicans Mitt Romney and Mike Lee of Utah - quarantining themselves out of precaution. Both men tested negative for the disease.

Most medical experts agree that having the coronavirus will grant immunity from it for some amount of time, Stat News reported, although it's unclear how long.

'It's a reasonable assumption that this virus is not changing very much. If we get infected now and it comes back next February or March we think this person is going to be protected,' Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, said at the end of April.

But the World Health Organization has cautioned immunity can only be proven as scientists study those who have recovered for longer periods of time. Doctors are also studying to see if the coronavirus strain will mutate as some flu strains do.

Senator Rand Paul called himself 'about the only safe person in Washington'

Sen. Roy Blunt holds his face mask as he talks to the press after the weekly Republican Senate luncheon while Sen. John Thune wears his face mask and Senate Leader Mitch McConnell holds his

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Burr adjusts his mask while talking to Vice Chairman Sen. Mark Warner at a hearing to consider Rep. John Ratcliffe to be Director of National Intelligence

Senator Krysten Sinema wore a purple wig to express support for salons that are closed during the pandemic

Paul spent his recovery time in his home state of Kentucky. After he received the all clear, he started volunteering at the TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital in Bowling Green, Ky.

'I have started volunteering at a local hospital to assist those in my community who are in need of medical help, including Coronavirus patients,' he tweeted on April 7 after he announced his recovery from the disease.

Meanwhile, the Senate continued with business as usual on Tuesday, including a confirmation hearing in the Senate Intelligence Committee for Republican Rep. John Ratcliffe of Texas to serve as President Trump's Director of National Intelligence.

But it wasn't an ordinary hearing.

The room was set up with senators in a U shape with seats six feet apart. Every two seats there were large bottles of Purcell and wipes.

Senators were asked to stagger their questioning to limit the number of people in the room at once. Seats at the table were marked with each senators name to avoid chairs being used more than once.

All staff were required to wear masks. The room was sanitized before and after the hearing, but hand sanitizer and cleaning wipes were available as well.

Rep. John Ratcliffe elbow bumps Senator Ben Sasse at his confirmation hearing

Rep. John Ratcliffe is sworn in by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Burr in a hearing room set up for social distancing

Water and sanitizing products are seen at the table where Rep. John Ratcliffe testified

A Congressional staffer wears a face mask that reminds people to social distance

Additionally, Ratcliffe's family wasn't there and families of nominees usually sit behind them and get introduced to the senators.

Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Burr acknowledged their absence. 'I send them my appreciation via C-SPAN,' he said.

Last week, the attending physician of the Capitol Dr. Brian Monahan's office warned senators it does not have enough coronavirus testing kits for all lawmakers, urging senators to self-monitor for symptoms.

Infection has been a concern since tested positive for the disease and had contact with many of his fellow senators between being tested and awaiting the result.

President Donald Trump offered to send tests to Capitol Hill. At the White House, visitors meeting with the president have to take the 15-minute rapid result test before hand.

But, in a rare joint statement on Saturday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker Nancy Pelosi turned down his offer, saying they don't want lawmakers to receive special treatment.

'Congress is grateful for the Administration's generous offer to deploy rapid COVID-19 testing capabilities to Capitol Hill, but we respectfully decline the offer at this time,' McConnell and Pelosi said in their joint statement. 'Our country's testing capacities are continuing to scale up nationwide and Congress wants to keep directing resources to the front-line facilities where they can do the most good the most quickly.'

'No reason to turn it down, except politics,' Trump tweeted in response.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 21:26:11|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Commissioner of Police of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government Chris Tang Ping-keung said Tuesday that more than 40 percent of people arrested in months of last year's unrest were students.

A total of 8,001 arrests related to the unrest were made from June 2019 to mid-April this year, Tang said at a meeting of the Legislative Council. Of all, 1,365 people were prosecuted and 566 were charged with rioting.

Tang stressed that 3,286 students were arrested during the period and the involvement of high school students surged since December.

Tang said the young people were victims who were incited to conduct illegal acts and misled by fake news to hate the government and police, and condemned those who preached violence for their political interests, misguided teenagers and put the blame to the government and police.

The involvement of students in violent incidents since last year has stoked concerns in Hong Kong and calls are rising to stop politicizing schools. Recently, a 15-year-old young man was arrested for throwing petrol bombs on the street. Enditem
Could Binjiang Service Group Co. Ltd. (HKG:3316) be an attractive dividend share to own for the long haul? Investors are often drawn to strong companies with the idea of reinvesting the dividends. If you are hoping to live on the income from dividends, it's important to be a lot more stringent with your investments than the average punter.

Binjiang Service Group has only been paying a dividend for a year or so, so investors might be curious about its 2.0% yield. Some simple analysis can reduce the risk of holding Binjiang Service Group for its dividend, and we'll focus on the most important aspects below.

Explore this interactive chart for our latest analysis on Binjiang Service Group!

SEHK:3316 Historical Dividend Yield May 5th 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. Comparing dividend payments to a company's net profit after tax is a simple way of reality-checking whether a dividend is sustainable. In the last year, Binjiang Service Group paid out 46% of its profit as dividends. A medium payout ratio strikes a good balance between paying dividends, and keeping enough back to invest in the business. One of the risks is that management reinvests the retained capital poorly instead of paying a higher dividend.

Another important check we do is to see if the free cash flow generated is sufficient to pay the dividend. Binjiang Service Group's cash payout ratio last year was 16%, which is quite low and suggests that the dividend was thoroughly covered by cash flow. It's positive to see that Binjiang Service Group's dividend is covered by both profits and cash flow, since this is generally a sign that the dividend is sustainable, and a lower payout ratio usually suggests a greater margin of safety before the dividend gets cut.

While the above analysis focuses on dividends relative to a company's earnings, we do note Binjiang Service Group's strong net cash position, which will let it pay larger dividends for a time, should it choose.

Story continues

Remember, you can always get a snapshot of Binjiang Service Group's latest financial position, by checking our visualisation of its financial health.

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. With a payment history of less than 2 years, we think it's a bit too soon to think about living on the income from its dividend. Dividends per share have grown at approximately 137% per year over this time.

The dividend has been growing pretty quickly, which could be enough to get us interested even though the dividend history is relatively short. Further research may be warranted.

Dividend Growth Potential

The other half of the dividend investing equation is evaluating whether earnings per share (EPS) are growing. Growing EPS can help maintain or increase the purchasing power of the dividend over the long run. It's good to see Binjiang Service Group has been growing its earnings per share at 50% a year over the past five years. Earnings per share have rocketed in recent times, and we like that the company is retaining more than half of its earnings to reinvest. However, always remember that very few companies can grow at double digit rates forever.

We'd also point out that Binjiang Service Group 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, we like that the company's dividend payments appear well covered, although the retained capital also needs to be effectively reinvested. We were also glad to see it growing earnings, although its dividend history is not as long as we'd like. Overall we think Binjiang Service Group scores well on our analysis. It's not quite perfect, but we'd definitely be keen to take a closer look.

It's important to note that companies having a consistent dividend policy will generate greater investor confidence than those having an erratic one. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. For example, we've picked out 1 warning sign for Binjiang Service Group that investors should know about before committing capital to this stock.

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.
Undeterred by the threat of coronavirus infection or the 'special corona fee' of 70 per cent levied on alcohol, hundreds of tipplers queued up outside liquor vends in the national capital for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, keeping the police on their toes.

Long queues were formed outside the vends in Krishna Nagar and Vishwas Nagar, and a large number of policemen stood outside to manage the crowd and ensure social distancing.

At some places, like the Gole Market in central Delhi, although the liquor shops were shut, baton-wielding paramilitary personnel were also deployed to keep the crowd at bay.

About 150 government-run liquor shops have been allowed to open from 9 am to 6.30 pm as per the latest lockdown relaxations allowed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

On Monday, many liquor shops downed their shutters after crowds turned unruly, showing little care about social distancing. Late in the night, the Delhi government levied a 70 per cent 'special corona fee' on the sale of liquor. The new rate is applicable from Tuesday.

The special branch of the Delhi police has also prepared a report suggesting extending the timings of the liquor sale in Delhi after chaos outside shops on Monday.

To ensure that he gets his stock of liquor, Bharat Kumar, a resident of Burari, stood outside the liquor shop since 8 am -- the shop opens at 9. But there were many even ahead of him.

"I was in queue for liquor since 8 am. Despite this, it took me one and half hour to buy three liquor bottles," he said.

Asked about the government's decision to impose a hefty 'corona fee' to discourage tipplers, he said, "It will not affect us. People will get liquor from Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad."



But there were many who still could not manage to buy liquor for the second day.

"I searched for some shops in Krishna Nagar but there were long queues of around 400-500 people. Here, the shop has not been opened and policemen are sending us back. It's not fair, the government has raised the price so much and still there are problems if one tries to buy it," said Raj Kumar, 38, who had come to a liquor shop in Shakarpur in east Delhi.

Ramesh, who declined to share his second name, said he was trying his luck after failing to buy liquor bottles from nearby shops because of the huge crowd.

"Yesterday, I waited for two hours in a queue outside a shop but the police closed it after the crowd became unruly," Ramesh said.

Rajbir Singh, in his late 40s, tried his luck at a liquor vend behind Regal Cinema in central Delhi, but failed.

"I only have one peg every fortnight. But I have not had even that for long," Singh said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In an alarming incident of racism, a customer in one of San Diego's supermarkets in the Unites States was blasted for wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood to conform to the need of wearing face masks in public. The incident has provoked harsh rebuke from people and leaders.

A person in the Vons supermarket company in Santee, was spotted having worn the white KKK hood and he refused to remove it until very shortly before he left the grocery store, sending everyone in a state of shock.

According to reports, the white supremacist, who was middle-aged and has long-hair, hasn't been identified yet and the market's spokesperson too expressed his vexation at this 'inflammatory method of wearing face mask'. "This was a disturbing incident for our associates and customers, and we are reviewing with our team how to best handle such inappropriate situations in the future, he said.

Santee Mayor John Minto in a joint statement with the city council also condemned the incident and termed it a "symbol of hatred". He also extended his gratitude to all those who came forward to "curtail this sad reminder of intolerance".

The images of the grocery shopper from the store went viral on social media with people expressing their disbelief towards such an act of utter disgrace.

A man grocery shopping with a KKK hood in Santee, California. The city of Santee has a history of racism & people in southern California call it 'Klantee'. This is Trump's America. pic.twitter.com/AYRdnMVnXK Stone (@stonecold2050) May 3, 2020

A man wearing a makeshift Ku Klux Klan hood was photographed shopping at a store in Santee, Calif. https://t.co/MrHX4lXUtK pic.twitter.com/6SvOsgDp0M philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) May 4, 2020

Man wears KKK hood while grocery shopping in Santee; mayor calls it a 'sad reminder of intolerance' https://t.co/5YdFpPvkop pic.twitter.com/xctQDP7dBY MobileMechanic SanDiego (@sandiegocarhelp) May 4, 2020

According to the Times of San Diego, a woman who also pictured this man, said that an old man on a wheelchair passed by the mask clad person and even saluted him.

As per a journalist, San Diego has had a history of "white supremacists and skinhead activities that has earned many the name of 'Klantee'".
A Fultondale doctor has pleaded guilty to prescribing controlled substances without a legitimate medical purpose and engaging in health care fraud.

Dr. Paul Roberts, 48, issued the guilty plea Monday before U.S. District Court Judge Annemarie Axon to 16 counts stemming from a June 2019 indictment, according to a Tuesday announcement by Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town, DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Clay Morris, and FBI Special Agent in Charge Johnnie Sharp, Jr.

Roberts was initially indicted in November 2018 on conspiracy to prescribe controlled substances and participating in a healthcare fraud conspiracy with a Demopolis pharmacist and a Tuscaloosa sales representative. The 135-count susperseding indictment was issued against him last year.

According to the plea agreement, Roberts stipulated to a 72-month sentence and agreed to surrender his Alabama and other state medical licenses. He also agreed to pay a fine of $100,000 and restitution of $2.2 million.

We have recently heard many stories about the sacrifices made by physicians and pharmacists to care for patients during this difficult time. Unfortunately, there are also those who have chosen to sacrifice patient care for pure greed, First Assistant United States Attorney Lloyd Peeples said. Those who engage in such unlawful practices unnecessarily drive up healthcare costs and destroy lives in our communities.

Roberts pleaded guilty to 12 counts of prescribing controlled substances without a legitimate medical purpose. According to the plea agreement, on days Roberts was out of the office, he allowed unqualified staff, including an x-ray technician, to prescribe controlled substances to patients using prescriptions that Roberts pre-signed. The plea agreement also states that Roberts illegally prescribed controlled substances, including oxycodone, to two women. He issued them to one in exchange for sexual favors and to the other even though he knew that she was abusing controlled substances.

Roberts also pleaded guilty to two health care fraud conspiracies and two counts of participating in a health care fraud scheme. The first focused on fraudulently billing for office visits. According to the plea agreement, on dates he was absent from the office, Roberts caused unqualified staff to see patients, and then caused SEUC to bill Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama as though Roberts had provided those services.

The second conspiracy and scheme focused on fraudulently billing health insurance plans through their third-party administrators for compounded drugs. According to the plea agreement, beginning in 2012, Roberts entered into an unlawful agreement with his co-defendants, Stanley Reeves, a pharmacist and owner of F&F Drugs, a Demopolis-based pharmacy, and Brett Taft, a Tuscaloosa-based sales representative, to fraudulently bill these health insurance plans for medically unnecessary compounded drugs. To induce Roberts to issue these medically unnecessary drugs, Taft paid Roberts kickbacks. Roberts then issued the prescriptions, sometimes without patients knowledge, and sent them to F&F Drugs, which then filled and billed the prescriptions to insurance plans. Reeves would then pay Taft a portion of the billing proceeds, with Taft using some of those proceeds to pay Roberts kickbacks.

In addition, to induce patients to accept these medically unnecessary drugs, Roberts and his co-defendants agreed that F&F Drugs would waive patient co-pays and did so in violation of the health insurance plan rules. And, to maximize profit from each prescription, Roberts and his co-defendants also agreed that F&F Drugs would automatically refill the compounded drugs that Roberts referred regardless of whether patients needed those drugs. Between April 2012 and February 2014, F&F Drugs billed health insurance plans approximately $2.2 million for medically unnecessary compounded drugs issued by Roberts.

Town, Morris and Sharp also announced that last week co-defendant Reeves pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit the above-described compounded drug health care fraud conspiracy and scheme.

According to the plea agreement, between April 2012 and February 2014, F&F Drugs billed health insurance plans approximately $10.5 million for medically unnecessary compounded drugs issued by various doctors, including Roberts. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Reeves stipulated to a 38-month sentence and agreed to surrender his pharmacist license to the Alabama Board of Pharmacy. He also agreed to pay a fine of $100,000, restitution of $10.5 million, and forfeiture of $900,000 with $300,000 due on the date he is sentenced.

The maximum punishment for the dispensing controlled substances charges is 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. The maximum penalty for the health care fraud and conspiracy charges is 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The only cure for the pain caused by pill mill doctors, like Roberts, is public awareness, victims who come forward, and a determined fleet of FBI agents coupled with our great partners who will arrest and prosecute these unscrupulous practitioners when they choose to sell their ethics, betray their oath, and break the law, Sharp said.

This guilty plea is yet another example of DEAs efforts to rid Alabama of doctors who place greed and personal wealth over the well-being of Alabamians, Morris said. The DEA, FBI and the United States Attorneys Office stand steadfast in our fight against the opioid epidemic in Alabama. We will continue to investigate, arrest and prosecute drug dealers who prey on those struggling with addiction and hide behind their veil of a professional practice.
Describing Congress' announcement



to bear the cost of travel of migrant workers as "streetplay," Karnataka Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar on Tuesday accused the party of 'playing politics' even on the issue of COVID-19 and compared its mindset to Roman emperor Nero.

He said the Congress instead of giving money to the concerned as per rules, was advertising about it.

"Looking at Congress moving around in the streets and advertising about its willingness to pay the bus and train charges for the labourers, it is clear that it is a big street play.

Instead of giving money to the concerned as per rules, they are making loud claims about it in front of cameras," Sudhakar said in a tweet.

"There is no deference between your (Congress) mind set- looking at politics and gaining mileage out of it even on the issue of corona, and that of Nero, because Nero was fiddling when Rome was burning," he said in another tweet.

The Congress on Monday had said its state units will bear the cost of rail travel of needy migrant workers stranded at their workplaces due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown and seeking to return home.

Karnataka Congress Chief D K Shivakumar had announced giving Rs 1 crore cheque to Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation from the party for ensuring free transport to working class and labourers, who were suffering to reach home because of high rates being charged.

However, the KSRTC, which subsequently announced free travel for those stranded within the state, has not accepted the cheque and has instead asked it to be given to Chief Minister's relief fund.

On Monday, urging the state government to immediately take necessary action to arrange for trains to bring back all stranded Kannadigas from other states, Congress had said, it was also ready to bear the monetary costs to be paid to the Railways.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5

By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend:

Uzbekistan president's Special Representative for Afghanistan Ismatilla Irgashev had a phone conversation with the European Union's Special Envoy for Afghanistan Roland Kobia, Trend reports citing the Uzbek Foreign Ministry.

A detailed exchange of views on the current situation in Afghanistan was held, the efforts of the international community to launch peace talks as soon as possible, as well as assistance in combating the spread of coronavirus pandemic in the country were discussed, the message said.

Taking into account the importance of peaceful resolution of the Afghan problem, the sides noted the need to consolidate the efforts of regional countries in this direction.

In early April, the leaders of Afghanistan agreed to form an inclusive negotiating team as a decisive step towards the peaceful settlement of the internal political crisis in the country.

Earlier, President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, and his political rival Abdullah Abdullah agreed to form a single delegation to the talks with the Taliban, which were initially scheduled for 10 March but did not take place. A new date has not yet been set for the meeting, the message said.

---

Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini
Taking note of bus accidents besides arduous long journeys while bringing migrant workers from Surat back home, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday ordered that in the future returnees from the Gujarat's city should be ferried here only by trains.

Three accidents have occurred since Saturday night while transporting Odias from Surat to the state, mostly in Ganjam district, killing two people and leaving several others injured.

Patnaik gave this direction to the officials while chairing a review meeting on COVID-19 situation.

While a bus had an accident on Saturday night causing minor injuries to some, two buses ferrying migrants had met with accidents on a hilly road in the state on Sunday leading to two deaths and injuries to several people.

Besides accidents, the chief minister's decision was also prompted by difficulties faced by the travellers, particularly women and children, a covering long distance of over 1600 km by road.

Nearly three lakh Odia workers mostly from the Ganjam district are engaged in diamond cutting and other works in Gujarat's Surat city.

Two Shramik special trains ferried 2,400 odisha natives on Monday night to Brahmapur in Ganjam district from Surat.

State's Chief Secretary A K Tripathy told PTI that around 87 buses were booked to bring back migrants from Surat to the state, out of which about 20 have already completed the task and the rest will now be cancelled in the light of the CM's instruction.

The meeting also took some important decisions regarding more people flying to the state from abroad due to worsening of the global pandemic situation.

The meeting resolved that the foreign returnees need to undergo the same procedure as done in the case of migrant workers and others returnees from the states reporting high number of cases within the country.

Like the migrant workers, the people keen to return from abroad also have to make compulsory registration, corona testing and undergo 14-day mandatory quarantine, an official said.

More than 4,000 persons had flown back home in Odisha from other countries before outbreak of the coronavirus in March and their number may now increase after central government's decision to fly more stranded citizens from abroad, the official added.

Keeping in view the influx of people, both from within the country and abroad, the chief minister directed the administration to enhance coronavirus testing capacity to 15,000 a day from the existing 3,500 daily.

A decision has been taken to set up coronavirus testing facilities in different medical colleges located at Baripada, Balasore, Koraput and Bolangir, the official said, adding that presently such tests are being carried out at eight different laboratories across the state.

Patnaik also asked the officials to ensure that activities related to agriculture, industries, livelihood, transport and others should be normal in green zones across the state.

Of the 30 districts of Odisha, 16 come under green zone, 11 in orange zone and three districts come under red zone.

Patnaik also asked the officials to give special emphasis on districts like Ganjam, Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Bolangir, Jajpur and Balasore from where many people work in other states.

The chief minister further said that SHGs (self help groups) have so far supplied more than one crore meals to the distressed people during the lockdown period.

Therefore, the SHGs will be provided extra financial assistance of Rs 2 per meal from the Chief Ministers Relief Fund.

He also directed the agriculture and farmers empowerment department to ensure that farmers get adequate seeds and other agricultural requirements in the ensuing kharif season.

The chief minister was informed that the state government has so far made arrangement for safe keeping of 4.68 lakh returnees in 10,751 temporary medical camps in Gram Panchayat level.

Similarly, arrangements have been made for quarantine of 32,524 people in 415 centres in urban areas across the state.

The Health and Family Welfare department informed the meeting that coronavirus cases have been reported from 16 of the 30 districts of the state. Sixty areas within the state have been declared as infected zones of which 47 are identified as active zones.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A mother-of-four has spoken out about the time her son's school shamed her for packing quinoa pancakes in his lunchbox, despite the fact 'white bread with jam or Vegemite' was on the accepted food list.

Sophie Guidolin, 31, who makes a living out of sharing health and nutritional advice online, appeared on business strategist Kerwin Rae's podcast to talk about the run-in with a teacher at her 12-year-old son Ryder's primary school.

'I got this letter home from school and it was what they were allowed to eat. It actually said a white bread sandwich with jam or Vegemite,' the Queensland-based bikini competitor said.

'I sent him to school one day with pancakes, which were made out of quinoa, and they had no additives, no sugar, no nothing in them... but he wasn't allowed to eat for the day.

Sophie Guidolin appeared on business strategist Kerwin Rae's podcast to talk about the run-in with her 12-year-old son Ryder's (pictured) primary school

'And when I picked him up I got this letter which had a red mark on it that basically said "you're a bad mum, you can't bring these to school."'

Sophie tried to explain to the school that the contents of the pancakes were healthy and providing her son with a source of protein, but they believed quinoa was a nut and the school didn't allow children to eat nuts.

Quinoa is a grain, which Sophie helpfully pointed out, that comes from the amaranth family. It's often used in salads or as a substitute for rice.

Sophie tried to explain to the school that the contents of the pancakes were healthy and providing her son with a source of protein

How to make the quinoa pancakes: INGREDIENTS: * 1-1/2 cup cooked quinoa * 3 scoops protein powder. Either use chocolate, banana, vanilla or strawberry. * 2 whole eggs * 2 egg whites * Coconut oil METHOD: 1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cooked quinoa, protein powder, eggs and egg whites. Whisk until smooth and creamy. 2. Use coconut oil in a pan. Do NOT cook these on high heat. The outsides will burn and the insides will still be raw. 3. Use medium heat and cook for a little longer until golden brown. 'I sent him to school one day with pancakes, which were made out of quinoa,' Sophie said Advertisement

The next day Sophie, who is a certified nutritionist, tried to pack healthy muffins, but he similarly wasn't allowed them, so she has had to educate the educators about why these should be an acceptable snack.

Now she sends all of her kids - which includes five-year-old twin daughters Evie and Aria and 13-year-old Kai - to school with savoury muffins, omelettes, boiled eggs, a piece of fruit, protein balls and banana bread.

'I always start with a protein source or the "main affair" in the lunchbox,' she wrote on her website.

'I have a variety of rotations we use. Chicken and salad wraps mean my boys are getting protein, vegetables and carbohydrates in their wrap.

'I always start with a protein source or the "main affair" in the lunchbox,' she wrote on her website

Sophie has sold cookbooks and children's lunchbox recipes for the past decade, as parents began to notice how clever and creative her own kids' lunches were

'I use the rye wraps and the boys haven't complained! If you are really short on time or meal prep, buy a roast chicken and use that meat rather than the processed, packaged stuff.'

Sophie has sold cookbooks and children's lunchbox recipes for the past decade, as parents began to notice how clever and creative her own kids' lunches were.

The first PDF she created was $9.95 and 'blew up' into what is now a fitness empire.

'We sold 5,000 just in the pre-sale and that's how we created another five of my recipe books,' she told Kerwin.
A sales assistant takes out a gold ornament for a customer at Caibai Jewelry store in Beijing

By Eileen Soreng

(Reuters) - Gold prices fell on Tuesday, weighed down by an uptick in risk appetite as oil prices recovered and a number of countries eased coronavirus-induced restrictions in an effort to revive economic activity.

Spot gold fell 0.1% to $1,699.33 per ounce by 11:19 a.m. EDT (1519 GMT). U.S. gold futures fell 0.5% to $1,705.40.

"There's general optimism with the global economies opening up, which could mean interest rates will move a little bit higher ... and that should strengthen the dollar and pressure gold. That's why we've come off the $1,700 mark," said Edward Meir, analyst at ED&F Man Capital Markets.

But gold's trajectory is likely to be "fairly constructive" this year given that the global economy could take a long time to recover, Meir added.

Stock markets snapped a three-day losing streak on Tuesday and oil was on its longest run of gains in nine months as moves to ease major economies out of lockdowns lifted sentiment.

Italy and the United States were among several countries to tentatively ease lockdowns on Monday to revive their economies.

Further limiting gold's appeal, the dollar index rose versus major currencies.

Market participants were also watching rising China-U.S. tensions after President Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on China for its handling of the virus outbreak.

The pandemic, which has battered global growth and prompted governments to unleash a wave of fiscal and monetary measures to limit economic damage, has infected about 3.6 million people globally and killed more than 250,000.

Gold tends to benefit from widespread stimulus measures from central banks because it is widely viewed as a hedge against inflation and currency debasement.

"Gold remains as a safe-haven as currencies are being devalued by massive stimulus programmes introduced by central banks and governments around the world to alleviate the worst of the COVID-19 outbreak," Phillip Futures said in note.

Story continues

"This has also increased physical demand of gold to hedge against the debasement of fiat currencies thereby triggering a huge demand for gold ingots, bars and coins."

Indicative of sentiment, holdings in the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, rose 0.4% to 1,071.71 tonnes on Monday.

Elsewhere, palladium dropped 4% to $1,773.93 per ounce.

The auto catalyst metal has shed 9% so far this year, hit by falling car sales globally.

Platinum fell 0.1% to $765.07 and silver rose 0.4% to $14.90.

(Reporting by Eileen Soreng in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
The essay proceeds alphabetically, from alcohol (theres a lot) to zealotry (of journalists, sometimes the nemeses and sometimes the allies of the detectives). Lesser examines the detectives domestic realms  their erotic lives and marriages, their kids and churches and holidays  finding some differences but a remarkably consistent sense of reasonableness and community. Thats why it fascinates her that Scandinavias hottest fictional export is filled with violent and often sadistic crime.

Lesser is especially interested in how Scandinavia and Scandinavians stack up against America and Americans. Crime, in Scandinavia, is rarely seen as the bad action of a single bad actor, she writes, invoking a system that both believes in and denounces its social safety net. (Whats not to like? a reader wonders.) Yet she also finds a kind of superiority: We are essentially good people, the Scandinavians insist, often with some justification. But that very insistence may be the thing that blinds them to their own moral culpability.

The chief moral imperative of our time, Lesser points out as she pivots from the books first half to its second, is the need to draw a distinction between things that are made up and things that are true. And so, to find out the truth, she leaves her reading chair to visit the places frequented by the books characters, centering her travels in Martin Becks city. She does not have a Scandinavian bone in her body, and yet the first time she sees Stockholm, she feels she is coming home, Lesser writes, kicking off a section titled Reality as Fiction, in which she eschews the first person and casts herself as an unnamed woman traveler.

She manages to interview several real-life police detectives, while also seeing the regions museums, castles and tourist attractions. Its charming and illuminating, if not quite equal to the brilliance of the first section. Perhaps when it comes to fiction and reality, what we need most are critics like Lesser, who can dissect the former with the tools of the latter.
Nursing homes and retirement communities have been particularly hard hit, both nationally and locally, by the coronavirus pandemic.

Country Meadows Retirement Communities Hershey Campus said it has seen more than 60 cases of the coronavirus, including 10 deaths. Officials with the retirement community added that the retirement community has had 34 residents and 29 of its employees test positive.

Our hearts go out to their families and to our coworkers, too, Kelly Kuntz, Country Meadows executive director of communications, said.

Officials with Luthercare, which runs three senior living communities in Lancaster and Lebanon counties, said Tuesday that they have had more than 60 people, including residents and employees, test positive for the coronavirus, including 19 deaths.

We ask you to please keep our residents families, as well as our team members, in your thoughts and prayers during this extremely difficult time," the company said in a statement.

As reports of more cases and deaths continue, there is also an increasing number of stories about places opening in a search for normalcy.

One of those is Williams Grove Flea Market, which said on its Facebook page that it will once again be open to the public on Sunday. The gates will open starting at 4 a.m. with spaces available for $15

This is a trial period for following the CDC guidelines and federal mandates best we can to protect all people involved, the Facebook event post read. All sections of the market will be open so please spread out.

Here are other coronavirus headlines posted today on PennLive:

Why some small businesses didnt stand a chance at getting relief from Pa.s $61 million loan program

Top Pa. health official says state wont supply masks, other protective equipment to hospitals that resume elective surgeries

Game Commission shooting ranges to reopen Friday in yellow phase areas

33-page study says new coronavirus strain spreads faster and is more contagious

Gallery to host virtual art and music showcase: Heres how you can enjoy it from home

Golds Gym restructuring financially under Chapter 11: Were absolutely not going anywhere

Warehouse workers say their safety concerns are being ignored. Heres their cautionary tale for reopening.

Where are Pennsylvanias 50,957 coronavirus cases? May 5 map, county-by-county breakdown

Pa. health secretary encourages greater use of Mohegan Sun testing site

Ocean City, Md. will open beach and boardwalk access Friday; what will be allowed?

Carnival cancels cruises through July, says it will phase in services in August with a measured approach

Business leader: To reopen Pa. business sector needs safe harbor from liability lawsuits; smart public policy

Pa. high school to hold socially distanced commencement at legendary racetrack: Graduates, start your engines!
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change led by Thokozani Khupe has recalled four lawmakers aligned with Nelson Chamisa following a recent Supreme Court ruling nullifying his leadership of the party.

Speaker of the House of Assembly, Jacob Mudenda, announced the recalling of Thabitha Khumalo, Charlton Hwende, Prosper Mutseyami and Lilian Timveos from the legislature.

The move was initiated by Khupes colleagues  Douglas Mwonzora and Morgen Komichi.

The recalled lawmakers immediately left parliament promising fireworks over their recalling by Khupe, who now claims that she is the legitimate leader of the party following the death of Morgan Tsvangirai in 2018.

Hwende said, We will soon issue a statement on the latest developments after consulting our president (Nelson Chamisa).

Timveous noted that she belongs to the MDC led by Chamisa and not any other and therefore Im not even ashamed of saying this.

Chamisa took over the partys presidency soon after Tsvangirais death resulting in the opposition splitting with Khupe leader a faction that identified itself as MDC-T. Chamisa formed an alliance with other MDC groups and contested the presidential election in 2018. He claims that he beat President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the disputed polls whose results were confirmed by the Electoral Court. Chamisa maintains that he defeated Mnangagwa and would never accept the results of the polls.

On the other hand, Khupes party performed dismally in the 2018 presidential, parliamentary and local government elections.
Mark Herring, a Democrat, is the Attorney General of Virginia. Like Gov. Ralph Northam, also a Democrat, Herring found it amusing to wear black face. He did so at a party in 1980.

Herring still doesnt have much appreciation for civil rights. Hes defending Virginia social distancing policies that led to the pastor of a Virginia church being cited for holding a church service. There were sixteen people in the church sanctuary, which seats 225. The congregation in question serves, among others, recovering drug addicts and former prostitutes.

The church sought legal relief. The Department of Justices Civil Rights Division filed a statement of interest, arguing that the Virginia polices at issue may constitute a violation of the constitutional right to the free exercise of religion.

Herrings office responded with this imbecilic statement:

Donald Trump and Bill Barr should focus on saving lives and ramping up testing, not teaming up with conservative activists to undermine effective public health measures that are slowing the spread of covid-19 and saving lives in Virginia and around the country.

Its not the job of the Justice Departments Civil Rights division to ramp up testing for the Wuhan coronavirus. The Civil Rights Divisions job is to protect against unlawful discrimination, including unlawful discrimination against the right to freedom of religious worship.

Its not surprising that Herring, who once got his kicks mocking African-Americans, fails to understand the role of the Civil Rights Division. Nor is it unsurprising that he has little regard for the rights of modern Americas most unfashionable minority group  people who take religion very seriously.

Instead of taking the mindless way out  attacking President Trump and incanting the words saving lives  Herring should explain how anyones life is endangered by a religious service for sixteen people in a sanctuary that holds 225.

When hes finished trying to explain that, Herring should tell us why a meeting of sixteen lawyers in a conference room  an event Virginia permits  doesnt put lives at the same or greater risk.

Its sad that Northam and Herring place the interest of lawyers in making a buck ahead of the right of devout believers  including recovering addicts and former prostitutes  to attend religious services. But as I said, its not surprising.
PARIS  Weeks before Chinese authorities acknowledged that the coronavirus could be transmitted by humans, and nearly a month before the first officially recorded cases in Europe, a 42-year-old fishmonger showed up at a hospital in suburban Paris coughing, feverish and having trouble breathing. It was Dec. 27.

Now doctors in France say that the December patient may have been the earliest known coronavirus case in Europe.

If confirmed, the case of the fishmonger, Amirouche Hammar, would mean the deadly virus made an appearance on the continent long before officials there began tackling it. Such a discovery would bring a strange new wrinkle to the story of the virus in Europe, one that has the potential of blowing up the previously established chronology.

The French government says it is looking at the report. The doctors who made the finding said that they are confident in it, and that they tested the patients old sample twice to avoid false positives. But they acknowledged that they could not completely rule out that possibility.
New Delhi:

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday hit out at Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over his comments that Kashmir will come under Islamabads rule one day. In a stern message, she told Pakistan that its dangerous, though delusional" dream will never come true.

"Behind Pakistan's unabashed embrace and encouragement to terrorism lies its delusional though dangerous dream that 'Kashmir will one day become Pakistan', as Prime Minister Sharif said on Friday," Swaraj said in strong words.

"The whole of India would like to tell Prime Minister of Pakistan that this dream will not be realized even at the end of eternity. The whole of Jammu and Kashmir belongs to India. You will never be able to make this heaven on earth a haven for terrorists," she said.

#WATCH: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj speaks on Pakistan and Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif.https://t.co/yTZcNXqk3v  ANI (@ANI_news) July 23, 2016

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett on Tuesday said he expects the U.S. unemployment rate was above 16% in April, as the coronavirus pandemic began to devastate the country's economy.

"My guess right now is it's going to be north of 16%, maybe as high as 20%," Hassett said in an interview with CNN about the unemployment rate the federal government will report on Friday. "So we are looking at probably the worst unemployment rate since the Great Depression. It's a tremendous negative shock, a very, very terrible shock."

Economists polled by Reuters forecast the official government report to show last month's unemployment rate was 16% and that more than 20 million jobs were lost. But economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago are estimating that the true rate could be between 25.1% and 34.6%.

Hassett said he had initially expected the rate would hit 20% in June but after 30 million people filed for jobless benefits last month he began to anticipate a higher rate in April.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
The Spanish government says that the halting of most economic activity during April's strict confinement shot up unemployment to a total of 3.8 million, the highest figure in nearly four years.

Altogether 282,891 people registered as jobless in April, or 8 per cent more than a month earlier, data published on Tuesday by Spain's Labour Ministry shows.

More than 300,000 people had already gone jobless the previous month, after authorities enacted a state of emergency on March 14 that provided the legal framework to confine Spaniards at home and deal with a pandemic that has killed at least 25,000.

The jobless statistics don't include the millions of workers in Spain that have been furloughed or seen a temporary reduction in the number of hours that they are working.

The government wants to prolong the state of emergency for two additional weeks to May 23, although opposition parties argue that the government doesn't need special powers during the lockdown roll back and are threatening to block the extension when the bill reaches parliament on Wednesday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
WAKE FOREST, NC / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / Tobra Medical Inc., a specialty medical device company focused on autograft bone and specimen collection in surgical procedures, announced the donation of 4,000 face shields to North Carolina and National Hospitals. Tobra Medical was able to leverage its current manufacturing partnerships to help bring needed PPE to local and national hospitals. "The hospitals and their administration, surgeons and healthcare workers have always supported Tobra and now was the time to give back," said Tobra Medical Founder and President Brad Collins. "The commitment and selflessness that these frontline workers have exhibited is amazing and Tobra Medical wanted to help support their efforts." The donations were delivered last week and continue this week. Tobra Medical has hinted at an effort to bring PPE manufacturing back to the United States to continue to support those front-line workers on US soil.

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.
A state-run Chinese newspaper has accused US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of betraying his faith in a fresh anti-America commentary after he repeatedly claimed that the coronavirus escaped from a Wuhan lab.

The Global Times, a major Communist propaganda outlet, alleged that as a 'devout Christian', Pompeo had committed the sin of lying and suggested that he should be punished.

The astonishing criticism comes after the Chinese state broadcaster labelled Pompeo 'evil' as political tensions between Beijing and Washington erupt over the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Global Times, a major Chinese propaganda outlet, today published a new anti-US column titled 'Pompeo betrays Christianity with lies'. It accused the US Secretary of State of committing the sin of lying after he repeated suggested that the coronavirus came from a lab

Chinese officials decided to build the Wuhan Institute of Virology after the country was ravaged by an outbreak of SARS in 2002 and 2003. A researcher is seen working inside the P4 laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan on February 23, 2017

The Wuhan Institute of Virology (pictured) is affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences

The Global Times yesterday blamed the US President Trump for 'trying to impede global efforts in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic' after Trump said China had made a 'horrible mistake' and tried to cover-up the outbreak.

The war of words between the nations has heated up quickly after the US launched an investigation to find out if the contagion was related to the Institute of Virology in Wuhan, which is known for studying deadly, bat-related coronaviruses.

A classified Chinese report has allegedly warned of possible 'armed confrontation' between Beijing and Washington as the Communist Party faces global backlash over the spreading of the killer infection.

The Global Times has slammed the Trump administration nearly every day amid the global coronavirus outbreak. Its editor-in-chief is pictured in the newspaper's office in this file photo

China's President Xi (pictured on March 10 in Wuhan) is facing widespread doubts that his government has covered up the true scale of the outbreak. An internal report has warned Beijing it faces Tiananmen-like global backlash and even 'armed confrontation' with the US

Billed as China's 'most belligerent tabloid', the Global Times has been at the forefront of defending Beijing's actions and denouncing the West over its criticism against the Community Party.

The paper's editor-in-chief, Hu Xijin, last Friday launched an astonishing attack on Trump, accusing him of 'publicly lying about China'.

Its latest op-ed, titled 'Pompeo betrays Christianity with lies', asserted that Pompeo 'has kept spreading lies or misleading the public' over the virus.

It went on to argue how Pompeo had gone against the principle of being a 'devout evangelical Christian' because of 'his lying for political purposes'.

Pompeo became an evangelical Christian while studying at West Point, where he joined a Bible study group. He is pictured at a press conference on June 2, 2019 in Bellinzona, Switzerland

Dr Fauci (pictured on April 29) says there is 'no evidence' that coronavirus escaped from a Chinese lab - contradicting repeated claims by President Donald Trump and his administration

The Global Times article said: 'It is widely known that Christian doctrine opposes lying - it's a sin.

'A false witness shall not go unpunished. And he that utters lies shall perish. From the 'Ten Commandments, the ninth says, 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.'

Pompeo became an evangelical Christian while studying at West Point, where he joined a Bible study group.

Before running for Congress, he was a deacon in his local branch of the Presbyterian church in Wichita, Kansas, which later moved to join the more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church movement in a split over same-sex marriage.

As the Secretary of State, he has repeatedly spoken about his religion, saying that his faith was the basis for his belief in protecting Israel, and described politics as 'a never-ending struggle, until the Rapture.'

Chinese state media labels Pompeo 'evil' and 'insane' Various other Chinese state media outlets have intensified their campaigns in stirring up the anti-US sentiment. China's state broadcaster on Monday branded Pompeo's remarks over the virus's origin as 'insane and evasive'. Titled 'Evil Pompeo is wantonly spewing poison and spreading lies', the scathing commentary cited WHO executive director Mike Ryan and Columbia University virologist W. Ian Lipkin, who claimed that the virus is natural in origin and was not man-made or leaked from a laboratory. China's CCTV branded Pompeo's remarks over the virus's origin as 'insane and evasive' in a commentary titled 'evil Pompeo is wantonly spewing poison and spreading lies' 'These flawed and unreasonable remarks by American politicians make it clear to more and more people that no "evidence" exists,' the commentary said. 'The so-called 'virus leaked from a Wuhan lab' hype is a complete and utter lie. American politicians are rushing to shift the blame, cheat votes and suppress China when their own domestic anti-epidemic efforts are a mess.' Two further commentaries published on Monday by state newspaper People's Daily attacked Pompeo and former White House strategist Steve Bannon as a "pair of lying clowns", and blasted Bannon as a "Cold War living fossil". Bannon last week said on a US far-right talk show that China had committed a "biological Chernobyl" against America and advocated the theory that the virus originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, echoing recent White House rhetoric. Advertisement

In today's column, the Global Times carried on slamming Pompeo for his allegation that there was 'enormous evidence' showing the virus escaped from a lab in Wuhan, where the pandemic first emerged in December.

The author also highlighted other theories that pointed the virus's origin to the US.

The article said: 'Some Chinese, Japanese and even Americans have long suspected that some COVID-19 patients turned up when the US seasonal flu began last winter.

'There are even some reports that the lipoid pneumonia cases from vaping e-cigarettes observed in the US last year were actually the COVID-19 cases.

'But these theories cannot be promoted as an official conclusion, especially by governments.

'The world's top scientists believe the virus came from the nature. No US scientist has proven it came from a laboratory in Wuhan. Where can Pompeo find what he calls 'enormous evidence?'

The pandemic has killed more than 69,000 people and infected over 1.2 million in the US

The US has become the country worst-hit by the deadly disease. Pictured, people wear protective face masks as they wait in line to receive free food in Brooklyn, NYC, on April 24

Last week Trump told reporters that he had seen proof that suggests the virus originated in the lab, but he did not go into detail.

The US intelligence community believes that COVID-19 was not 'manmade or genetically modified', but it is investigating whether it was caused by 'an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan'.

Dr Anthony Fauci, America's top infectious disease expert, has said that 'no evidence' shows the coronavirus escaped from a Chinese lab - contradicting repeated claims by the Trump administration.

'We've said from the beginning that this was a virus that originated in Wuhan, China,' Pompeo said on ABC. 'We took a lot of grief for that from the outset. Remember, China has a history of infecting the world, and they have a history of running substandard laboratories,' he added

Chinese officials and scientists have denied that there is any connection between the outbreak and the Institute of Virology in Wuhan.

Beijing insists the WHO has found no evidence that the novel coronavirus was manmade.

Dr Yuan Zhiming, the deputy head of the establishment, previously told Chinese state-run outlet CGTN that 'there's no way this virus came from us.'

Dr Yuan said that a manmade coronavirus would be beyond human intelligence as he rejected claims that the virus was artificially engineered.

Chinese officials have denied there is any connection between the outbreak and the Institute of Virology in Wuhan. The picture shows researchers working in the lab in February, 2017

Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of the Global Times, last Friday accused Trump of 'publicly lying about China'. He wrote in a column 'Why is the American public so easily fooled?'

China's President Xi is facing widespread doubts that his government has covered up the true scale or the origin of the outbreak.

As many as 232,000 people may have contracted the disease in China during the epidemic, experts in Hong Kong believe. The figure is nearly three times the official tally released by Beijing.

World leaders, including Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, have hinted their disapproval of Chinese tactics of false information amid the ongoing pandemic.

An internal report from China reveals that global anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Dr Yuan Zhiming (pictured), the deputy head of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, told CGTN 'there's no way this virus came from us'. He also refuted claims that the virus was man-made

The backlash, led by the US, needs to be prepared in a worst-case scenario for armed confrontation between the two global powers, according to sources familiar with the document.

The US accuses China of covering up the outbreak, hiding its real origin and taking advantage of the crisis to push its territorial ambitions.

China accuses the US of carrying out 'smear campaigns' and avoiding its responsibilities in containing the disease. A spokesperson has also suggested that the virus might have been brought to Wuhan by US troops.
There is an ongoing humanitarian crisis in New Jerseys long-term care facilities. Approximately 40% of state COVID-19 deaths involve their residents, while only about 1% of state residents live in them. While many have blamed the facilities, current COVID-19 policy recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state health department for long-term care facilities are disastrous and have accelerated the pandemic.

Currently, these facilities are instructed to keep housing COVID-19-positive individuals, trying to take care of them as well as possible, while simultaneously trying to keep all residents in their rooms to avoid being exposed. However, because this coronavirus is highly infectious, having infected residents in the same facility with non-infected ones puts this second group more at risk. This is especially a problem where large numbers of residents have dementia. They may not remember to stay in their rooms, and staff have to redirect them repeatedly.

Further, because residents in facilities with COVID-19 outbreaks are confined to their rooms, all care for all residents must occur on a one-to-one basis. These facilities thus need more staff than usual to maintain the same level of care. However, during the pandemic, staff shortages have been reported at facilities throughout the state.

Gov. Phil Murphy and the State of New Jersey need to act immediately to slow the number of fatalities in our long-term care facilities. Two things must be done.

First, we need separate accommodations where COVID-19-positive residents can be quarantined and cared for. Numerous empty hotel and dorm rooms throughout the state can be repurposed for isolating long-term-care patients with COVID-19 who need assistance, but do not have symptoms that require hospitalization.

Second, due to widespread staffing shortages and the current need for one-on-one care, the governor should send in the National Guard and/or other medically trained professionals to all facilities with COVID-19 outbreaks.

It is time to stop just talking about deaths in our long-term care facilities. How many more seniors have to get sick and die before we actually try to do something to help?

Mona Singh, Professor of Computer Science, Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University

Rent holiday would shift taxes to homeowners

Assemblywoman Britnee Timberlake, D-Essex, recently wrote an op-ed (Both renters and homeowners need economic relief during this crisis) touting her proposed legislation that would suspend payments of mortgage loans and tenant rent with no penalties or added interest for up to 180 days.

While I respect the assemblywoman, A-3948 is a temporary COVID-19 response for tenants that will create long-term financial hardships for homeowners and landlords. Unfortunately, it would create the biggest property tax shift in New Jerseys history.

Multi-family housing owners in New Jersey currently pay over $1 billion in property taxes. These property assessments are based on net operating income, which is rent revenue, minus expenses. Given that A-3948 would reduce by up to one half the annual rent revenue for every multi-family property in this state, that would result in a massive reduction in property tax revenue supporting municipalities. If this property tax revenue disappears, the difference will need to be made up by homeowners.

Even if Timberlakes bill is not enacted, we can expect massive tax increases to make up for lost revenue and increased expenses due to the coronavirus virus. Everyone is struggling. The last thing we need right now is an additional property tax increase that could have been avoided.

A-3948 is not an answer we can live with, and homeowners shouldnt stand for it.

David Brogan, Executive Director, New Jersey Apartment Association, Monroe

Reserve $4 million for antibody tests, not zoo amphitheater

Gov. Phil Murphy is doing a terrific job leading the state through the COVID-19 pandemic. While he is searching for ways to address catastrophic financial shortfalls, may I suggest an easy find?

Deny Essex Countys request of a $4 million appropriation from the state Department of Community Affairs for the unnecessary $8 million amphitheater project at the countys Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange. The governor can do this.

The state needs money now for testing, for our neighbors who are hurting and for frontline workers. We dont need a project which destroys nature to crowd 500 people together in an age of social distancing to watch animal shows on Jumbotron screens. Our community has spoken out: We do not want this.

At a time when rationing has made it even more difficult for Newark residents to get lead-free water and so many are newly unemployed, this is simply not a priority. Stop the funding. Such action would immediately provide $4 million to the states hurting budget without borrowing and forcing us to pay it back later with an increased sales tax, a tax which falls heaviest on the poor.

Joyce Rudin, Coalition to Save South Mountain Reservation, West Orange

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No one knew the Geneva Agreement's signing ending Vietnam's French-American War (19451954) was imminent. This included the Vietnamese, French, Europeans, and Africans who fought at Cau Lo in northern Vietnam's Red River Delta

on July 14, 1954, nine weeks after Vietnam's victory over France in the prolonged battle at Dien Bien Phu and a week before the Geneva signing.

HISTORIC: The Geneva Conference in 1954 decided to split Vietnam into two: the North under the administration of the Ho Chi Minh Government, the South under the pro-French, US-supported Sai Gon regime. VNA/VNS Archives

The officers of the 36th Regiment, 308th Division of the PAVN (People's Army of Vietnam) were famous for devising innovative strategy and for protecting their troops, yet at Cau Lo the PAVN lost one-third of a full-strength regiment318 soldiers. Most lie in nameless graves.

How could this huge loss have happened?

The answer? Geography, strong French defences, and American heavy weapons.

But that's not all.[1]

The PAVN's Le Hong Phong Campaign four years earlier in the autumn of 1950 precipitated a string of victories on Route 4, the track running along the Vietnamese-Chinese border from Cao Bang in the mountainous far north to the East Sea (sometimes known outside Vietnam and the Philippines as the South China Sea).

Vietnamese control of Route 4 opened the route for arms coming from the Soviet Union and China. It also created a crisis in French morale, precipitated leadership dilemmas in Hanoi and Paris, and shifted American alarm about the Chinese in Korea to include worries that the Chinese would invade the Red River Delta. The French military leaders evacuated their wives and children from Hanoi and the port city of Hai Phong. They briefly considered abandoning the rice-rich Red River Delta.[2]

However, everything changed two months later, on December 17, 1950, with the arrival in Sai Gon of French General de Lattre announcing his unprecedented dual roles of high commissioner for Indochina and commander of the French Far-East Expeditionary Corps. French historian General Yves Gras described de Lattre as a World War II hero, who projected "an image of grandeur" and whose "attitude proclaimed a total rupture with the shameful past."[3]

On March 17, 1950 de Lattre secured funding for building his "redoubt",[4] which he based on the German Westwall Siegfried Line, also known as the Dragons' Teeth. De Lattre planned to protect the Red River Delta with a line comprising 1,240 bunkers capable of withstanding 155-mm shells. He had completed 700 bunkers when he reported in person to the US State Department in Washington on September 17, 1951.

According to a State Department memo, General de Lattre insisted that "there was mutual agreement that colonialism was a dead issue.  It was his responsibility to stay on the job in Indochina because it was his duty, but it must be remembered that it was the American battlefield as well as the French."[5]

Perhaps to help secure funding during the communist scare, General de Lattre insisted, again according to a State Department memo, that his redoubt was "not for defense against VM [Viet Minh, the PAVN forces] but against possible Chinese invasion",[6] which he predicted to be at least several months away. A year later, President Ho Chi Minh, writing "Behind the Green Bamboo Hedge" on January 10, 1952, repeated a quotation by a "quisling" (bu nhin) minister of state in L'Observateur (The Observer): "'[de Lattre de] Tassigny has finished his great defensive perimeter, but the Viet Minh troops still cross it at night.'"[7]

The de Lattre Line cordoning off the Red River Delta stretched about 350 kilometres, starting from Tien Yen on the Chinese border west of Mong Cai. It circled around Hai Phong, Hanoi, and Ninh Binh, and then it reached south to the East Sea. The Line enclosed not only the sea port at Hai Phong but also airports, strategic highways, and railroads. Its concrete blockhouses with mutually supportive artillery placements had long sight-lines across the plains to adjacent blockhouses. Roads provided easy access for French tanks and trucks bringing troop reinforcements.

French and American reconnaissance aircraft, supply planes, and bombers stationed at delta airfields were freed from dipping and diving around the mountains that had harboured PAVN anti-aircraft guns in secret bunkers overlooking the French base in the Dien Bien Phu Plain. Further, tight French control of village populations in the Red River Delta had forced local senior revolutionary leaders to work from sites the DRVN (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) held in the mountains.

Cau Lo Post (known to the French as Camp Erulin) was a key link in the de Lattre Line at the juncture between then Routes 13 and 17 in Lan Mau Commune, Luc Nam District, Bac Giang Province. It also protected a French airstrip.

By mid-1954, the post had eight concrete blockhouses, six of which had been renovated, two new bunkers, and four encircling barbed-wire barriers separated by mine fields ten to fifteen metres wide. A French officer and a hundred European and African troops guarded the site with four heavy machine guns, 18 medium machine guns, 20 small machine guns, an 81-mm mortar, three 60-mm mortars, as well as sub-machine guns and rifles.[8]

Pham Hong Cu, a political officer for the 36th Regiment and a brother-in-law to General Vo Nguyen Giap, met the Bac Giang leaders in the mountains and secured a list of activists undercover in the Cau Lo area. Then Hong Cu went undercover and worked in secret with the local leaders to devise a detailed assault plan.

The PAVN troops would rely on local residents for food, supplies, and first aid. Since the 36th Regiment lacked tanks, artillery, and anti-aircraft guns, the soldiers under regimental commander Pham Hong Son, also a brother-in-law to General Giap, protected themselves for their impending assault by digging trenches around the seemingly impenetrable post.[9]

The 36th Regiment did overrun Cau Lo Post and captured sixty-something prisoners and twenty-eight assorted heavy and medium weapons.[10] Yet despite careful planning and trenching, the PAVN attack ended in a disaster, with the loss of 318 troops.

Why?

The answer? Napalm.

Napalm, an American invention, is jellied gasoline, which the United States manufactured and supplied during the French-American War. The name comes from naphthenic and palmitic acids, two of the chemicals used in the manufacturing process that chemists in a secret laboratory at Harvard University had developed during World War II. Whenever napalm canisters strike a target, they explode, sucking up oxygen and engulfing the area in flames and thick, black smoke. The United States used napalm during World War II and the Korean War, supplied it to France during the French-American War, and continued to employ it during the American War (19541975).

President Ho Chi Minh wrote about napalm during the French-American War, citing, "'Made in the USA.'  Material aid [to France] increased markedly from June 1950 after the Americans began to interfere in Korea. The United States provided France with airplanes, warships, transport vehicles, military equipment, and napalm bombs."[11]

Ho Chi Minh mentioned napalm on September 9, 1952 when writing about French Catholics' opposition to the war [12] and wrote again about French Catholics' two specific objections"every war of invasion" and "use of horrible weapons, such as napalm, etc."[13] That second article appeared on July 9, 1954, less than a week before the Battle of Cau Lo and less than two weeks before the signing of the Geneva Agreement.

ICONIC: The Pulitzer-winning photo of 'Napalm Girl' by Nick Ut, then an Associated Press photographer, touched the hearts of millions people around the world. AP Photo

The Pentagon Papers, the top-secret study that US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara commissioned on June 17, 1967 to explore the history of the American War in Vietnam and which The Washington Post and The New York Times bravely published in June 1971, included a memorandum from Admiral Arthur Radford, chair of the US Joint Chiefs-of-Staff, to President Eisenhower on March 24, 1954 regarding C-119s and napalm: "[French] General Ely affirmed the gravity of the situation at Dien Bien Phu stating the outcome as 50-50, and emphasised the great importance of that battle from the political and psychological standpoint. ... He was given approval to use C-119 transport aircraft to drop Napalm provided no U.S. crews were involved."[14]

C-119s could carry nine containers of napalm, each with ninety canisters. This memo reveals official US sanctioning at the highest level of napalm's use, but the memo's date does not reflect the first French use of napalm in Indochina, which was at Vinh Yen in Vietnam's Northern Region [Tonkin] on January 13, 1951, with newly arrived General de Lattre supervising. At that time, before de Lattre's lobbying in Washington during mid-September 1951, the United States covered between 40 per cent and 50 per cent of the French costs of the war.[15]

REMEMBER: General Pham Hong Cu put forward a campaign to build a memorial for the soldiers who died of napalm used by the French troops three days before the signing of the Agreement on Peace in Indochina in Geneva in 1954. Photo courtesy of Nhan Dan newspaper

In IEN BIEN PHU: Rendezvous with History, General Vo Nguyen Giap alluded to napalm, writing that the French used B-26 aircraft to drop napalm [16] and that "reconnaissance planes flew ahead to search so that fighter aircraft could drop napalm." [17] He wrote that French soldiers hid cases containing forty litres of napalm in the mountains [18] and noted that PAVN soldiers had dug shelters for protection from napalm. [19] He stated that the French dropped napalm on PAVN supply routes, particularly on Co Noi and Pha Din Passes.[20] He mentioned napalm dropped on PAVN troops digging the trenches that encircled Dien Bien Phu [21] and noted that the French used napalm at Dominique 1 and Dominique 2. [22]

Nevertheless, because of high humidity and rains, the napalm used at Dien Bien Phu did not spread fires as widely or as intensely as the French and their American advisors and funders had anticipated. Bernard Fall provides specifics in his entry for March 23, 1954, the day before Admiral Radford's memorandum to US President Eisenhower about granting French General Ely permission to use C-119 transport aircraft to drop napalm:

"Late in the afternoon the garrison was treated to the French Air Force's Operation 'Neptune'a massive napalm bombardment of the enemy trench position around Dien Bien Phu. While the sheet of flame and black smoke creeping over the hills were impressive, the application of napalm on a waterlogged rain forest seemed of dubious efficiency. A few minutes after the end of the barrage, ground observers reported that the napalm had burned but had not set spreading fires. The following morning, [French] headquarters at Dien Bien Phu reported laconically that the effect had 'not yielded observable results.' Understandably, the [French] Air Force launched Operation 'Eole' on the stretch of Road 41 leading into the valley of Dien Bien Phu. This effort did not yield observable results, either."[23]

Yet although in his memoir General Giap mentions the battles in Bac Giang Province after the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, he gives no specifics about Cau Lo.

THINGS CHANGE: Today many people know little about the Cau Lo battle in Luc Nam District in Bac Giang Province. The region now boasts lush green lychee orchards and the refreshing Suoi Mo Waterfall. Photo dulichbacgiang.gov.vn

Now, looking back, the causes of the historical silence shrouding Cau Lo's losses from napalm seem obvious:

The horror of 318 soldiers burnt alivemost beyond recognition in their protective trencheswas unspeakable.

Notification of families of the Cau Lo deceased would have taken months and, as happens with military notifications worldwide, would not have included details about the cause of death.

The seemingly impenetrable blockhouses had protected the French, Europeans, and Africans from the holocaust, while the remaining troops from the 36th Regiment marched five miles to Chi Tac Post, which they captured three days later, on July 17, three days before the Geneva signing.

By the time of the Battle of Cau Lo, the United States was covering nearly 80 per cent of the French costs of the war. American advisors in Hanoi must have known about Cau Lo, but they may not have reported the napalm results upwards.

The Cau Lo Battle coincided with US Secretary of State Dulles' Paris trip, which the secretary had announced on July 12, for a meeting on July 13 and 14 with French Premier Mendes-France and British Foreign Secretary Eden. The PAVN victory came amidst the DRVN's need to project impressive conquests to affect the Geneva Conference, when clarity about the final Agreement (which French Premier Mendes-France had promised would be signed by July 20) had yet to crystalise.[24]

The signing of the Geneva Agreement at midnight Geneva time on July 20, 1954 threw Vietnam into turmoil to forestall the efforts of US Colonel Edward Lansdale's CIA team to undermine the DRVN in North Vietnam and US General Mike O'Daniel's US efforts to replace France as sponsor of the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) in South Vietnam.

Historians on all sides may have buried the Battle of Cau Lo, but the tragedy will always haunt the 318 napalm victims' families and the 36th Regiment's surviving veterans. Among those most haunted was Le Binh (?  c. 2016), a 36th Regiment veteran who spent seventeen years to verify the names of the 318 and to secure funding from regimental, local, and national sources for a monument near the four Cau Lo cemeteries. Only 111 of the graves are identified, but the monument lists all 318 who lost their lives.[25]

The napalm holocaust at Cau Lo will always haunt the Vietnamese who come to pray in silence before the Cau Lo Monument, hoping that fragrant smoke from the sticks of incense they light reaches the four cemeteries and soothes the victims' souls.

* Writer's Tag Line: Lady Borton's annotated translation of IEN BIEN PHU: Rendezvous with History by victorious Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap is forthcoming from Ohio University Press in Athens, Ohio. This American edition includes new annotations, Vietnamese photographs, maps, a first-time map of General Giap's base on Muong Phang Mountain overlooking the French base at ien Bien Phu, a chronology, and an exhaustive index.

Endnotes:

[1] Interview with Pham Hong Cu, Ha Noi, Viet Nam, August 19, 2019. At the time of the Battle of Cau Lo, Pham Hong Cu was a political commissar for the 36th Regiment. He retired as a lieutenant general and deputy head of the PAVN Political Department. Now in his nineties, General Hong Cu (1926) is among the few PAVN senior officers from the French-American War who can still describe that war's various battles.

[2] General Yves Gras, Histoire de la Guerre d'Indochine (History of the Indochina War) (Paris: Plon, 1979), 364-65.

[3] Gras, 367. Translated by the author.

[4] Gras, 398.

[5] "Minutes of the First Meeting with General de Lattre de Tassigny at the Department of State, September 17, 1951, 10:30 a.m.," Document 272, US Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951, Asia and the Pacific, Volume VI, Part I, see: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1951v06p1/d272. (This is a very interesting document!) Accessed: September 11, 2019.

[6] "The Minister at Saigon (Heath) to the Secretary of State, secret, Saigon, January 21, 1951noon," Document 178, Ibid., see: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1951v06p1/d178. Accessed: September 11, 2019.

[7] Ho Chi Minh (writing as C.B.), "Sau Luy Tre Xanh" ("Behind the Green Bamboo Hedge"), Nhan Dan (The People, [the Party newspaper]), Number 40, January 10, 1952 in Ho Chi Minh: Toan Tap, (Ho Chi Minh: Collected Works), Volume 7, 19511952 (Ha Noi: NXB Chinh Tri Quoc Gia [National Political Publishing House], 2011), 276-77. Translated by the author.

[8] Nguyen Nam Phuong, Ve Cac Tong Tu Lenh, Tu Lenh Chien Truong Nhat - Phap Trong Cuoc Chien Tranh Xam Luoc Viet Nam (Regarding the General Command and the Japanese  French Command during The[ir] Wars Invading Viet Nam) (Ha Noi, NXB Chinh Tri Quoc Gia [National Political Publishing House], 2016), 197-98. Translated by the author.

Nguyen Nam Phuong, Ve Cac Tong Tu Lenh, Tu Lenh Chien Truong Nhat - Phap Trong Cuoc Chien Tranh Xam Luoc Viet Nam (Ha Noi, NXB Chinh Tri Quoc Gia, 2016), 197-98.

[9] Interview with Political Officer Pham Hong Cu. Battle Commander Pham Hong Son (19232013) does not mention the battle in his memoir, Nua oi Chien Tran (Half a Life in Battle), which covers the French-American War and has been published as the first half of Nho va Quen (Remembering and Forgetting. See: Pham Hong Son and ang Anh ao, Nho va Quen (Remembering and Forgetting) (Ha Noi, NXB Phu Nu [Women's Publishing House], 2011). Phan Hong Son's wife, ang Anh ao, compiled the second half about the American War (19541975) from Pham Hong Son's letters and documents as he was descending into Alzheimer's Disease. By the time of publication, Pham Hong Son could sign his name on books but could no longer recognise acquaintances.

[10] "Tran Cau Lo (Cau Lo Battle), Dung Nuoc, Giu Nuoc (Establish the Country, Protect the Country), https://www.quansuvn.net/index.php?topic=31575.180. Accessed: September 11, 2019.

[11] Ho Chi Minh, writing as DIN, "Bon e Quoc Cuop Nuoc Khong Bao Gio Co The No Dich Dan Toc Viet Nam Anh Dung" (The Imperialists Seizing the Country Can Never Enslave the Heroic Vietnamese People), Ho Chi Minh: Toan Tap (Ho Chi Minh: Collected Works), Volume 7, 19511952 (Ha Noi: NXB Chinh Tri Quoc Gia [National Political Publishing House], 2011), 301. Translated by the author.

[12] Ho Chi Minh, writing as C.B., "Cong Giao Phap Chong Chien Tranh Xam Luoc O Viet Nam" (French Catholics Oppose the French War of Invasion in Viet Nam), Nhan Dan (The People, [the Party newspaper]), Number 73, September 11, 1952, Ibid., 491.

[13] Ho Chi Minh, writing as C.B., "Cong Giao Phap Chong Chien Tranh Xam Luoc Viet Nam," (French Catholics Oppose the War of Invasion in Viet Nam), Nhan Dan (The People, [the Party newspaper]), Number 202, July 7-9, 1954, Ho Chi Minh: Toan Tap (Ho Chi Minh: Collected Works), Volume 8, 19531954 (Ha Noi: NXB Chinh Tri Quoc Gia [National Political Publishing House], 2011), 541. Translated by the author.

[14] Arthur Radford, "Memorandum for the President", March 24, 1954, The Pentagon Papers, Part 5-B-3b, 288-90. For scans of the actual files, see: https://nara-media-001.s3.amazonaws.com/arcmedia/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-V-B-3b.pdf. Accessed: September 11, 2019.

[15] Maurice de Poitevin, La Guerre d'Indochine (The Indochina War), Chapter 8, see: http://www.lauragais-patrimoine.fr/HISTOIRE/INDOCHINE/SOMMAIRE.html. Accessed: September 11, 2019.

[16] Vo Nguyen Giap, IEN BIEN PHU: Rendezvous with History, translated by Lady Borton (Ha Noi: NXB The Gioi [World Publishers] 2017, forthcoming from Ohio University Press),

[17] Giap, IEN BIEN PHU: iem hen lich su

[18] Giap, IEN BIEN PHU: iem hen lich su

[19] Giap, IEN BIEN PHU: iem hen lich su

[20] Giap, IEN BIEN PHU: iem hen lich su

[21] Giap, IEN BIEN PHU: iem hen lich su

[22] Giap, 406. IEN BIEN PHU: iem hen lich su

[23] Bernard B. Fall, HELL IN A VERY SMALL PLACE: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu (Philadelphia, New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1966), 176.

[24] For US Department of State documents about the Geneva Conference on Indochina, July 12-21, 1954, Documents 894-1035, see: Foreign Relations of the United States, 19521954, The Geneva Conference, Volume XVI: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1952-54v16/ch7subch66. That link is for July 12. Click on the right-hand arrow for subsequent documents. Accessed: September 11, 2019.

[25] Pham Hong Cu, "Tri An 318 Liet Si Cua Trung oan".

Lady Borton*

Attempts to preserve keepsakes from resistance wars Vietnams history of resistance wars against French colonialism and American imperialism has given it many heroes and magnanimous stories.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Business owner Naim Khan, 67, passed away on April 13 died in Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze, of complications due to coronavirus (COVID-19.) He owned two 5-Eleven Delis, both in Port Richmond.

A native of Karachi, Pakistan, Naim came to the United States in the early 1970s, first to North Carolina where he attended college for business. He came to New York City and stayed with friends on Staten Island where he eventually called Port Richmond his home.

He always wanted to come here. He loved New York. He loved the city life, said Omer, one of Naims two sons and four children.

Naims career brought him to KFC, then to work at an import-export business in Manhattan. He married his wife, Farah, in 1986.

Naim Khan is survived by his wife Farah Khan.

His two delis, both named 5-Eleven, are located 220 Port Richmond Avenue and 760 Port Richmond Avenue. In normal times they are open 24 hours.

My dad left an impression on every single person he has met. He was kind, generous, loving and selfless -- gave everyone the shirt off his back and provided people with opportunities no matter who they are and where they have come from, said his daughter, Zahra.

Naim Khan, left, succumbed to the coronavirus (COVID-19) on April 19, 2020. He is survived by his wife Farah Khan and four children Omer, Zahra, Sadia and Humza Khan.

Naim lived in Port Richmond with the family down the block from the delis. His children said residents in the community knew him well and would ring the bell at home when they needed something. Zahra said that he would hear requests, then call ahead to one of the delis to be sure groceries were handed over to whomever was asking.

Zahra said the family continues to receive calls from patrons expressing condolences. Each shared stories of Naims generosity and thoughtfulness, acts of kindness of which the family was not aware.

Zahra said, He has guided many friends, family and strangers to get back on their feet from providing shelter, food, jobs and money. He was everybodys go-to with anything -- he always had a solution and loved helping literally everyone. Days prior to his death a worker texted us stating my dad had said to him we are family now, we take care of each other."

She added, As the owner of 5-Eleven he made many connections and touched many lives, a true pillar of the community. He was everyones favorite and will truly be missed.

Naim had a Muslim burial on April 20 in Forest Green Cemetary, Morganville, N.J. Mourners rode in a drive-by funeral as only a handful of family were allowed graveside.

He is survived by his wife, Farah Khan, and four children Omer, Zahra, Sadia and Humza Khan.
Cambridge Police Superintendent Jack Albert apologized Monday evening for inadvertently posting a profane tweet about U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III on the police departments Twitter account.

The Sunday tweet, which was quickly deleted, commented on a WCVB story in which Kennedy criticized the Trump administrations handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another liberal (expletive) jerk who just happens to be better then the clown hes running against. Sad for us," read the tweet. Albert had thought he posted the comments on his personal account.

In a statement released by the police department Monday night, Albert, a 32-year-member of the force, said he wanted to take full ownership and responsibility for his regrettable actions." He said he failed to meet the high standards and expectations of the department and of his leadership role.

Unfortunately, in a moment of heated political debate with friends, I posted commentary that was out of character and not something I am proud of," he said. "I  not the department  deserve the criticism that has been directed to the police department over the last 24 hours.

Please see a statement shared by #CambMA Police Superintendent Jack Albert following a post that was briefly published yesterday on the Cambridge Police Departments Twitter account: https://t.co/W8e8ykzclr pic.twitter.com/JooCTAJ8S3  Cambridge Police (@CambridgePolice) May 4, 2020

Detracting from the extraordinary efforts of his colleagues during the coronavirus crisis because of my poor lapse in judgment is something that I will forever carry with me," he added.

Albert also apologized to Sen. Ed Markey, Kennedy, the community and police department.

The police department on Sunday said the tweet was inappropriate, unprofessional and disrespectful.

The department apologized to to Kennedy and the individuals the statement was directed at," calling the incident regrettable." It also noted the officers actions did not reflect the professionalism of the department.

The department said Monday that Albert is subject to disciplinary action, but state law dictates that it cannot disclose any specific actions taken involving such personnel matters.

Cambridge police have also revised their social media protocols, limiting administrative access to the director of communications and media relations.

Rest assured, the Cambridge Police Department remains committed to providing the very highest-level of service to our community and will work tirelessly to restore any trust that may have been broken as a result of this unfortunate incident, the department said.

Kennedy, a Democrat, represents Massachusettss 4th District, which includes much of Bristol and Norfolk counties. He is challenging Markey in a Democratic primary.

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The Orissa High Court on Tuesday advised the state police not to be in a hurry to arrest the accused in cases of cognizable offence, where the maximum sentence is up to seven years in jail unless it is necessary for maintaining law and order in the state in the light of the extraordinary circumstances due to coronavirus pandemic outbreak.

While extending court orders on eviction, anticipatory bail, interim bail and parole till June 18, an HC bench comprising justice CR Dash and justice SK Panigrahi of Orissa High Court said that unless there is a need for an arrest to be made in the interest of law and order, the police should not be in a hurry to arrest those accused of cognizable offences punishable with a maximum sentence of up to 7 years in jail. The order will remain in effect till June 18.

With 185 platoons of police force engaged in ensuring the enforcement of lockdown across Odisha, the High Court advisory is likely to come as a relief for the police.

The court said that interim protection given in all anticipatory bail applications by it or the sessions courts, either expired or expiring today, will stand extended till June 18.
Lyon: As the coronavirus scythed through nursing homes, creating a deadly path, Valerie Martin vowed to herself that the story would be different in the home she runs in France.

Resident Mr Chatal smiles during a fake wedding with a nurse at the care home in Lyon. Credit:AP

The action she took to stop the virus from infecting and killing the vulnerable older adults in her care was both drastic and effective: Martin and her staff locked themselves in with the 106 residents.

For 47 days and nights, staff and residents of the Vilanova nursing home on the outskirts of the east-central city of Lyon waited out the coronavirus storm together, while COVID-19 killed tens of thousands of people in other homes across Europe, including more than 9000 in France.

"I said, 'No. Not mine. My residents still have so much to live for,'" Martin said in an interview. "I don't want this virus to kill them when they have been through so much."
Around 300 Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) living in Australia, who were stranded in India, will fly back to Sydney in a special chartered flight from New Delhi on Tuesday.

Pricebeat, a private company, arranged for the aircraft and made the bookings for Singapore Airlines. They will leave from Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport at 9pm.

However, this is not the first such flight to be operated between India and Australia following the nationwide lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from March 25.

The Australian High Commission has been operating repatriation flights from April 11. Evacuation flights for NRIs and Australians have been operated from cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Delhi.

These evacuation flights were operated by airlines such as Qatar Airways and Lion Air.

As of April 29, 22,769 stranded passengers have been flown back to Australia.
The first two cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Bailey County.

The announcement was made Sunday just four days after local government leaders announced plans to reopen the City of Muleshoe and give businesses the option of opening back up from anywhere between 25 to 50 percent capacity.

The Muleshoe Area Medical Center has conducted three positive tests, according to a news release from the Muleshoe and Bailey County. All three individuals are Track Dairy employees and two are Bailey County residents. Track Dairy is located east of the city on Highway 84.

Officials are doing what they can to protect the privacy of the two individuals who tested positive so no additional identifying information was provided.

The news release also states that the cases are being investigated by the Texas Department of State Health Services and by local health authorities to determine others who may have been exposed.

Track Dairy is cooperating with state and local officials to isolate anyone who may have been exposed, according to the news release.

If you believe you may have been exposed to any of these individuals or have recently worked at or visited Track Dairy, we ask that you call your local health provider to determine if you meet the qualifications to get tested, the news release reads.

Until Sundays cases were announced, Bailey County had been the only area county with no positive confirmed cases. Some started experiencing positive cases in March. So local government officials have been preparing to activate the proper protocol for Muleshoe and Bailey County for weeks.

This news should not come as a surprise to anyone and this is not the time for anyone to panic, the news release reads.

Officials continue to encourage citizens to practice social distancing, wash your hands, wear face masks if you feel it is necessary and avoid going out in public if you feel sick or have COVID-19 symptoms, according to the news release.

Continue to take care of your families, check on your neighbors, and we will all get through this together, the news release states.
Mumbai, May 5 : Bollywood expressed shock and concern over the mindset of certain teenage boys in Delhi after the Boys Locker Room controversy exploded.

Leaked screenshots of a private Instagram chat group comprising some teenage school students from the Capital has stirred up a storm over rape culture in India. Many of these boys were allegedly seen sharing photos of underage girls, objectifying them, and planning "gang rapes".

"This a multi-faceted problem. Because everyone is still squeamish about sex education in our populous/moralistic country, teenagers are confusing porn for sex education! And now data is free. How dangerous! This will explode in our faces in the next five years sadly, I reckon," tweeted Richa Chadha.

Swara Bhasker expressed: "#boyslockerroom a telling tale of how toxic masculinity starts young! Underage boys gleefully planning how to rape & gangrape minor girls. Parents & teachers must address this with those Kids.. Not enough to 'hang rapists'.. we must attack the mentality that creates rapists!" Chandan Roy Sanyal shared: "15 year old School Boys from distinguished delhi schools talk about raping the girls in their own class. Shocked to the core !!" Meanwhile, the Cyber Cell of Delhi Police have detained a 15-year-old student of a prominent school in South Delhi in connection with the Instagram chat group where rapes were glorified and photos of underage girls were being shared and objectified. Twenty two other boys have also have been identified.
Forbearance Problem Remains Huge, But The Pace is Slowing

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) has confirmed the findings that Black Knight reported on Monday morning that, while the number of forbearances in effect as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rise, the rate of increase slowed as April progressed. MBA said its weekly survey found the number of loans in a forbearance plan increased from 6.99 percent of loans being serviced on April 19 to 7.54 of the total as of April 26. MBA estimates that 3.80 million homeowners are now in forbearance.

"The share of loans in forbearance increased once again in the last full week of April, but the pace of new requests slowed," said Mike Fratantoni, MBA's Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. "With millions more Americans filing for unemployment over the week, the level of job market distress continues to worsen. That is why we expect that the share of loans in forbearance will continue to grow, particularly as new mortgage payments come due in May."

Black Knight said in its Mortgage Monitor that the number of new forbearances put in place in the third week of April and thereafter were at about the quarter of the rate as early in the month but said it too expected an increase when May mortgage payments came due.

By investor type, the share of Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance increased relative to the prior week: from 9.73 percent to 10.45 while GSE loans (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) rose 39 basis point to 5.85 percent. The share of other loans (e.g. private label securities and portfolio loans) in forbearance increased relative to the prior week: from 7.52 to 8.30 percent.

Requests for forbearance slowed for the third consecutive week, dropping from 1.14 percent to 0.63 percent. Hold time for phone calls fell from an average of 5.0 minutes to 2.4 minutes and abandonment rates decreased from 9.9 percent to 5.8 percent.

MBA's latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey covers the period from April 20 through April 26, 2020 and represents almost 77 percent of the first-mortgage servicing market (38.4 million loans).
Failure to vaccinate everyone will give rise to new variants, says UN chief

Don't return home, stay back and continue work: Yediyurappa appeals to migrant labourers

India

pti-PTI

Bengaluru, May 05: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Tuesday appealed to migrant labourers stranded in the state due to COVID-19 lockdown not to leave for their home towns and assured them work, pointing to easing of norms allowing construction and industrial activities in non-red zones.

"I appeal to labourers with folded hands don't pay heed to any rumors, it is the responsibility of the government to see to that you get work at the place you were working... don't take hasty decision of going to your natives. Stay here and work, as in the past," he said.

This his the second appeal made by Yediyurappa to the migrant workers since last week and it came after a group of builders met him here amid fears of shortage of labourers.

The chief minister had on Friday urged them to stay back in the state and co-operate with the government in resuming economic activities.

On Tuesday, Yediyurappa held discussions with various builders and officials on issues relating to migrant labourers and restarting of construction activities.

"COVID-19 situation in the state is under control compared to other states. So other than in red zones, there is need to restart businesses, building construction and industrial activities.There is need to control this unnecessary travel of labourers," he told reporters after the meeting.

He said the construction industry representative told him that they have started providing employment to migrant workers in the past few days after lockdown norms were relaxed.

Besides, the builders also said they paid salary and food to the workers during the past one-and-half months despite no work, the chief minister said.

According to sources, the Chief Minister's appeal has come amid fears of shortage of labourers at a time when the government has permitted certain construction and industrial activities to resume in orange and green zones.

The government had recently allowed one-time inter state and inter district movement of those stranded due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

Assuring that government was ready to solve issues that the workers may have, the Chief Minister said the industrialists and builders have agreed to provide employment.

"We are trying to convince large number of labourers who are planning to go back, because of some misconception. Buses will be provided to private organisation on contract basis at a discounted rate and the facility can be utilized for the movement of labourers for work," he said.

Yediyurappa said he has also held discussions with weavers to understand their issues and problems faced by farmers would come up during a meeting scheduled with the Finance department officials. "What all can be done within the the fiscal limitation that we have, we will decide on it soon," he added.
When the coronavirus pandemic began, school custodian Crystal Watts was working five days a week, mopping floors, wiping desks and disinfecting every surface that was touched. She didnt get a mask.

Olivia Hill, a day care teacher, was given the choice to stop working when a child at the facility tested positive for the new coronavirus. She didnt quit. She couldnt afford to.

Watts and Hill, both from San Antonio, are among millions of front-line workers who have continued to work  cleaning buildings, stocking grocery shelves and filling prescriptions  even as COVID-19 has driven most businesses to shutter and residents to stay home.

In Texas and across the country, these front-line employees are predominantly women and are more likely to be people of color than other workers, according to an Associated Press analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

Front-line workers, as defined in the analysis, work in six sectors: health care, building and cleaning services, social services, public transit, grocery, and delivery and warehouse. The category does not include all the government employees or first responders who are considered essential workers, a state designation for those whose work is too critical to stop despite stay-at-home orders.

Sixty-two percent of front-line workers in the 11 Texas cities with the largest populations of front-line workers are women, the analysis shows. Meanwhile, women make up 48% of the total workforce in those cities.

Women held the majority of jobs in cleaning services and health care, and more than 80% of jobs in child care and community and family services in those 11 cities, as well as in 100 cities across the U.S. that have the most front-line workers.

Men are more heavily represented in front-line occupations like trucking, the postal service and public transit, and in fields often responding to emergencies, like police officers and firefighters.

For a nationwide picture, the AP used Census Bureau data to estimate the median proportion of front-line workers in different demographic groups in 100 cities. The Texas Tribune is reporting the median proportion for the 11 Texas cities: Amarillo, Arlington, Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, Irving, Lubbock and San Antonio.

Texas cleaves from other states on racial lines: Both the front-line and overall workforce are more likely to be people of color, particularly Hispanic, in the 11 Texas cities than in the 100 U.S. cities.

Experts say the numbers reflect a stratified economy in which historically undervalued jobs involving caregiving or domestic work are mostly held by women.

The figures are not surprising, said Elizabeth Gregory, director of the Institute for Research on Women, Gender & Sexuality at the University of Houston.

You see that when you go to the grocery store or you go to the hospital or to see your health care provider.  You have women working in positions that are frequently low-paid positions, and they are not only having to go to work, but theyre having to put themselves at risk and are frequently burdened with all the extra work of child care, she said.

Thats how Watts, the custodian, views it. She said its unfair that essential workers are not paid on par with people who can do their job from home on a computer.

Her hours have been reduced to one day a week, though her salary has increased to include hazard pay for the time she is at the school  where shes now painting the facilities. The extra wages are appreciated, but they wont save her life if she gets sick, she said.

Not just money-wise but recognition-wise: It was like we were nothing. Were at the bottom of the totem pole.

Lacking a social safety net

Employees in some front-line fields are more likely to lack a social safety net than other workers, according to the data.

Those in the cleaning sector  including people who provide janitorial services and pest control  are more likely to be Hispanic, renters, noncitizens and foreign-born, and are more likely to have children at home than other workers, including those who hold other front-line jobs, the data shows.

They are also more likely to lack health insurance and to live below the poverty line  $26,200 for a family of four  than other workers.

Employees providing day care and other family services are also more likely to live below the poverty line, compared with workers in the 11 Texas cities.

Hill, the day care teacher in San Antonio, said her job has changed significantly since the pandemic began: There are masks, fewer kids and strict protocols on who can come and go.

But shes grateful she still has work, even though her medically vulnerable dad has retreated to a ranch to self-isolate from Hill and her mom, both front-line workers.

I was definitely worried about being able to pay my bills, Hill said. I do think we are essential because how are the nurses and health care workers and retail employees going to go and do their job if nobodys able to take care of their kids?

Health care professionals are among the most prominent front-line responders to the pandemic, and 73% of those infected by the virus have been women, according to an April report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

They include doctors and nurses, as well as home health providers like Anne-Leslie Tijerina, an occupational therapist whos spent 35 years working with children at schools, at rural hospitals and now in homes.

Although shes started meeting with some of her patients using tele-health, not all of them have internet access or insurance that covers the remote service. Some dont want to sacrifice in-person care. When she does go to a patients house, its with gloves and a mask, which she promptly bags and discards after.

Were going to their homes so that we can get them better, closer to their age or developmental level, she said. We are essential in that respect: The child will lose ground if we dont continue these interventions.

Experts say care work occupations are often associated with women and are not valued economically.

When women went into the workforce, all of the jobs that they were offered or encouraged to take were, at least in the early days, care work  like cleaning, cooking and teaching, said Gregory, with the University of Houston. The dynamic of the pay scale has always been linked to the fact that women did it for free at home anyway, so it never got the kind of status in the wider economy.

Kate Frear, a visiting assistant professor at Southern Methodist Universitys business school, said there are other social norms that affect women workers.

In a dual-earner household with two essential workers, for example, the woman is more likely to sacrifice part of her job to pick up extra duties at home, said Frear, who studies careers and workplace diversity.

Literally scared to return

More employees will be heading back to work as soon as Friday, as Republican Gov. Greg Abbott allows retailers, restaurants and movie theaters to open at limited capacity.

Those workers risk increased exposure to the virus and face limited child care options, as schools are closed.

Licensed child care centers are open only for the children of essential workers, though people lacking child care can refuse to return to work and continue collecting unemployment benefits.

Christina Rodriguez, a waitress for 34 years, has mixed feelings about potentially returning to work at an El Paso Cracker Barrel in the coming weeks.

A self-described people person who is known among regulars, Rodriguez cried in March when was no longer scheduled for shifts. Now shes still waiting for unemployment, has leaned on grown children for financial help and is burning through all her savings  and the phone lines trying to reach the Texas Workforce Commission.

But with a swelling number of coronavirus cases in El Paso, the 54-year-old Rodriguez is literally scared to return, and of accidentally bringing something home from work that sickens her mother, who lives with her.

Im just wary, she said. But Ill do what I have to do to go back to work, because I need to go back to work.

Darla Cameron contributed to this report.

The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Vice President Mike Pence, right, and President Donald Trump watch a video of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaking during a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House, Sunday, April 19, 2020, in Washington.

"I don't think the Republicans want to be in a position where they bail out states that are, that have been mismanaged over a long period of time," the president said.

By contrast, "Florida is doing phenomenal, Texas is doing phenomenal, the Midwest is, you know, fantastic  very little debt," Trump said.

"You look at Illinois, you look at New York, look at California, you know, those three, there's tremendous debt there, and many others," Trump said in an interview with the New York Post published Monday.

WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump said that increased federal funding to help states recover from the coronavirus pandemic is unfair to Republicans, "because all the states that need help  they're run by Democrats in every case."

On Tuesday, Trump went a step further, and suggested that any federal coronavirus aid to states should be conditioned on those cities and states adopting policies that more closely mirror Trump's political priorities.

"Well run States should not be bailing out poorly run States, using CoronaVirus as the excuse! The elimination of Sanctuary Cities, Payroll Taxes, and perhaps Capital Gains Taxes, must be put on the table. Also lawsuit indemnification & business deductions for restaurants & ent." Trump tweeted Tuesday afternoon.

TWEET

The effect of the tweet is to inject the president's priorities into a negotiation that is largely the realm of Congress, which appropriates federal funding. Trump would be required to sign any new bills into law, however.

The White House declined to comment on whether these policy goals were ultimatums, or merely an opening salvo in the negotiations. It's also difficult to separate Trump's demands from his political priorities in an election year. Tax cuts and immigration are two issues in particular that have animated the president's supporters in the past.

The question of whether and how to allocate federal funds to states is emerging as a key fault line for Congress as it prepares to negotiate a fourth coronavirus aid package in the coming weeks.

Democratic House leadership insists that any legislation contain $500 billion in aid for states. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., recently dismissed the idea of allowing states to use federal funds to help them make up for budget shortfalls.

"We're not interested in solving their pension problems for them, we're not interested in rescuing them from bad decisions they've made in the past," McConnell said in a televised interview in late April.

Unlike the federal government, states cannot borrow money to fund ongoing operations. So the tax revenue that has been lost due to the coronavirus will require cuts elsewhere in the states' budgets in order for them to remain balanced.

Both Democratic and Republican governors have pointed out that these revenue shortfalls are likely to mean cuts to social services for the poor and elderly and funding for police, fire departments and schools.

"That's complete nonsense," said Maryland GOP Gov. Larry Hogan, in response to McConnell's characterization of the funds as, essentially, a blue state bailout. "These are well-run states. There are just as many Republicans as Democrats that strongly support this," Hogan, who chairs the National Governors Association, told Politico.

Trump has drawn a distinction between what he calls "a bailout" and merely reimbursing states for coronavirus expenses, but it's a fuzzy line.

"I think Congress is inclined to do a lot of things, but I don't think they're inclined to do bailouts," Trump told the New York Post. "A bailout is different than, you know, reimbursing for the plague."

This is not the first time Trump has cast federal aid to states in nakedly political terms. Last week, he tweeted, "Why should the people and taxpayers of America be bailing out poorly run states (like Illinois, as example) and cities, in all cases Democrat run and managed, when most of the other states are not looking for bailout help? I am open to discussing anything, but just asking?"

As of Tuesday, New York, Trump's home state, has had more than 300,000 cases of the coronavirus, well over 20% of the national total of 1.2 million.

"Every state has coronavirus cases, and it's not just Democratic states that have an economic shortfall. Republican states have an economic shortfall," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday.
Antibodies from a llama in Belgium could provide a treatment against the coronavirus strain responsible for a pandemic that has infected nearly 4 million people and left more than 250,000 dead. Scientists in the United States and Belgium have published a paper on their findings which is being peer-reviewed. The new treatment may be effective even if Covid-19 mutates.

The llama that may save the world is called Winter. She is four years old and lives on a farm in the Belgian countryside along with around 130 other llamas and alpacas.

Researchers in the United States and Belgium have created an antibody which they claim protects human cells from Covid-19.

It glues on the Covid-19 protein (which mechanically breaks into and infects host cells) and blocks it from infecting more cells.

More than 30 scientists from the University of Texas at Austin, the National Institutes of Health (US) as well as Belgium's VIB research institute and Ghent University have been working on this new drug. Their findings were published on 5 May in the scientific journal, Cell, for peer-review.

Antibody discovery

The antibody they discovered was obtained by linking two copies of a special kind of antibody that Winter produced when injected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

This is one of the first antibodies known to neutralise SARS-CoV-2, said Jason McLellan, associate professor of molecular biosciences at UT Austin and co-senior author.

He said vaccines have to be given a month or two before infection to provide protection.

But with antibody therapies, you're directly giving somebody the protective antibodies and so, immediately after treatment, they should be protected, he added.

This would be especially helpful for vulnerable groups such as elderly people.

The llama produced two types of antibodies, one similar to human antibodies and one which is much smaller, called nanobodies. They are the ones of interest to the scientists as they are more versatile.

They have a single piece of protein that binds to the virus. It makes it easier for us to play with and engineer new drugs out of it, explained Professor Nico Callewaert, VIB Institute's director of medical biotechnology at Ghent University and co-author of the paper.

Callewaert told RFI that the nanobodies  reproduced in labs  can be connected to human antibodies enabling the new drug to function correctly in the human body.

The nanobodies can be nebulised and used in an inhaler.

That makes them potentially really interesting as a drug for a respiratory pathogen because you're delivering it right to the site of infection, said Daniel Wrapp, a graduate student in McLellan's lab and co-first author of the paper.

Years of research on coronavirus

The scientists were studying two coronaviruses in 2016 with Winter as part of their experiment.

She was then injected with a piece of Sars virus in a process similar to humans getting shots to immunise them against a virus.

After the new coronavirus appeared in 2019, the genome was published by Chinese scientists in January 2020. We quickly saw the similarities between Sars and SARS-Cov-2, said Callewaert.

Because of the four years of work already accomplished, the scientists were able to move quickly with building a neutralising antibody against SARS-CoV-2 and publish their findings in the Cell scientific journal.

Clinical trials have not started yet. The antibody developed by the scientists has successfully protected human cells and cells taken from the African Green monkey.

Experiments are ongoing

We have a good knowledge of where the antibody binds on the virus and this place is apparently not likely to change readily due to mutation, he added. Evidence of this was shown in 10,000 sequences of the virus genome that have so far been reported.

According to Callewaert, the teams in the United States and Belgium are doing everything they can to go into human trials before the end 2020.

We are working very hard to squeeze everything into less than a year as it usually takes five to six years before you get the first human trials data.
GENEVA: The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday that comments by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo citing evidence that the new coronavirus had emerged from a Chinese laboratory were speculative, and called for a science-based inquiry.

Pompeo said on Sunday there was a significant amount of evidence that the virus emerged from a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan, but did not dispute U.S. intelligence agencies conclusion that it was not man-made.

Dr Mike Ryan, WHOs top emergencies expert, told an online press conference from Geneva:

We have not received any data-specific evidence from the U.S. government relating to the purported origin of the virus. So from our perspective, this remains speculative.

As an evidence-based organisation, Ryan said, the WHO was keen to receive any information on the origin of the virus, as this was exceptionally important for its future control.

So if that data and evidence is available, then it will be for the United States government to decide whether and when it can be shared, he said.

Scientists have advised the WHO that genome sequencing shows the virus to be of natural origin.

Ryan said science, not politics, should be at the heart of exchanges with Chinese scientists on the issue, warning against projecting an aggressive investigation of wrongdoing.

The virus is believed to have originated in bats and jumped to humans via another species. Dr Maria van Kerkhove, a WHO specialist in viruses that make such jumps, said it was important to determine this intermediate host.

As countries begin easing lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of the virus, many hope to contain new clusters of infection through systematic contact tracing, helped by mobile phone apps and other technology.

But Ryan said these did not make more traditional boots-on-the-ground surveillance redundant.

We are very, very keen to stress that IT tools do not replace the basic public health workforce that is going to be needed to trace, test, isolate and quarantine, he said, praising South Korea and Singapore for their strategy.

Ryan said the WHO welcomed recent clinical trial data for Gilead Sciences Incs (GILD.O) antiviral drug remdesivir, saying there were signals of hope for a potential use against COVID-19.

We will be engaging in discussions with Gilead and the U.S. government as to how this drug may be made more widely available as further data emerges on its effectiveness, he said.

Steven Solomon, the WHOs principal legal officer, said two countries had proposed consideration of letting Taiwan attend the WHOs May 18-19 annual health assembly as an observer.

Solomon said the WHO recognised the Peoples Republic of China as the one legitimate representative of China, in keeping with U.N. policy since 1971, and that the question of Taiwans attendance was one for the WHOs 194 member states.

China, which views the island as a wayward Chinese province and not a country, says it represents Taiwan adequately in the WHO.
ACTON, MA  Like many things in Acton these days, community supper at Mt. Cavalry looks different than it did a few months ago. Mt. Cavalry Community Supper has helped feed those in need, but also connect neighbors by facilitating shared meals as part of its mission since 2012. Now, restrictions to limit the spread of the coronavirus have shifted the sit-down dinners to a drive-thru. Still, one thing hasn't changed: Volunteers are running the show.

Mt. Cavalry's small volunteer crew serve dinner each Wednesday and, despite the pandemic, a group of 91 volunteers are still on the roster to help with the weekly community supper at Mt. Cavalry Lutheran Church. In an effort to follow the governor's guidelines on social distancing, volunteers rotate each week in groups of 18 and prepare, pack and hand out 120 meals.

"Each week our very brave volunteers make certain that each guest who joins us in the parking lot of Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church receives a hot nutritious meal and a brief bit of social interaction," said Pamela Farrill who is a board member and the dinner manager at the church.

Farrill said since the pandemic started, she's seen more people showing up for meals and more new faces in addition to the "supper regulars." While most of the working volunteers are now working from home, Farrill said the pandemic has touched the lives of several volunteers, with some furloughed from their jobs or moved to part-time status.

Another challenge the volunteer group has had to navigate at first was that many of the regular volunteers had compromised conditions and couldn't risk possible exposure to the virus. But it didn't take long before a new wave stepped up to help.



"The new are from all walks of life and they are of all ages, high school, college students, families," Farrill said.

Each person who comes to Mt. Cavalry is given a hot meal, dessert and a couple of donated grocery items. Grocery items are donated by Westford Cumberland Farms and much of the food used for the meals comes from Greater Food Bank of Boston.

Story continues

The community has offered support in different ways for volunteers. Farrill said a woman donated over 130 face masks for volunteers and guests in recognition of their service to the community.

"It's like an airport tarmac, there are so many cars that line up for meals," Farrill said. Credit: Pamela Farrill





Mt. Cavalry Community Supper's process has quite literally changed, with less volunteers working in the kitchens and more directing traffic for their drive-thru and handing out meals. Farrill said food preparation and cooking has been the biggest challenge in the wake of the pandemic.

"We can't have a lot of people in the kitchen so we've had to start making simpler meals to save time and energy," Farrill said.

Despite getting used to the new procedure, Farrill said volunteers have made the best of a tough situation and several have brought trays of desserts ready to hand out.

"Behind the volunteers masks there is always a smile  food and friendship is still at Mt. Calvary Community Supper of Acton," Farrill said.

This article originally appeared on the Acton Patch
A Shramik Special train carrying



nearly 1,200 migrants left for Darbhanga in Bihar on Tuesday night from Kalyan junction in neighbouring Thane district of Maharashtra, the Central Railway said.

The end-to-end service departed at 8.37 pm carrying only the registered and nominated passengers cleared by the state government, a release said.

On Monday, the Central Railway had operated two Shramik special trains between Akola-Lucknow and Bhiwandi- Jaipur.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Myanmar Union Election Commission officials prepare ballot papers ahead of the opening of polls at the Maw-Li Polling Station in Sittwe, capital of western Myanmar's Rakhine state, Nov. 8, 2015.

Political parties in Myanmar have urged the Union Election Commission to consult them on whether to postpone the countrys 2020 general election due to the coronavirus pandemic, party officials said Tuesday.

Their call came after election commissioner Myint Naing told state-run radio that the commission would hold the election this year as planned, according to a post on the EUC's Facebook page on Monday.

The UEC is responsible for organizing and overseeing elections, and vetting parliamentary candidates and political parties in Myanmar.

The exact date of the election has yet to be announced, but the commission has said the 2020 vote will be held in November, as it was in 2010 and 2015, despite concerns by the political parties that Myanmar should focus first on controlling the spread of the virus.

UEC members have de-emphasized concerns that the spread of the coronavirus could force the rescheduling of the vote and have noted that South Korea managed to hold a general election in April amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Others argue that Myanmar is not as developed as South Korea and does not have the same resources to control the spread of the virus.

As of Tuesday, Myanmar reported 161 confirmed cases of the virus and six deaths.

In this period of the coronavirus pandemic, all political parties and other concerned organizations should decide whether the general election should be held instead of the Union Election Commission deciding on its own, said Ye Naing Aung, general secretary of the Peoples Party.

Thein Tun Oo, spokesman and central committee member of the opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), agreed that the UEC should not be the sole decision maker.

During the virus pandemic, the Union Election Commission alone should not decide whether the election should be held or not, he said. Its a decision for all. We should decide only after negotiations with all political parties and concerned organizations.



Low voter turnout

Sai Leik, a spokesman for the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), said concerns over the virus may keep voters away from the polls.

During the pandemic, people are facing difficulties, so there could be low public interest in the election, he said.

Sai Leik also said that the current armed conflict in parts of western Myanmars Rakhine and Chin states would make it difficult to hold elections there.

Everyone knows that armed struggles are becoming bigger in Rakhine, Chin, and other places, so it wont be possible to hold elections there at the same time, he said. We need to be able to end the armed conflicts first.

Sai Ye Kyaw Swar Myint, executive director of the Peoples Alliance for Credible Elections, cautioned that the COVID-19 outbreak would prevent the coordination necessary for holding the general election.

There would be very low voter turnout for the election, he said, adding that the current crisis will pose problems for election preparations and management.

All the political parties will not be able to conduct election campaigns, and there will be unfairness, he said. There will be questions raised concerning election standards.

About 100 political parties are expected to contest the 2020 election, according to the online journal The Irrawaddy.



Reported by Kyaw Lwin Oo for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Maung Maung Nyo. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
In a relief for engineering and medical aspirants, the HRD ministry will announce fresh dates for competitive exams - JEE and NEET - on May 5. The exams were postponed due to nationwide lockdown announced to contain the COVID-19 spread.

"The fresh dates will be announced by HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' on May 5. This will put an end to uncertainty for the aspirants. The minister will also interact with students online the same day," a senior ministry official said.

While Joint Entrance Exam-Mains (JEE-MAINS) is conducted for admission to engineering colleges across the country, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) is held for medical colleges.

More than 15 lakh students across the country have registered for NEET this year, which is the gateway to medical colleges in India, whereas more than 9 lakh have registered for JEE Mains, the entrance exam for all other engineering colleges except IITs.

The JEE-Mains is considered as a qualifying exam for JEE-Advanced. The HRD Ministry's National Testing Agency (NTA) had also given students an option to change their opted centres for the two tests as students have moved to different places since the lockdown.

Universities and schools across the country have been closed since March 16 when the centre announced a countrywide classroom shutdown as one of the measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. Later, a nationwide lockdown was announced from March 25, which was extended till May 17.

There is however, no clarity yet on when the pending board exams for class 10 and 12 will be conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

The board had announced that it will conduct pending exams in 29 subjects crucial for promotion and admission to higher education institutions.

The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 1,301 and the number of cases climbed to 39,980 in the country on Sunday, according to the Union health ministry.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 28,046, while 10,632 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the ministry said. The total number of cases include 111 foreign nationals.
Chandigarh, May 5 : With 21,000 NRIs wanting to return home, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday issued a series of directives to contain the coronavirus, including mandatory screening of all returnees with mandatory hotel or home quarantine.

Besides, for those coming from high-risk regions of India, institutional quarantine is a must.

To deal with the additional pressure, the state government has decided to rope in universities and state-run labs, with the Chief Minister sanctioning Rs 12 crore for equipment and operational expenses for six such institutions.

The state has decided to come to the rescue of the Central government testing facilities which are unable to enhance their capacities due to non-availability of kits from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The Chief Minister has directed such centres to purchase kits for use for testing in Punjab from the open market, for which the state will bear the expenses.

The state is currently testing 2,800 people a day, a significant increase from 1,500 per day last week.

The Chief Minister asked the Deputy Commissioners to prepare a list of private hotels that can be utilised for paid quarantine, while asking the Health Department to make an inventory of functional or non-functional private hospitals.

The decisions were announced by the Chief Minister at a virtual meeting with health and medical experts.

Amarinder Singh ordered a readiness audit of level I and II facilities, pointing out that as of now 21,000 Punjabis settled abroad want to return home. He directed the expert committee to formulate its own guidelines and protocols and not take any chances.

Making it clear that he did not believe in the reliability of the certificates that the respective nations were required to give to the returnees, the Chief Minister said the NRIs should be given the option for quarantine, on payment basis, in hotels and at home, under supervision, pending testing, which should be done within 4-5 days of arrival.

On those coming from within the country, the Chief Minister said given the Maharashtra (Nanded) experience, wherein 27 per cent of more than 1,000 Punjabis who had returned so far had already shown positive results, the state would take no chances.

All such returnees would have to be quarantined in state centres, he added.

Earlier in his presentation, expert K.K. Talwar underlined the need for RT-PCR testing of all those returning from red zones.

"If positive, they should be shifted to Level I, II or II healthcare facility as per the clinical status, and if negative, they should be strictly home- quarantined for 14 days, put on COVA app, and follow-ups done by health teams," he said.

Punjab has also stepped up community surveillance, with 50 lakh tests conducted so far, Principal Secretary Medical Education and Research D.K. Tiwari said.

The community surveillance is being carried out mainly to identify and track those who had sneaked into the state without being screened at the entry point, he said.

The immediate close contacts and family members of such persons are also being screened, he added.
Kabul, May 5 : The Afghan Presidential Palace has reported progress in ending the dispute between President Ashraf Ghani and his mainpolitical opponent Abdullah Abdullah, who has also announced a development in the process and vowed a soon-to-come political agreement.

Further details were not provided on this matter by presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqqi who addressed a press conference on Monday, saying "there is progress, the talks are underway and there has been progress", reports TOLO News.

On May 2, Abdullah had said agreements in principle have been achieved and that talks were underway about details.

Sources said that based on the agreement, Abdullah will chair the High Council of Peace and Reconciliation.

The sources also said that talks were underway on the share of power within three key institutions.

The three institutions, according to the sources, are the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Finance as well as the Attorney General's Office.

Abdullah's team previously insisted on invalidating the election results but there was no details about the status of this issue in discussions between the two sides, said the TOLO News report.

The political tension emerged after the announcement of the election results in February, after which both candidates - Ghani and Abdullah - held inaugurations on the same day.
New Delhi, May 5 : Oscar and Grammy-winning Indian composer AR Rahman says it is unfortunate that he could not pay his last respects to iconic stars Rishi Kapoor and Irrfan Khan and Rishi Kapoor.

"It is so unfortunate that at this time nobody can even go for the funerals. They gave so much of themselves for the people to see, and it is such an unfortunate time (that we couldn't even attend the funeral)," Rahman told IANS.

"It is the holy month of Ramadan, in a way they are blessed," he added.

Irrfan, who was diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumour in 2018, passed away last week at the age of 54. Irrfan was admitted to Mumbai's Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital with a colon infection. He succumbed to his ailment in hospital Rishi Kapoor died a day later after battling leukemia, at HN Reliance Foundation Hospital in the city. He was 67.

On the work front, Rahman has joined hands with celebrated lyricist Prasoon Joshi to give a musical tribute to the nation's fight against COVID-19, with song "Hum haar nahi maanenge". The song has been released by HDFC Bank.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
IBM is extending a helpline to companies and their IT departments as cloud services move to the forefront of modern-day work. The tech giant will host its Think Digital 2020 streaming event from May 5-6, which aims to provide solutions for businesses struggling to cope with the demands of post-lockdown life.

We have 3X the number of participants we normally have... and I should say that was true of Red Hat summit last week. I think enough people are at home, and they have some free time that they're actually coming to learn, IBM President Jim Whitehurst told Yahoo Finance.

The latest polling data from Gallup shows 62% of employed Americans have worked from home since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number which, they claim, has doubled since mid-March. The sudden change has brought-on a host of new challenges for both workers and their employers.

There's a short term... which is, how do you enable people to work well from home? Whitehurst said. So a ton of work with clients to make sure they have the capacity to be able to support a massive number of workers working at home... that opens up a whole set of security related issues.

Former Red Hat President and CEO Jim Whitehurst, gives a press conference on the second day of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) on February 27, 2018 in Barcelona. (LLUIS GENE/AFP via Getty Images)

Whitehurst took a new role as President of IBM on April 6, the same day Arvind Krishna began as the companys new CEO. Since then, they have focused on pushing IBMs capabilities in cloud computing paired with its A.I. technology.

What we're doing is basically taking the power of A.I. and the learnings that IBM has had running, massive data centers, and a lot of instances around the world and bringing that to enterprises to our clients in a way that they get the benefits of all of that learning in the intelligence that we can embed with A.I. to be able to run their operations more efficiently, effectively, and certainly more reliably. The cost of an outage is $260,000 an hour roughly. And so being able to avoid those is hugely valuable, Whitehurst said.

Nick Rose is a producer for Yahoo Finance.

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance

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The Tripuras BJP-IPFT government on Tuesday launched a Whatsapp number where the people could lodge their complaints regarding any corruption. This came almost two weeks after former Health Minister of Tripura Sudip Roy Barman raised an allegation of embezzlement of government funds to purchase kits to prevent Covid-19.

The state government assured to take action against their complaints within 24 hours without revealing the complainants identities.

Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb took to his Twitter saying ,  Our aim is Zero tolerance policy against corruption. To bring more transparency in Governance, we are launching a Whatsaap no : 8794534501, where you can complain with evidence regarding any corruption and we will take action within 24 hours. Your identity will be kept secret.

After coming to power in 2018 for the first time in Tripura, the BJP-IPFT government announced zero tolerance to corruption.

Roy Barman wrote to chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb on April 23 regarding the alleged corruption, estimated to be around Rs. 39.28 lakh.

After two days, reacting to the former ministers allegation of misappropriation of funds, the state government removed the then secretary of Health Department Dr. Debasish Basu and National Health Mission director Aditi Majumder from their positions.

They also constituted an inquiry committee comprising of two members to conduct an inquiry into the matter.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 08:40:39|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland reported one new imported cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Monday, bringing the total number of imported cases to 1,676, the National Health Commission said Tuesday.

The new case was reported in Shanghai, the commission said.

Of the total imported cases, 1,351 had been discharged from hospitals after recovery, and 325 remained hospitalized with five in severe conditions, the commission said.

No deaths had been reported from the imported cases. Enditem
Jair Bolsonaro's public undermining of pandemic prevention efforts reduces social distancing in the parts of Brazil where his voter base is strongest, according to a new study using location data from over 60 million phones.

Economists used electoral data and anonymised geo-location from devices across Brazil to investigate whether the president's outspoken anti-quarantine attitude influenced numbers of citizens staying at home to stop coronavirus spread.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and Sao Paolo School of Economics-FGV found that municipalities which came out strongly for Bolsonaro in the last election have seen much higher levels of movement and travel among the population during February and March.

Additionally, in the days immediately after Bolsonaro's televised dismissals of COVID-19 mitigation - e.g. publicly defying quarantine guidance or calling for schools to reopen - Brazil's social distancing fell in general, and fell much more sharply in pro-Bolsonaro areas.

Our research suggests that statements on public health behaviour from political leaders are taken seriously by their followers, regardless of how scientifically accurate they are, or how damaging they might be." Dr Tiago Cavalcanti, Study Suthor, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge

"Bolsonaro actively challenges the regulations imposed by sub-national governments to stem the coronavirus tide. He dismisses WHO recommendations and even those of his own minister of health, who he has recently fired."

"Using big data research, we see the president's attitude play out at a population level. Brazil is a polarized nation with a populist leader. The patterns we see in Brazil could be echoed in nations with a similar political situation, such as the United States," he said.

Cavalcanti and his colleagues Dr Nicholas Ajzenman and Dr Daniel Da Mata looked at the percentage of mobile phones that remained within a 450-metre radius of their home location between February 4 and April 7 2020.

They compared this "social distancing index" with the voting record of each of Brazil's 5,570 municipalities, in particular whether Bolsanaro received more or less than 50% of the vote in the first round of the 2018 election.

Social distancing has gone up across Brazil since the contagion began. In the top 3% of cities with the highest Bolsonaro vote counts*, such as Ascurra in Santa Catarina and Nova Santa Rosa in Parana, this increase was an average of 24 percentage points.

However, in cities at the bottom of Bolsonaro's support spectrum*, such as Paricoa in Alagoas and Irapuan Pinheiro in Ceara, social distancing was much higher: a 31 percentage point increase.

The study suggests that, on average during February and March, the cities where support for Bolsonaro is highest had levels of social distancing that were almost 30% lower than cities where Bolsonaro has very little support.

The economists also analysed two key televised appearances by Bolsonaro in March, during which he openly disparaged efforts to control the pandemic.

The first was on March 15, when Bolsonaro - who was suspected at the time of carrying COVID-19 - appeared at a supporters rally in Brazilia, flaunting public health guidelines by taking selfies and doling out fist bumps in the throng.

The second was on March 24. In an official presidential pronouncement he called for schools to reopen nationwide, and criticized Brazilian media for too much reporting on the pandemic in Italy, suggesting he would only get "a little flu" at worst from COVID-19.

The research shows how both these appearances caused social distancing levels to drop in the ten days after each event when compared to the ten days leading up them. The drop was particularly significant in municipalities with high numbers of Bolsonaro voters.

In fact, Cavalcanti suggests that, based on their data, a rough calculation for the effects of the March 24 appearance sees approximately one million additional Brazilians across the nation straying more than 450 metres from their home on each of the ten days following the televised speech.

"Leadership matters," said Cavalcanti. "The attitude of a leader can have a significant and possibly devastating impact on individual health and the healthcare systems of a nation."

"When Bolsonaro minimises the pandemic, we see significant increases in what is now risky behaviour within large sections of the Brazilian population."

"As coronavirus cases and fatalities continue to rise across Brazil, the behaviour of its leader may be having a very real and dangerous effect," he said.

The researchers also found that Bolsonaro's televised appearances, and the press coverage that ensued, much of it negative, was linked to a more significant drop in social distancing in areas with "high media access".

The team calculated the overall change in Brazil's social distancing during the period for which they have data. In early February, before the pandemic took hold, around 20% of the Brazilian population stayed within 450 metres of their house. By early April, this had increased to around 53%.
Along with officers across Canada, Kings District RCMP saluted the Canadian flag last Friday and shared in a moment in silence together. All of this, to show respect for RCMP Const. Heidi Stevenson.

Const. Stevenson was killed while on duty working to protect the public from a mass shooting in Nova Scotia last month.

Kings District RCMP Sgt. Chris Gunn worked alongside Const. Stevenson during the two years he spent as a corporal in Cole Harbour.

Its not so much about saluting the flag, Sgt Gunn said. Yes we are saluting the flag, but in my opinion we are saluting Heidi.

While in Cole Harbour Const. Stevenson was Sgt. Gunns senior constable on the watch.

She was like my second in command. I couldnt speak more highly of another member who Ive worked with. She was an amazing member and an amazing woman.

This is just a little part of what we can do to show support for the family, Sgt Gunn said, referring to the salute.

The sergeant says its a challenging time to grieve because of physical distancing measures required to avoid spreading COVID-19.

Its hard to grieve right now. Remembering someones life in the past has required a lot of hugging, spending time with friends. With COVID-19 we have to learn to keep our space.

Sgt. Gunn says he looks forward to the time when he will be able to celebrate Const. Stevensons life with friends, colleagues, her husband Dean and her two children.

When the time comes, I know we will get together and celebrate her life. And for the other families of victims, they need time to celebrate their family members life.

Throughout the ordeal, the shooter fired shots within six different communities and left at least 22 people dead.

Sgt. Gunn sends his thoughts and prayers to the families and friends of all the others.

Shes only one victim. There are so many other victims over there and it affects so many in Nova Scotia, in P.E.I. and in Canada.

Sgt. Gunn says the events in Nova Scotia affect the mental health of officers on P.E.I.

Even though our members werent there, we have friends and family there. It does affect the mental health of all our members, I know it does.

Its common for police officers to be involved in a number of shooting incidents over the course of a career, according to the sergeant. He says events like this can cause flashbacks and a need for mental health support.

It affects our families too.

I sat there with my wife on the Sunday and my kids. Id been talking to the members who went to tell Const. Stevensons spouse she had passed away. Then you have a conversation with your spouse: What would happen? says Sgt. Gunn. Having that conversation and having a family friend who is going through that right now brings stuff home to the family.

At this time of physical distancing, Sgt. Gunn says supporting fellow officers and family members is more difficult than usual.

Its trying times right now because normally we would get together and talk.

There are supports available. Officers trained in peer-to-peer support have divided up to make personal contact with each member of the RCMP. Resources have also been sent to the homes of officers so families can receive information as well as the officer.

There is a toll-free number every employee of the RCMP and their families can call to talk with a councillor. This option is intended for those who may not want to talk with another RCMP member. It is also intended to work as a support option for mental health emergencies.

Sgt. Gunn says, as a supervisor of Kings District, he takes it upon himself to let his colleagues know, Its OK when were at home or in the office, we can be human.

Some of our members have been here in the office crying, not in public but you know what? Were human. We try to have a brave face out in public but we too have emotions to deal with.

Sgt. Gunn encourages his colleagues to be open about what they are going through.

One of the best things Ive learned throughout my career is if you dont talk about it, it just builds up and eats inside of you.

The sergeant says he is appreciative of all the gestures of support and care the community has shown to him since the incident.

It means a lot.

Read more about:
While Massachusetts State Trooper George DAmelio was on duty, he received an emergency call from his wife: She was going into labor.

But the couple knew they wouldnt make it to the hospital in time, and pulled over.

While en route the unthinkable happened, Massachusetts State Police wrote in a Facebook post. Trooper DAmelio had to pull his car over on a major highway in Bedford, N.H. and deliver his own baby boy.

On Friday, April 17 just after 9 p.m., Trooper George DAmelio, assigned to State Police-Brookfield, received a call... Posted by Massachusetts State Police on Monday, May 4, 2020

DAmelio was assisted by Troopers Mark Dore and Brad Pierson of the New Hampshire State Police, along with members of the Bedford, N.H. Fire Department, according to the Facebook post.

And the baby, Jackson Jack DAmelio is doing great, the state police said.

Congratulations Christine and George, the department said. What a little Trooper!

Related Content:
05.05.2020 LISTEN

Sometimes, the tendency to disengage from bantering words with some of these NDC members is very high since it would appear it serves no useful purposes debating them.

Their weird traits bear resemblances to the top echelons of their party leadership as they all make arguments whose points are far from cogent.

When Mr. President announced that his administration would embark on an ambitious hospital infrastructural project, they hastily took to social media with the intent to shredding Akufo-Addo into pieces.

Cassie Ato-Forson, John Jinapor, and a few of their top players were quick to dismiss the President's statement with the claim that the 2020 budget was without such an item.

When it was pointed out to them that the same 2020 budget 'failed' to recognize the coronavirus pandemic but when it visited us, through the ingenuity of the President and his team, monies have been found to combat it, they have changed that narrative. They have run away from the budget angle.

The next bus stop was to describe the projects as unrealistic looking at the fact that the country cannot go to the international markets to source for funds due to the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic.

They were reminded, once again that the pandemic was at its apogee yet Ghana could access the $1 billion facilities from the IMF. They have gone dead silent on that one as well.

Having realized that these reasons they adduced are not weighty enough to outbox the responses offered to the same, they are now relying on an unreliable customer.

They say Akufo-Addo promised to build factories in every district in Ghana but he has failed. They claim the $1 million per constituency pledge has failed to reach its destination and a few others. These claims are without legs as there are enough facts to make nonsense of their claims.

'Fools' rush in where angels fear to tread, so goes the axiom. They went into this argument with points I could label as weightless. This pledge to construct 94 hospitals came like a tsunami, they never expected it.

They can dangle around the issue for as long as they wish, the promise will be fulfilled within the allotted one year period.

DOING CROSS-POLLINATION WITH FUNDS FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES

President Akufo-Addo's announcement to construct 96 hospitals in areas where there are none has sparked debates amongst a few groups of Ghanaians.

The NDC, in particular, have asked why uncompleted hospital projects are not being prioritized but new ones are going to begin.

To them, it is senseless why monies earmarked for these 96 projects would not be channelled into the uncompleted hospital projects. This position they are advancing is flawed in so many ways but I would look at one or two of them.

Every project has a funding source. These hospitals had specific funds earmarked for them which covered the entire duration or completion of the project.

The question is, what happened to the rest of the monies for these uncompleted hospital projects?

It is not as though monies to fund the announced projects come from the same sources the uncompleted ones came from, therefore, the appeal to use these funds to complete the uncompleted ones is dead on arrival.

We cannot do cross-pollination in such instances since the funds for the announced projects are coming from sources other than where the uncompleted ones' came from.

Impliedly, assuming that the World Bank decides to fund project A of Group One and the IMF is providing funds for project B in the same Group One though amounts differ, the funds in one group cannot be used to do those in the other group.

It is high time people were held accountable for the missing funds of these uncompleted projects. Notwithstanding this call, the idea of not starting new hospitals because we have some uncompleted ones should not be entertained.

USUAL SANGUINARY AND COWARDLY ATTACKS

With their usual sanguinary and cowardly attacks when a policy framework is promulgated, it doesn't come as spellbinding that the NDC is discussing the proposed 94 hospitals' construction with pessimism.

Weren't they the very people who said President John Agyekum Kufour's National Health Insurance Scheme was an impossible dream but it was successfully rolled out?

Did they not say that Akufo-Addo was cursed and not ordained by God to be President? Is he not Ghana's President?

When the Free SHS idea was mooted, they said it was a wishful thinking and that Akufo-Addo was living in a world of make-believe. They said Akufo-Addo cannot find the money to implement Free SHS but what do we see now? The Free SHS programme is arguably the best social intervention programme ever introduced in Ghana and Africa, making Ghana an icon upon which other countries look up to in that field.

His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has made a categorical statement to ensure that 94 hospitals are constructed in one year.

These doom-mongers and killjoys would be put to shame when the projects commence. Nothing under the sun is impossible, it is a matter of time.

THE INCOMPETENT ONE ON FACEBOOK

In his not-too-substance-filled engagement with his party members on Facebook, the incompetent one sought to criminalize the IMF as though it is some form of satanic body tormenting economies.

If he saw the IMF as some monstrous entity, why then did he befriend them?

If the IMF, in his eyes, is a fiendish organization which does not help member countries in times of need, why did he give them Ghana's economy to manage?

A financial watchdog which is a devil's incarnate in your eyes should not have been given the keys to our economy to man after Senchi.

The countries he mentioned as not having gone in for any IMF facility in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic actually went for relief.

It is quite worrying to have a former president being incompetent but it is more than a tragedy to have him as someone who hates to read and comes across as a pedestrian on matters of national importance.

RUNNING MATE DEBACLE

Ghanaians are not only crimson with rage over Mahama's insentient posturing towards the plight of the people in this period of COVID-19 to be doing politics but also gobsmacked at his level of hypocrisy.

During his live broadcast, a question was asked him about why it has taken forever for him to name his running mate. His response was that what should be our fixation right now is the battle we have waged against coronavirus and now political issues like naming a running mate.

In essence, the flagbearer of the NDC would want us to believe that we cannot be thinking about anything political campaigns and elections as we are faced with an enemy which is more than formidable, that is, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Is it not perplexing that the very person who says he would not engage in a political journey of naming his running mate because of COVID-19 would, at the same time, hold a live Facebook broadcast to do politics?

He says naming his running mate is political and he would, therefore, not engage in same but have been organizing live video sessions to promise to build hospitals and other projects.

Mahama's kind in terms of hypocrisy is yet to be bested in our political history. He proposes to build roads, hospitals and setting up needless committees to score political points but tells us unveiling a running mate is insensitive.

We don't need to be geniuses to figure out that John Mahama has no running mate as we speak. Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia is giving him nightmares.

Is it not interesting that he says he has his running mate choice but also intimated that he is in talks with the party's leadership over same? If he has picked someone already, why the need to continue engaging his party's leadership again?

He has no advisors, thinkers and strategists. He only can boast of bootlickers who led him astray in 2016 and will not falter in repeating that landmark humiliation he received at the polls.

John Antwi boasiako
President Donald Trump ignored signs requiring a mask be worn when he toured a mask factory in Arizona on Tuesday afternoon and only wore safety goggles to protect his eyes even as he was surrounded by workers in face coverings.

'Attention, face mask is required in this area,' read the sign in the portion of the factory President Trump toured. 'Please wear your mask at all times,' was one of the safety guidelines on a sign near the factory's entrance.

But President Trump did not wear one as he observed workers. A White House official said that the facility said officials were not required to wear masks but to take all precautions.

The president was non-committal about wearing a mask before he left on his trip, telling reporters at the White House that he might 'wear' one.

But he did not.

President Donald Trump ignored signs requiring a mask be worn when he toured a mask factory in Arizona and only wore safety goggles on his eyes

A sign in the portion of the factory President Trump toured read face masks were required

President Trump was surrounded by workers wearing masks during the tour

The Honeywall factory the president toured was converted to making N95 masks

The tour came before he sat down with ABC News' David Muir for an interview in which the president said as states reopen: 'There'll be more death, than the virus will pass, with or without a vaccine'.

Over the course of the interview, the president suggested that there would be 'more death' due to the coronavirus pandemic, as states begin the process of allowing businesses to reopen.

'It's possible there will be some because you won't be locked into an apartment or a house or whatever it is,' the president said. 'But at the same time, we're going to practice social distancing, we're going to be washing hands, we're going to be doing a lot of the things that we've learned to do over the last period of time.'

The president, making his first trip out of Washington in three weeks, toured an Arizona factory that was expanded to make N95 masks in response to the coronavirus epidemic.

During the tour, given by Honeywell International Inc. CEO Darius Adamczyk and Honeywell International Inc. Vice President Tony Stallings, the president was surrounded by workers wearing face coverings as they produced masks to be sent to health care workers on the frontline of the pandemic.

'I just want to thank all the people at this incredible company, this incredible plant,' Trump told workers after his tour. 'This pandemic has underscored the vital importance of restoring our supply chains and constructing a powerful domestic manufacturing base.'

President Trump has never been photographed wearing a face mask and has shown reluctance to do so even as he acknowledges the recommendation of the CDC to wear one when proper social distancing cannot be enforced.

Before he left for Arizona, he said he'd wear a mask if it was a 'mask facility.'

'If it's a mask facility I will, yeah. I don't know if it's a mask facility,' he added.

A sign near the entrance of the Honeywell factory asks people to wear face masks

Arizona Senator Martha McSally (right) listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a tour of a Honeywell International plant; the senator and factory workers wore masks

President Trump praised factory workers after his tour and thanked them for their work

President Donald Trump said he 'might' wear a mask during his visit to an Arizona factory that expanded to make N95 masks in response to the coronavirus epidemic

A group of Arizona lawmakers traveling with Trump - Senator Martha McSally and Reps. Debbie Lesko and Paul Gosar - took a selfie before boarding Air Force One and did not social distance in photo

Honeywell started making masks at the end of April due to concerns about a shortage of facial coverings. The company said it can make 10 million of the masks per month.

Arizona remains under a modified stay-at-home order until May 15. Republican Gov. Doug Ducey allowed some stores to reopen Monday voluntarily as part of the administration's push to get the country reopen. The state has seen almost 9,000 infections and more than 350 deaths.

Trump's trip had additional security concerns - how to stop anyone from getting infected from the coronavirus when the group travels together in the tight quarters of Air Force One and the cars in the presidential motorcade.

Three Arizona Republican lawmakers traveled to the state with Trump. Senator Martha McSally tweeted a photo of them in front of Air Force One preparing to board and ignoring social distancing guidelines.

'Headed to Arizona on Air Force One soon,' she wrote, adding a selfie that showed Rep. Paul Gosar and Rep. Debbie Lesko in tight approximation with her.

President Trump said everyone traveling with him on the plane was tested for the coronavirus. The White House has ordered anyone meeting with the president to undergo a coronavirus test first. Factory workers at Honeywell were also reported to have been tested for the virus.

'Everybody traveling has been tested,' Trump said at the White House before he departed. 'Literally they have been tested over the last hour and the test results come back in 5 minutes. We have great testing or they wouldn't be allowed to travel with me. It's not my choice, it's a very strong group of people that want to make sure that they are tested, including Secret Service. They're all tested - everyone traveling on the plane.'

Gosar spent two weeks in March in self-quarantine out of concerns he came in contact with someone who tested positive for the virus while attending CPAC.

The dentist-turned-congressman closed his offices and wrote he'd rather die 'gloriously in battle' than from the coronavirus.

'Been thinking about life and mortality today,' Gosar tweeted at the time. 'I'd rather die gloriously in battle than from a virus. In a way it doesn't matter. But it kinda does.'

Trump has been noncommittal about mask wearing after Vice President Mike Pence was criticized for not wearing one during a visit to the Mayo Clinic last week, flouting hospital policy to wear a face covering. Pence later said he should have worn one.

'I will know when I get there. If it's a masked environment I would have no problem,' the president told reporters on Air Force One as they prepared to go to Arizona.

The president's last trip to Arizona was on February 19, when he held a campaign rally in Phoenix. The state is crucial to his re-election.

A poll out last month showed Democratic presumptive nominee Joe Biden up nine points in Arizona, which tends to trend red. The poll was a troubling sign for Trump as Arizona hasn't gone for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1996.

The president has shown his restlessness.

'I've been at the White House now for many months, and I'd like to get out,' Trump said last week.

As the coronavirus crisis was becoming more serious at the beginning of March, the president spent the weekend away at his Mar-a-Lago resort and then stopped in Orlando to host fundraisers before returning to the White House on March 9.

President Trump has never been pictured in public wearing a face mask

Vice President Mike Pence was criticized for not wearing a face mask during his trip to the Mayo Clinic last week; he later said he should have worn a mask

He's essentially been there since.

The president took a day trip to Norfolk, Virginia on March 28 to see the USNS Comfort depart for New York City.

This past weekend, Trump flew off the Camp David before returning Sunday.

He then participated in a Fox News Channel town hall at the nearby Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Trump admits there will be 'more deaths' as states start to reopen and US fatalities hit 70,000, believes coronavirus 'will pass with or without a vaccine' and predicts the economy will be 'raging' next year

President Trump had a message for the families of the 70,000-plus Americans who are now dead from COVID-19.

'I want to say I love you,' he told ABC News' David Muir in an interview that was broadcast Tuesday night. 'And to the people that have lost somebody, there's nobody - I don't sleep at nights thinking about it - there's nobody that's taken it harder than me.'

Over the course of the interview, the president suggested that there would be 'more death' due to the coronavirus pandemic, as states begin the process of allowing businesses to reopen.

President Donald Trump and ABC News' David Muir practice social distancing during an interview on Tuesday night

Trump said in the ABC interview that 'we can't sit in the house for the next three years'

'It's possible there will be some because you won't be locked into an apartment or a house or whatever it is,' the president said. 'But at the same time, we're going to practice social distancing, we're going to be washing hands, we're going to be doing a lot of the things that we've learned to do over the last period of time.'

The president said the reality is, 'We can't sit in the house for the next three years.'

'There'll be more death, than the virus will pass, with or without a vaccine,' he again suggested.

There's no evidence yet that the coronavirus will simply go away, or that it's seasonal.

'And I think we're doing very well on the vaccines but, with or without a vaccine, it's going to pass and we're going to be back to normal. But it's been a rough process. There is no question about it,' Trump said.

Several weeks ago, on April 17, Trump said he expected 'around 60,000, maybe 65,000' Americans dead of the coronavirus.

Ten days later he used 70,000 as the benchmark.

The death toll surpassed 70,000 earlier Tuesday.

On Friday, he said 'hopefully' the full tally would be below 100,000 lives lost.

During Sunday night's Fox News Channel town hall at the Lincoln Memorial, Trump acknowledged he kept giving himself a higher ceiling.

'I used to say 65,000. Now I'm saying 80 or 90 and it goes up and it goes up rapidly,' Trump told the anchors. 'But it's still going to be, no matter how you look at it, at the very lower end of the plane if we did the shutdown.'

The president had put the original '15 Days to Slow the Spread' in place when medical experts cited a death count in the millions if no social distancing was practiced.

To the family members of victims Trump said, 'I want to say that we're doing everything that we can.'

'We love you, we're with you, we're working with you, we're supplying vast amounts of money like never before, we want that money to get to the people and we want them to get better,' Trump said.

'No matter how well we do next year - I think our economy is going to be raging, it's going to be so good - no matter how well, those people can never ever replace somebody they love,' the president continued.

'But we're going to have something that they're going to be very proud of,' he added.

Muir and his ABC News team interviewed Trump during his first big trip out of the White House since the coronavirus pandemic struck.

Trump traveled to Phoenix, Arizona where he toured a Honeywell N95 mask plant - and didn't wear a mask.

Muir said during the 'World News Tonight' broadcast his temperature was taken before the sit-down and he sat at least 11 feet away from Trump.

'There were no handshakes with the president this time,' Muir said.
Pilgrims pray on a field where a Tablighi Jamaat mass gathering had been cancelled in South Sulawesi province, Indonesia, March 19, 2020.

Two months after mass events convened by a Muslim missionary group spawned clusters of coronavirus cases, Indonesian authorities are dealing with the fallout and struggling to track down members of Tablighi Jamaat scattered across the country, an official said Tuesday.

Indonesia on Tuesday also recorded its largest one-day increase in confirmed coronavirus cases  484  only a day after the head of the national COVID-19 task force, Doni Monardo, claimed that the number of positive cases was flattening and going down, according to local reports.

Officials have had a tough time locating Tablighi members because many did not report their travel history, said Wiku Adisasmito, a senior official with the COVID-19 task force. The movement has thrived in Indonesia during the last two decades, with its preachers scattered across the archipelago.

Their spread is making investigations difficult. Indonesia is also the fourth most populous country in the world, Wiku told BenarNews.

The Tablighi Jamaat movement came under scrutiny after a mass gathering that it held in Malaysias capital in late February emerged as a source for hundreds of coronavirus infections in more than half a dozen countries. A planned similar gathering in Indonesias South Sulawesi province in mid-March that was cancelled at the last minute has been blamed for more than 100 infections across the country.

About 18,000 people, including 465 from 10 other countries had arrived in Gowa, South Sulawesi province, before authorities forced organizers to cancel the event on March 18 over fears that the gathering could spread the virus.

Committee member Mustari said organizers had sought to establish strict guidelines to ensure the wellbeing of attendees.

We made sure that everyone was healthy. If there were infections, they were not from Gowa, Mustari told BenarNews.

On Monday, President Joko Jokowi Widodo said infection clusters linked to Tablighi gatherings were among those that should be monitored closely.

He said the government tracked 749 Tablighi Jamaat members who had planned to participate in the South Sulawesi gathering, noting that 64 of those had tested positive for the coronavirus disease and 78 others had been under surveillance.

The number of COVID-19 cases tied to the cancelled gathering is at least 113, according figures compiled by BenarNews from media reports and official statements.

On April 21, West Nusa Tenggara provincial Gov. Zulkieflimansyah said 58 of 1,157 Tablighi followers who returned from Gowa had tested positive for COVID-19. Meanwhile, in Central Java province, 30 Tablighi members also tested positive, according to Gov. Ganjar Pranowo who said about 1,500 people had set out to attend the gathering.

In addition, positive cases involving Tablighi members were recorded in West Sumatra (12), Jambi (6), East Nusa Tenggara (2), and North Kalimantan (5).

The 484 new cases recorded on Tuesday brought the national tally from the pandemic to 12,071. Indonesia, the largest country in Southeast Asia, has the highest coronavirus death toll in East Asia outside China, and recorded eight more deaths to bring the total to 872.

Globally, more than 3.6 million have been infected by COVID-19 and more than 254,000 have died, according to data compiled by disease experts at U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.

The Indonesian daily record came as the Central Bureau of Statistics reported that economic growth in the first quarter of 2020 was the slowest since 2001.

The bureau said Indonesias gross domestic product grew 2.97 percent from January through the end of March, as domestic consumption, the main driver of the economy, suffered from the pandemic. By comparison, the rate for the first quarter of 2019 was 5.1 percent, according to the World Bank.

Foreign Tablighi followers

On Batam, an Indonesian island just south of Singapore, six Tablighi Jamaat preachers from India have been hospitalized after suffering from COVID-19 infections, a local military commander, Yudo Margono, said on Tuesday.

He said the preachers, who arrived in Batam in February on a preaching mission, transmitted the virus to four mosque caretakers who also have been hospitalized.

Elsewhere, three of 14 Tablighi members from Bangladesh who tested positive for the coronavirus were being treated in a hospital in Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra province, the state-run Antara news agency reported.

Last month, 73 Tablighi members including 64 foreigners who were staying in a mosque in West Jakarta contracted COVID-19 after having contact with three people who had attended the gathering in Kuala Lumpur.

Catur Laswanto, a member of the DKI Jakarta Task Force, said all had recovered.

So far there have been no additional cases from there, Catur told BenarNews.

Other outbreaks

The government has also reported COVID-19 clusters tied to other religious events.

A gathering of the Synod of the Western Indonesian Protestant Church in Bogor at the end of February led to what officials consider to be among the first infection clusters in Indonesia.

Officials did not release details about the number infected but said two priests died of COVID-19 complications after attending the gathering.

Last month, West Java Gov. Ridwan Kamil said more than 200 people who tested positive for COVID-19 in the city of Bandung attended a gathering of the Bethel Indonesia Church in Lembang, a hilltop just outside the provincial capital. A priest and his wife died after testing positive.

Also in April, 41 students living at a Bethel Theological College dormitory in Central Jakarta tested positive for COVID-19, forcing other occupants to be quarantined.

Indonesians in India

In Jakarta, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry said it was seeking to verify reports by media in India that 10 Tablighi pilgrims from Indonesia charged for violating the countrys coronavirus lockdown have been denied bail.

The 10 Indonesians, who had attended a Tablighi gathering in New Delhi along with thousands of other people, apparently traveled to Mumbai without informing local authorities.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said the consulate general in Mumbai was seeking clarification from their lawyers about the bail issue.

There have been different decisions. Previously, we have reported that 10 Indonesian Tablighi Jamaat members were only required to pay fines for violating the law there, he told BenarNews.

Faizasyah said his government had not been able to repatriate more than 727 Indonesian Tablighi Jamaat members in India because the country was under lockdown.

After the lockdown ends and flights reopen, they can go home as long as they are no longer involved in legal cases, he said.
The coronavirus lockdown and Brexit uncertainty are being blamed for a 4.6pc fall in property sales nationally.

The biggest drop in sales was seen in Wexford, where they slumped by 17.8pc, followed by Kildare at 16pc, Kilkenny at 15.2pc, and Louth at 12.3pc.

In Dublin, sales for the first quarter of the year decreased by 7.2pc compared to the same period last year, according to a study by MyHome.ie.

The dramatic drop in sales is the first indicator that Ireland is going to witness "a buyers' market", with lower prices expected, according to Angela Keegan, managing director of MyHome.ie.

The study by the property website looked at residential property sales recorded on the Property Price Register during the first quarter of 2020.

Monaghan bucked the trend with a 28.6pc increase in sales, while sales in Limerick were also on the rise - by 7.2pc.

"In the early part of the year, we were lagging behind," Ms Keegan told the Irish Independent.

"This year is a buyers' market. There was a wait-and-see attitude before the Brexit announcement.

"And we are at an early stage with Covid-19 but, let's be honest, the market has gone on ice.

"If sales are in the process, there's some chance of estate agents seeing them through to completion.

"But this time of year is normally peak selling time and people who want to sell their homes haven't got the ability to put their homes on the market."

She said that while estate agents are using technology to try and sell homes during the lockdown, vendors know they cannot attract buyers to the same degree as before.

"Covid-19 will impact the level of transactions hugely this year.

"The virus has to be dealt with before we can predict anything, but I think it's a buyers' market for the next while.

"A reduction in stock may help move stock but buyer confidence has to come back.

"I think rent and house prices will be impacted."

Ms Keegan said Covid-19 had "negated any potential bounce-back in activity following the Brexit uncertainty of last year".

Brexit uncertainty had a "significant effect" on sales in late 2019, "something which was apparent into the new year", Ms Keegan said.

"This was compounded by Covid-19 at the start of March, just when we thought we would see an increase in sales," she added.
An Irish environmentalist and priest has warned that humankind needs to 'drastically' change its treatment of the natural world or face more regular pandemics.

Columban priest, Fr Sean McDonagh, said he believes Covid-19 and other recent pandemics are linked to the destruction of the natural world and biodiversity loss which is forcing animals together that would normally never come across each other in the wild.

The Meath-based Missionary, who is currently in lockdown in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary says that unless things change both in the wild and in our farming practices, the world will be hit by many more pandemics

"In little more than two decades, we have had Covid-19, SARS, MERS, Ebola, HIV, Zika and H1N1 and no-one seems to have made any connection between them and the destruction of the natural world," he said.

"No-one has mentioned the fact that large-scale deforestation, habitat degradation, intensive agriculture, trade in species and climate change all contribute to biodiversity loss and, in the process, facilitate the rise of new pandemics.

"For a long time, we have known that viruses and pathogens have leaped from other species to the human population. However the destruction of biodiversity means that these events are happening much more frequently now than in the past.

He went on: "Worse still, more deadly pandemics will continue to happen at an even greater rate in the future unless we change our practices and stop colonising every ecosystem."

"Many people believe that the Coronavirus first jumped across to humans who were working at a wet market in Wuhan in China. In these markets animals who would seldom encounter each other in the wild such as civets, live wolf pups and pangolins are crammed together into small cages, often in filthy conditions.

"This is an ideal environment in which to incubate diseases that will spill over into the human population.

"But it's not only in China. Every year, Americans pay to capture, box-up and import hundreds of millions of live animals for agriculture and pet and aquarium uses."

Fr McDonagh also believes we need to look at farming practices which he says can increase the risk of epidemics.

"Animals are crammed into living spaces which can become breeding grounds for viral and bacterial pathogens. So we lace their feed with antibiotics which creates the perfect conditions for antibiotic resistant pathogens to develop and thrive.

"We then pay the price in the form of drug-resistant infections.

"This kind of farming also increases the risk of deadly viral epidemics such as the 2009 H1N1 outbreak that infected 59 million people

"The ways humans destroy much of the natural world and engage in factory farming is based on the fallacy that what we do to the natural world will not have a negative impact on human health and well-being.

"Covid-19 tells us this is untrue. Either we need to drastically change our ways of relating to the natural world, or get ready for the next pandemic.
President Muhammadu Buhari has extolled the virtues of late former President Umaru Musa YarAdua, who also served as Governor of Katsina State for eight years, saluting his honest and sincere service to the country.

The Presidents Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday, said Mr Buhari made his feelings known as Nigerians observed the 10th anniversary of the death of the former president.

The president said: Despite our political differences, President YarAdua was unarguably a patriot because of his passion for the masses and his reversal of policies he believed were hurting ordinary Nigerians.

Every leader should be given the credit that he deserves, whether you agree with President YarAdua politically or not, I must say that history will always record his honest and sincere service to the country.

As we remember President YarAdua today, let us emulate his patience and gentle nature so that we dont introduce toxicity into our politics where opponents perceive each other as enemies.

Let me also use this occasion to extend my prayers and goodwill to his family, and the Katsina State Government on the 10th anniversary of his demise. May Allah continue to bless and comfort his gentle soul.

(NAN)
Pursuant to the Document No. 223/HHC-HQT dated 20th April 2020 of Hua Na Hydropower Joint Stock Company regarding the cancellation of the shareholder list for attending 2020 Annual General Meeting, Vietnam Securities Depository (VSD) would like to announce as follows:

Cancelling the shareholder list for holding 2020 Annual General Meeting on the record date of 30th March 2020

Reason for cancellation: Due to the complicated developments of the Covid  19 pandemic, the company decided to change the meeting date of 2020 Annual General Meeting
Automotive dealers in Madison County have gotten the green light to open for in-person sales, by appointment.

Madison County Administrator Mark Scimone said the state granted dealerships approval to start in-person sales on Tuesday, if they abide by a series of safety measures.

The reopening comes on the heels of a similar loosening of regulations in Onondaga County. Its part of a gradual move toward reopening parts of the Upstate New York economy.

Dealerships will be required to clean vehicles and showrooms regularly, and all customers and employees must wear face masks. And employees must be monitored daily for symptoms of COVID-19.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo closed auto dealerships in March as part of his New York on PAUSE plan to slow the spread of coronavirus. Dealerships were allowed to continue sales online or over the phone.

Cuomos PAUSE orders expire on May 15. Parts of the Upstate economy are expected to begin reopening then, including manufacturing, construction and some retail operations. Exact details of what will reopen when, and how, are still being worked out.

Auto dealerships represent $3 billion in sales tax revenue for the state, much of which goes to local governments.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

Onondaga County just became the only place in NY where dealers can sell cars in-person

Almost half of Onondaga Countys coronavirus deaths are from nursing homes

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Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com
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Linkedin Riza Roidila Mufti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, May 5, 2020 16:04 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd61acf8 1 Business Garuda-Indonesia,sukuk,debt-paper,COVID-19 Free

National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia is reaching out to the holders of its sukuk to hold a discussion on repayments due in June as the airline struggles to maintain cashflow amid the turbulence caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Garuda president director Irfan Setiaputra said every time a sukuk due date was approaching, a company had three options to consider: repayment with a discount, full repayment or a payment extension.

Read also: Garuda, severely affected by COVID-19, may restructure bonds: Minister

We offer three options and we have talked with our sukuk holders about how to deal with the situation. Hopefully, there will be a solution to this matter, he told the press during a virtual briefing on Monday.

Garuda Indonesia issued US$496.8 million in global sukuk on June 3, 2015, with a five-year tenure and an annual return of 5.95 percent, according to the companys financial report released in September last year.

However, the airline has struggled to maintain its cashflow with the number of flights nosediving due to the implementation of large scale social restrictions across the country and the imposition of travel bans by various countries to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Garuda Indonesia recently sent a letter to its sukuk holders on the repayment. In the letter dated April 29, which was signed by Garuda finance director Fuad Rizal, the company admitted that the pandemic had created an extremely challenging business environment for the airline.

In response to this, the company has been taking measures to ensure the well-being of its staff and customers while managing liquidity proactively amid the uncertainty the airline industry currently faces. The company continues to assess all its options to remain a going concern, in particular in relation to its sukuk due in June 2020, stated Garuda.

Garuda Indonesia has also appointed PJT Partners to facilitate the discussion between the airline and bond holders to find a solution to the problem.

Apart from the negotiations, Irfan revealed during a hearing with lawmakers on April 27 that Garuda was considering taking out bank loans to help the company repay the sukuk.

Read also: Indonesian air carriers report sharp decline in cargo traffic

The COVID-19 crisis has dealt a severe blow to Garuda and airlines around the world with the aviation industry recording a sharp decline in passenger numbers and revenue since February.

According to presentation materials made available to lawmakers, Garuda estimates it suffered a 31.9 percent decline in passenger and cargo revenue in the first quarter compared to the same period last year. The COVID-19 crisis has also forced Garuda to ground 100 of its 142 aircraft.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said on Monday that only 70 flights were scheduled daily across the entire the country, down from 79,000 daily flights before the virus outbreak.
SourceDay Named to Inc. Magazine's Annual List of Best Workplaces for 2020 "Were incredibly honored to be recognized by Inc. for the ways that we prioritize our people. - Tom Kieley, CEO, SourceDay

SourceDay has been named to Inc. magazines annual list of the Best Workplaces for 2020. Hitting newsstands May 12 in the May/June 2020 issue, and as part of a prominent Inc.com feature, the list is the result of a wide-ranging and comprehensive measurement of private American companies that have created exceptional workplaces through vibrant cultures, deep employee engagement, and stellar benefits.

SourceDay's supplier collaboration software brings people, data, and processes together to modernize how companies work with their suppliers to make and ship orders on time. SourceDays customers range from medical device, outdoor grill and jet bridge manufacturers to global beauty brands. All use SourceDay to save money and ensure they never miss their customer commitments. To meet these expectations, SourceDays culture is centered on hiring the best talent and creating a work environment where employees can thrive.

Collecting data from more than 3,000 submissions, Inc. singled out 395 finalists for this years list. Each nominated company took part in an employee survey, conducted by Quantum Workplace, on topics including trust, management effectiveness, perks, and confidence in the future. Inc. gathered, analyzed, and audited the data. Then we ranked all the employers using a composite score of survey results. This year, 73.5 percent of surveyed employees were engaged by their work.

The strongest engagement scores came from companies that prioritize the most human elements of work. These companies are leading the way in employee recognition, performance management, and diversity. It is a different playbook from a decade ago, when too many firms used the same template: free food, open work environments, and artifacts of fun.

Be the best, or #BtheB, is a saying that permeates daily conversation here at SourceDay. This motto is at the heart of our culture and serves as the foundation for everything we do. It drives how each of us does our job each day, how we serve customers, and how we treat one another, said Tom Kieley, CEO, SourceDay. Living up to this motto is how we put culture first, and were incredibly honored to be recognized by Inc. for the ways that we prioritize our people.

Building a great corporate culture comes only from strong leadership, says Inc. magazine editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. The companies on Inc.s Best Workplaces list are setting an example that the whole country can learn from, especially now, when company culture is more important to the workforce than ever.

While researching the finalists, Inc. and Quantum saw distinct themes:

100 percent provide health insurance.

50 percent allow employees to bring pets to work.

62 percent take employees to offsite retreats to relax and recharge.

20 percent offer paid sabbaticals to reward length of service.

About SourceDay

SourceDay is the collaboration software that brings people, information, and processes together to modernize how companies manage orders with their suppliers to make and ship orders on time. From Fortune 100 companies to mid-size manufacturers, thousands of organizations use SourceDay to connect their teams with their suppliers, centralize order data, and drive their businesses forward. Since 2015, SourceDay has helped more than 6,000 manufacturers, distributors and suppliers process more than $66B in total spend.

About Inc. Media

The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com.

About Quantum Workplace

Quantum Workplace, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is an HR technology company that serves organizations through employee-engagement surveys, action-planning tools, exit surveys, peer-to-peer recognition, performance evaluations, goal tracking, and leadership assessment. For more information, visit QuantumWorkplace.com.
Russell Crowe revealed this week that he almost turned down a role that later won him an Oscar.

In an interview with Variety on Sunday, the actor admitted he was at first hesitant about taking on the part of Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 film Gladiator.

The 56-year-old had at the time gained 23kg to play Jeffery Wigand in the 1999 drama The Insider, and had shaved his head to make wigs fit better on set, and didn't think he looked right to play a Gladiator.

Reserved: Russell Crowe (pictured) revealed in an interview with Variety on Sunday that he was hesitant about taking on the part of Roman general Maximus in the 2000 film Gladiator

Russell told the magazine: 'I was just coming off the shoot of The Insider. I was gigantic.

'I had no hair because I had been wearing a wig on that movie, so I had shaved my head to make it more comfortable and the wigs go on quicker. I didn't look like any Roman general.'

However, the actor was tempted because of the involvement of director Ridley Scott.

Very different! The 56-year-old had at the time gained 23kg to play Jeffery Wigand in the 1999 drama The Insider (pictured) and had shaved his head to make wigs fit better on set

Russell said: 'I was just coming off The Insider. I was gigantic. I had no hair because I had been wearing a wig on that movie, so I had shaved my head to make it more comfortable and the wigs go on quicker'. Pictured in The Insider with Al Pacino

Russ admitted: 'I didn't look like any Roman general!' He was also not impressed by the script at first, admitting, 'I'd read the script and I thought it wasn't a movie.' Pictured in Gladiator

Russell was not impressed at first, admitting, 'I'd read the script and I thought it wasn't a movie.

'But then [producer Walter Parkes] said, '...you're going to be directed by Ridley Scott.' And that was enough for me to want to talk to Ridley,' he added.

The actor went onto win the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2001 for his lead role in Gladiator, a film which propelled him to superstardom.

Good choice! However, the actor was tempted because of the involvement of director Ridley Scott. 'That was enough for me to want to talk to Ridley,' he said

Good choice! The actor went onto win the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2001 for his lead role in Gladiator, a film which propelled him to superstardom

Last month, Russell, who was born in New Zealand but spent much of his life in Australia, honoured both his home countries by sharing a very patriotic Instagram post on his 56th birthday.

The star uploaded a photo of himself wearing the Australian flag as a mask over his mouth, and the New Zealand flag wrapped around his forehead.

'Fashion tips for shoppers. #anzacproud,' he wrote in the caption.
Aged 55, Nigers Minister of Employment and Labor, Mohamed Ben Omar, died in Niamey of coronavirus. He had been admitted to hospital several days ago.

Mohamed Ben Omar held several ministerial posts: Communication, Higher Education, and finally Employment. He was the founding father of the Social Democratic Party, the PSD.

It is with a heart full of emotion that I have just learnt today the call to God of the Minister of Employment Mohamed Ben Omar, Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou tweeted.

Mohamed Ben Omar, born in 1965 in Tesker, in the region of Zinder (centre-south), headed the Social Democratic Party (PSD), an allied formation of the presidential movement, which he created in 2015.

He has been a Member of Parliament and minister several times since 1999, notably under the regime of Mamadou Tandja (1999 to 2010) and the current Head of State Mahamadou Issoufou in office since 2011.

He had been a strong supporter of the constitutional amendment that allowed Mamadou Tandja to extend his second three-year term in 2009 but was overthrown by a military junta a few months later in February 2010.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 16:44:54|Editor: huaxia

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WELLINGTON, May 5 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand and Australia were committed to introducing a trans-Tasman COVID-safe travel zone as soon as it was safe to do so, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her Australian counterpart Scott Morrison said on Tuesday.

The prime ministers agreed to commence work on a trans-Tasman COVID-safe travel zone - easing travel restrictions between Australia and New Zealand. Such an arrangement would be put in place once it was safe to do so and necessary health, transport and other protocols had been developed and met to ensure the protection of public health, said a statement released by the New Zealand government.

This arrangement recognized that Australia and New Zealand were both successfully addressing the spread of COVID-19. Any arrangement would need to take into account state and territory movement restrictions, it said.

"Building on our success so far in responding to COVID-19, continuing to protect Australians and New Zealanders remains an absolute priority," the two prime ministers said in the statement.

"We will remain responsive to the health situation as it develops," they said.

The prime ministers welcomed the early interest of business leaders and other stakeholders in a trans-Tasman COVID-safe travel zone. Officials would work closely with these groups, including the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum, as planning developed further.

"A trans-Tasman COVID-safe travel zone would be mutually beneficial, assisting our trade and economic recovery, helping kick-start the tourism and transport sectors, enhancing sporting contacts, and reuniting families and friends," the statement said.

"We need to be cautious as we progress this initiative. Neither country wants to see the virus rebound so it's essential any such travel zone is safe," it said. Enditem
LATEST, May 5, 3:15 p.m. A number of Bay Area counties announces additional COVID-19 cases Tuesday.

 Alameda County reported new cases, for a total of 1,809. The county also reported three new deaths, for a total of 66.

 Contra Costa County announced new cases, for a total of 969. The county also announced one additional death, for a total of 29.

 Napa County announced new cases for a total of 75. The death toll in the county remains at 2.

 Santa Clara reported new cases for a total of 2,255. Officials also reported new deaths, bringing the toll to 121.

 Solano County announced new cases for a total of 320. Many of those new cases are due to a surge in cases reported at the Windsor Vallejo Care Center. The county also announced one additional death, for a total of 6.

May 5, 2:15 p.m. On Tuesday at a roundtable in Arizona, President Donald Trump responded to a New York Times report that the White House was looking to wind down the coronavirus task force, a group of experts that has collectively been advising him on health policies over the last several months.

After noting the task force had done a phenomenal job, Trumps statement began to wander: He spoke to the complexity of building ventilators and said the federal government was now stockpiling them, and he noted the U.S. had done more testing than any other country in the world.

After two follow-up questions, Trump said the new focus of the government was on the combination of safety and reopening, and that a new group would be formed to execute those objectives.

I think as far as the task force and Mike Pence have done a great job, but were now looking at a little bit of a different form and that is safety and reopening, he said. And well have a different group set up on that.

Asked if he thought the task force should stay on hand to advise on reopening safety, Trump said, We cant keep our country closed for the next five years.

You could say there might be a recurrence and there might be and some doctors say it might be and there will be a flame and were going to put the flame out, he continued. We learned a lot about the coronavirus, weve learned a lot about this invisible enemy.

He added that companies are at work on a vaccine but that he wouldnt mind if another country beat the U.S. to it.

Were working very closely with other countries, and whoever gets it first, my hats off to them, he said. Were not looking for first, second or third place, were looking to get a vaccine that works. And progress has been made.

May 5, 1:15 p.m. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday as some counties around the state prepare to reopen retail for curbside pickup on Friday, maintaining physical-distancing measures will be crucial to reduce the risk of coronavirus spread.

Were not going back to normal," said Newsom, who gave the press briefing from the site of a Sacramento business called Display California with nine employees. "Its a new normal with adaptations and modifications, until we get to immunity and a vaccine.

Newsom said specific guidelines for businesses will be released on Thursday.

The order offers some opportunities for counties to make modifications at their own pace with Stage 2 of a four-phased reopening of the state. The Bay Area has more strict guidelines that require most retail to remain closed; Newsom said the state order does not preempt local requirements.

Read more about the reopening of retail on SFGATE.

Some rural areas with fewer coronavirus cases may proceed to opening restaurants, which are also part of Stage 2, under certain requirements.

Newsom was asked about Yuba and Sutter counties where businesses, such as hair salons, falling into Stage 3 have opened.

"Theyre making a big mistake and theyre putting their counties at risk," Newsom said. "These are exceptions. The other counties are mostly doing the right thing."

Newsom said the reopening of retail is possible due to an expansion of the state's contact-tracing program. With the help of UCLA and UCSF, the state has launched a virtual academy to train a workforce to join the effort. The first group of people going through the online training program to become contact tracers will start Wednesday.

What's more the state has acquired an impressive stash of masks that retail can tap into for their employees. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the state has distributed 14.2 million masks. Currently, the state has an inventory of 19.3 million masks that have arrived in recent days.

"We have never had so many surgical masks in our possession ready to be distributed," he said.

Also on Tuesday, Newsom said approval has been given for three additional beaches to reopen in Orange County  Huntington Beach, Seal Beach and Dana Point.

May 5, 12:40 p.m. Travel company Airbnb is laying off 1,900 employees, roughly 25% of its workforce, the company announced to employees Tuesday.

According to a memo sent by CEO Brian Chesky, the booking company expects its 2020 revenue will be less than half of what it made in 2019. Read more from SFGATE editor Katie Dowd.

May 5, 12:15 p.m. Scientists have identified a mutated strain of the coronavirus that's more contagious than the original strain that spread from Wuhan, China. The new strain, which originated in Europe, has since the become the dominant source of coronavirus infection across the world.

A study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, appeared Thursday on BioRxiv, a site meant to speed up the collaboration process between scientists and researchers working to find COVID vaccines and treatments. The study's organizers shared it to the site because they felt an "urgent need for an early warning" for scientists working on such medical efforts to fight the virus.

Read more on the study here.

May 5, noon Bay Area counties announced new coronavirus cases Tuesday. As other counties report the latest numbers, the list below will be updated throughout the day.

San Francisco reported 126 new cases to increase its total to 1,728. Two more deaths also occured, bringing the death toll to 31.

San Mateo reported 5 new deaths and 82 new cases, bringing its death toll to 56 and its case total to 1,315.

May 5, 9:30 a.m. Sonoma County is opening two new coronavirus testing sites in Santa Rosa and Petaluma on Tuesday. Testing is available by appointment to all residents regardless of whether they have COVID-19 symptoms or not.

"We are pleased to see that the state is stepping in to supplement local testing efforts," said Sonoma County Supervisor Susan Gorin in a statement. "This will help us reach our goal of conducting 600 to 800 tests per day, which will help us to understand the spread of COVID-19 here in Sonoma County, a critical step toward opening the county back up."

Read the full story on SFGATE.

May 5, 8:30 a.m. California Gov. Newsom said at a press briefing Monday he will likely amend the state order to allow retail to open with curbside pickup as early as Friday. The governor said everything from book stores to clothing shops can reopen as long as they implement physical-distancing measures.

The modification conflicts with a new mandate issued May 4 in six of the Bay Area counties. That prohibits most retail from opening through May 31. Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara have allowed essential businesses such as grocery stores to remain open during the pandemic and on Monday allowed outdoor retailers such as plant nurseries to welcome back customers.

Newsom said counties can keep their more strict guidelines in place and do not have to come into compliance with the state order. "We are not telling locals that feel its too soon, too fast to modify," he said.

Bay Area officials are weighing the governor's announcement and haven't made official statements on whether they will follow the state's lead, but some have implied they will move more slowly than the state.

In a Monday afternoon press conference, San Francisco Mayor London Breed acknowledged Governor Newsoms announcement but said the city is currently focused on observing the social distancing success of outdoor businesses that have been allowed to reopen to inform whether San Francisco will take further steps to reopen.

The health directive has everything to do with limiting our ability to be in contact with people so we can avoid not only transmitting the virus, but we also realize there are a number of people out there struggling financially, Breed said. If there is a way to accommodate the public health goal of keeping people safe while allowing businesses to operate but to operate differently with certain guidelines, we can definitely work together to achieve that goal and get to a better place.

Breed added that San Francisco would be working with the governor towards a Phase 2 plan, and identifying retailers that could be open in collaboration with local health officers. Specifically, she mentioned that the city was looking at options for restaurants and gyms.

Contra Costa Health Services acknowledged the governor's announcement in a message on Twitter, saying, "In Contra Costa, we plan to keep tracking progress on our 5 key indicators to decide when we're ready to move on to the next stage of relaxing our current shelter-in-place restrictions. The Gov made it clear that locals can retain stricter policies based on local conditions."

In a statement, an Alameda County spokesperson said health officers are reviewing the governors announcement with regional partners. "We will review the states updated guidance on the implementation of the early phases of Stage 2 reopening when it becomes available," the statement said. "As the governor noted, his announcement doesnt preempt local orders where they are stricter. Alameda Countys decisions will be based on local developments and data."

Napa and Solano counties aren't a part of the six-county consotrium and told KTVU-TV, they're discussing the issue with their board of supervisors today.

May 5, 8:15 a.m. In a major testing effort led by UCSF in the Mission District, 2.1% of the 4,160 people tested for COVID-19 were positive. Of those who tested positive, 90% have been leaving their homes for work.

"These were frontline workers, they had to work outside of the home, either that or they were furloughed or unemployed, Dr. Diane Havlir, chief of the UCSF Division of HIV, Infection, and Global Disease at San Francisco General, told KCBS.

Read the full story by Digital editor Amy Graff on SFGATE.

Cumulative cases in the greater Bay Area (due to limited testing these numbers reflect only a small portion of likely cases):

ALAMEDA COUNTY: 1,809 confirmed cases, 66 deaths

For more information on Alameda County cases, visit the public health department website.

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY: 969 confirmed cases, 29 deaths

For more information on Contra Costa County cases, visit the public health department website.

LAKE COUNTY: 8 confirmed cases

For information on Lake County and coronavirus, visit the public health department website.

MARIN COUNTY: 241 confirmed cases, 13 deaths

Fore more information on Marin County cases, visit the public health department website.

MONTEREY COUNTY: 237 confirmed cases, 6 deaths

For more information on Monterey County cases, visit the public health department website.

NAPA COUNTY: 75 cases, 2 deaths

For more information on Napa County cases, visit the public health department website.

SAN BENITO COUNTY: 52 confirmed cases, 2 deaths

For more information on San Benito County cases, visit the public health department website.

SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY: 1,728 confirmed cases, 31 deaths

For more information on San Francisco County cases, visit the public health department website.

SAN MATEO COUNTY: 1,315 confirmed cases, 56 deaths

For more information on San Mateo County cases, visit the public health department website.

SANTA CLARA COUNTY: 2,255 confirmed cases, 121 deaths

Fore more information on Santa Clara County cases, visit the public health department website.

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY: 138 confirmed cases, 2 deaths

For more information on Santa Cruz County cases, visit the public health department website.

SOLANO COUNTY: 320 confirmed cases, 6 deaths

For more information on Solano County cases, visit the public health department website.

SONOMA COUNTY: 261 confirmed cases, 3 deaths

For more information on Sonoma County cases, visit the public health department website.

In California, 2,217 coronavirus-related deaths have been reported, according to Johns Hopkins University. For comparison, New York has 24,708 New Jersey 7,871 and Illinois 2,618.

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Rep. Max Rose announced Tuesday that he has aided Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC) in securing machines and supplies needed to perform rapid COVID-19 tests, despite their scarcity due to extreme demand across the healthcare field.

Rose (D-Staten Island/South Brooklyn) said that two Abbott machines were obtained by the West Brighton hospital after his urging to the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on the medical facilitys behalf.

Theres no path to re-opening our community without extensive testing, which is why we moved mountain and earth to secure these rapid testing machines for RUMC, Rose said.

The machines return a positive COVID-19 result in five minutes and a negative test in 17 minutes.

We are grateful to the Governor, his team and Abbott for working with us to not only bring these machines to Staten island, but also provide the critical equipment necessary to operate them, he said.

Daniel Messina, president and CEO of RUMC, said the support the hospital has received from the boroughs elected officials during the pandemic has been second to none.

Congressman Rose has delivered on an annex emergency department tent for our hospital, valuable PPE for our staff and now testing capacity, Messina said.

I truly tip my hat to Max and I know my organization feels the same way. Especially when, on top of everything he has delivered for us, he still continues to find time to come to RUMC to express his personal support and admiration for our frontline heroes, he said.

FOLLOW KRISTIN F. DALTON ON TWITTER.
(Newser)  The idea that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab is gaining traction in the White House, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asserting that "enormous evidence" exists to support the idea. Anthony Fauci, however, isn't one of the believers. In an interview with National Geographic, Fauci first discussed the idea that the coronavirus might be man-made:

"If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats ... what's out there now is very, very strongly leaning toward this [virus] could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulatedthe way the mutations have naturally evolved," he says. "A number of very qualified evolutionary biologists have said that everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that it evolved in nature and then jumped species."

story continues below

The interviewer then asked him about the possibility that scientists found the virus outside the lab and were studying it when it somehow jumped to humans. (One theory is that an infected animal was being destroyed, and a lab worker became infected accidentally during that process, per the New York Times):

"But that means it was in the wild to begin with," he says. "That's why I don't get what they're talking about [and] why I don't spend a lot of time going in on this circular argument."

On tests: Fauci again warned about a second wave, telling National Geographic, "Shame on us if we don't have enough tests by the time this so-called return might occur in the fall and winter."

(Read more Anthony Fauci stories.)
Colonel Ashutosh Sharma was among the five security personnel who were killed in action in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Handwara during the weekend.

Today, the family paid tribute to the officer in Jaipur. A wreath-laying ceremony was held in the city before his funeral which will be held later.

ANI

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, his deputy Sachin Pilot and BJP MP Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore were among those who came out to pay their last respects to the decorated officer and offered condolences to Colonel Sharma's family at the Jaipur Military Station.

The officer's wife Pallavi Sharma and their young daughter Tamanna were present at the ceremony and in a video one sees them, saluting the officer, along with his mother.

Colonel Ashutosh Sharma, was the commanding officer of 21 Rashtriya Rifles which was involved in the anti-terror operation. He has previously been awarded gallantry medals twice for exemplary bravery in counter-terrorist missions.

#WATCH Wife, daughter and other family members of Colonel Ashutosh Sharma who lost his life in #Handwara (J&K) encounter, salute him pic.twitter.com/t2yD7fIftO  ANI (@ANI) May 5, 2020





Others who were martyred in action were, Major Anuj Sood, Naik Rajesh Kumar and Lance Naik Dinesh, from the same unit, and police officer Shakeel Ahmad Qazi.

Colonel Sharma's body arrived in Jaipur on Monday by a special aircraft and was taken to the military hospital in a decorated army vehicle.

Last rites of Major Anuj Sood will also be held today in Chandigarh, officials said. Floral tributes were paid at the Chandigarh Air Force station when body arrived there on Monday.

The body of Lance Naik Dinesh Singh is expected to reach Uttarakhand's Almora today. The 25-year-old soldier's father too was in the army.

Wreath laying ceremony for Indias five bravehearts of Handwara Ops in Kashmir. Saluting their ultimate sacrifice for the nation. Jai Hind! #RIP pic.twitter.com/O9kigS9hRS  Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) May 4, 2020

A joint anti-terrorist operation by the armed forces and the Jammu and Kashmir Police was carried out in the Handwara area of Kupwara district in north Kashmir, about 70 km from capital Srinagar, according to an army statement. The five-member team was able to rescue several civilians. Two terrorists were reportedly killed during the joint operation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said their "valour and sacrifice will never be forgotten". "Tributes to our courageous soldiers and security personnel martyred in Handwara. Their valour and sacrifice will never be forgotten. They served the nation with utmost dedication and worked tirelessly to protect our citizens. Condolences to their families and friends," he wrote.

Salute to the Colonels family members for keeping strong at a time like these.
Google had introduced the Pixel 4 XL in three color options, Clearly White, Just Black, and Oh So Orange. Well, a fourth color variant of the Pixel 4 XL just appeared, a gray model.

This image has appeared on the Chinese online shopping site Taobao, and its just a prototype of the device. This engineering machine is available for sale, in fact, and its priced at CNY2,699 ($382).

Do note that its possible that the seller replaced the back cover of some other color option of the Pixel 4 XL. That is a possibility, on the other hand, its also possible this is a yet-unseen variant of the phone.

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This seems to be a gray prototype of the Google Pixel 4 XL

That being said, the back cover of the phone is not easy to replace, and there dont seem to be any signs of a replacement. So its possible this is an actual prototype of the gray Pixel 4 XL.

XDA Developers actually validated this phones IMEI number in the database, and it is the Pixel 4 XL. In fact, the phones code-name on the back, C2, reveals that Verizon is its intended carrier.

Is it possible that Google is planning to offer a new color option of the Pixel 4 XL? Well, it sure seems like it. Youll also notice that the sticker on the bottom of the phone says this device has not been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission and Industry Canada, nor has it been tested for compliance with EU regulations. This device may not be sold or leased. For internal testing and development only. Markings and packaging are not final.

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Now, on one hand, its possible that the device will become available. On the other, its possible that the design was only tested, and never actually supposed to make it to market. Its possible Google simply dropped it.

If youd like to take a look at this variant of the Pixel 4 XL, weve included quite a few images down below. The seller did snap quite a few of them, and some of them even show you the device powered on.

The phone originally launched back in October last year

The Google Pixel 4 XL was announced back in October last year. Along with it, the Pixel 4 arrived as well. The two phones have been on sale for quite some time now, and it may be the right time for Google to announce a new color option.

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The company doesnt have a habit of doing that, like, lets say, Samsung. Things may change, though, of course, but its still more likely this way just a prototype Google considered, nothing more.

The Google Pixel 4a is expected to launch later this month. That will become Googles brand new mid-range offering. Its possible that a new color variant of the Pixel 4 XL may launch alongside it, not likely, but possible.

The Google Pixel 4a will include the main camera from the Pixel 4 and 4 XL, and an inferior SoC. That device will be considerably more affordable than Googles flagships.
BOSTON, May 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors (the "Board") of the China Fund, Inc. (NYSE: CHN) (the "Fund") announced today that effective immediately it will include on the Fund's website under "Daily Prices" the Fund's net asset value per share prior to any fair valuation adjustments that may be made from time to time ("Unadjusted NAV") in addition to the Fund's official net asset value per share ("Official NAV") reflecting any such adjustments. The addition of the Unadjusted NAV on the Fund's website is part of the Board's ongoing efforts to provide shareholders with increased transparency.

The Unadjusted NAV is provided for investors' information only. The Unadjusted NAV does not represent the Official NAV of the Fund nor is it used for Fund accounting or performance purposes. Investors should not rely upon the Unadjusted NAV when making their investment decisions. The Fund's Official NAV is calculated in accordance with the valuation procedures adopted by the Board. Consistent with the requirements of the Investment Company Act of 1940 and related Securities and Exchange Commission guidance, the Fund's valuation procedures provide that the value of the Fund's portfolio holdings may be adjusted as appropriate to ensure such valuation represents fair market value.

The Fund is a closed-end management investment company, the shares of which trade on the NYSE at prices at, above or below the Fund's Official NAV. The Fund's objective is to seek long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in equity securities (i) of companies for which the principal securities trading market is the People's Republic of China ("China"), or (ii) of companies for which the principal securities trading market is outside of China, or constituting direct equity investments in companies organized outside of China, that in both cases derive at least 50% of their revenues from goods and services sold or produced, or have at least 50% of their assets, in China.

For further information regarding the Fund and the Fund's holdings, please call (888)-CHN-CALL or visit the Fund's website at www.chinafundinc.com .

SOURCE The China Fund, Inc.

Related Links

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When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, many suffragists across the country, particularly the National American Woman Suffrage Association, quickly aligned themselves with President Woodrow Wilsons decision, helping to mobilize for the war effort, noted Allison Lange, a history professor at the Wentworth Institute of Technology and author of a new book on the images of the suffrage movement. Tens of thousands of nurses served in the Army and Navy Nurse corps in the United States and on the front lines of the war in Europe. Millions more women volunteered for organizations like the American Red Cross, helping roll bandages, prepare meals, pack and ship supplies, and organize fundraisers.
Major Anuj Sood, who was martyred in an anti-terror operation in north Kashmir, was cremated will full military honours on Tuesday. He was among the five security forces personnel who were martyred on Saturday night in an encounter while fighting terrorits in Handwara area of frontier district Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir, an operation in which the Army also lost a colonel.

Touching scenes were witnessed moments before his last rites when the body was taken from his Panchkula residence to the cremation ground in Mani Majra in Chandigarh. His wife Akriti threw her arms around the coffin to bid adieu just before the body was put on a bedecked army vehicle.

Major Sood's sister Harshita, who is also an Army officer, was seen consoling her sister-in-law at the Panchkula residence and later at the cremation ground. The Army officer's mortal remains had arrived here from Srinagar on Monday afternoon. Slogans like "Vande Mataram", "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" and "Major Anuj Amar Rahe" were raised as Major Sood's body, wrapped in tricolor, was taken to the cremation ground. Before the cremation, floral wreaths were laid by many serving and retired Army officers among others.

READ | Army chief Naravane warns Pakistan for exporting terror amid COVID-19 pandemic

Anti-Terrorist Front of India President, Viresh Shandilya, while laying floral wreaths raised "Pakistan Murdabad" and "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" slogans. Later, when the cremation took place, only the family members were allowed inside the cremation ground to ensure social distancing norms were followed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Besides Army officer's family members including his wife, his father and sister, senior Army officers were also present during the cremation. A guard of honour was given to Major Sood by the Army and three-volley gunshots were fired. The Army officer's funeral pyre was lit by his father. Major Sood's father, Brigadier Chandrakant Sood (retd), had earlier told the media that the news of the death left him shocked, but at the same time he was proud of the supreme sacrifice the officer had made for his motherland. "He was a true son of the nation," he had said at his Panchkula home.

The 30-year-old Army officer who was from the Brigade of the Guards regiment, part of the 21 Rashtriya Rifles andan alumnus of Punjab Public School, Nabha, had joined the National Defence Academy in 2008. He had one dream, which was to join the Army, according to his family. His family said he was scheduled to return home after a gap of six months and having finished his two-year stint in Jammu and Kashmir, he was to join the 12 Guards unit in Gurdaspur.

READ: Coronavirus LIVE Updates

Rajasthan CM, South Western Army chief pay tributes

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Soldier Welfare Minister Pratap Singh, South Western Army chief Lt Gen Alok Kler and others paid tributes to Colonel Ashutosh Sharma, who was martyred in an encounter with terrorists in Kashmir, here on Tuesday. Other officers of the Army and family members and relatives of Col Sharma were also present.

A wreath-laying ceremony was held at the Jaipur Military Station's 61 Cavalry ground, where Chief Minister Gehlot and Lt Gen Kler paid their last respects to the slain officer. They consoled his family members present there. Col Sharma's wife was seen greeting them with folded hands. Soldier Welfare Minister Singh, MP Rajyavardhan Rathore, Jaipur Collector Jogaram and other senior officials of the Army laid wreaths and paid their tributes.

READ | CDS Gen. Rawat says 'Pakistan frustrated with peace in J&K', lauds Handwara martyrs

5 security personnel martyred in Handwara encounter

On Sunday, 5 security personnel including an Army Colonel and Major were martyred in an encounter with terrorists at a village in Handwara, Jammu and Kashmir. As per the Indian Army statement, a joint operation was launched by the Army and Police based on the intelligence input that terrorists had taken civilians as hostages in a house in Changimul, Handwara. The security personnel managed to safely rescue the citizens and eliminated two terrorists. Subsequently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi. President Ram Nath Kovind, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and several other top officials paid tribute to the martyred personnel.

READ |Army Chief warns Pak after Handwara encounter, says 'India will respond appropriately'

(with PTI inputs)
It's a beautiful story of a life-long love  one that sprouted from the ashes of the German occupation of the Netherlands.

It's the tale of a Canadian man who fought to liberate Europe, and a Dutch woman in Amsterdam who happily welcomed the Canadian soldiers. It's a symbol of the special 75-year relationship Canada and the Netherlands have shared since the liberation.

It's one of nearly 1,900 similar stories, according to Historica Canada, and this one has been told several times before. But now it has been captured in a Heritage Minute, further galvanizing its place in Canadian history.

The new Heritage Minute features Canadian soldier Wilfred Gildersleeve and a Dutch woman named Margriet Blaisse.

Gildersleeve grew up in New Westminster and fought during the Second World War with the Seaforth Highlanders. He started as a radio signaler in Sicily in 1943, and wound up platoon commander by the time he made it to Amsterdam in 1945.

Blaisse, who (spoiler) would soon change her name to Gildersleeve, lived with her prominent Amsterdam lawyer father next to the park where the Canadians parked their vehicles after sweeping into the city to free its people from German rule.

Courtesy of Juliana Leahy

The Heritage Minute, in its typical brevity, jumps over the part of the story where Gildersleeve and about 20 of his fellow soldiers were invited to Blaisse's house for a drink  only to discover the stores of food and wine the family had hidden away to celebrate the end of the war had spoiled.

The story picks up the scene later that evening, when Gildersleeve returned to the house with an armful of food for the family.

The two would eventually marry and move back to West Vancouver, where they raised a large family.

They both passed away in 2001, but their story endures.

Courtesy of Juliana Leahy

The family got a preview of the Heritage Minute before its release on Tuesday.

"We were stunned," said daughter Juliana Leahy, who now lives in Comox. "We were stunned, because it was so powerful."

Story continues

Leahy said the family is quite aware of the fact that her parents' story has come to serve as a symbol of the relationship Canada and the Netherlands have shared since the end of the Second World War, as well as hundreds of other marriages between Canadian solders and Dutch women from that time.

"They would be very proud, but it would be in a very, kind of, understated way," she said of her parents. "They were very, very humble kind of people."

She said her father converted to Catholicism to marry her mother, and he tried to learn Dutch  though he never really managed.

He built a small house and kept adding rooms as the family grew.

Courtesy of Juliana Leahy

Leahy said the legacy of the relationship, which never could have begun in the first place, had the Canadians not fought their way through Europe to beat the German troops, is eight children, 18 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

"We are part of something that is so much bigger than us," she said of the liberation of the Netherlands ands everything that came afterwards.

In 1980, she was able to travel to Amsterdam with her parents to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the liberation.

Courtesy of Juliana Leahy

"I'm seeing all ages, from children to 90 years old ... I'm sure it was hundreds of thousands of people lining the all the streets, throwing tulips at these beautiful [veterans]," said Leahy. "It was mind boggling, the depth of respect and appreciation."

"You feel what the Canadians did, big time, when you see, when you go through an experience like that."

Do you have more to add to this story? Email rafferty.baker@cbc.ca

Follow Rafferty Baker on Twitter: @raffertybaker
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President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela said on Monday that two United States citizens were among 13 terrorists captured by the authorities in connection with what officials have called a failed plot to invade the country and topple his government.

Reuters reported that in a state television address, Mr. Maduro showed what he said were the passports and other identification cards of Airan Berry and Luke Denman, whom he described as employees of Silvercorp, a Florida-based security company whose owner has claimed responsibility for the failed incursion on Sunday.

The Silvercorp owner, Jordan Goudreau, a retired Green Beret, and a retired Venezuelan army captain, Javier Nieto, said in a video posted on social media that Operation Gedeon had been successfully launched deep into the heart of Caracas. They added that other armed cells had been activated throughout the country.

There was no evidence of fighting in Caracas or elsewhere in Venezuela after the reported incursion, which officials said had been repulsed.
CHENNAI: The special nodal officer coordinating the battle against Covid-19 in greater Chennai, Dr J Radhakrishnan, urged the people not to get panic in the wake of 'aggressive testing' of people in and around the Koyembedu wholesale market, the felt latest infection hub, even as the city accounted for 266 of the 527 new positive cases Tamil Nadu added on Monday. The state-wide total of positive Covid-19 patients touched 3,550.

In the last few days, officials reckon by a quick estimate that some 7,500 'mandi' workers, traders and their contacts including family members in and around Koyembedu market have left for their home districts, mainly Cuddalore, Villupuram, Tiruvannamalai, Vellore and Permbalur. So a huge contact tracing effort is on, to then test and isolate those persons who test positive.

Explaining this was part of the problem for the huge surge in number of corona positive patients, Mr. Radhakrishnan said it was surprising that nearly 80 per cent to 90 per cent of the new positive cases turning up was on testing of "asymptomatic cases". The public health workers have been after people who look so normal, but when tested show they have been infected by the virus, he said, adding, hence numbers were rising rapidly.

However, Dr. Radhakrishnan said people should not fear, as Tamil Nadu's recovery rate was still the highest in the country and the mortality was still among the lowest all-India. The senior officer who has handled major crisis situations including the 2004 Tsunami, said Covid-19 virus can be tamed.

There was one more death confirmed today, of a 65-year old male with co-morbidities from Chennai admitted in Stanley Medical College who died of Covid-19 infection, taking the state death toll due to the virus to 31.

After Chennai district, the largest number of Covid-19 positive cases was reported from Cuddalore (122), followed by Villupuram (49), Perambalur (25), Tiruvannamalai (11), Dindigul (10), Tenkasi and Tiruvallur, nine each.

As many as 22 police personnel in all have been infected by the virus in the State, official sources said, adding four lady house surgeons at ESI hospital, K.K. Nagar tested positive for the virus on Monday.

MILK SUPPLY HIT

Milk production at 'Aavin's Madhavaram plant was affected as many workers did not turn up for work in the wake of 'corona fear' and this affected milk distribution in North Chennai for the second day today.

Mr. A. Ponnuswamy, president of the Tamil Nadu Milk Distributing Agents and Workers Association, said government should ensure all protective measures against coronavirus at all the production plants of 'Aavin' and have all the 'Aavin' workers tested as a matter of abundant precaution.

FAKE 'SIDDHA' DOCS WARNED

Meanwhile, the State Health and Family welfare department warned against quacks and unqualified Siddha medical practitioners from making false claims against the curative potential of Siddha formulations, claiming to be a "cure for Covid-19" disease. Action was being taken against one "fake Siddha doctor" who runs a clinic in Koyembedu in Chennai, who allegedly spread "false information" about Siddha cures on social media, the department said.

ends.
Rising tensions between the U.S. and China  made worse by the coronavirus pandemic  is the start of a new Cold War, former top White House trade negotiator Clete Willems said on Tuesday. "The reality is that tensions between the United States and China are rising considerably at the moment," Willems, a former deputy director of the National Economic Council, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia." "I know people get uncomfortable with the terminology, but I do think we have to be honest and call this what it is and this is the start of a new Cold War and if we're not careful, things could get much, much worse," he added. Among the latest disputes between Washington and Beijing is the origin of the coronavirus, which has infected more than 3 million people and killed over 250,000 across 187 countries and territories, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The virus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan before spreading worldwide  and there's been growing outrage globally over how China handled its outbreak.

... I do think we have to be honest and call this what it is and this is the start of a new Cold War and if we're not careful, things could get much, much worse. Clete Willems former deputy director of the National Economic Council

In the U.S., critics allege Beijing wasn't upfront about the dangers of the virus, was too slow to respond and under-reported the extent of the outbreak within its borders. In the past week, President Donald Trump said he believed that China's "mistake" was the cause of the global pandemic, while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said "a significant amount of evidence" suggested that the virus originated in a Wuhan laboratory. China has rejected many of those claims and at times appeared to attempt to turn the tables around by alleging that the U.S. military might have brought the virus to Wuhan. In an editorial published Monday, state media Global Times said Pompeo's accusation that the virus originated in a lab was "groundless." It also alleged that Pompeo was trying to vilify China to help Trump get reelected.

"The Trump administration continues to engage in unprecedented propaganda warfare while trying to impede global efforts in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic," the editorial read. "The ultimate goal now is to win the election. If US public anger and dissatisfaction emerged due to Washington's incompetence over how it handled the pandemic, then the Trump administration would lose in November," it added.

Not all about the elections

Even within the U.S., there were claims that the Trump administration's rhetoric against China escalated during the pandemic because the president needed to find someone to blame for the weak economy going into the elections, said Willems, now a partner at law firm Akin Gump. But such a statement is "a little too cute," he added. "The reality is ... this has been coming a mile away, there's been growing frustration with China's economic policies and China has a lot to answer for when it comes to the coronavirus as well," he explained.
The COVID-19 tally shot up to



1,717 in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday as 67 more cases were added in the last 24 hours, while the toll increased to 34 with the death of a patient in Krishna district.

Of the new cases reported, 14 were said to be from Gujarat who came to the state.

The daily health bulletin said 14 positive cases are from Gujarat state, without providing any details.

Enquiries with official sources only revealed that they were preachers from Gujarat but no other details were forthcoming.

The latest bulletin said 65 coronavirus patients were discharged from hospitals across the state, taking the count to 589 so far.

Of the 67 new cases, 25 were from the hotbed Kurnool and 13 from Guntur.

Krishna district reported eight, Visakhapatnam, Kadapa and Anantapuramu two each and SPS Nellore one fresh case in the last 24 hours ending 9 am on Tuesday.

The bulletin said 28 patients had recovered and been discharged from COVID designated hospital in Kurnool, 13 in Guntur, 10 in Krishna and six in SPS Nellore.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Erotic novelist Sally Quinn has said she modeled the dashing hero scientist of her 1991 bestseller 'Happy Endings' on a young Dr Anthony Fauci.

Quinn, who brought to life the fictional Dr Michael Lanzer in the pages of her romance novel, has finally revealed the inspiration behind the mysterious doctor who romances the former First Lady while developing a cure for AIDS is none other than the top US scientist currently leading the nation through the coronavirus pandemic.

Quinn said she met a young Fauci at a Washington dinner party and instantly 'fell in love' with the 'sexy' scientist with his huge glasses and tie askew.

'I just fell in love with him,' Quinn told The Washingtonian.

Erotic novelist Sally Quinn (left) has said she modeled the dashing hero scientist of her 1991 bestseller 'Happy Endings' on a young Dr Anthony Fauci (right)

'Usually those dinners, you make polite conversation, and that's it. But we had this intense conversation, personal conversation. I though, "Wow, this guy is amazing".'

At the time, Quinn was working on the sequel to her novel 'Regrets Only' and was muting a character for the widowed former First Lady to fall in love with.

'What kind of person would she be in love with? It would not be somebody from a great family or with a lot of money. But it would be somebody who was really brilliant, and compassionate, and kind, and decent, and honest. All of those thingsand sexy,' she said.

'He just exuded charisma. All the things that she would have fallen in love with.'

Back in 1991, Fauci was the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, heading up the national response to the HIV crisis ravaging America.

In the bestselling 500-plus pages of 'Happy Endings', Dr Lanzer too is working on developing a new and untested federal AIDS treatment.

Lanzer also draws the reader in with his 'low, melodious, sexy, almost hypnotic' voice - a voice that Americans have tuned in to hear almost daily at the coronavirus taskforce briefings.

The similarities don't end there though.

Fauci at the daily White House coronavirus taskforce briefings. He has emerged as an unlikely heartthrob amid the coronavirus pandemic

The fictional doctor shies away from swanky political events and complains that he has 'really become a politician now and a PR man.'

Quinn explained that Fauci is not like 'most Washington people'.

'He was so different from most Washington people, because he's so self-effacing. He's not in it for the glory or the name recognition,' she said.

While Lanzer is said to be 'stunned' by the shocking behavior of White House officials talking about the HIV crisis, Fauci too has aimed to hold his head up high during the coronavirus pandemic - not being dragged in to public spats.

Plot-wise this could be where the similarities end - or so President Trump no doubt hopes.

In the novel, Dr Lanzer seduces the First Lady Sadie Grey and they embark on a steamy love affair over many months

In the novel, Dr Lanzer seduces the First Lady Sadie Grey after she first lays eyes on him on a Bahama beach and they embark on a steamy love affair over many months.

At several points, the reader is treated to imagining a naked Lanzer - aka naked Fauci.

In the book, the nerdy scientist also tries to woo his lover with science.

'You are like a tumor in my brain which is getting larger and larger each day,' he tells Grey.

Quinn said Fauci has known for some time that he was the inspiration behind the character.

'He just thought it was funny,' she told the Washingtonian.

'I think he was a little embarrassed.'

Fauci, now 79, may not be the most obvious romantic hero but his frontline work on the coronavirus pandemic has transformed the immunologist into an unlikely heartthrob.

The hashtag #Faucifever has been doing the rounds on social media, with fans declaring their crushes for the scientist.

A Change.org petition called 'Make Dr. Anthony Fauci People Magazines Sexiest Man Alive' has more than 25,000 signatures and counting as of May 5.

And there's no shortage of Fauci-themed merchandise people can order online so they can feel a bit closer to their new-found crush while staying at home amid the pandemic.

There's the 'I heart Fauci' T-shirts and pillows and the Dr Fauci prayer candles to 'Honk for Dr Fauci' bumper stickers and donuts with Faucis face printed on edible paper.
Varanasi, May 5 : The Kashi Vidvat Parishad, a revered body of scholars and saints, has appealed to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to allow opening of temples.

"If 'madiralaya' (liquor shops) can be opened, then why not 'devalaya' (temple) which will provide peace to the people," said Ram Narain Dwiwedi, Secretary of the Parishad.

He said, "Temples should be allowed to open for a shorter period of time. We have famous temples like Kashi Vishwanath, Sankat Mochan and Durga temple and we will ensure social distancing is followed by devotees." Dwiwedi further said that, in any case, devotees always stand in queues for 'darshan' and the practice will be strictly followed again.
Spokesman Says Iran Still Prepared For Prisoner Exchange With US, Europe

Radio Farda May 04, 2020

The Spokesman of Iran's Foreign Ministry on Monday said Iran is still prepared for prisoner exchange with the United States and European countries.

"We had announced our readiness both officially and through messages [relayed by third parties] and even proposed to exchange certain prisoners some of which took place," Seyed Abbas Mousavi told reporters on Monday.

He added that nearly 20 Iranians are in detention in the United States "on false charges of trying to circumvent sanctions" and said Iran is prepared to work for resolving the situation.

In October 2019 Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif said Iran had made an offer of prisoner exchange with the United States through the Swiss embassy in Tehran and submitted a list of Iranian prisoners in the United States for the exchange. The Swiss embassy represents U.S. interests in the Islamic Republic. Zarif, however, said the talks had reached a dead-end.

Commenting on the circumstances of Dr. Sirous Asgari, an Iranian scientist in prison in the United States, Mousavi said he has reportedly contracted the coronavirus in prison. "He will be tested again. Everything is ready for his return to the country and if his test result is negative he will come back to Iran soon".

Asgari was not found guilty in a U.S. sanctions trial but is held on U.S. federal charges of stealing trade secrets since November.

Speaking to reporters on Monday Ali Rabiei, the Spokesman of the Rouhani administration, alleged that Iranian prisoners are held in "shameful" unsanitary conditions in U.S. prisons. Rabiei also said Iran that is expecting the return of an Iranian prisoner, presumably Sirous Agari, from the United States soon.

Iran is holding several dual-nationals who have been arrested and convicted in closed-door, unfair trials. Western officials regard these arrests as an attempt to gain bargaining chips by Iran.

Iranian officials have repeatedly demanded the release of Iranian prisoners held in the United States and European countries on charges of breaching the U.S. sanctions.

"The U.S. even refuses medical furlough, amid COVID-19, for innocent men jailed in horrific facilities. Release our men." Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif said in a tweet on March 27.

Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/spokesman-says- iran-still-prepared-for-prisoner-exchange- with-us-europe/30591788.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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Carondelet Leadership Academy opened in the Patch neighborhood in 2010. It ranked lowest among St. Louis charter schools in 2018 with 11% of students scoring proficient or advanced in math and 13% in English. The Missouri Charter Public School Commission took over sponsorship of the school in 2019 from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

That year, 21% of the schools students scored proficient or higher in English and 22% scored proficient in math. The students improvement gains over 2018 were third-highest in English and highest in math among all districts or charters in the St. Louis region.

Teachers at the school expressed their disappointment in the closure, saying it was unfair to judge the schools academic performance now, after the coronavirus pandemic led to the cancellation of statewide testing this spring.

We had to make the hard decision, Wahby said. They did not meet the performance contract. They were moving in the right direction, but they could not put together a compelling enough case that they could turn this around.
BOULDER, Colo., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- BDSA (formerly BDS Analytics), the leader in comprehensive, accurate and actionable cannabis market intelligence and consumer research, announced today that Illinois retail cannabis sales exceeded $188 million in the first quarter of 2020, reflecting adult-use sales of $109.96 million and medical sales of $78.2 million. This year's sales are projected to exceed $693 million, an increase of 176%, based on top-line sales projections modeled from point-of-sale transaction records.

Adult-use cannabis sales began in Illinois on January 1, 2020. With nearly 12.8 million residents, Illinois population is about 120% larger than that of Colorado, a state with over $451 million in legal cannabis sales in the first quarter of 2020. Illinois, as a new market, has 54 adult-use dispensaries and 55 medical dispensaries, compared with 306 dispensaries operating in Colorado's first year of adult-use sales and 587 adult-use licenses and 432 medical licenses currently. Illinois plans to license 130 additional adult-use locations, providing tremendous growth opportunity.

"Illinois is the first Midwestern state to legalize and implement an adult-use cannabis market and the largest since California. Its central location and large population  in addition to the lack of adult-use programs in neighboring states  makes it very attractive to multi-state operators and investors," said Roy Bingham, CEO and Co-founder of BDSA.

Currently, Illinois dispensary shoppers are spending an average of $80 a month on cannabis products, and that number is expected to grow. Since adult-use sales began, the vape category has reflected the largest sales in the state, outselling flower and defying the trend often seen when adult-use markets come online.

"For the time being, the Illinois market is constrained by supply chain shortages and a relatively few numbers of retailers, but both are actively being addressed," said Bingham. "As these constraints are tackled, increased availability and competition will result in falling prices, which will feed increased demand. We anticipate a long road of growth for cannabis sales in Illinois."

BDSA forecasts the Illinois market will reach $1.5 billion in 2025, rising at a CAGR of 35.4% from 2019, driven by new store openings, increasing consumer demand and new product form factors. BDSA continues to monitor the impact of COVID-19 on the cannabis industry and will update industry forecasts later this year.

Illinois market data is available through BDSA's GreenEdge platform. BDSA's unique combination of macro-economic research with consumer insights and retail sales tracking  all available on GreenEdge  paints a comprehensive picture of cannabis markets.

About BDSA

Headquartered in Boulder, Colo., BDSA (formerly BDS Analytics) helps businesses improve revenues, reduce innovation risk and prioritize market expansion. The company provides a holistic understanding of the cannabinoid market by generating comprehensive, accurate and actionable insights across point-of-sale data, consumer research and global cannabis industry forecast models, available through the award-winning GreenEdge data platform. To learn more about how you can utilize BDSA's market research and insights, please visit www.bdsa.com.

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The Late Postclassic civilization called the Aztecs that the Spanish conquerors crossed paths within Mexico in the 16th century had praised and served a rich and diversified number of gods and goddesses, says an article.



Aztec Gods and Goddesses

According to scholars who studied the Aztec Religion, they have discovered at least 200 gods and goddesses of the Aztecs. These gods and goddesses were classified into three groups. Every group of gods and goddesses resembled an aspect of the universe, including rain, fertility, the sky, war, agriculture, and sacrifice.

Generally, the origins of the Aztec gods can be seen in the earlier parts of the Mesoamerican religions or those that are shared by other societies. These gods and goddesses are known as pan-Mesoamerican gods and goddesses.



Here are some of the Aztec gods and goddesses:

Huitzilopochtli- Father of the Aztecs

Huitzilopochtli was the father god of all the Aztecs. During the time of the Aztecs' great migration from their home Aztalan, Huitzilopochtli said to the Aztecs that they should build their capital city of Tenochtitlan.

Huitzilopochtli means 'the Hummingbird of the Left.' Additionally, he was the god of war and sacrifice for the Aztecs. The Aztecs made a shrine to honor him. The shrine was placed at the topmost part of the pyramid of the Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlan. It was decorated with skulls that were painted red. The red paint on Huitzilopochtli's shrine represents blood.



Tlaloc - God of Rain and Storms

Tlaloc is the Aztecs' god of rain. He is one of the oldest gods in all Mesoamerica. Also, he is associated with agriculture and fertility. His origins can be traced to Olmec, Maya, and Teotihuacan civilizations.

His main shrine was the second shrine after Huitzilopochtli's shrine. It is placed at the top part of Templo Mayor, the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan. Tlaloc's shrine is decorated with blue bands that represent water and rain. The Aztecs believed that the tears and cries of infants were sacred to Tlaloc. This had led to the Aztecs sacrificing children for ceremonies to honor Tlaloc.



Tonatiuh - God of the Sun

Tonatiuh was the Aztec's sun god. The Aztecs saw him as a nourishing god who gave the people warmth and fertility and honored him by providing sacrificial blood.

Also, Tonatiuh was the god of warriors. In Aztec mythology, he had watched over the era where the Aztecs were believed to live. That era is the era of the Fifth Sun. Additionally, the face at the center of the sunstone of the Aztecs is Tonatiuh's face.



Mayahuel - Goddess of Maguey

Mayahuel is the goddess of the maguey plant. The Aztecs perceived the sap of the plant as Mayahuel's blood. She is also known as the woman with 400 breasts that enable her to feed her children called the Centzon Totochtin.



Check these out:



Tlaltecuhtli - Earth Goddess

Tlaltechutli is the earth goddess. She had required a lot of human sacrifices from the Aztecs to sustain her. She is a representation of the earth's surface where she devours the sun at night and gives it back the following day.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 15:02:14|Editor: huaxia

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A woman lays flowers to the Freedom Monument in Riga, Latvia, May 4, 2020, as the country marks the 30th anniversary of its declaration of independence. May 4 is celebrated by Latvians to mark the day the country declared independence from the former Soviet Union in 1990. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, national-wide celebrations this year mostly took place at home as all annual events were cancelled. (Photo by Janis Laizans/Xinhua)
Two Republican lawmakers are demanding more information from the FBI after bombshell revelations in the case of former national security advisor Michael Flynn were brought to light last week.

Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Mike Johnson of Louisiana said they are demanding meetings with FBI Director Christopher Wray and with an agent from the bureau, Joe Pientka.

Pientka had helped in the 2017 White House interview that led to Flynn's prosecution.

GOP Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, right, and Mike Johnson of Louisiana have joined in demanding meetings with FBI Director Christopher Wray and with an agent from the bureau, Joe Pientka

GOP Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Mike Johnson of Louisiana are demanding more information from the FBI after bombshell revelations in the case of former national security adviser Michael Flynn (pictured) were brought to light last week

The lawmakers are looking into what they descried as 'troubling details about the politicization and misconduct at the highest levels of the FBI during the Obama-Biden administration,' reports Fox News.

Jordan and Johnson also have asked the FBI to produce all documents and communications referring or relating to Crossfire Razor, the FBI code name for its investigation into Flynn.

The internal FBI documents unsealed last week showed disgraced anti-Trump and former head of FBI counterintelligence Peter Strzok ordered the Flynn investigation be kept open even after it was to be closed due to a lack of 'derogatory' information.

Wray, earlier this year, testified several agents could be under internal investigation by the bureau.

'As for current employees, there are what I would call more line-level employees who were involved in some of the events in the report, all of those employees  were referred to our Office of Professional Responsibility, which is our disciplinary arm,' Wray wrote. He did not provide more information.

Pientka, according to Fox News, also had close involvement in the investigation of former Trump aide Carter Page, which the Justice Department has acknowledged had fundamental errors and was based on a discredited dossier the FBI was told could be part of Russian disinformation.

FBI Director Christopher Wray, earlier this year, testified several agents could be under internal investigation by the bureau

The agent's name was removed from the FBI's website after Fox News contacted the bureau about Pientka, a change first noted in a tweet made by Techno Fog. Sources tell Fox News Pientka remains in a senior role at the agency's San Francisco field office.

In addition to Pientka, Jordan and Johnson want to meet with Bill Priestap, the former assistant director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division after his handwritten notes revealed that the agents were trying to get Flynn to break the 'Logan Act' when he spoke to then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during presidential transition period after the 2016 election.

Use of the Logan Act in a criminal prosecution is unprecedented. The 1799 law was created before telephones to catch unauthorized individuals from claiming to represent the US government while abroad.

Pientka's name was removed from the FBI's website, a change noted in a tweet made by Techno Fog. Sources say the agent remains in a senior role at the agency's San Francisco field office

'Any criminal investigation grounded in Logan Act questions is an obvious political pretext to attack the Trump Administration,' the Republicans wrote to Wray. 'FBI attorney Lisa Page admitted to Congress the Justice Department saw the Logan Act as an 'untested' and 'very, very old' statute.'

Priestap's notes, written after a meeting with then-FBI Director James Comey and then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, revealed top FBI officials discussing their motivations for having agents interview Flynn in the White House on January 24, 2017.

The notes openly questioned if the 'goal' of the interview was 'to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired.'

Priestap's notes, written after a meeting with then-FBI Director James Comey and then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, revealed top FBI officials discussing their motivations for having agents interview Flynn (pictured) in the White House on January 24, 2017.

The notes in four pages of internal documents penned ahead of the Flynn interview were released to Flynn's lawyers last month and unsealed by a federal judge on Wednesday.

Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI during its investigation of ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia but has since claimed he was 'set up and framed' by the bureau.

'The American people continue to learn troubling details about the politicization and misconduct at the highest levels of the FBI during the Obama-Biden Administration,' Jordan and Johnson wrote in their demand to meet with Wray.

'Even more concerning, we continue to learn these new details from litigation and investigationsnot from you. It is well past time that you show the leadership necessary to bring the FBI past the abuses of the Obama-Biden era.'
Technavio has been monitoring the lottery market in the US and it is poised to grow by USD 30.12 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of almost 6% 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/20200505005109/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Lottery Market in the US 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Arizona Lottery, Florida Lottery, International Game Technology Plc, INTRALOT SA, New York State Gaming Commission, PA Lottery, Pollard Banknote Ltd., Scientific Games Corp., Texas Lottery Commission, and The California State Lottery are some of the major market participants. The high penetration of smartphones will offer immense growth opportunities. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

High penetration of smartphones has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market.

Lottery Market in the US 2020-2024: Segmentation

Lottery Market in the US is segmented as below:

Type Scratch-off Games Terminal-based Games Sports Lotteries

Platform Traditional Online



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=IRTNTR40658

Lottery Market in the US 2020-2024: Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our lottery market in the US report covers the following areas:

Lottery Market in the US Size

Lottery Market in the US Trends

Lottery Market in the US Industry Analysis

This study identifies advancements in technology as one of the prime reasons driving the lottery market growth in the US during the next few years.

Lottery Market in the US 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the lottery market in the US, including some of the vendors such as Arizona Lottery, Florida Lottery, International Game Technology Plc, INTRALOT SA, New York State Gaming Commission, PA Lottery, Pollard Banknote Ltd., Scientific Games Corp., Texas Lottery Commission, and The California State Lottery. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the lottery market in the US are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Lottery Market in the US 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist lottery market growth in the US during the next five years

Estimation of the lottery market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the lottery market in the US

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of lottery market vendors in the US

Table Of Contents:

PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT

2.1 Preface

2.2 Currency conversion rates for US$

PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE

Market ecosystem

Market characteristics

Value chain analysis

Market segmentation analysis

PART 04: MARKET SIZING

Market definition

Market sizing 2019

Market outlook

Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Comparison of lottery market in US with other markets

Lottery market in China Market size and forecast 2019-2024

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 TYPE

Market segmentation by type

Comparison by type

Scratch-off games Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Terminal-based games Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Sports lotteries Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by type

PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

Buying criteria of lottery

PART 08: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY PLATFORM

Market segmentation by platform

Comparison by platform

Traditional Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Online Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by platform

PART 09: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES

Market drivers

Market challenges

PART 10: MARKET TRENDS

Advancing technologies

Increasing strategic alliances

Increasing organic growth

PART 11: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

PART 12: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

Arizona Lottery

Florida Lottery

International Game Technology Plc

INTRALOT SA

New York State Gaming Commission

PA Lottery

Pollard Banknote Ltd.

Scientific Games Corp.

Texas Lottery Commission

The California State Lottery

PART 13: APPENDIX

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

Definition of market positioning of vendors

PART 14: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO

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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MEXICO CITY  Salvadorans took a gamble when they elected Nayib Bukele president: He was a political outsider, a millennial who had run his campaign largely over social media and offered few concrete details about how he would govern.

Still, voters in El Salvador swept him into office, hoping for a change that would improve lives in a country long hobbled by corruption, poverty and some of the worlds highest murder rates.

His actions in recent months, however, have left many Salvadorans  lawyers, business leaders, human rights advocates, journalists and others  afraid that Mr. Bukele is backsliding into the kind of authoritarian leadership the country fought a civil war to overturn.

In February, Mr. Bukele marched soldiers into Congress to intimidate lawmakers to push through a bill. The following month, he brushed aside Supreme Court orders to stop using the military to detain quarantine violators. Later, he advocated the use of lethal force in a crackdown on the criminal gangs that drive up the countrys murder rate.
Regulatory News:

The Board of Directors of TOTAL S.A. (Paris:FP) (LSE:TTA) (NYSE:TOT) met on May 4, 2020, under the chairmanship of CEO Patrick Pouyanne. It reviewed the documents related to the May 29, 2020, Annual Shareholders' Meeting, which will take place without the physical presence of shareholders, given the current state of health emergency in France.

The documents prepared by the Company for this General Meeting will be available on the Company's website as of May 6, 2020, pursuant to the regulations in force.

The Board of Directors decided to amend the 3rd resolution related to the allocation of earnings and the declaration of dividend for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, set at 2.68 /share by proposing to the shareholders an option to receive the final dividend of 0.68 /share in shares.

In addition, the Board of Directors considered at this meeting the request to include in the Agenda of the Shareholders' Meeting a draft resolution proposed by shareholders representing nearly 1.37% of the share capital of the Company. This draft seeks to amend an article of the by-laws related to the management report that, if adopted, would lead such report to include notably the strategy of the Company as defined by the Board to align its activities with the objectives of the Paris Climate agreement as well as the setting in absolute terms of targets for greenhouse gas emissions not only for emissions directly related to the operations the Company is responsible for, but also for indirect emissions related to the use of energy products by clients but on which the Company has no direct control.

The Board of Directors decided to include this proposed resolution, which respects the forms required by law, in the Agenda of the Combined Shareholders' Meeting to be held on May 29, 2020, but not to recommend the approval of this resolution.

The Board of Directors emphasizes that it is fully aware of its responsibilities on environmental matters by proposing at the Shareholders' Meeting to amend the by-laws to enshrine consideration of the social and environmental challenges involved in the Company's activities in the duties of the Board of Directors. In this context, the Board of Directors adopted, after a productive dialogue with institutional investors as participants in the global investor initiative Climate Action 100+1, the new climate ambition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. This climate ambition was the subject of a press release issued on May 5, 2020. The Board considers that it is responding largely to the objectives of the authors of the resolution and that the Group's strategy incorporates this ambition. There is therefore no need to compel the strategic framework of the Company's activity in the by-laws, beyond what the Board of Directors has already proposed to the Shareholders' Meeting.

In addition, by targeting indirect greenhouse gas emissions related to the use of Total's energy products by its clients, the resolution as drafted leads the Group to assume responsibility for these emissions, although the use of its products results from its clients' choices, and the Company does not have the direct capacity to act on the demand. Total does not manufacture aircrafts, cars or cement, but it supplies the energy products that are used or processed by other industries to provide services or products. While Total can act on the mix of its energy products, only public policies and technical and technological changes in energy consumption that Total supports and facilitates as part of its Climate ambition are able to steer energy demand.

Furthermore, the Board of Directors considers that by seeking to specify the contents of the management report in the by-laws, the proposed resolution undermines the prerogatives of the Board of Directors and results in interference by the Shareholders' Meeting in the remit of the Board of Directors in violation of the principle of division of powers between corporate bodies

Finally, at the Shareholders' Meeting, the resolutions relating to compensation policies for the year 2020 will be submitted to the shareholders for a vote on the Chairman CEO on one part and the members of the Board of Directors on the other. The Board informs the shareholders that in the extraordinary economic situation facing the Group, which requires a vigorous economic response from the company, the Chairman CEO proposed that his fixed compensation be reduced by 25% from May 1 to December 31, 2020. The Board of Directors took note of this and noted that given the expected evolution of the economic criteria for the variable portion, Patrick Pouyanne's 2020 total compensation will decrease by more than 30% compared to 2019. The members of the Board of Directors have also decided to give up 25% of their compensation for their mandate from the Annual Shareholders' Meeting.

Conditions of availability of the preparatory documents:

The preliminary notice of the Shareholders' Meeting was published in the BALO (Bulletin des annonces legales obligatoires) on March 25, 2020, and the convening notice including the modified agenda and the modified text of the proposed resolutions, will be published on May 6, 2020.The documents referred to in Article R. 225-83 of the French Commercial Code will be made available to Shareholders as from the date of the convening notice for the Meeting in accordance with applicable regulation. Shareholders holding registered shares may, up to and including the fifth day prior to the Meeting, request that the Company sends these documents to them free of charge. For shareholders holding bearer shares, the exercise of this right is subject to the provision of a certificate of registration in the accounts of the bearer shares issued by the authorized intermediary. The documents referred to in Article R. 225-73-1 of the French Commercial Code may be consulted and downloaded on the Company's website: total.com/Investors/Annual Shareholders' meeting/The documents of the Meeting from May 6, 2020.

About Total:

Total is a major energy player that 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.

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.

1 According to Total evaluation, participants to Climate Action 100+ own more than 25% of Total's shares.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005955/en/

Contacts:

Total Contacts:

Media Relations: +33 1 47 44 46 99 l presse@total.com l @TotalPress

Investor Relations: +44 (0)207 719 7962 l ir@total.com
By Trend

The price of Azeri LT CIF Augusta, produced at the Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli (ACG) oil field, amounted to $24.11 per barrel on May 4, which is $0.6 more compared to May 1, Trend reports with reference to the source from country's oil and gas market.

The price of Azeri LT FOB Ceyhan amounted to $22.95 per barrel on May 4, which is $0.7 more compared to May 1.

Azerbaijan has been producing Azeri LT since 1997 and exporting it via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) and Baku-Supsa Western Export Pipeline, as well as by rail, to the Georgian port of Batumi.

Azerbaijan also sells its URALS oil from the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, delivering it through the Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline.

The price of URALS with shipment from the port amounted to $22.57 per barrel on May 4, which is $0.22 more compared to May 1.

The cost of a barrel of Brent Dated oil, produced in the North Sea, amounted to $19.32 per barrel, indicating a decrease of $0.04.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
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Congress President Sonia Gandhis offensive over the Railways charging stranded migrants for their return trip is clever optics. It is intended to win back its pro-poor base, which shifted considerably to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and showed greater faith in his leadership in the 2019 elections.

Her announcement that the Congress would pay the fare for all migrants and needy workers travelling home by these trains made headlines for few hours till the government cleared the air. The Railways would bare 85 percent of the ticket fare, and the rest the state governments.

It is true that an official circular sent to the states on the special trains, which started running from May 1, did mention that the local government authorities shall handover the tickets to the passengers cleared by them and collect the ticket fare and handover the total amount to the railways. This suggestion is a normal procedure, and was more for setting the accounting record straight for the Railways. It told the states that it was being charged just 15 percent of the train farethe states could either bear the cost or get the migrant workers to pay.

The decision to charge 15 percent was taken so that state governments did not encourage migrant workers to leave their state in toto. Through this non-essential travellers could be avoided, and the plan was even kept under wraps to avoid a repeat of the April 14 incident outside the Bandra station in Mumbai

The Centre, through its interactions with the state leadership via video conferencing has been appealing not to encourage migrant workers to travel. There are mainly two reasons for this. One, the migrant workers could be potential carriers of the COVID-19 virus to their homes and villages that have till now been isolated from its spread. Two, it would leave many states without an essential labour force and slow down the economic revival process as the lockdown is gradually lifted. The same migrants would want to be back on their jobs, barring a few who may be inclined to try out the MGNREGA jobs closer to their villages.

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

Of the 15 percent that the state governments had to foot, three states  Congress-ruled Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and Left-ruled Kerala  got the migrants to pay their own fare. They did not think  till Sonia Gandhi made it an issue  that it was cruel to ask the migrants to pay. Gandhi sought to score brownie points by declaring that her party would pay the fare  when all she had to do was to ask Congress-run states to bear the 15 percent. Non-Congress ruled states, such as Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, had already done so.

The politics aside, this raises a more pertinent question: Should the Railways becoming a punching bag to be fleeced financially as well as politically?

The Railways, Indias largest employer, has had strained finances for some years now  unable to meet its essential costs of modernising rolling stock and tracks, besides maintaining a robust system. Already, it has been officially estimated that the break in passenger train services since March 25, which is the longest since the 54-day strike in 1974, is set to cause a loss of 6,500 crore or more in passenger revenue and 6,000 crore in freight earnings.

On an average, the railways earn about 145-150 crore a day ferrying passengers across India, translating into annual revenue of about 53,000 crore. At present, the goods trains are just ferrying essentials and that too at about 60 percent capacity due to lack of demand, and closure of industries.

Even these special trains carrying migrants are operating at about 60 percent capacity due to social distancing norms. In addition to this, the Railways has borne the cost of accompanying teams of paramedics and railway security officers to ensure no one gets off midway and returns without passengers.

By sensationalising the unfolding human misery and trying to politically gain from it, the Opposition did not mind the damage to the principle of balancing good economics and good politics as long as it appeared to corner Modi.

A responsible Opposition would have acknowledged that no one wants to forget that thousands of migrant workers have endured misery because of their desperation to get home at all costs. Hence, a prudent approach to help some of them take special trains must receive the support of all parties.
Venezuelan authorities patrol where the alleged attack took place outside Caracas. Photo: Rayner Pena/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

First there was stupid Watergate, such an evocative phrase that it was applied both to the Trump camps entanglements with Russia and the presidents attempts to leverage aid in Ukraine that eventually led to impeachment. Now, the Trump era has brought us stupid Bay of Pigs: On Monday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced that two Americans were among a group of 13 people arrested for what he described as an attempted coup to overthrow his regime.

In a state TV appearance, Maduro said that the two Americans arrested outside Caracas were professional mercenaries named Luke Denman and Airan Berry, who carried ID cards for a Florida-based security contractor called Silvercorp. Maduro equated their alleged efforts to overthrow his government to playing Rambo and playing hero. He did not mention, however, that the two were not very good at cosplaying the American tradition of violently overthrowing Latin American governments. Below are some of the less thought-through elements of the apparent coup attempt.

They tweeted about the raid while it was in process

It should go without saying that if youre involved in an alleged attempt to overthrow a government already prepared for interference from a well-funded opposition leader, you should keep it offline. But Silvercorp, the private contractor employing the pair of mercenaries, tweeted about the operation on Sunday while it was still in motion:

Strikeforce incursion into Venezuela. 60 Venezuelan, 2 American ex Green Beret @realDonaldTrump  Silvercorp USA (@SilvercorpUsa) May 4, 2020

Though the age of the private contractor has been in high gear since the beginning of the Iraq War, the challenges of not posting are a more recent development; Blackwater gunmen didnt carry the extra burden of keeping up their brand while guarding Paul Bremer in 2004.

While the failed raid provided a rare news break from the coronavirus pandemic, the mercenaries social media accounts brought a much-needed dose of schadenfreude for critics of the outsourced military-industrial complex, or anyone wishing to see what a bunch of fumbling mercenaries eating hamburgers looks like.

Why do they all have to look like washouts from The Ultimate Fighter pic.twitter.com/s7avVaOsjv  Andray (@andraydomise) May 5, 2020

Silvercorp appears to have provided security at Trump events

The Trump administration  gung-ho for the removal of Maduro during a power struggle last year led by opposition leader Juan Guaido  may not be thrilled to learn that Silvercorp apparently did security for the presidents rallies in 2018. Though the photo has been taken down, Vice News grabbed a screenshot of an Instagram post showing what appears to be the backstage at Trumps October 2018 rally in Charlotte, with the caption Protecting our Greatest Assets. The Associated Press has also confirmed that the companys head Jordan Goudreau accompanied the presidents longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller to a meeting with Guaidos representatives in May 2019 in Miami. While the president frequently employs private security at his events, on Tuesday he denied any involvement with the plot.

Denman and Berry apparently brought an Airsoft gun on the raid

As any friend of a kid who lived in the woods knows, Airsoft guns hurt. But they would not be effective weapons for a group of 62 to overthrow a president leading a standing army of over 340,000. According to the investigative site Bellingcat, the cache of weapons that Venezuelan authorities seized from the Americans contained an Airsoft rifle, which are reserved in military settings for training, as they cannot kill a person. (Of the group of 62 mercenaries, the Venezuelan government claimed eight were killed.)

The Silvercorp founder confirmed his involvement, and said his planning was inspired by Alexander the Great

Rather than keep a low PR presence as news of the botched and legally spurious act emanated throughout the world, Jordan Goudreau  who won the Bronze Star on three occasions while serving in Iraq  tweeted about the raid and spoke with an exiled Venezuelan journalist, claiming responsibility for orchestrating the attack. When asked why he would hurl his forces onto the heavily fortified coastline outside Caracas, Goudreau said he was inspired by Alexander the Great, who struck deep into the heart of the enemy at the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 B.C.

Goudreau did not mention the discrepancy between the size of their forces: 62 compared to an army of over 40,000.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  How will U.S. Rep. Justin Amashs presidential bid impact the race?

Now that the West Michigan congressman is seeking the Libertarian Partys presidential nomination, many are asking not whether he can win the election, but whether he would siphon off more votes from President Donald Trump or Joe Biden.

Many say his candidacy poses a bigger threat to Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

There isnt a hint of a glimmer of a ghost of a chance that Amash has a chance to win any state, let alone the presidency, said Jeff Timmer, former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party and a vocal opponent of Trump.

Amash running only benefits Trump in Michigan, and I think (or at least hope) he eventually comes to that realization.

Former Republican Illinois congressman Joe Walsh says Amash cant win.

But he can siphon enough votes from the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, to hand the election to Trump," Walsh wrote in an op-ed published in the Washington Post.

RELATED: Meet Justin Amash: Michigan congressman exploring presidential bid as Libertarian

Amash was elected in 2010 as a Republican but left the GOP last summer.

Hes been a vocal and persistent critic of the president, and was the first Republican in Congress to call for impeachment proceedings against Trump following U.S. Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into 2016 election interference.

After months of speculation, Amash on Tuesday, April 28 announced that he was launching an exploratory committee to seek the Libertarian Partys presidential nomination. He said the United States is ready for a presidency that will restore respect for our Constitution and bring people together.

Erica King, a political science professor at Grand Valley State University, said its almost impossible for a third-party candidate to win the presidential race in the United States.

But a candidate such as Amash could complicate the race in key battleground states, where the margin of victory can be razor thin. In Michigan, for example, Democrat Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in 2016 by just over 10,000 votes.

If he draws more Republican votes away from Trump, that could potentially help Biden, King said. But might he be, for some moderate Republicans, an alternative to Trump and Biden?

Amash has dismissed the claim that hes simply a spoiler candidate. He says hes running to win.

I dont think theres any person who can figure out how a candidate entering the race affects the other candidates or affects the race, because its such a dynamic process, he said. There are almost infinite variables at play.

If past performance of third-party candidates is any indication, Amash faces a monumental challenge.

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson received about 3% of the popular vote in 2016, when he ran as the Libertarian Partys presidential candidate.

The strongest performance in recent history by a third-party candidate came in 1992, when Texas businessman Ross Perot ran as an independent and captured 19 percent of the popular vote, according to the news website FiveThirtyEight. However, Perot did not earn a single electoral vote.

Brandon Dillon, the former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, downplayed the challenge Amashs candidacy poses to Biden.

People know who Donald Trump is now  and how he has behaved, or not behaved, as president, Dillon said. The luxury of being able to cast a protest vote or vote third party, I think for a lot of people is not available.

Former Michigan Republican Party Chairmen Saul Anuzis had a different take.

When the Republican who walks into the polls says, I really dont like Trump, but I hate to see what Biden would do instead, they can still cast their protest vote for Amash, Anuzis told CNBC. Thats why Democrats are more fearful.

Jennifer Horn, a former chairwoman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, told the Associated Press that if your priority is to remove Donald Trump from the White House, then you have to recognize that the only person who is in any position to make that happen right now is Joe Biden.

A third-party candidate who takes votes away from the person who is best positioned to do that undermines that effort, said Horn, who is now part of the Lincoln Project, a group of former Republicans that oppose Trump.

Amash, who was first elected to Congress in 2010 amid the tea party wave, describes himself as a constitutional conservative and a libertarian. A resident of Kent Countys Cascade Township, Amash is a strong proponent of limited government, the free market and civil liberties.

Read more:

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The Gujarat government on



Tuesday approved shifting of Surat-based diamond workers and their family members to their native places in the Saurashtra region and formed a committee, a senior official said.

The five-member panel will be chaired by Minister of State for Health Kumar Kanani. Other members include IAS officer MS Patel, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, a deputy SP and a deputy collector, said Ashwani Kumar, Secretary in the office of Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.

"Diamond workers in Surat mainly belonged to Amreli, Bhavnagar and Botad districts of Saurashtra region. Since they want to go back to their native places, we have formed a committee to coordinate with these three districts. People wanting to go can register themselves on an online portal to be launched by Tuesday evening," Kumar said.

Prior to this announcement, Tribal Affairs Minister Ganpat Vasava and Kanani held a meeting with Surat district collector and MS Patel to discuss the issue.

"Diamond workers from other districts of Gujarat can also apply through that online portal," he said.

An estimated 3 to 4 lakh people from Saurashtra live in Surat, most of them workers in diamond polishing units.

Kumar said the permission to travel will be issued only after screening and that online registration will start from Wednesday.

"People having symptoms like cough and fever will not be allowed to travel. Upon reaching there (Saurashtra), these people will be checked again and asked to undergo 14 days of home quarantine," said Kumar.

Kanani, an MLA from Surat, hoped that the move would help diamond workers tide over the crisis.

"These diamond workers are living in a pitiable condition as they don't have any work or income for more than a month. Their demand for repatriation is legitimate. At least they could work in their farms in their villages," said Kanani.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Although Sonic Youth has been largely dormant since 2011, the band has begun digging into its vaults, and its latest excavation  Blastic Scene, a 1993 live tape from Lisbon  dropped Monday on Bandcamp.

Archival releases have been few and far between since the bands dissolution in light of Kim Gordon and Thurston Moores breakup. But in March, a dozen live shows from various points in the Sonic Youth saga suddenly went up on Bandcamp. The band had been making some of its live content available on another site, but drummer Steve Shelley, who oversees their vaults in New Jersey, began hearing from fellow musicians about Bandcamp. Both its ease of use and its potential profit margins  85% of sales going to bands  appealed to him and his former bandmates.

More from Rolling Stone

A lot of sites, the musicians are the last ones in the chain as far as getting paid, Shelley says. So Bandcamp feels different. Eighty-five percent is humongous compared to other digital platforms.

The initial batch of recordings included a 1988 gig at New Yorks CBGBs, a 2007 Daydream Nation recreation show in Glasgow, a 1993 show at the Warfield in San Francisco, and a 2011 Brooklyn show that would be the bands last in the U.S.

We recorded every night pretty much, Shelley says. So there is tons of stuff in the archive, and were all self-quarantined right now, so its a good time to go through it. Moore and Lee Ranaldo have also posted their own separate archival material on Bandcamp.

Released in honor of the 26th anniversary of Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star, the newly reissued Blastic Scene documents a particularly tight and focused show. The band previewed a handful of the songs that would end up on that proudly uncommercial album (Bull in the Heather, Self-Obsessed and Sexxee, Starfield Road) along with catalog deep cuts like Stereo Sanctity, Secret Girl and Pacific Coast Highway.

Story continues

Whats missing, by and large, are any of the bands so-called hits, like Kool Thing or Teenage Riot. Moore introduces Candle as from a record we did a long time ago called Daydream Nation. Making a Yes joke, he adds, Or is that Tales from Topographic Oceans?

It catches us in a good place in our history, Moore tells RS. Just post the Nirvana mania of 90 to 92 and our moving away from the overamped thrum of that into more stripped-down, linear and, possibly, introspective tones  completely against the current of what mainstream alt-rock had become. Hits are for squares.

Blastic Scene was recorded at one of their most unusual gigs  in a ring normally home to bullfighting  and was first released as an authorized bootleg in Portugal in 1995. Only 1,300 copies were pressed, with a quarter given to the band to sell by way of the bands fan club.

When Sonic Youth first went into Portugal, it felt like uncharted territory, Moore says. We had blasted through Spain and Italy but Portugal seemed a bit disengaged from hosting any band as on the margins of experimental rock music as us. When we arrived in Lisbon we realized that we were to play in a bullring. The stage was makeshift but sturdy enough with a fairly decent PA. I think anyone with the slightest interest in punk, post-punk and beyond in Lisbon was there, which was not more than a couple of hundred.

You think of bullrings as large, but this one was actually quite small, like a minor-league ballfield, Shelley says. We were playing in the middle and it was really fun. We hadnt recorded Experimental Jet Set yet, but we were playing songs from that nightly. Bull in the Heather is pretty much all there, but Thurston was still working on some of the lyrics for the other songs. So its interesting to hear those songs months before the record came out.

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Goo, the band will next release a 1990 live show from Irvine, California. Shelley says parts of that tape may have been damaged in the infamous Universal Studios fire in 2008, but the band was largely spared from catastrophic loss. The damage was very minimal as far as Sonic Youth stuff, he says. We kept our own copies of nearly everything. We usually had the originals in our own archives. We were very careful.

Although a Sonic Youth boxed set is not in the works (Its not anything that captures our interest and personally, Ive never been a fan of super-high-priced items, Shelley says), a deluxe edition of 1987s Sister remains a possibility  although a reunion remains less so. I definitely miss playing with the group, Shelley says. I miss the touring and shows and traveling. Sonic Youth took me to Lisbon for the first time. It was such a special and unique time.

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An eight-year-old boy's parents have captured the horrifying moment they thought their son wouldn't make it after he was rushed to hospital following a cardiac arrest.

Jayden Hardowar had complained of a fever and diarrhea just five days before his heart failed and he was placed on a ventilator at a New York City medical center.

But a doctor was not concerned about the symptoms his mother Navita, and father Roup, claim, so they simply gave him Tylenol to break the fever.

However the child remained lacking energy and on April 29 the parents panicked after noticing his head and hands were twisted into alarming positions.

Jayden Hardowar had complained of a fever and diarrhea just five days before he was rushed to hospital April 29. He was taken off a ventilator over the weekend after three days

His family tried to speak to his via video call when he came off the breathing machine but they were heartbroken when he couldn't respond

'I heard him call for Mommy. Jayden has a strong voice when he calls for Mommy, (but) his voice was very low,' Navita said said. 'That voice grabbed my attention.

'I quickly looked over at his face and his lips were all blue at that point, so right away I knew something was not right here with Jayden.'

The mother said he did not respond when she called his name.

Jayden's 15-year-old Boy Scout brother Tyrone helped his father perform CPR until an ambulance came.

'As we moved on Atlantic Avenue, all I'm thinking in my mind is Jayden  is he gonna make it? Is he gonna make it?' Roup told WNBC.

Jayden was later transferred from Jamaica Hospital in Queens to the ICU at Cohen's Children's Hospital in Nassau County.

An image taken by his parents showed him hooked up to tubes as he struggled to breathe in his own. He was on a breathing machine for three days but was taken off this weekend and is doing better.

Forced to isolate, his family tried to speak to his via video call recently but were heartbroken that he couldn't respond. By Sunday he could communicate.

'It's still a nightmare thinking of where Jayden is right now. Last week about this time, we were all together having dinner, playing, working from home, teaching from home, learning from home,' his mother said.

'One of the scariest things as a mother, we're at home thinking something like this will never happen to us.'

Jayden was later transferred from Jamaica Hospital in Queens to the ICU at Cohen's Children's Hospital in Nassau County where other children had similar symptoms

Jayden tested positive for antibodies, indicating he previously had COVID-19 but his parents say no one in the household had symptoms. Now they are awaiting results of their own tests.

'None of us  six of us in the home: two adults, four kids  none of us had been sick, Roup said. 'We've all been very strong and practicing our social distancing very diligently  we thought we were safe.'

Doctors believe Jayden may have had toxic shock syndrome.

Dr. James Schneider said two other children entered Cohen's with similar symptoms on Sunday and the hospital now has six in the ICU.

The inflammatory syndrome can cause Kawasaki disease, leading to organ failure and permanent damage to arteries.

It's believed the syndrome is linked to the inflammation caused by coronavirus as four out of 15 patients currently in hospital with the syndrome have also tested positive for coronavirus.

Now doctors are asking parents to watch out for red eyes, abdominal pain and a rash in addition to fever.

'The fact that we don't know enough is very scary,' Navita said. 'It's a moment I don't ever want to relive or would like any parent to experience.'

The boy's father said he wants Dr. Anthony Fauci to address children and coronavirus more in the White House's daily briefings.

'A lot of parents believe what he says. Now we really want the top doctors to be on the news and to tell us more about how children are being affected now,' Roup said.

He added: 'He was a little kid, lying in bed with his mom  and then he went into cardiac arrest. A cardiac arrest could have been avoided if we were in the hospital earlier and (caught) it earlier.'

In New York on Tuesday there were more than 318,900 coronavirus cases and 19,415 deaths.
Last week's announcement that the lockdown was going to be extended came as no great surprise and as we stare down the barrel of weeks and potentially months of onerous restrictions, it has been interesting to observe the different reactions.

When everything was shut down and the country ground to a halt in March, there was a certain mood of what could best be described as an Irish Blitz spirit.

Everyone, it appeared, had decided to finally write that book they were always talking about, or learn a new language, take up baking or trying to master a new instrument (which would explain the baffling increase in sales of ukuleles).

We were all going to use this time productively, and we would emerge the other side of this crisis as a more cultured and multilingual people - who are all brilliant at the ukulele.

Now, such noble plans have been largely abandoned as people become accustomed to this very abnormal new normal. Rather than reading the collected works of Shakespeare, half of us openly admit to wearing pyjamas during the day and binge-watching 'Tiger King' or 'Too Hot To Handle'.

That strange torpor is understandable - it's hard to become motivated when you could just sit on your couch and eat chocolate for breakfast. That's fine from an individual perspective. After all, many of us have simply decided to go with the flow and start wearing proper clothes again when the lockdown has been lifted.

We've been told the latest extension of restrictions is merely for the next few weeks, but that date is just an aspiration.

While the rest of us can be forgiven for mentally throwing in the towel and doing as little as possible, that doesn't mean our politicians have the same latitude.

It's quite incredible, when you think about it, that we had our General Election in February and now, as we approach the end of the first week of May, we are still without a new and functioning government. We're going to be staring into the financial abyss in the next 18 months and politicians, whatever else we might think of them, aren't stupid. They know that anyone who takes the reins of power at the moment also takes the risk of being badly punished by the electorate in any subsequent election.

But ultimately that's their problem, not ours. No, our problem is that we're now entering a fourth month with no proper administration at precisely the worst time imaginable.

Economists have warned that what we're facing into will make the dark days of the crash of 2008 look like a walk in the park, and there was depressing news when Donald Trump used the launch of his re-election campaign to have a specific swipe at US Big Pharma companies which operate in Ireland rather than their home country.

So the report that the Greens have finally decided to get off the fence and enter serious negotiations with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael in the hope of forming some kind of coalition - albeit a coalition of the unwilling - is good news. To a point.

That there is so much internal opposition within the Greens to enter government unless they're indulged in their ludicrous plan for a 7pc year-on-year reduction in our carbon emissions should remind the senior Green leadership why so many people don't take them seriously.

Simon Coveney poured cold water on that idea last week, making the eminently sensible point that we can't destroy Irish farming in the quest for more carbon reductions.

Nothwithstanding yesterday's agreement to the principle of average 7pc annual reductions, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael will find it hard to sell to their party members.

We may not be on our knees just yet, but as a million people face the prospect of a grim future, the appetite for more taxes and onerous carbon restrictions has largely disappeared.

In years to come, people will look back on this period as Ireland's greatest hour of need and they will remember who stepped up to the plate - and who didn't. The burning necessity for a new government goes deeper than just presenting a united front against an American president who is going to use Ireland as a whipping boy between now and November's election.

No, the need for a new government is a simple one - this current administration cannot pass the legislation required to ease the burden on struggling businesses.

In other words, whether it's the idea of tax 'warehousing' or the credit guarantee scheme which will provide a similar buffer for struggling firms, none of these initiatives can be enacted until we have a proper administration.

Therefore, we need the Greens to stop dithering and just get on board or they will plunge this country into an even darker hole than the one we currently inhabit.

This exposes them to obvious political risks, but their country needs them now.

Many of the Greens are wary of entering power in case it results in electoral oblivion.

But if they refuse to provide the only solution that is currently available to us, and damn tens of thousands of people to penury in the name of their ideals, they will surely be facing oblivion anyway.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday sought active community participation for the prevention and control of vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue and chikungunya in the city,which he said was "critical to stop the chain of vector transmission".

Vardhan, who chaired a high-level meeting through video conferencing to review Delhi's preparedness for the prevention and control of vector-borne diseases, urged citizens to volunteer in for checking the breeding sites themselves in their surroundings, a Health Ministry statement said.

"All the citizens need to rise to the occasion and don the role of a super hero themselves and become 'Swasthya Veer' for combating the vector-borne diseases themselves while fighting against COVID-19," the statement quoted Vardhan as saying.

During a presentation in the meeting, it was highlighted that dengue cases start in the month of July, spike in October and ebb down in November and December.

Officials also highlighted effective strategies to combat vector-borne diseases (VBDs) and action plan requiring inter-sectoral coordination involving the state government, municipal corporations, the statement said.

Vardhan urged all stakeholders to undertake awareness drives through active community participation and cooperation of all stakeholders such as resident welfare association, associations of shopkeepers/traders while considering all the precautionary measures being taken against COVID-19.

"Among the specific target-oriented modified strategies that need to be put in place for combating malaria, dengue and chikungunya, our main focus should be on controlling the vector itself," he said.

"Stagnant water should be checked and larva sites should be effectively neutralised. Success of the Vector Control Programme is related to community participation and ownership," Vardhan stressed.

The Union health minister further said the vector-borne disease problem is perennial and this year it has come at the time when the whole country is grappling with the COVID-19 outbreak, the statement stated.

There was a severe outbreak of dengue in Delhi in 2015, which affected nearly 16,000 people and killed 60. As compared to that situation, we are in a better position presently as around 50 dengue cases have been reported so far in the city, Vardhan recalled.

"However, we cannot afford to be complacent in our approach in our fight against dengue," he said.

"Community support is critical to stop the chain of vector transmission. There is a need to promote awareness among the community about the prevention and control of VBDs," he said.

Commenting on the commendable role played by schoolchildren in the previous years in creating awareness about VBDs, he said, "Earlier, schoolchildren played a very important role in creating awareness. But in the present scenario where all educational institutions, colleges and schools are closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, most of the schoolchildren are at home."



Exhorting people to come forward, he said, "During this lockdown, everyone should chip in to keep their surroundings clean and see that stagnant water is not accumulated in the trash or in used tyres, flower pots, vases, coolers."



Vardhan suggested that malaria should be made a notifiable disease.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain, who also participated in the meeting, assured that the same would be done immediately. It was also suggested that all hospitals, including the private ones, should work in synergy for VBDs to ensure that government and private interventions and efforts to prevent/cure these diseases, are in tandem.

Vardhan urged all the representatives from the central government hospitals not to neglect the cases of VBDs as there is no vaccine available and only through preventive measures, the fight can be fought successfully.

He further said the government is duty-bound to provide all logistical and technical support to the Delhi government in terms of surveillance and diagnostic kits to strengthen their preparations.

Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal was also present in the meeting.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday said that the Centre is learnt to have approved bringing back 80,000 expatriates, but there are 1.69 lakh people on the state's priority list. This statement comes after Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said that 64 flights will be operated from May 7 to May 13 to bring back stranded Indians from abroad.

The Chief Minister said that Centre has informed that they are bringing back Indians from other countries without conducting COVID-19 test. He added that it would increase the threat of COVID-19 spread.

"The Centre is learnt to have approved bringing back 80,000 expatriates, but there are 1.69 lakh people in Kerala's priority list. This has been taken up with the Centre," the Chief Minister said."This will increase the threat of COVID-19 spread. All health protocol as per international standards have to be followed before bringing people from abroad. COVID-19 testing has to be conducted and I have taken this with Prime Minister Narendra Modi," he said.

The Kerala minister further said that who are returning from red zones from other states have to mandatorily undergo one week quarantine at government centres.

"As no testing is being carried out prior to travel to Kerala from abroad, the expatriates returning will have to undergo quarantine in government centres," he said.

READ: HRD Minister announces JEE, NEET dates, No decision on CBSE 10th,12th board exams

READ: India's Covid evacuation plan accessed: 7 days, 11 countries, 64 flights, 14,800 people

64 Flights Will Operate To Bring Back Indians Stranded Abroad

In a massive development, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said that 64 flights will be operated from May 7 to May 13 to bring back stranded Indians from abroad. The flight plan for repatriation of Indians stranded in foreign countries due to COVID-19 pandemic has been accessed by Republic TV on Tuesday. As per sources, the mega rescue operation has been scheduled for a whole week starting from May 7.

The minister listed down the flights along with the countries and mentioned the fixed rates for the journey.

"64 flights will be operated in the 1st week of operation to bring stranded Indians from different countries from May 7 to May 13. The 64 flights include-UAE- 10 flights, Qatar- 2, Saudi Arabia- 5, UK- 7, Singapore- 5, United States-7, Philippines- 5, Bangladesh- 7, Bahrain - 2, Malaysia-7, Kuwait-5, and Oman-2," said Hardeep Singh Puri.

"The rates fixed for the journey will be Rs 50,000 for London-Mumbai, similarly for London to Ahmedabad, London to Bengaluru and London to Delhi. For Chicago-Delhi-Hyderabad the rough cost will be about Rs 1 lakh," he added.

READ: NCPCR to issue notice to Instagram over horrific 'Bois Locker Room' group; FIR filed

READ: Coronavirus Live Updates: Evacuation plan for Indians declared;3900 cases in last 24 hours
BATALA: Gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, 29, on Tuesday tested positive for Covid-19 in Batala, where he was in police custody in connection with high-profile murder case of the Dhilwan Akali sarpanch.

Batala senior superintendent of police Opinderjit Singh said Bhagwanpurias samples were collected at the civil hospital in town during his medical check-up on May 2 and he had tested positive for coronavirus disease.

The SSP said that is not sure about the source of infection and has informed the civil surgeon.

A list of Bhagwanpurias direct and indirect contacts is being prepared. On the list are several police personnel, including DSP-rank officers, who have been quarantined and are being tested for the virus.

The Batala police had brought Bhagwanpuria,who was lodged in Patiala Central Jail, on production warrant for questioning in the murder case on April 30, following which he was questioned by the police.

RUNS RACKET FROM JAIL

The Tarn Taran police booked him for running a heroin smuggling racket while inside Patiala Central Jail. A recent dossier by the polices Organised Crime Control Unit (OCCU) says that the jailed gangster has 33 accomplices in and outside Punjab who take orders from him.

Most of his accomplices are active in Tarn Taran, Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts.

WORST CRIME RECORD

Since 2011, Bhagwanpuria has 59 cases of murder, robbery, dacoity and snatching against him in various police stations of Punjab. Officials says his crime record is the worst in the state.

A native of Bhagwanpur village under Kotli Surat Mallian of Batala, the gangsters original name is Jagdeep Singh, who started out as a small-time chain snatcher till 2011 when he came in contact with gangsters and was involved in heinous crimes.

In October 2019, AIG, counter intelligence, Jalandhar, Harkampreet Singh Khakh arrested Mannu Mehmapuria, a key aide of Bhagwanpuria, who admitted having killed another A-category gangster Gopi Ghanshampuria.
STURGIS, S.D. - A South Dakota teenager plans to plead guilty to manslaughter in the death of a 16-year-old Wyoming girl whose body was found in his basement last fall, attorneys said.

The 17-year-old defendant originally was charged as an adult with alternative counts of first- and second-degree murder in the killing of Shayna Ritthaler of Upton, Wyoming. Meade County States Attorney Michele Bordewyk told the Rapid City Journal the boy is expected to plead guilty to manslaughter on Thursday. He originally pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.

Bordewyk and the teens defence attorney, Steven Titus, have agreed to ask the judge for a 55-year sentence, but the judge does not have to agree to their recommendation.

Titus called it a sad situation for everyone involved.

Titus said he hopes the judge agrees to the sentence since it gives the teen a light at the end of the tunnel by making him eligible for parole in his early 40s.

Titus had planned on arguing that his client should be transferred to juvenile court, but that hearing was cancelled given the plea deal. The Associated Press isnt naming the defendant because his case might end up back in juvenile court.

Titus said the plea deal also means hes dropping the insanity defence, which argued that the defendant was not mentally competent at the time of the killing.

Ritthaler went missing Oct. 3, 2019, after being seen getting into a vehicle at coffee shop in Moorcroft, Woming. She was found Oct. 7 in the basement of the home the boy shared with his mother east of Sturgis in western South Dakota, near the border with Wyoming.

The prosecutor previously has said the suspect shot Ritthaler after an argument turned violent. The sheriff has said the victim died of a single gunshot wound to the head.

The arrest affidavit is sealed and officials have not yet shared how the two met, their relationship and the events leading up to her death.

The defendant remains in the juvenile jail in Rapid City on $1 million bond.
Cancun mayor clarifies her administration did not grant Gran Solaris hotel permits

Cancun, Q.R.  After numerous social media complaints regarding the recent construction at the new Gran Solaris Cancun hotel at Playa Delfines, Cancun mayor Mara Lezama Espinoza clarified that the land was sold and permits granted in 2017, before her administration.

She has explained that the special license granted by the Ecology Directorate for the Gran Solaris Cancun hotel near Playa Delfines was expressly requested by the municipal council, headed by previous mayor Remberto Estrada Barba.

In recent days, the hotel complex emerged with a newly constructed wall, which has caused social media uproar. Armando Lara De Nigris, head of the Ministry of Ecology and Urban Development of Benito Juarez said that the concrete fence surrounding the perimeter has been an ongoing project since the beginning of the year, but was not visible since it was constructed behind a metal barrier.

She says that according to the municipal Urban Development Program, the property has a coefficient land use of 140 hotel rooms per hectare, but at the express request of the previous city council, a license was granted that allows 240 rooms per hectare.

Mara Lezama Espinoza clarified that the project is endorsed by federal and municipal authorities, so the current administration cannot close it, and in addition to doing so, the municipal authority could be subject to a fine.

She explained that the Gran Solaris Cancun is a 450-room hotel complex next to Playa Delfines in the Cancun Hotel Zone and is a property that an individual bought in 2004 from Fonatur (el Fondo Nacional de Fomento al Turismo).

I want it to be very clear. We did not sell the property. The property was sold in 2004. We did not give them a construction license, it was given by the administration in 2017. We did not approve the Environmental Impact Statement of the project because that is done by a federal institution, the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources, which is Semarnat, she clarified.

Mara Lezama explained that on June 19, 2017, the construction license was issued and that the permit was contested before the Municipal Council by means of review. It was resolved on September 21, 2018, in which the nullity of that license was resolved and which the General Directorate of Urban Development issued a new construction license on September 27, 2018.

It was not in this administration. We have not given permission. We have nothing to do with the executive government, the municipal government, nothing to do with the administrative trials that take place in other instances and with other powers, she stressed.
A body found in the Merrimack River in Haverhill over the weekend has been identified as a 13-year-old Lawrence boy who had been missing since mid-March, authorities said.

Sophonnut Dy was last seen near the Duck Bridge in Lawrence shortly after 2:45 a.m. on March 13. His image was captured by a surveillance camera, according to a statement from the Essex District Attorneys office.

Haverhill police and fire responded to a report of a body floating in the Merrimack River near Groveland and Water streets around 11 a.m. on Sunday, the statement said.

Massachusetts State Police detectives have ruled out foul play.
Former Prime Minister of Armenia Armen Darbinyan has tweeted the following:

To those who consider Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) a province of Armenia and call for immediate unification, I urge you to be discreet and be a little cleverer (the Chinese have five different models, three of which are recognized states, the Turks have two states, and I dont want to say how many the Arabs have).

The existence of two states is a National Asset.

As for the foreign minister and Nikol Pashinyan, I would advise them to push the red line debacle forward  our red line is the right to self-determination, not security. Dont make mistakes. Those who are powerful can be tempted and guarantee security and right to self-determination, and it will be hard to reject this.
GAZA CITY - For Muhammad Al-Mabhouh, Ramadan has brought a bit of sweet relief. After two months without pay during the coronavirus shutdown, the 28-year-old was finally called back to his job making qatayef, the sugary pancakes filled with nuts or cheese that are a Ramadan tradition.

"I was waiting impatiently because I knew that the qatayef season would bring me back to work," said Al-Mabhouh, who depends on the $8 a day he makes at a bakery to support his wife and two children.

Ramadan, Islam's month-long celebration of daytime fasts and nighttime feasts, has lent a meager measure of normality to an abnormal spring in Gaza. For residents who know they will struggle for months with the economic upheaval that the pandemic has already brought, the holiday has meant a glimpse of easier living and the cautious hope that protective measures are working.

While not sounding the all-clear, officials have loosened some of the restrictions for at least the duration of Ramadan. Restaurants were allowed to open partially, and shops that sell Ramadan sweets and treats have seen customers, many in masks, return for the first time in weeks.

Few families are willing to risk the usual mass gatherings each evening for their first meal of the day - and with unemployment now well over 50 percent, many cannot afford it - but holiday workarounds are common. Some pay social visits in small groups throughout the day rather than attend large iftar feasts at night. Others play host by having takeout iftar delivered, their treat, to family and friends.

"With Ramadan, activity has returned," said Al-Mabhouh. "Palestinians cannot do without Ramadan."

Health officials warned that the danger of a major epidemic is far from over in the impoverished, densely packed enclave that is home to almost 2 million people, many of them refugees. Officials from the ruling Hamas party, international organizations and the Israeli government, which maintains a strict blockade of Gaza, have all warned that an uncontrolled outbreak would overwhelm the fragile health system.

But to date, just 17 coronavirus cases have been reported in Gaza, which officials attribute to strict business closures and quarantine rules the government instituted in early March. The measures included a requirement that all travelers returning to Gaza must spend 21 days in isolation centers, while testing more than 4,500 of them for the virus.

"It really is proof that containment works," said Gerald Rockenschaub, who runs World Health Organization operations for Gaza and the West Bank from Jerusalem.

Given that success so far, Rockenschaub had no objection to easing some of the restrictions on movement and business activity as long as the loosening comes with strong warnings to continue physical distancing, hand-washing and other personal protective measures.

For many Gazans, Ramadan has meant some respite from the long slog. But if the bustle of Ramadan has made life feel a little more ordinary, it is far from a regular Ramadan. Celebrating pandemic-style has meant curtailing the usual social outpouring and contending with a devastated economy.

"This year my husband Mazen and I decided not to receive guests as was the custom every year," said Mayssa Al-Masry, 41.

Instead, the couple have been visiting family by day and celebrating alone at night with their five children. That suits their sense of safety as well as their budget, which shrank dramatically when Al-Masry lost her job as a project coordinator for a local nonprofit that shut down during the outbreak.

"We are in lockdown, under siege and now I have no income because I lost my job," Al-Masry said.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health eased its restrictions on restaurants Sunday, allowing them to seat customers if they remained appropriately spaced. That has returned a faint pulse to Gaza's normally busy nightlife, but business remains far below the usual evening rush.

Spacing hasn't been a problem with the five or so customers a night willing to venture out so far, said Emad Al-Rayyes, manager of Lighthouse Restaurant.

"It is really hard for me to see the place empty without people," Rayyes said. "I feel bad for the workers."

Flower growers who now would normally be cutting their roses and carnations for hotel lobbies and banquet halls across Europe and the Middle East are instead feeding them to goats.

"We were awaiting the arrival of the spring and summer season," said Lubbad Hejazi, 20, whose family owns a three-acre flower farm near the city of Rafah. "But there is no longer any demand for flowers except in scarce quantities and at cheap prices. So they have become livestock feed and landfill waste."

At least one industry has stirred to life during the pandemic. Gaza's once-thriving textile factories have been repurposed to meet the booming need for masks and protective gear around the region. Gaza workshops have pumped out some 10,000 protective suits and 5 million masks in recent weeks, according to the Israeli advocacy group Gisha. Most are exported to the West Bank and Israel. Others supply Gaza's own health-care system.

Hassan Shehada owns a sewing factory, which saw its clothing contracts evaporate when shops in Israel closed in March. He switched to medical masks three weeks ago and is hustling to keep raw materials on hand to meet demand.

Shehada, 56, is celebrating Ramadan with his factories busy and his family enjoying a bit of modified freedom for the holiday. But he knows it is only a glimpse of what it will take to pull Gaza from its problems, both emerging and entrenched.

"What Gaza needs is work," he said. "This pandemic may end, but the Gaza Strip crisis will not end with it."

- - -

Hendrix reported from Jerusalem.
Electronic meetings are expected to continue in Tennessee as the threat of the coronavirus still looms.

The City Council and County Commission are among governmental bodies that recently have been meeting via the Zoom ap in the safety of their homes or offices.

Special permission for the meetings from Governor Bill Lee is due to run out soon.

However, City Attorney Phil Noblett said Tuesday afternoon he was advised by an aide to the governor that the permission will be continued through June 30.

He said he was told the new executive order could be issued as soon as Wednesday.

City Council Chairman Chip Henderson said he had been making plans to resume in-person meetings, though he said with spacing that only 34 citizens would be able to get inside the chambers with news personnel and city staff members.

After Councilwoman Demetrus Coonrod chided him for "jumping the gun," Chairman Henderson said he was not anxious to return to the chambers, but he said it was prudent to begin getting ready in case it becomes necessary.

Councilman Russell Gilbert said, "This virus is serious. I work in health care, and it's very serious."

He added, "You can get tested, then you pick it up the next day."

Councilman Gilbert said those who come down for the meeting "are not going to like it when they can't get in."

Councilman Jerry Mitchell said when the meetings return to chambers that masks should be provided to those who don't bring their own.

Councilwoman Coonrod questioned whether temps should be taken before attendees are allowed in.

Councilman Mitchell also brought up the issue of Councilman Ken Smith having to run the Zoom meetings, saying that took away from his contributions to the meetings. Councilman Smith said, "Running these meetings is more complicated than it looks."

However, he said he was not complaining about handling the task.
It seems obvious to me that an inspection needs to happen to see the actual conditions, and it needs to happen very quickly given the type of outbreak were in and the numbers that weve already seen, Judge Alison Conlon said during a hearing for a temporary restraining order that would compel the state to intervene and provide some form of assistance.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday directed officials to establish the required facilities at Lucknow, Varanasi and Hindon airports to screen UPs residents coming back from abroad as part of the central governments biggest-ever peacetime repatriation exercise, beginning May 7.

He said arrangements to quarantine them should also be made. Thousands of Indian citizens, including UPites, are stranded across the world due to the coronavirus disease pandemic.

Reviewing the lockdown-3 situation at a meeting here, Yogi said industrial units should start functioning in accordance with union governments advisory to ensure an increase in the states revenue. He advised the industries to follow security protocol while functioning.

He said norms of social distancing should be followed and necessary amendments in policies, along with labour reforms, should be carried out.

The chief minister said UPs recovery rate of Covid-19 patients was 33 per cent, which was six per cent higher than the national recovery rate of 27 per cent.

Yogi said registration facility has been provided on the Jansunvai portal for UPs residents willing to return to the state, and residents of other states living in UP who are willing to go back.

He said corona testing facility in the state should be increased and all necessary facilities should be provided in the Covid-19 hospitals. He said facility for disposal of bio-medical waste should be provided while setting up new testing labs. He said number of doctors available for medical consultation through telemedicine facility and toll free number of State Corona Assistance Call Centre should be publicised for benefit of the people.

The chief minister said district magistrates should ensure that nodal officers for quarantine centres, shelter homes and community kitchens submitted to them regular reports about arrangements at these centres. He stressed upon the need of protective measures for medical and police teams to protect them from corona infection. He said social distancing must be followed at mandis.

Yogi said a work-plan should be prepared to protect milching animals from foot and mouth and other diseases by vaccinating them.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 5)  President Rodrigo Duterte said he wants Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra to urgently look into the legality of barring Filipino healthcare workers from leaving the country due to the threat of COVID-19 to those in the medical field.

In his late-night address on Monday, Duterte said that more than facing a shortage of healthcare workers in the country, he is worried that they might expose themselves to the coronavirus when they migrate to other countries.

It has to be this week. Maybe two days from now. Well have to meet again and consult legal, si Secretary Guevarra, whether or not it would be legal for us to just stop the migration of health workers, he added.

The President added, If I send you to a warfront, the enemy is the COVID, the microbes, eh parang maawa ako. Please do not misunderstand me. I am making it clear now. I do not want you to go there and come back in a coffin.

[Translation: If I send you to the warfront, I will feel bad exposing you to the enemy, which is COVID.]

He said this is a more valid reason to stop doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers from leaving the country.

The Philippines in April temporarily banned doctors, nurses, microbiologists, and other health workers from leaving to work abroad as the country grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic. The controversial deployment ban was later lifted, allowing healthcare professionals with existing overseas employment contracts as of March 8 to leave the country to work abroad.

The number of healthcare workers infected with the coronavirus disease is now at 1,772. This constitutes 18.68 percent of the total number of infections in the country, which is at 9,485.

Last month, when the infection rate of medical workers in the country was only at 13 percent  the World Health Organization said the Philippines was an "outlier" compared to its neighboring countries, adding it was worrisome to see such a high number when health personnel are supposed to be fully protected by their gear.

Thirty-four healthcare workers have died in the country due to COVID-19.
Defectors Who Claimed Kim Jong-un Was Gravely Ill or Dead Apologize for False Speculation

Sputnik News

16:05 GMT 04.05.2020

Weeks of speculation regarding the whereabouts and health status of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un fueled by South Korea-based English-language media and CNN were brought to an abrupt end late last week after Kim reemerged in public, seemingly alive and well.

Thae Yong-ho and Ji Seong-ho, the pair of high profile North Korean defectors-turned South Korean opposition lawmakers, have publicly apologized for their "groundless remarks" about Kim Jong-un's health following complaints by ruling Democratic Party lawmakers.

Thae, a former deputy ambassador to Britain who fled to South Korea in 2016, and was elected as the representative of the Gangnam District of Soeul from the opposition United Future Party in April, publicly mused last month that he believed Kim "cannot stand up by himself or walk properly."

In a statement Monday, the politician apologized for his remarks. "I am aware that one of the reasons why many of you voted for me as a lawmaker is with the expectations of an accurate analysis and projections on North Korean issues," he said, according to Reuters. "I feel the blame and heavy responsibility," he added. "Whatever the reasons, I apologise to everyone."

His counterpart, Ji Seong-ho, a defector who left North Korea in the mid-2000s, and who was elected as a lawmaker from the Future Korea Party in April, similarly expressed regret for his comment that he was "99 percent sure" that Kim was dead.

"I have pondered on myself for the past few days, and felt the weight of the position that I'm in," Ji said. "As a public figure, I will behave carefully going forward," he promised.

The Democratic Party, the ruling parliamentary party of President Moon Jae-in, attacked the pair of MPs for their remarks, accusing them of not just misinforming the public, but threatening President Moon's careful efforts to improve relations between the two Koreas. One lawmaker suggested that the pair be excluded from the parliament's intelligence and defence committees, while another asked what value they bring to South Korea generally.

Separately, activists made a formal complain to the country's prosecutor's office, accusing the pair of spreading fake news.

Before the present scandal, the pair of men had helped to shape the South Korean and global narrative regarding North Korea and the nature of its government. Thae has been employed by the South Korean Institute for National Security Strategy, and NK Daily, the National Endowment for Democracy-funded website which helped originate the rumours of Kim's ill health last month. Both men have traveled the world to address Western parliaments about North Korea. Ji attended the 2018 State of the Union at the invitation of President Donald Trump, who called his heroic story of escape from the country a "testament to the yearning of every human soul to live in freedom."

Rumours regarding Kim's health began to swirl in mid-April, after he skipped the Day of the Sun, the major North Korean holiday celebrating the birth of his grandfather, North Korea founder Kim Il-sung. In the weeks that followed, South Korean media and CNN speculated, citing unnamed sources, that Kim was either ill or dead following heart surgery. Seoul maintained that it had no information to suggest that anything was wrong with Kim, while President Trump called CNN's reporting "incorrect." North Korean media released images and video of Kim at the opening of a fertilizer plant on Saturday, showing him to be alive, walking upright as normal, and in apparent good humour.

A Sputnik

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By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: After a 15-year-old boy, Delhi Police has identified 10 other members of the group 'Bois Locker Room' where they shared obscene messages, morphed pictures of minor girls, passed lewd comments and planned 'gang-raping'.

Cyber Crime Cell Police has also seized mobile phones and other devices of these boys. Both non-minors and minors are found among the identified 10 persons.

ALSO READ | 'Boys Locker Room' row: Delhi Police, Instagram get DCW notice

"During social media monitoring, it was noticed that one Instagram group by the name "Bois Locker Room" was being used by the participants to share obscene messages and morphed pictures. On this, an FIR under relevant sections of IT Act and IPC was registered on 4th May 2020, at PS Special Cell and investigation has been taken up by CyPAD Unit," said a senior police official.

As of now, about 10 members of the group have been identified. The identified members who are above the age of 18, are being examined. The minor members of the group are being dealt with as per the provisions of Juvenile Justice Act, said the police.

ALSO READ | 15-year-olds objectifying underage girls: Instagram shocker that's #BoysLockerRoom

Police have further directed Instagram to furnish details of the persons involved in the group, admin, contact details, IP address, and other important details.

"The concerned Platform, i.e. Instagram has been asked to provide the details of the alleged accounts involved in the group. The details are awaited," said the police.

The devices used to engage in the offensive, vulgar communication has been seized from the identified group members. "Further action will be taken on the basis of material evidence that is gathered in course of the investigation," the cops added.



Delhi Commission for Woman (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal who earlier issued notice to Delhi Police and Instagram said, " Police have registered FIR in the Bois Locker Room matter and 15 years old was held last evening. I hope all culprits are arrested soon. However young they may be, they must understand that its NOT OKAY to harass girls. The message should be delivered clearly once and all. "

She also appealed to other Instagram users," If you are part of any such group, exit immediately and file a complaint with us on our helpline number 181. I am proud of all the girls who raised the matter and DCW with them for their safety and security."


There have been calls for tighter health monitoring at Irish fishing ports following confirmation of an outbreak of coronavirus amongst the crew of a trawler just days after they landed their catch in West Cork.

The French-flagged Spanish-owned fishing vessel that landed in Castletownbere 13 days ago has been quarantined in a Spanish port since Friday after more than half its 15 strong crew tested positive for the coronavirus.

The fishing magazine, The Skipper, reported yesterday that the 32-metre Notre Dame Cedeira is currently tied up in its home port of Celeiro, in the north west of Spain, after eight of its crew tested positive for the deadly virus. One, the skipper, was hospitalised.

The vessel left its home port on April 10 to fish in Irish waters.

It was among a fleet of around 40 Spanish vessels that spent several days in mid April fishing in an area of ocean some 40 nautical miles south west of Mizen Head.

The vessel headed to Castletownbere to land its catch of mostly hake and monkfish and arrived on April 21.

The vessel spent three hours tied up in the busy whitefish fishing port before setting out for sea again.

But during that time the crew would have interacted with local agents, forklift drivers, truck drivers and fuel delivery workers.

It is understood that shortly after leaving Castletownbere, the skipper reported feeling unwell and was advised to return to the vessel' home port.

On arrival in Celeiro, the vessel was met by authorities and medics and the skipper was taken by ambulance to a local hospital. His 14-crew mates were swabbed on board the vessel for coronavirus.

The test results confirmed that the skipper and seven crew were positive for the virus while one crew member who had reported feeling unwell shortly after they left Spain three weeks earlier tested positive for antibodies, indicating that he had contracted the coronavirus but had recovered during the fishing voyage.

The skipper of the Notre Dame Cedeira informed Spanish authorities that none of the crew went ashore when the vessel landed fish in Castletownbere on April 21.

But is is unclear yet if Irish authorities have been notified.

Anyone who has been in contact with a confirmed case is advised to self-isolate for 14-days.

A community source in Castletownbere said the outbreak on this fishing vessel has exposed a possible backdoor for the virus into Ireland.

And he said people in the fishing town are now concerned that after all their efforts to suppress the virus, they could now be at risk arising out of contacts with this vessel.

The source said gardai were stopping people on the pier in Castletownbere on Saturday morning to ensure people were adhering to the 2km travel restrictions.

"The department has put strict guidelines and protocols in place but these are not monitored 24-hours a day," he said.

"You could have up to 20 vessels landing at the port day or night every weekend. There is no point introducing protocols if you haven't got the staff in place at the right time to implement or enforce them."

The Government designated fishing, processing, ports and haulage as essential services and has sought to keep critical food supply lines open during the lockdown.

The Department of the Marine said this evening that the procedures put in place by the department for all fish landings were implemented in full in this case. A spokesman also confirmed that the vessel issued the required Maritime Declaration of Health to the HSE's environmental health office before landing its catch.

"More generally, the HSE have advised that essential supply chain workers such as pilots, hauliers, maritime staff members who do not have symptoms need not restrict their movements when entering the country."




Former World Bank senior economist Choi Ji-eun, third from right, poses with other members of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) after joining the party in January. The DPK said Tuesday Choi Ji-eun would be its spokeswoman for the foreign press. / Yonhap
As many states began to reopen their economies, a new internal report from the Trump administration predicts that will come at a cost: There will be 200,000 new coronavirus cases and 3,000 deaths every day by the end of May.

Those projections, based on data collected by various government agencies, are way up from the current levels of 30,000 new cases and 1,750 deaths a day, The New York Times reported.

Troubling predictions came from more than one source on Monday: A forecasting model from University of Washington researchers also raised its projections to more than 134,000 American deaths from COVID-19 by early August, the Times reported.

That's a doubling from the 60,000 total deaths that was previously predicted, an increase that the researchers said partly reflects "changes in mobility and social distancing policies," the Times reported.

All of the numbers illustrate a grim fact: Even though the country has essentially been in lockdown for the past seven weeks, the coronavirus prognosis hasn't really changed.

Still, 27 states had loosened at least some social distancing restrictions by Monday, a new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis shows, the Times reported. But only 20 of those states meet the reopening criteria from the Trump administration. The remaining sevenIndiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska and Wyoming are still showing increases in daily infections and positive tests, the Times reported.

Even as reopening plans proceed, a new poll shows that Americans oppose the reopening of restaurants, retail stores and other businesses.

The Washington Post-University of Maryland survey, released Tuesday, found that many Americans have been making trips to grocery stores and 56 percent say they are comfortable doing so. But 67 percent say they would be uncomfortable shopping at a retail clothing store, and 78 percent would be uncomfortable eating at a sit-down restaurant. People in states with more relaxed restrictions report equal levels of discomfort as those in states with tougher restrictions, the Post reported.

More testing needed

Meanwhile, a new analysis finds inadequate levels of testing for the coronavirus in 60% of states, many of which are reopening after weeks of lockdown.

The analysis, conducted by the Associated Press, uses a 2% testing rate per montha rate advised by federal officials that many public health experts still feel falls short.

In a recent White House briefing, officials said each state would receive enough testing materials to test 2.6% of their populations in both May and June. Representatives of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also offered another number2%without explaining the reason for the discrepancy between the two rates.

But according to the AP analysis, right now just 40% of states can even meet the lower 2% threshold for testing. The news agency's analysis is based on data on the average number of new daily tests conducted over the past seven days in a particular state. Data comes from the COVID Tracking Project and includes numbers up to April 30.

Many states that are either already reopening businesses or plan to soonColorado, Florida, South Carolina, Texas and Georgiahave not met the 2% testing threshold, the AP analysis finds.

U.S. coronavirus cases passed 1.1 million on Tuesday as the death toll neared 69,000, according to the Times.

There has been one note of good news: On Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved emergency use of the first drug that seems to boost recovery among COVID-19 patients.

Promise of remdesivir

Remdesivir, Gilead Sciences' intravenous antiviral medication, is to be used for hospitalized patients with "severe disease," such as those who need supplemental oxygen or ventilators to breathe, the AP reported.

"This was lightning speed in terms of getting something approved," FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said during a media briefing Friday, calling the drug "an important clinical advance."

The agency based its decision on the results of a government study that showed remdesivir shortened the time to recovery by 31% for COVID-19 patients in the hospital, the AP reported.

The search for a vaccine also got some welcome news. On Thursday, the White House announced an initiative that hopes to produce a COVID-19 vaccine that could be available nationwide by January.

President Donald Trump said it is not too optimistic to try to produce roughly 300 million doses of vaccine in eight months, enough for all Americans, the Washington Post reported.

"No, I'm not overpromising. I don't know who said it, but whatever the maximum is, whatever you can humanly do, we're going to have. And we hope we're going to come up with a good vaccine," Trump said during a coronavirus task force briefing Thursday.

A vaccine for all by January?

Even the shorter timeline still means there would be no full protection from the new coronavirus until after most Americans are likely to have returned to work or school.

Dubbed "Operation Warp Speed," the goal is to produce hundreds of millions of doses by January, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, said Thursday.

"We want to go quickly, but we want to make sure it's safe and it's effective," he said on the "Today" show. "I think that is doable if things fall in the right place."

That's likely welcome news to the millions of businesses that have had to shut down or curtail operations during six weeks of stay-at-home orders, with 3.8 million Americans added to the nation's jobless rolls on Thursday. That brings the total to more than 30 million newly unemployed, the Times reported.

Social distancing orders remain a patchwork across the United States. Governors in hard-hit New York and Michigan are keeping stay-at-home orders in place until at least mid-May, while many of their counterparts have already allowed certain businesses to reopen, the AP reported.

In preparation for a reopening in the coming weeks, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced the state will implement the "most aggressive" antibody testing program in the country, CBS News reported.

He has also issued an executive order stating all New Yorkers must have a mask or mouth and nose covering when they are not maintaining social distancing in public, CBS News reported.

To reopen or not to reopen

Cuomo said Monday that New York must learn the lessons of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic even as it continues to fight it, CBS News reported.

Among those lessons: Acknowledge what you don't know.

"Acknowledge and actualize that the truth is that nobody knows what happens next and when it happens," Cuomo said. "So if you don't know, say you don't know."

"When you know what you don't know and admit it, it will actually keep you safe," Cuomo said. "And that's where we are. We don't know, but we will be prepared for all possibilities."

On Sunday, Cuomo announced the creation of a coalition of seven Northeastern states to buy personal protective equipment and medical supplies as a block in the future. New York will join New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts and Rhode Island to eliminate competition between them to drive down prices, Cuomo said during a press briefing, CBS News reported

"We can't go through this day-to-day moving masks all across the state, this mad scramble that we were in and still are in, in many ways," Cuomo said. "Also, as a nation, we can't go through this again. There was competition among states, there was competition among private entities to get this equipment, the federal government was trying to buy it."

Cuomo said the seven states will account for about $5 billion worth of medical supplies, which "will increase our market power when buying," CBS News reported.

According to a Times tally, the top five states in coronavirus cases as of Tuesday are: New York with over 324,000 cases; New Jersey with over 128,000; Massachusetts with more than 69,000; Illinois with nearly 64,000; and California with more than 56,000.

Nations grapple with pandemic

In Asia, where the coronavirus first struck, several countries are finally returning to a new normal.

Chinese health officials said that Wuhan, the original epicenter of the pandemic in China, has no coronavirus patients in its hospitals.

South Korea and Hong Kong also appear to have curbed coronavirus for now: Last week, South Korea reported that for the first time since the virus' Feb. 29 peak, there were no new domestic cases and only four travel-related ones. The story was similar in Hong Kong, which reported no new cases for five straight days, the Times said. The city had a resurgence in infections in late March that prompted strict lockdowns on travel, social distancing measures and the widespread adoption of work-from-home policies, the newspaper said.

Elsewhere the situation remains challenging. After publishing new numbers that now include deaths outside of hospitals, on Tuesday the United Kingdom posted 28,809 coronavirus-related deaths, the third-highest in the world according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. Britain has now surpassed Spain and France for COVID-19 deaths in Europe, with only Italy still ahead at 29,079 deaths.

Spain reported 25,428 COVID-19 deaths by Tuesday, despite signs the infection rate is slowing there, the Hopkins tally showed. While deaths in Italy remain high, numbers have leveled off there as well. Both countries are cautiously reopening their economies.

Brazil looks like it could become the next hotspot in the coronavirus pandemic. By Tuesday, the South American country had reported more than 7,360 deaths and over 108,000 confirmed infections, according to the Hopkins tally. But the true numbers are believed to be vastly higher.

Russia was also struggling to contain the spread of coronavirus, as the case count in that country passed 155,000 on Tuesday, the Hopkins tally showed. Moscow remains the most virus-stricken part of the country, but there are growing concerns that infections could surge in more remote regions with weaker health systems, the Post reported.

Worldwide, the number of reported infections passed 3.6 million on Tuesday, with nearly 252,000 deaths, according to the Hopkins tally.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

More information: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the new coronavirus

Copyright  2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Midland County added no new cases Tuesday, according to the daily afternoon state report. Midland County remains at 62 cases and seven deaths.

The state report also shows no COVID-19 patients, as of May 4, at any of Midland County's four long-term care facilities, which include Brittany Manor, Medilodge of Midland, Midland Kings Daughters Home and Stratford Pines. Gladwin Nursing & Rehab Community and Gladwin Pines Nursing Homes also are reporting no COVID-19 positive residents.

In Tuesday's report, Bay County added one new case, bringing its total to 162 cases and eight deaths. Gladwin County and Isabella County did not record any new cases; their totals are 14 cases and one death and 61 cases and seven deaths. Saginaw County added 14 new cases and two deaths, bringing its total to 742 cases and 70 deaths.

The state added 447 new cases and 44 deaths. Eight of the 44 deaths are from review of death certificate data conducted by state Department of Health and Human Services staff three times a week, according to the state.

Overall, Michigan is at 44,397 cases and 4,179 deaths.

The average state death age is 74.9, according to the state website, mich.gov, with the deceased ranging in age from 5 to 107. The state lists 41% of the deceased as 80-plus and 28% age 70-79. State statistics show 54% of coronavirus deaths are male and 28% are female.

The state lists the total recovered at 15,659 cases, as of May 1, which represents COVID-19 confirmed individuals with an onset date on or prior to April 1, 2020, according to the state website, mich.gov. The numbers will be updated every Saturday.

The state lists the majority of races in positive cases as 32% Black/African American; 34% Caucasian and 20% unknown, and the top three races in deaths as 41% Black/African American; 48% Caucasian and 6% unknown

The total positive cases are 46% men, 53% women and 1% unknown.

Midland County Department of Public Health continues to encourage residents to take precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19:

 Continue to practice social distancing as recommended by federal, state and local officials

 Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth

 Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash

 Disinfect commonly touched surfaces

 Stay home when you are sick

 Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not readily available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.

We cannot stress enough how important it is for our community to be diligent in their community mitigation efforts," said Fred Yanoski, Midland County Public Health director/health officer. "We know that COVID-19 is in our community, and our residents can make a huge impact on slowing the spread of disease by following the recommended precautions."

If you think you've been exposed to COVID-19 and develop a fever and symptoms such as cough or difficulty breathing, call your health care provider for medical advice. If he/she isn't available call MidMichigan Urgent Care in Midland at 989- 633-1350 or MidMichigan Medical Center's Emergency Department in Midland at 989-839-3100.

MidMichigan Health has a COVID-19 informational hotline with a reminder of CDC guidelines and recommendations. The hotline can be reached toll-free at 800-445-7356 or 989-794-7600. Michigan Department of Health and Human Services also has a hotline number for Michigan residents for questions about COVID-19. The number is 1-888-535-6136 and is available seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Residents can also send an e-mail to: COVID19@michigan.gov. E-mails will be answered seven days a week between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

If you are feeling anxious, stressed, depressed and feel you need to talk to someone, reach out to Community Mental Health for Central Michigan by calling 800-317-0708.
Family members fought back tears and the Army offered gun salutes as two officers who led from the front in an anti-terror operation in Kashmir were cremated Tuesday in their hometowns.

The body of Colonel Ashutosh Sharma, the commanding officer of 21 Rifles who was killed Saturday night, was consigned to the flames in Jaipur.

Major Anuj Sood was cremated will full military honours in Chandigarh. His family home is in adjacent Panchkula.

The two were among the five security personnel, including a Jammu and Kashmir policeman, killed in a firefight with terrorists in Handwara in north Kashmir on Saturday night. Col Sharma is the second commanding officer of 21 RR to have been killed fighting terrorists.

At the Purani Chungi cremation ground on Jaipur's Ajmer Road, his wife Pallavi Sharma kept a brave face as his brother Piush Sharma lit the funeral pyre.

She held tightly to the folded tricolour, removed from Col Sharma's coffin and handed over to her for a while, as the ceremony progressed. As the body was placed on the pyre she fanned it gently with her dupatta.

The pyre was lit as soldiers fired three volleys in a gun salute.

Earlier, at the 61 Cavalry grounds, where wreaths were laid on Col Sharma's coffin, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and South Western Army commander Lt Gen Alok Kler paid their respects.

Pallavi Sharma and the couple's daughter Tamanna also stood in salute.

"The entire nation will remember the sacrifice of Colonel Ashutosh Sharma. The country is proud of him," Gehlot told reporters at the wreath-laying ceremony.

Similar scenes were witnessed at the Mani Majra cremation ground in Chandigarh, where Major Anuj Sood's body was brought from the family home in Panchkula.

His wife Akriti Sood threw her arms around the coffin in farewell as the body was put on a bedecked Army vehicle.

The major's sister Harshita, who is also an Army officer, consoled her sister-in-law



Slogans like Vande Mataram, Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Major Anuj Amar Rahe, were raised as the body, wrapped in the tricolour, was taken to the cremation ground.

Before the cremation, serving and retired Army officers laid wreaths.

As he placed a wreath, Anti Terrorist Front of India president Viresh Shandilya raised Pakistan Murdabad and Bharat Mata Ki Jai slogans.

Apart from Army personnel, only the family members were allowed inside the cremation ground to ensure social distancing norms in force because of the coronavirus pandemic.

A guard of honour was given to Major Sood by the Army and soldiers fired three volleys in gun salute.

Major Sood's father Brigadier Chandrakant Sood (retd) lit the pyre.

He had told the media the day before that he was proud of his son's sacrifice. He was a true son of the nation," he said at his Panchkula home.

The 30-year-old officer was from the Brigade of the Guards regiment, currently part of the 21 Rashtriya Rifles.

He joined the National Defence Academy in 2008. He had one dream, which was to join the Army, according to his family.

His family said he was scheduled to return home after a gap of six months. Having finished his two-year stint in Jammu and Kashmir, he was to join the 12 Guards unit in Gurdaspur.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Victorian Teacher Was Denied COVID-19 Virus Test Three Times

A Victorian school teacher who tested positive for COVID-19, and led to the shut down of a school, said he was denied a COVID-19 test three times before his case was recorded.

Keith Campbell told Nines Today program on May 5 that he thinks he caught the virus while at a bar with members of his family in March. But he did not have enough box-ticking symptoms for a test.

I wasnt severe enough to obviously warrant a test; basically that was it, he said.

Continuing he said he had tried to get tested twice through the hospital and then the Department of Health and Human Services.

Campbell said he did not blame the health staff for refusing to test him.

By the time he was tested for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus (commonly known as novel coronavirus), the viruss cells in his nasal passage were dead.

Victorian state authorities have since closed Meadowglen primary school in Epping where he worked for two days to record video lessons for his music students at home.

There were only two people that were with me and theyve since been checked out and found to be negative, so there was no problem, Campbell said.

Meadowglen school principal Loretta Piazza confirmed to The Epoch Times on May 5 that Campbell did not come into contact with any students.

She previously told 3AW radio on May 3: Hes a music teacher and a brilliant music teacher. He was preparing some videos to post online to our kids working at home, and all his contact has been with staff and adults.

Premier Daniel Andrews commented on the case on Twitter on May 3, saying, You might have heard about this on the news  A teacher at Meadowglen Primary in Epping has tested positive for coronavirus. Hes recovering at home, and our thoughts and best wishes go out to him.

Andrew said students who cant learn from home would be able to attend another local school.

You might have heard about this on the news this morning  but I wanted to update you directly. A teacher at Meadowglen Primary in Epping has tested positive for coronavirus. Hes recovering at home, and our thoughts and best wishes go out to him.  Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) May 3, 2020

The state government named the school on Sunday soon after federal education minister Dan Tehan criticised Premier Daniel Andrews over his refusal to open schools.

Tehan withdrew his comments later that same day.

This article was updated to include a response from Meadowglen school Principal Loretta Piazza.
Russell Crowe was nearly mauled by a tiger as he filmed one of Gladiator's most iconic battle scenes.

As the Roman epic celebrates its 20th anniversary, director Ridley Scott revealed the actor suffered a few close calls as he filmed a scene when his character Maximus Decimus Meridius faced off with the furry predator.

Gladiator tells the tale of Roman General Maximus determined to avenge his family's murder by fighting in the arena, and is renowned as one of the greatest historical films in history.

Iconic: Russell Crowe was nearly mauled by a tiger as he filmed one of Gladiator's most iconic battle scenes, director Ridley Scott has revealed on the epic's 20th anniversary

Ridley - who received an Oscar nomination for helming the film - told Variety that Russell went head-to-head with a real tiger during one arena scene.

He said: '[The tiger was] a big boy from tail to nose, eleven feet. You've got two guys on a chain with a ring in the floor to control it.

'Russell said, ''OK, release them'' and when Russell would fall back, the tiger would come out of the hole and Russell would roll out of the way and he said, ''F**k me, that was close.''

'And I said, ''We were there as well, Russell. Hey, you were two feet, I was like four feet.''

Dramatic: The actor suffered a close call during filming for a scene which sees his character Maximus Decimus Meridius face off with the furry predator

Tense: Gladiator tells the tale of General Maximus, who becomes a Gladiator to avenge the murder of his family

Gladiator's production was also tinged by tragedy, when star Oliver Reed - who played Proximo - died of a heart attack during filming after years of battling alcoholism.

His scenes were completed with the help of CGI, and a last-minute story change meaning his character was killed.

Oliver was posthumously nominated for a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the historical classic.

Gladiator is still renowned as one of the greatest films in history, and won five Academy Awards including Best Picture, and Best Actor for Russell himself.

The film boasted a star-studded cast, including Joaquin Phoenix who played the ruthless Commodus who declares himself Emperor after murdering his father.

Praised: Russell (pictured recently) was acclaimed for his performance in the film and won an Academy Award for Best Actor
DENVER, May 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- General Cannabis Corp (OTCQX: CANN), a company with extensive experience in providing services to the cannabis industry, announced today that the State of Colorados Marijuana Enforcement Division has granted it regulatory approval as a qualified and suitable buyer of licensed cannabis operations in the State. This authorization, known as a Suitability Approval, establishes Denver-based General Cannabis as one of the first public companies authorized to acquire licensed cultivation, manufacturing and retail operations throughout the state of Colorado.



Suitability Approval positions General Cannabis to aggressively move forward with its planned growth strategy focused on expanding operations throughout the state of Colorado through its acquisition and operation of licensed cannabis operations. As a result of obtaining Suitability Approval, General Cannabis is well-positioned to complete its previously announced acquisitions of SevenFive Farm and Cannasseur. The two purchases SevenFive Farm is a 17,000 square foot light deprivation greenhouse cultivation facility in Boulder, Colorado and Cannasseur is a vertically integrated Colorado licensee with a recreational dispensary, an oil extraction facility, and 12,000 square foot light deprivation greenhouse cultivation facility in Pueblo West, Coloradoare expected to significantly increase General Cannabis revenue, EBITDA and cash flow.

This critical approval from the State of Colorado puts our company in a unique market position, said Steve Gutterman, CEO of General Cannabis. Our strategy is centered on capitalizing on the significant roll-up acquisition opportunities in the Colorado market, and that includes a pipeline that General Cannabis has been building since we launched our strategy in 2019. The approval weve received from state regulators speaks to the strength of our company and team. We are appreciative to the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division and look forward to working with them as we take steps to expand our portfolio of Colorado licensed assets and leverage our extensive Colorado market knowledge.

General Cannabis already operates Next Big Crop (NBC), a full-service cannabis consulting firm with expertise in the application, design, buildout and operation of cultivation facilities. NBC has designed and operated over 100 cultivation facilities throughout the country, prepared and submitted over 35 license applications, and enabled clients to produce over 100,000 pounds of regulated cannabis. Combined with its NBC business, the acquisitions of SevenFive Farm and Cannasseur will provide General Cannabis with a strategic advantage in evaluating, acquiring and operating facilities thanks to its proprietary knowledge of cultivation and retail operations.

Michael Feinsod, Executive Chairman, stated General Cannabis is uniquely positioned; as Colorado natives, we have been anticipating this approval and are ready to capitalize on the numerous opportunities that now emerge for us within the state. We have the added advantage of 2020 asset pricing for our transactions. We enter the Colorado market asset light and intend to build a portfolio using a disciplined analysis to acquisitions and aggressively expand our portfolio.

About General Cannabis Corp

General Cannabis Corp is the comprehensive national resource for the highest quality service providers available to the regulated cannabis industry. The company is a trusted partner to the cultivation, production and retail sides of the cannabis business. It achieves this through a combination of strong operating divisions, capital investments and real estate. As a synergistic holding company, the company's divisions are able to leverage the strengths of each other, as well as a larger balance sheet, to succeed. The company's website address is www.generalcann.com .

Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains 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. Such forward-looking statements include the following statements: General Cannabis plans to complete its previously announced acquisitions of SevenFive Farm and Cannasseur and that such acquisitions are expected to significantly increase General Cannabis revenue, EBITDA and cash flow; Suitability Approval positions General Cannabis to aggressively move forward with its planned growth strategy; the approval from the State of Colorado puts General Cannabis in a unique market position; General Cannabis plans to expand its portfolio of Colorado licensed assets; the acquisitions of SevenFive Farm and Cannasseur will provide General Cannabis with a strategic advantage in evaluating, acquiring and operating facilities; General Cannabis unique positioning and its ability to capitalize on opportunities in Colorado; and General Cannabis intent to build a portfolio using a disciplined analysis to acquisitions and aggressively expand its portfolio. Any statements that are not statements of historical fact, such as the statements described above, should be considered forward-looking statements. Some of these statements may be identified by the use of the words "may," "will," "believes," "plans," "anticipates," "expects" and similar expressions. General Cannabis has based these forward-looking statements on current expectations and projections about future events as of the date of this press release. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, conditions or results and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including that the pending acquisition may not be consummated and including those factors described from time to time in General Cannabis's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and most recent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q under the heading "Risk Factors" and in subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. General Cannabis undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements made herein.
W hen Tony Allen left Africa 70, Fela Kutis pioneering Afrobeat band, four drummers were drafted in to replace him. It gives some indication of just how magnificent the Nigerian drummer's talent was. To put it more succinctly, as Kuti famously once did: Without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat.

The music world is mourning after Allen passed away last week at the age of 79, but his power with a stick in each hand remained undiminished. We got a glimpse of that sparkle with the Gorillaz track How Far?, featuring Allens drumming and released as a tribute by Damon Albarn last week.

Earlier this year, we were gifted what so sadly turned out to be Allens last ever full-length release, Rejoice, which is our working-from-home album of the week.

Taken from a studio session Allen recorded with another late giant of African music, the trumpeter Hugh Masekela, the eight-track release is a thing of understated joy. Its built mainly on Allens drums, Masekelas trumpets and a bass guitar, with occasional flourishes of keys and vocals. It keeps things simple and superb. Allens grooves are typically, inimitably brilliant, while Masekelas horns flutter and dance with effortless style.

Its an album that weve been listening to while we work since it dropped in March, and especially so since the news last week. Wed highly recommend doing likewise  both as a tribute to Allens brilliance, and also to make the most of its uplifting brightness to get you through the days.

Listen to the rest of our WFH albums here
VALENCIA, Spain, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Military author and strategist David Kilcullen warned today that one of the main consequences of the coronavirus pandemic may be social unrest -including the potential for violence in water-insecure cities around the world.

"Access to water is one of the leading indicators for social unrest; after COVID-19, we are going to see populations blaming governments and potential conflict in the world's more fragile urban environments," he explained.

"We are starting to see significant security implications in countries that have been affected by coronavirus. We can expect that populations will blame, punish and defy governments at all levels. Mid-term to long-term impacts of the virus will go well beyond today's public health crisis and the coming economic collapse. They may include a human security crisis, internal instability or even international conflict," he alerted.

Kilcullen, who leads the international risk consultancy Cordillera Applications Group and is considered one of the world's leading experts on unconventional and hybrid warfare, took part in the Idrica Water Security Series Middle East, a digital meeting on security organized by the Spanish water technology company Idrica.

Idrica is one of the world's leading water security companies. It boasts a team of 180 professionals spread over three continents optimizing digital processes to manage the integral water cycle.

In his presentation, Kilcullen, who has just launched his latest book "The Dragons and the Snakes: how the rest learnt to fight the west", explained that "Water crisis immediately become triggers for security breakdowns, and the use of technology to optimize and improve access to hydric resources is key."

Cordillera provides geopolitical analysis and risk management to governments, corporate clients and NGOS in North America, Europe, Latin America and Africa. The firm's suite of technological tools, and its distributed operations model, have allowed it to take the current crisis in stride.

Based in Valencia, Spain, Idrica provides services and implements a proprietary technological solution called GoAigua.

At the event, Kilcullen spoke with Idrica's CEO, Jaime Barba, and Qatar-based communications expert Sarmad Qazi.

Barba, a specialist in innovation and technological development applied to the water sector, explained that, throughout this crisis, "We have been lucky enough to have all the technology available to deal with COVID-19 from the point of view of water and the data that the networks throw at us."

"Smart metering and coordination with governments are going to be key to alert the presence of the coronavirus in sewage systems, to alert about leaks in houses that should be empty," Barba said.

Although he explained the importance of dealing with cyberattacks that target critical water infrastructure, Idrica's CEO suggested the development of protection plans against possible new waves that occur as a result of the virus.

He added that Idrica's technology system allows for warnings of the presence of the coronavirus in the drinking water and sanitation system up to times before it spreads, and that water data is more important than ever in order to prevent health crises.

"The pandemic has taught us the need to increase technological processes in the management of water systems," he stated.

The Idrica Water Security Series are a number of digital meetings sponsored by Idrica to bring together the world's leading experts on water security.

The first of these events focused on Latin America and brought together Dr Judith Dominguez, one of the leading global experts in the field and researcher at El Colegio de Mexico, and academic and internal security expert Roman D. Ortiz.

SOURCE Idrica
HANGZHOU, May 4 (Xinhua) -- A China-Europe freight train on Monday left the eastern Chinese city of Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, heading for Vilnius, capital of Lithuania.

The postal service train will travel a total of 10,146 km and pass by Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus before arriving at the terminal. It marks that a new cargo transport line has linked China and the Baltic Sea of Europe.

The train carrying 100 TEUs loaded with 353.77 tonnes of international mail from Shanghai and four provinces will leave China via the Horgos Port in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

After arrival, the international mail will be distributed to 36 European countries, including Spain, Denmark, Switzerland and France.

The opening of this China-Europe freight train service line has provided a new channel for the transportation of international mail amid the pandemic. In the future, it is expected to be operated at the frequency of one train per week.

The China-Europe freight train service has expanded rapidly since it was launched in the city of Yiwu, well-known for its trade of small commodities, in 2014. The service now has 12 routes linking Yiwu with 37 countries and regions across Eurasia.

Statistics show that as of Monday, a total of 133 China-Europe freight trains departed from Yiwu this year. The trains carried 11,220 TEUs, up 44.1 percent year on year.
LOS ANGELES, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite recent polling which shows deep anxiety among Americans about returning to a dentist during the COVID-19 outbreak, infection control is more stringent than ever at the majority of dental offices according to Dr. Joel Strom, a former President of The Dental Board of California and one of California's most respected dentists.

A guest on Your World with Neil Cavuto on Fox News Channel recently said she "would stay away from the dentist for the next six months" in response to questioning from Cavuto about places to avoid as states relax shelter-in-place mandates implemented in mid-March. "Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to hear baseless commentary which gives an unsafe impression about dentists," said Dr. Strom, Founder of Beverly Hills Complete Dentistry.

"The dental profession has long been at the forefront of patient safety. But dubious media reports and the uncertainty about this new virus are chipping away at public comfort."

A recent poll conducted by the North American Dental Group, one of America's most-respected dental service organizations, showed:

-71% of Americans are uncomfortable with visiting their dentist during the COVID-19 pandemic for non time-senstive procedures

-43% of Americans have either delayed a dental check-up, a needed dental procedure, or developed a new dental issue during social distancing

-42% had confidence their dentist is prepared to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at their office

Nearly 40 years ago, while scientists were trying to sort out the public health truths of HIV, media reports effectively caused similar poll results in the general dental population. "Patients stayed away and dental practices faced heavy cancelations, most of which turned out to be unnecessary and deleterious to patient health," said Dr. Strom.

Nonetheless, with the HIV epidemic serving as a catalyst, dental professional organizations took prompt action, led by The California Dental Association, The Los Angeles Dental Society and The Dental Board of California. The profession updated infection control guidelines and created advanced protocols to further ensure the dental office was cleaner and safer than most workplaces or public spaces.

As dentists nationwide get back to work during the COVID-19 pandemic, patients should expect some, if not all, of these safety enhancements:

Improved water filtration and disinfection procedures designed to reduce bacteria and capture droplets and aerosols

Enhanced counter disinfection solutions

Plastic face shields and longer disposable gowns in addition to the traditional personal protection equipment long worn by dental staff

Pre-treatment temperature readings and antiseptic mouthrinses for staff and patients

More disposable supplies/equipment used for treatment

Americans are being advised to take precautions when they go into public because of COVID-19, but they should know that well-maintained dental offices have evolved into one of the safest, cleanest spaces in America. Dental care should not be avoided for long stretches during this pandemic, because oral health is directly linked to your overall health. Every 15 seconds, someone visits a hospital emergency department for dental conditions in the United States according to the American Dental Association. "Protect our doctors, our first responders and our nurses," stressed Dr. Strom. "More than ever, an ER is the last place where we want someone with a cracked tooth to be receiving care."

About Dr. Joel Strom: Dr. Joel Strom is a practicing general dentist in Beverly Hills and a former President of the California State Dental Board and a past-Chairman of the California Science Center Board of Directors.

SOURCE Dr. Joel Strom

Related Links

https://www.beverlyhillscompletedentistry.com/


Unlike most teenagers, though, when 17-year-old Victor Shi stepped into the booth to vote for the first time, he saw his own name on the ballot. As he filled in the bubble next to his name, he said he felt the weight of everything he had worked toward through his political involvement.
Over-70s and vulnerable people should remain in lockdown when the draconian social restrictions are lifted, scientists advising the Government have insisted.

The Edinburgh and London researchers have called for a 'two tier' action plan which would see the elderly and those with chronic conditions kept apart from society.

They say the approach, dubbed 'segmentation and shielding', is the only way to get the UK back to normal without overwhelming the NHS and causing a second wave.

Healthy Britons would be allowed back out, but stringent contact tracing, social distancing and strict handwashing rules would need to be in place.

Anyone with symptoms would need to quarantine along with their entire household for two weeks.

The study, which used modelling to predict the virus' spread after lockdown, did not say how much longer elderly people would need to stay cooped up at home.

However, it was reported last night that the Government is planning to dismiss the report and allow over-70s the same freedoms as the rest of the UK.

Researchers from the universities of Edinburgh and London modelled what may happen to infection rates under various scenarios. It would include strengthening shielding of society's most frail  including all over-70s  and giving them added protection while relaxing measures for everyone else

One of the lead authors of the report, Professor Mark Woolhouse, is a member of SAGE  Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies  set up by the government to provide expert advice during the coronavirus pandemic.

WHAT DID THE SCIENTISTS RECOMMEND? The Edinburgh and London University researchers called for a 'two tier' approach dubbed 'segmentation and shielding'. Under the plan, healthy Britons would be allowed to come out of lockdown. But elderly and vulnerable people would need to stay inside for longer. The scientists did not say when the social restrictions should be lifted, or how long old Britons would have to remain cooped up in their homes. Stringent contact tracing, social distancing and strict handwashing rules would need to be in place, the scientists say. And anyone who tests positive or is suspected of havign the virus would need to self-isolate along with their entire household - to ensure the 'shielding' of vulnerable people. Advertisement

The researchers concluded that the best course of action would be the 'two-tier' approach, which would give young healthy adults and children greater freedoms while ensuring that the most vulnerable are protected.

Certain measures would stay in place, such as the use of the NHSX contact-tracing app, social isolation upon expressing symptoms of COVID-19, quarantine of entire households and social distancing.

However, it would allow society's fittest to reclaim some of their lost freedoms.

The most vulnerable  the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions  would still need to avoid anyone potentially infected with the virus.

Dr Bram van Bunnik, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh's Usher Institute, said: 'Easing the measures taken during the lockdown is important as they currently have a tremendous effect on our society, but this should only be done in a way that is both safe for the people that are most vulnerable as well as for the health and safety of NHS staff.

'Segmentation and shielding is a possible way of achieving this: measures could be eased for a large proportion of the population, however the vulnerable population likely still needs to be protected for a prolonged period.'

The team says the risk to non-vulnerable people released from lockdown could be managed via effective clinical care and public health measures as well as ensuring universal high standards of hygiene and hand washing.

The latest research suggests an approach dubbed 'segmentation and shielding' would be most beneficial for getting the nation back to a semblance of normality while ensuring protective measures are still in place for the coronavirus

Ministers say healthy over 70s WILL be released from lockdown with the rest of UK Ministers will let healthy over-70s be released from lockdown with the rest of the UK, it has been reported. It comes as concern over potential 'social unrest' grows if the elderly are foxed to endure longer coronavirus restrictions than the rest of the UK. Health Secretary Matt Hancock denied that over-70s were being asked to stay in their homes and had a 'blanket ban'. But there is growing confusion over where the government stands on this matter. As a result, the government is keen to clarify rules for the elderly after confusion at the weekend over the official guidance. Baroness Ros Altmann, 64, said many healthy over-70s would risk going to prison rather than continue isolating if younger generations did not have to. The campaigner said using age-based criteria to lift restrictions would send a message that older people's lives 'don't count in the same way as others'. The government is currently reviewing its lockdown policy with Boris Johnson expected to unveil changes to current strategy on Sunday. Other European countries have already begun relaxing some restrictions, with millions returning to work in Italy yesterday. A cabinet member told The Telegraph they would be 'very surprised' if there was any tightening of the lockdown for the over-70s. The minister added: 'The all over-70s grouping is going to morph. There is a big difference between the 1.5million 'shielded' people, known as extremely critically vulnerable, who have been sent a letter advising them to shield for 12 weeks, vulnerable people with pre-existing conditions of any age, and healthy over-70s. 'This needs to be made clearer - you can't just have a blanket over-70s group, that's unsustainable.' Advertisement

Mark Woolhouse, Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, said: 'Segmentation and shielding recognises that, although social distancing impacts on the whole of society, the public health burden of COVID-19 is concentrated in a subset of vulnerable people.

'By targeting protection to those that need it most, the strategy helps to ensure that the health system is not overwhelmed by severe cases, while giving policy makers greater leeway to partially relax social distancing measures for the majority of the population.'

In the piece of research  which is a pre-print and is being sent fro publication later this week  all those aged 70 or above are classed as vulnerable and therefore in need of shielding.

However, experts say this may not be the best criteria for accurately determining the most at-risk groups.

Professor Sarah Harper, an expert in gerontology at the University of Oxford, said: 'Using chronological age without taking into account individual's health conditions will confine healthy active older individuals to their homes.

'While there is a clear association between age and the efficiency of our immune systems, we do not have sufficient data to make an explicit judgement and the variability is likely to be considerable.

'In addition, the impact of confinement for these healthy older adults in terms of isolation, reduced mental well-being, and reduced physical activities will have long term health impacts.

'There is also a considerable possibility that many of these older individuals will ignore the advice.'

Baroness Ros Altmann, 64, said many healthy over-70s would risk going to prison rather than continue isolating if younger generations did not have to

Concerns about potential social unrest if the lockdown is lifted for some people and not other demographics have been widely echoed.

The government is keen to clarify rules for the elderly after confusion at the weekend over the official guidance.

Baroness Ros Altmann, 64, said many healthy over-70s would risk going to prison rather than continue isolating if younger generations did not have to.

The campaigner said using age-based criteria to lift restrictions would send a message that older people's lives 'don't count in the same way as others'.

The government is currently reviewing its lockdown policy with Boris Johnson expected to unveil changes to current strategy on Sunday.

According to a report by The Telegraph, an anonymous minister said they would be 'very surprised' if there was any tightening of the lockdown for the over-70s.

The minister added: 'The all over-70s grouping is going to morph. There is a big difference between the 1.5million 'shielded' people, known as extremely critically vulnerable, who have been sent a letter advising them to shield for 12 weeks, vulnerable people with pre-existing conditions of any age, and healthy over-70s.

'This needs to be made clearer - you can't just have a blanket over-70s group, that's unsustainable.'
Behind the state's success in containing coronavirus positive cases is one novel initiative -- Active Case Finding or ACF, which even Prime Minister Narendra Modi endorsed for the bigger states to follow.

The ACF campaign began in April with 16,000 basic health personnel, ASHA, anganwadi workers and auxiliary nurse midwives (ANM) out on foot trekking to most mountain valleys, snow-bound districts and remote passes of the state, reports Ashwani Sharma.

IMAGE: Health workers carrying out the Active Cases Finding exercise in Spiti, Himachal Pradesh.



With the country entering phase 3 of the coronavirus-driven lockdown, Himachal Pradesh has done something right which is now being touted as a model for the rest of India to effectively combat the pandemic.

At a time when several big states are struggling to bring the figures down and control the viruss spread, the tiny hill state with a population of a little over 70 lakhs finds itself safer, and slowly opening up to business and other activities.

Barring one person, who returned home from hotspot Delhi on April 29 and tested positive on Monday, Himachal Pradesh has just one active coronavirus case.

The total number of persons who tested positive since May 24 is 41, including three with foreign travel history and one 30-year old youth returning his village in Mandi district on April 29.

But there is a different success story that Himachal Pradesh is now boasting about after Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised its efforts. Its about Active Case Finding (ACF) -- a comprehensive survey which many states have now started replicating following PM Modis acknowledgement.

The ACF campaign began in April with 16,000 basic health personnel, ASHA, anganwadi workers and auxiliary nurse midwives (ANM) out on foot trekking to most mountain valleys, snow-bound districts and remote passes of the state.

Their job was to reach out to every single house and hamlet and collect basic data on the travel history and health indicators of every family member and upload it online through Google Forms made available on their smart phones.

The areas were mapped in advance. Google coordinates were generated for their benefit to make it easy to identify clusters and all scattered hamlets. We gave them basic training, and handed over face masks and sanitisers. Everyone was given a target to cover 30 houses, to fill up details, figures and health status of family members, indicating any member having influenza-like symptoms, said Dr Jeeva Nand, chief medical officer, Mandi.

The district, second largest in the state after Kangra, had more than 10 lakh people to be covered, which the teams did in 10 to 11 days time .It took so long due to tough terrain like in Janjeli -- part of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakurs constituency Seraj -- Sandhol, Karsog, Paddar, Chauhar valley and Sarkaghat.

Recalls Anjana, 32, an ASHA worker, Some of the houses were really hard to reach, marking a distance of five to six km on foot at top of the hill. It was a duty that I did without hesitation. I covered 20 to 25 houses in a day, and completed the backlog using some extra days.

As Dr Jeeva Nand admits, ASHA workers also faced resistance from some families. A few refused cooperate. We had no option but to take police help, and also send medical officers to convince those families. But such cases were isolated and people, generally, acted responsibly to help in the drive.

The health workers even braved inclement weather, snow, as they went through forested valleys, crossed rivers/streams and climbed peaks without any rest for 10 to 12 hours a day to accomplish the task.

In Spiti, a high altitude snow-bound valley in Lahaul-Spiti, the team travelled 13 km on foot to survey the 10 families in the Mudh-Sagnum area.

We had set up teams under 10 doctors, 14 ASHA workers, 10 health and anganwadi workers, beside health supervisors, to complete active case finding. The job was done in eight days to cover 61 villages, 2106 houses and 9428 persons, says Dr Tenzin Norbu, block medical officer, Kaza.

The state government, through this drive, was able to generate a massive database of travel history of persons and creating an opportunity to ensure complete surveillance or testing, if needed for coronavirus.

Nevertheless, we were able to find 10,043 cases of flu, ie, persons with influenza-like symptoms. Those requiring further examinations or tests were followed up. This way we covered 69.41 lakh people, says Dr Nipun Jindal, mission director, National Health Mission and special secretary (health), who was the brain behind this campaign.

Asked how this idea was devised, Dr Jindal quotes the example of Indias tracking of TB when a similar campaign was done.

This was also a stage when a lot of people who had a travel history were not willing to come out. There were also persons who had returned from hotspots in other states and UTs. Thus, the Active Case Finding drive proved a boon for the state to chase coronavirus when new cases started coming up.

The medical teams also collected 3200 samples, monitored each case and provided them with proper treatment.

Before the lockdown Himachal Pradesh had only three cases of coronavirus. All three had a history of foreign travel. Two, including a 69-year-old woman returning from Singapore, recovered and went home but a Tibetan, who went to a private hospital and did not inform the health department, died. Tests later confirmed him being a positive case.

The issue got complicated when Tablighi Jamaat returnees started testing positive. The number of cases increased to 40, of which 26 were Tablighi Jamaatis and their contacts.

The state government had to issue an ultimatum to all Tablighi Jamaat returnees to disclose their travel history and report to the police failing which they will be charged under law.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakurs one big advantage was the state being small and manageable. The data received through Active Case Find helped the government identify each and every vulnerable person. Two COVID-19 positive cases in Hamirpur were traced only through the ACF process.

Our goal was to chase coronavirus instead of coronavirus chasing the victims. Thats why Prime Minister Modi found ACF useful and recommended that other states follow the Himachal Pradesh model, Thakur says.

Dr Jindal, who is also is reportedly working on framing guidelines for the elders in the state who are highly vulnerable to coronavirus infection.
Spin, the electric scooter startup acquired by Ford in 2019 for nearly $100 million, has restarted operations in four U.S. markets as COVID-19-related closures begin to ease.

The company has resumed operations in Orlando, Nashville, Columbus, Ohio and St. Louis. The ramp up of operations will depend on the city, the company said. For instance, in Columbus, Spin has deployed its 250 scooters  half of the fleet cap allowed in the city. The company said it will scale up its scooter numbers based on demand.

Spin was operating in about 70 markets, a figure that includes college campuses and cities, until the COVID-19 pandemic caused governments to issue stay-at-home orders. The company has maintained operations in some areas that have allowed it.

Spin said it has "enhanced" its safety protocols, which includes disinfecting scooters more often and requiring employees to wear gloves and face shields during their shifts.

The scooters are now disinfected every time they're picked up for charging or enter a warehouse, the company said. Scooters with higher usage will be cleaned more frequently  as much as twice a day or more, a spokesperson said when asked for more details.

At warehouses, where Spin scooters are maintained, charged and cleaned, workers are supplied with disinfectant materials to properly clean high-traffic surfaces between every shift. Employees also carry disinfectant materials with them out in the field to clean scooters on the spot.

Spin said it has been working directly with cities to fill transportation gaps and deploy scooters where they are most needed.

Separately, the company said it has extended through May 31 a program that gives essential healthcare workers free 30-minute rides and helmets.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold prices fell slightly on Tuesday amid improved risk appetite after several countries across the world eased Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. Spot gold eased 0.1 percent to $1,700.22 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures were down 0.4 percent at $1,706.75 an ounce. Italy finally eased lockdown restrictions with strict guidelines after two months. The country has allowed 4.5 million people to return to work but not without masks and gloves. Restaurants, parks and public transports have been re-opened too. Spain continues to be in a state of lockdown, but easing of restrictions have been announced across the country. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said some businesses will reopen as early as Friday, with conditions. Andrew Cuomo of New York has outlined a phased reopening in the U.S. state hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. India started reopening its factories after spending more than a month in strict lockdown. Hong Kong may soon reopen cinemas and gyms. The global case tally for the coronavirus climbed to 3.59 million today, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University. The death toll rose to 251,832. The U.S. has the highest case toll at 1.18 million and the highest death toll at 68,934. U.S. President Donald Trump has promised a 'conclusive' report on the U.S. investigation into China's handling of the coronavirus outbreak and increased his projection for the total U.S. death toll to as many as 100,000. 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.
New Delhi, May 5 : Congress leader Jitin Prasada has claimed that Brahmins in Uttar Pradesh were subjected to targeted killing, adding that public grievances could not be redressed amid the lockdown.

He questioned Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath when this "suppression of one community" will end and why no action had been taken against the culprits.

"Brahmins are being targeted in this regime. Criminals are taking advantage of the lockdown since the victims or their families cannot seek justice as district officials are not meeting anybody. Where do he people go to seek justice?" the Congress leader said.

He said that after a family of five was found dead in Etah, others killed included Satish Sharma and Sanjay Shukla in Prayagraj, and Anuj Sharma in Meerut.

"Once things normalise and the lockdown is lifted, we will not rest until justice is given to the victims," Jitin added.

The Congress leader said that the BJP-led government in Uttar Pradesh was not doing much to curb criminal activities, adding that criminals were on a killing spree during the lockdown due to which the crime graph had gone up.

In the Etah case, the kin of five members of a family found dead had alleged foul play while the police said the crime was committed by someone from within the family. The oppostion Congress had demanded a fair probe.

The Congress state unit has tweeted about "jungle raj" in Uttar Pradesh, adding that "during lockdown murders are taking place... Yogiji, please come out of publicity, law and order has collapsed."
The African Swine Fever (AFS) has gripped Assam which is already battling the Covid-19 outbreak. And its growing spread has alarmed the state government.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Monday asked the veterinary and forest departments to draw a broad roadmap to deal with the situation caused by the disease which has killed around 2,500 pigs.

He asked officials concerned to conduct threat-mapping and undertake containment measures across the state.

The government will announce a bailout package after taking stock of the situation to save the farmers from penury, he said.

On Sunday, Veterinary Minister Atul Bora had said the disease was detected towards the end of February this year, but it started in April 2019 at a village in Xizang province of China bordering Arunachal Pradesh.

We have decided to not go for culling now. We will create containment zone within 1 km radius of infected area and surveillance zone within 10 km, he said.

According to a 2019 state census, the pig population was 21 lakh, which has increased to around 30 lakh at present, Bora had said.

According to the World Organisation for Animal Health, ASF is a severe viral disease affecting both domestic and wild pigs. It can spread by live or dead pigs and pork products.

Transmission can also occur via contaminated feed and objects such as shoes, clothes, vehicles, knives and other equipment. Unlike Classical Swine Fever (CSF), there is no vaccine for ASF.

While swine flu can spread from animals to humans, swine fever does not, and therefore is not a public health threat.

The National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD), Bhopal, has confirmed that it is African Swine Fever (ASF). The central government has informed us that it is the first instance of the disease in the country, Bora said on Monday.

He also visited the Regional Institute of Livestock Entrepreneurship Management (RILEM) and ICAR-National Research Centre on Pig in Rani along with Sonowal.

Bora also said that there is no possibility of getting infected by ASF due to consumption of pork and pork products.

Usually stray pigs get infected with such viruses, but of late those in the farms have also been found afflicted with the disease.

The animal husbandry department initially started administering classical swine flu vaccine but it was stopped due to the scare that the disease could spread through the doctor.
KITCHENER  Two men charged with murder in the shooting of a Wilfrid Laurier University student at a December house party in Kitchener appeared in court on Tuesday.

Ousmane Kromah, 23, and Mohamed Dalmar, 28, were arrested in Kitchener on Monday and charged with second-degree murder in the death of Yafiet Rezene.

Police previously said shots were fired after a fight began between two groups of people who knew each other.

Rezene, 19, had recently moved from Toronto to Kitchener and was a first-year student at Laurier. He was found dead in the house.

Two other men at the party were also shot. They were treated at a hospital.

Kromah and Dalmar are both also charged with possession of a restricted firearm with ammunition. Kromah also faces two charges of aggravated assault and Dalmar is charged with possession of a firearm while prohibited.

They appeared in Kitchener court by video. They said little, other than acknowledging they understand the charges they face. A justice of the peace ordered them to be detained. Kromah returns to court on May 12; Dalmar is back on May 19.

The shooting happened around 4:15 a.m. on Dec. 15 at a party in a house on Windale Crescent. in the area of Ottawa Street and Fischer-Hallman Road.

During the gathering an altercation broke out between a group of people and several shots were fired, Waterloo Regional Police said in a news release on Monday.

Before moving to Kitchener in 2019 to attend Laurier, Rezene was a member of Torontos Eritrean community A GoFundMe campaign to pay his funeral expenses, transport his body to Eritrea and build a monument at his gravesite raised more than $10,000.

Police continue to seek information about the shooting. Call them at 519-570-9777 ext. 8191 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

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IT'S awe-inspiring to know that President Rodrigo Duterte asked for apologies to the persons he named as oligarchs that he lashed out during the presidential election campaign and after he assumed office as the 16th President of the Philippines when legal issues against these firms were brought out in the open.

On Monday, during his late night taped address regarding the government's response to Covid-19 pandemic, President Duterte apologized to Manny Pangilinan and the Ayala clan for his harsh words against them.

Pangilinan is the head of the Metro Pacific Group of Companies and Maynilad is one of its companies. Fernando Zobel de Ayala is the chairman of the Manila Water Board and his brother, Jaime, is the vice chairman of the water utility company of the Ayala Corporation.

President Duterte sometime in December last year threatened to file plunder cases against Manila Water and Maynilad, the water concessionaire companies for Metro Manila, for alleged onerous contracts that they have entered into with the government.

The President said: "I am ready to talk and I would be reasonable, to the Ayalas and to Pangilinan, I apologize for the hurting words. If you can find in your heart to forgive me, because if you do not want to forgive me (joking) I will undercut you. I will go direct to God."

Pangilinan, in his tweet, said: "I wish to assure him that our group is fully committed to being a partner of the government in addressing the heartbreaking moments of Covid-19 on our people, in building a better tomorrow for them. We are, and have always been here, for the country."

Flustered by the Covid-19 pandemic and delighted by the unparalleled support from the business sector, President Duterte also expressed gratitude for their assistance. He said "I'd like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping us provide the necessities of the moment. I can promise you, I'll be nice and if you want to see me, we can talk. Naubos na po pagkasuplado ko dahil sa Covid."

Story continues

From what I know from friends who are close to him, the President is a person who keeps and fulfills his promise. After this pandemic, we'll be expecting a good if not better relationship of this administration with the top business groups in the country, which would be good for our sagging economy.

And because President Duterte promised to charge those who will take advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic, it's expected that more cases that would be filed against the profiteers and the corrupt officials in the barangays and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

The unfair or selective delivery of the good and services to those in need have since been the complaint of those who were left out allegedly due to bias by the barangay officials. There were reports that only the supporters of the incumbent barangay officials, including the members of their families, received the cash and food aid.

The P6,000 or P8,000 cash aid under the government's Social Amelioration Program (SAP) intended to provide financial assistance to those who lost their work as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic did not allegedly reach the beneficiaries. Many were not included in the SAP list and worse, there were accusations that the amount was slashed by half.

These heartless people, who take advantage of this present crisis, deserve to rot in jail. The President should not show mercy for the profiteers and the corrupt officials in government who made fortunes out of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Photo credit: BabyArk

From Car and Driver

Former BMW and McLaren designer Frank Stephenson has turned his hand to making what the company claims is going to be the world's safest child car seat.

The BabyArk seat was created in conjunction with an Israel defense contractor and has a shock-absorbing spiral adapted from tanks.

The seat will be expensivehow expensive, the company's not yet sayingand is expected to go on sale online to U.S. buyers in late 2021.

Any list of the most influential and accomplished automotive designers would have to include Frank Stephenson. He designed BMW's first crossover, reinterpreted the old Mini and Fiat 500 in modern form, and penned more supercars than we'd venture to count. But three years ago, Stephenson left his job as design director at McLaren to set up his own consultancy. And now he's teamed up with an Israeli defense contractornot to redesign the battle-proven Merkava tank, but to rethink the child car seat.



Called the BabyArk, it promises to be not only more stylish than any other car seat on the market, but substantially safer as well.

Photo credit: BabyArk

The seat is built around a sinuous carbon-fiber frame overlaid with a transparent and tinted polycarbonate skin. Stephenson employed "biomimicry" (the science of imitating nature) and the Fibonacci spiral to create a design that looks like a friendly alien's egg.

Photo credit: BabyArk

"There are certain reasons why eggshells are shaped the way they are," the ever affable Stephenson told Car and Driver. "Nature's come up with the ultimate shape for protecting the baby before it shows up in the world. So the baby seat, likewise, has this influence from the shape of an egg simply because the structural stress points work where they need to work."



Stephenson also clearly drew on his extensive experience shaping high-performance exotics, including the Ferrari F430, the Maserati MC12, and the McLaren P1. On supercars, the heart of the vehicle is basically the engine. A lot of mid-engine cars obviously show that off with a glass or polycarbonate panel over the engine, so you can see bits and pieces of the car's heart and soul, said Stephenson. "But because [this seat is] for your baby, you want it to look friendly. So I had to come up with a design that shows off the technology, but in a nice way, in a safe, friendly manner."



Story continues

Photo credit: BabyArk

The seat mounts (facing either forward or rearward) to a carbon-fiber base, packed with electronic sensors to facilitate proper installation, track the seat's condition, and alert the driver if the juvenile occupant falls asleep or is left in the vehicle. At the core of its safety is a proprietary shock-absorption spiral, originally developed by Mobius Protection Systems to insulate the occupants of tanks and armored personnel carriers from the forces of impact. It wasn't long before the engineers extrapolated that what can protect soldiers in tanks could also protect children in cars.



"Baby seats reached the end of their development around the turn of the millennium. And since then, there hasn't been any innovation in that segment," Stephenson explains. "So if you do a seat today, as long as it meets the regulations from 2000, you're fine and dandy. You can sell the seat. The problem is they're considered 'safe' because they meet those regulations. But the new technology that Mobius is introducing raises the level of safety to an amount now that it's just ridiculous that you wouldn't want this seat for your most precious possession: your child."

A prototype for the BabyArk, we're told, has already undergone initial evaluation at TASS International, an independent safety-testing facility in the Netherlands owned by Siemens. The company claims the tests showed the prototype to be 57 percent safer for the little occupant's neck and 65 percent safer for the head as compared to the safest children's car seats currently available. (We were unable to verify those claims, however, after a spokesman backtracked on providing the test results.)

The initial product is categorized for children zero to four years old, but a smaller infant seat is already in the works, to be followed by a booster seat for bigger kids. They'll be available for purchase online directly from the manufacturer. And while pricing has yet to be finalized, it promises to be one of the most expensive products of its kind on the market.

The startup also intends to offer a subscription plan, allowing customers to trade in one size for the next as their child grows. Once returned, the manufacturer will recondition the unit, evaluating core components and replacing cosmetic and worn-out parts before delivering it to the next kid lucky enough to be coddled in its space-age cocoon.

I jumped at [this opportunity] because I thought, man, this is really the chance to do something that hits the world on a huge scale, and in a good way. It's not just designing a new watch or something, Stephenson recalls. "We've come up with something that I think is going to make an important impact on the market."

The company aims to obtain U.S. certification next year, with an eye toward market launch here (before anywhere else) toward the end of 2021.





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The US will award Purple Hearts to 29 soldiers who suffered injuries from an Iranian missile strike on an Iraqi air base earlier this year, despite Donald Trump previously downplaying the attack and resulting injuries.

US Central Command confirmed on Monday in a statement that six of the military decorations  reserved for soldiers wounded or killed due to enemy action and awarded by the president  had been sent to soldiers stationed in Iraq and Kuwait earlier this week.

The Purple Hearts were approved for injuries sustained during the strike that took place on 8 January, according to Centcom spokesperson Commander Zachary Harrell, who described the event as an Iranian ballistic missile attack in the statement. He said the remaining 23 awards would be distributed throughout the week.

Mr Trump downplayed the attack from the very beginning, initially claiming there were no injuries involving US soldiers.

I am pleased to inform you, the American people should be extremely grateful and happy. No Americans were harmed in last nights attack by the Iranian regime, the president said during a televised address on the night of the attack. We suffered no casualties. All of our soldiers are safe, and only minimal damage was sustained at our military bases.

He later refuted the fact that 110 service members were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries, referring to them as headaches at a news conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"No, I heard that they had headaches, and a couple of other things, but I would say, and I can report, it's not very serious," the president said about the injuries sustained by US soldiers.

A reporter pushed Mr Trump on the subject at the time, asking the president in response to his statement: So you dont consider potential traumatic brain injury serious?

The president shot back at the reporter, insisting that he was only told about the injuries numerous days later, adding: Youd have to ask the Department of Defence.

I don't consider them very serious injuries relative to other injuries that I've seen, he continued. I've seen what Iran has done with their roadside bombs to our troops. I've seen people with no legs and with no arms. I've seen people that were horribly, horribly injured in that area, that war  No, I do not consider that to be bad injuries, no.

The Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) received a total of 80 recommendations for Purple Hearts in the wake of the attack, according to Lieutenant General Pat white, who spearheads the US-led coalition against the Islamic State, otherwise known as ISIS. The commander approved the 29 Purple Hearts after conducting a review, Centcom said on Monday.

It is important to note that a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) diagnosis does not automatically qualify a service member for Purple Heart eligibility or awarding, Mr Harrell said. The CJTF-OIR process was designed to be a fair and impartial proceeding that evaluated each case in accordance with applicable regulations.
By Trend

Turkey's export to the countries of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) increased by 2.5 percent from January through March 2020 compared to the same period of 2019 and surpassed $4.9 billion, Trend reports referring to Turkish Trade Ministry on May 1.

During the reporting period, Turkey's export to the BSEC countries amounted to 11.5 percent of the countrys total export for the same period.

Turkey's export to the BSEC countries in March 2020 stood at $1.6 billion, which is 7.7 percent more compared to the same month of 2019.

Turkey's export to the BSEC countries amounted to 12.1 percent of the countrys total export for March 2020.

According to the ministry, Turkey's import from the BSEC countries increased by 1.6 percent from January through March 2020, compared to the same period of 2019, and exceeded $7.8 billion.

Turkey's import from the BSEC countries made up 14.1 percent of the countrys total import from January through March 2020.

According to the ministry, Turkey's import from the BSEC countries in March 2020 amounted to $2.2 million, which is 26.1 percent less compared to the same month of 2019.

"In March, Turkey's import to the BSEC countries amounted to 11.8 percent of the countrys total import for the month," the ministry added.

Turkeys foreign trade turnover in March 2020 exceeded $32.2 billion.

In the reporting month, export from Turkey decreased by 17.8 percent compared to March 2019, exceeding $13.4 billion.

Turkey's import increased by 3.1 percent in March 2020 compared to the same month of 2019 and exceeded $18.8 billion.

During 1Q2020, Turkeys trade turnover amounted to $98.4 billion.

Meanwhile, Turkey's exports decreased by 4 percent compared to the same period of 2019, amounting to $42.7 billion, while imports grew by 10.3 percent compared to the same period in 2019, amounting to $55.6 billion.

The foreign trade turnover of Turkey in 2019 amounted to $374.2 billion.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Some COVID-19 patients staged a protest at the Federal Teaching Hospital in Gombe on Tuesday, destroying some equipment in their ward....





Some COVID-19 patients staged a protest at the Federal Teaching Hospital in Gombe on Tuesday, destroying some equipment in their ward.





The patients, who were under quarantine, were said to have complained of ill treatment.





A security source disclosed that people stayed away from the protesting patients to avoid contracting the disease.





No one could move close to them because of their health condition but they were very angry and shouted on the top of their voices, he said.

After 30 minutes, some officials in the hospital were said to have pacified them promising them that there would be improvement in their welfare.





It was gathered that while the protest at the hospital was ongoing, some COVID-19 patients at Kwadon Isolation Centre in Yamaltu Deba local government area of Gombe, took to the streets, also lamenting poor treatment.





They were said to have blocked the Gombe/ Biu road, chanting anti-government songs. Some of them reportedly went to unknown locations after the protest while others returned to the centre.





In one of the videos making rounds online, one of the patients was heard saying he had been abandoned since officials of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) brought him to the hospital three days ago.





He said he had not been given drugs and was left on his own alongside some patients admitted to the hospital over COVID-19.





Another said only vitamin C drug had been given to him since he got to the centre earlier in the week.





The state has 96 COVID-19 cases.





Ahmed Gana, commissioner for health, could not be reached as of the time of filing this report as he neither answered calls nor replied a text message.




Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Soldier Welfare Minister Pratap Singh, South Western Army chief Lt Gen Alok Kler and others paid tributes to Colonel Ashutosh Sharma, who was killed in an encounter with terrorists in Kashmir, here on Tuesday.

Other officers of the Army and family members and relatives of Col Sharma were also present.

A wreath laying ceremony was held at the Jaipur Military Station's 61 Cavalry ground, where Chief Minister Gehlot and Lt Gen Kler paid their last respects to the slain officer.

They consoled his family members present there.

Col Sharma's wife, Pallavi Sharma, was seen greeting them with folded hands.

Soldier Welfare Minister Singh, MP Rajyavardhan Rathore, Jaipur Collector Jogaram and other senior officials of the Army laid wreaths and paid their tributes.

Colonel Sharma, who was among the five security personnel killed during an encounter with terrorists in north Kashmir on Sunday, is the second Commanding Officer of the 21 Rashtriya Rifles who lost his life while combating terrorism.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Punjab witnessed another significant rise in coronavirus cases on Tuesday with 219 more people, mostly Nanded pilgrims, testing positive for the infection.

Two peoplea 55-year-old Hoshiarpur man and a 22-year-old woman from Amritsaralso succumbed to the infection, taking the death toll to 25 in the state. Both died on Monday.

Of the state's tally of 1,451, those who have returned from Maharashtra's Nanded account for 67 per cent (969 cases), a health official said.

Of the 219 cases reported on Tuesday, 174 were linked to the Nanded pilgrims.

The maximum 48 fresh cases surfaced in Gurdaspur, followed by 47 in Tarn Taran and 34 in Fazilka, a medical bulletin said.

Twenty-seven people were found infected with the virus in Faridkot; 22 in Sangrur; 15 in Muktsar; 14 in Ludhiana; six in Jalandhar; five in Kapurthala; and one in Patiala.

Meanwhile, notorious Punjab gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria also tested posted for the virus in Gurdaspur's Batala, where he was brought on a production warrant from a Patiala jail in the murder case of an Akali leader.

Over 30 police personnel who interrogated him will be quarantined and tested, the authorities said.

Five COVID-19 patientsfour from Patiala and one from Pathankot--were discharged from hospitals after recovery.

So far, 133 patients have recovered from the disease, officials said.

Amritsar continued to top the coronavirus tally with 218 coronavirus cases in the state, followed by Jalandhar (134); Ludhiana (124); Mohali (95); Hoshiarpur (88); Patiala and Tarn Taran (87 each); SBS Nagar and Sangrur (85 each); Gurdaspur (84); Muktsar (64); Faridkot (45); Ferozepur (42); Fazilka (38); Bathinda (36); Moga (28); Pathankot (27); Barnala (19); Kapurthala (18); Mansa (17); Fatehgarh Sahib (16); and Rupnagar (14).

Two patients are on ventilator support.

A total of 30,199 samples have been taken so far in the state, of which, 23,352 tested negative for the infection. Reports of 5,396 samples are awaited.

Currently, there are 1,293 active cases in the state, as per the bulletin.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE T he governor of Texas says museums there can open again, but some are dragging their feet. The Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Menil Collection, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Kimbell Art Museum, Amon Carter Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in Fort Worth, and the big museums in San Antonio want weeks, maybe even months more, before they start serving the public again.

Theyre waiting for all the experts, every last one of them, and everyones Ouija board to agree that opening is totally, absolutely safe, but life doesnt work that way. Lifes a risky business, but theyre catering to all the alumni of Safe Space U among their staff. Wheres the Alamo spirit?

Well reopen when and if it seems safe to reopen incrementally, Contemporary Austin announced. When and if? Do they think they might stay closed until theres not a coronavirus left on the planet? If they do, theyre no longer a public institution. Rather, they are an art warehouse and dont deserve a not-for-profit tax exemption.

The Kimbell, a museum I adore, is carefully considering when and how we may begin to reopen, as if theyre planning something as elaborate as a moon launch. Fort Worth, we have a problem, and its navel-gazing.

South wing of the Kimbell Art Museum at dusk, Fort Worth, Texas, in 2011.

The McNay in San Antonio, another lovely museum, sent me some poetic blather about its 66 years of providing beauty, solace, healing, and transformation through art. Its leaders understand that, now more than ever, art museums around the world will play an integral role in the recovery of our communities from these unprecedented times. So its formed an internal task force, which means itll open, oh, when I discover a Texas-size oil gusher in my Vermont back yard.

Weeks ago, I started hearing from curator and director friends that they dont expect their museums to open until late summer. I wrote about this, calling it crazy. Well reopen when and if it seems safe to reopen incrementally. Im not a psychiatrist, but I detect a bit of a smug, punitive, Puritan streak, like the governors who close their state beaches, even though no one has gotten coronavirus surfing, tanning, or building sand castles.

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My previous two stories examined how the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Museums and Library Services are spending $200 million in COVID-19 relief money. I suggested some ideas and wrote about what I thought was effective and ineffective.

In reading of Texas museums foot-dragging about reopening, Id suggest one more idea, or a simple question for grant applicants: Tell us what you need to reopen to the public by June 1. A one-page application with a one-page budget. Its a good use for NEAs money, and it preserves jobs. The best, quickest way to keep people in the arts working is reopening our museums.

If a supermarket paying its people $12 an hour can safely operate, so can museums whose directors, curators, and PR and fundraising flacks make multiples more. The chance of dying from coronavirus in Texas is about as great as getting trampled in a cattle drive at the Neiman Marcus perfume counter.

Texas  which, by the way, never totally shuttered its economy and trashed its tax base  has seen 782 Chinese coronavirus deaths in a population of 30 million people. Thats three deaths per 100,000 people, and it has three of the ten biggest cities in the country. Half of the fatalities were nursing-home residents. Thats far less than in every country in Europe. Its less than in almost all the states that put their economies, tax base, hospitals, and small businesses in ICU.

Museums have had six weeks to plan to reopen. Its not rocket science. What have the directors and building superintendents been doing since March 15? We are working through various reopening scenarios, Agustin Arteaga said. Hes the director of the Dallas Museum of Art. This isnt the Normandy invasion.

We cant live in a sanitized bubble. Museums should take reasonable, not extreme, steps to raise hygiene standards. Among their target audiences are the 98 percent of the public we now know have no ill effects from COVID-19 infection or who feel nothing more than cold-like symptoms. Were at a point where we can make reasonable accommodations for the vulnerable, but weve already done the most extraordinary and, Id say, the most reckless steps, like gutting the national economy when COVID-19 is mostly a New York and nursing-home crisis.

Once our open-to-the-public, not-for-profit places take reasonable safety precautions, its up to the vulnerable to judge how much risk they want in their lives. Crazy, universal confinement diktats cant continue. Well destroy the tax base that pays for social programs and permanently destroy millions of jobs. Some people will need to stay home and enjoy the very good online programming that the Houston MFA and other places have developed.

Caroline Wiess Law Building of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, 2011.

The Texas museums range from the very big  the Houston MFA  to the very small, such as the Menil in Houston and the Blanton in Austin. For each, the safety issues are the same. The differences are mostly in magnitude. The Houston MFA is dealing with multiple public entrances, for instance, though the big museums can easily open only one entrance.

Unfortunately, Harris County, where the Houston museums are located, has a new 29-year-old county executive, a Bernie Sanders spawn, and shes incompetent, clueless, and extreme. Governor Abbott has overruled her dumbest edicts, but there she is. . . . The Houston museums have to deal with her.

The hygiene protocols are already done by European museums with initiative and imagination. Theres no need to reinvent the wheel. I know the big American museums are corporate now, stifling, timid, and bureaucratic. Theyll want to hire expensive consultants to tell them what common sense would advise, and common sense is free. I found a sensible protocol that the royal museum system in Belgium is using. Itll reopen in a few days. Its online.

These steps were clear weeks ago and take no more than a few days to implement, with some Texas-style hustle. Theyre straightforward and easy to implement. Install plexiglass screens protecting visitor-services staff and take credit cards instead of cash. Offer Purell at the front door  hell, there are probably donors whod endow dispensing stations. I know people whove endowed closets and urinals.

Oh, and do something clever. Slap Wash Your Hands or Else on Warhols Mao, who looks like he was a tidy person, mass murderer though he was when it came to dissenters. He meant business, and there are plenty of dopes in America now wholl take Chinas word on anything.

Dont use Che, whatever you do. Hes so grungy hed need to go through a car wash to clean up.

Limit visitor numbers, suspend group tours, sanitize audio-tour gizmos after each use, offer masks, and establish special hours for the vulnerable, which supermarkets have managed to conceive and implement. Guards are already trained to monitor peoples movements in the galleries. A days additional training is needed. Theres camera surveillance. HVAC systems keep air as clean as air can get.

The back-of-house staff need to do their social distancing. If other back-of-house accommodations are necessary, like rearranging workplace seating, Id propose doing them after the museum reopens. These arent the publics concern.

I think people will come, in small numbers at first, but theyll come, and theyll behave the right way. The publics done well, whether in badly hit New York, which needed to quarantine, or barely dinged Vermont, where people followed the rules, too. The public has taken personal responsibility, with tens of millions making enormous financial sacrifices as well as compromising their own health care by forgoing all kinds of surgeries, treatments for cancer, screenings, check-ups, and vaccinations.

New York museums need to do more, since about half of the U.S. COVID-19 deaths  thats 50 percent  are in the New York area, with 5 percent of the countrys population. The Met, whose financial model assumes millions of admission-paying visitors, will need the kind of strict, extreme visitor-per-square-yard limits that will blow a big hole in its budget.

Left: The Mens Bath, c. 1496, by Albrecht Durer. Woodcut print. (Wikimedia)

Right: Female Bathers near a Fountain, 1730-1733, by Jean-Baptiste Pater. Oil on canvas. (Dallas Museum of Art)

This is a perfect chance for museums to do something truly radical, or truly reactionary. Just open permanent-collection galleries first. American and British museums have climbed on a rotating exhibition treadmill over the past 20 years, seeking crowds and forgetting their collections. The quietest spaces at the Met, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston are the Old Masters galleries. Since museums are going to feel broke for the next few years, they need to exploit their collections, which, after all, are the things that made them icons of learning, pleasure, and civic pride in the first place.

Most of a museums staff is office-bound as theyve grown more bureaucratic. Staggering working hours is a silly idea. Museums, by the way, cant make policies driven by the most neurotic among the staff. If some people are too frightened to work, thats too bad. They need to deplete their accumulated sick and vacation time under the covers, then find jobs that indulge their standards, or seek a disability pension for mental impairment.

Museums are not-for-profits, which means they serve the public. They exist as places open to the public. If museums in Brussels, Berlin, and Rome can reopen, if the Uffizi is happy to reopen, then certainly museums in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio can. Even the Forbidden City in China is reopening.

The big museums have a special obligation to open now to assuage the fear incessantly and unconscionably peddled by gleeful doom-mongers, fear thats paralyzing society. They need to lead by example.

Staying closed insults the 30 million Americans who dont have jobs as well as the Americans who supply our food, staff our hospitals, keep our drugstores open, and man our essential factories. Theres more than a whiff of snobbery in the delay, delay, delay crowd. Oh, its fine for them to go to work . . . theyre the servant class . . . but Im too precious for that.

Well, Texas museum munchkins, put your teddy bears away and get out of your Little Red Riding Hood pajamas. Its time to get back to work. If you cant figure it out, Ill chip in for a couple of cashiers from Krogers to show you how.

More from National Review
Those Indians stranded abroad due to the coronavirus outbreak will be charged for the flights bringing them home, announced aviation minister Hardeep Puri on Tuesday.

All asymptomatic Indians will be asked to self quarantine for 14 days after they land in India. The state governments will be responsible for the quarantine facilities.

In the first lot of repatriation, beginning May 7, Air India will be conducting all the flights, said the minister, adding that private airlines will be considered going forward.

It is a commercial service being carried out under special circumstances. The exchequer does not have the space to pay for repatriation, said Hardeep Puri.

The minister added that all prescribed health guidelines will be followed while bringing the passengers home.

Close to 2 lakh Indians have requested the government to help them come back.

Fifteen-hour flights from the US will cost Rs 1 lakh, while flights form the UK will cost Rs 50,000 per passenger.

The move likely follows the criticism against the government that it earlier flew Indians stranded abroad home gratis while the migrant labourers were asked to pay for their special train tickets.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi stung the Centre when she said her party will pay for the tickets of stranded migrants. Defending itself, the railways said they were charging state governments just 15% of the calculated train fare for the special trains and it was for the states to bear this cost or get the migrant workers to pay.

Central government officials have, for days, been telling state governments not to encourage migrant workers to travel. It would not only slow down the economic revival process and make the recovery process longer but also could, as the World Bank had also warned south Asian countries, spread the vector across the region.

On Friday, the Centre, however, gave in to pressure from state governments which had been demanding special trains to take the stranded workers home and operated the first train between Telangana and Jharkhand.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many dairy farmers across the nation are reporting a surplus of milk. Some are even having to dump their milk. Kroger wants to use the surplus of milk to give back to children and families in need during the pandemic.

On Thursday, Kroger launched the expanded Dairy Rescue Program, which allows the company to partner with dairy cooperative suppliers and farmers across the Midwest and South to process and donate about 200,000 gallons of additional milk to Feeding America food banks.

The milk will be donated to children and families throughout the summer.

Kroger is expanding on an existing partnership with its dairy farmers after recognizing the oversupply, as farmers have not been able to sell their dairy products to restaurants, schools and hotels during the pandemic.

Earlier in the month, Hartschuh Dairy Farm located in Crawford County, Ohio, posted a video on Facebook showing workers dumping some of their supply of milk.

The farm said for the first time in 44 years, its milk hauler didn't run its regular route to take milk from farms to the dairy processing plant.

Hartschuh Dairy Farm said every producer who sends their milk to the plant is dumping as much as one to two days of milk production down the drain.

In addition to the dairy farmers' struggles, Kroger noted that milk is often the most sought-after product at area food banks but is often hard to come by, which is why they think the milk donations could significantly benefit families in need.

The Dairy Rescue Program will allow farmers to donate their products that are normally sold to restaurants, schools and hotels, while Kroger donates the processing and packaging of the donated milk.

Related video: Publix donates thousands of gallons of milk to the Central Alabama Food Bank

Kroger's logistics team will also help with the transportation of the milk to local food banks in certain areas.

"As the COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses like restaurants and hotels across the country to close, some of America's farmers are left without buyers for their dairy supply," said Heather J. McCann, director of public affairs for Dairy Farmers of America's Mideast Area. "Kroger's Dairy Rescue Program is an invaluable resource for the dairy industry during this crisis and beyond, helping distribute and process surplus milk to communities who need it the most."

Several local food banks in Ohio and Kentucky will benefit from these donations, including he Freestore Foodbank in Cincinnati.
Vancouver, Canada, May 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vancouver-based Ondine Biomedical Inc., the global leader in photodisinfection technology, announces it has received CE mark approval for its broad-spectrum non-antibiotic nasal decolonization therapy.

The nose is a major reservoir of bacteria, fungi and viruses which can cause serious hospital infections in ICU or following surgery when immune systems of patients are weakened, stated Dr. Roger Andersen, Ondines VP Regulatory and Medical Affairs. "Steriwave nasal photodisinfection is capable of eliminating infection-causing pathogens from the nose of patients with a single, rapid, painless treatment. When used prior to surgery, nasal photodisinfection has contributed to 80% reductions in surgical site infections.

We are very pleased to be able to bring our photodisinfection technology to patients in the European Union, stated Tom Dawson, VP Engineering and Operations. This is especially important during these unprecedented times, when minimizing complications from surgeries and hospital stays can improve patient outcomes and reduce the load on overburdened healthcare systems.

About Photodisinfection

Ondines photodisinfection is a powerful new alternative in the fight against drug-resistant topical infections. This patented, light-activated antimicrobial kills drug-resistant bacteria, viruses, and fungi, including those in biofilms, in minutes. Because photodisinfection is effective against such a broad spectrum of pathogens, expensive and time-consuming pathogen identification is not required. Photodisinfection kills pathogens through oxidative disruption with no known adverse effects to human epithelial tissue or mucosa. Microbes are unable to resist or adapt to this treatment.

About Steriwave Nasal Decolonization

Ondines lead product is Steriwave ND, a photodisinfection-based treatment that can eliminate nasal bacteria, viruses, and fungi in symptomatic and asymptomatic carriers to reduce the potential for transmission and infection. Steriwave ND involves a 6-minute treatment deployed just prior to surgery that does not generate resistance with multiple use. The patients own nose has been demonstrated to be a primary source of pathogens involved in hospital acquired infections, including MRSA. Carriers of bacteria, viruses and fungi in their noses are at greater risk of self-infection and represent a vector of transmission to others. Significant reductions of surgical site infections have resulted from adoption of Ondines universal pre-surgical nasal decolonization protocols in Canadian hospitals over the past decade. Steriwave is not available in the USA.

About Ondine Biomedical Inc.

Ondine Biomedical Inc. is certified woman-owned business dedicated to the development of treatment and prevention therapies for a broad-spectrum of multidrug-resistant bacterial, viral and fungal infections. Ondine's antimicrobial program utilizes photodisinfection (also known as antimicrobial photodynamic therapy, or aPDT) to provide rapid antimicrobial efficacy without elevating risk of resistance. In addition to Steriwave ND, other applications of the photodisinfection platform are under development, including treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis, treatment of burns and wounds, disinfection of endotracheal tubes to reduce the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia and most recently, the development of topical antiviral therapy for the upper respiratory tract to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2.

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Like many people stuck at home during the coronavirus lockdowns, Kourtney Kardashian is reminiscing about her favorite vacations.

The 41-year-old reality star shared a throwback snap on Monday night from her trip to Sardinia, Italy, last year, accompanied by an inspirational message for her daughter Penelope, seven.

'Love yourself first, chase your dreams, make mistakes (and learn from them), believe in Gods plan, you are more beautiful than you will ever know, and oh so smart, there is no one else like you in the entire world, you are loved. Things I tell my daughter.' Kourtney wrote.

Vacation memories: Kourtney Kardashian shared this throwback shot and some inspirational words for her daughter on Monday

In the photo Kourtney is seen holding up a cocktail as she sits on comfy patio furniture with Penelope, who she shares with ex-boyfriend Scott Disick.

In other sunny holiday snaps Kourtney shared in recent days, the KUWTK star can be seen showing off her incredible bikini body.

In another photo from Costa Rica, the TV star wrote 'dreaming of the beach' as she modeled a one strap metallic two-piece.

Kourtney's post comes as Dailymail.com exclusively revealed on Monday that Scott, 36, checked into rehab last week.

Dreaming of the beach: The mother-of-three has been dreaming about trips away while stuck at home during the coronavirus lockdowns

Scott entered the exclusive All Points North lodge in Edwards, Colorado, reportedly for help with alcohol and cocaine issues but has since returned to Los Angeles.

The father-of-three reportedly entered the treatment center after he struggled with family life during lockdown and is still having a hard time coping with the loss of both his parents a few years ago.

A source told DailyMailTV: 'Scott flew in on Tuesday and had to Zoom in to a group meeting from his room to introduce himself.

European getaway: Kourtney enjoyed a trip to Italy with her kids last summer

Treatment: Kourtney's post comes as Dailymail.com exclusively revealed on Monday that Scott, 36, checked into rehab last week

'He said he's having trauma from his past, he mentioned trouble with his ex and said he's also having trouble with his children and he's been taking cocaine and drinking a lot.'

On last Thursday's episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, the reality star confessed that he still struggles to deal with losing both his parents within three months of each other - especially now that his kids have begun to ask about them.

His mom Bonnie passed away in 2013 after a long illness, while his father Jeff died of unknown causes in 2014 and only child Disick was extremely close to them.

He and Kourtney were together on and off for nine years, and share children Mason, 10, and Penelope, seven, and Reign, five together.

Scott is now dating Sofia Richie, 21, but has reportedly been quarantining alone.
Sen. John DiSanto is calling on Gov. Tom Wolf to remove Labor & Industry Secretary Jerry Oleksiak from his Cabinet post, calling his leadership of that department a failure.

In a letter to the governor following a Tuesday Senate committee hearing that dug into the problems facing the states unemployment compensation system nearly crippled from the 1.7 million people seeking jobless benefits, DiSanto, R-Dauphin County, said its time for new leadership in that department.

.His management of the department leading up to and during this response to the COVID-19 pandemic can only be described as a failure, DiSanto stated in his letter. At the Senate hearing, he said I heard excuses and blame, but not the leadership and action that is needed at the helm of the Department of Labor & Industry.

A Wolf spokeswoman indicated the governor has no intention of removing Oleksiak.

Secretary Oleksiak has overseen an effort to provide billions of dollars to those who need unemployment compensation in this unprecedented time, said spokeswoman Lyndsay Kensinger in a statement. The governor is proud he serves the commonwealth, and that he will continue to do so.

The department has become a punching bag from claimants who complain about delays, backlogs and a generally unresponsive unemployment system. But Oleksiak has said during weekly phone conversations with reporters the department is doing all it can to expediently address the unprecedented demand on the system.

At Tuesdays hearing, Oleksiak also pointed out that the departments staffing complement was appropriate for the low unemployment rate that preceded the pandemic, which has contributed to the problem. The governor and secretary said they are working on building up the staffing to help address the backlogs and problem with calls going unanswered.

DiSanto acknowledged in his letter that he was among the senators who had misgivings about Oleksiaks qualifications for the job when the governor nominated him.

Oleksiak is a former special education teacher who was serving as president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association when Wolf tapped him for the Cabinet post. The GOP-controlled Senate refused to act on Oleksiaks confirmation within the required time period which led to him automatically assuming the position in what was said to be the first time a Cabinet secretary has taken office without Senate approval.

DiSanto said he had deep concerns about the dysfunction and mismanagement of the unemployment compensation office within the department before Oleksiak took over.

Oleksiak came on board after a performance audit revealed nearly $180 million in taxpayer dollars had been spent under his predecessors leadership on a botched technology modernization project in the unemployment compensation office. A fight over providing additional funding led to some staff layoffs and closure of some centers that serviced the system until a funding bill was passed in 2017 that came with the yet to be achieved goal of having the system operate solely on federal funds.

The department has squandered a historic period of low unemployment to make the fundamental, systemic changes needed, and once again, like so many times before, Pennsylvanians have been dis-served by a government bureaucracy that rewards political favoritism over competence and merit. Please correct this deficiency immediately, DiSanto stated in his letter.

Kensinger added to her statement: "It is unfortunate that Senator DiSanto, during a pandemic not seen in over 100 years, has refused to provide the people of his district, or Pennsylvania, with a plan to ensure they can remain safe while also being a constructive voice on ensuring our economy heals.

Voting to prematurely open tens of thousands of businesses during the height of the coronavirus is disappointing, as well. There is no guarantee it would do anything other than cause confusion, and put employees in harms way. If ever there was a time to refrain from playing politics, it is now. The governor is committed to working with the Senator to save lives, and chart a path to real recovery for those who have been impacted most.

*This post was updated to include the statement from Gov. Wolfs spokeswoman Lyndsay Kensinger.

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.

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.
NEW HAVEN  Approximately $2.6 million has been raised for nonprofits helping vulnerable communities amid the coronavirus pandemic, half of which already has been awarded.

The Greater New Haven COVID-19 Community Fund recently distributed a second round of grants totaling $677,000 to 36 organizations after giving out almost $700,000 in the first ground.

The fund launched in late March as a partnership between the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and United Way of Greater New Haven to raise money and get resources quickly to area nonprofits helping vulnerable communities affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

We continually evaluate how to best serve our region in this challenging time, and are deeply concerned at the further widening in health and economic disparities between communities of color and other populations in our region, said William Ginsberg, the foundation president and chief executive officer. In this round of grants we are reaching our communitys hardest-hit populations through agencies that have long served these neighborhoods.

The money raised is going toward organizations that work on behalf of communities of color, senior citizens, and low-income and high-risk populations.

Some organizations receiving grants from the fund include the Agency on Aging of South Central Connecticut Inc., which got $20,000 to support meal delivery and provide cash assistance to elderly homebound residents and people with disabilities; and Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services, which received $30,000 to purchase of food pantry supplements, gift cards and medicine.

Many grants also went to organizations that specifically serve racial and ethnic minorities, including $30,000 to Inspired Communities Inc. to support food distribution and assistance to four food pantries in Newhallville and Dixwell neighborhoods, and $20,000 Unidad Latina Accion to help provide cash assistance for Latino immigrant communities ineligible for unemployment and stimulus funds.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights longstanding challenges across our region with regard to access and equity for communities of color, said Khalilah Brown-Dean, associate professor of political science at Quinnipiac University and chairwoman of foundations board of directors. The data make it clear that a proactive strategy to address these disparities is crucial to building a more inclusive vision of recovery.

Data has shown in Connecticut and nationwide the rate of COVID-19 cases is one-and-a-half to two times higher among Hispanic and African-American residents than white and Asian residents, according to the state Department of Public Health.

African Americans also experience the highest death rate associated with COVID-19, followed by whites, Latinos and Asians.

Brown-Dean said the committee ensured grants were going to nonprofits serving African-American and Latino communities.

The inequities that exist in our community along racial and economic lines have become even more pronounced in the face of COVID-19, said Jennifer Heath, United Way of Greater New Haven president and CEO. It is critical that we consciously work to address these issues in our COVID-19 response grantmaking, and this round of funding reflects our commitment to the hard work our partners are doing to address this.

In total, $2.6 million has been raised since late March, $500,000 of which came from the Community Foundations own resources and the rest from individuals, family foundations and businesses.

The initial focus of the grants has been to quickly get resources to nonprofits providing basic needs, health and social service providers in the region. A volunteer committee of current and former Community Foundation and United Way board members voted on which organizations were to receive grants.

We are grateful to the donors from across the community, with gifts large and small, who have contributed to the Greater New Haven COVID-19 Community Fund to make these early grants possible, Ginsberg said.

The foundations 20-town service area includes Ansonia, Bethany, Branford, Cheshire, Derby, East Haven, Guilford, Hamden, Madison, Milford, New Haven, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, Oxford, Seymour, Shelton, Wallingford, West Haven and Woodbridge

A full list of grant recipients and ways to donate to the fund can be found at cfgnh.org/covid19fund.

mdignan@hearstmediact.com
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FEATURES  Air-conditioning

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CATERING STANDARD PACKAGE - R23 per person

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A considerable dip in the development of effective chemotherapy agents is expected to account for increasing preference for CAR T-cell therapy as an effective immunotherapy.

In cases where patients do not seem responsive to these therapies, especially in case of relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphoma, CAR T-cell therapy has been proven to be highly effective.

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Company Profile

Novartis AG

Gilead Sciences Inc.

Celgene Corporation

bluebird bio, Inc.

A new research study of Persistence Market Research (PMR) suggests that the increase in product availability in developed regional markets such as North America, Europe, and Japan, with high incidence of relapsed cancer will accelerate CAR T-cell therapy market in the near future.

CAR T-cell therapy is based on a personalized approach and thus, ensures improved patient compliance that tends to changing the perception towards its adoption. Prominently driven by this, global CAR T-cell therapy market is expected to reach the revenues worth US$ 800 Mn by the end of 2019 and would exhibit spectacular growth through 2026, at an estimated CAGR of 18%.

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Key Takeaways - CAR T-cell Therapy Market Study

Increasing product availability, improving reimbursement scenarios, and expanding patient pool of relapsed cancer will remain the key factors shaping CAR T-cell therapy market landscape in Europe.

High price point of CAR T-cell therapy continues to hamper its adoption for relapsed cancer treatment. To tackle this issue, Novartis AG, the pioneering CAR T-cell therapy manufacturer agreed for discounted pricing of its products in the U.K. after striking the deal with National Health Service (NHS). In October 2018, NHS also signed a deal with CAR T-cell therapy Yescarta manufacturer, Gilead Sceinces Inc.

CAR T-cell therapy agent, bb2121, is in the late stage of clinical development for treatment of multiple myeloma. It would be the first CAR T-cell therapy agent approved for multiple myeloma treatment.

Axicabtagene ciloleucel is projected to be a high selling product owing to its comparatively easier and glitch-free manufacturing procedure, compared to tisagenlecleucel.

In terms of indication, owing to large patient pool of relapsed large B-cell lymphoma, coupled with higher adoption rate of CAR T-cell therapy for its treatment, it is expected to garner higher revenue share as compared to acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Association (FDA) has granted orphan drug designation to clinical stage CAR T-cell therapies. This development is crucial and will further complement the growth prospects of global CAR T-cell therapy market over the period of next few years.

Strategic Expansion by Dominant Players Benefiting Market

CAR T-cell therapy market is expected to witness significant growth, majorly attributed to new product launches that are lined up in the near future and multiple developments in CAR T-cell therapy targeting other cancer types. North America and Europe are expected to hold a major share in global CAR T-cell therapy market, with active production sites only in the U.S.

Manufacturers thus need to send across sample of T-cells from Europe to the U.S. and then return final products to Europe post manufacturing.

This process would increase the overall production costs, average treatment waiting time for patients, and ultimately limits the potential CAR T-cell therapy market growth. To overcome such challenges, Novartis AG and Gilead Sciences Inc., dominant companies in the CAR T-cell therapy market, are strategizing on expansion to meet the growing CAR T-cell therapy demand in other regions.

Novartis AG, a manufacturer of CAR T-cell therapy product Kymriah is expanding its production facility with investment of over US$ 91.5 million through 2021 in Stein, Switzerland. Similarly, Gilead Sciences Inc. manufacturer of Yescarta, is focusing on expanding production facility in the Netherlands, with operations expected to commence by end of 2020.

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Persistence Market Research offers a unique perspective and actionable insights on CAR T-cell therapy in its latest study, presenting historical demand assessment from 2017  2018 and projections from 2019  2026 on the basis of product type (axicabtagene ciloleucel, tisagenlecleucel, lisocabtagene maraleucel and bb2121), indication (relapsed large B-cell lymphoma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, multiple myeloma), end user (hospitals, cancer treatment centers) in three prominent regions.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 5) - Money sent home by Filipinos abroad will likely slacken more sharply than initially thought  at a pace not seen since 2001  as the global shutdown leaves some 20,000 overseas Filipino contract workers jobless, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno told CNN Philippines on Tuesday.

In an exclusive interview, Diokno said the remittance growth target has been cut to a range of 2.2 percent to 2.8 percent, or an average of 2.5 percent for 2020.

The interagency Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC), which decides on macroeconomic targets for national budget purposes, and where the BSP sits as a member, earlier set the 2020 remittance growth goal at 3 percent.

At 2.5 percent, remittances pace would be a significant slowdown from the 4.1 percent logged last year, when dollar inflows were at a record $30.1 billion.

And if realized, that would be remittances weakest tempo since 2001 when they shrank 0.3 percent, based on historical data from the BSP.

The magnitude of the decline will depend on how the health crisis evolves in host countries and how it impacts the overall demand and deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) globally, Diokno said, citing data from the Foreign Affairs Department that showed more than 20,000 OFWs have been repatriated as an aftermath of the pandemic.

Latest BSP estimates indicate a 0.2 to 0.8 percentage point drop in remittances growth for 2020, relative to the 3.0 percent growth projection as of November 2019, the BSP chief added.

Diokno said that the BSP had earlier offered the DBCC a more conservative scenario of 2.0 percent remittance growth but that was during an ad referendum meeting held last March.

Remittances are a key driver of the economy, fueling private spending by their beneficiaries  the OFW families. Historically, OFW dollar inflows have been the Philippine economys shield against episodes of global economic downturns, as Filipino breadwinners abroad send what has been routine.

From the $6 billion level in 2001, when the economy was hit by a political crisis, remittances have since consistently broken previous records in dollar terms to grow to $30.1 billion by end-2019.

But with the coronavirus pandemic taking a heavy toll on key OFW destinations like the US, Europe and Asia, Filipinos working abroad may not have income at all while on quarantine.

Filipino seafarers have also been repatriated as luxury liners were not spared from the ill-effects of the deadly virus.

ING Bank is less sanguine and forecasts a 2.5 percent contraction in remittance flows this year due to COVID-19.

"The natural hedge of Filipinos deployed across the globe meant that weaker remittances from one region of the world could be compensated for by funds sent from less affected areas," ING economist for the Philippines Nicholas Mapa said in an April 23 research note. "COVID-19 however challenges this view with the virus spreading to almost every corner of the globe."

The gloomy sentiment over the fate of returning OFWs and what that means to the Philippine economy is contagious.

"Europe and sea-based sources were heavily hit hence the flow of remittances will likely be near zero or very low single digit growth," Sun Life Financial economist Patrick Ella told CNN Philippines.
Radiologists are at work to treat a patient suffering from COVID-19 at Jean Bernard hospital in Valenciennes, France, on May 5, 2020. (Francois Lo Presti/AFP via Getty Images)

French Scientists Find Possible CCP Virus Case From December

French researchers said they located a CCP virus patient in the country who contracted the illness in December 2019, about a month before the first reported case.

The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, originated in China last year. The virus, also known as SARS-CoV-2, causes the disease COVID-19.

The possible case was found after doctors at a hospital near Paris looked at samples of 14 patients who were treated for pneumonia between December and January.

One of the samples came back positive for the CCP virus in multiple tests. The patient was identified as Amirouche Hammar, 42, a fishmonger from Algeria who last traveled there in August.

Hammar was admitted to an intensive care unit on Dec. 27, 2019 with symptoms including cough, headache, and fever. He was treated and discharged two days later, the researchers reported in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents.

Most patients who contract the CCP virus recover without hospital care and a significant number are discharged from hospitals after treatment.

A statue wears a mask along Trocadero square close to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, on May 4, 2020. (Christophe Ena/AP Photo)

Hammar told BFM-TV that he wasnt traveling before he became ill. His wife works in a supermarket near an airport.

He said he woke up one morning and drove himself to the hospital because he was having difficulty breathing.

They said, Perhaps you have an infection, a pulmonary infection, although its not certain. But what you have is very serious, very serious, because you are coughing blood. Its not normal flu, he said.

Researchers said the symptoms are consistent with COVID-19 patients in China and Italy. They tested the sample by two different techniques over multiple tests.

Identifying the first infected patient is of great epidemiological interest as it changes dramatically our knowledge regarding SARS-COV-2 and its spreading in the country, they wrote.

Moreover, the absence of a link with China and the lack of recent travel suggest that the disease was already spreading among the French population at the end of December, 2019.

The researchers said they couldnt rule out false negative results because of the sensitivity of the testing and the storage techniques used.

Plastic circles are seen on the ground indicating where to stand to respect social distancing on a platform at the Gare du Nord train station during the outbreak of the CCP virus in Paris, France, on May 5, 2020. (Benoit Tessier/Reuters)

Experts said the results werent definitive.

If he was infected, then you would expect a more rapid and earlier spread of the virus in France than was seen, said Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham.

The results may be due to lab contamination, Ball said.

Sequencing any virus in the sample might give you insight into whether or not the virus truly was an early isolate or likely contamination, but it looks from the data that the amount of virus in the sample was low, so would be difficult to analyse further, he said.

Rowland Kao, an epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh, said the results dont necessarily point to the virus spreading in Europe earlier than previously thought.

There are likely to be many instances where, around the world, infected individuals have moved to an uninfected location, but no transmission occurred, he said.

Christian Lindmeier, a spokesman for the World Health Organization, described the findings as exciting news and said they could help scientists better understand the evolution of the CCP virus.

This gives us a whole new picture on everything, and yes of course, it would be great if all countries who have unspecified cases of pneumonia in the recent months, and even in December, and in even in November, would check them against COVID-19, he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
European stocks closed sharply higher on Tuesday as investors took stock of the gradual opening of economies in Europe and beyond.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed over 2% higher provisionally, with all sectors and major bourses in positive territory. Oil and gas shares were the best performers, up more than 6%.

European markets are paying close attention to coronavirus developments and the lifting of restrictions in many countries in the region, while keeping an eye on the data. More than 252,000 people around the world have died from Covid-19 and over 3.6 million people have been infected, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

A top German court on Tuesday determined that the European Central Bank's government bond purchase program partially violates the law. The quantitative easing program, which ran between 2015 and 2018 and was reinstated late last year, was designed to shore up the euro zone economy by keeping borrowing costs low. However, the decision will not impact the emergency bond purchase measures deployed by the ECB to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

On Wall Street, stocks rose sharply on Tuesday as investors bet the U.S. economy could start to reopen again. Oil prices also increased for a fifth straight day.
Cargo containers are loaded at My Thoi Port in the southern province of An Giang (Photo: VNA)



Domestic companies generated USD26.4 billion from exports during the period, rising 12.1 percent year-on-year and making up 32 percent of the country's total export earnings. Meanwhile, exports of foreign-invested firms hit USD56.49 billion, up 1.5 percent and making up 68 percent of the total.

Fifteen groups of products recorded an export value of over USD1 billion or equivalent to 80.1 percent of the nations four-month total earnings. Of them, phones and parts earned the largest export turnover with USD16.2 billion, up 1.1 percent year-on-year. Electronics, computers and components came next with 12.4 billion USD, up 28.6 percent year-on-year, followed by textiles and garment (USD8.9 billion, down 5.8 percent); machinery equipment and parts (USD6.9 billion, up 29.6 percent); and footwear (USD5.5 billion, up 1.3 percent).

From January to April, the US remained Vietnam's biggest export market, spending USD20.3 billion on Vietnamese goods, a yearly hike of 13.4 percent. It was followed by China with USD13.1 billion, up 26.7 percent; the EU with USD10.7 billion, down 8.1 percent and ASEAN nations with USD8.2 billion, down 3.4 percent, the GSO said in a monthly report.

Per the report, the country's imports expanded 2.1 percent year-on-year to an estimated USD79.89 billion in the period. Domestic firms spent USD33.58 billion on imports, up 1.1 percent year-on-year while foreign-invested companies saw a yearly turnover rise of 2.9 percent to USD46.31 billion.

Electronics, computers and components accounted for 22 percent of the nations four-month imports at USD17.8 billion, up 12.5 percent over the same period last year. Among others were machinery, equipment and parts at USD11.5 billion, down 0.1 percent; telephones and parts (USD4.3 billion, up 12 percent); cloth (USD3.6 billion, down 10.9 percent); steel and iron (USD2.9 billion, down 6.4 percent); plastics (USD2.8 billion, down 1.4 percent) and plastic products (USD2.3 billion, up 14.6 percent).

China was Vietnam's largest supplier, selling USD22.7 billion worth of goods to Vietnam, down 0.1 percent year-on-year. The Republic of Korea ranked second by shipping USD15.5 billion worth of goods to Vietnam, up 2.5 percent year-on-year, followed by ASEAN countries with USD9.9 billion, down 7.8 percent.

According to the GSO's report, Vietnams trade surplus narrowed to USD3 billion in January-April./.
Caroline Cummings

Cummings is the executive director of Oregon RAIN, which helps build entrepreneurial ecosystems in Oregon.

Oregons ability to recover when the immediate threat of COVID-19 subsides depends on people like Riley Hoagland of Lincoln City, a tireless inventor with notebooks full of great ideas. He took a new consumer product to market last year and received his first major international order shortly before the virus hit. And within the last two weeks, he's invented a new home health care device in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

It relies on people like Anielis Raas of Philomath, who, almost overnight, converted her clothing manufacturing business to produce face masks for health care workers and first responders. Shes also stepped up to deliver business workshops in Spanish for her fellow entrepreneurs. Shes not only saving jobs, shes saving lives.

It relies on people like Benny Augeri of Corvallis, who makes some of the best doughnuts in the state. When he had to close up shop, Benny converted to a delivery service that leaves fresh doughnuts on doorsteps. Now hes bending over backwards to keep eight employees on the payroll  but with the onerous requirements and uncertainty surrounding the Small Business Associations Payroll Protection Program, he fears hell still have to lay off his staff.

Since the COVID-19 crisis broke, we have heard from hundreds of entrepreneurs across Oregon who are anxious about paying rent, meeting payroll and staying in business. Theyre desperate for capital and frustrated by red tape. They feel invisible, unheard and ignored.

Many of the rural and minority entrepreneurs we serve didnt even receive the funding and feel shut-out from the opportunity.

We understand regulators and financial institutions are building the plane while flying it, but they need to recognize the depth of this crisis. They need to prioritize businesses with fewer than 20 workers.

In Oregon, 97.7% of businesses  more than 9 out of 10 private sector firms  in Oregon have fewer than 20 employees, according to statistics from the state department of employment. Most startup companies fall in this category and face additional barriers to launching their businesses.

In the last two sessions, two bills  Senate Bill 258 and House Bill 4033  put forth to the Oregon Legislature that would have helped these businesses access capital and support entrepreneurial growth were killed by the Joint Interim Committee On Ways and Means, despite significant support from both sides of the aisle.

Its unfair for this segment of small businesses and startups to compete in the same small business category as companies with up to 500 employees, as defined by the SBA.

Startups and small businesses are the quickest casualties during and after a disaster. Half of them have less than 15 days of operating cash on hand. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency roughly 40% of small businesses never reopen their doors following a disaster, and 90% of smaller companies fail within a year unless they can resume operations within five days.

Were grateful that Congress stepped up with some resources and hopeful there will be more on the way  and that they will reach the smallest of businesses and those run by people of color. We are grateful to U.S. Sen Ron Wyden for urging Congress to work with lenders to ensure fair access to minority-owned businesses and data transparency. We need more of this support. We need legislators to prioritize businesses with fewer than 20 workers  the backbone of Americas economy  as well as minority business owners.

I was pleased to see that Oregons Emergency Board approved $5 million in financial assistance to businesses with a maximum of 25 employees last month. This money will be also matched with another $5 million from the Oregon Business Development Department, resulting in a $10 million fund that will offer assistance to small businesses that havent been able to access the SBAs Paycheck Protection Program or other federal emergency funds. However, Id like to see Oregons legislature think beyond this current crisis and develop laws that reduce barriers for emerging businesses.

I ask Oregon legislators to look to the policies spelled out in Americas New Business Plan, which was developed by the Kauffman Foundation and is backed by a coalition of over 150 entrepreneurial support organizations around the country, including ours. One example would be to develop an Entrepreneur Impact Statement that looks at how new laws, regulations and rules affect businesses in Oregon that are less than 5 years old.

Lastly, we ask Congress, the White House, and the Oregon Legislature to create laws that prioritize emerging businesses with fewer than 20 employees. If anyones going to revive the American Dream and create new jobs, its them.
A local TD has called for an urgent investigation into the ongoing situation at Covid-19-hit Dealgan House Nursing Home in Dundalk.

It follows on from the intervention of a HSE hospital group into the running of the blighted care facility, based in Toberona, on April 17.

To date, estimates of the number of residents who have tragically passed away due to the deadly virus have ranged from ten to 17.

In a letter to Minister for Health Simon Harris, Deputy Ruairi O Murchu pleaded that, as a matter of urgency, the RCSI Hospital Group appoints a person to communicate with families, public representatives and the media.

Adding: Rumours and conjecture are thriving around Dealgan House, generating fear and deep concern for families whose loved ones are in there and whom they cannot visit.

The Sinn Fein TD has also called for clarity on the question of if, when and under what conditions the RCSI Hospital Group will hand back operational control of Dealgan House to the owners.

He added: It is difficult to see how operational control can be confidently handed back to the owners of Dealgan House until these matters have been investigated and staff levels are at their optimum.

Deputy O Murchu also spoke of the plight of one particular family he has been in communication with.

(They) told me that they had to insist that their mother be taken to hospital or they were coming themselves to Dealgan to take her out of it.

This lady, who is in her seventies and who has dementia, only became a resident at Dealgan at the start of March. Her daughters visited her every day to help staff feed and look after her but were, like all families, not allowed to visit after the home put a ban in place.

He continued: Instead, they tried to contact the home on a daily basis and were told a number of times that their mother was okay and she was sleeping. After a couple of days of the same response, the family insisted on seeing their mother via video call and were shocked at her condition. She was weak and unable to speak to them and yet they continued to be told that she was OK.

It was only when they insisted, in strong terms, that she be given medical care or they were coming down to Dealgan themselves, an ambulance was called and the lady was taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda for treatment for Covid-19. Thankfully, she is making a recovery from the virus and the family are now trying their best to ensure that she is not returned to Dealgan House.
MIAMI - The family of a cruise crew member who died after testing positive for COVID-19 filed a lawsuit against Royal Caribbean Cruises on Tuesday saying the company failed to protect its employees as the pandemic ravaged sailings around the world.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 5/5/2020 (623 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FILE- In this March 23, 2018 file photo, the Symphony of the Seas docks at Saint Nazaire port, France. The family of Pujiyoko, a cruise crew member who died after testing positive for COVID-19, has filed a lawsuit against Royal Caribbean Cruises saying the company failed to protect its employees. Pujiyoko worked in housekeeping on the Symphony of the Seas ship. (AP Photo/David Vincent, File)

MIAMI - The family of a cruise crew member who died after testing positive for COVID-19 filed a lawsuit against Royal Caribbean Cruises on Tuesday saying the company failed to protect its employees as the pandemic ravaged sailings around the world.

The wrongful death case filed in circuit court in Miami says Pujiyoko, 27, worked in housekeeping on the Symphony of the Seas and suffered from flu-like symptoms including a fever and shortness of breath but was not tested for six days.

The lawsuit also argues Royal Caribbean failed to follow basic safety precautions allowing buffets and parties and mandating crew members to participate in drills even after the U.S. government had issued a no-sail order to curb coronavirus infections.

FILE- In this March 14, 2020 photo, police boat guards the Symphony of the Seas cruise ship docked in Miami. The family of Pujiyoko, a cruise crew member who died after testing positive for COVID-19, has filed a lawsuit against Royal Caribbean Cruises saying the company failed to protect its employees. Pujiyoko worked in housekeeping on the Symphony of the Seas ship. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

For the cruise ships that were at sea when the order took effect, companies negotiated for their passengers to disembark, wrangling with countries and local governments wary of sick travellers. But for the most part, crew members remained on board vessels floating off-coast.

Pujiyoko, of Bali, Indonesia, was disembarked in a life boat and taken to a hospital in Fort Lauderdale on March 30, seven days after first reporting to the ship's medical facility. He died on April 11.

Michael Winkleman, a maritime lawyer representing the family, says Pujiyoko had no underlying conditions and had passed preemployment and reemployment medical screenings to work for Royal Caribbean.

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.

Winkleman says he will be arguing the arbitration agreements that limit crew members from suing cruise companies don't apply to this case because his contract was terminated by Royal Caribbean. The company said it does not comment on pending litigation.

The complaint seeks an undetermined amount but says his family is entitled to the income the man would have continued to earn and the cost of funeral expenses.

___

Clarifies that Pujiyoko, like many Indonesians, uses only one name. Fnu stands for first name unknown in the complaint.

___

Follow AP coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.
A top NSW Health official was reduced to tears and admitted she would now 'do things 'very differently' after the Ruby Princess coronavirus fiasco.

Senior epidemiologist Kelly-Anne Ressler was questioned on Tuesday during a special commission of inquiry hearing into the doomed cruise.

Answering a question about 'reprehensible shortcomings' by NSW Health, she burst into tears and said she was 'very sorry' for her role in the tragedy.

Border and health officials have been at loggerheads over who was to blame for the debacle, which saw 2,700 cruise passengers disembark in Sydney with no health checks.

Thousands of passengers, around 600 of whom later tested positive for COVID-19, were allowed to spill out into Sydney Harbour and travel across the country.

The incident on March 19 has since been linked to 21 of Australia's coronavirus deaths.

Kelly-Anne Ressler from NSW Health (pictured) broke down into tears during the Ruby Princess inquiry on Tuesday

Ms Ressler - coordinator of the department's cruise ship health program - told the commission an expert health panel had been created to specifically look into the risks of COVID-19 earlier in 2020.

Commissioner Bret Walker SC on Tuesday asked Ms Ressler why he 'should not draw the conclusion that there has been a reprehensible shortcoming from NSW Health'.

'All I can say is that I'm very sorry it turned out the way it did, it was not our intention,' she replied as she fought back tears.

'Myself and my colleagues at the public health unit were working very hard on this.

'We did what we could and if we could do it again it would be very different.'

Although not part of the panel, she was involved in providing 'assistance and suggestions' towards a draft protocol document, which was released on February 19.

The doomed Ruby Princess cruise ship (pictured) is seen leaving Port Kembla in Wollongong on April 23, with a banner draped over the back saying 'Thank You Illawarra'

Kelly-Anne Ressler from NSW Health (pictured) admitted things would be done 'very differently' now

Some local residents came to wave off the Ruby Princess on April 23 (pictured) in Woolongong, as it finally set sail for the Philippines

The protocol suggested all passengers visit a ship's medical centre if they had respiratory symptoms or a fever, with isolation to follow.

But, Ms Ressler said, while a ship was at sea she had 'no jurisdiction' to control what actions were taken.

The federal department overseeing biosecurity arrangement has said NSW Health 'advised there were no issues preventing disembarkation'.

Counsel assisting Richard Beasley SC said there were only 25 COVID-19 test kits available on board the cruise ship, with only 13 people swabbed by the time the ship docked.

Mr Walker asked if Ms Ressler thought it was strange more people were tested for influenza than for coronavirus.

'I wasn't part of the decision-making for developing the testing criteria and until you raise it with me now I wasn't aware it was so unsatisfactory,' Ms Ressler said.

Kelly-Anne Ressler (pictured) is a senior epidemiologist for NSW Health and gave evidence at the inquiry on Tuesday

Crew members are seen waving as the Ruby Princess left Australian waters on April 23 (pictured), with one displaying a banner reading 'Thank you Australia'

The special commission is required to deliver its final report by mid-August.

A separate Senate inquiry into the Ruby Princess began on Tuesday in Canberra, while a NSW Police criminal probe is also underway.

On Tuesday, the Ruby Princess was off the east coast of the southern Philippine island of Mindanao en route to Manila.

The ship departed Port Kembla in Wollongong almost a fortnight ago.

On Tuesday afternoon, the head of the powerful Home Affairs department will also be quizzed over the Ruby Princess debacle.

Kelly-Anne Ressler (pictured) is a senior epidemiologist for NSW Health and gave evidence at the inquiry on Tuesday

A crew member on board the Ruby Princess waved a flag from his room as the ship set sail for Manila on April 23 (pictured), draping a banner over his balcony reading 'Thank You Australia'

Hundreds of crew members from the Ruby Princess were taken by bus to be put on planes back to their home countries on April 23 (pictured) before the ship set sail

Michael Pezzullo will front a Senate committee examining the government's response to the coronavirus crisis, along with officials from Border Force and the agriculture and environment departments.

Labor's home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally said the whole affair was an extraordinary lapse of border security.

'We cannot forget that allowing the Ruby Princess to dock in Sydney - and the way it was handled - is a human tragedy and over 30 Australians have lost their lives as a result of it,' she told AAP.

'There are no less than four handbrakes the Morrison government could have applied to stop the Ruby Princess debacle and today we will ask why these weren't applied.'

The day before the ship arrived, Mr Morrison banned cruise ships from docking in Australia due to the fears of coronavirus, which has been shown to spread quickly on cruises.

The Ruby Princess cruise ship (pictured) as she began her departure from Port Kembla on April 23

The Ruby Princess was given a water canon salute as it departed from Port Kembla on April 23 (pictured)
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Linkedin Mardika Parama (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, May 5, 2020 12:30 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd604583 1 Business Indonesia,air-transportation,air-cargo,traffic,INACA,IATA,COVID-19,WTO Free

Indonesias volume of domestic and international airfreight has dropped 39 percent from the average rate as the majority of airlines ground aircraft due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Indonesian National Air Carrier Association (INACA) data shows.

The association recorded a domestic freight volume of 13,558 cargo ton kilometers (CTK) and an international freight volume of 111,464 CTK in March.

Such numbers are a huge decline from the 2019 monthly average of 45,193 CTK and 159,234 CTK for domestic and international freight, respectively.

As most of the cargo is being carried by passenger aircraft and not freight carriers, cargo capacity has dwindled. We grounded most of our passenger aircraft due to COVID-19, INACA secretary-general Bayu Sutanto told The Jakarta Post in a phone interview on April 29.

Indonesias decreasing air cargo traffic numbers are in line with global trends, with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) recording a 15.2 percent decline in global flight demand in March compared to the same period last year, while global capacity fell 22.7 percent.

The severe drop in air freight capacity, which has outpaced the decline in the demand, could cause a severe cargo capacity shortfall, which would disrupt shipments, including of vital supplies needed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, IATA said.

At present, we dont have enough capacity to meet the remaining demand for air cargo. The gap must be addressed quickly because vital supplies must get to where they are needed most, IATA director general Alexandre de Juniac said in a statement on April 28.

To ensure delivery of supplies, IATA has urged governments to cut red tape for charter operations, exempt cargo crews from quarantine rules and ensure adequate staff and facilities to process the cargo.

In Indonesia, Bayu said the problem lay more in economic viability than bureaucratic red tape, such as in the transportation of medical supplies such as personal protective equipment (PPE) and pharmaceutical products.

We have received a regulatory green light to use cabin loading to ship medical supplies. However, the operation isnt really profitable [for airline companies], he said.

Looking ahead, IATA also forecast a gloomy projection for the air transportation sector as the World Trade Organization (WTO) predicts a 13 to 32 percent slump in global trade in 2020.

The recession will likely hit air cargo at least as severely as it does the rest of the economy. To keep the supply chain moving to meet what demand might exist, airlines must be financially viable, Alexandre said.

In order to maintain airlines financial viability, he also underlined that the need for financial relief by whatever means possible would remain urgent for airlines.
Hiplife/highlife artiste, Okyeame Kwame, whose Made in Ghana album won Album of the Year at the just ended 3 Music Awards, has expressed his gratitude to his fans for their immense contribution towards the growth of his music career.

The album beat off competition from 'As Promised' by King Promise, 'Shay On You' by Wendy Shay, 'SITE 15 by R2Bees, 'Sugar' by KiDi, 'The 8th Element' by Trigmatic, 'Untamed' by Samini, 'Wind of Revival' by Joe Mettle and 'Wonder Boy' by Shatta Wale to win the award.

Okyeame Kwame, who believes he won the award due to his hard work, was grateful to 3 Music Network, organizers of the awards scheme for recognizing his contribution to the growth of the Ghana music industry.

He urged his colleague musicians to compose songs that would shape the youth to become more disciplined and to inculcate in them the real Ghanaian culture.

He appealed to his colleagues to take advantage of the opportunities available to develop themselves and also increase the scope of their markets.

Okyeame Kwame's 'Made in Ghana' project highlights the virtues of all groups of people in Ghana across the various regions and also encourages Ghanaians to be proud of their culture and heritage.

The songs represent the various regions in terms of concept and the artistes featured.

The music videos of the songs also showcase some tourist sites in Ghana, as Kwame's contribution to marketing Ghana's tourist sites. This is part of Okyeame Kwame's resolve to promote tourism through the arts.

The album has songs like 'Made in Ghana' which features KiDi, 'Bra' which he did with Wutah Afriyie, 'Dia Tina' ft Wiyaala & King Ralph and 'Bolgatanga Girl' ft Abiana & Atongo Zimba.

Others are 'Yenzima' ft Fancy Gadam, 'Nkunim' ft Feli Finest & Senku, '1956' ft Kurl Songs & Ayesem, 'Ino Be My Matter' ft. Kuami Eugene, 'Kpa' ft. Wulomei and 'Melowo' ft. Feli Nuna.

The album is available on Aftown, iTunes, Amazon, Deezer, Apple Music and other online marketing platforms.

---Daily Guide
O2 is in talks with rival Virgin Media about a potential 24 billion mega-merger, it was confirmed yesterday.

The tie-up would transform the telecoms market overnight, creating a powerhouse to challenge former state monopoly BT.

O2's owner, Spain-based Telefonica, said the telecoms firm was in talks with Virgin Media owner Liberty Global about the deal. It would reportedly see the rivals take 50-50 stakes in the combined business, which Goldman Sachs said could be worth 24.2 billion overall.

Negotiating: O2's owner, Spain-based Telefonica, said the telecoms firm was in talks with Virgin Media owner Liberty Global about the deal

O2 already operates the UK's largest mobile network, with 34m customers, while Virgin Media is one of the biggest internet providers with 6m customers. Virgin also has about 3m mobile customers.

Alongside EE owner BT, the enlarged business would become just the second major provider of both mobile and fixed broadband networks in Britain.

However, Telefonica cautioned that its talks with Liberty Global, owned by billionaire John Malone, might not succeed.

The potential merger with Virgin Media would end years of uncertainty for O2. It was previously on course to be sold to Three owner Hutchison in 2016 for 10 billion, but the deal was thwarted by competition officials at the European Commission.

Since then, there has been persistent speculation about whether Telefonica would seek another deal or float O2 on the London stock exchange.

Deutsche Bank yesterday said the merger of Virgin Media and O2 would 'resolve both companies' long-term strategies for fixed-mobile convergence and provide an increased customer base for Virgin Media to cross-sell its broadband and TV services'.
T housands of London bars, restaurants, cafes and gyms face financial disaster in less than two months because they do not qualify for emergency grants to help them survive the coronavirus crisis, according to a campaign launched today.

Only businesses with a rateable value of less than 51,000 can access the central Government funded retail, hospitality and leisure grants (RHLG), which are worth up to 25,000 and are distributed by local councils.

According to the #RaiseTheBar campaign this makes many in the sector in the capital ineligible for potentially life-saving financial support with just eight weeks left before quarterly rent payments are due in late June.

It has called for the arbitrary threshold to be lifted to 150,000 in an appeal backed by 86 Tory MPs who wrote to Chancellor Rishi Sunak last week.

Matthew Sims, chief executive of the, Croydon Business Improvement District and co-founder of #RaiseTheBar campaign said: Access to the RHLG grant is a ticking time bomb for tens of thousands of businesses on our High Streets and in our local communities.

There are just eight weeks until rent is due and the prospect of going under is an uncomfortable truth the Government needs to hear and act upon now. The consequences of failing to increase the business rates threshold are too grim to bear.

The backers of the campaign have calculated that a maximum of 1.365 billion in Government support is needed to enable the RHLG grant to support all 54,638 businesses falling within a business rates threshold of 51,000 to 150,000.

Melanie Brown, owner of The Laundry Kitchen in Brixton, which only opened last November, said: We are one of the less fortunate businesses with a rateable value of 52,500. We miss out on the grant by 1,500.

After investing our heart and soul into the business, we find ourselves in a life-threatening situation with no income, continuing bills and are literally holding on for dear life. The threshold needs to be raised so that communities like ours thrive for the future.
MIAMI, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Just days after Mayorga Organics opened its state-of-the-art organic specialty coffee facility in Miami, FL, the company has made a major commitment to support the local community. The company has started delivering the first of 40,000 pounds of long grain white rice and 30,000 pounds of black beans to Feeding South Florida's Pembroke Park, FL warehouse. This will create an estimated 54,000 meals for residents in South Florida.

Mayorga staff packaging rice to donate Mayorga black beans packaged and ready to be donated

Martin Mayorga, Founder and President of Mayorga Organics, states, "Over the last few weeks, national grocery clients have asked for our assistance sourcing conventional rice and beans to keep shelves full across the country. As we helped to source millions of pounds of food, we also saw that demand was skyrocketing at foodbanks. It just made sense that we would use this as an opportunity to help those in need. We've been blessed with support from so many as we've grown Mayorga so it just makes sense to support the communities that have helped us along the way."

After several conversations with food banks, Mayorga has aligned with local and regional groups with the Feeding South Florida donation being the largest. In addition, Mayorga is donating thousands of pounds of coffee to hospitals as a token of appreciation for their life-saving efforts. "We work to create market opportunities for our farmers and give our customers high quality organic foods," states Peter Garcia, Mayorga's Miami Director of Operations. "At the end of the day, we are a people-driven company. It's incredible to be part of a company that's willing to make such a major pivot for the sake of helping others," stated Miami-native Garcia.

While Mayorga has recently introduced organic black beans as part of its diversified product offerings, the items donated will not be available for sale and are being packaged using the Mayorga brand solely to ensure proper labeling.

About Mayorga:

Mayorga Organics was founded by Martin Mayorga and operates with the purpose of alleviating systemic poverty through the direct trade of artisanal organic foods. Through its 22 years of being independently owned and operated, Mayorga has built strong relationships with retailers including Amazon, Costco Wholesale, Whole Foods, Giant Foods, and over 2,000 other small to national customers. The company's top selling product is organic Cafe Cubano which Mayorga launched in 2001. While the company focuses on building the Mayorga brand, it also manufactures under private label agreements for various clients on a local to national scale. Learn more at www.mayorgaorganics.com

About Feeding South Florida:

Feeding South Florida is the largest, most efficient food bank serving Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe Counties. More than 98% of all donations are put back into the community. Their mission is to end hunger in South Florida by providing immediate access to nutritious food, leading hunger and poverty advocacy efforts and transforming lives through innovative programming and education. Learn more at: https://feedingsouthflorida.org/

PRESS CONTACT:

Martin Mayorga

305-542-1333

[email protected]

SOURCE Mayorga Organics
A week ago, Northampton County officials reported 70 residents at Gracedale nursing home tested positive for COVID-19 and nine residents died from the virus.

By this week, the number of positive cases at the Upper Nazareth Township facility has almost doubled and the number of deaths more than tripled.

As of Monday, 135 residents out of the 600 total, about 22%, tested positive for the virus and 31 residents have died, according to the latest county report. Gracedale is one of Pennsylvanias largest long-term-care facility under one roof.

The official statewide COVID-19 death toll is at 3,012 people as of Tuesday, two-thirds of which have been reported in long-term care facilities like nursing homes. The new deaths reported Tuesday occurred over two weeks and is reflective of continued work to reconcile data from various sources, a health department spokesperson told lehighvalleylive.com

The state Department of Health on Tuesday reported Northampton County has 13 facilities with coronavirus cases, with 530 residents testing positive and 75 deaths.

The identity of the facilities and their individual number of cases and deaths are unknown to the public, as state officials continue to keep that information secret.

Gracedale and Cedarbrook, the county-owned nursing home facilities in the Lehigh Valley, release regular updates on their caseloads and fatalities due to COVID-19.

Out of the 700 employees at Gracedale, 38 have tested positive for COVID-19; 17 of those employees have finished their quarantine periods and are back at work.

The workers are desperately needed, as the National Guard was called in to temporarily resolve staffing shortages. From April 1-27, the nursing home had 780 employee call outs.

The National Guard was slated to start work on Sunday and remain there for 72 hours, the maximum allowed, the county said in a news release.

As of Monday, Cedarbrook had 47 resident cases, 48 employee cases and 10 resident deaths at its South Whitehall Township campus, and 18 resident cases, 24 employee cases and five deaths at its Fountain Hill location.

Following the Department of Healths announcement that a number of probable cases statewide will be investigated to determine if they are COVID-19 deaths, Lehigh County officials said there are 23 additional deaths total that are suspected/presumed COVID-19 cases.

That includes residents that are of a similar symptom profile and even some residents who tested negative for COVID-19. Those may still be confirmed as COVID-19 deaths in that state process, according to a news release.

In Lehigh County, 26 nursing home facilities have COVID-19 cases, with 436 residents testing positive, 87 employees testing positive and 63 deaths.

Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com.
WASHINGTON, May 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --- The National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA National) is pleased to be an active member of a new coalition urging the creation of a COVID-19 Recovery Fund for businesses and employees. PIA National along with over 100 organizations from the business and insurance communities, have formed America's Recovery Fund, a group dedicated to developing a common-sense solution for businesses struggling to cope with the economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis.

The proposal creates a COVID-19 Recovery Fund (Recovery Fund) within the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The Fund is modeled after the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, operated by the federal government, and run by a presidential appointee with the authority to enter into contracts with interested businesses to administer the Fund and facilitate the distribution of federal funds to affected businesses.

"PIA has always been about providing solutions to problems in a proactive way, and that goal has become more essential than ever during this difficult time," said Mike Becker, executive vice president and CEO of PIA National. "To that end, we've worked with our industry partners to develop a solution for businesses that have been hard hit by the negative economic consequences related to the coronavirus, while not upending insurance practices."

In recent weeks, policymakers in some states have begun proposing a requirement for insurers to retroactively recognize financial losses triggered by the coronavirus outbreak as part of their customers' business interruption (BI) coverage. Two bills introduced in Congress would rewrite contracts to apply business interruption coverage to provisions that explicitly exclude losses due to viruses, pandemics, etc. PIA National believes such actions to be shortsighted and dangerous.

"Only about one-third of American small businesses have business interruption coverage," said Becker. "As such, retroactive BI proposals fall far short of helping all businesses. PIA has helped create a real solution for all businesses struggling as a result of COVID-19, and it doesn't upend existing insurance contracts and practices."

The Recovery Fund would provide short-term liquidity for small businesses by creating a simple form that could be electronically filed to help businesses maintain solvency while continuing to pay their employees. The Recovery Fund would protect lost wages for employees unable to work because of COVID-19 infection, quarantine, or operational shutdown; preserve jobs through payroll assistance for temporarily closed businesses that continue to retain their employees; and provide solvency assistance for businesses in danger of failing as a result of the pandemic.

PIA National will continue to work with Congress and the business community on effective, efficient solutions that provide the necessary relief to our economy and help our nation recover.

Founded in 1931, PIA is a national trade association that represents member insurance agents and their employees who sell and service all kinds of insurance but specialize in coverage of automobiles, homes and businesses. PIA's web address is www.pianet.com.

This press release is online at:

https://pianet.com/news/press-releases/2020/national-association-of-professional-insurance-agents-pia-national-hails-the-launch-of-a-new-covid-19-recovery-fund-coalition

SOURCE National Association of Professional Insurance Agents

Related Links

pianet.com


Francis Fukuyama asserted in The End of History and the Last Man (1992) that liberalism in its classical iteration came out on top of the battles with the two other "isms" of the 20th century, fascism and communism. The liberal Western democracies were victorious over fascism in the bloody Second World War against Germany and then again in their fight against communism in the Cold War against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from the end of World War II until 1991, when the USSR officially dissolved itself. The victory against the Soviet Union relegated its efforts to spread its top-down socialist-style command economy and political structure to the rest of the world to the dustbin of history.

The primary thesis of The End of History essentially states that the end of these major ideological conflicts with the fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the Cold War (that actually became hot at times with the Korean and Vietnam Wars and nearly ignited a nuclear conflagration during the Cuban Missile Crisis), which meant the end of significant history shaping events.

Unfortunately, the book's premise was premature. Within the first two decades of the 21st century, the liberal Western world has experienced three major shocks to its system. If this is any kind of indication of what will be happening for the next 80 years, there will be as many or more than the watershed events and historical markers of the 20th century that included two world wars, a great depression, and a cultural revolution in the sixties, all of which changed the trajectory of history.

On a Tuesday morning in September of 2001, the United States was attacked by Islamic radicals who were targeting the economic, political, and military centers of the country. This event woke the world from its safe and secure slumber that in many ways forever changed perceptions of what defines safety and security and brought to the forefront a new ideological conflict, this one between the Western societies and Islamicism, also known as Islamic fundamentalism, that no one saw coming.

As it turned out, the country and the world was only a short six years away from another catastrophic shock to its system. This time it was the economic system that nearly collapsed in 2007 and 2008 as a result of an overleveraged investment industry profiting from mortgage-backed securities that turned out to be a house of cards, constructed with a large dose of greed. Unemployment skyrocketed, and the stock market fell through the floor.

As it turns out, it appears that this was just kind of a dress rehearsal for what was coming in twelve relatively short years. That is the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, where we are today. It is certainly much too early to say, but the coronavirus pandemic will no doubt be a historical watershed moment that will permanently shape the course of history for a very long time.

Since this world crisis is in its infancy, its long-term political, economic, and social impact won't be known for a while, but it's safe to say it will all be extremely significant. Since culture is a reflection of those three, the cultural impact will be significant as well. So it's way too early to make any predictions of what the world will look like 10, 20, or 50 years from now, but we can only pray it plays out favorably toward freedom and light, not toward tyranny and darkness. Ready or not, history, here we come.
In India, the spread of the novel coronavirus has been followed by a spate of threats against press freedom. On March 24, the day Indian prime minister Narendra Modi announced a strict nationwide lockdown, he gathered about twenty of the countrys top news executives for a meeting. Via videoconference, Modi implored the editors and owners to publish inspiring and positive stories about the governments response to the virus. A week later, after the lockdown stranded hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, the Supreme Court of India issued an order that directed the media to refer to and publish the official version about the developments, though it did not prohibit independent reporting. In mid-April, one of the founding editors of The Wire, a popular independent news website, was served a court summons for making an objectionable comment about a state chief minister. And after a journalist in Mumbai allegedly reported a misleading story that led to a surge of traffic at Mumbais Bandra train station, a local court released an order stating that, although the press enjoys freedom of speech and expression, the said freedom cannot be said to be unfettered.

But Indias press was in fetters well before the global pandemic. These latest developments are just the most recent instances of a troubling and persistent trend of antagonism toward the media. Not long ago in Delhi, this trajectory came to a brutal apex. On Monday, February 25, when reports of unrest in a northeastern neighborhood reached her newsroom, Tanushree Pandey, a broadcast journalist with India Today, went out to the field to investigate. When she arrived on the scene, she was met by mobs wielding bricks and stones, carrying batons, and setting fire to buildings. When her cameraman began to film, the two of them were approached by a group of men shouting Jai shri ram, a Hindu-nationalist slogan. The men threatened to kill them both if they didnt stop filming, Pandey recalls, and grabbed her around her waist and shoulders and shoved the cameraman with wooden sticks. They then asked her to present identification to prove that she was Hindu. Pandey, who had reported from riots and conflict zones across the country, was shocked. This is something we have never witnessed before, she said. By the time the worst of the violence had abated, three days later, more than a dozen members of the press had been harassed or assaulted.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Thirteen seconds. Dozens of bullets. One explosive photo.

Since December, when the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was introduced, protests had erupted across the country; the CAA was widely interpreted as anti-Muslim, and many feared that it would lead to further measures with the goal of rendering Indias Muslim minority stateless. The riot Pandey witnessed was the result of right-wing anger coming to a heada local politician from the Bharatiya Janata Party had incited a crowd in northeast Delhi to clear out a group of anti-CAA demonstrators in his district.

By early Monday morning, armed gangs of Hindu men had begun to attack the anti-CAA protesters. People were shot and killed on both sides of the religious divide, but soon the balance had decisively shifted in favor of the Hindu majority. The police did little to restrain the mobs, and in some cases even collaborated with them. By March 8, the Delhi Police reported that fifty-three people, the majority of whom were Muslim, had been killed. And as violence raged and journalists rushed to cover the conflict, the mobs turned their sights on the press.

Arvind Gunesekar, a reporter with the news channel NDTV, was reporting at the scene with his colleague Suarabh Shukla. They were cautiouswhen they saw a mob of more than two hundred people burning down a mosque, they decided to film on their phones, rather than with full-size cameras. But a few people from the mob saw Gunesekar filming, approached him, and began to beat him. As a blow from a stick was about to come down on Gunesekars head, Shukla thrust himself into the bludgeons path. The men began to beat him, too. They asked for his identification but, when they saw that he was a Hindu, stopped, forced the two of them to delete the videos from their phones, and let them go. Gunesekar lost three teeth in the attack, and his jaw was shattered.

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Many other journalists have stories of near misses and narrow escapes from the mobs in Delhi. Aunindyo Chattopadhyay, a photojournalist with the Times of India, was approached by a mob that tried to force him to remove his pants to check whether he was circumcised. Ismat Ara, a freelance journalist, decided to take on a Hindu nameIshato hide her Muslim identity, and fabricated a story about living in the neighborhood. But a group of men doggedly followed her, asking her questions and making threatening comments about Muslims and the media. After a series of bluffs, she was able to evade them. She still has flashbacks to that dayto the crowds she saw wielding bricks, to the burning buildings, and to a man who told her, Why are you afraid? It is only Muslims who should be afraid. She cant bring herself to return to the area.

Ayush Tiwari, a journalist with the website newslaundry.com, was reporting with a small group when he encountered a mob of around thirty men. A police officer standing nearby told them to leave. They said, You are a journalist, we cant guarantee your safety, just walk away,  Tiwari said. Two of his colleagues approached the group, and when the mob realized that they were media workers, they began to chase them. They were shoutingThese are Muslims in the guise of the media, grab them, grab them,  Tiwari said. On March 1, he went back to the area and found a body floating in a gutter; he later learned that this man had been killed on the 25th, likely by the same mob that had chased him that night. A sort of shiver went down my spine, Tiwari said.

THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME violence against a minority group has brought terror to Delhi. In 1984, Rahul Bedi was working as a reporter for the Indian Express when Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her bodyguards. They were both Sikhs, and had acted in retaliation for a military operation Gandhi had ordered against a group of Sikh separatists. As the news swept the country, state-backed violence against the Sikh community followed; official government estimates claim that 6,150 Sikhs were killed, with other sources putting the death toll anywhere from 8,000 to 17,000.

Bedi is a Sikh; he has a beard but does not wear a turban. Some journalists at the time shaved their beards before going out to report, for fear of being recognized as or mistaken for Sikhs. But Bedi didnt. He didnt wear a bulletproof vest, either, or a helmet. He remembers the threats he encountered as attempts to scare rather than harm. He never felt truly endangered.

Eighteen years later, in 2002, Bedi was in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, during the peak of the anti-Muslim violence that ravaged the state while Modi was its chief minister. At least 790 Muslims were killed during the massacres, along with close to 250 Hindus. Things had changed by then; the rise of television news and the early internet had thrust the events into the public eye, which led to more convictions in the aftermath of the events but also a greater sense of antagonism toward the media. Still, Bedi never felt his life was threatened. Over the years, there was a sort of unspoken, grudging acceptance that journalists were all neutral to this whole game, and they had a certain immunity. If you had a cameraman with you, or if you had press written on your car, they would always realize that you were a member of the press. The law and order and the crowd didnt screw with you, Bedi said.

Since then, the independence of the press has deteriorated. In 2002, India ranked 80th out of 139 countries on the Reporters Without Borders annual press freedom index list. It now sits at the low rank of 142 out of 180. Modis BJP-led government has garnered international attention for its tightening grip on the countrys mediagovernment officials have pressured advertisers to withdraw funding from newspapers and television channels that are deemed subversive, many journalists have been forced to resign, and others have been arrested on spurious charges. A news channel in Kerala was shut down for forty-eight hours for covering the violence in Delhi in a way that seemed critical toward Delhi Police and RSS, the right-wing organization closely affiliated with the BJP.

These more assertive measures have been accompanied by a widespread vilification of the news media. Journalists who are perceived as critical of the government are frequently accused of being part of Lutyens Delhi or the Khan Market gang, derisive terms for New Delhis liberal and left-leaning elite. The portmanteau presstitute is deployed frequently, as is the accusation of being an anti-national. And it is not only those on the right who are distrustfulthe countrys minorities have little reason to believe that coverage by most mainstream news outlets will do anything other than further demonize them. Through the saturation of divisive messaging on social media, often spread by the BJP, the public is hyper-attuned to the perceived allegiances of any given news organization.

Since anti-CAA protests started in December, attacks on journalists have become more common. Many have been perpetrated by police officers: on December 15, when the Delhi Police raided Jamia Millia Islamia university, a group of officers assaulted Bushra Sheikh, a BBC reporter, pulling her hair, breaking her phone, and hitting her with a baton; Shaheen Abdulla, a journalist with the news website Maktoob Media, was also beaten that day, as was Shariq Adeel Yousuf, a news reporter with YouTube channel Pal Pal News.

But the violence that journalists faced a few months later in Delhi marked a turning point. What took place in Delhi in February was completely unprecedented, says Bedi. Every journalist I spoke to voiced the same sentiment, even those who had reported from previous riots or conflict zones. The public that they confronted in northeast Delhi had been emboldened to act violently, and with impunity, against the press.

The effect has been traumatic. Some journalists have quit: Sreya Chatterjee, a twenty-six-year-old broadcast journalist with India Ahead, left her job and moved home to Kolkata. But most remain.

Many of the journalists who covered the violence are now covering the pandemic and the governments response. Akash Napa, who was shot in February in northeast Delhi, has started going back out into the field to report on the coronavirus, despite the persistent cough that he has been nursing since the gunshot damaged his lungs. Like many journalists, Tiwari, from newslaundry.com, is trying not to dwell on what happened. He has been reporting from his apartment since late March, fact-checking stories and making phone calls. He and other journalists are at work writing the deluge of coronavirus news that threatens to bury the story of their own declining safety. Coronavirus is not something that has been manufactured to take attention away from the riots, Tiwari said. Its just very unfortunate timing.

ICYMI: William F. Buckley and Argentinas Dirty War

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Lewis Page is a writer, editor, and journalist. He is a 2019-2020 Luce Scholar at The Caravan magazine.
With a massive budget shortfall projected for city government due to the economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis, Mayor LaToya Cantrell is looking at slashing contracts, offering early-retirement incentives for employees and taking out a $100 million line of credit to tide New Orleans through, Cantrell and her top budget advisor said on Monday.

With only limited, and so far highly targeted, federal aid available, officials are planning for operating on a drastically reduced budget for almost four years before the pace of some of the citys top revenue generators such as tourism pick back up to the levels the city saw in the first quarter of 2020.

Were not facing this with a thought of the cavalry coming from the federal government, but more being able to save ourselves, Cantrell said during a press conference on Monday.

While reiterating that everything is on the table when it comes to plugging the hole in the citys $726 million spending plan, Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert Montano focused Monday on potential cuts that would not involve furloughs or layoffs for city employees. That possibility was floated back in March, as officials were beginning to grapple with the fiscal impact of a drop in tourism and the cancellation of major events through the rest of the year.

Officials' current projections show the city could lose out on between $130 million and $170 million in revenue this year, depending on the length of the pandemic and the restrictions it has prompted  and the time it will take to get back to something resembling normal.

Louisiana's post-coronavirus economic downturn might be worse than one after Hurricane Katrina Louisiana state lawmakers on Monday received a sobering glimpse of the states economic downturn, which one economist warned would be worse th

City departments are expected to submit cost-cutting plans to the administration by Wednesday. The Cantrell administration will also be detailing its current situation for the City Council at a hearing on Tuesday.

The press conference came the same day Fitch Ratings downgraded the city's credit rating to A from A+. The move was sparked by significant economic damage due to the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying shutdown of the city's vital tourism sector, according to the ratings agency.

One fix the administration is pushing for is opening a $100 million line of credit to help smooth over any revenue shortfalls. The administration last year got approval for a $500 million bond issue, but that money can only be spent on infrastructure. By contrast, the line of credit could be tapped, in whole or in part, for the daily expenses needed to keep city government running.

Parish leaders in Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines and St. Bernard praise stay-at-home extension The New Orleans mayor and three neighboring parish presidents all joined together in praising Gov. John Bel Edwards decision to extend statew

Cantrell said that under current conditions, not taking out a loan would be akin to having "a car that is running out of gas, and then saying, 'Oh! Where can I get more gas?' We do not want to be in that situation."

Council members have said they need more information before they sign off on that plan.

"I think the public doesn't want to give the government a blank check, and they want to know how the money will be used and accounted for," Councilman Joe Giarrusso said last week, when the idea of $100 million in borrowing was first floated.

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On the other side of the ledger, the administration is considering cuts to contracts that could save between $35 million and $50 million as the first pieces of low-hanging fruit as it considers the budget.

Last week, the city announced the first of those cuts: the elimination of evening trash pickup in the French Quarter and Downtown Development District. That move, which still leaves those areas with a daily morning pickup, is expected to save about $800,000, Montano said.

The city is also sizing up other contracts that could be cut, such as those for janitorial services in buildings that may not need the level of cleaning they now receive since the employees they house are working remotely or are on civil leave.

Reductions could also be made to contracts for parking enforcement and traffic camera tickets since fewer people are taking to the roads.

The city has also already seen some savings from a hiring freeze put in place at the beginning of the outbreak. Montano said it could save about $16.7 million a year from unfilled positions and possibly more.

One possibility thats being considered to increase those savings is offering incentives to city workers for retiring early, he said. The details of that plan are still being worked out and would depend in part on how much the city would need to pay out for unused time-off, he said.

The city could also save between $10 million and $12 million this year from reduced overtime costs from public safety workers, largely due to the cancellation of festivals and other major events, Montano said.

Officials are looking at whether any city property could be sold off to bring in more revenue, Montano said. And, in the longer term, officials are considering whether they should ask voters to re-dedicate roughly $40 million in taxes that are set to expire this year to focus on city priorities.

Administration officials and council members have discussed asking the voters to reauthorize those taxes in the past, though the current situation gives the issue more urgency.

Re-upping (those taxes) is our opportunity to reassess and thats what were going to do, Cantrell said.
A day after Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked all state units to pay the train fare of stranded migrant workers who are headed home, the party Tuesday extended the offer to students and pilgrims.

Congress general secretary KC Venugopal, wrote to the partys state units, on this. They were told to make sure such people arent required to pay the one-way fare if they cannot afford to do so.

Pradesh Congress Committees will form advisory committees to frame guidelines and oversee implementation of the initiative, including outreach, identification and reimbursement of beneficiaries besides coordinating with officers appointed by state governments.

Through another circular, Venugopal also directed the state units to establish help desks to enable the stranded migrant workers to approach them.

The state units were also directed to deploy teams at each railway station to coordinate the departure of migrant workers and make payments to the railway authorities. In another move, the Congress sought voluntary contributions from the public to meet the travel expenses of migrant labourers.

Gandhis announcement on Monday that her party would bear the cost of travel of migrant workers who, the Congress alleged were being forced to pay the train fare, triggered a war of words with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which said the railways was paying 85% and states the remainder.

Gandhi Tuesday called a meeting of the chief ministers of Congress-ruled states and senior leaders on Wednesday to discuss issues related to the pandemic and the economy.

Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati said it was unfortunate that the Centre and the states were charging stranded migrant workers for ferrying them home and also offered to pay for their travel.

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Daniel Rawlings, 32, (pictured) was locked up for six days over rape allegations on board the Explorer of the Seas cruise from Sydney to Vanuatu cruise in November 2016

A tradesman who was locked in a ship cabin for nearly a week after being falsely accused of raping two teenage girls on a Schoolies cruise is suing Royal Carribbean for almost half-a-million dollars.

Daniel Rawlings, 32, was detained for six days on board the Explorer of the Seas when serious allegations were levelled against him during the ship's voyage from Sydney to Vanuatu in November 2016.

Mr Rawlings told Sydney District Court last month he was detained by security and forced to stay in his cabin until the cruise ship arrived back in Sydney.

No charges were ever laid over the alleged rape.

Mr Rawlings is seeking $400,000 from Royal Caribbean for his treatment on board, reports the Wentworth Courier.

Rawlings was working at Manly's Frost Air Conditioning when he booked a cabin on the cruise ship during Schoolies Week Cruise on November 10, 2016.

He was 28 at the time.

The air conditioning mechanic said he had already engaged in sexual intercourse with one of the teenagers on the third night, when he was told her friend had agreed to a threesome 24 hours later.

Mr Rawlings is suing Royal Carribbean for nearly half a million dollars in damages over his treatment of the Explorer of the Seas cruise ship (pictured)

Mr Rawlings told the court it was a consensual act between the three, but revealed one of the girls had to leave midway through to be sick in the bathroom.

The girl had to be helped into the shower to be cleaned up before they continued having sex.

Rawlings told the court she was having fun.

'Not while she was vomiting (but) she certainly enjoyed herself for all the other parts of the night,' he said.

Daniel Rawlings, 32, was falsely accused of rape on Royal Caribbean cruise travelling from Sydney to Vanuatu (pictured) in November 2016

After the girls left, security took Mr Rawlings into custody until the cruise docked at Sydney.

During the six days, Mr Rawlings told the court he initially had no idea why he was being detained.

He refuted accusations he raped one of the girls, insisting he 'was the victim' under cross examination by Defence lawyer James Sheller.

Mr Rawlings said he was kept in a room in only a pair of shorts which he had to wash in a sink, before cruise staff eventually provided him a basic outfit from the gift shop.

He said it was distressing to be trapped inside the cabin while overhearing the screams of an angry woman outside his door who was claiming he had raped her daughter.

'The security guard came in every 30 minutes or when he felt he had to come in,' Rawlings told the court.

'I was distressed. I woke in a panic many times even when the security guard wasn't looking over me sleeping, I had dreams he was.'

Police boarded the Explorer of the Seas cruise ship when it docked at Circular Quay in November 2016

The court was told he was under the influence of drugs during the cruise including using 3 to 4 grams of cocaine, Valium and 30 drinks a week.

He told the court he is now sober, after having a 'spiritual awakening' involving a telepathic experience with another young woman the New Year's Eve following the cruise.

Police boarded the Explorer of the Seas cruise ship when it docked at Circular Quay in November 2016.

An investigation involving New South Wales wrapped up after four months and no charges were laid against Mr Rawlings.

The matter has been adjourned until next month.
Republic Day celebrations to be muted affair owing to Covid 19 Jan 2022 | 2:10 AM New Delhi, Jan 18 (UNI) The Republic Day main function on Rajpath will relatively be a muted event this year due to strict Covid-19 protocol in place. For a second successive year, the main function on Rajpath will be held without a friendly foreign leader or chief guest. see more..

Mulayam Singh's daughter in law Aparna Yadav likely to join BJP 18 Jan 2022 | 11:51 PM New Delhi, Jan 18 (UNI) Mulayam Singh's daughter in law Aparna Yadav will join the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday, a BJP leader said on Tuesday. see more..

SC asks Centre to furnish data on starvation deaths 18 Jan 2022 | 11:46 PM New Delhi, Jan 18 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre whether this can be believed that there is no starvation death in the country and said the community kitchens must be opened in states and asked the Centre to frame model scheme and logistics for the purpose. see more..

Police files case over making derogatory remarks on Muslim women on app 18 Jan 2022 | 11:44 PM New Delhi, Jan 18 (UNI) The Delhi Police on Tuesday registered an FIR against unidentified people for allegedly making derogatory comments against Muslim women and girls on voice chat app 'Clubhouse'. see more..
Donald Trump has hailed his administrations response to the pandemic as a personal triumph  even as the Centres for Disease Control predicted that 3,000 Americans will be dying of coronavirus every day by the start of June.

Mr Trump spoke to the New York Post in the Oval Office and expressed optimism about Americas immediate future, predicting the foundering economy will bounce back as states reopen for business while dismissing the new fatality estimates as fake news.

Reporting the president came to the interview equipped with a printed list of his administration's achievements, the Post said he had boasted about how the coronavirus outbreak further underlined why he should be listened to and taken seriously.

Now, the one thing that the pandemic has taught us is that I was right. You know, I had people say, No, no, its good. You keep  you do this and that. Now those people are really agreeing with me. And that includes medicine and other things, you know.

While it is not clear whether the president specified who he meant by those people, or what they had been telling him to do, he has recently tried to make a theme of his supposed foresight and effective handling of the crisis, at one point showing the White House Press Corps a compilation video of footage featuring governors praising him alongside a timeline of his administrations actions.

However, Mr Trump has faced criticism over several incidents during the pandemic, which would call into question his claim he has been proven right on medicine.

For several weeks he touted the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a game-changing treatment for Covid-19, before the drug was found ineffectual, and the Food and Drug Administration warned against its use.

This was shortly followed by a press briefing in which the president speculated the virus might be destroyed by injecting disinfectant or exposure to ultraviolet light.

His musings led to a rise in calls to poison control hotlines across the country, while footage of respected public health adviser Deborah Birx's reaction as the president expounded his theories went viral.

The briefings were curtailed shortly afterwards. However, Mr Trump told the Post that he would like to get back to the briefings, citing their high ratings and claiming that everybody enjoyed them.
By PTI

ISLAMABAD: Cash-strapped Pakistan has requested the members of G-20 nations for debt relief with a commitment of not contracting new non-concessional loans except those allowed under the IMF and World Bank guidelines, according to a media report.

The formal requests were sent to individual countries on Friday under the G-20 COVID-19 Debt Service Suspension Initiative, a senior official of the economic affairs ministry told The Express Tribune on Monday.

On April 15, the Group of 20 major economies announced a freeze on debt repayments from 76 countries, including Pakistan, during May to December 2020 period as they struggle to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, subject to the condition that each country would make a formal request.

However, one of the eligibility criteria was that the beneficiary country would not "contract new non-concessional debt during the suspension period, other than the agreements under this initiative or in compliance with limits agreed under the IMF Debt Limit Policy (DLP) or WBG policy on non-concessional borrowing".

The Pakistan government has not mentioned the debt relief in the request letters, although it has assessed the cumulative relief quantum at USD 1.8 billion for May-December 2020 period.

Pakistan has also intimated to the IMF, the World Bank and the Paris Club about its decision to formally seek debt relief.

Last month, the IMF's Resident Representative to Pakistan Teresa Daban had said that Pakistan did not officially make any request to G-20 countries for debt relief.

Pakistan owes USD 20.7 billion to 11 members of the Group of 20 major economies.

Out of this sum, an amount of USD 1.8 billion would mature by December 2020, including the interest payments, according to the Economic Affairs Ministry.

In these eight months, Pakistan will have to make USD 1.8 billion repayments to its 11 members.

This includes USD 1.47 billion principal loans repayments and USD 323 million interest on the loans, the daily said.

Also, USD 613 million Saudi debt and USD 309 million Chinese debt will mature, according to the economic affairs ministry.

In this period, Pakistan is also required to return USD 23 million to Canada, USD 183 million to France, USD 99 million to Germany, USD 6 million to Italy, USD 373 million to Japan, USD 47 million to South Korean, USD 14 million to Russia, USD 1 million to UK and USD 128 million to the US.

Under an IMF condition, the USD 7.5 billion loans that the Imran Khan government had secured from China, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar cannot be returned during the IMF programme period, the report said.

These loans were secured only for one year to avoid default on international debt obligations but the IMF had put a condition that this money would be rolled over every year until the programme ends in 2022.

If the G-20 member countries accept the request, Pakistan will have four years period to return the amount, including one year of grace period.

Pakistan assured the G-20 members that it would not contract new non-concessional debt during the suspension period other than the agreements under the initiative or in compliance with the limits agreed under the IMF Debt Limit Policy or World Bank Group Policy on non-concessional lending.

An IMF report had estimated Pakistan's post-COVID-19 external financing requirements at USD 25.8 billion with a financing gap of USD 2 billion.

For the next fiscal year, the IMF projected Pakistan's gross financing requirements at USD 29.3 billion and a financing gap of USD 1.5 billion.

The IMF had approved USD 1.4 billion emergency loans, which largely bridged the projected financing gap but the amount fell short of the full needs.

The G-20 countries have announced the debt relief to help the poorest countries to use the created fiscal space to increase social, health or economic spending in response to the coronavirus crisis.

A monitoring system was expected to be put in place by the international financial institutions.

The debt relief will last till end of 2020 but the G-20 countries might consider a possible extension, taking into the account a report on the liquidity needs of eligible countries by the World Bank and the IMF.
Hyderabad, May 5 : A Shramik special train carrying 1,250 migrant workers to Bihar left from Hyderabad in the early hours of Tuesday, officials said.

The train chugged out at 3.05 a.m. from the Ghatkesar railway station near Hyderabad for Khagaria in Bihar.

The workers boarded the train after thermal screening by the personnel from the health department of Telangana.

Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat, who flagged off the train along with other officials, said the passengers were provided breakfast and water bottles.

Senior officials Ronald Ross and Rajat Saini, Medchal District Collector Venkateshwarlu and senior officials of the railway supervised the arrangements.

This was the second special train operated from Telangana to send back migrant workers to their states.

The first train, carrying 1,225 migrants to Jharkhand, had left Lingampalli station near Hyderabad on May 1. This was the first train for migrants anywhere in the country.

The second train left Hyderabad, hours after an announcement by Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao that daily 40 special trains would be operated over the next one week to send back migrant workers to their respective states.

Rao announced the trains will be operated from Tuesday from various stations in Hyderabad, Warangal, Khammam, Ramagundam, Damaracharla and other places to Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and other states.

The government said migrant workers who have registered their names with the police stations would be allowed to travel by the special trains. The details of the travel will be given at the police stations.

The Chief Minister said no migrant labour should feel anxious as the government had made arrangements for their travel to their native destinations. He instructed the police officers concerned to inform the migrant workers about the travel details and coordinate them.

His announcement came amid protests by workers in Hyderabad and other parts of the state demanding immediate transport arrangements to send them home.

A group of migrant workers on Monday night tried to reach the Kacheguda railway station in Hyderabad. They started walking from Aramghar crossroads on the outskirts and were heading towards the station.

Police stopped the workers at Bahadurpura and assured them that transport arrangements would soon be made for them. Police officers convinced the workers to stay at a temporary shed in Shamshabad.

Meanwhile, a large number of migrant workers on Tuesday lined up at police stations in and around Hyderabad and other districts to register their names.

Police had a tough time in controlling the crowd at the Kukatpally police station. The gathering by the workers took the police by surprise and at one point they had to use mild force to disperse them.

Meanwhile, special trains for migrant workers have also started from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

The first train carrying 1,212 workers to Maharashtra departed early Tuesday from Rayanapadu railway station near Vijayawada.
Ly Son Island off the coast of Quang Ngai Province in Central Vietnam is said to be the azure island as the seawater is so azure and pure that it gives visitors a feeling of seeing through the seabed.
Wipro Limited has signed a



Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Maharashtra under which it will repurpose one of its Information Technology campuses in Hinjewadi, Pune to a 450-bed intermediary care COVID-19 hospital and hand it over to the state government by May 30.

The hospital will be converted back to an IT facility after a year, the Bengaluru-headquartered company said in a statement.

The 450-bed hospital, to be equipped to treat moderate cases, will include 12 beds to stabilise critical patients before shifting them to a tertiary care facility.

This is an independent, isolated COVID-19 dedicated complex that also includes 24 well-appointed rooms to accommodate doctors and medical staff, it said.

Wipro said it will provide the physical infrastructure, medical furniture and equipment, besides appointing an administrator and skeletal support staff to help operationalise the hospital quickly with the required medical professionals.

We are completely committed to supporting the country's response to the pandemic and believe that we must all work together to deal with this crisis and minimise its human impact.

We stand firmly with the Government of Maharashtra in its battle against COVID-19," said Rishad Premji, Chairman, Wipro Limited.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The celebrations may go online.

Head of the Permanent Commission on Culture, Tourism and Information Policy of Kyiv City State Administration Viktoria Mukha has said the capital city will not hold mass events on Kyiv Day on May 31 over the coronavirus epidemic.

Read alsoCabinet's envoy in parliament forecasts end of lockdown in Ukraine by early autumn

"This year we will not be able to celebrate Kyiv Day on the last Sunday of May as massively as before. Now we are discussing perhaps the celebrations may go online and [be held] as [virtual] flash mobs," she told journalists, the Ukrainian news outlet Obozrevatel reports.

According to Mukha, the Cabinet of Ministers on May 4 decided to extend the quarantine until May 22, and the list of allowed activities does not include mass events.

"It is clear the decision on the quarantine will be reviewed in late May. And even if it is canceled, we won't be able to prepare in such a short time. Therefore, we are now discussing new formats with the Culture Department. Kyiv residents are creative, so we'll figure out how to celebrate," the official said.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers on Monday extended the coronavirus-related quarantine in the country until May 22.
Patients can now use the company's telehealth service, VideoCare, for dermatology, gynecology, orthopedic, podiatry, internal medicine, and mental health concerns.

"Our patients shouldn't have to put their health on hold for COVID-19," says Torben Nielsen, CEO of ZOOM+Care. "With VideoCare, they can visit with a ZOOM+Care specialist face to face, virtually, to get the care they need."

A VideoCare visit is a real-time, remote appointment between a patient and a ZOOM+Care provider. Through a video visit, patients can receive diagnosis, treatment, and prescription medication for a wide range of primary, urgent, and now specialty health concerns. All patients need to access VideoCare smartphone, tablet, or computer.

Earlier this month, ZOOM+Care released VideoCare far ahead of schedule. The company opted to move up its launch date in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Many people's health has suffered due to the current pandemic, especially their mental health," says Dr. Erik Vanderlip, a Board Certified Psychiatrist and ZOOM+Care's Chief Medical Officer. "Our mission is to meet our patients where they areand right now, they're at home. With many struggling to get the support they need, we wanted to do everything we could to increase access to our speciality and mental health services."

To help protect both their patients and providers, ZOOM+Care is encouraging everyone to take advantage of their virtual healthcare options whenever possible. The company has updated its policies and extended its telehealth hours to make these services as accessible as possible.

VideoCare  is available seven days a week, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, and 9 a.m to 6 p.m. on weekends.

About the company: ZOOM+Care is the leading provider of on-demand retail and digital healthcare. They care for over 200,000 people per year at over 45 clinics across Portland and Seattle, providing urgent care, primary care, specialty care, mental health, telemedicine, and more. For more updates, follow the company on LinkedIn and Twitter at @zoomcare. You can learn more about ZOOM+Care or schedule a visit at zoomcare.com. For follow-ups, contact [email protected] .

SOURCE ZOOM+Care
Press Release

May 5, 2020 Hontiveros calls on PhilHealth, DOH to conduct IRR review of UHC Law After Malacanang's directive making premium payments for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) voluntary, Senator Risa Hontiveros urged the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) and the Department of Health (DOH) to also review its implementing rules and regulations or IRR for the Universal Healthcare Law (Republic Act No. 11223). "PhilHealth and DOH should immediately reassess and amend the IRR in close consultation with OFWs," Hontiveros said in a statement on Tuesday, citing economic hardships due to the coronavirus pandemic. "Kailangan maging sensitibo ang pag-implement ng batas sa hinaing ng mga OFWs ngayong may COVID-19 pandemic," she added. On Nov. 23, 2019, PhilHealth Circular No. 2019-0009 published that in 2020, the rate for Direct Contributors, in which OFWs are included, would increase the premium rate from 2.75% of monthly salaries to 3% under the UHCL. Concerns regarding the said measure's guidelines were highlighted over the weekend. Consultation with OFWs Hontiveros urged PhilHealth and DOH to conduct consultations with OFWs who are some of the most vulnerable sectors affected by the global pandemic. "Ang dagdag na 3% ay napakalaking pasan, lalo pa at may kinakaharap tayong krisis ngayon. Marami sa ating mga OFWs at kanilang pamilya ay kabilang sa mahihirap at bulnerableng sektor bago pa man ang krisis sa COVID-19," she urged. "Dapat magkaroon ng sapat na konsultasyon sa kanila. Dapat may kinatawan sa bawat uri ng overseas work kasi hindi naman pare-pareho ang sitwasyon nila. At dapat isama sila sa pag-dedesisyon ng panukalang ito," she also recommended. UHC Oversight Committee The Senator also called for the convening of the oversight committee on the Universal Healthcare Law. "We should be grateful for the concerns aired by our OFWs," said the Senator. She added that Congress has an oversight function over the implementation of the law. "This should not stop us from pursuing better implementation of this landmark law. These are birth pains that need to be addressed to benefit everybody,"she also said. In addition, the senator also called for a review of the current benefits package and delivery provided by PhilHealth especially to OFWs. 'We cannot abandon universal healthcare' "We cannot abandon universal healthcare," Hontiveros declared. "It is an essential piece of legislation that, at the end of the day, if implemented properly, will provide healthcare to all Filipinos," she added. "Kasama sa batas ang pagsasaayos ng ating sistemang pangkalusugan, mga dagdag-benepisyo sa lahat ng Pilipino, at masiguradong mapangalagaan ang kalusugan ng bawat isa, mahirap man o mayaman," Hontiveros explained. The senator said that the principle behind the UHCL is one that could help millions of Filipinos in the long term, adding that its proper implementation is paramount. "But its implementation should be reviewed properly for the benefit of all concerned," she concluded.
Military families living in 38,000 housing units owned and operated by the U.S. government face health and safety risks such as lead-based paint, asbestos, radon and contaminated drinking water because the services have failed to monitor these threatening living conditions, the Defense Department's Inspector General found.

Inspectors at seven bases overseas and one in the U.S. found flaking paint that may have carried lead in homes, as well as materials that contained asbestos. They also uncovered problems with the management and mitigation of radon, the naturally occurring element that can seep into homes through foundations and cause lung cancer, and failures in monitoring drinking water supplies.

At Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany, for example, base officials were not testing for legionella, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires' disease, even though U.S. and German government standards require it.

Related: Marine Corps Family Wins $2 Million Lawsuit Over Moldy Base Housing

The issues were so extensive across installations that the IG concluded that other government-run military homes likely have similar issues.

"We believe the deficiencies we identified ... indicate that the potential exists for similar deficiencies in the management of health and safety hazards in government-owned, government-controlled military family housing worldwide," wrote Randolph Stone, the DoD's assistant inspector general for evaluations of space, intelligence, engineering and oversight.

"If the DoD and the services do not improve policies and procedures to identify, mitigate or minimize, monitor, disclose, and oversee health and safety hazards in [this] military family housing, the DoD and the services will continue to risk the health and safety of service members and their families," he wrote.

The report follows a scandal that erupted in 2018 and 2019, exposing health and safety hazards in privatized military housing, to include dangerous levels of lead, mold, pestilence and other problems.

In September 2018, Congress directed the DoD IG to examine the extent of lead contamination in government-owned base housing, which makes up less than 16% of all U.S. military housing worldwide. But the IG decided to extend the scope of its investigation following congressional hearings on privatized housing.

The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps own and operate 38,029 housing units, including 1,420 in the U.S. and 36,609 overseas, while another 200,000 homes, mainly in the U.S., are operated by private companies.

For its investigation, the DoD IG office looked at eight installations: U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys, South Korea; U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden and Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany; Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Commander Fleet Activities Yokosuka, Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni and Kadena Air Base, Japan; and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

Inspectors looked at the installations' management processes and record-keeping on programs to mitigate nine health and safety hazards, including lead-based paint; materials containing asbestos; radon; fire and electrical safety; water quality; window fall prevention; mold; carbon monoxide; and pest management.

The inspectors found that, for the most part, the installations sufficiently managed electrical systems and fire hazards, as well as mold, carbon monoxide, pests and window fall prevention.

According to the report, installation officials "established and implemented policies and procedures to identify, mitigate or minimize, monitor, disclose, and oversee the aforementioned health and safety hazards," including educating residents on mold prevention -- one of the most common complaints from families who live in privatized military housing.

But for lead, asbestos and other hazards, DoD inspectors found widespread issues. For example, they found that residents did not receive pamphlets on lead-based paint required by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. They discovered that just three bases had active asbestos mitigation programs, while only two notified their residents of asbestos-containing materials in their homes. And only one, Wright- Patterson, had long-term radon mitigation, although five of the eight had conducted radon screening and testing in their homes.

As a result of the inspections, the DoD IG made several recommendations to the under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, as well as the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness to improve DoD policy. The office also made recommendations to the assistant secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force responsible for installations and the environment.

In response to the report, the DoD said it would review its existing policies to ensure they address health and safety hazards, with the exception of conditions like mold, for which the federal government has not set exposure limits or safety standards.

The 2018-2019 privatized housing scandal resulted in reforms that included inspections of nearly all military housing owned or operated by contractors, repairs to homes and implementation of a tenant bill of rights that gave tenants more power in dealing with their landlords, to include access to military legal assistance and the expectation that their homes should be kept in working order.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.

Read More: The Bad Decisions That led to Military Housing Woes
Artists are often remembered for and by their work. But filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma seems to be going out of his way to ensure he is only remembered for one thing - sexism.

The filmmaker who has over the years revealed himself to be a rampant misogynist and women hater, did it once again after governments across states opened liquor shops on Monday after over a month of closure. Taking to Twitter - seemingly the filmmaker's current medium of choice for spewing venom - RGV shared a photo of women queuing up outside a liquor store.

"Look whos in line at the wine shops...So much for protecting women against drunk men," he tweeted as the caption of the photo.

Now, one does not need to be a gender expert or gender violence activist to tell RGV to shut the hell up.

Ram Gopal Varma ka Sexism

The limelight hogger that RGV is, the tweet obviously had context. It wasn't until gender activists and women's rights experts started raising the issue of a potential increase in domestic abuse cases with the easy availability of alcohol amid lockdown that the filmmaker decided to pitch in his two cents.

This is hardly surprising because let's face it, RGV makes no balls about opening up to the world about his often deeply problematic views on women.

Remember that time when Donald Trump was elected President of the United States and Varma launched into a random, racist and sexist rant where he compared Michelle Obama to Melania Trump and decided the latter was hotter? He went on to say that Obama's faces turned "blacker" after losing to Trump but let's keep that for another article on racism and Ramu.

In 2017, activist Vishaka Mhambre even filed a complaint against the filmmaker for his tweet on International Women's Day requesting all women to make men happy the way Sunny Leone did. Classic RGV to reduce objectify all women while also taking a dig at porn actors and Bollywood's Sunny Leone, who the filmmaker seems to have been quite obsessed with at the time. He even tried to piggyback on Leone's popularity with a suggestively-titled short film "Meri Beti Sunny Leone Banna Chahti Hai" in the same year while tweeting multiple offensive puns and one-liners at her expense.

Oversimplifying violence

As an artist living in a country that records numerous cases of violence against women of all ages and as an artist who often exploits voyeuristic themes and women's sexuality to sell his movies (Read the 2018 God, Sex and Truth adventure), Ramu should know better than to boil down women's safety to a photo of eight women standing in line to buy their own booze in a country that lists domestic violence as the top crime against women.

And it would be incorrect to say the Varma is naive to the reality of nature of violence against women in India. His acute understanding of the virulent, hyper-masculine underbelly of Indian crime which made early films like Satya a treat must surely bring with it the awareness of how women across social strata, who make up the other half of the same world he understands and depicts, fare in the country.

In 2013 following a gang-rape in Mumbai, Varma had written a column in The Times of India in which he called rape a "disease".

"A criminal commits an act of a crime either because he can't control his urge, which is psychological, or because he thinks he won't get caught, which is partly due to ignorance and partly due to overconfidence... A criminal is just a carrier. One might say that a criminal is a human being and has a rational mind, but no rational man would ever take part in such a horrific act such as rape," he wrote.

How then does he ridicule activists today who are asking for a deeper introspection into a closeted matter like domestic abuse that costs hundreds of women their lives in the country each year? Even if one is to assume that the filmmaker does not understand the causal or cultural linkages between alcohol and violence between intimate partners, it is hard to imagine that Varma does not have at his disposal the means to educate himself.

If he can tweet a photo of women standing in line outside of a liquor store -- ONE photo, mind you, out of the sea of images and videos that flooded from across the country depicting a clear majority of men among those queuing up outside -- he can also Google the hundreds of studies that show the directly proportional way in which alcohol affects aggression and domestic violence against women.

If words don't suffice, let's throw some numbers. As many as 3,78,277 crimes against women were committed in 2018, according to data published by the National Crime Records Bureau. Domestic violence topped the list with the maximum number of cases.

A 2010 study of low-income couples in Mumbai found that instances of violence against wives and children by heavy drinkers 6.5 times higher than in those who drank socially.

Implying that women drink means they are not beaten by men who drink is an oversimplification of domestic abuse and in the same genre of arguments as Women who go out at night can't complain about getting raped".

But RGV cares not about gender discourse. He would rather provoke some feminists and milk some likes from the #NotAllMen brigade on Twitter because let's face it. It's easier to grab headlines through provocative tweets aimed to outrage than through progressive films that could actually affect change in mindsets.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 15:10:22|Editor: huaxia

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CAPE TOWN, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Researchers in South Africa on Monday vaccinated hundreds of health workers with a 100-year-old tuberculosis (TB) in clinical trial in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

TASK, a clinical research organization in Cape Town, conducted the trial at Tygerberg Hospital, an officially-designated COVID-19 treatment center in South Africa.

In the trial, researchers used the cheap TB vaccine to determine if a booster shot of Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) reduces the probability of COVID-19 infection and the severity of the symptoms.

The BCG vaccine, devised at France's legendary Pasteur Institute 100 years ago, is one of the world's oldest and most-trusted immunizations. It is primarily a vaccine against TB, which is often given to infants but also protects against other respiratory tract infections in children and adults.

Since South Africa vaccinates all newborns with BCG, this study aims to determine if BCG re-vaccination reduces the probability of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus -- the virus causing COVID-19 -- and/or the severity of symptoms of COVID-19 disease, in a bid to help reduce the consequences of this pandemic, TASK said in a statement.

"The primary objective of this trial is to find out if BCG re-vaccination reduces disease severity, hospital admissions and death in frontline workers with direct patient contact during the pandemic phase of COVID-19," said the statement.

In the trial, BCG booster shots were administered to 250 healthcare workers, while another 250 received a dummy formula, or placebo.

After the vaccination, TASK will regularly follow up with telephonic or electronic interviews to capture events such as SARS-CoV-2 virus infection, respiratory tract infection or hospitalization, and run statistical tests to see if an advantage of BCG re-vaccination can be shown, according to the statement.

The trial mainly focused on health workers because they are most exposed to the virus, TASK said, adding that the results will be made public if they are positive enough.

In addition to South Africa, the Netherlands, Australia and France are also conducting BCG clinical trials. Enditem
A local clothing line has joined a national coalition of brands pledging to donate proceeds to a variety of charities making an impact to combat COVID-19.

Last month, Sea Culture Brand joined BRANDS X BETTER, promising to donate a percentage of sales during the coming months to the COVID-19 Community Support Fund.

BRANDS X BETTER was created by Nate Checketts, the founder of menswear brand Rhone and includes over 100 participating brands. So far, the coalition has raised $583,054 to a range of charities fighting the coronavirus.

Sea Culture Brand owner Daniel Tagliamonte joined the coalition because he wanted a way to help during the crisis. He saw other brands sewing masks but knew that wasnt a viable option for Sea Culture. When he discovered BRANDS X BETTER, he decided that it was the best way for Sea Culture to make an impact.

I wanted to go this route to give to people that are on the front lines dealing with what's going on, said Tagliamonte. So, its kind of our way of giving back.

Tagliamonte launched Sea Culture Brand about two years ago. The mens clothing and lifestyle company offers sustainable T-shirts, hats, polos and accessories inspired by Tagliamontes love for water. Bamboo, recycled plastic bottles, and bottle caps are all materials used to ensure that Sea Culture Brand has a low impact on the environment.

Last fall, he teamed up with Sakran & Shaw - an eco-friendly and animal-friendly womens accessories and clothing brand - to open a storefront in downtown Skaneateles.

Tagliamonte chose the COVID-19 Community Support Fund to provide resources to Central New York based organizations that are working with communities being impacted by the pandemic. The fund is a partnership of the Central New York Community Foundation, United Way of Central New York, Allyn Foundation, the City of Syracuse and Onondaga County.

The vice president of the Central New York Community Foundation, Tom Griffith, said it has been inspiring to see so many companies and individuals contribute to the fund.

We are grateful for Sea Culture Brands pledge, he said in an email. Their contributions will help local residents that are disproportionately impacted by the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Show of defiance: Mark Rylance as Johnny Rooster Byron about to make his last stand against the authorities - Alastair Muir

Johnny Rooster Byrons battle-cry in Jez Butterworths Jerusalem (2009)

Few young playwrights achieve the kind of overnight success Jez Butterworth enjoyed with Mojo (1996), hailed as the first debut work to premiere on the Royal Court main-stage since John Osbornes Look Back in Anger in 1956. Part of a revitalising surge of new writing  centring at the Court  in the Nineties, Butterworths tack-sharp way with language in his evocation of Fifties Soho drew comparisons with Harold Pinter  and the latter added grist to that connection by appearing in the resulting film.

The ensuing decade saw further productivity in screen-writing and a handful of moderately well-received plays, but it was Butterworths fifth stage-work Jerusalem (2009) that bowled everyone over again and this time set him on a reputational pedestal from which he hasnt really been toppled since (the success of 2017s The Ferryman further adding to his lustre). Phenomenon can be an over-used term of journalistic admiration, but it fits Jerusalem.

Lavished with critical praise, by the time Ian Ricksons sold-out production had transferred to the West End early the following year, returning at the end of 2011, it had become more than a must-see  ticket-hunters even camping outside the theatre overnight to catch it. It was a landscape-defining, state-of-the-nation modern classic that everyone wanted to talk about.

The star attraction was Mark Rylance as the woodland- and caravan-dwelling Johnny Rooster Byron, a charismatic miscreant facing eviction from his makeshift Wiltshire abode on St Georges Day after 27 years of ruling the roost there. From his first appearance  Bare chest. Helmet, Goggles. Loudhailer  hurling defiance at council officers, Rylances entertaining lord of misrule (a yarn-spinning, drug-peddling magnet for local youth, there in droves as a result of the local fair happening nearby) held the audience in the dirty palm of his hand, a figure of strutting Shakespearean vigour  preposterous yet heroic too. His performance won him the Best Actor awards at the Oliviers then the Tonys when the play went to Broadway, although the judges perversely twice failed to hand Butterworth the Best Play gong.

Story continues

A newly announced revival in the West End next year will provide an invaluable chance to see Rylance reliving a career high but should also amply confirm the plays status. Nothing has matched it since, and in its mood of revelry and resistance it anticipated a (Brexit-age) spirit of mutiny stirring in modern non-metropolitan England, one that finds its most seductive and destructive expression in Byrons final aria of lone defiance.

Jerusalem performed at the Royal Court Theatre - Alastair Muir

The context

After the droll, anarchic comic energy of the first two acts, things take a darker turn in the plays third and final hour, as those who would expel Byron from his habitat start to collect. One of his young hangers-on warns that two dozen police, bearing shields and batons, are on the march (as if intent on slaying this dragon in his lair). And prior to that Johnny has been brutally set on by the tough step-father of a missing (now found) teenage girl, last years fairs May Queen.

After the battered reprobate  assailed by blowtorch and branding iron  has offered a valedictory speech to his young son, recollecting his miracle survival from a dare-devil stunt gone wrong (Ive got rare blood. Rarest there is. Romany blood), Byron stands alone, dousing his mobile-home with petrol and issuing a battle-cry, pounding a drum he earlier claimed had been given him by a giant he met just off the A14 to be used to summon help at times of trouble.

Whats in the speech?

I, Rooster John Byron, hereby place a curse upon the Kennet and Avon Council, Byron begins, combining bullishness, bathos and biblical grandeur. May they wander the land for ever, he continues, limping about, sprinkling his fuel, as if enacting an ancient ceremony. He who steps in my blood, may it stick to them like hot oil, runs his gypsy curse. All their newborn babies be born mangled.

With poetic fecundity he aligns himself as a protector of the forest itself  Any uniform which brushes a single leaf of this wood is cursed He goes to his drum, incants at length the names of his forefathers (Alfrid Byron. Egbert Byron. Oswin Byron) pausing when he has amassed an army of bygone Byrons (Surrender, South Wiltshire! You are outnumbered!). Then he summons a panoply of companionable folkloric figures  Rise up, Cormonan. Woden, Jack-of-Green Faster and faster he beats his drum, his invocation crescendo-ing with: Come, you battalions. You fields of ghosts who walk these green plains still. Come, you giants! {Blackout. Curtain. The End.}

Why is it so powerful?

The controlled outburst has such audacity and intensity it induces goose-bumps. At one level, Byron  a latter-day Falstaff  has lost the plot: this is a desperate, deluded address to an unseen adversary that calls forth the dead and the never-been as if they were tangible allies. Yet the core conviction of invulnerability  enforced by the potency of the performance and abetted by the suspended disbelief of the audience  works like a charm.

What comes after this avowed last-stand  defeat, victory? The ambiguity slides into deep mystery: Byron is confronting mortality head-on and passing into the realm of myth he has so traded on. Its a ritualised, quasi religious moment of decease and rebirth  and you feel that on your pulse. The use of a drum part-recalls Pinters The Birthday Party, yet in using it for his own ends, Butterworth becomes his own man.

In performance

As far as Im concerned, you might as well burn this script after weve finished with it because I dont see how anyone else could do it as well as he does, Butterworth said of Rylance, ahead of the 2009 premiere. His performance of ingrained authenticity and mystical power reached its zenith here but other tour de forces are possible: at the Watermill, Newbury in 2018, Jasper Britton  gnarled, grubby, more sinister  was garlanded with five stars too, achieving again that exhilarating sense of back-to-the-wall, exhausted triumph in adversity.

Why it matters now

As well as serving  in the next revival  as a clarion-call to all those whove missed the inimitable, in the air, magic of theatre, Jerusalem has surely acquired a new poignancy and even pertinence in its vision of survival, resistance and renewal. Killjoy officialdom has been given new licence; political correctness has become more invasive; modernitys threats have never seemed more dehumanising. And in the pot-banging communal release of that new weekly ritual  the clap for carers  do we not hear something untamed and undaunted  the sound of inner giants, perhaps  stirring?

Johnny Rooster's full speech

I, Rooster John Byron, hereby place a curse

Upon the Kennet and Avon Council,

May they wander the land for ever,

Never sleep twice in the same bed,

Never drink water from the same well,

And never cross the same river twice in a year.

[He picks up a handful of the ashes of the petition. He limps around the clearing, dropping piles of ash.]

He who steps in my blood, may it stick to them

Like hot oil. May it scorch them for life,

And may the heat dry up their souls,

And may they be filled with the melancholy

Wine wont shift. And all their newborn babies

Be born mangled, with the same marks,

The same wounds of their fathers.

Any uniform which brushes a single leaf of this wood

Is cursed, and he who wears it this St Georges Day,

May he not see the next.

[He stops in the middle, by the drum. Closes his eyes. And begins to incant.]

Alfrid Byron. Egbert Byron. Oswin Byron Sebbi Byron. Swidhelm Byron. Wilfrid Byron. Gilbert, Bennet, Thomas Byron. Rolande, John, John, William Richard Georgius Byron. Gregorius Robert Byron. Jonas Petrus Byron. William Malet Byron. Geoffrey Aimery Byron. Francois Byron. Wardard Vital Byron. [Suddenly calls.] Surrender, South Wiltshire! You are outnumbered. I have you surrounded. For at my back is every Byron boy that eer was born an Englishman. And behind them bay the drunken devils army and we are numberless. Rise up! Rise up, Cormoran. Woden. Jack-of-Green. Jack-in-Irons. Thunderdell. Buri, Blunderbore, Gog and Magog, Galligantus, Vili and Ve, Yggdrasil, Brutus of Albion. Come, you drunken spirits. Come, you battalions. You fields of ghosts who walk these green plains still. Come, you giants!

[Relentlessly he beats the drum. Faster. Faster. Staring out. He pounds on and on until the final blow rings out and... Blackout. Curtain.]

This extract from Jerusalem  Jez Butterworth is reproduced with permission from the plays publisher Nick Hern Books.

Buy the ebook direct from the publishers at a 20 per cent discount here.
If the crime rate, fatal road accidents and traffic violations could reduce drastically owing to the lockdown, conventional wisdom would have dictated that militancy in Jammu and Kashmir would also ebb. With movement curbed, one would have thought terrorists, too, would go into hibernation. But on the contrary, they only seem to have become bolder, carrying out deadly hit-and-run attacks and even enticing security forces into a situation where they could inflict heavy casualties. In the past two days, seven security personnel have been killed, including a decorated commanding officer of an Army battalion and a Major.

Even before these two attacks, the graph of terror strikes had been steadily rising. There have been more attacks, more security personnel killed, more civilians killed and more infiltration attempts since March 19, according to police data. Army Chief General M M Naravane and others in the security apparatus have given an assurance that they will not let down their guard and will also give an appropriate response. While that will be comforting for the nation, such words would have little meaning for the families who have lost their sons and husbands. For the government, it is time to ponder if India has entered into a more dangerous and potentially bloodier new phase of militancy in Kashmir.

Ever since the signing of the peace deal between the US and the Taliban in February, resulting in the phased withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, there was fear here that the jihadis would shift their attention to India. Experts had warned of battle-hardened foreign terrorists making their way to Kashmir. It is not clear if they have already found their way into India, but according to retired security personnel who cite intelligence sources, some Pakistani terrorists have sneaked in. If in the future the Taliban were to overthrow the current Afghan regime, things could get grimmer as that would enable Pakistan to run their evil designs only on India. There is no doubt that the security brass would have discussed this and formulated countermeasures. The time now is to roll them out.
The Las Vegas Metro Police Department has revealed one Austin Lattana, 26, has been taken into custody after he reportedly opened fire at an unidentified Amazon worker.

Lattana has been charged with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, discharging a weapon where a persons can be endangered and discharging a weapon on an occupied vehicle/residence.

The April 25 incident began around 11:30pm that night when authorities received a call from the Amazon driver.

He told dispatchers that a resident, later identified as Lattana, confronted him while he was delivering a package to a neighbors home, according to police report obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.



The driver, who was wearing an official Amazon vest at the time, said Lattana shined a flashlight in his face.

The driver advised that he delivers packages for Amazon and is tasked with deliveries during certain time frames, the report said, adding that the package was supposed to be delivered before midnight.

Lattana continued to reportedly shine the flashlight at the Amazon driver and followed him back to the delivery truck.

The driver also said a woman took a photo of his license plate.

As the driver was preparing to leave the cul-de-sac, Lattana allegedly fired multiple bullets into the Amazon truck and shattered the rear view mirror.

The driver heard a firearm discharging and his vehicle was hit by bullets. His rear view mirror shattered, the report said.

A front passenger window and the front drivers window were also struck by bullets, as were four nearby homes and some cars.

The driver was not injured in the shooting, but quickly called 911 to alert police of the incident.

Lattana told authorities that the driver was trying to burglarize his home and did not believe the man was actually an Amazon worker.

He claimed that he began shooting when the driver reached for something inside his vehicle.

Lattana said that a guy was walking around the cul-de-sac, the report said.

Lattana confronted him, and the guy said he works for Amazon. Lattana did not believe him. When the Amazon driver entered his vehicle, Lattana said he observed him reaching for something, so he began shooting at him.

A witness told police that Lattana threatened to shoot the driver if he did not leave the neighborhood.

Authorities found 14 shell casings in Lattanas driveway. A search warrant of his home uncovered additional weapons, including a loaded AR-15 rifle and a loaded .45-caliber handgun.

An Amazon spokesperson told Las Vegas Review-Journal that the company is investigating the incident.

This is a terrible incident and we are thankful the delivery driver is safe, said Timothy Carter.

Lattana was taken to Clark County Detention Center with bail set to $10,000.

He was reportedly not able to appear in court on Monday because he was at a local hospital. Its unclear what Lattana was being treated for.

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WASHINGTON - The Trump administration failed to prepare for the onslaught of the coronavirus, then sought a quick fix by trying to rush an unproven drug to patients, a senior government scientist alleged in a whistleblower complaint Tuesday.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 5/5/2020 (623 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FILE - This Tuesday, April 7, 2020 file photo shows a bottle of hydroxychloroquine tablets in Texas City, Texas. On Friday, April 24, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned doctors against prescribing the malaria drug to treat COVID-19 outside of hospitals or research settings. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration failed to prepare for the onslaught of the coronavirus, then sought a quick fix by trying to rush an unproven drug to patients, a senior government scientist alleged in a whistleblower complaint Tuesday.

Dr. Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, alleges he was reassigned to a lesser role because he resisted political pressure to allow widespread use of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug pushed by President Donald Trump. He said the Trump administration wanted to flood hot spots in New York and New Jersey with the drug.

I witnessed government leadership rushing blindly into a potentially dangerous situation by bringing in a non-FDA approved chloroquine from Pakistan and India, from facilities that had never been approved by the FDA, Bright said Tuesday on a call with reporters. Their eagerness to push blindly forward without sufficient data to put this drug into the hands of Americans was alarming to me and my fellow scientists.

Bright filed the complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, a government agency that investigates retaliation against federal employees who uncover problems. He wants his job back and a full investigation.

The Department of Health and Human Services issued a terse statement saying that Bright was transferred to the National Institutes of Health to work on coronavirus testing, a crucial assignment. We are deeply disappointed that he has not shown up to work on behalf of the American people and lead on this critical endeavour, HHS spokeswoman Caitlin Oakley said.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar speaks about protecting seniors, in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, April 30, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

According HHS, Bright has not reported to his new post. But his spokeswoman said that Bright is on sick leave, following his doctor's orders, and that HHS has provided him no details on his new role.

Bright's complaint comes as the Trump administration faces criticism over its response to the pandemic, including testing and supplies of ventilators, masks and other equipment to stem the spread. There have been nearly 1.2 million confirmed cases in the United States and more than 70,000 deaths.

Bright said his superiors repeatedly rejected his warnings that the virus would spread in the U.S., missing an early opportunity to stock up on protective masks for first responders. He said he acted with urgency to address the growing spread of COVID-19  the disease the virus causes  after the World Health Organization issued a warning in January.

Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., chair of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health, said she plans to hold a hearing into his complaint next week, and Brights lawyers said he would testify. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, appearing on MSNBC, called the complaint very damaging.

In his complaint, Bright said he encountered resistance from HHS leadership, including Secretary (Alex) Azar, who appeared intent on downplaying this catastrophic event.

During a Feb. 23 meeting, Azar, as well as Bright's boss, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Robert Kadlec, responded with surprise at (Brights) dire predictions and urgency, and asserted that the United States would be able to contain the virus and keep it out, the whistleblower complaint said.

In this image provided by Public Health Emergency, a department of Health and Human Services, Rick Bright is shown in his official photo from April 27, 2017, in Washington. Bright filed a complaint May 5, 2020, with the Office of Special Counsel, a government agency responsible for whistleblower complaints. Hes the former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Bright alleges he was removed from his job and reassigned to a lesser role because he resisted political pressure to allow widespread use of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug favored by President Donald Trump. (Health and Human Services via AP)

Bright said White House trade adviser Peter Navarro was a rare exception among administration officials, extremely concerned about the potential consequences of an outbreak. He described working with Navarro to break a bureaucratic logjam and set up military transport from Italy for swabs needed in the U.S.

Navarro was the author of several urgent memos within the White House. Bright said Navarro asked for his help, saying the trade adviser told him the memos were needed to save lives.

Navarros memos to top officials raised alarms even as Trump was publicly assuring Americans that the outbreak was under control.

Brights allegation that he was removed over his resistance to widespread use of the malaria drug was already public, but his whistleblower complaint added details from emails and internal communications while bringing to light his early attempts to acquire N95 respirator masks, which he said were ignored by superiors.

In late January, Bright said he was contacted by an official of a leading mask manufacturer about ramping up production. It was estimated that as many as 3.5 billion would be needed, while the national stockpile had about 300 million.

The complaint said that when Bright tried to press the issue about masks with superiors at HHS, he was ignored or rebuffed. HHS publicly represented not only that COVID-19 was not an imminent threat, but also that HHS already had all the masks it would need, the complaint said.

As the epidemic spread in the U.S. and engulfed the New York metropolitan area, Bright alleges that political appointees at HHS tried to promote hydroxychloroquine as a panacea. The officials also demanded that New York and New Jersey be flooded with these drugs, which were imported from factories in Pakistan and India that had not been inspected by the FDA, the complaint says.

Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned doctors against prescribing the drug except in hospitals and research studies. In an alert, regulators flagged reports of sometimes fatal heart side effects among coronavirus patients taking hydroxychloroquine or the related drug chloroquine.

Bright felt officials had refused to listen or take appropriate action to accurately inform the public and spoke to a reporter about the drug. He said he had to tell the public about the lack of science backing up its use, despite the drug being pushed by the president at press briefings.

As the death toll mounted exponentially each day, Dr. Bright concluded that he had a moral obligation to the American public, including those vulnerable as a result of illness from COVID-19, to protect it from drugs which he believed constituted a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety, the complaint says.

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On Jan. 20, according to the complaint, the WHO held an emergency call that was attended by many HHS officials, and WHO officials advised that the outbreak is a big problem.

Trump has accused the U.N. agency of mismanaging and covering up the spread of the virus after it emerged in China. He has also said he wants to cut the WHO's funding.

Brights agency works to guard against pandemics and emergent infectious diseases and is working to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus.

Top officials also pressured him to steer contracts to a client of a lobbyist, he reported.

"Time after time I was pressured to ignore or dismiss expert scientific recommendations and instead to award lucrative contracts based on political connections, Bright said in the call with reporters. In other words, I was pressured to let politics and cronyism drive decisions over the opinions of the best scientists we have in government.

Zachary Kurz, a spokesman for the agency where Bright filed his complaint, said the office couldnt comment or confirm the status of open investigations.
An Australian man has filmed an unidentified object hovering through the sky.

Gabriel Rosa managed to pull out his camera and film the object as he was standing on his Sunshine Coast balcony in Queensland about 6.30am on Tuesday.

Mr Rosa said he woke up and went to his balcony with a coffee in the unit he shares with his wife.

'When I saw this object, it stopped flying when I first saw it. Initially I thought it was a bird until I saw the sun reflecting on it then started to move north really fast.' Mr Rosa told the Gold Coast Bulletin.

An Australian man has filmed a strange unidentified object hovering through the sky on Tuesday morning

He said he watched the object stop in the sky for about five seconds before he was able to start filming with his phone.

'Probably took another five to 10 seconds until I started the phone camera. At this stage it was already moving north at speed. It stopped, then went behind the trees.'

Mr Rosa insists the object was not a drone as they are strictly not allowed in the area because of its close proximity to an airport.

'I don't wanna be alarmist on this, especially because I'm not sure what it was. I just wanted to share so someone else can keep the record too,' he said.

UFO Research Queensland Australia, which keeps track of reported sightings of extraterrestrial vehicles, said they had not received any other reports of sightings on the Gold Coast for quite a while.

The footage follows the United States military declassifying three videos taken by US Navy pilots showing mid-air encounters with what appear to be UFOs.

The grainy black and white footage had previously been leaked and the Navy had acknowledged they were Navy videos.

The Department of Defense said Monday it was 'releasing the videos in order to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos.'

'The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as 'unidentified,'' the Pentagon statement said.

One of videos was shot in November 2004 and the other two in January 2015.

In one, the weapons sensor operator appears to lose lock on a rapidly moving oblong object which seconds later suddenly accelerates away to the left and out of view.

In another video tracking an object above the clouds, one pilot wonders if it is a drone.

'There's a whole fleet of them. Look on the ASA,' the other says.

'My gosh, they're all going against the wind! The wind's 120 knots out of the west!' he said.

'Look at that thing,' the first says as the object starts rotating.

The videos had previously been released by the New York Times and the To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science, a group co-founded by Blink-182 guitarist Tom DeLonge.

After a thorough review, the Pentagon said it determined that 'the authorized release of these unclassified videos does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems, and does not impinge on any subsequent investigations of military air space incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena.'

Retired US Navy pilot David Fravor who saw one of the 'UFOs' in 2004 told CNN the object moved erratically.

'As I got close to it ... it rapidly accelerated to the south, and disappeared in less than two seconds,' Fravor told CNN in 2017.

'This was extremely abrupt, like a ping pong ball, bouncing off a wall. It would hit and go the other way.'

Former Nevada senator Harry Reid, whose state hosts the top secret Area 51 Air Force facility, welcomed release of the videos.

'I'm glad the Pentagon is finally releasing this footage, but it only scratches the surface of research and materials available,' he tweeted.

'The U.S. needs to take a serious, scientific look at this and any potential national security implications. The American people deserve to be informed.'

In December 2017, the Pentagon acknowledged funding a secret multi-million dollar program to investigate sightings of UFOs, although it said it had ended in 2012.

The three video clips -- 'FLIR,' 'GOFAST' and 'GIMBAL' are available to download on the Naval Air Systems Command website.
MADISON  Amid concerns about the coronavirus pandemics financial impact, the Board of Selectmen voted last Monday to postpone an October referendum that would have decided the future of two major town projects.

Residents now must wait longer for a final verdict on the fate of the vacant Academy School building. Nor will the town be able to move forward with its $129 million plan to revamp school facilities until at least next year.

The boards resolution tentatively rescheduled the referendum to sometime in 2021, according to a copy of the resolution, presented in YouTube footage of the April 27 meeting.

First Selectwoman Peggy Lyons spoke to the reasons behind the postponement when she introduced the resolution, the video shows.

She and the chairmen of the boards of finance and education felt that neither of these projects should be brought to a public vote at this time, given the current economic uncertainty we face, Lyons said in the video.

We recognize that residents have more immediate concerns to focus on, including their health, safety and well-being, and it would be insensitive to ask the public to make a decision on any sizable investment projects, she continued.

The issue of what to do with the Academy School, an iconic building on the Green, proved a hot topic in last years first selectman race, when Lyons unseated two-term incumbent Republican Thomas Banisch.

Octobers referendum sought voter approval of bonds and appropriations that would have financed the transformation of the Academy building into a community center as well as the renewal of school facilities, according to meeting minutes from February.

As for the latter project, while the Board of Education supported the decision to postpone the referendum, Chairwoman Katie Stein emphasized Tuesday that the community eventually will have to address deficiencies in school facilities.

The pandemic cant stop time, she said. Every day our dated facilities get that much older.

In the long run, a delay in implementing the plan raises the costs that the school facilities incur, according to Stein.

The latest form of the renewal plan would reduce the total number of schools in the district from six to four, but also would rebuild one school building and renovate two others, the districts website indicates.

Right now, the board still stands behind that plan, according to Stein.

We made sacrifices when that plan was developed to make it comprehensive but also reasonable for the town, she said.

But if that plan turns out to be unattainable once the dust settles, the board is open to reassessing it, Stein continued.

Im confident that well find a way to move forward to meet the needs both of the school system and the community, she said.

In February, the Board of Selectmen had approved the October referendum by a vote of 3-2.

Last weeks vote to postpone was unanimous, the meeting footage indicates.

I think that this is the right thing to do, Selectman Bruce Wilson told his colleagues.

Wilson suggested that Madison take the time to consider what other projects might require bond funding, and that the Board of Education continue to work on the facilities plan.

Lyons agreed that assessing the overall needs of the town was a good idea.

But, she noted, unfortunately some of the infrastructure needs are quite significant and still going to be there  you know, if a boiler breaks or a roof starts leaking. ... Particularly on the schools side, the facilities team has done wonders in extending the life of these buildings, but theres only so long that they can be extended.

The first selectwoman acknowledged that the decision to postpone the referendum was difficult.

I think many in the community were very eager and excited to get these projects moving forward, she said.

meghan.friedmann@hearstmediact.com
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Linkedin Apriza Pinandita (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, May 5, 2020 09:29 624 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd5f59e7 1 National COVID-19,MigrantCare,migrant-protection,migrant-workers,Jokowi,TKI,pekerja-migran-indonesia,President-Jokowi Free

Migrant Care called on the Indonesian government on Monday to avoid a heavy-handed approach to health security toward repatriating Indonesian migrant workers (TKI), and instead to maintain protection of the workers' rights upon their arrival.

The labor rights advocacy group raised its call shortly after President Joko Jokowi Widodo urged authorities to tighten monitoring over several COVID-19 clusters in the country, including migrant workers who were returning to the archipelago ahead of Idul Fitri.

Read also: Indonesian Navy intercepts more migrant workers returning from Malaysia through illegal routes

Migrant Care executive director Wahyu Susilo said he appreciated the Presidents concern for migrant workers amid the nation's concerted efforts to mitigate the epidemic and its impacts

However, Migrant Care urges the government to protect the rights of TKI and their families as regulated in Law No. 18/2017 [on migrant workers] and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families that Indonesia has ratified with Law No. 6/2012, Wahyu said in a statement on Monday, referring to the United Nations treaty.

Continuing, he said that the authorities must not be heavy-handed in their approach in monitoring the returning workers, and should avoid excessive law enforcement measures.

The [President's] statement regarding the possible exodus of migrant workers must not be used as an excuse to stigmatize them [as] carriers of the disease, he added.

Migrant Care has encouraged the government to treat the returning migrant workers humanely, in keeping with human rights principles. If the government declares the returning workers as persons under monitoring (ODPs), it must provide the workers with quarantine facilities and social assistance.

"Moreover, the government has to provide any returning migrant workers who are patients under surveillance [PDPs] with isolation facilities. Any [related] expenses must be covered by the government, said Wahyu.

Read also: High influx of Indonesian migrant workers from Malaysia, despite call to stay amid outbreak

Jokowi on Monday released an estimate that 89,000 migrant workers had returned to Indonesia, with a possibility of 16,000 more repatriating in the coming days.

The figure is nearly 240 percent larger than the earlier estimate from the Indonesia Migrant Worker Protection Agency (BP2MI), which said it expected around 37,000 workers to return to the country after their contracts expired in April-May.

According to Antara News, BP2MI's records on the migrant workers who had returned to Indonesia show that around 15,400 returned from Malaysia, 11,300 from Hong Kong and 3,507 from Singapore.
The reopening of the economy and loosening of coronavirus-prompted restrictions remain uneven and varied throughout the U.S. as governors watch case numbers and weigh caution against desires to ramp up business.

In Montana, restaurants, bars and casinos began reopening Monday with increased sanitizing, limited crowds and servers donning masks.

Staci Nugent, Office Manager of Paradise Falls restaurant, bar and casino in Missoula says customers will be aware that things have changed.

"One thing they will also notice is our tables are pretty bare. Usually, we have condiments set out for them. But as we want to limit the number of touches for just about every item, we'll have individualized items for condiments, portions for salad dressings, all those things, as well as disposable cups for drinks."

Churches and retailers in Montana opened last week, and a stay-home order was lifted except for vulnerable populations including older adults.

Democratic Governor Steve Bullock is allowing schools to reopen Thursday, but many districts already canceled in-person classes for the year.
California is moving aggressively to enforce its new gig-work law against some of the states most prominent tech companies.

The state attorney general and the city attorneys of San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego on Tuesday sued Uber and Lyft, saying they had misclassified their drivers as independent contractors under AB5, robbing them of critical workplace protections  while giving the companies an unfair competitive advantage.

The case, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, seeks hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid wages for drivers and civil penalties, as well as an injunction to permanently force Uber and Lyft to keep drivers as employees.

These companies are shirking their obligations to their workforce and shifting the burdens onto drivers and taxpayers at time when they are most vulnerable, said Attorney General Xavier Becerra in a press call, referring to the pandemic and shelter-in-place orders and their devastating impact on employment. No business model should hang its success on mistreating its workers and not playing by the rules.

Uber and Lyft, both headquartered in San Francisco, also referred to the pandemic in their responses.

At a time when Californias economy is in crisis with 4 million people out of work, we need to make it easier, not harder, for people to quickly start earning, Uber said in a statement. We will contest this action in court, while at the same time pushing to raise the standard of independent work for drivers in California.

Lyfts statement was worded in a more conciliatory fashion. We are looking forward to working with the Attorney General and mayors across the state to bring all the benefits of Californias innovation economy to as many workers as possible, especially during this time when the creation of good jobs with access to affordable healthcare and other benefits is more important than ever, Lyft said in a statement.

AB5, the gig-work law that took effect Jan. 1, makes it much harder for companies to claim that workers are independent contractors. Uber and Lyft say that both their business models and their drivers rely on this flexibility.

But a change would also cost the money-losing companies millions of dollars. Reclassifying workers as employees can add up to 30% to labor costs as companies must cover benefits such as workers compensation, unemployment insurance, sick leave, family leave and more for employees. Barclays estimates that treating California drivers as employees would cost Uber $500 million a year and Lyft $290 million.

The issue of unemployment insurance has been thrown into stark relief by the pandemic crisis and shelter-in-place orders, which caused Ubers and Lyfts business to plummet, leaving drivers with little income.

Ordinarily, nonemployees would not receive unemployment benefits since no companies paid into the state unemployment fund on their behalf. But the federal relief bill includes unemployment benefits for gig workers, freelancers and the self-employed. California started accepting applications for this Pandemic Unemployment Assistance last week.

Harry Campbell, who runs the Rideshare Guy blog and podcast, said a driver survey he conducted showed that most prefer to be independent contractors, with the big caveat that they want more independence than Uber and Lyft provide. They dont want the companies to control all the important facets of the work: like being able to set rates, arbitrary deactivations and an unfair ratings system, he said in an email.

Even though drivers dont all agree on whether they should be employees or not, Uber and Lyft have been taking advantage of the (independent contractor) designation since the get-go.

Right now, getting unemployment is paramount for drivers, he said. As the economy starts to reopen, it will be a tough choice for drivers with no health insurance and no sick pay to drive and put themselves at risk or to sit out and not earn any money, Campbell said.

The current economic and public health crisis underscores the importance of standing up for workers rights, the suing attorneys said.

Uber and Lyft drivers are exposing themselves every day to real danger as they transport essential workers and people going on essential errands, said Mike Feuer, Los Angeles city attorney. The demand for their services will skyrocket as soon as the stay-at-home orders are lifted.

Uber and Lyft are breaking the law, said San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera in a statement. We are going to put a stop to it. Uber and Lyft claim that properly classifying drivers as employees is incompatible with flexibility. That is a lie. There is no legal reason why Uber and Lyft cant have a vast pool of employees who decide for themselves when and where they work  exactly as drivers do now. These companies simply dont want to do it.

Drivers could reap substantial amounts if the case is successful. The suit says they are entitled to back wages for activities such as as refueling, cleaning and maintaining cars, driving to and returning from rides, and time spent logged in to the apps waiting for ride requests. They are also entitled to overtime pay when they worked more than 40 hours a week, over eight hours a day, or more than six days a week, it said. They also should be reimbursed for businesses expenses such as gas, insurance, car maintenance, wear and tear, and cell phone usage, it said.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart and Postmates are spending $110 million on a November ballot measure to persuade California voters to exempt their workers from AB5. Their initiative would leave the drivers and couriers as independent contractors, while allowing them to receive some earnings guarantees and some benefits.

The campaign for the initiative put out a statement quoting drivers who said they prefer to remain independent contractors. The initiatives opponents, who are funded by organized labor, put out a statement with quotes from drivers saying they do want to be employees.

Feuer said the lawsuit will continue whether or not the ballot measure passes.

Tony West, Uber general counsel, has said he thinks the company can pass AB5s tougher criteria for when workers can be classified as freelancers, and vowed to fight for that in court.

Uber and Postmates filed a preemptive lawsuit against California in December seeking to block AB5 from applying to them. The new law is irrational and unconstitutional, their federal lawsuit said.

Both Uber and Lyft are reeling from the abrupt plunge in their revenues. Lyft last week said it would lay off 17% of its employees. Uber confirmed that it is mulling options to weather the crisis, which the Information, a tech news site, reported could include a 20% staff cut.

The government attorneys hinted that future lawsuits against other gig companies could be in the offing noting that Mara Elliott, San Diego city attorney, has already sued grocery-delivery company Instacart over its worker classification.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid
International hackers have targeted coronavirus research labs in the US and UK, cybersecurity agencies have warned.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the UK's National Cyber Security Centre say the criminals have been discovered targeting healthcare bodies, particularly those involved in coronavirus response.

The news comes as countries worldwide remain engaged in a tense race to develop a vaccine. The first country to do so will undoubtedly achieve huge diplomatic and geo-political influence.

One team at Oxford University has teamed up with a bio-pharmaceutical company and started trials in a bid to unlock the crisis.

The joint advisory did not name specific countries involved in the hackings but Sky News said the culprits are understood to include China, Russia and Iran.

The bodies have noted a number of 'password spraying' attacks, where hackers attempt to access a large number of accounts using commonly known passwords, targeting healthcare organisations and other medical groups (file photo)

The agencies have noted a number of 'password spraying' attacks, where hackers attempt to access a large number of accounts using commonly known passwords, targeting healthcare organisations and other medical groups.

The bodies said they believe criminals were targeting such organisations in the hope of gathering information related to the coronavirus outbreak.

The two bodies urged healthcare and medical research staff to improve their password security and implement two-factor authentication on accounts to reduce the possibility of threats.

Earlier this month the health secretary Matt Hancock signed off on a directive that will give the intelligence service GCHQ access to the NHS' IT network.

He said yesterday during a press conference that he did not think it would be necessary to make the vaccine compulsory and that 'I think that the extent of the public's reaction to following the lockdown shows that we will be able to achieve very high levels of vaccination without taking that step'.

An engineer looks at monkey kidney cells as he during a test on an experimental vaccine for coronavirus at the Sinovac Biotech facilities in Beijing

Speaking at a press conference this afternoon Dominic Raab confirmed that cyberattacks had taken place.

He said: 'There will always be some that seek to exploit a crisis for their own criminal and hostile ends.

'We know that criminals and malicious groups are targeting individuals, businesses and other organisations.

'That includes groups that are known in the cyber security world as advance persistent threat groups - sophisticated networks of hackers that try to breach security systems.'

'They're often linked with other state actors, and we expect this kind of predatory criminal behaviour to continue and to evolve over the coming weeks and months ahead, and we're taking a range of measures to tackle that threat.'

'We are working with the targets of those potential attacks and others to make sure that they're aware of the cyber threat' and that they can take the steps necessary to protect themselves and at the very least mitigate the harm that could be brought against them.'

'Our teams have identified campaigns targeting healthcare bodies and pharmaceutical companies,' he added.

Raab said the predatory behaviour will 'continue to evolve' and advice will help targets to better defend against cyber attacks from 'hostile states' and 'criminal gangs'.

The UK will 'continue to counter those who conduct cyber attacks', by working with international agencies.

The country remains determined to 'defeat' both coronavirus and those who look to exploit it 'for their own nefarious ends', he added.

Speaking at a press conference today Dominic Raab said: 'There will always be some that seek to exploit a crisis for their own criminal and hostile ends'

Paul Chichester, NCSC director of operations, said: 'Protecting the healthcare sector is the NCSC's first and foremost priority at this time, and we're working closely with the NHS to keep their systems safe.

'By prioritising any requests for support from health organisations and remaining in close contact with industries involved in the coronavirus response, we can inform them of any malicious activity and take the necessary steps to help them defend against it.

'But we can't do this alone, and we recommend healthcare policymakers and researchers take our actionable steps to defend themselves from password-spraying campaigns.'

The NCSC launched its Suspicious Email Reporting Service last month, following a surger in the number of coronavirus-related email scams.

The service allows the public to forward emails directly to the centre to report suspected scams. More than 25,000 reports were received in the first week and 395 websites were taken down.

Bryan Ware, CISA assistant director of cybersecurity, said it was prioritising its services to healthcare organisations and other medical groups involved in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, so that those firms can focus on their response to the virus.

'The trusted and continuous cybersecurity collaboration CISA has with NCSC and industry partners plays a critical role in protecting the public and organisations, specifically during this time as healthcare organisations are working at maximum capacity,' he said.

The agencies said they were prioritising services to healthcare organisations and other medical groups involved in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, so that those firms can focus on their response to the virus (file photo)

The news of possible hacking comes a day after European leaders pledged to raise more than 6.5billion to help develop a coronavirus vaccine and fund research into the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

A virtual summit held yesterday was attended by China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Saudi Arabia and the European Commission, the the US was notably absent, as countries unite in a bid to slow the widespead devastation caused by the virus.

There have so far been close to 3.6million confirmed cases of cornavirus worldwide and around 252,000 deaths, though the true number is estimated to be much higher.

The pledging event marks the start of a month-long drive for investment before a Global Vaccine Summit is hosted by the UK on June 4.

In his message to the summit, Boris Johnson said the 'race to discover the vaccine to defeat this virus is not a competition between countries but the most urgent shared endeavour of our lifetimes'.
More than a month and a half into shelter in place in the Bay Area, many of us could really use a haircut.

Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to open the state in stages, and we're currently in Stage 1. Stage 2 starts Friday and hair salons are in Stage 3, so it could be a while until you actually get a trim.

Even with an ambiguous timeline, many Bay Area salons have already begun preparing for the moment they can reopen, redesigning their spaces and looking to states like Georgia for learnings about future of cutting and coloring hair.

The salon is going to look more like a surgical room than a hair salon, said Huy Le, owner of Revamp Salon in the Mission. Staff will be taking client temperatures. Theyll have to wear masks. If a client shows any sign of illness or temperature well have to immediately decline service.

Le said both his clients and staff will have to wear masks, staff will have to wear gloves and everyone will be washing their hands more frequently. Hair tools are already thoroughly disinfected between cuts, but he has additional disinfecting detergent to wash capes and towels.

There also wont be many of the amenities customers are used to. Comfortable waiting areas will be a thing of the past (youll probably be asked to wait outside until your appointment), magazines will be eliminated and staff wont offer you anything to drink upon entry.

At Revamp, Le also said hes planning on making customers sign a consent form before their service, acknowledging the risks that come with being in any public space right now.

Appointment windows will be extended by 15 minutes  something that all salons we spoke with said theyll be doing  to allow for extra cleaning and disinfecting between services. All salons will also make sure there are six feet between one station and the next.

At Cinta Salon in Union Square, guests will check themselves in with a geo-targeted app instead of being greeted by a receptionist and the salon plans to eliminate reusable robes for at least the first month. The business will also go cashless, at least temporarily.

Our entire life right now is preparing to open in June. From placing orders for masks and gowns to deep cleaning, its all were doing, owner Cinta Gibbon said. We work so closely with our guests so we want to open in the safest and most comfortable way.

Meanwhile, some salons in Vacaville have started cutting hair again  both Hairendipity and Primos Barbershop defied the statewide order last week and began accepting clients. Hairendipity owner Lia Rivera said she was fed up after applying for government assistance and had no way to support her three children.

I cannot control, trust, or predict what is going on but I can control, trust and predict my own actions. I can control who enters my business and how it is cared for, Rivera wrote on Facebook.

While her salon still displays a "closed" sign on the door, shes taking clients by appointment only; all customers must wear PPE and theyre sanitizing all equipment and chairs. She details the full precautions shes taking, as well as the reasoning behind her decision, here.

Lindsay Glaser, owner of Charles W. Thomas Salon in Presidio Heights, said shes looking forward to opening with these new precautions in place as soon as she can. Her employees feel eager to get back to work, since most of them are independent contractors who were unable to file for unemployment until April 28.

Glaser said shes had many clients reach out to her during the closure, many of whom said they just want to look like themselves again.

To be in front of people on Zoom calls every day and to have your hair not look great, that could be mentally tough for people, she said. I think a lot of people are struggling mentally and some normalcy in their life and their appearance is important.

Clients have been able to purchase at-home color kits from the salon while it's been closed, but Glaser said its a band-aid solution.

With the country-wide stay at home order expired, many salons across the U.S. opened back up over the weekend. Gibbons said she hopes to better understand from them what the future of her salon will look like. I feel really fortunate that I have a network of people that already opened their salons and I can learn from them, Gibbons said.

She said she plans to keep in close contact with a friend in Atlanta who opened up during the last week of April. She said that that salon opened with only 30% of its staff and employees are working staggered shifts.

Le has also looked to friends for advice. He said he has a friend in Italy who's had their salon shut down for almost six months.

But it isnt just about adjusting to wearing PPE and incorporating new cleaning procedures  its also about operating the business in a whole new manner. Being a hairdresser is about people, Le said. Its about my relationship with these people. I now have to learn how to greet people differently. I cant hug my clients like I normally do. Its really difficult for me since Ive been a hairdresser for 22 years. I got into it because I love people.

Tessa McLean is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her at tessa.mclean@sfgate.com or follow her on Twitter @mcleantessa.
New Delhi: In a major announcement, the Union Government on Monday evening said it would facilitate the return of Indian nationals stranded abroad in a phased manner from May 7 through aircraft and naval ships, adding however that the facility would be made available on payment-basis.

It also made it clear that only Asymptomatic passengers would be allowed to travel after medical screening of passengers is done before taking the flight, adding that Indian Embassies and High Commissions are preparing a list of distressed Indian citizens.

Also, the returning Indians would be quarantined for 14 days, either in a hospital or in an institutional quarantine on payment-basis, by the concerned State government. This makes it clear that the returning Indians would have to pay both for their travel back to India as well their quarantine facilities.

In a statement, the Government said, The Government of India will be facilitating the return of Indian nationals stranded abroad on compelling grounds in a phased manner. The travel would be arranged by aircraft and naval ships. The Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) has been prepared in this regard. Indian Embassies and High Commissions are preparing a list of distressed Indian citizens. This facility would be made available on payment-basis. Non-scheduled commercial flights would be arranged for air travel. The travel would begin in a phased manner from May 7. ... Medical screening of passengers would be done before taking the flight. Only asymptomatic passengers would be allowed to travel.

The Government added, On reaching the destination, everyone would have to register on the Aarogya Setu app. Everyone would be medically screened. After scrutiny, they would be quarantined for 14 days, either in a hospital or in an institutional quarantine on payment-basis, by the concerned State government. COVID test would be done after 14 days and further action would be taken according to health protocols. ... State Governments are being advised to make arrangements, including for testing, quarantine and onward movement of the returning Indians in their respective States.
[May 05, 2020] Quotient Technology Inc. Reports First Quarter 2020 Financial Results

Quotient Technology Inc. (NYSE: QUOT), the leading digital promotions, media and analytics company for CPG and retail marketing, today reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020. Last two weeks of the quarter impacted by COVID-19

Revenue was $98.8M

GAAP net loss was $16.7M

Adjusted EBITDA was $5.1M, above guidance Q1 2020 Summary During March quick and dramatic shifts in consumer shopping behaviors took effect as shoppers stocked pantries, cooked more in home, opted for eCommerce grocery delivery, and prepared for shelter-in-place mandates. These unexpected behaviors created short-term challenges for consumer packaged goods manufacturers ("CPGs") and retailers, bringing emptied store shelves and stressed supply chains. As a result, in mid-March many on-going marketing campaigns were paused or delayed in order to align inventory levels to new shopper demands.

COVID-19 impacts Q1 2020 revenue. January and February delivered revenue as expected. Impacts from the effects of COVID-19 started in mid-March as brands and retailers paused or delayed marketing campaigns, primarily in media. We expect to see continued impact from the effects of COVID-19 in the second quarter, as brands and retailers adjust marketing schedules and campaigns in light of the current environment. We are now seeing many brands rebook campaigns for the end of Q2 and beginning of Q3 2020.

January and February delivered revenue as expected. Impacts from the effects of COVID-19 started in mid-March as brands and retailers paused or delayed marketing campaigns, primarily in media. We expect to see continued impact from the effects of COVID-19 in the second quarter, as brands and retailers adjust marketing schedules and campaigns in light of the current environment. We are now seeing many brands rebook campaigns for the end of Q2 and beginning of Q3 2020. Adjusted EBITDA was $5.1 million, above the top end of our range. Q1 Adjusted EBITDA benefited from a higher proportion of promotions revenue coupled with a focus on cost controls within the quarter that lowered total operating expenses. "We are grateful to be able to serve our CPGs, retail partners and shoppers during this difficult time. Grocery and household products are an essential component of any household, and Quotient is putting savings in the hands of shoppers when they need it most," said Steven Boal, CEO. "Brands and retailers continue to re-align marketing campaigns, adjusting for changing shopper behaviors, growth in eCommerce and short-term supply chain challenges. However, we believe these events will accelerate the shift to digital. Consumers have choices when it comes to which brands they purchase and where they shop, making promotions and advertising a priority to maintain and grow market share." Key Operational Highlights The safety and well-being of our employees, customers, partners and shoppers is our number one priority. Our global team has been working remotely, under a well-established business continuity program, and we currently don't foresee any significant operational impact from working remotely.

We continue to operate from a position of financial strength. We maintained a strong balance sheet of approximately $200 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of the quarter. Cash used in operations of $8.9 million included a payout of $15.4 million for the over achievement portion of the Ahalogy earnout. Excluding this payout, operating cash flows would have been $6.5 million.

To maintain strong operating flexibility and preserve cash as a precautionary measure, we suspended our stock repurchase program. Business Highlights Quotient added two new retailers to the Retailer iQ platform. These retailers represent new verticals for Quotient - the convenience store ("C-Store") and pure-play grocery eCommerce verticals.

Revenue from retailer-specific promotions grew 41% in Q1 compared to the same period last year, further demonstrating the growing shift to digital. Promotions from grocery eCommerce channels grew substantially as well. Although still a small portion of our revenue today, promotions clipped and then redeemed, increased 38% in March 2020 over February 2020 due to the increased number of shoppers and larger basket sizes retailers are experiencing from eCommerce. Digital Shift Accelerates Across CPG/Retail Ecosystem Digital coupons remain one of the most effective and efficient ways for CPGs to influence product purchases. The offline free-standing inserts (FSIs) are expected to lose more than 20% of their coupon distribution from leading CPGs over the course of 2020 and 2021.

Growth in Grocery eCommerce: Retailers and delivery services have reported significant increases in mobile app downloads and usage, particularly over the last two months. This demonstrates a growing opportunity for sponsored search, sponsored product listings and digital promotions within the eCommerce channel.

Growth in Retail Media: CPGs continue to invest in Retail Media. Many of Quotient's retail partners are holding CPGs accountable to spend up to 1.5% of their gross sales on their digital channel. Our data and analytics provide transparency about return on investment and incremental sales, a driving force behind CPGs committing marketing and promotions budgets to Quotient's Retail Performance Media (RPM) network. For retailers, RPM provides the opportunity to drive a highly profitable alternative revenue stream. Business Outlook Beginning April 1, 2020, we have modified the way we deliver a portion of our media business, and no longer control certain services before they are transferred to our customers. This change has driven a portion of our media revenues to be recognized net of certain costs starting April 1, 2020, whereas in FY 2019 and Q1 2020 this portion of revenue was recognized on a gross basis. As a result of the modification, our projected growth rates appear negatively impacted for 2020 over the comparative periods in 2019, with the exception of Q1 2020. We also expect gross margins to increase, with no direct impact to our Net Income/Loss or Adjusted EBITDA. As of today, Quotient is providing the following business outlook. Given uncertainty around the effects of COVID-19, we are expanding our ranges. For the second quarter 2020, total revenue is expected to be in the range of $80.0 million to $90.0 million. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2020 is expected to be in the range of $0.0 million to $3.0 million. For the full year 2020, total revenue is expected to be in the range of $430.0 million to $470.0 million. Adjusted EBITDA for the full year 2020 is expected to be in the range of $40.0 million to $55.0 million. A reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP guidance measure, to a corresponding GAAP measure is not available on a forward-looking basis without unreasonable efforts due to the high variability and low visibility of certain income and expenses items that are excluded in calculating Adjusted EBITDA. Conference Call Information The Company has posted prepared remarks and an earnings presentation on the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at: http://investors.quotient.com/. Management will host a conference call and live webcast to discuss the highlights of the quarter and address questions today at 5:00 p.m. ET/ 2:00 p.m. PT. Questions that investors would like to see asked during the call should be sent to [email protected]. To access the call, please dial (833) 227-5842, or outside the U.S. (647) 689-4069, with Conference ID# 4767778 at least five minutes prior to the 2:00 p.m. PT start time. The live webcast and all accompanying materials can be accessed on the Investor Relations section of the Company website at: http://investors.quotient.com/. A replay of the webcast will be available on the website following the conference call. Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures Quotient reports its financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (GAAP) and the rules of the SEC. To supplement its financial statements presented in accordance with GAAP, Quotient provides investors in this press release with Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure. Quotient believes that this non-GAAP measure provides investors with additional useful information used by Quotient's management and Board of Directors for financial and operating decision making. In particular, Quotient believes that the exclusion of certain income and expenses in calculating this metric can provide a useful measure for period-to-period comparisons of its core business as well as a useful comparison to peer companies. Quotient defines Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) adjusted for interest expense, provision for (benefit from) income taxes, other (income) expense, net, depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation, change in fair value of contingent consideration, charges related to certain acquisition related costs and restructuring charges. We exclude these items because we believe these items do not reflect expected future operating expenses. Additionally, certain items are inconsistent in size and frequency making it difficult to contribute to a meaningful evaluation of our current or past operating performance. There are a number of limitations related to the use of this non-GAAP financial measure. Quotient compensates for these limitations by providing specific information regarding the GAAP amount excluded from this non-GAAP financial measure and evaluating this non-GAAP financial measure together with its relevant GAAP financial measure. This non-GAAP financial measure is not intended to be considered in isolation from, as substitute for, or as superior to, the corresponding financial measure prepared in accordance with GAAP. Because of these and other limitations, Adjusted EBITDA, should be considered along with other GAAP-based financial performance measures, including various cash flow metrics, Net Income (Loss), and Quotient's other GAAP financial results. For a reconciliation of this non-GAAP financial measure to the nearest comparable GAAP financial measure, see "Reconciliation of Net Loss to Adjusted EBITDA" included in this press release. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning the Company's current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends affecting its business. Forward looking statements in this press release include the Company's current expectations with respect to revenues and Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter and fiscal year 2020; the Company's ability to grow revenues, gross margin and Adjusted EBITDA; developments with its solutions, partnerships, product launches; the Company's ability to manage its business and liquidity during and after the COVID-19 pandemic; growth in eCommerce including sponsored products; the Company's ability to capture marketing dollars of CPGs on Retail Media as demanded by our retail partners; CPGs' plans to reduce spending in offline free-standing inserts; the impact of the Company's shift to recognize certain media services on a net basis; the future demand and behavior of consumers, retailers and CPGs, particularly in light of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic; brands' plans to rebook paused or delayed campaigns later in the year; and the Company's future investments and growth and ability to leverage its investments and operating expenses. Forward-looking statements are based on the Company's current plans, objectives, estimates, expectations and intentions 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 these risks and uncertainties, which include, without limitation, the Company's ability to generate positive cash flow and become profitable; the amount and timing of digital marketing spend by CPGs and shifts in CPG spend in offline free-standing inserts; the Company's ability to timely launch products; the Company's ability to adapt to changing market conditions and data regulations, including the Company's ability to adapt to changes in consumer habits and consumer data privacy concerns; the Company's ability to negotiate and perform under fee arrangements with CPGs and retailers; the Company's ability to maintain and expand the use by consumers of promotions and offers on its platforms; the Company's ability to execute its media strategy; the Company's ability to effectively manage its growth; the performance of the Company's various solutions; the Company's ability to successfully integrate acquired companies into its business; the Company's ability to develop and launch new services and features; CPGs' receptivity to the Company's packaged solutions; our expectations regarding growth drivers; and other factors identified in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including its Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 2, 2020 and future filings and reports by the Company. Quotient disclaims any obligation to update information contained in these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise and does not assume responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the forward-looking statements. About Quotient Technology Inc. Quotient Technology (NYSE: QUOT) is the leading digital promotions, media, and analytics company that delivers personalized digital coupons and ads - informed by proprietary shopper and online engagement data - to millions of shoppers daily. We use our proprietary Promotions, Media, Audience, and Analytics Platforms and services to seamlessly target audiences, optimize performance, and deliver measurable, incremental sales for CPG and retail marketers. We serve hundreds of CPGs and retailers nationwide, including Clorox, Procter & Gamble, General Mills, Unilever, Albertsons Companies, CVS, Dollar General, and Ahold -Delhaize USA. Quotient is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and has offices in Bangalore, Cincinnati, New York, Paris, London, and Tel Aviv. Visit www.quotient.com for more information. Quotient and the Quotient logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Quotient Technology Inc. and its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Other marks are the property of their respective owners.







QUOTIENT TECHNOLOGY INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (in thousands) March 31,

2020 December 31,

2019 (unaudited) Assets Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 196,798 $ 224,764 Accounts receivable, net 108,835 125,304 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 21,878 22,026 Total current assets 327,511 372,094 Property and equipment, net 14,319 13,704 Intangible assets, net 62,511 69,752 Goodwill 128,427 128,427 Other assets 7,438 7,961 Total assets $ 540,206 $ 591,938 Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity Current liabilities: Accounts payable $ 13,478 $ 19,116 Accrued compensation and benefits 9,559 15,232 Other current liabilities 43,765 50,032 Deferred revenues 12,086 10,903 Contingent consideration related to acquisitions - 27,000 Total current liabilities 78,888 122,283 Other non-current liabilities 6,765 7,119 Contingent consideration related to acquisitions 9,680 9,220 Convertible senior notes, net 168,855 166,157 Deferred tax liabilities 1,937 1,937 Total liabilities 266,125 306,716 Stockholders' equity: Common stock 1 1 Additional paid-in capital 676,877 671,060 Accumulated other comprehensive loss (1,149 ) (916 ) Accumulated deficit (401,648 ) (384,923 ) Total stockholders' equity 274,081 285,222 Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 540,206 $ 591,938

QUOTIENT TECHNOLOGY INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Unaudited, in thousands, except per share data) Three Months Ended

March 31, 2020 2019 Revenues $ 98,787 $ 98,107 Costs and expenses: Cost of revenues (1) 61,111 56,823 Sales and marketing (1) 25,034 25,523 Research and development (1) 10,593 10,370 General and administrative (1) 15,090 13,623 Change in fair value of contingent consideration 460 3,062 Total costs and expenses 112,288 109,401 Loss from operations (13,501 ) (11,294 ) Interest expense (3,574 ) (3,439 ) Other income (expense), net 580 1,531 Loss before income taxes (16,495 ) (13,202 ) Provision for income taxes 230 26 Net loss $ (16,725 ) $ (13,228 ) Net loss per share, basic and diluted $ (0.19 ) $ (0.14 ) Weighted-average shares used to compute net loss per share, basic and diluted 89,638 94,263 (1) The stock-based compensation expense included above was as follows: Three Months Ended

March 31, 2020 2019 Cost of revenues $ 435 $ 602 Sales and marketing 1,402 1,738 Research and development 881 1,366 General and administrative 4,808 4,342 Total stock-based compensation $ 7,526 $ 8,048 QUOTIENT TECHNOLOGY INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (Unaudited, in thousands) Three Months Ended

March 31, 2020 2019 Cash flows from operating activities: Net loss $ (16,725 ) $ (13,228 ) Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash (used in) provided by operating activities: Depreciation and amortization 8,886 7,722 Stock-based compensation 7,526 8,048 Amortization of debt discount and issuance cost 2,698 2,558 Allowance for credit losses 217 132 Deferred income taxes 230 25 Change in fair value of contingent consideration 460 3,062 Other non-cash expenses 726 3 Changes in operating assets and liabilities: Accounts receivable 16,252 3,652 Prepaid expenses and other current assets (128 ) (791 ) Accounts payable and other current liabilities (9,111 ) 2,418 Payments for contingent consideration and bonuses (15,418 ) - Accrued compensation and benefits (5,694 ) (5,004 ) Deferred revenues 1,183 1,121 Net cash (used in) provided by operating activities (8,898 ) 9,718 Cash flows from investing activities: Purchases of property and equipment (2,488 ) (1,994 ) Purchases of intangible assets - (14,611 ) Proceeds from maturity of short-term investment - 20,738 Net cash (used in) provided by investing activities (2,488 ) 4,133 Cash flows from financing activities: Proceeds from issuances of common stock under stock plans 468 1,443 Payments for taxes related to net share settlement of equity awards (2,312 ) (4,651 ) Repurchases and retirement of common stock under share repurchase program - (26,134 ) Principal payments on promissory note and capital lease obligations (82 ) (77 ) Payments for contingent consideration (14,582 ) - Net cash used in financing activities (16,508 ) (29,419 ) Effect of exchange rates on cash and cash equivalents (72 ) (2 ) Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents (27,966 ) (15,570 ) Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 224,764 302,028 Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $ 196,798 $ 286,458 QUOTIENT TECHNOLOGY INC. RECONCILIATION OF NET LOSS TO ADJUSTED EBITDA (Unaudited, in thousands) Three Months Ended

March 31, 2020 2019 Net loss $ (16,725 ) $ (13,228 ) Adjustments: Stock-based compensation 7,526 8,048 Depreciation, amortization and other (1) 10,594 8,544 Change in fair value of contingent consideration 460 3,062 Interest expense 3,574 3,439 Other (income) expense, net (580 ) (1,531 ) Provision for income taxes 230 26 Total adjustments $ 21,804 $ 21,588 Adjusted EBITDA $ 5,079 $ 8,360 (1) For the three months ended March 31, 2020, Other includes restructuring charges of $1.5 million and certain acquisition related costs of $0.2 million. For the three months ended March 31, 2019, Other includes certain acquisition related costs of $0.8 million. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005815/en/

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WASHINGTON - Rep. John Ratcliffe, President Donald Trump's pick to be the nation's top intelligence official, vowed Tuesday to "speak truth to power" and resist pressure from the president or any official to shade intelligence, seeking to assuage Democrats concerned about his willingness to provide candid information free from political considerations.

"Regardless of what anyone wants our intelligence to reflect, the intelligence I will provide if confirmed will not be altered or impacted by outside influence," Ratcliffe, R-Texas, said in his confirmation hearing to become the director of national intelligence overseeing 17 intelligence agencies.

The hearing was the first confirmation proceeding to be held in the middle of the coronavirus lockdown. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., explained that to follow social distancing rules, senators would come in and out of the hearing room as they asked questions, rather than gather together, as is customary. Many wore masks under their chins. Hand sanitizer was on the dais.

Much of the hearing focused on Democrats' concern that the congressman, a highly partisan member of House intelligence and judiciary committees, would be insufficiently independent and side with the president in his persistent attacks on the intelligence community.

Several senators, including Susan Collins, R-Maine, pressed Ratcliffe on whether he agreed with Trump's statement last year that the intelligence community had "run amok" and needed to be "rein[ed] in."

After initially not answering the question, Ratcliffe conceded that he did not agree. But when pressed repeatedly by Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., if he would publicly disavow such a claim by the president, he did not commit, saying only, "I don't think the men and women of the intelligence agencies are running amok."

Trump made the charge when he first nominated Ratcliffe, a former federal prosecutor, to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence last summer. The congressman withdrew after only five days in the wake of criticism that he overstated his resume and had not played a significant role in prosecuting terrorism cases, as Ratcliffe had claimed during his run for Congress.

"I have to say that, while I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt in this hearing, I don't see what has changed since last summer, when the president decided not to proceed with your nomination over concerns about your inexperience, partisanship, and past statements that seemed to embellish your record," said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. "This includes some particularly damaging remarks about whistleblowers, which has long been a bipartisan cause on this committee."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a former committee chairwoman, pressed Ratcliffe on his previous accusations that an intelligence community employee who filed a whistleblower complaint about Trump's phone call last year with the president of Ukraine "made false statements" and "didn't tell the truth."

Ratcliffe replied that he didn't want to "re-litigate" Trump's impeachment and said his concerns were not that the whistleblower process was abnormal but that Trump had not received "due process" before the House of Representatives.

"I want to make it very clear, if confirmed as DNI, every whistleblower, past, present and future, will enjoy every protection under the law," he said.

Ratcliffe diverged with the president in standing by the intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election - a conclusion that Trump has questioned repeatedly. But he was careful to note that intelligence agencies and congressional investigators found no evidence that foreign hackers altered vote counts - a finding that Trump has said bolsters his contention that Moscow did not sway the election in his favor.

The intelligence community and the Senate Intelligence Committee, which conducted a lengthy investigation, did not examine whether Russian propaganda swayed public opinion or influenced voter decisions.

Ratcliffe said that in his conversations with the president he was never asked whether he would be loyal to Trump, something the president is known to have demanded of some officials.

Ratcliffe repeatedly assured lawmakers that he would follow the law and said that the DNI is an intelligence adviser, not a policymaker, which prompted an exchange over the use of torture, which Trump condoned as a candidate.

When Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, asked Ratcliffe if he believed that waterboarding is a violation of U.S. law banning torture, the congressman answered, "I believe torture is illegal."

When King pressed if Ratcliffe thought it would be "OK" if the law were changed to allow waterboarding, he said: "The obligation I have is to follow the law. The constitution and law of the country is the oath that I take." He added he did not want to wade into a "policy decision," which "the DNI should not be involved in."

The committee heard from Ratcliffe as senior administration officials have pressed spy agencies for evidence to back an unproven theory that a government lab in Wuhan, China, was the source of the global pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 70,000 Americans.

Some senators, probing whether China bears responsibility for the coronavirus outbreak, asked if Ratcliffe was aware of any intelligence that, as Trump has indicated, the virus originated in the Wuhan lab. Ratcliffe said he was not, adding that it has "been a while" since he'd had a classified briefing on the pandemic.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Okla., asked whether it was appropriate for the president "to set collection priorities" on "urgent national questions," of which the source of a pandemic would be one. Ratcliffe said he thought it was.

King admonished his colleague, saying the question should be, "Where did the virus come from?," not "Do you think it came from a lab?"

Ratcliffe said he believed that China was "the greatest threat" to U.S. national security, overtaking foreign terrorism and cyberattacks. "Look at where we are with respect to covid-19, and the role that China plays, the race to 5G, cybersecurity issues - all roads lead to China now," he said.

Although Democrats and Republicans alike were initially cool to Ratcliffe's nomination last year, congressional observers said he is likely to win swift confirmation in the Republican-controlled Senate.

On the Senate floor Tuesday, Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., called Ratcliffe "a deeply partisan cheerleader for the president" and "a yes-man in the worst sense of the phrase." But many members are also eager to replace the acting DNI, Richard Grenell, an outspoken Trump loyalist and the current ambassador to Germany, believing that a permanent DNI will be more accountable to Congress, according to congressional aides.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Ratcliffe is qualified to hold the position, which by law requires the DNI to have "extensive national security expertise." Collins, who co-wrote that law, echoed her previous comments that she also believes Ratcliffe meets the requirements.

After the hearing, Burr, the committee chairman, called Ratcliffe "incredibly transparent" and said that he showed he was "more than capable" of being DNI. Burr said he hoped to hold a committee vote as soon as next week, followed quickly by a vote on the Senate floor.

- - -

The Washington Post's Mike DeBonis contributed to this report.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 23:41:37|Editor: huaxia

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JOHANNESBURG, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The Fair Trade Independent and Tobacco Association (FITA) has served government with legal papers over the cigarettes sale ban during the lockdown.

FITA has filed papers with the North Gauteng high court, arguing that the government had no right to keep the tobacco ban during lockdown stage 4 which came into effect on May 1.

The court papers have been filed against Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and President Cyril Ramaphosa.

FITA which presents six tobacco companies claimed the sale ban during lockdown had impacted the economy.

"Our attorneys served a high court application challenging the decision by the government to ban the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products during level 4 of the national lockdown," FITA said.

The organization said that it decided to take the matter after engagements with government failed.

"FITA has resorted to this step as a means of last resort. Regrettably, all attempts to engage government in a meaningful manner to resolve this particular issue have proven to be unsuccessful," it said.

The organization said that it was up to the court to decide on the way forward.

President Ramaphosa commented on the tobacco ban in his Monday's letter, noting that the ban during stage 4 was taken after discussions by members of the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC).

"There has been much public comment on government's decision to extend the prohibition on the sale of tobacco products into level 4. A decision like this is bound to be controversial, but it is wrong to suggest that there are Ministers or President doing and saying whatever they want on this matter," he said.

Despite the court papers, some organizations within the food sector have come out to support government's decision to ban the sale of tobacco during this time, arguing that the ban would lessen the number of people admitted into public hospitals due to smoking-related health problems.

It's not the first time that the government has been challenged over some regulations during the lockdown, the liquor industry also threatened to go to court over the ban of alcohol sale. Enditem
A wholistic tumour sampling method that more accurately detects genetic alterations in tumours, which are critical in allowing treatment to be personalised to each and every patient, has been developed by researchers from the Crick, Roche and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and published in Cell Reports.

Today, to help doctors select treatment options for cancer patients, a sample from their tumour can be DNA sequenced. This aims to find mutations in the DNA which mean the tumour is either susceptible or resistant to a specific treatment. The results of this test therefore have a significant impact on treatment choices and the patient's prognosis.

However, the genetics of tumours are complex because they are often made up of different groups of cells which vary genetically and sit in different parts of the tumour.

Current sampling methods can miss this genetic diversity because they use tissue taken from just one small location in the tumour. In routine practice, on average, only five in a million cells from the tumour (0.0005%) are tested. This means that clinicians are making treatment decisions based on potentially incomplete information, which can lead to patients potentially missing out on the therapies that would give them the highest chances of survival.

Initially, the concept of improved sampling was tested in lung and bladder cancers, where a simulation of improved sampling reduced misclassification rates in deciding whether a patient was suitable for immunotherapy from 20% to 2% and from 52% to 4% respectively, when compared to current methods.

Based on this finding, they developed a technique called representative sequencing, which builds a more accurate picture of a tumour's DNA. This works by taking the majority of the tumour removed at surgery - tissue that is not currently sampled and is routinely discarded - and mixing it so that cells from different areas of the tumour are more evenly distributed. A sample is then taken from this mixture to be DNA sequenced.

The researchers tested this new method in 12 patients with kidney, breast, colon, lung or skin cancer. Comparing the new and current methods, they found that representative sequencing gave far more consistent results, as it avoids the bias of looking at just one small part of the tumour tissue. Instead, the new method is able to capture information from a well-mixed representation of the whole tumour, meaning much more data is collected which is also of better quality. As an analogy, the new test takes a higher viewpoint and is more like a police search using a helicopter, rather than tracking a criminal just from one location on the ground.

The method, which was developed in partnership with researchers from the Crick, Roche Diagnostics and The Royal Marsden and published in Cell Reports is being further tested in 500 tumours at The Royal Marsden in London to further establish its feasibility and utility. The researchers hope that, following successful results, it will be rolled out further.

"By equipping clinicians with more accurate information about a tumour, we hope our method will lead to patients and treatments being significantly better matched. Additionally, there is an opportunity for critical biological insights to be made by increasing the search space within each tumour," says Samra Turajlic, group leader at the Crick and Consultant Medical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden.

Through extensive testing on a case of kidney cancer, the representative sampling method gave identical genetic results 95% of the time, compared to only 77% consistency with the current methods. Similarly, in a case of skin cancer the new method correctly identified a highly complex and difficult to treat cancer from the outset, whereas the current method missed important genetic information.

"This method is more accurate, has more reproducible results and has the same sequencing cost as the current technique. In fact, by introducing an extra, simple purification step, it could become much cheaper than the existing process. It could be a gamechanger for tumour sampling in hospitals and in research," says Kevin Litchfield, lead author and bioinformatician in the Translational Cancer Therapeutics Laboratory at the Crick.

"Through this work, we've addressed a major obstacle for solid tumor diagnostics using a straightforward method that can be implemented in the clinic,'' says Nelson Alexander, the project's principal investigator at Roche Molecular Solutions. "It's a great demonstration of the impact that collaborations between public and private institutions can have on longstanding challenges in healthcare."

Professor David Cunningham, Director of Clinical Research at The Royal Marsden, said, "The selection of patients who will benefit from cancer therapies remains a major challenge - some patients get excellent, long-lasting tumour control whereas other patients may suffer side effects but without benefit. This simple but ingenious revision to an established technique to analyse tumour DNA should facilitate a more personalised approach to the treatment of cancer patients."

###

Notes to Editors

* For parts of this study, researchers used data from the Cancer Research UK-funded, UCL-sponsored TRACERx and PEACE studies.

* The Francis Crick Institute is a biomedical discovery institute dedicated to understanding the fundamental biology underlying health and disease. Its work is helping to understand why disease develops and to translate discoveries into new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, infections, and neurodegenerative diseases.

An independent organisation, its founding partners are the Medical Research Council (MRC), Cancer Research UK, Wellcome, UCL (University College London), Imperial College London and King's College London.

The Crick was formed in 2015, and in 2016 it moved into a brand new state-of-the-art building in central London which brings together 1500 scientists and support staff working collaboratively across disciplines, making it the biggest biomedical research facility under a single roof in Europe.

http://crick.ac.uk/

* The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust opened its doors in 1851 as the world's first hospital dedicated to cancer diagnosis, treatment, research and education.

Today, together with its academic partner, The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), it is the largest and most comprehensive cancer centre in Europe treating over 50,000 NHS and private patients every year. It is a centre of excellence with an international reputation for groundbreaking research and pioneering the very latest in cancer treatments and technologies.

The Royal Marsden, with the ICR, is the only National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre for Cancer. This supports pioneering research work carried out over a number of different cancer themes.

Since 2003, The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity has funded the latest developments in cancer research, diagnosis, treatment and patient care. Over recent years, supporters of The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity have funded facilities including the Oak Centre for Children and Young People, the da Vinci robots, the CyberKnife radiotherapy machine and the Reuben Foundation Imaging Centre.

HRH The Duke of Cambridge became President of The Royal Marsden in 2007, following a long royal connection with the hospital.
ONE of Ireland's top criminal lawyers has been charged with stealing from a defendant and perverting the course of justice by falsifying documents.

A court heard solicitor Cahir O'Higgins (45) told gardai: "I am surprised at this allegation... I am not guilty."

He is facing trial on the charges and the case against him was adjourned for the preparation of a book of evidence.

Judge Colin Daly remanded him on continuing bail in his absence for the preparation of a book of evidence.

Mr O'Higgins was not required to be present when his case came before Dublin District Court this morning.

With an address at Cahir O'Higgins and company, Kingsbridge House, Parkgate Street, he is charged with stealing 400 from a defendant who was before the courts on July 30, 2016.

The theft is alleged to have happened at Londis on Parkgate Street, near the Criminal Courts of Justice.

Mr O'Higgins is also charged with four counts of falsifying documents to pervert the course of justice.

Two counts are alleged to have taken place within the state on December 8, 2017 and another two at the Bridewell Garda Station on December 12 that year.

According to the charges, Mr O'Higgins produced to gardai a copy of notes purported to have been made by him on July 30, 2016, the date of the alleged theft.

Two of the charges allege that the copy of notes produced to the gardai were not made on the date purported, the other two allege that it contained information that Mr O'Higgins knew to be untrue.

It is alleged this was with intent to pervert the course of public justice, in the context of a criminal investigation in respect of an allegation of theft against him.

Detective Garda Colm Kelly told the court he arrested Mr O'Higgins at the Bridewell Garda Station for the purpose of charge at 2.28pm on April 7 last.

Between 2.51pm and 2.56pm, he was charged by Garda Sergeant Dave O'Leary, in Det Gda Kelly's presence, Det Gda Kelly said.

He was cautioned and in reply to all the charges, Mr O'Higgins said: "I am surprised at this allegation. I am not guilty. I will answer it at the appropriate time in court."

The Director of Public Prosecutions was directing trial on indictment on all matters, Det Gda Kelly said. This means the case will be sent forward for trial by judge and jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court when a book of evidence is ready.

Det Gda Kelly said the DPP would consent to the accused being sent forward on a signed plea of guilty should this arise.

Defence barrister Karl Monahan said there was an issue of prosecutorial delay in the case.

Judge Daly said that would be a matter for the trial.

"It's a matter I am required to put on the record at this time," Mr Monahan said.

Judge Daly remanded Mr O'Higgins on continuing bail in his absence to appear in court on June 16, for the service of a book of evidence.

Mr O'Higgins is managing partner of his firm which provides a full range of legal services including criminal defence and human rights law. His firm has represented clients at all levels of the criminal justice system and he has frequently featured on lists of Ireland's top paid legal aid solicitors.
In times of immense gratitude for nurses nationwide, the campaign celebrates and marks National Nurses Week, May 6-12, 2020. To honor the legacy of Florence Nightingale, Interim HealthCare has also launched a remote learning mini lesson plan for parents and educators to leverage with school-aged children.

Interim HealthCare believes the indelible influence left by Florence Nightingale is now timelier than ever as she envisioned the future of healthcare being at home. A trailblazer in the nursing profession, Florence Nightingale's work set the standards for modern nursing by campaigning for better public health practices, including innovative hygiene, safety and social distancing techniques. She believed in leveraging data and statistics to advocate and advance the science of nursing and helped promote the importance of supplies and what would later include items considered personal protective equipment (PPE). In 1870, Florence Nightingale was quoted saying, "It will take 150 years for the world to see the kind of nursing I envision."  and here we are, living amid a global pandemic where her vision has become reality.

"As healthcare's brightest guiding lights, we celebrate the work of nurses throughout the ages and advocate for their profession and their safety on the job," said Jennifer Sheets, Interim HealthCare Inc. president and CEO. "When patients look into the eyes of a nurse, they often seek comfort, a spark of hope. It is in those exchanges, the hands held and the tears shed, that bring them back to their jobs every day. As a nurse, I know what it is like to have these moments, and they are my motivation to do the best for the healthcare industry to this very day."

To celebrate the launch of "The Year of Us," Interim HealthCare is asking nurses, "What's your #FloMent?"  the defining moment in a nursing career inspired by Florence Nightingale, a time when their career embodied the character, convictions and vision that made Florence Nightingale extraordinary. As a leader in home care services, Interim HealthCare is proud to have a leadership team with more former nurses than any other franchise or home healthcare team across the country. Several of them reflect and share their #FloMents as a deep and heart-felt thank you for nurses, by nurses:

Darlyn Baker, RN and owner of Interim HealthCare of Bakersfield: "My #FloMent was in 1993. Being a hospital bedside nurse was like a hobby for me. It never seemed like a job. When I realized patients were leaving sicker and quicker and needing to be cared for by their families, I knew I could make a difference. I didn't know a thing about home health care. I just knew that's where I needed to be. That is why I established Interim HealthCare in Bakersfield."

and owner of Interim HealthCare of Bakersfield: "My #FloMent was in 1993. Being a hospital bedside nurse was like a hobby for me. It never seemed like a job. When I realized patients were leaving sicker and quicker and needing to be cared for by their families, I knew I could make a difference. I didn't know a thing about home health care. I just knew that's where I needed to be. That is why I established Interim HealthCare in Bakersfield." Jane Hinton, RN , CFE and Chief Clinical Officer at Interim HealthCare Inc.: "My #FloMent is tied to learning and growing and taking on a leadership role in nursing. That's what Florence Nightingale embodiedshe was a nursing leader. Throughout my career, I've looked to her as the model for what leadership in nursing should be and I've tried to emulate it through nursing education, leadership and advocacy."

, CFE and Chief Clinical Officer at Interim HealthCare Inc.: "My #FloMent is tied to learning and growing and taking on a leadership role in nursing. That's what embodiedshe was a nursing leader. Throughout my career, I've looked to her as the model for what leadership in nursing should be and I've tried to emulate it through nursing education, leadership and advocacy." Sharon Collins, RN , CHPN and Chief Operating Officer of Interim HealthCare of Oklahoma City : "My #FloMent was in a local store, believe it or not. A woman whose father I had cared for recognized me, walked right up to me and hugged me. I sat with her father as he passed away, about five or six years prior. We proceeded to talk about her father, what he meant to her and how much the care meant to her family. As a nurse, I sat with many patients as they transitioned from this life to the next, and it was always special, always intimate. But, something in that moment made a lasting impression on her. It was a beautiful moment to know that something I did meant so much to her family. I remember thinking, 'Wow, this is good.' This is what I was supposed to do."

Please join Interim HealthCare in expressing our collective gratitude and honoring the nurses who support our communities and the amazing contributions of nurses like Florence Nightingale have given the world. Nurses across the healthcare system are invited to define a moment in their nursing career that was inspired by Florence Nightingale  a time when they were empowered as a nurse, or felt that drive to make a real difference in healthcare using the social media hashtag #FloMent.

Among the many interactive activities planned for the week, nurses may also enter win multiple "The Year of Us" 2020 Nurses Week prizes including a care package with Hand & Stone gift cards for future spa treatments, sweet treats from Nothing Bundt Cakes as well as gear fit for nurses such as industry leading foot wear, a professional nursing bag and other equipment. Please visit www.2020ihcnursesweek.com to enter.

For parents and educators in need of engaging lessons for students (especially for those teaching remote learners), the team at Interim HealthCare developed a mini-lesson plan on the life, work and impact of Florence Nightingale. Her story, particularly relevant for those interested in science, math, and healthcare and for those who want to learn more about role model female leaders, is excellent content to integrate in this week or next week's learning modules. Easy-to-do and manage-at-home activities include a short biography and video of Florence Nightingale, a discussion guide, ideas for scavenger hunts, games, coloring pages, and more. Materials will be available on the Interim HealthCare Nurses Week website.

For more information on Interim HealthCare's celebration of Nurses Week, please visit www.2020ihcnursesweek.com.

About Interim HealthCare Inc.

Interim HealthCare Inc., founded in 1966, is a leading national franchisor of home care, hospice and healthcare staffing. It is part of Caring Brands International, which also includes UK-based Bluebird Care and Australia-based Just Better Care, both well-known franchise brands in their countries. With more than 530 franchise locations in seven countries, Caring Brands International is a global healthcare leader.

Interim HealthCare in the United States is unique in combining the commitment of local ownership with the support of a national organization that develops innovative programs and quality standards that improve the delivery of service. Franchisees employ nurses, therapists, aides, companions and other healthcare professionals who provide 25 million hours of home care service to 190,000 people each year, meeting a variety of home health, senior care, hospice, palliative care, pediatric care and healthcare staffing needs. For more information or to locate an Interim HealthCare office, visit www.interimhealthcare.com .

SOURCE Interim HealthCare Inc.

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Jaime Casap joins Gift of College as a strategic advisor. I greatly admire Jaimes commitment to bringing educational opportunities to all Americans regardless of their socioeconomic status. Higher education is critical for opening doors to a better futureand that should not require astronomical debt, said Wayne Weber, CEO and founder, Gift of College.

Gift of College, an innovative platform that enables crowdfunding for college, today announced the appointment of Google Chief Education Evangelist Jaime Casap as a strategic advisor. In this capacity, Casap will leverage his passion and experience to enhance the power of the Gift of College platform to help families better achieve their higher learning goals.

I greatly admire Jaimes commitment to bringing educational opportunities to all Americans regardless of their socioeconomic status. Higher education is critical for opening doors to a better futureand that should not require astronomical debt, said Wayne Weber, CEO and founder, Gift of College. Jaimes personal triumphs and professional achievements are impressive and were thrilled to have him on board as an advisor to harness his thinking and philosophy to take our award-winning products to the next-level.

In his role at Google, Casap evangelizes the power and potential of technology and the web as enabling and supporting tools in pursuit of inquiry-based learning models. He collaborates with school systems, educational organizations, and leaders around the world focused on building innovation into our education policies and practices. He speaks on education, technology, innovation, and Generation Z at events around the world.

Casap is also the author of Our First Talk About Poverty, a tool to create meaningful discussions with children about poverty. He serves on a number of boards for organizations focused on education and equity. In addition, he teaches a 10th grade communications class at the Phoenix Coding Academy a computer science public school he helped launch in Phoenixand guest lectures at Arizona State University.

Education is a powerful tool. All too often people are excluded from higher education due to the financial barriers to entry, and fear of being shackled by crushing student loan debt. The current systems we have in place arent working and clearly need to be amended, said Casap. Im excited to work with Gift of College to help broaden the importance and impact of saving for college and helping individuals achieve a debt free future.

For more information about Gift of College, visit http://www.GiftofCollege.com.

About Gift of College

Gift of College helps families address one of their most critical concerns: paying for higher education. An innovative platform that enables crowdfunding for college, Gift of College helps friends, family, and employers to contribute to any 529 college savings, student loan or 529 ABLE account. Its suite of products and services includes Gift of College Gift Cards (available online and at over 3000 retailer locations including select Target stores, Save Mart, Lucky and H-E-B) and Gift of College At-Work, an employee benefit platform offering payroll deduction and employer contribution technology. Learn more at http://www.giftofcollege.com. Follow Gift of College on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Bob and Cortney Novogratz are navigating the coronavirus pandemic by working on projects from home, talking to clients, contractors and vendors by phone and video meetings and keeping six of their seven kids focused on schoolwork.

The husband-wife design team shifted from their Manhattan base to their vacation home in the Berkshires because it seemed safer. Their three school-aged kids came with them, of course, and three college-age children came home from school, too. (Their oldest, Wolfgang Novogratz, is 22 and a working actor.)

They design large projects all over the world for well-heeled clientele, but on a recent day they were more concerned with their internet connection at home. It was sketchy and their kids couldnt stay connected to do their homework, so Cortney booked two rooms at a nearby hotel because the place was vacant and had better WiFi.

In addition to a variety of home projects for clients and building two houses, the Novogratz  they refer to themselves as a couple as the Novogratz  are promoting their latest book, Novogratz Design Fix: Chic and Stylish Tips for Every Decorating Scenario.

More Information Tips from "Novogratz Design Fix" Flea markets: There are great bargains to be had at flea markets. Arrive early, take cash and when you see something you like, buy it. (It's not likely to be there when you go back for it.) Vintage items you can find here add personality to your home. Shelves: Mix books (arranged by color or size), decorative items, photos, keepsakes and plants. Creating an open floor plan: Remove nonstructural walls. Use a single paint color and one flooring choice throughout for continuity. Splurges: Spend your money where it matters, things such as good steel windows and doors, reclaimed wood floors and nicer kitchens. (Tip: You'll save money buying floor samples.) Lighting: Mix vintage and modern, high and low; hang the best lighting in the main areas of your home. Trees: Plant fruit trees and in addition to shade and privacy, you'll also get free fruit. Man caves: Channel Ralph Lauren rather than TGI Fridays. Remember that comfortable seating can be stylish and don't let the TV overtake the space. Window treatments: They're essential for every window and function should dictate what you use - more formal draperies for more formal rooms and less formal shades for kids rooms and the kitchen. Blackout shades and draperies are needed in bedrooms. Bedrooms: Better beds and bedding are worth the investment since we spend one-third of our lives in bed. See More Collapse

In 11 chapters they present 11 favorite projects that cover a lot of ground: a large home in Hollywood Hills that was their own and required a massive makeover, a classic townhouse, a prefab surf shack, even an Airbnb space.

Bob Novogratz recently spoke with the Chronicle about their book, design trends and the value of art.

Q: Your book covers such a variety of sizes and styles of homes, and is very how-to at a time when so many other design books focus on beautiful rooms in big-budget homes.

A: I think this is our fourth book and we like for each to be a little different. We do such unique projects, the castle in California or the townhouse in Manhattan but we also did a trailer in Montauk and an Airbnb in the Pacific Northwest and a bungalow in San Diego. Theres also a mix of high and low like weve always done. We have a lot to say about a lot of different things  trends, smaller living and shared experiences. We like to keep old houses and bring them back to life.

Q: Two chapters are homes that were your own  do you keep seeing the same problems in homes, or do you just like to reinvent older homes for life in them today?

A: We try to find the next big area. Hollywood Hills has always been a hot area, but the few blocks around us werent as expensive as some others. It was a weird house when we bought it. We always make them a little different from everyone else. Thats how we do better than everyone else; people will pay a premium if a house is unique.

In L.A. people want views, privacy and parking  those are the big three. To me, the yard was the biggest thing; we played wiffle ball in the backyard with the kids. That, to us, was awesome.

Q: Lets talk about the first chapter, the Castle House. You gave it a major makeover only to sell it to celebrities (The Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus and actress Diane Kruger).

A: The Castle House was a 100-year-old house and a silent screen star had owned it. In L.A., everyone knocks things down and we didnt want to do that. We took it to the studs and redid it.

Q: What do you think are the most difficult elements for people who are trying to pull it together themselves?

A: One thing we always do well is we buy a wreck, gut it and start fresh  its the best way to do it. You go in a house and its OK, but not your aesthetic. Its in good shape but dated. You have to rip it up anyway, so it doesnt matter how ugly it is. Most people dont have the vision to see that.

Q: Color seems to be an important element of your designs. Does color take care of a lot of problems?

A: We use every color in bedrooms. Color is something Cortney and I always responded to. Its a quick fix and an easy fix, and if its wrong and you dont like it you can change it. Few of us can do plumbing or electrical work or hang wallpaper, but most of us can paint. Color makes you happy  and it gives a house personality and a sense of fun, which a lot of homes lack.

Q: Art plays a big role in your homes. What advice would you give someone wanting to start buying art?

A: Weve collected art for 25 years. Houston is a great art city. Art is something people think they need permission to start collecting. They dont know how to get going  what do I spend, what kind do I buy? We talk about art in one chapter; art is a great way to add color to a home.

I say everything is relative to your own budget. Did you see the story about Art Basel in Miami? Someone bought a banana peel for $120,000. A guy put a banana peel on wall and someone actually paid him $100,000 or something like that. We tell the story of the yellow tape measure. A guy at an art show had a tape measure on the table  everything in the booth was $50,000 and up  and this woman says how much for the tape measure? He said $60,000 and she said would you take 55? He said lady, it is just a tape measure. I say you should read about the emperors new clothes.

(Note: The starting price for the banana peel was $100,000 but in the end, three buyers purchased it together for $390,000. It really was just a banana peel stuck to a wall with duct tape.)

If youre buying something expensive, research it a little. Find out where youd buy it and who else is in the gallery. Have they had any art in museums? Theres also inexpensive art. You can buy oil paintings in flea markets or limited-edition prints. Colleges all over the country have great art departments and you can buy from students.

I always bought young artists. Now, very few people can afford anything but young artists. Its fun to buy a young artist and later see them do well.

You guys (in Houston) have great museums and galleries. My 22-year-old took a girl on a date and I said take her to a gallery. Museums are free and galleries are free and fun

Q: What are the essential elements for a good room?

A: Its changed for us through the years. I think the bones of the house are the most important thing. The millwork and the hardwoods and tiles. The best houses weve taken over had good bones to start with. Good bones are hard to recreate.

Q: What do you want people to learn from your book?

A: If they take away one or two ideas from each chapter, then weve done our job. We want to give people permission to take chances.

diane.cowen@chron.com

Sign up for Cowens Access Design newsletter, delivered to your inbox Tuesdays, at houstonchronicle.com/accessdesign.
Huawei has two new budget-friendly smartphones nearing launch: the Huawei Y5P and Huawei Y6P. Press renders and key specs of the two devices have now leaked online.

Huawei Y5P renders and specs leak

The upcoming Huawei Y5P is the companys new entry-level offering. It features a 5.45-inch LCD display with HD+ (1440 x 720) resolution and an 18:9 aspect ratio. The display doesnt have a notch housing the front-facing sensors and the selfie camera, which is a 5-megapixel sensor.

Huawei has instead opted for huge bezels here, a design which is obsolete now. On the back of this phone is a single 8-megapixel camera with an LED flash.

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Under the hood of the Huawei Y5P is the MediaTek Helio P22 SoC with a paltry 2GB RAM and 32GB storage. It does have a dedicated MicroSD slot that supports cards of up to 512GB capacity. It also comes with dual SIM support.

A 3,020mAh battery fuels this phone, with Huawei promising 10W fast charging via a Micro-USB slot. It boots the Android 10-based EMUI 10.1 out of the box. The images accompanying the leak reveal that the Huawei Y5P gets a 3.5mm headphone jack as well. Theres no fingerprint reader on this phone, which isnt surprising given its positioning in the market.

The Huawei Y5P has a dimension of 146.570.948.35 mm and weighs 144 grams. It appears this phone is a rebranded version of the Honor 9S, which was announced late last month. It packs the exact same specs. A patterned back panel is seemingly the only change on the new phone.

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So it should be priced pretty similarly as well. The Honor 9S is listed on the Honor Russia website with a price of RUB6,990 (roughly $95). The Huawei Y5P comes in Midnight Black, Phantom Blue, and Mint Green color options.

Huawei Y6P packs better specs

The Huawei Y6P is significantly better specced than the Huawei Y5P. It features a 6.3-inch Full HD+ (1600 x 720) LCD display with a waterdrop notch. The tiny notch houses an 8-megapixel front-facing camera.

This phone also has a triple camera setup on the back. The vertically stacked camera array consists of a 13-megapixel, a 5-megapixel, and a 2-megapixel sensor. The back panel also houses a capacitive fingerprint reader.

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The Huawei Y6P is powered by the same MediaTek Helio P22 SoC as the Huawei Y5P. However, it gets more RAM and storage capacity. Theres 3GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, expandable by up to 512GB via a MicroSD card. Dual-SIM support, 35.mm headphone jack, and Android 10 OS are on board this phone.

This phone also gets a much bigger 5,000mAh battery that charges via a Micro-USB port. Its unclear if itll support the same 10W fast charging or Huawei will improve things here as well.

The Huawei Y6P has a dimension of 159.0774.069.04 mm and weighs 185 grams. This phone also looks a lot like the Honor 9A, which costs RUB10,990 (roughly $150) in Russia. Huawei is prepping the Y6P in Hot Black, Hot Purple, and Hot Green color.

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Theres no word yet on when the Chinese company plans to release its new budget-friendly phones. It also remains to be seen if theyll be limited to certain markets or will be made available globally.
Ariel Winter was seen running an essential errand on Monday as she took her dog to the vet in Studio City, California.

The Modern Family star, 22, was in a pair of tight sweatpants and she paired them with a cute navy blue t-shirt that displayed the phrase 'Be a nice human' on the front.

The actress tucked her feet into a pair of black Ugg-style boots, and she carried a delicate white purse across her frame.

Dog mom: Ariel Winter was seen running an essential errand on Monday as she took her dog to the vet in Studio City

Ariel had on her red and black face mask outfitted with round ducts, and she wore her still new orangey red hair down.

Her thumb was still bandaged up.

Winter was greeted by the veterinarian staff outside the clinic, after waiting outside with her pooch who looked to be of a cattle breed.

Casual: The Modern Family star, 22, was in a pair of sweatpants with boots

Last cuddles: Winter was greeted by the veterinarian staff outside the clinic, after waiting outside with her pooch who looked to be of a cattle breed

The Sofia the First actress has recently been isolating with her Luke Benward, with whom things seem to be getting serious.

The starlet clearly seems to be enjoying quarantine with her new boyfriend, as she reportedly dropped $227 last Friday on takeout from Katsuya in the neighborhood for a meal with him.

Ariel also recently took to her Instagram story as they celebrated their first Easter together, posing with an Easter basket they received from Luke's mom.

Cute snap: The Sofia the First actress has recently been isolating with her Luke Benward, with whom things seem to be getting serious

The actress made famous by her role of Alex Dunphy celebrated another special occasion last month as well, when the 11-year run of Modern Family came to a close.

Winter began her stint on the show when she was just 11 years old, literally growing up in front of American television audiences over the last decade.

On April 7th, she took to Instagram in honor of the series finale airing the following night with a gallery of images and video.

She began caption of the post with, 'Its been an amazing journey with my #ModernFamily  Its hard to type this because it still doesnt feel real...'

Then and now: Winter began her stint on Modern Family when she was just 11 years old, literally growing up in front of American television audiences over the last decade
Australia has unveiled its first military aircraft to be built on home soil in 50 years.

The Loyal Wingman unmanned drone will fly alongside fighter jets including Strike Fighters, Super Hornets and Growlers to provide support and intelligence.

The drone has been built by Boeing Australia with a $40million investment from the federal government - and another two are on the way.

The plane, with a range of 3,700km, can hold several systems including a radar, an infrared search and track system and a defensive laser system.

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The Loyal Wingman unmanned drone (pictured) will fly alongside fighter jets including Strike Fighters, Super Hornets and Growlers to provide support and intelligence

It has a removable nose so one system can be taken away and another attached, depending on the mission.

The drone has been unveiled at a time when Australia looks to bolster its defence force amid rising tensions with China.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said: 'We're investing to enhance the agility and capability of the Australian Defence Force so we can protect our nation and our allies.

'It means Australia can sharpen its edge and prepare for the future.'

Beijing has been infuriated by Australia's demands for an inquiry into coronavirus and has threatened to harm the Australia economy in revenge.

The drone (pictured) has been built by Boeing Australia with a $40million investment from the federal government

The dispute comes after a torrid year for Australia-China relations saw clashes over political interference, human rights abuses in western China and Huawei 5G equipment.

Former Australian ambassador to China Geoff Raby told Daily Mail Australia that diplomatic relations are 'at their lowest point since they began 46 years ago'.

The Loyal Wingman program has helped support around 100 high tech jobs in Australia.
On May 21, the 2020 graduating class at The College of New Jersey will don its caps and gowns, preparing to walk to the schools alma mater and listen to congratulatory remarks before receiving its diplomas.

But Lions Stadium will sit empty.

Like schools around the country, the coronavirus outbreak has forced New Jerseys colleges and universities to postpone commencement ceremonies or move them to the virtual sphere, as gathering in small groups  let alone a crowd of thousands  proves too risky for spreading the virus.

That means university staff must make tough decisions and upend traditions. But the dilemma has also pushed them to explore creative ways to celebrate.

TCNJ mailed students their caps and gowns early, and encouraged them to take and submit photos. Staff then created a presentation that will showcase the students in a mock procession. As the photos flash across the screen, a remotely produced version of the schools alma mater will play, recorded individually by 98 members of the concert ensemble and patched together over hours by a professor.

Its a way to maintain that connection to each other and the community and the college, said Heather Fehn, the chief of staff and secretary to the TCNJ Board of Trustees. Its a horrendous time for everyone, but this is a way for us to celebrate with them, their achievements. Nothing can erase or diminish the work that theyve put in.

Rutgers University will stream a virtual celebration May 31 for its New Brunswick campus, featuring commencement guest speaker Lester Holt of NBC News.

In this time of uncertainty, celebrating graduation is more important than ever, because it brings us together to recognize achievements with a sense of pride and admiration, even amidst social distancing," Robert Barchi, the universitys president, said in a statement.

Rutgers has also encouraged students to celebrate on social media, using pre-made frames and stickers as well as hashtags on Facebook and Instagram to share photos with friends and family.

Many of the ceremonies will be pre-recorded and posted to the schools websites. With recent issues involving Zoombombing," colleges feared a possible hijacking of their events.

The challenge is it cant be a Zoom meeting, Joe Cardona, a spokesman for Rowan University, said of the videoconference app. You have a lot of people there in a giant format.

Rowan is keeping its ceremony short, with pre-recorded remarks that will last about 30 minutes. Cardona said the school hopes to hold commencement in the fall.

Stockton University, Princeton University and Kean College are among other colleges that have announced virtual commencements.

When students began to depart campus, many thought they would return in a few weeks to finish the semester. Seniors still envisioned themselves walking at graduation.

But as the pandemic spread, some students began to realize what they would lose. Drew University students held a mock graduation during their last days on campus, dressing in trash bags and makeshift caps as they accepted fake diplomas.

Many students still hold out hope for a time to celebrate in person, surrounded by family and friends. Some colleges, like Rowan, plan to hold in-person commencements in the fall.

At TCNJ, the virtual celebration will replace the schools larger campus-wide event, but administrators still want the individual schools within the college to hold their smaller ceremonies later this year.

Those really are the more intimate, personal kinds of ceremonies. Its really what TCNJ is about, Fehn said. We wanted to try to preserve that the best that we can. Theyre so unique, those ceremonies.

"We know its not exactly the same thing being together with over 10,000 people in one place, but were doing everything we can to preserve that.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Amanda Hoover may be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj.
Workers stories demonstrated how warehouses would have to be radically altered to allow for the type of distancing needed to ensure their safety  a change that seems unlikely. Read more

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In mid-April, Gov. Tom Wolfs administration ordered all businesses that were allowed to remain open during the coronavirus pandemic to increase safeguards for their employees.

But within the cavernous expanses of Pennsylvanias warehouses  a booming industry that employs tens of thousands of workers  some say theyve yet to see much difference. They face an increasingly stark choice: Quit, risk losing their job by speaking out, or resign themselves to the fact that theyre at high risk for the virus.

Reopen? said one employee at an Amazon fulfillment center in Luzerne County, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the media. We never closed. Plain truth: No one cares about us.

The workplace safety order that took effect April 19  a full month and a half after the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania  requires employers to provide masks, stagger work times, and enforce social distancing of at least six feet to prevent worker illnesses. As of Monday, cases topped 50,000 with 2,458 reported deaths.

Asked about worker concerns last week, Wolf said its up to employees to make their concerns known, and up to their employers to rectify issues. But workers said their complaints were largely ignored by managers and federal regulators. Whats more, the state hasnt proactively enforced the safety order.

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And yet, as Pennsylvania begins the reopening process, success will in part hinge on how well workplaces follow social distancing and other safety protocols. Workers across the state in businesses that never shut down  including warehouses, meatpacking plants, and other facilities  are sounding the alarm about how that might go without more oversight.

Im thankful I have a job, but it was stressful enough already, said a worker at an Apple fulfillment center in Cumberland County run by Syncreon. Now theres a threat of exposure [to COVID-19]. Its flat-out greed.

Interviews with eight warehouse workers from three companies  Amazon, Hudsons Bay Co., and Syncreon  described similar stories of a slow response to the pandemic, a lack of transparency from their employers, and, in some cases, ongoing deficiencies in providing safety equipment, promoting proper distancing, and sanitizing work spaces.

They spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal. In a few cases, workers said they were warned they would face disciplinary action or lawsuits if they spoke publicly.

Amazon employees noted that as part of their training, they were warned not to speak publicly about the company. They described a culture in which management threatens reprisal against anyone who criticizes the company. In recent weeks, Amazon fired a New York warehouse worker who staged a protest and two white-collar employees who circulated a petition denouncing the treatment of workers during the pandemic.

In a statement, Amazon said it has a zero tolerance policy for retaliation but that we firmly believe that  direct communication is the most effective way to understand and respond to the needs of our workforce.

Following early cases at warehouses and meatpacking plants in the Lehigh Valley and Northeastern Pennsylvania, workers say theyve struggled to learn the true rate of infection among their coworkers.

At Amazons AVP1 fulfillment center near Hazleton  which was under federal investigation because of an early spike in cases  workers say management stopped sharing that information. They started their own unofficial tally, which at last count was 64 and growing.

Why [am] I going to expose myself for people getting stupid things like sexual dolls, grills, bed frames, exercise machines? said one Amazon employee, who took unpaid leave from a warehouse outside Scranton. I put my life first.

An Amazon spokesperson, Rachael Lighty, declined to provide specifics on worker infections, but rejected the employees claims. She said the company has worked closely with health authorities to proactively respond, ensuring we continue to serve customers while taking care of our associates and teams. The company employs 10,000 people at more than a dozen fulfillment centers and offices statewide.

A Hudsons Bay Co. spokesperson said its warehouses follow all health guidelines, noting that associates are under no pressure to work if they are uncomfortable. Hudsons Bay owns Saks Fifth Avenue. Syncreon did not respond to requests for comment.

To Marielle Macher, a workers rights advocate and executive director of the Community Justice Project, these complaints are commonplace.

Weve been hearing really horrific stories from warehouse and meat processing workers, she said. It really is just impossible to truly socially distance.

Indeed, workers stories demonstrate how warehouses would have to be radically altered to allow for the type of distancing needed to ensure worker safety  a change that seems unlikely.

An employee of Syncreons warehouse near Carlisle, which stores and ships Apple electronics, described an area recently dubbed Corona Alley by some workers. Its one of several choke points where between five and 10 workers move packages between two sets of pallets.

Its a madhouse, he said. People on top of people.

The employee said the company took steps to encourage social distancing in its break room but other areas remained all but impossible to correct.

At a warehouse near Pottsville run by Hudsons Bay that ships orders for Saks, an employee said management provided personal protective equipment. But the company would have to fully redesign the facility to allow for the advised six feet of distance between workers on the conveyor belts.

Time is of the essence, said the employee, who believes the facility should shutter until its safe to reopen. No ones going to stop and sanitize everything theyve touched and somebodys always going to be coming up against one another in close quarters.

Even in the best of times, these workers faced significant workplace hazards and little recourse for their complaints with rates of illness and injury on par with coal mining and farming, according to national data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nearly all of them are at-will employees lacking union protections.

The state has no single entity designated to handle workplace complaints, and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has historically been overburdened and underfunded.

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Elizabeth Rementer, a spokesperson for Wolf, said workers who believe their employers arent following the order can file a complaint online through the Department of Health and with their local police department. The health agency has the authority to send letters and issue fines, she said, and local and state police can issue warnings or citations that come with a maximum fine of $300.

Department of Health spokesperson Nate Wardle said the agency has sent letters but couldnt provide figures or copies.

Workers said they have complained to little effect.

Believe me  weve complained and complained and complained, said an employee at AVP1, who pointed to the lack of enforcement behind Wolfs order closing all non-"life-sustaining" businesses. What does it mean? What will they actually do?

So far, the state police have issued just one citation against a nonessential business for violating Wolfs March 19 shutdown order. That business was warned twice. Since the safety order took effect April 19, troopers have issued 25 warnings and no citations.

The Hudsons Bay employee said she repeatedly called both the Department of Health and OSHA with complaints about working conditions. When she called OSHA, she said, a regulator commiserated with her plight but said the agency wasnt going to send an inspector.

Nobody was really going to be checking to see if the businesses were following the CDC guidelines, she said. If youre in a workplace that didnt close, you didnt have anybody to turn to.

Some local officials are taking enforcement of workplace protection into their own hands. That includes Hazle Township in Luzerne County, home of AVP1.

We knew early on from the enormity of the situation that the state and federal government wouldnt have people available to check, said Jim Montone, who chairs the townships board of supervisors. Were trying to be proactive and help the people who work there.

Montone said the township is dispatching code enforcement officers when it receives a workplace complaint but he concedes it doesnt have much power to ensure equipment like masks are provided. Theyve found cooperation nonetheless, he said.

OSHA confirmed that it received three complaints from AVP1, which were deemed resolved after regulators corresponded with Amazon. The agency can issue fines for violating workplace safety rules but has thus far shown deference to employers dealing with the pandemic.

OSHA standards havent changed, U.S. Department of Labor spokesperson Emily Weeks said in a statement.

Weeks said employers are required to protect workers from recognized hazards, including the coronavirus. That could entail steps like cleaning, disinfection, and engineering controls, like partitions to separate workers from one another and from customers.

As of April 23, the most recent data available, the agency had received 2,609 coronavirus-related complaints nationally, she said. All complaints are investigated and of those received, 1,527 had been closed.

Still, many workers have taken unpaid leave out of fear of infection due to what they see as an absence of proper precautions and lack of information about the spread of COVID-19. Some warehouses, including Amazons, allowed workers with preexisting conditions to use paid time off or unpaid leave.

Amazons unpaid leave policy, however, expired Thursday. Communications from management shared by employees indicated that anyone who didnt return to work after that date would be terminated.

The Hudsons Bay employee took leave from her job in mid-April out of concern for her health as several of her coworkers came down with COVID-19. But that wasnt the end.

Although her employer allowed her to take leave, shes spent hours on the phone navigating the states unemployment compensation backlog.

When her leave expires, she plans to return to work, although she doesnt feel any safer.

Honestly, the reason I want to go back to work is so I dont have to deal with unemployment and all the worries, she said. Its just easier.

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New events company aims to become 'largest technology-focused business community' in the industry



LONDON, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A new company has been launched to provide business and technical leaders with the knowledge, tools and connections to drive successful digital and business transformation. Business Technology Research (BTR) will build a new community by delivering insights, events and training, in a move designed to promote the adoption of technologies that will shape the future of business.

BTR will host a number of forums and conferences in its first year, addressing and exploring topics such as digital transformation, emerging technologies, privacy and security, data and analytics, Fintech and Responsible Technology.

Its inaugural event will be Digital Assets Live, to be held in London on Thursday 24th September. The interactive conference - which has already received support from leading organisations including State Street, Citi and Standard Chartered - will explore the future of digital assets, digital securities and blockchain enabled asset tokenisation.

This portfolio of specialist events will be supported by additional training workshops, whilst the company's product offering will grow to incorporate standalone training and bespoke in-house courses moving forward.

The BTR team - which is being headed-up by Portfolio Director Kieran Found - will also continue to publish a host of free resources on its website, including white papers, in-depth reports, case studies, videos and blogs.

This new organisation is owned by parent company Partnership Media Group (PMG), who already run more than 650 exhibitions, conferences and training courses each year through its public sector focused business GovNet, which are attended by more than 40,000 people. This includes the Schools & Academies Show, HETT, GovTech, Skills & Employability Summit, and Blockchain Live.

Kieran Found said: "Our number one priority when launching Business Technology Research is to deliver a range of products that facilitate a 'grown up conversation' on digital transformation and emerging technologies while steering clear of hype and hyperbole.

"Due to the devastating outbreak of COVID-19 we had to significantly alter our plans, but feel with the world of work radically changing, it is more important than ever to help businesses embrace digital change and the opportunities presented by technology."

James Tucker, Chief Operating Officer at PMG, said: "We want BTR to become the largest technology-focused business community in the world and provide our members with the education, skills and connections to successfully drive their transformation projects forward.

"We have assembled a highly knowledgeable team - many of whom have played a key role in the overwhelming growth and success of Blockchain Live - to ensure all of BTR's future events are proficiently planned and expertly delivered."

Website: www.btrhub.com

LinkedIn: Business Technology Research

Twitter: @BTR_Hub

Established in 2020, BTR is committed to building the largest technology-focused business community in the world. BTR is part of Partnership Media Group (PMG), and sister company of GovNet Communications.

BTR Contact:

Kieran Found

Portfolio Director

Tel: +44 203 770 6553

Kieran.Found@btrhub.com

www.btrhub.com

Media Contact:

Chris Dolan

Prolific 10

Tel: 07838114228

chris@prolific10.com

www.prolific10.com
As shutdowns continue in Massachusetts, residents have voiced their support for efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus and believe in the kindness of their neighbors amid the ongoing health crisis.

In a new poll conducted by Suffolk University in concert with WGBH News and The Boston Globe, Massachusetts residents were surveyed last week regarding the local response to COVID-19 and disruptions to their day-to-day lives.

Gov. Charlie Baker saw strong support for his administrations efforts. About 84% of respondents said they approve of how he is handling the coronavirus outbreak in Massachusetts. About 10% disapprove. The remaining 6% were undecided or declined to answer.

President Donald J. Trump saw significantly lower approval numbers in the Bay State. About a quarter of respondents said they approved of the presidents response to the outbreak. About 66% said they disapproved. Just under 9% said they were undecided.

When asked of the stay-at-home advisory for Massachusetts being extended until May 18, 85.2% of respondents said they supported the measure.

When asked how long they could endure their current situation," the most popular response was indefinitely.

About 37.6% responded they could endure shutdowns as long as theyre needed. About 28.6% of respondents said a few more months while about 21.4% said a few more weeks.

About 7.2% said they could not endure this much longer - up about 5% from a poll in late March.

Most polled believe life will look better a year from now and that their sense of community has remained intact amid the ongoing health crisis.

When asked if people in Massachusetts are mostly generous and kind to others or mostly selfish and looking out for their own interest," the majority - 72.8% - said their neighbors were generous and kind during this time.

These answers came as our way of life has significantly changed during shutdowns, with schools closed through the end of the year and many out of work.

Since COVID-19s impact began rippling through the economy, more than 30 million Americans have filed unemployment claims. In Massachusetts, 725,000 residents filed for unemployment in the past six weeks.

Just under half of those surveyed reported their income impacted by shutdowns.

Residents reported adapting to the new normal way of life, including over 90% of respondents saying they wear a mask.

About half reported wearing a mask only when social distancing isnt possible, such as inside a grocery store, while about 40% said they wear a mask whenever outside their homes.

An overwhelming majority reported they were strict or pretty strict about social distancing, with respondents choosing those answers 69.4% and 24.2%, respectively.
Even amid the most grim times  when the novel coronavirus is on a rampage affecting millions of people across the world  tiny slivers of hope, endurance and resilience appear.

One such instance has been reported from Gujarat, where a 27-year-old HIV-positive patient has won the battle against the deadly COVID-19 infection.

What is even more startling is that the patient, from Kumarkhan village of Viramgam taluka, is severely anaemic, with a haemoglobin count of 2.3g/dl, The Times of India has reported. The normal haemoglobin levels are anywhere between 12 and 16.

The patient was admitted to the civil hospital in Asarwa in Ahmedabad on April 15 and was discharged on May 4.

Ahmedabad District Development Officer Arun Mahesh Babu told the newspaper that the patient was a challenge for the medical team.

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

He was given three blood transfusions during the 20-day stay at the hospital. Before being infected by coronavirus, the patient was regularly taking his antiretroviral therapy.

But, in the end, it was the medical teams resolve and the patients will to survive that won the battle, the officer said.

Even though the patients initial blood reports did not seem encouraging, and the chances of his survival were bleak, he fought on.

On being asked if HIV-positive patients can beat COVID-19, Infectious Diseases Specialist Dr Atul Patel told the newspaper, In todays medical scenario, an HIV-positive person, who is on anti-HIV medication, is not considered immuno compromised anymore.

The HIV virus attacks the human immune system, making them more susceptible to diseases. However, Dr Patel asserted that HIV-positive patients can beat any illness, if given the right treatment and support.

The civic hospital at Ahmedabad is preparing a detailed report on the patients progress as it is one of the most rare cases in the country and may boost future research.
A new paper published on the preprint server medRxiv* in April 2020 suggests, based on mathematical models, that premature removal of lockdown restrictions in India could be highly counterproductive, enhancing the secondary spread of COVID-19, pushing up the number of fatalities and prolonging the course of the pandemic in India.

New Delhi, India - March 16, 2020, People wearing masks due to Covid-19 virus outbreak in India. Image Credit: Deepak Bhoj / Shutterstock

How Indias lockdown began

In January 2020, when the news of a few cases of viral pneumonic illness in an obscure Chinese city appeared in the papers, few in India could have foreseen the course of the next few months. Progressing from a solitary case in Kerala, at Indias southern tip, on January 30, 2020, the virus has inexorably taken its toll, affecting over 46,000 people in different states, with almost 1,500 deaths as of May 5, 2020.

When the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus outbreak to be a pandemic on March 11, 2020, it also appealed to the world to take preventive measures to diagnose active cases, isolate them with their primary contacts, and ensure timely treatment of severe infection.

In India, the first case was a student who had returned from Wuhan. A returnee from Italy followed this, and then an Italian tourist party with their guide was detected to be positive in Rajasthan. Subsequently, the number of cases went up all over India, though gradually as first, as is the want of this virus.

Maharashtra and New Delhi had the highest number of cases as of March 14, at 14 and 7 cases, respectively. Currently, the totals here are almost 12,300 and 4,100, respectively, but Gujarat has overtaken Delhi with over 5,000 cases at present.

As the virus tore through Wuhan and the surrounding regions of China, leaving its trail of disease and death, the government of India announced a series of rapid-fire restrictions.

These began with shutting down international flights, quickly progressed through social distancing measures, and shutting down all public transport (buses, trains, and flights) to the declaration of a lockdown at the national level on March 24, 2020.

Why India needed a lockdown

The rationale behind such comprehensive and apparently impulsive moves is simple: India has a massive population of 1.35 billion, with inadequate tertiary healthcare coverage and limited infrastructural health resources. This leaves it open to a much higher risk of rapid and overwhelming spread of the infection than most other developed countries.

The government of India needs the full cooperation of its people, therefore, to contain the community spread of the virus, by informing them of the real risks of the situation and securing their willing compliance with quarantine and social distancing measures. These are aimed at slowing person-to-person spread.

AMRAVATI, MH, INDIA 22 MARCH 2020: Parked trains at Amravati railway station during curfew imposed as a preventive measure against the COVID-19, Appeal of Prime Minister Indi. Image Credit: CRS PHOTO / Shutterstock

How was the current study done?

The current study is an epidemiological attempt to model the outcome of these measures using the right mathematical models. Existing research suggests that pandemics typically show an exponential pattern of growth at the beginning, but then flatten out.

In this study, the different models used by researchers to predict how the case infection rate increases are evaluated.

Exponential phase

In the first phase, the exponential model is useful as it reflects the spread of the virus, using a J-shaped curve. This model does not predict the downward phase or decay of the curve and the plateau phase.

The current phase of the pandemic in India, according to this study, is the second phase, where exponential growth has given way to steady growth. This type of increase in cases cannot, therefore, be predicted by the exponential model.

Logistic model

This model predicts the course of disease spread in the presence of constraints, such as the restrictions placed on the mobility of people, medical facilities dedicated to the care of COVID-19 patients, and total lockdown conditions. This leads to a change in the number of people classified as susceptible to infection because of the isolation imposed under these conditions. The change in the number of infected people is calculated correspondingly.

SEIR Model

SEIR refers to the adaptation of a popular paradigm used to predict the growth of a population or the spread of a disease, namely, Susceptible-Infectious-Removed (SIR). In pandemics, this is modified; namely, the Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Removed (SEIR) model, to ensure greater accuracy since it includes a lot of factors that influence the growth rate due to the virus spread.

Taking into account the actions taken by the government to limit the spread, the researchers have come up with an equation to predict the outcome in terms of the caseload.

The number of confirmed cases was obtained from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) and COVID-19 websites, beginning from March 5, 2020, which marked the first day of the lockdown, to April 23, 2020. The researchers then projected the pattern of spread over the next 42 days, beginning from the end of the second phase of the lockdown, that is, May 2, 2020, to June 14, 2020, adjusting for the impact of government interventions.

The 42-day period was divided into three cycles, lasting 14 days each, representing one incubation period each.

What are the study results?

With the end of the second phase of the lockdown on May 2, the government needs to consider two different modes of action. First, it has to continue to promote social distancing and isolation to keep the pandemic toll at bay. Secondly, it has to take measures to revive the economy after a prolonged period of recession. Thus, unless due consideration is given, India may head towards disaster, both in terms of health and financial management.

Using data from the earliest days from the imposition of lockdown in India, the researchers looked at the impact of this measure on the rate of disease transmission as reflected in the number of cases.

Using a linear growth model, the researchers projected their estimate of the number of cases and fatalities at present. Once the lockdown is lifted, the other two scenarios will come into play. One is based on an optimistic view of the virus spread, the other pessimistic.

Optimistic vs. pessimistic outlook

With the optimistic view, the researchers predict that the virus spread will continue as at present, with new cases appearing every day, to peak in the second week of May. After this point, the curve points downward to touch rock bottom on June 14, 2020, with about 40 new cases being reported daily. According to this scenario, Indias COVID-19 scenario will end in the third week of June 2020, has affected about 78,000 people. The fatalities will touch about 2,440.

With the pessimistic scenario, the outbreak will follow the worst possible pattern. The total number of cases will continue to go up until the middle of June 2020, with daily new cases peaking in the last week of May 2020.

The total number of cases will cross 208,000 at this point, with about 283,000 people being infected as of June 14, 2020. After that, the growth of the pandemic will slow down slowly, over another 4-5 weeks, to end in the second week of July 2020. Overall, about 10,200 people will die.

What are the options?

Healthwise, complete lockdown for a period of 70 days, or 10 weeks, will be the best option to achieve a near-complete control of viral spread in India. They quote Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet, as commenting that lifting the lockdown on May 3 will be a grave error, triggering the second wave of the pandemic. In fact, this will make the earlier investment and efforts a fruitless exercise. The model in view here is the 10-week lockdown of Wuhan, which resulted in the successful containment of the virus. A second option is to continue the lockdown for 70 days while allowing essential activities to resume after May 3. This is still a potential cause of spreading infection, first among essential workers and then to their contacts or to people near them. This situation, therefore, places the onus of watchfulness on the government to prevent an outbreak. Lift the lockdown  this will be a serious error, making contact tracing impossible and leading to a situation where the number of cases is so high as to overwhelm the pathetic healthcare situation in India at large. Compared to developed countries such as the USA, the UK, Spain, Italy, and France, the COVID-19 infection rate has not really taken off until now. The researchers attribute this slow rate of increase to the firm government action in limiting social interactions between people not from the same household.

The way forward

The reasonable conclusion is that India is not ready to have the lockdown lifted, at least in states with ongoing active infection. Restrictions on travel are essential in this fight to avoid the rapid spread of readily transmissible viruses like SARS-CoV-2, even assuming no local transmission is occurring.

Even as lockdown measures continue, quarantine should be enforced by the authorities, along with the appropriate treatment of the sick, to mitigate the pandemic in India.

Complete lockdown should always be accompanied by random testing on a mass scale along with the testing of suspects. Contacts must be aggressively traced to catch the scale of secondary spread. This is where a strict lockdown is useful to break the chain of transmission.

The model is limited by its failure to take into consideration several vital measures and parameters such as the health status of the patient, relative immune status of various population groups, passive immunization, temperature, population density, and demographic factors.

The researchers quote virologist Ian Lipkin as advising the twin strategies of aggressive testing and isolation of hotspots (clusters of infection). If these are put in place, the government may allow relaxation of the lockdown to pursue essential activities, especially concerning livelihood activities. With such a balanced plan in place, the government may be able to bring about a moderate measure of control of the spread of the virus, while facilitating economic recovery over the long term.

*Important Notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Thousands of stranded Indians in countries like the UK, the UAE and the US due to the coronavirus-induced travel restrictions would be brought back by special flights and the Indian missions abroad were gearing up for the massive operation.

India imposed a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the country, grounding all international flights since mid-March. Under the repatriation plan, the government will be facilitating the return of Indian nationals stranded abroad on compelling grounds in a phased manner.

Air India will operate 64 flights from May 7 to May 13 to bring back around 15,000 Indian nationals stranded abroad amid the COVID-19 lockdown, it was announced in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Around seven special Air India flights are being scheduled from London Heathrow Airport to Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Bengaluru starting on Thursday, Indian High Commission said in London.

According to officials, the more vulnerable cases will be given priority for booking on to these flights, to be paid for by the passengers, who will also have to sign an undertaking to go into a 14-day quarantine on arrival in India.

"This will come as a big relief to Indians who find themselves stranded in the UK and have been desperate to return," said Ruchi Ghanashyam, the outgoing Indian High Commissioner to the UK.

The Indian government announced plans to facilitate the return of Indians stranded abroad on compelling grounds in a phased manner on Monday.

For the UK, Air India will start by operating non-scheduled commercial flights from London between Thursday and next Tuesday. It will start with flights from London Heathrow to Mumbai, followed by flights to Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Chennai and New Delhi.

Due to limited number of these flights, priority will be given to carry people who are in the most vulnerable categories such as elderly people, pregnant women, people facing medical emergencies, people who have bereavements or serious illnesses in their families in India, stranded tourists etc, the Indian mission in London said.

Medical screening of passengers would be done before taking the flight. Only asymptomatic passengers would be allowed to travel, it said.

Over 200,000 expatriates in the UAE have registered so far to travel back to India.

The first two special flights that will operate from Thursday to evacuate Indians stranded in the UAE due to the coronavirus pandemic will begin with applicants from Kerala, who formed the majority of the expatriates who have registered to be repatriated from here, Indian Ambassador to the UAE, Pavan Kapoor said.

"The missions have prioritised the list of passengers and have given it to Air India. We would call and email each passenger to contact Air India to get their tickets issued. The first two flights on Thursday would be to Kerala, considering the high number of applicants from the state, Kapoor was quoted as saying by the Gulf

He said the priority list includes blue collar workers in distress, people with medical emergencies, including the elderly and pregnant women, and those who have lost jobs, the report added.

The passenger list for the two flights -- Abu Dhabi to Kochi and Dubai to Kozhikode -- will be finalised by the Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi, and the Consulate General of India, Dubai, the Indian Consulate in Dubai announced on Monday.

The list will be made on the basis of registrations in the Embassy or Consulate database which was launched for this purpose a few days back, it added.

In Kochi, a defence ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday that a naval ship has been sent to Dubai. The INS Shardul was diverted to Dubai to evacuate the expatriates and it will return to Kochi, he said.

The special evacuation flights for thousands of Indians stranded in the US are most likely to begin this week from San Francisco and other cities, according to officials.

While no exact dates have been announced yet, the flights could take off from San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Washington DC, the officials said.

Given that a large number of Indian students and visitors are stranded in the US because of the strict travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, more flights are likely to be scheduled in the coming weeks.

Community leaders have welcomed the move of the Indian government which on Monday announced that special flights facilitating the return of Indian nationals stranded abroad on compelling grounds would begin in a phased manner from May 7.

The Indian embassy and its consulates in the US last week started preparing a list of Indians planning to travel back home. The list is being prepared through an online registration form.

A note on the mission's website makes it clear that the government will be facilitating the return of Indian nationals stranded abroad on compelling grounds in a phased manner.

Medical screening of passengers would be done before boarding the flight and only asymptomatic passengers would be allowed to travel, it says.

All passengers on arrival in India would be medically screened and would have to register on Arogya Setu app.

The cost of travel from designated airport in the USA to the designated airport in India will be borne by the passenger, according to the note.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
MONTREALQuebec is moving to gradually ease some restrictions on seniors living in private residences whove been asked to remain largely hunkered down since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Healthy residents who live in homes without confirmed COVID-19 cases and are physically able will be allowed to take walks now without supervision, and will be able to go to essential services beginning May 11.

We know the situation is very difficult. Autonomous people have been isolated for two months now, Premier Francois Legault said Tuesday. Weve imposed this for public health reasons, (but) its time to let them return to a more normal life.

Horacio Arruda, Quebecs director of public health, said the relaxing of rules will apply to all people in the province over 70 who are otherwise healthy.

Arruda warned that measures including social distancing, washing of hands and wearing a face mask still apply and the rules could change should the number of COVID-19 cases begin to spike.

Provincial authorities also announced that for humanitarian reasons, families would now be permitted to visit those in palliative care.

And caregivers access to long-term care homes would become the rule rather than the exception.

Although caregivers were told theyd be allowed to return in mid-April, Legault said the province found that many residences were continuing to deny their presence, sometimes for logistical reasons, so it would be up to homes to justify why they arent accepting them.

Quebec is still grappling with a shortage of employees in the health sector, with 11,200 missing from the front lines because they are infected with COVID-19 or reluctant to return to work.

Legault called on those workers whove completed their 14-day quarantine  about one-third of those missing in action  to return to work.

Meanwhile, Quebec announced 118 new COVID-19 deaths compared with the prior day, for a total of 2,398.

The province also recorded another 794 positive cases of COVID-19, for a total of 33,417 confirmed cases.

Legault also confirmed hed asked that the numbers relating to long-term care homes be removed from the governments website because of errors.

He said 306 long-term and seniors residences in the province have at least one COVID-19 cases, with 4,804 residents infected.

Read more about:
CHICAGO, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- S2G Ventures (Seed to Growth), a multi-stage venture fund investing in food and agriculture, launched a new podcast series today focused on the trends and innovations shaping food and agriculture.

The podcast, " Where We Grow from Here ," offers perspectives and stories focused on innovation by those who are advancing the overall quality, accessibility, and sustainability of the food system.

Hosted by S2G Ventures leadership, the podcast's most recent episode (published today) features a captivating conversation with Andrey Zarur, co-founder and CEO of Greenlight Biosciences and Charlie Cooney, a biotech pioneer and Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT. Andrey and Charlie talk about the potential for RNA to combat COVID-19, as well as it's incredible potential with a host of other applications in human, planet, and animal health.

Two other new episodes are also live, featuring compelling conversations with innovators at the front lines of food access and production. Featured guests include Walter Robb, former co-CEO at Whole Foods Market and Executive-in-Residence at S2G Ventures, Sam Polk, co-founder and CEO of Everytable , and Corwin Heatwole, founder and CEO of Shenandoah Valley Organics -- makers of Farmer Focus .

Twice a month, listeners will hear insightful interviews with leading entrepreneurs and innovators driving the future of food forward. Upcoming episodes will include entrepreneurs, business leaders, industry experts, and policymakers offering their unique perspectives on building a food system designed for the 21st century and beyond.

"Today's entrepreneurs and innovators are critical catalysts for much-needed change in our food system," said S2G Ventures' Chief Investment Officer Sanjeev Krishnan. "Through this new channel, our goal is to inspire deeper conversations around harnessing the power of food innovation to create a healthier planet."

Live episodes with further episode details can be found here . In addition to S2GVentures.com, the podcast is available on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Stitcher and Google Play .

About S2G Ventures (Seed 2 Growth)

S2G Ventures (Seed to Growth) is a multi-stage venture fund investing in food and agriculture. The fund's mission is to catalyze innovation to meet consumer demands for healthy and sustainable food. S2G has identified sectors across the food system that are ripe for change, and is building a multi-stage portfolio including seed, venture and growth stage investments. Core areas of interest for S2G are agriculture, ingredients, infrastructure and logistics, IT and hardware, food safety and technology, retail and restaurants, and consumer brands. For more information about S2G, visit www.s2gventures.com or connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn .

Contact:

Ally Dunne, Zeno Group

[email protected]

+1 (224) 234-0689

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The mounting global backlash against China stemming from the country's handling the early days of the coronavirus pandemic has apparently registered with Beijing's political leaders, Reuters reports.

An internal report drawn up by the China Institutes of Contemporary International found that anti-China sentiment around the world is at its highest point since 1989 following the Tiananmen Square student demonstrations, which Beijing cracked down on by declaring martial law and sending the military to occupy parts of the capital.

The think tank's research was reportedly presented in early April to top Chinese Communist Party officials, including President Xi Jinping. Reuters' report is based off sources who have direct knowledge of the findings, though the news outlet has not seen the briefing itself. If reports of its contents are accurate, it would at least confirm Beijing is taking the backlash seriously, though Reuters notes it's unclear if those concerns will ultimately influence policy.

The paper reportedly concluded the rising anti-China sentiment is in part a result of American efforts to undermine public confidence in Beijing amid the crisis. Relations between the two super powers are fragile at the moment, and the White House has been ramping up its criticism of China's coronavirus response, accusing the CCP of covering up information about the virus' severity and origin. Read more at Reuters.

More stories from theweek.com

Member of Trump's reopening council warns we'll 'have body bags of businesses' if they remain closed

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French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed plans to gradually reopen schools next week amid concerns from mayors, teachers and parents about the timing.

Macron, wearing a mask, visited a primary school in a suburb west of Paris on Tuesday that has remained open for children of health workers.

More than 300 mayors in the capital region, including Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, urged Macron in an open letter to delay the reopening of primary schools scheduled for next week.

They denounced an untenable and unrealistic timetable to meet the sanitary and safety conditions required by the state, including class sizes capped to a maximum of 15. The majority of French children attend public schools.

Many parents say they won't send their children back to school as France is one of the world's hardest-hit countries by the coronavirus.

France starts lifting confinement measures on May 11, with businesses to resume activity and parents to return to work.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is holding a press conference Tuesday to update the public on the coronavirus outbreak, which has infected more than 175,651 people in New York City, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

De Blasio announced Monday New York City will distribute 7.5 million free cloth and non-medical face coverings immediately to further prevent the spread of Covid-19. He added that the city is sending more than 1.9 million surgical masks to nursing homes across the five boroughs.

"Wherever you turn, you're going to be offered a face covering, and it's going to be on an ongoing basis for weeks to come to make sure everyone has what they need," he said.

On Friday, De Blasio announced the city would open 40 miles of streets to pedestrians in May, with a goal to open as much as 100 miles as the weather warms.

"The open streets are going to be another way to help encourage social distancing, because the warmer weather tells us we're going to have a new challenge," de Blasio said at a press conference on Friday.

Last week, de Blasio and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced New York City is suspending 24-hour subway service to disinfect subway cars and protect essential workers during the coronavirus crisis.

However, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which runs the city's public transit system, will still provide buses and "dollar vans" at no cost to essential workers during those hours, Cuomo said.

Read CNBC's live updates to see the latest news on the COVID-19 outbreak.
HAMPTON, N.H., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Planet Fitness, Inc. (NYSE: PLNT) reported financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2020 and provided a further update on its response to COVID-19.

"We entered 2020 with very good momentum and the new fiscal year got off to a strong start," said Chris Rondeau, Chief Executive Officer. "The outbreak of COVID-19 in the U.S. has significantly disrupted our business as well as everyday life. In an effort to protect our members, team members and communities, we and our franchisees made the decision to temporarily close all Planet Fitness stores mid-March. We also took several actions to further strengthen our financial liquidity and flexibility during these unprecedented times. We are working closely with our franchisees and assessing recommendations from state and local governments and health authorities on plans for safely reopening our stores. While there is still uncertainty about the ultimate impact COVID-19 will have on our industry and the overall economy, I am confident that Planet Fitness will emerge from this period well-positioned to further expand its leadership role in the fitness industry."

COVID-19 Update

The majority of stores remain temporarily closed and will reopen when local authorities issue guidelines authorizing the reopening of fitness centers, which has begun to happen in certain localities. Below is a summary of the current status of Planet Fitness and the actions taken to mitigate the financial impact of COVID-19 and preserve liquidity to-date.

Board of Director and Executive Compensation: The Company's Chief Executive Officer, President, Chief Financial and Chief Digital and Information Officers have significantly reduced their base salaries. In addition, the base salaries of other members of senior management were reduced in graduated amounts. The Board of Directors has suspended payment of the annual cash retainer to non-employee directors.

The Company's Chief Executive Officer, President, Chief Financial and Chief Digital and Information Officers have significantly reduced their base salaries. In addition, the base salaries of other members of senior management were reduced in graduated amounts. The Board of Directors has suspended payment of the annual cash retainer to non-employee directors. Corporate-owned stores: We have temporarily furloughed all employees except the store manager at each corporate-owned store location while the store remains closed. These employees are able to continue receiving benefits from the Company.

We have temporarily furloughed all employees except the store manager at each corporate-owned store location while the store remains closed. These employees are able to continue receiving benefits from the Company. Corporate Office: Our corporate headquarters remains closed and our employees are working remotely to ensure their well-being.

Our corporate headquarters remains closed and our employees are working remotely to ensure their well-being. Credit Facility: We fully drew down our $75.0 million Variable Funding Notes to provide additional liquidity.

We fully drew down our Variable Funding Notes to provide additional liquidity. Share Repurchase: We have suspended share repurchases to preserve liquidity and flexibility.

We have suspended share repurchases to preserve liquidity and flexibility. Capital Expenditures: Capital expenditures have been deferred, including new corporate-owned store openings and investments in existing corporate-owned stores.

We have not recognized first quarter revenue related to monthly membership dues collected in March before stores closed due to COVID-19 because as previously announced, members will be credited for any membership dues paid for periods when our stores were closed. We expect to recognize franchise revenue and corporate-owned store revenue associated with those membership dues as stores reopen. Those deferrals have had a significant impact on our first quarter financial results. In addition to these first quarter impacts we expect decreased new store development and remodels, as well as decreased replacement equipment sales for 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

First Quarter Fiscal 2020 results

Total revenue decreased from the prior year period by 14.5% to $127.2 million .

. System-wide same store sales increased 9.8%.

Net income attributable to Planet Fitness, Inc. was $8.6 million , or $0.11 per diluted share, compared to net income attributable to Planet Fitness, Inc. of $27.4 million , or $0.32 per diluted share in the prior year period.

, or per diluted share, compared to net income attributable to Planet Fitness, Inc. of , or per diluted share in the prior year period. Net income decreased 67.2% to $10.4 million , compared to net income of $31.6 million in the prior year period.

, compared to net income of in the prior year period. Adjusted net income (1) decreased 56.0% to $14.4 million , or $0.16 per diluted share, compared to $32.7 million , or $0.35 per diluted share in the prior year period.

decreased 56.0% to , or per diluted share, compared to , or per diluted share in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA (1) decreased 26.6% to $46.5 million from $63.4 million in the prior year period.

decreased 26.6% to from in the prior year period. 39 new Planet Fitness stores were opened during the period, bringing system-wide total stores to 2,039 as of March 31, 2020 .

. Cash and cash equivalents as of March 31, 2020 was $547.5 million .

(1) Adjusted net income and Adjusted EBITDA are non-GAAP measures. For reconciliations of Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted net income to U.S. GAAP ("GAAP") net income see "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" accompanying this press release.

Operating Results for the First Quarter Ended March 31, 2020

For the first quarter 2020, total revenue decreased $21.6 million or 14.5% to $127.2 million from $148.8 million in the prior year period which included system-wide same store sales growth of 9.8%. By segment:

Franchise segment revenue decreased $7.2 million or 11.0% to $58.5 million from $65.8 million in the prior year period, and franchise segment same store sales increased 10.0%. The $58.5 million of franchise segment revenue for the first quarter 2020 does not reflect $18.7 million of deferred royalty and national advertising fund revenue that was collected but not recognized as a result of temporary store closures related to COVID-19;

or 11.0% to from in the prior year period, and franchise segment same store sales increased 10.0%. The of franchise segment revenue for the first quarter 2020 does not reflect of deferred royalty and national advertising fund revenue that was collected but not recognized as a result of temporary store closures related to COVID-19; Corporate-owned stores segment revenue increased $2.5 million or 6.5% to $40.5 million from $38.0 million in the prior year period, and corporate-owned store same store sales increased 7.3%. The $2.5 million increase was driven by higher revenue of $5.5 million from corporate-owned stores opened or acquired since January 1, 2019 , partially offset by lower revenue of $3.0 million from corporate-owned stores included in the same store sales base. The $40.5 million corporate-owned stores revenue for the first quarter 2020 does not reflect $5.9 million of deferred revenue that was collected but not recognized as a result of temporary store closures related to COVID-19; and

or 6.5% to from in the prior year period, and corporate-owned store same store sales increased 7.3%. The increase was driven by higher revenue of from corporate-owned stores opened or acquired since , partially offset by lower revenue of from corporate-owned stores included in the same store sales base. The corporate-owned stores revenue for the first quarter 2020 does not reflect of deferred revenue that was collected but not recognized as a result of temporary store closures related to COVID-19; and Equipment segment revenue decreased $16.8 million or 37.4% to $28.2 million from $45.0 million in the prior year period, due to lower equipment sales to new and existing franchisee-owned stores in the three months ended March 31, 2020 compared to the three months ended March 31, 2019 . Included in the decrease is $10.0 million of lower revenue due to COVID-19.

For the first quarter of 2020, net income attributable to Planet Fitness, Inc. was $8.6 million, or $0.11 per diluted share, compared to net income attributable to Planet Fitness, Inc. of $27.4 million, or $0.32 per diluted share in the prior year period. Net income was $10.4 million in the first quarter of 2020 compared to $31.6 million in the prior year period. Adjusted net income decreased 56.0% to $14.4 million, or $0.16 per diluted share, from $32.7 million, or $0.35 per diluted share in the prior year period. Adjusted net income has been adjusted to reflect a normalized federal income tax rate of 26.8% for the current year period and 26.6% for the comparable prior year period and excludes certain non-cash and other items that we do not consider in the evaluation of ongoing operational performance (see "Non-GAAP Financial Measures").

Adjusted EBITDA, which is defined as net income before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, adjusted for the impact of certain non-cash and other items that we do not consider in the evaluation of ongoing operational performance (see "Non-GAAP Financial Measures"), decreased 26.6% to $46.5 million from $63.4 million in the prior year period.

Segment EBITDA represents our Total Segment EBITDA broken down by the Company's reportable segments. Total Segment EBITDA is equal to EBITDA, which is defined as net income before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (see "Non-GAAP Financial Measures").

Franchise segment EBITDA decreased $10.6 million or 22.4% to $36.7 million . Franchise segment EBITDA for the first quarter 2020 does not reflect $18.7 million of deferred royalty and national advertising fund revenue that was collected but not recognized as a result of temporary store closures related to COVID-19.

or 22.4% to . Franchise segment EBITDA for the first quarter 2020 does not reflect of deferred royalty and national advertising fund revenue that was collected but not recognized as a result of temporary store closures related to COVID-19. Corporate-owned stores segment EBITDA decreased $3.6 million or 22.9% to $12.0 million . Corporate-owned stores segment EBITDA for the first quarter 2020 does not reflect $5.9 million of deferred revenue that was collected but not recognized as a result of temporary store closures related to COVID-19; and

or 22.9% to . Corporate-owned stores segment EBITDA for the first quarter 2020 does not reflect of deferred revenue that was collected but not recognized as a result of temporary store closures related to COVID-19; and Equipment segment EBITDA decreased by $4.0 million or 38.8% to $6.4 million driven by lower equipment sales lower equipment sales to new and existing franchisee-owned stores. Included in the decrease was approximately $2.5 million due to COVID-19 related closures and travel restrictions.

2020 Outlook

For the year ending December 31, 2020, the Company previously withdrew guidance as a result of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Company is not providing an update at this time.

Presentation of Financial Measures

Planet Fitness, Inc. (the "Company") was formed in March 2015 for the purpose of facilitating the initial public offering (the "IPO") and related recapitalization transactions that occurred in August 2015, and in order to carry on the business of Pla-Fit Holdings, LLC ("Pla-Fit Holdings") and its subsidiaries. As the sole managing member of Pla-Fit Holdings, the Company operates and controls all of the business and affairs of Pla-Fit Holdings, and through Pla-Fit Holdings, conducts its business. As a result, the Company consolidates Pla-Fit Holdings' financial results and reports a non-controlling interest related to the portion of Pla-Fit Holdings not owned by the Company.

The financial information presented in this press release includes non-GAAP financial measures such as EBITDA, Segment EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income and Adjusted net income per share, diluted, to provide measures that we believe are useful to investors in evaluating the Company's performance. These non-GAAP financial measures are supplemental measures of the Company's performance that are neither required by, nor presented in accordance with GAAP. These financial measures should not be considered in isolation or as substitutes for GAAP financial measures such as net income or any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP. In addition, in the future, the Company may incur expenses or charges such as those added back to calculate Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income and Adjusted net income per share, diluted. The Company's presentation of Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income and Adjusted net income per share, diluted, should not be construed as an inference that the Company's future results will be unaffected by similar amounts or other unusual or nonrecurring items. See the tables at the end of this press release for a reconciliation of EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Total Segment EBITDA, Adjusted net income, and Adjusted net income per share, diluted, to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.

Same store sales refers to year-over-year sales comparisons for the same store sales base of both corporate-owned and franchisee-owned stores, which is calculated for a given period by including only sales from stores that had sales in the comparable months of both years. We define the same store sales base to include those stores that have been open and for which monthly membership dues have been billed for longer than 12 months. We measure same store sales based solely upon monthly dues billed to members of our corporate-owned and franchisee-owned stores. As a result of COVID-19, 130 franchisee-owned stores and nine corporate-owned stores that would have been in the same store sales base closed prior to the March draft and did not draft in March. These stores were excluded from the same store sales base for March in the same store sales calculation for the three months ended March 31, 2020.

The non-GAAP financial measures used in our full-year outlook will differ from net income and net income per share, diluted, determined in accordance with GAAP in ways similar to those described in the reconciliations at the end of this press release. We do not provide guidance for net income or net income per share, diluted, determined in accordance with GAAP or a reconciliation of guidance for Adjusted net income and Adjusted net income per share, diluted, to the most directly comparable GAAP measure because we are not able to predict with reasonable certainty the amount or nature of all items that will be included in our net income and net income per share, diluted, for the year ending December 31, 2020. These items are uncertain, depend on many factors and could have a material impact on our net income and net income per share, diluted, for the year ending December 31, 2020.

Investor Conference Call

The Company will hold a conference call at 4:30 pm (ET) on May 5, 2020 to discuss the news announced in this press release. A live webcast of the conference call will be accessible at www.planetfitness.com via the "Investor Relations" link. The webcast will be archived on the website for one year.

About Planet Fitness

Founded in 1992 in Dover, NH, Planet Fitness is one of the largest and fastest-growing franchisors and operators of fitness centers in the United States by number of members and locations. As of March 31, 2020, Planet Fitness had more than 15.5 million members and 2,039 stores in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Mexico and Australia. The Company's mission is to enhance people's lives by providing a high-quality fitness experience in a welcoming, non-intimidating environment, which we call the Judgement Free Zone. More than 95% of Planet Fitness stores are owned and operated by independent business men and women.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws, which involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include the Company's statements with respect to expected future performance presented under the heading "2020 Outlook," those attributed to the Company's Chief Executive Officer in this press release, the Company's statements about its share repurchase program and its actions to mitigate the effects of COVID-19, and other statements, estimates and projections that do not relate solely to historical facts. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "believe," "expect," "goal," plan," "will," "prospects," "future," "strategy" and similar references to future periods, although not all forward-looking statements include these identifying words. Forward-looking statements are not assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based only on the Company's current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of the business, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of the Company's control. Actual results and financial condition may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially include risks and uncertainties associated with the duration and impact of COVID-19, which has resulted in store closures and may give rise to or heighten one or more of the other risks and uncertainties described herein, competition in the fitness industry, the Company's and franchisees' ability to attract and retain new members, the Company's and franchisees' ability to identify and secure suitable sites for new franchise stores, changes in consumer demand, changes in equipment costs, the Company's ability to expand into new markets domestically and internationally, operating costs for the Company and franchisees generally, availability and cost of capital for franchisees, acquisition activity, developments and changes in laws and regulations, our substantial increased indebtedness as a result of our refinancing and securitization transactions and our ability to incur additional indebtedness or refinance that indebtedness in the future, our future financial performance and our ability to pay principal and interest on our indebtedness, our corporate structure and tax receivable agreements, failures, interruptions or security breaches of the Company's information systems or technology, general economic conditions and the other factors described in the Company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, and the Company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In light of the significant risks and uncertainties inherent in forward-looking statements, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which reflect the Company's views only as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, neither the Company nor any of its affiliates or representatives undertake any obligation to provide additional information or to correct or update any information set forth in this release, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.





Planet Fitness, Inc. and subsidiaries Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (Unaudited) (Amounts in thousands, except per share amounts)





For the three months ended

March 31,



2020

2019 Revenue:







Franchise

$ 48,910



$ 52,956

Commission income

390



994

National advertising fund revenue

9,229



11,812

Corporate-owned stores

40,516



38,044

Equipment

28,186



45,011

Total revenue

127,231



148,817

Operating costs and expenses:







Cost of revenue

21,846



34,486

Store operations

26,157



20,905

Selling, general and administrative

16,953



18,154

National advertising fund expense

15,205



11,812

Depreciation and amortization

12,792



9,907

Other loss

11



368

Total operating costs and expenses

92,964



95,632

Income from operations

34,267



53,185

Other expense, net:







Interest income

1,927



1,798

Interest expense

(20,240)



(14,749)

Other expense

(687)



(3,318)

Total other expense, net

(19,000)



(16,269)

Income before income taxes

15,267



36,916

Provision for income taxes

4,884



5,277

Net income

10,383



31,639

Less net income attributable to non-controlling interests

1,776



4,230

Net income attributable to Planet Fitness, Inc.

$ 8,607



$ 27,409

Net income per share of Class A common stock:







Basic

$ 0.11



$ 0.33

Diluted

$ 0.11



$ 0.32

Weighted-average shares of Class A common stock outstanding:







Basic

79,098



83,806

Diluted

79,723



84,425



Planet Fitness, Inc. and subsidiaries Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited) (Amounts in thousands, except per share amounts)





March 31, 2020

December 31, 2019 Assets







Current assets:







Cash and cash equivalents

$ 547,494



$ 436,256

Restricted cash

63,226



42,539

Accounts receivable, net of allowance for bad debts of $79 and $111 at March 31, 2020 and

December 31, 2019, respectively

21,082



42,268

Inventory

2,820



877

Deferred expenses  national advertising fund

10,363





Prepaid expenses

7,263



8,025

Other receivables

9,969



9,226

Other current assets

2,253



947

Total current assets

664,470



540,138

Property and equipment, net of accumulated depreciation of $81,585 and $73,621 at March 31, 2020

and December 31, 2019, respectively

145,114



145,481

Right of use assets, net

150,284



155,633

Intangible assets, net

229,709



233,921

Goodwill

227,821



227,821

Deferred income taxes

456,322



412,293

Other assets, net

1,916



1,903

Total assets

$ 1,875,636



$ 1,717,190

Liabilities and stockholders' deficit







Current liabilities:







Current maturities of long-term debt

$ 17,500



$ 17,500

Accounts payable

37,640



21,267

Accrued expenses

21,063



31,623

Equipment deposits

5,394



3,008

Deferred revenue, current

53,593



27,596

Payable pursuant to tax benefit arrangements, current

26,468



26,468

Other current liabilities

18,506



18,016

Total current liabilities

180,164



145,478

Long-term debt, net of current maturities

1,684,727



1,687,505

Borrowings under Variable Funding Notes

75,000





Lease liabilities, net of current portion

148,006



152,920

Deferred revenue, net of current portion

34,193



34,458

Deferred tax liabilities

1,139



1,116

Payable pursuant to tax benefit arrangements, net of current portion

442,243



400,748

Other liabilities

2,333



2,719

Total noncurrent liabilities

2,387,641



2,279,466

Stockholders' equity (deficit):







Class A common stock, $.0001 par value - 300,000 authorized, 79,928 and 78,525 shares issued and

outstanding as of March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively

8



8

Class B common stock, $.0001 par value - 100,000 authorized, 6,501 and 8,562 shares issued and

outstanding as of March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively

1



1

Accumulated other comprehensive income

(306)



303

Additional paid in capital

36,460



29,820

Accumulated deficit

(727,946)



(736,587)

Total stockholders' deficit attributable to Planet Fitness, Inc.

(691,783)



(706,455)

Non-controlling interests

(386)



(1,299)

Total stockholders' deficit

(692,169)



(707,754)

Total liabilities and stockholders' deficit

$ 1,875,636



$ 1,717,190



Planet Fitness, Inc. and subsidiaries Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited) (Amounts in thousands, except per share amounts)





For the three months ended March 31,



2020

2019 Cash flows from operating activities:







Net income

$ 10,383



$ 31,639

Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:







Depreciation and amortization

12,792



9,907

Amortization of deferred financing costs

1,587



1,356

Amortization of asset retirement obligations

7



221

Deferred tax expense

4,126



2,165

Loss (gain) on re-measurement of tax benefit arrangement

(502)



3,373

Provision for bad debts

(33)



2

Equity-based compensation

947



1,315

Other

993



(269)

Changes in operating assets and liabilities, excluding effects of acquisitions:







Accounts receivable

21,409



20,032

Inventory

(1,943)



1,677

Other assets and other current assets

(250)



(2,648)

National advertising fund

(10,363)



(6,500)

Accounts payable and accrued expenses

6,381



(14,640)

Other liabilities and other current liabilities

(249)



214

Income taxes

(1,315)



1,768

Equipment deposits

2,386



4,594

Deferred revenue

25,992



3,668

Leases and deferred rent

774



60

Net cash provided by operating activities

73,122



57,934

Cash flows from investing activities:







Additions to property and equipment

(9,110)



(7,471)

Proceeds from sale of property and equipment

135



21

Net cash used in investing activities

(8,975)



(7,450)

Cash flows from financing activities:







Principal payments on capital lease obligations

(41)



(12)

Proceeds from borrowings under Variable Funding Notes

75,000





Repayment of long-term debt

(4,375)



(3,000)

Proceeds from issuance of Class A common stock

491



607

Dividend equivalent payments

(57)



(20)

Distributions to Continuing LLC Members

(1,600)



(1,842)

Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities

69,418



(4,267)

Effects of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents

(1,640)



250

Net increase in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash

131,925



46,467

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, beginning of period

478,795



320,139

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, end of period

$ 610,720



$ 366,606

Supplemental cash flow information:







Net cash paid for income taxes

$ 2,071



$ 1,479

Cash paid for interest

$ 18,768



$ 13,477

Non-cash investing activities:







Non-cash additions to property and equipment

$ 2,319



$ 4,151



Planet Fitness, Inc. and subsidiaries

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

(Unaudited)

(Amounts in thousands, except per share amounts)

To supplement its consolidated financial statements, which are prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP, the Company uses the following non-GAAP financial measures: EBITDA, Total Segment EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income and Adjusted net income per share, diluted (collectively, the "non-GAAP financial measures"). The Company believes that these non-GAAP financial measures, when used in conjunction with GAAP financial measures, are useful to investors in evaluating our operating performance. These non-GAAP financial measures presented in this release are supplemental measures of the Company's performance that are neither required by, nor presented in accordance with GAAP. These financial measures should not be considered in isolation or as substitutes for GAAP financial measures such as net income or any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP. In addition, in the future, the Company may incur expenses or charges such as those added back to calculate Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income and Adjusted net income per share, diluted. The Company's presentation of Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income, and Adjusted net income per share, diluted, should not be construed as an inference that the Company's future results will be unaffected by unusual or nonrecurring items.

EBITDA, Segment EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA

We refer to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as we use these measures to evaluate our operating performance and we believe these measures provide useful information to investors in evaluating our performance. We have also disclosed Segment EBITDA as an important financial metric utilized by the Company to evaluate performance and allocate resources to segments in accordance with ASC 280, Segment Reporting. We define EBITDA as net income before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Segment EBITDA sums to Total Segment EBITDA which is equal to the Non-GAAP financial metric EBITDA. We believe that EBITDA, which eliminates the impact of certain expenses that we do not believe reflect our underlying business performance, provides useful information to investors to assess the performance of our segments as well as the business as a whole. Our board of directors also uses EBITDA as a key metric to assess the performance of management. We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, adjusted for the impact of certain additional non-cash and other items that we do not consider in our evaluation of ongoing performance of the Company's core operations. These items include certain purchase accounting adjustments, stock offering-related costs, and certain other charges and gains. We believe that Adjusted EBITDA is an appropriate measure of operating performance in addition to EBITDA because it eliminates the impact of other items that we believe reduce the comparability of our underlying core business performance from period to period and is therefore useful to our investors in comparing the core performance of our business from period to period.

A reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income, the most directly comparable GAAP measure, is set forth below.





Three months ended March 31,



2020

2019 (in thousands)







Net income

$ 10,383



$ 31,639

Interest income

(1,927)



(1,798)

Interest expense

20,240



14,749

Provision for income taxes

4,884



5,277

Depreciation and amortization

12,792



9,907

EBITDA

$ 46,372



$ 59,774

Purchase accounting adjustments-revenue(1)

68



74

Purchase accounting adjustments-rent(2)

141



123

Pre-opening costs(3)

361



1

Tax benefit arrangement remeasurement(4)

(502)



3,373

Other(5)

93



14

Adjusted EBITDA

$ 46,533



$ 63,359



(1) Represents the impact of revenue-related purchase accounting adjustments associated with the acquisition of Pla-Fit Holdings on November 8, 2012 by TSG (the "2012 Acquisition"). At the time of the 2012 Acquisition, the Company maintained a deferred revenue account, which consisted of deferred ADA fees, deferred franchise fees, and deferred enrollment fees that the Company billed and collected upfront but recognizes for U.S. GAAP purposes at a later date. In connection with the 2012 Acquisition, it was determined that the carrying amount of deferred revenue was greater than the fair value assessed in accordance with ASC 805Business Combinations, which resulted in a write-down of the carrying value of the deferred revenue balance upon application of acquisition push-down accounting under ASC 805. These amounts represent the additional revenue that would have been recognized in these periods if the write-down to deferred revenue had not occurred in connection with the application of acquisition pushdown accounting. (2) Represents the impact of rent-related purchase accounting adjustments. In accordance with guidance in ASC 805  Business Combinations, in connection with the 2012 Acquisition, the Company's deferred rent liability was required to be written off as of the acquisition date and rent was recorded on a straight-line basis from the acquisition date through the end of the lease term. This resulted in higher overall recorded rent expense each period than would have otherwise been recorded had the deferred rent liability not been written off as a result of the acquisition push down accounting applied in accordance with ASC 805. Adjustments of $41 and $44 in the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively, reflect the difference between the higher rent expense recorded in accordance with U.S. GAAP since the acquisition and the rent expense that would have been recorded had the 2012 Acquisition not occurred. Adjustments of $100 and $79 in the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively, are due to the amortization of favorable and unfavorable leases. All of the rent related purchase accounting adjustments are adjustments to rent expense which is included in store operations on our consolidated statements of operations. (3) Represents costs associated with new corporate-owned stores incurred prior to the store opening, including payroll-related costs, rent and occupancy expenses, marketing and other store operating supply expenses. (4) Represents gains and losses related to the adjustment of our tax benefit arrangements primarily due to changes in our effective tax rate. (5) Represents certain other charges and gains that we do not believe reflect our underlying business performance.

A reconciliation of Segment EBITDA to Total Segment EBITDA is set forth below.





Three months ended March 31, (in thousands)

2020

2019 Segment EBITDA







Franchise

$ 36,746



$ 47,360

Corporate-owned stores

12,007



15,569

Equipment

6,367



10,407

Corporate and other

(8,748)



(13,562)

Total Segment EBITDA(1)

$ 46,372



$ 59,774



(1) Total Segment EBITDA is equal to EBITDA.

Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Net Income per Diluted Share

Our presentation of adjusted net income assumes that all net income is attributable to Planet Fitness, Inc., which assumes the full exchange of all outstanding Holdings Units for shares of Class A common stock of Planet Fitness, Inc., adjusted for certain non-recurring items that we do not believe directly reflect our core operations. Adjusted net income per share, diluted, is calculated by dividing Adjusted net income by the total shares of Class A common stock outstanding plus any dilutive options and restricted stock units as calculated in accordance with GAAP and assuming the full exchange of all outstanding Holdings Units and corresponding Class B common stock as of the beginning of each period presented. Adjusted net income and Adjusted net income per share, diluted, are supplemental measures of operating performance that do not represent, and should not be considered, alternatives to net income and earnings per share, as calculated in accordance with GAAP. We believe Adjusted net income and Adjusted net income per share, diluted, supplement GAAP measures and enable us to more effectively evaluate our performance period-over-period. A reconciliation of Adjusted net income to net income, the most directly comparable GAAP measure, and the computation of Adjusted net income per share, diluted, are set forth below.





Three months ended March 31, (in thousands, except per share amounts)

2020

2019 Net income

$ 10,383



$ 31,639

Provision for income taxes, as reported

4,884



5,277

Purchase accounting adjustments-revenue(1)

68



74

Purchase accounting adjustments-rent(2)

141



123

Pre-opening costs(3)

361



1

Tax benefit arrangement remeasurement(4)

(502)



3,373

Other(5)

93



14

Purchase accounting amortization(6)

4,213



3,999

Adjusted income before income taxes

$ 19,641



$ 44,500

Adjusted income taxes(7)

5,264



11,837

Adjusted net income

$ 14,377



$ 32,663











Adjusted net income per share, diluted

$ 0.16



$ 0.35











Adjusted weighted-average shares outstanding(8)

87,501



93,664



(1) Represents the impact of revenue-related purchase accounting adjustments associated with the 2012 Acquisition. At the time of the 2012 Acquisition, the Company maintained a deferred revenue account, which consisted of deferred ADA fees, deferred franchise fees, and deferred enrollment fees that the Company billed and collected upfront but recognizes for U.S. GAAP purposes at a later date. In connection with the 2012 Acquisition, it was determined that the carrying amount of deferred revenue was greater than the fair value assessed in accordance with ASC 805Business Combinations, which resulted in a write-down of the carrying value of the deferred revenue balance upon application of acquisition push-down accounting under ASC 805. These amounts represent the additional revenue that would have been recognized in these periods if the write-down to deferred revenue had not occurred in connection with the application of acquisition pushdown accounting. (2) Represents the impact of rent-related purchase accounting adjustments. In accordance with guidance in ASC 805  Business Combinations, in connection with the 2012 Acquisition, the Company's deferred rent liability was required to be written off as of the acquisition date and rent was recorded on a straight-line basis from the acquisition date through the end of the lease term. This resulted in higher overall recorded rent expense each period than would have otherwise been recorded had the deferred rent liability not been written off as a result of the acquisition push down accounting applied in accordance with ASC 805. Adjustments of $41 and $44 in the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively, reflect the difference between the higher rent expense recorded in accordance with U.S. GAAP since the acquisition and the rent expense that would have been recorded had the 2012 Acquisition not occurred. Adjustments of $100 and $79 in the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively, are due to the amortization of favorable and unfavorable leases. All of the rent related purchase accounting adjustments are adjustments to rent expense which is included in store operations on our consolidated statements of operations. (3) Represents costs associated with new corporate-owned stores incurred prior to the store opening, including payroll-related costs, rent and occupancy expenses, marketing and other store operating supply expenses. (4) Represents gains and losses related to the adjustment of our tax benefit arrangements primarily due to changes in our effective tax rate. (5) Represents certain other charges and gains that we do not believe reflect our underlying business performance. (6) Includes $3,096 of amortization of intangible assets, other than favorable leases, for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, recorded in connection with the 2012 Acquisition, and $1,117 and $904 of amortization of intangible assets for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively, recorded in connection with historical acquisitions of franchisee-owned stores. The adjustment represents the amount of actual non-cash amortization expense recorded, in accordance with U.S. GAAP, in each period. (7) Represents corporate income taxes at an assumed effective tax rate of 26.8% and 26.6% for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively, applied to adjusted income before income taxes. (8) Assumes the full exchange of all outstanding Holdings Units and corresponding shares of Class B common stock for shares of Class A common stock of Planet Fitness, Inc.

A reconciliation of net income per share, diluted, to Adjusted net income per share, diluted is set forth below for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019:





For the three months ended

March 31, 2020

For the three months ended

March 31, 2019 (in thousands, except per share amounts)

Net income

Weighted

Average

Shares

Net income

per share,

diluted

Net income

Weighted

Average

Shares

Net income

per share,

diluted Net income attributable to Planet Fitness, Inc.(1)

$ 8,607



79,723



$ 0.11



$ 27,409



84,425



$ 0.32

Assumed exchange of shares(2)

1,776



7,778







4,230



9,239





Net Income

10,383











31,639









Adjustments to arrive at adjusted income

before income taxes(3)

9,258











12,861









Adjusted income before income taxes

19,641











44,500









Adjusted income taxes(4)

5,264











11,837









Adjusted Net Income

$ 14,377



87,501



$ 0.16



$ 32,663



93,664



$ 0.35



(1) Represents net income attributable to Planet Fitness, Inc. and the associated weighted average shares, diluted of Class A common stock outstanding. (2) Assumes the full exchange of all outstanding Holdings Units and corresponding shares of Class B common stock for shares of Class A common stock of Planet Fitness, Inc. Also assumes the addition of net income attributable to non-controlling interests corresponding with the assumed exchange of Holdings Units and Class B common shares for shares of Class A common stock. (3) Represents the total impact of all adjustments identified in the adjusted net income table above to arrive at adjusted income before income taxes. (4) Represents corporate income taxes at an assumed effective tax rate of 26.8% and 26.6% for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively, applied to adjusted income before income taxes.

SOURCE Planet Fitness, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.planetfitness.com


President of the Supreme Judicial Council Ruben Vardazaryan today received Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Islamic Republic of Iran Abbas Badakhshan Zohouri.

As reported the Media and Public Relations Service of the Supreme Judicial Council, Vardazaryan presented the Councils activities aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and ensuring regular and ongoing activities of the judiciary during the state of emergency.

Ambassador Abbas Badakhshan Zohouri expressed gratitude for the reception and presented the current state in Iran amid the pandemic, stating that 80% of the tens of thousands of infected people have already recovered.

During the meeting, the interlocutors discussed issues related to the judiciaries of both countries and attached special importance to the effective cooperation and deepening of cooperation between the judiciaries.
A map shows the heat index for the U.S. on May 8 (NWS)

Northeast US Facing Snowy Blast, Southwest Facing Heat Wave for Mothers Day

Temperatures are slated to plunge on Mothers Day weekend in parts of the East Coast, and snow might be a possibility in some locations.

Episodes of freezing temperatures are forecast for parts of the interior Northeast into the middle of May, according to AccuWeather. Low temperatures in the upper 20s to the lower 30s F are not uncommon through the middle of May in much of the interior Northeast. In fact, the latest risk of a frost or freeze typically occurs during the middle to latter part of May across much of the interior, the site says.

The National Weather Services (NWS) Weather Prediction Center also says a storm system moving out of the Midwest will bring snow to parts of Pennsylvania and New Yorks Southern Tier region on Wednesday. Parts of West Virginia may also see snow.

On the other side of the US, cold air spilling into East could pose a threat for freezing temperatures. The coldest temperatures are expected Saturday morning across the Ohio Valley and interior Northeast, with possible record lows reaching the coast Sunday morning. pic.twitter.com/Ecs6Ljzysf  NWS WPC (@NWSWPC) May 5, 2020

Building heat across the Southwest US has prompted the issuance of various heat related watches, warnings and advisories valid through the end of the week. A dozen or so record highs are possible across southern California and Arizona on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/pLXFnLTcsI  NWS WPC (@NWSWPC) May 5, 2020

Then, on Thursday, that same snow-bringing system will move north to Upstate New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, according to a map provided by the Weather Prediction Center.

Its not going to just get cold; its going to snow and accumulate in some areas of the Northeast as well, AccuWeathers Paul Pastelok said. This looks like a good setup for accumulating snow from the higher elevations of New York state and northern Pennsylvania to northwestern Connecticut, western Massachusetts and the southern parts of Vermont and New Hampshire spanning late Friday to Saturday, Pastelok said.

Later in the week, much of the Northeastern United States will see low-temperatures, with some areas going below freezing at night, according to the weather agency.

On the other side of the U.S., cold air spilling into East could pose a threat for freezing temperatures. The coldest temperatures are expected Saturday morning across the Ohio Valley and interior Northeast, with possible record lows reaching the coast Sunday morning, the WPC wrote on Twitter.

At the same time, the agency said that parts of Arizona, Nevada, and Southern California will see temperatures above 100 degrees F, which has prompted numerous heat advisories, watches, and warnings until the end of the week.
3 Family Members Charged in Killing of Store Security Guard Over Virus Mask

FLINT, Mich.A woman, her adult son and husband have been charged in the fatal shooting of a security guard who refused to let her daughter enter a Family Dollar in Michigan because she wasnt wearing a face mask to protect against transmission of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

Calvin Munerlyn was shot Friday at the store just north of downtown Flint a short time after telling Sharmel Teagues daughter she had to leave because she lacked a mask, according to Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton.

Teague, 45, argued with Munerlyn, 43, before leaving. Two men later came to the store.

Teague; her husband, Larry Teague, 44; and Ramonyea Bishop, 23; are charged with first-degree premeditated murder and gun charges.

Larry Teague also is charged with violating Gov. Gretchen Whitmers executive order mandating that all customers and employees must wear face coverings inside grocery stores, Leyton said.

Witnesses identified Bishop as the man who shot Munerlyn in the back of the head, Leyton said.

Sharmel Teague has been arrested. Police were looking for her husband and son.

Sharmel Teague. (Genesee County Prosecutors Office via AP)

No information has been released about the daughter, who has not been charged in the shooting.

It is important that the governors order be respected and adhered to, and for someone to lose their life over it is beyond comprehension, Leyton said earlier Monday in a statement.

On Thursday, gun-carrying protesters and other demonstrators rallied inside the state Capitol, calling for virus-related restrictions to be lifted. Some protesters with gunswhich are allowed in the statehousewent to the Senate gallery. Some senators wore bulletproof vests.

As of Monday, Michigan has reported 43,754 confirmed CCP virus cases and 4,049 deaths due to complications from the disease.

The hostile tone that we have seen in recent days on television and in social media can permeate our society in ways we sometimes dont fully realize or anticipate, Leyton told reporters Monday. Decisions like staying home when we can, wearing a mask when going to the store and staying a safe distance from those around usthese should not be political arguments. They dont necessitate acts of defiance, and we simply cannot devolve into an us versus them mentality.

About 150 people attended a candlelight vigil Sunday night. On Monday, a makeshift memorial was started outside the Family Dollar.

Munerlyns mother, Bernadett, said she wants justice for her son.

They didnt have to take my baby and it wasnt that serious, she said. All you people just have to do is listen to the law, listen to the governor. Just stay home. If you dont have to come out, then you wouldnt need a mask unless youre out getting groceries or necessities. All my baby was doing was his job working and doing his job.

Whitmer offered her condolences.

It is incredibly sad that in this crisis that this life was lost, Whitmer told reporters Monday. We are mindful of how important it is that people keep a level head, that we do the right things protecting ourselves and protecting others.

By Corey Williams and Mike Householder

Epoch Times staff contributed to this report
A new fund raising round for Defymed, to allow the entry into clinical phase of its ExOlin device

Specialized in the design and development of innovative medical devices to deliver therapeutic treatments, French Medtech company Defymed, led by Severine Sigrist, announces that it has secured the necessary funding to undertake the first stage of the clinical trials for ExOlin, its medical device for the physiological delivery of insulin.

This round of 1.8 million euros, a combination of both public and private funds (Cap Innov Est pledged 1 million euros, and BPI France 800,000 euros), complements Defymed's most recent public and private fundraising rounds (in France, Europe, and beyond), bringing the total to 10 million euros investment since the start-up was founded in 2011.

This initial phase of clinical trials, estimated to last for 12 to 18 months, aims to validate the significant benefit of peritoneal insulin delivery for diabetic patients and to evaluate the safety and tolerability of this new device

Improved glycemic control with peritoneal insulin delivery

The ExOlin medical device, designed for an estimated lifetime of 4 to 6 years, is implanted in the patient's abdomen and then allows exogenous insulin delivery by simple injection through the skin.

If the patient continues to administer insulin sub-cutaneously using an external pump, insulin uptake through ExOlin should significantly improve (as already shown in the pre-clinical phases) their treatment due to insulin initially passing through the liver, unlike the subcutaneous injections practiced until now. As a result, the insulin acts much more effectively and the patient should therefore benefit from greater glycemic stability.

The purpose of the ExOlin device is to offer patients an improved care for their disease and thus a better quality of life, while maintaining their normal habits. It promises better uptake of the injected hormone and a considerable decrease in complications related to diabetes

A collaboration between Defymed and the University Hospitals of Strasbourg

The cohort, comprising a dozen patients, will be selected by Prof. Nathalie Jeandidier, head of endocrinology and diabetology at CHRU Strasbourg, principal investigator of this clinical study.

"The concept of physiologically administering insulin through the portal vein is a proven success, particularly with the pumps implanted in diabetic patients with high glycemic instability. ExOlin is an innovative approach to this concept, which should offer patients greater autonomy. Encouraging preclinical data should now be clinically confirmed to allow these patients to quickly benefit from this innovation."

Prof. Nathalie Jeandidier

Head of endocrinology and diabetology CHRU Strasbourg

Type 1 diabetes, a chronic autoimmune disease with multiple consequences

Insulin-dependent diabetes, known as "Type 1 diabetes", is an autoimmune disease caused by the destruction of cells in the pancreas, causing the patient the inability to secrete insulin. The subsequent pathology causes an increased level of sugar in the blood.

The insulin delivery systems currently available on the market do not meet patients' needs effectively, with only 25.3% of diabetic men and 36.4% of diabetic women able to correctly control their blood sugar levels. Poor management of diabetes has harmful effects on the organs and complications which mainly affect the heart and blood vessels, which are the first to suffer from excessive and permanent concentration of glucose in the blood.

Looking ahead, Defymed plans to apply for the CE mark within around 3 years (2023) and for commercial release through licensing to a large group specializing in medical devices, after receiving regulatory approval

About Defymed

Defymed is a medtech company founded in March 2011, based in Strasbourg, and specialized in the design and development of innovative medical devices for delivery of therapeutic treatments. From the beginning Defymed's purpose has been to provide therapeutic solutions to improve drug delivery and thus the quality of life of patients suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes.

The company, led by Severine Sigrist, is supported by a team of a dozen employees and over 30 collaborations worldwide.

Defymed initially focused on the application for the treatment of Type 1 diabetes. Its strength lies in its network of national and international partners.

The first product designed was MailPan, an implantable bioartificial pancreas created to reestablish normal insulin production in Type 1 diabetes patients. The second product developed by Defymed was ExOlin, a medical device for the physiological delivery of insulin. Today, Defymed looks to apply its skills for the treatment of other pathologies such as cancer, hemophilia, and obesity.

www.defymed.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005432/en/

Contacts:

Press contact: Sabrina Curto-Laverny sabrina@scl-conseil.com +33 (0)66 330-2766
When a 26th-Dynasty mummification workshop and communal burial place was uncovered at the Saqqara Necropolis near Cairo in 2018, it made the international headlines, and a gilded silver mask of the priest of the mother goddess Mut and the serpent goddess Niut-shaes that were unearthed in it were selected by the US Archaeology Magazine as among the top 10 discoveries of the year.



After two more years of scientific research and further excavations at the site, an international team of archaeologists and scientists from the Universities of Tubingen and Munich in Germany along with the Egyptian National Research Centre in Cairo has unveiled the economic aspects of mummification. Mummification was not only an ancient Egyptian ritual for eternity, but an essential business activity as well.



Priest-embalmers were professional entrepreneurs who offered burial packages for every budget, Egyptologist Ramadan Hussein who led the mission of the University of Tubingen mission at Saqqara told Al-Ahram Weekly. The uncovered evidence had showed that embalmers had a very good business sense and were very smart about providing different alternatives, he said.



We have been reading about this in ancient Egyptian papyri, Hussein said, but now we can really contextualise the business of death for the ancient Egyptians.



He said that chemical testing of the residue of the oils and resins preserved in cups, bowls and pots found in the mummification workshop had revealed the mummification substances, including bitumen (tar), cedar oil, cedar resin, pistachio resin, beeswax, animal fat, and possibly olive oil and juniper oil, among others.



Upon the resumption of the excavations at the site, the Egyptian-German mission had uncovered a new burial chamber hidden behind a 2,600-year-old stone wall inside the 30-metre-deep communal burial shaft of the mummification workshop.

This is the sixth burial chamber to be found in the shaft, as a large tomb complex with five burial chambers was uncovered in 2018, Hussein said.He explained that inside the newly discovered chamber four wooden coffins in a poor state of preservation had been unearthed, among them a coffin belonging to a woman named Didibastet who was buried with six canopic jars.This contradicts ancient Egyptian mummification customs, as they used to embalm the lungs, stomach/spleen, intestines, and the liver of the deceased and then store them in four canonic jars under the protection of four gods known as the Four Sons of Horus, Hussein said.The examination of the contents of Didibastets two extra canopic jars using a CT scan and the preliminary analysis of the images indicated that the two jars contained human tissue, showing that Didibastet had possibly received a special form of mummification that guaranteed the preservation of six organs of her body and not only four.The missions radiologist is currently conducting a thorough study of the images in order to identify the two extra organs, Hussein confirmed.After studying the texts on the coffins and sarcophagi in the six burial chambers, the mission succeeded in identifying the priests and priestesses of a mysterious snake goddess known as Niut-shaes.The indications are that the priests of Niut-shaes were buried together and that she became a prominent goddess during the 26th Dynasty. Perhaps, she had a major temple in Memphis, the administrative capital of ancient Egypt, Hussein said.He continued that a priestess and a priest of Niut-shaes who were buried in the same burial chamber had possibly been Egyptianised immigrants. Their names, Ayput and Tjanimit, were common among the Libyan community who settled in Egypt from the 22nd Dynasty (ca 943-716 BC) onwards.

Ancient Egypt was a multicultural society that received immigrants from different parts of the ancient world, including Greeks, Libyans, and Phoenicians, among others.TESTS: The mission conducted a non-invasive test called X-ray fluorescence on the gilded silver mask that was discovered on the face of the mummy of a priestess of the goddess Niut-shaes.This test determined the purity of the masks silver to be 99.07 per cent, higher than sterling silver at 92.5 per cent, Hussein said, revealing that the gilded silver mask was the first to be found in Egypt since 1939 and one of the few such masks ever to be found.The mission also succeeded in discovering a gilded silver mummy mask in one of the burial chambers of the main shaft attached to the mummification workshop dating to the Saite-Persian Period (664-404 BCE). The mask belonged to a person who held the titles of second priest of Mut and priest of Niut-shaes.Preliminary microscopic examination suggests that it is made of gilded silver, and the eyes are inlayed with a black gemstone (possibly onyx), calcite and obsidian. The wig is also inlayed with gemstones that were once embedded in colour paste. The mask, which measures 23x18.5cm, will now be researched and conserved.Hussein described the discovery as rare and explained that the mummification workshop was originally a rectangular building constructed out of mud brick and irregular limestone blocks. It had an entrance on the southwestern corner that led into an open area with two large basins and a mud brick ramp between them.The two basins were surrounded with mud brick walls, and it is believed that they were originally for the natron, a substance used in mummification, and the preparation of linen bandages.The workshop also includes an embalmers cachette with a 13m shaft that ends in a rectangular subterranean chamber where a large amount of pottery was found. This included vessels, bowls and measuring cups inscribed with the names of oils and substances used in mummification.

The workshop also has a large shaft (K 24) in the middle, which was used as a communal burial place. It measures 3x3.35x30m and has several burial chambers, including a complex cut into the bedrock at a depth of 30m. These are arranged on the sides of two hallways, and the first hallway had an intact burial chamber on the west side where three decayed wooden coffins were found on top of the western end of a large limestone sarcophagus.A fourth mummy was found to the north of the sarcophagus and a large number of faience ushabti figurines along the northern side. Hussein said that the middle wooden coffin on top of the sarcophagus had been badly damaged and the mummy inside it had a gilded mask found on top of the face of the mummy.The wooden coffin was once plastered and painted with an image of the goddess Nut, the mother of the god of the dead Osiris. The decoration also includes the titles of the owner of the mask along with his name, a second priest of the goddess Mut and the priest of the goddess Niut-shaes, a serpent form of the goddess Mut.The theophoric name of the owner of the mask includes the name of the goddess Neith, the patron goddess of the 26th Dynasty. Pieces of the painted plaster carrying the rest of his name are missing, and the mission is collecting more of them in order to read the full name of the deceased.The University of Tubingen mission is using state-of-the-art technology to document and record the monuments, particularly laser scanning and photogrammetry techniques. These include the creation of 3D photogrammatic models and laser scans of the burial chambers of Padinist, head of the storage department of the royal palace, Psamtek, chief physician and commander of the Libyan mercenaries, and Amentayefnakht, commander of recruits.The mission has also worked to conserve the polychrome reliefs and inscriptions in the burial chambers. It will resume its investigation of the cemetery at Saqqara in the winter of this year.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 7 May, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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New York  Gov. Andrew Cuomo suggested today that remote learning could become a permanent part of life for New York students, even after the coronavirus pandemic ends.

The old model of everybody goes and sits in a classroom and the teacher is in front of that classroom and teaches that class and you do that all across the city, all across the state, all these buildings, all these physical classrooms, Cuomo said during a press briefing in New York City. Why? With all the technology you have?

Cuomo didnt say buildings wont reopen at all. But the state is exploring the possibility that schools will use distance learning in bigger ways in the future, he said.

He acknowledged New York is still new at this and learning as it goes along. Teachers need training. Some students still need devices.

Cuomo first closed schools in March to slow the spread of the virus. Students have been completing lessons and assignments from home since then.

Reopening schools will be a massive undertaking requiring new policies and procedures, Cuomo has said. He has also said he wants to use the opportunity to improve schools.

The pandemic will spark a willingness to change and adapt, Cuomo added. After all this, he said people will realize how vulnerable we are and understand the need for a new approach to education.

"It's hard to change the status quo," he said. "But you get moments in history where people say, 'OK I'm ready. I'm ready for change. I get it.' I think this is one of those moments."

The state will also examine:

How schools can use technology to provide more opportunities to students no matter where they are

How technology can help provide shared education among schools and colleges

How technology can reduce educational inequality, including for students learning English as a new language

How schools can use technology to meet the needs of students with disabilities

How the state can provide teachers more tools to use technology

How technology can provide greater access to high quality education no matter where students live

How schools can use classroom technology to recreate larger class or lecture hall environments, given ongoing social distancing rules

The state is partnering with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to design a blueprint for post-pandemic education in New York, Cuomo said.

Schools in the state will stay closed through the end of the current academic year.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

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Almost half of Onondaga Countys coronavirus deaths are from nursing homes

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Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com

Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-282-8598
The Chattanooga City Council had the opportunity to (electronically) meet the citys next treasurer during their 3:30 agenda session. Wyomings Kate Farmer will soon be confirmed as Mayor Berkes appointee as treasurer.

Good afternoon and thank you guys for bringing me into the city of Chattanooga. Im very excited to be working with everybody, said Ms. Farmer.

I just want to let you know that I have a background in finance, and Ive done a lot of grant work, project management, and Im looking forward to the warm weather and a warm welcome.

While the council was unanimously welcoming, Councilwoman Demetrus Coonrod had a question about the timing of the hire.

She pointed out that once the pandemic started, all positions for hire were put on hold.

City CFO Maura Sullivan said this hire had already been in the works before the pandemic started.

Her position was already in the process, and we were interviewing during that time, and we had actually scheduled Ms. Farmer to come on a plane ride to meet (us in Chattanooga), said Ms. Sullivan.

Kate Farmer is currently the treasurer of Guernsey, Wyoming.
U.S. officials and the mainstream Venezuelan opposition headed by Juan Guaido have strongly denied any connection with the operation, which allegedly involved several dozen men, most of them defectors from the Venezuelan military who had been living hand-to-mouth in camps in Colombia. Former Venezuelan National Guard officer Javier Nieto Quintero and former U.S. Army Green Beret Jordan Goudreau, head of a Florida company that says it offers paid strategic security services, released a video Sunday announcing the start of Operation Gideon and calling on Venezuelan soldiers to join them.
(Photo : REUTERS/Benoit Tessier) A member of the medical staff makes a lung X-ray to a patient suffering from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the intensive care unit at the Institut Mutualiste Montsouris (IMM) hospital in Paris as the spread of the coronavirus disease continues in France, April 6, 2020.

A new artificial intelligence (AI) technology widely used in Wuhan, China, can scan the lungs within 10 seconds. This technology can aid in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic and even confirms if a patient is at risk of viral pneumonia from coronavirus or not.

ALSO READ: COVID-19 Doctors Finally Understand the Reason Behind Coronavirus' Deadly Blood Clots

Axial AI is a CT scan diagnosis platform that aids medical teams in analyzing the development of COVID-19 in patients faster and with over 90% accuracy rate, according to a BBC report.

Skymind Global Ventures develop the AI software, an AI ecosystem builder, and provides solutions for hospitals and research facilities regarding multiple disease analysis. After its launch in the UK early this year, Skymind recently unveiled an $800 million fund to support startups and AI research across Europe and Asia.

Extensive trial period in Wuhan

Axial AI has been widely used throughout hospitals in Wuhan, Huo Shen Shan, and Lei Shen Shan Hospital, assisting in the diagnosis of over 6,000 COVID-19 patients. A hospital in Malaysia is currently trying out the technology while the company announced last month its offer for NHS to use its Axial AI tool for free.

While AO technologies are extensively being used in tackling the coronavirus pandemic, questions regarding the reliability of these tools arise.

A Med-Tech News report states that the tool has helped doctors treat patients more efficiently "by giving them a unique, quantitative view of the trauma happening inside the patient's lungs." This leads to more efficient use of ventilators and ICU beds, which has increased increasing the patient's chance of survival.

ALSO READ: COVID-19 Effect: 'Happy Hypoxia' in Coronavirus Patients Concerns Doctors; Causes 50% Oxygen Drop

AI in NHS?

There are still no reports on whether NHS has accepted Skymind's offer to use this technology in the UK.

One possible obstacle for this technology is that the NHS commonly uses chest X-rays instead of CT scanners to make images of Covid-19 patients' lungs. Although less detailed than CT scans, X-rays are quicker to do, and radiologists can identify pneumonia in the images.

However, there is still a future for AI in British hospitals as some of them are trying out AI tools to manage the crisis. For example, the Royal Bolton Hospital now uses AI in interpreting X-ray images. It has been tried in 11,000 chest X-rays, including around 500 of confirmed Covid-19 cases.

Dr. Rizwan Malik, a radiology consultant at Royal Bolton, said the tool has been running automatically on all chest X-rays carried out by the hospital for a week. Malik also said the tool's algorithm will look for possible signs of Covid-19, including opacity patterns in the lungs.

"It basically gives clinicians another tool to help them make decisions - for example, which patients they'll admit, which they'll send home," said Malik adding that patient's data is processed entirely within the hospital's network. Meanwhile, the software was developed by Mumbai-based Qure.ai.

The BBC has reported two unnamed NHS hospitals that currently use another tool that detects abnormalities in lung X-rays. Behold.ai developed the tool, which has so far analyzed the scans of 147 suspected Covid-19 patients. The company's spokesperson said the tool successfully classified the scans as "normal" or "abnormal" in more than 90% of cases.

Meanwhile, Dr. Thomas Daniels, a respiratory specialist at University Hospital Southampton, stated that treating patients with severe lung problems caused by Covid-19 can be stressful. Although he has not yet used an AI algorithm in analyzing chest X-rays in Covid-19 patients, a tool as such could be greatly useful.

"It often takes a... radiologist hours or sometimes even days to get to that particular chest X-ray and write a report on it," said Daniels adding that an algorithm to generate a likelihood-of-Covid score could ease the process.

"That would obviously be so much quicker to generate than waiting for a radiologist report."

Read also: COVID-19: Healthcare Workers Turn to UV Radiation to Disinfect PPEs in Coronavirus Battle

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Despite his reputation as a Trump loyalist, Rep. John Ratcliffe of Texas repeatedly pledged on Tuesday that he would, if confirmed as the next leader of the U.S. intelligence community, seek out and deliver to Congress and the White House the unvarnished truth on a range of national security issues, including the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

What anyone wants the [intelligence community] to say wont impact the intelligence they get from me, he told Sen. Angus King.

King, an independent from Maine, had pressed Ratcliffe on whether he would resist any attempts from inside the White House to go conclusion shopping, and avoid pressing the intelligence community to find what [Trump] wants them to find on the origins of the pandemic, a concern recently reported by the New York Times.

Yahoo News first reported that the intelligence community was still investigating whether the outbreak began as a result of outside contact with an infected animal in China, or whether Chinese researchers studying a natural sample of the virus may have accidentally been infected. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence confirmed in a statement published last week that it was looking at this theory.

Rep. John Ratcliffe at his nomination hearing on Tuesday. (Andrew Harnik/Pool via AP)

Its easy to promise not to alter intelligence products during a hearing. Its impossible to know what hell do until hes in the job with the red editing pen in his hand staring at the [presidents daily brief], wrote Cindy Otis, a former CIA analyst and author of a forthcoming book on disinformation, in a text message to Yahoo News. Most scientists argue that while the lab accident remains possible, it is unlikely based on the recent emergence of the virus and the sheer number of different bat coronaviruses present in the wild.

A source familiar with the matter told Yahoo News that the White House had tasked various intelligence community agencies including the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency with determining whether the virus originated in a lab. It remains unclear, however, whether any forthcoming analysis issued on the subject might be misrepresented to the public.

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The White House continues to place blame on the World Health Organization and Chinese officials for the devastating results of the pandemic so far. Trump, as well Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have hinted that they have evidence the lab theory is accurate, but are not allowed to share it.

Those concerned about Ratcliffe's fitness to head the intelligence community point to past debates in which hes been a Trump defender, for example, during the Russia investigation, and later, in the impeachment inquiry against Trump sparked by a CIA whistleblower.

Ratcliffe repeatedly insisted in response to various questions from members of the Senate Intelligence Committee during his confirmation hearing Tuesday that he would speak truth to power, and tell President Trump what the intelligence community believes and how confident they are in those conclusions, even if it puts his job at risk.

However, intelligence community veterans are skeptical hell live up to those promises, and remain concerned hes unqualified based on his lack of experience in national security, a statutory requirement for the job.

Ratcliffe at the impeachment trial of President Trump. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Tracy Walder, a former CIA officer focused on counterterrorism and weapons of mass destruction, believes Ratcliffe could have been more insistent during the hearing in reflecting the DNIs own public conclusion on the coronavirus origins: that it is definitely not a man-made bioweapon leaked from a Chinese lab.

I think the most important thing he could do is say and acknowledge the information the intelligence community recently provided stating that this virus did not originate in a Wuhan lab, she said.

I mean, do I think China made up the numbers about how many were infected? Yes, said Walder, who recently published a memoir called The Unexpected Spy. But I think the idea that this originated as a bioweapon in a lab, thats absolutely ridiculous. We need to step back and look at what the intelligence is saying.

Chris Costa, a veteran intelligence officer of 34 years who served on President Trumps National Security Council, noted that Ratcliffe said all the right things in the hearing  but would be challenged in the role to lead and demonstrate his commitment to those words.

Rep. Ratcliffes role is to unflinchingly represent the intelligence communitys analytical judgements to the president, meaning providing truth to power, Costa, currently executive director of the International Spy Museum, told Yahoo News. Rep. Ratcliffe says hes committed to those principles. Now, if confirmed, he needs to lead.

Andrew Harnik/Pool via AP

The potential threat posed by China is becoming more fraught for intelligence officials who focus on the country but want to avoid blaming the coronavirus on Beijing alone without evidence. During the meeting, Ratcliffe said his biggest concern was China as an emerging threat due to its dominance in areas like 5G technology and cyberspace, as well as its role in obscuring the severity of the pandemic.

All roads lead to China, he said.

China and the pandemic were not the only issues Ratcliffe was asked about by senators. Given his past comments over a secret society within the FBI seeking to harm the president, and his attacks on the whistleblower whose complaint launched impeachment proceedings over President Trumps overtures to Ukrainian officials requesting political favors in exchange for military aid, he will continue to have a lot to prove in order to lead the intelligence community.

During the hearing, Ratcliffe deftly avoided coming to specific conclusions about a number of politically sensitive issues, such as Russian interference in the 2016 election in favor of Trump, Irans compliance with the nuclear deal at the time Trump withdrew and whether hed defend whistleblowers.

Rep. Ratcliffes commitment to follow the law reads well in a transcript, but he only committed to follow the executive branchs interpretation of the law, wrote Irvin McCullough, a national security analyst for the whistleblower protection nonprofit Government Accountability Project. This can significantly diverge from congressional intent and have devastating consequences on intelligence oversight.

Andrew Harnik/Pool via AP

As the nations top intelligence official, Ratcliffe would have limited authority over the activities of the other agencies. The office is less relevant than ever in terms of actual substance, and there seems to be bipartisan support for changes to the structure, said Marc Polymeropoulos, a former senior CIA officer who served in the Senior Intelligence Service until 2019. However, he argued, Ratcliffe or another nominee would play an important role in terms of his or her access to the president.

The director of national intelligence is also an important figurehead who can represent the opinions and needs of the broader workforce. Ratcliffe, who testified that he does not agree with the president that the intelligence community has run amok, will likely be challenged by lawmakers to defend his offices staff against any political pressure.

During the confirmation hearing, Ratcliffe committed to attend the annual worldwide threats hearing, in which intelligence community leaders appear before Congress to discuss their unclassified views on the threats facing the United States. That hearing has been indefinitely postponed, however, reportedly out of fear of angering the president.

I was heartened by the fact that he committed to do the Worldwide Threats Hearing, wrote Nick Rasmussen, acting executive director of the McCain Institute for National Leadership and former director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

Ratcliffe answered the truth to power questions very directly and in a way designed to engender confidence in the [intelligence committee] members, he continued in an email to Yahoo News. Whether he can and live up to the pledge he repeatedly made will only be borne out over time.

_____

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.

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The Oklahoma Legislature is on the cusp of taking a reasonable step to enhance criminal penalties for the most dangerous and portentous forms of domestic abuse.

House Bill 3251 has already overwhelmingly passed the state House and is said to have a good chance at consideration by the reconvened state Senate.

The bill would define domestic abuse involving strangulation or a dangerous weapon as a violent crime.

That would effectively mean people convicted of those crimes would not be eligible for certain forms of early release from prison or for electronic monitoring programs.

The bill doesnt go so far as to define domestic violence by strangulation or with a dangerous weapon as an 85% crime  as was proposed by a different bill earlier this year. (State law requires inmates serve at least 85% of their sentences for those crimes before they are eligible for any kind of clemency consideration.)

It also doesnt raise the top potential criminal penalties for those convicted of the crime, an option that also remains open to the Legislature.
One week after the pandemic was declared, a vice president of TWU Local 100 came to my terminal to give a talk. I rose to my feet in outrage and asked why we werent receiving masks. I was told healthy people didnt need masks and that doctors needed them more. Arent doctors healthy? No answer. How about rubber gloves and hand sanitizer? No answer.

Finally, the M.T.A. agreed to supply us with personal protective equipment. When signing in, we get an N95 mask and three small packets of wipes the size of those used before a shot at the doctors office. This is meant to last three days. We also get a small container to fill with hand sanitizer from a bottle in the dispatchers office.

The masks are cheaply made. My co-workers complain that the masks pinch their noses. The straps break easily. Many masks must be secured with duct tape.

Or so I have heard. Two days after the vice presidents visit, I developed severe body aches, chills and a dry cough. On March 27, I woke up at 6 a.m. to go to the bathroom and collapsed. I made a quick call to a close friend and then dialed 911. An ambulance took me to NYU Langone Medical Center, where I was treated and discharged. I stayed isolated for 14 days, after which I felt better. My co-workers told me about a place where I could get tested. On April 15, I tested positive. Further quarantine. My direct-deposit statement shows $692: less than half my wages for the first pay period and nothing thereafter. (I had used up all of my sick days).

The third death I heard about was a black co-worker I used to see every day who once saw me reading Michelle Alexanders The New Jim Crow. He wanted to know why a woman from India was interested in the condition of black people. From then on, whenever we ran into each other we hugged and cheek-kissed.

I used to talk to another co-worker across the platform when his N train and my R train reached Atlantic Avenue. He was one of only two Orthodox Jews in the rapid transit operation. A train buff, he once noticed that a cable that connects one car to another had come loose and was hanging dangerously near the third rail. He may have saved lives that day. Now hes dead, too.

We are stumbling upon dead bodies. I know of two cases. A train operator nearly tripped over one while walking between cars. The other person was sitting upright on a bench right outside the conductors window and discovered to be dead only at the end of an eight-hour shift after my co-workers kept noticing the person on each trip.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan on Monday said that the national capital is one such state in the country where strict action is needed to the spread of the new coronavirus strain.

Speaking to the media here, the Health Minister said, It is inappropriate for me to comment on the situation of novel coronavirus in Delhi because that will be seen as a political statement but in my personal opinion, Delhi is one of those states in the country where more strict action is needed to be taken to control the coronavirus cases. The fight against it needs to be taken more seriously here.

Harsh Vardhan said, I feel that minimum relaxation should be given here during lockdown 3.0 but it is totally up to Delhi government. The Health and Home Ministries have given guidelines but it is the state government, who needs to decide as to how much and in what way those guidelines should be implemented in their states according to the situation there.



CLICK HERE FOR COVID-19 UPDATES

The minister also appealed to voluntary organisations, NGOs and people at large to donate blood so that there is ample stocks to meet any eventuality in the country. He asked the Red Cross to keep sufficient blood stock for transfusion by promoting blood donation and providing facilities of pick up and drop to donors.

Blood donation saves lives, let us raise awareness for blood donation and ensure that the needy have timely and affordable access to safe and quality blood.Let us all donate blood, be there for someone else, he said.

Enough COVID-19 hospitals



Harsh Vardhan said that right now India has ample number of COVID-19 dedicated hospitals, PPEs, N95 masks, ventilators and medicines. We are at the better footing as compared to rest of the world, the minister said.

(With agency inputs)
An additional UAH 11 billion is required from the national budget to increase salaries of doctors and medical workers, Health Minister of Ukraine Maksym Stepanov has said.

"We need about UAH 11 billion to raise the salaries of 435,000 doctors. We will address the government and the Verkhovna Rada looking for changes to the national budget. We believe that our health workers should receive a substantial increase in salaries this year, not less than 50%," he said at a briefing on Tuesday.

Stepanov said that starting May 11, the Health Ministry will begin an examination of the entire medical infrastructure "to determine the capabilities and effectiveness of the hospital network."

Starting May 11, the Health Ministry also plans to start developing and approving national standards for providing health care with the involvement of scientists and leading industry experts.

"After that, based on these data, the Health Ministry will develop fair tariffs at which the sector will be financed in 2021," he said.
Ok but....why?

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Ugh, no thanks

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They count viewership based on two minutes of viewing time



Wait what?





God the amount of times I just let something play because I was lazy...I'm so sorry world. Wait what?God the amount of times I just let something play because I was lazy...I'm so sorry world.

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right? two minutes as a view count metric for a ~2 hour long movie is so sus. this shit would have flopped as hard as hemsworth's other generic bro-y action movies & made like, maximum $30 mill at the box office if they'd released it normally.

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also even if people did watch it the whole way through... we're all stuck at home, what else are we doing with our time? quarantine ratings should be cut in half or something.

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FUCK THIS LOSER I DEMAND MORE ROLES FOR THICC KING LUKE

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I think he's the most talented of them.

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He is and also by far the most charismatic.

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I was watching westworld and oof he is super thicc yaaas

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This one? Really? He looks like if you pricked him beer would ooze out

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Omg I mistook this for the Jason Bateman movie Extract and was like why but I see my error now and am like why



Edited at 2020-05-05 02:39 am (UTC)

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Are they gonna try to make Hemmy the new Tom Cruise?

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They tryin'.

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"tyler rake"?? lmao

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Someone on my youth worker chat was trying to talk about the Exorcist movie the other day and then called it "You know Eeeeeextraction. But with priests." Which I thought was hilarious.

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I watched this because I love a good trash action movie, but this was low tier and REALLY sucked. It doesnt need a sequel.

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He isnt a good actor. But I would cook and clean for him.

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Oh Benny lol

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just because they pushed this over everyone's homepage and we're all stuck at home bored does NOT mean we are clamoring for a sequel. watched this shit with my dad and it was sooooo godawful. they really threw up the valencia filter over every frame to signify ~gritty~ like this shit was a late 00s call of duty ripoff game.

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hope everyone associated with this movie gets anal warts

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I'm very obviously in the minority here lol but I didn't hate this movie? It was brainless but there were some pretty cool shots and action scenes. Don't know if it needs a sequel though unless that sequel is Golshifteh Farahani kicking everyone's ass.

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Oops, I liked it. I enjoyed the action. I thought it was well filmed and managed to pack enough backstory and characterization into an 90+ minutes.

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Same sis. I'm so glad they deviated a lot from the original comics... I can only imagine... the cringe of it all.

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Oh man, I'm gunna have to look into that lol.

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I think Chris and the kid were charming, but some of the action scenes went on too long for me.

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i thought the action was great, you can tell the director is a stunt guy.



the plot on the other hand ..... no. and hemsworth trying to emote just isn't it.



also i thought the ending was kind of perfect as cliffhanger, why ruin it?

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Taliban stage deadly bomb attack in Afghanistan

Iran Press TV

Monday, 04 May 2020 2:03 PM

Taliban militants in Afghanistan have detonated an explosive-laden vehicle near an outpost housing members of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and Army forces in the country's Helmand Province.

Omar Zwak, a spokesman for Helmand's provincial governor, confirmed that the deadly bombing occurred on Sunday night in the province's Nahr-i-Saraj district.

One report said at least five soldiers had been killed and five more wounded out of an estimated 150 members of army and intelligence forces that were at the station.

Another report cited an unnamed intelligence officer who survived the attack as saying that he had personally helped pull out at least 18 bodies from under the debris caused by the blast at the site on Sunday night.

The Afghan Defense Ministry said that the driver of the car had been detected and shot by the guards before reaching the building and that he detonated the bomb outside his target of Yakhchal post.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack.

"Dozens of members belonging to the enemy forces have been killed and wounded in the attack," claimed Qari Yousuf Ahmedi, a spokesman for the group, which is notorious for its exaggerated statements.

Afghan government forces in the last two months have suffered heavy casualties across the country due to an increased number of Taliban attacks.

More than 900 Afghan forces have been killed in the past weeks, according to official government sources.

The deadly Taliban attacks on Afghan forces come despite a peace deal between the militants and the United States in February. They also come in the middle of a drawn-out prisoner exchange with the government that was stipulated by the deal.

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Iran Officials Make Conflicting Remarks On Consequences Of Extending Arms Embargo

Radio Farda May 04, 2020

While the Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi has said that nothing will be left of the 2015 nuclear deal if the UN security Council extends the arms embargo against Iran beyond October 2020, President Hassan Rouhani's Spokesman, Ali Rabiei, says Iran is not planning to withdraw from the nuclear deal.

Based on the multilateral accord, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran should be allowed to buy and sell weapons five years after signing the JCPOA by October 2020.

However, the United States has prepared the draft of a UN Security resolution which calls for extending the arms embargo indefinitely.

Monday, May 4, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in Tehran that "Ending the arms embargo is one of the achievements of the JCPOA for Iran," adding that "Preventing Tehran from benefitting from this advantage will prompt Iran to show a swift reaction and Iran will implement the decisions it has made in this regard."

However, later on Monday, Ali Rabiei reiterated that Iran has not decided to leave the JCPOA, although he stressed that "Violation of the JCPOA by the UN Security Council will not be tolerated and the Islamic Republic of Iran will take action to meet its requirements."

Iran's security chief Ali Shamkhani had warned on Sunday that "the extension of the arms embargo against Iran at the UN Security Council will lead to the "eternal death" of the JCPOA.

Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iran-officials-make- conflicting-remarks-on-consequences-of- extending-arms-embargo-/30592612.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 World Health Organisation (WHO) has questioned Donald Trump's claim to have seen evidence indicating the latest coronavirus came from a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

The UN health agency said it has received no evidence or data from the US government to back up claims made by the US president and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo.

From our perspective, this remains speculative, WHO emergencies chief Dr Michael Ryan said.

But like any evidence-based organisation, we would be very willing to receive any information that purports to the origin of the virus.

Dr Ryan reiterated that the evidence and advice that the WHO has received suggest that the coronavirus is of natural origin.

Mr Trump and Mr Pompeo have said they have seen evidence suggesting it could be from a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

If that data and evidence is available, then it will be for the United States government to decide whether and when it can be shared, Dr Ryan told reporters in Geneva.

But its difficult for WHO to operate in an information vacuum in that specific regard.

On Sunday, Mr Pompeo told ABCs This Week programme there was a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan.

Scientists have said the virus likely made the leap from animals to humans late last year, likely at a wet market in Wuhan.

The top US epidemiologist, Anthony Fauci, has also challenged the theory that the virus was engineered in a lab.

If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and whats out there now, [the scientific evidence] is very, very strongly leaning towards this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated, Dr Fauci told National Geographic.

Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species, he said.

The US intelligence community has said it agrees with the scientific consensus that the virus was not manmade, but said it was investigating whether the outbreak came from a Chinese lab.

On Thursday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the intelligence community concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the Covid-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified.

It added: The IC [intelligence community] will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.
[May 05, 2020] Organic Payment Gateways Launches Agency Partnership Program for CBD

SCARBOROUGH, Maine, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Organic Payment Gateways announced this week that they would begin accepting partnership applications from providers looking to integrate payment processing and potentially monetize CBD payment gateway referrals. The Organic Payment Gateways Agency Partnership Program will be limited to shopping cart solutions, site builders, hosted platforms, point-of-sale distributors, and high-volume web developers. According to the company, they designed their Organic Payment Gateways Agency Partnership Program for established companies that have a clientele in need of CBD payment gateways and payment acceptance. Organic Payment Gateways will work to place referrals with payment solutions that integrate seamlessly with their partners' existing systems. This should reduce workflow friction and allow CBD and hemp clients to accept payments using the software that is already in place. Alex Roy, president of E-Commerce 4 LLC, the parent company of Organic Payment Gateways, described the need for the program. According to Alex, "Platform developers, shopping cart companies, and e-commerce software providers often hit serious roadblocks when they try to help CBD clients with reliable payment gateways. This new partnership program should help alleviate those challenges." With the tagline "Help your clients accept credit cards using the platform your agency oves" as his focus, Alex hopes to streamline payment processing for software companies and developers who have a large, underserved, CBD e-commerce clientele.



In addition to software platforms and developers, Organic Payment Gateways will also offer, on a limited basis, partnerships with large, established Shopify, ClickFunnels, WooCommerce, and Wix experts that regularly assist CBD and hemp website owners with online payment processing integration. The company's Agency Partnership Program page describes the affiliate program launch as follows:

"Our reputation, service, multiple solutions, and ability to integrate with Shopify, WooCommerce, ClickFunnels, and Wix make partnering with Organic Payment Gateways the most stable way for your clients to accept payments for CBD. Organic Payment Gateways helps you create new revenue for your agency via our referral affiliate program, and allows you to add value to your clients, thereby increasing referrals and client retention." When asked for more specifics regarding which companies and individuals would be allowed to participate, the company explained that although they accept referrals from any agency, and appreciate the business, their Agency Partnership Program only pays commissions to mid-sized or larger agencies, experts, consultants, and software companies. Alex Roy added this explanation for the program's limited scope: "Unfortunately, the volume of inquiries we would likely receive from smaller agencies makes it impossible for us to roll this partnership program out too broadly to start. With time, we may loosen criteria, but as it stands, we will require a handful of items for a company to participate. First, partners must be located within the United States. Secondly, they must demonstrate that they have an active, growing e-commerce portfolio, and lastly, they must be able to document a high level of client satisfaction and adherence to all local, state, federal, and industry rules and regulations." According to the Organic Payment Gateways Agency Partnership Program description, qualified agencies may earn ongoing income in exchange for their referrals. Commission structures will likely vary based on several factors, and there is a simple online application that agencies and software companies can complete in a few minutes. More information on this program can be found at https://organicpaymentgateways.com/partnership-program. Media Contact:

Alex Roy

800-570-1347

[email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/organic-payment-gateways-launches-agency-partnership-program-for-cbd-301052478.html SOURCE Organic Payment Gateways

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When Lori Lightfoot was elected mayor in Chicago in April 2019 (becoming the first black woman to serve in the office), she had a sense of what was about to fall on her plate.

In that race, shed run on promises to stamp out corruption, deal with an impending fiscal crisis, reduce crime, and reform policing. There were bound to be unexpected problems, but she had her marching orders. Then, six months into her tenure, a once-in-a-lifetime virus put her plans on hold. When shed mapped out how her first term in office would look, a pandemic that would compel her to shut down one of the biggest cities in the United States for months on end was, as she puts it, not on the list of possible options. She has rejiggered her to-do list.

Since states explored (and then instituted) lockdowns several weeks ago, much attention had been paid to the warring approaches of their governors. Washington governor Jay Inslee moved fast to curtail an outbreak in Seattle, enacting a plan that has in all likelihood saved thousands of lives. Meanwhile, Governor Brian Kemp ruled that some nonessential businesses in Georgia could reopen in late April and lifted additional restrictions last week, ahead of the recommended timeline from public health experts. The decision has been so denounced that even President Donald Trump expressed disapproval.

But while it does fall to governors to make the call to closeand later, to reopentheir states, our nations cities and the people who lead them have decisions to make too. Municipal governments can make funds available to small businesses to keep them afloat or plan for meal distribution for at-risk children who cant get them at school while in quarantine. Local officials can mandate mask wearing or clear streets to open up space for pedestrians or streamline access to essential services. In cities and towns across America, its mayorseven more than statewide politicians or the presidentwho are responsible for sounding a clear note to constituents who have perhaps received muddied signals from other leaders. And its mayors who have the closest look at the minute-to-minute, ever-compounding desperation that people in their communities now feel.

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Wrigley Field Campus Mobilized In Support of COVID-19-Relief Efforts Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

I dont think theres a female way of leading, nor do I think that most women would say that, says Juliette Kayyem, who leads a virtual convening with hundreds of global mayors each week that Bloomberg Philanthropies hosts. But what many women have demonstrated in this crisis is both truthfulness, which is needed in a pandemic, in terms of being honest about what we know and what we dont know, and quick decision making. Their cities have benefited from actions taken early and decisively, even if imperfect.

(Not every mayor has quite met her moment. Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman recently offered up her residents as a control group to see how many people would die without social distancing.)

For women who lead towns and citiesas for women in all positions of leadershipthe job is complicated. Be empathetic, but firm. Be decisive, but not cold. Be understanding, but dont be a doormat. Be focused, but never be unavailable. Be omnipresent, be kind, be assertive, be relatable.

Over the past two weeks, Glamour interviewed five women who know the roles tightrope walk wellAtlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, San Francisco mayor London Breed, Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot, Mayor Rosalynn Bliss in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway in Madison, Wisconsin. Here, these women look back on the first two months of this crisislow moments; beacons of hope; unexpected, absurdly popular memesand plan for an uncertain future.

Keisha Lance Bottoms

In 2017, Bottoms was elected mayor of Atlanta. She previously served on the Atlanta city council.

Keisha Lance Bottoms was in Tennessee, campaigning for former vice president Joe Biden, whom she endorsed last summer, when she learned that Georgia had its first positive cases. For months shed been watching the virus take hold in China and spread outside of it. It was just a matter of time before it arrived in the United States. When she heard the news, she reached out to her team and sounded the alarm. I said, God bless the child whos got his own, she recalls. Weve got to be prepared for this regardless of what the federal preparations and the state preparations will be. Weve got to make sure that, as a city, we are prepared.

Bottoms leads a blue metropolis in the middle of a red state. Even as she takes care to emphasize her collaborative work with conservatives, she knew that she and Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican, would not have the same attitude on how to cope with the pandemic. And so she steeled herself. Were going to assume we wont have help from anywhere, she told her staff. And were going to operate this as if weve got to navigate it ourselves. And then anything above that, any assistance that we get, we will consider it to be extra and will be grateful for it.

Going in with that approacha low-expectations attitude that will be familiar to women the world overhas allowed us not to be disappointed, Bottoms says. With Kemp tied up with his ill-advised reopening, Bottoms has stepped up, coordinating hot meals for children on free or reduced lunch, supporting seniors who are homebound, and working with U.S. senator David Perdue, a Republican, to ensure that their state receives the funds it needs in each successive stimulus bill.

She has also continued to call for people to remain indoors, a counterweight to Kemps open-for-business approach. It disturbs her to think that Kemp believes its possible for someone like a barber to maintain a six-foot distance from his clients. The nature of the business doesnt allow people to be at distance, Bottoms says. And if Im struggling to get personal protective equipment for sanitation workers in Atlanta, Im not sure how I should expect my manicurist to have what she needs. She agrees with Trump that Kemp has pushed too fast to send people back to work, but thats perhaps the one area of consensus the two share.

I wish I even had a word to describe what I see from the White House, she says. Im at a loss for words to describe that. In a state like Georgia, Bottoms is used to figuring out how to work with conservatives. Its not partisanship that has soured her on the White House. I dont think thats a partisan issue. I think its just poor leadership.

Her candorabout Trump, about Kemphas provoked a sometimes frightening response. Last week Bottoms received a text (also sent to her 12-year-old son) that called her the n-word. State officials are now investigating the message to make sure it wasnt sent from a government worker. Even so, Bottoms maintains her composure, finding equilibrium in her personal support network and Atlantas broader public health apparatus. She knows what needs to be done. In making decisions, she likes to recall one of her mothers favorite refrains: A little bit of common sense goes a long way.

There has been no playbook; it is just us sitting down, trying to quickly think through the list, she says. We ask, Who is going to be the most vulnerable? What will their needs be?

Bottoms has also looked to the example of other citiesor, as she puts it, as much as we do now, as much as we led, weve also followed. She watched Mayor London Breed shut down San Francisco and proceeded to lift Breeds order almost word for word. She admires how Mayor Randall Woodfin communicates with his residents in Birmingham, Alabama. She noticed Mayor Melvin Carter made direct deposits of up to $1,000 available to families in St. Paul, Minnesota. Smart, she thinks. Now her team is looking into whether thats doable in Atlanta. And conference calls with the U.S. Conference of Mayors have become more than just a place to trade good ideas. Sometimes, for me, its almost like a therapy session. You just get to hear from other mayors and you realize that, the problems youre havingyoure not facing it alone.

London Breed

Breed won a special election after San Francisco mayor Ed Lee died in office in December 2017. She was elected to serve a full termbecoming the citys first black, female mayorin 2019.

London Breed had been having conversations with her staff about the coronavirus as far back as December 2019, but it was in the first weeks of 2020 that she activated San Franciscos EOCthe emergency operations center that would serve as the central command in the event that the virus took root in the area.

And thats when [our public health experts and I] got into an in-depth conversation about what was happening in the rest of the world and what would happen if it hit us here in San Francisco, Breed says. I just remember looking at the people there, like, We have UC San Francisco, we have California Pacific Medical Center, we have Kaiser Permanente, we have San Francisco Generalwe have all these health facilities, and what Im hearing is that if there is an outbreak and we take no steps to protect this city, that there is a real possibility that we will have to turn people away because were not going to have enough ventilators or ICU beds to help support people when they need it? Breed was dumbfounded. That was in January, she says, And thats when I thought, This is serious.

Breed declared a state of emergency in San Francisco on February 25, despite the fact that her city didnt have a single confirmed case of the coronavirus at the time. In early March she banned gatherings of more than 1,000 people, effectively outlawing sporting events. Some chided her, whispering about overreach and alarmism. But Breed had seen the numbersshe was alarmed. If she wanted to keep her hospitals from facing an overwhelming number of patients, she needed to curb peoples potential exposure to the virus.

At the time, the experts that Breed consulted were still hoping for the best but explained the risks of the worstthe potential for an outbreak that would tear through San Francisco, the realities of how fast the virus could spread. I started to be like, Dude, it sounds like were going to need to shut it down. We need to shut it all down.

Breed remembers someone telling her, Well, thats where were going to end up. But that person implied a full lockdown was still a few weeks off. Breed didnt want to wait. The sooner we get there, she told her team, the faster we can get out of there. She issued a shelter-in-place order on March 17, with fewer than 50 reported cases. New York waited until March 22 to make a similar decree; it had more than 10,000 reported cases.

San Francisco still isnt out of there, but there are indications that Breeds approach has done its job. As of April 29, the city had recorded 25 deathscompared with over 1,000 in Los Angeles. L.A. has 11.5 times the population of San Francisco but more than 40 times its number of deaths. Breed has extended her lockdown order to maintain those achievements but knows that the measure will exacerbate other kinds of pain. She grew up in public housing; she understands the economic havoc this crisis will continue to cause. San Francisco has established a disaster relief fund for small businesses andin a first-of-its-kind measureBreed implemented a cap on the fees that services like GrubHub or Seamless can collect from restaurants whose modest margins have been decimated in the pandemic. She has heard from several other cities who want to follow suit.

We send them whatever we have, she saysresearch, legal justifications, even the wording of announcements. San Franciscos shelter-in-place order, its child care policies for essential workers, now its cap on feessimilar text has been drawn up in cities nationwide looking to Breeds example: As soon as someone asks, we send it. Were here to help.

Like Bottoms in Atlanta, Breed has benefited from others quick thinking. She called Mayor Sam Liccardo in San Jose, whod instituted a moratorium on evictions. I was like, How did you do that? He had done a whole bunch of research around it. So he had this information and was happy to share it with us. So thats how this network has worked. We share information, and we try to move quickly because this virus is moving fast.

Not all of Breeds actions have been popular. Advocates have criticized her policies toward the homeless and the lack of action taken to support them in the crisisshe counters that her team is moving hundreds of unhoused people into hotels. (An outbreak of the virus in one of its shelters had infected at least 70 residents and staffers.) But she concedes that shed like to do more to help vulnerable populations.

For now Breed, who lives alone, is hunkering down like the rest of her residents, mobilizing San Franciscos resources from her kitchen. Its lonely, she says. She misses hugs, hanging out with loved ones, interacting with people face-to-face. She misses getting her nails done.

But shes also proud of the job she and her staff have done, and shes not about to let up now. I think women are just better at multitasking, she tells Glamour of the success San Francisco has had in its multipronged response. So for example, when I have morning calls, Im also doing my hair and makeup. No one sees me, but see? Im multitasking.

Lori Lightfoot

In 2019, Lightfoot was elected mayor of Chicago. She is the first openly gay black woman to be elected mayor of a major city in the United States.

It is said that no one can be in more than one place at one time, but Lori Lightfoot seems to have done the impossible. Or at least, a two-dimensional version of her has. Ever since a rather severe Lightfoot addressed the press in late March and someone circulated a photo of herexpression serious, arms folded at her waistimages of her visible displeasure have gone viral.

Residents have since taken to photoshopping Lightfoot into crowded scenes, a reproachful cutout. An Instagram account called @whereslightfoot has almost 60,000 followers. One post of Lightfoot superimposed on Chicagos lakefront pathstaring down a runnerhas been shared 25,000 times. People in Chicago are talented and innovative, Lightfoot insists with a laugh. Really, I mean literally I have seen myself everywhere.

The memes are meant to be jokes, but Lightfoots attempt to do everything, be everywhere, and tell every single person in Chicago not to gather in public spaces is true to form. Since the outbreak, she has exercised her power as the leader of one of the nations biggest cities. That has caused some consternation within local government. And Lightfoot also came under fire for her decision to get a haircut, despite the fact that salons in the area are closed. Still, her decisive action has also won considerable praise.

In moments of crisis, I tend to think about being in the eye of the storm, Lightfoot says. In the eye of a hurricane, theres incredible calm. I have a personality where I dont get too high or too low. Ive been very, very conscious about what I need to do to keep residents of the city hopeful in the midst of a lot of fear.

That has meant, sure, knowing how to be a good sport and a game participant in the memeification of her office. (She released her own version with a PSA.)

But it has also demanded digging down and uncovering the impact of COVID-19 on our economic and social fabric, as Lightfoot puts it. She wants to dispel some of the uncertainties and worries that residents have about where risks lie when Chicago does open back up. The big buckets that we need to deal with are economic stimulus, mental health and emotional health, marketing and business development, and then regional coordination. Just as this virus doesnt know geographic or demographic boundaries or distinctions, in thinking about how we recover we cant just be focused on the outlines of Chicago. This is a regional, state, and national issue.

When it comes to the federal government, Lightfoot has few expectations. But like leaders in cities and states across America, she appreciates the fallout that could come from a White House orderor a White House attack on her state. She was not surprised to see Donald Trump pounce on Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat. She knows how some receive women in positions of power. In Chicago, where Lightfoot won her own election with 73% of the vote and remains popular, support for her leadership has for the most part been louder than criticism. But Lightfoot is realistic.

Lets not kid ourselvessexism is not dead. It is alive and thriving, she tells Glamour. There is not a woman leader that I know, whether shes a public servant or in business, that doesnt understand the seriousness of that fact. That doesnt mean that we go to a corner and wait for the storm to pass. It means that we have got to deal with the cards that were dealt. I think Ive been fortunate here. But Im conscious of the fact I am a black woman lesbian from a small town, not native-born Chicagoan, and there are always going to be people who are going to challenge me in ways that they would never dare challenge a white man.

I have a very good sense of who I am and what I stand for, she continues. Ive got a great team of people around me. I also have a great group of trusted friends and advisors. But I also know, as I said before, that Im a black woman in America. Nobodys coming to rescue me. Ive got to get it for myself, and I feel the same way with what we need to do here in our city. The cavalry is not coming over the horizon to save us. We have got to get it for ourselves. Thats what weve been doing every day since Ive been mayor, and thats what were going to do every day with this pandemic.

Rosalynn Bliss

In 2015, Bliss was elected mayor of Grand Rapids, Michiganthe first woman ever to win that office.

In late April demonstrators in Michigan started to swarm the state capitol. The protestswhich have grown over the past several weekscame after Donald Trump tweeted Liberate Michigan! on April 17 and scorned Governor Gretchen Whitmer, whom he dismissed as the woman in Michigan. (Shed criticized the weak federal response to the coronavirus.)

Last week some carried guns, and hundreds crowded onto the grounds in defiance of Whitmers shelter-at-home executive orders. At one point, as Vox reported, protestors chanted Lock her up and Heil Whitmer.

Meanwhile, 65 miles from the scene, Rosalynn Bliss has been doing her best to keep the 200,000 residents of Grand Rapids calm and protected. When shed spoken to Glamour earlier in the week, shed fumedto the extent that her polite, Midwestern disposition allowedover the discord and laid at least some of the blame at the feet of Donald Trump.

Bliss has heard from constituents who are upset about Whitmers orders, and she understands their perspective. People who are window washers, who feel confident that they could do their jobs and maintain the necessary distance. Small business owners. Someone who delivers flowers. But she distinguishes between those peoplepeople who are struggling, people who are desperate to draw a paycheckand Trump.

Its been unbelievably frustrating to me, Bliss says of watching his treatment of Whitmer. This is no time for partisan politics and cheap shots. We have got to pull together and work together to get through this. And it's just, plain and simple, not helpful to anyone. Adding divisiveness and polarization at this moment in time? I have little to no tolerance for that.

In Grand Rapids shes stressed the resilience of the human spirit. Were building on peoples sense of community and caring for one another, she says. And its been disappointing to see some of the statements made that I believe contribute to ongoing divisiveness. I think thats the best word I can use.

Like most leaders, Bliss is thinking about how best to structure a phased reopening: There are going to be waves and phases that we have to work through to ensure that were mitigating the spread. She is drawing up plans to develop workforce training for those who dont have jobs to go back to, to support local businesses in particular that will need to reopen and rebuild after months of lost revenue, and to boost civic pride, an element that too few people have prioritized. A lot of cities and downtownswere an epicenter for gatherings, Bliss points out. We have events and concerts. We have music halls and symphonies and shows. Those are places that stoke human connection, that bind us to each other and remind us what our communities are capable of. For Bliss, its not just about figuring out the logistics of how to open those places back up. Its also about restoring their atmospherethe culture and festivities that make cities come alive.

But Bliss doesnt want to just return to life as usual. Something that has weighed on me throughout this, and will continue to weigh on me, is the disparate impact that COVID-19 is having on our communities of color, she tells Glamour. Racial disparities and racial divides have existed here throughout our history, as they do in many cities, and weve done a lot of work to not just elevate the issue of racial [justice], but really to operationalize How do we dismantle those racialized practices and policies that have led us to where we are?

Bliss wont be able to claim true success in fighting the pandemic until she can figure out how to use its lessons to more aggressively address racial inequities. In mapping out Grand Rapidss new normal, she is struggling with how to answer one question: How do we look at this and make sure that the future is more equitable?

Satya Rhodes-Conway

In 2019, Rhodes-Conway was elected mayor of Madison, Wisconsin. She is the first openly gay person to serve in that office.

Its a small thing, but Satya Rhodes-Conway likes drinking her coffee out of a Wonder Woman mug. Its one of the few routines that the coronavirus has not interrupted. Outside of that, the world is upside down.

When Wisconsin first went into lockdown, residents understood and even reached out to Rhodes-Conway to express their gratitude. She received messages urging her to take whatever action she needed to: Do it. Do this. Do more.

But in late April, the toll that the closures and isolation have taken on residents is clear to her. Earlier last month, a battle between Wisconsins governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, and the state legislature, which Republicans control, resulted in an election held in the middle of the pandemic. Democrats came out on top, netting an unexpected win in a race for the Wisconsin State Supreme Court. But the experience wasas much of the crisis has beenbruising, according to reports.

After weeks at home, the effects are cumulative. I think that the longer this goes on, the harder it gets for people, which I understand, Rhodes-Conway says. We are hearing from people, definitely. The economic pain is real. The impacts on mental health are real, and the more people feel those, I think the more concerns we hear about how much longer this is going to go on.

Its not just residents who are worried. Rhodes-Conway is feeling the crush too. The initial fear was just thinking about how to adapt all of our services, she says. I think that still remains challenging, particularly for our frontline workers, who have fewer options to protect themselves. But those anxieties have been compounded as the crisis slammed businesses: Its just hard to watch all of our small businesses suffer and to know that not all of them are going to make it through this.

Shed like to do more, but Madison is not New York or Los Angelescities which are of course themselves struggling. It has modest resources, and shes limited in the extent to which she can redirect them. Our budget is a complete and total mess, Rhodes-Conway admits. Were going to have a really, really tough time pulling out of this. And if her own government finds its bottom line shredded, she knows restaurants and boutiques are bound to have it even worse. One of the things that I love most about Madison is our neighborhood business districts and the small and local businesses that make them up. And to imagine losing thatits just heartbreaking.

Mattie Kahn is the culture director at Glamour.

Originally Appeared on Glamour
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 02:27:24|Editor: huaxia

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Anthony Fauci (front), director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), speaks during a press conference on the coronavirus at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, March 4, 2020. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

"If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats, and what's out there now is very, very strongly leaning toward this (virus) could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated -- the way the mutations have naturally evolved," top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said.

WASHINGTON, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated.

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made the comments Monday in an interview with National Geographic.

While answering a question regarding evidence that the virus was made in or accidentally released from a lab in China, Fauci said, "If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats, and what's out there now is very, very strongly leaning toward this (virus) could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated -- the way the mutations have naturally evolved."

"A number of very qualified evolutionary biologists have said that everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that it evolved in nature and then jumped species," he said.

Asked about the possibility that the virus was found outside the lab, then brought back and escaped, Fauci said, "That means it (virus) was in the wild to begin with."

"That's why I don't get what they're talking about (and) why I don't spend a lot of time going in on this circular argument," he said. 
Nino Vitale, who in April took to Facebook to share conspiracy theorists about Bill Gates' involvement with the coronavirus, shared the religious sentiment in a Monday post

A Republican lawmaker from Ohio declared that he would not wear a face mask to reduce the spread of COVID-19 because faces were created in the 'image and likeness of God.'

Representative Nino Vitale, who in April took to Facebook to share conspiracy theorists about Bill Gates' involvement with the coronavirus, shared the religious sentiment in a Monday post.

'This is the greatest nation on earth founded on Judeo-Christian Principle,' he said in the post. 'One of those principles is that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. That image is seen the most by our face. I will not wear a mask.'

Included in the Facebook post was a spliced video of Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton and Governor Mike DeWine.

The clip shows the Dr Acton sharing her thoughts on the importance of masks and an out-of-context clip of the Republican governor stating that his order to wear the masks 'were a bridge too far that people were not going to accept the government telling them what to do.'

Scroll down for video

Included in the Facebook post was a spliced video of Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton and Governor Mike DeWine

Vitale instructs Ohio to 'ignore the unelected Dr Acton's orders' and 'open your counties now, before it's took late'

In the video, Acton at one point says for people to 'don our cape and mask.'

Vitale instructs Ohio to 'ignore the unelected Dr Acton's orders' and 'open your counties now, before it's too late.'

'Additionally, these orders were NOT voted on by 2/3rds of a vote of the legislature, as need to be done in cases of emergencies in Ohio,' the representative claimed.

A video that the representative had posted to YouTube about the virus was also deleted from the platform. His Facebook account was temporarily disabled after comments he made about Bill Gates

Vitale just recently got access to his Facebook page as the representative's account was temporarily disabled after he posted misinformation and conspiracy theories directed at Bill Gates. A video that the representative had posted to YouTube about the virus was also deleted from the platform.

The representative claimed that Gates 'wants to lock us down and profit by charging us for mandatory vaccinations' while also falsely claiming that Gates 'chose not to vaccinate his own kids,' Cleveland.com reports.

On April 30, YouTube removed a video that Vitale edited that appeared to spread misinformation about COVID-19.

The comments from Governor DeWine were made on Sunday, after he explained on Friday that some Ohioans found his order 'offensive'

The governor announced he was cancelling the order to wear masks in a Friday Facebook post

The comments from Governor DeWine were made on Sunday, after he explained on Friday that some Ohioans found his order 'offensive.'

The governor took to Twitter on Friday to explain that while he had made the order on masks to help scared 'business employees' and 'family members who are scared for their loved ones who are working' on the frontlines.

But while he cancelled the order, DeWine stressed the importance of wearing the masks

But while he cancelled the order, DeWine stressed the importance of wearing the masks.

'Face masks are very important and our business group came back and said every employee, for example, should wear a face mask. So we're continuing that, whether it's retail or wholesale, whatever it is, manufacturing, every employee's going to have the face mask,' he said Sunday on ABC.

On May 12, retail and consumer stores will reopen in Ohio as part of the states reopening plan.

The state has just under 20,000 confirmed cases of the virus and another 975 have died, according to the Ohio Department of Health website as of Tuesday.
Judgment confirms community inclusion in mining regulations

The Labour Court has ordered the state to adopt measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in mines and to engage meaningfully with affected communities

On Monday 4 May, the Labour Court handed down judgment in an urgent application seeking to ensure mine workers and affected communities are properly protected from the novel coronavirus. The Court has not only granted the relief sought, but has also ordered the state to engage meaningfully on future mining regulations with both trade unions and community networks like MACUA.

Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA) and their representatives at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies welcome yesterdays judgment from the Labour Court. The ruling provides reasons for an earlier order directing the state to publish a notice requiring mines to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 on employees and anyone else who may be affected by the disease at the mines  as well as to engage meaningfully on this with trade unions, the MACUA community network and other interested parties.

The judgment confirms that there is a fundamental overlap between occupational health and public health, and that both mine workers and communities are particularly vulnerable to a disease like Covid-19, saying at paragraph 35: In the face of a global pandemic, the spread of the Covid-19 virus on South Africas mines has profound implications for the country, neighbouring countries and especially for mineworkers and mining-affected communities.

We are very proud to have been involved in such an important case. We would like to take this opportunity to give a special thanks to our dedicated legal team and in particular our counsel, Lunga Siyo and Lerato Phasha, for their work making this such a successful matter.

This is a historic victory for mining affected communities, says Akhona Mehlo, attorney at CALS. The judgment recognises communities and their networks as key stakeholders in mining along with trade unions and employer organisations who must be meaningfully engaged on the laws and policies that impact them.

It is encouraging that no matter how excluded we have felt on issues like the Mining Charter and these lockdown regulations, the courts have always seen the value of including communities, says Meshack Mbangula, National Co-ordinator of MACUA. It was reassuring to hear Judge van Niekerk voice concern for the communities surrounding the mines and to make the connection between occupational health and safety and the issue of public health in our society.

[UPDATE]: Representatives from CALS participated in a number of virtual consultations around the new regulations, which were gazetted on 18 May 2020. Unfortunately, there is not much community influence to be found in the final text.

For inquiries, please contact:

From MACUA:

Meshack Mbangula, National Co-ordinator, at meshack.mbangula@macua.org.za

Christopher Rutledge, Executive Director MACUA / WAMUA Advice Office, at christopher.rutledge@macua.org.za

From CALS:

Akhona Mehlo at Akhona.Mehlo@wits.ac.za

Busiswe Kamolane at Busisiwe.Kamolane@wits.ac.za

Louis Snyman at Louis.Snyman@wits.ac.za

ABOUT MACUA

Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA) is a national movement of mining affected communities advancing their rights and interests across eight provinces of South Africa. The network is made up over 25 Branches with thousands of members and works for communities to be granted the right to participate in issues and decisions that affect their human rights and which they believe is denied to them in current regulations governing the mining sector. Read more about the organsisation at http://www.macua.org.za.
Western Australias sixth day of zero new coronavirus cases has signalled to the state government that easing restrictions to help get people back to work will be its next priority.

Health Minister Roger Cook said the 6.6 per cent recorded job losses had been weighing heavily on the Premier as they hoped to move from a response and recovery phase to a longer term recovery phase.

Zero new cases: Health Minister Roger Cook indicates there will be more easing of restrictions before the end of the week. Credit:AAP

Weve had an outstanding result in relation to the number of new cases. Zero is a terrific place to be in but with that comes obviously an obligation to get West Australians back to work, Mr Cook said.

And there will be a range of announcements in the coming days as the national cabinet winds up its deliberations and as the WA government considers where we can go to next as a result of these great numbers.
Sudbury, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 5, 2020) - Transition Metals Corp (TSXV: XTM) ("Transition", "The Company") is pleased to announce it has received assay results from the previously announced drill program (see XTM press release dated January 20, 2020) conducted by Impala Canada Ltd. (Impala Canada) on the Sunday Lake PGM Property located 25 km north of Thunder Bay, Ontario (Figure 1). Impala Platinum Holdings Limited (Implats) and Impala Canada control a 75% interest in the Property and Transition holds a 25% free carried interest through to the completion of a Feasibility Study.

The 'Big Red' Magnetotellurics (MT) anomaly that measures in excess of 500m by 400m has been tested with four drill holes to-date, all of which have intersected high grade PGM (Pt+Pd+Au) mineralization. The 'Big Red' anomaly appears to be part of a much larger untested northwest-southeast trending MT anomaly measuring 1200m by 400m.

2020 Drilling Highlights:

23.00m @ 2.42 g/t PGM (1.29 g/t Pt, 1.03 g/t Pd and 0.09 g/t Au) including 9.20m @ 4.28 g/t PGM (2.27 g/t Pt, 1.85 g/t Pd and 0.17 g/t Au) in hole SL-20-032-W1 .

26.00m @ 2.55 g/t PGM (1.38 g/t Pt, 1.05 g/t Pt and 0.12 g/t Au) including 8.00m @ 3.89 g/t PGM (2.15 g/t Pt, 1.57 g/t Pd and 0.17 g/t Au) in hole SL-20-033 .

Both SL-20-033 and SL-20-032-W1 intersected the outer edge of the 'Big Red' MT anomaly and still returned a thick interval of PGM mineralization as well as internal high grade sections.

The mineralized zone, as defined by the current drilling, ranges in thickness from 20.0m to 60.0m with PGM grades from 2.2 g/t to 5.51 g/t (1.20-3.22 g/t Pt, 0.80-2.08 g/t Pd and 0.09-0.21 g/t Au) combined Pt+Pd+Au. Importantly, this broader zone also includes a nested high grade section that ranges in thickness from 4.0m to 15.8m with PGM grades greater than 5 g/t combined Pt+Pd+Au.



Company CEO and President Scott McLean, P.Geo. commented: "Sunday Lake continues to represent an exciting and important PGM property for Transition Metals. Two holes from the recent drilling program intersected the outer extent of the 'Big Red' anomaly and continue to provide high grade intersections over broad widths. In addition, the completion of a 3rd hole into a separate, high quality MT anomaly demonstrates the widespread nature of the PGM mineralization across the property. Exploration on the property is still at an early stage and with continued drilling there is excellent potential of building a significant mineral resource going forward."

Story continues

Mr. McLean continued: "In addition to its 25% carried interest at Sunday Lake, Transition owns a 100% interest in the nearby Saturday Night Property where drilling in 2017 intersected mineralization in a similar geological setting to that observed at Sunday Lake (see Transition Press Release dated January 23, 2017). We are actively looking for a partner to advance this very prospective project as soon as possible."

The Company will host a webinar on Tuesday May 5, 2020 at 11am EST to discuss the results. Please register for the webinar by following this link.



Recent Exploration Program History

In November of 2018, the Joint Venture completed a 95 station ground Spartan MT survey across the property with the intention of better defining the basal contact of the intrusion as well as potentially identifying basement structures that may act as structural traps for sulphide mineralization. The results of the surveys highlighted several high-priority conductive trends associated with areas of known mineralization or interpreted structural features. In addition, a large previously untested circular MT anomaly ('Big Red' anomaly) measuring in excess of 500m x 400m, was identified in the SW portion of the property (Figure 2).

In February of 2019, a 11,500m diamond drill program was initiated by the Joint Venture on the property focused on testing several high-priority geophysical targets generated from the surveys completed in 2018 (see Transition Press Release dated February 12, 2019). Two of the six drill holes completed during the program successfully targeted the 'Big Red' anomaly and returned the thickest and highest grade mineralization encountered to date on the property (see Transition Press Release dated April 29, 2019) (Figure 2) (Table 1).

Table 1: Selected assay results for the 2019 Sunday Lake exploration drilling program.

Hole # From (m) To (m) Length (m) Pt+Pd+Au g/t Pt g/t Pd g/t Au g/t Cu wt% Ni wt% SL-19-026 1392.00 1433.20 41.20 5.51 3.22 2.08 0.21 0.57 0.19 including 1417.40 1433.20 15.80 9.11 5.42 3.35 0.34 0.88 0.24 with 1418.85 1427.15 8.30 13.06 7.67 4.97 0.42 1.23 0.32 and 1425.24 1427.15 1.91 16.98 9.29 7.12 0.58 1.56 0.36 and 1425.24 1425.90 0.66 19.80 9.90 9.30 0.63 1.66 0.42 SL-19-029 1405.00 1466.00 61.00 2.20 1.20 0.80 0.15 0.22 0.15 including 1433.00 1465.00 32.00 3.35 1.90 1.20 0.23 0.33 0.18 including 1443.00 1449.00 6.00 5.15 2.90 1.90 0.34 0.55 0.28 and 1454.00 1465.00 11.00 4.75 2.70 1.70 0.30 0.46 0.18 including 1455.46 1463.63 8.17 5.44 3.20 2.00 0.33 0.51 0.20 and 1461.00 1463.00 2.00 5.97 3.50 2.20 0.35 0.64 0.19

Note: Reported interval length are estimated as being between 80% and 90% of true width of the intersected sulphide mineralization.

2020 Diamond Drilling

For the period spanning January to March 2020, Impala Canada completed a total of 4,295m of diamond drilling in three holes on the Sunday Lake Property. Holes SL-20-032-W1 and SL-20-033 directly targeted the 'Big Red' anomaly while hole SL-20-031 targeted a section of a conductive MT trend within the central portion of the property. Results from the three holes are presented in Table 2 (Figure 2).

Table 2: Assay results for the 2020 Sunday Lake exploration drilling program.

Hole # From (m) To (m) Length (m) Pt+Pd+Au g/t Pt g/t Pd g/t Au g/t Cu wt% Ni wt% SL-20-031 910.00 931.00 21.00 1.02 0.60 0.37 0.05 0.15 0.08 including 911.00 912.00 1.00 3.05 1.67 1.28 0.10 0.40 0.17 including 924.20 926.10 1.90 2.50 1.45 0.96 0.10 0.34 0.13 SL-20-032-W1 1263.00 1286.00 23.00 2.42 1.29 1.03 0.09 0.33 0.13 including 1270.80 1280.00 9.20 4.28 2.27 1.85 0.17 0.57 0.18 with 1270.80 1277.00 6.20 5.58 2.95 2.42 0.21 0.74 0.21 and 1272.00 1273.00 1.00 7.43 3.93 3.24 0.26 0.96 0.29 SL-20-033 1435.00 1461.00 26.00 2.55 1.38 1.05 0.12 0.25 0.13 Including 1442.00 1450.00 8.0 3.89 2.15 1.57 0.17 0.40 0.15 with 1442.00 1446.00 4.0 5.53 3.12 2.18 0.23 0.56 0.19

Note: Reported interval length are estimated as being between 80% and 90% of true width of the intersected sulphide mineralization.









Figure 1: General location map of the Sunday Lake Project relative to the City of Thunder Bay located 25 km to the south, the Saturday Night Project located 16 km to the west and Impala Canada's Lac Des Ilse Mine-Mill Complex located 60 km north.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2766/55391_53f90bbbc4d5c81b_002full.jpg







Figure 2: MT Cumulative Conductance Plan Map (where transition from green to red indicates an increase in conductance) of the Sunday Lake Property showing the collar location of historic holes (white diamonds), collar location of 2020 holes (blue diamonds), selected hole traces and selected mineralized zones projected to surface (red circles).

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2766/55391_53f90bbbc4d5c81b_003full.jpg

About the Sunday Lake Property

The Sunday Lake PGM Project is located 25 km north of Thunder Bay in Jacques Township and approximately 60 km south of Impala Canada's Lac Des Iles Mine-Mill Complex. The property hosts the Sunday Lake intrusion which is part of the Proterozoic Mid-Continental Rift magmatic event that produced the Eagle nickel deposit (Lundin Mining) in Michigan, the Tamarack (Rio Tinto - Talon Resources) and Duluth Complex (Antofagasta Plc) magmatic sulphide deposits in Minnesota as well as the nearby Thunder Bay North deposit (Clean Air Metals Inc.) in Ontario.

About the Saturday Night Property

The Company's 100% owned Saturday Night Project is located 16 km to the west of Sunday Lake and hosts mineralization and geology similar to the Sunday Lake Property. Based upon the exciting results being reported at Sunday Lake, the Company is actively looking for a partner to advance this prospective project.

Qualified Person

The technical elements of this press release have been approved by Mr. Grant Mourre, P.Geo. (PGO), a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101. The analyses reported in this news release were performed by ALS Global in Vancouver, British Columbia. Impala Canada's rigorous internal quality control and quality assurance protocols are described in detail in Impala Canada's (formerly North American Palladium) current Technical Report for its Lac des Iles mine (October 2018 - available on SEDAR).

About Transition Metals Corp.

Transition Metals Corp (TSXV: XTM) is a Canadian-based, multi-commodity project generator that specializes in converting new exploration ideas into Canadian discoveries. The award-winning team of geoscientists has extensive exploration experience in established, emerging and historic mining camps and actively develops and tests new ideas for discovering mineralization in places that others have not looked, which often allows the company to acquire properties inexpensively. The team is rigorous in its fieldwork and combines traditional techniques with newer ones to help unearth compelling prospects and drill targets. Transition uses the project generator business model to acquire and advance multiple exploration projects simultaneously, thereby maximizing shareholder exposure to discovery and capital gain. Joint venture partners earn an interest in the projects by funding a portion of higher-risk drilling and exploration, allowing Transition to conserve capital and minimize shareholder's equity dilution. The Company has an expanding portfolio that currently includes more than 25 gold, copper, nickel and platinum projects primarily in Ontario, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Saskatchewan.

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Information

Except for statements of historical fact contained herein, the information in this news release constitutes "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities law. Such forward-looking information may be identified by words such as "plans", "proposes", "estimates", "intends", "expects", "believes", "may", "will" and include without limitation, statements regarding estimated capital and operating costs, expected production timeline, benefits of updated development plans, foreign exchange assumptions and regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate; actual results and future events could differ materially from such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, among others, metal prices, competition, risks inherent in the mining industry, and regulatory risks. Most of these factors are outside the control of the Company. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as otherwise required by applicable securities statutes or regulation, the Company expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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.

Further information is available at www.transitionmetalscorp.com or by contacting:

Scott McLean

President and CEO

Transition Metals Corp.

Tel: (705) 669-1777

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/55391
A crazed motorist has been filmed hitting another driver's side mirror with a pole.

The wide-eyed driver was laughing as he swung the pole at another moving car on a road in Sydneys west.

A person in the front passenger seat of the struck car recorded the incident in footage shared by 7News on Monday.

'A minor traffic incident' caused the driver to pull up with the pole, according to the passenger who recorded him.

After hitting the car, the man in the red hoodie slowed down as the struck car drove away from him before the footage cut off.

NSW Police said they were not aware of the incident.

'We are not aware of the incident and unfortunately without knowing where and when it occurred we are unable to determine if it has been reported to police,' a NSW Police spokesman said.

Anyone with more information about the incident is advised to contact NSW Police.
Good Morning, welcome to Information Nigerias Newspaper headlines for today, 5th May 2020.

Here are the major headlines.

Delta Government Threatens To Quarantine Anyone Seen Without Facemask

Delta Government has issued strong warning to residents who will go out without wearing a facemask, threatening that such persons will be quarantined at isolation centres in the State.

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Buhari Begs International Financial Institutions To Cancel Nigerias Debt

President Muhammadu Buhari has asked international financial institutions to help member states to cushion the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Violate Lockdown Regulations Forfeit Vehicles  Fayemi Warns Drivers

The Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, has announced new guidelines for easing the Coronavirus lockdown in the state.

Immigration Service Resumes Issuance Of Passport

The Comptroller General, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Muhammad Babandede, has ordered passport offices nationwide to take advantage of the Federal Government phased easing of lockdown to release processed passport to applicants.

Nigerian Government Receives $311 Abacha Loot From US

The Nigerian government has received $311,797,866.11 recovered assets of General Sani Abacha repatriated from the United States and the Bailiwick of Jersey.

Lagos Records 62 New Cases As FG Relaxes Lockdown

The Lagos State Government has confirmed 62 cases of coronavirus. A tweet by the State Ministry for Health on Sunday, said it has 1,068 confirmed cases in the state.

Many People Believe COVID-19 Is Fake  Borno Deputy Governor

Umar Kadafur, deputy governor of Borno State, says there are some people in the state who strongly believe that COVID-19 is not real.

We Will Get Through This Pandemic In Good Shape  Sanwo-Olu

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says the country and its people will emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic stronger.

Rules, Regulations For Post-Lockdown In Lagos, Ogun And FCT

Following the easing of the lockdown in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja from May 4 -7, the federal government has given the description of the types of activities allowed under Phase 1.

MC Oluomo Ask Lagos Drivers Not To Pick Passengers With No Facemask

As Lagosians gear up for the relaxation of the lockdown imposed on the state from Monday, 4th May, the state chairman of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) Lagos State Council, Musiliu Akinsanya (aka MC Oluomo), has ordered commercial bus drivers in the state not to pick passengers without face masks.
A Delhi Police head constable shot himself dead allegedly after killing his wife, also a police personnel, officials said on Tuesday.

They said while the 33-year-old woman constable's body was found inside a car in south Delhi's Lodhi Colony this morning, her husband allegedly killed himself at his native village in Meerut later in the day, police said.

The policewoman was posted in Outer-North district of the Delhi Police, while her husband, Head Constable Manoj, was deployed with the Special Cell unit of the force, they said.

"The body of the woman was found in a car with a visible injury on her head. The nature of injury will be confirmed only after the postmortem," said Atul Kumar Thakur, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South).

Her husband was absconding since the incident and multiple teams were sent to trace the accused, he said.

However, police later learnt that Manoj had shot himself dead in Jamalpur village inDaurala, Meerut district (UP), he added.

Prima facie, it appears to be the fallout of a marital discord, the DCP said.

According to police, the woman's husband had visited the residence of one of his colleagues at around 1.30 am and requested the keys of his car, citing an emergency.

An empty cartridge was also recovered from the car in which the woman's body was found, they said.

Both the woman and her husband had attended their duties on Monday.

The couple who were married since 2010 used to often quarrel and had arguments over the husband's drinking habits, they said.

The two did not share cordial relationship and she was living separately from him near a place where she was currently posted, another senior official said.

The woman was from Muzaffarnagar (UP) while her husband is from Meerut, he said.

Her body has been sent to the AIIMS hospital here for postmortem on Wednesday, police said.

A case of murder has been registered at Lodhi Colony police station and further investigation is underway, they added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PORTAGE, MI  Bravo! Restaurant and Cafe is closing its doors after operating for 33 years in the Kalamazoo area, business partners announced today.

After much discussion and exploration of alternatives, we have come to the difficult decision to permanently close Bravo! Restaurant and Cafe," a statement posted on May 5 on the restaurants Facebook page reads. As everyone is feeling the impacts from COVID-19, we are no exception. Please know this is a very difficult and emotional time for us. We are missing you already.

The names of business partners Terry Hagen, Shawn Hagen and Ann and Don Parfet appear at the bottom of the statement.

The restaurant is located at 5402 Portage Road, where kitchen and waitstaff have served up steaks, pastas, seafood and other selections, as well as beer brewed by Bravo! and other drinks. The 33 years in business have provided a lifetime of memories and its owners are grateful, the letter states.

We have been with you for first dates, prom nights, rehearsal dinners, wedding receptions, baby showers, anniversaries, retirement parties and so much more. We have come to know many of you as family. We will always appreciate the trust you placed in us, the letter states.

We are grateful, too, for our very talented, professional staff who have provided us with memorable milestones of their own. It may have been the food that brought us together but it has been the relationships that will keep us forever friends.

The statement thanks the people that supported the business over the years.

The restaurant closed on March 16, following an order from Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that temporarily banned on-site dining in an attempt to slow the spread of coronavirus. The restaurant said at the time they support the effort to thwart the virus, and that the challenge would be in determining when to reopen.

The business did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Read more:

$1.1M from city of Kalamazoo given to 63 businesses hurt by pandemic

Michigan buys back $3.3 million of liquor from bars, restaurants to ease coronavirus hit

Kalamazoos Bravo! restaurant to celebrate 25 years of fine dining this weekend (photo gallery)
TV actor Shivin Narang was reportedly admitted to a Mumbai hospital after he fell on his glass table and injured his left hand. Earlier in January, he had injured his hand on the sets of his show Beyhadh 2 and suffered a hairline fracture.

A Times of India report quoted a source as saying, When Shivin fell, the glass table broke into pieces, injuring him badly. He lost a lot of blood and was rushed to the hospital. He has not been discharged, as the extent of the injury needs to be diagnosed. His situation is stable and due to the strict social distancing rules at the hospital, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, not even his parents are with him.

Also read: Neetu Kapoor thanks guardian angels Mukesh Ambani and family for ensuring Rishi Kapoor faced as little discomfort as possible

After the lockdown was announced, makers of Beyhadh 2 decided to axe the show. Responding to the sudden decision, Shivin had told Hindustan Times in an interview, I wish we could complete the end of this finite show as I feel that would have done justice to the show and the viewers. But its not only us, the whole industry, and in fact the entire world is suffering So I can understand what may have prompted this decision.

However, he did not sound pessimistic when he added, To be honest Ive been in the industry for over eight years now. So I feel a little more settled, unlike what it was initially. I am just hoping this gets over soon. I feel grateful to be with my family, that we have a house to stay and food to survive.

Apart from Beyhadh 2, Shivin was also seen on Khatron Ke Khiladi. Earlier, he has appeared in shows including Suvreen Guggal  Topper of The Year, Ek Veer Ki Ardaas Veera.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 20:30:34|Editor: huaxia

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KUWAIT CITY, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait on Tuesday reported 526 new cases of COVID-19 and two more deaths, bringing the total infections in the country to 5,804 and the death toll to 40, the health ministry said in a statement.

The new cases included six Kuwaiti citizens who returned from the United States, the statement said.

Currently, 3,732 patients are receiving treatment, including 90 in ICU, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, Minister of Health Bassel Al-Sabah announced the recovery of 85 patients from the coronavirus, raising the total number of recoveries in the country to 2,032.

A Chinese medical team has wrapped up its visit to the Arab country.

During the visit, the team discussed with Kuwaiti experts and medical personnel China's experience in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, and exchanged detailed information on the prevention and treatment of the disease.

The Kuwaiti government has imposed a nationwide curfew to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

On March 13, Kuwait suspended all commercial flights. The government also closed stores, malls and barbershops in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. Enditem
We studied the myriad affectionate embraces and significant touches of the nine trilogy films and two stand-alone movies. Heres what we found. Photo: Lucasfilm

To make life marginally less terrible (and perhaps to encourage responsible social distancing during a global pandemic), Disney has added Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker to its streaming platform, a whole two months earlier than expected. Now, on May 4, the movie is officially available to stream on Disney+, and there is nothing stopping us from setting aside almost 25 consecutive hours to binge every single film in the Star Wars universe  with appropriate pauses to wash our hands, of course.

And while physical touch has quickly become taboo on coronavirus-infected Earth, the characters in a galaxy far, far away remain as touchy as ever. Amid all the light saber twirling, Star Wars has always leaned heavily into the gushy stuff. From the central trio of the original trilogy, to Anakin and Padme, to Rey, Finn, Poe, et al., the Star Wars films are nearly as full of hugs, kisses, and kisses that probably shouldve been hugs as they are force battles and other space magic. Which brings me to the truly important task at hand: a ranking of the myriad affectionate embraces and significant touches of the Star Wars cinematic universe.

While I attempted to make this ranking as comprehensive as possible, I also decided to adhere to some restrictions: All hugs absolutely count. Same for kisses, even the ones where no one is wrapping their arms around anyone else. However, most hand-holding, shoulder-squeezing, friendly patting of heads, and other less meaningful body contact failed to make the cut. Likewise, Ive excluded all the times when one character tenderly cradles the body of another character as they die (which happens  a lot). Ive also consolidated some occurrences into single entries, because no one wants to read about the 11 separate times Anakin and Padme hugged and/or kissed. Or, at least, I dont want to write about them.

Behold, the best kisses, hugs, and significant embraces in the Star Wars universe, ranked.

40. Luke and Leias kisses in The Empire Strikes Back

Nope. Photo: Lucasfilm

We all remember the scene where Leia kisses Luke to make Han jealous, but there are actually two cringeworthy kisses in Empire, the second taking place after the Millennium Falcon rescues Luke from Cloud City, and mere minutes (hours? does it matter?) after Leia has told the now-frozen Han that she loves him. (Leia then proceeds to make all of this even weirder in Return of the Jedi by claiming shes always known they were siblings.) Star Wars movies have never been planned; Star Wars knows only chaos.

39. Obi-Wan and Dexter Jettsters hug in Attack of the Clones

Obi-Wan Kenobi, bearded gem of the prequel trilogy, gets exactly one (1) hug in the entirety of the Skywalker saga and it is from a four-armed diner owner named Dexter Jettster. Im sure Dexter Jettster is very nice, but the fact that no one else gave this magnificent, hooded desert magician a hug in six movies is a crime.

38. Leia and Vanden Willards hug in A New Hope

Who is Vanden Willard? A New Hope doesnt seem to care, and neither do I.

37. Luke and Leias kisses for luck in A New Hope

There is absolutely nothing wrong with kissing your brother on the cheek, so an embrace like this would be higher on the list if not for the escalation of kissing in the movie that follows (see above).

36. Reys good-bye hug with her mom in The Rise of Skywalker

This is a solid parent-child hug, but there are better parent-child hugs in Star Wars, featuring characters who have actual names and/or plotlines.

35. Padme and child-Anakins hug in The Phantom Menace

This hug between a teenage Padme Amidala and a 9-year-old Anakin Skywalker after he wins his pod race is totally fine, if entirely unmemorable. But when you remember that these two spend the very next movie constantly making bedroom eyes at one another and stealing steamy kisses, it feels a little weird, hence its low placement.

34. All of Qira and Hans kisses in Solo

Yes. Photo: Lucasfilm

Why Solo decided to give young Han a love interest instead of a best friend is beyond me. Emilia Clarke did everything she could to sell us on Qira (who is great!), but at the end of the day, we all know Leia is the one, which makes it impossible to root for this pairing, no matter how likable Qira is. Turn these kisses into hugs and this romance into a friendship that couldve come back into play in later Star Wars movies, and this entry would have rocketed up the list.

33. Han and Chewie hugged by Ewoks in Return of the Jedi

Han and Chewie really dont want to be hugged by adorable little murder-bears when they are welcomed into the Ewok tribe, but the Ewoks really want to give hugs, so they make it happen. Star Wars has lots more emotionally resonant embraces in its movies and those all outrank this one, but few are cuter.

32. Lyra and Jyn Ersos hug in Rogue One

Lyra Erso barely gets more development than Reys mom, but she at least gets a name and a principled and emotional death, which is why her good-bye hug with her daughter ranks a few slots higher on the list.

31. Anakin and Shmis hugs in The Phantom Menace

Despite receiving significantly more screen time than other Star Wars moms, Shmi Skywalker spends the entirety of her time in Star Wars looking like someone just kicked her puppy. (I do not blame her; shes had a very hard life.) It is too bad that she had to say good-bye to her miracle Force baby and his wealth of midi-chlorians in The Phantom Menace, though.

30. All of grown-up Anakin and Padmes kisses in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith

Photo: Lucasfilm

Look, the happy parts of Anakin and Padmes relationship are fine, if you forget about their inevitable end. Unfortunately, I cannot, which means that every time the two of them kiss (or inexplicably roll around on the ground together, as they do in Attack of the Clones), Im thinking about how hes ultimately going to Force-choke her until she passes out (while shes pregnant, no less), and then shes going to die of sadness. I realize there would be no Star Wars if these two never hooked up, but it probably would have been better for both of them if they hadnt.

29. Chewie and a nameless Wookiees emotional forehead touch in Solo

Its hard to know where to rank this tender moment between Chewbacca and a freed Wookiee slave he meets for only a few seconds at the Kessel spice mines. On the one hand, its the only interaction we get between Chewie and another member of his species over ten films, which gives it automatic weight. On the other, we dont ever learn anything at all about this other Wookiee, or even what they say to one another before parting ways, making this moment more about the significance of Chewie choosing to go with Han over his own people, rather than any sort of personal relationship.

28. Finn and Roses kiss in The Last Jedi

Photo: Lucasfilm

It brings me absolutely no pleasure that Rose Tico appears only once on this list, and toward the bottom at that, but sadly, this is all Star Wars has given me to work with. My girl Rose put herself out there in a big way at the end of The Last Jedi, with her amazing line to Finn about not fighting what we hate, [but] saving what we love, and then throwing caution to the wind and kissing him, because she thought she was going to die and wanted to go out swinging for the fences.

But then she spends the rest of the movie unconscious, and in the next one Finn is like, Hey, wanna come hang out as friends? and Rose is like, Nah, its cool, Ive got some stuff to do around here anyway, which is absolutely the thing you do if youve confessed your feelings to your major crush and he then turns around and pretends it never happened.

However, she then goes on to do nothing of real significance ever again. Im sure weve all felt like our life was over after suffering a major embarrassment, but the fact that Roses moment with Finn effectively functions as the end of her Star Wars arc is just exceedingly uncool. Finn didnt owe Rose a romantic relationship, but Star Wars definitely owes her some closure  or better yet, a solo adventure all her own.

27. Beckett and Vals kiss in Solo

As one-off characters confined to the okay-est movie in the Star Wars cinematic canon, Beckett and Val also have one of the okay-est kisses on this list. Its not particularly memorable or significant, nor is it objectionable in any way (other than in how it involves Val, and therefore reminds me that Val deserved so much better than her fate in Solo). It is merely pleasant and fine, and so it merits a pleasant and fine place on this list.

26. Han and Landos hug in Solo

Its kind of clunky in its attempt to channel Han and Landos original hug in Empire  one of them is angry! The other is nervous! But wait, hes not actually angry, hes just kidding! Now theyre hugging! But even though its definitely pandering, its the sort of pandering that I can get behind.

25. Galen Erso and child Jyns hugs in Rogue One

Galen Erso hugs with his whole self, not in a creepy way, just in a loving dad way, and its great.

24. Leia and Holdos hand clasp of mutual respect in The Last Jedi

Photo: David James/Copyright: 2017 Lucasfilm Ltd. & , All Rights Reserved.

Im making an exception to the hand-holding doesnt count as an embrace rule for this truly excellent hand squeeze between two of Star Wars most powerful and dignified ladies. They both knew what was about to go down  with Leia going on to lead the scraps of the Resistance in a Hail Mary play against the First Order, and Holdo doing everything in her power to give them time to escape  and both handled their monumental burdens with grace and aplomb. A hug wouldve worked here, but the hand squeeze felt more fitting to the station of two women who each had Important Work To Do and needed to get on with it, while still recognizing the contribution of the other.

23. The Resistance celebration hugs in The Last Jedi

The celebration aboard the Millennium Falcon after the Battle of Crait is pretty mild as Star Wars after-parties go. Leia gets a hug from Chewie, and Poe hugs *checks notes* Cai Threnalli, whom we dont really see interact with anyone anywhere else in the films, but it still totally tracks with the established canon that Poe Is a Hugger. Between there being only one hug between central characters, and the generally dire state of the Resistance at the end of The Last Jedi, these hugs rank the lowest of the Star Wars post-battle hugfests.

22. Han and Leias first hug in the garbage in A New Hope

While Luke gets multiple good-luck kisses from Leia in A New Hope, Han gets a hug while dressed as a Stormtrooper and standing knee-deep in liquid garbage. (Why is it liquid? Do I even want to know?) As gross as it is, and as bad as Han says it smells, this is still a genuinely Good Hug, the first of many Good Embraces to come.

21. Han and Landos hug in The Empire Strikes Back

The hug that the Solo hug wished it could be, the magic of this hug rests entirely on Hans bewildered expression and Landos gleeful laugh.

20. Leia and Chewies reunion hug in The Force Awakens

At first, Chewie stands at a respectful distance when Leia appears in The Force Awakens, allowing Han to get the initial greeting. But when it becomes clear that the former lovebirds are only going to make small talk about each others hair and clothing from ten feet away, Chewie decides hes had enough and brushes past Han for a big, furry hug. And based on his derisive grunt toward Han as they break apart, he would like Han and Leia to get over their awkwardness and hug already.

19. The Resistance fighters pre- and post-battle hugs  and one significant kiss  in The Rise of Skywalker

Theres a lot of hugging before and after the Resistance makes their last stand against the Final Order, most of them between unnamed Resistance fighters, and one between Charlie from Lost and a giant yellow slug. Its nice in the way that watching strangers reunite at the airport is nice, where we care, but not in a personal way. We do get a Poe-Finn hug, which is always a treat, and Chewie picks up Rose and swings her around like shes 5, which is both the best Rose moment in the whole movie and also speaks to how there arent nearly enough Rose moments in the movie.

And then theres that kiss between  checks notes again  Resistance Commander Larma DAcy and pilot Wrobie Tyce, who receive all of two seconds of screen time, which it turns out is just enough time to displease literally the entire audience. For anyone hoping to finally see meaningful LGBTQ representation in a Star Wars movie, it felt tremendously like tokenism, only marginally better than nothing.

Taken as a whole, though, this collection of hugs is still mostly heartwarming and good, celebrating a hard-won victory after ten films of conflict. It had a staggering amount of unrealized potential, which keeps it from advancing higher in the rankings, but its still a significant enough moment in Star Wars to earn a spot in the top half of this list.

18. All of Finn and Reys hugs in The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker

Photo: Lucasfilm

Star Wars never quite figured out what it wanted Finn and Reys relationship to be: Are they best friends? Are they a slow-burn, will-they, wont-they romance? Are they an awkward workplace crush? Still, their relationship amounted to some really good hugs, even if I still have no idea what theyre supposed to mean.

17. Lando and Chewies reunion hug in The Rise of Skywalker

Photo: Lucasfilm

The way Chewie excitedly elbows people out of his way so he can go hug Lando is so pure that it enables me to overlook the fact that in the previous movies, Chewie and Lando were, at best, fond acquaintances.

16. Han and Leias post-carbonite embrace in Return of the Jedi

Photo: Lucasfilm

Have you ever noticed that Jabba the Hutts entire retinue is just  hanging out behind a curtain, waiting to jump out and surprise Leia and Han the moment hes defrosted? How long have they been back there? And why does Jabbas fortress even have those little curtained alcoves  is this a regular thing, or does Jabba just like to throw a lot of surprise parties? None of this has anything to do with Han and Leias kiss, which is very romantic and nice.

15. Finn and Poes hug in The Force Awakens

Photo: Lucasfilm

The incredulous smile. The run. The meaningful eye contact. The way Poe calls Finn buddy and then tells him to keep his jacket and bites his lip. Theres just a lot going on here, and all of it is good.

14. Rey and Leias hugs in The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker

Photo: Lucasfilm

The first hug between Rey and Leia happens after Han dies, which Rey witnessed and Leia felt. The next time they see one another, they both just get it, and its sad and beautiful and powerful. Their second hug occurs when Rey is leaving to lead a mission to Pasaana, which is considerably less poignant, but considering that all of Carrie Fishers footage in The Rise of Skywalker is actually unused Force Awakens footage, these hugs are probably really the same hug, warranting equal placement on this list.

13. Han and Chewies dungeon hug in Return of the Jedi

Poor Han was just defrosted after being frozen for a year, he still cant see, and then hes suddenly aggressively cuddled by a distraught Wookiee, who does not care one single bit that Han is not in a particularly huggy mood. I love this hug.

12. Ben Solo and Reys kiss in The Rise of Skywalker

Photo: Lucasfilm

Okay, hear me out. There is nowhere on this list where this kiss could hang out entirely without controversy, but placing it up here, just shy of the top ten, is probably particularly contentious. After all, Kylo Ren spent two and a half movies being terrible to Rey. Even if we can put aside all of the murder (which we really shouldnt), were still left with all of his gaslighting and emotional manipulation and attempts to kill her. Youre nothing, but not to me, is still a thing he actually said once, out loud, on purpose.

But  BUT!  Star Wars has always been an exaggerated story about the power of redemption, far beyond what we may condone in real life. Darth Vader committed literal genocide, but he still gets to be a Jedi Force Ghost at the end of Return of the Jedi because he was a non-terrible dad for like ten seconds. In the timeless words of John Mulaney, we dont have time to unpack all of that, but its at least consistent that the Skywalker saga ends with the redemption of Anakin Skywalkers grandson. Like his grandfather before him, the newly self-actualized Ben Solo gets to do One Good and Noble Thing before he dies.

And then Rey kisses him, finally acting on the mutual attraction that, lets be real, has been there for a while now, even though it has always been decidedly unhealthy. Maybe she realizes hes about to die and wants to get in one good smooch before the end, or maybe she doesnt realize hes about to die and is just carpe-ing that diem. Either way, there are two factors that play into ranking this kiss so high on this list: The first is that he dies immediately afterward, meaning we never have to deal with the discordant mess of Ben Solos Redemption playing out alongside Kylo Rens War Crimes. He and Rey get exactly one nice moment together, and then he gets absorbed into the Force before all the horrific things hes done can come crashing down on both their heads. And the second is that gosh-darn adorable Ben Solo smile. If that kiss is what was necessary to get us to that smile, then for my money, it was worth it.

11. Han Solos gentle touching of Kylo Ren/Ben Solos face in The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker

You may be thinking, Uh, Han is literally murdered in the first moment you mention here, right? And yes, youre right. The truth is, these moments are not on the list because of Kylo Ren, but because of Han Solo. Han made his entrance into Star Wars shooting first, and scoffing at the idea that he should ever care about anything more than he cares about himself. Yet when faced with his fallen son in The Force Awakens, he chooses to put himself directly in harms way, even if it means his death. Then, when he does die, his final act is to tenderly touch his sons face, communicating that even after being stabbed with a light saber, he still loves him. That touch is worth a thousand hugs, even if, at the time, Kylo Ren isnt willing to face what it means.

It comes back around in The Rise of Skywalker, when Ben visualizes the conversation he wishes he could have with his father. This time, when Han touches his face, Ben is ready to accept what his father was offering, uttering a choked up, Dad, to which Han answers, I know. The first time Han touches Kylo Rens face, it is an act of unconditional love, showing just how far Han has come since we first met him. The second time, the touch is just in Bens memory, but it shows that Han ultimately succeeded in his final mission, fulfilling the promise he made to Leia to bring their son home.

10. All of Luke and Leias platonic hugs in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi

We have reached the top ten, and what better pairing to kick off our finalists for Best Star Wars Embraces than our favorite Force twins, Luke and Leia? None of their individual hugs in the original trilogy feel particularly meaningful, but collectively, they help solidify the close relationship between the two Skywalker siblings, and drive home the theme of family  both found and biological  that runs throughout all of Star Wars.

9. All of Han and Leias incidental embraces in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi

Much like Luke and Leias hugs, Han and Leias little hugs and kisses help solidify one of the core relationships in Star Wars, but without the icky we thought it would be cool to put them in a love triangle until we decided it would be cooler if they were siblings undertones. None of these individual embraces (aside from the ones that are singled out elsewhere on this list) are particularly earth-shattering on their own, but as a whole, its only right and proper that the small romantic moments peppered throughout Han and Leias relationship get a spot in the top ten.

8. Luke, Leia, and Hans celebratory hugs in A New Hope

The original central trio of Star Wars never gets a true group hug, but this is the one that comes closest. Luke first hugs Leia, then Luke hugs Han, then Han and Leia hug, then the three of them walk out of the hangar with their arms looped around one anothers shoulders like theyre the Monkees. Its sweet and goofy and marks the first of what would turn out to be many Star Wars celebratory post-battle hugfests, so it deserves a place of honor.

7. Han and Leias good-bye hug in The Force Awakens

Photo: Lucasfilm/Lucasfilm

The nostalgia is strong with this one. The affectionate banter, the undeniable attraction, the flippancy belying defiant hope and bravery  these are the things that have always defined Han and Leia for generations of Star Wars fans. We didnt get to see them reunited for long in The Force Awakens, but this one hug felt like it contained decades of memories.

6. All the hugs during the Ewok village Rebellion celebration in Return of the Jedi

Unlike the hug party at the end of The Rise of Skywalker, the group celebration at the end of Return of the Jedi gives most of its hugs to pairings of recognizable characters: Han and Lando, Chewie and Lando, Luke and Leia, Luke and Han, Han and Leia, Luke and Wedge. Actually being emotionally invested in all the people we see hugging is a definite plus when it comes to the effectiveness of the scene as a whole. Plus, Force Ghost Obi-Wan pats Force Ghost Yoda on the head like hes a small child, which feels at least hug-adjacent, and adds to the overall awesomeness of this hug cluster.

5. Finn, Poe, and Reys final hug in The Rise of Skywalker

There are some issues with the final celebration scene in The Rise of Skywalker to be sure (see item No. 19), but this hug is not one of them. Finn and Rey have some good Star Wars hugs, and Finn and Poe have some good Star Wars hugs, but the three of them together have a truly great Star Wars hug. The way Rey and Poe hold hands around Finns back, the way they all start crying, the way it feels like it lasts forever because none of them are willing to let go. Complete and utter hug bliss.

4. Han and Leias first kiss in The Empire Strikes Back

The tension building up to this kiss is just scrumptious. It makes me want to reach into my TV screen and jam their faces together like dolls, screeching JUST KISS ALREADY.

3. Cassian Andor and Jyn Ersos hug in Rogue One

This hug is a legit Star Wars miracle, because Star Wars likes to go for the kiss  and Cassian and Jyn had enough chemistry to put Walter White out of business  and yet they dont kiss. Instead, they go for the hug, and it is sheer perfection. If I didnt feel beholden to several decades of nostalgia, leading me to believe I am simply not allowed to pick a Rogue One moment as my top choice for this ranking, this couldve easily been number one. At the very least, it is the best hug in the Star Wars films.

2. Luke and Leias forehead kiss in The Last Jedi

The only Luke and Leia kiss that counts. All the other ones need to go home and think about what theyve done.

1. Han and Leias good-bye kiss in The Empire Strikes Back

Photo: Lucasfilm

I love you.

I know.

Was there ever any question about which moment would take the No. 1 spot on this list? You knew it had to be this one. Somehow, youve always known.
SPRINGFIELD  COVID-19 has shortened the lifespan of more than 4,000 individuals in Massachusetts, with confirmed deaths from the respiratory illness for which there is no approved medical treatment being reported daily.

The number of deaths from this pandemic are not just statistics to health care workers.

In my experience in talking to frontline health care workers, one of the biggest issues is the enormous amount of death and dying that they are involved with as well as the enormous amount of compassion they have, said Dr. Barry Sarvet, chair of Baystate Healths Department of Psychiatry.

This is especially true of nurses as well as doctors and those who transport patients, and people who disinfect rooms. There is so much compassion for the people they are serving and when those people die in the numbers that are happening with this disease it causes a lot of grief and guilt.

He added, People sacrifice so much to do this job and put themselves at risk, and they feel guilty when their patients die.

The mind always generates the question, 'What could I have done differently?" Sarvet said.

You always think of things you could have done differently and that comes back to haunt providers. This is a huge burden health care providers face and need resources for.

Sarvet said his department has developed a program for offering psychological support primarily for our frontline health care workers but really for any patient-facing employee.

There is an enormous amount of suffering that we need to address across employee discipines with COVID-19, Sarvet said.

We are providing a model of care based on the in-person Psychological First Aid model of giving immediate response to people who are in traumatic circumstances. We provide this on the actual floors with COVID patients where any staff can drop in and talk to a mental health professional.

He called the response model very useful" and its use voluntary, but said people who do use it often find it very healing.

This is a space to express whatever they are feeling and troubled about, Sarvet said.

It creates a place for them to think about themselves because they are going around in their jobs constantly worried about everybody else. It helps for them to be reminded, Hey, what about you. What do you need?'

Sarvet said that such staff members have to have a plan of how they can take care of themselves because this pandemic is not ending any time soon.

People are going to run out of fuel and burn out, Sarvet said.

They need plans to sustain themselves. Everyone needs to take a break and conserve their energy and take time to do things that relieve stress.

Sarvet said Baystate also provides groups in the hospital for employees to talk about self-care and talk about resiliency.

We have given resiliency training to 200 staff members since the pandemic crisis started a few months ago and we are still doing that,Sarvet said.

Providers have to know the importance of taking care and sustaining themselves. There is a lot of exhaustion to go across the whole medical community.

Sarvet said the behavioral health needs of those who have had COVID-19, especially the critically ill who needed mechanical breathing support, are increasingly being addressed.

There is a great likelihood that many people who have been critically ill and on ventilators will have significant psychological impact," Sarvet said.

I am of the opinion there should be some mental health screening during follow-up care after patients have been to the hospital and been that sick with COVID-19 and for people at discharge to be aware of this and to request help if they need it.

He added, We are already doing this on a case-by-case basis, but it is something that should be done routinely for patients.

He said people made very sick by COVID-19, but not hospitalized may also experience a mental health impact.

Some people who have been very sick but not so sick they need to be hospitalized have recovered at home and they have been through the harrowing experience of living through a life-threatening disease and not having had contact with anyone as people have appropriately stayed away," Sarvet said.

"So, they have been living alone in an isolated room with shortness of breath and feeling exhausted and worrying about how much longer they can sustain that and then they recover, which is wonderful, but that traumatic experience can have long-term impacts and leave a residue of anxiety that needs to be dealt with.

People with mild cases can experience a psychological impact as well, Sarvet said, because of the knowledge they have had something that has made others critically ill and even killed people that they may have known.

This in itself is terrifying and its impact can depend a lot on an individuals coping skills and how they manage anxiety in other parts of their lives," he said.

"There are some people who are more nervous than others and are predisposed to developed anxiety issues. Other people may seem to have more sturdy defenses and they go on to feel better and dont give it a second thought.

He added, There is a big diversity in reaction to whatever the stress is based on ones ability to cope with previous trauma."

"For example, if you had previous medical trauma - and many people have had very extensive medical trauma in the form of prolonged hospitalizations, a lot of pain from operations and feelings that the might die, so even something mild can be very distressful.
WATERLOO REGION  The local food bank is looking ahead to anticipate a greater need in Waterloo Region as the pandemic continues.

We have seen an increase in the number of first time users since March, said Wendi Campbell, chief executive officer of The Food Bank of Waterloo Region.

She anticipates those numbers to rise over the next six to nine months as communities try to recover from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, so trying to collect financial donations now will help the food bank prepare for future need.

Giving Tuesday is typically in the fall and each year different charities find ways to drive donations ahead of the holiday season. But the pandemic called for another rallying cry. This Tuesday is Giving Tuesday Now, a global day of giving in response to the pandemic, and the local food bank is taking part.

Its a great opportunity for people to unite and also to spread awareness. Things will change, Campbell said.

Giving Tuesday is typically in the fall and each year different charities find ways to drive donations ahead of the holiday season. But the pandemic called for another rallying cry.

The food bank continues to provide food to 30 different vital services that are still operational in the region as well as emergency food hampers and meals for shelters.

Since March 16, the food bank has distributed 366,000 pounds of food.

People can make donations to the donation for Giving Tuesday Now at www.thefoodbank.ca.

The food bank is also currently accepting donations of food at select grocery stores as well as through donation bins at the food banks warehouse on Alpine Crescent in Kitchener.
Apart from this, employers may be allowed to deduct EPF contributions only on the basic pay of up to Rs 15,000, even if the employees basic pay is above this ceiling. While on one hand this will allow companies to lower their wage bills, employees can also get a higher salary in hand.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com.

The Union government is contemplating allowing companies to delay or pay in instalments the Employees Provident Fund sum of workers, along with enabling more firms to take benefit of the EPF subsidy scheme.

At a meeting with the Confederation of Indian Industry on April 30, Employees Provident Fund Organisation Chief Executive Officer Sunil Barthwal told employers about the move to separate the exercise of filing return without simultaneous EPF liquidity position, according to sources.

The EPFO CEO clarified to the employers that if they get into an agreement with their workers to revise the wage contract, they can deduct EPF contributions only on the basic pay of up to Rs 15,000, even if their basic pay is above this ceiling. While on one hand this will allow companies to lower their wage bills, employees can get higher salary in hand.

Employers hailed the two set of clarification from the EPFO brass that came at a time when they were facing cash crunch due to a national lockdown, which had continued from March 25 till May 3. The Centre has considerably eased economic activities across the country, beginning May 4.

If you feel that you do not have full money, you can file the ECR (electronic-cum-challan) and make payments later on. No damages will be charged from you. You can also make part payment -- say 30 per cent on one day and 30 per cent on another. Instalment facility will be available according to your convenience and liquidity position, the EPFO CEO is learnt to have told the employers.

On April 30, the EPFO had said in a press statement that the filing of monthly ECR is separated from the payment of the statutory contribution reported in the ECR. This means the companies need to only inform the EPFO about the number of employees for which they are going to pay for the EPF contribution without the need for making the statutory contribution towards their EPF dues.

Currently, as soon as the companies have filed their returns, known as ECR, they also have to subsequently submit the EPF payments of those many employees at one go. Not doing so attracts a penalty.

The EPFO issued a set of Frequently Asked Questions on the move to separate ECR filing from submitting EPF contributions on Sunday in which it said payment of EPF dues can be done on a later date as announced by the central government. The EPFO CEO told CII executives that the move will allow firms to do micro management of liquidity and they can pay according to their firms liquidity position.

Since filing of ECR for is now separated from payment process, the time for filing ECR for April is on or before May 15, and dues may be remitted within the due date or within extended time, if any, as announced by the central government, the EPFO said in the FAQ on its website.

Sources said Barthwal acknowledged the fact that companies were facing liquidity issue and told them to help out employees in taking benefit of a scheme through which they can withdraw EPF advance to the tune of three months of their wages or up to 75 per cent of their balance, whichever is less.

The government is examining a proposal to allow more companies to take the benefit of the EPF subsidy, under the Pradha Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana announced by the government in March. Under the scheme, only companies (with a manpower of up to 100 employees), which employ at least 90 per cent of workers below the monthly wage of Rs 15,000 a month, will receive provident fund contribution from the government for three months.

The industry wants the cap of 90 per cent workers earning less than Rs 15,000 a month in a factory to be removed, which is leading to non-exclusion of many small firms. The EPF scheme only covers about 16 per cent of its total subscribers and about 68 per cent of the total firms that make EPF contributions for workers.

Till April 29, about 2.6 million workers, which constitute about one-third of the total eligible 7.9 million workers, were able to benefit from the subsidy scheme. In terms of the number of establishments, 151,805 firms of the total 380,000 eligible establishments took the subsidy from the government.

Barthwal gave an important clarification to the employers who asked him queries about their PF obligations towards workers, at a time when they are facing a cash crunch. He pointed to an existing law that mandates companies to make a contribution on a maximum wage ceiling of Rs 15,000.

In case the basic wage of an employee is above Rs 15,000, lets say Rs 45,000, the employers obligation is to deduct EPF only on his wage up to Rs 15,000. But you need to talk to your employees (before making any changes) as it is a contract, Barthwal is learnt to have said.

At present, 24 per cent of a workers basic pay goes towards EPF schemes -- 12 per cent as employer's share and 12 per cent as employees.
The CBSE Class X exams have been suspended for 2020 in the subjects where they have not been conducted, although students from North East Delhi, who missed exams that other students have already appeared in, will have to appear for these, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank announced on Tuesday when he interacted with students on their concerns.

However, CBSE will conduct Class XII board exams in 12 subjects, with the schedule for these, and also the pending Class X exams being announced shortly. Officials say order CBSE to go ahead on evaluation of answer-sheets is expected soon.

Students in North East Delhi missed some Class X exams on account of communal riots in the area.

The engineering entrance examination JEE will be held from July 18-23, while the medical entrance test NEET will be conducted on July 26, the minister added.

The two crucial exams, and also the Class X and Class XII exams were postponed due to the lockdown imposed to combat the spread of the coronavirus disease.

JEE-Mains will be held from July 18-23, while JEE-Advanced will be held in August. NEET will be conducted on July 26, Nishank said in the online interaction.

At least 1.5 million students across the country have registered for NEET this year, and at last 900,000 have registered for JEE Mains, the entrance exam for the countrys top engineering college.

The JEE-Mains is also the qualifying exam for JEE-Advanced. The HRD Ministrys National Testing Agency (NTA) has also given students an option to change their opted centres for the two tests as some of them may have moved back home during the lockdown.

Universities and schools across the country have been closed since March 16.

Responding to a question, the HRD minister clarified that the pending class 10 board examination will only be conducted for students in North East Delhi and not the rest of the country.

No examinations will be held for class 10 students nationwide except for students from North East Delhi. An adequate time of 10 days will be given to all students for preparation of exams, Nishank said.

These exams will be conducted again for those few students who could not appear in these exams on the scheduled date due to the impact of law and order issues. The new schedule will be announced within two days, he added.

The HRD minister asserted that the government is planning to assess the academic loss of students during the lockdown period.

As a response to the COVID-19 lockdown, the CBSE will assess the loss of instructional time for proportionate reduction in curriculum load for 2021 board exams. In accordance, course committees of the board have initiated work on reduced syllabus in various scenarios, he said.

Regarding the travel of students, who are staying in hostels of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNV) to their homes, Nishank said the process has begun.

Out of 173 schools, more than 62 schools have initiated the process, he said.
One potential pitfall: If the coronavirus mutates, the blood tests might not be able to identify it, Dr. Schindel said. Another is that not all antibody tests approved by the F.D.A. have proved reliable.

The blood tests check plasma for specific iterations of Immunoglobulin-M, or IgM, and Immunoglobulin-G, or IgG, that are created by the immune system in response to Covid-19. While IgM is created quickly as part of the bodys response to infection and dissipates soon, IgG lingers in the body and represents our memory of our immunity, Dr. Schindel said.

Patients visiting their clinics for blood tests for ordinary reasons will be asked to allow their samples to also be tested for coronavirus.

They will also be asked to complete questionnaires about whether and when they experienced symptoms, whether they were isolated at home or hospitalized, who among their friends and relatives contracted the virus, and so on.

Those whose blood tests show the presence of coronavirus antibodies will be called back for a standard polymerase chain reaction, or P.C.R., test for the virus, to determine the correlation between viral load and antibody levels, Mr. Bar-Siman-Tov said.

There are so many things that we can learn and research, if we plan it correctly, he said.

Asking so many citizens to submit to something as invasive as a blood test could seem a tall order in a country where a digital-surveillance initiative to identify coronavirus patients using smartphone location data set off political protests and lawsuits. Many Israelis, citing privacy concerns, also declined to download a government-sponsored app that was designed to help them avoid fellow citizens who had tested positive.
Authorities first identified a case of coronavirus connected with Cedar Meats more than a month ago, on April 2, but did not consider the Brooklyn abattoir an exposure site as the infected person said they had not been at work, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The second and third cases were not diagnosed until more than three weeks later, one of them a worker who attended Sunshine Hospital with a severed finger, before they were showing any symptoms.

Cedar Meats in Brooklyn has closed its doors for extensive cleaning, while its staff remain isolated. Credit:Simon Schluter

These cases led to the beginning of contact tracing and a move to rapidly scale back work at the west Melbourne business.

More cases were identified on April 29, prompting the department to advise the meatworks to test all staff and the facility to be temporarily closed for infection control.
Most of the main milk processors announced a milk price drop for March milk: this has meant less money in dairy farmers' pockets at the end of April.

The 2c/ litre drop in milk price and the 2km travel limit have combined to make dairy farmers to rethink their plans for 2020.

The banks report no slowdown in loan applications from dairy farmers for building projects and the purchase of land, but consultants and advisors indicate that farmers are weighing up the pros and cons before they splash the cash this year.

Many have decided to put building plans on ice, while others are driving on as normal.

So which is the right strategy?

The answer depends on another question: will the fall in the price of milk be a short-term or long-term?

More importantly, should it affect dairy farmer development plans?

Milk price has fallen before, 2009 and 2016 being the years farmers remember most. It is usually the year after a milk price drop which proves difficult financially, as farmers try to pay their creditors from the poor year.

Data

From my examination of CSO milk price data over a 15-year period, we have never recorded two successive years of low milk prices in Ireland.

In fact 2017, 2018 and 2019 yielded the best combined three-year period of milk prices in that 15-year time period.

So are we due a period of low price?

The glass half-empty people cite the prospect of the oil price drop and the expected post-Covid-19 recession, combining to depress dairy markets and force the milk price down further and for a longer period of time.

The glass half-full viewpoint is that a period of low milk price will ultimately benefit Irish dairy producers as we know our European neighbours and American dairy farmer cousins cannot survive for long with milk prices below 30c/L.

They usually react by culling cows to cut costs and provide cashflow. This will result in a deficit of milk in the market and the milk price will rebound strongly and quickly.

In my experience of low milk price years, Irish dairy farmers don't lose money, they just make less of it.

In times of crisis, yes, milk price might fall quickly, but on the upside the price can recover even more quickly when business reverts to something approaching normal.

The constant stream of negative headlines infiltrates the mind of many farmers and raises doubts and concerns, many of which are outside of their control and which realistically should not concern them in the first place.

The advice for dairy farmers is simple: if you are of a nervous disposition or your gut feeling is telling you hold off on a large capital investment project because of the crisis, make the decision now to postpone it for a year. Don't procrastinate.

Do a farm plan or budget with a lower milk price for your business to see do your sums add up.

If they don't, contact your bank and put your loans on interest only or get a moratorium on loan repayments- whichever works best for your business. Deal with it and do not waste your time and energy on what may or may not happen.

If you are in the positive mindset camp and you are confident about the financial strength of your farm business, and of the wider Irish dairy industry, drive on and take your chances. Buy that land or invest in the dairy unit as planned.

I believe you will have no regrets.

I don't believe this crisis will negatively affect Irish dairy farming; in fact I believe it will strengthen it.

In times of lower milk price there is clear evidence that as the cost of milk production falls, farmers re-assess their expenditure in an effort to maximise profitability.

I predict that farming and non-farming businesses who survive this Covid-19 crisis will rebound leaner and meaner when the 'new normality' begins.

Many non-farming businesses clearly have much bigger challenges because of Covid-19.

Farmers and farm businesses by their nature are robust and resilient.

They are well experienced in dealing with crises such as drought, excessive rain, floods, disease, price drops and labour issues, just to mention a few. They will cope and come out the other side of this crisis in one piece.

I expect a new normality will soon become apparent in all countries, regardless of where they are on the viral curve.

Social distancing and testing for the virus will become part of our everyday lives.

The burden of the lockdown will be removed for most of us, but unfortunately it will remain for the elderly and those in the most-at-risk groups.

As the restrictions are eased and lifted, the global economy will swing back into action, demand for dairy products will rise and the familiar price cycle will begin again.

Mike Brady is managing director at Brady Group agricultural consultants and land agents; mike@bradygroup.ie
Quarantine in Ukraine probably will be extended to May 22 with requisite changes  PM

Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said the quarantine may be extended after May 22 in connection with the latest recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO).

"Most likely, based on WHO data, the quarantine will be extended with the next stages of relief, if this will make it possible to improve the morbidity situation," he told the Ukrainian Radio on Tuesday.

Shmyhal recalled that on May 4 WHO recommended a global quarantine regime for two months.

The prime minister said during quarantine it was possible to better prepare the healthcare system for the epidemic. According to him, in Ukraine today there are more than 2,100 mechanical ventilation devices, of which 138 are occupied, and 33,000 beds have been prepared for patients with coronavirus (COVID-19), of which less than 2,000 are currently occupied.

"The medical system meets the parameters of both the first and second stages, allowing for the mitigation of some quarantine measures," he said.

Shmyhal pointed out that the government so far does not see opportunities to open intercity transport. According to him, urban transport will go as it went, and mayors will make decisions on the number of transport and changing its work schedule.

The prime minister said opening the metro for some categories of passengers is planned at the third stage of relaxing the quarantine.

Shmyhal said after May 11 adaptive quarantine measures will also be applied in some regions, cities and villages. He added that the most COVID-19 cases are in Chernivtsi, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk regions.

The head of government also thanked the citizens of Ukraine for adhering to quarantine restrictions aimed at containing the spread of the epidemic in the country.
Daniel MacPherson, 40, and wife Zoe Ventoura, 39, have finally confirmed swirling rumours they secretly welcomed a child late last year.

The extremely private couple recently sparked speculation after they were spotted out and about with a baby in tow.

'I am very happy to confirm that Zoe and Dan welcomed a baby boy in December last year,' a spokesperson for the new parents said confirmed to the speaking to The Herald Sun on the weekend.

Baby joy! Daniel MacPherson, 40, and wife Zoe Ventoura, 39, have confirmed rumours they secretly welcomed a child in December last year, revealing on Sunday that they are parents to a son named Austin Xavier. Pictured: April 18

'Austin Xavier arrived healthy and smiling. Mum, dad and baby are all happy and well,' they added.

Dan and Zoe chose not to announce Austin's birth on social media last year, instead celebrating the arrival with a select group of close friends and family.

It comes as photos have surfaced of the couple stepping out for the first time as parents, on April 18th.

Private couple: Photos have surfaced of the couple stepping out for the first time as parents. The photos were taken in Sydney on April 18th (pictured)

All smiles! Shirtless Dan beamed with joy as he cuddled his adorable son on the sidewalk as he was pictured for the first time with his newborn

Dan and Zoe were pictured cuddling Austin during a leisurely stroll in Sydney, as they took a break from self-isolating at home.

The genetically-blessed duo stepped out on three occasions over the course of the day to get some fresh air.

During one, Strike Back star Dan went shirtless as he skillfully juggled his blue-eyed son while Zoe walked next to him in a blue T-shirt and shorts.

Out and about: The genetically-blessed twosome, who are self-isolating at their home in Sydney, stepped out on three occasions over the course of the day to get some fresh air

On another occasion, Dan emerged wearing a trucker cap, T-shirt and shorts.

Looking every inch the besotted father, Dan held little Austin close in a baby carrier that was strapped to his chest.

Meanwhile, Home And Away star Zoe wore a plaid button-up shirt, black jeans and a cap.

Baby on board! On another, Dan emerged with Austin in a baby carrier strapped to his chest

Casual: Meanwhile, Home And Away star Zoe wore a plaid button-up shirt, black jeans and a cap

On another, Zoe stepped out without Dan to enjoy some one-on-one time with her cherubic tot.

Clad in a red hoodie and black trackpants, Zoe was seen gently kissing and stroking Austin's head while cradling him in her arms.

Dan previously spoke about his dreams of becoming a father, telling OK! magazine in 2018: 'It's certainly in the future for us. I can't wait to be a dad.'

Tender moment: On another occasion, Zoe stepped out without Dan to enjoy some one-on-one time with her cherubic tot

So sweet! Clad in a red hoodie and black track pants, Zoe was seen gently kissing and stroking Austin's head while cradling him in her arms

'It's something I have been very protective about': Zoe told WHO magazine last year that she prefers to keep her personal life out of the spotlight

Meanwhile, Zoe told WHO magazine last year that she prefers to keep her personal life out of the spotlight.

'[In] terms of my privacy, it's something I have been very protective about from the start,' the Packed To The Rafters star said.

'It's just always felt like it needs to be protected as much as possible to keep a sense of normalcy.'

They tied the knot during a secret Queensland ceremony in 2015, only to shock fans by announcing they were married a week later.
It came as a shock for everyone, especially the British people when Prince Harry announced that he was stepping down as a senior member of the royal family. It has been no tea party over at the royal palace.

But after his wife, Meghan Markle, have been harassed and bullied by the British press and tabloids, it seemed like they had no other choice but just to resign and live a more peaceful life out of the spotlight.

Aside from King Edward VII's abdication in 1936, this is one of the first in royal modern times that somebody decided to leave the royal family.

Princess Diana has also stepped down from royalty at the height of her recognition.

The Diana, the Princess of Wales was known for being a humanitarian and someone who has positively reshaped the monarchy. She forced the royals to break from the known tradition.

Though she was also the subject of constant monitoring and all eyes were on her, it seemed like it's what happened to both Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, which resulted in them stepping down.

The Duke of Sussex's mother may have prepared him for a royal exit and a healthy life at a very early age.

Prince Harry has been a royal all throughout his life since he was born.

But the late princess was determined in one thing for her children, Prince Harry and Prince William, and that was to give her sons normal experiences.

Instead of letting her kids do home school in the palace, she wanted them to go to school outside. Princess Diana even took her sons to Disneyworld and McDonald's and had also gone on vacations that were not yet part of a royal tour.

Princess Diana was also set on exposing the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex to people who were less fortunate, something that both princes have taken to heart until this day.

She also used her voice in sharing her journey, something that both Dukes have always disagreed on.

Following her divorce from the heir to the throne, Prince Charles, Lady Diana Spencer was determined to live life on her own terms.

She didn't want to have any more bodyguards following her around, except for when she has to make a high-profile appearance.

She wanted to combine a life with a meaningful role but more public life.

For Prince Harry's part, he seemed to be determined to live a life without so many people interfering and just wanting to do his own thing.

In a leaked phone call that surfaced after Russians pranked the Duke of Sussex, he opened up to a fake Greta Thunberg about his reasons for quitting senior royal life.

"I can assure you, marrying a prince or princess is not all it's made up to be."

When asked if normal life was worse than royal life, Prince Harry explained, "I was in the military for ten years, so I'm more normal than my family would like to believe."

He continued, "But certainly, being in a different position now gives us the ability to say things and do things that we might not be able to do."

And concluded, "Seeing as everyone under the age of 35 or 36 seems to be carrying out an activist's role, allows us to try and make more of a difference without being criticized."

Author of "The Diana Chronicles" Tina Brown said of Prince Harry's military career, "The fact that he loved his military career but then left and didn't have that sense of purpose - all of that came together to make him a very unhappy man."

So his answer to the question, "Oh no, I think it's much better."

READ MORE: Meghan Markle Exposed for 'Very High Maintenance,' 'Rude' Behavior During D-List Acting Days
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 5)  As the broadcast giant shuts down following the expiry of its legislative franchise, ABS-CBN journalists stand their ground and commit to continue executing their watchdog role.

"Nangangako kami sa inyo, hindi kami mananahimik sa pag-atakeng ito sa ating demokrasya at sa malayang pamamahayag, news anchor Noli de Castro told viewers as he ended Tuesdays TV Patrol newscast.

[Translation: We promise you that we will not remain silent amid the attacks on our democracy and press freedom.]

The network went off air Tuesday evening after the National Telecommunications Commission ordered it to stop operations, on account of its 25-year license having expired on Monday. This move to shut down ABS-CBN, however, has been denounced by various groups which regard the closure order as an attack on press freedom and a means by the government to silence its critics.

READ: TIMELINE: ABS-CBN franchise

Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte publicly announced his objection to the granting of a fresh franchise to ABS-CBN, as he repeatedly accused the latter of biased reporting. The chief executive also criticized the network for reportedly refusing to air his already paid campaign advertisments during the 2016 elections.

Following the shutdown, a number of journalists and artists alike have echoed De Castros and ABS-CBN president Carlo Katigbak's statement: the cease and desist order is not enough to "silence" them.

Ging Reyes, the head of ABS-CBN Integrated News and Current Affairs, said the closure order will not stop the network's service to the Filipino people.

"I will fight for our staff and crew and our journalists who continue to do their jobs despite tremendous challenges and risks to their health and personal safety. We are ABS-CBN and this is our calling! We may be off the air but we will not be silenced," she wrote on her Facebook page.

"You can take us off the air but you cant silence us," broadcaster Ces Orena-Drilon also wrote.

Actress Angel Aquino, meanwhile, said, "Hindi na ako uupo at mananahimik. I grieve the (temporary) death of my home station, but it wont keep me from joining the fight."

[Translation: I will no longer sit in silence. I grieve the (temporary) death of my home station, but it won't keep me from joining the fight.]

Other Kapamilyas, including broadcaster Karen Davila and actress Angel Locsin, expressed dismay over the timing of the closure order, which has been issued amid a global pandemic.

"Ironic how this happened just two days after #WorldPressFreedom day, not to mention in the middle of what could be the worst pandemic," journalist Zen Hernandez also wrote.

Meanwhile, actor Coco Martin aired his grievances in an Instagram post and called the NTC's decision, which leaves the network's thousands of employees out of work, wrong and unjust.

Mahirap magsawalang-kibo sa mga taong katulad ninyo na patuloy na nang-aabuso, he wrote, addressing those who rallied for the corporation's shutdown. Wala kayong mga konsensiya, naatim niyong pagkaitan ng hanapbuhay at pabayaang magutom ang ilang libong mga pamilya."

[Translation: Its hard not to react to people like you who continue to commit abuses. You have no conscience, you deprive people of their jobs and leave thousands of families starving.]

For its part, the NTC said there was "no other option" but to issue a cease and desist order for the broadcast corporation, citing the need to "comply with the law."

Numerous bills seeking to renew the corporation's franchise remain pending in Congress.

ABS-CBN issued a statement saying it trusts that the government will decide on its franchise with the best interest of the Filipino people in mind, recognizing ABS-CBN's role and efforts in providing the latest news and information during these challenging times.

RELATED: Lawmakers slam NTCs cease and desist order vs ABS-CBN
LHASA, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The Youth Palace of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region was inaugurated Monday in Lhasa, capital of the region.

Construction of the Youth Palace began in July 2017 with the support of southern China's Guangdong Province. With an investment of 175 million yuan (about 24.8 million U.S. dollars), it covers an area of over 27,000 square meters.

The Youth Palace consists of three functional zones for education and training, practical activities and theme exhibition.

It will enrich the after-school life of young people in Tibet and will become an important window for them to communicate with young people all across the country, said a teacher with the palace.

The Youth Palace will provide more than 1.3 million young people of all ethnic groups in the region with a venue for multi-level and all-round learning and practical activities to meet their diverse demands.
Ghana will from Thursday, May 7, begin daily testing for the COVID-19 virus to pave the way for daily updates.



So far Ghana had conducted over 130,000 tests with a backlog of 1,9829 samples awaiting testing at the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR), which they hope to clear by May 7.



The Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), however, had no backlog.



Professor William Kwabena Ampofo, the NMIMR Head of Virology, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, disclosed this in Accra at the press briefing on COVID-19, organised by the Ministry of Information to give an update on the pandemic.



He assured Ghanaians that once the backlog of testing were cleared they would be able to provide results within 24 hours to the Ghana Health Service when samples were received from contact tracing and from hospitals' surveillance.



"We have expanded testing beyond Accra and Kumasi. There is limited testing in Ho at the University of Health and Allied Sciences.



"We are expecting a donation from the International Atomic Energy through the Ministry of Health. We hope that by next week, this will be fully established and, therefore, they will be able to increase testing in Ho for the Volta Region and also the Oti Region," he said.



Prof. Ampofo said the Northern Region had testing centres established at the Public Health Laboratory of the Tamale Teaching Hospital and also the Veterinary Services Directorate Lab at Pong-Tamale.



He noted that those testing centres would provide services for the northern sector.



"We hope that we will also be able to get the War Memorial Hospital (in Navrongo) testing as soon as possible," he said.



Prof Ampofo said another testing centre was being established in the Western Region at the Veterinary Services Directorate Laboratory in Takoradi.



This was being done in conjunction with Public Health Lab at the Afia Nkwanta Government Hospital.



"So, it is a joint effort, one health approach being practiced directly between the Ghana Health Service and the Veterinary Service Directorate".



He said the testing centre at Takoradi, which was likely to start operating from May 6, would provide services for the Western Region.



"We are also going to utilise the gene expert system, which is prevalent in almost every region of Ghana - there is a specific centre that has gene expert machine for tuberculosis (TB) and there is a test that has been developed for COVID-19," he said.



Prof Ampofo said those facilities would complement the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing stations established to test for COVID-19 adding that by the end of May, virtually every region would be able to test for COVID-19.



He said the Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Health would determine the actual strategy for the testing.

Source: GNA









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UPDATE: She received a call from the Department of Labor a few hours before this story was published.

Its been five weeks since Michelle Robles filed for unemployment benefits because of the coronavirus shutdown.

Shes in her last year of nursing school and her last tuition payment is due on May 7. If she doesnt pay, she wont be able to enroll in her final semester.

I haven't been able to pay because I don't have any income coming in, said Robles, 37. I worked so hard to get into nursing school. Its all Ive ever dreamed of.

Robles, a single mom with two teenagers, could have to wait longer than most for her benefits to come through. She lives in New York, but she worked in New Jersey, and people have to file in the state where they work.

Robles said she doesnt know what the hold-up is in her case and shes hoping someone from the Labor Department will call her. Her attempts to get through have been unsuccessful.

Shes one of more than 200,000 people who are still waiting for benefits. The Labor Department said most of those who are waiting are gig workers and the self-employed, but NJ Advance Media has heard from W-2 workers like Robles who are still waiting, as well as from those who were on unemployment before the crisis and are still waiting for expanded federal benefits to kick in. Others say they have started getting payments but they have not yet received the extra $600 a week from the expanded benefits.

At first, her job doing billing for a New Jersey manufacturing company was switched to working from home. But on March 29, she and her co-workers were furloughed.

She applied for unemployment immediately.

A few days later, the system showed what her benefit amount would be. But when it came time to certify benefits, she got the dreaded message: Claim is not payable at this time, and it told her to wait five to seven days before trying to contact a representative.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage

She waited those days, and then she started calling, she said.

I called hundreds, even sometimes hitting over a thousand times a day. No answer, Robles said. I emailed everything I could and nothing.

She said she certifies every week, and every week, the system tells her the benefit is not payable at this time.

As Robles waits, shes fallen behind on her bills. She hasnt been able to pay the last two months of rent. Her utilities and cable bills are all late. Same for her car insurance and her cell phone bills. Her car payments are deferred until June. The tuition bill remains unpaid.

Shes also juggling her education with schooling for her teenagers. The three were sharing one laptop, which she called insane.

I got to the point where I just did all my classwork on my cell phone because they had to get their work done and log in to classes, she said, noting she was trying to make sure her kids didnt fall behind at the same time. There were days where I just wanted to cry my brains out.

Robles said she worries that her nursing education is at risk.

Shes wanted to be a nurse since she was very young, she said.

My mother was paralyzed when I was young and I helped care for her, Robles said, noting that she used to send her mom money to help her because shes unable to work. She cant do that anymore.

And now with the coronavirus pandemic, Robles said, its more clear than ever how important the healthcare field is. She wants to get out there and help people, she said.

Im studying for finals but Im overwhelmed with a feeling of uncertainty and really feel unfocused which is not like me, she said. Its just so hard to think of anything else right now.

Local journalism needs your support. Subscribe at nj.com/supporter.

Karin Price Mueller may be reached at bamboozled@njadvancemedia.com.
An Amazon worker at a warehouse in New York where employees called for greater coronavirus safety measures has died of COVID-19, the e-commerce giant says.

'We are deeply saddened by the loss of an associate at our site in Staten Island, NY,' an Amazon spokesperson Kristen Kish said in a statement to DailyMail.com on Tuesday.

'His family and loved ones are in our thoughts, and we are supporting his fellow colleagues,' she added.

The company says that the employee was last onsite on April 5 and was confirmed to have the virus on April 11 as he remained in quarantine. Contact tracing revealed no link to other employees.

Workers are seen protesting outside of Amazon's Staten Island fulfillment center, known within the company as JFK8, last Friday. An employee at the warehouse has died of COVID-19, the company revealed on Tuesday

An Amazon sign stands in a parking lot outside of an Amazon warehouse as the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in the Staten Island borough of New York

Amazon has become a lifeline for consumers facing lockdowns and restrictions around the world, and the company is in the process of adding some 175,000 new employees to cope with surging demand.

But the company has also faced protests from warehouse workers and activists who claim Amazon has failed to do enough to keep them safe.

More than a dozen demonstrators, including employees and activists, protested outside the Staten Island warehouse last week.

In March, New York Attorney General Letitia James called for an investigation after Amazon fired employee Chris Smalls after he organized a walkout of workers at the warehouse.

Smalls claimed the company was failing to take precautions to protect warehouse staff from COVID-19, and said that between 50 and 60 employees at the facility had contracted the illness.

Amazon said Smalls was fired after he went to work after contracting coronavirus, in a violation of quarantining rules.

Former Amazon employee, Christian Smalls stands with fellow demonstrators during a protest outside of an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island on May 1

Amazon insists it has invested to protect staff and says the rate of infection at the Staten Island facility is significantly below the community rate.

The company says it believes its employees at the Staten Island facility who tested positive were likely exposed at home or in the community, and that there was no evidence that they were linked through the workplace.

Amazon says that it is spending $800 million in the first half of the year on safety precautions to protect its workforce from coronavirus.

New York is the worst-hit state in the country, with more than 320,000 declared cases and around 20,000 deaths.

On Monday, Tim Bray, an Amazon vice president, said he had resigned in protest at the company sacking three staff who spoke out against treatment in warehouses.

In France, Amazon has been locked in a battle with labor unions which say not enough was done to mitigate contagion risk for staff working in close proximity to process a flood of orders amid the nationwide lockdown.

France's labor ministry said it had denied a request by Amazon for emergency funds to pay employees during the coronavirus crisis after the US behemoth shut its warehouses following a court order to sell only essential items.
Seven people have accused an Oregon state representative of harassment, leading a top lawmaker to call for his resignation.

Rep. Diego Hernandez, D-Portland, is the subject of accusations that range from verbal and physical sexual harassment to creating a hostile work environment. KGW News first reported the investigation into his conduct Monday afternoon.

The interim House Conduct Committee met Monday to discuss the investigation and decided to implement safety measures against Hernandez, including a requirement that he provide 24-hours notice before entering the Capitol. Lawmakers also ordered no contact between Hernandez and the people who reported him.

Hernandez did not participate in the hearing Monday. But in an email hours later to The Oregonian/OregonLive, he asked people to withhold judgment until the investigation is complete.

I have no idea what the concerns raised are or by whom, he wrote. I do know that there has been an organized campaign against me recently to get me out of the office I was duly elected to, and I was threatened this would happen if I didnt resign.

He said he hopes the investigatory process is fair, and that he believes womens allegations need to be heard and investigated.

House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, said in a statement Monday afternoon that she was concerned people may feel unsafe or subject to retaliation from Hernandez.

The House Conduct Committees action today is a very serious development," Kotek said. "I believe Rep. Hernandez should resign from the Legislature and focus completely on getting the support he needs.

Her statement thanked the people who reported Hernandez for coming forward.

Hernandez, who is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination for State Representative District 47, was first elected to the Oregon House of Representatives in 2016.

In 2017, he was accused of making a list ranking female lobbyists by their physical attributes. He denied the allegations, and was later cleared of them.

Earlier this year, Hernandez announced he was taking a leave of absence from the Legislature after domestic violence allegations against him surfaced.

Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Technavio has been monitoring the railcar leasing market and it is poised to grow by 3.29 bn during 2019-2023, progressing at a CAGR of 7% 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/20200505005932/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Railcar Leasing Market 2019-2023 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please request Latest Free Sample Report on Covid-19 Impact

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. American Railcar Industries Inc., CIT Group Inc., GATX Corp., Trinity Industries Inc., and VTG AG, are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

Cost advantages by railcar leasing has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market.

Railcar Leasing Market 2019-2023: Segmentation

Railcar Leasing Market is segmented as below:

Type Freight Cars Tank Cars Locomotives

Geographic Landscape APAC Europe MEA North America South America



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=IRTNTR31520

Railcar Leasing Market 2019-2023: Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our railcar leasing market report covers the following areas:

Railcar Leasing Market size

Railcar Leasing Market trends

Railcar Leasing Market industry analysis

This study identifies advances in railcar systems as one of the prime reasons driving the railcar leasing market growth during the next few years.

Railcar Leasing Market 2019-2023: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the Railcar Leasing Market, including some of the vendors such as American Railcar Industries Inc., CIT Group Inc., GATX Corp., Trinity Industries Inc., and VTG AG. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the Railcar Leasing Market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports.

Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform

Railcar Leasing Market 2019-2023: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2019-2023

Detailed information on factors that will assist railcar leasing market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the railcar leasing market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the railcar leasing market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of railcar leasing 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 TYPE OF RAILCAR

Market segmentation by type of railcar

Comparison by type of railcar

Freight cars Market size and forecast 2018-2023

Tank cars Market size and forecast 2018-2023

Locomotives Market size and forecast 2018-2023

Market opportunity by type of railcar

PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

North America Market size and forecast 2018-2023

APAC Market size and forecast 2018-2023

Europe 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: DECISION FRAMEWORK

PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES

Market drivers

Market challenges

PART 11: MARKET TRENDS

Increase in cross-border transportation activities

Increasing popularity of mobile power plants

Advances in railcar systems

PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

American Railcar Industries Inc.

CIT Group Inc.

GATX Corp.

Trinity Industries Inc.

VTG AG

PART 14: APPENDIX

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

Definition of market positioning of vendors

PART 15: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO

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.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005932/en/

Contacts:

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: media@technavio.com

Website: www.technavio.com/
After long-being rumored to be headed to other posts Patriots Director of College Scouting Monti Ossenfort is really leaving this time. Hell be the new director of player personnel for the Tennessee Titans.

Sports Illustrateds Albert Breer reported the move and tweeted:

Source: Patriots college scouting director Monti Ossenfort is headed to the Titans as director of player personnel.

Ossenfort moving on seemed to be just a matter of time. He was previously a candidate for the Texans (which the Patriots blocked) and Browns general manager openings.

The 2019 season was Ossenforts 15th with the Patriots and his six as college scouting director.

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Bill Belichick: Miami Dolphins legend Don Shula was the standard for consistency and leadership in the NFL
With the United States suddenly in a recession, school districts will be thinking seriously about reducing their teaching workforces. On average, salaries account for about 80 percent of district spending , so layoffs may be an inevitable step when budgets must be cut.

For many, budget crises and potential layoffs may feel all too familiar. The long and severe 2008 recession led many districts to let teachers go. Even more teachers received a reduction-in-force or RIF noticean advance warning issued to teachers whose jobs are at risk. Two federally funded district bailouts helped districts rescind many of the RIF notices, but still, one estimate indicated nearly 300,000 school employees lost their jobs .

During the 2008 recession, most districts generally put novice teachers at the top of the list for layoffs because leaders were following seniority rules baked into collective bargaining agreements or state statutes. Since 2008, however, 17 states have either prohibited basing layoffs on seniority alone or have mandated that districts take teacher performance into account.

What can we expect this time around given that change? Research shows that teacher layoffs generally hurt schools and student performance, but that strategically choosing which teachers will lose their jobs may mitigate the negative effects.

Last-in, first-out policies not only burden the schools with the greatest challenges and increase class size the most, they are also not a good approach to keeping the best teachers."

The bad news first: Teacher layoffs and even the threat of layoffs can depress student-test scores in several ways. A team led by Michigan State University scholar Katharine Strunk studied teachers who were threatened with RIF notices, though ultimately, the notices were rescinded or the teachers were rehired. Strunk and her team found that those teachers often became less effective after they got the notices as measured by their contributions to gains in student-test scores. The researchers attributed the change to the teachers greater stress and their reduced commitment to jobs that might be taken away.

If layoffs in fact occur, class sizes typically riseand that, too, can in some instances lead to diminished student learning. And laying off teachers by eliminating novices first means even greater increases to class size than if a mix of experienced and inexperienced teachers are given pink slips. Novices are generally paid less, so more have to lose their jobs to meet budget targets.

A third way that layoffs or the threat of layoffs affect students is through teacher mobility. Layoffs create obvious staff change, but even the threat of job losses tends to increase turnover, as teachers leave before they can be laid off.

Research led by Matthew Ronfeldt of the University of Michigan showed that teacher turnover affects the teachers who remain in the school , perhaps due to changes in routines and responsibilities. Student-test scores in both math and English/language arts suffer as a result, with stronger negative effects in schools serving low-income students and students of color. Still other research shows that when a teacher switches grades, another common occurrence during periods of teacher mobility, her students test scores decrease , likely because the teacher must teach new content at a different developmental level.

About this series This essay is the eighth in a series that aims to put the pieces of research together so that education decisionmakers can evaluate which policies and practices to implement. The conveners of this projectSusanna Loeb, the director of Brown Universitys Annenberg Institute for School Reform, and Harvard education professor Heather Hillhave received grant support from the Annenberg Institute for this series. To suggest other topics for this series or join in the conversation, use #EdResearchtoPractice on Twitter. Read the full series here .

Overall, then, teacher layoffseven the prospect of themare likely to negatively affect students. And these negative effects may be the greatest in the most challenging schools. Layoffs from the 2008 recession disproportionately occurred in schools that serve low-income, high-need students . Such schools are more heavily staffed by first-year teachers, who were much more likely to be laid off.

Last-in, first-out policies not only burden the schools with the greatest challenges and increase class size the most, they are also not a good approach to keeping the best teachers. While more experienced teachers are more effective, on average, than less experienced teachers, many novice teachers are excellent. In fact, experience explains only a little of the difference in effectiveness across teachers .

And heres the good news. While recession-induced layoffs are bound to be detrimental, schools and districts can reduce the negative effects by protecting their greatest-need schools and their most effective teachers.

First, districts can protect schools that have high existing rates of turnover or large proportions of at-risk students either by exempting those schools from layoffs altogether or by requiring layoffs to be equal across schools. Following a lawsuit, the Los Angeles Unified school district adopted such a policy in the middle of the 2008 recession and succeeded in sharply reducing teacher turnover in 45 schools.

Second, districts can also protect students by using information about teacher performance when making decisions about which teachers to lay off. Two recent simulations showed that basing layoffs on teachers effectiveness in promoting student learning would result in fewer layoffs to meet budget targets and better teachers for many students.

A 2015 paper by Matthew Kraft of Brown University describes how the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools in North Carolina laid off teachers using several criteria, including enrollment trends, principal-assigned performance ratings, and length of service. Layoffs were still concentrated among untenured teachers (84 percent of those laid off), but of the teachers the district let go, 58 percent had below-standard performance ratings. Holding the number of layoffs constant, the analysis showed that the discretionary layoffs saved the district about $5 million more than would have been the case under a last-in, first-out scenario and boosted student achievement above what it would have been in that case.

Of course, it would be better to prevent layoffs than mitigate their effects. In that regard, state and federal government action can be powerful. The number of teachers laid off in this recession could be reduced, as it was in 2008, by federal aid. That kind of aid would parallel the assistance already given to private-sector workers.

But should layoffs occur, the greatest-needs schools may benefit from special consideration. And students will be harmed less if administrators use measures of teacher effectiveness, among other criteria, to determine which teachers stay and which go.
Britain and the United States said on Tuesday in a joint warning that government-backed hackers are attacking healthcare and research institutions with the goal of stealing valuable information about the response to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The statement does not name which countries, but Russia, Iran, and China are widely blamed.

State hacking groups "frequently target organizations in order to collect bulk personal information, intellectual property and intelligence that aligns with national priorities," the statement from Britain's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency reads.

"For example, actors may seek to obtain intelligence on national and international healthcare policy or acquire sensitive data on COVID-19 related research."

From Reuters:

In a statement, Britain's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said the hackers had targeted pharmaceutical companies, research organisations and local governments. The NCSC and CISA did not say which countries were responsible for the attacks. But one U.S. official and one UK official said the warning was in response to intrusion attempts by suspected Chinese and Iranian hackers, as well as some Russian-linked activity. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss non-public details of the alert. Tehran, Beijing and Moscow have all repeatedly denied conducting offensive cyber operations and say they are the victims of such attacks themselves.

Read more:

State-backed hackers targeting coronavirus responders, U.S. and UK warn

[Jack Stubbs, Christopher Bing, May 5]
World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a news conference on the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 28, 2020. Reuters



The World Health Organization said Monday that Washington had provided no evidence to support "speculative" claims by the US president that the new coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab.



"We have not received any data or specific evidence from the United States government relating to the purported origin of the virus  so from our perspective, this remains speculative," WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told a virtual briefing.



Scientists believe the killer virus jumped from animals to humans, emerging in China late last year, possibly from a market in Wuhan selling exotic animals for meat.



Top US epidemiologist Anthony Fauci echoed the WHO's statement in an interview published Monday evening by National Geographic.



"If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what's out there now, (the scientific evidence) is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated," Fauci told the magazine.



"Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that (this virus) evolved in nature and then jumped species," he said.



US President Donald Trump, increasingly critical of China's management of the outbreak, claims to have proof it started in a Wuhan laboratory.



And US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday said "enormous evidence" backed up that claim, although the US intelligence community last week said it would continue to study whether the outbreak stemmed from infected animal contact, or a lab accident.



China has vehemently denied suggestions the lab was the source.



"Like any evidence-based organisation, we would be very willing to receive any information that purports to the origin of the virus," Ryan said, stressing that this was "a very important piece of public health information for future control.






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They want to do that so they pick up two automatic Democrat  you know its a 100 percent Democrat, basically  so why would the Republicans ever do that? he said. Thatll never happen unless we have some very, very stupid Republicans around that I dont think you do. You understand that, right?
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 02:08:59|Editor: huaxia

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LISBON, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said on Tuesday that he had discussed with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and bilateral cooperation.

During the conversation, "I congratulated on the good results achieved in containing the pandemic in a country as large and populous as India," the Portugese prime minister said in a tweet.

"We shared information on the management of the pandemic and reflected on the post-COVID 19 world," he added.

He noted that the two countries will join hands in finding a vaccine for COVID-19.

"We underlined the importance of cooperating... in the export of pharmaceuticals and in joint research efforts to find a vaccine for COVID-19," he said.

Costa also pledged to strengthen cooperation between the two countries.

"We decided to join forces to achieve the vision of a world that is safer, based on shared prosperity and the defense of democracy," Costa said in his tweet, adding that it is "more important than ever to hold the EU-India summit" during the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU, which is scheduled from the first half of 2021. Enditem
Bruce Willis has reunited with his wife, Emma Heming, and their two young children after weeks of quarantining with ex-wife Demi Moore and their three adult daughters during the coronavirus pandemic.

Heming, 41, shared on her Instagram stories on Monday that she and Willis, 65, are together again with their two children, Mabel, 8, and Evelyn, 6, after being separated since early last month.

57th New York Film Festival -

Heming posted a photo taken by Mabel of her and the "Die Hard" star smiling together with Evelyn on a four-wheeler in a wooded area, as well as a video of her laughing with Willis while riding around.

Heming shared a photo on Instagram of the family back together after weeks apart. (emmahemingwillis/Instagram)

She also shared video of Willis pushing Evelyn on a swing and a shot of him carrying her on his shoulders.

It's not clear if Willis has rejoined the family in Los Angeles or whether Heming and the girls traveled to Idaho, where Willis has been staying with Moore and their daughters, Rumer, 31, Scout, 28, and Tallulah, 26, during the pandemic.

Bruce Willis has reunited with wife Emma Heming and their two daughters after they were separated while he quarantined with ex-wife Demi Moore and his older daughters in Idaho. (emmahemingwillis/Instagram)

Scout Willis shed some light on why Willis has been quarantining with them instead of Heming and his younger daughters in an interview on the "Dopey" podcast last month.

Its actually been really cool, she said. "My stepmom was supposed to come up here with my little sisters ... but my younger sister, who is about to be 7 years old, (was) at a park, had never gotten the talk about not (playing) with hypodermic needles that she found, so she actually tried to poke her shoe with it, and poked her foot.

"So my stepmom had to be in L.A. waiting to get the results from taking her to the doctor, so my dad came up here early, and then travel got crazy, so my stepmom stayed in L.A with my little sisters."

Moore and Tallulah Willis gave everyone a glimpse of what the family has been up to during their time at home, whether it's Moore and Willis wearing matching pajamas or awkwardly dancing together.

Heming and Willis, who have been married since 2009, are also celebrating Evelyn's sixth birthday on Tuesday.

Story continues

With Willis reunited with Heming and the girls, his older daughters have enjoyed their time together with their father and mother.

"Its been really funny to have both of my parents in the house where they raised us, which has been really cute," Scout said on the podcast. "Theyre both such nerdy, adorable, 90s parents in a small town where they chose to have their kids and not be in L.A. Its been pretty cute.

"Its some divine timing too, of getting this much time to hang out with them."
CANTON, Mass., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Nurses and healthcare professionals represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association have written recommendations for the safe resumption of normal operations at healthcare facilities and are calling on state officials to include the voices of frontline workers as COVID-19 re-opening plans are developed and implemented.

"While we anticipate moving toward more normal healthcare operations, we must be absolutely vigilant that facilities provide widespread testing, protective equipment and safe staffing levels," said RN and MNA President Donna Kelly-Williams. "Up to this point, many decisions have been made that have not incorporated the perspective of nurses and healthcare professionals at the bedside. If we re-open hospitals and other parts of our society without listening to frontline workers, we place our ability to defeat this pandemic at grave risk."

As stated in the MNA's May 4 letter to Gov. Charlie Baker, "Throughout the pandemic too many hospitals have been incapable of making prompt, appropriate decisions in the best interests of their staff and patients. We fear the desire to generate revenue through elective procedures could override the need to ensure proper protections are in place before resuming these procedures. Unfortunately, these fears are not unfounded."

The irresponsible actions of healthcare employers like Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare demand rigorous and enforceable standards for the resumption of elective surgeries and other non-essential services. These standards must be created with input from healthcare workers on the front lines. Tenet has cut frontline staff at Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester, creating unsafe conditions during the pandemic despite making public statements about the for-profit company's superior financial position.

Read the full criteria recommendations within the May 4 MNA letter to Gov. Charlie Baker at www.massnurses.org/COVIDgovletter (PDF will open). See a video of MNA Executive Director Julie Pinkham discussing hospital resumption of normal operations: https://youtu.be/vb5zn8hGTQk.

Highlights of MNA Criteria for Resumption of Normal Healthcare Operations

Given the potential public health impact for premature resumption of full service at these facilities, there must be strict oversight of this process and no institution should be allowed to resume normal operations until these measures have been documented and verified.

Decline of COVID-19 Census. Before permitting a return to pre-COVID-19 operations, the level of COVID-19 admissions must decrease for a period of two weeks at the facility. This will help to ensure that what is observed is a trend and not an anomaly or lull.

Before permitting a return to pre-COVID-19 operations, the level of COVID-19 admissions must decrease for a period of two weeks at the facility. This will help to ensure that what is observed is a trend and not an anomaly or lull. Testing and Screening. To mitigate the risk of spreading the virus in healthcare facilities following a return to normalized operation, healthcare facilities must test all incoming patients.

To mitigate the risk of spreading the virus in healthcare facilities following a return to normalized operation, healthcare facilities must test all incoming patients. COVID-19 Designated Units . Facilities must cohort COVID-19 patients on designated floors and if those beds become insufficient, they have to stop elective procedures to assure they do not commingle patients.

. Facilities must cohort COVID-19 patients on designated floors and if those beds become insufficient, they have to stop elective procedures to assure they do not commingle patients. Resumption of Standards. Prior to any return to normalized operations at healthcare facilities, the state must address several provisions that were suspended over the past two months to specifically address the anticipated COVID-19 surge, including the reinstatement of the ICU staffing law. This also includes sufficient staffing throughout the hospital. See more in the May 4 letter.

Prior to any return to normalized operations at healthcare facilities, the state must address several provisions that were suspended over the past two months to specifically address the anticipated COVID-19 surge, including the reinstatement of the ICU staffing law. This also includes sufficient staffing throughout the hospital. See more in the letter. Transparency, Oversight and Enforcement. Facilities must provide a written plan regarding their plans for returning to normalized operations and the continued care of COVID-19 patients as well as attestation that they meet the state-designated census criteria to resume operations. This plan should be available to the public. There must be a designated reporting site with immediate investigation and enforcement for any violations .

Facilities must provide a written plan regarding their plans for returning to normalized operations and the continued care of COVID-19 patients as well as attestation that they meet the state-designated census criteria to resume operations. This plan should be available to the public. . Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). In order to return to elective procedures and admissions, there must appropriate PPE available to all staff who come in contact with COVID-19 positive or suspected COVID-19 positive patients. If a facility cannot provide frontline staff with the appropriate PPE, then that facility is not prepared to resume elective procedures.

Read additional criteria at www.massnurses.org/COVIDgovletter (PDF will open).

In its ninth letter to Gov. Baker, Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders and the Massachusetts Legislature, the MNA, representing more than 23,000 frontline nurses and healthcare professionals in 85 healthcare facilities and the vast majority of RNs in hospitals statewide, calls on state officials and healthcare employers to immediately apply the experience and expertise of nurses and healthcare workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlights of Ongoing COVID-19 Issues from May 4 Gov. Letter:

Occupational Presumption . We continue to be concerned by the insistence on the part of multiple healthcare facilities that workers who test positive for COVID-19 acquired the virus in the community rather than at work. The MNA is advocating for legislation that presumes healthcare workers are exposed at work for a number of reasons.

. We continue to be concerned by the insistence on the part of multiple healthcare facilities that workers who test positive for COVID-19 acquired the virus in the community rather than at work. The MNA is advocating for legislation that presumes healthcare workers are exposed at work for a number of reasons. Provide Transparency for PPE. We have not yet seen full transparency regarding the distribution of PPE in the Commonwealth. Frontline staff continue to report that they do not have access to appropriate PPE, including those in behavioral health facilities.

We have not yet seen full transparency regarding the distribution of PPE in the Commonwealth. Frontline staff continue to report that they do not have access to appropriate PPE, including those in behavioral health facilities. Non-acute, inpatient settings. Issues persist at non-acute, inpatient care settings including behavioral health facilities, public health hospitals and group homes. These facilities should be maintaining designated COVID-19 units and take other steps.

Issues persist at non-acute, inpatient care settings including behavioral health facilities, public health hospitals and group homes. These facilities should be maintaining designated COVID-19 units and take other steps. Testing. Access to testing for healthcare staff continues to improve incrementally but is still not where it needs to be.

Access to testing for healthcare staff continues to improve incrementally but is still not where it needs to be. Bed, unit and facility closures . We continue to call for a halt to all bed, unit and facility closures. COVID-19 will not be over when the first surge passes and we must be mindful we are talking about loss of services it is important to remember that these losses and this current crisis should be viewed in the larger picture of access to healthcare .

. We continue to call for a halt to all bed, unit and facility closures. COVID-19 will not be over when the first surge passes and we must be mindful we are talking about loss of services it is important to remember that these losses and this current crisis should be viewed in the larger picture of access to healthcare Staff furloughs, shift cancellations and layoffs . The furloughs, shift cancellations and layoffs of staff have persisted throughout the COVID-19 state of emergency. While some hospitals and hospital systems have appropriately created programs to retrain and redeploy nurses to critical areas consistent with the intention of the call for elective procedure cancellations, others have not.

. The furloughs, shift cancellations and layoffs of staff have persisted throughout the COVID-19 state of emergency. While some hospitals and hospital systems have appropriately created programs to retrain and redeploy nurses to critical areas consistent with the intention of the call for elective procedure cancellations, others have not. Transparency of financial assistance . In light of the tremendous economic assistance created through public dollars both at the federal and state level, there must be full transparency for the public on the allocation of those dollars for each of the facilities for whom they have been designated.

. In light of the tremendous economic assistance created through public dollars both at the federal and state level, there must be full transparency for the public on the allocation of those dollars for each of the facilities for whom they have been designated. "Return to work" criteria . We again ask the state to establish a singular requirement communicated to and implemented by all institutions that includes two negative results at least 24 hours apart before the individual is permitted to return to work.

. We again ask the state to establish a singular requirement communicated to and implemented by all institutions that includes two negative results at least 24 hours apart before the individual is permitted to return to work. Enlisting the public's help. We support the directive released at the end of the week that the people should wear masks in public settings. In addition to this, we call on the governor to enact a number of additional measures.

Read the full May 4, 2020 MNA letter to Gov. Baker and more information at www.massnurses.org/COVID-19.

MassNurses.org  Facebook.com/MassNurses  Twitter.com/MassNurses  Instagram.com/MassNurses

Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 23,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association

Related Links

http://www.massnurses.org


Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has officially received from Indian Ambassador to Ukraine Partha Satpathy a batch of 30,000 hydroxychloroquine tablets, which the Indian Government provided to Ukraine as humanitarian aid to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

The solemn ceremony was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on Tuesday, May 5, according to the Ministrys press service.

"This is a true gesture of friendship on the part of the Indian people and the Government of India. This step strengthens the partnership between our countries and demonstrates that India and Ukraine are able to jointly counter global challenges," Kuleba said.

The parties emphasized that the interaction of Ukraine and India in the pharmaceutical industry demonstrated high growth dynamics.

In addition, a batch of typhoid, meningitis, cholera and malaria vaccines for the Ukrainian peacekeeping contingent also arrived in Ukraine as part of Indian humanitarian aid.

Thanks to the efforts of Ukrainian diplomacy, the Government of India also granted special permission to purchase hydroxychloroquine for the needs of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.

Further distribution of a batch of 30,000 hydroxychloroquine tablets among Ukrainian medical institutions and control of their use will be carried out by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.

As known, hydroxychloroquine has been identified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a possible treatment for the COVID-19 and it is being tested on more than 1,500 coronavirus patients in New York.

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The novel coronavirus pandemic, which has already killed more than 60,000 Americans, is forcing the United States to come to terms with the deplorable state of its jails, prisons and detention centres.

The rapid spread of COVID-19 across the US led to fears that the countrys overcrowded and unhygienic correctional facilities, where social distancing is impossible, could act as incubators of the disease. Experts calculated that poorly and inhumanely managed prisons could add 100,000 extra deaths to the coronavirus death toll in the US. Meanwhile, a New York Times investigation revealed that more than 23,000 inmates and staff members in US prisons and jails already tested positive for coronavirus, demonstrating that Americas correctional facilities are at the ground zero of this outbreak.

As a result, following the lead of other countries, authorities in many US states started to release prisoners in an attempt to stem the spread of the virus.

These releases, however, are not happening quickly enough to protect Americas imprisoned masses, and everyone else living in the communities that they belong to, from this disease. The nation is now faced with the realisation that it should not have put so many people behind bars in the first place and that mass imprisonment is not only a major human rights violation, but also a threat to public health.

Activists across the country are calling for comprehensive criminal justice reform not only to stop the spread of the virus now but also to prevent the country from once again finding itself in such a disastrous situation in the future.

In Philadelphia, where advocates unsuccessfully petitioned the state supreme court to release children from juvenile facilities during the pandemic, not only activists but also members of the justice system are calling for reforms. US District Judge Anita Brody, for example, referred to prisons as tinderboxes for infectious disease when granting compassionate release to a prisoner. Moreover, the Philadelphia District Attorneys Office, the Defender Association of Philadelphia and the ACLU of Pennsylvania are working in concert to decarcerate to stop the spread of the virus. Police in the state, meanwhile, is delaying arrests for certain low-level offences.

In California, where some prisoners complained that they feel like they are in a Nazi death camp, Governor Gavin Newsom called for the expedited release and parole of 3,500 people. The comparison prisoners made was apt, given that many Holocaust victims died not in gas chambers but of infectious diseases. Anne Frank, for example, died of typhus.

Indeed, the relationship between mass imprisonment and disease is an old one, and there is nothing novel about the carnage the novel coronavirus is currently causing in US prisons. Throughout the continents colonisation, many Native Americans died from unfamiliar diseases brought to their communities by their European oppressors. At least two million Africans died in slave ships during the Middle Passage to America, many succumbing to infectious disease and malnourishment.

Throughout slavery, the convict leasing system of Jim Crow-era segregation, and the current period of mass imprisonment and prison profiteering, negligence towards the health of the captive population has been built into the business model.

Conditions in US prisons are ripe for disease outbreaks. Correctional facilities across the country are full of older inmates from low-income communities that have limited access to healthcare. Moreover, many of these prisoners suffer from pre-existing conditions, such as respiratory problems and heart conditions, that make them more susceptible to infectious diseases. Indeed, there are studies that show American prisoners have an elevated risk of contracting infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C, HIV/AIDS, MRSA and now COVID-19. Of more than 10 million imprisoned people in the US, 4 percent have HIV, 15 percent have hepatitis C, and 3 percent have active tuberculosis.

Although prisoners have a constitutional right to health care through the Eighth Amendments prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, the care that is on offer in many US prisons is either limited, or worse, nonexistent thanks to high drug prices and the prison managers reluctance to reduce profit margins.

Take hepatitis C. Nationwide, roughly 97 percent of inmates with hepatitis C do not receive treatment for this curable liver disease, as drugs can cost on average about $90,000 for a course of treatment. Lock-up is expensive. If all inmates who have hepatitis C received treatment, the costs would far exceed the minimal budgets prisons put aside for healthcare, making the business of imprisonment completely unprofitable.

The lack of healthcare in correctional facilities is a threat not only for the imprisoned populations but for the wider society. Many inmates re-enter society at the end of their sentences with untreated health conditions. As former offenders often experience financial hardship, they do not receive treatment outside the prison either. As a result, they contribute to the spread of infectious diseases in their communities. Roughly 640,000 inmates are released nationwide each year. This means, about 75,000 hepatitis C-infected people enter the general population annually.

The lack of healthcare in US prisons, which causes former offenders to unintentionally become vectors of infection, poses a greater threat to society today than ever before. Many former offenders, who did not get tested for coronavirus during their incarceration, risk unknowingly infecting their loved ones and contributing to the spread of the disease once they rejoin society.

Today, American prisons and jails are one of the epicentres of the coronavirus pandemic. While the release of an increasing number of inmates to stem the spread of the infection is a step in the right direction, it is just a partial, short term solution. Until America shakes off its addiction to mass imprisonment, reforms its brutal sentencing regimes, ends over-policing and starts to offer adequate healthcare to imprisoned populations, correctional facilities in the US will continue to be costly hot spots for infections.

Confinement has always been dangerous, and deadly, in the US. For too long, the most vulnerable and underprivileged members of the American society, particularly those who are descendants of slaves and frequent victims of state violence, and those who are most susceptible to the negative effects of poverty, pollution and unemployment, have been unjustly locked up in inhumane conditions.

Many Americans have long been ignoring this depressing reality, and buying into get-tough-on-crime policies promoted by politicians on all sides of the political spectrum. The continuing pandemic, and its increasing human toll, however, have finally started a conversation in the country about the need for and the effectiveness of mass imprisonment. This conversation should not end once we defeat this deadly disease. The US must learn some lessons from its obvious failure to respond effectively to this pandemic. It must rapidly implement decarceration policies and start offering adequate healthcare to its confined population, for the sake of all Americans.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
There is evidence of Mafia-style crime in Hamilton as far back as 1906, when extortion letters signed with a black handprint were sent to a grocer.

The Black Hand (Mano Nera in Italian) was not a criminal organization, but a brand of extortion used to target Italian immigrants in North America.

It wasnt until a decade later when prohibition era gave rise to bootlegging that traditional organized crime began making real money here.

Hamiltons Rocco Perri soon became the self-described king of the bootleggers, before his mysterious disappearance in 1944.

This early period of rum-running led to the rise of three powerful Italian organized crime families in Hamilton  the Luppinos, Papalias and Musitanos.

All are Ndrangheta (Calabrian Mafia), although they have worked with La Cosa Nostra (Sicilian Mafia) crime families in New York and Montreal, including representing the Buffalo crime family north of the border.

For a time, the three families peacefully coexisted. But peace never lasts long in the criminal underworld.

Over the decades there have been bombings, shootings and arsons that have touched all three families, including a recent resurgence of Mafia violence beginning in Hamilton with the 2017 murder of Angelo Musitano.

A notable distinction of the Ndrangheta is the fact that members of crime families are actual family members, as opposed to just being from the same region as is more common in La Cosa Nostra.

The tight family ties has made Calabrian Mafia traditionally harder for police to infiltrate, with perhaps the biggest exception being the recent RCMP-led, joint forces Project Otremens that saw a high-level turncoat become a paid police agent, bringing down Dom and Joey Violi.

There have been countless court cases on everything from murder, to extortion, to drug trafficking, to illegal gambling, all highlighting how the Mob makes money and what violence they are capable of. But the Mafia has also always been good at running a mix of illegal and legitimate businesses  a means to launder money, but also making it difficult for authorities to follow money trails.

Before the recent resurgence of violence, there were years of silence where the public could be forgiven for thinking the Mafia was gone or diminished. But that was never true.

When things are quiet that is usually a sign business is going well for traditional organized crime; there is a balance of power. But a disruption in the power, a vacuum left by a major players death or incarceration, or a power play, can lead to full-out Mob wars.

The Mafia never forgets. Vengeance is rarely swift or careless, but rather carefully planned.

Here are the Mafia families and major players that have controlled, killed and been killed in Hamiltons long history of traditional organized crime.

- Mob violence in 2019: Five active cases in hands of Hamilton police and courts
Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) gives opening remarks at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing for the nomination of Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) for director of national intelligence, on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 5, 2020. (Andrew Harnik/Pool/AFP/Getty Images)

Intel Chairman Says Hell Vote for Trumps DNI Pick

Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said Tuesday hell vote for Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), President Donald Trumps nominee for director of national intelligence.

Ratcliffe understands the challenges facing the Intelligence Community in the 21st century and is ready to work to meet them, Burr said in a statement.

He is has committed to working with our Committee and with Congress to ensure proper oversight and information sharing. And he has pledged to support the men and women of the Intelligence Community in their steadfast work.

Burr said he looked forward to advancing the nomination and supporting it when it comes before the full Senate.

The statement came after Ratcliffe answered questions from Burrs committee in Washington.

Ratcliffe told senators he wouldnt distort findings if he becomes director of national intelligence (DNI).

Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) testifies before a Senate Intelligence Committee nomination hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 5, 2020. (Andrew Harnik/Pool/Reuters)

Let me be very clear: Regardless of what anyone wants our intelligence to reflect, the intelligence I will provide, if confirmed, will not be impacted or altered as a result of outside influence, he told the committee. The intelligence community will be laser focused on finding out how the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus started if hes confirmed, Ratcliffe said.

The congressman, who was nominated last year for the same position before Trump withdrew the nomination, said he wasnt sure what Trump meant when he said in 2019 that intelligence agencies had run amok.

Asked by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) whether he would convey findings to Trump even he knew Trump disagreed with them and that doing so could cost him his job, he said of course.

Ratcliffe was on a team of advisors to Trump as the Senate in January weighed whether to convict the president on articles of impeachment approved by the House. He called the impeachment the thinnest, fastest, and weakest impeachment our country has ever seen.

Ratcliffe also appeared to earn the support of Collins, who said last week that she spoke with him before concluding he has the experience to meet the statutory standard to fill the position.

Senate Intelligence Ranking Member Mark Warner (D-Va.) speaks during a hearing on the nomination of Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) for director of national intelligence, on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 5, 2020. (Andrew Harnik/Pool/AFP/Getty Images)

No Democrats appeared to indicate positive votes for the nomination and Ranking Member Mark Warner (D-Va.) said he didnt know what changed since Ratcliffe was nominated and then withdrawn for consideration for DNI.

Republicans control the Senate with 53 members. Democrats have 45 senators. The two independents typically vote with Democrats.

Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, was named acting DNI in February, replacing Joseph Maguire.

The director of national intelligence position was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks against the United States. The director oversees 17 civilian and military intelligence agencies, including the CIA.

The president makes nominations to the position, but the post requires approval from the Senate.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
1. When it comes to providing state-funded financial aid for college students, Montana ranks 49th in the nation. Do you think the state should contribute more toward higher education funding or should it be the responsibility of the student to fund their own college education?

I believe the Montana Legislature should renew its commitment to increase revenues toward higher education. Education costs have risen faster than families can afford, and the picture is bound to worsen with job loss and business closures due to COVID-19. Financial assistance that is need-based and merit-based will be increasingly critical to overcome rising tuition costs and ensure successful graduation rates. Financial incentives to retain students for essential Montana jobs would ultimately contribute back to our economy. There is no better return on public investment than funding higher education while preparing our future workforce.

2. Do you think the state of Montana should increase state funding for affordable housing? Why or why not?

I believe more state monies should be provided to increase housing opportunities for seniors, people with disabilities, and low-wage earners in Montana. As a Realtor in Ravalli County for 30 years, I experience an economy that benefits from a bustling real estate market, but leaves many residents behind. I am currently working on securing property for a future affordable housing development in Hamilton. While some financial tools are available to fund these projects, obstacles exist that impede the effort such as zoning barriers and lack of public infrastructure. Safe, clean, affordable housing should be the foundation of any healthy community.

3. What in your view is the largest issue with management of Montanas public lands? What should be done about it?

The key issue is the ongoing debate over the transfer of some federal public lands (WSAs) to the state for future management. The notion that state or local officials can manage our public lands better than current federal employees is impractical and financially irresponsible. Rather, we need to maintain a multiple-use approach to managing federal lands that achieves bipartisan support. Our public lands annually generate $7 billion in consumer spending, while supporting 3,000 forest product jobs. As a former USFS regional plant pathologist, I trust current trained professionals, in concert with active public input, to continue managing federal lands.

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KLTZ and Mix-93 are teaming up with area sponsors to give away prize packages for Mothers Day again this year! Stop by our participating stores and register your mom - then tune in Friday morning, May 8th, at 7:15 a.m. when we announce the winners!

Our sponsors and prizes:
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Cumberland Island is one of America's most bewitching locations  home to the only unmanaged wild herd of horses on the east coast.

The spirited animals have been photographed over 12 years by French photographer Anouk Krantz, captured in enchanting images as they continue to roam across this remote, largely deserted landscape off the Atlantic coast of Georgia.

The pictures first appeared in book Wild Horses of Cumberland Island in 2017  and the publisher, Images Publishing, has now released a second edition. It contains new equally mesmerising images  some of which are showcased here. They capture some of the 150-strong herd of horses amid their serene sanctuary's white-sand beaches, immense rolling dunes and old-growth maritime forests.

It's a truly magical place  with a fascinating, at times bloody, history. It's thought that horses originally would have arrived with Spanish settlers in the 17th century. There were plantations and Civil War battles there in the 19th century, with the Carnegies buying most of it in the 1880s.

They sold it to the National Park Service in 1972. But a descendant of original owner Thomas Carnegie, Oliver 'Mitty' Ferguson, runs the island's hotel, The Greyfield Inn, which hosted the wedding reception of John F. Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette in 1996. They married in the island's minuscule First African Baptist Church.

Anouk told MailOnline Travel: 'For me, a visit to Cumberland Island with its endless stretches of white-sand beaches and dark, old-growth oak forests draped in Spanish moss, as well as its pristine creeks and tidal flats, are a powerful reminder of the inherent natural good that is within each of us, and that to find peace and comfort we often need less in our lives, and not more.' Scroll down to see some of the beautiful new images she's taken for the latest edition of her book...

The wild horses of Cumberland Island have been photographed over 12 years by French photographer Anouk Krantz

The pictures first appeared in book Wild Horses of Cumberland Island in 2017  and the publisher, Images Publishing, has now released a second edition

Cumberland Island was the setting for John F. Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette's wedding in 1996

Cumberland Island, off the Atlantic coast of Georgia, is a truly magical place  with a fascinating, at times bloody, history

It's thought that horses originally would have arrived on Cumberland Island with Spanish settlers in the 17th century

John F. Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette married in the island's minuscule First African Baptist Church

The island is a serene sanctuary for the horses, with its white-sand beaches, immense rolling dunes and old-growth maritime forests

The super-rich Carnegies bought most of the island in the 1880s. They sold it to the National Park Service in 1972

A descendant of original owner Thomas Carnegie, Oliver 'Mitty' Ferguson, runs the island's hotel, The Greyfield Inn. He has written the foreword to the second edition of Wild Horses of Cumberland Island

Ferguson writes in the foreword: 'Cumberland Island is a rarity on the United States East Coast in that it moves to a slower speed. Its a secret you want to share that focuses on lifes basics and is a powerful reminder that "less is more"'

Ferguson says: 'We have hosted Anouk at our home next to Greyfield for years, and I always admired how she would set off at dawn so she could explore and capture the island and its wild horses, returning muddy, sandy and tired at dusk'

Cumberland Island, the book says, will now forever be a preserved wilderness, an isolated sanctuary within a world erupting into a modern landscape

Krantz's work has appeared in prominent galleries and earned accolades from the International Photography Awards and International Monochrome Awards

The island measures 17 and a half miles in length and is three miles wide - roughly the size of Manhattan
The number of daily coronavirus-related deaths continues to be in the hundreds

Another 693 people who tested positive for COVID-19 have died in the UK, taking the total to 29,427.

The latest figure from the Department of Health is for coronavirus-related fatalities in all settings, including hospitals, care homes and the wider community, as of 5pm on Monday.

The previous rise of 288 was the lowest daily increase since the end of March, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.

Experts have pointed out that there can sometimes be a lag after the weekend as some administration staff who collect the figures may not be working on Saturday and Sunday.

On Tuesday, it was announced a further 366 people with COVID-19 have died in hospital in England, bringing the total to 21,750.

In Scotland, 44 more deaths have been reported, with the overall fatality figure there now 1,620.

In Wales, a further 26 people have died after testing positive for coronavirus, taking the total to 1,023.

Separate figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest 29,710 deaths involving COVID-19 in England and Wales were registered up to 2 May.

The ONS said the numbers are based on where the virus is mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, including in combination with other health conditions.

Together with the latest equivalent numbers for Scotland (2,272 deaths registered up to 26 April) and Northern Ireland (393 deaths registered up to 29 April), it means a total of 32,375 deaths involving COVID-19 have now been registered across the UK.

Meanwhile, ministers are considering easing the coronavirus social-distancing restrictions on people meeting outdoors.

The prime minister's official spokesman said they were looking at possible "easements" - as well some toughening of the rules - ahead of the expected publication on Sunday of the government's "roadmap" on the next phase of the COVID-19 response.

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Also, Mr Hancock has dismissed warnings by civil liberties campaigners that a new coronavirus contact-tracing app could open the door to widespread "state surveillance".

Ministers are urging the public to sign up to the app - which is beginning trials on the Isle of Wight - as a way out of the current lockdown and re-starting the economy.

Mr Hancock has insisted it is "completely wrong" to say that the app represents a threat to civil liberties.
New Delhi, May 5 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday said that it has arrested an official of the BCCL in a graft case. A senior CBI official said that it arrested Kishori Prasad Rout, an official dealing with attendance of workers of BCCL in Jharkhand's Dhanbad for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 3,000.

He said a case was registered against Rout under section of the Prevention of Corruption Act who worked as attendance clerk on a complaint. The CBI official said that it was alleged that the accused demanded an illegal gratification of Rs 3,000 from the complainant for allowing him to join duty after sick leave or lockdown.

"CBI laid a trap and caught the accused red handed on Tuesday while demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 3,000 from the complainant," he said, adding that incriminating documents pertaining to motive of bribe have been recovered during searches at the premises of accused.

He will be produced before the Special Judge, CBI Cases in Dhanbad. The official said that the agency sleuths followed all precautions arising out of situation of novel coronavirus.
A more recent publication of this set of statistics is available. Latest publication: Prices of dwellings in housing companies 2021, November

Published: 5 May 2020

Prices of old dwellings in housing companies unchanged in March compared with the early part of the year

According to Statistics Finland's monthly-level preliminary data, prices of old dwellings in housing companies have remained on level with January to February both in greater Helsinki and elsewhere in Finland in March 2020. Compared with the corresponding period of the year before, prices rose by 1.3 per cent in Greater Helsinki and fell somewhat elsewhere in Finland.

Development of prices of old dwellings in housing companies by month, index 2015=100

Based on the Tax Administration's Asset Transfer Tax data for March, not much can yet be said about the effects of the corona pandemic on the numbers of transactions of old dwellings, because the data will become revised in the following releases.

Based on transactions made through real estate agents, around two per cent more transactions of old dwellings were made in March compared with the corresponding period last year. In February 2020, around 10 per cent more transactions were made than in the corresponding period of one year ago. Data on transactions made through real estate agents will in future be published in Statfin-table, monthly data.

Prices of old dwellings in housing companies rose in Greater Helsinki in the first quarter and fell slightly in the rest of the country

According to preliminary data, prices of old dwellings in housing companies rose by two per cent in Greater Helsinki in the first quarter of 2020 from the corresponding quarter of the year before. Prices fell slightly in the rest of Finland. Compared with the previous quarter, prices rose by around 1.5 per cent both in Greater Helsinki and in the rest of Finland.

Among large towns, prices of old dwellings in housing companies rose most clearly compared with the corresponding period of last year in Helsinki and Espoo. The average price per square metre of a one-bedroom dwelling in an old block of flats was EUR 4,702 in Helsinki, EUR 3,548 in Espoo and EUR 2,139 in Turku in the first quarter of the year.

Development of prices of old dwellings in housing companies quarterly, index 2015=100

Prices of new dwellings in housing companies rose in the first quarter

Compared with the corresponding period in 2019, prices of new dwellings rose by 3.9 per cent in Greater Helsinki and by 5.6 per cent elsewhere in Finland. Compared with the previous quarter, prices of new dwellings remained unchanged in Greater Helsinki and rose by 1.4 per cent in the rest of Finland. Compared with the previous year, prices of new dwellings rose in all large towns.

Development of prices of new dwellings in housing companies quarterly, index 2015=100

Old dwellings in housing companies sold well towards the end of the year

According to the Tax Administration's asset transfer tax data, about 63,300 transactions of old dwellings in housing companies were completed last year, which is slightly more than in 2018. Transactions of dwellings were particularly abundant towards the end of the year.

According to final data, prices of old dwellings in blocks of flats and terraced houses rose slightly in the whole of 2019. In Greater Helsinki, prices rose by over two per cent and in the rest of the country they fell by about one per cent.

Data on prices of dwellings in housing companies in different areas and by house type are available at stat.fi/til/ashi/tau_en.html. The tables also contain data on the prices per square metre at the municipal and postal code levels and on the numbers of transactions in 2019.

Prices of old dwellings in housing companies, whole year 2019, final data

Area Price, EUR/m Index 2015=100 Yearly change, % Whole country 2,077 103.2 0.7 Greater Helsinki 3,719 110.0 2.4 Rest of the country (whole country- Greater Helsinki) 1,595 97.1 -1.1 Helsinki 4,323 113.6 3.1 Helsinki 1 1) 7,345 119.5 4.3 Helsinki 2 5,592 116.9 3.9 Helsinki 3 3,749 109.4 2.5 Helsinki 4 2,907 106.2 1.0 Tampere 2,503 108.1 1.3 Tampere 1 3,445 115.6 2.8 Tampere 2 2,456 103.2 1.2 Tampere 3 1,994 102.8 -0.3 Turku 2,112 112.8 4.4 Turku 1 3,182 120.3 6.7 Turku 2 2,244 107.8 0.2 Turku 3 1,547 106.0 3.2 Kuopio 1,752 89.5 -4.7 Mikkelii 1,582 91.9 -2.0 Kokkola 1,707 86.9 -4.5 Vaasa : 1,695 90.2 -4.3

1) Regional division used in statistics can been seen in address: http://www.tilastokeskus.fi/til/ashi/ashi_2018-05-02_luo_001_en.html

Starting from March 2020, the data used in the statistics on prices of old dwellings in housing companies are the Tax Administration's data on dwellings (data on ownership of dwellings in housing companies) and starting from 2019, the price data have been calculated from the data on dwellings. To improve comparability, the numbers have been recalculated from the Tax Administration's data on dwellings in housing companies for 2006 to 2018.

The data on new dwellings in housing companies are based on information on the transaction prices reported by the largest building contractors and real estate agents. The numbers of old dwellings in housing companies sold through real estate agents are based on the price monitoring service of the Central Federation of Finnish Real Estate Agencies.

Source: Prices of dwellings in housing companies, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Petri Kettunen 029 551 3558, Elina Vuorio 029 551 3385, asuminen.hinnat@stat.fi

Director in charge: Mari Yla-Jarkko

Publication in pdf-format (442.4 kB)

Updated 5.5.2020

Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Prices of dwellings in housing companies [e-publication].

ISSN=2323-8801. March 2020. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 19.1.2022].

Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/ashi/2020/03/ashi_2020_03_2020-05-05_tie_001_en.html
It's said that maple syrup is Quebec's liquid gold. Now scientists at Universite de Montreal have found a way to use real gold -- in the form of nanoparticles -- to quickly find out how the syrup tastes.

The new method -- a kind of artificial tongue -- is validated in a study published today in Analytical Methods, the journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, in the United Kingdom.

The "tongue" is a colorimetric test that detects changes in colour to show how a sample of maple syrup tastes. The result is visible to the naked eye in a matter of seconds and is useful to producers.

"The artificial tongue is simpler than a human tongue: it can't distinguish the complex flavour profiles that we can detect," said UdeM chemistry professor Jean-Francois Masson, who led the study. "Our device works specifically to detect flavour differences in maple syrup as it's being produced."

1,818 samples tested

The artificial tongue was validated by analyzing 1,818 samples of maple syrup from different regions of Quebec. The syrups that were analyzed represented the various known aromatic profiles and colours of syrup, from golden to dark brown.

"We designed the 'tongue' at the request of the Quebec Maple Syrup Producers to detect the presence of different flavour profiles," explained Simon Forest, the study's first author. "The tool takes into account the product's olfactory and taste properties."

Maple syrup has a molecular complexity similar to that of wine. Its taste is delicate, without bitterness, and it has a subtle aroma. During the production process, specialized human tasters are employed to judge which profile each batch fits into.

"The development of the artificial tongue is intended to support the colossal work that is being done in the field to do the first sorting of syrups quickly and classify them according to their qualities," said Masson.

Red for the best, blue for the rest

The researchers compare the artificial tongue to a pH test for a swimming pool. You simply pour a few drops of syrup into the gold nanoparticle reagent and wait about 10 seconds.

If the result stays in the red spectrum, it has the characteristics of a premium quality syrup, the kind best loved by consumers and sold in grocery stores or exported.

If, on the other hand, the test turns blue, the syrup may have a flavour "defect", which may be treated as an industrial syrup for use in processing.

"It doesn't mean the syrup is not good for consumption or that it has a different sugar level," Masson said of the "blue" type syrup, which the food industry uses as a natural sweetener in other products. "It just may not have the usual desired characteristics, and so can't be sold directly in bottles to consumers."

60 categories of taste

Caramelized, woody, green, smoked, salty, burnt -- the taste of maple syrup has as many as 60 categories to fit into. Maple syrup is essentially a concentrated sugar solution of 66 per cent sucrose and 33 per cent water; the remaining one per cent of other compounds determines the taste.

Like wine, the taste of maple syrup changes according to a variety of factors, including the harvest period, the region, production and storage methods and, of course, the weather. Too much variation in temperature over a weekend, for instance, can greatly affect the taste profile of the product.

The artificial tongue developed at UdeM could someday be adapted for tasting wine or fruit juice, Masson said, as well as be useful in a number of other agrifood contexts.

###

About this study

"High-throughput plasmonic tongue using an aggregation assay and nonspecific interactions: classification of taste profiles in maple syrup," by Simon Forest et al, was published May 5, 2020 in Analytical Methods.

The study was funded by the Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
Plastic debris has been found in more than 80 per cent of the nests of a species of seabird on an uninhabited island off the coast of Scotland.

Surveys on Lady Isle in the Firth of Clyde revealed plastic in the nests of European shags (Phalacrocorax aristotelis), which breeds around rocky coasts.

As well as the shag, 35.6 per cent of herring gull nests and 53.5 per cent of great black-backed gull nests contained plastic, as well as two other species.

In total, almost 40 per cent of nests surveyed on Lady Isle contained plastic, with the amount varying between species.

Plastic in nests has been identified as coming mostly from consumer waste such as bottles and food packaging thrown away in built-up areas.

This is then transported to nest sites by the sea's strong currents rather than by the birds themselves, the researchers report.

A European shag on Lady Isle. Plastic debris has been found in 80 per cent of the bird's nests on the uninhabited island off the coast of Scotland

Lady Isle is a small, uninhabited island, in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland. For many years it was leased out as a bird sanctuary with a bird observatory and warden's post built and run by the Scottish Society for the Protection of Wild Birds (SSPWB)

'They end up in seabird nests, not because seabirds actively pick them up in built-up areas and carry them to their nest, but because are brought there passively by marine currents,' said Dr Ruedi Nager, a seabird ecologist and senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow.

NESTS OF FIVE BIRD SPECIES ON LADY ISLE CONTAIN PLASTIC The following species of bird on Lady Isle off the coast of Scotland were found to have plastic in their nests. The figure given as a percentage reflects the proportion of nests for that species containing plastic. European herring gull (Larus argentatus) 35.6 Lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus 25 Great black-backed gull (Larus marinus)  53.5 European shags (Phalacrocorax aristotelis - 80 Great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) 24.8 Advertisement

For the survey, which was carried out in May 2018, researchers examined 1,597 nests on the island off the Ayrshire coast, of which 625 contained some plastic.

Plastic in the nests ranged from sheets, threads, hard fragments and foamed synthetics and ranged in colour from transparent to pink.

The research, led by the University of Glasgow, suggests plastic is being washed ashore from nearby Ayrshire, including the towns of Prestwick, Troon and Ayr.

Once it reaches Lady Isle, it is incorporated into the birds' nests  at which point it becomes a potentially lethal tangling hazard.

Plastic in nests could also affect the quality of nests structures, which could be detrimental for eggs and chicks.

The large difference between plastic proportions in the nests of shags and herring gulls may be due to their different nest-building behaviours.

Because shags reuse their nests year after year, the proportion of plastic in their nests likely builds up over time.

Herring gull nest with plastic on Lady Isle. Surveys found that more than a quarter of all nests on Lady Isle contained plastic, with the amount varying between species

Gulls, meanwhile, make new nests each year from materials local to the nest site.

Amongst the other species surveyed, 24.8 per cent of nests belonging to the great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbowhile) had plastic traces, and 25 per cent for lesser black-backed gulls (Larus fuscus).

Danni Thompson, a researcher volunteering with Dr Nager, looked more closely at the herring gull, the most abundant species nesting on Lady Isle.

'As herring gulls often forage in landfills, we wanted to see if they were swallowing plastic whilst eating and then bringing it back to the nest,' she said.

'Seabirds interact with plastic via ingestion, entanglement and nest incorporation but we know little about who, what, why and how.

'In herring gull nests it was sheet plastic  mostly off-white/clear or blue-purple.'

The five species surveyed and the proportion of these species' nests on the island containing plastic. From left, European herring gull (Larus argentatus); Lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus); Great black-backed gull (Larus marinus); European shags (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) and Great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)

The study also mapped all nests on Lady Isle to see whether nests with plastic were equally distributed across the island.

Nests on the north of the island, which are closer to the outgoing tide from the mainland, were more likely to contain plastic, they found, suggesting it came from the mainland and was washed up on the shore.

The research also concluded that plastic was not ingested at foraging sites and regurgitated while the birds were in their nests.

Plastic types from some regurgitated food remains were different from those found in the nest, suggesting plastic in nests arrived by different means.

The scientists said further research is needed to identify whether or not plastic presence in nests has an impact on seabird populations.

Identifying the potential sources of plastic could also help conservationists to plan action such as targeted beach cleans to reduce the impact on birds.

Herring gulls on Lady Isle, which faces the west coast of Scotland and towns including Prestwick, Troon and Ayr

'Impacts of plastic in nests is unknown  it may alter properties and quality, and cause entanglement,' said Thompson.

'Long-term studies are vital for documenting change and we suggest recording plastic presence alongside existing monitoring.'

Seabirds are building and rebuilding their nests just now as Brits are in lockdown and the shores are quieter, which may mean less plastic waste.

'It will be interesting to see what seabird nests are made of this season,' Dr Nager added.

The research paper has been published in Marine Pollution Bulletin.
The coronavirus continues to affect millions of people around the world as the crisis costs people their livelihoods and lives.

The UK recorded its lowest daily death toll since March, with 288 deaths recorded on Sunday. The total death toll now stands at 28,734, leaving the country third worst-hit by the pandemic, behind the US and Italy.

But health secretary Matt Hancock warned that numbers can be expected to spike sharply again on Tuesday, as reports of deaths have been consistently lower on the weekend due to administrative delays.

Here is your daily briefing of coronavirus news you may have missed overnight.

Health secretary Matt Hancock has said the UK is in talks with pharmaceutical giant Roche on a large-scale rollout of a Covid-19 antibody test with a near-100 per cent accuracy rate.

The test could be available in the UK within weeks, as the Swiss-based company announced it is prepared to ramp up production to double-digit millions per month over the month of May to be used by healthcare services throughout the world.

Public Health England is independently evaluating the test at its laboratory in Porton Down in Wiltshire. Initial results are expected by the end of this week.

In the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued emergency authorisation for the lab-based test.

Roches test has also received approval for use in countries using the European CE mark, including the UK.

Government data released by HM Revenue and Customs showed that nearly one in four UK employees have been furloughed in the past two weeks.

6.3 million people are now registered under the governments job retention scheme to support workers and firms. Under the scheme, the Treasury pays up to 80 per cent of the salaries of furloughed workers.

Around 23 per cent of the countrys workforce has been temporarily laid off, according to recent labour market data, which placed the number of private sector workers at 27.5 million.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak told ITV News that he is seeking ways to wind down the scheme and ease people back into work in a measured way. The scheme is currently due to run until the end of June.

He said: To anyone anxious about this, I want to reassure that there will be no cliff-edge to the furlough scheme.

Im working as we speak to figure out the most effective way to wind down the scheme and ease people back into work in a measured way.

As some scenarios have suggested, we are potentially spending as much on the furlough scheme as we do on the NHS, for example.

Clearly that is not a sustainable situation which is why, as soon as the time is right, we want to get people back to work and the economy fired up again.

A cabinet minister has suggested that businesses are going to the wall every day due to councils being too slow in processing coronavirus-related grants.

Robert Jenrick, the Local Government Secretary, warned that the government may have to take action against those councils that are less successful in processing the grants in a timely manner.

Local authorities have received billions of pounds from the government to be distributed to companies affected by the crisis.

Some, such as Cornwall, have already distributed more than 90 per cent of the cash they were given on to businesses, Mr Jenrick told MPs at the Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government committee.

But he added: I would urge councils who have not yet managed to reach those sorts of levels to now focus on this and ensure those grants get out, because every day that those grants are delayed there will be businesses that go to the wall as a result of that.

How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities Show all 6 1 /6 How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities Milan, Italy REUTERS How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities North Jakarta, Indonesia REUTERS How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities Jakarta, Indonesia REUTERS How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities Venice, Italy REUTERS How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities New Delhi, India REUTERS How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities Islamabad, Pakistan REUTERS

Turkey announced on Monday it will ease lockdown measures imposed to control the spread of coronavirus next week amid signs of success in its efforts.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced in a televised speech that youth and the elderly will be allowed to leave their homes for short walks in staggered four-hour slots. Shopping malls, clothing stores and hairdressers will be allowed to re-open.

The country is also lifting domestic travel restrictions on seven provinces that are tourism destinations.

The sale of face masks was previously banned to prevent price-gouging, but Mr Erdogan announced authorities would now allow them.

However, the lockdown in major cities will continue, including in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.

The government could reimpose strict rules if social distancing and hygiene guidelines were not maintained, warned Mr Erdogan.

We are at an important point in the fight against the epidemic, he said. Our number of patients is constantly decreasing, and the number of patients that are recovering increases exponentially. We will return to normal, but this will be a new normal. Nothing will return to the order we knew before in our country as well as the whole world.

Four asylum seekers have jointly threatened the Home Office with a legal challenge over support rates during the lockdown, as home secretary Priti Patel claimed she had seen no evidence that asylum seekers were struggling to meet their basic demands with the current rates.

Duncan Lewis Solicitors, representing the group, issued a pre-action letter to the department arguing that it must fill the support gap opened up by current conditions and failure to increase support constitutes a breach of human rights law.

Around 44,000 asylum seekers are currently living on just over 5 a day (37 a week). One claimant in the legal challenge told The Independent she and her husband have been skipping meals so their young daughters could eat.

The family is usually able to get vouchers worth 44 every two months from a drop-in at West London Synagogue, but the synagogue has since closed due to the lockdown.

Toufique Hossain, director of public law at Duncan Lewis Solicitors, said the evidence was overwhelming that vulnerable asylum seekers were living in desperate circumstances.

Priti Patel can no longer hide behind her ignorance, he said. This existential shortfall was pointed out to her during the recent select committee hearings and her answer betrayed that once more she was not across her brief.

Now that the home secretary has seen the evidence from refugee charities and the information contained i our pre-action correspondence shining a bright light on the desperate measures being adopted by asylum seekers to survive in this period, we hope she will change course, urgently.

A new model frequently used by the White House has projected that more than twice as many people in the US may die of Covid-19 than was previously predicted.

Health officiated revised projections amid fears recently relaxed quarantine measures and expired stay-at-home orders could worsen the epidemic.

Armed protests against stay-at-home coronavirus measures in Michigan Show all 11 1 /11 Armed protests against stay-at-home coronavirus measures in Michigan Armed protests against stay-at-home coronavirus measures in Michigan A demonstrator shouts next to two masked security guards at the state Capitol in Lansing, Michigan during a protest against stay-at-home orders AFP via Getty Images Armed protests against stay-at-home coronavirus measures in Michigan Armed members of a milita group at the state Capitol building in Lansing, Michiga, during a protest against coronavirus lockdown measures REUTERS Armed protests against stay-at-home coronavirus measures in Michigan A protester at the state Capitol in Lansing holds a sign comparing Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer to Adolf Hitler during a demonstration against coronavirus lockdown measures AFP via Getty Images Armed protests against stay-at-home coronavirus measures in Michigan An armed protester takes part in a demonstation against lockdown measures at the state Capitol in Lansing, Michigan AP Armed protests against stay-at-home coronavirus measures in Michigan A protester holds a sign saying 'Bill Gates is evil' at a demonstration against stay-at-home orders at the state Capitol in Lansing, Michigan. Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and a billionaire philanthropist, has warned of the dangers of viral pandemics AFP via Getty Images Armed protests against stay-at-home coronavirus measures in Michigan Protesters take part in a demonstration at the state Capitol in Lansing, Michigan against stay-at-home orders AFP/Getty Armed protests against stay-at-home coronavirus measures in Michigan A protester holds a pro-Trump sign at a demonstration against lockdown measures outside the state Capitol in Lansing, Michigan AFP via Getty Images Armed protests against stay-at-home coronavirus measures in Michigan Armed protesters take part in a demonstration at the state Capitol in Lansing, Michigan against lockdown measures during the coronavirus pandemic AFP via Getty Images Armed protests against stay-at-home coronavirus measures in Michigan A protester holds a sign reading 'Every job is essential, get workers back to work safely now' during a demonstration at the state Capitol in Lansing, Michigan over lockdown measures AFP via Getty Images Armed protests against stay-at-home coronavirus measures in Michigan A protester with a US flag painted on her face takes part in a demonstration at the state Capitol in Lansing, Michigan against lockdown measures during the coronavirus pandemic AFP via Getty Images Armed protests against stay-at-home coronavirus measures in Michigan A protester wearing a Guy Fawkes mask holds up a sign reading 'Stay Free' during a demonstration against lockdown measures at the state Capitol in Lansing, Michigan AP

The University of Washingtons Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) projects 134,475 US deaths with a range of 95,092 to 242,890, up to early August.

In a report released on 4 May, a similar projection from federal officials showed a daily death toll increase from coronavirus to as many as 3,000 per day by 1 June.

The White House claimed the report has not yet been vetted by the coronavirus task force and is not reflective of any modelling done by the task force or data that the task force has analysed.

IHME attributed the new figures to the rising mobility in most US states as well as easing of social distancing measures within the next few weeks.

Growing contacts among people will promote transmission of the coronavirus, said the university. Increases in testing and contact tracing, along with warming seasonal temperatures - factors that could help slow transmission - do not offset rising mobility, thereby fuelling a significant increase in projected deaths.
Im gonna go with the ol bold and caps to break down  well, I guess we can call it Suck a D***gate, yeah?

ROBIN, RESIGN: I mean, golly: If Councilwoman Robin Vaughn had an ounce of respect for her city, her constituents, the city council, gay people, and just about every other human being walking the face of this earth, she should step down immediately. Yes, sure, Mayor Reed Gusciora mightve been egging her on a bit, maybe he was acting a bit like a child, maybe he shouldnt have called her an idiot, but Vaughn went next-level. You cant be telling people to suck a d***, cant be calling people a pedophile. Its embarrassing, and I call for her immediate resignation. The city deserves better.

ACTUALLY SCRATCH THAT! DONT RESIGN ROBIN! PLEASE! STAY!: I mean come on: Having Vaughn on city council is gold. She never stops saying unbelievable stuff. Its the best. Its like if Donald Trump and Drunk Uncle from Saturday Night Live had a love child. Best part? Shes a Democrat! So people cant even say the liberal media is misinterpreting things like when she says to Joe Harrison, a fellow member of council, to continue to suck Reed Guscioras d**k all you want to, motherf**ker or, speaking to the mayor, motherf***king drug addict pedophile. Yep. No liberal media twisting those words into  well, actually, those words cant be twisted. Theyre untwistable. But anyway, yes, Councilwoman Vaughn: Please stay, dont change. I say this not as a member of the liberal media, but as a member of the tabloid media. Vaughn is the best thing to happen to The Trentonian since Head Had AIDS.

KEEP RECORDING: Lost in the scrum is City Clerk Dwayne Harris being upset someone leaked a copy of the audio to The Trentonian. Harris emailed the council, saying he doesnt believe these telephone meetings are official meetings by the definition of the law. Apparently, as long as the council members are just talking in an emergency manner, these meetings can be considered not official. Welp, screw that. Anytime elected government officials get together in a quorum, it should be public knowledge. So whoever recorded the call, keep on recording the calls. Its perfectly legal to do so, and the residents of Trenton deserve to know what the hell their elected officials are doing. Especially if theyre telling each other to perform oral sex acts on other members of the body. (Heh-heh. He said, members of the body.)

HEY HOLLYWOOD! TAKE NOTE: Gimme Matt Damon as Reed Gusciora. Gimme Kerry Washington as Robin Vaughn. Gimme Ed Harris as George Muschal. Gimme a de-aged Billy Dee Williams giving no comments as Doug Palmer. Gimme Helen Mirren as Marge Caldwell-Wilson. Gimme Robert Pattinson as Trentonian reporter Isaac Avilucea. Gimme Steve Buscemi  actually, gimme George Clooney  as naval-gazing columnist Jeff Edelstein. Gimme Steven Soderbergh to direct, and gimme all the Academy Awards.

OR MORE LIKELY : How is there not a reality show production company currently pitching this as an idea? This could be a windfall for the city. Call it Trenton Confidential, put it on TLC, and watch how America falls in love with our fair city and its potentially clinically insane leaders. Vaughn could do for Trenton what Snooki did for the Jersey Shore, and I say that with full and complete knowledge of what Im saying.

And lastly 

CORONA-WHAT?: Just a personal and hearty thank you from me to you, Councilwoman Vaughn, for giving Trenton residents, New Jersey residents, and political watchers something else to think about over these last few days. Not even being an asshat here: Its been a wonderful respite. Definitely prevented me from having to talk about Chris Christies call to kill 3,000 Americans a day.
A webtool giving an overview of climate change in Europe and predicting subsequent developments was created as a joint collaboration between French, Spanish, German and Estonian researchers.

Climate change is one of the main challenges facing the entire world, and especially the agricultural sector, noted an Associate Professor at the Estonian University of Life Sciences Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, Ragnar Leming. He added that even if a few European agricultural regions may benefit from the changing conditions, most agricultural producers assess the changes to be negative. Unwanted developments are mostly seen in regions already suffering from the poor state of the environmental condition.

This webtool aims to give an overview of climatic changes over the last 30 years and projections for the coming 30 years in the different agricultural regions in Europe. A map was compiled consolidating data from approximately 300 production areas, explained Leming.

One yellow grid point on the map represents an area of 25 x 25 km. The webtool allows to look at various agroclimatic data, climate projections and possible adaptation measures for each specific area.

Users wishing to test their climate-related knowledge can take the multiple-choice quiz. The tool is available in Estonian, Spanish, English, French and German, and has been developed within the LIFE AgriAdapt project funded by the LIFE programme of the European Commission. The webtool can be found at: https://awa.agriadapt.eu/.

According to Leming, European farmers must adapt to the changing climate and adopt measures which would ensure the continued good productivity for the farms in the future. First, adaptation plans must be created to reduce vulnerability and ensure the sustained development of the farm.

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To be fair, it may be difficult for firms to offer more generous raises under current conditions. Even mega-retailers experiencing huge demand for groceries and other staples are hurting because purchases of higher-margin, discretionary items, such as clothes, have plunged. Anti-price-gouging laws and customer price sensitivity also restrict their ability to charge more for those in-demand basics. And other non-labor expenses, for cleaning and logistics, are up. In other words, even companies best positioned to make money during this crisis may experience lower profits.
Remarks by Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger to the Miller Center at the University of Virginia

May 4, 2020

The following is the English language version of a speech that was delivered by Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger in Mandarin Chinese. Click here for Mandarin version.

Good morning everyone. I'm Matt Pottinger, the Deputy National Security Advisor, speaking to you from the White House. I bring warm greetings from the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

We gather today online, from a thousand different places, because a pandemic still prohibits us from meeting in person. But through the marvel of the Internet, we have managed to come together as an even bigger group than if there had been no public health emergency. In ways big and small, we are all tapping our ingenuity as Americans, as Chinese, as human beings, to overcome hardship and preserve our communities.

"Big" examples of human ingenuity include harnessing biotechnology and data analytics to develop therapies and vaccines. "Small" examples of ingenuity include family members figuring out how to give each other haircuts when barbershops are closed. My wife, who is speaking on a panel later today, is a highly trained virologist. She is new to her role as the family barber, as you might have guessed by looking at my hair.

This is the second time I've had the privilege of addressing an audience at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia. Nearly a decade ago I was invited to speak about what I'd learned from service in the Marine Corps and about the relationship between our military and the civilians it defends. Since that day, I've never forgotten the warmth and wisdom of the Miller Center's director, Governor Jerry Baliles, who passed away last October after a life of public service to the Commonwealth of Virginia and to our nation. We give thanks for people like Jerry.

Today, I've been invited by Professors Harry Harding and Shirley Lin to share some thoughts about U.S.-China relations. When Professor Lin told me this event would land precisely on the 101st anniversary of the start of China's historic May Fourth Movement, I knew I had a potent topic for discussing the China of then and now.

On May the fourth, 1919, following the end of World War I, thousands of university students from across Beijing converged on Tiananmen Square to protest China's unfair treatment at the Paris Peace Conference. Western nations chose to appease Imperial Japan by granting it control of Chinese territory that Germany had previously occupied, including the Shandong Peninsula.

The Chinese students who marched to Tiananmen that day shouted "give us back Shandong!" and "don't sign the Versailles Treaty!" Police forced the students to disperse. But, as frequently happens when governments close down avenues for peaceful expression, some protesters resorted to violence. In a principled move that acknowledged popular anger, China refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles later that year.

China would regain control of Shandong three years later with the help of the United States, which brokered an agreement at the Washington Naval Conference in 1922. But the movement ignited by those students exactly 101 years ago was about much more than nationalist outrage at "unequal treaties." The movement galvanized a long-running struggle for the soul of modern China. As John Pomfret wrote in his fine history of U.S.-China relations, the May Fourth Movement aimed for "a wholesale transformation of Chinese politics, society, and culture." "Mr. Science" and "Mr. Democracy" were the mottos of this movement to transport China into modernity. Some called the movement the "Chinese Enlightenment." Vera Schwarcz wrote an insightful book by that title. In fact, there's a lot of good scholarship on this subject. At least two eminent historians of modern China are participating in this event todayOxford's Rana Mitter and the University of Virginia's John Israel. I refer you to the experts to explore the history and meaning of the May Fourth Movement.

But I would like to spend a few minutes highlighting a few Chinese heroes that I believe embody the May Fourth spirit, then and now.

Hu Shih is naturally identified as one of the most influential leaders of the May Fourth era. He was already an influential thinker on modernizing China. Hu Shih's family was from Anhui province. Like Lu Xun and many other leading writers of their generation, Hu Shih traveled overseas to study. After switching his focus at Cornell from agriculture to philosophy, Hu Shih studied at Columbia University under the American educator John Dewey.

Hu Shih would contribute one of the greatest gifts imaginable to the Chinese people: The gift of language. Up until then, China's written language was "classical," featuring a grammar and vocabulary largely unchanged for centuries. As many who have studied it can attest, classical Chinese feels about as close to spoken Chinese as Latin does to modern Italian. The inaccessibility of the written language presented a gulf between rulers and the ruledand that was the point. The written wordliteracy itselfwas the domain primarily of a small ruling elite and of intellectuals, many of whom aspired to serve as officials. Literacy simply wasn't for "the masses."

Hu Shih believed otherwise. In his view, written Chinesein form and contentshould reflect the voices of living Chinese people rather than the documents of dead officials. "Speak in the language of the time in which you live," he admonished readers. He believed in making literacy commonplace. He played a key role promoting a written language rooted in the vernacular, or baihualiterally "plain speech." Hu Shih's promotion of baihua is an idea so obvious in hindsight that it is easy to miss how revolutionary it was at the time. It was also highly controversial.

Gu Hongmin, a Confucian gentleman and Western literature professor at Peking University, ridiculed widespread literacy for China and what it implied. In August 1919 he wrote: "Just fancy what the result would be if ninety percent of [China's] four hundred million people were to become literate. Imagine only what a fine state of things we would have if here in Peking the coolies, mafoos [stable boys], chauffeurs, barbers, shop boys, hawkers, hunters, loafers, vagabonds, [etc.] all became literate and wanted to take part in politics as well as the University students."

Such elitist chauvinism wasand some would argue still remainsa headwind impeding the democratic ideals espoused by the May Fourth Movement. Hu Shih, wielding the language he had helped bring to life, skillfully dismantled arguments against broadening the social contract. "The only way to have democracy is to have democracy," Hu Shih argued. "Government is an art, and as such it needs practice." Hu Shih didn't have time elitism.

Still, May Fourth leaders were constantly sapped of energy by accusations, sometimes leveled by government officials or their proxies among the literati, that the movement was slavishly pro-Western, insufficiently Chinese, or even unpatriotic.

The life and contributions of P.C. Chang make a mockery of the notion that the May Fourth ideals weren't "Chinese" enough. Like his friend Hu Shih, Chang had studied in the United States on a scholarship. Attracted to the theater, he was the first to adapt the Chinese story of Mulan for the stage. He brought Western plays to Nankai University, which his brother helped found. And he organized a tour of the United States by the Peking Opera star Mei Lanfang, adapting the music and dance to Western tastes. In China's philosophy of moral cultivation and rigorous education, Chang saw advantages that could be combined with ideas from the West to form something new.

This culminated in Chang's crowning achievement: His decisive contributions to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This was the document drafted after World War II by an international panel chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt. Chang, who was by then a veteran diplomat representing China, was a member of the panel. The declaration's aim was to prevent despotism and war by morally obligating governments to respect fundamental rights. The rights enshrined in the 1948 declaration include life, liberty, and security; the right not to be held in slavery or subjected to torture; the right to freedom of religion; and the right to freedom of thought.

"Marrying Western belief in the primacy of the individual with Chinese concern for the greater good" Chang helped craft a document that would be relevant to all nations, John Pomfret wrote. A declaration on human rights was not simply about the rights of the individual, in Chang's view. It was also about the individual's obligations to society.

Chang's biographer, Hans Ingvar Roth of Stockholm University, highlighted the weight of Chang's contributions to the Declaration: "Chang stands out as the key figure for all of the attributes now considered significant for this document: its universality, its religious neutrality, and its focus on the fundamental needs and the dignity of individual human beings."

A few short years after the Declaration was adopted by the United Nations, Chang resigned his post as a Chinese diplomat, having grown dismayed by the lack of democracy in China. In diagnosing the problem, it is easy to imagine P.C. Chang prescribing a closer reading not of ancient Greek philosophy, but of traditional Chinese ideals about virtuous leadership. The cliche that Chinese people can't be trusted with democracy was, as both P.C. Chang and Hu Shih knew, the most unpatriotic idea of all. Taiwan today is a living repudiation of that threadbare mistruth.

So who embodies the May Fourth spirit in China today? To my mind, the heirs of May Fourth are civic-minded citizens who commit small acts of bravery. And sometimes big acts of bravery. Dr. Li Wenliang was such a person. Dr. Li wasn't a demagogue in search of a new ideology that might save China. He was an ophthalmologist and a young father who committed a small act of bravery and then a big act of bravery. His small act of bravery, in late December, was to pass along a warning via WeChat to his former medical school classmates that patients afflicted by a dangerous new virus were turning up in Wuhan hospitals. He urged his friends to protect their families.

When his warning circulated more widely than he intended, Dr. Li was upset and anxiousand with good reason. Supervisors at his hospital quickly admonished him for leaking word of the coronavirus cases. Dr. Li was then interrogated by the police, made to sign a "confession," and threatened with prosecution if he spoke out again. Anyone tempted to believe this was just a case of overzealous local police, take note: China's central government aired a news story about Dr. Li's "rumor-mongering."

Then Dr. Li did a big brave thing. He went public with his experience of being silenced by the police. The whole world paid close attention. By this time, Dr. Li had contracted the disease he'd warned about. His death on February 7 felt like the loss of a relative for people around the world. Dr. Li's comment to a reporter from his deathbed still rings in our ears: "I think there should be more than one voice in a healthy society, and I don't approve of using public power for excessive interference." Dr. Li was using Hu Shih-style "plain speech" to make a practical point.

It takes courage to speak to a reporteror to work as onein today's China. Even finding an investigative reporter in China, foreign or local, is getting hard. Citizen journalists who tried to shed light on the outbreak in Wuhan went missing, including Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li Zehua. More foreign reporters were expelled in recent months than the Soviet Union expelled over decades. Dr. Ai Fen, a colleague of Dr. Li Wenliang who also raised the alarm about the outbreak in Wuhan, reportedly can no longer appear in public after she spoke to a reporter.

When small acts of bravery are stamped out by governments, big acts of bravery follow.

We have seen big acts of moral and physical courage recently by people pursuing the ideals that Hu Shih and P.C. Chang championed a century ago. Some are political insiders; some have devoted their lives to God. Others follow the long tradition of scholars serving as China's conscience. Many are regular citizens. Xu Zhangrun, Ren Zhiqiang, Xu Zhiyong, Ilham Tohti, Fang Fang, 20 Catholic priests who have refused to subordinate God to the Communist Party, and the millions of Hong Kong citizens who peacefully demonstrated for the rule of law last year. The list goes on.

As the May Fourth Movement today marks the inaugural year of its second century, what will its ultimate legacy be? It is a question only the Chinese people themselves can answer. The May Fourth Movement belongs to them. Will the movement's democratic aspirations remain unfulfilled for another century? Will its core ideas be deleted or distorted through official censorship and disinformation? Will its champions be slandered as "unpatriotic," "pro-American," "subversive"? We know the Communist Party will do its best to make it so. After all, Mao Zedong had limited tolerance even for Lu Xun, China's most celebrated modern writer and one of the minority of May Fourth heroes whose writing wasn't heavily censored by the Party. In 1957, an official named Luo Jinan asked Chairman Mao: "What if Lu Xun were alive today?" Mao's reply about the national hero surprised many in the audience: "He could either sit in jail or continue to write or he could remain silent."

Those with the fortitude to seek and speak the truth in China today may take comfort, however, in something Lu Xun wrote: "Lies written in ink can never disguise facts written in blood."

One final thought, from a U.S. perspective: Hu Shih famously preferred solving concrete problems to wallowing in abstract political theory. But let me break his rule against discussing "isms" to ask whether China today would benefit from a little less nationalism and a little more populism. Democratic populism is less about left versus right than top versus bottom. It's about reminding a few that they need the consent of many to govern. When a privileged few grow too remote and self-interested, populism is what pulls them back or pitches them overboard. It has a kinetic energy. It fueled the Brexit vote of 2015 and President Trump's election in 2016. It moved the founder of your university to pen a declaration of independence in 1776. It is an admonition to the powerful of this country to remember who they're supposed to work for: America first.

Wasn't a similar idea beating in the heart of the May Fourth Movement, too? Weren't Hu Shih's language reforms a declaration of war against aristocratic pretension? Weren't they a broadside against the Confucian power structure that enforced conformity over free thought? Wasn't the goal to achieve citizen-centric government in China, and not replace one regime-centric model with another one? The world will wait for the Chinese people to furnish the answers.

Thank you.

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By Mark Leonard





BERLIN  As Winston Churchill once observed, too many people who "stumble over the truth" will "pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened."



But in the case of COVID-19, the world has been confronted with uncomfortable facts that are impossible to ignore. Like the 2008 financial crash and the 2015 refugee crisis in Europe, the pandemic has fully exposed a deep vulnerability to systemic threats.



The ultimate role of the state  the very meaning of sovereignty  is to provide its citizens with adequate protection from existential risk. Yet globalization appears to have undermined the modern state's ability to cope with low-probability, high impact scenarios. Just as the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States forced people to rethink security, the COVID-19 crisis compels us to take a fresh look at how we manage interdependence.



It is tempting to ask whether this crisis will be resolved more effectively by nationalism or through international coordination. But that is the wrong question. The real issue is whether interdependence can be compatible with and complement the continued existence of nation-states.



In today's political environment, lectures about the need to maintain open markets and borders simply will not cut it. As soon as the coronavirus was recognized as a global threat, most national leaders' first instinct was to close their borders. Calls for international coordination through the G20 were an afterthought.



And yet, while the initial spread of the virus owes much to interdependence, the health crisis it has created within individual countries will not admit of nationalist or autarkic solutions. Once COVID-19 is being transmitted within communities, closing borders will do nothing. In the world wrought by the disease, Jean-Paul Sartre is absolutely correct: "Hell is other people."



Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has struck an international order that was already in crisis. It has been obvious since at least 2008 that, contrary to what was long claimed, not everyone wins from globalization. A more open and interconnected world is conducive to strong economic growth and prosperity, but also to rising inequality and ecological destruction.



The freer movement of people has provided new opportunities for millions, but it also has increased the upward pressure on public services and downward pressure on wages in host countries, while fueling a brain drain from the places left behind.



Long before the pandemic, these trends had provoked a backlash, particularly in developed countries, where populist parties and leaders have seized the political agenda from the mainstream parties that defended the postwar liberal international order. Most dramatically, under President Donald Trump, the United States has gone from leading the international order to dismantling it, on the claim that U.S. allies and rivals such as China have been exploiting America for their own gain.



Against this background, it is inevitable that the current crisis will remake globalization one way or another. But how?



The pandemic represents an opportunity for a number of different political movements, from environmentalists who have long demanded more sustainable development to those who are worried about inequality or the fragility of global supply chains.



For their part, Europeans should use the occasion to rethink their notion of sovereignty. The challenge is to figure out how European integration itself could serve as a backstop for national sovereignty, rather than posing a threat to it. As this and recent previous crises have shown, European governments must be allowed to protect their citizens from the threats introduced by interdependence, be they environmental, cyber, contagious, migratory, or financial in nature.



To that end, Europe's leaders need to develop a vision of "European sovereignty" that mitigates the need for autarchy by creating channels for national governments to make certain fundamental decisions for themselves, and to bargain effectively within broader frameworks of interdependency. Specifically, such a vision must transcend the divide between the "open" and "closed" camps in three areas.



First, in the debate between self-sufficiency and more efficient, diversified supply chains, the EU can blaze a middle path. It is not realistic for small member states to return to self-sufficiency, but it should be possible for the EU to produce and store key resources, from ventilators and food supplies to 5G networks and energy supplies, and then ensure their availability within the single market. This would offer protection to smaller countries that are more vulnerable to being bullied in the 21st-century global economy.



Second, in the battle between autocracy and democracy, Europe must demonstrate how democratic principles can be preserved even in a state of emergency. Here, one promising option is to create a judicial framework to ensure that data collected for COVID-19 tracking and other purposes are not kept in perpetuity. EU leaders also should be thinking about new mutually agreed standards governing the use and duration of emergency powers adopted by member states.



Third, in navigating the gap between national sovereignty and multilateralism, Europe can adopt an approach that satisfies both impulses, while also charting a course that leads to a different destination from the approach taken by Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. By reaching out to likeminded countries, the EU can shape the international order in ways that reflect its own core values and interests.



For example, on the climate change issue, the EU could use a border adjustment tax to force its many trading partners to internalize their own carbon costs. On migration, it can work more closely with third countries to manage the movement of people. And on global public health, it can use development aid and other instruments to help vulnerable countries strengthen their health-care systems, thereby minimizing the likelihood  or at least the impact  of future pandemics.



Ultimately, the COVID-19 crisis could allow the European project to return to its roots: reconciling the prerogatives of the nation-state with the realities of interdependence, rather than sacrificing national sovereignty on the altar of neoliberal dogma.



Better yet, developing a coherent vision of European sovereignty would help to prepare for the next crisis of interdependence. Will Europe's leaders pass Churchill's test and confront the truth that COVID-19 has pushed into their path, or will they pick themselves up and return to business as usual?





Mark Leonard is director of the European Council on Foreign Relations. His article was distributed by Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org).




The Senate has called for the decentralisation of the Nigeria Police Force into 13 zonal commands, each with operational and budgetary powers.

The lawmakers also urged state assemblies to make necessary laws to legalise community policing to be established at the local government level while state governors should fund the community policing from grants appropriated to each local government.

These were part of the recommendations of the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Nigeria Security Challenges which was considered and adopted during plenary on Tuesday.

The Senate had on January 29 set up the 17-man committee headed by the Senate Leader, Abdullahi Yahaya, to investigate the rising cases of insecurity across Nigeria.

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The lawmakers had dedicated the whole of that day to discussing the issue. They had also called for the sack of service chiefs.

There have been reports of insecurity across the nation carried out by armed groups and individuals. These include resurgent Boko Haram attacks in the North-east and increased cases of killings and kidnappings across the country.

The recommendations

Top among the recommendations made by the committee and approved by the Senate is urging the executive to direct the Ministry of Police Affairs and the Inspector-General of Police to decentralize the police command structure with operational and budgetary powers vested in the following zonal commands as follows:

a. Kano/Jigawa/Kastina

b. Sokoto/Zamfara/Kebbi

c. Kaduna/ Niger/ FCT

d. Ekiti/Kwara/Kogi

e. Benue/Plateau/Nasarawa

f. Bauchi/Yobe/Borno

g. Adamawa/Taraba/Gombe

h. Lagos/Ogun

i. Oyo/Osun/Ondo

j. Edo/Delta/Bayelsa

k. Rivers/Akwa-Ibom/Cross Rivers

l. Imo/Abia

m. Anambra/Enugu/Ebonyi

The Senate called on the federal government to direct the Ministry of Police affairs and the Inspector-General of Police to immediately implement the Community Policing Strategy involving local stakeholders at the grassroots, including traditional rulers and local notable personalities with a view to addressing local security challenges.

The federal government was also urged to financially support the community policing initiative with an annual grant.

The lawmakers also urged the Federal Government to set up Zonal Security Advisory Committees at each Zonal Commands proposed above to advise on the security challenges facing each zone. The proposed composition of the Zonal Advisory Council should include:

a. Governors in the Zone (to preside on rotational basis);

b. Zonal AIG of Police;

c. State Commissioners of Police in the Zone;

d. State Directors of the Department of State Security Service;

e. Zonal Immigration Officers;

f. Zonal Customs Officers;

g. Representative of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps in the Zone;

h. Representative of the Nigeria Correctional Service in the Zone;

i. Chairmen of State Traditional Rulers Council in the Zone

j. Faith-based Leaders in the Zone;

k. Civil Society Representatives in the Zone;

l. Representative of Senators from the Zone;

m. Representative of Members of House of Representatives from the Zone;

n. Representatives of Business Community and Labour in the Zone; and

o. Any Person or persons deemed to be useful and relevant, taking into account the socio-cultural peculiarities of the zone.

Recommendations were also made for the expansion of the State Security Council and constitution of Area Command, Local Government and Ward Level Advisory Councils.

The Senate further resolved that the following laws are to be amended immediately:

a. The Armed Forces Act CAP A20 LFN 2004;

b. National Security Agencies Act, LFN 2004;

c. Police Act CAP P19, LFN 2004;

d. Immigration Act, CAP P1 LFN 2004;

e. Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (Establishment) Act NO 2, 2003 and Nigeria Security and Civil Defense (Amendment) Act No, 6. 2007;

f. Customs and Excise Management Act CAP C45 LFN 2004;

g. Nigerian Communications Commission Act CAP N94 LFN, 2004;

h. The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) Act, No 23, 2007; and

i. Review of the Evidence Act in the Judicial Administration.
State spending on public education in Alabama would increase next year under a budget approved by a legislative committee today but the bottom line number is $320 million less than what Gov. Kay Ivey proposed before the coronavirus pandemic.

The House Ways and Means Education Committee approved the proposed budget that would spend $7.2 billion from the Education Trust Fund, $91 million more than this year.

In February, Ivey had proposed a $7.5 billion budget, $411 million more than this year. At the time, the states economy was strong, with a record number of people working. But since mid-March, more than 400,000 Alabamians have lost their jobs.

The budget is for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.

The bill moves to the House of Representatives. Rep. Bill Poole, R-Tuscaloosa, the budget committee chairman, said he expects the House to vote on the plan Thursday. It also has to pass the Senate.

Poole said Alabama was in a strong position to absorb the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, at least for the time being. The state has kept education spending below revenue levels since 2011 and has built reserve funds of about $800 million.

This proposes an extremely conservative projection for the next fiscal year and allows modest budget increases, Poole said of the budget that advanced today. And I would just make the point that were also seeing a General Fund budget in our state move this week that has increases. And were very fortunate in our state under the current circumstances, to be in a position to weather, I think, extraordinarily well, this fiscal shock. Now how bad is the shock and how long does it last and does it come back? Those are unknowns that can certainly change every equation we can forecast today.

Under the budget approved by the committee today, the K-12 Foundation Program would receive $3.96 billion, about $21 million more than this year, an increase of less that 1%.

Iveys pre-pandemic budget would have increased the Foundation Program by about $142 million.

Spreadsheet comparing the budget approved by the committee today with this years budget.

Despite the need to scale back the budget, Poole said the budget would make some investments in key programs, including a $27 million increase in the Alabama Reading Initiative, to $78 million. Most of the increase follows the requirements of the Alabama Literacy Act, a law passed in 2019 to focus on reading in the early grade levels. Alabama students have ranked at or near the bottom in national reading tests.

I think clearly thats a priority that our state must focus on, Poole said.

The chairman said it would be important for lawmakers to monitor the literacy programs and make sure they investments are making a difference.

The budget allocates $5 million for school-based mental health service coordinators, part of a growing emphasis on making help available for troubled students that includes collaboration with the Department of Mental Health.

Spending for the English Language Learners program would almost double, to $14 million. Poole called that an acute need and part of the early grade literacy initiative.

Funding for community colleges wold increase by $10 million, to $427 million. Thats $22 million less than Ivey proposed earlier.

Colleges and universities would get $1.24 billion, about 3% more than this year.

Poole said four-year institutions are facing the loss of students on campus, tuition, and other challenges because of the pandemic. He said state funding makes up a small portion of their total operating budgets but that it was important to provide some funding increase under the circumstances to help universities cope with the fallout from the pandemic.

The states voluntary pre-kindergarten program, called First Class, would be increased by $3 million, to $126 million. Before the pandemic, Ivey had requested a $25 million increase for pre-K. The program has been nationally recognized for its quality for more than a decade but is not available to all 4-year-olds.

Also today, the committee approved a bill to authorize a $1.25 billion bond issue for capital projects for schools, colleges and universities. That bill has passed the Senate and is moving closer to becoming law.

Some lawmakers questioned today whether the money would be distributed according to need. Rep. Jamie Kiel, R-Russellville, said schools that have problems like leaking roofs and gymnasiums with no air conditioning should be considered priorities. Several other committee members agreed.

Officials have said the timing is good for a bond issue because its been 14 years since the last major bond issue for school projects, interest rates are at historic laws, and the construction activity will stimulate an economy hobbled by the pandemic.

The bond issue could win final approval as early as this week.
More COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Hale County bringing the number of active cases to 12.

The two additional confirmed cases were reported to the Plainview/Hale County Health Department by 5 p.m. Monday bringing the overall case count for the county to 31 since the first was reported on March 24.

The newest cases include a man who is 61 years or older who contracted COVID-19 outside the county and a woman between the ages of 41 and 60 who contracted it locally. Both individuals are in isolation at home.

The cases are reflected in the case count for Plainview, according to the daily snapshot report. Plainview went from 19 reported cases in the report released Monday to 21 in Tuesdays report. There have been 12 recoveries so there are currently nine active cases in the city.

Hale Center has had seven total cases with two recoveries and two deaths. Petersburg has reported two cases and two deaths and Edmonson has reported one case and one recovery. No cases have been reported in Abernathy and Cotton Center.

The number of those being tested also continues to grow. A total of 326 COVID-19 tests have been conducted across Hale County and 291 have turned up negative results. Seventeen test results are still pending. These numbers reflect only tests conducted in Hale County.

According to the report, 38 people are under monitoring. This number reflects only individuals who have come in close contact with an individual with a confirmed case and/or who have traveled to a virus hot spot.

Of the confirmed cases, 11 have been reported in the 41-60 age group; 10 have been reported in the 21-40 age group; nine have been reported among those 61 years old and older; and one case has been reported among the population of people 20 years old or younger.

Sixteen of the cases have been a result of local transmissions, 10 were contracted outside the county and the locations of transmission of five cases remain undetermined and under investigation.

Seventeen of the confirmed cases have been in men and 14 in women.

Of the 12 cases that remain active, 10 individuals are in isolation at home and two are in a medical facility.

Those recovered so far include: three men and four women between 21 and 40 years old; two women and four men between 41 to 60 years old; two men 60 years or older.

While businesses are at least partially reopened, city and county health officials continue to encourage citizens to practice social distancing, practice good hand hygiene and wear facial covers when out in public. Residents are also encouraged to stay home.

Those who feel they are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, including shortness of breath, fever and coughing, are encouraged to contact a doctor.

For additional information, call Jack McCasland at the Health Department at (806)293-1359 or visit www.plainviewtx.org/COVID19.
Five new markets have been established in Damascus, which allows farmers to sell their produce directly to the customer reports SANA.

Upon directives from the Cabinet, Damascus Governorate set up five popular marketplaces that allow farmers to sell their products directly to consumers at competing prices without any middlemen.

SANA visited two of these marketplaces, specifically the ones in Nahr Aisha and Rukn Eddin, noting that price of produce there is lower by an average of 100-150 Syrian pounds compared to other places.

The popular marketplaces do not charge the vendors any fees for displaying and selling their products, allowing them to get better prices by eliminating middlemen and brokers, while at the same time providing produce for citizens at lower prices.

The other three marketplaces are located in al-Qanawat, al-Midan, and al-Zablatani, with efforts underway to establish more.

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.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 33F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 33F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph.
What's Behind The Ouster Of Nazarbaev's Powerful Daughter In Kazakhstan?

By Bruce Pannier May 04, 2020

The abrupt dismissal from parliament of Darigha Nazarbaeva -- the powerful chairwoman of the Senate and eldest daughter of Kazakhstan's founding father, Nursultan Nazarbaev -- has raised questions about the country's political leadership and the future of the ruling family.

The brief statement on Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev's website on May 2 announcing that Nazarbaeva was relieved of her post as speaker injected a great deal more confusion into a country already experiencing its share of woes as it combats the coronavirus and copes with a major revenue loss due to the drop in world prices for oil, one of the country's main exports.

The appointment of Nazarbaeva as chair of the Senate came on the heels of her father's March 19, 2019, announcement resigning as leader. Nazarbaev had ruled Kazakhstan for nearly 30 years, since before it gained independence following the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union.

The Senate leader wields little real power but the holder of the post is next in line for the presidency, according to the Kazakh Constitution, should the president be unable to perform his duties.

Nazarbaeva's surprise dismissal left many wondering if Toqaev is attempting to move out of the shadow of the Nazarbaev family or is simply reshuffling Nazarbaev loyalists.

The president's promotion on May 4 of Maulen Ashimbaev as the new chairman of the Senate did little to answer that question. Ashimbaev had served as first deputy head of the presidential administration since December and has been loyal to the ruling, Nazarbaev-controlled Nur-Otan party for at least 15 years.

He was also Toqaev's campaign manager when he ran for president in the snap election in June.

That service plus Ashimbaev's rapid rise under Toqaev's short rule as president suggests the loyalty of the new Senate leader might lay with the current president and not necessarily with Nazarbaev.

Other changes in the aftermath of Nazarbaeva's demotion were Information and Social Development Minister Dauren Abaev being named the new deputy head of the presidential administration, replacing Ashimbaev, and Aida Balaeva being moved from her position as presidential aide to replace Abaev.

These latest events do not seem to be part of the managed transition that started after Nazarbaev stepped down as president and if there is indeed a shift in power in Kazakhstan, the Nazarbaev family fortunes could be on the wane.

But that will only become apparent if there are moves in the coming days to limit the influence of other Nazarbaev family members, notable among them Timur Kulibaev, the husband of Nazarbaev's second daughter, Dinara.

Kulibaev has amassed a great amount of wealth and is extremely influential in Kazakhstan's business world. He had previously been mentioned as a possible stage-managed successor to Nazarbaev.

Why Was She Dumped?

There are at least several possible reasons for action to remove Nazarbaeva and the dismissal does not bode well for her future.

Nazarbaeva, who will turn 57 on May 7, had been in politics for some 20 years.

She founded the Asar political party in 2003 and headed it until 2006 when it merged with her father's Otan (now Nur-Otan) party. Nazarbaeva was elected to parliament twice, she was deputy chairwoman of the Mazhilis, the lower house of parliament, served as deputy prime minister, and then was a deputy in the Senate, the upper house of parliament.

Her ascension to the post of Senate leader after her father formally ceded the presidency seemed a logical step that protected the Nazarbaev family's interests and preserved her father's legacy, even though Nazarbaev has remained active in politics as head of the Security Council, a position that was given extra power in the months prior to his resignation.

While some described Nazarbaev's resignation last year as sudden, the sequence of events that immediately followed indicated the transition of power had been planned well in advance. Toqaev would later claim that preparations for Nazarbaev to leave office started some three years earlier.

Nazarbaev stepped down, Toqaev stepped in, and Nazarbaeva was named Senate chairwoman in rapid succession.

The hierarchy seemed to be established according to plan, which is what makes Nazarbaeva's sudden ouster so unusual.

Was It The Wealth?

Nazarbaeva has been in several reports in international media recently, almost always connected to some scandal.

In early April, lawyers for Nazarbaeva and her oldest son, Nurali Aliev, successfully fended off an attempt by Britain's National Crime Agency to seize property the two owned in Britain worth a combined $100 million under the unexplained wealth orders (UWO) law.

Though Nazarbaeva and her son kept their London mansion and other properties, the media attention put the entire Nazarbaev family in an unwelcome spotlight that several family members, including Nazarbaeva, had been under for months.

In the first weeks of 2020, Nazarbaeva's younger son, Aisultan, who has been battling drug problems, posted on social networks and gave interviews alleging bizarre things like that his mother was trying to kill him and that his grandfather was really his father.

While these well-publicized scandals might have added fuel to the fire of a reason to dismiss Nazarbaeva, they are unlikely to be the sole cause of her sudden change in fortunes.

Nazarbaeva has been well-known in Kazakhstan as a child of privilege for all its years as an independent country.

In the 1990s, she owned some of Kazakhstan's most prominent TV and radio stations and along with her former husband, Rakhat Aliev, she had interests in leading businesses in Kazakhstan.

But everyone in Kazakhstan always knew that she had lots of money and she was able to survive several of the later scandals that surrounded her former husband.

Rakhat Aliev was accused of being behind the murders of political and business rivals and was finally accused by the government of plotting to overthrow Nazarbaev, his father-in-law.

Nazarbaeva divorced Aliev in 2007 after he had been sent into a form of exile as Kazakhstan's ambassador to Austria and representative to international organizations that are headquartered in Vienna.

Aliev spent the following years doing everything he could to tarnish Nazarbaev's reputation, even publishing a book in 2009, Godfather-In-Law, that told of alleged corrupt practices under Nazarbaev's rule.

Aliev died under mysterious circumstances while being held in an Austrian prison in 2015. Officially ruled a suicide, there were many credible reports that suggest Aliev did not take his own life.

Nazarbaeva faded from political life not long after her divorce from Aliev until she again took a seat in parliament in 2012 as a member and eventually the head of the Nur-Otan faction in parliament.

The fact that she was married to a person who was convicted of murder and plotting the overthrow of the government did not affect her rise later to the country's No. 2 position -- suggesting that the family scandals by themselves are probably not the reason she was dismissed as Senate head.

The Work Of Enemies?

During her career in politics, Nazarbaeva has made several enemies.

One of those is Adilbek Jaksybekov, a confidant of Nazarbaev since the early days of independence who has held several top positions, including head of the presidential administration, a post he abruptly lost in September 2018, barely 14 months after Nazarbaev expressed confidence in him and extended his term by another five years.

Jaksybekov had seemed untouchable, but Rakhat Aliev had worked in the National Security Service (KNB) and, after divorcing Nazarbaeva, Aliev released audio recordings he claimed someone in the KNB made of conversations between leading political and business figures in Kazakhstan, mainly conversations involving his former father-in-law.

But one recording that Aliev released was allegedly a conversation between Jaksybekov and businessman Bulat Utemuratov from 2007, shortly after Nazarbaeva and Aliev divorced, in which Jaksybekov spoke of the need to prevent Nazarbaeva from climbing any higher in politics.

When Jaksybekov was suddenly cast out of politics, some felt Nazarbaeva had played a part in his removal.

There are undoubtedly others in Kazakhstan who have run afoul of the first president's first daughter at some point in the past.

What Did Dad Know?

One of the biggest questions hanging over Nazarbaeva's dismissal is what role did her father have, if any at all?

Nazarbaev has been in seclusion since the first cases of the coronavirus were officially registered in Kazakhstan on March 13. He continues to make statements through a spokesman, but he has not been seen in public for nearly two months.

Some believe the decision to relieve Nazarbaeva of her post could not have been made without her father's approval and parallels have been drawn between Nazarbaeva's recent scandals and those of Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbekistan's first president, Islam Karimov.

Karimova was also named in dubious business deals abroad and eventually she was detained in Uzbekistan and placed under house arrest.

But Karimova also caused a commotion by publicly posting accusations against serving Uzbek officials, alleging they were deceiving her father. She even attacked her mother and sister in some of her social-media posts.

And other than a few essentially diplomatic postings, Karimova was never a top government official.

Many felt the appointment of Nazarbaeva as Senate chairwoman was a guarantee she would not end up sharing Karimova's fate, as after Karimov's death, his daughter was swiftly tried, convicted of financial crimes, and sent to prison.

There are two other big questions surrounding Nazarbaev.

How good are his lines of communication while he stays in isolation?

State media reports that he meets with various officials and, as mentioned, his spokesman sometimes issues statements for him.

But it is Toqaev who is out traveling and meeting with officials and health workers, clearly trying to show he has taken charge in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus, alleviating the fallout of the falling oil prices on Kazakhstan's economy, and dealing with other issues such as the flooding in the south caused by a dam breaking in neighboring Uzbekistan.

Exactly what Nazarbaev hears in his bunker and who tells it to him is unclear.

And how is Nazarbaev's health?

There is always the possibility, as some of his most ardent political foes have hinted, that Nazarbaev's health could be poor at the moment.

There are also almost surely some behind-the-scenes political struggles going on despite the planned transition and -- with Nazarbaev turning 80 in July -- the jostling for the top spots in Kazakhstan after Nazarbaev's death could be heating up.

If Nazarbaeva does still have her own political opponents, Kazakhstan's current problems coupled with the marginalization of her father's influence could have given them an opportunity to go after her and seek her ouster from the Senate.

Officially, Nazarbaeva is supposed to be transferred to another post.

But she was the No. 2 person in the government hierarchy, so whatever post she might receive will definitely be a demotion.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/whats-behind-the- ousting-of-nazarbaev-s-powerful-daughter-in- kazakhstan-/30592571.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 coronavirus has put a lot of Alabamians out of work. As the states unemployment claims have spiked, so has the demand on Alabama food banks. Around the state, lines of families who need food are stretching longer and longer. And some food banks and pantries are struggling to meet the demand.

Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday, and we know the Reckon community wants to help. So, were teaming up with two Alabama icons for special live episodes of the Reckon Interview, raising money for the Alabama Food Bank Association.

Roy Wood, Jr. is one of the funniest people in the world and our original Reckon Interview podcast guest (heres his episode, if you missed it) . The Birmingham-native and Daily Show correspondent has been all over the internet in the last few months raising money for out-of-work comics and helping his home state. Hell join us Tuesday, May 5, at 2 p.m. on the Reckon Facebook page for a live conversation. Join us and ask your questions and, if you can, make a donation with a click of a button.

This Thursday at 1 p.m. CT, well have a live follow up conversation with Stitt on the Reckon Facebook page.

On Thursday, the James Beard Award-winning chef, Frank Stitt, will join us at 1 p.m. on the Reckon Facebook page. Stitt helped put Southern cuisine on the map and is also the guest on this weeks episode of the Reckon Interview podcast. He spoke with Reckon about the issues facing Southern restaurants during the shutdown, how he got into the restaurant business to begin with, and why Southerners feel so tied to food. Listen to that conversation here and then join us Thursday to ask questions of your own.

Cant join the conversation but still want to help support Alabamas food banks? This is Alabama has designed a special T-shirt with proceeds going directly to the food banks that need it the most.

And if you havent yet, subscribe to the Reckon Interview podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Each week, well bring you conversations with some of the sharpest, most creative thinkers in the South.
(Bloomberg) --

In mid-March, Pete Massaro felt like he was in over his head. The global coronavirus pandemic was spreading quickly through the U.S., and Massaro, an engineer at Verily, the life sciences unit owned by Alphabet Inc., had suddenly been tasked with heading up the companys efforts to help speed testing people for Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. He now had three days to open two drive-through testing sites.It was a tall order. Massaros team would have to find suitable locations, staff them, source supplies and figure out how to safely do the tests. Then, adding to the stress, President Donald Trump announced out of the blue that Google, Verilys sister unit under the Alphabet umbrella, was working on a nationwide system to coordinate testing. While Trump mistook Verily for Google, he also overpromised on the effort behind the fledgling operation, which was to start with only two counties in California. The announcement on March 13 threw Massaros team abruptly into the spotlight. After a sleepless weekend, Verilys project went live on Monday March 16. This didnt feel as serious until it became very serious, said Massaro, who is director of automation at Verily. It sort of shook us into action.In the nearly two months since Trumps announcement, the pressure hasn't let up. Verily, along with local health officials, private clinics and large corporations, have scrambled to quickly open thousands of pop-up testing sites across the country in an effort to fill gaps in the American health-care system. But its not clear that this patchwork model of testing sites will ever reach the level of testing necessary, or the right people, to ease up on national social distancing requirements and help businesses safely reopen. As of May 4, Verily had facilitated testing for about 42,000 people. Thats a fraction of the nearly 7 million tests done across the U.S. since early January, according to The COVID Tracking Project. But that isnt nearly up to the 500,000 tests a day experts say the U.S. will need -- at a minimum. Right now, the country is doing about half of that on the most active days. Testing is still limited to people who are ill or part of high-risk populations such as health care workers and nursing home residents. But it will need to expand to include everyone who comes into contact with a person who is positive.Even for a company like Verily, backed by Alphabet with its immense financial and human resources, getting a testing program up and running is extremely complicated. Verily is, at its core, a technology and research company, not a medical facility. Its initial proposal for Covid-19 testing was to create a website to help screen people with symptoms and send them to one of two Verily sites where they could be tested. On its first day in operation, Verilys website was overwhelmed with applicants. The company tested just 20 people.

Story continues

Since then, its moved toward coordinating testing, rather than conducting its own tests or processing the results. Partnering with drugstore chain Rite Aid Corp. and the California Department of Health, Verily is now involved with 37 locations in nine states. Those sites can each do about 250 tests a day. Verily is also looking at mobile and walk-in testing sites to help serve people who dont have cars or live far from a permanent site.

By scaling to more states and more individual sites, we aim to not only help individuals who need to be tested for Covid-19 but also play a supportive role in driving evidence-driven policy that will successfully manage this health crisis, a Verily spokesperson said in an email.

The U.S. government is pushing for more testing efforts as it seeks to reopen the economy as soon as possible while hoping to avert a second wave of infection. Last week the White House announced that its expanding efforts with Rite Aid, Walmart Inc., CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. to open parking-lot testing facilities nationwide. The administration is helping determine the locations and is offering funding assistance.

As the U.S. moves toward creating more long-term testing solutions, CVS Chief Medical Officer Troyen Brennan has said the company expects small, nimble testing sites in vans or kiosks will become more common, rather than places like a shuttered casino and college where the company opened its first testing sites. CVS is planning to expand its operations to offer testing at 1,000 locations, including in its store parking lots and drive-through windows, and eventually hopes to process 1.5 million tests a month.

This is the blunt part of the pandemic response where we put up big tents and try to keep people socially isolated, he said in an interview last month. The next step is moving past the emergency phases and designing a system that works smoothly all over the country, Brennan said.

Finding locations for testing sites can be difficult, especially with social distancing efforts enforced.

We got chased out of a lot of spots, Massaro said. Local officials had seen news footage of huge crowds of potentially sick people queueing up for tests elsewhere and didnt want that in their community, he said.

Getting enough equipment to do the tests is also still a problem.

Every day is a struggle to match the amount of PPE and swabs you need, Massaro said, referring to personal protective equipment for health care workers. Thats the way the world is right now, getting those supplies in place has taken a lot of work.Diagnostic testing is just one part of a multipronged effort to get people back to work, eating in restaurants and going to school. Widespread contact tracing, or tracking the disease as it spreads from person to person, will need to be in place to contain new outbreaks, as will antibody tests that help public health officials judge how much a disease has spread within a community and who might be potentially immune to infection. Disagreements between President Trump and state governments over the best approach suggest its unlikely a truly coordinated national effort to stop the disease will come together.Still, the private efforts are pushing forward, ramping up testing as best they can on their own. Verily, for instance, has rapidly diverted company resources toward its own testing efforts, sometimes setting up sites virtually overnight.Scaling the test sites is absolutely doable, Massaro said. Theres a lot of innovation happening.

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Below please find a summary and link(s) of new coronavirus-related content published today in Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries below are not intended to substitute for the full article as a source of information. A collection of coronavirus-related content is free to the public at http://go.annals.org/coronavirus.

1. Epidemiology of and Risk Factors for Coronavirus Infection in Health Care Workers: A Living Rapid Review

Researchers from the Pacific Northwest Evidence-based Practice Center and Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon studied multiple databases, including the WHO (World Health Organization) Database of Publications on Coronavirus Disease to assess the burden of coronavirus infections, including SARS-CoV-2 on health care workers. They found that health care workers experience significant burdens from infections, but their risk for infection was decreased with use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and infection control training. Certain exposures, such as involvement in intubations, direct contact with infected patients, or contact with bodily secretions, were associated with increased risk of infection. Read the full text: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M20-1632.

2. Keeping Up With Emerging Evidence in (Almost) Real Time

An accompanying editorial by the editors of Annals of Internal Medicine discusses the unique challenges of publishing up-to-the-minute research during the COVID-19 pandemic and the journal's commitment to doing so. One strategy involves systematic reviews that are rapid and living. A rapid review simplifies some components of the review process to produce information in a timely manner and a living review commits to ongoing evidence review and synthesis at prespecified intervals. The promise of this approach is relevant now more than ever. Read the full text: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M20-2627.

Media contacts: A PDF for this article is not yet available. Please click the link to read full text. The lead author, Roger Chou, MD, can be reached through Erik Robinson at robineri@ohsu.edu. The lead editorialist, Christine Laine, MD, MPH, and the Annals editors can be reached through Angela Collom at acollom@acponline.org.

3. Health Care Supply Chains: COVID-19 Challenges and Pressing Actions The supply chain for U.S. health care is really five different supply chains - pharmaceuticals, personal protective equipment (PPE), medical devices, medical supplies, and blood - and each one has its own problems and opportunities for improvement. The author from the University of Pittsburgh explains the implications of COVID-19 on this system and what can be done to ensure that our supply chains support health care providers. Read the full text: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M20-1326.

Media contacts: A PDF for this article is not yet available. Please click the link to read full text. The lead author, Prakash Mirchandani, MBA, PhD, please contact Kimberly Barlow at kbarlow@pitt.edu.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that comments by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo citing 'evidence' that the new coronavirus had emerged from a Chinese laboratory were 'speculative', and called for a science-based inquiry.

Geneva: The World Health Organization said on Monday that comments by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo citing evidence that the new coronavirus had emerged from a Chinese laboratory were speculative, and called for a science-based inquiry.

Pompeo said on Sunday there was a significant amount of evidence that the virus emerged from a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan, but did not dispute US intelligence agencies conclusion that it was not man-made. Dr Mike Ryan, WHOs top emergencies expert, told an online press conference from Geneva.

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We have not received any data-specific evidence from the US government relating to the purported origin of the virus. So from our perspective, this remains speculative.

As an evidence-based organisation, Ryan said, the WHO was keen to receive any information on the origin of the virus, as this was exceptionally important for its future control.

So if that data and evidence are available, then it will be for the United States government to decide whether and when it can be shared, he said.

Scientists have advised the WHO that genome sequencing shows the virus to be of natural origin.

Ryan said science, not politics, should be at the heart of exchanges with Chinese scientists on the issue, warning against projecting an aggressive investigation of wrongdoing.

The virus is believed to have originated in bats and jumped to humans via another species. Dr Maria van Kerkhove, a WHO specialist in viruses that make such jumps, said it was important to determine this intermediate host.

As countries begin easing lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of the virus, many hope to contain new clusters of infection through systematic contact tracing, helped by mobile phone apps, and other technology.

But Ryan said these did not make more traditional boots-on-the-ground surveillance redundant.

We are very, very keen to stress that IT tools do not replace the basic public health workforce that is going to be needed to trace, test, isolate and quarantine, he said, praising South Korea and Singapore for their strategy.

Ryan said the WHO welcomed recent clinical trial data for Gilead Sciences Incs (GILD.O) antiviral drug remdesivir, saying there were signals of hope for potential use against COVID-19.

We will be engaging in discussions with Gilead and the US government as to how this drug may be made more widely available as further data emerge on its effectiveness, he said.

Steven Solomon, the WHOs principal legal officer, said two countries had proposed consideration of letting Taiwan attend the WHOs May 18-19 annual health assembly as an observer.

Solomon said the WHO recognised the Peoples Republic of China as the one legitimate representative of China, in keeping with UN policy since 1971, and that the question of Taiwans attendance was one for the WHOs 194 member states.

China, which views the island as a wayward Chinese province and not a country, says it represents Taiwan adequately in the WHO.
Investigations into four COVID-19 outbreaks at Toronto Western Hospital have identified 19 patients and 46 staff who tested positive for the coronavirus, triggering an urgent directive over the weekend that caused hospital disruptions and confusion for medical residents who did not come to work on Monday, the Star has learned.

These absences were due to a miscommunication that was not the fault of the residents.

The outbreaks have affected two COVID units and two internal medicine units, all of which are now closed to new admissions and undergoing deep cleaning, according to Gillian Howard, a spokesperson for the University Health Network, which includes Toronto Western. Two patients have died since the outbreaks were declared on April 18 and April 30.

Our hospitals have received some of the highest number of COVID-19 positive patients in the city between TGH (Toronto General Hospital) and TWH (Toronto Western Hospital). When you have a high number of COVID-19 positive patients on a unit, outbreaks are possible, Howard wrote in an email.

We are doing everything possible to both ensure the safety of our patients and staff and bring these outbreaks under control.

Since Ontarios COVID epidemic began, UHN has tested 2,028 staff, of which 79 have been positive and 63 are now fully recovered, Howard said. She clarified that the hospital cannot be certain that all 46 staff who were recently found to be COVID-positive as a result of extensive testing were actually infected in one of the outbreak units, though the hospital has erred on the side of considering so.

Toronto Westerns numbers were not reported in the latest statistical update from Toronto Public Health  where, if the hospitals current figures had been included, it would now be the citys largest active hospital outbreak. (An outbreak is declared when at least two health-care associated cases have been reported within 14 days at a facility.)

In an email to the Star, Dr. Vinita Dubey, associate medical officer of health and Toronto Public Health spokesperson, said there are sometimes publishing delays because the city receives data from Ontarios integrated Public Health Information System (iPHIS) and other reporting sources following a quality assurance process.

At a virtual open forum for UHN employees on April 30, where hospital officials answered questions from employees, some staff expressed alarm over the recent outbreaks. We are clearly missing something when it comes to PPE (personal protective equipment) and are so scared at work that we are not properly protected, one employee said. Others asked why data werent being shared about employees who had been exposed to COVID and pointed to concerns over a lack of communication with staff who are self-isolating.

In the forum, Dr. Susy Hota, UHNs medical director of infection prevention and control, agreed the outbreaks were concerning and said COVIDs characteristics make it particularly challenging to get under control. She said the hospital is taking steps to decontaminate the affected units and reduce further transmission risk, including a review of PPE practices.

She also pointed out that UHN had at that point tested more than 1,500 health-care workers and 60 had come back positive, which is a rate of 4 per cent. This is fairly reassuring, she said, because for all patients who have been tested so far at UHN, the per cent of positivity was between 5 and 7 per cent.

So I actually found that overall number of our health-care workers, that proportion that are positive being lower than the general testing positivity rate ... very reassuring that our (PPE) is protecting our health-care workers for the most part. Hota added that it was also unclear how many COVID-positive employees might have contracted the virus in the community as opposed to on the job.

Howard said the hospital is trying its best to communicate with UHNs more than 14,000 employees, hosting virtual open forums, sending daily emails and communicating with affected staff on a daily basis. We recognize that we can never communicate enough  but we are communicating all the time, she said.

The outbreaks also triggered confusion and anxiety for medical residents who have been training at Toronto Western, many of whom were scheduled to rotate into new hospital placements on Monday.

On Sunday, the University of Toronto sent an email blast to 130 medical residents announcing an important urgent change to their rotations. In the mass email, Dr. Glen Bandiera, associate dean of postgraduate medical education, asked all residents who have worked at Toronto Western in the last two weeks to stay home on Monday and contact occupational health at the hospital to which they are rotating to be assessed.

He said trainees who had been working in the hospitals outbreak units have already been asked to quarantine for 14 days. Incoming residents at Toronto Western would still start their placements but wouldnt be assigned to outbreak areas, the email said.

An important principle of infection prevention and control to reduce transmission of COVID-19 is to limit the movement of health-care workers, including medical residents, as much as possible, Bandiera wrote. This does not necessarily mean that any of you face specific increased risk; rather it reflects an abundance of caution noting the extent and uncertainty related to the recent observations at TWH (Toronto Western Hospital).

But as a result of this memo, several residents misinterpreted the instructions and did not report for work at Toronto Western. In a written statement to the Star, Bandiera acknowledged there was a miscommunication in the memo which caused increased stress to medical residents. He said there was no intent to ask residents who were staying at Toronto Western to stay home and a new memo would be issued on Monday to clarify the situation.

It would be fair to say the pandemic has been unprecedented in terms of its impact on all our learners, faculty and staff. The University of Toronto and our hospital partners are working closely together to optimize the management of COVID-19 concerns across our system, Bandiera told the Star.

Clarification - May 8, 2020: This article was edited from a previous version that stated in its opening sentence that an urgent directive caused "confusion for medical residents who failed to report for duty." Although the article later explained these absences were due to a miscommunication that was not the fault of the residents, this explanation should have been stated higher in the article and more precise phrasing should have been used to avoid any suggestion the medical residents may have been negligent in their duties.
The railways will run 40 special trains form Telangana to various destinations to ferry migrant labourers to their respective native places during the Covid-19 lockdown. The decision has been taken at the request of Telangana government.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) on Monday night instructed officials to organise travel of migrant labours on behalf of the state government.

The trains would run from various stations in Hyderabad, apart from Warangal, Khammam, Damaracharla and other places in the state. They would go to Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and other states, an official release said.

The chief minister spoke to South Central Railway general manager Gajanan Mallya and requested him to arrange for 40 special trains from Tuesday, the release said.

At a meeting on Monday, KCR discussed at length the problems faced by the migrant workers and their growing impatience over the extended lockdown. Thousands of migrant workers from various states have been making attempts to leave for their native place, despite lockdown restrictions.

After the Railway authorities operated a one-off special train from Lingampallin on the outskirts of Hyderabad to Hatia in Jharkhand for 1,200 migrant workers last week, demands have been pouring in from other migrant labourers for similar arrangements.

The Telangana government appointed senior IAS officer Sandeep Sultania and senior IPS officer Jitendra as special officers to oversee the travel of migrant workers to their native States.

Migrant workers who have already registered their names with the local police stations to leave for their native places, would be allowed to travel by the special trains. The details of the travel will be given at the police stations, the official release said.

KCR appealed to the migrant labourers to not feel anxious as the government had made arrangements for their travel to their native destinations. He instructed the police officers concerned to inform the migrant workers about the travel details and coordinate with them.

Meanwhile, the Telangana cabinet will meet on Tuesday to take a call on the extension of lockdown till May 17, as decided by the Centre, or even beyond. It would also discuss on the relaxations given by the Centre to various sectors in the green and orange zones.

The health department officials told KCR that most of the Covid-19 positive cases and deaths were more in Hyderabad and its neighbouring three districts of Ranga Reddy, Medchal and Vikarabad and hence there was a need to further tighten and implement lockdown in these districts.

So far, the total number of Covid-19 positive cases in Telangana is 1,085 of which 585 persons have been discharged, 29 died and 471 are under treatment. Of the total cases, 717 (66.08 per cent) belong to these four districts and among those dead, 82.21 per cent belongs to these four districts. For the past 10 days, the highest number of cases reported from these districts only, officials said.

The officials requested the chief minister to not give any relaxations in these districts. Continue lockdown as it is, if need be, more strictly, they said.

They said the cases in other districts have decreased and the number of containment zones has also been reduced.

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Las Vegas , May 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- -- Cytta Corp ( OTCPINK: CYCA) announces the sale of SUPR Stream 2.0 Compression systems pursuant to its strategic partnership with a worldwide primary Value Added Reseller. This VAR is a leading provider of classified government satellite services and has now successfully marketed the SUPR Stream 2.0 to their classified clients to enhance the capabilities of mission-critical communications.



The purchase order formally integrates Cyttas proprietary low-bandwidth video compression product(s) with the VARs extensive remote communications systems integration offerings. Our SUPR Stream technology enabled the VAR to create and market a proprietary solution for its military clients. By integrating and deploying the SUPR Stream compression product, the VAR is now providing their customers a new and advanced video delivery strategy.

This Agreement serves as a catalyst for Cytta to drive growth and market penetration into the nearly $5B market for government and military satellite communications technologies. Our SUPR Stream and IGAN products accelerate the provision of proprietary communication solutions and professional services to existing and new Government and IGO customers.

This VAR is one of the largest remote communication service providers in the world and brings a wealth of experience, and strategic thinking that complements our technology and products. This is a powerful opportunity for Cytta to significantly speed integration of our SUPR compression products to multiple clients across many industries. The VARs scale and global network focuses on providing communication solutions to existing and new government, IGO and NGO customers. Their reach combined with our SUPR compression and IGAN communication products, will allow us to immediately serve a broader range of customers, said Gary Campbell, CEO of Cytta Corp.

Video and audio streaming are one of the most important communication tools available to the military and first responders. SUPR Compression technology is currently utilized by the military to stream high-resolution video from anywhere on earth, with a low bandwidth connection. It provides the ability to deliver high-definition video in operationally constrained environments. Adding the IGAN Matrix to the system is vital to connecting remote personnel with those on the front lines allowing complete situational awareness through a real time Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) loop.

About Us

Cytta Corp ( OTCPINK: CYCA ) brings technology from military to enterprise. Our proprietary SUPR Stream technology has been designed specifically for streaming and storing HD, 4K, and higher resolution video. Our IGAN (Incident Global Area Network) seamlessly streams all relevant video and audio during emergency situations, while allowing real-time video and audio communication among all participating parties. This creates real-time interconnected situational awareness for police, firefighters, first responders, and their command centers.

Cytta Corp products work in size, weight, and power-constrained (SWaP) operating environments and evolved through use in the military, meeting the need to stream multiple HD, 4K, and 4K+ video feeds with ultra-low latency, bandwidth, and power consumption. Cytta is taking this streaming, storage, and transfer technology to enterprises that would like to stream and disseminate more high-quality videos with fewer resources. Cytta manufactures all its products in the USA and is in compliance with recent DOD Blacklist Clause pronouncements. For more information, please visit www.Cytta.com .

Safe Harbor Statement / Forward-Looking Statements

Statements included in this press release, which are not historical in nature, are forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements relating to the future performance of the Company are subject to many factors including, but not limited to, the customer acceptance of the products in the market, the introduction of competitive products and product development, the impact of any product liability or other adverse litigation, working capital and availability of capital, commercialization and technological difficulties, the impact of actions and events involving key customers, vendors, lenders, competitors, and other risks. Such statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the Company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, the terms "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "may", "objective", "plan", "possible", "potential", "project", "will", and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof, and we do not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of future events, new information, or otherwise.
A LinkedIn survey suggest the scale of the squeeze on incomes as the coronavirus hits the economy. (John Keeble/Getty Images)

Almost two-thirds of self-employed professionals in the UK have seen their incomes squeezed by the coronavirus crisis, according to a new survey.

New figures by LinkedIn, shared exclusively with Yahoo Finance UK, suggest many workers and particularly freelancers have had to rely on personal savings, with work drying up because of the pandemic.

The data comes as the UK government rolls out its crisis support grants for the self-employed, announcing on Monday it will begin taking the first claims from 13 May.

A survey of more than 1,000 LinkedIn users showed freelancers in professional jobs were more than twice as likely to report falling incomes than full-time employees.

The data, from the sites recently launched fortnightly workforce confidence index, shows 64% of self-employed respondents highlighting a recent decline in earned income. Some 28% of full-time employees said they had seen their wages drop, while 45% of part-time employees said the same.

The self-employed appeared most likely to resort to using their savings. Half said their savings had declined, compared to 41% of part-time employees and 28% of full-time employees.

READ MORE: Firms warned over knee-jerk lay-offs as Rolls-Royce job fears grow

Around two-thirds of both freelancers and the self-employed had slashed their personal spending. A majority (56%) of those in full-time work also reported a decline in their outgoings, though the trend could reflect lockdown curbs on non-essential activities as much as financial pressures.

Evidence suggests workers in many low-paid, non-professional jobs are far more likely to have seen their sectors and jobs threatened by the lockdown. But the new survey indicates even many professionals, often better paid and more able to work remotely, have been hit hard by the crisis.

Emily Spaven, UK editor at LinkedIn, said the pandemics economic consequences were having a real impact on professionals finances.

The percentage of LinkedIn users who have seen their income, savings or spending decline in the crisis. (LinkedIn)

She told Yahoo Finance UK: With many members reporting that their incomes are down and that theyre already having to use their personal savings, its no surprise that people are being cautious and cutting their spending.

Story continues

Its also clear that the self-employed and those working for smaller businesses are feeling some of the harshest financial consequences of the pandemic.

The UK government has sought to help the self-employed through the crisis, with a scheme allowing them to claim a grant based on their average monthly profits. Applicants can receive government cash for 80% of their usual income for three months, capped at 7,500.

It has faced criticism for not rolling out the scheme and getting cash to workers faster. But lobby groups for the self-employed welcomed an announcement on Monday that workers can check online in advance if they are eligible and when they can claim.

Andy Chamberlain, director of policy at the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE), said the early notice was excellent but called for payment to be brought forward.

READ MORE: UK government to unveil workplace rules post-lockdown

He also said the government must not lose sight of the many workers who are not eligible for the scheme, including the newly self-employed, limited company contractors and those with recent earnings of more than 50,000 a year

The self-employed are an extremely varied and vital section of the workforce and the government must keep innovating until it has pulled all parts of it out of the mire, he added.

The LinkedIn index also ranked workers reported confidence levels about being better off or worse off in different sectors.

Respondents in construction, healthcare, IT and manufacturing were the most confident, though more workers thought they would be worse-off than better off in every industry. Workers in recreation, travel, media and communications were the most pessimistic.
A judge overlooked the lockdown rules set in place during the UK's response to the coronavirus pandemic in order to allow an elderly woman to spend her final days with her family.

An elderly woman, who has not been named, was told she had only a small amount of time remaining to live following diagnosis of terminal cancer.

A long-drawn court case was to follow, after the lady in question asked to be moved from her care home - where she had resided for the last 10 years - in order to move in with her daughter and family to be surrounded by loved ones.

It is 'self-evident' that any decision by the state that prevents someone with a terminal illness from living with their family, needs a 'particularly high degree of justification', Judge Mrs Justice Lieven said.

A judge overlooked the lockdown rules set in place during UK response to the coronavirus pandemic to allow the elderly woman, suffering from terminal cancer, to move back home

It was deemed the ability to die surrounded by family and loved ones is a 'fundamental' part of someone's human rights, the judge said.

She ruled that the woman should be able to 'spend her last days with her family'.

In her judgment, Mrs Justice Lieven said she started with the 'basic proposition that most people would strongly wish to die with their family around them'.

The ruling comes at a time of major concern over deaths linked to Covid-19 in care homes, with many homes banning visitors due to the risk of passing on the virus.

In her judgment, Mrs Justice Lieven noted that if the woman were to remain at the care home, the 'need to minimise the spread of the virus' and current government guidance would mean that 'the most contact that she would be likely to have would be one short visit from one family member at or around the time of her death'.

The woman had been living in a care home, which also cannot be identified, for almost 10 years, staying regularly with her family.

Around Christmas time, she was diagnosed with advanced terminal ovarian cancer and admitted to hospital in January. She later returned to her care home.

Her daughter applied to the court for the woman to be allowed to move in with her.

The local authority argued that no immediate order should be made for the woman to leave the home, and asked for further assessment in the hope that she might be able to move in four to five days.

In her ruling Mrs Justice Lieven said that the case concerned whether it was in the woman's 'best interests to be allowed to live with her family in the last period of her life'.

She went on to say: 'The ability to die with one's family and loved ones seems to me to be one of the most fundamental parts of any right to private or family life.'

The judge also said: 'It would seem to me self-evident that such a decision by the state that prevents someone with a terminal disease from living with their family, must require a particularly high degree of justification.'

The judge said that at the time of her decision, it was not clear if any of the other residents at the home had Covid-19, and it was not said whether the woman had the virus, but this was a possibility 'given some accounts of her current symptoms'.

This is important, the judge said, because the judgment is 'solely' about what is in the woman's best interests 'in circumstances where she had terminal cancer and her family wanted her to die at home with them'.

In a postscript to the judgment, Mrs Justice Lieven said that the woman died two days after she moved to live with her family.

'I do not know what she died of and whether she had, indeed, contracted Covid-19,' she said.

In a statement after the judgment was published, the woman's daughter said: 'Although I am very distressed at the loss of my mother, it gives me some comfort to know that she could see the family at the end of her life.

'She was surrounded by our love when she died. I should not have had to fight so hard for this basic human right.'
ROCKFORD, Ill., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- To help the communities surrounding its Aurora, Rockford and University Park facilities, LS Power has contributed a combined $100,000 to charitable organizations working on the front lines of the COVID-19 response.

"Our employees and local partners are the backbones of our operations, and we share their concerns for the struggles our communities are grappling with," said Dave Olsheski, LS Power's Asset Manager in Illinois. "We are inspired by those who are making extraordinary sacrifices on behalf of the greater good. With deep gratitude, we want to give back to the communities who have welcomed us for so many years."

Many of the organizations being supported are long-standing partners and play crucial roles in their communities. The contributions include:

$20,000 to organizations in Aurora , including the Aurora Interfaith Food Pantry, Mutual Ground, Marie Wilkinson's Food Pantry, The Neighbor Project, National Alliance on Mental Illness, and Access DuPage.

to organizations in , including the Aurora Interfaith Food Pantry, Mutual Ground, Food Pantry, The Neighbor Project, National Alliance on Mental Illness, and Access DuPage. $30,000 to organizations in Rockford , including the Rockford Rock River Valley Food Pantry and 100 Strong.

to organizations in , including the Rockford Rock River Valley Food Pantry and 100 Strong. $50,000 to organizations near University Park , including St. James Hospital, Riverside HealthCare, Silver Cross Hospital, Greater Joliet Area YMCA, University Park Fire Department, Monee Township Food Pantry and Governors State University .

"When Aurora Generation (LS Power) reached out to Mutual Ground to see how they could help, we never could have guessed how generous they would be, and how much of an impact they would make on the services we provide. They have made a difference in the lives of the victims of domestic violence that we serve, and we are extremely grateful," said Kathy Melone, Advancement Director at Mutual Ground, an organization working to end the cycle of domestic and sexual violence.

"We are so grateful for the support of LS Power in recent months. Our mission has always been to provide nutritious food to those in urgent need, and LS Power stepped up to help make that possible in a time more urgent than ever before," said Kim Adams-Bakke, Executive Director of the Rock River Valley Food Pantry.

"We will continue to listen to our employees and community leaders to learn where we can be most helpful and have the greatest impact possible," added Olsheski.

LS Power's four natural gas peaking power plants in Illinois provide low-cost electricity and operate as needed to ensure grid reliability. Their ability to start and stop quickly is increasingly important as a balancing resource to the growing nature of renewable power generation. Beyond Illinois, LS Power has committed $1 million to assist communities with COVID-19 relief in over 20 states where it operates and is building new energy infrastructure across the nation.

About LS Power

LS Power is a development, investment and operating company focused on the North American power and energy infrastructure sector. Since its inception in 1990, LS Power has consistently been at the leading edge of the industry's evolution, often introducing or commercializing new technologies and developing new markets. To date, LS Power has developed, constructed, managed or acquired more than 42,000 MW of power generation, including utility scale solar, wind, hydro, natural gas-fired and battery storage projects, and over 630 miles of transmission, for which it has raised in excess of $45 billion in debt and equity financing to support North American infrastructure. Additionally, LS Power actively invests in businesses and platforms focused on distributed energy resources and energy efficiency. For more information, please visit www.LSPower.com.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 20:35:29|Editor: huaxia

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ANKARA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- A total of 401,011 Syrians in Turkey have returned to their country, Turkish Interior Ministry Spokesman Ismail Catakli said Tuesday.

Turkey currently hosts 3,588,263 Syrians, Catakli said at a monthly news briefing.

Turkey described Syrians in its territory as "guests" instead of refugees and provided them with temporary protection, he noted.

The Turkish authorities caught a total of 2,711 irregular migrants, 253 of which were at sea, and 31 organizers for this illegal human trafficking were detained, he added.

He also briefed about Turkey's anti-terror operations across the country.

"A total of 8,163 operations across rural areas were carried out, including three major operations and 27 medium-sized ones, and 252 operations were carried out in cities in April," the spokesman said.

A total of 37 "terrorists" were killed during anti-terror operations in April, Catakli noted, referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the EU, has fought a 30-year war against the Turkish government, claiming the lives of more than 40,000. Enditem
Vietnam's export value saw a year-on-year increase of 4.7 percent to an estimated $82.9 billion in the first four months of this year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

Cargo containers are loaded at My Thoi Port in the southern province of An Giang

Domestic companies generated 26.4 billion USD from exports during the period, rising 12.1 percent year-on-year and making up 32 percent of the country's total export earnings. Meanwhile, exports of foreign-invested firms hit 56.49 billion USD, up 1.5 percent and making up 68 percent of the total.

Fifteen groups of products recorded an export value of over 1 billion USD or equivalent to 80.1 percent of the nations four-month total earnings. Of them, phones and parts earned the largest export turnover with 16.2 billion USD, up 1.1 percent year-on-year. Electronics, computers and components came next with 12.4 billion USD, up 28.6 percent year-on-year, followed by textiles and garment (8.9 billion USD, down 5.8 percent); machinery equipment and parts (6.9 billion USD, up 29.6 percent); and footwear (5.5 billion USD, up 1.3 percent).

From January to April, the US remained Vietnam's biggest export market, spending 20.3 billion USD on Vietnamese goods, a yearly hike of 13.4 percent. It was followed by China with 13.1 billion USD, up 26.7 percent; the EU with 10.7 billion USD, down 8.1 percent and ASEAN nations with 8.2 billion USD, down 3.4 percent, the GSO said in a monthly report.

Per the report, the country's imports expanded 2.1 percent year-on-year to an estimated 79.89 billion USD in the period. Domestic firms spent 33.58 billion USD on imports, up 1.1 percent year-on-year while foreign-invested companies saw a yearly turnover rise of 2.9 percent to 46.31 billion USD.

Electronics, computers and components accounted for 22 percent of the nations four-month imports at 17.8 billion USD, up 12.5 percent over the same period last year. Among others were machinery, equipment and parts at 11.5 billion USD, down 0.1 percent; telephones and parts (4.3 billion USD, up 12 percent); cloth (3.6 billion USD, down 10.9 percent); steel and iron (2.9 billion USD, down 6.4 percent); plastics (2.8 billion USD, down 1.4 percent) and plastic products (2.3 billion USD, up 14.6 percent).

China was Vietnam's largest supplier, selling 22.7 billion USD worth of goods to Vietnam, down 0.1 percent year-on-year. The Republic of Korea ranked second by shipping 15.5 billion USD worth of goods to Vietnam, up 2.5 percent year-on-year, followed by ASEAN countries with 9.9 billion USD, down 7.8 percent.

According to the GSO's report, Vietnams trade surplus narrowed to 3 billion USD in January-April./.VNA
NEW YORK, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Straddle Carrier Market 2020-2024

The analyst has been monitoring the straddle carrier market and it is poised to grow by 2273.00 units during 2020-2024 progressing at a CAGR of 4% during the forecast period. Our reports on straddle carrier market provides a holistic analysis, market size and forecast, trends, growth drivers, and challenges, as well as vendor analysis covering around 25 vendors.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p04921153/?utm_source=PRN



The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current global market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. The market is driven by the growing preference of marine transport and advances in the container handling equipment. In addition, growing preference of marine transport is anticipated to boost the growth of the market as well.

The straddle carrier market analysis includes application segment and geographic landscapes



The straddle carrier market is segmented as below:

By Application

 Sea Ports

 Others



By Geographic Landscapes

 APAC

 Europe

 North America

 MEA

 South America



This study identifies the economies of scale achieved by container industry as one of the prime reasons driving the straddle carrier market growth during the next few years.

The analyst presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources by an analysis of key parameters. Our straddle carrier market covers the following areas:

 Straddle carrier market sizing

 Straddle carrier market forecast

 Straddle carrier market industry analysis



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p04921153/?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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AMHERST, Mass. - A molecular biologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who has for decades studied the nightmarish group of fatal diseases caused by prions - chronic wasting disease in deer, mad cow in cattle and its human analog - credits a middle-of-the-night dream for a crucial insight, a breakthrough she hopes could lead to a cure.

In a new paper in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology by Tricia Serio, dean of the College of Natural Sciences and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at UMass Amherst, and others, report an unanticipated role for prion nucleation seeds that enhances their ability to appear and resist curing. Nucleation seeds are molecule clusters that form when prions attach to one another and change shape. "Once that change occurs, it creates a very stable aggregate known as amyloid that was thought to be impossible to inactivate by normal means," Serio notes.

The infectious prion is an unusual pathogen, a protein without nucleic acid, she explains. Prion diseases were first described in the 1800s, and include scrapie in sheep and other neurodegenerative diseases such as mad cow disease and in humans, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, fatal familial insomnia and kuru from ritual cannibalism in Papua, New Guinea.

Serio says, "These diseases are always fatal," but she and colleagues including first author Janice Villali work with natural yeast prions that can't be transmitted to humans or cause disease. "It's a good model system that is not infectious, and it grows really fast."

It has been known for decades that prion protein (PrP) misfolding is a key part of the disease process, she adds. In these diseases, proteins fold into 3D shapes that cause disease. In mammals, the protein quality control system responds to folding mistakes with "chaperone" molecules that seek out misfolds and try to refold and correct mistakes.

But prions misfold so quickly that chaperones can't keep up, Serio says. "That part was known," she adds, but scientists still could not figure out what was limiting the chaperone system, allowing prions to persist. "One key factor controlling the transition from harmless protein to invincible disease menace was so hidden and obscure that it had not been previously proposed," she says.

Then, after a conference where she had talked intensely all day about prions, Serio had the crucial dream. "It came to me that the size of the aggregate nucleation seed mattered," she recalls. "So we went back and designed experiments to test the minimum size idea by mathematical modeling with co-first author Jason Dark, and it worked. That led to this investigation and why we're really excited about this paper."

The first revelation was a surprise, Serio recalls - prion aggregates come in different sizes. "Everybody knew of the nucleation seed, but no one knew they could be different sizes for the same protein." As prion proteins physically attach and the complex switches from one state to another, this minimum size is really important - but why?

It turns out, Serio says, that the seed complex must double in size for the disease to persist. It it starts with four molecules, it must reach eight. "This minimum size determines whether the chaperone can win. Four has to get to eight, but if you catch it early enough, if you pull out one side of the square, the amyloid structure can't double. Chaperones prevent the disease by preventing it from doubling in that first round."

Another discovery is that if the minimum nucleation seed starting size is 10 and it must reach 20 to create two amyloids, that complex is an easier problem for chaperones to nip, Serio points out. "In yeast, the bigger the initial seed, the more difficult it is for the disease to resist chaperones and take hold because these protein quality controls have more time to act; the smaller seed is harder to cure because it doubles more quickly."

She adds, "We realized that if we could control this transformation, we could stop the disease from arising, but we also realized that the same barrier would control going backwards and unfolding an established amyloid. The literature says that's a silly idea because prions survive and resist killing so well. But once we figured out this minimum size, we showed that it could also predict the frequency of prion curing under different growth conditions. Looking back, we can't figure out how we missed it."

Serio says she and her team now know there are at least three nucleation sizes possible, and, "I suspect that it will turn out to be an infinite number," she adds. "In fact, we have shown that we can shift the nucleation size by changing the shape of the prion or by expressing a mutant form of the protein, opening the door to therapeutic intervention to reverse this process."

###

In addition to colleagues at UMass Amherst, her co-authors include applied mathematician and long-time collaborator Suzanne Sindi at the University of California, Merced, and others at the University of Arizona. Funding was from NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences, with support from the biophysical characterization core at UMass Amherst's Institute of Applied Life Sciences.
One of Canadas oldest camera retailers says it doesnt have enough money to pay all its creditors, and blames the COVID-19 pandemic for a dramatic decline in business.

Henrys, founded in Toronto in 1909, has issued a Notice of Intent to issue a proposal to creditors, saying that temporarily closing its retail stores because of COVID-19 hurt its business.

According to a full list of creditors on the website of insolvency trustee Grant Thornton, Henrys owes more than $24 million to a wide variety of creditors ranging from camera and tech companies, to the Canada Revenue Agency. The company also owes the Toronto Star $22,447.51.

In a news release, Henrys CEO Gillian Stein squarely blamed COVID-19.

The effect of COVID-19 on the economy is unprecedented. The Canadian retail industry has been one of the hardest hit sectors and Henrys has felt a dramatic impact. We closed our brick-and-mortar locations to keep our customers and employees safe due to the pandemic, which resulted in a significant impact to sales while still bearing the ongoing operating costs, said Stein.

Henrys intends to reopen 22 stores when non-essential businesses are allowed to open again. Seven other stores, (Brampton, Markham, Nepean and Sudbury in Ontario, and Coquitlam, Langley and Victoria in B.C.) wont be reopened, Stein said. Henrys website continues to operate, she added.

Given the current reality, we wanted to act swiftly and decisively to improve efficiencies across our business and ensure we hit the ground running when life in Canada returns to normal. By restructuring our company and making these key changes, were confident that Henrys will emerge from this crisis a stronger, well-positioned business, and able to save Canadian jobs and support Canadas creative community.

If creditors dont agree to the proposed restructuring and a court doesnt approve it, Henrys can file for bankruptcy. The company has 30 days to release full details of its proposal to creditors, although the deadline can be extended with court approval.

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NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance has confirmed he wants to be the Liberal Party candidate at the upcoming by-election in the federal seat of Eden-Monaro.

The marginal NSW South Coast seat was vacated last week when popular Labor member Mike Kelly retired due to ill health.

Mr Constance on Tuesday confirmed he would put his hand up for Liberal pre-selection, which closes on Friday.

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NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance (pictured) has confirmed he wants to be the Liberal Party candidate at the upcoming by-election in the federal seat of Eden-Monaro

Mr Constance (pictured with his wife Jennifer) said on Tuesday confirmed he would put his hand up for Liberal pre-selection, which closes on Friday

He made the announcement in Narooma, which is in his state seat of Bega - which he's held since 2003 - and also Eden-Monaro.

Mr Constance will stand down from his NSW ministerial position at the close of nominations later this week after spending 17 years as the Bega MP in the NSW Parliament.

Mr Constance said he wanted to run for federal parliament to put 'a number of issues squarely on the national agenda when it comes to recovery' from the summer's bushfires and the COVID-19 crisis.

'It is fair to say our community has been put through catastrophe after catastrophe and it is time we look very hard and long at how were going to get through the challenges that beset us, from fire, to COVID, and of course the economic impact we are seeing across our region and of course, our country,' he said during a press conference on Tuesday.

Fire burned to the edge of Mr Constance's home (pictured) on New Year's Eve, with more than 400 homes destroyed by fire in his electorate

'People just want someone who can give it a go and I think I can bring something special given that state wide experience.

The bushfires are an important issue to Mr Constance, who went missing while defending his family home in Malua Bay from a fire on New Years' Eve.

Bega MP Andrew Constance on the front line of Australia's bushfire crisis, fighting a blaze near his home in Malua Bay in December

More than 400 homes were destroyed by fires in Mr Constance's electorate, leaving the regional economy in tatters.

While speaking to Alan Jones on 2GB in March, Mr Constance said the political response to the bushfires and the disconnect between the community effected by the tragedy made him realise how ineffective the political system is in Australia.

He said he would resign from politics after completing the bushfire recovery effort.

'I've got to be honest with you, it took a bloody big fire to make me realise how wrong politics is in this country,' he said.

Mr Constance said he will work to make sure no victims of the bushfires are forgotten and help to lift those effected off their knees.

NSW Liberal Party president Philip Ruddock said he thought the party potentially 'had a Melbourne Cup field' contesting the pre-selection.

Liberal senator Jim Molan and the Liberals' 2019 candidate Fiona Kotvojs are also believed to be considering a run at Eden-Monaro.

Deputy Premier John Barilaro announced on Monday he would not contest the seat for the Nationals.

Bega mayor Kristy McBain has been selected as Labor's candidate saying on Monday she was honoured by the endorsement.
Photo: The Canadian Press This 2020 electron microscope made available by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention image shows the spherical coronavirus particles from the first U.S. case of COVID-19. Canada's health research granting agency has postponed its usual funding competition due to COVID-19, sparking concern that the lack of funds could disrupt regular health research. THE CANADIAN PRESS/C.S. Goldsmith, A. Tamin/ CDC via AP

Canada's health-research granting agency has postponed its usual funding competition due to COVID-19, sparking concern the lack of money could disrupt work on cures that aren't related to the pandemic.

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) put off its regular $275-million competition this spring to focus on delivering federal grants related to the novel coronavirus.

Researchers rely on that funding, and Dr. Tarik Moroy, president of the Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences, said the delay is likely to disrupt vital work on other health conditions.

He told the House of Commons health committee last week that Canada is the only country that had a major national health research funding agency cancel its grants during the crisis.

He acknowledged that Canada was quick to mobilize funds for research related to COVID-19, but worries about the long-term impacts for research into cancer, diabetes and other conditions.

"We worry that this is at the expense of other health research that then will still be necessary after the pandemic is over," Moroy told the committee.

The granting agency says delaying the competition was a difficult decision, and that Moroy has a point about the effect delaying funds could have on researchers.

"Cancelling the competition has an important impact on people who are trying to get their research going, they're trying to maintain their lab," said Adrian Mota, the associate vice-president of research at the agency. "They lose that opportunity for four to six months."

For people who rely on grants to pay their staff, losing out on the money could have a big impact, he said. Losing staff is especially difficult because they often have specialized skills, and it can be hard to get them back. That will mean training someone new when money finally moves again, Mota said.

All that was weighed against the challenges of trying to move ahead during the pandemic, he said.

CIHR has been one of several granting agencies trying to quickly deliver funding to researchers to better understand COVID-19, its impact and possible treatments. Mota expects the federal agencies to give a total of about $200 million in COVID-19 grants.

On top of that new workload, staff have had to figure out how to work from home, Mota said.

While the United States and Australia were able to handle their competitions remotely, CIHR worried that putting together evaluation panels of 20 to 30 scientists would be impossible, given they have little experience carrying out the process virtually.

Instead, it has put $31 million into trying to mitigate the impacts on researchers whose grants are set to expire.

"Admittedly, you're never going to be able to capture all the cases," Mota said.

The rest of the grant money that was supposed to be allocated this spring will be added to future funding competitions.

CIHR said it is committed to moving ahead with the next one, scheduled in the fall, even if it has to evaluate applications remotely.

Moroy told the committee Canada has already fallen behind other nations when it comes to research and innovation funding.

A 2017 report to the House of Commons finance committee revealed Canada has fallen out of the top 30 nations in total research spending, "lagging behind countries such as Czech Republic and Slovenia in terms of total research intensity," Moroy said.

Health research will need even more support once the COVID-19 pandemic is over, he said.
[May 05, 2020] Tooling U-SME and Industry Partners Make Career and Technical Education a Priority During COVID-19 Pandemic

CLEVELAND, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The CTE Coalition  formed in March as an industry response to the ongoing career and technical education needs of high school students whose in-class learning halted amid the COVID-19 pandemic  announced the addition of 12 new partners to the group, raising the total number of participating companies and organizations to 18. Since launching over a month ago, the coalition has helped more than a thousand high schools continue teaching tens of thousands of students in a new virtual environment. The coalition started with Tooling U-SME, Lincoln Electric, NC3, camInstructor, Haas Automation and SkillsUSA as an interim solution to provide access to critical coursework during the pandemic through its flagship website, Keep CTE Moving. The endeavor has become, however, a growing collaboration of industry leaders to provide ongoing access to educational materials and training for faculty and students alike. New coalition members range from companies such as Sandvik, Siemens, Autodesk and Caterpillar to nonprofits including the American Welding Society, the Fabricators & Manufacturing Association and the National Tooling and Machining Association. "The CTE Coalition launched at a time when educational institutions sent millions of students home with little to no time to develop alternate teaching plans," said Jeannine Kunz, vice president, Tooling U-SME. "When you couple an already heavy workload with a global crisis, there is an urgency for educators to respond quickly and do their best to supplement the hands-o education they would get in a traditional classroom setting."



Thanks to the contributions of each coalition partner, career and technical education students can continue their class assignments remotely through the Keep CTE Moving website. In this central portal, instructors and students can access hundreds of online classes, videos and instructional materials that cover topics such as machining, welding, mechatronics, inspection, industry 4.0 and programming. The coalition partners provided all the online materials at no charge or reduced cost during the crisis. "Given the situation and short notice to help out welding instructors that are not familiar with online learning, Tooling U-SME went above and beyond to help me out," said Britt Palmer, welding instructor at Maplewood Career Center in Ravenna, Ohio. "When called upon, Tooling U-SME personnel were expedient in assisting me whenever I needed help with the system. My students provided me with positive feedback and praise for the training."

"I am a retired Navy Chief with 21 years of service, and it does my heart well when I see a company from America step up to provide something for free and to help out where they are needed during an historic disastrous time in our country," adds Palmer. "My heartfelt thanks to a company I will never forget." The Keep CTE Moving website will continue to evolve as the partners determine which new learning resources and guidance will be needed. For more information on the Keep CTE Moving site and CTE Coalition efforts, visit ctecoalition.com. About Tooling U-SME Tooling U-SME delivers versatile, competency-based learning and development solutions to the manufacturing community, working with more than half of all Fortune 500 manufacturing companies, as well as 600 educational institutions across the country. Tooling U-SME partners with customers to build high performers who help their companies drive quality, profitability, productivity, innovation and employee satisfaction. Working directly with hundreds of high schools, community and technical colleges, and universities, Tooling U-SME helps prepare the next-generation workforce by providing industry-driven and learner centric curriculum. A division of SME, a nonprofit that connects all those who are passionate about making things that improve our world, Tooling U-SME can be found at toolingu.com or on Facebook (facebook.com/toolingu). View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tooling-u-sme-and-industry-partners-make-career-and-technical-education-a-priority-during-covid-19-pandemic-301052903.html SOURCE Tooling U-SME

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HOUSTON, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- McLane Global, a leading food and logistics company, today announced the organization has exceeded its initial milestone of packing and shipping 1 million meals to students across rural America. To date, more than 3 million meals have been sent to students in need. Due to the success of the program, McLane Global and its partners will expand the program, with a new goal of shipping 5 million meals per week to children in rural areas.

The Emergency Meals-to-You program is a public-private partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Baylor University Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, PepsiCo and others, designed for home delivery of shelf-stable, nutritious meals to students who may have a difficult time accessing meals they traditionally receive at school due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

"This is a huge accomplishment for McLane Global and everyone involved in the Meals-to-You partnership," said Denton McLane, Chairman of McLane Global. "It would not be possible without the support of our partners, employees, and people on the ground working to ensure these meals get to those who need it most. We are proud to be making a difference but know there is much more work to do and we're rolling up our sleeves to make sure that we can help as many children as possible."

In the U.S. today, 84% of the counties with the highest percentage of children at risk for food insecurity are rural, according to Feeding America.

"At the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Secretary Perdue has set our motto: 'Do right and feed everyone,'" said USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services Brandon Lipps. "With the help of our partners, we are carrying out that motto, ensuring America's children in rural areas get the food they need during these unprecedented school closures."

Through the Meals-to-You program, eligible school districts are able to sign up online at MealstoYou.org. Once a school is registered, students and their families can enroll in the program and will begin receiving a two-week supply of shelf-stable, nutritious, individually packaged foods directly to their door within a few days.

"Simply put, the Emergency Meals-to-You intervention would not have been possible to launch without the ingenuity and dedication of the McLane Global team. This public and private partnership shows that Americans rally together in times of crisis. I imagine the first three million meals is just the beginning," said Jeremy Everett, Executive Director of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty.

McLane Global has shifted to a 24-hour production schedule across all locations to meet the demand. For more information on the program, visit www.MealstoYou.org.

About McLane Global

The McLane family name has been synonymous with food logistics and supply chain solutions for over 120 years, with a reputation for honesty, integrity and high ethical principles. McLane Global offers a broad array of services in Logistics, Distribution, Importing, Exporting, Procurement and Private Label Manufacturing via their Texas, California and Utah warehouses, as well as offices from China to Southeast Asia, UAE, and Latin America. www.mclaneglobal.com

SOURCE McLane Global

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A two-year-old child is lucky to be alive after swallowing 32 magnets while in isolation at home.

Imogen Ferguson had to be rushed to a Melbourne hospital where she underwent emergency surgery to remove the 'ball-bearing-style' magnets.

An X-ray taken at the Monash Children's Hospital shows the magnets lodged in her stomach, revealing the extent of the medical emergency which faced doctors.

Shocking X-ray reveals the extend of the medical emergency which faced doctors after two-year-old Imogen Ferguson swallowed 32 magnets

The toddler's older sister also swallowed two of the magnets but did not require surgery, 7 News reported.

With millions of children in Australia ordered to stay at home during the coronavirus crisis, health professions say these kinds of incidents are becoming more common.

There have been four other children admitted to Monash Children's Hospital in similar circumstances over the past few weeks.

Head of Children's surgery at Monash Children's Hospital, Chris Kimber, (pictured) has sent out a warning to parents looking after children during the lockdown

As a result, the Head of Children's surgery at Monash Children's Hospital, Chris Kimber, has sent out a warning to parents looking after children during the lockdown.

'With more children staying home, and more time to explore the house, there is an increased risk of these small magnets being ingested by young children,' he said.

'These magnets can be extremely dangerous, and erode through intestinal tissue as they try and connect to each other.

'They cause multiple holes in the bowel and are potentially life-threatening.'

Dr Kimber urged parents to be more aware of the risks associated with small toys and objects around children.

'We need parents to be more vigilant than ever and prevent preschool children from having access to these harmful toys,' he said.
A Nashville chancellor has struck down the controversial school voucher program backed by Governor Bill Lee.

Chancellor Anne C. Martin said the law violates the state Constitution's "home rule."

The voucher program wound up applying only to Nashville and Memphis. Hamilton County was in at one time, but was later taken out.

Chancellor Martin, in a 32-page opinion, wrote, "The entire process of the General Assembly, including the amendments and 'horse trading' associated with changing eligibility criteria to satisfy legislators who wanted their counties excluded, resulted in an act that, in form and effect, is local."

The Lee administration vowed an appeal.

"We strongly disagree with the court's ruling and will swiftly appeal on behalf of Tennessee students who deserve more than a one-size-fits-all approach to education."

Gillum Ferguson, a spokesman for the governor, said,

State education officials had planned to start the Education Savings Accounts program in the upcoming school year and had received thousands of applications.

It would have allowed eligible families to use up to $7,300 in state funds for private school tuition and other approved expenses.
Several teams of scientists have found that sewage-monitoring proves to be a much more effective testing method than the individual swab test when it comes to detecting a community spread of the Coronavirus.

Israel, will now be appointing this method, too, in an effort to monitor and prevent the resurgence of a second wave of COVID-19 disease.

Reuters

A team of scientists already has a headstart on this as it has been monitoring the nations excrement during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Now it wants it to be a nationwide effort to detect any possible future outbreaks early on.



Once weve established this, we can use it as an early warning system against a second wave, Oded Nir, of Ben Gurion Universitys Department of Desalination & Water Treatment, told The Times of Israel.

The idea is to test the level of genetic material or proteins of the COVID 19 virus found in feces.

(Representative Image: Reuters)

A big advantage of sewage-monitoring is that it provides a quick and inexpensive way of mass testing, thus providing a broad picture of the entire community more easily than individual swab testing.



That, however, does not mean that it is enough on its own. Swab testing on individual suspects would still have to be carried out but the data through sewage-monitoring methods can help consolidate those efforts in a community.

The concept has been used before in different countries across the world. Biobot, a Massachusetts based Wastewater Epidemiology firm, has conducted a similar study through sewage monitoring on the spread of Coronavirus across cities.

(Representative Image: Reuters)

The Israeli researchers, however, claim that they have come up with the most accurate process to date for finding out the level of coronavirus based upon sewage analysis.



Another big plus for the method is that traces of the Coronavirus can be found in faeces just three days after infection, confirms Ariel Kushmaro, the lead scholar on the Israeli team, head of Ben Gurion Universitys biotechnology engineering lab. Monitoring sewage also better identifies silent carriers, who do not show any symptoms of the virus and do not know that they have it.

The team has shared its method on an open-source platform for others to replicate it internationally.
NASHVILLE, TN / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / First Acceptance Corporation (OTCQX:FACO) today reported its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2020. A quarterly report can be found at www.otcmarkets.com/stock/FACO/disclosure.

Loss before income taxes for the three months ended March 31, 2020 was $2.3 million, compared with income before income taxes of $8.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2019. Net loss for the three months ended March 31, 2020 was $1.8 million, compared with net income of $6.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2019. Diluted net loss per share was $0.04 for the three months ended March 31, 2020, compared with diluted net income per share of $0.16 for the same period in the prior year.

For the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, we recognized favorable prior period loss and loss adjustment expense development of $0.2 million and $11.1 million, respectively. Net loss for the three months ended March 31, 2020 included $3.3 million in net unrealized losses on equity securities and net income for three months ended March 31, 2019 included $0.8 million in net unrealized gains on equity securities.

President and Chief Operations Officer, Larry Willeford, commented, "During this unprecedented time, Acceptance responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by making the safety of our Team Members and customers our highest priority. Through the extraordinary efforts of our leadership team, we utilized a work-at-home model to significantly minimize the head count in our corporate offices. We also established safe access to our retail stores and our internet and call center have remained operational. Through all this, Acceptance has been fully operational as an "essential business" meeting the needs of our customers, many of whom have still remained in the work force."

Mr. Willeford further added, "While our usual tax return-driven late March busy season was impacted by the pandemic resulting in less new business, in April we have seen new business respond to customers having received their government stimulus checks. While the outlook for the remainder of the year is still uncertain, we at Acceptance will continue to place our Team Members and customers first. Considering all that Acceptance has been through, I am otherwise pleased to report that excluding a pandemic-driven $3.3 million unrealized loss on our equity securities, pre-tax income for the quarter was $1.0 million."

About First Acceptance Corporation

We are principally a retailer, servicer and underwriter of non-standard personal automobile insurance based in Nashville, Tennessee. Our insurance operations generate revenue from selling non-standard personal automobile insurance products and related products in 17 states. We currently conduct our insurance servicing and underwriting operations in 15 states and operate only as an insurance agency in two states. Non-standard personal automobile insurance is sought after by individuals because of their inability or unwillingness to obtain standard insurance coverage due to various factors, including payment history, payment preference, failure in the past to maintain continuous insurance coverage or driving record and/or vehicle type.

We currently lease and operate 346 retail locations and a call center staffed with employee-agents. Our employee-agents primarily sell non-standard personal automobile insurance products underwritten by us and through third-party carriers for which we receive a commission. We also offer a variety of additional commissionable products, and, in most states, our employee-agents also sell an insurance product providing personal property and liability coverage for renters that is underwritten by us. In addition to our retail locations, we are able to complete the entire sales process over the phone via our call center or through the internet via our consumer-based website or mobile platform. On a limited basis, we also sell our products through selected retail locations operated by independent agents.

Additional information about First Acceptance Corporation can be found online at www.acceptance.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements made other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. You can identify these statements from our use of the words "believe," "expect," or the negative of these objective terms and similar expressions. These statements, which have been included in reliance on the "safe harbor" provisions of the federal securities laws, involve risks and uncertainties. Investors are hereby cautioned that these statements may be affected by important factors, including, among others, the factors set forth under the caption "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report for the year ended December 31, 2019 filed by the Company with the OTCQX. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

First Acceptance Corporation and Subsidiaries

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations

(amounts in thousands, except per share data)

Three Months Ended March 31, 2020 2019 Revenues $ 63,581 $ 76,568 Loss (income) before income taxes $ (2,300 ) $ 8,293 Net (loss) income $ (1,833 ) $ 6,513 Net (loss) income per diluted share $ (0.04 ) $ 0.16 Average diluted shares outstanding 41,394 41,805 Statutory Combined Ratio: Loss 69.5 % 62.0 % Expense 28.9 % 24.7 % Combined 98.4 % 86.7 %

INVESTOR RELATIONS CONTACT:

Michael J. Bodayle

615.844.2885

SOURCE: First Acceptance Corporation

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/588365/First-Acceptance-Corporation-Reports-Operating-Results-for-the-Quarter-Ended-March-31-2020
Excessive heat warnings were in effect through late this week across southern Arizona, including around Phoenix and Tucson, and the high deserts of Southern California as high temperatures are expected to soar to extreme levels.

Temperatures in Phoenix have reached 97 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, with highs most days above 100 F, since April 23. Phoenicians experienced a three-day break from triple-digit heat over the weekend and on Monday, but Tuesday's high once again eclipsed the century mark with the mercury registering 103 degrees Fahrenheit.

The high on Wednesday tied the daily record of 106 F set in 2018, with an AccuWeather RealFeel Temperature reaching 111 during the mid-afternoon. This was also the fifth earliest occurrence on record of a high temperature of 106 degrees or higher. An extended stretch of searing heat will persist through Saturday as temperatures are projected to surpass 100 degrees each day.

Excessive heat warning for Phoenix, desert southwest The National Weather Service issued excessive heat warnings for Phoenix and much of the surrounding Desert Southwest areas as temperatures have soared about 15 degrees above normal. Heat advisories were also in place for the Southern California coastline. (AccuWeather)

Excessive heat watches extended up to the southern suburbs of Las Vegas, which has failed to reach the 100-degree mark thus far in 2020. The city came up just short on Wednesday with a high of 99 F. The normal high for this time in May is 84.

Heat advisories are in place across the Los Angeles basin as heat ramps up across the region. "A summerlike pattern is expected to grip much of California and the Southwest into the end of the week as an expansive area of high pressure sits overhead," AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said.

Heat returned to Southern California in earnest on Tuesday, and daily high temperatures are expected to ratchet up a by few degrees each day through the end of the week.

Into the end of the week, widespread high temperatures 10-20 degrees above normal for May will be common across much of the state.

Story continues

"In Los Angeles, Thursday's record-high temperature of 97 degrees set back in 1941 could be in jeopardy as the core of the heat builds," Buckingham said.

Downtown Los Angeles normally has a high in the middle 70s at this point in the year.

Unlike the most recent surge of heat at the end of April that sent many residents to overcrowded beaches in search of a way to cool off, this week's heat wave is not shaping up to be one for the history books. Widespread records are not expected to fall, but a few locations could have records challenged on the hottest days this week.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP

The core of the heat will expand to reach central and Northern California on Thursday.

Many locations from the San Joaquin Valley through the Sacramento Valley are forecast to reach into the lower 90s on Thursday. Middle to upper 90s will be common across the same area on Friday and Saturday.

"Californians will have to find creative ways to cool off while outside as heading to the beach may not be an option for everyone," AccuWeather Meteorologist Renee Duff said.

Last Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom shut down state beaches in Orange County, where large crowds gathered during the final weekend of April. At least two beach cities have submitted safety plans to the governor's office and were able to reopen with major restrictions on Tuesday.

"Anyone who does spend time outside, while maintaining proper social distancing, should drink plenty of water, wear sunscreen and have a hat handy amid the hot pattern," Duff said.

Heat-related illnesses may not be the only threat Californians will have to deal with during this next stretch of hot and dry weather.

Through Thursday, gusty winds will whip through portions of the state.

"With wildfire season starting to get underway and drought conditions already at extreme levels in parts of Northern California, the risk for fires will increase with this wind event," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brian Thompson said.

On Monday, Newsom declared the week of May 3-9 as "Wildfire Preparedness Week." Nearly a quarter of the state's population lives in high fire-risk areas, according to the proclamation issued by the governor's office.

While the strongest winds from this event may blow across the mountains of Southern California, the threat of wildfire ignition and spread may be lower due to well above-average rainfall during April.

However, now that the ground has begun to dry out, the risk for wildfire ignition will not be zero, Duff warned.

Residents should use extra caution with outdoor power equipment, as well as any outdoor flames.

Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
Two North Korea defectors apologize for rumor about Kim's death

Iran Press TV

Monday, 04 May 2020 3:29 PM

Two defector-turned-lawmakers in South Korea have apologized for publicly raising suspicions over the health of Kim Jong-un, after a recent appearance by the North Korean leader ended a global speculation about his well-being.

Thae Yong-ho, who won a parliamentary seat during last month's general elections, in a statement on Monday apologized for saying that one thing for certain was that Kim cannot stand up by himself or walk properly.

"I am aware that one of the reasons why many of you voted for me as a lawmaker is with the expectations of an accurate analysis and projections on North Korean issues," Thae said.

"I feel the blame and heavy responsibility."

"Whatever the reasons, I apologize to everyone."

The other prominent defector, Ji Seong-ho, also apologized to the public and promised to behave with more caution.

"I have pondered on myself for the past few days, and felt the weight of the position that I'm in," Ji said.

"As a public figure, I will behave carefully going forward."

Ji had claimed last week that he was 99 percent sure that Kim was dead after cardiovascular surgery.

South Korea's ruling Democratic Party criticized the pair for carelessness and said their mistake could do more serious harm than just misinforming the public.

One party member urged them to be excluded from the intelligence and defense committees, while another said the defectors contributed little to the South Korean society.

A group of activists lodged a complaint with prosecutors accusing the duo and the main opposition party chief of spreading false information.

Ji's party acknowledged he had made "rash, careless" remarks but criticized the ruling party for undermining the two and "instigating hatred" about them.

Recent reappearance of Kim following about 20 days of absence had raised widespread speculation about his health and whereabouts.

On Saturday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that the North Korean leader had inaugurated a fertilizer plant in a region lying north of the capital Pyongyang.

It was the first such report featuring Kim in attendance since April 11.

At the event, Kim was accompanied by several senior North Korean officials and his younger sister Kim Yo-jong, who is regarded as the most likely candidate to step in as successor in case her brother dies or becomes incapacitated.

The South Korean Yonhap news agency cited a senior government official as saying on Sunday that Kim had not undergone surgery during his absence.

The official rejected as untrue reports that Kim may have had surgery, citing some differences in his leg movements, without providing a reason for the absence.

The Daily NK, an online media outlet run by North Korean defectors, reported that Kim had undergone a cardiovascular surgery.

Speculation about his death emerged especially after his absence from the April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather and North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung.

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Dhaka/IBNS: Bangladesh police have arrested 17 members of the banned Islamist outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh or JMB from country's capital city Dhaka, media reports said on Tuesday.

The arrests were made by an anti-terrorism police unit in Kakarail around 7 pm on Monday, according to Tohidul Islam, assistant deputy commissioner of Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime, reported bdnews24.

Police said 19 mobile phones, about Tk 234,000 in cash and $922 were confiscated from them.

They have confessed that they were members of the group, reports said.

A case has been started against them under the anti-terrorism law with the Ramna Police Station, reported the news portal.
On Monday, disturbing images of long queues outside liquor shops in New Delhi were all over the internet, showing people had gathered to buy liquor, with little concern for social distancing in Covid-19 times. Actor Randeep Hooda used a still from his latest outing, Extraction, to drive home an important point.

He wrote on Instagram, Coming back from the #LiquorShop be like ... The picture shows Randeep with an injured arm in an improvised hand sling, in Extraction. He has a gun in his other hand.

Randeep has been using stills from Extraction to dole out important coronavirus messages. Few days back, he had posted another still from the film, an action sequence showing Randeep saving a teenage boy with dead bodies all around him. Sharing it, he had written: Only if this boy hadnt stepped out! Dont step out or.... #Extraction #Lockdown. At another time, he has shared another picture from the same film and wrote Did I just spot someone who hasnt seen #Extraction. It showed a clean-shaven and bespectacled Randeep, stepping out of room and holding on to the glass door.

Also read: Kareena Kapoor visits Ranbir Kapoor, aunt Neetu after the death of Rishi Kapoor, see pic

Ahead of the films release, Randeep had told IANS that he was happy to be breaking stereotypes. I was glad to get the movie on two to three levels. I got to feature as the first Indian male actor doing action in a Hollywood film. Breaking the stereotypes of IT professionals, millionaires or comic relief in a film. It was great that I was able to break that barrier.

He continued: I havent done hand to hand action much. I have an action image but havent done much action (on screen). So, this was a new thing. It was a new territory for me as an actor, to be able to use other factors as an actor and not just drama, and to be able to use my body and to be able to learn new things. I really enjoyed it... And feeling safe while doing it because they were so well prepared. I was elated and grateful that I got to do this part.

(With IANS inputs)

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Belfast's Lord Mayor has proposed that frontline workers should receive the Freedom of the City to recognise their efforts during the coronavirus pandemic.

Daniel Baker said he has written to all the party group leaders on the city council to canvass support for the move.

He said frontline workers should include all those providing essential services through the coronavirus pandemic, such as those working in food production, transport and refuse collection as well as health staff.

It has also been announced that City Hall will light up in NHS blue to mark International Nurses' Day next Tuesday, May 12.

Mr Baker said: "These are truly unprecedented times for all in society as we continue to battle against Covid-19.

"Those on the front line of that battle; our healthcare workers, to those working in shops, food production, bin collection, transport and all other essential services, rightly deserve to be recognised.

"I have written to the party group leaders in Belfast City Council to request their support to award the Freedom of the City to all of these invaluable stalwarts. Without the tireless and dedicated work of our frontline workers we would be in a much bleaker place than we are today."

The Freedom of Belfast was bestowed on nurses in 2016.

The move to turn City Hall blue next Tuesday comes after it was illuminated in red to mark International Workers' Day on May 1 as a tribute to all frontline workers.

Mr Baker added: "I'm delighted that we will be lighting up City Hall to mark International Nurses' Day as a tribute to all those men and women, and thank them for their commitment and dedication as they help in the battle against Covid-19."

Meanwhile, the DUP is calling for health care workers across the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon council area to be honoured with the Freedom of the Borough.

In a joint statement, DUP councillors from across the borough urged the council to mark the contribution in a "manner that reflects the borough's gratitude".

"The coronavirus has had a huge effect on the borough and our thoughts are firstly with those who have suffered bereavement due to the Covid-19 pandemic and we also send our best wishes to those currently in hospital fighting this virus," they said.

"Given the seismic contribution made by those working in our hospitals and care facilities in standing on the frontline in the fight against Covid-19, we feel it is important this very brave and courageous contribution is recognised by our council when the time is right to do so.

"We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to health care workers across the borough and we salute them all.

"God willing, when the public health environment allows, this council can mark this contribution in a manner that reflects the borough's gratitude."

The Freedom of the Borough is the highest civic honour a council can bestow.
The start of the COVID-19 pandemic is "highly unlikely a lab accident," Jonna Mazet, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Davis, who has worked with and trained researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the past, told Business Insider.

Here are four reasons why:

1. The lab's samples don't match the new coronavirus

2. The lab implements rigorous safety protocols

3. The coronavirus is the latest in a long line of zoonotic disease outbreaks

4. Everyday people are more likely to get infected than researchers who wear protection

Conspiracy theorists have claimed SARS-CoV-2, the one that caused COVID-19 and now responsible for more than 3.4 million infections worldwide, was synthesized by the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), based in the city where the disease was first identified.

As China's first biosafety-level-4 lab, the WIV has been carried out researches around infectious microbes known to human for years, as well as drug development, vaccine research, pathogenesis like the origin of the virus and the general characteristics of the virus.

After the SARS outbreak in 2003, scientists in the lab have begun to trace the source, collecting bats samples all over China to analyze and compare the virus genome sequence. The paper published by the team in 2013 on the peer-reviewed journal Science strongly proved that bat population most likely responsible for spreading SARS.

Mazet has worked with the lab through a program started by the U.S. Agency for International Development. She spoke with Shi Zhengli, one of the lead researchers in the lab recently, and confirmed with Business Insider that Shi is absolutely positive that she had never identified this virus prior to the outbreak.

In an interview with Scientific American, Shi said that she checked the records collected from the bats over the years as soon as the genome sequence of COVID-19 virus went out, and found they didn't match.

Mazet added that Shi set up a secure, shared database into which the program members could upload their work for public release.

For the safety concerns raised by those Conspiracy theorists, Mazet stressed WIV's lab is above reproach.

High-level biosafety labs have sophisticated protective facilities and strict measures to ensure the safety of laboratory staff and protect the environment from contamination. All researchers are under extreme protection, and all samples are being frozen, disinfected and stored in special area.

Her third reason given out is to deny the man-made claim of the coronavirus, noting it's not a leak but a zoonotic disease outbreak, which jumps from a species from animal to humans. It's very common in nature.

She mentioned the viruses that caused the 2003 SARS outbreak, Ebola, and the 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic  swine flu - are all zoonotic diseases.

Lastly, she suggests general people are more susceptible to the zoonotic disease than researchers, since they don't have protective gears to wear.

Conspiracy theories are common during epidemics.

Russian scientists claimed the SARS outbreak in 2002-2003 originated in a lab, and during the emergence of HIV/AIDS in the late 1970s, some political groups also claimed the virus had been "spliced" together by government scientists.

Though the new coronavirus was first identified in Wuhan, conspiracy theories circulating within China have suggested the virus did not originate there.
AMHERST  In an online broadcast, University of Massachusetts at Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy said a decision is expected by early summer on whether the campus will reopen to students.

In the three-minute video, he said preparation are underway for an online commencement on Saturday, and that during the spring semester, 3,600 classes were held remotely between students and faculty.

My administration and I are preparing for multiple scenarios, depending on how the pandemic evolves," he said, referring to the COVID-19 and when the campus might be able to return to normal.

The possibilities include that we return as normal, that we continue teaching and learning remotely indefinitely or something in between. I cant say for sure at this point what the fall semester will look like, but I promise to keep you informed as plans develop, he said.

We expect to have a clearer sense of our plans by early summer, the chancellor said.

Subbaswamy also said that, although the upcoming May 8 commencement would occur remotely, someday, when restrictions on large gatherings are are lifted, we will come together in person for a proper commencement.
By ANI

WASHINGTON DC: The fast-spreading coronavirus pandemic, with daily mounting deaths, social isolation and widespread psychological trauma caused due to fear of economic fallout, is pushing America into a historic wave of mental health problems including depression, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide, federal agencies and experts warned.

But just as the initial coronavirus outbreak caught hospitals unprepared, the country's mental health system -- vastly underfunded, fragmented and difficult to access before the pandemic -- is even less prepared to handle this coming surge, The Washington Post reported.

"That's what is keeping me up at night," Susan Borja, who leads the traumatic stress research program at the National Institute of Mental Health, was quoted as saying.

"I worry about the people the system just won't absorb or won't reach. I worry about the suffering that's going to go untreated on such a large scale," Borja added.

The Post, citing a Kaiser Family Foundation poll, stated that nearly half of Americans report that the coronavirus crisis is harming their mental health. A federal emergency hotline for people in emotional distress registered a more than 1,000 per cent increase in April compared with the same time last year. Roughly 20,000 people texted that hotline, run by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, last month.

Online therapy company Talkspace reported a 65 per cent jump in clients since mid-February. Text messages and transcribed therapy sessions collected anonymously by the company show coronavirus-related anxiety dominating patients' concerns.



CLICK HERE FOR COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES

"People are really afraid," Talkspace co-founder and CEO Oren Frank told the Post.

The increasing demand for services, he said, follows almost exactly the geographic march of the virus across the United States. "What's shocking to me is how little leaders are talking about this. There are no White House briefings about it. There is no plan."

The suicides of two New York health-care workers further highlight the risks in the country, especially to those combating the pandemic.

And yet, out of the trillions of dollars Congress passed in emergency coronavirus funding, only a tiny portion is allocated for mental health. Community behavioural health centers -- which treat populations most at risk -- are struggling to stay financially solvent and have begun closing programs.

"If we don't do something about it now, people are going to be suffering from these mental health impacts for years to come," Paul Gionfriddo, president of the advocacy group Mental Health America, told the Post.

That could further harm the economy as stress and anxiety debilitate some workers and further strain the medical system as people go to emergency rooms with panic attacks, overdoses and depression, he said further.



ALSO READ | Emma Stone talks mental health in times of coronavirus: Write, write and write

Using such estimations, a Texas nonprofit organisation-- Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute -- created models that suggest if unemployment amid the coronavirus pandemic ends up rising 5 per cent points to a level similar to the Great Recession, an additional 4,000 people could die from suicide and an additional 4,800 from drug overdoses.

But if unemployment rises by 20 per cent points -- to levels recorded during the 1930s Great Depression -- suicides could increase by 18,000 and overdose deaths by more than 22,000, according to Meadows.

"These projections are not intended to question the necessity of virus mitigation efforts," cautioned authors of the Meadows report, "but rather to inform health system planning."

Just as the country took drastic steps to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed by infections, experts say, it needs to brace for the coming wave of behavioural health needs by providing widespread mental health screenings, better access to services through telehealth, and a sizable infusion of federal dollars, the newspaper reported.

So far, more than 67,000 people have died in the US and more than a million have been infected. An internal US government document predicts 3,000 daily coronavirus deaths in the country by early June, nearly double from the current level of about 1,750, according to The New York Times.
Alabama chef Adam Evans methodically sliced up a fresh catch of amberjack and mangrove snapper in the kitchen of his Birmingham restaurant late Monday afternoon while he casually tuned in to the James Beard Foundations big reveal of this years finalists.

More than an hour in, when they finally got around to the category of best new restaurant in America, Evans listened a little closer.

He didnt have to wait much longer.

Since the nominees were announced in alphabetical order, Automatic Seafood and Oysters  the dazzling seafood restaurant that Evans and his wife, Suzanne Humphries Evans, opened last spring in an old sprinkler manufacturing plant near Birminghams Lakeview District  was the first of the 10 best new restaurant finalists announced.

I was butchering all these fish that we got from a spear fisherman, which was like the best thing ever, Evans says. Just listening to that (announcement), I didnt really expect it. But when we heard it, it just kind of stopped me in my tracks.

Then he called his wife, who was in their downtown loft working on the payroll and looking after their 13-year-old standard poodle Henry.

He called and said, I just want to give you a hug, Suzanne Evans says. And I said, Well, Im three minutes away. Id like that.

He jumped in his truck and came home and gave me a hug and a high five and then went back to butchering fish. So, we had a moment to celebrate.

Among chefs and restaurateurs, the James Beard Awards  named in honor of the chef and cookbook author who elevated American restaurant cuisine and influenced generations of cooks  are often called the Oscars of food.

And each year for the past three decades, chefs and food journalists from around the country have gathered  first in New York and now in Chicago -- for a black-tie, red-carpet event to celebrate the winners.

This year, though, there isnt much celebrating in the restaurant industry, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shuttered thousands of restaurants across America  some temporarily, too many permanently  and forced chefs to adjust to curbside pickup and other creative ways to survive until they can make it to the other side  whenever that is and whatever that will be.

Thats why this years James Beard Awards announcement was especially special to chefs like Adam Evans, who has worked in restaurants since he was a teenager growing up in Muscle Shoals and a college student studying psychology at Auburn University  a culinary adventure that has taken him to New Orleans, New York, Atlanta and now, back home to Alabama again.

It felt really good, you know, and Im really thankful to (the) James Beard (Foundation) for doing this during this time, Evans says. I think it provided a lot of excitement for restaurants. Their timing is perfect.

It gave me a lot of hope, to be honest, he adds.

Evans, who has a Twitter account but tweets only about once every year or so, retweeted the James Beard Foundations announcement and added his one-word reaction: Unreal!

Automatic Seafood and Oysters, which opened in April 2019, is located in the former Automatic Sprinkler Co. manufacturing plant. The dining room has been closed to guests since mid-March due to the coronavirus outbreak. (Photo by Cary Norton.)

We didnt open up to not serve people

Back during the third week in March  in what seems like another lifetime ago now  restaurants throughout the Birmingham metro area had to close their dining rooms after the Alabama Department of Public Health banned on-premises dining at all Birmingham-area restaurants. Similar statewide restrictions soon followed, and Gov. Kay Ivey last week extended the on-premises dining restrictions until at least May 15.

Automatic Seafood and Oysters -- a stunning, bustling space with an open kitchen and a sleek bar that has Suzanne Evans design fingerprints all over it -- was meant to feed and entertain large crowds of people in a lively, inviting environment bristling with energy and electricity.

It wasnt designed for take-out service.

We didnt open up to not serve people, Adam Evans says. Thats been taken away. So, everything changes.

The Evanses, though, quickly pivoted and made the transition to curbside pickup and delivery service soon after they found out they would have to close their dining room.

We went from 70-plus employees to eight, and we just tried to make it happen on a weekly basis, Adam Evans says. You just have to figure something out.

In the beginning, we had to make menus based on what we had (in house) so that we didnt have to order anything because we just didnt know. And then it transitioned to what we think people might want. Its just a progression, and weve been through different stages.

All in all, I think its a good learning experience for everybody to be in sort of an uncomfortable situation, he adds. I think we will be better for it when we come out on the other side. Ive got to think we will. Ive got to hope we will.

Adam Evans and Suzanne Humphries Evans are the owners of Automatic Seafood and Oysters, which is a 2020 James Beard Awards finalist for the best new restaurant in America. (Photo by Caleb Chancey Photography)

Validation for the past eight weeks

More than anything, this experience has taught the Evanses  and that was validated by Mondays James Beard nomination  is how much they love their restaurant, and how much they miss entertaining their guests.

I think a lot of food industry folks are maybe sharing the same sentiment -- that we all didnt know how much what we did meant to us until you cant do it anymore, Suzanne Evans says. Even me, and Im new at this.

I think this nomination gave us all validation for the past eight weeks in some regards, she adds. Its not the same packing up (takeout) boxes and putting them on a table. We miss the (dining) experience. We miss creating the overall food, drink, hospitality environment.

And to be reminded that, Oh yeah, we used to do that, and some people thought we were pretty good at it, is motivation for us to keep on doing what were doing.

And for our crew who kept on hanging in there with us -- making little to nothing some weeks -- Im proud they get to feel some happiness and validation.

One of the hottest new restaurants in America, Automatic Seafood and Oysters was bristling with energy and electricity before the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted everything. (Photo by Cary Norton)

Going back to what we intended to do

Before the coronavirus outbreak interrupted everything, Automatic Seafood and Oysters was open seven days a week. And while its not quite the same, the restaurant just this week expanded its curbside and delivery service from five days a week to seven, including lunch, dinner and weekend brunch takeout options.

Im very proud of the team and what we got accomplished and what we are still trying to do on a daily basis, Adam Evans says. Now, we are open seven days a week again. We started that (Monday). We are going back to what we intended to do, and thats have a restaurant thats open seven days.

In the world before the COVID-19 outbreak, Monday also would have been the night the Lyric Opera of Chicago hosted the 30th annual James Beard Awards.

Instead, after the ceremony had to be postponed, the James Beard Foundation made a pivot, too, and used Mondays announcements to re-energize a strapped and stressed culinary community.

One way or another -- either in-person or online -- the James Beard Award winners will be announced on Sept. 25, the foundation has promised.

For chefs and restaurateurs like Adam and Suzanne Evans, that reassurance is the first real sign that better times are ahead.

That means a lot, Adam Evans says. They did that very well. Its really important to give restaurants a boost in times like this.

Cheers to them.

Automatic Seafood and Oysters is at 2824 Fifth Ave. South in Birmingham. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the dining room is temporarily closed, but the restaurant is offering curbside pickup and delivery service. To order online, go here.

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At Nikis West, a drive-thru without a drive-thru window
In 2018, the US halted annual payments of $360m to UNRWA, which provides assistance to some 5.5 million refugees.

Scrambling to tackle COVID-19 in camps across the Middle East, the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees said it only has enough cash to operate until the end of May because of American funding cuts.

In 2018 President Donald Trumps administration halted annual payments of $360m to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which provides assistance to some 5.5 million registered refugees in the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Elizabeth Campbell, UNRWAs director in Washington, told reporters the loss of US aid had a corrosive impact on the agencys ability to help vulnerable people.

We are basically operating on a month-to-month basis. Right now, we have funding to pay our 30,000 healthcare workers until the end of this month, Campbell said in a Zoom conference call from Washington.

She said UNRWA had only secured one-third of its $1.2bn annual budget and it was suffering its worst financial crisis since beginning operations 70 years ago.





The agency is trying to plug the $800m shortfall in part by appealing to European and Gulf countries for emergency donations, Campbell said.

Donations from the European Union, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Canada, and Japan have helped fill UNRWAs 2020 budget gap, she said, while Saudi Arabia also provided project-specific funding.

Biggest donor

The United States was by far UNRWAs biggest donor until it withdrew funding, calling for reforms and suggesting its services be transferred to refugee host countries.

Palestinian refugees are mostly descendants of some 700,000 Palestinians who were driven out of their homes or who fled fighting in the 1948 war that led to Israels creation. Nearly one-third live in 58 camps where UNRWA provides services.

Many refugees fear the dwindling aid they receive could fall further as the coronavirus crisis persists and donors shift priorities.

UNRWA has tried to halt the spread of COVID-19 in and around camps, closing all of its 276 schools that are attended by close to 300,000 children.

It has launched a $14m emergency appeal for coronavirus funding, and says it will issue another larger aid request in the coming days.
CARACAS, Venezuela  President Nicolas Maduro said his government had captured two American "mercenaries" Monday in a murky operation allegedly intended to infiltrate Venezuela, incite rebellion and apprehend its leaders, adding a fresh complication to escalating tensions between Washington and Caracas. The socialist leader said the plan was to kill him.

In a lengthy speech Monday night, Maduro decried an ongoing "terrorist" assault on Venezuela that he said had led him to dispatch 25,000 reservists to the coasts. He displayed images that apparently depicted the two apprehended Americans in a lineup, one of them forced to physically lower his head by a captor.

U.S. officials and the mainstream Venezuelan opposition headed by Juan Guaido have strongly denied any connection with the operation, which allegedly involved several dozen men, most of them defectors from the Venezuelan military who had been living hand-to-mouth in camps in Colombia. Former Venezuelan National Guard officer Javier Nieto Quintero and former U.S. Green Beret Jordan Goudreau, head of a Florida company that says it offers paid strategic security services, released a video on Sunday announcing the start of "Operation Gideon" and calling on Venezuelan soldiers to join them.

Goudreau, in an interview with The Washington Post, confirmed that two Americans in what he says was a force of about 60 men were captured on Monday along with six Venezuelans. He identified the Americans as Aaron Barry and Luke Denman. Also captured was one of the operation's leaders, former Capt. Antonio Sequea.

The Americans, he said, were fellow former Special Forces members he had known for years who had joined the operation as "supervisors." He said he has engaged a lawyer in Venezuela and was reaching out to the State Department to try to secure their release.

Goudreau, who went public with the operation on Sunday, said he provided false information to try to protect operatives still in harm's way. He said Sunday that his forces had already entered Venezuela by land and sea.

But on Monday, he said Barry and Denman were in a boat off Venezuela's Caribbean coast on Sunday when Maduro's government intercepted another of the operation's vessels. He confirmed the Maduro government's claim Sunday that eight people were killed and two captured by Venezuelan forces, which apparently had been tipped off to their arrival.

Goudreau said the Americans, along with six former Venezuelan military men, spent Sunday night at sea. They were running out of gas, and Goudreau was trying to secure a vessel out of Aruba to "extract" them, he said. He said he last spoke to the crew about noon Monday before learning of the capture.

The U.S. government "should engage and try to get these guys back," Goudreau said. "They are Americans. They are ex-Green Berets. Come on."

U.S. officials, who have indicted Maduro on narco-terrorism charges, offered a $15 million bounty for information leading to his capture or conviction and imposed severe sanctions on his government  would not comment on the alleged arrests. U.S. officials have distanced themselves from Sunday's operation and questioned both its veracity and legality.

Colombian authorities and the mainstream opposition headed by Guaido  the National Assembly president recognized as Venezuela's rightful leader by the United States and more than 50 other nations  have said they believe the operation was infiltrated by Maduro loyalists. Maduro's senior officials have spoken of the planned operation for weeks before it was sprung Sunday.

"I don't think all the people involved in this were working for the dictatorship," said one senior opposition official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. "I think most were trying to do something for the right reasons, but at an important level, this was leaked."

Maduro suggested as much on Monday.

"We knew everything," he said. "What they ate, what they didn't eat. What they drank. Who financed them. We know that the U.S. government delegated this as a [U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration] operation."

The DEA on Monday denied involvement in the operation.

The senior opposition official said he had "high certainty" that the two Americans had been captured. Guaido released a statement Monday demanding that Maduro "respect" the human rights of individuals "captured in the last hours." He did not specifically mention the arrest of Americans.

Goudreau deployed to Iraq with Berry and Denman in 2010, according to an active duty soldier who served with all three of them in 10th Special Forces Group, but did not deploy with them. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

While the 10th Group is headquartered in Colorado, the men served in its selective company, Charlie, within the Germany-based 1st Battalion, the soldier said. The company is responsible for direct-action counterterror missions with responsibility throughout Europe but has deployed many times to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Goudreau's and Berry's apparent involvement in the failed operation did not shock many Green Berets who knew them, the soldier said, but it was surprising that Denman, an easygoing type, took part.

The biggest surprise in the Green Beret community, the soldier said, was that anyone could be so confident in the mission.

"He clearly had it in his mind that, 'Yeah, I can do this,' " the soldier said of Goudreau.

Maduro offered a folksy account of the capture, claiming patriotic fisherman aided in operation against the "terrorists." Maduro called Goudreau a "liar" and called out the U.S. government for its silence: "The U.S. government still has not said a word about the terrorist incursion."

One person familiar with events supplied The Post with photos allegedly taken by Maduro's forces that appeared to show one of the captured Americans shirtless and lying on pavement, his arms tied behind his back.

Diosdado Cabello, a senior Maduro government official, tweeted a video that allegedly shows one of the Venezuelan men arrested on Monday in Chuao, on the Caribbean coast. The man, identified as Adolfo Baduel, the son of a jailed military officer, responds to a uniformed interrogator in the back of a van. His hands are tied behind his back.

They say that they work with advisers of the president of the United States, Baduel says.

"Who is the president of the United States?" the interrogator asks.

"Donald Trump," Baduel answers.

____

Faiola reported from Miami. Horton reported from Washington.
The Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops releases a statement appealing for transparency in the use of Covid-19 response funds.

By Linda Bordoni

The Catholic Church in Kenya has repeatedly pointed to corruption as one of the biggest ills affecting the country, and during his October 2015 visit to the East African nation, Pope Francis urged young people not to succumb to the allure of corruption saying it is a path to death as it cripples development and leads to poverty and suffering.



Today, amid the global Covid-19 pandemic, the countrys Catholic bishops are keeping their attention focussed on the deep rooted scourge and are urging the government to ensure that Covid-19 emergency funds are directed to fighting the pandemic and returning the country to normalcy.



In a statement released on Sunday by the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB), the prelates note that their appeal comes in the wake of reports on mismanagement of funds meant to contain the pandemic.



As a Church, we appreciate several measures that have been taken by the Government to contain the spreading of the pandemic in our country. However, we are concerned about reports that some funds meant for the pandemic containment have been misused, reads the statement.



Increase of gender-based violence

Bishop John Oballa, Chairman of Catholic Justice and Peace commission, who read the statement after a nationally televised Mass, also noted that as the country intensifies its war on the pandemic, there has been an increase in gender-based violence in society, as well as worsening conditions for the most vulnerable, especially children, women and persons living with disabilities.



As your shepherds, we exhort parents to take extra care of their children, including guarding them against harmful internet content, he said, and he called on married couples to cultivate love, understanding, respect and patience for each other, especially during this time of the pandemic.



Support for faith-based health-care facilities

As part of the commitment by religious leaders in fighting Covid-19, Bishop Oballa appealed to the government to support faith-based health-care facilities, most of which serve in remote areas and informal settlements. He asked they be included in the distribution of Personal Protective Equipment and that their healthcare workers be allowed to access Government Covid-19 treatment and isolation facilities.



Finally, Bishop Oballa invited Kenyans to join in prayers and solidarity with those on pandemic frontlines, especially medics who are leading the war on coronavirus.



The KCCB has consistently been committed to the fight against corruption. An initiative last October saw it launch a six-month anti-corruption campaign that addresses responsible and sustainable farming, youth and development, natural resource management, leadership and accountability and the sanctity of life and human dignity.



In the 76-page campaign document, it is made clear that corruption, which falls under leadership and accountability, is actually a cross-cutting issue that touches on all the themes.



According to the latest statistics Kenya has 535 officially reported coronavirus cases, 24 deaths caused by the virus and 182 recovered patients.


Officials in Houston are investigating two separate cases of animal cruelty caught on tape.

The Houston Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals released footage of a puppy being strangled and thrown on the ground. In another video, a dog was attacked with a knife, according to a release from the SPCA. That organization, along with Houston police, rescued the three canines.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Houston SPCAs Wildlife Center of Texas sees spike in injured and orphaned animals during pandemic

The first case involves a Labrador-mix puppy who was seen on video being strangled and thrown out of the front door of an apartment in the Greenspoint area. Following the submission of the video, Harris County Constable Precinct 1 on April 24 issued a warrant and Houston SPCA officials seized the animal.

The puppy is in stable condition and is currently housed at the Houston SPCA pending a custody hearing. Precinct 1 sought criminal charges of animal cruelty, but the Harris County District Attorney's Office did not accept those charges, citing lack of sufficient evidence, according to Precinct 1 Office spokesman Kevin Quinn.

The second case involves a dog and puppy who were seized after the owner was caught on video repeatedly hitting the dog in the face with a knife. The dog was tied down with shoestrings during the attack, according to the SPCA. Both animals are being treated for severe skin and flea issues and will be in SPCA care pending a civil custody hearing. It is unclear if the owner will face criminal charges at this time.

'INHUMANE AND EXTREMELY FILTHY': Flea market breeder surrenders nearly 100 animals to Houston Humane Society

SPCA officials said the animals may be available for adoption at a later date, pending the custody hearings.

Anyone who witnesses animal cruelty is encouraged to report it to the Harris County Constable Precinct 1 animal cruelty hotline at 832-927-1659 or the Harris County Animal Cruelty Task Force at 832-927-PAWS. Abuse can also be reported to the Task Force via an online form.




In this file photo taken on June 30, 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un stand on North Korean soil while walking to South Korea in the Demilitarized Zone(DMZ), in Panmunjom, Korea. AFP-Yonhap



Pandemic, election put talks in doubt



By Do Je-hae



Will Kim Jong-un's return from his hiatus from the public life change the status quo in the stalled U.S.-North Korea denuclearizaton talks? This is the core question in the minds of many people who follow North Korea affairs.



U.S. President Donald Trump seemed to welcome the North Korean leader's return. He retweeted a post about Kim's visit to a fertilizer factory in Sunchon, north of Pyongyang, Saturday, saying "I, for one, am glad to see he is back, and well!" During a press conference after Kim's re-emergence, Trump said that he "may" talk to Kim this weekend, without providing any details.



Following Trump's reaction, the possibility of a restart of the North Korea-U.S. talks at the highest level once again gained the spotlight.



But experts who spoke to The Korea Times, Tuesday, said that two key factors  first, their respective fights against the COVIID-19 pandemic and second, the U.S. presidential election  will likely prevent any major breakthrough. The countries' denuclerization talks have been deadlocked since a failed meeting between officials from the two sides in Sweden in November 2019.



Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korea Studies, told The Korea Times that Kim will not make any major move until November when the U.S. elects a new president, and instead use the time until then to map out strategies to deal with Washington in the post-election period.



"When looking back, we have never seen epochal advances in North Korea-U.S. relations during the presidential election season in the U.S," said Yang.



"Another thing to note is that the two countries are both immersed with tackling COVID-19. So from President Trump's point of view, it is important at this point to maintain the status quo so that Kim does not progress further with his nuclear and missile programs. On the other hand, Kim will be planning his moves based on a couple of scenarios: Plan A) what to do if Trump wins and Plan B) what to do if Biden wins."



Joe Biden, the former U.S. vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee for president, has been very critical of Trump's North Korea policies, so his win could possibly bring huge changes to Washington's strategy with the North.



Long-term perspective



Although Pyongyang is expected to remain rather passive about picking up negotiations with Washington this year, some analysts note that it is still committed to talking to the U.S. in the long-run and will try harder to cement its stature as a "credible" negotiating partner, regardless of who wins the presidential election.





People in a park watch news broadcasted on a giant screen showing leader Kim Jong-un attending the opening ceremony of the Sunchon Phosphatic Fertilizer Factory Saturday, May, 2. AP-Yonhap
Donald Trump looks at National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci as he answers a question during a daily coronavirus task force briefing - Reuters

Top US health official Anthony Fauci has said that there is no scientific evidence to support claims by Donald Trump that the new coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab.

Dr Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been one of the leading medical experts helping to guide the US response to the highly contagious virus that has swept across the country.

Dr Fauci contradicted claims made by the US president that the global coronavirus pandemic started in a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan in an interview published on Monday evening by National Geographic.

"If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what's out there now, (the scientific evidence) is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated," Fauci told the magazine.

"Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that (this virus) evolved in nature and then jumped species," he said.

The well-regarded doctor has at times corrected or contradicted the president at White House briefings or in press interviews on issues such as the time required to develop a vaccine and the likelihood that the coronavirus will return in the fall.

The World Health Organization also said on Monday that Washington had provided nothing to support "speculative" claims that a Wuhan lab was to blame for the outbreak.

"We have not received any data or specific evidence from the United States government relating to the purported origin of the virus - so from our perspective, this remains speculative," WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told a virtual briefing.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison also said in comments on Tuesday that the most likely origin of the virus was a Chinese wet market, appearing to contradict Trump's claims.

Scientists believe the killer virus jumped from animals to humans, emerging in China late last year, possibly from a market in Wuhan selling exotic animals for meat.

Story continues

Mr Trump, increasingly critical of China's management of the outbreak, claims to have proof it started in a Wuhan laboratory.

And US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday said "enormous evidence" backed up that claim, although the US intelligence community last week said it would continue to study whether the outbreak stemmed from infected animal contact, or a lab accident.

China has vehemently denied suggestions the lab was the source.

"Like any evidence-based organisation, we would be very willing to receive any information that purports to the origin of the virus," Mr Ryan said, stressing that this was a very important piece of public health information for future control.

"If that data and evidence is available, then it will be for the United States government to decide whether and when it can be shared, but it is difficult for the WHO to operate in an information vacuum in that regard," he added.
By Kyle Martin

Bay City News Service

Santa Clara County is opening two new appointment-only public sites for coronavirus testing.

The county announced on Monday that James Lick High School at 57 N. White Road in San Jose and Christopher High School at 850 Day Road in Gilroy will be open for testing on Wednesday.

Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Cindy Chavez was joined by Supervisor Dave Cortese, Deputy County Executive David Campos, San Jose Councilwoman Magdalena Carrasco, Gilroy Mayor Roland Velasco, and among others the county's Superintendent of Schools Mary Ann Dewan at James Lick High School on Monday to announce the opening of the sites.

Chavez said the sites will be able to test up to 132 individuals per day, and will be available to anyone who would like to sign up.

She also added that there are differing levels of priority for testing, beginning with individuals living in skilled nursing facilities followed by people who are symptomatic of COVID-19 and then on to healthcare workers and first responders who are asymptomatic.

"What we're trying to make sure is that by density and by access that we have the most people in our community who have access to these sites," Chavez said. "Not only do we have to focus on East Side (San Jose), but we have to focus on all of Santa Clara County and making sure that we have availability across the county."

The county reached out to the state after Newsom announced days ago that 80 sites throughout California would open to help test within "underserved communities," Campos said.

"When we heard that announcement, the county quickly reached out to the state and said, 'We need sites available in Santa Clara County' which is why we are here today," Campos said.

The tests, to be administered by private health services company OptumServe, will be available by appointment only. To sign up for voluntary testing, residents can go online at www.lhi.care/covidtesting or call 1 (888) 634-1123.

"This will be a diagnostic test that will be administered to anyone in this neighborhood and the public that has symptoms that are COVID-like symptoms," Campos added.

By Monday afternoon, the county had 2,244 confirmed positive coronavirus cases, 117 deaths and 131 currently hospitalized.

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.
This image shows a sample of abnormal methane concentrations over 2019. The size and colour of the circles indicate the size and intensity of the plume detected. The redder the colour, the higher the concentration of the methane plume. Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019), processed by Kayrros

An important new tool to combat climate change is now available. Using data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite, this new technology makes it possible to track and attribute methane emissions around the world.

Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas and its concentration in the atmosphere is currently increasing at a rate of around 1% per year. It effectively absorbs heat from the sun, more so than carbon dioxide, and contributes significantly to the warming of the atmosphere. As a result, there is a growing demand to track and regulate methane emissions.

Scientists from Kayrros, a European technology start-up, have recently developed a platform to monitor methane emissions on a global scale. Their findings come from a technology that leverages Copernicus Sentinel-5P data along with additional information from a range of other sourcessuch as ground sensor data, position tracking and social media data.

In addition to these, supplementary data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions was also used, resulting in the ability to pinpoint the location, potency and size of methane leaks around the world.

Their studies show that there are around 100 high volume-emitting methane leaks at any one time around the world. Around 50% of these emissions come from regions with activities in oil and gas, coal mining and other heavy industries.

In December 2019, Kayrros detected a methane plume over the Permian Basin in the US using data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite. The Permian Basin is a shale play  an oil and gas region with a high density of wells  meaning there were hundreds of potential sources of the leak. Kayrros therefore used data from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 missions to look into which wells had completed operations within three months of the leak  a factor that would significantly narrow down the potential suspects. The result was that only one operator was in this category. The example of the Permian Basin shows how the use of the Copernicus Sentinel satellites, in combination with Kayrross technology, can be used to narrow down the source of a methane leak. Whilst Sentinel-5P allowed the initial detection, it was only through the use of Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 that the final source could be identified. Credit: Kayrros

The sequence of four images featured here show the detection of a methane plume over the Permian Basin in the US.

Jean Bastin, Product Manager at Kayrros, explains, "Over one year, those 100 leaks are releasing 20 megatonnes of methane, with around half of those attributable to the oil and gas sector and other heavy industries. This means that this sector emits an amount of methane that is equivalent to the yearly carbon dioxide emissions of both Germany and France combined."

The International Energy Agency's recent Methane Tracker underlined the importance of satellite data for precise detection data. Prior to this technology, engineering estimates remained the basis of most benchmarks on methane levels. This new ability to provide real-time detection of methane will profoundly change the direction of climate policy, and the benefits of the new technology are multiple.

In December 2019, Kayrros detected a methane plume over the Permian Basin in the US using data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite. The Permian Basin is a shale play  an oil and gas region with a high density of wells  meaning there were hundreds of potential sources of the leak. Kayrros therefore used data from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 missions to look into which wells had completed operations within three months of the leak  a factor that would significantly narrow down the potential suspects. The result was that only one operator was in this category. The example of the Permian Basin shows how the use of the Copernicus Sentinel satellites, in combination with Kayrross technology, can be used to narrow down the source of a methane leak. Whilst Sentinel-5P allowed the initial detection, it was only through the use of Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 that the final source could be identified. Credit: Kayrros

ESA's Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Josef Aschbacher, says "In the public sector, the use of observed data on methane emissions instead of untested assumptions on methane intensity, will improve the accuracy of annual inventories of greenhouse emissions.

"For governments and regulators, this technology will enable better decisions on energy policy if they can establish a baseline for methane emissions and monitor changes in carbon intensity as they happen."

In the oil and gas industry, companies that are proactive in the measurement of methane emissions, and tackling their causes, are likely to be rewarded by the market with a deeper investor base, a lower cost of capital, higher revenue and a higher share price.

The technology also provides investors with independent verification of a company's footprint and facilitates engagement on a mitigation strategy in collaboration with the management team. Investors will also now be able to measure the methane intensity of energy producers and consumers for screening purposes.

In December 2019, Kayrros detected a methane plume over the Permian Basin in the US using data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite. The Permian Basin is a shale play  an oil and gas region with a high density of wells  meaning there were hundreds of potential sources of the leak. Kayrros therefore used data from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 missions to look into which wells were completed within three months of the leak  a factor that would significantly narrow down the potential suspects. The result was that only one operator was in this category. The example of the Permian Basin shows how the use of the Copernicus Sentinel satellites, in combination with Kayrross technology, can be used to narrow down the source of a methane leak. Whilst Sentinel-5P allowed the initial detection, it was only through the use of Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 that the final source could be identified. Credit: Kayrros

In December 2019, Kayrros detected a methane plume over the Permian Basin in the US using data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite. The Permian Basin is a shale play  an oil and gas region with a high density of wells  meaning there were hundreds of potential sources of the leak. Kayrros therefore used data from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 missions to look into which wells had completed operations within three months of the leak  a factor that would significantly narrow down the potential suspects. The result was that only one operator was in this category. This image, using data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions, show that the methane leak clearly took place after the operators permit, drilling and fracking stages were complete. Credit: Kayrros

Claus Zehner, ESA's Copernicus Sentinel-5P mission manager, says, "As with carbon dioxide, human activities are increasing the methane concentration in the atmosphere faster than it can be offset by natural sinks. Effective global monitoring of methane emissions is therefore essential and Kayrros have developed a new tool for this based on the unique Copernicus Sentinel-5P methane measurements."

Other European space agencies are equally engaged in supporting the development of these measurement tools. Gilles Rabin, Director of Innovation at CNES, France's space agency, says, "It is particularly gratifying to see Kayrros, a company founded in France, to be the first to produce such detailed data on methane emissions using satellite technology.

"Even more so, it is a testament to ESA's strategy and investment into Europe's space observation technology. We are incredibly proud to be associated with both organizations."

Antoine Rostand, CEO of Kayrros, says, "The combination of Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite imagery and Kayrros technology has produced a first in the ability to attribute and track individual methane leaks. Together we are showing that Europe and ESA are pioneering new techniques in the global fight against climate change."

Explore further Satellite data lays scale of methane leaks bare
New Delhi, May 5 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the Centre and states are taking necessary steps for relief to migrant workers and disposed of a plea seeking free of cost travel for homebound workers.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and B R Gavai, which took up the matter through video conferencing, said "As all necessary steps are being taken by Centre and states, we do not see any purpose in keeping this writ petition pending." The apex court disposed of the petition.

The observation from the top court came while hearing a PIL filed by Jagdeep S Chhokar, former director in-charge of IIM Ahmedabad and lawyer Gaurav Jain, who moved the court seeking direction to authorities to allow migrant workers to return home without paying any fare after the coronavirus test. The bench noted that as per reports 85 per cent cost is being borne by the Centre. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioners, said even 15 per cent is too expensive for the migrants.

The bench noted the relief claimed by the petitioner has already been granted by the government and it is difficult to consider any prayer not included in the petition.

Bhushan cited a circular, which said that the state where the workers are and their native state, have to agree for their travel, and submitted before court the government should ease the movement of workers, and not put such restrictions. After both states agree then the migrant workers are being sent to their native places, argued Bhushan.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, said the government is following all the protocol and arrangements have been made for all the necessary help to the migrant workers.

Mehta said the ground situation is being carefully monitored by the government, for example when a migrant worker goes back to his native place he or she has to be placed under quarantine, therefore a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is already in place. "Government is proactive as we are concerned with the migrant worker and my humble submission is that this should be left to the government, and this micro-management should not be allowed", Mehta contended before the bench.

The petitioners filed a supplementary affidavit, claiming it must be made clear that the railways and the states would not be charging the migrant workers for the train and bus travel being arranged for them.

"Migrants are being required to pay around Rs 800 as train fares and the same is highly unjustified. It has been reported that the Indian Railways is actually hiking its fare by 50 rupees per passenger," said the affidavit.

The affidavit also claimed the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in a letter to Chief Secretaries/Administrators clarified about the movement of distressed stranded persons. "But shockingly, the MHA has given a very narrow definition of stranded migrants by including only those who had moved from their native places just before the lockdown period but could not return to their native places on account of restrictions placed on movement of persons and vehicles as part of lockdown measures."
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alpha Lithium Corporation (ALLI.V) (ALLIF) (Alpha or the Company) is pleased to announce it has commenced assessing all available historic data regarding its recently acquired Salar de Tolillar Project (Tolillar or the Project) located within the Salta provincial boundaries of the Puna region of the northwestern part of Argentina.



The 100% Company-owned 27,500-hectare property lies in the heart of Argentinas portion of the renowned lithium triangle and neighbours multiple significant lithium projects including Argentinas largest multi-billion-dollar lithium producer. Since 2012 several partial exploration programs have been undertaken including surface brine sampling (2012), trench brine sampling (2014), shallow borehole studies (2015), and a vertical electrical sounding (VES) survey in 2017. The previous preliminary programs offered encouraging results ranging up to 504 mg/L, with limited seismic data providing an intriguing although largely incomplete understanding of the basin.

Brad Nichol, Company CEO notes, Todays announcement highlights the combined efforts between our growing team in Argentina under David Guerrero, our newly appointed Country Manager, who has engaged trusted, local hydrogeological experts with vast Argentine lithium exploration experience, including at the Hombre Muerto, Cauchari and Olaroz salars, amongst others. The team has sourced, referenced and is reviewing all available regional and localised geophysical data. It has already been determined that the historic data was previously shot on a very small area of Tolillar Salar with underpowered equipment, thereby limiting depth penetration. The data reviewed to-date, when interpreted in conjunction with numerous regional factors that have only become evident in recent years, is believed by Company experts as offering a general geological hypothesis for favourable hydrology with potential for depth and extent of lithium mineralisation within the basin.

Story continues

Alpha reports all permits are in-place to proceed with an advanced seismic survey, which it plans to conduct upon conclusion of the historical data analysis and generation of primary study locations. The Company intends to improve upon the existing geological model using higher-powered equipment resulting in deeper penetration combined with a highly detailed area-wide program to include much larger, previously unexplored sections of the massive salar. The program is designed to indicate specific locations for the planning of future drill locations and concurrent roads, base camp, storage depot and related infrastructure requirements as part of the operational strategy to determine the nature, extent and valuation of the Tolillar asset.

As noted previously, the Argentinian government supports ongoing mining activities in Salta province as an essential activity during the current COVID-19 pandemic. The company continues to actively monitor the situation and is working closely with its in-country team to implement preventative measures to safeguard the health of its employees and contractors.

Qualified Person

Michael Rosko, MS PG, SME #4064687, independent consultant of Alpha, is the qualified person as defined in 43-101 who has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical content in this release.



ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF ALPHA LITHIUM CORPORATION

Brad Nichol

Brad Nichol

President, CEO and Director



For more information:

Alpha Lithium Investor Relations

Tel: +1 844 592 6337

info@alphalithium.com

About Alpha Lithium (ALLI.V) (ALLIF)

Alpha Lithium is a growing team of industry professionals and experienced stakeholders focused on the development of the Tolillar Salar. Together, we have assembled 100% ownership of what may be one of Argentinas last undeveloped lithium salars, encompassing 27,500 hectares (67,954 acres), neighboring multi-billion-dollar lithium players in the heart of the renowned Lithium Triangle.

For more information visit: https://alphalithium.com/ and follow us on Twitter or Facebook .



Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking information which is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. While these statements reflect management's current plans, projections and intents, by their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond the control of the Company. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements. The Companys actual results, programs, activities and financial position could differ materially from those expressed in or implied by these forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise such information to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law.

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.
New Delhi:

AIIMS Nursing Officer Exam 2020 result has been declared. Candidates who appeared for the AIIMS Nursing Officer Exam 2020 need to visit the official website of AIIMS Patna, i.e. aiimspatna.org to check and download the Nursing Officer Result 2020. Alternatively, candidates can click on the below mentioned direct link to check the AIIMS Nursing Officer Result 2020. It is to note that the AIIMS Nursing Officer Exam 2020 was held on February 23, 2020, and now the result is released for the same.

AIIMS Nursing Officer Result 2020

In order to check and download the AIIMS Nursing Officer Result 2020, candidates need to follow the below mentioned steps:

Also Read: KSET 2020 Exam Update, Revised Timetable To Be Released Soon

First, candidates need to visit the official website of AIIMS Patna, i.e. aiimspatna.org

Navigate, and visit the result section of the official website

A new page will open

Click on the Nursing Officer Result Link

The AIIMS Nursing Officer Result 2020 will open in the PDF format

Download and take a printout of the Nursing Officer Result 2020 for future reference

It is to note that all candidates who are shortlisted in the Nursing Officer Exam 2020 need to appear for the AIIMS Nursing Officer Skill Test 2020. The date, venue and time of the AIIMS Nursing Officer Skill Test will released in due course of time. For more details, candidates need to visit the official website of AIIMS Patna.

Candidates can also click on the below mentioned direct link to check and download the AIIMS Nursing Officer Result 2020.

AIIMS Nursing Officer Result 2020 Direct Link
(Photo : REUTERS/Kham ) Newborn baby Phuc An, wearing a protective face shield, is seen before leaving home for his vaccination, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Hanoi, Vietnam April 13, 2020. Phuc An was born at Vinmec hospital in Hanoi on April 1, when the Southeast Asian country started strict restrictions on movement to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic that has infected more than 3 million people worldwide. The three-week lockdown put most of the social and economic activities throughout the country on hold, but life must go on, and giving birth couldn't be delayed. Picture taken April 13, 2020.

Personal protective equipment (PPE), including N95 masks and gloves, continue to be scarce across the healthcare industry as hospital workers use it to shield themselves from the novel coronavirus.

And some hospitals are now turning to ultraviolet radiation to help disinfect available medical equipment to prolong their use.

ALSO READ: COVID-19 Update: Japanese Company Claims UV Light Robot Can Destroy Coronavirus in 2 Minutes

Healthcare workers turn to UV radiation to disinfect PPEs in Coronavirus battle

The shortage of PPEs has led a team at Nebraska Medicine to develop a process that allows for the decontamination and reuse of N95 masks. The procedure entails delivering high doses of "ultraviolet germicidal irradiation" (UVGI) to the used masks.

"The UVGI exposure we have chosen exceeds, by at least several folds, the amount of exposure needed to inactivate SARS-CoV-2 and provides a wide margin of safety for surface decontamination," the team's report noted.

When worn correctly, these filtering facepiece respirators (FFR) are designed to protect the wearer by removing at least 95%t of particles from inhaled air, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

An FFR has to seal to the wearer's face, without allowing air to pass through gaps between the respirator and the wearer's skin. Surgical masks, on the other hand, are not designed to protect the wearer from airborne hazards. These devices limit the spread of infectious particles expelled by the wearer.

Nebraska Medicine plans to disinfect and reuse the N95 FFRs "multiple times until respirator suit is impacted," the report noted.

"Our program initially involved the units with high N95 FFR use, such as the emergency department and our COVID-19 ward, but we plan to rapidly expand to ambulatory settings," the research team said.

N95 masks are also being reused at Saint Louis University Hospital in St. Louis. After being exposed to UV light for 10 minutes, the mask can be used for up to five more shifts. The crew is capable of sanitizing as much as 1,600 N95 masks per day.

"We believe a variety of UV light sources could be used similarly, including UV-equipped biosafety or sterilization cabinets or other UV disinfection systems," the report wrote. Nebraska Medicine's report added that the same method can be applied to a variety of other critical items, such as procedure masks.

Level of UV exposure needed

Dr. Jeremy Rossman of Kent University in the United Kingdom told AccuWeather that UV light is powerful at destroying the genome of viruses and sterilizing surfaces in laboratories.

However, specialists need to take proper precautions and ensure they are accurately sterilizing the personal protective equipment.

"[The general public doesn't know] how much UV-C light [they] are getting from this, and [they have] no idea how to use it to get the precise dose," said Bob Karlicek Jr. of the Center for Lighting Enabled Systems and Applications at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

To disinfect items thoroughly, he said one must need the right amount of UV-C light. Nebraska Medicine noted in materials needed in disinfecting and local rules should be considered before adopting any process and which may impact [its effectivity]."

ALSO READ: COVID-19 Update: Summer, UV Lights Won't Likely Save People From Coronavirus - Experts Say

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
WWE RAW REPORT: THE FINAL ENTRANT IN MONEY IN THE BANK, DO WE HAVE A TAG TITLE MATCH ON SUNDAY?, COULD MVP'S GUYS WIN?, AND MORE

Tonight's show starts off with a look back at last week's contract signing.

We are at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida and your announcers are Tom Phillips, Samoa Joe, and Byron Saxton.

Montel Vontavious Porter is in the ring with the VIP Lounge. He says last week things went a little sideways. It was a special episode with the men's competitors in Money in the Bank. Things didn't go according to plan unless the plan was a brawl. This week, we return to style, sophistication, and class, but remember what happened last week with these three women. We see footage from the "it wasn't a match" match from last week.

Out first is Asuka. MVP asks Asuka a question in Japanese and she says she is very happy. Asuka continues to dance before taking her seat.

Out next is Shayna Baszler.

The final participant from Raw, Nia Jax, makes her way to the ring. Since Shayna is sitting in the middle of one of the futons, Nia sits on the table between the futons.

MVP says these ladies will be out of their comfort zones on Sunday. MVP asks Nia if she has the skill set to make it from the first floor to the roof to the top of the ladder to win? Nia asks MVP if he has paid attention to Raw. She says she has destroyed anyone put in front of her.

Asuka is asked for her response and Asuka yells at Nia in Japanese about what Nia did to Kairi Sane and she calls her a big bully.

MVP asks Shayna how her skills will help her win at Money in the Bank. Shayna says opera non verba. Shayna says unique skill set? She says she does all her talking with her actions and that is the difference between her and everyone else in the match. She asks Asuka and Asuka responds with a number of EZPZs.

Shayna and Asuka stare each other down and they kick Nia off her table. MVP tries to separate Asuka and Shayna. MVP tells them to save it for the fight.

Tom mentions the men's participants in the Money in the Bank ladder match and we see what happened to Apollo Crews last week.

Tonight, someone will join the five men already in the match. We see Bobby Lashley in the back with Lana and we are told that he is going to start off the gauntlet.

We go to commercial.

Match Number One: Money in the Bank Ladder Match Qualifying Gauntlet Match

Segment One: Bobby Lashley versus Titus O'Neil

They lock up and go to a stalemate. Titus with punches and chops. Lashley misses a punch in the corner and Titus with a punch and forearm. Lashley with a spear and he gets the three count,.

Titus O'Neil Eliminated

Segment Two: Akira Tozawa versus Bobby Lashley

Tozawa with a spinning heel kick and missile drop kick. Lashley with a spear for the three count.

Akira Tozawa Elimianted

Segment Three; Shelton Benjamin versus Bobby Lashley

Lashley with a kick as Shelton gets to the ring but Shelton with a blockbuster and then he sends Lashley to the floor. Shelton with a knee to Lashley followed by a slingshot facebuster. Lashley sends Benjamin into the ringside barrier. Benjamin is sent into the ringside barrier. Lashley sets for a spear and Benjamin with a leap frog. Benjamin with a spinning heel kick but Lashley with a spear for the three count.

Shelton Benjamin Eliminated

Segment Four: Humberto Carrillo versus Bobby Lashley

We are back and Lashley chokes Carrillo in the corner. Lashley with an Irish whip but Carrillo with a boot. Lashley escapes a side head lock with a take down. Lashley with a shoulder tackle. Lashley gets Carrillo up and tries for a Dominator but Carrillo lands on his feet. Carrillo with a kick to Lashley from the apron followed by a missile drop kick. Carrillo with a back roll moonsault for a near fall. Carrillo goes up top and Lashley stops him and press slams Carrillo to the mat. Lashley with a running clothesline into the corner followed by kicks and a choke. Lashley with punches to Carrillo. Lashley pushes the referee away and the referee warns Lashley about being disqualified. Lashley has been disqualified by the referee.

Bobby Lashley Eliminated

Lashley biels Carrillo and hits a spear before referees come out to tell Lashley to stop.

Segment Five: Angel Garza (with Zelina Vega) versus Humberto Carrillo

We are back and Garza chokes Carrillo in the corner. Garza with a chop. Carrillo with an elbow but Garza traps Carrillo in the turnbuckles and he drop kicks Humberto. Garza removes the pants and throws them at Carrillo. Garza with a leg drop to the groin and a drop kick. Garza gets a near fall. Garza with an arm bar and then he turns it into a bow and arrow.

We see Bobby Lashley in the back and Lana is trying to give him a pep talk but he doesn't want to hear anything about it.

Carrillo with a hip lock take down but Garza with a knee and slingshot reverse suplex. Garza with a super kick for a near fall. Carrillo with a kick to the head and a head scissors and drop kick. Carrillo gets a near fall. Garza gets his knees up on a moonsault attempt and Garza gets a near fall. Garza with a camel clutch. Garza turns it into a rocking horse. Carrillo tries to escape and Garza gets a near fall. Garza gets a series of near falls. Garza goes to the ropes and hits a quebrada for a near fall.

Carrillo blocks a Wing Clipper attempt. Carrillo counters into a sunset flip for the three count.

Angel Garza Eliminated

Segment Six: Austin Theory versus Humberto Carrillo

Theory with forearms and punches. Theory gets a near fall. Theory with a hard Irish whip. Carrillo with a forearm and Theory with a kick and forearms. Theory with a snap mare and boot to the chest. Theory with a waist lock. Theory with a kick and he returns to the waist lock. Theory sets for a suplex but Carrillo gets to his feet and Carrillo with kicks. Carrillo goes for a springboard head butt and Theory with a forearm for a near fall. Theory puts Carrillo on the turnbuckles and Theory with a chop. Theory with a superplex and Carrillo with an inside cradle for the three count.

Austin Theory Eliminated

Segment Seven: AJ Styles versus Humberto Carrillo

We are back and Carrillo with a drop kick. Carrillo kicks AJ in the corner and follows with punches and kicks. AJ with an Irish whip and Carrillo tries to float over but AJ sees it coming. AJ with knees to the midsection. Styles kicks Carrillo in the midsection. Carrillo tries to land on his feet on a belly-to-back suplex attempt but he lands on his stomach. Styles gets a near fall. Styles with a waist lock. Styles with an abdominal stretch. Styles with an elbow to the midsection as he holds on to the abdominal stretch. Carrillo gets to the ropes.

AJ with a waist lock and Carrillo with an elbow and forearm. Carrillo misses a charge into the corner and AJ drops Carrillo's knee over his shoulder. AJ with a dragon screw leg whip. AJ with a knee drop to the leg. AJ works on the lower leg and Carrillo gets to the ropes. Carrillo with an elbow to AJ but AJ with forearms. AJ goes for a dragon screw but Carrillo escapes and hits a DDT. Carrillo with an enzuigiri and both men are down. AJ with a forearm and kick to the leg. Carrillo with a apinning heel kick and both men are down again.

Carrillo runs into a boot and AJ goes for a moonsault into a reverse DDT but Carrillo counters into an inside cradle for a near fall. Both men with clotheslines and both are down. AJ with a pump handle gutbuster and then he applies the calf crusher and Carrillo taps out.

Winner: AJ Styles

After the match, AJ wrings Carrillo's leg into the ring post.

AJ Styles says he is not a zombie or a ghost. There is no Undertaker to try to steal his spotlight. AJ says he got buried. So what. I admit it and I understand it. It doesn't mean that I lost. There are no rules in a Boneyard Match. That was then and this is now. I have seized an opportunity and he is in the most unique Money in the Bank Ladder Match. It's worth it. I'm going to do anything to get that contract. If that means throwing a Rey Mysterio or an Aleister Black off the top of the WWE headquarters, so be it. They have not been what I have been through. Get ready to rewrite the history book with the most memorable moment in Money in the Bank. AJ says he will win the match and then Mr. Money in the Bank will be Phenomenal.

Coverage Continues on Next Page

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Hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, World has placed all of its 13 staff at the Lausanne headquarters on 'temporary partial unemployment' scheme through which the Swiss government will pay the bulk of their wages.

Following the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, World executive board has suspended all its events till August 31, resulting in a huge losses to the federation.

By availing the 'unemployment benefits' under the Payroll Services of Switzerland, the Swiss employers get paid by their respective organisations for the work done, while the government funds rest of the salary.

Confirming the development, a WA spokesperson told news agency PTI that apart from Olympic revenues they were badly affected by broadcast and sponsor contracts etc.

ALSO READ: European swimming championships moved to May 2021

"We have placed staff on partial unemployment according to adjusted workload. We're okay until the end of 2020 and are exploring all avenues for funding until we expect to receive the delayed Olympic revenues in 2021," the WA spokesperson said.

"You work less (depending on role and workload). Employer only pays for work done, government funds rest of salary. It's pretty normal here in Switzerland. Many, many companies have done it."



"We are focused on pivoting our output to provide value to community, athletes and partners in this period. Until we get resume normality," the spokesperson added.

"We have finance to cover us for the rest of 2020... We are exploring all options for 2021," he added.

A third tier of Olympic sports, body was anticipating the bulk of its $18.60 million share of revenue from the Olympics in September.

An possibility advance payout on the Tokyo 2020 is being mooted by the IOC, who are in talks with several Federations regarding their financial situations.
The Kerala government on Tuesday turned down the Congress partys offer to help the migrant workers who want to leave the state for their native places.

The district Congress committee in Alappuzha brough a cheque of Rs 10 lakh, but the district collector refused to accept it saying there is no provision for it.

Alappuzha district collector M Anjana said there is no government approval to collect the cheque.

Congress general secretary KC Venugopal asked the Kerala government to shed its false pride and accept the money.

The party further said that the railways is charging Rs 930 for a single ticket to Bihar. It further said that migrant workers are complaining that this is Rs 200 higher than the normal ticket price.

A train is expected to leave Alappuzha to on Tuesday afternoon to Hazaribag in Bihar with 1,140 migrants.

The migrant labourers, meanwhile, said that it is cruel on part of the Kerala government to reject the offer made by the Congress party.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi had on Monday attacked the government for charging train tickets from migrant labourers going back to their homes and announced that her party will bear the cost for the rail travel of all such workers stranded due to the coronavirus lockdown.

In a statement, she had said that it is disturbing that the central government and the rail ministry are charging them for train tickets in this hour of crisis.

Gandhi said the Congress has taken a decision that all its state units will bear the cost for the rail travel of every needy worker and migrant labourer and take necessary steps in this regard.

Terming the party decision as historic, Venugopal and Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala had said that the partys state units will pay the cost of train travel of migrants to state chief secretaries.
Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York, wears a protective mask while touring the Malia Mills swimwear factory, which has pivoted to manufacturing polypropylene gowns for medical workers, in the Brooklyn borough of New York, U.S., on Wednesday, April 22, 2020.

New York City health officials are increasingly worried about a recent rise in cases of a rare inflammatory disease in children that may be linked to the coronavirus, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.

De Blasio said health officials have identified at least 15 pediatric cases of an inflammatory disease similar to Kawasaki disease, an illness most common in young children and causes high fever and swelling in blood vessels. Children may also develop a rash and experience abdominal pain and vomiting, de Blasio said.

Four of the patients tested positive for Covid-19, 11 tested negative but six had antibodies for the virus, indicating a prior infection.

All of the patients had a fever with more than half reporting a rash, abdominal pain, vomiting, or diarrhea, the NYC Health Department said in a separate report. "Respiratory symptoms were reported in less than half of these patients."

The number of cases is "enough for sure to say even though it's uncommon compared to the hundreds of thousands of people who have contracted, this disease is still causing us concern," de Blasio said. "If any child is experiencing these symptoms, particularly in combination, call your doctor right away. "

World Health Organization officials said last week they are investigating whether the coronavirus causes Kawasaki disease in children after several cases cropped up in Europe.

The WHO has asked its global network of clinicians to be "on alert" for such cases around the world. The coronavirus, which is primarily a respiratory disease, is affecting more than just the lungs, as first thought, Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO's emergencies program, said on April 29.

Earlier Tuesday, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration, said the rare disease demonstrates that "we don't understand this virus well."

"It's really a remarkable thing, after so many months with the virus, and so much reporting in the medical literature, we're still learning a lot about it," Gottlieb said on "Squawk Box." "I think the incremental information that we're learning leads us to believe that this is a much more fearsome virus than we perceived perhaps at various points."

Early in the outbreak, researchers and infectious disease experts said the virus appeared to be sparing children while hitting the elderly and those with underlying health conditions particularly hard.

Since then, researchers have learned much more about the virus, including that children do get it and can die from it, even without underlying conditions that tend to worsen symptoms. Most kids report mild respiratory symptoms, namely fever, dry cough and fatigue. However, some do children can become seriously ill.
Venezuela on high alert after abortive US-backed military raid

Iran Press TV

Monday, 04 May 2020 7:49 AM

The Venezuelan military has been placed on heightened alert after foiling a raid by US-backed mercenaries.

Venezuelan Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said the attackers had launched a pre-dawn raid on Sunday.

The mercenaries tried to invade the northern state of La Guaira on high-speed boats, Reverol said, adding that eight of the armed men were killed and two others were captured.

He said one of them was an agent of the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

One of the mercenaries killed, nicknamed "the Panther," was identified as having been involved in obtaining weapons for the covert force in Colombia.

Reverol added that Venezuelan forces had seized their weapons and were searching the sea bottom near the beach where they landed looking for more weapons after one of the boats capsized.

'Another coup attempt'

Sergey Melik-Bagdasarov, the Russian ambassador to Venezuela, said on Sunday that the objective of the failed operation had been to bring weapons into Venezuela to be later used by trained opposition forces to destabilize the country and topple the government in a coup d'etat. The Russian diplomat pointed out that it was not the first time that such an operation had been launched against Caracas.

"On the night of May 3, the Venezuelan security forces stopped another attempt to illegally import into the Venezuelan territory a batch of weapons used to organize terrorist attacks, various sabotage acts, and destabilize the situation in order to overthrow the legitimate government of Venezuela led by [President] Nicolas Maduro," Melik-Bagdasarov said. "So who are these criminals who staged another coup attempt?"

"It is such mercenaries  the products of a factory of terror and murder, fostered with the support of the US  that comprise such armed groups, one of which was neutralized today," he added.

The Russian envoy said military camps had been set up with US support in countries neighboring Venezuela, such as Colombia, to give training to anti-Caracas forces to topple the government.

Colombian officials have dismissed allegations of involvement of any sorts in the failed attack.

Former US Green Beret claims responsibility

However, a former US Green Beret claimed responsibility for what he described as a failed operation launched from Colombia aimed at overthrowing Maduro.

In an interview, Jordan Goudreau gave details of the pre-dawn amphibious raid on a location near the South American country's capital.

An AP investigation published on Friday found that Goudreau had been working with a retired Venezuelan army general training dozens of former Venezuelan soldiers at secret camps inside Colombia. The goal of the operation was to mount a cross-border operation that would end in Maduro's arrest.

Washington has been openly calling for the ouster of Maduro, increasing pressure on Caracas in recent weeks by indicting the leftist leader as a narco-trafficker and offering a 15-million-dollar "reward" for his arrest.

Washington also has slapped harsher sanctions on Venezuela.

Opposition figure Juan Guaido, propped up by the US, has been laying claim to power in Venezuela. He has formerly launched an abortive coup.

There was also an attempt at assassinating Maduro with a drone in 2018.

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Leadership. Leadership in both parties. Theres enough blame to go around. Certainly, its a diminishment of core values by this president. Weve not seen a president this hostile to core values that have defined the workings and the strength of our democracy.A free and open press has become enemies of the people. The way he questions even the integrity of his own government  the officials and decision-making processes. The way he disparages judges if they happen to rule against him. The way he attacks his adversaries  not understanding that this is part of the pull-and-tug of a democratic decision-making process. And weve just become so worn down by his rhetoric that to resurrect that narrative of what it means to be American and what it means to be patriotic and what it means to cut across all these different communities of people that comprise the American experience makes one sound naive and Pollyannaish. I actually think that in this moment of crisis and despair for many, its important to give folks kind of a pep talk. Give them something aspirational to lean into. You know, were celebrating our 100th anniversary this year at the ACLU. And on the 100th anniversary, we ran this New York Times ad that a lot of folks thought was pablum. But I thought it was really important. [It] said we believe that we the people means all of us. Its very simple. Some of us need to beat that drum. [Laughs.] And Im not afraid to do it.
The newly-remastered images show the icy surface of Europa, the sixth of Jupiters moons and the fourth largest, in enhanced color.

All three high-resolution images were captured along the same longitude of Europa as NASAs Galileo spacecraft flew by on September 26, 1998, in the eighth of the spacecrafts 11 targeted flybys of the icy moon.

The images revealing features as small as 460 m (1,509 feet) across were taken through a clear filter in grayscale (black and white).

Using lower-resolution color images of the same region from a different flyby, technicians mapped color onto the higher-resolution images.

Enhanced-color images like these allow planetary scientists to highlight geologic features with different colors.

Such images dont show Europa as it would appear to the human eye, but instead exaggerate color variations to highlight different chemical compositions of the surface.

Areas that appear light blue or white are made of relatively pure water ice, and reddish areas have more non-ice materials, such as salts.

Weve only seen a very small part of Europas surface at this resolution, said Dr. Cynthia Phillips, a planetary geologist at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

NASAs future Europa Clipper spacecraft will increase that immensely.

Planetary researchers study high-resolution images of Europa for clues about how the surface formed.

At an average of 40-90 million years old, the surface we see today is much younger than Europa itself, which formed along with the Solar System 4.6 billion years ago.

The long, linear ridges and bands that crisscross Europas icy surface are thought to be related to the response of the moons surface crust as it is stretched and pulled by Jupiters strong gravity.

Ridges may form when a crack in the surface opens and closes repeatedly, building up a feature thats typically a few hundred yards tall, a few miles wide and can span horizontally for thousands of miles.

In contrast, bands are locations where cracks appear to have continued pulling apart horizontally, producing wide, relatively flat features.

Areas of so-called chaos terrain contain blocks that have moved sideways, rotated or tilted before being refrozen into their new locations.

To understand how they might have formed, scientists study these blocks as if they are jumbled puzzle pieces.
Rishi Kapoors daughter Riddhima Kapoor Sahni has shared two black-and-white pictures on her Instagram stories on Thursday. Rishi Kapoor died on April 30 after a two-year battle with leukaemia.

While one of the photos features Rishi with Neetu Kapoor during their wedding celebrations, another is with his mother Krishna Raj Kapoor.

The candid wedding picture shows Rishi in a suit, with his bride Neetu Kapoor, who is wearing a heavy sari with a pallu on her head paired with bridal jewellery including a mangtika and a nosering. The couple seem to be looking at someone during the wedding party. Riddhima shared the post with twin heart emojis. She shared the other picture of Rishi holding his mothers hand as if asking her for a dance and captioned it, Reunited with his most favourite person.

Riddhima Kapoor shared two pictures of Rishi Kapoor with wife Neetu Kapoor and mother Krishna Raj Kapoor.

Riddhima was unable to reach Mumbai in time for Rishis funeral on Thursday due to lockdown. She reached two days later with husband Bharat Sahni and daughter Samara as they had to travel by road from Delhi to Mumbai. We are not waiting for her (for the cremation). They have not given her permission for flight so she will not be able to reach here, Randhir had said before the last rites.

Family members including Neetu, son Ranbir Kapoor and his girlfriend Alia Bhatt, brother Randhir, niece Kareena Kapoor along with husband Saif Ali Khan and actor Abhishek Bachchan and Anil Ambani were among the few present at the funeral.

Also read: Kareena Kapoor visits Ranbir Kapoor, aunt Neetu after the death of Rishi Kapoor, see pic

She later accompanied Neetu, Ranbir and Alia to Banganga where Rishis ashes were immersed on Sunday. A prayer meet for the actor was held on Saturday. We did prayer meet yesterday. Today we immersed his ashes in Banganga as we havent received permission from the authorities to go to Haridwar, Randhir Kapoor had told PTI on Sunday

Rishi Kapoor died at the age of 67 on April 30 at H N Reliance hospital in south Mumbai, after a two year long battle with leukaemia.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
With the government allowing industries to restart operations by adhering to strict social distancing norms, an estimated 25 per cent of the micro, small and medium enterprises commenced their operations across Karnataka.

According to data available with the Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (Kassia), up to 25 per cent of the MSME units in major industrial estates such as Peenya, Bommasandra, Rajajinagar, Kamakshipalya, Jigani in Bengaluru restarted their manufacturing activities. Several industries in other parts of the state like Hubballi, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Belagavi, and Kalaburagi also commenced their activities.

With over 7.85 lakh registered MSMEs having more than Rs 83,000 crore investment, Karnataka has a large base of enterprises.

However, the labour attendance was very thin with barely 20 per cent reported for work in all these places. This is understandable as the crisis has completely displaced workers and is likely to take considerable time to get back to normal. Almost about one million workers have returned from Bengaluru to their home towns in the last 40 days. Until they all return, the worker attendance will be thin, R Raju, President, Kassia told DH.

He also appealed to those workers to come back immediately and urged the government to facilitate their return by arranging necessary transport.

Moreover, the Industries that have opened are in the process of servicing and maintenance after the long absence.

There are serious concerns as inspectors from electricity supply companies, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, etc. have started visiting the factories on one pretext or the other and issuing notices which is very disconcerting for the entrepreneurs in these extremely hard times as it is highly demoralising and disorienting. We strongly believe that there must not be any inspection as the industries are yet to fully restart their work and recover from the huge losses, Raju said.

He urged the Chief Minister and the Industries Minister to ensure such inspections or visits, even if legitimate, are suspended at least for the next 3 months.
Bois Locker Room

In the letter, Maanvi raised many questions about a society that normalises violence against women, from giving the daughter away in marriage to casual rape jokes. She added, "Yes, misogyny begins at home. It seeps through our words. It reinstates through our actions & it is enabled through our gender-based morality. No, we cannot absolve ourselves of responsibility by blaming it all on bad parenting because this is not the first or the only time a 'boys locker room' has existed. And it sure as hell won't be the last. " read a report in The Quint.

We Are All Complicit

Maanvi said, we are all complicit and should speak up against our own when needed. "Every time you laugh at a sexist joke (sexism: noun; discrimination, prejudice or stereotyping on the basis of gender), every time you decide to save for your daughter's wedding but your son's education, every time you ask a rape victim what she was wearing and why she was out... every action of yours is potentially rewarding or punishing a young mind for their words and actions."

Victim Blaming Needs To Stop

Society is also known to victim blame, when it comes to women based violence, and Maanvi called out the culture saying a woman can decide what she wants to do with her body.

She added, "why don't we see our men through that same lens of skewed rationality?"The letter further read, "Why have we placed a woman's 'izzat' in her vagina but no such yardstick for her male counterpart exists?! We live in a society that accepts assertion of patriarchy in more ways than we care to realise. Male privilege is real and male entitlement, a real threat. We need to do better than this. We need to bring our children up better. We need to adopt a Skinnerian model of punishing toxicity and rewarding empathy. We are shaping minds with our thoughts, words and actions. Every single moment."

#StopThemYoung

Maanvi concluded the letter with, "We have to do better. And 'boys will be boys' is just not gonna cut it anymore." Mumbai police's official Twitter account has also expressed outrage on the incident by tweeting, "Boys will be boys - never an acceptable excuse earlier, will never be one ever after #StopThemYoung". However, we are yet to hear from other celebrities in the industry.
Job

Title: USEFM

Management Assistant (WAE)  2 Job Positions

Organisation: United

States US Embassy, US Mission in Uganda

Duty Station: Kampala,

Uganda

Salary: USD

$33,685

Open to: U.S.

Citizen Eligible Family Members (USEFMs)  All Agencies

Position Number: Kampala-2020-022

About US Embassy:

The United States

Embassy in Kampala, Uganda has enjoyed diplomatic relations with Uganda for

over 30 years. Ambassador Deborah R. Malac currently heads the U.S

Mission to Uganda. The Mission is composed of several offices and

organizations all working under the auspices of the Embassy and at the

direction of the Ambassador.

Among the offices

operating under the U.S Mission to Uganda are:



Development (USAID) United States Agency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID)

Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

Peace Corps

Job Summary:The USEFM Management Assistant (WAE) provides full administrative and clerical

support to all Embassy sections including filling in for all direct hire/EFM

Office Management Specialists during temporary absences/periods of short

staffing. Incumbent shall assist in managing special projects including COTELs

and POTUS and escort pouch when required. Incumbent shall work on temporary

basis and supervised by the Management Officer.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Administrative

duties:



Coordinates

unclassified documents from drafts as well as routine telegrams and outgoing

correspondence, with special attention to grammar syntax and spelling.



Reviews,

distributes and files incoming official communications and assorted

correspondence.



Receives

and screens telephone calls, visitors, and responds to requests for

information, schedules and confirms appointments.



Typing a

variety of documents, placing official calls, screening calls and visitors

referring onward as needed, maintaining contacts lists, office files, and

office calendar.



Gathers

information for management meetings and reports.



Ensures

that all action cables and correspondence are answered.



Performs

other administrative duties as needed. 50%

Special projects

assistance:



Incumbent

shall be called upon to assist manage/provide assistance in CODELs/POTUSs,

direct hire EER processes, escort pouch, and arrange travel and any other

duties that may be assigned.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

NOTE: All applicants must address each selection criterion detailed

below with specific and comprehensive information supporting each item.



The

applicants for the United States US Embassy USEFM Management Assistant (WAE)

job opportunity should have completed secondary school /High School



At least

two years of administrative or secretarial experience is required.



Knowledge

of correspondence procedures and general customer service is required.



Knowledge

of office protocol matters, logistics and related office requirements is

required.



Proper

and efficient secretarial and office management procedures is required.



Typing

level II (40wpm) is required.



Basic

knowledge of Microsoft Office, Outlook and Internet is required.



Ability

to work flexible hours is required.



Must be

tactful, possess good judgment and be able to communicate with employees at all

levels.



Ability

to accurately proofread written material to eliminate errors, well-organized,

ability to meet deadlines and to work in a multi-tasking environment is

required.



Must be

eligible to obtain a secret clearance.



Basic

numerical skill is required. This may be tested.



Language:

Level III (good working knowledge) reading/speaking/writing

in English is required. This may be tested.

How to Apply:

All those interested

in working with the US mission in Kampala should send their applications online

at the link below.

Click

Here

Deadline: 27th May 2020

For more of the

latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or

find us on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline
One of Libya's top anti-corruption officials was abducted by a militia tied to the interior ministry in the capital, the audit bureau said Monday, the latest twist in a long-running contest over the country's vast wealth.

The abduction of Reda Gergab, the audit bureau's administrative director, brought deep tensions in the Tripoli-based administration to the surface at a time of worsening economic crisis. The audit bureau is an independent body appointed by the Libyan parliament in Tripoli and is a rare check on the misappropriation of funds in the oil-rich country.

It is regrettable that the body entrusted by the community to implement the law is violating it, the audit bureau said in a statement, accusing the interior ministry of forcibly disappearing Gergab to prevent him from uncovering financial irregularities and blocking the ministry's large and suspicious transactions.

Although the Tripoli-based government was set up by the U.N. and recognized by Western countries, many of its institutions, including the interior ministry, are in reality staffed and controlled by unruly militias.

The interior ministry acknowledged Gergab's detention and sought to justify it, arguing that the public health crisis caused by COVID-19 required the dispensation of urgent funds to rescue the Libyan people and that the government is merely carrying out responsibilities" undermined by the anticorruption agency.

We have noticed that the audit bureau is not performing its role according to the law, the ministry said, referring to the body's review of government operations amid accusations of financial wrongdoing.

The government will never submit to political blackmail and arm-twisting.

Power in Libya is divided between the weak Tripoli government, supported by Turkey and a range of local militias, and rival eastern-based forces under the command of Khalifa Hifter. Although Hifter rules over most of Libya's east and south, the Tripoli administration holds a distinct advantage: control over the Libyan Central Bank, which contains the country's oil revenues and billions of dollars in foreign reserves.

But both of those assets oil and money have been threatened. Earlier this year, tribal groups allied with Hifter brought the critical oil industry to a halt, choking off some 95% of the country's income. The blockade, an intense challenge to the Tripoli government's financial control, came as Hifter's allies accused the government of exploiting the country's shared oil wealth to pay Syrian mercenaries deployed by Turkey to defend the capital.

Hifter's forces, backed by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia, have been trying to capture Tripoli for the past year. The war has settled into a bloody stalemate and sunk the country further into chaos.

The crash in global oil prices because of the pandemic threatens to further drain Libya's foreign reserves as the government struggles to stave off financial catastrophe.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Lisa Barrington and Ghaida Ghantous

DUBAI (Reuters) - A period drama about the trials of a Jewish midwife airing on Saudi-controlled MBC for Ramadan has drawn both criticism as an attempt to promote Arab "normalisation" with Israel and praise for a rare exploration of the Gulf's social history.

"Umm Haroun", a fictional series about a multi-religious community in an unspecified Gulf Arab state in the 1930s to 1950s, began airing on Friday as part of MBC's lineup for the Muslim holy month, when viewership typically spikes.

It comes at a time when several Gulf states have broken with the recent past and made overtures to Israel, with which they have found common ground in confronting Iran.

Some, including Saudi Arabia, have also backed a U.S. Middle East peace plan to move on from a conflict they say holds back the Arab world. Egypt and Jordan are the only Arab states that have peace deals with Israel.

An official from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, Basim Naeem, condemned the series before it aired and told Reuters that portraying Jewish people in a sympathetic light was "cultural aggression and brain washing".

Hamas, like other Palestinian groups, is vehemently opposed to the peace plan laid out by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration.

A group of regional organisations against normalising ties with Israel circulated a poster on social media urging viewers to boycott "the wicked drama", which was produced by Kuwait- and United Arab Emirates-based companies.

The show's writers, Bahraini brothers Muhammad and Ali Abdel Halim Shams, told Reuters that it had no political message.

"People have spoken and judged before seeing it," said Muhammad. "The message focuses on the ways of Muslims centred on showing love, good intention and peace to non-Muslims."

MBC, the Arab world's largest private broadcaster, said that according to its data the show is the top-rated Gulf drama in Saudi Arabia for Ramadan and among the top five dramas across genres.

Story continues

MBC spokesman Mazen Hayek said Umm Haroun's main message was a human one - a nurse who heals people "irrespective of any consideration".

"It also focuses on tolerance, moderation and openness, showcasing that the Middle East was once a region where acceptance of one another was the norm versus the twisted interpretation and stereotyping of the region by hardliners and extremists, over the last decades."

Saudi authorities took a controlling stake in MBC Group in 2018 as they seized assets from those detained in an anti-corruption drive launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

MBC, which plans to move its headquarters from Dubai to Riyadh, has courted controversy before. Past shows dealt with sensitive issues like domestic violence and Islamist militancy.

UNTOLD HISTORY

The writers said the main character, Umm Haroun, after whom the show is named, was loosely inspired by real-life Jewish midwife Umm Jan, who arrived in Bahrain from Iraq in the 1930s. A disclaimer during the first episode said the characters and events were imaginary.

Some people in Bahrain, which still has a small Jewish community, took to social media to share pictures of and a 1977 TV interview with Umm Jan, who is widely regarded as a symbol of public service in Bahrain.

In Kuwait, Twitter user Abdulaziz al-Seif said the show should not be seen as pro-Israeli.

"We should also differentiate between the Jewish religion and Zionism ... This show has nothing to do with normalising ties with Israel," he said in a video post after the show aired its first episode.

Veteran Kuwaiti actress Hayat Al-Fahad, who plays the midwife, told local daily Al Anbaa that young generations should know about "a people that were and still are in our world".

She recently stirred debate by publicly calling for the expulsion of migrant workers amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Palestinian Nadia Ali, 48, told Reuters she was no longer a fan of the actress for "getting the Jewish twisted tale into every Arab house."

(Reporting by Ghaida Ghantous and Lisa Barrington; Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Saeed Azhar; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
The coronavirus crisis continues to spiral out of control on the Navajo Nation as the city of Gallup in northwest New Mexico was placed on lockdown on Friday under the states Riot Control Act. The restrictions began on Friday at 12:00 p.m. and have been extended to Thursday at 12:00 p.m., with no one being allowed to travel into or out of the city of 22,000.

The crisis in Gallup is a preview of the situation that small towns across America will face as states continue to ease social distancing restrictions and open their economies. All roads into Gallup are closed and nonessential traffic is being routed around the city by the New Mexico National Guard and state police. Traffic routed around Gallup, including tourists, are being directed to travel through the Navajo Nation, which is on lockdown until May 17.

Gallup is a small, rural city at the edge of the Navajo Nation in northwest New Mexico, the largest population center on the route between Flagstaff, Arizona and Albuquerque, New Mexico. The city is predominantly Native American and borders the nearby Navajo, Zuni, and Hopi reservations. Its metropolitan area has the third-highest rate of COVID-19 infection of any metropolitan area in the United States.

McKinley County, which includes Gallup, has a total of 1,144 COVID-19 cases, over 30 percent of New Mexicos total. According to McKinley County Commissioner Bill Lee, one in 70 people has this virus. The number of confirmed cases likely undercounts the total.

The extraordinary number of cases in Gallup is a reflection of the poverty and economic devastation facing rural towns in the Southwest US, particularly on Native American reservations.

As of Sunday, there were 2,373 cases of COVID-19 on the Navajo Nation, an increase of over 200 in 48 hours. The critically underfunded US Indian Health Services (IHS) has administered roughly 2,800 tests per 100,000 people as of April 20, the third-highest testing rate in the US. Though the IHS has expanded rapid testing, the crisis in Gallup shows that testing continues to lag far behind the need.

The lockdown will sharpen the hunger crisis on the Navajo Nation, already a food desert, where food access has been curtailed by curfews, closures and shelter-in-place orders. According to the Navajo Times, border cities like Gallup are a vital resource for the reservations residents, who must often travel hours to shop for groceries, do laundry, haul water, and buy hay and feed for livestock. As many Navajo people rely on federal aid to survive, the first of the month is a particularly vital day for travel into Gallup.

The political boundaries of the Navajo Nation make it difficult to attain a true count of the cases among Native Americans who live in the areas surrounding Southwestern reservations and trust lands as well as within them. However, the case of Gallup paints a stark picture for rural towns that are seeing an increase in tourism as Southwest states allow businesses to reopen, compelling workers to return back to work.

On April 30, the same day New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham requested a lockdown of Gallup, the state eased restrictions on travel and nonessential businesses while reopening state parks in all counties except for McKinley, San Juan, and Cibola, the counties that border the Navajo Nation. Despite prematurely lifting restrictions, Governor Grisham placed the blame for the unchecked spread of the coronavirus in these areas on workers, Physical distancing has not occurred and is not occurring. The virus is running amok there.

Rural hospitals in the Navajo Nation are at capacity, and cases are spilling into high school gymnasiums and local community centers. This weekend, as state parks in southern Utah saw crowds of tourists, the Chinle Community Center, which is on Navajo land near major tourist destinations along the Utah/Arizona border, was authorized for use as an alternate care site for isolating COVID-19 patients.

This is in addition to the FEMA field hospital set up in Chinle, one of two FEMA hospitals set up on the reservation. According to local news, the FEMA facilities cost a total of $4 million, for which the Navajo Nation will be expected to pay $1 million. This comes as none of the $8 billion awarded to federally recognized tribes via the CARES Act has been disbursed.

The US governments inability to stem the pandemic on native land is the latest in a long history of crises in Native American communities across the country, all of which have roots in the origins of American imperialism.

That thousands of people whose ancestors were relocated and imprisoned in the US governments genocidal drive to subjugate Native Americans are now ill with a virus abetted by the ruling classs malign neglect of the entire working class is no accident of historyit is the logic of capitalism, which the international working class must replace with socialism in order to reorganize society to meet the needs of all.
When it comes to getting her child to wear a mask, Erika Setzer is fairly lucky.

She has a 12-year-old daughter and, while children that age arent exactly known for doing what theyre told, they are old enough to understand the risks of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to realize how wearing a mask can help slow the spread of the illness.

My daughter wears the masks, said Setzer, patient services manager for the childrens emergency department at Yale New Haven Childrens Hospital. She sees me do it, and knows its the right thing to do.

But Setzer realizes it can be more difficult to get younger children to wear masks. Everyone is required to wear a mask upon entering the hospital, and certain children are more open to it than others, she said.

We dont really have a problem with the 6 and older population, Setzer said. For the most part, school-aged children are pretty compliant because theyre smart and resilient and they see whats going on around them. There is an element of fear in younger children of, Why am I wearing this? 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends masks for all children older than 2 to help protect themselves and others. For those younger than 2, Setzer said, the mask can be considered a suffocation risk.

But even with that age restriction, there are still children as young as 3 or 4 being told to wear masks, and Setzer agreed that can be scary for them.

Fortunately, she said, in most situations, social distancing is enough protection for children without the mask. The American Academy of Pediatrics agreed, saying in a statement on its website that if a child is at home with the usual residents and hasnt been exposed to COVID-19, the mask isnt necessary.

If children can be kept at least 6 feet away from others, and not be in contact with surfaces that could harbor the virus, then they do not need a mask for the protection of themselves or others, the site reads. For example, during a walk outdoors, as long as children can maintain social distancing of more than 6 feet and do not touch tables, water fountains, playground equipment or other things that infected people might have touched, then they will not acquire the infection and would not need masks.

If a child does have to wear a mask  for instance, in a hospital or another place where social distancing isnt possible  Setzer has tips for making them more comfortable. First, she tries to get a parent or guardian to put the mask on, as a child will be more likely to wear the mask if theyre with someone they trust.

She also suggested putting a mask on a stuffed animal to show the child what it looks like and to make it less scary.

With older children, Setzer said parents should try to be as honest as is appropriate about why the mask is necessary.

In addition to fear and intimidation, another issue with masks and children is having it fit properly. Setzer said she still sees too many people  children and adults  wearing masks improperly.

It shouldnt stick out too far on the face, Setzer said. You can tell when someone has put an adult mask on a child. It sticks out on their face.

As with any mask, she said, a childs mask should be secure against the cheeks and under the chin. They should cover the mouth and nose and not have any straps hanging loose.

Its not protecting you if it doesnt fit right, Setzer said.
The lira has fallen 16 percent this year, moving toward lows not seen since the 2018 currency crisis.

The Turkish lira fell for a fourth straight session on Tuesday and headed toward record lows, as investors fretted about fallout from the coronavirus pandemic even as Ankara set out plans to revive the hard-hit economy.

Turkeys treasury took advantage of a recent drop in yields to sell some $1.6bn in debt, while the central bank raised forex-lira swap market transaction limits to 40 percent from 30 percent, bankers told Reuters news agency.

The lira  which hit an all-time low of 7.24 during a currency crisis in August 2018  weakened 0.7 percent to 7.0900.

It has fallen 16 percent this year amid the COVID-19 outbreak that has claimed at least 3,461 lives in Turkey. New cases have fallen in recent days, clearing the way for Ankara to begin easing containment measures.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that the government was lifting intercity travel restrictions in seven provinces and easing a curfew imposed on senior citizens and youths.

Shopping malls, barber shops and some stores will be allowed to open on May 11 provided they abide by so-called normalisation rules. Universities would return to their academic calendars on June 15 under the plan.

Some medical and business leaders cautioned against moving too quickly, but others said they were ready. The industry ministry said most auto factories had resumed production and that all major factories will have restarted by May 11.

Our industrialists have an appetite to return to production [and] I think the wheels of industry will begin to turn in June, Istanbul Chamber of Industry Chairman Erdal Bahcivan said in an online meeting.

Yet Sinan Adiyaman, chairman of the Turkish Medical Association, said in an online news conference that normalisation measures needed to be taken to avoid jeopardising progress made against the outbreak.

The measures  need to be taken independently from market expectations and rather based on scientific, epidemiologist data and in accordance with a medical coordination, he said, adding the slowdown in deaths and confirmed cases was positive.

The chairman of Kigili mens wear, Abdullah Kigili, said shops will not be ready to open in malls on May 11, but will rather target a June 1 opening.

After Turkeys treasury borrowed some 9 billion lira on Monday, two more bond auctions were held Tuesday, including 4 billion lira ($565m) of its new two-year benchmark bond to primary dealers in non-competitive bids, and 1.5 billion lira in a tap of a five-year CPI-indexed bond before the auctions.

The government also sold a net 3,309.3 million lira of the benchmark bond and 2,272.9 million of the CPI-indexed bond, bringing total sales on Tuesday to around 11.1 billion lira ($1.6bn).
Hospitals from four cities in



Gujarat will participate in the World Health Organisation's 'Solidarity' international clinical trial to help find an effective treatment for COVID-19, a senior state health official said.

The trial, to be conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) at hospitals in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot, will compare the effectiveness of four drugs and standard care on coronavirus patients, principal secretary (health) Jayanti Ravi told reporters on Monday.

The four drug regimes to be tested on patients are - Remdesivir, Lopinavir, Hydroxychloroquine or Chloroquine and Interferon, she said.

The other aspects to be assessed in such patients include improvement of health condition, mortality rate, need for ventilator support and severe drug reactions, she said.

The medical facilities selected for the trial are - BJ Medical College and and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Hospital in Ahmedabad, Gujarat Medical Education & Research Society (GMERS) Medical College in Vadodara, New Civil Hospital in Surat, and Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Medical College in Rajkot, the official said.

Nearly 100 countries across the globe are participating in the exercise, she said.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), four treatment options will be compared under the trial to assess their relative effectiveness against COVID-19.

"By enrolling patients in multiple countries, the solidarity trial aims to rapidly discover whether any of the (four) drugs slow disease progression or improve survival. Other drugs can be added based on emerging evidence," the WHO says on its website.

WHO is facilitating access to thousands of treatment courses for the trial through donations from a number of manufacturers, and also inviting developers and companies to collaborate on ensuring affordability and availability of the treatment options if they prove effective, the website says.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) first emerged in a seafood market in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, in December 2019. Since then, it has spread to 187 countries, infecting more than 3.58 million people. The novel coronavirus spreads rapidly partly due to asymptomatic carriers. Now a new study shows that asymptomatic carriers may transmit the virus by merely breathing.

A team of researchers at the Swiss Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health and the University of Zurich wanted to estimate virus release from non-symptomatic carriers into different aerosol sizes by coughing and normal breathing. Further, they aimed to see what exposure can result from these activities in a room shared with other people.

Spreading the virus

Since the emergence of the novel coronavirus, now called the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), about five months ago, many scientists have studied its behavior and mechanism of infection. They found that the virus may cause severe disease in around 20 percent of those infected. Meanwhile, other patients may only experience mild to moderate symptoms, while some are asymptomatic. This means that they do not manifest any symptoms of the viral infection at all.

The worry of most scientists is, these asymptomatic carriers are still capable of spreading the virus, making it more difficult to contain and isolate active cases. Now, a new study, published on the preprint server medRxiv*, shows that even asymptomatic carriers can spread the virus by merely breathing in a room.

To arrive at their findings, the team modeled the release of viruses from individual patients by calculating the viral load per exhaled droplets formed during normal breathing and while coughing. The size distribution gave a base estimate of the concentration of the virus copes released by a regularly breathing or coughing patient. The team also simulated the situation when a carrier is in an enclosed room with different ventilation air exchange rates.

Virus spread through breathing and coughing

They found that when they computed the viral emissions from carriers who are breathing normally, they found that the highest virus load is present in the largest aerosol size with a cumulative total emission per breath of 0.34 copes/cm3 (air) for an average patient, while 11.5 copies/cm3 for high emitters. The total emissions in the PM10 fraction were approximately one-third of these values with 0.12 copies/cm3 (average) and 4.1 copes/cm3 (high) per breath.

This means that just by merely breathing, patients can still transmit the novel coronavirus. Further, the team also calculated the virus emissions from a coughing patient. They found that the total emission per cough was about 19,400 copies/cm3 for an average patient, and 651,315 copies/cm3 for high emitters. The cumulative emissions in the PM10 fraction were half of these values, with 10,900 copies/cm 3 (average) and a staggering 366,000 copies/cm3 (high) per cough.

To compare, the team also estimated the risk of exposure of bystanders who are spending time in the same room with a COVID-19 positive patient. This may help shed light on how the virus spreads in closed areas with asymptomatic patients who are not aware that they are carriers. The team revealed that for a typical hospital ventilation situation of ten air exchanges per hour, the concentration plateaus after about 30 minutes, while for a workplace with about three air exchanges per hour, concentrations continue to increase for almost three hours.

What does this mean?

The study sheds light on how the virus behaves and how it spreads across populations via local transmission. An increased number of viruses are expected to be released by COVID-19 positive patients in the form of airborne aerosols, particularly when they are coughing. However, infected patients, even asymptomatic ones, can still transmit the virus even through normal breathing.

Though a large proportion of the virus is in the form of large particles that can deposit rapidly, there are still viruses suspended in smaller size aerosols, which can remain airborne for an extended time. These smaller air particles are more potent since they can reach the deeper regions of the lungs.

The team also emphasized the risk of staying in a room with a COVID-19 patient. An average person breathes about one-half m3 per hour in resting state, and it can increase during exercise.

Thus, a person spending time in a room with an average emitting patient breathing normally has a realistic chance of inhaling tens to hundreds of copies of the virus even when keeping distance from that person. The situation is worse in the presence of a high emitter and worst if the patient is a coughing high emitter, the researchers wrote in the paper.

The situation is grim in the presence of a high emitter of the virus and even worse if the patient is coughing.

The very high virus load in exhaled respiratory aerosols proposed by our assessment may be an explanation why COVID-19 was associated with much more transfections to hospital staff than what was expected from SARS, the team added.

Also, while mandating everyone to wear a surgical mask as effective infection control and prevention of infection, the protective factors may still be inadequate if long periods are spent in the same room with a coronavirus positive patient.

The researchers suggest that workplaces and other buildings should improve ventilation in the room. Workplaces may need to revamp designs and the number of people staying in an office. The risk of infection is real when being near an asymptomatic carrier in a room for more than a few minutes, even if social distancing is observed.

Sharing workplace rooms with asymptomatic carriers is not advised. Hence, the team suggests that offices should not be shared if there is no mass testing available to differentiate healthy and non-symptomatic cases. Hospitals should also provide adequate personal protective equipment (PPE)s to health workers, especially when in the same room as a patient who is coughing. All patients should wear a well-fitting surgical face mask to reduce emissions, even if they are not coughing.

*Important Notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
An innovative statewide alcohol-monitoring program that requires drunk drivers to be tested frequently for alcohol use significantly lowers the likelihood that participants will be rearrested or have probation revoked, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

The study analyzed results from South Dakota's 24/7 Sobriety Program, a public safety effort that imposes very frequent alcohol testing along with swift but modest sanctions for those testing positive or missing a test -- typically a night or two in jail.

Researchers found that among those who had been arrested for a second or third drunk driving offense, 24/7 participants were almost 50 percent less likely to be rearrested or have their probation revoked in the following year compared to those who were not in the program.

Evidence suggests the trend continued into the second and third years following arrest.

The results are published online by the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.

"The 24/7 Sobriety program is targeted at individuals whose alcohol use leads them to repeatedly threaten public health and safety," said Beau Kilmer, the study's lead author and director of the RAND Drug Policy Research Center. "Our research shows that 24/7 is making a difference in people's lives and reducing the risk of rearrest."

The 24/7 Sobriety program started in 2005 as a pilot project in a small number of South Dakota counties. As a condition of bond, individuals arrested for DUI were ordered to abstain from alcohol and show up at a law enforcement office to undergo twice-daily breathalyzer tests.

Individuals who test positive for any alcohol or who skip the tests are immediately subject to a short jail term.

Over time, the program expanded throughout the state and other alcohol testing technologies were incorporated. More than 30,000 South Dakotans participated in program through early 2017. The program also expanded in terms of who was eligible to participate.

"This study focuses on DUI participants, but the program's impact may be much broader," said co-author Greg Midgette, an assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Maryland and an adjunct researcher at RAND. "There are many other kinds of crime, and aspects of life, that may be positively affected by less heavy drinking."

Today, the program is used throughout South Dakota, and similar efforts have been adopted in North Dakota and other jurisdictions, including the Greater London Authority in England. The program also has been designated as "promising" in CrimeSolutions.gov, the U.S. Department of Justice's evidence-based practices portal.

The RAND analysis is the first peer-reviewed study of the 24/7 program using individual-level data.

While previous RAND research focused on the program's impact at the county level, the new study allows policymakers to make comparisons with other well-studied programs that target the same population.

RAND based its analysis on information from 16,513 individuals who were arrested for a second or third drunk driving offense in South Dakota between 2004 and early 2012. The researchers controlled for several factors to help rule out alternative explanations and took advantage of the fact that the program was implemented in counties at different times.

"[W]e find strong evidence that 24/7 participation reduced criminal activity at 12 months after the initial arrest, and perhaps longer," the study concludes. "These findings provide support for 'swift-certain-fair' approaches to applying sanctions in community supervision."

###

Support for the study was provided by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Since 1989, the RAND Drug Policy Research Center has conducted research to help policymakers in the United States and throughout the world address issues involving alcohol and other drugs. In doing so, the center brings an objective and data-driven perspective to an often emotional and fractious policy arena.
The Eta Aquariids meteor shower will peak tonight, filling the sky with up to 40 shooting stars an hour as Earth passes through the debris trail left by Halley's Comet.

The annual event lights up the sky from the middle of April until the end of May, as meteors shed by the comet hundreds of years ago burn up in the atmosphere.

Astronomers said that to watch the shower you should 'get a comfy chair' and be prepared to sit outside for hours  but you won't need binoculars or a telescope.

This meteor shower is best viewed in the southern hemisphere, but should be visible from most places on Earth, weather permitting.

Scroll down for video



The next meteor shower to light up the sky will be the Eta Aquariids and it will see dozens of shooting stars per hour this weekend - ending at the peak on Tuesday

The meteors originate from Eta Aquarii  one of the brightest stars in the Aquarius constellation. For people in mid to northern latitudes, the radiant won't be very high in the sky, so you should be able to spot the meteors on the southern horizon

The Eta Aquariids are named after the constellation Aquarius as they fall from that point in the sky and specifically the star Eta Aquarii.

'For the best conditions, you want to find a safe location away from street lights and other sources of light pollution,' according to the Royal Museums Greenwich.

The meteor shower will be best viewed in the southern hemisphere but will be visible in the northern hemisphere - just not as clearly.

The Moon will be in its waxing gibbous phase during the peak of the shower but it will be below the horizon before dawn and shouldn't damper the viewing.

When out watching them don't just stare in on direction as you might miss the brightest and most impressive shooting stars off to the side.

The best way to watch for them, according to NASA, is to lie on your back and look straight up as it gives you the widest view of the sky without getting neck strain.

Meteors are pieces of debris that enter the atmosphere at speeds of up to 148,000 miles per hour - as they do so they vaporise and cause streaks of light.

They are the flashes of dust grains burning in the atmosphere left behind as the Earth passes the path of a comet.

That's the reason they appear on certain dates and return annually - as these comets are on an orbit and leave debris in certain parts of space.

Renowned for their speed the meteors will be entering the earth's atmosphere and will leave a trail of glowing debris following them.

They're best viewed in Australia because they rise to about 50 degrees in the sky, which is the best angle to view them from.

Physicist Clare Kenyon from the University of Melbourne told the ABC the angle is perfect because it's above the horizon and has less of a chance hiding behind trees.

'You're actually best to not have equipment,' Ms Kenyon said.

The Earth experiences a meteor shower when the Earth's orbit coincides with the comet's. Pictured is the Eta Aquarids Meteor shower taken over three nights over Devils Tower in Wyoming

'You don't want a telescope, you don't want binoculars, you don't want to be zooming in on any part of the sky. It's the ideal stargazing activity to begin with because you don't need equipment, except maybe a blanket and a thermos.'

The next major meteor shower will be the Perseids in August with over 100 shooting stars per hour at their peak and showing as bright, fast meteors.

Eta Aqauriids don't produce as many stars per hour as the Perseids but astronomers say they'll be just as bright if not brighter.

According to Royal Museums Greenwich there is no specific peak for the Eta Aquariids, they tend to just plateau at a good rate over a week up to May 7.

It is one of two showers created by the debris from Halley's Comet - the other is the Orionid meteor shower in October with 25 shooting stars per hour.
Massive programmes of green public investment would be the most cost-effective way both to revive virus-hit economies and strike a decisive blow against climate change, top US and British economists said in a report published on Tuesday.

With co-authors including Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz from Columbia University and prominent British climate expert Lord Nicholas Stern, the findings are likely to fuel calls for green recoveries gathering momentum around the world.

The Covid-19 crisis could mark a turning point in progress on climate change, the authors wrote, adding that much would depend on policy choices made in the next six months.

With major economies drawing up enormous economic packages to cushion the shock of the coronavirus pandemic, many investors, politicians and businesses see a unique opportunity to drive a shift to a low-carbon future.

Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany and Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, called for green recoveries last week, and the concept has emerged as a political fault line from the United States to India and South Korea.

How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities Show all 6 1 /6 How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities Milan, Italy REUTERS How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities North Jakarta, Indonesia REUTERS How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities Jakarta, Indonesia REUTERS How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities Venice, Italy REUTERS How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities New Delhi, India REUTERS How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities Islamabad, Pakistan REUTERS

While think-tanks and investor groups have also been making the case for tailoring recoveries to accelerate a transition away from fossil fuels, the report aimed to assess such proposals in the light of new data.

The authors examined more than 700 economic stimulus policies launched during or since the 2008 financial crisis, and surveyed 231 experts from 53 countries, including senior officials from finance ministries and central banks.

The results suggested that green projects such as boosting renewable energy or energy efficiency create more jobs, deliver higher short-term returns and lead to increased long-term cost savings relative to traditional stimulus measures.

The authors cautioned that there were some risks with extrapolating from past crises to discern how coronavirus recovery packages might play out, given the possible reluctance of people to travel or socialise following the pandemic.

Nevertheless, with carbon emissions on track for their biggest fall on record this year, governments could now choose to either pursue net-zero emissions targets or lock back into in a fossil fuel system that would be nearly impossible to escape.

The Covid-19-initiated emissions reduction could be short-lived, said Cameron Hepburn, lead author and director of the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment at the University of Oxford.

But this report shows we can choose to build back better, keeping many of the recent improvements we've seen in cleaner air, returning nature and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

So far, governments have focused on emergency economic relief as an estimated 81 per cent of the world's workforce has been hit by full or partial lockdowns, the report said.

But as governments move from rescue to recovery mode, the authors identified sectors that could provide particularly strong returns in terms of both rebooting economies, creating jobs and advancing climate goals.

Industrialised countries should focus on backing clean physical infrastructure, such as solar or wind farms, upgrading electric grids or boosting the use of hydrogen.

The report also recommended retrofits to improve building efficiency, education and training, projects to restore or preserve ecosystems, and research into clean technologies.

In lower and middle-income countries, support for farmers to invest in climate-friendly agriculture came out ahead in the report, due to run in the Oxford Review of Economic Policy.

Among the worst-performing policies: bailing out airlines without attaching climate conditions.

The policy frameworks already exist to steer a sustainable recovery, said Stephanie Pfeifer, chief executive of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, which groups pension funds, insurers and asset managers with 30 trillion Euros in assets. We can't leave climate action behind.

Reuters
In my position as secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 190, I get to see a lot of candidates for political office. Kathleen Williams stood with workers and walked the picket line in support of fair working conditions at the Imerys talc plan in Three Forks, even when cameras werent around. She has stood with us for her entire tenure in public office and is the only candidate for Congress who has the independence and commitment to us to actually get things done for working Montanans. Any insinuation to the contrary is laughable. Thats why we were proud to endorse her candidacy in April.

If youre a working Montanan, youve already benefited from Williams' leadership. Shes voted to expand health care coverage to thousands of Montanans when it was the politically difficult thing to do. She fought to protect education funding to make sure Montanas public schools stay strong. She saved jobs that paid a fair wage and protected workers while also helping create hundreds of new businesses across the state. Theres a reason Montanas workers have made clear they back Williams. Its because shes got the actual substance on issues that matter, not empty and convenient political talking points.

In Congress, Williams will protect workers rights to collectively bargain for good wages, benefits, and safe working conditions. Shell continue to fight to expand access to quality, affordable health care. Shes going to make sure future generations of Montanans can get a top-notch public education. And Williams will ensure our service-members and veterans get the support they deserve before, during and after their service.

But above all else, Williams is in this for the right reasons. Shes committed to being an independent voice that stands with Montanans  something weve been lacking in our House seat for some time. Her reputation for being forthright, smart and focused (just like Montanans) continues in the legislature to this day for a good reason. Shes exactly the kind of leader who isnt afraid to do whats hard: put politics and personal gain aside to actually deliver for us.

Were proud to support her candidacy. Join me in voting for Kathleen Williams for U.S. House in the June 2 primaries and in November. Montanas future depends on it.

Jim Larson is secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 190.

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At their recent meeting, several Pennsylvania game commissioners asked commission staff to investigate ideas for new directions in several commission programs.

Commissioner Kristen Schnepp-Giger asked the Bureau of Wildlife Management to study the implications of removing antler restrictions in at least some areas where chronic wasting disease has been detected in free-ranging deer.

In 2002 commissioners changed the antler restriction to harvest an antlered deer. Prior to 2002, the antler restriction was two points to an antler or a spike at least three inches in length. From 2002 to 2010, the antler point restrictions were three or four points to an antler depending on area of the state.

Starting in 2011, the four-point area changed to three points to an antler, not including the brow tine. The three points to an antler area did not change.

The primary goal of APRs was to increase the number of adult bucks (2.5 years of age or older) in the population. By doing so, benefits of a more natural breeding ecology, an older buck age structure, and greater hunter satisfaction might be realized. To achieve that goal, APRs needed to protect most yearling bucks (1.5 years of age) from harvest.

But in CWD areas less restrictions on harvest may be needed.

Schnepp-Giger asked staff to prepare a report on the biological implications of removing antler restrictions in any wildlife management unit that is associated with chronic wasting disease management areas as well as the implications of removing antler restrictions only in WMUs 4A and 4B, the only two WMUs wholly encompassed within a DMA.

Bureau of Wildlife Management Director Matthew Schnupp said staff would complete the report for the board to consider alongside the commissions new CWD Response Plan, a revised draft of which is available for public review and comment until May 7.

Commissioner Michael Mitrick asked the board to consider the possibility of providing funding to wildlife rehabilitators who take care for bald eagles and peregrine falcons suffering from lead toxicity.

He said only a handful of rehabilitators take in lead-poisoned eagles and peregrine falcons because caring for them can be cost-prohibitive.

He suggested the commission make available up to $30,000 annually to reimburse rehabilitators for expenses they incur in caring for the birds.

Commissioner Tim Layton asked the agencys Bureau of Wildlife Protection to explore additional opportunities for mentored hunters, including hunting in bear seasons or purchasing a second spring gobbler license. Bureau of Wildlife Protection Director Jason Decoskey said staff would report back at the July meeting.

And Commissioner Dennis Fredericks asked staff to prepare language that would establish 6 mm as the minimum firearms caliber permitted for deer and bear hunting.

In addition to the commissioner ideas, a final vote on a proposal to allow state game lands users to ride Class 1 and Class 2 electric bicycles in the same manner they can ride traditional bicycles was tabled by the board.

Commissioner Tim Layton said the fine detail of language within the proposal makes it too complex to consider for approval at an online meeting, and suggested it be brought back to the commissioners next meeting, scheduled to be held Friday and Saturday, July 25-26 at the commissions Harrisburg headquarters.

The board voted unanimously to table its final vote, after giving preliminary approval to the measure in January.

A Class 1 e-bike is a two-wheeled bicycle equipped with fully operable pedals and an electric motor of 750 watts (1 horsepower) or less that provides assistance only when the rider is actively pedaling, and that ceases to provide assistance when the bicycle reaches the speed of 20 mph.

A Class 2 e-bike is a bicycle equipped with fully operable pedals and a throttle-actuated 750-watt motor that ceases to provide assistance when the e-bike reaches 20 mph. The bike can operate without pedaling.

If the change is adopted, Class 1 and Class 2 e-bike riders will be able to ride anywhere on game lands while actively engaged in hunting, trapping, or fishing. E-bike use not related to hunting, trapping or fishing will be permitted on any roads normally open to public travel or posted designated routes.

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.
Qantas could drop the price of regional flights to just $19 as the airline tries desperately to recover from the coronavirus shutdown.

The airline is preparing for what the future of the company may look like after the travel industry was brought to a grinding halt when the COVID-19 pandemic escalated in March.

Qantas' chief executive Alan Joyce said going forward, the airline would be very different than what it has previously been, with the possibility of a smaller fleet and network due to weaker demand for international travel.

He said the company was working on ways to ensure domestic travel is thriving as soon as travel restrictions within Australia are lifted.

He said they would look to stimulate demand with cheap airfares.

Prices for flights from Melbourne to Sydney on budget carrier Jetstar could fall to $39 or even $19, Mr Joyce said.

'We'll make sure we get as many people travelling as possible,' he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

His comments come as the airline prepares to lose $40million a week until the travel industry recovers from the pandemic.

Qantas secured $550million in debt to help the business survive the pandemic if it lasts as long as the worst estimates.

Qantas (pictured: grounded plants in Sydney) has secured A$550 million in debt to help the business survive the pandemic

Since the pandemic escalated, Qantas has been operating at 5 per cent for its domestic capacity and 5 per cent of its international capacity (pictured: Returning travellers in Adelaide)

The money has been secured against three of its Boeing 787-9 aircraft. The airline said it could raise another $2.7billion from other aircraft assets if needed.

The funding comes on top of the $1billion it raised in March, giving the company enough liquidity to stay afloat until December 2021.

In an announcement to the ASX, the airline said it has 'sufficient liquidity to respond to a range of recovery scenarios, including one where the current trading conditions persist until at least December 2021'.

Since the pandemic escalated, Qantas has been operating at five per cent of its domestic capacity and five per cent of its international capacity.

Mr Joyce said they were optimistic domestic travel will start returning earlier than first thought.

However, he said international travel, with the possible exception of New Zealand, could take years to return to normal.

'We don't know how long domestic and international travel restrictions will last or what demand will look like as they're gradually lifted,' he said.

About 25,000 of the company's 30,000 staff will remain stood-down until at least until the end of June.

Rival Virgin Australia went into voluntary administration two weeks ago, owing almost $7billion.

Qantas' chief executive Alan Joyce said the company was working on ways to ensure domestic travel is thriving as soon as travel restrictions within Australia are lifted
[May 05, 2020] Red River Awarded Google CA SLP

Red River, a technology transformation company,?announced today that it was awarded a multi-year contract under the State of California's Software Licensing Program (SLP) for Google (News - Alert) Cloud services. Red River is one of only six contractors to be awarded this contract from the State of California. The Software Licensing Program (SLP) was established in January 1994 and is a multi-year contract that provides California's State agencies a cost-effective solution to procure Google's software, software maintenance and technical support. Red River is an authorized reseller of Google Cloud Platform and G Suite. "We are thrilled to add this Google SLP to our State of California contract portfolio," said Ross Woodley, Chief Programs Officer at Red River. "Our cloud practice and strong relationship with Google allows us to provide another avenue to support innovative solutions for California in delivering ts citizen services."



Sacramento is one of Red River's four strategic hub locations. The company has done extensive work with the State of California, and currently has projects open with 10 different state agencies. Last year, Red river was awarded a six-year contract from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) for application maintenance and IT operations for its Strategic Offender Management System (SOMS). In addition to this new SLP contract, Red River holds several contracts with the State of California, including three California Multiple Award Schedules (CMAS) and several SLPs. About Red River?

Red River brings together the ideal combination of talent, partners and products to disrupt the status quo in technology and drive success for business and government in ways previously unattainable. Red River serves organizations well beyond traditional technology integration, bringing?25?years of experience and mission-critical expertise in security, networking, analytics, collaboration, mobility and cloud solutions.? Learn more at?redriver.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505006034/en/

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Virgin Atlantic announced Tuesday it will cut 3,150 jobs, becoming the airline to announce a reduction in headcount because of the coronavirus crisis.

The airline said it was entering a consultation period of 45 days, during which time it will work with trade unions BALPA and Unite on the restructuring.

"We have weathered many storms since our first flight 36 years ago, but none has been as devastating as Covid-19 and the associated loss of life and livelihood for so many," CEO Shai Weiss said in a statement.

"However, to safeguard our future and emerge a sustainably profitable business, now is the time for further action to reduce our costs, preserve cash and to protect as many jobs as possible. It is crucial that we return to profitability in 2021."

Virgin Atlantic is the latest airline to announce job cuts amid the coronavirus crisis, as grounded flights and national lockdowns ravage demand for air travel.

United Airlines reportedly said in a company memo on Monday that it was planning to cut management by 30%. British Airways warned last week that as many as 12,000 workers could be laid off.

Virgin Atlantic faced criticism last month when billionaire owner Richard Branson sought aid from the U.K. government to help keep the airline afloat.

In an open letter, Branson defended his actions, claiming the support would be in the form of a commercial loan that would be repaid.

He described the crisis as "the most challenging time we have ever faced."

The International Air Transport Association predicted last month that the collapse in air travel across Europe was putting 6.7 million jobs in the region's aviation industry at risk.
Peter Navarro, White House Trade Adviser, said that the suspicion that China lied about COVID-19 is more important than what may or may not happen about the trade deal according to a recently published article.



Trade Deal of China and the United States

Early this year, China and the United States signed a trade deal that is expected to bring significant changes to the economic relationship between the two largest economies in the world.

In their agreement, China committed to buy worth $200 billion of American goods and services by 2021. The deal includes purchasing agricultural products, airplanes, pharmaceuticals, oils, and gas. Moreover, the United States should produce and supply high-quality, competitively priced goods and services to satisfy the demands of Chinese consumers.

Additionally, part of the landmark trade agreement signed in January is the commitment from Beijing to halt intellectual property theft, refrain from currency manipulation, cooperate in the financial services, and to buy American goods over the next two years.



Interview with Peter Navarro About the Trade Agreement

White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro responded to the question raised by the host in "America's Newsroom" if he is seeing any sign from China that they will not follow the trade deal that they signed in January.

He said no and added that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue are closely monitoring the developments of the agreement. However, Navarro said that at this time, the suspicions that China lied about COVID-19 are more important than the trade deal.

Navarro said: "What's important for the American people, though, to understand very clearly is that China lied, people died, as the now slogan says, and it's absolutely correct."



How China Lied to the World About COVID-19 According to Navarro

COVID-19 was believed to have originated in a wet market in Wuhan, China. There are also some conspiracy theories about the virus. Further, the speculation even gets intense after China rejected the call of an international organization to investigate the origin of the virus.

During the interview, Navarro said: "There is this bigger issue that China spawned the virus, and they hid the virus for about six weeks, which allowed that virus to escape Wuhan and infect the world, and then during that time, China hoarded an enormous amount of personal protective gear,"

Navarro also added that before the virus worsens, China went around the world and had vacuum around 2 billion masks to prepare its country for a pandemic.

He asserted that this issue is more important that China needs to resolve and not about what may or may not happen about the trade agreement they signed in January.



The Investigation Into the Origin of the Virus

It can be recounted that President Donald Trump told the media reporters last week that he has seen evidence suggesting that the virus originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

At present, an investigation is being conducted to know if the pandemic was a result of a Wuhan laboratory. If this is proven to be true, then it would contradict the broad consensus that the virus originated in a wet market in Wuhan.

Meanwhile, Navarro asked the following questions: "It's what did China know? When did they know it? Did the communist party bleach the wet market to hide something? Did they make scientists disappear from those labs in Wuhan to hide something?"



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People  mostly white, sometimes armed, occasionally carrying Confederate flags or hoisting placards emblazoned with a Nazi slogan from the Holocaust  have been loudly protesting to push their state governments to reopen business and spaces before enough progress has been made to contain the coronavirus. This is yet another illustration of the race and class divide this pandemic has illuminated in this country.

For some, a reopened economy and recreational landscape will mean the option to run a business, return to work, go to the park or beach, or have a night on the town at a nice restaurant or swanky bar. But for many on the lower rungs of the economic ladder, it will only force them back into compulsory exposure to more people, often in occupations that make it hard to protect oneself and that pay little for the risk.

Georgia was on the forefront of state reopenings. The first businesses that were allowed to reopen were, for the most part, those that provide low-wage jobs that require significant contact  such as tattoo parlors, barbershops and hair salons, and nail shops.

These are the struggling workers who entertain and aestheticize people of means. These businesses were by no means essential, and they put these workers in danger. There is absolutely no way to practice social distancing while inking someone a tattoo. (Also, what are you so desperate to stamp on your body that you would risk it all during a pandemic?)

And many of the people doing these jobs will have to take public transit to get to work and search for suitable child care before they leave home. Schools, in most cases, are still closed.

But even among professions that we dont immediately consider low-wage or minority-dominated, there are areas of high risk and low wages. For many people, the image that comes to mind about the medical field, those on the front lines, are doctors and nurses, people who are highly educated and highly paid. But there are many other people in those hospitals that make them run.

For instance, a majority of nursing assistants are members of racial minority groups. A third are African American. Half have completed no formal education beyond high school. And, according to RegisteredNursing.org, the median annual wage for a nursing assistant in a hospital is just $30,000. For those in nursing homes and providing home care, the pay is even lower.

It has been widely reported that the virus is having a disproportionate effect on black and brown people in America, both in terms of infections and death. But that is only one aspect of the disparities. In a country where race and ethnicity often intersect with wealth and class, there are a cascade of other impacts, particularly economic ones, to remain conscious of.

In a Pew Research Center survey conducted last month, 52 percent of low-income workers said they or someone in their household had lost a job or taken a pay cut as a result of the pandemic. But when you look at this through a racial lens, another striking reality emerges: 61 percent of Hispanic people agree with the statement, compared to 44 percent of African Americans and just 38 percent of white people.

And, as Pew pointed out, lower-income adults are less prepared to withstand a financial shock than those with higher incomes.

A McKinsey and Co. report last month found: Thirty-nine percent of jobs held by black workers, 7 million jobs in all, are vulnerable as a result of the Covid-19 crisis, compared with 34% for white workers.

Forty percent of the revenues of black-owned businesses are in the five most vulnerable sectors  including leisure, hospitality and retail  compared with 25 percent of the revenues of all U.S. businesses.

Beyond the threat to black personal economics, the crisis also poses a threat to black institutions. As the McKinsey report pointed out, the crisis is likely to significantly  and quickly  hobble historically black colleges and universities.

Even when the country starts to recover, the race and class disparities will most likely still be present and working against minorities in low-wage jobs. As the Center for American Progress wrote last month, Evidence demonstrates that while workers of color are often the first to be fired during economic downturns, they are often the last to be rehired during recoveries.

This pandemic is likely to not only expose inequalities, but also exacerbate them.

America has never been comfortable discussing the inequalities that America created, let alone addressing them. America loves a feel-good, forget-the-past-lets-start-from-here mantra.

But this virus is exploiting these man-made inequalities and making them impossible to ignore. It is demonstrating the incalculable callousness of wealth and privilege that would willingly thrust the less well-off into the most danger for a few creature comforts.

This crisis is exposing the class savagery of American democracy and the economic carnage that it has always countenanced.
Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - May 5, 2020) - Copper Fox Metals Inc. ("Copper Fox" or the "Company") (TSXV: CUU) (OTC Pink: CPFXF) and its wholly owned subsidiary, Desert Fox Van Dyke Co., are pleased to report that it has filed on SEDAR a National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") Technical Report (the "Technical Report") which includes an updated resource estimation for the Van Dyke copper project located in the Globe-Miami mining district of Arizona.

The Technical Report is titled "Technical Report and Updated Resource Estimate for the Van Dyke Copper Project" dated May 4, 2020 and was prepared by Moose Mountain Technical Services ("MMTS"). The effective date of the Technical Report is January 9, 2020 and the resource estimate was disclosed in a news release dated March 25, 2020. Highlights are:

Highlights:

The exploration potential for additional resources is extensive to the south and at depth. Metallurgical testwork indicates that the deposit is amenable to recovery using in-situ leaching (ISL) with an estimated metallurgical recovery of 90%. Recommendations include a combined eight-hole (4,500m) drilling, metallurgical, geotechnical and hydrogeological program estimated to cost US$2.13 million. Additional engineering studies to update the PEA.

Elmer B. Stewart, President and CEO of Copper Fox stated, "The 2019 work has significantly changed the understanding of the origin and mineral potential of the Van Dyke project. The highlighted results of the updated resource estimate include: 1) an upgrade of a portion of the resource to the Indicated category; 2) an overall 50% increase in soluble copper content; and 3) a potentially 2km long extension of the Van Dyke deposit to the southwest. The Technical Report recommends a drilling program and additional engineering studies which highlights the exploration potential to add value by expanding the limits of the Van Dyke project."

The updated Resource Estimate for the Van Dyke project is summarized in the table below (see news release dated March 25, 2020 for details):

Resource Estimate for the Van Dyke Deposit, effective date January 9, 2020:







Cu Metal (Mlbs) Class KTonnes (000) Rec Cu (%) TCu (%) ASCu (%) CNCu (%) Recovery (%) Soluble Cu Total Cu Indicated 97,637 0.24 0.33 0.23 0.04 90 517 717 Inferred 168,026 0.19 0.27 0.17 0.04 90 699 1,007

M(lbs)=millions of pounds, (%)=percent, ASCu=acid soluble copper, CNCu=cyanide soluble copper, Rec Cu(%)=estimated recoverable copper grade, Soluble Cu=sum of ASCu + CNCu, Total Cu=total copper

Notes for Table:

The "reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction" shape has been created based on a copper price of US$2.80/lb, employment of in-situ leach extraction methods, processing costs of US$0.60/lb copper, and all in operating and sustaining costs of $US1.25/tonne, a recovery of 90% for total soluble copper and an average Specific Gravity of 2.6t/m3. Approximate drill-hole spacings is 80m for Indicated Mineral Resources The average dip of the deposit within the Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource outlines is 20 degrees. Vertical thickness of the mineralized envelope ranges from 40m to over 200m. Numbers may not add due to rounding.

Cautionary Note to Investors:

While the terms "measured (mineral) resource", "indicated (mineral) resource" and "inferred (mineral) resource" are recognized and required by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, investors are cautioned that except for that portion of mineral resources classified as mineral reserves, mineral resources do not have demonstrated economic viability. Investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of measured or indicated mineral resources will ever be upgraded into mineral reserves. Additionally, investors are cautioned that inferred mineral resources have a high degree of uncertainty as to their existence, as to whether they can be economically or legally mined, or will ever be upgraded to a higher category.

Investors are advised that current Mineral Resources are not current Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability.

Recommended Exploration Program:

The recommended program is estimated to cost $US2.13 million; the main components of which are outlined below:

Diamond Drilling & Analysis: an 8-hole (4,500m) program to test the extension of the Van Dyke deposit to the southwest and collect whole core samples for additional metallurgical testwork. Down-Hole Geophysics: Downhole acoustic televiewer survey to collect geotechnical data on rock mass characteristics such as fracture orientations and density. Metallurgical Testwork: 6-8 pressure leach tests on whole core from select areas of the deposit to obtain additional data on copper recoveries, leach time, reagent consumption and solution chemistry. Hydrogeology: Installation of piezometers to obtain additional data on water level fluctuations and sampling points for ground water geochemical analyses.

Recommendations for Ongoing Engineering Studies:

Recommendations for ongoing engineering studies include: run a pilot ISL test; update the Cost Estimate, Geotechnical and Water Management Studies; and then revise the Van Dyke ISL PEA project dated December 18, 2015 using the updated resource estimate. The estimated cost for this work is $US10 million.

Exploration Potential:

Updating the geological model for the Van Dyke deposit included the review and compilation of all available historical geological, geophysical and drilling reports on work completed on the Van Dyke project since the late 1960s. In 1970, Occidental Minerals identified the Azurite target approximately 2km south of the Van Dyke deposit.

The review completed in 2019 did not locate any reports on activities completed on the Azurite target, however, several maps showing the results of an Induced Potential survey and exploration activities for this target were reviewed. Historical exploration activities include:

three drill holes; several long surface trenches; and nine outcrops containing secondary (azurite) copper mineralization.

The updated resource estimate combined with historical exploration results suggests that the area of the project extending from the southwest edge of the Van Dyke deposit to the Azurite target is a high priority exploration target, see map below:

Figure 1: Van Dyke exploration potential

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2177/55372_8d7be3d704cab9fc_001full.jpg

Qualified Persons:

Sue Bird - P.Eng. of MMTS is the Qualified Person ("QP") who prepared the mineral resource estimate, T. Meintjes - P.Eng., of MMTS is the QP who completed the metallurgical review and analyses and R. Lane - P.Geo., of MMTS is the QP who compiled and reviewed the QA/QC for the resource estimate disclosed in this news release. Ms. Bird, as the QP, has approved the scientific and technical content of this news release. Elmer B. Stewart, MSc. P. Geol., President of Copper Fox, is the Company's nominated QP pursuant to National Instrument 43-101, Standards for Disclosure for Mineral Projects, and has reviewed the scientific and technical information disclosed in this news release. Mr. Stewart is not independent of Copper Fox.

About Copper Fox:

Copper Fox is a Tier 1 Canadian resource company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV: CUU) focused on copper exploration and development in Canada and the United States. The principal assets of Copper Fox and its wholly owned Canadian and United States subsidiaries, being Northern Fox Copper Inc. and Desert Fox Copper Inc., are the 25% interest in the Schaft Creek Joint Venture with Teck Resources Limited on the Schaft Creek copper-gold-molybdenum-silver project located in northwestern British Columbia and a 100% ownership of the Van Dyke oxide copper project located in Miami, Arizona. For more information on Copper Fox's other mineral properties and investments visit the Company's website at http://www.copperfoxmetals.com.

For additional information contact: Investor line 1-844-464-2820 or Lynn Ball, at 1-403-264-2820.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Elmer B. Stewart

President and Chief Executive Officer

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.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and forward-looking information within the meaning of the Canadian securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking information"). Forward-looking information is generally identifiable by use of the words "believes," "may," "plans," "will," "anticipates," "intends," "budgets", "could", "estimates", "expects", "forecasts", "projects" and similar expressions, and the negative of such expressions. Forward-looking information in this news release include statements regarding: the exploration potential for additional resources; anticipated metallurgical recoveries and methods; recommendations for future work on the Van Dyke project; potential components and estimated costs of future exploration and studies; expanding the limits of the Van Dyke project; and statements about Copper Fox's strategy, future operations, prospects and the plans of management. Information concerning mineral resource estimates also may be deemed to be forward-looking information in that it reflects a prediction of the mineralization that would be encountered if a mineral deposit were developed and mined. Information concerning indicated and inferred mineral resource estimates also may be deemed to be forward-looking information in that it reflects a prediction of the mineralization that would be encountered if a mineral deposit were developed and mined.

In connection with the forward-looking information contained in this news release, Copper Fox and its subsidiary have made numerous assumptions regarding, among other things: the geological, metallurgical, engineering, financial and economic advice that Copper Fox has received is reliable and is based upon practices and methodologies which are consistent with industry standards; and the stability of economic and market conditions. While Copper Fox considers these assumptions to be reasonable, these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies.

Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause Copper Fox's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein. Known risk factors include among others: the recommended additional metallurgical testwork on the Van Dyke copper deposit may not result in copper recoveries as favorable as presented in the metallurgical testwork or recover any copper at all; uncertainties relating to interpretation of the previous drill results and the geology, continuity and grade of the Van Dyke deposit; the recommendations of the Technical Report may not be completed as suggested, or at all; the actual mineralization in the Van Dyke deposit may not be as favorable as suggested by the resource estimate; the indicated and inferred resource estimate for the Van Dyke deposit may not be reliable or indicative of any commercial benefit to Copper Fox; the possibility that future drilling on the Van Dyke project may not occur on a timely basis, or at all; the need to obtain additional financing to develop properties and uncertainty as to the availability and terms of future financing; the possibility of delay in exploration or development programs or in construction projects; the uncertainty of meeting anticipated program milestones; uncertainty as to timely availability of permits and other governmental approvals; fluctuations in copper prices and demand; currency exchange rates; and conditions in the financial markets and the overall economy may deteriorate.

A more complete discussion of the risks and uncertainties facing Copper Fox is disclosed in Copper Fox's continuous disclosure filings with Canadian securities regulatory authorities at www.sedar.com. All forward-looking information herein is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and Copper Fox disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking information or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as required by law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/55372
A leading psychologist has offered her thoughts on a worrying new phenomenon sweeping social media.

In recent years, Australians have become increasingly exposed to images of celebrities looking almost unrecognisable thanks to excessive editing.

While it's no secret that magazines and advertisers publish heavily-retouched photos, the advent of easy-to-use apps such as Facetune means that stars can now take matters into their own hands.

Revealed: Psychologist Rachel Tomlinson has revealed why celebrities edit their Instagram photos beyond all recognition. Pictured: Mishel Karen looking unrecognisable in a photo shared last Friday (right), and on Married At First Sight last year (left)

A slew of Australian reality stars have been accused of Photoshopping themselves beyond recognition, including Married At First Sight brides Mishel Karen, Sarah Roza and Martha Kalifatidis.

The likes of Florence Moerenhout and Jake Ellis from Bachelor in Paradise and Love Island Australia's Amelia Marni have also faced scrutiny.

'The selfie culture is prevalent and it's rooted in insecurity,' said Rachel Tomlinson, a registered psychologist and founder of Toward Wellbeing.

Is that really you? Married At First Sight's Sarah Roza looked unrecognisable in a photo shared to Instagram earlier this year (left). Pictured right on the red carpet in 2017

Like everyone else, celebrities are vulnerable to feeling insecure and often turn to social media for affirmation of self-worth.

'Image-based social media platforms, particularly Instagram, create situations where a person's sense of validation comes externally from engagement with posts - likes, comments and followers,' she explained.

'When we receive notifications - and the resulting affirmation of self-worth - our body releases dopamine which is a "feel good hormone" that has an addictive quality.'

Bizarre: Martha Kalifatidis, another former MAFS bride, rarely looks like her actual self on Instagram (left). Pictured right on Married At First Sight

The overwhelmingly superficial nature of showbusiness means that many stars tie their self-worth to their physical appearance.

'Celebrities are looking for approval so they put their best foot forward aesthetically speaking, which makes them likely to use Photoshop in the same way that others do: to seek approval and present themselves in the best light,' she said.

However, Rachel warned that ubiquitous editing of photos could potentially lead to a sense of distorted reality.

Trick of the eye? In 2017, The Bachelor's Florence Moerenhout shared this photo of herself at St Kilda Beach in Melbourne. Fans were distracted by the boardwalk, which appeared to bend unnaturally around her bottom and thighs, suggesting she had used a warp tool

That's awkward! In 2017, a warped wall in the background of this selfie posted by Bachelorette star Jake Ellis led to suggestions he had digitally enhanced his bicep

She also explained why fans rarely call out stars who post photos of themselves that are clearly misleading.

'Some research tells us we aren't that great at picking up that images have been edited,' Rachel said.

'It could be that we expect or are used to seeing images that have been edited that we know it's occurring but we don't acknowledge it.'

Rachel also noted that many fans 'crave the approval of their idol', and so are unlikely to hold them accountable for their failures.
In August 2019, the New York Times debuted the 1619 Project, the brainchild of Nikole Hannah-Jones, a Times staff writer. The premise was that 1619 marked the year in which the first African slaves came to America, permanently corrupting America's founding.

The 1619 Project was condemned for serious historical inaccuracies.* In her inaugural article  "Our democracy's founding ideals were false when they were written. Black Americans have fought to make them true"  Hannah-Jones gave readers a foretaste of the errors that would follow in subsequent articles. Nevertheless, the Pulitzer committee awarded her its commentary award.

Most strikingly, Hannah-Jones originally wrote that Americans fought their revolution to preserve slavery, making the whole idea of American liberty a cynical cover for immoral greed:

One critical reason that the colonists declared their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery in the colonies, which had produced tremendous wealth. At the time there were growing calls to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire, which would have badly damaged the economies of colonies in both North and South.

There are two problems with the quoted passage. The first is that it is historically inaccurate. The second is that Hannah-Jones knew or should have known that it was incorrect.

Leslie M. Harris, a professor of history at Northwestern University, fact-checked the article before publication. In March 2020, she revealed that Hannah-Jones "repeated an idea that I had vigorously argued against with her fact-checker: that the patriots fought the American Revolution in large part to preserve slavery in North America."

Weeks before, I had received an email from a New York Times research editor. Because I'm an historian of African American life and slavery, in New York, specifically, and the pre-Civil War era more generally, she wanted me to verify some statements for the project. At one point, she sent me this assertion: "One critical reason that the colonists declared their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery in the colonies, which had produced tremendous wealth. At the time there were growing calls to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire, which would have badly damaged the economies of colonies in both North and South." I vigorously disputed the claim. Although slavery was certainly an issue in the American Revolution, the protection of slavery was not one of the main reasons the 13 Colonies went to war. [snip] Despite my advice, the Times published the incorrect statement about the American Revolution anyway, in Hannah-Jones' introductory essay.

It wasn't until Harris's article (which was published six months after the 1619 Project began and long after myriad other challenges) that the Times finally revised Hannah-Jones's words:

Conveniently left out of our founding mythology is the fact that one of the primary reasons some of the colonists decided to declare their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery.

At the bottom of the article, on March 11, 2020, the Times added an update, stating:

A passage has been adjusted to make clear that a desire to protect slavery was among the motivations of some of the colonists who fought the Revolutionary War, not among the motivations of all of them. Read more.

If one "reads more," as I did, one finds a defensive article saying the Times still agrees with the principle that slavery drove the Revolution:

We stand behind the basic point, which is that among the various motivations that drove the patriots toward independence was a concern that the British would seek or were already seeking to disrupt in various ways the entrenched system of American slavery.

For the leftist Pulitzer Prize committee, though, accuracy was less important than the article's attack on America. So it was that, on Monday, Hannah-Jones walked away with a Pulitzer Prize:

The commentary award went to Nikole Hannah-Jones, a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, for her essay that served as the leading piece in The 1619 Project, a series centered on reframing United States history by focusing on the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans. The project, led by Ms. Hannah-Jones, included a broadsheet section and a podcast.

One should always remember that, in 1932, the Pulitzer committee gave one of its coveted awards to Walter Duranty, another New York Times writer, for his articles about the Soviet Union. In those articles, Duranty followed the Soviet party line, covering up USSR's open tyranny.

Duranty continued to cover for the Soviet government in post-award reports denying that there was a devastating famine in the USSR. This naturally covered up the fact that the Soviet government created the famine, partly through government planning and partly to destroy Ukrainian farmers, who were resistant to collectivism.

Even the Times conceded that Duranty's articles were "some of the worst reporting to appear in this newspaper." We can now add Hannah-Jones's award-winning piece to that list.

______________________________

* For more information about errors in the 1619 Project, here are helpful articles from The Daily Wire, The Daily Signal, The Foundation for Economic Education, Reason, and The New York Post, to name just a few. Also, as an aside, the Irish were the preferred slaves in British colonies, but they stubbornly kept dying from malaria.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 17:29:22|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, May 5 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. researcher who had worked with a Wuhan virology lab told U.S. media in a recent interview that the start of the COVID-19 pandemic is "highly unlikely a lab accident."

"We worked together to develop very stringent safety protocols, and it's highly unlikely this was a lab accident," said Jonna Mazet, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Davis, who has worked with and trained researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

In an article published on Sunday by Business Insider, a leading news website in the United States, Mazet gave four reasons against the ungrounded assertion.

The first reason, she argued, is that "the lab's samples don't match the new coronavirus."

Mazet has worked with Shi Zhengli, a virologist at the WIT, through PREDICT, a pandemic early-warning program started by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

"I've spoken to her recently," Mazet said of Shi. "She is absolutely positive that she had never identified this virus prior to the outbreak happening."

Secondly, the WIV implements rigorous safety protocols that are "above reproach."

"In the field, they (researchers) wear extreme personal protective equipment, including multiple layers of gloves, eye protection, full body suits and masks," said Mazet.

After a series of disinfection procedures, researchers only use the deactivated, non-infectious samples, and the containers with viable virus are locked down in a special area, she added.

"Rather than a leak," Mazet said of the third reason, "the novel coronavirus is more likely the latest disease to have jumped from an animal to humans."

Mazet mentioned that the 2003 SARS outbreak, Ebola and the H1N1 "swine flu" pandemic are all caused by viruses originated in other species, which are known as zoonotic diseases.

Genetic research has all but confirmed that the virus causing COVID-19 originated in nature, she said, noting that a study published in February found that it shares 96 percent of its genetic code with coronaviruses circulating in bat populations.

As for the fourth reason, Mazed noted that everyday people are more likely to get infected than researchers who wear protection, which indicates that a leak from a lab is implausible.

Tourists, hunters and other people who rely on animals in some capacity for food or trade wander into wild habitats less protected and are therefore exposed to the live viruses circulating in the animals.

The frequency of cross-species infections "will increase as humans encroach further into wild habitats that house disease-carrying species we haven't interacted with before," added Mazet. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 23:19:24|Editor: huaxia

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MUSCAT, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The Omani government decided on Tuesday that next Thursday will be the last day of the school academic year for public and private schools, the Supreme Committee for Dealing with the COVID-19 announced.

The committee said that "it was decided to end the academic year for all students in public and private schools on May 7, 2020."

The committee authorised the Ministry of Education to adopt appropriate alternative to calculate the results of students and the mechanism for restudying in grades one to twelve and the equivalent.

The committee also decided to extend the closure of the Governorate of Muscat until May 29, in order to limit the spread of the coronavirus after it had closed it since April 10.

The Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday 98 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 2,735. Enditem
The funding can be used for the purchase of personal protective equipment for staff and residents, the creation or update of an infectious disease plan, travel for testing, and childcare costs for essential staff so they can continue to work during the pandemic.
A burned-out star, called a white dwarf, is the white dot in the center in this Hubble Space Telescope image (HST)

It might not seem the likeliest place to find aliens, but astronomers will soon hunt life on planets orbiting the remains of dead stars, using chemical signatures.

Cornell University researchers said that a spectral fingerprint of chemicals on these planets could show that life exists, even on worlds orbiting white dwarf stars not much bigger than Earth.

White dwarfs are the burnt-out remnants of stars, and are dim and ultra-dense, with a mass similar to our Suns, but crammed into a planet-sized object.

Scientists believe that planets orbiting the dead stars could be at the right temperature to host life.

Read more: Ultra-massive white dwarf with unusually high carbon levels found

The paper, "High-resolution Spectra and Biosignatures of Earth-like Planets Transiting White Dwarfs," was published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Telescopes such as the Extremely Large Telescope, currently under construction in northern Chiles Atacama Desert, and the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in 2021, will allow astronomers to detect planets passing in front of white dwarf stars.

Professor Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute, said: Rocky planets around white dwarfs are intriguing candidates to characterise because their hosts are not much bigger than Earth-size planets.

Read more: Hidden giant planet found orbiting tiny white dwarf star

The trick is to catch an exoplanet's quick crossing in front of a white dwarf, a small, dense star that has exhausted its energy, Kaltenegger said.

We wanted to know if light from a white dwarf  a long-dead star  would allow us to spot life in a planet's atmosphere if it were there.

This paper indicates that astronomers should be able to see spectral biosignatures, such as methane in combination with ozone or nitrous oxide, if those signs of life are present, Kaltenegger said.

If we would find signs of life on planets orbiting under the light of long-dead stars, the next intriguing question would be whether life survived the star's death or started all over again  a second genesis, if you will."

Doctoral student Thea Kozakis said: If we observe a transit of that kind of planet, scientists can find out what is in its atmosphere, refer back to this paper, match it to spectral fingerprints and look for signs of life.

Publishing this kind of guide allows observers to know what to look for.
The F1 world should stand behind the sport's decisions about when and how the 2020 season gets up and running, according to Alain Prost.

Some are critical of the efforts to go racing again from July, but F1 legend Prost thinks now is the time for unity.

"Given the context, you have to be open to everything," the Renault advisor told Canal Plus.

"When there is a decision, you have to be behind that decision. We cannot always be critical. The criticism must be positive for proposing something else, because we find ourselves in an emergency situation."

And so Prost thinks the 'ghost races' idea is probably the best one for now.

"If we can do it all behind closed doors then that is better than nothing," said the quadruple world champion. "F1 is a sport like any other and people need to dream a little.

"But for motorsport, for F1, economically we are talking about billions of euros between countries like France, England, Italy etc. And that is important as well."

However, Prost is worried that F1 could start its 2020 season without knowing exactly what the rest of the calendar will look like.

"We cannot say 'We will start in Austria and then Silverstone and then we will see. It would be very, very difficult to do that," he said.

"We could very well have maybe 15 races, because things may evolve favourably in certain countries - and when I say 15, it's not 15 destinations. There would certainly be two races on the same circuit.

"I don't really want to go into detail, because I don't want to annoy people right now, but yes we could very well not have a race at all," Prost said. "But I am trying to stay positive."

Silverstone boss Stuart Pringle says it could be "weeks" before it is known whether the British venue may be the one to follow Austria in July.

(GMM)
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Linkedin Josa Lukman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, May 5, 2020 15:08 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd61509d 1 Art & Culture citraresmi,Maudy-Koesnaedi,Happy-Salma,theater,theater-performance,feminism,arts-and-culture Free

Cultural events have made a rapid switch from live to online platforms to provide a sense of normalcy in these trying times, as well as to share the awe and wonder of the arts.

The closure of many public spaces around the globe due to the COVID-19 pandemic have temporarily put an end to live stage performances, including in Indonesia. This has also caused a conundrum in that the livelihoods of stage workers are at peril without stage performances.

To alleviate the plight of these workers, the Indonesia Kaya culture and arts portal of Bakti Budaya Djarum Foundation has purchased the broadcasting rights to a select number of theatrical performances. The proceeds from these broadcast shows are to be given to the performing groups for distributing to their vulnerable stage workers.

Following last weeks broadcast of Bunga Penutup Abad (The Flower that Ends a Century), Indonesia Kaya presented the Citraresmi dance theater by Toni Lesmana and produced by Titimangsa Foundation in collaboration with Mainteater.

Launched on April 25-26 on the Indonesia Kaya website and its YouTube channel, the broadcast show was a video recording of Citraresmi performed on Nov. 1, 2017 at the Nu-Art Scuplture Park in Bandung, West Java, and not a livestream of a performance before a limited audience.

Citraresmi centers on its namesake protagonist, Dyah Pitaloka Citraresmi, the princess of the Sunda Kingdom who was to wed King Hayam Wuruk of the Majapahit Kingdom in Saka year 1279 (1357 AD) to form a political union between the two kingdoms.

According to historical records, Princess Citraresmi was just 17 when she sailed with the Sundanese royal family to Bubat in northern Trowulan, the Majapahit capital  now part of Mojokerto Regency, East Java.

The royal family encamped in the city square to wait for the wedding ceremony to start, when Mahapatih (prime minister) Gajah Mada of the Majapahit Kingdom arrived to demand that the Sunda Kingdom submit to Majapahit rule. As a token of submission, Citraresmi was to be a concubine to the king instead of his wife.

Angered by the turn of events, the Sunda King called off the wedding and prepared to leave the square, but the Majapahit army surrounded the Sundanese royal family and demanded that they hand Citraresmi over.

This confrontation was the start of the Pasunda Bubat (Battle of Bubat), when the Sunda royal family and most of the royal party were massacred. As recorded in the Kidung Sunda, a form of ancient Javanese poetry, Princess Citraresmi took her own life during the battle to preserve the honor and dignity of the Sunda Kingdom.

Citraresmi is a woman-centric story, not just because of the title character, and is performed by an all-female cast. No male characters are included in the play, as the dayang (female servants) who spend most of their time on stage dancing gracefully are also the ones who took up their weapons to defend the princess during the siege.

Also notable is the story's loaded social criticism as the characters decry politics and the lust for power, criticizing Gajah Madas political scheming to turn a royal wedding into a show of power.

Producer Happy Salma said in a statement that the central character provided a glimpse into the lives of women during the era.

Along with the other female performers, Citraresmis mental struggle during the Battle of Bubat will be shown through acting, dancing and sound as with the entirety of the play," she said, adding that the show depicted "one side of the power of women.

Maudy Koesnaedi, who plays Citraresmi, said on April 24 in an Instagram Live session that she took a week to learn her lines.

I needed a week to memorize the script, which was rather lengthy. It was my first play with such long lines, said Maudy.

The actress also said that it was her first time playing the starring role in a theatrical performance, and that she accepted the role immediately when Happy offered her the part of Citraresmi.

To portray Citraresmi, I learned about her history. Even though the production time was rather short, we went and visited Citraresmis grave, where we also heard from the local people about her story, she recalled.

Citraresmi, even on video, is still an impressive play three years on. While the stage decoration is rather minimalistic, the actresses' performances are top notch, as is the musical accompaniment to the dance sequences.

Like other recorded performances, one advantage is that viewers can pause and rewind if they miss a monologue or even a single line, although this is only possible while the video stream is active.

Meanwhile, the camerawork is thorough in showing different angles of the performance, which a live audience would not see.

With that said, the streamed performance depends on the viewer having a stable and fast internet connection, so those with a spotty signal are out of luck  unless they are willing to make do with a lower resolution.

The editing is a bit jarring when switching between cameras, however, and one camera appears to be handheld and rather shaky at times. Thankfully, the audio is better with clear dialogue and music, although the mic has also picked up other noises like the odd cough or ringtone.
SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The California Lawyers Association (CLA) and its team of volunteers and staff have created and compiled a wealth of resources to aid the public as the world experiences the incredible upheaval brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. CLA's COVID-19 Public Resources page is a steadily growing portal of information and guidance designed to help navigate this crisis.

CLA CEO and Executive Director Ona Alston Dosunmu emphasized the importance of supporting the public at large. "As attorneys, we are trusted advisors and community leaders and now, more than ever, it is important to support each other, our neighbors and our communities," Dosumnu said. "When a crisis like this occurs, we must pull together to come out stronger on the other side."

CLA and its volunteers have created several new resources to help guide individuals and businesses through these uncertain times. Expert attorneys from across the State have contributed articles and thought leadership in their specialties to the Resources Page, including articles on California evictions and co-parenting, as well as contributions to outside sources of information. CLA has also created a new public focus video series, "Navigating COVID-19 Issues" which addresses important issues faced by families, businesses, and employers. The series already has 28 installments online and on CLA's YouTube Channel with more added weekly. Each video taps into the legal specialization of CLA's experienced volunteers and covers a range of topics:

Employee and Employer Concerns

Employee Benefits



Update: Employee Benefits



Employee Benefits SPANISH



Update: Employee Benefits SPANISH



Employee Health and Safety



Employee Health and Safety SPANISH



Employee Leave Laws



Employee Leave Laws SPANISH



Employer Concerns



Employer Concerns SPANISH



Notify Your Employees About HR 6201 Rights



Communicating with Your Workforce

Family Law Concerns

General Information about Custody and Spousal Support



Child Support and Spousal Support



Custody and Visitation



Domestic Violence Protection During the Pandemic

CARES Loan Program and Tax Concerns

Loan Programs: What's In It For Me?



Loan Programs: Applying for C19 Loans



Loan Programs: Increasing EIDL Loan Value



Loan Programs: Loan Forgiveness



Loan Programs: Building Success



Tax Implications and Eligibility of Benefits Under the CARES Act

Bankruptcy Issues

Essential Insolvency Questions and Concerns for Business Owners

Tenant and Real Property Concerns

Overview of California's Eviction Moratorium

Eviction Moratorium Hospital and Healthcare Concerns

Healthcare Provider Employment Concerns



Telehealth Updates



Immediate Challenges Facing Hospitals

Other Concerns

Cyber Security Basics for the Work from Home Economy

All videos have English closed captions, and many are either available in Spanish or have Spanish closed captions.

In addition, CLA has carefully curated a selection of other resources, including analyses and summaries of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, webinars on COVID-19, and free legal resources from Disaster Legal Assistance Collaborative. This is supplemented by a list of resources available through local government and agencies, banking institutions, industry groups, and mental health groups.

The COVID-19 Public Resource page and Video series are part of CLA's Access to Justice Initiative. Find these resources and more at calawyers.org/covid-19-public-resources/. Please contact CLA or your local bar association if you need the assistance of an attorney.

ABOUT CALIFORNIA LAWYERS ASSOCIATION

Established in 2018, the California Lawyers Association is the bar association for all California attorneys. CLA's mission is to promote excellence, diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and fairness in the administration of justice and the rule of law.

SOURCE California Lawyers Association

Related Links

https://calawyers.org


SIOUX FALLS, S.D.  John Deranamie knows what danger looks like.

Danger was people dying in front of his eyes during the Liberian civil war nearly 30 years ago, and the hunger that gripped his family as he split a cup of rice between five people for a meal. It was the fear that pushed him to flee his home at 22 years old for a chance at a better life in America.

Now, the 50-year-old is facing danger again.

This time, it's the threat of the coronavirus, which killed at least two of his coworkers at the Smithfield Foods meatpacking plant in Sioux Falls. Its the worry he felt when his locker mates coughed and bumped into his shoulder in the crowded locker room, and the desperation he felt while praying in his bedroom after learning he tested positive for COVID-19.

Danger is showing up to work in difficult surroundings while the rest of the world stays home. But Deranamie doesnt have a choice.

He's one of 3,700 workers at the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, where more than 800 employees have contracted the novel virus spreading across the world. But those employees are just a fraction of essential workers across the nation who are feeding America.

Deranamie understands the importance of his role in the food supply and keeping Americans fed. But hes risking his life every time he steps into his uniform, he said.

I dont like the term essential worker, he said. Essential worker just means youre on the death track.

John Deranamie holds a card given to him and his wife, Marie Cole, from Smithfield on Wednesday, April 29, 2020, at his home in Sioux Falls, S.D. Smithfield Foods workers are deemed essential since the company is the world's largest pork producer.

Keeping the dream alive

Deranamie can smell his workplace from outside his front door.

He lives about two miles southeast of the plant, and when the wind changes just right the stench of dried pigs blood permeates Sioux Falls, which is South Dakota's largest city with a population of 180,000.

The smell doesnt bother him. Its the scent of his livelihood that lingers on his clothes for the past eight years.

Deranamie was driven to work by his family at the beginning of April  his last day at work and a week before the Virginia-based company announced it would close the Sioux Falls plant because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Story continues

He opened the vehicle door and turned around to say goodbye to his family. One of his children recoiled at the smell wafting into the vehicle.

You go to school and you learn, Deranamie lectured before closing the door. "Then you wont have to be at this stinky place like me.

Days later, Deranamie tested positive for COVID-19.

John Deranamie spends time with his youngest son, Nehemiah Deranamie, 1, on Wednesday, April 29, 2020, at his home in Sioux Falls, S.D. Deranamie, a Smithfield Foods employee, tested positive for COVID-19 and has been spending time at home with family since the meatpacking plant shut down.

Sioux Falls wasn't Deranamie's first choice to live out his American dream. He moved to Minnesota when he was 26 years old but he struggled to find lasting employment for 18 years. He met his now-wife while he was living in St. Paul, and he was lured to Sioux Falls with the promise of a steady job, strong pay and ample benefits at the meatpacking plant.

I hardly believed I would be able to get a job, pay my rent and support my babies, he said. I came and filled out an application, and I was lucky to get a job.

Deranamie started out as a package worker, sorting product into boxes for $10 an hour. Now, he makes $18.20 an hour as a night-shift utility worker, filling in for various positions across the plant. The pay increase has helped support his growing family of eight children  six in Sioux Falls and two children from previous relationships. Hes able to support the family he left behind in Liberia as well.

Half of his Smithfield paycheck goes to his mother and siblings in Liberia, and to save money as part of his plan to return home one day to West Africa.

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Long and tiring tasks

Deranamie rarely sees his children. He works 50 to 60 hours a week on the night-shift production line, coming home exhausted early in the morning.

Hes fast asleep by the time his children buzz through the house getting dressed for school.

John Deranamie spends time with family on Wednesday, April 29, 2020, at his home in Sioux Falls, S.D. Deranamie would normally work more than 50 hours a week to provide for his family but has been spending time at home since Smithfield Foods shut down after becoming one of the largest hot spots for COVID-19. "I'm really enjoying it right now, even though I'm not getting overtime pay," Deranamie said. "At least my children are getting used to me; they're getting used to their dad for some time."

The night shift starts at 4 p.m. nearly every day, just before they return from class. Typically, he parks his red 2008 Ford Explorer in a gravel lot across the street from the plant and walks into the building and the crush of the locker room, where hes greeted by his locker mates as he changes into his uniform.

He changes his clothes, puts on an apron and his safety gear  a pair of glasses and a metal vest that prevents him from accidentally stabbing himself. Then he slips into his sleeves, pulls on his cut glove and slides into his steel-toed work boots. He wraps a beardnet around his ears and a hairnet on his head, and he places a white hardhat on before standing on the production line for the next eight to 10 hours.

Usually, Deranamie works as drop head, training the hogs head in a group of four people as it passes through the production line so a USDA worker can inspect the product. Its quick, heavy work.

As part of his utility role, he's been filling in as drop head for four years.

Your shoulder, your back  everything hurts," said Deranamie. "But nobody else wants the job, so I do it. Its not an easy job, but when youve been there for so long, it becomes easy.

Hes been at Smithfield for so long, some of the tasks come naturally.

John Deranamie carries his youngest son, Nehemiah Deranamie, 1, on his shoulders on Wednesday, April 29, 2020, at his home in Sioux Falls, S.D. His back and shoulders have had a break from the tiring work he does as "drop head" at Smithfield Foods.

When I go to work, I do the best I can because Im getting paid, so I have to work accordingly, he said. I love working there. If I didnt like working there, I wouldnt be there for this long.

Its long and tiring work. But he keeps punching in for his shift every day, even once he started worrying for his safety as the coronavirus broke out at the plant.

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Youre on your own

Deranamie cried for hours after getting his COVID-19 results.

Hes only 50. Hes strong and healthy. But the week before he fell ill, a 51-year-old mother and teacher in Huron, died nearly eight hours after presenting symptoms.

He kept going to work until he knew he was sick. Hes an essential worker so he had to show up, he said.

Essential worker means that were on the front lines working, because were the ones providing food for people and theyre depending on us, Deranamie said. Essential worker means youre on your own. You make money for them and then you endanger your family.

When he woke up on April 7, he felt sore  or more sore than usual. He didnt show a fever when his temperature was taken before entering the plant, but he insisted he was ill. It wasnt until he spoke to HR, informing them about his symptoms that they instructed him to go home and get tested.

Since the first case in the plant was announced on March 25, he knew that hed get sick because of cramped working conditions at the meatpacking plant. It was just a matter of time, he said.

I got friends that were sneezing and coughing and grabbing their chest at work, he said. There was nowhere safe. Even if you avoided the cafeteria, you cant avoid people on the line.

He locked himself in the master bedroom of his family's apartment for the next two weeks, surviving off Liberian fufu and spicy soup his wife left outside his door. While his wife and children surrounded the dinner table most evenings, she would call Deranamie on the phone, allowing him to be as much a part of his childrens lives as he could at that moment.

Im not so scared of dying, but who is going to take care of my family? he recalled asking and praying.

John Deranamie cooks dinner for his sons, Shadrach Cole, 4, and Joel Cole, 9, on Wednesday, April 29, 2020, at his home in Sioux Falls, S.D.

His wife slept on the living room couch for the two-week period, and she slept on the couch a few more days after he was cleared by the South Dakota Department of Health. No other family members tested positive for COVID-19, and Deranamie calls that a blessing.

But when his self-quarantine ended, the question of when hed return to work weighed on his mind. He needed to return. His wife also worked at Smithfield, but her income alone wouldnt cover their expenses.

But how would Smithfield keep them safe from spreading the coronavirus to their children? He might have tested positive for COVID-19, but he worries that he can catch it again.

Deranamie returned to work on May 4 for a safety meeting, nearly a month after catching the coronavirus inside the facility. He and his coworkers were instructed on new procedures at the plant and how to wear provided face shields and masks.

He saw that Smithfield installed Plexiglas barriers between production-line stations about 6 feet apart in most areas  recommendations set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the agencys visit to the plant in mid-April. The locker room will be capped at 50 people, he said, so it won't be as crowded. The temperature tent still stands outside the building's entrance.

John Deranamie, a Smithfield Foods employee, poses for a portrait in the room he self-quarantined in after testing positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, April 29, 2020, at his home in Sioux Falls, S.D. He has been spending time at home with family since the meatpacking plant shut down. "I was forced to go to work," he said. "Even though I knew it was a dangerous situation at work, I still had to go to work because I have to support my family and my people in Africa."

Despite the precautions taken, Deranamie is still concerned about returning to the plant.

Deranamies wife and children will get tested this week before he officially returns to work. He's scheduled to return to the production line May 11. But he's already requested vacation time starting May 18 to escape the plant and its risks.

He planned to return to Liberia for a month this summer to visit family but now plans to use that vacation to stay at home. Hes teaching his 5-year-old to ride a bicycle and wants to catch up on family time that he has missed.

Ultimately, he'll return to the processing line, like thousands of other essential workers, risking his personal well-being to support the nations food supply  and that of his own family.

Im doing it because I need to support them, he said.

Americas Food Chain: Who feeds the nation during the COVID-19 pandemic?

As many of us across America have hunkered down in our homes under safer-at-home orders, someone else has had to venture out day after day to keep the country fed.

To get the food from the farm to our tables, they continue to work  sometimes without the protections were told are crucial to guard against the coronavirus  to pick the oranges, slaughter the pigs, truck the goods and cook the food, so America can continue to eat.

Through an occasional series of intimate portraits in the coming weeks, USA TODAY Network journalists are shining a light on their lives and work.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Meatpacker tested positive for cononavirus; worries about returning to reopened plant
The runner crosses the road to pass the pickup on the passenger side, then crosses back in front of the truck. A gunshot sounds, and the video shows the runner grappling with a man in the street over what appears to be a shotgun or rifle. A second shot can be heard and the runner can be seen punching the man. A third shot is fired at point-blank range. The runner staggers a few feet and falls face down.
And yet. The issue tugs at me as an Asian-American, as a person with recent immigrant history. Our names are often fundamental parts of our identities. They function as shorthand, as synecdoche, as a way for us to find each other. They cannot explain all of our experiences, but they can gesture toward community.

My name links me with my family, with the island nations that are ever more distant from my life. (Although the links can be very general: I share my last name with 8 percent of Taiwanese people.) My mothers maiden name, Nakamura, is my sisters and my middle name. In Japanese, it means middle village; it belongs to my California-born grandfather who was incarcerated during World War II. (Any time I meet a new Japanese-American in Chicago, my grandfather will ask me their last name. I knew an Imamura in camp, hell muse. I wonder if its the same family. Nine times out of 10, it is.)

Recently, my white-presenting cousin (whose normal middle name, Colin, I had envied as a child) changed his middle name to Nakamura as well. He is one of several mixed Asian-Americans I know who have changed their names as adults. A friends brother dropped his fathers white-presenting last name, and uses his mothers Japanese maiden name instead. He gave his daughter this last name as well. A Korean-American friend stopped using the American name she used growing up, and now only goes by her Korean name. We want to emphasize what in the past our ancestors often had to de-emphasize to mitigate overt racism. (When they emigrated to the United States in 1971, my Taiwanese ama changed my fathers name, Ching Kuo, to Charles. Was it because the names sound similar? I asked her. Yes, she said, and because he is a king.) For my generation, however, discrimination against ethnic-sounding or hard-to-pronounce names still exists. We see our names as a type of cultural preservation.

My family left Japan 112 years before my daughter was born. The connection sometimes feels tenuous. The discussion about multicultural families is often about the benefits of multiplicity but less about the loss that comes from the fact that memories can only hold so much. Cultural traditions get dropped because of logistics, because of lack of local community, because of time. Our daughter has five different cultural backgrounds; it is a struggle to commemorate two or three. Of my Japanese, Taiwanese and Okinawan heritage, I only have strong footing in the Japanese side. I wonder if my grandmother had given my mother her own Okinawan last name as my mothers middle name  the way my mother named me  if we would have a better understanding of what it means to be Uchinanchu.
Italian chef Andrea Tranchero has shared the most common mistakes home cooks make when preparing pasta, including breaking spaghetti before it boils and adding olive oil to the cooking water.

The executive chef of Barilla - who worked in Michelin-starred restaurants around the world - revealed the dos and don'ts of cooking the authentic dish.

'The perfect pasta starts with the pasta. A delicious Italian dish needs a good quality base and so it's very important that you choose a premium, good quality pasta to cook with,' Mr Tranchero told Daily Mail Australia.

'When cooking the pasta, make sure you follow the instructions on the box for a perfectly al dente taste - not crunchy, but firm with a little bite.

'Cooking water should be salty like the sea - I recommend approximately 7g of salt per litre of water - and boiling with big bubbles before you add the pasta in.'

Italian chef Andrea Tranchero (pictured) has shared the most common mistakes home cooks make when preparing pasta

What every pasta shape looks like: Long spaghetti goes perfect with light sauces, ribbons such as pappardelle pair perfectly with ragu, while short pasta is great for baked pasta dishes

The perfect sauces for each pasta shape LONG: Balance long thin strands of pasta such as spaghetti, linguine or fusilli with light sauces RIBBONS: Pair thicker, flatter ribbons such as tagliatelle, pappardelle and fettuccine with more robust sauces such as bolognese and ragu SHELLS: Heavy cream or meat sauces SHORT: Penne, rigatoni, farfalle and fusilli are fun and versatile shapes perfect for pasta salads, baked dishes and with chunkier sauces TWISTS: Lighter, smoother sauces such as pesto go perfect with fusilli, strozzapreti, caserecce and gemelli FILLED: Serve ravioli, tortellini or cappelletti with a light butter or oil sauce MINI SHAPES: Orzo, fregola and risoni is perfect for hearty soups, stews and pasta salads Advertisement

One minute prior to being cooked, transfer the pasta to the sauce to finish off cooking, adding a spoonful of the cooking water.

'The heat of the pan will help the pasta take on the delicious flavours of the sauce, and the reserved cooking water will help the pasta and sauce combine,' he said.

Here, Mr Tranchero listed the common errors when preparing the Italian cuisine - and how to avoid it.

Adding olive oil to the pasta cooking water

Many of us assume it helps prevent our pasta from sticking together but it wastes our precious olive oil as it doesn't mix with water.

'It does nothing. The oil floats to the top, while the pasta sinks,' he explained.

In any bolognese, ravioli, or marinara, Mr Tranchero said olive oil is your secret weapon but it's best saved until the end.

'Oil and water don't mix so adding it to the cooking water will just coat the pasta, making it harder for it to bind well with the sauce. Finish off your dish with a generous drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil for a rich, authentically Italian flavour,' he said.

Breaking spaghetti before you boil it

Don't ever break your spaghetti before boiling it because long pasta is supposed to wrap around your fork

Don't ever break your spaghetti before boiling it because long pasta is supposed to wrap around your fork. Spaghetti can hold sauce more efficiently but if you break it in half, you'll have shorter strands which makes it harder to eat.

Italians eat spaghetti by twirling forkfuls of long strands in a way that it doesn't slip off or let sauce drip from it.

Mr Tranchero said if you need to break long pasta to fit it in your only small pot, invest in a bigger pot.

Rinsing cooked pasta

This only washes away the starch on the pasta which actually helps to make your finished dish silky and smooth.

The executive chef of Barilla has worked in Michelin-starred restaurants around the world

The perfect wine pairing with each pasta Chef Andrea Tranchero said Italian food and wine go hand in hand, you really can't go wrong. Ideally, your choice of wine should be guided by the flavours in the dish, especially those in the pasta sauce. Also keep in mind the strongest ingredients in your dish, like your cheeses, meat or any heavy seasoning. For tomato-based dishes, like your classic spaghetti Bolognese, lasagne, and lamb ragu opt for medium-bodied red wines to balance out the acidity in the tomatoes and stronger flavours in the meat. An Italian chianti, merlot or sangiovese are all delicious complements. With any creamy, cheesy or rich sauce, like that found in carbonara, I love a glass of full-bodied white wine. Try matching your meal with a pinot grigio or chardonnay, both are especially tasty if the dish is quite creamy. For seafood, pesto and vegetarian dishes, try any light-bodied white wine for a delicious balance of flavour. Vermentino or local Sauvignon blanc are two of my favourites. Advertisement

Not combining the sauce and pasta when serving

A lot of people don't finish off cooking their pasta and sauce together in the pan and allowing it to absorb the beautiful sauce flavours.

Throwing away all the pasta cooking water

Adding some of the pasta cooking water into the sauce will help the pasta and sauce combine nicely.

Waiting to serve your pasta

Don't leave your pasta sitting on the bench, serve it immediately while it's hot and glossy for the best result.

Not using fresh herbs

Herbs like parsley, mint, rosemary and basil can add so much more flavour and vibrancy to a home-cooked dish. Be sure to include them in your spaghetti Bolognese, lasagne or salad instead of the dried alternative.

Thinking the more complicated, the better

Simple and quick recipes can be just as (if not more) delicious than any heavily involved recipe that uses a long list of ingredients. Go back to basics and think classic combinations like pasta, olive oil, tomato, herbs and seasoning.

The Italian chef said you should never rinse your cooked pasta under tap, and always add some of the pasta cooking water into the sauce as it will help the pasta and sauce combine nicely

Not heating up the pan or pot properly

Many home cooks will add veggies to an oiled pan, or pasta to a saucepan before they're hot enough. Take a few minutes to allow time for heating and to help avoid serving a soggy or poorly cooked dish.

Skimping on the seasoning

Don't just add your salt or other seasonings at the very start or end of the cooking process. Taste as you go and adjust seasoning as needed whilst building your dish for a more flavoursome finish.

Overcrowding the pan

Give your veggies or meat enough room to move around to avoid slowing down the process. You can always prepare in batches to ensure your dish cooks evenly and without turning to mush.
Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) announced today that the U.S. Army Europe's 7th Army Training Command awarded the company the Logistics Support Services contract. The contract has a period of performance through May 2025.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005795/en/

Fluor will provide the U.S. Army Europe's 7th Army Training Command with logistics support services. Pictured is a change of command ceremony in Germany. (Photo: Business Wire)

Fluor will provide logistical support to military units, both U.S. and coalition forces, to include dining facility and food services, tents, heaters, power generation equipment, material handling equipment, and other various services at sites throughout U.S. Army Garrisons Bavaria for training and operations.

"With a more than 60-year history on the continent, Fluor has had a long and proven presence in Europe," said Tom D'Agostino, president of Fluor's Government Group. "Fluor was awarded the predecessor to this contract three years ago. This new award allows us to continue our presence in the region for another five years, and also positions Fluor for future work with the U.S. European Command and the U.S. Africa Command headquarters located in Germany."

As a European-based command, the 7th Army Training Command provides tactical level support to, and maintains training readiness authority over the U.S. Army Europe's assigned and allocated forces throughout the United States European Command area of operations.

About Fluor Corporation

Founded in 1912, Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) is a global engineering, procurement, fabrication, construction and maintenance company that transforms the world by building prosperity and empowering progress. Fluor serves its clients by designing, building and maintaining safe, well executed, capital-efficient projects around the world. With headquarters in Irving, Texas, Fluor ranks 164 on the Fortune 500 list with revenue of $19.2 billion in 2018 and has more than 47,000 employees worldwide. For more information, please visit www.fluor.com or follow Fluor on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005795/en/

Contacts:

Brian Mershon/Brett Turner

Media Relations

469.398.7621/864.281.6976

Jason Landkamer

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469.398.7222
Myanmar & COVID-19 Myanmar Election Official Says Nation Will Go to Polls This Year Despite COVID-19

An election official counts ballots at a polling station in Yangons Tamwe Township during the 2018 by-election. / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy

YANGONMyanmars general election will be held this year as planned, an official of the Union Election Commission said, downplaying concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic will affect the timing of the polls.

There has been widespread speculation that the nationwide polls slated for this year will be delayed or rescheduled amid the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

According to the Constitution, the terms of all current national and subnational parliaments will end on Jan. 30 next year.

Election Commissioner U Myint Naing said in an interview with state-run radio posted on the commissions Facebook page on Monday that the commission will hold the general election this year as planned. The exact date of the election has yet to be announced.

In announcing the election date, the commission said it will follow the procedures used prior to the 2010 and 2015 general elections. The commission announced the dates for those general elections, which were held in early November of 2010 and 2015, two months and four months ahead of the polls, respectively.

Political parties need to start preparing for the election now, U Myint Naing said, adding that this included the selection of candidates as well as representatives to observe the voting at polling stations.

Monywa Aung Shin, secretary of the ruling National League for Democracys Central Information Committee, said the coronavirus outbreak had disrupted parties preparations for the elections.

He said selection of the NLDs candidates had been delayed because the partys offices had been forced to close in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The NLD originally planned to finalize candidate selection by the end of June, he said.

This year, at least 52 countries have postponed national and subnational elections across the globe, according to the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). A total of 19 countries have decided to continue with election plans this year despite concerns related to COVID-19. Of those, at least nine had done so already as of April 30.

Sai Ye Kyaw Swar Myint, executive director of the Peoples Alliance for Credible Elections (PACE), said it was the commissions responsibility to ensure that all procedures related to the electionincluding the displaying of voter rolls, voter education and election campaigningare conducted safely if the election goes ahead amid the coronavirus pandemic.

U Myint Naing, the election commissions only designated spokesperson, was not available for further comment despite several attempts to contact him by The Irrawaddy.

About 100 political parties are expected to contest the 2020 election.

Additional reporting by Zue Zue

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Myanmar Govt Lists Essential Businesses Prioritized for Reopening Amid COVID-19
Regardless of how a ceremony is held, there cant be any person-to-person contact or handing of diplomas or other items, and markings and pathways must ensure students are always at least 6 feet apart. Any procedures related to photography should be clearly communicated, and families should get copies of photos for free, according to the guidelines.
Have Sheriff Offices in North Carolina, possibly even Beaufort County's Sheriff Office, become too political in the discharging of their sworn constitutional duties?

No, the sheriff is a constitutional officer.

Yes, the Sheriff Office, on strong occasion, often reverts back to political patronage in the dispensation of their sworn constitutional duties.
Coronavirus: Abbas extends by one month state of emergency Across Palestinian territories. In march production down 24.60%

(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, MAY 5 - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has extended by another month, starting on Tuesday, a state of emergency in the Palestinian Territories due to the coronavirus. The measure was taken with a decree quoted by Wafa.



The Palestinian health ministry reported, as of Tuesday, 532 cases of infection, including the eastern part of ''occupied Jerusalem'', which Israel instead included in its statistics.



Recoveries were 143 and deaths were four. Infection cases in Gaza were 17.



The Palestinian central statistics office said that, due to coronavirus, industrial production in March fell by 24.60% compared to the previous month.(ANSAmed).




(Newser)  When the volcanic White Island of New Zealand erupted in December, it was a "shock but not a surprise," writes Joshua Hammer at GQ. Volcanologists had been taking note of increased activity for a while, and the four-stage threat level had been raised from 1 to 2. But that did little to dissuade tourists who continued to flock to the picturesque islandthe story's headline refers to it as "Instagram Island" because of its popularity with selfie-takers and with Hollywood. (Mulan is one of the movies filmed there.) When the volcano erupted, nearly 50 people were on the island exploring its nooks and crannies, though they weren't oblivious to the danger: Everyone getting off the chartered tourist boats received a gas mask and a hard hat, just in case.

story continues below

Those nearest the eruption "didn't stand a chance," writes Hammer. "Some might have been killed instantly by the pressure wave of the eruption. Others would have asphyxiated after the blast knocked the air out of their lungs, causing them to reflexively draw in superheated gases that incinerated their respiratory tracts." As one volcano expert says, "Hopefully it was sudden." Hammer's story details the dramatic rescue efforts that ensued, with one charter boatwhich had been anchored at a safe distanceheading back to the island to look for survivors. Local helicopter pilots flew in at great risk to themselves to do the same. The blast killed 21, and about two dozen were injured, many with horrific burns. Two tourists escaped injury altogether by jumping into the sea. Read the full story. (One survivor woke from a coma to learn her husband and daughter were among those killed.)
The Supreme Court on Tuesday held that the cooperative banks involved in the activities related to banking are covered within the meaning of 'banking company' and Parliament has legislative competence to provide for procedure for recovery of loan under the SARFAESI Act.

The Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act, 2002, allow banks and financial institutions to auction properties (residential and commercial) when borrowers fail to repay their loans. It enables banks to reduce their non-performing assets by adopting measures for recovery or reconstruction.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said, "In our opinion, the framers of the Constitution cannot be said to have confined the meaning of 'banking' to a particular definition, as given in the Banking Regulation (BR) Act, 1949. The word 'banking' has been incorporated in Entry 45 of List I. The decision in Rustom Cavasjee Cooper (1970 verdict) vividly leaves no room for doubt that banking done by the cooperative bank is covered within the ambit of Entry 45 of List I".

The bench also comprising Justices Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran, M R Shah and Aniruddha Bose, said entries have to be given full effect in pith and substance considering forms of business of cooperative banks performing the activities of banking under a licence and the same is covered within the purview of Entry 45 of List I.

It held, "The cooperative banks registered under the State legislation and multi State level cooperative societies registered under the MSCS Act, 2002 with respect to 'banking' are governed by the legislation relatable to Entry 45 of List I of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India".

It said that "the Parliament has legislative competence under Entry 45 of List I of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India to provide additional procedures for recovery under section 13 of the SARFAESI Act, 2002 with respect to cooperative banks".

The top court in its 159-page verdict held that the cooperative banks run by the cooperative societies registered under the State legislation with respect to the aspects of 'incorporation, regulation and winding up', in particular, are outside the purview of Entry 45 of List I (union list ) of the seventh schedule of the Constitution.

"The cooperative banks involved in the activities related to banking are covered within the meaning of 'Banking Company' defined under Section 5(c) read with Section 56(a) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, which is a legislation relatable to Entry 45 of List I. It governs the aspect of 'banking' of cooperative banks run by the cooperative societies," the bench said.

It added that the cooperative banks cannot carry on any activity without compliance of the provisions of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 and any other legislation applicable to such banks relatable to 'Banking'.

"The recovery is an essential part of banking; as such, the recovery procedure prescribed under section 13 of the SARFAESI Act, a legislation relatable to Entry 45 List I of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India, is applicable," it said.

The five-judge bench answered the reference made by a three-judge bench due to conflicting opinions and the question relates to the applicability of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (SARFAESI Act) to the cooperative banks.

Some of the writ petitioners had also challenged the Parliament's competence to amend the provision of SARFAESI Act, which also relates to the cooperative banks.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
UN health agency has urged people not to try untested remedies for COVID-19 after Madagascan president promotes cure.

As COVID-19 spread across Africa and leaders put their countries in lockdown, Madagascan President Andry Rajoelina last month launched an herbal remedy that he claimed could prevent and cure the disease.



The announcement caught medical experts, who have scrambled to find a cure for the disease that has killed more than 252,000 and infected at least 3.6 million people globally, by surprise.

More:

Rajoelina, a former DJ who in 2009 at the age of 34 became the continents youngest national leader, claimed at the launch that the remedy, named Covid-Organics, had already cured two people.

This herbal tea gives results in seven days, Rajoelina, 45, told journalists and diplomats in April.

Soldiers have since been going door-to-door in the Indian Ocean island country, which has reported 149 cases and no fatalities, dispensing the concoction.

What is in Covid-Organics?

The herbal remedy is produced from artemisia, a plant with proven efficacy against malaria, and other indigenous herbs, according to the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research, which developed the beverage.

The plant was first imported into the island nation in the 1970s from China to treat malaria.

It is now marketed in bottles as a herbal tea, while Rajoelina has said clinical trials are under way in Madagascar to produce a form that can be injected into the body.

Is it safe or effective?

Following Rajoelinas claims, the World Health Organization (WHO) advised people against using untested remedies for COVID-19.

Africans deserve to use medicines tested to the same standards as people in the rest of the world, WHO, the United Nations health agency, said in a statement on Monday.

Even if therapies are derived from traditional practice and natural, establishing their efficacy and safety through rigorous clinical trials is critical, the statement added.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also warned people against using unproven remedies.

There is no scientific evidence that any of these alternative remedies can prevent or cure the illness caused by COVID-19. In fact, some of them may not be safe to consume, the CDC said.

Meanwhile, the African Union said it was in discussion with Madagascar with a view to obtain technical data regarding the safety and efficiency of the herbal remedy.

In an attempt to reassure people and brush aside safety concerns, Rajoelina took a dose of Covid-Organics at the launch event and said it was safe to be given to children.

Has it been exported?

Several African countries, including Tanzania, Liberia, Equatorial Guinea and Guinea-Bissau, have either placed orders or have received consignments of the remedy.

On Sunday, Tanzanian President John Magufuli said he was dispatching a plane to Madagascar to collect a shipment of the tonic.

Im communicating with Madagascar, Magufuli said during a speech, adding: They have got a medicine. We will send a flight there and the medicine will be brought in the country so that Tanzanians too can benefit.

Meanwhile in Guinea-Bissau, President Umaro Sissoco Embalo went to the airport on Saturday to receive a shipment of the beverage donated by the Madagascan leader.

COVID-19 has spread to all but one country in Africa, Lesotho. As of Tuesday, at least 1,862 people across the continent have died from the virus.
The Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) suspects that a retired officer who died of Covid-19 on Sunday infected many other men as the number of infections rose to 45 on Tuesday and forced it to seal the Tigri camp in Delhi, an official said.

The camp houses 22nd battalion of the ITBP, which has strength of around 1,000 personnel who all are under observation while 76 of them are in quarantine.

The decision to seal the Tigri camp came after 23 more men tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday.

We are trying to identify the source of infection in the force but preliminary assessment is that a retired ITBP officer, who was staying at Tigri camp and died due to Covid-19 on Sunday at Safdarjung hospital could be the carrier. The retired officer had contracted Covid-19 infection sometime in mid-April but there were other comorbidity factors due to which he died, said an officer, who did not wish to be named.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage.

Subsequently, ITBP suspects that some of the personnel may have contracted the infection during law and order duties in different parts of Delhi along with the Delhi Police.

Out of these, 43 personnel were those deployed for internal security duties in the national capital while two were deployed for law and order duty with the Delhi Police, the ITBP said in a statement.

ITBP reported its first Covid-19 case April 28. On Monday, the number reached 21 before it more than doubled to 45 on Tuesday. Forty three of these are from Tigri camp while two are stationed at Rohini for law and order duties.

The central paramilitary forces, also called Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), have reported a total of 311 from across the country till Tuesday out of which 298 are active cases. The maximum of these - 158 cases (including 137 in 31st battalion in Delhis Mayur Vihar) have been reported by the Central Reserve , followed by Border Security Force (BSF)  67, ITBP  45, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF)  15 and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB)  13 cases. The majority of the cases are in Delhi.

Around 10 lakh strong border guarding forces are deployed for counter-insurgency, border protection and law and order duties across the country.

The spike in Covid-19 infections in CAPFs in the last one week has raised concerns among the top brass of the forces which have asked troopers to maintain the highest levels of personal hygiene and maintain social distancing at work.

The CRPF headquarters was sealed over the weekend and is likely to reopen on Wednesday while BSF too sealed two floors at its headquarters after a driver there was found positive.

Meanwhile, the ITBP has designated its largest Covid-19 hospital in Noida for the personnel of all forces.

ITBP has started treating the Corona positive personnel at 200 bedded CAPF Referral Hospital based in Greater Noida. This Hospital is now dedicated to corona patients only. Personnel from all Central Armed Police Forces have also been admitted in this Hospital. Currently, 52 have been admitted from the ITBP and BSF (44 from ITBP and 8 from BSF) at the Referral Hospital, the ITBP said in a statement.
Buffalo, N.Y.  The Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo has taken legal action seeking to stop all outstanding clergy sexual abuse lawsuits while it navigates bankruptcy proceedings in federal court.

The diocese filed a motion in federal bankruptcy court on Saturday seeking an injunction on lawsuits filed under New Yorks Child Victims Act. About 250 lawsuits have been filed against the diocese since August, when the act gave victims one year to pursue even decades-old allegations of abuse.

Lawsuits against the diocese were moved to bankruptcy court in February and permanently frozen, but the bankruptcy filing only temporarily halted lawsuits against individual parishes or Catholic schools. Those cases could be moved back into state supreme court unless the diocese is granted a permanent injunction.

Pausing litigation will allow for all parties to engage in settlement negotiations in the context of the dioceses Chapter 11 case and to attempt to reach a global resolution of all claims (including claims against parishes and schools), without the distraction of piecemeal litigation, the diocese said in a statement Monday.

The diocese said continued litigation would deplete its insurance reserves and reduce future settlements to survivors.

But lawyers representing abuse survivors said the injunction is designed to keep their clients from having their day in court, prevent access to priest personnel records and allow parishes and schools to protect their financial assets.

This legal maneuver by the Diocese of Buffalo is just another example of the Catholic Church coldly putting its needs before the needs of victims, said Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represents 39 clients suing the diocese. He said a hearing on the injunction is set for May 20.

This is a very aggressive move, Buffalo attorney Steven Boyd said Monday. We feel it is an unnecessary move because weve been negotiating with them in good faith.

The diocese previously announced it would cease financial support and health benefits for 23 priests with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse beginning May 1 as part of the bankruptcy process. None were in active ministry.
In the first year the prestigious James Beard Awards have singled out the Lone Star State as its own category, San Antonios Steve McHugh of Cured at the Pearl has been named a finalist for Best Chef: Texas.

The nomination marks McHughs fifth year as a finalist. Before now, Texas had been lumped into the Best Chef: Southwest category.

Twenty Texas chefs were named in February as semifinalists for the award, including Esaul Ramos of the Southeast Side barbecue restaurant 2M Smokehouse, and Alex Paredes of the South Side taqueria Carnitas Lonja. The winners will be announced Sept. 25, later in the year than usual because of the coronavirus.

In an email, McHugh called the recognition of Texas chefs a bright spot, particularly amongst such uncertainty and an important reminder of the unity and hope that food can inspire  now, more than ever.

Ramos, a San Antonio native who started 2M with his childhood friend Joe Melig in 2016, remained upbeat despite missing out on the next round. Just being a James Beard nominee is amazing in itself, he said. It keeps us motivated to keep pushing it further.

On ExpressNews.com: 3 takeout stars: Sichuan House Chinese, Garcias Mexican Food and Cured

For Paredes, whose South Side taqueria thundered onto the scene in 2017 and was quickly named one of Esquire magazines top new restaurants in the country, the semifinalist nomination gave him something to shoot for.

I still have a lot more to give in order for me to feel like one of the best, he said. It feels great getting recognized for the super hard work that we do every day.

The other Texas finalists are Kevin Fink of Emmer & Rye in Austin, Michael Fojtasek of Olamaie in Austin, Anita Jaisinghani of Pondicheri in Houston and Trong Nguyen of Crawfish & Noodles in Houston.

San Antonio has come close to winning a James Beard Award several times in the past, but has yet to claim the big prize. Besides McHugh, chef finalists have included Bruce Auden of Biga on the Banks and Andrew Weissman of Le Reve and Il Sogno Osteria fame. Other San Antonio finalists have included cookbook writers Melissa Guerra and Terry Thompson-Anderson.

Mike Sutter is a food and drink reporter and restaurant critic in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Mike, become a subscriber. msutter@express-news.net | Twitter: @fedmanwalking | Instagram: @fedmanwalking
The Money Was Donated to Both the San Francisco Bay Area and to India

CUPERTINO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / Digite, Inc. announced that all of its employees have donated 1-day of their salaries to the efforts to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 crisis in India and in the San Francisco Bay Area, where it is headquartered.

Making the announcement, Digite's CEO, Mr. AV Sridhar said "The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted nations, governments, organizations and the ordinary people in an unprecedented manner. The impact on front-line first responders including healthcare professionals, police and other authorities as well as essential service providers is significant and serious. We are doing our bit to help our community deal with the crisis in an effective manner."

To help the community at large, especially remote teams and knowledge workers everywhere, Digite has also made their enterprise visual management product - SwiftKanban, free for everyone till June 30th.

In the Bay Area, Digite donated money to the Community Seva charity to help the Bay Area homeless with their unique problems in these challenging times. Thanking Digite, Community Seva's Founder, Nathan Ganeshan said "Thank you for your generous gift, specifically towards our COVID-19 outreach program. We will use the funds to provide hot and freshly cooked daily lunches and weekend dinners to the homeless population, and to purchase and distribute Solar Power Chargers to those living in homeless encampments. The unsheltered population has no means to charge their phones now with the 'shelter in place' rules currently in place. These chargers will help them stay safe, connected and able to reach medical emergency numbers."

About Digite, Inc.:

Digite is a global provider of comprehensive AI-enabled Enterprise Lean/ Agile products and solutions for distributed/ remote work and teams. These include SwiftKanban, SwiftEnterprise and SwiftEASe, that address various areas of Lean/ Agile methods such as Scrum, Kanban and the Scaled Agile (specifically SAFe(R)) methods; as well as integrated, collaborative Hybrid Agile and Large Project/ Program Management solutions. Digite products are used at leading global brands such as Infosys, Cognizant Technologies, Wipro, United Healthcare, Santander, and Telecom Italia, among others. Learn more at https://www.digite.com

About Community Seva:

Community Seva is a San Francisco Bay Area based charitable organization with a mission to "Feed the Hungry & Serve the Homeless" in the Bay Area, specifically Santa Clara County. Community Seva works tirelessly to help address some of the biggest challenges the homeless population faces, especially during this pandemic. Learn more about their initiatives at: https://communityseva.org/

Media Contact:

Mahesh Singh

pr@digite.com

+1 (408) 418-3834

Cupertino, CA

SOURCE: Digite, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/588447/Digite-Inc-Donates-1-Day-Salary-for-COVID-19-Relief-Efforts
South Africa will be turning nearly a century of history of a company that was founded in 1934 and was considered a national pride.

The coronavirus crisis is poised to claim a major casualty in the airline industry, with South African Airways (SAA) already in debt and under financial trusteeship. The international context has accelerated its downfall. The governments half-worded promised bailout will not take place.

The South African government has announced the creation of a new airline to replace SAA, which is on the verge of bankruptcy. Heavily indebted, South African Airways will soon disappear to make way for a new restructured company which will be the standard bearer of South Africa, according to a press release from the Department of Public Enterprises. The foundations of this new company have already been laid, adds the press release. Stakeholders () have agreed on a long-term vision and strategy for the creation of a dynamic new airline.

The future company will take to the skies to replace SAA, which has become a financial abyss and a symbol of the mismanagement of South African public companies in recent years.

SAA is under permanent infusion with public money and has not made any profits since 2011.

The Covid-19 pandemic with the cessation of almost all world air traffic dealt the final blow to this flagship of the South African economy, which today employs 5,200 people.
Israeli air strikes in eastern Syria have killed 14 Iranian and Iraqi fighters, a group monitoring the Syrian war says.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes in a desert region of Deir al-Zor Province late on May 4 targeted positions of Iranian and Iran-backed militias.

The watchdog said there were also wounded.

Syrian state media reported late on May 4 that Israeli missile strikes targeted a research center and military depots in the northern province of Aleppo.

They did not mention the attack on Deir el-Zor Province, which borders Iraq.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria in recent years targeting Iranian forces, Syrian government positions, and allied militias. It generally doesnt comment on specific operations.

Western and Israeli intelligence say Iranian forces and allied militias use the eastern Syrian desert bordering Iraq to transfer fighters and advanced weapons systems to support the Syrian government and the Lebanese militant group Hizballah.

In Aleppo Province, Iranian forces and allied militia have given crucial support to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad during the countrys nearly nine-year civil war.

Russia, a key backer of Damascus that has close security ties with Israel, has largely looked the other way as Israel carries out a shadow war with Iran in Syria to prevent its archenemy from entrenching itself in the country.

With reporting by AFP, AP, dpa, and Reuters
No Culpability, No Accountability for 70,000 Americans Killed in 60 Days





by John Stanton





We present the narrative of this report and the recommendations that flow from it to the President of the United States, the United States Congress, and the American people for their consideration. Ten Commissionersfive Republicans and five Democrats chosen by elected leaders from our nation  s capital at a time of great partisan divisionhave come together to present this report without dissent.We have come together with a unity of purpose because our nation demands it. [The US Pandemic of 2020], was a [time] of unprecedented shock and suffering in the history of the United States.The nation was unprepared. How did this happen, and how can we avoid such tragedy again?Our aim has not been to assign individual blame. Our aim has been to provide the fullest possible account of the events surrounding [The US Pandemic of 2020] and to identify lessons learned. We have listened to scores of overwhelming personal tragedies and astounding acts of heroism and bravery. We have examined the staggering impact of the events of [The US Pandemic of 2020] on the American people and their amazing resilience and courage as they fought back  911 Commission Report





There will likely be a US Commission on the Pandemic of 2020, the verbiage of which will mirror the 911 Commission Report. Fault will be placed on a lack of federal, state and local coordination and sharing of medical intelligence among the three levels of American government. The US federal administration will be admonished with a few tough words and that, as they say, will be that.













In the meantime Wall Street, big corporations and banks will have fattened themselves at the $7 trillion trough provided by the Federal Reserve and the US Congress. Such an opportunistic robbery in the midst of a national tragedy could not have been planned any better. The 5 percent seized the day, for sure. Now they have 30 plus million unemployed by the proverbial throat. Ignore those deaths down the hall, they say, work or die. Another victory for the creative destruction inherent in the world  s number one capitalist society.





Lunatics





At the time of this writing there are just over 68,000 American deaths , the result of COVID-19  s rampage through the United States exacerbated by the US federal government  s chaotic and disastrous leadership. The President of the United States and Commander in Chief Donald J. Trump certainly has blood on his hands, this time American blood right at home. Trump waffled, denied, self promoted, lied and, like a snake oil salesman of old , suggested lunatic remedies like anti-malaria drugs and, at one point, implying that the use of ingested bleach/disinfectant might offer a cure for COVID-19.





Such were the ravings of a batshit crazy and self promoting lunatic who happens to hold the highest office in the land while he also commands the toughest military force on the planet. And therein lies the rub: the ring kissers who surround and advise the president are just as culpable for the 70,000 deaths as Trump is, or should be. And what to say about those who put him in office in the first place or those who do his bidding hiding behind a he  s the president veil?





The saddest part of all this is that federal, state and local emergency plans were in place to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic . Deaths might have been reduced if the available planning guidance was consulted and put into place at first blush of the COVID-19  s presence in the United States.





Now, Trump is attempting to blame China for America  s woes. Russia will probably be next in line to take the fall for the staggering incompetence of the Trump Administration.





The United States has now been exposedthough many surmised prior to the US pandemicthat the country is on many levels, no better than Russia or China when it comes to medical care. The ruthless privatizing of the US healthcare system, ostensibly the best in the world for all Americans, was exposed as a poorly resourced and staffed system damaged by Trump and the privatization efforts of presidential administrations dating back to Ronald Reagan  s term in the 1980s.





Upper Tier Third World Country with Nukes





So, the US has a bunch of nuclear weapons and hundreds of thousands of military personnel. Yeah, so what? Russia and China have the same type of forces. Their military personnel are not as competent, you might argue; but then again, what are we still doing in Afghanistan after all these years. What happened in Iraq, that broken country? Besides, nukes are the great leveler. So the US was supposed to have the best military in the world and yet we are still stuck fighting losing battles in foreign lands. And just as the US had the best military in the world the United States was supposed to have had the best medical care in the world. I don  t know whether to laugh or cry about it all.





I have always been for a strong, well-funded military. I enjoyed watching the US Air Force Thunderbirds and the Navy  s Blue Angel performing a flight over the DC Metropolitan area on 2 May 2020 in honor of health care workers who have put their lives on the line to treat COVID-19 patients. But as I watched the air show I thought the event made for a great propaganda move by the Pentagon, a reminder that the military has exclusive rights to the title hero, not some civilian nurse, doctor, emergency medical technician, firefighter or police officer. Besides, the Pentagon has a new budget to get through the US Congress and it can  t, so military officials say, afford any diminution of funding might go to improving the healthcare system, or even providing basic health insurance for all Americans.





Same Old Song and Dance: 1918-1919





When the arguments are trotted out by government officials saying they were not sure how to respond and that the pandemic was unprecedented in American history, send them to the reports analyzing Minneapolis and St. Paul  s response to the 19181919 influenza. The issues are nearly the same. According to a 2007 report at PubMed Central:





Minneapolis and St. Paul As influenza was beginning to take hold in the civilian population, there was disagreement between the health commissioners, Dr. Guilford and Dr. Simon, respectively. Their approaches varied; Dr. Guilford tended to be broadly proactive to prevent cases, whereas Dr. Simon tended toward initiating activities in response to individual cases. Dr. Guilford believed that closing public places was the best course of action and that isolation of individual cases was useless. Dr. Simon asserted that isolation of influenza cases would be more effective in preventing the spread of disease.





The St. Paul Health Department and the Minnesota State Board of Health met Dr. Guilford's strong advocacy with opposition. Dr. Bracken, siding with St. Paul, questioned, If you begin to close, where are you going to stop? When are you going to reopen, and what do you accomplish by opening?Debate between the two cities on the merits of closing schools caused further strainThe measures used to contain influenza greatly affected the day-to-day lives of citizens. While some accepted the changes imposed on them, others protested regulations that they considered unfair. Some called for more stringent methods, while others blatantly broke the new rules that were intended to protect themThe use of gauze masks, more stringent sanitation laws, and vaccination campaigns were deployed in this effortClear authority and management by public health officials were generally lacking at the federal and state levels.





Stupid Country





Americans will never learn. We, I, are just too stupid and lazy to change the system. What can be done? The elite of the country, those 5 percenters who control the strings of we puppet citizens will become bolder by the day. Don  t want to work? Fine, there are 29 million people in line waiting for a job. Go pound sand!





Zibignew Brezinski I suppose was right all along. We are stupid at home and stupid abroad.





Persisting social crisis, the emergence of a charismatic personality, and the exploitation of mass media to obtain public confidence would be the stepping stones in the piecemeal transformation of the United States into a highly controlled societyI am very worried that most Americans are close to total ignorance about the world. They are ignorant. That is an unhealthy conditionWe have a large public that is very ignorant about public affairs and very susceptible to simplistic slogans by candidates who appear out of nowhere, have no track record, but mouth appealing slogans.





John Stanton can be reached at jstantonarchangel@gmail.com.




DALLAS, May 4, 2020 -- The COVID-19 pandemic has unmasked longstanding racial and ethnic health-related disparities, according to a new article published today in the American Heart Association's flagship journal Circulation.

The perspective essay, "At the Heart of the Matter: Unmasking and Addressing COVID-19's Toll on Diverse Populations," notes higher rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations, deaths or positive cases among blacks, Hispanic/LatinX and Native Americans are being reported at local and national levels. The essay discusses the alarming nature of the problem and is a follow-up to a webinar by the Association of Black Cardiologists entitled, "At the Heart of the Matter: Unmasking the Invisibility of COVID-19 in Diverse Populations."

According to the article's authors, the health disparities exposed by the current public health crisis did not materialize in a vacuum but are largely driven by socio-economic and environmental factors. The emerging differences in COVID-19 complications by race/ethnicity are disturbing and might be in part driven by a higher prevalence of one or more pre-existing chronic health conditions such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes and kidney disease at an earlier age among U.S. minorities, and as such, is not surprising, they said.

Among the potential solutions, the writers note:

Health care entities must collect and present COVID-19 data according to socio-demographic characteristics.

COVID-19 testing must be easily available in all communities, and contact tracing must be relentless.

Housing availability should be expanded. Facilities such as hotels and dorms should be used to quarantine symptomatic individuals to avoid spread to family members and neighbors. Suspension of foreclosures and evictions should occur.

Incentives to provide free or discounted food delivery to low-income neighborhoods and the elderly are necessary. Food banks will benefit from additional funding to reduce food insecurity.

Due to the increased reliance on telemedicine and distance learning, policymakers should support broad access to computers and free internet for vulnerable communities.

Employers should provide paid sick and quarantine leave to help reduce the risk of unwitting spread.

"Ultimately, lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic must be taken as an opportunity to address longstanding social and racial/ethnic disparities," wrote Michelle A. Albert, M.D. M.P.H., president of the Association of Black Cardiologists, professor of medicine and director of the CeNter for the StUdy of AdveRsiTy and CardiovascUlaR DiseasE (NURTURE Center) at the University of California, San Francisco. "Our vulnerable interconnectedness highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic should ignite meaningful solution-focused collaborations among community leaders, scholars and policymakers to orchestrate sustainable change aimed at addressing pervasive health care disparities."

Albert was recently awarded one of 12 fast-tracked research grants from the American Heart Association to study the effects of COVID-19 on the body's cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems. Albert's research will focus on how COVID-19 infection impacts the cardiovascular health of African American women.

The American Heart Association's recently launched the COVID-19 CVD Registry, powered by the Association's existing Get With The Guidelines program. The registry is designed to capture multiple key data points including race/ethnicity, biomarkers, pre-existing conditions, medications, in-hospital complications, and COVID-19 treatments and outcomes. The registry will yield meaningful insights into how COVID-19 impacts cardiovascular complications and outcomes in patients with COVID-19. To-date, 58 U.S. hospitals have joined the Association's COVID-19 CVD Registry and are actively submitting data.

###

Co-authors, also on behalf of the Association of Black Cardiologists, are Norrisa Haynes, M.D., M.P.H., and Lisa Cooper, M.D., M.P.H.

Additional COVID-19 Resources:

AHA COVID-19 Newsroom

View the manuscript online.

AHA Center for Health Statistics & Evaluation's COVID-19 Resource Planning Tool for At-Risk Communities

Pandemic brings another threat to forefront for African Americans and Latinos

Encuentre mas historias en espanol de AHA News aqui.

Follow AHA/ASA news on Twitter @HeartNews

About the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. We are dedicated to ensuring equitable health in all communities. Through collaboration with numerous organizations, and powered by millions of volunteers, we fund innovative research, advocate for the public's health and share lifesaving resources. The Dallas-based organization has been a leading source of health information for nearly a century. Connect with us on heart.org, Facebook, Twitter or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1.
In early April, about 40 percent of Michigan coronavirus tests were coming back positive.

Now, the number has dipped below 10% for the first time since the start of the pandemic. About 8.8% of the 10,577 tests done on Saturday, May 2  the most recent testing data available  came back positive. The day before, 9.9% of tests were positive.

Prior to Friday, Michigan had 50 consecutive days of having more than 10% of tests come back positive. The World Health Organization last month recommended ramping up testing until less than 10 percent of tests come back positive.

State health officials on Monday announced 196 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 86 new deaths Monday, May 4. They noted those figures may be incomplete because of a software glitch officials were toiling with Tuesday.

That brings the total to 43,950 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 4,135 deaths.

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Data was delayed Monday afternoon, due to a software malfunction.

These counts are representative of data in the Michigan Disease Surveillance System as of 4 p.m. on May 4, 2020, the state said about 7:30 p.m. Monday. However, as the data backlog is still processing from a software issue, todays numbers are not representative of the full data set since the May 3 report.

Michigan is releasing recovery data once per week. So far, 15,659 people have recovered from the virus in the state  meaning they tested positive for COVID-19 at some point and survived at least 30 days after symptoms began.

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For more statewide data, visit MLives coronavirus data page, here.

COVID-19 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 Michigan coronavirus coverage here

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ARLINGTON, VA  Arlington County students and their parents held a drive-by parade to honor their third-grade teacher at McKinley Elementary School. Almost a dozen cars drove by the home of Amanda Herr, honking their horns and holding signs outside their car windows, to show their appreciation for Herr as part of Teacher Appreciation Week.

Herr, who has taught third grade at McKinley Elementary since 2016 and previously taught in Fairfax County for several years, held back tears as her students and their parents thanked her from their cars for all of her hard work.

In the age of coronavirus, people are playing it safe by organizing vehicle parades to honor special people in the community, whether it's health care workers or school teachers.

Herr said seeing her students drive by her house made her feel extremely emotional. "I miss them so much," she said.



Since 1984, the National PTA has been holding an annual Teacher Appreciation Week during one week in May. In 2020, the PTA is offering many alternative ways for parents and students to honor their teachers in a safe way.

"It's in these challenging times that we truly recognize and appreciate how our nations educators play such a pivotal role in our childrens lives  inspiring a lifelong love of learning and discovery and making a difference in their well-being and long-term success," the National PTA says on its website.

Amanda Herr, a third-grade teacher at McKinley Elementary School in Arlington, holds her daughter Chloe as her students drive by to thank her. (Mark Hand/Patch)

Arlington Public Schools have been conducting online learning for the past six weeks. "We use all kinds of online platforms. It also helps that in Arlington, they have one-to-one devices in third through fifth grades. My kids took their iPads home with them. We have a virtual classroom we communicate with," Herr said.

The PTA at McKinley Elementary works hard to honor teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week. In the past, the PTA has held breakfast and lunch buffets for the school's teachers and has given them flowers.

Story continues

"I always feel appreciated during Teacher Appreciation Week," Herr said.

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Along with a drive-by appreciation, the McKinley Elementary PTA is making a video for the McKinley staff to thank them for their dedication to their jobs and the students.

Herr noted that parents had to take time off from work to make the signs and then drive by her house. "It's not like they have a ton of free time," she said.

As she saw her students riding by in cars, Herr said online learning is going well in Arlington, but it's not the same as teaching her third-graders in person. "It's been tough," she said.



One of Amanda Herr's students and her parents show their appreciation for the McKinley Elementary School teacher from across the street. (Mark Hand/Patch)

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This article originally appeared on the Arlington Patch
Two Advances for Chinese Navy after Monthlong Aircraft Carrier Voyage near Japan, Taiwan

By Ralph Jennings May 04, 2020

China's navy just learned from a monthlong aircraft carrier training mission how to keep troops safe from COVID-19 and what it would be like to spar with Japan or Taiwan, analysts believe.

The Liaoning aircraft carrier returned to port in eastern China April 30 after passing through western Pacific waters near Taiwan and Japan  putting both on alert due to their political differences with Beijing. Though hardly a first for the carrier, the rising maritime power sent it out for longer this year for more rigorous training.

The People's Liberation Army Navy probably did "intensive" logistics and medical support work, with civilian help, to keep its flotilla disease free during the global COVID-19 pandemic, said Andrew Yang, secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies think tank in Taiwan.

Naval vessels from Taiwan, the United States and three European countries have been infected this year. The coronavirus that causes COVI9-19 had spread on board because multiple people were stationed there in close quarters.

A disease-free voyage means "they can actually cope with very unique and unusual conditions and at the same time they can still make warships operational," Yang said.

More longer-term, China's navy took a lesson over the past month in what it would be like to fight Japan, Taiwan or countries that claim the adjacent South China Sea, said Derek Grossman, senior defense analyst with RAND Corp. research institution. China has not fought a war since the 1979 conflict with Vietnam, Grossman noted.

"The best place to prepare for realistic combat conditions is in the place where you're going to actually do it, and I think that's a really important aspect that tends to get lost," he said.

China's official Xinhua News Agency described the mission as annual with "trans-theater training in the far seas" this year. It featured a "long duration, many subjects, high intensity and complicated air and sea situations," Xinhua said.

The flotilla's "far seas training in real combat conditions has improved and its integrated combat capability has (been) tested," the news agency added.

The Liaoning has technical obstacles to overcome, too. It lacks the parts for regular maintenance, Yang said. The 8-year-old vessel is shorter than U.S. carriers, as well.

Defense ministries in Taiwan and Japan noted the Chinese carrier's passing in mid-April but did not challenge it.

Japan and China dispute sovereignty over tracts of sea east of Shanghai. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, despite the island's self-rule and public opposition to unification. It has threatened to use force against Taiwan if needed.

Around the 3.5 million-square-kilometer South China Sea, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam contest Chinese claims to waters that are rich in oil, gas and fish.

The Chinese naval exercises could spark responses from the U.S. and Australian navies, Grossman said. Both hope to check Beijing's expansion in the South China Sea.

In Southeast Asia itself, few people are talking about the Chinese carrier, said Alan Chong, associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. That's because they're taking face masks and medical aid from China to treat domestic cases of the COVID-19 respiratory disease, he said.

China for example sent 12 medical experts to the Philippines in early April, Chinese television reported. The carrier passed just north of the main Philippine island Luzon.

"Because everybody is using Chinese aid, you can't speak too loudly about it," Chong said, referring to the aircraft carrier.

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US must be held accountable for abusing UN Security Council: Iran envoy

Iran Press TV

Monday, 04 May 2020 2:02 PM

Iran's permanent ambassador to the United Nations office in Geneva has criticized the United States for attempting to extend an arms embargo against the Islamic Republic, saying the US must be held to account for taking advantage of the UN Security Council to achieve its own political goals.

"#US must be held to account and bear responsibility, not to be APPEASEMBOLDENED, for its bullying behavior and recurring pattern of wrongful (ab)use of the #UNSC & manipulation of its decisions," Esmaeil Baghaei Hamaneh tweeted on Sunday.

He added that Washington's invocation of Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorses a landmark 2015 nuclear between Iran and major world powers, is a "travesty, flouting a fundamental principle" governing international relations.

In his tweet, the Iranian diplomat included Article 91 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which says, "...a party, which disowns or doesn't fulfill its own obligations cannot be recognized as retaining the rights, which it claims to derive from the relationship."

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Abbas Mousavi, said Iran will serve a "decisive response" to a potential extension of the arms embargo against the country.

"Iran will serve an appropriate and decisive response to such a measure," Mousavi told a press conference in Tehran, referring to the potential submission of Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council and the likely extension of the embargo.

He, however, hoped for such a prospect not to come about, adding, "We are waiting to see the direction in which the circumstances are going to develop, and will then act based on them and deliver a response."

The remarks come after a report by The New York Times on April 26 said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo planned to invoke a provision in the UN-endorsed international nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in an attempt to either extend beyond October the UN arms embargo in place against Iran since 2006/2007 or get the world body to slap even harsher sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

In defiance of global criticism, the US unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA, which President Trump called "the worst deal ever," in May 2018 and re-imposed the anti-Iran sanctions.

In a post on his official Twitter account on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded to his American counterpart's attempts to push ahead with the United Nations arms embargo extension on Iran, saying the "United States of Arms" is pouring weapons all over the globe as it is the world's top war initiator.

Zarif labeled the US as the world's "top military spender, arms seller, war initiator & instigator and conflict profiteer."

He said while the United States has long been the number one military spender and arms seller in the world, its secretary of state is "apparently worried about Iran."

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Rentec Direct has been included as a finalist in the Technology Company of the Year - Rising Star category for the Oregon Technology Awards To be recognized for the hard work of our entire team alongside other leaders in the technology space is a true honor," said Nathan Miller, President of Rentec Direct.

Rentec Direct, the highest-rated property management software solution, has been named a finalist in the 2020 Oregon Technology Awards. The Oregon Technology Awards program celebrates excellence and achievement in the states technology industry, honoring outstanding companies for their accomplishments, leadership and commitment to the industry and community. Rentec Direct has been included as a finalist in the Technology Company of the Year - Rising Star category. The company is being recognized due to its impact on the Oregon technology industry, including financial performance, employment factors and community involvement.

At Rentec Direct, we are committed to providing the best product and service possible for our clients, providing a successful environment for our employees, and contributing to our community, said Nathan Miller, President of Rentec Direct. To be recognized for the hard work of our entire team alongside other leaders in the technology space is a true honor.

Rentec Direct takes a thoughtful approach to everything from software development to customer service and from employee satisfaction to community involvement. The companys successful organic growth allows staff to focus on client satisfaction and client-driven product development rather than answering to outside investors. It is this kind of business approach that has led the software company to its finalist position in the statewide award program.

The Oregon Technology Awards program accepts applications each year from companies in all technology sectors, including systems, hardware and communications software, internet, mobile and other application companies, technology service companies, biotechnology, medical device and other life science companies, and environmental science and energy companies. Furthermore, companies from industries not traditionally characterized as technology companies are also eligible if they have an extraordinary commitment to innovation or using technology within their fields. This makes for an extremely competitive program.

Winners will be announced onsite at the 2020 Oregon Technology Awards event on September 23, 2020 in Portland, Oregon, which typically draws more than 700 entrepreneurs and technology professionals from around the globe.

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 was also included on the 2017, 2018 and 2019 Entreprenuer360 list for Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America. http://www.rentecdirect.com
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Linkedin Rizki Fachriansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, May 5, 2020 12:25 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd603ced 1 City Bekasi,Bekasi-administration,Bekasi-mayor,Rahmat-Effendi,PCR-test,COVID-19,coronavirus,virus-korona-indonesia,virus-corona,West-Java Free

The Bekasi administration in West Java is set to conduct polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing starting Tuesday on residents passing the citys borders amid the implementation of large-scale social restrictions (PSBB).

Swab testing will be carried out by the Bekasi Health Agency and a team from Chasbullah Abdulmajid General Hospital on residents going in and out of the city to stem the spread of COVID-19, Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Effendi said in a statement on Monday.

He added that the administration had prepared 50 PCR test kits at six of the citys entry points. Meanwhile, the border at Sumber Arta on Jl. Malang  considered the citys main entry point  had been equipped with 100 test kits, the mayor went on to say.

He expected everyone entering the city to undertake swab tests for early COVID-19 detection. People crossing the citys borders would be asked to stop so officials could take their swab samples and record their data according to their ID card.

Read also: West Java plans to operate 24-hour checkpoints to enforce 'mudik' ban

The acquired samples would be immediately taken to the Bekasi Health Agencys laboratory for further testing.

Rahmat claimed the administration had launched the testing because many people had failed to comply with the PSBB implementation in the city. We will coordinate further with the local police and military to enforce the restrictions on the ground.

West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil had extended PSBB in Jakartas satellite cities and regencies, including Bekasi, for two weeks to further flatten the regions COVID-19 infection curve.

Ridwan claimed the infection rate in the areas, specifically in Bogor and Depok, had decreased by 38.5 percent since the restrictions were first imposed on April 15.

However, he said Bekasi had continued to record more COVID-19 cases in the past few weeks, prompting the administration to further extend the restrictions.
The Jammu and Kashmir high court asked government authorities on Tuesday to look into the necessity of continuing with the 148-year-old practice of shifting the seat of power, called Darbar move, every six months between Jammu and Srinagar.

The court also asked competent authorities to keep in mind the financial implication for the hopelessly fiscally deprived Union Territory, questioning the annual expenditure of what many reports peg at Rs 200 crore needed for the exercise.

Hearing a self-adopted public interest litigation, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Geeta Mittal observed that no reasons or grounds are forthcoming for enabling and supporting considerations of administrative efficiency, legal justification or Constitutional basis for affecting the Darbar move.

The material placed before us manifests that there has been no application of mind to the changed circumstances because of technological and scientific advances. Our judicial conscience compels us to ring the bell else we would fail in discharging our judicial duty or to perform our constitutional function as demanded in the interest of the Nation and the people of Jammu and Kashmir, especially its common woman and man, the poor and the weak, the bench, also comprising Justice Rajnesh Oswal, said.

The court expressed its inability to pass an order, saying it had listed its limitations on the extent of our jurisdiction whereby we stand precluded from making a declaration on the permissibility or the continuation of the practice...

In its 93-page judgment, the court also listed suggestion made by senior advocate Monika Kohli, who drew the courts attention to a report that the Centre released around Rs 24 crore for purchase of hardware and software for the civil secretariat and also released funds for digitisation of official records. She submitted before the court that government records should be properly secured and preserved at a proper place.

Dogra ruler Maharja Ranbir Singh made the arrangement of shifting the Darbar from Srinagar to Jammu in 1870s to escape severe winter in the Valley and the Jammu heat in the summer. In keeping with the tradition, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir is shifted every six months from Jammu (winter capital) to Srinagar (summer capital).

The discomfort on account of change of weather in either city is today compensated by efficient and modern environment control mechanism as air conditioning, heaters etc in both Jammu as well as Srinagar, Kohli said.

Speaking to HT, Kohli said: It all started amid the Covid-19 lockdown after a man from Kashmir, whose son was stranded in Iran, moved an application before the court for his evacuation, and it was treated as suo motu PIL.

While all this was on, the administration announced Darbar Move in April. Some of the lawyers from Kashmir expressed their concern that how Darbar move can happen amid lockdown and Covid infection, she added.
U.S. Air Forces Central Command has stopped publicizing monthly reports on the number of airstrikes and bombs dropped over Afghanistan due to ongoing deliberations between the U.S. and the Taliban.

A spokesperson for the command confirmed the change Tuesday; AFCENT has failed to provide consistent updates -- known as "airpower summaries" -- since February. The news was first reported by CNN.

"Due to a multiplicity of diplomatic relational concerns, including how the report could adversely impact ongoing discussions with the Taliban regarding Afghanistan peace talks, we are not, at present, publishing a monthly Airpower Summary report," the spokesperson said.

The summaries also involve bomb tallies and sorties for ongoing operations in Iraq and Syria for Operation Inherent Resolve. When asked whether those would be published separately, the spokesperson did not have further comment.

The U.S. military conducted record-setting airstrikes in Afghanistan last year, surpassing the previous year's total -- with 7,423 bombs dropped -- and making 2019 the most kinetic year for airstrikes against extremist targets in the country in at least a decade.

Related: New Photos Show Destruction from Taliban Attack on Bagram Air Base

By comparison, aircraft dropped 7,362 munitions in 2018 -- more than the three preceding years combined.

President Donald Trump in 2017 announced that the U.S. would begin sending more troops to Afghanistan -- where the United States has been fighting its longest war -- to step up the fight against the Taliban and ISIS-K, the Afghan offshoot of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

The administration increased the force strength in the region by 3,500 troops in 2017 and 2018 in an effort to boost the advise-and-assist mission with the Afghan military, according to The Associated Press.

The move included the Air Force shifting assets back into the Afghan theater, such as additional F-16 Fighting Falcons and aerial refueling tankers.

Early in his presidency, Trump made clear his preference to give more leeway to generals, allowing them to take an aggressive approach toward stamping out extremist threats. Such was the case with the highly publicized drop of the 21,600-pound GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) -- nicknamed the "mother of all bombs" -- against ISIS-K in the Achin district of eastern Nangarhar province in April 2017.

Despite an increasing operations tempo from U.S. and coalition aircraft between 2017 and 2019, the president then indicated he was open to downsizing in the region to bring more American personnel home from the conflict.

In his State of the Union address in February 2019, Trump highlighted the need to pull out of Afghanistan entirely.

"Great nations do not fight endless wars," he said during the speech.

Subsequently, the Taliban and U.S. officials met several times last year in an effort to negotiate a potential peace deal and troop withdrawal; one such meeting followed the president's trip to the region on Thanksgiving Day.

The peace process has had its setbacks. Just this week, Defense Secretary Mark Esper confirmed the deliberations are "behind schedule," and the Pentagon does not believe the Taliban has made a good-faith effort to reduce violence across the country.

There "has not been a reduction in violence from the Taliban side," he said during a Brookings Institution event Monday. Recent attacks have singled out Afghan forces, not U.S. troops.

"We continue to talk to both sides about what they need to do to fully implement the agreement," Esper said.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.

Read more: 3 Marines Tackle, Subdue Threatening Passenger on Long-Haul Flight
19 Davis SD schools to go online due to COVID-19; Roy HS also going remote

FARMINGTON  Nineteen Davis School District schools will move to remote and online learning starting Wednesday due to rising numbers of COVID-19 cases among students. Remote learning will go through Friday, when school officials hope the active case counts fall below the thresholds spelled out in state law that required the move. Students "will be back on Monday," said Chris Williams, the district spokesperson. At the same time, though, Williams said district officials continue to monitor case numbers and he left open the possibility that additional schools may join the 19. "There may ...
Originally scheduled to open on May 9, the 75th anniversary of the Red Armys victory over Nazi Germany, it was to feature a mosaic of Mr. Putin, his defense minister and other state figures, including the Soviet wartime leader Stalin.

But amid growing tensions between church and state over the pandemic, a senior bishop overseeing the cathedrals interiors announced last week that, at the Kremlins request, the mosaic of Mr. Putin would be removed. The opening has been delayed.

Instead of rallying to the side of the president and his officials as they try to contain the expanding pandemic by restricting public gatherings, including church services, many priests have complained bitterly that the state has no right to interfere in who attends services.

Discouraging public worship, warned Metropolitan Longin, a senior churchman in Saratov, a region in southwestern Russia, only revived painful memories of Soviet-era repression. He threatened damnation for those who enforced or obeyed restrictions, warning that anyone who carried out instructions from state health authorities that violated the dictates of faith will be held accountable.

Geraldine Fagan, the editor of East-West Church Report, a journal on religious affairs in the former Soviet Union, said, There has been a real breakdown of trust. Getting people to go to church, she said, is a priests raison detre, so orders that believers stay away have caused genuine surprise and anger.

A few days before Mr. Pelipenko set himself on fire, a bishop in the northern Russian region of Komi protested restrictions on churchgoing as an infringement of fundamental rights and threatened to go to court to get them reversed. Declaring that the ringing of church bells was the best way to combat the pandemic, he claimed that the word coronavirus  derived from the Latin word for crown  is not coincidental but is linked to the coronation and enthronement of the Antichrist.
Cairo and Marsa Alam airports received a number of special flights on Tuesday that were transporting home 921 Egyptians who had been stranded abroad in various parts of the world for several weeks, in the wake of the widespread suspension of flights due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Two special EgyptAir flights coming from Kuwait carrying almost 600 passengers arrived at Cairo International Airport on Tuesday, Al-Ahram Arabic reported.

The first flight, carrying 298 people, arrived in the afternoon, while the other arrived in the evening, carrying 298 passengers too.

All the returnees from Kuwait will stay under quarantine areas at repurposed university dorms in Cairo, as per the health ministrys recommendations.

The Tuesday arrivals are the first to come from Kuwait since Sunday, when a group of Egyptian workers protested at a shelter for those who have violated the Gulf countrys residency law, demanding repatriation.

Marsa Alam International Airport received a special AirCairo air flight coming from both Dar es Salam in Tanzania and Khartoum, Sudan, carrying 174 Egyptian passengers.

Another EgyptAir flight also arrived in the Red Sea city on Tuesday, bringing 151 Egyptian passengers from Iraqi capital Baghdad.

All the passengers were transferred to designated quarantine hotels in Marsa Alam, where they will be lodged for 14 days.

The cabinet has said the state will cover the cost of those staying at university dorms, while those who want to spend their quarantine period at designated hotels in Marsa Alam will have to pay for their stay.

Egypt is set to operate several flights in the coming days to return more stranded nationals.

Priority for Egyptians returning from abroad will be given to humanitarian cases, followed by those with expired residences or terminated contracts, then those with a final exit visa and tourists, Information Minister Osama Heikal said on Tuesday.

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The ruling alliance in Maharashtra is set to win five of nine legislative council seats going to the polls on May 21 and is in talks with smaller parties for a sixth, people familiar with the development said.The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) says it is confident of winning four seats.

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, who leads the Shiv Sena- Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)-Congress coalition government, is among the ruling alliance candidates, contesting the first election of his political career.

Like his father, the late Balasaheb Thackeray, Uddhav Thackeray has so far stayed away from electoral politics. After assuming the chief ministers post on November 28 , he is constitutionally bound to get elected to either the legislative assembly or the legislative council within six months or by May 27. He is likely to be elected unopposed.

The state cabinet twice recommended to governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari that he be nominated one of the two vacant legislative council seats under the governors quota.Thackeray called Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 29 to caution him about an impending constitutional crisis if the governor denied he cabinets demand.

Next day, Koshyari urged the Election Commission to hold elections at the earliest to the nine legislative council seats that have been vacant since April 24. The last date of filing nominations is May 11 and the last date of withdrawal is May 14.

In the 288-member assembly, the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has the support of 169 legislators. While the Shiv Sena has 56 legislators, the NCPs strength is 54 followed by the Congress with 44 and others 15.

The opposition has 115 legislators, including 105 from the BJP and eight independents. Four others are not supporting either combination.

A Congress functionary said on condition of anonymity that the MVA is in talks with the independents and smaller parties, including the Communist Party of India (Marxist), to seek their support

If they agree, the Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress will get two seats each.

Apart from Thackeray, the Shiv Sena is likely to renominate Neelam Gorhe.

From the Congress, many leaders, including Rajni Patil, Hussain Dalwai, Manickrao Thakre, Muzaffar Hussain and Arif Naseem Khan have staked their claim for a nomination .

The BJP says it can win four seats.

We do not anticipate any trouble in getting four of our candidates elected provided the ruling side does not try to overstretch and sticks to nominating only five candidates, a BJP functionary said, requesting anonymity.

Normally when such an election takes place where a chief minister or a minister has to be elected all parties are usually keen on the elections being held unopposed. Hopefully, the ruling party will see reason and not push for a situation where election will be required, he added.
DURHAM, N.C., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- With few products approved for use on hemp, Vestaron Corporation is pleased to announce that its Spear-Lep bioinsecticide has received EPA approval for adding Hemp to the label.

Spear-Lep controls caterpillars, loopers, "worms" and other lepidopteran larvae with the safety and sustainability of biologicals, and with the performance and versatility of traditional synthetics. These pests are difficult to control for all growers, and the expanding hemp industry is addressing this issue head on as armyworms, corn earworms and others increase in pest status.

With an excellent safety profile for pollinators and other beneficials, Spear-Lep also has a short 4-hour restricted-entry interval, a 0-day pre-harvest interval and is MRL exempt. Growers also benefit from Spear-Lep's novel mode of action, recently categorized as the first and only chemistry in the newest IRAC Group 32. When Spear is ingested along with a low label rate of a lepidopteran active Bt product, which disrupts the gut wall, the Spear peptide crosses into the body cavity to reach target sites in the nervous system. The combination of these characteristics makes Spear-Lep a valuable new tool for the protection of high-value field crops, including hemp, and a safe and versatile rotation partner for IPM and insecticide resistance management programs.

"Adding hemp to the Spear-Lep label opens doors for hemp growers to incorporate one of the newest and safest tools for managing troublesome lepidopteran pests," explains Daniel Peck, PhD, field biologist for Vestaron. "Only a handful of products are currently labelled for use in hemp. Among them, Spear-Lep stands out for its performance on par with conventional insecticides, its enviable safety profile, and its easy integration into any rotational program. It's understandable why it might generate a lot of excitement."

The label update for Spear-Lep also includes tobacco as an approved crop. Spear-Lep will be available as a go-to-solution in rotations for tobacco farmers, increasing their options in fighting resistance.

About Vestaron Vestaron is a company dedicated to improving the safety, efficacy, and sustainability of crop protection through migration from synthetic pesticides to peptide-based biopesticides. Vestaron is initially focused on a class of peptides that kills insect pests efficiently, but is safe for humans, beneficial insects, and the environment. As part of this, the company has developed a proprietary platform for peptide optimization and fermentation-based peptide production that will allow it to develop a wide variety of biological crop protection solutions. Vestaron is the winner of the inaugural 2015 Bernard Blum Award for novel biocontrol solutions and a 2020 THRIVE Top 50 Growth-Stage honoree.

More information at www.vestaron.com

SPEAR is a registered trademark of Vestaron Corporation.

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Ben Cicora, SVP Sales & Marketing  (970) 443.9220  [email protected]

Sherry Mitchell, Director of Marketing  (919) 609.6704  [email protected]

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Working as a dental hygienist for over 40 years, Audrey Gaddis needs to be able to use her hands.

So when she developed skin cancer in her thumb, she worried it would mean giving up her career.

But thanks to her doctors, they were able to remove her thumb and transplant her big toe in its place, so she could use her hand as normal.

Audrey, 65, from Bryson City, North Carolina, explains: I have been working at my craft for 44 years come this June.



I do love my work and patients and office workers. I had a plan on how many years I would continue to work. This situation with my thumb almost changed my whole plan.

Audrey noticed something was wrong back in March 2017 when she saw something that looked like freckles near the nail bed on her right thumb.

She says: I know some people have habits twirling their hair strands, nibbling their lip, and mine is peeling my extremely dry nail cuticles.

I happened to peel the cuticle on that thumb into those freckles. Usually, in a few days, all is healed back. That didnt happen this time.

Audrey was a keen bowler and initially she thought that she had infected that open area with a bowling ball.

After about a month I thought I should have someone check it out, she says.

I took myself to an urgent care service to seek medical attention, or at least tell me what was wrong.

The physicians assistant wasnt sure what was wrong and decided to give me a prescription for an antibiotic.

She finished the course and there was no improvement so by early May she decided to get an appointment with a dermatologist.

I saw them within a week, she says. It was decided to take a biopsy then cauterize the wound. The biopsy came back quickly as melanoma. My next appointment was with a cancer doctor.

Melanoma is a skin cancer that develops from the pigment-producing cells.

Her cancer doctor decided to refer her to specialists at Carolina Hand and Foot, where she was seen in June 2017.

Audrey says: I had every intention of returning to work if possible! I had hopes that only the tip of my thumb would need to be removed.

But no, they said it would be an operation to remove the thumb all the way to the joint that attaches to my hand.

Melanoma is the most invasive skin cancer that travels along the deepest layer of your skin. It can travel well beyond the surface site and also through the blood system. Therefore, the surgery to remove melanoma is quit extensive and often deep.

My doctor was very concerned for me and stated it would change my life. He then gave me his recommendation of using a toe in place of my thumb. I said yes right away.

Audrey did not hesitate to go for the toe transplant surgery as she felt it was her best chance to continue work and life as close as possible to normal.

She says: I had two questions for him  had he ever done this before? And how would it affect my walking?

Well, he laughed and asked if I would like to see the pictures. I knew he had performed this before but still. one cant be too sure!

He said walking wouldnt be affected as much as we have always heard. As long as one has the ball of the foot immediately below the toe, it shouldnt be a problem.

Before the transplant could take place, surgeons had to remove her thumb, which they did on July 12 2017.

In the month between the surgeries, Audrey realised how difficult it was to lose the thumb.

She says: The doctor wanted to give time for all my medical tests to return before deciding when to do the transplant.

It changed my life for sure at that point. I couldnt button a shirt, hold a glass without a handle, play a piano, fasten a bra behind my back and there many more inconveniences. I did, however, learn to write using just my fingers.

Fortunately, removing the thumb removed all the cancer and it had not spread beyond that area.

So, in late August, Audrey went ahead with the transplant surgery.

She explains: The surgery was eight hours by two doctors. The first doctor removed my toe and prepared it for transplanting. The second doctor did the microsurgery to replace the thumb.

At first, I wasnt sure about how it would look having researched pictures before my surgery. Most pictures were of men with a toe for a thumb. My doctor assured me he would do some cosmetic work on my toe to improve the look of it.

The surgery went well but it was another two months before she could start physical therapy to be able to use it.

After five months, Audrey was able to return to work and use her new thumb, which has worked well ever since.

Although Audrey says the surgery was one of the best things that has ever happened to her, she admits that there have been a few minor drawbacks, including being unable to return to her bowling hobby.

She says: My walking hasnt been a problem and balance doesnt seem disturbed at this time but Im not sure that as I grow older that will be the same.

I dont really go bare-footed except in the bathroom or at a pool. Mostly with a shoe on one doesnt have an issue with balance or walking.

My drawback, if you will, would be that I cant wear those pesky sandals that go between the big toe and the next but I hated those type shoes anyway.

My doctors have forbid me to bowl right-handed any more. I havent gone back to relearn left-handed. I wasnt a great bowler so maybe Im better left-handed?

Follow Us on Facebook  @LadunLiadi; Instagram  @LadunLiadi; Twitter  @LadunLiadi; Youtube  @LadunLiadiTV for updates
By Express News Service

MUMBAI: Migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Karnataka have to wait longer in Maharashtra because their respective states have put stringent terms and conditions on their travel.

Bhushan Gagrani, in-charge of the war room for Covid-19 in Maharashtra, confirmed the same.

"They told us unless and until the COVID-19 test was carried out, the migrants should not be sent to their home states. Therefore, Maharashtra government has decided to send the other states migrants except for those from these three states," Gagrani said.

Maharashtra minority minister Nawab Malik also said that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had refused to take back migrants from his state.

ALSO READ | Mumbai Diary: Trouble for news channel, Congress' exit plan and more

The Maharashtra government says it has agreed to do a primary health check but can't go beyond that.

"This is crisis time. We cannot fulfil all terms and conditions set by UP. Bihar, Rajasthan and Madya Pradesh government are ready to take their people so very soon the trains will be started for them," Malik said.

Former Home Secretary GK Pillai said better planning could have avoided all this.

"If advance notices were given to the states and migrants before the lockdown, it would have not led to this mismanagement. It is a big problem. Practical problems were not taken into account while issuing orders. Common policy in consultation with the states would have avoided problems. For instance, whether testing of migrants is to be done in their residing states or their home states, it should have been specified," he noted.
Scores of migrant workers,



desperate to travel back to their native states amidst the coronavirus-induced lockdown, on Tuesday came out on streets in Ahmedabad and Surat in Gujarat, officials said.

While more than 1,000 migrant workers carrying luggage gathered in Nikol area in Ahmedabad following a rumour that buses would be run for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, several others came on streets in Varachha area of Surat city.

In Ahmedabad, it took almost two hours for local police to persuade the migrants to vacate the busy crossroad near Ajit Mill police chowky.

"Migrants carrying their luggage started gathering in Nikol area since this morning following a rumour that buses would leave for their states from here, which was not true. We convinced them to go home as no bus would leave from here," said Odhav police inspector R G Jadeja.

He said police asked the migrants not to believe in such rumours.

"We asked them to approach the Collector's office to get themselves registered for the inter-state travel," he said.

In Surat, police helped the migrants fill the mandatory application forms for inter-state travel through trains.

A total of 23 Shramik Special trains carrying around 28,000 migrant workers had left various stations of Gujarat since May 2 to Tuesday morning, a state government release said.

Additional Chief Secretary, Labour and Employment department, Vipul Mitra said a dozen more special trains were planned for the day to ferry over 14,000 migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand.

Mitra is Gujarat's nodal officer to facilitate transportation of migrant workers, tourists, pilgrims, students, and others to their native states by trains.

He said authorities are mulling to increase the number of the special trains to 20 per day in a couple of days. Each train can ferry 1,200 persons.

On Monday, migrant workers had pelted police with stones in Surat district, leaving nearly a dozen personnel injured.

Several labourers had also came out on a road in Rajkot demanding that they be sent back to their hometowns, while some migrant workers got their heads tonsured in an area of Surat after being unable to go back home.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By IANS

NEW DELHI: In a direct barb aimed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday raised the issue of non-decentralisation of power amid the Covid-19 crisis to Nobel laureate Abhijeet Banerjee, who said there is a misconception that strong leaders can fight the virus better, as the US and Brazil have evidently messed it up.

"That has been disastrous. The US and Brazil are two countries that are messing up right and left. These are two strongmen behaving like.. pretending like... they understand anything.. but even what they say every day is kind of laughable.

"If anyone wanted to believe in the strongman theory, this is the time to dissuade themselves," Banerjee told Gandhi during a conversation on the economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis as part of a series of discussion with experts.

READ| India needs large enough stimulus package: Abhijit Banerjee tells Rahul

The professor was replying to a query "What is being sold is that it requires one man to charge in against the virus" underlying undercurrent is that strong leaders can take on this virus. This question is considered a direct barb against Prime Minister Narendra Modi whom the Congress has accused of ignoring the suggestions made by the opposition. The supporters of the Prime Minister consider him a strong leader who takes tough decisions, including the announcement of the lockdown. The Congress is alleging that the Prime Minister himself takes decisions and there is no decentralisation of powers and states are not taken into confidence.

When asked by Rahul on the decentralisation, Banerjee replied, "This is a tension and clearly the migrant movement question cannot be handled by a state government. It is a bit odd that it is being handled so much bilaterally. In a sense, I feel like that is a problem."

He said that the issue of migrants should be dealt by the Union Government.

"This is a place where you don't want to decentralise because you want to actually aggregate the information. If this is a population of people who were very infected, you don't want them to be moving through the whole country.

"I feel this is a place where we should have tested people where they are allowed to board a train or something. That is a central question, and something that only a federal government can do. Tell the government of Uttar Pradesh that you cannot just bring your migrants home."
Ledbury also is donating 5,000 masks to The Community Foundation for a greater Richmond for that organization to give to other needy groups. And the company is working with a partnership in New York to provide 10,000 masks for the homeless.

The company also plans to provide masks free to those Virginia businesses receiving $3,000 grants to help small businesses stay afloat and continue operating during the pandemic.

The Virginia 30 Day Fund, created in early April, has given grants as of Monday to about 140 small businesses in Virginia, said technology entrepreneur Pete Snyder, who founded the fund with his wife. It has raised more than $900,000.

For us, we feel blessed that we have a business that we can operate at this time, and we wanted to find ways we can give back, Trible said. Weve gone from a defensive position to an offensive position and one where we can help.

After hearing about the Virginia 30 Day Fund, Trible said he wanted to find a way to help other small businesses.
The Saudi man cannot believe his ears.

You told him that the Israelis are right and that you want to do business with them? he asks in response to the suggestion that perhaps, after years of open animosity, Israel isn't the enemy Saudi Arabia once believed them to be.

The enemy is the one who doesn't appreciate you standing by him, who curses you day and night  more than the Israelis, his father-in-law retorts, referring to the Palestinians.

The scene is from the Ramadan TV drama Exit 7 broadcast by the Saudi-controlled MBC Group. The program, along with another MBC soap about a Jewish midwife in fellow Gulf monarchy Kuwait, has sparked controversy in a region that has long championed the Palestinian cause and vilified Israel, and speculation that Saudi Arabia is trying to promote closer ties with the Jewish nation.

Image: President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner and Mohammed bin Salman (Jonathan Ernst / Reuters)

For a Saudi-controlled broadcaster to have a character advocate for the normalization of relations with Israel is unheard of, according to Hassan Hassan, a program director at the Center for Global Policy think tank in Washington, D.C.

To hear that on Saudi TV is just shocking, he said.

Saudi Arabia, long a pro-Palestinian bastion and a source of vehement anti-Israeli sentiment, continues to officially support the Palestinian right to a state, and has no diplomatic ties with Israel, with no embassy or consulate in the country. Israel has peace deals with only two Arab countries  Egypt and Jordan  where it has fortified embassies.

However, relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia have quietly warmed in recent years as they have been pushed together by their common enemy, Iran, and an ally in the Trump administration.

In January, Israels interior ministry said that it will now allow Israelis to travel to Saudi Arabia for religious or business visits, provided the visitor holds an invitation to the kingdom from an official.

Some Saudi analysts said the country had witnessed a rise in nationalism in recent years, particularly among the young, some of whom tend to be less concerned with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Story continues

The timing of the television series has thus fueled speculation that the content could serve a political agenda. It has also prompted cries of outrage from Palestinians who take it as a sign that their Arab brothers are forsaking their national struggle, at a time when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing to annex parts of land they hope will form part of a future Palestinian state.

Palestinian Minister of Culture Atef Abu Saif demanded last week the cessation of dramas that serve the occupation and offend the Palestinian cause.

Some Arab satellite channels aired on the month of Ramadan, some series that offend the Arab national narration of the conflict in the face of the theft of Palestine and distort history, he said.

Ramadan is peak TV season for many of the worlds 1.8 billion Muslims and amid the coronavirus pandemic, audiences were expected to be bigger than ever with millions stuck at home.

In 2018, Saudi authorities took the controlling stake in the MBC group, which is one of the biggest broadcasters in the region, according to Reuters.

Some analysts said it was possible that Saudi officials wanted to send a message to their people.

Official attitudes are shifting and the soaps may be a way of trying to nudge public opinion to follow them and shift in the same direction, said Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a fellow for the Middle East at the Baker Institute for public policy at Rice University.

Any message or storyline that emerges through these Ramadan soaps carries a degree of official approval, he added.

MBC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The beginning of the thaw in Israeli-Saudi relations can be traced to 2011 when both began to see Islamism and Iran as a much bigger threat than each other, according to Ulrichsen.

Then, with the Trump administration's rise to power, Saudi officials have taken into account its full throated-support for Israel's right-wing government when attempting to ingratiate themselves in Washington, he added, pointing to reports that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met Jewish leaders in New York in 2018.

However, in the past the Gulf kingdom has tied formally normalizing relations with Israel to achieving a peace settlement for the Palestinians.

Analysts said this position appeared not to have changed  in part, perhaps, because a commitment to the Palestinian struggle appears to still run deep in the psyche of much of the Saudi population.

Abdulaziz Alghashian, a Saudi lecturer of international relations at the University of Essex, said he thought dramatizing debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict served as a litmus test to gauge where Saudis stand on the issue  rather than as a government strategy to sway minds.

"At this point, the only thing that is normalized is the discourse of Saudi normalization with Israel," he said.

And its plausible that things may just get worse for the Palestinians  which in turn may test any desire in Riyadh to thaw relations further.

Netanyahu is pushing for the extension of Israeli sovereignty over parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank  a move that the United Nations has said would deal a devastating blow to the prospects of an independent Palestinian state, said Yossi Mekelberg, a professor of international relations at Regent's University London.

Whether governments in the Gulf see it as a high priority or not, many people within their countries will see this as an affront, he said.

Annexation might serve the coalition but its not going to serve relations in the Gulf and with Egypt and Jordan.
Jabalpur, May 5 : The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the state government over liquor contractors' plea, seeking revision of terms of contracts or recalling this year's contract awarded to them.

The petitioners said the prolonged closure of shops due to the lockdown and curtailed business hours had caused them heavy losses and the government must make up for that.

A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice A.K. Mittal and Justice V.K. Shukla, sought the government's reply in two weeks and set the next hearing for May 19.

According to the petitioners' counsel, 30 people from different parts of the state have filed the plea seeking revision of terms and conditions of contract or recalling of the entire bidding process of liquor sale for this financial year, considering the market situation (economic slowdown) arising out of the pandemic.

The terms and conditions of the licence were based on normal market conditions, but the market situation had changed drastically due to Covid-19, the counsel said.

Under the clause 36 of the excise policy, the petitioners said they were allowed to run their liquor shops between 9.30 a.m. and 11.30 p.m. daily.

The new shortened hours, applicable from May 5, would breach the original terms of the contract, making it difficult for them to earn the revenue quoted in bids.

The excise policy permits the petitioners (liquor contractors) to run and operate shops, bars and ahatas (drinking area). But due to Covid-19, bars and drinking area would remain shut, making it hard to realise the licence fees paid every fortnight, the counsel said.
Gemma ODoherty and John Waters leaving the High Court in Dublin. Photo by Steve Humphreys 5th May 2020

John Waters and Gemma O'Doherty have told the High Court that laws introduced due to the Covid-19 pandemic are "unprecedented" and amount to an "effective suspension" of every citizen's constitutional rights.

In judicial review proceedings against the State and the Minister for Health they seek to have various pieces of recently enacted legislation, which they say are unconstitutional and flawed, quashed by a judge of the High Court

The High Court has directed that their application for permission to bring their challenge be heard in the presence of the respondents.

Both the state and lawyers representing the Dail, Seanad and the Ceann Comhairle which are notice parties to the proceedings claim the court should not allow them bring the challenge and that the case should be dismissed.

The preliminary application to determine if permission should be granted is being heard by Mr Justice Charles Meenan.

In their submissions, they said the laws that had been introduced, and the manner in which they were enacted, are repugnant to several articles of the constitution including rights to travel, bodily integrity and the family.

Mr Waters said that the issues that he and Ms O'Doherty were raising were hugely important for all citizens.

The laws he said keep people in their homes, and have resulted in the closure of parks and beaches, he said.

Expand Close Gemma ODoherty and John Waters address supporters outside the High Court in Dublin. Photo by Steve Humphreys 5th May 2020 / Facebook

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Whatsapp Gemma ODoherty and John Waters address supporters outside the High Court in Dublin. Photo by Steve Humphreys 5th May 2020

Mr Waters said he agreed with comments by former British Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption who described the restrictions in place in the UK, which Mr Waters said are similar to the ones in Ireland, as being worse that than what was imposed in the UK during World War Two.

Referring to the economic impact of the restrictions he said he feared that the country could find itself back in the place it was in 1929 when the Wall Street Crash sent the would into an economic depression.

Mr Waters also told the court that they do not accept the accuracy of the number of deaths in the State attributable to Covid-19, due to the manner in which such deaths are being officially recorded.

Ms O'Doherty said the the laws had given powers allowing the Gardai to harass people when they go out and about and have kept citizens under mass house arrest.

During her submissions to the court she compared the restrictions to like living "in Nazi Germany" where people were required to carry papers with them at all times.

In their action Ms O'Doherty and Mr Waters have challenged legislation including the 2020 Health Preservation and Protection and Other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act, the 2020 Emergency Measures in the Public

Interest Act Covid-19 Act, The 1947 Health Act (Affected Areas) Order.

Their proceedings are also aimed at striking down temporary restriction regulations brought due to Covid-19 under the 1947 Health Act.

The state represented by Patrick McCann SC, appearing with Gerard Meehan Bl, opposes the application for leave, and says that the claims are not arguable.

The Dail, the Seanad and the Ceann Comhairle, which have been added as notice parties to the action because part of the challenge concerns how the laws were enacted and represented by Francis Kieran Bl, is also opposed to leave being granted.

As was the case when the matter was before the court last week, there was tight security and a large Garda presence around the Four Courts Complex.

Supporters of Mr Waters and Ms O'Doherty remained outside barriers erected by the Gardai close to the courtroom where the case is being heard.

Only a limited number of persons were allowed into the court due to social distancing conditions imposed by the Courts Service.

The hearing continues on Wednesday.
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Linkedin Yunindita Prasidya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, May 5, 2020 18:17 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd625dd5 1 Business Indonesia,lending,loan-interest-subsidy,OJK,automotive-loan,housing-loan,BCA,bank-mandiri Free

The government will broaden its loan interest subsidies to include mortgage loans (KPR), automotive loans (KKB), and loans taken out by micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) as part of a debt relief program for those affected by COVID-19.

The government is working with the Financial Services Authority (OJK) to prepare a debt relief program, according to a statement by the OJK issued on April 30.

The OJK welcomes and supports the governments relief program related to the provision of loan interest subsidies for borrowers from banks and financing companies, the statement read.

The announcement said borrowers with loans classified under collectability one (current) and collectability two (special mention) were eligible for the subsidies, as well as automobile loans under Rp 500 million and housing loans of type 21 and type 22 for properties of up to 70 square meters.

The payments will be given for six months, from April to September of this year. The interest subsidies for loans under Rp 500 million will be 6 percent for the first three months and 3 percent for the remaining three months. For loans between Rp 500 million and Rp 10 billion, the interest subsidies will be 3 percent for the first half of the stimulus period and 2 percent for the second half.

Experts have said that the subsidy will help not only borrowers, many of whom are under pressure as a result of the economic impacts of the COVID-19, but also banks and financing companies that are facing missed payments and rising defaults on loans.

Center of Reform on Economics (Core) Indonesia economist Piter Abdullah told The Jakarta Post on Monday that the loan interest subsidy would help reduce the strain on consumer purchasing power, as the pandemic had hit almost every sector and people were grappling with decreases in  or an outright loss  of income.

In the middle of that declining income, the expenses remain the same, he said.

He added that the loan relief program was good news for banks and financing companies because If [they did] not [get the subsidies], they would be experiencing a great amount of pressure from non-performing loans (NPL), which could erode the banks capital.

The countrys banking industry recorded an NPL rate of nearly 2.8 percent in February, the highest since May of last year, but the OJK said the risk profile of Indonesias financial institutions was still under control despite the high NPL rate.

Paul Sutaryono, a banking observer and former assistant vice president of Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), told the Post on Monday that the loan interest subsidy would limit banks' losses from NPLs.

The two experts agreed that the relief program would complement earlier loan relaxation programs, including the loan restructuring policy. In March, the OJK announced it would relax debt quality assessments and restructuring requirements for loans of up to Rp 10 billion (US$666,666).

The rule stipulates that banks are allowed to classify loans as good loans despite declining quality.

They support each other. Banks are benefitting from the policies because they can restructure [loans], while at the same time there is also a subsidy so that not all [loans] have to be restructured, Piter explained.

However, he noted that there could be a liquidity problem as the banks cash flow would decline as a result of loan restructuring and payment deferrals.

The OJK reported that the Indonesian banking industry's liquidity and capital were at sufficient levels. The ratio of liquid assets to non-core deposits was 112.90 percent, well above the 50 percent threshold. The capital adequacy ratio, which measures the banks financial strength, was 21.77 percent.

Bank Central Asia (BCA) executive vice president of secretariat and corporate communications Hera F. Haryn told the Post on Monday that the bank was committed to fully support the various policies issued by the government and the banking authority, one of them being the countermeasures related to COVID-19.

Mandiri corporate secretary Rully Setiawan echoed that support.

We are waiting for the technical policy direction regarding this plan from the relevant ministries and institutions, he told the Post in a written statement on Monday.
An alligator is seen at the Gator Park in the Florida Everglades on May 17, 2006. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Witness Reveals More Details About Fatal Alligator Attack in South Carolina: Police

A woman who was killed by an alligator in South Carolina didnt scream when it attacked her before dragging her into the water, according to a friend.

Cynthia Covert, 58, died in the attack last week on Kiawah Island, said officials in Charleston County. A deputy had to shoot and kill the alligator before retrieving Covert, said a police report that was released on Monday, as reported by The Associated Press.

A woman who was with Covert said the victim appeared to be acting strangely on Friday and walked toward the alligator, the police report said. Deputies said the alligator was four feet away from Covert when it lunged at her.

Coverts husband and another man attempted to beat the alligator to release Covert, but it swam deeper, according to the report.

Covert later died at the hospital after she was retrieved from the pond, officials told AP. The Charleston County Coroners Office said her cause of death was drowning.

We live closely with nature on this island. An alligator caused death is exceedingly rare and has not happened on our island before to my knowledge, Kiawah Island Mayor Craig Weaver said in a statement to news outlets on Sunday. We know that we must act responsibly and with care around these animals. Consequently, it will be important to know and to share with the community the facts and circumstances from this tragedy, so we can avoid experiencing anything like this again, Weaver said.

In recent years, there have been several fatal alligator attacks in South Carolina.

A 90-year-old woman walked out of a Charleston in 2016 and was killed by a gator. A 45-year-old woman was attacked on Hilton Head Island in August 2018 while she walked her dog.
BEIRUT - The Syrian regime is putting pressure on Rami Makhlouf, considered for years as one of the most influential Syrian businessmen, who is a cousin of President Bashar al Assad. According to multiple local sources quoted by Syrian and foreign media, a wave of arrests has been ongoing over the past 24 hours by members of the security forces against high officials of Syriatel, one of two Syrian cell phone companies owned by Makhlouf.



The Syrian Observatory for Syrian Rights said that over the past 24 hours a total of seven people have been arrested, including the directors of departments and technicians of Syriatel in Aleppo and Tartus. Another 28 company members were arrested over the past few days in Damascus, Latakia, Homs, Aleppo and Tartus. The observatory said that Russian military police, deployed in various Syrian government areas in the framework of Moscow's military intervention to support Damascus since 2015, participated in the arrests. This circumstance, which was confirmed by local sources, was neither denied nor confirmed by Syrian or Russian government sources.



For Robert Ford, a former US ambassador to Syria who has met with Makhlouf, Assad's power does not seem to be at risk and the initiative appears to be a power struggle between cousins. In a comment published on Tuesday morning by pan Arab Saudi daily Ash Sharq al Awsat, Ford said he doesn't expect divisions within the Syrian elite in power to lead to a political transition soon.



Ford served as ambassador to Syria until 2011 when, due to a government crackdown on protests, the US decided to close its embassy and end diplomatic relations. Before being recalled to the US, Ford met Makhlouf in Damascus, formally required by the Syrian government to pay a fiscal debt of over 300 million euros.
- Charity Mumbi was in Form Four when she was hit and run over by a car while riding a bicycle

- She suffered severe jaw and skull fractures leading to traumatic brain injury that saw her spend six months in hospital

- Charity underwent skull repair and mandible jaw reconstruction but was not spared by other series of illness

- She suffered meningitis, hydrocephalus and a stroke, spent another six months in hospital and was put a shunt

- After the accident, some fractures were not treated and doctors advised they could only be attended to in India

- When they were just about to return home, she developed Cerebrospinal fluid complications that forced her to undergo two more surgeries

- The hit and run ruined her future and shattered her dreams but that did not end her desire to live

It often happens that problems, without asking permission, literally blow into our lives and make it black-and-white, or sometimes worse.

For some of us, it may be a temporary phase, but for others, it is a lifetime change. The bright side team believes that in such moments, it is important to feel support as a kind of motivational.

READ ALSO: Kenyans begin campaign to build house for elderly Baringo woman who lost home to storm

Charity was leading a normal life just like any other teenager in High School preparing to sit her Kenya KCSE when tragedy struck. Photo: Lydia Nyambura.

Source: Original

READ ALSO: 2 landmark rulings hand Uhuru Kenyatta major victory in war against graft

In this heart-warming short story, meet Charity Mumbi and her mother Lydia Nyambura. Lydia has been the glue keeping her daughter together.

Charity was leading a normal life just like any other teenager in High School preparing to sit her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) when tragedy struck.

She was in Form Four at Naromoru Girls High School in 2008 when she was hit and run over by a car while riding a bicycle during a midterm break.

READ ALSO: Family of Kenyan man who died of COVID-19 in Sweden honours his wish, cremates body abroad

Charity was in Form Four at Naromoru Girls High School in 2008 when she was hit and run over by a car. Photo: Lydia Nyambura.

Source: Original

Speaking to TUKO.co.ke, Lydia said her daughter suffered severe jaw and skull fractures leading to Traumatic brain injury (TBI) that saw her spend six months in hospital.

The then 17-year-old underwent skull repair and mandible jaw reconstruction. As though the pain Charity was undergoing was not enough, she suffered a series of illness.

"In 2010 she suffered meningitis, hydrocephalus and a stroke, spent another six months in hospital and was put a shunt ( a hole which allows movement of fluid from one part of the body to another)," she said.

READ ALSO: FIDA Kenya enrolls Mombasa widow who boiled stones for her children for therapy

The then 17-year-old underwent skull repair and mandible jaw reconstruction. Photo: Lydia Nyambura.

Source: Original

According to Lydia , after the accident, some fractures were not treated as doctors advised they could only be attended to in India.

After numerous fundraisers and a Charity Mumbi medical walk, the family was able to raise funds and finally managed to travel to India.

Charity underwent a reconstruction surgery at Medanta Hospital in May 2012 and was later moved to a rehabilitation centre for two months.

READ ALSO: Bungoma: Class 3 pupil wins Kenyans' hearts with handwashing machine innovation

After numerous fundraisers and a Charity Mumbi medical walk, the family was able to raise funds and travelled to India. Photo: Lydia Nyambura.

Source: Original

When they were just about to return home, hoping she would slowly come out of the ordeal, she developed Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) complications.

The then teenager was forced to undergo two more surgeries for CSF repair.

"We spent six months in India due to the complications and medical funds to clear the hospital bill," narrated Lydia .

READ ALSO: There is nothing wrong with women wearing trousers - Pastor Mensa Otabil

At 28-years, Charity who has become an inspiration to many is still incontinent and has to be on diapers throughout. Photo: Lydia Nyambura.

Source: Original

In November of the same year, a good samaritan cleared Charity's over KSh 1 million hospital bill and they were able to come back home.

The last ten years have been a roller coaster for L and her daughter Charity as they were always in and out of hospitals.

The bubbly and ever smiling Charity was sometimes forced to overstayed in hospitals after discharge due to hospital bills.

READ ALSO: 13-year-old budding singer Mabou Loiseau speaks 8 languages

The last ten years have been a roller coaster for Lillian and her daughter Charity as they were always in and out of hospitals. Photo: Lydia Nyambura.

Source: Original

"She is yet to be independent and depends on me as her full time caregiver. She occasionally suffers seizures which always means an emergency and going to the hospital," said Lydia.

At 28-years, Charity who has become an inspiration to many is still incontinent and has to be on diapers throughout.

The hit and run ruined her future and shattered her dreams of being a doctor but that did not end her desire to live each day with gratitude.

To support Lydia and her beautiful daughter, one can reach her on +254723983212 or PayPal karanjalydiah1966@gmail.com

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

Source: TUKO.co.ke
EGU2020 - Sharing Geoscience Online - Prolog

Posted on 16 April 2020 by BaerbelW

Like many others, I was looking forward to travelling to Vienna in the first week of May to participate in this year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union, something I had done and enjoyed in both 2018 and 2019. But, due to the Corona epidemic the in-person event had to be cancelled like so many other gatherings where people would otherwise meet in the hundreds or - like in Vienna - thousands. Something which obviously now couldn't happen. Instead of completely foregoing this year's general assembly, the organisiers decided to do something unprecedented instead and EGU 2020: Sharing Geoscience Online was born!

Here is how this will work according to the website:

EGU2020: Sharing Geoscience Online (#shareEGU20) brings part of the activities of the EGU General Assembly 2020 online. We hope that authors and conveners will join us in sharing their research and discussing with colleagues. From 4 to 8 May 2020 (CEST) everyone can join us online for their favourite sessions. Participation in EGU2020: Sharing Geoscience Online does not require a separate registration or the payment of a registration fee. For uploads of presentation materials and commenting, authors and participants only need to have a Copernicus user account. Viewing presentation materials and participating in chats does not require registration or login. To organize your participation, please consider preparing your personal programme.

This means, that all the presentation material will be open access and participating in the chat sessions or commenting on the presentations will be free of charge and open to everybody interested! There's a lot of information on the EGU-website of how they plan to pull this off (e.g. the FAQs) - not an easy feat considering that about 18,000 abstracts have been submitted to 700 sessions!

One of these many presentations will be one I submitted together with John Cook for session ITS1.8/SSS1.1 - Bridging between scientific disciplines: Participatory Citizen Science and Open Science as a way to go. Initially we were given a poster for our abstract titled "The story of Skeptical Science: How citizen science helped to turn a website into a go-to resource for climate science" but now - just like everybody else - we were given the opportunity to upload a "display". This could be anything like a graphic, an animation, a video or a presentation as long as its size stayed below 50MB.

Given the amount of material suitable for a mention in our presentation about Skeptical Science, I would have had a pretty hard time boiling things down to make it fit onto a poster! The switch to a display and therefore multi-page presentation suited me just fine and I set to work. The completed presentation has already been uploaded to the EGU website and you can view and download it from its abstract page. The presentation has comments enabled, so it's possible to have a discussion about it. All you need to comment on ours and many other displays is a Copernicus ID. Creating an ID is easy and free of charge but participating in EGU2020: Sharing Geoscience Online, implies that you adhere to EGU's Code of Conduct. Comments will remain publicly available together with the abstract and presentation.

Here is a teaser about the many facets of Skeptical Science mentioned in our presentation:

There's one slide for each of these topics in the presentation containing links to relevant pages on Skeptical Science or related material. Do have a look and mark your calendar for the online chat-session happening on the very first day of EGU 2020: Sharing Geoscience Online on Monday, May 4 from 8:30 to 12:30 CEST. I'm really looking forward to what is bound to become a big experiment in how a large conference like this one can be done online! I plan to write a couple of blog posts throughout the event to share my thoughts and experiences. Stay tuned and "tune in" online from May 4 to 8!
Firm encourages giving zakah to non-profit organizations hurt by coronavirus pandemic

Falls Church, Virginia, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Azzad Asset Management, a socially responsible, faith-based registered investment advisor, announced today that its Muslim clients are expected to donate approximately $6.7 million in zakah-related charity during the holy month of Ramadan.



Zakah--sometimes spelled zakat--is an obligation that practicing Muslims pay on assets held for a full lunar year, including investments. Purification dues, which are another category specifically for Islam-compliant investments, are also calculated by Azzad. Both figures are reported to clients on a consolidated zakah and purification statement sent each Ramadan.

This year's zakah is likely to be given in part to the many non-profit organizations struggling financially in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some mosques, many of which rely on in-person donations to meet a majority of their monthly revenue needs, fear they could be forced end operations entirely as giving dries up due to social distancing and lockdown orders. This Ramadan, Azzad is encouraging its clients to consider donating to mosques and other zakah-eligible non-profit organizations impacted by the coronavirus crisis.

The third pillar of Islam, zakah is assessed on accumulated wealth in order to encourage the free flow of capital and avoid a concentration of resources among the very few. Zakah is not a tax on income, but on wealth and savings in order to help those in need. Many Muslims choose to pay zakah during Ramadan--a month of fasting, prayer, and giving--which began this year on April 24.

Azzad is an advocate of Islamic investing principles, including zakah calculation, and regularly educates the American Muslim community on the topic. The firm's calculations follow internationally accepted guidelines and are audited annually by a third party accounting firm specializing in Islamic financial transactions.

Story continues

See: Azzad Asset Management 2020 Zakah Webinar (name and email address required)



Azzad follows best practices and guidelines issued by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI). AAOIFI is a consortium of Muslim scholars who convene to issue guidelines on Islamic investing and other financial matters. AAOIFI Standard Number 35, which outlines specific guidance on zakah, is considered the authority for Islamic financial services firms.



About Azzad Asset Management

Since 1997, Azzad Asset Management has provided investment services designed to help clients enjoy optimum performance without compromising their values. Based in Falls Church, Virginia, Azzad is a member of the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.

Joshua Brockwell

Azzad Asset Management

5715516865

joshua@azzad.net


Prysmian Group, a world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry, has been awarded a 500 million ($546.2 million) contract by TenneT TSO, the Dutch-German grid operator, for the SuedOstLink project in Germany, one of the longest HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) underground cable connection.

As per the deal, Prysmian will be designing, manufacturing, supplying, laying, testing and commissioning of a 2GW underground cable system through the TenneT region of this first German Corridor.

On the big win, Prysmian Group CEO Valerio Battista said: "This prestigious award confirms our ambition to play a strategic role in the shift towards a low-carbon economy and to drive the energy transition forwards with smarter, more reliable and more sustainable solutions."

The route, with a length of over 250 km, starts at the Southern Germany connection point at Isar, close to Landshut in Bavaria.

Prysmian will provide all related accessories, as well as an integrated PRY-CAM monitoring system, noted Battista.

"It gives us great satisfaction to be involved in the development of this vital infrastructure project and to set this milestone in the upgrading of the EU power transmission grid," he added.

Group EVP Projects BU Hakan Ozmen said: "Our innovative and eco-friendly solutions are supporting Germanys energy transition in a sustainable way, with the development of more capable underground cables able to cover longer distances with an increasing level of power transmission, to carry more energy from the North of the country, where renewable energy is being generated, to more southerly regions, where it is required."

A high-quality and efficient installation shall be assured with optimised long length solutions, extending beyond 2 km, overseen by a strong and dedicated local project engineering and management team. Project completion is planned in early 2026, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
A second group of mercenaries attempting to invade Venezuela was captured Monday afternoon as part of an abortive operation aimed at overthrowing the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

Local authorities in the town of Chuao, on the countrys northern coast, reported that the group of armed men was subdued by the local population, including fishermen, who first detected the attempted landing. They were then turned over to security forces. At least two of those captured were identified as US citizens.

Captured mercenaries in Chuao, Venezuela.

The events in Chuao followed the report that Venezuelan troops had blocked an incursion early Sunday by a small group of armed men who landed at Macuto in the state of Guaira, also on the northern coast and near the capital of Caracas. It reported that eight of the invaders were killed in the operation, and two captured. The countrys interior minister, Nestor Reverol, stated that nine rifles, two AFAG machine guns and a Glock 9 millimeter pistol were captured along with six vehicles fitted with machine guns, a landing craft, satellite telephones, ammunition, identity cards and uniforms, including a helmet bearing the emblem of a US flag.

Venezuelan officials said that one of the two mercenaries captured in Macuto claimed to be an agent of the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

Speaking before an online summit of the 120-nation Non-Aligned Movement on Monday, Maduro charged that the mercenaries sent into Venezuela had been trained in Colombia and paid by the governments in Bogota and Washington. Their objective, he added, was to assassinate him in order to achieve US aims of regime change.

The central objective was to kill the president of Venezuela, a terrorist attack in the midst of a pandemic, he stated.

Juan Guaido, the right-wing politician who proclaimed himself interim president at the beginning of last year and was immediately recognized as the legitimate government of Venezuela, initially issued a statement denying any involvement in the events and dismissing the reports of armed incursions as a false-flag operation staged by the government.

His denials, however, were swiftly disproven with the posting of images on the Twitter account of US-based Venezuelan journalist Patricia Poleoa virulent opponent of Maduroof a signed contract between Guaido and Jordan Goudreau, who runs a Florida-based security contracting business, Silvercorp USA.

Goudreau, an ex-Green Beret who was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, had started the business, according to the Associated Press, with the aim of selling school districts on the idea of deploying counter-terrorism agents inside schools, disguised as teachers.

In February 2019, Goudreau began his active involvement in US-backed provocations against Venezuela, providing security for a concert organized by British billionaire Richard Branson on the Venezuelan-Colombian border as part of a failed CIA operation aimed at forcing phony aid convoys into Venezuela.

Poleo also posted an audio recording of a conversation between Goudreau and Guaido agreeing to sign the contract, in which Guaido tells the US mercenary that Venezuela is confronting a humanitarian crisis and we have to resolve the situation.

The 70-page contract guaranteed strategic planning/advising; project leadership; equipment procurement; hiring of personnel; logistics consultation; project execution advisement for at least 495 days, or until the fulfillment of the operation, all for a total fee of $212,900,000, guaranteed by oil money seized by the US government.

Contract signed between Juan Guaido and US mercenary Jordan Goudreau.

In an interview with Poleo Monday, Goudreau confirmed the contract, but claimed that Guaido and his collaborators failed to pay a retainer of $1.5 million. They kept promising week after week to pay, he said.

Asked if the operation playing out on Venezuelan shores was the one that had been envisioned in the contract, Goudreau replied, This was the operation, this was it. An operation to overthrow the government of Maduro."

The ex-Green Beret said that other cells" of armed opponents of the Venezuelan government had been activated across the country. There was no initial confirmation of this claim.

There is no question that the elements involved in the attempted invasion were trained at camps in Colombia that operated with the permission of the Colombian government and, in all probability, the collaboration of the US military and intelligence agencies.

The principal identified Venezuelan figures in the invasion plan have been accounted for. A photograph was released of the body of former Venezuelan National Guard Captain Robert Colina, alias Pantera, who issued a video in advance of the attempted invasion calling on members of the armed forces and police to join with the mercenaries.

Adolfo Baduel, the son of retired general Raul Isaias Baduel, who was involved in previous military provocations, was among those captured. He was taped telling one of his captors that the two US citizens with whom he was captured told him that they worked for the head of security for US President Donald Trump.

An Associated Press article profiling Goudreaus role in what it described as a previous failed plot to invade Venezuela with 300 military defectors trained in Colombia reported that the ex-Green Beret had been introduced to Guaido and his cohorts by Keith Schiller, the longtime bodyguard of President Trump, who served as director of Oval Office operations.

Another individual identified as among those captured during the incursions was Antonio Sequea, an ex-Venezuelan captain who appeared in a video calling for the military to stage a coup. Goudreau had described him as a leader of the operation.

Finally, there is Cliver Alcala Cordones, a retired Venezuelan major general who had reportedly been involved in the plot to invade Venezuela before he turned himself in to US authorities in Colombia after being charged along with other Venezuelan officials with involvement in drug trafficking.

The abortive invasion plot has unfolded in the midst of an escalating campaign of aggression by US imperialism against Venezuela. Washington has tightened economic sanctions even as Venezuela confronts the threat of the coronavirus pandemic, with its health care system on the brink of collapse from the lack of medicine and medical equipment resulting from the US blockade. While the total number of confirmed cases has reached only 357, and total deaths 10, the return of thousands of workers who had migrated to Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Chile, where the rate of infection is much higher, threatens to ignite the pandemic in Venezuela as well.

At the same time, the Trump administration has launched a military operation directed against Venezuela, the largest in the hemisphere since the 1989 US invasion of Panama. The deployment of warships, AWACs planes and Special Operations troops has been staged on the pretext of combating drug trafficking, even though the amount of narcotics funneled through the country is infinitesimal compared to Colombia and the countries of Central America, ruled by Washingtons right-wing allies.

While the Maduro government has thus far proved successful in combating the coronavirus, the social crisis and class struggle have only been intensified by the pandemic. According to the Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflicts (OVCS), the number of demonstrations in the country during the month of March, in the midst of a nationwide quarantine imposed in response to the coronavirus, reached 580. More than half of them were triggered by gas shortages and the cutoff of basic services. At least 133 of them were related to strikes and other labor struggles.

An even greater number of protests was reported in late April, with looting and confrontations with police and the military breaking out in a number of states.

The quarantine has seen ever wider layers of the population suffering hunger as food prices continue to soar beyond the reach of an average workers wages, and those depending on the informal economy are deprived of a livelihood. The most extreme impact has been felt in the countrys prison system, where inmates were largely dependent upon family members bringing them food. The coronavirus quarantines cutoff of visits to the prison triggered prison rebellions driven by hunger in three major prisons, resulting in the deaths of 97 inmates. The Venezuelan government callously reported neutralizing" the slain inmates.

While the conditions are emerging for revolutionary upheavals from below in Venezuela, there is no indication that social discontent is translating into any increased support for Guaido and his right-wing cohorts, who represent the interests of Venezuelas traditional ruling oligarchy. Their contempt for the conditions of the masses found concrete expression in Guaido's allotment of $5,000 monthly stipends for his supporters in the National Assembly, paid for out of the money stolen by Washington from Venezuela.

The Venezuelan working class can find a way out of the present crisis only through a break with all sections of the countrys ruling class, including the boliburguesia, the layer of government officials, contractors and financial speculators who have enriched themselves under the Bolivarian socialist" governments of Hugo Chavez and Maduro. It can defend its essential rights and defeat imperialism only by means of its own independent struggle for socialism in unity with the struggles of workers throughout the Americas and internationally.
A man has been charged with aggravated burglary over an incident in which a young boy was shot in Upminster, east London.

Christopher Sargent, 26, of Macaulay Road, East Ham, was also charged with possession of a knife. He will appear at Barkingside Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.

It comes after an 11-year-old boy was found with a gunshot injury at an address in Kerry Drive. He was rushed to hospital where he remains in a serious but stable condition in hospital.

A man in his 40s also suffered cuts to his head during the alleged incident last Friday.

Detective Inspector Matthew Webb, leading the investigation, said: "Enquiries into the circumstances of what happened continue and we are grateful to the public who have come forward so far.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact police or, to remain anonymous, Crimestoppers.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra sued Uber and Lyft on Tuesday, alleging the ride-hailing companies have misclassified their drivers as contractors in violation of a new state law that went into effect this year. City attorneys from San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego have joined Becerra in the lawsuit.

The suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, alleges Uber and Lyft have denied their workers key benefits and protections by classifying drivers as contractors rather than employees. The plaintiffs claim the decision denied workers the right to minimum wage and overtime pay, reimbursement for business-related expenses, access to unemployment and disability insurance as well as paid sick leave.

The lawsuit gets to the heart of a recent debate between gig economy companies and California officials. It's based on a California law that went into effect earlier this year, known as Assembly Bill 5 (AB5). Uber, Lyft and other companies opposed the law, which was created as a way to require gig economy companies to classify their drivers as employees, rather than contractors. The companies have said the law strips workers of flexibility in work that they enjoy, while government officials backing the bill say it affords workers key benefits they are otherwise denied as contractors.

"Uber and Lyft claim that properly classifying drivers as employees is incompatible with flexibility. That is a lie," San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in a statement. "There is no legal reason why Uber and Lyft can't have a vast pool of employees who decide for themselves when and where they work  exactly as drivers do now. These companies simply don't want to do it."

The plaintiffs are seeking an injunction on the alleged misclassification and restitution for workers and civil penalties that could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a press release announcing the lawsuit.

The coronavirus pandemic has brought into focus the unique challenges for gig workers. As Uber and Lyft have experienced decreased ridership, drivers are left without a source of income they have come to rely on. Gig workers gained access to unemployment benefits and the additional $600 per week for up to four months offered under Congress' economic relief bill. But some drivers have reported issues filing for the money due to bureaucratic roadblocks.

In a virtual news conference Tuesday, law enforcement officials said the pandemic has exacerbated problems it highlights in the lawsuit, but said they would have brought the case to court regardless. Becerra said Uber and Lyft have gained an unfair advantage over competitors by not playing by the rules.

Prior to the passage of the coronavirus stimulus bill, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi asked President Donald Trump to make sure gig workers were included in relief measures and advocated for a "third way" to classify workers "to remove the forced choice between flexibility and protection for millions of American workers."

Uber and delivery start-up Postmates sued the state of California over AB5 late last year, contending the law is unconstitutional. The lawsuit claimed AB5 carves out "nonsensical" exemptions for roles such as "direct salespeople, travel agents, grant writers, construction truck drivers, commercial fisherman" and more.

In a statement, an Uber spokesperson said, "At a time when California's economy is in crisis with four million people out of work, we need to make it easier, not harder, for people to quickly start earning. We will contest this action in court, while at the same time pushing to raise the standard of independent work for drivers in California, including with guaranteed minimum earnings and new benefits."

Lyft said in a statement: "We are looking forward to working with the Attorney General and mayors across the state to bring all the benefits of California's innovation economy to as many workers as possible, especially during this time when the creation of good jobs with access to affordable healthcare and other benefits is more important than ever."

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WATCH: Delivery workers are risking their lives to bring people groceries during coronavirus  here's what it's like for them
Houston County has been awarded federal funds under the Emergency Food and Shelter National Board Program.

Houston County will receive $27,919 to supplement emergency food and shelter programs in the county. In addition, the county will receive $39,804 in supplemental funds under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.

This selection was made by a national board chaired by the Department of Homeland Securitys Federal Emergency Management Agency and consists of representatives from American Red Cross, Catholic Charities USA, The Salvation Army, The Jewish Federations of North America, and United Way Worldwide.

A local board in Houston County was charged with distributing funds appropriated by Congress to help expand the capacity of food and shelter programs in high-need areas around the country as well as to address additional food and shelter needs as a result of COVID-19.

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Relax parents: Teaching your kids from home offers opportunities

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill.  As a parent you likely never planned to be a teacher, but with the COVID-19 pandemic, you are teaching your children at home. And even with the help and materials provided by teachers and schools, homeschooling can sometimes seem overwhelming.

Christie McIntyre, associate professor in Southern Illinois University Carbondales School of Education wants to reassure parents to relax and know youre probably doing a lot better job than you think.

Enjoy this time with your children, she said. Often, we take the time we spend with our children for granted. Just by being engaged in life and talking to your children and explaining things to them, youre teaching them.

McIntyre offers some tips to help finish out the school year and for summer months, too.

Learning doesnt always mean pen and paper

Use your everyday moments as teachable moments, McIntyre said. Why not take the opportunity to point out the sounds, colors, shapes and sights around us and engage about them? There are learning opportunities all around us if we look for them. Be intentional.

She offers a few ideas:

Have a home scavenger hunt, asking the kids to find items of different shapes or colors.

Let them help with the cooking or cook as is age appropriate. As they do, talk with them about measuring, nutrition, chemical reactions involved in the cooking process and other things that are happening right then. Even seeing cubes of ice melting in a glass offers the chance to discuss the three states of matter: solid, liquid and gas.

Get the kids involved in everyday life. Have them help make the shopping list. They can learn about cooking, work on their reading and math skills and maybe even do some price comparison shopping, too.

With all thats happening now, kids are hearing at least bits and pieces about the virus, so make their learning experience relevant and meaningful. Its a great time to find age-appropriate ways to teach them about germs and the respiratory system and how to stay healthy without making them fearful. For instance, they can create a model of working lungs with straws and balloons. Even young children can have fun and learn by making a human body with cotton swab bones and felt or playdough body parts. Older kids can recreate a DNA model with licorice, mini-marshmallows and toothpicks. Pinterest is a great resource for educational models and ideas.

Keep a routine

Even with the world being upside down now, structure is still important, McIntyre said. Set up a schedule for each days home school.

Research has shown people tend to be more focused and productive in the morning hours, so if possible, plan more sit-down school work during the morning hours. And remember to keep in mind the attention spans that children based on their ages. Even adults have a hard time staying focused and attentive for more than 45 minutes at a time, she notes. The younger the child, the shorter the attention span.

McIntyre has been having online learning sessions with her nephew, age 4, and niece, age 7, in Ireland. After a few minutes, they take a fun break; it assures everyone stays engaged and challenged.

While a schedule and consistency is important, so is flexibility, she said.

Take advantage of resources

There are a multitude of resources available to help, McIntyre said. She said the Library of Congress is a virtual treasure trove of information, and the Smithsonian Institution offers online podcasts, events, exhibitions, tours, animal webcams and other things. SIUs Morris Library provides access to help and resources through Ask a Librarian, too.

Numerous other companies are offering free online educational activities and resources, as well, especially at this time.

McIntyre also said she finds the Khan Academy helpful, particularly for those who need assistance or a refresher when assisting older children with math and science.

Dont be embarrassed to reach out to teachers and ask for help, too, McIntyre said. They have resources and information to help.

Involve your circle

If you can, get other people  grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends and other relatives  involved in your childrens learning circle. McIntyre has two young grandchildren in Denver, and she and her husband are part of a group of family and friends who take turns reading stories to them. Some of the readers even get in character and dress up for their roles.

Its easy to let children grab their computer, tablet or phone and while the day away but McIntyre suggests that parents limit screen time and be aware of what their children are seeing and doing.

Not everything they are reading or seeing is educational, she said. Be a consumer with your child.

Making learning fun

Children are used to active learning, even in the classroom, McIntyre said, so asking them to sit still for hours simply isnt natural. Dont fight their attention spans. Make learning fun. Build in songs and games. She offers other tips:
A friend who is an orthopedic surgeon writes about the coronavirus:

Most doctors I talk to are embarrassed by the actions of those in charge. It is baffling how we have allowed people with massively wide confidence intervals and minimal criteria to change our entire societal behavior.

***

New drugs and new treatments need to be added carefully and methodically. If added haphazardly, they will exaggerate and create new unusual concomitant conditions and increase the distraction and further distance ourselves from the goals.

Based on the medical literature, my friend is skeptical of remdesivir as a treatment for COVID-19.

Calling this the Standard of Care [as Dr. Fauci did] is ridiculous. Will it become, that is entirely possible with greater numbers of patients, but actions like this are signs of fatigue in thinking. Fauci is relying on a classic technique of pattern recognition. Fauci sees something that looks familiar [from his experience with HIV] and he wants to be the first to say it. Will he be brilliant? Maybe. But he may also be completely wrong and contribute to the morbidity and mortality of millions around the world. What if this drug at its best causes no side effects and is no better than Placebo at preventing severe illness or death? All the resources poured into it will have not been allocated elsewhere.

In investment, it is called lost capital costs. Most doctors are clueless about that until it becomes abundantly clear that the treatment they have been given was the wrong one and they should have been doing something else. However, doctors fail to learn that lesson as it didnt cause any loss to them personally (investors are keenly aware as they feel that loss). We have already seen this, in NYC during the early pandemic phase, doctors followed the classic treatment, dropping O2 saturation meant the patient was going to die from cardiorespiratory failure if mechanical ventilation was not started acutely. Well, they have been shown to be very wrong. In less than two months, we now know that doctors contributed to the death of thousands around the world by using pattern recognition incorrectly.

But the most embarrassing thing about this pandemic is the actions of our government and Stay at Home orders, along with a complete disregard for targeted protection. There are dozens of examples of missteps that killed hundreds. (Cuomo forcing Nursing homes to take COVID-19 transfers without adequate warning, staffing, or facilities; the 20 plus that die every day in Minnesota because we are not protecting these same people and locations.) Beyond the economic devastation that has been self-inflicted unnecessarily, the complete misdirection of resources away from those that need it most, to control those that do not, is unforgivable.

People are hammering on the idea that we havent tested enough. That is beyond silly. If I test negative today, I could test positive tomorrow. A test is a snapshot in time and unless you do this for months or years you learn very little other than that this virus is contagious (BTW, almost all viruses are). We have the ability to test 5,000 a day in Minnesota. That is not enough to return to routine medical care and get a test for every doctor visit (pie in the sky criteria), but what would that do for us other than say at one time those patients who went to a doctor did or did not have the disease? It is not for management of a pandemic, it distracts from the goal of preventing morbidity and mortality.

We know who is at most risk. People over 70>>>>>>> over 60> over 50. Those people need to be protected. Just a peek from today tells you essentially all you need to know to craft a plan to deal with the crisis more effectively:

Minnesota Department of Health Coronavirus data, 5/4/20



People will say if you lift the quarantine, then all the young will infect the old. But if we lift the Shelter In Place order and replace it with a protect those over 50 at all costs order, we can help so many more people not die. And dont get me started on those who will have suffered from the medical freeze on preventive care.

I hope one day people will look back and say we started off wrong, but once we saw what we needed to do, we changed. Not, this is the way that seemed right because everyone is afraid and we do not know enough about this problem to do anything else, and we fail to learn from our own mistakes. Those that do that sacrifice in Minnesota an average of 20 elderly every day, now. It will only get worse.
Mumbai, May 5 : Pulkit has baked a sour dough gluten free bread for his ladylove Kriti Kharbanda and she absolutely loves it.

Kriti took to Instagram to share a photograph of the bread. "Sour dough gluten free bread.. baked by the best(hired by me personally) - @pulkitsamrat ok now I'm going back to eating," captioned the actress.

The lockdown has turned Pulkit Samrat into a chef who is trying new recipes everyday to make his foodie girlfriend happy. On Monday, Pulkit had baked pav for Kriti. Sharing the photos on Instagram, Pulkit captioned: "First attempt and now am tempted!" Reacting to his post, Kriti expressed that the "bhukkad" (foodie) inside her is satisfied.

She wrote: "You're welcome @pulkitsamrat . I'm glad I bring out the best in you. Did u ever think you would bake PAV for me!? the bhukkhad in me is very impressed Haan! Muahhh! #blessedwiththebest #midnightcravings #foodstagram."

Latest updates on Lockdown diaries

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Express News Service

NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI: Even after the Centre issued a clarification stating that only distressed and stranded migrant workers will be allowed to travel, the issue of their movement continued to affect coordination among the states and resulted in a lot of confusion.

States, which were found to be work at cross-purposes, remained unsure in the implementation of the Centres directives. Experts said that the teething issues in coordination between the states could have been avoided had the Centre planned the exercise in advance.

Movement by buses

Movement of stranded labourers was allowed on April 29 but only via buses. The delay in allowing movement added to the confusion among the states.

FOLLOW COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES HERE

Movement by trains

On May 1 the Centre allowed movement of migrants by trains. But this directive received a lot of flak for charging passengers for their travel. However, the Centre had to roll it back

Definition of distressed

Sundays clarification which specified that its order was only to facilitate the movement of such stranded persons, who had moved from their native places/workplaces, just before the lockdown period, but could not return to their native places/workplaces on account of restrictions placed on movement of persons and vehicles as part of lockdown measures created a new problem. How were the stranded and distressed persons to be identified?

The government doesnt have any authentic data on migrant labourers engaged in various informal sectors. The question that arises is if the government collected any data on distressed workers from the destination states when the lockdown was announced. While a significant majority of workers may be already in distress because of their poor earnings, the situation for another section was compounded due to the lockdown, said Umi Daniel, director, migration and education at Aide et Action International.

States in-fighting

Migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Karnataka have to wait longer in Maharashtra because their respective states have put stringent terms and conditions on their travel. Bhushan Gagrani, in-charge of war room for Covid-19 in Maharashtra confirmed the same. They told us unless and until the Covid-19 test was not carried out, the migrants should not be sent to their home states. Therefore, Maharashtra government has decided to send the other states migrants except for those from these three states, Gagrani said.

Maharashtra minority minister Nawab Malik also said that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had refused to take his state migrants. Hence, the Maharashtra government has agreed to do a primary health check and allow migrants to go back to their natives places. This is crisis time. We cannot fulfil all terms and conditions set by UP. Bihar, Rajasthan and Madya Pradesh government are ready to take their people so very soon the trains will be started for them, Malik said.

If advance notices were given to the states and migrants before the lockdown, it would have not led to this mismanagement. It is a big problem. Practical problems were not taken into account while issuing orders. Common policy in consultation with the states would have avoided problems. For instance, whether testing of migrants is to be done in their residing states or their home states, it should have been specified, said former Home Secretary GK Pillai.
Global marine insurer North P&I has entered the blue-water and hull and machinery market with a new insurance product line.

The new offering from North is designed for larger ocean-going vessels and will complement the H&M insurance already available from Sunderland Marine for fishing vessels and other small craft. The new line will be open to the companys existing members as well as non-members. The focus from an underwriting perspective will be on quality of risk and suitability of terms.

In support of the product, North has brought on underwriting expertise from within Lloyds to its H&M insurance teams with the appointment of James Sutton (class underwriter) and Alex Fuller (senior underwriting executive). Sutton and Fuller will be based in Norths London office.

Additionally, Norths made two other appointments for the new offering. Nick Wolfe has been appointed as an underwriting department director. Wolfe joins North from Aon, where he was the global brokers head of Shipping for Asia, based in Singapore. In addition, Andrew Hearne has been appointed as director responsible for members, traders and charterers in the Europe region. Hearne joined North in 2017 from a London-based P&I insurer.

North P&I Club is a global marine insurer providing P&I, FD&D, war risks and ancillary insurance to over 230 million GT of owned and chartered tonnage. Through its guaranteed subsidiary Sunderland Marine, North is also insures fishing vessels, small craft, aquaculture risks and owners fixed premium P&I cover. The club is based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK with regional offices and subsidiaries in China (Hong Kong and Shanghai), Greece, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, USA and Sunderland Marine offices worldwide. North is a member of the International Group of P&I Clubs (IG), with over 12% of the IGs owned tonnage. The 13 IG clubs provide liability cover for approximately 90% of the worlds ocean-going tonnage and, as a member of the IG, North protects and promotes the interests of the international shipping industry.

Topics New Markets Manufacturing
Gas transit via Ukraine in Jan-April shrinks by 40% to 15.5 bcm

11:00, 05.05.20 990

Russia's Gazprom has paid for all the capacities allocated for its gas transit.
But is that likely? Who ever said Australia might have no income from China? In an interview with the Australian Financial Review, Chinese ambassador Cheng Jingye said Australia's diplomatic push would spark Chinese tourists to have "second thoughts" about coming to Australia, while parents of students would also think whether "this is the best place to send their kids here". "Maybe the ordinary people will say 'Why should we drink Australian wine? Eat Australian beef?'" he said. That's what the politicians, diplomats and billionaires have to say, but what do they do?

The communist regime has levers it can pull, for example when it banned tour groups departing for South Korea. But WA is no longer a destination for Chinese tourists thanks to border restrictions. Our billion-dollar tertiary education export market is in the grip of a similar fate, although many international students have been locked in over the next few years when travel can resume. But the world's second largest economy still accounts for a quarter of all Australian exports, worth $153 billion in 2018-19 after growing at 10 per cent a year for the past five years. Iron ore and coal account for more than 25 per cent of the total value. And for most of us in WA, when we think of exports to China, we think iron ore. The industry provides just over 48,000 jobs in the state (down from 56,000 peak-boom in 2013). About three-quarters of WA's exports to China are iron ore (the rest being petroleum, gold, lithium, nickel and other assorted merchandise). In 2019, iron ore mining made up 20 per cent of WA's gross state product, hauling in $97.7 billion in sales. We hold almost 30 per cent of the world's crude iron ore reserves and about half a century's worth of product at current rates of production. Would China pull the plug on that trade? Would China say no to the key ingredient it needs for the steel it needs for its economic recovery?

Not according to the University of Sydney's Professor of Chinese Business Hans Hendrischke. "China and Australia are economically mutually dependent," he said at a panel discussion at the university's China Studies Centre on Friday. "China needs iron ore and food from Australia for recovery and rebuilding. Australia on the other hand needs exports." Professor of International Political Economy at Peking University Daojiong Zha, told the same forum he expected trade between the two countries would pick up later this year.

"When we have a recovery, Australia will be a reliable supplier of high-quality ore and other products like food," he said. "I would expect Chinese imports of Australian supplies will pick up rather rapidly in the third quarter." New research from the Australian National University shows the impact on trade from diplomatic tension between the two nations is likely to be minimal. Historically, if a spat caused a disruption to trade, it was usually minimal and lasted for less than three months. Even if China wanted to pull the plug on WA iron ore, it couldn't. There is no other reliable supplier of cost-effective seaborne iron ore. When you're in the market for 681 million tonnes of the stuff, you can't just order it on Amazon or eBay. Brazil's Vale iron ore miner is still suffering from two catastrophic tailings dam failures over the past five years, with some mines still not operational after the company lost its license to operate eight tailings dams. In 2014 the company was promising to produce 459 million tonnes of ore by last year, but in 2020 will produce between 310 and 330 tonnes.

Are WA's iron ore operators worried by Beijings's war of words? On Thursday, FMG Resouces chief executive Elizabeth Gaines didn't seem overly concerned by the ambassador's threats, telling Bloomberg TV Australia's relationship with China had been built on "decades of a really strong bilateral and respectful trade relationship". "Our relationships are very deep and multifaceted and we have a very strong trading relationship and I'm very confident in the ongoing strength of that relationship," she said. Just weeks ago FMG Resources sought permission to expand its Port Hedland export capacity by 20 per cent to 210 million tonnes of ore a year. The other big iron ore miners are similarly untroubled by Chinese invective. BHP revealed its first substantial iron ore growth ambitions in more than six years last week when it declared its desire to increase export capacity at Port Hedland by 14 per cent. Gina Rinehart's Roy Hill has flagged plans to raise its maximum output from 55 million tonnes to 60 million tonnes.

Loading Even though China's economy has contracted by 6.8 per cent in first three months of the year, steel production has been strong, with the nation producing more steel in the first three months of 2020 than in the same period of 2019. Without West Australian iron ore, China's steel industry would be destroyed, and with it, its hopes to restore the economic growth which its regime needs to survive. This is why Australia should be calling China's bluff on its threats over a coronavirus inquiry. This is why WA should ignore the increasingly shrill rhetoric from its regime.
Since ancient Greece, no matter the medium, the age-old conflict between good and evil has not stopped haunting drama. The paradigm of a virtuous, selfless and brave hero against a malicious, selfish and careless villain underlies some of this years Ramadan TV, too.



Written by Baher Dwedar and directed by Peter Mimi, Al-Ikhtiyar (The Choice, subtitled A story of loyalty and betrayal), is based on a true story that President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi touched on in one of his speeches when he compared two commando officers. It pits Colonel Ahmed Saber Mansi (played by Amir Karara)  killed during confrontations with Islamist terrorists in Rafah, Sinai, on 7 July 2017  against Major Hisham Ashmawi (Ahmed Al-Awadi), who joined the Islamic State-affiliate Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis before founding his own Libya-based militia, Al-Morabitoun, only to be captured in May 2019 and executed on 4 March this year.



The series opens with Mansis last operation, showing his courage and devotion. Two years later, Ashmawi is seen in custody on the military plane bringing him back from Libya. The first two episodes provide childhood clues as to why the two characters ended up as a hero and a villain. Mansis father is a doctor who treats the poor for free, while Ashmawis beat him up when he saw him talking to the girl next door as a teenager. As young officers working together, we can see Ashmawi treating the soldiers under his command too harshly and Mansi persuading him to be gentler.

From then on, the series proceeds by showing the two characters stories in turn. By adding actual footage and archival photos of real events, notably from 2012, Mimi gives the action credibility. He shows the Rafah attack, Al-Sisi declaring the end of Muslim Brotherhood rule on 3 July, following the 30 June protests, or the Brotherhood sit-ins in Rabaa Al-Adawiya and Al-Nahda squares. With the exception of Al-Awadis  who seems to be constrained by the one-dimensional nature of the character  the acting is effective, with cameos by film stars such Karim Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz, Asser Yassin, Mohamed Adel Imam as army personnel striking a powerful chord.



Mimi is well-known for his action work in both TV and commercial cinema  films like Harb Karmouz (Karmouz War) and Casablanca, and series like Kalabsh (Handcuffs)  but thanks to army cooperation the action sequences here are an improvement on previous achievements.





***Written by Amr Samir Atef and directed by Yasser Sami, the science fiction thriller Al-Nihaya (The End) is set in a post-Israel Jerusalem in 2120 and centres on Zein (Youssef Al-Sherif), an engineer involved in illegal solar energy development who also teaches in a banned school, and his wife Radwa (Nahed Al-Sebaai). In place of states there are now energy companies, with Energy Cubes (EC) serving as the currency, and security forces working for them.

When he flees to a place called Oasis outside Jerusalem, Zein is told that a competing company is willing to support his research, though this seems to be a trick. Meanwhile, Radwas workmate Sabah (Sahar Al-Sayegh) has a spare-parts dealer named Aziz (Amr Abdel-Gelil) construct an android identical to Zein but so far only because she is secretly in love with him. With Zein as the protagonist, Moenis (Ahmed Wafiq), a security leader in a Nazi-like costume, is the antagonist.



Al-Nihaya prompted an angry statement from the Israeli foreign policy saying it is unfortunate and totally unacceptable that the show should depict the US weakening and breaking up into smaller states while the Arab world gains enough power to launch a war to liberate Jerusalem, prompting an end to the state of Israel as its Jewish inhabitants flee to Europe, to which Atef responded by stressing the fact that it is a work of science fiction.

***Written by Hani Sarhan and directed by Hussein Al-Manbawi, Al-Fettewa (The Neighbourhood Leader)  set in Cairo in 1850, in the same world as Naguib Mahfouzs Harafish  is the most obvious take on the good-vs-evil theme. Its the story of Hassan Al-Ganaini (Yasser Galal), a strongman who helps the poor and fights injustice with his nabbout (or staff, equivalent to a mediaeval knights sword). Like Zorro and Batman, Hassan has two identities.

As the son of Al-Gammaliyas late fetewwa who owns a copper mill and keeps to himself, he is harmless, but as the masked hero who helps those in need he undermines Azmi (Ahmed Salah Hosni), the son Al-Gammaliyas present, ageing fettewa Saber Abu Shedid (Ahmed Khalil), who unbeknown to his father charges higher and higher protection money and threatens to destroy peoples livelihoods should they refuse to pay.

But there is a fiercer antagonist, Sayed Al-Labban (Riad Al-Kholi), the fettewa of another neighbourhood, whose son Abdou (Mahmoud Amr Yassin) harasses Hassans daughter Noura (Laila Ahmed Zaher) and whose men destroy some of the goods in his shop. Al-Labban is also seen killing the head of the jewellers guild Beshr (Mohamed Hassib) and kidnapping his own divorcee, Leil Abu Shedid (Mai Omar).

*A version of this article appears in print in the 7 May, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Dear Editor:

The quality education offered at New Yorks public universities is under dire threat due to the economic collapse associated with the coronavirus pandemic. Faced with declining tax revenues, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is making severe reductions in state assistance to SUNY campuses, including SUNY New Paltz.

Budget cuts are nothing new to faculty and staff who work there: For the last 10 years, there has been declining or flat support from Cuomo while our students tuition has increased substantially. Quite simply, there is nothing left to cut without destroying the universitys basic functions.

Those functions are indispensable. SUNY New Paltz provides students with much more than job training. It guarantees their capacity to become democratic citizens. Faculty and staff enable students to question deeply held discussions, engage in respectful debate about complex matters that lack easy solutions, and develop ethical and critical reasoning skills. As anti-democratic forces gain strength in our increasingly conflicted world, New York needs residents who can think critically about public affairs. SUNY New Paltz fulfills that need.

Rather than cut SUNYs budget and weaken the education provided by SUNY New Paltz, Albany lawmakers must fund SUNY now. They can do so by taxing the billionaires and multimillionaires who live lavishly while ordinary people (like our students) struggle to survive.

If Cuomo refuses to do so, then the state Legislature must act. Our democracy depends on it.

Rebecca Longtin

Kingston. N.Y.
A family in Brazil was shocked to learn their grandmother was still alive when they opened a coffin at a funeral parlor and discovered the body of another woman who had recently died of the coronavirus.

Maria da Conceicao was rushed to Abelardo Santos Hospital in the Para city of Belem last Thursday after developing symptoms related to the global pandemic.

The following day, doctors at the hospital were informing her family that the 68-year-old woman had tragically succumbed to the deadly virus, according to Brazilian news outlet G1.

A service was scheduled for her private viewing Friday but when the family became upset after a funeral worker told them they should not open the coffin because they risked the chance of being infected.

Tallya Fernandes, a family member of da Conceicao, said her grandchildren then grilled the funeral home employee and asked the person to describe her.

Maria da Conceicao was located at a hospital in Belem, Brazil, recuperating from COVID-19 after her family was wrongly informed by the medical staff that she had died of the disease last Friday, just one day after she was admitted to the Abelardo Santos Hospital. Her family were shocked when they found the body of another COVID-19 victim in the coffin after a funeral worker incorrectly described da Conceicao to her relatives

The family grew skeptical when the worker told them that da Conceicao had white hair and was wearing her red coat.

'It was that her grandson who had the courage to open the coffin and it was a terrible scare, she was a dark [skinned] lady with a tube in her mouth,' Fernandes said.

The family returned to the hospital, which is only treating COVID-19 patients, and da Conceicao's grandson was taken to an area where he confirmed that the other 30 corpses were not his grandmother.

A nurse assisted the family, ultimately finding da Conceicao resting on her hospital room bed.

She underwent a CT scan Monday which revealed that her lungs were steadily improving.

The hospital's gaffe was reminiscent of the embarrassment a Paraguay medical facility confronted in April when it wrongly confirmed that a 50-year-old woman had died of cancer. Funeral workers were preparing to transfer her body from a body bag to a coffin when the woman showed signs of life.

Brazil ranks atop all Latin America countries with 7,485 deaths caused by the coronavirus and 110,156 confirmed cases.
There is an agenda between Bill Gate and Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila to hurriedly pass the compulsory vaccine bill going through the House of Reps.

Thats the latest allegation the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) levelled at the lower house leadership on Monday.

In a statement issued and signed by CUPPs spokesperson Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, the group urged the lawmakers to rise against impunity.

According to Ugochinyere, Gates offered the Gbajbiamila-led House a sum of $10 million for the speedy passage of the bill.

The statement read:

Opposition Coalition (CUPP) has intercepted very credible intelligence and hereby alerts Nigerians of plans by the leadership of the House of Representatives led by Femi Gbajabiamila to forcefully and without adherence to the rules of lawmaking to pass the Control of Infectious Diseases Bill 2020 otherwise known as the Compulsory Vaccination Bill which is proposing a compulsory vaccination of all Nigerians even when the vaccines have not been discovered.

This intelligence is coupled with the information of the alleged receipt, from sources outside the country but very interested in the Bill, of the sum of $10 million by the sponsors and promoters of the Bill to distribute among lawmakers to ensure a smooth passage of the Bill.

This will manifest in a wishy-washy public hearing which the promoters still insist on cancelling under the pretext of containment of the spread of the coronavirus. The intelligence is that the House will under whatever guise pass the Bill tomorrow 5th May, 2020 upon resumption.

The Nigeria opposition rejects the Bill and urges opposition lawmakers in the House of Representatives to confront the Speaker of the House with these facts tomorrow at plenary and resist every plan to illegally pass the Bill.

We have been informed that the alleged deal on the passage of the Bill was struck during a trip to Austria a few months back while the financial support for the promotion of the Bill was allegedly received last week to mobilize for a push leading to the hurried attempt to pass the Bill by any means necessary.

Nigerians are reminded that at present, there is no discovered/approved vaccine anywhere in the world and one now begins to wonder why the hurry to pass a Bill for a compulsory vaccine when there is none.

What if the world eventually does not find a vaccine or cure for coronavirus just like it has not found a cure for HIV AIDS? What is the hurry in passing a Bill based on speculation or is there anything else the leadership of the House would want to tell Nigerians? Is this bill what will stop the mass deaths and infections rising in Lagos, Kano, Abuja, Gombe, Borno, Kaduna, Ogun, Bauchi and indeed all over the country?

Is this Bill going to revive and grow the economy and reduce hunger and give us more testing kits or bed spaces? Is this Bill going to stop the stealing of palliatives meant for poor and vulnerable Nigerians? Is it true that all these noises for the Bill is all for the alleged $10 million?

The leadership of the House needs to start speaking now on why the hurry when there are a lot of urgent Bills to be passed which are not being attended to.

Where is the Bill to make the wearing of face masks compulsory now that the Federal Government has against all wisdom insisted on easing the lockdown and the people have trooped out already without obeying the health regulations that will make them safe?

Where are the economic revival Bills to protect jobs and vulnerable Nigerian workers whose livelihoods are threatened daily by this pandemic? Where are the Bills to compel the Federal Government to look inwards and encourage emergency research for the manufacture of essentials like test kits, ventilators, Personal Protective Equipment, vaccines, drugs, masks, sanitizers etc

All opposition lawmakers should prove they are not part of the evil or partakers of the financial inducement and confront Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila to come clean.

Let all parliamentary rules be dropped and opposition members should turn the House upside down using their parliamentary privileges if that is what it takes to stop this foreign-sponsored Bill.

Why make a law for a vaccine that has not been discovered? Does it mean that Femi Gbajabiamila and the promoters have an idea of the vaccine and when it will be ready? When nations like Madagascar are making local remedies which is working, APC is making a law to compulsorily inject Nigerians with vaccines our former slave masters have not yet discovered.

The plan to push the passing of the bill is evil

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC did not make any contributions to the drafting of the Bill and has even told Femi Gbajabiamila to suspend the Bill as the timing is very wrong but Mr. Gbajabiamila believes he can secure the silence and acquiescence of the NCDC with all the illegal powers been provided for the NCDC in the Bill hence he still wants to push ahead with it the passage.

Like we told the Federal Government before, do not bring Chinese doctors, shut our external borders, do not ease the lockdown, do not relax Kano lockdown and they refused to heed to wise counsel preferring to play myopic politics with the lives of Nigerians, today the community transmission is getting worse and it has almost been confirmed that the so called strange deaths in Kano of hundreds of citizens is a result of the COVID-19.

We are saying loudly again and calling on House of Representatives to suspend this Control of Infectious Diseases Bill and await for proper input and scrutiny after the pandemic and charge all efforts towards giving the needed support to reduce the spread and find a homegrown solution.
The coverage on this live blog has ended  but for up-to-the-minute coverage on the coronavirus outbreak, visit the live blog from CNBC's Asia-Pacific team. With many states reopening for business, sobering estimates about the potential spread of Covid-19 in the U.S. are emerging. Former FDA chief Dr. Scott Gottlieb said the U.S. will see an increase of Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations in May as business restrictions across the country are lifted. "We don't know how much, but they're not going to go down," Gottlieb said. All times below are in Eastern time. Global cases: More than 3.6 million

Global deaths: At least 254,430

US cases: More than 1.1 million

US deaths: At least 70,115 The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

8 pm: United Airlines service workers' union sues over schedule cuts

A United Airlines plane sits on the tarmac at San Francisco International Airport. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

The baggage handlers' union that represents United Airlines sued the airline over schedule cuts, claiming it violated the terms of billions in federal coronavirus aid. At least two U.S. senators criticized airlines for cutting workers hours after they received federal coronavirus aid. "The assistance provided to air carriers in the CARES Act was conditioned on protecting airline workers from layoffs and furloughs," Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) told CNBC in a statement. "The Administration needs to do more to make sure airlines are using the payroll support funding as intended, and not to cut workers hours and benefits." Leslie Josephs

7:30 pm: U.S. hospitals are losing millions of dollars per day in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic

Medical workers wearing masks walk past a 'Thank You' sign outside of Mount Sinai Hospital amid the coronavirus pandemic on May 3, 2020 in New York City. Alexi Rosenfeld | Getty Images

U.S. hospitals have seen revenues flatline during the pandemic after they had to delay non-emergency medical procedures during the spring. Conservative estimates indicate that hospitals in the U.S. are losing more than a billion dollars per day by complying with the guidance. According to the American Hospital Association, hospitals are bleeding more than $50 billion per month. Private equity investor and public policy professor Meghan Fitzgerald, estimates through her own research that it's about $1 to $1.2 billion per day. "Many of these procedures were medically necessary, and -- yes -- profitable, enabling these institutions to serve all patients," she said. Christina Farr

6:58 pm: President Trump tours respirator facility without wearing protective mask that workers are required to wear

U.S. President Donald Trump looks at a protective face mask being shown to him by Honeywell's Vice President of Integrated Supply Chain Tony Stallings as he watches workers on the assembly line with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows while touring Honeywell's facility manufacturing masks for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Phoenix, Arizona, May 5, 2020. Tom Brenner | Reuters

He got a mask, but didn't wear one. President Donald Trump didn't put on a mask to tour an Arizona factory that makes N95 respirator masks for the government's coronavirus response, and where workers are reminded by a sign that they need to wear protective facial covering during their shifts. The White House said officials at factory operator Honeywell told them that Trump and other guests would not have to wear masks during their tour Tuesday of the Phoenix facility. Trump, who earlier said he would wear a mask if they were required, walked around the factory floor as the song "Live and Let Die" played from speakers. He was later presented with a gift, an N95 mask mounted on a plaque. Dan Mangan

6 pm: Texas to allow hair, nail salons to reopen Friday, gyms to follow

Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced the US Army Corps of Engineers and the state are putting up a 250-bed field hospital at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in downtown Dallas during a press conference at the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Sunday, March 29, 2020. Tom Fox | Getty Images

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that the state's hair and nail salons, barber shops and tanning salons will be allowed to reopen starting this Friday while adhering to health guidelines set forth by the state. He said that customers at these businesses must maintain six feet distance and will be required to wear a face mask, among other modifications the state plans to set forth. Abbott said that on May 18, gyms will also be allowed to reopen at 25% occupancy as long as showers and locker rooms remain closed. He said that equipment will need to be sanitized after every use and gym-goers will be required to wear gloves, and any outside equipment must be sanitized before and after entrance. The Texas governor previously allowed some businesses, like retail stores and movie theaters, to reopen on Friday as long as they maintained 25% capacity as part of the state's phase one reopening plan. Noah Higgins-Dunn

5:35 pm: Theme park and cruise shut down cost Disney $1 billion

The closure of parks, cruises and Disney-branded stores cost Disney around $1 billion during the second quarter, the company said. The Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products segment includes all of Disney's theme parks, as well as its cruise lines, hotels and merchandise. In fiscal second-quarter ended March 28, Disney reported a 10% drop in this segment, with revenue falling to $5.54 billion. Sarah Whitten

5:18 pm: Shanghai Disneyland will reopen on May 11

Tourists at Disney town on May 05, 2020 in Shanghai, China. Hu Chengwei | Getty Images

The Shanghai Disneyland will reopen its doors on May 11. It has been closed since January 25 due to the global Covid-19 outbreak. Already open in Shanghai is the shopping center Disneytown, Wishing Star Park and the Disneyland Hotel. The company will take a phased approach in reopening this park. It will limit attendance, implement new social distancing practices and integrate more sanitation stations throughout the park. It is currently unclear when the rest of Disney's parks, resorts, cruise ships and Disney-branded stores will be able to reopen. Sarah Whitten

5 pm: Trump says coronavirus 'bailouts' for blue states are unfair to Republicans

Using federal funds to help states recover from coronavirus is unfair to Republicans, said President Donald Trump, "because all the states that need help  they're run by Democrats in every case." In an interview with The New York Post, Trump said that Illinois, New York and California are examples of states with "tremendous debt," while Florida and Texas are both "doing phenomenal" and the Midwest is, "fantastic  very little debt." As Congress prepares to hammer out a fourth coronavirus aid package, and governors in both parties clamor for more funds, the question of what requirements will be placed on additional federal money for states is emerging as a key fault line. On Tuesday, Trump tweeted that "Sanctuary Cities, Payroll Taxes, and perhaps Capital Gains Taxes, must be put on the table." Christina Wilkie

4:35 pm: More Orange County beaches to begin phased reopening after temporary ban, governor says

Lifeguards patrol an empty beach in front of the Huntington Beach Pier on May 3, 2020 in Huntington Beach, California. Michael Heiman | Getty Images

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that the cities of Huntington Beach, Dana Point and Seal Beach are allowed to begin a phased reopening of their beaches after the cities submitted plans to allow safe public access to beachgoers. The plans include a range of measures to avoid overcrowding and enable safe physical distancing on the beach, according to a press release from the California Natural Resources Agency. Newsom said he would allow Laguna and San Clemente beaches to reopen on Monday.Newsom ordered the beaches in Orange County to close on Thursday after the crowds of people congregated on the state's coasts over the weekend. Newsom said beaches in the southern part of California, including those in Orange, Los Angeles, and San Diego counties, have raised alarm bells, saying beachgoers have failed to follow physical distancing guidelines. Officials in Orange County criticized Newsom's order, however, for unfairly targeting the county. 

4 pm: Stocks rise for a second day with Dow up 100 points as investors bet on the economy reopening

3:40 pm: Airbnb to lay off nearly 1,900 people

An increase in U.S.-based bookings in early June is a sign that in post-Covid world travelers will "want housing they have control over," according to an early Airbnb investor. Martin Bureau | Getty Images

Airbnb on Tuesday announced layoffs of 1,900 employees which represent about 25% of the company's staff. Prior to the cuts, the company had 7,500 employees, according to a note published by Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. Along with the cuts, Airbnb will halt projects related to transportation, hotels and luxury stays, Chesky wrote. Salvador Rodriguez

3:19 pm: White House could phase out coronavirus task force by early June

The White House coronavirus task force could soon be history. Vice President Mike Pence, who oversees the task force, confirmed in a meeting with reporters, that the administration is considering phasing out the group, possibly as soon as early June, The slow phase-out would involve transitioning the country's Covid-19 response to other federal agencies, and would coincide with the easing of lockdown restrictions in several states. Response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci had been stars of the task force's near-daily press briefings, but have already moved somewhat out of the spotlight. The on-camera briefings haven't been held since April 24. Read more on the possible transition from CNBC's Kayla Tausche and Kevin Breuninger. Sara Salinas, Valerie Block

3:11 pm: Here's how much of the US is set to reopen

More and more states are loosening lockdown restrictions and easing forced business closures, a trend many on Wall Street see as a sign that the worst of the economic pullback is over. The chart above shows how many Americans will soon see Covid-19 restrictions lift. Some states, such as New York and California, have suggested they may reopen certain businesses soon, but have made no definitive statement on when that will occur. The movement toward restarting commerce has boosted stocks after a violent March. The S&P 500 is up more than 30% from its March low. Oil prices settled up 20%, and have nearly doubled in the last five days. Thomas Franck

1:59 pm: Cuomo rebukes Trump over partisan comments

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., rebuked President Donald Trump after the president said in a New York Post interview that it's "unfair" for Republicans to "bail out" the states hardest-hit by Covid-19, claiming they are "run by Democrats in every case." Cuomo said New York and other Democratic-led states have paid more in federal taxes than they've received, and sharply criticized what he called partisan rhetoric coming from Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in a time of crisis. "This coronavirus doesn't pick Democrats or Republicans. It doesn't kill Democrats or Republicans, it kills Americans," Cuomo said at his daily press briefing. Kevin Breuninger

1:55 pm: Researchers say the virus has mutated and looks more contagious

The coronavirus has mutated and the new strain spreading across the United States and other parts of the world appears to be even more contagious, according to new research published by scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Los Alamos researchers were able to analyze thousands of coronavirus sequences collected by the Global Initiative for Sharing All Influenza. They said the new strain began spreading in Europe in early February before migrating to other parts of the world, becoming the dominant form of the virus across the globe by the end of March. If the virus doesn't subside in the summer like the seasonal flu, it could mutate further and potentially limit the effectiveness of the vaccines currently being developed by scientists around the world, the researchers warned. Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

1:36 pm: Five European countries still not seeing drops in the number of new cases

Most European countries are reporting decreases in the daily number of new Covid-19 cases, but the United Kingdom, Sweden, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria are not seeing a decline, CNBC's Holly Ellyatt reports. The number of new cases was increasing in Bulgaria, and in the other four countries, there was "no substantial change" in a key measure of the prevalence of active coronavirus cases in the population, according to the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC). Sweden, notably, did not impose a full lockdown but encouraged people to work from home and limit contact with vulnerable groups. Sweden has confirmed 23,216 cases and 2,854 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Chris Eudaily

1:07 pm: President Trump says he will wear a mask on factory tour, if required

President Donald Trump, who has for weeks refused to wear a mask as a coronavirus precaution despite federal guidance urging Americans to do so, might wear one during a visit to a mask-production factory in Arizona  but only if he's required to do so. Trump is set to tour the Honeywell facility in Phoenix, which is making N95 masks for the federal government.

"I think it's a masked facility," Trump told reporters. "If it's a masked facility, I will" wear a mask, he said. Vice President Mike Pence ignited a furor last week by not wearing a mask at the Mayo Clinic, which requires masks for all visitors, patients and staff. Pence wore a mask two days later during a tour of a General Motors plant in Indiana. Dan Mangan

12:52 pm: Here's what to expect as Nordstrom gets set to reopen stores

Pedestrians pass in front of a Nordstrom Inc. store in the Midtown neighborhood of New York, on March 20, 2020. Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Nordstrom is preparing to reopen its department stores amid the coronavirus pandemic. Its locations across the country have been temporarily shut since March 17. The retailer has a number of precautionary measures it will be taking, including adding plexiglass dividers at cash registers to protect workers, handing out masks to visitors, leaving some of its restaurants closed and limiting services such as alterations. Nordstrom said it will be opening its stores in phases. It remains unclear exactly which shops will open first, and on which dates. The retailer's plans follow those that Macy's laid out last week as it prepared to open 68 locations Monday. Lauren Thomas

12:33 pm: Trump says Dr. Fauci was blocked from testifying at Covid-19 hearing 'because the House is a set up'

Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci, flanked by US President Donald Trump, speaks during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House on April 22, 2020, in Washington, DC. Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

The White House stopped Dr. Anthony Fauci from testifying at a House hearing on the U.S. coronavirus response because the Democratic-held chamber is full of "haters," President Donald Trump said. The president's explanation, which indicates political motivations behind blocking the key health official from appearing Wednesday, contradicts one the White House offered on Friday. Administration spokesman Judd Deere said it would be "counter-productive" for the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to testify while he works on the government pandemic response. Trump offered a different reason Tuesday. "Because the House is a set up," he told reporters when asked why the White House blocked Fauci from appearing Wednesday. "The House is a bunch of Trump haters. They put every Trump hater on the committee, the same old stuff." The White House declined to comment on the contradiction between its explanation and the one Trump outlined. Jacob Pramuk

12:19 pm: Italy tallies lowest number of daily new cases for past two months

Commuters emerge from the San Giovanni Metro station in Rome, Italy, on Monday, May 4, 2020. Bloomberg

Italy reported 236 more deaths from Covid-19, an increase over the day before, and 1,075 new cases, which is the lowest daily number for the past two months, according to Reuters. The country has one of the highest death tolls from coronavirus in the world, with a total of 29,315 dead, the Civil Protection Agency said. Chris Eudaily

11:51 am: Dow up 400 points as stocks continue to rally

11:27 am: One of Main Street's biggest fears in economic reopening  new regulations

Small businesses have contended with new and evolving regulations enacted to mitigate the threat from the novel coronavirus. Now, as the country looks to reopen the economy, an entirely different set of standards are being introduced. In the latest CNBC|SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey, 38% of small business owners said they expect changes in government regulations to have a negative effect on their business in the next 12 months. That is the highest that value has been in the three-plus years of the survey, which reaches more than 2,000 small business owners in the U.S. every quarter. Just three months ago only 26% anticipated a negative impact from regulatory changes. Read more about Main Street's biggest economic reopen fears here. Melodie Warner

11:22 am: NYC Mayor de Blasio says Trump is putting politics first in coronavirus response

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio criticized President Donald Trump's comments in a New York Post interview that indicated he would not be inclined to bail out states, especially those run by Democrats, that have financially struggled amid the coronavirus crisis. De Blasio said Trump was a "pure hypocrite" to not provide financial assistance to states even though he was willing to grant nearly $58 billion to bail out the airline industry. "That means he's not inclined to help firefighters, EMTs, paramedics, police officers, doctors, nurses, health-care workers, teachers, sanitation workers," de Blasio said at his daily press briefing. The mayor has projected that Covid-19 will cost New York City a projected $7.4 billion in lost tax revenue over the current and next fiscal year after the city shuttered businesses and ordered people to stay indoors to try to contain the outbreak. Noah Higgins-Dunn

10:46 am: Nearly a fifth of Wendy's US restaurants are out of beef, analyst says

A Wendy's classic double cheeseburger and french fries. Luke Sharrett | Bloomberg | Getty Images

As food supply chains struggle to keep up with demand amid the Covid-19 outbreak, CNBC's Amelia Lucas reports that nearly a fifth of Wendy's U.S. restaurants have run out of beef, according to a study by Stephens Inc. The study found that nationwide 1,043 restaurants  or 18% of its U.S. restaurants  have listed beef items as out of stock, though more than 100 locations still sell Wendy's chili, which contains beef, Stephens analyst James Rutherford said. Many restaurants in Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee and New York restaurants are currently out of beef, while other states' menus do not suggest there are any supply chain issues. Terri Cullen

10:40 am: When will we start traveling again? Here's what experts say

CNBC's Christina Farr asked experts in public health and various industries for their best predictions on when will we start traveling again. All agreed that it would take around 18 to 24 months before there's a significant spike in demand and the industry begins to return to normal levels. Air travel has dropped by more than 95%, with some days seeing fewer than 100,000 air travelers across the country. In April 2019, more than 2 million travelers passed through U.S. airports every day. The experts said the travel industry will undergo some very big changes: Airports may institute new kinds of security checks to screen travelers' health, nervous tourists could opt for 'staycation' destinations, and the travel experience will be dominated by large chains as small hotels and restaurants struggle to survive. Melodie Warner

10:33 am: US services sector suffers biggest contraction since 2009

The U.S. services sector contracted for the first time in about a decade in April as economic activity in the country ground to a near halt amid the pandemic, the Institute for Supply Management reported. The ISM nonmanufacturing index plunged to 41.8 in April from 52.5 a month earlier  the first contraction in services since the financial crisis, CNBC's Fred Imbert reports. It was the lowest amount of business activity in the services sector since ISM launched the index in 1997. Still, the April reading topped a Dow Jones estimate of 40. Terri Cullen

10:23 am: Connecticut cancels in-person public school for the rest of the academic year

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont is ordering in-person classes at all K-12 public schools canceled for the rest of the academic year due to the coronavirus outbreak. The state will continue to provide distance learning, however, and schools will also continue to offer meals to children at home under the school lunch and breakfast programs. "I know how important it is for so many students and teachers to finish out the school year, and I was holding out hope  particularly for high school seniors  that we'd at least be able to complete the final few weeks, but given the current circumstances and to protect everyone's safety, it has become clear that it's just not possible," Gov. Lamont said in a statement. No word yet on whether summer school programs will be canceled as well. The governor said that he anticipates having guidance on summer school toward the end of May. Terri Cullen

9:57 am: Groceries have gotten pricier during the pandemic

It's not your imagination: Grocery staples from milk and eggs to produce have gotten more expensive in recent weeks. Milk prices are up 10%, year to date. Produce prices are up 10%. And egg prices are up 30%. That's all according to research by Nielsen. In an interview with CNBC's Jane Wells, Nielsen managing director Morgan Seybert said grocers have pulled back significantly on sales. He said in an average week, about a third of products sold by a grocery store is on promotion  but that's dropped to about 20%. "We've seen a huge reduction in the amount of promotions that retailers are running as they're just trying to get the product and the supply that they need onto the shelf," he said. Melissa Repko

9:52 am: Dr. Scott Gottlieb says rare, 'unusual phenomena' affecting kids may be linked to coronavirus

Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC that a rare but "unusual phenomena" affecting children could potentially be linked to the coronavirus, demonstrating that "we don't understand this virus well." Gottlieb's comments on "Squawk Box" came after New York City health officials warned Monday of an inflammatory disease, so far impacting 15 children, that could possibly be associated with Covid-19. The condition is characterized by persistent fever and was likened to Kawasaki disease and toxic shock syndrome. According to the New York City Health Department, four of the children tested positive for Covid-19 through diagnostic testing. Six other children who initially were negative through diagnostic testing later tested positive from an antibody test. Melodie Warner Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and is a member of the boards of Pfizer and biotech company Illumina.

9:42 am: Virgin Atlantic to cut more than 3,000 jobs to mitigate coronavirus impact

Virgin Atlantic said it will cut 3,150 jobs across its business to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The airline said it was entering a consultation period of 45 days, during which time it will work with trade unions BALPA and Unite on the restructuring. Virgin Atlantic faced criticism last month when billionaire owner Richard Branson sought state aid from the U.K. government to help keep the airline afloat. Melodie Warner

9:34 am: Dow jumps more than 200 points on hopes of economy reopening

Wall Street and much of the Financial District stands empty as the coronavirus keeps financial markets and businesses mostly closed on April 20, 2020 in New York City. Spencer Platt | Getty Images

Stocks opened higher on Tuesday as investors bet the U.S. economy could start to reopen again. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 239 points higher, or nearly 1%. The S&P 500 gained 1% while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.1%. Melodie Warner

9:29 am: Norwegian Cruise Line says there's 'substantial doubt' about its ability to continue ongoing operations

Norwegian Cruise Line warned there is "substantial doubt" about its ability to continue as a going concern as the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect the ability, or desire, of people to travel. The company said it does not have sufficient liquidity to meet its obligations over the next twelve months and said it expects to report a loss for the quarter ended March 31 and on the year. Separately, the company announced that L Catterton, a private-equity fund, invested $400 million in NCL Corporation, a subsidiary of Norwegian. Melodie Warner

9:17 am: Not clear who's in charge of health precautions at airports

A specific government plan to standardize policies for protecting air travelers and aviation workers from the coronavirus has yet to materialize as it's unclear which government authority would take responsibility for passenger health precautions. Airlines are putting together a patchwork of policies, such as blocking off middle seats, issuing new boarding procedures, and requiring masks. At least one airport has started using a thermal camera to screen people for fevers. "It's going to be a game of hot potato," said Jeffrey Price, an air travel safety expert and a professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Melodie Warner

9:05 am: Fiat Chrysler to restart US production in two weeks

A Jeep Renegade rolls down an assembly line at Fiat Chrysler's Melfi assembly plant in Italy in 2015. Michael Wayland / CNBC

Fiat Chrysler expects to restart the majority of its North American plants the week of May 18 after coronavirus shutdowns lead to $1.8 billion (1.7 billion euro) first-quarter loss. The company, as well as General Motors and Ford Motor, has been in discussions with the United Auto Workers union for weeks to reopen U.S. plants, which shuttered in March. Fiat Chrysler burned through about $5.5 billion (5.1 billion euro) in cash during the first three months of the year as the coronavirus pandemic first shuttered its operations in China, followed by Europe and then North America. The company's plants in China have reopened. It continues to restart operations in Europe and elsewhere. Melodie Warner

8:25 am: UK death toll surpasses Italy, now highest in Europe

The United Kingdom has now recorded the highest coronavirus death toll in Europe, with 32,313 reported deaths related to Covid-19. Italy, which has been particularly hard hit by the virus outbreak, previously held Europe's highest death toll. Italy's recorded deaths stands at 29,079 according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Read more about the Covid-19 outbreak in the U.K. from CNBC's Sam Meredith and Ryan Browne. Sara Salinas

8:13 am: Starbucks plans to have 85% of US cafes open by the end of the week

A delivery rider wearing a protective mask picks up an order from Starbucks as signs displayed in the window announce pick up and delivery options are available amid the coronavirus pandemic on April 28, 2020 in New York City, United States. Alexi Rosenfeld | Getty Images

Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said that over 85% of the U.S. company-operated locations will be reopened by the end of the week, with modified operations and hours. The chain plans to have more than 90% of cafes open by early June. Starbucks shares rose 3% in premarket trading. Amelia Lucas

8:11 am: Experimental vaccine begins human testing in the US

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced that its experimental coronavirus vaccine, BNT162, began human testing in the United States. Pfizer, which is working alongside German drugmaker BioNTech, said it will test the potential vaccine on adults ages 18 to 55 in the first stage before moving on to older groups. It hopes to test up to 360 people. The effort by Pfizer and BioNTech is one of several working toward a potential vaccine to prevent Covid-19. More than 100 vaccines were in development globally as of April 30, according to the World Health Organization, with at least eight vaccine candidates already in human trials. Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

7:06 am: Cases will likely rise in May, former FDA chief says

6:53 am: WHO says it's 'not surprising' virus was in France in December

In this photo illustration the World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is seen on a screen of pc and a coronavirus image displayed on a screen of a smartphone in Kiev, Ukraine. Pavlo Gonchar | SOPA Images | Getty Images

The World Health Organization said it is "not surprising" that reports have emerged of Covid-19 circulating in France as early as December, Reuters reported. China officially alerted the WHO to its outbreak on Dec. 31, though cases were circulating before then as officials in the country sought to identify the mysterious virus. A hospital in France retested old samples from pneumonia patients and discovered the presence of the virus that causes Covid-19 in one patient, who was treated as early as Dec. 27, according to Reuters. The French government would not confirm its first case of Covid-19 for nearly a month. "It's also possible there are more early cases to be found," WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told a U.N. briefing in Geneva. He encouraged other countries to investigate whether the virus was circulating earlier than was previously known in order to identify a "new and clearer picture" of the outbreak. Will Feuer

5:50 am: Iran's death toll rises to 6,340

The number of deaths due to coronavirus reported in Iran has risen by 63 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 6,340, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said in a statement on state TV on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Iran has reached 99,970, he said. Holly Ellyatt

5:20 am: Spain reports 185 new deaths

A woman wearing a sanitary mask as a preventive measure, leaving the train during the first day of work for non-essential sectors. Barcelona faces its 31st day of house confinement due to the contagion of Covid-19. Paco Freire | SOPA Images | LightRocket via Getty Images

The number of daily deaths caused by coronavirus in Spain has risen by 185 on Tuesday, the health ministry said, marking the third consecutive day that the number of deaths has remained below 200. The ministry said the total number of fatalities has risen to 25,613. The overall number of confirmed cases has risen to 219,329, up from 218,011 the day before. Holly Ellyatt

5:04 am: Russia reports more than 10,000 new cases for the third day in a row

Patients suspected of the coronavirus (COVID-19) infection are brought by health officials wearing protective gear with ambulances to Kommunarka Hospital in Moscow, Russia on May 3, 2020. Sefa Karacan | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Latest News New head of retail broker at Pepper Money Broker favourite promoted to head of retail mortgages

Small businesses want the SME Recovery Scheme replaced The proposed scheme is patterned after the HECS terms on loan repayment

A non-bank lender has released data around the impact the COVID-19 crisis has had on its mortgage loan book in a bid to restore confidence in the frozen residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) market.

Firstmac Limited shared a report on each of the 24 trusts in its $12.8bn loan book which shows that as of April 30, 2020, just 5.26% of mortgage holders had applied for hardship arrangements that would reduce or suspend their mortgage repayments  data which reflects conditions more than a month after the introduction of social distancing and the shutdown of the tourism industry and indoor venues which caused widespread job loss.

According to managing director Kim Cannon, the hardship numbers were less than even the most optimistic forecasts of 6% to 9%, and far below the level which could have led to deferred RMBS coupon payments to investors.

Investors have been on tenterhooks waiting for this information to see if Australian RMBS are in trouble, so this is a huge piece of good news for them, Cannon said.

This data will give confidence back to investors so they can keep investing in RMBS knowing that the level of hardship is very manageable. It is just a small fraction of what our RMBS could withstand.

Cannon attributed the figures to Firstmacs strong prime loan book, its personalised approach to working with borrowers, and effective government measures like JobSeeker payments which have helped to mitigate the financial impact of the shutdowns.

Many hardship applicants have chosen to continue making some level of repayments that they are comfortable with, leaving them better off in the long run," he added.

At the start of this crisis, we rejected a one-size-fits-all approach to hardship and resolved to work with each customer individually to help them tailor the best arrangement for their unique circumstances."
DENVER, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Axcient , a leader in business continuity and cloud migration solutions for Managed Service Providers (MSPs), today announced that CEO David Bennett has been honored as a 2020 Titan 100. The Titan 100 program recognizes Colorados Top 100 CEOs and C-level executives. They are the areas most accomplished business leaders in their industry using criteria that includes demonstrating exceptional leadership, vision, and passion.



It is an honor to be named to the Titan 100 list, said Bennett. Since joining Axcient a year ago, we have been able to accomplish so much together, including the launch of x360Axcients industry-leading platform for MSP management of Office 365 backup, protected sync and share, and BCDR. We are committed to protecting businesses from data-loss and acting as their last line of defense, while at the same time, offering an incredible partner experience. We look forward to continuing our growth and executing on our strategic roadmap for the company.

Collectively the 2020 Titan 100 and their companies employ more than 83,000 individuals and generate over $56 billion dollars in annual revenues. This years honorees will be published in a limited-edition Titan 100 book and profiled exclusively online. They will be honored at an awards ceremony on September 10, 2020 and will be given the opportunity to interact and connect multiple times throughout the year with their fellow Titans.

The Titan 100 are shaping the future of Colorados business community by building a distinguished reputation that is unrivaled and preeminent in their field, says Jaime Zawmon, President of Titan CEO. We proudly recognize the Titan 100 for their successes and contributions. We know that they will have a profound impact that makes an extraordinary difference for their customers and clients across the nation.

The Titan 100 embody the true diversity of Colorados business landscape. Representing technology, manufacturing, education, healthcare, construction/real estate, staffing, professional services, hospitality, transportation and the energy sector among many others.

The inaugural Titan 100 celebration on September 10th will be held at The Vehicle Vault located in Parker, Colorado. This special event will gather 100 Titans of Industry for an evening unlike anything that exists in the Colorado business community.

On behalf of all the partners and associates at Wipfli we congratulate all the Titan 100 winners, says Paul Leroue Partner at Wipfli. Its truly an honor to recognize this special group of leaders in the Denver community. We appreciate the lasting impact that each leader has made and continues to make in building organizations of significance both here in Denver and abroad. Your ingenuity and creativity have set you apart, and the honor of being seen as an industry Titan is richly deserved.

To learn more about Axcient or start a free trial, please visit www.axcient.com .

About Axcient

Axcient is an award-winning leader in business continuity and cloud migration solutions for Managed Service Providers (MSPs). The Axcient x360 platform enables MSPs to Protect Everything, and includes BCDR , Office 365 Backup , and Secure Sync & Share . Trusted by MSPs worldwide, Axcient protects businesses data and continuity in the event of security breaches , human error, and natural disasters . For more information, visit www.axcient.com .

Follow Axcient on LinkedIn , Facebook and Twitter .
Is there any achievement that's left for Hollywood actor Tom Cruise? Well, just when you thought that there could be a full-stop, he manages to give you another reason to laud him.

Well, after conquering almost every feat in Hollywood, he could just have another achievement that will raise his benchmark!

Tom Cruise/Twitter





According to Deadline, the 57-year-old actor is reportedly working with NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX to develop a film shot in outer space.

As per reports, the film is "in the early stages of liftoff."

The 'Top Gun' star, Cruise routinely engages in risky stunts for the 'Mission: Impossible' franchise, this film will not be associated with those movies, the outlet reported.

Cruise performed daring stunts like hanging off the side of a jet plane and scaling skyscrapers, in past 'Mission: Impossible' installments.

Twitter

How excited are fans? Well, the reactions on social media say it all.

After tom cruise finishes this, Everybodys response If he ever complains to anybody about anything: https://t.co/CDMl3LQGGP pic.twitter.com/BW4JscuBYV  Michael Kamens (@TheMBrand) May 5, 2020

My respect for Tom Cruise goes up everyday. https://t.co/hMGJQjamT5  Batsy (@batsy03_) May 5, 2020

Tom Cruise is really gonna fly to LEO with @SpaceX to shoot for the next mission impossible.  The mfn Fella (@YUNFELLA) May 5, 2020

Ok I've come to a conclusion that

Tom Cruise isn't human anymore  https://t.co/IP65n0WJeC   (@aaaawaraa) May 5, 2020

....



Wow you know i didnt see the article, i just saw this tweet and thought someone was proposing a fun idea.



But of course, tom cruise is really doing this. It was silly not to realize that, it being tom cruise and all.  Nicole Alexandra (@deaddr0pfred) May 5, 2020

For the Tom, nothing is impossible, there is no mission impossible. He is wonderful! but is crazy! lol @TomCruise https://t.co/R3vbOhAf6n  tanyportely (@taniaportelacia) May 5, 2020





Tom Cruise really gonna save the Earth from destruction 1 day.



That nigga aint just making movies no more...he training for different end of the world scenario's. https://t.co/fJtix8CRiQ  WILL THE WI$E  (@FreeGoodes) May 5, 2020





As of right now, no film studio is on board, according to Deadline. The 'Edge of Tomorrow' star has been nominated for three Academy Awards throughout his career and is set to appear in the sequel to his hit flick 'Top Gun,' which is scheduled to debut in December.


Queens University Belfast has received funding to conduct a trial with the aim of developing a rapid diagnostic test for Covid-19.

The study is in partnership with HiberGene Diagnostics Ltd, Medcaptain in China, and Italian Hospital IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, who along with Queens, has been awarded 930,000 from EU H2020 to develop a highly accurate diagnostic test for Covid-19 that aims to show results within an hour.

The test would enable clinicians to test for Covid-19 on-site, eliminating the need to send tests to a centralised laboratory, saving time and resources.

Professor Cliff Taggart, lead researcher from the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine at Queens University, said: The local availability, speed and accuracy of the test will help inform public health preparedness and response in the ongoing pandemic.

The test for Covid-19 disease utilises LAMP technology and Hibergenes proprietary technology know-how.

The Belfast Health & Social Care Trust carried out the initial development work on a prototype Meningococcal Disease test in collaboration with Queen's University Belfast and funded by the Meningitis Research Foundation and Health & Social Care Research and Development Division. The prototype technology was exclusively licenced by HSC Innovations to Hibergene Diagnostics Ltd, Dublin, Ireland, who subsequently commercialised the test for sale via Hibergenes network of 45 Distributors covering over 70 countries worldwide.

Seamus Gorman, CEO of Hibergene said: We are delighted to lead an international consortium to quickly develop and bring to market a rapid easy to use molecular diagnostic test for COVID 19 disease. Rapid diagnosis and reporting of results is the key to containing the COVID 19 disease and this test can play an important role in its diagnosis and control.
Jawaharlal Nehru University is all set to conduct a webinar on Lessons from the Bhagavad- Gita during the Covid- 19 crisis on May 7. The webinar will be conducted live on Zoom app from 6 pm to 7 pm on Thursday. Students will have to register for the webinar. The registration is free of cost.

JNU vice chancellor Mamidala Jagdesh Kumar informed the students about this webinar on Twitter.

The webinar will be conducted by Professor Subhash Kak, Okalahoma State University, USA. He is also a member of PMs Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council since 2018. He was awarded the Padma Shri in the year 2019.

Subhash Kak is also an honorary visiting professor at School of Engineering, JNU and works in the area of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, archaeoastronomy, and history of science.

JNU welcomes you to a webinar on Lessons from the Bhagavad-Gita during the Covid-19 Crisis by Prof. Subhash Kak, Oklahoma State University, USA. He is a member of PMs Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council since 2018 and was awarded the Padma Shri in 2019, the VC tweeted.

JNU welcomes you to a webinar on "Lessons from the Bhagavad-Gita during the Covid-19 Crisis" by Prof. Subhash Kak, Oklahoma State University, USA. He is a member of PM's Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council since 2018 and was awarded the Padma Shri in 2019. pic.twitter.com/yxoNJghkp9  Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar (@mamidala90) May 4, 2020

Earlier on May 2 and 3, JNU had conducted a webinar on Leadership lessons from Ramayana in collaboration with The Ramayana School. It was conducted by Shantanu Gupta, founder of the Ramayan School and organised by professor Santosh Kumar Shukla from JNUs School of Sanskrit and Indic Studies and Professor Mazha Asif from School of Language, literature and cultural studies.

Attended the first part of "Leadership lessons from Ramayana" by Shri Shantanu Gupta @shantanug_ . It was fabulous. Glad that JNU has decided to organize this event. Reminded me of what Pt. Nehru wrote to Mahatma Gandhi on 19 Feb 1922: It is a joy to read Ramayan every morning. pic.twitter.com/lYQGxutqz1  Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar (@mamidala90) May 2, 2020

JNU is also going to organise another webinar on Global Alumni Connect Initiative on May 7 from 4 pm onwards where the alumni of JNU will be live through Zoom app. The webinar is conducted by the Alumni Affair Office (AAO) of JNU.

The Alumni Affairs Office (AAO), JNU is organizing a webinar series under its Global Alumni Connect Initiative. We invite you to a webinar by Prof. Balram Singh, Institute of Advanced Studies, Dartmouth, USA and Prof. Gobardhan Das, SCMM, JNU. All are welcome, the VC tweeted.

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Global ratings agency S&P on Tuesday said additional financial stimulus is necessary in India to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the country's weak fiscal position.

The stimulus is necessary to support the vulnerable segments of the society and also to prevent additional structural damage to the economy amid the lockdown which has suddenly stopped the business activity, S&P said in a report.

In March, the government announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore relief package focusing on providing food security to the poor and providing money in their hands to fight COVID-19.

Many industry watchers have said the package was too less, while some have backed the Centre for not front-loading the package, saying the longevity of the pandemic is not known.

The quantum of a new stimulus package is a highly speculated aspect, with some industry watchers advocating caution and others pushing for more spending given the unprecedented nature of the pandemic.

In our view, the Indian government is likely to introduce additional fiscal stimulus measures, which could be broader in scale relative to efforts so far, the agency, which has a 'BBB-/Stable/A-3' rating on the sovereign, said.

It added that apart from the direct fiscal transfers to the affected individuals, government officials have indicated a willingness to use a range of options available in their policy toolbox which may include additional support for the corporate and the financial sector as well.

The agency said India's fiscal position has been weak for a long time now and is a major factor constraining sovereign credit rating along with the government debt.

Though the fiscal space is limited owing to the government's already-elevated deficit, additional measures could be necessary to support the vulnerable segments of the society, and to prevent additional structural damage to the economy amid the recent sudden-stop in the business activity, it said.

S&P added that India will show a powerful recovery in the economy in 2021-22, if it is assumed that the pandemic is contained and there is a significant improvement in the global economic conditions.

However, if the damage to India's domestic economy is not sufficiently mitigated, the fallout could weigh on the recovery and result in downward pressures on the sovereign and Indian banks, it warned.

The agency said systemic pressures for Indian banks could rise owing to the recently announced extension of the nationwide lockdown to check the COVID-19 spread.

It said the Rs 1.7 lakh crore relief package along with liquidity easing moves from the Reserve Bank through the targeted long term repo operations will help temper economic risks.

Amid speculation of an extension in the three-month moratorium, it said such a move can help borrowers suffering from temporary liquidity issues.

Drawing from the commentary and data from Axis Bank, which announced its results last month, the agency said a fourth of the lender's borrowers by loan quantum opting for loan moratorium suggests that some of the stronger borrowers are also opting to conserve liquidity in these tough times.

The agency said it will compare the same numbers with the commentary from other banks to assess Axis Bank, but maintained that its Rs 1,400 crore loss for the March quarter reflects a rise in systemic risk.

As of now, its negative outlook on the lender is reflective of the economic risks for the bank, and the Indian economy at large, remaining high, S&P said.

The bank will maintain its strong market position and adequate capitalisation over the next 18 months, it said, warning that a large unanticipated asset quality shock can result in a downgrade of the bank's rating.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rome, May 5 : Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte used social media to state that Italy was "proud" to contribute to the three multilateral medical organisations including the World Health Organization (WHO).

Conte's remarks came after a broader event called by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen raised 7.4 billion euros (US $8.07 billion) to help find a vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

Italy pledged 140 million euros for the three organisations, according to a communique from von der Leyen's office.

Italy will donate 120 million euros to GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, a public-private group that focuses on immunisations in the developing world.

Additionally, Italy will contribute 10 million euros each to the WHO and to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, a public-private foundation that helps fund research projects.

Conte used social media to express his support: "Italy is proud to contribute to accelerating the development, production and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics by supporting" the three organisations, he wrote.
In a massive development, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said that 64 flights to be operated from May 7 to May 13 to bring back stranded Indians from abroad. The flight plan for repatriation of Indians stranded in foreign countries due to COVID-19 pandemic has been accessed by Republic TV on Tuesday. As per sources, the mega rescue operation has been scheduled for a whole week starting from May 7.

The minister listed down the flights along with the countries and mentioned the fixed rated for the journey.

"64 flights will be operated in the 1st week of operation to bring stranded Indians from different countries from May 7 to May 13. The 64 flights include-UAE- 10 flights, Qatar- 2, Saudi Arabia- 5, UK- 7, Singapore- 5, United States-7, Philippines- 5, Bangladesh- 7, Bahrain - 2, Malaysia-7, Kuwait-5, and Oman-2," said Hardeep Singh Puri.

"The rates fixed for the journey will be Rs 50,000 for London-Mumbai, similarly for London to Ahmedabad, London to Bengaluru and London to Delhi. For Chicago-Delhi-Hyderabad the rough cost will be about Rs 1 lakh," he added.

The 64 flights include-UAE- 10 flights, Qatar- 2, Saudi Arabia- 5, UK- 7, Singapore- 5, United States-7, Philippines- 5, Bangladesh- 7, Bahrain - 2, Malaysia-7, Kuwait-5, and Oman-2, said the Civil Aviation Minister.

READ: NCPCR to issue notice to Instagram over horrific 'Bois Locker Room' group; FIR filed

Earlier, the Centre had stated that only asymptomatic people will be allowed to travel after medical scrutiny. It also mandated the installation of Aarogya Setu app and 14-day institutional quarantine on payment basis.

READ: Coronavirus Live Updates: Evacuation plan for Indians abroad announced; cases at 46433

PM reviewed the civil aviation sector

PM Modi on Friday reviewed the position of the civil aviation sector during the COVID-19 outbreak and decided that the Indian airspace should be effectively used to reduce the flying time of passengers.

The Prime Minister held a comprehensive meeting to review the strategies that could help in making India's civil aviation sector more efficient. "It was decided that the Indian air space should be effectively used in such a manner that the flying time is reduced benefitting the travelling public and also helping the airlines to save costs in close co-operation with the Department of Military Affairs," read a statement from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

For the generation of more revenue as well as to bring in more efficiency at the airports, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has been asked to expedite the process of handing over of six more airports on PPP basis, by commencing the tender process within three months It was also decided that all reform initiatives taken by the Civil Aviation Ministry and the organisations under it should proceed in a time-bound manner. The meeting was attended by the Home Minister, the Finance Minister, MoS (Civil Aviation), MoS (Finance) and senior officials of the government.

READ: HRD Minister announces JEE, NEET dates, No decision on CBSE 10th,12th board exams

READ: India's Covid evacuation plan accessed: 7 days, 11 countries, 64 flights, 14,800 people
Washington: A Family Dollar store security guard has been fatally shot in Flint, Michigan, after telling a customer her child had to wear a face mask to enter the store, prosecutors said.

An argument began when the security guard, Calvin Munerlyn, 43, told Sharmel Lashe Teague, 45, that customers needed to wear face masks, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said at a news conference. She yelled at him, spat on him and drove off, Leyton said.

About 20 minutes later, her car returned to the store and her husband and son, Larry Edward Teague, 44, and Ramonyea Travon Bishop, 23, stepped out and confronted Munerlyn, according to investigators who spoke to witnesses and reviewed surveillance video. Bishop then shot him, Leyton said.

Maalik Mitchell, 20, mourns the death of his father Calvin Munerlyn, kneeling next to a display of candles that spell out Munerlyn's nickname "Duper" during a vigil in Flint. Credit:The Flint Journal/AP

Leyton said Munerlyn was doing his job, protecting others and enforcing a statewide executive order. In Michigan, people are required to wear face coverings in grocery stores, which can refuse service to anyone who isn't wearing a mask.
US allies believe it is 'very unlikely' that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab and it was more probable it came out of a wet market, a report has claimed.

Citing intelligence shared within the Five Eyes network, CNN has claimed an unnamed Western diplomat told them: 'We think it's highly unlikely it was an accident ... It is highly likely it was naturally occurring and that the human infection was from natural human and animal interaction.'

The World Health Organization on Monday dismissed President Donald Trump's 'speculative' claims that COVID-19 leaked from a lab in Wuhan.

Another 'intelligence source' told CNN that the confidence expressed by Trump and his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo - who said there was 'enormous evidence' pointing to the lab - was incompatible with the Five Eyes report.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan which, it has been claimed, is where the virus leaked from

Trump, increasingly critical of China's management of the outbreak, claims to have proof it started in a Wuhan laboratory. And Pompeo on Sunday said 'enormous evidence' backed up that claim, although the US intelligence community last week said it would continue to study whether the outbreak stemmed from infected animal contact, or a lab accident

This unnamed source told the broadcaster that 'clearly the market is where it exploded from.'

However, the first source added that without transparency from the Communist Party in Beijing, it was impossible to be certain.

Five Eyes is an intelligence alliance comprised of the UK, the US, Australia and New Zealand. It shares a broad range of information and is the strongest alliance of its kind in the world.

It would, therefore, be a gross breach of protocol for anyone with knowledge of Five Eyes intelligence to disclose it and highly unusual for CNN to have obtained it.

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told a virtual briefing yesterday: 'We have not received any data or specific evidence from the United States government relating to the purported origin of the virus - so from our perspective, this remains speculative.'

Most scientists believe the killer virus jumped from animals to humans, emerging in China late last year, possibly from a market in Wuhan selling exotic animals for meat.

Top US epidemiologist Anthony Fauci echoed the WHO's statement in an interview published Monday evening by National Geographic.

'If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what's out there now, (the scientific evidence) is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated,' Fauci told the magazine.

'Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that (this virus) evolved in nature and then jumped species,' he said.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has been accused of parroting Chinese propaganda and helping the Communist Party conceal the extent and origins of the virus. WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told a virtual briefing yesterday: 'We have not received any data or specific evidence from the United States government relating to the purported origin of the virus - so from our perspective, this remains speculative.'

Branded 'insane' by Chinese state media but hailed by US conservatives, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is taking the lead in pressing a hard line against Beijing

Trump, increasingly critical of China's management of the outbreak, claims to have proof it started in a Wuhan laboratory.

And Pompeo on Sunday said 'enormous evidence' backed up that claim, although the US intelligence community last week said it would continue to study whether the outbreak stemmed from infected animal contact, or a lab accident.

China has vehemently denied suggestions the lab was the source and has even made its own counterclaims that the virus came from a US soldier.

'Like any evidence-based organisation, we would be very willing to receive any information that purports to the origin of the virus,' Ryan said, stressing that this was 'a very important piece of public health information for future control.

'If that data and evidence is available, then it will be for the United States government to decide whether and when it can be shared, but it is difficult for the WHO to operate in an information vacuum in that regard,' he added.

The UN health agency - which has also faced scathing criticism from Trump over accusations it initially downplayed the seriousness of the outbreak to shield China - has repeatedly said the virus clearly appears to have originated naturally from an animal source.

Scientists work with mice inside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan, capital of China's Hubei province, in February 2017

WHO expert Maria Van Kerkhove stressed during Monday's briefing that there were some 15,000 full genome sequences of the novel coronavirus available, and 'from all of the evidence that we have seen... this virus is of natural origin.'

While coronaviruses generally originate in bats, both Van Kerkhove and Ryan stressed the importance of discovering how the virus that causes COVID-19 crossed over to humans, and what animal served as an 'intermediary host' along the way.

'We need to understand more about that natural origin, and particularly about intermediate hosts,' Ryan said.

It was important to know 'so that we can put in place the right public health and animal-human interface policies that will prevent this happening again,' he stressed.

The WHO said last week it wanted to be invited to take part in Chinese investigations into the animal origins of the pandemic, which in a matter of months has killed more than 250,000 people worldwide.

'We have offered, as we do with every case in every country, assistance with carrying out those investigations,' Ryan said Monday.

'We can learn from Chinese scientists,' he said.

But he warned that if questions about the virus's origin were 'projected as aggressive investigation of wrongdoing, than I believe that's much more difficult to deal with. That is a political issue.

'Science needs to be at the centre,' he said.

'If we have a science-based investigation and a science-based enquiry as to what the origin species and the intermediate species are, then that will benefit everybody on the planet.'
Staff of VNPT work with their customers at an office in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo courtesy of VNPT.

Vietnams top four network providers - VNPT, Vinaphone, Viettel and MobiFone  have significantly improved their global brand rankings.

The fastest-growing brand is state-owned Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), jumping 17 places from last year to 55th after increasing its brand value by 42 percent to $2.4 billion, according to a report by Brand Finance, a London-based branded business valuation consultancy.

"VNPT has invested in 4G networks in order to meet customer demand and has ramped up efforts to increase its fibre optic cable speed, while still maintaining tariffs," the report said.

"The Vietnamese governments plans for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, smart cities, start-ups, the National Innovation Network Program, 4G and 5G, IoT, and mobile telecommunication networks are supporting the telecoms sector to grow from strength to strength," it added.

Vietnams largest telecommunication service provider Viettel has climbed nine places to 28th with its brand value worth $5.8 billion, up 34.4 percent year-on-year.

VinaPhone has jumped 13 places to 106th while state-owned telecom giant MobiFone rose six places to 100th.

Brand Finance said it conducted original market research across 29 markets with a sample size of over 50,000 adults, representative of each countrys internet population aged 18 and above. Surveys for the latest ranking were conducted online during autumn 2019.

Topping the list was American telecommunications company Verizon, followed by American multinational conglomerate holding company AT&T and Chinese telecommunications operator China Mobile.

Vietnamese telecoms started piloting 4G, the fourth generation broadband cellular network technology, in December 2015. The government plans to expand coverage to 95 percent of the population by 2020.

Local telecom firms are chasing a head start in the 5G race as Vietnam expects to become an early adopter of the technology. Telecom giant Viettel broadcast from its network of 5G base transceiver stations in Ho Chi Minh City last September for the first time.

Around 64 million people, or over half the country's population, are online.
Sudbury, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 5, 2020) - Transition Metals Corp (TSXV: XTM) ("Transition", "The Company") is pleased to announce it has received assay results from the previously announced drill program (see XTM press release dated January 20, 2020) conducted by Impala Canada Ltd. (Impala Canada) on the Sunday Lake PGM Property located 25 km north of Thunder Bay, Ontario (Figure 1). Impala Platinum Holdings Limited (Implats) and Impala Canada control a 75% interest in the Property and Transition holds a 25% free carried interest through to the completion of a Feasibility Study.

The 'Big Red' Magnetotellurics (MT) anomaly that measures in excess of 500m by 400m has been tested with four drill holes to-date, all of which have intersected high grade PGM (Pt+Pd+Au) mineralization. The 'Big Red' anomaly appears to be part of a much larger untested northwest-southeast trending MT anomaly measuring 1200m by 400m.

2020 Drilling Highlights:

23.00m @ 2.42 g/t PGM (1.29 g/t Pt, 1.03 g/t Pd and 0.09 g/t Au) including 9.20m @ 4.28 g/t PGM (2.27 g/t Pt, 1.85 g/t Pd and 0.17 g/t Au) in hole SL-20-032-W1 .

(1.29 g/t Pt, 1.03 g/t Pd and 0.09 g/t Au) including (2.27 g/t Pt, 1.85 g/t Pd and 0.17 g/t Au) in hole SL-20-032-W1 26.00m @ 2.55 g/t PGM (1.38 g/t Pt, 1.05 g/t Pt and 0.12 g/t Au) including 8.00m @ 3.89 g/t PGM (2.15 g/t Pt, 1.57 g/t Pd and 0.17 g/t Au) in hole SL-20-033 .

(1.38 g/t Pt, 1.05 g/t Pt and 0.12 g/t Au) including (2.15 g/t Pt, 1.57 g/t Pd and 0.17 g/t Au) in hole SL-20-033 Both SL-20-033 and SL-20-032-W1 intersected the outer edge of the 'Big Red' MT anomaly and still returned a thick interval of PGM mineralization as well as internal high grade sections.

The mineralized zone, as defined by the current drilling, ranges in thickness from 20.0m to 60.0m with PGM grades from 2.2 g/t to 5.51 g/t (1.20-3.22 g/t Pt, 0.80-2.08 g/t Pd and 0.09-0.21 g/t Au) combined Pt+Pd+Au. Importantly, this broader zone also includes a nested high grade section that ranges in thickness from 4.0m to 15.8m with PGM grades greater than 5 g/t combined Pt+Pd+Au.



Company CEO and President Scott McLean, P.Geo. commented: "Sunday Lake continues to represent an exciting and important PGM property for Transition Metals. Two holes from the recent drilling program intersected the outer extent of the 'Big Red' anomaly and continue to provide high grade intersections over broad widths. In addition, the completion of a 3rd hole into a separate, high quality MT anomaly demonstrates the widespread nature of the PGM mineralization across the property. Exploration on the property is still at an early stage and with continued drilling there is excellent potential of building a significant mineral resource going forward."

Mr. McLean continued: "In addition to its 25% carried interest at Sunday Lake, Transition owns a 100% interest in the nearby Saturday Night Property where drilling in 2017 intersected mineralization in a similar geological setting to that observed at Sunday Lake (see Transition Press Release dated January 23, 2017). We are actively looking for a partner to advance this very prospective project as soon as possible."

The Company will host a webinar on Tuesday May 5, 2020 at 11am EST to discuss the results. Please register for the webinar by following this link.



Recent Exploration Program History

In November of 2018, the Joint Venture completed a 95 station ground Spartan MT survey across the property with the intention of better defining the basal contact of the intrusion as well as potentially identifying basement structures that may act as structural traps for sulphide mineralization. The results of the surveys highlighted several high-priority conductive trends associated with areas of known mineralization or interpreted structural features. In addition, a large previously untested circular MT anomaly ('Big Red' anomaly) measuring in excess of 500m x 400m, was identified in the SW portion of the property (Figure 2).

In February of 2019, a 11,500m diamond drill program was initiated by the Joint Venture on the property focused on testing several high-priority geophysical targets generated from the surveys completed in 2018 (see Transition Press Release dated February 12, 2019). Two of the six drill holes completed during the program successfully targeted the 'Big Red' anomaly and returned the thickest and highest grade mineralization encountered to date on the property (see Transition Press Release dated April 29, 2019) (Figure 2) (Table 1).

Table 1: Selected assay results for the 2019 Sunday Lake exploration drilling program.

H ole # From (m) To (m) Length (m) Pt+Pd+Au g/t Pt g/t Pd g/t Au g/t Cu wt% Ni wt% SL-19-026 1392.00 1433.20 41.20 5.51 3.22 2.08 0.21 0.57 0.19 including 1417.40 1433.20 15.80 9.11 5.42 3.35 0.34 0.88 0.24 with 1418.85 1427.15 8.30 13.06 7.67 4.97 0.42 1.23 0.32 and 1425.24 1427.15 1.91 16.98 9.29 7.12 0.58 1.56 0.36 and 1425.24 1425.90 0.66 19.80 9.90 9.30 0.63 1.66 0.42 SL-19-029 1405.00 1466.00 61.00 2.20 1.20 0.80 0.15 0.22 0.15 including 1433.00 1465.00 32.00 3.35 1.90 1.20 0.23 0.33 0.18 including 1443.00 1449.00 6.00 5.15 2.90 1.90 0.34 0.55 0.28 and 1454.00 1465.00 11.00 4.75 2.70 1.70 0.30 0.46 0.18 including 1455.46 1463.63 8.17 5.44 3.20 2.00 0.33 0.51 0.20 and 1461.00 1463.00 2.00 5.97 3.50 2.20 0.35 0.64 0.19

Note: Reported interval length are estimated as being between 80% and 90% of true width of the intersected sulphide mineralization.

2020 Diamond Drilling

For the period spanning January to March 2020, Impala Canada completed a total of 4,295m of diamond drilling in three holes on the Sunday Lake Property. Holes SL-20-032-W1 and SL-20-033 directly targeted the 'Big Red' anomaly while hole SL-20-031 targeted a section of a conductive MT trend within the central portion of the property. Results from the three holes are presented in Table 2 (Figure 2).

Table 2: Assay results for the 2020 Sunday Lake exploration drilling program.

Hole # From (m) To (m) Length (m) Pt+Pd+Au g/t Pt g/t Pd g/t Au g/t Cu wt% Ni wt% SL-20-031 910.00 931.00 21.00 1.02 0.60 0.37 0.05 0.15 0.08 including 911.00 912.00 1.00 3.05 1.67 1.28 0.10 0.40 0.17 including 924.20 926.10 1.90 2.50 1.45 0.96 0.10 0.34 0.13 SL-20-032-W1 1263.00 1286.00 23.00 2.42 1.29 1.03 0.09 0.33 0.13 including 1270.80 1280.00 9.20 4.28 2.27 1.85 0.17 0.57 0.18 with 1270.80 1277.00 6.20 5.58 2.95 2.42 0.21 0.74 0.21 and 1272.00 1273.00 1.00 7.43 3.93 3.24 0.26 0.96 0.29 SL-20-033 1435.00 1461.00 26.00 2.55 1.38 1.05 0.12 0.25 0.13 Including 1442.00 1450.00 8.0 3.89 2.15 1.57 0.17 0.40 0.15 with 1442.00 1446.00 4.0 5.53 3.12 2.18 0.23 0.56 0.19

Note: Reported interval length are estimated as being between 80% and 90% of true width of the intersected sulphide mineralization.









Figure 1: General location map of the Sunday Lake Project relative to the City of Thunder Bay located 25 km to the south, the Saturday Night Project located 16 km to the west and Impala Canada's Lac Des Ilse Mine-Mill Complex located 60 km north.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2766/55391_53f90bbbc4d5c81b_002full.jpg







Figure 2: MT Cumulative Conductance Plan Map (where transition from green to red indicates an increase in conductance) of the Sunday Lake Property showing the collar location of historic holes (white diamonds), collar location of 2020 holes (blue diamonds), selected hole traces and selected mineralized zones projected to surface (red circles).

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2766/55391_53f90bbbc4d5c81b_003full.jpg

About the Sunday Lake Property

The Sunday Lake PGM Project is located 25 km north of Thunder Bay in Jacques Township and approximately 60 km south of Impala Canada's Lac Des Iles Mine-Mill Complex. The property hosts the Sunday Lake intrusion which is part of the Proterozoic Mid-Continental Rift magmatic event that produced the Eagle nickel deposit (Lundin Mining) in Michigan, the Tamarack (Rio Tinto - Talon Resources) and Duluth Complex (Antofagasta Plc) magmatic sulphide deposits in Minnesota as well as the nearby Thunder Bay North deposit (Clean Air Metals Inc.) in Ontario.

About the Saturday Night Property

The Company's 100% owned Saturday Night Project is located 16 km to the west of Sunday Lake and hosts mineralization and geology similar to the Sunday Lake Property. Based upon the exciting results being reported at Sunday Lake, the Company is actively looking for a partner to advance this prospective project.

Qualified Person

The technical elements of this press release have been approved by Mr. Grant Mourre, P.Geo. (PGO), a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101. The analyses reported in this news release were performed by ALS Global in Vancouver, British Columbia. Impala Canada's rigorous internal quality control and quality assurance protocols are described in detail in Impala Canada's (formerly North American Palladium) current Technical Report for its Lac des Iles mine (October 2018 - available on SEDAR).

About Transition Metals Corp.

Transition Metals Corp (TSXV: XTM) is a Canadian-based, multi-commodity project generator that specializes in converting new exploration ideas into Canadian discoveries. The award-winning team of geoscientists has extensive exploration experience in established, emerging and historic mining camps and actively develops and tests new ideas for discovering mineralization in places that others have not looked, which often allows the company to acquire properties inexpensively. The team is rigorous in its fieldwork and combines traditional techniques with newer ones to help unearth compelling prospects and drill targets. Transition uses the project generator business model to acquire and advance multiple exploration projects simultaneously, thereby maximizing shareholder exposure to discovery and capital gain. Joint venture partners earn an interest in the projects by funding a portion of higher-risk drilling and exploration, allowing Transition to conserve capital and minimize shareholder's equity dilution. The Company has an expanding portfolio that currently includes more than 25 gold, copper, nickel and platinum projects primarily in Ontario, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Saskatchewan.

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Information

Except for statements of historical fact contained herein, the information in this news release constitutes "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities law. Such forward-looking information may be identified by words such as "plans", "proposes", "estimates", "intends", "expects", "believes", "may", "will" and include without limitation, statements regarding estimated capital and operating costs, expected production timeline, benefits of updated development plans, foreign exchange assumptions and regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate; actual results and future events could differ materially from such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, among others, metal prices, competition, risks inherent in the mining industry, and regulatory risks. Most of these factors are outside the control of the Company. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as otherwise required by applicable securities statutes or regulation, the Company expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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.

Further information is available at www.transitionmetalscorp.com or by contacting:

Scott McLean

President and CEO

Transition Metals Corp.

Tel: (705) 669-1777

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/55391
Employees working from home are being urged to claim tax relief that could be worth 16 per week to them.The Office of the Revenue Commissioners allows employees working from home to claim 3.20 per day in expenses, if duties are being performed within normal working hours.

It applies to firms where employee works at home full or part-time, or where they work part of the time at home and the remainder in the normal place of work.

According to Revenue, e-working involves "logging onto a work computer remotely sending and receiving email, data or files remotely developing ideas, products and services remotely".

Citizens Information says the 3.20 per day can be offered by employers to workers without deducting PAYE, PRSI, or USC. The employer must keep a record of payments made.

Tax refund specialists at Taxback.com said that thousands of employees will never have worked from home before, and so will be completely unaware of the relief that is available to them.

Taxback.com chief executive Joanna Murphy said: "It is a difficult time for everyone and households throughout the country are already feeling the financial impact of this.

"If there are any supports available to people, its important that they are made aware."

There were already estimated 100,000-plus working from home before the pandemic crisis, and Revenue has made provisions for these people to be reimbursed for work-related expenses, Ms Murphy said.

"Now these provisions can apply to the new wave of e-worker also. This is a benefit that, in our experience, is already heavily under-utilised. But now more than ever people are going to need all the financial support they can get.

"Simply calculate your total costs and the amount of your time, as a percentage, you spent working from home. You can then claim the tax break on this percentage of the cost."

Taxback.com said that even if an employer is not in a position to pay the 3.20, these expenses are eligible for tax relief meaning the home-worker can claim tax back on them.

Ms Murphy said: "Any claims made will need to be supported with evidence in the form of receipts and possibly a letter from your employer stating that you do, in fact, work from home and that they do not reimburse you for these expenses.

"The allowance or rebate claimed must be reasonable, allowing for the fact that the utilities are for both personal and work and benefit everyone else in the home, so the refund received will be based on only a portion of the overall expenses.

"And even if your employer does reimburse the employee - if the cost run up exceeds the 3.20-mark, tax can still be reclaimed on the difference.
Voltbek Home Appliances Private Limited (Voltbek) - a JV between Indias No. 1 AC Brand, Voltas and Europes leading free standing consumer durables player, Arcelik, has launched a new digital video commercial (DVC)- "#IAmEnough". Launched on the occasion of Mothers Day, this DVC is a tribute to the single mothers who make invaluable sacrifices and embrace multiple roles in order to raise their children, especially during this period of lockdown.

The "#IAmEnough" video, conceptualized by Momspresso, is inspired by single moms  those amazing mothers who have the strength to raise their child alone and the courage to never give up even in face of the greatest challenges. With this DVC, Voltas Beko is reinforcing its commitment as the partners of everyday happiness to mothers across India.

This video also tries to sensitise other members of the society to be kind towards single parents, keeping in mind the varied struggles they face. In a simple slice of life narrative, the film depicts an every-day scenario about a girl and her mom, who we find out later is a single parent, enquiring about each others day. The film goes on to depict an incident where the young daughter was troubled at school because she has a single mom. The daughter surprises her mother by reacting to the taunt in the most mature way, saying that because her mother puts in double the efforts in raising her, how can she be called single? This is a moment of realisation for the mother, who sees the wisdom and maturity in her child as a result of her being a good mother, who finally believes, I am enough.

Remarking on the campaign, Jayant Balan, CEO, Voltas Beko, said, At Voltas Beko, we pride ourselves on being the partners of everyday happiness, especially for mothers across India, as we understand their requirements for convenience and efficiency. On this occasion of Mothers Day, we have once again partnered with one of Indias biggest mom communities to identify and celebrate the unparalleled commitments by mothers and urging all of them to believe in the simple self-affirmation, #IAmEnough.

Speaking about the campaign, Prasenjit Basu, Marketing Head, Voltas Beko, said, While Mothers Day is celebrated every year, it is very unique this year, considering how mothers are nourishing their families during this period of lockdown. Single mothers across the country are working without a break, way more than most others - in progressing their career, and in taking care of their homes and families. For the conceptualization of this film, we partnered with a community of mothers to understand their unstated requirements. We hope this acts as a thought-starter and sensitizes the society as well.

He further added, Voltas Beko is dedicated to make the lives of each mom easier by offering technologically superior, easy to use, energy efficient home appliances, which have been specifically designed for Indian conditions.

Talking about the digital DVC, Parul Ohri  Chief Editor, Momspresso, said, This is a film which will strike a chord with every mother who has ever second guessed herself or been judged by the world  and which one of us hasnt! Just like in our film, sometimes it takes your child doing something simple, yet so remarkable, for the belief to hit you in a rush, Yes, I am enough! A belief that becomes even more critical at this time of lockdown, when mums need to see that their children are just happy being with them, secure in their love and enjoying the unique time they have got together.

Prior to this, Voltas Beko had also brought up another insightful thought, Kahan Gaya Mummy ka Sunday, which addressed the issue of mothers being on their toes constantly, not getting a chance to relax and unwind even on Sundays.

This year, Voltas Beko launched a wide range of Refrigerators, including the Direct Cool refrigerator series. The StoreFresh technology in the Voltas Beko refrigerators enable 30 day freshness of fruits and vegetables. The Company also increased its portfolio by launching 98 SKUs of Refrigerators, 13 SKUs of Front Load Washing Machines, new range of 5-star Top Load Washing Machines and 45 SKUs of Semi-Automatic Washing Machines along with 4 SKUs of Dishwashers and 12 SKUs of Convection Microwaves. Voltas Beko aims to provide its consumers with state-of-the-art innovative products that are designed to fulfil the unstated requirements of Indian consumers.
Bengaluru, May 5 : Karnataka BJP's firebrand Lok Sabha member Shobha Karandlaje alleged that some "jehadi" elements have been making threatening calls to her from the Gulf region of late, a party official said on Tuesday.

"She (Shobha) has been getting many unknown calls through the internet on her phones, mostly from Gulf countries like Dubai and Muscat, giving her death threats for unspecified reasons," Karandlaje's spokesman D. Abhishek told IANS.

The threat calls increased after May 3 when she wrote a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, seeking action against an Indian Muslim in Kuwait for allegedly attacking an Indian taxi driver in the Gulf country for "praising" Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his leadership.

"Though she is not worried about the threat calls, as she does not follow the language in which they speak (Urdu or Arabic), she has complained to the police in the state and New Delhi along with the voice calls to investigate who have been calling her from abroad," Abhishek said.

A former state minister in the previous BJP government in the southern state (2008-13), Karandlaje is a two-time lawmaker from the Udupi-Chickmangalur parliamentary seat on the state's west coast.

"As Shobha has been busy with the development woks in her constituency and taking care of her people during the lockdown in force since March 25 to contain the coronavirus spread, the police are investigating the case," said Abishek.

"Action should be taken against the accused Muslim (Asi Chullikkara) from Rajapuram of Kasargode in north coastal Kerala for attacking, slapping and humiliating a Hindu driver Sri Praveen in Kuwait recently for praising Modi and posting it on his social media platform Facebook," Karandlaje had asserted in her letter.

The accused had forced Praveen, a native of Kerala, was also made to apologise for lauding Modi.

"The accused also pressured Praveen to admit that any post appreciating Modi is an insult to the Muslim community. A video of the incident has gone viral," said Karandlaje in her letter to Shah.

Terming the attack outrageous, the Chikmagalur constituency member said the accused had to be punished for his act.

"We must mount pressure on the authorities in Kuwait to extradite Chullikkara and brought to India for trial," asserted Karandlaje in the letter.
President Donald Trump's push to reopen state economies would have Americans self-policing their behavior even as projections suggested that shopping, eating out and getting post-quarantine haircuts could lead to many more deaths.

Two recent estimates, one by Trump, have predicted that the toll from the outbreak will reach or surpass 100,000 deaths. Despite the grim forecasts, states continued to move toward resuming commerce, impelled by the president as well as business people and citizens weary of lockdowns without an end game.

The White House has released loose guidelines for a return to economic life that put the onus of decision-making on governors. Florida, Georgia and Texas, whose leaders have bridled at restraints, saw residents stirring at restaurants and shops. The governors of Ohio, Arizona, Rhode Island and California announced more cautious plans to slowly open businesses in a limited fashion to avoid human contact.

The strength of the economy was once Trump's top argument for reelection. But as the outbreak and fallout of the measures to contain it have crushed businesses and workers, Trump has vacillated between calling for caution and pushing for reopenings. Epidemiologists warn that the return to commerce could result in more infections, and economists say a second shutdown if cases explode would do even worse damage than the first.

"The public is very confused," said Harry Heiman, a clinical medicine professor at Georgia State University in Atlanta. "There's been a void at the national level, and in many states, like Georgia, of leadership that is able to provide a clear, consistent message about what's going on and about the plan is going forward."

On Sunday, Trump urged states to reopen but also said that the coronavirus could kill as many as 100,000 people, up from a previous projection of about 60,000. Evidence suggests that after weeks of social distancing and home isolation, the U.S. has flattened the curve, with covid-19 deaths stabilizing at about 2,000 a day. Already, almost 69,000 Americans have died.

"We have to get it back open safely, but as quickly as possible," Trump said in a virtual town hall on Fox News.

Because of the time it takes to test patients and for severe cases to develop, outcomes in states that are aggressively reopening may not be known for weeks, said Brian Castrucci, president and chief executive officer of the de Beaumont Foundation in Bethesda, Maryland, which works for public health.

"I don't think we know yet what's coming," said Castrucci, an epidemiologist who has led state health departments. "Don't go back into a burning building."

While much of America has been little touched by the virus, there are clear indications the disease remains potent. As of Sunday, nearly 400 workers at a meatpacking plant in St. Joseph, Missouri, tested positive. Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, has aimed to limit the infection's spread even as workers fall ill. And Tennessee opened restaurants for some dine-in business April 27 -- the day after it saw its biggest one-day spike in new diagnoses.

Late Monday, the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicted a death toll significantly larger than its previous modeling. It reflects a new approach that considers early easing of social-distancing policies in some states, among other factors.

"We're entering a very new era, said Christopher Murray, director of the institute. "Different states are going to do different things," creating complexity that prior modeling couldn't incorporate.

An internal Homeland Security Department presentation first reported by the New York Times predicted that new cases could rise to nearly 200,000 a day by the end of May and the number of new deaths to nearly 3,000 daily. The figures are significantly higher than those provided by Trump on Sunday. The administration swiftly disavowed the presentation.

Johns Hopkins University's public health school, whose research was the apparent basis, called the numbers "preliminary analyses."

"There are some scenarios, including the premature relaxation of social distancing, that are likely to cause significant increases in the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths in the United States," Joshua Sharfstein, vice dean of public health practice at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in a news release.

Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, said the administration is proceeding judiciously.

"The guidelines to open up America again are a data-driven, phased approach that further the partnership with our nation's governors and allow them to make the best on-the-ground decision for their communities," Deere said.

But a member of Trump's task force on opening the economy, conservative commentator Stephen Moore, released a report Monday grading governors. He called those who reopened fastest "superstars" and said the more cautious would see "body bags of businesses."

Most top grades went to Republicans, including Georgia's Brian Kemp, Iowa's Kim Reynolds and Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, who attended a video conference announcing the effort. Colorado's Jared Polis was the only Democrat who made the superstar list after lifting a blanket stay-at-home order April 26.

"I hope we get similar marks for our work in protecting people's health," Polis said at a news conference.

Among other Democrats, New Jersey's Phil Murphy and California's Gavin Newsom both got failing grades for rigorous lockdowns; New York's Andrew Cuomo, who has criticized Trump repeatedly but whose state is the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, got a C.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, R, said Monday he will allow barbershops, salons and similar businesses to reopen Friday. He said he would meet Trump on Tuesday at a Honeywell International Inc. factory in Phoenix to discuss the state's "economic resurgence" -- but also its testing needs.

It's not yet clear how the public is responding to more economic freedom absent a national safety net. Polls show that most Americans support continued social distancing and at least some consumers -- as well as business owners -- are proceeding with caution.

Several of Atlanta's most prominent high-end restaurants remained closed despite Kemp's order allowing dine-in business as of April 27.

In Texas, where restaurants were able to open to some dine-in customers May 1, results were disappointing, said Skeeter Miller, who had expected crowds at his County Line barbecue restaurants and surveyed empty parking lots instead. He said the busiest of his six stores did less than half of normal sales.

"I really felt like people were jumping to get out and go somewhere," Miller said. "They were a lot more hesitant than I thought."

Florida began reopening Monday, allowing retail sales in most of the state, provided stores limit indoor capacity to 25%. Gov. Ron DeSantis, R, recommended face masks, but stopped short of requiring them, and many Floridians flouted the recommendation.

Rene Wolf, proprietor of the Little Pelican Gift Shop in North Redington Beach, said she was eager to reopen the store she bought in November, shortly before the shutdown left her without customers. Shoppers floated in and out Monday, some purchasing tropical-themed face masks, though few used them.

"I haven't even seen anybody on the beach wearing a mask, but people are still keeping their distance," said Wolf, 54. "For the love of God, it's too hot."
Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

A recent published report by PMR, titled, ' Endodontic Reparative Cement Market: Global Industry Analysis 2014-2018 and Opportunity Assessment 2019-2029', reviews the major factors influencing the structure of the endodontic reparative cement market.

According to the study, endodontic reparative cement is a vital part of the growing dental care industry. Research shows that, dental care, on a global level, is in a period of transformation. The global population is aging and becoming more diverse in nature. The trend is to adopt more convenient and approachable treatment patterns that come with affordable pricing and effective results.

Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/20839

Company Profile

Angelus Dental Products Industry S / A

Ultradent Products Inc.

Pulpdent Corporation

Coltene Group

Ivoclar Vivadent

Innovative BioCeramix, Inc.

Septodont USA

Brasseler USA

B.J.M. Laboratories Ltd.

Dentsply Maillefer

Parkell, Inc.

FKG Dentaire SA

Essential Dental Systems, Inc.

Insight Endo

Kerr Corporation

The healthcare delivery system is now changing with time. The implementation of affordable plans are responsible for the change of consumer outlook. Consumers are reaching out to seek greater value in return for their spending. According to key opinion leaders, the current state of dental care and considerable investments for affordable dental care plans are in a state of change.

There are factors quantified in the report that are responsible for the expansion of the endodontic reparative cement market. Major factors include, but not limited to, the ageing population that is leading to different disease patterns, treatment plans, and ability to pay.

Research shows that, consumers are transforming their selection habits; they are becoming more incisive regarding their healthcare plans, and are seeking value for their spending. This creates a more value-based endodontic reparative cement industry paradigm, than volume-based.

Also, the payment scenario has changed over the years for any dental care service. The current structure shows a shift from commercial dental insurance to public coverage initiatives and personal out of pocket payments. All these factors create a competitive endodontic reparative cement market structure, leading to less number of companies operating in this specific market.

Get To Know Methodology of Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/20839

The ideal resource for small-scale companies then shifts towards distributors, who play an efficient role in expanding their market presence. According to the study, it is reported that, distributors are responsible for the products to be shipped to a selective class of consumers, creating an indirect presence for manufacturer in regions where they have no direct sales.

This exposes different types of endodontic reparative cement to places where traditional methods are still being used. Two of the biggest names in the distribution of dental care products, including endodontic reparative cement, are Henry Schein, Inc., and Patterson Companies, Inc...

They lead the distribution side of the business, which is not restricted to only sales but also caters to consumer preference that changes with evolving trends in the endodontic reparative cement market.

As per the endodontic reparative cement market report, it is clear that, the dental health industry still needs an integration of oral health policies into general health schemes, and such promotional activities are limited in emerging economies. It disturbs the potential consumer count, which is likely to impede the actual estimation of people diagnosed with a condition that requires endodontic reparative cement.

Oral health policies are one of the last inclusions in most of the bills passed by the government in most emerging regions. Such factors restrict endodontic reparative cement manufacturers from expanding their direct geographical presence, even more by affecting the overall potential present in the market, which is directly related to the adoption pattern.

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The report segments the endodontic reparative cement market into seven key regions, which explains the regional trends affecting treatment plans. South Asia is supposedly the fastest-growing market for endodontic reparative cement. Factors explained in the report for market growth include the present ageing population and rise in the number of regional manufacturers.

Government initiatives to include dental care in primary healthcare benefits have changed the entire outlook of the endodontic reparative cement industry in South Asia. As per our research, India is one of the prominent countries for companies planning to enter a new geographical landscape.

Targeting emerging economies has proven to be more affective for endodontic reparative cement manufacturers. It provides a better growth rate for companies, though the average pricing in these regions has to be less than what is available in developed economies such as the U.S. and Germany.

But, the considerable number of target population present in these emerging regions is likely to overcome the pricing factor, not by a significant margin, but definitely can be considered in order to see potential in these developing economies. Most endodontic reparative cement manufacturers have a direct presence in U.S. or EU5 countries.
Herbert Gilbert is just one of tens of thousands of drivers who have sued Volkswagen for cheating emissions tests, but he will make legal history Tuesday when his "dieselgate" case becomes the first to reach Germany's top court. Judges at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe will not immediately deliver a ruling on Gilbert's demand for compensation. But they are expected to give a hint of which way they are leaning -- in what could have major repercussions for the barrage of other cases against the German carmaker. The saga started in 2015 when Volkswagen was forced to admit it had installed "defeat devices" in 11 million diesel engines worldwide designed to dupe lab tests and make the cars seem less polluting than they really were. One of the cars equipped with the rigging software belonged to Gilbert, a life-long Volkswagen customer. "I was shocked and very disappointed when VW wrote to me to tell me my car was affected," the 65-year-old told reporters in an online press conference organised by his lawyers last week. Gilbert had bought a used Volkswagen Sharan from a dealership in 2014 for 31,490 euros ($34,370), which he said he chose specifically because of its alleged environmentally friendly credentials. Accusing Volkswagen of deliberately deceiving him, he wants to return the car and be paid back for the full purchase price. Volkswagen rejects his claim, saying he suffered no economic damage from the scam and was able to keep driving his car. The cheating function was removed in a mandatory software update. - 'High hurdles' - The judges are expected to publish their opinion on key points in the case on Tuesday. Their verdict will follow at a later time and will set a precedent for the roughly 68,000 individual cases still pending. Gilbert first filed his complaint in 2017 with the district court in Bad Kreuznach, near the western city of Mainz. The court rejected his claim, but Gilbert won on appeal with judges ordering VW to take back the car and refund the plaintiff to the tune of 25,616 euros -- less than Gilbert had sought. Both VW and Gilbert appealed the judgement, pushing the case up to Germany's highest civil court. "In our view, the hurdles are high for the federal court to accept the damages claim," VW said in a statement, reiterating that Gilbert had "full use" of the car throughout. Gilbert's lawyers argue that VW "deliberately harmed" their client, and expect the court to deliver a "key ruling" that will have bearing on other "dieselgate" cases snaking their way through German courts. The individual complaints are separate from a massive US-style class action suit that Volkswagen settled in Germany last week. The out-of-court settlement brought an end to Germany's biggest ever lawsuit after VW agreed to pay around 750 million euros in compensation to some 235,000 customers, or between 1,350 and 6,250 euros per car. But it's a modest amount compared with the much larger payouts drivers in the United States have received. Overall, the dieselgate scandal has cost the VW group -- which includes the Porsche, Audi and Skoda brands -- more than 30 billion euros in fines, buybacks and compensation. The group remains entangled in a web of legal woes. Investors in Germany have joined forces to demand billions of euros in compensation over VW's steep share price plunge in the days after the scandal became public knowledge. Investigations and court cases against several top VW figures, including present boss Herbert Diess and former chief executives Martin Winterkorn and Matthias Mueller, also remain open. The first case from a Volkswagen driver reaches the courts The biggest crisis ever for VW -- and it's not over
TCG Consultative Council could include only Ukrainian citizens from certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions who were not in war, committed no crimes  Yermak

Head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak again has stressed that the Consultative Council in a membership of the political subgroup of Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) in Minsk, setting of which followed the meeting on March 11, could consist of exclusively citizens of Ukraine, who did not participate in the war in Donbas and did not commit the crimes.

"Ukraine will never negotiate with the so-called 'LPR/DPR' [Luhansk/Donetsk People's Republics]. But in accordance with the Minsk agreements, Ukraine must coordinate three legislative acts with 'the representatives of the territories.' Ukraine accepts 'representatives of the territories' as representatives of the civil society, citizens of Ukraine, since many living today in the occupied territories today received Russian passports, which did not take any part in the war against Ukraine, were forced to remain in the occupied territory, are not criminals, didn't kill the Ukrainian military, didn't take any criminal decisions," he said during an online discussion "Pandemic, Reform, War and Peace as Seen by the White House" organized by Atlantic Council on Monday.

Yermak again said that there were three competent participants: Ukraine, Russia and OSCE.
DUBLIN, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Impact of COVID-19 on the Hygiene Industry" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global hygiene product industry is related to the manufacturing of products that are used to maintain personal cleanliness and to safeguard one from the contagious diseases. The factors that were fueling the growth of the market before pandemic of COVID-19 include the recent improvement in standards of living coupled with the growth in public attention towards overall health globally. Additionally, factors such as recent trends in social media influence and advertisement also contributed significantly to the global hygiene product market growth.

However, with the outbreak of COVID-19 since January 2020, the demand for hygiene products has grown with an exemplary growth rate. The COVID-19 virus was novel and hence the government organizations across the globe published guidelines to maintain hygiene with the use of sanitizer and soaps more often which created a wide gap between supply and demand of hygiene products including hand sanitizer, toilet paper and so on.

The global hygiene product industry is segmented based on product type into sanitizer, soap, and tissues. Out of which sanitizer segment and tissue are ascending with the fastest growth after the pandemic. The increasing share of the sanitizer segment is mainly due to the portability offered by the sanitizers as it can be used anytime and anywhere.

Effect of COVID-19 on the hygiene product industry can be observed all across the globe including North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World. In the US people have already taken stored hand sanitizer, canned goods, and other emergency rations and as a result, there was a huge shortage of these materials in the country. Additionally, Europe was also facing the same shortage of hygiene products especially sanitizers. Therefore, several breweries and distilleries in Europe are switching to produce hand sanitizers.

Key companies getting affected in the market include 3M, Byotrol, Essity, Fujian Heng Group, Unilever, ITC, Johnson & Johnson, and Procter & Gamble. Hygiene product companies such as Procter & Gamble have experienced record sales of their hygiene product including sanitizers. The company also launched its new line of sanitizing products called Microban 24. However, the company has experienced some major setbacks in China. One of the major effects was on the company's global supply chain that was affected by halted factory work in China. In addition to this most of the company's suppliers are also not returned to work, which is affecting its production output.

This report covers:



A comprehensive research methodology of the global hygiene product Industry.

A detailed and extensive market overview with key analyst insights.

An exhaustive analysis of macro and micro factors influencing the market guided by key recommendations.

Analysis of regional regulations and other government policies impacting the global hygiene product Industry.

Insights about market determinants that are stimulating the global hygiene product Industry.

Detailed and extensive market segments with regional distribution of forecasted revenues.

Extensive profiles and recent developments of market players.

Key Topics Covered



1. Report Summary

1.1. Research Methods and Tools



2. Market Overview and Insights

2.1. Scope of the Report

2.2. Analyst Insight & Current Market Trends

2.2.1. Key Findings

2.2.2. Recommendations

2.2.3. Conclusion

2.3. Government support/bailout packages for the hygiene product industry

2.4. Supply & Demand Analysis



3. Industry Overview

3.1. Historical market growth estimation in hygiene product industry excluding COVID-19 pandemic effect

3.2. Deviations in the hygiene product industry growth rate due to COVID-19 pandemic



4. Segmentation

4.1. Sanitizer

4.2. Soap

4.3. Tissue



5. Impact of COVID-19 on Major Economies

5.1. North America

5.1.1. United States

5.1.2. Canada

5.2. Europe

5.2.1. UK

5.2.2. Germany

5.2.3. Italy

5.2.4. Spain

5.2.5. France

5.2.6. Rest of Europe

5.3. Asia-Pacific

5.3.1. China

5.3.2. Japan

5.3.3. India

5.3.4. Rest of Asia-Pacific

5.4. Rest of the World



6. Company Profiles



3M Co.

Co. Byotrol PLC

Essity AB

Fujian Heng Group Co. Ltd.

Georgia-Pacific LLC

Henkel AG & Co. KGaA

Hindustan Unilever Ltd.PLC

ITC Ltd.

Johnson & Johnson Private Ltd.

Kimberly-Clark Corp.

Procter & Gamble Co.

Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC

The Clorox Company

The Scott Paper Co.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/mhbqyd

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

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SOURCE Research and Markets

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An extraordinary bonus to be awarded to employees by the end of June

A solid and strengthened financial structure

Financing capacity of almost 1 billion

Q1 2020 revenue: +7.8% (981 million)

Organic growth of +3.9%

2020 guidance temporarily suspended

Regulatory News:

The ORPEA Group (Paris:ORP), world leader in long-term care (nursing homes, post-acute and rehabilitation hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, and homecare services), today announces its revenue for the first quarter of 2020 to 31 March, as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its business.

ORPEA is fully committed to the fight against COVID-19

Over the past 3 months, the Group has mobilised all of its human and financial means to fight COVID-19 across all countries in which it operates to protect its residents, patients and employees to the best of its ability:

very early implementation of strong barrier measures to avoid the virus entering its facilities;

close and permanent cooperation with the supervisory authorities and public and private healthcare facilities in all countries;

restocking, from January, of personal protective equipment (PPE) and real-time stock management. ORPEA would notably like to thank the Air France Group for very rapidly providing dedicated space in its aircraft. The French airline contributed massively to the implementation of efficient logistics to meet the Group's aim of shipping equipment from China as swiftly as possible. ORPEA was thus able to meet the needs of its French facilities and optimise redistribution to its European sites;

permanent adaptation of hygiene protocols, and specific training for all employees with a team of more than 40 doctors and nurses specialised in Hospital Hygiene;

creation of a Group psychological support unit for employees worldwide;

creation of a scientific committee dedicated to understanding this new virus and the daily scientific monitoring of its evolution;

strengthening of cooperation between nursing homes and post-acute and rehabilitation hospitals, with the creation of COVID units within these hospitals;

appropriate and clear communication to families, employees and the supervisory authorities.

The Group has managed, at this stage, to alleviate the impact of this unprecedented crisis thanks, first and foremost, to the extraordinary commitment and solidarity of its 65,000 employees around the world. To thank and support them, they will be paid a recognition bonus between now and the end of June, the amount and conditions of which will vary according to the country and the challenges faced.

At a time when most countries are preparing to ease lockdown conditions, and even though two-thirds of the Group's facilities have not recorded any Covid-19 cases, ORPEA and its teams remain extremely vigilant regarding the risk of the virus spreading and are continuing to focus on protecting all of its stakeholders. The Group is working closely with one of the leading European medical analysis laboratories to extend testing to all residents and employees in regions affected by the virus. Finally, to maintain social contact, new family visiting guidelines have been introduced with strict barrier measures and hygiene rules.

The Group is thus deploying all of its experience, contacts, and resources to ensure a very gradual easing of lockdown measures, when appropriate and according to the country and local spread of the virus, with the priority remaining the safety and quality of care of its residents, patients, and employees.

Q1 2020 revenue growth: +7.8%

In m Q1 2020 Q1 2019 Change France Benelux 582.3 540.6 +7.7% Central Europe 253.7 234.1 +8.4% Eastern Europe 91.1 87.0 +4.7% Iberian Peninsula and LATAM 53.0 47.4 +11.7% Other countries 0.8 0.8 +7.6% Total revenue 980.9 909.9 +7.8% Including organic growth1 +3.9%

Consolidation dates: TLC in Ireland has been consolidated since 1 January 2020; SIS Brazil and SIS Portugal have been consolidated since 1 October 2019.

Clusters' composition: France Benelux (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland), Central Europe (Germany, Italy and Switzerland), Eastern Europe (Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Latvia), Iberian Peninsula and LATAM (Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico), Other countries (China).

Q1 2020 revenue totalled 980.9 million, up +7.8%. Half of this growth was organic, with a strong rate of 3.9%, and half came from acquisitions, notably in Ireland, as well as in Portugal and Latin America.

The COVID-19 pandemic began impacting business over the last 10 days of the first quarter, as well as in the second quarter with, in particular:

the full closure of 15 Austrian rehabilitation hospitals, decided on in agreement with the pension funds in order to prioritise the allocation of funding to COVID-dedicated facilities. They are expected to reopen in May;

the reduction of activity in German rehabilitation centres, due to the immediate suspension of surgery, despite the limited impact of COVID-19 in this country. Occupancy rates have started to climb gradually over the past 10 days or so;

the limited decrease in the number of stays in post-acute and rehabilitation hospitals in France, followed by increased demand for COVID-19 patients requiring rehabilitation following time spent in intensive care;

a slowdown in activity in nursing homes in France, Italy and Spain, which is currently stabilising;

the postponement of openings as of March.

2020 guidance temporarily suspended

Since 17 March, when 2019 results were published, the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has considerably accelerated and has impacted the Group's business in certain regions. For this reason, ORPEA has decided to temporarily suspend its 2020 financial guidance. Indeed, current volatility in the recovery, at a time when most countries are beginning to ease lockdown measures, and the implementation of possible compensatory measures in almost all countries do not allow us to accurately define our 2020 outlook at the current time. Nevertheless, the Group remains confident in the medium and long term.

A solid financial structure: financing capacity of almost 1 billion

Due to the current global pandemic, the Group's financial structure, which was already solid at the beginning of March before the initial impact of the crisis was felt, has been further strengthened. ORPEA's financing capacity now stands at close to 1 billion, thanks to its cash position and available lines of credit. This financial solidity reflects the confidence of the Group's financial partners in its medium- and long-term growth prospects. ORPEA is also benefiting from the Group's longstanding real-estate strategy of holding more than 6 billion in its healthcare real-estate portfolio, which is particularly resilient and sought after in this crisis.

This financial solidity means that ORPEA can weather this period and rely on its financial resources to protect residents, patients and staff and, where applicable, take advantage of any external growth opportunities. The Group would like to take this opportunity to thank all of its financial partners for their continued trust.

Yves Le Masne, Chief Executive Officer of ORPEA, commented:

"The current COVID-19 pandemic, which is affecting the entire world, is extraordinary and unprecedented. We would first of all like to express our heartfelt thoughts to the families and loved ones of residents who have been affected and to thank families for their support of our teams.

Our thoughts also go out to our 65,000 employees who have impressed us with their daily dedication, commitment and support to residents, patients, and families. They will be rewarded financially before the end of this half year.

Over the past three months, the Group's Management and the Board of Directors have deployed all the financial and human resources possible to limit the impact and, most importantly, protect our 80,000 residents and patients and our 65,000 employees.

It goes without saying that this crisis is having a temporary impact on the Group's business. Nevertheless, the Group's strategy and the sector's fundamentals, associated with the ageing population and the enhanced medical care of our facilities, mean that we are confident for the future.

Over the past 30 years, ORPEA has faced several crises relating to external factors (the 2003 heatwave, the 2008 financial crisis, the 2017 flu epidemic) and has always come out the other side stronger and more unified, notably thanks to the loyalty of our employees and the extensive experience of our management team.

The key focus for ORPEA is, and will continue to be, maintaining a strong link between our residents, patients, families, employees and all stakeholders who have placed their trust in us."

Next press release: H1 2020 revenue

21 July 2020 after market close

About ORPEA (www.orpea-corp.com)

Founded in 1989, ORPEA is one of the major world players in long-term care, with a network of 1,014 facilities comprising 104,234 beds (20,932 of which are under construction) across 22 countries, which are divided into five clusters:

France Benelux: 509 facilities/45,068 beds (of which 4,752 are under construction)

Central Europe: 249 facilities/26,491 beds (of which 4,885 are under construction)

Eastern Europe: 136 facilities/14,621 beds (of which 3,647 are under construction)

Iberian Peninsula/Latin America: 119 facilities/17,914 beds (of which 7,648 are under construction)

Rest of the world: 1 facility/140 beds

ORPEA is listed on Euronext Paris (ISIN code: FR0000184798) and a constituent of the SBF 120, STOXX 600 Europe, MSCI Small Cap Europe and CAC Mid 60 indices.

1Organic growth of Group revenue reflects the following factors: 1. The year-on-year change in the revenue of existing facilities as a result of changes in their occupancy rates and per diem rates; 2. The year-on-year change in the revenue of redeveloped facilities or those where capacity has been increased in the current or previous year; 3. Revenue generated over the current period by facilities created during the current or previous year, and the change in revenue of recently acquired facilities by comparison with the previous equivalent period.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005797/en/

Contacts:

Investor Relations

ORPEA

Steve Grobet

Investor Relations Director

s.grobet@orpea.net



Helene de Watteville

Investor Relations Officer

h.dewatteville@orpea.net



Investor Relations

NewCap

Dusan Oresansky

Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 94

orpea@newcap.eu



Media Relations

Image 7

Jeremy Come

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 70 74 29

jcome@image7.fr
Zimbabwe has dismissed reports that it has deployed its military in neighboring Mozambique to fight an Islamic State (IS) insurgency.

In an exclusive interview with VOA Zimbabwe Service, Information Permanent Secretary Nick Mangwana, debunked the rumor that Harare had deployed boots on the ground in Mozambique.

Zimbabwe has not deployed any troops to Mozambique, at all. There is no troop deployment, there is no plan.

However, Mangwana did not completely rule out the prospect of a future deployment. If at all at some point something will need to happen we will always fall under SADC (Southern African Development Community) and anything that would happen will happen under the auspices of SADC. But at the moment and as a nation we have no troops in Mozambique. We have not deployed any troops in Mozambique and we have no intention of bilaterally deploying troops into Mozambique.

DEPLOYMENT UNCONSTITUTIONAL?

Opposition legislator and lawyer, Innocent Gonese, told VOA that any such deployment will be unconstitutional if not brought urgently before parliament.

We are gravely concerned and disturbed by reports that Emmerson Mnangagwa (Zimbabwean president) is reported to have deployed Zimbabwean troops to Mozambique. In terms of the law, in terms of Section 213 as read with Section 214 of our constitution, the president has authority to deploy Zimbabwean troops outside the country but it can only be for the reasons which are specified in the constitution which are namely, either on peace keeping operations under the United Nations or any other international or regional organization of which Zimbabwe is a member or to defend the territorial integrity of a foreign country or in fulfilment of an international commitment or lastly in defense of Zimbabwes national security or national interest.

However, the president must promptly and without delay inform parliament of such a deployment and as of now, no such information or compliance with that provision has been done in the event that our troops have actually been deployed.

What fueled the speculation is President Mnangagwas one-day trip to Mozambique last week to meet President Filipe Nyusi in Chimmoi. Mnangagwa chairs the powerful SADC Organ on Politics, Defense and Security and Nyusi is the vice chairperson.

A communique released after the meeting acknowledged that instability in Mozambique was on the agenda. The two Heads of State addressed the security situation in Cabo Delgado and parts of the Manica Provinces and Sofala where terrorists and armed groups carry out attacks, murders and destruction of public and private infrastructure and strongly condemned these acts, which seek to undermine efforts towards peace and development.

ISIS TERROR

Mozambique after many years finally admitted that an ISIL-affiliated group, nicknamed Al Shabaab by the locals, is terrorizing the gas-rich northern province. In a press statement, the countrys National Council of Defense that advises Nyuse on national security blamed the ISIS-linked rebels of killing 52 villagers in Cabo Delgado last month, bringing the death toll to nearly 1,000. The so-called Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP) has claimed the attacks since last year.

COSTLY WAR

Gonese noted that the cash-strapped Harare government cannot afford another costly war. But of greater concern is the fact that the country is going through very difficult times even before the issue of the COVID-19 outbreak. We were already struggling to cater for the people of Zimbabwe.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube recently admitted in a letter addressed to International Financers that Harare was on the brink of collapse if it fails to secure a US$200 million to help fight the novel coronavirus pandemic. The leaked letter was released by the British-based website, Africa Confidential. Efforts to authenticate the letter were futile as calls to Ncubes mobile were not being answered.

The World Food Programme also estimates that nearly eight million Zimbabweans will need food assistance this year owing to last years severe drought, economic downturn and devastating effects of Cyclone Idai.

HISTORICAL TIES

Zimbabwe in the 1980s deployed more than 7,000 troops to fight alongside the Mozambique government that was battling rebels under the banner of Renamo (Mozambican National Resistance).

The Mozambican civil war ended in 1992. Zimbabwean troops were first deployed to guard the strategic Beira corridor comprising of a road, railway and oil pipeline system. The corridor connects land-locked Harare to the Beira port on the Indian Ocean. Zimbabwe though has diversified to use ports in South Africa after the end of apartheid and Tanzania.

Mozambique also played host to Zimbabwes freedom fighters during the liberation war which intensified from 1976 until independence in 1980. Claiming national interest, the late President Robert Mugabe also deployed troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo to shore up support for the late President Laurent Kabila from 1998 to 2002. Though the financial costs of these wars have been hushed up, many economists in Harare blame them for accelerating Harares economic crisis.
Kenyan authorities are looking into the deadly crash of a plane carrying medical supplies in Somalia, while one Somali official asserts that the aircraft was shot down. Six people on board were killed.

The Kenyan Civil Aviation Authority on Tuesday said the Kenyan-registered twin-engine plane with African Express crashed Monday afternoon on approach to Bardale under circumstances we are yet to confirm.

A projectile fired from the ground hit the plane as it approached the airstrip in Bay region, Ahmed isaq, a local official with the Southwestern State regional administration, told The Associated Press.

The airstrip is a base for the Ethiopian military under the multinational African Union mission, which is combating the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group. The group controls parts of rural southern and central Somalia.

There was no immediate comment from Ethiopian authorities Tuesday.

The plane had left Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, and stopped in Baidoa before going on toward Bardale, the Kenyan statement said. Kenyan authorities said they were in contact with the Somali Civil Aviation Authority.

Somalia's transport ministry called the crash a terrible accident and said the government was investigating.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday reiterated that the novel coronavirus which causes COVID-19 is "natural in origin."

Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, told a virtual press conference from Geneva that scientists who are examining the genetic sequences of the virus have assured "again and again that this virus is natural in origin."

Answering a question from the press, Ryan said that for WHO the real question now is what the natural host for this virus is and how the animal human species barrier was breached.

"The purpose of the understanding is that we can put in place the necessary prevention and public health measures to prevent that happening again," he said.

Last month, the WHO said that all available evidence has suggested that the new coronavirus has an animal origin, and is not a virus "manipulated or constructed" in a lab or somewhere else.

WHO spokesperson Fadela Chaib told a press conference on April 21 that there is certainly an intermediary host, another animal, that transmitted the disease from bats to humans.

"WHO is, as I said, a science-based organization, and we think the origin is animal," the spokesperson said, "It (the novel coronavirus) most probably has its ecological reservoir in bats, but how the virus came from bat to human is still to be seen, to be discovered."

She pledged that the WHO welcomes all countries to support efforts to find the origin of the virus, noting that several working groups, including Chinese experts, are very active trying to find the origin of this virus.
United Airlines planes at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

United Airlines will require all management and administrative employees to take 20 unpaid days off between May 15 and September 30, as the airline scrambles to reduce costs due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In a leaked memo seen by Business Insider, United's head of human resources said that the airline was trying to save as much money as possible, and expects to lay off at least 30% of its administrative staff on October 1.

Laid-off administrative workers will not receive severance. In the memo, United suggested that workers consider leaving voluntarily in exchange for a benefits package.

Are you an employee at United or another airline? Contact this reporter with your thoughts or tips at dslotnick@businessinsider.com.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

United Airlines will require many of its management and administrative employees to take unpaid days off over the coming months, despite a clause in the federal coronavirus aid bill meant to protect airline worker pay.

In a memo to management and administrative employees  also known as M&A  and seen by Business Insider, United's head of human resources Kate Gebo outlined a series of drastic cost-cutting measures.

Contents of the memo were first reported on Twitter by user xJonNYC and by Skift reporter Brian Sumers.

All of United's M&A employees will be required to take 20 unpaid days off between May 16 and September 30. Employees without a direct impact on day-to-day airline operations will assume a four-day workweek with unpaid Fridays off. M&A staff who are part of essential operations will have varied work schedules.

The airline will also no longer allow employees to roll vacation days over to the next year unless required by state labor law.

CARES Act protections cover salary, but not work hours

US passenger airlines got $50 billion of aid in the $2 trillion federal coronavirus aid bill, the CARES Act.

Story continues

The aid was divided into two programs: $25 billion in operating loans, and $25 billion in payroll assistance, 30% of which the Treasury Department issued as loans, and the rest as grants.

In order to receive aid under either program, airlines were required to make concessions such as suspending stock buybacks and dividends, capping executive pay, and issuing equity to the government.

Additionally, airlines were required to commit to no involuntary layoffs or furloughs of staff until September 30.

United said it expects to receive $5 billion in payroll assistance through the CARES Act, $1.5 billion of which will be a loan. In a memo to employees in April, CEO Oscar Munoz and President Scott Kirby said that amount would not cover the airline's total payroll expense, which "only represents about 30% of our total costs."

Numerous other US airlines have also received payroll aid through the CARES Act, including American, Delta, Southwest, and JetBlue.

According to a United spokesperson, the required days off are not considered a furlough and comply with the CARES Act because they do not involve a reduction in pay rate  just in hours worked. The spokesperson noted that this has already happened with other employee groups.

Other airlines, including Delta, have also involuntarily reduced employee hours despite receiving CARES Act aid.

The four biggest US airlines  American, Delta, Southwest, and United  have also offered unpaid and paid voluntary leaves to employees. Tens of thousands have taken the leaves, the airlines have reported.

Airlines across the US and the world have seen a near-total drop in travel demand. United saw a 97% decrease in passenger traffic over the first two weeks of April and expects to see fewer passengers throughout May than it saw in a single day in May 2019.

The airline lost $2.1 billion in the first quarter.

Layoffs are expected on October 1

The airline industry expects to emerge from the crisis smaller than it was before, with travel demand and revenue estimated to take two to five years to return to 2019 levels.

In the nearer term, airlines and employees are preparing to reach the end of the CARES Act's job protection term with travel demand still severely depressed, and an urgent need to downsize.

United has repeatedly said that it expects to be "smaller" following the crisis and expects to reduce its workforce in October.

"But the challenging economic outlook means we have some tough decisions ahead as we plan for our airline, and our overall workforce, to be smaller than it is today, starting as early as October 1," Munoz and Kirby wrote in an April 15 memo. "Throughout this crisis, we have been candid and upfront with you. And today is no different."

In Monday's memo, Gebo, the airline's head of human resources, said that the airline was planning to reduce its management and administrative staff by "at least" 30%.

"At this point, we're planning for an M&A population that will be at least 30% smaller than it is today, with some work groups impacted more significantly than others," Gebo wrote in the memo. "Affected employees will be notified in mid to late July for an October 1 effective date."

Gebo also said in the memo that employees who are laid off in October will not receive severance.

"We recognize that this is a significant change, and it's one we don't take lightly," she wrote. "But unfortunately, in these times, ensuring United's future recovery means we are not able to make this option available."

United is encouraging employees to leave the company voluntarily

In communications to employees, United has taken a noticeably starker tone than competitors. In the same week that Munoz and Kirby warned of future job cuts, for example, American Airlines CEO Doug Parker and President Robert Isom wrote in a memo to employees that they expect Americans to be "regularly flying again" by September 30.

In Monday's memo to United's M&A teams, the airline's outlook and tone remained bleak.

"We have to acknowledge that there will be serious consequences to our company if we don't continue to take strong and decisive action, which includes making decisions that none of us ever wanted or expected to make," Gebo wrote.

In the memo, Gebo also encouraged employees to consider leaving the airline voluntarily, before layoffs are announced.

"Given the upcoming reductions, I have to ask each of you to seriously consider if choosing a voluntary separation with a robust benefits package might be right for you," she wrote.

The details of the voluntary separation package for M&A employees were still being finalized, according to the memo, and will be announced later this month.

Employees taking the voluntary separation package will be given the opportunity to keep active free travel benefits for a period of time, along with medical coverage and "some" continued pay.

Are you an employee at United or another airline? Contact this reporter with your thoughts or tips at dslotnick@businessinsider.com.

Read the original article on Business Insider
By Mei Mei Chu

KUALA LUMPUR, May 5 (Reuters) - Global demand for palm oil, the world's most widely-used vegetable oil, may have bottomed out after being hammered by the coronavirus pandemic and is now set for a slow recovery, state agency and industry body the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) said on Tuesday.

The outbreak of the coronavirus has shut restaurants and limited travel, hitting demand for palm oil used mainly in food but also in renewable fuel.

"I think the lows for demand have been reached. We are more positive that demand will slowly show an upward trend," MPOC chief executive officer Kalyana Sundram said in an interview.

"Uptake will surely look better as the pandemic eases."

Some countries are slowly starting to ease restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the virus. Malaysia, the world's second biggest producer of palm oil, this week allowed most businesses to reopen.

Palm oil exports from Malaysia in the first quarter of the year have plunged 25% from the same period last year, largely due to the global restrictions.

While demand is expected to bounce from this levels, it may not reach 2019 levels, Sundram said.

He said the top buyers of the edible oil found in everything from cookies to cosmetics - India, China and the European Union - will likely consume less this year compared with 2019.

"How much lesser we do not know because of the challenges that these countries are facing internally," he said.

"China is slowly picking up with the reopening of the economy... we anticipate a growth of palm oil into this market but we are not sure if it will reach 2019 levels," Sundram added.

In 2019, India, China and the EU collectively accounted for nearly 50% of Malaysia's palm oil exports, according to Malaysian Palm Oil Board data.

The slump in demand has led to rising inventories, pressuring Malaysia benchmark crude palm oil futures to plunge about 37% since January to trade at 1,975 ringgit ($458.98) per tonne, its lowest in more than nine months.

Sundram said the market can expect the affordability of palm oil to attract more buying from Vietnam, Philippines and Myanmar as they ease out of their respective lockdown.

"There will be a similar uptake in African countries that traditionally depend on palm oil as part of their food security, as well as some middle eastern countries," he said. (Reporting by Mei Mei Chu; editing by Louise Heavens)
A Nigerian court sentenced a man to death in the country's first ever virtual ruling during a five-week coronavirus lockdown.

Lagos judge Mojisola Dada on Monday ordered death by hanging for Olalekan Hameed, a driver, over the 2018 murder of 76-year-old Jolasun Okunsanya, the mother of his boss.

"This is the virtual judgement of the court," she said. It was not immediately clear if Hameed would appeal. Under Nigerian law, state governors have to approve death sentences before they can be carried out.

Local and international rights bodies have repeatedly called on Nigerian authorities to expunge the death sentence. Hameed was arraigned in March last year on a two-count charge of murder and stealing. He pleaded not guilty.

On Monday, all the parties to the case, including the accused, lawyers, witnesses and journalists participated in the session remotely from different locations via the Zoom application. The new coronavirus has so far infected 2,802 and claimed 93 lives in Nigeria.

The bulk of the infections and fatalities occurred in Lagos and the nation's capital Abuja, prompting President Muhammadu Buhari to impose a five-week lockdown on both cities.

The lockdown was relaxed on Monday to enable residents return to work but with strict instructions to comply with all restrictions and safety rules, including the mandatory wearing of face masks and social distancing.

Buhari has also called for speedy trial of cases as well as the decongestion of prisons and detention centres to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

He said 52,226 of the 74,127 prisoners in the country were awaiting trial.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Exotic big cats such as black panthers and cougars may have been released into the Australian bush by US soldiers during World War II, according to a new documentary.

Former Australia Zoo big cat handler Vaughan King is one of the investigators featured on the documentary The Hunt: In Search of Australia's Big Cats.

Mr King revealed a 'corroborated' theory behind big cats in the bush dates back to World War II while promoting the documentary on The Today Show on Tuesday morning.

American troops march in Brisbane while stationed there in 1942. US soldiers may have used big cats such as black panthers and cougars as 'mascots' before they released them into the Australian bush

A reported black panther sighting in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. The stationing of US troops in Australia during WWII lines up with some of the sightings of big cats in the country

Mr King said another theory for cougars (mountain lions) and black panthers in the bush is circus accidents and zoo escapes

'One of the most popular theories would be military servicemen during World War II brought the animals over as their mascot,' Mr Kind said.

'That's a story that's been corroborated by a lot of different people around Australia over the years.'

US troops were stationed in Australia during WWII to help on the Pacific theatre, first arriving in Brisbane in 1941.

By 1943, there were 150,000 American soldiers in Australia with the largest concentrations in Queensland near Brisbane, Rockhampton and Townsville.

The US Navy was often anchored in Sydney and Perth throughout the conflict.

American General Douglas MacArthur, who became the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in South-West Pacific, initially had his headquarters in Melbourne.

Sightings of a 'black panther' have been reported in bushland round Australia for many years (file picture)

An alleged sighting of a black panther. Black panthers are black variants of either jaguars or leopards, both subspecies of Panthera

Mysterious wounds consistent with a big cat claw attack on the throat of a cow, found by the documentary team as they search for clues as to the existence of the big cats

The stationing of US troops in Australia partially lines up with some of the sightings of big cats in the country.

Mr King said there are 'definitely' sightings of big cats 'around the fringes' of Australia where US troops were stationed rather than the centre of the country.

'Over in the south-west of WA, quite popular hot spot. In Victoria, the Grampians, the atways, the Gippsland. Up here in Queensland, on the Sunshine Coast and further north in Gympie,' he said.

'Quite a few hot spots which still to this day report consistent sightings.'

Black panthers have also reportedly been spotted in the Blue Mountains and Hunter Valley in New South Wales.

Mr King said another theory for cougars and black panthers in the bush is circus accidents and zoo escapes.

'I've spoken to a circus owner five or six years ago now who admitted to me he had lost big cats in the Australian bush probably two decades ago. That's one theory that is also quite common and popular,' he said.

Mr King, a big cat researcher and former Australia Zoo trainer, was tight-lipped about more details of big cat sightings as he wanted people to watch the documentary.

'It's Australia's version of bigfoot and I want to prove they're out there,' he said in a documentary trailer.

'These are apex predators who are built to kill and have killed. I believe they're out there.'

The Hunt: In Search of Australia's Big Cats premieres on The Discovery Channel at at 9.30pm on Tuesday.
(@FahadShabbir)

Greece has appointed Tasia Athanasiou, who previously served as ambassador in Damascus and Moscow, as the special envoy for Syria, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday

(UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th May, 2020) Greece has appointed Tasia Athanasiou, who previously served as ambassador in Damascus and Moscow, as the special envoy for Syria, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

"By the decision of Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, Ambassador Tasia Athanasiou has been appointed the Foreign Ministry's special envoy for Syria. Her mandate will include contacts on international aspects related to Syria and relevant humanitarian activities, as well as coordination of actions in light of ongoing efforts to rebuild Syria," the ministry said in a statement, obtained by Sputnik.

Athanasiou served as ambassador to Syria from 2009-2012. She, in particular, led the suspension of the Greek diplomatic mission in the war-hit country due to security issues in that period.

She has been in the diplomatic service since 1984. Athanasiou has served in the embassies in Hungary, Albania and the Vatican, and led the Greek diplomatic missions in Poland and Italy.

Since April 2019, she served as the ambassador in Moscow before being replaced by ikaterini Nasika in August, soon after a change of government in Greece.
MICHAEL MUSCHAMP March 20, 1932-April 8, 2020

I dont understand what its all about, quipped Michael Muschamp, when perusing a nephews PhD thesis years ago, but I can tell you that there are three split infinitives in the introduction. Muschamp had an exceptional brain  you quickly deduced that upon meeting him  and a retentive memory that took him to victory on national TV quiz shows, including one where he virtually gave the title to his opponent by insisting, correctly, her wrong answer was right.

Michael Richard George Muschamp had an adventurous life, from prize-winning student to teenage sailor, war-time naval officer, aide-de-camp to the New Zealand governor-general, business executive, political candidate, local newspaper editor (Hampton Bugle), racing magazine editor and freelance journalist who wrote for over 30 years on everything from wine and travel to profiles and obituaries.

Muschamp was 88 years old when he died at an aged-care home in Torquay on April 8. The pedantic side of him, which was considerable, would probably insist we add the extra 18 days. Eighty-eight years and 18 days, a stellar achievement, considering he was given only 10 to 12 more years after a heart transplant 25 years ago.

Age and illness had rendered him comparatively quiet in recent years, a change from the usual feisty persona who materialised regularly in emails to friends and acquaintances. My last email from him in 2017 was classic Muschamp: After an extraordinary battle, during which time I have been without contact with the outside world, I have now succumbed, as you will see, to the siren call of Big Pond. For some reason known only unto Telstra, our telephone number has changed.
Halfpricesoft.com Released New MAC ezPaycheck Software To Allow Processing Payroll from Anywhere Halfpricesoft.com has updated ezPaycheck for MAC to allow customers to process payroll from anywhere with the latest desktop version.

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Migrants: first transfers from Lampedusa, 64 still on pier 116 in hotspot waiting for test results, 44 in parish church

(ANSAmed) - LAMPEDUSA (AGRIGENTO), MAY 5 - Eighty two migrants who reached Lampedusa over the last few hours aboard three vessels have boarded a ferry that is scheduled to reach Porto Empedocle, near Agrigento, tonight. Another 64 are still on the Favarolo pier. The arrival of a fourth boat that was reportedly approaching the island has not been confirmed yet.



The ''Casa della fraternita'', managed by father Carmelo La Magra, the parish priest of Lampedusa, is currently hosting 44 migrants who reached the island on Sunday afternoon. This group was quarantined and will remain in isolation for 14 days. A total of 116 migrants are staying at a hotspot in the Imbriacola area, a facility built to accommodate a maximum of 96 people.



They have completed a quarantine period and have already been tested. They will be transferred after getting their test results.(ANSAmed).




Nearly one in four UK employees have been furloughed in the past fortnight under the scheme to support workers and firms during the coronavirus outbreak, according to government data.

HM Revenue and Customs data released on Monday showed 6.3 million workers are having up to 80 per cent of their salaries paid by the Treasury under its job retention scheme.

Some 23 per cent of the countrys workforce has been temporarily laid off, according to the most recent labour market data, which placed the number of private sector workers at 27.5 million.

More than 800,000 firms have furloughed workers, at a cost of 8bn to the public purse, since the scheme was launched on 20 April.

Acknowledging that the current level of expenditure is not sustainable in the long term, chancellor Rishi Sunak promised in response to the figures that there would be no cliff-edge end to the support scheme.

Speaking to ITV News, Mr Sunak said ministers were looking at ways to wind down the scheme  which is currently due to run to the end of June  and ease people back into work in a measured way.

To anyone anxious about this, I want to reassure that there will be no cliff-edge to the furlough scheme, he said.

Im working as we speak to figure out the most effective way to wind down the scheme and ease people back into work in a measured way.

As some scenarios have suggested, we are potentially spending as much on the furlough scheme as we do on the NHS for example.

Clearly that is not a sustainable situation which is why, as soon as the time is right, we want to get people back to work and the economy fired up again.

Last week, the Office for Budget Responsibility estimated the first three months of the governments furlough scheme to have a cost (net of income tax to HMRC) of 39bn, with a further 10bn for self-employed workers.

The Liberal Democrats have already called for a tapered end to the programme, with the Treasury paying 50 per cent of salaries for the first month after people return to work, falling to 30 per cent after the third month, with employers picking up the full bill after the fourth.

The government furlough scheme has done a good job at helping thousands of businesses through the lockdown, but the shadow of lockdown will be long, and the new normal will be extremely challenging, said acting Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey.

Businesses and their staff need time to plan, and confidence the government will be there, ready to support.

Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation think tank which proposed the job retention scheme, said it was a price very much worth paying.

The 6.3 million jobs being furloughed shows in stark terms the scale of the economic shutdown that Britain is living through, he said.

If this kind of volume of workers stay on the scheme for several months, the cost will run into the tens of billions of pounds. And that is a cost very much worth paying.

Even despite mass furloughing, unemployment is still soaring, with over 2 million new claims for benefits coming though.

This should remind us how badly needed the retention scheme is, but also that we are likely to be living with the legacy of high unemployment that coronavirus has given Britain, long after it has been phased out.

The figures came as pensions minister Therese Coffey said the government had received 1.8 million claims for Universal Credit between 16 March and the end of April.

Ms Coffey said that overall, the volume of welfare claims had been six times bigger than pre-coronavirus during that period, and that in one particular week the increase had been tenfold.

Additional reporting by agencies
Australia and New Zealand have agreed to look at resuming travel between the two countries, with its leaders stressing that this is still some way off.

Both countries have shut their borders to non-citizens for more than a month and have made people returning from overseas go into quarantine.

Jacinda Ardern, New Zealands prime minister, said the travel agreement between Australia and New Zealand would not begin immediately.

Ms Ardern became the first world leader for more than 60 years to join an Australian Cabinet meeting, appearing via video link on Tuesday to discuss travel across the Tasman Sea.

Following the meeting, Ms Ardern said: "When we feel comfortable and confident that we both won't receive cases from Australia, but equally that we won't export them, then that will be the time to move.

"Neither of us want cases of COVID coming between our countries, she added.

Ms Ardern also said that New Zealands borders would remain closed to the rest of the world for a long time.

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison said that travel across the Tasman Sea would be the first of the countrys overseas travel routes to reopen.

"When we are seeing Australians travel from Melbourne to Cairns, at about that time I would expect everything being equal we would be able to fly from Melbourne to Auckland or Christchurch, he told reporters.

Alan Joyce, the chief executive of Qantas Airways Ltd, stated that regular flights between the countries could start soon after domestic flights reopened in Australia.

"It could be a very good model for the international market opening up in phases," he said.

Both Australia and New Zealand have a coronavirus mortality rate of one per cent, far below most other countries.

Australia has recorded around 6,800 Covid-19 cases and 96 fatalities, while New Zealand has had 1,137 infections and 20 deaths from the virus.
CAIRO  A bid by separatists funded by the United Arab Emirates to assert control over southern Yemen has reopened a dangerous new front in Yemens civil war and pushed it closer to fragmentation at a time when the coronavirus pandemic poses a growing threat.

The separatists recent declaration of self-rule over the key port city of Aden and other southern provinces also further pits Saudi Arabia and the UAE on opposing sides in the conflict, now in its sixth year. A separatist leader made the declaration from the UAE  a clear sign of its backing for the move.

The two Gulf states had been partners in a coalition waging war against Iran-linked Houthi rebels who seized the northern part of Yemen in 2014.

The two allies have conflicting interests in the south, though, and are aligned with rival sides. The UAE backs the separatists, and Saudi Arabia sides with Yemens internationally recognized government, led by exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

The intensifying split in the south could further impede the Saudis efforts to find a way out of the costly and seemingly unwinnable war against the Houthis.

Saudi Arabia has accelerated its exit strategy in recent months, including conducting back channel talks with the rebels. Last month, the Saudis declared a unilateral cease-fire, but it was rebuffed by the Houthis as a purported ploy, and fighting continued.

The UAE, meanwhile, is interested in securing shipping lanes along the Red Sea corridor and the crucial Bab el-Mandeb chokepoint off Yemens shoreline. The UAE is both a major oil exporter and home to DP World, a global shipping and logistics firm. By supporting Yemeni separatists, the UAE also ensures that the Saudi-backed Islah party  the transnational Muslim Brotherhoods branch in Yemen  wont grow too powerful. The UAE opposes Brotherhood affiliates throughout the Middle East.

Its becoming a conflict by proxy between the UAE and Saudis, said Fernando Carvajal, a former member of the U.N. Security Council Panel of Experts.

Yemens conflict has split the country along tribal, regional and political lines. It started with the Houthis taking Sanaa, the capital, in 2014. In the spring of 2015, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Arab states formed a coalition to battle the rebels and curb Irans influence in what turned into a regional proxy war.

Since then, more than 100,000 people  fighters and civilians  have been killed. Airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition and Houthis ground fighting has displaced more than 3 million people and left millions of others unable to meet basic needs, pushing them to near-famine conditions.

The bid for southern self-rule comes as the country finds itself on the brink of a devastating virus outbreak.

Yemen has only reported 21 confirmed cases of the virus, including three fatalities, most of them in Aden, according to the internationally recognized governments Health Ministry. Aden residents claimed the hospitals shut their doors as medical staffers feared contracting the virus while lacking protective equipment.

The World Health Organization warned Saturday that the virus is actively circulating in Yemen and that its preparing for the possibility of half the population getting infected.

In the south, the separatists power grab brought fighting to areas that had been largely untouched by violence, threatening further displacement.

Late last week, explosions and artillery fire echoed through the valleys of the island of Socotra, a UNESCO world heritage site and home to species not found elsewhere. Separatists fought with forces loyal to Hadis government on the island, a former UAE stronghold.

The UAE officially pulled troops out of southern Yemen last summer, but it continues to exert control through its proxies to ensure it holds onto key areas on Yemens 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) of coastline.

Separatist leader Aydarous al-Zubaidi delivered the April 25 declaration of self-rule from the UAEs seat of government, Abu Dhabi.

Al-Zubaidi heads the Southern Transitional Council, an umbrella group of heavily armed and well- financed militias propped up by the UAE since 2015. The council hopes to restore an independent southern Yemen, which existed from 1967-1990.

The southern fighting leaves Hadis government in a much weaker position amid efforts to end the conflict with the Houthis.

The self-rule declaration robbed the Hadi government of its temporary capital, Aden. Hadi has been living in exile in the Saudi capital of Riyadh for several years, but his government maintained a presence in Aden.

His government called the announcement a blatant coup against a peace deal with the separatists signed in Riyadh in November. The Saudis had brokered the agreement after deadly battles between the separatists and Hadi-allied forces. The fighting left the separatists in firm control of Aden, with the help of air cover from Emirati jets.

The Saudi-led coalition said the self-rule declaration was a strange action and called for the implementation of the Riyadh power-sharing deal, which stipulated the handover of heavy weapons, withdrawal of rival forces, and formation a new government.

The Hadi government said it had largely upheld the November power-sharing agreement and accused the separatists of failing to meet their obligations.

In an interview with The Associated Press, the foreign minister in Hadis government, Mohammed al-Hadhrami, appealed to the UAE to stop its support for the separatists council.

Derailing the November agreement means bringing down all efforts for a comprehensive and just peace deal, he said.

Its unclear if Saudi Arabia has the stamina for more maneuvering in Yemen. The Saudis are already embroiled in an international oil price war and a coronavirus outbreak of their own.

Consolidating Yemens south to only continue their stalemate with the Houthis might prove too great a task, some observers say.

Its like a bullet-riddled boat and Saudis have to use all their 10 fingers and 10 toes to plug in all holes else the ship will sink, said Carvajal.

___

Associated Press writer Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.
The Kerala government on Tuesday announced new quarantine guidelines for stranded natives coming in from Red Zones in other states.

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government on Tuesday announced new quarantine guidelines for stranded natives coming in from Red Zones in other states.

"There are some areas in the country where the outbreak is severe. Ten districts/places with the most severe outbreaks have been identified and special attention will be given to those coming from such Red Zones.

"Just like for those returning from overseas, they will have to spend a week in government quarantine center and then tested. If they are negative, they will be sent home for a further seven days quarantine. Those positive will be shifted to hospitals for treatment," Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.

He further stated that efforts are being made to arrange special trains to bring back locals from far off states. "Students who are stuck in Punjab and Haryana will be brought to Delhi, and from there to Kerala by a train," he said.

"Keralites stranded in other states have started reaching Kerala. So far, 1,80,540 people have registered through Norka website, expressing their desire to return to the state. Of these, 25,410 passes have been issued and 3,363 of them have reached back in the last two days," he added.
On Monday, the first day of lockdown 3.0 when West Bengal allowed stand alone liquor shops to open for business as some restrictions were eased during the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19, a state police officer made news but for all the wrong reasons.

Wearing his uniform, the officer was seen standing in a queue with a nylon bag in his hands outside a liquor store in Berhampore in Murshidabad district in a video widely shared on social media.

The incident took place around 4.30 pm in the Haridasmati area.

The identity of the police officer, who was wearing the uniform of a sub-inspector, could not be ascertained as he had a helmet on that covered his face

Some buyers alleged that the man tried to break the line, violating social distancing norms. When some local people and journalists asked him to reveal his identity, the man quickly rode off on a motorcycle.

The police officer was present outside the shop for around 10 minutes during which time he was caught on camera by some of the people, including journalists, and the video was later widely shared.

The owner of the shop, who did not want to be identified, said, I opened the shop after 4.30 pm as the state excise department order was issued late in the day. I did not see who all were standing in the queue.

The superintendent of police (SP) Murshidabad police district, Sabari Rajkumar, said, I am not aware of the incident.

Another senior officer who did not want to be identified said, It is not desirable that a police officer in uniform should be seen buying liquor. We have seen the photos circulating on social media. Disciplinary action may be initiated if we manage to identify him.

Mugen Chaw, the assistant superintendent of Berhampore excise circle, said, We have allowed some liquor shops in this circle to do business. We have given strict instructions that every buyer will have to maintain social distancing norms.

Stand alone liquor shops in West Bengal have been allowed to open between 12 noon and 7 PM during the third phase of nationwide lockdown in force till May 17.
Actress Raashi Khanna has confirmed on her Twitter account that she has signed a Tamil film opposite Suriya, and directed by Hari of Singam fame.

The Toli Prema star says she is in talks with Telugu filmmakers too, and two projects are in the pipeline.

Aranmanai 3 and a film with Suriya sir under Hari sirs direction in Tamil Will give more clarity about two projects in Telugu that are under discussions, once the lockdown is over, she said, responding to fans questions.

She was asked to name her favourite Telugu actress, and she promptly replied Samantha. And when asked to reveal who her favourite Tamil hero was, she said, Thalapathy Vijay Sir.
Mike Pompeo

The World Health Organization said on Monday that comments by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo citing evidence that the new coronavirus had emerged from a Chinese laboratory were speculative, and called for a science-based inquiry.

Pompeo said on Sunday there was a significant amount of evidence that the virus emerged from a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan, but did not dispute U.S. intelligence agencies conclusion that it was not man-made.

Dr Mike Ryan, WHOs top emergencies expert, told an online press conference from Geneva:

We have not received any data-specific evidence from the U.S. government relating to the purported origin of the virus. So from our perspective, this remains speculative.

As an evidence-based organisation, Ryan said, the WHO was keen to receive any information on the origin of the virus, as this was exceptionally important for its future control.

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 if that data and evidence is available, then it will be for the United States government to decide whether and when it can be shared, he said.

Scientists have advised the WHO that genome sequencing shows the virus to be of natural origin.

Ryan said science, not politics, should be at the heart of exchanges with Chinese scientists on the issue, warning against projecting an aggressive investigation of wrongdoing.

The virus is believed to have originated in bats and jumped to humans via another species. Dr Maria van Kerkhove, a WHO specialist in viruses that make such jumps, said it was important to determine this intermediate host.

As countries begin easing lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of the virus, many hope to contain new clusters of infection through systematic contact tracing, helped by mobile phone apps and other technology.

But Ryan said these did not make more traditional boots-on-the-ground surveillance redundant.

We are very, very keen to stress that IT tools do not replace the basic public health workforce that is going to be needed to trace, test, isolate and quarantine, he said, praising South Korea and Singapore for their strategy.

Ryan said the WHO welcomed recent clinical trial data for Gilead Sciences Incs antiviral drug remdesivir, saying there were signals of hope for a potential use against COVID-19.

We will be engaging in discussions with Gilead and the U.S. government as to how this drug may be made more widely available as further data emerges on its effectiveness, he said.

Steven Solomon, the WHOs principal legal officer, said two countries had proposed consideration of letting Taiwan attend the WHOs May 18-19 annual health assembly as an observer.

Solomon said the WHO recognised the Peoples Republic of China as the one legitimate representative of China, in keeping with U.N. policy since 1971, and that the question of Taiwans attendance was one for the WHOs 194 member states.

China, which views the island as a wayward Chinese province and not a country, says it represents Taiwan adequately in the WHO.
TELEPHONE

By Percival Everett

I happily read whatever Percival Everett writes  over 30 books, to date  not because I will assuredly love every single effort, but because the books always feel like an encounter with substantive, playful thinking. Sometimes, almost indifferently, one of the novels turns out to be truly exceptional and memorable, and confuses me in the best possible way  in the way that makes it endure in my mind, so that I find Im still thinking about it in an idle moment on a subway, or while walking up stairs. Everetts most recent novel, Telephone, is one of these standouts.

Telephone is narrated by Zach Wells, a geologist-slash-paleobiologist, former Marine, son of a man who committed suicide and father to a girl named Sarah. He likes to order used clothes online. In the pocket of a field jacket, he finds a note that reads Ayudame. That little cry for help, or joke, stays in the back of his mind.

Wells tends toward melancholy even when life is going well for him, but he also tempers his melancholy by having fun stating it. Some people are just no good at being happy, he says. And by some people I mean me. Reliable reliefs from pain take the form of logic and language games, and also love for Sarah, with whom Wells often plays chess and cracks jokes.

The research Wells does involves studying caves. He can read the stories in bones and rocks. Stories, in that sly way, are his thing, and in his daily life hes not averse to mussing around with geological terms like hornfels and gneiss. He talks about a potential course on karst at enough length that it begins to feel like a term invented by philosophers. But what little light does peek through his melancholy affect is eclipsed by a tragedy that brings melodically horrible terms like vacuolated lymphocytes into his life. His daughter uncharacteristically misses a move in chess; it proves the first clue toward discovering that Sarah has a fatal, degenerative disorder, Batten disease, which manifests in small seizures that first appear as brief space-outs.
Gold Beach Books is like most businesses of its ilk these days, waiting for the all-clear to re-open doors during the coronavirus outbreak.

But its fair to say the stores owners, a family of four sisters from Portland, have never been busier than during the past three weeks.

Shortly after the pandemic hit, Teri Watkins Peterson and her sisters made a public offer: want a free book? We have books. Just give us the genre, and well mail one, no strings attached.

At first, they received 10 or 15 requests a day, a few hundred in total during the first two week of the offer. Then three weeks ago, OregonLive wrote a story about Gold Beach Books offer. Watkins Peterson was asked in the story when they might end such an offer.

When it brings us to our knees, she said.

Seven hours after the story posted on OregonLive, it brought the sisters to their knees. Before the end of the day, they had to halt the offer following a deluge of book requests.

Watkins Peterson wouldnt reveal the exact number of books they gave away, but said it was thousands. And thousands and thousands of postage.

After the offer ended, thousands more requests for books bounced back to the person emailing. Those receiving books had no idea what title they were about to get, only the books genre. Gold Beach Books sent a book to at least one person in all 50 states.

Three weeks later, Watkins Peterson says they didnt receive one complaint.

In this day and age, when does that happen? Its heartwarming, Watkins Peterson said. Im telling you, this was an amazing experience. America really responded.

Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter

They received letters with $10 bills and checks, asking to keep the book giveaway going. One person sent them a $100 check, saying theyd like a nice cookbook, and keep the change.

They had the occasional odd book request, and in one case, was able to fulfill it. A husband and wife from Kentucky asked for a book that would help research their familys history from Kentucky and Ohio. Watkins Petersons sister Traci found such a book, Kentuckys Bicentennial Family Register.

(courtesy Teri Watkins Peterson)

It was so random and specific. We were absolutely tickled to find such a book, Watkins Peterson said.

Thank you notes by the hundreds poured into the book stores email box, and Facebook page.

A retired high school principal from Bend received a book titled The Good Listener: Helen Bamber a Life Against Cruelty. He wrote back saying your gift is unprecedented in my 75 years and makes me want to do similarly.

One person, one of many who requested a book after they shut down the offer, wrote You guys are awesome! You have inspired me to try and do this with my kids school.

Another person receiving a book about China wrote that she had recently been laid off from a job and these little things mean a lot  books have been one thing that have been keeping me sane.

The four sisters and three people who work at the bookstore spent almost three weeks making mailing labels, picking out books from an inventory of more than 60,000 titles and wrapping each in brown paper. Cars were loaded with books and driven to the post office, which was a process itself.

The Gold Beach post office could only handle 50 books at a time. Watkins Peterson said they often drove books to Portland and looked for post offices with the most windows.

As a result of the book giveaway, Watkins Peterson said the bookstore had received a small spike in online sales. But that wasnt the point behind the project.

We were looking for something genuine to help people out, Watkins Peterson said. Most exciting is a lot of people said they hope to visit the town of Gold Beach after the quarantine. That would be such a boon for the town.

Now that the dust has settled, would Gold Beach Books make such an offer again?

I would hope circumstances are never replicated to where we would do another charitable act like this, said Watkins Peterson, referring to coronavirus. But yes, I think so. But we need to recover.

-- Nick Daschel | ndaschel@oregonian.com | @nickdaschel

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Pedestrians pass in front of a Nordstrom Inc. store in the Midtown neighborhood of New York, on March 20, 2020.

Plexiglass screens at cash registers and fewer fitting rooms.

Nordstrom is preparing to reopen some of its department stores  following the lead of Macy's  offering a glimpse at how shopping at the mall will be different coming out of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Our stores won't open all at once," President Pete Nordstrom and Chief Executive Erik Nordstrom said in a memo posted on the company's website Monday evening. "We're going to take a phased approach."

Nordstrom, which operates 380 stores including its off-price Nordstrom Rack locations, has laid out a number of changes it will be making in order to turn the lights back on.

Many of the upgrades align with the number of ways consumers are also expected to adapt due to the Covid-19 crisis. Experts say we  as consumers  will be wary of touching things in stores and will pivot to doing more virtually, among other changes. It is unclear how long Nordstrom will keep these new precautionary measures in place. Some of them could become permanent.

To start, the Seattle-headquartered department store chain will be limiting the number of people that can come in its stores all at once, and store hours will be shortened to allow for additional cleaning. Nordstrom said it will be reopening its Ebar coffee shops. But its restaurants will resume operations on a case-by-case basis.

The company said it will position some employees at store entrances to hand out masks to customers who need them. All Nordstrom workers will be provided face coverings.

It will, meantime, shut some of its dressing rooms and clean them in between uses. Nordstrom added that any merchandise that is tried on, or returned, will be held "for a period of time" before it goes back to the rack or shelf. Macy's similarly said it will be closing every other fitting room in its stores and holding any merchandise that is tried on for 24 hours.

Around checkout areas, Nordstrom will be adding plexiglass dividers to protect cashiers from customers  a measure a number of grocery store chains have already taken. Nordstrom said it will clean these areas after each shopper's transaction.

It added that it is working toward making as many transactions contactless as possible.

"It's a lot to get used to," the company said.

Nordstrom is often known for its services, such as alterations and personal styling, that go above and beyond just shopping for shoes and dresses. But much of that will be on pause for the foreseeable future. It said it will hold styling appointments virtually. Meantime, beauty makeovers, brow shaping, bra fittings and other services will not be available in its stores.

"As our stores reopen we will evolve the way we offer personalized service," the company said.

But the coronavirus pandemic does allow Nordstrom to lean into one of its most popular services: Buy online, pick up in store. The company said it will be offering curbside pickup at more locations, and adding parking spaces for returns outside some stores.

Prior to the pandemic forcing its store shut, about a third of Nordstrom's revenue came from e-commerce. That percentage has undoubtedly skyrocketed and likely will remain higher for some time, analysts predict.

A Nordstrom spokeswoman did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment regarding which stores will be reopening first. All locations have been shut since March 17.

Starting this past Friday, the biggest mall owner in the U.S., Simon Property Group, began reopening a number of its centers in states including South Carolina and Georgia. At Simon's Phipps Plaza mall in Atlanta, for example, Nordstrom says it is open for curbside pickup as of Tuesday morning.

Macy's reopened 68 of its stores Monday  the first step of its own phased-in approach. Chief Executive Jeff Gennette has said the company plans to have all Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Bluemercury shops back up and running within six to eight weeks, provided Covid-19 infection rates taper off and local mandates allow it.

Nordstrom shares are down about 56% this year. The company has a market cap of roughly $2.8 billion.
The non-oil private sector outputs of three Middle Eastern countries dropped to their lowest points in years because of COVID-19, a global information services provider said today. The region is now starting to come out of its coronavirus-related lockdowns.

IHS Markit's Purchasing Managers Index for the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, released today, is a measure of economic activity based on a survey of business executives in non-oil sectors. It is based on purchases, employment, staff costs, orders, delivery times, construction, exports and an array of other factors.

In the UAE, the index score fell to its lowest point since 2010, when IHS began doing the survey there. Its score of 44.1 for April indicates economic contraction, which begins at a score of 50. This was the second month in a row the UAE received its lowest score ever. The score was 45.2 in March, according to an IHS Markit press release.

"The full month of lockdown measures and business restrictions led to a steep decline in UAE non-oil private sector activity in April, IHS Markit economist David Owen said in the release. "Shop closures and restrictions in domestic and international travel had huge repercussions on new business.

In Egypt, the economy also received its lowest score since the survey began there in 2012 with a score of 29.7 for April  down significantly from 44.2 in March  and likewise indicating economic contraction, according to a press release. Domestic sales, foreign demand and employment all fell, Owen said.

The reading signaled a severe decline in business conditions, the release read.

Saudi Arabia received a score of 44.4, which indicated a shrinking economy, but marked an improvement from 42.4 in March. The March score reflected the steepest drop since the survey for the desert kingdom began in 2010, according to a press release.

Tim Moore, the companys economics director, said in the release that business closures led to a decrease in consumer demand, and that the coronavirus pandemic affected international supply chains and exports in the oil-rich Gulf state. The slight increase from March has not led to much optimism in the Saudi business community, he said. Survey respondents remain very cautious about their prospects for the year ahead, with business sentiment lifting only very fractionally from the record low seen in March, Moore added.

All three countries began lockdown measures in March to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

The UAE had one of the strictest lockdowns in the world. Dubai required people to have police permission anytime they wanted to leave their homes  even to buy essentials  and closed most businesses.

Saudi Arabia and Egypt also instituted curfews at night and closed restaurants, cafes, malls and other locations.

All three countries have since eased their anti-virus measures as part of a wider trend in the Middle East amid the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and economic hardship. At the start of Ramadan in late April, Dubai allowed people to again leave their homes without permission during the day. Egypt also allowed businesses to reopen at that time, as did Saudi Arabia.
Manitoba is sitting on more than a month's worth of data about COVID-19 cases in the at-risk Indigenous community that it will not release to the public, saying it belongs to its First Nation partners.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 4/5/2020 (624 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba is sitting on more than a month's worth of data about COVID-19 cases in the at-risk Indigenous community that it will not release to the public, saying it belongs to its First Nation partners.

Chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said public-health nurses have been asking those who test positive for COVID-19 to share their Indigenous identity or First Nation status since the beginning of April. He wouldn't divulge how many of the 281 Manitobans who've tested positive in Manitoba so far self-identify as Indigenous.

"We haven't been reporting on that as of yet. We're going to still work with our Indigenous partners on how and when we might disclose those type of things," Manitoba's top public-health doctor said Monday. Manitoba has restricted visitors from travelling to northern First Nations and communities north of the 53rd parallel to try and prevent a COVID-19 outbreak and, so far, so good, although Manitoba's prairie neighbours have had to battle COVID-19 outbreaks, including one in the Dene village of LaLoche, Sask., and one at Alberta's Stoney Nakoda First Nation linked to a nearby meat-packing plant.

"We don't have a case in a First Nations community," Roussin said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?rel=0&wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

Dr. Tom Wong, chief medical officer of public health at Indigenous Services Canada, has said it's too early to determine the severity of the outbreaks and if the situation will worsen in the 23 Indigenous communities across Canada reported as of April 30. On Monday, there was one piece of good news: Nunavut health officials confirmed a case reported there last week has turned out to be negative.

Collecting information about COVID-19 and sharing it with the public is vital for people to make informed decisions, said a former Manitoba grand chief who had her own, first-hand coronavirus scare.

"I think we have to be as transparent as possible  as a community, as a province and as a nation  about who is getting tested and what percentage, if any, is impacting First Nations," said Sheila North. The former Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak grand chief tested negative for COVID-19 in March. She'd done a lot of travelling to Mexico and London, Ont. before visiting Nisichawayasihk (Nelson House) Cree Nation then returning home and developing flu-like symptoms. She went into self-isolation and got tested for COVID-19.

Dr. Brent Roussin, chief provincial public health officer, says the province won't release any COVID-19 data about how many infected people self-identify as Indigenous people unless their Indigenous partners agree to it. (Mike Deal / Free Press files)

Waiting for her results, she feared she might have unknowingly infected people in the First Nation, she recalled in an interview Monday. She didn't but she worries about it happening to other people in similar situations.

Right now, there may be no known cases of COVID-19 in First Nations in the province, but North wants to know how many of the 27,466 Manitobans tested so far are Indigenous or First Nation residents. People who live in the north can travel back and forth to their First Nations, and there is a fear someone might bring the virus home with them.

"There's definitely some stigma," said North. "People are scared and the stories of H1N1 didn't help."

During the 2008-09 H1N1 epidemic, 11 Manitobans died and hundreds of people on northern First Nations became ill.

Now when someone in a remote community is sick, it raises alarm and for good reason, she said.

"There's minimal medical services up there," she said.

Some communities have no running water and many homes are overcrowded.

"The leadership are doing the best with what they have," said North.

Former Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak grand chief Shelia North tested negative for COVID-19 in March after travelling, then visiting Nelson House. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Dr. Marcia Anderson, a Cree doctor who grew up in the North End with roots in Norway House Cree Nation and Peguis First Nation, tweeted about the need for data that identifies not just whether someone is Indigenous but also race and ethnicity, which public-health nurses started asking positive COVID-19 patients about on Friday.

"This is important progress in empowering us to see and respond to disproportionate impacts that have been seen in other jurisdictions where this info is collected, particularly in Black and Indigenous communities," tweeted Anderson, a medical officer of health with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and a University of Manitoba professor.

When the Free Press asked to interview Anderson for her thoughts on collecting the data and whether it should be shared with the public, Shared Health would not allow the interview.

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.

"We will just let Dr. Roussins comments on it from this afternoons press conference stand as the response for today," spokesman Paul Turenne said in an email, without explaining why.

The province won't release any COVID-19 data about how many infected people self-identify as Indigenous people unless their Indigenous partners agree to it, Roussin said.

"That's their data. Indigenous people are our partners," said Roussin, who worked with northern First Nations before becoming chief of public health. In March, he helped lead a COVID-19 preparedness workshop with Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak.

"I would only release numbers in collaboration with such partners," he said Monday.

"Those who are working in the field who are doing contact tracing are well aware of the cases and contacts."

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
India is launching its biggest ever evacuation exercise in decades christened 'Vande Bharat Mission', deploying a raft of civilian aircraft and naval ships to bring back home thousands of Indians stranded in the Gulf and various other parts of the world.

Over three lakh Indians in Gulf have registered for evacuation but the government will bring back people like pregnant women, elderly, students and those having "compelling reasons" to return such as medical emergencies, expiry of visas and facing the prospect of deportation.

Sources said those holding Overseas Indian Cards (OCI) will not be brought back home as the operation is only for Indian citizens.

According to official sources, over 10,000 Indians in the Gulf region were found to have contracted coronavirus while 84 of them have died.

The sources said all laid down guidelines like screening of people at countries of origin as well as on arrival will be strictly followed and that states have been told to arrange for mandatory quarantine of the returnees.

The immediate focus of the multi-agency operation will be to bring back Indians from the Gulf, countries in the neighbourhood as well as from the US, the UK and Singapore, the sources said.

"Commenced preparations for Vande Bharat Mission. Planning underway for stranded Indian nationals to return home starting 7th May. Urge them to keep in regular touch with their embassies," External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar tweeted.

"Coordinating arrival arrangements with State Governments. Confident that our collective efforts will make this a success," he added.

Initially, 64 flights will be operated from May 7 to May 13 to bring back around 15,000 Indian nationals stranded abroad. According to estimates, around 1.4 crore Indians are staying in various parts of the world and a sizeable number of them wants to return home.

The government has not given any estimate about how many Indians it plans to evacuate out of the 1.4 crore.

The Indian Navy said two of its ships are on their way to the Maldives for evacuating Indians stranded in the island nation while the Indian Air Force has kept ready about 30 transport aircraft including C-17 Globemaster and C-130J Super Hercules for any requirement.

As thousands of Indians are returning after losing jobs, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) will share a detailed database with states and central ministries for the possible employment of the skilled workers, sources said.

They said the MEA is coordinating with the states and the Indian missions abroad for smooth implementation of the mega operation, billed as the biggest in decades. It has deputed one additional secretary or joint secretary-rank official for each of the states to coordinate the evacuation process.

The sources said a flat rate of Rs 15,000 will be charged from each passenger as cost of flight from those being evacuated from the Gulf.

They said the government will allow people to board the evacuation flights from India which will be going to the select countries to bring back the stranded Indians.

People will be allowed to board the flights on specific conditions like having long-term visas of the destination countries and provided the foreign nations agree to receive them.

Separately, the Indian Navy said it has launched Operation Samudra Setu as part of the national effort to repatriate Indian citizens from overseas.

"Indian naval ships Jalashwa and Magar are presently enroute to the port of Mal, Republic of Maldives to commence evacuation operations from May 8 as part of phase-1 of the evacuation," it said.

"The Government has been closely monitoring the situation with respect to effect of COVID-19 pandemic on our citizens abroad. The Indian Navy has been directed to make suitable preparations for their evacuation by sea," it said.

The Navy said a total of 1,000 persons are planned to be evacuated during the first trip.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A report submitted to UK government advisers advocating the widespread use of face masks to prevent further coronavirus transmissions has divided scientists.

Face masks, including those that are home-made, could be an important tool in reducing Covid-19s spread, according to Delve  a multi-disciplinary group convened by the Royal Society.

Their report, published on Monday, concluded face masks could reduce transmissions if widely used in situations where physical distancing is not possible, such as busy public transport, shopping areas or workspaces.

The recommendation, which has been submitted to the governments scientific advisory group, Sage, contrasts to the standard use of masks for the protection of wearers, suggesting face coverings could stymie transmission in symptomless carriers.

Their conclusions are based on the fact that infectious droplets  generated by talking and breathing, as well as coughing or sneezing  are a major factor in transmissions, and evidence suggesting that cloth masks can partially reduce the emission of such particles.

But the report has been met with scepticism from other scientists, many of whom fear the evidence base is still insufficient to warrant such conclusions.

That is not a piece of research. That is a non-systematic review of anecdotical and non-clinical studies, said Dr Antonio Lazzarino, of University College Londons (UCL) Department of Epidemiology and Public Health.

The evidence we need before we implement public interventions involving billions of people, must come ideally from randomised controlled trials at population level or at least from observational follow-up studies with comparison groups. This will allow us to quantify the positive and negative effects of wearing masks.

Based on what we now know about Covid-19", Dr Lazzarino said, the negative effects of wearing masks outweigh the positive.

Dr Ben Killingley of UCL Hospital said that while the overly optimistic report focuses largely on the mechanistic data of viral droplet shedding and masks filtering efficiency, actual real-world studies of face coverings provide under-whelming results outside of healthcare settings.

This is likely because other modes of transmission, such as contaminated hands, are more important and because it is difficult to use face coverings correctly, he said.

This is not to say that face coverings might not be helpful, Dr Killingley added, noting that face mask studies have not been undertaken during a pandemic or in the setting of a novel virus.

Nevertheless, the report, in my view, does not accurately represent the evidence on face coverings that currently exists, he said.

Other experts, however, welcomed the report, lauded Delves analysis of the wealth of evidence provided, and agreed with the authors desire to highlight that most Covid-19 transmissions occur via symptomless carriers.

As would be expected from this distinguished group of scientists, the underlying evidence base is meticulously dissected and presented, including pointing out areas where more research is needed, said Professor Trish Greenhalgh of the University of Oxfords Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences.

For example, on the question of whether some people might continue to spread the virus without ever developing symptoms, whether recommendations on mask wearing should vary with the risk of exposure  for example bus drivers versus dog walkers  and how important it is for the mask to be a snug fit.

Dr Greenhalgh added: It lends weight to the argument that face coverings by the lay public could be a key strategy to help the country ease out of lockdown.

One issue not covered by the report is the danger that widespread use of masks by the public could deplete stocks of medical-grade masks for healthcare workers. Medical-grade masks are not needed outside of healthcare settings. A cloth mask provides very good protection, and is more comfortable to wear.

However Dr Simon Clarke, a cellular microbiologist at the University of Reading said the report, while interesting, represents a set of valid opinions rather than any conceptual advance in our understanding of the usefulness of face-masks.

It falls short of delivering new evidence and too casually dismisses precautionary principle when addressing the possibility that masks and coverings could have negative effects on peoples behaviours, he said.

Until more evidence is delivered in either direction, thats all advice can be based on  opinions.
In a sign of easing tensions, Syria has witnessed investment from Saudi Arabia in the trade and supply industries writes Alsouria Net.

Two Saudi investors have founded a company in Syria, the first step of its kind after an eight-year diplomatic rupture between Riyadh and the Assad regime.

The Iqtissad website reported on Monday that the Ministry of Trade and Consumer Protection approved the founding of the al-Mubeirik LLC in Damascus, owned by two investors of Saudi nationality.

The site added that, according to the companys articles of association, the company will work in the trade and supply of construction and cladding materials, as well as food supplies, electrical appliances, electronics and cars.

In addition to importing all the materials allowed to it, the company will also enter tenders and bidding.

The company is owned by Jaafar Abdullah al-Mubeirik, who holds 95 percent of the shares, and Abdullah Jaafar al-Mubeirik, who holds five percent, with the companys total capital amounting to 5 million Syrian pounds.

The companys founding comes as a remarkable move, as other Gulf companies, particularly from Saudi Arabia, enter the investment and reconstruction fields in Syria.

The past two years have seen a number of Gulf companies enter into the investment field in Syria, particularly in Damascus and its countryside. Most of the companies were from the UAE and Kuwait.

In 2019, Russian media revealed the existence of meetings between Gulf companies and employees of the Assad regimes Ministry of Tourism, aimed at refinancing and implementing projects that had been contracted before the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in 2011.

According to the Russian TV channel Russia Today, Saudi and Emirati companies are looking to open other projects in areas under the control of the Assad regime.

The channel reported that the Kuwaiti company Kharafi and the Emirati company Majid al-Futtaim announced they were ready to carry out tourism projects in Damascus.

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.
Australia's competition regulator has credited coronavirus with reducing power bills.

Petrol isn't the only thing getting cheaper with electricity and gas expenses also falling as usage levels drop and Australia sinks into recession for the first time in almost three decades.

Rod Sims, the chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, has suggested cheaper utility bills could underpin an economic recovery as COVID-19 restrictions were unwound.

'One rare positive to come from this pandemic is that wholesale electricity and gas prices are falling significantly,' he told an Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry webcast by Zoom event on Tuesday.

Australia's competition regulator has credited coronavirus with reducing power bills. Petrol isn't the only thing getting cheaper with electricity and gas expenses also falling as usage levels drop and Australia sinks into recession for the first time in almost three decades (stock image)

'These falls need to be passed on to businesses that rely on energy.

'As Australia comes out of this crisis we will need our energy prices to fall significantly if we are to have the recovery we need.'

Since July last year, electricity bills have fallen by up to $181, with the reductions occurring before the onset of COVID-19.

Earlier this month, the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) imposed a ceiling on what electricity retailers can charge existing customers based on the amount of power they use during the next financial year.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, has suggested cheaper utility bills could underpin an economic recovery as COVID-19 restrictions were unwound.

Adelaide residents, however, were much more likely to enjoy the benefits, than Australians living in Sydney or Brisbane.

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

From July 1, South Australians can look forward to a $109 a year, or a 5.6 per cent reduction in their power bills as customers of SA Power Networks.

Energex customers in Brisbane and the Gold Coast can expect to see a 3.9 per cent or $62 reduction.

Sydney customers with Endeavour won't be so lucky, with their bills falling by just $9 a year or 0.5 per cent.

Ausgrid users in Sydney, Gosford and Newcastle can expect even less relief - just $5 or 0.3 per cent.

Several power companies have also suspended disconnections for customers who can't pay their bills.

Origin, AGL and EnergyAustralia are among utility providers who have introduced hardship measures to help those who have either lost their jobs or had their hours reduced because of COVID-19.
Cones are set up to help beachgoers keep a safe distance from one another after Clearwater Beach officially reopened to the public Monday. Read more

As Florida lifted some its coronavirus restrictions this weekend, sunny weather beckoned crowds to gather at newly opened parks and beaches, where public officials sanctioned the springtime outings as long as people wore masks and kept their distance.

Over three days, more than 7,300 people showed up at Miami Beach parks without covering their mouths and noses, Miami Beach police said in a statement on Facebook. Hundreds more failed to maintain the mandated six feet of social distancing.

The rule-breakers cost everyone the chance to enjoy the city's popular beach at South Pointe Park, which the city closed again Monday after park rangers issued thousands of verbal warnings between Friday and Sunday, police said.

"There is no way to effectively enforce social distancing when hundreds of individuals refuse to do so," Miami Beach city manager Jimmy Morales told CNN.

The scofflaws in the southern Florida city are hardly alone. People in many states have resisted guidelines that encourage or require face masks in public spaces to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The masks are hot, uncomfortable, and annoying for many. Others view the mandate to cover their faces as government overreach. Escalating tension over the precaution has spurred protests, rebellions, fights and even an alleged murder.

Police arrested a man in Decatur, Illinois, on Friday after he shoved a gas station clerk who insisted he wear a mask while paying for fuel on the first day of the state's newly imposed rules that require people to cover their faces inside businesses.

Officers in Michigan are searching for a man who allegedly wiped his nose on a Dollar Tree employee's sleeve on Saturday after she told him he had to wear a mask to shop inside, the Detroit Free Press reported. And a man shot and killed a security guard at a Family Dollar in Michigan after the guard had an argument with a woman who refused to comply with the statewide executive order that requires people to wear masks inside shops, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said at a news conference Monday.

The small city of Stillwater, Oklahoma, had to revoke a local order requiring residents to don face coverings inside stores and restaurants that reopened over the weekend after workers endured harassment and threats.

Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine similarly reversed a statewide edict to require masks because people "were not going to accept the government telling them what to do."

Even states that have largely embraced public health experts' advice, like California, have seen some rebellions over masks. In a San Diego suburb, a man wore a Ku Klux Klan hood to the grocery store in an apparent protest of the store's mask requirement for shoppers. Meanwhile, the San Francisco police chief barred officers from wearing masks decorated with "Thin Blue Line" imagery.

As many elected officials and doctors plead with the public to wear masks if they leave their homes, some politicians are leading by example in the other direction.

Vice President Mike Pence drew criticism last week when he violated a mask requirement during a visit to the Mayo Clinic. On Monday, he issued a mea culpa and admitted that he should have worn a mask despite being tested frequently for the virus.

"I didn't think it was necessary," Pence said Monday, "but I should have worn a mask at the Mayo Clinic."

Similarly, Missouri Republican Gov. Mike Parsons refused to sport a mask as he visited small businesses in his state. In photos, he stood barefaced among workers wearing masks. He told reporters at a news conference that he did not believe the government should force people to cover their faces, despite guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that recommend face masks.

"It really goes back to your personal responsibility," Parsons told reporters, the Kansas City Star reported.

He said choosing to wear a mask, or not, is a personal choice.

"I chose not to," he said.

In Ohio, where protests against the state's stay-at-home policies have grown increasingly testy in recent days, a state lawmaker justified his lack of a mask with a religious argument.

"We're created in the image and likeness of God," state Rep. Nino Vitale, R-Ohio, said in a video clip he posted on Facebook. "When we think of image, do we think of a chest or our legs or our arms? We think of their face. I don't want to cover people's faces."

Although resistance to wearing masks appears to split along ideological lines in many instances, with protests against the measures organized largely by conservative activists and championed by Republican lawmakers, polling has consistently indicated that most Americans support the social distancing precautions in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and many have been willing to wear masks.

Shortly after the CDC recommended people wear masks in early April, more than half the respondents to an ABC News/Ipsos poll of people who ventured outside their homes reported wearing them. And although more Democrats reported using masks at that time, 47% of Republicans also said they were covering their faces.

A recent Washington Post-University of Maryland poll found that 62% of Republicans and 72% of Democrats said state restrictions on businesses were "appropriate" to stem the coronavirus pandemic. Another April poll by CBS News/YouGov showed that only 43% of Republicans, and just 23% of people overall, support the antisocial distancing protesters.

And if social distancing policies continue as businesses reopen and people return to work, even some ardent skeptics may be persuaded to cooperate and don a mask, according to Robert Kahn, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis who has studied Americans' attitudes toward masks.

"If I can go to work and the cost of marginal improvement in my life is wearing a mask, maybe Americans of both parties do accommodate ourselves to it," Khan told The Washington Post last month.

The resistance to masks by some has troubled public health experts, who view the practice as an important precaution for people who cannot distance themselves from others.

Deborah Birx, who is the White House coronavirus response coordinator, expressed dismay on Sunday at images of protesters without masks standing close to each other inside the Michigan capitol building.

Its devastatingly worrisome to me personally because if they go home and infect their grandmother or their grandfather who has a comorbid condition and they have a serious or a very  or an unfortunate outcome, Birx said on Fox News Sunday, they will feel guilty for the rest of our lives. So, we need to protect each other at the same time as were voicing our discontent.
KPMG and community partners donated 50 laptops to local school children selected by Saigonchildren

Millions of students in Vietnam have enrolled in distance learning programmes from home since the outbreak of the coronavirus, but many of them do not have access to a home computer. After being wiped clean and equipped with the copyrighted Microsoft Operating System and Office software, these 50 laptops have been sent by KPMG and its community partners to disadvantaged students.

As a corporate member of the community, we felt that we had to do something to support less fortunate students participate in the e-learning process, especially during this extremely difficult time, said Warrick Cleine, chairman and CEO of KPMG in Vietnam. Enabling students to continue to learn during the COVID-19 pandemic is an important mission that all of us at KPMG are committed to pursue for our community.

As the official partner responsible for the distribution of laptops to pupils and students in accordance with the programme's criteria nationwide, Saigonchildren recognises the importance of e-learning to improve educational achievements. Inability to access a computer or the internet remains a barrier to education for many students in Vietnam.

Id like to say another huge thank you to KPMG who donated the first laptops. Its been great that at a time of huge global uncertainty, KPMG remains focused on helping those most in need, said Damien Roberts, executive director of Saigonchildren. Together, we can lessen existing inequalities and help students achieve their full potential.

The programme is now looking to bring more corporate members and other community partners into the collaboration with a view to providing several hundred laptops to students in need in the coming weeks.
Linn County is on its way to becoming an Oregon leader in testing people living and working in senior care homes for the new coronavirus, with thousands of tests to be delivered and analyzed by a local tech company in the coming weeks.

The 130,000-population county decided to strike out on its own after facing the first nursing home outbreak in Oregon  the harbinger of what is now the states most pressing COVID-19 crisis as the death toll continues to rise in senior care communities across the state.

State public health officials have said widespread testing is vital to detecting and stemming the disease, but they have only recently said that asymptomatic residents and staff at nursing homes and assisted living centers could get tested as tests are available. As of last week, Oregon officials didnt appear to have a plan to do that work.

Linn County couldnt afford to wait, said Roger Nyquist, chairman of the countys Board of Commissioners.

It was clear that no place is immune if a relatively new nursing home like the 6-year-old state veterans home in Lebanon could experience a rampant infection, Nyquist said.

The county commissioner worried that any of the 22 other senior homes in the county could be susceptible.

If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere, Nyquist said.

But the countys effort to track down tests showed how hard it is to navigate the complex supply-and-demand system for what has become one of the hottest commodities in the world. They had to find a lab willing to run the tests and volunteers to collect the samples.

They faced stiff competition, even with the likes of international relief agency UNICEF, along the way.

Yet they remained committed to their goal.

We want to be able to know whats happening in Linn County, said Commissioner Will Tucker.

***

Almost from the first, Linn County commissioners pushed Gov. Kate Brown to step in to help.

The Edward C. Allworth Veterans Home announced March 11 that two elderly men among the nursing homes 151 residents had contracted the virus. Since then, seven residents have died of the disease and 38 residents and workers have fallen ill. The nursing home has the second-deadliest coronavirus cluster in the state.

By last week, hundreds of other residents and staff at Oregons senior homes have become infected, including one Multnomah County nursing home that has recorded the deaths of at least 28 residents among 117 coronavirus cases.

Nyquist sent an urgent letter to Brown two days after coronavirus hit the Lebanon veterans home.

I ask that you direct the Oregon Health Authority to immediately embark on a proactive testing strategy in other senior homes in Linn County, Nyquist wrote.

Brown called him a week later, he said.

It was clear by the end of that conversation they didnt have the resources, the commissioner said.

The entire country has struggled to get tests since the beginning of the outbreak, with breakdowns at the federal level trickling down to states and local health departments nationwide.

Even though Oregons ability to test people has increased in recent weeks as commercial and hospital labs have come online and the state loosened guidelines for who can get tested, a likely substantive undercount of COVID-19 cases still exists because many people with mild or non-existent symptoms and some caregivers exposed to the virus were cut out of the testing loop early on.

State public health officials combined forces and arranged to test all residents at the veterans home, owned by the Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs, but other homes without the direct state connections were largely left to fend for themselves and report back to state regulators if they found any cases.

Within a month, coronavirus was in nearly three dozen nursing homes, assisted living centers, memory care communities and adult foster care homes in the state. So far, the list doesnt include other homes in Linn County, state records show.

Nyquist in mid-April ordered Linn Countys health director to find a way to test everybody at the countys nursing and assisted living centers.

Nyquist also got on the phone with Manny Cruz, who owns a commercial laboratory in Corvallis. The lab, Willamette Valley Toxicology, had partnered with Oregon State University to test a random sampling of Corvallis residents for the coronavirus.

Cruz and Nyquist came to an informal agreement:

Cruz would be able to supply and analyze 1,000 tests a week for up to eight weeks for the county, with a minimum of two weeks of tests. Cruz would get test kits containing swabs, tubes and a liquid for transporting samples called viral transport medium and send them to Linn County.

In turn, the county would arrange to have samples collected and sent back to the lab. Cruzs lab would then test the samples and send the county the results.

Hopes were high.

Within a couple of weeks, Nyquist said at an April 17 board meeting, the identified facilities in Linn County could be tested.

***

The county signed a $500,000 contract on April 21 with Willamette Valley Toxicology.

Shortly after, the deal hit a snag.

Cruz didnt have the test kits in hand when he and the county signed the contract, he said, but he had expected an order to come through as soon as he got a down payment from Linn County.

The order, which Cruz said was for 10,000 kits from the Tualatin-based company Nurnberg Scientific, would have covered the county contract and allowed him to keep some for other contracts.

UNICEF had other plans. The organization ordered 300,000 tests from the same company, Cruz said, and his tentative deal with Nurnberg Scientific was dead.

They basically beat me to the punch, he said.

Tucker, who worked closely with Nyquist on the plan and had served in the Navy during the Vietnam War, drew on his time in the service to explain how he took the news.

No plan survives the first contact with the enemy, Tucker said. Its a war that I am fighting.

Linn Countys need to test people became all the more acute by April 24 with word that eight workers at National Frozen Foods, an Albany food processing plant that employs at least 270 people, had come down with the coronavirus.

But just as the countys circumstances appeared at their lowest point, things turned around.

Cruz last week found a supplier for full test kits, including swabs, the item that he said has been particularly hard to obtain.

Nyquist said that order was finalized last Thursday.

Cruz said he hopes to deliver the first batch of 1,000 kits by this Thursday.

Things are changing and evolving as we speak, Tucker said.

Linn County health officials are calling senior care homes and offering to test anyone who has symptoms. If those tests come back positive, the county will offer to test every other resident and worker at the home, said Todd Noble, the county health department director.

And, last Friday, the county used a batch of a few hundred tests provided by the state to test most, if not all, employees at the National Frozen Foods plant, commissioners said.

***

The Oregon Health Authority just last week changed its testing guidelines to allow residents and workers in care homes without coronavirus symptoms to be tested, provided there are enough supplies.

The states officials testing strategy now includes testing all asymptomatic people in all group settings where a COVID-19 infection is suspected. The states own public health lab has expanded criteria to process such tests, according to a new strategy document.

Dr. Dean Sidelinger, the states epidemiologist, wouldnt say directly when asked at a recent news conference whether the state has concrete, immediate plans to test all residents at senior care homes where at least one confirmed or symptomatic case has been reported.

One of the concerns with such an approach, he said, is that such tests show only point in time results and someone who tested negative could still become sick the following day.

He did say that some people without symptoms are indeed getting tested: In partnership with the state Department of Human Services, the Oregon Health Authority has been responding to individual outbreaks at senior care homes and figuring out how to help them case by case.

This disease can be spread from those without symptoms, Sidelinger said. And we know that our congregate facilities have been the hardest hit.

A Department of Human Services spokeswoman said the state has no blanket requirement to test all residents and staff at senior care homes. But when theres an outbreak at a facility, the department works with the health authority and local health agencies to figure out what the best steps are for that specific senior care home.

Multnomah County, the site of three of the largest senior care home outbreaks in the state, is following the states lead and as of last week had no concrete plans to test everyone associated with the facilities.

The county is dealing with active cases at 12 nursing homes and assisted living centers  accounting for about half of all care homes in the state that had staff or residents sick as of May 1.

Multnomah County is open to the idea of broader testing and is working on a contract to get more tests, the countys communicable diseases manager, Lisa Ferguson, said last week.

Broad testing could help curb and manage outbreaks, Ferguson said. For instance, nursing homes would be able to move more quickly to separate residents who test positive from ones who dont, she said.

Theres definitely a desire for more testing, especially in those congregate settings, Ferguson said.

Linn County is the only government agency in Oregon to contract with Willamette Valley Toxicology for tests, Cruz said, though he hopes other agencies will come on board as more supplies become available.

Commissioner Tucker, meanwhile, is already looking forward to deploying the tests.

Weve been resupplied, Tucker said. It really is a boost to the morale of the troops.

-- Fedor Zarkhin

fzarkhin@oregonian.com

desk: 503-294-7674|cell: 971-373-2905|@fedorzarkhin

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Some have called it 'Fifty Shades of Sligo'. New York Times TV critic Emily Nussbaum tweeted about watching 'the horny Irish teens'. It's safe to say that Normal People's many, many sex scenes have gotten people hot and bothered. Yet a cohort of people found the adaptation of Sally Rooney's second novel too much for the small screen.

Last week, listeners to RTE Radio 1's Liveline discussed the series, currently showing on RTE One. One listener likened it to "something you see in a porno movie". Another noted, "it's filthy and I won't be watching the rest of it". Even the show's director, Lenny Abrahamson, was moved to tweet a screenshot of host Joe Duffy with his head in his hands.

Several viewers have praised sex scenes in Normal People between Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell (Paul Mescal), noting the authentic feel of the content. Others have hailed the scriptwriters' healthy depiction of consent, although as anyone who read the book knows, things take a much darker turn in future episodes.

"We have to contextualise [the reaction]," observes broadcast historian Finola Doyle O'Neill. "We are in Covid country so people are under siege. A lot more people are watching TV outside of the show's target 15-44 age groups, and this is why it's taking on more reverberation than it might normally. People complaining about it are not the target audience, but are predominantly the highest viewerships in RTE."

Normal People is merely the latest in a long line of 'won't someone think of the children' moments on Irish screens. In fact, some of the most talked-about sex scenes in Irish televisual history barely had sex in them at all.

In 1966, Gay Byrne, who was largely credited with 'bringing sex to Ireland', kicked up a bit of dust in an infamous episode that came to be known as the Bishop and The Nightie. In a Mr & Mrs-style quiz, couples were asked questions about their partners.

Gay picked a married couple from the audience, Richard and Eileen Fox from Terenure in Dublin. One of the questions related to the colour of Eileen's nightie on honeymoon. Richard said it was transparent, while Eileen said she wasn't wearing any. It prompted Thomas Ryan, then Bishop of Clonfert, to condemn the show from his pulpit.

"Gay himself said, Irish people will look at the Sun and see a Page Three girl, but when they see something similar within an Irish context, people have a different reaction," notes Dr Doyle O'Neill.

Two decades later, there were also audible gasps when Gay opened a lone condom from a packet on the show in 1987, noting sarcastically: "That is the dreaded object." One viewer wrote in, enraged: "I have an 18-year-old daughter who I wouldn't want to see those things. If she had been in the sitting room with me last night, I'd have been very embarrassed."

Quite what this viewer would have made of The Spike, a drama set in a secondary school, is anyone's guess. In 1978, a nude model appeared for a live drawing class, but the seemingly innocent context did little to dampen the controversy. Far from letting the scene propel the show to infamy, RTE pulled the show from its schedule after just five episodes.

Video of the Day

Soap opera has been the Trojan horse through which most of our sexual content has been explored on screens. Imports like EastEnders, Brookside, Dallas and Dynasty featured plenty of raunch, but weren't exactly holding a mirror up to Irish society.

"RTE have been very tentative about the way they curate sex scenes," observes Dr Doyle O'Neill. In the 1970s, The Riordans broached the subject of sexuality (in one scene between Maggie Riordan and a priest), yet by the 1990s, things had become slightly more outre in pre-watershed territory.

By 1996, Fair City viewers had already seen flings and affairs, yet a same-sex kiss between Liam Casey (Peter Warnock) and Eoghan Healy (Alan Smith), that never actually happened in the end, rocked the nation: "The episode became apocryphal, in that we imagine it actually happened," says Dr Doyle O'Neill. "Given that homosexuality had been decriminalised only three years before, it was brave for RTE but not brave enough."

Viewers of a certain age will certainly recall the 1997 episode of Glenroe in which Miley had a chaste enough roll about in the hay barn with Fidelma, cousin to his wife, Biddy. The scene cut to the credits before the tryst got going. Yet if Glenroe's producers wanted to stir up a bit of sexy controversy, it was very much a case of job done. "People would say to me that their parents were disgusted and wouldn't watch the programme any more because I was a home-wrecker," actress Eunice McMenamin, who played Fidelma, noted after the fact. "But I was very proud of what we did, it pushed a boundary in its own way. It showed that people have sex in the country too."

Says Dr Doyle O'Neill: "Because Miley was the everyman, he was a man we never thought would betray for lust. In a way the whole nation felt betrayed."

People in Drogheda certainly have sex, if RTE's Love Is The Drug was anything to go by. During the boom years, RTE switched some of their energies to creating dramas about angsty twenty-somethings and their sex lives. The Big Bow Wow, Raw and Love Is The Drug featured plenty of youthful sex scenes and nudity, but by then RTE 2 viewers were seemingly too cool and urban as to kick up a stink about it.

And then Tallafornia arrived in 2012, and that was pretty much the end of being cool.

The TV3 fly-on-the-wall reality series had the honour of featuring the first ever actual sex scene on Irish TV. Nikita Murray and Phil Penny decided to make their way to the 'score room', where viewers are treated to much rustling of duvets. After just one episode, the Dublin-based show pulled a bumper 500,000 viewers.

It also caught its fair share of criticism. "This is a new low in broadcasting", one viewer tweeted. "Pure garbage... Ashamed to be from Dublin right now," read another online verdict.

"I knew the show would get a mixed reaction," the show's producer Fintan Maguire was quoted as saying. "But I wasn't expecting people to love or hate it so absolutely."

But why did Tallafornia cop so much heat, when other shows had fallen under the radar? "Tallafornia was trying to be a bit like Jersey Shore, but we don't have the climate nor the moral compass for it. The thing is, people didn't care about Raw at the time because they had lives. The reaction comes when you have a captive audience," asserts Dr Doyle O"Neill.

Love/Hate enjoyed a similarly healthy ratings boon, and the grisly depictions of cat-and-mouse violence were offset by some memorable sex scenes. Darren (Robert Sheehan) and Rosie (Ruth Negga)'s sex appeared earnest, passionate and loving, which is a lot more than could be said for Nidge's trysts with well, anyone.

Nidge's fast and furious sex sessions with Janet (Mary Murray) and Linda (Denise McCormack), whether by accident or design, served as a sort of comic relief alongside a tart cocktail of gangland violence and darkness.

It has recently been announced that Element Pictures, who produced Normal People, have adapted Sally Rooney's debut novel, Conversations with Friends. A tangy love saga with a young glut of characters at its core, it's sure to sizzle on screen much like its forebear. Just don't tell Liveline's listeners.
Arizona News

Phoenix, Arizona - Attorney General Mark Brnovich just announced Arizona prevailed at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a challenge to one of the States rules for accountability in the voter initiative process.

In 2014 the Arizona Legislature passed a law requiring paid and out-of-state petition circulators to make court appearances when subpoenaed in the event of challenges to the signatures they collected. A no-show results in the disqualifications of the signatures in question.

In July 2019, the plaintiffs (Jessica Miracle, a group of petition signers, circulators, sponsors, and initiative proponents) filed a lawsuit against the Arizona Secretary of State to invalidate the law.

On appeal of this lawsuit, the Secretary of State declined to continue to defend the state law (which she supported as a legislator), electing to become a nominal party. As a result, the State was compelled to intervene through Attorney General Brnovich. This case is one of four instances in 2020 where the Secretary has declined to defend state election laws. In each instance, Attorney General Brnovich, either through the State or in his own name, has intervened to defend Arizona law.

Elected officials must defend the will of Arizonans with integrity, said Attorney General Brnovich. Unlike other elected officials, I will not cave to political pressure."

In todays opinion, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district courts denial of the request to suspend the law. It was determined that circulators are not injured as a result of being called to testify as they have already consented to the states jurisdiction for that very purpose and promised to appear if subpoenaed.

The court also noted there are other options available if a circulator is unable to appear in person, including the ability to challenge the subpoena and/or request the accommodation of appearing telephonically. Finally, the court faulted plaintiffs for their delay in filing suit, explaining that the likelihood of harm is further undermined by the length of time the law has successfully been in effect.

Deputy Solicitor General Drew C. Ensign, for the Arizona Attorney Generals Office, argued the case before the Ninth Circuit on April 17.
Jailed Saudi Princess who has not been able to contact her family since she went public with her appeal for release, now fears contracting coronavirus. Princess Basmah bint Saud was detained without any charges and pleaded to be released from jail in a letter on April 16 after all her other requests went unanswered. According to reports, before the tweets caused a spiral in the Saudi royal family, the detained 56-year-old was allowed one telephone call every week. However, since Saudi Princess went public, there has been absolutely no contact with her family.

According to a source of an international news agency, the Saudi Princess had informed her family about prison being under caution as some cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the premises of the prison Al-Ha'ir. The source had also said that Princess Basmah bint Sauds Twitter account was apparently hacked by someone in the kingdom who cited deteriorating health to plead her release after being abducted. Separately, a prison employee has reportedly told the royal family that there have been a handful of coronavirus cases in the jail. As of May 5, Saudi Arabia has confirmed 28,656 cases of COVID-19 with at least 19 fatalities.

Read - Saudi Arabia To Reduce Expenditures 'sharply' Amid COVID-19 Crisis

Read - Amid Pandemic, Oil Woes, Saudi Arabia Eyes Further Reforms

Saudi Princess makes public appeal

The Saudi Princess took to Twitter and posted about how her health is deteriorating and cited medical complications for her freedom from the high-security prison. However, within a few hours, the posts were deleted by the authorities. The 56-year-old was arrested in March 2019 just before she was travelling to Switzerland, reportedly for medical treatment. The Saudi Princess claimed that she was thrown into prison after being abducted without an explanation along with one of her daughters.

In the post, Princess Basmah said that she was being held in prison without criminal, or otherwise any charges and confessed that her medical condition might lead to her death. She also explained how the letters sent by her to the Royal Court have been left unanswered and she has not received any medical care while in the prison.

Read - EPL's Saudi Piracy Concerns As Newcastle Takeover Assessed

Read - Jamal Khashoggi's Wife Writes To Premier League To Block Saudis' Newcastle United Takeover

(With agency inputs)
I am going to share Exodus chapter 20 verse 16 from the King James Bible.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. That is a pretty serious command. It says quite clearly not to spread lies about your brother and your sister and your fellow man.

Sadly, Christians are not immune to this.

I only have to trawl through my Facebook to see it.

I would see one person sharing facts and evidence about Christs resurrection and then next day they are sharing this unfounded conspiracy theory that Covid-19 is a disease invented by globalists to keep us all under control. Unless it is proven by our Government, you need to shut up and stop bearing false witness.

Its damaging your witness

First, the world already thinks youre crazy.

Thats ok. Afterall being normal is overrated.

Secondly, its biblical.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18 (NKJV)

Whatever you are proclaiming is foolishness to those who are perishing so those people already think youre nuts. Dont damage whatever credibility you have by believing and sharing unfounded rumours.

You not only look nuts its also sinful.

Maybe whatever you are sharing is true, maybe youre smarter than the State and you have discovered the truth and whatever Dave in his basement has discovered, which has so far eluded our best and brightest, is correctshould you still share it?

NO!

We are to honour our leaders

The New Testament was written to Christians that were living under actual tyranny. Yet even the apostle Paul who suffered brutally under this tyranny said,

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. (Romans chapter 13 verse 1, NKJV)

If you share a conspiracy theory that goes against the authority that God has established, youre not only spreading false witness against your neighbour, you are spreading false witness against the very authority that God has established and you look like a weirdo! We are to trust our governing authorities because these authorities have been appointed by God.

If Paul could do it, during the 1st century Roman Empire, which was one of the most brutal dictatorships that ever lived (think about it, when was the last time you saw a public crucifixion?), then we can do it here in Australia or wherever you are in the world.

Our Leaders need our Prayers

In my opinion I believe we are very fortunate in this country; we have a leader who quite publicly seeks the Lord in what he does. There are videos online of him praying for Australia. His wife still serves in the kids church at his local church. I was even present in the room when he prayed for Australia and our farmers and for rain. I believe Scott Morrison is a blessing and he deserves our prayers.

I believe the way he has handled this Covid-19 pandemic, and the balance you have to make between public health and keeping the economy going, I think he has got the balance just about perfect.

Yes, we are going to take a hit, but according to the International Monetary Fund, we are going to recover. The curve has flattened and as I write this Australias daily infection rate is now below one percent and we have tragically had just over 70 deaths.

Almost every country in Europe, and I would say every state in the USA, would love to have numbers like that. The UKs Prime Minister is recovering from the same condition his Government is fighting. Morrison is not perfect and there are policies he has made that I do not agree with and no doubt during the bushfires he made mistakes, but he recovered.

I pray for him, I pray for him every day.

But to believe these theories out there, implies, that he either knows about it and is therefore lying which means you would mistrust an authority that God has placed there, or he is ignorant. Highly unlikely in my book. The theory about China is under investigation so we should make no further comment and trust the God-appointed international community to do whatever they have to do.

However, we can do our bit during this pandemic.

Lets be the light, lets be a blessing, lets be part of the solution and not part of the problem, lets honour and pray for our leaders and not add to the confusion, panic, hysteria and mistrust that is already out there.
TSX:RVX | NYSE:PFE

Zenith Epigenetics offers a differentiated approach to bromodomain extra terminal (BET) inhibition. The companys lead candidate, ZEN-3694, has demonstrated a synergistic ability to resensitize the tumor environment to approved therapies in clinical trials with enzalutamide and talazoparib. The companys programs focus on metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) and triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) supported by partners Newsoara (private) and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE). Beyond extending the life of ARSi and PARPi therapies, ZEN-3694 also presents an attractive safety profile with limited and easily manageable adverse events.

The world of BET inhibition expanded in 2013 with the spin out of an oncology-focused group from Resverlogix Corp (TSX:RVX). At that time, Resverlogix had pioneered important advances in BET epigenetics, but was committed to cardiovascular disease; however, the field had a much broader application than just one therapeutic area. Realizing that the potential in oncology would be better realized in a stand-alone unit, management elected to separate the oncology-focused portfolio into a company called Zenith Epigenetics. The new group began using its technology to generate numerous compounds that were screened for specificity, potency, safety and optimal drug-like properties with the most promising candidates isolated for in vivo work. After several years advancing this process, Zenith identified a promising candidate and initiated both a single agent and combination study with enzalutamide in mCRPC patients in 2016. In the following two years, additional data published in scientific journals provided preclinical proof of concept that attracted Pfizers (NYSE: PFE) attention which came on as a partner in a Phase II trial. This was followed in August 2019 by a partnership with the Chinese drug developer Newsoara BioPharma Co. which provided upfront payments as well as future milestones and royalties in return for rights to commercialize ZEN-3694 in the greater China region. These successes are leading to further collaborations which will be announced in the near future.

Story continues

Zeniths focus on epigenetics is advancing one of the emerging drivers in the biotechnology space. The term epigenetics was first used in the 1940s by Conrad Waddington to explain the type of interactions between the environment and genes that yields a phenotype not associated with changes to DNA. The meaning of the word evolved over time as more was learned about these interactions. In current parlance, epigenetics is the study of the expression of genes into proteins.

Mechanism of Action

Bromodomain and extra terminal inhibitors, BETi, are a class of small molecules that can reversibly bind to bromodomain proteins BRD2, BRD3, BRD4 and BRDT. Their function is to inhibit protein-protein interactions between BET proteins and acetylated histones and transcription factors by binding to bromodomains. BET proteins are of interest due to their ability to target the expression of oncogenes such as MYC (1), AR and CDK6 among others. ZEN-3694 falls into the BETi class and functions as a pan-inhibitor of all four BET proteins.

Many cancers are bromodomain 4 (BRD4) dependent and BRD4 can also drive expression of multiple oncogenes at super-enhancer sites, which are enriched in bromodomain binding sites. Exposure of tumor cells to BETi reduces the level of BRD4 at superenhancer sites and downregulates the expression of key oncogenes (2). Zeniths in vitro and in vivo experiments have shown that targeting BET proteins inhibits tumor growth in multiple cancer types.

Exhibit I  Chromosome, Chromatin and DNA

Based on our environment, biochemical processes take place in our DNA that deposit chemical tags (such as acetyl or methyl groups) on histone tails that can either stimulate or silence the expression of genes. Enzymes known as readers, writers and erasers are responsible for interacting with and modifying these chemical tags. The tags are identified and interpreted by readers, introduced by writers and removed by erasers. Acetylation, methylation and phosphorylation are the key mechanisms that attach the tags which in turn affect epigenetic expression. In one example, an acetylated lysine attaches to a histone tail which alters the chromatin structure to become more accessible and transcription increases in these regions. Bromodomains, which are amino acid chains, are specific to these acetylated sites and function as readers of lysine acetylation. Often the recognition of specific histone regions by bromodomains is necessary for protein histone association and chromatin remodeling.

Cancer cells hijack the epigenetic mechanism to drive expression of cancer causing genes also known as oncogenes. In some breast and prostate cancers, a signal for cell growth is given when oncogenes such as estrogen or androgen hormones bind to a protein receptor. Bringing the system back into balance is one of the potential benefits of BETi.

Combination therapies with ARS inhibitors and PARP inhibitors

ARSi

Most prostate cancers are dependent on androgen signaling for tumor growth and metastasis. Androgen receptor signaling inhibitors (ARSi), such as enzalutamide, apalutamide and darolutamide are prescribed for mCRPC and antagonize AR signaling. While ARSi are effective in prostate cancer, eventually the prostate cancer becomes resistant. The resistance can be due to the resumption of AR signaling, bypass of AR signaling or through AR independent mechanisms. There is a significant need for therapies that can address this resistance.

The market for ARSi is currently about $4 billion based on 2019 sales as reported in the Evaluate Pharma database. It is forecast to grow to over $5 billion in the next few years and can be materially expanded if a therapy such as ZEN-3694 is able to extend the utility of the ARSi class.

ZEN-3694 can sensitize resistant tumors to targeted therapies in mCRPC. There is even pre-clinical evidence supporting the use of ZEN-3694 in combination with checkpoint inhibitors to address resistance of tumors to this class of drug. Many companies in the space including Zenith are developing BETi in combination with checkpoint inhibitors for multiple tumor types.

Exhibit II  Forecasted Global Market Size for Enzalutamide (3)

Exhibit III - Forecasted Global Market Size for Apalutamide (4)

Exhibit IV - Forecasted Global Market Size for Darolutamide (5)

PARPi

In certain cases when DNA repair is not functioning properly, cancer cells rely on poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) to thrive. PARP steps in when there is a BRCA mutation preventing DNA repair. PARP signals the recruitment of repair proteins which fix single strand breaks in cancer cell DNA thereby allowing the cancer to survive. It serves a backup role for DNA repair when BRCA is broken. A PARP inhibitor (PARPi) can inhibit PARP proteins, which prevents DNA repair and causes the death of the cancer cell. While PARPs work well in patients with BRCA mutations, they do not work so well when BRCA is functioning properly and are able to conduct DNA repair in cancer cells. Normal BRCA genes produce proteins that can repair a double stranded DNA break and stabilize a cells genetic structure thereby sidestepping the programmed cell death that occurs when there is a BRCA mutation. This allows cancer cells to progress and bypass the action of PARPi. PARPi as a monotherapy is most effective in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients with the BRCA 1 or 2 gene mutation. However, the majority of TNBC patients do not have the BRCA mutation and do not see a response from PARPi.

Exhibit V  TNBC Addressable Market With and Without BRCA1/2 Mutation (US Patients/%) (6,7)

ZEN-3694 is able to modulate the epigenetic environment so that the cancer cells appear to have properties similar to a BRCA mutation. This change may allow PARP inhibitors to work in patients without the BRCA mutation, providing another line of therapy where few other options exist. This dramatically increases the size of the addressable market for PARPi from the approximate 15% to 20% of TNBC population to a much larger population. If successful, ZEN-3694 will be a very attractive partner for Pfizer and other PARPi players.

MYC Oncogene

One of the most important drivers of mCRPC and TNBC is the MYC oncogene. MYC, or MYC proto-oncogene BHLH transcription factor, encodes a nuclear phosphoprotein that impacts cell cycle progression, apoptosis and cellular transformation. MYC is present in a broad variety of cancers including Burkett lymphoma, carcinomas of the cervix, colon, breast, lung and stomach, mCRPC and TNBC. One of the hurdles faced in MYC-associated cancers is that MYC has long been thought to be undruggable as there is no pocket for binding; therefore, treatments must target the protein indirectly. MYC is a transcription factor that regulates cell proliferation. Aberrant MYC expression leads to cancer by the coordinated activation of transcriptional pathways involved in cell division, metabolic adaptation, and survival. In a research paper by Mertz et al. (8) the authors show that MYC gene expression can be reversed by BETi measured by transcriptional effects and apoptotic responses. Side effect profiles in the in vivo study were suggesting that normal cells are resistant to MYC suppression or function. Downregulating MYC with BETi may produce a potent suppressive effect in cancer cells by cell-cycle arrest and the halt of cellular division (9). MYC is thus viewed as a promising target for anti-cancer drugs.

A BETter Inhibitor

Early BET inhibitors for oncology were based on a benzodiazepine scaffold, a class of drug used as a tranquilizer with a variety of negative side effects and poor drug-like properties. In response, Zenith Epigenetics launched an effort to develop a better BET inhibitor. By using an orthogonal scaffold and a molecule with optimal potency, half-life, and drug like properties, ZEN-3694 was able to demonstrate better oral bioavailability, as well as improved drug interaction, efficacy and safety in pre-clinical models.

Also, many of the oncology studies initially launched with BETi were monotherapy, all-comer studies that were too broad to characterize activity in a well-defined clinical population. Zenith pursued a different clinical strategy, identifying combination therapies in targeted populations which allowed the company to show early clinical proof of concept in a defined indication. This allowed Zenith to move ahead of other companies and become a leader in developing BETi therapeutics for oncology.

Clinical Pipeline

Since it first became a stand-alone entity, Zenith has sought to differentiate itself in the advance of BETi epigenetics. The companys BET inhibitor candidate, ZEN-3694, has distinguished itself in both preclinical and early clinical work demonstrating an ability to address both mCRPC and TNBC. The company is conducting multiple clinical programs in combination therapies, taking advantage of the synergistic characteristics of BETi to resensitize and expand therapeutic pathways for proven drug regimens.

Exhibit VI  Zenith Pipeline

Metastatic Castration Resistant Prostate Cancer (mCRPC)

Persistent AR signaling provokes cancer proliferation, tumor invasion, and metastasis in mCRPC. First line approaches for prostate cancer begin with chemical or surgical castration followed by androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). For mCRPC, AR antagonist enzalutamide and CYP17A1 (10) inhibitor abiraterone are used. As the cancer adapts to the therapies, patients become resistant to first-line treatments and the mCRPC progresses.

Zeniths lead program is evaluating ZEN-3694 in patients with mCRPC that have progressed on an ARSi (enzalutamide or abiraterone). The asset is being investigated in a Phase II trial targeting patients that have progressed on an ARSi without having received chemotherapy (11). The trial enrolled 75 subjects and concluded that those on the combination therapy demonstrated a longer time to progression of 39 weeks as compared to an expected 12-24 weeks with other therapies. The data also provided significant insight into the mechanism of action in patients. Samples obtained and analyzed from tumor biopsies demonstrated that ZEN-394 can resensitize AR resistant tumors to enzalutamide.

Now that the Phase IIa combination trial in mCRPC has been completed, Zenith is exploring multiple options for advancing ZEN-3694 with enzalutamide to registration. The registration-enabling trial will be a randomized trial comparing ZEN-3694 and enzalutamide to standard of care. The pathway forward may also include the option for accelerated approval.

Zeniths second trial targets TNBC. It is enrolling metastatic TNBC (mTNBC) patients that do not have a germline breast cancer (BRCA 1 or 2) mutation. This is approximately 80% of the TNBC market. The Phase Ib/II trial is being run in collaboration with Pfizer and combines ZEN-3694 with talazoparib, a PARP inhibitor. The study will enroll 50 patients and will start with a dose escalation phase followed by a Simon 2-stage design. Phase I, which focused on safety and determining maximum tolerated dose was completed. Now the study has progressed to Phase II which will determine objective response rate (ORR), duration of response (DOR) and rPFS at the recommended phase 2 dose. The first TNBC patient was dosed in June 2019 and an interim readout is expected in 2H:20 with the final readout in the first half of 2021. To date, 16 patients have been dosed and clinical activity is promising with several responses. Zenith and its partner are considering expanding the trial to test the combination of ZEN-3694 and talazoparib in other indications such as ovarian and HR positive breast cancer.

Partnerships

Zenith has developed several important relationships that will help advance ZEN-3694 through development and global commercialization. The lead program counts Shanghai-based Newsoara as a partner which will advance ZEN-3694 through the regulatory process and maintain commercialization rights in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Newsoara agreed to pay $15 million in upfront and near-term development milestones plus another $63 million in sales milestones. It will also make 6% royalty payments that will decline to 4% after exceeding certain sales thresholds.

The most important partnership is with Pfizer which is advancing the combination with PARPi for mTNBC. Pfizer will co-fund the TNBC study and provide talazoparib for use in the trial. Zenith has retained all rights to its drug. If this collaboration is successful and ZEN-3694 is able to sensitize wild-type BRCA patient tumors to PARPi, the therapies will be important companions and ZEN-3694 will likely benefit from Pfizers commercialization clout.

Pfizer first began commercializing talazoparib following its October 2018 approval. In the EMBRACA study that was used to support the new drug application (NDA), talazoparib provided a 50.2% objective response rate compared to an 18.4% rate for chemotherapy. The combination of talazoparib with ZEN-3694 can potentially expand the use of the therapy to wild type BRCA genotypes, which comprise the majority of TNBC patients. Research examining a broad selection of BET inhibitors found that the class may synergize with PARPi in HR-proficient cells and tumors to PARPi treatment (12).

Safety and Adverse Events

Safety is a strong point for Zeniths candidate. The toxicity profile of ZEN-3694 in combination with enzalutamide was favorable in the mCRPC study. The main adverse events were gastrointestinal (GI) toxicity which was managed with the use of anti-emetics. The safety profile for the mTNBC study found thrombocytopenia and GI effects for the BETi/PARPi combo, as expected. The doses of ZEN-3694 and talazoparib were optimized to mitigate these adverse events and the study is on track to define a recommended Phase II dose in the second quarter of 2020.

Summary

Employing epigenetics to cure cancer addresses multiple disease pathways by eliminating problematic proteins and addressing the root of the malignancy. The ability to allow normal expression of healthy genes and discourage the impact of oncogenes provides efficacy while limiting severe side effects. ZEN-3694 is capable of sensitizing cancer pathways for approved drugs that normally encounter resistance after a period of treatment. ZEN-3694 may be able to dramatically extend and expand the ability of these proven therapies to thwart specific types of prostate and breast cancer as well as other cancer areas such as ovarian. The companys impressive partnerships boast strong collaborators that can efficiently and effectively help ZEN-3694 advance through the development, registration and commercialization process. With good data and friends at large global pharmaceutical companies, Zenith has a clear pathway forward with ZEN-3694.

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1. MYC (MYC Proto-Oncogene, BHLH Transcription Factor) proteins are a family of transcription factors that regulate growth and cell cycle entry by their ability to induce expression of genes required for these processes

2. Stathis, A.; Bertoni, F. BET Proteins as Targets for Anticancer Treatment. Cancer Discov 2018;8:24-36. Published OnlineFirst December 20, 2017.

3. Source: Evaluate Pharma.

4. Source: Evaluate Pharma.

5. Source: Evaluate Pharma.

6. BRCA1/2 mutations were identified in 15.4% of patients in this small study. Sharma, P.; et al. Germline BRCA mutation evaluation in a prospective triple-negative breast cancer registry: implications for hereditary breast and/or ovarian cancer syndrome testing. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, vol. 145, no. 3, pp. 707714, 2014. Pie chart is authors own work.

7. Based on its review, research conducted by Zenith finds the proportion of BRCA1/2 mutations as a proportion of TNBC to fall in between 20-30% of the total.

8. Mertz, J. et al. Targeting MYC dependence in cancer by inhibiting BET bromodomains. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Oct 4; 108(40): 1666916674.

9. Delmore, JE et al. BET bromodomain inhibition as a therapeutic strategy to target c-Myc. Cell. 2011 Sep 16;146(6):904-17. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2011.08.017. Epub 2011 Sep 1.

10. CYP17A1: cytochrome steroid 17-alpha-hydroxylase/17,20 lyase

11. Chemotherapy patients were avoided for two reasons. The first is related to thrombocytopenia which can result from chemotherapy and associated damage to bone marrow. BETi is also associated with thrombocytopenia which would present an additional risk. The second is related to the target population. More aggressive prostate cancers are treated with chemotherapy while less aggressive types of mCRPC are treated with ARSi which are used in the population anticipated to benefit from the synergy with ZEN-3694.

12. Yang, Lu; et al. Repression of BET activity sensitizes homologous recombinationproficient cancers to PARP inhibition. Sci Transl Med. 2017 Jul 26; 9(400): eaal1645.
An internal US government estimate forecast the daily COVID-19 death toll will almost double in the country by the end of May, as global leaders raised $8 billion on Monday toward efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine.

Restaurants in Italy partially reopened and Germans queued for haircuts in a Europe edging gingerly out of lockdown, after the virus left more than 130,000 dead across the continent over the past four months.

Half of the planet has been under lockdown and much of the world remained cautious even as countries from India to Nigeria sought to ease some restrictions to allow businesses to remain afloat and workers to bring home income.

"Today is wonderful," Lagos fruit and vegetable vendor Adewale Oluwa said, opening his stall in Africa's largest city after a five-week lockdown.

Global toll passes a quarter-million

Not every country was showing as much confidence. The global coronavirus toll passed 250,000 Monday, and confirmed cases since the disease surfaced in China late last year rose to almost 3.6 million across 195 countries and territories.

Infections continued to surge in Russia, now adding more than 10,000 a day.

In Lagos, Nigeria, market traders underwent anti-coronavirus training to prepare for the lifting of the lockdown. By PIUS UTOMI EKPEI (AFP)

"The threat is apparently on the rise," Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin told citizens.

But the United States remains far more severely affected than any other nation.

An internal study by the US government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted that new coronavirus cases will surge more than eight-fold to 200,000 per day by June 1, and the toll could rise to 3,000 a day, up from the current 1,500-2,000.

That could more than double the number of US coronavirus deaths, now at about 68,000, over the next few months, according to the study first reported by The New York Times and The Washington Post.

That outlook was much more dire than forecasts by President Donald Trump's Coronavirus Task Force.

It underscored the tough, politically-tinged debate over reopening that pits Trump and his allies against many governors and community leaders worried that social distancing and quarantines need to remain in place longer.

The study suggested that the surge in infections could come from mid-May in states and localities that had not implemented tough distancing measures or were loosening up too early.

"There remains a large number of counties whose burden continues to grow or are in an elevated incidence plateau, including in the Great Lakes region, parts of the Southeast, Northeast, and around southern California," the study reportedly said.

An internal US forecast suggests that President Donald Trump might have downplayed the possibility of a surge in coronavirus infections and deaths in the coming weeks.. By POOL (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP)

On Sunday Trump acknowledged that deaths would go beyond his earlier prediction of 60,000, saying "we're going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people."

The White House downplayed the CDC forecast as an "internal" document which had not been vetted by the task force, which is led by Vice President Mike Pence.

'Joy and fear'

In Europe there was still caution as countries allowed people to return to the streets and some businesses to open up. But governments believe they have passed the peak of the disease with death tolls in Europe's worst affected countries having dropped as a result of nearly two months of confinement.

"We are feeling a mix of joy and fear," 40-year-old Stefano Milano said in Rome as Italian restaurants reopened for takeaway orders -- though bars and ice cream parlours will remain shut.

Schools in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi reopened after three months. By Manan VATSYAYANA (AFP)

Spain and Portugal made face masks mandatory on public transport starting Monday as they further eased their lockdowns.

Slovenia, Poland and Hungary also allowed public spaces and businesses to partially reopen.

"I looked like Robinson Crusoe," joked 87-year-old Helmut Wichter, emerging clean shaven from a barber in Berlin.

Vaccine telethon

World map showing official number of coronavirus deaths per country, as of May 4 at 1900 GMT. By Simon MALFATTO (AFP)

A special telethon backed by the World Health Organization but snubbed by Washington pulled in 7.4 billion euros ($8.1 billion) to support international efforts to develop and manufacture a vaccine to slow the coronavirus spread.

Leaders of major European powers, Japan and Canada made the biggest pledges, along with philanthropists including Bill and Melinda Gates, at the videoconference hosted by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.

They called for cooperation and not competition in the search for a cure that could not only be potentially lucrative but also spark fights over who gets access to a vaccine first.

"This was a powerful and inspiring demonstration of global solidarity," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said of the donations.

Seeming to defend its non-participation, the US State Department issued a statement declaring that the United States is "leading" the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and said it has spent more than $1 billion together with US drug companies to work on a vaccine.

Trump claimed Sunday that the United States will have a coronavirus vaccine ready by the end of the year.

The war of words between the United States and China over responsibility for the pandemic continued, with China's state broadcaster attacking US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for "insane" remarks in which he said the virus originated at a laboratory in Wuhan, the city where the pandemic first emerged.

The WHO said it had received no evidence on the "speculative" Wuhan lab claims.

burs-pmh/it
Mikheil Saakashvili Open source

Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gahariya confirmed that the Georgian ambassador could be recalled from Kyiv if Mikheil Saakashvili was appointed Deputy Prime Minister for reforms in the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, as Echo of the Caucasus reports.

If such a decision is made, we will at least recall the ambassador from Kyiv for consultations, Gahariya said.

Gahariya added that on the part of Ukraine, as a strategic partner of Tbilisi, it is categorically unacceptable to appoint a person who was convicted in Georgia for a rather serious crime and is actually wanted.

As we reported earlier, Former President of Georgia and former Chairman of Odesa Regional State Administration Mikheil Saakashvili said that President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky had instructed him to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund.

"The president has instructed me to negotiate with the IMF, with other international financial institutions. Ukraine needs much more help than it already receives. I have a very successful experience in cooperation and assertion of national interests," he said.

Also, Davyd Arakhamia, chairman of the Servants of the People faction, commented on the appointment of Mikheil Saakashvili as Deputy Prime Minister for reforms.
- Health CS Mutahi Kagwe's lecture came after the country confirmed the highest ever number of COVID-19 cases in a single day at 45

- He said Kenyans were resuming normalcy leading to the high rate of infections

- The CS' warning came after Googles weekly COVID-19 community mobility report showed more Kenyans had started going back to work despite a stay-at-home order

Health CS Mutahi Kagwe quoted Proverbs 10:17 in the Bible on Tuesday, May 5, as he lectured a section of indisciplined Kenyans ignoring government directives on coronavirus.

The lecture came after the country confirmed the highest ever number of COVID-19 cases in a single day at 45.

READ ALSO: Somalia president Mohamed Farmajo calls Uhuru, expresses regret for downing of plane

Health CS Mutahi Kagwe (center) at a past press conference. Photo: MoH.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Identities of Kenyan pilots killed after aircraft got shot down in Somalia released

Kagwe's warning came after Googles weekly COVID-19 community mobility report showed more Kenyans had started going back to work despite a stay-at-home order.

"Whoever heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray," the verse reads.

"I am quoting this scripture because the figures we have gotten today show things are not getting better, those telling others that things are getting better are lying to them. Somewhere along the way we seem as a society to have come to conclusion that things have gone back to normal, but we are not," Kagwe said.

He warned that failure by people especially restaurants to observe the laid down Ministry of Health guidelines was the cause of the upsurge in new infections.

He said some Kenyans were taking two beers with one sausage while others took one orange with two beers in restaurants before they moved the next one available.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Kenya stood at 535 after the new cases were recorded, out of which 182 had recovered while 24 succumbed to the virus.

"Today's figures show things are far from normal, things are challenging, those exhibiting the indiscipline and leading others astray are becoming a common phenomena. People are abusing measures to ease restrictions like opening hotels, they not following protocols thus endangering others,"

"These are threatening livelihoods of those following restrictions. There is a chance and I ask those responsible that we adhere to rules. Those who continue exposing Kenyans you will bear the brunt of the law. We will take action and you will face the law," he cautioned.

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

Kenyans mixed reactions to' poor' families having more children than they can provide for | Tuko TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 22:26:42|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia on Tuesday received a total of 30,000 rapid COVID-19 test kits from South Korea, according to the Mongolian health ministry.

"The South Korean government plans to donate COVID-19 test kits worth 250,000 U.S. dollars in total to Mongolia. In the first phase, we are providing 30,000 rapid COVID-19 test kits," South Korean Ambassador to Mongolia Lee Yeo-hong said during a handover ceremony.

He described the donation as a warm-hearted gesture from the South Korean people to support Mongolia's fight against the pandemic.

As of Tuesday, Mongolia has confirmed 41 COVID-19 cases, all of which are imported, including four foreign nationals.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Mongolia and South Korea.

Mongolians in South Korea form the largest overseas population of Mongolian nationals. Currently, their number is estimated at 47,000, according to the Mongolian foreign ministry. Enditem
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Large-scale spring exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts and the Hungarian National Gallery, planned for this year will probably be postponed to next year, ministerial commissioner overseeing the institutions Laszlo Baan told Inforadio on Monday.

One such show is a reconstruction of finding the tomb of a pharaoh. Consultations will have to be held with many lenders for the museum to be able to present the exhibition next spring, he said.



Negotiations are also ongoing with Tate Britain, as the National Gallery had intended to host an exhibit of Britains Pre-Raphaelite movement, but that also fell through in April.



Talks are not easy, since all museums are closed in Europe, Baan remarked, adding that it will be decided over the next few months whether the aforementioned exhibitions can be staged next year.



As large museums will reopen in Austria in May, which country is a kind of model regarding the epidemic, Baan said he trusts that the same could happen in Hungary and in Budapest in June or July, albeit with extensive precautionary measures.



So far, no museum employee has been dismissed, and even those who have no work in this period are paid a minimum sum so as not to leave them entirely without a salary, he added.



Baan expressed hope that major exhibitions planned for the autumn will be held.



MTI Photo: Zoltan Mathe
Press Release

May 4, 2020 Senate adopts Bong Go's resolution urging the Executive Branch to formulate and implement a "Balik Probinsya" program The Senate on Monday, May 4, adopted a resolution, mainly sponsored by Senator Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go, urging the executive department to formulate and implement a "Balik Probinsya" program which aims to decongest Metro Manila, promote more robust regional development, and encourage equitable distribution of wealth, livelihood opportunities and economic growth nationwide. The proposal also aims to better prepare the country in responding to future pandemics and other crises similar to what is being experienced at the present due to the COVID-19 health emergency. In his sponsorship speech, Go said that the COVID-19 pandemic "has exposed and brought to the surface many of our country's perennial problems, including congestion in our urban centers, particularly in Metro Manila." "Such problem results in a whole lot of other issues, including poverty, economic inequality, traffic jams, environmental issues, among others," Go said. "More importantly, overcrowding in Metro Manila makes it more difficult to contain diseases here, putting us all at risk for future pandemics," he added. Go cited data from the Department of Health which reveals that, as of May 1, 2020, of the total 8,772 COVID-19 infection cases, NCR registered a total of 5,968 cases, representing 68% of the country's total. Go's resolution also cited a study of the Asian Development Bank tagging Metro Manila as the most congested natural city in Asia with a population greater than five million. The traffic congestion alone costs the economy P3.5 billion pesos a day and the situation can get worse at P5.4 billion a day by year 2035 if interventions will not be made, according to another study conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Go explained that such overcrowding predisposes Metro Manila to disease outbreaks and makes it harder for the government to contain pandemics in the national capital. "Given the nature of the virus and the manner by which it is spread between individuals, highly dense communities in Metro Manila explain why nearly seven out of ten infected Filipinos are found in the nation's capital," he said. To alleviate congestion in the metropolis, the Senator then highlighted the need to improve the quality of life in the country and improve access to quality social services, especially in rural areas, through a "Balik Probinsya" program. "The proposed program is envisioned as a multi-sectoral comprehensive program to decongest Metro Manila by helping stranded workers and OFWs, assisting people who want to relocate to the provinces, and encouraging people to settle down in the provinces for good," Go said in his speech. Go said that the "Balik Probinsiya" program will also encourage informal settlers and those living in danger areas to move out of Metro Manila and go back to their home provinces by providing them with decent housing, easier access to key services, nearby schools, job and livelihood opportunities and even small-business support in the grassroots level, among others. "Kasi kami pong mga probinsyano, we are always fascinated na dito sa Maynila maganda, kumpleto rito, nandirito na lahat... Pero ngayon, gaya ng sinabi ni Senator Gordon, 8 out top 10 po na pumasa sa Bar (exams), they came from the provinces," Go said. He added that the delivery of social services was also adversely affected due to workers being stranded in Metro Manila during ECQ while their families are in the provinces. "Alam ninyo po, isa rin po sa mga dahilan kaya maraming hindi nakakatanggap ng mga Social Amelioration dahil 'yung iba po ay nandun sa probinsya ang kanilang mga pamilya, habang nagtatrabaho sila dito," Go said. "Madami pong mga stranded na mga workers na napapabayaan lang po diyan sa construction site nila, na gusto na rin pong umuwi," he added. Go's fellow Senator Richard Gordon has also manifested his support to the resolution. "Sana po, sa pamamagitan ng Balik Probinsya Program, mabigyan ng bagong pag-asa ang mga Pilipino na makakabangon muli pagkatapos malampasan ang krisis na ito. Magbayanihan po tayo," Go said. "Together, let us heal as one and give Filipinos 'hope' for a better tomorrow," Go ended.
Researchers all over the world are working furiously to find treatments for the coronavirus that has already killed more than 250,000 worldwide.

They are racing against the clock, facing the monumental task of sifting through millions of potential treatments. They can combine them in the lab with the virus to see what happens, work that requires countless test tubes, chemicals and hours of work.

"Its finding a needle in a haystack, said Jerome Baudry, professor of biological sciences at University of Alabama in Huntsville. It takes months and costs a fortune.

Thats why Baudry and his team are bringing in the big guns. A supercomputer on loan from Hewlett Packard Enterprises will help Baudry search for potential coronavirus treatments in a fraction of the time.

Instead of doing the tests in the test tube, we replicate that process in the computer, Baudry said. We can screen millions of compounds a day in a big computer and really focus on the most promising ones and reprocess them.

His team will focus on a library of natural products found in living organisms. Other researchers are already focusing on existing drugs, but Baudrys research will mine other chemicals that are readily available. They are partnering with the National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi to identify and refine potential treatments.

If the group gets lucky, the computer will quickly identify a compound that can block the coronavirus from invading cells or replicating itself. At the very least, Baudry expects it to identify substances that show some ability to slow the virus and can be tweaked to become more effective.

They will initially run the computer at high speeds to identify the most promising compounds, then more slowly and methodically analyze those to determine which could prove most effective.

We will use artificial intelligence to have a quick look at very large libraries to scale that down to maybe 20,000, Baudry said. The we take that top 20,000 and use other kinds of machine learning approaches to take a closer look at all of them.

Hewlett Packards Cray Sentinel supercomputer is a powerful tool in the fight against coronavirus. Similar supercomputers have been used in drug discovery in the past by modeling chemical and physical reactions to predict how a given compound might act on viruses, Baudry said.

The problem is a difficult one. Baudry compared the coronavirus to a house with 14 doors. Researchers must find the right key  out of millions  to unlock one of those doors and get inside. Much of the worlds scientific establishment has pivoted to coronavirus research this year and is collaborating at a level Baudry said he has never seen.

To have a chance to get something against the COVID virus, everyone has to try, he said.

Baudry hopes his work will yield results quickly. The fight against coronavirus has some similarities to the Space Race, he said, and Huntsville already has partnerships in place to speech technological discovery.

There is a philosophy here of lets go to the moon quickly, not because its easy but because its difficult, Baudry said. I think we are the right place to make it happen.
The Delhi Police received over 750 calls on its 24x7 helpline number from 2 pm on Monday and the same time on Tuesday, seeking assistance on issues faced during the lockdown, officials said.

In total, the police have received 37,626 calls so far on its helpline number (23469526), they said.

According to the police, 774 calls were received from 2 pm on Monday to 2 pm on Tuesday. Of them, 67 calls were related to areas outside Delhi, which were referred to respective state helpline numbers.

Nearly 2,22,876 persons were given food packets while 2004 people were given dry ration at more than 250 locations by the Delhi police so far with the involvement of NGOs and good samaritans, a senior police official said.

Besides, Delhi Police in association with North East Council has also distributed 50 dry ration kits, each containing rice, wheat flour, pulse, salt, oil and spices, in Shahpur Jat Pulia and Hauz Khas, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
SINGAPORE, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As economies gradually reopen globally, people around the world share a responsibility to keep up the fight against COVID-19. To allow more businesses and people to monitor social distancing easily, AI Hub Singapore has created an AI application that turns a ubiquitous device - a mobile phone - into a social distance monitoring instrument.

Dubbed SafeDistancer, the innovative application makes use of AI and computer vision to detect people in the phone's camera frame and monitors the distance between them in realtime. When people get too close together, the application is able to emit alarms to highlight the breaches.

"Our customers and partners are looking forward to going back to their workplaces and we are happy to be able to help them do this in a safe and responsible way," said Chong Choo, Director of Ecosystem at AI Hub Singapore.

The "AI at the edge" system runs advanced machine learning algorithms to detect people in an image. The results are then processed with data analytics on-device to alert when people get too near each other.

A key concern in such computer vision AI systems is the need to respect personal privacy. SafeDistancer addresses this in two ways. First, all of the processing is done on-device so there is no sending of images across a network - the mobile phone can be used without network connectivity. Second, the system is designed to not recognize faces and also does not store any images on the device.

SafeDistancer is currently being rolled out with key partners as businesses get ready to resume normal operations. In addition to running on a mobile phone, it also comes with the ability to be integrated with existing enterprise infrastructure.

About AI Hub Singapore



Headquartered in Singapore, AI Hub International provides solutions that allow enterprises and startups to tap powerful AI capabilities easily. Customized AI solutions can be rapidly deployed by tapping AI Hub product suites  SmartVision, SmartLanguage and SmartPrediction  to empower business innovation.

About SafeDistancer



SafeDistancer is a computer vision solution that derives from the AI Hub SmartVision suite, tailored for monitoring safe social distancing. https://aihub.sg/blog/social-distance-monitoring-with-artificial-intelligence/

SOURCE AI Hub Singapore

Related Links

https://aihub.sg


People wear masks and gloves as they wait to enter a Walmart in Uniondale, N.Y., on April 17, 2020. (Al Bello/Getty Images)

Second Walmart in Mass. Closes Due to a Cluster of CCP Virus Cases Among Employees

A Walmart in Quincy, Mass., closed after a cluster of confirmed CCP virus cases among employees, according to Ruth Jones, the local health commissioner.

One employee from that location has died, she said. It is unclear how many employees have tested positive at the store.

The Quincy store is the second Walmart in the state to close because of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus in as many weeks and one of at least three locations where an employee has died. Two employees died at a Chicago-area store, and one at an Aurora, Colo. store. All three passed away in April.

Last week, 81 store associates and employees associated with the Walmart in Worcester, Mass. tested positive and the city ordered the store to close. That store is expected to reopen on May 5, a Walmart spokesperson told CNN Monday night.

People wearing masks and gloves wait to enter a Walmart in Uniondale, N.Y., on April 17, 2020. (Al Bello/Getty Images)

Concerned With the Increase in Numbers

Jones said complaints from employees and customers last week led to an investigation into the Quincy store.

A person shops in front of empty shelves in the deli section of the Walmart Supercenter as concerns grow over the spread of the CCP virus in Nashville, Tenn., on March 14, 2020. (Jason Kempin/Getty Images)

I have had inspectors there every day last week due to complaints from employees and patrons concerning overcrowding and lack of social distancing, Jones said. Employees were also concerned that coworkers may be ill. I had been monitoring the number of cases in employees and was concerned with the increase in numbers and the death of an employee, suggesting they test all of the employees.

The store in Quincy voluntarily closed Monday and the entire facility will be cleaned and disinfected, Jones said.

In a statement to CNN Monday, a Walmart spokesperson said they had been made aware of the loss of an associate from their Quincy store, and are going through the necessary steps to get a confirmation from the health department, while keeping the associates privacy in mind.

We are working with local officials on next steps to reopen, and are discussing measures like testing for associates and others who work at the store, the Walmart spokesperson said. Once reopened, we will continue to conduct associate health screens and temperature checks, and all associates will be provided with face masks and gloves.

The CNN Wire and Epoch Times staff contributed to this report.
As nearly half of U.S. states begin to ease restrictions that were put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is quietly projecting a stark rise in the number of new cases of the virus and deaths from it over the next month.

Modeling from the CDC, incorporated into a chart prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and circulated within the administration, was obtained by the New York Times. It projects 200,000 new daily cases of the coronavirus by the end of May and 3,000 daily deaths in the U.S. At present, approximately 25,000 new cases are reported each day, with roughly 1,750 deaths.

Without disputing the accuracy of the modeling used by the CDC, the White House quickly distanced itself from the projections.

This data is not reflective of any of the modeling done by the task force or data that the task force has analyzed, White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said in a Monday statement. The presidents phased guidelines to open up America again are a scientific-driven approach that the top health and infectious disease experts in the federal government agreed with.

Despite the growing risk of exposure and death from COVID-19, many states are proceeding with a relaxation of restrictions that were meant to slow the spread of the virus, which have brought the nations economy to a virtual halt. Those moves in states like Georgia and Texas do not follow the phased federal guidelines issued by President Trumps coronavirus task force on April 16.

The guidelines were announced at a White House press briefing, where Trump proclaimed that now that we have passed the peak in new cases, were starting our life again, were starting rejuvenation of our economy again, in a safe and structured and very responsible fashion. There were 32,076 new cases in the U.S. on that day, a number that has been exceeded on at least four days since.

While the implementation was left to the discretion of state governors, the guidelines were clear that no state should attempt to ease restrictions until it had observed a downward trajectory of new cases of the virus over a 14-day period. Yet, as of this weekend, no state in the nation could make that claim.

Story continues

On Fox News Sunday, anchor Chris Wallace pressed Dr. Deborah Birx, one of the leading health experts on the coronavirus task force, on that point.

Not a single state has met the White House gating guidelines of two weeks of steady decline in new cases. Are you concerned about this patchwork reopening, and why leave it up to the governors? Wallace asked Birx. Why not set a firm, if not binding, a firm national policy on when states can reopen?

Well, I think federal guidelines are pretty firm policy of what we think is important from a public health standpoint, Birx responded. We also made it possible for states to open counties independently of the entire state, because, again, some of these outbreaks are very local and have to be studied and understood that way.

President Trump on the South Lawn of the White House on Sunday. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Reopening the country without ramping up testing, building an army of contact tracers or having a plan in place to isolate those who test positive for the virus is certain to result in a spike of new cases, numerous health experts have warned.

Yet at least 26 states intend to test that prediction, many of them starting this week.

Georgia became the first state to lift coronavirus restrictions when Gov. Brian Kemp announced on April 20 that he would allow businesses like massage and tattoo parlors, hair salons, gyms and bowling alleys to reopen on April 24. Three days later the state further loosened restrictions, allowing restaurants and theaters to reopen.

Before his announcement, Kemp informed Trump of his decision on a conference call between the president and the nations governors. On that call, Trump was heard praising Kemp for doing a great job.

But after Kemp was sharply criticized for lifting the states restrictions too soon, Trump said he was unhappy with the governor.

I want them to open, and I want him to open as soon as possible, Trump told reporters on April 24. And I want the state to open. But I wasnt happy with Brian Kemp. I will tell you that right now.

Since moving to reopen the state, Georgia has continued to see a high number of new cases, with 1,000 reported on Friday and another 999 on Saturday. Despite the new data, Kemp let his shelter-in-place restriction for residents expire on Monday.

As this public health experiment has taken place, the risk of exposure to the virus for Georgia citizens has risen by 42 percent, according to data compiled by Stanford Universitys COVID-19 Case Mapper.

Similarly worrying figures have been reported in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott lifted stay-at-home orders last weekend. In a tweet posted Sunday, the governor sought to emphasize what he saw as a bit of good news about the number of people in the state who have recovered from COVID-19.

GREAT NEWS:



The number of Texans who have RECOVERED from #COVID19 now exceeds the number of active COVID cases for the past 2 days.



Thats exactly what we want to see.



Texas ranks 3rd highest among states for number of people who have recovered from #coronavirus. #txlege  Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) May 3, 2020

Yet Sunday also marked the fourth straight day that the state tallied more than 1,000 new cases of the virus. Far from showing a 14-day decline in new cases, Dallas County reported Sunday its highest daily tally so far, with 234 new positive results.

Customers at a Waffle House restaurant in Brookhaven, Ga., on April 27. (John Spink/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

And while Abbott is correct that on Saturday and Sunday Texas reported a higher number of people who had recovered from the virus than were still infected by it, Texas ranks 49th among states for per capita testing for the coronavirus. As of Monday, the state, which has a population of 29 million, said 407,398 tests had been administered. More testing would certainly reveal a much higher number of active cases, health experts say, and the overall number of cases continues to grow. As of Monday, 32,332 Texans had tested positive, up from 25,297 a week earlier.

Given the Trump administrations own internal projections, states across the nation can expect to see many more cases and deaths in the days ahead.

_____

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:
A logo sits on the lab coat of a technician as he works at Neusentis Ltd.'s research laboratory, a unit of Pfizer Inc.

Pfizer said Tuesday it has begun testing an experimental vaccine to combat the coronavirus in the United States.

The U.S.-based pharmaceutical giant, which is working alongside German drugmaker BioNTech, said the first human participants in the United States have been dosed with the potential vaccine, BNT162. They began human trials of the experimental vaccine late last month in Germany.

"With our unique and robust clinical study program underway, starting in Europe and now the U.S., we look forward to advancing quickly and collaboratively with our partners at BioNTech and regulatory authorities to bring a safe and efficacious vaccine to the patients who need it most," Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement.

"The short, less than four-month time frame in which we've been able to move from preclinical studies to human testing, is extraordinary," he added.

The experimental vaccine contains genetic material called messenger RNA, or mRNA. The mRNA is a genetic code that tells cells what to build  in this case, an antigen that may induce an immune response for the virus.

The trial will test the experimental vaccine on adults ages 18 to 55 in the first stage before moving on to older groups, the company said, adding it hopes to test up to 360 people.

There are no FDA-approved therapies to treat Covid-19, and drugmakers are racing to produce a vaccine, which U.S. health officials say is expected to take at least 12 to 18 months.

The effort by Pfizer and BioNTech is one of several working on a potential vaccine to prevent Covid-19, which has sickened more than 3.5 million people worldwide and has killed at least 247,752 as of Monday night, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. There were more than 100 vaccines in development globally as of April 30, according to the World Health Organization, with at least eight vaccine candidates already in human trials.

Hopes to get a vaccine to market are high, but scientists are setting expectations low for how quickly it can happen. Developing, testing and reviewing any potential vaccine is a long, complex and expensive endeavor that could take years, global health experts say.

Biotech firm Moderna, in partnership with the National Institutes of Health, began the first human trial testing for a potential vaccine in March.

Johnson & Johnson said it is aiming to produce 600 million to 900 million doses of its potential coronavirus vaccine by the end of the first quarter of 2021 if human trials scheduled to begin in September go as planned.

Pfizer hopes to produce "millions" of vaccines by the end of this year, the company's chief scientific officer, Dr. Mikael Dolsten, told CNBC last month. The company said Tuesday it expects to increase to "hundreds of millions" of doses next year.

Sites currently dosing participants include NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Pfizer said. The University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester Regional Health and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center will "begin enrollment shortly," the company said.

Upon regulatory approval, Pfizer and BioNTech will work jointly to commercialize the vaccine worldwide.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

An Albuquerque shop owner named as a recipient of a city grant program learned Monday it wasnt a bureaucratic snafu holding up the check in the mail  it was his own criminal record.

Mike DElia, owner of the Nob Hill comic shop Astro-Zombies, included the Journal and four other media outlets Monday on an email to Mayor Tim Keller asking why he hadnt received his money or heard back from city staff since April 14, when he learned he was a recipient of the citys Micro-Business Relief Program.

The program was designed to help businesses with fewer than five employees weather the COVID-19-related economic downturn  with a few caveats. One was that business owners must disclose criminal history.

After a review of the documentation provided by Astro-Zombies, the business owner was determined not to be eligible for the grant, city Economic Development Department spokeswoman Jennifer Esquivel wrote in an email. In the application process, the owner did not fully disclose that he had pled no contest to multiple felonies and did not disclose the nature of those crimes.

DElia said he disclosed his conviction but was told Monday afternoon his explanation wasnt sufficient and the grant would be revoked.

He said he was informed of his ineligibility after the Journal reached out to the Economic Development Department asking about the grant application Monday afternoon.

The application for the grant program asks in bolded print if any current owner (has) been accused or convicted or (sic) any wrongdoing or crime, other than a simple misdemeanor.

Journal writer Jessica Dyer contributed to this report.
Ivanhoe Grammar has narrowly avoided a showdown in the Fair Work Commission after it became the latest private school to reconsider standing staff down due to revenue shortfalls brought on by the coronavirus.

Last month the high-fee independent school stood down staff until at least the end of May. The Independent Education Union said about 60 staff were affected although the school declined to confirm the number.

Ivanhoe Grammar

But Ivanhoe Grammar, which offers early learning to year 12 across three campuses, is now believed to have welcomed the staff back to work, with reduced hours likely.

The backdown means the school and the Independent Education Union will no longer face off at the Fair Work Commission on Friday.
A small crowd of supporters gathered outside the Quent Cordair Fine Art gallery on Monday morning, but this group wasnt necessarily looking to buy a painting or sculpture. They were there to support the gallerys decision to reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic, defying the countys closure of non-essential businesses.

Its a matter of exercising your freedom, said Joyce Loehner, Napa resident.

Loehner stood holding a handwritten sign that read OPEN our ECONOMY on one side and Shop Local on the other.

The county has ordered everyone to shelter-in-place, but Were practicing good infection control, said Loehner, adding that most of those present were wearing masks and standing apart from each other.

The government should trust people enough to be good citizens and make good decisions about our health, including which shops to frequent, said Loehner.

Larry Green of Napa held his own sign, Let us work, as he stood next to the gallery at 1301 First St. Were supporting small businesses  and the little guy getting back to work, he said.

If you want to shelter-in-place, you have every right to do so, said Green. However, Green said he doesnt want small business owners to be reliant on government handouts.

What if Green is an asymptomatic carrier of the COVID-19 virus and doesnt know it?

Im wearing my mask and social distancing, he said. If thats not good enough, stay at home.

Its time to let them reopen, said one woman, holding a sign in support of the gallery owners decision.

People are suffering, said the woman, who declined to give her name because she has a small business in Napa, and was worried her customers might not agree with her opinion.

What about the county public health officer asking people to shelter in place?

If youre compromised, stay home, she said.

We just wanted to show our support, for the gallery owners Linda and Quent Cordair, said the woman. Theyre the first business to take a chance, and reopen against the countys wishes.

Leon Brauning attended the small gathering as well.

The Cordairs are very brave people to have publicly announced their reopening against county wishes, he said. The Cordairs released a letter last Monday stating their need to reopen the gallery or face dire economic consequences.

He said reopening will help the local economy. Before COVID-19, the Napa County was doing well, Brauning said. Now everyones hurting. It needs to come back. Some common sense needs to be used here.

Every business is essential, he said.

Not everyone agreed, however. As Brauning spoke, a man on a bicycled pedaled by. Grow up, he shouted.

That bit of dissent was one of only a few such instances during the approximately hour-long gathering.

The other came from Colin Dawson of Napa.

I think theyre idiots, said Dawson, who stood on the other side of First Street to watch the assembly. Its ridiculous. I dont think anything in that store is essential.

An art store, of all things, he said, dismissively. Its about as essential as a third foot.

Dawson said if the owners havent saved enough money to get through an emergency like this, theres something wrong with them, he said.

Dawson, who was wearing a mask, said he came to the gallery because he was hoping thered be people protesting the reopening. Its unfortunate, he said. Im the only one stopping people from entering that store.

Kent Higginbotham of Napa also participated in the gathering. I admire them so much for the stand they are taking, he said of the Cordairs.

He doesnt agree that the gallery should be closed. What is the common sense, when the candy store next to the gallery can be open but the art gallery cant.

Gallery owner Linda Cordair said approximately 40 people  no more than six at a time  visited inside the gallery in that first hour.

Inside the gallery, Quent and Linda Cordair were kept busy welcoming visitors and making sure all sanitizing procedures were being followed.

They offered masks for sale for $5, hand sanitizer and posted signs about social distancing. Anyone who signed their guest book was asked to keep the pen they used.

Were happy to be open, said Linda Cordair. The couple said that their attorney advised them against commenting further.

In a Register story last week, they said the gallery could reopen safely, with proper precautions.

We are facing financial ruin, if the gallery is not able to reopen, Quent Cordair said then.

Napa resident Sheri DeBow was also at the gathering. As an artist, DeBow said she especially wanted to support the business owners. In addition, As an American, I love seeing someone whos standing up for their civil liberties and livelihood, and is willing to take a stance.

It makes no sense that people can go to Walmart and Target but cant frequent a local business.

DeBow is married to Terry Letson of Fume bistro in north Napa. Letson said while Fume had been open for take-out, he decided to reopen for table services on Monday.

Were all suffering, said Letson. Take-out isnt enough. If we dont keep our restaurant full, we go out of business, he said.

Weve been patient, said Letson. However, we dont feel that Napa County (COVID-19) statistics warrant a closure.

Letson said to ensure safe dining, hes removed half of the dining tables and added new safety measures including taking the temperatures of employees and using paper napkins. Business hours have been reduced and they are open only for dinner.

Were taking a lot of precautions to be safe. But if people arent comfortable yet, they are more than welcome to stay home.

Is he worried about catching the attention from city or county authorities?

Of course I am, he said. But that doesnt outweigh how I feel about reopening the business.

I dont know where the city will go with this, he said. Things are changing, he noted. The governor might decide Wednesday to reopen the state.

Napa County spokeswoman Molly Rattigan said only that the county had sent a letter to the gallery about the reopening.

The Cordairs previously stated they were prepared to risk fines, arrest, or jail, by reopening.

According to city spokeswoman Jaina French, the Napa police departments responsibility is to make the business aware of the public health order.

We will encourage them to follow the directives of the public health order  in order to protect the health and safety of our community, said French.

French said the first step in compliance is an educational phone call.

If complaints continue, a follow-up phone call may occur or if there is a refusal to comply, a citation may be issued said French.

The Countys health order states that a violation of or failure to comply is a misdemeanor punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both, said French.

We stress the importance of compliance of the health order so that we can reduce the spread of COVID-19 and ensure the safety and well-being of everyone in our community. We have not yet had to resort to enforcement.

Editors note: Because of the health implications of the COVID-19 virus, this article is being made available free to subscribers and non-subscribers alike. If youd like to join us in supporting the mission of local journalism, please visit napavalleyregister.com/members/join/

You can reach reporter Jennifer Huffman at 256-2218 or jhuffman@napanews.com

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By Sarah Marsh HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Monday called a gun assault last week on its embassy in Washington a 'terrorist attack', while U.S. court papers said the suspected gunman was a psychotic Cuban emigre who heard voices. There were no injuries in the attack last Thursday, but gunshots riddled the facade and some penetrated the building.

By Sarah Marsh

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Monday called a gun assault last week on its embassy in Washington a "terrorist attack", while U.S. court papers said the suspected gunman was a psychotic Cuban emigre who heard voices.

There were no injuries in the attack last Thursday, but gunshots riddled the facade and some penetrated the building. Police arrested Alexander Alazo, 42, at around 2 a.m. after he fired an AK-47-style semi-automatic rifle 32 times at the embassy, according a memorandum filed on Sunday in support of pretrial detention.

Alazo told investigators he would have shot the ambassador if he had come out because he was "the enemy". Voices in his head had told him to protect his family from what he believed were Cuban organized crime groups affiliated with the Cuban government that he claimed were following them and wanted to harm them.

He admitted he had been prescribed antipsychotic medication in March but did not fully comply with the prescription, a fact U.S. state prosecutors argued "strongly weighs against his release" before trial.

"I must denounce the terrorist attack ... and demand from the United States government a thorough and swift investigation, harsh sanctions and security measures and guarantees for our diplomatic missions," Diaz-Canel told a virtual summit of the non-aligned movement early on Monday.

Last week, Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said a dozen diplomats and workers had been in the embassy at the time of the attack, which was recorded on surveillance video.

Rodriguez said hostility toward Cuba by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump fomented violence. The U.S. State Department did not immediately reply to request for comment.

Trump has unraveled a U.S.-Cuban detente carried out by his predecessor Barack Obama.

Before attacking the embassy, Alazo first tried unsuccessfully to set fire in the rain to a gasoline-soaked Cuban flag, on which were scribbled the words "Stop Lying to People. Respect. Trump 2020. USA, Land and Family", according to court papers.

Alazo said he had emigrated first to Mexico in 2003 and then to Texas in 2007 claiming political asylum. In 2014 he returned to Cuba to preach at a church, he said, adding he left after being threatened by Cuban organized crime groups.

Convinced he was being followed, he traveled in 2018 to Germany and other countries to avoid being caught, according to the investigators' interview with his wife, a traveling nurse.

She told authorities the family would live in hotels because he was too paranoid to live at their home. It was only in March 2020 that he had received a diagnosis of a delusional disorder.

(Reporting by Sarah Marsh in Havana; Additional Reporting in Washington by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by David Gregorio)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 19:26:00|Editor: huaxia

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ANKARA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Turkish security forces killed three members of the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria, Turkey's defense ministry said Tuesday.

"Three PKK/YPG terrorists, who attempted to infiltrate the Operation Peace Spring zone, were neutralized by our heroic commandos," the ministry tweeted.

Turkish authorities often use the term "neutralize" to imply the "terrorists" who have surrendered, been killed or captured.

The tension between Turkish troops in northern Syria and the YPG members in the region is escalating in the past few days.

Turkish security forces "neutralized" at least 12 members of the YPG in Syria after a harassment attack on Turkish positions, the defense ministry said Sunday.

Turkey sees the YPG as the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The Turkish army launched Operation Euphrates Shield in 2016, Operation Olive Branch in 2018, Operation Peace Spring in 2019 and Operation Spring Shield in 2020 in order to create a YPG-free zone along its border within Syria.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the EU, has fought a 30-year war against the Turkish government, claiming the lives of more than 40,000. Enditem
The security agency has told how a list of those gone missing in the occupied areas is being formed.

The number of Ukrainians held by Russian-controlled forces in the occupied Donbas exceeds 200, says the Security Service of Ukraine.

As of April 30, 2020, a total of 214 persons remain in captivity, the latest data say, RFE/RL reported referring to the SBU.

"The list of persons the Ukrainian side is searching for as those illegally deprived of liberty in the temporarily occupied territories is compiled based on appeals from families and relatives of victims, reports by non-government organizations, mass media, as well as information exchange between entities involved in the implementation of relevant tasks," the SBU said.

Read alsoMinister explains low number of captured troops in Donbas swap lists

According to information records of the Joint Center for the coordination of search for and release of persons illegally deprived of liberty, hostages, and search for missing persons in the area of Joint Forces Operation as of April 30, 2020, a total of 214 persons were listed as unlawfully deprived of liberty," the report reads.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the latest exchange of held persons in Donbas was held April 16, when Russian-controlled forces released 20 Ukrainians, while the Ukrainian government handed 14 persons to the occupied territories.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Professional photographers around the world have had to adjust to a new reality as the coronavirus pandemic has led to canceled events and, in Ohio, a halt on gathering for traditional portrait sessions.

But some remain focused on documenting the current socially distanced times with porch portrait sessions. The new trend allows photographers to break out their long lenses and bring their work to their subjects, snapping photos of families posing on their front porches.

Often, stories from the photos subjects accompany the image, depicting the many ways that coronavirus has impacted peoples daily lives.

Here in Cleveland, photographers have found ways to capture stories within their communities. For photographer Bridget Caswell, the porch portrait movement is a natural extension of her normal neighborhood photographing sessions in Collinwood.

Caswell was inspired to take a porch portrait after witnessing her neighbor playing the accordion on her front porch.

After I took that first portrait, I realized I needed to start a daily routine. I started walking every day with my camera, Caswell said. I think its really important in times like this to come together as a community, and our neighborhood has definitely done that.

(Photo by Bridget Caswell)

Caswell, who is currently working from home as a NASA Glenn Research Center photographer, was formerly a photojournalist. She went to Kent State University when the September 11 attacks took place, and worked to capture the university response for the Kent Stater, as opposed to heading to New York to see the effects there.

She has the same approach when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic -- one that emphasizes the community surrounding her.

Its really, honestly, the biggest moment in our lifetimes. We all thought that 9/11, the tragedy of that, would be it. But who would ever think wed be in the middle of a pandemic that would change our lives? Caswell said. Its really important to know our history and see what people are experiencing. I think its a really important record that we need to make.

Other photographers have taken the opportunity to travel around Northeast Ohio for their porch portrait sessions. Kent-based photographer Roger Hoover has taken portraits in Aurora, Streetsboro, Akron, Barberton and many other local towns. He said he was inspired by Caswells work photographing her own community.

Im going to as many places as I possibly can, as long as I can stay safe, Hoover said. If I can travel there on one tank of gas, so I dont have to make any pit stops, Ill go and take your photo and share your story with everybody.

Hoover started taking porch portraits in his neighborhood in early March, before many other Northeast Ohio photographers joined the effort. He kicked off the project after losing clients at his creative agency in early 2020.

Then, the project gradually grew in scope. In addition to driving further for geographically diverse portraits, Hoover said he also plans to follow up with each photographed subject one year from now, and five years from now, to see how the coronavirus has continued to affect their lives.

So far, he said hes taken more than 100 portraits of various groups of people, with about 400 people featured. Some portraits have centered on stories about people struggling with illnesses, staying distant from their families or keeping their businesses going.

Everybody has a story, Hoover said. No matter how small or large the effect is, were all affected by it.

(Photo by Roger Hoover)

Ultimately, Hoover hopes to donate his work to a local historical society, and to print out the photographs for a Porch Portrait art walk in Kent, once restrictions on public gatherings lift. A GoFundMe fundraiser has been set up by two of Hoovers friends to help fund the projects and cover equipment rentals.

He hopes his work displayed at art walks and other future events can help drive customers to businesses once they reopen, and help kickstart Kents economy.

Cleveland photographer Amber Patrick is also using her porch portrait sessions to raise money for a good cause. Patrick has asked photo subjects and fans of her photography series to donate to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, if theyre able -- though, its not required for a photo session.

In the span of just a few weeks, Patrick has raised more than $3,000.

The idea to donate money came from feeling like I dont have a purpose right now, and I dont do well when I dont have a purpose, Patrick said. I have all this time and this talent that Im happy to donate, to do nice things. I thought that the food bank would be the best way to impact the most lives with what were doing.

Patrick lost most of her photography work when the coronavirus pandemic struck Ohio. Since early April, she has offered porch portrait sessions on weekends. Along with each photo, she asks subjects questions and shares their answers in the photo captions.

Patrick was inspired by Boston-based photographer Ally Schmaling, who created a series called Queerantine to document LGBT individuals coronavirus experiences.

They really were the catalyst for me to do this, and to find a way to make this about community in a time that is so unprecedented for people our age, Patrick said. I realized that my mental health had tanked between losing my job and not knowing what things were going to look like in the next few months, and not being able to see people.

(Photo by Amber Patrick)

Patricks series has restored her sense of purpose, she said.

I feel like I have a reason to get up every day again," Patrick said. This has helped my mental health immensely. Its nice to have something to look at to give you proof that you do good in the world, and that there is good in the world.

Beyond sharing powerful images and gathering stories, porch portrait photographers have also created connections in their communities, forging friendships and neighborly bonds.

The hardest thing to deal with, with COVID-19, is that its isolating and polarizing. Your brain tells you things that arent true, Patrick said. Its nice to have tangible evidence that, yes, joy exists; yes, love exists.

In a time thats socially distant, porch portraits have helped people feel a little closer.

Take a look at various porch portraits taken by Patrick, Hoover and Caswell in the gallery at the top of this article -- and find more work from each photographer at their Instagram accounts: @bridgetrcaswell, @aterrormusical and @rogerhoover.
Last Friday, Warren Buffett served a new blow to an already troubled industry, shaking it to the core: The celebrity investor announced that Berkshire Hathaway had sold all its holdings in airlines. The move sent ripples through the oil industry, as well.

The coronavirus pandemic had changed the world, Buffett said. It has also changed the air transport industry--and the changes may be lasting.

As one of the most significant sources of oil demand, air transport is intimately linked to the oil industry. This means any lasting changes to one would inevitably lead to lasting changes in the other.

"I don't know whether two or three years from now that as many people will fly as many passenger miles as they did last year," Buffett said during a virtual shareholders' meeting. "They may and they may not, but the future is much less clear to me about how the business will turn out through absolutely no fault of the airlines themselves."

When the man known as the Oracle of Omaha doesn't know what the future holds to an extent to make an investment mistake, things must be really bad. Indeed, they are: jet fuel was the oil derivative that has registered the greatest demand plunge so far this year, according to the International Energy Agency. Over the full year, it is likely to book a 33.6-percent total decline, equal to about 2.4 million bpd, according to Rystad Energy. There is talk about peak oil demand resulting from the pandemic.

Peak oil demand has replaced peak oil supply as the doomsday scenario for oil in recent years thanks to a drive to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources to reduce humankind's catastrophic carbon footprint. This drive is still on, despite the pandemic. In fact, the European Parliament has sprouted a "Green recovery alliance" that will seek to make sure that crisis recovery will be tied to environmental targets.

"The COVID-19 has not made the climate crisis go away. The public money that states and Europe will spend to reinvest in the economy must be consistent with the Green Deal," French MEP Pascal Canfin, who initiated the alliance, said.

The International Monetary Fund has also sounded a cautionary note against a total return to business as usual, overlooking environmental ambitions.

Related: 3 Ways To Play The Oil Price Bounce



"Taking measures now to fight the climate crisis is not just a 'nice-to-have'. It is a 'must-have' if we are to leave a better world for our children," IMF's chief Kristalina Georgieva told the Petersberg Climate Dialogue last week. "What we do now will not only reshape our economies and societies; it will also reshape humanity's future on this planet," she said. "A 'green recovery' is our bridge to a more resilient future."

So, theoretically, this would mean more money for renewables and more motivation for legislation and other measures seeking to curb people's hunger for oil products. This will come while the oil industryboth upstream and downstreamis reeling from the blow from the coronavirus, with even Exxon posting its first quarterly loss in decades.

Companies are slashing billions in spending, and they are shutting in wells: a risky business because sometimes a shut-in well cannot be brought back to life. Some have filed for bankruptcy, and more are preparing to do just that. Oil nations such as Russia and Saudi Arabia are bracing for budget revenue blows, and virtually everyone is cutting oil production.

Normally, this would eventually lead to a shortage. However, as suggested by current trends, the situation is as far from normal as it can be. U.S. shale companies will not be the only ones to start falling like dominoes. Many airlines are hanging by a thread, and even the top players in the air industry--including Boeing, Airbus, and British Airways--are feeling the pinch.

It's a painful one: Boeing said it would be cutting 10 percent of its workforce after seeing a considerable loss in the first quarter. Airbus is also cutting jobs and warning its remaining workforce that it may not survive as it was, "bleeding cash at an unprecedented speed." British Airways said it would cut as many as 12,000 jobs. Four airlines have already gone under and this is just the beginning. According to industry bodies, as much as 85 percent of the world's airline could be bankrupt by the end of the year.

Now picture this: within a year, air travel could become a luxury few can afford, the way it was decades ago. Some believe it would take the air travel industry three years to return to pre-crisis performance, so this means no truly lasting damage. However, uncertainty remains a keyword. Nobody really knows how things will turn out. If air travel changes for good, the oil industry will change for good, as well, helped by the generous efforts of pro-green governments and international organizations. We may indeed witness the end of oil demand growth.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Police in Ukraine have launched an investigation into a birth center suspected of harboring an illegal cross-border child-trafficking ring that smuggled surrogate babies into China.

Officials in the Eastern European nation suspect the privately operated Kiev center of recruiting Ukrainian surrogate mothers for Chinese clients and then forging marriage and identity documents to smuggle infants into China, according to a report (link in Ukrainian) of a raid on the center published April 25 on the official Ukrainian police website.

Ukrainian law enforcement are investigating three Chinese suspects believed to be members of the ring and a further 140 Chinese nationals thought to have links with the surrogacy service. Ukrainian and Chinese officials are cooperating closely on the case, according to a Facebook post by Anton Herashchenko, a deputy minister at the Ukrainian ministry of internal affairs.

According to the police report, five newborns were found during the raid on the center. Authorities have taken them to the hospital for further care.

Staff at the center scoured Ukraine for prospective surrogate mothers, the report said. The country has some of the worlds most open surrogacy laws, permitting the practice as long as the intended parents and the surrogate mother all provide written informed consent.

To ensure the childrens smooth passage out of the country, staff also allegedly colluded with the surrogates to forge marriage licenses and birth records, the report said. Traffickers allegedly obtained fake certificates declaring bogus nuptials between Chinese men and Ukrainian surrogates, and doctored the parents names on birth certificates to match the names of Chinese clients.

The alleged fraud allowed the organization to smuggle the babies out of Ukraine on documentation claiming they were the children of Chinese-Ukrainian couples, according to police. It is not known how many surrogate children may have passed through the center.

The organizations ringleaders are believed to be a 50-year-old Ukrainian woman who worked as the birth centers chief doctor, and her 28-year-old son.

Ukrainian police say the birth center charged brokerage fees of about $50,000 for child surrogacy services. Surrogate mothers were paid amounts starting at $15,000. Fake marriage certificates could be bought for around $1,000.

The police report said that the suspects were being investigated for suspected human trafficking, which in Ukraine carries a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison. Ukrainian officials have not confirmed whether the children passed into the care of Chinese nationals upon arrival in the East Asian nation.

Chinese and Ukrainian law enforcement bodies, as well as the Chinese Embassy in Ukraine, hadnt responded to Caixins requests for comment by the time of publication.

It is understood that Ukrainian police previously raided the birth center on several occasions, but did not probe staff computers, mobile phones, or company documents.

Herashchenkos Facebook post said the Ukrainian parliament will expedite legislation aimed at better regulating surrogacy to crack down on human trafficking.

Contact reporter Matthew Walsh (matthewwalsh@caixin.com) and editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com)
The Pune, Khadki and Dehu road Cantonment areas, combined, have reported 77 Covid-19 positive cases and three deaths in the last 30 days.

The worst-affected of the three is the Pune Cantonment board (PCB), which has reported 54 positive cases of the 77 in all the Cantonment areas.

The Khadki Cantonment board has reported 21 cases, whereas the Dehu road Cantonment board has reported 2 cases.

The Cantonment boards fall under the ministry of defence and are located in some of the most congested parts of the city.

The PCB borders Bhavani peth, that has the highest number of Covid-19 cases in the city.

Amit Kumar, chief executive officer (CEO) of Pune Cantonment board (PCB) said, most of the cases which have been reported in PCB are from New Modikhana and areas adjacent to Bhavani peth, which is a red zone.

Initially, there were people entering from Bhavani peth which might have caused the infection to spread. We have now sealed the area to stop any movement of people from Bhavani peth inside PCB, Kumar said.

According to Kumar, the PCB administration swung into action after the first case was identified on April 7, of senior citizen who tested Covid-19 positive.

Each Cantonment area has one hospital, however these hospitals do not have ventilators or ICU facilities, which is why patients are required to be shifted to other hospitals, including the Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial and the Aundh district hospital.

The PCB aims to begin a 10-bed ICU facility in its 100-bedded Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Cantonment General Hospital.

We have already issued a tender and in the next 10 days our ICU facility should be ready. We do not have any shortage of experts or infrastructure; we will ensure that the spread of the virus is contained. We have not referred a single patient as of yet to our hospital but we need to be prepared for any eventuality, Kumar said.

Despite various schemes for the treatment of defence personnel, some private and government hospitals are refusing admission due to overflow of Covid-19 wards.

According to Dr Ranjeet Bhosale, resident medical officer at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Cantonment General Hospital, without ventilators or ICU facilities the patients had to be referred to private hospitals and even government hospitals including Sassoon.

However, our patients who needed intensive care were refused admission at private hospitals and Sassoon citing overflowing Covid-19 wards in hospitals, Bhosale said.

Bhosale further added that most of the cases reported were from a single source, the persons family, neighbours and others were infected following a false negative after which the patient was discharged from a government hospital.

We also faced a lot of resistance from people especially in slum areas post the tablighi report. People hid their travel history and any flu like symptoms, Bhosale said.

The Cantonment board had to take police help to ensure that the lockdown is strictly implemented in slums especially where congestion is a huge issue with multiple people living in the same house.

Areas like Sayyedwada, Kasai Mohalla and Darga vasahat are densely populated, Bhosale said.
The Centre Tuesday told the Supreme Court that Indian citizens, who are stranded in foreign countries in the wake of lockdown and travel restrictions due to COVID-19 pandemic, would be brought back from May 7 onwards.

The government informed about the measures taken to address the issues of stranded Indian citizens to a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan which was hearing through video-conferencing a plea seeking direction to the Centre to ensure safe passage to migrant workers, who are hailing from Nepal and are stranded in Uttarakhand.

The apex court was also urged to give direction to the government to bring back Indian citizens who are stuck in Nepal.

Coronavirus India News LIVE

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench, also comprising Justices S K Kaul and B R Gavai, that he has got instructions in the matter that all Indian citizens stranded abroad in various countries, including Nepal, would be brought back from May 7 onwards.

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

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for petitioner Ganga Giri Goswami, told the bench that many of the migrant workers stranded at India-Nepal border in Uttarakhand have been allowed to go back to Nepal but over 200 of them, who are presently in places like Champawat, have not been sent back yet.

He said that around 1,000 Indian citizens are also stranded in Nepal and they are in a precarious situation there.

Mehta told the bench that food, medicines and other necessary materials have been made available to the Indians stranded in Nepal and the government is in touch with the consulate there.

The bench disposed of the petition in view of the statements made by both the parties.

On April 30, the top court was told by the petitioner that around 1,700 migrant workers hailing from Nepal were stranded at India-Nepal border in Uttarakhand amid the nationwide lockdown and the Centre should allow them to return to their country.

The apex court was hearing an appeal challenging the April 20 order of the Uttarakhand High Court which had observed that "no direction can be issued to the central government to expedite repatriation of the Nepali citizens through diplomatic channels, as issuance of such a direction would amount to encroachment in the field reserved for the Union Government".

"Even otherwise also, petitioner himself admits that, in view of the pandemic caused by COVID-19 virus, Nepal Government has also declared a nationwide lockdown and no-one is permitted to cross Nepal border," the high court had noted in its order.

In the appeal filed in the top court through advocate Satya Mitra, Goswami had alleged that high court has wrongfully refused to grant relief to around 1,700 migrant workers, who are stranded at India-Nepal border in Pithoragarh and Champawat districts in Uttarakhand and wish to return to their country.

During the arguments in the top court on April 30, Gonsalves had said that Supreme Court of Nepal had on April 7 directed the Government of Nepal to allow its citizens stranded on Indian side of the border to cross the border and enter the country.

During the arguments before the high court, the state's counsel had said that Uttarakhand government has established makeshift shelter homes for housing them in Pithoragarh and Champawat districts and they are being given proper food, water and other daily need items among others.

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here
JEFFERSON CITY  Missouri may stand alone when it comes to conducting an execution during a global pandemic.

While other governors have put the death penalty on hold because of the pandemic, Gov. Mike Parson is not planning to stop the scheduled execution of Walter Barton on May 19.

At this time, we fully anticipate carrying out the court order and discharging our duties as prescribed by law on May 19, said Kelli Jones, spokeswoman for the Republican governor.

Bartons attorneys are seeking court intervention at the state and federal level to halt the execution.

In a March 17 request, attorney Fred Duchardt Jr. said efforts to convince officials to halt the execution have been stymied by travel and meeting restrictions which have been imposed.

(I)t will now be impossible, prior to the currently scheduled execution date, to complete the necessary work for proper presentation of an executive clemency petition, Duchardt wrote.

In addition, he said the governor may not have the time to weigh the issue of possible clemency for Barton because of his attention to the spread of coronavirus.
It seems the demand for Safaricom's M-Pesa payment product never eases. Since its 2007 launch in Kenya, the fintech app has commanded over 70% of the mobile money market in that country. When COVID-19 hit the East African nation of 53 million in March, the Kenyan Central Bank turned to M-Pesa as a public health tool to reduce use of cash.

And last month, one of the world's financial services giants  Visa  connected M-Pesa to its global network.

Visa and Safaricom  which is Kenya's largest telecom and operator of M-Pesa  announced a partnership on payments and tech.

The arrangement opens up M-Pesas own extensive financial services network in East Africa to Visas global merchant and card network across 200 countries.

The companies will also collaborate on development of products that will support digital payments for M-Pesa customers." The partnership is still subject to regulatory approval.

The details remain vague, but the payment providers also said they will use the collaboration to facilitate e-commerce.

Images Credits: Getty Images

On a continent that is still home to the largest share of the worlds unbanked population, Kenya has one of the highest mobile-money penetration rates in the world. This is largely due to the dominance of M-Pesa in the country, which has 24.5 million customers and a network of 176,000 agents.

As we detailed in ExtraCrunch, Visa has been on a VC and partnership spree with African fintech companies. The global financial services giant has named working with the continents payments startups as core to its Africa expansion strategy.

One of those fintech ventures Visa has teamed up with, Flutterwave, launched an e-commerce product in April. The San Francisco and Lagos-based B2B payments company announced Flutterwave Store, a portal for African merchants to create digital shops to sell online.

The product is less Amazon and more eBay  with no inventory or warehouse requirements. Flutterwave insists the move doesnt represent any shift away from its core payments business.

Story continues

The company accelerated the development of Flutterwave Store in response to COVID-19, which has brought restrictive measures to SMEs and traders operating in Africas largest economies.

After creating a profile, users can showcase inventory and link up to a payment option. For pickup and delivery, Flutterwave Store operates through existing third party logistics providers, such as Sendy in Kenya and Sendbox in Nigeria.

The service will start in 15 African countries and the only fees Flutterwave will charge (for now) are on payments. Otherwise, its free for SMEs to create an online storefront and for buyers and sellers to transact goods.

While the initiative is born out of the spread of coronavirus cases in Africa, it will continue beyond the pandemic. And Flutterwaves CEO Olugbenga Agboola  aka GB  is adamant Flutterwave Store is not a pivot for the Y-Cominator backed fintech company.

Its not a direction change. Were still a B2B payment infrastructure company. We are not moving into becoming an online retailer, and no were not looking to become Jumia, he told TechCrunch .

In early stage startup activity, a relatively new company  Okra  has created a unique platform that allows it to generate revenue on both sides of the fintech aisle.

Founded in June 2019 by Nigerians Fara Ashiru Jituboh and David Peterside, the company refers to itself as a "super-connector API" with a platform that links bank accounts to third party applications.

Okra's clients include fintech startups and large financial institutions in Nigeria. The company got the attention of TLcom Capital  a $71 million Africa focused VC firm that backed Okra with $1 million in pre-seed funding. The Nigerian startup is using the funds to hire and expand to new markets in Africa, most likely Kenya .

More Africa-related stories @TechCrunch

African tech around the net
To help during the Coronavirus pandemic, the government of India has come up with a portal service to allow a conditional exemption to those using drones for relief services. The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have launched a portal which is called as GARUD which stands for Government Authorisation for Relief Using Drones. This portal is meant to fast track the exemption requests that were coming from government entities for Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS, also known as Drones) operations.

The announcement was also made on the official twitter account of Ministry of Civil Aviation.

MoCA & DGCA have launched the GARUD (Government Authorisation for Relief Using Drones) portal (https://t.co/5Mvy23UYgk) for providing fast track conditional exemptions to govt agencies for COVID-19 related drone operations. MoCA_GoI (@MoCA_GoI) May 5, 2020

As per the MoCAs tweet, getting necessary approvals and launching the portal was done in less than two weeks.

Getting necessary approvals from the Competent Authority & launching the portal in less than two weeks is a testimony of the hard work & dedication of officials at MoCA, DGCA, AAI & NIC. MoCA commends the contribution of everyone involved. MoCA_GoI (@MoCA_GoI) May 5, 2020

The conditional exemption can be sought online as well by submitting an online application at DGCAs Digital Sky platform. However, those who are found violating the provisions of this notice will have their exemption nullified and will face penal action.

The ministry has also stated that the exemptions will be valid until further notice.

You can read the complete statement along with the terms and conditions for the exemptions, if granted, here.

Also Watch:
This week, Senate lawmakers return to Washington to start working on the next round of aid for households and businesses. WSJ's Gerald F. Seib explains how Congress may need to come to a trade-off that pleases both parties. Photo: Patrick Semansky/AP
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- After learning military medical personnel likely will not be sent to Staten Island, Borough President James Oddo and Rep. Max Rose released a joint statement accusing the de Blasio administration of letting the fact that Staten Island has no public hospital [be] an excuse for them to avoid their responsibilities to Staten Islanders.

De Blasio said Monday he would continue to send Staten Islands two private hospitals -- Staten Island University Hospital and Richmond University Medical Center -- a portion of the citys volunteer medical staff, but would reserve specialized medical military personnel for the citys 11 public hospitals in the four boroughs.

The city has sent just 29 medical volunteers to SIUH and RUMC combined, while it has deployed more than 700 specialized military medical personnel to its public hospitals in the citys Health + Hospitals.

City Hall said the deployment of military medical personnel was intended by the federal government for the citys public hospitals only.

We can understand why the Feds would want their military health professionals to work only in governmental hospitals, but the story of helping Staten Island cannot end there, nor does the Mayors responsibility to this borough, Oddo and Rose said.

Oddo and Rose wondered whether the mayor had tried to explain that Staten Island is the only borough without a public hospital.

And, if the federal government refused to alter its position, whether the de Blasio administration felt the slightest compulsion to discern another method of providing Staten Islands hospitals some staffing assistance.

That laissez-fare attitude for the 500,000 residents of this borough and the dedicated healthcare professionals who have been working around the clock to help them is startling, even during the cynical times, they said.

The ease in which the de Blasio Administration allows the fact that Staten Island has no public hospital to be an excuse for them to avoid their responsibilities to Staten Islanders is stunningly callous and contemptible, Oddo and Rose continued.

MAYOR SAYS MILITARY MEDICAL STAFF EXPLICITLY REQUESTED FOR PUBLIC HOSPITALS

But de Blasio said Tuesday military medical personnel were explicitly requested for the citys public hospitals that were bearing the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic.

He also did not say whether he tried to get the federal government to modify its proposal.

I think were just in a kind of a revolving door here and Im just not going to play that game, whatever any hospitals have needed around this city theres 56 hospitals, when they have needed help, weve gotten them help, de Blasio told reporters during a press conference Tuesday when pressed about whether he tried to ask the federal government about sending military medical personnel to the Island and to respond to Oddo and Roses remarks.

In the beginning we all were struggling just to try and keep the most basic operations going as the disease was growing intensely. Overwhelmingly the biggest challenges were in our public hospitals, starting with Elmhurst Hospital, we needed to reinforce the places that were bearing the brunt, as we got more resources, we started spreading them more intensely all over, de Blasio continued. Every hospital has been served by that effort as we got more personnel weve been sending them all over.

De Blasio said he cared about all 56 hospitals and all five boroughs and accused people of not wanting to ever let that in because its politically inconvenient, but thats fine, Im used to it by now.

If the hospitals in Staten Island need something, were going to get them help, we always have gotten them help, but different hospitals, different communities, are dealing with different needs, thats just been clear throughout, de Blasio said.

Staten Island is the only borough without a public hospital and relies on RUMC and SIUH, which is part of Northwell Health system.

Military medical personnel include a number of specialized staff of mostly doctors and nurses, while staff that comes from the citys medical volunteer reserve bring a wide variety of medical skills.

In its initial deployment of volunteer medical staff to Staten Island, the city sent mortuary personnel, nurses, EMTs and a nurse practitioner and a respiratory therapist.

RUMC and SIUH previously said that in order for them to expand their hospital capacity they would need more staff, particularly nurses and doctors.

Though Staten Island has the lowest number of cases citywide, accounting for just 7% of the citys 171,723 total cases as of May 4, the borough has one of the highest numbers of cases per capita in the city after the Bronx.

FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER.

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***
Stephenie Meyer is the one young adult literature icon who has made many young hearts believe in love. The writer wrote the Twilight series, which became one of the most popular fantasy series ever written. The author recently announced the next novel in the series, which will be the fifth one. The book is named Midnight Sun, keeping up the pattern of names that have been the title of this series, i.e. based on the theme of sun and moon.

ALSO READ | 'Twilight' Author Stephenie Meyer To Release A New Book Titled 'Midnight Sun'

Stephenie Meyers net worth

Stephenie Meyers Twilight series is known to be one of the most successful fantasy series. The author earned a large amount as a large number of readers bought the books. Stephenie has been earning from the sale of series since the year it was released i.e. 2005. According to online portals, Meyers net worth as of 2020 is approximately $125 Million dollars.

ALSO READ | 'Twilight' Fans Cannot Stop Raving About 'Bella's Lullaby' On Tik Tok; Watch Viral Video

The book series was also made into a five-part movie series with the same names. The movie series starred Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner in lead roles. The first movie of the series was released in the year 2008 while the last movie The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn  Part 2 was released in the year 2013.

Stephenie Meyers personal life

Stephenie Meyer was born in Hartford, Connecticut in the year 1973. She did her schooling in Arizona and then later received her undergraduate studies in BA English Literature from Brigham Young University in Utah. She was teaching at Arizona State University from some time. Stephenie married Christiaan in 1994 and the two had three sons.

ALSO READ | Robert Pattinson's Deleted Scenes From The Popular 'Twilight' Series

The Twilight Saga

Stephenie Meyer had revealed in an interview in 2009 to a cable network that the idea of Twilight had come to her in a dream. She saw how a human girl fell in love with a vampire. She included the legends and traditions of the Quileute Native Americans in the novel, as per a news source. The first book was named Twilight, and the consecutive ones are called New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. The last one ended with a war between vampires as Bella and Edward had a half-human, half-vampire daughter named Renesmee.

ALSO READ | Robert Pattinson And Kristen Stewart's Cutest 'Twilight' Moments

Midnight Sun, the book that Stephenie announced, might continue the story of Edward and Bella. It may also contain the story of Renesmee growing up and her relationship with Jacob Black. The book is reportedly from Edward's perspective. It is one of the most highly-anticipated releases of the year 2020.

DISCLAIMER: The above information is sourced from various websites/ media reports. The website does not guarantee a 100% accuracy of the figures.

ALSO READ | Robert Pattinson's Best Fight Scenes From The Twilight Saga

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As the United States and its allies begin what looks like a final drawdown of their forces from Afghanistan, China appears to be expanding its role and influence in the country.

Beijing is actively enhancing contacts and possibly building robust relations with the Afghan government in Kabul and the Taliban, visibly pushing for a reconciliation between its longstanding ally Pakistan and Afghanistan. China is underpinning its diplomacy with the prospects of greater trade and investment in the impoverished country.

Arif Sahar, an Afghan security expert based in London, sees China pursuing some major objectives in Afghanistan in the possible post-U.S. withdrawal period.

Afghanistans large natural resources could only be effectively exploited by near neighbors rather than distant neighbors because of the geopolitical and logistical requirements, he told Radio Free Afghanistan. China is also signaling that it is the only country in the region with the financial and economic capabilities that can be relied on as a trustworthy partner.

Based on leadership statements and actions, Sahar also says Beijing is actively pursuing a close relationship with the Taliban. While China has declared its support for the Afghan peace process, it is also keen to protect its security interests by reaching out to the Taliban. A remote region in northeastern Afghanistan is connected to the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang, which is home to unrest and violence that Beijing views as a major threat.

Such interests have prompted China to attempt to cultivate a more robust relationship with Afghanistan. Over the past several weeks, senior Chinese officials have reached out to Afghan counterparts.

As a neighbor and friend of Afghanistan, China respects the Afghan people's choice of their own development path and stands ready to continue to support, mediate, and facilitate the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan and further play its constructive role, an April 27 statement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry said after Foreign Minister Wang Yi telephoned his Afghan counterpart Mohammad Hanif Atmar.

China, more than anyone else, wants to see a harmonious Afghanistan-Pakistan relation and will contribute to any effort that helps improve the mutual trust and relations between the two sides, the statement quoted Wang as saying.

Beijing has also offered to host a dialogue between Kabul and Islamabad to push forward cooperation among the three countries.

Afghanistan is part of Beijings mask diplomacy amid the coronavirus pandemic that originated in China. The country has dispatched much-needed medical supplies including face masks, protective gear, and ventilators to Afghanistan to fight the COVID-19 outbreak.

Beijing ditched its past policy of avoiding Afghanistan when most NATO troops withdrew from Afghanistan in 2014. It then attempted to become the biggest business investor in Afghanistan when Chinese companies announced billions of dollars worth of investments in copper mining and oil exploration. Chinese companies have been involved in Afghan infrastructure and development projects and, significantly, Beijing has extended some development aid and security assistance to Afghanistan.

On the diplomatic front, China supported reconciliation in Afghanistan. Beijing hosted informal meetings between the Taliban and Afghan government representatives and welcomed public visits by senior Taliban leaders such as Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. It supported the process that resulted in an initial peace deal between the United States and the Taliban on February 29.

But Beijings low-key investment approach didnt appeal to Washington. In November, Alice Wells, the recently retired acting assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, voiced criticism of Chinas role in Afghanistan

China is not a provider of any significant grant assistance. It has invested or it has laid claim to a copper mine, a significant copper mine, but has never developed the copper mine, she told a think tank audience in Washington. I havent seen China take the steps that would make it a real contributor to Afghanistans stabilization, much less stitching it back into Central Asia and the international community.

Sahar, however, says China is pursuing an aggressive foreign policy not only to thwart the West but also to undermine its neighbor and regional rival, India, in Afghanistan. In recent years, New Delhi has emerged as a close strategic partner of Kabul.

A Pentagon report in January tried to explain the new Chinese approach.

China believes regional stability will improve its access to trade markets, weaken western regional influence, and counterbalance Indias role and strategic expansion in the region, the report said. China is seeking to become more involved in intra-Afghan talks.

The report highlighted that China has widened its relationship with Afghanistan toward a greater emphasis on political and military engagement. It said the relationship was largely confined to economic matters before 2015.

The Pentagon also attempted to identify Chinese security objectives in Afghanistan. China is primarily concerned that Uighur militants transit through the Afghanistan Wakhan Corridor, which borders Chinas Xinjiang Province, the report said. China promoted counterterrorism and economic integration between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Local officials in northeastern Badakhshan Province, where Wakhan is located, recently claimed many Uighur fighters are present in the province. But the Taliban have rejected such claims.

Valey Arya, an Afghan commentator based in London, says the Chinese effort in Afghanistan is part of its larger push to utilize its economic, military, diplomatic, and intelligence power in its immediate neighborhood.

The withdrawal of coalition forces from Afghanistan, stability in the country, and a government which is friendly with Pakistan are other foreign policy goals of China, he said, arguing that these objectives are informed by Beijings close strategic alliance with Islamabad.

But he sees China unlikely to assume the role held by the United States and its allies in Afghanistan. Its very unlikely that in the near future China will have the will, mechanisms, and resources of providing aid to other countries in the same way that Western democracies did, he noted. China doesnt have that kind of tradition.

Sine late 2001, Washington and its allies have recreated an Afghan state by providing hundreds of billions in aid and helping Afghans resurrect and sustain key institutions. Beijing, however, seems more likely to pursue its own interests.
Venezuela's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the Venezuelan armed forces have thwarted an attempt to unload mercenary groups onto the country's central coast on Sunday, blaming the United States for the "provocations and attacks" in recent weeks, Trend reports citing Xinhua.

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said in a statement that several people were captured in the operation, including one individual who confessed to "being a veteran agent of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency."

The release said that "Venezuelan military deserters and a former member of the United States Army Special Forces have taken responsibility for this failed operation."

Venezuelan Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said on Sunday that "Colombian terrorist mercenaries" were also involved in the maritime invasion. Colombia denied any part in the event later on Sunday.

The Venezuelan foreign ministry also noted that the operation "took place in the midst of a global pandemic, disregarding the call of the (UN) secretary-general for a cessation of hostilities in the world.
Russian scientists suggest the mysterious Tunguska event' explosion of 1908 was caused by an iron asteroid that entered the Earth's atmosphere and then bounced back into space.

The flying asteroid is thought to have skimmed the planet at a low altitude above Siberia, causing an explosion that flattened around 80 million trees over an area of 830 square miles (2,150km2).

The event on the morning of June 30, 1908, which is described as the most explosive meteor impact on record, produced a shock wave that set the snowy Russian forest alight.

Air waves from the blast were detected as far away as the UK and Washington DC in the US, as well as Germany, Denmark, Croatia and Indonesia.

But despite its description as an impact event, no impact crater has been found and no significant space rock hit the ground.

The first Soviet expeditions to this remote region of Siberia were puzzled by a lack of debris or craters on the surface.

This new theory suggests the explosion  which was described by eyewitnesses as like 'the sky was split in two'  was a shock wave from the asteroids trajectory rather than an impact.

The event saw an explosion burn around 800 square miles of Siberia but a mystery has long surrounded its cause due to a lack of physical evidence

The object is thought to have partially disintegrated at a mere six miles above the ground, rather than hitting the surface of the Earth, before rebounding back into space.

On its way back into space it shredded about half of its over three million tonnes weight.

We argue that the Tunguska event was caused by an iron asteroid body, which passed through the Earth's atmosphere and continued to the near-solar orbit, the researchers said in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Within this version, we can explain optical effects associated with a strong dustiness of high layers of the atmosphere over Europe, which caused a bright glow of the night sky.

The rock reached an altitude of 6.2 to 9.3 miles (10 to 15 kilometres) at a speed of 12.4 miles per second (20 kilometres per second), the team report.

The explosive shock wave could have been due to a rapid emission of high-temperature plasma from the space body as it approached Earth's surface.

The epicentre of the explosion in Yeniseysk Governorate (now Krasnoyarsk Krai), Russia. The resulting seismic shockwave registered with sensitive barometers as far away as England

The area of Topi Tunguski, taken from the magazine Around the World, 1931. The original photo was taken between 1927 and 1930

Fallen trees caused by the massive explosion in 1908 during surveys of the site in the 1990s

Calculations showed that the meteor flew over the epicentre for about one second  heating the forest to the extent that it lit up in a fiery blaze.

The research team used mathematical modelling to study the through passage of the asteroid  its route as it rebounded back into space  at a variety of possible diameters  200, 100, and 50 metres.

It also took into account three theories of the giant rocks composition  either iron, stone or water ice.

'At present, there are over 100 hypotheses about the nature of the Tunguska phenomenon,' co-author Sergei Karpov at the Siberian Federal University told the Siberian Times.

'They include the fall of a small asteroid measuring several dozen metres consisting of typical asteroid materials, either metal or stone, as well as ice.'

More than 100 years ago, a massive explosion ripped through the sky over the Tunguska region of Siberia, flattening trees nearly 31 miles around. From UFO theories to speculation about the supernatural, the mysterious event has spurred explanations of all kinds

Modelling shows that the famous asteroid could not have consisted of rock or ice because they would have fallen apart from colossal aerodynamic pressure in the atmosphere.

An ice asteroid would have lost its mass before it had travelled the length of the estimated trajectory, based on observational data.

Meanwhile, the theory that the Tunguska space object consisted of iron would explain why there are no iron droplets at the epicentre  they wouldnt have reached the planet's surface because of its immense speed.

'This version is supported by the fact that there are no remnants of this body and craters on the surface of the Earth, Karpov said.

The iron theory can explain optical effects associated with a strong dustiness of high layers of the atmosphere over Europe, which caused a bright glow of the night sky in Europe and even America.

The possibility of an asteroid explosion was first proposed in 1927 by Leonid Kulik, 20 years after the event. A 1938 image from Kulik's investigations is shown above

Despite no deposits being found, earlier this year researchers reported sediments relating to the immediate aftermath of the explosion in Lake Zapovednoye, some 25 miles from the epicentre of the explosion.

The content of the sediment layer - potassium, titanium, rubidium, yttrium, and zirconium  is tied to the consequences of the Tunguska explosion, they suggested.

'We discovered a distinguishing light-coloured layer in sediments of Lake Zapovednoye,' Dr Arthur Meidus, deputy director of a nearby nature reserve, told the Siberian Times.

'This way we know which layer of sediments might contain particles of extra-terrestrial origin,' Meidus said.

'Cosmic matter' in sediment samples from Lake Zapovednoye could prove an alternate theory  that a meteor did indeed make contact with the Earth.

The blast is thought to have been produced by a comet or asteroid hurtling through Earth's atmosphere at over 33,500 miles per hour, resulting in an explosion equal to 185 Hiroshima bombs as pressure and heat rapidly increased

Other theories for the legendary explosion include a volcanic eruption, a comet made mainly of ice and a black hole colliding with Earth.

At the time, the native Evanki people believed it was a visitation by an angry god called Ogdy.

Years after the mysterious event, one eyewitness wrote: 'The split in the sky grew larger, and the entire northern side was covered with fire.

'At that moment I became so hot that I couldn't bear it as if my shirt was on fire  from the northern side, where the fire was, came strong heat.

'I wanted to tear off my shirt and throw it down, but then the sky shut closed, and a strong thump sounded, and I was thrown a few metres.'
The Friends of Epler School are celebrating after the community rallied to save the nearly 175-year-old schoolhouse only days before the funding deadline.

I am so excited, said Jane Goetz, a retired schoolteacher and force behind the movement to save the former one-room school. I am on cloud nine.

Goetz of Leesport said a number of individuals, including a major anonymous donor, contributed toward the cost of moving the 1847 stone building after the county commissioners pulled out of a previous commitment to pay half the estimated $211,000 needed, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Im overwhelmed by the generosity of people with the way the economy is right now, Goetz said. We reached our goal on Sunday when a very generous man, who wishes to remain anonymous, donated the balance we needed to move the school in honor of his wife, who was a schoolteacher.

Goetz said the anonymous donor read about the funding need in the Reading Eagle and contacted her with the offer of help.

The donation is especially significant since it came at the start of National Teachers Week, she said.

The celebration annually in the first full week in May honors teachers and recognizes the lasting contributions they make to our lives, according to the National Education Association.

The 11th-hour save of the school building seems meant to be coming as it did at the start of a week set aside to honor teachers, Commissioner Kevin S. Barnhardt said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Barnhardt has been supportive of the Friends efforts, helping last year to rescue the schoolhouse from the wrecking ball by speaking publicly of its historical value and potential uses.

I am almost as excited as Jane is, he said. The credit for this goes to Jane. I call her the little teacher who could. She and the 25 to 30 members of the Friends have got a passion for this project. They refused to give up.

Barnhardt said county funds earmarked for the school had to be redirected for essential services due to the effects of the coronavirus on county resources.

It hurt me to make that call, he said. I welled up when Jane called me with the good news. It adds that layer of community and passion, coming during Teachers Week.

The Greater Berks Development Fund, which owns the building, has agreed to pay the remaining half of the cost of moving the former school 1.5 miles from its location in Bern Township to the Berks Heritage Center, also in Bern.

Greater Berks requested full funding commitment by Tuesday. The move is expected before June 15 to accommodate planned development of the present site.

The commissioners took official action allowing the move to the county park during an online meeting Tuesday, Barnhardt said.

The Friends plan to open the former schoolhouse to the public as a resource for teaching visitors about 19th-century schools and education in Berks.

It warms my heart that so many people care and wished to help us save this piece of Berks County history, Goetz said.
The incredibly bad leadership of President Donald J. Trump, coupled with the incredibly nasty partisanship of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has forced this space to write a lot of critical words about national Republicans. As long as those two are in power, this is likely to continue.

The big exception for our negative commentary is Massachusetts Republican Governor Charlie Baker, who has provided the Commonwealth with excellent leadership and has done especially well navigating the challenge of COVID-19. He helps us remember the past when the Republican party nationally had many leaders who were politically moderate, good managers, fiscally conservative, and showed genuine compassion for average people and even those living below the poverty line.

We think fondly of recent Republican Presidents in that mold such as the great general Dwight D. Eisenhower and George H.W. Bush. Of course, the greatest Republican president of all was Abraham Lincoln, in whose rise to the White House this newspaper and its former owner proudly played key roles. Thats why we are still called The Republican. The political party actually was named after this abolitionist newspaper, according to accounts at the time.

For America to truly find its way again politically, we need the Republican party (now more accurately described as the Trump Party) to shed its current ugly aberration and return to its healthier place as the leader of the nations center right, with respect for bipartisanship, for civility, for all Americans regardless of their background, and for neutral facts and science.

In this context, we want to give a shout out this week to President George W. Bush, with whom we had many huge differences, especially in regard to his policies and statements about Iraq, and even to Vice President Mike Pence, whose fawning fealty to his boss has caused us repeated dismay.

The younger Bush, to his credit, last week offered good words about the virus fight from his retirement. He praised health care workers who are meeting a historic shared threat. And he said: In the final analysis, we are not partisan combatants. We are human beings, equally vulnerable and equally wonderful in the sight of God. We rise or fall together, and we are determined to rise.

President Trump, of course, responded to Bushs gracious words only with criticism of Bush for not being partisan enough in support of Trump during impeachment. Sigh. The current president never shows a glimmer of graciousness toward anyone not in his family and not mouthing his praise.

Vice President Pence, meanwhile, at least had the decency to admit he was wrong  something we never hear from his boss, no matter how wrong his statements and actions are proven to be. I didnt think it was necessary but I should have worn the mask at the Mayo Clinic when he visited, Pence said.

Its not much. But its a start, even from such a very conservative Republican.

Perhaps Ike would have offered some quiet applause for a leader who can admit he made a mistake.
The coronavirus has claimed the lives of dozens of residents at a Medford nursing home in the past four weeks and infected more than 100, according a report from The Boston Globe.

Genesis Healthcare, the parent company of the Courtyard Nursing Care Center, told the Globe on Monday that 54 residents at the 224-bed facility have died since April 5 due to COVID-19. Another 117 residents and 42 staffers have been diagnosed with the virus.

Two employees at the nursing home have died from the illness as well, though one of them had not worked in the facility since the pandemic started, according to the newspapers report.

I can assure you that we are working around the clock to keep our patients and residents healthy and as safe as possible, Dr. Richard Feifer, chief medical officer for Genesis, told the Globe. We are doing everything in our power - and everything medical experts know as of this time - to protect our patients, residents, and employees.

Nursing homes have been hit particularly hard by the ongoing pandemic. Elderly individuals and those with preexisting medical conditions are most at risk of developing severe symptoms or dying from the disease.

As of Monday, 69,087 people in total have tested positive for the viral respiratory infection in Massachusetts, and 4,090 patients have died from the virus, with the average age of death being 82.

More than half of the individuals with the illness who died in the commonwealth were above the age of 80, and 2,428 were in long-term care facilities, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

The news about the Medford facility comes as coronavirus cases and fatalities at the Holyoke Soldiers Home appear to be leveling off. The state-run long-term care facility - which, to date, has identified 71 deaths among residents due to the disease and another 80 who tested positive for the illness - reported no new infections or deaths linked to COVID-19 for at least three days.

At the Courtyard Nursing Care Center, eight other residents have died in the past month, four of whom tested negative for the virus. Anothers result is pending, and three refused testing, Feifer told the Globe.

The average age of the residents who died at the Medford nursing home was more than 85 years old, the Globe reported. Many of the residents have dementia, making it difficult to enforce restrictions, Feifer noted.

Feifer told the Globe that the Courtyard Nursing Care Center had still not tested its entire staff for the coronavirus, adding that the Medford facility was working with the National Guard to schedule a time to test employees.

All residents at the Medford facility have been tested for the virus, according to the Globes report. The majority who were positively diagnosed were asymptomatic, Feifer said.

Last week, Gov. Charlie Baker announced additional funding for nursing homes, with requirements that the long-term care facilities conduct testing and that operators show progress on staffing and infection control.

The announcement came after the state halted sending COVID-19 test kits to long-term care facilities, because only 4,000 of the 14,000 kits were returned to the state, and many of the samples were sent back in unlabeled or leaking tubes.

A spokesperson for DPH told the Globe it had offered staffing support to the Courtyard Nursing Care Center multiple times. On April 29, officials strongly encouraged the Medford facility to accept National Guard assistance, but the nursing home and Genesis declined the offer, according to the newspapers report.

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Management at direct provision centres for asylum seekers have been asked to step up cleaning practices.

The news comes amid ongoing questions about the safety of a recently opened Direct Provision Centre in Cahersiveen.

More than 20 Covid-19 cases have now been diagnosed at the centre which opened on Mar 18. There have been calls from residents and locals to close it.

However the Department of Justice says it is following HSE and NPHET advice in all matters and that it has transferred those diagnosed.

The private secretary to the Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan said in a letter to Kerry Councillor Michael Cahill: During this time, centre managers have been advised to increase the standard and frequency of cleaning throughout the centres, paying particular attention to communal areas. In this regard, the centre staff in Caherciveen are carrying out regular cleaning of all communal areas and additionally are regularly sanitising door handles, lifts, hard surfaces etc.

"In all of our accommodation centres, any room where a person that has tested positive for COVID-19 has been staying would be deep cleaned."

Questions are also being raised about the differing views between the Department of Justice and the HSE, which it has emerged objected to the opening of the centre at the Skellig Star Hotel in a pandemic.

Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin TD wrote to the Dept of Justice that he understands that the HSE South believes the Centre to be entirely unfit to host residents under the current circumstances".

Despite numerous repeated efforts by me, I have been unable to receive any confirmation from any part of the Health Service at national level contrary to this. Will the Department of Justice now accept the view of the HSE South?

He said: In relation to cleaning, staff are not trained to clean to the standards required under circumstances where more than 20 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in this building."

Jack Fitzpatrick chairman of the Caherciveen business and community alliance said all concerned are continuing to press for the closure of the centre for the sake of the residents and the people of Caherciveen.
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A must-have in green building design, solar chimneys can slash energy costs up to 50%. Now research reveals they could also help save lives in a building fire.

In a world-first, researchers designed a solar chimney optimised for both energy saving and fire safety, as part of the sustainable features of a new building in Melbourne, Australia.

Modelling shows the specially-designed solar chimney radically increases the amount of time people have to escape the building during a fire - extending the safe evacuation time from about two minutes to over 14 minutes.

Watch and embed the video

A solar chimney is a passive solar heating and cooling system that harnesses natural ventilation to regulate the temperature of a building.

With an estimated 19% of the world's energy resources going to heating, ventilating and cooling buildings*, integrating solar chimneys into new builds and retrofitting to existing structures offers great potential for reducing this massive environmental cost.

In the new project, a collaboration between RMIT University and the City of Kingston, researchers designed a solar chimney to maximise its efficiency for both ventilating fresh air and sucking smoke out of a building in case of fire.

Researcher Dr Long Shi said solar chimneys have well established environmental credentials, but their potential for improving fire safety had not been explored.

"In an emergency situation where every second counts, giving people more time to escape safely is critical," Shi said.

"Our research demonstrates that solar chimneys offer powerful benefits for both people's safety and the environment.

"Delivering on two important functions could boosts the already strong cost-effectiveness of this sustainable technology.

"We hope our findings will inspire more investment and development of solar chimneys in Australia, and around the world."

Kingston Mayor Georgina Oxley said Council was excited to be a part of the groundbreaking project.

"Creating new and innovative ways of reducing energy consumption in our building design is something that is a priority for Council," Oxley said.

"The solar-chimney that has been installed at the new state-of-the-art Mentone Reserve Pavilion not only allows us to harness clean green energy to heat and cool the building, helping Council achieve its environmental goals, but it also has the potential to save lives in the event of a fire. This is a truly remarkable design."

While calculations around the 6-fold increase in safe evacuation time were specific to the new building, previous research by the team from RMIT's School of Engineering has confirmed solar chimneys can successfully achieve both functions - ventilation and smoke exhaustion.

Hot air rises: how a solar chimney works

The passive design approach behind solar chimneys operates on the well-known principle that hot air always rises.

Modern solar chimneys usually feature a wall of glass next to a wall that is painted black, to maximise the absorption of solar radiation. Vents at the top and bottom control the airflow in and out of the chimney for heating or cooling.

As the sun warms the chimney, this heats the air inside it.

The hot air rises and is vented out of the top of the chimney, which draws more air in at the bottom, driving ventilation through a building to naturally cool it down.

When it's cold outside, the chimney can be closed, to direct the absorbed heat back into the building and keep it warm.

It's an ingeniously simple concept that is relatively cheap to retrofit and adds almost no extra cost to a new build, but can drive energy consumption down.

Reducing smoke, increasing safety

During a fire, the same principle - hot air rises - enables the solar chimney to suck smoke out of the building.

Less smoke means better visibility, lower temperatures and reduced carbon monoxide - all of which contribute to increasing the amount of time people have to safely evacuate.

To understand exactly how much evacuation time a solar chimney could deliver for a specific building, you need to model for that exact design, Shi said.

"This will differ from building to building, but we know that any extra time is precious and improves fire safety, which could ultimately help to save lives," he said.

The new research offers a technical guide for optimising the design and engineering of solar chimneys in real buildings, to expand their application across the two functions.

###

The research, 'Solar chimney for a real building considering both functions of energy saving and fire safety - a case study', with co-authors Anthony Ziem, Jie Li, Professor Kevin Zhang and Professor Sujeeva Setunge, is published in Energy and Buildings (DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.110016).

*US Department of Energy, Buildings Energy Data Book, 2012
Fianna Fails finance spokesperson has said that he expects detailed discussions about government formation to commence this week between his party, Fine Gael and the Green Party.

The three party leaders are to meet today, something Michael McGrath described as a significant development.

He said he hoped todays discussions will lead to agreement about the format and structure of the talks.

Mr McGrath added that there needs to be a recognition that there is an obligation to make every effort to form a government and, with the Covid-19 pandemic, there is an urgency in the talks.

Fianna Fail will do all we can, he told Morning Ireland.

It was important to see progress this week, he said, especially after seeing the very sobering statistics of lives lost to Covid-19 every statistic represents a family.

Mr McGrath said that Fianna Fail will leave no stone unturned with regard to the formation of a new government. He could not put a date on when a government would be formed, however, he said it was important to get it right and that any new government would need to be durable.

We want this to be a stable government to deal with this enormous challenge.

When asked about the prospect of another election, Mr McGrath replied that there was no prospect of holding another election in Ireland any time soon as the public would not support such a move at this time.
A masked pedestrian walks by a boarded up Food & Friends with a message that says "Don't Take What You Have For Granted" in Center City. Read more

TL;DR: A day after Delaware and Bucks County officials asked Gov. Tom Wolf to assess nursing-home coronavirus cases separately from the general population for reopening, Wolf reiterated today that he would be using the same reopening metric statewide. My colleague Marie McCullough reports why coronavirus models do not give us what we desperately want: a crystal ball. We made all of our digital journalism free today as part of Giving Tuesday. If you want to help support our public service mission, you can make a donation here that will go toward funding our work.

 Ellie Silverman (@esilverman11, health@inquirer.com)

What you need to know

 Delaware will allow some businesses to reopen Friday. A full list of the retailers Delaware will permit to resume operations can be found on the states website.

 Philly still needs to at least double its coronavirus testing capacity, Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said.

 Housing advocates in Philly predict an avalanche of evictions once courts reopen, if city officials dont act.

 The $4.1 billion question: Whats to become of Philadelphias world-class arts and culture, post-coronavirus?

 The Sixers and Flyers are offering refunds for tickets purchased through the teams websites for games canceled due to the pandemic.

 Jersey Shore beaches: Avalon and Stone Harbor are reopening Friday for walking, running, fishing, and surfing. Cape May has already reopened for limited activities. Ventnor says its beaches will reopen Friday for passive recreation, and the Atlantic City beaches and boardwalk have remained open throughout the pandemic.

Local coronavirus cases

The coronavirus has swept across the Philadelphia region and cases continue to mount. The Inquirer and Spotlight PA are compiling geographic data on tests conducted, cases confirmed, and deaths caused by the virus. Track the spread here.

A day after Delaware and Bucks County officials asked Gov. Tom Wolf to assess nursing-home cases differently from the general public in deciding when the hard-hit counties around Philadelphia could reopen, Wolf reiterated today that he would be using the same reopening metric statewide. Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine has also rejected calls for the state to separately count nursing-home cases. Here is how low Phillys case count has to be for the state to consider reopening.

Our understanding of the coronavirus, and how it spreads, keeps changing. This means the models made to estimate its characteristics, such as the time between getting infected and showing symptoms, or estimate the hospital capacity needs, or guide reopening strategies have been at best, educated guesses, and at worst, dead wrong, my colleague Marie McCullough reports. Read more about how models are used and what their limitations are here.

Helpful resources

You got this: Order baked goods for Mothers Day

We rounded up a list of Philly bakeries offering curbside pickup or delivery. Read more here to find out where to get custom cakes, ganache-stuffed cupcakes, vegan donuts, and more.

 How to order takeout and delivery from Phillys 2020 James Beards Award nominees.

 My employer has called me back to work. Do I have to return?

 How to give yourself a buzz cut (or even a fade) during the shutdown.

Have a social distancing tip or question to share? Let us know at health@inquirer.com and your input might be featured in a future edition of this newsletter.

What were paying attention to

The erotic hero of a steamy 1991 Sally Quinn novel was based on Anthony Fauci, the Washingtonian reports.

CNN reports that Dr. Rick Bright, the ousted vaccine director, filed a whistleblower complaint alleging officials ignored his early warnings about the coronavirus.

This Philadelphia sushi restaurant is using a robot to do contactless takeout orders, Eater Philly reports.

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Here are all the COVID-19 updates as of Tuesday, May 5:

1. Kenya has recorded 45 new cases of COVID-19 where 29 of them were from Eastleigh Nairobi and 16 from Mombasa.

2. Nine more people have also recovered from the disease bringing the total number of recoveries to 182.

READ ALSO: Tuju takes war to Rutos doorstep, dares Tanga Tanga to eject him from office

Health CS announced 49 new cases. Photo: Ministry of Health.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Woman reportedly behind Willis Raburu's marriage break-up denies allegations: "I don't know him"

3. Russia has emerged as one of the hardest countries after recording 10,000 cases in a single day.

4. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has allowed Kenya to join in the clinical trials of COVID-19 drugs and vaccines.

5. President John Magufuli has said he will import Madagascar herbal tea. WHO however said the tea was not a treatment therapy for the disease.

READ ALSO: Oscar Sudi amkashifu Alfred Keter kwa kuendesha siasa za chuki

6. A top scientist in Tanzania has been fired after President John Magufuli said testing kits were inflating the number of cases in his country.

7. In the global arena, the number of coronavirus infections stands at 3,671,812 with 253,241 as the death toll.

8. In Africa, the total number of cases is 48,455, where a total of 1,858 have succumbed to the disease.

9. South Africa leads with 7,220 and 138 deaths.

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My life is in danger, get me out of Saudi Arabia- Sheila Andalo | Tuko TV

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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: 5 May 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 18,884 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 1,660 pence 20.67 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 1,626 pence 20.25 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 1,645 pence 20.48 USD Ticker: PSHD Date of Purchase: 5 May 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 5,000 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 20.45 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 20.45 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 20.45 USD Trading Venue: Euronext Amsterdam Ticker: PSH Date of Purchase: 5 May 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 25,626 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 20.60 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 20.00 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 20.51 USD

PSH will hold these Public Shares in Treasury. The net asset value per Public Share related to this buyback is 31.50 USD 25.01 GBP which was calculated as of 30 April 2020 (the "Relevant NAV"). After giving effect to the above buyback, PSH has 198,851,341 Public Shares outstanding, or 204,691,894 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 12,105,409 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/20200505005967/en/

Contacts:

Media

Camarco

Ed Gascoigne-Pees Hazel Stevenson +44 020 3757 4989, media-pershingsquareholdings@camarco.co.uk
People wait within markings to use the automated teller machine (ATM), as authorities ease the lockdown following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Abuja, Nigeria May 4, 2020. (Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters)

Nigeria Reopens Main Cities Lagos, Abuja as Lockdowns Phased Out

LAGOS, NigeriaNigeria began easing restrictions on May 4 in its capital Abuja and largest city Lagos, heralding the reopening of Africas biggest economy after more than four weeks of lockdowns imposed to contain the CCP virus.

The government has said a 24-hour, stay-at-home order in place since March 30 in Abuja and the states of Lagos and Ogunwith exceptions only for food shopping and health-related tripswill be lifted gradually over a six-week period.

These densely populated regions will now come into line with the rest of the country. Slightly looser restrictions introduced last week by President Muhammadu Buhari include an overnight curfew, mandatory face masks in public, and a ban on non-essential interstate travel.

On May 4, the usually frenetic streets of the coastal megacity Lagos, largely empty during the lockdown, were busy again with cars, buses, and motorized tricycle taxis.

Despite rules banning groups of more than 20 people and stipulating that individuals remain two meters (6.6 feet) apart, large groups of people often gathered by the road waiting for public transport. Social distancing rules were largely ignored.

Distinctive yellow minivans used as buses were full, with some passengers struggling to find space to enter vehicles.

However, in a crucial difference to pre-lockdown life, most people on the streets of Lagos wore face masks.

In the capital Abuja, in central Nigeria, many businesses were still closed.

I dont have money in my pocket. I was coming to work, telling my wife to pray for me to work and bring something so that we could eat, but theres no hope of working today, said father-of-three Easy Darlington, who could not reopen his printing business in a shopping mall that remains shut.

Businesses have been allowed to reopen provided they have decontaminated their offices, can enable social distancing, and offer hand sanitizer and hand washing.

However, schools and places of worship remain closed, restaurants can operate only on a takeaway basis, and all cultural events have been canceled.

Nigeria has confirmed 2,558 infections of the new coronavirus and 87 deaths since recording its first case at the end of February, a much lower toll than those seen in COVID-19 hotspots in Europe and the United States.

But the number of confirmed cases has surged in recent days, roughly doubling from 1,273 on April 27.

Experts havent reached a consensus on why Nigerias case tally has been so relatively low, although many point to a low testing rate. The center for disease control said only 17,566 samples have been tested in a country of 200 million people.

The decision to begin a phased lifting of the lockdown despite the recent sharp rise in cases was criticized by some medical experts, including the Nigerian Medical Association.

The NMA president, Francis Faduyile, said on May 1 the move was very premature and risked driving up the rate of infections, which he called a frightening scenario.

African Realities

Nigeria and other African governments have sought to balance curbs to avert an outbreak that could overwhelm hospitals, with efforts to mitigate the impact on workers in a continent where 85 percent are employed in the precarious informal sector.

While the initial reaction (in Nigeria) was a wholesale transfer of containment measures designed in and for substantially richer economies, the government is now adapting its approach to domestic realities, said Malte Liewerscheidt, vice president of Teneo Intelligence.

Rwanda, Namibia, and Zimbabwe also began loosening their lockdowns on May 4.

In Rwanda, which enforced a strict nationwide clampdown, businesses have reopened and travel between provinces is permitted again. Similarly, shops were allowed to reopen and curbs lifted on domestic travel in Namibia, where wearing face masks in public is now mandatory.

In Zimbabwes capital Harare, lines formed outside money transfer agencies as residents collected remittances. Money sent from overseas is an important source of income in the southern African country, which is in the grip of its worst economic crisis in a decade.

But informal markets, which provide income to more than 80 percent of Zimbabweans, are still not allowed to operate, except for the biggest fresh vegetable market in Harare.

The decision to ease restrictions follows similar steps taken in other nations in the region. South Africa on May 1 relaxed one of the worlds strictest COVID-19 lockdowns and Ghana in West Africa in April lifted a three-week lockdown in its two main cities.

But some African countries have gone against the trend. Kenya, which imposed a daily 7 p.m.-5 a.m. nationwide curfew on March 25, is yet to relax the overnight lockdown.

On May 4, residents of Mathare, a slum in the capital city Nairobi, said police killed a 36-year-old man who was found outside during the curfew. They marched with the body to a Nairobi police station to protest the killing.

A police spokesman didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

By Nneka Chile & Alexis Akwagyiram. The Epoch Times contributed to this report.


Australian MP Supports Armenian, Assyrian, Greek Genocide Recognition

Jason Falinski, the Federal Member for Mackellar, has reaffirmed his longstanding support for Australian recognition of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides by signing on to the Joint Justice Initiative of the Armenian-Australian, Assyrian-Australian and Greek-Australian communities.

The February 2020 launch of the Joint Justice Initiative at Australia's Parliament House featured the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU), Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA) and Australian Hellenic Council (AHC), which declares Australia's recognition of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides as a priority on behalf of their communities.

Falinski, who lost members of his family in the Holocaust, has a thriving Armenian-Australian community in his Sydney electorate that covers part of the Northern Beaches. Mackellar includes the community's largest everyday school, Galstaun College.

The Chair of Australia's House of Representatives' Standing Committee on Tax and Revenue, Falinski has been a long-time supporter of Armenian Genocide recognition and spoken on the matter in the parliamentary chambers on several occasions, including during a debate marking the 70th Anniversary of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide in December 2018.

"Mr. Jason Falinski is a friend of human rights, and has therefore been a friend of national Australian recognition of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides since entering Parliament in 2016," said Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU) Executive Director, Haig Kayserian.

"We thank Mr. Falinski for signing an Affirmation of Support for the Joint Justice Initiative, and ensuring growing support for Australia to change her position from one that appeases Turkish denial to one that sides with truth and justice," added Kayserian.

As one of the first Members of Parliament to join the Australian Friends of Artsakh network of prominent Australians, Falinski has also raised his support for the rights to self-determination of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh in the House of Representatives.

The Joint Justice Initiative has so far announced the support of Falinski, Josh Burns MP, John Alexander MP, Senator Andrew Bragg and Bob Katter MP, with a promise of more announcements to come.
File image

Even as thousands of Indians prepare in anticipation of their return to India, they are also nervous about tests they have to undergo, and the travel bill that they will have to foot.

Nearly two lakh Indians, stuck since the lockdown was announced in March, in nearly a dozen countries have registered to get back to India. The Indian government had said the process will begin from May 7 and travel will be arranged by aircraft and naval ships. The returns will be facilitated on "compelling grounds" in a phased manner.

Indian embassies are preparing a list of citizens, but the "facility would be made available on payment-basis." Each passenger will also be required to do a medical screening to check for COVID-19 infection, the government said.

Moneycontrol reached out to Indians stuck in the US, Singapore, Riyadh and on the seas off the US coast. All of them said they have registered with their local consulates and were awaiting further instructions.

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

"We have been told to do swab tests. As per the captain, all crew found negative shall be transferred to another ship which is currently at anchor beside us," said an Indian crew member of a cruise ship stuck off the Bahamas coast.

He and rest of the 700 crew, most of them Indians, have been stuck for 24 days.

The crew member added that the cruise liner he works for has informed them that a US-based laboratory will conduct the test, which will take about six days to share the results. "We have been told that the tests will come after May 11, and then the paperwork for travel will be readied," added the crew member.

Meanwhile, the ship will be sanitised.

An Indian crew member of another cruise liner, this time off the Miami coast, said he and his colleagues are worried about the travel costs.

"The Indian government has made it clear that this will include a charge. Our company has been told that it will have to pay over Rs 50,000 per person. But the company is not agreeing to it," said the crew member.

In all, he added, there are 2,000 Indians in the company and thus the owner can't pay for all. "We may have to pay it ourselves," he added.

Waiting for instructions

Many are awaiting flight information, and clarity on how the booking will be done.

Sathish* has been waiting for the flight back home since March, when he got stranded in Florida.

"I have been asked to keep in touch with the consulate in Atlanta...am not sure about joining the rush immediately. It can be dangerous if I have to travel to another city to catch the flight back to India," he said.

Debashish Biswas, whose daughter studies in Singapore, said she has registered both with the Haryana government's portal (they reside in Gurugram) and with the Indian High Commission in the South East Asian country. "We are waiting for more information," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 22:17:12|Editor: huaxia

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RABAT, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The French Development Agency (AFD) granted Morocco a loan of 109 million U.S. dollars to bolster municipalities and improve its performances, official Le Matin newspaper reported on Tuesday.

This loan agreement signed with Moroccan government will complement a World Bank financing of 296 million U.S. dollars aimed at developing municipalities and territorial communes, it added.

This program will, in the current pandemic context of the spread of COVID-19, increase the resilience of municipalities, strengthen their capacity to support economic recovery, and guarantee the continuity and improvement of the local public services, it said.

The loan will also be used to improve the efficiency of certain key public services, such as public transport and waste collection.

The AFD has also provided a 545,000 U.S. dollars grant to support local authorities in the creation and implementation of internal audit units, it added. Enditem
You have published some letters that are critical of the government and personally critical of Dr. Tam. We are not privy to all the facts and so should be careful before jumping to conclusions. What can be said with some certainty is that:

There is no doubt that the Chinese authorities were not as responsive or open about the epidemic as they could have been.

There is no doubt that the World Health Organization, a relatively underfunded and understaffed organization, which has to manage many health crises at the same did not stand up to the Chinese and take a stronger position. That this happened in a largely bureaucratic organization is understandable but it is also highly regrettable.

Anybody with senior management experience of managing a big crisis will know one of the real challenges at the early stage is to determine when to start raising the alarm. Raise it too soon and the issue comes to nothing and there are accusations of causing unnecessary panic which can have all sorts of negative consequences. One consequence is that credibility is reduced when the next and perhaps real crisis appears. There is always a, quite understandable, temptation to wait for more facts. That too has potential serious consequences.

Reaching conclusions on the federal governments management of the crisis part way through a crisis, by making comparisons with unnamed countries is also dangerous. Until last week there was a widely held view that the Swedes had got it right. Now that does not seem to be the case.

Dr Tam is the federal governments scientific advisor. It is up to the government to a) manage the crisis and b) manage doctor Tam.

It should be noted that he House Health Committee is looking into issues around the COVID crisis. Given the complexity of the issues we should refrain from jumping to conclusions until all the evidence is available. It is unwise and unfair to jump to conclusions based on hearsay and bits of reporting which may not accurate or complete.

John Bailey, Kelowna
- The seven military officers are set to enhance service delivery in Nairobi county following transfer of functions to national government

- The officers were seconded to the defence council by President Uhuru Kenyatta and will be under NMS director general, Mohammed Badi

- Nairobi governor Mike Sonko had, however, expressed resentment over militarisation of the county leadership

The Kenya Defence Council has approved seven names of senior military officers who were seconded to join the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) for a period of two years.

The officers were proposed in March 2020 during creation of NMS and were ratified by the apex body of the Kenya Defence Forces on May 1.

READ ALSO: Kenyan woman narrates how hubby married his secretary for being childless

Major General Mohammed Badi was appointed to lead the Nairobi Metropolitan Service (NMS) as director general. Photo: State House

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Kenyan newspapers review on May 5: Videos of night burials in Tanzania emerge amid growing fears of COVID-19 cover-up

In a report by Daily Nation, the seven officers drawn from the Kenya Army and Kenya Airforce included Maj Gen Mohammed Badi, who was appointed to NMS as the director-general.

The Defence Council approved secondment to Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) and the Ministry of Health (MoH) of the undermentioned general/senior/ officers, read the letter signed by the Defence Council Secretary, Dr Ibrahim Mohamed.

The officers whose secondment was approved include Brig F. Leuria, Major J.V Mbithi, Major A.N Nyakundi, Major J. K. Njoroge, Lt Col J.K.Biomdo and Major A.L. Musoma.

Uhuru Kenyatta and Speaker Kenneth Lusaka look on as Governor Sonko and Devolution CS Eugene Wamalwa sign the transfer of functions agreement. Photo: State House

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: COVID-19: 25 new cases confirmed pushing national tally to 490

So far, 32 senior officers from the national government have joined NMS as well as 6, 852 employees from the Nairobi county government.

The new development came amid protests from Governor Mike Sonko who had already indicated he will terminate the transfer of functions to the national government citing intimidation from officials.

Speaking to members of the press, Sonko's spokesperson Ben Mulwa said they did not accept militarisation of NMS whose main aim was to enhance service delivery to Nairobians.

READ ALSO: Hospitali za Uingereza zaanza kufanya majaribio ya dawa za kutibu COVID-19

Largely, the operationalisation of NMS rests with the national government and we cannot dictate to them what they should do but what we find a bit disturbing is the ongoing militarisation of NMS, said Mulwa.

Mulwa pointed out there were many qualified and competent Kenyans who could discharge similar duties and wondered why military officers were being put in their place.

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Source: TUKO.co.ke
Downing Street has confirmed it is looking into whether households could meet friends outdoors. (PA Images)

Ministers are considering allowing people to meet friends and family outdoors, the government has confirmed.

It is one of a series of ideas for easing up the coronavirus lockdown, the prime ministers official spokesman said.

People could meet with others from outside their household and form small groups with them. Those groups would not meet other groups.

The concept of those bubbles had been raised earlier on Tuesday by Scotlands first minister Nicola Sturgeon.

When asked about the plan on Tuesday, the prime ministers spokesman said: Broadly the scientific and medical experts have been clear that there is is less likelihood of transmission of this disease outdoors than indoors.

That will obviously be something we are considering as part of the review.

Nicola Sturgeon said it could be possible to meet friends and family outside of the household at her press briefing on Tuesday. (PA)

He also confirmed that a range of ways of easing the lockdown is being looked at, as well as rules that need to be toughened.

Once we have the scientific evidence and we have completed the review process, we will be able to set out what those are, he said, with his comments coming ahead of the expected publication of how the country will move forward from lockdown on Sunday.

Earlier on Tuesday, Sturgeon told a press briefing that small defined groups of people not living in the same house could begin seeing each other outdoors.

The Scottish government published a paper on Tuesday outlining how the lockdown rules could be eased.

We are considering if and how we could make changes to allow people to meet with a small number of others (the number is under consideration) outside their own household in a group or bubble that acts as a single, self-contained unit, without connections to other households or bubbles, the government document states.

It is possible that this option would be introduced first for outdoor meetings, ahead of any change to permit indoor meetings of the bubble.

People who are more at risk from the virus would not be able to form one of these bubbles, the papers adds, and if anyone in a bubble developed coronavirus symptoms the rest of the group would have to self-isolate for 14 days.

Story continues

Sturgeon stressed again on Tuesday that the lockdown must continue as it is for now, and is likely to be extended in its current form on Thursday.

For the moment we do need to stick with the current lockdown restriction, she said at the briefing.

The UK governments published death toll now stands at 28,734, with 190,584 confirmed cases.

Data from the Office for National Statistics for deaths in England and Wales  which cover cases where COVID-19 is mentioned on the death certificate, even if it was suspected  combined with the tolls from Scotland and Northern Ireland provides a figure of more than 30,000.

That figure puts the UK ahead of Italy and makes it the worst hit country in Europe and the second worst in the world, behind only the US, which has suffered more than 60,000 fatalities.

Around the world, there are now 3.5 million cases and more than 247,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

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

Boris Johnson is expected to announce how the UK will begin to ease the lockdown on Sunday.

Fears remain that relaxing too many restrictions too quickly will result in a second peak of deaths.

We will only be able to move onto the second phase of this conflict if our five tests have been met, he said in a Twitter video.

Those are: ensuring the NHS has critical care capacity; seeing a sustained and consistent fall in daily deaths; the infection rate decreasing to manageable levels; having enough personal protective equipment and testing supply, and any changes to restrictions not leading to a second peak that overwhelms hospitals.

Johnson said: The worst thing we could do now is ease up too soon and allow a second peak of coronavirus.

On Monday, Sturgeon said that while real and significant progress had been made in the fight against the coronavirus, it is still spreading too much to ease up on the lockdown.

She said it would be very likely the lockdown is extended on Thursday.

In the interests of transparency I cant say for certain right now whether before May 28, or on May 28, Ill be able to say were easing anything but Im pretty certain right now, albeit a formal decision hasnt been taken, that Im not going to be able to announce any meaningful changes at this point, which will be on Thursday May 7, she said.

The Scottish government is hoping to run 15,500 tests a day by the end of the month as part of its track and trace system, which is seen as the way lockdown measures can start being lifted.

Coronavirus: what happened today
The European Union will put forward a proposal to the World Health Assembly calling for an independent probe into the origins of the coronavirus.

The EU is a co-sponsor of the plan that will be put forward at the assembly's May 18 meeting, European Commission spokeswoman Virginie Battu-Henriksson said by email Tuesday. The bloc is consulting with World Health Organization members and regional groups on the wording of the proposal, she added.

"The draft resolution envisages calling for an independent review on lessons learnt from the international health response to the coronavirus, to strengthen future global health security preparedness," Battu-Henriksson said.

The meeting of the WHO's decision-making body later this month is shaping up as a test of China's diplomatic standing in the wake of the pandemic. In addition to calls for an independent probe, nations such as the U.S. are also pushing to reinstate Taiwan -- which Beijing views as a province -- as an observer to the assembly.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Canberra that he has written to all Group of 20 leaders this week in his bid to create support for the investigation into how the virus started and spread.

Australia's previous calls for the probe have raised the ire of China, its largest trading partner. In the U.S., President Donald Trump has accused Beijing of deliberately mishandling an outbreak that has killed more than 4,600 Chinese citizens to damage him politically and promised a "conclusive" report on the virus's origins.

"What's really important is that we have a proper review, an independent review which looks into the sources of these things in a transparent way," Morrison said Tuesday. The inquiry would help the world deal with the emergence of the next virus that has "pandemic potential," he said, adding that his nation's health experts believed it originated in a wildlife wet market in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Beijing allowed Taiwan to participate in WHA meetings as an observer between 2009 and 2016 after former President Ma Ying-jeou accepted the premise that the island was part of Chinese territory. But current President Tsai Ing-wen refused to endorse the notion, saying that she views the democratic island as an already independent nation -- and leading Beijing to withdraw its permission for Taiwan's continued participation.

Taiwan "will continue to strive to be invited to attend WHA as an observer," the island's foreign ministry said in a statement Tuesday. The virus "highlights the necessity and urgency of Taiwan's complete participation in WHO meetings, mechanisms and activities," it added, referring to the illness as "Wuhan Pneumonia."

China last month dismissed calls for Taiwan to participate in the World Health Assembly, with foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian blaming its government for "reckless political maneuvers."

"Their real intention is to seek independence under the pretext of the pandemic," he said on April 9. "We are firmly opposed to that. Their scheme will never succeed."

Geng Shuang, another Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, last month also blasted calls for an independent probe into the virus origin as "political maneuvering."

"It will disrupt international cooperation in fighting the pandemic and goes against people's shared aspiration," he said on April 23.

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne has said an independent tribunal with powers similar to United Nations weapons inspectors should be allowed to enter Wuhan, where the outbreak first emerged late last year. Canberra has further riled China by calling for the end of wildlife sales in so-called wet markets, one of which was one of the first places in Wuhan where the virus was detected.

Trump has also been ramping up pressure on China, and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo claimed this week there was "enormous evidence" that the coronavirus outbreak sprung from a high-security virology lab in Wuhan. Chinese state media on Monday unleashed a torrent of criticism against Pompeo, calling him "evil" and a liar.
House GOP Calls for Release of Russia Investigation Transcripts

Republicans on the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees have said that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is not releasing transcripts related to the investigation into whether President Donald Trumps campaign colluded with Russia and, now, they want access to the materials.

A letter written by House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), signed off by about 20 other GOP representatives, called for access to the transcripts and other material related to the Russia collusion probe.

After interviewing 73 individuals and reviewing over 300,000 documents, the Intelligence Committee issued a 2018 report that the Trump campaign did not collude with Russia, according to the letter. In September of that year, the panel voted to release 53 transcripts, according to the lawmakers.

We understand now that Chairman Schiff is blocking the release of these transcripts, they alleged. This news, if accurate, is disturbingespecially in light of Chairman Schiffs cries in 2019 for transparency regarding allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.

A spokesman for Schiff did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

For nearly four years, prominent Democrat politicians and commentators alleged that President Trump colluded with Russia, with Chairman Schiff going so far as to say that he had direct evidence of collusion, the GOP lawmakers wrote. Now that these allegations have been disproven by several investigations, the American people deserve to have transparency about why public figures such as Chairman Schiff continued to promote such wild accusations.

Schiff was one of the top Democrats who claimed that Trumps campaign conspired with the Kremlin to influence the 2016 election.

The Republican House members then called for a release of the materials and require access to this material for our ongoing oversight of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to their letter, which was sent to Schiff and Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes (R-Calif.).

Last year, the Justice Departments inspector general, Michael Horowitz, released a report that the FBI made 17 significant errors and omissions related to the Russia collusion probe, including renewals to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. Meanwhile, former Special Counsel Robert Muellers team said they found no evidence that Trump had conspired with Russia.

The letter was signed by Jordan, and Republican Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), James Sensenbrenner (Wis.), Mike Johnson (La.), Debbie Lesko (Ariz.), Tom McClintock (Calif.), Ken Buck (Colo.), Carol Miller (W.Va.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Doug Collins (Ga.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), Clay Higgins (La.), Bob Gibbs (Ohio), Greg Steube (Fla.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Kelly Armstrong (N.D.), Louie Gohmert (Texas), Guy Reschenthaler (Pa.), Ben Cline (Va.), Steve Chabot (Ohio), Glenn Grothman (Wis.), Jody Hice (Ga.), James Comer (Ky.), Michael Cloud (Texas), and Chip Roy (Texas).
WASHINGTON - For much of the last two months, President Donald Trump has rarely left the grounds of the White House as hes dealt with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and sought to minimize his own exposure to the disease.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 5/5/2020 (623 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, May 5, 2020, before boarding Marine One for a short trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., and then on to Phoenix, Ariz. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

WASHINGTON - For much of the last two months, President Donald Trump has rarely left the grounds of the White House as hes dealt with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and sought to minimize his own exposure to the disease.

But that changed Tuesday: Trump revved up Air Force One and headed to Arizona to visit a Honeywell facility that makes N95 masks in what the president suggests will mark the return to more regular travel.

The trip also means a small army of advisers, logistical experts and security staff  a coterie of hundreds that includes personnel from the White House, Defence Department, Secret Service and more  will resume regularly hitting the road again and taking a measure of risk to assist Trump.

Besides Tuesdays trip to Honeywell, Trump says he will travel soon to Ohio, to New York in June for the U.S. Military Academy graduation and to South Dakota in July for a holiday fireworks display at Mount Rushmore. Trump says hes also eager to get back on the campaign trail, though he's acknowledged that he might not be able to hold his signature big-stadium rallies until the final months before the Nov. 3 election.

Trump took a March 28 trip to Norfolk, Virginia, to see a Navy hospital ship off to New York and a weekend stay at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, but has otherwise stayed in Washington since early March.

The president told reporters shortly before departing Tuesday that he had no concerns that resuming travel could expose those in his entourage to increased risk.

"Everybody travelling has been tested," Trump said of his aides. "We have great testing and literally theyve been tested over the last hour, and the test result comes back in five minutes."

At a moment when public health officials have asked Americans to postpone nonessential travel to help stem the coronavirus, Trump was eager to prod a shell-shocked American electorate  reeling from the death and economic destruction wrought by the virus  to edge back to normal life.

But White House officials are also taking precautions to try to prevent Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence from exposure to the virus. Honeywell workers who meet Trump on Tuesday  just like anyone else who comes in close proximity to the president and vice-president  will be first required to take a rapid point-of-care test to determine if they're carrying the virus.

"When preparing for and carrying out any travel, the White Houses operational teams work together to ensure plans to incorporate current CDC guidance and best practices for limiting COVID-19 exposure are followed to the greatest extent possible," White House spokesman Judd Deere said.

But Matt Bennett, who served as Vice-President Al Gore's trip director, said he worries that Trump is putting his staff, military personnel and local and state officials at unnecessary risk.

"I think there is a value of seeing our leaders out in the country and escaping the White House," said Bennett, executive vice-president at the centre-left think-tank Third Way. "But it has to be balanced against the cost. The cost here could be the health and safety of a lot of people."

James McCann, a Purdue University political scientist who has studied presidential travel, said Trump early in his term travelled significantly less frequently on official presidential business compared to his four predecessors. But now that a big campaign rally is not possible, Trump is searching for a way to assert himself.

"Trump is itching to get into campaign mode," McCann said.

Marc Short, Pence's chief of staff, told reporters the vice-president, who last week travelled to Indiana and Minnesota, has been debriefing the White House Military Office after each trip to discuss planning and protocols.

Typically, White House advance staff fly commercial airlines when travelling to scout a location before a presidential or vice-presidential visit. But Short said staffers are now taking military aircraft.

The Secret Service, which is tasked with protecting the president and his family, wouldn't get into the details of how it's altering operations but said it's following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance.

In addition to the White House advance staff, which is tasked with plotting out the smallest details of the presidents visit, the Secret Service sends its own advance team that maps out security for the visit. Officials from the White House communications office advance team are dispatched to set security telephone access for the president should he need it.

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The president flies on Air Force One, military-operated aircraft, on all trips, regardless of whether it is White House business, political or personal travel. The Defence Department also airlifts equipment such as armoured limousines and occasionally helicopters for the president's travel.

The president usually travels with a representative from the press office, the chief of staffs office and the National Security Council, as well as a personal assistant. Other aides, like his economic advisers, a Cabinet secretary or lawmakers, also may join depending on the nature of the visit. Republican Arizona lawmakers  Sen. Martha McSally, Rep. Debbie Lesko and Rep. Paul Gosar joined Trump on Air Force One for the flight to Phoenix.

Johanna Maska, who served as the White House director of press advance during the Obama administration, said its important for administration officials to remember that everyone who travels or assists in the presidents travel  from the closest aides to the volunteer van drivers who drive lower-rung aides from the airport  have families.

"There is a whole orbit around those people," Maska said. "I certainly hope that they are making the right decisions here."

___

Madhani reported from Chicago.
The Duchess of York has announced Michael Whitehall as her guest for her latest instalment of her YouTube Fergie and Friends YouTube series.

Sarah, 60, posed with a rainbow balloon and colourful sandwiches as she announced the TV producer Michael Whitehall, 80, and actress Hilary Whitehall, parents of comedian Jack Whitehall, would join her for the tenth episode.

The couple's daughter Molly, 30, attended Marlborough College with Princess Eugenie, and the royal was in attendance at her school pal's wedding earlier this year at St Peter's Church in Langley Burrell, Wiltshire.

And comedian Jack was on the guest list when Eugenie married Jack Brooksbank at St George's Chapel Windsor in October 2018.

Sarah Duchess of York smiling while holding a rainbow balloon and colourful treats at home in Windsor, where she is isolating with her ex-husband Prince Andrew

In an Instagram post, Sarah wrote: 'Today at 4pm on Storytime with Fergie and Friends I am going to be showing a surprise video! My guest friends will be Father Whitehall and Hilary Whitehall'

The wholesome videos are posted to daily to her new Youtube channel 'Storytime with Fergie and Friends' to encourage little ones to read while in lockdown.

Fergie is believed to be isolating at the Royal Lodge in Windsor alongside ex-husband Prince Andrew, daughter Princess Eugenie, 31, and son-in-law Jack Brooksbank.

In an Instagram post, Sarah wrote: 'Today at 4pm on Storytime with Fergie and Friends I am going to be showing a surprise video! My guest friends will be Father Whitehall and Hilary Whitehall.'

In the clip, Hilary reads the part of the narrator and Sammy while Michael accompanies her by playing Grandpa

In the video, Michael and Hilary appeared in front of their bookcase at their home in London.

Hilary opened the video and said: 'Hello, as you can see we love books and we also loved reading to our children when they were little.

'And today we are going to read you one of our favourites and indeed one of his favourites which is....'

In the video, Michael and Hilary appeared in front of their bookcase at their home in London

'Oh, When I Was Your Age - big favourite of mine by Ken Adams and Val Biro,' Michael adds.

In the clip, Hilary reads the part of the narrator and Sammy while Michael accompanies her by playing Grandpa.

The book, written by Ken Adams and illustrated by Val Biro, was published in 1991 and tells the story of Grandpa who appears to have done everything much better than his grandson Sammy in his younger years.

Sarah opted to make traffic light sandwiches instead of her daily reading videos as she sat in her conservatory decked with colourful balloons

Meanwhile, Sarah opted to make traffic light sandwiches instead of her daily reading videos, as she sat in her conservatory decked with colourful balloons.

Speaking to the camera, Sarah said: 'We are going to have fun today. I have decided that today it might be good to make traffic light sandwiches.'

'Shall we make traffic light sandwiches? It's kind of good. You could use tomatoes, cucumber and an orangey cheese if you want to but I am using jam today.'

The Duchess of York used jam in green, orange and red to create the colourful traffic light sandwiches

Fergie shared the step by step sandwich tutorial in which she cuts tiny holes in white bread before putting green, orange and red jam in between the slices to create a traffic light effect.

As well as reading children's stories to keep youngsters entertained during lockdown, Fergie has also been helping daughter Eugenie with charitable endeavours to support NHS staff.

The daughter of Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew has been very active in trying to keep people's spirits up amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today's special guest for Fergie's storytime is TV producer Michael Whitehall, 80, who has also starred in programmes along his comedian son Jack

Eugenie has made a habit of sharing various uplifting moments on her Instagram stories.

It was revealed on Wednesday that the Fergie, Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank had delivered pre-made lunches to NHS frontline staff in London.

One image shared with the post captured Eugenie, 30, and Jack, 34, wearing protective masks as they stood by their car, with a member of staff standing at a safe distance.

Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank (pictured) have delivered pre-made lunches to NHS frontline staff in London

The snap of the pair was posted with the caption: 'A big thank you to @SarahTheDuchess, Princess Eugenie and their team for a delicious supply of healthy lunches @ImperialNHS @NHS #angieslittlefoodshop.'

Sarah, who has recently signed a publishing deal for seven new books, is already the author of more than 25 books, including the Budgie The Little Helicopter and the Little Red series.
By Associated Press

DETROIT: After a devastating start to the Democratic primary, Joe Biden's campaign was revived when black voters in South Carolina and throughout the South overwhelmingly sided with him.

Now that he's the presumptive Democratic nominee, black voters and leaders are pressing for him to pick a black woman as his running mate.

Biden launched a committee last week to begin vetting possible candidates for the vice presidency, a process he has said will likely last through July.

He has already committed to picking a woman.

But black voters and leaders say he needs to go further and pick a black woman.

They argue that Biden's success, and that of the Democratic Party as a whole, depends on black people turning out to vote in November.

ALSO READ | 'Never, never happened': Joe Biden denies former staffer's sexual assault allegation

They want a tangible return for their loyalty, not just a thank you for showing up on Election Day.

"Black people want an acknowledgement of the many years of support they have given the Democratic Party," said Niambi Carter, a Howard University political science professor.

House Minority Whip Jim Clyburn, whose endorsement in South Carolina was widely credited with helping widen Biden's winning margin and start his avalanche of March primary victories, said "clearly" he would prefer a black woman.

But he insisted he's not pushing Biden in that direction.

"I'm the father of three grown African American women. So naturally I prefer an African American woman, but it doesn't have to be," Clyburn said.

"I've made that very clear."

Biden has been unusually vocal about the people he would consider as running mates.

He's referenced two black women, Sen. Kamala Harris of California and Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic nominee for governor in Georgia.

ALSO READ | Joe Biden sexual assault accuser confided in family, neighbour, was fired for voicing concerns: Report

Other black women, including Rep. Val Demings of Florida and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, have also been mentioned.

But Biden is also thought to be considering several white women, including Sen.

Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

President Donald Trump said his November opponent owes the spot to Warren, theorizing that Sen.

Bernie Sanders "would have won every single state on Super Tuesday" if Warren had dropped out of the primary race earlier.

In an interview Monday with the New York Post, Trump dismissed Abrams while claiming responsibility for her defeat in the 2018 Georgia governor's race.

Zerlina Maxwell, a political analyst and former director of progressive media for Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, said this is an opportunity for Biden to recognize the political force of black women.

"The Democratic nominee needs to make it completely clear that they understand the moment and that they understand that black women are the foundation of a successful Democratic Party at every level," Maxwell said.

Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of Black PAC, said black voters are looking for "authenticity."

When folks have talked to us about what they want in a candidate, it is someone who can relate to them," Shropshire said, noting the coronavirus's disparate impact on black Americans.

But she said that doesn't mean that a vice presidential nominee has to be a black woman.

"Having a black running mate checks that box for a lot of people, but I would also say in the same way that black voters weren't simply during the primary contest saying, 'Who's the black candidate?' I don't think black voters are doing that for the vice presidential choice either," she said, later adding the bottom line: "Ultimately, people want to win."

Tharon Johnson, a prominent black strategist who worked for Barack Obama's two presidential campaigns, said Biden's focus should be on "energy," not necessarily on race.
Blogging site Tumblr will delete millions of posts after updating its policy on hate speech to crack down on the spread of white supremacism and Nazism on its platform.

In a post that was published on Monday, the company said that much of the hate speech it found originated from blogs that had already been terminated. What was left, instead, were reblogs  similar to retweets on Twitter - which allow messages on one blog to be quickly shared to another.

Tumblr says that since reblogs rarely contained the kind of counter-speech that serves to keep hateful rhetoric in check it has had to change its approach to stop those ideas being spread unquestioned.

We identified nearly a thousand blogs that were previously suspended for blatantly violating our policies against hate speech. Most of them were Nazi-related blogs. Earlier this week, we began the process of removing all reblogs stemming from the original posts on those previously suspended blogs the company continued.

Some 4.47 million reblogs have apparently been deleted as a part of this process, Tumblr wrote in the post. From now, all blogs suspended for hate speech will be evaluated by the social giant, and will now consider mass-deleting reblogs if it finds it necessary.

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Social media sites have found it challenging to balance the deletion of hateful content with the protection of freedom of speech  something that the Tumblr community generally considers vital. When Tumblr was purchased by Yahoo in 2018, there was mass-uproar over the companys decision to ban all adult content on the platform, since Tumblr gained notoriety for its NSFW (Not Safe For Work) texts and images.

Since then the company has been purchased by Wordpress-owner Automattic, yet has not reversed the ban implemented when the company was under Verizon-owned Yahoo. We wouldnt make a change like this without considering the impact to your freedom of expression, the company nevertheless posted, following up that there is no silver bullet solution, AI, or algorithm that can perfectly target hate speech.
IATA pulls U-turn on leaving middle seats empty to get airlines flying as coronavirus ebbs, citing blow to profits.

The body representing global airlines has come out in favour of passengers wearing masks on board as debate intensifies over how to get airlines flying while respecting social distancing rules following the coronavirus crisis.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) told reporters on Tuesday that wearing masks would help protect passenger health but came out against leaving middle seats empty on aircraft, a measure it had previously said was likely.

European flights have all but come to a standstill during the coronavirus pandemic. While there is no visibility on when travel restrictions will ease, airlines are considering how to safely restart services and give passengers the confidence to fly.

Months without revenues is threatening to force some airlines out of business.

The United Kingdoms Virgin Atlantic said earlier on Tuesday that it would cut 3,150 jobs as it battles to survive, adding to up to 12,000 jobs British Airways said last week it could shed and putting pressure on regulators to agree on rules to help a quick restart when the health conditions allow.

The IATA said it was working with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the United Nations aviation agency, governments and the World Health Organization on new rules which would apply internationally.

The ICAO could make an announcement on mandatory face masks on flights and other measures in June, IATA Director General Alexandre de Juniac said at an online news conference.

Middle seat U-turn

In April, de Juniac had said leaving the middle seat empty was among the likely conditions for a resumption of air travel to be discussed with governments around the world.

But Brian Pearce, chief economist at IATA, told the news conference on Tuesday that most airlines would have been unable to make money last year if a third of the seats had been removed on the industrys most-flown models.

De Juniac denied that the IATA had changed its stance because of the damage flying two-thirds full would do to airline profitability.

The point is to see whether it is necessary to implement measures, de Juniac said.

The switch away from leaving the middle seat empty was based on scientific evidence, IATAs medical adviser David Powell said.

Nobody has demonstrated that having the middle seat empty reduces the chance of transmitting COVID-19 from one person to another, he said.

The IATA would instead be recommending wearing masks and face coverings on board as part of a range of measures, including screening passengers before flying to make sure they did not have a fever, plus enhanced cleaning procedures and limited movement in the cabin, as the basis for restarting safe flying.

Airlines such as Germanys Lufthansa and Hungarys low-cost Wizz Air have already made it compulsory for passengers to wear face masks on flights.

Medical adviser Powell also said the recycled air that is circulated on passenger jets was not a cause for concern because in modern jets it was treated by the same sort of filter used in operation theatres.
What defines a spirit as single estate? Since theres no single, unifying designation, we asked folks from six brands to share what the term means to them. Here, they touch on the challenges of this process and reveal why they feel its worth the toil

Field-to-bottle. Single estate. Terroir. We hear these words plenty in the world of drinks. However you choose to phrase it, the desire to grow, harvest, mash, ferment, distil, dilute and even bottle a spirit in your own distillery using only the fruits of your own labour has never been greater, and as drinkers who value high-quality ingredients and authentic production methods, we are lapping it up.

As yet, theres no official definition for what single estate actually means. Does the term merely refer to the raw base ingredient, or does it encompass the entire production process? Does it only count if the distiller owns the estate? And what about botanicals? Clearly, theres much to discuss about the intricacies of the term, so we asked single estate spirits producers to shed some light on the topic. Heres what they said

Clairin Rum, Haiti

There are more than 530 distillers in the Carribean country of Haiti, and they pride themselves on using un-hybridised sugar cane, man-made chemical-free farming, spontaneous fermentation and unfiltered distillation to create what has been hailed as the mezcal of the rum world. Clairin Rum bottles these unique liquids. We spoke to Daniele Bondi, export manager at La Maison & Velier:

Master of Malt: How would you define a single estate rum?

Bondi: In recent years, a few rum distilleries have started to use the term single estate. There arent any official definitions but it refers to raw material grown by one estate. Molasses rums can be single estate if the producers own sugar factories and therefore use their own molasses in their production process. Agricole rhums can also use the term  the juice has to be fresh and come from nearby plantations. If the distillery doesnt own the plantation, they shouldnt really be labelled single estate. The term field to bottle applies to rums that use ancestral methods of production. Our Haitian rum, Clairin, falls into this category as each producer is using local ingredients and traditional methods of production  no additives at all  before bottling. The rums really capture the spirit of Haiti.

MoM: Could you talk about the variables within fermenting and distilling that can be used to highlight terroir?

DB: In my opinion, the only way to highlight terroir is to have the most natural production process possible. You should only talk about terroir if the agriculture is clean or organic, the fermentation is wild or spontaneous with wild yeasts, and the final product doesnt use any industrial processes  a spirit that uses chemicals in its agriculture or industrial yeasts for fermentation should not use the term. Clairin rums are a true representation of their terroir. The rums are made using local, organic sugar cane which is harvested by hand and transported from the fields to the distillery by animals. The rums are created in small shacks using a natural fermentation process and bottled in Haiti. They are a real expression of each distillery and you can taste the terroir of each village and the character of the producer in the glass.

Arbikie Highland Estate, Scotland

Arbikies distillery is the epitome of a single-site, field-to-bottle operation. The ingredients for their gins, whiskies, vodkas and more are planted, sown, grown and harvested locally, and mountain-filtered water drawn directly from their underground lagoon. We spoke with master distiller Kirsty Black and distillery director and co-founder John Stirling:

MoM: How would you define a single estate spirit? And how significant is the influence of the raw ingredient on the final liquid?

John Stirling: Single estate should, as far as possible, mean that the main ingredients for the spirit are grown on-site. There may be minor botanical ingredients that cannot be grown due to climate, but all major ones should be grown on the estate. Its really all down to the raw ingredient  even large scale neutral spirit producers offer spirit produced from a range of raw materials as they each add their own character and nuances.

MoM: Could you talk us through any unique challenges associated with the distillation process?

Kirsty Black: We practice regenerative farming and look upon ourselves as guardians of the soil. Working with nature and the soil, our challenge is to grow crops that produce our base spirits in the most sustainable way. Replanting juniper that has been virtually wiped off the Scottish landscape, introducing bees and wild bird seeded areas, as well as older heritage barley varieties, are all unique challenges.

Thomas Hine & Co, France

The house of Hine owns an 115-hectare estate in the village of Bonneuil, located in the heart of the Grande Champagne  the most prestigious of Cognacs six crus  from which they produce a single estate and single harvest cuvee: Domaines Hine Bonneuil. We spoke to Hines marketing director, Marie-Emmanuelle Febvret:

MoM: What do you think is fuelling interest in single estate spirits?

Marie-Emmanuelle Febvret: In our global world, going local and purchasing products that have a strong sense of place feels reassuring  more and more consumers want to know whats in their drink and where its come from. When you enjoy a glass of Hine Bonneuil 2008, for example, you know that you can pinpoint the exact village (and even plot!) where the Cognac comes from. So far weve released 2005, 2006, 2008 with a new vintage due to be released soon  all aged for nine years in French oak. This Bonneuil cuvee is, in our opinion, the quintessence of what a single estate spirit should be: one harvest, one plot, your own vineyard. A genuine farm to glass approach, unblended and untouched.

MoM: To retain the nuances of the raw ingredient, are there any special techniques or extra steps you have to use?

MEF: At Hine, our philosophy is to preserve the aromas of the grape. We constantly say that a great Cognac is above all a great white wine, from a great terroir. In order to keep the flavours through oak ageing  sometimes more than 60 years!  we choose to limit the influence of wood on the liquid by carefully selecting our oak using strict criteria: fine-grained, low to medium toast. It enables us to amplify the initial aromas coming from our terroir and distillation. This truly defines the Hine house style: fruit-driven and delicate.

Ramsbury Brewing and Distilling Company, England

Set within 19,000 acres of North East Wiltshire, West Berkshire and North Hampshire, Ramsbury Estate distillery creates field-to-bottle vodka and gin using its very own home-grown Horatio wheat and local chalk-filtered water. We spoke to Ramsburys head of global sales, Mats Olsson:

MoM: How far does your field to bottle ethos extend?

Mats Olsson: We sow, grow and distil the primary ingredients ourselves, monitoring each step from planting and growing, to harvesting and distilling. In doing this, we ensure that these practices are as environmentally friendly as possible. We select only the finest Horatio wheat from our fields. We know exactly in which field the wheat has grown, when it was sown and precisely when it was harvested. Our copper stills use the steam generated by a biomass boiler fed by our own sustainable woodland, and once the distilling is complete, the spent grains are fed to the animals on the farms. We also believe that to be truly single estate we have a responsibility to take care of what we leave behind. The wastewater is cleaned by a wildlife-friendly reed bed system, which then feeds into our lake. Our defining botanical, quince, grows in the orchard next to this lake. By keeping every part of the process within the estate, we not only reduce our environmental footprint, but by nurturing the land that we use around us we can continue to distil the finest gin and vodka for years to come.

MoM: Transparency is crucial, but there are no legal rules or regulations. Are you concerned about producers exploiting this grey area for marketing purposes?

MO: We would very much welcome a more regulatory framework to ensure that consumers have the correct information. We pride ourselves in being as transparent and honest as possible in all our communication.

Ogilvy Spirits, Scotland

Nestled in the heart of Angus, Hatton of Ogilvy Farm has been tended by the Jarron family across four generations, since 1910. There, Maris Piper potatoes grow just a short tractor ride from the 32 plate Carter-Head still that turns them into delicious vodka. We spoke to Caroline Bruce-Jarron, co-founder of Ogilvy Spirits:

MoM: Whats driving demand for single estate spirits?

Caroline Bruce-Jarron: There has been a huge drive over the last few years for consumers to know where their food comes from, and this has extended to the drinks that they consume too. Traceability is such an easy thing for producers like ourselves to do, and customers are always really interested and intrigued that we do everything on the farm ourselves. We have always grown potatoes on the family farm, and prior to launching Ogilvy, we supplied them solely to the supermarkets. We have very high standards in the production of our potatoes and can trace exactly what field the potatoes come from  even to the extent of the date and time they were harvested. This was an aspect that we were really keen to demonstrate in our spirit. It sets us apart from many other spirits on the market which dont have this level of provenance.

MoM: Could you talk about the flavour nuances associated with the raw ingredient?

CBJ: The variety of potato that you use to produce spirit has a huge bearing on the final flavour. We are not only a single estate product, but we are also a single varietal spirit. We trialled various varieties in our early stages of developing the product, but for us, Maris Piper potatoes had the best flavour. We dont blend with other varieties to ensure we get consistency to the flavour of our vodka. The other factor is our fields, we are based in Angus which is an area renowned for growing potatoes. Potatoes need just the right amount of sunshine and rain at the right times to ensure a good crop, and we generally have a good mix of both here. We also have exceptionally soft water, and the mineral content of the water has a part to play in the final texture of the vodka.

Absolut Elyx, Sweden

While Absoluts famously makes all its vodka using winter wheat grown in Skane (Southern Sweden) the wheat that goes into Elyx is sourced exclusively from one estate. A giant underground aquifer beneath the Ahus-based distillery provides limestone-filtered water on tap We spoke to Miranda Dickson global brand director for Absolut Elyx:

MoM: How far does your field to bottle ethos extend?

Miranda Dickson: Unlike many other vodka brands, Absolut Elyx is produced by us from seed to bottle using ingredients and facilities within a 15-mile radius. Its made from winter wheat grown on one estate; the Rabelof estate in Southern Sweden. Our production allows us to have complete quality control and traceability of our product throughout the entire process. Most vodka producers  around 99%  buy neutral grain spirit which they then rectify to their own recipe.

MoM: To keep the nuances of the raw ingredient in high-alcohol spirit, are there any special techniques or extra steps you have to use?

MD: Were very lucky that the master distiller and creator of Absolut Elyx, Krister Asplund, is an extremely talented distiller with over 35 years of making Absolut Vodka. The nuances and characteristics in Elyx are really controlled by the hand of the maker and the quality of the ingredients. We dont filter Elyx  other than a barrier filter to remove any hard particles from the production process  so it requires real skill to ensure the consistent taste and flavour profile of the distillate. Since Elyx is made using a fully hand-operated still from the 1920s, a thorough organoleptic tasting is conducted by our team of seven at every stage of the process.
WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats plan to press White House lawyer Brian Miller on Tuesday about his ability to act independently of President Donald Trump if he is confirmed as a new inspector general, setting up one of Congress's first clashes about the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Miller, who is currently senior associate counsel of the Office of White House Counsel, played a role in defending Trump during the recent impeachment inquiry. Trump has nominated him to serve as Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery. This would place him in charge of overseeing a roughly $500 billion Treasury fund created as part of Congress's $2 trillion Cares Act in late March.

In a four paragraph opening statement to the Senate Banking Committee released Monday afternoon, Miller promised to carry out his duties "with fairness and impartiality" and be independent and fair. But Democrats have said they are concerned that he might pull his punches as the Treasury Department decides how to quickly disburse all the taxpayer funds.

They have recently ramped up their complaints about the White House's management of the economic rescue package, questioning whether taxpayer money is being wasted or if safeguards are being put on any of the programs.

"Mr. Miller will have to prove he works for the American people, not the White House," Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said in a statement to The Washington Post. "He will have to show that he can hold the Trump administration accountable and ensure that the money allocated by Congress goes to workers, small businesses, and communities impacted by the crisis."

After approving nearly $3 trillion to rescue the economy from the coronavirus pandemic, Congress has moved very slowly in formally scrutinizing how the money has been spent. The Trump administration has already said it is backstopping more than $500 billion in newly issued business loans. It has also begun issuing more than $200 billion in "economic impact" payments to households. There has been very little disclosure about how these programs are performing or whether any mistakes are being corrected.

Lawmakers haven't conducted any oversight hearings yet, largely because lawmakers have steered clear of the Capitol during the pandemic.

And the White House is clamping down on testimony from administration officials, insisting on approving all requests for testimony. Last week, they blocked lead administration scientist Anthony Fauci from appearing before a House subcommittee that wanted him to testify this week.

Trump told reporters Tuesday that he didn't want Fauci to testify before the House.

"The House is a setup," he said. "The House is a bunch of Trump haters." On Friday, a White House spokesman had offered a different explanation, saying it would be "counterproductive" to have Fauci or others involved in the coronavirus response take time out from their work to appear before Congress.

Fauci and others are scheduled to testify before the Senate's health committee next week, in a process will largely be run by Republicans.

Despite the multiple oversight mechanisms, not everybody is convinced the process has worked so far. "If the idea was to create enough redundancy that there'd be effective oversight, mission most definitely not accomplished," said Neil Barofsky, who was the first inspector general for the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program passed at the height of the financial crisis in 2008.

Fauci and others will testify before the Senate's health committee next week, though the process will largely be run by Republicans.

In his opening statement, Miller will say he has won support from Democrats and Republicans in the past, according to a draft posted on the Senate Banking Committee's website. His background also includes nine years as inspector general for the General Services Administration, where he won praise for acting independently and investigating corruption inside an agency with a budget of more than $20 billion that oversees thousands of federal properties.

The position he has been nominated for is modeled after the inspector general created to oversee the federal bailout passed during the financial crisis a decade ago. That inspector general uncovered numerous instances of fraud that sent people to jail.

Miller's confirmation hearing will take place Tuesday afternoon before the Senate Banking Committee and will be the first in-person hearing related to the coronavirus since the House and Senate largely abandoned Washington in late March amid the pandemic's deadly and economically devastating march across the nation. Since then, lawmakers returned periodically only to approve huge spending bills with little debate. The Senate reconvened this week, but the House remains out of session.

Senate Democrats have lambasted Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for bringing the Senate back into session this week without plans to devote more attention to coronavirus oversight or legislation, especially since hearings are planned for unrelated nominees Democrats oppose.

"Providing vigorous oversight of legislation we've already passed would have been a better use of the Senate's time," Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor Tuesday.

In his own floor remarks, McConnell said "our task in the weeks ahead will be to keep seeking thoughtful solutions that are not just for the very short term, but will help pivot towards a phased reopening and recovery," including passing business liability protections that Democrats oppose.

The afternoon hearing on Miller could be an unusual spectacle, with the nominee and some senators expected to attend in person while others join via video conference, according to committee staff.

Although appointed by the president, inspectors general are supposed to be independent. But Trump has demonstrated a pattern of retaliating against inspectors general who take actions he dislikes, or produce unflattering findings.

On the same day he announced Miller's nomination last month, Trump fired the intelligence community watchdog who had alerted Congress to a whistleblower complaint that came to be at the center of the impeachment inquiry.

Last week, he moved to replace the top watchdog at the Department of Health and Human Services after her office released a report on the shortages in testing and personal protective gear at hospitals. He also recently removed the acting Pentagon inspector general, who had been expected to serve as head of a separate coronavirus oversight entity composed of inspectors general of multiple agencies and tasked with overseeing the overall federal response.

Together these moves raise the question of whether Miller, if confirmed by the Senate, will have the leeway to function independently as Congress intended, said Danielle Brian of the Project on Government Oversight, an expert on inspectors general. Miller's ultimate confirmation is likely, as Republicans control the Senate and only a majority vote is required to install him in the job.

"He has a choice - either he does his job well and invokes the wrath of the president, or the reverse is, obviously, he can keep his head down and then we lose out on an aggressive IG," Brian said.

The new Special IG for Pandemic Recovery is only one piece in a complicated and overlaying set of oversight mechanisms Congress has put in place to monitor the coronavirus response, leading Trump to complain that he is again being subjected to a Democratic witch hunt.

Addressing reporters Tuesday before leaving the White House to travel to Arizona, Trump complained about a new select committee that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., created over the objections of Republicans.

"They put every Trump hater on the committee, the same old stuff," Trump said. "They frankly want our situation to be unsuccessful, which means death, which means death, and our situation is going to be very successful."

But the issues that have emerged in the federal spending in response to the coronavirus - such as big businesses tapping into a small business loan program - have been uncovered by the media, not Congress or any of the oversight groups. That's because they have mostly not yet begun to function.

A congressional oversight commission created in the Cares Act, and like the new inspector general tasked with overseeing the $500 billion Treasury fund, cannot begin to function until its chairperson is appointed jointly by Pelosi and McConnell. The two have spoken, but it's unclear when they will make their appointment.

The separate select committee of lawmakers that Pelosi created also is in limbo because Republicans have not yet announced their appointments to the panel or even said whether they will participate.

Barofsky and others have raised concerns about a statement Trump issued when he signed the Cares Act, which suggested he might seek to block provisions in the legislation that allow the inspector general to alert Congress if he is not getting the information he wants from the executive branch. But Barofsky also noted that because much of the money in the $500 billion Treasury fund has not yet been obligated, it is not too late for good oversight.

There is one oversight group that has gotten up and running to a degree: the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, which is a group of inspectors general charged with overseeing the entire federal response to the coronavirus and all the spending approved thus far and into the future. Even though Trump removed the inspector general initially chosen to chair the committee, the group launched a website last week and also announced the appointment of an executive director. It does not appear to have gotten much further than that.

Adam J. Levitin, a professor at Georgetown University Law who played a key oversight role during the financial crisis bailout programs of 2008 and also consulted with Democrats on the oversight language in the Cares Act, said the most problematic program thus far appears to be the small-business Paycheck Protection Program.

If confirmed, Miller's office wouldn't be tasked with scrutinizing this program because it is being run by the Small Business Administration, which has its own inspector general. Multiple problems have come to light where large businesses tapped into the program, in some cases returning the funds after their involvement became publicized.

Democrats have complained about lack of transparency in the small business program, which is not disclosing who is getting the loans. The Small Business Administration says it does not have the ability to disclose this information because banks and other lenders are the ones actually issuing the loans. But Democrats reject this explanation, and Schumer and Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., intend to try to advance legislation on the Senate floor later Tuesday that would require frequent disclosure of the loan amounts and who is getting them. Republicans are likely to block the effort.

Levitin said there could be problems with other aspects of the federal spending that aren't yet known because there has been no real oversight conducted. "There are some unknown unknowns which scare me," Levitin said.
A distraught young woman has revealed that government red tape surrounding the coronavirus pandemic - which has already ruined her wedding - is now threatening to destroy her whole relationship.

Louise Murray (25), from Carrickfergus, was due to marry her American fiance Jason Charewicz (29), from Boston, in her Co Antrim hometown on Saturday, May 23.

But not only has the wedding been cancelled due to coronavirus, it has now emerged that her husband-to-be may be forced to leave Northern Ireland when his visa expires.

Ms Murray, whose new job has been put on hold because of Covid-19, said the situation was "beyond stressful" for the couple, who are currently living with Louise's parents.

"Jason's visa won't be renewed unless we get married, but we can't get married because of coronavirus... a classic Catch 22 situation," she told the Belfast Telegraph.

"We worked so hard and saved up all our money to be together and now this has happened and everything is up in the air."

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Bride-to-be Louise said that the ceremony on her big day was due to take place "in the Catholic church at the bottom of my street in Carrickfergus".

"Our wedding has been planned for well over a year but it can't go ahead," she said.

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"The priest was happy to proceed with a service just for us and my parents because we live in the same household; it would have been a legal marriage for us to tick that box but he was prevented from doing that by the blanket ban on all gatherings."

She added: "All that we've worked for might be down the drain. We might not even be able to stay together in the same country, let alone get married."

The young couple, who have been together for over two years, met while teaching English in South Korea.

Jason revealed that he is here in Northern Ireland on a fiance visa which requires him to get legally married before August 23.

If the marriage does not take place, he cannot extend his stay or switch to a spousal visa and remain in the UK, meaning that their whole future will be thrown into question.

Furthermore, Louise has had no income since February, as the new job she was supposed to start as a support worker in Northern Ireland cannot train her due to Covid-19.

Although she is still technically employed, her employer cannot pay her, as she cannot start work.

Louise, an only child to support worker dad Hugh (62) and nurse Lorraine (60), who are both retired, said she is not entitled to Jobseeker's Allowance or to Universal Credit.

The pair said they have emailed the Home Office but, after almost three weeks, there has been no reply. They also said they cannot get through to officials by phone either.

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Jason told the Belfast Telegraph that the two of them were now "in despair" over their future.

"The longer our marriage is delayed the more likely it is that we won't meet the financial requirement of the spousal visa if one month of no income becomes three through no fault of our own," he said.

"If the pandemic hadn't happened, we would be getting married in May, and Louise's income over the previous year would exceed the financial requirement that the Home Office stipulates.

"Louise cannot, however, make income due to the pandemic, and now it looks like this will bring us below the threshold, despite the fact that Louise made well over the required threshold in the past two years.

"The Home Office requires the partner of the foreign visa applicant to prove their previous year's income using the past 12 months.

"But what if three of those 12 months' earning potential were lost by an unforeseen virus?"

The decision to relocate from the Far East to Northern Ireland was the result of Louise's preference to come home.

"I didn't want to live in America," she explained.

That meant Jason was prepared to leave his parents Michael (65) and Deborah (64) and younger brother Brett (26) behind in the US to make a new life with his Northern Irish love.

Jason said they believe that couples in their situation "should be allowed to use the 12 months before the coronavirus pandemic in order to prove the sponsor's income".

He also pointed out that it has already cost them "at least 4,000 to get this far" in the legalisation process.

"When my visa comes to expire, and we have had no chance to get legally married due to the pandemic, will the Home Office require that we spend thousands of pounds again on a new application, despite the fact that this one was made null and void by a pandemic?" he said.

"Will they send me back to the States without my partner, where I haven't lived for years?"

Jason also hit out at the lack of advice from the UK Government on the issue.

"What does the government suggest we do?" he said.

"They won't release any advice about this specific situation.

"It's inconvenient that British couples must delay their marriage, but for couples where one partner's status rests on a legal marriage taking place, the lockdown is devastating."

He added: "We just want answers."

Louise said: "Not knowing is almost worse than having a bad answer because at least then you could make plans."

In response the Home Office said it has put in place a range of measures to support those affected by the Covid-19 outbreak.

" We continue to monitor the situation closely and take these exceptional circumstances into account," a spokesman said.

"Under current family Immigration Rules, a fiance(e) or proposed civil partner can apply to extend their stay for a further six months where there is good reason why their ceremony could not take place during the currency of their visa.
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DUBAI, UAE / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / Active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) industry is witnessing a sharp decline in supply and demand during the COVID-19 outbreak. Ibuprofen API will witness a downfall in demand, owing to halted productions by major manufacturers, as suggested by a new Future Market Insights (FMI) report. Continuous demand for low-cost non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and scale of manufacturing facilities remain the key drivers for global Ibuprofen market that has been projected to witness around 1.3X expansion in revenues during 2020-2029.Emergence of cost-effective drug manufacturers in Asia, coupled with increasing API drug shortages, are further driving ibuprofen API market growth. Moreover, with China being the global manufacturing hub, is severely affected by the pandemic induced travel restrictions and lockdowns, eventually resulting in supply chain disruptions. The effects of COVID-19 are collectively resulting in a decline in sales. The downtrend is expected to prevail till the pandemic subsides.Download a Sample Report with Table of Contents and Figures: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-11260 Segmental Highlights:Contract Manufacturing Organizations (CMOs) will remain the primary end-use segment, owing to high reliance from prominent pharmaceutical companies for manufacturing APIs as well as final formulations. Furthermore, the integration of CMOs into the supply chain of pharmaceutical companies is gradually gaining traction, propelling the demand.North America is currently the leading regional market for Ibuprofen API. The dominance is attributed to the strong presence of leading manufacturers, coupled with high adoption of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID). However, the region will end up shrinking its global market share owing to Asia's proliferation.Asian market is forecasted to grow at a promising rate and bestow lucrative opportunities for players in the ibuprofen API market. The growth is primarily attributed to the availability of cheap labor adequate raw materials. Moreover, with conducive regulatory environments being set up across manufacturing facilities, coupled with reduced taxation policies are fueling growth. China and India being leading regions, contribute to 80% of total anti-inflammatory APIs manufactured. This facet is further spurring market players to leverage the demand in the region. However, the pandemic is likely to hinder the swift growth of the market.For information on the research approach used in the report, request methodology@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-11260 Report coverage:End-use Industries: Contract Manufacturing Organizations and Pharmaceutical CompaniesRegions: North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, APEJ, Japan, and MEAExplore FMI's Lucid Coverage of Healthcare LandscapeVeterinary Vaccines Market- The veterinary vaccines market study analyses the key trends, innovations, regulatory policies, and key strategies adopted by leading players in this evolving landscape.Peptide Therapeutics Market- The study analyses the peptide therapeutics market and offers growth opportunities in USD million across 30+ countries in six regions.Digital Pathology Market- With strong growth through 2029, the digital pathology market is witnessing substantial growth in a market.About Future Market Insights (FMI)Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India. FMI's latest market research reports and industry analysis help businesses navigate challenges and take critical decisions with confidence and clarity amidst breakneck competition.Contact:Mr. Abhishek BudholiyaUnit No: AU-01-H Gold Tower (AU), Plot No: JLT-PH1-I3A,Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai,United Arab EmiratesMARKET ACCESS DMCC InitiativeFor Sales Enquiries: sales@ futuremarketinsights.com For Media Enquiries: press@ futuremarketinsights.com Report: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/ibuprofen-api-market Press Release Source: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/press-release/ibuprofen-api-market SOURCE: Future Market Insights
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 09:39:46|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on March 18, 2020 shows Qantas air planes at Sydney Airport in Sydney, Australia. Australia's national airline Qantas on May 5 extended international flight cancellations till the end of July, but said that it was in a strong position to endure disruptions caused by COVID-19. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei)

SYDNEY, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Australia's national airline Qantas on Tuesday extended international flight cancellations till the end of July, but said that it was in a strong position to endure disruptions caused by COVID-19.

The company said that domestic flights would be cancelled till the end of June and international services until the end of July, adding that domestic and trans-Tasman services could be quickly reinstated should restrictions ease in coming weeks.

"Australia has done an amazing job of flattening the curve and we're optimistic that domestic travel will start returning earlier than first thought, but we clearly won't be back to pre-coronavirus levels anytime soon," Group CEO Alan Joyce said.

"With the possible exception of New Zealand, international travel demand could take years to return to what it was."

The company, which includes budget branch Jetstar, also revealed it had secured a further 550 million Australian dollars (354.3 million U.S. dollars) in debt funding, placing it in a stronger position to endure the COVID-19 crisis.

According to Qantas, by reducing expenditure and borrowing against its fleet of aircraft, the company could survive several recovery scenarios, including one where current travel restrictions persisted until December 2021.

The reduction in expenditure is largely due to the standing down of more than 25,000 staff who were forced to use leave entitlements before receiving delayed financial assistance from the government.

"The impact of this stand down is deeply regrettable but has been greatly softened by the Australian Government's JobKeeper program, which the Group commenced paying several weeks ahead of the official payment start date," the airline said in a statement.
Altice USA to Participate in Upcoming MoffettNathanson and J.P. Morgan Conferences

Altice USA (NYSE: ATUS) today announces that Dexter Goei, Altice USA CEO, will participate in the MoffettNathanson 7th Annual Media & Communications Summit on Tuesday, May 12, 2020 and the 48th Annual J.P. Morgan Global Technology (News - Alert), Media and Communications Conference on Wednesday, May 13, 2020.

Both presentations will be held virtually.

The MoffettNathanson presentation is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, May 12. To listen to a live webcast, please visit here.







The J.P. Morgan presentation is scheduled to begin at 9:50 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, May 13. To listen to a live webcast, please visit here.

About Altice USA

Altice USA (NYSE: ATUS) is one of the largest broadband communications and video services providers in the United States, delivering broadband, video, mobile, proprietary content and advertising services to more than 4.9 million residential and business customers across 21 states through its Optimum (News - Alert) and Suddenlink brands. The company operates a4, an advanced advertising and data business, which provides audience- based, multiscreen advertising solutions to local, regional and national businesses and advertising clients. Altice USA also offers hyper-local, national, international and business news through its News 12, Cheddar and i24NEWS networks.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505006010/en/
courtesy of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office

NOTE: Austin Johnson has been located, according to a 7:04 a.m. Tuesday update by the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.



In one week, two 16-year-old boys went missing in Montgomery County, leaving authorities asking the public to help bring them home.

Cody Sheff was last seen April 27 in Porter. He is thought to be heading to Illinois where he has family. He is described as 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighing 146 pounds, with black hair, hazel eyes and a light complexion, according to the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ohio students could return to the classroom in August, going to school to two days in a week, supplemented with online learning, Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday.

I think everyone would like to see schools back in session in August, DeWine said in the statehouse news briefing. How could they exist in the world where the coronavirus is still here? How could they get the social distancing? Its very difficult."

Related: What might your childs school look like when it reopens?

A task force of superintendents, principals and teachers is considering different options for the fall. One option is dividing students into two groups, sending one group to school for two days and the other on two separate days, so the school would have fewer students at a time.

For example, one group could go Monday-Tuesday and the other group Thurday-Friday, with Wednesday as a cleaning day.

No decision has been made, DeWine said. Other concerns include social distancing on school buses, for example. Lunch rooms and hallways during high school class changes have also been concerns, as have masks with small children.

My recommendation to schools is to look at different options," DeWine said. "What is unique to you?

Most of the Northeast Ohio superintendents asked for comment on the plan said that the rotating schedule is one of the many options on the table for the fall. What happens will depend on how the pandemic progresses through the summer and what the state recommends.

Beachwood Superintendent Robert Hardis wrote in an email that the 10-person limit on gatherings would need to be lifted before schools could implement a plan like DeWine referenced.

Of course, we are also considering how we will handle passing time in hallways, lunchtime (and) busing, he wrote. We know that protective measures or protocols will need to be implemented for students and staff using health checklists or screenings, as well as more aggressive cleaning and disinfecting than is typical."

The focus right now is strengthening remote learning and incorporating feedback from parents and teachers.

For Parma Schools, a district made up of students from three different cities, priorities include streamlining the platforms teachers use for online education and making remote education more interactive, Superintendent Charles Smialek said.

Were trying to move from a mode of assigning work to providing instruction, Smialek said.

In Shaker Heights, the district has luckily found it had enough devices to give to students who need them, and has also distributed internet hot-spots, Superintendent David Glasner said.

"Obviously given the uncertainty around next year, thats something we anticipate continuing. I think its a question moving forward, even when we return to normal, what kind of access to devices and Internet we expect to have for our students moving forward.

I think the silver lining here is that weve seen the importance of accessibility and how much our students and teachers can do in remote settings."

Several school districts have shifted the calendar slightly to allow time for faculty to work on online planning for the fall, including Lakewood, Parma and Shaker Heights.

Those shifts are generally for a few days, but Revere Local Schools, in northwest Summit County, cut its school year 13 days short, based on feedback from parents regarding the stress of online learning.
(Photo : Elliot Alderson from Pixabay)

"COVID-19 was already spreading in France in late December 2019, a month before the official first cases in the country," according to the team at Groupe Hospitalier Paris Seine in Saint-Denis.

CNN said, "The first official reports of COVID-19 in France were reported on Jan. 24, in two people who had a history of travel to Wuhan, China."

However, the researchers said they found evidence suggesting a patient admitted to a hospital in Paris had the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Read now: Pompeo: 'Enormous Evidence' Suggests Novel Coronavirus Started in Wuhan lab

Once verified, their findings would show the virus was already circulating in Europe before the first cases were diagnosed in France and Italy.

Going back to the first case

Patient One in Italy tested positive on February 20. He spent weeks on a ventilator before he was released on March 22, according to The Atlantic.

In case the virus was spreading undetected, intensive care specialist Dr. Yves Cohen and his hospital colleagues said they checked the records of earlier patients.

The team checked all people admitted to the hospital without influenza from December 2 to January 16. According to CNN, "They tested frozen samples from those patients for coronavirus."

One of the samples came from a 42-year-old man who was born in Algeria and lived in France for years. "His last trip was in Algeria during August 2019," Dr. Cohen and his team wrote. He did not go to China and has a child who was also sick, they said.

The team also said learning more about the pandemic requires knowing who was the first patient infected by COVID-19.

Knowing more about the pandemic

"Identifying the first infected patient is of great epidemiological interest as it changes dramatically our knowledge regarding SARS-COV-2 and its spreading in the country," they said.

SARS-CoV-2 is the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The team also added, "Moreover, the absence of a link with China and the lack of recent travel suggest that the disease was already spreading among the French population at the end of December, 2019."

Italy has over 212,000 confirmed cases, 82,000 recoveries, and 29,000 deaths due to COVID-19.

Italy's first COVID-19 cases were two Chinese tourists in Rome, while its first official community transmission occurred at the end of February in Codogno, north Italy.

The country is also slowly emerging from lockdown. Italians will now be able to move around, but with strict restrictions from the government.

According to the Guardian, "Italians will now be able to travel within regions to visit relatives, provided they wear masks, but schools, hairdressers, gyms and many other commercial activities will stay closed; cafes and restaurants will offer takeaways only; and all travel between regions will be banned except for work, health or emergency situations."

Social distancing will still be observed in funerals and weddings. Only" a maximum of 15 mourners [are] allowed to attend, but masses and weddings will have to wait," the Guardian added.

Dr. Cohen's team published their study last Sunday in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agent via Science Direct.

Read now: Production of the First Batch of Proposed COVID-19 Vaccines in the US Expected in July
But this will never, ever happen. Ive been trying to break it to them that in the unlikely event that Biden has to go, the party will replace him with another moderate, because Democratic primary voters resoundingly indicated a preference for a moderate and because a moderate gives the Democrats their best chance of winning the swing states in the fall and beating Trump.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has warned that international travel may not resume until 2021 as he encouraged Americans to consider travelling within the US instead.

Speaking during an interview on Fox Business Network on Monday, Mnuchin said it was 'too hard to tell' at the moment whether international travel could open up by the end of the year.

But, he added: 'This is a great time for people to explore America. A lot of people haven't seen many parts of America.'

Speaking during an interview on Fox Business Network on Monday, Mnuchin said it was 'too hard to tell' at the moment whether international travel could open up by the end of the year

Mnuchin said his main priority was to 'open the domestic economy'.

'The president's also looking about ways to stimulate travel. We want people to travel safely, to be able to visit places safely.

'So as the economy opens up, I think you'll see demand coming back.'

The CEO of Southwest Airlines, one of the largest US air companies, has insisted that it is safe for travellers to fly again.

He also said that air traffic, nearly paralyzed by the coronavirus pandemic, was gradually reviving.

The CEO of Southwest Airlines, one of the largest US air companies, has insisted that it is safe for travellers to fly again

Asked on CBS whether it was safe to fly again, Gary Kelly replied, 'It is. We're doing everything possible to encourage people to come back and fly.'

He said his airline was taking a number of safety precautions. Passengers and crew members will be required to wear masks, planes will receive deep cleaning between flights and some seats will be left empty to allow a degree of social distancing.

'I don't think the risk on an airplane is any greater risk than anywhere else,' Kelly said.

'You look at the layered approach that we use, it's as safe as any environment you're going to find.'

Kelly's remarks come after other major airlines, including Delta, United, American, and JetBlue, announced that passengers would be required to wear protective masks on flights.

Mnuchin said bipartisan discussions are underway over whether more U.S. government relief funding is needed amid the nation's novel coronavirus outbreak, but that President Donald Trump is focused on taxes and travel.

The Treasury Secretary said the Trump administration was prepared to back additional coronavirus stimulus money for American businesses if needed, but that right now it was carefully monitoring the economy as some states restart activity.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin pictured alongside President Trump. Mnuchin said bipartisan discussions are underway over whether more U.S. government relief funding is needed amid the nation's novel coronavirus outbreak, but that President Donald Trump is focused on taxes and travel

Congress has already passed several major coronavirus relief bills worth nearly $3 trillion during the pandemic, but Democratic lawmakers and both Republican and Democratic governors have called for billions more to help shore up local governments battered by the outbreak as they grapple with infections and historic waves of unemployment.

'We've put $3 trillion out, if we need to put more money out to support American business and American workers, the president's absolutely prepared to do that,' Mnuchin said. 'We're also going to take into account what the economic impact is as we open up the economy.'

'We're beginning to have conversations on a bipartisan basis, we're going through the issues, we're going to have very detailed discussions,' he added, when asked if June could be a target for the next wave of federal aid from Congress.

On Sunday, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said he would not rule out anything in a new relief bill, including more money for state and local governments and small businesses.
This article appeared on the WSWS in French on April 24.

The calamity now playing out at Quebec Citys Jeffery Hale Hospital is a product of decades of federal and provincial government social spending cuts and their chronic underfunding of the public health care system.

Located in Quebec Citys Saint-Sacrement neighbourhood not far from the downtown, Jeffrey Hale Hospital was the site of the first COVID-19 outbreak in Quebecs capital city. Today nearly half of the 130 long-term care patients have contracted the coronavirus, leading to 17 deaths. As the following record shows, the authorities sought to cover-up the seriousness of the situation from the general population and the workers and families directly affected.

On March 30, hospital management confirmed a few COVID-19 cases and then spoke of an outbreak under control that affected only a few members of a well-controlled ward.

The next day, the regional health authority admitted that 4 staff and 4 patients on the palliative care unit at Jeffery Hale Hospital had contracted COVID-19. It said the symptoms presented by the eight infected persons were mild and all necessary protective and disinfection measures had been put in place to avoid transmission, including placing 23 hospital employees who may have been in contact with the infected persons in preventive isolation.

However, information revealed anonymously by hospital employees to Canadas French-language public broadcaster, Radio-Canada, painted a completely different picture. According to these employees, the outbreak was the result of negligence on the part of the authorities. For example, while staff had expressed fears of contagion as early as March 18, no preventive measures were put in place. Even when a staff member showed symptoms on March 23 and some staff were informed that an infected person may have been circulating on the palliative care floor, no protective measures were implemented, other than the quarantining of some workers.

According to the employee, workers had reported the presence of two patients with coronavirus symptoms as early as March 25, and asked for visors so that they could work safely with these patients. They were refused this essential piece of protective equipment, a decision endorsed by their local union which is an affiliate of the Federation interprofessionnelle de la sante du Quebec.

The president of the union, Patricia Lajoie, made rhetorical statements about the need to protect workers in order to disguise her collaboration with hospital management. But, questioned as to whether employees should have been equipped with visors from the moment the presence of two patients with COVID-19 was revealed, she instead raised the spectre of a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), put forward by the right-wing CAQ (Coalition Avenir Quebec) government at the end of March to justify rationing PPE. On that basis, the local union leader refused to criticize the hospitals decision and said: We really must follow public health guidelines in such cases. Depending on the severity of the symptoms, thats whats going to tell you what equipment you need.

Another employee also revealed to Radio-Canada on March 31 that at least four patients with symptoms had died in the previous days, but that hospital management had refused to test them for COVID-19 because it wasnt worth it for people at the end of their lives.

For its part, the regional health authority defended the failure to test these patients and cavalierly blamed the doctors, who were responsible, according to the authorities, for determining whether the symptoms of fever and breathing difficulties are due to infection or imminent death.

The negligence demonstrated by Jeffery Hale Hospital and the regional health authority has had tragic consequences. A steady worsening of the situation led to the announcement on April 16 of a 12th hospital death, a catastrophic toll representing more than half of the deaths recorded in the Quebec City area at that time. Despite the supposedly reinforced measures put in place, all floors of the institution were affected, and 46 patients and 31 staff members had received positive results from their COVID-19 screening tests. Thirty-five other persons were in preventive isolation.

Workers continued to decry the inadequate response from public health authorities. On April 16, Radio-Canada reported that coronavirus patients continued to eat from the hospitals reusable dishes and that laundry staff lacked the necessary protective equipment, as visors were provided late and in insufficient numbers. Some employees reportedly refused to handle the contaminated dishes.

The negligence of the authorities is all the more inexcusable given that the Jeffery Hale Hospital was particularly at risk among health care institutions in the Quebec City region. It counts geriatrics among its specialties and houses patients suffering from cognitive disorders such as Alzheimers. The latter have extreme difficulty in following social distancing and other precautionary measures, and are thus at greater risk of coming into contact with infected people. In addition, the hospital houses a day centre for the elderly.

Drastic funding cuts have been felt throughout the Canadian health care system, as a result of the austerity measures implemented by all the establishment parties when in office, from the Liberals, Conservatives, and Parti Quebecois to the NDP. However, Jeffery Hale Hospital has been particularly affected in recent years. The hospital has had to reduce the services it offers to the population, especially in the emergency room, which has been closed at night since 2007.

The case of the Jeffery Hale Hospital in Quebec City is just one example among many demonstrating that while the coronavirus pandemic is the result of a biological process, its catastrophic impact is the result of a twofold social process: the criminal complacency and negligence of the ruling elite in recent months, which has allowed the virus to spread rapidly; and the decades of budget cuts and other capitalist austerity measures that have bled the entire public health system dry.

The coronavirus pandemic has thus exposed to the world the putrefaction of a capitalist system that subordinates all of societys resourcesand countless human livesto the insatiable demands of the financial markets and the super-rich.

Broad masses of people are coming to realize this. However, the political forces representing affluent layers of the middle class are coming forward to hide, under fake left posturing, the responsibility of capitalism for the current tragedy.

This is the task that Quebec Solidaire (QS) has set itself in an open letter, co-signed by its two elected members of the National Assembly (MNAs) from the Quebec City region, Sol Zanetti and Catherine Dorion, and party leader Manon Masse. Motivated perhaps by the situation at Jeffery Hale Hospital, the QS MNAs letter was published on April 18 in Quebec Citys main daily newspaper, Le Soleil, under the headline, You are right to be angry.

In the letter, the three QS legislators deplore the social spending cuts implemented by previous Parti Quebecois and Quebec Liberal Party governments that have ravaged the public health care system. But they present these brutal austerity measures, not as flowing from the implacable logic of the crisis-ridden capitalist system, but as a bad, subjective policy choice of some politicians.

Why? they ask, after listing a series of examples of organizational abuse in nursing homes. Because austerity was in the air of the times, and our government ministers lacked the backbone to resist the air of the times.

Who do the QS MNAs think they are kidding? Our government ministers are not just balloons floating in the air of the times. They are seasoned political representatives of big business, working consciously and ruthlessly to impose the full burden of the capitalist crisis onto the backs of working people.

In its open letter, QS goes on to call for a major refinancing of our public services, to create good jobs, which could seriously boost the economy in all our regions. Such calls are not aimed at mobilizing workers and young people in a political struggle against the bankrupt capitalist system.

Their real purpose was revealed a few words later, when QS raises the question: Will the CAQ have the courage to recognize this? In other words, under the guise of defending public services, QS is sowing illusions in the right-wing CAQ government, led by Premier Francois Legault, a multi-millionaire and former Air Transat CEO who has spent his entire political career promoting privatization, tax cuts for big business and the dismantling of public services.

The letter from Quebec Solidaire ends with these words: There is only one moral and cultural duty, there are only shared values, love and compassion for others, without which Quebec would be nothing.

Class conscious workers should reject with contempt this promotion of Quebec nationalismechoing, as it does, the Quebec First demagogy of Legault and the reactionary appeals of the entire Quebec political establishmentand the unabashed call for class collaboration that accompanies it. Workers only real duty, and the only progressive answer to the human tragedy caused by the pandemic and capitalisms prioritizing of profit over human lives, is a political struggle based on class values that cannot be shared with the parasitic ruling elite that exploits them. Workers in Quebec must mount a common struggle with their class brothers and sisters across North America and internationally to replace rotting capitalism with a planned socialist economy and social equality.

The authors also recommend:

Quebec workers denounce governments rush to reopen the economy amid raging COVID-19 pandemic

[1 May 2020]

Quebec nurses expose shortages that enabled COVID-19 to ravage long-term care facilities

[21 April 2020]

Canadas coronavirus wage-subsidy tailored to propping up business, not protecting workers incomes

[14 April 2020]
Memorial Day, May 25th this year, is a day to remember everyone who died in U.S. military service. Even as we are quarantining and social distancing, you can participate in activities from afar to show appreciation for those who died serving our country fighting for the freedoms and rights we enjoy daily. Find inspiration from our list of seven ways you can honor fallen service members and help veterans who are still with us this year.

1. Fly Your U.S. Flag and POW/MIA Flag at Half-Staff: Flying your U.S. and POW/MIA flags at half-staff on Memorial Day is a powerful visual reminder to yourself and others of the days meaning every time you look at your flags. On Memorial Day, fly your U.S. flag at half-staff from sunrise until noon to honor the veterans who have died. Raise your U.S. flag to full staff at noon until sunset to honor the living veterans for the rest of the day. This tradition symbolizes that our country is still standing even in the face of military lives lost. If you have a POW/MIA flag, fly it at half-staff from sunrise to sunset to honor all of Americas Prisoners of War and Missing in Action. If your home U.S. flag and/or POW/MIA flag is affixed to the house and cant be lowered, you can attach a Black Mourning Bow to the top of the flagpole.

2. Participate in the National Moment of Remembrance: At 3:00 p.m. local time on Memorial Day, pause for a moment of silence for those who have died while serving in the military as an act of national unity. For at least one minute, send love, prayers and thoughts to those who died in service as well as those who are still serving. The National Moment of Remembrance was established by Congress in 2000.

3. Watch Memorial Day Specials or Past Parades/Concerts on TV/Internet if Your City is Unable to Hold Public Events: Many Memorial Day parades and concerts will be cancelled this year, but you can still enjoy TV specials or past parades and concerts on the internet. The American Veterans Centers National Memorial Day Parade will live on in a pre-recorded television special titled The National Memorial Day Parade: America Stands Tall to be broadcast on Memorial Day on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox stations nationwide. You can also watch the 2019 National Memorial Day Parade or the 2019 National Memorial Day Concert on YouTube.

4. Visit a Veterans Memorial Online: Many people visit local veterans' memorials in their city or state, but this year, many of them are closed. You can still use this year to plan which memorials you would like to visit in person next year for Memorial Day. Use the internet to research the most well-known memorials honoring American soldiers. In Arlington, VA, there is The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, The Marine Corps Memorial, The Air Force Memorial or The Women in Military Service for America. In Washington, D.C., there is The National World War II Memorial, The Korean War Veterans Memorial, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial or the African American Civil War Memorial. All of these veteran's memorials are a beautiful tribute to those we have lost.

5. Visit a Veterans Cemetery: Every Memorial Day, people visit local veterans' cemeteries to place flags and flowers on the graves while ensuring that they are free from debris. If you have loved ones who died serving the country, visit their graves. You can also check with local veteran cemeteries to see if they have an Adopt-A-Grave program where you agree to regularly care for and decorate a veterans gravesite. You can volunteer through Memorial Day Flowers to place roses on headstones and quietly honor the veterans buried at the Arlington National Cemetery or at a local cemetery. Check the programs website for the latest plans for the 2020 event. It may be held at a later date due to the coronavirus. If you physically cant make it to a cemetery, you can donate money to help volunteers place flowers on graves.

6. Donate Your Time to Support Families of Those Killed in Combat: Sometimes a family just needs a letter to get them through a difficult day of carrying on after a loved one is killed while in combat. Some organizations, such as Soldiers Angels, have programs where you can send personalized sympathy cards to grieving families and cards of remembrance to the family on the anniversary of a service members passing. By donating your time, you can remind surviving family members that their loved one is not forgotten.

7. Thank or Help a Living Veteran: Show appreciation to veterans who survived their service in defending the country. Show gratitude and respect for those who are still living and can share their stories. You can help disabled veterans through organizations such as Disabled American Veterans (DAV). You can also send letters of appreciation to U.S. military serving around the world through A Million Thanks or send a care package to those who bravely serve our nation through Operation Gratitude. You can even help by just listening to veterans and their families stories through recordings with StoryCorps.

About Carrot-Top Industries: Carrot-Top Industries, family owned and located in Hillsborough, N.C., is a trusted industry leader providing institutions and businesses with custom and patriotic solutions since 1980. As one of the largest, independent flag dealers in America, Carrot-Top offers additional product solutions for schools, government agencies, institutions, and businesses across the United States. Carrot-Top continues to succeed by providing the highest quality products, a dedication to learning about customers needs, and unmatched flexibility in their shopping experience.
Calvin Munerlyn, a father of nine, was gunned down after turning a customer away for trying to enter a Family Dollar in Michigan without a mask, according to authorities.

Monday, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton charged three suspects in the murder  Sharmel Teague, 45; Larry Edward Teague, 44; and Ramonyea Bishop, 23.

"Decisions like staying home when we can, wearing a mask when going to the store and staying a safe distance from those around us, these should not be political arguments," Leyton said. "They don't necessitate acts of defiance. and we simply cannot devolve into an us-versus-them mentality.

"We really need to make a commitment as a community ... to doing the things necessary to allow us to stay healthy and turn the page on this crisis altogether. If not for ourselves, we should do this for Calvin Munerlyn, who has lost his life needlessly and senselessly."

Calvin James Munerlyn, 43, a security guard at a Family Dollar north of downtown Flint, Mich., was shot and killed after telling a woman her daughter needed a face mask while inside the store.

Officials said Sharmel Teague and her daughter went to the Family Dollar in Flint, Michigan, Friday afternoon. Security footage shows Munerlyn and Teague got into a verbal altercation after he told the woman her daughter needed a face mask to enter the store. Teague yelled and spit at Munerlyn, who asked her to leave the store and instructed a cashier not to serve her.

Under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's executive order, everyone must wear a mask in all enclosed public spaces to halt the spread of COVID-19. If customers refuse to comply, businesses can turn them away.

The security footage shows the two driving off in a red GMC Envoy.

Camping incident: Off-duty Los Angeles police officer arrested, charged with attempted murder after camping trip shooting

The same vehicle returned about 20 minutes later at 2:15 p.m. Two suspects, Larry Teague, Sharmel's husband, and Ramonyea Bishop, her son, entered the store. Teague confronted the security guard about disrespecting his wife, and Bishop fatally shot him in the back of the head, Leyton said. The two men then left the store.

Story continues

Munerlyn, 43, was transported to Hurley Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Munerlyn, also known as "Duper," leaves behind nine children and his wife, Leyton said. A GoFundMe page for Munerlyn was created two days ago and raised more than $30,000.

"Duper was a hardworking father and husband who lost his life while doing his job securing the place of business and asking all customers to wear a mask for our own safety as well as others," according to a statement on the page.

'Not acceptable': Violent arrest raises concerns about NYPD distancing patrols

City Commissioner Bryant Nolden said he knew Munerlyn most of his life and saw him training others free of charge.

"He was just an all-around good guy. When I found out what had happened to him, it really broke my heart because I knew what kind of person he was," Nolden said. "This was extremely senseless over a mask. ... We need to stop the senseless violence in the community. This was totally uncalled for, he didn't bother a soul. All he wanted to do was take care of his family, and he always had his kids with him. This is a real loss for this community, and really, it's a big loss for me as an individual."

Both suspects are at large and considered armed and dangerous, Leyton said. Sharmel Teague is in custody, awaiting arraignment charges.

Contributing: Miriam Marini

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Family Dollar security guard killed after telling shopper to wear mask
REED CITY -- Grace Jacobson, an eighth grader at Trinity Lutheran School in Reed City, was announced as one of ten statewide winners in this year's Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan essay contest.

The America and Me Essay Contest encourages youth to explore their roles in America's future. It encourages eighth grade students to write about their Michigan heroes, someone who has made a difference in their life.

The topic of Jacobson's essay was the importance of adoption, and her adoptive family.

Jacobson's essay earned sixth place out of 3,500 essays submitted by students from more than 350 Michigan schools. Trinity Lutheran School was sponsored by Farm Bureau Insurance agent Dan Lee.

"We are so proud of Grace and her selection as the sixth-place winner in the Farm Bureau essay contest," said Trinity president Rich Saladin. "Grace is a fantastic representative of Trinity Lutheran School.

"Thank you to her teacher, Jim Chatel, for providing this unique opportunity to her and her classmates," he added. "We especially thank Dan Lee for sponsoring this event and supporting our Reed City community."

"Farm Bureau is proud to support Michigan students and schools around the state through the America and Me essay contest," said Farm Bureau Insurance CEO Don Simon. "Each year, we are impressed and moved as these student authors share personal stories of their local Michigan heroes."

Each contest winner received a personalized plaque, a personalized medallion, a copy of their essay printed on metal, a cash award of $1,000, and $1,000 for their school, plus an additional $500 to the school if they are sponsored by a Farm Bureau agent.

In addition, they will receive a custom Farm Bureau Insurance corn toss game to promote family fun during the coronavirus shut down.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the state of emergency throughout Michigan, the America and Me Awards Day events scheduled for May 12, have been cancelled. The top ten statewide winners will be recognized remotely.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte apologized to two tycoons he once threatened to arrest and thanked them for helping in the coronavirus pandemic, which he says has humbled me.

The president known for his expletives-laden harangues asked Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala and Manuel Pangilinan for forgiveness.

Both have arranged financial aid to thousands of their employees and helped the government deal with the contagion.

Before the pandemic, Duterte had alleged their water concession contracts violated anti-graft laws and accused them of economic sabotage.

The water utility companies denied any wrongdoing.

Duterte's administration has scrambled to finance aid for poor Filipinos he fears may starve under lockdown, which he imposed to fight the coronavirus that has infected nearly 10,000 people and killed 623.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
No live music or DJs, no standing and no dancing - this is the future of Irish pubs in a socially distanced world.

The pub experience will be "dramatically" different according to a new set of social distancing strict guidelines which may allow for pubs in the Republic to reopen sooner.

Industry representatives will urge Dublin officials to allow bars to reopen at the same time as restaurants and cafes, with a series of strict social distancing guidelines in place.

According to the Irish Government's roadmap to reopening the country, pubs are to reopen in phase five, which would be August 10 at earliest. However, cafes and restaurants will reopen under phase three, from June 29.

Pub representatives Licensed Vintners' Association (LVA) and the Vintners' Federation of Ireland (VFI) have now joined forces to urge the Irish Government to put forward pub reopening dates if publicans follow strict measures.

The measures are:

Dispense-only bars, with no sitting, standing, ordering, payment or drinking at the bar itself.

Customers will be seated at tables at all times, with table service provided.

No more than four people per every 10 square metres; a maximum of six people allowed at one table;

Hand sanitiser used before entry, with staff washing hands every half hour;

Outdoor spaces must "enhance" social distancing;

No live music or DJ and the safe use of toilets, which may include limits on the number of customers using them at one time.

Gardai or the Health Service Executive will have the power to close any business flouting the public health guidelines.

The LVA and the VFI believe that under these strict guidelines, pubs should be allowed to reopen on June 29 instead of August 10.

"We don't believe it is in any way appropriate that the Government should apply one rule for some hospitality businesses and another rule for others," said Donall O'Keeffe, chief executive of the LVA.

He said that trading will be "extremely difficult" under these new guidelines and that the pub "experience" will drastically change.

"We are making a series of radical proposals to how bars should operate for the reopening scenario.

"Trading will be extremely difficult under these circumstances.

"There is no doubt that the pub experience as we know it will have to change dramatically.

"However, for those who want to trade, these measures will have the essential impact of protecting the health and wellbeing of staff and customers alike," Mr O'Keeffe said.

Chief executive of the VFI Padraig Cribben said that the roadmap as it stands is not "tenable".

"The public health restrictions will present real challenges to all hospitality venues, it doesn't matter if they are a pub, a restaurant, a cafe or a hotel," he said.

"There is no denying that and there is no getting around it.

"Addressing those public health requirements will be necessary for all hospitality businesses whenever they reopen.

"Pubs across Ireland are up to that challenge and will do what is required for maintaining a safe and healthy place of business."

He added that the two groups hoped to meet minister this week.

Many pubs in Ireland closed their doors at the outset of the coronavirus emergency, before even being instructed to by the Government, amid concerns over social distancing.
Theres another chance for a severe thunderstorms this afternoon and tonight for some in Alabama.

NOAAs Storm Prediction Center has parts of north and central Alabama in a marginal risk for severe weather today.

A marginal risk is Level 1 out of 5 and means isolated severe storms will be possible.

A small area in northeast Alabama is included in a slight risk (Level 2), which means there could be a few more storms.

The strongest storms could have wind gusts up to 60 mph and hail up to the size of quarters.

The National Weather Service said a brief tornado cant be ruled out, either, especially in north Alabama.

Scattered strong to marginally severe storms are possible as a cold front moves through the region from the late morning into the afternoon hours today. Damaging winds and large hail possible with strongest activity. A brief tornado cannot be ruled out. #HUNwx pic.twitter.com/LZHm7yQgzW  NWS Huntsville (@NWSHuntsville) May 5, 2020

Storms could arrive as early as 11 a.m. in north Alabama and 2 p.m. in central Alabama, according to the National Weather Service.

Theyre expecting things to wrap up about 4 p.m. in north Alabama and 9 p.m. in central Alabama.

The National Weather Service in Birmingham has a forecast that differs some from the SPC. Birmingham forecasters have all of central Alabama generally north of Interstate 85 in a marginal risk for severe storms.

Scattered showers and storms today, a few storms may become severe. Highs from the upper 70s northwest to around 90 southeast. Showers and thunderstorms tonight all but northwest. Lows in the 50s. Partly cloudy Wednesday with highs from the 60s north to the 70s southeast. pic.twitter.com/ZhdhVRJb2R  NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) May 5, 2020

Theres no organized severe weather risk for south Alabama.

North Alabama is where all the action has been this week. Severe thunderstorms have rolled through that region two times in two days, leaving a trail of downed trees and power lines in their wake.

Todays storms are expected to develop ahead of a cold front, will move from the northwest to the southeast and will be more on the scattered side, according to the weather service.

Cooler and drier weather will follow behind the front for Wednesday, and the next chance for rain wont arrive until Thursday or Friday.
Dubais Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) recently organised a remote innovation lab to examine smart services. The session discussed ways and means of applying smart technologies in serving clients.

The event was held in the context of Dubais preventive measures to curb the global outbreak of the Covid-19.

"The staging of this innovation lab reflects RTAs response to governments remote work policy given the prevailing health concerns witnessed by the UAE and the world over," remarked Ahmed Mahboub, the Executive Director of Smart Services, Corporate Technology Support Services Sector, RTA.

It was attended by 80 RTA leaders and the staff of prominent global businesses, such as the Gartner Consulting, and the customers experience advisor RBBi, as well as several developers of smart apps," he added.

Mahboub said the lab discussed two key topics - streamlining the customers experience through the use of technologies and simplified procedures and innovation in smart services including the use of artificial intelligence and identifying users behaviour.

The lab yielded more than 131 ideas highlighted by consolidating RTAs apps in one app, streamlining payment procedures, unifying e-purses, using artificial intelligence and completing the service application.

Ideas proposed have been listed for studying and assessing viability, stated the senior official.

According to Mahboub, RTA is planning to host another lab to focus on the customers experience with services and other labs for virtual quality testing.

"RTA used edge-cutting technologies in the lab to enable participants to share ideas and vote on them. Thanks to advanced technologies, the session was interactive and saw rich discussions marked by a wealth of knowledge in a variety of fields," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday said 6.5 lakh stranded migrant workers have so far been brought back to Uttar Pradesh from other states.

The chief minister gave this figure in a video message in which he also attacked opposition parties of playing politics as the country fights coronavirus.

He claimed that more than six lakh people stuck in other states due to the nationwide lockdown against coronavirus were brought back by March 28.

In the second phase, over 50,000 labourers returned home, he said.

He said the state government had deployed thousands of buses for the exercise so far.

The chief minister said the returning labourers were sent into home quarantine after being given rations and a maintenance allowance of Rs 1,000 each.

He accused the opposition of trying to weaken the country's fight against coronavirus.

"When the country is moving ahead in its fight against coronavirus, there are many who are playing politics in this situation too," he said.

"It is saddening that some people are attempting to weaken India's strong fight against the virus due to their own political interests," the chief minister said.

He claimed that the PM Garib Kalyan package announced for the poor during the pandemic had frustrated those who used to usurp money meant for the poor when they were in power.

Adityanath said while his government was standing by everyone without any discrimination, some parties were doing "unnecessary politics".

He said this behaviour was against political decorum.

The people know everything, he said, adding that the public will reply to such negative people.

Adityanath listed the initiatives taken by his government in recent weeks.

The first installment of Rs 2,000 each was credited into the accounts of 2.34 crore farmers in April and the second installment is being sent this month, he said.

Apart from this, an amount of Rs 1,630 crore has been sent to the Jan Dhan accounts of 3.26 crore women in April and a similar amount credited to them in May.

He said free cooking gas cylinders have been provided to 1.47 crore families and free foodgrain distributed twice to 18 crore poor people. It is being distributed the third time now, he added.

Over 30 lakh people including daily- wage labourers have been given a maintenance allowance of Rs 1,000 each and free foodgrain.

He said 88 lakh pension holder have been given an advance payment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Six soldiers have filed a class-action lawsuit charging that the U.S. promise of citizenship for service -- dating back to the nation's founding -- has been broken by the Pentagon's restrictive policies on naturalization.

The six non-citizen troops, who all enlisted in the Army under the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest program, or MAVNI, alleged that new and lengthy security checks for possible terrorist ties and other measures have effectively blocked them from obtaining citizenship.

The suit, filed on their behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union, charges that Defense Department policies enacted in 2017 "unlawfully obstructed the ability of thousands of service members to obtain U.S. citizenship, placing them in a state of personal and professional limbo."

Related: Recruits in 'Bureaucratic Limbo' with Citizenship Program Suspended

"I took an oath to protect this country, and I'm doing my best to live up to the values of the Army," said Pfc. Ange Samma, originally from Burkina Faso and one of the plaintiffs in the suit.

"It's been frustrating and heartbreaking not to obtain my citizenship as promised, but I will continue to honor my commitment," Samma, now serving with the 339th Quartermaster Company at Camp Humphreys in South Korea, said in a statement accompanying the suit.

Government lawyers signaled they would vigorously contest the suit, which was initially filed April 24 in federal court for the District of Columbia and names the DoD and Defense Secretary Mark Esper as defendants.

The government challenged requests by two of the MAVNI plaintiffs to remain anonymous, citing fears of retribution, and the court agreed. The suit was refiled April 27, naming all six plaintiffs, said Scarlet Kim, one of the ACLU lawyers.

She said the first motion in the suit was to get a court ruling on the ACLU's request for a preliminary injunction to halt the restrictions before the case proceeds, but a ruling on the request is not expected for months.

The suit alleges that DoD and Esper "have adopted an unlawful policy of withholding certifications of plaintiffs' honorable service, which they require to apply to naturalize based on their ongoing military service."

"As a result, defendants are denying thousands of men and women in uniform the U.S. citizenship that Congress has long promised to non-citizens serving in our military," the suit said.

From the Revolutionary War through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, "U.S. laws enacted during periods of armed conflict have permitted non-citizens to naturalize almost immediately upon entering service and prior to deployment," but the new rules have made that nearly impossible, the suit charges.

The basic requirement for a military application for naturalization has been the completion of the N-426 form for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) certifying honorable service.

Past practice was that the form could be completed almost immediately after reporting to basic training, but the DoD changed the rules in October 2017, the suit charges.

"The new criteria require service members to complete additional DoD background screening; pass a 'military service suitability determination,' which purports to determine a service member's security risk to the military; and serve for a minimum of 180 days for active duty service members and one year for service members in the Selected Reserve" before they can get N-426 certification, according to the suit.

"DoD's subversion of the statutory scheme is so significant that it is now harder for many service members to naturalize through the expedited process than through the ordinary civilian process," the suit charges.

However, the DoD said in a statement when the new rules were announced that, while the department "recognizes the value of expedited U.S. citizenship achieved through military service, it is in the national interest to ensure all current and prospective service members complete security and suitability screening prior to naturalization."

From 2008 to 2016, about 10,400 foreign nationals were recruited through the MAVNI program, which is designed to bring in non-citizens with language skills or health care and technology expertise needed by the military, according to the DoD.

Two previous lawsuits have been filed against the policy for MAVNI service members from the Selected Reserve, but the ACLU described the current suit as the first to represent all non-citizen service members.

In addition to Samma, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit include:

Pfc. Abner Bouomo, with the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

Pvt. 2nd Class Ahmad Isiaka, serving in the Selected Reserve with the 644th Transportation Company in Houston, Texas.

Pvt. 2nd Class Michael Perez, with 2nd Battalion, 377th Parachute Field Artillery Regiment, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.

Pvt. 2nd Class Sumin Park, also serving with 2nd Battalion, 377th Parachute Field Artillery Regiment, at JBER.

Spc. Yu Min Lee, serving at Schofield Barracks.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.

Read more: 3 Marines Tackle, Subdue Threatening Passenger on Long-Haul Flight
Comedians Matt Okine and Alex Dyson have reunited for a new breakfast show after leaving Triple J in 2016 to focus on their own projects.

Their new show, Matt and Alex - All Day Breakfast, will be Australia's first podcast breakfast program with Southern Cross Austereo's PodcastOne Australia.

Speaking of their return, Alex told News.com.au: 'A lot has changed since Matt and I hosted Triple J breakfast, but one thing hasn't: We still have the urge to make people laugh at our own expense.'

'We still want to make people laugh at our own expense' Comedians Matt Okine and Alex Dyson have reunited for a new breakfast show after leaving Triple J in 2016 to focus on their own projects

Meanwhile, Matt said in a statement Southern Cross Austereo: 'I'm so excited about reconnecting with everyone who used to listen to us in the morning and even more excited about connecting with new fans who can't stand waking up before 9.00am!

'After such a successful tenure at Triple , we were careful not to jump back in the booth together unless the conditions were right, and everything about SCA and our new show, All Day Breakfast, feels right!' he added.

Alex said that the pair have 'grown as people' since leaving Triple J, and are very excited to 'write a new chapter together.'

Exciting news! Their new show, Matt and Alex - All Day Breakfast, will be Australia's first podcast breakfast program with Southern Cross Austereo's PodcastOne Australia

The show will be released at 6am every weekday by PodcastOne Australia, and the duo will share their views on the world, discuss important topics and entertain audiences with their comedic flair.

Since leaving their Triple J show Matt has gone on to write and star in his own TV series, The Other Guy, as well as write a novel called Being Black 'n Chicken, and Chips.

He also became a father in 2019 after he and his partner Belinda Rabe welcomed a daughter named Sofia.

Achievements: Since leaving their Triple J show Matt has gone on to write and star in his own TV series, The Other Guy, as well as write a novel called Being Black 'n Chicken, and Chips. He also became a father in 2019 after he and his partner Belinda Rabe welcomed a daughter named Sofia

Experiments: Meanwhile, Alex returned to Triple J in 2018 as a fill-in host for the lunch slot, before leaving again. In 2019, he dipped his toes in politics running for the seat of Wannon in the Australian federal election as an independent, but he lost to Liberal MP Dan Tehan

Meanwhile, Alex returned to Triple J in 2018 as a fill-in host for the lunch slot, before leaving again.

In 2019, he dipped his toes in politics running for the seat of Wannon in the Australian federal election as an independent, but he lost to Liberal MP Dan Tehan.

Matt and Alex - All Day Breakfast is available on PodcastOne Australia.
President Donald Trump stated on Sunday that U.S. intelligence officials didnt bring up the issue of the CCP virus until late January and didnt highlight the gravity of the threat during the briefing.

On January 23, I was told that there could be a virus coming in but it was of no real import. In other words, it wasnt, Oh we gotta do something, we gotta do something. It was a brief conversation and it was only on January 23, Trump said during a Fox News town hall.

The president said shortly afterward he closed the country to China.

China should have stopped it, but Chinathey didnt know and they wouldnt let us in. We wanted to go into China. They didnt want us to go in because they didnt want to have us see it. Maybe they were worried about competence. Maybe they were worried about something else, said Trump.

The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, originated in China in 2019 before spreading around the world, infecting millions, and killing hundreds of thousands.

Office of the Director of National Intelligence spokesperson Susan Miller confirmed with CNN that the U.S. intelligence communitys first daily briefing about the contagion in China was shared with the president on Jan. 23, three days after the first confirmed case of the virus in the country and that he was then told that the virus was not that deadly.

National security adviser Robert OBrien had also confirmed the same timeline to the media.

And the intelligence agencies  which are now very competently run with some great people  The intelligence agencies will tell you that tomorrow, Trump said Sunday.

The president said when he closed the country to China, 40,000 American citizens came back to the country and were tested. Well, the different states. They were tested. They were quarantined when they were sick, said Trump, adding that at that time they might not all have been tested very well.

Some were tested, probably, not as good as they could have been. I can tell you, Florida tested the people very, very well, and look how low the numbers are in Florida. Theyve done a great job, said the president.

Trump called the pandemic a horrible thing and said it shouldnt have happened.

But the main thing I have to do is bring our country back, and I want to get it back to where it was or maybe beyond where it was. You know, we have tremendous stimulusall the money weve been talking about so far tonight. I think next year is going to be a phenomenal economic year, he said.

From The Epoch Times
MARE ISLAND, Calif., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Amid the COVID-19 crisis, Affinity Creative Group immediately felt the need to support an industry that's been severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. While our creative marketing agency adjusted to a distributed work environment and continued operations, we wanted to make a difference by supporting friends and clients in the wine industry who were not so fortunate. Tasting room shutdowns and shelter in place orders meant independent, local, and smaller producers would be even more reliant on DTC transactions and e-Commerce sales for their very survival. This led our founders and principals, Dave Miller and John Swain, to a simple idea. Why not help out by doing the obviousbuy some wine.

To Learn More, Visit ACaseForACause.com

It started with the two partners making direct purchases from a range of different wineries, particularly from those producers hardest hit by the lack of visitors to their tasting rooms and on premise sales. Next, they sent those casesone each to all 36 Affinity employees on staff, to thank them for pulling together to keep the creative agency functioning and productive, while navigating through these unprecedented times. With typical Affinity ingenuity, our digitally savvy team members then created social media postings with the hashtag #ACaseForACause, spreading love, support, and participation by communicating the joy of giving and receiving wine.

To magnify this initial gesture, Affinity's founders have challenged our vendor-partners, industry collaborators, and other members of the wine community to join us in support of #ACaseForACause. For those who accept the challenge, their additional sent cases from a winery in need of support will not only delight the recipient but will also generate more social media buzz for the program. If all goes as envisioned, the challenges will continue exponentially. Whether it's a colleague, friend, healthcare professional, or just a fellow wine aficionado, Affinity Creative Group encourages all those who can, to participate in #ACaseForACause. Or, if you'd rather make a direct monetary contribution, please consider one of these worthy organizations:

The Sonoma County Resilience Fund - sonomacf.org/resilience

Napa Valley Community Foundation's COVID-19 Response Fund - https://www.napavalleycf.org/covid-19-giving/

You can also visit ACaseForACause.com for more details, and to follow all social media posts.

Regardless of how you participate, all contributions of any size are welcome. During times like these, the power of a single action, enabled with social media and physical networks, reminds us we're all in this together, and we can all help each other through simple gestures. Supporting those in need is more crucial now than ever before. We invite you to join #ACaseForACause.

About Affinity Creative Group: From our unique creative campus, (two mansions and a bungalow), along historic officer's row on Mare Island, California, Affinity Creative Group provides brand design, digital media and retail activation marketing services, particularly for wine, spirits and other luxury categories. The most experienced team in the business, staffed with knowledgeable industry professionals, provide strategic, creative and effective solutions that attract attention, spark interest and win customer loyalty in tasting rooms, on premise and at retail venues across the country and around the globe. Affinity helps clients of all sizes connect with consumers at the early, essential moments of contact, or points of 'brand touch' through the intelligent use of creativity, captivating storytelling, and flawless implementation.

For more information about Affinity Creative Group, please visit: AffinityCreative.com or call 707.562.2787

Media Contact:

Carolyn Schwartz, Marketing Communications Manager, [email protected], 707.562.2787

SOURCE Affinity Creative Group

Related Links

http://AffinityCreative.com


Householders have been warned about the risks of leaving a kitchen appliance such as a dishwasher turned on before going to bed.

Dublin Fire Brigade shared a photo of a dishwasher in the aftermath of a recent fire.

The image shows normally white crockery turned black and charred from the blaze.

A Dublin Fire Brigade spokesperson said: "Never leave washing machines or dishwashers on if you're going out or heading to bed

"A working smoke alarm gives you enough time to escape safely."

A lot of electrical items are being used in the home more regularly these days due to the Covid-19 restrictions and firefighters have warned to never leave them unattended.

Last week Wicklow Fire Service was called to an incident in which a clothes tumble dryer burst into flames.

Some tumble dryer models have a 30 minute setting which can generate intense heat if the appliance is located in a small utility room.

Firefighters said: "It is extra important at this time, check your smoke alarm and dont trust electrical appliances such as tumble dryers, crimpers, hairdryers, and chargers of all kinds.

"Carnew Fire Crew were just in time to stop this fire from spreading."

Wicklow Fire Service officers reiterated that electrical items should not be turned on unattended.

A spokesperson said: "We only trust fridges.

"All other electrical items should not operate unattended.

"Never overload, always clean lint filter.

"Always have a working smoke alarm."

Last year firefighters were called to a tumble drier fire at 2am in the morning.

It's believed the appliance was turned on and left unattended.

The incident happened in the Ashford area off the M11 in Co Wicklow.








Black males start puberty at younger ages than males of other racial or ethnic groups, and early puberty has been linked to risks for negative outcomes, yet we know little about how Black males navigate the changes in their bodies or understand their social identities. A new study explored how young African American and Caribbean Black males understand these matters and how variations in their understanding affect their self-concept and well-being. The study concluded that the meaning Black males ascribe to their ethnic-racial identity may help explain outcomes related to puberty.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan and Arizona State University. It is published in Child Development, a journal of the Society for Research in Child Development.

"Black males who adopt healthy beliefs about their ethnic-racial identities during the transition to puberty are likely to have better mental health and stronger self-concepts than their Black peers who do not adopt such beliefs," says Rona Carter, associate professor of developmental psychology at the University of Michigan, who led the study. "The findings add to the growing recognition that variables linked to ethnicity and race are important mechanisms for understanding outcomes related to young males' transition to puberty."

Research on puberty among Black males is limited. To address this gap, researchers examined associations between three pubertal domains (voice change, hair growth, and perceived relative timing of puberty) and their effects on symptoms of depression, self-esteem, and self-efficacy in a nationally representative group of 395 African American and 164 Caribbean Black males from around the United States. Researchers also explored how the teens' concepts of their ethnic-racial identity affected them. The adolescents, ages 13 to 17, were part of the National Survey of American Life Adolescent sample. Mean family income was $36,693 for African Americans and $38, 580 for Caribbean Blacks.

The study found that positive levels of ethnic-racial identity buffered the effects of early puberty. For example:

Contrary to expectations, for both African American males and Caribbean Black males, perceptions of early puberty were not associated with high levels of symptoms of depression and low levels of self-esteem and self-efficacy. Instead, Black males who perceived that their voice changed early reported high levels of self-esteem.

Consistent with expectations, African American and Caribbean Black males who felt positively about being Black reported higher levels of self-esteem, more self-efficacy, and fewer symptoms of depression.

The study's authors acknowledge several limitations to their work. First, the study relied on self-reports of the teens' voice changes, hair growth, and perceived timing of puberty; it did not assess how the youth experienced their pubertal changes and the potentially racialized nature of those changes within their peer and family contexts. Second, the study is cross-sectional and based on self-reports, which prevents the authors from drawing causal conclusions. Finally, in their study of the Caribbean Black males, the authors could not address immigration status, which prior research has suggested plays a role in ethnic-racial identities.

"Greater attention should be placed on pubertal education programs that include exploration of one's ethnic-racial identity to help Black males process the identity-related messages they receive while navigating the transition to puberty," suggests Eleanor Seaton, associate professor in the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University, who coauthored the study. "Individual characteristics such as race, ethnicity, gender, and the effects of various layers of social context affect the degree to which experience or context affect the mental health and self-concept of Black males. Furthermore, because this is an understudied area of research, we believe there is room for continued work on this matter."

###

Summarized from Child Development, Comparing Associations Between Puberty, Ethnic-Racial Identity, Self-Concept, and Depressive Symptoms Among African American and Caribbean Black Boys by Carter, R (University of Michigan), Seaton, EK (Arizona State University), and Blazek, JL (University of Michigan). Copyright 2020 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
A 62-year-old woman from



Vijayapura became the 28th COVID-19 related fatality in Karnataka, where 8 new cases have been confirmed, taking the total number of infections in the state to 659, the health department said on Tuesday.

The elderly woman, a known case of COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and BA (Bronchial Asthama) was admitted on May 3 to ICU at Designated Hospital in Vijayapura with the complaint of breathlessness, the department said in its mid day situation update.

She died today due to cardiac arrest, it said.

"Eight new positive cases have been reported from last evening to this noon...

Till date 659 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed. This includes 28 deaths and 324 discharges," the update said.

The new cases include, three from Bengaluru urban, two from Bagalkote, and one each from Ballari, Dakshina Kannada and Bhatkal- Uttara Kannada.

While four of them are contacts of patients already tested positive, two with Influenza Like Illness (ILI), one with travel history to Uttarakhand, and the other person's contact is under tracing.

Among 8 cases, six are men and two women.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Emergent Biosolutions CEO Robert Kramer told CNBC Monday it is uncertain that a coronavirus vaccine can be available by the end of the year to fulfill President Donald Trump's wishes.

The specialty biopharmaceutical company is collaborating with drug giant Johnson & Johnson on a Covid-19 vaccine candidate, which Johnson & Johnson hopes will receive emergency use authorization in 2021.

"Nobody can guarantee anything," Kramer said in a "Mad Money" interview with Jim Cramer. "We're here, as well as all of our partners and collaborators, doing everything we can to make sure that a vaccine and treatments are available as soon as possible."

Trump said during a Fox town hall on Sunday that he was confident a vaccine for the deadly disease would be developed by the end of 2020. While it typically can take as many as 10 years to develop a vaccine, health experts, including officials a part of the White House's coronavirus task force, have said that it will take between 12 to 18 months to have a solution ready for public use.

"We are very confident that we are going to have a vaccine at the end of the year, by the end of the year," Trump said at the town hall. "We think we are going to have a vaccine by the end of this year, and we are pushing very hard."

Kramer said it is possible to cut down the timeline to develop a solution, echoing the words of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and lead health official on Trump's coronavirus task force.

While the timetable to have a vaccine may take up to 18 months, Fauci told CBC News in April that it's possible to "shave a couple months off that," but said it's best not to "over-promise."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration must play a role in speeding up the process, Kramer said. Emergent Biosolutions could begin producing millions of doses of vaccine "at risk" during Phase 2 of clinical trials when preparing to do a data read out, he said.

"When that data is read and the FDA can get comfortable with the safety and efficacy of that data, those doses can be released to the public under some type of emergency use authorization," he explained."That's where the shortening of the timeline could happen."

As of April, 70 coronavirus vaccine candidates were under development as companies rush to find a solution to slow the global spread of the virus. Just three of the dozens of potential preemptive remedies are currently going through human tests.

Johnson & Johnson plans to begin the Phase 1 clinical trial for its vaccine candidate in September. The partnership with Emergent Biosoutions, worth about $135 million, calls for Emergent Biosolutions to mass produce the countermeasure. Johnson & Johnson's goal is to manufacturer 1 billion doses of vaccine.

"We are all in this together to literally accelerate wherever we can the development and the clinical timeline," Kramer said. "The hope is that we can look at this creatively. We can look for ways to shorten that time frame and make significant number of doses available to the public as soon as possible."

Johnson & Johnson, however, is not the only vaccine developer that Emergent Biosolutions is working with. The Gaithersburg, Maryland-based manufacturer also has development and manufacturing agreements with Vaxart and Novavax for their experimental vaccine candidates.

"We're here, Jim, to support any number of vaccine candidates with the overall objective or goal of making sure that we get at least one  if not several  of these vaccine candidates through a phase 1 [and] through a phase 2," Kramer said. "We have the capability to manufacture those candidates at a scale where we could potentially make hundreds of millions of doses of those available to the public as soon as possible."
To end a lawsuit brought by a group of teachers, Navient, one of the nations largest student loan servicers, has agreed to alter its practices for identifying and guiding public service workers seeking to use a long-troubled loan forgiveness program.

Navient and educators backed by the American Federation of Teachers, one of the nations largest unions, said in a court filing late last month that they had agreed to settle a lawsuit brought in 2018 in federal court in Manhattan.

The suit centered on the notoriously troubled public service loan forgiveness program. Its supposed to aid people who work in vital but often low-paying government or nonprofit jobs by allowing them to have their remaining education debt eliminated after a decade of work and loan payments.

But a gantlet of complex rules has disqualified nearly all of those seeking relief. Just 3,200 of the programs 146,000 applicants have had their loan forgiveness approved, according to the latest Education Department data.
I n a bustling depot in north London filled with donated food, Phoebe Waller-Bridge compared the work of The Felix Project to a rescue mission.

In a narrow sense, she was referring to the cauliflowers that volunteers had rescued from rotting in a farmers fields. But during her time volunteering with us, it gradually became evident that she was also right in a broader sense.

The Evening Standard appeal, in partnership with The Felix Project, is rescuing people on a daily basis from an invisible hunger crisis.

Phoebe contacted me after reading about our campaign in the Evening Standard and asked how she could help. A few days later, the Fleabag star was stacking cherry tomatoes in the back of a Felix delivery van, before tentatively climbing into the drivers seat. Ill see you there  hopefully, she added nervously.

Our destination was Haringey Play, a community centre and play association for children and families.

Before, it was best known for its adventure park, which is a delight for local children. Now it serves as a vital lifeline for residents in the most deprived part of the borough.

While the adventure park itself has closed, its staff remain in contact with the 387 children on their register.

Director Sereena Keymatlian explained that they realised they needed to provide more than just a playground when children used to turn up and ask for food before joining their friends on the slides.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge joins Felix Project volunteers - in pictures 1 /20 Phoebe Waller-Bridge joins Felix Project volunteers - in pictures English actor, writer, and producer Phoebe Waller-Bridge joins volunteers from the Felix Project to help feed vulnerable people across London Lucy Young Lucy Young Lucy Young Lucy Young Lucy Young Lucy Young Lucy Young Lucy Young Lucy Young Lucy Young Lucy Young Lucy Young Lucy Young Lucy Young Lucy Young

With Felixs help, they are able to provide food for about 100 families weekly, in a ward that is among the five per cent of most deprived areas in the country.

The queue often stretches around the block. The food that Felix is giving us goes quickly, Sereena added.

While collecting yoghurt and fresh fruit, Phoebe and I spoke to Anabela, a single mother of three who volunteers at the centre when she can.

Many people in the area have lost work since the coronavirus, she told us. This place helps a lot. In the first weeks of the lockdown, supermarket shelves were nearly empty.

As a carer for her youngest son who has complex needs, she has felt the pressure more than most.

We also met Simone, who is locked down with five children in a two-bedroom flat. She is unable to find work and feels trapped at home.

Simone and her children Lliana, 2, Llivia, 7 and Llayla, 5 / Lucy Young

Sometimes I have to sit in the bathroom and close the door to have a breather, she confided. She has suffered with depression and anxiety, and for her the Felix food deliveries are a lifeline.

After the crisis is over she hopes to start a career in childcare. I love you on TV by the way, she beamed at Phoebe.

The Evening Standard has committed to raise a fund of 10 million to provide food for three years for organisations and individuals like those Phoebe and I met.

With our support, The Felix Project will be able to respond to the figures we reveal today  that more than one in 10 London households has already experienced hunger during lockdown.

Paul comes from one such family. His partner is a key worker, a cleaner at a railway station, and he has to stay at home to look after his six-year-old son.

They receive working tax credits and their extended family is also staying with them.

Without this service, where does the next meal come from? he said.

Despite the current situation, Haringey Play is planning ahead. A new treehouse and zipline will go up next year.

Evening Standard proprietor Evgeny Lebedev volunteering for the Felix Project / Lucy Young

Future generations of local children will be able to play.

Yet for many people, getting through this crisis is the only thing on their minds.

Simone remains upbeat, telling us that she and her girls look forward to the arrival of The Felix Project in Haringey each week.

She reaches out to hug Phoebe, before stopping herself. Every time they come, I say thank you so much.

You can also donate to the Haringey Play Association here
The economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has found younger workers have been worst affected by job losses and temporary layoffs.

That is one of the findings of research being published by government economists today.

Researchers at the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service have been working on a sector-by sector breakdown of those laid off since the pandemic hit Europe.

Workers in accommodation and food services are the biggest group unemployed, with 127,000 out of work.

Laid-off retail, wholesale and garage staff represent just over 15% at 89,000.

There are also 78,000 builders out of work, along with 45,000 in admin and support roles.

In Dublin, 160,000 people have lost their jobs, a third of the national total.

A further 10% are in Cork, or 60,000.

Most of those who looked for the pandemic unemployment payment early on in the outbreak were women -- but in recent weeks more men have suffered job losses as building sites shut down.

Younger workers have been more likely to lose their jobs -- and there's a pronounced spike in layoffs of staff in their early 20s, particularly those working as waiters, bartenders, and shop assistants.

An analysis by

Read More:

Irish Examiner

UCC economist Seamus Coffey said the new business supports announced over the weekend will increase the expenditure bill.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 13:51:03|Editor: huaxia

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CARACAS, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday that authorities have arrested two U.S. citizens among a group of "mercenaries," following an attempted maritime invasion on Sunday.

The two Americans, Airan Berry, 41, and Luke Denman, 34, were employees of a Florida-based security company called Silvercorp, whose owner has claimed responsibility for the invasion attempt, said Maduro, who showed on state television VTV their passports and other identification documents.

The armed incursion took place on Sunday in the port of La Guaira, 30 km north of the capital Caracas, which, according to Venezuelan officials, aimed to overthrow the government of Maduro.

Authorities blamed Colombia and the United States for plotting the incursion. Officials from both countries have denied the allegation. Enditem
Loading It comes as the Republicans make no secret of plans to convert American dismay for a coronavirus death toll that may well reach past 100,000 into a distilled loathing for an enemy abroad: China. Yet even taking issue with a conspiracy theory around Wuhan absorbs attention and importantly, precious coverage in a chaotic media environment. In the age of social media, multiple realities can be served up for multiple audiences. The purpose of vbrosy isn't to convince the public but amplify sensationalist counter-claims, to distract an audience and put a targeted figure or institution on the defensive.

There are many reasons to oppose the Chinese Communist Party's handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Loading But spreading disinformation in this way brings us no closer to holding the CCP accountable. Rather it embraces the party's disregard for honesty. Notice, too, that leaders don't need to command armies of bots or trolls committed to disinformation to deploy vbrosy, either. They just need to be able to cut through the noise online, and often the regular news cycle does the rest of the work. The mere structure of social media, optimised for outrage, ensures that the most sensational content gets shared most widely.

"Did the Chinese create the disease in a lab and unleash it on the world?" ... Now, discuss. In the process, vbrosy clogs up space that could be used in democratic discussion. The concept of vbrosy comes to mind watching the tactical nonsense US President Donald Trump and his administration has verbalised to shift attention for years. Four years ago, nearly to this day, Trump "celebrated" the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo with a plate of nachos. Clearly, this trivialisation of Mexican culture was meant to offend  and of course, to go viral and crowd out a fact-based discussion. At the time, Trump was running for office on the sensational lie that Mexican immigrants were "rapists and murderers".

Loading Before the 2016 election, Trump insisted, for years and without evidence, that President Barack Obama was not born in the US. The need for deflection is a central part of the Trump media strategy. Whether by accident or by plan, Trump has helped introduce Russian-style methods of political manipulation, whats called political technology, into American politics. Political technology came from Russia in the 1990s as a sort of euphemism for a style of political culture in which dirty tricks are central tools for achieving and maintaining power.

It creates a hollow "democracy" in which a ruler maintains power even as the window dressing of leaders, parties and issues changes. Just have a look at the reign of Vladimir Putin. But political technology need not produce an autocrat to corrode a country's politics. The rules of political technology are shaped by the law of the jungle adapted to our new communications environment. The ability to manipulate and co-opt public opinion are paramount in its use. A question more pressing than vbrosys history is its use today. In a US election year with the coronavirus pandemic spreading, are reporters, disinformation experts, and the public itself aware of this deceptive use of information?

In 2017, University College London professor Andrew Wilson wrote: "The overall effect of Russian political technology is to strangle democracy." Even as coronavirus challenges economies and forces draconian government lockdowns, the rise of such wilful disinformation represents a challenge to the integrity of democracy everywhere. By hitting share on these obviously curated outrages, good people may be helping to suffocate their own democracy, even as they feed the beast of social media engagement. Are people aware of how their reaction online can amplify the very disinformation that weakens the system?

In a crippled democracy, truths aren't shared but perpetually divided, and sub-divided again, pitting all against all. Yet in a vital democracy, the belief that truth is discoverable is fundamental and necessary. A new communication reality calls for novel strategies to protect democratic rule. That begins with protecting sensible democratic discussion. To do so, there is a need for tactics to counter vbrosy. Chris Zappone is digital foreign editor for The Age.
The Roots of the Pandemics Racial Narrative

Commentary

Being married to a woman of mainland Chinese descent, I have a somewhat unique perspective on the racial narrative currently surrounding the pandemic.

Through study and osmosis, I have come to understand many distinctions between traditional Chinese culture and the authoritarian nature of the ruling communist regime in Beijing. Having experienced both the freedom of the West and the confines of China, my wife is well aware of the inner workings of the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) control tactics, used not only in her home country but here in Canada as well.

Traditional Chinese culture contains a profound body of wisdom and allure that the West has largely yet to discover. We are raising our two young children with an emphasis on Chinese culture, studying traditional teachings such as the analects of Confucius and Shaolin kung fu. With 5,000 years of recorded history to its credit, China has innumerable anecdotes, stories, legends, and ledgers that detail a splendid civilization steeped in both the mystical and practical, with a knack for combining both with great success. This heritage is and will always be a critical part of our childrens upbringing as a north star for their other endeavours. But we make a clear distinction between the Chinese regime of today and the true inheritance of their ancestry.

My wife and I have closely followed the actions of the CCP over the last 10-plus years and the subsequent impact the regime has had on the people of China. Our relatives and friends have suffered arbitrary arrest and detention for such benign crimes as accessing websites that promote democracy and traditional Chinese culture.

We keep ourselves informed of some of the lesser-known news coming out of mainland China and are keenly aware of the predicament of Chinese dissidents who are critical of their government but keep silent, fearing the consequences of speaking out.

Having witnessed the deceptive tactics of the CCP play out in China, it is with increasing alarm that we see their influence growing in Canada, affecting media, government, and public perception. Much of this is carried out through the United Front Work Department, whose task is to advance Chinas influence overseas. The CCP is skilled at this deception, having implemented it domestically for decades. In Canada, we have little experience with such duplicitous tactics and are susceptible to being unduly persuaded by them.

The CCP has placed great emphasis on influencing foreign nations through financial and cultural means, using this soft power approach to control the China narrative. But we must never forget that this is the same regime that unleashed the Tiananmen Square massacre. The only change is that today they are more cognizant of the potential international fallout from carrying out such brutality in public view. As such, they are adept at thought control and covering up their blunders.

The Racism Lie

Although racism and bigotry exist here, Canada overall is a very tolerant country. Racism is a sensitive issue, and being labelled a racist is a potent way of erasing the validity of someones argument. The Chinese regime is well aware of this weakness in Canadians and has been actively taking advantage of it in shaping the national discourse around the pandemic. Any discussion around travel bans, the source of the virus, or Chinas initial response and coverup are labelled as being xenophobic and prejudiced against the Chinese people.

We have seen this play out in both the media and government, which have each conflated criticism of the Chinese government with criticism of the Chinese people. It is a pernicious abdication of the pursuit of truth that is rooted in either ignorance or malicious intent. Beijings influence is such that the regime is capable of coercing all levels of government and the media into supporting its deception. Those who have suffered at the hands of the CCP, whether in the mainland, Hong Kong, or elsewhere are all too aware of the true nature of the party and are rightly disconcerted by the proclivity of democratic nations to accept the regimes narrative without question.

Chinese Canadians are proud of their culture and justifiably sensitive to criticism that equates that culture with the CCP. In light of that, it is important that the distinction between the people and their government continues to be a front-and-centre part of the conversation. There are large and vocal Canadian communities and groups that have been working tirelessly for years to expose the crimes of the Chinese regime. Whether in support of Tibet, Hong Kong, Falun Gong, or Uighur Muslims, each has legitimate and unresolved grievances with the regime and consider it their duty to hold the CCP accountable. It is a noble and dignified effort that warrants support from our government and media, who are both in a position to support those efforts.

Open, honest, and critical conversations are a requisite if this pandemic is to be understood and the fallout mitigated by a full set of facts. Our path forward out of this mess depends on it. As Beijing attempts to shift blame for the outbreak and capitalize on a weakened global economy, it must be held accountable to the principles of transparency.

And here in the West, far removed from the tyranny of despots, we are in a position to lend support, if only moral, to the plight of the Chinese people. We can be forgiven for not having the capacity to fully understand what it is like to suffer at the hands of a brutal government that has no regard for human rights or even human life. We are blessed in that way.

We are not immune, however, and it is an inherent duty of the free to support the oppressed, if only to keep tyranny from encroaching upon our own shores.

Ryan Moffatt is a journalist based in Vancouver.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
At first glance, it may look like Michigan gave up on democracy this May 5 election amid the coronavirus outbreak. Appearances can be deceiving.

Actually, as of this morning, we ... found that we had already record-breaking turnout of just over 22%, which is nearly double the average turnout for May elections, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said during a teleconference Tuesday afternoon. ... We anticipate this election will surpass even the 23% turnout that was recorded in 2015 when there was a statewide question."

The election served as a test run for what the much-larger August election might look like, Benson said. She personally visited polls in Ottawa, Allegan and Kent counties.

What this demonstrates is that, even during the coronavirus pandemic, people want to vote and weigh in on critical issues in their communities and its showing us that Michigan citizens know that even in crisis, democracy is essential," Benson said.

She said polling locations were calm, clean, safe," with election workers wearing protective gear and practicing social distancing.

In an effort to minimize COVID-19 exposure by poll workers and voters, the Secretary of States office mailed absentee ballot applications to 740,000 registered voters in 33 counties that had ballot questions May 5. With less than a week leading up to the election, nearly 12 percent, or 86,355 eligible voters, had cast absentee ballots from 33 counties where there was a vote May 5, mostly on about 75 school millages or bonds.

Benson said 80-90% of all votes cast, as of 4 p.m., were by absentee ballot. She said clerks across the state are adequately staffed and should be able to tabulate results as quickly as past elections.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order on March 27 temporarily suspending election laws to encourage absentee voting in light of the coronavirus pandemic. The order facilitated the mailing of absentee ballot applications that included prepaid postage on return envelopes, which cost an estimated $600,000.

For those who still preferred to cast their vote in person, or who were unable to cast an absentee ballot, perhaps due to a disability, each municipality was required to keep at least one polling location open. In most cases, that became the municipal clerks offices.

Benson estimated about 850 people had visited the polls in person as of 4 p.m. Tuesday. That meant no lines and adequate space for social distancing, she said.

The state sent each clerk masks, gloves sanitizer, wipes and protocol for maintain social distancing. The state also recruited and trained 1,600 poll workers, because we recognized that many election workers who served previously were seniors or were vulnerable to the coronavirus, Benson said prior to the election.

The additional costs to conduct the alternative election were paid for with federal grants intended to help states operate elections during the pandemic. Benson didnt have the total additional cost immediately available.

We received $11.2 million from the federal government in the most recent stimulus package, Benson said. We will be using those funds to ensure that were able to securely provide democracy in every election this year.

Election day ballots were the same as absentee ballots. Election workers were instructed to count all ballots, both absentee and in-person, by way of a voter tabulation machines following closure of the polls at 8 p.m. Typically, in-person voters insert their own ballots directly into a counting machine, they are tabulated in real time and certified following closure of the polls.

Benson believes the elevated absentee turnout is a sign of whats to come in Michigans upcoming elections later this year.

Regardless of ... the status of the pandemic in August and November, were already on track and anticipating a high turnout and a significant number of people voting by mail," Benson said. "Because this is also the first major election statewide -- presidential election -- where people will have that constitutional right in Michigan.

Michigan voters in 2018 passed a law that allows any resident to cast their vote by absentee ballot for any reason.

Data is indicating that there is a significant amount of enthusiasm for this fall election, Benson said. That is also indicating that more citizens than ever are going to choose to vote from home, so my focus over the next several weeks and months is going to be ensuring were prepared for that."

COVID-19 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 Michigan coronavirus coverage here

Tuesday, May 5: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

Six weeks into extreme social distancing, how are Michiganders still catching coronavirus?

Whitmer vetoes bill that would have limited governors emergency powers

Woman arraigned in fatal shooting of Flint security guard over face mask

From closing restaurants to requiring masks, Gov. Whitmer has issued 69 executive orders in 56 days
(Bloomberg) --

Geckobrands was wary of Amazon.com Inc. when it first started selling waterproof smartphone cases and other outdoor gear seven years ago. The Grandville, Michigan, company knew that getting too cozy with the worlds largest online retailer could alienate the brick-and-mortar stores with which it was trying to develop relationships. When the pandemic struck, Geckobrands products were in more than 3,000 locations, including Dicks Sporting Goods Inc., the supercenter chain Meijer Inc. and amusement park kiosks.

Now many of those stores are closed. With springtime orders tanking and bills piling up, Geckobrands has choked back its aversion to working with Amazon. Our brand has to be more relevant on Amazon right now, says Geckobrands President Gabe Miller, whose company now sells 50% more of its products through the e-commerce giant. Store traffic, whether the retailer is open or closed, is just so suppressed.

Consultants that help brands navigate Amazons marketplace say the company is attracting a broad range of vendors that before the outbreak sold everything from fishing gear and art supplies to clothing and beach totes at physical stores. Brands and wholesalers assume that many of their retail partners wont survive the pandemic, meaning Amazon will probably hang onto much of the new business.

Jeff Bezos is spending heavilyand willing to forgo profitsto keep his company running through the pandemic. Amazons online sales soared 24% in the first quarter, the fastest pace in four years. Deemed essential, Amazon has a unique opportunity to grab market share while most of its brick-and-mortar rivals are closed. Bezos, who has compared his warehouse workers and delivery contractors to Covid-19 first responders, is betting that strengthening Amazons position wont provoke antitrust regulators already investigating the company.

This is one of those situations where the rich get richer, says Andrew Lipsman, analyst at EMarketer Inc. Its not just Amazon. The top 10 retailers that can remain open have a tremendous advantage and were going to see a lot of smaller retailers get washed out.

Story continues

Before the pandemic, about 45% of brands didnt sell products on Amazon at all, according to a survey conducted by Feedvisor, which sells pricing software used by online retailers. And more than one-third said they didnt need Amazon to reach customers. Many brands and wholesalers kept Amazon at arms length because they were concerned it would squeeze their margins, collect precious customer data and copy their most popular products.

Showroomingwhen shoppers check out products in physical stores and later buy them onlinemade retailers reluctant to give shelf space to products prominent on Amazon. Nikes retreat from Amazon last year highlighted brand frustration with Amazon.The pandemic has upended those verities and accelerated the ongoing stampede online. Whats happening now echoes the Toys R Us bankruptcy three years ago. The chain shuttered hundreds of stores and left more than $1 billion in annual toy sales up for grabs, most of which went to Amazon, Walmart Inc. and Target Corp. The difference this time is that multiple chains and categories have gone dark.

Under normal circumstances, Magpul Industries, an Austin, Texas based gun-accessory maker, would be selling plenty of rifle scopes and stocks through Dicks, Bass Pro Shops and Cabelas. But with so many specialty retailers temporarily closed, Magpul is starting to put its wares on Amazon, according to Josh Cowan, a former Amazon executive who helps the brand and dozens of others sell products on the site. Brands are absolutely terrified to be reliant on Amazon right now, but they have no other choice, says Cowan, an account manager at Streiff Marketing. Amazon has been the one place where brands in all categories have said we have to double down.

Ivory Ella, which sells save the elephants t-shirts and hoodies and donates proceeds to wildlife conservation, is considering putting inventory on Amazon, which it has traditionally avoided since it prefers online shoppers buy from its own website. The company sells merchandise to hundreds of mostly mom-and-pop gift shops in tourist towns around the country that closed due to the pandemic, putting almost half of its sales in jeopardy.

Amazon was never a good fit for the brand's strategy, says CEO Cathy Quain, but now it has no other choice. Its a necessity for us to be where people can shop, she says. If we have another surge of the virus come holiday season and retailers have to close in October, November and December, people will be doing most of their shopping on Amazon."

Amazon has long enjoyed outsize power over small businesses that generate most of their sales on its site. Now that leverage is expanding to include bigger brands that could previously rely on physical stores for most of their sales. Meanwhile, store closings and shelter-in-place orders have sped up consumers stampede online, with Amazon emerging as one of the few remaining sales outlets. Big-box chains like Walmart, Target and Costco Wholesale Corp. are also benefiting because theyre allowed to remain open to sell groceries, along with just about everything else. But they face restrictions on what they can sell in some states while Amazon has eluded any such mandates in the U.S.

Amazons market power is already being scrutinized by the U.S. government, as part of a larger examination of the grip big technology companies have on the economy. Last week, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee investigating Amazon threatened to subpoena Bezos if he ignores a request to testify before the committee. The demand followed a Wall Street Journal report that the e-commerce giant used data from third-party sellers on its site to develop competing products, contradicting testimony from an Amazon executive before the panel while under oath last year.

The Federal Trade Commission is also investigating the relationship between Amazon and its suppliers to determine if the e-commerce giant uses its market power to stifle competition. Brick-and-mortar store closings only strengthen Amazons position. Online sales growth doubled to 30% in March and about tripled in April, according to Lipsman of EMarketer. The pandemic puts Amazon in a unique position of being able to grow quickly even if overall consumer spending shrinks due to rising unemployment and a retrenching economy.

The losers are the mom and pops that have closed to protect public health. More than half of small businesses closed and 80% percent have let go employees, according to a survey by the Main Street Alliance, a network of 30,000 small business owners.

One of our major concerns for the long term is the potential for massive corporate consolidation and monopolization of our economy, says Sarah Crozier, a spokeswoman for the group. If Main Street is left to wither, the economy will look vastly different at the other end of this.

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Every year millions of people from across the country leave their homes in search of work in big cities to feed their families because they can't find work in their villages. In the big cities, they are mostly employed in the unskilled sector, in jobs ranging from factories to construction.

BCCL

With whatever they earn, they have to feed themselves, pay for their rent, and send some money back home to support them. This often means that the millions of migrant workers will have zero savings and not working for a few days could mean only one thing - hunger.



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Since mid-March millions of migrant workers across the country have been going through this, as the COVID-19 had forced the closure of many factories and construction sites even before the nationwide lockdown came into effect.

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Now after nearly one-and-a-half months, they have been given a ray of hope that they can go home, thanks to the special trains being run by the Indian Railway. This was a short lived joy for many after they came to know that they will have to pay for the tickets to travel home.

BCCL

Many who could afford to buy tickets bought them, while others said they had to borrow money from friends or relatives to pay the travel fare.

A controversy erupted on Monday after several opposition parties demanded that migrant workers not be charged for the train tickets.



As the Congress offered to pay for the workers, the BJP hit back, saying the railways was already providing subsidised tickets bearing 85 percent of the travel costs.

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On Monday, the government said that it had never talked about charging the workers train fare. "We have given permission to run special trains on states' request. We are dividing the cost in 85-15 per cent (railway: states) as per the norms. We never asked states to charge money from the stranded labourers," Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said.



PIB

Several states like Maharashtra and Kerala which have a sizable number of migrant worker population had said that the travel should be made free or the Central government should bear the expenses as states are unable to pay for it due to the financial situation arising out of this coronavirus pandemic.

BCCL

The Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the state had no plans of paying for the tickets of migrants. "The guest workers have booked their tickets by themselves for their travel. We thought that the Centre would bear the expense but that is not happening," said Vijayan. When asked if the state has any plans to bear the ticket charges, he said, "No. The state government was not planning for anything like that."



INDIATIMES

In Karnataka's capital Bengaluru, a government official confirmed the workers were paying their own way home on the Shramik Special Trains. "No, the passengers themselves are paying," said the official when asked if the state government was paying for the migrant labourers.



While the debate on who pays what is going on train fares is just one of the struggles the migrant workers have to face.

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Before they can board the train, they have to have a medical certificate stating that they have no symptoms of Acute Respiratory Infection, fever, cough, cold, breathlessness, or others. And depending on the place and the doctor, the migrant workers say they had to pay between Rs 100-500 to get the certificates.



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They also have to produce the same at the local police station along with proof of identity and certain other documents. Only after receiving clearance, they are allowed to travel.



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Another struggle is online registration for those wanting to return. Most state governments had asked the migrants to register themselves at different online portals. However, since most of them are illiterate or not good with the internet, people are charging anything from Rs 10-50 just to fill up the online forms.

BCCL

Even after getting all the clearances they still have to pay for their travel to the railway station, which in most cases are hired buses, where one person may have to shell out a few hundred rupees or more to reach the railway stations.
At a time when President Trump has officially accused the Wuhan Institute Of Virology of being the cause for the worst pandemic in modern history (as we did first all the way back in January), claiming he has seen evidence that the lab is in fact the origin, potentially exposing China to trillions in global damages and reparations, not to mention the ire of millions of people around the globe who have lost family or loved ones to the Wuhan Virus, one would think - if indeed it was as innocent as it claims - that China would do everything in its power to open up the Institute for the entire world to inspect and prove its innocence. In fact, one would even think China would even make Peng Zhou - whom we singled out in January and who is now being investigated by "the Five Eyes' for his role in the Wu Flu epidemic - accessible to the world to remove even the smallest trace of doubt his lab had anything to do with the coronavirus release.

One would be wrong.

As Reuters reports, the World Health Organization (WHO) - which as has already been demonstrated has been doing China's bidding, PR and damage control ever since the pandemic emerged - has been refused an invitation to take part in a Chinese investigation into the origins of COVID-19. Almost as if China has something to hide even from the organization that it so explicitly control each and every day.

Sky News spoke to Dr Gauden Galea, the WHO's representative in China, on Thursday who reported that China refused requests by WHO officials to participate in an investigation.

"We know that some national investigation is happening but, at this stage, we have not been invited to join," Dr Galea was quoted as saying.

Gauden Galea, WHO representative in China

"WHO is making requests of the health commission and of the authorities The origins of virus are very important, the animal-human interface is extremely important and needs to be studied.

He is right. And yet, even though the WHO has been exposed as China's lapdog, China refuses to grant the only international health organization access. For some odd reason the WHO never bothered to ask "why"?

He said it was crucial to know "as much as possible" in order to prevent a "reoccurrence". When asked by Sky News whether there was a good reason for the WHO to not be included in the investigation, Dr Galea said: "From our point of view, no".

But from China's... yes.

Dr Galea told Sky News that while WHO was confident the virus was "naturally occurring" - and once again, the WHO shows that it can't even approach this most critical of tasks with an open mind and is already prejudicted by the pro-China position even though the US president himself today said he has seen evidence that virus indeed originated in the Wuhan lab - the laboratory's logs would need to be "part of any full report, any full look at the story of the origins". So far, WHO has not been able to investigate the logs, he said.

The WHO representative also said China would have to explain why no new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the country for a significant period of time in early January. Not that China would ever answer.

So while the "establishment" of pro-China healthcare workers and faux Facebook "fact checkers" such as the grotesque case of the borderline criminally conflicted Danielle Anderson, among those who have pushed the "conspiracy theory" that China knows more than its letting on about the virus - some three months after this website of course - are US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said the more transparent China is, the better.

Meanwhile, Trump has withdrawn funding from the WHO over concerns about its transparency and for placing too much trust in China.

As for China, the bigger question is not if Beijing is lying but when, if ever, it is telling the truth: even the pro-establishemnt, anti-Trump Associated Press reported earlier this month that China was aware of the virus' seriousness and the possibility of human-to-human transmission days before warning citizens. But China maintains it acted swiftly to deal with the virus and has been transparent with both the WHO and other countries.

Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne has been one of the strongest advocates for a global inquiry into the virus, saying mid-April that Australia would "insist" on one. However, as we reported previously, demonstrating that Beijing won't even accept being questioned let alone probed, China took offense to that, saying Australia was just parroting the views of the United States, while France, Britain and the European Union and threatened an import boycott.

Even tiny New Zealand, whose real estate market is largely at the whim of Chinese oligarchs, has expressed an interest in looking into how the pandemic occurred, but hasn't specifically singled out reviewing China's role. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also signalled an inquiry should happen once the pandemic was over.

"There have been politicians around the world who have said, 'Look, in the aftermath of this, we do need to look at what happened and whether or not there are areas we could as a global community improve our response'," she explained last week. "I think that's common sense. Of course, we want to make sure we learn from what has been a global pandemic that has shaken the globe in a way that none other has for many decades" she said in her most politically correct tone, desperate not to offend China.

Finally, confirming just how political any potential probe would be, a terrified NZ Foreign Minister Winston Peters said on Tuesday that he trusted China wouldn't punish New Zealand for taking part in an inquiry.

"It is very hard to conceive, no matter what country it is, of there not being a desire from every country around the world - including the country of origin - for an investigation to find out how this happened," he said, adding laughably "I'm not worried about [potential ramifications] because China has promised me they don't behave that way."

The funniest part about the bolded sentence is that he actually wasn't kidding.
We are extraordinarily grateful for the support we continually receive from the community, and these free workshops are a way for us to give back.

To support the community during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Salt Lake Community College is proud to offer a series of free summer workshops designed to help Utahns get through whats anticipated to be a long season of social distancing.

We are extraordinarily grateful for the support we continually receive from the community, and these free workshops are a way for us to give back, said Jennifer Saunders, SLCCs Assistant Vice President of Workforce Training and Continuing Education. Building and empowering everyone through education is especially important to us, and these workshops allow us to do just that and promote the health and well-being of the community.

SLCCs Summer Workshop Series includes more than 30 courses, most in the form of one- to three-hour webinars, video conferences, WebEx meetings or Zoom sessions. The college is offering a broad range of workshops from which to choose, including saving energy at home, healthy eating on a budget, HTML coding, being mindful in a time of crisis, genealogy, how to host video conferences, staying safe online, how to patch drywall, event planning, creating perfect souffles and many more. Workshops on job-related topics, such as resume writing, building your social media brand and starting a business, are also available.

All classes in SLCCs Summer Workshop Series can accommodate between 20 and 100 students and require advance registration at slcc.edu/free. Registration opens May 4 and classes begin May 18. Workshops will be offered through July 16. All courses will be taught by the colleges experienced faculty, providing a great opportunity to learn new skills at the hand of expert instructors.

SLCC is Utahs largest open-access college, educating the states most diverse student body in 8 areas of study at 12 locations and online. In 2018, the institution celebrated 70 years of providing students with education and training in fields that contribute to Utahs vibrant economy and high quality of life. The majority of SLCC graduates transfer to four-year institutions, and thousands more are trained in direct-to-workforce programs.
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The leader of the failed Venezuela coup that has seen two former US special forces soldiers taken into custody has apparently provided security for Donald Trump.

Ex-Green Beret Jordan Goudreau, 43, can be seen in footage with an earpiece at one of the president's rallies in Charlotte, North Carolina, in October 2018. He also claims to have provided security at a rally in Houston four days earlier.

The website for his private security firm Silvercorp claims he has planned and led international security teams for the President as well as the Secretary of Defense.

President Donald Trump Tuesday denied any involvement by the U.S. government in Monday's failed attack.

'We'll find out. We just heard about it,' Trump said when asked about the incident and the Americans' arrests.

'But it has nothing to do with our government.'

It has also emerged that he struck on the idea of a coup after meeting with Trump's longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller and speaking with a billionaire backer.

Goudreau accompanied Schiller to a meeting in Miami with activist Lester Toledo, then Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido's coordinator for the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The White House says Schiller cut off all contact with Goudreau after the meeting.

Scroll down for video

Jordan Goudreau pictured allegedly working security at a Donald Trump rally in North Carolina in October 2018. He started his plan for a coup in Venezuela after meeting Trump's bodyguard

Former Green Beret Jordan Goudreau (pictured center) has claimed responsibility for a failed operation to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro in a plan named 'Operation Gedeon'.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Juan Guaido, who swore himself in as the leader of Venezuela, right, stand for photographers outside the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on February 5. Guaido was a surprise White House guest at Trump's State of the Union speech

Through a friend who works in private security, Goudreau was reportedly introduced to Keith Schiller (left), President Trump's longtime bodyguard, who also met with Guaido's envoys

This Instagram post from Goudreau's company page alleges to show him working at a Donald Trump rally. It was posted in November 8, 2018, shortly after Gourdreau was seen in video footage apparently wearing an ear piece while at a Trump rally in North Carolina. Silvercorp lists work for the president on its website

Goudreau also met Roen Kraft in Miami, an eccentric descendant of the cheese-making family, who then began raising money for a 'private coup', according to two businessmen who spoke to the Associated Press.

According to an AP report, Kraft allegedly lured prospective donors with the promise of preferential access to negotiate deals in the energy and mining sectors if the coup was a success. He represented himself as the 'prime contractor' of Venezuela, the businessmen claimed.

Kraft denies giving Goudreau any money.

Goudreau identified himself Sunday as the leader of a plot to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro named 'Operation Gedeon'.

On Monday, Maduro announced that two U.S. citizens were among eight arrested after authorities were alerted by fishermen in Chuao, a village on the northern coast of the state of Aragua.

It came after eight potential raiders were killed and two more arrested on Sunday in the Caribbean port city of La Guaira as part of Goudreau's amateur plot.

Maduro ally and Attorney General Tarek William Saab said that in total they've arrested 114 people suspected in the attempted attack and they are on the hunt of 92 others.

President Maduro called the arrested men 'terrorist mercenaries' and blamed the attacks on the Trump administration, opposition leader Guaido and neighboring Colombia, all of which have denied involvement.

'The United States government is fully and completely involved in this defeated raid,' Maduro said, praising members of a fishing village for cornering one group in the sweep netting the 'professional American mercenaries.'

Venezuelan Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said on Tuesday the alleged plot was hindered by rivalries among the participants and logistical problems, including a shortage of fuel for their boats.

He presented more details of the plot that he said resembled a 'Hollywood script' fueled by the 'white supremacist' ideas of its alleged American organizers.

Venezuelan Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez (left) said on Tuesday the alleged plot was hindered by rivalries among the participants and logistical problems, including a shortage of fuel for their boats comparing it to a 'Hollywood script'. He claimed U.S. involvement in the failed coup and presented information which he said linked the plan back to the American government. The U.S. government has denied all knowledge of the attempt led by ex-Green Beret Jordan Goudreau

Luke Denman (right) and Airan Berry (left), both former U.S. special forces soldiers, were identified by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during a press conference

Luke Denman (left) and Airan Berry (right): Two arrested US 'mercenaries playing Rambo' are paraded after failed attempt 'to kill' Venezuela's Maduro in a failed raid, the president claimed

The equipment captured from the group during the failed attack included Samurai Demon tactical masks, pictured center

The equipment used by the group of 'mercenaries' aiming to capture the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The president blamed the attacks on the Trump administration, Venezuela's opposition leader and neighboring Colombia all of which have denied involvemen

'They thought that because we're black, because we're Indians, that they were going to easily control us,' said Rodriguez, showing images of what he said were boats and training camps inside Colombia from where the insurrection was organized.

He presented video testimony from a Venezuelan military deserter, Capt. Victor Pimenta, one of 13 captured participants.

Pimenta said that a group of nearly 60 combatants left Colombia at sundown on Friday, May 1, in two boats aiming to reach La Guaira along the coast near Venezuelas capital of Caracas.

The second vessel carrying the commander of the operation, Capt. Antonio Sequea, and the two Americans experienced motor problems and had to abort the mission, he said.

Initially the stranded group tried to reach the Dutch Caribbean island of Bonaire, Pimenta said, but as the vessel was running out of fuel it dropped off a group of combatants along the Caribbean coastline. Commandos from Venezuela's armed forces caught up with them.

Rodriguez also presented video testimony of another individual, Jose Socorro, who claimed that he had been working with Sequea to collect and stash weapons for the combatants at a safe house in La Guaira.

Echoing Trump, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told a Pentagon briefing: 'The United States government had nothing to do with what's happened in Venezuela in the last few days.'

The U.S. State Department has yet to provide any comment on the arrests.

On Monday, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro used a press conference to display the equipment that had allegedly been seized by Venezuelan armed forces after capturing the 'mercenaries'

Two U.S. citizens arrested in Venezuela Monday are seen being taken into custody in a shocking new video following a foiled plot to capture the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the socialist leader has claimed. The footage shows Venezuelan authorities catching the group as they attempted to land in a fishing boat and arresting them. Pictured is Airan Berry

The group of 'mercenaries' were taken from the fishing boat at gunpoint and forced to lie on the ground during the arrest. The American men are seen here with six Venezuelans during the arrest

Goudreau's idea for the overthrow attempt was sparked in February 2019 when he worked security at 'Live Aid for Venezuala', a concert in support of Guaido organized by the British billionaire Richard Branson on the Venezuelan-Colombian border.

The three-time Bronze Star recipient came back from the concert looking to capitalize on the Trump administration's growing interest in toppling Maduro, and he held conversations with Guaido's envoys; Roen Kraft and Trump's bodyguard Keith Schiller.

Planning for the incursion began after an April 30, 2019, barracks revolt by a cadre of soldiers who swore loyalty to Madura's would-be replacement, Juan Guaido, the opposition leader recognized by the U.S. and some 60 other nations as Venezuelas rightful leader.

Goudreau's focus on Venezuela began in February 2019, when he worked security at a concert in support of Guaido. Goudreau is seen working the concert in a picture posted on Instagram

'Controlling chaos on the Venezuela border where a dictator looks on with apprehension,' wrote Goudreau in an Instagram post of the concert (pictured), dubbed 'Venezuelan Aid Live'

Contrary to U.S. expectations at the time, key Maduro aides never joined with the opposition and the government quickly quashed the uprising.

A few weeks later, some soldiers and politicians involved in the failed rebellion retreated to the JW Marriott in Bogota, Colombia.

The hotel was a center of intrigue among Venezuelan exiles. For this occasion, conference rooms were reserved for what one participant described as the 'Star Wars summit of anti-Maduro goofballs' - military deserters accused of drug trafficking, shady financiers and former Maduro officials seeking redemption.

Goudreau, a three-time Bronze Star recipient for bravery in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he served as a medic in US Army special forces, was among those who showed up at the hotel

Among those angling in the open lobby was Goudreau, according to five people who met with the former soldier.

In Bogota, Toledo introduced Goudreau to a rebellious former Venezuelan military officer the American would come to trust above all others - Cliver Alcala, ringleader of the Venezuelan military deserters.

Alcala, a retired major general in Venezuelas army, seemed an unlikely hero to restore democracy to his homeland. In 2011, he was sanctioned by the U.S. for allegedly supplying FARC guerrillas in Colombia with surface-to-air missiles in exchange for cocaine.

And last month, Alcala was indicted by U.S. prosecutors alongside Maduro as one of the architects of a narcoterrorist conspiracy that allegedly sent 250 metric tons of cocaine every year to the U.S.

Alcala is now in federal custody in New York awaiting trial. But before his surrender in Colombia, where he had been living since 2018, he had emerged as a forceful opponent of Maduro, not shy about urging military force.

Over two days of meetings with Goudreau and Toledo at the JW Marriott, Alcala explained how he had selected 300 combatants from among the throngs of low-ranking soldiers who abandoned Maduro and fled to Colombia in the early days of Guaido's uprising, said three people who participated in the meeting and insisted on anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations.

Alcala said several dozen men were already living in three camps he maintained in and around the desert-like La Guajira peninsula that Colombia shares with Venezuela, the three said. Among the combatants in the camps was an exiled national guardsman accused of participating in a 2018 drone attack on Maduro.

Goudreau told Alcala his company could prepare the men for battle, according to the three sources. The two sides discussed weapons and equipment for the volunteer army, with Goudreau estimating a budget of around $1.5 million for a rapid strike operation.

Alcala was indicted by US prosecutors alongside Maduro as one of the architects of a narcoterrorist conspiracy that allegedly sent 250 metric tons of cocaine every year to the US. Alcala is now in federal custody in New York awaiting trial. Pictured is Alcala's wanted poster

Goudreau told participants at the meeting that he had high-level contacts in the Trump administration who could assist the effort, although he offered few details, the three people said. Over time, many of the people involved in the plan to overthrow Maduro would come to doubt his word.

From the outset, the audacious plan split an opposition coalition already sharply divided by egos and strategy. There were concerns that Alcala, with a murky past and ties to the regime through a brother who was Maduros ambassador to Iran, couldn't be trusted.

Others worried about going behind the backs of their Colombian allies and the U.S. government.

They did have apparent backing, however, from Kraft who was among those meeting with opposition envoys in Miami and Washington.

At some point, Kraft reportedly started raising money among his own circle of fellow trust-fund friends for what he described as a 'private coup' to be carried out by Silvercorp, two businessmen who he asked for money told the Associated Press.

They report that Kraft allegedly lured prospective donors with the promise of preferential access to negotiate deals in the energy and mining sectors with an eventual Guaido government, said one of the businessmen.

He provided AP a two-page, unsigned draft memorandum for a six-figure commitment he said was sent by Kraft in October in which he represents himself as the 'prime contractor' of Venezuela.

But it was never clear if Kraft really had the inside track with the Venezuelans.

After retiring in 2016, Goudreau worked as a private security contractor in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. In 2018, he set up Silvercorp USA (pictured), a private security firm, near his home in Florida to embed counter-terror agents in schools disguised as teachers

In a phone interview with AP, Kraft acknowledged meeting with Goudreau three times last year. But he said the two never did any business together and only discussed the delivery of humanitarian aid for Venezuela. He said Goudreau broke off all communications with him on Oct. 14, when it seemed he was intent on a military action.

'I never gave him any money,' said Kraft.

Back in Colombia, more recruits were arriving to the three camps  even if the promised money didn't. Goudreau tried to bring a semblance of order. Uniforms were provided, daily exercise routines intensified and Silvercorp instructed the would-be warriors in close quarter combat.

Goudreau is 'more of a Venezuelan patriot than many Venezuelans,' said Hernan Aleman, a lawmaker from western Zulia state and one of a few politicians to openly embrace the clandestine mission.

Aleman said in an interview that neither the US nor the Colombian governments were involved in the plot to overthrow Maduro. He claims he tried to speak several times to Guaido about the plan but said the opposition leader showed little interest.

'Lots of people knew about it, but they didn't support us,' he said. 'They were too afraid.'

Goudreau's plot quickly began to crumble in early March when one of the volunteer combatants was arrested after sneaking across the border into Venezuela from Colombia.

Shortly after, Colombian police stopped a truck transporting a cache of brand new weapons and tactical equipment worth around $150,000, including spotting scopes, night vision goggles, two-way radios and 26 American-made assault rifles with the serial numbers rubbed off.

Fifteen brown-colored helmets were manufactured by High-End Defense Solutions, a Miami-based military equipment vendor owned by a Venezuelan immigrant family.

High-End Defense Solutions is the same company that Goudreau visited in November and December, allegedly to source weapons, according to two former Venezuelan soldiers who claim to have helped the American select the gear but later had a bitter falling out with Goudreau amid accusations that they were moles for Maduro.

Nonetheless, Goudreau continued with the plot which launched Friday but was quickly foiled by Maduro and mistakes on the part of his volunteers.

Neither the US nor the Colombian governments were involved in the plot to overthrow Maduro, AP reports.

Guaido also denies involvement.

He stood by comments made to Colombian media that he never signed any contract of the kind described by Alcala, who he said he doesn't know.

He said that he had no relationship with Silvercorp, 'for obvious and evident reasons, but we have to make that clear'.

Venezuela has been in a deepening political and economic crisis under Maduro's rule. Crumbling public services such as running water, electricity and medical care have driven nearly 5 million to migrate.

The United States broke diplomatic ties with Venezuela last year amid heightened tensions, so there is no U.S. embassy in Caracas.

A coalition of nearly 60 nations backs opposition leader Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate leader, saying Maduro's 2018 election was a sham because the most popular opposition candidates were banned from running.

The United States has led the campaign to oust Maduro, increasing pressure in recent weeks by indicting the socialist leader as a narco-trafficker and offering a $15 million reward for his arrest in March.

In February, Guaido appeared as a surprise guest at President Trump's State of the Union address in which the U.S. President used his speech to support efforts to oust socialist Maduro.

Trump blasted Maduro as an an 'illegitimate dictatorship' and pledged to 'stand alongside the Venezuelan people to ensure a future that is democratic and prosperous'.

In response, Maduro has called Guaido a U.S. puppet seeking to oust him in a coup.

Both Colombia and the United States have repeatedly denied previous Venezuelan allegations of backing military plots against the socialist government.

'We have little reason to believe anything that comes out of the former regime,' said a spokesperson with the State Department Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, speaking Sunday on condition of anonymity, referring to Maduro's government.

'The Maduro regime has been consistent in its use of misinformation in order to shift focus from its mismanagement of Venezuela.'

Though the incident has reverberated through the Venezuelan news media and social media, it has done little to change the situation either for Maduro - who oversees a collapsing economy - or for the opposition, which has been unable to remove him despite heavy U.S. sanctions and broad international support.

While Trump has repeatedly said all options are on the table, his administration has shown no apparent interest in military action.

Maduro's government says the United States wants to control the OPEC member nation's massive oil reserves.

Among the country's which support Maduro is Russia who in July 2019 vowed strengthen Venezuela's military to resist 'enemies' who want to destabilize the country.

Speaking on Venezuelan Independence Day, deputy Russian foreign minister Sergei Ryabkovsaid said that Moscow will continue to provide equipment to Maduro's troops without putting its own soldiers on the ground.

'We today declare, but not only declare, but with actions we reaffirm our determination to stand shoulder to shoulder with our Venezuelan friends,' he said.

Russia is a staunch ally of the embattled Maduro and has backed him alongside China, while most western powers have backed Guaido.

Venezuela's crisis has seen waves of protests that have often turned deadly in recent years. Four million Venezuelans have fled their homeland, all but 700,000 of them since the end of 2015, U.N. aid agencies say.

For a time in the 1990s, Venezuela was the largest oil exporter to the United States, marking the last high point of Washington's relationship with Caracas.

Relations between the United States and Venezuela have been frosty since 1999 when anti-American socialist Hugo Chavez - who had attempted a coup in 1992 - becomes President.

Chavez was briefly toppled by a coup before returning to power in 2002.

He also accused the United States of involvement in the attempted overthrow, claiming the CIA knew about it in advance.

Loyalists in the military return Chavez to power after interim president Pedro Carmona dissolved the constitution.
J. Crew Group filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday (US time) with a plan to hand over control to lenders, adding to a list of brick-and-mortar retailers pushed to the brink by widespread store closures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The New York-based chain, known for "preppy" clothing at times worn by former first lady Michelle Obama, filed for bankruptcy in a Virginia federal court with an agreement to eliminate $US1.65 billion ($2.6 billion) of debt in exchange for ceding ownership to lenders. Overall, roughly $US2 billion of its total debt will be cancelled and exchanged for roughly 82 per cent of equity in the retailer under the plan's terms, according to court records.

J. Crew is likely to be the first of many high-profile US retail bankruptcies. Credit:AP

J. Crew, which employed about 13,000 people before an April furlough program, is the first high-profile retailer to seek bankruptcy protection since the coronavirus spread across the globe, prompting government officials to order businesses deemed nonessential to temporarily close.

It is likely not the last. Department store chains Neiman Marcus and J.C. Penney are contemplating bankruptcy filings amid the crisis, Reuters previously reported.
State Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said Monday that Gov. Phil Murphys administration has been working since the weekend to arrange for the National Guard to assist New Jersey nursing homes overwhelmed by the coronavirus and hopes to reach an agreement later in the week.

Persichilli said Saturday for the first time the state would seek help from the National Guard  a suggestion urged by a prominent geriatric specialist, as well as the AARP and the Health Care Coalition of New Jersey, a lobbying organization for nursing homes since last month.

The commissioner, a nurse and former hospital CEO, said she envisioned assigned guard members to help with site testing, janitorial services, cooking and serving meals, and performing administrative or logistical tasks.

Weve been on the phone and working with the General and his team all weekend and throughout today. So we hope to have something more positive in the next several days, Persichilli said during the states daily briefing in Trenton. Theyve been more than wanting to help out. Its just to make sure that we put them in the right spots.

Staffing shortages, an issue in many nursing homes, are especially a problem now because so many employees are infected. Jonathan Dolan, the associations president and CEO, estimates one-third of frontline nursing home employees have been sidelined with the illness.

Many (nursing homes are) getting some relief now with employees returning to work but most are still struggling and not where they want to be on staffing for the best quality of care, Dolan said.

Dolan said the national guards presence will be most welcome. This support will give families the comfort that additional resources can be dedicated to patient care and family communication, he said.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage

The men and women of the New Jersey National Guard stand ready to continue supporting our neighbors to contain the spread of COVID-19, Lt. Col. Barbara Brown, spokeswoman for the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, wrote in an email to NJ Advance Media.

To date, 196 Army and Air Guard members have been deployed to state-operated veterans homes in Paramus and Menlo Park, Brown added. We stand ready and are actively working with state partners to expand our mission as needed.

The state Health Department says 4,010 of the roughly 67,000 residents of nursing homes, assisted living centers and other long-term care facilities have died, based on confirmed test results and suspected cases of COVID-19.

Of the 670 long-term care facilities in the state, 508 have reported at least one COVID-19 case, Persichilli said.

David Barile, medical director of Geriatric and Palliative Services at UPENN Hospital of Princeton and founder of Goals of Care Coalition of New Jersey, which promotes palliative care, sent two open letters to Murphy, on April 17 and May 1, urging the use of the national guard.

I see meal trays left at the bedside, out of reach and getting cold. I see meals left in front of residents who cannot hold a fork. Having non-medical guard in the nursing homes is critical and can save lives," Barile said Monday. Human engagement will also save lives. Frail elders with cognitive impairment decline rapidly when left alone in a room. Time is running out.

Murphy mentioned during the briefing he also is talking to the U.S. Veterans Administration about deploying some of its staff to assist in nursing homes.

Local journalism needs your support. Subscribe at nj.com/supporter.



Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio.
A man who sent "threatening and offensive" messages to Health Minister Robin Swann as he worked to tackle the coronavirus pandemic has been been cautioned by police.

On April 5, the 26-year-old man was arrested in the Ballymena area on suspicion of improper use of telecommunications causing anxiety.

He was subsequently released on bail pending further enquiries.

The messages sent to Mr Swann on social media were expletive-ridden and contained sectarian references.

One read: You and your scummy bastarding government are f*****g useless c***s and I swear when this is all over il [sic] hunt you good for nothing rotten bastards down and il [sic] make you and your family suffer ya useless f*****g bastard. Time you British bastards left Ireland.

Another referenced the IRA, stating: "Uppa ra [sic].

Now it has emerged the man has been cautioned for offence.

Police investigating threatening and offensive comments made on a social media platform on Friday, 3rd April have administered an adult caution to a 26-year-old man," PSNI superintendent Darrin Jones said in a statement.

When the messages emerged in last month, they were met with widespread condemnation from across the political spectrum.

First Minister Arlene Foster described the threats as "vile and disgusting".

"In very turbulent and challenging times there is no place for this nonsense as we work together to save lives. Solidarity to Robin and his family," she added.

Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said: The disgraceful abuse and threats against Health Minister Robin Swann are to be condemned.

Ulster Unionist leader Steve Aiken condemned the threats as "an attack on the health system".

"This is an absolutely disgusting attack on someone who is doing their level best for everybody in Northern Ireland," he said.

"It is not just an attack on Robin, it is an attack on our whole system and our health service and on our health care. The fact it has sectarian overtones shows the how important it is for all political leaders to condemn it."

"Robin wants to do the best, to make sure the Northern Ireland Executive is seen to be functioning effectively because everyone in NI needs to have confidence our Executive is doing the right thing.
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont.  A Kitchener woman is in hot water after allegedly slapping a U.S. border officer during an ill-fated trip to Niagara Falls.

American officials said 40-year-old Tianna Natasha McPherson was arrested Sept. 2 at the Rainbow Bridge border crossing, where she had been dropped off by cab with the intention of visiting Niagara Falls State Park in New York.

A U.S. Attorney's report states that due to "derogatory information" about McPherson's prior attempted crossings, she was taken aside for secondary inspection, denied admittance into the U.S. and told she would be returned to Canada.

At this point, officials say she became verbally combative and unco-operative, insisted she was an American citizen and tried to leave. When a Customs and Border Protection officer blocked the exit and told her to sit down, the report says McPherson challenged the officer and "open-hand slapped the officer on the left side of her face."

McPherson was arrested and charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer of the United States, and is being held in custody. The charge carries a maximum penalty of eight years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Her next detention hearing is set for Thursday.
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie has said that the US needs to restart the economy, despite estimations predicting this action will mean thousands more will die from Covid-19.

During an appearance on The Daily DC podcast, Mr Christie said that people are going to die from coronavirus whatever action is taken, and added that there needs to be a balance between helping the economy and saving lives.

After host Dana Bash asked the former governor his thoughts on predictions that suggest 3,000 will be dying daily in the US by June, he said that people are going to have to accept some deaths.

Of course, everybody wants to save every life they can  but the question is, towards what end, ultimately? he said.

Are there ways that we can thread the middle here to allow that there are going to be deaths, and there are going to be deaths no matter what?

The former governor also referenced WWII, and compared reopening the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic, to the sacrifices made by soldiers during the war.

We sacrificed those lives. We sent our young men during WWII over to Europe, out to the Pacific, knowing, knowing that many of them would not come home alive, Mr Christie said.

And we decided to make that sacrifice because what we were standing up for was the American way of life. In the very same way now, we have to stand up for the American way of life.

Twitter users were critical of Mr Christies claims, and political writer Matt Friedman referenced his approval rating when he was New Jersey governor, to show his idea has little public support.

Christies lowest approval rating (14%) was still a bit higher than the percentage of NJ residents who think the stay-at-home order goes too far (11%), he tweeted.

Additionally, user @cmcret was critical of the former governors remarks about sacrifice during WWII.

Its always amazing how those who have never sacrificed are the first to suggest everyone else should sacrifice. Comparing this virus to WWII shows the abject ignorance of these idiots. People who werent on the front lines didnt die because of WWII, they wrote.

Mr Christie appeared on the podcast the same week that two separate forecasters predicted that deaths related to coronavirus will increase in the US in the coming months.

An internal Trump administration model, has predicted that deaths from coronavirus in the US will increase to 3,000 a day from 1 June, according to a report obtained by the New York Times.

Separately, a model created by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, is now predicting that 134,000 people will die from coronavirus in the US, a figure that is close to double its previous prediction.

Ali Mokdad, a professor of Health Metrics Sciences at IHME, told CNN that the increase in predicted deaths is due to social distancing measures being relaxed in states including Texas and Georgia.

He said that one of the reasons for the increase in predicted deaths is increased mobility before the relaxation, premature relaxation, of social distancing, and said that were seeing an increase in mobility thats leading to an increase in mortality, unfortunately, in the United States.

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, there are now upwards of one million people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 68,406.
Officer Ismael Tamayo, a 13-year-veteran of the LAPD, was charged in connection with a weekend shooting at the Stoddard Wells Off-Highway Vehicle Area. (Los Angeles Times)

A Los Angeles police officer was charged Tuesday with assault with a deadly weapon after San Bernardino County prosecutors say he shot another off-duty officer over the weekend while camping in Apple Valley.

Officer Ismael Tamayo, 44, a 13-year veteran of the LAPD, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder in connection with the late-night shooting at the Stoddard Wells Off-Highway Vehicle Area that wounded a colleague.

But the San Bernardino County district attorney's office on Tuesday filed a lesser charge of assault with a deadly weapon against Tamayo, an Ontario resident. The filing identified the victim as Mark Mascareno, 48, a fellow officer in the LAPD's Newton Division.

According to the D.A.'s charges, Tamayo used a a Glock .40-caliber handgun in the commission of a "serious and violent felony" that resulted in great bodily injury.

Multiple law enforcement sources who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the incident said three officers were camping, shooting their weapons and drinking alcohol in the hours before Mascareno was wounded.

San Bernardino County sheriffs deputies responded to a shooting call about 1 a.m. Sunday and found Mascareno with a gunshot wound to his shoulder. He was airlifted to a hospital.

Tamayo was found nearby in possession of a firearm and taken into custody, authorities said.

The LAPD has initiated an administrative investigation.

Chief Michel Moore told the L.A. Police Commission on Tuesday he was thankful that the wounded officer was out of the hospital.

"I am very disappointed and frustrated by this event," Moore said, noting that the injury was "serious and life-threatening."

In addition how the shooting occurred, Moore said he wants to know why the officers were at the campground during the state's stay-at-home order amid the coronavirus pandemic. The area appeared to be open to the public, and other campers were nearby, according to a preliminary investigation.

Story continues

"What led up to this shooting is very important," the chief said. "I'd like to not just understand the criminality, but what other issues I might have as chief as to how they ended up there to begin with."

Tamayo's attorney, Gregory G. Yacoubian, said in an email his client is cooperating with authorities.

"We are confident that he will be cleared of any wrongdoing once the facts are made known. We ask that due process be allowed to run its course and that the privacy of Ismael and his family is respected," Yacoubian said.

"It is important that you know that Ismael Tamayo served honorably for over 21 years with the United States military, which included several deployments overseas, and is presently a tenured Los Angeles Police Officer."

Tamayo has been relieved of his police powers pending the outcome of criminal and administrative investigations, the department said in a statement.
Actor Shivin Narang has been admitted to a city hospital in Andheri after falling on a glass table at home. His condition is currently stable but won't be discharged as his wounds are severe.

Amid lockdown, Beyhadh 2 actor Shivin Narang yet again injured himself after falling on a glass table. He was immediately taken to the hospital, where his condition is currently stable. Reports said, on May 3, 2020, Shivin was hospitalized as his left hand has severe wounds. The actor accidentally falls on a glass tablebreaking it into two, at home.

A close source revealed that the actor has lost a lot of blood and severe bruised was marked on his body after meeting with a sudden accident. Currently, he is in stable condition but his deep wounds will take time to heal, so he wont be discharged early until he gets back to normal condition.

Earlier also he got injured while shooting for Beyhadh-2 where he suffered a hairline fracture. In an interview, the actor said, he is thankful to God for not meeting a major accident.

Talking about his bit as a responsible citizen in the time of coronavirus crisis, the actor played a key role in creating awareness, by sharing some educational posts. He also motivated his fans who are suffering from anxiety due to lockdown and urge them to stay positive and try to get in touch with friends.

On the professional front, the actor is basking in success as his thriller show, Beyhadh-2 is much loved by the viewers. His role as Rudra Roy is also appreciated by all. The plot of the show revolves around the life of a girl named Maya, where she seeks revenge from Rudras father, Mritunjay. Jennifer Winget is essaying the role of Maya, while(Ashish Chaudhary as Mritunjay MJ Roy.

Enjoy Beyhadh 2 episode here:

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NEW YORK  Many Americans are getting their first taste of what pandemic shopping looks like at their local mall.

Simon Property Group, the nations largest mall operator, reopened several dozen shopping centers across Texas, Georgia and roughly ten other states between Friday and Monday.

There, a new reality is on display: Play areas and water fountains are off limits. Employees wear masks and shopping in groups is banned. Shoppers can also get their temperature checked for free on the premises.

Among other changes: Every other urinal and sink is taped off, and theres ample space between seating in the food court. Simon also has technologies that will make sure occupancy will not exceed one person for every 50 feet (15 meters).

But despite all the safety measures, the question remains: Will anyone come?

There are still a lot of people who are scared, said Jon Reily, global head of commerce strategy at Isobar Global, a global digital agency. The tricky part for malls is finding that sweet spot. Yes, you can come here and yes, you can be safe.

So far, the early signs havent been encouraging.

At Simons Town Center at Cobb, which reopened Monday in Kennesaw, a suburb of Atlanta, many of the stores remained closed. Those still dark and locked by gates included Starbucks, Victorias Secret, Helzberg Diamonds and the Build-A-Bear Workshop. Some of the kiosks selling jewelry, cell phones and T-shirts were open, though others were closed.

For sale at one of the kiosks: A black-and-white T-shirt emblazoned with a gas mask and the words I Survived Coronavirus 2020.

Douglas Butler, 28, arrived at Simons Lenox Square mall in Atlanta around 11 a.m. on Monday. It was much less crowded than normal, and he easily found a parking spot in the normally packed lot.

Mall employees were handing out masks at the door, and just about everyone was wearing one while also maintaining distance from other shoppers, he said. Many stores still werent open, especially the higher-end and designer stores. He bought two new pairs of shoes for his 4-year-old son. He added he might pick up something for himself as well.

Since Im here, I might as well, Butler said. Everybody has a sale on. If youre open, you have a sale.

Meanwhile, a Nebraska mall got off to a subdued start Friday morning with just a few shops welcoming customers and about half a dozen patrons wandering the open-air facility wearing masks.

Nebraska Crossing resumed business with new safety measures, including hand sanitizing stations, plexiglass barriers and signs to promote social distancing guidelines. A handful of mall patrons walked through mostly empty pathways between stores, glancing into shop windows.

I do think its a little soon, but its kind of slow and there arent a lot of people here, so Im not too worried, said Jasmine Ramos of Omaha.

Lawrence Gostin, a public health expert at Georgetown University who has been consulting businesses and governors on reopenings, agrees that it is too soon. There first needs to be a long-term verifiable significant reduction in cases and ample virus testing and contact tracing, he said.

And shoppers should be required to wear masks, he said.

Malls are inherently risky places for transmission of the coronavirus by design, he said. They are there to have a lot of people congregating among each other and among the staff.

Given so much uncertainty, many major national mall operators have held off on announcing reopening plans and are weighing safety protocols while waiting for stay-at-home restrictions to be lifted.

Taubman Centers, which operates 26 malls worldwide and is being acquired by Indianapolis-based Simon, said it plans to open three malls  two in Florida and one in Utah on Wednesday. Chattanooga, Tennessee-based CBL Properties, which owns and manages 108 properties, said it will be announcing its reopening plans on a property-by-property basis.

Even before the cornonavirus pandemic, malls were grappling with a shift to online retail as well as shoppers whod grown bored of department stores and specialty chains like The Gap. That resulted in a number of bankruptcies and liquidations of stores.

The coronavirus has brought further peril by derailing consumer spending and scaring off public gatherings.

Jan Rogers Kniffen, a consultant to investors in retail companies and a former retail executive, now expects that 500 of the 1,000 malls in the U.S. will either close or be unrecognizable in two years. Before the pandemic, he expected 300 to shutter by 2030.

The imminent demise of several key tenants could also leave shoppers with fewer places to spend. J.Crew, saddled by debt, filed for Chapter 11 on Monday, becoming the first major retailer to do so. J.C. Penney and Neiman Marcus are also expected to file for Chapter 11.

And Macys CEO Jeff Gennette told analysts Thursday that it would emerge from this crisis as a smaller company. Thats bad news because department stores represent 60% of mall anchor space, according to research firm Green Street Advisors.

Macys reopened nearly 70 stores Monday, with many just focusing only on curbside pickup. Gennette said he expects less than 20% of the business to come back at first. And shoppers will notice a lot of changes: The chain is banning spa-like services, as well as bra fitting and ear piercing. For clothes that have been tried or returned, workers will take them off the sales floor for 24 hours.

Higher-end malls are expected to survive the crisis because owners like Simon, which operates 200 properties in 37 states, have enough money to cover losses. A Simon spokesperson declined to comment.

There was already a growing gap between the high- and low-end malls. While vacancies at top malls have remained tight at 2.7 %, the bottom-rung of malls are struggling with an average vacancy rate of 7.9% as of the first three months of 2020, according to Kevin Cody, senior consultant at CoStar Portfolio.

Its really a tale of two cities, said Steve Dennis, president and founder of SageBerry Consulting, a retail consultancy. (The crisis) really pushes the extremes further apart.

William Taubman, chief operating officer at Taubman Centers, which operates such high-end centers as The Mall at Short Hills in N.J. and Beverly Centers in Los Angeles, said he believes the carnage in stores in communities will only fortify business at malls like his. He feels heartened that Taubmans mall business in South Korea is exceeding sales prior to the pandemic. In China, business is not quite there but almost there.

Taubman said he thinks many are interested in getting out but they may come less frequently. He expects spending will be higher for each trip.

________

AP Writers Jeff Martin in Kennesaw, Georgia, and Kate Brumback in Atlanta and Grant Schulte in Gretna, Nebraska, contributed to this report.

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Follow Anne DInnocenzio: http://twitter.com/ADInnocenzio

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This story has been updated to correct that department stores represent 60% of mall anchor space, not 60% of U.S. malls are anchored by department stores.
Sometimes prayer is not enough to fix relationship problems, Pastor John Gray says

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He leads one of the largest churches in Greenville, South Carolina, but Pastor John Gray said he doesnt believe prayer is enough to handle all the problems that can emerge in marriages.

Gray, who leads Relentless Church and has previously admitted to being on the verge of divorce, made the declaration on a recent episode of Jada Pinkett Smiths Facebook Show Red Table Talk, co-hosted by Pinkett Smiths daughter, Willow Smith, and her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris.

The episode, in which Gray appeared with his wife, Aventer, was billed How Your Relationship Can Survive Quarantine.

The reason why this conversation is so impacting to me is because as a man of faith, what sometimes happens with the theological construct is that we think that our higher power will somehow fix it all. And sometimes prayer is not enough. You can sometimes talk to somebody that has walked through things that you dont know. I needed this because there are some areas of unattended manhood that need to be addressed, Gray said after receiving advice from relationship counselor Michaela Boehm, which he and his wife both found illuminating.

Pinkett-Smith started the conversation by highlighting how she realized during the pandemic how little she and her husband, movie star Will Smith, knew about each other.

Will and I are in the process of him taking the time to learn to love himself, me taking the time to learn to love myself right, and us building a friendship along the way. And let me tell you thats been somethin, she said. To be married to someone for 20-some-odd years and then realize, I dont know you and you dont know me. But also realizing too theres an aspect of yourself that you dont know either.

Gray explained that he was also learning to appreciate who is wife is during the pandemic.

And that for me is the biggest revelation. I think Aventer, shes had a consistent role in this marriage, while I tried to figure out what my role was. Thats not just in a marriage. Im talking about as the man. I have been forced into intimacy over the last four weeks. And when Willow said, you cant spell divorce without C-O-V-I-D, well what I think is that I dont think people are willing to divorce because of these four weeks. I think truth is being presented and were finally revealing and being revealed for who we actually are, he said.

Theres a distance between who we thought we were and who we actually know. And so for me, I can be honest to say that I didnt understand all of the value and the gifts that my wife carried. Even if I could sympathize with her, I have not empathized. Theres a difference between sympathy and empathy. One is I feel sorry for you, youve done a great job. The other is, Im putting myself in your shoes. And I have never stopped to say what does it mean to be a wife, a mother, an executive whos doing all these different things and for me; I dont know how to stay. I will travel a quarter of a million miles a year so for me, I know how to leave, not stay.

The pastors wife quickly interjected that while he was trying to understand her in all her roles, he failed to see her as a woman.

You neglected to say, just a woman first, Aventer Gray said.

You said all those things, you see me as the wife, you see me as the mom, you see me as whatever it is that you need me to fulfill at that moment and I think the hardship that comes in marriage is, the tension comes in because you cannot reconcile that we singularly have so much value without all the other titles that we wear, she said.

Pinkett Smith noted that wives can sometimes fail just as easily as husbands to see the value in their spouses.

I often think sometimes we kinda fall into that as well. Its like we can only see them as husbands. I know Ive had this issue, youre a husband, youre a provider, youre this and youre supposed to take care of me like this and like that and so I could only see in that little box and not really see the value of Will outside of all the little compartments I needed him to excel in for me, she said.

Boehm was then brought into the discussion to show how couples can see each other outside of their perceived roles.

One of the first things that we have to always remember is that when we meet somebody we dont actually know them. The first thing that kicks in is our projection of them. Then there comes a moment when the honeymoon is over and you suddenly realize that oops, you are married to an actual person, not to the figment of your imagination or fantasy, the counselor said.

They have bad habits and you have bad habits and at that point people also throw children in the mix. So then it becomes even more complicated. Ten, 15 years can pass and they come to an impasse because they are no longer the people they were when they first met.

Boehm urged couples to work on occasionally making sure that their relationship is current as people change over time.

I always say in a relationship, there is one partner, the other partner and theres a third partner and thats the relationship itself which has a dynamic. And at some point the dynamic of the relationship takes over from the individuals. And at that point, its a tough thing because at that point, you have what I call the always already listening, she said.

You already know what that [person] is going to do. You are no longer connected to them, the intimacy is gone, she said, prompting the panelists to react in agreement, including Gray and his wife.

Boehm further noted that couples should treat the ongoing quarantine time as a type of honeymoon where they work on focusing on deeper connections so that when life gets busy again, they will appreciate each other from a fresh perspective.

What makes a honeymoon moment a honeymoon moment is you sit around, you talk a lot, you exchange ideas, you have great plans for the future, youre deeply connected, things we no longer do when were really busy, she said.

So that will, of course, also mean that some old resentments are going to come up. Youre going to have trust issues, youre going to have things that have never been said. I would say for the time being, leave that aside. But for right now what you want to do is you want to anchor the positive feelings. You want to have as much of that epiphany and honeymoon and the lighthearted moments in your body  so that when you go separate ways, you have positive memories that override a lot of the negative moments, she said.
Italy considers amnesty for those working in agricultural sector, but experts warn measures might not stop exploitation.

Inland from Italys picture-perfect vineyards and turquoise beaches in the southern Puglia region, 32-year-old Sierra Leonean Ibrahim Bah wakes up in a shantytown filled with huts made of cardboard and wood.

For 12 hours a day, he picks asparagus. When he is paid the full amount, he earns 3.50 euros ($3.83) an hour  42 euros ($45.91) a day.

Its like slavery, Bah, an undocumented migrant worker, told Al Jazeera by phone. All I want is to have a legal job, to pay taxes and become an independent man.

This previously unimaginable reality could soon transpire amid the global coronavirus crisis, which has seen Europe grapple with the prospect of food shortages as its agricultural sector eyes collapse.

The Italian government is weighing whether to regularise some undocumented migrants, who are already working in the countrys agricultural and livestock sectors.

According to Italys Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI), there are up to 600,000 undocumented migrants.

The problem we are facing is the one of the harvest, Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese said last week. We need to bring out those in the black market, also for a safety issue.

As well as workers from Africa, Eastern Europeans also work in Italys fields.

At the start of Italys coronavirus epidemic, which has so far killed almost 30,000 people, people from countries such as Romania returned home, risking financial instability as they attempted to protect their health.

And as asparagus crops grow tall, Italian farmers are desperately trying to fill a gap left by more than 200,000 seasonal labourers. Most of these temporary workers usually arrive from Eastern Europe and many were unable to travel due to lockdown restrictions, according to the countrys largest agriculture association Coldiretti.

As a result, Italian farms risk losing more than 25 percent of the harvest, according to Coldiretti.

In recent weeks, other western European countries including the United Kingdom and Germany, faced with similar crises, have flown in Eastern European workers to tend to their farms.

I am scared of getting infected, but how can I survive if I stay home? Ibrahim Bah, undocumented worker

Bah lives in Borgo Mezzanone, a rural ghetto that houses migrants like him whose asylum applications have been rejected and others who live in hope that theirs will be processed successfully.

Legally, they have no right to work and are therefore more likely to be exploited, paid under the minimum wage of about 50 euro ($55) for a 6.5-hour day.

Working on farms, whether documented or not, is often the only way for people like Bah to make a living, regardless of the coronavirus crisis.

I am scared of getting infected, but how can I survive if I stay home? Bah said.

Rights groups and unions are urging the government to act in settlements like Bahs that lack running water and sanitation, warning they can easily become coronavirus hotspots.

Legalising these workers would reduce health risks and secure the harvest.

It would also limit the extent to which undocumented migrants are exploited under the Caporalato system, which profits from the irregular employment of agricultural workers for little pay.

Exploitation emerges in situations of irregularities, said Claudia Merlino, managing director of the Italian Farmers Confederation (CIA), which forwarded to the government a proposal for the amnesty.

Regulating migrants [is] not just important to face the current time of emergency, but it also guarantees an opportunity to migrants on the longer term as they will be able to establish and then keep a work relationship with the employer.

Italys government is considering to regulate a number of undocumented migrants as farmers are trying to fill a gap left by more than 200,000 seasonal, mostly Eastern European labourers to secure the harvest [Alessandra Tarantino/AP]

There are approximately 400,000 migrant workers in Italys agricultural sector. It is not clear exactly how many are undocumented, but the number is understood to be in the high thousands.

A CGIL-FLAI farmworkers trade union report estimated that as part of the black market, 16.5 percent do not enjoy any labour rights and 38.7 percent earn wages below rates set in the collective bargaining agreements.

Between 160,000-180,000 foreign workers lives in shantytowns, according to Jean-Rene Bilongo, head of migration policy and inequalities at the union.

The number increased following Salvinis decree when a mass poured into these confined spaces, Bilongo said, referring to a 2018 security bill touted by former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini which cracked down on migration.

Since it was implemented, the rate at which asylum seeker applications were being denied rose from 55 to 80 percent, according to ISPI.

The amnesty currently being considered would guarantee a temporary residence permit to those who can prove a past, current or future work commitment.

However, while a residence permit would make migrants less vulnerable in front of the law, it would not necessarily translate into a less exploitative work environment.

The regularisation can be a great opportunity, but it has to go hand in hand with the guarantee of workers rights, said Concetta Notarangelo from the Idorenin NGO. Or tomorrow we will get most of them with a residence permit, but stuck in the same situation.

Some employers do not guarantee a regular and fair wage to workers, irrespective of whether workers have formal contracts or not, said Noratangelo, who provides support to labourers.

Accessing a dignified salary, that would pave the way for a real process of integration, said Notarangelo.

Some farmers exploit the system by gifting some of a crop pickers hours to a family member or acquaintance in their records.

This family member or acquaintance can then declare the stolen working hours to the national social security agency (INPS) to gain state fund, such as welfare benefits, despite having never stepped foot on the field.

INPS estimates that some 50,000 false workers may have been registered through such scams in the agriculture sector, amounting to some 400 million euros ($437m).

Bah said his paycheck often shows reduced working hours, despite his day stretching from 4am to 6pm.

What can I do? I cant report to police. I dont have any right, no evidence. But I prefer to go to work so that Ill not be stealing, selling drugs, or robbing. That is why I do this job, Bah said.

Looking further ahead at the supply chain, there are concerns that even if undocumented workers are regularised, the price processors and supermarkets pay for fruit and vegetables from Italy  and other European countries, will not rise enough to assure farmers they can compensate their workers properly.

An Oxfam report said prices paid by Finlands biggest grocery retailer, the S Group, to a private-label supplier of tomato products in Italy fell 15-25 percent between 2014 and 2018.

Meanwhile, Italys tomato processors paid farmers 10 percent less for their raw tomatoes, while collective agreement wage rates had increased about 8 percent.

Oxfam said prices in the chain have become divorced from the costs of ethical production, adding that this dynamic increase the likelihood producers will continue to exploit workers.

The regularisation would be a positive step, but its just a patch, said Cesare Fermi, director of the NGO INTERSOSs migration programmes.

Farmers are strangled by the current economic system based on large-scale distribution, and migrants are the victims of it.
Four decades of federal evolution made India more secure, but coronavirus is reversing that.

Modi's central government has tasted power again and is unlikely to give it up, notes Shekhar Gupta.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi chairs a meeting to discuss the financial sector, structural and welfare measures to spur growth, May 2, 2020. Photograph: Press Information Bureau

When so much hypocrisy and sanctimonious talk truly begin to assail your senses, you turn to a true Punjabi to cut through the clutter and tell it like it is.

Better still if it's a soldier-turned-politician and still not afraid to tell it like it is.

As Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh did earlier this week.

In that remarkably brave protest, he also underlined the biggest coronavirus-induced change in our larger national politics and governance, the return of an almighty, domineering Centre after 35 years of weakening.

Let us explain how.

Speaking to a Punjabi news channel, he questioned the Centre on its sweeping, nation-wide ban on liquor sale.

What has liquor got to do with this coronavirus, he asked.

Coronavirus spreads, he said, from an infected person's phlegm or saliva.

Now you freely allow the sale of vegetables and fruits where these may have fallen and which may be carrying the virus widely.

But you ban a sealed bottle of beer where none of these fluids can get in.

Now spare us the jokes about the old Punjabi veteran calling a Patiala pPeg, what else, but a Patiala Peg.

The former maharaja of Patiala is by no means a teetotaller. But nor is he complaining because his bar or cellar is running dry.

He is exercised for a pretty good reason central to his governance: His exchequer is running dry.

Traditionally, alcohol and petroleum fuels are two things that a state can tax directly, the latter in addition to already sizeable central excise.

This is particularly so after goods and services tax came into place where the revenue first goes to the Centre and then the respective state's share is dispensed to them.

Alcohol is fully within the state's domain.

That is why it's been the main revenue source of our mostly bankrupted state government finances.

The pandemic called for extraordinary measures.

And a nationwide response. The Modi government, therefore, invoked the 1897 Epidemic Diseases Act and the fairly new Disaster Management Act of 2005 to give itself extraordinary powers to impose the lockdown and to also decide what will remain open or shut.

Among the activities it prohibited specifically was liquor sale.

It has driven our already bankrupted states deeper in a crisis.

Further, it has made them beg even more desperately before the Centre for money, or oxygen to their states's survival.

Now you know what Amarinder is complaining about.

Most other chief ministers have the same grievance.

It's just that, because it is liquor nobody wants to talk about it.

Amarinder isn't weighed down by any such hypocrisies. The important thing is, today, he has had to plead with the Centre for at least a little leeway with a power that was always our states' own.

That's why we say coronavirus has brought back the all-powerful Centre we thought we had been leaving behind about 1989 onwards.

Alcohol is just a symbol, if a particularly interesting one, of this big shift back in time.

We now have empowered central teams going to different states, not to survey the damage caused by a flood, cyclone or drought to determine the size of central relief.

They are going to monitor and audit how the state governments are managing the crisis, and whether or not they are following the Centre's orders fully.

They are asking questions, demanding information by lawful right and admonishing state governments.

And state governments are complying.

Maharashtra, to begin with. It's been probably the friendliest of all.

Rajasthan too has been smooth. The only one that had been defiant yet, Mamata Banerjee's West Bengal, is also falling in line.

The central team is requisitioning its medical records, auditing all fatalities to check if the figures the state is putting out are true or fudged.

IMAGE: Modi discusses the coronavirus pandemic, the lockdown and the state of the economy with chief ministers, April 27, 2020. Photograph: PTI Photo

Even if kicking and screaming, the state government has been dragged to not only answer some of these questions but also carry out a somewhat drastic revision of its fatality numbers.

Between Thursday and Friday, for example, the state raised its figure of Covid-related deaths to 57 from 15.

It is not as if a lot of people had just dropped dead overnight.

These were the deaths of patients who were positive but were ascribed to co-morbidities.

These figures are not large.

But we are not sure how many decades it has been since the state of West Bengal, which pretty much functioned as a republic in its own right, first for 34 years under the Left and now for a decade led by Mamata, has been treated like this.

If you don't think the change is significant, remember the same chief minister has been refusing to attend the prime minister's meetings and conversations with chief ministers, declining to welcome him at the airport and even defying him to drive from the airport to the city.

It also fought with the CBI to protect its favourite IPS officer from arrest, and won that battle.

This change has been brought in entirely by the pandemic and the special powers the Centre has endowed itself with -- lawfully of course.

But the main reason the powers are being deferred to is financial.

With all local businesses shut, property transactions over, petrol/diesel sales down to almost zero because of the lockdown, and the liquor ban, states have no revenues.

They were already running large deficits.

Now many will soon struggle to pay staff salaries. Even then relief for the poor now comes directly from the Centre.

For more than three decades, as the Congress party, especially under Indira Gandhi, held sway, we were federal only naam ka vaaste.

Most states were under the Congress and no chief minister dared to even move a DM or an SP without the Centre's nod.

Congress chief ministers could be dismissed with the wagging of a contemptuous finger by the party chief at an airport (Karnataka's Veerendra Patil in 1990 by Rajiv Gandhi) or if it was an Opposition government, it would be dismissed using Article 356.

IMAGE: Modi discusses the coronavirus pandemic with Opposition leaders, April 10, 2020. Photograph: Press Information Bureau

After the Emergency, it changed a bit.

Although Mrs Gandhi returned in 1980, the impulse for autonomy in Punjab and several other states forced her to concede some ground, at least for argument's sake.

In 1983, she set up the Justice R S Sarkaria Commission to review Centre-State relations.

A voluminous report was produced, which I reported on, along with an interview with Justice Sarkaria for India Today.

She, and then Rajiv, had the power, however, to toss it.

India's politics changed with the Congress party's loss of national domination in 1989.

Over these decades, India has moved towards real federalism.

And there is enormous evidence to show it has worked.

India is now more prosperous -- or, ok, less poor per capita, if that's what some of you would prefer, than before. Economic growth rates have improved consistently.

Most importantly, the one fear the Congress always held out, that the rise of regionalism will break up the country, has been totally belied.

In India, federalism and a sense of national security and integration have grown together.

If India is now more secure than ever in its history, internally and externally, then four decades of federal evolution have something to do with it too.

This is what is reversing now.

Helped along, of course, by Narendra Damodardas Modi's method and style.

The pandemic has brought about the moral justification.

We can see a mirror image even in the US now as Republican and Democratic states jostle for federal funding and Donald Trump thinks he can order states when to open up and how much -- and even overrule the decisions of a Republican governor (Georgia) to reopen on May 1.

These are unusual times and these shall pass.

But will all these changes be reversed? In America, the institutional structures are more robust.

Here, will the Centre, once it has tasted such power under Mr Modi, go back and shrink again?

The history of our politics does not hold out much reassurance.

By Special Arrangement with The Print
Farmers in Kildare and Meath are most at risk of having quads stolen, according to new Garda data.

There has been a surge in quad thefts in the past year with the vehicles now said to top farm thieves shopping lists.

According to figures obtained by the Farming Independent, some 119 quads were stolen in 2019. Kildare and Meath saw the highest number of thefts at 24 and 22 respectively.

Interestingly, the data also shows that quads stolen from inside sheds or outhouses accounted for 35pc of all thefts compared to yards (18pc) and farmland (8pc).

Quads are now hugely prized by farm burglaries due to there high resale value with many of them being shipped out of the country for sale or breaking.

"Quad bikes have been the number one item on the shopping list for criminals who enter farmyards for the last number of years," says Barry Carey, the IFA's Crime Prevention Officer recently told the Farming Independent.

While most of the stolen quads are shipped abroad, some criminals do attempt to resell them in Ireland.

"If they can doctor them up enough, they'll put them back onto the market here under a different guise," says Carey. "You will get people who say 'that quad is a great bargain', but if it's such a great bargain there might be something wrong with it," he warns.

To prevent these thefts, Gardai advise farmers to restrict access to there yard by install gates fixed to a sturdy concrete or metal posts and keep them locked.

Property marking is also an effective deterrent, according to Gardai who also advises that farmers should take pictures of their machinery.

Gardai also warns against buying machinery or goods from strangers or using cash warning those in possession of stolen goods may be liable to prosecution.
Kevin Sexton and Anna Geary at the Irish premiere screening of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom at Odeon Point Square, Dublin. Picture: Andres Poveda

GAA star turned broadcaster Anna Geary has paid a heart-felt tribute to her husband Kevin Sexton, five years since they met.

The couple, who wed in Anna's native Cork last year, fell in love after meeting through a friend in Dublin pub Flannery's on Camden Street.

They got together several months later.

Anna and Kevin share a home together in Dublin and have been making the most of some quality time together during lockdown.

conversation

Taking to Instagram yesterday, Anna (32) posted a photo of them on their wedding day at the Castlemartyr resort last October.

Expand Close Anna Geary and Kevin Sexton were married at Killeagh Church in 2019. Photo: Denis Boyle / Facebook

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Whatsapp Anna Geary and Kevin Sexton were married at Killeagh Church in 2019. Photo: Denis Boyle

Kevin had popped the question there the previous summer.

Alongside the picture, Anna wrote: "Five years ago this weekend you started up a conversation with me that hasn't stopped (though you hardly get a word in). Here's to the chats, laughter and plenty of slagging."

Davy Fitzgerald, Mairead Ronan and Rob Heffernan were among the well-known faces from GAA and broadcasting who were there to celebrate the couple's big day.

Speaking ahead of the ceremony, Anna told the Herald that the hardest part of wedding planning was cutting down the guest list.

Video of the Day

Following the wedding, she said it was "the start of the best adventure yet".

As well as being a mentor on RTE's Ireland's Fittest Family, the All-Ireland camogie winner also has a weekend radio show on Today FM with Declan Pierce.
New York will work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to "reimagine" the state's school system in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, part of a broader reform of society, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday.

"We want to build back better," Cuomo told a daily briefing.
As part of our #LockdownLessons series, Bizcommunity is reaching out to South Africa's top industry players to share their experience of the current Covid-19 crisis, how their organisations are navigating these unusual times, where the challenges and opportunities lie, and their industry outlook for the near future.

Stuart Bishop

What was your initial response to the Covid-19 crisis and lockdown, and has your experience of it been different to what you expected?

Comment on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on your company or the economy as a whole.

How is GretMol Online responding to the crisis?

Comment on the challenges and opportunities.

How has the lockdown affected your staff? What temporary HR policies have you put in place regarding remote working, health & safety, etc.?

How are you navigating physical distancing while keeping your team close-knit and aligned and your clients happy?

How have you had to change the way you work?

Has this global crisis changed your view of the future of the industry in any way?

Any trends youve seen emerge as a result of the crisis?

What do you predict the next 6 months will be like?

Stuart Bishop is the CEO of GretMol Online, an online consumer brands company that is a key product supplier and distributor to some of SA's largest e-commerce retailers, including Takealot.Approximately two weeks before the lockdown 70% of our team started working from home. The speed and severity of the lockdown still surprised us, and I was surprised it was extended to e-commerce as well.We are an e-commerce led consumer products company, most of our products are considered non-essential. Revenue down over 90% since the lockdown began. Only a small range of our products are deemed essential and Takealot, our primary partner, has plenty of stock of these.I wonder how sustainable the lockdown will become economically. The government has an enormous challenge on its hands, one which developed countries have struggled with despite their better access to resources.We believe that e-commerce shouldnt have been restricted at all. The WHO has developed working guidelines that I know Takealot has already implemented. The continued restrictions on e-commerce are a mistake in our view. As South Africans, we should embrace digital distribution of all goods as a way to save both lives and livelihoods.So far we have cut costs where we can. Negotiations were entered into with various stakeholders to defer payments where possible. We are awaiting further information from the bank and government with regard to accessing the R200bn SMME loans. TERS help has been applied for salaries and we are still awaiting an outcome. Full salaries were paid in the mean-time.We are also intensifying our planning for a post-Covid-19 world where people will favour shopping online.Making sure that we are still in business to take advantage of the Post Covid-19 opportunities.Weakening rand vs US dollar situation.Avoiding making staff redundant, it will be very difficult for them to find jobs post the crisis. They are critical to our success after the crisis and we have paid them fully so far.Keeping our spirits up, as tough as it is for us there are many people around us in dire personal circumstances.Taking a 100% pay cut personally whilst the crisis plays out, to ensure we can retain our key staff.Increasing move towards digital distribution. Being ready to fully capitalise on the opportunities that are presented.Possibilities of new partnerships or M&A post-crisis as the retail industry pivots towards digital.Great talent being available in the employment market to supplement our team due to unfortunate job losses.We have paid full staff salaries so far and I am proud of this. All of our staff that can work remotely have. When we come back to work we will follow all of the guidelines. My warehouse staff travelled to work in Ubers paid for by the company each day pre-lockdown, which is no small expense. We will attempt to instigate something similar once we return to work.Ultimately we will be looking to go above and beyond the legislative guidelines. The health and wellbeing of our team is paramount.With some difficulty, our work requires a tremendous amount of planning. We have key partner relationships we have to manage. Luckily they are understanding of our position for the most part; this is a global crisis impacting everyone.We have shifted our focus from a growth strategy pre-crisis to a survival strategy for now. Once the crisis is over we will re-evaluate where we think the best opportunities are and change our strategy accordingly.I believe this crisis will accelerate the trend towards digital distribution of goods and services. Currently, e-commerce accounts for 1.4% of customer spending in SA, the 30% annualised growth in the sector should accelerate from here.We havent needed to raise investment capital yet, though I imagine more VC and PE funding coming towards the space overall, especially towards players with a proven track record and solid businesses.Working remotely - this is here to stay in one form or another. A wider digital distribution of goods and services once the restrictions are lifted.The government eventually allowing unrestricted e-commerce, though slower than we would ultimately like. Further weakening of the currency for importers and significant financial problems in the short-term. I also expect to see problems emanating out of the US and Europe with their over-leveraged markets and the possibility of further spillover into emerging markets and SA in particular.On the other hand, the businesses that survive should be in a very strong position to consolidate and grow. There will be a viable business eco-system post the crisis. Being able to adjust to opportunities quickly will be key. As South Africans we have battled against many issues that developed economies havent, our hard-earned resilience should be a major asset during this period.As a nation we still have a rich and varied culture, abundant natural resources and a skilled and capable workforce. There will still be an economy after the crisis and within 6 months we should be moving quickly towards this.
The Tamil Nadu government on



Tuesday announced an ex-gratia of Rs 20 lakh to the family of a CRPF jawan hailing from the state who was killed in a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir.

Chief Minister K Palaniswami, while condoling the death of C Chandrasekar, also announced providing government job to one person from the slain jawan's family.

In a statement, he expressed his sympathies with the bereaved family and said the jawan, who hailed from Tenkasi district in the state, was killed in Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir.

The chief minister said he has directed that Rs 20 lakh be disbursed immediately to Chandrasekar's family.

"I have also directed that one person from the family be provided a government job," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
UPPER GWYNEDD  An unusual afternoon meeting could result in some significant savings for Upper Gwynedds taxpayers.

The townships commissioners held a special meeting on April 30 to approve two new agreements with the Delaware Valley Insurance Trust to switch the townships insurance carrier.

This was my first big recommendation, where I asked for a huge change from the board, and I appreciate you looking at it, said Township Manager Sandra Brookley Zadell.

It was a lot of information, and Im very confident you guys made a great decision tonight, she said.

Zadell and Finance Director Dave Brill outlined the townships current setup, prior to the special meeting, in which the townships workers compensation insurance and liability insurance were covered by private for-profit companies bid out every few years, instead of by a public non-for-profit trust.

About five or six years ago we did the same thing were doing now, and we looked at three or four proposals, and at the time we decided to stay with a private firm, Brill said.

At that time, the then-members of the board of commissioners chose to stay with the previous carrier due to a high application fee for the trust, but several factors have changed those calculations since then. As a trust run by the member municipalities, DVIT offers rate stabilization rebates that could help offset the townships costs, and increase over time, while also providing additional coverage options not currently included in the townships prior plan.

There are three types of coverage that we dont currently have: active shooter coverage, cyber security coverage and abuse or molestation coverage, Zadell said.

None of these three topics are anything anyone ever wants to talk about, but if any ever came up in Upper Gwynedd Township, we would be much more secure knowing we have coverage to support us during these difficult times, she said.

In addition to expanded coverage options, another benefit is lower costs: the townships current firm originally proposed a price of $441,000 for coverage starting on May 1, 2020, and running for the next year, Zadell said; DVITs proposal came in at $336,000, to which the prior firm countered with a proposal at a reduced price of $333,000.

The renewal rate is approximately $3,000 less than DVIT, but they also dont offer those three major pieces, she said.

Each year the township is a member of the trust, dividends returned in the form of rebates on that price would grow, and Zadell and Brill said those rebates were roughly $33,000 with the current carrier but could grow as high as $46,000 over the next ten years with the trust.

I think their dividends absolutely beat the last ten years of dividends weve had, she said.

Two officials from the trust, executive director Robert Solarz and underwriter Jim Thompson, added detail in response to board questions, noting that the trust evaluates each municipal member annually to determine what size reserves the trust should carry, and how much of the rest should be returned as those dividends.

We make sure those reserves are strong, because were covering municipal risk, said Solarz.

Resident Mike Fellmeth asked what kind of due diligence is done prior to the trusts accepting members, and whether any maximum limit is set. Thompson said each member is vetted heavily before being accepted, and only one or two new members join each year, with 66 municipalities currently in the property and liability trust and 91 in the workers compensation trust.

We are not inviting members willy-nilly. We pick and choose those risks that, in our view, are professionally managed, and will bring value to the membership, he said, adding that Upper Gwynedd had already been vetted and was seen as an excellent candidate to join.

Full details including the formal agreement between the township and the trust, along with the board resolutions approving both and video of the meeting featuring Zadells presentation, are all available on the townships website. Board President Liz McNaney asked how often staff recommended looking into new carriers again, and Brill and Zadell said prior board practice has been to reevaluate every three to five years, but under the trust they may wait longer given growing rebates over time.

The longer that youre with the trust, the more youre getting those rate stabilization credits, Zadell said.

Why the unusual meeting date at time, at 4:30 p.m. on April 30? I dont want to blame things on the coronavirus, but obviously things have changed a bit in how we all work, and I cant believe its already May 1 tomorrow  thats how we ended up against this deadline, she said.

The commissioners voted unanimously via back to back roll-call votes to approve the two motions, one for the workers compensation insurance and the other for the liability insurance. McNaney then thanked staff, particularly Zadell and Brill, for their efforts.

All of the information that you shared with us really helped us to understand everything. We appreciate all of your hard work on this, McNaney said.

The board meeting was held online via Zoom videoconferencing software, and McNaney joked not even widespread storms and power outages that day could stop staff from securing approvals.

I know you really wanted to get out and go to the mall, go shopping, and play outside, but you stayed focused on making this presentation to us, and we appreciate that, very much, she said.

Upper Gwynedds commissioners next meet online at 7 p.m. on May 4 and 18; for more information or meeting agendas and materials visit www.UpperGwynedd.org.
Turkish-back Syrian fighters suffered heavy casualties when it clashed with the Libyan National Army near Tripoli reports Al-Masdar.

A large number of Syrian mercenaries were killed this week when they clashed with the Libyan National Army (LNA) in the Tripoli countryside.

According to reports from northwestern Libya, the Libyan National Army managed to eliminate an installation belonging to the Turkish-backed Syrian militants during an attack around the Ayn Zara axis.

The reports have put the death toll for the Syrian mercenaries between 30 and 35, with several more wounded or captured by the Libyan National Army.

The Syrian mercenaries, mostly from the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), were first transported to Libya at the end of 2019.

Based on a report from Bloomberg News, the Turkish authorities offered the Syrian mercenaries 2,000 dollars a month to fight on behalf of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) forces.

However, since then, several of these Syrian militants have fled Libya for either Turkey or Europe, with some reports claiming that over 2,000 have traveled to the European Union this year.

Despite the Libyan National Armys offer of a ceasefire during the holy month of Ramadan, the Government of National Accord forces have continued to carry out attacks across the northern part of the country; this has resulted in increased violence in the month of May.

In a separate note, on Apr. 12, 2020, Russia sent a large amount of military equipment to Syria, including tanks and other armored vehicles.

According to the maritime observer Yoruk Isik, the Russian Federations Project 1171  Black Sea Fleet 197th Assault Ship Brigade Tapir class LST Saratov transited on Apr. 10, 2020, the Bosphorus Strait that links the Black and Mediterranean seas.

The Russian ship would later arrive at Syrias Port of Tartous, where the cargo on the ship was later unloaded and transported to the Syrian and Russian armed forces inside the country.

The arrival of these armored vehicles came a month after the Turkish Air Force launched a powerful attack in the Idleb Governorate, which resulted in the death of several soldiers and the destruction of a number of vehicles, including tanks and armored personnel carriers (APC).

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.
The women who had recently given birth had such pronounced biological changes in their brains that a computer algorithm could separate the new mothers from those who had never given birth. In particular, the gray matter in the brains of women whod recently given birth seemed to be reduced in certain areas, and those changes stuck around for up to two years after birth.

The brains gray matter, located mostly in the outer layers, plays a large role in muscle control and in the execution of high-level tasks like seeing, hearing, processing memories and emotions and decision making. The brain also contains white matter, which insulates the axons, helping brain signals travel further, faster and encouraging motor and sensory function. In Dr. Hoekzemas study, the white matter of pregnant womens brains did not appear to be changed at all by pregnancy and new motherhood, while gray matter volume was reduced.

Dr. Hoekzema said that these changes might partially occur because of a process known as synaptic pruning, a brain phenomenon that eliminates certain connections between brain cells to encourage the facilitation of new connections. Researchers believe that this process could help people focus on specific behaviors or activities  in this case, taking care of an infant. In other words, a loss of brain material might seem like a bad thing, but the changes could actually, in part, be beneficial to people faced with new conditions like parenthood, according to Dr. Hoekzema.

Catherine Monk, Ph.D., a professor of medical psychology at the NewYork-Presbyterian/ Columbia University Irving Medical Center, speculated that this pruning might even be the cause of mommy brain. In Dr. Hoekzemas study, the images showed reductions in gray matter in the hippocampus, which is largely responsible for regulating memory. Instead of focusing on relatively inconsequential tidbits of information, like a movie title, your pregnant or new-mom brain may reallocate resources to the parts of the brain that control theory of mind, which allows you to figure out what someone else wants and needs. Dr. Hoekzema says these same areas of the brain also lit up when mothers looked at their infants, suggesting that synaptic pruning might even promote mother-baby bonding.
Immigrants make up almost a fifth of front-line workers during this pandemic. It is an absolute outrage that we are relying on immigrant families to care for our loved ones and provide our essential supplies and yet denying their children the support they are entitled to as U.S. citizens, said Nicholas Katz, senior manager of legal services for Casa, a D.C.-area immigrant advocacy organization that helped bring the lawsuit filed by the law centers Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP).
George W. Bush told a State Department official who tried to persuade him not to invade Afghanistan: 'F*** it, we're going to war'.

The former president gave the blunt comment at Camp David days after 9/11 as he decided whether to go after the Taliban, a new documentary reveals.

Mike Morell, Bush's briefer about the CIA, said that the President remarked 'the only way to do that is militarily' - and it was too late for diplomacy.

The extraordinary anecdote features in a new documentary about the Bush White House which says he had a 'vacuum' for foreign policy that was filled by his hawkish advisers.

A new documentary about George W. Bush sheds new light on the events after the September 11, 2001 attacks which turned Bush into a wartime president. He told State Department officials 'F*** it, we're going to war,' from Camp David (pictured) days after the attacks

When President Bush was told that Osama bin Laden got away, he lost his temper. 'I'd never seen the President lose his temper. I'd never seen him get mad. He did in this case,' Mike Morell, Bush's briefer about the CIA, said

Bush thought that invading Iraq was a chance to 'spread American values' and he thought he failed because of the 9/11 attacks

At one point Bush's Secretary of State Colin Powell told a colleague: 'The Vice President knows how to get the cowboy in Bush to pull his 45 and start shooting - and I don't know how to get him to put it back in the holster.'

The four hour documentary, 'American Experience: George W. Bush' is airing Tuesday on PBS, days after Bush waded back into politics with a video urging unity in the face of the coronavirus.

He was slapped down by Donald Trump who said Bush was 'nowhere to be found' when he was impeached.

The documentary sheds new light on the events after the September 11, 2001 attacks which turned Bush into a wartime president.

The documentary argues that Bush had a blind spot when it came to foreign affairs and that his powerful vice president Dick Cheney took advantage of it.

After ordering the invasions of Afghanistan, where the Taliban were hiding out, and Iraq, Bush revoked the Geneva convention protections for terrorism prisoners.

Suspects were tortured in what became one of the darkest periods in American history.

In the film there are eye popping anecdotes about the hours after 9/11 when Bush was flown to a military base in Nebraska amid fears he could be attacked.

But as soon as Bush arrived he told his advisers on the TV screens in front of him: 'I am coming back to Washington, don't argue with me, I'm coming back. Now.'

Within hours he was on his way.

State officials urged Bush to try diplomacy in Afghanistan before resorting to force after 9/11, but Bush said: F*** it, we're going to war'. He's pictured greeting troops at Fort Drum in 2002, home of an infantry force that was deployed to Afghanistan shortly after the 9/11 attacks

The president had a blind spot when it came to foreign affairs and his powerful vice president Dick Cheney (right) took advantage of it, the doc claims. Secretary of State Colin Powell (left) told a colleague: 'The Vice President knows how to get the cowboy in Bush to pull his 45 and start shooting - and I don't know how to get him to put it back in the holster'

President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld are seen chatting at Camp David on September 15, 2001, on a break from a National Security Council meeting

Earlier in the day Bush found out another plane had gone into the Pentagon. Bush's deputy chief of staff Karl Rove said: 'The call I could hear only one side of the conversation but I knew it was bad when he said ''Is Rumsfeld alive?'''

Morell, who briefed Bush every day on CIA intelligence, said that he felt intense guilt for letting the attack happen.

Bush 'didn't want to hear' about CIA briefings that Osama bin Laden was planning something on US soil.

Morell says in the film: 'He told me his number 1 job was to protect the American people and he told me he failed on 9/11 and he could not let that happen again.'

In a speech at Camp David Bush said he wanted to 'smoke out' the terrorists, the kind of macho language that earned him derision around the world.

Soon after that the State Department official urged him to try diplomacy in Afghanistan before resorting to force.

Morell said: 'The president looked at us. And he said: 'F*** it, we're going to war.'

'The president's mindset was: they did this. They have the capability to do this, and I have to make sure they don't do it again. And the only way to do that is militarily'.

The President is seen on a call while watching the Twin Towers burn live of television from a class room where he was reading to students when he got the news

President George W. Bush is seen embracing a firefighter at the site of the World Trade Center days after the 9/11 attacks

During the hunt for bin Laden the military thought they had him tracked down in the Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan but he got away.

Morell says how he told Bush that 'I have some really bad news - Bin Laden escaped.'

He said: 'I'd never seen the President lose his temper. I'd never seen him get mad. He did in this case.'

According to 'American Experience', Bush thought that invading Iraq was a chance to 'spread American values.'

He thought it was his 'destiny' and he had an 'evangelical sense of righteousness' which clouded his judgement.

When Bush asked Cheney to dig up proof about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction it put a bomb under his presidency.

The documentary says that Bush was 'woefully educated in foreign affairs, inclined to believe the worst in Saddam' and 'accepted as fact' what Cheney and his cabinet were telling him.

In fact it was untrue and Bush was later accused of lying to the country as the basis for the invasion of Iraq.

The cost in American lives was steep and during the eight year long conflict 4,497 American soldiers were killed.

Dana Perino, who was Bush's press secretary at the time, described how he would meet with as many families of dead soldiers as he could.

Describing one encounter with a man who was on life support and wasn't going to make it, Perino said that his mother 'was so mad, she railed at the President, he didn't try to leave'

When they got onto Marine One, Bush said: 'That mama sure was mad at me'. Perino tells the film: 'He looked at me. He looked out the window and this one tear came down his cheek and he said: 'I don't blame her a bit'.

'American Experience' also examines Bush's life before the Presidency going back to his wild days in Texas where he was heavy-drinking and drifted through life until he hit 40 and turned his life around.

George H.W. Bush (left) was a war hero who rose through the Republican party to become the 41st President; in contrast, his son George W. Bush (center, with mother Barbara) had been a 'screw up'

Journalist Peter Baker said in the documentary: 'At each stage he's following his dad's footsteps, each state never as successful as his dad' (The father and son are pictured together in an undated photo)

His father George H.W. Bush was a war hero who rose through the Republican party to become the 41st President; in contrast Bush had been a 'screw up' and New York Times journalist Peter Baker says there was a 'seething resentment' against his father.

It boiled over during the Christmas holidays of 1972 when Bush crashed into a neighbor's garbage can after drinking.

In the ensuing row he challenged his father to a fight, and for the rest of his life saw him as a rival as well as somebody whose approval he craved.

After graduating from Yale, Bush could no longer avoid the Vietnam draft so joined the 147th Texas Air National Guard along with other well-connected Texan boys.

The joke about the unit was that they would only see action if Oklahoma invaded Texas - critics branded it a 'Champagne Unit'.

Journalist Bill Minutaglio tells the film: 'In his heart of hearts Bush didn't want to go to Vietnam but he knew damn well that his father's next step had been to join the military and become a war hero.'

After Bush went into the oil business but never struck liquid gold, and he ended up selling his business, Arbusto, which rivals joked should be called Arbust-o.

As Baker says in the film: 'At each stage he's following his dad's footsteps, each state never as successful as his dad'.

The four hour documentary, 'American Experience: George W. Bush' airs Tuesday on PBS

After quitting alcohol and becoming religious, Bush ran for governor of Texas, helped by Rove who 'saw something' in him before anyone else did.

Louis Dubose, a journalist, tells the film: 'Karl Rove was Pygmalion and he created George W. Bush.

'He saw this was a ruggedly handsome guy who could be groomed for something great.'

'American Experience' has a revealing anecdote from Rove about the night that Bush won his election and his brother Jeb lost the race to be governor of Florida.

Jeb had been seen as the family's political heir, not Bush who had always been the black sheep of the family.

Rove describes how Bush called his father who was having a 'meltdown about Jeb losing.'

His father was so upset about this that Bush had to remind him: 'Well dad, I won.'
A senior Amazon.com engineer has resigned in solidarity with fired corporate and warehouse workers who protested working conditions at the company.

Tim Bray, a vice president and veteran engineer with the company's cloud-computing division, said in a post on his personal blog that he quit "in dismay at Amazon firing whistleblowers who were making noise about warehouse employees frightened of Covid-19."

Bray, who worked in Vancouver, was a distinguished engineer, a coveted title large tech companies award to senior technologists. The decision will likely cost him more than $1 million in loss of salary and unvested Amazon stock, "not to mention the best job I ever had," he said.

Amazon has been fighting the spread of coronavirus cases in its logistics network and a public-relations battle against critics who say the company hasn't done enough to make warehouses safe. Small groups of workers at facilities around the U.S. have walked off the job in protest, and an employee activist group, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, called for corporate employees to call in sick after two of its members were fired.

Amazon has said the workers were fired for violating corporate policy forbidding them from speaking publicly about internal matters.

More for you GE to slash 13,000 jobs in aviation amid air travel plunge

Bray, who last year signed the employee group's open letter urging Amazon to do more to fight climate change, said he raised concerns about the firings internally. Having done that, he said, "remaining an Amazon VP would have meant, in effect, signing off on actions I despised. So I resigned."

He said he believed both that Amazon was making massive investments to keep workers safe during the pandemic, and that workers who have spoken out have legitimate concerns. In the essay, Bray said the company was treating warehouse workers like "fungible units of pick-and-pack potential." He chalked up some of what he sees as Amazon's failings to its success in a capitalist system not set up incentivize good treatment of workers.

"Firing whistleblowers isn't just a side-effect of macroeconomic forces, nor is it intrinsic to the function of free markets," Bray wrote. "It's evidence of a vein of toxicity running through the company culture. I choose neither to serve nor drink that poison."

Bray, whose last day was Friday, said that Amazon Web Services, the division he worked for, treated workers humanely and "is by and large an ethical organization." Amazon didn't immediately comment.
All the 22 pilgrims from



Puducherry, who had gone on pilgrimage to Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh on March 19 and were stranded there due to the COVID- 19 induced lockdown, returned here on Tuesday by special bus.

Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasasmy contacted his counterpart in Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath and requested him to arrange for the return of the pilgrims and they have since reached their residences at Sathiya Nagar,a release from the Revenue Department said.

District Collector T.Arun told newsmen that these pilgrims had gone on pilgrimage to Varanasi, but were stranded during the lockdown.

They were however accommodated there and provided food after he contacted his counterpart there,he added.

All these pilgrims were quarantined in their respective homes after mandatory screening and stickers announcing the quarantine were also pasted on the doors of their houses,the release said.

The Chief Minister had told newsmen earlier that the territorial government was footing the bill for the transport of people from the Union Territory stranded in other States to return home.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Arnold & Winnie Palmer Foundation today announced a campaign of charitable efforts to support people impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Called #LikeArnie, the campaign operates from the premise that hungry kids cant learn and aims to support youth and educators across the country, including those in a number of PGA TOUR event communities. #LikeArnie builds on the Palmer Foundations immediate response to the pandemic, in which masks and face shields were provided to more than 20,000 workers at Orlando Health, of which the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies are part.

Through the Feeding America member food banks, #LikeArnie will support the provision of nutritious food to children in Orlando, Fla. (the Foundations home city and site of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard), in Arnold Palmers hometown of Latrobe, Pa., and in nearby Pittsburgh. In addition, Feeding America food banks, Food Banks Canada, and FareShare in the U.K. have received gifts in support of 10 communities that were impacted by the cancelation of PGA TOUR events. Focusing on childrens educational challenges, the Palmer Foundation is providing a major gift for the new DonorsChoose Keep Kids Learning initiative, which will support students and teachers across the nation. Also, in partnership with other organizations, the Foundation will address educational needs for children in Orlando.

These charitable efforts, along with a complementary social media campaign, aim to celebrate the spirit and character of Arnold and Winnie Palmer by supporting children, families and communities  just #LikeArnie would.

As part of our ongoing commitment to children's health and in response to the COVID crisis, we feel fortunate to be able to support important medical and nutrition needs and to help address the educational challenges articulated by caring teachers on behalf of their students, said Amy Palmer Saunders, Chair of the Arnold & Winnie Palmer Foundation.

Details on each component of the campaign are below and a corresponding blogsite found at http://impact.palmerfoundation.org .

A Snapshot of Support for Orlando and Arnold Palmers Pennsylvania Roots

Based in Orlando, Fla., the Arnold & Winnie Palmer Foundation:

 Has provided personal protection equipment for employees at the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies, as well as addressed this vital need of other Orlando Health hospitals. A portion of the equipment included engaging an Orlando maker team  VuDoo Wood  in the creation of medical-grade shields.

 Continued its active participation in community revitalization efforts in the West Lakes community by providing a focused gift to fund a new meal delivery service through the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, member of Feeding America.

 Is working in partnership with the Florida Citrus Sports Foundation and others to address additional, crisis-related educational gaps for students in West Lake area schools.

In tribute to Arnold Palmers Latrobe, Pa. roots, the Palmer Foundation has also provided generous gifts to both Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank and the Westmoreland County Food Bank; both organizations are part of the Feeding America network.

Solidarity with Sister Events on the PGA TOUR and Honoring Champions

Announcing support for Feeding America member food banks in the U.S. as well as Food Banks Canada and FareShare in the U.K., Amy Palmer Saunders comments: We held the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard early in the season, before COVIDs impact was completely understood and before important social distancing protocols were put into place in the United States. Many of our sister tournaments on the PGA TOUR were not so fortunate, and their cancellations greatly impacted their communities. Like our Invitational, these events make a real difference in their communities and we wanted to do what we could. By supporting pantries in communities affected by tournament cancellations, we honor our sister events and do our part as a member of the TOUR family.

The benefiting Feeding America member food banks pantries include:

1. Feeding America Northeast Florida (THE PLAYERS Championship)

2. Feeding Tampa Bay (Valspar Championship)

3. Central Texas Food Bank (Dell Technologies Match Play)

4. San Antonio Food Bank (Valero Texas Open)

5. Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana (Zurich Classic of New Orleans)

6. Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina (Wells Fargo Championship)

7. North Texas Food Bank (AT&T Byron Nelson)

8. God's Pantry Food Bank, Inc. (Barbasol Championship)

International pantries are North York Harvest Food Bank (part of Food Banks Canada, supporting RBC Canadian Open) and FareShare Kent (part of FareShare UK, supporting The Open Championship).

Saunders also acknowledged the 2019 champions of these events: There was something particularly special about the competition and camaraderie my dad felt in defending a tournament success. We appreciate the fortitude it takes for champions from recently canceled or moved events to await their opportunity to defend their titles, and we want them to know that we look forward to their future competition. In their honor, we are supporting students and teachers as they persist with much greater challenges during the COVID crisis. Funding a new initiative called Keep Kids Learning, part of DonorsChoose, we want to help ensure that devoted teachers and students from underserved communities succeed in their efforts.

Thousands of students will benefit from the Arnold & Winnie Palmer Foundations support for Keep Kids Learning in honor of these 2019 event champions:

 2019 THE PLAYERS Championship Champion: Rory McIlroy

 2019 Valspar Championship: Champion: Paul Casey

 2019 Dell Technologies Match Play: Champion: Kevin Kisner

 2019 Valero Texas Open: Champion: Corey Conners

 2019 Zurich Classic of New Orleans: Champions: Ryan Palmer and Jon Rahm

 2019 Wells Fargo Championship: Champion: Max Homa

 2019 AT&T Byron Nelson: Champion: Sung Kang

 2019 RBC Canadian Open: Champion: Rory McIlroy

 2019 Barbasol Championship: Champion: Jim Herman

 2019 The Open Championship: Shane Lowry

#LikeArnie Donations and Stories to Inspire

A favorite event of Arnold Palmer, the annual Arnold Palmer Cup scheduled for July 2020 in Lahinch, Ireland has also been impacted by the COVID crisis; it has been rescheduled for Dec. 20-23 at Arnold Palmers Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Fla. A co-ed Ryder Cup-style event featuring men and women as teammates playing side-by-side, the Cup assembles the top college golfers from around the world in the spirit of character and competition.

Recognizing that many young people have seen golf and other character-building opportunities fade during COVID, the Arnold & Winnie Palmer Foundation seeks to remind youth that Mr. Palmer viewed difficult times as opportunities to improve, on and off the course. To encourage youth to find everyday heroes, as well as find their Arnie within, the Foundation is launching the #LikeArnie challenge. Via social media, all are invited to share how the people around them are doing things #LikeArnie might havewith courage, selflessness, and a generous heart.

As people post to social media with the tag #LikeArnie, the Palmer Foundation will announce some surprise #LikeArnie grants to charitable organizations focused on childrens health and character development across the nation. Arnold Palmer Cup golfers will be among the first to be asked to share examples of others acting #LikeArnie.
In normal times, farmers worry about the economy, the weather and being able to sell their crops. Now add the effects of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.



Now as harvest season nears in many parts of the United States, farmers are wondering if they will have workers to bring in their crops. And, if there are workers, how can they be kept safe?

One area known for its farming is the eastern state of Pennsylvania.

Adams and Franklin counties in rural Pennsylvania have some of the largest farms for fruit and berries.



"Generally, one of the biggest concerns right now it's just access to workers," said Liam Migdail. He is with the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, the largest farm organization in the state.

During harvest season, many farmers employ migrants to collect crops from their fields. Many are guest workers from Mexico or Central America. They move from one farm to the next, wherever they are needed.

The possible labor shortage comes from new restrictions on international workers because of COVID-19. Farmers are also wondering about what to do if their guest workers get sick.



"That would shut us downif we all got the coronavirus, OK, nobody could work, the fruit falls on the ground," says Kay Hollabaugh. She is co-owner of Hollabaugh Bros., Inc., a family owned and operated fruit and vegetable farm in Butler Township.

For now, she added, her farm is trying to move forward and keep their workers "safe and healthy."



Some farmers say it is too early to tell if the new safety rules will affect their ability to harvest fruits and vegetables. At many farms, workers are to begin harvesting crops between May and July.

Farmer Chris Baugher said he does not know if he will have workers.



'Locals don't want the work'



In 2016, the fruit industry contributed $580 million to the Adams County economy. It also created 8,500 jobs and added $16.4 million in taxes, an agricultural study found.



An area called the South Mountain Fruit Belt produces 70 percent of Pennsylvania's total apple crop. That represents over 180 kilograms of apples a year.



In 2019, there were more than 1,800 guest workers in Pennsylvania through the federal governments H-2A visa program.

Farmer Denton Benedict usually employs around 90 workers through this visa program.



The program lets agricultural employers hire workers from other countries to do temporary or seasonal work when local workers cannot be found.



"Not being able to find good help locally is the reason that we went to the H-2A program," said Baugher. He usually has over 20 people from Honduras working on his farm.



Kay Hollabaugh said local people do not want to do the work because they lack the skills and the work is physically demanding.

On March 20, the U.S. Department of State suspended visa services like in-person interviews at all embassies and offices overseas because of the coronavirus pandemic. A week later, it announced that H-2A workers could get visas without an interview. But it is still not clear if and how many H-2A workers will come to the United States.



"If we don't get our helpthat would be devastating, Benedict said.



A shortage of farm workers would also affect people in the United States. With less produce available, food prices could see large increases.

Im Susan Shand.

The Associated Press reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

access - n. being able to get something you desire

guest - n. a visitor to one's home or business

shut - v. to close down

contribute - v. to add value to something

belt - n. a tract of land

hire - v. to employ

interview - n. to ask someone questions

devastate - v. to destroy
(Newser)  A woman, her adult son, and husband have been charged in the fatal shooting of a security guard who refused to let her daughter enter a Family Dollar in Michigan because she wasn't wearing a face mask to protect against transmission of the coronavirus. Calvin Munerlyn was shot Friday at the store near downtown Flint a short time after telling Sharmel Teagues daughter she had to leave, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said. Teague, 45, argued with Munerlyn, 43, before leaving, the AP reports. Two men later came to the store. Teague; her husband, Larry Teague, 44; and Ramonyea Bishop, 23; are charged with first-degree premeditated murder and gun crimes. Sharmel Teague has been arrested. Police were looking for her husband and son. No information has been released about the daughter, who has not been charged.

story continues below

Larry Teague also is charged with violating Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's order mandating that all customers and employees wear face coverings inside grocery stores, Leyton said. "It is important that the governors order be respected and adhered to, and for someone to lose their life over it is beyond comprehension," Leyton said earlier Monday in a statement. On Thursday, protesters, some carrying guns, rallied inside the state Capitol, calling for coronavirus-related restrictions to be lifted. On Sunday night, about 150 people attended a candlelight vigil for Munerlyn. A makeshift memorial was started outside the Family Dollar on Monday. Munerlyns mother, Bernadett, asked everyone to "listen to the law, listen to the governor." (Whitmer says protesters brought "the worst racism" to Capitol.)
[May 05, 2020] Connected Healthcare Market Size Worth Around US$ 6.6 Bn by 2027

LOS ANGELES, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Acumen Research and Consulting, Recently Published Report on "Connected Healthcare Market Size, Share, Growth, Forecast 2020 - 2027". The global connected healthcare market is expected to reach the market value of around US$ 6,600 Mn by 2027 and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of around 11% in terms of revenue during the forecast period 2020 to 2027. Connected healthcare helps consumers to communicate with the doctors by visiting them or by sending medical reports periodically to monitor the health of consumers. Get Free Report Sample Pages for Better [email protected] https://www.acumenresearchandconsulting.com/request-sample/1833 Connected healthcare enables patients to interact with the physicians without visiting them in person and clinicians to monitor the health of their patients by collecting patient data frequently. Connected healthcare offers all members significant flexibility. In reviewing their clinical records, patients can contact the doctor from all over the world and the doctors can track these results and agree to avoid those complications of infection. North America witness to hold around 40% of the global market share in 2019 due to advance technology and well establishes healthcare sector in the region. The connected healthcare systems and the application market dominate the tracking, evaluation and treatment applications. Growing adoption of smartphone devices and increasing mobile application related to healthcare are the factors driving the growth of connected healthcare market. These connected healthcare technology lead to cost savings by reducing the number of visits to physicians and delivering improved patient care services. Furthermore, the fundamental variance between different types of interconnected healthcare systems has prompted the establishment of a comprehensive system with standard procedures and methods for various programs and healthcare facilities. Market dynamics The key factors that contribute its growth to the market is due to government-sponsored projects to offer quality hospitals and data storage facilities. Patient surveillance is conducted in real time due to the integration of healthcare services and computers, especially through eliminating unwanted appointments through physicians; it often provides consumers to utilize virtual hospitals based on cloud to make decisions and delivering evidence-based treatment. Moreover, connected healthcare solutions make individual healthcare options convenient for consumers and assist medical professionals to supply the community with more and more reliable treatments. <>View Detail Information with Complete [email protected] https://www.acumenresearchandconsulting.com/connected-healthcare-market



Although the connected health care system is innovative, it presents many sensitivity-related challenges to health data. The data centers are focusing on healthcare sector by simplification and digitization of health data and by increasing demand. Furthermore, data security is the other challenge in connected healthcare market which is expected to increase due to large number of data where this data needs shield from cyber attacks. n developing countries, connected healthcare facilities have challenges due to a lack of service infrastructure. One of the main factors limiting development of the connected healthcare sector is the lack of medical services and the shortage of medical professionals in underdeveloped countries. Developing markets provide huge opportunities for connected healthcare developers:

This consists of large rural, remote and isolated areas that have no access to HCPs (patients, carers, and healthcare professionals) and poor per capita healthcare spending

They have a high prevalence communicable diseases and non-communicable diseases

Innovative solutions will be easier where the infrastructure is not safe or limited and connected healthcare offers the potential of enhancing access Browse More Related [email protected] https://www.acumenresearchandconsulting.com/industry-categories/healthcare-and-pharmaceuticals The global connected healthcare market includes prominent players such as IBM Corporation, Accenture Plc, Boston Scientific Corporation, SAP SE, Oracle Corporation, GE Healthcare, Microsoft Corporation, Medtronic, Airstrip Technology, Allscripts, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Athenahealth Inc., Cerner, Agamatrix, Inc., AliveCor Inc., Qualcomm, and others. Recent Developments In August 2019 , Boston Scientific Corporation has announced that the acquisition of BTG plc has been completed. In keeping with the agreement scheme previously announced

, Boston Scientific Corporation has announced that the acquisition of BTG plc has been completed. In keeping with the agreement scheme previously announced In April 2020 , Philips enables continuous control of patients with COVID-19 in hospitals and GPs

, Philips enables continuous control of patients with COVID-19 in hospitals and GPs In March 2020 , Cybersafety is an growing issue for health authorities, regulators, experts and manufacturers of medical equipment and patients

, Cybersafety is an growing issue for health authorities, regulators, experts and manufacturers of medical equipment and patients In June 2016 , CarePoint 5.0 has also been introduced by Philips to enhance the welfare and sensitivity of people living in senior communities. By Target Audience Medical device supplier

Medical device manufacturers

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Research and Development R&D Companies

Medical Research Laboratories Request for [email protected] https://www.acumenresearchandconsulting.com/request-customization/1833 The report is readily available and can be dispatched immediately after payment confirmation. Buy this premium research [email protected] https://www.acumenresearchandconsulting.com/buy-now/0/1833 If you would like to place an order or have any questions, please feel free to contact at [email protected] | +1-407-915-4157 OR +1-408-900-9135 About Us Acumen Research and Consulting (ARC) is a global provider of market intelligence and consulting services to information technology, investment, telecommunication, manufacturing, and consumer technology markets. ARC helps investment communities, IT professionals, and business executives to make fact based decisions on technology purchases and develop firm growth strategies to sustain market competition. Among the industries served include aerospace and defense, information and communication technology (ICT), semiconductor and electronics, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, chemicals, advanced materials, banking, finance services and insurance (BFSI), and others. Our collective industry experience of over 100 years has helped us to offer appropriate market information and our global reach and regional connects ensures appropriate insights into regional markets to guarantee apt delivery of information. Our regional market intelligence helps our clients to identify potential opportunities and develop growth strategies across regions and countries. Our services are geared towards offering best market research to our clients. Contact Us: Mr. Frank Wilson

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Putting an entire country under lockdown makes surveillance and management of the virus less efficient as the resources and manpower are stretched thin.

Disha Shetty

As the Indian government extended the nationwide lockdown beyond May 4 for two more weeks, some crucial data are missing: How are the countrys villages doing? Are there too many unexplained deaths? The answer to those questions are crucial as chief ministers queue up to seek an extension of lockdown backed with scant or no data whatsoever, health experts tell IndiaSpend.

As of 5 p.m. on 1 May 2020, India has reported 35,365 cases of COVID-19 and 1,152 deaths, according to HealthChecks Coronavirus Monitor. Globally there are over 3.2 million confirmed cases and over 233,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center, due to the infectious virus to which there is no known cure or vaccination.

On 1 May 2020, the Indian government extended the nationwide lockdown beyond 4 May 2020, but promised some relaxation in the orange and green zones.

Any epidemic of any type is not a national phenomenon, it is a collection of local and regional epidemics with vast intervening areas of no or low disease, said Dileep Mavalankar, director, Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar. The emphasis on district-level data is wrong. We need to have sub-district level data to understand if the cases are only in one corner of a district.

The key data missing is whether there are patients with symptoms of severe acute respiratory infections dying in large numbers in the villages, as COVID-19 affects the patients lungs the most.

The government does release district-wise data on COVID-19 from time to time, but not on where the cases are within a district. Some large cities such as Mumbai--also a COVID-19 hotspot with more than 7,000 cases--do release ward-wise data but not others.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has repeated that the end of the pandemic needs countries to test, isolate and care for those affected. A lockdown that is backed by fear, and not data, could be hardest on the poor and increase mortality rates among those affected, said experts. Lockdown works by delaying the peak of the virus and buys health systems more time.

If Indias villages and the majority of its districts are faring well, there is no reason to keep them under lockdown. We need to identify major hotspots like Delhi or Mumbai and shut those areas out, said K Sujatha Rao, former health secretary of India. Rest of the economy can certainly be allowed to continue.

According to Rao, putting an entire country under lockdown makes surveillance and management of the virus less efficient as the resources and manpower are stretched thin.

Gaps in testing capacity continue

On 26 April 2020, a journalist in Telangana, DVL Padma Priya, tweeted about being denied a COVID-19 test despite showing symptoms including fever, body ache, dry cough, shortness of breath and the disappearance of sense of smell and taste. A government hospital denied her a test since she had no travel history - India suspended international flights on 22 March and domestic flights on 25 March, over 30 days back. Most Indians coming to hospitals now are unlikely to have travel history.

India expanded its testing criteria on March 20, 2020, to include all patients hospitalised with Severe Acute Respiratory Illness and close contacts of confirmed cases. On April 9, 2020, the guidelines were expanded further to include all patients with COVID-19 symptoms.

Day 2 the fever increased. hit 100.5; headaches were worse; and i was feeling tired all the time. I decided to self isolate just in case. i contacted a doc who advised i start taking dolo and contact helpline if i dont improve.  Padma Priya D (@priyakamal) April 26, 2020

After Priyas tweet garnered attention, the state health department called her and offered to have her undergo a test.

Priyas daughter has now been sent to her grandparents to stay safe. Her experience highlighted the difficulties in getting a test even for those eligible, and how the real gap is of a rigid policy out of step with a raging virus about which information is constantly evolving.

The epidemic is more widespread. That is my hypothesis and I would like to see it tested, said Jay Bhattacharya in an interview on April 24, 2020. The professor of medicine at Stanford University also looks at the intersection between health and economics. Since more than 80 percent of COVID-19 patients display few or no symptoms, it would be impossible to test 1.3 billion Indians, Bhattacharya said, recommending that a few thousand antibody tests be conducted across cities to find out the extent of the spread of the virus. (When attacked by a foreign object such as a virus, our bodys immune system kicks in and responds by producing antibodies--a type of protein--that take down the virus. The presence of these antibodies in the blood indicates whether or not a person has had COVID-19, even if they have shown no symptoms. The WHO has warned that while it is an indicator of infection, it does not mean the individual could not be re-infected with COVID-19.)

Lives lost on both sides of lockdown

Indias lockdown is one of the most extreme in the world. Even at the peak of the COVID-19 infection that killed over 83,000 in China, the country never shut down the entire economy but only the Hubei province that was most affected. New Zealand has said the virus is currently eliminated and there is no evidence of community transmission--the kind of transmission where the source of the virus is not known. South Korea contained the spread by rapidly expanding testing and providing it free of cost to anyone who might need it.

Bhattacharya stressed that there are deaths on both sides of the lockdown policy--either due to COVID-19 or due to livelihood loss and starvation. Indias numbers would be higher if the lockdown would not have happened, absolutely, but we have not made any effort to measure the costs.

Because the outbreaks happen in various localities and regions, there is no single Indian epidemic curve to flatten, said Mavalankar. Instead we have about 300-500 individual epidemic curves in various cities and towns to flatten. This, according to him, makes the COVID-19 pandemic manageable and we need to use the data to zero in on these clusters and lock them down instead of the entire country.

So what is the way forward?

The Kerala model of phased easing of the lockdown is a good example of how this can be achieved using specific public health criteria--these include the number of new cases occurring in a district in a specific period, number of persons under home surveillance, and number of hotspots in the district, said V Ramana Dhara, professor at the Indian Institute of Public Health, Hyderabad. In the event of a resurgence, a lockdown can be implemented again.

This article was originally published on Indiaspend
Although it may take years before people can travel again, politicians from New Zealand and Australia are discussing the possibility of opening up borders to each other and creating a travel corridor between the two countries. The "travel bubble" will give both nations a way to continue their transactions while taking precautions against the coronavirus.

Both New Zealand and Australia shut their borders to foreigners in March, and it caused a massive blow to their tourism industries. However, with both nations appearing to have successfully brought their coronavirus cases under control, the politicians from both nations are now talking about opening their borders to each other.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that New Zealand is the country that they can reconnect with first. The country would like to reconnect with New Zealand but their main focus at the moment is making sure that both countries can manage COVID-19 domestically until both are confident enough to open the borders.

It is still not clear when the "travel bubble" will happen since both countries have domestic travel restrictions and all international arrivals are subject to a 14-day quarantine. Travel industry experts predict that August is when the borders will open, as it is in time for the ski season in New Zealand and the school holidays in September.

Also Read: Pres. Donald Trump is Confident Vaccine Will be Developed by End of the Year

How would it work?

Every person traveling from one territory to another will be subject to a 14-day self-quarantine. Airports will also need to roll out new procedures. Chris, Roberts, the chief executive of Tourism Industry Aotearoa, which represents the tourism industry in New Zealand, said that he envisions a future where tourists may turn up to the airport, get tested for the coronavirus, and only be allowed to travel once they've got a negative result. As soon as the passengers arrive at the destination, they may have their temperature checked.

According to Roberts and Simon Westaway, the executive director of the Australian Tourism Industry Council, the travel bubble would only work if the current 14-day quarantine period for people entering the country is removed. Once the travel bubble is tried and tested, New Zealand may extend the bubble into other territories such as Taiwan and HongKong.

Is the bubble the future of travel?

A potential New Zealand and Australia travel bubble may end up being a model for the rest of the world. Like other countries, Australia and New Zealand will need to be careful not to move too fast and create a second COVID-19 wave.

Moving too fast and pushing for travel too soon could jeopardize the image of both countries. But Roberts and Westaway are hopeful that the travel bubble could be done safely and effectively and can soon be applied to other countries.

The world is paying attention to the moves of New Zealand and Australia as both countries were able to contain the virus outbreak. If both countries could successfully come up with a safe way to travel, other countries will take a very keen interest to see how it works and may apply it in their respective nations.

Related Article: New Zealand Prime Minister Said They Won The Battle Against Community Spread of Coronavirus

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
U.S. President Donald Trump participates in a live Fox News Channel virtual town hall called "America Together: Returning to Work" about the response to the COVID-19 pandemic being broadcast from inside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, U.S. May 3, 2020. Reuters



Pushing to reopen the economy, President Donald Trump insists that states can gradually lift lockdowns and still protect people from the coronavirus pandemic, even as he's also suggesting U.S. deaths could reach 100,000.



The president, fielding questions from Americans Sunday night in a virtual town hall from the Lincoln Memorial, acknowledged valid fears on both sides of the issue. Some people are worried about getting sick; others are reeling from lost jobs and livelihoods.



Trump increased his projection for the total U.S. death toll to as many as 100,000 _ up from the 60,000 figure he suggested just a few weeks ago. More than 67,000 Americans are confirmed dead from the virus, according to a Johns Hopkins database.



''Look, we're going to lose anywhere from 75,000, 80,000 to 100,000 people,'' Trump said. ''That's a horrible thing. We shouldn't lose one person out of this. This should have been stopped in China.''



But he struck a note of urgency to restart the nation's economy, declaring, ''We have to get it back open safely but as quickly as possible.''



After more than a month of being cooped up at the White House, Trump returned from a weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland for the virtual town hall hosted by Fox News Channel.



The president said of his monumental backdrop: ''We never had a more beautiful set than this.''



As concerns mount about his reelection bid, Trump stuck to his relentlessly optimistic view of the nation's ability to rebound soon.



''It is all working out,'' Trump said. ''It is horrible to go through, but it is working out.''



Many public health experts believe the nation cannot safely reopen fully until a vaccine is developed. Trump declared Sunday that he believed one could be available by year's end.



U.S. public health officials have said a vaccine is probably a year to 18 months away. But Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading expert on infectious diseases and member of the White House coronavirus task force, said in late April that it is conceivable, if a vaccine is soon developed, that it could be in wide distribution as early as January.



Though the administration's handling of the pandemic, particularly its ability to conduct widespread testing, has come under fierce scrutiny, the president tried to shift the blame to China and said the U.S. was ready to begin reopening.



''I'll tell you one thing. We did the right thing and I really believe we saved a million and a half lives,'' the president said. But he also broke with the assessment of his senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, saying it was ''too soon to say'' the federal government had overseen a ''success story.''



While noting that states would go at their own pace in returning to normal, with ones harder hit by the coronavirus going slower, Trump said that ''some states, frankly, I think aren't going fast enough.'' He singled out Virginia, which has a Democratic governor and legislature. And he urged the nation's schools and universities to return to classes this fall.



Federal guidelines that encouraged people to stay at home and practice social distancing expired late last week.



Debate continued over moves by governors to start reopening state economies that tanked after shopping malls, salons and other nonessential businesses were ordered closed in attempt to slow a virus that has killed more than 66,000 Americans, according to a tally of reported deaths by Johns Hopkins University.



The U.S. economy has suffered, shrinking at a 4.8% annual rate from January through March, the government estimated last week. And roughly 30.3 million people have filed for unemployment aid in the six weeks since the outbreak forced employers to shut down and slash their workforces.



The president's advisers have nervously watched Trump's support slip in a number of battleground states and he was told last month that if the election were held that day, he would lose to Democrat Joe Biden. The president's aides believe restarting the economy, even with its health risks, is essential to a victory in November and are pushing for him to pivot away from discussions about the pandemic and onto an American comeback story.



To that end, Trump will begin traveling again, with a trip to a mask factory in Arizona planned for Tuesday. The president also is set to speak in June at commencement for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Returning to campus for commencement will require graduates to self-isolate for 14 days, but Trump insisted the event poses no risk to the cadets.



The town hall, which included an appearance by Vice President Mike Pence, included a rare mea culpa: The vice president said he should have worn a face mask during a visit last week to Minnesota's Mayo Clinic. Pence's failure to wear a mask violated the clinic's guidelines and drew significant criticism.



Elsewhere in Washington, the Senate planned to reopen Monday, despite the area's continued status as a virus hot spot and with the region still under stay-at-home orders. The House remains shuttered as debate continues on what the next stage of the economic recovery may look like.



State and local governments are seeking up to $1 trillion in coronavirus costs, which has been met with some objections by congressional Republicans.



Trump said that while he thought common ground could be found with Democrats over an infrastructure package, ''we're not doing anything unless we get a payroll tax cut. That is so important to the success of our country.''



The leaders of California and Michigan are among governors under public pressure over lockdowns still in effect while states such as Florida, Georgia and Ohio are reopening.



Trump on Sunday night singled out Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, also a Democrat, for criticism even as he praised the federal coordination with most governors. He also complained that some Democrats would rather ''people get sick'' than given him any credit for pushing the use of a malaria drug for treating COVID-19, though it has not been proven to be safe and effective for that use. (AP)


Dramatic video footage has revealed the moment Royal Air Force fighter jets bombed six caves being used as a base for Islamic State militants in Iraq.

Two Typhoon jets, flying out of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, used Paveway IV guided bombs to hit the cave entrances during the night-time strike on April 28.

Military intelligence had confirmed that a group of IS militants were based in the caves, north east of the city of Bayji in northern Iraq, the Ministry of Defence said.

A blast following the dropping of a Paveway IV precision-guided bomb on a series of six caves north-east of Bayji in northern Iraq on April 28, revealed by the Ministry of Defence today

An MoD spokesman said: 'Surveillance confirmed all the weapons struck their targets successfully, removing more Daesh fighters from the battlefield and further downgrading the terrorist movement.'

The Typhoons were supported by a Voyager refuelling tanker and were joined by other coalition aircraft in the attack.

The strike took place following a 'thorough check' of the surrounding area for any non-combatants, the MoD added.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: 'The strikes continue because the Daesh threat is relentless and so will we be.'

Two Typhoon jets, flying out of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, used Paveway IV guided bombs to hit the cave entrances during the night-time strike in northern Iraq on April 28

The RAF is flying daily armed reconnaissance missions over Iraq and eastern Syria as part of the fight against ISIS, the MoD said.

The most recent attack follows a previous airstrike by the RAF on April 10 in support of the counter-terrorism operation in northern Iraq.

On that occasion last month, two Typhoons, assisted by an RAF Reaper aircraft, identified ISIS terrorists in a group of fortified buildings.

They were located in an isolated site west of Tuz Khurma, known to be inhabited by active terrorist commanders and fighters.

Military intelligence had confirmed that a group of IS militants were based in the caves, north east of the city of Bayji in northern Iraq, the Ministry of Defence said

Meanwhile, also today, a UK-based war monitor said overnight strikes on positions held by Iranian-backed militias and their allies in eastern Syria killed 14 fighters.

The strikes in the desert near the town Mayadin came minutes after Syrian air defences intercepted Israeli strikes over the north of the country, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A spokesman for the US-led coalition battling the Islamic State group said it was not responsible for the strikes.

Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman said it was 'likely' that Israel mounted the operation, which killed several Iraqi as well as Iranian fighters.

A file photograph of an Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon at the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus

Iranian-backed militias and their allies command a significant presence in eastern Syria south of the Euphrates Valley. The region lies close to the Iraqi border.

Israel has launched hundreds of strikes in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011, targeting government troops, allied Iranian forces and Hezbollah fighters.

It rarely confirms details of its operations in Syria but says Iran's presence in support of President Bashar al-Assad is a threat and that it will continue its strikes.
Errant Yala COVID-19 spike triggers probe

THAILAND: A second test found all 40 of the newly suspected COVID-19 cases in Yala on Sunday (May 3) turned out to be false positives, as the Public Health Ministry has decided to run another test at its main lab to leave no room for doubt.

CoronavirusCOVID-19health

By Bangkok Post

Tuesday 5 May 2020, 08:26AM

Traditional performers wearing face shields perform a dance at the Erawan Shrine at Ratchaprasong intersection in central Bangkok. The shrine, particularly popular with Chinese tourists, reopened on Friday (May 1) after it was closed on March 27 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo: Wichan Charoenkiatpakul

Officials are also investigating what went wrong at the Yala lab as controlled test equipment was found to be contaminated.

Those cases which were uncovered during comprehensive testing or active case finding have attracted attention from both the public and health authorities who were alarmed by the spike in infections.

Taweesilp Visanuyothin, spokesman of the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), said yesterday (May 4) the second tests conducted by a lab at the medical science centre in Songkhla came back negative in all 40 cases.

But he said the result of those cases would not be confirmed until a third test is run, adding samples will be sent to the Department of Medical Sciences for testing.

So, the 40 cases in Yala were not confirmed today pending an examination of the process, he told the press briefing, stressing there would not be a cover-up.

A source in the provincial health office, who asked not to be named, said yesterday an investigation is under way to find out what went wrong.

The source said there are several factors potentially contributing to false positives, including the possibilities that the equipment had trace samples from old tests or had had an unstable run.

The source said the Yala lab will not be used for testing for the time being and samples will be sent to the lab in Songkla instead.

Deputy Public Health Minister Sathit Pitutecha said yesterday a team of investigators has been dispatched to Yala to find out what happened during the testing.

We must find an answer. It could be the solution liquids, the interpretation of test results or even a machine error, he said.

Supat Hasuwannakit, director of Chana district hospital in Songkhla, wrote on Facebook the virus was found in the No Template Control tube of the RT-PCR, which is supposed to be free of the virus.

But Dr Supat, a regular government critic, likewise said there is no cover-up in reporting the results.

The Yala provincial public health office yesterday reported no new infections, putting the number of confirmed cases at 126, with 99 of them discharged from hospital. Two deaths were recorded in the province.

Yala is a hotbed for infections among the southernmost provinces, with 126 confirmed cases. Its numbers are behind only Bangkok, Phuket and Nonthaburi.

Health officials in Yala are battling against COVID-19 during Ramadan in the hopes Muslims will be free to celebrate at the end of their holy month of fasting.

The province is conducting active case finding in all districts, targeting risk groups such as those who have had contact with returnees from neighbouring countries.

In Bannang Sata district, health officials conduct second active case findings yesterday and will continue today, targeting more than 800 people.

Ramadan, which started on April 24, has posed a challenge for officials, who decided not to do swab tests during the day, when Muslims are fasting. Ramadan is due to end on the evening of May 23.

We cannot conduct the tests during the daytime as people are fasting, including the Muslim staff at the office, Yala public health chief Songkran Maichum said. My [Muslim] staff also dont have the energy, he added.

Dr Songkran said cooperation from community leaders was key to success, adding only they can lead villagers to the designated locations where swabs will be taken for testing.

Meanwhile, the CCSA yesterday reported 18 new COVID-19 cases all of whom are illegal migrants detained in Songkhlas Sadao district.

It is reported that the new cases are Rohingya people including a 10-year-old child whose mother did not have the virus. The second floor of the detention centre has since been turned into a field hospital.

Yesterday was the first day since the outbreak that no cases had been reported among Thai citizens.

The confirmed case tally nationwide stood at 2,987 and the death toll was 54.

But Sophon Iamsirithavorn, chief of the Communicable Disease Division, issued a stern warning that a rise in new cases could be seen over the next week now that some lockdown measures have been relaxed.
A Sherman Oaks lawyer found an "adverse report" from Macy's on her credit file. Then she discovered the entire department that can help fix the problem is furloughed. (Associated Press)

Nobody likes dealing with problems in their credit files. It can be a lengthy, laborious process involving lots of documents and calls to multiple companies and credit agencies.

That situation may now be even worse thanks to coronavirus business closures.

Carol Scott, 70, discovered this after recently attempting to resolve an "adverse report" placed on one of her credit files by Macy's over an accidentally late payment.

The Sherman Oaks lawyer said the issue came to light as she was seeking a small-business loan to keep her practice afloat. The adverse report from Macy's branded her a credit risk, prompting lenders to halt her loan applications.

Scott told me she had to make repeated calls to Macy's before she finally reached a supervisor who would address the issue.

"The supervisor said there was nothing they could do," she recalled. "She said they'd furloughed the entire dispute-resolution department and I'd have to wait until it reopened, maybe in May, maybe later."

Which is to say, too bad about your credit file, but you're on your own.

OK, a couple of thoughts immediately come to mind.

First, Macy's is by no means alone in temporarily (or permanently) telling employees not to report for work. Many businesses have resorted to similar measures to help weather the coronavirus storm.

Second, what do Macy's and other consumer-focused companies expect customers to do when troubles such as this arise?

"There is no excuse for harming peoples credit standing in these uncertain financial times," said Linda Sherry, a spokeswoman for the advocacy group Consumer Action.

I asked Macy's about Scott's situation. The company responded with a brief, two-sentence statement. I'll get back to that.

Macy's announced at the end of March that it was furloughing most of its 125,000 employees because of the pandemic, which had forced it to close all of its 775 stores.

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The company said it was "moving to the absolute minimum workforce needed to maintain basic operations. This means the majority of our colleagues will go on furlough."

Similar moves were announced by Nordstrom, JCPenney, Kohl's, Gap, Best Buy and other prominent retailers.

Macy's said last week that it plans to gradually reopen its stores over the next six to eight weeks.

All retailers are anxious to turn things around. Stay-at-home orders nationwide resulted in an 8.7% drop in March retail sales, according to the U.S. Census Bureau . Thats the biggest monthly decline ever recorded.

On Monday, preppy-clothes maven J. Crew filed for bankruptcy protection  the first major retailer to do so since the pandemic erupted.

"March was a month that started out with many stores still open, but far more are closed now, said Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist for the National Retail Federation. "Dont be surprised if the data going forward show a worsening situation."

Even so, business continues. Most retailers are still operating online, which means they're still processing credit card payments and monthly bills.

Which means issues can arise if something goes wrong.

Yet Scott said she hit a brick wall while seeking help from Macy's in addressing her snafu, which involved a Macy's store card.

"They kept saying there was nothing they could do while everyone was furloughed," she told me. "They couldn't even say which government agencies I should turn to."

That would be the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission, both of which are charged with making sure consumers aren't taken advantage of in their financial dealings.

I reached out to the two agencies. The CFPB didn't respond (wake up, guys!), but a spokeswoman for the FTC said consumers can turn to the commission for information on disputing errors in credit files and to lodge a complaint.

I also contacted the three leading credit bureaus  Experian, Equifax and TransUnion  for advice on what consumers should do if a business can't or won't step up to help resolve a dispute.

"Consumers can request a current copy of their credit reports from each of the national credit reporting companies for free," said Sandra Bernardo, an Experian spokeswoman. "Doing so will enable consumers to verify their accounts and any activity, such as late payments, reported by their lenders."

Each credit bureau has its own system for disputing problems, she said. Typically, such matters can be taken up online.

In Scott's case, Bernardo said, "the consumer needs to check her Experian credit report, and if there is a late payment reported by Macys, she can initiate a dispute."

But that's just the start.

"Its important to remember that disputing information with one credit bureau may not impact information on credit reports from the other two bureaus," said Zehra Mehdi-Barlas, an Equifax spokeswoman.

If this sounds time-consuming, it is. I spent many hours restoring order to my own credit files after an ugly episode of identity theft. It's quite a production.

So what did Macy's have to say? A spokesperson said by email that "we are working with our customers to address their individual situations," which suggests Scott isn't the only one facing difficulties.

"If a customer has a question specifically on credit reporting, we instruct them to write to a monitored address  this team is not furloughed and is actively reviewing cases," the spokesperson said.

I replied that Scott said she spoke with multiple Macy's service reps, and not one instructed her to reach the unfurloughed team via a "monitored" email address.

"As it relates to this case, we apologize for any confusion," the spokesperson wrote back. "We have increased awareness of this matter to support our agents and improve [the] customer experience."

I asked why Macy's is reporting late payments to credit agencies during a public health crisis. No answer.

I asked for the monitored email address so I could share it with other customers. No reply.

Weirdest of all, the spokesperson didn't request Scott's name or contact information. The company, apparently, wasn't interested in pursuing the matter.

"If Macy's still has the staff capacity to sell products online and place adverse reports on consumers' credit files, then they should also have the staff capacity to handle disputes, too," said Emily Rusch, executive director of the California Public Interest Research Group.

Or at the very least, they should let customers know which emails are actually being read.
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Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 00:25:02|Editor: huaxia

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KATHMANDU, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Nepal has started to receive non medical goods from China through the reopened Tatopani-Zhangmu border point after initially getting supply of medical goods only, a senior official at Tatopani Customs Office said.

On March 25, the Nepali government had decided to reopen this border point along with Rasuwagadhi-Kerung (Geelong) border point for importing essential goods including medical ones to fight COVID-19 pandemic as well as food items from China.

These two international border points had remained closed since late January after the COVID-19 outbreak in China. But only Tatopani-Zhangmu border point reopened at the moment.

"We have received 12 containers of apples and garlic from China in the last few days and a few of containers of them left for capital Kathmandu on Tuesday after completing the customs clearance process," Lal Bahadur Khatri, chief customs officer at Tatopani Customs, told Xinhua on Tuesday. "Additional six containers carrying agriculture related machineries have also arrived at the customs yard on Tuesday from China."

Since first getting medical goods from China through the reopened border point on April 8, Nepal has so far received more than one million masks, over 127,000 pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) and many other medical goods from China through this border point, according to the Tatopani Customs Office.

"But, we have started to get supply of goods other than medical goods for the last few days after the reopening of the border," said Khatri. "We are in the direction conducting normal trading activities through this border point." Enditem
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5

By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend:

No new cases of coronavirus infection have been reported in Uzbekistan in the past 11 hours, Trend reports on May 5 with reference to the Ministry of Health.

Of the 2,160 previously identified cases, 1,440 patients have fully recovered, while 10 persons have died.

Uzbekistan recently declared Jizzakh, Kashkadarya and Navoi regionsfree from COVID-19.

On April 30, Uzbekistan's Special Republican Commission for the preparation of a program of measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the country introduced new measures with the quarantine regime.

From 7:00 AM to 10:00 AM, and from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM (local time) the citizens of the country are allowed to go out without special permission for the purposes of going to and from work and purchase of medicines and necessities.

Citizens are also allowed to walk near their homes, observing a social distance (intermediate distance of two meters) and wearing face masks.

In addition, the heads of higher education and research institutions, as well as professors, are allowed to continue their scientific work and other activities.

Recently, quarantine in Uzbekistan was extended until May 10.

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.

---

Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini
An F-15 fighter jet flies over the Atlantic ocean as it prepares a mid-air refueling process on May 27, 2012. (Benjamin Chasteen/The Epoch Times)

Armed F-15 Fighter Jet Protecting Trump Skids off Runway After In-Flight Emergency

An armed Air Force F-15 fighter jet protecting President Donald Trump while he was spending the weekend at Camp David, Maryland, was forced to make an an unplanned landing on May 2 at Joint Base Andrews after a sudden in-flight emergency, officials said.

At the time of the diversion, which was around 1:30 p.m., the F-15C Eagle from the Oregon Air National Guards 142nd Fighter Wing, was conducting a mission as part of Operation Noble Eagle for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, an Air Force spokesman said in a statement, reported Fox News.

The aircraft skidded off the runway after landing at Joint Base Andrews, The Drive reported. Images of the fighter jet published on social media showed a drop tank located under its right wing had been crushed, while its landing gear collapsed, according to the outlet.

The aircrafts landing gear malfunctioned and the aircraft came to rest on its fuselage, the statement read. There were no injuries to the pilot and runway operations have been unaffected.

The fighter jet was armed at the time of the incident, two defense officials told Military.com, noting that these types of missions are armed.

Officials said an investigation would be conducted into the incident.

At the time, Trump was spending a weekend at the presidential retreat, marking the first time he had left the White House grounds since March 28, due to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, commonly known as the novel coronavirus pandemic.

President Donald Trump speaks during daily briefing of the CCP virus task force at the White House in Washington on April 23, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The president last visited Norfolk, Virginia, to see the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort set sail for New York harbor. Trump has a trip to West Point planned for June 13, when he is set to address U.S. Military Academy graduates.

Before he left the White House, Trump told reporters that he would be practicing social distancing while at Camp David, and that he had planned a working weekend that would include phone calls with foreign leaders.

On Tuesday, Trump is scheduled to visit Phoenix, Arizonaa trip which comes as the White House moves to push state leaders to consider reopening their economies.

Trump said his Arizona trip would be industry-focused because its too soon for the big everybody-get-together-and-stand-next-to-each-other crowds.

White House spokesman Judd Deere said on Twitter last week that the president plans to tour a Honeywell plant to highlight critical medical equipment production and the addition of 500 manufacturing jobs in the state.

Reuters contributed to this report.
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From Thomas Imbachs Nemesis and Michele Pennettas Il Mio Corpo to a 13-title National Competition  featuring Nick Brandestinis section winner Sapelo, celebrated French screenwriter Antoine Jaccouds directorial debut Back to Visegrad and Tribeca world premiere Wake Up on Mars   this years Visions du Reel festival proved, as ever, a notable launchpad for Swiss documentaries.

Held online by Zoom conference on May 4, a Swiss Films Previews presentation made by the promotion agency of five soon -to-launch doc features added to this impact, as well as suggesting some current directions of Switzerland documentary scene.

More from Variety

A power in movie production  with 118 features in 2018, only Europes big five territories and Russia produced more features  Switzerland is also a European doc talent hub. The five docs presented Monday, soon to launch on the festival circuit and for worldwide distribution, were all produced by Swiss companies. Only one, Rolando Collas W.  What Remains of the Lie was directed by a totally Swiss director. For years the power of Hollywood has been based on its status as a talent hub. Now in Switzerland, at least three of the other helmers whose films were showcased in the Previews, tiugh bin abroad, have either studied in Switzerland or are actively based there.

Colombias Felipe Monroy, for example, has a B.A. from Geneva School of Art and Design (HEAD-Geneve). Produced by Jose Michel Buhler at Genevas Adok Films, Monroys Children of the Wind rolls off Colombias scandal of false positives: the kidnapping, torture and murder of thousands of young people from its slums whose corpses were passed off as fallen FARC-EP guerrilla insurgents  in order to suggest Alvaro Uribes government was winning the war. Monroy tells the story from the POV of three mothers of victims, still fighting for justice a decade after the murders.

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The still-unsolved army killings are probably the most striking example of cruel injustice in Colombia, says Monroy. Allowing the mothers a public voice, he adds, is an intimate and universal way to talk about violence, distinct from TV reportage on the subject.

German-born, but co-founder of Geneva-based production house Les Films du Chalet, director Marion Neumanns The Mushroom Speaks is a film essay which comes in at fungi from a myriad angles, and is intended as part of a larger franchise, including a book and exhibition, she said at Mondays online presentation.

Three of the five features talk about identity, a theme which runs through many doc-features at this years Visions du Reel as their protagonists cling to a sense of belonging to a world in danger of extinction (Visions du Reel winner Puntasacra) or attempt to build new lives (Reas, a Pitching du Reel winner). In the Swiss Films Previews, this cut three ways.

Directed by Mexicos Laura Elena Cordero, a Swiss resident, Shaping Dancers in the Manner of Bejart follows young dancers transformation during the demanding two-year apprenticeship at revered Swiss-French choreographer Maurice Bearts Lausanne ballet troupe.

From excerpts shown at Visions du Reel, it features stunning dance stage performance, where Cordero attempts to capture mesmeric body movement and the numbers rich warm colors. But its essence is an attempt to nail what Cordero calls Bejarts ADN, through the legacy of his teaching.

The third doc feature from Austrian-Swiss filmmaker Valerie Blankenbyl, The Bubble depicts the worlds largest retirement community, The Villages, in Florida. As in other Swiss Films titles, the doc feature keys in on the extraordinary: With over 135,000 residents, it is the fastest-growing town in the U.S., Dario Schoch at Cognito Films said in a presentation.

Living in an all-senior community allows its members to not feel their age, the extrovert Tony, a 17-year resident explains in the film. But as The Villages residents forge a new sense of self, the ever increasingly encroachment of The Villages on neighboring villageships threatens to displace local communities in Sumter County. and their identity is shaped by where they live. This to me really is home, this earth, this greenery, you cannot replace it, one local says.

Identity also lies at the heart of W.  What Remains of the Lie, produced by Elena Pedrazzoli at Peacock Film, and an update to the arresting case of Bruno Wilkomirski.

In 1995, Wilkomirski published his autobiography, as the youngest inmate of the Maidanek concentration camp victim. It was hailed as a milestone description of Nazi hell, telling in its authenticity. Three years later, Jewish journalist Daniel Ganzfried exposes it as fraud: Wilkomirski had in fact been adopted and brought up by a well-to-do Swiss family. With which the author disappeared from the scene.

Director Rolando Colla, a successful live action director (Swiss Academy Award entry Summer Games), spent seven years attempting to catch up with the writer, who was understandably nervous about being filmed. Early filming was like shooting a lion, Colla recalled at the Swiss Films Previews. But he merely wanted to understand how Wilkomirski could write such an extraordinary memoir. The explanation bears testimony, if Collas reasoning is anything to go by, to the extraordinary complexity of the human heart.

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DUBLIN, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Stepper System Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global stepper system market is currently witnessing a healthy growth. Looking forward, the market is anticipated to exhibit a CAGR of around 5% during 2020-2025.



Significant growth in the robotics industry across the globe is one of the key factors driving the growth of the market. Furthermore, the increasing utilization of automated equipment across industries is another factor providing a boost to the market growth. There is widespread adoption of stepper motors in industrial machines and robots as they can be easily deployed and offer superior performance.



Also, the development of miniaturized motors has enhanced the product adoption across applications that require superior torque speed, precision and efficiency. Additionally, technological advancements, including the integration of input/output (I/O) terminals in stepper motors, which offer various operational advantages, such as cost-efficiency and ease of use in machinery with spatial constraints, are creating a positive outlook for the market.



Other factors, including rapid industrialization 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 ABB, Beckhoff Automation, MinebeaMitsumi, Nidec Corporation, Nippon Pulse Motor Co. Ltd., Oriental Motor Co. Ltd., Parker Hannifin, Sanyo Denki Co. Ltd., Schneider Electric SE, etc.



Key Questions Answered

How has the global stepper system 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 type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the end-use?

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 stepper system market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the industry?

Key Topics Covered



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Stepper System Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Component Type

6.1 Stepper Motors

6.2 Stepper Drives



7 Market Breakup by End-use

7.1 Industrial Machinery

7.2 Medical Devices

7.3 Semiconductor Machinery

7.4 Others



8 Market Breakup by Region

8.1 North America

8.2 Asia-Pacific

8.3 Europe

8.4 Latin America

8.5 Middle East & Africa



9 SWOT Analysis

9.1 Overview

9.2 Strengths

9.3 Weaknesses

9.4 Opportunities

9.5 Threats



10 Value Chain Analysis



11 Porters Five Forces Analysis

11.1 Overview

11.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers

11.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

11.4 Degree of Competition

11.5 Threat of New Entrants

11.6 Threat of Substitutes



12 Price Indicators



13 Competitive Landscape

13.1 Market Structure

13.2 Key Players

13.3 Profiles of Key Players



ABB

Beckhoff Automation

MinebeaMitsumi

Nidec Corporation

Nippon Pulse Motor Co. Ltd.

Oriental Motor Co. Ltd.

Parker Hannifin

Sanyo Denki Co. Ltd.

Schneider Electric SE

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/b7p2an

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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Here are todays leading news stories:

Politics

-- Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc held phone talks with his Japanese counterpart Abe Shinzo on Monday, during which they exchanged views on the prevention and control of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in each country, and agreed to work closely together to overcome the pandemic.

-- The Vietnam Fisheries Society released a document on Monday to oppose Chinas fishing moratorium from May 1 to August 16 in the East Vietnam Sea, including part of the Gulf of Tonkin and the Southeast Asian country's Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago.

Society

-- Vietnam did not confirm any new cases of COVID-19 on Monday morning, while 11 patients were declared free of the virus in Hanoi, according to the Suc Khoe & Doi Song (Health & Life) news site, the mouthpiece of Vietnams Ministry of Health. The countrys tally remains at 271, with 232 having recovered.

-- A deputy chairman of the Peoples Council in Hoi Quan District, located in the southern province of Binh Phuoc, has been dismissed after he was filmed furiously resisting a team of officers in charge of COVID-19 prevention in mid-April.

-- A draft decree requires social media networks that have one million or more monthly active users to apply for a license in order to operate in Vietnam.

-- Authorities in the central province of Quang Nam have reopened public beaches but they require people to keep a minimum distance of one meter from one another, while such activities as trading, eating, and drinking are banned on these beaches.

-- A taxi driver was fatally stabbed during a quarrel with another cabby in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong on Monday.

Business

-- A total of 72 bus routes resumed operations in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday following a prolonged suspension due to the COVID-19 epidemic. The number of people on each bus must not exceed 20.

-- Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai said the ministry will focus on restructuring chains for industrial production, especially in large manufacturing and processing industries such as textiles, footwear, electronics, and wooden processing sectors, due to difficulties posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

World News

-- The novel coronavirus has infected over 3.64 million people and killed more than 252,300 around the world, according to statistics. More than 1.19 million patients have recovered from the disease.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
By another estimate, as many as 60,000 physicians in family medicine may no longer be working in their practices by June because of the pandemic.

The faltering doctors groups reflect part of a broader decline in health care alongside the nations economic downturn. As people put off medical appointments and everything from hip replacements to routine mammograms, health spending dropped an annualized rate of 18 percent in the first three months of the year, according to recent federal data.

While Congress has rushed to send tens of billions of dollars to the hospitals reporting large losses and passed legislation to send even more, small physician practices in medicines least profitable fields like primary care and pediatrics are struggling to stay afloat. They dont have any wiggle room, said Dr. Lisa Bielamowicz, a co-founder of Gist Healthcare, a consulting firm.

None of the money allocated by lawmakers has been specifically targeted to the nations doctors, although the latest bill set aside funds for community health centers. Some funds were also set aside for small businesses, which would include many doctors practices, but many have faced the same frustration as other owners in finding themselves shut out of much of the funding available.

Federal officials have taken some steps to help small practices, including advancing Medicare payments and reimbursing doctors for virtual visits. But most of the relief has gone to the big hospital and physician groups. We have to pay special attention to these independent primary care practices, and were not paying special attention to them, said Dr. Farzad Mostashari, a former health official in the Obama administration, whose company, Aledade, works with practices like Autumn Road.

The hospitals are getting massive bailouts, said Dr. Christopher Crow, the president of Catalyst Health Network in Texas. Theyve really left out primary care, really all the independent physicians, he said.
The city plans to devote $15 million in federal pandemic relief funds to help Houston residents make up late rent payments, a contribution Mayor Sylvester Turner acknowledged will not meet demand but one he hopes will make a meaningful impact for thousands of families.

City Council will consider the proposal at its meeting Wednesday. The package, which would be administered by Houston nonprofit BakerRipley, is similar to what other cities in Texas have offered but falls well short of what housing advocates have sought.

San Antonio crafted a $25 million package and Dallas devoted about $13.7 million. Harris County authorized a $15 million relief fund last week. Each of those programs extended beyond rent to help struggling residents with utilities, mortgages and other obligations.

Houstons program would provide up to $1,056 per month to city residents who can demonstrate they are late on April or May rent payments due to the economic impact of COVID-19. They must be current on prior rent payments, and make less than 80 percent of the area median income or qualify for certain other governmental assistance programs, such as Medicaid or SNAP.

Landlords who participate in the program would would have to waive all late fees and interest for the payments, allow tenants to enter a payment plan for any rent above the maximum $1,056 allotment; and rescind any prior notices to vacate, which tenants advocates have said landlords are using deceptively while the Texas Supreme Court has halted evictions.

The administration said it expects the program to help a minimum of 6,818 households. The funding includes $600,000 in administrative expenses.

The agenda item outlining the package was posted within an hour of the councils 2 p.m. public session Tuesday, leaving little time for stakeholders who signed up to speak to review the details. At least two council members  Amy Peck and Letitia Plummer  expressed frustration that the details of the deal were not made available earlier.

I just wish the administration gave us more time to ask the questions, Plummer said. We just found out Friday it was BakerRipley.

Plummer also was concerned about how the landlords and tenants would be chosen for the relief, a concern shared by Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin. If approved Wednesday, landlords would begin applying online Thursday through BakerRipley, and residents can begin applying for the relief May 13. It will then be doled out on a first-come, first-served basis.

Plummer and Martin said they want to ensure priority is given to those in the greatest need.

If its first-come, first-served, then were going to have a huge equity problem, Plummer said.

If a tenant has cancer or an underlying condition, Martin said, he would hope that person has priority over someone who does not.

The Metropolitan Organization, an association of clergy and other leaders, called on the city to use about a quarter of its $404 million in federal CARES Act funding for the rent relief program, citing a large demand amid rising unemployment.

Pastors and tenants with the organization emphasized that demand at City Hall on Tuesday. TMO said the $15 million contribution would help only about 11 percent of the families in need. The group cited the Houston Apartment Associations determination that 10 percent of tenants did not make rent in April. About 55 percent of housing units in Houston are inhabited by renters.

One affected resident, whose voice broke as she spoke through a translator, told the mayor and council Tuesday she has been without work for two months and is a victim of domestic violence. Her 11-year-old daughter asked her why they could not move back in with her spouse, she said.

This is the assistance these families need, the Rev. Matthew Russell said.

Zoe Middleton, Southeast Texas co-director at Texas Housers, a nonprofit housing organization, said the package amounted to a blip in the demand.

Its a good start, but it should only be considered a start, Middleton said.

Turner said the $404 million Houston has received from the federal pandemic stimulus program known as the CARES Act will have to address all of the citys needs. He said a Health Department budget request he received Tuesday for testing and contact tracing would be $200 million alone. The mayor said that would be the No. 1 priority.

Thats why we cannot move forward with responding to everyones requests at this point until we know what the holistic needs are of the city, Turner said.

The mayor said it is possible the federal government will approve more relief money for local governments or specifically for rent relief.

In addition to the $15 million relief fund, the council also will vote to transfer $8 million in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grants from its multifamily programs to rental assistance.

dylan.mcguinness@chron.com
A security guard at this Family Dollar in Flint, Michigan, was fatally shot Friday after getting into a confrontation with a customer over the state's face-mask rules, prosecutors said.

Google Street View

A security guard at a Flint, Michigan, Family Dollar store was shot dead Friday after getting in an argument with a customer over the state's mandated face-mask rule, prosecutors said.

Calvin Munerlyn, 43, was married with six children and three stepchildren.

Authorities charged three members of the same family with first-degree murder in Munerlyn's death: Sharmel Teague; her husband, Larry Teague; and her son Ramonyea Travon Bishop.

Sharmel is in custody while her husband and son remain at large.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

A Family Dollar security guard was fatally shot after getting into a fight with a woman over the state's face-mask policy, prosecutors in Michigan said.

Calvin Munerlyn, 43, died Friday afternoon after the deadly altercation at the Family Dollar store in the city of Flint, where he'd worked for the past year.

He was married with six children and three stepchildren.

The security guard Calvin Munerlyn, 43, was a married father of nine.

GoFundMe.com

During a Monday press conference, Genesee County prosecutors said that at about 2 p.m. on Friday, Munerlyn stopped two people from trying to enter the store: Sharmel Lasse Teague, 45, and her daughter.

He stopped them, the officials said, because the daughter, who was not named, was not wearing a face mask.

A Genesee County prosecutor, David Leyton, said Teague "began yelling at Munerlyn and spit at him and Munerlyn told her to leave the store and instructed a cashier not to serve her."

The two left but returned 20 minutes later, the prosecutors said. Teague came back in the same vehicle with two men  identified as her husband, Larry Edward Teague, 44, and her son Ramonyea Travon Bishop, 23. The incident was recorded by security cameras, the prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Larry Teague accused Munerlyn of "disrespecting his wife" and Bishop then shot Munerlyn in the back of the head.

When the police arrived, Munerlyn was said to be "unconscious and bleeding from his head." He was taken to Hurley Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, according to The Detroit News.

Story continues

"From all indications, Mr. Munerlyn was simply doing his job in upholding the Governor's Executive Order related to the COVID-19 pandemic for the safety of store employees and customers," Leyton, the prosecutor, said in a statement.

Sharmel Teague, Larry Teague, and Ramonyea Bishop have since been charged with first-degree murder and other firearms charges.

Sharmel Teague was arrested and is awaiting arraignment, while her husband and her son have not been caught. Authorities say they should be considered armed and dangerous.

A GoFundMe created for Munerlyn's family had raised more than $153,000 as of Tuesday morning.

Munerlyn's widow, Latryna Sims-Munerlyn, told MLive.com that he had worked in security for about three decades and that one of his sons worked at the same Family Dollar.

"I need them to know this is my heart, my world, and they can't stop his legacy out here. They can't," she said. "He's going to always live through me and his babies. Always."

Munerlyn's death comes after protests in the state against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's stay-at-home order, part of which requires residents to wear face masks in enclosed public areas.

"It is incredibly sad that in this crisis that this life was lost," Whitmer told reporters in response to Munerlyn's death.

"We are mindful of how important it is that people keep a level head, that we do the right thing protecting ourselves and others."

Read the original article on Insider
Bengaluru, May 5 : Repeating Monday's trend, two more patients succumbed to coronavirus even as 22 new positive cases, including 12 from Davangere alone, took Karnataka's tally to 673, an official said on Tuesday.

Two women, a 62-year-old woman from Vijayapura and a 50-year-old Davangere woman, died of Covid-19.

"Positive cases 640; 62-year-old female resident of Vijayapuraadied on Tuesday due to cardiac arrest," said a health official.

Admitted in a designated hospital's ICU on Sunday, the deceased woman was also suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Bronchial Asthma (BA) and complained of breathlessness.

This is Karnataka's 28th Covid death and Vijayapura's third.

Vijayapura is battling 47 cases, out of which 22 are active, 22 discharged with three deaths.

Vijayapura is 526 km northwest of Bengaluru.

Similarly, a 50-year-old woman from Davangere diagnosed with Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) has also passed away.

"Positive case 662, 50 years female resident of Davangere with complaint of breathlessness died on Tuesday," said the official.

This is Davangere's third death and Karnataka's 29th.

Davangere has 44 cases, out of which 39 are active and two discharged while three died.

Davangere is 266 km northwest of the city.

A good number of Covid deaths also have pre-existing co-morbidities.

Across the state, out of 312 active cases, 306 are isolated at designated hospitals and stable while six are in the ICU.

Meanwhile, 22 new cases emerged in the state, 12 from Davangere alone, continuing the spike, with all of them being contacts of earlier cases.

Incidentally, though no new cases emerged from Davangere in the first 19 hours, 12 surfaced in the next five hours on Tuesday.

Four more cases were also contacts of earlier cases, two more are suffering from Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and one with travel history to Uttarakhand and another to Mumbai.

The health department is also finding out the contact history of a 30-year-old woman from Bengaluru Urban.

Among the new cases, Davangere contributed 12 cases, Bengaluru Urban 3, followed by Bagalkote, 2, Ballari, Dakshina Kannada, Savanur in Haveri, Dharwad, and Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada, 1 each.

Of the 22 new cases, 13 are men and nine women.

On Tuesday, 10 patients got discharged -- Bagalkote, 3, Kalaburagi, 1, Vijayapura and Mysuru, 3 each.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
India has sent three naval ships to evacuate its citizens stranded in the Maldives and UAE due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a defence spokesperson said in the early hours on Tuesday.

INS Jalashwa deployed off Mumbai coast, along with INS Magar, diverted for Maldives on Monday night, he said.

While INS Shardul diverted to Dubai to evacuate the expatriates, the spokesperson added.

The three ships will return to Kochi, he said.

INS Magar and INS Shardul are Southern Naval Command ships, while INS Jalashwa is from Eastern Naval Command.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday (May 5) attacked the Congress after Rahul Gandhi congratulated three photojournalists from Jammu and Kashmir for winning the Pulitzer Prize and asked if the opposition party considers the Valley as an integral part of India or not.

Hitting out at Rahul Gandhi for his congratulatory tweet to the photojournalists, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra alleged the Congress leader wished those who considered Kashmir a "contested territory".

"Will Sonia Gandhi answer??Whether she and the Congress party concur with Rahul Gandhi on the issue of Kashmir not being an integral part of India!?Rahul today congratulated those who got an award for considering Kashmir as a 'Contested Territory'!" Patra said, posting the message with the hashtag "anti-national Rahul Gandhi".

The Congress leader in his tweet had said, "Congratulations to Indian photojournalists Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand for winning a Pulitzer Prize for their powerful images of life in Jammu & Kashmir. You make us all proud."

Dear @RahulGandhi ji

You congratulated Mr Dar who received the Pulitzer award today for photography.

One of the photographs is enclosed herewith

The caption mentions Indian Occupied Kashmir

Mr Rahul is Kashmir an integral part of India??

Answer#AntiNationalRahulGandhi pic.twitter.com/g5t3Jo2q6D  Sambit Patra (@sambitswaraj) May 5, 2020

The BJP leader also posted some photographs, which he said were taken by one of the winning photographers, and questioned Rahul if agreed with their content.

Three photojournalists from Jammu and Kashmir have been awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for their striking images of life in the Valley. Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin won in the feature photography category.
Regulator Sebi on Tuesday barred Finalysis Credit & Guarantee Co. Ltd and 13 other entities from capital markets for up to five years for defrauding public shareholders by issuing forged consolidated share certificates.

Further, the entities have been restrained from holding any position as director or key managerial personnel in any listed company or any registered intermediary for up to five years, Sebi said in an order.

Besides, four of these entities have been asked to disgorge illegal gains made by them.

The regulator conducted an investigation in the matter in November 2014, and found that these entities had devised a scheme to defraud original public shareholders by issuing forged consolidated share certificates in 2012.

Thereafter, they fraudulently sold forged consolidated share certificates to purchasers brought by one of the entities, making the original public shareholders believe that the shares transferred to them were original, though they were not so, it added.

Accordingly, the regulator has imposed a five year market ban on Finalysis and five individuals -- Dilip Shah, his son Jiger Shah; Bipin Divecha, Sharad Ghadi and Sham Gandhi.

In addition, the regulator has restrained eight persons -- Mohammad Rafi, Roma Khan, Mohd Salim Khan, Amir Hamza Hakim Khan, Abdul Hakim Khan, Abdul Zameer Hakim Khan, Talat Wahadatali and Mohamad Rehana Khan -- from the market for three years.

Further, Dilip Shah has been asked to disgorge Rs 3.9 crore, while Jiger Shah has been asked to disgorge Rs 66.42 lakh.

Sebi asked Ghandi to disgorge Rs 45.55 lakh and the disgorgement amount for Divecha is Rs 9.45 lakh.

The probe found that Shahs and Gandhi, even though had limited number of shares, with the aid and abetment of other entities fraudulently undertook sale of shares held by public shareholders, without the knowledge or consent of those public shareholders.

The underlying motive included liquidation of Finalysis shares held by these entities themselves.

Sebi, in its 86-page order, said that two Shahs and Gandhi got in touch with Vinayak Sarkhot, the compliance officer and director of Finalysis, to get the company relisted on BSE and to sell 93 per cent of shares, which were held by public shareholders.

Consequent to the same, Divecha was brought in for getting buyers who would buy the 93 per cent shares.

This scheme is clearly evident from a collective reading of the emails exchanged and from the draft MoU circulated amongst the entities, where Shahs, Gandhi, Sarkhot and Gadhi have been shown as the sellers and Divecha as the buyer for sale of 93 per cent shares held by public shareholders.

Further to the scheme, the share certificates held by genuine public shareholders were counterfeited or forged without authorisation by these entities to make illegal gains.

"The counterfeiting/forgery/consolidation without authorisation of the shares emerge from the facts that the Company was not following any norm for processing of transfer requests; a common witness was used to witness the transfer deeds; the Noticees namely Jiger Shah, Dilip Shah, Sham Gandhi, Vinayak Sarkhot and Bipin Divecha, and not the transferors mentioned in the transfer deeds were seen to be taking decisions with respect to the sale of the shares; the said Noticees determined the price for the sale of the shares, which was lower than the then market price," Sebi said.

It, further, said that sale consideration for the sale of the shares explicitly moved to these entities and not to the transferors or original shareholder.

Sebi said that the company's the then managing director Sajjad Pavne, even though may not have been involved in counterfeiting or forgery of share certificates, allowed the transfer of shares to eight entities with the knowledge that there were complaints filed from original shareholders.

The regulator has not imposed any restrictions on two important links to the matter, Pavne and Sarkhot, as they have passed away.

"The acts of the directors and promoters culminated in the share certificates of public shareholders being forged/counterfeited/consolidated without authorization and transferred unauthorizedly to certain persons other than the original shareholders, thereby making the company liable," Sebi said.

By indulging in such activities, the entities violated the provision of PFUTP (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practice) norms, it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A well-known market intelligence company, Infiniti Research, has partnered with several global companies across industries to help meet their strategic objectives and implement seamless route-to-market strategies through turnkey solutions. Their latest success story outlines the key business challenges faced by a pet food manufacturing industry client and explains how the client leveraged market assessment solution to combat these roadblocks. Request a free brochure to learn more about Infiniti's market assessment solution.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005835/en/

Over the past few years, the pet food manufacturing industry has been performing well despite the economic downturn. Increasing pet humanization and the growing tendency of millennials to treat pets as members of the family are propelling the demand for premium pet foods. In addition, convenience benefits related with dry, organic, and natural pet food are expected to greatly fuel the growth of the pet food manufacturing industry over the coming years. To succeed in the long-run, pet food brands will need to keep up with the market innovations and the latest trends to fulfill more conscious consumer demands.

Ensuring business continuity a challenge due to COVID-19? Request a free proposal to learn how Infiniti is helping companies around the globe assess the business impact of the coronavirus outbreak and plan for business revival post-COVID-19.

Business Challenges Faced: Our client, a pet food manufacturer based out of San Francisco, witnessed stagnant growth for two consecutive years. Also, they were losing out their market share to competitors. To cover up for the losses, the company collaborated with Infiniti Research to expand its pet food products range into Europe over the next two years, intending to become a market leader in countries such as the UK and Spain. The company wanted to get an in-depth understanding of market trends and cost structure in Europe. Also, the pet food manufacturing firm wanted to track innovations and identify technology areas that provide the best commercial opportunity. Additionally, the pet food manufacturing industry client wanted to identify trends in terms of product innovation, competitor product features, new operations, and delivery models.

The Solution Offered: Our team of market analysts assessed the overall performance of the client's for the past five years and conducted company profiling to identify areas that need improvement. Additionally, a detailed assessment of the latest market trends in Europe such as clean labels, proactive ingredients, and new protein sources was conducted.

The experts also provided the company with independent validation and assessment of key players in the European pet food manufacturing market and a list of cost-effective technologies leveraged by them. Additionally, the experts provided "ability to win" recommendations for top-rated profitable opportunity areas.

Infiniti's market assessment solution helped the pet food manufacturing industry client to:

Create a road map for expansion in the European region and achieve savings of over 10 million in the first six months

Focus on developing pet food products with clean label and full transparency

Acquire new customers and build a brand image in the European market

Establish themselves as one of the top 10 pet food manufacturing companies in Europe

For detailed insights, read the complete success story here.

Wondering how your business can benefit from our market assessment solution? Request more information from our experts.

About Infiniti Research

Established in 2003, Infiniti Research is a leading market intelligence company providing smart solutions to address your business challenges. Infiniti Research studies markets in more than 100 countries to help analyze competitive activity, see beyond market disruptions, and develop intelligent business strategies. To know more, visit: https://www.infinitiresearch.com/about-us.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005835/en/

Contacts:

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By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 05/04/2020



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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 Mindy Shiben says it felt "so good" to tell Zach Justice she wanted to end their marriage.Mindy opened up about her decision to end her marriage and have a divorce party -- that included a donkey pinata -- as shown on Season 10 of during a recent appearance on alums Jamie Otis and Doug Hehner's podcast, Hot Marriage Cool Parents."Is a divorce party a thing? Was that your idea? I didn't even know these things existed and it looked like a lot of fun... I want to go to a divorce party!" Doug told Mindy on the podcast."Yeah, yeah, that was definitely my idea!" Mindy confirmed."I just felt like I was stressed and upset and there were lots of negative emotions going on with the Lindsay and Zach thing and everything, and when I decided it was over and told Zach it was over, it felt so good!"Zach had developed an inappropriate and disrespectful friendship with Mindy's pal Lindsay behind her back. Lindsay apparently contacted Zach on Instagram and they slowly began texting and then talking on the phone.Zach eventually lied to Mindy about his conversations with Lindsay, including what they were about and how often they were had. Zach deleted text messages and also once lied to protect Lindsay when she had told him something in confidence about Mindy's ex-boyfriend allegedly still being in the picture."I hate saying that [our divorce felt good] because I feel a little mean," Mindy continued, "but it did feel so good! Like the biggest weight was lifted off my shoulders, and I just wanted to celebrate! I did.""I just wanted to get my friends together, like, 'Hey, we got through this together. We did,'" she added."And I just felt like celebrating. And I asked production, 'Hey do you want to film my party?' And they were like, 'Yeah, of course, we're following you anyway."Mindy therefore said production allowed her to host a party for the show and it "was awesome."Jamie agreed "that's awesome" and acknowledged there's nothing wrong with celebrating if a bad time or event in one's life comes to an end."It's a new beginning for something else," Mindy reasoned.Although Mindy and Zach had a fairytale wedding day, their marriage started going downhill during their honeymoon in Panama, when Zach told his wife multiple times he wasn't attracted to her.Not only did Zach allegedly avoid spending time with Mindy off-camera, but he even refused to move into an apartment with her following their honeymoon.The pair, however, mutually chose to stay married on "Recommitment Day," but only under certain circumstances, which included Mindy demanding Zach spend more time with her off-camera."You mentioned with Zach, the times you guys saw each other, you were obligated to film. Was there any interaction or any time that you guys hung out without the cameras during the experiment?" Doug asked."At first, there were a few times, like when we were sharing a hotel room during the honeymoon -- and the night before the honeymoon after the wedding," Mindy shared."And then after I made demands of Zach after 'Recommitment Day,' he spent time with me off-camera a couple of times. So, barely, but a couple of times."Zach also didn't exactly follow through on moving into Mindy's apartment because he chose to sleep by himself in the guest bedroom.After a tumultuous and emotional journey, Mindy dumped Zach and asked for a divorce nearly two weeks before "Decision Day" because he had put little-to-no effort into their relationship and Mindy had lost all trust in her husband.During Mindy's divorce party, she gushed about how she had found an inner strength she never knew existed before. She also revealed to Jamie and Doug on Hot Marriage Cool Parents she's currently dating "someone special." Jessica Studer and Austin Hurd were the only pair out of 's five Season 10 couples to leave the reunion show , which aired on Lifetime last week, still married.'s eleventh season is "coming soon," according to Lifetime, and will star five new couples based in New Orleans, LA.Interested in more news? Join our Married at First Sight Facebook Group
WASHINGTON -- Pfc. Tyrell J. Audain was in the midst of a physical fitness test more than two weeks ago at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif., when he collapsed.

The Marine, a 19-year-old former high school athlete, was rushed to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead, Brig. Gen. Roger Turner, the commanding general at Twentynine Palms, wrote at the time in a statement on the base Facebook page, without naming Audain.

On Friday, the Marine Corps confirmed Audain was the Marine who died April 15 at Twentynine Palms after his death was listed in the Naval Safety Center's mishap summaries report. His death is under investigation, but it was not related to the coronavirus, according to Capt. Samuel Stephenson, a Marine spokesman.

Audain was attending the Marine Corps communications-electronics school at the time of his death, according to his service record. On his Facebook page are photos of him racing for the track team at Minisink Valley High School in Middletown, N.Y., which he graduated from in 2019.

Audain's death is the latest in a string of Navy Department personnel who have collapsed during a physical fitness test and later died.

In February, Midshipman 3rd Class Duke Carrillo, 21, of Flower Mound, Texas, collapsed during the mile and a half run of his physical readiness test at the U.S. Naval Academy. The sophomore was taken to a nearby medical center where he was pronounced dead, according to the school. The cause of his death was under review.

In November, a petty officer first class died after collapsing while running on a treadmill during a physical fitness test at Fort Meade, Md., according to the Naval Safety Center. News reports identified the sailor as Trent Fraser, 24, a cryptologic technician-interpretive and his death was under investigation.

In February and April 2019, two Navy recruits died during their final physical assessments before the end of their training at Naval Station Great Lakes, Ill.

Read more: Soldiers' GoFundMe Campaigns May Get Them in Legal Trouble, Army Warns
Michelle Obama told the White House butlers to change their uniform because she didn't want her daughters 'thinking that grown African American men serve them in tuxedos'.

The former First Lady said the tuxedos sent the wrong message to Malia and Sasha, who were 10 and seven years old when they moved into the White House.

Obama said that she also 'begged' the maids to let the girls clean their own rooms because they wouldn't live in the White House forever.

She told the housekeepers: 'I'm not raising a girl who doesn't know how to make their own bed!'

Obama spoke out in a major new Netflix documentary about her called 'Becoming', which airs on Wednesday.

The 90 minute program follows her on the tour to promote her book of the same name, which came out last year.

Michelle Obama changed the White House dress codes for butlers and also insisted Malia and Sasha clean their own rooms and not let maids do it

The former First Lady said the tuxedos sent the wrong message to Malia and Sasha, who were 10 and seven years old when they moved into the White House (pictured is Barack Obama with White House Butler Von Everett)

In the film Obama, 54, says that on the day she and Barack left the White House for the last time she broke down in tears in Air Force One.

Obama said it was 'just the release of eight years of trying to do everything perfectly'.

The intense scrutiny played its part too and the Obamas were accused of, among other things, supporting terrorism over a fist bump that they did together.

Her critics dubbed her an 'angry black woman' and she had to dial back her personality when in public.

Obama says: 'I had to be much more scripted. I was just waking up to the truth of who we can be, so ready to assume the worst in people.

'The only thing I can do is share that that does hurt...that changes the shape of a person's soul'

Describing election night in 2008, Obama said that 'the world changed for us' when they won and it was like being 'shot out of a canon'.

Adjusting to life in the White House was hard and political dynasties like the Bushes have an 'idea' about what being there is like but 'we were not those people'.

Obama said that when she visited Laura Bush for the handover she was butlers fully dressed in tuxedos, most of them older African American or Latino men.

Obama says that she spent 'a lot of time' trying to figure out 'how do I make this mansion with butlers and staff a home for two little girls?'

She says: 'I didn't want them thinking that grown African American men serve them in tuxedos.

'The truth was that some of those men were uncles, they were the Pullman porters.

'We had to change the dress code, you can't walk around every day in a full tuxedo. Girls would have pool parties and play dates and little kids over and that just doesn't even look right to me'.

She goes on: 'I had to beg the housekeepers, these girls have to learn how to clean their own rooms and make their beds and do their laundry because they will not live here forever and.

'I'm not raising a girl who doesn't know how to make their own bed. Of course they're (mimics daughter): ''They make your bed''. Because I'm the First Lady and I have a degree!'

Obama spoke out in a major new Netflix documentary about her called 'Becoming' - named after her book - which airs on Wednesday

The former First Lady told the housekeepers: 'I'm not raising a girl who doesn't know how to make their own bed!'

In a powerful part of the documentary Obama suggests she is angrier at Democrats who didn't vote while her husband was in office than those who voted for Donald Trump.

Obama describes 'how painful it was' because 'a lot of our folks didn't vote, so it was almost like a slap in the face'.

She says: 'I understand the people who voted for Trump. The people who didn't vote at all, the young people, the women, that's when you think man, people think this is a game. It wasn't just in this election but every midterm.

'Every time Barack didn't get the Congress he needed, our folks didn't show up. After all that work, they just couldn't be bothered to vote at all. That's my trauma'.

Obama says that she and her husband knew that they were a 'provocation' for some parts of America who couldn't accept them.

She says: 'How were these people dealing with the fact that a black family was in what they perceived as their White House?'

In the film Obama takes a trip back to the home she grew up in on the South Side of Chicago and speaks movingly about her father, Fraser C. Robinson III.

He died in 1991 from complications related to MS and Obama says she still misses him deeply.

She says: 'I can't help but think of that time right before his death about that time he struggled to get out that back door, just to get to work. Not giving up, not in the least.

'While his death was sudden, it was always looming. The pain of losing him is an emptiness I still haven't gotten over. I think about all he gave us and all he wasn't able to see'.

The 90 minute program follows her on the tour to promote her book of the same name, which came out last year

The film then cuts to a photo of Obama's wedding day and a shot of her with Barack and their daughters.

Among the humorous moments that Obama describes is how on the way to the campaign event on election night in 2008, Malia looked out of the window to see the streets shut down and nobody around.

The area had been cleared for Barack because he had just won the Presidency but Malia didn't realize that.

According to her mother she said: 'No one's coming to your party, dad. I feel bad for you'.

The night of the handover to the Trumps in 2017 Obama's daughters' friends had insisted on doing a final sleepover.

The next morning Obama said she woke them all up by saying: 'Wake up, the Trumps are coming!'
The announcement on collecting reservation fee to all students of Isaac Newton Primary School

Isaac Newton Primary School has just sent an announcement to parents about a reservation fee. Accordingly, students need to pay VND5 million ($220) or VND8 million ($350), depending on the class they attend, to ensure they can continue studying in the school in the next academic year.

Accordingly, the payment deadline is May 31 with 10 per cent incentive for the school development fund for the 2020-2021 academic year. In case parents do not pay in time, their children will not be able to study at the school in the coming school year and the school will select new students to take their place.

The announcement also said that from the 2020-2021 school year, in case of force majeure which forces the school to change teaching form, the school will still collect fees for the full 10 months to ensure the quality of teaching.

Actually, we have paid the full fee, including school meals and the school bus service for the three months students had to stay at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The school did not mention returning these fees while announcing the reservation fee, a parent of a fourth-grader told VIR.

Meanwhile, another parent wrote in the OFFB group (a group of auto lovers), "This is money-minded education. This school is dangerously lacking in ethics.

Pointing out that the reservation fee goes in stark contrast of the school's motto, a parent sent a message to the form teacher of a class, saying that, It seems that the school lacks capital and wants to get into parents wallets.

So far, the school has not responded to VIR's queries, promising to answer by May 11.

According to Le Ngoc Quang, deputy director of Hanoi Training and Education Department, collecting reservation fees violates regulations.

"If you look up the list of fees and charges, there is no fee named reservation, he said.
President Donald Trump's executive order last week requiring meat processing plants to stay open to ward off shortages may not be a cure-all for the food industry segment that has been hardest hit by novel coronavirus outbreaks.

On Monday morning, Tyson Foods said during an investor call that U.S. hog processing capacity had dropped by 50%.

The company has been severely affected. Three of Tyson's six main U.S. processing facilities remain closed and three others are operating at reduced capacity, the company said.

Steve Meyer, an economist for Kerns and Associates, an agricultural risk management firm, said Tyson's production numbers may be even more dire.

"By my calculations, last Friday, pork production was down 42.9% for all U.S. companies," he said by phone Monday. "Tyson, by my calculations, was down by 57,780 hogs processed per day from a capacity of 78,500 processed per day. That's 74% short."

Tyson declined to give further details.

Tyson closed its Columbus Junction, Iowa, plant on April 6 after recording 200 novel-coronavirus infections and at least two employee deaths. (The facility is open now and running at three-quarters capacity, Meyer said.) Next, the company suspended operations at its Perry, Iowa, pork plant on April 20 for deep cleaning. The company slowed and then closed its largest pork plant in Waterloo, Iowa, on April 22 after 182 cases of the coronavirus were linked to the facility. And a fourth pork plant, in Logansport, Indiana, halted operations April 25 after nearly 900 employees, or 40% of its workforce, tested positive for the coronavirus.

Although pork processing was most affected, the Tyson beef supply is also threatened, with sick workers forcing shutdowns. The Tyson Fresh Meats beef plant in Pasco, Washington, closed, and Tyson said last week that it would temporarily suspend operations at its Dakota City, Nebraska, beef processing plant after a surge of hundreds of coronavirus cases linked to the facility.

According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, 115 meat and poultry processing facilities in 19 states have reported coronavirus cases as of Friday. Among about 130,000 workers at these facilities, 4,913 cases and 20 deaths have been recorded.

Dermot Hayes, an economist at Iowa State University, said Tyson has been hit particularly hard for two reasons. It was hit first, so the spread has had longer to play out. And more recently, Tyson has been checking everyone at its plants and finding many workers testing positive for the virus.

"At one in Missouri, they tested 2,000 workers and 350 workers were positive," Hayes said. "None of them had symptoms."

Tyson announced last week that it plans to resume limited production this week at the Logansport facility, after a plant tour with local health and government officials, a union representative and medical professionals.

"We've taken additional precautions to reassure team members that they are returning to a safe work environment and have made additional changes to continue supporting them during this global health crisis," said Todd Neff, senior vice president. "While the facility was idled, we added more workstation barriers, installed more hand sanitizer dispensers and did additional deep cleaning and sanitation. We're also now screening employees for additional symptoms."

But according to Meyer, if consumers' neighborhood grocery stores have exclusive purchasing contracts with any of the multinational corporations that have been hit particularly hard, there could be shortages.

"You're going to see empty shelves," he said. "Not all the time, and it won't last forever."

Hayes said part of what will increase prices is that consumers will probably see a scarcity of pork, beef and chicken at the same time because of the plant closures. Consumers can't just substitute a cheaper animal protein, because all are likely to cost more.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

"Usually pork loin is $2 per pound at Costco," he said. "That could go to $3."

Costco announced on Monday some restrictions as supply tightens, saying fresh-meat purchases are temporarily limited to three items per warehouse member among the beef, pork and poultry products.

If prices increase significantly, Hayes said, exports will fall.

"We export huge quantities of meat all over the world, about 30% of what we produce," he explained. "Those export customers are much more price sensitive, so price increases will results in less exports."

He said it remains to be seen whether that would boost quantities available for domestic retail.

The president invoked the Defense Production Act last week to classify meat processing plants as "critical infrastructure," a move that was widely seen as giving processors protection from liability for workers who fall ill on the job.

"If it works," said Hayes, "consumers will see a modest increase in prices. If it doesn't work, they'll see a big increase."

The executive order came on the heels of Tyson Foods taking out full-page advertisements in The Washington Post, The New York Times and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, with company Chairman John Tyson warning that the U.S. "food supply chain is breaking."
Kamala Prasad Agarwal was taken aback when several men and women in khaki paid him a visit at his home in Assams Nagaon town on Monday.

It was the 78-yr-olds birthday and since he was alone at home, a police probe was the last thing he was expecting.

The police team asked me my name and my family. I told them I was alone as my wife and other family members were stranded in Bangalore and Delhi due to lockdown. It was only when I asked them if there was any problem, they revealed the real purpose of the visit, Agarwal told a local news channel.

The team of eight police personnel said they were at his place as they couldnt let him spend his birthday alone. The scene soon changed from apprehension and worry to a celebration as the police personnel sang Happy Birthday for Agarwal.

As the team carried placards saying I am your son and I am your daughter, Agarwal couldnt help getting emotional. The police team couldnt get a cake due to the lockdown, but there were sweets, birthday hats and music.

Video of the moments shared on Nagaon Police and Assam police Twitter handles soon went viral evoking positive reactions.

Kudos to Nagaon Police for their compassion and human gesture. We all from Nagaon are so proud of you. Never felt safer and more loved, Manish Tibrewal, a recovered Covid-19 patient who hails from Nagaon, wrote.

Gaurav Abhijit Dilip, Nagaons superintendent of police, said they got an intimation about Agarwals birthday and that he was staying alone from his daughter Smita.

Our team, all young officers, surprised Agarwal in a creative way. We have been getting lots of calls and messages seeking help and advice during. But this is the first birthday we celebrated. Police are compassionate to those in need, but we will be strict with those who violate lockdown norms, Dilip said.

Besides enforcing lockdown stringently, police in Assam are helping people during lockdown by delivering medicines at their doorsteps and providing food to those in need and more.

In Nagaon, we have distributed 11,000 kg of rice. This is apart from the government scheme. Migrant labourers, homeless people, senior citizens unable to come out and get relief, said Dilip.

Police in Nagaon are also taking care of their own by supplying breakfast and evening snacks daily to nearly 200 police personnel on duty. A help desk is calling up almost 2400 police personnel in the district and helping them and their families resolve their problems during the lockdown.

Assam has recorded 42 Covid-19 cases till Monday. While one patient has died, 32 have recovered and nine others are recovering in hospitals.

Till Monday, Assam Police had registered 1,838 cases of lockdown violations, arrested 3,870 persons, detained 23,694 persons and recovered Rs 1.79 crore in fines.

Caption: Two police personnel are seen holding a Happy Birthday banner for KP Agarwal in Assams Nagaon. They helped Agarwal, whose family is stranded across the country, celebrate his 78th birthday.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Utpal Parashar Utpal is an assistant editor based in Guwahati. He covers all eight states of North-East and was previously based in Kathmandu, Dehradun and Delhi with Hindustan Times . ...view detail
Every name on the BrandBucket marketplace is exclusively listed with BrandBucket. That means that all of our sellers are very responsive, making for quick domain transfers.

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In most cases, if a domain is moved between accounts at a single registrar, the transfer is quick and usually completes within 48 hours. If a domain changes registrars (in other words, you would like to move it away from where it is currently registered), the transfer is slower. The total transfer time can then be anywhere from 48 hours to 7 days.

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Trondheim, 4 May 2020: The annual general meeting of NORBIT ASA was held today, 4 May 2020.

All proposals on the agenda were approved by the general meeting, including the boards proposed dividend distribution of NOK 0.3 per share. The dividend will be paid from 13 May 2020 to the shareholders of NORBIT ASA as of 4 May 2020. The shares will trade exclusive the right to receive dividend from and including 5 May 2020.

The minutes from the meeting are attached to this announcement.

For more information, please contact:

Charlotte Knudsen, IR and Communications, +47 9756 1959

About NORBIT ASA

NORBIT is a global provider of tailored technology to carefully selected niches. The companys business is structured to address its key markets; Oceans, targeting the global maritime markets, Intelligent Traffic Systems (ITS), offering connectivity solutions for truck applications, and Product Innovation and Realization (PIR), with in-house multidisciplinary R&D and manufacturing.

NORBIT is headquartered in Trondheim, Norway, with manufacturing facilities in Selbu and Rros, Norway and 12 offices and subsidiaries around the world.

For more information: www.norbit.com

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

Attachment
First destination therapy that restores natural heart pumping capacity; potential game changer for more than 200,000 untreated severe heart failure patients per year

FineHeart, a French medical device company, today announced the success of a seven-day preclinical study to evaluate its Implantable Cardiac Output Management System (ICOMS), the first fully Intra-Ventricular Flow Accelerator synchronized to the native heartbeat to restore natural heart pumping capacity.

Harvard Medical School Professor Mandeep R. Mehra, MD, The William Harvey Distinguished Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, and FineHeart scientific advisory board member, states: "The concept of the ICOMS is a critical advance in our search for an easily implantable, low energy requiring, fully internalized and physiological flow characteristic pump. Such progress has the potential to become a game changer. The results of this preliminary chronic study are extremely promising and set the stage for the next phase of the product's development."

Heart failure (HF) is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. and Europe. It is a degenerative disease leading to poor quality of life, frequent costly hospitalizations and early mortality. Severe HF requires device-based therapy to enhance the left ventricle's pumping capacity. Despite the need, currently available left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are large, cause substantial myocardial damage, are subject to infection and thrombosis risk, and are therefore used in a small proportion of the HF population.

FineHeart CEO Arnaud Mascarell, MS, MBA comments on the company's advancements, stating: "We have studied and better understood intraventricular fluid mechanics induced by heart contractions then designed the first pump able to sense and support heart hemodynamics. Today, the ICOMS is functional and has reached design-freeze. These strong initial chronic results open the door to longer preclinical trials already in preparation and to a First in Human study within 18 months."

University of Michigan Professor of Cardiac Surgery Francis D. Pagani, MD, PhD, Director of the Center for Circulatory Support and FineHeart scientific advisory board member, presented ICOMS data at the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) Mechanical Support for the Heart and Lung Symposium in Houston on February 15, 2020.

"After multiple acute studies conducted over years of development, this first chronic trial confirms the promising results of the ICOMS in overcoming many of the challenges associated with LVADs currently on the market," said Dr. Pagani. "The ability to support natural heart function through a fully implantable, permanent device would dramatically improve heart failure patient quality of life and long-term outcomes."

Specifically, the study confirmed:

Simple surgery with implant stability: ICOMS is implanted via mini-thoracotomy through a trans-apical approach into the beating heart without cardiopulmonary bypass. The design eliminates the typical LVAD outflow cannula to the ascending aorta.

Sustained blood cell integrity: With a pump outlet positioned entirely inside the ventricle, ICOMS has shown less shear stress applied to red blood cells and preserved pulsatility, which therefore should result in lower rates of gastrointestinal bleeding. The outstanding low level of hemolysis measured during the trial confirmed performant and reliable hemocompatibility.

Efficient synchronization and device tolerance: The ICOMS hemodynamically supported and preserved native heart cycles, maintaining regular heartbeat and healthy blood flow throughout the seven days of follow-up.

About ICOMS

FineHeart's Implantable Cardiac Output Management System (ICOMS) is a smart, unique, wirelessly powered, flow accelerator device that is able to restore normal cardiac output while preserving the heart's innate contractility. It is the first permanent pump that is fully implanted inside the left ventricle, synchronized to native heartbeat and adjustable in its level of cardiac output support, thereby eliminating a driveline by virtue of an implantable battery charged transcutaneously (TET) system.

About FineHeart www.fine-heart.com

FineHeart is a French medical device company headquartered in Bordeaux. Its patented ICOMS innovation holds the potential to treat 200,000 severe heart failure patients annually, with FineHeart initially targeting the 50,000 patients who are eligible for hemodynamic support but today are not treated by current LVADs; a $5B unmet market need.

FineHeart was founded in 2010 by a team of internationally renowned cardiac surgeons and cardiologists, led by Stephane Garrigue, MD, PhD, CSO; Philippe Ritter, MD, MS, co-inventor of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT); and FineHeart CEO Arnaud Mascarell. The company benefits today from 16 patent families.

FineHeart is supported by major U.S. venture capital firms specializing in the cardiovascular space, prime French investors, the European Union, and Region Nouvelle Aquitaine and Region Centre. It has been recognized by FierceMedTech as one of its "Fierce 15," designating it as one of the most promising private MedTech companies in the industry.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005458/en/

Contacts:

Fineheart contacts:

KLN Communications

Kara L. Nadeau

kara@klncommunications.com

508-314-3127

NewCap

Media Relations

Annie-Florence Loyer

afloyer@newcap.fr

+33 (6) 88 20 35 59
MSCI to Attend Barclays Americas Select Franchise Conference

MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI), a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community, announced today that Linda S. Huber, Chief Financial Officer, will participate in a virtual fireside chat as part of the Barclays Americas Select Franchise Conference 2020 on Tuesday, May 12, 2020 at 08:00 AM Eastern.

The live webcast and presentation slides will be available on the events and presentations section of MSCI's Investor Relations homepage, http://ir.msci.com/events.cfm. A replay of the webcast will be available on the same site for a period of 7 days.







About MSCI Inc.

MSCI is a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community. With over 45 years of expertise in research, data and technology, we power better investment decisions by enabling clients to understand and analyze key drivers of risk and return and confidently build more effective portfolios. We create industry-leading, research-enhanced solutions that clients use to gain insight into and improve transparency across the investment process.

To learn more, please visit www.msci.com. MSCI#IR

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005178/en/




Haiti - Security : The Town Hall of Port-au-Prince grateful to its firefighters





Monday, May 4, as part of International Firefighters Day, the Town Hall of Port-au-Prince celebrated the courage and the spirit of sacrifice of its valiant firefighters and took the opportunity to present its Municipal Fire Service (SIMPAP).



Remember for the record, that following the cancellation of the carnival in 2019, Ralph Youri Chevry the Mayor of Port-au-Prince had announced the reorientation of the funds planned for this event in order to provide the Town Hall with a firefighters service to serve the commune.



From May 2019, 16 young people from the commune, carefully selected, took part in rigorous training for 7 months. Today they represent the very first promotion of firefighters from the town of Port-au-Prince.



Since December 2019 these firefighters have responded to more than a hundred emergencies ranging from simple rescue to major fires such as that of the "Nan Gerit" Market (Croix des Bossales) on January 14, 2020. SIMPAP has also come in reinforcement firefighters from neighboring municipalities during major operations.



From the state of health emergency, it is these same firefighters who day and night spray and disinfect the various districts of the capital with chlorinated water to fight against the spread of the Coronavirus Covid-19. They are also responsible for replenishing water for all the handwashing stations set up across the city, as well as for deprived areas that do not have access to drinking water.



"To these 16 young people, that we are celebrating today, the commune of Port-au-Prince says a big thank you. Words will never be enough to express our gratitude for this enormous sacrifice that you make every day."



HL/ HaitiLibre


















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Marico's consolidated adjusted profit fell 2.8 percent year-on-year to Rs 209 crore, and revenue degrew by 7 percent YoY to Rs 1,496 crore in quarter ended March 2020.

The reported consolidated profit dropped 50.6 percent year-on-year to Rs 199 crore, while the volume degrowth was 3 percent in domestic business.

It also expects double digit growth in Saffola portfolio in the near term.

"The company is optimistic of maintaining operating margin at 20 percent in FY21. The company's food business has reached to Rs 200 crore on yearly basis," company said in its concall.

Here are the highlights of Marico's Q4FY20 earnings call compiled by Narnolia Financial Advisors:

Management Participants: Saugata Gupta - MD & CEO, Vivek Karve - CFO

For the company, January and February were better than previous two quarters. If COVID-19 would not happened, primary volume of the company would have grown at mid-single digit.

Find All Earnings Related News Here

The company has gained market share in 90-95 percent of its product portfolio.

The company is extending credit selectively and has given COVID-19 insurance to all of its distributors, sales force and third party.

Q4FY20 Result:

VAHO business: Sluggish growth in Premium part of the portfolio and zero sales in last 7 days of the quarter led to VAHO portfolio decline by 11 percent.

Saffola business (up by 25 percent YoY in Volume terms): Pantry hoardings of households worked as bonus for already strong growing Saffola business.

The company has launched Mediker Hand Sanitizer and Veggie Clean.

Bangladesh (up by 6 percent in constant currency terms) and South East Asia (up by 5 percent) is relatively less impacted as restricted lockdown imposed to the last few days of the quarter.

MENA (down by around 50 percent in constant currency terms) and South Africa (down by 26 percent) business impacted considerably due to lock down and Marco economic headwind there earlier to this.

For FY20: The company ended with the domestic volume growth of 2 percent. Domestic business grew by 1 percent in volume terms while International business posted a growth of 5 percent in constant currency terms.

Free operating cash flow of the company registered a growth of 10 percent to Rs 1,040 crore.

Current business environment and outlook:

Production resumed in all of the location although at reduced scale. The company is back to its 70-80 percent of monthly run rate of FY20.

Near term market outlook remains volatile.

Parachute portfolio: Management is optimistic of gaining market share from marginal players considering their constraints related to working capital and access of distribution.

VAHO portfolio: Down trading may happen which may benefit the company as it has better value portfolio.

Saffola portfolio: Expects double digit growth in the near term on the back of health awareness and doubling of cooking occasions in loyal consumers.

The company is optimistic of maintaining operating margin at 20 percent in FY21.

Copra prices to remain benign. Follow mild bearish trend.

The company's food business has reached to Rs 200 crore on the yearly basis.

The company will reduce invest in discretionary personal care business and focus on core categories to boost market share.

Distribution: 70-75 percent of distributors are operating with around 50-60 percent of the capacity.

The companys current direct reach is 1 million and overall reach is 5.3 million.

Advertising and Promotion: management expects 100 bps reductions in A&P in FY21.

International business (IB): Management expects recovery in Bangladesh, Vietnam and Middle East business in FY21.

: Most likely of open up early. The company is planning to enter into two new categories in next 1-2 years. Non Parachute portfolio is expected to become ~40 percent in next 2 year.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2020 / Mota Ventures Corp. (MOTA.CN)(1WZ1.F)(OTC PINK:PEMTF) (the "Company") is excited to announce for the month of April, it acquired 17,996 new customers. This represents an increase of 48% compared to April 2019. In April, the Company also experienced strong demand from customers enrolling in a subscription, totaling of 14,091 new subscribers during the month. This represents a new subscriber increase of 78% compared to April 2019.

The Company's Natures Exclusive brand offers a CBD hemp-oil formulation intended to provide users with the therapeutic benefits that hemp may offer. The hemp oil used in the products is derived from hemp grown and cultivated in the United States. The extraction process is designed to maintain all the beneficial qualities that hemp may offer. Natures Exclusive offers a range of products, which include CBD oil drops, CBD gummies, CBD pain relief cream, CDB skin serum and CBD coffee.

"We continue to see strong consumer demand for our entire range due to our concentrated customer acquisition efforts and by providing compelling products our customers are asking for. Our April new customer acquisition and subscription numbers are continued evidence of the strength of the business. Additionally, I am excited about our recent launch of a CBD hand sanitizer product and anticipate we will see very strong sales through this current quarter," stated Ryan Hoggan, CEO of the Company.

The Company also announces that it has granted 7,995,000 incentive stock options to certain directors, officers and consultants of the Company. The options vest immediately, and are exercisable at a price of $0.30 for a period of 60 months. The options are governed by the terms of the Company's incentive stock option plan, and the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange.

About Mota Ventures Corp.

Mota Ventures is an established eCommerce, direct to consumer provider of a wide range of CBD products in the United States and Europe. In the United States, the Company sells a CBD hemp-oil formulation derived from hemp grown and formulated in the US through its Nature's Exclusive brand. Within Europe, its Sativida brand of award winning 100% organic CBD oils and cosmetics are sold throughout Spain, Portugal, Austria, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. Mota Ventures is also seeking to acquire additional revenue producing CBD brands and operations in both Europe and North America, with the goal of establishing an international distribution network for CBD products. Low cost production, coupled with international, direct to customer, sales channels will provide the foundation for the success of Mota Ventures.

Story continues

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MOTA VENTURES CORP.

Ryan Hoggan

Chief Executive Officer

For further information, readers are encouraged to contact Joel Shacker, President at +604.423.4733 or by email at IR@motaventuresco.com or www.motaventuresco.com

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 press release, which has been prepared by management.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statement

All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are "forward-looking information" with respect to the Company within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including with respect to anticipated product sales under its Natures Exclusive and Satavida brands, its plans to offer a CBD infused hand sanitizer product, its plans to become a vertically integrated global CBD brand, its plans to cultivate and extract cannabis to produce CBD and high-quality value added CBD products in Latin America for distribution domestically and internationally and its plans to acquire revenue-producing CBD brands and operations in Europe and North America. The Company provides forward-looking statements for the purpose of conveying information about current expectations and plans relating to the future and readers are cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. By its nature, this information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited those identified and reported in the Company's public filings under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. 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 information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. 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 unless required by law.

SOURCE: Mota Ventures Corp.





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/588371/Mota-Ventures-Announces-Record-Number-of-New-Subscriptions-in-April




U.S.U.S. federal prosecutors have accused the former national police chief of Honduras of trafficking a massive amount of cocaine to the United States of America on behalf of Honduras' President Juan Orlando Hernandez and his brother, says an article. In October, his brother was convicted of the same charges.

Hernandez was dubbed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of Juan Antonio "Tony" Hernandez, his brother. However, the United States had continued to see him as an ally in its war against drugs.

The Former Police Chief

According to a complaint that was filed on Thursday, Juan Carlos Bonilla, the former police chief, had taken part in life-threatening violence, including the killing of a rival trafficker.

Additionally, prosecutors claim that President Hernandez and Tony gave Bonilla a particular assignment and that it included killing someone.

El Tigre

Bonilla, also known as El Tigre or The Tiger, was given the position as the national police chief in May 2012. It was the time when Honduras was one of the nations in the world with the highest rates of homicide.

In his role as the leader of the national police, Bonilla cooperated with U.S. counter-narcotics forces that are holding operations in Honduras. Also, he helped with the creation of a special police unit that collaborates with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration or DEA. This had led to the prosecution of many high-profile drug traffickers, including the brother of the president.

Evidence of Innocence

Bonilla had repeatedly stated his connection with the DEA as evidence to prove his innocence.

In 2013, the United States pushed for his removal from the position with references in accusations involving violence. Also, he was accused of being part of death squads that target suspected members of gangs.

Former Regional Police Chief

Bonilla was the former regional police chief of the Copan Department located at the border with Guatemala. It is one of the most crucial points of the route of drug traffickers.

During that period, prosecutors accused Bonilla of planning the murder of a drug trafficker who was threatening a route under the control of Tony Hernandez and his people.

Bonilla denied the accusation. He informed everyone that he is not a villain; instead, he is a former national police officer who had served Honduras and its people.

It is still unknown if the United States had asked for the arrest of Bonilla.

Check these out:

Not Following the Example of Others

Some experts believe that Bonilla will not be doing the act of others who have been accused of drug trafficking and surrender to the DEA.

Prosecutors from the U.S. claim that President Hernandez acquired bribes amounting to millions from drug traffickers, including Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. El Chapo was the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico.

The president had denied all claims of his involvement with drug traffickers.
SpendEdge has been monitoring the global cement market and the market is poised to experience spend growth of more than USD 160 billion between 2017-2022 at a CAGR of over 7% during the forecast period. Request Free Sample Pages.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200504005377/en/

A high frequency of cement procurement will be primarily credited to rapid urbanization in developing economies. Urbanization is increasing the requirement for housing and other infrastructures such as office space and shopping space. Increasing government funding and populations are creating a demand for housing, especially for middle-income groups, which in turn is driving building activities related to housing projects. These factors are contributing to the cement market growth.

APAC is likely to register the highest growth among other regions in the cement marker. The relative stability of economies in APAC such as India and Malaysia is one of the factors that is providing ample growth opportunities for the construction industry. Hence, most global players are undertaking mergers and acquisitions to expand their presence in the region.

To get instant access to over 1000 market-ready procurement intelligence reports without any additional costs or commitment subscribe to our procurement platform.

Insights into the cement price trends

A decline in the production capacity of some manufacturers in China is likely to impact the prices of cement during the forecast period. The decline in the production capacity is attributed to the need to ensure compliance with environmental regulations pertaining to energy consumption.

Projections of an increase in the prices of coal, diesel, and electricity will propel energy costs. These costs account for a substantial part of the suppliers' cost structures.

Insights into strategies that will help buyers optimize their cement procurement spend

Buyers should select cement by considering the product's lifespan as this will have a direct impact on the lifespan of buildings. Source and extraction methods of raw materials, processing techniques of raw materials are among the factors that buyers must scrutinize for product selection during cement procurement. This will help buyers to purchase cement with longer lifespans, which in turn, can help them save on refurbishment costs for their buildings.

Buyers should consider engaging with suppliers that have regional warehouses that are located near their construction sites. This will help them save transportation and shipping charges.

COVID-19 Impact Assessment and Market Insights

SpendEdge's reports now include an in-depth complimentary analysis of the COVID-19 impact on procurement and latest market data to help your company overcome sourcing challenges. Our Cement Procurement Market Intelligence Report offers actionable procurement intelligence insights, sourcing strategies, and action plans to mitigate risks arising out of the current pandemic situation. The insights offered by our reports will help procurement professionals streamline supply chain operations and gain insights in the best procurement practices to mitigate losses.

To stay on top of latest trends and supply market information, check out SpendEdge's knowledge center on COVID-19 impact assessment

The top cement suppliers enlisted in this report

This cement procurement market intelligence report has enlisted the top suppliers and their cost structures, SLA terms, best selection criteria, and negotiation strategies.

CRH

LafargeHolcim

HeidelbergCement

CEMEX

Anhui Conch Cement

To get access to regular sourcing and procurement insights into markets for a lifetime activate your subscription to our digital procurement platform for free.

Some of the key topics covered in this report are:

Cement market spend segmentation by region

Cement supply market analysis

Cement procurement best practices

Regional spend opportunity for cement suppliers

Cement suppliers cost structure

Total cost of ownership analysis in the cement market

Cement suppliers pricing models analysis

Category management objectives to promote an optimized cement procurement

Cost saving opportunities in the cement market

Free sample of reports that you may like:

Global Gypsum Board Market Procurement Intelligence Report

Global Steel Market Procurement Intelligence Report

About SpendEdge:

SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions. To know more, https://www.spendedge.com/request-free-proposal

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200504005377/en/

Contacts:

SpendEdge

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https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us
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TORRINGTON  There were smiles and looks of surprise on the faces of Umberto Al and Connie Persechino, as a parade of cars passed by their home on Marcia Drive in Torrington Sunday afternoon. What was taking place was a show of love for the Persechinos, mainstays at Jimmys on East Main Street, the corner supermarket owned by their son, Robert.

I cant believe this, said Persechino, as he waved to people inside cars or sitting astride an open window at a safe distance, holding signs and flags, paying respects to the couple who were told by their son to be safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, they would have to stay home.

I miss you all so much, he said , as he broke into tears and covered his face at times. I watch television and have a hard time going to sleep. I want to be at the store.

His wife consoled her husband and patted him on the shoulder as cars passed by, honking horns and playing music by Andrea Boccelli that filled the warm, sunny afternoon. Some cars were decorated with signs reading We love you and We miss you.

One person who stopped by was the Persechinos grandson, Ryan, a freshman at Pace University in Manhattan, who left after the pandemic hit the city hard.

This is the first time Ive seen my grandparents since I got home, he said. I want to go up to them and hug them, but Im afraid of giving them something and that would be terrible.

Robbie Persechino said the idea of a drive by came from Nickie Starzyk. Then Terrie Mclellan, Kelly Harrison and Nick Spina jumped in and made it happen.

Everyone loved the idea and all the employees got on board, Robbie Persechino said. I would say we had about 30 cars pass by and I know it meant a lot to my parents.

Its been tough for them, being away from Jimmys, where they have worked in key roles for 30 years, he said. But they are 85 and 83, and I didnt think they should be there during this time.

Al Persechinos duties include hand-rolling hundreds of his sought-after meatballs, opening and helping close the store, and performing pretty much any duty that needs tending to. His wife holds court in the kitchen, does the books and also pitches in wherever shes needed.

Robbie Persechino said the idea of the drive-by made sense, because so many customers have come in and asked about his parents.

It was a get-together of family, friends and longtime customers who wanted to say hi and tell my parents that they were missed and not forgotten during all this, he said.

Al Perschino was elevated to the lofty status of Mayor of Torrington on Columbus Day 2019, when he was declared Torrington Chapter of UNICO National Italian Mayor of the Day.

He was born in SantApollinare, Italy on October 29, 1934, one of seven children born to Antonio and Angelina Persechino, who migrated to Torrington in 1948. He grew up in a close-knit family of siblings including Lelia, Fiorello, Guerina, Diamonte, Peter and Attilia.

Upon returning from the service, he married Concetta (Connie) Andria in 1960. The couple have three children: Robbie and his wife Laurie of New Hartford, Diane Lanese and her husband Michael of Waterbury, and Janet Persechino of Brighton, Ma. and a number of grandchildren Everyone who knows Albert Persechino knows that family is everything to him.

Persechino worked at Union Hardware, Torin, and Seitz Corporation before retiring from the Torrington Company and joining the staff at Jimmys. He has lived in Torrington for 71 years.

When he was Mayor for the Day, Al Persechino called it the greatest day of my life. That day have been equaled or topped on Sunday  by all those in the parade along Marcia Drive.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gold Lion Resources Inc. ("Gold Lion" or the "Company") (CSE: GL) (OTC: GLIOF) (FWB: 2BC) is pleased to announce that it has submitted drill permit applications for its South Orogrande and Erikson Ridge gold projects located near Elk City, Idaho, to the local United States National Forest Service division. The proposed permit applications would allow Gold Lion to establish up to 50 drill sites at South Orogrande, and up to 62 drill sites at Erikson Ridge. Both permit applications fall under the categorical exclusion provision available with the United States National Forest Service. The categorical exclusion provision is the most expedited permitting process available and the Company anticipates receiving full permits by fall 2020.



South Orogrande Drill Plan

The South Orogrande Property is centered around the Monday and X-Zones, two undrilled 1.5 x 3 km and 5 x 1.5 km gold-in-soil anomalies with coincident aeromagnetic, induced polarization, and DIGHEM geophysical anomalies in areas of minimal outcrop and widespread placer gold occurrences. Drill holes included in the permit application are located mostly along existing roads and focus on the highest tenor gold-in-soil anomalies within the X-Zone. Additionally, two holes located at the northeast extent of the Monday Zone were included in the application that target the north-south oriented Monday Fault Zone which straddles the property boundary with Endomines' Friday Mine, where a historic drill hole intercepted 20.1m of 2.1g/t Au (incl. 6.4m of 5.5g/t Au)1.

Erikson Ridge Drill Plan

The target at Erikson Ridge is shear-hosted (mesothermal) gold mineralization located within the productive Orogrande Shear Zone which cuts northeast-southwest through the center of the Property for a combined length of over 6 km. The Property is centered on a 1980's era near surface oxide-gold resource which was discovered due to a small erosional window through thin post-mineral cover where mineralization is exposed at surface. Drill holes included in the permit application are focused on confirmation and expansion drilling within the historic resource, as well as targeting extensions along strike within the Orogrande Shear Zone where no modern systematic exploration has been completed. An IP survey will be completed over several kilometers of strike length along the Orogrande Shear Zone which will firm up drill targets prior to the Company's inaugural drill program on the Property.

Drill permit maps for the Projects can be found on the Company's website at the following URL:

https://goldlionresources.com/projects/2020-drill-permitting/

Qualified Person

Agnes Koffyberg, P.Geo., is the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 who has reviewed and approved the technical data in this news release.

About Gold Lion Resources Inc.

Gold Lion Resources Inc. is a mineral exploration company actively involved in the exploration of its precious metal focused portfolio including the South Orogrande, Erikson Ridge, Robber Gulch, Cuteye and the Fairview Properties located in Idaho and British Columbia. For more information please visit: https://goldlionresources.com/ .

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Oliver Friesen

CEO

T: +1 (778) 772-1751

The CSE and Information Service Provider have not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this release.

Forward-looking Information Cautionary Statement

Except for statements of historic fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "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 and estimates at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements including, but not limited to delays or uncertainties with regulatory approvals, including that of the CSE. There are uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information, including factors beyond the Company's control. There are no assurances that the business plans for Gold Lion Resources described in this news release will come into effect on the terms or time frame described herein. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties that could affect financial results is contained in the Company's filings with Canadian securities regulators, which are available at www.sedar.com .

1 Premium Exploration Press Release, 9/10/2012.
An economic recovery plan recently adopted by the Lebanese government is an important step forward to address Lebanon's economic challenges, the International Monetary Fund's chief said.

Kristalina Georgieva's remarks come as tens of thousands of Lebanese have been thrown further into poverty and unemployment amid a lockdown because of coronavirus.

Georgieva added in her tweets late Monday that she had a productive call with Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab, and that the IMF teams will start discussions in the near future with Lebanese officials on reforms in the tiny country.

The country's severe economic and financial crisis the worst since the end of the 1975-90 civil war is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement.

Financial woes deepened after nationwide protests against the political class erupted in October, after which banks imposed crippling, informal capital controls, limiting withdrawal and transfer of dollars.

In March, the government defaulted on paying back its debt to local and international Eurobond holders for the first time in history.

Last week, Diab's government presented a long-awaited five-year economic rescue plan based on which it would seek financial assistance from the IMF.

The leader of Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah threw his support behind Diab's move, despite previous opposition to an IMF role.

In a speech Monday, Hezbollah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned, however, that the terms should be negotiated carefully.

In recent weeks, the local currency has crashed, losing more than half of its value after being pegged to the U.S. dollar since 1997.

This in turn led to price hikes in consumer goods, triggering protests last week that left one protester dead and others wounded.

The Lebanese government is meeting Tuesday and was widely expected to extend the lockdown over coronavirus until May 24.

International donors have long demanded that Lebanon institute major economic reforms and anti-corruption measures, including in 2018, when they pledged 11 billion dollars.

That money has yet to be released and there are hopes by Lebanese officials that an IMF program would help released the badly needed money.

Late last month, the government adopted a 53-page Financial Recovery Plan that said its economy is in a free fall and that an international financial rescue package is urgently needed to backstop the recession and create the conditions for a rebound.

The Lebanese plan vows to fight widespread corruption and to restructure of the massive debt that is one of the highest in the world.

It also vows to reform infrastructure including waste management and state-run electricity company that has been one of the main burdens on state coffers over the past years.

We agreed that our teams will soon start discussions on much needed reforms to restore sustainability and growth for the benefit of the Lebanese people, Georgieva tweeted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Harpreet Bajwa By

Express News Service

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh tells Harpreet Bajwa that his government is trying hard to retain labourers from other states in this season of harvest. Excerpts

Is the Centre is not providing enough financial support to non-BJP states?

We have been raising the issue with the Centre, including with PM Narendra Modi, for several weeks now, but there has been no positive response so far. Contrary to Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badals claim, all we have got is a mere Rs 71 crore, which is a cruel joke, considering Punjabs contribution to the nations food basket and economy. This is no time for politics.

We are facing a national crisis of unprecedented magnitude and it is the Centres responsibility to come to the rescue of the states. Punjab is staring at Rs 50,000 crore losses this year. We need funds to compensate for these losses, and also to meet our immediate expenses for the pandemic battle.

Migrants can leave for home. How will it impact agriculture and industry in Punjab?

It will affect us severely if the migrants decide to leave Punjab at this critical juncture, especially when sowing is to begin and industries are starting to open up.

So far, we had not faced any exodus, largely because migrants were being taken care of. Supported by NGOs, religious organizations and industry, we had been providing them food and accommodation.

But now the lockdown is extended. So the possibility of many of them wanting to return at this difficult time cannot be ruled out, especially when there seems to be no early end to the pandemic. I have directed my ministers and officials to try their best to persuade them to stay. Lets see how this pans out.

Punjab was the first state to order curfew and to extend it. How do you see the situation?

The situation is grave. Even the Centre has now extended the lockdown with some relaxations. Going by the trends around the globe, there seems to be no early end to this pandemic.

India and Punjab have been able to keep the problem somewhat under check, possibly because of the early clampdown. But we all know this cannot continue indefinitely. The economic implications of a long-drawn lockdown are unimaginable.

Industries are in doldrums. We will have to keep easing the restrictions, but as I have maintained, the priority is to save lives and that is why I had we extended the curfew beyond May 3.

When did you expect the economy will be back to growth?

It is not possible to give any timeline.

This is going to be a long-drawn affair. A group of experts headed by Montek Singh Ahluwalia is working on drawing up the roadmap for revival and is slated to give an initial report by July-end. Hopefully, there will be some clarity on the situation by then.

We have asked the Centre to extend the 15th Finance Commissions deadline to submit its final report by a year.

Punjabs COVID-19 mortality rate is higher than national average. How do you explain it?

The mortality rate was quite high to begin with, but as of May 1, it is almost comparable with the national average. In fact, as on May 1, samples sent for testing stood at 23,176 for RT-PCR, of which 585 tested positive.

There have been 20 deaths  an average of 3.4% of the total positive cases which is comparable to the national average of 3.3%. It is pertinent to mention that almost all of them had more than one co-morbid condition.

Do you fear that Nanded cases will lead to the second wave of the outbreak in the state?

We are taking all measures to prevent the spread of infection on account of those returning from other states, including Nanded.

As of April 29, 3,525 pilgrims had returned from Nanded. We have quarantined all of COVID pilgrims to government facilities for 21 days.

The opposition alleges that farmers are facing hardships as the government has failed to procure wheat?

The opposition has nothing better to do than spread lies. We are headed towards a record bumper procurement, with more than 75 LMT of wheat (60% of the total) already procured and around Rs 10,000 crore released towards the payment of the farmers.
Sir Terence Stephenson said deliberately infecting healthy Britons will be the only way to test a COVID-19 vaccine if the crisis is brought under control

Deliberately infecting healthy Britons may be the only way to test a COVID-19 vaccine if the crisis is brought under control, a top researcher has claimed.

Sir Terence Stephenson chairs the Health Research Authority (HRA), which approves research on NHS patients in England.

Sir Terence said the most probable way vaccine research will move forward is if healthy, young people are purposely exposed to the deadly virus.

The controversial move wouldn't be without risks, he admitted. And whether ethic committees will even permit it would pose the biggest challenge.

But scientists have previously said such an approach could shave months off the race to find a vaccine, with almost 3.6million cases now confirmed globally.

Normally in large-scale trials, participants will be given the vaccine and mingle among society to see if the jab is effective at preventing them picking up the virus - in this case SARS-CoV-2.

But lockdown will make it difficult to assess how successful a vaccine is because it is preventing the spread of the virus - a fear already expressed by University of Oxford researchers, who are leading the first vaccine trial in Britain.

The Oxford vaccine trial started testing its vaccine called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 on humans on April 23 (pictured, a participant). But lockdown will make it difficult to assess how successful a vaccine is because it is preventing the spread of the virus

HRA has accelerated vaccines - including the one developed by Oxford University - into clinical trials within days, instead of months.

It has so far recruited more than 47,000 participants for 113 COVID-19 research trials, including for drugs like remdesivir and hydroxychloroquine.

The Oxford vaccine trial started testing its ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine on humans on April 23.

The Phase I clinical trial will study safety and efficacy in healthy volunteers aged 18 to 55 years, across five trial centres in Southern England.

It has recruited 1,100 people, half of whom will receive the vaccine and the other half (the control group) receiving a widely available meningitis vaccine.

BORIS JOHNSON - A VACCINE IS 'THE MOST URGENT ENDEAVOUR OF OUR LIFETIMES' Boris Johnson hosted a global summit yesterday as he urged countries around the world to unite and help pay for the development of coronavirus vaccines and treatments. The Prime Minister said the world needed to come together 'against our common enemy' as he boasted of the UK's 744 million commitment to a global response war chest. He said every nation needed to help create an 'impregnable shield around all our people' in the form of a vaccine. The virtual summit was attended by Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Saudi Arabia and the European Commission - but the US and China chose not to attend. In his message to the summit, Mr Johnson said: 'Im delighted that the UK is co-hosting this summit and joining forces with all of you against our common enemy, the coronavirus. 'In our own countries, we have taken extraordinary measures, asking our people to accept sweeping restrictions on their way of life, and by doing so, we have formed a human shield around our health systems, enabling our heroic health workers to save many lives - including my own. 'But the truth is that none of us can succeed alone. 'To win this battle, we must work together to build an impregnable shield around all our people, and that can only be achieved by developing and mass producing a vaccine.' Mr Johnson said 'the more we pull together and share our expertise, the faster our scientists will succeed' in developing vaccines and treatments. 'The UK is the biggest donor to the efforts of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to find a vaccine,' he said. 'We have committed up to 744 million for the global response to coronavirus, including our pledge of 388 million for the vital research and development of vaccines, treatments and tests, and that is the focus of todays conference.' The PM insisted the 'race to discover the vaccine to defeat this virus is not a competition between countries but the most urgent shared endeavour of our lifetimes'. Advertisement

This is technically known as phase two of a vaccine trial, where the scientists test the vaccine against a placebo and work out the correct dosage.

The first phase, which is a safety run where a small number of people are given the dose to see how the body reacts, is being run at the same time.

If this work is successful, it will move forward into studies to see if the vaccine works against the real virus spreading in the community.

Normally phase three - the final stage of testing - involves hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people across multiple sites for a long period of time.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Sir Terence told The Times there were broadly three ways this part of the trial might be run.

The most standard and straightforward way would be to give half study participants the vaccine, half a placebo, and see if infection rates are higher in either group.

This would only be possible if there were still new coronavirus cases occurring in the UK.

Should the UK be in the position of 'not having much coronavirus infection', a second option would be trialling the vaccine in another country where the virus is still spreading.

'The third possibility, and probably the most contentious, that would have to come to a research ethics committee, is the idea of giving some people the vaccine and then deliberately exposing them to the virus,' said Sir Terence.

'Presumably, if you were to do that you would choose healthy young people with no other conditions, but it wouldn't be without risk.

'It's certainly not for me to give a judgment on whether that would be approved or not: giving ethics approval does not sit with the chairman.

'But my sense, having talked to people in the field and to some people on the research ethics committee, is that that is something they would have to look at very carefully.'

Lawrence Young, a professor of molecular oncology at the University of Warwick, told MailOnline infecting healthy people with the virus would speed up finding a vaccine.

He said: 'There are clearly ethical issues in exposing otherwise healthy individuals to a potentially lethal virus. But the only way to fast-track a vaccine for CoV-2 is to test by deliberate infection of individuals.

'We know that the majority of individuals infected with CoV-2 undergo a mild cold-like infection  and that this is more likely in fit, young individuals. If we also had a good anti-viral drug (perhaps remdesivir) then it would be even safer to perform a post-vaccination exposure trial.'

University of Oxford have said if transmission levels of COVID-19 levels drop, it could be six months before they know if the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine works.

If transmission remains high, the team could get data within a couple of months.

Professor Sarah Gilbert, who is running the Oxford University trial, said they may have to continue their trials in other countries where more of the virus is circulating in the community

Yesterday Britain's daily coronavirus death toll rose by 288 - the lowest 24-hour jump since the end of March. But top statisticians say thousands of British care home victims are still being missed in the official count

Professor Sarah Gilbert, who is running the Oxford trial, said they may have to continue their trials in other countries where more of the virus is circulating in the community.

VACCINES CREATED BY OXFORD AND IMPERIAL COLLEGE: WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES? The science behind both vaccine attempts hinges on recreating the 'spike' proteins that are found all over the outside of the COVID-19 viruses. Both will attempt to recreate or mimic these spikes inside the body. The difference between the two is how they achieve this effect. Imperial College London will try to deliver genetic material (RNA) from the coronavirus which programs cells inside the patient's body to recreate the spike proteins. It will transport the RNA inside liquid droplets injected into the bloodstream. The team at the University of Oxford, on the other hand, will genetically engineer a virus to look like the coronavirus - to have the same spike proteins on the outside - but be unable to cause any infection inside a person. This virus, weakened by genetic engineering, is a type of virus called an adenovirus, the same as those which cause common colds, that has been taken from chimpanzees. If the vaccines can successfully mimic the spikes inside a person's bloodstream, and stimulate the immune system to create special antibodies to attack it, this could train the body to destroy the real coronavirus if they get infected with it in future. The same process is thought to happen in people who catch COVID-19 for real, but this is far more dangerous - a vaccine will have the same end-point but without causing illness in the process. Advertisement

The lead of Britain's other vaccine contender, at Imperial College London, has said they are in the same position.

Robin Shattock, a professor of mucosal infection, said last week: 'If social distancing and lockdown work really well, it will take us longer to determine whether a vaccine works.'

Imperial is recruiting volunteers for clinical trials to begin in June. Professor Shattock said the early volunteers would be given low doses of the vaccine to test its safety.

Purposely infecting healthy volunteers with the virus would speed up finding a vaccine, it has previously been argued by Dr Peter Smith, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and colleagues at Harvard University and Rutgers University in New York.

They said relaxing current rules around clinical trials could 'accelerate' the roll-out of a jab, and that every week a vaccine is delayed it will be 'accompanied by many thousands of deaths globally'.

In their paper, the trio wrote: 'Deliberate exposure of study participants to SARS-CoV-2 clearly raises ethical concerns.

'It may seem impermissible to ask people to take on-risk of severe illness or death, even for an important collective gain.

'But we actually ask people to take such risks for others' direct gain every time we ask volunteer firefighters to rush into burning buildings.'

Yesterday Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted the 'race to discover the vaccine to defeat this virus is not a competition between countries but the most urgent shared endeavour of our lifetimes'.

About 100 research groups around the world are pursuing vaccines against the coronavirus, with nearly a dozen in early stages of human trials or poised to start.

The World Health Organization and Britain's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance have repeatedly said a safe vaccine is at least 12 to 18 months away.

But the Oxford team are 'confident' in their vaccine and have made arrangements to produce the dose by the billion by late summer.

There were 3,985 new cases of the coronavirus announced yesterday, with 190,000 Britons now having been infected.

But the number of new cases identified depends on testing, which has increased dramatically over the past couple of weeks.

Deaths have slowed when looking at a seven day rolling average. Figures show the UK's crisis is continuing to slow down after peaking in mid-April.

Yesterday Britain's daily coronavirus death toll rose by 288 - the lowest 24-hour jump since the end of March.

But top statisticians say thousands of British care home victims are still being missed in the official count because the figures only include patients who have tested positive in a laboratory.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) is moving ahead with a project on building 19 automatic air environment monitoring stations in 17 cities and provinces and 20 stations specializing in measuring PM2.5 dust.

The project aims to ensure the monitoring of air quality throughout the country, especially in hotspots.





It will help improve the air environment monitoring network in accordance with the 2016-2025 national program on natural resources and environment monitoring network development.



The monitoring stations will provide information and data on the current state and changes of air quality, thus giving warnings and forecasts about environmental quality in the regions, serving management m of socio-economic policies.



To find places for new monitoring stations, the implementing agency will investigate and survey new environmental pollution points and compare them with the monitoring points of the approved network.



The national natural resources and environment monitoring network is an open system, put under MONREs control, and is constantly upgraded and improved with the connection and information sharing among agencies at different levels, from central to local.

Regarding the dust (PM10 and PM2.5) monitoring technology, the automatic monitoring stations run by the General Directorate of Environment are using light scattering technology.

Regarding the dust (PM10 and PM2.5) monitoring technology, the automatic monitoring stations run by the General Directorate of Environment are using light scattering technology.

However, under the project, the agency has proposed using Beta attenuation monitoring technology. The stations using the technology provide data with high accuracy in conditions with a monsoon tropical climate and high humidity.



The automatic air monitoring stations are expected to monitor basic environment parameters, including SO2, NO-NO2-NOx, CO, O3, PM10 and PM2.5 with reference to Vietnamese standards QCVN 05:2013/BTNMT.



After analyzing the air pollution in Vietnam, the environment management agency has also proposed buying online real-time mercury (Hg) collecting and analyzing equipment, which will be installed at automatic air environment monitoring stations. The equipment will promptly discover and warn about pollution when the mercury concentration exceeds the permitted level under the Vietnamese standard QCVN 06:2009/BTNMT.



Environment experts pointed out that with the strong development of the cement, thermopower and steel production, which are polluting industries, and the rapid increase in number of road vehicles, the toxins in the air increase, especially in large cities and locations near industrial parks.



In many countries, the air monitoring to find toxins such as lead, cadmium, arsenic, nickel, and chromium is important work, together with monitoring for basic indicators. Therefore, the General Directorate of Environment has proposed taking PM2.5 dust samples and transferring PM2.5 filter to laboratories for analysis of toxins in dust (Pb , Cd, Ni, As, Cr).

Thanh Lich

Hanoi air quality improves in March thanks to COVID-19 Hanois air quality improved significantly in March following the drastic reduction of traffic and suspension of construction due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Vietnam Environment Administration (VEA) reported on Tuesday.
UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ expects the school to adopt a hybrid plan for the fall semester, with some classes in person and others online.

Christ, speaking Tuesday during an online panel discussion with other campus leaders, made her most extensive public comments about Cals plans for the fall. She said the school will make a final decision by mid-June and intends to have a semester in the cloud for students who cannot come to campus.

Instruction for the fall semester is scheduled to begin Aug. 26.

Christ reiterated that Berkeley, like other UC campuses, is not considering tuition refunds because students have access to classes and theyre getting full credit, she said. Were responding to a public health emergency in providing an alternative mode of delivery, in order to protect the health of the entire community.

Most colleges across the country did not offer prorated refunds on tuition and campus fees for the spring term, despite moving classes online in mid-March. That sparked a flurry of class-action lawsuits, including two filed against the UC system last week.

One of the biggest impediments to reopening college campuses remains the imposing challenge of student housing. Christ echoed UC President Janet Napolitano, who spoke last week of the complicated process required to reopen dormitories.

Were working very hard on the question of how to safely make available our residence halls to students, Christ said. Well be developing a testing regimen for the campus, and well be developing a way to use dorms to maintain social distancing, identify cases, quickly isolate cases and (do) contact tracing.

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.

As for UC Berkeleys long-range future in a post-coronavirus world, Christ noted that the campus was one of the first to close, on March 9.

I think our experience with the virus has showed that was a really wise decision, she said. Its amazing to think, in retrospect, how we completely changed the operation of the university in two or three days. ... I keep telling people there will be a day after, and well be in a stronger position because of what we do now.

Ron Kroichick is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rkroichick@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ronkroichick
New Delhi, May 5 : With the COVID-10 pandemic ravaging several industries amid poor consumer spending, global retail sales in 2020 will decline by an average of 9.6 per cent, resulting in a loss of $2.1 trillion and it will take four years for retailers to overtake pre-pandemic levels, a new Forrester report said on Tuesday.

The impact on India and Japan is to be severe due to the strict lockdowns, the declaration of a state of emergency in Japan, and the postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympics.

The likelihood is that the epidemic will last seven months, and from 2021 retail categories, that have declined by more than 10 per cent, will only bounce back to 90 per cent of pre-pandemic spend.

In the worst-case scenario, lost online sales could reach $510 billion, and even in the best case, retailers will lose $244 billion in online sales, the report mentioned.

"COVID-19 is significantly impacting the global retail landscape. Retail categories like grocery and essential consumables are performing well, while other categories like fashion, beauty, and cosmetics are seeing a marked decline in consumer spend," said Michael O'Grady, principal forecast analyst at Forrester.

In 2020, there will be a significant decline in global retail sales, particularly with non-essential items sold offline, which will be a big challenge for brick-and-mortar retailers.

"Online sales, however, will be more resilient. To navigate the crisis, retailers need to manage their costs and drive their ecommerce sales and services as much as possible," he added.

While offline non-grocery retail will contract by 20 per cent, ecommerce sales will remain flat this year.

In Asia Pacific, the loss of sales is predicted to reach $767 billion in 2020, a decline of 10 per cent from 2019.

China is the most negatively affected country in the region, with $192 billion of retail sales lost in January and February compared to the same period last year.

"Retailers will continue to face growth constraints, with a lot of brick-and-mortar retailers predicting losses in 2020. Many will also assume that their growth in online sales will not be enough to offset the lost sales from store closures," said the report from the global market research firm.

Online sales will remain flat, and an average of $360 billion in online retail sales will be lost globally in 2020 compared to pre-COVID-19 forecasts.

In 2020, global online retail sales will grow by only 0.6 per cent compared to 2019.

In the US, retail sales will fall by $321 billion in 2020, a decline of 9.1 per cent from 2019.

Retail sales will lose 260 billion euros across EU-5 (the UK, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy) in 2020, a decline of 10.4 per cent from 2019.
New Delhi: In a major development, the central government announced on Tuesday (May 5) that the class 10th examination of CBSE Board, which was deferred due to the coronavirus COVID-19 crisis, will not be conducted now.

A notification issued by the Ministry of Human Resource Development stated that CBSE class 10 board examinations will not be conducted in any part of the country, except for northeast Delhi, which was hit by the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act riots in February this year.

The ministry said that an additional time of 10 days will be given to students who be taking the exams.

Interacting with students across the country through a webinar, Union HRD Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said the exams for 10th class are over for all over the country except northeast Delhi and adequate time of 10 days will be given to all stakeholders before starting the examinations.

The minister also clarified to the students of North East Delhi that there is no need for them reappear in these examinations if they have already appeared.

"These exams will be conducted again for those few students who could not appear in these exams on the scheduled date due to the impact of law and order issues on them," the Ministry of HRD said in a press release.

Earlier, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had said it will conduct examinations for only main subjects that will be required for promotion and may be crucial for admissions in higher educational institutions.

It had announced a list of subjects for class 12 for which the exams have to be held. For class 10, it said only exams for Hindi Course A, Hindi Course B, English Comm, English Lng & Lit, Science and Social Science will be held for North East Delhi.

For CBSE schools in foreign countries, the CBSE had said it would not be in a position to hold a differential set of exams for each of these countries. Also, in the present situation, it will be difficult to bring the answer books to India for evaluation purposes, it said, adding that the Board has decided to not hold any more exams for the students of class 10 and 12 schools located outside India.

The system of marking/assessment for the purpose of declaring results will be worked out by the Board shortly and informed to these schools.
TRUMBULL  Donald A. Browne, the first states attorney for the Fairfield Judicial District, died Sunday of natural causes. He was 86.

Donald Browne was a towering figure in the Bridgeport legal community, said newly appointed States Attorney Joseph Corradino. His impact continues to this day with the people he chose to work as prosecutors in this district. While it is a great loss to his family and the community, his legacy endures.

In 1972, Browne was appointed top prosecutor for the newly established judicial district with the official end of county government in Connecticut. The district initially extended north to Danbury, west to the New York line and east to the Housatonic River.

Browne went on to serve as states attorney for 25 years during which time Danbury and Stamford were broken off as their own judicial districts.

As states attorney, Browne prosecuted numerous murder trials and supervised the prosecutions of many cases that were the sensation of the day including Edward Falby, convicted of the murder of a 9-year-old Westport girl, and Gordon Burge, convicted of killing a 13-year-old Darien boy.

His ability to think quickly on his feet and fire questions rapidly at witnesses earned him the nickname Machine gun Browne.

Criminal defense lawyer John R. Gulash said despite the fact that he and Browne were on opposite sides and vehemently disagreed on a number of occasions, he had the highest regard for him.

You can certainly say the citizens got more than their moneys worth with Donald Browne, Gulash said. He literally knew everything about every case that was pending in one of the busiest judicial districts in Connecticut and had a tireless work ethic.

Browne jumpstarted the investigation into the 1975 murder of 15-year-old Martha Moxley in Greenwich, appointing a team of investigators to go over the case. He retired several years before Kennedy-cousin Michael Skakel was convicted of that crime.

He argued 38 cases before the state Supreme Court and 19 before the state Appellate Court but was most proud of the 1972 case Adams v. Williams which he successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.

A Bridgeport police officer, acting on a tip, approached a car driven by Robert Williams and arrested him after discovering Williams had a gun in his waistband. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled the informants tip permitted the officer to do a limited search of Williams.

He loved the law and he loved the people he worked with, said Brownes daughter, Bridgeport lawyer Maribeth Browne-Goulden.

Browne also loved the city of Bridgeport, where he grew up and lived most of his life.

He graduated from Harding High School and Fairfield University and earned his law degree from the University of Connecticut Law School. He went on to get an advanced law degree from New York University.

Browne is survived by his wife of 61 years, Lillian D. Browne; their four children, Maribeth Browne-Goulden, Donna Lynn Ford, Kevin P. Browne and John Browne, and eight grandchildren.

The funeral service is going to be private with a memorial mass held in the future.
Getty Images

A California shopper has been criticised of wearing what looked to be a Ku Klux Klan-inspired white hood to a grocery store amid coronavirus face mask recommendations.

The man was spotted in Vons supermarket in Santee, a suburban city in San Diego, on Saturday.

Images showed the man pushing around a shopping cart and making his food selections while a white hood, mirroring that of what the KKK wears, covered his face.

The unidentified man was approached by several grocery clerks to remove his hood while shopping in the store, a Vons spokesperson told the San Diego Tribune.

Later, the store manager approached the man at checkout and told him he needed to remove his hood or leave the store. The man paid for his items and then left, according to the newspaper.

At Vons, fostering an environment of courtesy, dignity, and respect is one of our highest priorities, and we work hard to hold everyone in our stores to these standards, including customers, spokesperson Melissa Hill told the newspaper. This was a disturbing incident for our associates and customers, and we are reviewing with our team how to best handle such inappropriate situations in the future.

Santee Mayor John Minto later condemned the incident in a statement published on the citys website on Sunday.

Dont know which angers me more  the person wearing this or the fact that no one in management @Vons Santee did anything about it. @ADL_SD would be happy to educate your team. San Diego is #NoPlaceForHate pic.twitter.com/jMOzQqpcoi  Tammy Gillies (@tgilliesADL) May 3, 2020



"There was an incident in Santee on Saturday where citizens photographed a male wearing attire that depicted a symbol of hatred. The citizens and Vons employees took steps to address the situation," he said.

Story continues

Many thanks to all who stepped forward to curtail this sad reminder of intolerance. Santee, its leaders, and I will not tolerate such behaviour. Santee and its citizens are great, and this particular individuals actions are not representative of us as a people and a wonderful city.

Outrage circulated on social media after multiple shoppers shared images of the man while he was picking out food items within the store.

Current Centres for Disease Control and Prevention advised for people to wear face masks when out to protect both themselves and others when it comes to spreading the novel virus. But these guidelines do not encourage residents to promote symbols of hate when out and about, such as wearing a KKK-inspired mask.

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On April 13, 2020, Forbes, a renowned US-based global media company, named Germany, Iceland, Taiwan, Finland, Norway, New Zealand and Denmark as countries with the best coronavirus policy responses.



Forbes asked the question, "What do these countries with the best coronavirus responses have in common?" And the answer given by Forbes was that the seven countries had in common 'women leaders'.



Is the absence of a woman leader in Ghana the reason why the country is still not named among the countries with the best coronavirus responses?



Ghana's President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by imposing a three-week partial lockdown on Accra, Tema, Kumasi and Kasoa beginning from March 30, 2020. The partial lockdown affected the centres of the country's economy. The country had then recorded 137 cases of COVID-19, with four deaths.



On April 19, 2020, when the President announced the end of the lockdown from April 20, it had recorded 1,042 cases with 99 recoveries and nine deaths. The President argued that the decisions of the government were "backed by data and by science".



This piece examines the political- economy data.



Informal sector



The World Bank cautioned that copycat lockdowns would not work in Africa, because the majority of the workforce were found in the informal sector and their survival was on a daily basis.



The April 2020 edition of the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) rebased 2013-2019 annual GDP report states that out of the GH349,480 billion of the total value of goods and services produced in 2019, the informal sector accounted for GH92,469 billion.



According to the GSS 2015 Labour Force Report, "90 per cent of the currently employed population 15 years and older are in the informal sector."



Informal sector employment accounted for 86.4 per cent of the total employment in the Ashanti Region and 84.1 per cent in Greater Accra Region. Ghana's lockdown had a serious effect on the informal sector.



Private sector



The lockdown threatened the collapse of private sector businesses in the affected areas.



According to the GSS Labour Force Report, private sector employment represented 92.1 per cent and 89 per cent of total employment in the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions respectively.



The lockdown led to the closure of many private sector businesses, reduction of salaries of many workers in the private sector and termination of jobs in the private sector.



It was not surprising that on April 17, 2020, an Accra-based television station captured on video hundreds of traders and buyers who had defied the presidential lockdown to engage in night trading activities on the blind side of the security forces.



The National Disaster Management Organisation estimated that the distribution of 400,000 packs of cooked food a day cost Ghana GH2 million a day (about $350,000).



The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori- Atta, who is also the Chair of the IMF/World Bank Development Committee, quickly ran to the IMF for financial bailout despite the government's loud rhetoric of creating a 'Ghana Beyond Aid'.



On April 13, 2020, the IMF Executive Board approved a US$1 billion Rapid Credit Facility for Ghana.



Political dynamics



Let us turn to the political dynamics of the lockdown. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) government won the 2016 presidential election with 53.8 per cent of the votes, while the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) got 44.4 per cent.



At the regional level, the NPP obtained 76.3 per cent and 52.4 per cent of the votes in the Ashanti Region and Greater Accra Region respectively, while the NDC got 23 per cent and 46.7 per cent in the two regions respectively.



The largest percentage of voters are in the private and informal sectors of Ghana; not in the formal sector where many government employees wished for the extension of the lockdown.



Crucially, if the December election takes place amid the coronavirus pandemic, employees in the informal and private sectors who constitute over 90 per cent of total employment in the country are more likely to defy fears of contracting the COVID-19 disease to join long queues to vote.



In the face of the December 2020 election, the NPP government would be committing political suicide if the informal and private sectors continued to be locked down, without the payment of financial compensations.



Not case



It is not simply the case that countries with the best policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have women leaders.



The US-based Madison Project Database (version 2018) shows that when Ghana gained independence from British colonial rule in 1957, the country's real GDP per capita of $2,353 (in 2001 US$, multiple benchmarks) was higher than that of China ($1,103), South Korea ($1482), Singapore ($1963) and the Chinese province of Taiwan ($1943).



How were these countries able to overtake Ghana in economic development? The answer lies in the choices made by their political elites in the creation of political rules of governance.



Ghana is more likely to join the list of countries with the best responses to human development crisis if political elites move the country away from the notorious winner-takes-all democracy to the proportional representative democracy found in the countries with the best policy responses to the coronavirus pandemic.



If the 275 parliamentary seats, 19 cabinet seats and over 100 ministerial positions were shared in the proportion of the percentage of valid electoral votes obtained by political parties after general elections, it is likely that Ghana would have been counted among the countries with the best COVID-19 policy responses.



The writer, Dr Daniel Appiah, is a public sector governance specialist & a lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School.

Source: Daily Graphic









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Gayathri Mani By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: An allegedly drunk man smashed his car into the wall of world heritage site --Qutub Minar complex; damaging a significant portion of it. The man who was driving was saved by the security guard who rescued him from the car before the vehicle blasted.

The incident took place in the wee hours of Monday at around 3:30 am. The person driving the car has been identified as Arun Chauhan.

Police have filed a First Information Report (FIR) against him for drunken dring and speeding of the car at Mehrauli Police station.

Besides, Archaeological Site of India (ASI) has written a letter to Station House Officer (SHO), Mehrauli PS to take strict action against the person and it also requested the police to ask the culprit to pay the penalty/compensation for damaging the wall of the heritage site.

A car smashed into the wall of @UNESCO #worldheritage site--

Qutb Minar complex, caught fire. However, the occupant was safely evacuated from the vehicle. The incident took place in the wee hours of Monday. @ASIGoI @NewIndianXpress pic.twitter.com/Tzs1wynoKc  Muhammed Parvez Sultan Ebrahim   (@theparvezsultan) May 5, 2020

"The car has collided with the boundary wall of the campus of Qutub Minar and damaged a huge portion of the wall. In this regard it is requested to take strict action against the accused of damaging government property and instruct him to pay the penalty as equal to the damages," said Arvind Semwal, conservation assistant, ASI in the complaint letter to SHO.

Further, another ASI official alleged that police are not cooperating and taking the matter seriously.
Should you give yourself a buzz cut? How about a fade? Read more

Weve been inside for a while. And barbershops and hair salons have been deemed nonessential in Pennsylvania and New Jersey  meaning that, by now, many of our manes may be looking downright shaggy.

Cutting your hair at home isnt easy, but if youre game, there is one hairstyle that could be pretty simple to achieve: The humble buzz cut. That hairdo has become popular amid quarantine, with celebs like Snatch star Stephen Graham and Rents Anthony Rapp rocking the short-haired look.

It may seem a little overwhelming at first, but buzzing your own head at home is doable. Here is what you need to know:

Get the right equipment

A buzz cut starts with the workhorse of the operation: Hair clippers. Barber on 24th manager Phil Leone says that you dont have to spend too much money on a set, and suitable clippers can be found at your local drug or big-box store. Youll want a kit that comes with plastic guards, which slip onto your clippers to control the length of your cut.

A handheld mirror is another good tool, especially if you are able to use it alongside a wall-mounted mirror. That way, Leone says, you can use the mirrors together to get a look at the blind spots on the sides and back of your head when cutting.

Pick your workspace

Buzzing your head is going to get hair everywhere, so choose your workspace wisely. American Mortals stylist Jessica Kramer recommends cutting somewhere with a tile or hardwood floor for easier cleanup. You might even consider sticking to your bathtub to keep the hairs contained, as Leone recommends, or taking it outdoors.

If you have cordless trimmers, you could do it outside, Kramer says. Let the birds take it."

Prep your head and tools

If youve got long hair, Leone recommends you trim down to about an inch all over your head with scissors  otherwise, the trimmers could snag your hair and make the process lengthier and a little painful.

Washing your hair before the cut isnt necessary, says Kramer. Whats important, however, is that your hair is dry because clippers have trouble mowing through wet hair.

Before buzzing, Leone recommends using the little vial of oil clippers often come with to lubricate the blade. Generally, he says, you can drip two or three drops on the metal blade of the clippers, and run them for a few seconds.

 READ MORE: How to take care of your new quarantine beard

Choose your length

Kramer says to exercise restraint. So dont start out too short. Using a clipper guard numbered two or three  or  to  of an inch  should be sufficient. Anything beyond a number four guard (about  an inch), she says, will make cutting more difficult.

Dont pull a Britney Spears circa 2007, she says. Less is more. You can always keep cutting, but once its gone, its gone.

How to cut

Start on the back of your head with the longest guard length youll be using, Kramer says. The blade of your clippers, Leone says, should be flat against the head, so dont go in at an angle. One way to know theyre working right is to listen for the sound of hair being cut, which he describes as a kind of crunching.

Cutting against the grain of your hair will help lop it off efficiently, but you should go over the same spot several times in slightly different directions. You can also use your non-buzzing hand to feel for tufts of hair that you missed, or stick to your mirror.

If you start front-and-center and you realize youve made a huge mistake, youre stuck with that, she says. If you start in the back and you get cold feet, its not the end of the world.

From there, you can move on to the sides and top of your head while working against the grain as much as possible.

 READ MORE: Should I shave my beard to keep from getting the coronavirus?

If youre brave: Go for a fade

A full-head buzz of one length is the easiest route to go, Leone says, but you still could go for a slight fade. If you mess up, Kramer adds, the worst case scenario is just a haircut that is shorter than you may have planned.

To get a simple fade, Leone recommends using a shorter guard around the ears and neckline, and then a slightly longer guard above that line on the sides and back of your head. As you approach the crown of your head, you could increase the guard length slightly again to help blend the cut a little farther. Fading, however, is a skill that takes time to master, so dont expect perfection your first time out.

At the end of the day, its just hair, Kramer says. It grows a half inch a month, if thats any solace.

Clean up your mess

After cutting your hair, Leone recommends brushing out stray hairs from the clippers blades, and oiling the cutting surface again. Store the kit somewhere that is free of humidity, as moisture can rust the trimmers blades.

Kramer, meanwhile, recommends that any clothing items you had on for the cut should go right in the washer to keep the rest of your space tidy. And dont forget to sweep up your hair trimmings.

Your barber still may be able to help

Kramer notes that many barbers and stylists may be available for hair-care advice via video chat or telephone calls, so check with your usual haircutter to see if theyre available for a virtual meeting. But if you dont need advice and still want to help, many barbershops and hair salons are accepting donations to staff via services like GoFundMe or Venmo  as is the case with Barber on 24th and American Mortals.

And remember: Hair will grow back.

 ASK US: Do you have a question about the coronavirus and how it affects your health, work and life? Ask our reporters
Health secretary Matt Hancock has dodged a demand from Labour to commit to 100,000 coronavirus tests a day, after numbers fell below the target for three days in succession.

Mr Hancock said he had confidence that testing rates would grow and rejected Labour spokeswoman Rosena Allin-Khans claim that his testing strategy had been non-existent", but failed to make the commitment to continued six-figure levels which she called for in the House of Commons.

The health secretary accused Dr Allin-Khan - a hospital doctor who has returned to the NHS frontline during the coronavirus crisis - of taking the wrong "tone" in her attack on his record on testing.

But she hit back later on Twitter, writing: "I will not 'watch my tone' when dozens of NHS and care staff are dying unnecessarily. Families are being torn apart."

The health secretary claimed victory in hitting his deadline to pass the threshold by the end of April, announcing that more than 122,000 tests were recorded last Thursday as drive-through centres and home testing-kits helped send numbers soaring from around 10,000 at the start of the month.

But critics accused him of manipulating the figures after it emerged the total included around 40,000 test kits which had been sent out but not completed by that stage.

And testing numbers have remained below the 100,000 level every day since the 30 April deadline passed, hitting 85,186 in the 24 hours to 4 May.

Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Show all 18 1 /18 Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jack Dodsley, 79, with a carer in PPE at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jackie Wilson, a healthcare assistant, wearing PPE before going into rooms Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jack Dodsley, 79, speaks to a carer at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Carers working at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A care worker wearing PPE opens a drink carton Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jack Dodsley, 79, sits with a carer Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jack Dodsley, 79, with a carer in PPE Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A care staff member wearing PPE Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A staff member at Newfield Nursing Home looks after a resident SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A carer wearing PPE uses a speaker Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A carer helps Jack Dodsley, 79, from his chair Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A carer wearing PPE helps Jack Dodsley, 79 Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A staff member at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A carer brings food to a resident at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jack Dodsley, 79, with a carer in PPE Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A staff member puts on PPE at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jackie Wilson, a healthcare assistant, puts on PPE before she enters a room SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A bench at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS

In the House of Commons today, Labour health spokeswoman Rosena Allin-Khan called for the health secretary to commit himself to restoring and maintaining the 100,000 level.

Dr Allin-Khan told the Commons: The testing strategy has been non-existent.

Community testing was scrapped, mass testing was slow to roll out and testing figures are now being manipulated.

Does the secretary of state commit to a minimum of 100,000 tests each day going forward? And does the secretary of state acknowledge that many frontline workers feel that the governments lack of testing has cost lives and is responsible for many families being unnecessarily torn apart in grief?

Mr Hancock, who was in the Commons to answer an urgent question from Labour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth, accused Dr Allin-Khan of taking the wrong tone on the issue.

"I welcome the Honourable Lady to her post as part of the shadow health team," he said. "I think she might do well to take a leaf out of the shadow secretary's book in terms of tone."

Im afraid what she said is not true. Theres been a rapid acceleration of testing offer the last few months in this country, including getting to 100,000 tests a day.

Weve been entirely transparent on the way that that has been measured throughout, and I have confidence that the rate will continue to rise.

Currently capacity is 108,000 a day, and we are working to build that higher.

Of course, weve been working very hard to make the testing capacity grow as fast as possible and as more tests are available so we are able to make them available to more people and test people right across the NHS.

The prime minister's official spokesman later said: "It may be at the moment there is less demand for tests from key workers because the infection rate is stablising or falling. I would hope everyone can agree that that is a good thing. If fewer people are going into hospital with coronavirus symptoms that will mean fewer tests need to be carried out in NHS setting. Likewise, if there's less community transmission, it will mean that key workers potentially need fewer tests. That shouldn't be seen as a bad thing.

"The key point is capacity has been really significantly increased. We can now do more than 100,000 tests a day and as we move forward into the next phase, including the rollout of 'trace, track and test', we have the capacity we need."
TDT | Manama

Bahrains Ambassador to the US Shaikh Abdullah bin Rashid Al Khalifa held a remote meeting with a number of Bahraini students in the US. The videoconference was within the embassys framework of following-up on Bahraini citizens and ensuring their well-being.

Shaikh Abdullah conveyed the greetings of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on the Holy Month of Ramadan and His Majestys keenness to follow up on the health and safety of Bahraini citizens abroad.

The Ambassador also affirmed his pride in the students work and services on the frontlines, adding that they reflect Bahraini values. He highlighted that the Kingdom has addressed the pandemic diligently and at an early stage through the Executive Committee led by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister.

He also praised the wise decisions in the health, economic, educational and security sectors that led to positive outcomes and reinforced Bahrains international status.

Shaikh Abdullah stressed that the royal directives to treat Bahrainis and foreigners alike are another fine example of HM the Kings humane approach. The Ambassador said that Bahrainis have been providing outstanding examples of sacrifice in the service of others.
New Delhi:

Home Minister Rajnath Singh today arrived in Islamabad to attend the SAARC Interior Ministers conference. During the meeting, Singh is expected to raise the issue of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, designated as global terrorist, and cross border terrorism.

Singh, who arrived on his maiden visit to Pakistan, has been accorded tight security amid threats from Lashker-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen terror groups against his visit.

The Home Minister was flown in a helicopter to the Serena hotel located in posh Islamabad locality. It is also the venue of todays meeting where Singh will be underlining the need for meaningful cooperation among South Asian countries.

Roads leading to the hotel have been heavily barricaded by the police and para-military forces to ward off any threat from terror groups.

Despite tight security, around 100 people gathered outside the hotel shouting anti-India slogans and protested against Singhs visit.

Before leaving for Islamabad to attend the day-long SAARC Home Ministers Conference, Singh said he was looking forward to underscore the imperative of meaningful cooperation within the region against terrorism and organised crime.

This conference provides a platform to discuss issues pertaining to security, said Singh, who is expected to tell Pakistan to stop sponsoring terror in India and rein in groups like Lashker-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

India has been demanding handing over of Dawood, who has been designated as a global terrorist by the anti-terror body of the United Nations, for running an organised crime syndicate from Pakistan.

Todays meeting is preceded by the 7th Meeting of the SAARC Interior/Home Secretaries which is being held today. The Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, who is leading the Indian delegation, has also arrived here.

Also there are possibilities of Singh having a bilateral meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in the wake of strain in Indo-Pak relations after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani in Jammu and Kashmir on July 8.

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WASHINGTON - A man who police said shot at the Cuban Embassy in on Thursday fired at least 32 rounds from an assault-style rifle and told police that he planned to shoot anyone who emerged from the building, according to documents filed in federal court.

The 42-year-old told federal authorities that he was born in Cuba and that he felt his family was in danger from the Cuban government and from Cuban organized crime, the filings said. He also told police that he heard voices and had undergone psychiatric treatment, the court documents said.

Police identified the suspect as Alexander Alazo and said he was from Aubrey, Texas, a town north of Dallas. Court records filed later said he and his family had recently moved to Middletown, Pennsylvania, just outside Harrisburg.

Alazo was charged in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia with attacking a foreign premises or official using a deadly weapon, interstate transport of a firearm and ammunition, and damaging property belonging to or occupied by a foreign government.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Harvey on Monday ordered Alazo detained pending trial, agreeing with prosecutors and probation officials that no release conditions could reasonably assure the public's safety.

"This is a very serious offense," Harvey said during a hearing held by teleconference. While noting that thee suspect is presumed innocent, Harvey said, "Some of the bullets did in fact penetrate the building. . . . It is just luck that someone was not harmed."

Tony Miles, a federal public defender, argued for Alazo to be released to the care of his wife, a nurse in a mental health unit in Pennsylvania, to be monitored electronically, and to get treatment.

Miles said that Alazo, a former massage therapist and ride-hail driver, had never before been arrested for a criminal offense and that he did not fire at or intend to harm "any person or particular individual."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stuart Allen said Alazo had recently sought mental health treatment but left a hospital early because "he didn't think he was that crazy."

Alazo a couple of weeks ago "drove from his home in Pennsylvania in the middle of the night, drove past the embassy, noted the Cuban flag there, then went home," Allen said, in what he suggested was a "dry run." In the early morning hours of April 30, prosecutors alleged, Alazo returned with the rifle, driving his SUV to the embassy.

Federal prosecutors said in court documents that he shouted, "Shoot me if you want to shoot me. I'm here. I'm American. I'm Yankee."

Authorities said he tried to burn a Cuban flag, which was doused in gasoline, but couldn't light it because it was raining. They said when no one came out of the embassy, he began firing.

Court documents say police arrested Alazo without incident and found a rifle on the sidewalk outside the embassy's front gate, along with 32 spent shell casings.

A surveillance picture included in the court documents shows a person firing at the embassy and another of the alleged gunman draped in an American flag as he is apprehended. Another picture shows the Cuban flag with writing: "STOP lyine to people Trump 2020 USA land and family."

The documents quote Alazo telling police he would have fired even had the chief of mission emerged. Alazo referred to the chief of mission as "the enemy." Prosecutors said Alazo knew people were inside the embassy.

The Cuban Embassy said on Twitter that no one was injured but the building had "material damage" that included walls, columns and a broken lamp.

Prosecutors said people were inside the embassy when the shooting occurred. They said some bullets penetrated the building and damaged property inside.

The court documents say Alazo told investigators that he had served in the Cuban army and later moved to Mexico. He told authorities that he came to the United States in 2007, claiming political asylum. He also said he had received threats from organized crime while preaching in a church in Cuba.

Authorities said Alazo told them he traded a handgun he had bought in Texas for the assault rifle in Loudoun County, Virginia.

"He wanted better protection for his family," police quoted him saying. Authorities said Alazo "stated he drove to Washington, D.C. on the night of April 29, 2020, because he wanted to get them before they got him."
It was supposed to be another banner year for Manitobas tourism industry.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 5/5/2020 (623 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was supposed to be another banner year for Manitobas tourism industry.

In 2018, the province was named among the Top 10 regions to visit in the world by Lonely Planet and last year the industry saw $1.64 billion in tourism spending with $100 million in growth expected in 2020.

"We were seeing a really promising year," said Colin Ferguson, president and chief executive officer of Travel Manitoba. "Obviously, until (coronavirus) hit."

Instead, the tourism marketing organization is hoping for the best outcome in a bad situation.

"The best-case scenario still sees us with a significant drop in revenue, in the $300 million range  and that would be terrific," Ferguson said.

In projections shared with industry partners last month, Travel Manitoba laid out two possible scenarios for the effect COVID-19 will have on tourism in the province.

If the pandemic is contained by summer, Manitoba will likely see a 25 per cent decrease in tourism spending this year and 6,099 jobs lost. In the worst-case scenario, if the pandemic is contained by the fall, the province could experience a 60 per cent decrease in spending and a loss of 10,373 of its roughly 30,000 tourism-related jobs.

"Its going to be a while for the tourism industry to recover from this," Ferguson said.

Operators and regions that rely heavily on international travellers are expected to be particularly hard-hit. That includes the tourism hot spot of Churchill, which draws most of its annual visitors from Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and China, says Ferguson.

"If everything goes really well that there could be a polar bear season, which starts mid-October," he said. "But its going to be contingent on international flights and whether theres enough consumer confidence."

Brian Kotak, executive director of the Manitoba Lodges and Outfitters Association, says this reality is already playing out for his members, some of whom have seen 75 per cent of their bookings cancelled for this season.

"That represents anywhere from, for small operators, $10,000 to half a million dollars," Kotak said, adding that the closure of the Canada-U.S. border has been "catastrophic" for his industry.

There are more than 400 resource tourism operators  which includes fishing lodges and hunting outfitters  in Manitoba and the bulk of guests come from the United States.

It's a difficult situation made worse by the fact that many operators don't qualify for financial relief programs because their season hasn't started and so they can't yet show a loss of income.

"Theyve had all the cancellations, but... they dont incur the financial liability of that until later in the summer," Kotak said. "It really puts them in a bind."

The northern Manitoba travel ban is another hurdle. While operators in the south can host hunters and fishers from within the province, those north of the 53rd parallel are hamstrung until travel is reinstated.

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One positive Kotak is seeing among responses to a MLOA survey is that most lodges are in a position to weather the storm brought on by COVID-19.

"Pretty much all of them have said, no, theyre not at risk of closing down," he said. "They might not be able to operate this year, but theyll definitely be around for next year."

At Travel Manitoba there is cautious optimism about the provincial government's phased reopening plan. With more freedom, Ferguson hopes residents will take advantage of local attractions and destinations, while following public health orders.

"With fewer opportunities to go somewhere else presents the opportunity for people to look and travel and explore in their own backyard," he said.

eva.wasney@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @evawasney
A senior military chaplain in the United States has been harshly criticized for sending fellow chaplains an email encouraging them to read John Piper's new book on the coronavirus issues. Twenty-two military chaplains are calling on a senior army chaplain to be disciplined and possibly court-martialed.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is being pushed by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), national legal organization, to punish Senior Chaplain Col. Moon H. Kim. Col. Kim is the command chaplain of U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys in South Korea, the largest U.S. military installation outside of the United States.

According to US Army, Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Moon Kim, a native of Seoul, was recognized for his two-year ministry with the Warrior Division, providing programs across the division like Strong Bonds, ASIST training, resiliency training and alliance-strengthening events to name a few.

During the Change of Stole Ceremony at the Warrior Chapel on June 21, 2018, he once stated, "I believe God has orchestrated this journey and pledged me here, which in itself motivated me to serve the lord and Warriors."

On Wednesday, Kim sent out an email containing an "unsolicited" PDF copy of John Piper's new book "Coronavirus and Christ" from his official military email address to 35 other chaplains.

The book in question, "Coronavirus and Christ," was written by popular evangelical author John Piper, the founder and senior teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem Bible College and Seminary.

A portion of 22 clients of MRFF included people from the LGBT community "do not subscribe to the ultra-conservative/Reformed/evangelical Christian theology of John Piper."

According to Michael Weinstein, founder and president of the MRFF, which advocates for a strict separation of church and state within the U.S. military, a number of Christian chaplains reached out to his organization after receiving the email. They sought the MRFF's representation due to fear that they would be subjected to "reprisal, retribution, revenge, and retaliation" if they had reached out without anonymity.

"The book, pushing the belief that the Coronavirus is God's judgment, is written by fundamentalist Christian preacher and author John Piper, and singles out, among other things, 'the sin of homosexual intercourse' as a deserving 'due penalty,'" Weinstein adds.

In Kim's email to his fellow chaplains, he wrote: "This book has helped me refocus my sacred calling to my savior Jesus Christ to finish strong. Hopefully, this small booklet would help you and your Soldiers, their Families and others who you serve."

Weinstein argues that Chaplain Kim's email was sent to his subordinate chaplains and that he was a "man in a position of substantial power and influence over them."

Therefore, MRFF says, the email violated the Department of Defense and Army equal employment opportunity policies.

Mike Berry, who is the general counsel for the First Liberty Institute, said Colonel Kim did not violate regulations by sending the email and was operating in accordance with his First Amendment Rights.

Berry told The Christian Post that, "The MRFF is not only going overboard, it is showing its true colors by asking the Pentagon to punish a chaplain for engaging in constitutionally protected activity." He added, "Congress has recently and repeatedly taken actions to protect chaplains to share their religious beliefs."

Berry made it clear that Colonel Kim will have their help if he asks for it. "First Liberty has won numerous cases similar to this before, and I'm very confident we would win this one too."
Consumer electronics giants like Samsung and LG have initiated pre-bookings of products via digital channels to help customers, who are at home during the lockdown, purchase items like smart TVs and home appliances that will be delivered later by local retailers.

Retail shops remained closed for more than a month due to the nationwide lockdown from March 25 which was imposed to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

With the government easing lockdown restrictions in the third phase starting from May 4, consumer durables makers are expecting a revival in the demand.

Both LG and Samsung have opened bookings for various products on their websites for limited periods and are offering gifts of up to Rs 10,000 on pre-bookings made during the lockdown period. LG has opened pre-bookings till May 15 and Samsung by May 8.

They are extending other incentives like no-cost EMIs and cashbacks apart from promising home delivery of products through their network of retail sales network.

"As a precaution against the spread of the pandemic, Samsung has made arrangements across its retail and distribution channel, to help consumers to pre-book products, without having to step out of their homes. They can book their Samsung products online on Samsung Shop for which express deliveries will be done from the nearest Samsung Authorised Retailer," the company said in a statement.

Under its 'Stay Home. Stay Happy Log in to Great Offers', Samsung is offering cashbacks on products like TVs, refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines and smart ovens.

It may be noted that consumer electronics companies see a major spike in sales of products like air conditioners, refrigerators and fans during the summer months. Given that these companies saw literally no sales in the 40-days of lockdown, they are keen to woo customers with the best offers to boost sales.

But the companies are also focussed on ensuring that they comply with the regulations. The current rules allow standalone shops to operate but malls are still mandated to remain closed. E-commerce companies are allowed to deliver all products in Orange and Green Zones but can ship only essential items like grocery, healthcare and pharmaceutical products in Red Zones.

Raju Pullan, Senior Vice President of Samsung India Consumer Electronics Business, said through the pre-book offer, the company wants to ensure that deliveries are made to consumers at the fastest pace.

"Through our pre-book offer on Samsung Shop, we want to ensure our consumers get the fastest delivery possible as per Government regulation on relaxation of lockdown from a Samsung authorised retailer nearest to them, without having to step out of their homes till normalcy returns," he said.

LG Electronics too, has started pre-booking for product categories in Home Appliances, Home Electronics and Mobile segment. It is offering cashback, Flexi EMIs and gift vouchers and free maintenance packages for its products to woo customers.

Products would be delivered by the companies soon as the restrictions are lifted by the authorities in different parts of the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Way back on March 11, John Struthers had already seen the future: to buffer the approaching coronavirus storm, Ontario courts needed to be closed immediately, full-stop.

Nearly two months later, with the courts indeed closed well into the summer, the president of the Criminal Lawyers Association is still making predictions. And what he sees for the rest of 2020: mostly empty courtrooms and an ever-growing case backlog.

In-person appearances will be very problematic in the courthouses until there is a vaccine or a reduction in transmission to extremely low levels, Struthers said last week hunkered down in his Muskoka home. There, he continues to represent clients in virtual court hearings  and the interests of the provinces 1,600 defence lawyers.

During the COVID-19 shutdown, legal officials have scrambled to use the court systems notoriously outdated technology to help ensure justice gets done in a fair and timely way. A priority has been given to bail hearings  an effort to reduce the population of the jails that Struthers describe as the long-term care homes of the justice system because of the potential for the disease to spread like wildfire. The number of inmates in provincial facilities has dropped to 5,300 from about 8,300.

But a backlog in other matters is building up. On Monday the Ontario Court of Justice announced it will now not reopen from its shutdown until at least the summer. The move, which affects criminal, family and Provincial Offences Act matters, means no trials or preliminary inquiries will be conducted until July 6 at the earliest. And that leaves up in the air the timing of thousands of pending trials, including those involving people who are incarcerated.

Before the COVID-19 crisis, the number of criminal cases awaiting resolution was already about 114,000, according to a 2019 provincial audit that found delays were prevalent across Ontarios courts.

Nevertheless, the head of the Ontario Crown Attorneys Association doesnt believe there should be a rush back into court.

The cost of exposure is far too high to proceed with physical re-entry in anything but an exceptionally cautious manner, Tony Loparco wrote in an email. The OCAA represents 850 assistant Crown attorneys and Crown counsel.

Just last week, Loparco noted, veteran Crown attorney Sandy Tse, 61, died of COVID-19. Tse, who devoted his life to public service, was counsel with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.

In an online note announcing the court was abandoning its initial plan to resume full operations on May 29, the Ontario Court of Justice said it will soon provide a detailed notice to the profession and public about all proceedings. The court, in the meantime, continues to adopt technology that will increase participants ability to assess the courts services using remote means.

There is one big impediment to positive change, Loparco noted in an email sent to the Star prior to the extension announced Monday. The ability to proceed by way of video in a reliable, safe and secure fashion is not, to my understanding, available in the robust way that would be needed to carry the very heavy load placed on the Ontario courts, he wrote.

On the legal front lines for 35 years, Struthers  one of Torontos top defence lawyers with 100-plus murder cases under his robes  also doesnt think Ontario will see jury trials held remotely or otherwise until well into 2021.

Last month, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice extended its suspension of jury trials to September, after initially pulling the plug on all operations, including civil and family proceedings, in mid-March.

Struthers doesnt think September is realistic. The court might be able to physically distance jurors throughout a courtroom during a trial, he said, but how do you select them and how do they deliberate?

How a staggered approach to reopening courthouses might work is now under consideration, Struthers says. This week in New Brunswick, that much smaller province is expected to hold two mock trials in Moncton to test social distancing in a court setting, CBC News reported. The number of people let into a courtroom would be limited and procedures  such as the swearing-in of witnesses  adapted to ensure the safety of everyone.

Four senior judges representing Ontarios three levels of courts recently appeared in an online webinar discussing the impact the pandemic has had on their jurisdictions. Whenever in-person court appearances resume, the jurists were unanimous: the crisis has been an opportunity to take a fresh approach to justice.

One of the silver linings... we feel that we have been booted into the 21st century of technology by this crisis, Ontario Court Justice Leslie Pringle said during the hour-long session.

Pringle sits on the bench at the 1000 Finch Ave. W. courthouse where some of 10 courts are running via streaming video and teleconferencing with only a court reporter and possibly the judge or justice of the peace physically present, and no members of the public attend.

One of the pluses of this system, Pringle said, is that lawyers keep their oral arguments to a minimum, in order to accommodate as many inmates as possible.

Ontario Court Associate Chief Justice Peter DeFreitas provided a big-picture view during the webinar, which was sponsored by LexisNexis Canada. On March 1, 240 provincial judges were presiding across Ontario. By the end of the month, the Ontario Court of Justice had 115 judges presiding, many not in court but doing judicial pretrials remotely.

The countrys busiest court now has 40 virtual courts handling bail and pleas, presided by justices of the peace and judges who are trying to balance the importance of people in custody against public health concerns, DeFreitas said. Most of the OCJ cases involve people  mainly men  locked in correctional facilities who appear on the phone or video hookup.

The plan is to expand video capacity to more than 100 courts over the next four to five weeks, DeFreitas said, adding the caveat that were still limited by the jails ability to put people in front of the camera.

But make no mistake, the coronavirus has turbocharged the justice system to find new ways to operate, DeFreitas said during the webinar.

We still have, until recently, people showing up in remand courts  you can have in a busy place 50, 60, 120 people sitting in a big courtroom, waiting to stand up for a very short period of time to ask that their matter come back in two weeks, he said, adding its just not going to be safe to do it that way.

He also acknowledged the big challenge ahead will be dealing with the case backlog, which will continue to grow over the next few months as long as people continue to commit crimes, and police continue to lay charges.

This is something were starting to look at, how to set those types of priorities, DeFreitas said. Those trials that ended in the middle in March, with accused in custody, will have a certain natural priority.

But ultimately, this is not going to be a flip the switch and were back to normal kind of process as we reopen. Its going to be gradual, DeFreitas said.

That was echoed by Frank Marrocco, Associate Chief Justice of the Superior Court, who told the legal audience watching the online panel there is no going back.

Until there is a vaccine, youre going to have the same problem, he said. Were not  (going to) start packing an assignment court with 100 people, when it all could have been done electronically. We wont be able to do that, not responsibly anyway.

Associate Chief Justice Alexandra Hoy, of the Ontario Court of Appeal, said the fact the provinces highest court sits in a single location  Toronto  permitted it to be nimbler when it came to overhauling its docket in the face of the lethal virus.

Non-urgent appeals were adjourned, which has created a backlog of about 100 appeals, she said. But counsel is being given an option of proceeding remotely or on consent in writing, so were in a new normal and were hearing a wide range of matters currently.
New Delhi:

In a huge setback for the Arvind Kejriwal Government, the Delhi High Court today held that the LG is the administrative head of National Capital Territory and the AAP Government's contention that he is bound to act on the advice of Council of Ministers was "without substance".



The decision comes after months-long turf war between LG Najeeb Jung and Kejriwal for the reins of Delhi.



A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath dismissed AAP Government's plea challenging the Centre's May 21, 2015, notification giving absolute powers to LG in appointing bureaucrats in the national capital.



The court also quashed several notifications issued by Kejriwal after returning to power last year, saying they were illegal as they were issued without concurrence of LG.



The bench, in its 194-page judgement, said the AAP Government's contention that the LG is bound to act on the aid and advice of Council of Ministers was "without substance and cannot be accepted".



After pronouncement of the verdict, the Delhi Government's senior standing counsel Rahul Mehra said they will immediately file a Special Leave Petition against the judgement in the Supreme Court.
She is the new girl on the Beverly Hills block but Sutton Stracke is already ruffling feathers with the Real Housewives.

The 48-year-old southern belle was only recently introduced into the Bravo universe as a friend of the Housewives, and just three episodes into season 10 of RHOBH she has made quite a splash.

Stracke joined DailyMailTV for an exclusive chat about what it's been like to see herself on the popular reality show and addressed her newly minted 'mean girl' moniker.

New drama: Sutton Stracke joined DailyMailTV for an exclusive chat about what it's been like to see herself on the popular reality show and addressed her newly minted 'mean girl' moniker

'They call it reality television for a reason,' Sutton said. 'It is real and so to live through it and now be watching it [has been] fun. It's exciting, it's terrifying.'

'Honestly, I think I do watch it like this: "oh, god, what am I going to say next? I kind of feel like she's a different person. Like, "what is she going to do now?"'

Sutton said that her foray into becoming a new Bravolebrity has had 'ups and downs' but she is navigating her way through with the help of Lisa Rinna, who Sutton called her 'wingman.'

'When I'm meeting a group of people, I'm more worried about myself - like how am I coming across? I don't want to offend anybody,' she explained.

'They call it reality television for a reason,' Sutton said. 'It is real and so to live through it and now be watching it [has been] fun. It's exciting, it's terrifying.'

Newcomer: Sutton said that her foray into becoming a new Bravolebrity has had its 'it's ups and downs' but she is navigating her way through with the help of Lisa Rinna, who Sutton called her 'wingman'

But, offend she did, Sutton's introduction was frosty at best, particularly with Teddi Mellencamp, who previously told DailyMailTV that the two had 'a rocky start.'

'I tell a pregnant woman that she's boring and make her cry,' Sutton reflected. Adding: 'That's awful. Who wants to do that? Nobody.'

The California transplant by way of New York is originally from the heart of the south, raised conservatively in Georgia.

Known in well-heeled circles for hosting epic, star-studded parties, viewers are now beginning to know Sutton as a bit of a pot stirrer.

Tough time: Sutton's introduction was frosty at best, particularly with Teddi Mellencamp, who previously told DailyMailTV that the two had 'a rocky start'

'I tell a pregnant woman that she's boring and make her cry,' she said, referring to Teddi (pictured). Adding: 'That's awful. Who wants to do that? Nobody.'

Fans have quickly branded Sutton as a bit of a villain, including fellow Bravo star Jackie Goldschneider from RHONJ who told DailyMailTV that she didn't like what she saw of Sutton on the show.

'Sutton, I'm not a big fan of,' Jackie admitted. 'I think she's she's a little too obnoxious. Listen, I mean, we're all like: sit down, be humble. I find her a little too uppity.'

She also caught some backlash on social media for seemingly 'disrespecting' Rihanna during one episode.

Stracke, however, swears all is not as it seems, particularly with Teddi.

Not making friends: Fans have quickly branded Sutton as a bit of a villain, including fellow Bravo star Jackie Goldschneider from RHONJ who told DailyMailTV that she didn't like what she saw of Sutton on the show

Rihanna Navy: She also caught some backlash on social media for seemingly 'disrespecting' Rihanna during one episode

'I think when you see what actually happened, it's different than what we've seen so far,' she revealed. 'I'm not a mean girl. I'm not.'

She added with a laugh: 'I might watch it with sunglasses on, very dark sunglasses on so I can just like barely see it.'

Currently, the new reality star will be watching season 10 from the confines of her mansion in Beverly Hills while quarantining with her kids.

Sutton has three children, 17-year-old daughter Porter and sons Christian, 15, and James, 12. After 17 years of marriage, she divorced her husband Christian in 2017.

'I think when you see what actually happened, it's different than what we've seen so far,' she revealed. 'I'm not a mean girl. I'm not.'

'I think that this is gonna be a really fun season', she said. 'There's a lot of stones being thrown at different directions and hopefully I think we come together as a group and as friends.'

'I think that this is gonna be a really fun season', she said. 'There's a lot of stones being thrown at different directions and hopefully I think we come together as a group and as friends.'

She added, however, the despite the bond they've forged, one of her favorite parts of being on the show is getting to glimpse how the Housewives really feel about her.

'What's interesting is to hear what they're saying about you behind your back,' she quipped.

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs Wednesday nights on Bravo.
A Florida nurse filed an equal opportunity complaint alleging her condo rental application was denied because her ICU job brings her in contact with novel coronavirus patients.

Jennifer Piraino said she submitted an application to rent a two-bedroom, two-bath condo at Boca View in Boca Raton where she planned to live with her boyfriend and 9-year-old-daughter. A few days later, she said the condo association called and told her to pick up the paperwork and the $100 money order for a background check.

When she asked why, she was told she was rejected just with everything going on. Piraino believes the company didnt even run a background check on her.

You cant discriminate against people trying to help other people, Piraino said. They wont take my calls or return my emails.

Greta Tremmel owns the unit Piraino wants to rent. On Friday, Tremmel organized a picket line of about a dozen people outside the apartments. The Palm Beach Post reports they carried signs reading ICU Hero Denied Housing and Shame on Boca View. Shame!!!!!

Eileen Breitkreutz has lived in the complex for 17 years. Shes also an emergency room nurse at Bethesda Hospital East. She said the property manager phoned her last month and asked if she had tested positive for COVID-19.

Its none of their business, she says she told him.

Eric Estebanez, the founder of the property management firm Pointe Management Group and condo association president Diana Kuka did not respond to requests for comment.

Piraino said her boyfriend is a civil engineer and that they both have good incomes. She said she cant think of any other reason besides her hospital job that would raise concern.

Tremmel filed a complaint on behalf of herself and Piraino with the Office of Equal Opportunity of Palm Beach County.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics COVID-19 Florida
Minnesota man Joshua David Fury, 28, has been charged with the murder of his wife Maria Fury, 28, after her body was found buried in the basement of their home on Saturday

A Minnesota man who claimed his wife had disappeared has been charged with murder after her strangled body was found buried in a crawlspace in their home.

Joshua David Fury, 28, has been charged with second-degree murder for allegedly strangling his wife Maria Pew Fury, 28, by putting a plastic bag over her head and burying her body, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Tuesday.

He had reported her missing on Thursday April 30, but her body was found two days later.

Police were dispatched to the couples Maple Grove home on the 11000 block of Red Fox Drive after Joshua claimed Maria had vanished and they found her cellphone inside.

A two-day large-scale search was launched with teams on the ground and searching by helicopter.

Police served a search warrant on Saturday May 2 at the couple's Maple Grove home where sniffer dogs detected human remains in a crawl space that was no more than four feet tall and had a dirt floor in the basement.

The body of Maria Pew Fury, 28, was found in a crawl space in their Minnesota home's basement on Saturday, two days after Joshua reported her missing to police on Thursday April 30

Investigator interviews found the couple was having marital problems, Fury was 'controlling and possessive' and Maria intended to leave him

A second search warrant allowed police to dig in the crawl space and her body was found about 1.30am Saturday after hours of digging.

Police found the preliminary cause of death to be asphyxiation from a plastic bag taped over her head and nose.

Investigator interviews with Marias family, friends and mother found that the couple was having marital problems and Fury was 'controlling and possessive'.

Maria's mother said her daughter was going to leave him.

Fury was arrested and at first gave multiple statements insisting that he didnt harm his wife and cast blame on one of her former boyfriends.

He eventually confessed that he killed Maria by strangling her, putting a plastic bag over her head and burying her body, police said.

Police were dispatched to the couples Maple Grove home on the 11000 block of Red Fox Drive (above) last week following Joshua's missing report and a massive two-day search was launched for Maria. Her body was found Saturday buried in a crawl space in the basement of the home

A missing person poster for Maria that was shared on social media pictured above

He told investigators that he suffers from depression and attempted to commit suicide following the murder.

He expected to make his first court appearance in the death of his wife on Wednesday. Prosecutors will be seeking bail of $2million.

Maria Fury's parents, Lissa Weimelt and Bill Pew, condemned Fury's murder as a 'horrific, unthinkable crime'.

'Maria Pew is a victim of a horrific, unthinkable crime. But we will not allow her to be remembered that way; Maria would hate it if the world saw her as a victim. Maria was so much more. She was our daughter, our niece, our cousin, our friend; she loved her family and was fiercely loyal. A happy, strong, resilient, supportive, and caring individual, Maria did so much in her 28 years. But she also left behind hopes and dreams, and she left undone infinite possibilities,' they said in a family statement.

The family is asking that people consider supporting Cornerstone, an organization that works with families experiencing domestic violence and have started a fundraiser to support to group in Maria's name.
Amaravati, May 5 : Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday reported 67 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the state's total virus count to 1,717, a health official said.

Accoring to the state nodal officer, of the 8,263 samples tested during the 24-hours ending Tuesday morning, 67 positive cases were detected. However, 14 of the cases have been identified as samples of persons who returned from Gujarat.

Meanwhile, Kurnool district continues to lead as the state's COVID-19 hotspot, with 25 cases reported for the second consecutive day on Tuesday. With this, the district's overall tally has crossed the 500-mark, and stands at 516.

On Tuesday, Guntur district reported 12 cases, Krishna district reported 8 cases, Anantapur, Kadapa, and Visakhapatnam districts reported 2 cases each, while one case was detected in Nellore district. 14 of the cases were identified as samples belonging to people from Gujarat. About 880 stranded fishermen belonging to AP had recently been brought back from Gujarat on Sunday.

Over the last 24 hours, six of the state's 13 districts did not report any new cases. Vizianagaram is the only district in the state that has not reported COVID-19 cases till date.

Over the last 24 hours, 65 persons were cured and discharged from hospital, while one person was reported dead, taking the death toll in the state to 34.

Apart from Kurnool district, other hotspots in AP include Guntur district with 351 cases, Krishna district with 286 cases, and Nellore with 92 cases. Other districts which have high numbers of covid cases include Kadapa, Chittoor, Anantapur and Prakasam districts.

While the cumulative tally of COVID-19 cases in AP stands at 1,717, with 589 persons discharged and 34 deaths, the active number of cases stands at 1,094.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Editor-in-chief announced the first 'Forces For Change' event in March

Princess Sofia of Sweden and an Oxford University doctor who is leading the coronavirus vaccine race have been named as among Vogue's first Forces For Change for April.

Edward Enninful, 47, and the Duchess of Sussex, 38, collaborated on September's special 'Forces for Change' edition, which featured a grid of 15 'incredible' women on the cover with articles commissioned by the royal inside.

Now the magazine have named five further women whom they consider 'change-makers' making 'a positive contribution to society'.

The editor-in-chief had previously declared Meghan Markle's principle 'a movement', with the magazine hosting their first Forces for Change event in March.

British Vogue have named five new Forces For Change for April, including Princess Sofia of Sweden, 35, who has retrained as a healthcare assistant to work during the coronavirus pandemic

British Vogue announced that they would be naming five change-makers each month in a similar spirit to Meghan's idea for the Forces for Change issue.

While in September, the Duchess was criticised for selecting high profile celebrities and friend, Vogue's latest batch of women including British commissioners demanding better support for victims of domestic abuse, and South Korean women's group championing the #MeToo movement.

Among those individuals include Dr Sara Gilbert, who is leading the charge to create a coronavirus vaccine at Oxford University.

The expert, who has been leading a team of researchers in pursuit of a vaccine, is a Professor of Vaccinology at the university and specialises in the development of vaccines against influenza and emerging viral pathogens.

The Forces for Change idea was championed by Meghan Markle, 38, who introduced the idea in the September issue of the magazine (pictured with Edward Enninful during a photoshoot for the magazine)

Meanwhile others on the list include Princess Sofia of Sweden, who underwent training as a medical assistant in April in order to support healthcare staff working on the frontline of the pandemic.

She is currently supporting staff as well as taking on cleaning duties at Stockholms Sophiahemmet hospital, of which she is patron.

The magazine also highlighted women's rights groups in South Korea, as well as victims commissioner Dame Vera Baird and the domestic abuse commissioner Nicole Jacobs for their work calling for more refuge spaces for victims of domestic abuse.

In March, Edward Enninful held the first 'Forces For Change' event in London, which took place days before Meghan returned to the UK to wrap up royal duties.

Others included in the Vogue's Forces for Change for April is Professor Sarah Gilbert, who is leading a team of researchers at Oxford University looking for a coronavirus vaccine

Victims commissioner Dame Vera Baird (left) and the domestic abuse commissioner Nicole Jacobs for their work calling for more refuge spaces for victims of domestic abuse (right)

Earlier this year, it was announced the September issue of the magazine sold out in 10 days and was the biggest selling issue of the past decade.

Meghan selected 15 'trailblazers' and 'changemakers' to appear on her front cover.

The line-up of women she admires included celebrities, politicians and activists known for championing issues such as diversity, body positivity, transgender rights and climate change.

British Vogue's Editor-in-chief Edward announced the 'first ever' Forces For Change event, inspired by Meghan's September issue in March (pictured together celebrating the magazine's success)

And Edward spoke of the success of the issue earlier this year, branding the Duchess of Sussex's Forces For Change initiative 'not a moment, but a movement.'

He described the response to the September edition, which was released on August 2, as 'phenomenal,' before declaring the idea would be continued in every issue.

Meghan's role as guest editor represents one of the most radical moves in Vogue's 100-year history, with the magazine saying it considers the new September issue to be its most important edition of its year.
[May 05, 2020] Vynca and PREPARE for Your Care Partner to Make Easy-to-Read Advance Directives Digitally Available to Healthcare Providers

PALO ALTO, Calif. and SAN FRANCISCO, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- During the Coronavirus pandemic, advance care planning is more important than ever. That's why Vynca, the nation's leading advance care planning technology solution has teamed up with PREPARE for Your Care (PREPARE), an evidenced-based, person-centered, multi-media advance care planning program that uses video stories to guide individuals through the process of choosing a medical decision maker, preparing for medical decision making, and completing easy-to-read advance directives in English and Spanish for all 50 states. The two organizations have partnered to make digital advance care planning more accessible to individuals and healthcare providers. Vynca clients will now have access to all of PREPARE's online materials. Clinicians and patients can store completed PREPARE advance directives on the Vynca platform so they can be made digitally available across the Vynca network. Vynca will also verify that all important fields on the directive are completed. "During this pandemic, many hospitalized people may not be able to speak for themselves, and sadly, family and friends cannot visit," states Rebecca Sudore, MD, Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and creator and founder of PREPARE. "People are pitching in and giving back in so many ways. Doing advance care planning is one important way to give back to our family, friends, communities and frontline medical providers." Vynca currently houses more than 1 million active advance care plans. Partnering with over 100 hospitals, as well as health plans, ACOs, medical groups and state registries across 14 states, these organizations are realizing an impact in terms of higher quality of care atthe end-of-life and the avoidance of unwanted health care interventions.



"In light of COVID-19, frontline physicians are urging people to create advance care plans," stated Ryan Van Wert, M.D., co-founder and CEO of Vynca. "Engaging patients in advance care planning and accessing care plans should be a top priority for all healthcare organizations. PREPARE's advance directive is geared towards the most vulnerable populations. Making sure these advance directives are available to clinicians during this time helps prioritize ICU beds and the allocation of ventilators to those who truly want them." About Vynca

Vynca, based in Palo Alto, Calif., provides comprehensive advance care planning technology solutions that enable health care organizations to deliver high-quality end-of-life care consistent with an individual's preferences. The company helps patients, families and health care providers have meaningful conversations about future care preferences, ensure that wishes are documented accurately, and provides real-time access to this critical information throughout the care continuum. Vynca is also the leading solution provider for state advance care planning registries, having first partnered with the Oregon POLST Registry to develop a bi-directional electronic interface for health care organizations in Oregon. It is also the technology vendor for the California POLST eRegistry Pilot, the Delaware DMOST Registry, the Louisiana LaPOST Registry, and the South Carolina Registry. Follow Vynca on LinkedIn and Twitter @VyncaHealth. About PREPARE for Your Care PREPARE for Your Care is an online resource that helps people learn about and prepare for medical decision making. This evidenced-based tool features video stories in English and Spanish, and guides users as they explore their wishes and learn how to discuss them with family, friends and medical providers. The website also offers PREPARE written pamphlets, as well as a toolkit to help put on a PREPARE Group Movie Event. These Movie Events can be used in group medical visits and in the community, in-person or in videoconferencing. PREPARE also offers easy-to-read, legally binding advance directives for all 50 states in English and Spanish. Check out PREPARE here: www.prepareforyourcare.org. Contact: Emelia Altschul, 914.260.1621, [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vynca-and-prepare-for-your-care-partner-to-make-easy-to-read-advance-directives-digitally-available-to-healthcare-providers-301052521.html SOURCE Vynca, LLC

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Linkedin Stuart Williams and Joseph Schmid (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France  Tue, May 5, 2020 09:34 624 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd5f6839 2 World France,coronavirus,virus-corona,COVID-19,COVID-19-death-toll,COVID-19-lockdown,COVID-19-quarantine,pandemic Free

France on Monday reached the grim milestone of over 25,000 coronavirus deaths as its prime minister defended the government's plan for easing a lockdown in the face of bitter criticism.

The French are due to emerge on May 11 from a lockdown that began in mid-March to combat the virus, with some schools reopening in a strategy different to other European countries.

Signs have grown that the epidemic is slowing in France although a spike in the daily death toll Monday to 306 -- more than double the day earlier -- propelled its total number of dead past 25,000 to 25,201.

But according to the latest health ministry figures, the more positive recent trends continued, with 123 fewer patients suffering from the coronavirus in intensive care to make a total of 3,696 receiving such urgent treatment.

Nationwide, there were also 267 fewer patients in hospital for coronavirus treatment, making a total of 25,548, it added.

France is now the fifth country to have recorded over 25,000 coronavirus deaths after Britain, Italy, Spain and the United States.

'Economic life must resume'

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe rejected concerns that the government is moving too fast especially by reopening schools, a move that puts France out of step with some other EU countries.

"This confinement was necessary to meet the emergency, but its social and economic cost is colossal," he told the Senate.

"We're at a decisive moment, we cannot remain in confinement," he said. "Economic life must resume imperatively and quickly."

The government is impatient to relaunch activity, already forecasting that the economy will contract eight percent this year in its worst postwar performance.

But on Sunday, more than 300 mayors from the greater Paris region, including Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, penned an open letter to President Emmanuel Macron urging him to delay school returns, saying they need more time for the vast reorganization of classrooms and daily routines.

Among the myriad new measures is a limit of just 15 students per class, which could require teachers to ensure distance learning for those unable to come to school.

"Preparations for the end of the lockdown are being imposed at a forced march, even though we still lack the necessary information," the mayors wrote.

'Catastrophe for vulnerable'

In a sign that the national political consensus that emerged during the epidemic is crumbling, the Senate upper house, where the right-wing opposition is the biggest force, voted Monday against endorsing the government's plan.

The vote had mainly symbolic weight as it cannot halt the measures for easing the lockdown decreed by the government.

Philippe said school closures had been a "catastrophe for the most vulnerable children and adolescents", adding that academic failure and dropouts risked becoming a "time bomb".

Speaking at the Elysee Palace, Macron said final details of the post-lockdown plan would be unveiled Thursday, adding that he "understood all the worries".

Lifting the lockdown is "an indispensable step" but "it's not a return to normal," he said.

Striking a downbeat note, he said "we must learn to live with this virus" until a reliable treatment or vaccine is produced.

The government was also facing fresh criticism over the cost and availability of face masks, which officially went on sale to the public Monday.

The head of the right-wing Senate faction, Bruno Retailleau, warned that "no-one can say that next week there will be enough masks to protect all the French."

Philippe rejected claims by health workers who have accused retailers of building up stocks, even as many hospitals are still scrambling to secure enough to cope with the wave of COVID-19 cases.

"There were never any hidden stocks: Huge orders were placed, and it takes a certain amount of time before they can be made available," he said.
An image from an electron microscope shows SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Scientists say this coronavirus has mutated and become more contagious. (Associated Press)

Scientists have identified a new strain of the coronavirus that has become dominant worldwide and appears to be more contagious than the versions that spread in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study led by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The new strain appeared in February in Europe, migrated quickly to the East Coast of the United States and has been the dominant strain across the world since mid-March, the scientists wrote.

In addition to spreading faster, it may make people vulnerable to a second infection after a first bout with the disease, the report warned.

The 33-page report was posted Thursday on BioRxiv, a website that researchers use to share their work before it is peer-reviewed, an effort to speed up collaborations with scientists working on COVID-19 vaccines or treatments. That research has been largely based on the genetic sequence of earlier strains and might not be effective against the new one.

Scientists with major organizations working on a vaccine or drugs to combat the coronavirus have told The Times that they are pinning their hopes on initial evidence that the virus is stable and not likely to mutate the way the influenza virus does, requiring a new vaccine every year. The Los Alamos report could upend that assumption.

The mutation identified in the new report affects the now-infamous spikes on the exterior of the coronavirus, which allow it to enter human respiratory cells. The report's authors said they felt an "urgent need for an early warning" so that vaccines and drugs under development around the world will be effective against the mutated strain.

In many places where the new strain appeared, it quickly infected far more people than the earlier strains that came out of Wuhan, China, and within weeks it was the only strain that was prevalent in some nations, according to the report. The new strain's dominance over its predecessors suggests that it is more infectious, according to the report, though exactly why is not yet known.

Story continues

The coronavirus, known to scientists as SARS-CoV-2, has infected more than 3.5 million people around the world and caused more than 250,000 COVID-19 deaths since its discovery late last year.

The report was based on a computational analysis of more than 6,000 coronavirus sequences from around the world collected by the Global Initiative for Sharing All Influenza Data, a public-private organization in Germany. Time and again, the analysis found the new version was transitioning to become dominant.

The Los Alamos team, assisted by scientists at Duke University and the University of Sheffield in England, identified 14 mutations. Those mutations occurred among the nearly 30,000 base pairs of RNA that make up the coronavirus's genome. The report authors focused on a mutation called D614G, which is responsible for the change in the virus' spikes.

"The story is worrying, as we see a mutated form of the virus very rapidly emerging, and over the month of March becoming the dominant pandemic form," study leader Bette Korber, a computational biologist at Los Alamos, wrote on her Facebook page. "When viruses with this mutation enter a population, they rapidly begin to take over the local epidemic, thus they are more transmissible."

Scientists' reaction to the study were mixed Tuesday.

Charles Brenner, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Iowa who has conducted research on how cells defend themselves against viruses, called the Los Alamos report a useful paper. Teams around the world working to develop vaccines "would be watching papers like this very carefully."

Brenner noted that the study did not show the mutation makes people sicker, but found more of the virus present in sick people, "suggesting that it replicates better." The new strain of the virus is likely to be used for vaccine generation, he said.

Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of Texas Childrens Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, called the new study noteworthy but said its conclusions require further investigation.

"There is a lot of speculation here, Hotez said. They have no experimental verification.

The Los Alamos report contains regional breakdowns of when the new strain of the virus first emerged and how long it took to become dominant.

Italy was one of the first countries to see the new virus in the last week of February, almost at the same time that the original strain appeared. Washington was among the first states to get hit with the original strain in late February, but by March 15 the mutated strain dominated. New York was hit by the original virus around March 15, but within days the mutant strain took over. The team did not report results for California.

If the pandemic fails to wane seasonally as the weather warms, the study warns, the virus could undergo further mutations even as research organizations prepare the first medical treatments and vaccines. Without getting on top of the risk now, the effectiveness of vaccines could be limited.

Some of the compounds in development are supposed to latch onto the spike or interrupt its action. If they were designed based on the original version of the spike, they might not be effective against the new coronavirus strain, the study's authors warned.

"We cannot afford to be blindsided as we move vaccines and antibodies into clinical testing," Korber wrote on Facebook. "Please be encouraged by knowing the global scientific community is on this, and we are cooperating with each other in ways I have never seen  in my 30 years as a scientist."

David Montefiori, a Duke University scientist who worked on the report, said it is the first to document a mutation in the coronavirus that appears to make it more infectious.

Although the researchers dont yet know the details about how the mutated spike behaves inside the body, its clearly doing something that gives it an evolutionary advantage over its predecessor and is fueling its rapid spread. One scientist called it a classic case of Darwinian evolution.

"D614G is increasing in frequency at an alarming rate, indicating a fitness advantage relative to the original Wuhan strain that enables more rapid spread," the study said.

Still unknown is whether this mutant virus could account for regional variations in how hard COVID-19 is hitting different parts of the world.

In the United States, doctors had begun to independently question whether new strains of the virus could account for the differences in how it has infected, sickened and killed people, said Alan Wu, a UC San Francisco professor who runs the clinical chemistry and toxicology laboratories at San Francisco General Hospital.

Medical experts have speculated in recent weeks that they were seeing at least two strains of the virus in the U.S., one prevalent on the East Coast and another on the West Coast, according to Wu.

We are looking to identify the mutation, he said, noting that his hospital has had only a few deaths out of the hundreds of cases it has treated, which is quite a different story than we are hearing from New York."

The Los Alamos study does not indicate that the new version of the virus is more lethal than the original. People infected with the mutated strain appear to have higher viral loads. But the study's authors from the University of Sheffield found that among a local sample of 447 patients, hospitalization rates were about the same for people infected with either virus version.

Even if the new strain is no more dangerous than the others, it could still complicate efforts to bring the pandemic under control. That would be an issue if the mutation makes the virus so different from earlier strains that people who have immunity to them would not be immune to the new version.

If that is indeed the case, it could make "individuals susceptible to a second infection," the study authors wrote.

Peter Pitts, president of the nonpartisan Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, and former FDA associate commissioner, said the emergence of a mutation is not surprising, but it does increase the urgency to protect the public through social isolation and other measures.

"It clearly means that we are up against a wily virus," he said.

Times staff writer Anita Chabria contributed to this report.
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WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Baltimore, Maryland-based Medifast, Inc. is recalling certain Optavia Oatmeal products citing undeclared milk, a known allergen, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a statement. The recall involves around 24,923 boxes of OPTAVIA Essential Old Fashioned Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal. The product is packaged in yellow and white cardboard boxes with the brand name. Each box contains 7 individual serving packets of 32 grams. The recalled products' lot numbers are RP1048870 and RP1048871 with 'Best By' date of January 8, 2021, and RP1048886 with 'Best By' date of January 9, 2021. The product was shipped to customers throughout the United States from January 23 to April 27. It was found that these packets inadvertently contained undeclared traces of milk following a customer complaint. The company hasn't received more complaints on this. The customers with allergy to milk run the risk of a serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume this product. The recall excludes all other Medifast or OPTAVIA products. Consumers are urged to destroy the product or contact Medifast for a replacement. In similar incidents, Whole Foods Market, the supermarket chain owned by e-commerce giant Amazon, in early March had called back select Green Chile Chicken Tamales due to the presence of undeclared milk. Last week, Mondelez Global LLC recalled RITZ Cheese Cracker Sandwiches over undeclared peanut. Similarly, the presence of undeclared sulfites caused Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. to recall Pink Lite Cranberry Juice Drink in late April. 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.
Victoria's deputy chief health officer did not breach the department's code of conduct when she likened the COVID-19 to Captain Cook's arrival in Australia.

But she has since been spoken to about the potential for social media use to undermine community trust in the public service and has deleted Twitter from her work phone.

Deputy Chief Health Officer Annaliese van Diemen faced calls to resign last week, following her controversial tweet posted on the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook's landing.

Victoria's Deputy Chief Health Officer Annaliese van Diemen (pictured) has avoided punishment after likening the arrival of Captain James Cook to Australia with the COVID-19 pandemic

'Sudden arrival of an invader from another land, decimating populations, creating terror. Forces the population to make enormous sacrifices & completely change how they live in order to survive. COVID-19 or Cook 1770?' she tweeted.

Liberal backbencher James Newbury referred the tweet to the state's public service watchdog, who released its investigation into the matter on Tuesday.

It found Dr van Diemen did not breach the Department of Health's code of conduct in posting in the tweet.

Department of Health secretary Kym Peake said Dr van Diemen was spoken to about the risks of social media use when working in the public sector.

'The risks of private use of social media when working in the public sector, and in particular when occupying a role that involves high profile public communication, have been discussed with Dr van Diemen,' said the letter from the Victorian Public Service Commission.

'In addition, Ms Peake has advised the Commission that Dr van Diemen recognises the risk of diverting attention from the critical public health messages to the community and has subsequently removed her Twitter account from her phone.'

It was ruled Dr van Diemen did not breach the the department's code of conduct with the post (pictured) but she was spoken to about the dangers of social media

In a statement, the Department of Health said it will not be taking any formal disciplinary action.

'The department supports Dr van Diemen and the incredible role she has played and will continue to play, in fighting this virus,' a spokeswoman said.

The incident, however, has prompted a review of the department's social media guidelines.

Treasurer Tim Pallas said Dr van Diemen was doing an 'exceptional job' in responding to the pandemic.

'I don't think that it's a matter worthy of any great comment or scrutiny and certainly not criticism from the government,' he told reporters on Tuesday.

Mr Newbury said Dr van Diemen should apologise or delete the tweet.

'A real sign of remorse would be to delete it,' he told 3AW.

'Victorians shouldn't be paying public servants to be Left-wing political activists, it's really that easy.'
SAN DIEGO and LEUVEN, Belgium, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Roswell Biotechnologies, Inc., the leader in molecular electronics sensor chips, and imec, a world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies, announced today a partnership to develop the first commercially available molecular electronics biosensor chips. These chips are the brains behind Roswell Technologies' powerful new platform for DNA sequencing, to support precision medicine, molecular diagnostics, rapid infectious disease testing, and DNA data storage.

"The urgent need for a new generation of rapid, low-cost, consumer surveillance and diagnostics tools has been made extremely clear in the current COVID-19 pandemic," said Roswell President & CEO Paul Mola. "In that area, the Roswell molecular electronic platform will transform the way infectious diseases are detected, with powerful new capabilities that enable, rapid screening of many infectious diseases at once, or many viral strains, with portable or handheld devices."

The Roswell platform is the first to deliver the power of molecular electronic sensing, to support a full spectrum of DNA sequencing and biosensing applications. This includes the spectrum of tests necessary for the detection and containment of infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, including sequencing, nucleic acid detection, antigen detection and antibody detection. The platform was also designed with the scalability to provide the solution for rapid, low-cost whole genome sequencing in precision medicine, for treating cancer and other diseases, as well as for reading massive amounts of digital data stored in DNA, which is envisioned as the future of archiving data at the global scale.

Molecular electronic sensor chips integrate single molecules as electrical sensor elements on standard semiconductor chips, making electronic biosensor devices massively scalable. While electronic biosensors have seen gradual adoption in DNA sequencing and other areas of testing, there have been no major innovations in the basic sensor technology. The Roswell molecular electronics sensors represent an entirely new class of sensors, specifically designed to be maximally compatible with modern CMOS chip technology, delivering a technological breakthrough that significantly increases performance and lowers costs. This advance allows low-cost, high speed biomedical tests, including DNA sequencing and other forms of biomarkers sensing essential to modern medical diagnostics, to be deployed on simple portable or handheld devices.

"Although molecular electronics has long been hailed as a scientific breakthrough, its commercial viability required the technology to be put on a standard semiconductor chip," said Roswell Chief Science Officer Dr. Barry Merriman. "One of the significant hurdles to commercializing molecular electronics is the need for costly customized solutions for large scale manufacturing. Imec has overcome those challenges by utilizing state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing technology coupled with its deep experience in biosensor technology to commercialize molecular electronics using standard tools. We are excited to be partnering with imec on this effort."

Imec and Roswell have successfully completed key proof-of-concept work and are now focused on final process development. The initial products are expected to be commercially available in 2021.

"Building on its leadership in advanced process development for the semiconductor industry, imec has pushed the limits of what is possible. This next-generation sensor, poised to disrupt bio-sensing, benefits from our broad expertise to solve the manufacturing hurdles," said Dr. Ashesh Ray Chaudhuri, team leader of life science technologies at imec.

Dr. Simone Severi, program director for life science technologies at imec, added, "Our partnership with Roswell is a great example of how imec is leveraging its leadership in state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing technology to make next-generation life-science instrumentation possible. We are very excited to collaborate with Roswell on the integration of their molecular electronics sensor and developing the fastest route to achieving large scale commercial manufacturing of their sensor chips. It is especially motivating to use our skills to make a direct impact in important areas of medicine, such as genome sequencing and infectious disease monitoring, as well as to open up new sectors such as DNA storage of Exabyte scale DNA."

About Roswell Biotechnologies

Roswell Biotechnologies, Inc. is the leading developer of molecular electronics for chip-based DNA sequencing and biosensing. The company's platform technology reduces the cost and complexity of DNA sequencing to address large markets in infectious disease surveillance and containment, precision medicine, molecular diagnostics, and DNA digital data storage. Roswell Biotechnologies' patented molecular electronics biosensor chip is the first to integrate molecular elements into semiconductor chips, by combining the latest advances in sensors and nanotechnology, to fundamentally advance the application of DNA sequencing and biosensing. Founded in 2014, the privately held company is headquartered in San Diego, California.

About imec

Imec is a world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies. The combination of our widely acclaimed leadership in microchip technology and profound software and ICT expertise is what makes us unique. By leveraging our world-class infrastructure and local and global ecosystem of partners across a multitude of industries, we create groundbreaking innovation in application domains such as healthcare, smart cities and mobility, logistics and manufacturing, energy and education.

As a trusted partner for companies, start-ups and universities we bring together more than 4,500 brilliant minds from over 95 nationalities. Imec is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium and has distributed R&D groups at a number of Flemish universities, in the Netherlands, Taiwan, USA, and offices in China, India and Japan. In 2019, imec's revenue (P&L) totaled 640 million euro. Further information on imec can be found at www.imec-int.com.

Imec is a registered trademark for the activities of IMEC International (a legal entity set up under Belgian law as a "stichting van openbaar nut"), imec Belgium (IMEC vzw supported by the Flemish Government), imec the Netherlands (Stichting IMEC Nederland, part of Holst Centre which is supported by the Dutch Government), imec Taiwan (IMEC Taiwan Co.) and imec China (IMEC Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.) and imec India (Imec India Private Limited), imec Florida (IMEC USA nanoelectronics design center).

SOURCE Roswell Biotechnologies, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.roswellbiotech.com/


Certain sections of economists and academicians have suggested various measures such as an incentive package for exporters and relaxation to businesses for delayed GST payment, with a view to help the economy tide over the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The recommendations are part of a report titled 'COVID-19: Challenges for the Indian Economy - Trade and Foreign Policy Effects'.

The Engineering Export Promotion Council of India (EEPC India) in a statement said it is an initiative where 40 economists and academics of Indian and international institutions have written their assessment of the economic, social and political impact of COVID-19.

The Council said it would brainstorm various ideas and assessments.

Nitya Nanda, director of Council for Social Development, suggested that the government could allow delayed depositing of GST, "say, one more month to deposit GST dues without any penalty".

Businesses may be allowed to deposit only a part of the GST dues and retain the balance that can be adjusted against the input credit, Nanda said.

Sanjib Pohit, professor, National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), said that a cut in intermediate tax during this time would definitely help the economy.

It is essential that the Union government transfers the states' share of GST amount due immediately, Pohit said adding that the Centre should be proactive in releasing the GST due amount of firms immediately.

Another academician has stated that the government should invest heavily on infrastructure like power, roads, ports, and water possibly in a public-private partnership (PPP) mode to motivate the private sector to have some ownership of the infrastructure for long-term sustainability.

Sacchidananda Mukherjee, associate professor, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), has stated that on revenue mobilisation, the government may consider acceleration of disinvestment programmes, auction of licences of natural resources extraction and utilisation (such as 5G spectrum and coal blocks) and reduction of unproductive subsidies.

Another writer has recommended that the exporter community will need to be given "big incentives and stimulus" to overcome the challenges in tough times.

The ASEAN-India Centre (AIC) at Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) in collaboration with the EEPC has produced this report.

It has also mentioned that views expressed by the authors in the report are their own and do not represent the views of the AIC, RIS or EEPC India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Central government is likely to operate 64 flights from 7 to 13 May to bring home around 14,800 Indian nationals stranded abroad because of the coronavirus lockdown said senior government officials on Tuesday.

AFP

These special flights would be operated by Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express to repatriate Indians from 12 countries - the UAE, the UK, the US, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Bangladesh Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman as said by the officials.

India has been under lockdown since 25 March to curb the spread of the coronavirus and it will continue till May 17. All other passenger flights have been suspended for this period.

Therefore, the Ministry of Home Affairs has announced on Monday that it will facilitate the return of asymptomatic Indian nationals stranded abroad from 7 May onwards, in a phased manner, through aircraft and naval ships on a payment basis.

Between May 7 and 13, India is likely to conduct 10 flights to the UAE, seven flights each to the US and the UK, five to Saudi Arabia, five to Singapore and two flights to Qatar, the officials told PTI.

It is also likely to conduct seven flights each to Malaysia and Bangladesh, five each to Kuwait and Philippines, two each to Oman and Bahrain as per the officials note.

Representative Image AFP

Out of the 64 repatriation flights, 15 would be from Kerala, 11 each would be from Delhi and Tamil Nadu, seven each would be from Maharashtra and Telangana, and remaining flights would be from five other states, as per officials said.

"Approximately 14,800 Indian nationals are likely to return to the country through these 64 flights during the seven-day period. The government will run more repatriation flights after 13 May," one of the officials said.

The coronavirus has infected more than 46,400 people and around 1,560 have succumbed to death till now.
A COVID-19 patient in New York died after amateur medical residents rushed to the front line of the outbreak and set her ventilator too high.

The patient, in her 60s, was being treated for on an overnight shift at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx last April by family medicine residents who were not properly taught how to operate the respiratory support machine.

The report of the woman's tragic death came amid news by The Wall Street Journal regarding how medical residents who were previously training to be psychiatrists, family physicians, and even dentists have been ordered to the front lines of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Residents are doctors who are medical school graduates that are specializing in a distinct field by shadowing experienced doctors for their training.

During times of emergency, such as the coronavirus pandemic, residents can be assigned in the emergency department and ICUs to meet the demand for doctors, even though the work may not be in their specialty area.

According to New York City doctors residents, novel coronavirus patients are dying while they are demanded to work on intensive care units (ICUs) with no prior training in the field.

Trainees at Elmhurst in Brooklyn remarked that patients had died after being left floundering for days because they were not designated to a team.

The family-medicine residents who cared for the woman on the overnight shift were not required to do a rotation in critical care.

When the patient's disease aggravated overnight and the said young doctors hooked her up to a ventilator, they inadvertently turned the device up too high, stopping her heart.

Also Read: Tom Hanks Shares Photos of His Bag of Donated Plasma

Other residents including those training to be ophthalmologists, dentists, and podiatrists have also been demanded to the front line because New York City's doctors are stretched direly thin.

Upon the woman's heart stopping, doctors rushed into her room and discovered the ventilator had been set too high. A doctor then questioned two residents if they knew how to control the ventilator and they answered no.

One critical care physician in charge of the patient's 36-bed unit rushed into the room when the woman's heart stopped last April.

It was reported that residents are unlikely to decline the responsibility as this could jeopardize their chances of getting employed and they lacked support from a union.

Medical residents at Montefiore Medical Center are reportedly largely being designated to patients who are 65 and older, while younger patients who have more potential to survive the coronavirus are receiving treatment from experienced doctors and nurses.

The NYC hospital referred The Journal to an outside public relations consultant when contacted for comment on the story, but they did not receive a response.

Meanwhile, at Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut, anesthesiology residents were assigned to the responsibility of respiratory therapists, a licensed job that necessitates at least two years of training, after a mere Zoom session and a Google document that commanded them to call an attending physician if they needed assistance.

And at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia, one resident divulged to being afraid that admitted patients were being treated like "guinea pigs."

Related Article: Rare Inflammatory Syndrome Seen in US Boy Linked to COVID-19

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(CNN) - An experimental coronavirus vaccine entering human trials in the US may be available in many millions of doses by the end of 2020, the CEO of BioNTech has told CNN.

The German drug maker has partnered with US giant Pfizer to distribute a potential vaccine which is already in human trials in Germany.

CEO Ugur Sahin believes the regulatory approval process could be sped up from what is historically an 18-month time frame due to the global pandemic.

"The benefit of a vaccine in a pandemic situation is much greater and therefore an approval or an authorization of a vaccine in a pandemic situation has to follow other rules than we have seen in the past, Sahin told CNNs Fred Pleitgen.

Sahin believes Covid-19 will be responsive to a vaccine which is he calls the most important aspect of vaccine development. He said the second aspect is the very encouraging pre-clinical data.

We see vaccine responses, we see strong vaccine responses at even low doses. And we believe that this vaccine response, since we have seen that in different animal models will also translate into vaccine responses in human subjects," Sahin said.

If it is approved by the regulators, Sahin said the partners are prepared to go as fast as possible to get the vaccine to the population.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Potential coronavirus vaccine tested in Germany could supply 'many millions' by end of year"
New Delhi: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday (May 5) arrested a Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), Dhanbad official for allegedly taking bribe from an employee for allowing him to rejoin duty after the lockdown.

According to reports, the central probe agency arrested BCCL official Kishori Prasad Rout, dealing with attendance of workers, for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 3000 from the complainant. The BCCL official was booked under Section 7 of the PC(Amendment) Act, 2018 on a complaint.

The Attendance Clerk of Sendra Bansjora Colliery, Sijua Area, BCCL, Dhanbad is alleged to have demanded an illegal gratification of Rs 3,000 from the complainant for allowing him to join duty after the lockdown.

The CBI laid a trap and caught the accused red-handed on today while demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 3,000 from the complainant.

The agency also recovered incriminating documents pertaining to the motive of bribe during searches at the premises of accused, who will be produced before the Special Judge, CBI cases, Dhanbad.

Notably, the CBI followed all requisite precautions while arrested the official in view of the COVID19 situation.
India will operate two special flights from UAE on May 7 to evacuate stranded Indians.

This is first of the several flights that will be operated to take back nearly 2 lakh Indians who have registered with the Indian embassy in Abu Dhabi or the Consulate General of India in Dubai.

The first flight will operate from Abu Dhabi to Kochi and the second will fly from Dubai to Kozhikode.

The cost of the ticket, and other conditions for travel including quarantine requirements after reaching India, and health requirements to board the flight will be conveyed in due course and will have to be accepted by each passenger, the Consulate General of India in Dubai said in a statement.

The passenger lists for both these flights will be decided by the Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi and the Consulate General of India in Dubai on the basis of registrations in the embassy or consulate database, which were launched a few days ago.

However, priority will be given to workers in distress, elderly people, urgent medical cases, pregnant women as well as to those who are stranded in difficult situations, the Consulate added.

More such special flights will operate from UAE to different destinations in India over the coming days.

"Given that the Embassy/Consulate have received almost 200,000 registrations for travelling back, it will take time for all people to be accommodated on these flights," the Consulate General said, adding that the passengers finalised for the first two flights are being informed via email or calls.

India said that it has decided to commence evacuation from May 7 on "payment-basis" for Indians stranded abroad via flights and naval ships.

As per the finalised standard operating procedure for such flights and ships, medical screening of passengers would be done before boarding. Only asymptomatic passengers would be allowed to travel. On reaching the destination, everyone would have to register on the Arogya Setu app. Everyone would be medically screened.

After scrutiny, they would be quarantined for 14 days, either in a hospital or in an institutional quarantine on payment-basis, by the concerned state government. COVID test would be done after 14 days and further action would be taken according to health protocols.

"State Governments are being advised to make arrangements, including for testing, quarantine and onward movement of the returning Indians in their respective States," the Indian government said in a statement today.
Gunmen have killed three members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in a shoot-out near the country's western border with Iraq, Iranian media report.

The Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with the IRGC, said on May 5 that the killed included a colonel.

It said several counterrevolutionaries were also killed in the fighting near the Kurdish town of Divandarreh, about 60 kilometers from the Iraqi border.

No details were given on the affiliation of the gunmen.

The area has seen occasional fighting between Iranian forces and Kurdish separatists, as well as militants linked to the Islamic State extremist group.

Based on reporting by AP and RFE/RLs Radio Farda
An Ohio state legislator is voicing his opposition to people wearing face masks, citing the Bible.

Rep. Nino Vitale said people were created in the image and likeness of God and he doesnt want their faces to be covered.

When we think about the image and likeness of God, that were created in the image and likeness of God, when we think of image, do we think of a chest or our legs or our arms? We think of their face, he said. I dont want to cover peoples faces.

Thats the image of God right there, he said. I want to see it in my brothers and sisters.

Vitale told Newsweek, "No one is stopping anybody from wearing a face mask.

"But quite frankly everyone else's freedom ends at the tip of my nose."

Dr. Amy Acton, the director of the Ohio Department of Health, has touted the masks.



But in late April, the governor lifted his mandate for customers to wear masks at retail stores.

Vitale expressed concerns for state officials giving mixed messages on masks.

What is my response? Vitale said. This is not the entire world. This is the greatest nation on earth founded on Judeo-Christian Principles. One of those principles is that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. That image is seen the most by our face. I will not wear a mask.
New Delhi: Overjoyed by a fan`s artwork dedicated to her, 'Dhak Dhak' girl Madhuri Dixit Nene on Tuesday shared her favourite fan art.

The `Dil To Paagal Hai` actor took to social media to post the picture from her account and dubbed it as her favourite fan art.

The picture features a detailed sketch of the actor painted with watercolours.

Madhuri expressed her happiness over the love she receives from her fans.

"It`s always so overwhelming to see all the love you guys shower on me. Here`s sharing one of #MyFavouriteFanArt. You guys are superb," she wrote in the caption.

It's always so overwhelming to see all the love you guys shower on me. Here's sharing one of #MyFavouriteFanArt. You guys are superb https://t.co/7Fi7UFGgR0  Madhuri Dixit Nene (@MadhuriDixit) May 5, 2020

The actor recently hosted an online dance festival on the occasion of the World Dance Day.


by Paul Nguyen Hung

In 2019 the Church of Vietnam had 5,000 priests and more than 5,000 seminarians and students, as well as 307 congregations and religious associations for a total of 33,087 religious, including 28,099 nuns, 4,988 men religious, and 1,670 religious order priests. Many priests, religious and even bishops work abroad.

Hanoi (AsiaNews)  Last Sunday, 3 May, was World Day of Prayer for Vocation. On this occasion, Bishop Anphong (Alphonse) Nguyen Huu Long of Vinh shared his thoughts about it with young Vietnamese.

"Everyone is given a mission by the Lord, he said. We can choose a religious life or marriage. We respond to Gods will with all our freedom, our faith and our generous commitment ".

Ordained bishop on 22 December 2018 by Pope Francis, Bishop Huu was assigned to the Diocese of Vinh on 1 February 2019. He now chairs the Evangelisation Committee of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Vietnam for the 2019-2022 period.

All vocations are noble, as long as you discern exactly what God wants for you, the prelate said to Vietnamese priests and religious. The greatness of the vocation of priests and religious is that they do not live for themselves, but live with God for others (cf. Rom 14:7-9). At the same time, throughout their lives, they honour God and seek salvation for others.

Studies by the Catholic Church have shown that there are many priestly and religious vocations in Vietnam. This abundance is certainly not spontaneous, but is the result of many positive factors such as the moral atmosphere of the family and the friendly social environment.

The development of priestly and religious vocations is one of the things the Catholic Church strives for, but quantitative increases also requires greater focus on quality.

Through the examples of Vietnamese martyrs, many have faced hundreds of challenges and died for their faith. After just 500 years, the seeds of faith have sprouted almost everywhere in the country. Vocations have multiplied and the footsteps of the Vietnamese missionaries can be found everywhere.

The text Giao Trinh Hoi Nhap Van Hoa Cong Giao Viet Nam (Vietnamese Catholic Cultural Integration Programme) shows that in 2019 the Catholic Church of Vietnam had about seven million members, or seven per cent of the population, with 5,000 priests and more than 5,000 seminarians and students.

Data from the Religious Committee of the Bishops' Conference indicate that, as of early 2019, the local Church had 307 religious congregations and associations with a total of 33,087 religious, including 28,099 nuns and 4,988 religious, with 1,670 religious order priests.

Many Vietnamese men and women religious have gone abroad. many Vietnamese priests note that "the Vietnamese Catholic Church is exporting vocations to other countries, especially the United States where more than 950 Vietnamese priests are present across the country.

Some of these priests are from congregations like Dong ong Cong, which has around 100 members. Then there are the Order of Redemptorists, the Missionaries of the Divine Word (SVD), the Jesuit order and the Dominican order, etc.

Some Vietnamese bishops also abroad, like Bishop Vincent Nguyen Van Long in Australia, Bishop Vincent Nguyen Manh Hieu in Canada, Bishop Toma Nguyen Thai Thanh in the United States, and Archbishop Peter Nguyen Van Tot, former nuncio of the Holy See in Sri Lanka.

Initially, when Vietnamese priests and religious were sent to the mission, they encountered many difficulties and achieved modest results compared to what they wanted. One of the most obvious difficulties for priests and religious was the language barrier. But everyone can overcome this first challenge.

For Bishop Huu, To renew evangelisation in Vietnam, Pope Francis in Evangeli Gaudium (25-33) said to look to the future. We need to think about things to do, areas of interest to develop, and ways to adapt evangelisation to the current moment in Vietnam.
[May 05, 2020] Momentum Telecom Wins 2020 TMCnet Teleworking Solutions Excellence Award

ATLANTA, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Momentum Telecom, a leading provider of cloud voice, unified communications and network services, has been announced a winner of the 2020 TMCnet Teleworking Solutions Excellence Award for its UCaaS Solution Suite. Judged by the editors of TMC's INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine, this award honors the best and most innovative teleworking products and services. "Our Unified Communications Suite is the cornerstone of Momentum's solution offerings, and we're proud to have been honored by TMC," said Todd Zittrouer, Momentum's chief executive officer. "As more businesses consider teleworking arrangements, especially when necessary to keep their workforces safe and healthy, they'll need technology that is easy to implement and easy to scale across the enterprise. Our UCaaS solutions, coupled with Momentum's white-glove implementation and support, fits this need." Momentum's UCaaS Solution Suite encompasses all aspects of business communications, streamlining voice, video, chat, network and analytics into a single provider. Momentum Mobility and Microsoft Teams let team members make and receive calls across any supported device and displays their presence. For larger meetings and presentations, Momentum Collaborate offers a simplified, secure platform for presenters and attendees. Momentum's omni-channel, cloud-based Contact Center features robust reporting, recording and call-routing capabilities for deeper insight into team performance and productivity. Meanwhile, Momentum's carrier-neutral cloud and SD-WAN options allow businesses to easily scale the strength and footprint of their fiber connectivity, so that business communications can run without interruption, regardless if employees are in the office or working remotely. "The TMCnet Teleworking Solutions Excellence Award recognizes the best and the most innovative products that this industry has to offer. Momentum Telecom has proven their commitment to quality and the further development of Teleworking Solutions industry through its UCaaS Solution Suite," stated Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC. "Congratulations to the entire team at Momentum for earning this great honor. I look forward to seeing more innovative solutions from them as they continue to contribute to the future of Teleworking," Tehrani added. The 2020 TMCnet Teleworking Solutions Excellence Award will be highlighted on TMCnet and INTERNET TELEPHONY mgazine's online news portal.



About Momentum Telecom Momentum Telecom empowers human connections through developing, streamlining and integrating cloud voice and cloud-based applications in order to enable others to thrive. An industry leader in customer experience, Momentum Telecom uses superior technology, a geo-redundant network and a nationwide network of more than 500 white label and channel partners to empower businesses to communicate better, faster and more efficiently. To learn more visit momentumtelecom.com or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or visit our blog.

About INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine has been the IP Communications Authority since 1998. Beginning with the first issue in February of 1998, INTERNET TELEPHONY has been providing unbiased views of the complicated converged communications space. INTERNET TELEPHONY offers rich content from solutions-focused editorial content to reviews on products and services from TMC Labs. INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine reaches more than 225,000 readers, including pass-along readers. For more information, please visit www.itmag.com. About TMC Through education, industry news, live events and social influence, global buyers rely on TMC's content-driven marketplaces to make purchase decisions and navigate markets. As a result, leading technology vendors turn to TMC for unparalleled branding, thought leadership and lead generation opportunities. Our in-person and online events deliver unmatched visibility and sales prospects for all percipients. Through our custom lead generation programs, we provide clients with an ongoing stream of leads that turn into sales opportunities and build databases. Additionally, we bolster brand reputations with the millions of impressions from display advertising on our news sites and newsletters. Making TMC a 360-degree marketing solution, we offer comprehensive event and road show management services and custom content creation with expertly ghost-crafted blogs, press releases, articles and marketing collateral to help with SEO, branding, and overall marketing efforts. For more information about TMC and to learn how we can help you reach your marketing goals, please visit www.tmcnet.com and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, @tmcnet Media Contact Beth Hildreth

[email protected]

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The version of the coronavirus now gripping the UK and Europe is more infectious than the one that triggered the pandemic in China, according to scientists.

Researchers in the US and Britain studied the viruses taken from patient samples and found that the West seems to have been hit by a mutated version of the original.

They said the mutated form of the virus appears more infectious and spreads faster but it does not seem to affect how seriously ill someone becomes.

It also raises the prospect that the virus is able to mutate in a way that could - over time - lead to fundamental chances which reduce the likelihood of natural immunity of the effectiveness of a vaccine.

Believed to have originated in China or Europe the version of the virus, dubbed G614, is now 'the dominant pandemic form in many countries', the scientists said.

They said it was first found in Germany in February and had since become the most common form of the virus in patients worldwide - it appears to force out the older version whenever they clash.

Viruses mutate naturally all the time and it is not usually cause for alarm but should be studied in case they change so much they become unrecognisable to the body and immunity from a first infection cannot protect against them, as is the case with flu.

The research comes as British scientists today revealed in a Government study that there were at least a dozen different strains circulating in the population in March.

The newer strain named G614 (blue) appeared later on in the pandemic but, since then, has dominated the older, slower-spreading strain D614 (orange) in most areas of the world. It was the only one recorded in England but all the patients sampled were taken from one city - Sheffield

Most countries outbreaks began with the older D614 strain (shown in orange). In China and Singapore this remained the dominant strain but in most countries worldwide it was edged out in March by the mutated G614 version

The study was done by scientists at the University of Sheffield and Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, and published openly online.

It focused on a mutation of the virus, officially named SARS-CoV-2, which was referred to as D614G. The researchers referred to the viruses without the mutation as D614 and the version with it as G614.

It is not clear whether they classify as separate strains because the mutation is so small and affects only one tiny part of the virus.

Looking at samples from around the world they found that D614 appeared to have been the virus's original state in humans, and the one found in Wuhan.

It made up the vast majority of all COVID-19 infections in China, and Asia as a whole, and also seemed to be the first version of the virus to appear in the countries they studied.

However, the mutated version - G614 - started to appear soon after in Europe and North America in particular, before going on to take over as the dominant virus.

'A clear and consistent pattern was observed in almost every place where adequate sampling was available,' the researchers said.

'In most countries and states where the COVID-19 epidemic was initiated and where sequences were sampled prior to March 1, the D614 form was the dominant local form early in the epidemic.

'Wherever G614 entered a population, a rapid rise in its frequency followed, and in many cases G614 became the dominant local form in a matter of only a few weeks.'

They said the G614 mutation may give the virus a 'selective advantage' which makes it better able to bind to cells in the airways, or to shed viruses which it uses to reproduce and spread.

It could do this because the D614G mutation appeared to affect the shape of the 'spike' protein that the virus uses to attach to a person's cells and infect them.

A sample of 447 hospital patients in Sheffield showed that people had a higher viral load when infected with G614, meaning they had a higher quantity of viruses circulating in their body.

This could make them more likely to spread COVID-19 because they could be more likely to show symptoms and have more viruses on their breath, for example.

The researchers wrote: 'An early April sampling... showed that G614's frequency was increasing at an alarming pace throughout March, and it was clearly showing an ever-broadening geographic spread.'

And they added: 'Through March, G614 became increasingly common throughout Europe, and by April it dominated contemporary sampling.

'In North America, infections were initiated and established across the continent by the original D614 form, but in early March, the G614 was introduced into both Canada and the USA, and by the end of March it had become the dominant form in both nations.'

The researchers added that the fact that the spike protein is such a key target for vaccines and medication, means that this apparent evidence it can mutate was cause for concern.

If a vaccine is developed to target the virus by latching onto its spike protein, for example, that would become useless if the protein changed shape.

And the same principle applies to natural immunity - if the body learns to attack viruses with a spike protein that is one shape, it may not recognise or react to a virus with one that takes a different form.

Dr Jonathan Stoye, from The Francis Crick Institute, said: 'Although the functional significance of the changes observed have yet to be fully characterised, the study shows that SARS-CoV-2 can alter its genetic structure in multiple ways as it spreads around the world, a finding likely to have important implications for vaccine development.'

Scientists are still not sure whether people develop long-term immunity after their first bout of COVID-19.

Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK's chief scientific adviser, said it is very unlikely that people would develop total protection after recovering from the illness.

Although the older D614 strain (orange) managed to remain dominant in Asia for most of the pandemic, it was quickly superseded by the mutated version in Western countries and Africa, which started recording outbreaks later on

The Sheffield research comes as SAGE, the British Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, today published a paper revealing that at least a dozen strains of the coronavirus were circulating in the UK in March.

It is not clear whether G614 is included in this research.

The scientists who did that study used different names for the strains they studied, and the research was done earlier than the G614 study.



In it, leading genetic scientists had analysed the genomes of the killer virus in 260 infected patients from all corners of the UK.

They say they identified 12 unique versions of the virus, one of which has only ever been found in Britain  meaning it mutated on UK soil.

But the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK) said the number of strains is very likely substantially higher due to under-sampling in the UK.

The scientists say most of the strains were imported from Italy and Spain, the worst-hit countries in the world at the time the research was carried out.

There is no suggestion that any of the strains are any more potent or infectious than another, infectious disease experts say.

Professor Paul Hunter, at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline it is 'entirely plausible' this could happen to one of the strains if it continues to evolve.

The report, made public today, was given to the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) in March to help them map the outbreak's spread.

Other secret documents of scientific evidence that helped shape the Government's response to the crisis were released today.

There are at least a dozen different strains of coronavirus ravaging the UK. The most common is the B.12.1 strain (pink) and the B.11 strain (green). The researchers did not make clear which strains were imported from other countries, nor did it disclose which one is unique to Britain

New mutation of COVID-19 suggests the disease is weakening Scientists have discovered a unique mutation to coronavirus in Arizona - and it's a pattern that they've seen before. One of the 382 samples they collected from coronavirus patients in the state was missing a sizeable segment of genetic material. In the middle and late stages of the SARS epidemic of 2003, this very same kind of deletion started cropping up in patients around the globe. It's not just any mutation - the change robs the closely related viruses of one of their weapons against the host's immune response, making the infection weaker. As that mutation became widespread, the SARS outbreak wound down. By July - five months after it emerged in Asia in February 23 - there were no new cases, and the outbreak was considered contained. Now, Arizona State University experts have only found one person who had a version of the virus with this mutation - but they say if genome sequencing for coronavirus become more common, we may find far more. They sequenced the genomes of the virus in 382 nasal swab samples. Like ours, viral genetic material is composed of chemical units known by their letters. The human genome consists of three billion DNA 'letters'. Viral genomes are far simpler than ours, and coronavirus consists of 30,000 letters of RNA. In one of the samples they collected, the ASU researchers discovered that a massive 81 letters were missing. And these were a particularly meaningful missing 81 pieces of RNA. 'This is something we've seen before in the 2003 SARS outbreak during the middle and late phase of the outbreak, the virus acquired large deletions in these SS3 proteins,' lead study author Dr Efrem Lim told DailyMail.com. 'These proteins are not just there to replicate - they are in there to help enhance virulence and suppress the immune system [of the host]. It evolved with a more attenuated from in the late phase of the epidemic.' In other words, the SARS virus changed to be weaker (attenuated viruses are less the less risky, modified versions researchers make in labs as the basis for vaccines) as time went on. And now, at least one sample of SARS-CoV-2 had done the same. Advertisement

The researchers did not make clear which strains were imported from other countries, nor did it disclose which one is unique to Britain.

All viruses mutate slightly as they spread through populations, which leads to small changes in their genetic material.

Scientists say the virus does this to overcome immune system resistance in different communities.

As part of the study, COG-UK researchers analysed patients in Belfast, Birmingham, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford and Sheffield.

They found 12 unique strains, most of which had been imported from Europe. The report did not specify which countries, but said the majority of cases came from Italy. It found that strains had also come from China, the US and Australia.

Professor Hunter told MailOnline: 'There are a number of issues with these strains - are they likely to cause different severity of disease? Are they likely to be more infectious? And are they capable of invalidating vaccines?

'The answer to all three of these is that we have no idea. There is no suggestion from this study - or any other that I have read - that show these strains are more virulent or infectious that one another.

'But it is plausible that one strain could mutate to the point where people with antibodies to an older strain are no longer immune to it.

'These are called escape mutants, because they escape from the control of immunity.

'It happens with influenza a lot. The current coronavirus does not seem to do this as fast, though, but it is plausible down the line.'

Professor Hunter said the main value of the report was that it helps scientists track the spread of the infection around the UK.

He said this would become crucial when easing out of lockdown.

Professor Hunter added: 'This enables researchers to continue to track where its going and help enforce new rules to stop another outbreak.

'Say you have a cluster in the north west of England, which is unexpected, and it is the same strain found predominantly in London, then you could see that is must've been spread by someone travelling from the capital.

'You could use this to tell if someone had broken lockdown rules by travelling there, or you could close down a possible transmission passage [a train line, for example].'

Sir patrick Vallance told MPs: 'But a lot of the cases in the UK didnt come from China and didn't come from the places you might have expected'

The COG-UK is an innovative partnership of NHS organisations, the four Public Health Agencies of the UK, the Wellcome Sanger Institute and more than 12 academic institutions, including Cambridge University.

It is supported by 20million funding from the UK Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Wellcome Trust.

Coronavirus has mutated to become deadlier in Europe, Chinese study claims There could be as many as 30 different strains of coronavirus, a study of patients in China has claimed. Zhejiang University scientists studied a small number of patients with the disease and uncovered tens of mutations - 19 of which had never been seen before. Some mutations boosted the virus' ability to invade cells in the body, others helped the disease multiply more rapidly. The most deadly strains were genetically similar to the ones that spread in Europe and in New York, reported the South China Morning Post. Meanwhile, the weaker strains were similar to those found circulating within other parts of the US, such as Washington State. The authors say their findings - based on just 11 patients - are the first to show the mutation could affect the severity of illness. They believe the previously unreported mutations could be the reason behind Europe and New York's devastating death tolls. It is still unclear why the aggressive strain of COVID-19 spread to Europe and the more mild version hit large swathes of the US. But scientists say viruses are constantly mutating to overcome immune system resistance in different populations. It comes on the heels of studies that claim the US was hit by two different clusters of the coronavirus, with type A dominating the West Coast and the deadlier type B in New York. Experts say the type A outbreak was spread to the US from China, where as the crisis in New York likely came from Europe - which was also rocked by type B. For the latest study, published on the pre-print service medRxiv.org, the team analyzed viral strains from 11 Chinese coronavirus patients. The team, conducted by Professor Li Lanjuan and colleagues, tested how effectively the virus could infect and kill human cells in the laboratory. Viral load - the amount of the virus - was assessed in all the cells after one, two, four and eight hours, as well as the next day and 48 hours later. And the experts also looked at the cytopathic effects - whether the virus structurally changed the cell during infection - up to three days after the experiment. The most aggressive strains created up to 270 times as much viral load as the least potent type, according to the results. And the strains that produced the highest viral load led to a 'higher cell death ratio', Professor Li and her team revealed. Writing in their paper, the team said: 'Our results show the observed mutations can have a direct impact on the viral load and CPE. 'This finding suggests the observed mutations in our study... can significantly impact the pathogenicity (the ability to cause disease) of SARS-CoV-2.' The team found some of the deadliest mutations in Zhejiang, where the university is located. These mutations had also been seen in several hard-hit European countries such as Italy and Spain - before spreading to the US epicenter New York. However, some of the milder mutations were the varieties largely found in the US, including Washington state, which could be the strain that shut down Wuhan, where the virus originated. But the scientists admitted that the 'full mutational diversity of the virus in Wuhan in the early days is still unknown'. Advertisement

It comes as damning new figures revealed today that Britain quarantined just 273 out of 18.1million people who arrived in the UK in the three months before the coronavirus lockdown.

The occupants of three flights from the outbreak ground zero in the Chinese city of Wuhan and another bringing home passengers from a cruise ship of Japan were the only ones taken to secure facilities in the UK.

But millions more entering the UK between the start of 2020 and March 22 were able to enter freely and only advised to self-isolate, according to figures obtained by the Guardian.

It came as it also emerged the UK suffered a 'big influx' of coronavirus from arrivals from Italy and Spain who were not quarantined.

Mapping of the Covid-19 genome shows that UK cases come from all over the world, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance told MPs.

But a large number of cases in early March were from Europe and 'seeded right the way across the country' because Brits arriving back in the UK were allowed to return home.

Giving evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee this morning, Sir Patrick said that experts on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) had advised ministers they would have to be 'extremely draconian' in blocking travel from whole countries otherwise 'it really was not worth trying to do it.'

'Whether that was people returning from half-term, whether it is business travellers or not, we dont know,' he told MPs.

'But a lot of the cases in the UK didnt come from China and didn't come from the places you might have expected.

'They actually came from European imports and the high level of travel into the UK around that time.'

At the weekend a senior minister finally confirmed visitors to the UK could face time in quarantine as the Government 'actively' considers stronger anti-coronavirus measures at the borders.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that new arrivals could also be forced to download a new contract app onto their smartphone as a condition of entry.

New restrictions would make the UK one of the last countries to introduce them, with the country very much an outlier in recent weeks by not halting inbound flights or insisting arrivals are checked.

People arriving are currently advised to self-isolate but there is no enforced testing.

Home Secretary Priti Patel is believed to be among those who have demanded tougher rules for foreign visitors and the remaining Brits still abroad who make it home.

But Sir Patrick suggested stopping travel was of limited use unless action was taken against a wide-range of countries.

'What was very clear, and I think you can see this now in retrospect, is that the idea that you can control this by stopping travel from one place doesnt work unless it is of course the only source of import,' he said this morning.

'We have now in the UK sequenced 13,6000 viral genomes, we got imports from all over the place.

'So quite early on the advice Sage gave was ''if you are going to do something on travel you either need to be extremely draconian - stop all travel from all sorts of countries - or it is really not worth trying to do it, trying to stop from one place because you wont make it happen''.

'So I think the answer is not, unless the country chose to do that, stopping travel anywhere and to  make sure that as people come back you have appropriate systems to isolate and make sure they are following the same rules as the rest of the country.'

Deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries, who was also giving evidence, added: 'There are pros and cons which are not necessarily always obvious I think, between managing influx and outflux of passengers but also goods.

'If you shut travel routes in, you are also shutting routes for various products which may be essential, not just for our population but all around the world.

'At the moment most people who are coming back are coming back into the UK back home and they will immediately fall under social distancing regulations anyway.'
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Scrambling to tackle COVID-19 in camps across the Middle East, the U.N. agency supporting Palestinian refugees said on Tuesday it only has enough cash to operate until the end of May because of American funding cuts.

In 2018 President Donald Trump's administration halted annual payments of $360 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides assistance to some 5.5 million registered refugees in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Elizabeth Campbell, UNRWA's director in Washington, told reporters that the loss of U.S. aid had a "corrosive impact" on the agency's ability to help vulnerable people.

"We are basically operating on a month-to-month basis. Right now, we have funding to pay our 30,000 health care workers until the end of this month," Campbell said in a Zoom conference call from Washington.

She said UNRWA had only secured a third of its $1.2 billion annual budget and that it was suffering its "worst financial crisis" since beginning operations some 70 years ago.

The agency is trying to plug the $800 million shortfall in part by appealing to European and Gulf countries for emergency donations, Campbell said.

Donations from the European Union, Britain, Germany, Sweden, Canada and Japan have helped fill UNRWA's 2020 budget gap, Campbell said, while Saudi Arabia has also provided project-specific funding.

The United States was by far UNRWA's biggest donor until it withdrew funding, calling for reforms and suggesting its services be transferred to refugee host countries.

Palestinian refugees are mostly descendants of some 700,000 Palestinians who were driven out of their homes or fled amid fighting in the 1948 war that led to Israel's creation. Nearly a third live in 58 camps where UNRWA provides services.

Many refugees fear the dwindling aid they receive could fall further as the coronavirus crisis persists and donors shift priorities.

Story continues

UNRWA has tried to halt the spread of COVID-19 in and around camps, closing all its 276 schools that are attended by close to 300,000 children.

It has launched a $14 million emergency appeal for coronavirus funding, and says it will issue another, larger, aid request in the coming days.

(Reporting by Rami Ayyub in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak has said that the president's office does not put forward any initiatives to change Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) Artem Sytnyk.

"The Office of the President did not offer any initiatives on the issue. We have received many questions about this last week. I know that there were some debates and consultations, and they event started collecting signatures in the parliament. But so far I know nothing about any bills on the issue being put on the parliament's agenda," he said during an online discussion on the subject: "Pandemic, Reform, War, and Peace: The View from Ukraine's White House" organized by the Atlantic Council on Monday, May 4.

Yermak also said that the Office of the President has always supported independence of the NABU.

"There are many expectations, hopes, and I think that this agency will work even more effectively. It is a very important agency," he said.
It is not Ethiopias right to fill the reservoir of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) without an agreement with Egypt and Sudan. In a rare show of disagreement with Addis Ababa, Khartoum officially made the remarks that Ethiopia should not unilaterally start to fill the 74-billion cubic metre man-made lake. Concomitantly, a state minister within Sudans Foreign Ministry said his country was not a chorus dancing to Egyptian or Ethiopian tunes!

Prior to the ouster of Islamist President Omar Al-Bashir, such remarks were nothing but fancy. Al-Bashir led an intensive brainwashing campaign that GERD would be beneficial to Sudan, even much more than to the owner of the dam, Ethiopia. His media mouthpieces, mostly shut down now within official moves by the new Sudanese leaders to remove pro-Bashir era powers and media agencies and confiscate their properties back to the state, used to propagandise that the Ethiopian dam would help Sudan fully utilise its share of the Nile. Unfortunately, the campaign was successful, albeit a paradigm shift is happening now.

Just before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdouk was readying for a mediation role between Egypt and Ethiopia to get both, especially the Ethiopians, back to the negotiating table after at the last minute the signing of a binding and final agreement on the dam failed in Washington. In effect, Sudan is not a mediator and should not play that role either. It is a party that has rights and obligations within which it needs to act. Seemingly, Sudans new officials hold the view that their country needs to discuss, thoroughly, any would-be negative impact of the dam and not take Addis Ababas verbal assurances for granted in that regard.

This may explain why the Sudanese prime minister explicitly said his government was committed to the Washington-brokered talks as the viable mechanism to end the standoff and reach a win-win compromise for the betterment of the three Eastern Nile Basin peoples. The three nations have taken long strides towards solving their differences over the controversial Ethiopian project and almost settled all pending issues except some technical details on how long it will take Ethiopia to fill the reservoir, and drought mitigation effects, assigning responsibilities in that respect.

With Al-Bashir in office, Addis Ababa used to speak on behalf of the Sudanese, while Cairo was playing solo to safeguard its peoples and Sudanese rights to the Nile waters. Now, the situation seems to be changing, though at a slow pace. Some Sudanese analysts went public to say that Ethiopia deceived Sudan on the issue by concealing critical information that would have changed Sudans position completely in terms of the safety of the colossal dam project. Some studies have warned that Khartoum, the capital city of Sudan, may be washed away in case of the collapse of the dam, a dreadful scenario Ethiopia has usually downplayed.

Other experts have gone far as to say Ethiopia wants a reallocation of water shares among the three nations. In fact, one of the reasons behind Ethiopias refusal to sign the US-drafted agreement on GERD is the claim that the deal effectively maintains the status quo regarding the allocation of 55.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of water per annum to Egypt. Based on Ethiopias filling scenario, it wants to hold 4.9 bcm for initial filling to test the first two of the 13 turbines of GERD. In the second year, Ethiopia wants to hold 13.5 bcm in order to test the remaining turbines. After that, it aims to release 31 bcm of water annually. This plan considers neither Egypts nor Sudans water demands. In other words, the Ethiopian objection was not the agreement in itself, but rather the share Egypt and Sudan receive from the Nile. If Egypts share of the Nile drops drastically, a similar scenario would occur in Sudan, and in this case the total share would not be sufficient for the two countries basic water needs, something Addis Ababa does not seem to heed.

Now the idea of Sudans huge benefits from the dam look like so many castles in the air. This may be the reason behind Sudans most recent positions on the dam. Another possible reason may be Addis Ababas military pressure on Khartoum to continue to follow Al-Bashirs policies regarding the dam. Some weeks ago, the Ethiopian military stormed into roughly 23,000 hectares in Eastern Sudan at Al-Fashaka, in a show of negligence for Sudans sovereignty over the territories. Earlier, militias affiliated to Addis Ababa, though officially dubbed as outlawed, had clashes with units from the Sudanese army, leaving soldiers killed and injured.

As a response, the Chairman of the Sovereign Council of Sudan Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, ordered deployment of the Sudanese army into the area, for the first time in 25 years. For three decades under Al-Bashir, Ethiopian settlers stretched over more than 250,000 hectares of the finest Sudanese lands, regarding them as their own, being protected by militias drawn from the Ethiopian Amhara region.

These factors may have caused the slight change in Sudans position regarding GERD. Above all, Sudan has never been asked to side with any party in the talks, but rather to support whatever it takes to cause no harm to the Sudanese people who, under Al-Bashir and his Islamist gang, sustained every and each kind of harm politically, economically and socially. Now, as their revolution managed to change the face of life in Sudan, at least politically, given the ailing economic conditions mostly inherited from the ousted regime, there is a need to march ahead with new thoughts and ideas to protect Sudans interests.

Like Sudan, Egypt acknowledges Ethiopias right to utilisation of the Nile waters, provided no harm be inflicted on downstream peoples. The issue of GERD should be kept away from polarisation by any party, so that technical experts from the three nations can find the best means to solve their remaining differences effectively. Transparent disclosure of all particulars of the dam, positive and negative, remains the only viable means to get the three sisterly nations closer to reaching a lasting compromise that would not fall apart once GERD goes online.

The writer is a former press and information officer in Ethiopia and an expert on African affairs.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 7 May, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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She's spent almost 10 weeks in lockdown with her family inside their apartment in Bologna, Italy during the coronavirus pandemic.

And on Tuesday, Kate Langbroek celebrated her second day of freedom as restrictions continue to ease.

The 54-year-old enjoyed a takeaway Aperol Spritz and some other cocktails with husband Peter Lewis outside a duomo (church) at their local piazza.

'It's like a miracle': Kate Langbroek celebrated her second day of freedom in Italy with husband Peter Lewis on Tuesday... after spending 10 weeks in lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic

Kate joked that finding a takeaway shop serving drinks and salami and bread twists was like a 'miracle.'

'We ventured out in early evening and tried to buy masks but the chemist had none... and then - like a miracle - we found a little sandwich shop making takeaway SPRITZES,' Kate explained on Instagram, sharing a picture of the couple enjoying their drinks.

'We got an Aperol and some other bitter one, and cause it would normally be aperitivo time, the owner gave us a little container with salami and crunchy bread twists and we sat on the steps of the duomo at the piazza in the lovely air and we were sort of, not quite, kinda normal.'

Relief: On Monday, Kate revealed online that she and Peter left the house for the first time in nearly 10 weeks, with the pair going for a drive and even visiting a friend at his restaurant

Kate added hashtags including 'first spritz of spring.'

On Monday, Kate revealed that she and Peter left the house for the first time in nearly 10 weeks. The went for a drive and even visited a friend at his restaurant.

'We left the house. drove in the car. We saw trees and dogs and cyclists and walkers. We saw our friend Giovanni at his restaurant,' she wrote enthusiastically.

The couple drove past parks, which she said was a wonderful sight to behold after so many weeks cooped up at home.

She wrote: '[We] smelled honeysuckle. We felt the breeze. So much green. So much blue. I hope the world continues to open: it is glorious.'

Kate concluded by saying the family had ordered takeaway for dinner, giving her a well-deserved night off.

What a treat! Kate concluded by saying the family had ordered takeaway for dinner, giving her a well-deserved night off

'Also, how good is takeaway food and not having to cook????' she wrote.

Italy is leading Europe in easing lockdown restrictions. Parks have reopened and factories have been allowed to resume production.

The country had only 174 deaths on Sunday, the lowest figure since the lockdown went into effect on March 10.

In Italy, there are 213,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and have been 29,315 deaths.

Getting back on track: Italy is leading Europe in easing lockdown restrictions. Parks have reopened and factories have been allowed to resume production

Kate lives in Italy with husband Peter and their four children. She previously revealed that Peter was being sued by the city of Bologna for breaking lockdown rules.

The couple relocated from Melbourne to Italy with their children in early 2019 for what was supposed to be a 'family gap year'.

They have since extended their stay for another 12 months.
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Wednesday, January 26 - 12:00 - 1:00 PMWebinarIn this webinar, Scheherzade Rana, a corporate mindfulness trainer, meditation teacher, speaker and Founder of Innerspace Mindfulness will share ideas and strategies for becoming an inclusive leader. You will cultivate openness and awareness of bias and learn new ways to connect to your colleagues (and yourself) with empathy, compassion and courage.Using the latest mindfulness science, you will gain a greater understanding of how to create a culture of well-being and psychological safety - one that is integral to inclusive and high-performing teams today.You'll also learn the "how-to" of organizational mindfulness with a simple minutes-a-day practice that you can start right away!
Having positive health beliefs--specifically, the perception that you can protect yourself from having another stroke--is linked to lower blood pressure among stroke survivors, especially women, according to a new study led by researchers at NYU School of Global Public Health. The findings are published in a spotlight issue on psychosocial factors in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

High blood pressure is strongly associated with an increased risk of stroke, including the risk of having a second stroke. While blood pressure can be modified through lifestyle changes or medication, many adults have difficulty controlling it.

There is growing recognition that positive beliefs about one's health can play a role in cardiovascular health. This study sought to understand whether positive health beliefs can promote lower blood pressure among stroke survivors, many of whom need to control their blood pressure in order to reduce the risk of having another stroke.

Using data from the Discharge Educational Strategies for Reduction of Vascular Events (DESERVE) study, a randomized controlled trial of 552 stroke patients in four New York City hospitals, the research examined the link between positive health beliefs and blood pressure reduction one year following a stroke.

Prior to being discharged from the hospital, patients were asked whether they agreed with the following statement: "I can protect myself against having a stroke." More than three quarters of the study's participants agreed.

"This perception that you can protect yourself from another stroke reflects the construct of self-efficacy, or a belief in one's ability to achieve a specific outcome," said Emily Goldmann, clinical assistant professor of epidemiology at NYU School of Global Public Health and the study's lead author.

The researchers followed up with the study participants a year after being discharged from the hospital to assess their blood pressure. They found that those who believed they could protect themselves from having a stroke had a 5.6 mm Hg greater reduction in blood pressure than those who did not, which represents a clinically significant difference.

After additional analyses, the researchers found that female stroke survivors who had positive health beliefs were especially likely to have lower blood pressure a year later; this finding was not statistically significant in men. Female patients who did not feel they could protect themselves from having another stroke had, on average, a slight increase in blood pressure.

"In this study, we found an association between self-efficacy and reduced blood pressure, which is consistent with previous studies linking positive psychological states to better health outcomes in the context of cardiovascular disease and stroke," said Goldmann. "Targeted strategies to improve health beliefs after stroke may be an important component to include in risk factor management among stroke survivors."

###

In addition to Goldmann, study authors include Rachelle Jacoby, Erica Finfer, Nina S. Parikh, and Eric T. Roberts of NYU School of Global Public Health; Noa Appleton of NYU Langone Health; and Bernadette Boden?Albala of the University of California, Irvine. The research was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health (P50NS049060).

About the NYU School of Global Public Health

At the NYU School of Global Public Health (NYU GPH), we are preparing the next generation of public health pioneers with the critical thinking skills, acumen, and entrepreneurial approaches necessary to reinvent the public health paradigm. Devoted to employing a nontraditional, interdisciplinary model, NYU GPH aims to improve health worldwide through a unique blend of global public health studies, research, and practice. The School is located in the heart of New York City and extends to NYU's global network on six continents. Innovation is at the core of our ambitious approach, thinking and teaching. For more, visit: http://publichealth.nyu.edu/
Disha Jana By

Online Desk

Who says one can't go globetrotting amid the coronavirus lockdown? Well, you can at least virtually with the stellar international content on Netflix that you probably missed out on while hopping on to the bandwagon of Money Heist and its likes.

But worry not, because we've got your covered. Buckle up. Grab your popcorn bowls and stream these shows! Here they are - The Magnificent Seven!

SHOW: Caliphate

COUNTRY: Sweden

IMDB rating: 8.1

RELEASE DATE: March 18, 2020

Picture this: A woman (Pervin) stuck in Raqqa, Syria, tries to escape the ISIS caliphate with her infant daughter by offering vital information on terror attacks in exchange to a Swedish Security Agent named Fatima. Thrilling enough? Now, add a few impressionable Muslim teenagers vulnerable to radicalisation with overarching consequences, and thats Caliphate for you.

Originally Kalifat, the Swedish drama-thriller series that first premiered on Svergies Television in January this year, is available for streaming in Swedish and English.



Likelihood of a second season: Definitely. The show keeps you on the edge of your seat till the very end and talks of another season have already begun, although no date has been announced yet.

SHOW: Into The Night

COUNTRY: Belgium

IMDB rating: 7.3

RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2020

Into the Night is a six-episode-long apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, which is Belgiums first original collaboration with Netflix.

Released in French and dubbed in English, the show starts with a man hijacking an airplane originally bound for Moscow, claiming that the flight must instead head west to avoid sunrise as it will kill them.

Intrigued much? Heres the trailer to help you with that.

Likelihood of a second season: A big yes. The first one ends with a cliffhanger, (no spoilers here) paving the way for another to follow and leave you with the urge to "know more".

SHOW: Unorthodox

COUNTRY: Germany, USA

IMDB rating: 8.1

RELEASE DATE: March 26, 2020

The four-episode Unorthodox is a German-American drama miniseries based on Deborah Feldman's 2012 novel Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots.

It is Netflixs first Yiddish show, and boy, does it resonate!

If you're a drama fan, you will not only enjoy the concise yet riveting storytelling, but also find yourself rooting for the protagonist (Esty), a 19-year-old Jewish woman, born and brought up in an ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jewish community in New York city's Williamsburg.

Born in the 'land of the free', why this teenager, also married, decides to flee to Berlin of all places to begin her new life, definitely adds to the intrigue factor. Watch to find out. The show is also available for streaming in English and German.

Likelihood of a second season: While no official statement has been released so far, the idea may not be far-fetched as the first one was a smashing success and popular demand can work wonders.

SHOW: The Trial

COUNTRY: Italy

IMDB rating: 7

RELEASE DATE: 2019

The Trial or Il Processo is a classic whodunit.

When a 17-year-old Angelica Petroni gets murdered in Rome, public prosecutor Elena Guerra is determined to find the culprit. But why?

This eight-episode-long courtroom drama promises twists and turns with every episode that will awaken the mystery lover in you.



Likelihood of a second season: Probably not. There have been speculations of multiple 'spinoffs', however, they remain fan-fuelled desires for now.

SHOW: Fauda

COUNTRY: Israel

IMDB rating: 8.3

RELEASE DATE: April 16, 2020

Spanning three seasons, Fauda (Chaos in Arabic) is an Israeli action cum political-espionage thriller focussing on the human stories on either side of the highly controversial Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Premiering first in 2015, the series began to be filmed during the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict and has won critical acclaim from many, including The New York Times, which voted it the 'Best International Show of 2017'.

If youre a history buff who craves a political drama, this one's for you. Fauda can be streamed in Hebrew, English.



SHOW: Valhalla Murders

COUNTRY: Iceland

IMDB rating: 7.1

RELEASE DATE: December 26, 2019

What could provide a better setting for a mystery than a cold Icelandic town falling victim to a string of murders with the victims' eyes gouged out? Eerie enough?

Here's more - An Oslo detective decides to help out a local policeman solve the case, except, theres only one photograph from a boys' school named 'Valhalla' that is the closest all of them have to a clue.

Valhalla Murders is an eight-episode-long series and the first Icelandic show to have been released on Netflix. It is loosely based on a real-life story.

Crime-thriller lovers, binge away.

Likelihood of a second season: So far, Netflix has not made any such announcement.

SHOW: The Spy

COUNTRY: Israel

IMDB rating: 7.9

RELEASE DATE: September 6, 2019

Last on the list is another Israeli espionage thriller. The Spy is a six-episode miniseries, which stars Sacha Baron Cohen and is based on the book L'espion qui venait d'Israel (The Spy Who Came From Israel).

The show follows the life of Israels most prominent spy Eli Cohen who infiltrated the Syrian government during the years leading to the 1967 six-day war between the two countries.

Although the show has received favourable reviews, it also came under the scanner for 'historical inaccuracies'.

However, it makes for an engaging watch and went on to earn Sacha a nomination for 'Best Actor- Miniseries or Television Film' at the 77th Golden Globe Awards.

With a bucketful of such unnoticed gems to stream from, choose your pick and make the most of the remainder of the lockdown. Netflix and chill, but also, stay safe!




Baquba:

A suicide car bomb killed at least 10 people at the entrance to a town northeast of Baghdad on Monday morning, reports said.

The blast at the entrance to the town of Khales also wounded 36 people, according to Hassan al-Mamuri, the local official responsible for the area, and Faris al-Azzawi, the spokesman for the Diyala province health department.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State jihadist group carries out frequent suicide bombings in Iraq.

The blast came a day after a suicide bombing claimed by IS killed at least 15 people in Baghdads Kadhimiyah neighbourhood.

IS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces have since regained significant ground and are conducting operations to set the stage for the battle to recapture Mosul, the last IS-held city in the country.

The jihadists have responded to the battlefield setbacks by striking civilians, and experts have warned there may be more such attacks as the jihadists continue to lose ground.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
The annual ban on drumming and noise making within the Greater Accra Region will commence on Monday, May 11 and be lifted on Thursday, June 11, the Ga Traditional Council has said.



The Council said the end of the ban, a major factor of the Ga Homowo festival, which is referred to as Odadaa celebration, would as usual, be held at the forecourt of the Gbese Mantse Palace, Gbese Blohum.



A statement signed by Nii Dodoo Nsaki II, Acting President of the Ga Traditional Council and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Monday, said the Ga Mashie Homowo festival celebration would start with Shibaa, which is the clearing of the land from today Monday May 4, by the Dantu We and end on Tuesday May 12, with Nae We.



It said the planting of seed corn, also known as Nmaa Dumo would proceed on Monday, May 11 to Tuesday, May 19.



It said the harvesting of corn, Nmaa Faa rites would start from Monday June 1 to Tuesday June 9.



The statement said the Council is appealing to all indigenes in and around the Accra Metropolis and all the towns and villages under the jurisdiction of the Ga Traditional Area and the public to cooperate with the Council during the stated period.



It said the Council is aware of the difficult times the country was in due to the Coronavirus pandemic and we request all citizenry to follow the directives of the Central Government on social distancing, wearing of face and nose masks, washing of hands with soap and running water as many times as you can and the use of hand sanitizers.



Please we also advise that as much as possible, stay home if you can.



The Council, is also advising all Wulomei, Fetish Priests and Priestesses, Asafoatsemei and Asafoanyemei who would be overseeing the rites of the festival to ensure that they abide by the social distancing protocols at all times, adding that the attendance per a rite should not exceed 25 persons.



It said: Though we are not in normal times, let us not lose sight of the fact that throughout the country, we have varied cultures, customs, traditions and festivals, which are observed with awe and reverence.



Let us therefore, with one accord, cooperate in observing that of the Gas. On this note we implore the security agencies to ensure compliance, the statement added.



The Homowo festival is a unique celebration of the people of Ga descent where the rich culture of the indigenes of the Ga State is showcased to the public. It is celebrated throughout the Ga States including Ga Mashie.

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
* Glitzy business took massive hit in COVID-19 lockdown

* Prices seen slumping but trade lobby eyes good news from Asia

* Social-distancing a challenge for gem cutters

By Marine Strauss

BRUSSELS, May 5 (Reuters) - Antwerp is regaining its glitz as Belgium eases a two-month nationwide coronavirus lockdown that virtually halted business in the world's largest diamond trade centre.

The return of some of the brokers, cutters and couriers who normally throng the city's heavily-guarded diamond district, known as the Square Mile, comes as two of the world's biggest gold refiners resume operations after Switzerland relaxed its lockdown measures.

Belgium imposed the emergency restrictions on March 18 to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has killed 8,016 people in the country and infected 50,509, bringing most businesses to a grinding halt. Some 600 trading companies in the Square Mile shut their doors and 90% of the diamond cutting businesses closed, forcing most of the 500 cutters there to seek unemployment benefits, according to Melissa Smet, executive director of the Syndicate of the Belgian Diamond Industry.

With mines elsewhere in the world at a standstill and much of international transport grounded, diamond shipments to Antwerp dropped to as little as 26 shipments a day.

This compares to an average of 400-500 shipments per day of powder, rough and polished diamonds totalling some $250 million before the crisis hit, according to Karen Rentmeesters, spokesperson for the Antwerp World Diamond Center (AWDC).

Antwerp is also the home of Europe's second-largest port and AWDC data shows March imports of polished diamonds fell 73.5% from $1.5 billion to $400 million compared to March 2019. Exports of rough diamonds slumped 51.3% to $449 million from $922 million a year before.

COMPLEX CHALLENGE Prices are also expected to fall. "We do see a significant drop in prices both on polished and rough side but it's a complex situation," Rentmeesters said. But that's not the only challenge facing the diamond trade as business started trickling back into Antwerp this week.

Preserving social distancing rules that require ensuring a space of at least 1.5 metres between workers has already proven a challenge in gem cutting workshops where cutting and polishing machines are fit in closely. Cutters have direct contact with stones and pass on tools between one another while processing diamonds, Smet told Reuters.

While polishers in Antwerp are specialised in high-end stones, such as the world's second-biggest rough diamond owned by Louis Vuitton , the bulk of the work is done in India, where 90% of the world's diamonds are polished, AWDC said.

The Indian government has extended the lockdown until May 17 and the country - facing a glut of polished and rough diamonds - is looking to ban rough diamond imports for up to three months, Rentmeesters said. AWDC said good news was coming, however, from Asia where the phenomenon of "revenge shopping" was bringing back customers into stores and results of the world's leading luxury group LVMH have been encouraging, even if some markets for diamond jewellery - including in the United States - are taking a hit.

For Antwerp's long-established diamond business that thrives on trade shows and much travelling, the lockdown has also forced a digital transformation: from hosting the Square Mile's first online trade show to improving traceability and transparency. "We are looking for ways to embrace digital technology and that will definitely change the way business is done for good," Rentmeesters said.

(Reporting by Marine Strauss @StraussMarine, editing by Gabriela Baczynska and Emelia Sithole-Matarise) Messaging: marine.strauss.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
India has launched a concerted repatriation programme, by sea and air, to bring back stranded citizens stuck in various parts of the world, but with a strict set of preconditions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), at a time when nations are trying to strike a balance between humanitarian considerations, responsibility towards citizens, and health concerns, in the face of a deadly pathogen.

In the first week of a massive air operation, which will start on Thursday, 64 flights will bring 15,000 Indian citizens home from 12 countries. All those who travel back will have to pay for their tickets, undergo strict screening processes, download the Aarogya Setu app, and go into institutional quarantine after landing.

The Indian Navy, on Tuesday, already kicked off one leg of the complex evacuation exercise by dispatching two amphibious warships to Male to evacuate Indians stranded in the Maldives, a spokesperson said. Two more warships may soon be dispatched to the Gulf , an officer familiar with the matter added.

The overall plan involves key ministries of the government. Minister for state (independent charge) civil aviation Hardeep Puri outlined the air operation; the ministry of home affairs came out with a set of standard operating procedures that all passengers who avail the facility will have to abide by; and the ministry of external affairs coordinated with foreign governments as well as ministries and state governments within.

The government has not termed it an evacuation but an exercise for the movement of Indian citizens stranded abroad.

On March 22, India suspended all international flights. For 45 days, there has been no international passenger movement to and from India -- except international cargo flights and special flights arranged by foreign embassies, permitted by India. But this has also meant that hundreds of thousands of Indians  abroad for educational, professional, tourism or economic purposes, among other reasons  remain stuck. They have been demanding arrangements to get back home, but apprehensive that they may be carriers of the disease, the government had not done it so far.

The first phase of bringing back Indian citizens by air runs from May 7 to May 13. The 12 countries involved in it will be United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Bangladesh, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, United Kingdom and United States, according to the flight plan for return of Indian nationals stranded abroad reviewed by HT.

At a time when there has been a controversy over the train fares for migrant workers, the government clarified that international passengers will be charged for the journey. Some of the fares (one way) from cities in the Gulf countries such as Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha to Kochi, Kerala range from 15,000 to 16,000. Rescue flights from London to India will cost 50,000 while flights from the United States to India have been priced at 100,000. If there was no charge, people wanting to come back would be much higher, Puri said. He also emphasised that these are commercial services being carried out under special circumstances, and that the exchequer does not have the space to pay for repatriation of all stranded Indians abroad. Puri said that only Air India flights will be deployed in this phase  40 from the national carrier and 24 from its subsidiary Air India Express. We will consider involving private airlines as well going forward, he added.

According to Puri, the requests received by Indian embassies of Indians wishing to return are increasing by the day, and have now gone beyond the initial estimate of 200,000.

The numbers are quite significantMore than 300,000 people have registered in West Asia alone but we will only bring back those registered as compelling cases. The missions will determine the compelling cases, said a person familiar with the decision. He added that if someone was living in another country and was comfortable, this was not the time to plan ones return.

The MHA SOP said that priority will be given to asymptomatic migrant labourers/workers abroad who have been laid off, short term visa holders faced with expiry (of visas), persons with medical emergency, pregnant women, the elderly, students, and those required to return to India due to the death of a family member.

The SOP also adds that these flights will also be used to transport people in the other direction, from India to abroad. Foreign citizens of the destination countries, those who hold a visa of the concerned country of at least a year, green card holders, Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card holders and in case of medical emergency or death in the family, Indian nationals with a valid six month visa can travel to the country. But this has a caveat; they will have to fulfil any conditions imposed by the destination country they intend to travel. They will travel on the non-scheduled commercial flights being arranged to bring back Indian citizens. And they too will have to bear the cost of travel and follow all health protocols.

The Indian Navy, on Tuesday morning, dispatched two amphibious warships to Male to evacuate Indians stranded in the Maldives. Indian warships INS Jalashwa and INS Magar are currently on their way to the port of Male and are expected to bring back 1,000 people, a spokesperson said. Two more warships may soon be dispatched to West Asia for evacuating Indians, while a dozen more are on standby for undertaking any mission assigned to them, a person familiar with the planning in the navy said. Indian Air Force transport planes are also on standby for the evacuation but the IAF hasnt been given any orders yet.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar and foreign secretary Harsh Shringla are overseeing the process of coordinating with foreign governments, Indian missions and state governments. Jaishankar has been holding meetings with other ministries and had a video conference with heads of missions in some of the countries from which Indians are returning, including the UAE, Singapore, the Maldives and the US. At least 20 senior officials of the external affairs ministry have been selected to liaise with the states to which the Indian nationals will return. The foreign secretary will have a video conference with chief secretaries of several states on Wednesday for coordination.

The external affairs ministry will upload all information on the people returning to the country on an online digital platform that will be accessible to other ministries and state governments. The data on those who lost their jobs will help state governments rehabilitate these workers by including them in national or state government employment programmes or in private sector jobs, a second person aware of the matter said. This person also insisted that the massive programme was not an evacuation because it is not a government-sponsored exercise. What we are doing is facilitating the return of our nationals back to the country. But all the planning has been accompanied with a recognition that India needs to be careful that the returnees do not end up spreading the disease, and possibly squandering away the benefits of the lockdown so far.

According to the SOPs issued by the MHA, passengers will have to undergo screening process before taking off, and be allowed only if they are asymptomatic. They will also have to give an undertaking that they are taking the journey at their own risk apart providing personal and health data. In the aircraft, they are expected to abide by health protocols  by wearing masks and maintaining hygiene.

Upon their arrival, they will once again undergo the screening process. Those found symptomatic after reaching India will be immediately taken to a medical facility, while others will have to undergo mandatory institutional quarantine of 14 days, for which they will have to pay. All passengers will have to download the Aarogya Setu app.

The decision came as a major source of relief for many Indians abroad, as well as to their families back home. Swati Arora, a Gurugram-based homemaker, said her husband has been stranded in Kuala Lumpur since February, while she is also due to deliver a child by the end of May and has been requesting authorities for over a month for a way out. My husband had gone for a work trip and his business visa, which was issued for 28 days, had expired. We have been constantly requesting the MEA and the embassy. We have also been tweeting about it tirelessly. I want my husband to be back in time for the delivery. The embassy has contacted him and a group of others stranded there informing that they will have to pay for their tickets and also quarantine facilities, she added.

(With inputs from Rahul Singh)
Hood River outdoor gear maker Dakine is closing its office there, laying off 39 and moving its headquarters to Southern California.

The current health crisis, and the corresponding Oregon stay at home order were unforeseen

business circumstances, and have made it financially unfeasible for the company to continue operating, Dakine human resources director Raeanne Norberg wrote in a letter to state workforce officials.

Neither Norberg nor the company immediately returned calls for comment, but Dakine sent a letter to the website Shop-Eat-Surf outlining its plans.

We will be transitioning operations a number of employees to our global headquarters in Southern California, the company wrote.

Founded in Hawaii in 1979, Dakine moved to Hood River in 1986 where it became one of Oregons signature brands for outdoor gear. It sells backpacks, luggage, ski, windsurfing and snowboarding gear.

Dakine sold to Billabong in 2008 and later spun out from that company to a succession of private investment firms.

The coronavirus outbreak has hit Oregons outdoors industry hard, preventing residents and travelers from engaging in many of their favorite activities and undermining the businesses that depend on them.

Oregon shed more than 360,000 jobs in the first six weeks of the epidemic. The outbreak has begun doing permanent damage to the states economy, with a growing number of well-known businesses closing permanently.

-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway |

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
HouseCheck has extensive experience in Environmental Services, and our environmental scientists have succeeded in adapting the protocols we use in large commercial buildings into consumer-friendly instructions that can be used in homes.

National HouseCheck Corporation, health and wellness industry leader Stayhealthy Inc., and Joy of Mom, a global online community of over 2.5 million mothers, have announced their partnership to combat the coronavirus and other unhealthy pathogens in the home. Engaging a comprehensive media and public awareness campaign, the trio will educate mothers and families on science-based guidelines for effectively cleaning and disinfecting the home.

Stayhealthy CEO John Collins says, Remarkably, there is a lot of misinformation circulating about best practices for disinfecting the home. Just last week the CDC announced they are seeing a dangerous increase in poisonings as people make mistakes trying to clean their homes. We are happy to partner with a recognized expert in environmental issues like HouseCheck and an established and reliable community like Joy of Mom to get the right information to the right people -- our mothers -- to make sure we are keeping our homes and families safe from coronavirus and other dangerous pathogens.

The new partnership will empower mothers and families to minimize the spread of bacteria, mold, and viruses like coronavirus in the home by providing necessary cleaning guidelines, protocols, and simple written and video how-to tutorials from industry-leading microbiologists, hospital inspection specialists, and environmental scientists.

HouseCheck has extensive experience in Environmental Services, and our environmental scientists have succeeded in adapting the protocols we use in large commercial buildings into consumer-friendly instructions that can be used in homes, noted Bill Klehm, President and CEO of National HouseCheck Corporation. Our relationship with Joy of Mom will enable us to deliver potentially life-saving information to more people.

Joy of Mom will utilize its online platforms to spread the message of home health and safety to millions of women across the country. The community will also produce a series of live, online events to educate mothers on the dangers of not cleaning the home correctly and how to provide a defense against health threats like COVID-19.

I look forward to continuing our work in empowering moms to maintain a safe and healthy home, explained Vicky Reese, Founder and CEO of Joy of Mom. When we started this, I thought my house was clean. I didnt realize I was cleaning in a way that wasnt protecting my family! Now I have a better understanding of the importance of cleaning and disinfecting.

A small, one-time fee provides immediate, unlimited access to CovidClean.JoyOfMom.com, where users will access simple written and video instructions on how to safely and effectively mitigate viruses and other deadly germs from the home using common, readily accessible products.

About HouseCheck

National HouseCheck Corporation offers a diverse array of services that enable homeowners, home sellers, homebuyers, and the real estate industry to protect the value, health and safety of the home and all those within. Customers turn to HouseCheck for home inspections, home warranties, environmental testing and comprehensive property information they need.

To learn more about HouseCheck Environmental Services, visit HouseCheckEnvironmental.com. For information on National HouseCheck Corporation, visit http://www.HouseCheck.com.

About Stayhealthy, Inc.

Stayhealthy Inc. is a healthcare technology company that has merged the most advanced science and digital tools to measure, track, engage, and change health and wellness for the better. Stayhealthys platform of lifestyle engagement mobile apps is based on highly accurate, clinically valid, FDA cleared screening tools delivered with patented augmented reality technology.

Stayhealthys mission is focused on successfully addressing the growing epidemic of diseases that are linked directly to excess body fat such as many cancers, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. For more information visit: http://www.stayhealthy.com.

About Joy of Mom

Vicki Reece, a mom on a mission, searched for a platform that she could trust. One that was true, non-compromising, and authentic. One where advice was shared mom to mom from real grit and experience. And where moms were respected and protected.

She couldnt find such a platform, so she built it. Today, Joy of Mom is over 2.5 million moms strong. Passionate, intimate, global. Grown 100% organically from earned trust. For moms, by moms.

For more information visit http://www.joyofmom.com.
Faced with 20-30 per cent spike in demand after liquor sales were allowed from Monday, the alcoholic beverages industry is asking state governments to allow them to operate more shifts at distilleries.

Industry bodies such as the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC), the International Spirits and Wines Association of India (ISWAI) and the All India Brewers' Association (AIBA) said refilling stocks at retail outlets is a major challenge under the current circumstances due to several issues in supply chain and labour shortage.

Spirits manufacturers, however, termed long queues outside liquor stores, as people in different parts of India braved the blazing sun, rains and even hailstorms in some parts to get hold of booze, a "temporary" phenomenon due to pent up demand.

They also welcomed the Chhattisgarh government's move to allow only home delivery of liquor through online sales but at the same time cautioned against the 70 per cent hike in duty on alcohol products by Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government.

Commenting on liquor sales which were allowed from Monday, CIABC Chairman Director General Vinod Giri said sales of around Rs 70 crore were reported in Karnataka as the vends reopened after a gap of almost 40 days. "This is more than two to three times the normal sales."



In Uttar Pradesh around Rs 100 crore sales have been reported which is again 40 to 50 per cent jump, he said, adding even in Delhi sales were "higher" on Monday but "unfair to compare with pre-lockdown days as out of its 800 liquor outlets, only around 150 were open".

Stating that the steep demand for liquor is expected to continue for a week or so, Giri said that on an average around "20 to 30 per cent" more sales happened and similar kind of sales were expected on Tuesday.

Commenting on challenges faced by the industry to meet the high demand and maintain stocks in outlets, he said, "The whole supply chain has to come back to full otherwise most of the outlets would run out of stocks".

"It (production) takes more time than starting retail sales, where the stock was pending and all you have to do is just pull the shutter up and start selling."



"Factories would take some time. Hopefully, we can restart before the pipelines are dry. We are trying our best to get the supply chain to kick in again. I think it will take 2-3 weeks time to get the supply chain working properly," Giri said.

According to him, manufacturing in the liquor industry is more complex as a whole set of permission is required and getting the plant going takes some time.

Expressing similar views, ISWAI Executive Chairman Amrit Kiran Singh said thatdemand in the sector is very high and to fill up the inventory, several liquor makers have approached the respective state governments to allow one more shift.

Right now we are asking for an extra shift of production. Though distillery is not a high labour-intensive manufacturing business, at bottling plants we have problems, where we can right now produce only 60-65 per cent of our capacity, he said, adding that "all companies are now requesting the state excise department to allow them to operate one more shift.

According to Singh,liquor is witnessing high demand becausethere is uncertainty about regular availability and people will hoard it to a certain extent.

When asked about the crowd at stores, he said, "In Delhi, it would come down soon, because of additional tax while in the other parts of the country it is already almost normal. It would take 15to 30 days to restore production and supplies."



However, AIBA Director-General Shobhan Roy assured that the capacity should not be a problem as the demand is less compared to normal days because a lower number of shops are operating.

"The supply chain route now has to fill up otherwise retail would go dry...," he said adding "it would take another 10 to 15 days to fill up the supply chain".

Commenting on the demand Giri said that the industry had earlier estimated that there would be initial overstocking the liquor of around 20 to 30 per cent by the customers.

Apart from stocking at home, there is no other phenomenon driving the behaviour. It's mostly because of the panic buying by the customers, he said adding, What we are seeing is actually an inflated number and it's for a few days. We would not see this in the long term. Sales would settle down very soon. It's a temporary phenomenon.

However, Giri also added that this temporary increase in sales would not help the liquor industry to recover the losses made during the lockdown period.

Overall, if you ask, it would not affect to recover the lost sales by more than 5 to 10 per cent because on trade which is 70 per cent of the business is still shut. Still, not many outlets are open."



Over the Delhi government's decision to levy 70 per cent cover tax on the liquor, Giri said that this could be done to manage the crowd, but it may impact the sector.

"There are many ways to manage the rush instead of the price increase and if it is for the long term revenue increase, then I am afraid. This is going to be very counterproductive and this would affect the demand very badly," he said adding "in the beginning one will not see the impact but soon sales would decline and so would the total revenue collection of the government.

He also suggested measures such as extending the shop hours and following the Kerala model, where tokens are being issued.

Singh also suggested this should be a temporary measure only.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Bombay high court (HC) on Tuesday directed the state government to clarify who will be bearing the 15% cost of travel of migrant workers to their hometowns, as the Centre has undertaken to bear 85% of the cost. The directions were prompted after the petitioner said that there was no clarity in the tri-party state government on who would pay the amount. The petitioner also sought directions to the state to bear the cost of medical screening of migrant workers before they can embark on their journey back home.

The single bench of justice S C Gupte, while hearing public interest litigations (PILs) filed by NGO Ghar Bachao, Ghar Banao through video conferencing, was informed by advocates Kranti L C and Ronita Bhattacharya that after the state wing of the Congress party had said that it would bear the transportation cost of migrant workers, the Centre had clarified that it would bear 85% while 15% would have to be borne by the state. However, as the Congress was a stakeholder in the state government, there was no clarity as to who would pay and hence the state should be asked to clarify.

The advocates for the NGO also submitted that as migrant workers who want to go home need a medical certificate, the cost of the same should also be borne by the state government.

However, after the states counsel submitted that the policy was silent on this aspect, Justice Gupte said that there was a need for coordination between the state and central governments on payment for the transportation and the same should be informed to the court on May 8.
More than six million workers in the United Kingdom are being paid by the government to stay at home.

That number amounts to approximately a quarter of the nations private-sector employees now on the governments furlough scheme, with 800,000 employers claiming a total  so far  of eight billion pounds ($9.9bn) from state coffers to pay them, Revenue and Customs officials said on Monday.

The UKs daily toll announced on Monday showed a rise of 288 deaths, for a total of 28,734  second only within Europe to Italy.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is central to efforts to stop mass lay-offs of workers during the forced shutdown of much of the economy, and sees the state pay 80 percent of workers wages  up to 2,500 pounds ($3,100) a month.

The programme is currently set up to run until the end of June, but Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said on Monday that there would be no cliff-edge.





I am working as we speak to figure out the most effective way to wind down the scheme and ease people back into work in a measured way, Sunak told ITV News.

But as some scenarios have suggested we are potentially spending as much on the furlough scheme as we do on the NHS (National Health System), for example. Now, clearly, that is not a sustainable situation.

The scheme has been forecast to cost around 39 billion pounds ($48.5bn), assuming that 30 percent of the nations employees are enrolled, the UKs official budget forecasters have said.

The furlough figures were revealed as pensions minister Therese Coffey announced the number of welfare claims had risen to six times that of pre-coronavirus levels, with 1.8 million claims for Universal Credit submitted between March 16 and the end of April.

Universal Credit is not an accurate measure of unemployment, as some benefits are paid to people in low-paid work as well as to those who have lost their jobs.

Johnson under pressure

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will review the measures that have all but shuttered the UKs economy on May 7 to judge whether any can be eased, a decision which he says will be guided by the governments desire to protect public health.

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He is under pressure from some in his governing Conservative Party to start to ease some of the measures, allowing people to return to reopened businesses and for some children to go back to school.

But so far, the prime minister, who says he fought for his life in intensive care after contracting COVID-19, has been cautious about offering any promises, signalling he wants to bring Labour and other opposition parties on board.

Labour leader Keir Starmer has criticised Johnson for being slow on introducing the lockdown, which began on March 23, slow on increasing testing and on providing protective equipment, but has also wanted to be constructive at a time of crisis.

Our priority is protecting the publics health and saving lives, Starmer said in a statement. That is why we supported the lockdown and again support the restrictions staying in place at this time.

We want to support the government to get this right and that is why we need a national consensus on what happens next.

Tracing app raises concerns





The UK on Monday also announced a trial project for a coronavirus tracing mobile phone app. Using Bluetooth technology, it registers when a user has been within close range of another user. If one subsequently has coronavirus diagnosed, the app can inform those with whom the infected user has come into contact with.

It is similar in concept to other apps being developed elsewhere in Europe  except that it sends data to be processed centrally rather than solely on the devices themselves, where a higher level of privacy can be guaranteed.

This has raised concerns among privacy activists, who say it risks breaching strict European data protection laws known as GDPR.

But Matthew Gould, chief executive officer the National Health Services technology group NHSX which developed the app, said they had put privacy right at the heart of it.

It doesnt know who you are. It doesnt know who youve been near. It doesnt know where you are, he said.

Other approaches, such as one being developed by Apple and Google, uses a decentralised approach to help guarantee data privacy.

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If the Apple and Google app proves more popular across Europe, the efficiency of the UKs own custom solution may also be undermined after borders reopen if it does not communicate well with those apps being used by visitors from Europe. This is also the concern for app users in Northern Ireland, where a soft border with the Republic of Ireland, which remains a European Union member, could be reinforced by differing coronavirus app protocols.

The app will also require Bluetooth to be turned on as a default measure, which raises concerns about battery drainage.

The app is being trialled on the Isle of Wight, off the southern coast of mainland England, and home to about 140,000 people. There have been 28 coronavirus deaths on the island, and approximately 130 cases identified.

Health workers and council staff will be able to download the app from Tuesday, with the rest of the islands residents able to access it from Thursday.
KITCHENER - Hope sparked by a major review of occupational disease claims from former rubber workers is dissolving into frustration, as more denials are reported.

Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board is reviewing more than 300 previously rejected compensation claims from retirees or their surviving families.

The review was ordered last December by WSIB chair Elizabeth Witmer, who was concerned by stories of a cluster of cancer and lung disease among workers exposed to carcinogens in Kitchener's rubber manufacturing industry.

Former workers and their widows say they're angry and deflated after getting calls informing them that after taking a second look, WSIB is sticking with its original rejections of their cases.

"They failed us again. These men, they built this city, they built this province," said Kitchener's Gayle Wannan.

"Did their deaths not mean anything?"

Her late husband, Lynden Wannan, worked at Uniroyal for 26 years and died of pancreatic cancer at age 49 after collapsing on the factory floor. She's convinced the chemicals he worked with played a role in his early death.

Wannan says the WSIB, which told her last week it's upholding its original decision to deny compensation, is out of touch with the hardships the workers' deaths have caused many local families.

"They're not in our shoes," she said. "If I have to wait for another appeal, I'll be dead by then."

The WSIB said some claims have been overturned as a result of the review, but was not able to say how many.

"In conducting our review, we have been able to allow some previously denied claims based on new information, scientific research or information that has changed since the date of the original decision," board spokesperson Christine Arnott said in a statement.

"We want people to receive any benefits and services they are entitled to, and we have to base our decisions on scientific evidence. Unfortunately, in some cases conclusive scientific evidence linking diseases to workplace exposures does not exist."

Dave Schneider, a 79-year-old who began working at BF Goodrich in his 20s, was also told his claim for throat cancer was rejected - again.

The physician who studied his case, Dr. Mike Pysklywec, argued Schneider's exposure to carcinogens in the rubber industry was a significant contributing factor with his cancer.

But since the Kitchener man used to smoke, the WSIB decided it couldn't determine how much of his cancer could be blamed on his job at the rubber plant.

The review panel ultimately upheld that decision.

"They said, 'There's no change.' I said all those people died doing the same work. Smokers and non-smokers," he said.

"I said, 'I want you to tell me what they died from.' You know it's all work-related. I got angry."

Virginia MacKenzie, whose husband Ross MacKenzie died in 2007 at 70 after three rounds of cancer and chronic lung issues, said she's disappointed to see the WSIB standing firm with its original decisions.

Her husband worked at BF Goodrich for 38 years, and MacKenzie has long believed his health problems were job-related.

"Are they just doing the same thing again?" she said. "There has to be something we can do. They just don't seem to be getting the message."

gmercer@therecord.com

Twitter: @MercerRecord
ATLANTA (dpa-AFX) - Virgin Atlantic said it will cut 3,150 jobs, due to the coronavirus crisis that affects the entire travel and aviation industry. The airline will move its flying programme from London Gatwick to London Heathrow, with the intention of retaining its slot portfolio at London Gatwick. The airline said it is working closely with unions BALPA and Unite, and a company-wide consultation period of 45 days begins today. Shai Weiss, CEO, Virgin Atlantic said, 'We have weathered many storms since our first flight 36 years ago, but none has been as devastating as Covid-19 and the associated loss of life and livelihood for so many.' Following the pattern of previous crises including 9/11 and the Global Financial Crisis, capacity across the aviation industry will significantly reduce, with recovery to pre-crisis levels expected to take up to three years, Virgin Atlantic said. Virgin Atlantic said it will no longer use all of its seven 747-400s, with four A330-200 aircraft retiring in early 2022 as planned. By 2022 the simplified, greener fleet will comprise of 36 twin engine aircraft reducing CO2/RTK emissions by an estimated further 10%, building on the 18% efficiency already achieved between 2007-2019. Recently, Ryanair Airlines had said it plans a restructuring and job loss program to commence from July 2020, which may result in the loss of up to 3,000 mainly pilot and cabin crew jobs. Last week, British Airways announced plans to cut nearly 12,000 jobs at the UK carrier as Covid-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the aviation industry. 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.






Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk appeared to qualify on Monday for a $700 million payday, just three days after he said the electric car company's stock price was too high.

Shares of Tesla jumped more than 8% on Monday, putting Tesla's market capitalization at $141.1 billion at the close. More importantly for Musk, Tesla's stock market value reached a six-month average of $100.2 billion, according to an analysis of Refinitiv data.

Hitting a six-month average of $100 billion triggers the vesting of the first of 12 tranches of options granted to the billionaire to buy Tesla stock as part of a pay package agreed in 2018. Musk has already met two other requirements by hitting a growth target and far exceeding a one-month average $100 billion market cap.

Each tranche gives Musk the option to buy 1.69 million Tesla shares at $350.02 each. At Tesla's closing stock price of $761.19, Musk would theoretically be able to sell the shares for a profit of $694 million.

Musk on Friday said on Twitter, "Tesla stock price is too high imo," using an abbreviation for "in my opinion".

That tweet sent Tesla's stock tumbling 10%, shocking shareholders. Tesla, whose California factory is closed as part of the state's coronavirus-related lockdowns, posted its third quarterly profit in a row last week.

Musk, who is also the majority owner and CEO of the SpaceX rocket maker, receives no salary or cash bonus, only options that vest based on Tesla's market cap and milestones for revenue and profit growth.

A full payoff of all tranches would surpass anything previously granted to U.S. executives.

When Tesla unveiled Musks package in 2018, it said he could theoretically reap as much as $55.8 billion if no new shares were issued. However, Tesla has since issued shares to compensate employees, and last year it sold $2.7 billion in shares and convertible bonds.

Musk's subsequent options tranches would vest at $50 billion increments of Tesla market capitalization over the agreement's 10-year period, with the billionaire earning the full package if Tesla's market capitalization reaches $650 billion and the high tech vehicle maker achieves several revenue and profit targets.
AKRON, Ohio  Police are investigating multiple shootings over the weekend that left four people wounded, including two teens.

No arrests have been made in four shootings, the first which occurred Friday afternoon and the last on Sunday night. All of the victims are expected to recover from their wounds.

A 35-year-old male was wounded in the stomach at about 2:30 p.m. Friday when he was shot on 2000 block of 20th Street S.W. in the Kenmore neighborhood. The victim tells police a man at his home became upset when told to leave. The two men began fighting and the unidentified suspect pulled out a handgun and shot the victim, police say. The gunman then ran from the area.

Friday evening, a home on the 400 block of Matthews Street in the Arlington-Middlebury neighborhood was struck by several gunshots, police say. No injuries were reported, but police say there was a previous gun-related incident at the home.

At 7:30 a.m. Sunday, a 34-year-old woman was wounded in the back in a shooting in West Akron. The victim tells police she was shot near the intersection of Whittier Avenue and Noble Street. No other details were released.

Two teen males were shot Sunday evening as two groups of people fired shots at each other on the citys East Side, police say.

The boys, 16 and 17, suffered multiple gunshot wounds and were hospitalized. The 17-year-olds wounds to his abdomen appear to not be life-threatening, while the 16-year-old was shot in his back, and police did not know his condition as of Monday.

Anyone with information is asked to call Akron police detectives at 330-375-2490, Summit County Crimestoppers at 330-434-2677 or text TIPSCO with your tips to 274637. Tipsters can remain anonymous.

More crime-related content on cleveland.com:

Man who threw party at Cleveland home cited with violating Ohios stay-at-home order, police say

90 Cuyahoga County Jail inmates test positive for coronavirus in one month, exposing 376 others to virus, county says

Cleveland U.S. attorney asks for reports of landlords demanding sexual favors in exchange for coronavirus-related rent help
The official end of quarantine restrictive measures is the last (the fifth) stage of a gradual withdrawal

A representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada zik.ua

The issue of the complete end of the lockdown and return to the normal functioning of Ukraine would become more clear at the end of June-July or even in August or September. This was stated by a representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada Vasyl Mokan on his Facebook page.

Mokan noted that the quarantine measures would be mitigated but the quarantine itself had been extended until May 22. This decision was made at an extraordinary session of the Ukrainian government.

"First I want to clarify the terms of lockdown - the official end of quarantine restrictive measures is the last, the fifth stage of a gradual withdrawal. Therefore, the full completion of lockdown and return to the normal functioning of the state may be discussed in late June-July or even in August or September. Everything will depend on the epidemiological situation and the statistics on the level incidence/morbidity from coronavirus," he said.

As we reported earlier, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky addressed Ukrainian citizens and talked about gradual withdrawal from lockdown.
Almost one million teachers and education staff here and in Britain are warning that prematurely reopening schools without caution could lead to a spike in Covid-19.

The ability to test, trace and isolate the virus should be a prerequisite for reopening schools, along with effective social distancing, strong hygiene routines, appropriate PPE, and ongoing risk assessments.

That is according to a letter by the heads of 10 teacher trade unions here and in Britain sent to Education Ministers in all five jurisdictions  the letter urges significant caution be taken before schools are opened again.

Here, it is expected that students will begin to return to school on a phased basis at the beginning of the academic year in the autumn.

This is the last phase of the Governments current plan to exit the Covid-19 shutdown.

While no set date has been officially announced by the British government, Boris Johnson has previously indicated that British primary schools could be reopened as soon as June 1.

Teaching unions here have previously raised concerns over reopening schools without effective procedures to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

John Boyle of the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) said that while it is feasible, it will have to be done in a careful way and on a phased basis.

It will be especially difficult to keep young children socially disatanced, and that it would be hard to maintain social distance given the size of some classrooms, he believes.

School buses, a staggered school day and a rota of deep cleaning classrooms should also be considered.

The letter sent by the British Irish Group of Teacher Unions (BIGTU) on behalf of almost 1 million teachers and education staff, warns of the very real risk of creating a spike in the transmission of the virus by a premature opening of schools.

It calls for the establishment of sufficient capacity to test trace and isolate the infection as a prerequisite for school reopening, alongside significant operational changes [being] in place to ensure effective social distancing.

The letter also calls for the introduction of strong hygiene routines linked to thorough cleansing practices, appropriate PPE being made available where required, and ongoing risk assessments in place to monitor operations.

It is signed by John Mac Gabhann of the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI), Kieran Christie of the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI), and John Boyle of the Irish National Teachers Association (INTO).

The letter is also signed by Joan Donegan, the general secretary of the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) and Jacquie White, the general secretary Ulster Teachers Union (UTU).
My daily updates on COVID-19 in Minnesota  the politics, the public policy, the media  have come to replicate life in lockdown. Every day is the same.

Yesterday was a little different. It included an appearance on Justice and Drew during the shows second hour yesterday (audio below). I recounted my experience of exclusion from the daily briefings. As Governor Walz might put it: Hello, Minnesota! We can do this! I want to validate that!

Alpha News Board Member and Powerline Blog Contributor @scottwjohnson talks with @TCNewsTalk Morning Show about his experience trying to get access to participate in MDH Press Briefings (Interview Starts at 26:30) https://t.co/TReuJHDXUf  Alpha News MN (@AlphaNewsMN) May 4, 2020

We had 9 new deaths attributed to the virus yesterday, down from 24 the day before. Seven of the 9 deaths occurred among residents of nursing homes or other long-term care facilities. The nine new decedents included two in their 90s, three in their 80s, one in his 70s, one in his 60s, and two in their 50s.

These new deaths brings the total of decedents to 428, with 345 of 428 among residents of long-term care facilities. The share of long-term residential care deaths to all deaths continues slightly to exceed 80 percent. The median age of all decedents remains 83.

There is no excuse for the statewide shutdown. It continues to wreak untold devastation on the lives of Minnesotas productive citizens. I wonder if Walz had any idea what he was doing when he imposed the shutdown on March 25 with the projection that the virus would take the lives of 74,000 Minnesotans, based on the super duper customized model engineered by the pros at the Minnesota Department of Health and the University of Minnesota.

Liz Rammer was among the speakers at yesterdays daily briefing (video below, at about 27:00). Rammer is the president and chief executive officer of the industry organization Hospitality Minnesota. Rammer made it clear that a continuation of the shutdown for another two months would kill a substantial share of Minnesotas hospitality industry.

We want to thank you for acknowledging the monumental hit the hospitality industry has taken on, Rammer said in her remarks. She expressed confidence that Walz understands the dire consequences facing the industry. More than half her 2,000 members, she stated, face certain, permanent closure on the current course. Yes, thank you very much indeed, Governor Walz. For the first time since I have been watching these briefings, Walz looked shaken to me.
At the initiative of the Armenian side, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan today had a phone call with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tleuberdi.

As reported the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the foreign ministers exchanged views on the programs and measures that the countries are implementing to gradually overcome the challenges due to the novel coronavirus, and Zohrab Mnatsakanyan expressed his solidarity with the friendly people of Kazakhstan.

Touching upon the details of the special flight to be carried out on May 6, the foreign ministers expressed satisfaction with the mutual support and assistance for the transport of citizens of Armenia and Kazakhstan to their respective countries.

The interlocutors also exchanged views on several issues on the bilateral agenda and expressed willingness to enhance cooperation in sectors of mutual interest. The foreign ministers thoroughly discussed bilateral and multilateral cooperation in regional and international formats and benchmarked the steps for implementation of joint programs.
Theres plenty of distressing news out there right now during the coronavirus pandemic, and this is not that. Weve been working on an uplifting project over the last few weeks, and are ready to put it into action this week.

On Wednesday May 6, in honor of National Nurses Day, MLive is partnering with Michigan businesses from across the state to provide meals to over 2,000 health care workers who have been working the front lines during this difficult time.

This was one of those win-win-win scenarios that we couldnt be more excited about, said Jamie Dionne, senior director of sales at MLive Media Group. Michigans Best and our 11 amazing partners have been looking for ways to pay it forward to the front line healthcare workers in our state, and Michigans Best cares deeply about our local community restaurants. This project married both of those things together in a way that serves our business partners, our community restaurants and our healthcare heroes.

The 11 sponsoring partners have together contributed enough money to purchase 2,250 meals directly from some of Michigans Best restaurants, from regions all over the state. Our restaurant partners are thrilled to be able to not just help feed essential workers with some of the best food in Michigan, but to also generate some take-out business during these tough times.

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting Michiganders from all across our state and we are proud to step up and help during this public health crisis, said Brien Fox, president of Henry A. Fox, one of the sponsors of Feeding the Frontlines. We have deep roots in our community and a longstanding commitment to giving back through investment, employment and charitable giving and were honored to do our part to help those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The meals purchased through these sponsors support will be delivered directly by our participating restaurants to workers in hospitals and nursing homes throughout Michigan on May 6. Just a small gesture, but one that all involved hope will bring a little light - and a lot of delicious food - to those doing the hard work during this time.

We at Zhang Financial are incredibly thankful for the work of nurses, doctors, and other health care workers during this difficult time," said Charles and Lynn Zhang, owners of Zhang Financial, one of the Frontline sponsors. We are living through a historical moment filled with, among many other things, a pervasive sense of fear and uncertainty. It is important to support the individuals who are risking a great deal to save lives each and every day. The work of these heroes allows us to feel safe in our community.

We are sending a huge thank you to these sponsors for the generosity theyve shown. To our beloved locally-owned restaurants across the state, hang in there. If you can, consider ordering take-out from your favorite spot, and support these places that are struggling to stay open.

We are all in this together, even if we are apart.

Boardwalk Subs in Grand Rapids will be providing some of the meals for our health care workers on May 6. Owner Chris Tallarico gave Gonzo and Amy some insider information when they visited Boardwalk on their search for Michigan's Best Subs. Let's just say, you want to go 'rogue' here.

Together, our incredible sponsors have donated enough to purchase 2,250 meals to feed Michigans frontline workers. They include:

Zhang Financial

Frankenmuth Credit Union

Fifth Third Bank

Henry A. Fox Sales

The University of Michigan Credit Union

Gerrits Appliance

Muskegon Surgical Associates

Chemical Bank - a Division of TCF National Bank

North Woods Village of Kalamazoo

Stanley Steemer / Stanley Steemer of Detroit

Chelsea State Bank

Kazoopy's Pizza and Grinders in Kalamazoo, home to some of Michigan's Best subs, is still open for take-out. You can find them at 8441 W. Main St., Kalamazoo, call them at (269) 375-0120 to place your order.

Our participating Michigans Best restaurants include:

Mi Pueblo, Kalamazoo-Michigans Best Mexican

Kazoopys, Kalamazoo-Michigans Best Sub

One Well Brewing, Kalamazoo-Michigans Best New Brewery

That Guys BBQ, Bay City-Michigans Best BBQ, Michigans Best Chili

Mussell Beach Drive In, Bay City-Michigans Best Coney Dog, Breakfast, French Fries

Bay City Bills, Bay City-Michigans Best Bloody Mary, Chili

Amore Trattoria Italiana, Grand Rapids-Michigans Best Italian

Beltline Bar, Grand Rapids-Michigans Best Mexican

Cedar Springs Brewing Company, Cedar Springs-Michigans Best New Brewery, French Fries

Blackstones Smokehouse, Flint (working together with our friend Tony Tucker owner of Michigans Best Diner #2 Krystal Jos in Flint)

Cantoro Market in Plymouth, one of Michigan's Best Italian restaurants, will be providing meals on May 6. Their incredible market is still open and offering all sorts of tasty to-go items.

These Michigans Best restaurants are also participating:

Cantoro Italian Market & Trattoria, Plymouth- Michigans Best Italian Restaurant

Hamburger Mikey, Muskegon-Michigans Best French Fries, Best Burger

Petes Grill & Tavern, Byron Centery-sister restaurant to Beltline Bar

Paw Paw Brewing, Paw Paw-not yet on a Michigans Best search, but a great spot nonetheless.

Smokehouse 52, Chelsea-Michigans Best BBQ, Chili

Boardwalk Subs, Grand Rapids- Michigans Best Subs

Daddy Petes BBQ, Grand Rapids-Michigans Best BBQ

Holidays Restaurant, Ann Arbor-Michigans Best Diner

A cheeseburger from Bay City Bill's in Bay City. They are participating in MLive's Feeding the Frontlines initiative on May 6.Courtesy Photo, used with permission.

John Gonzalez did a podcast last week discussing the program with Anne Drummond from MLive Media Group, Earl Bovia from Bay City Bills, and Jeff Lobdell from Restaurant Partners. You can check it out here.

Some things seriously take a village, and this project was one of them. Its amazing what you can do when you work together.

Daddy Pete's BBQ was a finalist for Michigan's Best BBQ and is one of the locally owned restaurants providing meals for front line workers on May 6.

Stories that highlight how our communities are Powering Positivity are being done in partnership with The MediLodge Group, which has skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities throughout Michigan.

READ MORE

Want more stories about great things happening in Michigan right now? So do we.

Michigan comes together to support hospitality workers during week long event.

Fredi the Pizzaman continues to support autism through pandemic.

That Guys BBQ brings meals, hope to Bay City.

Pink-haired dynamo chef makes a difference in West Michigan.

See a full list of great helper stories here.
Amid the menace of the Coronavirus pandemic and with no specific antidote to it so far, Israel's Defence Minister Naftali Bennett has claimed that his country has made a significant breakthrough towards the treatment for the deadly virus.

The "monoclonal neutralising antibody" developed at the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) "can neutralise it [the disease-causing coronavirus] inside carriers' bodies," Israel's defence minister said in a statement.

Bennett visited the labs of the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR), a secretive unit that works under the Prime Ministers Office, in Ness Ziona and was shown the antibody that attacks the virus in a monoclonal way and can neutralize it within the bodies of those ill, according to the statement from his office.

READ | India Can Easily Do Synthesis Of New Anti-viral Drug Remdesivir, Says Former ICMR Director

The antibody reported as having been isolated at the IIBR is monoclonal, meaning it was derived from a single recovered cell, and is thus potentially of more potent value in yielding a treatment.

According to International media reports, IIBR Director Shmuel Shapira says that the antibody formula was being patented, after which an international manufacturer would be sought to mass-produce it. About the vaccine developments in other countries, there have been coronavirus treatments developed from antibodies that are polyclonal or derived from two or more cells of different ancestry, the magazine Science Direct reported in its May issue.

The small southern town of Yeruham has plans to open Israel's first vaccine production facility, in partnership with the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) and one of two prospective international pharmaceutical companies, according to a spokesperson for the Yeruham local council.

READ | From Plasma Therapy To Administering Remdesivir; Doctors Around The World Urge Caution

READ | 'Significant Step': HHS Chief Lauds Approval Of Emergency Use Of Remdesivir For COVID-19

Israel was one of the first countries to close its borders and impose increasingly stringent restrictions on movement to hamper the domestic coronavirus outbreak. It has reported 16,246 cases and 235 deaths from the illness. As the world grapples with the Coronavirus which originated from China in December last year, countries have been racing against time to come up with a vaccine.

Gilead Science's Remdivisir is also touted to be a possible cure for the COVID-19. However, there is minimal data over it and better trials are needed as there are only a handful of trials done as of now, as per accounts from the US where it has been permitted by the CDC. The US government has granted permission to its hospitals to use Remdevisir to cure patients suffering from COVID-19.
Saab Global Defense and Security Co. will produce its contribution to the production of the U.S. Air Forces T-7A Red Hawk in its new $37 million facility in Discovery Park District. (Photo courtesy of Saab)

General manager will lead Saabs $37 million advanced manufacturing and production for aerospace systems

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Indiana native Robert Ulibarri has been named Saabs general manager for its aerospace facility in Discovery Park District, where he will lead the advanced manufacturing and production for aerospace systems. The $37 million facility brings in a new era for Syracuse, New York-based Saab as it advances its U.S.-based advanced manufacturing and innovation through a research partnership with Purdue Universitys world-leading aerospace engineering program.

Ulibarri (you-la-BERRY) most recently served as general manager for industrial automation at Eckhart USA, based in Columbus, Indiana. Previously, he held various leadership positions at Lennox International Inc. and Oshkosh Corp. He is a two-time Purdue University graduate, having earned both a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering and technology, now called Purdue Polytechnic Institute, and an Executive Master of Business Administration from the Krannert School of Management.

With Saab building a state-of-the-art facility in West Lafayette and our partnership with Purdue University, we knew we needed to hire an experienced, forward-thinking general manager with a relevant industry 4.0 background and an ingrained understanding of the community. Roberts background and profile are a perfect match to lead and grow Saabs Indiana operations, said Erik Smith, president and CEO of Saab in the U.S.

In the new facility, Saab will manufacture the aft section, fully installed with associated subsystems, of the advanced pilot trainer aircraft for the United States Air Force in partnership with Boeing.

I am thrilled to work on this groundbreaking project for Saab in support of Indiana, the U.S. Air Force and future customers, Ulibarri said. It is a unique opportunity to engage with Purdue and work with such talented people to expand the defense industry in Indiana. Its exciting as well that our product will be American-made all the way.

Ulibarri is a Peru, Indiana, native and comes from a family of Boilermakers. His wife, Zeina, earned a degree from the Purdue College of Pharmacy. They have three children and plan to relocate from Columbus, Indiana, to the West Lafayette area.

The Saab aerospace facility will be based in the Purdue Research Foundations Discovery Park District. Talent recruitment has already begun for certain Saab positions, which will expand when the new facility officially opens in 2021. When at full capacity by 2027, Saab will employ over 300 people in the West Lafayette facility across management, administration and manufacturing roles. The new flagship facility will utilize advanced manufacturing techniques and leverage research and development to support Saabs broad product portfolio.

We have been in the planning phase of the Saab/Purdue collaboration for nearly two years, and it is highly rewarding to reach a stage where the building is well under construction and, with Roberts presence in the company, we move to the next stage of actively working together, said Brian Edelman, president of Purdue Research Foundation. There are opportunities for research collaborations with Purdue, a strong talent track for future Saab team members and a culture and environment in the Discovery Park District where Saab employees and their families can thrive.

Discovery Park District is part of a $1 billion long-term project to transform the west side of the university campus, creating a preeminent environment for intellectual discourse and high-tech commercial enterprise. The district is being developed by Purdue Research Foundation in partnership with Browning Investments LLC for the master planning and development of the district. The Saab project is the sixth major project announced in the past two years for Discovery Park District. Rolls-Royce and SEL (Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories) also have major facilities in the district.

About Saab

Saab serves the global market with world-leading products, services and solutions within military defense and civil security. Saab has operations and employees on all continents around the world. Through innovative, collaborative and pragmatic thinking, Saab develops, adopts and improves new technology to meet customers changing needs.

About Discovery Park District

The Discovery Park District is a 400-acre, $1 billion-plus purpose-driven community on the western edge of campus that will include laboratories, advanced manufacturing facilities, offices, retail shops, restaurants, housing, green space, trails and an airport with a 7,000-foot runway. The district, which is a designated opportunity zone, houses the Convergence Center for Innovation and Collaboration, a facility designed to serve as a front door to companies that seek to collaborate with Purdue. Companies interested in locating in the Discovery Park District or Convergence Center should contact David Broecker, the foundations chief innovation and collaboration officer, at dabroecker@prf.org.

Media contacts:

Cynthia Sequin, Purdue Research Foundation, casequin@prf.org

Jana Weir Murphy, Saab, Jana.Murphy@saabusa.com
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin has felicitated the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with a commemorative World War II medal for his role in preserving the memory of Soviet soldiers killed in North Korea.

Russias Embassy in Pyongyang confirmed the development on Tuesday. The felicitation ceremony took place at the Mansudae Assembly Hall, where Kim reshuffled North Koreas highest decision-making body last month.

It may be recalled that the North Korean leader made his first public appearance in three weeks Saturday following an absence that sparked intense speculation about his health and the future of his sanctioned regime.

Russian Ambassador handed the commemorative medal dubbed 75 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945 to North Korean Foreign Minister.

The Russian embassy also released a statement and published photographs of its Facebook page. However, there was no sighting of Kim Jong Un himself.

Kim was awarded for his great personal contribution to the commemoration of the dead and buried Soviet citizens on the territory of the DPRK and showing concern about the safety of the Soviet soldiers graves and memorial sites, it said

According to Russias state-run TASS news agency, at least 1,375 Soviet soldiers are buried in North Korea.

Kim visited Russia for the first time in April 2019, where he met with Putin to discuss his nuclear stalemate with the United States.


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Syracuse, N.Y.  Crouse Hospital will resume outpatient elective surgeries Thursday under guidelines issued last week by the state.

Crouse halted the procedures March 17, several days before the state ordered all hospitals to cancel elective surgeries to make more beds available for coronavirus patients.

Most Upstate hospitals were not flooded with infected patients like hospitals in New York City. The loss of the profitable elective surgeries prompted Crouse, St. Josephs and many other Upstate hospitals to furlough workers and cut some employees pay.

Cuomo said last week hospitals in Onondaga County can restart outpatient elective surgeries as long as they keep at least 30% of beds available for coronavirus patients and dont see a significant increase in coronavirus hospitalizations.

Crouse said physician offices will contact patients whose procedures were postponed.

The hospital said patients scheduled for elective surgery are required to be tested for coronavirus three days prior to their procedure and will be encouraged to limit contact with others between the test and their procedure.

Crouse said patients should contact their surgeon or primary care doctor for more information and scheduling details.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

Coronavirus update: See which of Cuomos reopening requirements Central NY has met

What businesses might reopen this month amid coronavirus in NY? McMahon offers clues about restart

Syracuse family was poised for first graduate, a better neighborhood, a new career. Then coronavirus hit

Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com

James T. Mulder covers health news. Have a news tip? Contact him at (315) 470-2245 or jmulder@syracuse.com
: After two



consecutive days of zero cases, three people tested positive for COVID-19 in Kerala on Tuesday while 37 people are undergoing treatment in various hospitals for the infection, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.

A truck driver, who had gone to Chennai and later tested positive for the virus, had infected his mother, wife and cleaner's son, he told reporters here.

All the three cases are from Wayanad district.

He said 502 people havebeen infected with the virus and presently 37 are undergoingtreatment in various hospitals.

Over 21,000 people are under surveillance, including 308 in various hospitals.

Another relief was that there were no new hotspots in the state and no positive cases in four districts, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
There have not yet been any known cases identified in New Jersey of the rare pediatric inflammatory condition Kawasaki disease, which is being investigated as possibly linked to the coronavirus, the states top health official said Tuesday.

State Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli was asked about the disease, a rare blood vessel disorder, a week after European doctors warned health officials to be on the lookout for it and a day after the New York City health department announced 15 children with symptoms of the syndrome have been hospitalized.

I have not gotten any reports of the multi-symptom inflammatory Kawasaki disease thats affecting individuals throughout the United States," said Persichilli during the states daily coronavirus press briefing in Trenton. I had not gotten notification of any of those cases to date.

New Jersey has had pediatric cases of COVID-19, Persichilli said. But there have been no deaths under the age of 17 in the state, according the Department of Healths coronavirus information page. The state has age data for about 7,200 of the 8,244 deaths in New Jersey from the coronavirus.

None of the 15 children in New York City possibly affected by Kawasaki disease have died, however five cases required mechanical ventilation, according to the citys health department. Most of the children had fevers and many had a rash, diarrhea or vomiting while being hospitalized.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

Last week, Britains Paediatric Intensive Care Society issued an alert to doctors noting that in the past three weeks, there has been an increase in the number of children with a multi-system inflammatory state requiring intensive care across the country. The group said there was growing concern that either a COVID-19 related syndrome was emerging in children or that a different, unidentified disease might be responsible.

We already know that a very small number of children can become severely ill with COVID-19 but this is very rare, said Dr. Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. He said the syndrome was likely caused by an overreaction of the bodys immune system and noted similar symptoms had been seen in some adults infected with the coronavirus.

Gov. Phil Murphy declared Monday schools in New Jersey would be closed for the remainder of the academic year and that New Jersey will continue teaching about 1.4 million public school students from home.

He took the action because there was no way students and staff could safely reenter schools as the state continues to battle the pandemic.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com.
A policeman deployed on the emergency 112 helpline service in Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar has tested positive for the coronavirus disease, officials said on Tuesday.

The colleagues, family members and other people who came in contact with the sub-inspector have been quarantined, a police spokesperson said.

"It was still being assessed how the policeman got infected or if he came in contact with an infected person," the spokesperson said.

The police and the Health Department are continuously monitoring his health condition, the official added.

Besides the policeman, 13 other people, including two healthcare workers, tested positive for the COVID-19 infection in Gautam Buddh Nagar on Tuesday, according to officials.

The number of total cases in the district now stands at 193, even as 109 patients have been discharged from hospitals after their successful treatment for coronavirus, the officials added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Turkey welcomed 4.24 million foreign visitors in the first quarter of 2020, the countrys Culture and Tourism Ministry said on Thursday.

The number of foreigners visiting the country dropped by 22.1% on a yearly basis in the quarter, the ministry data showed.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in China last December, tourism and aviation sectors took a backseat due to restrictions on travel.

Turkey's flag carrier Turkish Airlines also suspended all flights till May 28.

COVID-19 has spread to at least 185 countries and regions across the world. Europe and the US are currently the worst-hit.

Turkey currently has 117,589 coronavirus cases, while the death toll in the country stands at 3,081.

On a global scale, the virus infected more than 3.2 million people and caused over 227,800 deaths, so far, according to Johns Hopkins University.

In the first quarter, Istanbul remained Turkeys top tourist spot, attracting nearly 55.5% of all visitors -- around 2.35 million.

Edirne, in northwestern Turkey, which borders both Bulgaria and Greece, saw the second-highest number of foreigners, with 540,261 in the January-March period.

The Mediterranean resort city of Antalya followed them with 10.18% or over 431,653 foreign visitors last month.

Some 2.98 million visitors came to Turkey via air ways, while 1.16 million chose motor ways, 87,712 sea ways and 3,503 railways.

Bulgarians accounted for over 9.3% or nearly 393,220 of the visitors, followed by Germans with 8.4% (356,261 visitors) and Georgians with some 7.74% (327,910).

In March, the number of foreign visitors dropped by 67.8% to stand at 718,097, down from 2.23 million in the same month last year.

In the first month of 2020, the tourist number hit the highest January figures with 1.8 million foreign visitors.

In 2019, more than 45 million foreigners entered the country, up from nearly 39.5 million in 2018.

Image Credit:  AA
'No community transmission of COVID-19, behavioural changes may be new 'healthy' normal'

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, May 5: India has so far been able to stave off community transmission of COVID-19, says Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, expressing the hope that "behavioural changes" brought about by the infection could become the "new normal" for a healthy society after the pandemic abates.

The nation in a post-coronavirus future could well look back on the pandemic period as a "blessing in disguise" if Indians imbibe hand, respiratory and environmental hygiene and practise it in their everyday lives, the minister said. Underlining the importance of the lockdown, which has been extended till May 17, the minister said health should be on the radar just as much as the economy. "

India will be able to produce antibody test kits by May, says Dr Harsh Vardhan

The government has to do a balancing act," he said. On Tuesday, the number of COVID-19 cases shot up to 46,433 from the 42,836 the day before, a sharp rise of 3,597 cases, according to Union Health Ministry data.

The death toll has risen to 1,568 from 1,389. "Once the havoc caused by the virus subsides and the crisis blows over, people may remember it as a blessing in disguise," Vardhan said. He added that India has so far been able to keep itself from "slipping into the stage of community transmission of the novel coronavirus". "By now we know that fighting coronavirus is no rocket science. If behavioural changes such as hand, environmental and respiratory hygiene, which are being practiced more rigorously during this period, get imbibed in society it will become the new normal," Vardhan said. Such practices will bring down the instances of communicable diseases and society will evolve for the better, he stressed.

NEWS AT 3 PM, MAY 5th, 2020

Other than small pox and polio, no other viral infection has been completely eradicated from this country. Other diseases keep recurring, the minister said, indicating that COVID-19 might be here for the long haul. "But every cloud has a silver lining," he said. The situation posed by the COVID-19 pandemic can be seen as an opportunity to shore up health infrastructure and indigenous production of medical equipment and protective gear under the 'Make in India' initiative, the minister explained. "We have ramped up the production of COVID-19 protective gears like PPE (personal protection equipment) and N-95 masks. Testing facilities have been scaled up significantly," he said.

Efforts are also on to ramp up the production of APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients), the raw material for pharmaceuticals, Vardhan added. "Thus, this pandemic can be seen as an opportunity to boost the indigenous production of such items, thereby reducing India's dependency on foreign countries for them which are in high demand globally due to the pandemic," he said.

The minister also discussed the chaos outside liquor vends across the country on Monday as several states relaxed the lockdown in accordance with guidelines from the Union Home Ministry and people in several places jostled and shoved to stock up on their alcohol without any thought to social distancing norms.

"We have to weigh every decision objectively and predict their consequences before implementing them to ensure there is no spike in cases." He said the doubling rate of cases in the country has been showing regular improvement and stands at over 12 days now as against three days before March 25, when the nationwide lockdown began. The recovery rate has also progressively improved, he said. Around 27.40 per cent patients have recovered so far in the country.

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Story first published: Tuesday, May 5, 2020, 14:38 [IST]
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Linkedin Vincent Piket and Igor Driesmans (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, May 5, 2020 14:48 623 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd612e59 3 Opinion Europe,European-Union,ASEAN,Indonesia,pandemic,COVID-19 Free

The COVID-19 crisis is a colossal, global shock unlike any other in living memory. A health crisis at first, COVID-19 soon turned into an unprecedented economic and social crisis. No one could have imagined it: billions of people confined to their homes, millions out of jobs, countless enterprises in fatal financial trouble. The consequences will go far beyond what we experienced in the 2008 financial crisis.

The sudden, unprecedented and massive crisis initially took the European Union off guard. But, now our response is fully on stream, based on solidarity and mutual support. The EU helped member states procure and stockpile medical equipment and finance research into vaccines; doctors worked cross-border and patients from Italy were treated in Germany; intra-EU trade in medical products was simplified.

To contain the virus, we suspended the border-less travel within the Schengen zone for non-essential travel. These restrictions will gradually be relaxed from mid-May, hand-in-hand with an EU-wide, coordinated approach for the easing of confinement measures.

Meanwhile, the EU and member states designed a massive stimulus package to absorb the COVID socio-economic blow and prepare companies for their post-COVID rebound. They mobilized 3.4 trillion euros (US$3.7 trillion) in support of SMEs, airlines and others. New funding schemes support the most affected member states and create job opportunities across Europe. The Euro-zone members will benefit from massive liquidity up to 2 percent of their GDP, while the European Central Bank is buying up to 750 billion euros in government bonds.

While Europe is currently one of the epicenters, we know this is a global fight. No one will be safe until the entire world is safe. International solidarity is therefore not a luxury but a necessity. In a collective Team Europe approach, the EU and the member states mobilized over 20 billion euros for COVID assistance.

Across ASEAN, the EU will finance over EUR 350 million in grants to support health systems and economic recovery, while member states and European development banks will provide several billions of soft loans to support state budgets for overcoming the socio-economic impact of COVID-19. Mid-April ASEAN leaders decided to cooperate on health and research, provide consular assistance, maintain supply chains and stimulate the recovery, offering many opportunities for even more intense EU-ASEAN cooperation.

Indonesia is a special partner for the EU, even more so in times of crisis. We partner to improve the lives of our citizens, as illustrated by the EU financing of vulnerable people and three regional hospitals (17 million euros) in East Java, South Sulawesi and North Sulawesi. We partner to bring back our stranded citizens.

Indonesia assisted in the return of the 22,000 stranded Europeans, while EU countries helped Indonesian nationals return home from Europe. We partner to mobilize resources for research and equipment at the Coronavirus Global Response Summit on May 4 in the framework of the initiative Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator supported by WHO and others international stakeholders, including the EU and members states.

Our bilateral development banks will mobilize additional funding for social and economic recovery plans. And, we partner in support of multilateralism, as shown by our joint commitment at the virtual Foreign Ministers meeting of the Alliance for Multilateralism on April 16, 2020.

This EU partnership with ASEAN and Indonesia is sometimes understated. True, the EU does not spin politics of generosity or focus on short-lived photo opportunities. Instead, we look for durable and joined-up solutions. And much more work awaits us.

In the medium term, we will need to reboot our economies. The 1,000 EU companies in Indonesia are helping: their total stock of investment is 33 billion euros and they offer jobs to 1.1 million Indonesians.

The poor and vulnerable people will suffer the most. They will require support, the job-less need to find work, and companies will have to restructure their debts. To be sustainable, this recovery will need to be green, addressing this other major emergency of our times: climate change.

In the longer-term, we will need to build a post-COVID world able to respond rapidly to a pandemic like the present one, because todays crisis is unfortunately not going to be the last. All of this can only happen if we come together in solidarity with one another and look for global, coordinated, multilateral solutions.

What better partners than EU, ASEAN and Indonesia to do so.

***

Vincent Piket is the EU ambassador to Indonesia and Igor Driesmans is the EU ambassador to ASEAN. The ambassadors of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden have also signed the article.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
A new leak of the Lenovo Legion Gaming Phone shows a side-mounted pop-up selfie camera. Another leak shows a centrally-located rear camera module.

Smartphone designs are getting weirder by the day. The latest in the series of out-of-the-box designs is the upcoming Lenovo Legion gaming smartphone. From screenshots obtained from a promo video, leaked by XDA-Developers, we get a good look at the upcoming gaming smartphone which shows a side-mounted pop-up camera. Its something that catches the eye instantly, and if you think about it, the design kind of sort of make sense for a gaming phone.

The leaked screenshots show a pop-up selfie camera coming out from the side of the smartphone, with the phone held in landscape orientation. Its a new take on the design trend that took off last year. Yet, while all smartphones launched last year had a pop-up camera that rises from the top, the Legion gaming phone will have the camera rise up from the side.

Who needs a side-mounted pop-up selfie camera?

Lenovo probably expects users of the Legion gaming phones to be glued to their screens playing PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty: Mobile or Fortnite in the landscape orientation. And a side-mounted pop-up camera can help show a clearer face while streaming, something that a lot of mobile gamers have started exploring.

Then again, it leaves you wondering about all the times you want to take a normal selfie. It might just look a bit awkward when holding the phone in portrait orientation with a finger probably ending up blocking the camera altogether.

Rear camera module also gets a redesign

This isnt the only big design change, however. The screenshot also shows the camera module located in the middle of the rear panel, something thats once again a first for the industry. This once again seems like Lenovo will be catering to users who shoot landscapes more than portraits. Further, the camera module can be better used for AR games, where the camera position wont change going from landscape to portrait. But here too, theres a chance your hands might end up covering the lens, or worse, smudging it.

Lenovo has also kept fans on a drip-feed of information about the upcoming Legion gaming phone. The company revealed the Gaming Phone will come with 90W fast charging support which should make this the fastest charging smartphone in the world. Moreover, its confirmed the phone will be powered by the Snapdragon 865 SoC with UFS 3.0 storage and LPDDR5 RAM. The phone is also expected to come with a 144Hz refresh rate display and a 64+16MP rear camera setup with the latter being an ultrawide lens. The side-mounted pop-up camera is rumoured to house a 20MP selfie camera.

Now, while all this sounds exciting, a dampener is in order. Lenovo is yet to launch a flagship smartphone in India. Moto, another brand owned by the company, has also stopped launching flagships to focus more on the mid-range segment. The last Lenovo smartphone to launch in India launched at under Rs 15,000 with Lenovo revealing no plans to launch the flagship Z-series in India. Hopefully, with India being projected as a major market for mobile gaming, Lenovo will take this as an opportunity and announce the availability of the smartphone in India as well.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

An international team led by Emory scientists has gained insight into the pathological mechanisms behind two devastating neurodegenerative diseases. The scientists compared the most common inherited form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia (ALS/FTD) with a rarer disease called spinocerebellar ataxia type 36 (SCA36).

Both of the diseases are caused by abnormally expanded and strikingly similar DNA repeats. However, ALS progresses quickly, typically killing patients within a year or two, while the disease progression of SCA36 proceeds more slowly over the course of decades. In ALS/FTD it appears that protein products can poison cells in the nervous system. Whether similar protein products exist in SCA36 was not known.

What Zachary McEachin, Ph.D. and Gary Bassell, Ph.D. from Emory's Department of Cell Biology, along with a team of collaborators at Emory, Mayo Florida, and internationally from Spain and Japan, discovered have provided a new paradigm for thinking about how aberrant protein species are formed. Despite the disparate clinical outcomes between these diseases, this research could broaden the avenue of research toward genetically targeted treatments for such related neurodegenerative diseases.

Their study, published Tuesday in Neuron, provides a guide to types of protein gobbledygook that build up in brain cells in both disorders, and which should be reduced if the new mode of treatment is working in clinical trials.

"We are thinking of these diseases as genetic doppelgangers," says McEachin, a postdoctoral fellow in Bassell's lab. "By that, I mean they are genetically similar, but the neurodegeneration progresses differently for each disease. We can use this research to understand each of the respective disorders much betterand hopefully help patients improve their quality of life down the road with better treatments."

An estimated 16,000 people in the United States have ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. The most common inherited form of ALS/FTD occurs because there is an abnormally expanded repeat of six DNA "letters" stuck into a gene called c9orf72.

Some of the degeneration of motor neurons comes from the expanded repeat being made into proteins that repeat two amino acids over and over. It's like a printing press being forced to print entire pages of "GPGPGPGP", "GAGAGAGA"..." or "PRPRPRPR" In c9 ALS, those proteins are thought to build up inside brain cells and poison them. A striking finding is that in c9 ALS, there are others chimeric variants e.g. "GAGAGAGPGPGP" suggesting these toxic proteins are more complex than previously thought.

"A major goal in the field has been to identify and characterize the various types of pathological aggregates that accumulate in patient brains as 'bad actors' that cause neurodegeneration," Bassell says. "Here we identify fundamental differences in this process for these two neurological diseases with disparate clinical outcomes. I think this is a paradigm shift for how heterogenous this process is in ALS and points to possible therapeutic strategies that might mitigate multiple bad actors simultaneously."

The two diseases (c9 form of ALS and SCA36) both have abnormally expanded 6-letter genetic repeats, but the letters that are being repeated are different. McEachin was able to show that the nonsensical protein products from the expanded repeats aggregate in c9 ALS patients' cells but do not in SCA36. He says it was surprising because the proteins were predicted to be similar in the two diseases.

"Studying the differences in the aberrant proteins gives insight into both diseases," McEachin says.

SCA36, one of several types of SCA, is a condition characterized by progressive problems with movement that typically begins in mid-adulthood. They also develop hearing loss and muscle twitches over time, including losing the ability to move their tongue. Their legs, forearms and hands atrophy as the condition worsens.

The mutation for SCA36 was discovered around same time as the c9 form of ALS/FTD in 2011. The ALS/FTD discovery has since formed the basis for myriad studies implicating these toxic protein aggregates as contributing drivers of disease in ALS and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

"The genetic overlap was known, however the rate limiting step in studying SCA36 has been the availability of patient samples," says McEachin.

He traveled to Spain and Japan where there are known pedigrees of SCA36 patients to learn more about the disorder. To obtain SCA36 patient samples, the authors reached out to neurologists Maria-Jesus Sobrido, MD and Manuel Arias, MD at the Hospital Clinico Universitario in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and neurologist Koji Abe, MD of Okayama University in Japan.

Emory University's ALS Clinic, directed by Jonathan Glass, MD, a close collaborator on this study, is the largest in the southeast and has curated a substantial biorepository of C9orf72 ALS and FTD biospecimens, including those used in this study.

"The study would not have been possible without the interest of these clinicians and willingness of their patients to participate," McEachin says. "We are truly grateful for their collaboration as this study wouldn't have been possible otherwise."

The authors also worked in collaboration with Leonard Petrucelli, Ph.D., and Tania Gendron, Ph.D. at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, who developed specialized antibodies to analyze the nonsensical protein products. Wilfried Rossoll, Ph.D. now at Mayo Clinic, formerly at Emory, was also a collaborator.

In a separate paper released the same day in Cell Reports, these finding were further supported by similar observations in a novel mouse model of SCA36 generated by Leonard Petrucelli, Wilfried Rossoll and colleagues at Mayo. McEachin and Bassell were also co-authors on this manuscript.

A new technology for treating diseases with expanded DNA repeatsincluding Huntington's disease and myotonic dystrophy, as well as some forms of ALS and SCAis emerging. "Antisense oligonucleotides" can be delivered to the nervous system and shut down production of the toxic proteins. The Emory ALS clinic is participating in some of the ASO clinical trials.

"We think our analysis will guide future research into potential treatments, for example, by developing drugs that can best target these related aggregation-prone molecules," Bassell says.

More information: Zachary T. McEachin et al, Chimeric Peptide Species Contribute to Divergent Dipeptide Repeat Pathology in c9ALS/FTD and SCA36, Neuron (2020). Journal information: Neuron , Cell Reports Zachary T. McEachin et al, Chimeric Peptide Species Contribute to Divergent Dipeptide Repeat Pathology in c9ALS/FTD and SCA36,(2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2020.04.011
Global deaths from the coronavirus pandemic topped a quarter-million on Monday, mostly in the US and Europe even as both regions slowly moved away from lockdown and world leaders raised billions towards a vaccine. An AFP tally of official figures showed that Europe is the hardest-hit continent with around 145,000 fatalities, and the United States recorded close to 68,700 -- together accounting for more than 85 percent of global fatalities. An internal government estimate in Washington forecast an even worsening number of fatalities for the country. It said the daily COVID-19 death toll could double by the end of May. In Europe, though, governments believe they have passed the peak of the disease with deaths in the continent's worst affected countries having dropped as a result of nearly two months of confinement. Restaurants in Italy partially reopened and Germans queued for haircuts in a Europe edging gingerly out of lockdown. Half of the planet has been under orders to shelter in place, and much of the world remained cautious even as countries from India to Nigeria sought to ease restrictions so that businesses can remain afloat and workers earn a wage after the pandemic-induced economic crash. "Today is wonderful," Lagos fruit and vegetable vendor Adewale Oluwa said, opening his stall in Africa's largest city after a five-week lockdown. - Russia infections surge - Still, confirmed cases since the disease surfaced in China late last year rose to almost 3.6 million across 195 countries and territories. Infections continued to surge in Russia, now adding more than 10,000 a day. "The threat is apparently on the rise," Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin told citizens. But the United States remains far more severely affected than any other nation, although deaths in the past 24 hours rose by the lowest figure in a month -- 1,015. An internal study by the US government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted that new coronavirus cases will surge more than eight-fold to 200,000 per day by June 1, and the toll could rise to 3,000 a day, up from the current 1,000-2,000. That could more than double the number of US coronavirus deaths, now at about 69,000, over the next few months, according to the study first reported by The New York Times and The Washington Post. It underscored the tough, politically-tinged debate over reopening that pits Trump and his allies against many governors and community leaders worried that social distancing and quarantines need to remain in place longer. The study suggested that the surge in infections could come from mid-May in states and localities that had not implemented tough distancing measures or were loosening up too early. On Sunday Trump acknowledged that deaths would go beyond his earlier prediction of 60,000, saying "we're going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people." The White House downplayed the CDC forecast as an "internal" document which had not been vetted by the task force, which is led by Vice President Mike Pence. - 'Joy and fear' - In Europe there was still caution as countries allowed people to return to the streets and some businesses to open. "We are feeling a mix of joy and fear," 40-year-old Stefano Milano said in Rome as Italian restaurants reopened for takeaway orders -- though bars and ice cream parlours will remain shut. Spain and Portugal made face masks mandatory on public transport starting Monday as they further eased their lockdowns. Slovenia, Poland and Hungary also allowed public spaces and businesses to partially reopen. "I looked like Robinson Crusoe," joked 87-year-old Helmut Wichter, emerging clean shaven from a barber in Berlin. - Vaccine telethon - A special telethon backed by the World Health Organization but snubbed by Washington pulled in 7.4 billion euros ($8.1 billion) to support international efforts to develop and manufacture a vaccine to slow the coronavirus spread. Leaders of major European powers, Japan and Canada made the biggest pledges, along with philanthropists including Bill and Melinda Gates, at the videoconference hosted by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. "This was a powerful and inspiring demonstration of global solidarity," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said of the donations. Seeming to defend its non-participation, the US State Department issued a statement declaring that the United States is "leading" the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and said it has spent more than $1 billion together with US drug companies to work on a vaccine. Trump claimed Sunday that the United States will have a coronavirus vaccine ready by the end of the year. The war of words between the United States and China over responsibility for the pandemic continued, with China's state broadcaster attacking US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for "insane" remarks in which he said the virus originated at a laboratory in Wuhan, the city where the pandemic first emerged. The WHO said it had received no evidence on the "speculative" Wuhan lab claims. burs-pmh/it/bgs A Los Angeles cyclist in a face mask rides past the Million Dollar Theater, closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, with words on the marqee calling for togetherness In Lagos, Nigeria, market traders underwent anti-coronavirus training to prepare for the lifting of the lockdown An internal US forecast suggests that President Donald Trump might have downplayed the possibility of a surge in coronavirus infections and deaths in the coming weeks. Schools in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi reopened after three months World map showing official number of coronavirus deaths per country, as of May 4 at 1900 GMT
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CUNY campuses are considering shrinking fall course offerings by up to 25%  leading part-time faculty to fear for their jobs and spurring students to fight for classes they need to graduate.

Our livelihood is in their hands right now, says Faruk Seref, 33, who, along with his wife, teaches at a CUNY college while pursuing a PhD at the CUNY Graduate Center in Manhattan.

The couple, originally from Turkey, rely on teaching to maintain their student visas. If they dont think of us, we cannot just figure it out, Seref added. Its not possible.

At Brooklyn College, where Seref teaches three anthropology sections, administrators have given department leaders a May 5 deadline to submit possible cuts spurred by expected coronavirus-driven funding shortfalls.

In anticipation of budget cuts from the city and state, academic departments are being asked to trim sections and classes that are under-filled, said Richard Pietras, a spokesperson for the Brooklyn campus.

While we have asked the chairs to turn in course schedules with a 25% reduction in sections by May 5, this is being used to assess budgetary and equity perspectives. No final decisions have been made.

Barbara Bowen, president of the Professional Staff Congress, which represents CUNYs faculty and staff, said the union understands the economic crisis wrought by COVID-19.

But allowing college presidents to call for cuts now, before the universitys budget situation is clear, undermines the entire university, she said in a video posted on the PSCs website.

It sends the message that cuts to CUNY are inevitable and acceptable. They are neither, Bowen continued. What the university should be doing at this moment is demanding new investment in CUNY.

Brooklyn College told chairs last week to make 25% cuts to fall course offerings and increase class sizes. This is just the beginning of CUNY cuts and austerity measures in NYC. As workers and students we must stop this collectively. #cutcovidnotCUNY pic.twitter.com/GxCE5tpiiE  Kelsey Chatlosh (@KChatlosh) April 29, 2020

Bowen pointed to the creation of Brooklyn, Queens and Lehman colleges during the Great Depression.

It is not impossible to do something imaginative, bold and important, she said.

Public Funds Eyed

Frank Sobrino, a CUNY spokesperson , said the sprawling university system is anticipating major cuts in the state budget to help close an overall $13 billion gap, while the city already has telegraphed plans to slash $31.6 million.

Sobrino added that while CUNY is grateful for the federal CARES Act, which grants emergency aid for students, assistance for the colleges is absent.

To date, badly needed additional federal support has not materialized, Sobrino said. CUNY joins in calling on the federal government to take prompt action to support New York and stave off potentially deep cuts to our academic programs, campuses and our students.

Brooklyn College is receiving $17.6 million through the CARES Act  with a minimum of $8.8 million allowed for emergency student grants.

How additional CARES Act funding can be used will be pending guidance from the U.S. Department of Education, Pietras said.

Bowen insisted that the CARES funding  and any other federal aid for the city and state  should be taken into account before any cuts are considered.

She called on campus leaders to consider taking salary cuts, as Harvard, Stanford and USC administrators have announced, to offset any revenue losses.

Bowen said providing adequate offerings of classes at CUNY, whose student body of 275,000 includes many low-income people of color, could be literally the difference between life and death for people in the communities we serve.

To allow cuts at CUNY without a fight is atrocious, she told THE CITY. Its unacceptable, when CUNY represents such a lifeline for the future, and for survival, for exactly the people who have been hardest hit by this pandemic.

Working People

For Mikey Elster, a Brooklyn College adjunct lecturer in the anthropology department, losing his job could mean losing his health insurance.

I need to teach at least one class to maintain my health insurance, said Elster, whos also a PhD candidate in anthropology at the Graduate Center. I have Crohns disease, and the only way I manage it is I get IV treatments of a medication every six weeks.

If none of those classes are available, then my options become pretty limited, Elster added.

Yet, despite concerns over his own health and employment situation, Elster says he wishes above all that CUNY gets the investment it needs for the student body it serves.

As bad as things would be for adjuncts and for faculty at CUNY if cuts were enacted, I think a lot of us are primarily concerned with how it would affect our students, and how it could affect, potentially, the lives of working people across New York, he said.

Great Professors

One of those students is Enrique Pena, 22, of Corona. Hes a junior at Queens College, triple majoring in urban studies, political science and Latin American studies.

Pena said his family has struggled since the pandemic caused him and his father to lose their jobs  as a call center operator and restaurant dishwasher, respectively. They both caught coronavirus and were hospitalized last month.

Theyre both back home now, but Pena worries that his family wont have enough money for food and rent. Always on his mind, he added, is his fathers health.

I wouldnt know what to do if I lost him, he said. So, I want to be as careful as possible and make sure that hes, like, totally safe before he can, if he can, go back to work.

Pena said he wonders how hes going to pay for classes next semester. No student should have to choose between getting a meal or getting an education, he said.

An even more immediate worry, he said, he wont be able to graduate on time, if any one of three fall classes  an urban studies or one of two Spanish literature courses  gets eliminated.

It just shouldnt happen at CUNY, cutting classes and just letting go of those great professors, he said.

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By Express News Service

With numerous cases being reported from various districts, the Koyambedu cluster has become the latest health challenge for the government. On Monday alone, cases related to the cluster breached the 250 mark in various districts, excluding Chennai.

Cuddalore saw the most number of new cases, with 107 persons testing positive on Monday. With 15 cases reported on Sunday and seven cases on Saturday, the total number of positive cases from the Koyambedu cluster reached 129 as the overall tally in the district toll rose to 161. An official said, Nearly 700 workers and traders from Koymabedu cluster have reached Cuddalore. Tests for 430 persons are still pending. We are tracking the contacts.

Neighbouring Villupuram saw 49 new cases connected with Koyambedu. It had seen 33 cases on Saturday, and four till Saturday. The spike pushed the number of positive persons in the district beyond 100. It now has 135 positive cases. Sources said nearly 750 persons, including 459 having direct connections with traders and their family members, have been quarantined.

Central districts struggle

Panic gripped residents of Ariyalur and Perambalur as several Koyambedu returnees tested positive. On Monday, six persons who returned to Ariyalur tested positive. taking the total number of cases in the district to 34. Samples of over 200 people were collected and more than 155 people were placed under quarantine, a health department official said.In Perambalur, twenty-five positive cases were reported. Of this, 24 people returned from Koyambedu and the other patient is a 18-years-old-girl related to one of returnees. Samples of over 150 people have been collected and more than 100 people quarantined, said an official. Besides, four Koyambedu returnees in Tiruchy district and a 25-year-old man in Karur tested positive. Tiruchy had seen no new cases since April 22.

T-malai: Orange to Red

Tiruvannamalai district recorded nine new positive cases on Monday, all attributed to this cluster. The surge pushed the district from Orange Zone to Red Zone. Another Koyambedu-related case was registered on Sunday. Of the 25 positive cases, 10 contracted the virus from Koyambedu cluster, collector KS Kandasamy said. Ten cases were reported in Dindigul district too.

With inputs from R Sivakumar @ Vellore, Bagalavan Perier @ Villupuram, Nirupa Sampath @ Cuddalore, Shyamsundar N @ Vellore, K Ezhilarasan @ Tiruchy and Vinodh Arulappan @ Madurai
An international campaign to find a vaccine for the coronavirus raised $8 billion from governments and organizations on Monday, but the United States was notably absent from the effort.

The European Commission co-led a virtual conference in response to the World Health Organization's appeal for global collaboration in the response to the pandemic, which saw support from leaders across Europe, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Canada.

China, where the virus originated, was only represented by its ambassador to the European Union.

This will help kick-start unprecedented global cooperation, said Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission.

A senior Trump administration official told reporters on Monday that while the efforts are welcome, the U.S. has already given significant funding and support to organizations and programs that benefit from the drive.

"Its one of many pledging efforts that are going on, and the United States is at the lead, really at the forefront of those international efforts with an incredibly robust ramp-up effort thats begun here in the United States," said the official.

President Donald Trump has been leading regular virtual meetings with G7 leaders and ministers to coordinate the response, the official said. The U.S. is also providing $2.4 billion toward fighting COVID-19 globally through global health, humanitarian and economic efforts.

The Trump administration's absence from the campaign followed an announcement last month to halt funding to the WHO  accounting for roughly 15 percent of the agency's budget  pending a review of the agency's response to the pandemic. The president had accused the WHO of "severely mismanaging and covering up" the coronavirus crisis, specifically the initial outbreak in Wuhan, China.

Image: The President of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen holds a news conference on the European Union response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis at the EU headquarters in Brussels. (John Thys / Reuters file)

The move generated significant backlash from world leaders, including from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said: "Now is a time for unity in the global battle to push the COVID-19 pandemic into reverse, not a time to cut the resources of the World Health Organization, which is spearheading and coordinating the global body's efforts."

Story continues

The senior administration official said Monday that the U.S. remains a global leader in providing health and humanitarian aid and funding to the WHO accounts for only about two percent of its contributions. They added that in the meantime, the U.S. is looking at other international agencies such as the United Nations Children's Fund to distribute aid.

But world leaders launching the campaign that runs until the end of May said more needs to be done to fight the pandemic while calling for solidarity.

"We cannot isolate ourselves," said Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the virtual conference, pledging over $600 million.

Wealthy countries can't be the only ones to benefit from medical advancements, he added. "We need to take care of ourselves... by taking care of the rest of the world."

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that while lockdown efforts have taken the pressure off health systems and saved lived  "including my own "  the longterm solution to the pandemic hinges on a vaccine.

The more we pull together and share our expertise, the faster our scientists will succeed," he said.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Supporting EU's carbon neutrality target, Total commits to become a Net Zero Emission Company for all its European Businesses by 2050

Regulatory News:

Total (Paris:FP) (LSE:TTA) (NYSE:TOT) announces today its ambition to get to net-zero emissions by 2050 together with society for its global business across its production and energy products used by its customers.

Through a joint statement developed between Total S.A. and institutional investors as participants in the global investor initiative Climate 100+1 Total takes 3 major steps towards achieving this ambition:

Three major steps to get Total to Net Zero:

1. Net Zero across Total's worldwide operations by 2050 or sooner (scope 1+2)

2. Net Zero across all its production and energy products used by its customers in Europe2 by 2050 or sooner (scope 1+2+3)

3. 60% or more reduction in the average carbon intensity of energy products used worldwide by Total customers by 2050 (less than 27.5 gCO2/MJ) with intermediate steps of 15% by 2030 and 35% by 2040 (scope 1 2 3)

This ambition is supported by the strategy to develop Total as a broad-energy company, with oil and gas, low-carbon electricity and carbon-neutrality solutions as integrated parts of its business. Total firmly believes this low-carbon strategy provides a competitive advantage which creates long term value for its shareholders.

This strategy is already in action since 2015 as Total is the leading major in terms of reduction of its scope 3 average carbon intensity with a 6% reduction already achieved since 2015. And today it sets the highest ambition amongst the majors for its scope 3 average carbon intensity with less than 27.5 GCO2/MJ by 2050.

Patrick Pouyanne, in his capacity as Chairman of the Board, declared: "Energy markets are changing, driven by climate change, technology and societal expectations. Total is committed to helping solve the dual challenge of providing more energy with fewer emissions. We are determined to advance the energy transition while also growing shareholder value. Today, we are announcing our new Climate Ambition to get to Net Zero by 2050 together with society. The Board believes that Total's global roadmap, strategy and actions set out a path that is consistent with goals of the Paris agreement. We acknowledge the positive role of engagement and open dialog with investors as the one we experienced with Climate 100+ along the last months.

We recognize that the trust of our shareholders, and society more widely, is essential to Total remaining an attractive and reliable long-term investment. And only by remaining a world-class investment can we most effectively play our part in advancing a low carbon future. This is the reason why our people are already in action across Total, seeking opportunities to reduce our emissions, improve our products and develop new low-carbon businesses".

Regarding the commitment to become a net-zero energy business in Europe, he commented: "As the EU has set the target to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 and thereby lead the way for other regions to become carbon neutral over time, Total takes that commitment to become neutral for all its businesses in Europe2. At the time where Total elects to adopt the status of a European company, Total wants to be an exemplary European corporate Citizen and offers its active support for the EU to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Total will work together with other businesses to enable decarbonization of energy use".

Total confirms its target of a renewable generation gross capacity of 25 GW in 2025 and will continue to expand its business to become a leading international player in renewable energies. Total currently allocates more than 10% of its Capex to low carbon electricity, the highest level among the Majors. To actively contribute to the energy transition, Total will further increase its allocation of Capex in favor of low carbon electricity to 20% by 2030 or sooner.

The attached link allows access to the Joint Statement: Original Joint Statement

About Total:

Total is a major energy player that 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.

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.

1 According to Total evaluation, participants to Climate Action 100+ own more than 25% of Total's shares.

2 Europe means the EU Norway UK

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505005442/en/

Contacts:

Total Contacts :

Media Relations: +33 1 47 44 46 99 l presse@total.com l @TotalPress

Investor Relations: +44 (0)207 719 7962 l ir@total.com
Royal watchers have slammed Meghan Markle for continuously bringing disgrace to the royal family. This is after she lost the first round of her humiliating court case against The Mail on Sunday.

Last year, Meghan filed a lawsuit against Associated Newspapers for the five articles published by Mail Online and Mail On Sunday that allegedly made several derogatory statements against her.

Her accusations in her legal documents include the exploitation of her father Thomas Markle and tracking him down in Mexico, the baby shower issue, her relationship with Doria Ragland, the made-up reports about Prince Harry, and much more.

More than a year after she made her case, however, the first High Court battle ended up in favor of the Mail on Sunday -- giving Markle a severe blow in her fight against her privacy.

Because of this defeat, a lot of royal watchers and supporters called her out online for being an embarrassment and disaster for the royal family.

"Privacy? Meghan markle staged pap pics, planted positive fake stories!," one Twitter user said. The said basher also called Meghan "nuts" for pretending to be her own PR before.

Another one exclaimed: "She did this all on her own with her lies, gaslighting and manipulation. Markle [herself] is her own worst enemy and only has one person to blame."

Other netizens pointed out that the humiliating legal battle will soon push Meghan's team to ditch her and let her deal with her "frivolous" claims on her own.

Meghan's Shameful Battle

On April 24, a preliminary hearing was held remotely for Meghan's lawsuit against the Mail on Sunday and its parent company, Associated Newspapers. The root of Meghan's lawsuit was the publishing of her "private and confidential" letter to her father in August 2018.

David Sherborn, Meghan's representative, said that the tabloids "disclosed to the whole world the detailed contents of a private letter of a daughter to her father." Meghan's camp also claimed that the tabloids allegedly harassed Thomas Markle before manipulating him.

The lawyers for the U.K.-based publishers demanded for parts of the duchess' accusations to be removed. They argued that their motivation was "irrelevant to the claim for misuse of private information."

One week after the preliminary hearing, Judge Mark Warby dismissed some of the allegations made by Meghan and ruled in favor of Mail on Sunday.

"I agree that all three categories of the allegation should be struck out of the Particulars of Claim, and the Further Information about it. I also agree that passages of the Reply should be struck out," Judge Warby said in a statement.

The accusations that were dismissed include Meghan's assertion that the Mail on Sunday acted "dishonestly and in bad faith," as well as the allegations that they deliberately stirred up conflict between Meghan and her father, and had an agenda of publishing intrusive or libelous stories.

The judge also did not find the aforementioned allegations as a misuse of private information, copyright infringement, and breach of the Data Protection Act. Instead, Judge Warby called them irrelevant in ruling whether or not the U.K.-based publisher was guilty of the things that Meghan claimed.

However, he clarified that those things may still be revisited in the future if needed.
New York on Tuesday reported more than 1,700 previously undisclosed coronavirus deaths at nursing homes and adult care facilities in the state, AP reports.

Why it matters: The new figures reveal a spike in nursing home deaths that includes people believed to have died from the coronavirus before their positive diagnosis could be confirmed.

At least 4,813 people died from the virus in New York nursing homes and care facilities since March 1, according to a count released by the state on Monday.

The exact number of nursing home and care facility deaths in the state is uncertain because the released tally does not include residents who were transferred to hospitals before dying.

By the numbers: The tally indicates that 22 nursing homes, largely in New York City and Long Island, have reported at least 40 deaths.

Parker Jewish Institute in Queens has reported the highest number of deaths with 71.

What they're saying: "I would take these numbers now with a grain of salt," Cuomo said in a press conference Tuesday. "I think they are going to change over time.

"Nursing homes, we said from day one, are the most vulnerable place, because it's old people  senior people  who are the vulnerable people in a congregate setting."

The big picture: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned early in the pandemic that older people and those with other health complications face a higher risk of dying from the virus.

Cuomo said he does not know what the state can do to better protect nursing home residents going forward.

"It's something we're studying. We're also doing an investigation with the attorney general to look at it."

Go deeper: Maryland to require coronavirus tests for all nursing home residents


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - US author Colson Whitehead has achieved the rare honor of winning the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for a second time.



The African-American writer is only the fourth person ever to win the coveted prize twice in its century-old history.



Whitehead was adjudged the best fiction writer for his novel The Nickel Boys, which tells the devastating story of abuse of black boys at a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.



He wins a prize money of $15,000.



The jury praised the literary work as 'a powerful tale of human perseverance, dignity and redemption.'



The 50-year-old New Yorker brilliantly dramatizes the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy,



'Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for one hundred and eleven years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers,' says a note from the book's publisher.



The author of nine books of fiction and non-fiction, Whitehead is also the recipient of the National Book Award, and MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships.



Whitehead's New York Times bestseller The Underground Railroad won the Pulitzer prize in 2017.



Pulitzer Prize is the highest honor for US-based newspapers, magazines, online journalism, literature, and musical composition.



The New York Times won three awards in journalism category, including the prestigious investigative reporting prize for Brian Rosenthal's expose of New York City's taxi industry.



The Anchorage Daily News won the Pulitzer prize for public service journalism, in recognition of its work on the lack of police coverage in many small towns in Alaska.



Reuters' images of last year's Hong Kong protests were selected for best breaking news photography.



The announcement of the 2020 Pulitzer Prizes, in 15 journalism and seven arts and letters categories, was made by Pulitzer Prize Administrator Dana Canedy from her home in New York.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
The Congress in Himachal Pradesh requested the state government on Tuesday to restore inpatient treatment facilities at the old building of the Dharamshala regional hospital.

The Dharamshala hospital had been catering to the people of the city and the surrounding areas till the coronavirus outbreak, when the government converted it into a dedicated hospital for COVID-19, Congress spokesperson Jitendra Sharma said here.

Now, people are being forced to go to Tanda or some other hospital amid this lockdown, he said, adding that pregnant women are also being made to travel, risking exposure to the deadly virus.

There is a lack of private medical institutions in Dharamshala and the seizing of the indoor facility at the regional hospital is unfair to the people of the area, Sharma claimed.

No doubt that necessary arrangements should be taken for the coronavirus patients but converting an entire hospital into a COVID ward does not justify anything, he added.

The Congress, therefore, requests the state government to restore the facility of indoor treatment at the old building of the Dharamshala Regional Hospital, the spokesperson said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India to operate 64 flights to bring back 14,800 Indians from 13 countries

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, May 05: The Central government is likely to operate 64 flights from May 7 to 13 to bring home around 14,800 Indian nationals stranded abroad because of the coronavirus lockdown, said senior government officials on Tuesday.

These special flights would be operated by Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express to repatriate Indians from 12 countries -- the UAE, the UK, the US, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman, said the officials.

India has been under a lockdown since March 25 to curb the spread of the coronavirus and it will continue till May 17. All commercial passenger flights have been suspended for this period. Therefore, the Ministry of Home Affairs announced on Monday it will facilitate the return of asymptomatic Indian nationals stranded abroad from May 7 onwards, in a phased manner, through aircraft and naval ships on a payment basis.

Between May 7 and 13, India is likely to conduct 10 flights to the UAE, seven flights each to the US and the UK, five to Saudi Arabia, five to Singapore and two flights to Qatar, the officials told PTI. It is also likely to conduct seven flights each to Malaysia and Bangladesh, five each to Kuwait and Philippines, two each to Oman and Bahrain, the officials noted.

NEWS AT 3 PM, MAY 5th, 2020

Out of the 64 repatriation flights, 15 would be from Kerala, 11 each would be from Delhi and Tamil Nadu, seven each would be from Maharashtra and Telangana, and remaining flights would be from five other states, the officials said. "Approximately 14,800 Indian nationals are likely to return to the country through these 64 flights during the seven-day period.

The government will run more repatriation flights after May 13," one of the officials said. The coronavirus has infected more than 46,400 people and killed around 1,560 people in India till now.
WASHINGTON - A former top vaccine official removed from his post last month alleged in a whistleblower complaint on Tuesday that he was reassigned to a less prestigious role because he tried to "prioritize science and safety over political expediency" and raised health concerns over a drug repeatedly pushed by President Donald Trump as a possible cure for coronavirus.

Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, was removed April 20 after having served as BARDA director for nearly four years. He was reassigned to a narrower role at the National Institutes of Health that the Department of Health and Human Services touted as part of a "bold new plan" to improve testing to defeat covid-19, the disease caused by coronavirus.

Bright portrays himself in the 89-page complaint as an administration health official trying to sound the alarm about the virus beginning in early January. He said he called for the rapid development of treatments and vaccines, as well as the stockpiling of additional N95 face masks and ventilators, at a time when HHS political leadership, including Secretary Alex Azar, appeared to him to be underestimating the threat.

He also notes that he clashed with his boss, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS Robert Kadlec, for at least two years. Bright alleges that Kadlec and others pressured him to buy drugs and medical products for the nation's stockpile of emergency medical equipment from companies that were linked politically to the administration and that he resisted such efforts.

HHS issued a brief comment Tuesday afternoon that did not address Bright's allegations.

"Dr. Bright was transferred to NIH to work on diagnostics testing - critical to combating covid-19 - where he has been entrusted to spend upwards of $1 billion to advance that effort," said HHS spokeswoman Caitlin Oakley. "We are deeply disappointed that he has not shown up to work on behalf of the American people and lead on this critical endeavor,"

On a call with reporters on Tuesday, Bright's lawyers, Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, said Bright came under pressure from Kadlec to award contracts "based on political connections and cronyism."

"Dr. Bright's removal from BARDA was retaliation, plain and simple," Katz said. Bright's lawyers are requesting that HHS reinstate him as BARDA director while his complaint is investigated.

Bright asserts in the complaint that he resisted pressure from HHS political leadership to make "potentially harmful drugs widely available," including chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, which Trump has repeatedly heralded, and urged people to take both from his Twitter account and the White House podium. The president's associates, including Fox host Laura Ingraham and Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, have also pushed the drug as a treatment for covid-19 in private Oval Office meetings and phone calls.

The document describes one such clash in mid-March after Bayer offered to donate 3 million chloroquine pills to the national stockpile, which is run by HHS' Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. BARDA officials raised concerns over the donation because of a lack of evidence over the drug's safety or efficacy.

The Bayer pills came from facilities in Pakistan and India that were not approved by the FDA and therefore were not approved for use in the United States, the complaint states.

"Government leadership was rushing blindly into a potentially dangerous situation by bringing in non-FDA approved chloroquine from India and Pakistan from facilities that had not been inspected by the FDA," Bright said on the call with reporters. "I could not in good conscience ignore the scientific recommendations to limit access to those drugs under the direct care of a doctor and instead allow political ambition and timelines to override scientific judgment."

"That was one of the many things I pushed back on with senior leadership with HHS," he added.

In an email included as part of the exhibits of Bright's complaint, a BARDA official wrote, "there are safety liabilities associated with the drug  accepting the donation could send a signal that we are not concerned about the risk."

The official added: "I do not believe we should accept the donation [of chloroquine from Bayer] until we have an understanding on the clinical utility of the drug. Accepting the donation could lead to widespread use that is not supported by any clinical data."

The Bayer donation ultimately went forward. Bright received an "urgent directive" from HHS general counsel Bob Charrow to make the drug widely accessible, outside of hospital settings and without close physician supervision, according to the complaint.

But that raised safety alarms with certain FDA officials, according to the complaint. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, urged Bright to request an emergency use authorization from the FDA that was far narrower than what HHS sought. The authorization that was issued, which applies to chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine from the national stockpile, is limited to hospitalized patients with covid-19 who cannot participate in a clinical trial.

Bright acknowledged in the complaint that his concerns over the drug's safety led him to provide emails and information to a reporter working on a story about Bayer's donation to the national stockpile, which further exacerbated tensions with his bosses.

Another issue he raises in the complaint is the administration's response on N95 face masks. He alleges in the complaint that for nearly five weeks, HHS leadership failed to head warnings the country was facing a massive shortage of protective equipment for health care workers. In that time, a major U.S. manufacturer contacted Bright, offering to activate mothballed production lines, but Bright could not get traction with superiors to fund the effort, the complaint states. Instead, sensing no urgency from the U.S., Prestige Ameritech proceeded to export a million masks to China, according to the complaint. Prestige Ameritech did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bright also says he raised repeated objections to the "outsized" role Kadlec allowed industry consultants to play in securing contracts for drugs that Bright and other scientists viewed as "not meritorious." One of those mentioned was John Clerici, a pharmaceutical consultant with ties to Kadlec. Bright said he was pressured to extend a contract with one of Clerici's clients.

Clerici, in a statement, said he "unequivocally" denied the allegations by Bright. He added, "It's sad that during this crisis Dr. Bright and his team have chosen to launch politically motivated allegations against me and other people. The allegations are false and will be proven so."

Officials at HHS who have spoken on the condition of anonymity have said that Bright's departure had been discussed for months because of dissatisfaction with his job performance. Yet a 2019 performance review obtained by The Washington Post showed Bright received glowing marks.

"I rightly resisted efforts to provide an unproven drug on demand to the American public," Bright said in his first public statement, on April 22. "I also resisted efforts to fund potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections."

The dangers of hydroxychloroquine have become more clear in recent weeks. A Veterans Affairs study released April 21 found that covid-19 patients who were treated with hydroxychloroquine were more likely to die than those who were not. Three days later, the FDA warned that doctors should not use the drug to treat covid-19 patients outside a hospital or clinical trial because of reports of "serious heart rhythm problems."

Bright includes emails in his filing to document that he repeatedly pressed top HHS officials in January to obtain samples of the virus from China so that scientists could get to work on a vaccine and diagnostic treatments, but got no traction.

In another email provided as part of the complaint, Brett Giroir, the administration's testing czar, wrote, "Really want to flood Ny (sic) and NJ with treatment courses," referring to hydroxchloroquine.

Bright's removal last month drew criticism from congressional Democrats. Rep. Anna Eshoo of California, is chairwoman of the House subcommittee on health, called Bright a "thoroughbred professional" and vowed to hold a hearing on the matter.

Bright is represented by the whistleblower attorneys retained by Christine Blasey Ford, who alleged that Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers.

At the time of his departure from BARDA, several senior administration officials expressed dismay, saying the change was disruptive, especially in the middle of the government's coronavirus response, and would cause further turmoil at the health agency. Others, however, said BARDA was moving too slowly on covid-19 treatments and vaccines, and that the agency had problems that predated this crisis.

Bright's statement, nevertheless, has made him a hero among some in the scientific community, who have expressed concern for weeks about the president's claims about hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine.

- - -

The Washington Post's Aaron Davis and Ellen Nakashima contributed to this report.
The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) has successfully treated and discharged seven persons who had contracted COVID-19 and were on admission.

The Korle Bu Covid-19 Treatment Centre has successfully treated and discharged all seven patients who were on admission there.

The patients were discharged after a series of confirmatory tests returned negative. The patients were from Korle Bu and Bolgatanga Regional Hospital, a statement from the hospital said.

The Hospital also disclosed the professional categories of discharged patients.

The professional categories of the discharged patients are a nurse, an orderly, a doctor, and a security officer.

The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital further reiterated its commitment to help in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Read below the full press release

---citinewsroom
New Zealand could soon reopen its borders to Australian holidaymakers as part of a 'trans-Tasman bubble'.

But both countries would need to be confident they would neither import or export cases before travel between the two countries is allowed, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Tuesday.

Ms Ardern joined Australia's coronavirus cabinet meeting on Tuesday for the neighbouring countries to discuss reopening their borders to trans-Tasman travel following their successes in containing the disease.

Jacinda Ardern (pictured) says both countries would need to be confident they would neither import or export cases before travel between the two countries is allowed

New Zealand could soon reopen its borders to Australian holidaymakers as part of a 'trans-Tasman bubble' (Pictured: Travellers leaving Auckland, New Zealand on April 8)

Following the meeting Ms Ardern said the logistics of how the 'travel bubble' would work were still being discussed.

She said the 'trans-Tasman bubble' would likely not include a quarantine period.

'People wouldn't travel if they had to stay on either side in quarantine for a two-week period and have to do the same when you return. But there is still a lot of work to be done before we can progress an idea like that,' she said.

Both countries have a COVID-19 mortality rate of just 1 per cent and have boosted their medical equipment reserves as they plan to slowly reopen their economies, including restarting travel across the Tasman sea.

New Zealand recorded its second day in a row of zero cases on Tuesday following a strict four-week lockdown.

Last week, when the idea of the bubble was floated, Ms Ardern said she didn't want to move too quickly to reopen the borders.

She said she was not willing to jeopardise the position that New Zealand had got itself into by moving too soon.

Australia has recorded around 6,800 infections and 96 deaths, and New Zealand 1,137 cases and 20 fatalities.

Ahead of the meeting on Tuesday, NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian, said she was hopeful that a travel 'hub' could be formed between the two countries.

'We know that unfortunately international travel is a mid to long term vision, so if can establish a hub between New Zealand and Australia I think that would be a very positive move,' Berejiklian 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

'I'm hoping that we'll get to a stage where our state borders can be relaxed and then we can potentially have a phenomenal New Zealand and Australia cooperation which would allow us to pull our economic resources, pull our trade opportunities but also move together into the future.'

The move would give the tourism industry a much-needed boost as international tourism is likely to remain banned for many months. Both countries closed their borders to travellers in March as the coronavirus crisis escalated.

The move brought the travel industry to a crashing halt and saw thousands of workers with jobs.

Airlines have been struggling to stay afloat amid the pandemic.

Virgin Australia was the first to fold with the company going into voluntary administration two weeks ago owing almost $7 billion.

Qantas has recently secured funding to keep ensure the company survives until December 2021.

It is preparing to lose $40million a week until the travel industry recovers.
Retirement fund body EPFO on Tuesday said it has disbursed a total of Rs 764 crore to 65 lakh pensioners for April under its pension scheme

New Delhi: Retirement fund body EPFO on Tuesday said it has disbursed a total of Rs 764 crore to 65 lakh pensioners for April under its pension scheme.

All 135 field offices of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) processed pension payment for April 2020 in advance to avoid inconvenience to pensioners on account of nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, according to a labour ministry statement.

EPFO officers and staff battled all odds to send Rs 764 crore to all nodal branches of the pension disbursing banks throughout India, it further said.

All Bank branches have been directed to ensure credit of pension in the accounts of pensioners on schedule, the EPFO, which has 65 lakh pensioners under its pension scheme, said.

Timely credit of pension in this hour of need has been accorded top most priority by the EPFO to bring succour to the pensioners during this pandemic crisis, it added.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 11:51:14|Editor: huaxia

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A warehouse staff member(L) hands out cleaning wipes to customers at the entrance of a Costco store in Vancouver, Canada, May 4, 2020. (Photo by Liang Sen/Xinhua)

OTTAWA, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Canada joined the European Union (EU) and other countries on Monday in a global effort to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 when its five provinces began easing restrictions on businesses and services imposed during the pandemic.

The goal of the EU-initiated "Coronavirus Global Response" is to raise more than 8 billion U.S. dollars for medical research, and the Canadian government has so far committed 604 million dollars toward vaccine development and finding treatments for the disease.

"It is really important that the world comes together to collaborate," said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during his daily COVID-19 news conference in Ottawa on Monday. "Even once we find a vaccine -- whether it's in Canada or elsewhere around the world -- we will share the vaccine in its formula."

On the same day, Canada's two largest provinces gave the green light to the reopening of mainly seasonal businesses in Ontario, and storefront retail operations outside the Montreal area in French-speaking Quebec.

The Montreal metropolis has more than half of the province's COVID-19 cases, and with no sign of the epidemic curve flattening, Quebec Premier Francois Legault announced Monday that the opening of retail stories in the province's most populous region, scheduled for next Monday, would be delayed by a week.

To the west, nonessential medical activities, such as dentistry and physiotherapy can now resume in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, as well as in Manitoba, which also authorized restaurants to open patios and hair salons to welcome customers.

Schools will remain mostly shuttered in Canada, except for in Quebec, where elementary students will begin returning to their classrooms next Monday.

As of Monday night, there have been 60,772 COVID-19 cases in Canada with 3,854 related deaths, according to the country's public health agency.
National Chairman of the largest opposition party, National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel Ofosu Ampofo has assured Members of Coalition of Aggrieved Customers of some Fifty-three (53) collapsed Fund Management Companies (CACFM) that their locked-up funds will be refunded when candidate, John Mahama becomes the next President of Ghana.

According to him, the Former Head of State when voted into office will deal with their situation with dispatch.

Speaking on an Accra-based radio station on Saturday, he said "The people are suffering and nobody is listening to them. I want to assure them that if Akufo-Addo does not pay them, John Mahama, who is a people scented politician will deal with their situation with dispatch. Their case is not like DKM which is situated in only one region rather into the bank spread across the country"

Mr. Ampofo revealed that since it is no fault of the workers, pensioners market women, the Government should take a second look at the stimulus package it has for Ghanaians.

"These people are suffering as a result of Government collapsing these banks. Some of the customers, a nurse says she said with the bank since she thought she could rely on it in the future after retirement. Now the banks have collapsed and the people are being denied payment of their locked-down funds" he stressed.

Mr. Ampofo recalled that the Finance Minister claimed the money was ready of which the Government was set to pay them.

"I listened to the General Secretary of the collapsed Fund Management, I was said. He says they are dying every day. This time is about survival. Look at the released prisoners, they are not happy because of their release rather they are hungry" he stated.

The National Chairman says he is appealing to President Akufo-Addo to look at people adding if those who work are suffering, what then is the fate of millions whose funds are locked up and now can not step out due to Covid-19.

Background

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in November last year revoked the licenses of some 53 Fund Management Companies over some regulatory breaches. Some customers of the affected companies were taken through a validation process for onwards payment but almost five months down the line, they say they have not been paid.

Spokesperson for the Coalition, Charles Nyame said Government needs to as a matter of urgency need to start disbursement of funds or risk losing the upcoming General Elections. We were made to go through the validation processes from 18th November 2019 till 15th January 2020.

He added it has been over three months of which members expected payment but they have not heard anything from SEC. The Spokesperson also revealed they were told by SEC, the claims filed is in an excess of GHc4 Billion of the data it had.
Little People, Big World is back, and were learning more about Amy Roloff than ever before. Last season, we saw Amy make the major decision to move off of Roloff Farms, which is where she resided with ex-husband Matt Roloff post-divorce. Now, shes finding a new place and embarking on a life with her partner of several years, Chris Marek. And the two are officially engaged.

While Amys ultra-excited about her engagement, its been a bittersweet experience for her thus far. She lost her mom in 2019, and shes written about the experience on Instagram. Now, shes opening up about it again on the show.

Amy Roloffs mother died in September 2019

Amys talked a lot about her difficult childhood on LPBW, and she also referenced her troubles growing up in her memoir, A Little Me. Shes the only one in her family whos a little person, which shes noted made her feel quite lonely as a kid. Despite it all, she still loved and appreciated her parents, and she wrote about her relationship with them on social media.

Amy frequently visited her home state of Michigan while her mother was ill. Wish it was for other reasons than my Mom being in the hospital- I love coming home to Michigan, she captioned an Instagram post from June 2019. My Mom is doing ok. The coming home and the care she may need is the tough part. Just glad I could be here!

When her mother died in September 2019, she spoke out about the loss. I am so sad about my moms passing but comforted by all the memories I have and that she lived a happy, long life with my father, Amy told People. She was a great mom. Thank you for all the condolences and well wishes. Life is a gift, appreciate the moments in each day.

Amy is now planning a wedding with her fiance, Chris Marek

Those who watch LPBW just saw Marek get down on one knee and ask Amy for her hand in marriage. But those who follow Amys Instagram know theyve been engaged for quite awhile now  and shes more excited than ever to share her wedding plans as she creates them.

Chris and I celebrated our 3rd year anniversary of dating last Wednesday. And to my wonderful happy surprise he proposed and asked me to marry him! Amy captioned her post from September 2019. I couldnt believe it it! I cried, he had tears and of course I said YES! Im engaged and couldnt be happier. I love this man so much.

Since then, Amys spoken about her engagement on Facebook Live. And she noted shes traditional when it comes to what she wants. Im much more of a traditional person  I want the wedding and the reception, she told her fans. I would like to share that experience with [Chris].

She admitted shes having conflicting emotions about her wedding and her mothers death

Amys mother died in the same month she got engaged, and its bringing a lot of emotions to the surface even still. Now, People has an exclusive look at the episode of LPBW premiering May 5  and its when Amy learns of her mothers death.

My mom was 86 and she passed before my parents celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary and you know, she was just having some health issues, Amy explains. Eventually, they found out that it was her heart. So her heart was starting to give up.

Amy then reflected on one of her favorite recent memories with her mother  and it was the previous summers vacation. My grandkids were there and I was very, very happy that my mom got to see her great-grandkids, which she always wanted, Amy said. But she then reflected that she wished she had more time with her mom, and she wanted her mom to have more time with the Roloff kids and grandkids.

As far as the engagement being so close to her mothers death is concerned, Amy had conflicting emotions about this, too. A lot of them are happy, so its hard to grieve one moment and then be happy the next.

Well have to wait and see how Amy handles the family death on LPBW. But we know she has the support of Marek, her kids, and her fans along the way.

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Tom Cruise plays Capt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick from Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.

Update: NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine has confirmed that the space agency is working with Tom Cruise to shoot a film aboard the International Space Station.

We need popular media to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists to make @NASAs ambitious plans a reality, Bridenstine added on Twitter.

NASA is excited to work with @TomCruise on a film aboard the @Space_Station! We need popular media to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists to make @NASAs ambitious plans a reality. pic.twitter.com/CaPwfXtfUv  Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) May 5, 2020

Politician Bridenstine has been the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) since 2018 after he was nominated by President Donald Trump for the position.

Original story: If you've spent any of your time quarantined contemplating how you can take your career to the next level, you are not alone.

Tom Cruise, the ageless movie star who's attempted increasingly treacherous stunts over the past few Mission: Impossible sequels, is reportedly planning to shoot his next action thriller in outer space, and with the help of futurist billionaire tech titan Elon Musk and NASA.

Tom Cruise and Elon Musk's SpaceX are reportedly making a movie in space. (Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

That's according to a Monday report from Deadline's Mike Fleming Jr.

"Im hearing that Tom Cruise and Elon Musks SpaceX are working on a project with NASA that would be the first narrative feature film  an action adventure  to be shot in outer space," Fleming Jr. writes, referencing the private space travel program the Tesla founder launched in 2002.

Read more: Rob Lowe recounts Tom Cruise going ballistic over hotel room

"Its not a Mission: Impossible film and no studio is in the mix at this stage but look for more news as I get it. But this is real, albeit in the early stages of liftoff."

Story continues

This isnt the first time Cruise has been involved with a project that planned to shoot in space. Talking to Empire in 2018, Avatar director James Cameron revealed that hed been in talks with the Top Gun star about an out of this world shoot at the turn of the millennium.

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine holds a rock handed to him by Kristine Dans during a demonstration of the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU), one of two NASA spacesuit prototypes for lunar exploration on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019, at NASA Headquarters in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

I actually talked to [Cruise] about doing a space film in space, about 15 years ago, Cameron told Empire. I had a contract with the Russians in 2000 to go to the International Space Station and shoot a high-end 3D documentary there. And I thought, S***, man, we should just make a feature. I said, Tom, you and I, well get two seats on the Soyuz, but somebodys gotta train us as engineers. Tom said, No problem, Ill train as an engineer. We had some ideas for the story, but it was still conceptual.

Read more: Mission Impossible 7 & 8 stunts are obscene

Late last month it was announced that Cruise's next two outings as IMF super agent Ethan Hunt, Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8, were being delayed by Paramount due to coronavirus shut-downs, with new release years of 19 November, 2021 and 4 November, 2022.

Tom Cruise posts pic of insane new Mission: Impossible 6 stunt

The plan was for both instalments to be shot back to back, and filming on Part 7 was only a few days underway in Italy when it was shut down on 24 February. Another Cruise sequel, the long-awaited 80s follow-up Top Gun: Maverick, was also recently delayed, from 24 June to 23 December.

That's to say Cruise, 57, still has a lot of missions on Earth to pull off before he can focus his attention toward the stars.

According to a Deadline report, Elon Musk's SpaceX is sending Tom Cruise into space to film an action movie. (Photo: Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

It's unclear how well or how long Cruise and Musk have known one another. But Cruise did make his appreciation for Musk's work known in 2013 when he tweeted an image of Musk's project that mirrored some of the tech used in his futuristic 2002 thriller Minority Report.

Musk, meanwhile, has been in the news recently for proclaiming on Twitter that he's "selling almost all physical possessions" and "will own no house." Musk listed two of his California homes for sale on Sunday.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 60 Starlink satellites launched from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Among Cruise's recent wave of death-defying stunts in the M:I movies: He scaled the world's tallest building in Mission: Impossible  Ghost Protocol (2011), hung from the side of a plane in Mission: Impossible  Rogue Nation (2015) and performed an actual HALO jump in Mission: Impossible  Fallout (2018).

"The older Tom Cruise gets, the more fun it is to watch him risk death in elaborate and age-and gravity-defying ways," the New York Times wrote in 2018.

Attempting a new round of stunts in zero gravity, then, seems like the next logical progression.
The presidency has released the statement below on how it will apply the $311 million returned to Nigeria this week as part of recoveries of monies stolen by former dictator, Sani Abacha.

Presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu said the money will go to completing infrastructure projects in the country.

He also said the money was witheld for years because previous governments were too corrupt and venal too be trusted not to steal the money again.

Read the full statement:

STATEMENT ON THE RETURN OF THE ABACHA STOLEN MILLIONS FROM THE UNITED STATES AND JERSEY

On Monday, May 4, 2020, some $311 million US Dollars  stolen from the citizens of Nigeria during the Abacha regime  were safely returned to our country from the United States.

These funds have already been allocated, and will be used in full, for vital and decades-overdue infrastructure development: The second Niger Bridge, the Lagos-Ibadan and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano expressways  creating tens of thousands of Nigerian construction jobs and local skills, which can then be useful in future projects.

Part of the funds will also be invested in the Mambilla Power Project which, when completed, will provide electricity to some three million homes  over ten million citizens  in our country.

The receipt of these stolen monies  and the hundreds of millions more that have already been returned from the United Kingdom and Switzerland  are an opportunity for the development of our nation, made far harder for those decades the country was robbed of these funds.

Indeed, previous monies returned last year from Switzerland  some $320 million US dollars  are already being used for the governments free school feeding scheme, a stipend for millions of disadvantaged citizens, and grain grants for those in severe food hardship.

Without these funds, the fight against Covid-19 would be even tougher.

The latest return is a testament to the growing and deepening relationship between the government of Nigeria and the government of the United States.

Without the cooperation both from the UK Government, the US Executive branch and US Congress, we would not have achieved the return of these funds at all.

For years many countries deemed successive Nigerian administrations as too corrupt, too venal and too likely to squander and re-steal the stolen monies  so they did not return the funds.

Today, US, UK and other jurisdictions have found the partnership with the nation of Nigeria they can finally trust.

The Buhari Administration is committed to  and is enacting  total and zero tolerance to corruption in politics and public administration.

The days when government was seen and used by the political class as their personal ATM to empty are over.

The time of better governance and clean hands in the affairs of state is here to stay.

Garba Shehu

Senior Special Assistant to the President

(Media & Publicity)

May 5, 2020
Threat detection and prevention are essential to ensuring the safety and security of warfighters. Researchers have developed a way to speed up the processing of extremely large graphs and data, making the most efficient use of modern Army computational resources before and during Soldier deployment.

Graphs have become a preferred choice of data representation for modeling many real-world systems containing entities and relationships. Such systems and graphs are widely used in several public as well as military domains such as Facebook with millions of users connected via friendship relations, the World Wide Web, bioinformatics and even DOD security applications. The DOD uses graph analytics that include terrorist-tracking and threat-detection.

In today's data-intensive environment, these graphs grow ever larger in size, and even high-powered, high-performance computing systems, such as those possessed by the Army, cannot process them efficiently, researchers say.

There is a need to develop efficient parallel and distributed systems that can scale modern computer hardware to process such graphs, said Rajgopal Kannan, a researcher for the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory's Context Aware Processing Branch working at CCDC ARL-West in Playa Vista, California.

"The Army's vast computational resources must be utilized efficiently at scale to resolve the huge demand for fast computing solutions to mission critical problems," Kannan said.

Kannan collaborated on this project with researchers from the University of Southern California. The team has been focused on developing high-speed and portable graph analytics, which is essential for DOD security analysis such as discovering terrorist communication networks, analyzing biological networks and recommending anti-terrorist actions.

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Current approaches do not scale well to large graphs and/or do not have easy-to-use programming interfaces that make the job of developing new graph analytics applications easy, he said. The onus is on programmers to exploit hardware and operating system primitives, which is time consuming, limits program portability and requires code to be rewritten for new architectures and accelerators.

"Our novel parallel computing framework, called Graph Processing Over Partitions, or GPOP, is user-friendly and makes optimized programming easy," Kannan said. "Programmers can focus on developing new high-speed applications and are protected from navigating the complexities of the underlying hardware. The framework is also hardware agnostic, with the code being portable to multiple architectures."

It can be a significant component of custom graph processing systems for the DOD, such as those being developed under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Hierarchical Identify Verify Exploit, or HIVE, program, Kannan said.

ACM's Transactions on Parallel Computing Special Issue featured a paper on this research, Parallel Computing Framework for Scalable Graph Analytics, on Innovations in Systems for Irregular Applications.

"Propagation of information between interconnected entities is a very fundamental operation," Kannan said. "Consider for example the famous PageRank algorithm used for webpage ranking in search engines. It starts by assigning an initial importance/weight to the webpages and then emulates the propagation of this importance/weight along the hyperlinks that create connections in web graphs."

Emulating such propagation for very large graphs puts a lot of stress on the memory system of current computers, Kannan said.

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For this purpose, the researchers designed new models of computation that can maximally utilize the power of random access memory and caches available on off-the-shelf servers. Their models are encapsulated in a framework that hides all the gory details and provides a simple interface to make the life of programmers easy.

Another example is shortest distance computations used in analysis of biological networks or online fact-checking that demand extremely fast response.

"Our framework utilizes the power of cluster computing to quickly extract metadata from large graphs and answer shortest distance queries in microseconds," Kannan said. "Our approach has shown that by carefully designing the software systems, the efficiency of underlying hardware can be significantly improved."

The research team's key idea is the hierarchical decomposition of programs: A high level user front end makes for ease of programming coupled with low level hardware primitives that lead to high performance.

Their framework cut down the execution time of several algorithms by up to 80% and is up to 19 times, 9.3 times and 3.6 times faster than current well-known frameworks such as Ligra, GraphMat and Galois, respectively.

"Our work on metadata extraction for shortest distance computations has extended the capability of this approach significantly," Kannan said. "Compared to the existing methods, we are able to process 10 times larger graphs with 50 times more speed. On a cluster with 64 servers, we could process the entire road network of the United States in less than one and a half minutes."

In addition to the DOD, this research has dual-use applications.

"It is also useful for big data companies, such as Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc., that employ graph analysis in the services they offer such as web search, product recommendation or spam detection," Kannan said. "Efficient graph processing can also unravel new insights in biological research such as genomic analysis, protein sequencing or epidemic transmission such as with COVID-19. Our research will unlock the potential of custom graph processing architectures being developed by the Department of Defense."

The next step for the team is to harness the power of distributed processing systems and distributed memory to scale graph analytics applications to even larger future graphs as part of building a generalized parallel and distributed processing framework.

Throughout this research and all that is to come, collaboration has been and will continue to be a key element of success, Kannan said.

"Collaboration is the lifeblood of research, and this collaborative research was conducted under the aegis of CCDC ARL's open campus initiative, which has been instrumental in enabling the technology transfer of ideas originating from basic academic research," Kannan said.

Kannan and his collaborators from Professor Viktor Prasanna's Graph Analytics and Machine Learning research group at the University of Southern California were able to bridge the gap between academic theory and technological practice to develop technology products that will prove beneficial to key Army Modernization Priorities including the Network and Soldier Lethality.

The dissemination of these results in top publication venues like ACM TOPC and the International Conference on Very Large Data Bases, more commonly known as VLDB, further highlights the importance of ARL-university partnerships and increases the visibility in the warfighter technology space, he said.

This research, funded by DARPA and supported by an ARL-USC Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, recently received recognition from the Department of Commerce as one of the lab's high-impact joint work statements.
: As Tamil Nadu clocked 500 plus fresh coronavirus cases for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, Chief Minister K Palaniswami asserted that the rise in the number of positive people was due to testing a higher number of samples.

Amid clamour from migrant workers to return to their home states, the Chief Minister assured them that the government would arrange trains in a week for those wishing to go back.

"Daily about 12,000 people are being tested and only due to such a high number of tests is the number of those turning positive also on the rise," he said.

While 527 people tested positive on Monday, 508 samples were confirmed to carry the contagion today, taking the aggregate number of positive cases in Tamil Nadu to 4,058 and Chennai alone has 2008 cases till date.

After chairing a review meeting at the Greater Chennai Corporation, the Chief Minister told officials that only Tamil Nadu has as high as 50 labs to conduct COVID-19 tests and added that the number of people being tested has also been increased.

The government later updated the number of labs as 52 (36 in government and 16 others in private sector) following two private labs getting permission for testing coronavirus.

Palaniswami said the public need not fear over more people testing positive as anti-COVID-19 initiatives were being pursued on all fronts, including prevention.

As many as 4,000 beds are ready in Chennai alone and



immunity boosting preparations like zinc and multivitamins, besides Ayush forumlations were being provided to people, including frontline warriors, the Chief Minister said.

On migrant workers, he said in a week, government would arrange trains for those wishing to go back their home states.

Since work has resumed following easing of curbs -in sectors including construction- those who wished to stay back may do so, he said.

About 50,000 workers from other states were working in Tamil Nadu and it was not possible to make arrangements to send all of them at the same time, he said.

He directed officials to arrange trains only after 10 pm as taking people during daytime may lead to traffic congestion.

Tasking officials to handle the logistics carefully, he said workers should be apprised that they will be picked up from their places of stay and dropped at the railway station.

Till such time, workers should continue to stay put in their places of accommodation and "the government will create opportunities for them to go their native states in a phased manner in a week," he said.

Palaniswami asked officials to enumerate the number of workers in their respective places after making all arrangements like deploying police personnel since workers,out of anxiety, may converge in any given location if they got to know that officials are making a head count for their journey.

He also listed a slew of relief measures, including financial assistance of Rs 1,000 for rice ration card holders and workers and appealed to the people to follow norms like wearing masks, maintaining social distance and personal hygiene.

In the biggest single-day surge in the state so far, Tamil Nadu had on Monday reported 527 new COVID-19 cases, a large number of them linked to the Koyambedu market here,which has emerged as a worrying hotspot for authorities.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Utah Highway Patrol officer was shocked to find a five-year-old boy behind the wheel of a car during a traffic stop.

Trooper Rick Morgan noticed an SUV driving erratically and swerving between lanes on a freeway in Ogden, Utah just before noon on Monday.

Morgan thought the driver must have been suffering a medical emergency, but when he pulled over the car he was shocked to find the young boy behind the wheel.

A Utah Highway Patrol officer was shocked to find a five-year-old boy behind the wheel of a car during a traffic stop

A Utah Highway Patrol officer was shocked to find a five-year-old boy behind the wheel of a car during a traffic stop

The boy could barely see over the steering wheel.

'My speedometer showed 32 miles-per-hour,' Morgan told Fox 13. 'It amazed me that when he heard my siren, he did pull over and stop.'

'When I got to the window and the window came down, I wasn't quite sure what to think.

'It was pretty clear when the window came down, it was a young, very underage driver.'

Dash cam footage shows the officer asking the boy where he had been driving to.

'California,' the boy replied. Police say he had been trying to reach his sister's house in California, and had planned to buy a Lamborghini when he got there, with the three dollars in his purse.

The 5-year-old told troopers he had left the house after an argument with his mother, after she told him she wouldn't buy him a Lamborghini.

Police believe the boy had already driven for several miles from his Ogden home before he was pulled over.

'It likely would have been much worse had he gone much further,' Morgan told the publication. 'He was sitting on the front edge of his seat so he could reach the brake pedal.'

The visibly shaken-up boy, who was 'on the verge of tears', was eventually reunited with his parents.
Air India will operate 64 repatriation flights for a week from May 7 while the Navy deployed two ships as India rolled out a massive evacuation plan on Tuesday to bring back thousands of its nationals stranded abroad due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.

From the Gulf countries to Malaysia and the UK to the US, the multi-agency operation christened 'Vande Bharat Mission' will see the state-owned airline operate the non-scheduled commercial flights till May 13 to ferry around 15,000 Indian nationals from 12 countries.

Those availing the repatriation flights will be charged, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told a virtual press conference in New Delhi. He said private Indian airlines may join the repatriation effort after May 13.

A passenger on a London-Delhi flight will be charged Rs 50,000 and on a Dhaka-Delhi flight Rs 12,000, he added.

Launching Operation Samudra Setu'( Sea Bridge), the Indian Navy despatched two ships to Maldives capital Male to commence the first phase of the evacuation operations from May 8.

A total of 1,000 people are planned to be evacuated in the first trip in naval ships INS Jalaswha' and INS Magar', a Navy release said. The evacuated people will disembark in Kochi, it added.

The first AI flight will be from Abu Dhabi in the UAE carrying around 200 passengers with the destination being Kochi in Kerala. As many as 10 flights are being operated on the first day from various destinations abroad.

The government also issued a standard operating protocol (SOP) for the return of the stranded Indians.

In an order, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said priority will be given to compelling cases in distress including migrant workers, labourers who have been laid off and those faced with expiry of short term visas.

Persons with medical emergency, pregnant women, elderly, those required to return to India due to death of family member, and students will also be given preference, the home ministry said.

According to union government sources, over 3 lakh people in the Gulf countries have registered for the evacuation.

The sources also said the Ministry of External Affairs(MEA) will provide a database to states and central ministries for employing skilled workers who are returning after losing jobs in the Gulf.

According to sources, over 10,000 Indians in the Gulf region were found to have contracted coronavirus while 84 of them have died.

The immediate focus of the multi-agency operation christened 'Vande Bharat Mission' will be to bring back Indians from the Gulf, countries in the neighbourhood as well as from the US, the UK and Singapore. According to estimates, around 1.4 crore Indians are staying in various parts of the world.

The largest-ever civilian evacuation was carried out by India in 1990 during the first Gulf war-- between Iraq and Kuwait--when almost 1.7 lakh Indian nationals were brought by air from Kuwait.

The 64 AI flights will be landing in 10 Indian states15 in Kerala, 11 each in Tamil Nadu and Delhi, seven each in Maharashtra and Telangana, five in Gujarat, three each in Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir and one flight each in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

The flights would be operated by Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express to repatriate Indians from 12 countries-the UAE, the UK, the US, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman, Puri said



Out of this, 10 flights will be to the UAE, seven flights each to the US and the UK, five flights to Saudi Arabia, five flights to Singapore and two flights to Qatar to repatriate Indian nationals between May 7 and May 13, he added.

During this period, seven flights each will be operated to Malaysia and Bangladesh, five flights each to Kuwait and Philippines, two flights each to Oman and Bahrain.

The government has already evacuated about 2,500 stranded Indians from China, Japan, Iran and Italy in the last couple of months after the outbreak of coronavirus in those countries.

According to an official statement, only people showing no symptoms of COVID-19 will be allowed to travel and on reaching the destination they would also have to register for Arogya Setu' app, a digital contact tracing initiative.

After arrival in India, their medical examination will be conducted and they will be subsequently put under quarantine for 14 days, either in a hospital or in an institutional facility, also on payment basis, the statement said. COVID-19 test would be done after 14 days and further action would be taken according to health protocols, it said.

A Cochin International Airport Limited official said a three-phase de-infestation project was underway at the airport while mock drills for testing different systems have already been completed.

India has been under lockdown since March 25 and it will be in force till May 17 after two extensions in a bid curb the spread of the coronavirus. All commercial passenger flights have been suspended for this period.

The first two special flights that will operate from Thursday to evacuate Indians stranded in the UAE will begin with applicants from Kerala, who formed the majority of the expatriates who have registered to be repatriated from the Emirates, said Indian Ambassador to the UAE, Pavan Kapoor.

"The missions have prioritised the list of passengers and have given it to Air India. We would call and email each passenger to contact Air India to get their tickets issued. The first two flights on Thursday would be to Kerala, considering the high number of applicants from the state, Kapoor was quoted as saying by the Gulf

Over 200,000 expatriates in the UAE have registered so far to travel back to India.

"This will come as a big relief to Indians who find themselves stranded in the UK and have been desperate to return," said Ruchi Ghanashyam, the outgoing Indian High Commissioner to the UK.

In Kochi, a defence ministry spokesperson earlier in the day said 'INS Jalashwa' deployed off Mumbai coast, along with 'INS Magar', were sent to Maldives on Monday night and that 'INS Shardul' was also despatched to Dubai.

Indian community leaders in the US welcomed the move of the Indian government.

This is for the first time in my memory that such an evacuation effort is being carried out by the Indian government for its citizens in the US, said Jaipur Foot USA Chairman Prem Bhandari, as he thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the efforts.

A batch of over 2,100 expatriates from Kerala in Gulf countries are expected to be airlifted to Kochi in the first phase and extensive preparations are underway at the international airport to receive them, an official said.

"Apart from the temperature guns to read the temperature of the passengers, the process of installing thermal scanners at the arrival area are on. Entire synthetic/textile wrapped furniture were replaced with temporary plastic chairs," the spokesman added.

Thousands of expatriates from the state wishing to return home have started registering on the non-resident Keralites Affairs (NORKA) department.

More than four lakh expatriates, mainly from the Gulf, are reported to have registered to return to Kerala.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bijnor : , May 5 (IANS) Independent Uttar Pradesh MLA Aman Mani Tripathi, who was arrested in Bijnor district on Monday for lockdown violations, has been granted bail by a Bijnor court.

His seven associates, who were been arrested along with him, have also been granted bail. All of them will be required to furnish personal bonds for Rs 20,000 each within 30 days.

During the court hearing, the judge told the MLA that he was not expected to behave in an irresponsible manner since he was a legislator.

The MLA said that he had made a mistake due to a misunderstanding. However, despite getting bail from the court, Tripathi and his associates will not be able to go home.

According to Praveen Kumar, the Circle Officer of Najibabad, they will be quarantined in Najibabad and their samples will be sent for testing.

Tripathi, an independent legislator from Nautanwa in Maharajganj district, was earlier booked by the Uttarakhand Police for travelling without a pass. He is also facing a CBI probe in the case of the murder of his wife, Sara Singh.
Doc Blocks Conspiracy Theory

Fauci: No scientific evidence the coronavirus was made in a Chinese lab Anthony "Tony" Fauci has become the scientific face of America's COVID-19 response, and he says the best evidence shows the virus behind the pandemic was not made in a lab in China. Fauci, the director of the U.S.

Kansas Beef Crisis Cont'd

Kansas sees coronavirus cases at meat-packing plants: report Outbreaks of the novel coronavirus continue to affect meat-packing plants in Kansas, according to a local report. As of Sunday, the state has reported more than 5,000 cases of the novel virus, but numbers are expected to rise as testing becomes more widely available.

Show-Me Reopen Covid Spike

DHSS reports Missouri's largest 24-hour increase of coronavirus cases to date The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported Monday, the largest 24-hour increase in COVID-19 cases in Missouri since the pandemic began. The DHSS reported 368 new COVID-19 cases on Monday. This is the largest increase in coronavirus cases in a 24-hour period that Missouri has had yet.

Collective Rage Predicted

Frank Bruni: She predicted the coronavirus. What does she foresee next? I told Laurie Garrett that she might as well change her name to Cassandra. Everyone is calling her that anyway. She and I were Zooming - that's a verb now, right? - and she pulled out a 2017 book, " Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes."

Confronting History

New York Fed Paper Finds Pandemic a Century Ago Fueled Nazi Rise Nazis rose to power in Germany in part because of dislocations caused by a mass-death pandemic a century ago, research published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Monday said. The paper, written by bank economist Kristian Blickle, examined how the German political system reacted to the influenza pandemic that struck the world between 1918 and 1920.

Prez Trump Deals With Tragic Coronavirus Numbers

Trump boosts coronavirus death toll estimate President Donald Trump has warned that the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus outbreak could reach 100,000 - revising upwards his estimate on the number of people the outbreak could kill by tens of thousands. "Look, we're going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people. That's a horrible thing.

Covid Head Check

The coronavirus pandemic is pushing America into a mental health crisis Please Note The Washington Post is providing this important information about the coronavirus for free. For more free coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, sign up for our daily Coronavirus Updates newsletter where all stories are free to read.

A quick peek at where we stand tonight . . .And of course the bigger picture news links from across the nation and around the world . . .Developing . . .
It was quite the week for Waterloo Region Record reporter Greg Mercer.

Three days after learning his Rubber Town series into a pattern of cancer and lung disease among rubber workers in the region was awarded a $45,000 Michener-Deacon Fellowship, Mercer's series earned the National Newspaper Awards prize for local reporting at a gala in Toronto on Friday night.

His detailed probe into the serious health problems that afflicted workers from the region's once-booming rubber industry - and the apparent reluctance of workplace safety officials to accept their compensation claims - won out over other nominees from the Brandon Sun and St. Catharines Standard.

"Greg Mercer's work highlights the importance of local journalism," said Jim Poling, editor-in-chief of the Waterloo Region Record. "His inquisitiveness and determination as a journalist has changed the lives of people in our community and given them voice when they didn't have any. Occupational health and disease is serious business and The Record will continue to investigate."

Mercer was also a finalist for the John Wesley Dafoe Award for Politics for exposing how the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party concocted a story that a legislator had sexually harassed a former party intern, in order to nominate a more well-connected party insider. Robert Fife, Steven Chase, Sean Silcoff and Christine Dobby from the Globe and Mail won the award for looking into how Huawei fits in with Beijing's global ambitions, and just how far Canada was willing to go to accommodate the technology juggernaut's quest for expansion.

The Waterloo Region Record's John Roe was also a finalist for the Claude Ryan Award for Editorials. Franois Cardinal of La Presse won the award.

The Globe and Mail took top honours overall, winning 10 of 21 categories. The Globe had 20 finalists spread over 13 categories, including all three finalists in the business category.

There were 63 finalists in 21 categories, selected from 951 entries for work published in 2018. The competition is open to daily newspapers, news agencies and online news sites approved by the NNA board of governors.

This was the 70th year of the awards, which were established by the Toronto Press Club in 1949 to encourage excellence and reward achievement in daily newspaper work in Canada. The awards program has operated under its current administrative structure since 1989.

Mercer will continue his work on the Rubber Town series after earning the fellowship from the Michener Awards Foundation. Each fellowship is worth $40,000 to pursue investigative work with a focus on the public good, and an additional $5,000 to cover expenses. Mercer will investigate work-related disease in Canada, exploring why it is under-reported and rarely compensated.

Mercer first began his investigation into Waterloo Region's rubber industry last fall. Since then, he has written nearly two-dozen stories on the issue.

The fellowships will be presented during the Michener Awards ceremony at Rideau Hall on June 14.

All finalist entries for the NNA's can be viewed online at nna-ccj.ca.
Tak Sie has been the CEO of Vixtel Technologies Holdings Limited (HKG:1782) since 2016. This analysis aims first to contrast CEO compensation with other companies that have similar market capitalization. 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 process should give us an idea about how appropriately the CEO is paid.

Check out our latest analysis for Vixtel Technologies Holdings

How Does Tak Sie's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?

At the time of writing, our data says that Vixtel Technologies Holdings Limited has a market cap of HK$251m, and reported total annual CEO compensation of CN1.2m for the year to December 2018. It is worth noting that the CEO compensation consists almost entirely of the salary, worth CN1.1m. We examined a group of similar sized companies, with market capitalizations of below CN1.4b. The median CEO total compensation in that group is CN1.6m.

Pay mix tells us a lot about how a company functions versus the wider industry, and it's no different in the case of Vixtel Technologies Holdings. On an industry level, roughly 72% of total compensation represents salary and 28% is other remuneration. Investors will find it interesting that Vixtel Technologies Holdings pays the bulk of its rewards through a traditional salary, instead of non-salary benefits.

So Tak Sie receives a similar amount to the median CEO pay, amongst the companies we looked at. While this data point isn't particularly informative alone, it gains more meaning when considered with business performance. You can see, below, how CEO compensation at Vixtel Technologies Holdings has changed over time.

SEHK:1782 CEO Compensation May 4th 2020

Is Vixtel Technologies Holdings Limited Growing?

On average over the last three years, Vixtel Technologies Holdings Limited has seen earnings per share (EPS) move in a favourable direction by 9.6% each year (using a line of best fit). In the last year, its revenue is down 19%.

Story continues

I would argue that the lack of revenue growth in the last year is less than ideal, but it is good to see EPS growth. These two metric are moving in different directions, so while it's hard to be confident judging performance, we think the stock is worth watching. It could be important to check this free visual depiction of what analysts expect for the future.

Has Vixtel Technologies Holdings Limited Been A Good Investment?

Since shareholders would have lost about 19% over three years, some Vixtel Technologies Holdings Limited shareholders would surely be feeling negative emotions. This suggests it would be unwise for the company to pay the CEO too generously.

In Summary...

Remuneration for Tak Sie is close enough to the median pay for a CEO of a similar sized company .

The per share growth could be better, in our view. And it's hard to argue that the returns over the last three years have delighted. So suffice it to say we don't think the compensation is modest. On another note, we've spotted 4 warning signs for Vixtel Technologies Holdings that investors should look into moving forward.

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.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 20:11:46|Editor: huaxia

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RIGA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Latvia has recorded the first day with zero new COVID-19 cases since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, the Baltic country's health authorities reported Tuesday.

The Latvian Center for Disease Prevention and Control said that none of the COVID-19 tests carried out over the past 24 hours came back positive.

However, one elderly COVID-19 patient died of the disease, raising the total COVID-19 death toll in Latvia to 17.

To date, Latvia has reported 896 confirmed coronavirus cases and 348 recoveries. Also, 98 COVID-19 patients have been discharged from hospitals.

Latvia detected the first COVID-19 case on March 2, 2020. In a bid to contain the spread of the virus, Latvia entered a national state of emergency from March 13, which was extended to May 12 in April. This week, the government is expected to start revising some of the restrictions introduced as part of the battle against the virus. Enditem
Chinese President Xi Jinping waves during an inauguration ceremony in Macao, in 2019.

AP

In April, China's top leaders were presented with a report that said anti-China sentiment was at its highest since 1989, when it spiked after the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

The concerns of anti-China sentiment have arisen because the coronavirus originated in China, and other nations have accused China of downplaying the disease's severity early on.

The report also said China should prepare itself for armed confrontations with the US, as a worst-case scenario.

Reuters first reported on the paper, although its reporters had not seen it, and the news report was based on unnamed sources who had direct knowledge of the report.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

An influential Chinese think tank warned China that its global image is the worst it has been in three decades due to the coronavirus.

In April, China's Ministry of State Security presented a report to President Xi Jinping and top leaders, setting out that anti-China sentiment was at its highest since 1989, after the Tiananmen Square Massacre, according to Reuters.

The report, from the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, also said China should prepare itself for armed confrontations with the US, as a worst-case scenario.

Until 1980, CICIC was part of the Chinese government. It's now linked to the Ministry of State Security, China's top intelligence group.

Reuters first reported on the paper, although its reporters had not seen it, and the news report was based on unnamed sources who had direct knowledge of the report.

The conclusions of anti-China sentiment were triggered by the fact the coronavirus originated in Wuhan, China, as well as the fact that China has been accused of suppressing information and downplaying the coronavirus' severity early on. China has dismissed these accusations.

State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told Reuters it had been China's "special responsibility" to inform the world about the threat posed by the coronavirus "since they were the first to learn of it."

Story continues

While it was unclear what impact the report will have on China's foreign policy and security decisions, it showed China's leaders were taking the coronavirus backlash seriously.

It's been more than 30 years since the Tiananmen Square Massacre, a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing, where hundreds died.

Afterward, the US and other nations imposed sanctions against China, mostly for guns and technology. But China has since strengthened its military and is in a far stronger position.

In recent months, the relationship between China and the US has become strained. China has been pushing its foreign policy agenda, both to strengthen its own position and to dislodge the US from its position as a superpower.

It's done that by strengthening its claim of sovereignty over islands in the South China Sea, cracking down on protesters in Hong Kong, and intimidating Taiwan with military procedures. It also pledged tens of millions of dollars in funding to the World Health Organisation after the US announced it was freezing funding.

According to Reuters, these moves made by China are deepening mistrust and increasing friction between the two nations.

However, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson's office released a statement to Reuters calling for cooperation between China and the US.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Private equity firms do fabulously well when their risky bets pay off, and they are the people arguably best positioned to absorb losses right now, said Bharat Ramamurti, a former campaign aide to Senator Elizabeth Warren who has been named to the congressional committee overseeing the governments virus bailout efforts. They should absorb risks when things go badly, because thats what risky bets entail, he added.

Private equitys push to influence the governments emergency support has been manifold. Early on, when the $2 trillion CARES Act was taking shape, A.I.C. officials pushed for relief from the affiliation rule, arguing that the companies owned by its roughly 50 member firms should receive equal treatment to other companies of similar size and returns.

Representatives of Carlyle pressed legislators to consider aid for troubled aviation companies, according to lobbying filings and a company official. Three of the firms portfolio companies  the terminal-services firm PrimeFlight, the aerospace-services firm Sequa Corporation, and the aircraft-equipment maker NORDAM  subsequently applied for relief under provisions of the act geared toward the air travel and national security businesses, the official said. (A PrimeFlight representative confirmed applying for support under a CARES Act provision covering contractors to air carriers, adding that the company had not received any funding so far. Sequa and NORDAM did not respond to requests for comment.)

As part of their pitch, private equity executives are also highlighting the financial hit their investors  including university endowments, state and municipal pension funds  are taking as the economy craters. Those clients pay annual fees of between 1 and 2 percent of the money they have promised to invest in a private equity fund, no matter what the economic conditions may be.

Critics of private equity say this is the moment when the industry should be coming up with more ways to help the companies they own.

There is no limit to their creativity when they are extracting wealth from their portfolio companies, said Dennis Kelleher, president of Better Markets, a group that calls for stricter regulation of Wall Street, but they cry binding constraints when they should be using the same creativity to bail out their portfolio companies.

Moreover, the private-equity business still has hundreds of billions in as-yet-unused investment money known as dry powder, which could theoretically be used to shore up troubled investments. Some of that cash is being deployed to help companies struggling from the impact of the virus, like the commercial-printing business Cimpress, which Apollo invested $300 million in last month. But industry executives point out that the unused cash is controlled by individual investment funds, not the parent private equity firm, and that much of it is earmarked for future purchases rather than adding new capital to old ones.
Having seemingly contained the novel coronavirus within China, Beijing has now switched its focus to aid efforts globally on a fast-track basis  including providing masks, test kits, diagnostic and medical technology, other equipment and training facilities to many countries in the Middle East affected by the pandemic.

Some Middle Eastern countries look to follow what they perceive as successful Chinese strategies in dealing with COVID-19. China has gained a reputation for having dealt relatively effectively with the virus, and thus the popular perception in parts of the Mideast is that China can help end the pandemic quickly.

After having opted for stringent steps such as China's, the leading Gulf Cooperation Council states are looking for quick results that could enable them to reopen their economies as soon as possible.

This comes as tensions over the pandemic escalate between Washington and Beijing, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying May 3 that "there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan."

An important deal to combat the coronavirus was clinched April 26 between Beijing and Saudi Arabia, whereby Riyadh is paying around $265 million for coronavirus test kits and medical expertise. Having relaxed curfew rules in some parts of the country, Saudi Arabia wants to reopen the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and needs a specialized health infrastructure in place to provide the best facilities.

Under the deal, Beijing will provide the kingdom with 9 million test kits  for a daily testing capacity of 50,000 people  while also sending 500 medical experts to assist in the response and in managing six laboratories, including one portable lab.

Prominent Saudi journalists such as Salman al-Dosary had been lauding Chinas response to the virus in domestic media even before this latest deal materialized, with Dosary praising Chinas success in enforcing strict quarantine measures to lay siege to the disease.

Adopting the lockdown method in dealing with the outbreak, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates took strict decisive action that may not be possible to implement in many other regional countries. It has been effective in both states, and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed said China was the best example for how these trying times will pass by, through collaboration and solidarity between all leaders, governments and people of the world.

Undoubtedly, this COVID-19 diplomacy by China has increased its influence and had a wide-ranging impact on the Middle East. Mainly, the aid efforts have resulted in the following advantages for China:

First, it has increased Chinese soft power. Even though Beijing had close ties with the Arab states, the main thing it lacked was soft power and assisting with this health emergency has helped in removing this hurdle. Alongside this pandemic-related aid push, Chinese envoys in the Mideast have been more sociable in recent months, and this made a difference in this regard as well.

In Saudi Arabia, Beijings Ambassador Chen Weiqing proactively helped increase awareness among the public by participating in Arabic television programs to explain Chinas COVID-19 response. Increasing the friendly ties between both countries. He has also been promoting Saudi-Chinese solidarity on Twitter.

Second, through these efforts China has mostly put an end to the criticism it faced initially for showing a slow response to the epidemic. In fact, Beijing has created quite a following for itself as Chinas anti-epidemic methods are being followed across the region.

In March, a video conference was arranged for Chinese and Arab medical experts by the Arab League, and according to their assistant secretary-general, Haifa Abu-Ghazaleh, the extensive discussion helped Arab countries define their road map for fighting the coronavirus.

Consequently, China appears to have won over public opinion. For example, the Saudi television network Al Arabiya said last month, China is the only country that has performed well in dealing with this crisis.

Third, by the time the COVID-19 crisis ends, the Gulf economies will need a lot of foreign investment to recover from the financial setbacks caused by the pandemic. It is not just the declining demand for oil and gas; many other economic sectors in the Gulf are also fighting for survival and China could provide financing and expertise. Thus, this region may remain closely engaged with Beijing for the foreseeable future.

Finally, these aid links have helped China forge ties with more Middle Eastern states. China had close commercial ties with energy suppliers such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, the UAE, Oman and Qatar, but it had less access to the rest of the region. As these states sent medical supplies and aid to China when it was in a health crisis, Beijing reciprocated but on a much larger scale as it included more countries such as Egypt, Lebanon and Tunisia.

Offering timely assistance, China made itself indispensable even for those states with which it did not have close bilateral terms. Extending its influence in this region is in line with Chinas long-term interests, as most of it is part of its signature project, the Belt and Road Initiative.

However, Beijings focus has been on trade connectivity and economic ties; as it has never taken interest in any security role or in solving the rivalries and complexities of the Middle East, its sphere of influence has remained limited. Therefore, the overall benefits from this COVID-19 diplomacy may depend on how long the pandemic lasts.

China has scored diplomatic points because of an absence of large-scale aid efforts from traditional donors in the West, as those countries were preoccupied with their own COVID-19 crises. If these countries also pitch in to help in a big way, China likely will not remain by itself in the limelight.

Also, having been the first country to be hit by the virus, China had contained the outbreak by the time it had started spreading locally in many other places around the world. After having shut down specialized hospitals for coronavirus patients in Wuhan, Beijing started offering professional expertise and advice instead to other countries falling victim to COVID-19.

Thus Beijing is well positioned to export and donate supplies right now, but chances of a second wave of infection remain. If the virus reemerges in China, Beijing may not be able to spare the time and resources to help close allies, and its soft power could suffer as a result.
WATERLOO  Every other year Jennifer Baltzer and her husband Andrew Spring move with their daughters to Yellowknife, NWT.

Andrew, an adjunct professor in geography and environmental studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, studies food security systems in northern Indigenous communities. Baltzer is an associate professor in Biology at WLU, and studies the impact of global warming on the boreal forest. For their daughters, its a holiday in the wilderness.

Baltzer is known for her research on the effects of wildfires and melting permafrost, processes affected by global warming. Her next research campaign focuses on the response of the boreal forest itself to a warming climate, particularly the trees ability to capture nutrients in thawing permafrost.

Baltzer is named Wilfrid Laurier Universitys Research Professor for 2020-21. The award recognizes her achievement in scholarly excellence, and allows her some time and grant funding to focus on her research. Baltzer is also the Canada Research Chair in Forests and Global Change.

For Baltzer, the fascinating part of her research is that this vast forest is revealing itself to be a lot more complicated than previously thought. This is important because the boreal forest is the largest terrestrial biome on the planet, and stores about a third of the planets terrestrial carbon stocks. Changes in the way it functions affects the global climate system.

Scientists have traditionally treated the boreal as one large forest that behaves uniformly, but Baltzers research shows that seemingly small differences like species composition of the moss layer or the forest canopy can have large impacts on the way the ecosystem responds to something like a forest fire, either in terms of how intensely it burns, the trajectory of recovery after, or the ability to deal with warming soils.

A lot of the early predictions were that we would see really positive growth responses in boreal forests to a warming climate, says Baltzer, because these are cold-limited forests, you know theyve got cold soils, frozen soils, short growing seasons. And all of these things pointed to the potential for boreal forests to respond very positively, but in fact we see really variable responses. Some parts of the boreal show really negative responses to warming, and others really positive responses.

She wont be able to take her family up to Yellowknife for a summer of field research this year, because of WLUs restrictions on work-related travel due to COVID-19, so she and her team will be focusing on the data sets they already have.

Baltzer did not set out to become a forest ecologist. My plan, as many young biologists plan, was to become a doctor, she says.

But in her first undergraduate year at Acadia University she was hired at a plant ecology lab where an early mentor, Dr. Edward Reekie, trained her in conducting research and her excitement for plant ecology grew.

She takes satisfaction knowing her work is used to directly shape policy and climate adaptation strategies in the north. Shes worked closely with the Government of the Northwest Territories to create research frameworks for understanding the boreals response to fire. She has also worked with the territory to understand how harvesting sections of the boreal for wood pellet production will affect thaw rates of the permafrost.

Its very rewarding as a scientist to be able to work closely with a partner and know that your research is having a direct impact on the ground, she says.

The fact that globally we havent seen more rapid warming, a lot of it has to do with the ability of [the earths] natural systems to absorb carbon dioxide. These forests store massive amounts of freshwater, theyre really critical for regulating the carbon cycle of the planet and energy balance of the planet, all of these different components that are really important for the climate system that then have impacts on us further.

These ecosystems that I study, theyve done so much for us for such a long time, and were starting to really see the impacts of climate warming. We dont want to push them too much further, so we need to work together to find creative and positive solutions that will help change the course of this.

LG Leah Gerber s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. The funding allows her to report on stories about the Grand River Watershed. Email lgerber@therecord.com

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President Donald Trump on Tuesday denied US government involvement in what Venezuela's president says was an attempted overthrow in which two Americans were arrested. "It has nothing to do with our government," Trump told reporters at the White House. President Nicolas Maduro said that two US citizens were among those arrested after his forces foiled an "invasion" from the sea. Maduro, in an appearance late Monday on Venezuelan state television, showed passports identifying the two as Luke Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, who he claimed were members of Trump's security team. Maduro accused Trump and Colombian President Ivan Duque of being behind the plot. Venezuela's attorney general earlier claimed that opposition leader Juan Guaido had contracted "mercenaries for hire" using Venezuelan state oil company funds frozen in the United States. Guaido, who the United States recognizes as Venezuela's legitimate acting president, denied the accusations in a statement. The news that two Americans were arrested came a day after the government claimed it had foiled an attempted landing on Venezuela's northern coast by armed "mercenaries" seeking to overthrow the leftist government. A top official, Diosdado Cabello, said eight people were killed and two arrested in that operation in a beach area near Caracas. Maduro said another 13 people were arrested on Monday. At least some of those were detained in another area along the northern coast, according to Cabello. It was unclear when or where Denman and Berry may have been arrested. Maduro said they worked for a Florida-based private security company, Silvercorp USA, founded by a former Green Beret, Jordan Goudreau. The government has sought to link Goudreau to Guaido. Venezuelan attorney general Tarek William Saab showed a video in which Goudreau claims that an operation against Maduro is underway. Saab also showed reporters an image that purported to be a contract signed by Guaido and Goudreau. In his statement, Guaido denied a relationship with any private security company. Others arrested, according to the government, included the son of an imprisoned general, Raul Baduel, a onetime ally of the late Hugo Chavez, Maduro's predecessor. An army captain who took part in an abortive uprising that Guaido led against Maduro in April 2017 also was arrested, according to the government. burs-sms-jm/ec Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro meeting with members of the military in Caracas on May 4, 2020 after an alleged "invasion" by mercenaries
The pensioner who went missing and whose body was later found buried behind a shrine at Maame Dede, a village near Adeiso in the Eastern Region, has been identified as Mr Edward Quartey Papafio, a 64-year-old biochemist consultant resident at Kasoa in the Central Region.



The other dead body retrieved from the shrine of two fetish priests last Friday was that of one Kwesi Zomelo, also a resident of Kasoa.



The two fetish priests  Christian Gameli Lawoe, alias Power, aged 36, and Famous Adukonu, alias Scorpion, aged 37  hail from Afife in the Volta Region but are resident of Maame Dede.



The police are yet to conduct a DNA on the human parts including bones from a third grave within the perimeter and a decomposed human flesh with bones wrapped in a cloth and buried among the bodies.



Also retrieved from the shrine were a human skull, together with other human parts, hidden under two idols at the shrine, as well as hair attachments and beads suspected to belong to a woman.



Maiden press briefing



At a press briefing organised by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to throw more light on the development, the Director General of the CID, COP Mr Edward Ken Yeboah, said a further search conducted by the police team also revealed two pump action guns, a single-barrelled gun, together with 11 packets full of cartridges.



He said on January 17, 2020, the late Quartey-Papafios wife, Rev. Mrs Comfort Ruth Quartey-Papafio, reported to the police that her husband had left his house at Kasoa about 7:33 a.m. on January 15, 2020, after receiving a call from someone, and had since not returned.



Investigations



On receipt of the complaint, the police launched investigations into the issue and later picked intelligence that on that fateful day, the consultant had been spotted at Adeiso, near Nsawam in the Eastern Region.



The police, thereafter, intensified their investigations and made a breakthrough on April 21, 2020, which led to the arrest of the two fetish priests, Power and Scorpion, who both had their shrines on the outskirts of the village, and were conveyed to the CID Headquarters in Accra to assist in investigations.





According to Mr Yeboah, when a search was conducted at the two shrines, the police retrieved two pump action guns, a single-barrelled gun, together with 11 packets of full cartridges, from suspect Powers rooms.



Admission of guilt



On April 29, 2020, after intensive interrogation, the two fetish priests admitted having interacted with the missing consultant for some time, after which he was shot and killed at the shrine on January 15, 2020 and his body buried at a particular spot behind the shrine.



They led the police to the spot, and after securing the area for an exhumation order from the court, the police team went back to the shrine with excavators on April 30, 2020, along with the police pathologist, officials from the Crime Scene Management Unit, the Forensic Science Laboratory, the Drone Unit and the CID Operations Unit.



Shrine scene



Mr Yeboah said on arrival at the shrine on April 30, the two fetish priests led the police to the spot behind a house which had been walled, with a small entry but no exit, where they identified the consultants grave and the pathologist retrieved the decomposed body from the grave.



He said suspecting that the two suspects might have buried more people, the police dug around the grave and found a second decomposed body from another grave, which Power said was that of Kwasi Zomelo, a Togolese mason resident at Kasoa.



The team later exhumed a number of human parts, hair attachments and beads from the perimeter of the two graves.



Conspiracy to murder



Mr Yeboah said investigations had so far established that in December 2019, the two suspects conspired to murder Quartey-Papafio, and they, therefore, lured him to their shrine and succeeded in collecting GH10,000 from him under the pretext of fortifying him spiritually to enable his company to flourish.



On January 15, 2020, the suspects called the deceased on phone and invited him to the shrine for the final purification rites, in the process of which he was suddenly shot and killed by the two.



After committing the heinous crime, Power took possession of the deceaseds Itel and Nokia mobile phones, which he kept with Charity Dakuzi, his third wife, who is resident at Mensah Bar, Oyibi, near Dodowa.



Power later led the police to Dakuzis house to retrieve the phones, together with a bunch of keys belonging to Quartey-Papafio.





Source: Daily Graphic









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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On Monday, May 4, the court ruled in absentia to remand the disgraced ex-president in custody.

The Pechersk District Court ruling to remand in custody former president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, handed down in absentia in a case of "state power seizure" could start the procedure for the suspect's extradition from Russia where he had fled in 2014 amid the Revolution of Dignity, the Office of the Prosecutor General believes.

Prosecutors recall that proceedings in question are into the circumstances of Yanukovych seizing state power in September-October 2010 by taking action to amend the Constitution, aimed at illegally extending the range of his authority.

Read alsoUkraine court rules in absentia to remand Viktor Yanukovych in custody

"The court ruling entitles prosecutors to apply extradition," the statement says.

Also, prosecutors will ask the court permission to conduct a pre-trial investigation in absentia," the Office of the Prosecutor General added.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the Pechersk District Court in Kyiv granted the prosecutor's motion to remand Viktor Yanukovych in custody as part of an investigation into criminal proceedings regarding usurpation of power.
Second Minister for Finance and Education Indranee Rajah. (SCREENCAP: Parliament)

SINGAPORE  It is not appropriate to answer a parliamentary question on how allegedly false statements made over the salary of Temasek Holdings chief executive harms the public interest as the matter is before the court, said Second Minister for Finance Indranee Rajah in Parliament on Tuesday (5 May).

Rajah was responding to Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Leon Pereras question on how the subject statement regarding the pay of Temasek CEO Ho Ching harms the public interest as defined in section 4 of the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulations Act (POFMA). Perera was referring to the four POFMA directives issued last month over the allegedly false statements.

On 19 April, POFMA was invoked against four parties: HardwareZone user darksiedluv; The Temasek Review's Facebook page; The Online Citizen's (TOC) Facebook page and website; and local lawyer and opposition politician Lim Tean.

Four correction directions were issued relating to the allegedly false statements made by the quartet over Hos remuneration. The statements had speculated that Ho, who is the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and also Temaseks executive director, earns about $100 million annually.

In responding to Pereras query, Rajah alluded to TOCs ongoing application to the High Court for a judicial review of the POFMA directives. She told the House, One of the issues that TOC has raised before the court relates to the public interest grounds under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulations Act, or POFMA, as this issue is now before the court. Given the specific circumstances of this case, it is not appropriate to answer this question.

Temasek denies Ho Ching salary claims

On the same day that the POFMA directives were announced, Temasek issued a rare statement saying, This claim is false.

Furthermore, Ho Chings annual compensation is neither the highest within Temasek, nor is she among the top five highest paid executives in Temasek, the state investment firm said.

Story continues

Additionally on Factually, the government said that it does not set the remuneration of staff in Temasek.

This is the responsibility of its board and management. The government holds the board responsible for the long-term performance of its investments, net of expenses.

POFMA, a controversial fake news law, was first invoked on 25 November, when a correction notice was issued to opposition party member Brad Bowyer, regarding his Facebook post on investments by Temasek Holdings. Since then, it has been invoked on multiple occasions.

A question of public trust?

Responding to Rajahs statement to the House, Perera asked if the governments approach on the matter might actually end up undermining public trust.

So, if we take the approach that, you know, POFMA directives are going to be issued, every time a false figure is given for compensation on the top management of sovereign wealth funds, for the CEO Temasek Holdings, and those POFMA directives are issued, but the real figure is not given - does that really meet the objective of reinforcing public trust in those institutions, or does that actually, potentially erode public trust, because it would breed more speculation to no constructive end.

Rajah, who spoke on behalf of Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, said the key issue, which has been put in play by TOCs application for judicial review, was whether there is a question of public interest.

And that is before the court, and the court is an independent tribunal that will make that decision. So at the end of the day, in so far as the specific question of public trust is involved, the court will decide on that. With respect to the other matters, those don't really pertain to this particular question, said Rajah.

The public trust will be upheld because the public will know that when the court decides in this issue, whether or not the test under POFMA was met.

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The coronavirus was a so-called "black swan" event, right? Something unforeseen, even impossible. From the time of the ancient Greeks, the black swan was used as the symbol of improbability. Because everyone knew that all swans were white. Until the Europeans happened across Australia, of course. And discovered that the impossible had always existed right here.

Certainly, Donald Trump said repeatedly in March that the virus was "an unforeseen problem" that "came out of nowhere". It was, the US President said, "something that nobody expected". It's a common enough assertion. In the past three months, at least 614 articles on COVID-19 published in English-language media worldwide have included the term "black swan", according to a search of the Factiva database.

Illustration: Dionne Gain Credit:

Scott Morrison challenged reporters at a March 12 press conference: "Which of you understood the coronavirus was going to occur when we handed down the budget last year? A quick show of hands? Of course, no one did."

Morrison is right that no one picked the exact date of the outbreak. But it's not true that it was unpredicted. And it was certainly not a black swan. A novel coronavirus pandemic was predicted, by experts. And they predicted it not long after the first of the made-in-China coronavirus epidemics of this century, the one broke out in 2002.
On Feb. 7, 1918, the artist Egon Schiele, then 27, once again looked to his mentor, Gustav Klimt, to be his muse. But this time, Schiele had to visit the morgue of Allgemeines Krankenhaus, the Vienna General Hospital, to make his drawings of the renowned painter. The day before, Klimt had died of a stroke that many historians believe was a result of the flu. Schieles visit resulted in three haunting drawings of a deceased Klimts head, showing his face deformed from the stroke.

That same year, Schiele began working on a painting, The Family, which was meant to be a portrait of himself, his wife and their future child. But before he could finish the piece, his wife, who was six months pregnant, died of the flu. Three days later, Schieles life was also taken by the flu.

Egon Schiele's

Norwegian painter Edvard Munch also found inspiration in the disease. The artist made Self-Portrait With the Spanish Flu and Self-Portrait After the Spanish Flu, detailing his own experience contracting and surviving the illness. These paintings, characterized by Munchs obsession with existential drama, speak to feelings of trauma and despair that were widespread amid a pandemic that killed at least 50 million people. Illness, insanity, and deathkept watch over my cradle, the artist once said, and accompanied me all my life.

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It could be easy to think that these works are the only famous examples of the impact of the 1918 flu on the world of western fine art. Though the ongoing fight against COVID-19 has drawn renewed attention to the pandemic of about a century ago, the influenza pandemic has long been largely overshadowed by World War Iin public memory as well as contemporary thoughteven though the flu had a higher death toll. In light of wartime efforts, news about the initial spread of the 1918 flu was played down in many places. Do not worry too much about the disease, wrote the Times of India, in a country where 6% of the population ended up dying from the illness. In addition, many artists were sent to war during this time or died prematurely of the flu themselves.

Story continues

Egon Schiele's

But the flu did not go unnoticed by artists. Rather, the outbreak magnified the absurdity of the moment, according to art historian Corinna Kirsch. For many, World War I and the flu combined with political upheavals (such as the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of newly-formed communist governments) and social issues (such as gender and income inequality) to create a perception of the universe as chaotic and hopeless. A sense of meaninglessness spread, and people started to lose faith in their governments, existing social structures and accepted moral values. Everyday life felt ridiculous. The art movements that came out of this period explored this hopelessness, tried to fight against it and showed the ways in which everyone was trying to cope.

The Dada movement in particular seized on this absurdity as inspiration. The Dadaists wanted to create a new form of art, one that could replace previous notions altogether. Collage became a popular medium at the time; many artists were dealing with the modern era and the horrors of war through strategies of cutting, reassembling and remixing, explains Kirsch. One 1922 piece by Hannah Hoch, the only woman who was part of the Berlin Dada group, parodied a traditional German guest book by collecting Dada sayings rather than the typical well-wishes from house guests. One saying included in the piece was from the poet Richard Hulsenbeck: Death is a thoroughly Dadaist affair.

Edvard Munch's

George Grosz, another Dada artist, painted The Funeral around 1918, depicting distorted human figures haphazardly overlapping one another in what appears to be a never-ending street, surrounded by nightclubs and buildings. In the middle of the crowd is a skeleton perched on top of a coffin drinking from a bottle. In a strange street by night, a hellish procession of dehumanized figures mills, their faces reflecting alcohol, syphilis, plague  I painted this protest against a humanity that had gone insane, Grosz later said of his hellscape.

Though Dadaism was mostly nihilistic in its approach, there was also a utopian impulse at work with many artists who wanted to create an entirely new world and revolution, says Kirsch.

With this impulse in mind, architect Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus School in Weimar, Germany, in 1919. The Bauhaus aimed to bridge art and design, training students to reject frivolous ornamentation in order to create art objects that were practical and useful in everyday life. Marcel Breuer, who started at the Bauhaus in 1920 and eventually taught there, designed furnishings that historians believe were influenced by the flu. In contrast to the heavy, upholstered furniture that was popular at the time, Breuers minimalist pieces were made of hygienic wood and tubular steel, able to facilitate cleaning. Lightweight and movable, works like the designers bicycle-inspired Wassily Chair and Long Chair met modern sanitary needs by being easy to disinfect and rid of dust build-up.

The rise of modern architecture and design in the 1920s was inextricably linked to the prevailing discourse on health and social hygiene, says Monica Obniski, curator of decorative arts and design at Atlantas High Museum of Art.

Wassily Chair, B3, design By Marcel Breuer at Bauhaus School | Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images

To other artists dealing with the horrors of the time, abstraction was a way to escape reality. Abstraction became a defining sense of that moment in time. There was a definite relationship [between] non-objective, non-realistic art and the horrors of what was going in the world, says Jeff Rosenheim, Curator in Charge of The Metropolitan Museum of Arts Department of Photographs. This was seen in many paintings and photographs made during the time. [View of Rooftops], a 1917 photograph of a desolate New York City scene, made by Morton Schamberg, is one example of this. The photograph, shot at an oblique angle, abstracts the cityscape in a Cubist manner and lacks any signs of human life. Schamberg died of the flu in 1918.

Further, in 1917, Fountain was unveiled under the pseudonym R. Mutt. The work consisted of a standard urinal, signed and dated, and thrust the art world into discussions of what was and wasnt to be considered art for years to come. It is widely believed that R. Mutt was Marcel Duchamp, but the subject has been up for debate. Art historian Michael Lobel argues that R. Mutt could also have been Schamberg. We arent able to know for sure because of the artists premature death from the flu. Schambergs relatively early death not only cut short his career but also means that we have little to no recorded testimony from him on these and related matters. In his case, then, the pandemic registers mostly as a telltale absence in our account of the period, Lobel has written in Art Forum.

Morton Schamberg's

Just as the 1918 flu pandemic was an inescapable part of the zeitgeist of the time, the coronavirus pandemic has already become so today. Though we might not know exactly how COVID-19 will affect art and art movements to come, the visual culture has already shifted.

Photographers discovering empty streets and how our cities look without people show a kind of sad beauty to these urban metropolises around the world, says Rosenheim. The empty cityscapes being captured and shared arent depicting the pandemic, but the effects of isolation and emptiness, psychologically. Others have argued that, as a result of the quarantine, nude selfies have become high art.

Andreas Gursky's

As was the case in 1918, the pandemic is just one part of a larger mood that predated the disease. Isolation, stillness and the impacts of consumerism were already themes being explored through art in recent decades. For example, Andreas Gurskys 1996 photograph Prada II shows a display case that is completely void of product and lit with sterile, fluorescent lights  an image that now calls to mind news photos of store shelves left empty amid the pandemic. Gregory Crewdsons early 2000s Beneath the Roses series captures with a surreal ghostliness the desolate corners of small towns, evoking the urban loneliness of Edward Hoppers paintings, which are being disseminated widely on social media today.

These works were created before the novel coronavirus swept the world, but they speak to the current moment  proving that, as was the case in the past, Rosenheim says, we dont need a pandemic to create chaotic, psychologically traumatic imagery.


Youve been homeschooling for how many weeks now? How often have you thought, I appreciate my childs teacher even more. Well, this is Teacher Appreciation Week, and across the land, praise of professional educators has risen every day since schools closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Is it time to let teachers know how you feel?

In the past, students came to the classroom toting special, handwritten notes. This year, instead of in-person thank yous, there are emails, FaceTime get-togethers and TikTok videos, says Joe Holland, CEO of Teachers Pay Teachers, an online marketplace for original educational resources.

Teachers are finding signs in their yard and chalk art on the driveway.

Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) conducted a survey of more than 1,000 educators and found that more than half said they needed engaging instructional materials during school closures. About a third said digital tools like Google Classroom would also be helpful and 8% said they could use technology and devices for their students.

In response, Teachers Pay Teachers introduced a #ThankATeacherChallenge and will give away $100,000 worth of instructional materials instructors need for distance learning.

Teachers can fill out this form to be entered to receive one of 10,000 $10 TpT gift cards, while supplies last.

Families can show appreciation by letting teachers know theyve made a difference. For cards, kids might be inspired by Esty crafters, like MAWXO, who created a Sending you a virtual social distance hug card. Crazy Little Projects has 25 teacher appreciation ideas and Shutterfly has many more.

Zazzle teacher mugZazzle

Here are creative teacher appreciation gifts weve spotted:

Gift card: Instructors dip into their wallets to buy classroom resources. You can order a Teachers Pay Teachers gift card online and print it out or send it directly to a teachers email inbox with a personalized note. Or you can shop for a variety of gift cards, from PetCo and DoorDash to Netflix and GameStop, at Giftcards.com. Dicks Sporting Goods has e-gift cards and so does Sephora and even Amazon.

Cheryls vanilla butter cookies are topped with pink and green frosting and decorated with flowers.Cheryls Cookies

Coffee and cookies: A mug is a great conversation starter. Zazzle has one that states: I never asked to be the worlds best teacher but here I am absolutely crushing it and Look Human has other funny mugs.

Peets Coffee, Blue Bottle, Driftaway and Trade Coffee, all with unique flavors, offer a coffee delivery subscription that will allow teachers to always enjoy a cup or two before their school day begins.

And how about a dozen Cheryls vanilla butter cookies, topped with pink and green frosting and decorated with flowers, then individually wrapped and delivered in a gift box.

Or Harry & David has placed chocolate-covered cherries, raspberry galettes, baklava and Moose Munch Premium Popcorn into a wooden basket with a reusable chalkboard and the message So Very Thankful.

Relaxation time: Teachers, who are always taking care of others, deserve pampering. Teachers Pay Teachers has downloadable self-care information (free to $5).

Other suggestions: Make a playlist full of relaxing music, have healthy Daily Harvest smoothies or Love With Food snacks (that donate to help child who are hungry) delivered to a teachers house, or send a Dear Ave spa package, which has a lavender-scented, hand-poured soy wax candle, hand and body soap, bath bomb and lip balm made with beeswax and mango butter.

Erin Condren plannerErin Condren

Help out: Volunteer to make copies of in-class assignments, decorate the classroom or find books to read aloud to students. Let the teacher keep track of what he or she needs with an Erin Condren coiled, customization notebook, sketchbook or planner. One cover illustrates: A teacher opens a mind and touches a heart.

After-school fun: How about some Toe tally awesome socks or Oriental Trading has a Teacher Travel Mug with a card and Discount Mugs has personalized pens and journals.

1-800-Flowers has special floral arrangements and desk-size live plants for teachers.

--Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072

jeastman@oregonian.com | @janeteastman

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories




House of Representatives

The leadership of the House of Representatives has allegedly been offered $10 million bribe to forcefully pass the compulsory vaccine bill without subjecting it to the traditions of legislative proceedings, the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) alleged on Monday.

In a statement issued and signed by the spokesperson of the opposition political parties, Barrister Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere and sent to DAILY POST in Abuja on Monday, the body urged lawmakers in the lower chamber to rise against impunity.

The body in the statement alleged that a sum of $10 million was offered by the American Computer Czar, Bill Gates for influence the speedy passage of the bill without recourse to legislative public hearing, a the development they averted as anachronistic, adding that the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila should be impeached if he forces the bill on members.

The statement read:

Opposition Coalition (CUPP) has intercepted very credible intelligence and hereby alerts Nigerians of plans by the leadership of the House of Representatives led by Femi Gbajabiamila to forcefully and without adherence to the rules of lawmaking to pass the Control of Infectious Diseases Bill 2020 otherwise known as the Compulsory Vaccination Bill which is proposing a compulsory vaccination of all Nigerians even when the vaccines have not been discovered.

This intelligence is coupled with the information of the alleged receipt, from sources outside the country but very interested in the Bill, of the sum of $10 million by the sponsors and promoters of the Bill to distribute among lawmakers to ensure a smooth passage of the Bill.

This will manifest in a wishy-washy public hearing which the promoters still insist on cancelling under the pretext of containment of the spread of the coronavirus. The intelligence is that the House will under whatever guise pass the Bill tomorrow 5th May, 2020 upon resumption.

The Nigeria opposition rejects the Bill and urges opposition lawmakers in the House of Representatives to confront the Speaker of the House with these facts tomorrow at plenary and resist every plan to illegally pass the Bill.

We have been informed that the alleged deal on the passage of the Bill was struck during a trip to Austria a few months back while the financial support for the promotion of the Bill was allegedly received last week to mobilize for a push leading to the hurried attempt to pass the Bill by any means necessary.

Nigerians are reminded that at present, there is no discovered/approved vaccine anywhere in the world and one now begins to wonder why the hurry to pass a Bill for a compulsory vaccine when there is none.

What if the world eventually does not find a vaccine or cure for coronavirus just like it has not found a cure for HIV AIDS? What is the hurry in passing a Bill based on speculation or is there anything else the leadership of the House would want to tell Nigerians? Is this bill what will stop the mass deaths and infections rising in Lagos, Kano, Abuja, Gombe, Borno, Kaduna, Ogun, Bauchi and indeed all over the country?

Is this Bill going to revive and grow the economy and reduce hunger and give us more testing kits or bed spaces? Is this Bill going to stop the stealing of palliatives meant for poor and vulnerable Nigerians? Is it true that all these noises for the Bill is all for the alleged $10 million?

The leadership of the House needs to start speaking now on why the hurry when there are a lot of urgent Bills to be passed which are not being attended to.

Where is the Bill to make the wearing of face masks compulsory now that the Federal Government has against all wisdom insisted on easing the lockdown and the people have trooped out already without obeying the health regulations that will make them safe?

Where are the economic revival Bills to protect jobs and vulnerable Nigerian workers whose livelihoods are threatened daily by this pandemic? Where are the Bills to compel the Federal Government to look inwards and encourage emergency research for the manufacture of essentials like test kits, ventilators, Personal Protective Equipment, vaccines, drugs, masks, sanitizers etc

All opposition lawmakers should prove they are not part of the evil or partakers of the financial inducement and confront Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila to come clean.

Let all parliamentary rules be dropped and opposition members should turn the House upside down using their parliamentary privileges if that is what it takes to stop this foreign-sponsored Bill.

Why make a law for a vaccine that has not been discovered? Does it mean that Femi Gbajabiamila and the promoters have an idea of the vaccine and when it will be ready? When nations like Madagascar are making local remedies which is working, APC is making a law to compulsorily inject Nigerians with vaccines our former slave masters have not yet discovered.

The plan to push the passing of the bill is evil

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC did not make any contributions to the drafting of the Bill and has even told Femi Gbajabiamila to suspend the Bill as the timing is very wrong but Mr. Gbajabiamila believes he can secure the silence and acquiescence of the NCDC with all the illegal powers been provided for the NCDC in the Bill hence he still wants to push ahead with it the passage.

Like we told the Federal Government before, do not bring Chinese doctors, shut our external borders, do not ease the lockdown, do not relax Kano lockdown and they refused to heed to wise counsel preferring to play myopic politics with the lives of Nigerians, today the community transmission is getting worse and it has almost been confirmed that the so called strange deaths in Kano of hundreds of citizens is a result of the COVID-19.

We are saying loudly again and calling on House of Representatives to suspend this Control of Infectious Diseases Bill and await for proper input and scrutiny after the pandemic and charge all efforts towards giving the needed support to reduce the spread and find a homegrown solution.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Praxsyn Corp. and its CEO for allegedly issuing false and misleading press releases claiming the company was able to acquire and supply large quantities of N95 or similar masks to protect wearers from the COVID-19 virus. The SEC previously issued an order on March 26 temporarily suspending trading in the securities of Praxsyn.

According to the SEC's complaint, Praxsyn, which is purportedly based in West Palm Beach, Florida, issued a press release on Feb. 27 stating that it was negotiating the sale of millions of N95 masks and "evaluating multiple orders and vetting various suppliers in order to guarantee a supply chain that can deliver millions of masks on a timely schedule." On March 4, Praxsyn issued another press release claiming it had a large number of N95 masks on hand and had created a "direct pipeline from manufacturers and suppliers to buyers" of the masks. Praxsyn's CEO Frank J. Brady was quoted in the release as telling any interested buyers that the company was accepting orders of a minimum of 100,000 masks. Despite these claims, according to the complaint, Praxsyn never had any masks in its possession, any orders for masks, or a single contract with any manufacturer or supplier to obtain masks. After regulatory inquiries, Praxsyn issued a third press release on March 31 admitting that it never had any masks available to sell.

The SEC's complaint, filed in federal court in the Southern District of Florida, charges Praxsyn and Brady with violating the antifraud provisions of Section 10(b) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and seeks permanent injunctive relief and civil penalties. The SEC also seeks an officer and director bar against Brady.

The SEC's investigation, which is ongoing, has been conducted by the Microcap Fraud Task Force and supervised by Elisha L. Frank and Glenn S. Gordon. Robert K. Levenson is leading the SEC's litigation under the supervision of Andrew O. Schiff. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

The SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy previously issued an investor alert cautioning investors to be aware of COVID-19 scams.
After two brazen attacks in north Kashmir, intel points to infiltration point from Leepa Valley

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, May 05: The recent two terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir have not only been brazen in nature, but has also given the security apparatus a new headache with regard to the infiltrations.

There was a second face-off that was reported in north Kashmir. The attack took place close to the house at Handwara, where a terror attack took place last week in which 5 soldiers were martyred.

300 terrorists from Pakistan waiting to infiltrate: Intel

In the second face-off, two terrorists opened fire at CRPF jawans at a security point. Two jawans died on the spot, while the third succumbed to injuries later. A civilian too died after being caught in the cross fire.

An Intelligence Bureau official tells OneIndia that they are ascertaining whether these terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba had infiltrated recently. Handwara falls along the infiltration point from the Leepa Valley. The officer says that these terrorists could have infiltrated through this route.

The assessment also says that terrorists are not focusing largely on north Kashmir. Earlier the focus was largely on south Kashmir. The intelligence has said that this is a changed strategy by Pakistan and it appears as that the terror groups have expanded its reach in this part of Kashmir.

The Intelligence also says that several foreign terrorists have infiltrated into north Kashmir and are looking to recruit as many locals as possible. They want to build on the logistics and also expand the network of overground workers

Further, Pakistan has also launched a new group in the Valley called the Resistance Front.

Terrorists killed in Handwara were active in forests for two weeks

The first time that the agencies got to know about this group was in March 2020, when the police busted a module of The Resistance Front." The module was busted on May 23, 2020, at Sopore and it was found back then, it was linked to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.

While the module was busted, its activities on the social media and Telegram channel continues unabated. A senior security official tells OneIndia that this group is the Lashkar-e-Tayiba which is operating under a new name. It is an age old trick of these groups to change names so that there is an element of surprise for the security agencies.

NEWS AT 3 PM, MAY 5th, 2020

The group, however, indulges more in propaganda activity. On the groups, the members speak about the need to increase the resistance in Jammu and Kashmir, especially after the Centre on August 5, 2019, withdrew the special status.

The group is also known as the JK Fighters is very active on social media. During the raid in Sopore, the police arrested Ahtisham Farooq Malik, Shafqat Ali Tagoo, Musaib Hassan Bhat and Nisar Ahmad Ganai. A police official who questioned the four said that they were reporting to their handler in Pakistan. He goes by the name Andrew Jones and on the group, he operates under the ID of Khan Bilal. The group is called as TRF/JK Fighters-The Resistance Front.

Officials say that the group is used to recruit local youth for terror-related activities, especially in north Kashmir. There are messages on the group, which clearly instigate the locals into taking up arms and fighting the Indian forces.

With social distancing, Grade A intel, how Army is gunning down terrorists with precision

The busting of the module in Sopore came in the nick of time. The persons who were arrested had received a consignment of arms from one Kabeer Ahmed Lone. They had collected it and handed it over to Farooq Malik in Kupwara. They were also in the process of receiving a consignment of six AK-47 rifles. During the interrogation, the arrested terrorists said that the plan was on accumulating the arms. They had also drawn up a hit list of prominent personalities, including politicians and were planning targeted hits, investigations also revealed.

Intelligence Bureau officials say that this group has cropped up for a variety of reasons.

The Hizbul Mujahideen, the local outfit in J&K is on the verge of a shut down. With most of its top leaders killed by the security forces, the group has not been able to draw inspiration among the youth.
The UK may accept the price of tariffs on goods to strike a trade deal with the EU, Michael Gove says  as he again insisted there would be no extension to the Brexit transition period beyond 31 December.

The charges would be a missed opportunity, the cabinet office minister said, but added: If that is the price that we have to pay, then there we go.

Giving up on the demand for a zero-tariff, zero-quota deal could be acceptable to secure the prize of breaking free of EU rules, he told a parliamentary inquiry.

The comments come after government sources insisted the EU would have to give way to rescue a deal, attacking Brussels for refusing to accept the UKs sovereignty.

But Mr Gove acknowledged the UK might end up like Canada with tariff on a possible number of goods  billing the move as a compromise Brussels might accept.

The UK was prepared to modify our ask, to regain autonomy over level playing field regulations on workers and the environment. It is one of the ways in which we would be prepared to show leg, he said.

During the evidence given to the Lords EU committee, Mr Gove also:

* Insisted the EU would fail if it asked the UK for a transition extension, saying: We think it would be in nobodys interest. I cant imagine anything other than no.

* Admitted there will be border checks in the Irish Sea  after Boris Johnson repeatedly denied it  but refused to reveal details.

Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Show all 37 1 /37 Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Pro-Brexit supporters celebrating in Parliament Square, after the UK left the European Union on 31 January. Ending 47 years of membership PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Big Ben, shows the hands at eleven o'clock at night AFP via Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Pro Brexit supporters attend the Brexit Day Celebration Party hosted by Leave Means Leave Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage smiles on stage AFP/Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square People celebrate in Parliament Square Reuters Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square A Brexit supporter celebrates during a rally in Parliament square AP Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Police form a line at Parliament Square to prevent a small group of anti-Brexit protestors from going through to the main Brexit rally PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Nigel Farage speaks to pro-Brexit supporters PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square JD Wetherspoon Chairman Tim Martin speaks as people wave flags Reuters Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Brexit supporters wave Union flags as they watch the big screen AFP via Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Brexit Party leader, Nigel Farage arrives Reuters Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Brexit supporters gather AP Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Ann Widdecombe speaks to pro-Brexit supporters PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Brexit supporters wave Union flags as they watch the big screen AFP via Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square People wave British Union Jack flags as they celebrate Reuters Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Pro-Brexit demonstrators celebrate on Parliament Square on Brexit day Reuters Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square A pro-Brexit supporter jumps on an EU flag PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square AP Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square A man waves Union flags from a small car as he drives past Brexit supporters gathering AFP via Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square A pro-Brexit supporter pours beer onto an EU flag PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square An EU flag lies trampled in the mud Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square AFP via Getty

* Agreed the UK would be at risk of a Donald Trump trade war if the transition was extended, saying: Precisely so, precisely right.

* Insisted there would be no medicine shortages if there is a no-deal Brexit at the end of 2020, arguing: We have done the work already.

* Hinted at flexibility that might extend the settled status scheme for EU citizens in the UK if necessary, because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Goves comments hinted at the UKs approach at a high-level meeting in June  the last before the deadline for any request to extend the transition.

A carbon copy of the EUs trade deal with Canada would involve accepting tariffs and quotas, including on agricultural goods.

However, it would still appear to leave the two sides far apart, with the EU demanding an agreement on fishing rights first, as well as the UK accepting level playing field commitments.

Earlier, Simon Coveney, the Irish deputy prime minister, struck a gloomy note, saying: Time is short and theres an awful lot to do.

Mr Johnson sparked a huge row by refusing to accept Irish Sea checks, saying in December: There will be no checks on goods from GB to Northern Ireland or Northern Ireland to GB.

But Mr Gove acknowledged the need for controls  in both directions  while declining to set out exactly how they would work, even the clock ticking down to 31 December, when they will be needed.

I dont think you have answered any of my questions! protested Lord Kerr, the peer who drafted the Article 50 process.
MOGADISHU, Somalia, 04 May, 2020  Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ), Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS), ), Somali Media Association (SOMA) and Somali Independent Media Houses Association (SIMHA), strongly condemn the killing of Kalsan TV journalist, Said Yusuf Ali who was stabbed to death in Mogadishu on Monday 04 May 2020.

According to family and colleagues, a knife-wielding man attacked and stabbed the journalist four times outside a shop in Sey Biyano neighborhood in Mogadishus Hodan district around 7.30p.m local time. He died on spot and the body was taken to the hospital.

He covered a story on the murder of a school teacher in Afgoye on Monday before he left the TV to his home at 2.p.m, said Mowlid Mohamed Urur, the director of Kalsan TV, a privately owned television where Said Yusuf Ali worked.

Late Said Yusuf Ali, who was in his 30s, has left two sons and an expectant mother.

Police have told local media that they hold the killer at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

We, the Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ), Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS), Somali Media Association (SOMA) and Somali Independent Media Houses Association (SIMHA), condemn the murder of our colleague journalist Said Yusuf Ali and send our sincere condolences to his family, colleagues and the entire Somali journalists.

This murder is the latest in a series of attacks against journalists and media professionals in Somalia. The killing comes against a backdrop of rising threats, intimidations, and harassment by the Somali government. It is extremely worrying that almost all of the attacks against Somali journalists have gone unpunished.

We call for the Somali government to take urgent action including investigating the perpetrators to ascertain the motive of our colleagues killing.

On World Press Freedom Day on Sunday, we, the Somali media fraternity called for the authorities to end the violence and threats on the journalists and through our lawyer, submitted an official protest letter that documented key violations against press freedom to the Offices of Somali President, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (Farmaajo), Prime Minister, Hassan Ali Khaire and Minister of Information, Mohamed Abdi Hayir (Maareeye).
JERSEY CITY, N.J., May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America, Inc. (MTPA) today reported that more than 5,000 people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) have received the treatment with RADICAVA (edaravone) in North America since the therapy was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on May 5, 2017.

"These are unprecedented times with the world facing the COVID-19 pandemic, and we continue to dedicate ourselves each day to doing what we can to support people with ALS and their families," said Atsushi Fujimoto, President, MTPA. "Although we want to acknowledge the significance of this third anniversary, our thoughts and efforts are focused on meeting the needs of the patient community. We salute the tireless dedication of the many heroes in the ALS community who are making a difference during the pandemic. We at MTPA are honored to be a part of the medical community making a difference in patients' lives."

An estimated 5,000-6,000 Americans are diagnosed each year with ALS, a rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects the nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.1,2,3 The majority of ALS patients die within two to five years of receiving a diagnosis, but progression of the disease can vary significantly.4

About Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America, Inc.

Based in Jersey City, N.J., Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America, Inc. (MTPA) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation's (MTPC) 100 percent owned U.S. holding company, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Holdings America, Inc. MTPA is dedicated to delivering innovative products that address the unmet medical needs of patients in North America. It was established by MTPC to commercialize approved pharmaceutical products in North America with plans to expand its product line through collaborations with partners. For more information, please visit www.mt-pharma-america.com or follow us on Twitter and Facebook .

Overview of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation (MTPC)

Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma, which was founded in 1678, has its headquarters in Doshomachi, Osaka, which is the birthplace of Japan's pharmaceutical industry. With business centered on ethical pharmaceuticals, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma is a well-established company and has the longest history of any listed company in Japan. In accordance with the corporate philosophy of "contributing to the healthier lives of people around the world through the creation of pharmaceuticals," the Company formulated the key concept of Open Up the Future under the Medium-Term Management Plan 2016-2020. Through the discovery of drugs that address unmet medical needs, centered on its priority disease areas  autoimmune diseases, diabetes and kidney diseases, central nervous system diseases, and vaccines  Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma will strive to contribute to the health of patients around the world. MTPC is the parent company of MTPA and the license holder of RADICAVA. For more information, go to http://www.mt-pharma.co.jp/ .

About RADICAVA (edaravone)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved RADICAVA (edaravone) on May 5, 2017, as a treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).5 In a pivotal trial, people given RADICAVA experienced a 33 percent slower rate of decline in the loss of physical function, compared to placebo as measured by the ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised (ALSFRS-R), a validated rating instrument for monitoring the progression of disability in people with ALS.6,7 Edaravone was discovered and developed for ALS by Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation (MTPC) and commercialized in the U.S. by Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America, Inc. MTPC group companies began researching ALS in 2001 through an iterative clinical platform over a 13-year period. In 2015, edaravone was approved for use as a treatment for ALS in Japan and South Korea. Marketing authorization was granted in Canada in October 2018 and Switzerland in January 2019.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

Before you receive RADICAVA, tell your healthcare provider about all of your medical conditions, including if you:

have asthma.

are allergic to other medicines.

are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if RADICAVA will harm your unborn baby.

are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. It is not known if RADICAVA passes into your breast milk. You and your healthcare provider should decide if you will receive RADICAVA or breastfeed.

Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements.

What are the possible side effects of RADICAVA?

RADICAVA may cause serious side effects including hypersensitivity (allergic) reactions and sulfite allergic reactions.

Hypersensitivity reactions have happened in people receiving RADICAVA and can happen after your infusion is finished.

RADICAVA contains sodium bisulfite, a sulfite that may cause a type of allergic reaction that can be serious and life-threatening. Sodium bisulfite can also cause less severe asthma episodes in certain people. Sulfite sensitivity can happen more often in people who have asthma than in people who do not have asthma.

Tell your healthcare provider right away or go to the nearest emergency room if you have any of the following symptoms: hives; swelling of the lips, tongue, or face; fainting; breathing problems; wheezing; trouble swallowing; dizziness; itching; or an asthma attack (in people with asthma).

Your healthcare provider will monitor you during treatment to watch for signs and symptoms of all the serious side effects.

The most common side effects of RADICAVA include bruising (contusion), problems walking (gait disturbance), and headache.

These are not all the possible side effects of RADICAVA. Call your healthcare provider for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America, Inc. at 1-888-292-0058 or FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch .

For more information, including full Prescribing Information and Patient Information, please visit www.RADICAVA.com .

Media inquiries:

Debbie Etchison

908-340-8578

[email protected]

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  National Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Registry ( April 25, 2017 ). Frequently Asked Questions  Questions About ALS. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/als/ALSFAQ.html. Marin B, Boumediene F, Logroscino G, et al. (2016). Variation in worldwide incidence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a meta-analysis. Int J Epidemiol, 00:1-18. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Information Page. https://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/all-disorders/amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis-als-information-page. Accessed April 2020 . Research by TOKYO SHOKO RESEARCH, LTD. RADICAVA U.S. Prescribing Information. August 2018 . Simon, N. G., Turner, M. R., Vucic, S., Al-Chalabi, A., Shefner, J., Lomen-Hoerth, C., & Kiernan, M. C. (2014). Quantifying Disease Progression in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Annals of Neurology, 76(5), 643657.http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ana.24273

SOURCE Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.mt-pharma-america.com


(Bloomberg) -- N26 GmbH, the German mobile bank, has raised more than $100 million in an extension to its last funding round in order to acquire more customers, build out its existing markets, and grow in markets like Brazil where it is applying for a local fintech license.

The funding from internal investors comes after the bank applied for state wage support in Germany for about 150 employees out of 1,500.

N26 co-founder and Chief Financial Officer Maximilian Tayenthal said the bank would consider asking for additional state-aid support depending on the conditions, but that its not relying on government funds.

The last month has already seen many people embrace banking from home, move away from cash, and toward contactless payments and e-commerce, Tayenthal said in an interview.

Read more: Germanys Passion for Cash Cools on Hygiene Fears in Virus Era

The Berlin-based startups valuation remains unchanged at $3.5 billion. N26 raised $470 million in July from investors including Singapores sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte and Insight Ventures Partners in a so-called Series D round.

In all honesty, given the current market conditions we think the valuation is fair, said Tayenthal. We will look for a markup on valuation for our Series E round.

N26 has collected close to $800 million to date, the company said in a statement, making the company one of Europes highest valued non-listed fintech firms.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

2020 Bloomberg L.P.
The Bono regional chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has made a passionate appeal to the Bank of Ghana to ensure that six month moratorium set by President Nana Akufo for persons who went for loans to pay are strictly adhered to.

He has disclosed that, some particular banks are flouting the decision by the President to suspend the aggressive collection of loans from customers at this pandemic period, a move he has called for Bank of Ghanas swift intervention.

Chairman Kwame Baffoe noted this over the weekend in Sunyani after the Bono Regional Secretariat of the NPP presented PPEs such as alcohol based sanitizers, tissues, V-Basket, Liquid soap, chairs among other essentials to all the twelve Constituencies in the region.

The Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) were presented by the New Patriotic Party National Secretarait to the various regions for onwards distribution to the constituencies as part of the Party's measures to halt the pandemic.

Chairman Abronye observed that, at these trying moments one will expect that, all institutions in Ghana will be up to task to tackle the virus head on but it's unfortunate some of the banks who are supposed to cushion their customers are rather making the situation worse for them by aggressively running after them for non-payment of loans.

According to him, the President granting the banks of a six (6) month moratorium of principal repayments to entities in the airline and hospitality industries, i.e. hotels, restaurants, car rentals, food vendors, taxis, and uber operators. was specifically to ensure that Ghanaians can cope with the pandemic and therefore Bank of Ghana should not sit unconcern for banks to openly disregard the presidential directive.

Chairman Abronye again explained that government has reduced all loans by two percent therefore Bank of Ghana must intensify public education and ensure strict compliance mechanism as it has been done by their counterparts in the energy sector over the recent electricity subsidies.

Receiving the items on behalf of the Constituencies, the Constituency Chairman for Dormaa East, Lawyer Solomon Oppong commended the party for the gesture and added that, fighting coronavirus is not a political banter but rather a collective fight for all Ghanaians.

He called on the public to ensure vigorous hand washing protocols and should not discriminate in terms of which veronica buckets they wash their hands under base on its political branding because the virus has no political colour.
(Nassau, Bahamas)  The Prime Minister of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas, Dr. Hubert Minnis, announced on Monday May 4th, that he had accepted the resignation of the countrys Minister of Health, Dr. Duane Sands. The abrupt resignation came from fallout due to an incident last week involving residents who flew by private aircraft to New Providence and brought COVID-19 test kits with them. They were subsequently granted permission to enter the country by the Health Minister.

According to a statement made by the Prime Minister on Sunday, May 3rd, duing a national address, The protocol for allowing Bahamians and legal residents to enter the country at this time was breached.

With regards to the resignation Prime Minister Minnis, said, I have accepted the resignation of Minister of Health Dr. Duane Sands effective tomorrow, May 5th, 2020. I thank him for his service to The Bahamas, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. I will make a further statement on this matter tomorrow, including on who will serve as Minister of Health.

Update: The Cabinet Office announced on Tuesday, May 5th that the Most Hon. Dr. Hubert Minnis, Prime Minister, will temporarily assume responsibility for the portfolio of Health, effective immediately.

Dr. Sands resignation letter , dated May 4th, 2020, read as follows:

Dear Prime Minister.

I refer to the unfortunate controversy surrounding the delivery of COVID-19 test swabs and the landing of permanent residents under what you have termed a breach of protocol regulating the entry to The Bahamas by Bahamian citizens and permanent residents under Emergency (COVID-19) Regulations.

I accept responsibility for this breach of protocol. I acknowledge that I acted outside of the scope of my authority in this matter.

My actions were guided by my great desire to obtain the much-needed testing swabs which are in short supply both here and internationally and which are key to our efforts to trace the spread of the coronavirus so as to better focus our responses. I acted at all times in good faith .

Nevertheless, I acknowledge that my actions have caused embarrassment for which I express sincere regret.

We continue in the midst of a most serious pandemic when focused attention should be trained only on how best the spread of COVID-19 might be slowed and eventually stopped.

I believe that my continued presence in the cabinet may serve as a distraction from our effort and hence I offer my resignation from your cabinet.

I thank you for the opportunity to serve our great country.

Sincerely.

Duane E. L. Sands MD

-END-

About the incident leading to the Health Ministers resignation, the Prime Minister of The Bahamas, had this to say on Sunday May 3rd, during his National Address:

Fellow Bahamians and Residents:

There was an incident last week involving some residents who flew by private aircraft to New Providence and brought COVID-19 test kits with them.

The protocol for allowing Bahamians and legal residents to enter the country at this time was breached last week.

I have now been informed that instead of the stated two permanent residents who were allowed to disembark and remain in the country that it was actually six permanent residents, who are all related.

All of these individuals have tested negative for COVID-19 and will remain under a mandatory 14-day quarantine. The Minister of Health will issue a statement on this matter tomorrow. Let me be clear about the protocol for Bahamians and residents wishing to return to The Bahamas.

Citizens and legal residents of The Bahamas, the latter with a home in The Bahamas, will be permitted entry into The Bahamas via air travel to New Providence or Grand Bahama unless approved otherwise.

Those individuals in these categories are to make contact with the nearest Bahamas Embassy or Consulate to them.

Aircraft and airlines proposing to carry such individuals are required to make flight applications in the normal course to the Department of Civil Aviation.

Each person will be required to obtain a RT-PCR COVID 19 molecular diagnostic test from an accredited lab prior to returning, unless otherwise approved to have the test administered upon arrival.

As some individuals returning from Florida have indicated they are having a difficulty in obtaining this test, we are helping to facilitate them in obtaining the diagnostic test.

The test results, identifying particulars and contact information of each returning individual will be submitted to the Office of the Chief Medical Officer, Ministry of Health.

All those returning will be required to be quarantined for fourteen days, in a government quarantined facility or self quarantined.

They will all be subject to mandatory quarantine verification monitoring by the Ministry of Health.
Courts in Georgia that were mainly shut down due to the ravages of the coronavirus will be closed longer.

Chief Justice Harold Melton announced on Monday that the emergency will be extended from May 13 to June 12.

That suspends all criminal and civil jury trials. No jurors will be summoned.

Justice Melton said the courts are different from private businesses, We compel people to attend court proceedings, and that requires us to be extra cautious.
Australias largest mosque will broadcast the Muslim call to prayer over its loudspeakers to unite the community amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Lakemba Mosque in south-west Sydney will play the call to prayer, or Adhan, every night until Ramadan finishes on May 22.

The executive director of the Lebanese Muslim Association, Ahmad Malas, told SBS: 'With the coronavirus restrictions and the closing of mosques and places of worship, people were denied the special atmosphere of Ramadan.'

Australia's largest mosque, The Lakemba Mosque in south-west Sydney (pictured), will broadcast the Muslim call to prayer on loudspeakers every night until the end of Ramadan

Ramadan is considered the holiest month of the Islamic calendar where worshippers fast during the day, take part in community events and pray with family and friends.

The call to prayer lasts for five minutes and is usually made at dusk to signal that worshippers may break their fast.

Adhan is traditionally called with a microphone by the sheikh of the mosque from one of the building's towers.

The call is a common sound across many muslim-majority countries but is rarely heard in Australia.

Mr Malas explained the mosque was working towards implementing the call well before Ramadan started and said the community reaction had been very positive.

'Many residents in Lakemba are Muslims and they were surprised to hear the Adhan when they were breaking their fast. People came out of their houses to see what was happening,' he said.

Mr Malas said the first call to prayer was made last Wednesday evening and had been met with overwhelming support.

The Lakemba Mosque (pictured) hoped the Adhan would unite the community after most traditional Ramadan activities were cancelled amid the COVID-19 pandemic

'Some people drove from different suburbs, parked their cars around the mosque to see it happening, they filmed it and the videos were circulated widely, even in the Arab countries,' he said.

A number of Ramadan events in Lakemba have been cancelled due to the coronavirus.

In previous years the Lakemba Mosque hosted around 10,000 people every night for prayers as well as a Ramadan market.

Mr Malas said the mosque normally holds night prayers and celebrations during Ramadan but that the Adhan call at dusk was completely new.

The Lebanese Muslim Association has moved its Ramadan program online amid the coronavirus pandemic and is available on the website and Facebook in both Arabic and English.
Haldimand-Norfolk has not seen a new case of COVID-19 in two straight days.

Dr. Shanker Nesathurai would like to keep that streak intact.

But the chief medical officer of health said the risk of transmission goes up with every tourist who visits the area, as they did in the hundreds on Sunday as the temperature hit 20 C.

I am very concerned about individuals congregating when they travel to Haldimand or Norfolk for a day trip, Nesathurai said.

Under normal circumstances, we would welcome tourists and other visitors. Under these circumstances, especially with the limited health-care resources we have and the number of cases that are presented, we really want to discourage people from coming for non-essential reasons.

Norfolk Mayor Kristal Chopp said the sight of so many day-trippers gathering in Port Dover was a slap in the face to the residents who are working hard to limit the spread of COVID-19.

What we are trying to do is make some sacrifices so that we can at least go back to some kind of a new normal quicker, Chopp said on Facebook.

Nesathurai said on Monday that he had met with Insp. Joe Varga of the Norfolk OPP to discuss how to handle another influx of visitors. While there were police officers monitoring the crowds in Port Dover, Const. Ed Sanchuk said no charges were laid.

Health unit spokesperson Matt Terry said the COVID-19 hotline fielded about 25 calls over the weekend about mass gatherings in Port Dover and elsewhere in Norfolk. He couldnt confirm whether bylaw officers had issued any tickets.

Our main goal is to get compliance through voluntary co-operation and education rather than going out and issuing a whole bunch of tickets, Terry said.

There have been 196 lab-confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in Haldimand Norfolk. Of these, 30 have died and 50 have recovered. In addition, 1,653 tests have come back negative.

Nesathurai pointed out that more people in Haldimand-Norfolk have been killed by COVID-19 in the past six weeks than were killed in car crashes all last year.

He directly appealed to non-residents to stay out of Haldimand-Norfolk until the pandemic danger has passed in order to break the chain of transmission and give the local health-care system a fighting chance.

Stay at home unless you have an essential reason to leave, he said.
Lome, Togo (PANA) - Two new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) were Tuesday detected in Togo, taking the number of people affected by the pandemic to 128, official sources told PANA here
Senior Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway conducts an interview with Fox in the James S. Brady press briefing room at the White House in Washington on Aug. 21, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Kellyanne Conway Warns Lawmakers Against Treating Fauci Like Kavanaugh

Kellyanne Conway urged lawmakers not to pursue a path of partisan inquiry in their interview with top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, like she suggested they did with Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whose confirmation hearings were held against the backdrop of sexual assault allegations.

Speaking to Fox & Friends, Conway warned Democrats against adopting interview methods reminiscent of those faced by Kavanaugh, as Fauci prepares to testify on Capitol Hill.

Fauci, who is a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, will be allowed to testify before the Senate in coming days, according to multiple reports.

President Donald Trump earlier blocked Faucis testimony in the House of Representatives and expressed reluctance to have officials testify before the Democrat-controlled House.

The House is a setup, Trump told reporters outside the White House on Tuesday. The House is a bunch of Trump haters.

Trump also accused congressional Democrats of exploiting the COVID-19 crisis for political gain, claiming they want our situation to be unsuccessful, which means death, and want us to fail so they can win an election which theyre not going to win.

Conway called on lawmakers who would be interviewing Fauci not to conduct what she characterized as their usual fishing expedition.

I just hope that the people who are asking the questions are asking intelligent, rational questions that are actually relevant to the American health, because weve seen what they do before, Conway told Fox & Friends, apparently referring to the style of the inquiry into sexual assault allegations by Kavanaugh during his controversial Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

Conway also said she hoped lawmakers would break with what she characterized as a pattern of partisan inquiries launched by Democrats that included last years impeachment inquiry and earlier probes into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

We had two years of collusion nonsense, then we tried to impeach a president, remove him from office, she said. None of that worked. It better be about health.

Conways remarks come after the White House announced on May 1 that Fauci would not be taking the stand to face questions from members of House Appropriations Committee this week.

While the Trump administration continues its whole-of-government response to COVID-19, including safely opening up America again and expediting vaccine development, it is counter-productive to have the very individuals involved in those efforts appearing at congressional hearings, White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.

We are committed to working with Congress to offer testimony at the appropriate time, he added.

In her remarks, Conway left open the possibility that Fauci might appear before the House committee later in May, adding that the decision would rest with the president.
Loan applications had to go through state-certified economic development groups. Montgomery County doesnt have one at all. Read more

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HARRISBURG  In late March, Pennsylvania moved swiftly to help small businesses battered by the coronavirus outbreak, with a $61 million loan program.

Six frantic days after the program was launched, the money ran out.

Businesses couldnt apply to the state directly. Instead, they had to rely on a patchwork of local economic development nonprofits. With the loans awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, these groups were racing against time  and each other.

All these organizations that are used to working together basically ended up competing against each other, trying to put as many applications in as possible, said Lyle Hosler, vice president at the Economic Development Company of Lancaster County.

But a Spotlight PA review of the early results from the program, as well as interviews with more than a dozen of the nonprofits responsible for submitting applications, suggests that not everyone had a fair shot at this financial lifeline.

Not all counties are equally served by these state-certified economic development groups. Some have just one, while others have several. Some are covered by larger, regional agencies. Montgomery County doesnt have one at all.

As a result, only three of the nearly 900 applications the state received came from that county, the third largest and one of the hardest hit.

DONATE NOW  Spotlight PA provides essential public-service journalism thanks to readers like you. Help us raise $10,000 by Thursday and your gift will be DOUBLED. spotlightpa.org/donate.

The disparities highlight the difficulty in finding a way to quickly distribute scarce but urgently needed aid to small businesses in a way that is equitable. Like the federal aid programs, the state loan program did not distinguish between businesses in different parts of the state, or give priority to those hurt the most by the crisis.

The loan program doesnt compare in scale to federal relief efforts, which have awarded billions of dollars to Pennsylvania businesses. But it represents the states most significant attempt, so far, to help small businesses survive.

Further complicating the picture, some businesses that have received loans through the program are in areas now slated to begin reopening, potentially depriving businesses of relief in other parts of the state that might remain shut down for much longer.

A spokesperson for the state Department of Community and Economic Development, Casey Smith, declined to provide a breakdown of how many loan applications it received for each county. Instead, Spotlight PA surveyed 13 local economic development organizations for their totals, which the department later confirmed.

To get the loans to small businesses as quickly as possible, we decided to utilize an existing program and use the infrastructure in place in our regions, Smith said.

So far, more than 450 businesses have received loans. But more than a month after the program closed, hundreds of applicants are still waiting to find out whether they have been approved. At least 60% of the money has been paid out, according to figures released by the state Monday.

Jordan Murray, who co-owns several Camp Bow Wow dog day-care locations in the Pittsburgh area, said the loans are the difference between being here next year and not. Despite being allowed to maintain some operations as an essential business, bookings have plummeted by roughly 90%, he said.

We applied for everything we could because it was an opportunity to try and survive the crisis, Murray said.

The loan program opened March 25, five days after Gov. Tom Wolf ordered a statewide shutdown of all but life-sustaining businesses. It offered low- and no-interest loans of as much as $100,000 for businesses with fewer than 100 employees.

In the interest of speed, the Wolf administration repurposed an existing state loan program, streamlining the application process and cutting down on the amount of paperwork businesses would have to provide.

Another advantage for the state: The program was administered by an existing network of more than 50 local economic development groups, significantly expanding the number of people available to process applications.

These groups found themselves thrust onto the front lines of the economic devastation wrought by the pandemic. They were flooded with applications almost immediately. With only $61 million in funding available for the entire state, the money didnt last long.

We literally would be on calls at midnight on Saturday analyzing business tax returns to make sure we got them in, said Joseph Boylan, executive director of Wilkes-Barre Connect.

In Bucks County, the local economic development agency was still in the process of updating its website when the program was launched unexpectedly, according to executive director Robert Cormack.

One business owner tried to mail an application, not realizing the groups office was closed. And, for several days, the email address for the agency listed on the states website was off by one letter, causing messages to bounce, Cormack said.

Local organizations were still racing to submit applications when the portal abruptly closed on the evening of March 31. Many said they received no warning from the state. Dozens of applications missed the cut-off by minutes.

By then, almost 900 applications had been submitted, seeking a total of $75 million  far more than the available funding.

A complete picture of the businesses that received loans isnt available, because the Department of Community and Economic Development hasnt finished reviewing all the applications. Nonetheless, its clear that some counties submitted many more than others.

Local organizations in Philadelphia and Luzerne Counties say they submitted roughly the same number of applications, 75  even though Philadelphias population is almost five times bigger. Cumberland County submitted roughly the same number of applications as nearby Lancaster County, which has twice the population.

At least 50 applications were submitted on behalf of businesses in Westmoreland County. For Lehigh County, which is roughly the same size, there were 11.

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Nowhere is this more starkly demonstrated than in Montgomery County, which will likely be one of the last areas to reopen. The county was at a particular disadvantage because businesses could apply for the loans only through a local economic development organization, certified by the state. But Montgomery County doesnt have one.

The countys former group dissolved last April, and the local redevelopment authority began taking the first steps toward becoming state certified over the summer, county officials said. That process was still underway when the state announced the loan program.

Theres no question that state officials knew about the problem: The department handling the redevelopment authoritys certification is also overseeing the loan program. But this appears to have done little to help.

There was no time to offer feedback or express concerns in a serious way, said David Zellers, director of the countys commerce department.

The Department of Community and Economic Development contacted county officials to offer assistance the day after the program opened, a spokesperson said, adding that Montgomery County officials told the state they would work with other local organizations to get their applications in.

They tried, turning to organizations in neighboring counties to ask whether they would submit applications on behalf of their local businesses. But the state-certified group in Berks County was overwhelmed and said it wouldnt be able to help.

So, Montgomery County relied on the Bucks County Economic Development Corporation, sending it 59 applications. Only one was submitted before the funding ran out, said Cormack, of the Bucks organization. The group also submitted more than 20 applications for Bucks County businesses, he said.

Ultimately, only three Montgomery County businesses were able to submit loan applications. (The two other applications were from businesses that went directly to economic development organizations in other counties, local officials said.)

The county redevelopment authority didnt finish its application to become state certified until the end of April, executive director John Nugent said  almost a month after the loan program closed. Thirteen state House Democrats who represent the area have written to the county commissioners, asking for a formal review.

Given the size of Montgomery County and the economic impact of COVID-19 on local businesses, simply put, this is unacceptable, they wrote. It is critical that we learn what went wrong in order to ensure that our businesses are never again put at a similar disadvantage.

A similar group of lawmakers has also asked Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Dennis Davin to fund a second round of loans and allocate the money based on the actual impact of the pandemic, population, and tax revenues generated for the state.

House Democrats, including Rep. Matthew Bradford (D., Montgomery), the minority chair of the Appropriations Committee, pushed last month to replenish the program with $100 million from the states rainy day fund through several amendments.

The amendments failed because they were incorrectly filed and did not follow the chambers procedure for transfers from the rainy day fund, said Mike Straub, a spokesperson for the Republican majority.

Every local economic development organization contacted by Spotlight PA said that, even with the federal assistance programs, there is a desperate need for more funding to help small businesses survive.

At the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, in Pittsburgh, business finance manager Steve Meredith began getting questions about the program even before it had been formally announced. He was still fielding inquiries about it a week after the funding ran out.

At the end of April, the state announced more businesses that had received loans through the program. But the title of the news release  Wolf Administration Announces Second Round of State Funding for Pennsylvania Businesses  fueled false hope that the funding had been replenished.

Meredith said he received more than 50 emails over the next few days, from business owners who had missed out on the first round and thought the program had reopened, asking whether their applications could be submitted again.

So far, though, there is no sign that more help is coming any time soon.

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May 05 : The much loved annual celebration of fashion, MET Gala which was scheduled to take place on first monday in May i.e. 4th May has been postponed due to widespread of the Corona Virus. But that did not stop the gorgeous Priyanka Chopra Jonas from celebrating it with her niece. The actress shared her cute MET Gala look 2020 creatively designed by her niece Sky Krishna.

The 'Barfi' actress took to instagram and shared her photos where her makeup is being done by her niece. She wrote, "First Monday in May. This year's theme : Pretty Pretty Princess Glam and creative direction by : @sky.krishna. @divya_jyoti "

The pictures clearly show that PeeCee is spending quality time with her family in US. She is keeping herself busy by taking piano lessons and hip hop dance classes during this period. The actress also shared her workout video where she was lifting her niece Krishna while lying on the sofa. Krishna is her stylist Divya Jyoti's daughter with whom Priyanka shares a good bond.

Theme for this year MET Gala is 'About Time : Fashion and Duration' which is partly inspired by Virgina Woolf and the theories of the French philosopher Henri Bergson. Priyanka's looks for the MET Gala have always been appreciated over the years.

The actress who was here in India with her husband Nick Jonas for Holi Celebrations went back to US before the lockdown. The couple was recently a part of 'I for India' Fund Raiser concert which was live streamed at facebook on 3rd May 2020.
Victoria and David Beckham are reportedly attempting to win over the public again after facing backlash for furloughing 30 of their staff, something they have since reversed.

The stars, aged 46 and 45, are said to have been advised as part of a PR campaign to remind their fans of 'all the great work they do'.

The reports come as David shared a sweet video of himself playing teqball with his son Romeo, 17, on Monday.

'PR campaign': Victoria and David Beckham are reportedly attempting to win over the public again after facing backlash for furloughing 30 of their staff, something they have since reversed (pictured earlier this year)

A source told The Sun: 'David and Victoria's team have gone into overdrive to try to win over the public again.

'They are using their social media channels to reaffirm all the charities they help and remind their people how much good work they do.'

They added that the couple have been posting about their Age UK care packages and reposting messages from charities they have helped in the past.

Father and son: The reports come as David shared a sweet video of himself playing teqball with his son Romeo, 17, on Monday

Advised? The stars, aged 46 and 45, are said to have been advised as part of a PR campaign to remind their fans of 'all the great work they do' (pictured in March)

The source continued that 'the public aren't daft' and that their attempts so far have been 'a bit obvious'.

They concluded: 'But Posh took such a hammering, they're willing to try anything.'

MailOnline has contacted the Beckham's representative for comment.

On Monday, David shared a sweet video of himself playing teqball with his son Romeo, 17.

Sweet: On Monday, David shared a sweet video of himself playing teqball with his son Romeo, 17

Lockdown fun: The father-of-four captioned the clip posted to his Instagram with: 'Romeo V dad who's gonna win ?? Unlucky son maybe next time @romeobeckham @teqball  @intermiamicf sign us up.'

The father-of-four captioned the clip posted to his Instagram with: 'Romeo V dad who's gonna win ?? Unlucky son maybe next time @romeobeckham @teqball  @intermiamicf sign us up.'

Only recently Victoria abandoned plans to seek a government bailout to furlough 30 members of staff at her fashion brand following a major backlash.

The former Spice Girl, whose family is worth 335million, had planned to use the Government's COVID-19 scheme to pay 80 per cent of the wages of some of her staff.

The fashion brand, which employs 120 people, sent letters to 30 members of staff warning them that they were going to be furloughed under the Government's scheme for two months.

Reversed decision: Only recently Victoria abandoned plans to seek a government bailout to furlough 30 members of staff at her fashion brand following a major backlash (pictured in February)

She told The Guardian: 'We will not now be drawing on the government furlough scheme. At the beginning of the lockdown the shareholders agreed with senior management to furlough a small proportion of staff.

'At that point we didn't know how long the lockdown might last or its likely impact on the business.

'The welfare of my team and our business means everything to me.'

It is understood the firm's application would have cost taxpayers 150,000.

The firm denied the U-turn was a result of the public backlash and instead insisted the board 'now believe that with the support of our shareholders, we can navigate through this crisis without drawing from the furlough scheme'.

Plans: The former Spice Girl, whose family is worth 335million, had planned to use the Government's COVID-19 scheme to pay 80 per cent of the wages of some of her staff (pictured on her birthday last month)

In a statement, the company said: 'Victoria Beckham Ltd has been working hard to protect its people and, while adjusting to the impact of COVID-19 and the government lockdown, our decision to furlough a small number of our staff seemed the most appropriate option in keeping with many other businesses.

'The situation is dynamic, and, with the support of our shareholders, we now believe we can navigate through this crisis without drawing from the government furlough scheme.

'Our application was made in the best interests of trying to protect our staff, and that is still our absolute focus. We are doing everything we can to ensure we can achieve that without using government assistance.'

Over the weekend Victoria and David risked fresh money fury as a report which alleges they took out a 10 million bank loan to buy their 18 million Miami penthouse emerged.

MailOnline has contacted Victoria and David's representatives for comment over the claims.
Deception is the art of misleading people by false statements or false appearances. A lot of people in the world live and thrive on deception. In fact, most things are not what you think they are and most people tell lies as second nature. Christians struggle for years to overcome the habits of lying and deception. Lying and deception are negative traits that destroy prosperity and well-being.

For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:8

The scripture above shows us that if you have certain things in you, you will not be unproductive. What are the things that make you productive? The things that make you productive are positive traits like diligence, faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. The Bible is saying that when these traits are in you, you will bear much fruit. The scripture above is stipulating that these good attributes  diligence, faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and love  are not merely positive traits; they also lead to productivity. These are traits that a leader desires.

On the other hand, negative traits which contradict positive traits have the effect of making you unproductive and barren. These are at variance with the aims of any leader. Good leaders work hard in order to be productive. However, negative traits are commonly found in the lives of unsuccessful people. Lying and deception are negative characteristics that do not become a leader. Lying and deception have unfortunate circumstances. Let us now look at the illustration of the negative traits of lying and deception and see the fruits they yield.

The Story of the Astrologer

Louis XI, the great Spider King of France, had a weakness for astrology. He kept a court astrologer whom he admired, until one day the man predicted that a lady of the court would die within eight days. When the prophecy came true, Louis the king was terrified. He started to wonder what had actually transpired. He felt that either the man had murdered the woman to prove his accuracy, or that he was so versed in his science that his powers threatened Louis himself. In either case, the king felt that this man had to be killed.

One evening King Louis summoned the astrologer to his room, high up in the castle. The king had done his preparatory work. Before the man arrived, the king had told his servants that when he gave the signal they were to pick the astrologer up, carry him to the window and hurl him to the ground, hundreds of feet below.

The astrologer soon arrived, but before giving the signal, King Louis decided to ask him one last question, You claim to understand astrology and to know the fate of others, so tell me what your fate will be and how long you have to live.

I shall die just three days before Your Majesty, the astrologer replied without a blink. Your guess is as good as mine; the king's signal was never given. Fear descended on the king. He had just learned that the death of the astrologer was linked to his. The king immediately changed his plan. The man's life had to be spared. The Spider King not only protected his astrologer for as long as he was alive, he lavished him with gifts and had him tended by the finest doctors. In the end, the astrologer outlived the king by many years.

As you can see from this story, the king and his subjects were lying to one another and deceiving one another. None could trust the other. The astrologer and the king actually hated each other. The king had planned to deceive the astrologer and had put a plan in place. The astrologer was aware of the king's evil plot and so leaned towards deceiving the king even more. Here were two people whose worlds thrived on deception. It was a dangerous game of how much each could deceive the other. How much success can you have with a team when the members try to outwit one another through lying and deception? Does such a team have a future? Can you relax with such people? Would you even want to work with such a team? When you become a Christian you must move away from a life of lying and deception. In the end, lying and deception have a negative effect and you (the liar) are punished for your lying and deception. May you be a leader who is not known for lying and deception!

Culled from He that hath, to him shall be given;

And he that hath not, from him shall

Be taken even that which he hath

www.daghewardmillsbooks.org

[email protected]
With mortgage brokers having trouble pricing loans and making a profit due to consumers deferring mortgage payments, NAMB has taken this hardship and developed a simple way to get in touch with their local congressman and take action.

National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB) announced today the development of a campaign that supports the financial burden mortgage brokers are experiencing due to the CARES Act - a law meant to address the economic fallout of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

With mortgage brokers having trouble pricing loans and making a profit due to consumers deferring mortgage payments, NAMB has taken this hardship and developed a simple way to get in touch with their local congressman and take action. This action will request the requirement of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to purchase these loans without overlays.

Since the inception of the campaign that was developed on Wednesday, April 29, 2020, NAMB has seen a significant increase in growth from its supporters, rising 60% in just six days.

I would like to thank all those that lobbied Congress asking them to fix the non-bank servicer problem they created in the CARES Act, said Roy Deloach, Washington D.C. based attorney and lobbyist. Did you know that almost 20,000 NAMB members and loan originators exercised their First Amendment right to petition the government for redress of grievances? We have a lot of grievances and this situation harms the mortgage broker channel and we need it fixed.

To take action and help your profession and businesses, you can access the petition form here and get into contact with your local congressman and make a change.

About the National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB)

NAMB is a trade association of mortgage professionals with membership in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Since 1973, NAMB has been the voice of independent mortgage professionals nationwide. NAMB offers professional education and certification programs for its members, and advocates for common sense legislation and regulation aimed at helping consumers and improving business conditions for small businesses, independent mortgage companies and licensed mortgage loan originators. For more information, visit NAMB.org.
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A recent article written primarily by a medical doctor in Alabama claimed that, The way in which the media has pushed fear nonstop amounts to psychological warfare against this country. He added, If it hasnt occurred to you that we have heard one story and essentially one story alone for literally two months, well, that should have aroused suspicion. Is this doctor correct? Or is the media doing its best to be responsible in the midst of an unprecedented crisis?

Im quite confident that nothing I write here will influence what the media is doing for two reasons. First, who am I that massive media organizations should listen to me? Second, fear sells and money talks.

That being said, the question remains: Is the media responsible in its reporting, helping its audience to act wisely during a pandemic? Or is the media using fear tactics to get more viewers, listeners, and readers? And if the latter is true, does this amount to sustained psychological warfare?

Obviously, the media is such a generalized term that almost anything good or bad can be said about it. But if we focus on the major, secular voices on TV, we can fine-tune both our questions and our answers.

One of the secrets of psychological warfare (called psywar by the military) is to try to convince enemy troops that surrender is sweet, that it is better to capitulate than to continue to fight, that defeat is inevitable.

In keeping with this, an Air Force colonel shared with me that during World War I, psywar pamphlets were airdropped among the German troops.

Shortly after the end of the war, Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg, the Chief of Staff of the Kaisers Army, complained: In the shower of pamphlets which was scattered by enemy airmen our adversaries said and wrote that they did not think so badly of us; that we must only be reasonable and perhaps here and there renounce something we had conquered. Then everything would soon be right again and we could live together in peace, perpetual international peace. As regards peace within our own borders, new men and new Governments would see to that. What a blessing peace would be after all the fighting. There was, therefore, no point in continuing the struggle. (From the USAF Special Operations School: Psychological Operations.)

And what were the results of this strategy? Military historian Stanley Sandler writes: As German Army discipline wavered or broke, these leaflets became responsible for defections on a large scale. Not surprisingly, Adolph Hitler termed Allied military psywar psychologically efficient.

Today, we are not having pamphlets dropped on us from the sky in order to break our spirits. But we are hearing a constant flood of bad news. Of distressing and depressing news. Of fearful statistics. And we are reminded daily of the danger of violating the status quo.

Does this mean that all these media outlets are ill-intentioned and motivated only by financial gain? Certainly not.

Does this mean that the talking heads all share a nefarious agenda and are under some hidden, central control? Not at all.

Does it mean that none of them are trying to do some good? Absolutely not.

But it does mean that, for whatever reason, we are basically being told that COVID-19 is the only story out there, that America is a real mess, and that things could get even worse in the days ahead.

Really now, is all of that meant to be helpful? Encouraging? Useful?

Or, to approach this from a different angle, ask yourself this: If the goal of the media was to help Americans function in a healthy and hopeful way during this difficult time, would their reporting be the same?

Doing a daily talk radio show, and with lots of interaction with the public on social media, I have been sounding a fear not message for the last two months. Yes, the virus is very serious, but its not the end of the world, and theres no need for panic.

At the same time, I have had to counteract the attitude of fear and panic that arises by being subjected to day and night negative reporting. (Mix in partisan politics, and you have a real toxic mix.) And in order to starve our fears and feed our faith and our practical wisdom, we cannot sit glued in front of the TV or computer screen.

But this is part of the vicious cycle of 24-hour news networks. The same stories get repeated endlessly, seriously undermining our ability to think for ourselves. Are we not getting brainwashed by it all?

But theres another angle to consider, and thats the angle of control.

Dennis Prager recently wrote that the ease with which police state tactics have been employed and the equal ease with which most Americans have accepted them have been breathtaking.

Could this have happened without the medias incessant, fear-producing drumbeat?

Prager pointed to four principles signs of a police state, one of which was, A Mass Media Supportive of the States Messaging and Deprivation of Rights.

He explained, The New York Times, CNN and every other mainstream mass medium  except Fox News, The Wall Street Journal (editorial and opinion pages only) and talk radio  have served the cause of state control over individual Americans lives just as Pravda served the Soviet government. In fact, there is almost no more dissent in The New York Times than there was in Pravda. And the Big Tech platforms are removing posts about the virus and potential treatments they deem misinformation.

Recently, YouTube removed a viral video by two medical doctors in California who disputed the states safety recommendations.

According to YouTube, We quickly remove flagged content that violate our Community Guidelines, including content that explicitly disputes the efficacy of local healthy authority recommended guidance on social distancing that may lead others to act against that guidance.

In other words, disputed opinions offered by medical doctors (in this case, emergency room doctors) will be banned.

Does this concern you? What might be banned next? Can you not assess the information for yourself and make an informed choice?

A colleague with a massive Facebook page (I cant share more details at this moment) had a viral post removed because a so-called fact checker deemed it false. Yet the content was entirely spiritual in nature.

So, not only do we have the 24-hour droning drumbeat of fear-based, often sensationalistic reporting, but we have a dangerous form of censorship as well.

Does that constitute a form of psychological warfare? You can decide for yourself.
Authorities have arrested and charged a man with the murder of 21-year-old Akim Ward, who was shot dead in Jersey City on April 4.

Devon Tutten, 23, of Jersey City, was arrested Monday afternoon at the Hudson County Prosecutors Office in Jersey City and charged with murder and weapons offenses, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said.

Police responded to Ocean Avenue between Bidwell and Bayview avenues just after 3:15 p.m. on April and found Ward had been shot in his upper body, Suarez said.

Ward was taken to Jersey City Medical Center where he was pronounced dead shortly after 3:30 p.m. The cause of death was determined to be gunshot wounds and the manner of death was classified as homicide.

Ward was one of five people shot dead in Jersey City between March 31 and April 21. Authorities had made arrests in the other four murders prior to Tuttens apprehension.
The election is a microcosm of the countrys politics amid the health crisis: It is an early test of Mr. Trumps sway in a race both he and his former rival, Hillary Clinton, have weighed in on. It is a battle over vote-by-mail in which doubts have been sown over the elections integrity. And it is showing just how nasty politics can be, even under lockdown.

In the 2018 midterm elections, this Southern California district, the 25th Congressional, was one of the highest-profile victories for Democrats. But after just a year in office, Representative Katie Hill resigned after admitting to an affair with a campaign staff member. Now, Ms. Smith and Mr. Garcia are locked in a bitter battle that will serve as an important early test for both parties ahead of the fall.

One key question is how much of a role Mr. Trump will play. Democrats believe that focusing on his leadership, particularly over the pandemic, will help them in a suburban district north of Los Angeles that Ms. Hill won by nine percentage points. But Republicans appear emboldened, counting on reliable conservatives to cast their ballots.

Each of the roughly 425,000 voters in the district was sent a ballot for the election  with return postage already paid. But theres another unknowable: How much will it take to get voters to move those ballots from their kitchen counter to their mailbox at a time when many are consumed by worries about their health and finances?

If the choice is between Ive got to spend a little time thinking about who my congressional candidate is today or Ive got to figure out a way to get back online and apply one more time for my unemployment insurance that I havent gotten yet, the answer is obvious, Ms. Smith said. People are going to take care of their families.
The five last years have been the hottest on record, as was the decade from 2010-2019

Last month tied 2016 for the hottest April on record worldwide, with particularly high temperatures over western Europe and north-central Asia, the European Union's climate monitoring network said Tuesday.

Temperatures were also well above average over parts of Greenland and Antarctica, accelerating the disintegration of kilometres-thick ice sheets that have become the main drivers of sea level rise, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) reported.

April 2020 was a statistically insignificant 0.01 degrees Celsius cooler than the same month in 2016, the warmest April registered since the late 19th century, when reliable records began.

"The average temperature for the 12 months to April 2020 is close to 1.3C above the pre-industrial level," the benchmark by which global warming is often measured, Copernicus said.

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, nearly 200 countries have pledged to cap the rise in Earth average surface temperature to "well below" 2C, and to 1.5C if possible.

The country that probably saw the warmest April compared to the past was Switzerland, where the thermometer last month rose a blistering 5C above the 1871-1900 average.

Siberia, central and northwest Africa, western Australia and Mexico all saw a warmer-than-usual April, as did the Arctic Ocean and the coast of Alaska.

By contrast, southern and southeast Asia were cooler than usual, while temperatures were especially chilly in central Canada.

The five last years have been the hottest on record, as was the decade from 2010-2019.

2019the second warmest year everwas only 0.04C below 2016, when temperatures were boosted by a powerful El Nino, a periodic natural weather phenomenon over the Pacific Ocean.

Overall, global temperatures have risen more than one degree Celsius since mid-19th century levels, driven mostly by the burning fossil fuels. They have increased by about 0.2C per decade since the 1970s.

Atmospheric concentrations of CO2which causes global warmingare now at their highest level in at least 800,000 years.

The United Nations said last year that manmade greenhouse gas emissions needed to tumble 7.6 percent annually over the next decade to cap global warming at 1.5C.

Current pledges to cut emissions put Earth on a path of several degrees warming by the end of the century.

Explore further January 2020 warmest on record: EU climate service

 2020 AFP
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Most auto companies, for the first time, reported zero sales in April, due to the nationwide lockdown.

With factories and dealerships shut during the month, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) Mahindra & Mahindra (automotive segment), Bajaj Auto, TVS Motor, Hero MotoCorp and Maruti Suzuki reported almost no business.

However, as the government allowed agricultural activities (except in the containment zones), M&M and Escorts sold a few tractors. M&M, TVS Motor, Bajaj Auto and Eicher Motors managed to export some vehicles.

As it announced the third phase of lockdown that began on May 4, the Centre has allowed companies to start operations and dealers to reopen business, with the permission of state governments, in the areas that are coronavirus-free.

In an interaction with brokerage houses, OEMs indicated they were evaluating the possibility of restarting operations and waiting for permissions from state governments. Most of them have inventories of three to eight weeks.

Even after recommencing operations in some plants with a minimum manpower due to social distancing, getting spare parts would be difficult as most auto ancillary plants are in red zones or the coronavirus hot spots.

For instance, Bajaj Auto's two plants, including in one in Pantnagar, are operational. "30 percent of Bajaj Auto's dealers are located in the green zone and 50 percent are in green/orange zone. Hardly 2-3 percent of its dealerships have reopened for business, and hence, there is near-zero demand for vehicles or spares. Hence, the Pantnagar plant being operational does not help," Motilal Oswal said after talking to Bajaj Auto.

M&M told the brokerage that tractor plants have not restarted yet, as the company had enough inventories (for around eight weeks) in the system, even at the plant level. "Auto plants have started at Nashik, Haridwar and Igatpuri (engines). Chakan plant is yet to start," it said.

Hence, given the uncertainty due to COVID-19 crisis, brokerages expect the recovery to take longer time and all companies to see negative growth in FY21 against FY20 but there could be recovery in FY20 on low base of FY21.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has not only put the brakes on the initial signs of recovery seen in 2Ws/PVs but has also brought in uncertainty considering the several unknowns associated with its impact. This potentially deepens the impact of BS6 related price increase on FY21 demand," Motilal Oswal said.

Given the lockdown of nearly two months, the economy will likely take time to reach normalcy, say brokerages.

Leading agencies such as CRISIL and the World Bank have slashed India's FY21 economic growth forecast to 1.5-2.8 percent from 4.8-5.2 percent.

"Slower economic growth is likely to impact discretionary purchases such as automobiles and we expect the demand to remain under pressure in the near term. We expect recovery from FY2022 as long-term growth triggers, such as lower vehicle penetration and favourable demographics, are intact," Sharekhan said.

Moreover, pent-up demand (automotive volumes have been under pressure for the past six quarters) and pick-up in economic growth (post normalisation) would lead to a recovery from FY2022, it feels.

The Nifty Auto Index has corrected by about 21 percent in the past two months (compared to a correction of 18 percent in the Nifty) after the COVID-19 outbreak and the lockdown.

Most automotive stocks have also corrected sharply and are trading at 15-45 percent below their historical long-term average multiples.

Given the weak demand going ahead and attractive valuations, brokerages prefer to pick quality names less impacted by COVID-19 and have strong balance-sheet position.

"The demand is expected to remain under pressure in the near term on account of a slowdown in economic growth. Further, dealer support from auto companies may also impact their margins in the near term. Hence, we stay neutral on the automobile sector and prefer a selective approach," Sharekhan said.

The brokerage likes companies that are relatively less impacted by COVID-19 such as Balkrishna Industries and M&M (67 percent and 35 percent revenue from agriculture, respectively).

It also prefers companies that have a strong balance sheet and cash position and are leaders in their segments such as Hero MotoCorp, Exide Industries and Mayur Uniquoters.

Motilal Oswal also said valuations appeared attractive across companies but given the uncertain macro environment and threat of a possible prolonged impact of the coronavirus, it preferred stocks offering higher visibility of demand recovery, better competitive positioning, scope of higher operating leverage and strong balance sheet.

Eicher Motors and Maruti Suzuki are its top largecap picks, among mid-caps, it preferred Endurance Technologies.

Disclaimer: The above report is compiled from information available on public platforms. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
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The 67 Bishops of the Brazilian Amazon appeal for special attention for the vulnerable people of the Amazon and the rainforest.

By Fr. Benedict Mayaki, SJ

Bishops of the Brazilian Amazon have expressed their concerns about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the peoples of the Amazon and the rainforest. In a statement issued on 4 May they call for urgent measures from the Federal Government, the National Congress, the State Governments and the Legislative Assemblies.

The peoples of the Amazon demand special attention from the authorities so that their lives are not further violated. The statistics reported by the media do not correspond to reality. Testing is insufficient to know the real expansion of the virus. Many people with evident symptoms of the disease die at home without medical assistance or access to a hospital, reads the statement.

The statement, signed by all 67 Bishops of the Amazon, was issued by the Episcopal Commission for the Amazon of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops (CNBB).

Poor healthcare

Alarmed at the poor access to healthcare of the population of the Amazon, the Bishops note that extensive areas of the Amazon have no ICU beds at all and only a few municipalities meet the minimum requirements recommended by the World Health Organization. They further observe that the forest peoples and those living in the peripheries lack basic sanitation, housing, food and employment opportunities.

The prelates remind the authorities that it is the State's obligation to guarantee them the rights stated in the Federal Constitution by offering minimum conditions which will help them get through this difficult time.

Deforestation

The Bishops also turned their attention to the effects of the virus on the rainforest. According to data released by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), deforestation in the Amazon grew by 279.9% in March 2020.

This is due to the increase in legal and illegal mining and reclaiming of the forest soybean plantations and cattle ranching. Contributing to this growth is the notorious loosening of land inspections and the continuous political discourse against environmental protection and indigenous areas protected by the Federal Constitution, notes the statement.

Violence

Another cause for concern for the Bishops is the increase in violence in the countryside and the militarization of the Commission for the Amazon.

The Bishops remark that this is caused by the extinction, scrapping, financial restructuring and political instrumentalization of agencies such as the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA), the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), the Brazilian Institute of the Environment (IBAMA) and agricultural, environmental and labour inspection and control agencies.

Call for urgent measures

The Bishops statement lists thirteen points which they stress upon as requiring crucial attention.

The CNBB calls on authorities to save human lives by strengthening public polices and rebuilding communities. They also appeal for a rejection of discourses that discredits the effectiveness of scientific strategies and the provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for health workers in the frontlines.

As regards the indigenous population, the CNBB requests for restrictive measures on the entry of people into their territories and the testing of the population for Covid-19. They also appeal for food security for them and the participation of civil society, social movements and representatives of traditional populations in the spaces of political decision making.

Additionally, the prelates propose the strengthening of inspection measures against deforestation and artisanal mining in indigenous lands. Also, they demand the repeal of a decree concerning the Commission for the Amazon, and of a normative instruction that allows the invasion, exploitation and commercialization of indigenous lands.

Coronavirus

The Amazon area in Brazil has been hard hit by the pandemic. It has over 6,000 infected people and a high coronavirus mortality rate. As of Tuesday morning, Brazil has 108,620 reported cases, 7,367 dead and 45,815 recovered patients.
Hong Kong on Tuesday announced plans to ease major social distancing measures, including reopening schools, cinemas, bars and beauty parlours after the Chinese territory largely halted local transmission of the deadly coronavirus. The relaxation, which comes into effect Friday, will be a boost for a city mired in a deep recession following months of virus restrictions as well as anti-government protests that have battered the economy. Authorities also unveiled plans to hand out reusable face masks to all 7.5 million city residents. Hong Kong recorded some of the earliest confirmed COVID-19 cases outside of mainland China but despite its close proximity and links with the mainland it has managed to keep infections to around 1,000 with four deaths. There have been no new confirmed infections in 10 of the last 16 days and the cases that have been recorded came from people arriving from overseas who are quickly quarantined. "I hope these measures will be a silver lining for citizens," the city's leader Carrie Lam told reporters Tuesday as she spelt out the easing of curbs. Older secondary students will start returning to classes from May 27 while younger children will resume school in the first half of June. But a ban on more than four people gathering in public or eating together in restaurants will be stepped up to eight. Many businesses that were ordered to close will be allowed to open once more, albeit with restrictions in place. Bars and restaurants will be permitted to operate but must ensure a distance of 1.5 metres between tables. Live music performances and dancing will remain banned. Cinemas can start showing films to reduced crowds while gyms, beauty, massage and mahjong parlours will re-open with hygiene protocols in place such as the use of masks, hand sanitiser and temperature checks. Nightclubs and karaoke bars must stay closed. Hong Kong's economy dropped an 8.9 percent on-year contraction in the first quarter of this year -- the worst decline since the government began compiling data in 1974. Retail sales figures released Tuesday showed a 37 percent plunge over the same period, another record dip. Even before the pandemic, tourism and retail had taken a hammering from the US-China trade war and months of political unrest last year. At Tuesday's briefing Lam and other officials also sported a new type of mask made of fabric that they said would be distributed to all residents in the coming weeks. When the virus first emerged, Hong Kongers started panic-buying masks as anger grew against the government for failing to stockpile enough supplies. Since then local production has been ramped up and masks are plentiful in pharmacies and shops. People gather to watch the sunset from a viewing platform in Tamar Park overlooking Victoria Harbour and the Kowloon skyline in Hong Kong, which is preparing to ease social distancing measures A couple prepare to pose for their wedding photos in Tamar Park, Hong Kong, which has managed to keep coronavirus infections to around 1,000 with four deaths, despite the territory's proximity to mainland China Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam sported a fabric mask that she said would be distributed to all city residents
Credit: Edith Cowan University

Life-saving CPR courses would be mandatory in Australian high schools if Generation Z were setting the curriculum, according to a new study from Edith Cowan University (ECU).

The study found 97 percent of 18 to 21-year-olds support the idea of making cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training mandatory in Australian high schools.

That's important because previous research has shown only 56 percent of Australians have CPR training and only one in five had taken a course in the preceding 12 months.

Yet CPR performed by a bystander is vital to successfully treat the almost 25,000 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest that occur in Australia each year.

ECU surveyed 178 young Australians about their attitudes towards CPR and also found that:

60 percent of respondents had already undertaken CPR training while in high school.

75 percent who did not undertake CPR training during school would have been excited to learn if given the opportunity.

More training will save lives

Lead researcher from ECU's School of Medical and Health Sciences Researcher and Masters Student Timothy Rankin said the survey results showed there was an appetite among young people to increase the number of Australians with CPR training.

"When you're having a cardiac arrest, every second counts. Your chances of survival without treatment decrease by about 10 percent every minute," he said.

"We know that someone with CPR training is more likely to start treatment, so by increasing the number of people trained we're going to save lives."

CPR is the most effective treatment for cardiac arrest occurring outside a hospital, however only 12 percent of people who suffer a heart attack outside hospital survive.

Mr Rankin said factors including fear of infection and legal liability often prevents bystanders from starting CPR quickly when someone is having a cardiac arrest.

"That's why we need more Australians to be trained in administering CPR, so there's a better chance of people administering CPR quickly, which will undoubtedly lead to more people surviving those cardiac arrests."

A global move toward mandatory training

Over the last decade CPR training has been made mandatory in high schools in Norway and an increasing number of states in the US.

The study's co-author Dr. Brennen Mills said there were some significant benefits to implementing mandatory training among high school students in Australia.

"Young people in high school are also a perfect captive cohort for mandatory CPR training," he said.

"Currently cost is one of the significant barriers to Australian high school students accessing CPR training, and that means there is less access for students from lower socio-economic areas."

"Making CPR training a mandatory part of high school curricula would go a long way to eliminating that disparity among communities.

"The more people out in the community we have trained in this essential skill, the more chance there is they will effectively intervene and potentially save the life of someone suffering from cardiac arrest."

The research was published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.

Explore further Bystanders can help more cardiac arrest victims survive

More information: Tim Rankin et al. Recent high school graduates support mandatory cardiopulmonary resuscitation education in Australian high schools, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health (2020). Journal information: Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health Tim Rankin et al. Recent high school graduates support mandatory cardiopulmonary resuscitation education in Australian high schools,(2020). DOI: 10.1111/1753-6405.12990
Harpreet Bajwa By

Express News Service

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Government is now in a fix as 10,861 Punjabis living in 86 countries and states across the country want to return back to their native state due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Most of the requests have been received by the state government till date are from Australia, UAE, USA, United Kingdom, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra.

A few days back the state government had launched a portal for those who want to return back to the state so that they can get themselves registered.

As of now 10,861 such requests have come of these 2122 are from abroad and 8739 are from different states in the country.

FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES HERE

As of yesterday, when the list came to the senior officers, they were stunned to see the requests of those who want to return back. Most of them are from those places which are the worst affected due to COVID-19 and thus as of now the state government has gone mum.

Of the 2122 requests from foreign countries received by the state government, 480 are from UAE, 408 from Australia, 116 from USA, 105 from Malaysia, 89 from Ukraine, 88 from United Kingdom, 68 from Singapore, 62 from Qatar, 53 from Kuwait, 48 from New Zealand, besides Canada and other countries.

While of the 8739 requests received from different states maximum are from Uttar Pradesh 1838, followed by Bihar 911, Maharashtra 899, Delhi 786, Haryana 710, Rajasthan 534, Gujrat 431, Himachal Pradesh 430, Karnataka 348, Chandigarh 253 and 204 from Madhya Pradesh.

It is learned that these people are either living in these places or had gone there for some work and now got stuck due to the lockdown.

Sources said that the state government is in a catch-22 situation to get the Punjabis back who are living in other states and countries. Earlier, it got back the 4,000-odd pilgrims who were stranded in Nanded in Maharashtra and due to that, the graph of the pandemic has risen in the State as many of them have tested positive.

Thus after taking credit, now blame game has started between all the political parties be it Congress, Shiromani, Akali dal and AAP.

"The state government has registered their request but till now no final decision has been taken," said a senior official.

The state government has already stated that a 21-day quarantine was mandatory for all those returning to the state from other places. This was decided after pilgrims who had recently returned from Hazur Sahib in Nanded started testing positive for Covid-19.
Officials say consumers will be able to order up to four free tests

Back in December, senior Biden administration officials stated their desire to create a website so that Americans could order free COVID-19 tests. It looks like that goal has now been realized.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced Tuesday that the website is now open to the public in its "beta phase" ahead of a full rollout on Wednesday.

The early launch is meant to ensure that the site is fully operational so that consumers can use it without any issues. CNN q...
St Vincent de Paul (SVP) in Portlaoise has extended thanks to everyone who supported them with generous donations during 2019 allowing them to help those in need.

Billy Fitzpatrick is Chairperson of the Portlaoise Conference and area Chairperson for the South Midlands.

Our organisation has been working for the past 117 years for the wellbeing of people within our community. We are able to help more and more people every year due to the contributions of local people and local businesses.

Peoples financial donations are put to very good use in the local community and because of these we are able to provide food, heat and electricity to people who live on small fixed incomes, he said.

Over the Christmas period, SVP supported more than 250 families locally. The organisation also assists families with education costs where possible and provides sandwiches daily to some local community schools.

Mr Fitzpatrick continued by saying that the Portlaoise Conferences total annual income from kind donations totalled 80,922.00.

This income was a combination of the SVP shop at Ozanam House on the Dublin Road, Church gate collection, Christmas donations, individual and company donations, bag packs and flag days. The total expenditure was 98,832.00 and a total of 28,131.00 was spent on helping people with education, in particular secondary school and third level.

The St Vincent de Paul Portlaoise Conference wishes to say a very sincere thank you to everyone who helped in any way and thank everyone for their continued support, dedication and generosity which allows them to continue with their work.

The Portlaoise Saint Vincent de Paul conference aims to assist more individuals and families in the coming year with the above-mentioned necessities.

For those who feel they may need assistance in complete confidence the SVP helpline number is 087 765 5793.
The BJP on Tuesday attacked the Congress after Rahul Gandhi congratulated three photojournalists from Jammu and Kashmir for winning the Pulitzer Prize and asked if the opposition party considers the Valley as an integral part of India or not.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra attacked the Congress over its leader's congratulatory tweet to the photojournalists, alleging that Gandhi had wished those who considered Kashmir a "contested territory".

"Will Sonia Gandhi answer?Whether she and the Congress party concur with Rahul Gandhi on the issue of Kashmir not being an integral part of India!Rahul today congratulated those who got an award for considering Kashmir as a 'Contested Territory'!" Patra said, posting the message with the hashtag "anti-national Rahul Gandhi".

The Congress leader in his tweet had said, "Congratulations to Indian photojournalists Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand for winning a Pulitzer Prize for their powerful images of life in Jammu & Kashmir. You make us all proud."



The BJP leader also posted some photographs, which he said were taken by one of the winning photographers, to ask Gandhi if agreed with their content.

Three photojournalists from Jammu and Kashmir have been awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for their "striking images of life" in the Valley.

Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin of the Associated Press won in the feature photography category.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A mother has revealed her anguish as her 18-year-old daughter declines before her very eyes and struggles to receive the treatment she needs amid the coronavirus crisis.

Caroline Toombes said her daughter Evie, from Skegness, Lincolnshire, whose rare form of spina bifida means her digestive tract does not work, is unable go into hospital for the treatment she needs due to the pandemic and is 'starving'.

The mother went on to explain that her daughter, who condition leave her unable to receive enough nutrition, cannot have an intravenous feed at home because care companies are not taking any new referrals.

Ms Toombes' pleas come after it was revealed a number of patients have had their treatments put on hold while the NHS diverts resources to fight the virus.

In a heartfelt message on Facebook the teenager's mother said: 'I am the mother to an 18-year-old girl and I've spent all day in hospital today having another infusion at a local hospital which I'm really pleased about.

Caroline Toombes said her daughter Evie Toombes (pictured on May 1), 18, is declining before for her very eyes as she struggles to receive the treatment she needs amid the coronavirus pandemic

Ms Toombes (pictured) said her daughter cannot have an intravenous feed at home and has seen her BMI plummet to 12.7

'I've also listened to a speech from Matt Hancock saying that the NHS are providing the very best care to everybody that needs it. Well I'm sorry but my daughter is starving. She has a BMI of 12.7.

'She cannot go in for intravenous feeding because there is Covid on the ward.

'But she can't have intravenous feeding at home because no UK care companies have been signed off to do it. So I've got to sit here and watch her decline.'

Evie's condition means she can only tolerate small amounts of soft oral food and is unable to get enough nutrition to sustain her without causing severe vomiting, fluid loss, bowel impaction or risking internal bleeds.

The showjumper, whose health has been deteriorating for the past three years, was set to undergo stoma surgery on March 31 in an effort to ease her symptoms but this has since been postponed due to the outbreak.

Ms Toombes told the Horse and Hound: 'Her surgery has been postponed due to Covid-19 but unfortunately her weight is now so low we are unsure if she can survive at home much longer.'

As the coronavirus pandemic continues, Evie's mother has seen her daughter's weight continue to plummet to a BMI of 12.7 - anything below 18.5 is considered underweight.

Ms Toombes added: 'I want to save my daughter. I don't want to beg for care and justify the care she needs while she's declining in front of my eyes. I just pray we have long enough to save her.'

Evie's mother criticised Health Secretary Matt Hancock for claiming the NHS can offer care to everyone and said chronically ill patients like her daughter were 'starving at home'.

She continued: 'Why is Health Secretary Matt Hancock stating that the NHS ''has got the capacity to offer the very best of care to everyone'', yet chronically ill patients are starving to death at home after suddenly being discharged in March with no access to intravenous nutrition?'

Evie's (pictured on March 17) rare form of spina bifida means she can only tolerate small amounts of soft oral food and must have intravenous feeds

Ms Toombes questioned why the Health Secretary Matt Hancock stated that the NHS had 'the capacity to offer the very best of care to everyone' when her daughter's health was declining

She added: 'Evie can only tolerate small amounts of soft oral food and a very limited amount of feed via a nasal tube into her jejunum - this is past the stomach and deep in the intestine.

'Evie was due to have ileostomy stoma surgery on March 31 to help ease these symptoms and improve her condition as she has been deteriorating over the past three years and losing weight.

'Her surgery has been postponed due to Covid-19 but unfortunately her weight is now so low we are unsure if she can survive at home much longer.

'In October 2019, Evie was admitted to the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham to receive parenteral nutrition delivered directly into her veins, instead of the digestive tract and this was highly successful for the short period it was done and secured a weight gain of 5kgs.

'This meant Evie was stable enough to be discharged from hospital whilst plans were arranged for the ileostomy surgery that would improve her overall health.'

But the mother added that in lockdown, Evie has now reached her lowest weight and is needing emergency infusions of potassium multiples times a week at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston to keep her fluids up and keep her alive.

She said: 'The Government guidelines for NHS plans so far have been sufficient for supplying and saving resources to help Covid patients.

Evie's mother has been taking to social media to urge the government to take action as her daughter's health declines

'We anticipated that the Government would prioritise saving lives and begin reintroducing cancer treatments and procedures first, before then addressing urgent cases like Evie's in due course.

'Following the announcement to reintroduce fertility treatment first, our worry is that they are not prioritising saving existing lives. This has left us feeling invisible and perhaps last in the queue.

'Evie is at risk of becoming collateral damage to Covid-19 and our hope is to highlight that there are still existing lives that need saving, before addressing the unborn.'

What is spina bifida? Spina bifida is a fault in the development of the spine and spinal cord that leaves a gap in the spine. About 1,500 babies are born with spina bifida each year in the US, according to the CDC. In the UK, approximately 1 in 1,000 babies are born with the condition. Most cases are detected before birth, at the 20-week scan. The most serious form of the disease is called myelomeningocele. In myelomeningocele, the spinal column remains open along the bones making up the spine. The membranes and spinal cord push out to create a sac in the baby's back. This sometimes leaves the nervous system vulnerable to infections that may be fatal. In most cases surgery is carried out to close the gap in the spine after birth. But damage to the nervous system will usually already have taken place, resulting in: partial or total paralysis of the lower limbs

bowel and urinary incontinence

loss of skin sensation Most babies with myelomeningocele will also develop hydrocephalus, with excess cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pooling inside the brain. This is caused by a malformation at the base of the skull in which the lower parts of the brain are pushed down towards the spinal cord. Babies with hydrocephalus are fitted with a shunt after birth to divert the fluid from the brain, so reducing the risk of increasing cranial pressure, into the abdominal cavity. Advertisement

She added: 'The inability to discharge patients into the community on intravenous feeding puts Evie in an impossible predicament.

'We need to explore a safe way to deliver nutrition and avoid a critical situation.'

Boston and Skegness MP Matt Warman has taken up the case and contacted the QMC.

He said: 'The alternative is for a hospital admission for intravenous feeding, but because Evie is in the very highest risk group of getting coronavirus and getting this infection would be very dangerous for her, this is not the preferred option.

'Any admission for IV feeding would be indefinite, because the hospital are unable to discharge anyone into the community on this treatment because of the coronavirus (homecare companies are not accepting any new referrals anywhere in the UK).

'The least disadvantageous option at the moment is for Evie to remain self-isolated at home, and doing her best with her eating and nasal feeding, rather than run the very significant risk of coming into hospital.

'The team have advised they will be continuing to monitor Evie closely.'

Dr Keith Girling, medical director at Nottingham University Hospitals said: 'Evie needs a major operation that might help improve her nutritional status and the quality of her life, and we are sorry that we have been unable to do this operation earlier this year as planned.

'However, Evie has been seen at her local hospital each week over the last couple of months, who have not expressed concerns about a significant change in her condition.

'Before carrying out any surgery we need to be confident that we can provide safe theatre, critical care and ward care for our patients.

'This is no different for Evie, and has been challenging given the coronavirus pandemic that we have been managing.

'We are now beginning planning, within national guidance, to ensure all patients who have been waiting for their planned operation or appointment, including those who are particularly vulnerable from coronavirus infections, can confidently be treated in a safe way.'

A petition to help generate awareness of Evie's situation and the many like her has now gathered more than 4,000 signatures on Change.org.

Forgotten victims of the corona pandemic: From a 7-year-old girl battling seizures to father-of-three who needs cancer surgery, the patients in limbo after their NHS treatment was put on potentially tragic hold

By Sue Reid for the Daily Mail

They are the forgotten victims of the corona pandemic  patients caught up in a devastating NHS crisis which is costing thousands of lives.

From a seven-year-old girl battling with seizures to a father-of-three who needs cancer surgery, every one of them has had their treatment put on hold while the NHS diverts resources to fight the virus.

And many of them believe it could result in their death.

Last Saturday, the Mail revealed the true scale of this emerging national tragedy.

Two million operations have been cancelled and an estimated 2,700 cancers a week left undiagnosed.

Lyla O'Donovan, 7, has a brain tumour and is 'heartbroken' the surgery she should have had last month is on hold because of the danger of catching Covid-19

In what doctors call the 'collateral damage' of Covid-19, nearly 1,800 extra deaths were recorded by the Office of National Statistics in one week last month, the highest number for nearly 20 years.

The Government wants hospitals to treat people in crucial need of medical help. But, because of the virus, operating theatres have been mothballed and wards closed.

For those who wait, the dreadful truth is that help may come too late.

Lyla O'Donovan, 7

Lyla has a brain tumour and is 'heartbroken' the surgery she should have had last month is on hold because of the danger of catching Covid-19.

The operation is to relieve pressure on her brain and stop her having seizures.

Her father, Paul, 35, a soldier from Co. Durham, says: 'For every seizure she has, we don't know the extent of the brain damage it's doing.'

Reginald Waite, 82

The pensioner from Eaton, Cheshire, was diagnosed with cancer in March after a scan picked up a blockage in his bile duct, but has had a planned operation postponed.

Reginald, a retired electronics engineer, is worried his cancer will spread. 'When are the hospitals going to treat people such as cancer patients and not just concentrate on Covid-19?' he asks.

Reginald Waite, 82, from Eaton, Cheshire, was diagnosed with cancer in March after a scan picked up a blockage in his bile duct, but has had a planned operation postpone

Amelia Jones, 17

Amelia is missing the top of her skull because of emergency surgery after collapsing with a brain haemorrhage on January 3.

The craniotomy procedure was necessary to relieve pressure on her brain, but it has left Amelia with movement and cognitive difficulties.

Her prognosis is poor unless she has a further operation to replace part of her skull, a procedure called cranioplasty, which has been put on hold.

Her father Leighton, who is director of rugby at Marlow Rugby Club, says: 'Amelia has a long way to go, but without this operation she can't start.'

Amelia Jones, 17, is missing the top of her skull because of emergency surgery after collapsing with a brain haemorrhage on January 3

Kieran Crighton, 14

The wheelchair-bound teenager needs two operations  one on his leg to help him walk and another to drain fluid from his brain, but both are on hold.

Kieran, from North Ayrshire, has autism and was diagnosed with five brain tumours two years ago.

His mother, Senga, says: 'I am very anxious for Keiran.'

Kieran Crighton, 14, needs two operations  one on his leg to help him walk and another to drain fluid from his brain, but both are on hold

Ceri Maddock Jones, 39

Mother-of-two Ceri was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer five years ago. Before the virus struck, she'd hoped to go on a med- ical trial.

'The trials are the only option for me. Everything else has been exhausted,' says Ceri, who lives in Ewell, Surrey, with husband Garry and their sons, Austin, six, and Leo, five.

'I don't want to die, for my sons' sake. These trials were my last hope of keeping my family together a bit longer.'

Mother-of-two Ceri Maddock Jones, 39, was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer five years age

Roland Monger, 39

Roland may have only months to live after his chemotherapy for the skin cancer he has been battling for four years was put on hold.

The university admissions manager from Torpoint, Cornwall, says: 'It is my 40th in July.

I am aiming to make that. Maybe I will see the kids back to school in September.'

Roland Monger, 39, may have only months to live after his chemotherapy for the skin cancer he has been battling for four years was put on hold

Laura Beattie, 31

The fashion business owner, from Manchester needs a lung transplant after cystic fibrosis ravaged her own organs.

Laura has been on the transplant list for two years, but in March she got a letter saying her next test appointment had been 'pushed back' until August 'because of coronavirus'.

Laura Beattie, 31, pictured left with sister Rachel, needs a lung transplant after cystic fibrosis ravaged her own organs

The risk of her getting an infection at the hospital filled with Covid patients is believed to have been the reason.

'I am having monthly appointments over the phone, but the doctors can't measure my lung function properly,' she says.

Which means, crucially, they can't assess whether it is declining because of the disease.

Chris Romney, 64, from Derbyshire, has advanced prostate cancer

Chris Romney, 64

The grandfather from Derbyshire has advanced prostate cancer and has had his surgery at Royal Derby Hospital postponed after facilities were given over to coronavirus patients.

Chris, a retired RAF fighter controller and Nato executive, now fears his life is on the line.

He said: 'Cancer patients have been side-lined. Those like me who need urgent surgery face an increased risk of the cancer spreading, potentially fatally.'

Chris, who lives with his wife, Laura, says the hospital has told him opening up facilities to non-Covid patients will be a 'long, complicated' process.

Rob Martinez, 63

Rob, from Berkshire, suffers from osteoarthritis which is so severe he struggles to climb up and down stairs.

He needs both knee joints replaced, and was forced to take early retirement because of his pain.

Last year, he was given a date for his first knee replacement: April 15, at Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey. Rob was overjoyed.

Rob Martinez, 63, from Berkshire, suffers from osteoarthritis which is so severe he struggles to climb up and down stairs

But then he got a call to say all operations had been cancelled for the next three months  starting from the day of his surgery.

'There's going to be such a backlog after all this I dread to think what's going to happen,' he said. 'There's a worry that something like a knee replacement will be forgotten.'

Andy Gower, 53

The businessman from Milton Keynes has only the slimmest chance of surviving his colon cancer if his operation is delayed.

He was due to have surgery this month, but it was cancelled when his hospital was turned over to Covid-19 patients.

Andy Gower, 53, from Milton Keynes, has only the slimmest chance of surviving his colon cancer if his operation is delayed

Now Andy, a father of three, has been told it may be seven weeks before he can have an operation on his stage-three cancer.

He says: 'If I get the operation soon, I have a 75 per cent survival rate, which is quite good.

'But if it has spread to stage four beforehand, then my chances go down to ten per cent.'

www.pancreaticcanceraction.org
The Assam government confirms, that African Swine Flu has killed more than 2,800 pigs across the state. CM Sarbananda Sonowal asks Forest Departments, Veterinary and National Pig Research Centre of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to rescue livestock.

Due to African Swine Flue (ASF) more than 2,800 pigs have died in Assam. The state government claimed that ASF has also come from China likewise COVID-19 and till now 60 per cent of Chinas domestic pigs had been killed with it. The first case of ASF in India was reported on Sunday, since then the state is the epicenter of it. The virus is deadly which is currently found in domestic pigs with a 100 percent mortality rate.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has taken extensive measures to reduce the incidence of ASF, asked the Forest Departments, Veterinary and National Pig Research Centre of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to develop a roadmap to stop the spread and to save the states pig population.

While, State Animal Husbandry Minister Atul Bora said, the situation is intense and alarming, so rather culling the infected pig the state has prepared a biosecurity measure awareness and training to be given to pig breeders in 13 districts. When the first cases were reported in February, an expert team and animal scientists started working upon it, to save the pig industry.

Officials of Animal Husbandry, Veterinary & Forest Depts were directed to collaborate with Pig Research Centre (ICAR) & prepare a roadmap to protect the pig population of the state from disease outbreaks. The CM also inspected Nucleus Pig Breeding & Dairy Units present there. pic.twitter.com/xQ1yWb3Roy  Chief Minister Assam (@CMOfficeAssam) May 4, 2020

CM Sonowal also arranged a meeting with the Regional Institute of Livestock Entrepreneurship Management (RILEM) and ICAR doctors, where he asked to do a threat-mapping to know the magnitude of the fever and to overcome with it.

CM @sarbanandsonwal took holistic stock of activities & practices of Regional Institute of Livestock Entrepreneurship & Management (RILEM) at Rani along with Minister @ATULBORA2. The CM interacted with officials and sought their advice to mitigate the African Swine Fever (ASF). pic.twitter.com/5ZlglW9YHU  Chief Minister Assam (@CMOfficeAssam) May 4, 2020

During the meeting, CM Sonowal also said to make a list of entrepreneurs who are working in the piggery sector with their financial liability, so that it would be easy to announce a bailout package.

After researching African Swine Fever which was earlier reported in 1921 in Kenya, The National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD) of Bhopal has confirmed that it is the same fever reported in Africa.

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Newspapers observed a nationwide strike Monday, May 4, 2020 Facebook

Private newspapers in Cameroon hit the stands Tuesday, May 5, 2020 after a one-day black out Monday to draw attention to the economic fragility of the media compounded by Governments insensitivity.

Meeting in Yaounde April 28, 2020, newspaper publishers of Cameroon resolved to observe a dead press day to mark the 27th edition of the World Press Freedom Day with reflections under the theme Journalism without fear no complacency.

The decision to have a dead press Monday, May 4, 2020 throughout the whole country was based on several observations, with economic concerns topping the list. The grievances include:

1- The refusal of the state to support the resilience of the private press faced with the COVID-19 pandemic;

2- The increased economic fragility of the press due to the restrictive measures taken by the state in the context of the fight against COVID-19;

3- The non-disbursement in time, of the institutional support of the state formerly called aid to the press to private media organs;

4- The accumulation of the payment of arrears for services rendered by the press at the public treasury;

5- The very limited access of private newspapers to public procurement with regards to ad inserts;

6- The increasing decrease of the amount for advertisement and the further unexplained extensions of payment dates for said advertisements by companies;

7- The poor sales of newspapers due to the difficulties encountered in distributing newspapers across the country;

8- An unsuitable tax policy for the press and the non-compliance with national and/or international conventions and agreements;

9- The non-implementation of the relevant recommendations of the 2012 general assembly meeting of communication, particularly the non-grooming of the law on social communication in Cameroon.

10- The arbitrary arrests of journalists in the exercise of their function and the maintenance of deprivation of liberty for press offences in contradiction to the standards and international commitments of Cameroon.

The publishers say they hold the national and international community as witnesses to the miseries inflicted on the private press and note that they reserve the right to undertake other energetic actions likely to restore the press to its role of information, education and the barometer of democracy.

They have however declared their readiness to welcome any proposal coming mainly from the government for the resolution of the various points raised.
Chennai, May 5 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami on Tuesday condoled the death of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) soldier 31-year-old C. Chandrasekar while fighting against terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday.

In a Twitter post, Palaniswami said he was grieved on hearing the death of Chandrasekar hailing from Tirunelveli district.

In another social media post Stalin said he salutes Chandrasekar. Stalin also pointed out Chandrasekar's father a policeman who also died while on duty. Expressing his grief, Stalin said the nation has to save his baby and wife.

The AMMK party leader and legislator T.T.V.Dhinakaran too condoled Chandrasekar's death.
Vespa mandarina  also known as Asian giant hornets of murder hornet  was recently discovered in British Columbia and Washington state. Credit: Department of Agriculture // Special to Western News

"Murder hornets' have entered the North American landscape and lexicon with horror-film imagery.

Vespa mandarinaalso known as Asian giant hornetsare thumb-sized carnivores with huge mandibles, outsized appetites and a venomous sting that will leave a human writhing in pain. But the biggest threat these 'murder hornets' pose is to the vulnerable apiary industry and all who rely on pollinators, Western entomologists stress.

Biology professor Brent Sinclair saw these hornets two years ago during a research trip in southeast China.

"They're amazing; they're enormous, like little helicopters," said Sinclair, who specializes in the effect of extreme cold weather on insects. "I saw them perched on trees, hawking bees as they came into the hivemuch like a sharp-shinned hawk at a bird feeder. If they can get into a honeybee hiveand they willthey'll systematically eat their way through all the brood of a hive within a few days. They are really bad news for beekeepers."

The hornets were recently discovered in British Columbia and Washington state, having hitchhiked in cargo across the ocean and sparking fears they may spread elsewhere in North America.

While Sinclair balks at the insects' gruesome nickname"I wish people wouldn't call them that; sure, they're pretty big and can be devastating, but we don't call cars 'murder vehicles.'"he admits they bear watching. Like other invasive species, such as emerald ash borers or zebra mussels, these hornets could throw off ecological balance and biodiversity because they have no known enemies in this environment.

Already susceptible to varroa mites, colony collapse disorder and neonicotinoid pesticides, honeybees would be imperiled by this additional threat.

The Canadian Honey Council estimates the annual value of honeybees in crop pollination alone is about $2 billion.

Credit: University of Western Ontario

Biology professor Graham Thompson said murder hornets could destroy a hive of tens of thousands of honeybees within hours.

The queen giant hornet nests in soil and feeds herself in spring and then workers forage for her in the summer. Once they've found a honeybee hive, the giant hornets use their powerful mandibles to rip apart the bees' heads, leaving a clear path to the protein-rich larvae and pupae.

Then they call in their hornet buddies to finish the jobleaving only carnage and a shell of a hive.

"They're foraging for protein and their specialty is to attack honeybees because they're a high source of protein. Hives are the "Costco of the insect world," and they've entered the cafeteria," said Thompson, whose research examines the social behavior of insects. "If you put it in human terms, they're pretty violent. But from the insects' point of view, they're just doing their business."

Asian honeybees have developed defenses by mobbing the hornet in a bee ball, suffocating the intruder with their body heat. But European honeybees, which are the main species cultivated in North America, don't have those same defenses.

Thompson said the multiple sightings on the West Coast suggest the hornets are either continually being introduced into the environment or have already established a population here. While they may be few in number now, Thompson said the question we face is, "Should we concentrate on getting rid of them right now so they don't increase in number as invasive species do?"

Not that it would be easy to find and eradicate them. The insect's sting can penetrate normal beekeeper clothing. Even for people without allergies to bee venom, it will cause angry welts. There have been some reports of people in Japan having died after having been stung repeatedly.

But Thompson said reports of harm to humans are rare. "I wouldn't say that people need to close their windows or anything. But it's interesting from a biological point of view."

Explore further Asian hornet nests found by radio-tracking
Michelle Obama's daughters Malia and Sasha open up about their admiration for their mom in Netflix's upcoming documentary 'Becoming,' which chronicles the former first lady's 34-city tour for her best-selling memoir of the same name.

The college students' brief cameo in the film marks their highly-anticipated first public interview. The footage of Malia, 21, and Sasha, 18, was originally recorded in 2018 for a video shown at Mrs. Obama's book tour events, People reported.

Malia, a junior at Harvard, says her mom is 'no longer facing that same scrutiny' since their family left the White House in 2017, adding that 'being able to let all of that leave your mind, creates so much more space.'

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Proud: Michelle Obama's daughters Malia (left) and Sasha (right) open up about their mother in the new Netflix documentary 'Becoming,' which chronicles the former first lady's book tour

Candid: Malia says her mom is 'no longer facing that same scrutiny' since they left the White House, adding that 'being able to let all of that leave your mind, creates so much more space'

Meanwhile, Sasha, a freshman at the University of Michigan, shares her joy over her mother's accomplishments.

'I'm excited for her to be proud of what she's done,' she says. 'Because I think that that's the most important thing for a human to do, is be proud of themselves.'

In another scene toward the end of the film, Malia visits her mother backstage after an event for her stadium-sized book tour, which had a string of dates at sold-out arenas.

Many of the moderators were A-list celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Stephen Colbert.

'You're so good, I love you too much,' Malia tells her mom, admitting that she 'cried again' while watching her on stage.

When Mrs. Obama asks her why she is 'always crying,' her eldest daughter explains how it feels to see thousands of people moved by her words and acknowledge all of her hard work.

Admiration: Sasha adds that she is 'excited' for her mom 'to be proud of what she's done'

'This has demonstrated in a way  its just like, damn, those eight years werent for nothing. You know?' Malia tells her mom. 'You see that huge crowd out there and that last kind of speech you gave about  people are here because people really believe in hope and hope in other people.'

Malia then smiles and rolls her eyes a bit as she adds, 'And also every time you guys play Stevie Wonder, I dont know, I cry a little bit.'

Mrs. Obama's husband, former President Barack Obama, also makes an appearance in the film along with her mother, Marian Robinson, and brother, Craig Robinson.

Netflix made the surprise announcement about the release of the documentary last week, describing the film as 'an intimate look into the life' of the former first lady.

'Becoming' premieres on Wednesday, May 6, just days after the streaming giant released the trailer for the documentary.

In the preview, Mrs. Obama opens up about her working-class upbringing and her struggles as a black woman.

Support system: Mrs. Obama's husband, former President Barack Obama, also makes an appearance in the documentary about her post-White House life

Honest: The former first lady hares that her mother, Marian Robinson (pictured), always says 'Michelle and Barack Obama aren't special'

'I am from the South Side of Chicago. That tells you as much about me as you need to know,' she says.

Set to Alicia Keys' 'Girl on Fire,' the video features old photos of Mrs. Obama as a child in the neighborhood, including pictures of her with her parents, Fraser and Marian Robinson.

'It was a typical working-class community: some good music, some good barbecue, some good times,' she recalls of her formative years.

The trailer cuts to Michelle looking back on her time as first lady while speaking at a community engagement.

'So little of who I am happened in those eight years. So much more of who I was happened before,' she explains.

Director Nadia Hallgren weaved together Mrs. Obama's commentary on her life with behind-the-scenes footage of her tour and her on-stage interviews.

Candid: Michelle opens up about her working-class upbringing in the South Side of Chicago in the trailer for 'Becoming'

Looking back: Set to Alicia Keys' 'Girl on Fire,' the trailer features old photos of Obama as a child in her neighborhood, including pictures of her with her parents

Memories: The former first lady recalls her community having 'some good music, some good barbecue, [and] some good times'

The trailer highlights the struggles she has faced as a black woman. During one interview with journalist Michelle Norris, she recalls how her high school guidance counselor thought she was 'reaching too high.'

'We can't afford to wait for the world to be equal to start feeling seen,' she says after being asked how she persevered as a black woman. 'I feel like I got to share with you all that the energy that's out there is much better than what we see.'

Mrs. Obama also opens up about becoming a media target when she was candid and vulnerable on the campaign trail.

Hit: Mrs. Obama's memoir, 'Becoming,' has sold more than 11 million copies and been translated into more than 20 languages

'The only thing I can share is that it hurts. That changes the shape of a person's soul,' she says in the documentary, according to the Associated Press.

In the trailer, she quotes her mother as she insists that she and her husband are not extraordinary people.

'As my mother would say, Michelle and Barack Obama aren't special. There are millions of Michelle and Barack Obamas all over the world,' she says as footage shows her husband giving her a sweet kiss on the cheek.

'If we can open up a little bit more to each other and share our stories, that's what breaks down barriers,' she adds.

The trailer ends with a crowd cheering for Mrs. Obama at one of her sell-out book tour events.

'This is totally me, unplugged for the first time,' she says.

The documentary is the latest release from Higher Ground Productions, the production company created by Obamas. Their exclusive multi-film deal with Netflix has already proven fruitful.

Their first film, 'American Factory,' by Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar, won the Academy Award for best documentary earlier this year. The Obamas did not attend the Oscars, nor received a statuette.

Higher Ground was also behind the acclaimed recently released documentary 'Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution,' by James Lebrecht and Nicole Newnham.

Mrs. Obama's memoir, 'Becoming,' has sold more than 11 million copies and been translated into more than 20 languages. The former first lady's popularity has made her a potentially pivotal figure in the 2020 presidential campaign.

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, recently said that he'd pick her as a running mate 'in a heartbeat,' before adding that he didn't think she 'has any desire to live in the White House again.'
Bollywood actor Arjun Rampal has shared several throwback pics from his school days on social media in which he looks dashing dressed in a formal suit. Arjun said in the caption of his post that he was celebrating 30 years of his graduation from Kodaikanal International School on Tuesday.

Arjun also asked his fans to guess who he was in these pics. Needless to say, admirers were quick to point out the dashing actor even in his throwback pictures.

"30 years ago this month, the class of 1990. Kodaikanal International School. All my besties here. #classof1990 #30yearanniversary spot me if you can (sic)," Arjun captioned his post.

Arjun also mourned the passing of his D-Day co-stars Rishi Kapoor and Irrfan Khan as he paid emotional tribute to both the actors on social media recently.

On the movies front, Arjun will next feature in Anjaan, a supernatural thriller. The project was supposed to go on the floors in March but has been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Anjaan is directed by Amitebdra Vats and written by Pooja Ballutia.

Follow @News18Movies for more
Jenny Torres Sanchezs first YA novel, The Downside of Being Charlie, was published in 2012; in her timely fifth book, We Are Not from Here, she follows three teens attempting the dangerous journey from their violence-ridden village in Guatemala to the United States, on their own. Sanchez spoke with PW from her home in Orlando, Fla., about her affinity for those who feel like outsiders and the challenges of writing authentically about the experiences of Central American migrants.

In your authors note you say you began writing this book in 2015. You also say that youve been trying to write it for five years. Can you trace the build-up of inspiration?

I cant pinpoint exactly when I began the book. The idea came from hearing all the news about children making the journey from Central America by themselves. It was so heartbreaking to hear about such vulnerable lives being put at so much risk. My parents are from Central America; I myself am a motherso it hit hard and it hurt. As I learned more and more about La Bestia and then thought about how kids had to figure out first how to get out of Central America and to the train, I realized I wanted to write a story that shed some light on all that. The idea was with me for a long time.

The biographical note on your website says that you have lived on the border of two worlds your entire life. Why do you feel this way?

I always felt like a bit of an outsider, like I didnt quite belong anywhere. Im the child of immigrants. My mother was born in Guatemala and my father is from El Salvador. They were very, very traditional. So growing up in American culture, I didnt feel like my peers. My parents didnt quite understand my American thinking. I felt very in between. As a result, I can look at two different worlds and understand both.

I was born in Brooklyn and lived there until I was three years old. We moved to the town of Uniondale on Long Island and lived there for seven years, and then moved to Orlando. Orlando is pretty diverse now, but 30 years ago, when we arrived, it was very much part of the Old South. I had never seen a Confederate flag before. We encountered racism. And I also experienced a split between the north and the south of the United States. Again, a sense of being part of two worlds. And finally, I was a kid who liked to imagine a lot and to read. So I also had a sense of the border between reality and imagination. I write fiction because I like creating imaginary worlds.

Youve stayed in Orlando. Does it feel like home to you now?

It does feel like home. But when I go back to New York, it also oddly feels like homeespecially things like the smell of pizza.

Puerto Barrios, where the book begins, is a real place, which youve visited many times, you write. What were your experiences there like?

My mother is from Puerto Barrios and her sister and brother still live there, although my uncle recently passed away. We often visited her family, so I set the book there because it was the first place that came to mind. I have beautiful memories of it and yet I also heard stories from my aunt about violence erupting there, although I myself never saw any violence on my visits. My mind is filled with memories of passing the day walking back and forth to the store across the way, the store that becomes Don Felicios store in the book And of going to Rio Dulce with my family, a place that holds an important memory for Pequena. Of driving to and from Honduras and being awed by the beauty of the landscape. And of going to the cemetery to visit my beloved Abuelo Ramon, and now learning theres risk in just going there to grieve. [In my book,] Pulga says every beautiful thing turns black in his world, and thats sort of how I feel in knowing whats happening to that beautiful place that lives in my memory.

The teenagers trek through Guatemala and the ride on La Bestia are all so visceral and detailed. What was your research process?

When I write, I picture things very vividlyits like a movie playing out in my head. I try to describe what Im seeing. But I did research the regions so I could be as accurate as possible. And then it was about falling into the story as though I were one of the characters. I read a lot of nonfiction about La Bestia, especially a book called The Beast by Oscar Martinez, a journalist who took the trip many times, risking his life. He also wrote a book called A History of ViolenceI relied a lot on that kind of journalism. Then there is Valeria Luisellis book Tell Me How It Ends, which is heartbreaking. She did intake for migrant children, so she wrote down the stories they told her about why they had to leave their countries.

I also read a lot of Central American history to know where all this violence stems from. What has made migrants flee didnt happen overnight. Its the result of decades of corruption and involvement in the region by other countries, including the United States.

You created three very distinct characters in Pulga, Chico, and Pequena. Where did they come from and what was it like to write in those different voices? Did you write the book as the reader reads it, or did you develop one characters journey at a time?

They were all hanging out with me at the same time! There were definitely times when I focused more on one character and spent a couple of days on his or her story, days when one characters voice was coming out more clearly. I would jump around. I write out of sequence.

When I started writing, I actually thought I would have four voices. But one of them wasnt really working. I was introducing him too late in the book to bring his story fully into it. I also had more characters I wanted to insert into the storyI was writing vignettes in other voices, but it was becoming distracting, so my editor, Liza Kaplan, and I decided to eliminate those.

Versions of these characters have been with me forever, before I even began writing this book.

They were always Latinx characters. I had tried writing them in different stories but when I got this idea they showed up most fully and clearly. I realized this is the story they wanted me to tell. For example, Pequena had been a mirage-like character for a long time. I had other stories I sort of wrote with a character like Pequena, but it wasnt her. When I began working on this story, she stepped up to it and I realized, Oh, this is who you were. Pulga was always on the border between two worlds, a little like me, and Chico was always his sidekick.

This is your fifth book. How was the process of writing it different from your previous books?

I did much more research for this book than for the others. My books all deal with difficult topics, so I always do some research, but here I wondered how I could tell this story when I couldnt get on that train. So I had to work at filling in the gaps without having the ability to actually experience everything I was writing about.

And then, your other books are written from just one point of view.

Yes, although Because of the Sun does have some inserts from the character of the aunt. The Fall of Innocence is told in third person and mostly follows one character but we get into the heads of every member of her family. We learn how the main characters trauma has affected them all. So, here, while I was writing two first-person voices for the first time and juggling more, Id learned how to get into different characters heads a bit better. Writing this book right after The Fall of Innocence made it a little easier to do the two voices.

All of your books deal with some kind of trauma. What draws you to explore tough issues?

I taught language arts in high school for several years. People make generalizations about stereotypical teens but I want to show teens are coping with heavy issuesthey have things on their shoulders most adults would have trouble with. And then, because I always felt like an outsider, I want teens to know there are books about outsiders. I also wanted to foster sympathy among other readerswho might not have serious difficulties to deal withfor those teens who do.

People talk a lot nowadays about writing books that are both mirrors and windows, which is what you seem to be describing. Is that why you choose to write YA?

Yes, its a time of my life that I remember so wellthe angst you carry at that age! It can be such a confusing time; coming out of the bubble of childhood, the curtain is pulled back and you see all the problems that exist. My teenage students were jaded and hopeful at the same time and thats such an interesting perspective to write a story from.

Did you always want to be a writer? When did you begin to write?

In fourth grade I won a writing contest. The prompt was to write a story about what it would be like to be three inches tall. I had so much fun with itI couldnt believe it was a school assignment. I didnt even realize it was a county-wide contest. My parents were so proud of me! From that moment, secretly in my heart I carried the idea that maybe I could write stories. But as I grew up, I wasnt told stories by Latinx authors. Writers didnt have names like mine so I thought maybe this isnt for me.

When did that start to change?

When I was at university I began reading Latinx writers in English literature classes. But I still didnt know how to become an author. That wasnt something I could truly see happening for me. It seemed an out-of-reach dream I couldnt risk pursuing. See, theres this pressure as a child of immigrants. You live knowing the huge sacrifices your parents have made. You live knowing you cant fail them. You have to honor those sacrifices. I majored in literature because I thought I might become a lawyer. Being an author was not the kind of thing that I saw as possible for me.

While I was teaching, though, I decided to try to get a masters degree in creative writing. I applied four times but kept getting rejected. I was told I had a lot of potential, but the door kept getting slammed in my face. So I decided I would figure this out myself. I started researching how people get published; I learned about queries and agents and all that.

I started writing with a purpose when my second child was about 15 months old. He wasnt developing at the same rate as my nephew, who was the same age. He had several speech delay issues and social development delay. So I left my job to take him to all his therapiesit was a very difficult time. While he was in therapy, I started going to a coffee shop nearby and writing a story about a very sensitive teenage boy. I also missed being with my teenage students and their fresh perspective. That story became The Downside of Being Charlie, my first book.

After my kids were in bed, I started querying agents. The first time somebody requested a full manuscript was the moment I knew that I could publish a book. The 13th agent I queried was Kerry Sparks, who has been my agent ever since.

Questions of authenticity in books and who gets to tell whose stories have been much under discussion in recent years. Did you worry about that in writing this book?

I do worry, even being a Latinx writer, that Im doing as much justice to the story as I possibly can. I wanted to do right by my characters and by my community. I wanted to make them proud, and I wanted them to say, Yes, thats our story. I wrote with a lot of care and a lot of love. I couldnt shy away from violence, and I couldnt sugarcoat it. But I didnt want it to be gratuitous or sensationalized.

My question was, how do I tell the truth and honor these characters and their culture? I was very careful about how I wrote. I tried to make the danger and violence the backdrop, and to make the characters shine.

All my books deal with tough things. I want to have realistic endingsand that was especially true for this book. I wanted to be honest about how dangerous and terrifying the situation is.

What are you working on now?

Im working on a story thats been with me a while. Its about sisters and family relationships. I want to include some historical material and some magical realism. It was actually supposed to be published before this one; it was on contract but we put it on the back burner when I realized I had to write this book.

We Are Not from Here was so important to me I had to write it first. I wasnt sure I would be able to do it. My parents are from Central America; my husband is Mexican. They have always been proud of my books but they are especially proud and most excited about this one. And when you make your parents proud, thats the best feeling!

So your parents have read this book?

English is not their first language so they havent read any of my books. But I just got the wonderful news that this book is going to be my first one to be translated into Spanish! So it will be the first of my books my parents will be able to read.

We Are Not from Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez. Philomel, $18.99 May 19 ISBN 978-1-9848-1226-1
Yet another state will ease coronavirus lockdown restrictions to allow families to celebrate Mother's Day this Sunday.

South Australian chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier has given her blessing for families to celebrate the special occasion on Sunday.

But the state's top doctor has urged families to keep gatherings to ten members or less and continue social distancing.

South Australia has recorded zero new cases in the last 13 days.

Lockdown restrictions have eased in South Australia in time for families to celebrate Mother's Day. Pictured are a man and woman enjoy their first state of freedom in two weeks after being holed up in hotel quarantine in Adelaide

'South Australians have had so much common sense  and I don't think people are going to have any problems this weekend working out what is going to be best for them and their loved ones,' Professor Spurrier told reporters on Monday.

'If there are vulnerable people in your family, however, and that might be an elderly person, it is probably better to continue that social distancing.

'However, you may have a very robust and healthy grandparent, or mother, who is absolutely fine to be visited but you need to make those informed decisions on your own particular situation.'

Celebrations will include family picnics in parks after Professor Spurrier gave playgrounds the green light to reopen on Monday.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd has discouraged Mother's Day hugs unless they're a member of their 'immediate household'.

'Obviously we can hug the members of our immediate household who we are sharing our homes with but we are restricted with others,' he told reporters on Saturday.

'I think it's really important that we continue specially to protect the most vulnerable people in our society, in our community. And for many of us that includes our mums and other people. So let's hope that it won't be too long.

Families in some states will be able to have Mother's Day picnics this Sunday. Pictured is a Brisbane family enjoying the sunshine on the weekend after Queensland eased restrictions

Families in many other states and territories will also reunite for the first time in six weeks after lockdown restrictions were recently relaxed.

Gatherings of up to ten people are permitted in Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory.

In New South Wales, two adults and their children can visit another home while households can have up to two guests in the Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania and Queensland, where families can travel within 50km of their homes for non-essential purposes.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr have hinted at relaxing restrictions to allow public gatherings and groups of 10 after the nation's capital became the first state or territory to record no active coronvirus cases last week.

Gatherings of up to 10 people are also permitted in Western Australia. Pictured is a gathering in a Perth park after restrictions were eased last Friday

South Australian chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier (pictured on Monday) has given Mother's Day family reunions the green light

One state where families will be limited to phone calls and FaceTime is in Victoria, where Premier Daniel Andrews won't ease stage three restrictions before May 11, the day after Mother's Day.

'Doing the popular thing is not what this job requires, it requires us to make really difficult decisions that are not always popular,' Mr Andrews said last week.

'Sadly we've got police heroes being buried in very very different circumstances to normal, families who can't spend the final moments of a loved one's life at their side, holding their hand  lots of things that are very different and this Mother's Day will be very different to what it has ever been.'

He added life can return to normal sooner if all Victorians 'do the right thing'.

'Catch up with your mum over a video call. Support a local business and send her flowers or some special goodies - that's what I'll be doing,' Mr Andrews said.

Families in most states and territories will be able to celebrate Mother's Day face to face. Pictured is a family enjoying a picnic in Brisbane, where families can travel up to 50km away from their homes
A 25-year-old murder convict



allegedly castrated himself inside the Central Jail in Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior city on Tuesday, a prison official said.

The prisoner was immediately rushed to the hospital, where his condition remains critical, the official said.

"Vishnu Kumar, who is serving a life sentence for murder, prayed at the Shiva temple inside the jail premises at around 6.30 am, following which he castrated himself with a spoon and offered his private parts to the deity," jail superintendent Manoj Sahu said.

On hearing Kumar's cries, other inmates and jail wardens rushed to the spot and found him lying in a pool of blood, he said, adding that the prisoner was taken to Jayarogya Hospital, where his condition remains critical.

On interrogation, Kumar claimed that he had dreamt of Lord Shiva, who had asked him to offer his private parts at the temple, Sahu said.

Kumar, a resident of Bhind district, was lodged in prison since 2018, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Gov. Andrew Cuomo should not have canceled a special election to fill the vacancy left when Robert Antonacci resigned from the state Legislature to take a seat on the state Supreme Court bench.

Citizens in the 50th Senate District  roughly 300,000 people residing in Onondaga and Cayuga counties  have not had a representative in the New York state Senate since January. Now they wont have one until next January.

With no one in Antonaccis chair, theres no one dedicated to look after the interests of his constituents as Cuomo and the Legislature confront the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the states residents, finances, healthcare infrastructure, businesses, schools and services. This is no time for no representation.

The special election already was postponed from April 28, the date of the presidential primary, to June 23. That was the right call, confirmed by Wisconsins primary voting debacle a week later. On April 24, Cuomo canceled a handful of special elections a few days before the state Board of Elections canceled the statewide presidential primary.

Now, the headline race on the June 23 ballot in Central New York will be the Democratic primary for the 24th Congressional District to decide who will challenge Rep. John Katko, R-Camillus. There also are a smattering of primaries for local and judicial offices. All voters will be able to apply for an absentee ballot to vote by mail.

Why couldnt the 50th Senate District race have gone on the same ballot? The congressional and Senate districts almost entirely overlap  admittedly, with some large exceptions. The city of Syracuse and the towns of Salina and Cicero were gerrymandered into the 53rd Senate District when maps were redrawn by the Legislature in 2012. (Then-Sen. John DeFrancisco insisted the map include the town of Onondaga so that Antonacci could run for his seat  a plan that succeeded until it backfired when Antonacci grasped for a different office.)

Democrat John Mannion and Republican Angi Renna face off in November to fill Antonaccis vacancy. The winner will take office in 2021.

Canceling the presidential primary was a 50-50 call, in our minds. With Joe Biden the last Democrat in the race, all others having conceded or suspended their campaigns, the result is foregone conclusion. Ratifying it was not worth the public health risk of having voters from around the state show up at the polls.

However, canceling an election outright sets a bad precedent. It could give cover to other states, or even the federal government, for suppressing votes under the guise of suppressing the virus.

Tip your (essential) server

The debate over tipping for takeout food is hereby suspended for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic (and who knows, maybe forever).

Restaurants managing to stay open by offering takeout food are operating even closer to the edge of profitability than usual. The essential workers making, serving and delivering food might be earning a bit more in wages. More likely, they are scraping by on less than they made before table service shut down.

If you can afford it, tip your takeout servers and delivery people well. They are risking their health to make your quarantine a little more bearable.

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Berlin: Ten times more people than previously thought may have already acquired immunity to the new coronavirus, according to a groundbreaking study in Germany.

Hairdressers work at a salon that opened on May 4 for the first time since March, in Berlin, Germany. Credit:Getty Images

Scientists from the University of Bonn claim their findings show that 1.8 million people across Germany have already been infected with the virus.

That is more than 10 times as many as have tested positive so far, and would mean more than 1.6 million may have been infected and recovered without knowing it.

The findings are based on the first comprehensive study of the effects of the virus on a single community in Gangelt, the town at the epicentre of Germany's first major outbreak. The study's initial findings last month suggested the fatality rate in Gangelt was much lower than previously thought, at just 0.37 per cent.
Massive fire broke out on Tuesday night at the 45-storey Abbco residential tower in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. The UAE government media office confirmed that the outbreak was controlled but the firefighters, whereas seven people were reported for minor injuries. Abbco residential tower is situated in the Sharjahs Al Nahda area in the UAE. Injured residents were immediately taken to the hospital, government media office tweeted.

No casualties reported in the neighbouring building, authorities had evacuated five-building near the Abbco tower. However, the cars parked in the parking area in front of the building were damaged due to debris fell on them. Sharjah Civil Defence controlled the situation and prevent it from escalating, Director of Sharjah Civil Defence Col. Sami Khamis Al Naqbi said that the fire broke out around 9 PM, according to the local time.

Khaleeja Times report said that many fire trucks, several drones and a team of firefighters managed to control massive fire outbreak that ravaged 45 storey building in a very posh area of UAE. Director of Sharjah Civil Defence No immediate cause has been reported for the massive fire at the tower. Col Dr Al Zoud said that the temporary accommodation will be provided to the residents, they are in contact with th building owner and authorities. He said that the is examine how many flats have been got affected. Abbco residential tower has 45 floors out of which 36 were used as residential floors which has 12 floors each.

For all the latest World News, download NewsX App
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED BY THE PENTAGONS CONTROVERSIAL RESEARCH BRANCH IS GETTING A HUGE BOOST AMID THE CURRENT CORONAVIRUS CRISIS, WITH LITTLE ATTENTION GOING TO THE AGENCYS ULTERIOR MOTIVES FOR DEVELOPING SAID TECHNOLOGIES, THEIR POTENTIAL FOR WEAPONIZATION OR THEIR UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES.

In January, well before the coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis would result in lockdowns, quarantines and economic devastation in the United States and beyond, the U.S. intelligence community and the Pentagon were working with the National Security Council to create still-classified plans to respond to an imminent pandemic. It has since been alleged that the intelligence and military intelligence communities knew about a likely pandemic in the United States as early as last November, and potentially even before then.

Given this foreknowledge and the numerous simulations conducted in the United States last year regarding global viral pandemic outbreaks, at least six of varying scope and size, it has often been asked  Why did the government not act or prepare if an imminent global pandemic and the shortcomings of any response to such an event were known? Though the answer to this question has frequently been written off as mere incompetence in mainstream media circles, it is worth entertaining the possibility that a crisis was allowed to unfold.

Why would the intelligence community or another faction of the U.S. government knowingly allow a crisis such as this to occur? The answer is clear if one looks at history, as times of crisis have often been used by the U.S. government to implement policies that would normally be rejected by the American public, ranging from censorship of the press to mass surveillance networks. Though the government response to the September 11 attacks, like the Patriot Act, may be the most accessible example to many Americans, U.S. government efforts to limit the flow of dangerous journalism and surveil the population go back to as early as the First World War. Many of these policies, whether the Patriot Act after 9/11 or WWI-era civilian spy networks, did little if anything to protect the homeland, but instead led to increased surveillance and control that persisted long after the crisis that spurred them had ended.

Using this history as a lens, it is possible to look at the current coronavirus crisis to see how the long-standing agendas of ever-expanding mass surveillance and media censorship are again getting a dramatic boost thanks to the chaos unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic. Yet, this crisis is unique because it also has given a boost to a newer yet complimentary agenda that  if fulfilled  would render most, if not all, other government efforts at controlling and subduing their populations obsolete.

DARPA DYSTOPIA

For years, the Pentagons Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has remained largely out of sight and out of mind for most Americans, as their research projects are rarely covered by the mainstream media and, when they are, their projects are often praised as bringing science fiction movies to life. However, there have been recent events that have marred DARPAs often positive portrayal by media outlets, which paint the agency as a beacon of scientific progress that has changed the world for the better.

For instance, in 2018, a group of European scientists accused the DARPAs Insect Allies program of actually being a dystopian bioweapons program that would see insects introduce genetically modified viruses into plants to attack and devastate a targeted nations food supply. DARPA, of course, maintained that its intent to use these insects to genetically modify plants was instead about protecting the food supply. Regardless of DARPAs assertions that it is merely a defensive program, it should be clear to readers that such a technology could easily be used either way, depending on the wielder.

Though DARPAs futuristic weapons of war often get the most attention from media, the agency has long standing interests in tinkering with, not just the biology of plants, but of humans. DARPA, which is funded to the tune of approximately $3 billion a year, has various avenues through which it pursues these ambitions, with many of those now under the purview of the agencys Biological Technologies Office (BTO), created in 2014. As of late, some of DARPAs human biology and biotech projects at its BTO have been getting a massive PR boost thanks to the current coronavirus crisis, with recent reports even claiming that the agency might have created the best hopes for stopping Covid-19.

Most of these technologies garnering positive media coverage thanks to Covid-19 were developed several years ago. They include the DARPA-funded platforms used to produce DNA and RNA vaccines, classes of vaccine that has never been approved for human use in the U.S. and involve injecting foreign genetic material into the human body. Notably, it is this very class of vaccine, now being produced by DARPA-partnered companies, that billionaire and global health philanthropist Bill Gates recently asserted has him most excited relative to other Covid-19 vaccine candidates. Yet, key aspects regarding these vaccines and other DARPA healthcare initiatives have been left out of these recent positive reports, likely because they provide a window into what is arguably the agencys darkest agenda.

IN VIVO NANOPLATFORMS

In 2006, DARPA announced its Predicting Health and Disease (PHD) program, which sought to determine whether an individual will develop an infectious disease prior to the onset of symptoms. The PHD program planned to accomplish this by identifying changes in the baseline state of human health through frequent surveillance with a specific focus on viral, upper respiratory pathogens.

Three years later, in 2010, DARPA-funded researchers at Duke University created the foundation for this tool, which would use the genetic analysis of blood samples to determine if someone is infected with a virus before they show symptoms. Reports at the time claimed that these preemptive diagnoses would be transmitted to a national, web-based influenza map available via smartphone.

Following the creation of DARPAs BTO in 2014, this particular program gave rise to the In Vivo Nanoplatforms (IVN) program. The diagnostics branch of that program, abbreviated as IVN:Dx, investigates technologies that incorporate implantable nanoplatforms composed of bio-compatible, nontoxic materials; in vivo sensing of small and large molecules of biological interest; multiplexed detection of analytes at clinically relevant concentrations; and external interrogation of the nanoplatforms without using implanted electronics for communication. Past reports on the program describe it as developing classes of nanoparticles to sense and treat illness, disease, and infection on the inside. The tech involves implantable nanoparticles which sense specific molecules of biological interest.

DARPAs IVN program has since helped to finance and produce soft, flexible hydrogels that are injected just beneath the skin to perform [health] monitoring and that sync to a smartphone app to give the use immediate health insights, a product currently marketed and created by the DARPA-funded and National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded company Profusa. Profusa, which has received millions upon millions from DARPA in recent years, asserts that the information generated by their injectable biosensor would be securely shared and accessible to individuals, physicians and public health practitioners. However, the current push for a national contact tracing system based on citizens private health data is likely to expand that data sharing, conveniently fitting with DARPAs years-old goal of creating a national, web-based database of preemptive diagnoses.

Profusa is also backed by Google, which is intimately involved in these new mass surveillance contact tracing initiatives, and counts former Senate majority leader William Frist among its board members. They are also partnered with the National Institutes of Health (NIH)The company also has considerable overlap with the diagnostic company Cepheid, which recently won FDA approval for its rapid coronavirus test and was previously awarded lucrative government contracts to detect anthrax in the U.S. postal system. As of this past March, Profusa again won DARPA funding to determine if their injectable biosensors can predict future pandemics, including the now widely predicted second wave of Covid-19, and detect those infected up to three weeks before they would otherwise show symptoms. The company expects to have its biosensors FDA licensed for this purpose by early next year, about the same time a coronavirus vaccine is expected to be available to the general public.

LIVING FOUNDRIES

Another long-standing DARPA program, now overseen by BTO, is known as Living Foundries. According to DARPAs website, Living Foundries aims to enable adaptable, scalable, and on-demand production of [synthetic] molecules by programming the fundamental metabolic processes of biological systems to generate a vast number of complex molecules that are not otherwise accessible. Through Living Foundries, DARPA is transforming synthetic biomanufacturing into a predictable engineering practice supportive of a broad range of national security objectives.

The types of research this Living Foundries program supports involves the creation of artificial life including the creation of artificial genetic material, including artificial chromosomes, the creation of entirely new organisms, and using artificial genetic material to add new capacities to human beings (i.e. genetically modifying humans through the insertion of synthetically-created genetic material).

The latter is of particular concern (though all are honestly concerning), as DARPA also has a project called Advanced Tools for Mammalian Genome Engineering, which  despite having mammalian in the name  is focused specifically on improving the utility of Human Artificial Chromosomes (HACs), which DARPA describes as a fundamental tool in the development of advanced therapeutics, vaccines, and cellular diagnostics. Though research papers often focus on HACs as a revolutionary medical advancement, they are also frequently promoted as a means of enhancing humans by imbuing them with non-natural characteristics, including halting aging or improving cognition.

DARPA is known to be involved in research where these methods are used to create super soldiers that no longer require sleep or regular meals, among other augmented features, and has another program about creating metabolically dominant fighters. Reports on these programs also discuss the other, very disconcerting use of these same technologies, genetic weapons that would subvert DNA and undermine peoples minds and bodies.

Another potential application being actively investigated by DARPA is its BioDesign program, which is examining the creation of synthetic organisms that are created to be immortal and programmed with a kill switch allowing a synthetic, yet organic organism to be turned off at any time. This has led some to speculate such research could open the doors to the creation of human replicants used for fighting wars and other tasks, such as those that appear in the science fiction film Bladerunner.

However, these genetic kill switches could also be inserted into actual humans through artificial chromosomes, which  just as they have the potential to extend life  also have the potential to cut it short. Notably, it was revealed in 2017 that DARPA had invested $100 million in gene drive research, which is involves the use of genetic modification to wipe out entire populations, explaining why it it often referred to as a genetic extinction technology.

In addition, other DARPA experiments involve the use of genetically modified viruses that insert genetic material into human cells, specifically neurons in the brain, in order to tweak human brain chemistry. In one example, DARPA-funded research has altered human brain cells to produce two new proteins, the first allowing neural activity to be easily detected by external devices and the second allowing magnetic nanoparticles to induce an image or sound in the patients mind.

NEXT-GENERATION NONSURGICAL NEUROTECHNOLOGY

Changing human brain chemistry and functionality at the cellular level is only one of numerous DARPA initiatives aimed at changing how human beings think and perceive reality. Since 2002, DARPA has acknowledged its efforts to create a Brain-Machine Interface (BMI). Though first aimed at creating a wireless brain modem for a freely moving rat, which would allow the animals movements to be remotely controlled, DARPA wasnt shy about the eventual goal of applying such brain enhancement to humans in order to enable soldiers to communicate by thought alone or remotely control human beings (on the enemy side only, so they say) for the purposes of war.

The project, which has advanced greatly in recent years, has long raised major concerns among prominent defense scientists, some of whom warned in a 2008 report that remote guidance or control of a human being could quickly backfire were an adversary to gain access to the implanted technology (opening up the possibility of hacking a persons brain), and they also raised concerns about the general ethical perils of such technologies. Work began in 2011 on developing brain implants for use in human soldiers, officially with the goal of treating neurological damage in veterans, and such implants have been tested on human volunteers in DARPA-funded experiments since at least 2015.

Concerns, like those raised by those defense scientists in 2008, have been regularly dismissed by DARPA, which has consistently claimed that its controversial research projects are tempered by their in-house ethical experts. However, it worth noting how DARPAs leadership views these ethical conundrums, since they ultimately have the last word. For example, in 2015, Michael Goldblatt, then-director of DARPAs Defense Sciences Office (DSO), which oversees most aspects of the agencys super soldier program, told journalist Annie Jacobsen that he saw no difference between having a chip in your brain that could help control your thoughts and a cochlear implant that helps the deaf hear. When pressed about the unintended consequences of such technology, Goldblatt stated that there are unintended consequences for everything.

Thus, it is worth pointing out that, while DARPA-developed technologies  from human genetic engineering to the brain-machine interfaces  are often first promoted as something that will revolutionize and improve human health, DARPA sees the use of these technologies for such ends as being on the same footing as other dystopian and frankly nightmarish applications, like thought control. BMIs are no exception, having first been promoted as a way to boost bodily functions of veterans with neural damage or post-traumatic stress disorder and to allow amputees to control advanced prosthetics. While these do indeed represent major medical advances, DARPAs leadership has made it clear that they see no distinction between the medical use of BMIs and using them to exert near total control over a human being by guiding their thoughts and even their movements.

Such stark admission from DARPAs leadership makes it worth exploring the state of these current brain-machine interface programs as well as their explicit goals. For instance, one of the goals of DARPAs Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology (N3) program involves using noninvasive or minimally invasive brain-computer interfaces to read and write directly onto the brain.

According to one recent report on DARPAs N3 program, one example of minimally invasive technologies would involve:

an injection of a virus carrying light-sensitive sensors, or other chemical, biotech, or self-assembled nanobots that can reach individual neurons and control their activity independently without damaging sensitive tissue. The proposed use for these technologies isnt yet well-specified, but as animal experiments have shown, controlling the activity of single neurons at multiple points is sufficient to program artificial memories of fear, desire, and experiences directly into the brain.

Though the purported goal of N3 is related to creating thought-controlled weapons that react and fire based on a soldiers thoughts, the fact that the technology is also bidirectional, opens up the disturbing possibility that efforts will be made to control and program a soldiers thoughts and perceptions as opposed to the other way around. This may be more of the plan than DARPA has publicly let on, since official military documents have openly stated that the Pentagons ultimate goal is to essentially replace human fighters with self-aware interconnected robots who will both design and conduct operations against targets chosen by artificial-intelligence systems. This weapons system of the not-so-distant future seems to have little room for human beings, even those capable of controlling weapons with their minds, suggesting that futurist military planners see soldiers with BMIs as a weapon that would also become connected to this same AI-driven system. It is also worth pointing out that DARPA has been attempting to create an artificial human brain since 2013.

In addition, reports on DARPAs BMI efforts have suggested that this bidirectional technology will be used to cloud the perception of soldiers by distancing them from the emotional guilt of warfare, a move that would set a dangerous precedent and one that would surely result in a marked jump in war crimes.

Of course, these are just the admitted, potential military applications of such technology. Once this technology moves from the military to the civilian sphere, as several DARPA inventions have in the past, their use for remote guidance, thought control and/or the programming of thoughts and experiences is more than likely to be misused by governments, corporations and other power-brokers in the U.S. and beyond for the purposes of control.

The entrance of BMIs into the civilian sphere isnt very far away, as DARPA executives and researchers who have worked on the N3 and other DARPA-backed BMI programs have since been scooped up by Verily (a Google-GlaxoSmithKline partnership), Elon Musks Neuralink and Facebooks Building 8  all of which have been working to bring neuro-modulation devices and BMIs to market.

HUMAN BIO-REACTORS, NANOTHERAPEUTICS AND DARPA-FUNDED GENE VACCINES

As detailed above, DARPA often frames the controversial technologies it develops as being developed to mainly advance medicine and healthcare. Aside from the technologies already discussed, it is important to note that DARPA has been very interested in healthcare, specifically vaccines, for sometime.

For instance, in 2010, DARPA began developing a class of vaccine that could inoculate against unknown pathogens, a component of its Accelerated Manufacture of Pharmaceuticals program. The vaccine would inject thousands of synthetic antibodies, such as those developed through DARPAs Living Foundries program, into the human body. These synthetic antibodies or synbodies would then create an immunity toolkit that can be combined in myriad ways to tackle virtually any pathogen.

That same year, DARPA began funding efforts to create multiagent synthetic DNA vaccines that would be delivered into the human body via noninvasive electroporation and was quickly promoted in media reports as a way to quickly produce vaccines compared to traditional vaccine production methods. This category of vaccine would involve the same type of synthetic DNA that DARPA was also simultaneously researching for the purposes of both enhancing and subverting human beings at the genetic level. It was also this year, 2010, that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also began heavily funding DNA and RNA vaccines.

DNA vaccines, which were first created in 2005, have never been approved for human use in the United States and past studies have warned that they possess significant unpredictability and a number of inherent harmful potential hazards and that there is inadequate knowledge to define either the probability of unintended events or the consequences of genetic modifications. Another long-standing issue with such vaccines is mitigating unwanted immune reactions that result from natural immune response to the foreign genetic material they contain.

In 2011, DARPA announced its Rapidly Adaptable Nanotherapeutics program, which seeks to create a platform capable of rapidly synthesizing therapeutic nanoparticles aimed at combatting evolving and even genetically engineered bioweapons. DARPAs plan for these nanoparticles, which media reports described merely as tiny, autonomous drug delivery systems, was to combine them with small interfering RNA (siRNA), which are snippets of RNA that can target and shut down specific genes. As Wired wrote at the time: siRNA could be reprogrammed on-the-fly and applied to different pathogens, allowing nanoparticles to be loaded up with the right siRNA molecules and sent directly to cells responsible for the infection.

The creation of this program was shortly followed by DARPAs decision in 2013 to fund Moderna Therapeutics to the tune of $25 million to develop their synthetic RNA vaccine production platform. DARPA funded the project to develop platform technologies that can be deployed safely and rapidly to provide the U.S. population with near-immediate protection against emerging infectious diseases and engineered biological weapons.

Then, in 2015, DARPAs research into vaccines involving synthetic antibodies and synthetic genetic material expanded, with them giving $45 million to the DNA vaccine company, Inovio Pharmaceuticals. This same year, DARPA-funded RNA and DNA vaccines began to be framed differently by both DARPA researchers and the media  who described the technology as transforming the human body into a bio-reactor.

In the years since, DARPA-backed DNA and RNA vaccine companies, including Moderna, Inovio as well as Germanys CureVac, have been unable to get their products licensed for human use, largely due to the fact that their vaccines have failed to provide sufficient immunity in human trials. Examples of these ineffective vaccines include CureVacs attempt at a rabies vaccine and Modernas efforts to create a vaccine for the Zika virus (which was funded by the U.S. government).

Several workarounds for this issue have been proposed, including vaccines where the genetic material (RNA or DNA) self-amplifies. However, the workaround of choice to this lack of immune response and other obstacles for DNA/RNA vaccines is the incorporation of nanotechnology into these vaccines. As a result, the use of nanoparticles as the carriers for the genetic material in these vaccines has been widely promoted and studied, as well as touted as the best way to improve their stability, increase their targeted delivery ability and enhance the immune response they provoke.

The combination of DNA or RNA vaccines with nanotechnology has already become reality thanks to the companies leading that field. For instance, the DARPA-backed DNA vaccine company Inovio Pharmaceuticals utilizes what reports refer to as DNA nanotechnology in their line of synthetic vaccines branded as SynCon by the company, which uses an undisclosed computer algorithm to design its vaccines. It is an interesting coincidence, then, that the Inovio SynCon vaccine for Covid-19 now appears to be ahead of the rest of the pack, with backing from Bill Gates, DARPA, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and other government agencies.

DARPA  SAVING US FROM COVID-19?

In January, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced it would begin funding vaccine candidates for the coronavirus outbreak, long before it became a major global issue. CEPI describes itself as a partnership of public, private, philanthropic and civil organizations that will finance and co-ordinate the development of vaccines against high priority public health threats and was founded in 2017 by the governments of Norway and India along with the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. That month, CEPI only chose two pharmaceutical companies to receive funding for their efforts to develop a vaccine for Covid-19  Moderna and Inovio Pharmaceuticals.

As previously mentioned, these two companies are DARPA-backed firms that frequently tout their strategic alliance with DARPA in press releases and on their websites. DARPA has also provided these companies with significant amounts of funding. For instance, the top funders behind Inovio Pharmaceuticals include both DARPA and the Pentagons Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the company has received millions in dollars in grants from DARPA, including a $45 million grant to develop a vaccine for Ebola. They were also recently awarded over $8 million from the U.S. military to develop a small, portable intradermal device for delivering DNA vaccines, which was jointly developed by Inovio and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), which also manages the biodefense lab at Fort Detrick.

In addition, the German company CureVac, which is also developing a CEPI-backed RNA vaccine for Covid-19, is another long-time recipient of DARPA funding. They were one of DARPAs earliest investments in the technology, winning a $33.1 million DARPA contract to develop their RNActive vaccine platform in 2011.

In Modernas case, DARPA financed the production and development of their RNA vaccine production platform and their RNA therapy candidate for Chikungunya virus (their first for an infectious disease) was developed in direct collaboration with the agency. Since 2016, Modernas RNA vaccine program has received $100 million in funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation has since poured millions directly into both Modernas and Inovios Covid-19 vaccine efforts.

Gates backing of DNA and RNA vaccines is significant, given that Gates  a billionaire with unparalleled influence and control over global healthcare policy  recently asserted that the best options for a Covid-19 vaccine are these same vaccines, despite the fact that they have never before been approved for use in humans. Yet, thanks to the emergency authorizations activated due to the current crisis, both Modernas and Inovios testing for these vaccines has skipped animal trials and gone straight to human testing. They are also set to be fast-tracked for widespread use in a matter of months. Modernas clinical trial in humans began in mid-March, followed by Inovios in the beginning of April. Thus, they are not only Gates favorites to be the new vaccine, but are also slated to be the first to complete clinical trials and garner emergency U.S. government approval, especially Modernas vaccine which is being jointly developed with the governments NIH.

The rapid rise to prominence of Modernas and Inovios Covid-19 vaccines has resulted in several media articles praising DARPA as having provided our best hope for thwarting the coronavirus crisis. In addition to its backing of Modernas and Inovios own efforts, DARPA itself, specifically DARPAs BTO, is set to have a temporary vaccine for Covid-19 available in a matter of weeks that will involve the production of synthetic antibodies that would ostensibly provide immunity for a few months until a longer-lasting vaccine (such as those produced by Moderna and Inovio) is available.

DARPAs antibody treatment for Covid-19 is pursuing two routes, including the human body as bio-reactor approach that would involve synthetic DNA or RNA being injected in order to prompt the body to produce the necessary antibodies. Defense One notes that DARPAs Covid-19 treatment would utilize techniques that had resulted from the agencys investments in microfluidics (the manipulation of liquids at the sub-millimeter range), nanotechnology fabrication and new approaches to gene sequencing.

PERSISTENT CONCERNS

While most media reports have painted these DARPA-led efforts as entirely positive, it is worth noting that concerns have been raised, though these concerns have hardly gotten the coverage they warrant. For instance, Nature recently noted some key points regarding safety issues related to the race for a Covid-19 vaccine, including the fact that all previous coronavirus vaccines have not all proven appropriate or even safe, with some past attempts at coronavirus vaccines having resulted in antibody dependent enhancement (ADE). ADE results in cells more rapidly taking up the virus and speeding up the virus replication, increasing its infectiousness and virulence.

Nature also noted that the two coronavirus vaccines for SARS that managed to pass phase 1 trials ended up, in subsequent studies, causing immune hypersensitivity in mice resulting in severe immunopathology, i.e. permanent defects or malfunctions in the immune system. In addition, Nature also pointed out that it is unknown how strong an immune response is needed to confer immunity for Covid-19 and coronaviruses in general, making it incredibly difficult to gauge if a vaccine is even effective.

Another issue worth noting involves concerns raised about Inovio Pharmaceuticals by investment research firm Citron Research, which compared Inovio to Theranos, the disgraced medical technology company that had initially promised to offer diagnoses for numerous diseases via a simple blood test, but was later revealed to be a sham. Citron asserted that Its been over 40 years since Inovio was founded, yet the company has NEVER [sic] brought a product to market, and all the while insiders have enriched themselves with hefty salaries and large stock sales.

Citron Research went on to say that the companys claim to have designed their Covid-19 vaccine in only 3 hours based on a computer algorithm was hard to believe, stating that Inovio has a computer algorithm that no one else in the world has and is arguably one of the greatest breakthroughs in vaccine discovery in the past 100 years, and yet this computer algorithm is not mentioned once in any of its 10-Ks or 10-Qs? Sounds like Theranos to us. It also noted that Inovios partnerships with pharmaceutical companies Roche and AstraZeneca ended up failing with those two companies canceling the partnership despite claims from Inovios CEO that whey would continue to thrive.

A NOT-SO-HIDDEN AGENDA

Of course, these are just concerns focused on corporate behavior and obstacles towards making a Covid-19 vaccine in general. As this report has already shown in detail, DARPAs other experiments with the same technologies (particularly genetic engineering, synthetic chromosomes, and nanotechnology) that are being used to produce RNA and DNA vaccines for Covid-19 are arguably more concerning. This is especially true given that DARPA-backed companies that describe themselves as strategic partners of the agency are those manufacturing these vaccines. In addition, thanks to backing from the U.S. government and Bill Gate, among others, they are are also slated to be among the first vaccines (if not the first) approved for widespread use.

It is certainly troubling that media coverage of DARPAs efforts and the efforts of Moderna and Inovio have thus far not included critical reporting regarding the different branches of DARPAs research that has produced the technology involved in creating these vaccines, leaving little room for public scrutiny of their safety, efficacy and their potential for unintended effects on human genetics.

This is particularly alarming given that, over the past several weeks, efforts have been taking shape in many countries to enforce mandatory vaccinations once a Covid-19 vaccine becomes available. In some countries, it appears likely that the Covid-19 vaccine will not be made mandatory per say, but will be required for those who wish to return to any semblance of normalcy in terms of public gatherings, working certain jobs, leaving ones home for longer periods of time and so on.

Would those involved in creating such a mandatory vaccine, e.g. DARPA, pass up the opportunity to utilize the same technologies involved in producing the vaccine for some of their other admitted goals? This question, of course, has no obvious answer, but the fact that the arc of DARPAs research is aimed at the weaponization of human biology and genetics in a way that is ripe for misuse, suggests very worrying possibilities that warrant scrutiny. Indeed, if one merely looks at how the crisis has been a boon for the Orwellian plans of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) and the federal governments current efforts to dramatically increase its powers amid the current crisis, it becomes increasingly difficult to give government agencies like DARPA and their corporate partners like Moderna and Inovio the benefit of the doubt.

This is especially true given that  without a major crisis such as that currently dominating world events  people would likely be unreceptive to the widespread introduction of many of the technologies DARPA has been developing, whether their push to create cyborg super soldiers or injectable BMIs with the capability to control ones thoughts. Yet, amid the current crisis, many of these same technologies are being sold to the public as healthcare, a tactic DARPA often uses. As the panic and fear regarding the virus continues to build and as people become increasingly desperate to return to any semblance of normalcy, millions will willingly take a vaccine, regardless of any government-mandated vaccination program. Those who are fearful and desperate will not care that the vaccine may include nanotechnology or have the potential to genetically modify and re-program their very being, as they will only want the current crisis that has upended the world to stop.

In this context, the current coronavirus crisis appears to be the perfect storm that will allow DARPAs dystopian vision to take hold and burst forth from the darkest recesses of the Pentagon into full public view. However, DARPAs transhumanist vision for the military and for humanity presents an unprecedented threat, not just to human freedom, but an existential threat to human existence and the building blocks of biology itself.
Trump's favorability among white Christians in battleground states falls 27% since March: poll

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President Trumps favorability among white Christians in battleground states has dropped by 27 percentage points since mid-March as the country has dealt with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, according to data released by the Public Religion Research Institute.

PRRI, a nonprofit polling firm that researches the intersection of religion, culture and public policy, released a new survey Thursday of 1,008 Americans conducted from April 21 to April 26.

The survey found that since March, the percentage of white Christians in presidential battleground states who say they hold a mostly or very favorable view of the president has dropped from 75% to 48%.

According to PRRI, the decline puts the presidents favorability among White Christians in those states more in line with the demographics view of him recorded in 2019 (55%).

Trump's favorability among respondents from battleground states fell from 53% in March to 38% in April.

Among all Americans surveyed, only 43% said they hold a mostly or very favorable view of Trump. Meanwhile, 54% of respondents said they hold a mostly or very unfavorable view of him.

The survey shows that Trumps favorability rating dropped 7 percentage points over the last four weeks when it was at 49%. The March result equated to the highest favorability rating for Trump since 2015 and marked the first time in PRRIs polling that Americans were more likely to say they hold a favorable view of than an unfavorable view (46%) of Trump.

Trump benefited from a brief rally around the flag effect as the coronavirus pandemic began to spread in the U.S. But over the last four weeks  as the total number of reported U.S. cases of the coronavirus increased exponentially from around 33,000 cases to more than 900,000 cases  this boost has rapidly dissipated, a PRRI analysis of the new data reads.

Trumps current favorability rating (43%) is similar to the 40% of Americans who held favorable views of him in February shortly after he was acquitted of impeachment charges, and the 41% of Americans who held favorable views of him between March and December 2019.

When broken down by religious affiliation, the PRRI data shows that Trumps favorability among white evangelical Protestants declined 11 percentage points since March to 66% in April.

Among white mainline Protestants, Trumps favorability rate declined from 62% to 44%. The favorability rate among white Catholics declined from 60% to 48%. As for non-white Protestants, PRRI found no significant change as the favorability rate dropped from 40% in March to 36% in April.

In the 2016 presidential election, Trumps victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton relied heavily on the support of Christians. According to exit polls, 58% of respondents who identified as Christian or Protestant said they voted for the real estate mogul in 2016. Meanwhile, 52% of Catholics and 81% of white evangelical or born-again Christians said the same.

PRRI also found no significant change in Trumps favorability rate among religiously unaffiliated Americans (37%). The demographics numbers have not changed notably since 2019. In 2016, exit polls indicated that about 26% of people who identified their religion as none said they voted for Trump.

The survey, which contains an error margin of +/- 3.5 percentage points, suggests a divide among white Christians based on those living in counties below or above the median number of novel coronavirus cases.

According to the data, white Christians in counties less impacted by COVID-19 are more likely (63% to 50%) than those living in counties more affected by the virus to say they have a favorable view of the president. According to PRRI, there is no such difference among other religious groups.

In total, the study suggests that people of all demographics in counties hit hardest by coronavirus are 10% less likely to have a favorable view of the president.

About half (49%) of respondents living in areas of Republican-leaning states with higher numbers of coronavirus cases per capita say they view Trump favorably.

By comparison, only 40% of respondents living in areas of Democrat-leaning states with higher numbers of COVID-19 cases and 36% of respondents living in areas of battleground states hit hard by the virus said they hold a favorable view of Trump.

For all three types of states, Trumps favorability in these counties with higher counts of COVID-19 cases closely resembles his favorability overall, the analysis reads.
Two bodies believed to be of South Koreans missing after being hit by a Himalayan avalanche in January have been found, officials said Sunday, a day after discovering the corpse of their Nepali guide. A wall of snow hit a trekking trail at about 3,230 metres (10,600 feet) near the Annapurna base camp in Nepal on January 17, burying four South Koreans and three locals. Avalanches and more snowfall since then made it too dangerous to launch a proper hunt. Police returned to the area Friday after thawing snow revealed a bag. "A team of rescuers in an army helicopter is trying to bring two more bodies from the avalanche site which we found on Saturday," Kaski district police chief Dan Bahadur Karki told AFP. "Both bodies have not been identified yet but they could be of the South Koreans as they were found at the same area where they went missing." The body of the Nepal guide was found on Friday. Another body of a local guide, who had worked for a Chinese team, was also found a month earlier. Nepal has been in a coronavirus lockdown for the past month with all trekking permits suspended. Thousands of trekkers visit Nepal every year for its stunning views of the Himalayas and routes lined with picturesque villages. The Annapurna region is particularly popular, with more than 170,000 visitors in 2018. A helicopter carrying a rescue team flies in front of the Annapurna mountain range, in Pokhara, west of Kathmandu, during the initial search in January
Cash-strapped Pakistan has requested the members of G-20 nations for debt relief with a commitment of not contracting new non-concessional loans except those allowed under the IMF and World Bank guidelines, according to a media report.

The formal requests were sent to individual countries on Friday under the G-20 COVID-19 Debt Service Suspension Initiative, a senior official of the economic affairs ministry told The Express Tribune on Monday.

On April 15, the Group of 20 major economies announced a freeze on debt repayments from 76 countries, including Pakistan, during May to December 2020 period as they struggle to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, subject to the condition that each country would make a formal request.

However, one of the eligibility criteria was that the beneficiary country would not contract new non-concessional debt during the suspension period, other than the agreements under this initiative or in compliance with limits agreed under the IMF Debt Limit Policy (DLP) or WBG policy on non-concessional borrowing.

The Pakistan government has not mentioned the debt relief in the request letters, although it has assessed the cumulative relief quantum at USD 1.8 billion for May-December 2020 period.

Pakistan has also intimated to the IMF, the World Bank and the Paris Club about its decision to formally seek debt relief.

Last month, the IMF's Resident Representative to Pakistan Teresa Daban had said that Pakistan did not officially make any request to G-20 countries for debt relief.

Pakistan owes USD 20.7 billion to 11 members of the Group of 20 major economies. Out of this sum, an amount of USD 1.8 billion would mature by December 2020, including the interest payments, according to the Economic Affairs Ministry.

In these eight months, Pakistan will have to make USD 1.8 billion repayments to its 11 members. This includes USD 1.47 billion principal loans repayments and USD 323 million interest on the loans, the daily said.

Also, USD 613 million Saudi debt and USD 309 million Chinese debt will mature, according to the economic affairs ministry.

In this period, Pakistan is also required to return USD 23 million to Canada, USD 183 million to France, USD 99 million to Germany, USD 6 million to Italy, USD 373 million to Japan, USD 47 million to South Korean, USD 14 million to Russia, USD 1 million to UK and USD 128 million to the US.

Under an IMF condition, the USD 7.5 billion loans that the Imran Khan government had secured from China, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar cannot be returned during the IMF programme period, the report said.

These loans were secured only for one year to avoid default on international debt obligations but the IMF had put a condition that this money would be rolled over every year until the programme ends in 2022.

If the G-20 member countries accept the request, Pakistan will have four years period to return the amount, including one year of grace period.

Pakistan assured the G-20 members that it would not contract new non-concessional debt during the suspension period other than the agreements under the initiative or in compliance with the limits agreed under the IMF Debt Limit Policy or World Bank Group Policy on non-concessional lending.

An IMF report had estimated Pakistan's post-COVID-19 external financing requirements at USD 25.8 billion with a financing gap of USD 2 billion.

For the next fiscal year, the IMF projected Pakistan's gross financing requirements at USD 29.3 billion and a financing gap of USD 1.5 billion.

The IMF had approved USD 1.4 billion emergency loans, which largely bridged the projected financing gap but the amount fell short of the full needs.

The G-20 countries have announced the debt relief to help the poorest countries to use the created fiscal space to increase social, health or economic spending in response to the coronavirus crisis. A monitoring system was expected to be put in place by the international financial institutions.

The debt relief will last till end of 2020 but the G-20 countries might consider a possible extension, taking into the account a report on the liquidity needs of eligible countries by the World Bank and the IMF.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After headlines and details surfaced about a group of schoolboys in a conversation on a social media group where they appeared to detail sexual assault of teenage girls, Mumbai Police put out a strong message against such activity. The group which was called "Bois Locker Room" has seen strict legal action taken against them too.

Taking to Twitter, Mumbai Police, in their inimitable manner and tweeted, Boys will be boys - never an acceptable excuse earlier, will never be one ever after #StopThemYoung

There is absolutely "no room for disrespecting women," Mumbai Police said.

Their post accompanied a grey plate that reads, "Boys lock 'err'? No room for disrespecting women."

Boys will be boys - never an acceptable excuse earlier, will never be one ever after #StopThemYoung pic.twitter.com/sJx7nFOy4P Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) May 4, 2020

Along expected lines Mumbai Police's witty post had the internet floored and churning out praises in a jiffy.

Gotta love @MumbaiPolice on Social media  Zeba Warsi (@Zebaism) May 4, 2020

Thank you Mumbai police. Had a 2 hours argument with a guy here on Twitter where he was saying sharing whatsapp conversation is a breach of privacy & defending the boys. I hope he reads ur tweet & message. Yes, stopping before it happens is d best medicine. Massive appreciation. Mona Sharma (@MonaSharmapr) May 4, 2020

Respect Aamchi Mumbai Police Lay Bhaari bi (@Mumbaichaamulga) May 4, 2020

Mumbai Police  gopsav (@gopika_vinod) May 4, 2020

Well done  Nicola (@cloudnikki) May 4, 2020

The Delhi Commission for Women had issued a notice to Instagram and Delhi Police on May 4 over the matter while the Delhi Police has been asked to file a report by May 8 on the action taken against the perpetrators.

"DCW chief @SwatiJaiHind issues notice to Instagram and Delhi Police in the matter of a group named "boys locker room" being used by some miscreants to share objectionable pictures of minor girls and planning illegal acts such as rape of minor girls," DCW said in a post on Twitter.
Hyderabad, May 5 : A migrant woman worker from Chhattisgarh delivered a baby by the roadside in Telangana's Medak district early Tuesday.

The woman was walking with her husband and some other migrant workers along National Highway 44 to reach her home state.

The incident occurred at Japthi Shivanur village when the woman identified as Anitha Bai developed labour pains. With no vehicle available to shift her to the hospital, women accompanying her helped her deliver the baby by roadside.

Alerted by some locals, a police sub-inspector arranged a private ambulance and shifted the woman to a government-run hospital at Ramayampet.

"After receiving a call about the incident, the sub-inspector arranged an ambulance and both the woman and the new-born were shifted to hospital. Both of them are safe," Nagarjuna Goud, Circle Inspector, Ramayampet, told IANS.

The woman along with her husband and others had walked for 70 kms as part of their journey to return home.

Risking their lives, migrant workers from various parts of Telangana are trying to return to their home states on foot. Last month, a 12-year-old girl had died while returning to Chhattisgarh.

The girl working in chilli fields in Telangana's Jayashankar Bhupalapally district along with some others walked for three days to reach her home in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh. However, she collapsed and died just an hour away from her home.

Migrant workers lined up at police stations in different parts of Hyderabad and other places in Telangana to register their names to return home.

Large number of workers gathered at Kukatpally police station in Hyderabad to register their names. The police had a tough time in controlling the crowd.

The Telangana government has announced that 40 special trains will be operated from the state every day over the next one week to send migrant workers back to their respective states.

The trains from Hyderabad, Warangal, Khammam, Ramagundam, Damaracharla and other places will be operated to Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and other states.

The government said migrant workers who have registered their names with the police stations would be allowed to travel by the special trains. The details of the travel will be given at the police stations.

Migrant workers in various parts of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh Acontinued their protest on Tuesday, demanding the authorities to send them back to their home states. Workers from Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and other states staged protests in the temple town of Tirupati.

Meanwhile, there were also protests in Guntur district. The labourers working at under construction buildings of All India Institute of Medical Sciences at Mangalagiri staged a protest over the delay in sending them back to their homes.

Officials assured the workers that arrangements would soon be made for their travel. There are an estimated 1100 migrant workers in Mangalagiri and surrounding villages.
President Donald Trump has endorsed the new Republican candidate running against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) in the upcoming 2020 election.

Im Endorsing you also Lacy, you truly deserve it. You are doing a great job, and Omar is a disaster who wants much higher taxes, hates our Military & our Vets, demands Open Borders, and is fighting to take away our great 2nd Amendment. Good luck Lacy!, Trump wrote on Monday.

And Im Endorsing you also Lacy, you truly deserve it. You are doing a great job, and Omar is a disaster who wants much higher taxes, hates our Military & our Vets, demands Open Borders, and is fighting to take away our great 2nd Amendment. Good luck Lacy! https://t.co/RunIPCbTyc  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 4, 2020

Lacy Johnson, a Minneapolis businessman, is running as a Republican for Minnesotas 5th Congressional District.

Im running against Ilhan Omar. Im humbled the GOP endorsed me by receiving 90% of the vote. I will win the primary and look forward to defeating Ilhan in Nov. 2020, he wrote on Twitter Saturday.

Identifying himself as a common sense conservative, Johnson said he will be fighting against the radical-leftist Ilhan Omar.

The media will not expose her, only we can show the people of our district the truth. Radical left-wing policies will continue to fail major cities across America, he said in a statement.

Johnson, a computer technologist and entrepreneur, unsuccessfully ran for the legislature in 2018, according to The Sun. He said that it will be hard to unseat a Democrat incumbent in the 5th Congressional district, which includes the entire city of Minneapolis, since the seat has been held by Democrats for decades.

However, Johnson says swing voters and disillusioned Democrats could change that, reported The Sun.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assanges extradition hearing was pushed back to September, in a ruling at Westminster Magistrates Court yesterday morning.

The hearing had been due to begin on May 18, but Assanges legal team appealed for a postponement in light of the coronavirus pandemic, which would prevent Assange, his legal team, and key witnesses from attending the court in person.

The WikiLeaks founder is fighting an extradition request from the United States, seeking life imprisonment for exposing war crimes, torture, and state conspiracies.

Proceedings will be moved out of Woolwich Crown Court, near Belmarsh maximum security prison where Assange is being held, to another Crown Court to accommodate the new schedule. The start date and location will be confirmed on Friday.

September was the month suggested by Assanges defence in their first submission requesting a delay. At last weeks hearing, presiding District Judge Vanessa Baraitser had raised the possibility of a bifurcated hearing in July-August, or a single three-week hearing sometime after November. However, neither the prosecution nor the defence were available in the July and August period, and Edward Fitzgerald QC, Assanges defence lead, insisted that the November date is too late for us.

Nonetheless, the vindictive ruling given by Baraitser in Marchand later reiterated by the British governmentthat Assange will not be released on bail means he now faces an additional four months endangered by the coronavirus epidemic in UK prisons. The danger is highlighted by the fact that Assange has now not attended the last three hearings either in person or by video link due to ill health. It is understood that doctors have advised him not to use the prisons video link facility to minimise his potential exposure to the virus.

Campaign group Doctors for Assange commented after yesterdays hearing:

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, Julian Assanges health and survival in Belmarsh prison was highly precarious.

Now, with coronavirus in Belmarsh, his history of chronic health difficulties, psychological torture, medical neglect, respiratory issues and inevitably compromised immune system is a deadly medical cocktail.

He should be released on bail immediately. Given the multiple violations of due process of law in this case, Julian Assange must be freed.

The British state will also continue to obstruct both Assanges ability to conduct his defence and journalists ability to report on the case in detail. Yesterdays hearing was delayed nearly two hours, with Assanges legal team only informed of the change that morning. Belmarsh prison has used the pandemic to justify restricting Assanges already extremely limited contact with his lawyers even further. By September, he will have spent 18 months in a maximum-security prison on no charges, with strictly limited visits and communication with the outside world and without access to a trusted doctor.

Lauri Love, who successfully defeated a US extradition attempt in 2018, said in a statement, 18 months is longer than I had to wait for my own extradition hearing. Its a horrific legal process to go through under the best conditions. It takes a cumulative toll on your physical and mental health.

I was able to participate meaningfully in my own defence, which Julian cannot, due to his unnecessary detention in Belmarsh. This has been exacerbated by restrictions on his access to lawyers and family as a result of the coronavirus.

We cannot have justice if the process itself becomes a punishment.

Throughout the lockdown, Westminster Magistrates Court has failed to provide even the most basic access to proceedings to the media. Last week, reporters were given access to an inaudible conference call. Yesterday, they were treated to an hour of hold music while the hearing took placethe clerk failed to unmute the courts line. The court sent out a statement to a select list of journalists after the hearing with a short summary of the events and outcomes.

Reporters Without Borders tweeted in response, The courts failure to facilitate remote monitoring highlights precisely why Julian Assanges extradition hearing must be postponed until lockdown conditions are lifted. This case is of high public interest and must be open to scrutiny by the press & other observers.

These failings are part and parcel of the show trial procedures established during the first four days of Assanges extradition hearing in February. While Assange struggled to hear proceedings in the well of the court and was denied secure and simple communication with his representatives, the majority of journalists were forced to watch proceedings on tiny screens with terrible audio quality in a portacabin outside the court building. There is every chance that the change of venue made necessary by the September date will be used as an opportunity to hold the hearing in a Crown Court even more inaccessible than Belmarsh.

Assanges supporters must make use of this delay to organise the mass international movement necessary to secure his freedom.
Why South Africa needs to ensure income security beyond the pandemic

Economic distress was the norm for many before the coronavirus outbreak. The pandemic is an opportunity to provide an economically secure future for all.

A slew of countries ranging from the US to Brazil to Singapore to South Africa have decided to give people money in response to the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

While the amounts and details of the grants have varied, these governments have all made it clear that such payments are a short-term emergency response to an exceptional situation. But is the economic uncertainty caused by COVID-19 as exceptional as it seems? Might the reasons for guaranteeing economic security be valid even without a global pandemic?

Take the case of South Africa.

The government has decided to substantially bolster the social security net, directing R50 billion to those most acutely affected by the crisis over the next six months. This will be distributed in the form of increasing the current child support grant. In addition, pensions and disability grants will go up. But the biggest change is the introduction of a special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant to be paid to people who are currently unemployed and do not receive any social grant or unemployment insurance for the next six months.

The new COVID-19 grant is the first time unemployed working-age adults are being included in the social grant system. Since 1994, the African National Congress government has resisted including them. And the resistance remains.

South Africas treasury has been busy making it clear that the new direct cash transfers are exceptional and temporary. At a recent media briefing, finance minister Tito Mboweni repeated again and again that the additional grants were temporary. His anxiety that people will expect the additional grants to remain in place  and that they will become agitated when the grants are taken away  is palpable.

Economic distress  before the pandemic

The name of the new grant shows exactly what its meant for. Calling it the COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant makes it clear that this is an emergency measure, here only to relieve the distress of COVID-19.

But economic distress was the norm for many before the coronavirus outbreak. Illness, ill-fortune and economic precarity existed long before this pandemic. The outbreak only makes the economic crisis broader, deeper and more visible.

An accident, a family death, or a delayed train can happen to anyone. But for the large number of people in South Africa who work for low wages without a proper contract, or who simply cannot find work at all, one of these events can be the tipping point into destitution.

They dont need a pandemic to experience economic distress.

We would argue that South Africa needs more than emergency provisions such as a short-term new social grant or an emergency basic income. Rather, it needs a permanent form of economic security, be it in the form of a universal basic income that is given to all and then taxed back from those that dont need it, or some other form of income guarantee for all.

Work does not provide economic security for all

Politicians are now willing to guarantee citizens some measure of economic security through the state because they cannot ask them to leave their homes and find economic security through work. But in a place like South Africa, finding economic security through wage labour was never the solution. It is just wishful thinking.

The statistics are stark: South Africa has an unemployment rate of nearly 40%. And of those lucky enough to have work, about 54% of full-time employees earn below the working-poor line of R4,125 a month.

The current economic distress brought on by the pandemic is not a brand new crisis. Its an amplification of what was already reality for many South Africans. Indeed, it deepens economic insecurity around the world: globally, over 60% of workers are in non-standard employment  that means its precarious, short-term or informal.

The link between wage labour and economic security has long been a mirage in South Africa. Mass unemployment and precarity are neither new nor temporary. They are structural and enduring features of South Africa, further compounded as companies collapse and invest in labour-saving technologies. The need to provide economic security beyond the labour market has long been political reality.

Guaranteeing economic security

The idea that economic security should be a universal right  much like universal access to health care  has been around for centuries. At its core, its simply the argument that no matter who they are or what they do, every human being should be guaranteed enough resources to stay alive.

Ray van Heerden, a car guard, from the poverty-stricken shantytown of Munsieville, cannot work due to the lockdown. EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook

There are many ways to provide this kind of economic security. It could be via a social grant given to everyone who needs it. Or a negative income tax, a payment through the tax system that tops up the income of the poor to a basic level. Or it could be via a universal basic income  a regular payment to every resident, with no conditions or targeting.

Universal basic income has the advantage of simplicity. Theres no need for a bureaucracy to decide who should get it and who should not. And while many people critique it for being expensive and going to people who already have money, this is not the case. It goes to everyone, but is taxed back from the wealthy who dont need it  meaning it both costs less than you might think, and ends up helping only those who really need it.

The biggest source of resistance to providing economic security to all, be it through universal basic income or other forms of guaranteed income, is the idea that people have to work for money  that you cant get money for nothing. This is why, despite a big push for basic income in the early 2000s, the South African state has always resisted the idea. But work has never been able to provide economic security for all in South Africa. Why keep expecting the poor to receive money through work only, when work is unavailable, or unstable and badly paid?

The fact that many countries are now giving citizens emergency cash could be a step in the right direction. Finally, anyone who needs it can access some form of economic support from the state. But this should not be a temporary measure. It does not address a new problem, but rather a very old one that is suddenly worse. What the country needs is not an emergency basic income, but a permanent income guarantee. In fact the Spanish government plans to maintain the basic income it is implementing beyond the pandemic.

No longer business as usual

The circumstances that necessitate an income guarantee have long existed in South Africa. It is time for the government to acknowledge this. There can be no return to business as usual, because business as usual means poverty, suffering and ongoing economic distress.

The poor and most vulnerable understand that the economic insecurity they face is not a state of exception. It is the default. It will not end after the easing of the lockdown.

This international Workers Day, the COVID-19 pandemic provides an opportunity to see things as they are  that work cannot be assumed to shelter everyone from economic distress. It also provides an opportunity to delink basic livelihood from wage labour, and begin to develop policies that deliver an economically secure future for all.

Hannah J. Dawson, Post-doctoral fellow at the Society, Work and Politics Institute (SWOP) , University of the Witwatersrand and Elizaveta Fouksman, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, University of Oxford. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Paris, 5 May 2020

ROCHE BOBOIS SA (ISIN: FR0013344173 - Ticker symbol: RBO), a global benchmark on the high-end furniture market and the name behind the French Art de Vivre, today announces its revenues for Q1 2020.

Revenues

(unaudited - in m) 2019 2020 Change at current

exchange rates (%) Change at constant

exchange rates (%) Q1 60.3 61.8 +2.5% +1.2%

The breakdown of revenues by region is presented in the appendix

Roche Bobois SA posted Q1 2020 revenues of 61.8 million, up 2.5% at current exchange rates from 60.3 million in the first quarter of 2019. This growth was driven by strong momentum in the United States/Canada. The performance was weaker due to the COVID-19 health crisis, with a significant slowdown in deliveries from mid-March onwards.

At 31 March 2020, the Group's order backlog on Roche Bobois brand totalled 90.3 million, up from 87.8 million at 31 March 2019.

Roche Bobois France revenues amounted to 21.0 million, up 2.5% from 20.5 million in Q1 2019. After a strong start to the year, deliveries slowed considerably from 16 March due to the lockdown measures rolled out by the French government.

The United States/Canada region posted a very strong first quarter with revenues of 17.7 million, up 11.6% at current exchange rates from 15.8 million in Q1 2019, reflecting the strong business momentum posted by owned stores. Revenues in this region were also boosted by new store openings and a positive currency impact. It is worth noting that this strong performance was recorded despite the slowdown in deliveries from mid-March. At constant exchange rates, growth was 8.5%

The United Kingdom posted revenues of 2.6 million, compared to 2.9 million in Q1 2019. This 300,000 decrease was due to the shutdown of operations at the London warehouse in early March, due to a suspected case of COVID-19. However, this region only represents a small portion of the Group's operations, and just 4% of total revenues.

In the Rest of Europe (excluding France and the UK), Roche Bobois SA posted Q1 revenues of 11.2 million, a slight increase of 1.6% at current exchange rates. Q1 2020 growth was strongest in Belgium and Switzerland, offsetting the decline recorded in Italy, where lockdown measures were imposed at the end of February.

Finally, Cuir Center posted revenues of 7.3 million, compared to 8.1 million in Q1 2019 (down 10.6%). The Group experienced delays in container deliveries from China at the beginning of the year, due to the containment measures in force and the French dockers strike. These containers were delivered to the Cuir Center warehouses from mid-April, and these delivery delays (estimated at 1 million in additional revenue) will constitute delivered revenue as soon as the situation allows.

Gradual reopening of stores

Total and owned store retail sales recorded double digit growth until the end of February, however the Group experienced a significant slowdown in business in March due to the impacts of the COVID-19 health crisis, including the decline in store traffic (varying in severity from one country to another) and the associated lockdown measures that followed. As a reminder, throughout March the Group gradually closed nearly all its stores worldwide.

As such, in the first quarter of 2020, the Group recorded a decline in Roche Bobois' brand global retail sales, down 12.1% to 94.5 million from 107.5 million. After having recorded retail sales growth of 10.9% at end February 2020, the month of March accounted for the entire the decline (down 21.1 million compared to March 2019, i.e. 54.4% over one month).

In Q1 2020, total retail sales for all brands combined amounted to 121.5 million, versus 141.5 million in Q1 2019.

Roche Bobois owned stores' retail sales were in line with the same trend, down 10.1% from 60.6 million in Q1 2019 to 54.5 million in Q1 2020. After a 14.1% increase in retail sales in February 2020 compared to the same period last year, a 54% decrease was recorded in March alone.

Meanwhile, in light of the gradual store closures, retail sales in the second quarter will be significantly lower. Nevertheless, despite these closures, the Group posted Roche Bobois owned store sales of 3.5 million in April 2020, thanks to the solid commitment of its sales teams. As a reminder, this period is usually less concentrated in terms of business than other quarters (seasonal nature of the furniture market).

The Group is preparing to gradually resume deliveries. The largest factories in Italy (80% of the Group's production) have reopened, and delivery capabilities will now depend on how quickly the factories can ramp up, as well as the ability to deliver to customers in compliance with all necessary protective measures. Q2 revenues will naturally be impacted by these factors.

All in all, accounting for any deliveries made between March and April, the Roche Bobois order backlog at 30 April totalled around 90 million. These orders will be delivered in the second and third quarters, and no orders have been cancelled.

In Europe, stores located in France, Belgium and Spain are expected to reopen from 11 May 2020. Italy will reopen its stores on 18 May 2020. Stores in Germany and the Netherlands are open.

The Company has implemented the necessary measures to limit the impact on business, thanks to the French government's short-time working arrangements, and the Group is currently in discussions with its banking partners regarding its application for a state-guaranteed loan to protect itself should the crisis continue longer than expected. Meanwhile, the Group has suspended all rents for 2nd quarter 2020 for its owned stores worldwide, and has entered into negotiations with lessors on a case-by-case basis.

Finally, the Group recalls that it is maintaining its own store and franchise store opening plan for the year.

The Company will provide a business update in its next press release on its first-half revenues, scheduled for 21 July 2020.

About ROCHE BOBOIS SA



ROCHE BOBOIS SA is a French family business founded in 1960. The Group operates in 54 countries and has a network of 332 owned stores and franchises (at 31 December 2019) marketing its two brands: Roche Bobois, a high-end furniture brand with a strong international presence, and Cuir Center, positioned in the mid-range market segment with an essentially French customer base. Through its Roche Bobois brand, the Group embodies the French Art de Vivre whose presence can now be felt on the world stage, with original and bold creations from talented designers (Bruno Moinard, Jean Nouvel, Ora Ito, Sacha Lakic, Christophe Delcourt, Stephen Burks, Kenzo Takada, Bina Baitel...) and partnerships with fashion and haute couture houses. Roche Bobois is also a committed partner in the world of culture and the arts. Including franchises, these two brands posted 2019 revenues of 490 million excluding VAT, to which Roche Bobois contributed 398 million and Cuir Center 92 million.

Roche Bobois SA 2019 consolidated revenues came to 274.7 million.



For more information please visit www.finance-roche-bobois.com





CONTACT



Actus Finance - Anne-Pauline Petureaux

Investor Relations

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 72 apetureaux@actus.fr





Actus Finance - Alexandra Prisa

Press Relations

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 90 / aprisa@actus.fr









APPENDICES

Revenues by region and by brand (unaudited - in K) Q1

2019 Q1

2020 Change at current exchange rates (%) Change at constant exchange rates (%) Roche Bobois France 20,487 21,005 +2.5% +2.5% Roche Bobois US/Canada 15,831 17,675 +11.6% +8.5% Roche Bobois UK 2,881 2,624 -8.9% -10.0% Roche Bobois Other Europe 11,006 11,179 +1.6% -0.5% Roche Bobois other (overseas) 1,138 1,227 +7.9% +8.5% Cuir Center 8,141 7,278 -10.6% -10.6% Corporate 787 787 +0.1% - TOTAL 60,270 61,776 +2.5% +1.2%

Transition table Retail sales/Revenues (m)

Q1 2020 Retail sales 121.5 Franchise retail sales -57.3 Retail sales of associates -0.4 Impact of pace of orders and deliveries -10.1 Royalties +2.5 Other services +5.5 Q1 2020 revenues 61.8

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Why Does Belgium Have One of the Highest Death Rates of the CCP Virus

Belgium, a small country in Western Europe, potentially has the highest mortality rate of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, commonly referred to as the novel coronavirus, in the world. While the country is being hit hard by the CCP virus, King Phillippe of Belgium continues to applaud how the CCP handled the virus outbreak.

In todays episode, we will be looking at how Belgium has maintained a close relationship with the CCP over the years.

Belgium has a population of approximately 11 million and a territory of about 30,000 square kilometers. However, it presently has one the highest death tolls of the CCP virus, about 14 percent.

Chinese independent scholar Ge Bi-Dong expressed that the virus seems to have exposed the countries that have strong ties with the CCP. The countries that are close to the CCP have a lot more confirmed cases of the CCP virus.

Ge said: The relationships of European countries with the Chinese Communist Party involve huge interests and these countries make decisions regardless of the political system in China. They know that the CCP is an evil regime but still choose to ignore this fact and continue supporting them. As a result, they are going to suffer.

The diplomatic relationship between China and Belgium was established in 1971, and since the year 2000, both governments have been cooperating closely.

The Belgian government has been advocating the CCPs Belt and Road Initiative and former Prime Minister Yves Leterme and former Deputy Prime Minister Kris Peeters are advocates of the project.

Unlike many Western politicians who have chosen to not voice their opinions about the project, the duo have not only promoted the Belt and Road Initiative publicly, but also urged other members of the United Nations to actively participate.

Many years ago, the President of Belgian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Bernard DeWit, wrote an article to show how Europes close relationship with China has profoundly influenced the entire region, Ge said.

Facing the UK and bordering The Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and France, Belgium is at the crossroads of Europe. But with its west side exposed to the North Sea, it is a strategic target of the CCP.

Leterme praised the CCP in an interview with Chinese state-run media in October 2019 and referred to the CCPs infiltration of Western countries as an important and positive contribution in the establishment of order in the new world.

He mentioned that Belgium is an entry point to European markets, with multiple airports and ports connecting to the rest of Europe. He even urged the Belgian government, on behalf of the CCP, to further study the great opportunities brought by the Belt and Road Initiative.

Belgiums Port of Antwerp is the second-largest transport hub in Europe and has proximity to European production and consumption centers. In August 2015, the Belgian government established an ad-hoc working group at the port to support the CCPs Belt and Road Initiative.

In early 2018, Belgiums second-largest commercial seaport, Zeebrugge, also signed a Container Terminal Concession Agreement with COSCO Ship Ports Ltd. of China under the Belt and Road Initiative framework.

In addition, Belgium also offers China its high-technology. For example, Belgium is a global leader in microelectronics research. The Belgian Microelectronics Research Center and the University of Leuven have signed cooperation agreements with numerous Chinese companies to develop nanotechnology and 5G network technology.

According to reports, as of 2018, both governments have cooperated in more than 470 technology projects.

In 2010, Geely Holding Group in China acquired all stocks of Volvo Car Group worth $1.8 billion dollars as well as Volvos largest assembly plant outside Sweden in Ghent, Belgium. The engineers and experts from the Ghent Assemble Plant then selflessly passed on their skills to the workers at the Volvos new factory in Daqing, China.

Over the next several years, a large number of Volvo cars were released to the European market with the label Designed in Ghent. Made in China. This is a perfect example of the CCPs ultimate goal to use its acquisition of companies in order to steal technology.

Belgium also joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) managed and directed by the CCP in 2017.

In 2018, the trade volume between China and Belgium stood at $23.3 billion dollars 1,150 times higher than since the establishment of diplomatic relations.

In November 2019, the largest Belgian Economic and Trade Delegation of all time and Princess Astrid of Belgium personally visited China with the hopes of obtaining more Chinese investment.

Just like many other countries, Belgium accepted Chinas Panda Diplomacy as it welcomed two giant pandas, Xing Hui (Sparkling Star) and Hao Hao (Very Good), who later gave birth to a male panda.

The CCP virus outbreak led to a global pandemic because of the regimes cover-up.

Belgium has lost many lives to the virus.

As of April 22, Belgium has nearly 42,000 confirmed cases of the CCP virus and 6,262 deaths. The mortality rate is as high as 14.95 percentthe highest in the world based on currently available data.

Despite the international scrutiny the CCP is now facing over the pandemic, King Philippe claimed that the CCPs experiences in handling the epidemic have been helpful to Belgium and thanked the CCP for being a true friend when it sent much-needed medical supplies.

However, Belgian media later exposed the poor quality and low standard of 3 million masks imported from China.

Ge Bi-Dong said that the actions of pro-communists have attracted the CCP virus to their country during the pandemic. He added: That is why I said that the world needs a change, and that is to stay far away from the Chinese Communist Party, denounce and eliminate the CCP.

In this way, we are able to find a solution to truly cure the virus worldwide because the Chinese Communist Party is the most deadly virus in the world!

Presently, the Belgian government is still considering participation in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Various commentators have said the CCP virus pandemic should serve as a warning to Belgium and its leaders as it reaches a critical stage in its decision.
International tribunal orders Canada-based Niko Resources to compensate Bangladesh for 2005 gas field explosion

The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Dispute (ICSID) has ordered Canadian oil company Niko Resources to compensate Bangladesh for a 2005 explosion at the Chhatak gas field. The blast, which occurred while Niko was drilling in the field, caused considerable damage to the gas field and the local environment. Bangladesh filed a lawsuit in 2016 claiming over $1 billion in compensation.

According to The Daily Star newspaper, Bangladeshs State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid told reporters during a video conference on May 3 that the ICSID made its verdict on February 28. The tribunal will make a final recommendation on how Bangladesh should be compensated in the coming weeks.



The explosion in January 2005 occurred at the Chhatak gas field in the north east of Bangladesh while Niko Resources was drilling on the site. Niko had been invited to drill a well at the gas field in 2003 by Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (BAPEX) which controls the natural gas field.



A decade after the incident, Bangladesh filed its lawsuit with the ICSID seeking $1.14 billion in compensation to be split between BAPEX and the government. Minister Hamid told reporters that the compensation was for the destruction of properties and gas reserves in the field. In addition to the direct compensation, Bangladesh was also looking for compensation related to the impact to public health due to the blast and environmental compensation.



After a complex legal battle, the ICSID announced on February 28 that Niko had violated terms of its 2005 joint venture agreement with BAPEX and must compensate the company and Bangladesh. The tribunal found that Niko had failed to follow international standards and guidelines to conduct operations efficiently and safely.



Legal proceedings first began in 2010 when Niko went to the ICSID seeking a ruling that the company was not responsible for the 2005 explosion. Before Bangladesh filed its own lawsuit in 2016, a Canadian court fined Niko after finding it guilty of bribing former Bangladesh Energy State Minister A. K. M. Mosharraf Hossain to obtain the rights to drilling at the Chhatak gas field.



Niko has also been accused of bribing several other officials in order to secure a one-sided drilling contract at the Chhatak field, according to The Daily Star.



More information...
Some people question why the current coronavirus has brought the world to standstill while a previous deadly coronavirus, SARS, did not.

Others have questioned why a vaccine is so urgently needed now to stop the spread of the current coronavirus when a vaccine was never developed for SARS.

I study viruses and am so fascinated by their complexity that I have written a book about them. The tale of SARS and its new cousin that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, shows just how unpredictable viruses can be, particularly when they jump from animals to humans. Understanding emerging, infectious diseases needs to be a priority. SARS, which killed about one in 10 infected people, turned out to be highly lethal but ultimately, and somewhat mysteriously, disappeared.

A virus takes hold

SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, was first noted in Guangdong province, China in November of 2002, when doctors there saw an unusual pneumonia. But the disease was not reported to the World Health Organization at that time.

In February of 2003, another outbreak occurred in Hanoi, Vietnam, and a WHO officer, who later died, examined a patient there and reported a large outbreak to the WHO main office on March 10, 2003.

Meanwhile, a doctor from Guangdong province traveled to Hong Kong and stayed at the Metropol Hotel, along with a number of other international travelers. The doctor was infected with what we now know as SARS-CoV-1. The virus was transmitted to at least a dozen other hotel guests. Two returned to Canada and took the virus there. One returned to Ireland, one to the United States. Three went to Singapore, and one to Vietnam. In addition, a few people were hospitalized in Hong Kong, leading to an outbreak in the hospital there.

From that point, SARS spread to much of the world, although most cases remained in Asia. The virus was aggressive and lethal. Patients typically showed symptoms within two to three days. There were few reports of any infections without symptoms, as there are with COVID-19. The masks came out, temperature scanners were placed in all major public gathering places in China and other parts of Asia, quarantines were implemented, the virus infection peaked in late May of 2003 and then it disappeared. The strict quarantine measures paid off, and by July 2003, the WHO declared the threat over.

Story continues

In all there were just over 8,000 cases of SARS-CoV-1, and about 700 deaths. In the U.S. there were a total of just 29 confirmed cases, and no deaths. The Hong Kong economy, with a large tourism component, was severely impacted by SARS in 2003, much as the U.S. tourism industry is currently one of the most heavily impacted parts of the economy due to SARS-CoV-2.

Killing cousins?

SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 are closely related viruses. Scientists believe that both viruses originated in bats. The RNA genomes of the viruses are about 80% identical. What does that mean?

Our own genomes are over 98% identical to those of chimpanzees, so 80% seems a lot less similar. For a virus though, especially one with an RNA genome, this is actually very closely related.

Thats because viruses can mutate very rapidly. They make a lot of mistakes when they copy their genomes, and they make thousands of copies in a few hours.

The two viruses have very similar proteins on their exterior and use the same proteins, or receptors, on our cell surfaces to enter the cell. These receptors are found in a lot of different cell types.

Most studies of SARS-CoV-1 focused on the lungs, because that is where the most severe disease occurred, but both viruses can infect a lot of different organs. We wont know how often other organs are infected with SARS-CoV-2 until there is time to do proper autopsies and fully understand the way the virus causes disease.

How are they different, and how is that impacting the course of the pandemic? SARS-CoV-1 was more aggressive and lethal than SARS-CoV-2. However, SARS-CoV-2 spreads faster, sometimes with hidden symptoms, allowing each infected person to infect several others. The current estimate is about three, but we scientists wont know the real number until we can test a lot more people, and can understand the role of people without symptoms.

The most important difference is that contact tracing  or finding out who was exposed to someone infected with the virus  was relatively easy: Everyone had severe symptoms in two to three days.

With SARS-CoV-2, it takes about two weeks for symptoms to appear, and many people dont have any symptoms at all. Imagine asking someone whom they had contact with for the last two weeks! You can accurately remember most people you had contact with for the past two days, but two weeks? This critical tool for pandemic control is very challenging to implement. This means that the only safe thing to do is to maintain quarantine of everyone until the pandemic is under control.

What about a SARS vaccine? Vaccine studies for SARS-CoV-1 were started and tested in animal models. An inactivated whole virus was used in ferrets, nonhuman primates and mice. All of the vaccines resulted in protective immunity, but there were complications; the vaccines resulted in an immune disease in animals. No human studies were done, nor were the vaccine studies taken further because the virus disappeared. Many factors were involved in the end of SARS-CoV-1, perhaps including summer weather, and certainly strict quarantine of all those who had contact with infected individuals, but we dont really know why the epidemic ended. Viruses are like that, unpredictable!

Many of the vaccines being developed for SARS-CoV-2 are quite different, and many use only small portions of the virus, or the virus RNA. This may circumvent the problems with SARS-CoV-1 vaccines that used more of the virus. Vaccine development has a large experimental component; we just have to make educated guesses and try different things and see what works. Hence, many different avenues for vaccines are being tested by different labs around the world.

[Get facts about coronavirus and the latest research. Sign up for The Conversations newsletter.]

<p>Este articulo se vuelve a publicar de <a href="http://theconversation.com/es?utm_source=Yahoo&utm_medium=related-link&utm_campaign=related-link0&utm_content=article-137583">The Conversation</a>, un medio digital sin fines de lucro dedicado a la diseminacion de la experticia academica.<p> <p><strong>Lee mas:</strong><br><ul><li><a href="http://theconversation.com/know-your-target-fundamental-science-will-lead-us-to-coronavirus-vaccines-136952?utm_source=Yahoo&utm_medium=related-link&utm_campaign=related-link0&utm_content=article-137583">Know your target: Fundamental science will lead us to coronavirus vaccines</a></li><li><a href="http://theconversation.com/we-found-and-tested-47-old-drugs-that-might-treat-the-coronavirus-results-show-promising-leads-and-a-whole-new-way-to-fight-covid-19-136789?utm_source=Yahoo&utm_medium=related-link&utm_campaign=related-link1&utm_content=article-137583">We found and tested 47 old drugs that might treat the coronavirus: Results show promising leads and a whole new way to fight COVID-19</a></li></ul></p>

Marilyn J. Roossinck receives funding from National Fish and Wildlife Foundation; National Science Foundation; US Department of Agriculture.
Despite the Madhya Pradesh



government allowing reopening of booze shops from Tuesday, the outlets remained closed in the state with liquor contractors approaching the high court fearing potential loss of business in the coming days, mainly due to exclusion of bars and vends from the government order.

The government had on Monday ordered reopening of liquor and hemp (bhang) shops from Tuesday, excluding Bhopal, Indore and Ujjain falling under Red zone, after a gap of 40 days as per the relaxations allowed under the extended coronavirus-induced lockdown.

On the decision of the liquor contractors to not reopen the outlets, state Home and Health Minister Narottam Mishra said, "They (liquor contractors) should have honoured the government's order".

"If they had some grievances they should have come to the state government instead of approaching the court. If they have any issues the government will look into them, but they have to reopen (their shops). The government's order should not be violated," he said.

He said complaints of black marketing of liquor are being received by the government.

"All liquor shops in MP remained closed on Tuesday. A top government official told us in evening that our grievances will be looked into. We are yet to take a call (on the government's appeal to open shops)," MP Liquor Association President Akhilesh Rai told PTI over phone from Sehore district.

Earlier in the day, the liquor contractors moved the HC fearing the potential loss of business in view of the state government's order excluding bars and 'ahatas' (low budget drinking vends usually attached to liquor shops) from reopening and thinnng of business after initial euphoria of first few days.

They sought the HC's directive to the government that their contracts be either reviewed or recalled in view of the "unstable" market condition caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, responding to a query, Mishra said the government had spoken with liquor retailers on Monday.

Liquor contractors had alleged that the government had issued the order on reopening of outlets before taking them into confidence.

They said that it was difficult to maintain social distancing at shops in the wake of rush in the initial two or three days.

Meanwhile, liquor consumers demanded that the booze outlets be reopened immediately.

"The government should come out with a planned strategy to get the liquor shops opened in the wake of coronavirus spread," they added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An influential coronavirus model often cited by the White House is now forecasting that 134,000 people will die of Covid-19 in the United States, nearly double its previous prediction.

The model, from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, had predicted 72,433 deaths as of Monday morning.

Relatedly, a Trump administration model projects a rise in coronavirus cases and deaths in the weeks ahead, up to about 3,000 daily deaths in the U.S. by June 1, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times. Over the past week, about 2,000 people died daily in the U.S., according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The sharp increases in the two models are tied to relaxed social distancing and increased mobility in the US. States across the country -- including Florida, Colorado, Indiana, Nebraska and South Carolina -- have eased restrictions in an attempt to revive a sputtering economy and calm restless residents.

The projections make clear that these reopenings come with fatal risks, CNN reported.

Coronavirus has killed more than 68,000 people in the US and infected more than 1,180,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

U.S. President Donald Trump had previously said he expected 65,000 Americans to die, but on Sunday night, he revised that estimated death toll up to 80,000-90,000 people.
Countries around the world are shovelling huge sums at drug companies to aid development, clinical trials and mass production of COVID-19 vaccines. But how far are we from getting a definitive cure?



AFP

According to a special envoy to the World Health Organisation (WHO) on COVID-19, there may never be a vaccine for it, just like HIV or dengue.

An effective vaccine is regarded as crucial to stopping the spread of the virus  but it is unknown how long it could take to produce one.

Human trials of a vaccine developed by Oxford University began last month, with scientists aiming to have a million doses ready by September if tests go well.

US health experts have repeatedly said a vaccine is probably a year to 18 months away, though the White House said late last month that a vaccine could conceivably be in wide distribution as early as January.



Dr. David Nabarro, who also serves as a professor of global health at Imperial College London, raised the possibility in a new interview with CNN.

There are some viruses that we still do not have vaccines against, Nabarro told the outlet. We cant make an absolute assumption that a vaccine will appear at all, or if it does appear, whether it will pass all the tests of efficacy and safety. In that case, according to the report, treatments may be developed, but the world could still see yearly coronavirus outbreaks  with deaths  and lockdowns will need to be periodically strengthened and loosened.

Dr. David Nabarro/Source/Twitter/The Cable

Its absolutely essential that all societies everywhere get themselves into a position where they are able to defend against the coronavirus as a constant threat, and to be able to go about social life and economic activity with the virus in our midst, he added

Its been a challenge to develop vaccines for common rhinoviruses and adenoviruses, which, similar to the coronavirus, can cause cold symptoms, according to Nabarro.

Twitter/Reuters

An effective vaccine for dengue fever, which infects as many as 400,000 people a year according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), has eluded scientists for decades.

A vaccine to prevent dengue (Dengvaxia) is available in some countries for people ages 9-45 years old. But the WHO recommends that the vaccine only be given to persons with with confirmed prior dengue virus infection.

White House coronavirus task force expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said last month he thought it was within the realm of possibility that millions of vaccines could be ready by January. Experts previously estimated that a vaccine could take 18 months, if not longer.



All Inputs:CNN/IANS
Community jumps in to provide support

L-R, Calvin Du Plessis & representative from Hisense, Dr. Dahne Beukes & Dr. Nazlee Botman (Community Service Doctor) at the Paarl pediatric unit.

Medical team at Charlotte Maxeke hospital

Newly furnished area at Charlotte Maxeke hospital

Aircon installation at mask factory

Thirty-nine days into South Africas national lockdown, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and South Africans are showing their resilience and ability to pull together as a community in new ways. With the coronavirus showing absolutely no discrimination as it sweeps across the country, people are becoming more resourceful and innovative than ever before.Only two weeks ago, pediatrician Dr Jaco Murray, the Head of the Clinical Unit at Pediatrics, Paarl Hospital, under the Western Cape Rural District Health Services department, appealed to the local community for support. It had become clear that an additional pediatric unit was needed at the hospital to treat children who may be affected by or are currently being tested for Covid-19. Due to the highly contagious nature of this virus, patients must be kept as far apart from each other as possible.While the space and structure were already in place, in a letter to residents in the area, Dr Murray pleaded To open the area, we require two fridges, one to use for medicine and another for the childrens feeds and milk to be stored. Any assistance or help will be greatly appreciated to acquire these fridges.Within a day of hearing about this appeal, via the Val De Vie Foundation, appliance manufacturer Hisense made two large fridges available for donation to the unit. Local transport company, CA Mobile Solutions provided a vehicle and driver to deliver the two fridges, which were installed over the weekend. The pediatric unit at Paarl Hospital is now fully functional, treating children who require special infection prevention and control measures.We hope that this small gesture will contribute to saving lives during this unprecedented pandemic, and we encourage all companies to support in whichever ways they can said Jerry Liu of Hisense. It is wonderful to see how people stand together in this time to fight the pandemic. The donated fridges will benefit many children over the next few months. It is with great appreciation that the Department of Paediatrics thanks Hisense for the generous donation, added Dr Jaco Murray.After hearing of a factory in the area making masks, being unbearably hot, Hisense donated an industrial air-conditioner to make conditions more comfortable.In a similar situation in Gauteng, the Charlotte Maxeke hospital appealed for help due to being under-appointed with no waiting area furnishings. Hearing of the need, Hisense donated 4000 masks, 1000 bottles of hand sanitizer, two television sets, a microwave and a fridge. Hirschs also kindly came to the rescue and donated two couches, carpets, fans, a coffee machine and cups. The hospitals really are at the front line of this pandemic. If we can help them, I believe we can help protect the country concluded Liu.Amazing things happen when people pull together for good, and perhaps the Covid-19 pandemic has united South Africans in new ways.
The Yogi Adityanath government on Tuesday came up with more clear guidelines related with reopening of industrial units across the state.

To begin with, the District Industries Centres (DICs) across the state started issuing forms and a set of undertakings to be filled by local industrialists who want to restart their units.

For districts such as Noida, Meerut and Agra, where cases of COVID-19 are high, the guidelines are more stringent.

The form and the set of undertaking to all industrialists who want to resume production was sent through email.

We are submitting forms and in the next 24-hours permission is likely to be granted. I am hopeful that from Thursday onwards industries will start in the state capital, said Awadesh Agarwal, president, Indian Industries Association (IIA), Lucknow chapter. The IIA is an industry lobby body of the MSME sector.

The government has directed industrialists to start operation with 33 percent to 50 percent of their work force.

A 25-point undertaking has been issued by the state government. We have to abide by all instructions to check spread of COVID-19, said Agarwal.

It may be pointed out that all sugar mills and industrial units categorized in essential goods category are already functioning.

The state government has already issued instructions for reopening of all industrial units in rural areas.

Government has responded positively to our requests. The district industries centre across the state have issued forms to industrialists who want to resume production.

In the next two days, there will be some industrial activity in the state, said Pankaj Kumar, national president, IIA.

With the government exchequer drying up and expenditures increasing with each passing day in fight against COVID-19, the government wants industries to start functioning.

However, even after clear guidelines from the Centre and the state government, district magistrates at the local level failed to set the industries in motion in their regions, say industry experts.

JOINT MEETING OF ALL INDUSTRY DEPARTMENTS

The entire industry ministry of the state government conducted a joint meeting on Tuesday to make sure industrial activities begin at the earliest.

The Industrial Development minister Satish Mahana and MSME and Khadi minister Siddharth Nath Singh conducted a joint meeting with all officials of the industry department.

Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner Alok Tandon, principal secretary (Industry) Alok Kumar and principal secretary, MSME, Navneet Sehgal along with other officials were present.

In the meeting it was decided that the Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner will conduct a meeting with the state home department and issue guidelines for industries.

At the local level, district magistrates will implement these guidelines and will also make sure that there is no harassment of industrialists in the name of inspection.
The COVID-19 crisis has led to a spike in the country's unemployment rate to 27.11 percent for the week ended 3 May, up from the under 7 percent level before the start of the pandemic in mid-March, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has said

Mumbai: The COVID-19 crisis has led to a spike in the country's unemployment rate to 27.11 percent for the week ended 3 May, up from the under 7 percent level before the start of the pandemic in mid-March, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has said.

The Mumbai-based think tank said the rate of unemployment was the highest in the urban areas, which constitute the most number of the red zones due to the COVID-19 cases, at 29.22 percent, as against 26.69 percent for the rural areas.

Analysts have been warning about the spectre of unemployment ever since the country was put under a lockdown on 25 March by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to arrest the spread of the virus infections.

Scenes of migrants fleeing urban centres like Delhi and Mumbai only confirmed the long-held concerns on their employment as the economic activity came to a grinding halt.

The government has so far announced income and food support to the vulnerable people as part of a Rs 1.70 lakh crore fiscal stimulus to the economic, financial and possibly humanitarian crisis, and is also mulling a second round of measures soon.

The US has seen a huge spike in unemployment as over 26 million people have claimed for state support because of losing their jobs. Experts often rue the absence of a good gauge of jobs in India, which is predominantly an unorganised-sector led economy.

CMIE's weekly series of data pointed to a steady increase in unemployment since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, with the week to 29 March showing the sharpest spike to 23.81 percent.

As per CMIE's data, the monthly unemployment rate in April stood at 23.52 percent, up from March's 8.74 percent.

As of the end of April, Puducherry in South India had the highest number of unemployment at 75.8 percent, followed by neighbouring Tamil Nadu 49.8 percent, Jharkhand 47.1 percent and Bihar 46.6 percent.

Maharashtra's unemployment rate was pegged at 20.9 percent by the CMIE, while the same for Haryana stood at 43.2 percent, Uttar Pradesh at 21.5 percent and Karnataka at 29.8 pe cent.

Hilly states had the lowest incidence of unemployment as of April, the think tank said, pointing out that the rate in Himachal Pradesh stood at 2.2 percent, Sikkim at 2.3 percent and Uttarakhand at 6.5 percent.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump's latest red line for the next phase of coronavirus legislation - a payroll tax cut for workers - has few fans in Congress even among Republicans, further complicating the path toward a new rescue package as House Democrats rush to release their own plan as early as next week.

As senators returned to Washington this week to an unusually sparse and eerie Capitol, resistance began to mount against Trump's favored form of putting more money into workers' pockets, with lawmakers noting that a payroll tax cut only helps those gainfully employed at a time when record numbers of Americans are filing for jobless claims.

The intraparty rift on a payroll tax cut comes as the Democratic-led House scrambles to produce additional coronavirus legislation with perhaps another massive price tag. Senate Republicans, meanwhile, made it clear that they will pause any rescue package as they begin to scrutinize the effectiveness of previous rounds of aid sent to states, hospitals, consumers and small businesses.

The bipartisan opposition to a payroll tax cut has not deterred Trump, who has continued to tweet about his idea even as growing opposition from his own party that came into sharper view on Tuesday.

"I'm not a particular fan of that," said Senate Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., the Senate's No. 2 Republican. He added: "I guess I'm open to being persuaded that it's something that could be effective, but I think some of the things that we are currently doing are having a bigger impact."

Other senior Republicans, some even allies of the president, were similarly lukewarm on the idea. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said a payroll tax cut would not address all the economic issues currently crippling the nation and called Trump's proposal "kind of one arrow in the quiver."

"I've never thought that really would be effective," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a key swing voice, said Tuesday about the payroll tax cut. She instead said she is focused on working with Democrats and Republicans in both the Senate and the House on a on a state and local aid package.

Rather than indulging Trump's insistence on a payroll tax cut, GOP senators have shifted their focus to liability protections for businesses, demanding that they be protected from what Republicans call frivolous lawsuits as private employers try to reopen their doors in the coming weeks.

Top Democrats have said they will oppose such sweeping protections, which Republicans are insisting on in exchange for another massive infusion of state and local aid.

The standoff shows no immediate signs of abating as House Democrats assemble a massive new rescue package expected to exceed $2 trillion that would include about a $1 trillion commitment for states, cities and municipalities. Money is being eyed for a large array of other provisions including housing, social services, law enforcement, tribal government needs, food security, the Postal Service, rural broadband, rent and mortgage relief, as well as veterans issues.

Democrats have also discussed another round of checks to individual Americans and another extension of unemployment insurance, and are keeping an eye on the Paycheck Protection Program and a separate small-business emergency loan and grant program to see if supplemental funding will be needed.

The immensely popular Paycheck Protection Program was replenished with an additional $310 billion late last month. That second round of funding has so far helped support 2.2 million loans totaling $175 billion, according to administration and congressional officials.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who chairs the Small Business Committee, said this week that the program may need a third round of funding. His aides, who have been tracking how much of the small business money has been disbursed, said the new PPP money would probably not run dry this week but likely later this month.

A vote on a House Democratic bill could come as early as next week, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Tuesday, though there are divisions in the caucus between moderate Democrats growing spooked over a large price tag and liberals who want more spending. Some are also reluctant to vote on an enormous package that has no chance of becoming law and would like to see a bipartisan product like the previous four coronavirus bills Congress has passed, totaling nearly $3 trillion.

There are no active negotiations between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the administration.

But the parties' diverging priorities threaten to make finding consensus much more difficult this time around as Democrats push for another massive funding commitment and Republicans promote the legal-liability protections for businesses they say would help the country reopen.

"If there's any red line, it's on litigation," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters Tuesday; had been asked about Trump's desire for a payroll tax cut.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., a member of McConnell's leadership team, also told reporters Tuesday that he remained unpersuaded that a payroll tax cut was the best option now.

"I think we looked at that early on and I think we just didn't think that would have the desired impact," Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said in a recent interview.

Senate Republicans noted during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday - held in a cavernous hearing room in the Hart Senate Office Building to allow for social distancing among dozens of senators - that significant portions of the rescue money that has already been signed into law have yet to be doled out, according to a person in attendance who spoke anonymously to discuss a private meeting.

White House legislative affairs director Eric Ueland also indicated no immediate urgency from the administration, telling reporters that with nearly $3 trillion in new spending approved, "we also need to understand exactly how successful that spending's been before committing to new spending ideas."

For his part, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., urged McConnell to move with alacrity and continued to criticize the majority leader for his insistence that liability shields for businesses accompany any additional state and local aid.

"This idea of drawing red lines - particularly when they're not really related to what the needs of people are, particularly when they side with big corporate interests as opposed to individual workers, as Leader McConnell's red line - it's not productive and it's not going to work," Schumer said. "People have real needs."
Denmarks Social Democrat government has purchased unreliable antibody tests as part of its reckless back-to-work campaign. The minority government, which became one of the first in Europe to send pupils back to primary school last month, despite persistent questions about the role young children play in spreading the virus, has invested 120 million kroner (about 18 million) in antibody tests produced in China.

The authorities claim that the tests can show how many people have already been infected with the virus, including those who showed no symptoms, and are thus immune. However, questions remain about whether the tests are effective, whether patients who recover from coronavirus are immune, and if they are, how long this immunity lasts. The World Health Organisation has explicitly warned governments against assuming that COVID-19 patients develop immunity and stressed that further research is required.

However, Danish authorities are determined to use the tests as they push to restart the economy as soon as possible. Beyond the major purchase of tests by the central government, Denmarks five regional administrations have purchased 1.4 million antibody tests from the Chinese Livzon brand, according to Politiken. Even the right-wing Indian government led by the arch-reactionary Narendra Modi has described Livzons antibody tests as useless, while Denmarks own disease control agency, the Serum Institute (SSI), refuses to use the tests due to a reported accuracy rate of just 77 percent.

With a population of 5.8 million, Denmark has recorded 9,670 coronavirus cases as of Monday and 493 deaths. During the initial outbreak, testing was heavily restricted, meaning infection rates are likely much higher. Even health staff in three regionsCentral, Southern and Copenhagenwere denied tests in March, as authorities only had enough resources to test seriously sick patients.

Social Democrat Prime Minister Mette Fredriksen is expected to announce another wave of re-openings this week, since the current order is due to expire on Sunday. Fredriksen already allowed children from kindergarten to year 5 to return to school as of April 15. Hairdressers, tattoo parlours, nail salons, and other businesses reopened on April 20. Even major stores like Ikea, where large crowds of shoppers typically gather, reopened in late April.

Unsurprisingly, Denmarks reproduction rate has risen from 0.6 in mid-April prior to the reopening of schools to 0.9 at the end of the month. A reproduction rate above 1 indicates that each infected person passes the virus onto more than one person on average, which leads to an exponential growth of infections.

The alarming rise of the reproduction rate was brushed aside as insignificant by the authorities, as they prepare to go even further. Fredriksen declared last Thursday that the coronavirus is under control, while the SSI claimed the spread of the virus has not accelerated since the opening of primary schools.

Defending the opening of schools, Fredriksen stated that the move was necessary so parents could get back to work and get the economy going again.

The Social Democrat government is reportedly pushing for a reopening of all high schools by mid-May. The fact that this could lead to a dramatic spike in COVID-19 cases was underscored by research showing that the virus is already spreading particularly widely among teenagers. SSI figures revealed that 11 out of 100,000 teenagers have been infected, an increase from just 4 per 100,000 at the beginning of April.

Opposition to the precipitous reopening of the economy is building. A Facebook group set up by a parent titled My kid will not be a guinea pig for COVID-19 has attracted over 40,000 members.

The rush to force people back to work even though the threat from the pandemic has by no means subsided is motivated above all by business considerations. At the beginning of last month, Denmarks National Bank warned that a prolonged shutdown of the economy, which relies heavily on exports, could lead to a contraction of up to 10 percent in GDP. The Bank noted that a rapid reopening of economic activity, coupled with recoveries across Europe, could limit the downturn to 3 percent.

As in every other European country, vast sums of money are being made available to big business. Some 120 billion kroner (about 18 billion) in tax deferrals, including VAT and corporation tax, have been given to Danish businesses. Additionally, the National Bank has eased corporate access to liquidity.

Denmarks debt to GDP ratio is comparatively low at just over 30 percent; the governments pro-business measures are expected to raise it to over 40 percent. This low debt ratio has been achieved through savage austerity over recent years, under both Social Democrat and right-wing Liberal-led governments. Inequality has also risen significantly. While Denmarks Gini coefficient stood at the relatively low level of 0.22 in 1990, it has since gone up to 0.29.

Although Denmarks was one of the first governments to unveil a wage subsidy programme, paying 75 percent of workers wages if their employer kept them on payroll, the measure is limited to a four-month period. Support will expire on July 8, after which participating companies are free to fire staff. To obtain payments, workers had to take five days of holiday. At least 150,000 workers are receiving payments through the scheme. However, Employment Minister Peter Hummelgaard stressed in April that there is no guarantee that all workers will have a job to return to when the support expires. The jobless rate has already surpassed the highest level recorded during the 2008 economic crisis.

The Social Democrat minority governments pro-business response to the pandemic, including its reckless drive for a premature return to work, depends on the support Fredriksen enjoys from petty-bourgeois pseudo-left parties. Fredriksen became Prime Minister last June, after concluding an alliance with the Socialist Peoples Party (SF), Social Liberals, and Red Green Alliance (RGA). The latter formation is an alliance of ex-Stalinists and the Danish section of the Pabloite United Secretariat, the Socialist Workers Party (SAP).

For a decade, the SAP has played a key role in providing left cover for reactionary, right-wing policies. During Helle Thorning-Schmidts Social Democrat-led government in 2011-2015, the RGA twice voted for the state budget. This helped Thorning-Schmidt slash spending in line with European Union-dictated debt reduction requirements, which saw Denmark cut its structural deficit by 1.5 percent per year between 2011 and 2013. In 2014, the RGA voted unanimously to send Danish troops to Iraq to support the US imperialist-led war against ISIS.

Under Fredriksen, the RGA endorsed more reactionary measures, scapegoating immigrants for the deepening social crisis produced by decades of austerity. In December, the Social Democrats vastly expanded their ghetto list, a record of neighbourhoods across the country deemed socially undesirable. These ghettos invariably include districts with high immigrant populations. Residents are forced to send their children to kindergarten to receive classes on Danish values and traditions.

Nonetheless, the RGA enthused at its congress last October about the progressive commitments it had achieved from Fredriksens A Fair Direction for Denmark pact, which she signed with the SF, Social Liberals, and RGA upon taking power.

The pseudo-left RGAs role in providing Fredriksen with a left cover as she forces workers back to work amid a pandemic is in line with the role being played by similar petty bourgeois forces internationally. In Spain, the populist Podemos, which is part of a Socialist Party-led coalition government, forced construction and other workers back to their jobs last month even as the coronavirus continued to run rampant. Now, with total cases approaching 250,000 and more than 25,400 deaths, the PSOE-Podemos government is further lifting restrictions.
Costasol de Hipermercados-Carrefour has made a donation of food vouchers and essential items to Cruz Roja Malaga in order to meet the basic needs of more than 2,000 people in need on the Costa del Sol and in the Guadalhorce valley.

Thanks to the contributions made at the Carrefour Hypermarkets in Estepona, Torremolinos, Mijas and Coin, help will be available to those suffering the most as a result of the coronavirus lockdown.

"At Costasol de Hipermercados we want to assist the residents of the Costa del Sol and the Guadalhorce valley in these difficult times and we do so with our main asset, Carrefour's quality products," explains Javier Martin Ruiz, head of Human Resources for the company. "We will continue to be by their side for as long as they need it."

The alliance between Carrefour and the Spanish Red Cross dates back to 2001 when they created the Immediate Response Mechanism in Emergency Situations. The aim of this is to respond to the basic food needs of people affected by disasters or similar situations.

Through this alliance, more than 10,000 people affected by the pandemic have been helped across Spain so far.
The UK population is suffering from high levels of psychological distress, a report by the London School of Economics (LSE) and Simetrica-Jacobs, a consultancy that measures social impact, found.

Analysing a range of indicators including happiness, life satisfaction and anxiety, researchers recorded substantially worse levels of wellbeing when compared with the results of March/April 2019 survey.

This pattern is consistent across all regions in the UK, between men and women, across all age groups and across different ethnic groups, the reports authors state.

Levels of all measures of wellbeing are at the lowest they have ever been since records began in the UK [in 2011].

The survey, which recorded responses from 1,982 adults across the UK between 9-19 April, also found that the nation as a whole is just under the threshold for psychiatric morbidity.

Psychiatric morbidity refers to the impact mental health conditions have on quality of life.

Psychological distress is particularly high for women, ethnic minority groups and key workers, the report adds.

Researchers also looked at the economic impact of reduced levels of wellbeing, estimating that the total wellbeing cost to adults in the UK to be around 2.25 billion per day  or around 43 per adult per day.

The total wellbeing cost refers to the amount of money that may need to be spent on patients presenting with additional mental health issues as a result of the pandemic.

Paul Dolan, professor of psychological and behavioural science at LSE and one of the reports authors, says its vital that the government devises mental health policies aimed at helping those most affected by the pandemic.

He added: The difference between reported levels of wellbeing in April 2020 compared to April 2019 is enormous, however, not surprising given the huge toll that COVID-19 and the policy responses are taking on us, he said

We calculate that the social distancing measures make up about two-thirds of the wellbeing impact and this highlights the importance of government policies to address the mental health needs of those whose lives are being most adversely affected by the current measures.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-06 00:06:40|Editor: huaxia

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DAR ES SALAAM, May 5 (Xinhua) -- A Tanzanian senior government official told parliament on Tuesday that 65 factories in the east African nation are currently producing about 3.65 million liters of sanitizers in a month as part of efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Innocent Bashungwa, the Minister for Industry and Trade, said four factories owned by Tanzania Medicines and Medical Devices Authority are producing some 900,000 liters of sanitizers in a month and 61 small and middle-sized factories are producing 2,745,000 liters of sanitizers in a month.

Tabling his ministry's budget estimates for the 2020/2021 financial year, Bashungwa told the House in the capital Dodoma that the factories are using a total of 2,548,951 liters of ethanol a month as raw materials used for making the sanitizers.

The minister said at the moment there are only two factories that are making face masks.

He said the two factories have a total installed production capacity of making 150,000 masks a day but currently one is making 30,000 masks a day and the other is producing 40,000 masks a day.

Bashungwa said the locally produced sanitizers and face masks have been certified by the country's standards watchdog, the Tanzania Bureau of Standards. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-05 10:50:35|Editor: huaxia

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MOUNT QOMOLANGMA BASE CAMP, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Historical records and surveying instruments show that Chinese researchers were the first to conduct surveys at the world's highest mountain Qomolangma.

"Ethnic Tibetans living in the southern part of Tibet were the first to discover and name the mountain. From 1715 to 1717, Chinese surveyors used scientific methods for surveying and marked the mountain on the map," said Lin Chao, a late expert on geographic history and topography, in a paper published in 1958.

According to Lin's research, the name Qomolangma first appeared in Huang Yu Quan Lan Tu, or Atlas of the Whole Imperial Territory, in 1721. The map was made during the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

"Emperor Kangxi realized the importance of maps during warfare, but he also found that maps at the time did not correspond to reality, so he ordered that a new map was made," said Zhou Qian, a senior researcher with the Palace Museum in Beijing.

In 1715, the emperor sent surveyors to Tibet, and they carried what were the latest measuring instruments, said Zhou.

The instruments included a semi-circle protractor with four movable pointers, which represented the leading measuring technology at the time, said Zhou. The protractor is kept in the museum. Other museum exhibits, including a bronze quadrant, indicate that the surveyors who went to Tibet attempted height measuring, he said.

The 1715 survey was documented in several files including Qing Shi Gao (translated as Qing Dynasty Files), and Qing Shi Lu (translated as Factual Records of Qing Dynasty), though the imperial atlas is the most direct evidence, Zhou said.

In Lin's paper, he said the longitude and latitude information of Mount Qomolangma as shown on the atlas were different from modern results, but the relevant position is clear. The three branches of mountains shown on the map are the central, eastern and western Rongpo Glaciers today.

Lin and Zhou's research countered narratives that Westerners were the first to survey the mountain straddling the border of China's Tibet and Nepal. In an 1850s survey, the mountain was named after George Everest, a British surveyor general of India who led a team in surveying the Himalayan ranges.

Zhou said it is regrettable that the height of the mountain was not shown on the map. "The full findings of the Qing Dynasty survey of the mountain have yet to be found in public files so far, but I believe as studies in this regard deepen, we may be able to find out about its height in the future," he said.

"The atlas is the earliest known document on the survey of the Mount Qomolangma, which means that China's survey is about 140 years earlier than those by the West," said Zhou.

In the Tibetan language, Qomolangma represents the mother goddess. The mountain is known as Sagarmatha in Nepalese.

China on Thursday initiated a new round of measurement on the height of Mount Qomolangma. Its re-measurement of the mountain comes at a year that marks the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Nepal. It also marks the 60th anniversary of human beings reaching the summit of Mount Qomolangma via the north ridge, as well as the 45th anniversary of China accurately measuring and announcing the height of the peak for the first time. Enditem
Kate Langbroek has revealed her joy at being able to leave her apartment in Bologna for the first time in nearly 10 weeks.

As lockdowns are eased in Italy, the 54-year-old radio host enjoyed a rare outing with her husband, Peter Allen Lewis, on Monday, which she documented on Instagram.

'We left the house. We drove in the car. We saw trees and dogs and cyclists and walkers. We saw our friend Giovanni at his restaurant,' she wrote enthusiastically.

Relief: Kate Langbroek (right) has revealed her joy at being able to leave her apartment in Bologna for the first time in nearly 10 weeks. As lockdowns are eased in Italy, the 54-year-old radio host enjoyed a rare outing with her husband, Peter Allen Lewis (left), on Monday

The couple drove past parks, which she said was a wonderful sight to behold after so many weeks cooped up at home.

She wrote: '[We] smelled honeysuckle. We felt the breeze. So much green. So much blue. I hope the world continues to open: it is glorious.'

Kate concluded by saying the family had ordered takeaway for dinner, giving her a well-deserved night off.

'We are allowed to go to a park!' A day earlier, on Sunday, Kate had addressed the looming lockdown lift as she posed for an Instagram photo holding two freshly-baked baguettes

'Also, how good is takeaway food and not having to cook????' she wrote.

Italy is leading Europe in easing lockdown restrictions. Parks have reopened and factories have been allowed to resume production.

The country had only 174 deaths on Sunday, the lowest figure since the lockdown went into effect on March 10.

Declining: Italy had only 174 deaths on Sunday, the lowest figure since the lockdown went into effect on March 10

The number of new cases was 1,389, also the lowest since March 10, taking the total number of cases from 209,328 to 210,717.

A day earlier, on Sunday, Kate had addressed the looming lockdown lift as she posed for an Instagram photo holding two freshly-baked baguettes.

'There is to be an easing of our lockdown tomorrow... after 8? 9? weeks we are allowed to go to a park! Celebrated by baking baguettes like a b*****d!' she wrote.

Just another day in Bologna! Kate and her family have been living under lockdown for 10 weeks. Pictured waiting in line for the supermarket on March 26

It comes after Kate admitted on The Project last month that she should have packed up and left Italy as soon as COVID-19 arrived in the country.

Italy has Europe's oldest population, and has been the worst affected in all of Europe.

Comedian Peter Helliar asked Kate: 'Are you looking at us [Australia] going, "Maybe we should have returned earlier Why didn't we get out?"'

'Maybe we should have returned earlier': It comes after Kate admitted on The Project last month that she should have packed up and left Italy as soon as COVID-19 arrived in the country

'What do you think, Helliar? Kate sarcastically replied.

'You're like one of the people on the lifeboat on the Titanic yelling out at the band, who's still playing as the boat goes down, "Do you wish your violin was here, mate?"'

In Australia, the curve continues to be flattened with 6,823 cases and 96 deaths as of Tuesday, with restrictions looking likely to be eased.
After the West Bengal government released fresh data about the COVID-19 situation in the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party launched a scathing attack on it on Tuesday.

State BJP in-charge and party General Secretary Kailash Vijayavargiya demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Vijayavargiya, speaking to IANS, said that Banerjee should speak in a serious manner and take responsibility. She has no right to continue in office, she should resign immediately. He said that Mamata is only doing politics, she has nothing to do with the lives of people.

He alleged that instead of focusing on COVID-19 the Mamata government is fighting with the Centre and the Governor. In such a situation the people of West Bengal are sitting on a keg of gunpowder.

After pressure from the central team on Monday, the state government released new figures about the coronavirus situation in the state on Tuesday. According to the data, 296 new cases have been detected in West Bengal in the last two days and 98 people have died.

According to the data released by the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday morning, there were 1,259 coronavirus-infected people in Bengal, out of which 218 were discharged from hospital, while the death toll has seen a tremendous increase. As of Tuesday morning, 133 people have died.

The Central government team that went to West Bengal to investigate the situation returned on Monday after a two-week long tour. In its letter to the Chief Secretary of the state, the team said that despite every effort the state government did not cooperate.

The committee said that the mortality rate due to coronavirus is the highest in West Bengal. During its two-week long tour the team wrote 11 letters to the Chief Secretary and various state departments to obtain information.
Page Content

People of St. Maarten here and abroad, I hereby address you as Prime Minister and Chair of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), in an update for today, Monday, May 4, 2020, as part of the process to keep the community of St. Maarten informed about the latest developments and the Governments COVID-19 containment, mitigation and response measures.





COVID-19 Cases





Today, May 4th, I am happy to announce that there have been no new positive cases of COVID-19 over the past 5 days. However, Id still like to update you on our latest available data. Based on the latest available data, the counts for May 4, as of 4:30 PM are as follows:





 Self-Quarantine: 76





 Self-Isolation: 46





 Number Hospitalized: 5





 Number Tested: 359





o Number Positive: 76





 Male: 54





 Female: 22





o Number Negative: 277





o Number Pending: 5





o Inconclusive: 1





 Deceased: 14





 Recovered: 44





 Active Case: 18





It has been noted by Collective Prevention Service (CPS), that while doing a clean-up of their data and cross-checking with the St. Maarten Medical Centre (SMMC), that they missed the notification of 1 death that occurred around April 24th, 2020. As such, the death rate as of that date is at 14. There have been no new deaths as of today. I apologize to the general public for not giving that information as the clean-up happened over the past weekend and therefore, could only be divulged today.





There is quite a downward trend as you can see in the active cases. I would like to also explain that isolation cases are persons who have symptoms. CPS has noted that many persons have come out of quarantine and isolation as a result of passing their terms or not having symptoms any longer. Persons





with suspected COVID-19 that have been tested or will be tested by CPS also fall within this isolation group and persons with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 that are still being actively monitored.





There are currently five COVID-19 confirmed patients admitted to SMMC. One is in the ICU tent and four are in the Mobile Medical Pavilion (MMP) of which two will be discharged soon. This means that there are no COVID-19 patients currently at SMMC. Over the past seven days, there have been no new COVID-19 admissions to SMMC.





On Wednesday 6, May 2020, KLM Dutch Royal Airlines will be making a repatriation flight to Curacao with a stop in St. Maarten. This is to allow Dutch Nationals to return to the Netherlands. Persons traveling to the Princess Juliana International Airport wont need waivers to do so. Wednesday is a regular day for persons to travel for essential services, therefore, proof of your ticket will be enough in the event you are stopped from going from one zone to the other on your way to the airport. Persons who are passengers traveling to the airport are allowed to do so with a driver, however, in this case, more than two passengers will be allowed in the car as long as they have proof of their ticket(s) to take this flight and any other repatriation flight.





Today, May 4th, a meeting was held with the disaster management team including National Disaster Coordinator Mr. Clive Richardson, Mr. Paul Martens, Mr. Silvanico Pauletta, and Ms. Iesha Harrigan together with myself and the legal advisors to reflect on the decisions made, actions taken, planning and strategies moving forward with the EOC since its activation on March 4th, 2020. This is exactly two months ago.





ESF 4, 5, 6, and 10 coordinators have also met to coordinate and develop the guidelines for de-escalation of the re-opening of St. Maarten in a phased manner. These guidelines will give clarity to the general public on the approach of the measures to be taken. We look forward to presenting these to the public once completed. The measures already in place will continue during the de-escalation period. Any new businesses looking to open in the coming period would have to live up to very strict measures and must have an action plan in place to ensure the safety of their employees as well as those persons visiting the location.





The task force comprising of ESF 4, 5, 6, and 10 will be the ones to grant the go-ahead for these businesses to open once I have made that National Decree. The decree will come into play once this National Decree that we are now under expires. This expiration will take place on Sunday, May 10th, 2020. In that decree, I expect that I would be able to state exactly how we will be moving forward with the de-escalation measures as time goes by.





I would like to give the general public a clear overview of the plan of action of government for the next four weeks. This way you will be able to prepare, plan, and also adjust the way we must behave in this new normal. I am very happy that the State of Emergency has had its desired effect. We have ensured that our health sector has never been overrun to the point where we could not handle the number of COVID-19 positive cases that needed medical attention. We were under duress for quite some time when we were trying to build up our capacity. However, I must say, thanks to good cooperation within the kingdom, we have been able to build up our capacity and remain ready to deal with anything should it reoccur.





I would like to take this time to thank each and every one of our front-liners who go out every day while some persons can stay at home and work, or while some of us can stay with family and friends and be safe. You are going out on a daily basis, sometimes on many long-hour shifts and taking care of the people of St. Maarten. You are the real heroes!





The government of St. Maarten and the people of St. Maarten are appreciative of the great work that you continue to do. It has taken a lot of discipline for us to get here. It has taken a lot of adjustments. It has taken a lot of pain. It has taken some depression and stress, but as Ive said before in many of my broadcasts, St. Maarten is special! We have something that the rest of the world wants, and thats why they will continue to flock to our shores. Many who come here do not leave because there is something special about this blessed island.





We must give thanks on a daily basis that we have seen some really rough days. In 2017 no one thought we would ever come back from the hurricanes. They thought St. Maarten was dead, but low and behold, after three months of no tourism, we were able to come back strong; St. Maarten Strong! Now, with this new COVID-19 reality, I expect, I know, and I have faith that St. Maarten will come back regardless of whats going on around the world. Once travel bans are lifted around the world, St. Maarten will be the place that most will flock to and we will be ready to deal with that when it happens. As such, our de-escalation plans also include how residents will be able to return to the island and those announcements will also be made.





I thank all of you out there who are waiting to come home. I know its a tough time and we are making the plans together with all the entities to make that possible in the safest possible manner for you, your families, and also for the general public of St. Maarten. That has always been my number one priority. The safety and security of St. Maartens people.





People of St. Maarten, we see the end of the tunnel. It is up to us, the people, to determine how we will get out of this. I see the light and you see the light, but we must work together; businesses, organizations, community leaders, the people individually of St. Maarten, all our front-liners, volunteers and all working as a team for St. Maarten. With that being said, we must continue to adhere to the guidelines, rules, and regulations to keep our community safe. Let us continue to be patient, faithful, and compliant. I am proud of how complaint you have been. Our behavior as one people will determine our success. Our positive mindset will determine our success. God bless you St. Maarten. Never lose hope! We are a blessed country!




I know Ive just had my say on epistemic dissidents, but Ive got more to say still. In the past several weeks, tens of thousands of Americans have died from Covid-19; were surpassing the numbers of Americans who perished in the Vietnam War over the course of a decade. Scoffing at the threat has made a mortal difference. With less scoffing, federal and state officials might have acted earlier and lives could have been saved. (Of course, if the officials had succeeded in minimizing the damage, the scoffers would have concluded that they were right.)

Unless the right policies are kept in place, moreover, the incidence of illness and death associated with the pandemic may well rise again. It matters whether people take the issue seriously. All of which is to say: No, you werent overreacting.

Let me mention, too, that the social dimension of denialism and conspiracy mongering is critical. The internet has accelerated the spread of absurd theories, but these are a continuation of the sort of daft rumors that have always circulated in human communities. All great human cognitive tools  and language is among the greatest of them  bring enormous benefits; all have been put to bad uses. In his classic three-volume work of 1841, Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions, Charles Mackay observed, Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one. Spoken, written, printed and digital messages are what make the madness possible. But its language that makes the recovery possible, too.

The students would have been well served by learning this. As a teacher, you might have wanted to speak up when there were students around, make counterarguments and so, at least, convey your disapproval. And, if you were going to do that, you might as well have taken heart and begun to reject the nonsense when it was just the three of you. It might have chilled the atmosphere, but impeding the flow of pernicious nonsense sometimes requires a drop in the temperature.

I may (marginally) improve my chances of surviving Covid-19 if I get a pneumococcal vaccine. (I have several risk factors that put me at heightened risk of death if I contract the coronavirus, and there is a small chance of fatal secondary bacterial pneumonia.) But public-health officials recommend avoiding the doctors office in order to keep the rate of infection down. I have been self-isolating and will continue to self-isolate after this visit; moreover, I have scheduled the very first appointment of the day in order to minimize my contact with other patients. Am I very wrong for doing this? Name Withheld

The rationale for self-isolation is that a lot of small chances for individuals can add up to a big risk for the community. If what youre doing is wrong, whats wrong isnt that it poses a serious risk to others (or yourself); its that youre taking advantage of those who are contributing to flattening the curve by forgoing trips like these. This is a practice that benefits us all, and each of us ought to bear his or her fair share of its costs.

The right course of action for you depends on medical facts specific to your case. Its for your doctor, not me, to decide whether its appropriate for you to venture out and get this vaccine. (Much rests on the question of how small this small chance is.) All I can tell you is that this decision must be made within the broader ethical context Ive just sketched. It cant be reduced to the question of individual risk, incurred or extended. Ethically as well as epidemiologically, were in this together.
Three Indian Security Personnel, One Terrorist Killed After Clash in Kashmir - Police

Sputnik News

16:29 GMT 04.05.2020

New Delhi (Sputnik): Terror activities in India's Jammu and Kashmir have increased since April. On Sunday, five Indian army security personnel were killed in an overnight encounter in the Kupwara district and a further seven sustained injuries in a nearby explosion.

Three members of the 92nd Batallion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed in an attack by terrorists in the Handwara area of northern Kashmir on Monday, a police official in Kupwara said. A further seven were injured.

A terrorist was also killed in the fight, which is still underway. The terrorists were wearing bullet proof jackets and come from a car, police said.

On 3 May, five security personnel were killed in an overnight gun fight in Kupwara and seven people sustained injuries in a blast near the encounter site.

Police data has revealed that at least 17 terror incidents took place in April, in which 29 terrorists were killed while 11 security personnel lost their lives.

India and Pakistan are exchanging cross-border fire in at least six places along the Line of Control. The two south Asian neighbours both claim Kashmir and Pakistan is accused of helping terrorists enter India.

The relations between the two countries worsened after India revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir last August.

 Sputnik

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Officials on Tuesday said the detention of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) has been extended by three months.

The detention of former minister and senior National Conference leader Ali Mohammed Sagar and senior PDP leader and Mufti's uncle, Sartaj Madani, was also extended by another three months.

Several political leaders, including Mufti, Omar Abdullah and his father and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah were detained by authorities on August 5. The PSA of senior Abdullah and his son was revoked earlier in March.

In a brief order by the Home Department of the Jammu and Kashmir administration, the extension of PSA was made under the public order provisions of the act.

While Mufti is currently lodged at her official residence 'Fair View', which has been converted into a subsidiary jail, Sagar and Madani are in a government accommodation at Gupkar road.

'Cruel and retrograde'

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said the decision was "unbelievably cruel" and "retrograde".

"Unbelievably cruel and retrograde decision to extend Mehbooba Mufti's detention. Nothing she has done or said in any way justifies the way the Indian state has treated her and the others detained," Abdullah said in a tweet.

"For a government that is making tall claims about normality in J&K the last few days coupled with the extension of Ms Mufti's detention is proof enough that [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi ji has singlehandedly pushed J&K back decades," he added.

Mufti was initially detained on August 5 last year when the Centre abrogated the special status of the erstwhile state and bifurcated it into two union territories -- Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir.

Having spent over eight months in detention at two government facilities designated as sub-jails, Mufti was shifted to her home on April 7 in partial relief.

Mufti heads the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which was in power in Jammu and Kashmir in alliance with the BJP till June 2018.

Initially, she was taken into preventive custody. Later on February 5 this year, she was slapped with the PSA.

Earlier, Mufti was lodged a government guesthouse in Chashma Shahi and a bungalow on Maulana Azad Road near Lal Chowk.

Mufti's daughter, Iltija, 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.

(With inputs from PTI)
The United Nations report has shown that there are 1.9 million people displaced currently from their homes in North-East, Nigeria.

The Communications Specialist, UNICEF Nigeria, Geoffrey Njoku, disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday.

The UN report warned that internally-displaced children in Nigeria were among the worlds most vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It said the warning came, as the organisation released a report looking at the risks and challenges facing internally- displaced children, and the urgent actions needed to protect them.

In North-East, Nigeria, there are currently 1.9 million people displaced from their homes. Sixty percent of them are children, with one in four under the age of five, it said.

The report stated that globally, an estimated 19 million children, more than ever before, were living in displacement within their own countries, due to conflict and violence in 2019.

Lost at Home looks at the risks and challenges internally- displaced children face and the urgent actions needed to protect them, it said.

It said that as COVID-19 continued to spread around the world, the internally- displaced children were among the most vulnerable to its direct and indirect impacts.

Hundreds of thousands of children in North-East, Nigeria, are living in the shadow of conflict and now in the increasingly-challenging shadow of a global pandemic and its potential socio-economic aftermath.

When a new crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic emerges, displaced children are especially vulnerable and the gaps in our ability to keep them safe are even starker.

We must urgently work together; all of us, government and humanitarian partners, to keep them safe, healthy, learning and protected, it said.

According to the report, the COVID-19 pandemic is making a critical situation for displaced children and families around the world even worse.

It said that they often lived in overcrowded camps or informal settlements, where access to basic hygiene and health services was limited, and where physical distancing was not possible.

This is true in Nigerias North-East, where conditions pose a particular challenge to containing the possible spread of diseases like COVID-19.

Internally-displaced children around the world often lack access to basic services and are at risk of exposure to violence, exploitation, abuse and trafficking, according to the report.

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It said that they were also at risk of child labour, child marriage and family separation, all of which posed direct threats to their health and safety.

The reporter said there are 12 million new displacements of children in 2019, with 3.8 million of them caused by conflict and violence and 8.2 million by disasters linked mostly to weather-related events, like flooding and storms.

It said that UNICEF and its partners were working to protect displaced children in the North-East through critical health and nutrition services.

Others, it said, were provision of access to life-saving WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) services through accelerated construction of facilities, and adapted solutions to continuing education, including provision of radio for distance learning, while schools were closed.

What we really need now are strategic investments and united efforts by government, civil society organisations, private sector, humanitarian actors and the children themselves, to find solutions to the effects of displacement, especially as we face the COVID-19 pandemic.

The efforts must also address and help mitigate the long term impacts this can have on childrens health and education, it said.

(NAN)
To preserve what passes for my mental health, I avoid as much as possible President Trumps Twitter habits. Some theorize that his feed is a sort of cat toy that he dangles in front of the media to distract us from his agenda. Others study it as a map of one mans disturbed and disturbing mind. Still others  including, I suspect, most Trump supporters  perceive it to be a sort of Andy Kaufmanesque performance art, compelling and bewildering at the same time. Whats he doing, and whatll he do next? Or maybe its more in the vein of David Blaine, the self-mortifying magician who exposes, debases and even tortures himself in front of audiences who find it difficult to look away. Which means they are watching. Which is the goal.